bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Dating Reassembled Collagen from Fossil Bones
Authors: Goldenberg Larisa , Regev Lior , Mintz Eugenia , Boaretto Elisabetta 
Published: August 2017

AbstractInsoluble bone collagen is one of the most common materials used for high-resolution radiocarbon (14C) dating. Unfortunately, in some bones, poor preservation of the insoluble collagen excludes the possibility of dating. During the burial of the bone the collagen sometimes degrades into peptides. These peptides are soluble in the acid used to dissolve the bone mineral. It is known that under appropriate conditions, collagen has the ability to self-assemble. Here we exploit this capability and present a method for reassembling the soluble collagen peptides in archaeological bones and dating them. We treated the acid fraction generated during the demineralization of the bone by desalting and neutralizing the solution by dialysis. During the dialysis, the soluble collagen peptides reassemble and precipitate in the dialysis bag. We used FTIR spectroscopy to determine that the precipitated material is indeed collagen. The14C dates obtained from the reassembled collagen were compared to the dates of “standard” insoluble collagen, extracted in parallel from the same bone. Although there are some divergences of the dates, 3 out of 10 samples could have been dated only by the reassembled collagen. This shows that collagen peptides reassembly can be a valuable tool for dating bones with little or no insoluble collagen.
Does a better adherence to dietary guidelines reduce mortality risk and environmental impact in the Dutch sub-cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition?
Authors: Biesbroek Sander , Verschuren W. M. Monique , Boer Jolanda M. A. , van de Kamp Mirjam E. , van der Schouw Yvonne T. , Geelen Anouk , Looman Moniek , Temme Elisabeth H. M. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractGuidelines for a healthy diet aim to decrease the risk of chronic diseases. It is unclear as to what extent a healthy diet is also an environmentally friendly diet. In the Dutch sub-cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, the diet was assessed with a 178-item FFQ of 40 011 participants aged 20–70 years between 1993 and 1997. The WHO’s Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score and the Dutch Healthy Diet index 2015 (DHD15-index) were investigated in relation to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land use and all-cause mortality risk. GHG emissions were associated with HDI scores (−3·7 % per sd increase (95 % CI −3·4, −4·0) for men and −1·9 % (95 % CI −0·4, −3·4) for women), with DASH scores in women only (1·1 % per sd increase, 95 % CI 0·9, 1·3) and with DHD15-index scores (−2·5 % per sd increase (95 % CI −2·2, −2·8) for men and −2·0 % (95 % CI −1·9, −2·2) for women). For all indices, higher scores were associated with less land use (ranging from −1·3 to −3·1 %). Mortality risk decreased with increasing scores for all indices. Per sd increase of the indices, hazard ratios for mortality ranged from 0·88 (95 % CI 0·82, 0·95) to 0·96 (95 % CI 0·92, 0·99). Our results showed that adhering to the WHO and Dutch dietary guidelines will lower the risk of all-cause mortality and moderately lower the environmental impact. The DASH diet was associated with lower mortality and land use, but because of high dairy product consumption in the Netherlands it was also associated with higher GHG emissions.
Tree hole mosquito species composition and relative abundances differ between urban and adjacent forest habitats in northwestern Argentina
Authors: Mangudo C. , Aparicio J.P. , Rossi G.C. , Gleiser R.M. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractWater-holding tree holes are main larval habitats for many pathogen vectors, especially mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Along 3 years, the diversity and composition of mosquito species in tree holes of two neighbouring but completely different environments, a city and its adjacent forest, were compared using generalized linear mixed models, PERMANOVA, SIMPER and species association indexes. The city area (Northwest Argentina) is highly relevant epidemiologically due to the presence of Aedes aegypti L. (main dengue vector) and occurrence of dengue outbreaks; the Yungas rainforests are highly biologically diverse. In total seven mosquito species were recorded, in descending order of abundance: Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus spegazzinii Brèthes, Sabethes purpureus (Theobald), Toxorhynchites guadeloupensis Dyar and Knab, Aedes terrens Walker, Haemagogus leucocelaenus Dyar & Shannon and Sabethes petrocchiae (Shannon and Del Ponte). The seven mosquito species were recorded in both city sites and forested areas; however, their mosquito communities significantly diverged because of marked differences in the frequency and relative abundance of some species: Tx. guadeloupensis and Ae. aegypti were significantly more abundant in forest and urban areas, respectively. Positive significant associations were detected between Ae. aegypti, Hg. spegazzinii and Hg. leucocelaenus. The combined presence of Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus and Sabethes in the area also highlight a potential risk of yellow fever epidemics. Overall results show an impoverished tree hole mosquito fauna in urban environments, reflecting negative effects of urbanization on mosquito diversity.
