bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Bioinspired Tuning of Hydrogel Permeability-Rigidity Dependency for 3D Cell Culture
Authors: Lee Min Kyung , Rich Max H. , Baek Kwanghyun , Lee Jonghwi , Kong Hyunjoon 
Published: March 2015

AbstractHydrogels are being extensively used for three-dimensional immobilization and culture of cells in fundamental biological studies, biochemical processes and clinical treatments. However, it is still a challenge to support viability and regulate phenotypic activities of cells in a structurally stable gel, because the gel becomes less permeable with increasing rigidity. To resolve this challenge, this study demonstrates a unique method to enhance the permeability of a cell-laden hydrogel while avoiding a significant change in rigidity of the gel. Inspired by the grooved skin textures of marine organisms, a hydrogel is assembled to present computationally optimized micro-sized grooves on the surface. Separately, a gel is engineered to preset aligned microchannels similar to a plant's vascular bundles through a uniaxial freeze-drying process. The resulting gel displays significantly increased water diffusivity with reduced changes of gel stiffness, exclusively when the microgrooves and microchannels are aligned together. No significant enhancement of rehydration is achieved when the microgrooves and microchannels are not aligned. Such material design greatly enhances viability and neural differentiation of stem cells and 3D neural network formation within the gel.
Diminished appetitive startle modulation following targeted inhibition of prefrontal cortex
Authors: Hurlemann René , Arndt Stephan , Schlaepfer Thomas E. , Reul Juergen , Maier Wolfgang , Scheele Dirk 
Published: March 2015

AbstractFrom an evolutionary perspective the startle eye-blink response forms an integral part of the human avoidance behavioral repertoire and is typically diminished by pleasant emotional states. In major depressive disorder (MDD) appetitive motivation is impaired, evident in a reduced interference of positive emotion with the startle response. Given the pivotal role of frontostriatal neurocircuitry in orchestrating appetitive motivation, we hypothesized that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) would reduce appetitive neuromodulation in a manner similar to MDD. Based on a pre-TMS functional MRI (fMRI) experiment we selected the left dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices as target regions for subsequent sham-controlled inhibitory theta-burst TMS (TBS) in 40 healthy male volunteers. Consistent with our hypothesis, between-group comparisons revealed a TBS-induced inhibition of appetitive neuromodulation, manifest in a diminished startle response suppression by hedonic stimuli. Collectively, our results suggest that functional integrity of left dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex is critical for mediating a pleasure-induced down-regulation of avoidance responses which may protect the brain from a depressogenic preponderance of defensive stress.
The Therapeuatic Effect of Endostar on Soft Carotid Plaque Neovascularization in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Authors: Pu Zhaoxia , Wang Yao , Zhang Ying , Huang Jing , Hong Yurong , He Huiliao , Liu Chunmei , Chen Shuyuan , Grayburn Paul A. , Huang Pintong 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the angiogenesis inhibitor Endostar on carotid plaque neovascularization in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). Ninety-one patients who had NSCLC with soft carotid plaques were selected for treatment either with the NP regimen (vinorelbine + cisplatin) (43 patients) or with the ENP regimen (Endostar + NP) (48 patients). Plaque thickness and neovascularization of the plaque were assessed before and at 1 month after treatment using CEUS. Enhanced intensity (EI) of CEUS was used for quantification of plaque neovascularization. There was no significant changes in any group in thickness of plaque between recruitment and 1 month after treatment (P > 0.05 for all). There was no significant change in the EI of plaque in the controls or NP groups at 1 month after treatment (P > 0.05), while EI in the ENP group was significantly reduced at 1 month after treatment (P < 0.01) and significantly lower than that in the controls or NP group at 1 month after treatment (P < 0.001 both). This study indicates that carotid soft plaque neovascularization in patients with NSCLC can be reduced by anti-angiogenesis treatment.
Avian Influenza Virus Infection Risk in Humans with Chronic Diseases
Authors: Zhong Yaogang , Qin Yannan , Yu Hanjie , Yu Jingmin , Wu Haoxiang , Chen Lin , Zhang Peixin , Wang Xiurong , Jia Zhansheng , Guo Yonghong , Zhang Hua , Shan Junjie , Wang Yuxia , Xie Hailong , Li Xiaojie , Li Zheng 
Published: March 2015

