bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Contrasting Interannual Prediction between January and February Temperature in Southern China in the NCEP Climate Forecast System
Authors: Qiao Shaobo , Zou Meng , Cheung Ho Nam , Liu Jieyu , Zuo Jinqing , Li Qingxiang , Feng Guolin , Dong Wenjie 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis study investigates the prediction of southern China surface air temperature (SAT) in January and February using hindcast and forecast dataset from the second version of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System, version 2 (NCEP CFSv2), for the period of 1983–2017. The observed January and February SAT in southern China is teleconnected with the Euro-Atlantic dipole (EAD) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), respectively. The February SAT is also teleconnected with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) via the bridge with the Philippine Sea anticyclone. The CFSv2 better predicts southern China SAT in February than January, where the temporal correlation coefficients between the observed and predicted regional-mean SAT in February and January are +0.81 and +0.27 (+0.32 and +0.04), respectively, for the one-month (two month) ahead prediction. The better prediction in February coincides with 1) accurate responses of the Eurasian circulation and the Philippine Sea anticyclone to the NAO and the ENSO, respectively, and 2) a strong ENSO–NAO linkage. The poorer prediction in January is related to a stronger linkage of the predicted January SAT with the NAO rather than the EAD, as well as a weak ENSO–EAD linkage. These results advance our understanding of the subseasonal prediction of the winter temperature in southern China.
Quantifying Flow Speeds by Using Microstructure Shear and Temperature Spectral Analysis
Authors: Guo Shuang-Xi , Cen Xian-Rong , Qu Ling , Lu Yuan-Zheng , Huang Peng-Qi , Zhou Sheng-Qi 
Published: January 2021

AbstractFlow speed past the measuring probe is definitely needed for the estimation of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates ε and temperature dissipation rates χ based on the Taylor frozen hypothesis. This speed is usually measured with current instruments. Occasional failed work of these instruments may lead to unsuccessful speed measurement. For example, low concentration of suspended particles in water could make the observed speed invalid when using acoustic measuring instruments. In this study, we propose an alternative approach for quantifying the flow speeds by only using the microstructure shear or temperature data, according to the spectral theories of the inertial and dissipation subranges. A dataset of the microstructure profiler, vertical microstructure profiler (VMP), collected in the South China Sea (SCS) during 2017, is used to describe this approach, and the inferred speeds are compared with the actual passing-probe speeds, i.e., the falling speeds of the VMP. Probability density functions (PDFs) of the speed ratios, i.e., the ratios of the speeds respectively inferred from the inertial and dissipation subranges of the shear and temperature spectra to the actual speeds, follow the lognormal distribution, with corresponding mean values of 1.32, 1.03, 1.56, and 1.43, respectively. This result indicates that the present approach for quantifying the flow speeds is valid, and the speeds inferred from the dissipation subrange of shear spectrum agree much better with the actual ones than those from the inertial subrange of shear spectrum and the inertial and dissipation subranges of temperature spectrum. The present approach may be complementary and useful in the evaluation of turbulent mixing when the directly observed speeds are unavailable.
Verifying and Redefining the Weather Prediction Center’s Excessive Rainfall Outlook Forecast Product
Authors: Erickson Michael J. , Albright Benjamin , Nelson James A. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe Weather Prediction Center’s Excessive Rainfall Outlook (ERO) forecasts the probability of rainfall exceeding flash flood guidance within 40 km of a point. This study presents a comprehensive ERO verification between 2015 and 2019 using a combination of flooding observations and proxies. ERO spatial issuance frequency plots are developed to provide situational awareness for forecasters. Reliability of the ERO is assessed by computing fractional coverage of the verification within each probabilistic category. Probabilistic forecast skill is evaluated using the Brier skill score (BSS) and area under the relative operating characteristic (AUC). A “probabilistic observation” called practically perfect (PP) is developed and compared to the ERO as an additional measure of skill. The areal issuance frequency of the ERO varies spatially with the most abundant issuances spanning from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest and the Appalachians. ERO issuances occur most often in the summer and are associated with the Southwestern monsoon, mesoscale convective systems, and tropical cyclones. The ERO exhibits good reliability on average, although more recent trends suggest some ERO-defined probabilistic categories should be issued more frequently. AUC and BSS are useful bulk skill metrics, while verification against PP is useful in bulk and for shorter-term ERO evaluation. ERO forecasts are generally more skillful at shorter lead times in terms of AUC and BSS. There is no trend in ERO area size over 5 years, although ERO forecasts may be getting slightly more skillful in terms of critical success index when verified against the PP.
Research on Key Issues of Consistency Analysis of Vehicle Steering Characteristics
Authors: Liu Yanhua , Guan Xin , Lu Pingping , Guo Rui 
Published: January 2021

