bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hand preference for the visual and auditory modalities in humans
Authors: Yang Yuqian , Weiss Peter H. , Fink Gereon R. , Chen Qi 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe sensory dominance effect refers to the phenomenon that one sensory modality more frequently receives preferential processing (and eventually dominates consciousness and behavior) over and above other modalities. On the other hand, hand dominance is an innate aspect of the human motor system. To investigate how the sensory dominance effect interacts with hand dominance, we applied the adapted Colavita paradigm and recruited a large cohort of healthy right-handed participants (n = 119). While the visual dominance effect in bimodal trials was observed for the whole group (n = 119), about half of the right-handers (48%) showed a visual preference, i.e., their dominant hand effect manifested in responding to the visual stimuli. By contrast, 39% of the right-handers exhibited an auditory preference, i.e., the dominant hand effect occurred for the auditory responses. The remaining participants (13%) did not show any dominant hand preference for either visual or auditory responses. For the first time, the current behavioral data revealed that human beings possess a characteristic and persistent preferential link between different sensory modalities and the dominant vs. non-dominant hand. Whenever this preferential link between the sensory and the motor system was adopted, one dominance effect peaks upon the other dominance effect’s best performance.
The effects of lipid-lowering therapy on coronary plaque regression: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Li Yingrui , Deng Songbai , Liu Bin , Yan Yulin , Du Jianlin , Li Yu , Jing Xiaodong , Liu Yajie , Wang Jing , Du Jun , She Qiang 
Published: April 2021

AbstractTo assess the influence of lipid-lowering therapy on coronary plaque volume, and to identify the LDL and HDL targets for plaque regression to provide a comprehensive overview. The databases searched (from inception to 15 July 2020) to identify prospective studies investigating the impact of lipid-lowering therapy on coronary plaque volume and including quantitative measurement of plaque volume by intravascular ultrasound after treatment. Thirty-one studies that included 4997 patients were selected in the final analysis. Patients had significantly lower TAV (SMD: 0.123 mm3; 95% CI 0.059, 0.187; P = 0.000) and PAV (SMD: 0.123%; 95% CI 0.035, 0.212; P = 0.006) at follow-up. According to the subgroup analyses, TAV was significantly reduced in the LDL < 80 mg/dL and HDL > 45 mg/dL group (SMD: 0.163 mm3; 95% CI 0.092, 0.234; P = 0.000), and PAV was significantly reduced in the LDL < 90 mg/dL and HDL > 45 mg/dL group (SMD: 0.186%; 95% CI 0.081, 0.291; P = 0.001).Thirty-one studies that included 4997 patients were selected in the final analysis. Patients had significantly lower TAV (SMD: 0.123 mm3; 95% CI 0.059, 0.187; P = 0.000) and PAV (SMD: 0.123%; 95% CI 0.035, 0.212; P = 0.006) at follow-up. According to the subgroup analyses, TAV was significantly reduced in the LDL < 80 mg/dL and HDL > 45 mg/dL group (SMD: 0.163 mm3; 95% CI 0.092, 0.234; P = 0.000), and PAV was significantly reduced in the LDL < 90 mg/dL and HDL > 45 mg/dL group (SMD: 0.186%; 95% CI 0.081, 0.291; P = 0.001). Our meta-analysis suggests that not only should LDL be reduced to a target level of < 80 mg/dL, but HDL should be increased to a target level of > 45 mg/dL to regress coronary plaques.Trial Registration PROSPERO identifier: CRD42019146170.
