bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Artificial lighting at night alters aquatic‐riparian invertebrate food webs
Authors: Sullivan S. Mažeika P. , Hossler Katie , Meyer Lars A. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractArtificial lighting at night (ALAN) is a global phenomenon that can be detrimental to organisms at individual and population levels, yet potential consequences for communities and ecosystem functions are less resolved. Riparian systems may be particularly vulnerable to ALAN. We investigated the impacts of ALAN on invertebrate community composition and food web characteristics for linked aquatic‐terrestrial ecosystems. We focused on food chain length (FCL), a central property of ecological communities that can influence their structure, function, and stability; and the contribution of aquatically derived energy (i.e., nutritional subsidies originating from stream periphyton). We collected terrestrial arthropods and emergent aquatic insects from a suite of stream and wetland sites in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Stable isotopes of carbon (13C) and nitrogen (15N) were used to infer FCL and contribution of aquatically derived energy. We found that moderate‐to‐high levels of ALAN altered invertebrate community composition, favoring primarily predators and detritivores. Impacts of ALAN, however, were very taxon specific as illustrated, for example, by the negative impact of ALAN on the abundance of orb‐web spiders belonging to the families Tetragnathidae and Araneidae: key invertebrate riparian predators. Most notably, we observed decreases in both invertebrate FCL and reliance on aquatically derived energy under ALAN (although aquatic energetic contributions appeared to increase again at higher levels of ALAN), in addition to shifts in the timing of reciprocal nutritional subsidies. Our study demonstrates that ALAN can alter the flows of energy between aquatic and terrestrial systems, thereby representing an environmental perturbation that can cross ecosystem boundaries. Given projections for global increases in ALAN, both in terms of coverage and intensity, these results have broad implications for stream ecosystem structure and function.
Experimental manipulation of visual attention affects body size adaptation but not body dissatisfaction
Authors: Stephen Ian D. , Hunter Katie , Sturman Daniel , Mond Jonathan , Stevenson Richard J. , Brooks Kevin R. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractObjectiveProlonged exposure to large/small bodies causes aftereffects in perceived body size. Outside the laboratory, individuals repeatedly exposed to small (large) bodies tend to over‐ (under‐) estimate their size and exhibit increased (decreased) body dissatisfaction. Why, among individuals exposed to approximately equivalent distributions of body sizes, only some develop body size and shape misperception and/or body dissatisfaction is not yet fully understood.MethodWe exposed 61 women to high and low adiposity bodies simultaneously, instructing half to attend to high, and half to low adiposity bodies.ResultsParticipants in the high adiposity attention condition's perception of “normal” body size significantly increased in adiposity, and vice versa.DiscussionThis suggests that visual attention moderates body size aftereffects. Interventions encouraging visual attention to more realistic ranges of bodies may therefore reduce body misperception. No change in body dissatisfaction was found, suggesting that changes in the perceptual component (misperception) may not necessarily affect the attitudinal component (dissatisfaction) of body image distortion.
The effects of transient heat release rate and crosswind on flame length and tilt angle of flames at different positions in the spread of fire over a diesel pool
Authors: Wang Liang , Dong Yuhong , Su Shichuan , Wei Chengyin , Cui Haibin , Guo Chenyu , Feng Desheng 
Published: December 2018

SummaryThe spread of fire over liquid fuel is a common phenomenon, and it has been demonstrated experimentally that the flame length and tilt angle change with the transient heat release rate and different positions of the flame. The coupling relationship between these factors is studied in this paper. The experiments are composed of a rectangular pool with dimensions of 80 cm × 6 cm × 5 cm and crosswind with speeds of 0.8 to 2.4 m/s. Diesel is used as the fuel, and a new method is applied to ensure that the initial temperature of the diesel is constant during ignition. The results show that the traditional method of luminous flame intermittency may not be suitable for studying the geometric characteristics of the spread of fire over a pool, and a new method is proposed. In addition, the transient variation of flame length in different positions of the pool is shown to fluctuate around a mean flame length. The evolution of flame tilt angle along the longitudinal direction of the pool exhibits a U‐shaped curve. Moreover, the multivariate nonlinear relationships of mean flame length and tilt angle among the heat release rate, fire position, and wind speed are established, and relevant coefficients are determined.
