bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Dominance of cropland reduces the pollen deposition from bumble bees
Authors: Pfister Sonja C. , Eckerter Philipp W. , Krebs Julius , Cresswell James E. , Schirmel Jens , Entling Martin H. 
Published: September 2018

AbstractIntensive agricultural landscapes can be hostile for bees due to a lack of floral and nesting resources, and due to management-related stress such as pesticide use and soil tillage. This threatens the pollination services that bees deliver to insect-pollinated crops. We studied the effects of farming intensity (organic vs. conventional, number of insecticide applications) and availability of semi-natural habitats at the field and landscape scale on pollinator visits and pollen delivery to pumpkin in Germany. We found that wild bumble bees were the key pollinators of pumpkin in terms of pollen delivery, despite fivefold higher visitation frequency of honey bees. Critically, we observed that the area of cropland had stronger effects on bees’ pollen deposition than the area of seminatural habitats. Specifically, a 10% increase of the proportion of cropland reduced pollen delivery by 7%. Pumpkin provides a striking example for a key role of wild pollinators in crop pollination even at high numerical dominance of honey bees. In addition, our findings suggest that habitat conversion to agricultural land is a driver of deteriorating pollination. This underlines the importance to maintain sufficient areas of non-crop habitats in agricultural landscapes.
How morphological development can guide evolution
Authors: Kriegman Sam , Cheney Nick , Bongard Josh 
Published: September 2018

AbstractOrganisms result from adaptive processes interacting across different time scales. One such interaction is that between development and evolution. Models have shown that development sweeps over several traits in a single agent, sometimes exposing promising static traits. Subsequent evolution can then canalize these rare traits. Thus, development can, under the right conditions, increase evolvability. Here, we report on a previously unknown phenomenon when embodied agents are allowed to develop and evolve: Evolution discovers body plans robust to control changes, these body plans become genetically assimilated, yet controllers for these agents are not assimilated. This allows evolution to continue climbing fitness gradients by tinkering with the developmental programs for controllers within these permissive body plans. This exposes a previously unknown detail about the Baldwin effect: instead of all useful traits becoming genetically assimilated, only traits that render the agent robust to changes in other traits become assimilated. We refer to this asdifferential canalization. This finding also has implications for the evolutionary design of artificial and embodied agents such as robots: robots robust to internal changes in their controllers may also be robust to external changes in their environment, such as transferal from simulation to reality or deployment in novel environments.
Optimization of cell-laden bioinks for 3D bioprinting and efficient infection with influenza A virus
Authors: Berg Johanna , Hiller Thomas , Kissner Maya S. , Qazi Taimoor H. , Duda Georg N. , Hocke Andreas C. , Hippenstiel Stefan , Elomaa Laura , Weinhart Marie , Fahrenson Christoph , Kurreck Jens 
Published: September 2018

AbstractBioprinting is a new technology, which arranges cells with high spatial resolution, but its potential to create models for viral infection studies has not yet been fully realized. The present study describes the optimization of a bioink composition for extrusion printing. The bioinks were biophysically characterized by rheological and electron micrographic measurements. Hydrogels consisting of alginate, gelatin and Matrigel were used to provide a scaffold for a 3D arrangement of human alveolar A549 cells. A blend containing 20% Matrigel provided the optimal conditions for spatial distribution and viability of the printed cells. Infection of the 3D model with a seasonal influenza A strain resulted in widespread distribution of the virus and a clustered infection pattern that is also observed in the natural lung but not in two-dimensional (2D) cell culture, which demonstrates the advantage of 3D printed constructs over conventional culture conditions. The bioink supported viral replication and proinflammatory interferon release of the infected cells. We consider our strategy to be paradigmatic for the generation of humanized 3D tissue models by bioprinting to study infections and develop new antiviral strategies.
Spatial separation of catches in highly mixed fisheries
Authors: Dolder Paul J. , Thorson James T. , Minto Cóilín 
Published: September 2018