AbstractGiven the global lack of effective analysis methods for the impact of design parameter tolerance on performance deviation in the vehicle proof-of-concept stage, it is difficult to decompose performance tolerance to design parameter tolerance. This study proposes a set of consistency analysis methods for vehicle steering performance. The process of consistency analysis and control of automotive performance in the conceptual design phase is proposed for the first time. A vehicle dynamics model is constructed, and the multi-objective optimization software Isight is used to optimize the steering performance of the car. Sensitivity analysis is used to optimize the design performance value. The tolerance interval of the performance is obtained by comparing the original car performance value with the optimized value. With the help of layer-by-layer decomposition theory and interval mathematics, automotive performance tolerance has been decomposed into design parameter tolerance. Through simulation and real vehicle experiments, the validity of the consistency analysis and control method presented in this paper are verified. The decomposition from parameter tolerance to performance tolerance can be achieved at the conceptual design stage.
Awareness and implementation of lonizing radiation safety measures among urology community in Egypt: nationwide survey
Authors: Omar Mohamed , Desoky Esam E. A. , Elmohamady Basheer , El-Shaer Alaa , Noureldin Yasser A. 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
To assess awareness of ionizing radiation safety measures among Egyptian Urology Trainees and Urologists and see the effect of radiation safety courses on the adoption of these measures.

Methods
This Internet-based survey was conducted via https://www.surveymonkey.com/ after approval by the Egyptian Urological Association (EUA). It was sent to all EUA members via email during December 2019. Participation was voluntary and questions included participants’ demographics such as age, gender, years of experience, level of training and type of practice. Other questions assessed some domains such as whether the participant had radiation safety courses, and the extent to which she/he is adopting these measures during daily practice.

Results
A total of 142 Egyptian urology trainees and urologists responded to this electronic survey. The mean hours of fluoroscopy-guided endourologic procedures per week were 4.3 ± 2.1 h, and only 23% reported that they always wear protective lead aprons. In terms of the thyroid shield, X-ray protective gloves, eye googles, a total of 70% and 89% and 89% reported that they never wore it, respectively. The ALARA principle was known by only 24% of respondents. About 94% denied receiving any radiation safety courses. Participants who received radiation safety course reported significantly shorter FT during URS (p = 0.04), PCNL (p = 0.03) and JJ insertion (p = 0.04) and were significantly more compliant (p = 0.02). In addition, the number of years of experience (< 5y,5-10y,10-15y, > 15y) and the current job level (resident, specialist, consultant, professor) was significantly associated with higher compliance with lead aprons (p = 0.006, p < 0.001, respectively). On regression analysis, previous radiation safety awareness courses were the only predictor of good compliance with radiation safety measures (OR = 2 ± 0.73, p = 0.009).

Conclusion
There was a lack of awareness and implementation of radiation safety measures among all participants. Receiving radiation safety courses was the only predictor of good compliance with radiation safety measures.
Glucocorticoid resistance syndrome: let’s give it a thought
Authors: Sharma Sonu , Sabale Vilas , Satav Vikram , Rollands Rakesh , Mulay Abhirudra , Mhaske Sunil , Mane Deepak 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Generalized glucocorticoid resistance syndrome has a tremendously heterogenous and very broad clinical spectrum. This syndrome is caused by loss of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function due to mutation leading impairment in GR signalling. It presents with hypercortisolism, hypertension, enlarged adrenal glands but no Cushingoid features. Extensive endocrinologic investigations and genetic analysis can determine this disease and help in managing the sequalae of this syndrome. We report this case after looking into its rarity and presentation which would give an insight about this disease.

Case presentation
A 26-year-old female presented with, hirsutism, acne, deep voice (which was patients main concern), hypercortisolism, raised testosterone, without features of Cushing’s. On examination she was normotensive, hirsutism and poorly developed breast with ambiguous genitalia. On investigation, she was found to have left adrenal mass, hypercortisolism and had resistance to dexamethasone suppression test. She underwent left open adrenalectomy followed by continued medication with dexamethasone.

Conclusion
This syndrome should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients with hypercortisolism but without any features of Cushing’s syndrome. It is a difficult diagnosis for a urologist, endocrinologist help should be sought for better outcomes and adherence on long-term hormonal treatment.
State aid, EU maritime transport policies and competitiveness of EU country fleets
Authors: Bilbao-Ubillos Javier , Fernández-Sainz Ana , Payán-Azkue Rosa 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Aim and purposes
This study conducts an across-the-board comparative analysis of the impact of the main measures used by the 10 leading maritime nations of the EU on the relative competitiveness of the fleets that they control, covering the period from 1996 to 2011. We propose two models to compare the relative effectiveness of the maritime policy measures implemented: one for the full set of countries and measures and the other specifically for each maritime nation.

