bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Wolbachia protein TomO interacts with a host RNA to induce polarization defects in Drosophila oocytes
Authors: Ote Manabu , Yamamoto Daisuke 
Published: May 2018

AbstractWolbachia is an endosymbiont prevalent in arthropods. To maximize its transmission thorough the female germline, Wolbachia induces in infected hosts male‐to‐female transformation, male killing, parthenogenesis, and cytoplasmic incompatibility, depending on the host species and Wolbachia strain involved. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these host manipulations by Wolbachia remain largely unknown. The Wolbachia strain wMel, an inhabitant of Drosophila melanogaster, impairs host oogenesis only when transplanted into a heterologous host, for example, Drosophila simulans. We found that egg polarity defects induced by wMel infection in D. simulans can be recapitulated in the natural host D. melanogaster by transgenic overexpression of a variant of the Wolbachia protein Toxic manipulator of oogenesis (TomO), TomOwMel∆HS, in the female germline. RNA immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that TomO physically associates with orb mRNA, which, as a result, fails to interact with the translation repressor Cup. This leads to precocious translation of Orb, a posterior determinant, and thereby to the misspecification of oocytes and accompanying polarity defects. We propose that the ability of TomO to bind to orb mRNA might provide a means for Wolbachia to enter the oocyte located at the posterior end of the egg chamber, thereby accomplishing secure maternal transmission thorough the female germline.
Global Adaptive Neural Network Control of Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles with Parametric Modeling Uncertainty
Authors: Yan Zheping , Wang Man , Xu Jian 
Published: May 2018

AbstractThis paper focuses on global adaptive neural network control for a class of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles in the presence of possibly large modeling parametric uncertainty. As the control inputs cannot directly act in the sway and heave directions, two virtual velocities defined here, plus three actual control actions provided by the thrusters and rudders, are used to achieve the convergence of the system errors to around zero. Motivated by real‐time characteristics in the trajectory tracking, the proposed controller presents a significant advantage because it contains only one adaptive parameter to be updated online rather than the neural network weights. In addition, we also consider the practical situation that the velocities of the vehicle may experience sharp speed jumps when the position tracking errors initially change suddenly, which always results in thruster saturation. The biologically inspired model is introduced to smooth the virtual velocity commands such that the vehicle satisfies the control input and velocity constraints. Finally, comparison simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Bifurcation, Chaos and its Control in A Fractional Order Power System Model with Uncertainties
Authors: Rajagopal Karthikeyan , Karthikeyan Anitha , Duraisamy Prakash , Weldegiorgis Riessom , Tadesse Goitom 
Published: May 2018

AbstractThe paper investigates the complex nonlinear behavior of a fractional order four dimension power system (FOFDPS). The discrete mathematical model of the FOFDPS is derived and presented. The equilibrium points along with the Eigen values of commensurate and incommensurate FOFDPS are presented. The existence of chaotic oscillations are supported by a positive Lyapunov exponent. Bifurcation plots are derived for both parameters and fractional orders to show the impact of the same on the dynamic behavior of FOFDPS. Having shown the existence of such complex behaviors in the FOFDPS, we present an adaptive fractional order sliding mode control (FOASMC) to suppress the chaotic oscillations. Numerical results are presented to support the theoretical results.
Zerstörungsfrei zur Bauwerksfestigkeit
Authors: Merkel Melanie , Breit Wolfgang 
Published: June 2018

