bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cell surface GRP78 promotes stemness in normal and neoplastic cells
Authors: Conner Clay , Lager Tyson W. , Guldner Ian H. , Wu Min-Zu , Hishida Yuriko , Hishida Tomoaki , Ruiz Sergio , Yamasaki Amanda E. , Gilson Robert C. , Belmonte Juan Carlos Izpisua , Gray Peter C. , Kelber Jonathan A. , Zhang Siyuan , Panopoulos Athanasia D. 
Published: February 2020

AbstractReliable approaches to identify stem cell mechanisms that mediate aggressive cancer could have great therapeutic value, based on the growing evidence of embryonic signatures in metastatic cancers. However, how to best identify and target stem-like mechanisms aberrantly acquired by cancer cells has been challenging. We harnessed the power of reprogramming to examine GRP78, a chaperone protein generally restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum in normal tissues, but which is expressed on the cell surface of human embryonic stem cells and many cancer types. We have discovered that (1) cell surface GRP78 (sGRP78) is expressed on iPSCs and is important in reprogramming, (2) sGRP78 promotes cellular functions in both pluripotent and breast cancer cells (3) overexpression of GRP78 in breast cancer cells leads to an induction of a CD24−/CD44+ tumor initiating cell (TIC) population (4) sGRP78+ breast cancer cells are enriched for stemness genes and appear to be a subset of TICs (5) sGRP78+ breast cancer cells show an enhanced ability to seed metastatic organ sites in vivo. These collective findings show that GRP78 has important functions in regulating both pluripotency and oncogenesis, and suggest that sGRP78 marks a stem-like population in breast cancer cells that has increased metastatic potential in vivo.
Declining snowfall fraction in the alpine regions, Central Asia
Authors: Li Zhi , Chen Yaning , Li Yupeng , Wang Yang 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIn a warming climate, precipitation (P) is less likely to occur as snowfall (S). Change in the snowfall fraction (S/P) is currently assumed not only influences the accumulation and ablation of glaciers, but also influences the streamflow and water resources significantly in mountainous regions. However, until now, most studies have focused on precipitation magnitude and its frequency changes, while seasonal shifts in precipitation types have been mostly neglected. This paper employs the threshold temperature method in combination with multi-source dataset (APHRODITE, CPC and meteorological stations) analysis to determine snowfall proportions in precipitation in the Tienshan Mountains, Central Asia, during 1960–2017. The results indicated that temperature-induced precipitation shifting from snow to rain. The S/P experienced an overall declining trend, increasing at a rate of 0.6%/decade prior to the mid-1990s, followed by a downward trend at a rate of −0.5%/decade. The S/P decreased mainly at low and middle altitudes (between 1500 and 3500 m). At higher altitudes (over 3500 m), the magnitudes of the decreased S/P ratios were small or even increased due to the temperature always being below freezing. Decreases in S/P are always associated with decreases in annual streamflow in the glacier/snow melt recharged rivers.
Bacterial nanocellulose from agro-industrial wastes: low-cost and enhanced production by Komagataeibacter saccharivorans MD1
Authors: Abol-Fotouh Deyaa , Hassan Mohamed A. , Shokry Hassan , Roig Anna , Azab Mohamed S. , Kashyout Abd El-Hady B. 
Published: February 2020

AbstractBacterial nanocellulose (BNC) has been drawing enormous attention because of its versatile properties. Herein, we shed light on the BNC production by a novel bacterial isolate (MD1) utilizing various agro-industrial wastes. Using 16S rRNA nucleotide sequences, the isolate was identified as Komagataeibacter saccharivorans MD1. For the first time, BNC synthesis by K. saccharivorans MD1 was investigated utilizing wastes of palm date, fig, and sugarcane molasses along with glucose on the Hestrin-Schramm (HS) medium as a control. After incubation for 168 h, the highest BNC yield was perceived on the molasses medium recording 3.9 g/L with an initial concentration of (v/v) 10%. The physicochemical characteristics of the BNC sheets were inspected adopting field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. The FESEM characterization revealed no impact of the wastes on either fiber diameter or the branching scheme, whereas the AFM depicted a BNC film with minimal roughness was generated using date wastes. Furthermore, a high crystallinity index was estimated by XRD up to 94% for the date wastes-derived BNC, while the FTIR analyses exhibited very similar profiles for all BNC films. Additionally, mechanical characteristics and water holding capacity of the produced BNCs were studied. Our findings substantiated that expensive substrates could be exchanged by agro-industrial wastes for BNC production conserving its remarkable physical and microstructural properties.
Correlation between phase compatibility and efficient energy conversion in Zr-doped Barium Titanate
Authors: Wegner Maike , Gu Hanlin , James Richard D. , Quandt Eckhard 
Published: February 2020

