bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Transcriptomic profiling of dynamic alternative splicing during the early response to Ralstonia solanacearum infection in tobacco roots
Authors: Wu Xiuming , Geng Ruimei , Liu Zhengwen , Cheng Lirui , Jiang Caihong , Liu Dan , Yang Aiguo , Tong Ying , Chen Shuai , Sun Yangyang , Xiao Zhiliang , Ren Min 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe pathogenic bacterium, Ralstonia solanacearum, causes bacterial wilt disease in many crops, which leads to significant yield losses worldwide. Although genes associated with resistance to this pathogen have been isolated and characterized in crops, the molecular mechanisms underlying the plant–pathogen interactions remain to be elucidated. Here, we performed a comparative transcriptional profiling analysis of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cultivars C048 (susceptible) and C244 (resistant) in response to R. solanacearum infection. We found that the number of down- and up-regulated genes increased dramatically 3 h post inoculation (hpi), peaked 24 hpi, and then decreased 48 and 72 hpi, representing a “transcriptomic shock”. Of these genes, those associated with biotic and abiotic stresses and secondary metabolism were up-regulated, whereas those associated with primary metabolism were down-regulated. Alternative splicing (AS) modulates root defense against R. solanacearum by fine-tuning gene expression during the transcriptomic responses to pathogen invasion. The numbers of skipped exon (SE) and mutually exclusive exon (MXE) type AS events were reduced by approximately 60–80% in roots 9–72 hpi compared to those occurring 0–3 hpi. On the contrary, the number of differential alternative splicing (DAS) events showing a change in isoform ratio between samples increased, and most of them were associated with the down-regulation of corresponding gene expression. In addition, genes encoding transcription factors and leucine-rich repeat domain proteins that showed changes in both expression level and AS profile during pathogen infection were identified. Our study offers novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of the tobacco response to R. solanacearum infection and will benefit the molecular breeding of pathogen-resistant tobacco in the future.
A review on nanocomposite coatings in dentistry
Authors: Aktas O. Cenk , Puchert Kathrin , Vurucu Ekrem Efekan , Ersöz Bilge , Veziroglu Salih , Sen Sinan 
Published: July 2024

AbstractNanocomposite coatings have garnered significant attention for their potential applications in various fields, including dentistry. These coatings consist of a base matrix, typically a polymer, ceramic, or metal, embedded with nanoparticles that confer enhanced properties do not present in the bulk material. By incorporating nanoparticles into a suitable matrix, these coatings exhibit superior properties including bioactivity, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, antibacterial activity, and drug release capabilities. This review specifically covers the application of nanocomposites as (1) bioactive/osteoconductive coatings, (2) antibacterial/antimicrobial nanocomposite coatings, (3) tribological/corrosion protection nanocomposite coatings, and (4) drug delivery nanocomposite coatings.
Evaluation of the shielding effectiveness of electrodeposited Zn–Ni, Zn–Co, Ni–Co, and Zn–Ni–Co alloy coatings
Authors: Ölçen Karun Kaan , Dikici Tuncay 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThis paper investigates the effect of different alloy coatings (Zinc–Nickel (Zn–Ni), Zinc–Cobalt (Zn–Co), Nickel–Cobalt (Ni–Co), and Zinc–Nickel–Cobalt (Zn–Ni–Co)) on surface properties and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness. These alloy coatings are electroplated on the surface of copper material in a sulfate bath using a power supply. The coating composition, morphology, and phase structures of the alloy coatings are examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD); absorption and electromagnetic shielding values in the X-band frequency range are investigated by Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) using coaxial holder method. According to the results of the surface morphology of the alloy coatings, the expected surface structures are generally formed. XRD results also reveal phases that differ according to alloy type. As a result of this study, it is determined that the best electromagnetic shielding efficiency is found in Zn–Ni–Co alloy coating whereas Ni–Co alloy coating has the best absorbance value. Based on these results, such binary and ternary metal alloy coatings can be considered as a decent alternative to increase shielding efficiency for materials such as copper, which already have good conductivity and a certain level of shielding.
“A Blessing and a Curse”: The Impact of Sociopolitical Events and National Discourse Surrounding Sexual Violence on College Campuses
Authors: Davidov Danielle M. , DeFazio Caterina , Williford Desireé N. , Clear Emily R. , Bush Heather M. , Coker Ann L. 
Published: July 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Examining the influence of policy change and socio-political factors is paramount for contextualizing and addressing sexual violence. The purpose of this paper is to provide findings from a secondary qualitative analysis of the impacts of national and local high-profile events on the dialogue and actions surrounding violence prevention and response on college campuses.

