bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Regulation of Respiration and Apoptosis by Cytochrome c Threonine 58 Phosphorylation
Authors: Wan Junmei , Kalpage Hasini A. , Vaishnav Asmita , Liu Jenney , Lee Icksoo , Mahapatra Gargi , Turner Alice A. , Zurek Matthew P. , Ji Qinqin , Moraes Carlos T. , Recanati Maurice-Andre , Grossman Lawrence I. , Salomon Arthur R. , Edwards Brian F. P. , Hüttemann Maik 
Published: November 2019

AbstractCytochrome c (Cytc) is a multifunctional protein, acting as an electron carrier in the electron transport chain (ETC), where it shuttles electrons from bc1 complex to cytochrome c oxidase (COX), and as a trigger of type II apoptosis when released from the mitochondria. We previously showed that Cytc is regulated in a highly tissue-specific manner: Cytc isolated from heart, liver, and kidney is phosphorylated on Y97, Y48, and T28, respectively. Here, we have analyzed the effect of a new Cytc phosphorylation site, threonine 58, which we mapped in rat kidney Cytc by mass spectrometry. We generated and overexpressed wild-type, phosphomimetic T58E, and two controls, T58A and T58I Cytc; the latter replacement is found in human and testis-specific Cytc. In vitro, COX activity, caspase-3 activity, and heme degradation in the presence of H2O2 were decreased with phosphomimetic Cytc compared to wild-type. Cytc-knockout cells expressing T58E or T58I Cytc showed a reduction in intact cell respiration, mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψm), ROS production, and apoptotic activity compared to wild-type. We propose that, under physiological conditions, Cytc is phosphorylated, which controls mitochondrial respiration and apoptosis. Under conditions of stress Cytc phosphorylations are lost leading to maximal respiration rates, ∆Ψm hyperpolarization, ROS production, and apoptosis.
Generation of late Mesozoic felsic volcanic rocks in the Hailar Basin, northeastern China in response to overprinting of multiple tectonic regimes
Authors: Ji Zheng , Meng Qi-An , Wan Chuan-Biao , Zhu De-Feng , Ge Wen-Chun , Zhang Yan-Long , Yang Hao , Dong Yu , Jing Yan 
Published: November 2019

AbstractWe performed zircon U–Pb age dating and geochemical analyses of late Mesozoic felsic volcanic rocks in the Hailar Basin, NE China, with the aim of eclucidating their emplacement ages, origin and geodynamic significance. The volcanic rocks consist of dacites, rhyolites and rhyolitic tuffs. Laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry zircon U–Pb dating results suggest that the rocks were erupted during the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous (161–117 Ma). They belong to the high-K calc-alkaline series and can be divided into two groups. Group I rocks are metaluminous to weakly peraluminous, contain low concentrations of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) and high field strength elements (HFSEs), and have low zircon saturation temperatures (average 786 °C), all of which indicate an I-type affinity. In contrast, Group II rocks have higher HREE and HFSE concentrations and zircon saturation temperatures (average 918 °C), suggesting an A-type affinity. All the felsic volcanic rocks have positive εHf(t) values of 1.43–12.32 with two-stage model ages of 1110–401 Ma. Our data indicate that the I-type felsic volcanic rocks formed from magmas generated by partial melting of a dominantly juvenile mica-bearing K-rich basaltic lower crust, whereas the A-type felsic volcanic rocks originated from the partial melting of a dry mafic–intermediate middle–lower crust that was dehydrated but not melt depleted. Based on the present results and previous research, we propose that the Late Jurassic I- and A-type felsic volcanic rocks in the Hailar Basin were formed in a post-collisional environment related to break-off of the subducted oceanic slab of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean and the subsequent gravitational collapse of the orogenically-thickened crust after closure of the ocean. In contrast, the Early Cretaceous I- and A-type felsic volcanic rocks were erupted in an extensional setting related to rollback of the subducted Paleo-Pacific Plate.
Effect of confinement potential shape on the electronic, thermodynamic, magnetic and transport properties of a GaAs quantum dot at finite temperature
Authors: Jahan K. Luhluh , Boyacioglu Bahadir , Chatterjee Ashok 
Published: November 2019

