bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Object-based attention in complex, naturalistic auditory streams
Authors: Marinato Giorgio , Baldauf Daniel 
Published: February 2019

AbstractIn vision,objectshave been described as the ‘units’ on which non-spatial attention operates in many natural settings. Here, we test the idea of object-based attention in the auditory domain within ecologically valid auditory scenes, composed of two spatially and temporally overlapping sound streams (speech signal vs. environmental soundscapes in Experiment 1 and two speech signals in Experiment 2). Top-down attention was directed to one or the other auditory stream by a non-spatial cue. To test for high-level, object-based attention effects we introduce an auditoryrepetition detection taskin which participants have to detect brief repetitions of auditory objects, ruling out any possible confounds with spatial or feature-based attention. The participants’ responses were significantly faster and more accurate in the valid cue condition compared to the invalid cue condition, indicating a robust cue-validity effect of high-level, object-based auditory attention.
Investigating the relationship between district-level socioeconomic status and individual obesity in Taiwanese adolescents: A large-scale cross-sectional analysis
Authors: Ni Ying-Lien , Chang Jen-Ho , Chen Lung Hung 
Published: February 2019

AbstractThe current study aimed to assess the prevalence of obesity and to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity among adolescents in Taiwan, a transitioning country. Data from the Taiwan School Physical Fitness Database on 1,875,627 Taiwanese adolescents aged 10–18 years were analyzed. The average family income per household in each district was collected from the national statistical institutional database. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, Pearson correlation analysis, and mixed model analyses were used. The overall prevalence of combined overweight and obesity was 28.1%. The prevalence of overweight/obesity significantly differed according to gender and age. Furthermore, the average family income per household was negatively associated with the district-level prevalence of obesity. Additionally, when controlling for physical fitness, the average family income per household remained negatively associated with adolescent obesity. In addition, multilevel analysis was also applied to explore the relationship between district-level socioeconomic status and individual-level obesity to prevent the nested data structure from affecting the results. The results revealed that the average family income per household negatively correlated with individual obesity. These findings provide insight for public health officials into preventing and managing adolescent obesity.
Personality-dependent breeding dispersal in rural but not urban burrowing owls
Authors: Luna Álvaro , Palma Antonio , Sanz-Aguilar Ana , Tella José L. , Carrete Martina 
Published: February 2019

AbstractDispersal propensity has been correlated with personality traits, conspecific density and predation risk in a variety of species. Thus, changes in the relative frequency of behavioural phenotypes or in the ecological pressures faced by individuals in contrasting habitats can have unexpected effects on their dispersal strategies. Here, using the burrowing owl Athene cunicularia as a study model, we test whether changes in the behavioural profile of individuals and changes in conspecific density and predation pressure associated with urban life influence their breeding dispersal decisions compared to rural conspecifics. Our results show that breeding dispersal behaviour differs between rural and urban individuals. Site fidelity was lower among rural than among urban birds, and primarily related to an individual’s behaviours (fear of humans), which has been reported to reflect individual personality. In contrast, the main determinant of site fidelity among urban owls was conspecific density. After taking the decision of dispersing, urban owls moved shorter distances than rural ones, with females dispersing farther than males. Our results support a personality-dependent dispersal pattern that might vary with predation risk. However, as multiple individuals of two populations (one urban, one rural) were used for this research, differences can thus also be caused by other factors differing between the two populations. Further research is needed to properly understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of changes in dispersal behaviours, especially in terms of population structuring and gene flow between urban and rural populations.
Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes in Tissues of Camellia sinensis during Dedifferentiation and Root Redifferentiation
Authors: Gao Ying , Zhao Min , Wu Xiao-Han , Li Da , Borthakur Devajit , Ye Jian-Hui , Zheng Xin-Qiang , Lu Jian-Liang 
Published: February 2019

