bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of straw reinforcement on the shearing and creep behaviours of Quaternary loess
Authors: Xue Zhong-Fei , Cheng Wen-Chieh , Wang Lin 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn addition to the shearing behavior of soil, the creep character is also considered crucial in determining the long-term shear strength. This especially holds true for the loess that possesses the metastable microstructure and is prone to landslide hazards. This study explored the potential application of straw reinforcement to enhance the shearing and creep properties of the Quaternary loess. The mechanism responsible for the straw reinforcement to elevate the peak shear strength was revealed. Furthermore, three creep characters, namely attenuating creep, non-attenuating creep, and viscous flow were identified in this study. The unreinforced and reinforced specimen behaved in a different manner under identical shear stress ratio condition. The reinforced specimen was superior in limiting the particle relative movement within the shear plane than the unreinforced specimen. The chain reaction of interparticle contact loss, accompanied with excessive viscous displacement, rapid weakening of creep resistance, and eventually accelerated creep displacement, provided an evidence for the formation mechanism of slow-moving landslide. The long-term shear strength using the isochronal stress–strain relationship may be used for optimising the design of high-fill embankment works.
Comparing the gut microbiome along the gastrointestinal tract of three sympatric species of wild rodents
Authors: Anders Jason L. , Moustafa Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed , Mohamed Wessam Mohamed Ahmed , Hayakawa Takashi , Nakao Ryo , Koizumi Itsuro 
Published: October 2021

