bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Baseline elevated serum angiopoietin-2 predicts long-term non-regression of liver fibrosis after direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C
Authors: Kawagishi Naoki , Suda Goki , Kimura Megumi , Maehara Osamu , Yamada Ren , Tokuchi Yoshimasa , Kubo Akinori , Kitagataya Takashi , Shigesawa Taku , Suzuki Kazuharu , Ohara Masatsugu , Nakai Masato , Sho Takuya , Natsuizaka Mitsuteru , Morikawa Kenichi , Ogawa Koji , Kudo Yusuke , Nishida Mutsumi , Sakamoto Naoya 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe previously revealed that Angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) predicts non-regression of liver fibrosis based on liver stiffness measurement (LSM) at 24 weeks after anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment. In this study, we extended the observational period to 96 weeks to investigate the factors associated with non-regression after treatment with direct-acting-antivirals (DAAs). Patients treated with DAAs who underwent transient elastography at baseline and 24 and 96 weeks after DAA therapy were included. Baseline and post-treatment serum Ang2 levels were measured. Liver fibrosis stages were defined based on LSM. Multivariate regression was used to evaluate factors associated with non-regression of liver fibrosis between various time points. In total, 110 patients were included. Of these, 11% showed non-regression of LSM-based fibrosis stage at 96 weeks after DAA therapy. In multivariate analysis, advanced liver fibrosis stage and high baseline Ang2 levels were significantly associated with non-regression at 96 weeks. In patients with advanced liver fibrosis (F3/4), baseline Ang2 levels were associated with non-regression of liver fibrosis stage. Between SVR24 and SVR96, post-treatment Ang2 levels and controlled attenuation parameter values at SVR24 were significantly associated with non-regression of liver fibrosis stage in patients with F3/4. Thus, serum Ang2 levels are an important target for monitoring and therapy.
A novel prognostic biomarker LCP2 correlates with metastatic melanoma-infiltrating CD8+ T cells
Authors: Wang Zijun , Peng Mou 
Published: April 2021

AbstractLymphocyte cytosolic protein 2 (LCP2) is one of the SLP-76 family of adapters, which are critical intermediates in signal cascades downstream of several receptors. LCP2 regulates immunoreceptor signaling (such as T-cell receptors) and is also required for integrin signaling in neutrophils and platelets. However, the role of LCP2 in the tumor microenvironment is still unknown. In this study, we found a significant increase of mRNA and protein expression of LCP2 in metastatic skin cutaneous melanoma compared to normal skin. The upregulation of LCP2 was associated with good overall survival of patients with metastatic skin cutaneous melanoma, who received pharmacotherapy and radiation. GSEA signaling pathways analysis showed that LCP2 was involved in multiple pathways of immune response and correlation analysis revealed LCP2 was positively correlated with molecules in TCR signaling and 11 immune checkpoints, while LCP2 negatively correlated with 2 immune checkpoints in the metastatic skin cutaneous melanoma. According to the different expressions of LCP2, high LCP2 expression was positively correlated with more tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, Kaplan–Meier plot indicated that LCP2 acted as a prognostic biomarker for progression-free survival of patients with metastatic skin cutaneous melanoma receiving anti-PD1 immunotherapy. In conclusion, our results integrated both the expression and function of LCP2 in melanoma using multiple tools, shedding light on the potential role of LCP2 in melanoma, and suggesting LCP2 serves as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in anti-tumor immunity.
Selective deletion of SHIP-1 in hematopoietic cells in mice leads to severe lung inflammation involving ILC2 cells
Authors: Ye Xujun , Zhang Fengrui , Zhou Li , Wei Yadong , Zhang Li , Wang Lihui , Tang Haiying , Chen Zi , Kerr William G. , Zheng Tao , Zhu Zhou 
Published: April 2021

AbstractSrc homology 2 domain–containing inositol 5-phosphatase 1 (SHIP-1) regulates the intracellular levels of phosphotidylinositol-3, 4, 5-trisphosphate, a phosphoinositide 3–kinase (PI3K) product. Emerging evidence suggests that the PI3K pathway is involved in allergic inflammation in the lung. Germline or induced whole-body deletion of SHIP-1 in mice led to spontaneous type 2-dominated pulmonary inflammation, demonstrating that SHIP-1 is essential for lung homeostasis. However, the mechanisms by which SHIP-1 regulates lung inflammation and the responsible cell types are still unclear. Deletion of SHIP-1 selectively in B cells, T cells, dendritic cells (DC) or macrophages did not lead to spontaneous allergic inflammation in mice, suggesting that innate immune cells, particularly group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2 cells) may play an important role in this process. We tested this idea using mice with deletion of SHIP-1 in the hematopoietic cell lineage and examined the changes in ILC2 cells. Conditional deletion of SHIP-1 in hematopoietic cells in Tek-Cre/SHIP-1 mice resulted in spontaneous pulmonary inflammation with features of type 2 immune responses and airway remodeling like those seen in mice with global deletion of SHIP-1. Furthermore, when compared to wild-type control mice, Tek-Cre/SHIP-1 mice displayed a significant increase in the number of IL-5/IL-13 producing ILC2 cells in the lung at baseline and after stimulation by allergen Papain. These findings provide some hints that PI3K signaling may play a role in ILC2 cell development at baseline and in response to allergen stimulation. SHIP-1 is required for maintaining lung homeostasis potentially by restraining ILC2 cells and type 2 inflammation.
Hunting for vital nodes in complex networks using local information
Authors: Dong Zhihao , Chen Yuanzhu , Tricco Terrence S. , Li Cheng , Hu Ting 
Published: April 2021

