bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Surfaces away from horizons are not thermodynamic
Authors: Wang Zhi-Wei , Braunstein Samuel L. 
Published: July 2018

AbstractSince the 1970s, it has been known that black-hole (and other) horizons are truly thermodynamic. More generally, surfaces which are not horizons have also been conjectured to behave thermodynamically. Initially, for surfaces microscopically expanded from a horizon to so-called stretched horizons, and more recently, for more general ordinary surfaces in the emergent gravity program. To test these conjectures we ask whether such surfaces satisfy an analogue to the first law of thermodynamics (as do horizons). For static asymptotically flat spacetimes we find that such a first law holds on horizons. We prove that this law remains an excellent approximation for stretched horizons, but counter-intuitively this result illustrates the insufficiency of the laws of black-hole mechanics alone from implying truly thermodynamic behavior. For surfaces away from horizons in the emergent gravity program the first law fails (except for spherically symmetric scenarios), thus undermining the key thermodynamic assumption of this program.
Provable compressed sensing quantum state tomography via non-convex methods
Authors: Kyrillidis Anastasios , Kalev Amir , Park Dohyung , Bhojanapalli Srinadh , Caramanis Constantine , Sanghavi Sujay 
Published: July 2018

AbstractWith nowadays steadily growing quantum processors, it is required to develop new quantum tomography tools that are tailored for high-dimensional systems. In this work, we describe such a computational tool, based on recent ideas from non-convex optimization. The algorithm excels in the compressed sensing setting, where only a few data points are measured from a low-rank or highly-pure quantum state of a high-dimensional system. We show that the algorithm can practically be used in quantum tomography problems that are beyond the reach of convex solvers, and, moreover, is faster and more accurate than other state-of-the-art non-convex approaches. Crucially, we prove that, despite being a non-convex program, under mild conditions, the algorithm is guaranteed to converge to the global minimum of the quantum state tomography problem; thus, it constitutes a provable quantum state tomography protocol.
A first-principles study of the effect of vacancy defects on the electronic structures of greigite (Fe3S4)
Authors: Wu Min , Zhou Xia , Huang Shibei , Cheng Jianlin , Ding Zhenyu 
Published: July 2018

AbstractGreigite (Fe3S4) is a ferrimagnetic mineral with an inverse spinel structure. Besides its importance in the bio-geochemical cycle, it also has great potential applications for its unique properties such as its half metallic electronic structure at ambient condition. However, it has been challenging to get high purity and crystallinity samples of greigite in experiment, and the defect effect on the electronic structure of greigite was not clear. In the present study, first-principles calculations have been performed to investigate the ground state electronic structure of greigite with monovacancy. It is found that, with an vacancy concentration lower than 3.6%, the greigite with an Fe vacancy is an insulator with charge orderings, while the greigite with a S vacancy becomes a half-metal and has a magnetic moment of <4.0 μB per formula unit. The present result helps to understand the absence of the Verwey transition and the magnetic property of greigite measured in experiment. The understanding of the electronic structure of defective greigite could also be utilized to manipulate the properties of greigite for spintronic applications.
Cloning and characterization of EgGDSL, a gene associated with oil content in oil palm
Authors: Zhang Yingjun , Bai Bin , Lee May , Alfiko Yuzer , Suwanto Antonius , Yue Gen Hua 
Published: July 2018

AbstractOil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) is a key tropical oil crop, which provides over one third of the global vegetable oil production, but few genes related to oil yield have been characterized. In this study, a GDSL esterase/lipase gene, which was significantly associated with oil content, was isolated from oil palm and designated as EgGDSL. Its functional characterization was carried out through ectopic expression in Arabidopsis ecotype Col-0. It was shown that expression of EgGDSL in Arabidopsis led to the increased total fatty acid content by 9.5% compared with the wild type. Further analysis of the fatty acid composition revealed that stearic acid (18:0) increased in the seeds of the transgenic lines, but the levels of linoleic acid (18:2) plus 11-eicosenoic acid drastically declined. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) revealed that in oil palm, EgGDSL was highly expressed in mesocarp followed by leaf, and the expression level was very low in the root. The expression level of EgGDSL gene began to increase at two months after flowering (MAF) and reached its peak by four MAF, then declined rapidly, and reached its lowest level during the mature period (6 MAF). The EgGDSL gene was more highly expressed in oil palm trees with high oil content than that with low oil content, demonstrating that the transcription level of EgGDSL correlated with the amount of oil accumulation. The gene may be valuable for engineering fatty acid metabolism in crop improvement programmes and for marker-assisted breeding.
tDCS to premotor cortex changes action verb understanding: Complementary effects of inhibitory and excitatory stimulation
Authors: Gijssels Tom , Ivry Richard B. , Casasanto Daniel 
Published: July 2018