AbstractTissue culture is very important for identifying the gene function of Camellia sinensis (L.) and exploiting novel germplasm through transgenic technology. Regeneration system of tea plant has been explored but not been well established since the molecular mechanism of tea plant regeneration is not clear yet. In this study, transcriptomic analysis was performed in the initial explants of tea plant and their dedifferentiated and redifferentiated tissues. A total of 93,607 unigenes were obtained through de novo assembly, and 7,193 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened out from the 42,417 annotated unigenes. Much more DEGs were observed during phase transition rather than at growth stages of callus. Our KOG and KEGG analysis, and qPCR results confirmed that phase transition of tea plant was closely related to the mechanism that regulate expression of genes encoding the auxin- and cytokinin-responsive proteins, transcription factor MYB15 and ethylene-responsive transcription factor ERF RAP2-12. These findings provide a reliable foundation for elucidating the mechanism of the phase transition and may help to optimize the regeneration system by regulating the gene expression pattern.
Reprogrammable Graphene-based Metasurface Mirror with Adaptive Focal Point for THz Imaging
Authors: Hosseininejad Seyed Ehsan , Rouhi Kasra , Neshat Mohammad , Faraji-Dana Reza , Cabellos-Aparicio Albert , Abadal Sergi , Alarcón Eduard 
Published: February 2019

AbstractRecent emergence of metasurfaces has enabled the development of ultra-thin flat optical components through different wavefront shaping techniques at various wavelengths. However, due to the non-adaptive nature of conventional metasurfaces, the focal point of the resulting optics needs to be fixed at the design stage, thus severely limiting its reconfigurability and applicability. In this paper, we aim to overcome such constraint by presenting a flat reflective component that can be reprogrammed to focus terahertz waves at a desired point in the near-field region. To this end, we first propose a graphene-based unit cell with phase reconfigurability, and then employ the coding metasurface approach to draw the phase profile required to set the focus on the target point. Our results show that the proposed component can operate close to the diffraction limit with high focusing range and low focusing error. We also demonstrate that, through appropriate automation, the reprogrammability of the metamirror could be leveraged to develop compact terahertz scanning and imaging systems, as well as novel reconfigurable components for terahertz wireless communications.
Genetically engineered biosynthetic pathways for nonnatural C60 carotenoids using C5-elongases and C50-cyclases in Escherichia coli
Authors: Li Ling , Furubayashi Maiko , Wang Shifei , Maoka Takashi , Kawai-Noma Shigeko , Saito Kyoichi , Umeno Daisuke 
Published: February 2019

AbstractWhile the majority of the natural carotenoid pigments are based on 40-carbon (C40) skeleton, some carotenoids from bacteria have larger C50 skeleton, biosynthesized by attaching two isoprene units (C5) to both sides of the C40 carotenoid pigment lycopene. Subsequent cyclization reactions result in the production of C50 carotenoids with diverse and unique skeletal structures. To produce even larger nonnatural novel carotenoids with C50 + C5 + C5 = C60 skeletons, we systematically coexpressed natural C50 carotenoid biosynthetic enzymes (lycopene C5-elongases and C50-cyclases) from various bacterial sources together with the laboratory-engineered nonnatural C50-lycopene pathway in Escherichia coli. Among the tested enzymes, the elongases and cyclases from Micrococcus luteus exhibited significant activity toward C50-lycopene, and yielded the novel carotenoids C60-flavuxanthin and C60-sarcinaxanthin. Moreover, coexpression of M. luteus elongase with Corynebacterium cyclase resulted in the production of C60-sarcinaxanthin, C60-sarprenoxanthin, and C60-decaprenoxanthin.
Revisiting the dynamic and thermodynamic processes driving the record-breaking January 2014 precipitation in the southern UK
Authors: Oueslati Boutheina , Yiou Pascal , Jézéquel Aglaé 
Published: February 2019

