bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Alterations in frontal white matter neurochemistry and microstructure in schizophrenia: implications for neuroinflammation
Authors: Chiappelli J , Hong L E , Wijtenburg S A , Du X , Gaston F , Kochunov P , Rowland L M 
Published: April 2015

AbstractWe investigated in vivo neurochemical markers reflective of neuronal health and glial activation to determine if these could yield clues regarding the reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter and accelerated decline of FA with age in schizophrenia. Participants with schizophrenia and healthy controls completed diffusion tensor imaging to assess FA and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to assess neurochemical metabolites in the same frontal region. Frontal FA was significantly lower in the schizophrenia and declined more rapidly with age compared with the healthy control group. In both groups, N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a putative marker of neuronal integrity, and glutamate declined with age, and this decline was stronger in patients. Myo-inositol, a marker of glial cells, was negatively related to FA in both groups. The relationship between FA and age remained significant in schizophrenia even when controlling for all metabolites. The relationships of FA, NAA and myo-inositol to age appear to be independent of one another. The relationship between FA and myo-inositol was independently present in both patients and controls, even after controlling for age, indicating a potential general effect of neuroinflammation on white matter microstructure. Further studies are warranted to determine the underlying mechanism driving the accelerated FA decline with age in schizophrenia.
DEGS2 polymorphism associated with cognition in schizophrenia is associated with gene expression in brain
Authors: Ohi K , Ursini G , Li M , Shin J H , Ye T , Chen Q , Tao R , Kleinman J E , Hyde T M , Hashimoto R , Weinberger D R 
Published: April 2015

AbstractA genome-wide association study of cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia in Japan found association with a missense genetic variant (rs7157599, Asn8Ser) in the delta(4)-desaturase, sphingolipid 2 (DEGS2) gene. A replication analysis using Caucasian samples showed a directionally consistent trend for cognitive association of a proxy single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs3783332. Although the DEGS2 gene is expressed in human brain, it is unknown how DEGS2 expression varies during human life and whether it is affected by psychiatric disorders and genetic variants. To address these questions, we examined DEGS2 messenger RNA using next-generation sequencing in postmortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortical tissue from a total of 418 Caucasian samples including patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. DEGS2 is expressed at very low levels prenatally and increases gradually from birth to adolescence and consistently expressed across adulthood. Rs3783332 genotype was significantly associated with the expression across all subjects (F3,348=10.79, P=1.12 × 10−3), particularly in control subjects (F1,87=13.14, P=4.86 × 10−4). Similar results were found with rs715799 genotype. The carriers of the risk-associated minor allele at both loci showed significantly lower expression compared with subjects homozygous for the non-risk major allele and this was a consistent finding across all diagnostic groups. DEGS2 expression showed no association with diagnostic status after correcting for multiple testing (P>0.05). Our findings demonstrate that a SNP showing genome-wide association study significant association with cognition in schizophrenia is also associated with regulation of DEGS2 expression, implicating a molecular mechanism for the clinical association.
Tributyltin induces mitochondrial fission through NAD-IDH dependent mitofusin degradation in human embryonic carcinoma cells
Authors: Yamada Shigeru , Kotake Yaichiro , Nakano Mizuho , Sekino Yuko , Kanda Yasunari 
Published: April 2015