AbstractThe effect of the shape of the confinement potential on the electronic, thermodynamic, magnetic and transport properties of a GaAs quantum dot is studied using the power-exponential potential model with steepness parameter p. The average energy, heat capacity, magnetic susceptibility and persistent current are calculated using the canonical ensemble approach at low temperature. It is shown that for soft confinement, the average energy depends strongly on p while it is almost independent of p for hard confinement. The heat capacity is found to be independent of the shape and depth of the confinement potential at low temperatures and for the magnetic field considered. It is shown that the system undergoes a paramagnetic-diamagnetic transition at a critical value of the magnetic field. It is furthermore shown that for low values of the potential depth, the system is always diamagnetic irrespective of the shape of the potential if the magnetic field exceeds a certain value. For a range of the magnetic field, there exists a window of p values in which a re-entrant behavior into the diamagnetic phase can occur. Finally, it is shown that the persistent current in the present quantum dot is diamagnetic in nature and its magnitude increases with the depth of the dot potential but is independent of p for the parameters considered.
The Role and Therapeutic Potential of miRNAs in Colorectal Liver Metastasis
Authors: Sahu Smiti S. , Dey Shatovisha , Nabinger Sarah C. , Jiang Guanglong , Bates Alison , Tanaka Hiromi , Liu Yunlong , Kota Janaiah 
Published: November 2019

AbstractColorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Liver metastasis is the major cause of CRC patient mortality, occurring in 60% patients with no effective therapies. Although studies have indicated the role of miRNAs in CRC, an in-depth miRNA expression analysis is essential to identify clinically relevant miRNAs and understand their potential in targeting liver metastasis. Here we analyzed miRNA expressions in 405 patient tumors from publicly available colorectal cancer genome sequencing project database. Our analyses showed miR-132, miR-378f, miR-605 and miR-1976 to be the most significantly downregulated miRNAs in primary and CRC liver metastatic tissues, and CRC cell lines. Observations in CRC cell lines indicated that ectopic expressions of miR-378f, -605 and -1976 suppress CRC cell proliferation, anchorage independent growth, metastatic potential, and enhance apoptosis. Consistently, CRC patients with higher miR-378f and miR-1976 levels exhibited better survival. Together, our data suggests an anti-tumorigenic role of these miRNAs in CRC and warrant future in vivo evaluation of the molecules for developing biomarkers or novel therapeutic strategies.
On the optimal choice of a hyperelastic model of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysm
Authors: Parshin D. V. , Lipovka A. I. , Yunoshev A. S. , Ovsyannikov K. S. , Dubovoy A. V. , Chupakhin A. P. 
Published: November 2019

AbstractIn the last decade, preoperative modelling of the treatment of cerebral aneurysms is being actively developed. Fluid-structure interaction problem is a key point of a such modelling. Hence arises the question about the reasonable choice of the model of the vessel and aneurysm wall material to build the adequate model from the physical point of view. This study covers experimental investigation of 8 tissue samples of cerebral aneurysms and 1 tissue sample of a healthy cerebral artery. Results on statistical significance in ultimate stress for the classification of 2 cohorts of aneurysms: ruptured and unruptured described earlier in the literature were confirmed (p ≤ 0.01). We used the four most common models of hyperelastic material: Yeoh, Neo-Hookean and Mooney-Rivlin (3 and 5 parameter) models to describe the experimental data. In this study for the first time, we obtained a classification of hyperelastic models of cerebral aneurysm tissue, which allows to choose the most appropriate model for the simulation problems requirements depending on the physical interpretation of the considered problem: aneurysm status and range of deformation.
Extinction-resistant attention to long-term conditioned threat is indexed by selective visuocortical alpha suppression in humans
Authors: Panitz Christian , Keil Andreas , Mueller Erik M. 
Published: November 2019

AbstractPrevious electrophysiological studies in humans have shown rapid modulations of visual attention after conditioned threat vs. safety cues (<500 ms post-stimulus), but it is unknown whether this attentional prioritization is sustained throughout later time windows and whether it is robust to extinction. To investigate sustained visual attention, we assessed visuocortical alpha suppression in response to conditioned and extinguished threat. We reanalysed data from N = 87 male participants that had shown successful long-term threat conditioning and extinction in self reports and physiological measures in a two-day conditioning paradigm. The current EEG time-frequency analyses on recall test data on Day 2 revealed that previously threat-conditioned vs. safety cues evoked stronger occipital alpha power suppression from 600 to 1200 ms. Notably, this suppression was resistant to previous extinction. The present study showed for the first time that threat conditioning enhances sustained modulation of visuocortical attention to threat in the long term. Long-term stability and extinction resistance of alpha suppression suggest a crucial role of visuocortical attention mechanisms in the maintenance of learned fears.
Effects of multiple stressors on river biofilms depend on the time scale
Authors: Romero Ferran , Acuña Vicenç , Font Carme , Freixa Anna , Sabater Sergi 
Published: November 2019

