bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Discovery of New Antiproliferative Imidazopyrazole Acylhydrazones Able To Interact with Microtubule Systems
Authors: Brullo Chiara , Rapetti Federica , Alfei Silvana , Maric Irena , Rizzelli Francesca , Mapelli Marina , Rosano Camillo , Viale Maurizio , Bruno Olga 
Published: March 2020

AbstractEven though immunotherapy has radically changed the search for anticancer therapies, there are still many different pathways that are open to intervention with traditional small molecules. To expand our investigation in the anticancer field, we report here a new series of compounds in which our previous pyrazole and imidazopyrazole scaffolds are linked to a differently decorated phenyl ring through an acylhydrazone linker. Preliminary tests on the library were performed at the National Cancer Institute (USA) against the full NCI 60 cell panel. The best compounds among the imidazopyrazole series were then tested by immunofluorescence staining for their inhibition of cell proliferation, apoptosis induction, and their effect on the cell cycle and on microtubules. Two compounds, in particular 4‐benzyloxy‐3‐methoxybenzyliden imidazopyrazole‐7‐carbohydrazide showed good growth inhibition, with IC50 values in the low‐micromolar range, and induced apoptosis. Both compounds altered the cell‐cycle phases with the appearance of polyploid cells. Immunofluorescence analysis evidenced microtubules alterations; tubulin polymerization assays and docking studies suggested the tubulin system to be the possible, although not exclusive, target of the new acylhydrazone series reported here.
Homogeneous Electrochemical Water Oxidation at Neutral pH by Water‐Soluble NiII Complexes Bearing Redox Non‐innocent Tetraamido Macrocyclic Ligands
Authors: Lee Husileng , Wu Xiujuan , Sun Licheng 
Published: March 2020

AbstractWater oxidation is the bottleneck reaction in artificial photosynthesis. Exploring highly active and stable molecular water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) is still a great challenge. In this study, a water‐soluble NiII complex bearing a redox non‐innocent tetraamido macrocyclic ligand (TAML) is found to be an efficient electrocatalyst for water oxidation in neutral potassium phosphate buffer. Controlled‐potential electrolysis experiments show that it can sustain at a steady current of approximately 0.2 mA cm−2 for >7 h at 1.75 V versus normal hydrogen electrode (NHE) without the formation of NiOx. Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical tests show that the redox‐active ligand, as well as HPO42− in the buffer, participate in the catalytic cycle. More importantly, catalytically active intermediate [NiIII(TAML2−)−O.] is formed via several proton‐coupled electron transfer processes and reacts with H2O with the assistance of base to release molecular oxygen. Thus, the employment of redox non‐innocent ligands is a useful strategy for designing effective molecular WOCs.
Palladium‐Based Bimetallic Nanocrystal Catalysts for the Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide
Authors: Wang Sheng , Doronkin Dmitry E. , Hähsler Martin , Huang Xiaohui , Wang Di , Grunwaldt Jan‐Dierk , Behrens Silke 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThe direct synthesis of H2O2 from H2 and O2 is a strongly desired reaction for green processes and a promising alternative to the commercialized anthraquinone process. The design of efficient catalysts with high activity and H2O2 selectivity is highly desirable and yet challenging. Metal dopants enhance the performance of the active phase by increasing reaction rates, stability, and/or selectivity. The identification of efficient dopants relies mostly on catalysts prepared with a random and non‐uniform deposition of active and promoter phases. To study the promotional effects of metal doping on Pd catalysts, we employ colloidal, bimetallic nanocrystals (NCs) to produce catalysts in which the active and doping metals are colocalized to a fine extent. In the absence of any acid and halide promotors, PdSn and PdGa NCs supported on acid‐pretreated TiO2 (PdSn/s‐TiO2, PdGa/s‐TiO2) were highly efficient and outperformed the monometallic Pd catalyst (Pd/s‐TiO2), whereas in the presence of an acid promotor, the overall H2O2 productivity was also further enhanced for the Ni‐, Ga‐, In‐, and Sn‐doped catalysts with respect to Pd/s‐TiO2.
Sustainable and Selective Alkylation of Deactivated Secondary Alcohols to Ketones by Non‐bifunctional Pincer N‐heterocyclic Carbene Manganese
Authors: Lan Xiao‐Bing , Ye Zongren , Liu Jiahao , Huang Ming , Shao Youxiang , Cai Xiang , Liu Yan , Ke Zhuofeng 
Published: March 2020