AbstractHost–microbe interactions within the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) play a pivotal role in shaping host physiology, ecology, and life history. However, these interactions vary across gut regions due to changes in the physical environment or host immune system activity, thereby altering the microbial community. Each animal species may harbor their own unique microbial community due to host species-specific ecological traits such as dietary habits, micro-habitat preferences, and mating behavior as well as physiological traits. While the gut microbiota in wild animals has received much attention over the last decade, most studies comparing closely related species only utilized fecal or colon samples. In this study, we first compared the gut microbial community from the small intestine, cecum, colon, and rectum within three sympatric species of wild rodents (i.e. Apodemus speciosus, A. argenteus, and Myodes rufocanus). We then compared each gut region among host species to determine the effect of both gut region and host species on the gut microbiota. We found that the small intestine harbored a unique microbiome as compared to the lower GIT in all three host species, with the genus Lactobacillus in particular having higher abundance in the small intestine of all three host species. There were clear interspecific differences in the microbiome within all gut regions, although some similarity in alpha diversity and community structure within the small intestine was found. Finally, fecal samples may be appropriate for studying the lower GIT in these species, but not the small intestine.
Applying PICRUSt and 16S rRNA functional characterisation to predicting co-digestion strategies of various animal manures for biogas production
Authors: Ijoma Grace N. , Nkuna Rosina , Mutungwazi Asheal , Rashama Charles , Matambo Tonderayi S. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractAn estimated 25 million tons of animal manure is produced globally every year, causing considerable impact to the environment. These impacts can be managed through the use of anaerobic digestion (AD) This process achieves waste degradation through enzymatic activity, the efficiency of the AD process is directly related to microorganisms that produce these enzymes. Biomethane potential (BMP) assays remain the standard theoretical framework to pre-determine biogas yield and have been used to determine the feasibility of substrates or their combination for biogas production. However, an integrated approach that combines substrate choice and co-digestion would provide an improvement to the current predictive models. PICRUSt (Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States) addresses the limitations of assays in this regard. In this paper, the biochemical functions of horse, cow, and pig manures are predicted. A total of 135 predicted KEGG Orthologies (KOs) showed amino acids, carbohydrate, energy, lipid, and xenobiotic metabolisms in all the samples. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) combined with the effect size measurements (LEfSe), showed that fructose, mannose, amino acid and nucleotide sugar, phosphotransferase (PST) as well as starch and sucrose metabolisms were significantly higher in horse manure samples. 36 of the KOs were related to the acidogenesis and/or acetogenesis AD stages. Extended bar plots showed that 11 significant predictions were observed for horse-cow, while 5 were predicted for horse-pig and for cow-pig manures. Based on these predictions, the AD process can be enhanced through co-digestion strategies that takes into account the predicted metabolic contributions of the manure samples. The results supported the BMP calculations for the samples in this study. Biogas yields can be improved if this combined approach is employed in routine analysis before co-digesting different substrates.
Analysis and design of diode physical limit bandwidth efficient rectification circuit for maximum flat efficiency, wide impedance, and efficiency bandwidths
Authors: Gyawali Babita , Thapa Samundra K. , Barakat Adel , Yoshitomi Kuniaki , Pokharel Ramesh K. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractGenerally, a conventional voltage doubler circuit possesses a large variation of its input impedance over the bandwidth, which results in limited bandwidth and low RF-dc conversion efficiency. A basic aspect for designing wideband voltage doubler rectifiers is the use of complex matching circuits to achieve decade and octave impedance and RF-dc conversion efficiency bandwidths. Still, the reported techniques till now have been accompanied by a large fluctuation of the RF-dc conversion efficiency over the operating bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel rectification circuit with minimal inter-stage matching that consists of a single short-circuit stub and a virtual battery, which contributes negligible losses and overcomes these existing problems. Consequently, the proposed rectifier circuit achieves a diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification. In other words, the rectification bandwidth, as well as the peak efficiency, are controlled by the length of the stub and the physical limitation of the diodes.
NL-VTON: a non-local virtual try-on network with feature preserving of body and clothes
Authors: Tan Ze Lin , Bai Jing , Zhang Shao Min , Qin Fei Wei 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn an image based virtual try-on network, both features of the target clothes and the input human body should be preserved. However, current techniques failed to solve the problems of blurriness on complex clothes details and artifacts on human body occlusion regions at the same time. To tackle this issue, we propose a non-local virtual try-on network NL-VTON. Considering that convolution is a local operation and limited by its convolution kernel size and rectangular receptive field, which is unsuitable for large size non-rigid transformations of persons and clothes in virtual try-on, we introduce a non-local feature attention module and a grid regularization loss so as to capture detailed features of complex clothes, and design a human body segmentation prediction network to further alleviate the artifacts on occlusion regions. The quantitative and qualitative experiments based on the Zalando dataset demonstrate that our proposed method significantly improves the ability to preserve features of bodies and clothes compared with the state-of-the-art methods.
Decrease in volume and density of foraminiferal shells with progressing ocean acidification
Authors: Kuroyanagi Azumi , Irie Takahiro , Kinoshita Shunichi , Kawahata Hodaka , Suzuki Atsushi , Nishi Hiroshi , Sasaki Osamu , Takashima Reishi , Fujita Kazuhiko 
Published: October 2021

