bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fetal electrocardiograms, direct and abdominal with reference heartbeat annotations
Authors: Matonia Adam , Jezewski Janusz , Kupka Tomasz , Jezewski Michał , Horoba Krzysztof , Wrobel Janusz , Czabanski Robert , Kahankowa Radana 
Published: June 2020

AbstractMonitoring fetal heart rate (FHR) variability plays a fundamental role in fetal state assessment. Reliable FHR signal can be obtained from an invasive direct fetal electrocardiogram (FECG), but this is limited to labour. Alternative abdominal (indirect) FECG signals can be recorded during pregnancy and labour. Quality, however, is much lower and the maternal heart and uterine contractions provide sources of interference. Here, we present ten twenty-minute pregnancy signals and 12 five-minute labour signals. Abdominal FECG and reference direct FECG were recorded simultaneously during labour. Reference pregnancy signal data came from an automated detector and were corrected by clinical experts. The resulting dataset exhibits a large variety of interferences and clinically significant FHR patterns. We thus provide the scientific community with access to bioelectrical fetal heart activity signals that may enable the development of new methods for FECG signals analysis, and may ultimately advance the use and accuracy of abdominal electrocardiography methods.
The Oldest Highlands of Mars May Be Massive Dust Fallout Deposits
Authors: Rodriguez J. Alexis P. , Dobrea Eldar Noe , Kargel Jeffrey S. , Baker V. R. , Crown David A. , Webster Kevin D. , Berman Daniel C. , Wilhelm Mary Beth , Buckner Denise 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThe oldest terrains of Mars are cratered landscapes, in which extensive valleys and basins are covered by ubiquitous fluvial plains. One current paradigm maintains that an impact-generated megaregolith underlies these sediments. This megaregolith was likely largely generated during the Early Noachian (~4.1 to ~3.94 Ga) when most Martian impact basins formed. We examined the geologic records of NW Hellas and NW Isidis, which include this epoch’s most extensive circum-basin outcrops. Here, we show that these regions include widespread, wind-eroded landscapes, crater rims eroded down by several hundred meters, pitted plains, and inverted fluvial and crater landforms. These surfaces exhibit few fresh craters, indicating geologically recent wind erosion. The deep erosion, topographic inversions, and an absence of dunes on or near talus across these regions suggest that sediments finer than sand compose most of these highland materials. We propose that basin-impact-generated hurricane-force winds created sediment-laden atmospheric conditions, and that muddy rains rapidly settled suspended sediments to construct extensive Early Noachian highlands. The implied high abundance of fine-grained sediments before these impacts suggests large-scale glacial silt production and supports the previously proposed Noachian “icy highlands” hypothesis. We suggest that subglacial meltwater interactions with the sedimentary highlands could have promoted habitability, particularly in clay strata.
Resilience of Urban Transport Network-of-Networks under Intense Flood Hazards Exacerbated by Targeted Attacks
Authors: Yadav Nishant , Chatterjee Samrat , Ganguly Auroop R. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractNatural hazards including floods can trigger catastrophic failures in interdependent urban transport network-of-networks (NoNs). Population growth has enhanced transportation demand while urbanization and climate change have intensified urban floods. However, despite the clear need to develop actionable insights for improving the resilience of critical urban lifelines, the theory and methods remain underdeveloped. Furthermore, as infrastructure systems become more intelligent, security experts point to the growing threat of targeted cyber-physical attacks during natural hazards. Here we develop a hypothesis-driven resilience framework for urban transport NoNs, which we demonstrate on the London Rail Network (LRN). We find that topological attributes designed for maximizing efficiency rather than robustness render the network more vulnerable to compound natural-targeted disruptions including cascading failures. Our results suggest that an organizing principle for post-disruption recovery may be developed with network science principles. Our findings and frameworks can generalize to urban lifelines and more generally to real-world spatial networks.
