bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
In vivo Validation of Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) to Investigate Aggregate Formation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Authors: Don Emily K. , Maschirow Alina , Radford Rowan A. W. , Scherer Natalie M. , Vidal-Itriago Andrés , Hogan Alison , Maurel Cindy , Formella Isabel , Stoddart Jack J. , Hall Thomas E. , Lee Albert , Shi Bingyang , Cole Nicholas J. , Laird Angela S. , Badrock Andrew P. , Chung Roger S. , Morsch Marco 
Published: January 2021

AbstractAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a form of motor neuron disease (MND) that is characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons within the spinal cord, brainstem, and motor cortex. Although ALS clinically manifests as a heterogeneous disease, with varying disease onset and survival, a unifying feature is the presence of ubiquitinated cytoplasmic protein inclusion aggregates containing TDP-43. However, the precise mechanisms linking protein inclusions and aggregation to neuronal loss are currently poorly understood. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) takes advantage of the association of fluorophore fragments (non-fluorescent on their own) that are attached to an aggregation-prone protein of interest. Interaction of the proteins of interest allows for the fluorescent reporter protein to fold into its native state and emit a fluorescent signal. Here, we combined the power of BiFC with the advantages of the zebrafish system to validate, optimize, and visualize the formation of ALS-linked aggregates in real time in a vertebrate model. We further provide in vivo validation of the selectivity of this technique and demonstrate reduced spontaneous self-assembly of the non-fluorescent fragments in vivo by introducing a fluorophore mutation. Additionally, we report preliminary findings on the dynamic aggregation of the ALS-linked hallmark proteins Fus and TDP-43 in their corresponding nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments using BiFC. Overall, our data demonstrates the suitability of this BiFC approach to study and characterize ALS-linked aggregate formation in vivo. Importantly, the same principle can be applied in the context of other neurodegenerative diseases and has therefore critical implications to advance our understanding of pathologies that underlie aberrant protein aggregation.
Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis of the life attitude profile in Chilean adolescents
Authors: Imbarack Dagach Patricia , Brotfeld Cristian , García-Alandete Joaquín 
Published: January 2021

AbstractAdolescents are challenged to take decisions about issues associated to the vital circle and the comprehension of the world. Meaning in life (MiL) takes a leading role in adolescence. Reker and Peacock developed the Life Attitude Profile (LAP) for assessing MiL, and Erci developed a revised version (LAP-R). The main objective of this study was to analyze the factorial structure, reliability, invariance across gender, and absence/presence of assessment bias of a Spanish adaptation of the Turkish LAP-R among 2138 Chilean adolescents (1205 boys, 912 girls, and 8 others), who were studying in 3rd and 4th year. The LAP-R showed an acceptable structural validity, acceptable internal consistency, and invariance across gender. MiL as a significant domain of human experience in adolescents.
Temperature-resistant and salt-tolerant mixed surfactant system for EOR in the Tahe Oilfield
Authors: Guo Ji-Xiang , Zhang Shi-Ling , Yang Yu-Qi , Yu Zi-Jing , Li Liang , Wang Yu-Shan , Zhang Long-Sheng 
Published: January 2021

AbstractA new temperature-resistant and salt-tolerant mixed surfactant system (referred to as the SS system) for enhancing oil recovery at the Tahe Oilfield (Xinjiang, China) was evaluated. Based on the analysis of the crude oil, the formation water and rock components in the Tahe Oilfield, the long-term thermal stability, salt tolerance and the ability to change the wettability, interfacial activity and oil washing efficiency of the mixed surfactant system were studied. The system contains the anionic surfactant SDB and another cationic surfactant SDY. When the total mass concentration of the SS solution is 0.15 wt%, m(SDB)/m(SDY) ratio is 1 to 1, and excellent efficiencies are achieved for oil washing for five kinds of Tahe Oilfield crude oils (more than 60%). In addition, after adding cationic surfactant, the adsorption capacity of the surfactant is further reduced, reaching 0.261 mg/g. The oil displacement experiments indicate that under a temperature of 150 °C and a salinity of 24.6 × 104 mg/L, the SS system enhances the oil recovery by over 10% after water flooding. The SS anionic–cationic surfactant system is first presented in the open literature that can be successfully applied to obtain predictions of Tahe Oilfield carbonate reservoirs with a high temperature and high salinity.
