bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Differential expression profiles of circulating microRNAs in newborns associated to maternal pregestational overweight and obesity
Authors: Méndez‐Mancilla A. , Lima‐Rogel V. , Toro‐Ortíz J. C. , Escalante‐Padrón F. , Monsiváis‐Urenda A. E. , Noyola D. E. , Salgado‐Bustamante M. 
Published: October 2017

SummaryBackgroundThe perinatal environment has a role in the establishment of altered metabolic and inflammatory responses, and could be modulated by microRNAs regulating immune and metabolic processes.ObjectiveTo analyze the expression profile of four circulating microRNAs and cytokine serum concentrations in neonates born to overweight and obese women.MethodsPregnant women were included and grouped by pregestational body mass index (21 with normal weight, 10 overweight and 10 obese women). A peripheral blood sample was obtained from newborn infants and used to determine circulating miRNAs expression and cytokine serum concentrations.ResultsThere were significant differences in the expression of three microRNAs between newborns of pregestational obese women and newborns from pregestational normal weight women: miR‐155 (p = 0.03), miR‐181a (p = 0.02) and miR‐221 (p = 0.04). A significant reduction in IL‐1β (p = 0.005) expression was also found in newborns of overweight women; although this cytokine was also diminished in newborns of obese women, this was not statistically significant. An association between IL‐1β concentrations and miR‐146a and miR‐221 expression was also observed.ConclusionsExpression of miR‐155, miR‐181a and miR‐221 differs in infants born to obese women compared with infants born to normal weight women. Changes in microRNA expression could participate in the epigenetic foetal programming of metabolic disorders in children born to obese women.
Impact of power structure on supply chain performance and consumer surplus
Authors: Wang Jian‐Cai , Wang Yao‐Yu , Lai Fujun 
Published: October 2017

AbstractIn this study, we consider a game theory based framework to model power in a supply chain with price‐dependent stochastic demand and to investigate how power structures (dominant retailer, dominant manufacturer, or balanced power) and demand models (expected demand and demand shock) affect supply chain efficiency, members’ profits, and consumer surplus. We analyze all of the problems in this framework and characterize their equilibrium outcomes. In comparison, we demonstrate that a firm often benefits from its power except that a power manufacturer might suffer in a supply chain with isoelastic demand and additive shock. A balanced power structure is often conducive to the whole supply chain, but this structure might not perform very well in a supply chain with isoelastic demand and additive shock. Power structures and demand models act on consumers in much the same manner that they do on supply chain efficiency. In other words, consumers often prefer a balanced power structure and thereby do not profit from power retailers. Additionally, we find that the retail price can play a pivotal role in determining supply chain efficiency and consumer surplus. Specifically, the lower the retail price, the higher the supply chain efficiency and consumer surplus. In contrast, the service level has a less preeminent influence on both of them.
Skin tears and risk factors assessment: a systematic review on evidence‐based medicine
Authors: Serra Raffaele , Ielapi Nicola , Barbetta Andrea , de Franciscis Stefano 
Published: October 2017

AbstractSkin tears represent a common condition of traumatic wounds, which may be encountered in some categories of individuals at the extremes of age, such as infants and the elderly. Despite the high prevalence and cost of these lesions, there has been little investigation into the risk factors that lead to this condition. The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the main risk factors involved in development of skin tears. We planned to include all the studies dealing with risk factors related to skin tears. Only publications in English were considered. We excluded all the studies that did not properly fit our research question and those with insufficient data. Of the 166 records found, 24 matched our inclusion criteria. After reading the full‐text articles, we decided to exclude seven articles because of the following reasons: (1) not responding properly to our research questions and (2) insufficient data; the final set included 17 articles. From a literature search, we found the following main issues related to risk factors, which have been described in detail in this section: age‐related skin changes, dehydration, malnutrition, sensory changes, mobility impairment, pharmacological therapies and mechanical factors related to skin care practices. Our findings clearly show that in frail populations (especially infant and elderly), the stratification risk, as a primary prevention strategy, is an effective tool in avoiding the development of chronic wounds. The development and the implementation of prevention strategies based on appropriate knowledge of the risk factors involved and the adoption of correct techniques during skin care practices could reduce or even avoid the onset of skin tears.
The funding of subsidiaries equity, double leverage and the risk of bank holding companies
Authors: Bressan Silvia 
Published: October 2017

