bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Several phosphate transport processes are present in vascular smooth muscle cells
Authors: Hortells Luis , Guillén Natalia , Sosa Cecilia , Sorribas Víctor 
Published: December 2019

We have studied inorganic phosphate (Pi) handling in rat aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) using32P-radiotracer assays. Our results have revealed a complex set of mechanisms consisting of 1) well-known PiT1/PiT2-mediated sodium-dependent Pitransport; 2) Slc20-unrelated sodium-dependent Pitransport that is sensitive to the stilbene derivatives 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2′-disulphonic acid (DIDS) and 4-acetamido-4-isothiocyanostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (SITS); 3) a sodium-independent Piuptake system that is competitively inhibited by sulfate, bicarbonate, and arsenate and is weakly inhibited by DIDS, SITS, and phosphonoformate; and 4) an exit pathway from the cell that is partially chloride dependent and unrelated to the known anion-exchangers expressed in VSMC. The inhibitions of sodium-independent Pitransport by sulfate and of sodium-dependent transport by SITS were studied in greater detail. The maximal inhibition by sulfate was similar to that of Piitself, with a very high inhibition constant (212 mM). SITS only partially inhibited sodium-dependent Pitransport, but the Kiwas very low (14 µM). Nevertheless, SITS and DIDS did not inhibit Pitransport in Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing PiT1 or PiT2. Both the sodium-dependent and sodium-independent transport systems were highly dependent on VSMC confluence and on the differentiation state, but they were not modified by incubating VSMC for 7 days with 2 mM Piunder nonprecipitating conditions. This work not only shows that the Pihandling by cells is highly complex but also that the transport systems are shared with other ions such as bicarbonate or sulfate.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In addition to the inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporters PiT1 and PiT2, rat vascular smooth muscle cells show a sodium-dependent Pitransport system that is inhibited by DIDS and SITS. A sodium-independent Piuptake system of high affinity is also expressed, which is inhibited by sulfate, bicarbonate, and arsenate. The exit of excess Piis through an exchange with extracellular chloride. Whereas the metabolic effects of the inhibitors, if any, cannot be discarded, kinetic analysis during initial velocity suggests competitive inhibition.
Assessment of resistance vessel function in human skeletal muscle: guidelines for experimental design, Doppler ultrasound, and pharmacology
Authors: Limberg Jacqueline K. , Casey Darren P. , Trinity Joel D. , Nicholson Wayne T. , Wray D. Walter , Tschakovsky Michael E. , Green Daniel J. , Hellsten Ylva , Fadel Paul J. , Joyner Michael J. , Padilla Jaume 
Published: December 2019

The introduction of duplex Doppler ultrasound almost half a century ago signified a revolutionary advance in the ability to assess limb blood flow in humans. It is now widely used to assess blood flow under a variety of experimental conditions to study skeletal muscle resistance vessel function. Despite its pervasive adoption, there is substantial variability between studies in relation to experimental protocols, procedures for data analysis, and interpretation of findings. This guideline results from a collegial discussion among physiologists and pharmacologists, with the goal of providing general as well as specific recommendations regarding the conduct of human studies involving Doppler ultrasound-based measures of resistance vessel function in skeletal muscle. Indeed, the focus is on methods used to assess resistance vessel function and not upstream conduit artery function (i.e., macrovasculature), which has been expertly reviewed elsewhere. In particular, we address topics related to experimental design, data collection, and signal processing as well as review common procedures used to assess resistance vessel function, including postocclusive reactive hyperemia, passive limb movement, acute single limb exercise, and pharmacological interventions. Listen to this article’s corresponding podcast at https://ajpheart.podbean.com/e/guidelines-for-doppler-ultrasound-and-resistance-vessel-function/ .
Wnt-Induced Stabilization of KDM4C Is Required for Wnt/β-Catenin Target Gene Expression and Glioblastoma Tumorigenesis
Authors: Chen Yaohui , Fang Runping , Yue Chen , Chang Guoqiang , Li Peng , Guo Qing , Wang Jing , Zhou Aidong , Zhang Sicong , Fuller Gregory N. , Shi Xiaobing , Huang Suyun 
Published: December 2019

