bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Brain gene expression signature on primate genomic sequence evolution
Authors: Barbash Shahar , Sakmar Thomas P. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractConsidering the overwhelming changes that occurred during primate evolution in brain structure and function, one might expect corresponding changes at the molecular level. Surprisingly, a relatively constrained gene expression pattern is observed in brain compared with other tissues among primates, an observation that calls for reassessment of RNA expression influence on primate genome evolution. We built phylogenetic trees based on genomic sequences of functional genomic regions and tissue-specific RNA expression in eight tissue types for six primate species. Comparisons of the phylogenetic trees from brain tissues revealed that DNA- and RNA-based trees were significantly similar. The similarity was specific for promoter regions and cerebellum and frontal cortex expression, suggesting a major impact of gene regulation in the brain on genome shaping along the primate branch.
How costly punishment, diversity, and density of connectivity influence cooperation in a biological network
Authors: Ezeigbo Ivan C. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractIt has been an old unsolved puzzle to evolutionary theorists on which mechanisms would increase large-scale cooperation in human societies. Thus, how such mechanisms operate in a biological network is still not well understood. This study addresses these questions with empirical evidence from agent-based models designed to understand these network interactions. Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma games were designed to study how costly punishment, diversity, and density of connectivity interact to influence cooperation in a biological network. There were 1000 rounds in each game made up of 18 players engaged in pairwise relationship with their neighbors. This study shows three important interactions. (1) Introducing diversity to costly punishment favors both cooperation and defection, but not vice versa. Introducing costly punishment to diversity disfavors defection but favors cooperation. (2) Costly Punishment, alone, disfavors defection but decreases average payoff. Decreasing the density of connectivity, D
c
, when there is no costly punishment applied, increases average payoff. (3) A synergy of diversity and decreasing density of connectivity favors cooperation in a biological network. Furthermore, this study also suggests a likelihood from empirical findings that spatial structures may not be favoring cooperation, as is the widely-accepted notion, but rather disfavoring defection in the global scale.
Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
Authors: Baruffaldi Luciana , Andrade Maydianne C. B. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractSexual conflict over mating frequency has driven the evolution of morphological and behavioural traits across taxa. Interactions may be termed ‘coercive’ and assumed to arise from conflict when male mating behaviours cause physical injury to females and females appear to resist injurious matings.However, coercion per se occurs only if the behaviour reduces female fitness; and such outcomes are rarely measured. Here we show that a damaging mating tactic, apparently adaptive for males, is not coercive for females. Adult male Latrodectus spiders mate with immature females after tearing the exoskeleton covering the female’s recently-developed reproductive tract, which can cause haemolymph bleeding. We show that, relative to pairings with adult females, males use reduced courtship displays when approaching immature females, which in some cases respond with elevated deterrent behavioural responses. Nevertheless, we found no reproductive cost for immature-mated females in terms of longevity, fertility or fecundity. Moreover, most immature-mated females did not produce sex pheromones as adults, so did not seek additional matings. Thus, despite the appearance of conflict there is no evidence that immature-mating is coercive. These results show it is critical to measure fitness outcomes, in addition to behavioural responses, to test for coercion.
Find_tfSBP: find thermodynamics-feasible and smallest balanced pathways with high yield from large-scale metabolic networks
Authors: Xu Zixiang , Sun Jibin , Wu Qiaqing , Zhu Dunming 
Published: December 2017

