bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the clinical utility of adhesion molecules in the management of thyroid nodules
Authors: Rabi Larissa Teodoro , Peres Karina Colombera , Nascimento Matheus , de Souza Teixeira Elisangela , de Freitas Leandro Luiz Lopes , Barreto Icléia Siqueira , Geraldo Murilo Vieira , Assumpção Lígia Vera Montalli , Máximo Valdemar , Tincani Alfio José , Bufalo Natassia Elena , Ward Laura Sterian 
Published: March 2023

AbstractTo better understand the relationship among cell adhesion molecules (CAM) and investigate the clinical diagnostic and prognostic application of ICAM-1 (ICAM1), LFA-1 (ITGAL), and L-selectin (SELL) proteins and mRNA corresponding expression in thyroid cancer. Gene expression was evaluated by RT–qPCR, and protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. We evaluated 275 patients (218 women, 57 men, 48.4 ± 14.5 years old), including 102 benign and 173 malignant nodules. The 143 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and 30 follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) patients were managed according to current guidelines and followed-up for 78.7 ± 54.2 months. Malignant and benign nodules differed concerning mRNA (p = 0.0027) and protein (p = 0.0020 for nuclear) expression of L-selectin and ICAM-1 (mRNA: p = 0.0001 and protein: p = 0.0014) and protein expression of LFA-1 (p = 0.0168), but not mRNA expression of LFA-1 (p = 0.2131). SELL expression was more intense in malignant tumors (p = 0.0027). ICAM1 (p = 0.0064) and ITGAL (p = 0.0244) mRNA expression was higher in tumors with lymphocyte infiltrate. ICAM-1 expression correlated with younger age at diagnosis (p = 0.0312) and smaller tumor size (p = 0.0443). Also, LFA-1 expression correlated with higher age at diagnosis (p = 0.0376) and was more intense at stage III and IV (p = 0.0077). In general, the protein expression of the 3 CAM decreased as the process of cellular dedifferentiation occurred. We suggest that the SELL and ICAM1 genes and L-selectin and LFA-1 protein expression may help confirm malignancy and assist in the histological characterization of follicular patterned lesions, but we were unable to correlate these CAMs with patient outcomes.
Critical contribution of moisture to the air quality deterioration in a warm and humid weather
Authors: Choi Woosuk , Ho Chang-Hoi , Kim Ka-Young 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe deterioration of air quality that threatens human health is recognized as focal compound hazard. Here, decisive thermodynamic conditions for activation of secondary aerosol formation have been investigated focused on Korea. In a dry environment with relative humidity < 60%, gas phase reaction to form fine particles depended largely on surface temperature. In a wet environment (relative humidity ≥ 60%), however, aqueous phase reaction of secondary inorganic aerosols, which are sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium, accounting for 67% of the total aerosol mass, was more activated. Thus, humidity is as important as temperature in the secondary production of aerosol; air quality often worsened when a low-pressure system was predominant over the Korean Peninsula. It is rather different from the general synoptic conditions of high concentrations of particulate matters characterized by high pressure and atmospheric stagnation. This study suggests additional favorable condition and responsible mechanism of air quality hazards that may be frequent in future.
Face masks are less effective than sunglasses in masking face identity
Authors: Or Charles C.-F. , Ng Kester Y. J. , Chia Yiik , Koh Jing Han , Lim Denise Y. , Lee Alan L. F. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe effect of covering faces on face identification is recently garnering interest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we investigated how face identification performance was affected by two types of face disguise: sunglasses and face masks. Observers studied a series of faces; then judged whether a series of test faces, comprising studied and novel faces, had been studied before or not. Face stimuli were presented either without coverings (full faces), wearing sunglasses covering the upper region (eyes, eyebrows), or wearing surgical masks covering the lower region (nose, mouth, chin). We found that sunglasses led to larger reductions in sensitivity (d’) to face identity than face masks did, while both disguises increased the tendency to report faces as studied before, a bias that was absent for full faces. In addition, faces disguised during either study or test only (i.e. study disguised faces, test with full faces; and vice versa) led to further reductions in sensitivity from both studying and testing with disguised faces, suggesting that congruence between study and test is crucial for memory retrieval. These findings implied that the upper region of the face, including the eye-region features, is more diagnostic for holistic face-identity processing than the lower face region.