AbstractBanking groups exploit double leverage when ‘debt is issued by the parent company and the proceeds are invested in subsidiaries as equity’. Financial authorities have frequently raised concerns about the issue of double leverage because this type of intra‐firm financing appears to allow for both the arbitrage of capital and the assumption of risk. This article focuses on the relationship between double leverage and risk‐taking within banking groups. First, we discuss this relationship based on an examination of balance sheet figures. Second, we analyze a large sample of United States Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) from 1990–2014. The results show that BHCs are more prone to risk when they increase their double leverage, namely, when the stake of the parent within subsidiaries is larger than the stand‐alone capital of the parent. This paper's primary implication for policymakers is that the regulators of complex financial entities should more efficiently address the issue of double leverage, thereby limiting the potential negative consequences that arise from corporate instability.
Social traits, social networks and evolutionary biology
Authors: Fisher D. N. , McAdam A. G. 
Published: October 2017

AbstractThe social environment is both an important agent of selection for most organisms, and an emergent property of their interactions. As an aggregation of interactions among members of a population, the social environment is a product of many sets of relationships and so can be represented as a network or matrix. Social network analysis in animals has focused on why these networks possess the structure they do, and whether individuals’ network traits, representing some aspect of their social phenotype, relate to their fitness. Meanwhile, quantitative geneticists have demonstrated that traits expressed in a social context can depend on the phenotypes and genotypes of interacting partners, leading to influences of the social environment on the traits and fitness of individuals and the evolutionary trajectories of populations. Therefore, both fields are investigating similar topics, yet have arrived at these points relatively independently. We review how these approaches are diverged, and yet how they retain clear parallelism and so strong potential for complementarity. This demonstrates that, despite separate bodies of theory, advances in one might inform the other. Techniques in network analysis for quantifying social phenotypes, and for identifying community structure, should be useful for those studying the relationship between individual behaviour and group‐level phenotypes. Entering social association matrices into quantitative genetic models may also reduce bias in heritability estimates, and allow the estimation of the influence of social connectedness on trait expression. Current methods for measuring natural selection in a social context explicitly account for the fact that a trait is not necessarily the property of a single individual, something the network approaches have not yet considered when relating network metrics to individual fitness. Harnessing evolutionary models that consider traits affected by genes in other individuals (i.e. indirect genetic effects) provides the potential to understand how entire networks of social interactions in populations influence phenotypes and predict how these traits may evolve. By theoretical integration of social network analysis and quantitative genetics, we hope to identify areas of compatibility and incompatibility and to direct research efforts towards the most promising areas. Continuing this synthesis could provide important insights into the evolution of traits expressed in a social context and the evolutionary consequences of complex and nuanced social phenotypes.
Chromatin‐remodeling factor OsINO80 is involved in regulation of gibberellin biosynthesis and is crucial for rice plant growth and development
Authors: Li Chao , Liu Yuhao , Shen Wen‐Hui , Yu Yu , Dong Aiwu 
Published: October 2017