System for Quality‐Assured Data Analysis: Flexible, reproducible scientific workflows
Authors: Fowler Jerry , San Lucas Francis Anthony , Scheet Paul 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe reproducibility of scientific processes is one of the paramount problems of bioinformatics, an engineering problem that must be addressed to perform good research. The System for Quality‐Assured Data Analysis (SyQADA), described here, seeks to address reproducibility by managing many of the details of procedural bookkeeping in bioinformatics in as simple and transparent a manner as possible. SyQADA has been used by persons with backgrounds ranging from expert programmer to Unix novice, to perform and repeat dozens of diverse bioinformatics workflows on tens of thousands of samples, consuming over 80 CPU‐months of computing on over 300,000 individual tasks of scores of projects on laptops, computer servers, and computing clusters. SyQADA is especially well‐suited for paired‐sample analyses found in cancer tumor‐normal studies. SyQADA executable source code, documentation, tutorial examples, and workflows used in our lab is available from http://scheet.org/software.html.
Ordovician to Early Permian accretionary tectonics of Eastern Tianshan: Insights from Kawabulak ophiolitic mélange, granitoid, and granitic gneiss
Authors: Ao Songjian , Xiao Wenjiao , Windley Brian F. , Mao Qigui , Zhang Ji'En , Zhang Zhiyong 
Published: December 2018

There is a broad consensus that the final closure of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean lead to the formation of the southern segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. However, the final closure of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean remains controversial. To address this issue, a systematical study of geochemical and zircon U–Pb on the Kawabulak ophiolite in the southern Eastern Tianshan was carried out. The Kawabulak ophiolite is an accretionary prism that consists of different lithological tectonic slices and marks the suture zone that welded the Central Tianshan composite arc and the northern passive margin of the Tarim Craton. Zircon U–Pb data show that gabbro blocks of the Kawabulak ophiolite formed at 360.9 ± 3.3 Ma in the northern part and 326.0 ± 3.3 Ma in the southern part, respectively. The geochemistry features of basalts and gabbros show OIB‐type, arc/subduction‐related affinities, indicating different tectonic setting origins. A granitic gneiss with an arc‐related geochemical feature yielded a zircon U–Pb age of 477.2 Ma, indicating the earliest subduction event. The youngest deformed arc‐related granitic intrusion (295 Ma) in the Kawabulak prism indicates that the final closure timing of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean in Eastern Tianshan is after the Early Permian. The results of our study shed light to the temporal and spatial evolution of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt.
Fronto‐insular‐parietal network engagement underlying arithmetic word problem solving
Authors: Chang Ting‐Ting , Lung Tzu‐Chen , Ng Chan‐Tat , Metcalfe Arron W. S. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractMathematical word problems are ubiquitous and standard for teaching and evaluating generalization of mathematical knowledge for real‐world contexts. It is therefore concerning that the neural mechanisms of word problem solving are not well understood, as these insights represent strong potential for improving education and remediating deficits in this domain. Here, we investigate neural response to word problems via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Healthy adults performed sentence judgment tasks on word problems that either contained one‐step mathematical operations, or nonarithmetic judgments on parallel narratives without any numerical information. Behavioral results suggested that the composite efficiency measurement of combining accuracy and RT did not differ between the two problem types. Arithmetic sentence judgments elicited greater activation in the fronto‐insular‐parietal network including intraparietal sulcus (IPS), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), and anterior insula (AI) than narrative sentence judgment. Narrative sentence judgments, conversely, resulted in greater activation predominantly in the left ventral PFC, angular gyrus and perisylvian cortex compared with reading arithmetic sentences. Moreover, task‐dependent functional connectivity analyses showed the AI circuits were more strongly coupled with IPS during arithmetic sentence judgments than nonarithmetic sentences. Finally, activations in the IPS during arithmetic were highly correlated with out‐of‐scanner performance on a distinct set of problems with the same characteristics. These results show arithmetic word problem performance differences may rely more heavily on fronto‐insular‐parietal circuits for mathematical model building than narrative text comprehension of similar difficulty. More broadly, our study suggests that quantitative measurements of brain mechanisms can provide pivotal role for uncovering crucial arithmetic skills.