AbstractDie Rückprallhammerprüfung ist in Deutschland seit Jahrzehnten ein genormtes Prüfverfahren, mit dem die Betondruckfestigkeitsklasse abgeschätzt werden kann. Bei der Prüfung und der anschließenden Bewertung der Ergebnisse wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Oberflächenhärte und Betondruckfestigkeit ausgenutzt. Die mit dem Original Schmidthammer ermittelten Rückprallwerte basieren auf der gemessenen Rückprallstrecke und können Rückschlüsse auf das elastische Verhalten oberflächennaher Schichten von Betonbauwerken geben. In einem mittlerweile fast sechzigjährigen Anwendungszeitraum haben sich die Funktionsweise und das Handling des Schmidthammers kaum verändert. Mit Einführung der DIN EN 13791/A20 ist es seit Februar 2017 möglich, die Druckfestigkeit von Bauwerksbetonen auch auf Basis der Q‐Werte abzuschätzen. Die Ermittlung des Rückprallwerts erfolgt dabei über die Energie‐ oder Geschwindigkeitsdifferenz und ist dem älteren mechanischen Verfahren (Original Schmidthammer) in einigen Punkten überlegen. Die Messergebnisse sind unter anderem nicht mehr vom Schlagwinkel abhängig, sodass z. B. geneigte Betonuntergründe geprüft und auf ihre Druckfestigkeit abgeschätzt werden können.
Development and validation of rapid and sensitive LC methods with PDA and fluorescence detection for determination of piribedil in rat plasma and brain tissues and their pharmacokinetic application
Authors: Uppuluri Chandra Teja , Dalvi Avantika V. , Bommireddy Ekta Prasanthi , Ravi Punna Rao 
Published: May 2018

AbstractSimple, selective and sensitive high‐performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) bioanalytical methods using fluorescence (FL) and photodiode array (PDA) detectors were developed and validated for determination of piribedil (PBD), an anti‐Parkinson's drug, in rat plasma and brain samples, with telmisartan as internal standard (IS). Protein precipitation technique was used to extract PBD from both biological matrices. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Phenomenex Kinetex C18 end‐capped column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm), with 38:62 v/v acetonitrile and ammonium acetate buffer (pH 5.0) as mobile phase at 1.0 mL/min flow rate. Linear response in the concentration ranges 5–300 and 150–3000 ng/mL in plasma, and 15–900 and 450–9000 ng/g in brain tissue were achieved in FL and PDA detectors, respectively. The chromatograms were extracted at 239 nm in case of PDA detection and at excitation wavelength of 239 nm and emission wavelength of 385 nm in case of FL detection. FL detection was found to be more sensitive compared with PDA detection. The developed methods were successfully employed in determining the plasma time course, brain distribution and the pharmacokinetic parameters of PBD following intravenous bolus administration of the drug in male Wistar rats.
(Simulated) listener gaze in real‐time spoken interaction
Authors: Frädrich Laura , Nunnari Fabrizio , Staudte Maria , Heloir Alexis 
Published: May 2018

AbstractGaze is an important aspect of social communication. Previous research has concentrated mainly on the role of speaker gaze and listener gaze in isolation, neglecting the effect of the listener's gaze behavior on the speaker's behavior. This paper presents an exploratory eye‐tracking study involving an interactive human‐like agent following participants' gaze. This study demonstrates that a rather simple gaze‐following mechanism convincingly simulates active listening behavior engaging the speaker. The study also highlights how speakers rely on their interlocutors' gaze when establishing common references.
Thickness‐aware voxelization
Authors: Zhang Zhuopeng , Morishima Shigeo , Wang Changbo 
Published: May 2018

AbstractVoxelization is a crucial process for many computer graphics applications such as collision detection, rendering of translucent objects, and global illumination. However, in some situations, although the mesh looks good, the voxelization result may be undesirable. In this paper, we describe a novel voxelization method that uses the graphics processing unit for surface voxelization. Our improvements on the voxelization algorithm can address a problem of state‐of‐the‐art voxelization, which cannot deal with thin parts of the mesh object. We improve the quality of voxelization on both normal mediation and surface correction. Furthermore, we investigate our voxelization methods on indirect illumination, showing the improvement on the quality of real‐time rendering.
Adaptive learning‐based projection method for smoke simulation
Authors: Xiao Xiangyun , Yang Cheng , Yang Xubo 
Published: May 2018

AbstractTraditional Eulerian‐based fluid simulations require much time and computational resources to solve the projection step, especially the large linear system produced by the Poisson equation. In this paper, we propose an adaptive machine‐learning‐based projection method combining deep neural network and incremental learning technique. We provide two modes: Fast Mode and Normal Mode to solve the most time‐consuming projection step and deal with various simulation scenes largely different from the training data set. We introduce patch‐based feature vectors to represent the whole velocity field and a loss function to keep the divergence‐free constraint. We have demonstrated the acceleration and extrapolation ability of our method by testing various smoke scenes far different from our training data set.
Metabolites from the Dark Septate Endophyte Drechslera sp. Evaluation by LC/MS and Principal Component Analysis of Culture Extracts with Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors
Authors: Siless Gastón E. , Gallardo Gabriela L. , Rodriguez María Alejandra , Rincón Yuliet A. , Godeas Alicia M. , Cabrera Gabriela M. 
Published: May 2018

