bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Variable selection in the presence of missing data: imputation‐based methods
Authors: Zhao Yize , Long Qi 
Published: May 2017

Variable selection plays an essential role in regression analysis as it identifies important variables that are associated with outcomes and is known to improve predictive accuracy of resulting models. Variable selection methods have been widely investigated for fully observed data. However, in the presence of missing data, methods for variable selection need to be carefully designed to account for missing data mechanisms and statistical techniques used for handling missing data. Since imputation is arguably the most popular method for handling missing data due to its ease of use, statistical methods for variable selection that are combined with imputation are of particular interest. These methods, valid and used under the assumptions of missing at random and missing completely at random, largely fall into three general strategies. The first strategy applies existing variable selection methods to each imputed dataset and then combines variable selection results across all imputed datasets. The second strategy applies existing variable selection methods to stacked imputed datasets. The third variable selection strategy combines resampling techniques such as bootstrap with imputation. Despite recent advances, this area remains under‐developed and offers fertile ground for further research.WIREs Comput Stat2017, 9:e1402. doi: 10.1002/wics.1402This article is categorized under:Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Bootstrap and Resampling
Novel Ester‐linked Anionic Gemini Surfactant: Synthesis, Surface‐Active Properties and Antimicrobial Study
Authors: Ahire Manisha B. , Bhagwat Sunil S. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractA novel anionic gemini surfactant containing an ester bond in the spacer group was synthesized using cardanol as the raw material and characterized by IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The surface properties of the gemini surfactant were investigated and compared with its corresponding single chain surfactant counterpart. It was found that this novel gemini surfactant exhibited a low critical micelle concentration value (1.9 mM) and good efficiency in reducing surface tension of water (33.6 mN/m). The gemini surfactant was found to have antimicrobial activity against Gram‐negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), Gram‐positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria and fungi (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans and Rhizopus stolonifer). The gemini as well as the corresponding single chain surfactant showed good antimicrobial activity against all pathogenic microorganisms studied and can be employed as an antimicrobial agent. The synthesized novel anionic gemini surfactant possesses an excellent wettability and low foamability.
Control of synthetic gene networks and its applications
Authors: J Menn David , Su Ri‐Qi , Wang Xiao 
Published: May 2017

BackgroundOne of the underlying assumptions of synthetic biology is that biological processes can be engineered in a controllable way.ResultsHere we discuss this assumption as it relates to synthetic gene regulatory networks (GRNs). We first cover the theoretical basis of GRN control, then address three major areas in which control has been leveraged: engineering and analysis of network stability, temporal dynamics, and spatial aspects.ConclusionThese areas lay a strong foundation for further expansion of control in synthetic GRNs and pave the way for future work synthesizing these disparate concepts.
Association between the rs1042522 polymorphism in TP53 and prostate cancer risk: An updated meta‐analysis
Authors: Fan Song , Hao Zong‐Yao , Zhang Meng , Liang Chao‐Zhao 
Published: May 2017

AbstractObjectiveThe proposal of the present study was to investigate whether the TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism confers susceptibility to prostate cancer (PCa), by performing an updated meta‐analysis.MethodsEligible publications investigating the association between the TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism and PCa susceptibility were selected from PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. We used STATA 12.0 software to conduct the analyses. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated.ResultsA total of 17 case–control studies were retrieved reporting a total of 2683 cases and 2981 controls. However, no significant association was uncovered between the TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism and PCa susceptibility in the overall population under the five genetic models. In the stratification analysis by source of control, an increased susceptibility to PCa was identified in the population‐based (P‐B) group (CG vs. GG: OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.24–1.77, P < 0.01; CC/CG vs. GG: OR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.12–1.57, P < 0.01), whereas a decreased susceptibility was uncovered in the hospital‐based (H‐B) group (CG vs. GG: OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.46–0.96, P = 0.03; CC/CG vs. GG: OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.46–0.99, P = 0.04) under heterozygous and dominant model.ConclusionThis study did not find an association between the TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism and PCa susceptibility in the overall population and corresponding subgroup analyses except in the stratification analysis by source of control. The results suggest that the TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism is not a risk factor for PCa.
The adaptive decision-making, risky decision, and decision-making style of Internet gaming disorder
Authors: Ko C.-H. , Wang P.-W. , Liu T.-L. , Chen C.-S. , Yen C.-F. , Yen J.-Y. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractBackground:Persistent gaming, despite acknowledgment of its negative consequences, is a major criterion for individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). This study evaluated the adaptive decision-making, risky decision, and decision-making style of individuals with IGD.Methods:We recruited 87 individuals with IGD and 87 without IGD (matched controls). All participants underwent an interview based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Edition) diagnostic criteria for IGD and completed an adaptive decision-making task; the Preference for Intuition and Deliberation Scale, Chen Internet Addiction Scale, and Barratt Impulsivity Scale were also assessed on the basis of the information from the diagnostic interviews.Results:The results demonstrated that the participants in both groups tend to make more risky choices in advantage trials where their expected value (EV) was more favorable than those of the riskless choice. The tendency to make a risky choice in advantage trials was stronger among IGD group than that among controls. Participants of both groups made more risky choices in the loss domain, a risky option to loss more versus sure loss option, than they did in the gain domain, a risky option to gain more versus sure gain. Furthermore, the participants with IGD made more risky choices in the gain domain than did the controls. Participants with IGD showed higher and lower preferences for intuitive and deliberative decision-making styles, respectively, than controls and their preferences for intuition and deliberation were positively and negatively associated with IGD severity, respectively.Conclusions:These results suggested that individuals with IGD have elevated EV sensitivity for decision-making. However, they demonstrated risky preferences in the gain domain and preferred an intuitive rather than deliberative decision-making style. This might explain why they continue Internet gaming despite negative consequences. Thus, therapists should focus more on decision-making styles and promote deliberative thinking processes to mitigate the long-term negative consequences of IGD.
Power analysis to detect treatment effects in longitudinal clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease
Authors: Huang Zhiyue , Muniz‐Terrera Graciela , Tom Brian D.M. ,   Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Published: May 2017