AbstractRecent demonstrations of both heat-to-electricity energy conversion devices and electrocaloric devices based on first-order ferroelectric phase transformations identify the lowering of hysteresis and cyclic reversibility of the transformation as enabling criteria for the advancement of this technology. These demonstrations, and recent studies of the hysteresis of phase transformations in oxides, show that satisfying conditions of supercompatibility can be useful for lowering hysteresis, but with limitations for systems with only a few variants of the lower symmetry phase. In particular, it is widely accepted that in a classic cubic-to-tetragonal phase transformation, with only three tetragonal variants having only six twin systems, tuning for improved crystallographic compatibility will be of limited value. This work shows that, on the contrary, the tuning of lattice parameters in Ba(Ti1-xZrx)O3 for improved crystallographic compatibility, even at low doping levels of Zr (x ≤ 0.027), give significant improvement of transformation and ferroelectric energy conversion properties. Specifically, the transformation hysteresis is lowered by 25%, and the maximum value of the polarization/temperature ratio dP/dT at the phase transformation is increased by 10%.
Factors associated with sufficient knowledge of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the Japanese general population
Authors: Tsuzuki Shinya , Fujitsuka Niina , Horiuchi Keisuke , Ijichi Shinpei , Gu Yoshiaki , Fujitomo Yumiko , Takahashi Rie , Ohmagari Norio 
Published: February 2020

AbstractWe conducted two online surveys about antibiotics targeted at the Japanese general population in March 2017 and February 2018. In total, 6,982 participants completed the questionnaire. Factors associated with knowledge of antibiotics, knowledge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and appropriate behavioural changes were evaluated by a machine learning approach using DataRobot. Factors strongly associated with three dependent variables in the model were extracted based on permuation importance. We found that the strongest determinant of knowledge of antibiotics and AMR was education level. Knowledge of antibiotics was strongly associated with the frequency of internet use. Exposure to primary information was associated with motivation for appropriate behavioural changes. Improving the availability of primary information would be a beneficial intervention. Individuals lacking higher education and without opportunities to obtain primary information should be considered a target population for effective interventions.
Proportion of Streptococcus agalactiae vertical transmission and associated risk factors among Ethiopian mother-newborn dyads, Northwest Ethiopia
Authors: Gizachew Mucheye , Tiruneh Moges , Moges Feleke , Adefris Mulat , Tigabu Zemene , Tessema Belay 
Published: February 2020

AbstractGroup B Streptococcus (GBS) vertical transmission causes fetal and neonatal colonization and diseases. However, there is scarcity of data in low-income countries including Ethiopia. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 98 GBS positive mothers, and their newborns to find proportion of vertical transmission. GBS was identified from swabs by using recommended methods and vertical transmission at birth was confirmed by the culture of body surface swabs of newborns within 30 minutes following birth. GBS positivity among swabbed specimens collected for other purposes was 160/1540 (10.4%); 98 were from 385 recto-vaginal swabs of pregnant women, and 62 were from 1,155 swabs of the 385 births. Of the 98 GBS positive cases, 62 newborns were GBS colonized with vertical transmission proportion of 63.3%(95% CI: 54.1–72.4%). We identified that the proportion of vertical transmission in this study was within the range of other many global studies, but higher than recently published data in Ethiopia. Maternal educational level, employment and lower ANC visit were significantly associated risk factors to GBS vertical transmission. Efforts need to be made to screen pregnant women during antenatal care and to provide IAP to GBS positive cases to reduce mother to newborn vertical transmission.
Incidence trends of airflow obstruction among European adults without asthma: a 20-year cohort study
Authors: Accordini Simone , Calciano Lucia , Marcon Alessandro , Pesce Giancarlo , Antó Josep M. , Beckmeyer-Borowko Anna B. , Carsin Anne-Elie , Corsico Angelo G. , Imboden Medea , Janson Christer , Keidel Dirk , Locatelli Francesca , Svanes Cecilie , Burney Peter G. J. , Jarvis Deborah , Probst-Hensch Nicole M. , Minelli Cosetta 
Published: February 2020

