bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Constitutionally Isomeric Aromatic Tripeptides: Self‐Assembly and Metal‐Ion‐Modulated Transformations
Authors: Singh Narendra , Singh Ramesh , Joshi Khashti Ballabh , Verma Sandeep 
Published: August 2020

AbstractSelf‐assembling peptides based on aromatic amino acids can adopt diverse nanostructures which primarily depend on their molecular structures. Therefore, to understand the nature of self‐assembly on the molecular level we rationally designed two constitutional isomers of short aromatic peptides. The first isomer consists of a tyrosine moiety at the N‐terminus and the second isomer consists of a tyrosine moiety at the C‐terminus of the FF peptide, a core recognition motif of Amyloid β peptides. Therefore, it can be considered that both the designed tripeptides are the analogues of the FFF peptide with only atomic(−H) level replacement by −OH functional group on the first and last phenyl ring, respectively. The first isomer self‐assembled into 2D porous nanosheets (“Nanowebs”), however the second isomers produced toroidal shapes with central spheres (“Nano‐Saturn” like assemblies). Interestingly, the presence of the transition‐metal ions (copper, zinc and iron) triggered the self‐assembly of both the peptides into fibrous circular discs, nanomats and nanoplates like assembly.
Measuring Changes in Keap1‐Nrf2 Protein Complex Conformation in Individual Cells by FLIM‐FRET
Authors: Dikovskaya Dina , Dinkova‐Kostova Albena T. 
Published: August 2020

AbstractThe nuclear factor−erythroid 2 p45‐related factor 2 (Nrf2)−mediated stress response is a major cellular defense mechanism against endogenous and exogenous oxidants, electrophiles, and pro‐inflammatory agents. A number of Nrf2 inducers are being developed to therapeutically stimulate this pathway. Inducers are typically sensed by Kelch‐like ECH‐associated protein 1 (Keap1), a negative regulator and a binding partner of Nrf2. Modifications of Keap1 by oxidants or electrophiles, or its targeting by compounds that disrupt its interaction with Nrf2, alter the conformation of the Keap1‐Nrf2 protein complex, which initiates the accumulation of Nrf2 required for mounting a stress response. To detect conformational changes in the Keap1‐Nrf2 complex in live cells, we have developed a procedure based on Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging−Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FLIM‐FRET). The procedure includes a FLIM time course in cells expressing fluorescently‐tagged Nrf2 and Keap1, followed by an extended analysis pipeline that quantifies changes in fluorescence lifetime of labeled Nrf2. The analysis visualizes and removes intensity‐dependent bias in fluorescence lifetime measured with the Time‐Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) approach, thereby improving the accuracy of quantification. The throughput is increased by the whole‐experiment analysis within the newly developed FLIM dataset tool (FLIMDAST) and by the time‐lapse FLIM described here. This pipeline is also suitable for applications beyond the Nrf2 field that assess small changes in fluorescence lifetime of objects with variable fluorescence intensities measured using TCSPC‐based FLIM. © 2020 The Authors.Basic Protocol 1: Lipofectamine 2000 transfectionAlternate Protocol 1: Calcium phosphate transfectionBasic Protocol 2: Time course with individual FLIMAlternate Protocol 2: Time course with time‐lapse FLIMSupport Protocol: Measuring Instrument Response Function (IRF)Basic Protocol 3: Data analysis in SPCImageBasic Protocol 4: Data processing in ImageJ/FIJIBasic Protocol 5: Experiment analysis in FLIMDAST
Comparison of discriminatory effects of corn yield test locations based on their genetic variation expression among hybrids
Authors: Ashworth Amanda J. , Knapp Victoria , Allen Fred L. , Saxton Arnold M. 
Published: August 2020

