bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Wound healing properties and antimicrobial activity of platelet-derived biomaterials
Authors: Shariati Aref , Moradabadi Alireza , Azimi Taher , Ghaznavi-Rad Ehsanollah 
Published: January 2020

AbstractWe analyzed the potential antibacterial effects of two different PdB against methicillin-resistant S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. The third-degree burn wound healing effects of PdB was also studied. Blood samples were obtained from 10 healthy volunteers and biological assays of the PdB were performed and the antimicrobial activity against MRSA and P. aeruginosa was determined using disk diffusion (DD), broth microdilution (BMD), and time-kill assay methods. 48 Wistar albino rats were burned and infected with MRSA. Two groups were injected PdB, the control groups were treated with plasma and received no treatment respectively. In the next step, the rats were euthanized and skin biopsies were collected and histopathologic changes were examined. The results of DD and BMD showed that both PdB performed very well on MRSA, whereas P. aeruginosa was only inhibited by F-PdB and was less susceptible than MRSA to PdBs. The time-kill assay also showed that F-PdB has an antibacterial effect at 4 hours for two strains. Histopathological studies showed that the treated groups had less inflammatory cells and necrotic tissues. Our data suggest that PdB may possess a clinical utility as a novel topical antimicrobial and wound healing agent for infected burn wounds.
Evidence of an ancient connectivity and biogeodispersal of a bitterling species, Rhodeus notatus, across the Korean Peninsula
Authors: Won Hari , Jeon Hyung-Bae , Suk Ho Young 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe modern-day distribution of freshwater fishes throughout multiple rivers is likely the result of past migration during times when currently separate drainages were once connected. Here, we used mitochondrial and microsatellite analyses for 248 individuals ofRhodeus notatuscollected from seven different rivers to obtain better understand historical gene flow of freshwater fish on the Korean Peninsula. Based on our phylogenetic analyses, this Korean species originated through the paleo-Yellow River from China and first colonized near the west coast. These genetic data also provided evidence of estuary coalescences among the rivers flowing to the west and southwest coast on well-developed continental shelf. In addition, the pattern of population structure revealed the biogeodispersal route from the west coast to the south coast. It could be inferred that massive migration was not involved in the formation of southern populations, since the signature of historical genetic drift was clearly observed. Our study is the first genetic attempt to confirm hypotheses describing the migration of freshwater species towards the end of East Asia, which have previously been developed using only geological reasoning.
Prognostic value of red cell distribution width (RDW) in colorectal cancer. Results from a single-center cohort on 591 patients
Authors: Pedrazzani Corrado , Tripepi Marzia , Turri Giulia , Fernandes Eduardo , Scotton Giovanni , Conci Simone , Campagnaro Tommaso , Ruzzenente Andrea , Guglielmi Alfredo 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIncreasing evidence advocates the prognostic role of RDW in various tumours. We analysed 591 patients to assess whether RDW is a prognostic factor for overall (OS) and cancer-related survival (CRS) for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The data were retrieved from a retrospective database. The optimal cut-off value for RDW was set at 14.1%; accordingly, two groups were considered: those with a value equal or lower than 14.1% (L-RDW), and those with a value higher than 14.1% (H-RDW). The mean value of RDW rose from pT1 to pT4 tumours. H-RDW correlated with age above the mean, colonic location of the lesion, pT and TNM stage. Finally, H-RDW was significantly associated with the intent of surgery: almost 50% of patients who underwent a non-curative resection presented H-RDW, compared to 19.3% in R0 resections. OS was significantly lower in patients with H-RDW. CRS was similar in the two groups. Stratifying patients according to TNM stage worse OS was associated with H-RDW only in early stages, whereas there was no difference for stages II-IV. Multivariate analysis confirmed that H-RDW was not an independent prognostic factor. Although H-RDW correlated with some negative clinical-pathological factors, it did not seem to independently influence OS and CRS.
