bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Enhancement of photocatalytic activity using ternary Au@Pt-TiO2/nano-GO heterojunction for environmental remediation and clean energy production
Authors: Ben Saber Nesrine , Mezni Amine , Alrooqi Arwa , Altalhi Tariq 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
In the present study, an attempt has been made to design ternary multifunctional nanocomposite photocatalyst based on Au@Pt-TiO2 core–shell nanoparticles anchored onto nano-graphene oxide (nano-GO) through facile one-pot solvothermal process. Evaluation of UV and visible light photocatalytic activities against MB dye and diuron pesticide decomposition, demonstrated a remarkable enhancement in photocatalytic performances, which indicates their potential as powerful photocatalyst. The enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of the designed ternary Au@Pt-TiO2/nano-GO could be attributed to the heterojunction structure and to the enhanced charge separation and light absorption of nano-GO and Au, Pt NPs. Before application, the ternary Au@Pt-TiO2/nano-GO photocatalyst was fully characterised (structural, morphology and composition) using powerful instruments including x-ray diffraction powder (XRD), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The optical response was investigated using UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The ternary Au@Pt-TiO2/nano-GO photocatalyst exhibits high crystallinity and high purity with uniform behaviour on size and shape. The hybrid Au@Pt-TiO2 nanoparticles were found to be well dispersed on nano-GO surface, which make this heterojunction very efficient for photocatalytic applications.
Improving deconvolution methods in biology through open innovation competitions: an application to the connectivity map
Authors: Blasco Andrea , Natoli Ted , Endres Michael G , Sergeev Rinat A , Randazzo Steven , Paik Jin H , Macaluso N J Maximilian , Narayan Rajiv , Lu Xiaodong , Peck David , Lakhani Karim R , Subramanian Aravind 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Motivation
Do machine learning methods improve standard deconvolution techniques for gene expression data? This article uses a unique new dataset combined with an open innovation competition to evaluate a wide range of approaches developed by 294 competitors from 20 countries. The competition’s objective was to address a deconvolution problem critical to analyzing genetic perturbations from the Connectivity Map. The issue consists of separating gene expression of individual genes from raw measurements obtained from gene pairs. We evaluated the outcomes using ground-truth data (direct measurements for single genes) obtained from the same samples.

Results
We find that the top-ranked algorithm, based on random forest regression, beat the other methods in accuracy and reproducibility; more traditional gaussian-mixture methods performed well and tended to be faster, and the best deep learning approach yielded outcomes slightly inferior to the above methods. We anticipate researchers in the field will find the dataset and algorithms developed in this study to be a powerful research tool for benchmarking their deconvolution methods and a resource useful for multiple applications.

Availability and implementation
The data is freely available at clue.io/data (section Contests) and the software is on GitHub at https://github.com/cmap/gene_deconvolution_challenge

Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Inflammation and reproductive function in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
Authors: Velez Leandro M , Seldin Marcus , Motta Alicia B 
Published: March 2021

AbstractPolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most frequent endocrinopathies, affecting 5–10% of women of reproductive age, and is characterized by the presence of ovarian cysts, oligo, or anovulation, and clinical or biochemical hyperandrogenism. Metabolic abnormalities such as hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, cardiovascular complications, dyslipidemia, and obesity are frequently present in PCOS women. Several key pathogenic pathways overlap between these metabolic abnormalities, notably chronic inflammation. The observation that this mechanism was shared led to the hypothesis that a chronic inflammatory state could contribute to the pathogenesis of PCOS. Moreover, while physiological inflammation is an essential feature of reproductive events such as ovulation, menstruation, implantation, and labor at term, the establishment of chronic inflammation may be a pivotal feature of the observed reproductive dysfunctions in PCOS women. Taken together, the present work aims to review the available evidence about inflammatory mediators and related mechanisms in women with PCOS, with an emphasis on reproductive function.
Novel approaches to mechanism-based atrial fibrillation ablation
Authors: Quintanilla Jorge G , Shpun Shlomo , Jalife José , Filgueiras-Rama David 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Modern cardiac electrophysiology has reported significant advances in the understanding of mechanisms underlying complex wave propagation patterns during atrial fibrillation (AF), although disagreements remain. One school of thought adheres to the long-held postulate that AF is the result of randomly propagating wavelets that wonder throughout the atria. Another school supports the notion that AF is deterministic in that it depends on a small number of high-frequency rotors generating three-dimensional scroll waves that propagate throughout the atria. The spiralling waves are thought to interact with anatomic and functional obstacles, leading to fragmentation and new wavelet formation associated with the irregular activation patterns documented on AF tracings. The deterministic hypothesis is consistent with demonstrable hierarchical gradients of activation frequency and AF termination on ablation at specific (non-random) atrial regions. During the last decade, data from realistic animal models and pilot clinical series have triggered a new era of novel methodologies to identify and ablate AF drivers outside the pulmonary veins. New generation electroanatomical mapping systems and multielectrode mapping catheters, complimented by powerful mathematical analyses, have generated the necessary platforms and tools for moving these approaches into clinical procedures. Recent clinical data using such platforms have provided encouraging evidence supporting the feasibility of targeting and effectively ablating driver regions in addition to pulmonary vein isolation in persistent AF. Here, we review state-of-the-art technologies and provide a comprehensive historical perspective, characterization, classification, and expected outcomes of current mechanism-based methods for AF ablation. We discuss also the challenges and expected future directions that scientists and clinicians will face in their efforts to understand AF dynamics and successfully implement any novel method into regular clinical practice.
Myocardin-related transcription factor A regulates integrin beta 2 transcription to promote macrophage infiltration and cardiac hypertrophy in mice
Authors: Liu Li , Zhao Qianwen , Kong Ming , Mao Lei , Yang Yuyu , Xu Yong 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Aims
Macrophage-mediated inflammatory response represents a key pathophysiological process in a host of cardiovascular diseases including heart failure. Regardless of aetiology, heart failure is invariably preceded by cardiac hypertrophy. In the present study, we investigated the effect of macrophage-specific deletion of myocardin-related transcription factor A (MRTF-A) on cardiac hypertrophy and the underlying mechanism.