AbstractBiologically meaningful metabolic pathways are important references in the design of industrial bacterium. At present, constraint-based method is the only way to model and simulate a genome-scale metabolic network under steady-state criteria. Due to the inadequate assumption of the relationship in gene-enzyme-reaction as one-to-one unique association, computational difficulty or ignoring the yield from substrate to product, previous pathway finding approaches can’t be effectively applied to find out the high yield pathways that are mass balanced in stoichiometry. In addition, the shortest pathways may not be the pathways with high yield. At the same time, a pathway, which exists in stoichiometry, may not be feasible in thermodynamics. By using mixed integer programming strategy, we put forward an algorithm to identify all the smallest balanced pathways which convert the source compound to the target compound in large-scale metabolic networks. The resulting pathways by our method can finely satisfy the stoichiometric constraints and non-decomposability condition. Especially, the functions of high yield and thermodynamics feasibility have been considered in our approach. This tool is tailored to direct the metabolic engineering practice to enlarge the metabolic potentials of industrial strains by integrating the extensive metabolic network information built from systems biology dataset.
Continuous Radar Tracking Illustrates the Development of Multi-destination Routes of Bumblebees
Authors: Woodgate Joseph L. , Makinson James C. , Lim Ka S. , Reynolds Andrew M. , Chittka Lars 
Published: December 2017

AbstractAnimals that visit multiple foraging sites face a problem, analogous to the Travelling Salesman Problem, of finding an efficient route. We explored bumblebees’ route development on an array of five artificial flowers in which minimising travel distances between individual feeders conflicted with minimising overall distance. No previous study of bee spatial navigation has been able to follow animals’ movement during learning; we tracked bumblebee foragers continuously, using harmonic radar, and examined the process of route formation in detail for a small number of selected individuals. On our array, bees did not settle on visit sequences that gave the shortest overall path, but prioritised movements to nearby feeders. Nonetheless, flight distance and duration reduced with experience. This increased efficiency was attributable mainly to experienced bees reducing exploration beyond the feeder array and flights becoming straighter with experience, rather than improvements in the sequence of feeder visits. Flight paths of all legs of a flight stabilised at similar rates, whereas the first few feeder visits became fixed early while bees continued to experiment with the order of later visits. Stabilising early sections of a route and prioritising travel between nearby destinations may reduce the search space, allowing rapid adoption of efficient routes.
High-fat diet-induced obesity impairs insulin signaling in lungs of allergen-challenged mice: Improvement by resveratrol
Authors: André Diana M. , Calixto Marina C. , Sollon Carolina , Alexandre Eduardo C. , Tavares Edith B. G. , Naime Ana C. A. , Anhê Gabriel F. , Antunes Edson 
Published: December 2017

AbstractInsulin resistance plays an important role in obesity-associated asthma exacerbations. Using a murine model of allergic airway inflammation, we evaluated the insulin signaling transmission in lungs of obese compared with lean mice. We further evaluated the effects of the polyphenol resveratrol in the pulmonary insulin signaling. In lean mice, insulin stimulation significantly increased phosphorylations of AKT, insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and insulin receptor β (IRβ) in lung tissue and isolated bronchi (p < 0.05), which were impaired in obese group. Instead, obese mice displayed increased tyrosine nitrations of AKT, IRβ and IRS-1 (p < 0.05). Two-week therapy of obese mice with resveratrol (100 mg/kg/day) restored insulin-stimulated AKT, IRS-1 and IRβ phosphorylations, and simultaneously blunted the tyrosine nitration of these proteins. Additionally, the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and inhibitor of NF-κB Kinase (IκK) phosphorylations were significantly increased in obese group, an effect normalized by resveratrol. In separate experiments, the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor aminoguanidine (20 mg/kg/day, three weeks) mimicked the protective effects exerted by resveratrol in lungs of obese mice. Lungs of obese mice display nitrosative-associated impairment of insulin signaling, which is reversed by resveratrol. Polyphenols may be putative drugs to attenuate asthma exacerbations in obese individuals.
Circulating CCL20 as a New Biomarker of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Authors: Soto B. , Gallastegi-Mozos T. , Rodríguez C. , Martínez-González J. , Escudero J.-R. , Vila L. , Camacho M. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractAutoimmunity appears to play a role in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) pathology. Although the chemokine CCL20 has been involved in autoimmune diseases, its relationship with the pathogenesis of AAA is unclear. We investigated CCL20 expression in AAA and evaluated it as a potential biomarker for AAA. CCL20 was measured in plasma of AAA patients (n = 96), atherosclerotic disease (AD) patients (n = 28) and controls (n = 45). AAA presence was associated with higher plasma levels of CCL20 after adjustments for confounders in the linear regression analysis. Diagnostic performance of plasma CCL20 was assessed by ROC curve analysis, AUC 0.768 (CI:0.678–0.858; p<0.001). Classification and regression tree analysis classified patients into two CCL20 plasma level groups. The high-CCL20 group had a higher number of AAA than the low-CCL20 group (91% vs 54.3%, p< 0.001). mRNA of CCL20 and its receptor CCR6 were higher in AAA (n = 89) than in control aortas (n = 17, p<0.001). A positive correlation was found between both mRNA in controls (R = 0674; p = 0.003), but not in AAA. Immunohistochemistry showed that CCR6 and CCL20 colocalized in the media and endothelial cells. Infiltrating leukocytes immunostained for both proteins but only colocalized in some of them. Our data shows that CCL20 is increased in AAA and circulating CCL20 is a high sensitive biomarker of AAA
Aerosols cause intraseasonal short-term suppression of Indian monsoon rainfall
Authors: Dave Prashant , Bhushan Mani , Venkataraman Chandra 
Published: December 2017