Distribution and habitat preferences of the stag beetle Lucanus cervus (L.) in forested areas of Poland
Authors: Kuźmiński Robert , Chrzanowski Artur , Mazur Andrzej , Rutkowski Paweł , Gwiazdowicz Dariusz J. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe incorporation of Lucanus cervus (L.) in Annex 2 of the EU Habitats Directive imposed on EU member countries the obligation to prepare protection plans and undertake adequate measures aimed at the preservation of this species. A necessary precondition for their implementation was connected with the identification of current localities of L. cervus. This paper presents the distribution of L. cervus localities in Poland, identified on the basis of a survey conducted in the areas administered by the State Forests. Habitat preferences for the selection of biotopes by stag beetles were evaluated in terms of forest-site types. This will facilitate effective protection of L. cervus by indicating potential biotopes for this species, particularly in areas with high abundance. The survey showed the presence of L. cervus in 176 localities distributed in 47 forest districts. Most of them were found in three main areas comprising forests in the areas of Zielona Góra, Wrocław and the Świętokrzyskie Mts. They constitute large-scale refuges. In 98% of cases the development of L. cervus was associated with oaks Quercus robur and Quercus petraea. Other host plants included Fagus sylvatica and Acer pseudoplatanus. The age of trees colonised by stag beetles ranged from 70 to 248 years, 134 years on average. Lucanus cervus was most frequently found in deciduous mesic forest sites (41% of localities) and deciduous mixed mesic forest sites (24% of localities). Over 90% of recorded localities are situated in forested areas, understood to include stands, residual trees and stumps, as well as localities at forest edges and along roads in the vicinity of forests.
Nonlocal accumulation, chemical potential, and Hall effect of skyrmions in Pt/Co/Ir heterostructure
Authors: Sugimoto Satoshi , Koshibae Wataru , Kasai Shinya , Ogawa Naoki , Takahashi Yukiko , Nagaosa Naoto , Tokura Yoshinori 
Published: January 2020

AbstractMagnetic skyrmion is a swirling topological spin texture behaving as an individual particle. It shows a gyro-motion similarly to that of a charged particle under a magnetic field, being led to the transverse shift to the electric current, i.e., skyrmion Hall effect. With the open boundaries of a sample, this results in an accumulation of skyrmions on one side and their depletion on the other side. Here we demonstrate experimentally that this effect propagates non-locally over tens of micrometers even where the electric current is absent, when the narrow wires bridge bar-shaped Pt/Co/Ir heterostructure thin film systems. This nonlocality can be understood in terms of the “chemical potential” gradient for the skyrmion bubble induced by the skyrmion Hall effect in the nonequilibrium steady state under the electric current. The present result shows that the skyrmion Hall effect acts as the skyrmion pump and the thermodynamic concepts can be applied to the aggregate of skyrmion bubbles.
Classification and Morphological Analysis of Vector Mosquitoes using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
Authors: Park Junyoung , Kim Dong In , Choi Byoungjo , Kang Woochul , Kwon Hyung Wook 
Published: January 2020

AbstractImage-based automatic classification of vector mosquitoes has been investigated for decades for its practical applications such as early detection of potential mosquitoes-borne diseases. However, the classification accuracy of previous approaches has never been close to human experts’ and often images of mosquitoes with certain postures and body parts, such as flatbed wings, are required to achieve good classification performance. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) are state-of-the-art approach to extracting visual features and classifying objects, and, hence, there exists great interest in applying DCNNs for the classification of vector mosquitoes from easy-to-acquire images. In this study, we investigated the capability of state-of-the-art deep learning models in classifying mosquito species having high inter-species similarity and intra-species variations. Since no off-the-shelf dataset was available capturing the variability of typical field-captured mosquitoes, we constructed a dataset with about 3,600 images of 8 mosquito species with various postures and deformation conditions. To further address data scarcity problems, we investigated the feasibility of transferring general features learned from generic dataset to the mosquito classification. Our result demonstrated that more than 97% classification accuracy can be achieved by fine-tuning general features if proper data augmentation techniques are applied together. Further, we analyzed how this high classification accuracy can be achieved by visualizing discriminative regions used by deep learning models. Our results showed that deep learning models exploit morphological features similar to those used by human experts.
