bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Disseminated Bartonella henselae disease mimicking Langerhans’ cell histiocytosis
Authors: Apsemidou Athanasia , Rauwolf Kerstin , Tragiannidis Athanasios , Brentrup Angela , Schiborr Manfred , Becker Karsten , Ahlmann Martina , Groll Andreas H. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractBartonella henselae, the causative agent of cat‐scratch disease, has been recognized to be responsible for a broad range of clinical syndromes. We report the case of a patient with disseminated B. henselae infection mimicking Langerhans cell histiocytosis at presentation and its successful management with neurosurgery, prolonged antibacterial therapy, and observation.
Surfactant Free Hydrothermal Synthesis of Zn2SnO4 Nanoparticles and Their Functional Properties
Authors: Singhal Anshu , Vishwanadh Bathula 
Published: December 2018

AbstractA simple, low temperature, cost effective, surfactant free and scalable synthesis of technologically important Zn2SnO4 (ZTO) nanoparticles with controllable size and shape has been developed. X‐ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of the synthesized ZTO nanoparticles revealed the formation of highly pure crystalline ZTO phase with the spinel‐like structure. The Raman spectrum of the sample was dominated by the A1g vibration mode of pure ZTO phase. From UV–Vis absorption measurements, a band gap (Eg) of 3.78 eV was determined. The photocatalytic activity of the ZTO nanoparticles was evaluated for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV‐Vis light irradiation. The ZTO‐assisted photocatalytic degradation of MB is complete in 25 minutes indicating good photocatalytic activity of ZTO. Mass spectrometric (MS) analysis of degradation intermediates isolated at regular time intervals reveals the presence of azure A, azure B and thionin which are demethylated products of the MB, indicating that the degradation is initiated by demethylation of the molecule.
Copper nanoparticle‐induced uterine injury in female rats
Authors: Hu Shifu , Yang Jing , Rao Meng , Wang Yingying , Zhou Fang , Cheng Guiping , Xia Wei , Zhu Changhong 
Published: December 2018

AbstractCopper nanoparticles (Cu‐NPs) have been used increasingly in various products and applications. Although recent studies have reported that exposure to Cu‐NPs leads to organ accumulation and obvious toxicity, it remains unclear whether Cu‐NPs can be translocated to and cause damage in the uterus. In this study, we investigated the potential for uterine injury and gene expression patterns in female rats exposed to 3.12, 6.25, or 12.5 mg/kg/d Cu‐NPs via intraperitoneal injection for 14 consecutive days. The results indicated that exposure to Cu‐NPs led to significant decreases in the relative uterine weight coefficients and increases in inflammatory cell infiltration, mitochondrial swelling and vacuolization, shortened and reduced endometrial epithelial cell microvilli, and apoptosis. Furthermore, exposure to Cu‐NPs increased malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation and decreased superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels. Signal transduction mechanism studies indicated that exposure to Cu‐NPs activated caspases 3, 8, and 9 and BH3 interacting domain death agonist (tBid), reduced B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (Bcl‐2) expression, and increased the expression of apoptotic peptidase activating factor 1 (Apaf‐1), BCL2‐associated X, apoptosis regulator (Bax), and cytochrome c. A microarray analysis revealed significant alterations in the expression of 963 genes; of these, 622 were upregulated and 341 were downregulated. The results of further evaluations of some altered genes, including matrix metallopeptidase 12 (Mmp12), using quantitative RT‐PCR agreed with the microarray findings. These results provide strong evidence that Cu‐NPs can trigger both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways to mediate uterine injury, resulting in oxidative stress‐related changes in gene expression.
The testifying forensic discipline expert—A primer
Authors: Epstein Jules 
Published: December 2018

Forensic service providers are not usually taught how to transition from the laboratory or workbench to the courtroom. The strictures of law, particularly the rules of evidence as applied to the threshold for and restrictions on expert testimony, are a far cry from intralab reporting and discussions. This primer will address the rudiments of evidence law to ensure that they are comprehensible to forensic service providers and to improve the quality of pretrial and trial presentation of forensic evidence.This article is categorized under:

Jurisprudence and Regulatory Oversight > Expert Evidence and Narrative
Jurisprudence and Regulatory Oversight > Communication Across Science and Law
Interpretation continues to be the main weakness in criminal justice systems: Developing roles of the expert witness and court
Authors: Gill Peter 
Published: December 2018