Methods
Data from mcBEE, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded project exploring the adoption and implementation of violence prevention programming on multiple college campuses in the United States were used for this analysis. Data include responses from 60-min telephone interviews with key informants (i.e., campus personnel in administrative roles or connected to violence prevention programming efforts) between 2017 and 2019.

Results
Interviews (n = 68) revealed that high-profile events (i.e., Title IX legislation, news coverage of sexual assault cases, and the #MeToo and It’s On Us movements) increased dialogue about violence prevention and response on some campuses, while others experienced activism and advocacy surrounding sexual assault, including greater accountability and response from campus leadership. Some participants connected national political discourse (i.e., the 2016 presidential election, Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court) to increases in violence perpetration and decreased reporting and help-seeking behaviors after sexual assault.

Conclusions
Sociopolitical events and shifts in national dialogue surrounding violence affect perceptions and behaviors among students, faculty, staff, and overall college campus communities. Identifying potential impacts of national events can inform future prevention and response efforts and mobilize campus communities toward meaningful change.
Multiple Protein Profiler 1.0 (MPP): A Webserver for Predicting and Visualizing Physiochemical Properties of Proteins at the Proteome Level
Authors: Sganzerla Martinez Gustavo , Dutt Mansi , Kumar Anuj , Kelvin David J 
Published: July 2024

AbstractDetermining the physicochemical properties of a protein can reveal important insights in their structure, biological functions, stability, and interactions with other molecules. Although tools for computing properties of proteins already existed, we could not find a comprehensive tool that enables the calculations of multiple properties for multiple input proteins on the proteome level at once. Facing this limitation, we developed Multiple Protein Profiler (MPP) 1.0 as an integrated tool that allows the profiling of 12 individual properties of multiple proteins in a significant manner. MPP provides a tabular and graphic visualization of properties of multiple proteins. The tool is freely accessible at https://mproteinprofiler.microbiologyandimmunology.dal.ca/.
Regional bias in monolingual English language models
Authors: Lyu Jiachen , Dost Katharina , Koh Yun Sing , Wicker Jörg 
Published: July 2024

AbstractIn Natural Language Processing (NLP), pre-trained language models (LLMs) are widely employed and refined for various tasks. These models have shown considerable social and geographic biases creating skewed or even unfair representations of certain groups. Research focuses on biases toward L2 (English as a second language) regions but neglects bias within L1 (first language) regions. In this work, we ask if there is regional bias within L1 regions already inherent in pre-trained LLMs and, if so, what the consequences are in terms of downstream model performance. We contribute an investigation framework specifically tailored for low-resource regions, offering a method to identify bias without imposing strict requirements for labeled datasets. Our research reveals subtle geographic variations in the word embeddings of BERT, even in cultures traditionally perceived as similar. These nuanced features, once captured, have the potential to significantly impact downstream tasks. Generally, models exhibit comparable performance on datasets that share similarities, and conversely, performance may diverge when datasets differ in their nuanced features embedded within the language. It is crucial to note that estimating model performance solely based on standard benchmark datasets may not necessarily apply to the datasets with distinct features from the benchmark datasets. Our proposed framework plays a pivotal role in identifying and addressing biases detected in word embeddings, particularly evident in low-resource regions such as New Zealand.
Permutation-invariant linear classifiers
Authors: Lausser Ludwig , Szekely Robin , Kestler Hans A. 
Published: July 2024