AbstractThe phytohormone gibberellin (GA) plays essential roles in plant growth and development. Here, we report that OsINO80, a conserved ATP‐dependent chromatin‐remodeling factor in rice (Oryza sativa), functions in both GA biosynthesis and diverse biological processes. OsINO80‐knockdown mutants, derived from either T‐DNA insertion or RNA interference, display typical GA‐deficient phenotypes, including dwarfism, reduced cell length, late flowering, retarded seed germination and impaired reproductive development. Consistently, transcriptome analyses reveal that OsINO80 knockdown results in downregulation by more than two‐fold of over 1,000 genes, including the GA biosynthesis genes CPS1 and GA3ox2, and the dwarf phenotype of OsINO80‐knockdown mutants can be rescued by the application of exogenous GA3. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments show that OsINO80 directly binds to the chromatin of CPS1 and GA3ox2 loci. Biochemical assays establish that OsINO80 specially interacts with histone variant H2A.Z and the H2A.Z enrichments at CPS1 and GA3ox2 are decreased in OsINO80‐knockdown mutants. Thus, our study identified a rice chromatin‐remodeling factor, OsINO80, and demonstrated that OsINO80 is involved in regulation of the GA biosynthesis pathway and plays critical functions for many aspects of rice plant growth and development.
Characterization of the soybean GmALMT family genes and the function of GmALMT5 in response to phosphate starvation
Authors: Peng Wenting , Wu Weiwei , Peng Junchu , Li Jiaojiao , Lin Yan , Wang Yanan , Tian Jiang , Sun Lili , Liang Cuiyue , Liao Hong 
Published: October 2017

AbstractA potential mechanism to enhance utilization of sparingly soluble forms of phosphorus (P) is the root secretion of malate, which is mainly mediated by theALMTgene family in plants. In this study, a total of 34GmALMTgenes were identified in the soybean genome. Expression patterns diverged considerably amongGmALMTsin response to phosphate (Pi) starvation in leaves, roots and flowers, with expression altered by P availability in 26 of the 34GmALMTs. One root‐specificGmALMTwhose expression was significantly enhanced by Pi‐starvation,GmALMT5, was studied in more detail to determine its possible role in soybean P nutrition. Analysis ofGmALMT5tissue expression patterns, subcellular localization, and malate exudation from transgenic soybean hairy roots overexpressingGmALMT5, demonstrated that GmALMT5 is a plasma membrane protein that mediates malate efflux from roots. Furthermore, both growth and P content of transgenicArabidopsisoverexpressingGmALMT5were significantly increased when sparingly soluble Ca‐P was used as the external P source. Taken together, these results indicate that members of the soybeanGmALMTgene family exhibit diverse responses to Pi starvation. One member of this family,GmALMT5, might contribute to soybean P efficiency by enhancing utilization of sparingly soluble P sources under P limited conditions.
Effects of loss of occlusal contact on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase‐2, membrane type 1‐MMP, tissue inhibitor of the MMP‐2, eruption rate, organization and resistance of collagen fibers of the rat incisor periodontal ligament
Authors: Omar N. F. , Gomes J. R. , Neves J. S. , Novaes P. D. 
Published: October 2017

Background and ObjectiveThis study investigated the effect of occlusal contact loss (induced by tooth shortening), on matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‐2, membrane type 1‐MMP (MT1‐MMP) and tissue inhibitor of the MMP‐2 (TIMP‐2) expressions in the periodontal ligament of the rat incisor, as well as eruption rate, resistance and collagen organization.Material and MethodsMale Wistar rats were distributed into a control group, denominated normofunctional group, whose lower teeth underwent a normal eruption process; and a hypofunctional group, whose lower left incisor teeth were shortened every 2 days during 14 days. Parameters were evaluated on the first, seventh and 14th days and the eruption rate was determined according to the size of the incisor during the eruption process. MMP‐2 activity was determined by zymography and the expressions of the MT1‐MMP and TIMP‐2 proteins were quantitated by western blot. Collagen protein organization, as indicated by the birefringence of the periodontal ligament, was analyzed under polarized light and the periodontal ligament's resistance was determined from the load necessary to inject the incisor into its alveolar space, before extraction.ResultsLoss of occlusal contact, in rats submitted to hypofunctional eruption, increased MMP‐2 activity and eruption rate, but decreased MT1‐MMP and TIMP‐2 expression and disrupted collagen organization in the periodontal ligament, consequently reducing periodontal ligament resistance.ConclusionWe conclude that, after incisor eruption, occlusal contact may be an important factor for regulating the remodeling and the physiological resistance of the periodontal ligament against the continuous eruption process observed in rat incisors.
Effect of the combined use of enamel matrix derivative and atelocollagen sponge scaffold on osteoblastic differentiation of mouse induced pluripotent stem cells in vitro
Authors: Hisanaga Y. , Suzuki E. , Aoki H. , Sato M. , Saito A. , Saito A. , Azuma T. 
Published: October 2017