Abstract

Wnt/β-catenin signaling activates the transcription of target genes to regulate stem cells and cancer development. However, the contribution of epigenetic regulation to this process is unknown. Here, we report that Wnt activation stabilizes the epigenetic regulator KDM4C that promotes tumorigenesis and survival of human glioblastoma cells by epigenetically activating the transcription of Wnt target genes. KDM4C protein expression was upregulated in human glioblastomas, and its expression directly correlated with Wnt activity and Wnt target gene expression. KDM4C was essential for Wnt-induced gene expression and tumorigenesis of glioblastoma cells. In the absence of Wnt3a, protein kinase R phosphorylated KDM4C at Ser918, inducing KDM4C ubiquitination and degradation. Wnt3a stabilized KDM4C through inhibition of GSK3-dependent protein kinase R activity. Stabilized KDM4C accumulated in the nucleus and bound to and demethylated TCF4-associated histone H3K9 by interacting with β-catenin, promoting HP1γ removal and transcriptional activation. These findings reveal that Wnt–KDM4C–β-catenin signaling represents a novel mechanism for the transcription of Wnt target genes and regulation of tumorigenesis, with important clinical implications.

Significance:
These findings identify the Wnt–KDM4C–β-catenin signaling axis as a critical mechanism for glioma tumorigenesis that may serve as a new therapeutic target in glioblastoma.
New Endovascular Approach for Hypothermia With Intrajugular Cooling and Neuroprotective Effect in Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Duan Yunxia , Wu Di , Huber Mitchell , Shi Jingfei , An Hong , Wei Wenjing , He Xiaoduo , Ding Yuchuan , Ji Xunming 
Published: December 2019

Background and Purpose—
Induction of hypothermia as a stroke therapy has been limited by logistical challenges. This study was designed to determine the hypothermic and neuroprotective efficacy of infusing cold saline directly into the internal jugular (IJ) vein and compare the effects of IJ hypothermia to those achieved by intracarotid artery hypothermia in an ischemic stroke model.

Methods—
The right middle cerebral artery was occluded in rats using an intraluminal filament. Immediately following reperfusion, hypothermia was achieved by infusing isotonic saline through microcatheter into the right IJ or right intracarotid over 30 minutes. Infarct sizes, neurological deficits, blood-brain barrier damage, edema volume, blood-brain barrier associated molecules (MMP-9 [matrix metallopeptidase 9] and AQP-4 [aquaporin 4]), and apoptosis-associated proteins (Bcl-2 and cleaved Caspase-3) were measured.

Results—
We found that both IJ- and intracarotid-based infusion cooled the brain robustly with a minimal effect on rectal temperatures. This brain cooling led to significantly reduced infarct volumes at 24 hours after reperfusion, as well as decreased expression of the proapoptotic protein cleaved Caspase-3 and increased expression of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2. Intracarotid and IJ cooling also aided in blood-brain barrier maintenance, as shown by decreased edema volumes, reduced Evans Blue leakage, and decreased expression of edema-facilitating proteins (MMP-9 and AQP-4). Both cooling methods then translated to preserved neurological function as determined by multiple functional tests over a 28-day observation period. Most importantly, the cooling and neuroprotective efficacy of IJ cooling was comparable to intracarotid cooling by almost every metric evaluated.