AbstractProcessing the meaning of action language correlates with somatotopic activity in premotor cortex (PMC). A previous neurostimulation study supported a causal contribution of PMC activity to action verb understanding, but the direction of the effect was unexpected: inhibiting PMC made participants respond faster to action verbs. Here we investigated the effects of PMC excitation and inhibition on action verb understanding using tDCS. Right-handed participants received tDCS stimulation with the anodal electrode (presumed to be excitatory) and cathodal electrode (presumed to be inhibitory) placed over left and right PMC, respectively, or with the reverse configuration. After completing the stimulation protocol, participants made lexical decisions on unimanual action verbs (e.g., throw) and abstract verbs (e.g., think). tDCS configuration selectively affected how accurately participants responded to unimanual action verbs. When the anode was positioned over left PMC we observed a relative impairment in performance for right-hand responses (i.e. the hand with which these participants typically perform unimanual actions). By contrast, when the cathode was positioned over left PMC we observed a relative improvement. tDCS configuration did not differentially affect responses to abstract verbs. These complementary effects of excitatory and inhibitory tDCS clarify the functional role of premotor hand areas in understanding action language.
A Spectral Fiedler Field-based Contrast Platform for Imaging of Nanoparticles in Colon Tumor
Authors: Liu Chenang , Kapoor Ankur , VanOsdol Joshua , Ektate Kalyani , Kong Zhenyu , Ranjan Ashish 
Published: July 2018

AbstractThe temporal and spatial patterns of nanoparticle that ferry both imaging and therapeutic agent in solid tumors is significantly influenced by target tissue movement, low spatial resolution, and inability to accurately define regions of interest (ROI) at certain tissue depths. These combine to limit and define nanoparticle untreated regions in tumors. Utilizing graph and matrix theories, the objective of this project was to develop a novel spectral Fiedler field (SFF) based-computational technology for nanoparticle mapping in tumors. The novelty of SFF lies in the utilization of the changes in the tumor topology from baseline for contrast variation assessment. Data suggest that SFF can enhance the spatiotemporal contrast compared to conventional method by 2–3 folds in tumors. Additionally, the SFF contrast is readily translatable for assessment of tumor drug distribution. Thus, our SFF computational platform has the potential for integration into devices that allow contrast and drug delivery applications.
A Personalized Arrhythmia Monitoring Platform
Authors: Raj Sandeep , Ray Kailash Chandra 
Published: July 2018

AbstractArrhythmia detection is the core of cardiovascular disease diagnosis. Though, there is no such generic solution for detecting the arrhythmias at the moment they occur which is due to the non-stationary nature and inter-patient variations of ECG signals. The feature extraction and classification techniques are significant tools widely used in the automated classification of arrhythmias. This study aims to develop a personalized arrhythmia monitoring platform allowing real-time detection of arrhythmias from the subject’s electrocardiogram (ECG) signal for point-of-care usage. A novel method, i.e. discrete orthogonal stockwell transform (DOST) technique for feature extraction is employed to capture the significant time-frequency coefficients to constitute the feature set representing each of the ECG signals. These coefficients or features are classified using artificial bee colony (ABC) optimized twin least-square support vector machine (LSTSVM) for classifying the different categories of ECG signals. The ABC optimizes the dimension of the feature set and the learning parameters of the classifier. The proposed method is prototyped on the commercially available ARM-based embedded platform and validated on the benchmark MIT-BIH arrhythmia database. Further, the prototype is evaluated under two schemes, i.e. class and personalized schemes which reported a higher overall accuracy of 96.29% and 96.08% in the respective schemes than the existing works to the state-of-art CVDs diagnosis.
Xbra and Smad-1 cooperate to activate the transcription of neural repressor ventx1.1 in Xenopus embryos
Authors: Kumar Shiv , Umair Zobia , Yoon Jaeho , Lee Unjoo , Kim Sung Chan , Park Jae-Bong , Lee Jae-Yong , Kim Jaebong 
Published: July 2018

