bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genome-wide profiling of the epigenetic landscape of histone variant TH2B in murine oocytes and pre-implantation embryos
Authors: Singh Isha , Parte Priyanka 
Published: October 2024

In briefThis study investigates the role of TH2B in pre-implantation embryos and found that TH2B deposition varies between gametes but rapidly redistributes in two-cell embryos after fertilization. Our ultra-low-input native chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ULI-NChIP-seq) revealed that TH2B is enriched in early chromatin but decreases after the two-cell stage, with strong correlations to key regulatory regions, histone modifications and transposable elements (TEs), indicating its critical role in zygotic genome activation and early developmental processes.AbstractThe histone variant TH2B, enriched in oocytes, sperm and early embryos, decreases as embryos differentiate into pre-gastrula stages. Despite its presence, the role of TH2B in epigenetic reprogramming during early embryonic development remains largely under-researched. Our study employed ULI-NChIP-seq to analyze the genome-wide distribution of TH2B in metaphase II (MII) oocytes and early embryos. We found that TH2B is enriched in the chromatin of oocytes and two-cell stage embryos but becomes less prevalent after the two-cell stage. Correlation analysis revealed that the TH2B chromatin patterns in sperm and pre-implantation embryos are more similar to each other than to those in MII oocytes. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of TH2B-occupied loci linked them to various developmental processes including oogenesis, fertilization, chromatin modification and transcription regulation. The study also identified a strong association of TH2B with specific TEs, particularly long terminal repeats, which are known to regulate pre-implantation development. Additionally, early embryos showed H3K9me3 marks at TH2B-bound loci. TH2B exhibited strong correlations with H2A.Z and H3.3 in the two-cell and eight-cell stages, a positive association with H3K27Ac and H3K4me3 and a negative correlation with H3K27me3. Allelic reprogramming analysis of TH2B in embryos from C57BL/6J and DBA/2J crosses revealed differential dynamics between maternal and paternal alleles, with a notable paternal bias at the promoter in two-cell embryos. Thus, TH2B’s enrichment in early embryonic stages and its association with key regulatory regions and histone modifications underscore its importance in zygotic genome activation and subsequent developmental processes.
PRIMER REGISTRO DE Disocactus speciosus (Cav.) Barthlott subsp. speciosus (Cactaceae: Cactoideae) EN NAYARIT, MÉXICO.
Authors: Salomon Montijo Bladimir , Díaz J. S , Márquez-Salazar G. , Gámez-Duarte E. A 
Published: October 2024

En mayo de 2022 durante una exploración de una semana en la Sierra de Álica, municipio de La Yesca, Nayarit, se colectaron algunas cactáceas. Se registró Disocactus speciosus subsp. speciosus, no reportada previamente para la flora nayarita. Los especímenes fueron determinados en la Facultad de Biología de la Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa. La especie es rupícola, péndula, tallos de tres costillas, espinas agudas, cortas en aréolas, flores polipétalas rojas, estambres numerosos, estigma plumoso color crema. El registro complementa la distribución de la especie en una entidad ubicada entre dos estados que ya la tienen inventariada en su flora.