AbstractMixed fisheries are the dominant type of fishery worldwide. Overexploitation in mixed fisheries occurs when catches continue for available quota species while low quota species are discarded. As EU fisheries management moves to count all fish caught against quota (the “landing obligation”), the challenge is to catch available quota within new constraints, else lose productivity. A mechanism for decoupling exploitation of species caught together is spatial targeting, which remains challenging due to complex fishery and population dynamics. How far spatial targeting can go to practically separate species is often unknown and anecdotal. We develop a dimension-reduction framework based on joint dynamic species distribution modelling to understand how spatial community and fishery dynamics interact to determine species and size composition. In application to the highly mixed fisheries of the Celtic Sea, clear common spatial patterns emerge for three distinct assemblages. While distribution varies interannually, the same species are consistently found in higher densities together, with more subtle differences within assemblages, where spatial separation may not be practically possible. We highlight the importance of dimension reduction techniques to focus management discussion on axes of maximal separation and identify spatiotemporal modelling as a scientific necessity to address the challenges of managing mixed fisheries.
Interface morphology effect on the spin mixing conductance of Pt/Fe3O4 bilayers
Authors: Pham Thi Kim Hang , Ribeiro Mário , Park Jun Hong , Lee Nyun Jong , Kang Ki Hoon , Park Eunsang , Nguyen Van Quang , Michel Anny , Yoon Chong Seung , Cho Sunglae , Kim Tae Hee 
Published: September 2018

AbstractNon-magnetic (NM) metals with strong spin-orbit coupling have been recently explored as a probe of interface magnetism on ferromagnetic insulators (FMI) by means of the spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) effect. In NM/FMI heterostructures, increasing the spin mixing conductance (SMC) at the interface comes as an important step towards devices with maximized SMR. Here we report on the study of SMR in Pt/Fe3O4 bilayers at cryogenic temperature, and identify a strong dependence of the determined real part of the complex SMC on the interface roughness. We tune the roughness of the Pt/Fe3O4 interface by controlling the growth conditions of the Fe3O4 films, namely by varying the thickness, growth technique, and post-annealing processes. Field-dependent and angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements sustain the clear observation of SMR. The determined real part of the complex SMC of the Pt/Fe3O4 bilayers ranges from 4.96 × 1014 Ω−1 m−2 to 7.16 × 1014 Ω−1 m−2 and increases with the roughness of the Fe3O4 underlayer. We demonstrate experimentally that the interface morphology, acting as an effective interlayer potential, leads to an enhancement of the spin mixing conductance.
An incoherent feed-forward loop switches the Arabidopsis clock rapidly between two hysteretic states
Authors: Joanito Ignasius , Chu Jhih-Wei , Wu Shu-Hsing , Hsu Chao-Ping 
Published: September 2018

AbstractIn higher plants (e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana), the core structure of the circadian clock is mostly governed by a repression process with very few direct activators. With a series of simplified models, we studied the underlying mechanism and found that the Arabidopsis clock consists of type-2 incoherent feed-forward loops (IFFLs), one of them creating a pulse-like expression in PRR9/7. The double-negative feedback loop between CCA1/LHY and PRR5/TOC1 generates a bistable, hysteretic behavior in the Arabidopsis circadian clock. We found that the IFFL involving PRR9/7 breaks the bistability and moves the system forward with a rapid pulse in the daytime, and the evening complex (EC) breaks it in the evening. With this illustration, we can intuitively explain the behavior of the clock under mutant conditions. Thus, our results provide new insights into the underlying network structures of the Arabidopsis core oscillator.
Multilayer homogeneous dielectric filler for electromagnetic invisibility
Authors: Serna Alberto , Molina Luis J. , Rivero Javier , Landesa Luis , Taboada José M. 
Published: September 2018

