bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Influence of Third Particle on the Tribological Behaviors of Diamond-like Carbon Films
Authors: Bai Lichun , Srikanth Narasimalu , Kang Guozheng , Zhou Kun 
Published: December 2016

AbstractTribological mechanisms of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films in a sand-dust environment are commonly unclear due to the complicated three-body abrasion caused by sand particles. This study investigates the three-body abrasion of the DLC film via molecular dynamics simulations. The influence factors such as the load, velocity, shape of the particle and its size are considered. It has been found that the friction and wear of the DLC film are determined by adhesion at a small load but dominated by both adhesion and plowing at a large load. A high velocity can increase the friction of the DLC film but decrease its wear, due to the response of its networks to a high strain rate indicated by such velocity. The shape of the particle highly affects its movement mode and thus changes the friction and wear of the DLC film. It is found that a small-sized particle can increase the friction and wear of the DLC film by enhancing plowing. These unique tribological mechanisms of the DLC film can help to promote its wide applications in a sand-dust environment.
Hydrogen overproducing nitrogenases obtained by random mutagenesis and high-throughput screening
Authors: Barahona Emma , Jiménez-Vicente Emilio , Rubio Luis M. 
Published: December 2016

AbstractWhen produced biologically, especially by photosynthetic organisms, hydrogen gas (H2) is arguably the cleanest fuel available. An important limitation to the discovery or synthesis of better H2-producing enzymes is the absence of methods for the high-throughput screening of H2 production in biological systems. Here, we re-engineered the natural H2 sensing system of Rhodobacter capsulatus to direct the emission of LacZ-dependent fluorescence in response to nitrogenase-produced H2. A lacZ gene was placed under the control of the hupA H2-inducible promoter in a strain lacking the uptake hydrogenase and the nifH nitrogenase gene. This system was then used in combination with fluorescence-activated cell sorting flow cytometry to screen large libraries of nitrogenase Fe protein variants generated by random mutagenesis. Exact correlation between fluorescence emission and H2 production levels was found for all automatically selected strains. One of the selected H2-overproducing Fe protein variants lacked 40% of the wild-type amino acid sequence, a surprising finding for a protein that is highly conserved in nature. We propose that this method has great potential to improve microbial H2 production by allowing powerful approaches such as the directed evolution of nitrogenases and hydrogenases.
Spin-Crossover Materials towards Microwave Radiation Switches
Authors: Kucheriv Olesia I. , Oliynyk Viktor V. , Zagorodnii Volodymyr V. , Launets Vilen L. , Gural’skiy Il’ya A. 
Published: December 2016

AbstractMicrowave electromagnetic radiation that ranges from one meter to one millimetre wavelengths is finding numerous applications for wireless communication, navigation and detection, which makes materials able to tune microwave radiation getting widespread interest. Here we offer a new way to tune GHz frequency radiation by using spin-crossover complexes that are known to change their various physical properties under the influence of diverse external stimuli. As a result of electronic re-configuration process, microwave absorption properties differ for high spin and low spin forms of the complex. The evolution of a microwave absorption spectrum for the switchable compound within the region of thermal transition indicates that the high-spin and the low-spin forms are characterized by a different attenuation of electromagnetic waves. Absorption and reflection coefficients were found to be higher in the high-spin state comparing to the low-spin state. These results reveal a considerable potential for the implementation of spin-crossover materials into different elements of microwave signal switching and wireless communication.
In vivo stepwise immunomodulation using chitosan nanoparticles as a platform nanotechnology for cancer immunotherapy
Authors: Han Hee Dong , Byeon Yeongseon , Jang Jong-Hwa , Jeon Hat Nim , Kim Ga Hee , Kim Min Gi , Pack Chan-Gi , Kang Tae Heung , Jung In Duk , Lim Yong Taik , Lee Young Joo , Lee Jeong-Won , Shin Byung Cheol , Ahn Hyung Jun , Sood Anil K. , Park Yeong-Min 
Published: December 2016

