bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Adherent cell remodeling on micropatterns is modulated by Piezo1 channels
Authors: Jetta Deekshitha , Fard Mohammad Reza Bahrani , Sachs Frederick , Munechika Katie , Hua Susan Z. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractAdherent cells utilize local environmental cues to make decisions on their growth and movement. We have previously shown that HEK293 cells grown on the fibronectin stripe patterns were elongated. Here we show that Piezo1 function is involved in cell spreading. Inhibiting the Rho-ROCK pathway also reversibly inhibited cell extension indicating that myosin contractility is involved. Piezo1 expressing HEK cells plated on fibronectin stripes elongated, while a knockout of Piezo1 eliminated elongation. Inhibiting Piezo1 conductance using GsMTx4 or Gd3+blocked cell spreading, but the cells grew thin tail-like extensions along the patterns. Images of GFP-tagged Piezo1 showed plaques of Piezo1 moving to the extrusion edges, co-localized with focal adhesions. Surprisingly, in non-spreading cells Piezo1 was located primarily on the nuclear envelope. The growth of thin extrusion tails did not occur in Piezo1 knockout cells suggesting that Piezo1 may have functions besides acting as a cation channel.
Clinicians’ ratings of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) show sensitivity/bias that may affect patients’ progress: analyses of routine administrative data
Authors: Williams Jonathan 
Published: November 2020

ABSTRACTObjectives(1) To estimate clinician sensitivity/bias in rating the HoNOS. (2) To test if high or low clinician sensitivity determines slower resolution of patients’ problems or earlier inpatient admission.DesignThe primary analysis used many-facet Item Response Theory to construct a multi-level Graded Response Model that teased apart clinician sensitivity/bias from the severity of patients’ problems in routine HoNOS records. Secondary analyses then tested if patients’ outcomes depend on their clinicians’ sensitivity/bias.Outcome measuresThe outcome measures were (1) overall differences in sensitivity/bias between (a) individual clinicians and (b) different Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs); (2) clinical outcomes, comprising (a) the rate of resolution of patients’ problems and (b) the dependence of the time to inpatient admission on clinician sensitivity/bias.SettingAll archival electronic HoNOS records for all new referrals to all CMHTs providing mental health services in secondary care in a New Zealand District Health Board during 2007-2015.ParticipantsThe initial sample comprised 2170 adults of working age who received 5459 HoNOS assessments from 186 clinicians. From these initial data, I derived an opportunistic, connected, bipartite, longitudinal network, in which (i) every patient received HoNOS ratings from 2 or more clinicians and (ii) every clinician assessed more than 5 patients. The bipartite network comprised 88 clinicians and 778 patients; 112 patients underwent later inpatient admission.ResultsSensitivity/bias differed importantly between individual clinicians and CMHTs. Patients whose clinicians had more extreme sensitivity/bias showed slower resolution of their problems and earlier inpatient admission.ConclusionsRaw HoNOS ratings reflect the sensitivity/bias of clinicians almost as much as the severity of patients’ problems. Additionally, low or high clinician sensitivity can adversely affect patients’ outcomes. Hence, the HoNOS’s main value may be to measure clinician sensitivity. Accounting for clinician sensitivity could enable the HoNOS to fulfil its goal of improving mental health services.Strengths and limitations of the studyThe study derived a connected network of clinicians and patients that approximates a rational design for estimating clinicians’ sensitivity/bias.The opportunistic network sample was atypical, with chronic patients and experienced clinicians – so the study may under-estimate clinician bias.The study’s statistical methods were appropriate to the ordinal nature of HoNOS ratings.The study used earlier estimates of clinician sensitivity/bias to predict later outcomes – so that effects of clinician sensitivity/bias on outcomes may be causalThe study assumed that all HoNOS items tap a single dimension of the severity of patients’ problems.
COVID-19 optimal vaccination policies: a modeling study on efficacy, natural and vaccine-induced immunity responses
Authors: Acuña-Zegarra Manuel Adrian , Díaz-Infante Saúl , Baca-Carrasco David , Liceaga Daniel Olmos 
Published: November 2020