Conclusions—
Compared with intracarotid infusion, IJ infusion conferred a similar degree of hypothermia and neuroprotection following ischemic stroke. Given the ease of establishing vascular access via the internal jugular vein and the powerful neuroprotection that hypothermia provides, IJ brain cooling could be used as a promising hypothermia-induction modality going forward.
‘Does the upper house have the upper hand?’
Authors: Panao Rogelio Alicor 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
How does the Philippine Senate fare as an institutional check to the policy proposals made by the House of Representatives? The study examines a facet of bicameral policymaking by analyzing the type of measures likely to receive attention in the Philippine Senate, and the propensity by which these measures are passed into legislation. Contrary to views that portray deliberative processes in second chambers as redundant and time-consuming, the paper argues that this prerogative is institutionally functional as it affords a mechanism for checking the informational quality of legislative policies skewed by particularistic demands at the lower house. Analyzing the event histories of 10,885 bills filed and deliberated at the Philippine Senate between the 13th and the 16th Congresses, we find that policy proposals pertaining to education, health, and public works – the most frequent areas of particularistic legislative measures at the lower house – are less likely to be passed into law in the Senate even though overall they comprise the bulk of legislative proposals in the Philippine Congress. The findings are robust even when controlling for other political and institutional determinants of legislative attention.
The Archaeology of Nunge Site: An Ancient Salt Making Settlement and Trading Centre in Bagamoyo, Tanzania
Authors: Kessy Emanuel T. 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
The Bagamoyo area is among the Tanzanian coastal locations where evidence of intercontinental trade dates back to the last few centuries of the first millennium AD. Previous investigations have indicated that the region’s earliest settlement is represented by Early Triangular Incised Ware [TIW] around 600 to 700 AD, at Bwembweni site located two kilometres south of Kaole. During the Later TIW, the population shifted to Kaole Hill during the period noted by the use of Plain Ware, and later moved to the adjacent Kaole Ruins by the thirteenth century.
Traditionally, the majority of earlier investigations for such conclusions have been restricted to Bwembweni and Kaole sites, and to a limited extent to Bagamoyo Town itself and its vicinity. However, recent reconnaissance and excavation of Nunge, a single type pottery tradition site located to the north, suggests that although Bagamoyo’s involvement in intercontinental exchange dates back to the seventh century AD, the narrative is more complicated than previously assumed. It appears that between the subsequent ninth to eleventh centuries, the area lost such links, before resurfacing again in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Within that time frame, Nunge developed into an extensive urban centre whose prosperity was based on salt production for exchange.
This discovery suggests that the development to urbanism at (Later Iron Age phase) Nunge-Bagamoyo predates that of the Kaole town, when the area is known to have had a few links with the outside world. These findings contribute crucially to the debate regarding early urbanisation along the Swahili coast, by challenging the conventional view that Arab or Asian settlements were the earliest urban centres along the coast of East Africa.
Implicative Denotations of Cigogo Personal Names
Authors: Chipalo Amani J. 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
This study takes an onoma-pragmatic approach to investigating Cigogo personal names, in order to identify the determinants of the choices and the implications involved in naming. Personal names are considered here to be utterances like any other, whose understanding depends heavily upon their situational interpretation, based on both general and specific information shared by speakers and surrounding the utterance. Therefore the data in this study were analysed with general background information to retrieve the relevant etymologies, and with specific information to identify their possible implicatures. The findings have shown that Gogo personal names derive etymologically from lineage, seasons, socio-economic activities, calamities, surroundings, birth circumstances and celebrities. All these collectively carry two implicatures: either recording and recalling, or wishes and prayers. The sources of personal names reveal not only how this community reckoned time before the introduction of literacy, but also how they have worshiped. Of further interest is the recording of birthdays, family history and clan legacy by Cigogo speakers through personal names. Some of the names – particularly the ancestral ones – were used as good will prayers and wishes bestowed upon the younger generation. These observations may inspire further study of personal naming, a subject area of pragmatics which so far has not received sufficient systematic attention. Further, the pragmatics of African personal names illuminates one dimension in the complex transmission of cultural and historical information in oral knowledge traditions.
Using Art to Engage the Public in Hygiene and Sanitation Research
Authors: Kilonzo Kiagho 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
The twentieth century saw a huge increase worldwide in the presence of the arts in organisations and institutions involved in healthcare activities, including public health care research conducting in various countries. This article shows the impact of using art to engage literate and non-literate people in the pro-active translation of research outcomes into their own cultural practices and their personal decisions affecting their health status. The study demonstrates that art can be of use changing social behaviour and therefore to improve public health records in statistically significant ways. This work also demonstrates that the term ‘art’ refers to more than a means of entertainment and passive appreciation of aesthetics; the effectiveness of art is tangible and its impact is measurable as a mode of education, and as providing a deeply needed instructive incentive for hygienic and sanitation transformation.
The Effects of Background Zonal and Meridional Winds on ENSO in a Coupled GCM
Authors: Zhao Bowen , Fedorov Alexey 
Published: December 2019