AbstractCrosstalk of signaling pathways play crucial roles in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and cell fate determination for development. In the case of ventx1.1 in Xenopus embryos, both BMP-4/Smad-1 and FGF/Xbra signaling induce the expression of neural repressor ventx1.1. However, the details of how these two pathways interact and lead to neural inhibition by ventx1.1 remain largely unknown. In the present study, Xbra directly bound to the ventx1.1 promoter region and inhibited neurogenesis in a Ventx1.1-dependent manner. Furthermore, Smad-1 and Xbra physically interacted and regulated ventx1.1 transcription in a synergistic fashion. Xbra and Smad-1 interaction cooperatively enhanced the binding of an interacting partner within the ventx1.1 promoter and maximum cooperation was achieved in presence of intact DNA binding sites for both Smad-1 and Xbra. Collectively, BMP-4/Smad-1 and FGF/Xbra signal crosstalk cooperate to activate the transcription of neural repressor ventx1.1 in Xenopus embryos. This suggests that the crosstalk between BMP-4 and FGF signaling negatively regulates early neurogenesis by synergistic activation of ventx1.1 in Xenopus embryos.
Interplay between human nucleolar GNL1 and RPS20 is critical to modulate cell proliferation
Authors: Krishnan Rehna , Boddapati Neelima , Mahalingam Sundarasamy 
Published: July 2018

AbstractHuman Guanine nucleotide binding protein like 1 (GNL1) belongs to HSR1_MMR1 subfamily of nucleolar GTPases. Here, we report for the first time that GNL1 promotes cell cycle and proliferation by inducing hyperphosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, Ribosomal protein S20 (RPS20) was identified as a functional interacting partner of GNL1. Results from GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays confirmed that interaction between GNL1 and RPS20 was specific. Further, GNL1 induced cell proliferation was altered upon knockdown of RPS20 suggesting its critical role in GNL1 function. Interestingly, cell proliferation was significantly impaired upon expression of RPS20 interaction deficient GNL1 mutant suggest that GNL1 interaction with RPS20 is critical for cell growth. Finally, the inverse correlation of GNL1 and RPS20 expression in primary colon and gastric cancers with patient survival strengthen their critical importance during tumorigenesis. Collectively, our data provided evidence that cross-talk between GNL1 and RPS20 is critical to promote cell proliferation.
Repeated abortion in adulthood induces cognition impairment in aged mice
Authors: Wang Lili , Zhang Ying , Wang Haofeng , Li Hui , Zhao Ziying , Wang Ning , He Bin , Shi Cuige , Zhang Shucheng , Wang Jiedong 
Published: July 2018

AbstractAge-related cognitive decline is one of the major aspects that impede successful aging in humans. Repeated abortion in adulthood can accelerate or aggravate cognitive deficiency during aging. Here we used repeated abortion in female mice adulthood and investigated the consequences of this treatment on cognitive performance during aging. We observed a substantial impairment of learning memory in 15 months old. This cognitive dysfunction was supported by Aβ elevation in CA region. Repeated abortion mice have uniform estrous cycles and decreased ERα expression in hypothalamus and hippocampus. Furthermore, repeated abortion not only significantly increased the HMGB1 expression in hippocampus but also increased the plasma and hippocampal protein levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. Finally, we identified that MPP-induced cell apoptosis and increased HMGB1 expression as well as IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α expression as following Aβ elevation. Taken together, our results identify possible molecular mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment during aging, and demonstrated the repeated abortion in adulthood on cognitive function in aged mice.
Concurrent guiding of light and heat by transformation optics and transformation thermodynamics via soft matter
Authors: Barros Wallysson K. P. , Pereira Erms 
Published: July 2018