AbstractRapid increases in anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 partial pressure have led to a decrease in the pH of seawater. Calcifying organisms generally respond negatively to ocean acidification. Foraminifera are one of the major carbonate producers in the ocean; however, whether calcification reduction by ocean acidification affects either foraminiferal shell volume or density, or both, has yet to be investigated. In this study, we cultured asexually reproducing specimens of Amphisorus kudakajimensis, a dinoflagellate endosymbiont-bearing large benthic foraminifera (LBF), under different pH conditions (pH 7.7–8.3, NBS scale). The results suggest that changes in seawater pH would affect not only the quantity (i.e., shell volume) but also the quality (i.e., shell density) of foraminiferal calcification. We proposed that pH and temperature affect these growth parameters differently because (1) they have differences in the contribution to the calcification process (e.g., Ca2+-ATPase and Ω) and (2) pH mainly affects calcification and temperature mainly affects photosynthesis. Our findings also suggest that, under the IPCC RCP8.5 scenario, both ocean acidification and warming will have a significant impact on reef foraminiferal carbonate production by the end of this century, even in the tropics.
Feasibility study and direct extraction of endogenous free metallic cations combining hemodialysis and chelating polymer
Authors: Natuzzi Marco , Grange Coralie , Gréa Thomas , Brichart Thomas , Aigle Axel , Bechet Denise , Hautefeuille Benoit , Thomas Eloise , Ayoub Jean-Yves , Bonnet Jeanne-Marie , Louzier Vanessa , Allaouchiche Bernard , Couturier Aymeric , Montembault Alexandra , de Oliveira Paula Nunes , David Laurent , Lux François , Tillement Olivier 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn this article, we report the conception and the use of dialysis-based medical device for the extraction of metals. The medical device is obtained by addition in the dialysate of a functionalized chitosan that can chelate endogenous metals like iron or copper. This water-soluble functionalized chitosan is obtained after controlled reacetylation and grafting of DOTAGA. Due to the high mass of chitosan, the polymer cannot cross through the membrane and the metals are trapped in the dialysate during hemodialysis. Copper extraction has been evaluated in vitro using an hemodialysis protocol. Feasibility study has been performed on healthy sheep showing no acute toxicity througout the entire dialysis procedure and first insights of metallic extraction even on healthy animals.
Deterring non-target birds from toxic bait sites for wild pigs
Authors: Snow Nathan P. , Halseth Joseph M. , Foster Justin A. , Lavelle Michael J. , Fischer Justin W. , Glow Michael P. , Messer Ingrid A. , Cook Seth M. , VerCauteren Kurt C. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractToxic baiting of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is a potential new tool for population control and damage reduction in the US. Field trials testing a prototype toxic bait (HOGGONE 2 containing 5% sodium nitrite [SN]), though, revealed that wild pigs spilled small particles of toxic bait outside of bait stations which subsequently created hazards for non-target species that consumed those particles, primarily passerine birds. To deter non-target birds from consuming particles of spilled bait, we tested four deterrents at mock bait sites (i.e., baited with bird seed) in north-central Colorado, USA during April–May 2020. We found a programable, inflatable deterrent device (scare dancer) reduced bird visitation by an average of 96%. Then, we evaluated the deterrent devices at SN-toxic bait sites in north-central Texas, USA during July 2020, where the devices were activated the morning following deployment of SN-toxic bait. Overall, we found 139 dead wild pigs at 10 bait sites following one night of toxic baiting, which represented an average of 91% reduction in wild pigs visiting bait sites. We found that deterrent devices were 100% effective at deterring birds from toxic bait sites. We found two dead non-target mice at bait sites without deterrent devices. We noted that deploying toxic bait in mid-summer rather than late-winter/early-spring reduced hazards to migrating birds because they were not present in our study area during July. We recommend using deterrent devices (i.e., novel, programmable, battery operated, continuous and erratic movement, and snapping sounds) to reduce hazards to non-target birds at SN-toxic bait sites. We further recommend deploying SN-toxic bait during seasons when migrating birds are not as abundant until further research demonstrates minimal risks to migrating birds.
Biological data annotation via a human-augmenting AI-based labeling system
Authors: van der Wal Douwe , Jhun Iny , Laklouk Israa , Nirschl Jeff , Richer Lara , Rojansky Rebecca , Theparee Talent , Wheeler Joshua , Sander Jörg , Feng Felix , Mohamad Osama , Savarese Silvio , Socher Richard , Esteva Andre 
Published: October 2021

