bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Management of Gas Storages in Biogas Plants
Authors: Kube Jürgen 
Published: January 2018

AbstractAn overview is given over different types of gas storages and their pressure/level relationship, which is crucial for the design of the plant's gas system. It focuses on the design of air‐inflated double‐membrane gas storages, their blowers, and pressure control valves. During the design phase of a biogas plant, the responsible engineer must calculate the pressure gradient for several scenarios to ensure it is fully functional and safe, even outside normal operation. Methods for the design of cascading flow and ring flow of biogas through the biogas plant are summarized, and a technique of managing the gas storages in a way that the full storage capacity can be used is provided. The findings of this paper are illustrated with examples of two large‐scale industrial biogas plants.
Mineralized Peptide Nanofiber Gels for Enhanced Osteogenic Differentiation
Authors: Eren E. Deniz , Tansik Gulistan , Tekinay Ayse B. , Guler Mustafa O. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractMineral deposition is observed in both bacterial and eukaryotic organisms through a broad range of mechanisms. Both organic and inorganic components play crucial roles in the formation of mineralized tissues, and acidic proteins are particularly important in this context owing to their ability to stimulate nucleation of minerals. Here, we present negatively‐charged self‐assembling peptide amphiphile molecules as a template to nucleate calcium phosphate mineralization in a bioactive scaffold environment. Acidic peptide molecules were shown to induce formation of hydroxyapatite like calcium phosphate mineralization, which was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X‐ray diffractometry, oscillatory rheology and atomic force microscopy. The osteoblast‐like cells were found to reveal enhanced osteogenic differentiation on pre‐mineralized peptide nanofiber networks, suggesting that mineral deposition can be used as a means of enhancing the bioactivity of peptide‐based scaffold systems.
Non‐Parametric Comparison of Single Parameter Histograms
Authors: Wood James C.S. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractA number of methods have been developed to compare single parameter histograms. Some perform a channel‐by‐channel analysis and others give a single statistic about how the histograms may or may not differ. If they do differ, then the significance of the difference or confidence limit is usually provided. The specific location(s) for the greatest deviations may also be given. Some are more effective at resolving severely overlapping populations and others work poorly when there is any significant overlap. Each method makes certain assumptions about the data. It is important to understand the assumptions being made and to understand the limitations of each method. It is essential to know how to identify when a comparison method will work for a given set of histograms. This unit explores the different methods, and provides a guide for the reader to choose the most appropriate method(s) to use for a specific data set(s). © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Oxazolium Iodide Modified Perovskites for Solar Cell Fabrication
Authors: Salado Manuel , Shirzadi Erfan , Kazim Samrana , Fei Zhaofu , Nazeeruddin Mohammad Khaja , Dyson Paul J. , Ahmad Shahzada 
Published: January 2018