AbstractDentritic cell (DC)-based cancer immunotherapy faces challenges in both efficacy and practicality. However, DC-based vaccination requires multiple injections and elaborates ex vivo manipulation, which substantially limits their use. Therefore, we sought to develop a chitosan nanoparticle (CH-NP)-based platform for the next generation of vaccines to bypass the ex vivo manipulation and induce immune responses via active delivery of polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid sodium salt (poly I:C) to target Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) in endosomes. We developed CH-NPs encapsulating ovalbumin (OVA) as a model antigen and poly I:C as the adjuvant in an ionic complex. These CH-NPs showed increased in vivo intracellular delivery to the DCs in comparison with controls after injection into tumor-bearing mice, and promoted DC maturation, leading to emergence of antigen-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Finally, the CH-NPs showed significantly greater antitumor efficacy in EG.7 and TC-1 tumor-bearing mice compared to the control (p < 0.01). Taken together, these data show that the CH-NP platform can be used as an immune response modulatory vaccine for active cancer immunotherapy without ex vivo manipulation, thus resulting in increased anticancer efficacy.
Bipolar and Unipolar Silylene-Diphenylene σ-π Conjugated Polymer Route for Highly Efficient Electrophosphorescence
Authors: Chang Yao-Tang , Sharma Sunil , Hung Miao-Ken , Lee Yu-Hsuan , Chen Show-An 
Published: December 2016

Abstractσ-π conjugated polymer strategy is proposed for designing electroluminescent host polymers with silylene-diphenylene as the backbone repeat unit giving a high triplet energy (ET = 2.67 eV). By incorporation of high ET (3.0 eV) electron (oxadiazole, OXD) and hole (triphenyl amine, TPA) transport moieties, or TPA alone (in this case, the main chain acts as electron transport channel) as side arms on the silylene, the high ET bipolar and unipolar polymers are formed, allowing a use of iridium green phosphor (Ir(ppy)2(acac), Ir-G) (ET = 2.40 eV) as the dopant. The matching of energy levels of the dopant with the hosts, leading to charge trapping into it; and singlets and triplets of the exciplex and excimer can be harvested via energy transfer to the dopant. Using these host-guest systems as the emitting layer, chlorinated indium-tin-oxide (Cl-ITO) as the anode, and benzimidazole derivative (TPBI) as the electron transport layer, this two-layer device gives the high luminance efficiency 80.1 cd/A and external quantum efficiency 21.2%, which is the best among the report values for polymer light emitting diode (PLED) in the literatures. This example manifests that σ-π conjugated polymer strategy is a promising route for designing polymer host for efficient electrophosphorescence.
Ionic liquids modified graphene oxide composites: a high efficient adsorbent for phthalates from aqueous solution
Authors: Zhou Xinguang , Zhang Yinglu , Huang Zuteng , Lu Dingkun , Zhu Anwei , Shi Guoyue 
Published: December 2016

AbstractIn 2015, more than 30% of erasers were found to contain a PAE content that exceeded the 0.1% limit established by the Quality and Technology Supervision Bureau of Jiangsu Province in China. Thus, strengthening the supervision and regulation of the PAE content in foods and supplies, in particular, remains necessary. Graphene oxide (GO) and its composites have drawn great interests as promising adsorbents for polar and nonpolar compounds. However, GO-based adsorbents are typically restricted by the difficult separation after treatment because of the high pressure in filtration and low density in centrifugation. Herein, a series of novel ionic liquids modified graphene oxide composites (GO-ILs) were prepared as adsorbents for phthalates (PAEs) in eraser samples, which overcame the conventional drawbacks. These novel composites have a combination of the high surface area of graphene oxide and the tunability of the ionic liquids. It is expected that the GO-ILs composites can be used as efficient adsorbents for PAEs from aqueous solution. This work also demonstrated a new technique for GO-based materials applied in sample preparation.
High-throughput chinmedomics-based prediction of effective components and targets from herbal medicine AS1350
Authors: Liu Qi , Zhang Aihua , Wang Liang , Yan Guangli , Zhao Hongwei , Sun Hui , Zou Shiyu , Han Jinwei , Ma Chung Wah , Kong Ling , Zhou Xiaohang , Nan Yang , Wang Xijun 
Published: December 2016