AbstractAerosol abundance over South Asia during the summer monsoon season, includes dust and sea-salt, as well as, anthropogenic pollution particles. Using observations during 2000–2009, here we uncover repeated short-term rainfall suppression caused by coincident aerosols, acting through atmospheric stabilization, reduction in convection and increased moisture divergence, leading to the aggravation of monsoon break conditions. In high aerosol-low rainfall regions extending across India, both in deficient and normal monsoon years, enhancements in aerosols levels, estimated as aerosol optical depth and absorbing aerosol index, acted to suppress daily rainfall anomaly, several times in a season, with lags of a few days. A higher frequency of prolonged rainfall breaks, longer than seven days, occurred in these regions. Previous studies point to monsoon rainfall weakening linked to an asymmetric inter-hemispheric energy balance change attributed to aerosols, and short-term rainfall enhancement from radiative effects of aerosols. In contrast, this study uncovers intraseasonal short-term rainfall suppression, from coincident aerosol forcing over the monsoon region, leading to aggravation of monsoon break spells. Prolonged and intense breaks in the monsoon in India are associated with rainfall deficits, which have been linked to reduced food grain production in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Exploiting Anopheles responses to thermal, odour and visual stimuli to improve surveillance and control of malaria
Authors: Hawkes Frances M. , Dabiré Roch K. , Sawadogo Simon P. , Torr Stephen J. , Gibson Gabriella 
Published: December 2017

AbstractMosquito surveillance and control are at the heart of efforts to eliminate malaria, however, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of mosquito behaviour that impede innovation. We hypothesised that a combination of human-associated stimuli could be used to attract and kill malaria vectors more successfully than individual stimuli, and at least as well as a real human. To test this in the field, we quantifiedAnophelesresponses to olfactory, visual and thermal stimuli in Burkina Faso using a simple adhesive trap. Traps baited with human odour plus high contrast visual stimuli caught moreAnophelesthan traps with odour alone, showing that despite their nocturnal habit, malaria vectors make use of visual cues in host-seeking. The best performing traps, however, combined odour and visual stimuli with a thermal signature in the range equivalent to human body temperature. When tested against a human landing catch during peak mosquito abundance, this “host decoy” trap caught nearly ten times the number ofAnophelesmosquitoes caught by a human collector. Exploiting the behavioural responses of mosquitoes to the entire suite of host stimuli promises to revolutionise vector surveillance and provide new paradigms in disease control.
Manipulation of dangling bonds of interfacial states coupled in GeTe-rich GeTe/Sb2Te3 superlattices
Authors: Yang Zhe , Xu Ming , Cheng Xiaomin , Tong Hao , Miao Xiangshui 
Published: December 2017

