bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Atomic‐Precision Gold Clusters for NIR‐II Imaging
Authors: Liu Haile , Hong Guosong , Luo Zhentao , Chen Junchi , Chang Junlei , Gong Ming , He Hua , Yang Jiang , Yuan Xun , Li Lulin , Mu Xiaoyu , Wang Junying , Mi Wenbo , Luo Jian , Xie Jianping , Zhang Xiao‐Dong 
Published: October 2019

AbstractNear‐infrared II (NIR‐II) imaging at 1100–1700 nm shows great promise for medical diagnosis related to blood vessels because it possesses deep penetration and high resolution in biological tissue. Unfortunately, currently available NIR‐II fluorophores exhibit slow excretion and low brightness, which prevents their potential medical applications. An atomic‐precision gold (Au) cluster with 25 gold atoms and 18 peptide ligands is presented. The Au25 clusters show emission at 1100–1350 nm and the fluorescence quantum yield is significantly increased by metal‐atom doping. Bright gold clusters can penetrate deep tissue and can be applied in in vivo brain vessel imaging and tumor metastasis. Time‐resolved brain blood‐flow imaging shows significant differences between healthy and injured mice with different brain diseases in vivo. High‐resolution imaging of cancer metastasis allows for the identification of the primary tumor, blood vessel, and lymphatic metastasis. In addition, gold clusters with NIR‐II fluorescence are used to monitor high‐resolution imaging of kidney at a depth of 0.61 cm, and the quantitative measurement shows 86% of the gold clusters are cleared from body without any acute or long‐term toxicity at a dose of 100 mg kg−1.
Organic Semiconductors at the University of Washington: Advancements in Materials Design and Synthesis and toward Industrial Scale Production
Authors: Huang Yunping , Elder Delwin L. , Kwiram Alvin L. , Jenekhe Samson A. , Jen Alex K. Y. , Dalton Larry R. , Luscombe Christine K. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractResearch at the University of Washington regarding organic semiconductors is reviewed, covering four major topics: electro‐optics, organic light emitting diodes, organic field‐effect transistors, and organic solar cells. Underlying principles of materials design are demonstrated along with efforts toward unlocking the full potential of organic semiconductors. Finally, opinions on future research directions are presented, with a focus on commercial competency, environmental sustainability, and scalability of organic‐semiconductor‐based devices.
Dynamic Multifocus Laser Writing with Acousto‐Optofluidics
Authors: Zunino Alessandro , Surdo Salvatore , Duocastella Martí 
Published: October 2019

AbstractLaser writing of materials is normally performed by the sequential scanning of a single focused beam across a sample. This process is time‐consuming and it can severely limit the throughput of laser systems in key applications such as surgery, microelectronics, or manufacturing. A parallelization strategy based on ultrasound waves in a liquid to diffract light into multiple beamlets is reported. Adjusting amplitude, frequency, or phase of ultrasound allows tunable multifocus distributions with sub‐microsecond control. When combined with sample translation, the dynamic splitting of light leads to high‐throughput laser processing, as demonstrated by locally modifying the morphological and wettability properties of metals, polymers, and ceramics. The results illustrate how acousto‐optofluidic systems are universal tools for fast multifocus generation, with potential impact in fields such as imaging or optical trapping.
2D Plasmonic Tungsten Oxide Enabled Ultrasensitive Fiber Optics Gas Sensor
Authors: Yao Qifeng , Ren Guanghui , Xu Kai , Zhu Lianqing , Khan Hareem , Mohiuddin Md , Khan Muhammad Waqas , Zhang Bao Yue , Jannat Azmira , Haque Farjana , Reza Syed Zahin , Wang Yichao , Wen Xiaoming , Mitchell Arnan , Ou Jian Zhen 
Published: October 2019