AbstractControlling light and heat via metamaterials has presented interesting technological applications using transformation optics (TO) and transformation thermodynamics (TT). However, such devices are commonly mono-physics and mono-purpose, because the used metamaterial is designed to deal with one type of physical mechanisms. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, how to connect TO and TT via the liquid crystal 4-Cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and, to exemplify such link, we present a multiphysics, multi-purpose device that simultaneously controls light and heat using such material. The anisotropic multiphysics properties of 5CB bond TO and TT, expanding the usage of these theories. The device, composed by 5CB confined between two right circular concentric cylinders, concentrates light (as a converging lens) and simultaneously repels heat from the inner cylinder when the molecules are along the direction$$\hat{{\boldsymbol{\rho }}}$$ρˆand it disperses light (as a diverging lens) and concurrently concentrates heat to the inner cylinder, without disturbing the external temperature field, when the molecules are along the direction$$\hat{{\boldsymbol{\theta }}}$$θˆ, contributing for saving materials and designing miniaturized multiphysics systems.
GRK2 knockdown in mice exacerbates kidney injury and alters renal mechanisms of blood pressure regulation
Authors: Tutunea-Fatan Elena , Abd-Elrahman Khaled S. , Thibodeau Jean-Francois , Holterman Chet E. , Holleran Brian J. , Leduc Richard , Kennedy Christopher R. J. , Gros Robert , Ferguson Stephen S. G. 
Published: July 2018

AbstractThe renin-angiotensin system regulates blood pressure and fluid balance in the body primarily via angiotensin receptor 1 (AT1R). Renal AT1R was found to be primarily responsible for Ang II-mediated hypertension. G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) modulates AT1R desensitization and increased GRK2 protein expression is reported in hypertensive patients. However, the consequences of GRK2 inhibition on kidney functions remain unknown. We employed shGRK2 knockdown mice (shGRK2 mice) to test the role of GRK2 in kidney development and function that can be ultimately linked to the hypertensive phenotype detected in shGRK2 mice. GRK2 knockdown reduced kidney size, nephrogenesis and glomerular count, and impaired glomerular filtration. Glomerular damage in adult shGRK2 mice was associated with increased renin- and AT1R-mediated production of reactive oxygen species. The AT1R blocker, Losartan, normalized elevated blood pressure and markedly improved glomerular filtration in the shGRK2 knockdown mice. Our findings provide evidence for the crucial role of GRK2 in renal regulation of blood pressure. It also suggests that the detrimental outcomes of GRK2 inhibitors on the kidney should be carefully examined when used as antihypertensive.
Continuous applications of biochar to rice: Effects on nitrogen uptake and utilization
Authors: Huang Min , Fan Long , Chen Jiana , Jiang Ligeng , Zou Yingbin 
Published: July 2018

AbstractImproving soil quality is critical for increasing rice yield, and biochar could be a beneficial soil amendment for high yield. This study was conducted to determine the effects of continuous (repeated seasonal) applications of biochar on nitrogen (N) uptake and utilization in rice. A fixed field experiment was done in Yongan Town, Hunan Province, China, in six continuous seasons (the early and late rice-growing seasons from 2015 to 2017). Results showed that biochar application did not significantly affect soil N uptake in the first four seasons. The effect of biochar application on fertilizer N uptake was not significant in three of the first four seasons. In the fifth and sixth seasons, biochar application resulted in 14–26% increases in soil N uptake but 19–26% decreases in fertilizer N uptake. Soil N availability did not explain the increased soil N uptake with biochar application. The decreased fertilizer N uptake with biochar application was attributed to both decreased fertilizer N availability and increased N loss through ammonia volatilization. As a consequence of a compensation between the increased soil N uptake and the decreased fertilizer N uptake, the effect of biochar application on total N uptake was not significant in the fifth and sixth seasons. However, biochar application led to 7–11% increases in internal N use efficiency in the fifth and sixth seasons and 6% increase in grain yield in the sixth season. Our study suggests that the effects of repeated seasonal applications of biochar on N uptake and utilization in rice depend on the duration of biochar application. Longer continuous applications of biochar can increase internal N use efficiency and grain yield in rice with insignificant change in total N uptake.
Intracellular membranes of bacterial endospores are reservoirs for spore core membrane expansion during spore germination
Authors: Laue Michael , Han Hong-Mei , Dittmann Christin , Setlow Peter 
Published: July 2018