AbstractIn recent years, invisibility has become a research area of increasing interest due to the advances in material engineering. It may be possible to achieve invisibility through cloaking devices by coating the body using one or more layers of materials with the proper electromagnetic properties. By using techniques associated to plasmonic cloaking it is maybe possible to obtain also invisibility for small objects with several layers of homogeneous materials working from inside the object. We demonstrate numerically that it is, therefore, possible to achieve invisibility through an inner system based on scattering cancellation techniques.
Development of a novel Hsp90 inhibitor NCT-50 as a potential anticancer agent for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Hyun Seung Yeob , Le Huong Thuy , Nguyen Cong-Truong , Yong Young-Sik , Boo Hye-Jin , Lee Ho Jin , Lee Ji-Sun , Min Hye-Young , Ann Jihyae , Chen Jie , Park Hyun-Ju , Lee Jeewoo , Lee Ho-Young 
Published: September 2018

AbstractDespite the development of advanced therapeutic regimens such as molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy, the 5-year survival of patients with lung cancer is still less than 20%, suggesting the need to develop additional treatment strategies. The molecular chaperone heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) plays important roles in the maturation of oncogenic proteins and thus has been considered as an anticancer therapeutic target. Here we show the efficacy and biological mechanism of a Hsp90 inhibitor NCT-50, a novobiocin-deguelin analog hybridizing the pharmacophores of these known Hsp90 inhibitors. NCT-50 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on the viability and colony formation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and those carrying resistance to chemotherapy. In contrast, NCT-50 showed minimal effects on the viability of normal cells. NCT-50 induced apoptosis in NSCLC cells, inhibited the expression and activity of several Hsp90 clients including hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α, and suppressed pro-angiogenic effects of NSCLC cells. Further biochemical and in silico studies revealed that NCT-50 downregulated Hsp90 function by interacting with the C-terminal ATP-binding pocket of Hsp90, leading to decrease in the interaction with Hsp90 client proteins. These results suggest the potential of NCT-50 as an anticancer Hsp90 inhibitor.
Neural stem cells deriving from chick embryonic hindbrain recapitulate hindbrain development in culture
Authors: Peretz Yuval , Kohl Ayelet , Slutsky Natalia , Komlos Marko , Varshavsky Stas , Sela-Donenfeld Dalit 
Published: September 2018

AbstractNeural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing multipotent cells that line the neural-tube and generate all the nervous system. Understanding NSC biology is fundamental for neurodevelopmental research and therapy. Many studies emphasized the need to culture NSCs, which are typically purified from mammalian embryonic/adult brains. These sources are somewhat limited in terms of quantity, availability and animal ethical guidelines. Therefore, new sources are needed. The chick is a powerful system for experimental embryology which contributed enormously to neurodevelopmental concepts. Its accessibility, genetic/molecular manipulations, and homology to other vertebrates, makes it valuable for developmental biology research. Recently, we identified a population of NSCs in the chick hindbrain. It resides in rhombomere-boundaries, expresses Sox2 and generates progenitors and neurons. Here, we investigated whether these cells can recapitulate hindbrain development in culture. By developing approaches to propagate and image cells, manipulate their growth-conditions and separate them into subpopulations, we demonstrate the ordered formation of multipotent and self-renewing neurospheres that maintain regional identity and display differential stem/differentiation/proliferation properties. Live imaging revealed new cellular dynamics in the culture. Collectively, these NSC cultures reproduce major aspects of hindbrain development in-vitro, proposing the chick as a model for culturing hindbrain-NSCs that can be directly applied to other neural-tube domains and species.
A new approach to obtain pure and active proteins from Lactococcus lactis protein aggregates
Authors: Gifre-Renom L. , Cano-Garrido O. , Fàbregas F. , Roca-Pinilla R. , Seras-Franzoso J. , Ferrer-Miralles N. , Villaverde A. , Bach À. , Devant M. , Arís A. , Garcia-Fruitós E. 
Published: September 2018

