bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
miR-137 conferred robustness to the territorial restriction of the neural plate border
Authors: Scatturice Luciana A. , Vázquez Nicolás , Strobl-Mazzulla Pablo H. 
Published: September 2023

ABSTRACTThe neural plate border (NPB) of vertebrate embryos segregated from the neural plate (NP) and epidermal regions, and comprised an intermingled group of progenitors with multiple fate potential. Recent studies have shown that during the gastrula stage, TFAP2A acts as a pioneer factor in remodeling the epigenetic landscape required to activate components of the NPB induction program. Here we show thatTfap2ahas two highly conserved binding sites for miR-137 and both display a reciprocal expression pattern at the NPB and NP respectively. In addition, ectopic miR-137 expression reduced TFAP2A, whereas its functional inhibition expanded their territorial distribution overlapping with PAX7. Furthermore, we demonstrated that loss of thede novoDNA methyltransferase DNMT3A expanded miR-137 expression to the NPB. Bisulfite sequencing showed a significantly higher level of non-canonical CpH methylation at the promoter of miR-137 when we compared NPB and NP samples. Our finding shows that miR-137 contributes to the robustness of NPB territorial restriction in vertebrate development.
Conformational changes in the Niemann-Pick Type C1 protein NCR1 drive sterol translocation
Authors: Frain Kelly M. , Dedic Emil , Nel Lynette , Bohush Anastasiia , Olesen Esben , Stokes David L. , Pedersen Bjørn Panyella 
Published: September 2023

