bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Powering the hagfish “bite”: The functional morphology of the retractor complex of two hagfish feeding apparatuses
Authors: Clubb Benjamin Luke , Clark Andrew Jonathan , Uyeno Theodore Akira 
Published: March 2019

AbstractHagfish use forceful retractions of a dental plate to shear and ingest food. Retractile force is generated by the retractor muscle complex of the posterior hagfish feeding apparatus (HFA). While gross morphological descriptions exist, the organization of muscle and connective tissue fibers that form the soft tissue retractor complex do not. In this study, we used paraffin histology to prepare serial sections of Pacific (Eptatretus stoutii, Lockington, 1879) and Atlantic (Myxine glutinosa, Linnaeus, 1758) hagfishes in order to describe constituent soft tissue anatomy and fiber orientations. We generated 3D reconstructions in which digitized sections were segmented and fitted to volumetric scans of retractor complexes taken prior to microtomy. These models confirmed that the retractor complex is composed of a perpendicularis muscle that fits within the eye of a needle‐shaped clavatus muscle, which anteriorly bears the dental plate tendon, and in turn fits within a sleeve‐like tubulatus muscle. Analysis of fiber orientations within these muscles resulted in novel functional hypotheses: (a) The tubulatus muscle represents a novel tubular bipennate muscle with a considerable physiological cross‐sectional area. Its activation may indirectly create tension in the dental plate tendon: as the tubulatus muscle forcefully extends, it displaces the terminal bulb and the clavatus muscle posteriorly. (b) Within the HFA terminal bulb, the muscle fibers of the clavatus and perpendicularis muscles are mutually perpendicular and may cocontract to form a swelling stopper knot‐like muscular complex that resists being pulled through the tubulatus muscle. (c) While overall feeding apparatus muscle morphology is conserved, the physiological cross‐sectional area of the tubulatus muscle inE. stoutii, is relatively larger than that ofM. glutinosa, suggesting a more forceful retraction. The tubular bipennate construction of the tubulatus may represent a novel soft robotic actuator design.
Ion current and action potential alterations in peripheral neurons subject to uniaxial strain
Authors: Bianchi Fabio , Malboubi Majid , George Julian H. , Jerusalem Antoine , Thompson Mark S. , Ye Hua 
Published: March 2019

AbstractPeripheral nerves, subject to continuous elongation and compression during everyday movement, contain neuron fibers vital for movement and sensation. At supraphysiological strains resulting from trauma, chronic conditions, aberrant limb positioning, or surgery, conduction blocks occur which may result in chronic or temporary loss of function. Previous in vitro stretch models, mainly focused on traumatic brain injury modelling, have demonstrated altered electrophysiological behavior during localized deformation applied by pipette suction. Our aim was to evaluate the changes in voltage‐activated ion channel function during uniaxial straining of neurons applied by whole‐cell deformation, more physiologically relevant model of peripheral nerve trauma. Here, we quantified experimentally the changes in inwards and outwards ion currents and action potential (AP) firing in dorsal root ganglion‐derived neurons subject to uniaxial strains, using a custom‐built device allowing simultaneous cell deformation and patch clamp recording. Peak inwards sodium currents and rectifying potassium current magnitudes were found to decrease in cells under stretch, channel reversal potentials were found to be left‐shifted, and half‐maximum activation potentials right‐shifted. The threshold for AP firing was increased in stretched cells, although neurons retained the ability to fire induced APs. Overall, these results point to ion channels being damaged directly and immediately by uniaxial strain, affecting cell electrophysiological activity, and can help develop prevention and treatment strategies for peripheral neuropathies caused by mechanical trauma.
Alignment control of liquid crystals in a 1.0‐μm‐pitch spatial light modulator by lattice‐shaped dielectric wall structure
Authors: Isomae Yoshitomo , Ishinabe Takahiro , Shibata Yosei , Fujikake Hideo 
Published: March 2019