AbstractFunctional materials coated on optical fibers have demonstrated great potential for optical gas sensing applications. However, their sensitivity is typically limited to the sub‐parts per million (sub‐ppm) range. Here, for the first time a 2D near‐infrared plasmonic tungsten oxide (WOx) enabled ultrasensitive fiber optics gas sensor on a side‐polished D‐shape single mode optical fiber is presented. The plasmon resonance wavelength range of 2D WOx is matched with a conventional telecommunications wavelength of 1550 nm for driving the optical fiber, therefore inducing a strong light–matter interaction. Upon the surface adsorption of gas molecules, free electrons in the 2D WOx body are redistributed changing the plasmon resonance properties and hence the transmission through the optical fiber. The sensor is selectively responsive to NO2 at concentrations down to 44 parts per billion (ppb) with a limit of detection of 8 ppb at a relatively low elevated temperature. Such an excellent sensing performance is significantly improved over the previously reported fiber optics NO2 sensors, which suggests the integration of 2D plasmonic degenerated semiconductors as a viable approach to develop high‐performance fiber optics gas sensors.
Time‐dependent density functional study for nanodroplet coalescence
Authors: Niu Yapeng , Liu Yu , Liu Honglai , Hu Ying 
Published: October 2019

AbstractThe coalescence of nanodroplets is an important interfacial phenomenon and is the key to many real‐world applications. However, the microscopic mechanism for this process remains unclear. In this work, we propose a time‐dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to understand and predict this process. The formation of a “peanut” nanodroplet seems key to the coalescence process, before and after which the system is dominated by a nucleation mechanism and an ordinary diffusion mechanism, respectively. It appears that molecular attraction is not only the driving force but also the resistance of droplet coalescence. The velocity distribution indicates that there is a significant mass transfer on the vapor–liquid interphase. During coalescence, there is a clear linear correlation between the free energy and the surface area of the vapor–liquid interface, which means surface tension is the dominant contribution to the free energy.
Greater Loss of Female Embryos During Human Pregnancy: A Novel Mechanism
Authors: Mulley John F. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractGiven an equal sex ratio at conception, the excess of human males at birth can only be explained by greater loss of females during pregnancy. It is proposed that the bias against females during human development is the result of a greater degree of genetic and metabolic “differentness” between female embryos and maternal tissues than for similarly aged males, and that successful implantation and placentation represents a threshold dichotomy, where the acceptance threshold shifts depending on maternal condition, especially stress. Right and left ovaries are not equal, and neither are the eggs and follicular fluid that they produce, and it is further hypothesized that during times of stress, the implantation threshold is shifted sufficiently to favor survival of females, most likely those originating from the right ovary, and that this, rather than simply a greater loss of males, explains at least some of the variability in the human sex ratio at birth.
Experimental correlation for pipe flow drag reduction using relaxation time of linear flexible polymers in a dilute solution
Authors: Zhang Xin , Duan Xili , Muzychka Yuri , Wang Zongming 
Published: October 2019