Clinical application of a lung cancer organoid (tumoroid) culture system
Authors: Yokota Etsuko , Iwai Miki , Yukawa Takuro , Yoshida Masakazu , Naomoto Yoshio , Haisa Minoru , Monobe Yasumasa , Takigawa Nagio , Guo Minzhe , Maeda Yutaka , Fukazawa Takuya , Yamatsuji Tomoki 
Published: April 2021

AbstractDespite high expectations for lung tumoroids, they have not been applied in the clinic due to the difficulty of their long-term culture. Here, however, using AO (airway organoid) media developed by the Clevers laboratory, we succeeded in generating 3 lung tumoroid lines for long-term culture (>13 months) from 41 lung cancer cases (primary or metastatic). Use of nutlin-3a was key to selecting lung tumoroids that harbor mutant p53 in order to eliminate normal lung epithelial organoids. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis indicated that each lung tumoroid carried BRAFG469A, TPM3-ROS1 or EGFRL858R/RB1E737*, respectively. Targeted therapies using small molecule drugs (trametinib/erlotinib for BRAFG469A, crizotinib/entrectinib for TPM3-ROS1 and ABT-263/YM-155 for EGFRL858R/RB1E737*) significantly suppressed the growth of each lung tumoroid line. AO media was superior to 3 different media developed by other laboratories. Our experience indicates that long-term lung tumoroid culture is feasible, allowing us to identify NGS-based therapeutic targets and determine the responsiveness to corresponding small molecule drugs.
COVID-19 information retrieval with deep-learning based semantic search, question answering, and abstractive summarization
Authors: Esteva Andre , Kale Anuprit , Paulus Romain , Hashimoto Kazuma , Yin Wenpeng , Radev Dragomir , Socher Richard 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in international efforts to understand, track, and mitigate the disease, yielding a significant corpus of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2-related publications across scientific disciplines. Throughout 2020, over 400,000 coronavirus-related publications have been collected through the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset. Here, we present CO-Search, a semantic, multi-stage, search engine designed to handle complex queries over the COVID-19 literature, potentially aiding overburdened health workers in finding scientific answers and avoiding misinformation during a time of crisis. CO-Search is built from two sequential parts: a hybrid semantic-keyword retriever, which takes an input query and returns a sorted list of the 1000 most relevant documents, and a re-ranker, which further orders them by relevance. The retriever is composed of a deep learning model (Siamese-BERT) that encodes query-level meaning, along with two keyword-based models (BM25, TF-IDF) that emphasize the most important words of a query. The re-ranker assigns a relevance score to each document, computed from the outputs of (1) a question–answering module which gauges how much each document answers the query, and (2) an abstractive summarization module which determines how well a query matches a generated summary of the document. To account for the relatively limited dataset, we develop a text augmentation technique which splits the documents into pairs of paragraphs and the citations contained in them, creating millions of (citation title, paragraph) tuples for training the retriever. We evaluate our system (http://einstein.ai/covid) on the data of the TREC-COVID information retrieval challenge, obtaining strong performance across multiple key information retrieval metrics.
An engineered ligand trap inhibits leukemia inhibitory factor as pancreatic cancer treatment strategy
Authors: Hunter Sean A. , McIntosh Brianna J. , Shi Yu , Sperberg R. Andres Parra , Funatogawa Chie , Labanieh Louai , Soon Erin , Wastyk Hannah C. , Mehta Nishant , Carter Catherine , Hunter Tony , Cochran Jennifer R. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractLeukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), a cytokine secreted by stromal myofibroblasts and tumor cells, has recently been highlighted to promote tumor progression in pancreatic and other cancers through KRAS-driven cell signaling. We engineered a high affinity soluble human LIF receptor (LIFR) decoy that sequesters human LIF and inhibits its signaling as a therapeutic strategy. This engineered ‘ligand trap’, fused to an antibody Fc-domain, has ~50-fold increased affinity (~20 pM) and improved LIF inhibition compared to wild-type LIFR-Fc, potently blocks LIF-mediated effects in pancreatic cancer cells, and slows the growth of pancreatic cancer xenograft tumors. These results, and the lack of apparent toxicity observed in animal models, further highlights ligand traps as a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.
Bisphenols exert detrimental effects on neuronal signaling in mature vertebrate brains
Authors: Schirmer Elisabeth , Schuster Stefan , Machnik Peter 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBisphenols are important plasticizers currently in use and are released at rates of hundreds of tons each year into the biosphere1–3. However, for any bisphenol it is completely unknown if and how it affects the intact adult brain4–6, whose powerful homeostatic mechanisms could potentially compensate any effects bisphenols might have on isolated neurons. Here we analyzed the effects of one month of exposition to BPA or BPS on an identified neuron in the vertebrate brain, using intracellular in vivo recordings in the uniquely suited Mauthner neuron in goldfish. Our findings demonstrate an alarming and uncompensated in vivo impact of both BPA and BPS—at environmentally relevant concentrations—on essential communication functions of neurons in mature vertebrate brains and call for the rapid development of alternative plasticizers. The speed and resolution of the assay we present here could thereby be instrumental to accelerate the early testing phase of next-generation plasticizers.
