bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fragmentation theory reveals processes controlling iceberg size distributions
Authors: Åström Jan , Cook Sue , Enderlin Ellyn M. , Sutherland David A. , Mazur Aleksandra , Glasser Neil 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIceberg calving strongly controls glacier mass loss, but the fracture processes leading to iceberg formation are poorly understood due to the stochastic nature of calving. The size distributions of icebergs produced during the calving process can yield information on the processes driving calving and also affect the timing, magnitude, and spatial distribution of ocean fresh water fluxes near glaciers and ice sheets. In this study, we apply fragmentation theory to describe key calving behaviours, based on observational and modelling data from Greenland and Antarctica. In both regions, iceberg calving is dominated by elastic-brittle fracture processes, where distributions contain both exponential and power law components describing large-scale uncorrelated fracture and correlated branching fracture, respectively. Other size distributions can also be observed. For Antarctic icebergs, distributions change from elastic-brittle type during ‘stable’ calving to one dominated by grinding or crushing during ice shelf disintegration events. In Greenland, we find that iceberg fragment size distributions evolve from an initial elastic-brittle type distribution near the calving front, into a steeper grinding/crushing-type power law along-fjord. These results provide an entirely new framework for understanding controls on iceberg calving and how calving may react to climate forcing.
AMOURINS SHELLMOUND: UNCOVERING BIODIVERSITY AND CHRONOLOGY THROUGH CHARCOAL ANALYSES
Authors: Macario Kita D , Scheel-Ybert Rita , Ribeiro-Pinto Natacha , Pereira Bruna B , Amaral Dayanne , Alves Eduardo Q 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTIn paleoenvironmental research, several proxies are used to reconstruct climate and vegetation. The establishment of a chronological framework allows for the association of different proxies and correlation of events happening in different geographic areas. Cultural deposits, such as the shellmounds found along the coast of Brazil, play an important role in paleoenvironmental interpretations. Here, we have employed anthracological analysis in charcoal fragments from the Amourins shellmound, located at the margins of the Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro. This allowed for the taxonomic identification and selection of short-lived trees and specific parts of plants for accurate radiocarbon dating. We recorded genera and families typical of the Atlantic Forest, restinga forest, open restinga and mangrove. The 14C ages of charred nuts from different occupational layers range from 3807 ± 35 to 3503 ± 70 BP and a sequential chronological model was built, relating the predominance of mangrove vegetation to the period between 4130–3960 cal BP.
CAPITANAS Y PATRONAS. MUJERES EN LA ACTIVIDAD CORSARIA DE MALLORCA EN EL SIGLO XVII
Authors: Seguí Beltrán Andreu 
Published: March 2021

RESUMENEl artículo se enmarca en las líneas de investigación actual sobre la mujer en la economía marítima preindustrial. Se trata de un estudio de caso centrado en las capitanas y las patronas durante el auge del corso en Mallorca entre 1635–80. En él se destaca la labor de las mujeres de mar como procuradoras de sus maridos mientras permanecían ausentes, especialmente cuando la situación les exigió demostrar iniciativa e ir más allá de lo estipulado en la procura. Asimismo, se constata un mayor protagonismo en cuatro áreas de la empresa corsaria, mientras ésta se rigió por un modelo de corte familiar.
Search Strategies and Specifications in a Swarm versus Swarm Context
Authors: Moltajaei Farid Ali , Kamal Md Abdus Samad , Egerton Simon 
Published: March 2021

SUMMARYThis paper proposes and evaluates swarming mechanisms of patrolling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can collectively search a region for intruding UAVs. The main contributions include the development of multi-objective searching strategies and investigation of the required sensor configurations for the patrolling UAVs. Numerical results reveal that it is sometimes better to search through a region with a single swarm rather than multiple swarms deployed over sub-regions. Moreover, a large communication range does not necessarily improve search performances, and the patrolling swarm must have a speed close to the speed of the intruding UAVs to maximize the search performances.
