bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Raman evolution of order–disorder phase transition in multiaxial molecular ferroelectric thin film
Authors: Zafar Zainab , Zafar Amina , Guo Xitao , Lin Qian , Yu Yuanfang 
Published: July 2019

AbstractMultiaxial molecular ferroelectrics (MFe) attain great attention due to their number of equivalent ferroelectric axes, an essential characteristic for many applications of these polar polycrystalline materials. Here we report a systematic approach to reveal the temperature‐dependent Raman spectroscopic investigation of the vibrational properties of a [Hdabco]ReO4 (dabco = 1,4‐diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane), a multiaxial MFe thin film. The Raman spectra allowed to obtain information relative to the change in molecular symmetry governed by the order–disorder phase transition. This phase transition is manifested by the temperature‐dependent peak shift, full width half maximum and intensity of distinct vibrational modes. The experimental observation reveals that ferroelectric phase transition is mainly driven by the reorientation motion of the ReO4− anions and monopronated dabco cations. Hence, we demonstrated that the Raman spectroscopy is a very useful tool to characterize the newly emerged MFe system.
The cooperative movement in South Africa: Can financial cooperatives become sustainable enterprises?
Authors: Mushonga Master , Arun Thankom G. , Marwa Nyankomo W. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractThe co‐operative movement in South Africa came a long way, but the results of such a long revolution are yet to be seen despite an enabling legislative environment and government incentives which increased their formation from 4,000 in 2004 to 132,000 in 2016. The sustainability of these cooperatives outside government grants is very doubtful, with most of them just appearing on paper without any meaningful economic activity happening on the ground. For cooperatives to be sustainable, they need to work toward full implementation of the cooperative movement principles and values through the bottom‐up approach to cooperative formation by reducing their overdependence on the state. Financial cooperatives in South Africa can become sustainable in their role of addressing the financial market failure at the grassroots as the majority of the population, including the working class, are using informal financial schemes based on social ties as sources of their financial services. Financial cooperatives have a long history as a grassroots movement that has played an important role in addressing socioeconomic challenges facing the marginalized communities around the world in a more sustainable way.
Toward a realistic theory of social entrepreneurship (NGOs) grounded on microfinance research: Selling dreams to society
Authors: Ashta Arvind 
Published: July 2019

AbstractSocial entrepreneurs sell dreams of solving a social problem of a segment of society to entice a broader segment of society to subsidize their ventures. They are motivated by a combination of passion and compassion, need for creativity, problem solving, and esteem. They sell their dreams by storytelling and narratives in order to obtain subsidized resources. In order to achieve their goals, they need to demonstrate the impact for the continuance of subsidies. Too much financial profit leads to withdrawal of subsidies.
Identification of New Potent Human Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1) Agonists Using Virtual Screening and in vitro Approaches
Authors: Lu Hong‐Yuan , Wang Nan , Li Xiang , Huang Yuan , Wang Jian , Zhao Qing‐Chun 
Published: July 2019

AbstractRecent studies suggested that activation of Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1) has become an appealing therapeutic strategy against obesity and diabetes. In our research, the 3D structure of UCP1 was constructed through homology modelling, refined through molecular dynamics simulation, and evaluated by Ramachandran plot, the molecular docking of UCP1 activators brought about the proposal of an interaction mode inside the UCP1 active site. Remarkably, Reside Lys126 formed hydrogen bond; residues Pro121, Val125, Tyr146, Tyr149 and Arg150 formed hydrophobic interaction, which are key amino acids within UCP1 site. Then a pharmacophore model was generated consisting of three hydrophobic groups, a negative center and an additional hydrophobic group. Pharmacophore‐based virutal screening of Specs database yield 5 hits. In vitro assay indicated ZINC 04660290 significantly increased the protein expression of UCP1 and decreased the fat droplet in a dose‐dependent manner. Besides, pharmacokinetic properties were predicted for those five compounds through ADME/T prediction. All of these will guide us to design new UCP1 activators for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Fast 3D chemical exchange saturation transfer imaging with variably‐accelerated sensitivity encoding (vSENSE)
Authors: Zhang Yi , Heo Hye‐Young , Jiang Shanshan , Zhou Jinyuan , Bottomley Paul A. 
Published: July 2019