AbstractChanges in background zonal wind in the tropical Pacific are often invoked to explain changes in ENSO properties. However, the sensitivity of ENSO to mean zonal winds has been thoroughly explored only in intermediate coupled models (following Zebiak and Cane), not in coupled GCMs. The role of mean meridional winds has received even less attention. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to examine systematically the effects of both zonal (equatorial) and meridional (cross-equatorial) background winds on ENSO using targeted experiments with a comprehensive climate model (CESM). Changes in the mean winds are generated by imposing heat flux forcing in two confined regions at a sufficient distance north and south of the equator. We find that the strengthening of either wind component reduces ENSO amplitude, especially eastern Pacific SST variability, and inhibits meridional swings of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The effect of zonal winds is generally stronger than that of meridional winds. A stability analysis reveals that the strengthening of zonal and meridional winds weakens the ENSO key positive feedbacks, specifically the zonal advection and thermocline feedbacks, which explains these changes. Zonal wind enhancement also intensifies mean upwelling and hence dynamical damping, leading to a further weakening of El Niño events. Ultimately, this study argues that the zonal and, to a lesser extent, meridional wind strengthening of the past decades may have contributed to the observed shift of El Niño characteristics after the year 2000.
Boreal Winter Surface Air Temperature Responses to Large Tropical Volcanic Eruptions in CMIP5 Models
Authors: Xing Chen , Liu Fei , Wang Bin , Chen Deliang , Liu Jian , Liu Bin 
Published: December 2019

AbstractWe analyzed global surface air temperature (SAT) responses to five major tropical volcanic eruptions from 1870 to 2005 using outputs from 97 historical and 58 Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) runs that participated in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). In observations, there was a 3-yr global cooling trend after the eruption due to reduced shortwave radiation, and a 0.1-K average global-mean SAT recovery, consisting of El Niño–like tropical warming and Eurasian warming, occurred in the first posteruption boreal winter. This global cooling pause was simulated by the multimodel ensemble (MME) mean of the AMIP runs, but not the MME of the historical runs due to the absence of El Niño–like warming. In the historical runs, simulation of El Niño–like warming was influenced by the initial ocean condition (IOC). An El Niño–like response was simulated when the IOC was not in an El Niño state, but the warming was much weaker compared to observations. The Eurasian warming response, despite being reproduced by the MME mean of both AMIP and historical runs, was not as strong as in observations. This is because the simulated positive polar vortex response, an important stratospheric forcing for Eurasian warming, was very weak, which suggests that the CMIP5 models, and even the Climate Forecast System model, underestimate volcanic effects on the stratosphere. Most of the coupled models failed to replicate both the El Niño and the enhanced polar vortex responses, indicating an urgent need for improving air–sea interaction and stratospheric processes in these models.
Allocation of Driver Attention for Varying In-Vehicle System Modalities
Authors: Li Ning , Boyle Linda Ng 
Published: December 2019