Preparation and reactivity of benzo‐1,2‐dichalcogenete derivatives and their bis(triphenylphosphine)platinum complexes
Authors: Kimura Takeshi , Nakahodo Tsukasa , Fujihara Hisashi 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe reaction of 4,5‐(o‐xylylenedichalcogeno)‐3,6‐dialkylphthalonitrile (1a‐d) with aluminum chloride in toluene gave ring‐opened products, 3,6‐dialkyl‐4,5‐dicyanobenzene‐1,2‐dithiols (2a,b), for sulfur derivatives and cyclized products, 3,6‐dialkyl‐4‐,5‐dicyanobenzo‐1,2‐diselenetes (2c,d), for selenium derivatives. Asymmetrically substituted 3,6‐diethylbenzo‐1,2‐diselenete (2e) with a bromo and a nitrile group was prepared by the reaction of 4,5‐(o‐xylylenediseleno)‐3,6‐diethyl‐2‐cyano‐1‐bromobenzene (1e) with aluminum chloride in toluene. Compound 2e was unstable compared with 2c and produced an equilibrium mixture of 2e and dimerized dibenzotetraselenocin 3e in the chloroform solution. Compound 2c was reacted with methyl iodide in the presence of sodium hydroxide to produce 1,2‐bis(methylseleno)‐3,6‐diethyl‐4,5‐dicyanobenzene (4) and bis(2‐methylseleno‐3,6‐diethyl‐4,5‐dicyanophenyl)diselenide (5). Compounds 2a and 2c were reacted with tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)platinum in toluene to give the corresponding platinum complexes 6a and 6c with a dichalcogenaplatinumole ring, respectively. The structures of 6a and 6c were determined by NMR, MS, and X‐ray crystallography. To obtain theoretical information, the structures of dichalcogenetes 2a′, 2c, 2e, 2f, 2g and platinum complexes 6a and 6c were optimized by the DFT method using the Gaussian 09 program and their HOMO and LUMO energy levels were calculated by time‐dependent density functional theory.
Comparison of scenario‐neutral approaches for estimation of climate change impacts on flood characteristics
Authors: Keller Luise , Rössler Ole , Martius Olivia , Weingartner Rolf 
Published: December 2018

AbstractScenario‐neutral assessments of climate change impact on floods analyse the sensitivity of a catchment to a range of changes in selected meteorological variables such as temperature and precipitation. The key challenges of the approach are the choice of the meteorological variables and statistics thereof and how to generate time series representing altered climatologies of the selected variables. Different methods have been proposed to achieve this, and it remains unclear if and to which extent they result in comparable flood change projections. Here, we compare projections of annual maximum floods (AMFs) derived from three different scenario‐neutral methods for a prealpine study catchment. The methods chosen use different types of meteorological data, namely, observations, regional climate model output, and weather generator data. The different time series account for projected changes in the seasonality of temperature and precipitation, in the occurrence statistics of precipitation, and of daily precipitation extremes. Resulting change in mean AMF peak magnitudes and volumes differs in sign between the methods (range of −6% to +7% for flood peak magnitudes and −11% to +14% for flood volumes). Moreover, variability of projected peak magnitudes and flood volumes depends on method with one approach leading to a generally larger spread. The differences between the methods vary depending on whether peak magnitudes or flood volumes are considered and different relationships between peak magnitude and volume change result. These findings can be linked to differing flood regime changes among the three approaches. The study highlights that considering selected aspects of climate change only when performing scenario‐neutral studies may lead to differing representations of flood generating processes by the approaches and thus different quantifications of flood change. As each method comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, it is recommended to combine several scenario‐neutral approaches to obtain more robust results.