Quantum stochastic transport along chains
Authors: Shapira Dekel , Cohen Doron 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThe spreading of a particle along a chain, and its relaxation, are central themes in statistical and quantum mechanics. One wonders what are the consequences of the interplay between coherent and stochastic transitions. This fundamental puzzle has not been addressed in the literature, though closely related themes were in the focus of the Physics literature throughout the last century, highlighting quantum versions of Brownian motion. Most recently this question has surfaced again in the context of photo-synthesis. Here we consider both an infinite tight-binding chain and a finite ring within the framework of an Ohmic master equation. With added disorder it becomes the quantum version of the Sinai-Derrida-Hatano-Nelson model, which features sliding and delocalization transitions. We highlight non-monotonic dependence of the current on the bias, and a counter-intuitive enhancement of the effective disorder due to coherent hopping.
Presence of serum amyloid A3 in mouse plasma is dependent on the nature and extent of the inflammatory stimulus
Authors: Chait Alan , den Hartigh Laura J. , Wang Shari , Goodspeed Leela , Babenko Ilona , Altemeier William A. , Vaisar Tomas 
Published: June 2020

AbstractSerum amyloid A3 (Saa3) derives mainly from extrahepatic tissue and is not detected in plasma from moderately inflamed obese mice. In contrast, it is present in plasma from mice acutely inflamed by injection of high dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). To reconcile these differences, we evaluated whether different acute inflammatory stimuli could affect the presence of Saa3 in plasma. Saa3 appeared dose dependently in plasma after LPS injection. In contrast, only very low levels were detected after sterile inflammation with silver nitrate despite levels of Saa1 and Saa2 being comparable to high dose LPS. Saa3 was not detected in plasma following casein administration. Although most Saa3 was found in HDL, a small amount was not lipoprotein associated. Gene expression and proteomic analysis of liver and adipose tissue suggested that a major source of Saa3 in plasma after injection of LPS was adipose tissue rather than liver. We conclude that Saa3 only appears in plasma after induction of acute inflammation by some but not all inflammatory stimuli. These findings are consistent with the observation that Saa3 is not detectable in plasma in more moderate chronic inflammatory states such as obesity.
Label-free metabolic biomarkers for assessing valve interstitial cell calcific progression
Authors: Tandon Ishita , Kolenc Olivia I. , Cross Delaney , Vargas Isaac , Johns Shelby , Quinn Kyle P. , Balachandran Kartik 
Published: June 2020

AbstractCalcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most common form of valve disease where the only available treatment strategy is surgical valve replacement. Technologies for the early detection of CAVD would benefit the development of prevention, mitigation and alternate therapeutic strategies. Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy is a label-free, non-destructive imaging technique that has been shown to correlate with multiple markers for cellular differentiation and phenotypic changes in cancer and wound healing. Here we show how specific TPEF markers, namely, the optical redox ratio and mitochondrial fractal dimension, correlate with structural, functional and phenotypic changes occurring in the aortic valve interstitial cells (VICs) during osteogenic differentiation. The optical redox ratio, and fractal dimension of mitochondria were assessed and correlated with gene expression and nuclear morphology of VICs. The optical redox ratio decreased for VICs during early osteogenic differentiation and correlated with biological markers for CAVD progression. Fractal dimension correlated with structural and osteogenic markers as well as measures of nuclear morphology. Our study suggests that TPEF imaging markers, specifically the optical redox ratio and mitochondrial fractal dimension, can be potentially used as a tool for assessing early CAVD progression in vitro.