AbstractPerovskites solar cells are gaining interest due to their attractive solar‐to‐electricity conversion efficiencies; however, they suffer from certain problems, such as suboptimal ion migration and stability issues. We report here on the inclusion of a phenyloxazolium salt (2‐phenyl‐3‐methyloxazolium iodide) in perovskite solar cells based on methyl ammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3). The fabricated solar cells not only displayed improved photovoltaic properties, but importantly the oxazolium cations can protect the perovskite layers from UV exposure as they down‐convert electromagnetic irradiation; that is, the photons in the UV are absorbed and re‐emitted at a different wavelength. The loading of 2‐phenyl‐3‐methyloxazolium iodide in the perovskite precursor solution was optimized, the resulting perovskite films characterized, and the solar cells fabricated from them evaluated for their performance. Overall, this simple approach serves to optimize the performance parameters of perovskites films for solar cell applications.
An exploratory analysis of the joint contribution of HPA axis activation and motivation to early adolescent depressive symptoms
Authors: Rudolph Karen D. , Troop‐Gordon Wendy , Modi Haina H. , Granger Douglas A. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis study examines the interactive contribution of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis and approach‐avoidance motivation systems to longitudinal changes in depressive symptoms across the adolescent transition. In the summer prior to, or fall of, 4th grade, 132 youth (68 girls; 64 boys; M age = 9.46 years) participated in a social challenge task and reported on their depressive symptoms. In the winter of 6th grade, youth completed a semi‐structured interview of depression and a self‐report measure of approach‐avoidance motivations. Analyses revealed two profiles of risk for adolescent depressive symptoms, with some gender differences: (1) excessive disengagement, reflected in HPA underactivation along with low approach motivation or high avoidance motivation; and (2) excessive engagement, reflected in HPA overactivation along with high approach motivation. This research highlights the importance of a multi‐system perspective on development, suggesting that the implications of HPA dysregulation for depressive symptoms are contingent on adolescents’ tendencies toward approach versus avoidance.
Early temperamental fearfulness and the developmental trajectory of error‐related brain activity
Authors: Meyer Alexandria , Hajcak Greg , Torpey‐Newman Dana , Kujawa Autumn , Olino Thomas M. , Dyson Margaret , Klein Daniel N. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThe error‐related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event‐related potential waveform that occurs when an individual makes a mistake, and an increased ERN has been proposed as a biomarker for anxiety. However, previous work suggests that fearful children are characterized by a smaller ERN. We have proposed that this may reflect the changing phenomenology of anxiety across development. In the current study, we investigate this possibility using a longitudinal within‐subject design. In 271 children, we completed observational measures of fear when the children were 3 years old, and then measured the ERN when the children were 6 and 9 years old. Fearful children were characterized by a decreased ERN when they were 6‐year‐old; by age 9, the same children who were fearful at age 3 had increased ERNs—a pattern that closely resembles that of anxious adolescents and adults.
Predators attract prey through ecosystem engineering in the Arctic
Authors: Gharajehdaghipour Tazarve , Roth James D. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractPredators can affect prey through mechanisms other than predation; for example, redistributing resources could modify habitats favorably for other organisms. We examined Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) den use by lemmings, their primary prey, in winter during a year of low lemming densities. We found winter nests, which are built by lemmings under snow, on 69% of fox dens, whereas no control sites had nests. In August, dens had twice the vegetation cover and 50% greater nitrogen content in grass than controls, suggesting soil enrichment by foxes increased food quantity and quality for herbivores. Snow was ~4 times thicker in April on dens than controls, and 1.4 times thicker on dens with lemming nests than dens without, suggesting lemmings choose thicker snow for thermal insulation. Snow cover thickness was positively related to vegetation cover on dens, but not on control sites. Thus, Arctic foxes not only prey on lemmings but also engineer productive habitat that attracts lemmings. During winters with low lemming densities, when foxes often leave the denning area and predation risk is lower, fox dens may provide a refuge that could buffer the effects of deteriorating snow conditions with Arctic warming. This additional mechanism of predators interacting with their prey illustrates how ecosystem engineers potentially alter food web interactions and highlights the importance of integrating these bodies of theory in attempts to understand community dynamics.
Toward more robust plant‐soil feedback research
Authors: Rinella Matthew J. , Reinhart Kurt O. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractUnderstanding if and how plant‐soil biota feedbacks (PSFs) shape plant communities has become a major research priority. In this paper, we draw on a recent, high‐profile PSF study to illustrate that certain widely used experimental methods cannot reliably determine if PSFs occur. One problem involves gathering soil samples adjacent to multiple conditioning plants, mixing the samples and then growing phytometers in the mixtures to test for PSFs. This mixed soil approach does not establish that the conditioning plant being present caused the soil biota to be present, the first step of a PSF. Also, soil mixing approximates replacing raw data with averages prior to analysis, a move certain to generate falsely precise statistical estimates. False precision also results from sample sizes being artificially inflated when phytometers are misinterpreted as experimental units. Plant biomass ratios become another source of false precision when individual plant values contribute to multiple ratio observations. Any one of these common missteps can cause still living null hypotheses to be pronounced dead, and risks of this increase with numbers of missteps. If soil organisms truly structure plant communities, then null hypotheses indicating otherwise will not survive proper testing. We discuss conceptual, experimental and analytical refinements to facilitate accurate testing.
Microbial mitigation–exacerbation continuum: a novel framework for microbiome effects on hosts in the face of stress
Authors: David Aaron S. , Thapa‐Magar Khum B. , Afkhami Michelle E. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractA key challenge to understanding microbiomes and their role in ecological processes is contextualizing their effects on host organisms, particularly when faced with environmental stress. One influential theory, the Stress Gradient Hypothesis, might predict that the frequency of positive interactions increases with stressful conditions such that microbial taxa would mitigate harmful effects on host performance. Yet, equally plausible is that microbial taxa could exacerbate these effects. Here, we introduce the Mitigation–Exacerbation Continuum as a novel framework to conceptualize microbial mediation of stress. We (1) use this continuum to quantify microbial mediation of stress for six plant species and (2) test the association between these continuum values and natural species' abundance. We factorially manipulated a common stress (allelopathy) and the presence of soil microbes to quantify microbial effects in benign and stressed environments for two critical early life‐history metrics, seed germination and seedling biomass. Although we found evidence of both mitigation and exacerbation among the six species, exacerbation was more common. Across species, the degree of microbial‐mediated effects on germination explained >80% of the variation of natural field abundances. Our results suggest a critical role of soil microbes in mediating plant stress responses, and a potential microbial mechanism underlying species abundance.
Catheter‐based edge‐to‐edge mitral valve repair for pulmonary pressure reduction and to postpone heart transplantation in a teenaged patient
Authors: Messner Moritz , Hintringer Florian , Müller Silvana , Zaruba Marc Michael , Bonaros Nikolaos , Antretter Herwig , Basic Daniel , Pölzl Gerhard 
Published: January 2018

