bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Repositioning of a novel GABA-B receptor agonist, AZD3355 (Lesogaberan), for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
Authors: Bhattacharya Dipankar , Becker Christine , Readhead Benjamin , Goossens Nicolas , Novik Jacqueline , Fiel Maria Isabel , Cousens Leslie P. , Magnusson Björn , Backmark Anna , Hicks Ryan , Dudley Joel T. , Friedman Scott L. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractNon-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a rising health challenge, with no approved drugs. We used a computational drug repositioning strategy to uncover a novel therapy for NASH, identifying a GABA-B receptor agonist, AZD3355 (Lesogaberan) previously evaluated as a therapy for esophageal reflux. AZD3355’s potential efficacy in NASH was tested in human stellate cells, human precision cut liver slices (hPCLS), and in vivo in a well-validated murine model of NASH. In human stellate cells AZD3355 significantly downregulated profibrotic gene and protein expression. Transcriptomic analysis of these responses identified key regulatory nodes impacted by AZD3355, including Myc, as well as MAP and ERK kinases. In PCLS, AZD3355 down-regulated collagen1α1, αSMA and TNF-α mRNAs as well as secreted collagen1α1. In vivo, the drug significantly improved histology, profibrogenic gene expression, and tumor development, which was comparable to activity of obeticholic acid in a robust mouse model of NASH, but awaits further testing to determine its relative efficacy in patients. These data identify a well-tolerated clinical stage asset as a novel candidate therapy for human NASH through its hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic mechanisms of action. The approach validates computational methods to identify novel therapies in NASH in uncovering new pathways of disease development that can be rapidly translated into clinical trials.
Human hair follicles operate an internal Cori cycle and modulate their growth via glycogen phosphorylase
Authors: Figlak Katarzyna , Williams Greg , Bertolini Marta , Paus Ralf , Philpott Michael P. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractHair follicles (HFs) are unique, multi-compartment, mini-organs that cycle through phases of active hair growth and pigmentation (anagen), apoptosis-driven regression (catagen) and relative quiescence (telogen). Anagen HFs have high demands for energy and biosynthesis precursors mainly fulfilled by aerobic glycolysis. Histochemistry reports the outer root sheath (ORS) contains high levels of glycogen. To investigate a functional role for glycogen in the HF we quantified glycogen by Periodic-Acid Schiff (PAS) histomorphometry and colorimetric quantitative assay showing ORS of anagen VI HFs contained high levels of glycogen that decreased in catagen. qPCR and immunofluorescence microscopy showed the ORS expressed all enzymes for glycogen synthesis and metabolism. Using human ORS keratinocytes (ORS-KC) and ex vivo human HF organ culture we showed active glycogen metabolism by nutrient starvation and use of a specific glycogen phosphorylase (PYGL) inhibitor. Glycogen in ORS-KC was significantly increased by incubation with lactate demonstrating a functional Cori cycle. Inhibition of PYGL significantly stimulated the ex vivo growth of HFs and delayed onset of catagen. This study defines translationally relevant and therapeutically targetable new features of HF metabolism showing that human scalp HFs operate an internal Cori cycle, synthesize glycogen in the presence of lactate and modulate their growth via PYGL activity.
Water cavitation from ambient to high temperatures
Authors: Magaletti Francesco , Gallo Mirko , Casciola Carlo Massimo 
Published: October 2021