Long-Term Improvement in Precautions for Flood Risk Mitigation: A Case Study in the Low-Lying Area of Central Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Cong Dinh , Ubukata Fumikazu , Nguyen Quang Tan , Vo Hoang Ha 
Published: January 2021

AbstractLocal actors appear as inseparable components of the integrated flood risk mitigation strategy in Vietnam. Recognizing this fact, this study examined the long-term improvement in precautions taken by commune authorities and households between two major floods in 1999 and 2017 by applying both quantitative and qualitative methods. Two flood-prone villages were selected for a survey; one in a rural area and the other in a suburban area of Thua Thien Hue Province, central Vietnam. The findings indicate that most villagers doubted the structural works’ efficacy and were dissatisfied with the current efforts of local authorities. Households’ self-preparation thus became the decisive factor in mitigating risk. While most households have paid greater attention to flood precautions in 2017, others seem to be lagging. Poverty-related barriers were the root causes restraining households in both rural and suburban villages. The suburban riverine residents were further identified as vulnerable by their limitations in upgrading structural measures, which was ascribed to the inconsistency in the ancient town’s preservation policy. This multidimensional comparison, in terms of vulnerability, emphasized the importance of space-function links in the suburb and the contradictions of different policy initiatives, such as landscape rehabilitation, disaster prevention, and livelihood maintenance.
QSPR analysis of some novel neighbourhood degree-based topological descriptors
Authors: Mondal Sourav , Dey Arindam , De Nilanjan , Pal Anita 
Published: January 2021

AbstractTopological index is a numerical value associated with a chemical constitution for correlation of chemical structure with various physical properties, chemical reactivity or biological activity. In this work, some new indices based on neighborhood degree sum of nodes are proposed. To make the computation of the novel indices convenient, an algorithm is designed. Quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) study is a good statistical method for investigating drug activity or binding mode for different receptors. QSPR analysis of the newly introduced indices is studied here which reveals their predicting power. A comparative study of the novel indices with some well-known and mostly used indices in structure-property modelling and isomer discrimination is performed. Some mathematical properties of these indices are also discussed here.
Estimation of uranium in groundwater and assessment of age-dependent radiation dose in Nalbari district of Assam, India
Authors: Saikia Rosy , Chetia Dipankar , Bhattacharyya Krishna G. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractUranium concentration has been estimated in 31 groundwater samples collected from the Nalbari district of Assam in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season. Fourteen other water quality parameters have also been monitored to study their correlation with uranium. The uranium concentration varies from 0.3 to 7.1 µg/L with the mean value of 2.15 µg/L in pre-monsoon and 0.6–10.3 µg/L with the mean value of 2.75 µg/L in the post-monsoon season. The higher concentration of uranium in post-monsoon may be ascribed to the dissolution of uranium from soil sediments in the rainy season. It has been observed that the uranium content in both seasons is far lower than the WHO (2011) permissible limit of 30 µg/L. In both seasons, nitrate, sulphate, and especially phosphate show a positive correlation with uranium, which may be due to different agricultural activities. Agricultural nitrate and phosphate fertilization might be the carrier of uranium in groundwater through dissolution. For all life stage groups, the annual effective dose was appeared to be far below the WHO (2011) prescribed limit of 100 µSv/y. In consideration to adults, the ingestion dose for infants was turned out to be higher. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk was less than the permissible limits for both children and adults. Both dose value and risk indices were found higher in the post-monsoon season.
