bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Muc5b overexpression causes mucociliary dysfunction and enhances lung fibrosis in mice
Authors: Hancock Laura A. , Hennessy Corinne E. , Solomon George M. , Dobrinskikh Evgenia , Estrella Alani , Hara Naoko , Hill David B. , Kissner William J. , Markovetz Matthew R. , Grove Villalon Diane E. , Voss Matthew E. , Tearney Guillermo J. , Carroll Kate S. , Shi Yunlong , Schwarz Marvin I. , Thelin William R. , Rowe Steven M. , Yang Ivana V. , Evans Christopher M. , Schwartz David A. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe gain-of-function MUC5B promoter variant rs35705950 is the dominant risk factor for developing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Here we show in humans that MUC5B, a mucin thought to be restricted to conducting airways, is co-expressed with surfactant protein C (SFTPC) in type 2 alveolar epithelia and in epithelial cells lining honeycomb cysts, indicating that cell types involved in lung fibrosis in distal airspace express MUC5B. In mice, we demonstrate that Muc5b concentration in bronchoalveolar epithelia is related to impaired mucociliary clearance (MCC) and to the extent and persistence of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis. We also establish the ability of the mucolytic agent P-2119 to restore MCC and to suppress bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis in the setting of Muc5b overexpression. Our findings suggest that mucociliary dysfunction might play a causative role in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice overexpressing Muc5b, and that MUC5B in distal airspaces is a potential therapeutic target in humans with IPF.
Spatial arrangement of several flagellins within bacterial flagella improves motility in different environments
Authors: Kühn Marco J. , Schmidt Felix K. , Farthing Nicola E. , Rossmann Florian M. , Helm Bina , Wilson Laurence G. , Eckhardt Bruno , Thormann Kai M. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractBacterial flagella are helical proteinaceous fibers, composed of the protein flagellin, that confer motility to many bacterial species. The genomes of about half of all flagellated species include more than one flagellin gene, for reasons mostly unknown. Here we show that two flagellins (FlaA and FlaB) are spatially arranged in the polar flagellum ofShewanella putrefaciens, with FlaA being more abundant close to the motor and FlaB in the remainder of the flagellar filament. Observations of swimming trajectories and numerical simulations demonstrate that this segmentation improves motility in a range of environmental conditions, compared to mutants with single-flagellin filaments. In particular, it facilitates screw-like motility, which enhances cellular spreading through obstructed environments. Similar mechanisms may apply to other bacterial species and may explain the maintenance of multiple flagellins to form the flagellar filament.
Controlling polar-toroidal multi-order states in twisted ferroelectric nanowires
Authors: Liu Jianyi , Ji Ye , Yuan Shuai , Ding Lili , Chen Weijin , Zheng Yue 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe toroidal order of electric dipoles in ferroelectric materials has attracted attention in the past decade due to fascinating properties and great potential for enabling novel memory devices, and functional devices in general. However, facile manipulation of toroidal order in ferroelectrics remains challenging. Here, using first-principles derived simulations, we demonstrate an efficient scheme to control the polar-toroidal multi-order (PTMO) states in ferroelectric nanowires. Two feasible strategies of controlling PTMO states by a combination of homogeneous electric field and torque are carried out in ferroelectric/paraelectric composite nanowires. This is possible based on trilinear coupling between polarization, toroidization and the twist force. As a result, switching of the toroidization of the nanowire can be readily achieved by reversal of the axial polarization. The torque threshold needed to control PTMO states is also calculated and found to be relatively small, indicating the feasibility of this method. Our study demonstrates facile control of PTMO states, including ferroelectric skyrmions, in ferroelectrics and is a step towards designing ferroelectric devices based on multi-order states.
HIF-1α triggers ER stress and CHOP-mediated apoptosis in alveolar epithelial cells, a key event in pulmonary fibrosis
Authors: Delbrel Eva , Soumare Abdoulaye , Naguez Adnan , Label Rabab , Bernard Olivier , Bruhat Alain , Fafournoux Pierre , Tremblais Geoffrey , Marchant Dominique , Gille Thomas , Bernaudin Jean-François , Callard Patrice , Kambouchner Marianne , Martinod Emmanuel , Valeyre Dominique , Uzunhan Yurdagül , Planès Carole , Boncoeur Emilie 
Published: December 2018

AbstractEndoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress of alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) is recognized as a key event of cell dysfunction in pulmonary fibrosis (PF). However, the mechanisms leading to AECs ER stress and ensuing unfolded protein response (UPR) pathways in idiopathic PF (IPF) remain unclear. We hypothesized that alveolar hypoxic microenvironment would generate ER stress and AECs apoptosis through the hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α). Combining ex vivo, in vivo and in vitro experiments, we investigated the effects of hypoxia on the UPR pathways and ER stress-mediated apoptosis, and consecutively the mechanisms linking hypoxia, HIF-1α, UPR and apoptosis. HIF-1α and the pro-apoptotic ER stress marker C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) were co-expressed in hyperplastic AECs from bleomycin-treated mice and IPF lungs, not in controls. Hypoxic exposure of rat lungs or primary rat AECs induced HIF-1α, CHOP and apoptosis markers expression. In primary AECs, hypoxia activated UPR pathways. Pharmacological ER stress inhibitors and pharmacological inhibition or silencing of HIF-1α both prevented hypoxia-induced upregulation of CHOP and apoptosis. Interestingly, overexpression of HIF-1α in normoxic AECs increased UPR pathways transcription factors activities, and CHOP expression. These results indicate that hypoxia and HIF-1α can trigger ER stress and CHOP-mediated apoptosis in AECs, suggesting their potential contribution to the development of IPF.
PhoglyStruct: Prediction of phosphoglycerylated lysine residues using structural properties of amino acids
Authors: Chandra Abel , Sharma Alok , Dehzangi Abdollah , Ranganathan Shoba , Jokhan Anjeela , Chou Kuo-Chen , Tsunoda Tatsuhiko 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe biological process known as post-translational modification (PTM) contributes to diversifying the proteome hence affecting many aspects of normal cell biology and pathogenesis. There have been many recently reported PTMs, but lysine phosphoglycerylation has emerged as the most recent subject of interest. Despite a large number of proteins being sequenced, the experimental method for detection of phosphoglycerylated residues remains an expensive, time-consuming and inefficient endeavor in the post-genomic era. Instead, the computational methods are being proposed for accurately predicting phosphoglycerylated lysines. Though a number of predictors are available, performance in detecting phosphoglycerylated lysine residues is still limited. In this paper, we propose a new predictor called PhoglyStruct that utilizes structural information of amino acids alongside a multilayer perceptron classifier for predicting phosphoglycerylated and non-phosphoglycerylated lysine residues. For the experiment, we located phosphoglycerylated and non-phosphoglycerylated lysines in our employed benchmark. We then derived and integrated properties such as accessible surface area, backbone torsion angles, and local structure conformations. PhoglyStruct showed significant improvement in the ability to detect phosphoglycerylated residues from non-phosphoglycerylated ones when compared to previous predictors. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, Mathews correlation coefficient and AUC were 0.8542, 0.7597, 0.7834, 0.5468 and 0.8077, respectively. The data and Matlab/Octave software packages are available at https://github.com/abelavit/PhoglyStruct.
Lipofuscin-mediated photodynamic stress induces adverse changes in nanomechanical properties of retinal pigment epithelium cells
Authors: Wiktor Anna , Sarna Michal , Wnuk Dawid , Sarna Tadeusz 
Published: December 2018

AbstractRetinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an important part of the blood-retina barrier (BRB) that separates the retina from the choroid. Although melanin granules contribute to the mechanical stability of the BRB complex, it is unknown if the age pigment lipofuscin affects mechanical properties of the tissue. To address this issue the effect of sub-lethal photic stress mediated by phagocytized lipofuscin granules, isolated from RPE of human donors, on morphology and mechanical properties of ARPE-19 cells was investigated. Nanomechanical analysis using atomic force spectroscopy revealed that irradiation of cells containing lipofuscin granules with blue light induced significant softening of the cells, which was accompanied by substantial reorganization of the cell cytoskeleton due to peroxidation of cellular proteins. Our results indicate that lipofuscin-mediated photic stress can cause significant modification of the RPE cells with the potential to disturb biological function of the BRB complex.
Exploring the Holiday Effect on Air Temperatures
Authors: Jiang Shaojing , Wang Kaicun 
Published: December 2018