AbstractGlobal change exposes ecosystems to a myriad of stressors differing in their spatial (i.e. surface of stressed area) and temporal (i.e. exposure time) components. Among freshwater ecosystems, rivers and streams are subject to physical, chemical and biological stressors, which interact with each other and might produce diverging effects depending on exposure time. We conducted a manipulative experiment using 24 artificial streams to examine the individual and combined effects of warming (1.6 °C increase in water temperature), hydrological stress (simulated low-flow situation) and chemical stress caused by pesticide exposure (15.1–156.7 ng L−1) on river biofilms. We examined whether co-occurring stressors could lead to non-additive effects, and if these differed at two different exposure times. Specifically, structural and functional biofilm responses were assessed after 48 hours (short-term effects) and after 30 days (long-term effects) of exposure. Hydrological stress caused strong negative impacts on river biofilms, whereas effects of warming and pesticide exposure were less intense, although increasing on the long term. Most stressor combinations (71%) resulted in non-significant interactions, suggesting overall additive effects, but some non-additive interactions also occurred. Among non-additive interactions, 59% were classified as antagonisms after short-term exposure to the different stressor combinations, rising to 86% at long term. Our results indicate that a 30-day exposure period to multiple stressors increases the frequency of antagonistic interactions compared to a 48-hour exposure to the same conditions. Overall, the impacts of multiple-stressor occurrences appear to be hardly predictable from individual effects, highlighting the need to consider temporal components such as duration when predicting the effects of multiple stressors.
Hamiltonian dynamics of the SIS epidemic model with stochastic fluctuations
Authors: Nakamura Gilberto M. , Martinez Alexandre S. 
Published: November 2019

AbstractEmpirical records of epidemics reveal that fluctuations are important factors for the spread and prevalence of infectious diseases. The exact manner in which fluctuations affect spreading dynamics remains poorly known. Recent analytical and numerical studies have demonstrated that improved differential equations for mean and variance of infected individuals reproduce certain regimes of the SIS epidemic model. Here, we show they form a dynamical system that follows Hamilton’s equations, which allow us to understand the role of fluctuations and their effects on epidemics. Our findings show the Hamiltonian is a constant of motion for large population sizes. For small populations, finite size effects break the temporal symmetry and induce a power-law decay of the Hamiltonian near the outbreak onset, with a parameter-free exponent. Away from the onset, the Hamiltonian decays exponentially according to a constant relaxation time, which we propose as a metric when fluctuations cannot be neglected.
Degrading products of chondroitin sulfate can induce hypertrophy-like changes and MMP-13/ADAMTS5 production in chondrocytes
Authors: Jung Youn-Kwan , Park Hye-Ri , Cho Hyun-Jung , Jang Ji-Ae , Lee Eun-Ju , Han Min-Su , Kim Gun-Woo , Han Seungwoo 
Published: November 2019

AbstractChondroitin sulfate (CS) is the most abundant glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in articular cartilage and the loss of CS-GAG occurs early in OA. As a major component of perichondral matrix interacting directly with chondrocytes, the active turnover of CS can affect to break the homeostasis of chondrocytes. Here we employ CS-based 3-dimensional (3D) hydrogel scaffold system to investigate how the degradation products of CS affect the catabolic phenotype of chondrocytes. The breakdown of CS-based ECM by the chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) resulted in a hypertrophy-like morphologic change in chondrocytes, which was accompanied by catabolic phenotypes, including increased MMP-13 and ADAMTS5 expression, nitric oxide (NO) production and oxidative stress. The inhibition of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) or TLR4 with OxPAPC (TLR2 and TLR4 dual inhibitor) and LPS-RS (TLR4-MD2 inhibitor) ameliorated these catabolic phenotypes of chondrocytes by CS-ECM degradation, suggesting a role of CS breakdown products as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). As downstream signals of TLRs, MAP kinases, NF-kB, NO and STAT3-related signals were responsible for the catabolic phenotypes of chondrocytes associated with ECM degradation. NO in turn reinforced the activation of MAP kinases as well as NFkB signaling pathway. Thus, these results propose that the breakdown product of CS-GAG can recapitulate the catabolic phenotypes of OA.
Scent-sniffing dogs can discriminate between native Eurasian and invasive North American beavers
Authors: Rosell Frank , Cross Hannah B. , Johnsen Christin B. , Sundell Janne , Zedrosser Andreas 
Published: November 2019

AbstractThe invasion of a species can cause population reduction or extinction of a similar native species due to replacement competition. There is a potential risk that the native Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) may eventually be competitively excluded by the invasive North American beaver (C. canadensis) from areas where they overlap in Eurasia. Yet currently available methods of census and population estimates are costly and time-consuming. In a laboratory environment, we investigated the potential of using dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) as a conservation tool to determine whether the Eurasian or the North American beaver is present in a specific beaver colony. We hypothesized that dogs can discriminate between the two beaver species, via the odorant signal of castoreum from males and females, in two floor platform experiments. We show that dogs detect scent differences between the two species, both from dead beaver samples and from scent marks collected in the field. Our results suggest that dogs can be used as an “animal biosensor” to discriminate olfactory signals of beaver species, however more tests are needed. Next step should be to test if dogs discern between beaver species in the field under a range of weather conditions and habitat types and use beaver samples collected from areas where the two species share the same habitat. So far, our results show that dogs can be used as a promising tool in the future to promote conservation of the native beaver species and eradication of the invasive one. We therefore conclude that dogs may be an efficient non-invasive tool to help conservationist to manage invasive species in Europe, and advocate for European wildlife agencies to invest in this new tool.
Alternatively spliced isoforms reveal a novel type of PTB domain in CCM2 protein
Authors: Jiang Xiaoting , Padarti Akhil , Qu Yanchun , Sheng Shen , Abou-Fadel Johnathan , Badr Ahmed , Zhang Jun 
Published: November 2019

AbstractCerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) is a microvascular disorder in the central nervous system. Despite tremendous efforts, the causal genetic mutation in some CCM patients has not be identified, raising the possibility of an unknown CCM locus. The CCM2/MGC4607 gene has been identified as one of three known genes causing CCMs. In this report, we defined a total of 29 novel exons and 4 novel promoters in CCM2 genomic structure and subsequently identified a total of 50 new alternative spliced isoforms of CCM2 which eventually generated 22 novel protein isoforms. Genetic analysis of CCM2 isoforms revealed that the CCM2 isoforms can be classified into two groups based on their alternative promoters and alternative start codon exons. Our data demonstrated that CCM2 isoforms not only are specific in their subcellular compartmentation but also have distinct cellular expression patterns among various tissues and cells, indicating the pleiotropic cellular roles of CCM2 through their multiple isoforms. In fact, the complexity of the CCM2 genomic structure was reflected by the multiple layers of regulation of CCM2 expression patterns. At the transcriptional level, it is accomplished by alternative promoters, alternative splicing, and multiple transcriptional start sites and termination sites; while at the translational level, it is carried out with various cellular functions with a distinguishable CCM2 protein group pattern, specified abundance and composition of selective isoforms in a cell and tissue specific fashion. Through experimentation, we discovered a unique phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain, namely atypical phosphotyrosine binding (aPTB) domain. Some long CCM2 isoform proteins contain both classes of PTB domains, making them a dual PTB domain-containing protein. Both CCM1 and CCM3 can bind competitively to this aPTB domain, indicating CCM2 as the cornerstone for CCM signaling complex (CSC).
Electrochemotherapy induces tumor regression and decreases the proliferative index in canine cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Dos Anjos Denner S. , Bueno Cynthia , Magalhães Larissa F. , Magalhães Georgia M. , Mattos-Junior Ewaldo , Pinto Marcela M. R. , De Nardi Andrigo B. , Brunner Carlos H. M. , Leis-Filho Antonio F. , Calazans Sabryna G. , Fonseca-Alves Carlos E. 
Published: November 2019

AbstractCanine cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the most common skin cancer in dogs, and, due to its low metastatic rate, local treatments, such as electrochemotherapy (ECT), promote disease control or even complete remission (CR). This study aimed to evaluate the gene and protein expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-2 associated X protein (BAX), the proliferative index and clinical parameters in dogs with cSCC subjected to ECT. A prospective nonrandomized clinical study was performed using dogs with naturally occurring cSCC that was treated with ECT. Eighteen lesions from 11 dogs were selected. The tumor size at day 0 (D0) had no impact on survival or prognosis (P > 0.05). Tumor samples had a lower proliferative index after ECT (D21) than before ECT (P = 0.031). The survival of subjects with Ki67 values lower and higher than the Ki67 median value were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Regarding apoptotic markers, there were no significant differences in the gene and protein expression levels of BAX or Bcl-2 at D0 and D21 (P > 0.05) or in the overall survival of subjects with different levels of apoptotic markers. In conclusion, there was no change in BAX or Bcl-2 gene and protein expression in response to ECT at the time points evaluated, but ECT was able to reduce tumor volume and cellular proliferation in cSCC.
Climate-related factors cause changes in the diversity of fish and invertebrates in subtropical coast of the Gulf of Mexico
Authors: Fujiwara Masami , Martinez-Andrade Fernando , Wells R. J. David , Fisher Mark , Pawluk Michaela , Livernois Mariah C. 
Published: November 2019

AbstractClimate change impacts physical and chemical properties of the oceans, and these changes affect the ecology of marine organisms. One important ecological consequence of climate change is the distribution shift of marine species toward higher latitudes. Here, the prevalence of nearly 150 species of fish and invertebrates were investigated to find changes in their distributions over 35 years along a subtropical coast within the Gulf of Mexico. Our results show that 90 species increased their occupancy probability, while 33 decreased (remaining species neither increase or decrease), and the ranges of many species expanded. Using rarefaction analysis, which allows for the estimation of species diversity, we show that species diversity has increased across the coast of Texas. Climate-mediated environmental variables are related to the changes in the occupancy probability, suggesting the expansion of tropical species into the region is increasing diversity.