AbstractInvariant concept classes form the backbone of classification algorithms immune to specific data transformations, ensuring consistent predictions regardless of these alterations. However, this robustness can come at the cost of limited access to the original sample information, potentially impacting generalization performance. This study introduces an addition to these classes—the permutation-invariant linear classifiers. Distinguished by their structural characteristics, permutation-invariant linear classifiers are unaffected by permutations on feature vectors, a property not guaranteed by other non-constant linear classifiers. The study characterizes this new concept class, highlighting its constant capacity, independent of input dimensionality. In practical assessments using linear support vector machines, the permutation-invariant classifiers exhibit superior performance in permutation experiments on artificial datasets and real mutation profiles. Interestingly, they outperform general linear classifiers not only in permutation experiments but also in permutation-free settings, surpassing unconstrained counterparts. Additionally, findings from real mutation profiles support the significance of tumor mutational burden as a biomarker.
Neural discovery of balance-aware polarized communities
Authors: Gullo Francesco , Mandaglio Domenico , Tagarelli Andrea 
Published: July 2024

AbstractSigned graphs are a model to depict friendly (positive) or antagonistic (negative) interactions (edges) among users (nodes). 2-Polarized-Communities (2pc) is a well-established combinatorial-optimization problem whose goal is to find two polarized communities from a signed graph, i.e., two subsets of nodes (disjoint, but not necessarily covering the entire node set) which exhibit a high number of both intra-community positive edges and negative inter-community edges. The state of the art in 2pc suffers from the limitations that (i) existing methods rely on a single (optimal) solution to a continuous relaxation of the problem in order to produce the ultimate discrete solution via rounding, and (ii) 2pc objective function comes with no control on size balance among communities. In this paper, we provide advances to the 2pc problem by addressing both these limitations, with a twofold contribution. First, we devise a novel neural approach that allows for soundly and elegantly explore a variety of suboptimal solutions to the relaxed 2pc problem, so as to pick the one that leads to the best discrete solution after rounding. Second, we introduce a generalization of 2pc objective function – termed $$\gamma $$
γ
-polarity – which fosters size balance among communities, and we incorporate it into the proposed machine-learning framework. Extensive experiments attest high accuracy of our approach, its superiority over the state of the art, and capability of function $$\gamma $$
γ
-polarity to discover high-quality size-balanced communities.
Disaster induced displacement and durable solutions in Africa
Authors: Mateko Freeman Munisi , Vutula Noncedo 
Published: July 2024

AbstractClimate change represents a significant challenge to the sustainability of the global economy. Many African countries have suffered the repercussions of environmental and climate deterioration, most notably internal displacement. This article sought to examine the impact of climate change within the context of internal displacement in Africa and to preview and describe the trends of internally displaced people in Africa. The study used a mixed methods approach. Qualitative data was obtained from online repositories, and it was analyzed using content analysis. Quantitative data was obtained from World Bank portal and it was analysed using descriptive statistics. Research findings have shown that Africa is plagued by a high number of internally displaced people. It was also established that climate change leads to income inequality, the exposure of people to poverty, and the destruction of infrastructure. These adverse effects affect the capacity of African economies to attain selected Sustainable Development Goals. In terms of policy recommendations, it was suggested that there is a need to strengthen the regional and continental bodies, invest in climate change adaptation measures, broaden the definition of refugees to include climate refugees, and promote robust research and capacity building.
The metaphysics of mechanisms: an ontic structural realist perspective
Authors: Jiang Yihan 
Published: July 2024

