bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of structure in ionized albumin – based nanoparticle: Characterisation, Emodin interaction, and in vitro cytotoxicity
Authors: Siri Macarena , Ruocco Maria Julieta Fernandez , Achilli Estefanía , Pizzuto Malvina , Delgado Juan F. , Ruysschaert Jean-Marie , Grasselli Mariano , Alonso Silvia del V. 
Published: May 2019

AbstractA γ–irradiated bovine albumin serum based nanoparticle was characterised structurally, and functionally. The nanoparticle was characterised by A.F.M, D.L.S, zeta potential, T.E.M., gel-electrophoresis, spectroscopy (UV-Vis, Fluorescence, FT-IR, and CD). Its stability was studied under adverse experimental conditions: pH values, chaotropic agents, and ionic strength and stability studies against time were mainly carried out by fluorescence spectroscopy following the changes in the tryptophan environment in the nanoparticle. Its function was studied by the interaction of the NP with the hydrophobic drug Emodin was studied. The binding and kinetic properties of the obtained complex were tested by biophysical methods as well as its toxicity in tumour cells.According to its biophysics, the nanoparticle is a spherical nanosized vehicle with a hydrodynamic diameter of 70 nm. Data obtained describe the nanoparticle alone as nontoxic for cancer cell lines. When combined with Emodin, the bioconjugate proved to be more active on MCF-7 and PC-3 cancer cell lines than the nanoparticle alone. No haemolytic activity was found when tested against ex vivo red blood cells. The stability of the albumin nanoparticle is based on a competition between short-range attraction forces and long-range repulsion forces. The nanoparticle showed similar behaviour as albumin against pH while improving its stability in urea and tween 80. It was stable up to 15 days and presented no protein degradation in solutions up to 2 M salt concentration. Significantly, the albumin aggregate preserves the main activity-function of albumin and improved characteristics as an excellent carrier of molecules.Graphical Abstract
Simulation-based comparison of Biopharmaceutics Classification System and drug structure
Authors: Chen Tianyu , Wu Tianqiang , Li Ningxi , Yin Huanli , Wu Min 
Published: May 2019

AbstractBackgroundThe Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), which classifies bioactive molecules based on solubility and permeability, is widely used to guide new drug development and drug formulation, as well as predict pharmacokinetics. Here we performed computer simulations to study correlations between a molecule’s structure and its BCS classification.MethodsA total of 411 small molecules were assigned to BCS categories based on published drug data, and their Pybel-FP4 fingerprints were extrapolated. The information gain(IG) of each fingerprint was calculated and its characteristic structure analyzed. IG was calculated using multiple thresholds, and results were verified using support vector machine prediction, while taking into account the dose coefficient(0-0.1, 0.1-1, or>1). Structural functional features common to fingerprints of compounds in each type of BCS class were determined using computer simulations.ResultsBCS classes III and IV appear to share several structural and functional characteristics, including Secondary aliphaticamine, Michael_acceptor, Isothiourea, and Sulfonamide Sulfonic_derivatives.ConclusionWe demonstrate that our approach can correlate characteristic fingerprints of small-molecule drugs with BCS classifications, which may help guide the development and optimization of new drugs.
The state of preparation in performance climbing
Authors: Trifu Simona , Trifu Antonia Ioana 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThis research has been carried out among climbing performers in Romania (a group of 60 climbers), starting from the desire to induce a state of preparation by watching a motivational short movie before performing a high difficulty route. The concept of preparation was related to the emotional impact of tonic or sensitive type (depending on the content of the movie) and the personality structure of the athletes, the conclusions drawn being in the area of optimization of performance by inducing an optimal state of preparation.Performance climbers can have two main attitudes to impact with emotional stimuli in the competitive environment: tonic versus sensitivity. We propose the study of the correlations between the personality structure of the athletes, the emotional impact on stimulation, respectively the quality of the prepared state of state, as the active regulatory status.The methodology included a batch of 60 climbers divided into two equal subgroups, before making a difficult route being allowed to view a movie with a tonic impact, or a sensitive impact. Personality was evaluated through five scales (Intelligence, Emotional Stability, Sensitivity, Imagination, and Perspicacity) while administering a Preparatory and Motivation Questionnaire.People with a high level of intelligence, imagination and perspicacity can more easily create attitudes, habits and habitual contests, as well as conduct appropriate to the concrete conditions of the competitive situation, while people with low emotional stability and sensitivity are more inclined towards a sensitive, labile, sensitive approach to the competitive situation. The research implies the necessity of organizing the mental operators with the purpose of suitability to the performance poor, in accordance with the tactical training of the athlete and with the personality traits.Emotional stimulation leads to affective participation, reception and awareness of favoring issues, stimulation of will, self-regulation of activity according to aspirations and strategies.
Scaling of inertial delays in terrestrial mammals
Authors: Mohamed Thangal Sayed Naseel , Donelan J. Maxwell 
Published: May 2019