AbstractAt the date, Europe and part of North America face the second wave of COVID-19, causing more than 1 300 000 deaths worldwide. Humanity lacks successful treatments, and a sustainable solution is an effective vaccine. Pfizer and the Russian Gamaleya Institute report that its vaccines reach more than 90 % efficacy in a recent press release. If third stage trial results favorable, pharmaceutical firms estimate big scale production of its vaccine candidates around the first 2021 quarter and the World Health organization fix as objective, vaccinate 20 % of the whole population at the final of 2021. However, since COVID-19 is new to our knowledge, vaccine efficacy and induced-immunity responses remain poorly understood. There are great expectations, but few think the first vaccines will be fully protective. Instead, they may reduce the severity of illness, reducing hospitalization and death cases.Further, logistic supply, economic and political implications impose a set of grand challenges to develop vaccination policies. For this reason, health decision-makers require tools to evaluate hypothetical scenarios and evaluate admissible responses.Our contribution answers questions in this direction. According to the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines, we formulate an optimal controlled model to describe vaccination policies that minimize the burden of COVID-19 quantified by the number of disability-adjusted years of life lost. Additionally, we analyze the reproductive vaccination number according to vaccination profiles depending on coverage, efficacy, horizon time, and vaccination rate. We explore scenarios regarding efficacy, coverage, vaccine-induced immunity, and natural immunity via numerical simulation. Our results suggest that response regarding vaccine-induced immunity and natural immunity would play a dominant role in the vaccination policy design. Likewise, the vaccine efficacy would influence the time of intensifying the number of doses in the vaccination policy.
Transcranial alternating current stimulation at theta frequency to the parietal cortex impairs associative, but not perceptual, memory encoding
Authors: Meng Alyssa , Kaiser Max , de Graaf Tom , Duecker Felix , Sack Alexander T. , de Weerd Peter , van de Ven Vincent 
Published: November 2020

AbstractNeural oscillations in the theta range (4-6 Hz) are thought to underlie associative memory function in the hippocampal-cortical network. While there is ample evidence supporting a role of theta oscillations in animal and human memory, most evidence is correlational. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) can be employed to modulate cortical oscillatory activity to influence brain activity, and possibly modulate deeper brain regions, such as hippocampus, through strong and reliable cortico-hippocampal functional connections. We applied high-definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) at 6 Hz over left parietal cortex to modulate brain activity in the putative cortico-hippocampal network to influence associative memory encoding. After encoding and brain stimulation, participants completed an associative memory and a perceptual recognition task. Results showed that theta tACS significantly decreased associative memory performance but did not affect perceptual memory performance. These results show that parietal theta tACS modulates associative processing separately from perceptual processing, and further substantiate the hypothesis that theta oscillations are implicated in the cortico-hippocampal network and associative encoding.
CHD7 interacts with the nucleosome acidic patch for its efficient activity via its N-terminal region
Authors: Lee Eunhye , Kang Chanshin , Purhonen Pasi , Hebert Hans , Bouazoune Karim , Hohng Sungchul , Song Ji-Joon 
Published: November 2020