PurposeTo extend the variably‐accelerated sensitivity encoding (vSENSE) method from 2D to 3D for fast chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging, and prospectively implement it for clinical MRI.MethodsThe CEST scans were acquired from 7 normal volunteers and 15 brain tumor patients using a 3T clinical scanner. The 2D and 3D “artifact suppression” (AS) vSENSE algorithms were applied to generate sensitivity maps from a first scan acquired with conventional SENSE‐accelerated 2D and 3D CEST data. The AS sensitivity maps were then applied to reconstruct the other CEST frames at higher acceleration factors. Both retrospective and prospective acceleration in phase‐encoding and slice‐encoding dimensions were implemented.ResultsApplying the 2D AS vSENSE algorithm to a 2‐fold undersampled 3.5‐ppm CEST frame halved the scan time of conventional SENSE, while generating essentially identical reconstruction errors (p ≈ 1.0). The 3D AS vSENSE algorithm permitted prospective acceleration by up to 8‐fold, in total, from phase‐encoding and slice‐encoding directions for individual source CEST images, and an overall speed‐up in scan time of 5‐fold. The resulting vSENSE‐accelerated amide proton transfer–weighted images agreed with conventional 2‐fold‐accelerated SENSE CEST results in brain tumor patients and healthy volunteers. Importantly, the vSENSE method eliminated unfolding artifacts in the slice‐encoding direction that compromised conventional SENSE CEST scans.ConclusionThe vSENSE method can be extended to 3D CEST imaging to provide higher acceleration factors than conventional SENSE without compromising accuracy.
Unilateral dorsiflexor strengthening with mirror therapy to improve motor function after stroke: A pilot randomized study
Authors: Simpson Daniel , Ehrensberger Monika , Horgan Frances , Blake Catherine , Roberts David , Broderick Patrick , Monaghan Kenneth 
Published: July 2019

AbstractBackgroundIndependently, cross‐education, the performance improvement of the untrained limb following unilateral training, and mirror therapy have shown to improve lower limb functioning poststroke. Mirror therapy has shown to augment the cross‐education effect in healthy populations. However, this concept has not yet been explored in a clinical setting.ObjectivesThis study set out to investigate the feasibility and potential efficacy of applying cross‐education combined with mirror therapy compared with cross‐education alone for lower limb recovery poststroke.MethodsThirty‐one chronic stroke participants (age 61.7 ± 13.3) completed either a unilateral strength training (ST; n = 15) or unilateral strength training with mirror‐therapy (MST; n = 16) intervention. Both groups isometrically strength trained the less‐affected ankle dorsiflexors three times per week for 4 weeks. Only the MST group observed the mirror reflection of the training limb. Patient eligibility, compliance, treatment reliability, and outcome measures were assessed for feasibility. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC; peak torque, rate of torque development, and average torque), 10‐m walk test, timed up and go (TUG), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), and the London Handicap Scale (LHS) were assessed at pretraining and posttraining.ResultsTreatment and assessments were well tolerated without adverse effects. No between group differences were identified for improvement in MVC, MAS, TUG, or LHS. Only the combined treatment was associated with functional improvements with the MST group showing an increase in walking velocity.ConclusionCross‐education plus mirror therapy may have potential for improving motor function after stroke. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the combination treatment and the need for future studies with larger sample sizes to investigate the effectiveness of the treatment.
A new insight into purinergic pharmacology: Three fungal species as natural P2X7R antagonists
Authors: Soares‐Bezerra Rômulo José , da Silva Ferreira Natiele Carla , de Almeida Alves Tânia Maria , Zani Carlos Leomar , Rosa Luiz Henrique , Faria Robson Xavier , da Silva Frutuoso Válber , Alves Luiz Anastacio 
Published: July 2019

P2X7 is a purinergic receptor involved in important physiological functions and pathological processes, such as inflammation, neurodegeneration, and pain. Despite its relevance, there is no selective antagonist useful in the treatment of diseases related to this receptor. In this context, research for a selective, safe, and potent antagonist compound that can be used in clinical therapy has been growing. In this work, we evaluated the potential antagonistic activity of three fungal extracts, namely, Vishniacozyma victoriae, Metschnikowia australis, and Ascomycota sp., which were discovered in a high‐throughput screening campaign to search for new antagonists for P2X7R from natural products. First, the IC50 values of these fungal extracts were determined in J774.G8 (murine macrophage cell line) and U937 (human monocyte cell line) cells through dye uptake assays. The IC50 values of V. victoriae were 2.6 and 0.92 μg/mL, M. australis has IC50 values of 3.8 and 1.5 μg/mL, and Ascomycota sp. showed values of 2.1 and 0.67 μg/mL in J774.G8 and U937 cells, respectively. These extracts also significantly inhibited propidium iodide and Lucifer yellow uptake via P2X7R pore, P2X7R currents in electrophysiology, IL‐1β release, and the production of oxide nitric and reactive oxygen species. The extracts did not cause cytotoxicity within a period of 24 h. The results showed the promising antagonistic activity of these extracts toward P2X7R, thereby indicating that they can be future candidates for phytomedicines with potential clinical applicability.
The effect of saffron on weight and lipid profile: A systematic review, meta‐analysis, and dose–response of randomized clinical trials
Authors: Rahmani Jamal , Manzari Nicla , Thompson Jacqueline , Clark Cain C.T. , Villanueva Gemma , Varkaneh Hamed Kord , Mirmiran Parvin 
Published: July 2019