AbstractThis work was designed to explore the effective components and targets of herbal medicine AS1350 and its effect on “Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome” (KYDS) based on a chinmedomics strategy which is capable of directly discovering and predicting the effective components, and potential targets, of herbal medicine. Serum samples were analysed by UPLC-MS combined with pattern recognition analysis to identify the biomarkers related to the therapeutic effects. Interestingly, the effectiveness of AS1350 against KYDS was proved by the chinmedomics method and regulated the biomarkers and targeting of metabolic disorders. Some 48 marker metabolites associated with alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, sphingolipids metabolism, phospholipid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, and amino acid metabolism were identified. The correlation coefficient between the constituentsin vivoand the changes of marker metabolites were calculated by PCMS software and the potential effective constituents of AS1350 were also confirmed. By using chinmedomics technology, the components in AS1350 protecting against KYDS by re-balancing metabolic disorders of fatty acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis,etc. were deduced. These data indicated that the phenotypic characterisations of AS1350 altering the metabolic signatures of KYDS were multi-component, multi-pathway, multi-target, and overall regulation in nature.
Renal Denervation Improves the Baroreflex and GABA System in Chronic Kidney Disease-induced Hypertension
Authors: Chen Hsin-Hung , Cheng Pei-Wen , Ho Wen-Yu , Lu Pei-Jung , Lai Chi-Cheng , Tseng Yang-Ming , Fang Hua-Chang , Sun Gwo-Ching , Hsiao Michael , Liu Chun-Peng , Tseng Ching-Jiunn 
Published: December 2016

AbstractHypertensive rats with chronic kidney disease (CKD) exhibit enhanced gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)B receptor function and regulation within the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS). For CKD with hypertension, renal denervation (RD) interrupts the afferent renal sympathetic nerves, which are connecting to the NTS. The objective of the present study was to investigate how RD improves CKD-induced hypertension. Rats underwent 5/6 nephrectomy for 8 weeks, which induced CKD and hypertension. RD was induced by applying phenol to surround the renal artery in CKD. RD improved blood pressure (BP) by lowering sympathetic nerve activity and markedly restored the baroreflex response in CKD. The GABAB receptor expression was increased in the NTS of CKD; moreover, the central GABA levels were reduced in the cerebrospinal fluid, and the peripheral GABA levels were increased in the serum. RD restored the glutamic acid decarboxylase activity in the NTS in CKD, similar to the effect observed for central treatment with baclofen, and the systemic administration of gabapentin reduced BP. RD slightly improved renal function and cardiac load in CKD. RD may improve CKD-induced hypertension by modulating the baroreflex response, improving GABA system dysfunction and preventing the development and reducing the severity of cardiorenal syndrome type 4 in CKD rats.
Comparative phylogenomic analysis provides insights into TCP gene functions in Sorghum
Authors: Francis Aleena , Dhaka Namrata , Bakshi Mohit , Jung Ki-Hong , Sharma Manoj K. , Sharma Rita 
Published: December 2016

AbstractSorghumis a highly efficient C4 crop with potential to mitigate challenges associated with food, feed and fuel. TCP proteins are of particular interest for crop improvement programs due to their well-demonstrated roles in crop domestication and shaping plant architecture thereby, affecting agronomic traits. We identified 20 TCP genes fromSorghum. ExceptSbTCP8, all are either intronless or contain introns in the untranslated regions. Comparative phylogenetic analysis ofArabidopsis, rice,BrachypodiumandSorghumTCP proteins revealed two distinct classes categorized into ten sub-clades. Sub-clade F is dicot-specific, whereas A2, G1 and I1 groups only contained genes from grasses. Sub-clade B was missing inSorghum, whereas group A1 was missing in rice indicating species-specific divergence of TCP proteins. TCP proteins ofSorghumare enriched in disorder promoting residues with class I containing higher percent disorder than class II proteins. Seven pairs of paralogous TCP genes were identified fromSorghum, five of which seem to predate Rice-Sorghumdivergence. All of them have diverged in their expression. Based on the expression and orthology analysis, fiveSorghumgenes have been shortlisted for further investigation for their roles in regulating plant morphology. Whereas, three genes have been identified as candidates for engineering abiotic stress tolerance.
A Very Stable High Throughput Taylor Cone-jet in Electrohydrodynamics
Authors: Morad M. R. , Rajabi A. , Razavi M. , Sereshkeh S. R. Pejman 
Published: December 2016