AbstractChromodomain-Helicase DNA binding protein 7 (CHD7) is an ATP dependent chromatin remodeler involved in maintaining open chromatin structure. Mutations of CHD7 gene causes multiple developmental disorders, notably CHARGE syndrome. However, there is not much known about the molecular mechanism by which CHD7 remodels nucleosomes. Here, we performed integrative biophysical analysis on CHD7 chromatin remodeler using crosslinking-mass spectrometry (XL-MS), cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) and single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET). We uncover that N-terminal to the Chromodomain (N-CRD) interacts with nucleosome. Importantly, this region is required for efficient ATPase stimulation and nucleosome remodeling activity of CHD7. The cryo-EM analysis on the N-CRD_Chromodomain bound to nucleosome reveals that the N-CRD interacts with the acidic patch of nucleosome. Furthermore, smFRET analysis shows the mutations in the N-CRD result in slow or highly-fluctuating remodeling activity. Collectively, our results uncover the functional importance of a previously unidentified N-terminal region in CHD7 and implicate that the multiple domains in chromatin remodelers are involved in regulating their activities.
Iterative Cochran’s C test as a multivariate method to detect higher than expected variability: a microbiological inter-laboratory ring trial as a case-study
Authors: Monleon-Getino Antonio ,   AC Marca Home Care
Published: November 2020

AbstractIntroductionAn interlaboratory calibration analysis was carried out to validate a methodology for a European standard for domestic laundry disinfection, using different doses of disinfectant and microorganisms. ISO 5725-2 and ISO 13528 form the basis of interlaboratory validations of quantitative methods, but there is a need for a simple graphical method to detect differences in laboratory behavior in terms of accuracy and variability.ObjectiveA novel multivariate method based on the classicalCochran’s C test, as well as PCA and bootstrapping, which allows the inclusion of different correlated variables, was applied to identify higher variability than expected in factor (e.g. laboratories) levels, and the detection of multivariate outliers in a reduced space.MethodsThe proposed method is based on resampling, using the same sample many times but removing cases at random and performing Cochran’s C test for all the variables together in a reduced space.ResultsThe method was tested by checking 7 laboratories for high variability in different parameters (logarithmic reduction (LR), cross contamination (RI), and wash water (WW)). After applying the proposed statistical analyses, no reasons were found to reject any of the participating laboratories. Multiple applications of the method are possible and we describe a case study in which the multivariant iterativeCochran’s C testwas used: variability detection with multiple microbiological parameters (with high variability) during an interlaboratory ring trial.
Raman microscopy-based quantification of the physical properties of intracellular lipids
Authors: Uematsu Masaaki , Shimizu Takao 
Published: November 2020

ABSTRACTThe physical properties of lipids, such as viscosity, are homeostatically maintained in cells and are intimately involved in physiological roles. Measurement of the physical properties of plasma membranes has been achieved primarily through chemical or genetically encoded fluorescent probes. However, as most probes target plasma membranes, physical properties of lipids in intracellular organelles, including lipid droplets (LDs) are yet to be analyzed. Here, we present a novel Raman microscopy-based approach for quantifying the physical properties of intracellular lipids under deuterium-labeled fatty acid treatment conditions. Focusing on the fact that Raman spectra of carbon-deuterium vibration are altered depending on the surrounding lipid species, we quantitatively represented the physical properties of lipids as the gauche/trans conformational ratio of the introduced labeled fatty acids, which can be used as an indicator of viscosity. Intracellular Raman imaging revealed that the gauche/trans ratio of cytosolic regions was robustly preserved against perturbations attempting to alter the lipid composition. This was likely due to LDs functioning as a buffer against excess gauche/trans ratio. Our novel approach enables the observation of the physical properties of organelle lipids, which is difficult to perform with conventional probes, and is useful for quantitative assessment of the subcellular lipid environment.
Time-Encoding Migrates from Prefrontal Cortex to Dorsal Striatum During Learning of a Self-Timed Response Duration Task
Authors: Tunes Gabriela Chiuffa , de Oliveira Eliezyer Fermino , Vieira Estevão Uyrá Pardillos , Caetano Marcelo Salvador , Cravo André Mascioli , Reyes Marcelo Bussotti 
Published: November 2020