AbstractA sustainable and green route to access diverse functionalized ketones via dehydrogenative–dehydrative cross‐coupling of primary and secondary alcohols is demonstrated. This borrowing hydrogen approach employing a pincer N‐heterocyclic carbene Mn complex displays high activity and selectivity. A variety of primary and secondary alcohols are well tolerant and result in satisfactory isolated yields. Mechanistic studies suggest that this reaction proceeds via a direct outer‐sphere mechanism and the dehydrogenation of the secondary alcohol substrates plays a vital role in the rate‐limiting step.
A novel heuristic simulation‐optimization method for critical infrastructure in smart transportation systems
Authors: Kumar Adarsh , Rajalakshmi Krishnamurthi , Jain Saurabh , Nayyar Anand , Abouhawwash Mohamed 
Published: March 2020

SummaryA simulation‐based optimization is a decision‐making tool that helps in identifying an optimal solution or a design for a system. An optimal solution and design are more meaningful if they enhance a smart system with sensing, computing, and monitoring capabilities with improved efficiency. In situations where testing the physical prototype is difficult, a computer‐based simulation and its optimization processes are helpful in providing low‐cost, speedy and lesser time‐ and resource‐consuming solutions. In this work, a comparative analysis of the proposed heuristic simulation‐optimization method for improving quality‐of‐service (QoS) is performed with generalized integrated optimization (a simulation approach based on genetic algorithms with evolutionary simulated annealing strategies having simplex search). In the proposed approach, feature‐based local (group) and global (network) formation processes are integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions for finding the optimum performance. Further, the simulated annealing method is applied for finding local and global optimum values supporting minimum traffic conditions. A small‐scale network of 50 to 100 nodes shows that genetic simulation optimization with multicriteria and multidimensional features performs better as compared to other simulation‐optimization approaches. Further, a minimum of 3.4% and a maximum of 16.2% improvement is observed in faster route identification for small‐scale IoT networks with simulation‐optimization constraints integrated model as compared to the traditional method. The proposed approach improves the critical infrastructure monitoring performance as compared to the generalized simulation‐optimization process in complex transportation scenarios with heavy traffic conditions. The communicational and computational‐cost complexities are least for the proposed approach.
Naphthoquinones, benzoquinones, and anthraquinones: Molecular docking, ADME and inhibition studies on human serum paraoxonase‐1 associated with cardiovascular diseases
Authors: Demir Yeliz 
Published: March 2020

AbstractParaoxonase‐1 (PON1) has essential roles such as protecting low‐density lipoprotein against detoxification and oxidation of highly toxic compounds. Quinones are a class of compounds and a type of plant‐derived secondary metabolites. Here, PON1 was purified using very simple methods and evaluation of the interactions between the enzyme and some quinones. It was found that these quinones displayed effective inhibitor properties for PON1 with the IC50 values in the range of 3.27–82.90 μM and the K
i values in the range of 2.50 ± 0.65 to 30.90 ± 7.20 μM. These quinones displayed distinct inhibition mechanisms. It was determined that except for 5‐hydroxy‐2‐methyl‐1,4‐naphthoquinone and 2‐methyl‐1,4‐naphthoquinone all quinones exhibit competitive inhibition effects. Also, molecular docking and in silico ADME studies were performed. Usage of drugs including quinone derivatives in structure with biological activity would be hazardous in some cases.
Neuroendocrine and immune markers of maternal stress during pregnancy and infant cognitive development
Authors: Nazzari Sarah , Fearon Pasco , Rice Frances , Ciceri Francesca , Molteni Massimo , Frigerio Alessandra 
Published: March 2020

