bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An acute dose of intranasal oxytocin rapidly increases maternal communication and maintains maternal care in primiparous postpartum California mice
Authors: Guoynes Caleigh D. , Marler Catherine A. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractMaternal-offspring communication and care are essential for offspring survival. Oxytocin (OXT) is known for its role in initiation of maternal care, but whether OXT can rapidly influence maternal behavior or ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs; above 50 kHz) has not been examined. To test for rapid effects of OXT, California mouse mothers were administered an acute intranasal (IN) dose of OXT (0.8 IU/kg) followed by a separation test with three phases: habituation with pups in a new testing chamber, separation via a wire mesh, and finally reunion with pups. We measured maternal care, maternal USVs, and pup USVs. In mothers, we primarily observed simple sweep USVs, a short downward sweeping call around 50 kHz, and in pups we only observed pup whines, a long call with multiple harmonics ranging from 20 kHz to 50 kHz. We found that IN OXT rapidly and selectively enhanced the normal increase in maternal simple sweep USVs when mothers had physical access to pups (habituation and reunion), but not when mothers were physically separated from pups. Maternal-pup USVs were correlated upon reunion, but IN OXT did not influence this correlation. Finally, mothers given IN OXT showed a more positive change in retrievals/carrying and greater total maternal care upon reunion. Behavioral changes were specific to maternal behaviors (e.g. retrievals) as mothers given IN OXT did not differ from controls in stress-related behaviors (e.g. freezing). Overall, these findings highlight the rapid effects and context-dependent effect a single dose of IN OXT has on both maternal USV production and offspring care.
Confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope using a spatial light modulator
Authors: Wang Yao L. , Grooms Noa W. F. , Civale Sabrina C. , Chung Samuel H. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractConfocal microscopes can reject out-of-focus and scattered light; however, widefield microscopes are far more common in biological laboratories due to their accessibility and lower cost. We report confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope by adding a spatial light modulator (SLM) and utilizing custom illumination and acquisition methods. We discuss our illumination strategy and compare several procedures for postprocessing the acquired image data. We assessed the performance of this system for rejecting out-of-focus light by comparing images taken using our widefield microscope, our SLM-enhanced setup, and a commercial confocal microscope. The optical sectioning capability, assessed on thin fluorescent film, was 0.85 ± 0.04 μm for our SLM-enhanced setup and 0.68 ± 0.04 μm for a confocal microscope, while a widefield microscope exhibited no sectioning capability. We demonstrate our setup by imaging the same set of neurons inC. eleganson widefield, SLM, and confocal microscopes. SLM enhancement greatly reduces background from the cell body, allowing visualization of dim fibers nearby. Our SLM-enhanced setup identified 93% of the dim neuronal fibers seen in confocal images while a widefield microscope only identified 48% of the same fibers. Our microscope add-on represents a very simple (2-component) and inexpensive (<$600) approach to enable widefield microscopes to optically section thick samples.
Identification of a High-frequency Intra-host SARS-CoV-2 spike Variant with Enhanced Cytopathic and Fusogenic Effect
Authors: Rocheleau Lynda , Laroche Geneviève , Fu Kathy , Stewart Corina M , Mohamud Abdulhamid O , Côté Marceline , Giguère Patrick M , Langlois Marc-André , Pelchat Martin 
Published: December 2020

