bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Graphical factorial surveys reveal the acceptability of wildlife observation at protected areas
Authors: Cerri Jacopo , Martinelli Elena , Bertolino Sandro 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTApproaching large ungulates at protected areas is dangerous both for visitors and the animals. Nudging interventions can mitigate this issue, but conservationists need to be sure about which factors influence the acceptability of human-wildlife encounters, to design them.In summer 2018, we recruited a sample of visitors (n = 205) at the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). They evaluated the acceptability of 9 digitally modified pictures, depicting a group of visitors observing an alpine ibex (Capra ibex) close to a trail. Pictures were characterized in terms of group size and distance from the ibex.Observing ibexes was deemed to be acceptable if visitors were further than 25 meters from animals and when groups included less than 3 people. Approaching ibexes at 5 meters was always deemed to be unacceptable. Potential for Conflict Index (PCI) was constant across distance classes and it was generally low.Our findings indicate that visitors share normative beliefs about the optimal distance and group size, that should characterize encounters with large ungulates, when visiting the park. These normative beliefs are crystallized, because previous encounters with ibexes did not affect the evaluation of each scenario and because the PCI was constant and low. We believe that behavioral interventions aimed at promoting respectful and safe human-ibex interactions can be enforced in areas where this interaction is critical, mostly in form of panels on hiking trails introducing normative pressures on visitors and motivating them to comply with rules.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells image analysis with deep bagging ensemble learning
Authors: Liu Ying , Long Feixiao 
Published: March 2019

AbstractAcute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a blood cancer which leads 111,000 depth globally in 2015. Recently, diagnosing ALL often involves the microscopic image analysis with the help of deep learning (DL) techniques. However, as most medical related problems, deficiency training samples and minor visual difference between ALL and normal cells make the image analysis task quite challenging. Herein, an augmented image enhanced bagging ensemble learning with elaborately designed training subsets were proposed to tackle above challenges. The weightedF1-scores of preliminary test set and final test are 0.84 and 0.88 respectively employing our ensemble model predictions and ranked within top 10% in ISBI-2019 Classification of Normal vs. Malignant White Blood Cancer Cells contest. Our results preliminarily show the efficacy and accuracy of employing DL based techniques in ALL cells image analysis.
Heterologous Expression of Human Norovirus GII.4 VP1 Leads to Assembly of T=4 Virus-Like Particles
Authors: Devant Jessica , Hofhaus Götz , Bhella David , Hansman Grant S. 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTHuman noroviruses are a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis, yet there are still no vaccines or antivirals available. Expression of the norovirus capsid protein (VP1) in insect cells typically results in the formation of virus-like particles (VLPs) that are morphologically and antigenically comparable to native virions. Previous structural analysis of norovirus VLPs showed that the capsid has a T=3 icosahedral symmetry and is composed of 180 copies of VP1 that are folded into three quasi-equivalent subunits (A, B, and C). In this study, we determined the cryo-EM VLP structures of two GII.4 variants, termed CHDC-1974 and NSW-2012. Surprisingly, we found that greater than 95% of these GII.4 VLPs were larger than virions and 3D reconstruction showed that these VLPs exhibited T=4 icosahedral symmetry. We found that the T=4 VLPs showed several structural differences to the T=3 VLPs. The T=4 particles assemble from 240 copies of VP1 that adopt four quasi-equivalent conformations (A, B, C, and D) that form two distinct dimers, A/B and C/D. The T=4 protruding domains were elevated ∼21-Å off the capsid shell, which was ∼7-Å more than the previously studied GII.10 T=3 VLPs. A small cavity and flap-like structure at the icosahedral twofold axis disrupted the contiguous T=4 shell, a consequence of the D-subunit S-domains having smaller contact interfaces with neighboring dimers. Overall, our findings that old and new GII.4 VP1 sequences assemble T=4 VLPs might have implications for the design of potential future vaccines.IMPORTANCEThe discovery that the GII.4 VLPs have a T=4 symmetry is of significance, since this represents the first known T=4 calicivirus structure. Interestingly, the GII.4 2012 variant shares 96% amino acid identity with a current GII.4 VLP vaccine candidate sequence, which suggests that this vaccine might also have a T=4 symmetry. Our previous results with these GII.4 VLPs showed functional binding properties to antibodies and Nanobodies that were raised against T=3 (GII.10) VLPs. This suggests that the T=4 VLPs were antigenically comparable to T=3 particles, despite the obvious structural and size differences. On the other hand, these larger T=4 VLPs with novel structural features and possibly new epitopes might elicit antibodies that do not recognize equivalent epitopes on the T=3 VLPs. Further structural and binding studies using a library of GII.4-specific Nanobodies are planned in order to precisely investigate whether new epitopes are formed.
Long-term exposure to daily ethanol injections in DBA2/J and Swiss mice: Lessons for the interpretation of ethanol sensitization
Authors: Didone Vincent , van Ingelgom Théo , Tirelli Ezio , Quertemont Etienne 
Published: March 2019