AbstractSaliva proteins may protect older people from influenza, however, it is often noted that hospitalizations and deaths after an influenza infection mainly occur in the elderly population living with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer. Our objective was to investigate the expression level of the terminal α2-3- and α2-6-linked sialic acids in human saliva from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), liver disease and gastric cancer (GC) patients and assess the binding activity of these linked sialic acids against influenza A viruses (IAV). We observed that the expression level of the terminal α2-3-linked sialic acids of elderly individuals with T2DM and liver disease were down-regulated significantly and the terminal α2-6 linked sialic acids were up-regulated slightly or had no significant alteration. However, in the saliva of patients with GC, neither sialic acid was significantly altered. These findings may reveal that elderly individuals with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and liver disease, might be more susceptible to the avian influenza virus due to the decreased expression of terminal α2-3-linked sialic acids in their saliva.
How mobile are protons in the structure of dental glass ionomer cements?
Authors: Benetti Ana R. , Jacobsen Johan , Lehnhoff Benedict , Momsen Niels C. R. , Okhrimenko Denis V. , Telling Mark T. F. , Kardjilov Nikolay , Strobl Markus , Seydel Tilo , Manke Ingo , Bordallo Heloisa N. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe development of dental materials with improved properties and increased longevity can save costs and minimize discomfort for patients. Due to their good biocompatibility, glass ionomer cements are an interesting restorative option. However, these cements have limited mechanical strength to survive in the challenging oral environment. Therefore, a better understanding of the structure and hydration process of these cements can bring the necessary understanding to further developments. Neutrons and X-rays have been used to investigate the highly complex pore structure, as well as to assess the hydrogen mobility within these cements. Our findings suggest that the lower mechanical strength in glass ionomer cements results not only from the presence of pores, but also from the increased hydrogen mobility within the material. The relationship between microstructure, hydrogen mobility and strength brings insights into the material's durability, also demonstrating the need and opening the possibility for further research in these dental cements.
Coexistence of metallic and insulating-like states in graphene
Authors: Wu Fang , Huang Jing , Li Qunxiang , Deng Kaiming , Kan Erjun 
Published: March 2015

AbstractSince graphene has been taken as the potential host material for next-generation electric devices, coexistence of high carrier mobility and an energy gap has the determining role in its real applications. However, in conventional methods of band-gap engineering, the energy gap and carrier mobility in graphene are seemed to be the two terminals of a seesaw, which limit its rapid development in electronic devices. Here we demonstrated the realization of insulating-like state in graphene without breaking Dirac cone. Using first-principles calculations, we found that ferroelectric substrate not only well reserves the Dirac fermions, but also induces pseudo-gap states in graphene. Calculated transport results clearly revealed that electrons cannot move along the ferroelectric direction. Thus, our work established a new concept of opening an energy gap in graphene without reducing the high mobility of carriers, which is a step towards manufacturing graphene-based devices.
Simple scheme for encoding and decoding a qubit in unknown state for various topological codes
Authors: Łodyga Justyna , Mazurek Paweł , Grudka Andrzej , Horodecki Michał 
Published: March 2015

AbstractWe present a scheme for encoding and decoding an unknown state for CSS codes, based on syndrome measurements. We illustrate our method by means of Kitaev toric code, defected-lattice code, topological subsystem code and 3D Haah code. The protocol is local whenever in a given code the crossings between the logical operators consist of next neighbour pairs, which holds for the above codes. For subsystem code we also present scheme in a noisy case, where we allow for bit and phase-flip errors on qubits as well as state preparation and syndrome measurement errors. Similar scheme can be built for two other codes. We show that the fidelity of the protected qubit in the noisy scenario in a large code size limit is of "Equation missing", where p is a probability of error on a single qubit per time step. Regarding Haah code we provide noiseless scheme, leaving the noisy case as an open problem.
“Roar” of blaNDM-1 and “silence” of blaOXA-58 co-exist in Acinetobacter pittii
Authors: Zhou Shuru , Chen Xin , Meng Xiaobin , Zhang Guoxiong , Wang Jie , Zhou Dongsheng , Guo Xuemin 
Published: March 2015

AbstractAcinetobacter pittii 44551 was recovered from a patient with gout combined with tuberculosis and was found to harbor the carbapenemase genes blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-58 on two different plasmids pNDM-44551 and pOXA58-44551, respectively. pNDM-44551 displayed high self-transferability across multiple bacterial species, while pOXA58-44551 was likely co-transferable with pNDM-44551 into A. baumannii receipts. pNDM-44551 was a close variant of the previously characterized pNDM-BJ01 and the blaNDM-1 gene cluster was arranged sequentially as orfA, ISAba14, aphA6, ISAba125, blaNDM-1, bleMBL, ΔtrpF, dsbC, tnpR and zeta. pOXA58-44551 was a repAci9-containing plasmid and blaOXA-58 was embedded in a 372F-ISAba3-like-blaOXA-58-ISAba3 structure. The mobile genetic platforms of blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-58 herein showed some differences from their previously characterized variants. The production of NDM-1 in strain 44551 contributed the majority to its high resistance to carbapenems, while the blaOXA-58 stayed silent most likely due to the lack of an upstream promoter to drive its transcription. Increased surveillance of Acinetobacter co-harboring blaNDM-1 (active) and blaOXA-58 (either active or silent) is urgently needed.
Non-Markovian full counting statistics in quantum dot molecules
Authors: Xue Hai-Bin , Jiao Hu-Jun , Liang Jiu-Qing , Liu Wu-Ming 
Published: March 2015

