bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Registered report: Age-preserved semantic memory and the CRUNCH effect manifested as differential semantic control networks: an fMRI study
Authors: Haitas Niobe , Dubuc Jade , Massé-Leblanc Camille , Chamberland Vincent , Amiri Mahnoush , Glatard Tristan , Wilson Maximiliano , Joanette Yves , Steffener Jason 
Published: July 2023

AbstractSemantic memory representations are generally well maintained in aging, whereas semantic control is thought to be more affected. To explain this phenomenon, this study tested the predictions of the Compensation-Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis (CRUNCH), focusing on task demands in aging as a possible framework. The CRUNCH effect would manifest itself in semantic tasks through a compensatory increase in neural activation in semantic control network regions but only up to a certain threshold of task demands. This study compares 39 younger (20–35 years old) with 39 older participants (60–75 years old) in a triad-based semantic judgment task performed in an fMRI scanner while manipulating task demand levels (low versus high) through semantic distance. In line with the CRUNCH predictions, differences in neurofunctional activation and behavioral performance (accuracy and response times) were expected in younger versus older participants in the low-versus high-demand conditions, which should be manifested in semantic control Regions of Interest (ROIs). Our older participants had intact behavioral performance, as proposed in the literature for semantic memory tasks (maintained accuracy and slower response times (RTs)). Age-invariant behavioral performance in the older group compared to the younger one is necessary to test the CRUNCH predictions. The older adults were also characterized by high cognitive reserve, as our neuropsychological tests showed. Our behavioral results confirmed that our task successfully manipulated task demands: error rates, RTs and perceived difficulty increased with increasing task demands in both age groups. We did not find an interaction between age group and task demand, or a statistically significant difference in activation between the low- and high-demand conditions for either RTs or accuracy. As for brain activation, we did not find the expected age group by task demand interaction, or a significant main effect of task demand. Overall, our results are compatible with neural activation in the semantic network and the semantic control network, largely in frontotemporoparietal regions. ROI analyses demonstrated significant effects (but no interactions) of task demand in the left and right inferior frontal gyrus, the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, the posterior inferior temporal gyrus and the prefrontal gyrus. Overall, our test did not confirm the CRUNCH predictions.
Design of artificial molecular motor inheriting directionality and scalability
Authors: Ito Kenta I. , Sato Yusuke , Toyabe Shoichi 
Published: July 2023

ABSTRACTThe realization of artificial molecular motors with autonomous functionality and high performance is one of the major challenges in biophysics. Such motors provide not only new dimensions in biotechnologies but also a novel approach for the bottom-up elucidation of biological molecular motors. For practical applications, directionality and scalability are critical factors. However, the simultaneous realization of both remains a challenge. In this study, we propose a novel design of a rotary motor that can be fabricated using currently available technology, DNA origami, and validate its functionality by simulations with practical parameters. We demonstrate that the motor rotates unidirectionally and processively in the direction defined by the structural asymmetry. The motor also exhibits scalability in that increasing the number of motor legs allows for a larger speed, run length, and stall force. Because of its simple mechanism, a broad range of applications is expected.Statement of SignificanceBiological molecular motors are the most sophisticated nanomachines in nature. Despite a long research history, we have yet to understand how they work in detail. A simple and promising approach for this purpose is to build artificial molecular motors. The process of achieving them helps us to understand how biological motors are designed. Some artificial motors have already been achieved. However, each realization implements only part of the characteristics that biological motors possess. In this work, we propose a novel motor mechanism that simultaneously implements two essential characteristics: scalability and directionality. The results would help us improve the biophysics of molecular motors and contribute to achieving high-performance artificial molecular motors with possible industrial applications.
A streamlined method to obtain biologically active TcdA and TcdB toxins fromClostridioides difficile
Authors: Sapa Afi Akofa Diane , Brosse Anaïs , Coullon Héloïse , Pean de Ponfilly Gauthier , Candela Thomas , Monnier Alban Le 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe major virulence factors ofClostridioides difficile(C. difficile) are enterotoxin A (TcdA) and cytotoxin B (TcdB). The study of toxins is a crucial step in exploring the virulence of this pathogen. Currently, the toxin purification process is either laborious and time-consuming inC. difficileor performed in heterologous hosts. Therefore, we propose a streamlined method to obtain functional toxins inC. difficile. TwoC. difficilestrains were generated each harboring a sequence encoding a His-tag at the 3’ end ofC. difficile630Δerm tcdAortcdBgenes. Each toxin gene is expressed using the Ptetpromoter inducible by anhydro-tetracycline. The purification yields were estimated to be 0.28 mg per liter and 0.1 mg per liter for rTcdA and rTcdB, respectively. In this study, we successfully developed a simple routine method that allows the production and purification of biologically rTcdA and rTcdB active toxins with similar activities compared to native toxins.
Harnessing Gradients for Self-Assembly of Peptide-Based Nanocapsules: A Pathway to Advanced Drug Delivery Systems
Authors: Li Haopeng , Qian Xuliang , Mohanram Harini , Han Xiao , Qi Huitang , Zou Guijin , Yuan Fenghou , Miserez Ali , Yang Qing , Liu Tian , Gao Huajian , Yu Jing 
Published: July 2023