AbstractAs part of its response to a perturbation, an animal often needs to reposition its body. Inertia acts to oppose motion, delaying the completion of the movement—we refer to this additional elapsed time as inertial delay. As animal size increases, muscle moment arms also increase, but muscles are proportionally weaker, and limb inertia is proportionally larger. Consequently, the scaling of inertial delays is complex. Here, we quantify it using two biomechanical models representing common scenarios in animal locomotion: a distributed mass pendulum approximating swing limb repositioning (swing task), and an inverted pendulum approximating whole body posture recovery (posture task). We parameterized the anatomical, muscular, and inertial properties of these models using literature scaling relationships, then determined inertial delay for each task across a large range of movement magnitudes and the full range of terrestrial mammal sizes. We found that inertial delays scaled with an average ofM0.28in the swing task andM0.35in the posture task across movement magnitudes—larger animals require more absolute time to perform the same movement as small animals. The time available to complete a movement also increases with animal size, but less steeply. Consequently, inertial delays comprise a greater fraction of swing duration and other characteristic movement times in larger animals. We also compared inertial delays to the other component delays within the stimulus-response pathway. As movement magnitude increased, inertial delays exceeded these sensorimotor delays, and this occurred for smaller movements in larger animals. Inertial delays appear to be a challenge for motor control, particularly for bigger movements in larger animals.
Cell-autonomous regulation of epithelial cell quiescence by calcium channel Trpv6
Authors: Xin Yi , Malick Allison , Hu Meiqin , Liu Chengdong , Batah Heya , Xu Haoxing , Duan Cunming 
Published: May 2019

AbstractEpithelial homeostasis and regeneration require a pool of quiescent cells. How the quiescent cells are established and maintained is poorly understood. Here we report that Trpv6, a cation channel responsible for epithelial Ca2+ absorption, functions as a key regulator of cellular quiescence. Genetic deletion and pharmacological blockade of Trpv6 promoted zebrafish epithelial cells to exit from quiescence and re-enter the cell cycle. Reintroducing Trpv6, but not its channel dead mutant, restored the quiescent state. Ca2+ imaging showed that Trpv6 is constitutively open in vivo. Mechanistically, Trpv6-mediated Ca2+ influx maintained the quiescent state by suppressing insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-mediated Akt and Tor signaling. In zebrafish epithelia and human colon cancer cells, Trpv6/TRPV6 elevated intracellular Ca2+ levels and activated PP2A, which down-regulated IGF signaling and promoted the quiescent state. Our findings suggest that Trpv6 mediates constitutive Ca2+ influx into epithelial cells to continuously suppress growth factor signaling and maintain the quiescent state.
Predicting longitudinal traits derived from high-throughput phenomics in contrasting environments using genomic Legendre polynomials and B-splines
Authors: Momen Mehdi , Campbell Malachy T. , Walia Harkamal , Morota Gota 
Published: May 2019

AbstractRecent advancements in phenomics coupled with increased output from sequencing technologies can create the platform needed to rapidly increase abiotic stress tolerance of crops, which increasingly face productivity challenges due to climate change. In particular, the high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) enables researchers to generate large-scale data with temporal resolution. Recently, a random regression model (RRM) was used to model a longitudinal rice projected shoot area (PSA) dataset in an optimal growth environment. However, the utility of RRM is still unknown for phenotypic trajectories obtained from stress environments. Here, we sought to apply RRM to forecast the rice PSA in control and water-limited conditions under various longitudinal cross-validation scenarios. To this end, genomic Legendre polynomials and B-spline basis functions were used to capture PSA trajectories. Prediction accuracy declined slightly for the water-limited plants compared to control plants. Overall, RRM delivered reasonable prediction performance and yielded better prediction than the baseline multi-trait model. The difference between the results obtained using Legendre polynomials and that using B-splines was small; however, the former yielded a higher prediction accuracy. Prediction accuracy for forecasting the last five time points was highest when the entire trajectory from earlier growth stages was used to train the basis functions. Our results suggested that it was possible to decrease phenotyping frequency by only phenotyping every other day in order to reduce costs while minimizing the loss of prediction accuracy. This is the first study showing that RRM could be used to model changes in growth over time under abiotic stress conditions.
An extended DMP framework for robot learning and improving variable stiffness manipulation
Authors: Bian Feifei , Ren Danmei , Li Ruifeng , Liang Peidong , Wang Ke , Zhao Lijun 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a method which enables a robot to learn both motion skills and stiffness profiles from humans through kinesthetic human-robot cooperation.