Global climate and nutrient controls of photosynthetic capacity
Authors: Peng Yunke , Bloomfield Keith J. , Cernusak Lucas A. , Domingues Tomas F. , Colin Prentice I. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThere is huge uncertainty about how global exchanges of carbon between the atmosphere and land will respond to continuing environmental change. A better representation of photosynthetic capacity is required for Earth System models to simulate carbon assimilation reliably. Here we use a global leaf-trait dataset to test whether photosynthetic capacity is quantitatively predictable from climate, based on optimality principles; and to explore how this prediction is modified by soil properties, including indices of nitrogen and phosphorus availability, measured in situ. The maximum rate of carboxylation standardized to 25 °C (Vcmax25) was found to be proportional to growing-season irradiance, and to increase—as predicted—towards both colder and drier climates. Individual species’ departures from predicted Vcmax25 covaried with area-based leaf nitrogen (Narea) but community-mean Vcmax25 was unrelated to Narea, which in turn was unrelated to the soil C:N ratio. In contrast, leaves with low area-based phosphorus (Parea) had low Vcmax25 (both between and within communities), and Parea increased with total soil P. These findings do not support the assumption, adopted in some ecosystem and Earth System models, that leaf-level photosynthetic capacity depends on soil N supply. They do, however, support a previously-noted relationship between photosynthesis and soil P supply.
Staphylococcus aureus vWF-binding protein triggers a strong interaction between clumping factor A and host vWF
Authors: Viljoen Albertus , Viela Felipe , Mathelié-Guinlet Marion , Missiakas Dominique , Pietrocola Giampiero , Speziale Pietro , Dufrêne Yves F. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe Staphylococcus aureus cell wall-anchored adhesin ClfA binds to the very large blood circulating protein, von Willebrand factor (vWF) via vWF-binding protein (vWbp), a secreted protein that does not bind the cell wall covalently. Here we perform force spectroscopy studies on living bacteria to unravel the molecular mechanism of this interaction. We discover that the presence of all three binding partners leads to very high binding forces (2000 pN), largely outperforming other known ternary complexes involving adhesins. Strikingly, our experiments indicate that a direct interaction involving features of the dock, lock and latch mechanism must occur between ClfA and vWF to sustain the extreme tensile strength of the ternary complex. Our results support a previously undescribed mechanism whereby vWbp activates a direct, ultra-strong interaction between ClfA and vWF. This intriguing interaction represents a potential target for therapeutic interventions, including synthetic peptides inhibiting the ultra-strong interactions between ClfA and its ligands.
Endoplasmic reticulum acetyltransferases Atase1 and Atase2 differentially regulate reticulophagy, macroautophagy and cellular acetyl-CoA metabolism
Authors: Rigby Michael J. , Lawton Alexis J. , Kaur Gulpreet , Banduseela Varuna C. , Kamm William E. , Lakkaraju Aparna , Denu John M. , Puglielli Luigi 
Published: April 2021

AbstractNε-lysine acetylation in the ER lumen is a recently discovered quality control mechanism that ensures proteostasis within the secretory pathway. The acetyltransferase reaction is carried out by two type-II membrane proteins, ATase1/NAT8B and ATase2/NAT8. Prior studies have shown that reducing ER acetylation can induce reticulophagy, increase ER turnover, and alleviate proteotoxic states. Here, we report the generation of Atase1−/− and Atase2−/− mice and show that these two ER-based acetyltransferases play different roles in the regulation of reticulophagy and macroautophagy. Importantly, knockout of Atase1 alone results in activation of reticulophagy and rescue of the proteotoxic state associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, loss of Atase1 or Atase2 results in widespread adaptive changes in the cell acetylome and acetyl-CoA metabolism. Overall, our study supports a divergent role of Atase1 and Atase2 in cellular biology, emphasizing ATase1 as a valid translational target for diseases characterized by toxic protein aggregation in the secretory pathway.