Interpretation of evidence continues to be the most difficult challenge that faces scientists, lawyers and judges. Despite advances, introduction into mainstream forensic science has been slow. Probabilistic software used to analyze complex DNA mixtures is gradually being implemented. With this software, allele probability databases are used to help calculate strength of evidence. Standardization is facilitated by software and databases, combined with training courses to teach the approach. This is the definition of the “knowledge‐base.” There is increasing interest in reporting at “activity level.” If the opinion is not based upon data, then it is subjective, especially if it is based purely upon personal experience. The aim must be to increase the objectivity of reporting to a similar standard to that currently used for mixture interpretation (with probabilistic software). To do this, a similar approach is required—construction of software and databases. However, compared to allele probability databases, there are currently no formalized collections that are available for scientists to use. Experimental designs are complex and require much more thought and effort. Consequently, knowledge‐bases to inform activity‐level propositions are poorly developed. It is important that courts focus on limitations of knowledge‐bases, otherwise miscarriages of justice may result, such as the Sally Clark case. It is important that courts develop as a forum that ensures that the consensus view prevails, and relies upon data‐informed opinion rather than opinion based upon experience. Relevant well‐informed defense commissioned experts are required as part of the system of checks and balances.This article is categorized under:

Forensic Biology > Interpretation of Biological Evidence
Jurisprudence and Regulatory Oversight > Communication Across Science and Law
Forensic Biology > DNA Databases and Biometrics
Variant Logic Construction Under Permutation and Complementary Operations on Binary Logic
Authors: Zheng Jeffrey 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThis chapter presents a binary logic framework whose function elements are invariant under permutation and complementary operations. The entire framework is described using 4 levels of hierarchy: n variables, $$2^n$$

2
n

states, $$2^{2^n}$$

2

2
n

functions, and $$2^n! 2^{2^n}$$

2
n

!

2

2
n

logic functionals. Under the proposed framework, it is possible to determine higher level function complexity by analysing lower levels of organisation characteristics. These characteristics can be determined quite accurately because the symmetry conditions of variable and state organisations have invariant logic functions and a corresponding logic functional organisation. More symmetrical arrangement at state level creates more symmetrical permutations within the function space. Lower level properties are highly influential on the higher level properties of function components within a logic functional space. The proposed framework provides a logic foundation to describe complex binary systems using lower level properties, making analysis of systems more efficient and less calculation intensive. Different global coding schemes are discussed and typical two-variable cases of logic functionals are illustrated.
Visual Analysis of ECG Sequences on Variant Maps
Authors: Hou Zhihui , Zheng Jeffery 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThis chapter presents the variant measurement based on the variant logic, which uses the ECG sequence as the signal source, and outputs the variant maps of ECG sequences. It provides a supplementary study for ECG detection. Samples of ECG signal are collected from the First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province. Under variant maps, main parameters of various interval values are checked and corresponding maps are illustrated.
Symmetric Clusters in Hierarchy with Cryptographic Properties
Authors: Zheng Jeffrey 
Published: December 2018

AbstractSymmetric Boolean functions play a key role in stream ciphers. Symmetric constructions provide core components in cryptographic applications. In this chapter, four meta symmetric clustering schemes (combination, crossing, variant and rotation) are organized in a hierarchy for n variables of 0–1 vectors in measuring phase spaces. Local counting properties in a cluster and global counting properties in a given level are formulated. From selected symmetric clusters, a number of various symmetric Boolean functions are formulated. Counting properties on symmetric clusters, vectors in selected clusters and special symmetric Boolean functions are listed. Four sets of symmetric Boolean functions are compared. Properties of symmetric clusters and Boolean functions are discussed. Main results are expressed in theorems and tables. Among four meta schemes, the variant scheme presents novel properties approximately with $$O\left( n^2/4\right) $$

O

n
2

/
4

clusters on a 2D phase space different from other schemes: combinatorial $$O\left( n\right) $$

O

n

, crossing $$O\left( n/2\right) $$

O

n
/
2

and rotation $$O\left( 2^n/n\right) $$

O

2
n

/
n

on 1D measuring phase spaces, respectively. The variant pseudorandom number generator is a similar approach on RC4 and HC128 stream ciphers using word-oriented 0–1 vectors. Further advanced researches and explorations on relevant optimal configurations are required.
Health Services and Infrastructure Recovery of a Major Public Hospital in Liberia During the 2014–2016 Ebola Epidemic
Authors: Ndede Paul Ochieng , Senkungu Jude Kimbowa , Shakpeh John K. , Jones Theresa E. , Sky Rebecca , McDonnell Sharon 
Published: December 2018