Grafted cyclodextrin as carrier for control drug delivery and efficient cell killing
Authors: Shukla Aparna , Ray Biswajit , Maiti Pralay 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe presence of hydroxyl groups in cyclodextrin (CD) makes it highly hydrophilic and simultaneously allows its chemical modification to graft polyurethane to control the drug release for longer period of time by maintaining the hydrophobic–hydrophilic balance through varying extent of grafting. Grafting of polyurethane on CD is confirmed through 1H NMR and molecular weight measurement while FTIR and UV visible studies further support grafting and emphasize the interaction among polymer chains as a whole. Degree of grafting is evaluated from the integrated peak area in NMR spectra. Thermal and mechanical measurements show improved stability and strength of the graft polymers with respect to pure CD. The conversion of particle nature of CD to strip‐like morphology in graft copolymers is evident from atomic force microscopy. Sustained drug release has been achieved using graft copolymer against burst release from pure CD and specific interactions, as observed through spectroscopy and thermal measurements, are responsible for sustained release of drug. Biocompatibility of graft copolymers has been checked using cellular studies through MTT assay and cell adhesion. Importantly, the cell killing efficiency has been demonstrated by embedding anticancer drug in polymer matrices causing mortality rate of 75% using graft copolymer against scanty 25% using pure drug or drug embedded in CD and the result is understood from the sustained release of drug from the graft copolymer vis‐à‐vis burst release in other systems. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 107A: 434–444, 2019.
The expression of interleukin‐15 and interleukin‐17 in tears and orbital tissues of Graves ophthalmopathy patients
Authors: Chen Qun 
Published: December 2018

AbstractObjectiveThe objective of this study was to study the levels of interleukin (IL)‐15 and IL‐17 in tears and orbital tissues of the patients with the Graves ophthalmopathy (GO) (active and inactive stages) and in controls.MethodsTwenty‐four active GO patients (CAS ≥ 3/7) were collected in our research. All patients were treated with corticosteroids during the therapy process (4‐15 months) and developed into the inactive phase (CAS ≤ 2/7). The tear samples were gathered from inactive and active stages of patients with GO and sex‐matched and age‐matched controls (volunteers,
n = 24) for the enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay measurement of IL‐15 and IL‐17. The orbital tissues were collected from inactive stage of patients with GO and healthy volunteers for the analysis of IL‐15 and IL‐17 positive cells using the immunohistochemical analysis.ResultsIn comparison with the volunteers, significant upregulation of IL‐15 and IL‐17 were identified in tears of active (P < 0.05) and inactive patients with GO (
P < 0.01). Compared with inactive patients with GO, the levels of IL‐15 and IL‐17 in the tears were obviously higher than those in the active patients with GO. In addition, higher expression of IL‐15 and IL‐17 positive cells were found in the orbital organization of inactive patients with GO compared with volunteers.ConclusionThe differences in IL‐15 and IL‐17 expression between GO patients (active and inactive stages) and controls suggested both IL‐15 and IL‐17 expression were significantly correlated with thyroid‐associated ophthalmopathy pathogenesis and development.
In silico identification of natural product inhibitors for γ‐secretase activating protein, a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease
Authors: Gupta Manoj Kumar , Vadde Ramakrishna 
Published: December 2018

AbstractAlzheimer's disease (AD) is clinically characterized by the aggregation of neurotoxic amyloid‐β (Aβ) peptides in the brain. γ‐Secretase catalyzes the reaction of Aβ formation. Inhibition of γ‐secretase activating protein (GSAP) reduces Aβ production without disrupting other molecular functions and serves as a promising therapeutic target for lowering Aβ and curing AD. Till date, no proven drug is available for curing AD because of the nonexistence of crystal/NMR structure of GSAP. Thus in the present study, for the first time, we adopted in silico method to predict the 3D structure of GSAP via comparative modeling and studied the architecture and function of GSAP through simulation studies. Docking studies with 4153 phytochemicals revealed that GSAP having a better binding affinity with macaflavanone C, (E)‐1‐[2,4‐dihydroxy‐3‐(3‐methylbut‐2‐enyl)phenyl]‐3‐(2,2‐dimethyl‐8‐hydroxy‐2H‐benzopyran‐6‐yl)prop‐2‐en‐1‐one, and monachosorin B as compared with the standard drug, imatinib. Further, the molecular dynamics analysis suggested that only two phytochemicals, namely, macaflavanone C and (E)‐1‐[2,4‐dihydroxy‐3‐(3‐methylbut‐2‐enyl)phenyl]‐3‐(2,2‐dimethyl‐8‐hydroxy‐2H‐benzopyran‐6‐yl)prop‐2‐en‐1‐one) significantly disrupt the original property of GSAP and also cleared the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion test. These natural compounds may be utilized in future for curing AD after further investigations.