Fluctuations and like-torque clusters at the onset of the discontinuous shear thickening transition in granular materials
Authors: Rahbari S. H. E. , Otsuki Michio , Pöschel Thorsten 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe main mechanism driving rheological transitions is usually mechanical perturbation by shear — an unjamming mechanism. Investigating discontinuous shear thickening is challenging because the shear counterintuitively acts as a jamming mechanism. Moreover, at the brink of this transition, a thickening material exhibits fluctuations that extend both spatially and temporally. Despite recent extensive research, the origins of such spatiotemporal fluctuations remain unidentified. Here, we numerically investigate the fluctuations in injected power in discontinuous shear thickening in granular materials. We show that a simple fluctuation relation governs the statistics of power fluctuations. Furthermore, we reveal the formation of like-torque clusters near thickening and identify an unexpected relation between the spatiotemporal fluctuations and the collective behavior due to the formation of like-torque clusters. We expect that our general approach should pave the way to unmasking the origin of spatiotemporal fluctuations in discontinuous shear thickening.
Tyrosine residues mediate supercontraction in biomimetic spider silk
Authors: Greco Gabriele , Arndt Tina , Schmuck Benjamin , Francis Juanita , Bäcklund Fredrik G. , Shilkova Olga , Barth Andreas , Gonska Nathalie , Seisenbaeva Gulaim , Kessler Vadim , Johansson Jan , Pugno Nicola M. , Rising Anna 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWater and humidity severely affect the material properties of spider major ampullate silk, causing the fiber to become plasticized, contract, swell and undergo torsion. Several amino acid residue types have been proposed to be involved in this process, but the complex composition of the native fiber complicates detailed investigations. Here, we observe supercontraction in biomimetically produced artificial spider silk fibers composed of defined proteins. We found experimental evidence that proline is not the sole residue responsible for supercontraction and that tyrosine residues in the amorphous regions of the silk fiber play an important role. Furthermore, we show that the response of artificial silk fibers to humidity can be tuned, which is important for the development of materials for applications in wet environments, eg producing water resistant fibers with maximal strain at break and toughness modulus.
The Toba supervolcano eruption caused severe tropical stratospheric ozone depletion
Authors: Osipov Sergey , Stenchikov Georgiy , Tsigaridis Kostas , LeGrande Allegra N. , Bauer Susanne E. , Fnais Mohammed , Lelieveld Jos 
Published: April 2021

AbstractSupervolcano eruptions have occurred throughout Earth’s history and have major environmental impacts. These impacts are mostly associated with the attenuation of visible sunlight by stratospheric sulfate aerosols, which causes cooling and deceleration of the water cycle. Supereruptions have been assumed to cause so-called volcanic winters that act as primary evolutionary factors through ecosystem disruption and famine, however, winter conditions alone may not be sufficient to cause such disruption. Here we use Earth system model simulations to show that stratospheric sulfur emissions from the Toba supereruption 74,000 years ago caused severe stratospheric ozone loss through a radiation attenuation mechanism that only moderately depends on the emission magnitude. The Toba plume strongly inhibited oxygen photolysis, suppressing ozone formation in the tropics, where exceptionally depleted ozone conditions persisted for over a year. This effect, when combined with volcanic winter in the extra-tropics, can account for the impacts of supereruptions on ecosystems and humanity.
Gram-scale selective synthesis of WO3−x nanorods and (NH4)xWO3 ammonium tungsten bronzes with tunable plasmonic properties
Authors: Dören René , Leibauer Benjamin , Lange Martin Alexander , Schechtel Eugen , Prädel Leon , Panthöfer Martin , Mondeshki Mihail , Tremel Wolfgang 
Published: April 2021

WO3-x and (NH4)xWO3 are prepared from ammonium metatungstate. Oleyl oleamide, formed from oleic acid and oleylamine at T > 250 °C, favors the formation of WO3-x nanorods, fast heating rates and high precursor concentrations the formation of (NH4)xWO3.