Patrones actitudinales de pacientes con diabetes en Venezuela
Authors: Velásquez Enmanuel , Hernandez Pablo 
Published: October 2024

Introducción: las actitudes son predisposiciones para actuar de una manera determinada a partir de respuestas de carácter afectivo, cognitivo y conductual. Objetivo: distinguir los patrones actitudinales sobre su enfermedad en las personas con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 y 2 de Venezuela. Métodos: estudio descriptivo transversal en el que se valoró la actitud sobre la diabetes de 100 sujetos a través de la Diabetes Attitude Scale (DAS-3sp), la cual fue traducida al castellano y validada para Venezuela de forma previa. Se aplicó un análisis de componentes principales a las cinco dimensiones de dicha escala, seguido de un procedimiento de conglomerado jerárquico, lo que permitió determinar los patrones actitudinales de los pacientes. Resultados: las dimensiones con mayor puntaje promedio fueron Necesidad de entrenamiento especial (3,61 ± 0,38), Valoración del control estricto (3,17 ± 0,44) y Autonomía del paciente (3,08 ± 0,39), mientras que la Valoración del impacto psicosocial (2,32 ± 0,45) registró el menor puntaje. Se encontraron tres patrones actitudinales: el primero representa al 40 % de la muestra y obtuvo puntuaciones elevadas en las cinco dimensiones; el segundo agrupa al 21 % de los pacientes y se distingue por una muy baja puntuación en las dimensiones Percepción de la gravedad, Valoración del control estricto e impacto psicosocial; el tercero representa al 39 % de la muestra y valores significativamente menores en las dimensiones Necesidad de entrenamiento especial y Autonomía del paciente. Conclusión: los tres patrones actitudinales se diferenciaron por el componente emocional y se asociaron al grupo etario y nivel educativo de los pacientes.
Fibroma of Tendon Sheath Arising in the Subacromial Bursa
Authors: Tamai Kazuya , Kodama Rie , Ikegami Masachika , Tanaka Sakae 
Published: October 2024

Case:
An 18-year-old woman presented with shoulder pain that had persisted for a year. The magnetic resonance imaging showed a solitary lesion in the subacromial bursa (SAB). Arthroscopy revealed an ovoid mass connected to the bursal wall with thin synovial tissue that was excised en bloc arthroscopically. Histological and molecular genetic examinations confirmed the diagnosis of fibroma of tendon sheath (FTS). The patient was symptom free for 32 months postoperatively.

Conclusion:
This is the first case in the English literature of an FTS occurring in the SAB. FTS should be included in the differential diagnosis when a nodular lesion is noted in the SAB.
An applied noise model for scintillation-based CCD detectors in transmission electron microscopy
Authors: Zietlow Christian , Lindner Jörg K. N. 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Measurements in general are limited in accuracy by the presence of noise. This also holds true for highly sophisticated scintillation-based CCD cameras, as they are used in medical applications, astronomy or transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Further, signals measured with pixelated detectors are convolved with the inherent detector point spread function (PSF). The Poisson noise, arising from the quantized nature of the beam electrons, gets correlated by this convolution, which allows to reconstruct the detector PSF based on the Wiener–Khinchin theorem and the Pearson correlation coefficients under homogeneous illumination conditions. However, correlation also has a strong impact on the noise statistics of basic operations like the binning of signals, as it is usually done in electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). Thus, this paper aims to give an insight into the different noise contributions occurring on such detectors, into their underlying statistics and their correlation. Detectors usually suffer from gain non-linearities and quantum efficiency deviations, which must be corrected for optimal results. All these operations influence the noise and are influenced by it, vice versa. In this work, we mathematically describe all these changes and show them experimentally. Methods on how to measure individual noise and correlation parameters are described allowing readers to implement routines for finding them. Sufficient knowledge on the noise of a measurement is not only crucial for classifying its quality and meaningfulness, but also allows for better post-processing operations like deconvolution, which is a common practice in spectroscopy to enhance signals.
Crosstalk between adult human retinas: exploring neurovascular coupling through photic stimulation for contralateral retina reflex insights.
Authors: Bernardes Rui , Jordão João , Figueira João , Morgado Miguel , Guimarães Pedro , Serranho Pedro , Farias Daniela Castro , DeBuc Delia Cabrera , Castelo-Branco Miguel , Paques Michel 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Crosstalk mechanisms between retinas were never documented in humans despite being documented for several other species, including non-human primates. Here, we report the results of the first-in-human study that documents the crosstalk between retinas by measuring the vascular response in one retina to the photic stimulation of the contralateral eye in health and disease. We developed a stimulation apparatus and integrated it into an adaptive-optics fundus camera to image 32 healthy control (HC) subjects and 20 type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. We documented both the ipsilateral and the contralateral neurovascular coupling effect and established criteria to consider an actual response to find positive and negative responses. Ten (31.2%) and two (6.2%) subjects of the HC group presented contralateral positive and negative responses, respectively, and three (15.0%) positive and four (20.0%) negative responses were found for the DM group. Also, statistically significant differences in the ipsilateral and contralateral responses were found for the HC group, rejecting the null (non-response) hypothesis. This finding raises the need to revisit the current knowledge of neurovascular coupling mechanisms and the association between its dysregulation and neurological disorders. Further studies involving distinct populations and imaging centers are necessary to validate the findings herein.