Lycorine inhibits melanoma cell migration and metastasis mainly through reducing intracellular levels of β‐catenin and matrix metallopeptidase 9
Authors: Zhang Pan , Zhang Mengli , Yu Di , Liu Wenming , Hu Lin , Zhang Bin , Zhou Quansheng , Cao Zhifei 
Published: December 2018

AbstractMetastatic melanoma accounts for 60% of death for skin cancer. Although great efforts have been made to treat the disease, effective drugs against metastatic melanoma still lack at the clinical setting. In the current study, we found that lycorine, a small molecule of isoquinoline alkaloid, significantly suppressed melanoma cell migration and invasion in vitro, and decreased the metastasis of melanoma cells to lung tissues in tumor‐bearing mice, resulting in significant prolongation of the survival of the mice without obvious toxicity. Molecular mechanistic studies revealed that lycorine significantly reduced intracellular levels of β‐catenin protein through degradation of the protein via the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway, and decreased the expression of β‐catenin downstream prometastatic matrix metallopeptidase 9 and Axin2 genes. Collectively, our findings support the notion that targeting the oncogenic β‐catenin by lycorine is a new option to inhibit melanoma cell metastasis, providing a good drug candidate potential for development novel therapeutics against metastatic melanoma.
Protective role of microRNA‐374 against myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion injury in mice following thoracic epidural anesthesia by downregulating dystrobrevin alpha‐mediated Notch1 axis
Authors: Zhao Zheng , Zhao Yun , Ying‐Chun Li , Zhao Lei , Zhang Wei , Yang Jian‐Guo 
Published: December 2018

AbstractIschemia‐reperfusion (I/R) injury often leads to myocardial apoptosis and necrosis. Studies have demonstrated the role microRNAs (miRs) played in myocardial I/R injury. Thus, we established a myocardial I/R injury model and a thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) model in mice to explore whether microRNA‐374 (miR‐374) affects myocardial I/R injury. We collected myocardial tissues to evaluate whether TEA exerts a protection effect on myocardial tissues. In addition, the levels of miR‐374, dystrobrevin alpha (DTNA), and the statue of the Notch1 axis were detected. Subsequently, cardiomyocytes extracted from TEA mice were treated to regulate their levels of miR‐374 and DTNA. After that, cell viability, cell cycle distribution, and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes were assessed. This was followed by the detection of the myocardial infarction area. The mice models of myocardial I/R injury were associated with poorly expressed miR‐374 and highly expressed DTNA. TEA was found to protect myocardial tissues against myocardial I/R injury by elevating miR‐374 and reducing DTNA. Dual‐luciferase reporter assay validated that DTNA was the target gene of miR‐374. Cardiomyocytes with overexpressed miR‐374 were shown to have downregulated DTNA levels and blocked Notch1 axis. Overexpressed miR‐374 was also found to promote the viability and inhibit the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes, as well as to increase the number of cells arrested in the S phase. In accordance with this, the myocardial infarction area was decreased with the upregulated miR‐347 and downregulated DTNA. Collectively, these results demonstrated that, by inhibiting the activity of DTNA‐mediated Notch1 axis, miR‐374 could protect against myocardial I/R injury in mice after TEA.