AbstractIntroductionAssessing cognitive and functional changes at the early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and detecting treatment effects in clinical trials for early AD are challenging.MethodsUnder the assumption that transformed versions of the Mini–Mental State Examination, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale–Sum of Boxes, and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale tests'/components' scores are from a multivariate linear mixed‐effects model, we calculated the sample sizes required to detect treatment effects on the annual rates of change in these three components in clinical trials for participants with mild cognitive impairment.ResultsOur results suggest that a large number of participants would be required to detect a clinically meaningful treatment effect in a population with preclinical or prodromal Alzheimer's disease. We found that the transformed Mini–Mental State Examination is more sensitive for detecting treatment effects in early AD than the transformed Clinical Dementia Rating Scale–Sum of Boxes and Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale. The use of optimal weights to construct powerful test statistics or sensitive composite scores/endpoints can reduce the required sample sizes needed for clinical trials.ConclusionConsideration of the multivariate/joint distribution of components' scores rather than the distribution of a single composite score when designing clinical trials can lead to an increase in power and reduced sample sizes for detecting treatment effects in clinical trials for early AD.
The time is now – a call to action for gender equality in global health leadership
Authors: Dhatt R. , Thompson K. , Lichtenstein D. , Ronsin K. , Wilkins K. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractGender equality is considered paramount to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals and incorporated into global health programming and delivery, but there is great gender disparity within global health leadership and an absence of women at the highest levels of decision making. This perspective piece outlines the current gaps and challenges, highlighting the lack of data and unanswered questions regarding possible solutions, as well as the activity of Women in Global Health and efforts to directly address the inequity and lack of female leaders. We conclude with an agenda and tangible next steps of action for promoting women's leadership in health as a means to promote the global goals of achieving gender equality and catalyzing change.
A glacial readvance during retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, British Columbia central coast
Authors: Eamer Jordan B. R. , Shugar Dan H. , Walker Ian J. , Lian Olav B. , Neudorf Christina M. , Telka Alice M. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractDescriptions of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat after the last glacial maximum have included short-lived readvances occurring during the Older and Younger Dryas stadial periods and into the Holocene, but identification of these events has been largely limited to southwest and central British Columbia and northwest Washington State. We present evidence of a late Pleistocene readvance of Cordilleran ice occurring on the central coast of British Columbia on Calvert Island, between northern Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Evidence is provided by sedimentological and paleoecological information contained in a sedimentary sequence combined with geomorphic mapping of glacial features in the region. Results indicate that a cold climate existed between 15.1 and 14.3 cal ka BP and that ice advanced to, and then retreated from, the western edge of the island between 14.2 and 13.8 cal ka BP. These data provide the first evidence of a major fluctuation in the retreating ice sheet margin in this region and suggest that a cold climate was a major factor in ice readvance. These data contribute to the understanding of past temperature, ice loading and crustal response, the nature of ice margin retreat, and the paleoenvironment of an understudied area of the Pacific Northwest.
The role of climate and tectonics in aggradation and incision of the Indus River in the Ladakh Himalaya during the late Quaternary
Authors: Kumar Anil , Srivastava Pradeep 
Published: May 2017