Secondary metabolites from the cultures of the dark septate fungal endophyte (DSE) Drechslera sp., isolated from the roots of rye grass (Lollium sp.) and cultured under different experimental conditions, are described here for the first time. The use of suberoylanilidehydroxamic acid (SAHA) and other histone deacetylase inhibitors as epigenetic modifiers in the culture medium was evaluated by LC/MS and LC/MS/MS. Several differences in the metabolite production were detected by means of supervised principal component analysis (PCA) of LC/MS data. The presence of the compounds in the culture medium or in the mycelium was compared.In order to confirm their structure, many of these natural products were isolated from a larger scale culture. These metabolites were characterized as prenylhydroxybenzoic acids and chromans, two compounds, one of each class were previously undescribed, prenylquinoids, diketopiperazines and macrosphelides. Some of the compounds, which were released to the medium, showed good antifungal activity, suggesting that these compounds could protect Lollium from fungal phytopatogens.The use of SAHA as an additive of the cultures also induced the release of hexosylphytosphyngosine to the culture medium. The biotransformation of the inhibitors was observed in addition to the production of antifungal metabolites, showing the ability of this endophytic strain to control xenobiotics.
The suppressive effect of soluble Klotho on fibroblastic growth factor 23 synthesis in UMR‐106 osteoblast‐like cells
Authors: Ma Lulu , Gao Min , Wu Lin , Zhao Xiufen , Mao Huijuan , Xing Changying 
Published: May 2018

AbstractFibroblastic growth factor 23 (FGF23) is a hormone secreted primarily by bone. FGF23 is elevated in the serum of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, but the exact mechanism is not well known. Klotho is identified as an aging suppressor, which is mainly expressed in the kidney, and the level of soluble Klotho is negatively associated with FGF23 in CKD. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect and possible mechanism of Klotho on FGF23 synthesis in osteoblast‐like UMR‐106 cells. UMR‐106 cells were divided into five groups: (i) control group; (ii) β‐glycerophosphate (β‐GP) group; (iii) β‐GP + Klotho group; (iv) β‐GP+ lithium chloride (LiCl, a Wnt/β–catenin pathway agonist) group; and (v) β‐GP + Klotho + LiCl group. Subsequently, UMR‐106 cells were cultured for 72 h, and the expression of FGF23, P‐glycogen synthase kinase‐3β (P‐GSK‐3β), and glycogen synthase kinase‐3β(GSK‐3β) were measured with Western blot analysis. The mRNA levels of FGF23 and the Wnt/β–catenin pathway target gene c‐myc were determined with RT‐qPCR. The results showed that β‐GP induced increased expression of FGF23 mRNA and protein. Compared with the β‐GP group, expression of FGF23 mRNA and protein expression were downregulated in the β‐GP + Klotho group. In addition, β‐GP induced increased expression of P‐GSK‐3β/GSK‐3β and c‐myc, which were all downregulated in the β‐GP + Klotho group. Moreover, the expression of FGF23, P‐GSK‐3β/GSK‐3β, and c‐myc mRNA were upregulated when treated with LiCl. These results demonstrate that soluble Klotho suppresses FGF23 synthesis in osteoblast‐like UMR‐106 cells. The mechanism of this suppression may be partially through the inhibition of the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway.
Surface Engineering of Two‐Dimensional Materials
Authors: Niu Tianchao , Zhang Jialin , Chen Wei 
Published: May 2018