AbstractMost mice ethanol sensitization studies focused on neurobiology at the expense of its behavioral characterization. Furthermore, relatively short ethanol exposures (10 to 20 injections) were used in these studies. The first aim of the present study is to better characterize the development and expression of ethanol sensitization after an extended exposure of 45 daily injections. In some previous studies, mice were classified as “respondent” and “resistant” to ethanol sensitization. The second aim of the present study is to test the long-term reliability of such categorizations and the consequences of their use on the interpretation of the ethanol sensitization results.Swiss and DBA2/j female mice received 45 consecutive daily ethanol administrations (respectively 2.5 and 2.0 g/kg) and their locomotor activity was daily recorded to test the development of ethanol sensitization. At the end of the procedure, a challenge test assessed the inter-group ethanol sensitization.The results of the present study show that ethanol sensitization continues to develop beyond 20 days to reach maximal levels after about 25 injections in DBA2/j mice and 40 injections in Swiss mice, although the core phase of the development of ethanol sensitization occurred in both strains during the first 20 days. Remarkably, ethanol sensitization after such a long daily ethanol treatment resulted in both an upward shift of the magnitude of ethanol stimulant effects and a prolongation of these effects in time (up to 30 minutes). Mice classified as “resistant to ethanol sensitization” according to previous studies developed very significant levels of ethanol sensitization when tested after 45 ethanol injections and are best described as showing a delayed development of ethanol sensitization. Furthermore, mice classified as respondent or resistant to ethanol sensitization also differ in their acute response to ethanol, such that it is difficult to ascertain whether these classifications are specifically related to the sensitization process.
Implementation of Design of Experiments (DOE) for Optimization of Feeding Strategy and Glyco-Engineering of Trastuzumab Biosimilar
Authors: Mahboudi Rasoul , Samavat Sepideh , Afrah Amir , Khorshidtalab Mehdi , Tehran Arezou Fadaei , Motahari Paria , Iri Sofla Farnoush Jafari , Maleknia Shayan 
Published: March 2019

