bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Improved recovery of urinary small extracellular vesicles by differential ultracentrifugation
Authors: Teixeira-Marques Ana , Monteiro-Reis Sara , Montezuma Diana , Lourenço Catarina , Oliveira Miguel Carlos , Constâncio Vera , Sequeira José Pedro , Carvalho-Maia Carina , Freitas Rui , Martens-Uzunova Elena S. , Vasconcelos M. Helena , Henrique Rui , Jerónimo Carmen 
Published: May 2024

AbstractExtracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-membrane enclosed structures that are associated with several diseases, including those of genitourinary tract. Urine contains EVs derived from urinary tract cells. Owing to its non-invasive collection, urine represents a promising source of biomarkers for genitourinary disorders, including cancer. The most used method for urinary EVs separation is differential ultracentrifugation (UC), but current protocols lead to a significant loss of EVs hampering its efficiency. Moreover, UC protocols are labor-intensive, further limiting clinical application. Herein, we sought to optimize an UC protocol, reducing the time spent and improving small EVs (SEVs) yield. By testing different ultracentrifugation times at 200,000g to pellet SEVs, we found that 48 min and 60 min enabled increased SEVs recovery compared to 25 min. A step for pelleting large EVs (LEVs) was also evaluated and compared with filtering of the urine supernatant. We found that urine supernatant filtering resulted in a 1.7-fold increase on SEVs recovery, whereas washing steps resulted in a 0.5 fold-decrease on SEVs yield. Globally, the optimized UC protocol was shown to be more time efficient, recovering higher numbers of SEVs than Exoquick-TC (EXO). Furthermore, the optimized UC protocol preserved RNA quality and quantity, while reducing SEVs separation time.
Characterization and application of recombinant Bovine Leukemia Virus Env protein
Authors: Tomé-Poderti Lorena , Olivero-Deibe Natalia , Carrión Federico , Portela María Magdalena , Obal Gonzalo , Cabrera Gleysin , Bianchi Sergio , Lima Analia , Addiego Andrés , Durán Rosario , Moratorio Gonzalo , Pritsch Otto 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) Envelope (Env) glycoprotein complex is instrumental in viral infectivity and shapes the host’s immune response. This study presents the production and characterization of a soluble furin-mutated BLV Env ectodomain (sBLV-EnvFm) expressed in a stable S2 insect cell line. We purified a 63 kDa soluble protein, corresponding to the monomeric sBLV-EnvFm, which predominantly presented oligomannose and paucimannose N-glycans, with a high content of core fucose structures. Our results demonstrate that our recombinant protein can be recognized from specific antibodies in BLV infected cattle, suggesting its potential as a powerful diagnostic tool. Moreover, the robust humoral immune response it elicited in mice shows its potential contribution to the development of subunit-based vaccines against BLV.
Phenylacetic acid, an anti-vaginitis metabolite produced by the vaginal symbiotic bacterium Chryseobacterium gleum