Abstract
Organotin compounds, such as tributyltin (TBT), are well-known endocrine disruptors. TBT acts at the nanomolar level through genomic pathways via the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR)/retinoid X receptor (RXR). We recently reported that TBT inhibits cell growth and the ATP content in the human embryonic carcinoma cell line NT2/D1 via a non-genomic pathway involving NAD+-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase (NAD-IDH), which metabolizes isocitrate to α-ketoglutarate. However, the molecular mechanisms by which NAD-IDH mediates TBT toxicity remain unclear. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of TBT on mitochondrial NAD-IDH and energy production. Staining with MitoTracker revealed that nanomolar TBT levels induced mitochondrial fragmentation. TBT also degraded the mitochondrial fusion proteins, mitofusins 1 and 2. Interestingly, apigenin, an inhibitor of NAD-IDH, mimicked the effects of TBT. Incubation with an α-ketoglutarate analogue partially recovered TBT-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, supporting the involvement of NAD-IDH. Our data suggest that nanomolar TBT levels impair mitochondrial quality control via NAD-IDH in NT2/D1 cells. Thus, mitochondrial function in embryonic cells could be used to assess cytotoxicity associated with metal exposure.
Shape-sensitive crystallization in colloidal superball fluids
Authors: Rossi Laura , Soni Vishal , Ashton Douglas J. , Pine David J. , Philipse Albert P. , Chaikin Paul M. , Dijkstra Marjolein , Sacanna Stefano , Irvine William T. M. 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Since antiquity it has been known that particle shape plays an essential role in the symmetry and structure of matter. A familiar example comes from dense packings, such as spheres arranged in a face-centered cubic lattice. For colloidal superballs, we observe the transition from hexagonal to rhombic crystals consistent with the densest packings. In addition, we see the existence of square structures promoted by the presence of depletion attractions in the colloidal system. By using a mixture of depletants, one of which is size tunable, we induce solid-to-solid phase transitions between these phases. Our results introduce a general scenario where particle building blocks are designed to assemble not only into their maximum density states, but also into depletion-tunable interaction-dependent structures.
National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track
Authors: Williams Wendy M. , Ceci Stephen J. 
Published: April 2015

Significance
The underrepresentation of women in academic science is typically attributed, both in scientific literature and in the media, to sexist hiring. Here we report five hiring experiments in which faculty evaluated hypothetical female and male applicants, using systematically varied profiles disguising identical scholarship, for assistant professorships in biology, engineering, economics, and psychology. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, men and women faculty members from all four fields preferred female applicants 2:1 over identically qualified males with matching lifestyles (single, married, divorced), with the exception of male economists, who showed no gender preference. Comparing different lifestyles revealed that women preferred divorced mothers to married fathers and that men preferred mothers who took parental leaves to mothers who did not. Our findings, supported by real-world academic hiring data, suggest advantages for women launching academic science careers.
Post-treatment control of HIV infection
Authors: Conway Jessica M. , Perelson Alan S. 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Recent reports suggest that antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiated early after HIV infection increases the likelihood of post-treatment control (PTC) in which plasma virus remains undetectable after treatment cessation. However, only a small fraction of patients treated early attain PTC. We develop a mathematical model of HIV infection that provides insight into these phenomena, suggesting that treatments restricting or reducing the latent reservoir size may allow immune responses to control infection posttreatment. Our model makes predictions about immune response strengths and latent reservoir sizes needed for a patient taken off treatment to exhibit PTC that may help guide future studies.
Understanding scaling through history-dependent processes with collapsing sample space
Authors: Corominas-Murtra Bernat , Hanel Rudolf , Thurner Stefan 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Many complex systems reduce their flexibility over time in the sense that the number of options (possible states) diminishes over time. We show that rank distributions of the visits to these states that emerge from such processes are exact power laws with an exponent −1 (Zipf’s law). When noise is added to such processes, meaning that from time to time they can also increase the number of their options, the rank distribution remains a power law, with an exponent that is related to the noise level in a remarkably simple way. Sample-space-reducing processes provide a new route to understand the phenomenon of scaling and provide an alternative to the known mechanisms of self-organized criticality, multiplicative processes, or preferential attachment.
Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field
Authors: Alexander Harriet , Jenkins Bethany D. , Rynearson Tatiana A. , Dyhrman Sonya T. 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Nutrient availability plays a central role in driving the activities and large-scale distributions of phytoplankton, yet there are still fundamental gaps in understanding how phytoplankton metabolize nutrients, like nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), and how this metabolic potential is modulated in field populations. Here, we show that cooccurring diatoms in a dynamic coastal marine system have apparent differences in their metabolic capacity to use N and P. Further, bioinformatic approaches enabled the identification and species-specific comparison of resource-responsive (RR) genes. Variation of these RR gene sets highlights the disparate transcriptional responses these species have to the same environment, which likely reflects the role resource partitioning has in facilitating the vast diversity of the phytoplankton.
Meteorite-catalyzed syntheses of nucleosides and of other prebiotic compounds from formamide under proton irradiation
Authors: Saladino Raffaele , Carota Eleonora , Botta Giorgia , Kapralov Mikhail , Timoshenko Gennady N. , Rozanov Alexei Y. , Krasavin Eugene , Di Mauro Ernesto 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Modern research on the origin of life started with Urey–Miller’s 1953 report on the spontaneous formation of amino acids upon application of electric discharge on a model of the pristine Earth atmosphere. Formamide provides a chemically sound starting material for the syntheses of prebiotic compounds; its role in prebiotics is becoming recognized. Kiloparsecs-wide clouds of formamide were observed in the interstellar space. The energy sources for the syntheses explored so far were largely thermal, and the catalysts used were mostly terrestrial. In the presence of meteorites and with high-energy protons, we observe the production of unprecedented panels of nucleobases, sugars, and, most notably, nucleosides. Carboxylic acids and amino acids complete the recipe. These findings extend prebiotic plausible scenarios well beyond our planet.
Induced transcription and stability of CELF2 mRNA drives widespread alternative splicing during T-cell signaling
Authors: Mallory Michael J. , Allon Samuel J. , Qiu Jinsong , Gazzara Matthew R. , Tapescu Iulia , Martinez Nicole M. , Fu Xiang-Dong , Lynch Kristen W. 
Published: April 2015