Objective This paper examines drivers’ allocation of attention using response time to a tactile detection response task (TDRT) while interacting with an in-vehicle information system (IVIS) over time. Background Longer TDRT response time is associated with higher cognitive workload. However, it is not clear what role is assumed by the human and system in response to varying in-vehicle environments over time. Method A driving simulator study with 24 participants was conducted with a restaurant selection task of two difficulty levels (easy and hard) presented in three modalities (audio only, visual only, hybrid). A linear mixed-effects model was applied to identify factors that affect TDRT response time. A nonparametric time-series model was also used to explore the visual attention allocation under the hybrid mode over time. Results The visual-only mode significantly increased participants’ response time compared with the audio-only mode. Females took longer to respond to the TDRT when engaged with an IVIS. The study showed that participants tend to use the visual component more toward the end of the easy tasks, whereas the visual mode was used more at the beginning of the harder tasks. Conclusion The visual-only mode of the IVIS increased drivers’ cognitive workload when compared with the auditory-only mode. Drivers showed different visual attention allocation during the easy and hard restaurant selection tasks in the hybrid mode. Application The findings can help guide the design of automotive user interfaces and help manage cognitive workload.
Intracranial hemorrhage risk factors of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease: a 2-year follow-up study
Authors: Yang Chunhui , Qiu Yiqing , Wang Jiali , Wu Yina , Hu Xiaowu , Wu Xi 
Published: December 2019

Objective This study aimed to analyze the risk factors of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) after deep brain stimulation (DBS) for idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods Patients who received DBS from March 2014 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. The hemorrhage index was derived by combining the hemorrhagic volume and clinical manifestations of ICH. All patients with IHC were followed up for 2 years. Results Computed tomography showed 13 events of ICH in 11 patients (nine cases in the subthalamic nucleus), including eight cases with symptomatic hemorrhage (seven cases in the subthalamic nucleus). Hemorrhage was characterized by intracranial hematoma in the electrode puncture tract. Male sex and hypertension were significant risk factors for ICH. Hemorrhage in the preferred puncture side was significantly higher than that in the non-preferred puncture side. The mean hemorrhage index was 2.23 ± 0.83 in 11 patients, and no permanent neurological impairment was found during the 2-year follow-up. The effect of DBS on motor symptoms was similar in patients with and without ICH. Conclusion Male sex and hypertension are risk factors of ICH after DBS in PD. The risk of hemorrhage on the first puncture site is significantly higher than that on the second puncture site.
Efficacy of erlotinib as neoadjuvant regimen in EGFR-mutant locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients
Authors: Xiong Liwen , Lou Yuqing , Bai Hao , Li Rong , Xia Jinjing , Fang Wentao , Zhang Jie , Han-Zhang Han , Lizaso Analyn , Li Bing , Gu Aiqin , Han Baohui 
Published: December 2019

Background The optimal neoadjuvant regimen for locally advanced resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains controversial. EGFR inhibitors have significantly improved survival in patients with EGFR-mutant advanced NSCLC. However, their efficacy in neoadjuvant settings, particularly for treating locally advanced NSCLC, remains unclear. We compared the clinical benefits of chemotherapy and erlotinib as neoadjuvant therapy for stage IIIA NSCLC. Method Thirty-one treatment-naïve Chinese patients with stage IIIA NSCLC were enrolled. Patients without EGFR mutation received cisplatin-based doublet chemotherapy (n = 16; N-chemo group) while EGFR-mutant patients received erlotinib (n = 15; N-TKI group) as neoadjuvant therapy. Results After completing neoadjuvant treatment, 12 and 8 patients from the N-TKI and N-chemo groups underwent surgery, respectively. Our data revealed that patients who received erlotinib had a marginally better clinical objective response rate (67% vs. 19%), pathological response rate (67% vs. 38%), and overall survival (51.0 months vs. 20.9 months) compared with those who received chemotherapy. Furthermore, patients in the N-TKI group had a significantly greater reduction in tumor diameter, serum carcinoembryonic level, and maximum allelic fraction. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that erlotinib is an effective neoadjuvant regimen in patients with EGFR-mutant locally advanced NSCLC, paving the way for its extended use in neoadjuvant settings. [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01217619]