AbstractFull counting statistics of electron transport is a powerful diagnostic tool for probing the nature of quantum transport beyond what is obtainable from the average current or conductance measurement alone. In particular, the non-Markovian dynamics of quantum dot molecule plays an important role in the nonequilibrium electron tunneling processes. It is thus necessary to understand the non-Markovian full counting statistics in a quantum dot molecule. Here we study the non-Markovian full counting statistics in two typical quantum dot molecules, namely, serially coupled and side-coupled double quantum dots with high quantum coherence in a certain parameter regime. We demonstrate that the non-Markovian effect manifests itself through the quantum coherence of the quantum dot molecule system and has a significant impact on the full counting statistics in the high quantum-coherent quantum dot molecule system, which depends on the coupling of the quantum dot molecule system with the source and drain electrodes. The results indicated that the influence of the non-Markovian effect on the full counting statistics of electron transport, which should be considered in a high quantum-coherent quantum dot molecule system, can provide a better understanding of electron transport through quantum dot molecules.
DNA binding activity of Anabaena sensory rhodopsin transducer probed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
Authors: Kim Sung Hyun , Kim So Young , Jung Kwang-Hwan , Kim Doseok 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
Anabaena sensory rhodopsin transducer (ASRT) is believed to be a major player in the photo-signal transduction cascade, which is triggered by Anabaena sensory rhodopsin. Here, we characterized DNA binding activity of ASRT probed by using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. We observed clear decrease of diffusion coefficient of DNA upon binding of ASRT. The dissociation constant, KD, of ASRT to 20 bp-long DNA fragments lied in micro-molar range and varied moderately with DNA sequence. Our results suggest that ASRT may interact with several different regions of DNA with different binding affinity for global regulation of several genes that need to be activated depending on the light illumination.
Cloning and characterization of a novel O-methyltransferase from Flammulina velutipes that catalyzes methylation of pyrocatechol and pyrogallol structures in polyphenols
Authors: Kirita Masanobu , Tanaka Yoshihisa , Tagashira Motoyuki , Kanda Tomomasa , Maeda-Yamamoto Mari 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
A novel O-methyltransferase gene was isolated from Flammulina velutipes. The isolated full-length cDNA was composed of a 690-nucleotide open reading frame encoding 230 amino acids. A database search revealed that the deduced amino acid sequence was similar to those of other O-methyltransferases; the highest identity was only 61.8% with Laccaria bicolor. The recombinant enzyme was expressed by Escherichia coli. BL21 (DE3) was assessed for its ability to methylate (−)-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG). LC–TOF–MS and NMR revealed that the enzyme produced five kinds of O-methylated EGCGs: (−)-epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl)gallate, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-O-(4-O-methyl)gallate, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-O-(3,4-O-dimethyl)gallate, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-O-(3,5-O-dimethyl)gallate, and (−)-4′-O-methylepigallocatechin-3-O-(3,5-O-dimethyl)gallate. The substrate specificity of the enzyme for 20 kinds of polyphenols was assessed using the crude recombinant enzyme of O-methyltransferase. This enzyme introduced methyl group(s) into polyphenols with pyrocatechol and pyrogallol structures.
Activation of Nrf2/Keap1 signaling and autophagy induction against oxidative stress in heart in iron deficiency
Authors: Inoue Hirofumi , Kobayashi Ken-Ichi , Ndong Moussa , Yamamoto Yuji , Katsumata Shin-Ichi , Suzuki Kazuharu , Uehara Mariko 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
We investigated the effects of dietary iron deficiency on the redox system in the heart. Dietary iron deficiency increased heart weight and accumulation of carbonylated proteins. However, expression levels of heme oxygenase-1 and LC3-II, an antioxidant enzyme and an autophagic marker, respectively, in iron-deficient mice were upregulated compared to the control group, resulting in a surrogate phenomenon against oxidative stress.
A comparative study of China English and Singapore English: the case of grammatical metaphor in academic discourse
Authors: Hu Jian 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
Only a few attempts have been made on comparisons between the indigenized varieties and foreign-speaker varieties of English. Surprisingly, for instance, there has been scarcely any comparative study on Singapore English and China English. This study aims to develop a framework allowing for the investigation of the indigenized varieties and learner varieties of English. Considering the situatedness of linguistic behavior, I propose that data from the same genre may be suitable for contrastive analyses of both varieties. The genre of academic discourse is selected for investigation, with the focus on grammatical metaphor (GM). The notion GM is brought in where the variation is essentially in the grammatical forms. My investigation involves qualitative analysis of GM identified in academic texts, their corresponding distribution between Singapore English and China English corpora, as well as discussion of their stylistic effects and the underlying generic and sociocultural conventions. The study finds relatively less GM in Singapore English texts than their Chinese counterparts within the academic genre. Chinese academic texts tend to exhibit a higher degree of technicality and compactness than the Singaporean counterpart, which could be explained in terms of the interaction between generic and sociocultural conventions.
Measuring antimicrobial prescribing quality in Australian hospitals: development and evaluation of a national antimicrobial prescribing survey tool
Authors: James Rodney , Upjohn Lydia , Cotta Menino , Luu Susan , Marshall Caroline , Buising Kirsty , Thursky Karin 
Published: March 2015