Design Methodology Approach
Admittance control is applied to allow robot-compliant behaviors when following the reference trajectories. By extending the dynamical movement primitives (DMP) model, a new concept of DMP and stiffness primitives is introduced to encode a kinesthetic demonstration as a combination of trajectories and stiffness profiles, which are subsequently transferred to the robot. Electromyographic signals are extracted from a human’s upper limbs to obtain target stiffness profiles. By monitoring vibrations of the end-effector velocities, a stability observer is developed. The virtual damping coefficient of admittance controller is adjusted accordingly to eliminate the vibrations.

Findings
The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated experimentally. The result shows that the robot can perform tasks in a variable stiffness mode as like the human dose in the teaching phase.

Originality Value
DMP has been widely used as a teaching by demonstration method to represent movements of humans and robots. The proposed method extends the DMP framework to allow a robot to learn not only motion skills but also stiffness profiles. Additionally, the authors proposed a stability observer to eliminate vibrations when the robot is disturbed by environment.
Structural empowerment and nurses’ patient identification behaviors: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Kim Young Mee , Kim Se Young 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between structural empowerment and patient identification behaviors of nurses.

Design/methodology/approach
The present study was a descriptive survey using a self-reported questionnaire, following a quality improvement project at a hospital in South Korea. The participants included 984 registered nurses, who administer medication and transfusions to patients in the hospital. Data were analyzed using the t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé’s test, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis.

Findings
The patient identification behaviors of nurses were significantly correlated with opportunity, support, information, resources, formal power and informal power of structural empowerment. The support, information and informal power of structural empowerment, as well as the age and gender of the participants explained 10.7 percent of the variance in the patient identification behaviors of nurses.

Research limitations/implications
The present study has some limitations. Although the data collected by the cross-sectional survey were analyzed, causal analysis could not have been conducted. Nursing managers can promote safety by creating a work environment that facilitates access to the support, information and resources needed for nurses to perform their duties effectively; providing opportunities for nurses to learn and develop professionally; acknowledging the achievements of nurses; and expanding their duties, so that nurses can demonstrate greater work flexibility. Future studies should investigate structural empowerment in multiple nursing organizations, and particularly the organizational characteristics that affect structural empowerment.

Originality/value
The present study confirms that structural empowerment influences the patient identification behaviors of nurses.
Transculturality as a drive for the SDGs achievement
Authors: Arruda Filho Norman de Paula , Przybylowicz Beuter Barbara Sueli 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
This study aims to assess how transculturality can potentiate projects developed between UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatories’ institutions by emphasizing on the advantages for teams with people from different nationalities. Besides, it addresses a well-discussed topic among the signatory schools of PRME as the initiative strongly encouraged integrated research, attributing it value and applicability.

Design/methodology/approach
The analysis focuses on three projects developed in partnership between institutions from Brazil and other countries, considering significant cultural differences, number of countries involved and the interaction between the academia and the companies. The discussion seeks to understand the value of projects and what they mean in terms of partnerships and mobilizations between PRME’s signatories schools.

Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about the necessity of understanding transculturality as a key factor to the development of multicultural projects, especially with regard to projects aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, launched by the UN in 2015.

Originality/value
The discussion reinforces that a multifaceted vision has the potential to overlap cultural differences to develop projects with a high degree of replicability.
Putting sustainable campuses into force
Authors: Adomßent Maik , Grahl Anselm , Spira Felix 
Published: May 2019