SignificanceAlternative splicing is a key mechanism for gene regulation that is regulated in response to developmental and antigen signaling in T cells. However, the extent and mechanisms of regulated splicing, particularly during T-cell development, have not been well characterized. Here we demonstrate that expression of the RNA binding protein CELF2 (CUGBP, Elav-like family member 2) is increased in response to T-cell signaling through the combined regulation of transcription and mRNA stability. This increase in CELF2 expression drives widespread changes in mRNA splicing in cultured T cells and correlates with changes in mRNA splicing during T-cell development. These results provide unprecedented insight into the regulation of splicing during thymic development, and reveal an important biologic role of CELF2 in human T cells.
Hyperammonemia in gene-targeted mice lacking functional hepatic glutamine synthetase
Authors: Qvartskhava Natalia , Lang Philipp A. , Görg Boris , Pozdeev Vitaly I. , Ortiz Marina Pascual , Lang Karl S. , Bidmon Hans J. , Lang Elisabeth , Leibrock Christina B. , Herebian Diran , Bode Johannes G. , Lang Florian , Häussinger Dieter 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Ammonia metabolism in the liver is critical to prevent serious clinical conditions, such as hepatic encephalopathy. It was hypothesized that the Gln synthetase (GS) can metabolize ammonia with high affinity in the perivenous region of the liver. However, the in vivo relevance of this metabolic pathway remains unclear in view of other intra- and extrahepatic ammonia metabolizing pathways. Here, we show by creating a conditional GS KO mouse that specific deletion of the GS in the liver results in increased ammonia levels in the blood, induction of oxidative stress in brain tissue, and behavior abnormalities. In conclusion, GS in the liver is a key player in the maintenance of ammonia homeostasis.
Meteorite zircon constraints on the bulk Lu−Hf isotope composition and early differentiation of the Earth
Authors: Iizuka Tsuyoshi , Yamaguchi Takao , Hibiya Yuki , Amelin Yuri 
Published: April 2015