ABSTRACTAlthough time is a fundamental dimension of life, we do not know how the brain encodes the temporal information. Several brain areas underlie the temporal information, such as the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and striatum, but evidence of how they cooperate to process temporal information is scarce. Notably, the analysis of neural activity during learning are rare, mainly because timing tasks usually take a long time to train. Here we investigated how the time encoding evolves when animals learn to time a 1.5 s interval. We designed a novel training protocol where rats go from naive- to proficient-level timing performance within a single session, allowing us to investigate neuronal activity from very early learning stages. We used pharmacological experiments and machine-learning algorithms to evaluate the level of time encoding in the medial prefrontal cortex and the dorsal striatum. Our results show a double dissociation between the roles of the medial prefrontal cortex and the dorsal striatum during temporal learning, where the former commits to early learning stages while the latter become more engaged as animals become more proficient in the task.
Prevalence and risk of staphylococcal and coliform carcass contamination of chickens slaughtered in the informal market in Gauteng, South Africa
Authors: Adigun Oluwatola , Fasina Folorunso Oludayo , Kidanemariam Awoke , Gcebe Nomakorinte , Adesiyun Abiodun A. 
Published: November 2020

PurposeThe primary objective was to determine the prevalence of indicator microorganisms [Staphylococcus aureus, non-S. aureus staphylococci (NSAS), coliforms and aerobic bacteria] for contamination of chicken carcasses, carcass drip and rinse water from the informal chicken market in Gauteng, South Africa.Design/methodology/approachChicken swabs, chicken drips and rinse waters were collected from 151 chickens from 47 random outlets. Pre-tested questionnaires were administered to capture the risk factors for bacterial contamination. Standard microbiological procedures were conducted for isolation and enumeration of target bacteria.FindingsNSAS (64% and 41%) and S. aureus (12% and 31%) were prevalent on carcasses and in carcass drip respectively. Coliforms (62%) and aerobic bacteria (85%) were detected in rinse water. Significant risk factors for contamination of carcasses with NSAS, S. aureus and coliform organisms were: evisceration of chickens on the same location used for sale, cleaning of display counter with dirty clothes/wipes, holding of differently sourced chickens in the same cage prior to slaughter, not cleaning the display table/counter and hands at all, washing knives in rinse water, high turnover of daily slaughter and length of time to display chickens.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this research were the limited geographical coverage and small sample size.Practical implicationsThe isolation of these indicator microorganisms suggests the potential presence of other chicken-borne pathogens not tested for in the study.Social implicationsThe findings serve to inform policy on public health and street-vended food and can guide control on good sanitary practices.Originality/valueThis is the first comprehensive report on ready to eat chickens from the informal markets in Gauteng, South Africa.
Aspiration and poverty in an asymmetric information game: a case study of Southern Xinjiang
Authors: Yao Shujie , Wang Jiefei 
Published: November 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the internal mechanism of the deviation of targeted poverty alleviation under the condition of asymmetric information.Design/methodology/approachIntroducing a traditional signaling game theory model with dynamic asymmetric information, this study uses a dataset covering 813 poor households from Southern Xinjiang, China, to theoretically and empirically study the effect of aspiration of the poor households on poverty alleviation.FindingsFirst, there exists asymmetric information between the poor households and village leaders. Second, the “short, arbitrary and fast” poverty alleviation approach may quickly pull people out of poverty, but it may also nurture a dependency culture where poor households lose their aspiration and ability to escape poverty through their own efforts. Third, due to long lasting universal state support, poor households in the national designated poor counties are less able and ambitious to escape poverty by themselves than their counterparts living in the national nondesignated areas.Originality/valueThe research results show that pro-poor development policies should be upheld to improve the residual utility that can benefit all households as a result of the poverty alleviation campaign. Relevant policy recommendations are made for China's continuous effort to fight relative poverty beyond 2020.
Linking geology to the prevalence of non-communicable diseases: a case study of the Voltaian sedimentary basin, Ghana
Authors: Arhin Emmanuel , Kazapoe Raymond Webrah , Salami Fulera 
Published: November 2020

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to define and outline areas prone to disease causing elements by analyzing the spatial distribution and concentration of toxic and essential elements in a section of the Voltaian sedimentary basin.