AbstractInvestigating COPD trends may help healthcare providers to forecast future disease burden. We estimated sex- and smoking-specific incidence trends of pre-bronchodilator airflow obstruction (AO) among adults without asthma from 11 European countries within a 20-year follow-up (ECRHS and SAPALDIA cohorts). We also quantified the extent of misclassification in the definition based on pre-bronchodilator spirometry (using post-bronchodilator measurements from a subsample of subjects) and we used this information to estimate the incidence of post-bronchodilator AO (AOpost-BD), which is the primary characteristic of COPD. AO incidence was 4.4 (95% CI: 3.5–5.3) male and 3.8 (3.1–4.6) female cases/1,000/year. Among ever smokers (median pack-years: 20, males; 12, females), AO incidence significantly increased with ageing in men only [incidence rate ratio (IRR), 1-year increase: 1.05 (1.03–1.07)]. A strong exposure-response relationship with smoking was found both in males [IRR, 1-pack-year increase: 1.03 (1.02–1.04)] and females [1.03 (1.02–1.05)]. The positive predictive value of AO for AOpost-BD was 59.1% (52.0–66.2%) in men and 42.6% (35.1–50.1%) in women. AOpost-BD incidence was 2.6 (1.7–3.4) male and 1.6 (1.0–2.2) female cases/1,000/year. AO incidence was considerable in Europe and the sex-specific ageing-related increase among ever smokers was strongly related to cumulative tobacco exposure. AOpost-BD incidence is expected to be half of AO incidence.
Platinum-group elements link the end-Triassic mass extinction and the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province
Authors: Tegner Christian , Marzoli Andrea , McDonald Iain , Youbi Nasrrddine , Lindström Sofie 
Published: February 2020

AbstractElevated concentrations of iridium (Ir) and other platinum-group elements (PGE) have been reported in both terrestrial and marine sediments associated with the end-Triassic mass extinction (ETE) c. 201.5 million years ago. The source of the PGEs has been attributed to condensed vapor and melt from an extraterrestrial impactor or to volcanism. Here we report new PGE data for volcanic rocks of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) in Morocco and show that their Pd/Ir, Pt/Ir and Pt/Rh ratios are similar to marine and terrestrial sediments at the ETE, and very different from potential impactors. Hence, we propose the PGEs provide a new temporal correlation of CAMP volcanism to the ETE, corroborating the view that mass extinctions may be caused by volcanism.
Effects of repetitive gentle handling of male C57BL/6NCrl mice on comparative behavioural test results
Authors: Ueno Hiroshi , Takahashi Yu , Suemitsu Shunsuke , Murakami Shinji , Kitamura Naoya , Wani Kenta , Matsumoto Yosuke , Okamoto Motoi , Ishihara Takeshi 
Published: February 2020