Findings
The estimation results make us conclude that generally the measures adopted in national-level maritime policies (tonnage tax, second register and other measures) seem to have been effective in that they have had a positive effect on the competitiveness of controlled fleets, but with uneven impact on the fleets of each country.
Impact of explicit area scaling on kinetic models involving multiple compartments
Authors: Holzheu Pascal , Großeholz Ruth , Kummer Ursula 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundComputational modelling of cell biological processes is a frequently used technique to analyse the underlying mechanisms and to generally understand the behaviour of these processes in the context of a pathway, network or even the whole cell. The most common technique in this context is the usage of ordinary differential equations that describe the kinetics of the relevant processes in mechanistic detail. Here, it is usually assumed that the content of the cell is well-stirred and thus homogeneous - which is of course an over-simplification, but often worked in the past. However, many processes happen at membranes and thus not in 3D, but in 2D. The scaling of the rates of these processes poses a special problem, if volumes of compartments are changed. They will typically scale with an area, but not with the volume of the involved compartment. However, commonly, this is neglected when setting up models and/or volume scaling also sometimes automatically happens when using modelling software in the field.ResultsHere, we investigate generic as well as specific, realistic cases to find out, how strong the impact of the wrong scaling is for the outcome of simulations. We show that the importance of correct area scaling depends on the architecture of the reaction site and its changes upon volume alterations and it is hard to foresee, if it has a significant impact or not just by looking at the original model set-up. Moreover, scaled rates might exhibit more or less control over the behaviour of the system and therefore, accordingly, incorrect scaling will have more or less influence.ConclusionsWorking with multi-compartment reactions requires a careful consideration of the correct scaling of the rates when changing the volumes of the involved compartments. The error following incorrect scaling - often done by scaling with the volume of the respective compartments can lead to significant aberrations of model behaviour.
The skeletome of the red coral Corallium rubrum indicates an independent evolution of biomineralization process in octocorals
Authors: Le Roy Nathalie , Ganot Philippe , Aranda Manuel , Allemand Denis , Tambutté Sylvie 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
The process of calcium carbonate biomineralization has arisen multiple times during metazoan evolution. In the phylum Cnidaria, biomineralization has mostly been studied in the subclass Hexacorallia (i.e. stony corals) in comparison to the subclass Octocorallia (i.e. red corals); the two diverged approximately 600 million years ago. The precious Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum, is an octocorallian species, which produces two distinct high-magnesium calcite biominerals, the axial skeleton and the sclerites. In order to gain insight into the red coral biomineralization process and cnidarian biomineralization evolution, we studied the protein repertoire forming the organic matrix (OM) of its two biominerals.

Results
We combined High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and transcriptome analysis to study the OM composition of the axial skeleton and the sclerites. We identified a total of 102 OM proteins, 52 are found in the two red coral biominerals with scleritin being the most abundant protein in each fraction. Contrary to reef building corals, the red coral organic matrix possesses a large number of collagen-like proteins. Agrin-like glycoproteins and proteins with sugar-binding domains are also predominant. Twenty-seven and 23 proteins were uniquely assigned to the axial skeleton and the sclerites, respectively. The inferred regulatory function of these OM proteins suggests that the difference between the two biominerals is due to the modeling of the matrix network, rather than the presence of specific structural components. At least one OM component could have been horizontally transferred from prokaryotes early during Octocorallia evolution.