AbstractSuperlattices consisting of stacked nano-sized GeTe and Sb2Te3blocks have attracted considerable attention owing to their potential for an efficient non-melting switching mechanism, associated with complex bonding between blocks. Here, we propose possible atomic models for the superlattices, characterized by different interfacial bonding types. Based on interplanar distances extracted from ab initio calculations and electron diffraction measurements, we reveal possible intercalation of dangling bonds as the GeTe content in the superlattice increases. The dangling bonds were further confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, anisotropic temperature dependent resistivity measurements down to 2 K and magnetotransport analysis. Changes of partially coherent decoupled topological surfaces states upon dangling bonds varying contributed to the switching mechanism. Furthermore, the topological surface states controlled by changing the bonding between stacking blocks may be optimized for multi-functional applications.
Natural Erosion of Sandstone as Shape Optimisation
Authors: Ostanin Igor , Safonov Alexander , Oseledets Ivan 
Published: December 2017

AbstractNatural arches, pillars and other exotic sandstone formations have always been attracting attention for their unusual shapes and amazing mechanical balance that leave a strong impression of intelligent design rather than the result of a stochastic process. It has been recently demonstrated that these shapes could have been the result of the negative feedback between stress and erosion that originates in fundamental laws of friction between the rock’s constituent particles. Here we present a deeper analysis of this idea and bridge it with the approaches utilized in shape and topology optimisation. It appears that the processes of natural erosion, driven by stochastic surface forces and Mohr-Coulomb law of dry friction, can be viewed within the framework of local optimisation for minimum elastic strain energy. Our hypothesis is confirmed by numerical simulations of the erosion using the topological-shape optimisation model. Our work contributes to a better understanding of stochastic erosion and feasible landscape formations that could be found on Earth and beyond.
False Belief Development in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing Compared With Peers With Normal Hearing
Authors: Walker Elizabeth A. , Ambrose Sophie E. , Oleson Jacob , Moeller Mary Pat 
Published: December 2017

Purpose
This study investigates false belief (FB) understanding in children who are hard of hearing (CHH) compared with children with normal hearing (CNH) at ages 5 and 6 years and at 2nd grade. Research with this population has theoretical significance, given that the early auditory–linguistic experiences of CHH are less restricted compared with children who are deaf but not as complete as those of CNH.

Method
Participants included CHH and CNH who had completed FB tasks as part of a larger multicenter, longitudinal study on outcomes of children with mild-to-severe hearing loss. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were analyzed.

Results
At age 5 years, CHH demonstrated significant delays in FB understanding relative to CNH. Both hearing status and spoken-language abilities contributed to FB performance in 5-year-olds. A subgroup of CHH showed protracted delays at 6 years, suggesting that some CHH are at risk for longer term delays in FB understanding. By 2nd grade, performance on 1st- and 2nd-order FBs did not differ between CHH and CNH.

Conclusions
Preschool-age CHH are at risk for delays in understanding others' beliefs, which has consequences for their social interactions and pragmatic communication. Research related to FB in children with hearing loss has the potential to inform our understanding of mechanisms that support social–cognitive development, including the roles of language and conversational access.
Conceptual Scoring and Classification Accuracy of Vocabulary Testing in Bilingual Children
Authors: Anaya Jissel B. , Peña Elizabeth D. , Bedore Lisa M. 
Published: December 2017

Purpose
This study examined the effects of single-language and conceptual scoring on the vocabulary performance of bilingual children with and without specific language impairment. We assessed classification accuracy across 3 scoring methods.

Method

Participants included Spanish–English bilingual children (
N
= 247) aged 5;1 (years;months) to 11;1 with and without specific language impairment. Children completed the English and bilingual versions of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test–Third Edition (Brownell, 2000a, 2001). Six scores, 2 representing monolingual scores in English and Spanish and 4 conceptual scores, were derived. The conceptual scores included within-test conceptual scores, which credited language responses in the other language during test administration, and across-test conceptual scores, which we compiled by examining responses across independent administrations of the test in each language.

Results
Across-test conceptual scoring resulted in the highest scores and better overall classification, sensitivity, and specificity than within-test conceptual scoring. Both were superior to monolingual scoring; however, none of the methods achieved minimum standards of 80% accuracy in sensitivity and specificity.