Otitis media in coronavirus disease 2019: a case series
Authors: Raad N , Ghorbani J , Mikaniki N , Haseli S , Karimi-Galougahi M 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundManifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 in ENT include sore throat, rhinorrhoea, anosmia and dysgeusia. Whether coronavirus disease 2019 causes otitis media is not known.ObjectiveTo assess the presence of otitis media in a series of patients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 and ENT symptoms.MethodsThe study included patients with coronavirus disease 2019, confirmed on polymerase chain reaction assay, who had otological (e.g. otalgia, otorrhoea, hearing loss) or other ENT (e.g. anosmia, dysgeusia) manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019, in two tertiary referral hospitals in Iran. Patients were excluded if they had a background of otological problems including previous acute otitis media, chronic otitis media, otological surgery, and trauma or radiotherapy to the head and neck.ResultsOtitis media was found in eight patients with coronavirus disease 2019 and no background of otological problems. Six patients had middle-ear effusion, three had typical signs of acute otitis media, and one had a tympanic membrane perforation. Most patients had hearing loss; conductive hearing loss and mild sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies were the underlying mechanisms.ConclusionOtitis media should be considered a manifestation or associated symptom of coronavirus disease 2019 during the current pandemic.
Effects of season and mesh size on the selection of narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus commerson in the Persian Gulf artisanal gillnet fishery
Authors: Pouladi Mojtaba , Paighambari Seyed Yousef , Broadhurst Matt K. , Millar Russell B. , Eighani Morteza 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIn response to perceived, but unknown variation among the size selection of narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson) by artisanal gillnetters off Iran, and the need for such data to control exploitation as a precursor to balanced harvesting, the effects of two common mesh sizes (130 and 140 mm stretched mesh opening made from multifilament twine) on catches were investigated over one fishing year (nine months encompassing autumn to spring). Both mesh sizes mostly caught S. commerson at fork lengths (FL) larger than mean sizes at maturity (>67 cm), with the mean size selection incrementally increasing in the 130-mm mesh gillnet from autumn, and especially during spring. The greater selection occurred concurrent with an increasing condition factor (CF) among S. commerson, which typically spawn in late spring/early summer. Conversely, the relative size-selection of the 140-mm mesh gillnet decreased in spring, attributed to increasing CF precluding the capture of larger fish. Such seasonal variation in size selection might be countered by increasing mesh size to ~145 or 150 mm in spring. However, the existing 140-mm mesh might positively affect stock biomass by allowing larger, more fecund fish to avoid capture during spawning. The data support the strong influence of biological and environmental factors on gillnet size selection, which might also extend to other migratory, pelagic species.
Management and “Administerization” in China's Higher Education System: A View from the Trenches
Authors: Bodenhorn Terry 
Published: January 2021

AbstractScholarship on university autonomy in China's higher education system in the past three decades has focused on the macro-relationship between the party-state and university leadership. This paper focuses instead on university-level management practices and college-level academic autonomy. Drawing on the discourse of “administerization” and “de-administerization” within Chinese academia, we demonstrate how the dual administration system and outdated management practices common in the higher education system limit academic quality and educational autonomy at the college level.
Dietary fatty acids and CHD: from specific recommendations to dietary patterns
Authors: Delarue Jacques 
Published: January 2021

AbstractSeveral countries have issued dietary recommendations about total and specific fatty acid (FA) intake for the prevention of CHD. For many years until today, controversies have existed especially about the deleterious effect or not of SFA, and the protective effect or not ofn-3 PUFA, so that some authors have criticised these recommendations. There are many reasons for these controversies, including the different conclusions of prospective cohort studies compared with randomised clinical trials (RCT), and the contradictory conclusions of meta-analyses depending on the quality, number and type of studies included. The interrelationships between different FA in the diet make it difficult to analyse the specific effect of a particular class of FA on CHD. Furthermore, based on clinical practice and effectiveness of population-based prevention, it is very difficult at the individual level to assess in personal dietary intake the actual percentage and/or amount of SFA contained in each meal or consumed daily/weekly. In this critical narrative review, we try to answer the question of whether it would not be more relevant, in 2020, to promote dietary patterns, rather than FA intake recommendations. We critically analyse past and recent data on the association of FA with CHD, then propose that the Mediterranean diet and Japanese diet should be revitalised for Westerners and Asian populations, respectively. This does not exclude the usefulness of continuing research about effects of FA towards CHD, and accepting that what seems true today might be revised, at least partially tomorrow.