AbstractWe achieved uniform liquid crystal (LC) alignment in lattice‐shaped dielectric walls 1 μm in pitch; this is a prerequisite when driving the individual pixels of spatial light modulators, facilitating the development of practical electronic holographic displays with a wide field of view. In lattice‐shaped dielectric walls, LC alignment becomes unstable, particularly on the bottom and the walls; the LC directors tend to align parallel to the walls. To overcome this problem, we created lattice‐shaped walls featuring partition plates that allow uniform LC alignment. When the plates confine LCs to small regions exhibiting spatial anisotropy, the LC elastic effect and wall anchoring forces align the LC directors parallel to the long anisotropic axis. We found that pixels 0.5 μm × 1.0 μm in pitch formed if the partition plates were sufficiently thick to allow shielding of electric field leakage.
Development of G6 exposure tool for 1.2 μm resolution
Authors: Nagano Kouhei , Yabu Nobuhiko , Hakko Manabu , Ando Miwako , Izumi Nozomu , Osaki Yoshinori 
Published: March 2019

AbstractWe have proposed exposure method using Deep UV (DUV) exposure light to realize high resolution and high productivity in FPD lithography. Here, we show development concepts for our new G6 exposure tools with DUV light sources and exposure test results with a test exposure tool.
Motion blur reduction with triangular waveform emission and optimized enhance filter
Authors: Usui Takenobu , Fujisaki Yoshihide , Shiga Tomokazu 
Published: March 2019

AbstractDegradation of moving image quality by motion blur on hold‐type displays is a well‐known issue. In order to reduce motion blur, a number of driving methods, such as a higher frame rate and a shorter temporal aperture, have been proposed. Methods to reduce motion blur by means of signal processing as a precompensation method have also been proposed. In these methods, however, hold emission that emits light at a constant intensity during a frame is used. Since the spatial frequency response of the hold emission in a moving picture has a null point, the effectiveness of precompensation methods is limited to the lower‐spatial frequency domain. A triangular waveform emission has been investigated, and it has a higher spatial frequency response than hold emission. In the present paper, we calculated an optimized enhancement filter for the triangular waveform emission as a precompensation method and demonstrated its effectiveness for reducing motion blur by using the triangular waveform emission and the optimized enhancement filter. As a result, the optimized enhancement filter reduced motion blur and suppressed distortion that emerged when using a conventional enhancement filter.
Responses of soil organic and inorganic carbon vary at different soil depths after long‐term agricultural cultivation in Northwest China
Authors: Wang Yugang , Jiang Jiang , Niu Ziru , Li Yan , Li Chenhua , Feng Wenting 
Published: March 2019

AbstractWhether the dryland to cropland conversation in arid regions could lead to a decrease in soil carbon (C) and land degradation remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the vertical patterns of soil C change with different lengths of land use history in the arid regions of China and explored the controls and mechanisms of these changes. One native desert grassland and six croplands with similar management but different cultivation times (i.e., 1, 3, 5, 15, 30, and 50 years) and were selected in Xinjiang, Northwest China. We measured both soil organic and inorganic C concentrations and soil properties (e.g., total nitrogen [N], NO3−‐N, NH4+‐N, pH, and electrical conductivity) with a 20‐cm depth interval down to 2 m in all croplands. The results showed that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks increased with cultivation year for the topsoils (0–120 cm), which could be a result of higher plant C inputs and decreased soil pH in cropland than in the native desert. Soil pH explained the largest variation (45%) of SOC concentration. Soil inorganic C (SIC) stocks decreased with cultivation year in topsoils layers (0–40 cm) but increased in deep soil layers (120–200 cm), resulting in the net increment of SIC to the depth of 200 cm. This pattern might be caused by changes in soil pH in the cropland. Overall, this study demonstrated that, instead of reducing soil C, proper management of the desert ecosystem can enhance soil C sequestration in the arid regions.
Healthcare Utilization and Costs for Patients With Parkinson's Disease After Deep Brain Stimulation
Authors: Stroupe Kevin T. , Smith Bridget , Weaver Frances M. , Gonzalez Beverly , Huo Zhiping , Cao Lishan , Ippolito Dolores , Follett Kenneth A. 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTObjectiveTo compare the complications, healthcare utilization and costs following DBS or medical management for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsWe examined healthcare utilization and costs for up to 5 years between veterans with DBS and those with medical management for PD. Veterans who received DBS between 2007 and 2013 were matched with veterans who received medical management using propensity score approaches. Healthcare utilization and costs were obtained from national VA and Medicare data sources and compared using procedures to adjust for potential differences in length of follow‐up.ResultsWe identified 611 veterans who had received DBS and a matched group of 611 veterans who did not undergo DBS. Among DBS patients, 59% had the electrodes and generator implanted during separate admissions. After 5 years of follow‐up, average total healthcare costs, including DBS procedures and complications, were $77,131 (95% confidence interval: $66,095–$88,168; P < 0.001) higher per person for patients who received DBS ($162,489) than patients who received medical management ($85,358). In contrast, excluding the costs of the DBS procedures and complications, average total costs were not significantly different between patients who received DBS and patients who received medical management after 5 years of follow‐up.ConclusionsHealthcare costs over 5 years were higher for veterans who received DBS. These higher healthcare costs may reflect the costs of DBS procedures and any follow‐up required plus greater surveillance by healthcare professionals following DBS as well as unobserved differences in the patients who received medical management or DBS.
Understanding the riboflavin biosynthesis pathway for the development of antimicrobial agents
Authors: Kundu Biswajit , Sarkar Dipayan , Ray Namrata , Talukdar Arindam 
Published: March 2019