AbstractExisting metaphysical accounts of mechanisms commit to the existence of objects or entities posited in scientific theories, and thus fall within the category of maximal metaphysics. In this paper, I demonstrate the incompatibility of object-based metaphysics of mechanisms with the prevailing trend in the philosophy of physics by discussing the so-called bottoming-out problem. In response, I propose and flesh out a structuralist metaphysics of mechanisms based on Ontic Structural Realism (OSR), which is a kind of minimal metaphysics. I argue that the metaphysical underpinnings of mechanisms are structures, whose metaphysical nature is elaborated through comparison with existing metaphysical theories of mechanisms. After that, I address the concern of whether objects in mechanisms can be accommodated in my account by invoking existing metaphysical theories of objects in special science by structuralists, such as Ladyman, J., & Ross, D. (2007). Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized. Oxford University Press.)’s real pattern account, and suggesting a potential alignment between OSR and processual ontology. Finally, I demonstrate how my view can naturally serve as the metaphysics for Mechanism 2.0 and be applied to systems biology.
Temperature and LED lightning affect the regeneration of somatic embryo-derived sporophytes on the internode explants of the tree fern Cyathea delgadii Sternb.
Authors: Grzyb Małgorzata , Tomaszewicz Wojciech , Cioć Monika , Pawłowska Bożena , Mikuła Anna 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe influence of the temperature and different light qualities emitted by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent lamps (Fl) on the micropropagation of the tree fern Cyathea delgadii was evaluated. The most efficient somatic embryo production was obtained on internode explants at 22 °C. The optimal temperature range for obtaining well-developed plants was 24–28 °C. This stimulated the elongation and development of the first leaf and the formation of the next leaf and roots primordia. Temperatures lower than 24 °C and higher than 28 °C inhibited the formation of young sporophyte organs and delayed their development. The RBUV (35% red, 15% blue, and 50% UV) and B (100% blue) lights and Fl light were beneficial for the sporophyte production on internode explants. However, plants obtained under RBUV light were undeveloped. The white LED light stimulated the number of explants capable of gametophyte production and development. The RB light (70% red and 30% blue) enhanced the number of roots of newly-formed plants. Most of the LED lights tested had a good impact on root elongation compared to Fl light and constant darkness. The R light (100% red) benefits leaf development and elongation. Research shows that temperature and LED lightning play a significant role in the process of morphogenesis in C. delgadii, significantly affecting the embryogenic competence of somatic cells and the development of sporophytes.
Redundancy of p75NTR neurotrophin receptor function in development, growth and fertility in the rat
Authors: Meek Stephen , Singh-Dolt Karamjit , Sutherland Linda , Sharp Matthew G. F. , Del-Pozo Jorge , Walker David , Burdon Tom 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe p75NTR neurotrophin receptor has positive and negative roles regulating cell survival in the nervous system. Unambiguous interpretation of p75NTR function in vivo has been complicated, however, by residual expression of alternate forms of p75NTR protein in initial p75NTR knock-out mouse models. As rats are the preferred rodent for studying brain and behaviour, and to simplify interpretation of the knock-out phenotype, we report here the generation of a mutant rat devoid of the p75NTR protein. TALEN-mediated recombination in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) was used to flank exon 2 of p75NTR with Lox P sites and produce transgenic rats carrying either un-recombined floxed p75NTREx2-fl, or recombined, exon-2 deleted p75NTREx2-Δ alleles. Crossing p75NTREx2-fl rats with a Cre-deleter strain efficiently removed exon 2 in vivo. Excision of exon 2 causes a frameshift after p75NTR Gly23 and eliminated p75NTR protein expression. Rats lacking p75NTR were healthy, fertile, and histological analysis did not reveal significant changes in cellular density or overall structure in their brains. p75NTR function is therefore largely dispensable for normal development, growth and basal homeostasis in the rat. However, the availability of constitutive and conditional p75NTREx2-Δ rats provides new opportunities to investigate specific roles of p75NTR upon injury and during tissue repair.
Supporting Care Transformation Through a Comprehensive Graduate Medical Education Curricular Program in a Department of Internal Medicine
Authors: Moriates Christopher , Wallingford Gregory , Vinas Emily , Sadler Holli , Parker F. Hudson , Reister Robin , Pignone Michael 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Background
The imperative to train physicians in skills required to lead care transformation is increasingly recognized, yet few Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs exist to meet this need.