AbstractThe geomorphic evolution of the upper Indus River that traverses across the southwest (SW) edge of Tibet, and the Ladakh and Zanskar ranges, was examined along a ~350-km-long stretch of its reaches. Based on the longitudinal river profile, stream length gradient index, and river/strath terraces, this stretch of the river is divided into four segments. Valley fill river terraces are ubiquitous, and strath terraces occur in the lower reaches where the Indus River cuts through deformed Indus Molasse. Optically stimulated luminescence ages of river/strath terraces suggest that valley aggradation occurred in three pulses, at ~52, ~28, and ~16 ka, and that these broadly coincide with periods of stronger SW Indian summer monsoon. Reconstructed longitudinal river profiles using strath terraces provide an upper limit on the bedrock and provide incision rates ranging from 1.0±0.3 to 2.2±0.9 mm/a. These results suggested that rapid uplift of the western syntaxes aided by uplift along the local faults led to the formation of strath terraces and increased fluvial incision rates along this stretch of the river.
Singular values and bounded Siegel disks
Authors: BENINI ANNA MIRIAM , FAGELLA NÚRIA 
Published: May 2017

AbstractLetfbe an entire transcendental function of finite order and Δ be a forward invariant bounded Siegel disk forfwith rotation number in Herman's class$\mathcal{H}$. We show that iffhas two singular values with bounded orbit, then the boundary of Δ contains a critical point. We also give a criterion under which the critical point in question is recurrent. We actually prove a more general theorem with less restrictive hypotheses, from which these results follow.
More Human than Human
Authors: LAWRENCE DAVID 
Published: May 2017

Abstract:Within the literature surrounding nonhuman animals on the one hand and cognitively disabled humans on the other, there is much discussion of where beings that do not satisfy the criteria for personhood fit in our moral deliberations. In the future, we may face a different but related problem: that we might create (or cause the creation of) beings that not only satisfy but exceed these criteria. The question becomes whether these are minimal criteria, or hierarchical, such that those who fulfill them to greater degree should be afforded greater consideration. This article questions the validity and necessity of drawing divisions among beings that satisfy the minimum requirements for personhood; considering how future beings—intelligent androids, synthezoids, even alternate-substrate sentiences—might fit alongside the “baseline” human. I ask whether these alternate beings ought to be considered different to us, and why this may or may not matter in terms of a notion of “human community.” The filmBlade Runner, concerned in large part with humanity and its key synthezoid antagonist Roy Batty, forms a framing touchstone for my discussion. Batty is stronger, faster, more resilient, and more intelligent thanHomo sapiens. His exploits, far beyond the capability of normal humans, are contrasted with his frailty and transient lifespan, his aesthetic appreciation of the sights he has seen, and his burgeoning empathy. Not for nothing does his creator within the mythos term him “more human than human.”
Modulation of liver regeneration via myeloid PTEN deficiency
Authors: Ma Wen-Tao , Jia Yan-Jie , Liu Qing-Zhi , Yang Yan-Qing , Yang Jing-Bo , Zhao Zhi-Bin , Yang Zhen-Ye , Shi Qing-Hua , Ma Hong-Di , Gershwin M Eric , Lian Zhe-Xiong 
Published: May 2017

AbstractMolecular mechanisms that modulate liver regeneration are of critical importance for a number of hepatic disorders. Kupffer cells and natural killer (NK) cells are two cell subsets indispensable for liver regeneration. We have focused on these two populations and, in particular, the interplay between them. Importantly, we demonstrate that deletion of the myeloid phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10 (PTEN) leading to an M2-like polarization of Kupffer cells, which results in decreased activation of NK cells. In addition, PTEN-deficient Kupffer cells secrete additional factors that facilitate the proliferation of hepatocytes. In conclusion, PTEN is critical for inhibiting M2-like polarization of Kupffer cells after partial hepatectomy, resulting in NK cell activation and thus the inhibition of liver regeneration. Furthermore, PTEN reduces growth factor secretion by Kupffer cells. Our results suggest that targeting PTEN on Kupffer cells may be useful in altering liver regeneration in patients undergoing liver resection.
PAK4 regulates G6PD activity by p53 degradation involving colon cancer cell growth
Authors: Zhang Xiumei , Zhang Xia , Li Yang , Shao Yangguang , Xiao Jianying , Zhu Ge , Li Feng 
Published: May 2017