Significance
The radioactive decay of lutetium-176 to hafnium-176 has been used to study Earth’s crust−mantle differentiation that is the primary agent of the chemical and thermal evolution of the silicate Earth. Yet the data interpretation requires a well-defined hafnium isotope growth curve of the bulk Earth, which is notoriously difficult to reconstruct from the variable bulk compositions of undifferentiated chondrite meteorites. Here we use lutetium–hafnium systematics of meteorite zircon crystals to define the initial hafnium isotope composition of the Solar System and further to identify pristine chondrites that are the best representative of the lutetium–hafnium system of the bulk Earth. The established bulk Earth growth curve provides evidence for Earth’s crust−mantle differentiation as early as 4.5 billion years ago.
Mechanically-driven phase separation in a growing bacterial colony
Authors: Ghosh Pushpita , Mondal Jagannath , Ben-Jacob Eshel , Levine Herbert 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Bacteria self-organize into a dense multicellular community known as a biofilm, in which cells are embedded in self-secreted extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs). A number of processes can contribute to spatial heterogeneity in a growing biofilm; among them, the effect of macromolecular crowding enhanced by the EPSs has largely remained unexplored. To understand the effect of macromolecular crowding in spontaneous spatial organization, we develop a computational model to investigate the explicit role of mechanical interactions in driving the collective behavior of bacterial cells in the presence of EPS particles in a colony growing on a solid substrate. Our findings demonstrate that an entropy-driven depletion interaction between bacteria and EPSs can induce significant phase separation and spatial heterogeneity in a biofilm.
Probing the energetics of organic–nanoparticle interactions of ethanol on calcite
Authors: Wu Di , Navrotsky Alexandra 
Published: April 2015

Significance
Organic ligand–inorganic nanoparticle (NP) interactions are crucial in both natural and engineering conditions. This paper reports a rich energetics of organic–NP binding as a function of molecular coverage for ethanol–nanocalcite system. A stepwise, yet gradually and continuously evolved energetics from weak associating to strong bonding to classical capping is revealed. Such information may reinforce our understanding of complex phenomena at organic–NP interfaces, and may also aid exploratory material scientists by providing solid, fundamental thermodynamic insights.
Tipicità delle costruzioni presentative per l’italiano neostandard
Authors: Marzo Stefania , Crocco Claudia 
Published: April 2015

The aim of this paper is to examine the distribution of presentative constructions in contemporary Italian and to verify whether their occurrence depends on language external factors. Presentative constructions have been studied particularly by Italian linguists during the Eighties, and were defined as being ‘typical’ of so-called Neostandard Italian. The analysis is based on three corpora of contemporary Italian, viz. two oral corpora (LIP and CLIPS) and one written corpus (CORIS/CODIS).
Counter to expectations, presentative constructions are far from frequent in contemporary Italian and therefore cannot be considered as being ‘typical’ of Neostandard Italian. They are, however, attested both in written and oral Italian, with a clear preference for the latter context, in which they are evenly distributed in formal and informal registers. We conclude by discussing the differences between the linguistic phenomena traditionally included into the ‘feature pool’ of Neostandard Italian.
Beneficial Effects of Rhodotorula sp. C11 on Growth and Disease Resistance of Juvenile Japanese Spiky Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus
Authors: Yang ZhiPing , Sun JianMing , Xu Zhe 
Published: April 2015