AbstractAnthropogenic emissions are generally lower during holidays than they are on workdays, this pattern is expected to result in temperature variations. Variations in the daily maximum (Tmax), mean (Tmean) and minimum (Tmin) air temperatures and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) during the Chinese New Year holiday are evaluated with two methods using daily meteorological observations collected at 2200 stations in China from 1961 to 2015. These two methods yield nearly equivalent results that reflect strong variations in the defined holiday effects. During the period from 1961 to 1980,Tmean,Tmax,Tminand the DTR all exhibit cooling holiday effects, this effect as measured by the DTR disappears during the period from 1981 to 2000. However, during the period from 2001 to 2015 warming holiday effects are observed forTmaxand the DTR. The evaluation shows that the holiday effect is neither unique nor statistically significant. These results indicate that the holiday effect is primarily caused by natural atmospheric oscillations, because ΔT oscillates noticeably with periods of approximately 7.1 days, 8.5 days and 16.2 days, and these oscillations can account for approximately 75.6% of the variance in ΔT. The oscillation identified here is consistent with the fundamental theory of Rossby wave in the atmosphere.
Transcriptome analysis of Aeromonas hydrophila infected hybrid sturgeon (Huso dauricus×Acipenser schrenckii)
Authors: Jiang Nan , Fan Yuding , Zhou Yong , Wang Weiling , Ma Jie , Zeng Lingbing 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe hybrid sturgeon (Huso dauricus × Acipenser schrenckii) is an economically important species in China. With the increasing aquaculture of hybrid sturgeon, the bacterial diseases are a great concern of the industry. In this study, de novo sequencing was used to compare the difference in transcriptome in spleen of the infected and mock infected sturgeon with Aeromonas hydrophila. Among 187,244 unigenes obtained, 87,887 unigenes were annotated and 1,147 unigenes were associated with immune responses genes. Comparative expression analysis indicated that 2,723 differently expressed genes between the infected and mock-infected group were identified, including 1,420 up-regulated and 1,303 down-regulated genes. 283 differently expressed anti-bacterial immune related genes were scrutinized, including 168 up-regulated and 115 down-regulated genes. Ten of the differently expressed genes were further validated by qRT-PCR. In this study, toll like receptors (TLRs) pathway, NF-kappa B pathway, class A scavenger receptor pathway, phagocytosis pathway, mannose receptor pathway and complement pathway were shown to be up-regulated in Aeromonas hydrophila infected hybrid sturgeon. Additionally, 65,040 potential SSRs and 2,133,505 candidate SNPs were identified from the hybrid sturgeon spleen transcriptome. This study could provide an insight of host immune genes associated with bacterial infection in hybrid sturgeon.
A peptide mimicking the binding sites of VEGF-A and VEGF-B inhibits VEGFR-1/-2 driven angiogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis
Authors: Farzaneh Behelgardi Maryam , Zahri Saber , Mashayekhi Farhad , Mansouri Kamran , Asghari S. Mohsen 
Published: December 2018