AbstractAntenatal exposure to maternal stress is a factor that may impact on offspring cognitive development. While some evidence exists of an association between maternal antenatal depressive or anxiety symptoms and infants' cognitive outcomes, less is known about the role of biological indices of maternal antenatal stress in relation to infant cognitive development. The current study investigated the association between maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms, stress and inflammatory markers during pregnancy and infant's cognitive development in a sample of 104 healthy pregnant women (mean gestational age = 34.76; SD = 1.12) and their 12‐week‐old infants (mean postnatal weeks = 11.96; SD = 1.85). Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were evaluated during pregnancy, alongside measurements of serum Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), C‐Reactive Protein (CRP), salivary cortisol, and alpha amylase (sAA) concentrations. Infant cognitive development, maternal caregiving and concurrent anxiety or depressive symptoms were assessed 12 weeks after delivery. Hierarchical linear regressions indicated that higher maternal diurnal cortisol and CRP levels were independently associated with lower infant cognitive development scores, while adjusting for infant gender and gestational age, maternal IQ, caregiving, depressive, or anxiety symptoms. Though correlational, findings seem suggestive of a role for variation in maternal biological stress signals during pregnancy in influencing infants' early cognitive development.
Comparative analyses of caste, sex, and developmental stage‐specific transcriptomes in two Temnothorax ants
Authors: Gstöttl Claudia , Stoldt Marah , Jongepier Evelien , Bornberg‐Bauer Erich , Feldmeyer Barbara , Heinze Jürgen , Foitzik Susanne 
Published: March 2020

AbstractSocial insects dominate arthropod communities worldwide due to cooperation and division of labor in their societies. This, however, makes them vulnerable to exploitation by social parasites, such as slave‐making ants. Slave‐making ant workers pillage brood from neighboring nests of related host ant species. After emergence, host workers take over all nonreproductive colony tasks, whereas slavemakers have lost the ability to care for themselves and their offspring. Here, we compared transcriptomes of different developmental stages (larvae, pupae, and adults), castes (queens and workers), and sexes of two related ant species, the slavemaker Temnothorax americanus and its host Temnothorax longispinosus. Our aim was to investigate commonalities and differences in group‐specific transcriptomes, whereupon across‐species differences possibly can be explained by their divergent lifestyles. Larvae and pupae showed the highest similarity between the two species and upregulated genes with enriched functions of translation and chitin metabolism, respectively. Workers commonly upregulated oxidation‐reduction genes, possibly indicative of their active lifestyle. Host workers, but not workers of the slavemaker, upregulated a “social behavior” gene. In slavemaker queens and workers, genes associated with the regulation of transposable elements were upregulated. Queens of both species showed transcriptomic signals of anti‐aging mechanisms, with hosts upregulating various DNA repair pathways and slavemaker queens investing in trehalose metabolism. The transcriptomes of males showed enriched functions for quite general terms realized in different genes and pathways in each species. In summary, the strong interspecific commonalities in larvae, pupae, and workers were reflected in the same enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms. Less commonalities occurred in the transcriptomes of queens and males, which apparently utilize different pathways to achieve a long life and sperm production, respectively. We found that all analyzed groups in this study show characteristic GO terms, with similar patterns in both species.
Dissociation proneness and pain hyposensitivity in current and remitted borderline personality disorder
Authors: Chung Boo Young , Hensel Saskia , Schmidinger Ilinca , Bekrater‐Bodmann Robin , Flor Herta 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundStress‐related dissociation has been shown to negatively co‐vary with pain perception in current borderline personality disorder (cBPD). While remission of the disorder (rBPD) is associated with normalized pain perception, it remains unclear whether dissociation proneness is still enhanced in this group and how this feature interacts with pain sensitivity.MethodsTwenty‐five cBPD patients, 20 rBPD patients and 24 healthy controls (HC) participated in an experiment using the script‐driven imagery approach. We presented a personalized stressful and neutral narrative. After listening to the scripts, dissociation and heat pain thresholds (HPT) were assessed.ResultsCompared to HC, cBPD patients showed enhanced dissociation and exhibited significantly enhanced HPT in the neutral condition, whereas rBPD participants were in between. After listening to the stress script, both clinical groups exhibited enhanced dissociation scores. Current BPD participants responded with significantly higher HPT, whereas rBPD only showed a trend in the same direction. However, both BPD groups showed significantly increased HPT compared to the HC in the stress condition, but did not differ from each other. Dissociation proneness correlated significantly positively with pain hyposensitivity only in cBPD.ConclusionDissociation proneness is enhanced in both BPD groups. This feature is clearly positively related to pain hyposensitivity in cBPD, but not in rBPD. However, the data indicate that stress causes the pain perception in rBPD to drift away from that obtained in HC. These results highlight the volatile state of BPD remission and might have important implications for the care of BPD patients in the remitted stage.SignificanceBoth current (cBPD) and remitted borderline personality disorder (rBPD) patients show enhanced proneness to dissociation. This feature is significantly linked with pain hyposensitivity in cBPD in a paradigm that induces stress using a script‐driven imagery approach, whereas this connection cannot be observed in rBPD. However, in the stress compared to the neutral condition, rBPD participants also show pain hyposensitivity compared to healthy controls. This study provides new insights into the pain processing mechanisms of BPD and its remission.
Borate‐containing background electrolytes to improve CE separation in bare capillaries
Authors: Dolnik Vladislav 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThe paper describes how borate‐containing BGEs modify ζ‐potential and so EOF in bare fused silica capillaries. This surface modification can be used to suppress EOF and improve the separation performance of CZE including capillary sieving electrophoresis (CSE). Boric acid forms complexes with polysaccharides used as sieving matrices in CSE and other compounds containing hydroxyl groups, including polyol bases such as Tris, triethanolamine, and Bis‐Tris propane. High concentration of boric acid in BGEs leads to a strong interaction of boric acid with the silica surface of the capillary wall and this suppresses or even completely eliminates ζ‐potential and EOF. Using a polyol base with several charge‐carrying amino groups, such as Bis‐Tris propane, can actually reverse EOF. We demonstrate the use of various borate‐containing BGEs in bare fused silica capillaries for size‐separation of DNA fragments, size‐separation of proteins by SDS CSE, and also by CZE in the absence of any sieving matrix.
Model‐based method with nonlinear ultrasonic system identification for mechanical structural health assessment
Authors: Chen Hanxin , Huang Lang , Yang Liu , Chen Yongting , Huang Jinmin 
Published: March 2020