Estimation of monitor unit through analytical method for dynamic IMRT using control points as an effective parameter
Authors: Athiyaman M. , Hemalatha A. , Chougule Arun , Joan Mary , Kumar HS 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIntroduction:The control points (CP) play a significant role in the delivery of segmented based Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) delivery, particularly in dynamic mode. The number of segments is determined by control points and these segments will transfer from one to the other either during beam ON called dynamic delivery or during beam OFF called static delivery or step and shoot. This study was aimed at indirect estimation of the total monitor units (MU) to be delivered per field by exploiting the control points and also to find the MUs at any nth segment.Materials and methods:This study was performed in the Eclipse treatment planning software version 13.8.0. The details of control points, metre set weight per segment, leaf positions for each segment, field size, etc. were taken into consideration.Results:TPS calculated MU value and analytically estimated MU value were compared and the percentage of difference was estimated. The overall mean percentage of deviation was 1·03% between the TPS calculated method and the analytical method. The paired sample t-test was performed and, p-value <0·05, no significant difference was found. The analytical relationship determined to estimate the total number of MU delivered for any nth control point was also evaluated.Conclusion:The control points are a potential parameter in the conventional IMRT delivery. Through this study, we have addressed the indirect method to estimate the monitor units delivered per segment.
The impact of COVID-19 on palliative care workers across the world: A qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions
Authors: Pastrana Tania , De Lima Liliana , Pettus Katherine , Ramsey Alison , Napier Genevieve , Wenk Roberto , Radbruch Lukas 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectiveWith over two million deaths and almost 100 million confirmed cases, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a “tsunami of suffering.” Health care workers, including palliative care workers, have been severely impacted. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted palliative care workers around the world and describes the coping strategies they have adopted to face their specific situation.MethodWe conducted a qualitative analysis of written, unstructured comments provided by respondents to a survey of IAHPC members between May and June 2020. Free text was exported to MAX QDA, and a thematic analysis was performed by reading the comments and developing a coding frame.ResultsSeventy-seven palliative care workers from 41 countries submitted at least one written comment, resulting in a data corpus of 10,694 words and a total of 374 coded comments. Eight main themes are emerged from the analysis: palliative care development, workforce impact, work reorganization, palliative care reconceptualization, economic and financial impacts, increased risk, emotional impact, and coping strategies.Significance of resultsThe pandemic has had a huge impact on palliative care workers including their ability to work and their financial status. It has generated increased workloads and placed them in vulnerable positions that affect their emotional well-being, resulting in distress and burnout. Counseling and support networks provide important resilience-building buffers. Coping strategies such as team and family support are important factors in workers’ capacity to adapt and respond. The pandemic is changing the concept and praxis of palliative care. Government officials, academia, providers, and affected populations need to work together to develop, and implement steps to ensure palliative care integration into response preparedness plans so as not to leave anyone behind, including health workers.
Not Just Sticks and Stones: Psychological Abuse and Physical Violence among U.S. State Senators
Authors: Herrick Rebekah , Thomas Sue 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this study, we report results of a survey of U.S. state senators about their experiences of psychological abuse, physical violence, and sexualized abuse and violence on the job, as well as gender differences among senators. Overall, our results indicate that more than 80% of state senators reported having faced abuse and violence, and women senators reported more physical violence than men. Moreover, we found differences in the factors that contributed to abuse and violence among women and men state senators. Most notably, women with higher levels of power (party or committee leaders) were more likely than other women to experience psychological abuse and sexualized abuse and violence, and Democratic women senators faced more sexualized abuse and violence than Republican women. The implications for continued service by state senators in the face of these experiences, the likelihood of attracting future candidates, and the implications for gender diversity in office are explored.