PurposeThe lack of change structures can be seen as an important reason why sustainability continues to suffer a niche existence in most higher education organisations. This is a problem because universities can leverage their teaching, research and operations to advance solutions to climate change, hunger and other Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of this study is to highlight the vital importance of self-efficacy approaches, in particular the Green Office (GO) Model that aims to strengthen collaboration among all members of higher education communities and provides inspiration for what a sustainability office on campus might look like.Design/methodology/approachThe research presented follows a two-step methodology. First, the peculiarities and commonalities of already existing GOs were analysed to better understand drivers and barriers for their institutionalisation. Building on this, a peer-to-peer digital training programme was developed and tested, aiming to provide students, staff and academics with knowledge and skills to establish more sustainability offices and improve the work of existing ones.FindingsResearch revealed three main obstacles for the dissemination of the GO model: lack of adaptation of international experiences to other university contexts, missing educational offers and a limited scope of public relations. The findings adduce proof that GO provides a replicable model that can be both adapted to different university contexts and scaled internationally.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities’ actors beyond the close GO community.Originality/valueThis case study presents an original research and development undertaking that was realised in a unique collaboration between a non-profit, student-initiated social business and an academic institution.
A framework for mapping sustainability within tertiary curriculum
Authors: Trad Sloan Peter 
Published: May 2019

PurposeSustainability within tertiary curriculum is hard to measure and often perceived to be illusive in nature. Existing higher education sustainability assessment tools rarely focus on the curriculum. This paper aims to establish and implement a tool that can measure sustainability integration within curriculum. The Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is used as a case study.Design/methodology/approachA set of seven sustainability competencies are identified by means of a systematic literature review as the current knowledge of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) competencies. ESD competency integration into the curriculum is assessed by implementing a two-tier scanning mechanism. In the first step, subject outlines (SOs) are used to identify sustainable subject learning outcomes (SLOs) and assessment learning outcomes (ALOs). Step 2 involves analysing ALOs and SLOs for constructive alignment with student experience. SPSS, a statistical software, is then used to statistically reflect the results.FindingsAn initial scan of SOs found that stated ESD outcomes made up 22.4 per cent of FEIT undergraduate courses. A more detailed investigation which involved assessing subject material and student experience for the seven ESD outcomes resulted in a 7.7 per cent sustainability integration into the FEIT undergraduate courses. SPSS produced tables showing individual competency distribution over course candidature year. Lifecycle assessment was invisible from the curriculum.Research limitations/implicationsCase study outcomes are limited to UTS, and therefore, specific-study outcomes cannot be generalised. This study attempted to trace sustainability learning outcomes through the curriculum. However, a more detailed study should also assess subject pedagogy and artefacts as these may enable or inhibit sustainability competency.Originality/valueStudy developed several methods to establish and evaluate subject level ESD claims. Academic staff and management are able to replicate methods of this study to map ESD within their courses, schools and/or faculties triggering conversation around ESD’s actual integration within curriculum. Based on ESD distribution, specific intervention recommendations are proposed.
Transaction-specific investments in a supplier-distributor-supplier triad in China: opportunism and cooperation
Authors: Liu Yi , Xue Jiaqi , Li Yuan 
Published: May 2019

PurposeRather than focussing on dyadic distributor–supplier relationships, this study aims to examine whether the difference in transaction-specific investments (TSIs) between rival suppliers in a supplier–distributor–supplier triad influences whether distributors expropriate or maintain their supplier’s TSIs.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on triadic data from 276 questionnaires that address both the supplier–distributor relationship and the rival supplier–distributor relationship, a moderated regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsFive out of six hypotheses are supported by the empirical test. The results show that the supplier’s TSIs increase the distributor’s opportunistic behaviour and reduce cooperation when the distributor perceives that the supplier’s TSIs are lower than those of a rival supplier. In contrast, when the distributor perceives that the supplier’s TSIs are higher than those of a competitor, the supplier’s TSIs do not improve cooperation and can shift the link between the supplier’s TSIs and the distributor’s opportunism from being positive to negative.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for the top managers of supplier firms embedded in distribution networks. This study suggests that the competitor’s TSIs can be regarded as an indicator of the supplier’s relationship with the distributor. By keeping an eye on their competitors’ TSIs, the top managers of suppliers can predict the likelihood of distributors’ opportunistic and cooperative behaviour and make efforts to improve their position by adjusting their own firm’s TSIs. Furthermore, this information can help suppliers decide on their investment strategies and maintain stable and healthy relationships.Originality/valueThis study 1) examines the effect of TSIs using a triadic framework and triadic data and demonstrates that how a distributor responds to a supplier’s TSIs, with either opportunism or cooperation, depends on the relative level of those TSIs in focal and competitive relationships; and 2) reveals the expropriation effects and restraint effects of TSIs by drawing on prospect theory. This finding indicates the dynamics of TSIs in a triadic relationship.