AbstractTwo‐dimensional (2D) materials have attracted intensive interest because of their unique optical and electronic properties, their potential applications in next generation electronic devices, as well as serving as an ideal platform to explore new physics or chemistry at the 2D limit. As an atomically thin layered material, their atomic/electronic structures and device performances are susceptible to the various surfaces presented. In this regard, plenty of surface modification approaches have been applied to enrich their functionalities and complement their limitations. In this review, we summarize the state‐of‐the‐art progress on the surface engineering of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). We begin with the defect and single‐atomic incorporation in graphene lattice and surface transfer doping of graphene, followed by the bandgap and mobility engineering, and the construction of versatile heterostructures of TMDCs. Although this review mainly focuses on graphene and TMDCs, it is not an exhaustive list of the experimental results, but it rather summarizes the established knowledge in surface engineering and pinpoints the most promising future trends. These surface engineering approaches can also be applied to other 2D materials, such as phosphorene and antimonene.
A Highly Efficient and Robust Perovskite Anode with Iron–Palladium Co‐exsolutions for Intermediate‐Temperature Solid‐Oxide Fuel Cells
Authors: Li Jingwei , Wei Bo , Yue Xing , Lü Zhe 
Published: May 2018

AbstractThe low performance and insufficient catalytic activity of perovskite anodes hinder their further application in intermediate‐temperature solid‐oxide fuel cells (IT‐SOFCs). A novel La0.8Sr0.2Fe0.9Nb0.1Pd0.04O3−δ (LSFNP) anode material has been developed with Fe–Pd co‐exsolutions for IT‐SOFCs. Fe0 and Pd0 metallic nanoparticles are confirmed to exsolve on the surface of the perovskite anode during operation under a hydrogen atmosphere. The introduced Pd exsolutions promote the charge‐transfer process slightly and the H2‐adsorption ability of the La0.8Sr0.2Fe0.9Nb0.1O3−δ (LSFN) parent anode significantly, as metallic Pd is a conductor with excellent catalytic activity and an absorber of hydrogen that can absorb a large amount of H2 by forming unstable chemical bonds. A single cell with the LSFNP anode exhibits high output performance (maximum power density of 287.6 mW cm−2 at T=800 °C by using humidified H2 as the fuel), excellent redox stability, and considerable coking and sulfur tolerances. After the introduction of Pd exsolutions, the increase in the electrochemical performance is more significant under low H2 concentrations and at low temperatures with a maximum power density ratio of the LSFNP anode cell/LSFN anode cell reaching 18 under 5 % H2/argon at T=650 °C. Pd‐decorated LSFNP is a high‐performance, redox‐stable, coking‐tolerant, and sulfur‐tolerant anode material for IT‐SOFCs, making Pd exsolution a reliable nanodecoration strategy to improve the low kinetics of perovskite anodes.
Engineering the Interfaces of Superadsorbing Graphene‐Based Electrodes with Gas and Electrolyte to Boost Gas Evolution and Activation Reactions
Authors: Zhang Jun‐Jun , Lv Li‐Bing , Zhao Tian‐Jian , Lin Yun‐Xiao , Yu Qiu‐Ying , Su Juan , Hirano Shin‐Ichi , Li Xin‐Hao , Chen Jie‐Sheng 
Published: May 2018

AbstractElectrochemical gas evolution and activation reactions are complicated processes, involving not only active electrocatalysts but also the interaction among solid electrodes, electrolyte, and gas‐phase products and reactants. In this study, multiphase interfaces of superadsorbing graphene‐based electrodes were controlled without changing the active centers to significantly facilitate mass diffusion kinetics for superior performance. The achieved in‐depth understanding of how to regulate the interfacial properties to promote the electrochemical performance could provide valuable clues for electrode manufacture and for the design of more active electrocatalysts.
Spinel MnCo2O4 Nanoparticles Supported on Three‐Dimensional Graphene with Enhanced Mass Transfer as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Authors: Zhang Tingwei , Li Zhongfang , Wang Likai , Sun Peng , Zhang Zhixu , Wang Suwen 
Published: May 2018