AbstractWe report a case of catheter‐based edge‐to‐edge mitral valve repair in a teenage male patient with non‐ischaemic cardiomyopathy to improve pulmonary hypertension secondary to severe functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) to defer anticipated heart transplantation. A 19‐year‐old patient with previous history of fulminant myocarditis followed by markedly left ventricular dysfunction presented with severe mitral regurgitation 3 years after initial recovery. Slightly over time, deterioration of FMR was associated with gradual increase in pulmonary artery pressures despite optimal medical therapy. MitraClip implantation in this young patient was successfully performed with sustainable improvement of pulmonary hypertension.
Low‐complexity soft‐output MIMO uplink detection for large systems iterative detection and decoding
Authors: Pereira Alexandre A. , Sampaio‐Neto Raimundo 
Published: January 2018

AbstractIterative detection and decoding techniques, based on the turbo principle, have been proposed in the literature to achieve near‐capacity on both single‐ and multiple‐antenna fading communication systems. In the multiple‐input–multiple‐output case, when a very large system is considered, one major issue is the overall system complexity. Here, we propose an iterative detection and decoding scheme for the uplink of coded multiple‐input–multiple‐output systems that replaces the exponential complexity maximum a posteriori detector by an approximate maximum a posteriori low‐complexity detector that uses a simple hard‐output inner detector at the first iteration followed by parallel interference cancelation and filtering matched to the channel coefficient matrix that is estimated with the aid of orthogonal pilot transmission. From the second iteration onward, the inner hard‐output detector is replaced by the results from the previous iteration. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed strategy presents good bit‐error‐rate performance with low computational complexity, measured by the average number of floating‐point operations per message bit.
The growth rate series in Kenya: Evidence of non‐linearities and factors behind the slow growth
Authors: Gil‐Alana Luis A. , Mudida Robert 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis paper deals with the growth rate in Kenya, examining its statistical properties and investigating the factors that may explain the slow growth rates observed during the last 50 years. The results show that Kenyan growth rate is unstable with non‐linearities and long range dependence structures. We also investigate what might explain these features. In this regard, we conclude that the development of anomalous political institutions in Kenya in the decades after independence is the root cause that has led to subsequent weak economic institutions and macroeconomic mismanagement and the vulnerability of the Kenyan economy to domestic and external shocks.
Prescriptive Financial Transformation—What Every CFO Should Know
Authors: Higgins Brian 
Published: January 2018

Activity Value Management® (AVM®), the method described in this article, provides the linkages necessary to achieve outstanding and often breakthrough improvements in financial and operational performance by linking data elements that previously have not been fused for the purpose of improving performance. Unique features of AVM® include, but are not limited to, a revolutionary method of accurately costing and measuring the financial performance of products and services that includes both cost and effort, inclusion of stakeholder experiential data linked to the work processes for the purpose of defining value, and an assemblage of specifically designed tools that can be applied to produce breakthrough improvement in financial and operational performance.	© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Retracted: Effects and mechanism of puerarin on the human retinoblastoma cells
Authors: Yang Chao , Fan Xiaohui , Fan Shuxia 
Published: January 2018