Conclusion
Our results suggest that calcification of the red coral axial skeleton likely represents a secondary calcification of an ancestral gorgonian horny axis. In addition, the comparison with stony coral skeletomes highlighted the low proportion of similar proteins between the biomineral OMs of hexacorallian and octocorallian corals, suggesting an independent acquisition of calcification in anthozoans.
JOINT for large-scale single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis via soft-clustering and parallel computing
Authors: Cui Tao , Wang Tingting 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundSingle-cell RNA-Sequencing (scRNA-Seq) has provided single-cell level insights into complex biological processes. However, the high frequency of gene expression detection failures in scRNA-Seq data make it challenging to achieve reliable identification of cell-types and Differentially Expressed Genes (DEG). Moreover, with the explosive growth of single-cell data using 10x genomics protocol, existing methods will soon reach the computation limit due to scalability issues. The single-cell transcriptomics field desperately need new tools and framework to facilitate large-scale single-cell analysis.ResultsIn order to improve the accuracy, robustness, and speed of scRNA-Seq data processing, we propose a generalized zero-inflated negative binomial mixture model, “JOINT,” that can perform probability-based cell-type discovery and DEG analysis simultaneously without the need for imputation. JOINT performs soft-clustering for cell-type identification by computing the probability of individual cells, i.e. each cell can belong to multiple cell types with different probabilities. This is drastically different from existing hard-clustering methods where each cell can only belong to one cell type. The soft-clustering component of the algorithm significantly facilitates the accuracy and robustness of single-cell analysis, especially when the scRNA-Seq datasets are noisy and contain a large number of dropout events. Moreover, JOINT is able to determine the optimal number of cell-types automatically rather than specifying it empirically. The proposed model is an unsupervised learning problem which is solved by using the Expectation and Maximization (EM) algorithm. The EM algorithm is implemented using the TensorFlow deep learning framework, dramatically accelerating the speed for data analysis through parallel GPU computing.ConclusionsTaken together, the JOINT algorithm is accurate and efficient for large-scale scRNA-Seq data analysis via parallel computing. The Python package that we have developed can be readily applied to aid future advances in parallel computing-based single-cell algorithms and research in various biological and biomedical fields.
Adaptive immune responses mediated age-related Plasmodium yoelii 17XL and 17XNL infections in 4 and 8-week-old BALB/c mice
Authors: Wang Qiu-bo , Du Yun-ting , Liu Fei , Sun Xiao-dan , Sun Xun , Chen Guang , Pang Wei , Cao Ya-Ming 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroudIt is important to expound the opposite clinical outcomes between children and adulthood for eradicate malaria. There remains unknown about the correlation between adaptive immune response and age-related in malaria.Methods4 and 8-week-old mice were used to mimic children and adulthood, respectively. Parasitemia and the survival rate were monitored. The proportion and function of Th1 and Th2 cells were detected by FACS. The levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, total IgG, IgG1, IgG2a andPlasmodium yoeliiMSP-1-specific IgG were measured by ELISA.ResultsThe adult group showed greater resistance toP. yoelii 17XLinfection, with lower parasitemia. Compared with 4-week-old mice, the percentage of CD4+T-bet+IFN-γ+Th1 cells as well as IFN-γ production were significantly increased on day 5 p.i. in the 8-week-old mice afterP. yoelii 17XNLinfection. The percentage of CD4+GATA3+IL-4+Th2 cells and CD4+CXCR5+Tfh cells, and IL-4 production in the 8-week-old mice significantly increased on day 5 and day 10 afterP. yoelii 17XNLinfection. Notably, the levels of total IgG, IgG1, IgG2a andP. yoeliiMSP-1-specific IgG were also significantly increased in the 8-week-old mice. PD-1, a marker of exhaustion, was up-regulated on CD4+or activated CD4+T cells in the 8-week-old mice as compared to the 4-week-old group.ConclusionsThus, we consider that enhanced cellular and humoral adaptive immunity might contribute to rapid clearance of malaria among adults, likely in a PD-1-dependent manner due to induction of CD4+T cells exhaustion inP. yoelii 17XNLinfected 8-week-old mice.
Development of a real-time quantitative PCR method for detection and quantification of Prevotella copri
Authors: Verbrugghe Phebe , Van Aken Olivier , Hållenius Frida , Nilsson Anne 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Since its discovery in 2007, the importance of the human gut bacterium Prevotella copri (P. copri) has been widely recognized with its links to diet and health status and potential as next generation probiotic. Therefore, precise, convenient and cost-effective diagnostic tools for the detection and quantification of P. copri from clinical and environmental samples are needed.

Results
In this study, a Sybr Green qPCR protocol for P. copri detection and quantification was developed and tested on P. copri-spiked murine faeces samples targeting both the 16S rRNA gene and P. copri genome specific genes. The use of one 16S rRNA primer pair and 2 genome specific primer pairs resulted in at least 10x higher specificity and sensitivity than the primer-only PCR currently cited in the literature, reaching a sensitivity of 103 CFU/mL. Furthermore, we showed that the new 16S rRNA primer set provided the best balance of detection of a wide range of P. copri strains, while avoiding off-target detection of other Prevotella genus species. The quantification of P. copri in human stool samples using the new 16S rRNA primers also correlated well with 16S rRNA high throughput MiSeq sequencing data (r2 = 0.6604, p = 0.0074). The two genome specific primer pairs on the other hand uniquely detect the DSM18205 reference strain, allowing differential detection of indigenous and experimentally administered P. copri populations. Finally, it was shown that SYBR green qPCR mixes have an influence on sensitivity and specificity, with Biorad SsoAdvanced Universal SYBR Green Supermix performing the best under our test conditions of six commercially available SYBR green master mixes.

Conclusions
This improved qPCR-based method will allow accurate P. copri identification and quantification. Moreover, this methodology can also be applied to identify other bacterial species in complex samples.