Mycophenolic acid directly protects podocytes by preserving the actin cytoskeleton and increasing cell survival
Authors: Abo Zed Seif El Din , Hackl Agnes , Bohl Katrin , Ebert Lena , Kieckhöfer Emilia , Müller Carsten , Becker Kerstin , Fink Gregor , Nüsken Kai-Dietrich , Nüsken Eva , Müller Roman-Ulrich , Schermer Bernhard , Weber Lutz T. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractMycophenolate Mofetil (MMF) has an established role as a therapeutic agent in childhood nephrotic syndrome. While other immunosuppressants have been shown to positively affect podocytes, direct effects of MMF on podocytes remain largely unknown. The present study examines the effects of MMF’s active component Mycophenolic Acid (MPA) on the transcriptome of podocytes and investigates its biological significance. We performed transcriptomics in cultured murine podocytes exposed to MPA to generate hypotheses on podocyte-specific effects of MPA. Accordingly, we further analyzed biological MPA effects on actin cytoskeleton morphology after treatment with bovine serum albumin (BSA) by immunofluorescence staining, as well as on cell survival following exposure to TNF-α and cycloheximide by neutral red assay. MPA treatment significantly (adjusted p < 0.05) affected expression of 351 genes in podocytes. Gene Ontology term enrichment analysis particularly clustered terms related to actin and inflammation-related cell death. Indeed, quantification of the actin cytoskeleton of BSA treated podocytes revealed a significant increase of thickness and number of actin filaments after treatment with MPA. Further, MPA significantly reduced TNFα and cycloheximide induced cell death. MPA has a substantial effect on the transcriptome of podocytes in vitro, particularly including functional clusters related to non-immune cell dependent mechanisms. This may provide a molecular basis for direct beneficial effects of MPA on the structural integrity and survival of podocytes under pro-inflammatory conditions.
A longer wood growing season does not lead to higher carbon sequestration
Authors: Silvestro Roberto , Zeng Qiao , Buttò Valentina , Sylvain Jean-Daniel , Drolet Guillaume , Mencuccini Maurizio , Thiffault Nelson , Yuan Shaoxiong , Rossi Sergio 
Published: March 2023

AbstractA reliable assessment of forest carbon sequestration depends on our understanding of wood ecophysiology. Within a forest, trees exhibit different timings and rates of growth during wood formation. However, their relationships with wood anatomical traits remain partially unresolved. This study evaluated the intra-annual individual variability in growth traits in balsam fir [Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.]. We collected wood microcores weekly from April to October 2018 from 27 individuals in Quebec (Canada) and prepared anatomical sections to assess wood formation dynamics and their relationships with the anatomical traits of the wood cells. Xylem developed in a time window ranging from 44 to 118 days, producing between 8 and 79 cells. Trees with larger cell production experienced a longer growing season, with an earlier onset and later ending of wood formation. On average, each additional xylem cell lengthened the growing season by 1 day. Earlywood production explained 95% of the variability in xylem production. More productive individuals generated a higher proportion of earlywood and cells with larger sizes. Trees with a longer growing season produced more cells but not more biomass in the wood. Lengthening the growing season driven by climate change may not lead to enhanced carbon sequestration from wood production.