Methods and results
We report that when subjected to transverse aortic constriction (TAC), macrophage MRTF-A conditional knockout (CKO) mice developed a less severe phenotype of cardiac hypertrophy compared to wild-type (WT) littermates and were partially protected from the loss of heart function. In addition, there was less extensive cardiac fibrosis in the CKO mice than WT mice following the TAC procedure. Further analysis revealed that cardiac inflammation, as assessed by levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, was dampened in CKO mice paralleling reduced infiltration of macrophages in the heart. Mechanistically, MRTF-A deficiency attenuated the expression of integrin beta 2 (ITGB2/CD18) in macrophage thereby disrupting adhesion of macrophages to vascular endothelial cells. MRTF-A was recruited by Sp1 to the ITGB2 promoter and cooperated with Sp1 to activate ITGB2 transcription in macrophages. Administration of a CD18 blocking antibody attenuated TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy in mice. Interaction between MRTF-A and the histone demethylase KDM3A likely contributed to IGTB2 transcription and consequently adhesion of macrophages to endothelial cells.

Conclusions
Our data suggest that MRTF-A may regulate macrophage trafficking and contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy by activating ITGB2 transcription.
Free fatty acid receptor 4 responds to endogenous fatty acids to protect the heart from pressure overload
Authors: Murphy Katherine A , Harsch Brian A , Healy Chastity L , Joshi Sonal S , Huang Shue , Walker Rachel E , Wagner Brandon M , Ernste Katherine M , Huang Wei , Block Robert C , Wright Casey D , Tintle Nathan , Jensen Brian C , Wells Quinn S , Shearer Gregory C , O’Connell Timothy D 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Aims
Free fatty acid receptor 4 (Ffar4) is a G-protein-coupled receptor for endogenous medium-/long-chain fatty acids that attenuates metabolic disease and inflammation. However, the function of Ffar4 in the heart is unclear. Given its putative beneficial role, we hypothesized that Ffar4 would protect the heart from pathologic stress.

Methods and results
In mice lacking Ffar4 (Ffar4KO), we found that Ffar4 is required for an adaptive response to pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC), identifying a novel cardioprotective function for Ffar4. Following TAC, remodelling was worsened in Ffar4KO hearts, with greater hypertrophy and contractile dysfunction. Transcriptome analysis 3-day post-TAC identified transcriptional deficits in genes associated with cytoplasmic phospholipase A2α signalling and oxylipin synthesis and the reduction of oxidative stress in Ffar4KO myocytes. In cultured adult cardiac myocytes, Ffar4 induced the production of the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)-derived, pro-resolving oxylipin 18-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid (18-HEPE). Furthermore, the activation of Ffar4 attenuated cardiac myocyte death from oxidative stress, while 18-HEPE rescued Ffar4KO myocytes. Systemically, Ffar4 maintained pro-resolving oxylipins and attenuated autoxidation basally, and increased pro-inflammatory and pro-resolving oxylipins, including 18-HEPE, in high-density lipoproteins post-TAC. In humans, Ffar4 expression decreased in heart failure, while the signalling-deficient Ffar4 R270H polymorphism correlated with eccentric remodelling in a large clinical cohort paralleling changes observed in Ffar4KO mice post-TAC.