AbstractIt is important for yield test sites to elicit differences among genotypes, minimize redundancy of performance information, and generate a genotype × environment interaction representative of the targeted region. The objective of this study was to use corn (Zea mays L.) variety trial data from three relative maturity group (MG) tests (early, medium, and late) at five Tennessee locations spanning 14 yr to compare test location uniqueness and redundancy via genetic variance estimates and cluster analysis. Principle component analyses allowed for location comparisons of genetic variance expression among cultivars in different MG tests. Individual location–test–year genetic variance estimates ranged from <1 to 584 (Mg ha−1)2. Years and locations affected the magnitude of genetic variance, with years largely driving genetic expression within MGs in these environments. However, the late MG consistently had the greatest variance estimates. Across 14 yr, there was minimum duplicative information provided across the five yield test sites. Consequently, all locations were needed and none could be eliminated without compromising cultivar yield trial information for the three MG tests. Correlations between mean yields and genetic variance showed a weak relationship across locations (environments), years, and MG tests (r = .021); thus, high‐yielding environments did not correspond with increased genetic variance expression. These types of analyses are useful for evaluating the discriminating ability and duplicative or correlated expression of genetic information across locations for robust variety trials within and across maturity groups and targeted regions.
Low temperature coefficient and low line sensitivity subthreshold curvature‐compensated voltage reference
Authors: Thakur Arvind , Pandey Rishikesh , Rai Shireesh Kumar 
Published: August 2020

SummaryA high‐order curvature‐compensated subthreshold voltage reference is proposed in this paper. The proposed curvature‐compensated voltage reference consists of two supply‐independent first‐order voltage references and a curvature compensation circuit. The supply‐independent first‐order voltage reference uses a negative feedback loop which improves the line sensitivity and eliminates the demand of operational amplifier, whereas the curvature compensation circuit provides high‐order temperature‐compensated output reference voltage. The proposed curvature‐compensated voltage reference provides an output reference voltage of 118.54 mV with a temperature coefficient of 21.5 ppm/°C over a wide temperature range of −60°C to 120°C. The power supply rejection ratio and line sensitivity are observed as −68.64 dB (for the frequency range of 1 Hz to 100 Hz) and 0.035%/V (for the supply voltage varies from 0.85 V to 2.5 V), respectively. The values of output noise at the frequencies of 1 kHz and 10 kHz without using any capacitive filter are obtained as 179.13 nV/ √ Hz and 123.87 nV/ √ Hz, respectively.
A novel series of substituted 1,2,3‐triazoles as cancer stem cell inhibitors: Synthesis and biological evaluation
Authors: Padhariya Komal N. , Athavale Maithili , Srivastava Sangeeta , Kharkar Prashant S. 
Published: August 2020

AbstractAn alarming increase in global death toll resulting from cancer incidents, particularly due to multidrug resistance and reduced efficacy as a consequence of target mutations, has compelled us to look for novel anticancer agents. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), contributing majorly to the chemoresistance and tumor relapse, seem to the main culprits. In the present investigation, new chemical entities (NCEs) belonging to four novel chemical series (A: 4′‐allyl‐2′‐methoxyphenoxymethyl‐1,2,3‐triazoles; B: 4′‐acetamidophenoxymethyl‐1,2,3‐triazoles; C: naphthalene‐1′‐yloxymethyl‐1,2,3‐triazoles, and D: naphthalene‐2′‐yloxymethyl‐1,2,3‐triazoles) were synthesized via Copper (I)‐catalyzed alkyne‐azide cycloaddition reaction and evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity. A total of 30 NCEs (39–68) were screened at 10 μM concentration in cell viability assay against cancer cell lines such as breast (MDA‐MB‐231), prostate (PC‐3), glioma (U87 MG), along with cervical (SiHa) and lung (A549). The NCEs from Series C (56–60) and D (61–68) were more potent than those in Series A (39‐45) and Series B (46–55) at the tested concentration. Furthermore, NCEs with >80% inhibition at 10 μM were evaluated for dose response. A total of five NCEs, 48, 56, 61, 65 and 66, were further assessed in soft‐agar assay and found to be relatively potent (IC50 < 10 μM). Finally, the hits were screened in sphere assay to identify potential CSC inhibitors against mammospheres (MDA‐MB‐231) and prostatospheres (PC‐3). More so, the hits were also evaluated to understand in vitro cytotoxicity against normal cells using mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line (NIH/3T3) and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMCs). Overall, hits 56 and 61 exhibited potent anticancer as well as CSC inhibitory activities with notably less toxicity toward NIH/3T3 and hPBMCs. On the whole, our arduous study led to the identification of potential hits with anticancer and CSC inhibitory activities, with minimal or no toxicity to normal cells.
Amino acid conjugates of 2‐mercaptobenzimidazole provide better anti‐inflammatory pharmacology and improved toxicity profile
Authors: Khan Muhammad T. , Nadeem Humaira , Khan Arif‐ullah , Abbas Muzaffar , Arif Muazzam , Malik Nadia Shamshad , Malik Zulkifal , Javed Ibrahim 
Published: August 2020