Plant derivatives such as carotenoids and phytosterols enrich foods have been shown to reduce plasma triglyceride (TG), low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and cholesterol concentrations. The aim of this systematic review and meta‐analyses study was to investigate the effects of saffron on lipid profiles, reported in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We performed a systematic electronic search in PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane, and SCOPUS to identify RCTs and screening of relevant articles references up to October 12, 2018. There were no language restrictions. We performed this systematic review and meta‐analysis according to the Preferred Items for Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines. We identified and analyzed 14 eligible studies in this meta‐analysis. Our study found a significant reduction in cholesterol and TG following saffron intervention (weighted mean difference [WMD]: −6.36 mg/dl, 95% confidence interval, CI, [−10.58, −2.18] and WMD: −5.37 mg/dl, 95% CI [−10.25, −0.48], respectively). There was no significant effect on weight and LDL concentration. A meta‐regression analysis showed that long‐term saffron intervention can increase the high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. In conclusions, our study findings indicate some benefits of saffron on cholesterol, HDL, and TG compared with placebo. However, we recommend the conduct of adequately powered, high‐quality RCTs with short‐ and long‐term follow‐up, evaluating relevant clinical outcomes to allow for making definitive recommendations.
A hand‐held device with 3‐DOF haptic feedback mechanism for microsurgery
Authors: Wang Zhen , Wang Shuxin , Zuo Siyang 
Published: July 2019

AbstractBackgroundThe hand‐held devices have the advantages of being compact and easily integrated into surgical workflow especially for microsurgery. However, one of the technical challenges of hand‐held device in microsurgery is the lack of force sensing and feedback.MethodsThis paper presents a hand‐held haptic device that converts imperceptible forces into human‐perceptible tactile signals. It combines a force sensing tip based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors that can detect three‐degrees‐of‐freedom (3‐DOF) forces, and a haptic feedback mechanism to indicate the magnitude and direction of the forces.ResultsExperimental results demonstrate the ability to measure transverse force at the level of millinewton. User trials have been performed to validate the performance of the haptic feedback. During the phantom experiment, the transverse force was reduced with the feedback mechanism.ConclusionsThe proposed device provides important insights into the design of hand‐held device incorporating real‐time force sensing and haptic feedback for microsurgery.
Efficient lock‐step synchronization in task‐parallel languages
Authors: Utture Akshay , Nandivada V Krishna 
Published: July 2019

SummaryMany modern task‐parallel languages allow the programmer to synchronize tasks using high‐level constructs like barriers, clocks, and phasers. While these high‐level synchronization primitives help the programmer express the program logic in a convenient manner, they also have their associated overheads. In this paper, we identify the sources of some of these overheads for task‐parallel languages like X10 that support lock‐step synchronization, and propose a mechanism to reduce these overheads.We first propose three desirable properties that an efficient runtime (for task‐parallel languages like X10, HJ, Chapel, and so on) should satisfy, to minimize the overheads during lock‐step synchronization. We use these properties to derive a scheme to called uClocks to improve the efficiency of X10 clocks; uClocks consists of an extension to X10 clocks and two related runtime optimizations. We prove that uClocks satisfies the proposed desirable properties. We have implemented uClocks for the X10 language+runtime and show that the resulting system leads to a geometric mean speedup of 5.36× on a 16‐core Intel system and 11.39× on a 64‐core AMD system, for benchmarks with a significant number of synchronization operations.
Survival under the Gravel: the Effects of Egg Size and Parental Identity on the In Situ Hatching Success of Chinook Salmon
Authors: Thorn Michael W. , Morbey Yolanda E. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractEarly‐life mortality in salmon is influenced by both extrinsic (i.e., environmental) and intrinsic (i.e., parental) factors; however, the intrinsic factors have rarely been studied in the wild and relatively little is known about how egg mass and parental effects mediate in situ survival. Thus, we addressed four research objectives related to intrinsic factors and the early‐life survival of Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha: (1) assess the effect of egg mass and parental effects on in situ hatching success, (2) assess the effect of redd gravel composition and its interaction with egg mass on in situ hatching success, (3) determine whether in situ egg mass–survival relationships have population‐level consequences, and (4) determine whether results from hatchery studies translate to the wild. Embryos from three Chinook Salmon populations located in the Laurentian Great Lakes were reared from fertilization to 15 d posthatch, both in the hatchery and in the wild. We found that egg mass influenced in situ hatching success in the Credit (concave down) and Sydenham rivers (positive‐linear), whereas there was no relationship between the two variables in the Pine River. Maternal identity explained a significant amount of the variation in hatching success for the Pine (20%) and Sydenham (12%) rivers. Within populations, no interaction was found between egg mass and gravel composition; however, hatching success was negatively related to the sand content of a redd when the data were pooled among the populations. Importantly, egg mass and quantitative genetic parameter estimates were different between samples from the hatchery and those from the wild, indicating that hatchery‐based observations cannot be transferred to the wild. Finally, we used both the in situ survival data and previously published data in a simulation analysis, which showed that both linear and nonlinear egg mass–survival relationships can greatly influence the number of alevins produced by a population, depending on where the population egg mass distribution falls along an egg mass selection gradient.
Late Gadolinium Hyperintensity of Suspected Colorectal Liver Metastases on Gadofosveset-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Predictor of Benignity and a Potential Problem-Solving Tool
Authors: Cheung Helen M.C. , Karanicolas Paul J. , Coburn Natalie , Law Calvin , Milot Laurent 
Published: July 2019