AbstractConventional methods for the structural nondestructive testing (NDT) such as pulsed eddy current (PEC), ultrasonic detection (UT), and so on are based on the output signal interpretation technique of the NDT system to extract the features to assess the structural health. In this article, a novel NDT method for the structural health monitoring from the different perspective is proposed, which is based on the structural system model between the exciting input and output response. Nonlinear autoregressive moving average with exogenous inputs (NARMAX) is used to establish the time domain model between the input signal and the output response. Frequency response (FRF) of NARMAX model from the time domain data is proposed to obtain the indicators to assess the structural health. The effectiveness and advantage of the proposed method are tested with two sets of experimental data by comparison with the existing method.
The effect of Quinoa flour and enzymes on the quality of gluten‐free bread
Authors: Azizi Saadat , Azizi Mohammad Hossein , Moogouei Roxana , Rajaei Peyman 
Published: March 2020

AbstractGluten‐free products usually are produced by refined flours such as rice and corn flour, which the bran is separated during processing. These flours are not nutritionally as rich as gluten containing products. Moreover, gluten‐free bread has several technical problems such as unfavorable texture, low volume, quick staling, and weaker color and taste compared with the wheat flour products. In this research, gluten‐free bread with various substitution of quinoa (0%, 15%, and 25%) was produced and the effects of lipase and protease enzymes on the quality of bread were investigated. The gluten‐free bread properties like physicochemical properties, rheological properties, and bread microstructure were evaluated. Moreover, the sensorial properties were assessed. The results have demonstrated that gluten‐free bread with quinoa flour has favorable properties. Also, lipase and protease enzymes could improve the quality of the bread containing quinoa. Protease and lipase enzymes increased the bread volume, specifically in sample containing 15% quinoa substitution. Moreover, the staling was delayed in sample 25% quinoa substitution. The bread was accepted by consumers, and the highest score belonged to 25% substitution of quinoa flour.
An efficient and high quality medical CT image enhancement algorithm
Authors: Li Zhi , Jia Zhenhong , Yang Jie , Kasabov Nikola 
Published: March 2020