AbstractBenzimidazole is an important pharmacophore for clinically active drugs against inflammation and treatment of pain, however, it is associated with gastrointestinal side effects. Here we synthesized benzimidazole based agents with significant analgesic/anti‐inflammatory potential but with less gastrointestinal adverse effects. In this study, we synthesized novel, orally bioavailable 2‐mercaptobenzimidazole amino acid conjugates (4a–4o) and screened them for analgesic, anti‐inflammatory and gastro‐protective effects. The synthesized 2‐mercaptbenzimidazole derivatives were characterized for their structure using FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopic techniques. The 2‐mercaptobenzimidazole amino acid conjugates have found to possess potent analgesic, anti‐inflammatory and gastroprotective activities, particularly with compound 4j and 4k. Most of the compounds exhibited remarkable anti‐ulcer and antisecretory effects. Molecular docking studies were carried out to study the binding affinities and interactions of the synthesized compounds with target proteins COX‐2 (PDB ID: 3LN1) and H+/K+‐ATPase (PDB ID: 5Y0B). Our results support the clinical promise of these newly synthesized 2‐mercaptobezimidazol conjugates as a component of therapeutic strategies for inflammation and analgesia, for which the gastric side effects are always a major limitation.
Are fission–fusion dynamics consistent among populations? A large‐scale study with Cape buffalo
Authors: Wielgus Elodie , Cornélis Daniel , de Garine‐Wichatitsky Michel , Cain Bradley , Fritz Hervé , Miguel Eve , Valls‐Fox Hugo , Caron Alexandre , Chamaillé‐Jammes Simon 
Published: August 2020

AbstractFission–fusion dynamics allow animals to manage costs and benefits of group living by adjusting group size. The degree of intraspecific variation in fission–fusion dynamics across the geographical range is poorly known. During 2008–2016, 38 adult female Cape buffalo were equipped with GPS collars in three populations located in different protected areas (Gonarezhou National Park and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe; Kruger National Park, South Africa) to investigate the patterns and environmental drivers of fission–fusion dynamics among populations. We estimated home range overlap and fission and fusion events between Cape buffalo dyads. We investigated the temporal dynamics of both events at daily and seasonal scales and examined the influence of habitat and distance to water on event location. Fission–fusion dynamics were generally consistent across populations: Fission and fusion periods lasted on average between less than one day and three days. However, we found seasonal differences in the underlying patterns of fission and fusion, which point out the likely influence of resource availability and distribution in time on group dynamics: During the wet season, Cape buffalo split and associated more frequently and were in the same or in a different subgroup for shorter periods. Cape buffalo subgroups were more likely to merge than to split in open areas located near water, but overall vegetation and distance to water were very poor predictors of where fission and fusion events occurred. This study is one of the first to quantify fission–fusion dynamics in a single species across several populations with a common methodology, thus robustly questioning the behavioral flexibility of fission–fusion dynamics among environments.
Pasture management, grazing, and fire interact to determine wetland provisioning in a subtropical agroecosystem
Authors: Sonnier Grégory , Quintana‐Ascencio Pedro F. , Bohlen Patrick J. , Fauth John E. , Jenkins David G. , Boughton Elizabeth H. 
Published: August 2020