Ultra-low-loss on-chip zero-index materials
Authors: Dong Tian , Liang Jiujiu , Camayd-Muñoz Sarah , Liu Yueyang , Tang Haoning , Kita Shota , Chen Peipei , Wu Xiaojun , Chu Weiguo , Mazur Eric , Li Yang 
Published: January 2021

AbstractLight travels in a zero-index medium without accumulating a spatial phase, resulting in perfect spatial coherence. Such coherence brings several potential applications, including arbitrarily shaped waveguides, phase-mismatch-free nonlinear propagation, large-area single-mode lasers, and extended superradiance. A promising platform to achieve these applications is an integrated Dirac-cone material that features an impedance-matched zero index. Although an integrated Dirac-cone material eliminates ohmic losses via its purely dielectric structure, it still entails out-of-plane radiation loss, limiting its applications to a small scale. We design an ultra-low-loss integrated Dirac cone material by achieving destructive interference above and below the material. The material consists of a square array of low-aspect-ratio silicon pillars embedded in silicon dioxide, featuring easy fabrication using a standard planar process. This design paves the way for leveraging the perfect spatial coherence of large-area zero-index materials in linear, nonlinear, and quantum optics.
Broadband terahertz wave generation from an epsilon-near-zero material
Authors: Jia Wenhe , Liu Meng , Lu Yongchang , Feng Xi , Wang Qingwei , Zhang Xueqian , Ni Yibo , Hu Futai , Gong Mali , Xu Xinlong , Huang Yuanyuan , Zhang Weili , Yang Yuanmu , Han Jiaguang 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBroadband light sources emitting in the terahertz spectral range are highly desired for applications such as noninvasive imaging and spectroscopy. Conventionally, THz pulses are generated by optical rectification in bulk nonlinear crystals with millimetre thickness, with the bandwidth limited by the phase-matching condition. Here we demonstrate broadband THz emission via surface optical rectification from a simple, commercially available 19 nm-thick indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film. We show an enhancement of the generated THz signal when the pump laser is tuned around the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) region of ITO due to the pump laser field enhancement associated with the ENZ effect. The bandwidth of the THz signal generated from the ITO film can be over 3 THz, unrestricted by the phase-matching condition. This work offers a new possibility for broadband THz generation in a subwavelength thin film made of an ENZ material, with emerging physics not found in existing nonlinear crystals.
Molecular characteristics of primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma based on integrated genomic analyses
Authors: Chen Bojiang , Zhang Yu , Dai Sisi , Zhou Ping , Luo Wenxin , Wang Zhoufeng , Chen Xuping , Cheng Peng , Zheng Guoya , Ren Jing , Yang Xiaodong , Li Weimin 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPrimary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (pLELC) is a rare non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) subtype. Clinical features have been described in our previous report, but molecular characteristics remain unclear. Herein, pLELC genomic features were explored. Among 41,574 lung cancers, 128 pLELCs and 162 non-pLELC NSCLCs were enrolled. Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and protein 53 (p53) expression was detected in 47 surgically resected pLELC samples by immunohistochemical assays. Multiomics genomic analyses, including whole-genome sequencing (WGS), RNA whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) integration analyses, were performed on eight frozen pLELC tissues and compared with 50 lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) and 50 lung squamous cell carcinomas (LUSCs) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and another 26 EBV-positive nasopharynx cancers (EBV+-NPCs). Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of pLELC patients were better than those of non-pLELC patients. High PD-L1 or p53 expression was associated with extended disease-free survival (DFS). pLELC had 14 frequently mutated genes (FMGs). Somatically mutated genes and enrichment of genetic lesions were found, which differed from observations in LUAD, LUSC, and EBV+-nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Three tumor-associated genes, zinc finger and BTB domain-containing 16 (ZBTB16), peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARG), and transforming growth factor beta receptor 2 (TGFBR2), were downregulated with copy number variation (CNV) loss. EBV was prone to integrating into intergenic and intronic regions with two upregulated miR-BamH1-A rightward transcripts (BARTs),BART5-3PandBART20-3P. Our findings reveal that pLELC has a distinct genomic signature. Three tumor-associated genes with CNV loss and two miR-BARTs might be involved in pLELC tumorigenesis.
