bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effects of Concomitant Administration of Sodium Glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitor with Insulin on Hemoglobin A1c, Body Mass Index and Serum Lipid Profile in Japanese Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Authors: Kusunoki Masataka , Natsume Yukie , Miyata Tetsuro , Tsutsumi Kazuhiko , Oshida Yoshiharu 
Published: July 2018

AbstractIn patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who show suboptimal blood glucose control under insulin therapy alone, concomitant treatment with an additional hypoglycemic agent that differs in its mechanism of action from insulin may be considered. We conducted this clinical trial to explore whether further control of increased blood glucose level can be achieved with concomitant use of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor as concomitant with other hypoglycemic therapy, as compared to SGLT2 inhibitor monotherapy, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus showing decrease in blood glucose level but less than the effect of insulin monotherapy and there was no significant differences. In the SGLT2 inhibitor monotherapy group, decreases of the serum hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level, body weight, body mass index (BMI) and serum triglyceride, and elevation of the serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration were observed as compared to the baseline values. In the type 2 diabetic patients under insulin therapy who received combined insulin plus SGLT2 inhibitor therapy, however decreases in the body weight and BMI, with only a tendency towards decrease of the serum HbA1c value, not reaching statistical significance, were observed. The combined therapy group also showed no appreciable changes of the serum triglyceride level, while the serum adiponectin level increased. The present study data indicate that combined insulin plus SGLT2 inhibitor treatment failed to afford any further improvement of the blood glucose control, as compared to SGLT2 monotherapy, in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.
Ethological observations of social behavior in the operating room
Authors: Jones Laura K. , Jennings Bonnie Mowinski , Higgins Melinda K. , de Waal Frans B. M. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Hierarchy and gender composition affect the balance of cooperation and conflict on surgical teams. In this investigation, behavior was quantified with methods traditionally used to study nonhuman primate groups. Observers used an ethogram to timestamp 6,348 spontaneous social interactions from 200 surgical procedures. Conflict and cooperation in the operating room showed a significant interaction effect with regard to professional roles (e.g., conflict was initiated mostly down the hierarchy between individuals several ranks apart) and by gender interaction (e.g., cooperation was better if the attending surgeon’s gender differed from that of the team majority). These findings may inform ongoing and future interventions designed to improve team performance and patient safety.
Confinement generates single-crystal aragonite rods at room temperature
Authors: Zeng Muling , Kim Yi-Yeoun , Anduix-Canto Clara , Frontera Carlos , Laundy David , Kapur Nikil , Christenson Hugo K. , Meldrum Fiona C. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Calcium carbonate is a widespread compound whose two common crystalline forms, calcite and aragonite, are important biominerals. Although aragonite is only marginally less stable than calcite under ambient conditions, it usually only crystallizes from solution at high temperatures or in the presence of magnesium ions. However, organisms readily form both calcite and aragonite biominerals, a capacity usually attributed to the action of specific organic macromolecules. By investigating calcium carbonate precipitation in submicron pores we here show that aragonite is promoted in confinement and that pure aragonite crystallizes in nanoscale pores in the absence of any additives. This is of great significance to biomineralization processes, which invariably occur in small volumes, and suggests that organisms may exploit confinement effects to control polymorph.
Origins of equine dentistry
Authors: Taylor William Timothy Treal , Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav , Tuvshinjargal Tumurbaatar , Bender Scott , Tromp Monica , Clark Julia , Lowry K. Bryce , Houle Jean-Luc , Staszewski Dimitri , Whitworth Jocelyn , Fitzhugh William , Boivin Nicole 
Published: July 2018