Computation‐Efficient Parameter Estimation for a High‐Resolution Global Tide and Surge Model
Authors: Wang Xiaohui , Verlaan Martin , Apecechea Maialen Irazoqui , Lin Hai Xiang 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this study, a computation‐efficient parameter estimation scheme for high‐resolution global tide models is developed. The method is applied to Global Tide and Surge Model with an unstructured grid with a resolution of about 2.5 km in the coastal area and about 4.9 million cells. The estimation algorithm uses an iterative least squares method, known as DUD. We use time‐series derived from the FES2014 tidal database in deep water as observations to estimate corrections to the bathymetry. Although the model and estimation algorithm run in parallel, directly applying of DUD would not be affordable computationally. To reduce the computational demand, a coarse‐to‐fine strategy is proposed by using output from a coarser model to replace the fine model. There are two approaches; One is completely replacing the fine model with a coarser model during calibration (Coarse Calibration) and the second is Coarse Incremental Calibration, that replaces the output increments between the initial model and model with modified parameters by coarser grid model simulations. To further reduce the computation time, the parameter dimension is reduced from O(106) to O(102) based on sensitivity analysis, which greatly reduces the required number of model simulations and storage. In combination, these methods form an efficient optimization strategy. Experiments show that the accuracy of the tidal representation can be improved significantly at affordable cost. Validation for other time‐periods and using coastal tide‐gauges shows that the accuracy is improved significantly. However, the calibration period of two weeks is short and leads to some over‐fitting of the model.
BET proteolysis targeted chimera-based therapy of novel models of Richter Transformation-diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
Authors: Fiskus Warren , Mill Christopher P. , Perera Dimuthu , Birdwell Christine , Deng Qing , Yang Haopeng , Lara Bernardo H. , Jain Nitin , Burger Jan , Ferrajoli Alessandra , Davis John A. , Saenz Dyana T. , Jin Wendy , Coarfa Cristian , Crews Craig M. , Green Michael R. , Khoury Joseph D. , Bhalla Kapil N. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractRichter Transformation (RT) develops in CLL as an aggressive, therapy-resistant, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (RT-DLBCL), commonly clonally-related (CLR) to the concomitant CLL. Lack of available pre-clinical human models has hampered the development of novel therapies for RT-DLBCL. Here, we report the profiles of genetic alterations, chromatin accessibility and active enhancers, gene-expressions and anti-lymphoma drug-sensitivity of three newly established, patient-derived, xenograft (PDX) models of RT-DLBCLs, including CLR and clonally-unrelated (CLUR) to concomitant CLL. The CLR and CLUR RT-DLBCL cells display active enhancers, higher single-cell RNA-Seq-determined mRNA, and protein expressions of IRF4, TCF4, and BCL2, as well as increased sensitivity to BET protein inhibitors. CRISPR knockout of IRF4 attenuated c-Myc levels and increased sensitivity to a BET protein inhibitor. Co-treatment with BET inhibitor or BET-PROTAC and ibrutinib or venetoclax exerted synergistic in vitro lethality in the RT-DLBCL cells. Finally, as compared to each agent alone, combination therapy with BET-PROTAC and venetoclax significantly reduced lymphoma burden and improved survival of immune-depleted mice engrafted with CLR-RT-DLBCL. These findings highlight a novel, potentially effective therapy for RT-DLBCL.
Iron limitation by transferrin promotes simultaneous cheating of pyoverdine and exoprotease in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Tostado-Islas Oswaldo , Mendoza-Ortiz Alberto , Ramírez-García Gabriel , Cabrera-Takane Isamu Daniel , Loarca Daniel , Pérez-González Caleb , Jasso-Chávez Ricardo , Jiménez-Cortés J Guillermo , Hoshiko Yuki , Maeda Toshinari , Cazares Adrian , García-Contreras Rodolfo 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a primary bacterial model to study cooperative behaviors because it yields exoproducts such as siderophores and exoproteases that act as public goods and can be exploited by selfish nonproducers behaving as social cheaters. Iron-limited growth medium, mainly casamino acids medium supplemented with transferrin, is typically used to isolate and study nonproducer mutants of the siderophore pyoverdine. However, using a protein as the iron chelator could inadvertently select mutants unable to produce exoproteases, since these enzymes can degrade the transferrin to facilitate iron release. Here we investigated the evolutionary dynamics of pyoverdine and exoprotease production in media in which iron was limited by using either transferrin or a cation chelating resin. We show that concomitant loss of pyoverdine and exoprotease production readily develops in media containing transferrin, whereas only pyoverdine loss emerges in medium treated with the resin. Characterization of exoprotease- and pyoverdine-less mutants revealed loss in motility, different mutations, and large genome deletions (13–33 kb) including Quorum Sensing (lasR, rsal, and lasI) and flagellar genes. Our work shows that using transferrin as an iron chelator imposes simultaneous selective pressure for the loss of pyoverdine and exoprotease production. The unintended effect of transferrin uncovered by our experiments can help to inform the design of similar studies.
