bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Estrogen regulates early embryonic development of the olfactory sensory system via estrogen-responsive glia
Authors: Takesono Aya , Schirrmacher Paula , Scott Aaron , Green Jon M. , Lee Okhyun , Winter Matthew J. , Kudoh Tetsuhiro , Tyler Charles R. 
Published: June 2021

SummaryEstrogen is well-known to regulate development of sexual dimorphisms of the brain, however its role in the brain during early embryonic development prior to sex-differentiation is unclear.Using estrogen biosensor zebrafish models, we found that estrogen activity in the embryonic brain occurs specifically in a type of glia located within the OB, which we name estrogen-responsive olfactory bulb/EROB cells. With estrogen activity, EROB cells extend their ramified projections that overlay the OB outermost layer and tightly interact with olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) at the olfactory glomeruli. Pharmacologically inhibiting estrogen activity and/or EROB cell ablation impedes olfactory glomerular development, including OSN pathfinding, topological organisation of olfactory glomeruli and inhibitory neurogenesis in the OB. Furthermore, activation of this estrogen/EROB-dependent mechanism decreases the intrinsic neuronal activity primarily in the OB, and this alteration of estrogen signalling disrupts olfaction-mediated behaviour. We propose that estrogen acts on glia to regulate development of functional OB circuits, thereby modulating the local intrinsic excitability in the OB and olfaction-mediated behaviour. Our data also suggest a possibility that the estrogen/EROB cascade may be an important site of action for environmental estrogens causative of neurodevelopmental impairments in animals and humans.
Visually Induced Changes in Cytokine Production in the Chick Choroid
Authors: Summers Jody A. , Cano Elizabeth Martinez 
Published: June 2021

ABSTRACTPostnatal ocular growth is regulated by a vision-dependent mechanism which acts to minimize refractive error through coordinated growth of the ocular tissues. Of great interest is the identification of the chemical signals that control visually-guided ocular growth. Here we provide evidence that the pro-inflammatory cytokine, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), may play a pivotal role in the control of ocular growth using a chicken model of myopia. Microarray, real time RT-qPCR, and ELISA analyses identified IL-6 upregulation in the choroids of chick eyes under two visual conditions that introduce myopic defocus and slow the rate of ocular elongation (recovery from induced myopia and compensation for positive lenses). Intraocular administration of atropine, an agent known to slow ocular elongation, also resulted in an increase in choroidal IL-6 gene expression. Nitric oxide appears to directly or indirectly upregulate choroidal IL-6 gene expression, as administration of the non-specific nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, L-NAME, inhibited choroidal IL-6 gene expression, and application of a nitric oxide donor stimulated IL-6 gene and protein expression in isolated chick choroids. Considering the pleiotropic nature of IL-6 and involvement in many biological processes, these results suggest that IL-6 may mediate many aspects of the choroidal response in the control of ocular growth.
Philympics 2021: Prophage Predictions Perplex Programs
Authors: Roach Michael J. , McNair Katelyn , Giles Sarah K. , Inglis Laura , Pargin Evan , Roux Simon , Decewicz Przemysław , Edwards Robert A. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractMost bacterial genomes contain integrated bacteriophages—prophages—in various states of decay. Many are active and able to excise from the genome and replicate, while others are cryptic prophages, remnants of their former selves. Over the last two decades, many computational tools have been developed to identify the prophage components of bacterial genomes, and it is a particularly active area for the application of machine learning approaches. However, progress is hindered and comparisons thwarted because there are no manually curated bacterial genomes that can be used to test new prophage prediction algorithms.Here, we present a library of gold-standard bacterial genome annotations that include manually curated prophage annotations, and a computational framework to compare the predictions from different algorithms. We use this suite to compare all extant stand-alone prophage prediction algorithms to identify their strengths and weaknesses.We provide a FAIR dataset for prophage identification, and demonstrate the accuracy, precision, recall, and f1score from the analysis of seven different algorithms for the prediction of prophages. We discuss caveats and concerns in this analysis and how those concerns may be mitigated.
A diagnostic primer pair to distinguish between wMel and wAlbB Wolbachia infection - A simplified real-time PCR approach for use in field collected Aedes aegypti in dengue reduction trials
Authors: Lau Meng-Jia , Hoffmann Ary A. , Endersby-Harshman Nancy M. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractDetection of the Wolbachia endosymbiont in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes through real-time PCR assays is widely used during and after Wolbachia releases in dengue reduction trials involving the wMel and wAlbB strains. However, primers applied in current successful Wolbachia releases cannot be used in a single assay to distinguish between these strains. Here, we developed a new diagnostic primer pair wMA which can detect wMel or wAlbB infection in the same assay. We also tested current Wolbachia primers and show that there is variation in their performance when they are used to assess the relative density of Wolbachia. The new wMA primers provide an accurate and efficient estimate of the presence and density of both Wolbachia infections.
Spinal neurons innervating multiple local and distant motor pools
Authors: Ronzano Remi , Lancelin Camille , Bhumbra Gardave S. , Brownstone Robert M. , Beato Marco 
Published: June 2021