Oxidative stress marker aberrations in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 87 studies (N = 9109)
Authors: Chen Lei , Shi Xiao-Jie , Liu Hua , Mao Xiao , Gui Lue-Ning , Wang Hua , Cheng Yong 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThere is increasing awareness that oxidative stress may be implicated in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we aimed to investigate blood oxidative stress marker profile in ASD children by a meta-analysis. Two independent investigators systematically searched Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library and extracted data from 87 studies with 4928 ASD children and 4181 healthy control (HC) children. The meta-analysis showed that blood concentrations of oxidative glutathione (GSSG), malondialdehyde, homocysteine, S-adenosylhomocysteine, nitric oxide, and copper were higher in children with ASD than that of HC children. In contrast, blood reduced glutathione (GSH), total glutathione (tGSH), GSH/GSSG, tGSH/GSSG, methionine, cysteine, vitamin B9, vitamin D, vitamin B12, vitamin E, S-adenosylmethionine/S-adenosylhomocysteine, and calcium concentrations were significantly reduced in children with ASD relative to HC children. However, there were no significance differences between ASD children and HC children for the other 17 potential markers. Heterogeneities among studies were found for most markers, and meta-regressions indicated that age and publication year may influence the meta-analysis results. These results therefore clarified blood oxidative stress profile in children with ASD, strengthening clinical evidence of increased oxidative stress implicating in pathogenesis of ASD. Additionally, given the consistent and large effective size, glutathione metabolism biomarkers have the potential to inform early diagnosis of ASD.
A distinct transcriptional signature of antidepressant response in hippocampal dentate gyrus granule cells
Authors: Herzog David P. , Pascual Cuadrado Diego , Treccani Giulia , Jene Tanja , Opitz Verena , Hasch Annika , Lutz Beat , Lieb Klaus , Sillaber Inge , van der Kooij Michael A. , Tiwari Vijay K. , Müller Marianne B. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractMajor depressive disorder is the most prevalent mental illness worldwide, still its pharmacological treatment is limited by various challenges, such as the large heterogeneity in treatment response and the lack of insight into the neurobiological pathways underlying this phenomenon. To decode the molecular mechanisms shaping antidepressant response and to distinguish those from general paroxetine effects, we used a previously established approach targeting extremes (i.e., good vs poor responder mice). We focused on the dentate gyrus (DG), a subregion of major interest in the context of antidepressant mechanisms. Transcriptome profiling on micro-dissected DG granule cells was performed to (i) reveal cell-type-specific changes in paroxetine-induced gene expression (paroxetine vs vehicle) and (ii) to identify molecular signatures of treatment response within a cohort of paroxetine-treated animals. We identified 112 differentially expressed genes associated with paroxetine treatment. The extreme group comparison (good vs poor responder) yielded 211 differentially expressed genes. General paroxetine effects could be distinguished from treatment response-associated molecular signatures, with a differential gene expression overlap of only 4.6% (15 genes). Biological pathway enrichment and cluster analyses identified candidate mechanisms associated with good treatment response, e.g., neuropeptide signaling, synaptic transmission, calcium signaling, and regulation of glucocorticoid secretion. Finally, we examined glucocorticoid receptor (GR)-dependent regulation of selected response-associated genes to analyze a hypothesized interplay between GR signaling and good antidepressant treatment response. Among the most promising candidates, we suggest potential targets such as the developmental gene Otx2 or Htr2c for further investigations into antidepressant treatment response in the future.