The mediating effects of personality traits on the relationship of youth conduct problems and mood disorders with adulthood suicidality
Authors: Wang Tsung-Yang , Chen Hsi-Chung , Hsu Cheng-Dien , Chen I-Ming , Liao Shih-Cheng , Chang Chiao-Erh , Chen Ying-Yeh , Chan Jen-Hui , Kuo Po-Hsiu 
Published: March 2023

AbstractIdentifying the relevant factors for suicidality in individuals with conduct problems is a public health concern, especially if they were under the influence of mood disorders later in life. This study investigates the relationship between youth conduct problems and mood disorders and adulthood suicidality, and to further explore the mediating effects of personality on this relationship. A retrospective cohort study was administered to 308 individuals aged 20–65 years, with or without mood disorders diagnosed by psychiatrists. The Composite International Diagnosis Interview was used to evaluate conduct problems in youth and suicidality (i.e., suicide plan and suicide attempt) in the past year. Personality traits were assessed using Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised for extraversion and neuroticism. Multiple-mediator analysis was used to investigate the mediation effects of personality traits on the relationship between conduct problems and suicidality. The average age of enrolled participants was 31.6 years, and 42.5% of them were female. 39.2% reported suicidality and 43.2% reported conduct problems in youth. Participants who were diagnosed with mood disorders (p < 0.001) and reported having conduct problems (p = 0.004) were associated with high suicidality. Multiple-mediator analysis showed that conduct problems in youth increased the risk of adulthood suicidality through the indirect effects of higher neuroticism (suicide plan: OR = 1.30, BCA 95% CI = 1.04–1.83; suicide attempt: OR = 1.27, BCA 95% CI = 1.05–1.66). Neuroticism mediates the association between youth conduct problems and adulthood suicidality. This finding raises our attention to assess personality traits in individuals with youth conduct problems for designing proper intervention strategies to reduce the risk of suicide.
Time-dependent impact of co-matured manure with elemental sulfur and biochar on the soil agro-ecological properties and plant biomass
Authors: Holatko Jiri , Hammerschmiedt Tereza , Mustafa Adnan , Kintl Antonin , Skarpa Petr , Ryant Pavel , Baltazar Tivadar , Malicek Ondrej , Latal Oldrich , Brtnicky Martin 
Published: March 2023

AbstractFarmyard manure is the most common type of organic fertilizer, and its properties depend mainly on the type of livestock, bedding material and the conditions of fermentation. Co-maturing of manure with other amendments to modify its final properties has been seen as a win–win strategy recently. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in the effect of unenriched manure and manures co-matured with biochar, elemental sulfur or both amendments on the soil physico-chemical and biological properties, and plant (barley, maize) biomass production. For this purpose a pot experiment was carried out in a time-dependent way. Samples were taken from 12 week-lasting (test crop barley) and 24 week-lasting (test crop maize) pot cultivation carried out in a growth chamber. Co-matured manure with biochar showed the highest rate of maturation expressed as humic to fulvic acid ratio, its amendment to soil significantly increased the dry aboveground biomass weight in the half-time (12 weeks) of experiment. However, the effect vanished after 24 weeks. We received for this variant highest long-term (24 weeks) contents of total carbon and nitrogen in soil. Contrarily, co-matured manure with biochar and elemental sulfur led to short-term carbon sequestration (the highest total carbon in 12 weeks) due to presumed retardation of microbial-mediated transformation of nutrients. We conclude that the prolonged pot experiment with biochar or elemental sulfur enriched manure led to the increased recalcitrancy of soil organic matter and retardation of soil nutrient transformation to the plant-available form.
Mediating role of depressive symptoms on the relationship between sleep duration and cognitive function
Authors: Wang Liqun , He Shulan , Yan Ning , Pan Ruiping , Niu Yang , Li Jiangping 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAlthough some studies have shown the association between sleep duration and cognitive impairment is positive, the mechanism explaining how sleep duration is linked to cognition remains poor understood. The current study aims to explore it among Chinese population. A cross-sectional study of 12,589 participants aged 45 or over was conducted, cognition was assessed by three measures to capture mental intactness, episodic memory, and visuospatial abilities. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale 10 (CES-D10) was administered during the face-to-face survey to assess depressive status. Sleep duration was reported by the participants themselves. Partial correlation and linear regression were used to explore the association between sleep duration, cognition, and depression. The Bootstrap methods PROCESS program was used to detect the mediation effect of depression. Sleep duration was positively correlated with cognition and negatively with depression (p < 0.01). The CES-D10 score (r = − 0.13, p < 0.01) was negatively correlated with cognitive function. Linear regression analysis showed sleep duration was positively associated with cognition (p = 0.001). When depressive symptoms were considered, the association between sleep duration and cognition lost significance (p = 0.468). Depressive symptoms have mediated the relationship between sleep duration and cognitive function. The findings revealed that the relationship between sleep duration and cognition is mainly explained by depressive symptoms and may provide new ideas for interventions for cognitive dysfunction.