Neuroanatomical Correlates of Macrolinguistic Aspects in Narrative Discourse in Unilateral Left and Right Hemisphere Stroke: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study
Authors: Schneider Fernanda , Marcotte Karine , Brisebois Amelie , Townsend Sabrine Amaral Martins , Smidarle Anderson Dick , Loureiro Fernanda , da Rosa Franco Alexandre , Soder Ricardo Bernardi , Nikolaev Alexandre , Marrone Luiz Carlos Porcello , Hübner Lilian Cristine 
Published: April 2021

BackgroundA growing body of literature has demonstrated the importance of discourse assessment in patients who suffered from brain injury, both in the left and right hemispheres, as discourse represents a key component of functional communication. However, little is known about the relationship between gray matter density and macrolinguistic processing.PurposeThis study aimed to investigate this relationship in a group of participants with middle–low to low socioeconomic status.MethodTwenty adults with unilateral left hemisphere (n= 10) or right hemisphere (n= 10) chronic ischemic stroke and 10 matched (age, education, and socioeconomic status) healthy controls produced three oral narratives based on sequential scenes. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was conducted using structural magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsCompared to healthy controls, the left hemisphere group showed cohesion impairments, whereas the right hemisphere group showed impairments in coherence and in producing macropropositions. Cohesion positively correlated with gray matter density in the right primary sensory area (PSA)/precentral gyrus and the pars opercularis. Coherence, narrativity, and index of lexical informativeness were positively associated with the left PSA/insula and the superior temporal gyrus. Macropropositions were mostly related to the left PSA/insula and superior temporal gyrus, left cingulate, and right primary motor area/insula.DiscussionOverall, the present results suggest that both hemispheres are implicated in macrolinguistic processes in narrative discourse. Further studies including larger samples and with various socioeconomic status should be conducted.Supplemental Materialhttps://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14347550
The number of biopsy specimens can influence the non-lifting sign in colorectal laterally spreading tumors
Authors: Liu Yang , Wei Ning , Shi Rui Hua 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background Although the problem of whether to perform a biopsy before endoscopic treatment for colorectal laterally spreading tumor (LST) troubles clinicians, about 50 % of lesions still undergo a preceding biopsy. We aimed to explore factors affecting the non-lifting sign in LST and examine the influence of “biopsy-related factors”, such as the number of biopsy specimens and the interval after biopsy on non-lifting sign in cases with a history of biopsy.
Methods Clinical data of 159 LSTs regarding age, gender, history of biopsy, tumor location, tumor size, the depth of submucosal invasion, tumor configuration, histologic type, location with respect to the fold, and result of non-lifting sign testing were investigated retrospectively. For patients with a history of biopsy, the period after biopsy and the number of biopsy specimens also were analyzed.
Results Among 159 cases of LST, 112 were positive and 47 were negative for lifting signs. Biopsy history (p = 0.008), tumor size (p = 0.010), and location with respect to the fold (p = 0.022) were identified as factors affecting the non-lifting sign in multivariate analyses. In 75 LST cases with a history of biopsy, only the number of biopsies (p = 0.003) was identified as a factor affecting the non-lifting sign in multivariate analyses.
Conclusions For LST, lesions with larger size, being across the fold, and biopsy history were predictive factors for non-lifting signs. Reducing the number of biopsies would reduce the occurrence of non-lifting signs when biopsy is necessary. The impact of the interval after the biopsy on the non-lifting sign will require further study.
Postinfectious T-lymphocytic enteral leiomyositis as a rare cause of chronic intestinal pseudoobstruction
Authors: Sarfo Bismark Osei , Kopdag Hakan , Pott Marian-Christopher , Stiedenroth Lars , Nahrstedt Ulf , Schäfer Hansjörg , von Wichert Götz 
Published: April 2021

AbstractT-lymphocytic enteral leiomyositis (T-lel) is a rare disorder causing chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIPO), with cases predominantly being reported in the field of veterinary and pediatric medicine. Here, we present a case of T-lel-associated CIPO in an adult female, who initially presented with a paralytic ileus 2 weeks after a common gastroenteritis. The histological diagnosis was established through full-thickness bowel biopsy, exhibiting a dense lymphocytic infiltrate in the lamina muscularis of the intestinal wall. This case shows that T-lel can be a cause of chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction not only in children but also in adults. A subsequent induction of an immunosuppressive therapy with steroids, azathioprine, and ultimately TNF-alpha-inhibiting antibodies led to a slow recovery and stable disease.