AbstractMany attribution studies of precipitation extreme events have attempted to estimate the thermodynamic contribution (linked to temperature changes) and the dynamic contribution (linked to the atmospheric circulation). Those studies are based on statistical decompositions of atmospheric fields, and essentially focus on the horizontal motion of the atmosphere. This paper proposes a framework that decomposes those terms from first physical principles, which include the vertical atmospheric motion that has often been overlooked. The goal is to take into account the driving processes of the extreme event. We revisit a recent example of extreme precipitation that was extensively investigated through its relation with the atmospheric circulation. We find that although the horizontal motion plays a minor (but important) role, the vertical motion yields a dominating contribution to the event that is larger than the thermodynamic contribution. This analysis quantifies the processes leading to high winter precipitation rates, and can be extended for further attribution studies.
The nested structural organization of the worldwide trade multi-layer network
Authors: Alves Luiz G. A. , Mangioni Giuseppe , Cingolani Isabella , Rodrigues Francisco Aparecido , Panzarasa Pietro , Moreno Yamir 
Published: February 2019

AbstractNestedness has traditionally been used to detect assembly patterns in meta-communities and networks of interacting species. Attempts have also been made to uncover nested structures in international trade, typically represented as bipartite networks in which connections can be established between countries (exporters or importers) and industries. A bipartite representation of trade, however, inevitably neglects transactions between industries. To fully capture the organization of the global value chain, we draw on the World Input-Output Database and construct a multi-layer network in which the nodes are the countries, the layers are the industries, and links can be established from sellers to buyers within and across industries. We define the buyers’ and sellers’ participation matrices in which the rows are the countries and the columns are all possible pairs of industries, and then compute nestedness based on buyers’ and sellers’ involvement in transactions between and within industries. Drawing on appropriate null models that preserve the countries’ or layers’ degree distributions in the original multi-layer network, we uncover variations of country- and transaction-based nestedness over time, and identify the countries and industries that most contributed to nestedness. We discuss the implications of our findings for the study of the international production network and other real-world systems.
Ortholog of the polymerase theta helicase domain modulates DNA replication in Trypanosoma cruzi
Authors: de Lima Loyze P. , Calderano Simone G. , da Silva Marcelo S. , de Araujo Christiane B. , Vasconcelos Elton J. R. , Iwai Leo K. , Pereira Claudio A. , Fragoso Stenio P. , Elias M. Carolina 
Published: February 2019

AbstractDNA polymerase theta (Polθ), a member of the DNA polymerase family A, exhibits a polymerase C-terminal domain, a central domain, and an N-terminal helicase domain. Polθ plays important roles in DNA repair via its polymerase domain, regulating genome integrity. In addition, in mammals, Polθ modulates origin firing timing and MCM helicase recruitment to chromatin. In contrast, as a model eukaryote, Trypanosoma cruzi exhibits two individual putative orthologs of Polθ in different genomic loci; one ortholog is homologous to the Polθ C-terminal polymerase domain, and the other is homologous to the Polθ helicase domain, called Polθ-polymerase and Polθ-helicase, respectively. A pull-down assay using the T. cruzi component of the prereplication complex Orc1/Cdc6 as bait captured Polθ-helicase from the nuclear extract. Orc1/Cdc6 and Polθ-helicase directly interacted, and Polθ-helicase presented DNA unwinding and ATPase activities. A T. cruzi strain overexpressing the Polθ-helicase domain exhibited a significantly decreased amount of DNA-bound MCM7 and impaired replication origin firing. Taken together, these data suggest that Polθ-helicase modulates DNA replication by directly interacting with Orc1/Cdc6, which reduces the binding of MCM7 to DNA and thereby impairs the firing of replication origins.
Household socio-economic position and individual infectious disease risk in rural Kenya
Authors: de Glanville W. A. , Thomas L. F. , Cook E. A. J. , Bronsvoort B. M. de C. , Wamae N. C. , Kariuki S. , Fèvre E. M. 
Published: February 2019