Conclusion
Our data indicate that Ffar4 in cardiac myocytes responds to endogenous fatty acids, reducing oxidative injury, and protecting the heart from pathologic stress, with significant translational implications for targeting Ffar4 in cardiovascular disease.
Advanced heart sound analysis as a new prognostic marker in stable coronary artery disease
Authors: Winther Simon , Nissen Louise , Schmidt Samuel Emil , Westra Jelmer , Andersen Ina Trolle , Nyegaard Mette , Madsen Lene Helleskov , Knudsen Lars Lyhne , Urbonaviciene Grazina , Larsen Bjarke Skogstad , Struijk Johannes Jan , Frost Lars , Holm Niels Ramsing , Christiansen Evald Høj , Bøtker Hans Erik , Bøttcher Morten 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Aims
Recent technological advances enable diagnosing of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) from heart sound analysis with a high negative predictive value. However, the prognostic impact of this approach remains unknown. To investigate the prognostic value of heart sound analysis as two scores, the Acoustic-score and the CAD-score, in patients with suspected CAD which is treated according to standard of care.

Methods and results
Consecutive patients with angina symptoms referred for coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) were enrolled. The Acoustic-score was developed from eight acoustic CAD-related features. This score was combined with risk factors to generate the CAD-score. A cut-off score &gt;20 was pre-specified for both scores to indicate disease. If coronary CTA raised suspicion of obstructive CAD, patients were referred to invasive angiography and revascularized when indicated. Of 1675 enrolled patients, 1464 (87.4%) were included in this substudy. The combined primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and myocardial infarction (n = 26). Follow-up was 3.1 (2.7–3.4) years. Of patients with primary endpoints, the Acoustic-score was &gt;20 in 25 (96%); the CAD-score was &gt;20 in 22 (85%). In an unadjusted Cox analysis of the primary endpoints, the hazard ratio for scores &gt;20 under current standard clinical care was 12.6 (1.7–93.2) for the Acoustic-score and 5.4 (1.9–15.7) for the CAD-score. The CAD-score contained prognostic information even after adjusting for lipid-lowering therapy initiation, stenosis at CTA, and early revascularization.

Conclusion
Heart sound analysis seems to carry prognostic information and may improve initial risk stratification of patients with suspected CAD.