Growing Apart? Partisan Sorting in Canada, 1992–2015
Authors: Kevins Anthony , Soroka Stuart N. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractRecent decades have been marked by increasingly divided partisan opinion in the US. This study investigates whether a similar trend might be occurring in Canada. It does so by examining redistributive preferences, using Canadian Election Studies data from every election since 1992. Results suggest that Canada has experienced a surge in partisan sorting that is comparable to that in the US. Over time, like-minded citizens have increasingly clustered into parties, with increasingly stark divisions between partisans.
A survey of management practices and flock performance and their association with flock size and ewe breed type on Irish sheep farms
Authors: BOHAN A. , SHALLOO L. , CREIGHTON P. , BOLAND T. M. , MCHUGH N. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYA detailed survey was undertaken to assess the rate of production and current management practices on Irish sheep farms and quantify their associations with flock size and ewe breed type. A total of 39 questions relating to the farm production system and farm management practices were devised, including: producer age, location, farm size, livestock numbers and type, in addition to flock management data such as flock breeding policy, lamb finishing strategy, flock health, lambing date, winter housing and feeding practices. A total of 717 sheep producers were surveyed across 45 different discussion groups. The surveyed respondents were sub-divided into four groups depending on flock size (very small, small, medium and large) and into three groups depending on ewe breed type (maternal, terminal and hill). The average survey respondent was 48 years old, with a flock size of 150 breeding ewes on a farm size of 58 ha. The average stocking rates were 6·55 and 3·14 ewes/ha and weaning rates were 1·44 and 1·02 lambs per ewe joined to the ram for the lowland and hill flocks, respectively. Relative to very small flocks (<62 ewes), larger flocks (>190 ewes) had higher stocking rates (6·98v.5·66 ewes/ha) and ewe to ram ratios (40v.30), and tended to lamb later in the year. The rate of technology adoption such as faecal egg sampling and pregnancy scanning was greater on larger flocks compared with smaller flocks. Flocks with maternal ewe breeds had higher scanning and weaning rates, and drafted a greater proportion of lambs off grass compared with flocks with terminal and hill ewe breeds. Flocks with maternal and terminal ewe breed types were more likely to winter house ewes, lamb indoors, test silage quality and have a handling unit compared with flocks with hill-type ewe breeds. Results from the present study provide a bank of knowledge on current Irish sheep industry performance and show that flock size and ewe breed type have a significant impact on key flock performance variables.
Film-mulched maize production: response to controlled-release urea fertilization
Authors: GUO J. M. , XUE J. Q. , BLAYLOCK A. D. , CUI Z. L. , CHEN X. P. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYOptimal nitrogen (N) management for maize in the film-mulched production systems that are widely used in dryland agriculture is difficult because top-dressing N is impractical. The current research determined how matching N supply and demand was achieved before and after silking stages, when single applications of controlled release urea (CRU) were combined with conventional urea in film-mulched maize production. The CRU: urea mixture was applied in a 1 : 2 or 2 : 1 ratio and all three fertilizer regimes (urea alone and CRU: urea at 1 : 2 or 2 : 1) were applied at N rates of 180 and 240 kg/ha over 2 years. The 1 : 2 CRU: urea mixture, applied once at 180 kg N/ha, was found to synchronize N supply with demand, thereby reducing N losses. The highest grain yields (11·8–12·0 t/ha), N uptake (232–239 kg/ha), N recovery (65·8–67·7%) and high net economic return were achieved with this regime. These results indicate that a single application of a mixture of CRU and urea can synchronize N supply with demand and provide higher yields and profits than conventional N fertilization in film-mulched maize systems.
Homogeneous chaos basis adaptation for design optimization under uncertainty: Application to the oil well placement problem
Authors: Thimmisetty Charanraj , Tsilifis Panagiotis , Ghanem Roger 
Published: August 2017