AbstractA stable capillary liquid jet formed by an electric field is an important physical phenomenon for formation of controllable small droplets, power generation and chemical reactions, printing and patterning, and chemical-biological investigations. In electrohydrodynamics, the well-known Taylor cone-jet has a stability margin within a certain range of the liquid flow rate (Q) and the applied voltage (V). Here, we introduce a simple mechanism to greatly extend the Taylor cone-jet stability margin and produce a very high throughput. For an ethanol cone-jet emitting from a simple nozzle, the stability margin is obtained within 1 kV for low flow rates, decaying with flow rate up to 2 ml/h. By installing a hemispherical cap above the nozzle, we demonstrate that the stability margin could increase to 5 kV for low flow rates, decaying to zero for a maximum flow rate of 65 ml/h. The governing borders of stability margins are discussed and obtained for three other liquids: methanol, 1-propanol and 1-butanol. For a gravity-directed nozzle, the produced cone-jet is more stable against perturbations and the axis of the spray remains in the same direction through the whole stability margin, unlike the cone-jet of conventional simple nozzles.
Refined purification strategy for reliable proteomic profiling of HDL2/3: Impact on proteomic complexity
Authors: Holzer Michael , Kern Sabine , Birner-Grünberger Ruth , Curcic Sanja , Heinemann Akos , Marsche Gunther 
Published: December 2016

AbstractProteomics have extended the list of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) associated proteins to about 90. One of the major issues of global protein characterization is establishing specificity of association as opposed to contamination, a fact which has never been addressed for isolated HDL. We have developed a refined purification strategy to isolate HDL by density, followed by purification by size to generate “highly purified” fractions of HDL2/3, which allow the reliable quantification of the HDL proteome for biomarker discovery. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the proteome of HDL2/3 is composed of 10–16 different proteins, which is in striking contrast to previous reports. Importantly, proteomic analysis revealed that many proteins which have recently been described to be associated with HDL, including α-1-antitrypsin, α-2-HS-glycoprotein, serotransferrin, apolipoprotein A-IV and others, are not associated with HDL2/3 and are exclusively found in a different molecular weight fraction containing human serum albumin, lipid-poor apolipoprotein A-I and other proteins. Interestingly, proteins found in this lower molecular weight fraction commonly share lipid-binding properties and enrichment of serum with free fatty acids/lysophophatidylcholine led to a significant increase in co-isolation of lipid-binding proteins such as albumin and α-1-antitrypsin. We propose that this refined method might become a standard in proteomic assessment of HDL2/3 making data from clinical cohorts more comparable and reproducible.
Robust contribution of decadal anomalies to the frequency of central-Pacific El Niño
Authors: Sullivan Arnold , Luo Jing-Jia , Hirst Anthony C. , Bi Daohua , Cai Wenju , He Jinhai 
Published: December 2016