AbstractThe production of pure and soluble proteins is a complex, protein-dependent and time-consuming process, in particular for those prone-to-aggregate and/or difficult-to-purify. Although Escherichia coli is widely used for protein production, recombinant products must be co-purified through costly processes to remove lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and minimize adverse effects in the target organism. Interestingly, Lactococcus lactis, which does not contain LPS, could be a promising alternative for the production of relevant proteins. However, to date, there is no universal strategy to produce and purify any recombinant protein, being still a protein-specific process. In this context and considering that L. lactis is also able to form functional protein aggregates under overproduction conditions, we explored the use of these aggregates as an alternative source of soluble proteins. In this study, we developed a widely applicable and economically affordable protocol to extract functional proteins from these nanoclusters. For that, two model proteins were used: mammary serum amyloid A3 (M-SAA3) and metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), a difficult-to-purify and a prone-to-aggregate protein, respectively. The results show that it is possible to obtain highly pure, soluble, LPS-free and active recombinant proteins from L. lactis aggregates through a cost-effective and simple protocol with special relevance for difficult-to-purify or highly aggregated proteins.
The 40Ar/39Ar dating of quartz: new insights into the metallogenic chronology of the Jinchang gold deposit and its geological significance
Authors: Shi Kaituo , Wang Keyong , Yu Haijun , Wang Zhigao , Ma Xueli , Bai Xiujuan , Wang Rui 
Published: September 2018

AbstractThe Jinchang gold deposit has been extensively studied, but precise dates for its formation are debated. Native gold mainly occurs as inclusions within pyrite and quartz. In this study, we analysed quartz crystals coeval with gold precipitation from two different types of mineralization using the ArgusVI multi-collector noble gas mass spectrometer by the stepwise crushing technique to resolve the timing and genesis of gold mineralization. 40Ar/39Ar dating of quartz samples (J12Q) from breccia ore yields a plateau age of 109.87 ± 0.86 Ma, and an inverse isochron age of 109.87 ± 0.88 Ma. Quartz samples (J18Q) from vein ore yields a slightly younger plateau age of 107.76 ± 0.85 Ma, with an inverse isochron age of 107.76 ± 0.92 Ma. These dates place the ore-forming age of the Jinchang gold deposit at 107~110 Ma, much younger than previously published radiometric ages, suggesting the gold mineralization is spatio-temporally associated with the granite porphyry. The formation of the Jinchang gold deposit is consistent with the regional late Mesozoic porphyry-epithermal gold mineralization event in the Yanbian-Dongning area. Finally, our study shows that 40Ar/39Ar of quartz can be used as a powerful tool to date the formation ages of hydrothermal ore deposits.
Comparative Investigations of Social Context-Dependent Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Wild Tibetan Macaques (Macaca thibetana)
Authors: Funkhouser Jake A. , Mayhew Jessica A. , Sheeran Lori K. , Mulcahy John B. , Li Jin-Hua 
Published: September 2018

AbstractTheoretical definitions of dominance, how dominance is structured and organized in nature, and how dominance is measured have varied as investigators seek to classify and organize social systems in gregarious species. Given the variability in behavioral measures and statistical methods used to derive dominance rankings, we conducted a comparative analysis of dominance using existing statistical techniques to analyze dominance ranks, social context-dependent dominance structures, the reliability of statistical analyses, and rank predictability of dominance structures on other social behaviors. We investigated these topics using behavioral data from captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and wild Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana). We used a combination of all-occurrence, focal-animal, and instantaneous scan sampling to collect social, agonistic, and associative data from both species. We analyzed our data to derive dominance ranks, test rank reliability, and assess cross-context predictability using various statistical analyses. Our results indicate context-dependent dominance and individual social roles in the captive chimpanzee group, one broadly defined dominance structure in the Tibetan macaque group, and high within-context analysis reliability but little cross-context predictability. Overall, we suggest this approach is preferable over investigations of dominance where only a few behavioral metrics and statistical analyses are utilized with little consideration of rank reliability or cross-context predictability.
Personality Profiles Are Associated with Functional Brain Networks Related to Cognition and Emotion
Authors: Mulders Peter , Llera Alberto , Tendolkar Indira , van Eijndhoven Philip , Beckmann Christian 
Published: September 2018