AbstractPredicting cavitation has proved a formidable task, particularly for water. Despite the experimental difficulty of controlling the sample purity, there is nowadays substantial consensus on the remarkable tensile strength of water, on the order of −120 MPa at ambient conditions. Recent progress significantly advanced our predictive capability which, however, still considerably depends on elaborate fitting procedures based on the input of external data. Here a self-contained model is discussed which is shown able to accurately reproduce cavitation data for water over the most extended range of temperatures for which accurate experiments are available. The computations are based on a diffuse interface model which, as only inputs, requires a reliable equation of state for the bulk free energy and the interfacial tension. A rare event technique, namely the string method, is used to evaluate the free-energy barrier as the base for determining the nucleation rate and the cavitation pressure. The data allow discussing the role of the Tolman length in determining the nucleation barrier, confirming that, when the size of the cavitation nuclei exceed the thickness of the interfacial layer, the Tolman correction effectively improves the predictions of the plain Classical Nucleation Theory.
Vitamin D-related polymorphisms and vitamin D levels as risk biomarkers of COVID-19 disease severity
Authors: Freitas Ana Teresa , Calhau Conceição , Antunes Gonçalo , Araújo Beatriz , Bandeira Matilde , Barreira Sofia , Bazenga Filipa , Braz Sandra , Caldeira Daniel , Santos Susana Constantino Rosa , Faria Ana , Faria Daniel , Fraga Marta , Nogueira-Garcia Beatriz , Gonçalves Lúcia , Kovalchuk Pavlo , Lacerda Luísa , Lopes Hugo , Luís Daniel , Medeiros Fábio , Melo Ana M. P. , Melo-Cristino José , Miranda Ana , Pereira Clara , Pinto Ana Teresa , Pinto João , Proença Helena , Ramos Angélica , Rato João P. R. , Rocha Filipe , Rocha Júlio César , Moreira-Rosário André , Vazão Helena , Volovetska Yuliya , Guimarães João-Tiago , Pinto Fausto J. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractVitamin D is a fundamental regulator of host defences by activating genes related to innate and adaptive immunity. Previous research shows a correlation between the levels of vitamin D in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the degree of disease severity. This work investigates the impact of the genetic background related to vitamin D pathways on COVID-19 severity. For the first time, the Portuguese population was characterized regarding the prevalence of high impact variants in genes associated with the vitamin D pathways. This study enrolled 517 patients admitted to two tertiary Portuguese hospitals. The serum concentration of 25 (OH)D, was measured in the hospital at the time of patient admission. Genetic variants, 18 variants, in the genes AMDHD1, CYP2R1, CYP24A1, DHCR7, GC, SEC23A, and VDR were analysed. The results show that polymorphisms in the vitamin D binding protein encoded by the GC gene are related to the infection severity (p = 0.005). There is an association between vitamin D polygenic risk score and the serum concentration of 25 (OH)D (p = 0.04). There is an association between 25 (OH)D levels and the survival and fatal outcomes (p = 1.5e−4). The Portuguese population has a higher prevalence of the DHCR7 RS12785878 variant when compared with its prevalence in the European population (19% versus 10%). This study shows a genetic susceptibility for vitamin D deficiency that might explain higher severity degrees in COVID-19 patients. These results reinforce the relevance of personalized strategies in the context of viral diseases.Trial registration: NCT04370808.
Superconducting imprint of magnetic textures in ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Authors: Sander A. , Orfila G. , Sanchez-Manzano D. , Reyren N. , Mawass M. A. , Gallego F. , Collin S. , Bouzehouane K. , Höflich K. , Kronast F. , Grilli F. , Rivera-Calzada A. , Santamaria J. , Villegas J. E. , Valencia S. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractResearch on proximity effects in superconductor/ferromagnetic hybrids has most often focused on how superconducting properties are affected—and can be controlled—by the effects of the ferromagnet’s exchange or magnetic fringe fields. The opposite, namely the possibility to craft, tailor and stabilize the magnetic texture in a ferromagnet by exploiting superconducting effects, has been more seldom explored. Here we show that the magnetic flux trapped in high-temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ microstructures can be used to modify the magnetic reversal of a hard ferromagnet—a cobalt/platinum multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy—and to imprint unusual magnetic domain distributions in a controlled manner via the magnetic field history. The domain distributions imprinted in the superconducting state remain stable, in absence of an external magnetic field, even after increasing the temperature well above the superconducting critical temperature, at variance to what has been observed for soft ferromagnets with in-plane magnetic anisotropy. This opens the possibility of having non-trivial magnetic configuration textures at room temperature after being tailored below the superconducting transition temperature. The observed effects are well explained by micromagnetic simulations that demonstrate the role played by the magnetic field from the superconductor on the nucleation, propagation, and stabilization of magnetic domains.
An energy‐efficient MAC protocol based on receiver initiation and multi‐priority backoff for wireless sensor networks
Authors: Huamei Qi , Linlin Fan , Zhengyi Yuan , Weiwei Ye , Jia Wu 
Published: October 2021

AbstractWireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been widely used with its main characteristics of resilience, scalability, and mobility. However, the node battery capacity in WSN is limited. In addition, in scenes with emergencies such as forest ecological monitoring, data packets of wildfire emergencies have higher real‐time requirements than periodic normal data. Therefore, this paper proposes an energy‐efficient MAC protocol based on Receiver initiation and Multi‐Priority Backoff (RMP‐MAC). RMP‐MAC adopts the wake‐up matching mechanism initiated by the receiver. The sender adjusts its schedule according to the wake‐up information of the receiver to match the receiver, which reduces the energy consumption of idle listening. In addition, RMP‐MAC proposes a multi‐priority factor adaptive backoff mechanism based on event priority, node remaining energy level, and the number of data packets waiting in the transmission queue, ensuring the transmission of emergency data in the actual situation of forest ecological monitoring. Simulation experiments show that compared with PB‐MAC, AP‐MAC, and MPQ‐MAC, RMP‐MAC can reduce energy consumption by 20.22%, 12.47%, and 6.62% respectively. In addition, it has improved in the average collisions, network throughput, and average delay of packets.
CP‐GAN: Meet the high requirements of diagnose report to medical image by content preservation
Authors: Zeng Xianhua , Huang Zhengyi , Xu Liming , Xie Yicai 
Published: October 2021

AbstractMedical image generation from diagnostic report has important research significance for medical‐aided diagnosis. This research can improve the diagnosis speed and accuracy of doctors and effectively save the storage resources of hospitals. The research has made significant progress in the field of natural images, but rarely used in medical images. Medical images have higher requirements for image quality. In this paper, a method based on attention mechanism and content preservation loss to improve image quality is proposed. The model consists of three stages, and each stage generates feature map of different scale combined with attention features as the input of the next stage to optimise semantic consistency between image and text. The last stage will generate an image, whose size is 256 × 256. And the content preservation loss can optimise the similarity between the generated image and the real image by low‐level and high‐level features to meet the high requirements of medical image for texture details. The content preservation loss consists of MSE loss, VGG loss and TV loss. The experiments on two datasets prove that the method can achieve excellent results.
Development of a wideband symmetric pillbox antenna with low side lobes in gap waveguide technology
Authors: Mohammadpour Mohammad , Mohajeri Farzad , Razavi Parizi Seyed Ali 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn this work, a symmetric pillbox antenna with low side lobes is designed, simulated and fabricated by using gap waveguide technology. The proposed antenna operates on the basis of the reflector antenna principle and provides a fan‐beam radiation pattern. In the proposed structure, the antenna aperture is loaded by a stepped discontinuity and a corrective pin to improve the side‐lobe level (SLL) and gain. The designed antenna impedance bandwidth (S11 < −10 dB) is 42% at the Ku band. Also, −15 dB < SLL < −10 dB and a gain of 16.6–18.7 dBi are achieved over the operating bandwidth. There is a good agreement between the simulated and measured results.
A two‐dimensional beam scanning continuous transverse stub antenna based on a single‐layer compact linear source generator
Authors: Zhao Ming‐Yang , Lei Xue , Gao Jun , Zhu Yi‐Jun , Li Tian‐Peng , Peng Qiang 
Published: October 2021

AbstractTo minimise the profile of Satcom‐on‐the‐Move ground terminals, in this study, a two‐dimensional beam‐scanning continuous transverse stub antenna that is based on a compact linear source generator (LSG) is presented. A periodic anti‐symmetric two‐step (ASTS) structure cascaded with a broadband network is used to construct a single‐layer compact LSG. The concept of a parallel‐plate waveguide polarisation twister is used to design the ASTS unit that acts as a TE10‐to‐transverse electromagnetic wave converter, to which chamfers and T‐type grooves are added to improve the output plane wave performance over the entire frequency band. A prototype array operating in the band 10.95–12.75 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured, and the experimental results agree well with the simulated ones. A beam‐scanning range of ±61° in elevation is achieved at the central frequency. Although only 29 of 36 slots (ϕ = 0°) contribute to the radiation, the antenna aperture efficiency is still over 60% due to the superior performance of the single‐layer minimised LSG.
Low complexity deep learning algorithms for compensating atmospheric turbulence in the free space optical communication system
Authors: Amirabadi Mohammad Ali , Kahaei Mohammad Hossein , Nezamalhosseni S. Alireza 
Published: October 2021