FOSL1 drives the malignant progression of pancreatic cancer cells by regulating cell stemness, metastasis and multidrug resistance
Authors: Wang Shuping , Liu Xiaolong , Zhang Xueyan , Zeng Tingyu , Chen Yali , Ye Liu , Li Yulan 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Background
Targeted therapy is a key strategy for the treatment of advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer, one of the leading causes for cancer-related death worldwide. To address the limitations of existing targeted drugs, there is an urgently need to find novel targets and therapeutic strategies. Transcription factor FOSL1 is a potential therapeutic target for challenging pancreatic cancer, which contributes to the malignant progression and poor gnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Methods
Human FOSL1 complete RNA, shRNA against FOSL1 and shRNA against HMGA1 lentiviral recombination vectors were used to overexpress FOSL1 and knock down FOSL1 and HMGA1. RNA sequencing, Q-PCR and Western blots were used to investigate the effects of FOSL1 on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. The relationship between FOSL1 and HMGA1 were analyzed by co-IP Mass spectrometry, Q-PCR and Western blots. The regulatory roles of FOSL1 and HMGA1 in the invasion and migration, stemness, and multidrug resistance were determined by transwell assay, immunofluorescence, Q-PCR and Western blots.
Results
We found that FOSL1 promoted the proliferation and progression of pancreatic cancer by trigging stemness, invasion and metastasis, and drug resistance. HMGA1 was a key downstream target of FOSL1 and directly interacted with FOSL1. Knockdown of HMGA1 inhibited the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells by regulating the expression of genes related to stemness, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and multidrug efflux system. FOSL1 promotes the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells by up-regulating HMGA1 expression.
Conclusion
Targeting FOSL1 and HMGA1 in monotherapy or combination therapy is a promising strategy for the treatment of advanced and metastasis pancreatic cancer.
Remire: Robust extremile regression in high dimensions
Authors: Sun Weixi , Wang Shanshan 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Unconditional extremiles offer significant advantages over quantiles in risk management, as they satisfy the coherency axioms and provide various interpretative benefits. However, the application of extremile regression in multivariate conditional settings remains underexplored. In this paper, we propose a (penalized) robust linear extremile regression model (remire), incorporating the Huber loss function in place of the squared loss to enhance robustness against heavy-tailed errors. For high-dimensional data, we introduce a variable selection method using a folded concave penalty, and design an iteratively reweighted l1-penalized procedure for estimation. Each iteration’s estimation is solved via a local adaptive majorize-minimization algorithm. The proposed method exhibits desirable properties and performs well in finite samples, as demonstrated through comprehensive numerical studies. We further illustrate its practical utility with a real data application focused on childhood malnutrition.
A Novel Approach to Evaluating Running Performance: Using Special Endurance Coefficients as Statistical Norms
Authors: Blödorn Wolfgang , Döring Frank 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Performance from sprint to long distance is largely determined by the relationship between speed and endurance. By analyzing over 14,000 race times of male runners, we introduce the coefficient of special endurance (KsA), which directly quantifies the pace loss between neighboring distances from 100m/200m to 5000m/10,000m. The KsA values obtained for seven distance pairs are nearly constant over decades in national runners, show low variability, and predict race times with less than one percent. The KsA-based reference ranges allow performance to be evaluated from the international to the regional level. This provides specific insight into runners' strengths, weaknesses and progression for individualizing training, selecting the most promising race distance, and identifying and developing talent. Overall, we provide empirically derived KsA values that serve as statistical norms for pace loss from 100m to 10,000m to evaluate running performance of males. The current approach should also be applicable to women, juniors, and road runners.