ABSTRACTDuring the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak, health services in Liberia collapsed. Health care facilities could not support effective infection prevention and control (IPC) practices to prevent Ebola virus disease (EVD) transmission necessitating their closure. This report describes the process by which health services and infrastructure were recovered in the public hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. The authors conducted an assessment of the existing capacity for health care provision, including qualitative interviews with community members, record reviews in Ebola treatment units, and phone calls to health facilities. Assessment information was used to determine necessary actions to re-establish services, including building and environmental renovations, acquiring IPC supplies, changing health care practices, hiring additional staff, developing and using an EVD screening tool, and implementing psychosocial supports. On-site monitoring was continued for 2 years to assess what changes were sustained. Described in the report are 2 cases that highlight the challenge of safely re-establishing services with only a symptom-based screening tool and no laboratory tests available on-site. Despite fears among the public, health workers, and the international community, the actions taken enabled basic health care services to be provided during EVD transmission and led to sustainable improvements. This experience suggests that providing routine medical needs helps limit the morbidity and mortality during times of disease outbreak. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;13:767–773)
The oldest sigmodontine rodent revisited and the age of the first South American cricetids
Authors: Barbière Franck , Ortiz Pablo E. , Pardiñas Ulyses F.J. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractNew fossil material ofAuliscomys formosusReig 1978 allows restudy of the oldest known South American representative of the subfamily Sigmodontinae. Description ofAuliscomys formosuswas based on a fragmentary dentary exhumed from the Monte Hermoso Formation of central Argentina. Previous studies allocatedA. formosusto the early Pliocene. A reevaluation of dental and cranial morphology, including for the first time the upper dentition, and the inclusion ofA. formosusin a phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Phyllotini indicate thatA. formosusrepresents a new genus,Kraglievichimys.Kraglievichimysshares a mosaic of characters with the livingAuliscomysOsgood, 1915 andLoxodontomysOsgood, 1947. The taxonomic reassignment ofA. formosusand the possibility that the Monte Hermoso Formation may be younger than early Pliocene in age provide a new understanding of cricetid diversification in South America. Estimates of sigmodontine ancestry by molecular approaches are biased toward older ages, whereas this new interpretation of the history ofK. formosussuggests that the South American history of sigmodontines spans less than 4 million years.UUID:http://zoobank.org/49dd8f60-56b1-4e8a-a044-6cea3a1bd52b
Conflict and complementarity of paleontological and molecular chronologies?
Authors: Katz Ofir 
Published: December 2018

AbstractEvolutionary history studies depend on having reliable chronologies of macroevolutionary processes. Construction of such chronologies often yields discrepancies between paleontological and molecular dates, which are sometimes viewed as conflicting. Nevertheless, each macroevolutionary process is composed of two main phases: emergence of a trait or clade and success of that trait or clade, which differ in mechanisms, drivers, and types of evidence. Moreover, emergence may be observed as gene divergence (which may be trait-coding or trait-unrelated genes), trait emergence, and clade emergence; whereas success can be observed as increase in abundance, diffusion, and/or diversity or as overall persistence over geologic time. Therefore, to fully and correctly understand any macroevolutionary process, it is of paramount importance to understand what event each date refers to, and how dates of various events and their integration reveal the complexity of macroevolutionary processes. I demonstrate this through three examples: the chronological gap between oxygenic photosynthesis emergence and the Great Oxidation Event, the chronological gap between paleontological and molecular dates of angiosperm emergence, and the evolution of plant silicon accumulation.
The Ethics of Interpretation in Political Theory and Intellectual History
Authors: Frazer Michael L. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractScholars studying classic political texts face an important decision: Should these texts be read as artifacts of history or as sources for still-valid insights about politics today? Competing historical and “presentist” approaches to political thought do not have a methodological dispute—that is, a disagreement about the most effective scholarly means to an agreed-upon end. They instead have an ethical dispute about the respective value of competing activities that aim at different purposes. This article examines six ethical arguments, drawn primarily from the work of Quentin Skinner, in favor of the historical approach. It concludes that while both intellectual history and presentist theory are ethically justifiable, the best justification of the former enterprise is that it can help us achieve the purposes of the latter.
Estimating surface melt and runoff on the Antarctic Peninsula using ERA-Interim reanalysis data
Authors: Costi Juliana , Arigony-Neto Jorge , Braun Matthias , Mavlyudov Bulat , Barrand Nicholas E. , da Silva Aline Barbosa , Marques Wiliam Correa , Simões Jefferson Cardia 
Published: December 2018