Abstract

Objectives
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes have been developed with the intention of reducing inappropriate and unnecessary use of antimicrobials, while improving the quality of patient care and locally helping prevent the development of antimicrobial resistance. An important aspect of AMS programmes is the qualitative assessment of prescribing through antimicrobial prescribing surveys (APS), which are able to provide information about the prescribing behaviour within institutions. Owing to lack of standardization of audit tools and the resources required, qualitative methods for the assessment of antimicrobial use are not often performed. The aim of this study was to design an audit tool that was appropriate for use in all Australian hospitals, suited to local user requirements and included an assessment of the overall appropriateness of the prescription.

Methods
In November 2011, a pilot APS was conducted across 32 hospitals to assess the usability and generalizability of a newly designed audit tool. Following participant feedback, this tool was revised to reflect the requirements of the respondents. A second pilot study was then performed in November 2012 across 85 hospitals.

Results
These surveys identified several areas that can be targets for quality improvement at a national level, including: documentation of indication; surgical prophylaxis prescribed for &gt;24 h; compliance with prescribing guidelines; and the appropriateness of the prescription.

Conclusions
By involving the end users in the design and evaluation, we have been able to provide a practical and relevant APS tool for quantitative and qualitative data collection in a wide range of Australian hospital settings.
Effect of Intercurrent Infections and Vaccinations on Immune and Inflammatory Biomarkers Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Adults on Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy
Authors: Tan Darrell H. S. , Szadkowski Leah , Raboud Janet , Yi Tae Joon , Shannon Brett , Kaul Rupert , Liles W. Conrad , Walmsley Sharon 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
We used generalized estimating equations to quantify the impact of recent vaccination or intercurrent infections on immune and inflammatory biomarkers among 144 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults with HIV RNA &lt; 50 copies/mL on antiretroviral therapy. These events were associated with a 2.244 µg/mL increase in high sensitivity C-reactive protein and should be routinely assessed in future studies.
Relativistic radiative transfer and relativistic plane-parallel flows
Authors: Fukue Jun 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
Relativistic radiative transfer and relativistic plane-parallel flows accelerated from their base like accretion disk winds are numerically examined under the special relativistic treatment. We first solve the relativistic transfer equation iteratively, using a given velocity field, and obtain specific intensities as well as moment quantities. Using the obtained flux, we then solve the hydrodynamical equation, and obtain the new velocity field and the mass-loss rate as an eigen value. We repeat these double-iteration processes until both the intensity and velocity profiles converge. Under this double iteration, we solve the relativistic radiative transfer equation and relativistic flows in the vertical direction, simultaneously. The flows are gradually accelerated, as the optical depth decreases towards the surface. The mass-loss rate $\dot{J}$ is roughly expressed in terms of the optical depth τb and terminal speed βs of the flow as $\dot{J} \sim 10 \tau _{\rm b} \beta _{\rm s}^{-3/4}$.
Near-infrared image of the debris disk around HD 15115
Authors: Sai Shoko , Itoh Yoichi , Fukagawa Misato , Shibai Hiroshi , Sumi Takahiro 
Published: March 2015

We present a Subaru/Infrared Camera and Spectrograph H-band image of the edge-on debris disk around the F2V star HD 15115. We detected the debris disk, which has a bow shape and an asymmetric surface brightness, at a projected separation of 1′′–3′′ (∼ 50–150 au). The disk surface brightness is ∼ 0.5–1.5 mag brighter on the western side than on the eastern side. We use an inclined annulus disk model to probe the disk geometry. The model fitting suggests that the disk has an inner hole with a radius of 86 au and an eccentricity of 0.06. The disk model also indicates that the amount of dust on the western side is 2.2 times larger than that on the eastern side. A several Jupiter-mass planet may exist at ≳ 45 au and capture grains at the Lagrangian points to open the eccentric gap. This scenario can explain both the eccentric gap and the difference in the amount of dust. In case of the stellar age of several 100 Myr, a dramatic planetesimal collision possibly causes the dust to increase in the western side. Interstellar medium interaction is also considered as a possible explanation of the asymmetric surface brightness, however, it hardly affects large grains in the vicinity of the inner hole.