AbstractAiming at the process of medical diagnosis, many problems such as unclear images and low contrast are often caused by noise and interference in the process of medical image acquisition and transmission. This article proposes a new image enhancement method that combines the wavelet domain with the spatial domain. First, we input two identical images (Both of the identical images are original images.) in which the first image is enhanced by histogram equalization. Then, the two images are divided into four sub‐images by a two‐dimensional wavelet transform. The average of the low‐frequency coefficients of the low‐frequency sub‐images of the two images is taken as the low‐frequency coefficients of the final reconstruction. Second, aiming at the problem that the contrast may be too low, the fourth high‐frequency sub‐image is blurred (sharpened) twice. The fourth high‐frequency sub‐image after blurring is denoised by median filtering. Finally, the four sub‐images are fused to obtain the enhanced image. The experimental results show that the peak signal‐to‐noise ratio, structural similarity, and processing time of the proposed algorithm are better than those of other contrast algorithms, especially the processing time. These objective indicators show that the proposed algorithm can not only effectively suppress noise but also significantly enhance the contrast. Subjectively, compared with other algorithms, the proposed algorithm achieves a better visual effect and greatly reduces the processing time.
Adipose depot gene expression and intelectin‐1 in the metabolic response to cancer and cachexia
Authors: Miller Janice , Dreczkowski Gillian , Ramage Michael I. , Wigmore Stephen J. , Gallagher Iain J. , Skipworth Richard J.E. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundCancer cachexia is a poorly understood metabolic consequence of cancer. During cachexia, different adipose depots demonstrate differential wasting rates. Animal models suggest adipose tissue may be a key driver of muscle wasting through fat–muscle crosstalk, but human studies in this area are lacking. We performed global gene expression profiling of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose from weight stable and cachectic cancer patients and healthy controls.MethodsCachexia was defined as >2% weight loss plus low computed tomography‐muscularity. Biopsies of SAT and VAT were taken from patients undergoing resection for oesophago‐gastric cancer, and healthy controls (n = 16 and 8 respectively). RNA was isolated and reverse transcribed. cDNA was hybridised to the Affymetrix Clariom S microarray and data analysed using R/Bioconductor. Differential expression of genes was assessed using empirical Bayes and moderated‐t‐statistic approaches. Category enrichment analysis was used with a tissue‐specific background to examine the biological context of differentially expressed genes. Selected differentially regulated genes were validated by qPCR. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for intelectin‐1 was performed on all VAT samples. The previously‐described cohort plus 12 additional patients from each group also had plasma I = intelectin‐1 ELISA carried out.ResultsIn VAT vs. SAT comparisons, there were 2101, 1722, and 1659 significantly regulated genes in the cachectic, weight stable, and control groups, respectively. There were 2200 significantly regulated genes from VAT in cachectic patients compared with controls. Genes involving inflammation were enriched in cancer and control VAT vs. SAT, although different genes contributed to enrichment in each group. Energy metabolism, fat browning (e.g. uncoupling protein 1), and adipogenesis genes were down‐regulated in cancer VAT (P = 0.043, P = 5.4 × 10−6 and P = 1 × 10−6 respectively). The gene showing the largest difference in expression was ITLN1, the gene that encodes for intelectin‐1 (false discovery rate‐corrected P = 0.0001), a novel adipocytokine associated with weight loss in other contexts.ConclusionsSAT and VAT have unique gene expression signatures in cancer and cachexia. VAT is metabolically active in cancer, and intelectin‐1 may be a target for therapeutic manipulation. VAT may play a fundamental role in cachexia, but the down‐regulation of energy metabolism genes implies a limited role for fat browning in cachectic patients, in contrast to pre‐clinical models.