AbstractWetlands in agroecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services, including provisioning services such as forage production. Here, we examine how pasture management intensity (semi‐natural pastures vs. highly managed pastures (fertilized, heavily drained, planted with productive grasses), cattle exclusion (grazed vs. fenced), prescribed fire (burned vs. unburned), and their interactions affect provisioning services provided by small, isolated, and seasonally flooded wetlands in subtropical pastures and rangelands. We used a replicated, full‐factorial experiment on 40 seasonally flooded wetlands located in Florida (USA), and measured standing plant biomass and annual net primary productivity in each wetland. Biomass was sorted by species to calculate species abundance of palatable and unpalatable plants. We used general linear mixed models to evaluate the effect of treatments and their interactions on biomass quantity, plant tissue nutrients (% C, % N, and % P), and forage nutritive value (using in vitro organic matter digestibility). Plant standing biomass and productivity were greatest in wetlands embedded in highly managed pastures, but in grazed wetlands, a large proportion of this biomass was unpalatable to cattle. Excluding cattle from wetlands in highly managed pastures increased productivity, standing biomass, and the amount of palatable species (~6.3 t/ha) compared to grazed wetlands (~3.3 t/ha), especially when these wetlands were also exposed to prescribed fire. Total P in plant tissue was consistently higher in wetlands within highly managed pastures, but total N responses to treatments varied between years. In vitro digestibility was higher in vegetation from wetlands within highly managed pastures, but not in fenced wetlands despite the higher amount of palatable species, suggesting that palatability and digestibility were decoupled. Subtropical wetlands in agroecosystems provide substantial provisioning services, and our study suggests that targeted management can increase these services. However, the pasture type surrounding a wetland interacts with grazing and fire management to affect provisioning services. We propose that fencing off selected wetlands (specifically in highly managed pastures) followed by low‐intensity grazing with adequate resting periods could benefit ranchers and have less persistent impacts on this ecosystem.
Management of remnant tallgrass prairie by grazing or fire: effects on plant communities and soil properties
Authors: Larson Diane L. , Hernández Daniel L. , Larson Jennifer L. , Leone Julia B. , Pennarola Nora 
Published: August 2020

AbstractTallgrass prairie is a disturbance‐dependent ecosystem that has suffered steep declines in the midwestern United States. The necessity of disturbance, typically fire or grazing, presents challenges to managers who must apply them on increasingly small and fragmented parcels. The goal of this study was to compare effects of management using cattle grazing or fire on vegetation and soil characteristics to aid managers in making decisions regarding the kind of disturbance to apply. We selected 73 sites, of which 27 were managed solely by cattle grazing and 46 solely by fire, for at least 11 yr leading up to the study. We stratified the sites by prairie type (dry, mesic, and wet) and sampled frequency of plant species on randomly placed transects, supplemented with botanist‐directed walks, and collected and composited five soil cores on a randomly selected transect within each prairie type at each site. We calculated rarefied richness and Shannon evenness from the transect data and mean coefficient of conservatism (CofC) from the total list of species. Soil samples were analyzed for texture, bulk density, total N and C, and potential net N nitrification and mineralization. A nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis of the plant community data revealed differences in species associated with mesic and wet prairies, but no separation by management type. Similarly, none of the vegetation variables we calculated varied by management type, as determined by mixed‐effects models, but soil bulk density was 17.5% higher and total N was 22% higher on grazed sites than burned sites. Sites burned more recently had higher species richness and mean CofC, but fire was not associated with any soil variables. Sites grazed more recently had higher bulk density, total N and C, and faster N cycling rates. Overall, 28% of plant species were found exclusively in one management type or the other, but these species did not vary in mean CofC. We conclude that, at the levels of burning and grazing intensity we studied, both management approaches produce similar C storage and vegetation responses. To maintain maximum diversity across the landscape, however, both approaches are necessary.
Synthesis of lithium manganese oxide nanocomposites using microwave‐assisted chemical precipitation technique and their performance evaluation in lithium‐ion batteries
Authors: Tariq Hanan Abdurehman , Abraham Jeffin James , Shakoor Rana Abdul , Al‐Qaradawi Siham , Abdul Karim Muhammad Ramzan , Chaudhry Usman 
Published: August 2020

AbstractLithium manganese oxide (LMO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were used to develop nanocomposites using a microwave‐assisted chemical precipitation method and characterized using various techniques. The process provides better control over morphological features and proficient choice of cost‐effective precursors. This research aims to increase the active surface area and the number of lithium‐ion (Li+) intercalation sites using the CNTs and GNPs in LMO to improve its electrochemical performance. The structural analysis shows that the average crystallite size is 50 nm without using any capping agent during the synthesis process, which is smaller when compared to pristine LMO. The electrochemical studies demonstrate that the incorporation of carbon nanostructures (CNTs and GNPs) boosts the rate capabilities and cyclic performance of LMO. The LMO‐CNTs and LMO‐GNPs have an excellent rate capability of 124 and 127 mAhg−1 at 0.1C, sustained at 115.6 and 118.5 mAhg−1 at 10C, respectively. Cycling efficiency is also improved, with LMO‐CNTs and LMO‐GNPs having an initial capacity of 124 and 127 mAhg−1 decreasing to 112 and 114 mAhg−1, respectively, after 50 cycles. Compared to pure LMO, the increased electrochemical performance of LMO nanocomposites is due to the introduction of carbon nanostructures (CNTs and GNPs).
Cuckoo inspired stacking ensemble framework for content‐based cybercrime detection in online social networks
Authors: Singh Amanpreet , Kaur Maninder 
Published: August 2020