Background and ObjectiveInduced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a candidate cell source in periodontal regenerative therapy. Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been shown to regenerate periodontal tissues, and atelocollagen sponge (ACS) is considered a suitable scaffold or carrier for growth factors. This study aimed to investigate the effect of combined use of EMD and an ACS scaffold on cell behaviors and differentiation of mouse iPSCs (miPSCs) in vitro.Material and MethodsFollowing embryonic body formation from miPSCs, dissociated cells (miPS‐EB‐derived cells) were seeded onto ACS with or without EMD, and cultured in osteoblast differentiation medium. Scanning electron microscopy and histological analyses were used to assess cell morphology and infiltration within the ACS. Cell viability (metabolism) was determined using an MTS assay, and expression of mRNA of osteoblastic differentiation markers was assessed by quantitative RT ‐PCR. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining intensity and activity were evaluated. Mineralization was assessed by von Kossa staining, and calcium content was quantitated using the methylxylenol blue method.ResultsBy 24 hours after seeding, miPS‐EB‐derived cells in both the EMD and control groups had attached to and infiltrated the ACS scaffold. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that by day 14, many cytoplasmic protrusions and extracellular deposits, suggestive of calcified matrix, were present in the EMD group. There was a time‐dependent increase in cell viability up to day 3, but no difference between groups was observed at any time point. The levels expressed of ALP and osterix genes were significantly higher in the EMD group than in the control group. Expression of runt‐related transcription factor 2 was increased in the EMD group compared with the control group on day 7. EMD upregulated the expression of bone sialoprotein and osteopontin on day 14, whereas expression of osteocalcin was lower at all time points. The staining intensity and activity of ALP were higher in the EMD group than in the control group. Mineralization levels and calcium contents were significantly higher in the EMD group throughout the observation period.ConclusionThese data suggest that combining ACS with EMD increases levels of osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization in miPS‐EB‐derived cells, compared with ACS used alone.
A study of presolar material in hydrated lithic clasts from metal‐rich carbonaceous chondrites
Authors: Leitner Jan , Hoppe Peter , Zipfel Jutta 
Published: October 2017

AbstractWe report on the investigation of presolar grain inventories of hydrated lithic clasts in three metal‐rich carbonaceous chondrites from the CR clan, Acfer 182 (CH3), Isheyevo (CH3/CBb3), and Lewis Cliff (LEW) 85332 (C3‐un), as well as the carbon‐ and nitrogen‐isotopic compositions of the fine‐grained clast material. Eleven presolar silicate grains as well as nine presolar silicon carbide (SiC) grains were identified in the clasts. Presolar silicate abundances range from 4 to 22 parts per million (ppm), significantly lower than in pristine meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDP), and comparable to recent findings for CM2s and CR2 interchondrule matrix. SiC concentrations lie between 9 and 23 ppm, and are comparable to the values for CI, CM, and CR chondrites. The results of our investigation suggest similar alteration pathways for the clast material, the interchondrule matrix of the CR2 chondrites, and the fine‐grained fraction of CM2 chondrites. Fine‐grained matter of all three meteorites contains moderate to high 15N‐enrichments (~50‰ ≤ δ15N ≤ ~1600‰) compared to the terrestrial value, indicating the presence of primitive organic material. We observed no correlation between 15N‐enrichments and presolar dust concentrations in the clasts. This is in contrast to the findings from a suite of primitive IDPs, which display in several cases enhanced bulk 15N/14N ratios and high presolar grain abundances of several hundred or even thousand ppm. The bulk 15N/14N ratios of the clasts are comparable to the range for primitive IDPs, suggesting a nitrogen carrier less susceptible to destruction by aqueous alteration than silicate stardust.
A new mineralogical approach for CO3 chondrite characterization by X‐ray diffraction: Identification of primordial phases and thermal history
Authors: Imae Naoya , Nakamuta Yoshihiro 
Published: October 2017