ABSTRACTThe severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a virus that is continuously evolving. Although its RNA-dependent RNA polymerase exhibits some exonuclease proofreading activity, viral sequence diversity can be produced by replication errors and host factors. A diversity of genetic variants can be observed in the intra-host viral population structure of infected individuals. Most mutations will follow a neutral molecular evolution and won’t make significant contributions to variations within and between infected hosts. Herein, we profiled the intra-sample genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 variants using high-throughput sequencing datasets from 15,289 infected individuals and infected cell lines. Most of the genetic variations observed, including C->U and G->U, were consistent with errors due to heat-induced DNA damage during sample processing and/or sequencing protocols. Despite high mutational background, we identified recurrent intra-variable positions in the samples analyzed, including several positions at the end of the gene encoding the viral Spike (S) protein. Strikingly, we observed a high-frequency C->A missense mutations resulting in the S protein lacking the last 20 amino acids (SΔ20). We found that this truncated S protein undergoes increased processing and increased syncytia formation, presumably due to escaping M protein retention in intracellular compartments. Our findings suggest the emergence of a high-frequency viral sublineage that is not horizontally transmitted but potentially involved in intra-host disease cytopathic effects.IMPORTANCEThe mutation rate and evolution of RNA viruses correlate with viral adaptation. While most mutations do not have significant contributions to viral molecular evolution, some are naturally selected and cause a genetic drift through positive selection. Many recent SARS-CoV-2 variants have been recently described and show phenotypic selection towards more infectious viruses. Our study describes another type of variant that does not contribute to inter-host heterogeneity but rather phenotypic selection toward variants that might have increased cytopathic effects. We identified that a C-terminal truncation of the Spike protein removes an important ER-retention signal, which consequently results in a Spike variant that easily travels through the Golgi toward the plasma membrane in a pre-activated conformation, leading to increased syncytia formation.
CTCF-mediated Genomic Effects of BART Region on Epstein-Barr Virus Chromatin 3D Structure in Gastric Carcinoma Cells
Authors: Kim Kyoung-Dong , Cho Subin , Kim Taelyn , Huh Sora , Kim Lina , Tanizawa Hideki , Shin Jae-Ho , Kanda Teru , Won Kyoung Jae , Lieberman Paul M. , Cho Hyosun , Kang Hyojeung 
Published: December 2020

AbstractEBV latent infection in gastric carcinoma (GC) cells is characterized by distinct viral gene expression programs. CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is a chromatin structural factor that has been involved in coordinated chromatin interactions between multiple loci of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genes. Here, we investigate the role of CTCF in regulating EBV gene expression and chromosome conformation in model of EBV-associated gastric carcinoma (EBVaGC). Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) against CTCF revealed 16 CTCF binding sites (BS) in EBV genome of EBVaGC, SNU719 cells. Among the CTCF BSs, one site named as BARTp (BamHI A right transcript promoter) CTCF BS is located at upstream of 11.8-kb BART region (EBV genome: 139724-151554) and was not yet defined its biological functions in EBV life cycle. EBV BART encodes a complex miRNA cluster of highly spliced transcripts that is implicated in EBV cancer pathogenesis. This present study investigated the functional role of the CTCF binding site at BARTp (BARTp CTCF BS) in regulating EBV gene transcription and EBV three-dimensional (3D) genome structure as DNA loop maker. Circular chromatin confirmation capture (4C)-seq and chromatin confirmation capture (3C)-semi-quantitative(sq)PCR assays using SNU719 cells revealed that BARTp CTCF BS interacts with CTCF BSs of LMP1/2, Cp/OriP, and Qp in EBV genome. We generated mutations in BARTp CTCF BS (S13) in bacmids with (BART+) or without (BART−) the 11.8-kb BART transcript unit (B(+/−)). ChIP-qPCR assay demonstrated that CTCF binding was ablated from BARTp in EBV B(+/−) S13−genomes (mutant S13), elevated at several other sites such asLMP1, OriP, andCpin EBV B(-) (BART−) S13−genome, and decreased at the same sites in EBV B(+) S13−genome. Infection assay showed that BARTp CTCF BS mutation reduced infectivity, while BART transcript deletion has no detectable effects. Gene expression tests showed thatEBNA1was highly downregulated in B(+/−) S13−EBVs related to B(+/−) S13+EBVs (wild-type S13).LMP1andBZLF1were more downregulated in B(-) S13−EBV than B(+) S13−EBV. Taken together, these findings suggest that the CTCF binding and BART region contribute to EBV 3D genome structure via a cluster of DNA loops formed by BARTp CTCF BS (S13) and are important for coordinated viral gene expression and EBV infectivity.
Asymmetry Map of Human Brain in Young Adults
Authors: Malekzadeh Maryam , Kashani Alireza 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAlthough, asymmetry is a central organizational aspect of human brain, it has not been clearly described yet. Here, we have studied structural brain asymmetry in 1113 young adults using data obtained from Human Connectome Project. A significant rightward asymmetry in mean global cerebral cortical thickness, surface area and gray matter volume as well as volumes of cerebral white matter, cerebellar cortex and white matter, hippocampus, putamen, caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens and amygdala was observed. Thalamus showed a leftward asymmetry. Regionally, most cerebral cortical regions show a significant rightward asymmetry in thickness. However, cortical surface area and gray matter volume are more evenly distributed between two hemispheres with almost half of the regions showing a leftward asymmetry. In addition, a strong correlation between cortical surface area and gray matter volume as well as their asymmetry indices was noted which results in concordant asymmetry patterns between cortical surface area and gray matter volume in most cortical regions.
Remembering immunity: Neuronal ensembles in the insular cortex encode and retrieve specific immune responses
Authors: Koren Tamar , Krot Maria , Boshnak Nadia T. , Amer Mariam , Ben-Shaanan Tamar , Azulay-Debby Hilla , Hajjo Haitham , Avishai Eden , Schiller Maya , Haykin Hedva , Korin Ben , Cohen-Farfara Dorit , Hakim Fahed , Rosenblum Kobi , Rolls Asya 
Published: December 2020