AbstractBiological systems often create materials with intricate structures to achieve specialized functions. In comparison, precise control of structures in man-made materials has been challenging. Here, we report a serendipitous discovery of insect cuticle peptides (ICPs) spontaneously forming nanocapsules through a single-step solvent exchange process, where the concentration gradient resulting from mixing of water and aceton drives the localization and self-assembly of the peptides into hollow nanocapsules. The underlying driving force is the intrinsic affinity of the peptides for a particular solvent concentration, while the diffusion of water and acetone creates a gradient interface that triggers peptide localization and self-assembly. This gradient-mediated self-assembly offers a transformative pathway towards next-generation drug delivery systems based on peptide nanocapsules.
Evolutionarily conserved fMRI network dynamics in the mouse, macaque, and human brain
Authors: Gutierrez-Barragan Daniel , Ramirez Julian S.B. , Panzeri Stefano , Xu Ting , Gozzi Alessandro 
Published: July 2023

ABSTRACTEvolutionarily relevant networks have been previously described in several mammalian species using time-averaged analyses of fMRI time-series. However, fMRI network activity is highly dynamic and continually evolves over timescales of seconds. Whether the dynamic organization of resting-state fMRI network activity is conserved across mammalian species remains unclear. Using frame-wise clustering of fMRI time-series, we find that intrinsic fMRI network dynamics in awake macaques and humans is characterized by recurrent transitions between a set of 4 dominant, neuroanatomically homologous fMRI coactivation modes (C-modes), three of which are also plausibly represented in the rodent brain. Importantly, in all species C-modes exhibit species-invariant dynamic features, including preferred occurrence at specific phases of fMRI global signal fluctuations, and a state transition structure compatible with infraslow coupled oscillator dynamics. Moreover, dominant C-mode occurrence reconstitutes the static organization of the fMRI connectome in all species, and is predictive of ranking of corresponding fMRI connectivity gradients. These results reveal a set of species-invariant principles underlying the dynamic organization of fMRI networks in mammalian species, and offer novel opportunities to relate fMRI network findings across the phylogenetic tree.
Dynamics of pax7 expression during development, muscle regeneration, andin vitrodifferentiation of satellite cells in the trout
Authors: Rallière Cécile , Jagot Sabrina , Sabin Nathalie , Gabillard Jean-Charles 
Published: July 2023

AbstractEssential for muscle fiber formation and hypertrophy, muscle stem cells, also called satellite cells, reside beneath the basal lamina of the muscle fiber. Satellite cells have been commonly localized by the expression of the Paired box 7 (Pax7) due to its specificity and the availability of antibodies in tetrapods. In fish, the identification of satellite cells remains difficult due to the lack of specific antibodies in most species. Based on the development of a highly sensitivein situhybridization (RNAScope®) forpax7, we showed thatpax7+cells were detected in the undifferentiated myogenic epithelium corresponding to the dermomyotome at day 14 post-fertilization. Then, from day 24,pax7+cells gradually migrated into the deep myotome and were localized along the muscle fibers and reach their niche in satellite position of the fibres after hatching. Our results showed that 18 days after muscle injury, a large number ofpax7+cells accumulated at the wound site compared to the uninjured area. During thein vitrodifferentiation of satellite cells, the percentage ofpax7+cells decreased from 44% to 18% on day 7, and some differentiated cells still expressedpax7. Taken together, these results show the dynamic expression ofpax7genes and the follow-up of these muscle stem cells during the different situations of muscle fiber formation in trout.
Allosteric regulation of kinase activity in living cells
Authors: Godbole Shivani , Dokholyan Nikolay V. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe dysregulation of protein kinases is associated with multiple diseases due to the kinases’ involvement in a variety of cell signaling pathways. Manipulating protein kinase function, by controlling the active site, is a promising therapeutic and investigative strategy to mitigate and study diseases. Kinase active sites share structural similarities making it difficult to specifically target one kinase, allosteric control allows specific regulation and study of kinase function without directly targeting the active site. Allosteric sites are distal to the active site but coupled via a dynamic network of inter-atomic interactions between residues in the protein. Establishing an allosteric control over a kinase requires understanding the allosteric wiring of the protein. Computational techniques offer effective and inexpensive mapping of the allosteric sites on a protein. Here, we discuss methods to map and regulate allosteric communications in proteins, and strategies to establish control over kinase functions in live cells and organisms. Protein molecules, or “sensors” are engineered to function as tools to control allosteric activity of the protein as these sensors have high spatiotemporal resolution and help in understanding cell phenotypes after immediate activation or inactivation of a kinase. Traditional methods used to study protein functions, such as knockout, knockdown, or mutation, cannot offer a sufficiently high spatiotemporal resolution. We discuss the modern repertoire of tools to regulate protein kinases as we enter a new era in deciphering cellular signaling and developing novel approaches to treat diseases associated with signal dysregulation.
Innovative teaching practices during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) process: a phenomenological inquiry
Authors: Sadıç Tuğba , Bavlı Bünyamin 
Published: July 2023