AbstractMice are the most commonly used laboratory animals for studying diseases, behaviour, and pharmacology. Behavioural experiment battery aids in evaluating abnormal behaviour in mice. During behavioural experiments, mice frequently experience human contact. However, the effects of repeated handling on mice behaviour remains unclear. To minimise mice stress, methods of moving mice using transparent tunnels or cups have been recommended but are impractical in behavioural tests. To investigate these effects, we used a behavioural test battery to assess differences between mice accustomed to the experimenter’s handling versus control mice. Repeatedly handled mice gained slightly more weight than control mice. In behavioural tests, repeatedly handled mice showed improved spatial cognition in the Y-maze test and reduced anxiety-like behaviour in the elevated plus-maze test. However, there was no change in anxiety-like behaviour in the light/dark transition test or open-field test. Grip strength, rotarod, sociability, tail suspension, Porsolt forced swim, and passive avoidance tests revealed no significant differences between repeatedly handled and control mice. Our findings demonstrated that mice repeatedly handled by the experimenter before behavioural tests showed reduced anxiety about high altitudes and improved spatial cognition, suggesting that repeated contact can affect the results of some behavioural tests.
Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Aqueous Extract of Deverra tortuosa and their Cytotoxic Activities
Authors: Selim Yasser A. , Azb Maha A. , Ragab Islam , H. M. Abd El-Azim Mohamed 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIn recent years, there is a growing interest towards the green synthesis of metal nanoparticles, particularly from plants; however, yet no published study on the synthesis of ZnO.NPs using the Deverra tortuosa extract. Through this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO.NPs) have been synthesized based on using the environmentally benign extract of the aerial parts of D. tortuosa as a reducing and capping agent. ZnO.NPs synthesis was confirmed using UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and High Resolution-Transmission Electron Microscope (HR-TEM). The qualitative and quantitative analyses of plant extract were done. The potential anticancer activity was in vitro investigated against two cancer cell lines (human colon adenocarcinoma “Caco-2” and human lung adenocarcinoma “A549”) compared to their activities on the human lung fibroblast cell line (WI38) using the MTT assay. Both the aqueous extract and ZnO.NPs showed a remarkable selective cytotoxicity against the two examined cancer cell lines.
Inadequate socialisation, inactivity, and urban living environment are associated with social fearfulness in pet dogs
Authors: Puurunen Jenni , Hakanen Emma , Salonen Milla K. , Mikkola Salla , Sulkama Sini , Araujo César , Lohi Hannes 
Published: February 2020

AbstractProblematic behaviours are severe welfare issues for one of the world’s most popular pets, the domestic dog. One of the most prevalent behavioural problem that causes distress to dogs is social fearfulness, meaning fear of conspecifics or unfamiliar people. To identify demographic and environmental factors associated with fear of dogs and strangers, logistic regression was utilised with a large dataset of 6,000 pet dogs collected through an owner-filled behavioural survey. Social fearfulness was associated with several factors, including urban environment, poor socialisation during puppyhood, infrequent participation in training and other activities, small body size, female sex, and neutering. In addition, we identified several breed differences, suggesting a genetic contribution to social fearfulness. These findings highlight the role of inadequate socialisation, inactivity, and urban living environmental in fear-related behavioural problems in dogs. Improvements in the management and breeding practices of dogs could, therefore, enhance the welfare of man’s best friend.
Impact of the Sub-Resting Membrane Potential on Accurate Inference in Spiking Neural Networks
Authors: Hwang Sungmin , Chang Jeesoo , Oh Min-Hye , Lee Jong-Ho , Park Byung-Gook 
Published: February 2020

AbstractSpiking neural networks (SNNs) are considered as the third generation of artificial neural networks, having the potential to improve the energy efficiency of conventional computing systems. Although the firing rate of a spiking neuron is an approximation of rectified linear unit (ReLU) activation in an analog-valued neural network (ANN), there remain many challenges to be overcome owing to differences in operation between ANNs and SNNs. Unlike actual biological and biophysical processes, various hardware implementations of neurons and SNNs do not allow the membrane potential to fall below the resting potential—in other words, neurons must allow the sub-resting membrane potential. Because there occur an excitatory post-synaptic potential (EPSP) as well as an inhibitory post-synaptic potential (IPSP), negatively valued synaptic weights in SNNs induce the sub-resting membrane potential at some time point. If a membrane is not allowed to hold the sub-resting potential, errors will accumulate over time, resulting in inaccurate inference operations. This phenomenon is not observed in ANNs given their use of only spatial synaptic integration, but it can cause serious performance degradation in SNNs. In this paper, we demonstrate the impact of the sub-resting membrane potential on accurate inference operations in SNNs. Moreover, several important considerations for a hardware SNN that can maintain the sub-resting membrane potential are discussed. All of the results in this paper indicate that it is essential for neurons to allow the sub-resting membrane potential in order to realize high-performance SNNs.
Regulation of Proteins in Human Skeletal Muscle: The Role of Transcription
Authors: Makhnovskii Pavel A. , Zgoda Victor G. , Bokov Roman O. , Shagimardanova Elena I. , Gazizova Guzel R. , Gusev Oleg A. , Lysenko Evgeny A. , Kolpakov Fedor A. , Vinogradova Olga L. , Popov Daniil V. 
Published: February 2020