AbstractThe rational design of highly efficient and durable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts is critical for the commercial application of fuel cells. Herein, three‐dimensional graphene (3D‐G) is synthesized by the template method, which used coal tar pitch as the carbon source and nano MgO as the template. Then, spinel MnCo2O4 is in situ supported on the 3D‐G by a facile hydrothermal method, giving MnCo2O4/3D‐G. The resultant MnCo2O4/3D‐G retains the multilayered mesoporous graphene structure where MnCo2O4 nanoparticles are deposited on the inner walls of pores in the 3D‐G. The catalyst MnCo2O4/3D‐G shows high electrocatalytic activity with a half‐wave potential of 0.81 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which is clearly superior to those of MnCo2O4/reduced graphene oxide (0.78 V), MnCo2O4/carbon nanotubes (0.74 V), MnCo2O4/C (0.72 V), and 20 wt % Pt/C (0.80 V). The electron transfer number of MnCo2O4/3D‐G indicates a four‐electron process of ORR. The durability test demonstrates that the MnCo2O4/3D‐G catalyst has a much better durability than 20 wt % Pt/C. Our work makes an inspiring strategy to prepare high‐performance electrocatalysts for the development of fuel cells.
Genome‐wide association studies of multiple sclerosis
Authors: Cotsapas Chris , Mitrovic Mitja 
Published: May 2018

AbstractLarge‐scale genetic studies of multiple sclerosis have identified over 230 risk effects across the human genome, making it a prototypical common disease with complex genetic architecture. Here, after a brief historical background on the discovery and definition of the disease, we summarise the last fifteen years of genetic discoveries and map out the challenges that remain to translate these findings into an aetiological framework and actionable clinical understanding.
Joint load balanced stable routing and communication segment assignment in mobile cognitive radio ad‐hoc networks
Authors: Amiri‐Doomari Soodeh , Mirjalily Ghasem , Abouei Jamshid 
Published: May 2018

SummaryThe fundamental issues in mobile cognitive radio ad‐hoc networks are the selection of the optimal stable paths between nodes and proper assignment of the frequency channels/time slots (communication segments) to the links. In this paper, a joint load balanced stable routing and communication segment assignment algorithm is proposed that considers jointly the mobility prediction, mitigating the co‐channel interference and energy consumption. The novelty of the proposed algorithm lies in the increasing of the path stability, which benefits from the maximum link lifetime parameter and introduced weighting function to keep routes away from the PU's region. This avoids the negative impacts on the PUs' operations and decreases the conflict of the cognitive nodes. In the proposed algorithm, the concept of load balancing is considered that yields in the balancing energy consumption in the network, improving the network performance and distributing traffic loads on all available channels. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by evaluating the aggregate interference energy, average end‐to‐end delay, goodput, and the energy usage per packet under 6 scenarios. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is significantly better than the recently proposed joint stable routing and channel assignment protocol.
Risk of vector tick exposure initially increases, then declines through time in response to wildfire in California
Authors: MacDonald Andrew J. , Hyon David W. , McDaniels Akira , O'Connor Kerry E. , Swei Andrea , Briggs Cheryl J. 
Published: May 2018

AbstractIdentifying the effects of human‐driven perturbations, such as species introductions or habitat fragmentation, on the ecology and dynamics of infectious disease has become a central focus of disease ecologists. Yet, comparatively little is known about how the ecology of zoonotic disease systems responds to catastrophic disturbance events such as wildfires or hurricanes. In California, wildfire disturbance is centrally important to the ecology of forests and oak woodlands and is projected to increase in severity and extent under future climate change. Here, taking advantage of a recent wildfire as a natural experiment, we investigate the effects of wildfire disturbance on the ecology of tick‐borne disease in California oak woodlands. We find that wildfire leads to elevated abundance of questing adult and nymphal western blacklegged ticks (Ixodes pacificus) in the year following fire, relative to unburned control plots, but that vector tick abundance declines sharply in the following two years. We find that the abundance of non‐competent hosts (western fence lizards) for the Lyme disease bacterium is unaffected by fire, but that the abundances of important reproductive hosts (deer) for ticks and reservoir hosts (dusky‐footed woodrats) for tick‐borne pathogens are significantly negatively affected by fire. We found ticks and hosts infected withBorrelia burgdorferisensu lato only within the burn extent and only in the year following the wildfire, though rates of infection were exceedingly low representing little risk to humans. In aggregate, due to the differential effects of this catastrophic disturbance event on different key host species and vector tick life stages in the transmission of tick‐borne pathogens, we conclude that wildfire may potentially increase risk of exposure to vector ticks in the first year following wildfire in California, but that risk is dampened substantially in following years due to tick population declines and loss of key reservoir hosts from the system.