AbstractUsing the positive degree days approach and ERA-Interim reanalysis downscaled data, the researchers ran a melt model spatially gridded at 200 m with annual temporal resolution over 32 years and estimated surface melt (SM) and surface runoff (SR) on the Antarctic Peninsula. The model was calibrated and validated independently by field measurements. The maximum surface melt values occurred in 1985 (129 Gt), and the maximum runoff (40 Gt) occurred in 1993; both parameters showed minimum values in 2014 (26 Gt and 0.37 Gt, respectively). No significant trends are present. Two widespread positive anomalies occurred in 1993 and 2006. The results reveal that the floating ice areas produce an average of 68% of runoff and 61% of surface melt, emphasizing their importance to coastal hydrography. During the seven years preceding the Larsen B collapse, surface melt retention was higher than 95% on floating ice areas, and negative runoff anomalies persisted. Excluding the islands, the vicinity of this former ice shelf exhibits the highest specific surface melt and runoff across the studied area.
Retirement plans for contingent workers: issues and options
Authors: Gale William G. , Holmes Sarah E. , John David C. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThis paper examines retirement saving policy for independent – or contingent – workers, a growing segment of the workforce. Because few of these workers are covered by employer-sponsored retirement plans, they often do not benefit from payroll deduction, employer matching contributions, automatic enrollment, and other provisions that encourage retirement saving. Better use of fintech, judicious changes to tax policy, and expanded Automatic IRAs would help independent workers save for retirement. In addition, we propose the creation of retirement saving accounts that attach to the worker as a supplement to, and possible replacement for, the current system of employer-sponsored accounts.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Exosome circRNA secreted from adipocytes promotes the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting deubiquitination-related USP7
Authors: Zhang Haiyang , Deng Ting , Ge Shaohua , Liu Ying , Bai Ming , Zhu Kegan , Fan Qian , Li Jialu , Ning Tao , Tian Fei , Li Hongli , Sun Wu , Ying Guoguang , Ba Yi 
Published: December 2018

AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the major form of liver cancer, has shown increasing incidence and poor prognosis. Adipose tissue is known to function in energy storage and metabolism regulation by the secretion of adipokines. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a novel type of noncoding RNA, have recently been recognized as key factors in tumor development, but the role of exosome circRNAs derived from adipose tissues has not been defined yet. Here, adipose-secreted circRNAs were found to regulate deubiquitination in HCC, thus facilitating cell growth. It was observed that exosome circ-deubiquitination (circ-DB) is upregulated in HCC patients with higher body fat ratios. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo studies showed that exo-circ-DB promotes HCC growth and reduces DNA damage via the suppression of miR-34a and the activation of deubiquitination-related USP7. Finally, the results showed that the effects of adipose exosomes on HCC cells can be reversed by knockdown of circ-DB. These results indicate that exosome circRNAs secreted from adipocytes promote tumor growth and reduce DNA damage by suppressing miR-34a and activating the USP7/Cyclin A2 signaling pathway.
Lysosomotropic drugs activate TFEB via lysosomal membrane fluidization and consequent inhibition of mTORC1 activity
Authors: Zhitomirsky Benny , Yunaev Anna , Kreiserman Roman , Kaplan Ariel , Stark Michal , Assaraf Yehuda G. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractTranscription factor EB (TFEB) is a master transcriptional regulator playing a key role in lysosomal biogenesis, autophagy and lysosomal exocytosis. TFEB activity is inhibited following its phosphorylation by mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) on the surface of the lysosome. Phosphorylated TFEB is bound by 14-3-3 proteins, resulting in its cytoplasmic retention in an inactive state. It was suggested that the calcium-dependent phosphatase calcineurin is responsible for dephosphorylation and subsequent activation of TFEB under conditions of lysosomal stress. We have recently demonstrated that TFEB is activated following exposure of cancer cells to lysosomotropic anticancer drugs, resulting in lysosome-mediated cancer drug resistance via increased lysosomal biogenesis, lysosomal drug sequestration, and drug extrusion through lysosomal exocytosis. Herein, we studied the molecular mechanism underlying lysosomotropic-drug-induced activation of TFEB. We demonstrate that accumulation of lysosomotropic drugs results in membrane fluidization of lysosome-like liposomes, which is strictly dependent on the acidity of the liposomal lumen. Lysosomal accumulation of lysosomotropic drugs and the consequent fluidization of the lysosomal membrane, facilitated the dissociation of mTOR from the lysosomal membrane and inhibited the kinase activity of mTORC1, which is necessary and sufficient for the rapid translocation of TFEB to the nucleus. We further show that while lysosomotropic drug sequestration induces Ca2+ release into the cytoplasm, facilitating calcineurin activation, chelation of cytosolic Ca2+, or direct inhibition of calcineurin activity, do not interfere with drug-induced nuclear translocation of TFEB. We thus suggest that lysosomotropic drug-induced activation of TFEB is mediated by mTORC1 inhibition due to lysosomal membrane fluidization and not by calcineurin activation. We further postulate that apart from calcineurin, other constitutively active phosphatase(s) partake in TFEB dephosphorylation and consequent activation. Moreover, a rapid export of TFEB from the nucleus to the cytosol occurs upon relief of mTORC1 inhibition, suggesting that dephosphorylated TFEB constantly travels between the nucleus and the cytosol, acting as a rapidly responding sensor of mTORC1 activity.