AbstractBiology has become a prime area for the deployment of deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI), enabled largely by the massive data sets that the field can generate. Key to most AI tasks is the availability of a sufficiently large, labeled data set with which to train AI models. In the context of microscopy, it is easy to generate image data sets containing millions of cells and structures. However, it is challenging to obtain large-scale high-quality annotations for AI models. Here, we present HALS (Human-Augmenting Labeling System), a human-in-the-loop data labeling AI, which begins uninitialized and learns annotations from a human, in real-time. Using a multi-part AI composed of three deep learning models, HALS learns from just a few examples and immediately decreases the workload of the annotator, while increasing the quality of their annotations. Using a highly repetitive use-case—annotating cell types—and running experiments with seven pathologists—experts at the microscopic analysis of biological specimens—we demonstrate a manual work reduction of 90.60%, and an average data-quality boost of 4.34%, measured across four use-cases and two tissue stain types.
Monitoring of compound resting membrane potentials of cell cultures with ratiometric genetically encoded voltage indicators
Authors: Rühl Philipp , Langner Johanna M. , Reidel Jasmin , Schönherr Roland , Hoshi Toshinori , Heinemann Stefan H. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractThe cellular resting membrane potential (Vm) not only determines electrical responsiveness of excitable cells but also plays pivotal roles in non-excitable cells, mediating membrane transport, cell-cycle progression, and tumorigenesis. Studying these processes requires estimation of Vm, ideally over long periods of time. Here, we introduce two ratiometric genetically encoded Vm indicators, rArc and rASAP, and imaging and analysis procedures for measuring differences in average resting Vm between cell groups. We investigated the influence of ectopic expression of K+ channels and their disease-causing mutations involved in Andersen-Tawil (Kir2.1) and Temple-Baraitser (KV10.1) syndrome on median resting Vm of HEK293T cells. Real-time long-term monitoring of Vm changes allowed to estimate a 40–50 min latency from induction of transcription to functional Kir2.1 channels in HEK293T cells. The presented methodology is readily implemented with standard fluorescence microscopes and offers deeper insights into the role of the resting Vm in health and disease.
A chromosome-level genome sequence of Chrysanthemum seticuspe, a model species for hexaploid cultivated chrysanthemum
Authors: Nakano Michiharu , Hirakawa Hideki , Fukai Eigo , Toyoda Atsushi , Kajitani Rei , Minakuchi Yohei , Itoh Takehiko , Higuchi Yohei , Kozuka Toshiaki , Bono Hidemasa , Shirasawa Kenta , Shiraiwa Ippei , Sumitomo Katsuhiko , Hisamatsu Tamotsu , Shibata Michio , Isobe Sachiko , Taniguchi Kenji , Kusaba Makoto 
Published: October 2021

AbstractChrysanthemums are one of the most industrially important cut flowers worldwide. However, their segmental allopolyploidy and self-incompatibility have prevented the application of genetic analysis and modern breeding strategies. We thus developed a model strain, Gojo-0 (Chrysanthemum seticuspe), which is a diploid and self-compatible pure line. Here, we present the 3.05 Gb chromosome-level reference genome sequence, which covered 97% of the C. seticuspe genome. The genome contained more than 80% interspersed repeats, of which retrotransposons accounted for 72%. We identified recent segmental duplication and retrotransposon expansion in C. seticuspe, contributing to arelatively large genome size. Furthermore, we identified a retrotransposon family, SbdRT, which was enriched in gene-dense genome regions and had experienced a very recent transposition burst. We also demonstrated that the chromosome-level genome sequence facilitates positional cloning in C. seticuspe. The genome sequence obtained here can greatly contribute as a reference for chrysanthemum in front-line breeding including genome editing.
Plant-like hooked miniature machines for on-leaf sensing and delivery
Authors: Fiorello Isabella , Meder Fabian , Mondini Alessio , Sinibaldi Edoardo , Filippeschi Carlo , Tricinci Omar , Mazzolai Barbara 
Published: October 2021

AbstractNew sustainable strategies for preserving plants are crucial for tackling environmental challenges. Bioinspired soft and miniature machines have the potential to operate in forests and agricultural fields by adapting their morphology to plant organs like leaves. However, applications on leaf surfaces are limited due to the fragility and heterogeneity of leaves, and harsh outdoor conditions. Here, we exploit the strong shear-dependent leaf-attachment of the hook-climberGalium aparineto create miniature systems that enable precision anchoring to leaf tissues via multifunctional microhooks. We first study the anchoring forces of the microhooks and then fabricate a soft wireless multiparameter sensor to monitor the leaf proximity and degradable hooks forin-plantmolecular delivery to the vascular tissues of the leaves. In addition, we use a soft robotic proof-of-concept demonstrator to highlight how our hooks enable ratchet-like motion on leaves. This research showcases opportunities for specifically designing multifunctional machines for targeted applications in plant ecosystems.
ENSO diversity shows robust decadal variations that must be captured for accurate future projections
Authors: Dieppois Bastien , Capotondi Antonietta , Pohl Benjamin , Chun Kwok Pan , Monerie Paul-Arthur , Eden Jonathan 
Published: October 2021