AbstractA new method is proposed for efficient optimization under uncertainty that addresses the curse of dimensionality as it pertains to the evaluation of probabilistic objectives and constraints. A basis adaptation strategy previously introduced by the authors is integrated into a design optimization framework that construes the optimization cost function as the quantity of interest and computes stochastic adapted bases as functions of design space parameters. With these adapted bases, the stochastic integrations at each design point are evaluated as low-dimensional integrals (mostly one dimensional). The proposed approach is demonstrated on a well-placement problem where the uncertainty is in the form of a stochastic process describing the permeability of the subsurface. An analysis of the method is carried out to better understand the effect of design parameters on the smoothness of the adaptation isometry.
Outbreak ofSalmonella enteritidisphage type 1B associated with frozen pre-cooked chicken cubes, Finland 2012
Authors: HUUSKO S. , PIHLAJASAARI A. , SALMENLINNA S. , SÕGEL J. , DONTŠENKO I. , DE PINNA E. , LUNDSTRÖM H. , TOIKKANEN S. , RIMHANEN-FINNE R. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYIn August to October 2012, a nationwide outbreak ofSalmonella enteritidisphase type (PT) 1B with 53 cases occurred in Finland. Hypothesis generating interviews pointed toward ready-to-eat chicken salad from a Finnish company and at the same time Estonian authorities informed of aS. enteritidisPT 1B outbreak linked to chicken wrap prepared at an Estonian restaurant. We found that chicken salad was associated with the infection (odds ratio (OR) 16·1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·7–148·7 for consumption and OR 17·5. 95% CI 4·0–76·0 for purchase). The frozen pre-cooked chicken cubes used in Finnish salad and in Estonian wraps were traced back to a production plant in China. Great Britain made two Rapid Alert Systems for Food and Feed notifications on chicken cubes imported to the UK from the same Chinese production plant. Microbiological investigation confirmed that the patient isolates in Estonia and in Finland were indistinguishable from the strains isolated from chicken cubes in Estonia and in the UK. We recommend that despite certificates for testedSalmonella, food items should be analyzed whenSalmonellacontamination in outbreak investigations is suspected. In outbreak investigations, electronically implemented case–case study saves time, effort, and money compared with case–control study.
Transmission dynamics of lumpy skin disease in Ethiopia
Authors: MOLLA W. , FRANKENA K. , DE JONG M. C. M. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYLumpy skin disease (LSD) is a severe disease of cattle caused by a Capripoxvirus and often caused epidemics in Ethiopia and many other countries. This study was undertaken to quantify the transmission between animals and to estimate the infection reproduction ratio in a predominantly mixed crop–livestock system and in intensive commercial herd types. The transmission parameters were based on a susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) epidemic model with environmental transmission and estimated using generalized linear models. The transmission parameters were estimated using a survival rate of infectious virus in the environment equal to 0·325 per day, a value based on the best-fitting statistical model. The transmission rate parameter between animals was 0·072 (95% CI 0·068–0·076) per day in the crop–livestock production system, whereas this transmission rate in intensive production system was 0·076 (95% CI 0·068–0·085) per day. The reproduction ratio (R) of LSD between animals in the crop–livestock production system was 1·07, whereas it was 1·09 between animals in the intensive production system. The calculated R provides a baseline against which various control options can be assessed for efficacy.
Left main coronary artery atresia in a child: a case report and review of the literature
Authors: Hayashi Tomohiro , Waki Kenji , Arakaki Yoshio 
Published: August 2017