AbstractUsing the in‐plane rotation of polished thin section, the X‐ray diffraction patterns exhibiting a high degree of randomness similar to powder pattern were obtained for 10 CO3 chondrites, which distinguished 130 reflections of olivine in the chondrules from that in the matrix, and showed systematic differences among subtypes based on the full width at half maximum intensity of two olivine 130 peaks. A lower petrologic subtype is characterized by sharp and strong peaks for forsteritic olivines in type I chondrules and by a weak and broad peak for ferroan matrices, and the higher petrologic subtypes are characterized by sharp and strong peaks for recrystallized matrices and a weakened or absent peak of magnesian olivines. The systematic change in the split peak of olivine 130 was linked with the mean diffusion length of Mg‐Fe in olivine phenocrysts in type I chondrules. Fe‐Ni diffusion in metals was considered to estimate the peak temperature of CO3.0, near the surface on the parent body. The peak metamorphic temperatures were estimated to be ~600–910 K using the onion‐shell model when the cooling time was 106–108 yr on the parent body. A weak peak for ferroan olivine of CO3.0 suggests the amorphous silicate in matrices. The modal abundance of the amorphous Fe‐silicate for subtype 3.0 (15% for Allan Hills [ALH] 77307 and 9% for Yamato [Y]‐81020) was also evaluated from the deviation in trend of the relative peak ratios of the Fe‐rich (≥Fa25) and Mg‐rich (<Fa25) olivines for subtypes. The existence of martensites was suggested for ALH 77307. Amorphous silicate in matrices is a more resistant primordial component that produced the CO3 chondrites than martensite.
Inflammatory pathology markers (activated microglia and reactive astrocytes) in early and late onset Alzheimer disease: a post mortem study
Authors: Taipa R. , Ferreira V. , Brochado P. , Robinson A. , Reis I. , Marques F. , Mann D. M. , Melo‐Pires M. , Sousa N. 
Published: October 2017

AimsThe association between the pathological features of AD and dementia is stronger in younger old persons than in older old persons suggesting that additional factors are involved in the clinical expression of dementia in the oldest old. Cumulative data suggests that neuroinflammation plays a prominent role in Alzheimer′s disease (AD) and different studies reported an age‐associated dysregulation of the neuroimmune system. Consequently, we sought to characterize the pattern of microglial cell activation and astrogliosis in brain post mortem tissue of pathologically confirmed cases of early and late onset AD (EOAD and LOAD) and determine their relation to age.MethodsImmunohistochemistry (CD68 and glial fibrillary acidic protein) with morphometric analysis of astroglial profiles in 36 cases of AD and 28 similarly aged controls.ResultsBoth EOAD and LOAD groups had higher microglial scores in CA1, entorhinal and temporal cortices, and higher astroglial response in CA1, dentate gyrus, entorhinal and temporal cortices, compared to aged matched controls. Additionally, EOAD had higher microglial scores in subiculum, entorhinal and temporal subcortical white matter, and LOAD higher astrogliosis in CA2 region.ConclusionsOverall, we found that the neuroinflammatory pathological markers in late stage AD human tissue to have a similar pattern in both EOAD and LOAD, though the severity of the pathological markers in the younger group was higher. Understanding the age effect in AD will be important when testing modifying agents that act on the neuroinflammation.
Data‐Driven Identification Constraints for DSGE Models
Authors: Lanne Markku , Luoto Jani 
Published: October 2017

AbstractWe propose imposing data‐driven identification constraints to alleviate the multimodality problem arising in the estimation of poorly identified dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models under non‐informative prior distributions. We also devise an iterative procedure based on the posterior density of the parameters for finding these constraints. An empirical application to the Smets and Wouters () model demonstrates the properties of the estimation method, and shows how the problem of multimodal posterior distributions caused by parameter redundancy is eliminated by identification constraints. Out‐of‐sample forecast comparisons as well as Bayes factors lend support to the constrained model.