AbstractLife on earth depends on the biosynthesis of riboflavin, which plays a vital role in biological electron transport processes. Higher mammals obtain riboflavin from dietary sources; however, various microorganisms, including Gram‐negative pathogenic bacteria and yeast, lack an efficient riboflavin‐uptake system and are dependent on endogenous riboflavin biosynthesis. Consequently, the inhibition of enzymes in the riboflavin biosynthesis pathway would allow selective toxicity to a pathogen and not the host. Thus, the riboflavin biosynthesis pathway is an attractive target for designing novel antimicrobial drugs, which are urgently needed to address the issue of multidrug resistance seen in various pathogens. The enzymes involved in riboflavin biosynthesis are lumazine synthase (LS) and riboflavin synthase (RS). Understanding the details of the mechanisms of the enzyme‐catalyzed reactions and the structural changes that occur in the enzyme active sites during catalysis can facilitate the design and synthesis of suitable analogs that can specifically inhibit the relevant enzymes and stop the generation of riboflavin in pathogenic bacteria. The present review is the first compilation of the work that has been carried out over the last 25 years focusing on the design of inhibitors of the biosynthesis of riboflavin based on an understanding of the mechanisms of LS and RS. This review aimed to address the fundamental advances in our understanding of riboflavin biosynthesis as applied to the rational design of a novel class of inhibitors. These advances have been aided by X‐ray structures of ligand‐enzyme complexes, rotational‐echo, double‐resonance nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high‐throughput screening, virtual screenings, and various mechanistic probes.
Characterization of a Bayesian network‐based radiotherapy plan verification model
Authors: Luk Samuel M. H. , Meyer Juergen , Young Lori A. , Cao Ning , Ford Eric C. , Phillips Mark H. , Kalet Alan M. 
Published: March 2019

PurposeThe current process for radiotherapy treatment plan quality assurance relies on human inspection of treatment plans, which is time‐consuming, error prone and oft reliant on inconsistently applied professional judgments. A previous proof‐of‐principle paper describes the use of a Bayesian network (BN) to aid in this process. This work studied how such a BN could be expanded and trained to better represent clinical practice.MethodsWe obtained 51 540 unique radiotherapy cases including diagnostic, prescription, plan/beam, and therapy setup factors from a de‐identified Elekta oncology information system from the years 2010–2017 from a single institution. Using a knowledge base derived from clinical experience, factors were coordinated into a 29‐node, 40‐edge BN representing dependencies among the variables. Conditional probabilities were machine learned using expectation maximization module using all data except a subset of 500 patient cases withheld for testing. Different classes of errors that were obtained from incident learning systems were introduced to the testing set of cases which were withheld from the dataset used for building the BN. Different sizes of datasets were used to train the network. In addition, the BN was trained using data from different length epochs as well as different eras. Its performance under these different conditions was evaluated by means of Areas Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC).ResultsOur performance analysis found AUCs of 0.82, 0.85, 0.89, and 0.88 in networks trained with 2‐yr, 3‐yr 4‐yr and 5‐yr windows. With a 4‐yr sliding window, we found AUC reduction of 3% per year when moving the window back in time in 1‐yr steps. Compared to the 4‐yr window moved back by 4 yrs (2010–2013 vs 2014–2017), the largest component of overall reduction in AUC over time was from the loss of detection performance in plan/beam error types.ConclusionsThe expanded BN method demonstrates the ability to detect classes of errors commonly encountered in radiotherapy planning. The results suggest that a 4‐yr training dataset optimizes the performance of the network in this institutional dataset, and that yearly updates are sufficient to capture the evolution of clinical practice and maintain fidelity.
Dense networks with relative location awareness for thorax disease identification
Authors: Liang Xiao , Peng Chengtao , Qiu Bensheng , Li Bin 
Published: March 2019