Clinicaltrials.org ID
NCT02264717.
Area-level indicators of income and total mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Colombo Fabio Riccardo , Alicandro Gianfranco , La Vecchia Carlo 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundThere is mounting evidence that socioeconomic inequalities in mortality have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed at evaluating the relationship between area-level indicators of income and total mortality during the first phase of COVID-19 pandemic in the most hit Italian region.MethodsWe conducted an ecological study based on the number of deaths registered in the municipalities of the Lombardy region (Italy) between January 2019 and June 2020. Municipalities were grouped according to quintiles of average income and pension of their resident population. Monthly age-standardized mortality ratios (MRs) between the poorest and the richest municipalities and the corresponding 95% CI were computed to evaluate whether the pre-existing socioeconomic inequalities widened during the pandemic.ResultsOver the study period, 175 853 deaths were registered. During the pre-pandemic period (January 2019 to February 2020) the MR between the poorest and the richest municipalities ranged between 1.12 (95% CI: 1.00–1.25) and 1.33 (95% CI: 1.20–1.47). In March 2020, when the pandemic began to rapidly spread in the region, it raised up to 1.61 (95% CI: 1.51–1.72) and decreased thereafter, reaching the pre-pandemic values in April 2020. Similar results were observed in the analysis of the mortality at ages 65 and over in municipalities grouped according to average pension, where the MR increased up to 1.82 (95% CI: 1.70–1.94) in March 2020.ConclusionsThe socioeconomic inequalities in mortality widened in Lombardy, the Italian region most severely hit during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Factors influencing the biodiversity of three microbial groups within and among islands of the Baltic Sea
Authors: Teittinen Anette , Virta Leena , Li Mingjia , Wang Jianjun 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
Islands provide ideal model systems to examine the factors influencing biodiversity, yet knowledge of microbial biodiversity on islands remains scarce. We collected a dataset from 101 rock pools along a freshwater to brackish water transition on islands of the Baltic Sea and investigated the patterns and drivers of community composition and species richness of diatoms, cyanobacteria and non-cyanobacteria bacteria among islands. We also examined whether environmental heterogeneity increased beta diversity and species richness within islands. Among islands, the patterns in community composition were concordant among the microbial groups, with distinct changes along the freshwater–brackish gradient. The patterns in species richness were context-dependent for each microbial group. In general, richness patterns were most strongly associated with nutrient concentrations or the distances to potential sources of immigrants, whereas no positive relationships between ecosystem size and richness were found. Within islands, environmental heterogeneity was positively correlated with the beta diversity of each microbial group, but not species richness. Our findings provide novel insights into the factors influencing microbial biodiversity. The results suggest that island microbial biodiversity patterns are influenced by species sorting and dispersal-related mechanisms and highlight the importance of environmental heterogeneity for beta diversity.
Genomic plasticity and antibody response of Bordetella bronchiseptica strain HT200, a natural variant from a thermal spring
Authors: Badhai Jhasketan , Das Subrata K 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
Classical Bordetella species are primarily isolated from animals and humans causing asymptomatic infection to lethal pneumonia. However, isolation of these bacteria from any extra-host environmental niche has not been reported so far. Here, we have characterized the genomic plasticity and antibody response of Bordetella bronchiseptica strain HT200, isolated from a thermal spring. Genomic ANI value and SNPs-based phylogenetic tree suggest a divergent evolution of strain HT200 from a human-adapted lineage of B. bronchiseptica. Growth and survivability assay showed strain HT200 retained viability for more than 5 weeks in the filter-sterilized spring water. In addition, genes or loci encoding the Bordetella virulence factors such as DNT, ACT and LPS O-antigen were absent in strain HT200, while genes encoding other virulence factors were highly divergent. Phenotypically, strain HT200 was non-hemolytic and showed weak hemagglutination activity, but was able to colonize in the respiratory organs of mice. Further, both infection and vaccination with strain HT200 induced protective antibody response in mouse against challenge infection with virulent B. bronchiseptica strain RB50. In addition, genome of strain HT200 (DSM 26023) showed presence of accessory genes and operons encoding predicted metabolic functions pertinent to the ecological conditions of the thermal spring.
Artificial Intelligence and Unfair Competition – Unveiling an Underestimated Building Block of the AI Regulation Landscape
Authors: Scheuerer Stefan 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
The article illustrates the underestimated role unfair competition law (UCL) can play as a building block of the regulatory landscape relating to artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, it examines to what extent overarching, prominent principles of AI regulation such as fairness, transparency, autonomy and innovation are reflected in paradigms of UCL, and on this basis evaluates how the latter can contribute to the realisation of the former. In this way, prominent problems raised by AI that are commonly discussed under different legal regimes are reconsidered from a UCL perspective, showing that this perspective may complement or even substitute traditional regulatory approaches. Finally, the article indicates how AI could inversely give an impulse to the doctrinal advancement of UCL as a still ambiguous and insufficiently understood body of law.
The paradoxical effect of prior operating experience and observational learning on new market entry
Authors: Terlaak Ann , Kim June Young 
Published: March 2021

AbstractWe study how prior operating experience interacts with observational learning to exert paradoxical effects on market entry. When a new market disrupts a firm’s standing routines, greater operating experience with these routines complicates adaptation and increases the firm’s uncertainty about the feasibility of entering, thereby delaying its entry. Yet, this entry uncertainty simultaneously prompts the firm to rely more heavily on learning from the observation of others entering which, in turn, hastens its entry. Patterns are opposite for firms that can leverage their standing routines into the new market. Here, greater operating experience and resultant momentum to extrapolate existing routines reduce a firm’s uncertainty about the feasibility of entry. This directly accelerates their entry but also diminishes the indirect, accelerating influence of observational learning. Because of these opposite dynamics, entry rates between firms with these different types of prior operating experience begin to diminish. Empirical analysis of entry patterns into the deregulation-created electric power trading market supports our theory and calls for modifications to previous expectations of prior operating experience exerting either a purely delaying or accelerating effect on entry, and, further, draws attention to the indirect pathways through which prior experience shapes entry patterns.
Technological regimes, patent growth, and catching-up in green technologies
Authors: Corrocher Nicoletta , Malerba Franco , Morrison Andrea 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis article explores how the components of the technological regime affect catching-up and leadership change in green technologies in countries that are leaders and successful latecomers. We look at the extent to which technological opportunity, cumulativeness, originality and complexity of the knowledge base, and the maturity of technology contribute to the growth of patenting in green technologies. We test the relationships using USPTO patent data in green technologies over a 40-year time span (1975–2015), distinguishing two periods (1975–1999 and 2000–2015) and controlling for country-specific variables. Our results show that opportunity, complexity, originality, and maturity of the technology are positively associated with countries’ growth of patenting in green technologies, while cumulativeness has a negative effect, but only in the second period (2000–2015). The stock of knowledge has a positive effect in the first period and a negative effect in the second one. Furthermore, we find confirmation that the process of growth in green patenting has been remarkable in successful latecomer countries (i.e., South Korea, Taiwan, and China).