AbstractCongenital atresia of the left coronary artery is a very rare condition. We report a case of a 13-year-old boy who was followed-up at our outpatient clinic from 6 months of age because of heart murmur. He had no symptoms for more than 10 years, and his left ventricular contraction was normal. Exercise electrocardiogram was performed at 7 and 10 years of age, and ST depression was not observed. He presented with chest pain and syncope on exertion at the ages of 11 and 12 years, respectively, and ST depression on exercise electrocardiogram was detected for the first time at 13 years of age. Cardiac echocardiography showed a high-choic antero-lateral papillary muscle of the mitral valve, prolapse of the mitral anterior leaflet, and mild mitral valve regurgitation. Coronary angiography did not demonstrate antegrade left coronary flow or dilation of the right coronary artery. We performed coronary artery bypass grafting using the left internal thoracic artery. Postoperatively, the ST depression resolved, and his exercise tolerability improved.
Hyperosmotic stress enhances cytotoxicity of SMAC mimetics
Authors: Bittner Sebastian , Knoll Gertrud , Ehrenschwender Martin 
Published: August 2017

AbstractInhibitors of apoptosis (IAP) proteins contribute to cell death resistance in malignancies and emerged as promising targets in cancer therapy. Currently, small molecules mimicking the IAP-antagonizing activity of endogenous second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases (SMAC) are evaluated in phase 1/2 clinical trials. In cancer cells, SMAC mimetic (SM)-mediated IAP depletion induces tumor necrosis factor (TNF) secretion and simultaneously sensitizes for TNF-induced cell death. However, tumor cells lacking SM-induced autocrine TNF release survive and thus limit therapeutic efficacy. Here, we show that hyperosmotic stress boosts SM cytotoxicity in human and murine cells through hypertonicity-induced upregulation of TNF with subsequent induction of apoptosis and/or necroptosis. Hypertonicity allowed robust TNF-dependent killing in SM-treated human acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells, which under isotonic conditions resisted SM treatment due to poor SM-induced TNF secretion. Mechanistically, hypertonicity-triggered TNF release bypassed the dependency on SM-induced TNF production to execute SM cytotoxicity, effectively reducing the role of SM to TNF-sensitizing, but not necessarily TNF-inducing agents. Perspectively, these findings could extend the clinical application of SM.
Uev1A facilitates osteosarcoma differentiation by promoting Smurf1-mediated Smad1 ubiquitination and degradation
Authors: Zhang Weiwei , Zhuang Yuan , Zhang Yiran , Yang Xiaoran , Zhang Hong , Wang Guifen , Yin Wanqi , Wang Ruifeng , Zhang Zhiling , Xiao Wei 
Published: August 2017

AbstractMalignant bone tumor osteosarcoma (OS) displays high metastasis incidence and poor prognosis. Its stem cell properties could serve to explain tumor recurrence and resistance to conventional treatments. In this study, we identified UEV1A as a novel suppressor of OS. Elevated UEV1A diminishes stem cell properties of OS cells and drives them to terminal differentiation. Importantly, UEV1A-overexpressed OS cells delay proliferation and are more sensitive to chemotherapeutic agents than control cells. Uev1A appears to be involved in the BMP signaling pathway in which it collaborates with a ubiquitin E3 ligase Smurf1 to promote Smad1 degradation in a Ubc13-independent manner. Indeed, Smad1 is identified as a dominant downstream effector of Uev1A, which unravels the mechanism underlying Uev1A-orchestrated tumor suppression in OS. The above findings identify UEV1A as a potential OS tumor suppression gene, and shed lights to future OS diagnosis and treatment.
Oxidative coupling of sp
2 and sp
3 carbon–hydrogen bonds to construct dihydrobenzofurans
Authors: Shi Jiang-Ling , Wang Ding , Zhang Xi-Sha , Li Xiao-Lei , Chen Yu-Qin , Li Yu-Xue , Shi Zhang-Jie 
Published: August 2017

AbstractMetal-catalyzed cross-couplings provide powerful, concise, and accurate methods to construct carbon–carbon bonds from organohalides and organometallic reagents. Recent developments extended cross-couplings to reactions where one of the two partners connects with an aryl or alkyl carbon–hydrogen bond. From an economic and environmental point of view, oxidative couplings between two carbon–hydrogen bonds would be ideal. Oxidative coupling between phenyl and “inert” alkyl carbon–hydrogen bonds still awaits realization. It is very difficult to develop successful strategies for oxidative coupling of two carbon–hydrogen bonds owning different chemical properties. This article provides a solution to this challenge in a convenient preparation of dihydrobenzofurans from substituted phenyl alkyl ethers. For the phenyl carbon–hydrogen bond activation, our choice falls on the carboxylic acid fragment to form the palladacycle as a key intermediate. Through careful manipulation of an additional ligand, the second “inert” alkyl carbon–hydrogen bond activation takes place to facilitate the formation of structurally diversified dihydrobenzofurans.
Annotating pathogenic non-coding variants in genic regions
Authors: Gelfman Sahar , Wang Quanli , McSweeney K. Melodi , Ren Zhong , La Carpia Francesca , Halvorsen Matt , Schoch Kelly , Ratzon Fanni , Heinzen Erin L. , Boland Michael J. , Petrovski Slavé , Goldstein David B. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIdentifying the underlying causes of disease requires accurate interpretation of genetic variants. Current methods ineffectively capture pathogenic non-coding variants in genic regions, resulting in overlooking synonymous and intronic variants when searching for disease risk. Here we present the Transcript-inferred Pathogenicity (TraP) score, which uses sequence context alterations to reliably identify non-coding variation that causes disease. High TraP scores single out extremely rare variants with lower minor allele frequencies than missense variants. TraP accurately distinguishes known pathogenic and benign variants in synonymous (AUC = 0.88) and intronic (AUC = 0.83) public datasets, dismissing benign variants with exceptionally high specificity. TraP analysis of 843 exomes from epilepsy family trios identifies synonymous variants in known epilepsy genes, thus pinpointing risk factors of disease from non-coding sequence data. TraP outperforms leading methods in identifying non-coding variants that are pathogenic and is therefore a valuable tool for use in gene discovery and the interpretation of personal genomes.
Nutrient limitation determines the fitness of cheaters in bacterial siderophore cooperation
Authors: Sexton D. Joseph , Schuster Martin 
Published: August 2017