AbstractInterfering with interactions of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) with their receptors (VEGFRs) effectively inhibits angiogenesis and tumor growth. We designed an antagonist peptide of VEGF-A and VEGF-B reproducing two discontinuous receptor binding regions of VEGF-B (loop 1 and loop3) covalently linked together by a receptor binding region of VEGF-A (loop3). The designed peptide (referred to as VGB4) was able to bind to both VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 on the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) surface and inhibited VEGF-A driven proliferation, migration and tube formation in HUVECs through suppression of ERK1/2 and AKT phosphorylation. The whole-animal fluorescence imaging demonstrated that fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-VGB4 accumulated in the mammary carcinoma tumors (MCTs). Administration of VGB4 led to the regression of 4T1 murine MCT growth through decreased expression of p-VEGFR1 and p-VEGFR2 and abrogation of ERK1/2 and AKT activation followed by considerable decrease of tumor cell proliferation (Ki67 expression) and angiogenesis (CD31 and CD34 expression), induction of apoptosis (increased p53 expression, TUNEL staining and decreased Bcl2 expression), and suppression of metastasis (increased E-cadherin and decreased N-cadherin, NF-κB and MMP-9 expression). These findings indicate that VGB4 may be applicable for antiangiogenic and antitumor therapy.
Patients with anti-Jo1 antibodies display a characteristic IgG Fc-glycan profile which is further enhanced in anti-Jo1 autoantibodies
Authors: Fernandes-Cerqueira Cátia , Renard Nuria , Notarnicola Antonella , Wigren Edvard , Gräslund Susanne , Zubarev Roman A. , Lundberg Ingrid E. , Lundström Susanna L. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractIgG Fc-glycans affect IgG function and are altered in autoimmune diseases and autoantibodies. Anti-histidyl tRNA synthetase autoantibodies (anti-Jo1) are frequent in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and anti-synthetase syndrome (ASS) with associated interstitial lung disease (ILD). Thus, we hypothesized that the total-IgG Fc-glycans from Jo1+ versus Jo1− patients and anti-Jo1-IgG would show characteristic differences, and that particular Fc-glycan features would be associated with specific clinical manifestations. By proteomics based mass spectrometry we observed a high abundance of agalactosylated IgG1 Fc-glycans in ASS/IIM patients (n = 44) compared to healthy age matched controls (n = 24). Using intra-individual normalization of the main agalactosylated glycan (FA2) of IgG1 vs FA2-IgG2, ASS/IIM and controls were distinguished with an area under the curve (AUC) of 79 ± 6%. For Jo1+ patients (n = 19) the AUCs went up to 88 ± 6%. Bisected and afucosylated Fc-glycans were significantly lower in Jo1+ compared to Jo1− patients. Anti-Jo1-IgG enriched from eleven patients contained even significantly lower abundances of bisected, afucosylated and galactosylated forms compared to matched total-IgG. ASS and ILD diagnosis, as well as lysozyme and thrombospondin correlated with Jo1+ characteristic Fc-glycan features. These results suggest that the anti-Jo1+ patient Fc-glycan profile contains phenotype specific features which may underlie the pathogenic role of Jo1 autoantibodies.
Key role of singlet oxygen and peroxynitrite in viral RNA damage during virucidal effect of plasma torch on feline calicivirus
Authors: Yamashiro Risa , Misawa Tatsuya , Sakudo Akikazu 
Published: December 2018

AbstractA dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma torch has been used to evaluate the mechanism underlying inactivation of feline calicivirus (FCV) by plasma treatment. Plasma treatment of cell lysate infected with FCV F9 strain reduced the viral titer of the median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50). The D value (treatment time required to lower the viral titer to 1/10) was 0.450 min, while the viral titer dropped below the detection limit within 2 min. FCV was not significantly inactivated by heat or UV applied at levels corresponding to those generated from the DBD plasma torch after 2 min (38.4 °C and 46.79 mJ/cm2 UV, respectively). However, TCID50 was reduced by 2.47 log after exposure to 4.62 mM ONOO−, corresponding to the concentration generated after 2 min of plasma treatment. Radical scavengers, including superoxide dismutase, dimethyl sulfoxide, and catalase, did not significantly affect viral titers; however, sodium azide, uric acid, and ascorbic acid, which are scavengers of 1O2 radicals, ONOO−, and peroxynitrous acid (ONOOH; produced from ONOO− under acidic conditions), respectively, significantly increased TCID50 and intact viral RNA. These findings suggest that ONOO− and 1O2 play an important role in FCV inactivation by attacking viral RNA during DBD plasma torch treatment.
Bronchial epithelial cells of young and old mice directly regulate the differentiation of Th2 and Th17
Authors: Liu Da , He Long , Ding Ning , Sun Wenjin , Qiu Lulu , Xu Li , Jia Aijun , Peng Cong , Zhang Dongshan , Xiang Xudong 
Published: December 2018

Abstract
To determine whether or not house dust mite (HDM) and HDM+lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure causes a difference in T-cell subsets from young and old mice. The bronchial epithelial cells (BECs) from young and old mice were divided into three groups (PBS (control), HDM, and HDM+LPS). CD4+ naive T cells from the spleen and lymph nodes were collected after 24 h of co-culture with BECs. The number of Th2 and Th17 cells was elevated in the HDM and HDM+LPS groups compared with the control group; these responses were exacerbated when exposed to HDM+LPS. The number of HDM- and HDM+LPS-specific Th2/Th17 cells in young mice was higher than old mice; however, the Th2:Th17 cell ratio was greater in young mice, whereas the Th17:Th2 cell ratio was greater in old mice. The expression of GATA-3 and RORc was increased in the HDM+LPS and HDM groups compared with the PBS group and exhibited most in HDM+LPS group. The expression of HDM+LPS-specific GATA-3 in young mice was higher, while the expression of HDM+LPS-specific RORc in old mice was higher. Murine BECs directly regulated CD4+ naive T-cell differentiation under allergen exposure.
Evaluation of EHV and AC/DC technologies for integration of large‐scale renewable generation in Saudi Arabian network
Authors: Arif Mohammed , Ahmad Firoz , Kashyap Ravi , Abdel‐Galil Tarek K. , Othman Mahmoud M. , El‐Amin Ibrahim , Al‐Mubarak Ahmed 
Published: December 2018