AbstractPersonality factors as defined by the “five-factor model” are some of the most investigated characteristics that underlie various types of complex behavior. These are, however, often investigated as isolated traits that are conceptually independent, yet empirically are typically strongly related to each other. We apply Independent Component Analysis to these personality factors as measured by the NEO-FFI in 471 healthy subjects from the Human Connectome Project to investigate independent personality profiles that incorporate all five original factors. Subsequently we examine how these profiles are related to patterns of resting-state brain activity in specific networks-of-interest related to cognition and emotion. We find that a personality profile of contrasting openness and agreeableness is associated with engagement of a subcortical-medial prefrontal network and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Likewise, a profile of contrasting extraversion and conscientiousness is associated with activity in the precuneus. This study shows a novel approach to investigating personality and how it is related to patterns of activity in the resting brain.
MicroRNAs delivery into human cells grown on 3D-printed PLA scaffolds coated with a novel fluorescent PAMAM dendrimer for biomedical applications
Authors: Paolini Alessandro , Leoni Luca , Giannicchi Ilaria , Abbaszadeh Zeinab , D’Oria Valentina , Mura Francesco , Dalla Cort Antonella , Masotti Andrea 
Published: September 2018

AbstractMany advanced synthetic, natural, degradable or non-degradable materials have been employed to create scaffolds for cell culture for biomedical or tissue engineering applications. One of the most versatile material is poly-lactide (PLA), commonly used as 3D printing filament. Manufacturing of multifunctional scaffolds with improved cell growth proliferation and able to deliver oligonucleotides represents an innovative strategy for controlled and localized gene modulation that hold great promise and could increase the number of applications in biomedicine. Here we report for the first time the synthesis of a novel Rhodamine derivative of a poly-amidoamine dendrimer (G = 5) able to transfect cells and to be monitored by confocal microscopy that we also employed to coat a 3D-printed PLA scaffold. The coating do not modify the oligonucleotide binding ability, toxicity or transfection properties of the scaffold that is able to increase cell proliferation and deliver miRNA mimics (i.e., pre-mir-503) into human cells. Although further experiments are required to optimize the dendrimer/miRNA ratio and improve transfection efficiency, we demonstrated the effectiveness of this promising and innovative 3D-printed transfection system to transfer miRNAs into human cells for future biomedical applications.
Effective Radiative Properties of Tilted Metallic Nanorod Arrays Considering Polarization Coupling
Authors: Lattery Dustin M. , Kim Mingeon , Choi Jongin , Lee Bong Jae , Wang Xiaojia 
Published: September 2018

AbstractWith the advent of new nanomanufacturing techniques has come the rise of the field of nanophotonics and an increased need to determine optical properties of novel structures. Commercial software packages are able to estimate the behavior, but require large resources and heavy computational time. By combining coordinate transforms and Effective Medium Theory (EMT), an effective relative permittivity tensor is defined and further exploited to calculate the polarization-coupled Fresnel coefficients through Maxwell’s equations. A uniaxial simplification is made to show the case of tilted nanorod arrays. To demonstrate the flexibility of this system, the interfacial reflectance has been calculated for both s- and p-polarizations as well as the coupled case with the volume filling fractions of f = 0.10 and 0.30 for silver (Ag) and titanium (Ti) nanorods, and a scenario of a Ag nanorod array with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as the surrounding medium. The exact results computed by the finite-difference time-domain method justify the validity of EMT with polarization coupling taken into account. The effects of incidence angle and azimuthal angle on reflectance are also discussed. The relatively simple nature of this approach allows for fast estimations of the optical properties of various nanostructures.