srdA mutations suppress the rseA/cpsA deletion mutant conidiation defect in Aspergillus nidulans
Authors: Ogawa Masahiro , Fukuda Ryouichi , Iwama Ryo , Koyama Yasuji , Horiuchi Hiroyuki 
Published: March 2023

AbstractConidiation is an important reproductive process in Aspergillus. We previously reported, in A. nidulans, that the deletion of a putative glycosyltransferase gene, rseA/cpsA, causes an increase in the production of extracellular hydrolases and a severe reduction in conidiation. The aim of this study was to obtain novel genetic factors involved in the repression of conidiation in the rseA deletion mutant. We isolated mutants in which the rseA deletion mutant conidiation defect is suppressed and performed a comparative genomic analysis of these mutants. A gene encoding a putative transcription factor was identified as the associated candidate causative gene. The candidate gene was designated as srdA (suppressor gene for the conidiation defect of the rseAdeletion mutant). The conidiation efficiency of the rseAsrdA double-deletion mutant was increased. Introduction of wild-type srdA into the suppressor mutants caused a conidiation defect similar to that of the rseA deletion mutant. Notably, the conidiation efficiencies of the rseAsrdA double-deletion and srdA single-deletion mutants were higher than that of the wild-type strain. These results indicate that srdA is a novel genetic factor that strongly represses conidiation of the rseA deletion mutant, and a putative transcriptional regulator, SrdA is a negative regulator of conidiation in A. nidulans.
Benchmarking machine learning robustness in Covid-19 genome sequence classification
Authors: Ali Sarwan , Sahoo Bikram , Zelikovsky Alexander , Chen Pin-Yu , Patterson Murray 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented amount of sequence data of the SARS-CoV-2 genome—millions of sequences and counting. This amount of data, while being orders of magnitude beyond the capacity of traditional approaches to understanding the diversity, dynamics, and evolution of viruses, is nonetheless a rich resource for machine learning (ML) approaches as alternatives for extracting such important information from these data. It is of hence utmost importance to design a framework for testing and benchmarking the robustness of these ML models. This paper makes the first effort (to our knowledge) to benchmark the robustness of ML models by simulating biological sequences with errors. In this paper, we introduce several ways to perturb SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences to mimic the error profiles of common sequencing platforms such as Illumina and PacBio. We show from experiments on a wide array of ML models that some simulation-based approaches with different perturbation budgets are more robust (and accurate) than others for specific embedding methods to certain noise simulations on the input sequences. Our benchmarking framework may assist researchers in properly assessing different ML models and help them understand the behavior of the SARS-CoV-2 virus or avoid possible future pandemics.
Influence of gamma irradiation on rosin properties and its antimicrobial activity
Authors: Badr Magd M. , Awadallah-F Ahmed , Azzam Ahmed M. , Mady A. H. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe main component of rosin natural gum is abietic acid, which has an interesting chemical structure to be studied with the influence of gamma-ray and the antimicrobial activity on the properties of a cheap abundant solid state natural material of rosin. Rosin is exposed to a wide scale of gamma-ray ranges from 0 to 100 kGy. The changes in the properties are tracked by various techniques of FTIR, XRD, TGA, GPC, and SEM. The molecular weight of rosin changes from 370 g/mol to higher and the morphological properties were investigated. The irradiated rosin acid (IRA) at different irradiation doses exploited antimicrobial effect versus Gram-positive and Gram-negative as well. The inhibition zone enhanced from 15 to 33, 14 to 28, 14 to 20, and 9 to 14 mm for Gram-positive and Gram-negative, respectively. Moreover, bioactive behavior for irradiated rosin of 40 kGy recorded the highest antibacterial activity against both types of bacteria. The outcome data of antimicrobial activity are good and confirm that there is a significant effect of irradiation dose on the biocidal activity of rosin.