AbstractBacterial endospores are formed by certain bacteria, such as Bacillus subtilis or the pathogenic Bacillus anthracis and Clostridioides difficile, to allow survival in environmental conditions which are lethal to vegetative bacteria. The spores possess a particular architecture and molecular inventory which endow them with a remarkable resistance against desiccation, heat and radiation. Another remarkable spore feature is their rapid return to vegetative growth during spore germination and outgrowth. The underlying processes of this latter physiological and morphological transformation involve a number of different events, some of which are mechanistically not entirely understood. One of these events is the expansion of the central spore core, which contains the DNA, RNA and most spore enzymes. To date, it has been unclear how the ~1.3- to 1.6-fold expansion of the core membrane surface area that accompanies core expansion takes place, since this occurs in the absence of significant if any ATP synthesis. In the current work, we demonstrate the presence of intracellular membrane structures in spores located just below the core membrane. During spore germination these internal core membranes disappear when the core size increases, suggesting that they are integrated into the core membrane to allow core expansion. These intracellular membranes are most probably present as more or less compressed vesicles or tubules within the dormant spore core. Investigations of spores from different species suggest that these intracellular membrane structures below the core membrane are a general feature of endospore forming bacteria.
MANTA2, update of the Mongo database for the analysis of transcription factor binding site alterations
Authors: Fornes Oriol , Gheorghe Marius , Richmond Phillip A. , Arenillas David J. , Wasserman Wyeth W. , Mathelier Anthony 
Published: July 2018

AbstractInterpreting the functional impact of noncoding variants is an ongoing challenge in the field of genome analysis. With most noncoding variants associated with complex traits and disease residing in regulatory regions, altered transcription factor (TF) binding has been proposed as a mechanism of action. It is therefore imperative to develop methods that predict the impact of noncoding variants at TF binding sites (TFBSs). Here, we describe the update of our MANTA database that stores: 1) TFBS predictions in the human genome, and 2) the potential impact on TF binding for all possible single nucleotide variants (SNVs) at these TFBSs. TFBSs were predicted by combining experimental ChIP-seq data from ReMap and computational position weight matrices (PWMs) derived from JASPAR. Impact of SNVs at these TFBSs was assessed by means of PWM scores computed on the alternate alleles. The updated database, MANTA2, provides the scientific community with a critical map of TFBSs and SNV impact scores to improve the interpretation of noncoding variants in the human genome.
Microarray data of transcriptome shifts in blood cell subsets during S1P receptor modulator therapy
Authors: Koczan Dirk , Fitzner Brit , Zettl Uwe Klaus , Hecker Michael 
Published: July 2018

AbstractTreatment with fingolimod, a sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator, prevents the egress of immune cell subpopulations from lymphoid tissues into the blood. We obtained peripheral blood samples from patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis before the initiation of fingolimod therapy, after one day and after 3 months. To investigate the differential expression induced by the drug, five different cell populations were isolated. We then employed 150 Human Transcriptome Arrays (HTA 2.0) interrogating >245,000 protein-coding and >40,000 non-coding transcript isoforms. After 3 months of treatment, CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells showed huge transcriptome shifts, whereas the profiles of B-cells (CD19+) were slightly altered and those of monocytes (CD14+) and natural killer cells (CD56+) remained unaffected. With >6 million probes for exons and splice junctions, our large HTA 2.0 dataset provides a deep view into alternative splicing patterns in immune cell subsets. Our data may also be useful for comparing the effects on gene expression signatures of novel S1P receptor modulators, which are currently tested in clinical trials for other autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
Binary Ni2FeOx anchored on modified graphite for efficient and durable oxygen evolution electrocatalysis
Authors: Bai Lu , Guan Jingqi 
Published: July 2018

Ni2FeOx@G-Ph-SN demonstrates superior electrochemical water oxidation activity (only 265 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm−2) and outstanding stability in 1.0 M KOH.