Application of Kalman Filter Model in the Landslide Deformation Forecast
Authors: Lu Fumin , Zeng Huaien 
Published: January 2020

AbstractNonlinear exponential trend model is linearized into the linear model, then linearized model parameters are regarded as the state vector containing the dynamic noise to erect Kalman filter model based on exponential trend model to predict the deformation of the rock landslide. Deformation observation values of the landslide are regarded as a time series to erect AR(1) model, then model parameters of AR(1) model are regarded as the state vector containing the dynamic noise to erect Kalman filter model based on AR(1) model to predict the deformation of the rock landslide. The deformation of the landslide is regarded as the function of the time, then Taylor series is used to determine the functional relationship between the deformation of the landslide and the time, and Taylor series is spread to erect Kalman filter model based on Taylor series to predict the deformation of the earthy landslide. The deformation of landslides relates to many factors, the rainfall and the temperature influence the deformation of landslides specially, thus Kalman filter model based on multiple factors is erect to predict the deformation of the earthy landslide on the basis of Taylor series. Numerical examples show that the fitting errors and the forecast errors of the four Kalman filter models are little.
Occurrence and genetic characteristics of Cryptosporidium spp. and Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pet red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in China
Authors: Deng Lei , Chai Yijun , Luo Run , Yang Leli , Yao Jingxin , Zhong Zhijun , Wang Wuyou , Xiang Leiqiong , Fu Hualin , Liu Haifeng , Zhou Ziyao , Yue Chanjuan , Chen Weigang , Peng Guangneng 
Published: January 2020

AbstractCryptosporidium spp. and Enterocytozoon bieneusi are two well-known protist pathogens which can result in diarrhea in humans and animals. To examine the occurrence and genetic characteristics of Cryptosporidium spp. and E. bieneusi in pet red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), 314 fecal specimens were collected from red squirrels from four pet shops and owners in Sichuan province, China. Cryptosporidium spp. and E. bieneusi were examined by nested PCR targeting the partial small subunit rRNA (SSU rRNA) gene and the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene respectively. The infection rates were 8.6% (27/314) for Cryptosporidium spp. and 19.4% (61/314) for E. bieneusi. Five Cryptosporidium species/genotypes were identified by DNA sequence analysis: Cryptosporidium rat genotype II (n = 8), Cryptosporidium ferret genotype (n = 8), Cryptosporidium chipmunk genotype III (n = 5), Cryptosporidium rat genotype I (n = 4), and Cryptosporidium parvum (n = 2). Additionally, a total of five E. bieneusi genotypes were revealed, including three known genotypes (D, SCC-2, and SCC-3) and two novel genotypes (RS01 and RS02). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that genotype D fell into group 1, whereas the remaining genotypes clustered into group 10. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report Cryptosporidium spp. and E. bieneusi in pet red squirrels in China. Moreover, C. parvum and genotype D of E. bieneusi, previously identified in humans, were also found in red squirrels, suggesting that red squirrels may give rise to cryptosporidiosis and microsporidiosis in humans through zoonotic transmissions. These results provide preliminary reference data for monitoring Cryptosporidium spp. and E. bieneusi infections in pet red squirrels and humans.
The Rhinella arenarum transcriptome: de novo assembly, annotation and gene prediction
Authors: Ceschin Danilo Guillermo , Pires Natalia Susana , Mardirosian Mariana Noelia , Lascano Cecilia Inés , Venturino Andrés 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe common toad Rhinella arenarum is widely distributed in Argentina, where it is utilised as an autochthonous model in ecotoxicological research and environmental toxicology. However, the lack of a reference genome makes molecular assays and gene expression studies difficult to carry out on this non-model species. To address this issue, we performed a genome-wide transcriptome analysis on R. arenarum larvae through massive RNA sequencing, followed by de novo assembly, annotation, and gene prediction. We obtained 57,407 well-annotated transcripts representing 99.4% of transcriptome completeness (available at http://rhinella.uncoma.edu.ar). We also defined a set of 52,800 high-confidence lncRNA transcripts and demonstrated the reliability of the transcriptome data to perform phylogenetic analysis. Our comprehensive transcriptome analysis of R. arenarum represents a valuable resource to perform functional genomic studies and to identify potential molecular biomarkers in ecotoxicological research.