Conclusions
Results suggest that bilingual children are not always able to readily access their other language in confrontation naming tasks. Priming or inhibition may play a role in test performance. Across-test conceptual scoring yielded the highest classification accuracy but did not meet minimum standards.
Low profile SIW slot antenna with wide beam‐width radiation pattern
Authors: Liu Chun‐Mei , Xiao Shaoqiu , Zhang Zongtang , Feng Jiaxin 
Published: December 2017

A linearly polarised antenna with wide beam‐width is proposed. This antenna is based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity. The half‐power beam‐width is about 145° in the E‐plane, and 140° in the H‐plane. This proposed antenna has a low profile of 0.03λ0 (λ0 denotes to the space wavelength corresponding to the operating frequency centre) and a compact size of 0.31λ0 × 0.31λ0, which is very suitable for modern communication systems. The maximum gain is about 6 dBi, and the radiation efficiency is about 90% at the working frequency band. The cross polarisation is very small.
Research on optimal storage capacity of DC micro‐grid system in PV station
Authors: Wu Ming , Sun Li Jing , Zhang Hai , Wang Wei , Luo Guo Min 
Published: December 2017

Existing methods to determine the battery bank capacity of micro‐grid composed of photovoltaic (PV) generation and energy storage device are classified and summarised. In the viewpoint of peak load filling and implementing continuous power supply by independent and grid‐connected micro‐grid composed of PV generation and energy storage device, the method for optimal configuration of battery bank capacity is researched. A method of optimising the storage capacity of DC micro‐grids considering the randomness of PV and load is proposed to maximise the local absorption of renewable energy. Based on the K‐means algorithm, the engineering selection basis of PV and storage capacity in DC micro‐grid system is given, and its economic benefit is evaluated. Finally, the efficiency and economy of the energy storage capacity selection method are verified by practical application of 31.5 MW PV power station in Badaling, Beijing.
Early phases in the stellar and substellar formation and evolution
Authors: Barrado D. , de Gregorio Monsalvo I. , Huélamo N. , Morales-Calderón M. , Bayo A. , Palau A. , Ruiz M. T. , Rivière-Marichalar P. , Bouy H. , Morata Ó. , Stauffer J. R. , Eiroa C. , Noriega-Crespo A. 
Published: December 2017

Aims. The early evolutionary stage of brown dwarfs (BDs) is not very well characterized, especially during the embedded phase. Our goal is to gain insight into the dominant formation mechanism of very low-mass objects and BDs.
Methods. We have conducted deep observations at 870 μm obtained with the LABOCA bolometer at the APEX telescope in order to identify young submillimeter (submm) sources in the Barnard 30 dark cloud. We have complemented these data with multi-wavelength observations from the optical to the far-IR and compiled complete spectral energy distributions in order to identify the counterparts, characterize the sources and to assess their membership to the association and stellar or substellar status based on the available photometric information.
Results. We have identified 34 submm sources and a substantial number of possible and probable Barnard 30 members within each individual APEX/LABOCA beam. They can be classified into three distinct groups. First, 15 of these 34 have a clear optical or IR counterpart to the submm peak and nine of them are potential proto-BD candidates. Moreover, a substantial number of them could be multiple systems. A second group of 13 sources comprises candidate members with significant infrared excesses located away from the central submm emission. All of them include BD candidates, some displaying IR excess, but their association with submm emission is unclear. In addition, we have found six starless cores and, based on the total dust mass estimate, three might be pre-substellar (or pre-BDs) cores. Finally, the complete characterization of our APEX/LABOCA sources, focusing on those detected at 24 and/or 70 μm, indicates that in our sample of 34 submm sources there are, at least: two WTTs, four CTTs, five young stellar objects, eight proto-BD candidates (with another three dubious cases), and one very low luminosity objects.
Conclusions. Our findings provide additional evidence concerning the BD formation mechanism, which seems to be a downsized version of the stellar formation.