AbstractComplex networks in the real world are often with heterogeneous degree distributions. The structure and function of nodes can vary significantly, with vital nodes playing a crucial role in information spread and other spreading phenomena. Identifying and taking action on vital nodes enables change to the network’s structure and function more efficiently. Previous work either redefines metrics used to measure the nodes’ importance or focuses on developing algorithms to efficiently find vital nodes. These approaches typically rely on global knowledge of the network and assume that the structure of the network does not change over time, both of which are difficult to achieve in the real world. In this paper, we propose a localized strategy that can find vital nodes without global knowledge of the network. Our joint nomination (JN) strategy selects a random set of nodes along with a set of nodes connected to those nodes, and together they nominate the vital node set. Experiments are conducted on 12 network datasets that include synthetic and real-world networks, and undirected and directed networks. Results show that average degree of the identified node set is about 3–8 times higher than that of the full node set, and higher-degree nodes take larger proportions in the degree distribution of the identified vital node set. Removal of vital nodes increases the average shortest path length by 20–70% over the original network, or about 8–15% longer than the other decentralized strategies. Immunization based on JN is more efficient than other strategies, consuming around 12–40% less immunization resources to raise the epidemic threshold to $$\tau \sim 0.1$$

τ
∼
0.1

. Susceptible-infected-recovered simulations on networks with 30% vital nodes removed using JN delays the arrival time of infection peak significantly and reduce the total infection scale to 15%. The proposed strategy can effectively identify vital nodes using only local information and is feasible to implement in the real world to cope with time-critical scenarios such as the sudden outbreak of COVID-19.
Unraveling the stability landscape of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain
Authors: Smaoui Mohamed Raef , Yahyaoui Hamdi 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe interaction between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and the ACE2 enzyme is believed to be the entry point of the virus into various cells in the body, including the lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys. The current focus of several therapeutic design efforts explores attempts at affecting the binding potential between the two proteins to limit the activity of the virus and disease progression. In this work, we analyze the stability of the spike protein under all possible single-point mutations in the RBD and computationally explore mutations that can affect the binding with the ACE2 enzyme. We unravel the mutation landscape of the receptor region and assess the toxicity potential of single and multi-point mutations, generating insights for future vaccine efforts on mutations that might further stabilize the spike protein and increase its infectivity. We developed a tool, called SpikeMutator, to construct full atomic protein structures of the mutant spike proteins and shared a database of 3800 single-point mutant structures. We analyzed the recent 65,000 reported spike sequences across the globe and observed the emergence of stable multi-point mutant structures. Using the landscape, we searched through 7.5 million possible 2-point mutation combinations and report that the (R355D K424E) mutation produces one of the strongest spike proteins that therapeutic efforts should investigate for the sake of developing effective vaccines.
Nanaomycin K inhibited epithelial mesenchymal transition and tumor growth in bladder cancer cells in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Kitagawa Koichi , Shigemura Katsumi , Ishii Aya , Nakashima Takuji , Matsuo Hirotaka , Takahashi Yoko , Omura Satoshi , Nakanishi Jun , Fujisawa Masato 
Published: April 2021