AbstractIn this study, we investigate the drag reduction property of a linear flexible polymer, PEO (polyethylene oxide) in a fully turbulent pipe flow. The aim of this study is to develop a correlation to predict the drag reduction using the Weissenberg number, a dimensionless number related to the relaxation time of the polymer and the polymer concentration in dilute solutions. The physical meaning of the relaxation time of polymers and overlap concentration between the dilute and semi‐dilute polymer solution are clarified. A higher polymer concentration, Reynolds number, and Weissenberg number lead to an increasing drag reduction. A semi‐empirical correlation to predict the drag reduction with two dimensionless variables mentioned above is established and can predict the experimental data in this work and other previous works well. Previous correlations that use Reynolds number often require high flow velocity or large pipes in the experimental setup to predict drag reduction in large‐scale industrial applications, which involves extra cost and potential safety issues. The current new correlation method uses relatively low velocities to avoid the problems mentioned above.
Influence of Pluronic coating formulation on iron oxide nanoparticle transport in natural and oil‐impacted sandy aquifer media
Authors: Linley Stuart , Thomson Neil R. , McVey Kevin , Sra Kanwartej , Gu Frank X. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractTargeted delivery of nanoparticles has the potential to enhance remediation and characterization of sites contaminated with non‐aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) by ensuring delivery of treatment or contrast agents to the NAPL/water interface. For a targeted delivery technique to be successful, nanoparticles must be capable of transporting through porous media and binding to NAPLs under relevant geological conditions. In this study, successful targeted delivery of nanoparticles to sandy aquifer material mixed with crude oil was achieved using an active targeting technique based on an amphiphilic polymer coating. It was determined that the molecular structure and concentration of the nanoparticle coating greatly influenced the recovery of nanoparticles injected into saturated columns. Coatings with longer polymer molecules and lower polymer concentrations reduced recovery, and the nanoparticle coating formulation could be adjusted to improve transport while maintaining targeted binding behaviour. This study demonstrated that nanoparticle retention in oil‐impacted sand exceeded that of clean sand in flow through experiments, indicating that a nanoparticle targeted delivery strategy for soil contaminated with LNAPLs such as crude oil is possible under the experimental conditions explored.
A review of the influence of humidity on photocatalytic decomposition of gaseous pollutants on TiO2‐based catalysts
Authors: Zhang Lianfeng , Moralejo Carol , Anderson William A. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractHumidity can have an appreciable influence on the photocatalytic degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air. It has been proposed that there are multiple layers of water molecules on the surface of the photocatalyst, and a VOC molecule must penetrate this layer and be able to diffuse to the photocatalytic surface for a reaction to occur. An updated analysis of related literature from the past 12 years indicates that this proposed mechanism remains reasonable for explaining observed effects. According to this mechanism the VOC's hydrophilicity should dominate the influence of humidity on the photocatalytic reaction kinetics, and this effect can be seen in a categorization of literature observations based on the octanol‐water partition coefficient. The frequently cited Langmuir‐Hinshelwood kinetic model does not directly account for humidity effects in this way but can be adapted for this purpose. As an example, the rate of photocatalytic decomposition of chlorobenzene in air under humid conditions can be described by a modified Langmuir‐Hinshelwood kinetic model, where the reaction rate coefficient is dependent on the water concentration. Understanding and considering the effect of humidity is useful for optimizing the efficacy of photocatalytic VOC treatment of air.
Retinal topography and microhabitat diversity in a group of dragon lizards
Authors: Nagloo Nicolas , Coimbra João Paulo , Hoops Daniel , Hart Nathan S. , Collin Shaun P. , Hemmi Jan M. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractThe well‐studied phylogeny and ecology of dragon lizards and their range of visually mediated behaviors provide an opportunity to examine the factors that shape retinal organization. Dragon lizards consist of three evolutionarily stable groups based on their shelter type, including burrows, shrubs, and rocks. This allows us to test whether microhabitat changes are reflected in their retinal organization. We examined the retinae of three burrowing species (Ctenophorus pictus, C. gibba, and C. nuchalis), and three species that shelter in rock crevices (C. ornatus, C. decresii, and C. vadnappa). We used design‐based stereology to sample both the photoreceptor array and neurons within the retinal ganglion cell layer to estimate areas specialized for acute vision. All species had two retinal specializations mediating enhanced spatial acuity: a fovea in the retinal center and a visual streak across the retinal equator. Furthermore, all species featured a dorsoventrally asymmetric photoreceptor distribution with higher photoreceptor densities in the ventral retina. This dorsoventral asymmetry may provide greater spatial summation of visual information in the dorsal visual field. Burrow‐dwelling species had significantly larger eyes, higher total numbers of retinal cells, higher photoreceptor densities in the ventral retina, and higher spatial resolving power than rock‐dwelling species. C. pictus, a secondary burrow‐dwelling species, was the only species that changed burrow usage over evolutionary time, and its retinal organization revealed features more similar to rock‐dwelling species than other burrow‐dwelling species. This suggests that phylogeny may play a substantial role in shaping retinal organization in Ctenophorus species compared to microhabitat occupation.
An R‐Derived FlowSOM Process to Analyze Unsupervised Clustering of Normal and Malignant Human Bone Marrow Classical Flow Cytometry Data
Authors: Lacombe Francis , Lechevalier Nicolas , Vial Jean Philippe , Béné Marie C. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractMultiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) is a powerful and versatile tool to accurately analyze cell subsets, notably to explore normal and pathological hematopoiesis. Yet, mostly supervised subjective strategies are used to identify cell subsets in this complex tissue. In the past few years, the implementation of mass cytometry and the big data generated have led to a blossoming of new software solutions. Their application to classical MFC in hematology is however still seldom reported. Here, we show how one of these new tools, the FlowSOM R solution, can be applied, together with the Kaluza® software, to a new delineation of hematopoietic subsets in normal human bone marrow (BM). We thus combined the unsupervised discrimination of cell subsets provided by FlowSOM and their expert‐driven node‐by‐node assignment to known or new hematopoietic subsets. We also show how this new tool could modify the MFC exploration of hematological malignancies both at diagnosis (Dg) and follow‐up (FU). This can be achieved by direct comparison of merged listmodes of reference normal BM, Dg, and FU samples of a representative acute myeloblastic case tested with the same immunophenotyping panel. This provides an immediate unsupervised evaluation of minimal residual disease. © 2019 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Comparison of cytological and immunocytochemical methods for detecting apoptotic epithelial cells in cervicovaginal smears
Authors: Donmez Hanife Guler , Beksac Mehmet Sinan 
Published: October 2019