Molecular genetic and geochemical assays reveal severe contamination of drinking water reservoirs at the ancient Maya city of Tikal
Authors: Lentz David L. , Hamilton Trinity L. , Dunning Nicholas P. , Scarborough Vernon L. , Luxton Todd P. , Vonderheide Anne , Tepe Eric J. , Perfetta Cory J. , Brunemann James , Grazioso Liwy , Valdez Fred , Tankersley Kenneth B. , Weiss Alison A. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractUnderstanding civilizations of the past and how they emerge and eventually falter is a primary research focus of archaeological investigations because these provocative data sets offer critical insights into long-term human behavior patterns, especially in regard to land use practices and sustainable environmental interactions. The ancient Maya serve as an intriguing example of this research focus, yet the details of their spectacular emergence in a tropical forest environment followed by their eventual demise have remained enigmatic. Tikal, one of the foremost of the ancient Maya cities, plays a central role in this discussion because of its sharp population decline followed by abandonment during the late 9th century CE. Our results, based on geochemical and molecular genetic assays on sediments from four of the main reservoirs, reveal that two of the largest reservoirs at Tikal, essential for the survival of the city during the dry seasons, were contaminated with high levels of mercury, phosphate and cyanobacteria known to produce deadly toxins. Our observations demonstrate severe pollution problems at a time when episodes of climatic aridity were prevalent. This combination of catastrophic events clearly threatened the sustainability of the city and likely contributed to its abandonment.
Induced tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses of broccoli and Arabidopsis after treatment with elicitor molecules
Authors: Venegas-Molina Jhon , Proietti Silvia , Pollier Jacob , Orozco-Freire Wilson , Ramirez-Villacis Darío , Leon-Reyes Antonio 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThe plant hormones salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) regulate defense mechanisms capable of overcoming different plant stress conditions and constitute distinct but interconnected signaling pathways. Interestingly, several other molecules are reported to trigger stress-specific defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we investigated the effect of 14 elicitors against diverse but pivotal types of abiotic (drought) and biotic (the chewing insect Ascia monuste, the hemibiotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae DC 3000 and the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria alternata) stresses on broccoli and Arabidopsis. Among the main findings, broccoli pre-treated with SA and chitosan showed the highest drought stress recovery in a dose-dependent manner. Several molecules led to increased drought tolerance over a period of three weeks. The enhanced drought tolerance after triggering the SA pathway was associated with stomata control. Moreover, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) reduced A. monuste insect development and plant damage, but unexpectedly, other elicitors increased both parameters. GUS reporter assays indicated expression of the SA-dependent PR1 gene in plants treated with nine elicitors, whereas the JA-dependent LOX2 gene was only expressed upon MeJA treatment. Overall, elicitors capable of tackling drought and biotrophic pathogens mainly triggered the SA pathway, but adversely also induced systemic susceptibility to chewing insects. These findings provide directions for potential future in-depth characterization and utilization of elicitors and induced resistance in plant protection.
Proteomics pinpoints alterations in grade I meningiomas of male versus female patients
Authors: Silva Janaína M. , Wippel Helisa H. , Santos Marlon D. M. , Verissimo Denildo C. A. , Santos Renata M. , Nogueira Fábio C. S. , Passos Gustavo A. R. , Sprengel Sergio L. , Borba Luis A. B. , Carvalho Paulo C. , Fischer Juliana de S. da G. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractMeningiomas are among the most common primary tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) and originate from the arachnoid or meningothelial cells of the meninges. Surgery is the first option of treatment, but depending on the location and invasion patterns, complete removal of the tumor is not always feasible. Reports indicate many differences in meningiomas from male versus female patients; for example, incidence is higher in females, whereas males usually develop the malignant and more aggressive type. With this as motivation, we used shotgun proteomics to compare the proteomic profile of grade I meningioma biopsies of male and female patients. Our results listed several differentially abundant proteins between the two groups; some examples are S100-A4 and proteins involved in RNA splicing events. For males, we identified enriched pathways for cell-matrix organization and for females, pathways related to RNA transporting and processing. We believe our findings contribute to the understanding of the molecular differences between grade I meningiomas of female and male patients.