Mayo Clinic experience with 1123 adults with acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Begna Kebede H. , Ali Walid , Naseema Gangat  , Elliott Michelle A. , Al-Kali Aref , Litzow Mark R. , Christopher Hook C. , Wolanskyj-Spinner Alexandra P. , Hogan William J. , Patnaik Mrinal M. , Pardanani Animesh , Zblewski Darci L. , Chen Dong , He Rong , Viswanatha David , Hanson Curtis A. , Ketterling Rhett P. , Tefferi Ayalew 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBetween 2004 and 2017, a total of 1123 adult patients (median age 65 years; 61% males) with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML), not including acute promyelocytic leukemia, were seen at the Mayo Clinic. Treatment included intensive (n = 766) or lower intensity (n = 144) chemotherapy or supportive care (n = 213), with respective median survivals of 22, 9, and 2 months (p < 0.01). Intensive chemotherapy resulted in complete remission (CR) and CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi) rates of 44 and 33%, respectively, with no difference in survival outcome between the two (p = 0.4). Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) was documented in 259 patients and provided the best survival rate (median 55 months; p < 0.01). After a median follow-up of 13 months, 841 (75%) deaths were recorded. Multivariate analysis identified age >60 years (HR 2.2, 1.9–2.6), adverse karyotype (HR 2.9, 1.9–4.9), intermediate-risk karyotype (HR 1.6, 1.02–2.6), post-myeloproliferative neoplasm AML (HR 1.9, 1.5–2.4), and other secondary AML (HR 1.3 (1.1–1.6) as risk factors for shortened survival. These risk factors retained their significance after inclusion of FLT3/NPM1 mutational status in 392 informative cases: FLT3+NPM1− (HR 2.8, 1.4–5.6), FLT3+/NPM+ (HR 2.6 (1.3–5.2), and FLT3−NPM1− (HR 1.8, 1.0–3.0).
In vivo chemical reprogramming of astrocytes into neurons
Authors: Ma Yantao , Xie Handan , Du Xiaomin , Wang Lipeng , Jin Xueqin , Zhang Qianqian , Han Yawen , Sun Shicheng , Wang Longteng , Li Xiang , Zhang Changjiang , Wang Mengdi , Li Cheng , Xu Jun , Huang Zhuo , Wang Xiaoqun , Chai Zhen , Deng Hongkui 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn mammals, many organs lack robust regenerative abilities. Lost cells in impaired tissue could potentially be compensated by converting nearby cells in situ through in vivo reprogramming. Small molecule-induced cell reprogramming offers a temporally flexible and non-integrative strategy for altering cell fate, which is, in principle, favorable for in vivo reprogramming in organs with notoriously poor regenerative abilities, such as the brain. Here, we demonstrate that in the adult mouse brain, small molecules can reprogram astrocytes into neurons. The in situ chemically induced neurons resemble endogenous neurons in terms of neuron-specific marker expression, electrophysiological properties, and synaptic connectivity. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of in vivo chemical reprogramming in the adult mouse brain and provides a potential approach for developing neuronal replacement therapies.
Large-scale discovery of protein interactions at residue resolution using co-evolution calculated from genomic sequences
Authors: Green Anna G. , Elhabashy Hadeer , Brock Kelly P. , Maddamsetti Rohan , Kohlbacher Oliver , Marks Debora S. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIncreasing numbers of protein interactions have been identified in high-throughput experiments, but only a small proportion have solved structures. Recently, sequence coevolution-based approaches have led to a breakthrough in predicting monomer protein structures and protein interaction interfaces. Here, we address the challenges of large-scale interaction prediction at residue resolution with a fast alignment concatenation method and a probabilistic score for the interaction of residues. Importantly, this method (EVcomplex2) is able to assess the likelihood of a protein interaction, as we show here applied to large-scale experimental datasets where the pairwise interactions are unknown. We predict 504 interactions de novo in the E. coli membrane proteome, including 243 that are newly discovered. While EVcomplex2 does not require available structures, coevolving residue pairs can be used to produce structural models of protein interactions, as done here for membrane complexes including the Flagellar Hook-Filament Junction and the Tol/Pal complex.