AbstractThe p21-activated kinase 4 (PAK4) is overexpressed in different cancers and promotes proliferation of cancer cells. Reprogramming of glucose metabolism is found in most cancer cells which in turn supports rapid proliferation. However, the relationship between PAK4 and glucose metabolism in cancer cells has not been explored. In this study, we reported that PAK4 promoted glucose intake, NADPH production and lipid biosynthesis, leading to an increased proliferation of colon cancer cells. Mechanistically, PAK4 interacted with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), a rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway and increased G6PD activity via enhancing Mdm2-mediated p53 ubiquitination degradation. In addition, we demonstrated a close positive correlation between PAK4 and G6PD expression in colon cancer specimens. Furthermore, expression of PAK4 or G6PD was positively correlated with an aggressive phenotype of clinical colon cancer. These findings revealed a novel glucose metabolism-related mechanism of PAK4 in promoting colon cancer cell growth, suggesting that PAK4 and/or G6PD blockage might be a potential therapeutic strategy for colon cancer.
Construction of hierarchically porous metal–organic frameworks through linker labilization
Authors: Yuan Shuai , Zou Lanfang , Qin Jun-Sheng , Li Jialuo , Huang Lan , Feng Liang , Wang Xuan , Bosch Mathieu , Alsalme Ali , Cagin Tahir , Zhou Hong-Cai 
Published: May 2017

AbstractA major goal of metal–organic framework (MOF) research is the expansion of pore size and volume. Although many approaches have been attempted to increase the pore size of MOF materials, it is still a challenge to construct MOFs with precisely customized pore apertures for specific applications. Herein, we present a new method, namely linker labilization, to increase the MOF porosity and pore size, giving rise to hierarchical-pore architectures. Microporous MOFs with robust metal nodes and pro-labile linkers were initially synthesized. The mesopores were subsequently created as crystal defects through the splitting of a pro-labile-linker and the removal of the linker fragments by acid treatment. We demonstrate that linker labilization method can create controllable hierarchical porous structures in stable MOFs, which facilitates the diffusion and adsorption process of guest molecules to improve the performances of MOFs in adsorption and catalysis.
Tailoring nanoscopic confines to maximize catalytic activity of hydronium ions
Authors: Shi Hui , Eckstein Sebastian , Vjunov Aleksei , Camaioni Donald M. , Lercher Johannes A. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractAcid catalysis by hydronium ions is ubiquitous in aqueous-phase organic reactions. Here we show that hydronium ion catalysis, exemplified by intramolecular dehydration of cyclohexanol, is markedly influenced by steric constraints, yielding turnover rates that increase by up to two orders of magnitude in tight confines relative to an aqueous solution of a Brønsted acid. The higher activities in zeolites BEA and FAU than in water are caused by more positive activation entropies that more than offset higher activation enthalpies. The higher activity in zeolite MFI with pores smaller than BEA and FAU is caused by a lower activation enthalpy in the tighter confines that more than offsets a less positive activation entropy. Molecularly sized pores significantly enhance the association between hydronium ions and alcohols in a steric environment resembling the constraints in pockets of enzymes stabilizing active sites.
Digital logic circuits in yeast with CRISPR-dCas9 NOR gates
Authors: Gander Miles W. , Vrana Justin D. , Voje William E. , Carothers James M. , Klavins Eric 
Published: May 2017

AbstractNatural genetic circuits enable cells to make sophisticated digital decisions. Building equally complex synthetic circuits in eukaryotes remains difficult, however, because commonly used components leak transcriptionally, do not arbitrarily interconnect or do not have digital responses. Here, we designed dCas9-Mxi1-based NOR gates in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that allow arbitrary connectivity and large genetic circuits. Because we used the chromatin remodeller Mxi1, our gates showed minimal leak and digital responses. We built a combinatorial library of NOR gates that directly convert guide RNA (gRNA) inputs into gRNA outputs, enabling the gates to be ‘wired’ together. We constructed logic circuits with up to seven gRNAs, including repression cascades with up to seven layers. Modelling predicted the NOR gates have effectively zero transcriptional leak explaining the limited signal degradation in the circuits. Our approach enabled the largest, eukaryotic gene circuits to date and will form the basis for large, synthetic, cellular decision-making systems.
Solid-state ensemble of highly entangled photon sources at rubidium atomic transitions
Authors: Keil Robert , Zopf Michael , Chen Yan , Höfer Bianca , Zhang Jiaxiang , Ding Fei , Schmidt Oliver G. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractSemiconductor InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by the Stranski–Krastanov method are among the leading candidates for the deterministic generation of polarization-entangled photon pairs. Despite remarkable progress in the past 20 years, many challenges still remain for this material, such as the extremely low yield, the low degree of entanglement and the large wavelength distribution. Here, we show that with an emerging family of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots grown by droplet etching and nanohole infilling, it is possible to obtain a large ensemble of polarization-entangled photon emitters on a wafer without any post-growth tuning. Under pulsed resonant two-photon excitation, all measured quantum dots emit single pairs of entangled photons with ultra-high purity, high degree of entanglement and ultra-narrow wavelength distribution at rubidium transitions. Therefore, this material system is an attractive candidate for the realization of a solid-state quantum repeater—among many other key enabling quantum photonic elements.