Physico-chemical study of complexation of silver ion (Ag+) by macrocyclic molecules (hexa-Helicenes) based on statistical physics theory: new description of a cancer drug
Authors: Ben Yahia Manel , Ben Yahia Mohamed 
Published: June 2020

AbstractIn recent papers, it is found that the silver-[6]Helicene complex can be used as a cancer drug but the interaction silver-hexaHelicene has not yet proven. The idea of this paper is to investigate the complexation process of the [6]Helicene by the silver metal (Ag+) using three types of adsorbates. Indeed, the adsorption of silver chloride, silver nitrate and silver sulfide into the sensor films deposited on the QCM electrode are measured at three temperatures (293–333 K). Films of the [6]Helicene were deposited on the QCM resonators using spin coating method in order to obtain uniform and homogenous sensor surface. Experimental results indicated that the [6]Helicene can form a stable complex with the silver ion and that the AgCl is the appropriate adsorbate for the complexation achievement. Actually, an advanced modeling analysis by means of statistical physics adsorption models is applied to explore the new vision of the complextion system. The values of the models parameters are deduced from fitting the experimental data with the developed models. They result in confirming the experimental findings by comparing the complexation energies of the three examined systems. In particular, for the silver nitrate, the Van-der-Waals parameters explained the isotherms drop at high concentration through the lateral interactions between the adsorbates. The adsorption energies analysis showed the highest interaction AgCl-[6]Helicene. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations showed that chemical bonds take place during the adsorption of silver chloride on hexaHelicene which confirms that the [6]Helicene can function as a chiral molecular tweezer of the univalent cationic silver.
Novel polymer coating for chemically absorbing CO2 for safe Li-ion battery
Authors: Daigle Jean-Christophe , Asakawa Yuichiro , Perea Alexis , Dontigny Martin , Zaghib Karim 
Published: June 2020

AbstractGas evolution in Li-ion batteries remains a barrier for the implementation of high voltage materials in a pouch cell format; the inflation of the pouch cell is a safety issue that can cause battery failure. In particular, for manganese-based materials employed for fabricating cathodes, the dissolution of Mn2+ in the electrolyte can accelerate cell degradation, and subsequently gas evolution, of which carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major component. We report on the utilization of a mixture of polymers that can chemically absorb the CO2, including the coating of aluminum foils, which serve as trapping sheets, introduced into two Ah pouch cells—based on a LiMnFePO4 (cathode) and a Li4Ti5O12 (anode). The pouch cells with trapping sheets experienced only an 8.0 vol% inflation (2.7 mmol CO2 per gram of polymers) as opposed to the 40 vol% inflation for the reference sample. Moreover, the cells were cycled for 570 cycles at 1 C and 45 °C before reaching 80% of their retention capacity.
TET1 Deficiency Impairs Morphogen-free Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Neuroectoderm
Authors: Li Hanqin , Hu Zhixing , Jiang Houbo , Pu Jiali , Selli Ilana , Qiu Jingxin , Zhang Baorong , Feng Jian 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThe TET family of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) dioxygenases plays critical roles in development by modifying DNA methylation. Using CRISPR, we inactivated the TET1 gene in H9 human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Mutant H9 hESCs remained pluripotent, even though the level of hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) decreased to 30% of that in wild-type cells. Neural differentiation induced by dual SMAD inhibitors was not significantly affected by loss of TET1 activity. However, in a morphogen-free condition, TET1 deficiency significantly reduced the generation of NESTIN+SOX1+ neuroectoderm cells from 70% in wild-type cells to 20% in mutant cells. This was accompanied by a 20-fold reduction in the expression level of PAX6 and a significant decrease in the amount of 5hmC on the PAX6 promoter. Overexpression of the TET1 catalytic domain in TET1-deficient hESCs significantly increased 5hmC levels and elevated PAX6 expression during differentiation. Consistent with these in vitro data, PAX6 expression was significantly decreased in teratomas formed by TET1-deficient hESCs. However, TET1 deficiency did not prevent the formation of neural tube-like structures in teratomas. Our results suggest that TET1 deficiency impairs the intrinsic ability of hESCs to differentiate to neuroectoderm, presumably by decreasing the expression of PAX6, a key regulator in the development of human neuroectoderm.