AbstractRegular low intensity aerobic exercise (aerobic training) provides effective protection against various metabolic disorders. Here, the roles played by transient transcriptome responses to acute exercise and by changes in baseline gene expression during up-regulation of protein content in human skeletal muscle were investigated after 2 months of aerobic training. Seven untrained males were involved in a 2 month aerobic cycling training program. Mass-spectrometry and RNA sequencing were used to evaluate proteome and transcriptome responses to training and acute exercise. We found that proteins with different functions are regulated differently at the transcriptional level; for example, a training-induced increase in the content of extracellular matrix-related proteins is regulated at the transcriptional level, while an increase in the content of mitochondrial proteins is not. An increase in the skeletal muscle content of several proteins (including mitochondrial proteins) was associated with increased protein stability, which is related to a chaperone-dependent mechanism and/or reduced regulation by proteolysis. These findings increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of protein expression in human skeletal muscle subjected to repeated stress (long term aerobic training) and may provide an opportunity to control the expression of specific proteins (e.g., extracellular matrix-related proteins, mitochondrial proteins) through physiological and/or pharmacological approaches.
Prediction of Alzheimer’s disease using blood gene expression data
Authors: Lee Taesic , Lee Hyunju 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIdentification of AD (Alzheimer’s disease)-related genes obtained from blood samples is crucial for early AD diagnosis. We used three public datasets, ADNI, AddNeuroMed1 (ANM1), and ANM2, for this study. Five feature selection methods and five classifiers were used to curate AD-related genes and discriminate AD patients, respectively. In the internal validation (five-fold cross-validation within each dataset), the best average values of the area under the curve (AUC) were 0.657, 0.874, and 0.804 for ADNI, ANMI, and ANM2, respectively. In the external validation (training and test sets from different datasets), the best AUCs were 0.697 (training: ADNI to testing: ANM1), 0.764 (ADNI to ANM2), 0.619 (ANM1 to ADNI), 0.79 (ANM1 to ANM2), 0.655 (ANM2 to ADNI), and 0.859 (ANM2 to ANM1), respectively. These results suggest that although the classification performance of ADNI is relatively lower than that of ANM1 and ANM2, classifiers trained using blood gene expression can be used to classify AD for other data sets. In addition, pathway analysis showed that AD-related genes were enriched with inflammation, mitochondria, and Wnt signaling pathways. Our study suggests that blood gene expression data are useful in predicting the AD classification.
Effect of iron and magnesium addition on population dynamics and high value product of microalgae grown in anaerobic liquid digestate
Authors: Ermis Hande , Guven-Gulhan Unzile , Cakir Tunahan , Altinbas Mahmut 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIn this study, FeSO4 supplementation ranging from 0 to 4.5 mM, and MgSO4 supplementation ranging from 0 to 5.1 mM were investigated to observe the effect on the population dynamics, biochemical composition and fatty acid content of mixed microalgae grown in Anaerobic Liquid Digestate (ALD). Overall, 3.1 mM FeSO4 addition into ALD increased the total protein content 60% and led to highest biomass (1.56 g L−1) and chlorophyll-a amount (18.7 mg L−1) produced. Meanwhile, 0.4 mM MgSO4 addition increased the total carotenoid amount 2.2 folds and slightly increased the biomass amount. According to the microbial community analysis, Diphylleia rotans, Synechocystis PCC-6803 and Chlorella sorokiniana were identified as mostly detected species after confirmation with 4 different markers. The abundance of Chlorella sorokiniana and Synechocystis PCC-6803 increased almost 2 folds both in iron and magnesium addition. On the other hand, the dominancy of Diphylleia rotans was not affected by iron addition while drastically decreased (95%) with magnesium addition. This study helps to understand how the dynamics of symbiotic life changes if macro elements are added to the ALD and reveal that microalgae can adapt to adverse environmental conditions by fostering the diversity with a positive effect on high value product.