Design/methodology/approach
A total of 2,668 soil samples were analysed by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique and were re-appraised by comparing with baseline values of elements accepted globally to be in soils. The concentrations of arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) were evaluated. Factor analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis multivariate techniques were used to identify the source patterns of the elements in the soils. The Getis-Ord Gi method was used to generate the optimised maps for these selected elements. These maps spatially defined and outlined high value clusters which imply potential pollution or areas with high background values (hotspots), whereas the low value clusters imply areas with low background values (cold-spots).

Findings
The multivariate analysis supports a dominant geogenic source of these heavy elements with obvious influences from variably metamorphosed mafic–ultramafic rocks known to have contributed to the deposition of sediments in the basin. The hotspots for As were located around Nalerigu and to the east of Nawchugu. A Cr hotspot was located to the east of Nawchugu with Cr cold-spots located within Nalerigu and Yunyuo. Fe hotspots were observed to the south of Nalerigu and the east of Nawchugu with Fe cold-spots around Yunyuo, Bongo-Da and Nagbo. The spatial maps demonstrated the presence of toxic and deficient areas of all the selected elements used in the investigation. Therefore, it suggested the likely health implications depending on the exposed elements, their pathways and recommended the usefulness of using the results displayed in the spatial maps to guide in devising appropriate remediation techniques.

Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to study the distribution of elements and the possible effects it may have on the health and livelihoods of those residing in these areas.
Independence and effectiveness in internal Shariah audit with insights drawn from Islamic agency theory
Authors: Khalid Azam Abdelhakeem , Sarea Adel M. 
Published: November 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to examine bases of effectiveness in internal Shariah auditing undertaken in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is theoretical in approach taking, as its starting-point, an extensive literature review. From a general agency theory, an Islamic agency theory is articulated and then applied to ascertain attributes of internal Shariah audit effectiveness revolving around the concept of independence.

Findings
Effective internal Shariah auditing, as a mechanism of assuring Shariah compliance by IFIs, varies directly with the degree of independence enjoyed by internal Shariah auditors themselves. The research propounds that an articulated Islamic agency theory holds potential to serve as a theoretical foundation to build a multi-dimensional conceptual framework based on independence utile for evaluating internal Shariah audit effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications
Evidence is drawn strictly from secondary sources.

Practical implications
To assure effectiveness of internal Shariah auditing, IFIs ought to increase the level of independence of internal Shariah auditors.

Originality/value
Internal Shariah audit effectiveness in IFIs has not been extensively studied in comparison with both studies of external Shariah audit effectiveness in IFIs and internal audit effectiveness undertaken by conventional financial institutions. This research fills that gap.
When should global manufacturers invest in production network upgrades? An empirical investigation
Authors: von Dzengelevski Oliver , Wenking Marian , Netland Torbjørn H. , Friedli Thomas 
Published: November 2020

PurposeIn this paper, the authors empirically investigate under which conditions production network management is effective to improve manufacturers' financial performance. For this, the authors explore contingencies between production networks and the three key dimensions of organizational environment.Design/methodology/approachA survey with senior managers was conducted for this research. The authors used a hierarchical regression analysis to test interaction effects and draw on follow-up interviews with chief operating officers (COOs) and senior managers to elaborate and explain the found associations.FindingsResults indicate that manufacturers' financial performance is only associated with their network capability level if they operate in hostile competitive environments. In moderate competitive environments, improvements in the network capability level are not associated with greater financial performance. In particularly munificent environments, such production network upgrades are even associated with the opposite effect.Practical implicationsResults highlight in which organizational contexts upgrading production networks has positive performance implications and under which circumstances it is ineffective or even counterproductive.Originality/valueThe authors draw on unique survey data to add quantitative evidence to the predominantly conceptual and qualitative literature on global production networks. This is also one of the first studies to connect the topics of production networks and organizational environment.