AbstractDuring year-to-year El Niño events in recent decades, major sea surface warming has occurred frequently in the central Pacific. This is distinct from the eastern Pacific warming pattern during canonical El Niño events. Accordingly, the central-Pacific El Niño exerts distinct impacts on ecosystems, climate and hurricanes worldwide. The increased frequency of the new type of El Niño presents a challenge not only for the understanding of El Niño dynamics and its change but also for the prediction of El Niño and its global impacts at present and future climate. Previous studies have proposed different indices to represent the two types of El Niño for better understanding, prediction and impact assessment. Here, we find that all popularly used indices for the central-Pacific El Niño show a dominant spectral peak at a decadal period with comparatively weak variance at interannual timescales. Our results suggest that decadal anomalies have an important contribution to the occurrence of the central-Pacific El Niño over past decades. Removing the decadal component leads to a significant reduction in the frequency of the central-Pacific El Niño in observations and in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 simulations of preindustrial, historical and future climate.
A novel open-type biosensor for the in-situ monitoring of biochemical oxygen demand in an aerobic environment
Authors: Yamashita Takahiro , Ookawa Natsuki , Ishida Mitsuyoshi , Kanamori Hiroyuki , Sasaki Harumi , Katayose Yuichi , Yokoyama Hiroshi 
Published: December 2016

AbstractBiochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is a widely used index of water-quality assessment. Since bioelectrochemical BOD biosensors require anaerobic conditions for anodic reactions, they are not directly used in aerobic environments such as aeration tanks. Normally, the BOD biosensors are closed-type, where the anode is packed inside a closed chamber to avoid exposure to oxygen. In this study, a novel bioelectrochemical open-type biosensor was designed for in-situ monitoring of BOD during intermittent aeration. The open-type anode, without any protection against exposure to oxygen, was directly inserted into an intermittently aerated tank filled with livestock wastewater. Anodic potential was controlled using a potentiostat. Interestingly, this novel biosensor generated similar levels of current under both aerating and non-aerating conditions, and showed a logarithmic correlation (R2 > 0.9) of current with BOD concentrations up to 250 mg/L. Suspended solids in the wastewater attached to and covered the whole anode, presumably leading to the production of anaerobic conditions inside the covered anode via biological oxygen removal. Exoelectrogenic anaerobes (Geobacter spp.) were detected inside the covered anode using the 16S-rRNA gene. This biosensor will have various practical applications, such as the automatic control of aeration intensity and the in-situ monitoring of natural water environments.
Complete protection scheme for fault detection, classification and location estimation in HVDC transmission lines using support vector machines
Authors: Johnson Jenifer Mariam , Yadav Anamika 
Published: December 2016

This paper presents a complete protection scheme for detecting, classifying and locating the fault in HVDC transmission lines using support vector machines (SVM). SVM has been used for protective relaying application in HVAC transmission line, however very limited works have been reported for HVDC transmission line. In this work, a ±500 kV HVDC transmission system is developed in PSCAD/EMTDC and the measurement signals obtained are analyzed in MATLAB. The rectifier side AC RMS voltage, DC voltage and current on both the poles are continuously monitored, and given as input to the SVM binary classifier in order to detect the presence of fault in the line. Once a fault is detected, the SVM multi‐class classification module predicts the type of fault and the SVM regression algorithm predicts the location of fault. The feature vector used in the classification and location modules is the standard deviation of the signals over half cycle before and after the occurrence of fault. The method proposed is simple as it requires single‐end data and a direct standard deviation of one cycle data gives very accurate results. The detection and classification modules are 100% accurate whereas the fault location module has a mean error of 0.03%.
The Welfare Economics of “Buy Local”
Authors: Winfree Jason , Watson Philip 
Published: December 2016

AbstractThis paper provides a theoretical model of how various aspects of the “buy local” movement influence social welfare and output across two regions. Market power considerations are also addressed where one region has a competitive advantage in production. While consumers buy local for a variety of reasons, our model categorizes some of the motivations and analyzes the impacts on output under various market structures. Welfare is calculated when demand is changed due to subsidies or taxes. We also allow for the presence of externalities. We find that, in the absence of market power or externalities, deadweight losses occur when the region without a competitive advantage buys more locally. However, in the presence of significant externalities and in the presence of market power, it is possible that profits to producers from consumers buying local could increase more than consumer utility is harmed, thus increasing aggregate social welfare. This could arise if consumers genuinely feel there are sufficient positive externalities from local production or negative externalities from non‐local production to warrant the loss of efficiency. We point out that understanding the motivation behind the movement is critical when analyzing welfare effects since some motivations are counter‐productive to each other.