AbstractMotor neurons control muscle contractions, and their recruitment by premotor circuits is tuned to produce accurate motor behaviours. To understand how these circuits coordinate movement across and between joints, it is necessary to understand whether spinal neurons pre-synaptic to motor pools, project to more than one motor neuron population. Here, we used modified rabies virus tracing in mice to investigate premotor INs projecting to synergist flexor or extensor motor neurons, as well as those projecting to antagonist pairs of muscles controlling the ankle joint. We show that similar proportions of premotor neurons diverge to agonist and antagonist motor pools. Divergent premotor neurons were seen throughout the spinal cord, with decreasing numbers but increasing proportion with distance from the hindlimb enlargement. In the cervical cord, divergent long descending propriospinal neurons were found in contralateral lamina VIII, had large somata, were excitatory, projected to both lumbar and cervical motoneurons, and were at least in part of the V0 class. We conclude that distributed spinal premotor neurons coordinate activity across multiple motor pools and that there are spinal neurons mediating co-contraction of antagonist muscles.
The Copper Responsive Transcription Factor SPL7 Represses Key Abscisic Acid Biosynthetic Genes to Balance Growth and Drought Tolerance
Authors: Yang Yanzhi , Du Jianmei , Tao Yihan , Hao Chen , Kuang Zheng , Li Zhan , Li Lei 
Published: June 2021

ABSTRACTPlants adapt to adverse environments by turning on defense against abiotic stresses, which is mainly orchestrated by the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). But how ABA homeostasis is modulated to balance growth and stress responses is still largely unknown. Here we report that prior treatment of Arabidopsis seedling with high copper retardates growth but enhances draught tolerance at later stages by modulating ABA accumulation. Subsequent genetic, physiological, transcriptomic, and molecular investigations revealed that the copper responsive transcription factor SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 7 (SPL7) is a strong regulator of ABA accumulation. We showed that SPL7 is destabilized by high copper and consistently suppresses genes encoding three key oxygenases in the ABA biosynthetic pathway of land plants via binding to the GTAC copper response motifs in their promoters. These results revealed a new mechanism whereby copper availability, inversely reflected by SPL7 abundance, modulates de novo ABA biosynthesis to balance growth and drought tolerance.One-sentence summaryHigh copper availability represses SPL7, releasing its suppression on key ABA biosynthetic genes and leading to increased ABA accumulation that inhibits growth but enhances drought tolerance.
Rapid Biomarker Screening of Alzheimer’s Disease by Interpretable Machine Learning and Graphene-Assisted Raman Spectroscopy
Authors: Wang Ziyang , Ye Jiarong , Zhang Kunyan , Ding Li , Granzier-Nakajima Tomotaroh , Ranasinghe Jeewan , Xue Yuan , Sharma Shubhang , Biase Isabelle , Terrones Mauricio , Choi Se Hoon , Ran Chongzhao , Tanzi Rudolph E. , Huang Sharon X. , Zhang Can , Huang Shengxi 
Published: June 2021