AbstractThe importance of household socio-economic position (SEP) in shaping individual infectious disease risk is increasingly recognised, particularly in low income settings. However, few studies have measured the extent to which this association is consistent for the range of pathogens that are typically endemic among the rural poor in the tropics. This cross-sectional study assessed the relationship between SEP and human infection within a single community in western Kenya using a set of pathogens with diverse transmission routes. The relationships between household SEP and individual infection with Plasmodium falciparum, hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale and/or Necator americanus), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and HIV, and co-infections between hookworm, P. falciparum and E. histolytica/dispar, were assessed using multivariable logistic and multinomial regression. Individuals in households with the lowest SEP were at greatest risk of infection with P. falciparum, hookworm and E. histolytica/dispar, as well as co-infection with each pathogen. Infection with M. tuberculosis, by contrast, was most likely in individuals living in households with the highest SEP. There was no evidence of a relationship between individual HIV infection and household SEP. We demonstrate the existence of a household socio-economic gradient within a rural farming community in Kenya which impacts upon individual infectious disease risk. Structural adjustments that seek to reduce poverty, and therefore the socio-economic inequalities that exist in this community, would be expected to substantially reduce overall infectious disease burden. However, policy makers and researchers should be aware that heterogeneous relationships can exist between household SEP and infection risk for different pathogens in low income settings.
Proximal perimeter encoding in the rat rostral thalamus
Authors: Matulewicz Pawel , Ulrich Katharina , Islam Md. Nurul , Mathiasen Mathias L. , Aggleton John P. , O’Mara Shane M. 
Published: February 2019

AbstractPerimeters are an important part of the environment, delimiting its geometry. Here, we investigated how perimeters (vertical walls; vertical drops) affect neuronal responses in the rostral thalamus (the anteromedial and parataenial nuclei in particular). We found neurons whose firing patterns reflected the presence of walls and drops, irrespective of arena shape. Their firing patterns were stable across multiple sleep-wake cycles and were independent of ambient lighting conditions. Thus, rostral thalamic nuclei may participate in spatial representation by encoding the perimeters of environments.
Computer-aided diagnosis of colorectal polyps using linked color imaging colonoscopy to predict histology
Authors: Min Min , Su Song , He Wenrui , Bi Yiliang , Ma Zhanyu , Liu Yan 
Published: February 2019

AbstractWe developed a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on linked color imaging (LCI) images to predict the histological results of polyps by analyzing the colors of the lesions. A total of 139 images of adenomatous polyps and 69 images of non-adenomatous polyps obtained from our hospital were collected and used to train the CAD system. A test set of LCI images, including both adenomatous and non-adenomatous polyps, was prospectively collected from patients who underwent colonoscopies between Oct and Dec 2017; this test set was used to assess the diagnostic abilities of the CAD system compared to those of human endoscopists (two experts and two novices). The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of this novel CAD system for the training set were 87.0%, 87.1%, 87.0%, 93.1%, and 76.9%, respectively. The test set included 115 adenomatous polyps and 66 non-adenomatous polyps that were prospectively collected. The CAD system identified adenomatous or non-adenomatous polyps in the test set with an accuracy of 78.4%, a sensitivity of 83.3%, a specificity of 70.1%, a PPV of 82.6%, and an NPV of 71.2%. The accuracy of the CAD system was comparable to that of the expert endoscopists (78.4% vs 79.6%; p = 0.517). In addition, the diagnostic accuracy of the novices was significantly lower to the performance of the experts (70.7% vs 79.6%; p = 0.018). A novel CAD system based on LCI could be a rapid and powerful decision-making tool for endoscopists.
Metabolites related to purine catabolism and risk of type 2 diabetes incidence; modifying effects of the TCF7L2-rs7903146 polymorphism
Authors: Papandreou Christopher , Li Jun , Liang Liming , Bulló Mònica , Zheng Yan , Ruiz-Canela Miguel , Yu Edward , Guasch-Ferré Marta , Razquin Cristina , Clish Clary , Corella Dolores , Estruch Ramon , Ros Emilio , Fitó Montserrat , Arós Fernando , Serra-Majem Lluís , Rosique Nuria , Martínez-González Miguel A. , Hu Frank B. , Salas-Salvadó Jordi 
Published: February 2019