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary administration of the live yeast, Rhodotorula sp. C11, on growth and disease resistance against Vibrio splendidus infection in juvenile Japanese spiky sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Sea cucumbers were fed diets containing Rhodotorula sp. C11 at 0 (control), 104, 105, and 106 CFU/g of feed for 45 d. There were three replicate tanks per dietary treatment. The specific growth rates were higher in all sea cucumbers treated with Rhodotorula sp. C11 than in the controls. Following a challenge with V. splendidus NB13, the cumulative prevalence and mortality of sea cucumbers fed diets supplemented with Rhodotorula sp. C11 were lower than in animals fed the basal diet. In sea cucumbers fed diets supplemented with Rhodotorula sp. C11 for 42 d, the only viable yeast found in the intestine was Rhodotorula sp. C11, which had counts of 1.58–1.98 × 104 CFU/g. No yeast was isolated from the intestine of animals fed the basal diet. For the colonization study, 20 sea cucumbers from each dietary treatment were removed to separate tanks and fed the control diet from day 16 to day 46. The viable yeast (Rhodotorula sp. C11) counts in the intestine decreased to 60–80 CFU/g by day 37. Moreover, as demonstrated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, Rhodotorula sp. C11 colonization of the intestine could be detected until day 46. The differences in culture and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis may be due to differences in the sensitivity of both methods. The present result showed that Rhodotorula sp. C11 was able to successfully colonize the intestine of juvenile Japanese spiky sea cucumbers by dietary supplementation, which improved its growth and disease resistance.
Received August 11, 2014; accepted November 14, 2014
Linking Behavior, Physiology, and Survival of Atlantic Salmon Smolts During Estuary Migration
Authors: Stich Daniel S. , Zydlewski Gayle B. , Kocik John F. , Zydlewski Joseph D. 
Published: April 2015

Abstract
Decreased marine survival is identified as a component driver of continued declines of Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar. However, estimates of marine mortality often incorporate loss incurred during estuary migration that may be mechanistically distinct from factors affecting marine mortality. We examined movements and survival of 941 smolts (141 wild and 800 hatchery-reared fish) released in freshwater during passage through the Penobscot River estuary, Maine, from 2005 to 2013. We related trends in estuary arrival date, movement rate, and survival to fish characteristics, migratory history, and environmental conditions in the estuary. Fish that experienced the warmest thermal history arrived in the estuary 8 d earlier than those experiencing the coolest thermal history during development. Estuary arrival date was 10 d later for fish experiencing high flow than for fish experiencing low flow. Fish released furthest upstream arrived in the estuary 3 d later than those stocked further downstream but moved 0.5 km/h faster through the estuary. Temporally, movement rate and survival in the estuary both peaked in mid-May. Spatially, movement rate and survival both decreased from freshwater to the ocean. Wild smolts arrived in the estuary later than hatchery fish, but we observed no change in movement rate or survival attributable to rearing history. Fish with the highest gill Na+, K+-ATPase activity incurred 25% lower mortality through the estuary than fish with the lowest gill Na+, K+-ATPase activity. Smolt survival decreased (by up to 40%) with the increasing number of dams passed (ranging from two to nine) during freshwater migration. These results underscore the importance of physiological preparedness on performance and the delayed, indirect effects of dams on survival of Atlantic Salmon smolts during estuary migration, ultimately affecting marine survival estimates.
Received October 25, 2014; accepted January 8, 2015
Reconciling stock assessment paradigms to better inform fisheries management
Authors: Stewart Ian J. , Martell Steven J. D. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractFor several decades, the fisheries stock assessment paradigms of virtual population analysis (VPA) and statistical catch-at-age (SCA) models have been routinely applied to major fish stocks, and their prevalence often dictated by historical continuity, local experience, and geographical differences in standard practices. Similarly, there is a growing split among models using short and long time-series. In one approach, only the recent time-series, where the data are relatively complete, and the assumptions about stationarity in population and sampling processes are relatively simple, are included. In the other, long time-series include far more historical data, but necessitate the relaxation of many common assumptions regarding stationarity. Unlike scientific paradigms in fields outside of fisheries science where empirical validation can provide a growing body of irrefutable evidence (such as physics), there is no expectation that some “truth” will emerge or that a single best stock assessment modelling approach will ultimately displace the others. The 2013 Pacific halibut SCA stock assessment, with the addition of a VPA-based analysis, is used to illustrate how an ensemble approach can represent a more complete description of the uncertainty in management quantities, relative to selecting just one of these competing model paradigms. We suggest that risk assessment for fisheries management, based on stock assessment models, should seek to avoid binary decisions about which models to include, and instead seek better approaches to incorporate alternative models. The ensemble approach to stock assessment also provides a conceptual link between traditional “best model” analyses and fully developed management strategy evaluation of harvest policy and management procedures.