Authors: Kwon Kang Mu , Kim Eun-Hye , Sim Kyeong Hwa , Lee Youn Ju , Kang Eun-Ji , Han Kap-Hoon , Jin Jong-Sik , Kim Dae Keun , Ahn Ji-Hye , Hwang In Hyun 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe human microbiome contains genetic information that regulates metabolic processes in response to host health and disease. While acidic vaginal pH is maintained in normal conditions, the pH level increases in infectious vaginitis. We propose that this change in the vaginal environment triggers the biosynthesis of anti-vaginitis metabolites. Gene expression levels of Chryseobacterium gleum, a vaginal symbiotic bacterium, were found to be affected by pH changes. The distinctive difference in the metabolic profiles between two C. gleum cultures incubated under acidic and neutral pH conditions was suggested to be an anti-vaginitis molecule, which was identified as phenylacetic acid (PAA) by spectroscopic data analysis. The antimicrobial activity of PAA was evaluated in vitro, showing greater toxicity toward Gardnerella vaginalis and Candida albicans, two major vaginal pathogens, relative to commensal Lactobacillus spp. The activation of myeloperoxidase, prostaglandin E2, and nuclear factor-κB, and the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 were reduced by an intravaginal administration of PAA in the vaginitis mouse model. In addition, PAA displayed the downregulation of mast cell activation. Therefore, PAA was suggested to be a messenger molecule that mediates interactions between the human microbiome and vaginal health.
Osteopontin stabilization and collagen containment slows amorphous calcium phosphate transformation during human aortic valve leaflet calcification
Authors: Sivaguru Mayandi , Mori Shumpei , Fouke Kyle W. , Ajijola Olujimi A. , Shivkumar Kalyanam , Samuel Ashok Z. , Bhargava Rohit , Fouke Bruce W. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractCalcification of aortic valve leaflets is a growing mortality threat for the 18 million human lives claimed globally each year by heart disease. Extensive research has focused on the cellular and molecular pathophysiology associated with calcification, yet the detailed composition, structure, distribution and etiological history of mineral deposition remains unknown. Here transdisciplinary geology, biology and medicine (GeoBioMed) approaches prove that leaflet calcification is driven by amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), ACP at the threshold of transformation toward hydroxyapatite (HAP) and cholesterol biomineralization. A paragenetic sequence of events is observed that includes: (1) original formation of unaltered leaflet tissues: (2) individual and coalescing 100’s nm- to 1 μm-scale ACP spherules and cholesterol crystals biomineralizing collagen fibers and smooth muscle cell myofilaments; (3) osteopontin coatings that stabilize ACP and collagen containment of nodules preventing exposure to the solution chemistry and water content of pumping blood, which combine to slow transformation to HAP; (4) mm-scale nodule growth via ACP spherule coalescence, diagenetic incorporation of altered collagen and aggregation with other ACP nodules; and (5) leaflet diastole and systole flexure causing nodules to twist, fold their encasing collagen fibers and increase stiffness. These in vivo mechanisms combine to slow leaflet calcification and establish previously unexplored hypotheses for testing novel drug therapies and clinical interventions as viable alternatives to current reliance on surgical/percutaneous valve implants.
Reliability for music-induced heart rate synchronization
Authors: Nomura Ryota 
Published: May 2024