AbstractBackgroundSeveral methods have been applied to detect death cells in tissue, cell culture, and fluid samples. We aimed to compare the cytological and immunocytochemical methods for detecting apoptotic cells in cervicovaginal smears.MethodsCervicovaginal smears were taken from 102 women for various gynecological complaints. The slides were stained using the Papanicolaou (Pap)‐staining method for cytological evaluation. Cleaved caspase 3 (CC3) antibody was used to detect apoptosis by immunocytochemically, and H‐Score was used for the evaluation. In Pap‐stained smears, apoptosis was detected and evaluated using our new scoring system by the examination of morphological changes of epithelial cells such as apoptotic bodies, blebbing, karyopyknosis, karyorrhexis, and karyolysis. We used Kappa analysis to understand whether there is an agreement between cytological and immunocytochemical methods for detecting apoptotic cells.ResultsCytological and immunocytochemical methods showed similarities at a moderate level (κ = 0.482, P < .001). The cytological and immunocytochemical scores were also similar to each other at a fair level (κ = 0.373, P < .001). Pap smears had a sensitivity of 64.40% (95% CI: 50.12‐76.01), specificity of 86.04% (95% CI: 72.65‐94.83), positive likelihood ratio of 4.62, negative likelihood ratio of 0.41, positive predictive value of 86.36%, negative predictive value of 63.79%, and overall probability of 73.53% compared to immunocytochemical staining.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that Pap smear and cytological scores alone were not good enough to identify apoptosis compared to the immunocytochemical studies. However, because of its high specificity, it may still be an adequate method to detect apoptotic cells.
Genomic pedigree reconstruction identifies predictors of mating and reproductive success in an invasive vertebrate
Authors: Levine Brenna A. , Douglas Marlis R. , Yackel Adams Amy A. , Lardner Björn , Reed Robert N. , Savidge Julie A. , Douglas Michael E. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractThe persistence of an invasive species is influenced by its reproductive ecology, and a successful control program must operate on this premise. However, the reproductive ecology of invasive species may be enigmatic due to factors that also limit their management, such as cryptic coloration and behavior. We explored the mating and reproductive ecology of the invasive Brown Treesnake (BTS: Boiga irregularis) by reconstructing a multigenerational genomic pedigree based on 654 single nucleotide polymorphisms for a geographically closed population established in 2004 on Guam (N = 426). The pedigree allowed annual estimates of individual mating and reproductive success to be inferred for snakes in the study population over a 14‐year period. We then employed generalized linear mixed models to gauge how well phenotypic and genomic data could predict sex‐specific annual mating and reproductive success. Average snout–vent length (SVL), average body condition index (BCI), and trappability were significantly related to annual mating success for males, with average SVL also related to annual mating success for females. Male and female annual reproductive success was positively affected by SVL, BCI, and trappability. Surprisingly, the degree to which individuals were inbred had no effect on annual mating or reproductive success. When juxtaposed with current control methods, these results indicate that baited traps, a common interdiction tool, may target fecund BTS in some regards but not others. Our study emphasizes the importance of reproductive ecology as a focus for improving BTS control and promotes genomic pedigree reconstruction for such an endeavor in this invasive species and others.
Of 11 candidate steroids, corticosterone concentration standardized for mass is the most reliable steroid biomarker of nutritional stress across different feather types
Authors: Will Alexis , Wynne‐Edwards Katherine , Zhou Ruokun , Kitaysky Alexander 
Published: October 2019