AbstractStudies examining associations between purine metabolites and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are limited. We prospectively examined associations between plasma levels of purine metabolites with T2D risk and the modifying effects of transcription factor-7-like-2 (TCF7L2) rs7903146 polymorphism on these associations. This is a case-cohort design study within the PREDIMED study, with 251 incident T2D cases and a random sample of 694 participants (641 non-cases and 53 overlapping cases) without T2D at baseline (median follow-up: 3.8 years). Metabolites were semi-quantitatively profiled with LC-MS/MS. Cox regression analysis revealed that high plasma allantoin levels, including allantoin-to-uric acid ratio and high xanthine-to-hypoxanthine ratio were inversely and positively associated with T2D risk, respectively, independently of classical risk factors. Elevated plasma xanthine and inosine levels were associated with a higher T2D risk in homozygous carriers of theTCF7L2-rs7903146 T-allele. The potential mechanisms linking the aforementioned purine metabolites and T2D risk must be also further investigated.
Distinct isoforms of Nrf1 diversely regulate different subsets of its cognate target genes
Authors: Wang Meng , Qiu Lu , Ru Xufang , Song Yijiang , Zhang Yiguo 
Published: February 2019

AbstractThe single Nrf1 gene has capability to be differentially transcripted alongside with alternative mRNA-splicing and subsequent translation through different initiation signals so as to yield distinct lengths of polypeptide isoforms. Amongst them, three of the most representatives are Nrf1α, Nrf1β and Nrf1γ, but the putative specific contribution of each isoform to regulating ARE-driven target genes remains unknown. To address this, we have herein established three cell lines on the base of the Flp-In T-REx system, which are allowed for the tetracycline-inducibly stable expression of Nrf1α, Nrf1β and Nrf1γ. Consequently, the RNA-Sequencing results have demonstrated that a vast majority of differentially expressed genes (i.e. >90% DEGs detected) were dominantly up-regulated by Nrf1α and/or Nrf1β following induction by tetracycline. By contrast, the other DEGs regulated by Nrf1γ were far less than those regulated by Nrf1α/β (i.e. ~11% of Nrf1α and ~7% of Nrf1β). However, further transcriptomic analysis revealed that the tetracycline-induced expression of Nrf1γ significantly increased the percentage of down-regulated genes in total DEGs. These statistical data were further validated by quantitative real-time PCR. The experimental results indicate that distinct Nrf1 isoforms make diverse and even opposing contributions to regulating different subsets of target genes, such as those encoding 26S proteasomal subunits and others involved in various biological processes and functions. Collectively, Nrf1γ acts as a major dominant-negative inhibitor competitively against Nrf1α/β activity, such that a number of DEGs regulated by Nrf1α/β are counteracted by Nrf1γ.
RAE1 mediated ZEB1 expression promotes epithelial–mesenchymal transition in breast cancer
Authors: Oh Ji Hoon , Lee Ji-Yeon , Yu Sungsook , Cho Yejin , Hur Sumin , Nam Ki Taek , Kim Myoung Hee 
Published: February 2019

AbstractBreast cancer metastasis accounts for most of the deaths from breast cancer. Since epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in promoting metastasis of cancer, many mechanisms regarding EMT have been studied. We previously showed that Ribonucleic acid export 1 (RAE1) is dysregulated in breast cancer and its overexpression leads to aggressive breast cancer phenotypes by inducing EMT. Here, we evaluated the functional capacity of RAE1 in breast cancer metastasis by using a three-dimensional (3D) culture system and xenograft models. Furthermore, to investigate the mechanisms of RAE1-driven EMT, in vitro studies were carried out. The induction of EMT with RAE1-overexpression was confirmed under the 3D culture system and in vivo system. Importantly, RAE1 mediates upregulation of an EMT marker ZEB1, by binding to the promoter region of ZEB1. Knockdown of ZEB1 in RAE1-overexpressing cells suppressed invasive and migratory behaviors, accompanied by an increase in epithelial and a decrease in mesenchymal markers. Taken together, these data demonstrate that RAE1 contributes to breast cancer metastasis by regulating a key EMT-inducing factor ZEB1 expression, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic target.