Purpose Late gadolinium hyperintensity (LGH) is sometimes seen in colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) and represents a significant diagnostic pitfall due to overlap with LGH in benign hemangiomas; therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of LGH and the ability of LGH to differentiate between CRLM and benign lesions with intravascular (gadofosveset) vs extracellular contrast agents (gadobutrol). Methods Patients with known colorectal cancer and suspected liver lesions were prospectively recruited into this institutional review board–approved, single institution study and received magnetic resonance imaging of the liver with gadofosveset and gadobutrol. The prevalence of LGH for CRLMs and solid benign lesions was determined. Receiver operating characteristics curves were determined for the presence of LGH as a predictor of benignity. The utility of LGH to differentiate between CRLM and solid benign lesions using gadofosveset vs gadobutrol was compared using the generalized estimating equation. Results Twenty-five patients with 131 solid focal liver lesions were recruited. The prevalence of LGH of CRLMs was 11.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.5%–21.8%) with gadofosveset vs 63.7% (95% CI: 45.7%–81.7%) with gadobutrol. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the presence of LGH as a predictor of benignity was 0.86 using gadofosveset vs 0.75 using gadobutrol. Both LGH ( P = .003) and the interaction of contrast agent and LGH ( P = .003) statistically significantly differentiated CRLM from benign lesions. Conclusion LGH is more common with extracellular than with intravascular contrast agents and is statistically significantly associated with benign lesions rather than metastases.
ON THE NUMBER OF COUNTABLE MODELS OF A COUNTABLE NSOP1 THEORY WITHOUT WEIGHT ω
Authors: KIM BYUNGHAN 
Published: July 2019

AbstractIn this article, we prove that if a countable non-${\aleph _0}$-categorical NSOP1 theory with nonforking existence has finitely many countable models, then there is a finite tuple whose own preweight is ω. This result is an extension of a theorem of the author on any supersimple theory.
Hepatic transcriptomics analysis reveals that fructose intervention down-regulated xenobiotics-metabolising enzymes through aryl hydrocarbon receptor signalling suppression in C57BL/6N mice
Authors: Pan Jeong Hoon , Tang Jingsi , Beane Kaleigh E. , Redding Mersady C. , Cho Yun Jeong , Kim Young Jun , Zhao Jiangchao , Shin Eui-Cheol , Lee Jin Hyup , Kong Byungwhi C. , Kim Jae Kyeom 
Published: July 2019

AbstractFor decades, fructose intake has been recognised as an environmental risk for metabolic syndromes and diseases. Here we comprehensively examined the effects of fructose intake on mice liver transcriptomes. Fructose-supplemented water (34 %; w/v) was fed to both male and female C57BL/6N mice at their free will for 6 weeks, followed by hepatic transcriptomics analysis. Based on our criteria, differentially expressed genes (DEG) were selected and subjected to further computational analyses to predict key pathways and upstream regulator(s). Subsequently, predicted genes and pathways from the transcriptomics dataset were validated via quantitative RT-PCR analyses. As a result, we identified eighty-nine down-regulated and eighty-eight up-regulated mRNA in fructose-fed mice livers. These DEG were subjected to bioinformatics analysis tools in which DEG were mainly enriched in xenobiotic metabolic processes; further, in the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software, it was suggested that the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is an upstream regulator governing overall changes, while fructose suppresses the AhR signalling pathway. In our quantitative RT-PCR validation, we confirmed that fructose suppressed AhR signalling through modulating expressions of transcription factor (AhR nuclear translocator;Arnt) and upstream regulators (Ncor2, andRb1). Altogether, we demonstrated thatad libitumfructose intake suppresses the canonical AhR signalling pathway in C57BL/6N mice liver. Based on our current observations, further studies are warranted, especially with regard to the effects of co-exposure to fructose on (1) other types of carcinogens and (2) inflammation-inducing agents (or even diets such as a high-fat diet), to find implications of fructose-induced AhR suppression.