AbstractCommon inputs synchronize various biological systems, including human physical and cognitive processes. This mechanism potentially explains collective human emotions in theater as unintentional behavioral synchronization. However, the inter-subject correlation of physiological signals among individuals is small. Based on findings on the common-input synchronization of nonlinear systems, we hypothesized that individual differences in perceptual and cognitive systems reduce the reliability of physiological responses to aesthetic stimuli and, thus, disturb synchronization. We tested this by comparing the inter- and intra-subject Pearson’s correlation coefficients and nonlinear phase synchronization, calculated using instantaneous heart rate data measured while appreciating music. The results demonstrated that inter-subject correlations were consistently lower than intra-subject correlations, regardless of participants’ music preferences and daily moods. Further, music-induced heart rate synchronization depends on the reliability of physiological responses to musical pieces rather than mood or motivation. This study lays the foundation for future empirical research on collective emotions in theater.
Directional selection, not the direction of selection, affects telomere length and copy number at ribosomal RNA loci
Authors: Sadler Daniel E. , Watts Phillip C. , Uusi-Heikkilä Silva 
Published: May 2024

AbstractMany fisheries exert directional selection on traits such as body size and growth rate. Whether directional selection impacts regions of the genome associated with traits related to growth is unknown. To address this issue, we characterised copy number variation in three regions of the genome associated with cell division, (1) telomeric DNA, (2) loci transcribed as ribosomal RNA (rDNA), and (3) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), in three selection lines of zebrafish reared at three temperatures (22 °C, 28 °C, and 34 °C). Selection lines differed in (1) the direction of selection (two lines experienced directional selection for large or small body size) and (2) whether they experienced any directional selection itself. Lines that had experienced directional selection were smaller, had lower growth rate, shorter telomeres, and lower rDNA copy number than the line that experiencing no directional selection. Neither telomere length nor rDNA copy number were affected by temperature. In contrast, mtDNA content increased at elevated temperature but did not differ among selection lines. Though directional selection impacts rDNA and telomere length, direction of such selection did not matter, whereas mtDNA acts as a stress marker for temperature. Future work should examine the consequences of these genomic changes in natural fish stocks.
Evaluation and impact factors of international competitiveness of China’s cobalt industry from the perspective of trade networks
Authors: Xu Ligang , Guo Xiang , Xu Meijuan , Jia Yanglei , Zhong Zhengfang 
Published: May 2024

AbstractIn recent years, with the development of the new energy industry, the demand for cobalt as a raw material for power batteries has been increasing. However, China itself has a shortage of cobalt resources. Therefore, overcoming poor resource conditions and enhancing the international competitiveness of the cobalt industry have become urgent issues. This paper is based on global trade data on cobalt resources from 2007 to 2020. A panel regression model is constructed from the perspective of trade networks, and Entropy-Topsis is used to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for the international competitiveness of critical nonferrous metals. This study empirically examines the impact of the trade network characteristics of cobalt resources on international competitiveness, assigns practical significance to trade network characteristic indicators, and analyses the overall competitiveness changes in the global cobalt industry chain and its upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. The research findings reveal the following key points: (1) In recent years, the competitive focus of the cobalt industry chain in various countries has shifted from upstream and midstream to midstream and downstream, with increasingly fierce trade competition downstream, gradually tilting toward countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China. (2) Cobalt trade competition, which was initially characterized by competition among multiple countries, has gradually become more centralized and stable, with differences in the competitiveness of various countries occurring at different stages of the cobalt industry chain. (3) Network centrality and network heterogeneity both have a significant promoting effect on the international competitiveness of the industry, while network connectivity has a significant inhibitory effect on the improvement of international competitiveness.On this basis, the study also suggests some policy implications. The purpose of the study is to enhance the international competitiveness of China's cobalt industry from a trade perspective and to investigate the developments of cobalt trade between China and the rest of the world.
Considering liberation beyond statehood (deferred)
Authors: Bhungalia Lisa 
Published: May 2024