AbstractEl Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) shows a large diversity of events that is modulated by climate variability and change. The representation of this diversity in climate models limits our ability to predict their impact on ecosystems and human livelihood. Here, we use multiple observational datasets to provide a probabilistic description of historical variations in event location and intensity, and to benchmark models, before examining future system trajectories. We find robust decadal variations in event intensities and locations in century-long observational datasets, which are associated with perturbations in equatorial wind-stress and thermocline depth, as well as extra-tropical anomalies in the North and South Pacific. Some climate models are capable of simulating such decadal variability in ENSO diversity, and the associated large-scale patterns. Projections of ENSO diversity in future climate change scenarios strongly depend on the magnitude of decadal variations, and the ability of climate models to reproduce them realistically over the 21stcentury.
Phytoplankton biodiversity and the inverted paradox
Authors: Behrenfeld Michael J , O’Malley Robert , Boss Emmanuel , Karp-Boss Lee , Mundt Christopher 
Published: October 2021

Abstract
Earth’s aquatic food webs are overwhelmingly supported by planktonic microalgae that live in the sunlit water column where only a minimum number of physical niches are readily identifiable. Despite this paucity of environmental differentiation, these “phytoplankton” populations exhibit a rich biodiversity, an observation not easily reconciled with broadly accepted rules of resource-based competitive exclusion. This conundrum is referred to as the “Paradox of the Plankton”. Consideration of physical distancing between nutrient depletion zones around individual phytoplankton, however, suggests a competition-neutral resource landscape. Application of neutral theory to the sheer number of phytoplankton in physically-mixed water masses yields a prediction of astronomical biodiversity, suggesting the inverted paradox: Why are there so few phytoplankton species? Here, we introduce a trophic constraint on phytoplankton that, when combined with stochastic principals of ecological drift, predicts only modest levels of diversity in an otherwise competition-neutral landscape. Our “trophic exclusion” principle predicts diversity to be independent of population size and yields a species richness across cell-size classes that is consistent with broad oceanographic survey observations.
Complex multitask compressive sensing using Laplace priors
Authors: Zhang Qilei , Dong Zhen , Zhang Yongsheng 
Published: October 2021

AbstractMost existing Bayesian compressive sensing (BCS) algorithms are developed in real numbers. This results in many difficulties in applying BCS to solve complex‐valued problems. To overcome this limitation, this letter extends the existing real‐valued BCS framework to the complex‐valued BCS framework. Within this framework, the multitask learning setting, where L tasks are statistically interrelated and share the same prior, is considered. It is verified by numerical examples that the developed complex multitask compressive sensing (CMCS) algorithm is more accurate and effective than the existing algorithms for the complex sparse signal reconstructions
Charge vibration behaviour in polyimide under the pulse voltage with different rise and fall times
Authors: Zhang Tao , He Dongxin , Wei Junyu , Liu Hongshun , Li Qingquan , Teyssedre Gilbert 
Published: October 2021

AbstractHigh‐voltage electronic equipment is widely used in power systems, which normally operate under the pulse voltage condition. However, compared to DC or AC stress, the electrical insulation suffers a more severe ageing process under a pulse voltage with steep edges and so may cause electrical equipments to fail early. The charge behaviour in polyimide under the pulse voltage with different edge times was investigated in this study. The experimental results show that charges vibrate at the pulse edge, while the amplitude of charge vibration increases with decreasing edge times. Furthermore, the detected vibration signal is strong within the nanosecond edge times, while being negligible in the microsecond range. Notably, the amplitude of charge vibration at the falling edge is larger than that at the rising edge in the presence of the column‐plate electrode. It is believed that the resultant force acting on the charge increases drastically at the pulse edges, leading to the charge movement and the generation of ultrasonic waves, with the resultant force becoming larger when the edge times decrease. Charge vibration behaviour is harmful to the microstructure of insulation materials, and so it may be concluded that the rise and fall times of the pulse voltage play an important role in insulation failure.