Abstract

Measuring corticosterone in feathers has become an informative tool in avian ecology, enabling researchers to investigate carry‐over effects and responses to environmental variability. Few studies have, however, explored whether corticosterone is the only hormone expressed in feathers and is the most indicative of environmental stress. Essential questions remain as to how to compare hormone concentrations across different types of feathers and whether preening adds steroids, applied after feather growth.

We used liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry to quantify a suite of 11 steroid hormones in back, breast, tail, and primary feathers naturally grown at overlapping time intervals by rhinoceros auklet Cerorhinca monocerata captive‐reared fledglings and wild‐caught juveniles. The captive‐reared birds were raised on either a restricted or control diet. Measured steroids included intermediates in the adrenal steroidogenesis pathway to glucocorticoids and the sex steroids pathway to androgens and estrogens.

Corticosterone was detected in the majority of feathers of each type. We also detected cortisone in back feathers, androstenedione in breast feathers, and testosterone in primary feathers. Captive fledglings raised on a restricted diet had higher concentrations of corticosterone in all four feather types than captive fledglings raised on a control diet. Corticosterone concentrations were reliably repeatable across feather types when standardized for feather mass, but not for feather length. Of the seven hormones looked for in uropygial gland secretions, only corticosterone was detected in one out of 23 samples.

We conclude that corticosterone is the best feather‐steroid biomarker for detection of developmental nutritional stress, as it was the only hormone to manifest a signal of nutritional stress, and that exposure to stress can be compared among different feather types when corticosterone concentrations are standardized by feather mass.
Comparative Electrochemical and Spectroscopic Studies of I‐Motif‐forming DNA Nonamers
Authors: Trnkova Libuse , Triskova Iveta , Vorlickova Michaela , Kejnovska Iva , Dvorakova Zuzana , Pivonkova Hana , Fiala Radovan 
Published: October 2019

AbstractThe paper shows the structural diversity of cytosine (C)‐rich oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) arising from their detail nucleotide sequence and experimental conditions. In slightly acidic solutions, the ODN nonamers with different adenine (A) and cytosine (C) sequences can adopt non‐canonical structures involving protonated bases. A distinct secondary structure formed in (C)‐rich sequences, called i‐motif (iM), consists of hemiprotonated and intercalated cytosine base pairs (C.C+). Folding and unfolding of particular structures in solutions were monitored by 1H NMR and CD spectroscopies and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), which are capable to determine their structural characteristics. Effects of sequences and their proclivity to formation of the iM on electrochemical behaviour of the ODN nonamers were studied by electrochemical methods. The LSV signals of A and C obtained from the reductive dissolution of ODN adsorption layers on a hanging mercury drop electrode were processed by elimination voltammetry with linear scan (EVLS), which revealed complex effects of the nonamer properties (namely their primary and secondary structure confirmed in solution) on their adsorption and reduction activity.