AbstractOne of the main barriers of free space optical (FSO) communication systems is atmospheric turbulence. Various processing techniques at the transmitter, receiver, and transceiver sides are available for addressing this issue; however, they have either high complexity or low performance. Considering this problem, in this study, deep learning (DL) is deployed at the transmitter, receiver, and transceiver sides of an FSO system for constellation shaping, detection, and joint constellation‐shaping detection, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed DL‐based structures are deployed in an FSO‐multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) system. As the first investigation over DL for the FSO‐MIMO system, different combining schemes including the maximum ratio combiner, equal gain combiner, and the selection combiner are considered. Considering a wide range of atmospheric turbulence, from the weak to the strong regime, the performance of the proposed structures are compared with that of the maximum likelihood (ML) detection. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the main contributions and novelties of this work include considering transmitter learning in the FSO system, designing low complexity DL structures for FSO system applications, and providing complexity analysis for the proposed DL algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed DL‐based FSO systems achieve the optimum performance with lower complexity compared with the state‐of‐the‐art conventional FSO systems. For instance, the proposed DL‐based detector is almost 2, 3, and 7.5 times faster than the ML detector for modulation orders of 16, 64, and 256, respectively.
A derivation of nano-diamond optical constants
Authors: Jones A. P. , Ysard N. 
Published: October 2021

Context. Nano-diamonds are an enticing and enigmatic dust component yet their origin is still unclear. They have been unequivocally detected in only a few astronomical objects, yet they are the most abundant of the pre-solar grains, both in terms of mass and number.
Aims. Our goal is to derive a viable set of nano-diamond optical constants and optical properties to enable their modelling in any type of astrophysical object where, primarily, the local (inter)stellar radiation field is well-determined.
Methods. The complex indices of refraction, m(n, k), of nano-diamonds, constrained by available laboratory measurements, were calculated as a function of size, surface hydrogenation, and internal (dis)order, using the THEMIS a-C(:H) methodology optEC(s)(a).
Results. To demonstrate the utility of the optical properties (the efficiency factors Qext, Qsca, and Qabs), calculated using the derived m(n, k) data, we show that nano-diamonds could be abundant in the interstellar medium (ISM) and yet remain undetectable there.
Conclusions. The derived optical constants provide a means to explore the existence and viability of nano-diamonds in a wide range of astronomical sources. Here we show that up to a few percent of the available carbon budget could be hidden in the form of nano-diamonds in the diffuse ISM, in abundances comparable to the pre-solar nano-diamond abundances in primitive meteorites.
Ist Cannabidiol ein Lebensmittel oder ein Arzneimittel?
Authors: Kraft Karin , Schmidt Mathias 
Published: October 2021

ZusammenfassungCBD-haltige Produkte wie sogenannte CBD-Öle werden in Form von Nahrungsmitteln und Nahrungsergänzungsmitteln vertrieben und vielfach mit medizinischen Indikationen bei schweren Erkrankungen beworben. Derzeit werden auf europäischer Ebene Anträge auf Novel-Food-Status bearbeitet. Bei genauerer Betrachtung erweisen sich jedoch bereits die Grundlagen für die Einstufung von CBD als Lebensmittel als fragwürdig. CBD ist eindeutig ein verschreibungspflichtiger Arzneistoff mit bekannten pharmakologischen Effekten, der im Falle von Cannabisextrakten zudem Betäubungsmittelstatus hat. Für die Verwendung in Nahrungsmitteln fehlen die lebensmitteltypischen Eigenschaften. Auch wenn CBD selbst in hohen Dosen toxikologisch unbedenklich ist: Durch eine nachgewiesene Anwendungssicherheit wird ein Arzneistoff nicht zum Lebensmittel.
Nahrungsergänzungsmittel auf Basis von Heidelbeeren – wie sieht die Qualitätssituation aus?
Authors: Gaspar Dan Plecenik , Lechtenberg Matthias , Hensel Andreas 
Published: October 2021