AbstractIn recent times, the topic of content‐based cybercrime has gained significant attention. It is the requirement of today's era for social media companies to meet the challenges faced in differentiating the oppressive content in both a precise and proficient manner, thereby securing their clients. This article proposes a novel cuckoo inspired stacking ensemble framework that is the integration of Cuckoo Search and several machine learning models. The proposed framework automatically seeks for near‐optimal combinations of classification techniques along with their tuning parameters for efficiently solving the problem of content‐based cybercrime detection. Four datasets obtained from Formspring, ASKfm, and Twitter are used for testing purposes. The experimental results showcased significant improvement in the performance of classification on all the datasets in comparison to state‐of‐art classification models. The success rate of the proposed model with the excellent recall is 0.984 via 10‐fold cross‐validation demonstrates its high efficiency and effectiveness.
Low‐overhead inline deduplication for persistent memory
Authors: Chen Wande , Chen Zhenke , Li Dingding , Liu Hai , Tang Yong 
Published: August 2020

AbstractPersistent memory (PM) can play an important role in storing the edge data of IoT devices, but their capacities are restrained by the embedded system, which only provides the limited host space and energy resource. Therefore, a deduplication system is required to improve the PM utilization and energy consumption. According to our observations, the current inline deduplication algorithms incur nonnegligible latency when applied to the PM file systems (PMFSs), mainly because (i) the low tolerance to the extra deduplication I/O path, (ii) the long fingerprint calculation, and (iii) the unnecessary duplication detection when writing content with low duplication ratio. To improve this issue, we propose LO‐Dedup, a novel and low‐overhead deduplication system for PM. LO‐Dedup adopts PM‐friendly design, both in fine‐grained data load/store and fast hash scheme to reduce overhead. Moreover, LO‐Dedup can adaptively sample duplication detection according to the recent contents. We implement a prototype of LO‐Dedup in PMFS, which is a well‐known PMFS. The experimental results show that the write performance only has a slight drop when writing data and saves up to 45% space in PMFS.
Direct cortical thickness estimation using deep learning‐based anatomy segmentation and cortex parcellation
Authors: Rebsamen Michael , Rummel Christian , Reyes Mauricio , Wiest Roland , McKinley Richard 
Published: August 2020

AbstractAccurate and reliable measures of cortical thickness from magnetic resonance imaging are an important biomarker to study neurodegenerative and neurological disorders. Diffeomorphic registration‐based cortical thickness (DiReCT) is a known technique to derive such measures from non‐surface‐based volumetric tissue maps. ANTs provides an open‐source method for estimating cortical thickness, derived by applying DiReCT to an atlas‐based segmentation. In this paper, we propose DL+DiReCT, a method using high‐quality deep learning‐based neuroanatomy segmentations followed by DiReCT, yielding accurate and reliable cortical thickness measures in a short time. We evaluate the methods on two independent datasets and compare the results against surface‐based measures from FreeSurfer. Good correlation of DL+DiReCT with FreeSurfer was observed (r = .887) for global mean cortical thickness compared to ANTs versus FreeSurfer (r = .608). Experiments suggest that both DiReCT‐based methods had higher sensitivity to changes in cortical thickness than Freesurfer. However, while ANTs showed low scan‐rescan robustness, DL+DiReCT showed similar robustness to Freesurfer. Effect‐sizes for group‐wise differences of healthy controls compared to individuals with dementia were highest with the deep learning‐based segmentation. DL+DiReCT is a promising combination of a deep learning‐based method with a traditional registration technique to detect subtle changes in cortical thickness.