AbstractFed-batch cell culture is the most commonly used process for antibody production in biopharmaceutical industries. Basal media, feed, feeding strategy and glycan structures are always among the most important concerns during process development and optimization. In this study, first, a traditional screening study was performed to identify the top media/feed combinations by evaluating the cell culture performance including cell growth and protein titre. Optimization of the process was also performed using response surface methodology in order to find the most optimum feeding strategy and glucose set point regarding final titre of the recombinant monoclonal antibody being produced in Chinese hamster ovary cell line. The focus of this study is not only on titre, but also on product quality and comparability especially protein glycosylation. The prediction model of product titre as a function of feeding percentage and glucose set point was successfully applied for the second set of experiments that was performed for glycan improvement. Statistical design of experiments was applied to determine the most important factors and their effects on galactosylated and afucosylated glycans. Uridine, manganese, galactose and fucosyltransferase inhibitor were chosen to evaluate if their presence can affect glycans and to obtain their best combination for fed-batch culture supplementation. We determined that 2.5 % daily feeding combined with maintaining the glucose set point on 2.5±0.2 g/L could achieve final titre of 2.5± 0.1 g/L. Galactosylation of antibody was increased about 25% using MnCl2and galactose while afucosylation was increased about 8% in presence of fucosyltransferase inhibitor. Galactose and Mn2+led to a shift from G0F to G1F and presence of Fucosyltransferase inhibitor caused to an increase in G0 compared to its absence. These results demonstrated that supplementation of culture with all these components can provide exact control of antibody galactosylation and fucosylation with minimal impact on culture characteristics and product quality attributes. Subsequently, validation experiments were also carried out in 5L STR bioreactors which showed that similar results could be achieved in bioreactors compared to shake flasks regarding both titre and quality.
Integrated Open-Source Software for Multiscale Electrophysiology
Authors: Nasiotis Konstantinos , Cousineau Martin , Tadel François , Peyrache Adrien , Leahy Richard M. , Pack Christopher C. , Baillet Sylvain 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThe methods for electrophysiology in neuroscience have evolved tremendously over the recent years with a growing emphasis on dense-array signal recordings. Such increased complexity and augmented wealth in the volume of data recorded, have not been accompanied by efforts to streamline and facilitate access to processing methods, which too are susceptible to grow in sophistication. Moreover, unsuccessful attempts to reproduce peer-reviewed publications indicate a problem of transparency in science. This growing problem could be tackled by unrestricted access to methods that promote research transparency and data sharing, ensuring the reproducibility of published results.Here, we provide a free, extensive, open-source software that provides data-analysis, data-management and multi-modality integration solutions for invasive neurophysiology. Users can perform their entire analysis through a user-friendly environment without the need of programming skills, in a tractable (logged) way. This work contributes to open-science, analysis standardization, transparency and reproducibility in invasive neurophysiology.
Deep representation learning for domain adaptatable classification of infrared spectral imaging data
Authors: Raulf Arne P. , Butke Joshua , Küpper Claus , Großerueschkamp Frederik , Gerwert Klaus , Mosig Axel 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTMotivationApplying infrared microscopy in the context of tissue diagnostics heavily relies on computationally preprocessing the infrared pixel spectra that constitute an infrared microscopic image. Existing approaches involve physical models, which are non-linear in nature and lead to classifiers that do not generalize well, e.g. across different types of tissue preparation. Furthermore, existing preprocessing approaches involve iterative procedures that are computationally demanding, so that computation time required for preprocessing does not keep pace with recent progress in infrared microscopes which can capture whole-slide images within minutes.ResultsWe investigate the application of stacked contractive autoencoders as an unsupervised approach to preprocess infrared microscopic pixel spectra, followed by supervised fine-tuning to obtain neural networks that can reliably resolve tissue structure. To validate the robustness of the resulting classifier, we demonstrate that a network trained on embedded tissue can be transferred to classify fresh frozen tissue. The features obtained from unsupervised pretraining thus generalize across the large spectral differences between embedded and fresh frozen tissue, where under previous approaches seperate classifiers had to be trained from scratch.AvailabilityOur implementation can be downloaded fromhttps://github.com/arnrau/SCAE_IR_Spectral_ImagingContactaxel.mosig@bph.rub.de
Self-reported sleep duration and daytime napping are associated with renal hyperfiltration and microalbuminuria in apparently healthy Chinese population
Authors: Ye Yingnan , Zhang Linxi , Yan Wenhua , Wang Anping , Wang Weiqing , Gao Zhengnan , Tang Xulei , Yan Li , Wan Qin , Luo Zuojie , Qin Guijun , Chen Lulu , Wang Shiqing , Wang Yuxia , Mu Yiming 
Published: March 2019