ISOGO: Functional annotation of protein-coding splice variants
Authors: Ferrer-Bonsoms Juan A , Cassol Ignacio , Fernández-Acín Pablo , Castilla Carlos , Carazo Fernando , Rubio Angel 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe advent of RNA-seq technologies has switched the paradigm of genetic analysis from a genome to a transcriptome-based perspective. Alternative splicing generates functional diversity in genes, but the precise functions of many individual isoforms are yet to be elucidated. Gene Ontology was developed to annotate gene products according to their biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components. Despite a single gene may have several gene products, most annotations are not isoform-specific and do not distinguish the functions of the different proteins originated from a single gene. Several approaches have tried to automatically annotate ontologies at the isoform level, but this has shown to be a daunting task. We have developed ISOGO (ISOform + GO function imputation), a novel algorithm to predict the function of coding isoforms based on their protein domains and their correlation of expression along 11,373 cancer patients. Combining these two sources of information outperforms previous approaches: it provides an area under precision-recall curve (AUPRC) five times larger than previous attempts and the median AUROC of assigned functions to genes is 0.82. We tested ISOGO predictions on some genes with isoform-specific functions (BRCA1, MADD,VAMP7 and ITSN1) and they were coherent with the literature. Besides, we examined whether the main isoform of each gene -as predicted by APPRIS- was the most likely to have the annotated gene functions and it occurs in 99.4% of the genes. We also evaluated the predictions for isoform-specific functions provided by the CAFA3 challenge and results were also convincing. To make these results available to the scientific community, we have deployed a web application to consult ISOGO predictions (https://biotecnun.unav.es/app/isogo). Initial data, website link, isoform-specific GO function predictions and R code is available at https://gitlab.com/icassol/isogo.
Interpersonal Functioning in Borderline Personality Disorder Traits: A Social Media Perspective
Authors: Ooi Jinnie , Michael John , Lemola Sakari , Butterfill Stephen , Siew Cynthia S. Q. , Walasek Lukasz 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis is the first study to demonstrate interpersonal difficulties associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features in the domain of social media. Using crowdsourcing, we presented participants with a battery of questions about their recent social media use, and then assessed their BPD features using the short form of the Five-Factor Borderline Inventory. The results revealed that individuals with higher BPD trait scores reported posting more often on social media, as well as a higher incidence of experiencing regret after posting on social media, and of deleting or editing their posts. They also report a higher degree of importance of social media in their social behavior and daily routines. These results highlight the pervasiveness of interpersonal difficulties associated with BPD features even in the non-clinical population, and demonstrate that these difficulties are also observable in social media behavior. Our findings may provide a starting point for research using data from social media to illuminate the cognitive and emotional processes underpinning the interpersonal difficulties associated with BPD features, and to inform and assess therapeutic interventions.
Spatially- and vector-resolved momentum flux lost to a wall in a magnetic nozzle rf plasma thruster
Authors: Takahashi Kazunori , Sugawara Takeharu , Ando Akira 
Published: January 2020

AbstractMost of the artificial low-pressure plasmas contact with physical walls in laboratories; the plasma loss at the wall significantly affects the plasma device performance, e.g., an electric propulsion device. Near the surface of the wall, ions are spontaneously accelerated by a sheath and deliver their momentum and energy to the wall, while most of the electrons are reflected there. The momentum flux of the ions is a vector field, i.e., having both the radial and axial components even if the azimuthal components are neglected in a cylindrical system. Here the spatially- and vector-resolved measurement of the momentum flux near the cylindrical source wall of a magnetic nozzle radiofrequency (rf) plasma thruster configuration is successfully demonstrated by using a momentum vector measurement instrument. The results experimentally identify the spatial profile of a non-negligible axial momentum flux to the wall, while the radially accelerated ions seem to be responsible for the energy loss to the wall. The spatial profiles of the radial and axial momentum fluxes and the energy lost to the wall are significantly affected by the magnetic field strength. The results contribute to understand how and where the momentum and energy in the artificial plasma devices are lost, in addition to the presently tested thruster.