Renewable energy is a rapidly growing environmental‐friendly alternative for electricity generation, which will supersede using fossil fuels in the near future. Renewable‐based generation is usually located at remote areas, and the large‐scale generated power is required to be transmitted to the main load centres; thus, the main challenge facing the bulk power transmission is the precise determination of the most appropriate transmission option. This study presents a comprehensive techno‐economic study for the selection of the adequate transmission option for large‐scale power transmission. The proposed work aims to study different transmission alternatives to transfer 10,000 MW of renewable generated power to the load centres in the central region of Saudi Arabia. Different high‐voltage AC (HVAC) voltage levels such as 725 and 500 kV, and high‐voltage DC (HVDC) technologies are considered as alternatives, and a techno‐economic evaluation of each option is presented. Moreover, detailed comparisons between different HVAC and HVDC technologies are introduced from technical, economic, and environmental perspective. The presented study, comparisons, and the subsequent recommendations are helpful for the network planner to evaluate different extra high‐voltage (EHV) and AC/DC transmission options in terms of accessibility, load‐carrying capability, efficiency, reliability, stability, environmental impact, and economics.
Stochastic optimisation for investment analysis of flow battery storage systems
Authors: Tohidi Yaser , Gibescu Madeleine 
Published: December 2018

In this study, a stochastic optimisation model is proposed to investigate revenue streams for flow batteries type of energy storage (ES) in a set‐up consisting of photovoltaic (PV) solar plant and load. Revenue streams investigated are (i) arbitrage in electricity markets between day‐ahead market (DAM) and imbalance market (IM) and (ii) self‐consumption of local PV production via storage for supplying the peak load. Stochastic parameters are represented by a set of scenarios and include DAM and IM prices of electricity, solar irradiation and load level. Scenarios are generated by analysing the historical data of the stochastic parameters. A stopping criterion based on the relative change of the revenue is proposed in order to reach a sufficient number of scenarios. The simulation is done on the Dutch DAM and IM electricity prices and for two residential and office load profiles with 107 kW average load and ∼30% PV production. The candidate flow batteries investigated are based on hydrogen‐bromine chemistry with different power and energy capacities. The results reveal the potential for a positive business case both for ES stand‐alone generation revenue just through arbitrage and also for ES added to PV‐load set‐up generation revenue through arbitrage and self‐consumption.
Application of β ‐CD/HA composite as a potential SD carrier to improve the dissolution of curcumin
Authors: Xu Defeng , Wang Wenjie , Yang Mengmeng , Bhaduri Sarit B. , Huang Chingcheng , Yang Lei , Zhang Zhenyi , Zhou Huan 
Published: December 2018

Curcumin is a natural active constituent with a great variety of beneficial biological and pharmacological activities, is a practically water‐insoluble component. The scope of the present work was to prepare a solid dispersion (SD) formulation to enhance the dissolution rate of curcumin. The SD was prepared using curcumin and β ‐cyclodextrin (CD)/HA via a classical ethanol‐based solvent evaporation method. The as‐prepared β ‐CD/HA and SDs were selectively characterised by various analytical techniques including X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, specific surface area/pore size analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and high‐performance liquid chromatography. According to the dissolution tests, it was confirmed that β ‐CD/HA–curcumin SD can significantly enhance the dissolution of curcumin. In addition, an increasing trend was seen between the β ‐CD weight ratio and the dissolution rate of curcumin, and β ‐CD/HA–curcumin (9:1) SD was shown to be the best formulation among all tested samples with over 90% curcumin dissolved in 180 min. Besides, β ‐CD/HA–curcumin (9:1) SD exhibited pH and medium‐dependent curcumin release behaviours. The antioxidant activity of released curcumin showed no difference to original curcumin. These results clearly demonstrated β ‐CD/HA can be a promising SD carrier to improve the dissolution of curcumin.