AbstractPuerarin is an isoflavonoid that is extracted from Kudzu root and is considered to have an anti‐tumor effect. In the present study, the effects of puerarin on human retinoblastoma (RB) cells and the related pathways was determined. The retinoblastoma RB cell lines were used in this study. Cell viability and colony formation capacity were measured by MTT and colony formation assays. Cell cycle was determined by flow cytometry. Cell migration and invasion were examined by Transwell assay. The expression of cell cycle, EMT, and MAPK/ERK signal pathway‐related proteins were detected by western blot following puerarin treatment. The results revealed that cell viability and proliferation of RB cells treated with puerarin were significantly lower in RB cells compared to the control group. Puerarin significantly decreased the proportion of cells during S phase which was accompanied with increase in cells at G0/1 and G2 phases. Moreover, puerarin suppressed cell migration, invasion and up‐regulated E‐Cadherin expression as well as down‐regulated Vimentin and α‐SMA expression. Furthermore, puerarin treatment suppressed the expression of p‐MEK and p‐ERK in RB cells. Our findings suggest that puerarin contributes to in the treatment of RB and other malignant tumors.
Autophagy inhibition promotes phagocytosis of macrophage and protects mice from methicillin‐resistant staphylococcus aureus pneumonia
Authors: Zhu Yulin , Li Huichun , Ding Shenggang , Wang Yating 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThe present study is to investigate the effect of autophagy in macrophages and the protection of mouse models against MRSA invasion, which provide new potential therapeutic direction for lung infection. The effect of ST239 in macrophages were analyzed by Western blot. The immunofluorescence was used to observe the influence of autophagy inhibitor 3‐MA in macrophages. Then we established MRSA mice model and the models were divided into different groups of drugs. The effect of autophagy in macrophage with MRSA and the changes of lung pathological in the mouse model was analyzed by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. The ability of phagocytic decreases when ST239 infected the macrophages. And the autophagy‐related genes Beclin‐1, LC3‐I, and LC3‐II protein expression significantly increased. GFP‐LC3 immunostaining showed that GFP‐LC3 was significantly over‐expressed in ST239‐infected macrophages. Then we found the autophagy inhibitors 3‐MA could make the expression of autophagy‐related genes Beclin‐1, LC3‐I, and LC3‐II decreased, the number of ST239 decreased, and the ability of macrophages phagocytosed MRSA increasing. In the mouse model we performed the same assay, the results showed that the percentage of macrophages in the mouse model treated with 3‐MA was increased compared to the ST239 mouse model and that the number of bacteria in right lung significantly reduced. Lung cells treated with3‐MA significantly improved the lesion of ST239 lung cell disease. Inhibition of autophagy can increase the ability of macrophages phagocytosed MRSA, and it is a suitable target for preventing or treating MRSA infection.
MIAT lncRNA is overexpressed in breast cancer and its inhibition triggers senescence and G1 arrest in MCF7 cell line
Authors: Alipoor Firooz J. , Asadi Malek H. , Torkzadeh‐Mahani Masoud 
Published: January 2018

AbstractLong non‐coding RNAs are known as key regulators in the progression and metastasis of breast cancer. MIAT originally has been considered as an lncRNA to be associated with a susceptibility to myocardial infarction. Here, we have detected the expression of MIAT in different cancer cells and a series of breast tumor tissue. MIAT expression was much higher in high‐grade tumors compared to low‐grade ones. Unlike P53 positive tumors, MIAT expression was upregulated in ER, PR, Her2 positive tumor tissues. Knockdown MIAT suppressed breast cancer cell proliferation and caused G1 arrest in cell cycle. Furthermore, downregulation of MIAT promoted apoptosis and significantly decreased migration of breast cancer cells. An increase in the expression of mir‐302, mir‐150, and a decrease in the expression of mir‐29c were detected following MIAT silencing. More importantly, knockdown MIAT significantly elevated the expression of p16Ink4A and Cox2, which commitment cellular senescence in breast cancer cells. Altogether, our results suggest that MIAT involved in breast cancer progression and could be candidate as a novel tumor marker for diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
K313, a novel benzoxazole derivative, exhibits anti‐inflammatory properties via inhibiting GSK3β activity in LPS‐induced RAW264.7 macrophages
Authors: Zhao Bo‐Bo , Guo Hui‐Jie , Liu Yang , Luo Xing‐Yan , Yang Shu‐Xia , Wang Yan‐Tang , Leng Xiao , Mo Chun‐Fen , Zou Qiang 
Published: January 2018

AbstractBenzoxazole and its derivatives have been widely studied in recent years due to their various biological properties. A previous study has demonstrated that K313 (1H‐indole‐2,3‐dione 3‐(1,3‐benzoxazol‐2‐ylhydrazone)), a novel benzoxazole derivative, inhibits T cell proliferation to yield immunosuppressive effects. However, there are no related reports about its anti‐inflammatory effects. In the present study, we investigated the anti‐inflammatory properties and the underlying molecular mechanism of K313 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced RAW264.7 macrophages. K313 dose‐dependently (5, 10, and 20 μM) inhibited LPS‐stimulated nitric oxide (NO), interleukin (IL)‐6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, and 3‐nitrotyrosine (3‐NT) production and significantly decreased the gene transcription levels of inducible nitric oxide (iNOS), IL‐6, and TNF‐α. In addition, the results showed that the inflammatory cytokines suppressed by K313 were not regulated by p65 NF‐κB, ERK1/2, AKT, or p38 MAPK. Instead, K313 increased phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase‐3 beta (GSK‐3β) (Ser9) resulting in GSK‐3β deactivation. Moreover, in LPS‐stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages, K313 and lithium chloride (LiCl) had a synergistic effect on the anti‐inflammatory response. These results indicated that K313 exhibited anti‐inflammatory properties and revealed the potential mechanism. K313 can increase GSK‐3β (Ser9) phosphorylation to decrease GSK‐3β activation in LPS‐induced RAW264.7 macrophages.