MicroRNAs as sentinels and protagonists of carotid artery thromboembolism
Authors: Raju Sneha , Fish Jason E. , Howe Kathryn L. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractStroke is the leading cause of serious disability in the world and a large number of ischemic strokes are due to thromboembolism from unstable carotid artery atherosclerotic plaque. As it is difficult to predict plaque rupture and surgical treatment of asymptomatic disease carries a risk of stroke, carotid disease continues to present major challenges with regard to clinical decision-making and revascularization. There is therefore an imminent need to better understand the molecular mechanisms governing plaque instability and rupture, as this would allow for the development of biomarkers to identify at-risk asymptomatic carotid plaque prior to disease progression and stroke. Further, it would aid in creation of therapeutics to stabilize carotid plaque. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated as key protagonists in various stages of atherosclerotic plaque initiation, development and rupture. Notably, they appear to play a crucial role in carotid artery thromboembolism. As the molecular pathways governing the role of miRNAs are being uncovered, we are learning that their involvement is complex, tissue- and stage-specific, and highly selective. Notably, miRNAs can be packaged and secreted in extracellular vesicles (EVs), where they participate in cell–cell communication. The measurement of EV-encapsulated miRNAs in the circulation may inform disease mechanisms occurring in the plaque itself, and therefore may serve as sentinels of unstable plaque as well as therapeutic targets.
Wide‐angle 2D beam‐steering with Si‐based 16 × (1 × 16) optical phased arrays
Authors: Yoon H. , Lee D.‐S. , Kim S.‐H. , Kang G. , Shim J. , Rhee H. , Kwon N. , Kim J.‐Y. , Park H.‐H. 
Published: January 2020

The authors demonstrate integrated 1D optical phased arrays (OPAs) for wide‐angle 2D beam‐steering. The 2D OPA consists of 16 1D transversal steering OPAs whose radiators have different grating periods, to assign different longitudinal angles. The transversal steering of each OPA is performed by the phase control of the p‐i‐n electro‐optic phase shifter array. The 1D transversal steering OPAs operate serially, changing the longitudinal radiation angle. The grating radiators were designed with an array pitch of 2 μm, and a varying period in the range of 610–710 nm. The entire 16 × (1 × 16) OPAs were integrated into a small area of 26.5 mm2. The obtained transversal/longitudinal beam‐steering range was 46°/44°, respectively, with a wavelength of 1560 nm, which enables wide 2D beam‐steering.
Model improvement of the miniature switched capacitor for high‐speed applications
Authors: Razeghi‐Harikandeei Alieh , Ganji Bahram Azizollah , Koohsorkhi Javad , Jafari‐Talookolaei Ramazan‐Ali , Abdipour Abdolali 
Published: January 2020

In this work, it is shown that the spring constant model for rectangular fixed–fixed beam used in the literature for high‐speed applications is not correct and the model is improved for all fixed–fixed beams with a desired symmetrical shape. The new model is used to calculate the resonance frequency of the fabricated high‐speed‐specific 3D bridge named boat‐like shape beam existing in the literature. The comparison shows that the model result is in good agreement with the simulation and measurement results. Also, the concept of the miniature microelectromechanical systems switched capacitors will be explained and it is shown that the rectangular beam with a simple fabrication process can be designed to achieve high speed about 150 ns like a boat‐like shape beam which needs to two specific lithography processes that are so involved.