Investigating the influence of socio ecological factors on the engagement of primary school students in extracurricular sports: A comparative analysis across gender, grade, and urban versus rural environments
Authors: Zhu Youhuan , Qurban Haroona , Cui Shengli 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Physical and mental health of the Primary school students has always been a focus of attention for the whole society. Affected by a multitude of factors, the current state of physical and mental health among primary school students is far from ideal. One significant contributing factor to this situation is the suboptimal quality of their engagement in extracurricular sports activities. The quality of primary school students' participation in extracurricular sports activities is influenced by a variety of factors, necessitating an exploration of this behavior within the broader societal context. Hence, this research takes a social ecological theory perspective to delve into the factors constraining the quality of primary school students' participation in extracurricular sports activities. The study investigates and analyzes the factors affecting primary school students' engagement in extracurricular sports, thereby identifying the key influencing elements. The results of the study revealed that the quality of primary school students' participation in extracurricular sports activities is still suboptimal, with significant disparities observed between urban and rural areas, while no significant differences are evident in terms of grade and gender. The primary factors affecting the quality of elementary school students' participation in extracurricular sports activities stem from individual-level factors, including attitudes, self-efficacy, and cognition. Factors such as peer support, school material resources, parental support, and community environment exert a secondary influence. Based on these findings, it is recommended that parents should work on reshaping their children's perception of extracurricular sports participation. Simultaneously, schools should make concerted efforts to create conducive conditions for extracurricular sports involvement. Collaboration with the community is also encouraged to establish platforms for extracurricular sports participation. This three-pronged approach, involving the family, school, and community, aims to guide students in transforming their attitudes, self-efficacy, and cognition, ultimately leading to an enhancement in the quality of their extracurricular sports participation behavior."
Predicting potentially suitable Bletilla striata habitats in China under future climate change scenarios using the optimized MaxEnt model
Authors: Luo Ming , Yang Pingfei , Yang Lili , Zheng Zhihong , Li Huan , Wu Mingkai 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Bletilla striata, an important traditional Chinese medicine resource, holds high medicinal and ornamental value. However, unscientific habitat selection for its cultivation has led to low yields and poor quality as medicinal materials. The optimized MaxEnt model is a powerful tool for analyzing the potential impacts of environmental factors on species distribution and predicting habitat changes under climate change. It offers great significance for the protection and development of B. striata in China. Based on 269 B. striata distribution records in China and 15 major environmental factors, this study simulated the distribution patterns of potentially suitable B. striata habitats under four different climate change scenarios (SSP2.6, SSP4.5, SSP7.0, and SSP8.5) and three time periods (the current period, 2050s, and 2070s). The analysis was conducted using the MaxEnt model which exhibited high predictive accuracy and minimal overfitting. Solar radiation, annual temperature range, mean diurnal range and vapor pressure were revealed as the dominant factors affecting B. striata distribution, and their thresholds were ≤ 16265.39 kJ/m2·d− 1, ≤ 39.7℃, ≤ 12.6℃, and ≤ 2.9 kPa, respectively. The results showed that the total potentially suitable B. striata habitats in China were 30.07×105 km2 under current climate conditions, mainly distributed in 14 provinces or regions in southern China. Under future climate change conditions, the predicted potentially suitable B. striata habitats will decrease significantly over time, and the centroid of the predicted potentially suitable habitats at all levels will shift northward. The research results can guide future B. striata resource conservation, variety selection, and cultivation.