ABSTRACTAs the most common cause of dementia, the study of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) faces challenges in terms of understanding the cause, monitoring the pathogenesis, and developing early diagnosis and effective treatment. Rapid and accurate identification of AD biomarkers in the brain is critical to provide key insights into AD and facilitate the development of early diagnosis methods. In this work, we developed a platform that enables a rapid screening of AD biomarkers by employing graphene-assisted Raman spectroscopy and machine learning interpretation in AD transgenic animal brains. Specifically, we collected Raman spectra on slices of mouse brains with and without AD and used machine learning to classify AD and non-AD spectra. By contacting monolayer graphene with the brain slices, the accuracy was significantly increased from 77% to 98% in machine learning classification. Further, using linear supporting vector machine (SVM), we identified a spectral feature importance map that reveals the importance of each Raman wavenumber in classifying AD and non-AD spectra. Based on this spectral feature importance map, we identified AD biomarkers including Aβ and tau proteins, and other potential biomarkers, such as triolein, phosphatidylcholine, and actin, which have been confirmed by other biochemical studies. Our Raman-machine learning integrated method with interpretability is promising to greatly accelerate the study of AD and can be extended to other tissues, biofluids, and for various other diseases.
Sea Turtle Facial Recognition Using Map Graphs of Scales
Authors: Rao Karun K. , Grabow Lars C. , Muñoz-Pérez Juan Pablo , Alarcón-Ruales Daniela , Azevedo Ricardo B. R. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractIndividual identification of sea turtles is important to study their biology and aide in conservation efforts. Traditional methods for identifying sea turtles that rely on physical or GPS tags can be expensive, and difficult to implement. Alternatively, the scale structure on the side of a turtle’s head has been shown to be specific to the individual and stable over its lifetime, and therefore can be used as the individual’s “fingerprint”.Here we propose a novel facial recognition method where an image of a sea turtle is converted into a graph (network) with nodes representing scales, and edges connecting two scales that share a border. The topology of the graph is used to differentiate species.We additionally develop a robust metric to compare turtles based on a correspondence between nodes generated by a coherent point drift algorithm and computing a graph edit distance to identify individual turtles with over 94% accuracy.By representing the special and topological features of sea turtle scales as a graph, we perform more accurate individual identification which is robust under different imaging conditions and may be adapted for a wider number of species.
Modelling the effects of bioclimatic characteristics and climate change on the potential distribution of a monospecific speciesColophospermum mopane(Benth.) Léonard in southern Africa
Authors: Ngarega Boniface K. , Masocha Valerie Farai , Schneider Harald 
Published: June 2021

AbstractGlobal climate change is gradually changing species distribution and their patterns of diversity. Yet, factors that influence the local distribution and habitat preferences for southern African species remain largely unexplored. Here, we computed the suitable habitats in the southern African region forColophospermum mopane(Benth.) using the maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling approach. We utilized one Global Circulation Model (GCM) and three Representative concentration pathways (RCPs) to determine the current and future distribution ofC. mopane. The results showed that the distribution ofC. mopanewas mainly influenced by solar radiation, annual temperature range, and annual precipitation. According to the species response curves, this species preferred habitats with annual precipitation of 130-200 mm, an annual temperature range of 28° C, and elevations of about 500 m above sea level. The results highlight that the geographic range ofC. mopaneis likely to expand along the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe in the future, particularly in the miombo plains. Conversely, suitable habitat areas reduce significantly in the eastern area of the southern African region, while the western areas expand. Overall, the appropriate habitat areas will likely decline in the 2050s under both RCPs and expand in the 2070s under the two scenarios. This knowledge is important for landscape planners and rangeland managers working to safeguard biodiversity from extinction.HighlightsHigh reliability of models in habitat suitability modelling forC. mopaneSolar radiation is the most significant variable for the current distribution of mopane.Climate change is and will reduce the habitat suitability of our target species.
Why does Shariah governance framework important for Islamic banks?
Authors: Alam Md. Kausar , Islam Fakir Tajul , Runy Mahfuza Kamal 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the question “Why is Shariah Governance Framework (SGF) important for Islamic banks?”Design/methodology/approachA semi-structured face-to-face personal interview is used to accomplish the research objectives. This study has collected data from the concerned bodies related to Shariah Governance (SG) from the central bank and Islamic banks of Bangladesh.FindingsThis study states SG as a process of confirming Shariah compliance in the overall functions of the Islamic banks, while Shariah denotes some rules, regulations, guidelines, objectives and directions to enhance accurate functions and activities, which are solely based on Shariah principles. SGF is important for Islamic banks to implement Shariah principles, confirm Shariah compliance and monitor the functions of the banks. Besides, it is needed for a well, efficient, effective, profitable business and higher performance and, finally, to eliminate the confusion among the management, executives, conventional bankers and banks.Research limitations/implicationsThis study significantly contributes to the national and global regulatory bodies by providing evidence that why do Islamic banks and financial institutions require a sound SGF. It is recommended that there should be a sound and robust SGF to protect and fulfill the interest, expectations and demands of different stakeholders, which can easily draw their attention, intention and interest.Originality/valueThis is the first research that extends the literature of Islamic banking and SG by highlighting the importance of SGF. This study claims that to be a complete Islamic bank as well as protecting the unique identity from the general banks and corporate governance system, SG manual is required.
A weak form temporal quadrature element formulation for linear structural dynamics
Authors: Qin Junning , Zhong Hongzhi 
Published: June 2021