AbstractIncreasing evidence indicates that the brain regulates peripheral immunity. Yet, it remains unclear whether and how the brain represents the state of the immune system. Here, we show that immune-related information is stored in the brain’s insular cortex (InsCtx). Using activity-dependent cell labeling in mice (FosTRAP), we captured neuronal ensembles in the InsCtx that were active under two different inflammatory conditions (DSS-induced colitis and Zymosan-induced peritonitis). Chemogenetic reactivation of these neuronal ensembles was sufficient to broadly retrieve the inflammatory state under which these neurons were captured. Thus, we show that the brain can encode and initiate specific immune responses, extending the classical concept of immunological memory to neuronal representations of immunity.
Differences in the metabolite profiles of tender leaves of wheat, barley, rye andTriticalebased on LC-MS
Authors: Xing Piyi , Song Zhenqiao , Li Xingfeng 
Published: December 2020

AbstractWheatgrass has emerged as a functional food source in recent years, but the detailed metabolomics basis for its health benefits remains poorly understood. In this study, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis were used to study the metabolic profiling of seedlings from wheat, barley, rye and triticale, which revealed 1800 features in positive mode and 4303 features in negative mode. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed clear differences between species, and 164 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) were detected, including amino acids, organic acids, lipids, fatty acids, nucleic acids, flavonoids, amines, polyamines, vitamins, sugar derivatives and others. Unique metabolites in each species were identified. This study provides a glimpse into the metabolomics profiles of wheat and its wild relatives, which may form an important basis for nutrition, health and other parameters.Practical ApplicationThis manuscript present liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) results of young sprouts of common wheat and its relatives. Our results may help to better understand the natural variation due to the genotype before metabolomics data are considered for application to wheatgrass and can provide a basis (assessment) for its potential pharmaceutical and nutritional value.
Phylogenetic Novelty Scores: a New Approach for Weighting Genetic Sequences
Authors: De Maio Nicola , Alekseyenko Alexander V. , Coleman-Smith William J. , Pardi Fabio , Suchard Marc A. , Tamuri Asif U. , Truszkowski Jakub , Goldman Nick 
Published: December 2020

AbstractBackgroundMany important applications in bioinformatics, including sequence alignment and protein family profiling, employ sequence weighting schemes to mitigate the effects of non-independence of homologous sequences and under- or over-representation of certain taxa in a dataset. These schemes aim to assign high weights to sequences that are ‘novel’ compared to the others in the same dataset, and low weights to sequences that are over-represented.ResultsWe formalise this principle by rigorously defining the evolutionary ‘novelty’ of a sequence within an alignment. This results in new sequence weights that we call ‘phylogenetic novelty scores’. These scores have various desirable properties, and we showcase their use by considering, as an example application, the inference of character frequencies at an alignment column — important, for example, in protein family profiling. We give computationally efficient algorithms for calculating our scores and, using simulations, show that they improve the accuracy of character frequency estimation compared to existing sequence weighting schemes.ConclusionsOur phylogenetic novelty scores can be useful when an evolutionarily meaningful system for adjusting for uneven taxon sampling is desired. They have numerous possible applications, including estimation of evolutionary conservation scores and sequence logos, identification of targets in conservation biology, and improving and measuring sequence alignment accuracy.
An opponent process for alcohol addiction based on changes in endocrine gland mass
Authors: Karin Omer , Raz Moriya , Alon Uri 
Published: December 2020