Significance
The domestication of horses and adoption of horse riding were critical processes that culminated in the emergence of mounted warriors and nomadic empires that shaped world history. The constraints of horse biology and riding equipment meant that equine veterinary care, particularly of teeth, was a core component of the success of the human–horse relationship. We report the earliest evidence of equine dentistry, from the Mongolian Steppe, at 1150 BCE. Key shifts in equine dentistry practice through time can be linked first to the emergence of horseback riding and later to the use of metal bits that enabled better control of horses. The maintenance of horse health through dentistry underwrote the key role of horses in cultures and economies around the world.
Decoding on the ribosome depends on the structure of the mRNA phosphodiester backbone
Authors: Keedy Hannah E. , Thomas Erica N. , Zaher Hani S. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Reading of the genetic code is an intricate process in which the ribosome plays an active role in ensuring that translation proceeds rapidly and accurately. Studies have revealed that the mRNA adopts an unusual structure between the P and A sites of the small ribosomal subunit, where it is significantly kinked. In this work we probed the role of the kink structure in decoding. Substitutions that disrupt this structure were found to increase the accuracy of decoding. Conversely, peptide-bond formation on difficult-to-decode codons was severely reduced when this kink structure was perturbed. Our data suggest that the rigid nature of the mRNA backbone is important for ensuring efficient codon–anticodon interactions under suboptimal conditions.
Repression of human and mouse brain inflammaging transcriptome by broad gene-body histone hyperacetylation
Authors: Cheng Hao , Xuan Hongwen , Green Christopher D. , Han Yixing , Sun Na , Shen Hongjie , McDermott Joseph , Bennett David A. , Lan Fei , Han Jing-Dong J. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Brain aging and neural degenerative diseases are characterized by chronic low-degree inflammation, also known as “inflammaging.” Histone acetylation is a classical mark for active gene expression. Here, using H3K27ac ChIP-seq and RNA-seq of human and mouse brain samples, we found that, during aging, overactivated inflammation-related genes are marked by decreased broad gene-body hyperacetylation. Restoring the gene-body hyper H3K27ac by histone deacetylase inhibitors suppressed such overactivation, implying a potential fine-tuning function of broad gene-body H3K27ac on these inflammaging genes. Our study uncovered a mode of epigenetic regulation of the brain inflammaging genes, suggesting the reversibility of the inflammaging process and a potential angle for intervention of aging-related brain function decline and neural degenerative diseases.
Costs and benefits of provocation in bacterial warfare
Authors: Gonzalez Diego , Sabnis Akshay , Foster Kevin R. , Mavridou Despoina A. I. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Bacteria live in dense environments where competition for space and resources is fierce. For this reason, they often use diffusible toxins to eliminate closely related strains. Some toxins trigger systematic retaliation, raising the question of the role of provocation in bacterial warfare. We combine mathematical modeling and experiments to study the costs and benefits of provocation. In one-to-one encounters, provocation is costly as it leads to strong counterattacks. However, with three or more strains present, provocation can provide benefits via a “divide-and-conquer” effect, whereby a strain forces its opponents to wipe each other out. This effect could be harnessed as a targeted antibacterial approach; adding low levels of certain antibiotics to communities can promote warfare and cross-elimination between strains.
Synthetic far-red light-mediated CRISPR-dCas9 device for inducing functional neuronal differentiation
Authors: Shao Jiawei , Wang Meiyan , Yu Guiling , Zhu Sucheng , Yu Yuanhuan , Heng Boon Chin , Wu Jiali , Ye Haifeng 
Published: July 2018