PurposeChest X‐ray is one of the most common examinations for diagnosing heart and lung diseases. Due to the existing of a large number of clinical cases, many automated diagnosis algorithms based on chest X‐ray images have been proposed. To our knowledge, almost none of the previous auto‐diagnosis algorithms consider the effect of relative location information on disease incidence. In this study, we propose to use relative location information to assist the identification of thorax diseases.MethodIn this work, U‐Net is used to segment lung and heart from chest image. The relative location maps are computed through Euclidean distance transformation from segmented masks. By introducing the relative location information into the network, the usual location of disease is combined with the incidence. The proposed network is the fusion of two branches: mask branch and image branch. A mask branch is designed to be a bottom‐up and top‐down structure to extract relative location information. The structure has a large receptive field, which can extract more information for large lesion and contextual information for small lesion. The features learned from mask branch are fused with image branch, which is a 121‐layers DenseNet.ResultsWe compare our proposed method with four state‐of‐the‐art methods on the largest public chest X‐ray dataset: ChestX‐ray14. The proposed method achieves the area under a curve of 0.820, which outperforms all the existing models and algorithms.ConclusionThis paper proposed a dense network with relative location information to identify thorax disease. The method combines the usual location of disease with the incidence for the first time and performs good.
Motion corrected water/fat whole‐heart coronary MR angiography with 100% respiratory efficiency
Authors: Munoz Camila , Cruz Gastão , Neji Radhouene , Botnar Rene M. , Prieto Claudia 
Published: March 2019

PurposeTo develop a framework for respiratory motion‐corrected 3D whole‐heart water/fat coronary MR angiography (CMRA) at 3T with reduced and predictable scan time.MethodsA 3D dual‐echo acquisition and respiratory motion‐corrected reconstruction framework for water/fat CMRA imaging was developed. The acquisition sequence integrates a 2D dual‐echo image navigator (iNAV), enabling 100% respiratory scan efficiency. Respiratory motion estimated from both the 2D iNAVs and the 3D data itself is used to produce nonrigid motion‐corrected water/fat CMRA images. A first study to investigate which iNAV (water, fat, in‐phase or out‐of‐phase) provides the best translational motion estimation was performed in 10 healthy subjects. Subsequently, nonrigid motion‐corrected water/fat images were compared to a diaphragmatic navigator gated and tracked water/fat CMRA acquisition. Image quality metrics included visible vessel length and vessel sharpness for both the left anterior descending and right coronary arteries.ResultsAverage vessel sharpness achieved with water, fat, in‐phase and out‐of‐phase iNAVs was 33.8%, 29.6%, 32.2%, and 38.5%, respectively. Out‐of‐phase iNAVs were therefore used for estimating translational respiratory motion for the remainder of the study. No statistically significant differences in vessel length and sharpness (P > 0.01) were observed between the proposed nonrigid motion correction approach and the reference images, although data acquisition was significantly shorter (P < 2.6×10–4). Motion correction improved vessel sharpness by 60.4% and vessel length by 47.7%, on average, in water CMRA images in comparison with no motion correction.ConclusionThe feasibility of a novel motion‐corrected water/fat CMRA approach has been demonstrated at 3T, producing images comparable to a reference gated acquisition, but in a shorter and predictable scan time.
Comparison between 8‐ and 32‐channel phased‐array receive coils for in vivo hyperpolarized 13C imaging of the human brain
Authors: Autry Adam W. , Gordon Jeremy W. , Carvajal Lucas , Mareyam Azma , Chen Hsin‐Yu , Park Ilwoo , Mammoli Daniele , Vareth Maryam , Chang Susan M. , Wald Lawrence L. , Xu Duan , Vigneron Daniel B. , Nelson Sarah J. , Li Yan 
Published: March 2019