AbstractComplicating linear narratives of liberation, the Gaza Strip under Hamas rule, Somdeep Sen argues in Decolonizing Palestine, constitutes a microcosm of the Palestinian ‘long moment of liberation’ with Hamas assuming the dual role of an anticolonial force and postcolonial government. It is in this mix of the colonial and putatively postcolonial that this book treads. In so doing, Sen offers an important accounting of the messy temporalities of liberation that work against the grain of linear time. In this review, I think alongside Sen’s important provocation that we unbracket liberation from a unitary or single event to consider instead the punctuated, overlapping, and decisively non-linear temporalities that constitute decolonization. Equally, this review asks what dangers might inhere in tethering liberation to a governing authority? Bringing Sen’s work into conversation with contemporary Palestinian politics, movements, and revolutionary moments that cannot be contained within Hamas, this review asks how we might think with Sen about decolonisation as temporally unbounded but also as constituting heterogenous visions, forces, actors and practices that extend beyond formal structures and institutions. What might we gain, it asks, if we expand Sen’s invaluable ‘long moment of liberation’ to include this panoply of forces, visions, and instantiations of decoloniality in practice? It is here, in bridging the messy temporalities of liberation with the heterogenous forces and myriad of ways that Palestine’s decolonial futures are actively being made beyond formal parties and structures, that Sen’s thesis, it suggests, finds its liberatory potential.
Discrimination perception and problem behaviors of left-behind children in China: the mediating effect of grit and social support
Authors: Fu Wangqian , Zhu Yuehua , Chai Hongqin , Xue Rui 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe study aims to explore the protection effect of grit as a personal quality and social support as an environmental factor in the association between left-behind children’s discrimination perception and problem behavior. A total of 457 left-behind children in China were recruited to complete the Discrimination Perception questionnaire, Social Support Scale, Short Grit Scale, and Problem Behavior Questionnaire. It found discrimination perception could positively associate with the problem behaviors of left-behind children. Grit played a mediating role in the relationship of left-behind children’s discrimination perception on problem behaviors. Social support played a mediating role in the association of left-behind children’s discrimination perception on problem behaviors. The higher the left-behind children’s discrimination perception, the lower their grit level, and the less social support led to the more prone to problem behaviors.
Multimodal joint fantasising as a category‑implicative and category‑relations‑implicative action in online
multi‑party interaction
Authors: Sinkeviciute Valeria 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Drawing on interactional pragmatics and membership categorisation analysis, with a focus on (un)accomplished
intersubjectivity, categories and social action, this paper explores some new aspects of multimodal joint fantasising in online
interaction. The data for this study comes from the public Facebook event page regarding the ‘ski field opening’ in Brisbane, a
sub-tropical city in Australia. The first part of the analysis examines how intersubjectivity is accomplished through joint
fantasising co-constructed among the posters, serving entertainment purposes. Invoking their membership in the category
‘fantasisers’, this is done in two ways: (1) flat co-construction gradient; and (2) upgraded
co-construction gradient. The second part focusses on the instances wherein intersubjectivity in relation to the
fantasy world is unaccomplished. It is indexed through (1) metapragmatic labels of humour types; (2) treating the event as real;
and (3) doubting the authenticity of the event and challenging the joint fantasising posts. As a result, additional categories
emerge, thereby constructing category relations, namely, oppositional categories such as ‘fantasisers’-‘the gullible’ and
‘fantasisers’-‘sceptics’. This in situ change, I argue, creates a shift in the pragmatic function of joint
fantasising, moving from a category-implicative action (serving entertainment) to a
category-relations-implicative action (serving jocular criticism). This paper adds to the research on joint
fantasising, categorial work and social action, and broadly contributes to our understanding of how members of the society orient
to contexts and categories in and through talk-in-interaction.
Quantum block coherence with respect to projective measurements
Authors: Wang 王 Pu 璞 , Li 李 Zhong-Yan 忠艳 , Meng 孟 Hui-Xian 会贤 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Quantum coherence serves as a defining characteristic of quantum mechanics, finding extensive applications in quantum computing and quantum communication processing. This study explores quantum block coherence in the context of projective measurements, focusing on the quantification of such coherence. Firstly, we define the correlation function between the two general projective measurements P and Q, and analyze the connection between sets of block incoherent states related to two compatible projective measurements P and Q. Secondly, we discuss the measure of quantum block coherence with respect to projective measurements. Based on a given measure of quantum block coherence, we characterize the existence of maximal block coherent states through projective measurements. This research integrates the compatibility of projective measurements with the framework of quantum block coherence, contributing to the advancement of block coherence measurement theory.
The aortic paradox: a nationwide analysis of 523 994 individual echocardiograms exploring fatal aortic dissection
Authors: Paratz Elizabeth D , Nadel James , Humphries Julie , Rowe Stephanie , Fahy Louise , La Gerche Andre , Prior David , Celermajer David , Strange Geoffrey , Playford David 
Published: May 2024

Abstract

Aims
Increasing aortic dilation increases the risk of aortic dissection. Nevertheless, dissection occurs at dimensions below guideline-directed cut-offs for prophylactic surgery. Currently, there are no large-scale population imaging data assessing aortic dimensions before dissection.