Significance
We have developed an optogenetic far-red light (FRL)-activated CRISPR-dCas9 system (FACE) that is orthogonal, fine-tunable, reversible, and has robust endogenous gene-activation profiles upon stimulation with FRL, with deep tissue penetration capacity, low brightness, short illumination time, and negligible phototoxicity. The FACE device is biocompatible and meets the criteria for safe medical application in humans, providing a robust differentiation strategy for mass production of functional neural cells from induced pluripotent stem cells simply by utilizing a beam of FRL. This optogenetic device has expanded the optogenetic toolkit for precise mammalian genome engineering in many areas of basic and translational research that require precise spatiotemporal control of cellular behavior, which may in turn boost the clinical progress of optogenetics-based precision therapy.
Sinking particles promote vertical connectivity in the ocean microbiome
Authors: Mestre Mireia , Ruiz-González Clara , Logares Ramiro , Duarte Carlos M. , Gasol Josep M. , Sala M. Montserrat 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Prokaryotes dominate the living biomass and the biological diversity of the ocean, one of the largest ecosystems on earth. The sinking of particles is a widespread mechanism that transports materials to the deep ocean, with a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Whether this process constitutes a global dispersal pathway for prokaryotic diversity connecting surface communities to those in the dark ocean has never been tested. Here we show that surface and deep-sea prokaryotic communities are strongly connected, constituting a vast oceanic metacommunity where local assemblages are linked through the transport of sinking particles. This vertical dispersal, mediated mainly by the largest sinking particles, emerges as a fundamental process shaping the assembly and biogeography of deep ocean prokaryotic communities.
Two polymorphic cholesterol monohydrate crystal structures form in macrophage culture models of atherosclerosis
Authors: Varsano Neta , Beghi Fabio , Elad Nadav , Pereiro Eva , Dadosh Tali , Pinkas Iddo , Perez-Berna Ana J. , Jin Xueting , Kruth Howard S. , Leiserowitz Leslie , Addadi Lia 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Atherosclerosis causes heart attack and stroke and is a major fatal disease in the Western world. Cholesterol crystal rods and plates are the hallmark of developed atherosclerotic plaques and are associated with plaque rupture and thrombus formation. We show here that the elongated rod-shaped crystals that form inside macrophage cells enriched with cholesterol have a crystal structure different from the thin plates associated with the cell plasma membrane. The two crystal structures are induced by the different biological environment where they form. Besides identifying the structure of cholesterol crystals in pathological plaques, this work may thus provide information on cellular crystal growth mechanisms, once the factors that favor the formation of the different structures are understood.
Redundancy in synaptic connections enables neurons to learn optimally
Authors: Hiratani Naoki , Fukai Tomoki 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Humans and animals are capable of rapid learning from a small dataset, which is still difficult for artificial neural networks. Recent studies further suggest that our learning speed is nearly optimal given a stream of information, but its underlying mechanism remains elusive. Here, we hypothesized that the elaborate connection structure between presynaptic axons and postsynaptic dendrites is the key element for this near-optimal learning and derived a data-efficient rule for dendritic synaptic plasticity and rewiring from Bayesian theory. We implemented this rule in a detailed neuron model of visual perceptual learning and found that the model well reproduces various known properties of dendritic plasticity and synaptic organization in cortical neurons.
Vulnerability of Arctic marine mammals to vessel traffic in the increasingly ice-free Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route
Authors: Hauser Donna D. W. , Laidre Kristin L. , Stern Harry L. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
The Arctic is experiencing unprecedented rates of sea ice loss in concert with expanding anthropogenic activities that may have compounding effects on marine ecosystems. The Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route have recently seen the advent of commercial traffic, raising questions of how to juggle economic development and conservation. Here we show the vulnerability of 80 subpopulations of seven endemic Arctic marine mammal species to vessel traffic across the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route during the open-water season, accompanied by estimates of uncertainty that highlight additional research needs. As global, national, and local organizations sharpen their focus on the Arctic, our results provide a framework to evaluate environmental impacts to the region’s most iconic and sensitive species.
Traceless synthesis of ceramides in living cells reveals saturation-dependent apoptotic effects
Authors: Rudd Andrew K. , Devaraj Neal K. 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Ceramides are a chemically diverse class of sphingolipids that have critical roles in a wide range of biological pathways. Despite their high biological interest, ceramides have been difficult to study because of their impermeability to the cell membrane. We overcome the principal issues with ceramide delivery by chemoselectively ligating lipid precursors in vivo. Our method employs a proximity-induced ligation which allows for the in situ synthesis of several different natural ceramide species within live cells. Using this approach, we directly confirm the proapoptotic effects of C16:0 ceramide in vivo and observe that ceramide saturation plays a determinant role in ceramide-driven apoptosis.
An aryl-homoserine lactone quorum-sensing signal produced by a dimorphic prosthecate bacterium
Authors: Liao Lisheng , Schaefer Amy L. , Coutinho Bruna G. , Brown Pamela J. B. , Greenberg E. Peter 
Published: July 2018