SummaryConsuming addictive drugs is often initially pleasurable, but escalating drug intake eventually recruits physiological “anti-reward” systems called opponent processes that cause tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Opponent processes are fundamental for the addiction process, but their physiological basis is not fully characterized. Here, we propose an opponent processes mechanism centered on the endocrine stress-response, the HPA axis. We focus on alcohol addiction, where the HPA axis is activated and secretes β-endorphin, causing euphoria and analgesia. Using a mathematical model, we show that slow changes in HPA glands act as an opponent process for β-endorphin secretion. The model explains hormone dynamics in alcohol addiction, and experiments on alcohol preference in rodents. The opponent process is based on fold-change detection (FCD) where β-endorphin responses are relative rather than absolute; FCD confers vulnerability to addiction but has adaptive roles for learning. Our model suggests gland-mass changes as potential targets for intervention in addiction.
Role of periodic forcing on the stochastic dynamics of a biomolecular clock
Authors: Zhang Zhanhao , Dey Supravat , Singh Abhyudai 
Published: December 2020

AbstractBiomolecular clocks produce sustained oscillations in mRNA/protein copy numbers that are subject to inherent copy-number fluctuations with important implications for proper cellular timekeeping. These random fluctuations embedded within periodic variations in copy numbers make the quantification of noise particularly challenging in stochastic gene oscillatory systems, unlike other non-oscillatory circuits. Motivated by diurnal cycles driving circadian clocks, we investigate the noise properties in the well-known Goodwin oscillator in the presence and absence of a periodic driving signal. We use two approaches to compute the noise as a function of time: (i) solving the moment dynamics derived from the linear noise approximation (LNA) assuming fluctuations are small relative to the mean and (ii) analyzing trajectories obtained from exact stochastic simulations of the Goodwin oscillator. Our results demonstrate that the LNA can predict the noise behavior quite accurately when the system shows damped oscillations or in the presence of external periodic forcing. However, the LNA could be misleading in the case of sustained oscillations without an external signal due to the propagation of large noise. Finally, we study the effect of random bursting of gene products on the clock stochastic dynamics. Our analysis reveals that the burst of mRNAs enhances the noise in the copy number regardless of the presence of external forcing, although the extent of fluctuations becomes less due to the forcing.
Predictability of cortico-cortical connections in the mammalian brain
Authors: Molnár Ferenc , Horvát Szabolcs , Ribeiro Gomes Ana R. , Ercsey-Ravasz Mária , Knoblauch Kenneth , Kennedy Henry , Toroczkai Zoltan 
Published: December 2020