Body Weight and Cardio-respiratory Fitness: Predictors of Physical Function Capacity among Older Adults
Authors: Aloko Eric A. , Seibu Munkaila , Apaak Daniel , Sarpong Emmanuel O. , Sorkpor Stephen R. , Ansah Edward W. 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which body weight and cardio-respiratory endurance predict physical functional capacity of older adults in rural Ghana. This quantitative cross-sectional study sampled 998 aged (60yrs+) participants using a multistage sampling method. The senior fitness test battery, international physical activity questionnaire short form for elderly, weighing scale and tape measure were used to collect the data. The independent t-test and multiple regression analyses were applied the data. The results indicated that physical activity levels were minimal among both men and women older adults, but women were more overweight, had reduced cardio-respiratory function and physical function capacity. Body mass index and cardio-respiratory endurance are significant predictors of physical function capacity of the older adults. Education on the health benefits needs to be provided by health professionals who should also encourage these older adults to regularly participate in physical activity.
Multimodal Turn Beginning in Chinese English-as-a-foreign Language Learners’ Conversation
Authors: Ji Mengmeng , Chen Ming 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Turn beginning is a crucial location for establishing speakership and gaining recipiency. It is one of the most challenging tasks for an individual learner. This study used a corpus-based approach to investigate how Chinese EFL learners employ multimodal resources to successfully execute turn beginnings, with a specific focus on potential variances between intermediate and advanced proficiency levels. The findings revealed a hierarchy in the allocation of linguistic resources, with feedback being the most prevalent, followed by demonstrative, connective, and syntactic relevance. This suggested that learners prioritized feedback on the previous turn at the outset of a turn, often serving an interactional function to convey acknowledgement and recognition. Interestingly, intermediate learner group used more demonstrative to provide a cue for utterance-interpretation. However, the advanced learner group preferred to establish logical relevance between each turn through the use of connective. In terms of non-linguistic resources, learners predominantly employed gaze and head movement to project turn beginning intention, demonstrating their capacity to harness multimodal resources to a certain extent. Moreover, the advanced learner group’s increased use of hand gesture suggested that as language proficiency improved, learners were more inclined to engage the hearer’s attention at the commencement of turns. This study contributes to the scholarly understanding of multimodal turn-taking by elucidating the distinct characteristics that learners exhibit when initiating conversational turns. It offers insights into how learners navigate the complex interplay of linguistic and non-linguistic resources in the pursuit of effective communication.
Percutaneous Nephrostomy Before Ureteral Reconstruction: Providing Ureteral Rest, But At What Cost?
Authors: Khizir Labeeqa , Lichtbroun Benjamin , Chua Kevin , Kaldany Alain , Pfail John , Passerelli Rachel , Doppalapudi Sai Krishna , Elsamra Sammy 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Purpose
Ureteral stent removal with pre-operative placement of percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) allows for a period of ureteral rest. To better understand the impact on pre-operative PCN placement on patient quality of life (QoL), we created a novel questionnaire to distribute to our patients with questions pertaining to pain, general health, work performance, sexual matters, ease of follow-up, and urinary symptoms.
Methods
We retrospectively surveyed 20 patients with pre-operative PCN before ureteral reconstruction. Questions ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) on a 5-point Likert-scale.
Results
Of 20 total patients surveyed, 65% strongly agreed or agreed that PCN improved their pain prior to surgery with an average score of 3.9 (95% CI 3.31–4.49). Overall, 65% of patients strongly agreed or agreed that PCN made it challenging to enjoy everyday activities with an average score of 3.8 (95% CI 3.16–4.44). For work performance, 70% of patients strongly disagreed or disagreed that the quality of their work was diminished with an average score of 2.05 (95% CI 1.44–2.66). In terms of overall satisfaction, 95% of patients strongly agreed or agreed that they were happy to have a PCN due to an increased likelihood of having a successful surgery with an average score of 4.8 (95% CI 4.6-5.0).
Conclusions
Pre-operative PCN placement did not significantly impact patient’s QoL in terms of overall satisfaction and should continue to be employed for ureteral rest prior to ureteral reconstruction. This tool can be further utilized to quantify the personal implications of a PCN on patients.