Significance
Acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing (QS) has received interest as a possible target for controlling microbial activities and as a model for communication involved in coordinating activities of bacteria. Recent advances show there are two related families of AHL QS signal synthesis enzymes, which differ in whether they acquire the organic acid reaction substrate from biosynthetic or primarily catabolic pathways. Most known AHL synthases utilize fatty acids activated with an acyl carrier protein from fatty acid biosynthesis. Some AHL synthases use coenzyme-A–activated organic acids. We describe a coenzyme-A–dependent AHL synthase QS system. We also set forth an experimental approach for discovering new signals that will allow further expansion of our understanding of the diversity of AHL signaling.
Protein-restricted maternal diet during lactation decreases type I and type III tropocollagen synthesis in the skin of mice offspring
Authors: Yamane Takumi , Konno Ryosuke , Iwatsuki Ken , Oishi Yuichi 
Published: July 2018

ABSTRACT
We investigated the effects of a low protein (LP) maternal diet during lactation on type I and III tropocollagen synthesis in infant mouse skin. The LP diet decreased the levels of type I and III tropocollagen proteins and COL1A1 and COL3A1 mRNA. Thus, the protein composition of the maternal perinatal diet may influence the skin health of offspring.
Genetic variation within endolysosomal system is associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Gao Song , Casey Aaron E , Sargeant Tim J , Mäkinen Ville-Petteri 
Published: July 2018