Role of tubular epithelial arginase-II in renal inflammaging
Authors: Huang Ji , Liang Xiujie , Ladeiras Diogo , Fellay Benoit , Ming Xiu-Fen , Yang Zhihong 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe aging kidney undergoes complex changes and is vulnerable to injury and development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) with preponderance affecting more women than men. Evidence has been presented that the type-II L-arginine:ureohydrolase, arginase-II (Arg-II) plays a role in the acceleration of aging. Arg-II is highly expressed in the kidney. However, the role of Arg-II in renal aging is not known. This study is to investigate whether Arg-II is involved in the kidney aging process dependently on sex. Arg-II level in the kidney of wild type (WT) mice is significantly elevated with aging, which is accompanied by an increase in expression of the inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, tissue macrophages, factors involved in fibrosis, and tubulointestitial fibrosis in both males and females. This renal aging phenotype is significantly suppressed in arg-II−/− mice, mainly in the females in which Arg-II level is higher than in the males. Importantly, numerous factors such as IL-1β, MCP1, VCAM-1, and TGFβ1 are mainly localized in the proximal tubular S3 segment cells expressing Arg-II in the aging kidney. In human proximal tubular cells (HK-2), TNF-α enhances adhesion molecule expression dependently on Arg-II upregulation. Overexpression of Arg-II in the cells enhances TGFβ1 levels which is prevented by mitochondrial ROS inhibition. In summary, our study reveals that renal proximal tubular Arg-II plays an important role in the kidney aging process in females. Arg-II could be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment and prevention of aging-associated kidney diseases.
Ivermectin converts cold tumors hot and synergizes with immune checkpoint blockade for treatment of breast cancer
Authors: Draganov Dobrin , Han Zhen , Rana Aamir , Bennett Nitasha , Irvine Darrell J. , Lee Peter P. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractWe show that treatment with the FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug ivermectin induces immunogenic cancer cell death (ICD) and robust T cell infiltration into breast tumors. As an allosteric modulator of the ATP/P2X4/P2X7 axis which operates in both cancer and immune cells, ivermectin also selectively targets immunosuppressive populations including myeloid cells and Tregs, resulting in enhanced Teff/Tregs ratio. While neither agent alone showed efficacy in vivo, combination therapy with ivermectin and checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD1 antibody achieved synergy in limiting tumor growth (p = 0.03) and promoted complete responses (p < 0.01), also leading to immunity against contralateral re-challenge with demonstrated anti-tumor immune responses. Going beyond primary tumors, this combination achieved significant reduction in relapse after neoadjuvant (p = 0.03) and adjuvant treatment (p < 0.001), and potential cures in metastatic disease (p < 0.001). Statistical modeling confirmed bona fide synergistic activity in both the adjuvant (p = 0.007) and metastatic settings (p < 0.001). Ivermectin has dual immunomodulatory and ICD-inducing effects in breast cancer, converting cold tumors hot, thus represents a rational mechanistic partner with checkpoint blockade.
Noise-robust exploration of many-body quantum states on near-term quantum devices
Authors: Borregaard Johannes , Christandl Matthias , Stilck França Daniel 
Published: March 2021

AbstractWe describe a resource-efficient approach to studying many-body quantum states on noisy, intermediate-scale quantum devices. We employ a sequential generation model that allows us to bound the range of correlations in the resulting many-body quantum states. From this, we characterize situations where the estimation of local observables does not require the preparation of the entire state. Instead smaller patches of the state can be generated from which the observables can be estimated. This can potentially reduce circuit size and number of qubits for the computation of physical properties of the states. Moreover, we show that the effect of noise decreases along the computation. Our results apply to a broad class of widely studied tensor network states and can be directly applied to near-term implementations of variational quantum algorithms.