AbstractNanaomycin K, derived from Streptomyces rosa subsp. notoensis OS-3966T, has been discovered to have inhibitory bioactivity on epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), an important mechanism of cancer cell invasion and migration. In this study, we examined the anti-EMT and anti-tumor effect of nanaomycin K in bladder cancer, where EMT has important roles in progression. We treated two bladder cancer lines, non-muscle-invasive KK47 and muscle-invasive T24, with nanaomycin K to determine the effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis and expression of EMT markers in vitro. Wound-healing assays were performed to assess cell invasion and migration. We conducted an in vivo xenograft study in which mice were inoculated with bladder cancer cells and treated with intratumoral administration of nanaomycin K to investigate its anti-tumor and EMT inhibition effects. As the results, nanaomycin K (50 µg/mL) significantly inhibited cell proliferation in KK47 (p < 0.01) and T24 (p < 0.01) in the presence of TGF-β, which is an EMT-inducer. Nanaomycin K (50 µg/mL) also significantly inhibited cell migration in KK47 (p < 0.01) and T24 (p < 0.01), and induced apoptosis in both cell lines in the presence of TGF-β (p < 0.01). Nanaomycin K increased the expression of E-cadherin and inhibited the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin in both cell lines. Nanaomycin K also decreased expression of Snail, Slug, phospho-p38 and phospho-SAPK/JNK especially in T24. Intratumoral administration of nanaomycin K significantly inhibited tumor growth in both KK47 and T24 cells at high dose (1.0 mg/body) (p = 0.009 and p = 0.003, respectively) with no obvious adverse events. In addition, nanaomycin K reversed EMT and significantly inhibited the expression of Ki-67 especially in T24. In conclusion, we demonstrated that nanaomycin K had significant anti-EMT and anti-tumor effects in bladder cancer cells, suggesting that nanaomycin K may be a therapeutic candidate for bladder cancer treatment.
Examining the Role of Physical Activity on Word Learning in School-Aged Children
Authors: Pruitt Madison , Morini Giovanna 
Published: April 2021

Purpose
Previous studies show that there is increased brain activity after exercise, leading to improved word recall in adults. The aim of this study was to examine whether different types of exercise (i.e., aerobic vs. anaerobic) may also lead to improved performance during vocabulary learning in children.

Method

A total of 48 participants (24 in Experiment 1 and 24 in Experiment 2) between the ages of 6 and 12 years completed a word learning task. Training of words took place in a
resting
and in an
exercise
condition using a within-subject design. In the resting measure, children were taught names of novel objects and then colored for 3 min before being tested on their ability to recognize the words. In the exercise condition, the same steps were followed, but instead of coloring, children engaged in 3 min of either aerobic exercise (i.e., swimming in Experiment 1) or anaerobic exercise (i.e., a CrossFit-like workout in Experiment 2).

Results
In Experiment 1, accuracy of word recognition was significantly higher for words that were trained in the aerobic exercise compared to the resting condition. In Experiment 2, there was no significant difference in performance between the anaerobic exercise and resting conditions.

Conclusions
These findings suggest that previously identified benefits of exercise on language abilities in adults also extend to school-aged children. However, not all types of physical activity lead to this boost in performance, as only aerobic (but not anaerobic) exercise improved children's ability to acquire new word–object relations.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14462187
Des « certificats de virginité » aux hyménoplasties en France
Authors: Fortier Corinne 
Published: April 2021

« Dans la République, on ne peut pas exiger des certificats de virginité pour se marier ; dans la République, on ne doit jamais accepter que les lois de la religion puissent être supérieures aux lois de la République », telle est la déclaration en février 2020 du président Emmanuel Macron. Mais quel est donc le statut de ces certificats de virginité, est-il véritablement religieux ? Pourquoi se focaliser sur les « certificats de virginité » sans jamais évoquer la pratique concomitante de la réfection d’hymen ? N’existe-t-il pas une diversité de pratiques chirurgicales participant du processus de revirginisation telle que la nymphoplastie ou la vaginoplastie ; l’hyménoplastie ne serait-elle que la pointe émergée de l’iceberg ?
Polish interest groups facing democratic backsliding
Authors: Pospieszna Paulina , Vetulani-Cęgiel Agnieszka 
Published: April 2021

AbstractDemocratic backsliding in Central and Eastern European countries is on the rise. Independent judiciaries, other institutions of liberal democracy, as well as civil liberties and media freedom are being undermined, coupled with the human rights and dignity of certain groups being curtailed or even violated. In these difficult political and legal circumstances, non-state actors, such as interest groups, face many challenges. The goal of this research is to explore how interest groups in Poland perceive their position, what tactics they use in order to influence public policies and decision-makers, and whether they search for networking strategies in order to strengthen their position vis-à-vis the government. By placing our research in the Polish context, we fill the gap in the current literature on the situation of interest groups that face democratic backsliding. We base our analyses on new survey data collected from Polish interest groups in 2017–2018, conducted within the Comparative Interest Group Survey.
Loss of resilience preceded transformations of pre-Hispanic Pueblo societies
Authors: Scheffer Marten , van Nes Egbert H. , Bird Darcy , Bocinsky R. Kyle , Kohler Timothy A. 
Published: April 2021