AbstractBackgroundSleep duration affects health in various way. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep duration, daytime napping and kidney function in a middle-aged apparently healthy Chinese population.MethodsAccording to self-reported total sleep and daytime napping duration, 33,850 participants aged 38 to 90 years old from 8 regional centers were divided into subgroups. Height, weight, waistline, hipline, blood pressure, biochemical index, FBG, PBG, HbA1c, creatinine and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR) were measured and recorded in each subject. Microalbuminuria was defined as UACR>=30 mg/g, CKD was defined as eGFR<60 ml/min and hyperfiltration was defined as eGFR>=135 ml/min. Multiple logistic regressions were applied to investigate associations between sleep and kidney function.ResultsCompared to participants with [7-8]h/day sleep, ORs of >9 h/day, (8, 9]h/day and <6h/day sleep for microalbuminuria were 1.317 (1.200-1.446, p<0.001), 1.215 (1.123-1.315, p<0.001) and 1.218 (0.967-1.534, p=0.094). eGFR levels were U-shaped associated with sleep duration among subjects with >=90ml/min eGFR, and N-shaped associated with sleep duration among subjects with <90ml/min eGFR. OR of >9h/day sleep for hyperfiltration was 1.400 (1.123-1.745, p=0.003) among eGFR>=90 ml/min participants. Daytime napping had a negative effect on renal health. Compared to participants did not have napping habit, the ORs of (0, 1]h/day, (1, 1.5]h/day and >1.5h/day daytime napping for microalbuminuria were 1.477 (1.370-1.591, p<0.001), 1.217 (1.056, 1.403, p=0.007) and 1.447 (1.242, 1.687, p<0.001).ConclusionsTotal sleep duration are U-shaped associated with renal health outcomes. Daytime napping had a negative effect on renal health.
Effect of different forage-to-concentrate ratios on the structure of rumen bacteria and its relationship with nutrition levels and real-time methane production in sheep
Authors: Li Runhang , Teng Zhanwei , Lang Chaoli , Zhou Haizhu , Zhong Weiguang , Ban Zhibin , Yan Xiaogang , Yang Huaming , Farouk Mohammed Hamdy , Lou Yujie 
Published: March 2019

AbstractEmission from ruminants has become the largest source of anthropogenic emission of methane in China. The structure of the rumen flora has a significant effect on methane production. To establish a more accurate prediction model for methane production, the rumen flora should be one of the most important parameters. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship among changes in rumen flora, nutrient levels, and methane production in sheep fed with the diets of different forage-to-concentration ratios, as well as to screen for significantly different dominant genera. Nine rumen-cannulated hybrid sheep were separated into three groups and fed three diets with forage-to-concentration ratios of 50:50, 70:30, and 90:10. Three proportions of the diets were fed according to a 3 × 3 incomplete Latin square, design during three periods of 15 d each. The ruminal fluid was collected for real-time qPCR, high-throughput sequencing andin vitrorumen fermentation in a new real-time fermentation system wit. Twenty-two genera were screened, the abundance of which varied linearly with forage-to-concentration ratios and methane production. In addition, during the 12-hourin vitrofermentation, the appearance of peak concentration was delayed by 26-27 min with the different structure of rumen bacteria. The fiber-degrading bacteria were positively correlated with this phenomenon, but starch-degrading and protein-degrading bacteria were negative correlated. These results would facilitate macro-control of rumen microorganisms and better management of diets for improved nutrition in ruminants. In addition, our findings would help in screening bacterial genera that are highly correlated with methane production.
Clinical pattern of antibiotic overuse and misuse in primary healthcare hospitals in the southwest of China
Authors: Yue Chang , Chusri Sarunyou , Sangthong Rassamee , McNeil Edward , Jiaqi Hu , Wei Du , Duan Li , Xingying Fan , Hanni Zhou , Chongsuvivatwong Virasakdi , Lei Tang 
Published: March 2019