Aim
Describe the development, outcomes, and lessons learned from a novel GME care transformation curricular program.

Setting
Department of Internal Medicine (IM) at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas, Austin.

Participants
Between 2020 and 2023, 33 IM residents and fellows completed training with participation in the Care Transformation program.

Program Description
Department leadership developed a comprehensive educational and experiential program that included (1) Dell Medical School-wide Distinction in Care Transformation curriculum; (2) Primary Care Residency track with care transformation projects; (3) participation in the national Veterans Affairs Chief Resident in Quality and Safety program; and (4) Hospital Medicine Fellowship in Quality and Safety.

Program Evaluation
Each trainee led a care transformation project spanning a variety of topics and settings. Graduates who responded to a follow-up survey (22 of 33 graduates) reported they used skills learned through the program in their current roles and these experiences better prepared them for fellowship and/or faculty positions.

Discussion
The Care Transformation program provides real-world experiences and skillsets that are increasingly valuable in modern healthcare delivery.
Are Informal Older Workers Utilizing Less Healthcare Services? Evidence from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, Wave-1
Authors: Chowdhury Poulomi , Singh Akansha 
Published: July 2024

AbstractIndia’s informal sector employs many workers without social security benefits, such as pension support and health insurance. Many older workers continue to work in this sector beyond the retirement age (60 + years) due to financial and health needs. Given the vulnerable position of informal older workers in terms of their social and economic stature, as well as the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, it becomes important to study healthcare utilization. The present research aims to investigate variations in healthcare visits by type of work in India for older workers. The first wave of LASI (2017-18) data has been used in this study. The overall healthcare visits, consisting of inpatient and outpatient care, are considered as the outcome variable for the analysis. Zero-inflated Poisson regression is applied to study the relationship between type of work and healthcare visits while controlling for other covariates. The results of zero-inflated Poisson regression shows that informal workers have fewer healthcare visits than formal workers (P < 0.01). However, the relationship between type of work and healthcare visits is influenced by health conditions, including chronic health conditions (CHC), depression as well as both CHC and depression. Informal workers with depression visit 0.892 times less (P < 0.05) than formal workers with depression. Informal workers with CHC and depression visit 0.847 times less (P < 0.0001) than formal workers with CHC and depression. The present study underscores the importance of proper economic support and healthcare provision to financially encourage older workers belonging to poor social-economic status to seek for healthcare services.
Quantitative Assessment of Geosites and Mine Heritage as a Resource: The Case Study of Lungro Salt Mine (Calabria, Italy)
Authors: La Russa M. F. , Patanè A. , Apollaro C. , Bloise A. , Fuoco I. , Ricca M. , Russo L. , Vespasiano G. 
Published: July 2024

AbstractIn this work, the old Lungro mining site was studied by applying two classification methods (Brilha and IELIG Method), considering the site-specific scientific, educational, touristic, and degradation aspects, to promote it as a geosite. The results were compared with those from other worldwide areas, and a potential re-evaluation in the tourism sector was suggested, considering historical data and geological issues. The methods used evaluate the Lungro site an average score from a scientific perspective, and from high to very high for the tourist-educational aspects. On the contrary, lower scores were found regarding the degradation of the site due to natural phenomena, led to a lower total score. The obtained results are comparable with other similar restored mining areas, located in various parts of the world which today represent important geotourists sites recognized internationally.Based on these results, the safest, most cost-effective, and straightforward way to preserve and restore the site is by creating a “Geotourism Route.“. This choice would increase awareness of the area, providing the general public, including the curious and “non-experts”, with an understanding of various geological processes and the extensive history of the mine. A campaign to promote and preserve the Lungro site as a geoheritage will be encouraged, with significant implications for tourism at the local, national, and international levels.