PurposeTo compare the performance of an 8‐channel surface coil/clamshell transmitter and 32‐channel head array coil/birdcage transmitter for hyperpolarized 13C brain metabolic imaging.MethodsTo determine the field homogeneity of the radiofrequency transmitters, B1+ mapping was performed on an ethylene glycol head phantom and evaluated by means of the double angle method. Using a 3D echo‐planar imaging sequence, coil sensitivity and noise‐only phantom data were acquired with the 8‐ and 32‐channel receiver arrays, and compared against data from the birdcage in transceiver mode. Multislice frequency‐specific 13C dynamic echo‐planar imaging was performed on a patient with a brain tumor for each hardware configuration following injection of hyperpolarized [1‐13C]pyruvate. Signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) was evaluated from pre‐whitened phantom and temporally summed patient data after coil combination based on optimal weights.ResultsThe birdcage transmitter produced more uniform B1+ compared with the clamshell: 0.07 versus 0.12 (fractional error). Phantom experiments conducted with matched lateral housing separation demonstrated 8‐ versus 32‐channel mean transceiver‐normalized SNR performance: 0.91 versus 0.97 at the head center; 6.67 versus 2.08 on the sides; 0.66 versus 2.73 at the anterior; and 0.67 versus 3.17 on the posterior aspect. While the 8‐channel receiver array showed SNR benefits along lateral aspects, the 32‐channel array exhibited greater coverage and a more uniform coil‐combined profile. Temporally summed, parameter‐normalized patient data showed SNRmean,slice ratios (8‐channel/32‐channel) ranging 0.5‐2.00 from apical to central brain. White matter lactate‐to‐pyruvate ratios were conserved across hardware: 0.45 ± 0.12 (8‐channel) versus 0.43 ± 0.14 (32‐channel).ConclusionThe 8‐ and 32‐channel hardware configurations each have advantages in particular brain anatomy.
Ultrasongraphic age‐related changes of the pelvic floor muscles in nulliparous women and their association with pelvic floor symptoms: A pilot study
Authors: Alshiek Jonia , Jalalizadeh Mehrsa , Wei Qi , Chitnis Parag , Shobeiri S. Abbas 
Published: March 2019

AbstractObjectiveTo assess age‐related changes in the pelvic floor muscular hiatus and their association with symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and fecal incontinence, and sexual function.MethodsIn this pilot study we performed 3D endovaginal ultrasonography in two age groups of nulliparous women: 18 to 40 years and 52 to 85 years. Anterior‐posterior (AP) diameter, left‐right (LR) diameter, and the Minimal Levator Hiatus area were measured. The AP/LR ratio was calculated to compare the shape of the pelvic floor muscles between participants (oval vs circular). Other measurements included length of the urethra, and levator plate lift. Participants were assessed for (1) distress symptoms of pelvic floor prolapse, urinary, and fecal symptoms by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory‐20, (2) quality of life via the pelvic floor impact inventory‐7, and (3) sexual function by the female sexual function inventory (FSFI‐19).ResultsA total of 12 women into the younger group and 10 to the older group were recruited. Older women had higher AP/LR ratio and longer distance levator plate lift while performing the squeeze maneuver (
P = 0.017 and 0.038, respectively). Older women had worse urinary and pelvic organ prolapse symptoms (
P = 0.002 and 0.004, respectively). Fewer women in the older group were sexually active (60% vs 92%) and their quality of sexual life was lower based on their FSFI‐19 results.ConclusionLevator ani muscle hiatus changes to a more oval form in older nulliparous postmenopausal women and this change in shape is associated with increased pelvic floor symptoms.