AbstractPurposeOveruse and misuse of antibiotics are the primary risk factors for antibiotics resistance. Inadequate professional competence of primary care physicians might exacerbate these problems in China. This retrospective study aims to document the clinical pattern of antibiotics use and its overuse and misuse rates in rural primary care institutions, and to evaluate the association between antibiotics use and characteristics of the physicians and their patients.MethodsMedical records from 16 primary care hospitals in rural areas of Guizhou province, China were obtained from the Health Information System in 2018. Classification of incorrect and/or unnecessary use, escalated use and combined antibiotics use was based on the Guiding Principle of Clinical Use of Antibiotics (2015, China) and the standard of USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Generalized Estimating Equations were employed to determine predictive factors for inappropriate antibiotics use.ResultsA total of 74,648 antibiotics prescriptions were retrieved. Uncomplicated respiratory infection was the most common disease accounting for 58.6% of all prescriptions. The main antibiotic group used was penicillins (51.5%) followed by cephalosporins and macrolides (14% each). Of 57,009 patient visits, only 8.7% of the antibiotic prescriptions were appropriate. Combined, escalated, and incorrect and/or unnecessary antibiotics use was found in 7.8%, 6.2% and 77.3% of patient visits, respectively, of which 28.7% were given intravenously. Antibiotics misuse was significantly more likely among newly employed physicians with lower levels of professional education. Adult patients and those who had public insurance had a higher risk of being prescribed incorrect and/or unnecessary antibiotics.ConclusionOveruse of antibiotics for uncomplicated respiratory infection and use of cephalosporins, macrolides and injection antibiotics in primary care are the major problems of clinical practice in rural areas of Guizhou.
The land-use dynamics of potato agrobiodiversity in the highlands of central Peru: a case study of spatial-temporal management across farming landscapes
Authors: Arce Alejandra , de Haan Stef , Juarez Henry , Plasencia Franklin , Burra Dharani , Ccanto Raul , Polreich Severin , Scurrah Maria 
Published: March 2019

AbstractIn the high Andes, environmental and socio-economic drivers are transforming land use and presumably affecting thein situconservation of potato (Solanumspp.). To monitor the use and conservation of intraspecific diversity, systematic and comparative studies across land-use systems are needed. We investigated the spatial-temporal dynamics of potato in two contrasting landscapes of Peru’s central Andes: a highland plateau (Huancavelica) vs. an eastern slope (Pasco). We examined household-level areal allocations, altitudinal distribution, sectoral fallowing practices, and the conservation status for three main cultivar groups: (i) bred varieties, (ii) floury landraces, and (iii) bitter landraces. Mixed methods were used to survey 323 households and the 1,101 potato fields they managed in 2012–2013. We compared the contemporary altitudinal distribution of landraces with 1975–1985 altimeter genebank data from the International Potato Center. We show that intensification occurs in each landscape through adaptations of traditional management practices while maintaining high intraspecific diversity. Access to land and production end use (sale vs. consumption) significantly affected smallholder management and differentiated the landscapes. Total areas in Huancavelica and Pasco were allocated to 82.9% vs. 74.2% floury landraces, 9.2% vs. 25.7% bred varieties, and 7.9% vs. 0.1% bitter landraces. In market-oriented Pasco, fields in sectoral fallows between 3,901 m and 4,116 m above sea level consistently contained the highest levels of landrace diversity. The bulk of diversity in subsistence-oriented Huancavelica occurred between 3,909 m and 4,324 m outside sectoral fallows. Most of the unique landraces documented were scarce across households: 45.4% and 61.7% respectively in Huancavelica and Pasco. Bred varieties showed the widest (1,100 m) and bitter landraces the narrowest (400 m) altitudinal distributions. Potato cultivation has moved upward by an average of 306 m since 1975. Landrace diversity is versatile but unevenly distributed across landscapes. This requires adaptive ways to incentivizein situconservation.
Ex post impact evaluation of PPP projects: an exploratory research
Authors: Oliveros-Romero Jose , Aibinu Ajibade A. 
Published: March 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore, in literature and practice, the use of ex post impact evaluations within the public–private partnership (PPP) context and understand the major considerations for developing a PPP ex post impact evaluation method.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies exploratory research through expert interviews from Chile and Australia to describe: the relevance of this kind of evaluation, and the challenges of designing and conducting a PPP ex post evaluation.

Findings
The study confirms the lack of a formal method for evaluating the impact of a PPP project. Experts agree on the relevance of performing ex post evaluations to PPP projects and that in practice there is no formal procedure to follow. Among other challenges, experts discussed four general ex post evaluation aims: transparency and accountability, PPP legitimization, industry learning and government agency learning.

Research limitations/implications
This study confirms the gap in knowledge and contributes to the developments of approaches to perform ex post impact evaluation of PPP projects. It also provides several suggestions that need to be addressed when attempting to evaluate PPPs beyond the financial and contractual parameters.

Originality/value
The topic is not fully addressed in the literature, and this study contributes to the initial discussion and development of this evaluation method, which is considered significant for the development of public infrastructure.