Elamipretide mitigates ischemia-reperfusion injury in a swine model of hemorrhagic shock
Authors: Patel N. , Johnson M. A. , Vapniarsky N. , Van Brocklin M. W. , Williams T. K. , Youngquist S. T. , Ford R. , Ewer N. , Neff L. P. , Hoareau G. L. 
Published: March 2023

Abstractischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) after hemorrhage is potentiated by aortic occlusion or resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA). Given the central role of mitochondrial injury in shock, we hypothesized that Elamipretide, a peptide that protects mitochondria, would mitigate IRI after hemorrhagic shock and REBOA. Twelve pigs were subjected to hemorrhagic shock and 45 min of REBOA. After 25 min of REBOA, animals received either saline or Elamipretide. Animals were transfused with autologous blood during balloon deflation, and pigs were resuscitated with isotonic crystalloids and norepinephrine for 4.25 h. Elamipretide-treated animals required less crystalloids than the controls (62.5 [50–90] and 25 [5–30] mL/kg, respectively), but similar amounts of norepinephrine (24.7 [8.6–39.3] and 9.7 [2.1–12.5] mcg/kg, respectively). Treatment animals had a significant reduction in serum creatinine (control: 2.7 [2.6–2.8]; Elamipretide: 2.4 [2.4–2.5] mg/dL; p = 0.04), troponin (control: 3.20 [2.14–5.47] ng/mL, Elamipretide: 0.22 [0.1–1.91] ng/mL; p = 0.03), and interleukin-6 concentrations at the end of the study. There were no differences in final plasma lactate concentration. Elamipretide reduced fluid requirements and protected the kidney and heart after profound IRI. Further understanding the subcellular consequences of REBOA and mitochondrial rescue will open new therapeutic avenues for patients suffering from IRI after hemorrhage.
Preparation and characterization of low-cost adsorbents for the efficient removal of malachite green using response surface modeling and reusability studies
Authors: Moustafa Mohammed Taha 
Published: March 2023

AbstractMalachite green used in textile and dyeing industries is a common persistent pollutant in wastewater and the environment causing major hazards to human health and aquatic organisms. In this study, the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the adsorptive removal of malachite green using nano-bentonite, MgO-impregnated clay, and Mucor sp. composites. The nano materials and Mucor sp. composite were characterized by FTIR, SEM and X-ray diffractometry. According to the obtained results, nano-bentonite exhibits a maximum MG adsorption efficiency of 98.6% at 35 °C, pH 7.0, 60 min contact time, 1.0 g/L adsorbent dosage, and 50 mg/L initial MG concentration. On the other hand, the maximum efficiency for MG adsorption on MgO-impregnated clay of 97.04% is observed at pH 9.0, 60 min contact time, 0.7 g/L adsorbent dosage, and 50 mg/L initial MG concentration. The Malachite green (MG) adsorption isotherm on MgO-impregnated clay corresponded with the Freundlich isotherm, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.982. However, the Langmuir adsorption isotherm was a superior fit for nano-bentonite (R2 = 0.992). The adsorption activities of nano-bentonite and MgO-impregnated clay were fitted into a pseudo-second-order kinetic model with R2 of 0.996 and 0.995, respectively. Additionally, despite being recycled numerous times, the adsorbent maintained its high structural stability and removal effectiveness for nano-bentonite (94.5–86%) and MgO-impregnated clay (92–83%).