AbstractLate-onset Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia type, yet no treatment exists to stop the neurodegeneration. Evidence from monogenic lysosomal diseases, neuronal pathology and experimental models suggest that autophagic and endolysosomal dysfunction may contribute to neurodegeneration by disrupting the degradation of potentially neurotoxic molecules such as amyloid-β and tau. However, it is uncertain how well the evidence from rare disorders and experimental models capture causal processes in common forms of dementia, including late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. For this reason, we set out to investigate if autophagic and endolysosomal genes were enriched for genetic variants that convey increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease; such a finding would provide population-based support for the endolysosomal hypothesis of neurodegeneration. We quantified the collective genetic associations between the endolysosomal system and Alzheimer’s disease in three genome-wide associations studies (combined n = 62 415). We used the Mergeomics pathway enrichment algorithm that incorporates permutations of the full hierarchical cascade of SNP-gene-pathway to estimate enrichment. We used a previously published collection of 891 autophagic and endolysosomal genes (denoted as AphagEndoLyso, and derived from the Lysoplex sequencing platform) as a proxy for cellular processes related to autophagy, endocytosis and lysosomal function. We also investigated a subset of 142 genes of the 891 that have been implicated in Mendelian diseases (MenDisLyso). We found that both gene sets were enriched for genetic Alzheimer’s associations: an enrichment score 3.67 standard deviations from the null model (P = 0.00012) was detected for AphagEndoLyso, and a score 3.36 standard deviations from the null model (P = 0.00039) was detected for MenDisLyso. The high enrichment score was specific to the AphagEndoLyso gene set (stronger than 99.7% of other tested pathways) and to Alzheimer’s disease (stronger than all other tested diseases). The APOE locus explained most of the MenDisLyso signal (1.16 standard deviations after APOE removal, P = 0.12), but the AphagEndoLyso signal was less affected (3.35 standard deviations after APOE removal, P = 0.00040). Additional sensitivity analyses further indicated that the AphagEndoLyso Gene Set contained an aggregate genetic association that comprised a combination of subtle genetic signals in multiple genes. We also observed an enrichment of Parkinson’s disease signals for MenDisLyso (3.25 standard deviations) and for AphagEndoLyso (3.95 standard deviations from the null model), and a brain-specific pattern of gene expression for AphagEndoLyso in the Gene Tissue Expression Project dataset. These results provide evidence that a diffuse aggregation of genetic perturbations to the autophagy and endolysosomal system may mediate late-onset Alzheimer’s risk in human populations.
The formulation and analysis of energy-preserving schemes for solving high-dimensional nonlinear Klein–Gordon equations
Authors: Wang Bin , Wu Xinyuan 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
In this paper we focus on the analysis of energy-preserving schemes for solving high-dimensional nonlinear Klein–Gordon equations. A novel energy-preserving scheme is developed based on the discrete gradient method and the Duhamel principle. The local error, global convergence and nonlinear stability of the new scheme are analysed in detail. Numerical experiments are implemented to compare with existing numerical methods in the literature, and the numerical results show the remarkable efficiency of the new energy-preserving scheme presented in this paper.
Postpartum Group A Streptococcus Case Series: Reach Out to Infection Prevention!
Authors: Alexander Andrew J , Myers Carol , Beres Stephen B , Olsen Randall J , Musser James M , Mangino Julie E 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
A series of postpartum Streptococcus pyogenes infections prompted an investigation to rule out potential transmission by a health care worker. None of the hospital staff screened were colonized. All isolates were determined to be unrelated by molecular methods, including whole-genome sequencing. Thus, nosocomial transmission was considered unlikely.
Loss of Pelvic Incidence Correction After Long Fusion Using Iliac Screws for Adult Spinal Deformity
Authors: Oba Hiroki , Ebata Shigeto , Takahashi Jun , Ikegami Shota , Koyama Kensuke , Haro Hirotaka , Kato Hiroyuki , Ohba Tetsuro 
Published: July 2018

Study Design.
Retrospective observational cohort study.

Objective.
To determine change in pelvic incidence (PI) and loss of correction after long fusion with iliac screws, the effect of iliac screw loosening, and global alignment according to postoperative PI.

Summary of Background Data.
Posterior long fixation and fusion of the thoracic to the ilium is one of the most common surgical treatments for adult spinal deformity (ASD). Long fusion to the sacrum with iliac screws decreases the PI by 3.9° after surgery. PI decreases once by long fusion with iliac screws. However, if the iliac screw loosens, PI may cause correction loss and return to the preoperative PI.

Methods.
We retrospectively reviewed the cases of 69 consecutive patients with ASD. Their mean age (SD) was 70.5 (7.3) years, 12% were male. PI was evaluated preoperatively, early- and 1-year postoperatively. We compared change in PI with and without loosening of iliac screws, spinopelvic parameters according to 1-year-postoperative PI.

Results.
PI decreased significantly from 51.8° (9.3°) to 48.1° (9.5°) early postoperatively (P < 0.01). PI increased significantly from 48.1° (9.5°) to 49.6° (9.7°) within a year postoperatively (P < 0.01). Significant loss of PI correction (2.3°, P < 0.01) occurred within a year after surgery in patients with iliac screw loosening and was significantly different from the PI loss in those without screw loosening (53.9°, 48.2°, P = 0.03). Pelvic tilt, sacral slope, C7 sagittal vertical axis, global tilt, and T1 pelvic angle were significantly smaller in the group with PI <50° postoperatively at 1 year compared with the group with PI >50°.

Conclusion.
Although PI decreases after long fusion surgery with iliac screws, significant correction loss appears within a year. Loosening of iliac screws may exacerbate this loss. Patients with PI <50° postoperatively were able to maintain better global alignment.

Level of Evidence: 3