AbstractDespite a five-order magnitude range in size, the mammalian brain exhibits many shared anatomical and functional characteristics that should translate into cortical network commonalities. Here we develop a framework employing machine learning to quantify the degree of predictability of the weighted interareal cortical matrix. Data were obtained with retrograde tract-tracing experiments supplemented by projection length measurements. Using this framework with consistent and edge-complete empirical datasets in the macaque and mouse cortex, we show that there is significant amount of predictability embedded in the interareal cortical networks of both species. At the binary level, links are predictable with an Area Under the ROC curve of at least 0.8 for the macaque. At the weighted level, strengths of the medium and strong links are predictable with at least 85-90% accuracy in mouse and 70-80% in macaque, whereas weak links are not predictable in either species. These observations suggest that the formation and evolution of the cortical network at the mesoscale is to a large extent, rule-based, motivating further research on the architectural invariants of the cortical connectome.
Effect of intellectual capital disclosure on cost of equity capital: a study on Indian companies
Authors: Mondal Amitava , Ghosh Chiranjit 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThe impact of the intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on the cost of equity capital (COEC) is not well established in the aspect of the Indian scenario. So the objective of this paper is to examine not only the overall effect of ICD but also the individual effect of human capital disclosure (HCD), relational capital disclosure (RCD) and structural capital disclosure (SCD) on COEC.Design/methodology/approachThis research work is conducted by regressing COEC, firm size, leverage, industry type and disclosure index. The disclosure index is prepared based on content analysis of disclosure made in the annual reports of a sample of 50 companies listed in the Nifty 50 index for the year 2018–2019. But in this paper 20 companies are eliminated due to their negative COEC and rest 30 companies are used as the sample companies for this study.FindingsThe outcome of this study indicates a negative association between the disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) as a whole and the COEC. But a negative association only for two components (human capital and structural capital) with the COEC is found only when the association of COEC with the categories of ICD is considered.Originality/valueThis is the first study that examines the nexus between the level of ICD and its impact on the COEC in India context.
Investigations of water-cooled tubes with protrusions for flow and heat transfer characteristics
Authors: Wang Fei , Zhang Xiaobing 
Published: December 2020

Purpose
This study aims to present a numerical study on the flow and heat transfer performance of a water-cooled tube with protrusions in different geometrical parameters.

Design/methodology/approach
A new type of enhanced heat exchanger tube is designed. Protrusions are formed on the inner surface of the tube by mechanical expansion, compression and other processing methods. A three-dimensional numerical symmetry model is established by ANSYS for studying the influence of protrusion distance, protrusion radius and protrusion arrangement on flow and heat transfer characteristics in turbulent flow.

Findings
The results show that the protrusions increase the heat transfer area and improve the heat transfer effect but also increase the flow resistance. Performance evaluation criteria (PEC) is applied to evaluate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of convex tubes. When adopting the aligned protrusions arrangement, the radius of 2 mm and distance of twice the protrusion radius is most heat transfer effect. The PEC of protrusion tubes with a staggered arrangement are higher than those in aligned arrangement, and the maximum value is 2.36 when Reynolds number is 12,000.

Originality/value
At present, most of the protrusion technology applications are based on the cold plate heat dissipation of electronic devices, and the flow path is rectangular. Convex tube heat exchanger is a high-efficiency heat exchanger, which uses convex tubes instead of smooth tubes in tubular heat exchangers to enhance heat transfer and widely used in petroleum, chemical, textile, oil refining and other industries.
Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health among children in China with specific reference to emotional and behavioral disorders
Authors: Agarwal Varsha , L. Ganesh , B.K. Sunitha 
Published: December 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to investigate impact of coronavirus COVID-19 on children’s mental health specifically emotional and behavioral disorders. It aims at identifying the main disorders faced by children during epidemics and suggests recommendations to nurture resilience among children and involving them in various positive activities.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on review of literature focused on COVID-19. Recent articles related to coronavirus or COVID-19 and psychological distress among children were included to draw conclusion and impact of COVID-19 on mental health of children. Due to the limited availability of studies on CONID-19 impact on mental health of children, studies focused on recent pandemic were focused.

Findings
The identified literature reports a negative impact of COVID-19 on individual’s mental health. Relatives’ health, poor appetite, fear of asking questions about epidemics, agitation, clinginess, physical discomfort, nightmares and poor sleep, inattention and separation issues were among the major psychological conditions analyzed. Personal attributes such as resilience, should be nurtured so that children will be empowered to manage difficult situations such as traumas and disappointments. Several measures were suggested by pediatricians in China to family members and parents such as playing games with children to reduce feeling of loneliness, increased communication to address their concerns and fears, promoting and encouraging physical activities and involving in musical activities to reduce fear, worry and stress among children.

Originality/value
Coronavirus is new pandemic and growing rapidly. most of the research studies are focused on physical health of individuals, but mental health concept has bene overlooked. This study helps to broaden the scope of research on children's mental health by examining the impact of COVID-19.