PurposeThe Covid-19 period has led to defining changes in the teaching process. Therefore, it is essential to explore how teachers have approached these changes, what experiences they have gained and what they have tried to change. This study aims to elucidate how innovative practices were applied in teaching – which was influenced by emergency remote teaching (ERT) – and better understand teachers' experiences related to these practices.Design/methodology/approachThe phenomenology design, a qualitative research model, was executed in the current study. Phenomenological inquiry aims to interpret people's experiences about a specific concept designated as a phenomenon. Creswell (2020) classified two types of phenomenology: interpretive and descriptive. Interpretive phenomenology was employed in the current study as researchers collected data from individuals experiencing the phenomenon, collected and interpreted the data via excluding their own experiences.FindingsAs a result of the data interpretation, four themes related to experiences of innovative teaching practices during ERT were discovered: interpretation of innovative teaching, innovative teaching practices, needs related to innovative teaching and challenges to innovative teaching. The categories related to the interpretation of innovative teaching include positive and negative interpretation. The categories related to the second theme, innovative teaching practices, consist of characteristics of innovative teachers and innovative teaching practices employed. The categories related to the third theme, needs related to innovative teaching, are the need for guidance, training and technological infrastructure. The categories related to the fourth and final theme, challenges to innovative teaching, are barriers related to the teacher, barriers related to the learner and those related to the environment.Originality/valueThis study discovered that for teachers to practice innovative teaching, they must develop themselves, keep up-to-date and develop lifelong learning skills. Hung and Li (2017) reached a similar conclusion to the findings of this study: teachers' professional development is positively related to innovative teaching skills at a high level. The participating teachers stated that they had to rapidly improve their technological competency. It is thought that teachers developing their technological competencies will contribute to both ERT and face-to-face education at the end of the Pandemic.
Entrepreneurial borrowing overdue prediction based on stacking model transfer learning
Authors: Shengdong Mu , Yunjie Liu , Jijian Gu 
Published: July 2023

PurposeBy introducing Stacking algorithm to solve the underfitting problem caused by insufficient data in traditional machine learning, this paper provides a new solution to the cold start problem of entrepreneurial borrowing risk control.Design/methodology/approachThe authors introduce semi-supervised learning and integrated learning into the field of migration learning, and innovatively propose the Stacking model migration learning, which can independently train models on entrepreneurial borrowing credit data, and then use the migration strategy itself as the learning object, and use the Stacking algorithm to combine the prediction results of the source domain model and the target domain model.FindingsThe effectiveness of the two migration learning models is evaluated with real data from an entrepreneurial borrowing. The algorithmic performance of the Stacking-based model migration learning is further improved compared to the benchmark model without migration learning techniques, with the model area under curve value rising to 0.8. Comparing the two migration learning models reveals that the model-based migration learning approach performs better. The reason for this is that the sample-based migration learning approach only eliminates the noisy samples that are relatively less similar to the entrepreneurial borrowing data. However, the calculation of similarity and the weighing of similarity are subjective, and there is no unified judgment standard and operation method, so there is no guarantee that the retained traditional credit samples have the same sample distribution and feature structure as the entrepreneurial borrowing data.Practical implicationsFrom a practical standpoint, on the one hand, it provides a new solution to the cold start problem of entrepreneurial borrowing risk control. The small number of labeled high-quality samples cannot support the learning and deployment of big data risk control models, which is the cold start problem of the entrepreneurial borrowing risk control system. By extending the training sample set with auxiliary domain data through suitable migration learning methods, the prediction performance of the model can be improved to a certain extent and more generalized laws can be learned.Originality/valueThis paper introduces the thought method of migration learning to the entrepreneurial borrowing scenario, provides a new solution to the cold start problem of the entrepreneurial borrowing risk control system and verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the migration learning method applied in the risk control field through empirical data.
The effectiveness of a training program on perceptions of caring culture among Turkish nurses: A quasi‐experimental trial
Authors: Gülşen Mehmet , Kutlu Adalet 
Published: July 2023