Significance
Collapse of civilizations remains one of the most enigmatic phenomena in human history. In this paper we provide quantitative evidence that loss of resilience systematically preceded collapses. We take advantage of unique time series documenting both construction activity and climate conditions for pre-Columbian societies of the southwestern United States on an annual basis over a period of eight centuries. These data cover five transformations encompassing shifts to novel constellations of beliefs, social practices, and styles of art and architecture. The remarkable high-resolution time series allowed us to quantify the dynamics of social fragility using numerical techniques for probing resilience. Our results demonstrate that all but one of these transformations happened after decades of rising social instability.
Local-global active contour model based on tensor-based representation for 3D ultrasound vessel segmentation
Authors: Dong Jiahui , Ai Danni , Fan Jingfan , Deng Qiaoling , Song Hong , Cheng Zhigang , Liang Ping , Wang Yongtian , Yang Jian 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) vessel segmentation can provide full spatial information about an anatomic structure to help physicians gain increased understanding of vascular structures, which plays an utmost role in many medical image-processing and analysis applications. The purpose of this paper aims to develop a 3D vessel-segmentation method that can improve segmentation accuracy in 3D ultrasound (US) images. We propose a 3D tensor-based active contour model method for accurate 3D vessel segmentation. With our method, the contrast-independent multiscale bottom-hat tensor representation and local-global information are captured. This strategy ensures the effective extraction of the boundaries of vessels from inhomogeneous and homogeneous regions without being affected by the noise and low-contrast of the 3D US images. Experimental results in clinical 3D US and public 3D Multiphoton Microscopy datasets are used for quantitative and qualitative comparison with several state-of-the-art vessel segmentation methods. Clinical experiments demonstrate that our method can achieve a smoother and more accurate boundary of the vessel object than competing methods. The mean SE, SP and ACC of the proposed method are: 0.7768 ± 0.0597, 0.9978 ± 0.0013 and 0.9971 ± 0.0015 respectively. Experiments on the public dataset show that our method can segment complex vessels in different medical images with noise and low- contrast.
A study of factors affecting torque transmission in permanent magnet-based magnetorheological fluid clutch
Authors: Fernández Manuel Alejandro , Chang Jen-Yuan (James) 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In this article, the study of several factors affecting the torque transmission capability of a permanent magnet-based, drum-type magnetorheological fluid (MRF) clutch is presented. These factors are: number of magnetic poles in the magnet assembly, material of the clutch, MRF layer thickness, and relative rotational velocity between the input and output stages of the clutch. For this purpose, a special single-MRF layer clutch was designed and fabricated, one which allows the convenient assembly and disassembly to reduce preparation time for testing. The average transmitted torque of this clutch under several combinations of the aforementioned factors was recorded and analyzed. Additionally, several magnetostatic simulations of the clutch were carried out, and both the magnetic flux density and transmittable torque calculated from the results of these simulation were compared against experimental measurements. It was found that magnet assemblies with lower number of magnetic poles resulted in higher torque outputs, however, the effectiveness of the utilized torque variation mechanism was reduced due to magnetic saturation of the components of the clutch. The material of the clutch was found to have a significant effect at low relative rotational velocities, resulting in a nonlinear relationship between transmitted torque and relative angular velocity. This nonlinear effect was more significant when aluminum was used in the components which interact directly with the MR fluid whereas the use of ferromagnetic components reduced this effect. Finally, the thickness of the MRF layer was found to have a significant effect on the transmitted torque of the MRF clutch, although not according to what magnetostatic simulations predict.
Refined circuit model for current distribution of the no-insulation HTS insert magnet
Authors: Qin Lang , Wang Lei , Liu Jianhua , Wang Kangshuai , Zhou Benzhe , Sun Hongbo , Wang Qiuliang 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Detailed simulation can play a fundamental role in the design, manufacture, and operation of high-field magnets. This study introduces a new equivalent circuit simulation method for the no-insulation (NI) superconducting magnet. The refined circuit model (RCM) can describe the current distribution inside the REBa2Cu3O7-δ
(RE, rare earth elements) tapes in the equivalent circuit model. A single turn of REBCO tape was divided in both the width and length directions to achieve better results. A simulation model for a NI REBCO insert magnet was established through the RCM. Simulation results show that the screen current starts to saturate within 500 s during the excitation of the HTS magnet. The refined circuit model can help to make a more detailed mechanical analysis of the REBCO magnets. It can also guide the excitation of the HTS magnet and screen current reduction through real-time simulation.
Propagation of cosine beam in uniaxial crystal orthogonal to optical axis
Authors: Bayraktar Mert 
Published: April 2021

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we analyze the intensity and phase changes of cosine beam(CB) propagating uniaxial crystal orthogonal to optical axis. Received field is derived based upon Huygens–Fresnel integration. Main objective of this paper is to present intensity and phase evolution of cosine beam in uniaxial crystals first time in the literature. However, behavior of other untraditional beams is studied, reaction of cosine beam against uniaxial crystal is not studied previously. We analyze the results considering source beam settings, crystal structure, and propagation distance. Our results indicate that matrix view in intensity profile evolves into straight lines along propagation axis. In other point of view, symmetric cosine beam has constant phase at close distance and periodic oscillation is observed at middle at far distance. We believe that results of this study will be beneficial for optical tracking and other optical applications.