Effects of rice straw and rice straw ash on rice growth and α-diversity of bacterial community in rare-earth mining soils
Authors: Jin Shulan , Jin Wei , Dong Chengxu , Bai Yijun , Jin Decai , Hu Zhongjun , Huang Yizong 
Published: June 2020

AbstractPot experiments were carried out to study the effects of rice straw (RS) and rice straw ash (RSA) on the growth of early rice and α-diversity of bacterial community in soils around rare earth mining areas of Xunwu and Xinfeng counties in South Jiangxi of China. The results showed that the exploitation of rare earth resources leads to soil pollution around rare earth mining areas and affects the growth of rice, and the content of rare earth elements (REEs) in rice was positively correlated with that in soils and negative correlated with dry weight of rice; The addition of RS to soils around REE mining area can inhibit growth of early rice, and the dry weight of rice grains, shoots, roots is lower when compared with the controls, while the content of REEs is higher. The α-diversity of soil bacterial decreases, which promotes the growth of Pseudorhodoferax, Phenylobacterium and other bacteria of the same kind, and inhibits the growth of beneficial bacteria. The addition of RSA to soils had no significant effect on α-diversity of soil bacterial but promoted the growth of Azospira and other beneficial bacteria, inhibited the growth of Bryobacter and other bacteria of the same kind, significantly improved the dry weight of grains, shoots and roots of early rice, and reduced the content of REEs in these parts of rice. It can be concluded that RS is unsuitable to be added to the planting soil of early rice in REE mining area, while RSA is suitable.
Prediction of disulfide bond engineering sites using a machine learning method
Authors: Gao Xiang , Dong Xiaoqun , Li Xuanxuan , Liu Zhijie , Liu Haiguang 
Published: June 2020

AbstractDisulfide bonds are covalently bonded sulfur atoms from cysteine pairs in protein structures. Due to the importance of disulfide bonds in protein folding and structural stability, artificial disulfide bonds are often engineered by cysteine mutation to enhance protein structural stability. To facilitate the experimental design, we implemented a method based on neural networks to predict amino acid pairs for cysteine mutations to form engineered disulfide bonds. The designed neural network was trained with high-resolution structures curated from the Protein Data Bank. The testing results reveal that the proposed method recognizes 99% of natural disulfide bonds. In the test with engineered disulfide bonds, the algorithm achieves similar accuracy levels with other state-of-the-art algorithms in published dataset and better performance for two comprehensively studied proteins with 70% accuracy, demonstrating potential applications in protein engineering. The neural network framework allows exploiting the full features in distance space, and therefore improves accuracy of the disulfide bond engineering site prediction. The source code and a web server are available at http://liulab.csrc.ac.cn/ssbondpre.
The concept of foam as a drug carrier for intraperitoneal chemotherapy, feasibility, cytotoxicity and characteristics
Authors: Schubert Justyna , Khosrawipour Tanja , Reinhard Sören , Arafkas Mohamed , Martino Alice , Bania Jacek , Pieczka Marek , Pigazzi Alessio , Khosrawipour Veria 
Published: June 2020

AbstractFor decades, intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPC) was delivered into the abdominal cavity as a liquid solution. This preliminary study aims to evaluate foam as a potential new drug carrier for IPC delivery. Foam-based intraperitoneal chemotherapy (FBIC) was produced with taurolidine, hydrogen peroxide, human serum, potassium iodide and doxorubicin/ oxaliplatin for both ex vivo and in vitro experiments. Analysis of FBIC efficacy included evaluation of cytotoxicity, tissue penetration, foam stability, temperature changes and total foam volume per time evaluation. FBIC showed penetration rates of about 275 ± 87 µm and higher cytotoxicity compared to controls and to conventional liquid IPC (p < 0.005). The volume of the generated foam was approximately 50-times higher than the initial liquid solution and temporarily stable. Foam core temperature was measured and increased to 47 °C after 9 min. Foam ingredients (total protein content) were evenly distributed within different locations. Our preliminary results are quite encouraging and indicate that FBIC is a feasible approach. However, in order to discuss a possible superior effect over conventional liquid or aerosolized chemo applications, further studies are required to investigate pharmacologic, pharmacodynamic and physical properties of FBIC.