AbstractCooperative behaviors provide a collective benefit, but are considered costly for the individual. Here, we report that these costs vary dramatically in different contexts and have opposing effects on the selection for non-cooperating cheaters. We investigate a prominent example of bacterial cooperation, the secretion of the peptide siderophore pyoverdine by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, under different nutrient-limiting conditions. Using metabolic modeling, we show that pyoverdine incurs a fitness cost only when its building blocks carbon or nitrogen are growth-limiting and are diverted from cellular biomass production. We confirm this result experimentally with a continuous-culture approach. We show that pyoverdine non-producers (cheaters) enjoy a large fitness advantage in co-culture with producers (cooperators) and spread to high frequency when limited by carbon, but not when limited by phosphorus. The principle of nutrient-dependent fitness costs has implications for the stability of cooperation in pathogenic and non-pathogenic environments, in biotechnological applications, and beyond the microbial realm.
Absence of Grail promotes CD8+ T cell
anti-tumour activity
Authors: Haymaker Cara , Yang Yi , Wang Junmei , Zou Qiang , Sahoo Anupama , Alekseev Andrei , Singh Divyendu , Ritthipichai Krit , Hailemichael Yared , Hoang Oanh N. , Qin Hong , Schluns Kimberly S. , Wang Tiejun , Overwijk Willem W. , Sun Shao-Cong , Bernatchez Chantale , Kwak Larry W. , Neelapu Sattva S. , Nurieva Roza 
Published: August 2017

AbstractT-cell tolerance is a major obstacle to successful cancer immunotherapy; thus, developing strategies to break immune tolerance is a high priority. Here we show that expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Grail is upregulated in CD8+ T cells that have infiltrated into transplanted lymphoma tumours, and Grail deficiency confers long-term tumour control. Importantly, therapeutic transfer of Grail-deficient CD8+ T cells is sufficient to repress established tumours. Mechanistically, loss of Grail enhances anti-tumour reactivity and functionality of CD8+ T cells. In addition, Grail-deficient CD8+ T cells have increased IL-21 receptor (IL-21R) expression and hyperresponsiveness to IL-21 signalling as Grail promotes IL-21R ubiquitination and degradation. Moreover, CD8+ T cells isolated from lymphoma patients express higher levels of Grail and lower levels of IL-21R, compared with CD8+ T cells from normal donors. Our data demonstrate that Grail is a crucial factor controlling CD8+ T-cell function and is a potential target to improve cytotoxic T-cell activity.
Serial processing of kinematic signals by cerebellar circuitry during voluntary whisking
Authors: Chen Susu , Augustine George J. , Chadderton Paul 
Published: August 2017

AbstractPurkinje cells (PCs) in Crus 1 represent whisker movement via linear changes in firing rate, but the circuit mechanisms underlying this coding scheme are unknown. Here we examine the role of upstream inputs to PCs—excitatory granule cells (GCs) and inhibitory molecular layer interneurons—in processing of whisking signals. Patch clamp recordings in GCs reveal that movement is accompanied by changes in mossy fibre input rate that drive membrane potential depolarisation and high-frequency bursting activity at preferred whisker angles. Although individual GCs are narrowly tuned, GC populations provide linear excitatory drive across a wide range of movement. Molecular layer interneurons exhibit bidirectional firing rate changes during whisking, similar to PCs. Together, GC populations provide downstream PCs with linear representations of volitional movement, while inhibitory networks invert these signals. The exquisite sensitivity of neurons at each processing stage enables faithful propagation of kinematic representations through the cerebellum.