ZusammenfassungHeidelbeeren (Vaccinium myrtillus) werden zur symptomatischen Behandlung leichter Durchfälle, zur Linderung von Beschwerden und Schweregefühl in den Beinen bei leichten venösen Durchblutungsstörungen und bei Varikosis verwendet. Die schwarzblauen Früchte sind ein begehrtes Wildobst und ein teures Handelsprodukt. Qualitätsprobleme sind deshalb nicht unwahrscheinlich. Aus diesem Grund verfolgte eine kürzlich durchgeführte Studie das Ziel, die Qualität frischer und getrockneter Heidelbeeren sowie von Nahrungsergänzungsmitteln (NEM) auf Basis von Heidelbeeren zu untersuchen. Eine an das Europäische Arzneibuch angelehnte HPLC-Methode wurde zur Prüfung der Identität und zur Bestimmung des Gesamtanthocyan-Gehalts verwendet; zusätzlich wurde der Gerbstoffgehalt photometrisch bestimmt. Ein Großteil (91 %) der untersuchten getrockneten Heidelbeeren aus unterschiedlichen Quellen zeigte eine gute Qualität. Gravierende Qualitätsdefizite konnten aber im Segment der NEM beobachtet werden: Knapp die Hälfte (45 %) der untersuchten Muster waren von unbefriedigender Qualität. Neben Produkten, die keine nachweisbaren Mengen an Heidelbeeren bzw. nur sehr geringe Anthocyan- und Gerbstoff-Gehalte enthielten, konnten auch solche Proben identifiziert werden, die mit Anthocyanen aus anderen botanischen Quellen verfälscht worden waren. Drei repräsentative Proben von Heidelbeersäften wiesen eine gute Qualität in allen getesteten Parametern auf. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass zur Verbesserung der Produktqualität von NEM verstärkte analytische Anstrengungen zur Sicherstellung der Produktqualität und im Sinne des Verbraucherschutzes notwendig sind.
Betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung im Handlungsfeld Ernährung im Setting Pflegeheim im Rahmen des Modellvorhabens POLKA
Authors: Kraaibeek Hanna-Kathrin 
Published: October 2021

ZusammenfassungDer demografische Wandel in Deutschland ist durch niedrige Geburtenraten und eine ständig steigende Lebenserwartung gekennzeichnet. Prognostiziert wird der Anstieg des Anteils der hochaltrigen Menschen und somit einer Zunahme der Zahl Pflegebedürftiger. Das zieht einen Bedarf an professionellen Pflegekräften nach sich. Der Beruf der Pflegekraft in der Altenpflege ist ein anspruchsvolles Tätigkeitsfeld mit zahlreichen Herausforderungen. Für die Pflegekraft führt die gesundheitliche Belastung durch Schichtarbeit und die physisch und psychisch herausfordernde Arbeit zu einem überdurchschnittlich hohen Krankenstand. Die Arbeit im Wechselschichtdienst erhöht zusätzlich das Risiko, am Metabolischen Syndrom und damit an abdomineller Fettleibigkeit, Bluthochdruck, erhöhten Blutzucker- und Blutfettwerten zu erkranken. Die Pflegebranche steht im Vergleich zu anderen Berufszweigen bundesweit an der Spitze der krankheitsbedingten Fehlzeiten. Gesunde Pflegekräfte sind für die Gesellschaft unverzichtbar. Der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung kommt daher große Bedeutung in der Gesunderhaltung der Pflegekräfte zu.
Stationsäquivalente Behandlung (StäB) im Vergleich mit vollstationärer Behandlung: 12-Monats-Follow-up einer gematchten Kohortenstudie
Authors: Weinmann Stefan , Spiegel Jennifer , Baumgardt Johanna , Bühling-Schindowski Felix , Pfeiffer Jan , Kleinschmidt Martin , Bechdolf Andreas 
Published: October 2021

Zusammenfassung
Ziel der Studie Überprüfung der Wirksamkeit einer stationsäquivalenten psychiatrischen Behandlung (StäB) im Vergleich mit einer vollstationären psychiatrischen Routinebehandlung.
Methodik Im Rahmen einer retrospektiven Verlaufsstudie wurden 43 Patient*innen aus der StäB (Interventionsgruppe/IG, n = 43) mit einer gematchten vollstationären Kontrollgruppe (KG, n = 43) hinsichtlich vollstationärer Wiederaufnahmerate und Behandlungstage im 12-Monats-Follow-up verglichen.
Ergebnisse Bei den Patient*innen der IG zeigte sich eine um etwa 9 % geringere Wiederaufnahmerate in die vollstationäre Behandlung. Im 12-Monats-Follow-up zeigte sich in dieser Gruppe eine um etwa 30 % längere vollstationäre Behandlungsdauer. Beide Gruppenunterschiede waren statistisch nicht signifikant.
Schlussfolgerung Die vorliegende Studie deutet darauf hin, dass StäB hinsichtlich des Wiederaufnahmerisikos einer stationären Behandlung nicht unterlegen ist.