PurposeVarious time integration methods and time finite element methods have been developed to obtain the responses of structural dynamic problems, but the accuracy and computational efficiency of them are sometimes not satisfactory. The purpose of this paper is to present a more accurate and efficient formulation on the basis of the weak form quadrature element method to solve linear structural dynamic problems.Design/methodology/approachA variational principle for linear structural dynamics, which is inspired by Noble's work, is proposed to develop the weak form temporal quadrature element formulation. With Lobatto quadrature rule and the differential quadrature analog, a system of linear equations is obtained to solve the responses at sampling time points simultaneously. Computation for multi-elements can be carried out by a time-marching technique, using the end point results of the last element as the initial conditions for the next.FindingsThe weak form temporal quadrature element formulation is conditionally stable. The relation between the normalized length of element and the suggested number of integration points in one element is given by a simple formula. Results show that the present formulation is much more accurate than other time integration methods and its dissipative property is also illustrated.Originality/valueThe weak form temporal quadrature element formulation provides a choice with high accuracy and efficiency for solution of linear structural dynamic problems.
Time-dependent reliability and optimal design of scraper chains based on fretting wear process
Authors: Li Shuai , Zhu Zhencai , Lu Hao , Shen Gang 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper aims to present a dynamic reliability model of scraper chains based on the fretting wear process and propose a reasonable structural optimization method.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the dynamic tension of the scraper chain is modeled by considering the polygon effect of the scraper conveyor. Then, the numerical wear model of the scraper chain is established based on the tangential and radial fretting wear modes. The scraper chain wear process is introduced based on the diameter wear rate. Furthermore, the time-dependent reliability of scraper chains based on the fretting wear process is addressed by the third-moment saddlepoint approximation (TMSA) method. Finally, the scraper chain is optimized based on the reliability optimization design theory.FindingsThere is a correlation between the wear and the dynamic tension of the scraper conveyor. The unit sliding distance of fretting wear is affected by the dynamic tension of the scraper conveyor. The reliability estimation of the scraper chain with incomplete probability information is achieved by using the TMSA for the method needs only the first three statistical moments of the state variable. From the perspective of the chain drive system, the reliability-based optimal design of the scraper chain can effectively extend its service life and reduce its linear density.Originality/valueThe innovation of the work is that the physical model of the scraper chain wear is established based on the dynamic analysis of the scraper conveyor. And based on the physical model of wear, the time-dependent reliability and optimal design of scraper chains are carried out.
Relationship between subjective well-being, perceived organisational culture and individual propension to innovation
Authors: Bianchi Christine Elena , Tontini Gerson , Gomes Giancarlo 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper analyses the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and perceived organisational culture (POC) with the individual propensity to innovation (IPI).Design/methodology/approachTo empirically test the hypotheses, the sample and data were collected through a cross-sectional survey with 614 professionals who work in Technological Knowledge-Intensive Business Service (T-Kibs) in Brazil. For data analysis, the authors applied the partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM) algorithm.FindingsThe results identify that employees' perception of the organisational culture has a direct and indirect impact on the IPI. The perception of employees about the dimensions of clan and adhocracy of organisational culture influences the SWB of employees, which has a significant relationship with the individual propensity to innovation. Also, the perception of a market culture has a direct impact on the individual propensity to innovate. The results showed that the adhocracy culture has a more significant influence on the SWB of the female gender.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the expansion of scientific studies in the area of innovation, in addition to managerial contributions due to the identification of the factors that influence the IPI.
Business model innovation canvas: a visual business model innovation model
Authors: Jin Yuran , Ji Shoufeng , Liu Li , Wang Wei 
Published: June 2021

PurposeMore and more enterprises have realized the importance of business model innovation. However, the model tools for it are still scarce. There is a clear research gap in this academic field. Therefore, the aim of this study is to put forward a visual business model innovation model.Design/methodology/approachThe scientific literature clustering paradigm of grounded theory is used to design business model innovation theory model (BMITM). BMITM and the business model innovation options traced back from 870 labels in the grounded process are integrated into a unified framework to build the business model innovation canvas (BMIC).FindingsBMIC composed of three levels and seven modules is successfully developed. 145 business model innovation options are designed in BMIC. How to use BMIC is explained in detail. Through the analysis of innovation hotspots, the potential business model innovation directions can be found. A new business model of clothing enterprises using 3D printing is innovated with BMIC as an example.Research limitations/implicationsCompared with the previous tools, BMIC owns a clearer business model innovation framework and provides a problem-oriented business model innovation process and mechanism.Practical implicationsBMIC provides a systematic business model innovation solution set and roadmap for business model innovation practitioners.Originality/valueBMIC, a new tool for business model innovation is put forward for the first time. “Mass Selection Customization-Centralized Manufacturing” designed with BMIC for the clothing enterprises using 3D printing is put forward for the first time.