Methods and results
Patients within the National Echo Database of Australia were stratified according to absolute, height-indexed, and body surface area (BSA)-indexed aortic dimensions. Fatal thoracic aortic dissections (ICD-10-AM Code I71) were identified via linkage with the National Death Index. A total of 524 994 individuals were assessed, comprising patients with normal aortic dimensions (n = 460 992), mild dilation (n = 53 402), moderate dilation (n = 10 029), and severe dilation (n = 572). A total of 274 992 (52.4%) were males, with a median age of 64 years and a median follow-up time of 6.9 years. Eight hundred and ninety-nine fatal aortic dissections occurred (normal diameter = 610, mildly dilated aorta = 215, moderately dilated = 53, and severely dilated = 21). Using normal aortas as the reference population, odds of fatal dissection increased with aortic diameter [mild = odds ratio (OR) 3.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.61–3.56; moderate = OR 4.0, 95% CI 3.02–5.30; severe = OR 28.72, 95% CI 18.44–44.72]. Due to the much larger number of patients without severe aortic dilation, 97.7% of fatal aortic dissections occurred in non-severely dilated aortas. Following sensitivity analysis, severe aortic dilation was responsible for at most 24.4% of fatal aortic dissections. The results were robust for absolute, height-indexed, or BSA-indexed aortic measurements.

Conclusion
Although severe aortic dilatation is associated with a near-30-fold increase in fatal dissections, severely dilated aortas are implicated in only 2.3–24.4% of fatal dissections. This highlights the ‘aortic paradox’ and limitations of current guidelines. Future studies should seek to refine risk predictors in patients without severe aortic dilation.
Chemical genomic analysis reveals the interplay between iron chelation, zinc homeostasis, and retromer function in the bioactivity of an ethanol adduct of the feijoa fruit–derived ellagitannin vescalagin
Authors: Mokhtari Mona , Amiri Pegah , Miller Darach , Gresham David , Bloor Stephen J , Munkacsi Andrew B 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Nature has been a rich source of pharmaceutical compounds, producing 80% of our currently prescribed drugs. The feijoa plant, Acca sellowiana, is classified in the family Myrtaceae, native to South America, and currently grown worldwide to produce feijoa fruit. Feijoa is a rich source of bioactive compounds with anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal activities; however, the mechanism of action of these compounds is largely not known. Here, we used chemical genetic analyses in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae to investigate the mechanism of action of a feijoa-derived ethanol adduct of vescalagin (EtOH-vescalagin). Genome-wide barcode sequencing analysis revealed yeast strains lacking genes in iron metabolism, zinc metabolism, retromer function, or mitochondrial function were hypersensitive to 0.3 µM EtOH-vescalagin. This treatment increased expression of iron uptake proteins at the plasma membrane, which was a compensatory response to reduced intracellular iron. Likewise, EtOH-vescalagin increased expression of the Cot1 protein in the vacuolar membrane that transports zinc into the vacuole to prevent cytoplasmic accumulation of zinc. Each individual subunit in the retromer complex was required for the iron homeostatic mechanism of EtOH-vescalagin, while only the cargo recognition component in the retromer complex was required for the zinc homeostatic mechanism. Overexpression of either retromer subunits or high-affinity iron transporters suppressed EtOH-vescalagin bioactivity in a zinc-replete condition, while overexpression of only retromer subunits increased EtOH-vescalagin bioactivity in a zinc-deficient condition. Together, these results indicate that EtOH-vescalagin bioactivity begins with extracellular iron chelation and proceeds with intracellular transport of zinc via the retromer complex. More broadly, this is the first report of a bioactive compound to further characterize the poorly understood interaction between zinc metabolism and retromer function.
Can a charitable trust be valid, notwithstanding the existence of non-charitable purposes? The landmark decision of the Royal Court of Jersey In the Matter of the Estate of the Late Constantin Mattas
Authors: Alexander Stephen , Brennan Kiara 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
In a recent judgment regarding the Jersey moveable estate of a Greek national (In the Matter of the Estate of the Late Constantin Mattas [2024]JRC068), the Royal Court decided several issues of trusts and probate law, some novel, and some which go to the very heart of the question of what constitutes a valid Jersey trust. Most notably, the Court held that, in the present case involving a trust for both charitable and non-charitable purposes, the failure of the non-charitable purpose resulted in the whole of the assets of the Trust being held for the benefit of the charitable purpose, rather than the failure of the trust as a whole.