AbstractAimTo assess the effectiveness of a training program on perceptions of caring culture among Turkish nurses and investigate the relationships among caring culture, job satisfaction, and intention to leave.BackgroundEvery organisation has its on culture with its vairous components including values, symbols, practices and policies. Healthcare organizations need a favorable caring culture to support nurses and other professional working in the organisation.MethodsThis was a quasi‐experimental trial of an educational intervention conducted between October and December 2020 at a university hospital in Turkey. The sample of the study consisted of 86 nurses. A four‐week training program based on caring culture was provided for the training group. The data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Turkish version of the Caring Culture Survey, and the Job Satisfaction Scale. Intention to leave was measured with a single question.FindingsThe mean total caring culture and personal caring scores of the training group were significantly higher after the training than before (p < 0.05). There were significant positive correlations between the mean caring culture total and subscale scores of the participants and their total job satisfaction scores. Besides, there were significant negative correlations between the caring culture total and subscale scores of the participants and their intentions to leave, but these relationships were weak or moderate (p < 0.05).ConclusionThis training program based on caring culture can contribute to improving the caring culture perceptions of nurses. Caring culture is positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to intentions to leave.Implications for nursing and health policyHealthcare organizations should prioritize creating a caring culture and designing initiatives that focus on caring culture. The perceptions of nurses about caring culture should be measured and identified regularly.
Rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis differentially respond to lactic acid sting and capsaicin tests in Chinese women
Authors: Hu Min , Tu Ying , Man Mao‐Qiang , He Yunting , Wu Pan , He Li , Gu Hua 
Published: July 2023

AbstractBackgroundAlthough rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis share some symptoms of sensitive skin, whether they respond differently to lactic acid sting and capsaicin tests, common tests for diagnosis of sensitive skin, is unknown.ObjectivesTo reveal the cutaneous responses to lactic acid sting (LAST) and capsaicin test (CAT) in females with either rosacea vs. seborrheic dermatitis.MethodsA total of 60 patients with rosacea, 20 patients with seborrheic dermatitis and 40 normal controls were enrolled in the study. Their skin sensitivity to stimuli were evaluated following topical application of either 10% lactic acid solution or 0.001% capsaicin solution. Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) rates and erythema indexes were also measured on the face.ResultsIn comparison to normal controls, the positive rate to either LAST or CAT was significantly higher in subjects with rosacea (p < 0.001), but not in that with seborrheic dermatitis. Similarly, individuals with rosacea displayed a higher positive rate to both LAST and CAT than those with seborrheic dermatitis and normal controls (p < 0.001). In parallel, the LAST scores and CAT scores in individuals with rosacea were significantly higher than in that with either seborrheic dermatitis or normal controls (p < 0.001). The baseline TEWL rates and erythema indexes were higher in individual with rosacea than in normal controls (p < 0.001). But the baseline TEWL rates and erythema indexes did not differ significantly between subjects with rosacea and that with seborrheic dermatitis. Moreover, LAST scores and CAT scores correlated positively with TEWL (p < 0.0001). TEWL rates were higher in CAT positive than in CAT negative subjects (p < 0.0001). Finally, erythema index correlated positively with CAT scores (p < 0.0001), but not with LAST scores (p = 0.0842).ConclusionsSkin responses to LAST and CAT differ between individuals with rosacea and those with seborrheic dermatitis, possibly due to the differences in epidermal permeability barrier and the neurovascular hyperreactivity. The higher LAST and CAT scores, as well as positive rates of both LAST and CAT can be attributable to inferior permeability barrier and the neurovascular hyperreactivity in subjects with rosacea.
Fast backward steps and detachment of single kinesin molecules measured under a wide range of loads
Authors: Kondo Yuichi , Sasaki Kazuo , Higuchi Hideo 
Published: July 2023

AbstractTo understand force generation under a wide range of loads, the stepping of single kinesin molecules was measured at loads from −20 to 42 pN by optical tweezers with high temporal resolution. The optical trap has been improved to halve positional noise and increase bandwidth by using 200‐nm beads. The step size of the forward and backward steps was 8.2 nm even over a wide range of loads. Histograms of the dwell times of backward steps and detachment fit well to two independent exponential equations with fast (~0.4 ms) and slow (>3 ms) time constants, indicating the existence of a fast step in addition to the conventional slow step. The dwell times of the fast steps were almost independent of the load and ATP concentration, while those of the slow backward steps and detachment depended on those. We constructed the kinetic model to explain the fast and slow steps under a wide range of loads.