ABSTRACTThe membrane protein Niemann-Pick Type C1 protein (NPC1, named NCR1 in yeast) is central to sterol homeostasis in eukaryotes.Saccharomyces cerevisiaeNCR1 is localized to the vacuolar membrane, where it is suggested to carry sterols across the protective glycocalyx and deposit them into the vacuolar membrane. However, documentation of a vacuolar glycocalyx in fungi is lacking and the mechanism for sterol translocation has remained unclear. Here we provide evidence that a glycocalyx is indeed present inside isolatedSaccharomyces cerevisiaevacuoles, and report four cryo-EM structures of NCR1 in two distinct conformations that elucidate how it moves sterol through the glycocalyx. The two conformations, named “tense” and “relaxed”, illustrate movement of sterol through a tunnel formed by the luminal domains. Based on these structures and on comparison with other members of the Resistance-Nodulation-Division (RND) superfamily we propose a transport model that links changes in the luminal domains with a cycle of protonation and deprotonation within the transmembrane region of the protein. Our model suggests that NPC proteins work by a generalized RND mechanism where the transmembrane domains form a ’motor-unit’ that sequentially adopts a tense and relaxed conformation to drive changes in luminal/extracellular domains.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTNiemann-Pick Type C1 (NPC1, named NCR1 in yeast) proteins play a critical role in sterol homeostasis by facilitating the integration of sterols into membranes of acidic organelles like lysosomes and vacuoles. The inner surface of these organelles’ membranes is shielded by the glycocalyx. Here, we provide evidence that a glycocalyx is present in vacuoles fromSaccharomyces cerevisiaeand demonstrate that NCR1 transports sterols across it by undergoing conformational changes. Our structures suggest a transport model where sterol transport is linked to proton-driven changes in the transmembrane region. This work sheds light on the mechanism of NPC1 protein function and has broad implications for understanding lysosomal storage disorders and for mechanisms employed by members of the Resistance-Nodulation-Division (RND) superfamily.
Neural correlates of future volitional action inDrosophila
Authors: Brezovec Luke E. , Berger Andrew B. , Druckmann Shaul , Clandinin Thomas R. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe ability to act voluntarily is fundamental to animal behavior1,2,3,4,5. For example, self-directed movements are critical to exploration, particularly in the absence of external sensory signals that could shape a trajectory. However, how neural networks might plan future changes in direction in the absence of salient sensory cues is unknown. Here we use volumetric two-photon imaging to map neural activity associated with walking across the entire brain of the fruit flyDrosophila, register these signals across animals with micron precision, and generate a dataset of ∼20 billion neural measurements across thousands of bouts of voluntary movements. We define spatially clustered neural signals selectively associated with changes in forward and angular velocity, and reveal that turning is associated with widespread asymmetric activity between brain hemispheres. Strikingly, this asymmetry in interhemispheric dynamics emerges more than 10 seconds before a turn within a specific brain region associated with motor control, the Inferior Posterior Slope (IPS). This early, local difference in neural activity predicts the direction of future turns on a trial-by-trial basis, revealing long-term motor planning. As the direction of each turn is neither trained, nor guided by external sensory cues, it must be internally determined. We therefore propose that this pre-motor center contains a neural substrate of volitional action.
Brain-wide functional connectivity artifactually inflates throughout fMRI scans: a problem and solution
Authors: Korponay Cole , Janes Amy C. , Frederick Blaise B. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal is a mainstay of neuroimaging assessment of neuronal activity and functional connectivityin vivo. Thus, a chief priority is maximizing this signal’s reliability and validity. To this end, the fMRI community has invested considerable effort into optimizing both experimental designs and physiological denoising procedures to improve the accuracy, across-scan reproducibility, and subject discriminability of BOLD-derived metrics like functional connectivity. Despite these advances, we discover that a substantial and ubiquitous defect remains in fMRI datasets: functional connectivity throughout the brain artifactually inflates during the course of fMRI scans – by an average of more than 70% in 15 minutes of scan time - at spatially heterogeneous rates, producing both spatial and temporal distortion of brain connectivity maps. We provide evidence that this inflation is driven by a previously unrecognized time-dependent increase of non-neuronal, systemic low-frequency oscillation (sLFO) blood flow signal during fMRI scanning. This signal is not removed by standard denoising procedures such as independent component analysis (ICA). However, we demonstrate that a specialized sLFO denoising procedure - Regressor Interpolation at Progressive Time Delays (RIPTiDe) - can be added to standard denoising pipelines to significantly attenuate functional connectivity inflation. We confirm the presence of sLFO-driven functional connectivity inflation in multiple independent fMRI datasets – including the Human Connectome Project – as well as across resting-state, task, and sleep-state conditions, and demonstrate its potential to produce false positive findings. Collectively, we present evidence for a previously unknown physiological phenomenon that spatiotemporally distorts estimates of brain connectivity in human fMRI datasets, and present a solution for mitigating this artifact.
Learning when to learn: hummingbirds adjust their exploration behaviour to match the value of information
Authors: Donkersteeg C. , Peters H. , Jerome C. , Menzies C. , Welch K. C. , Guillette L. M. , Dakin R. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractExploration is a key part of an animal’s ability to learn. The exploration-exploitation dilemma predicts that individuals should adjust their exploration behaviour according to changes in the value of information. Here, we test this prediction by tracking ruby-throated hummingbirds as they foraged repeatedly from a large array of artificial flowers, wherein 25% of the flowers contained a sucrose reward. Similar to real-world floral dynamics, the reward locations were consistent in the short-term, but varied from day to day. Thus, the value of information about the flower contents would be greatest at the beginning of a daily foraging session, and decay toward the end of each session. We tracked five individual hummingbirds in repeated foraging sessions, comprising more than 3,400 floral probes. We analyzed two metrics of their exploration behaviour: (1) the probability that a bird would shift from probing one flower to another, and (2) the Shannon information entropy of a sequence of flowers probed. We show that initially, the hummingbirds increased their exploration behaviour as time elapsed within a session. As they performed more sessions and learned the rules of the environment, the hummingbirds switched to explore more diverse choices at the beginning of a foraging session, when the value of information was high, and less diverse choices toward the end of a session. Our results suggest that foraging hummingbirds can learn when to learn, highlighting the importance of plasticity in exploration behaviour.HighlightsExploration is a necessary part of learningForagers must balance sampling for information with the use of known rewardsHummingbirds learned to explore more when the value of new information was highApparent mistakes may actually represent an information-seeking strategy
Shorter self-reported sleep duration in men is associated with worse virtual spatial navigation performance
Authors: Yavuz Emre , Lazar Alpar S , Gahnstrom Christoffer J. , Goodroe Sarah , Coutrot Antoine , Hornberger Michael , Spiers Hugo J. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractSleep has been shown to impact navigation ability. However, it remains unclear how different sleep-related variables may be independently associated with spatial navigation performance, and as to whether gender may play a role in these associations. We used a mobile video game app, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), to measure wayfinding ability in US-based participants. Wayfinding performance on SHQ has been shown to correlate with real-world wayfinding. Participants were asked to report their sleep duration, quality, daytime sleepiness and nap frequency and duration on a typical night (n = 737, 409 men, 328 women, mean age = 27.1 years, range = 18-59 years). A multivariate linear regression was used to identify which self-reported sleep variables were independently associated with wayfinding performance. For men, longer self-reported sleep durations were associated with better wayfinding performance. For women, no such association was found. While other self-reported sleep variables showed trends of association with wayfinding performance, none of these were significantly associated with wayfinding performance in our regression model. These findings from younger U.S.-based participants suggest that a longer self-reported sleep duration may be an important contributor to successful navigation ability in men.
Construction and application of knowledge graph for construction accidents based on deep learning
Authors: Wu Wenjing , Wen Caifeng , Yuan Qi , Chen Qiulan , Cao Yunzhong 
Published: September 2023

PurposeLearning from safety accidents and sharing safety knowledge has become an important part of accident prevention and improving construction safety management. Considering the difficulty of reusing unstructured data in the construction industry, the knowledge in it is difficult to be used directly for safety analysis. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construction of construction safety knowledge representation model and safety accident graph through deep learning methods, extract construction safety knowledge entities through BERT-BiLSTM-CRF model and propose a data management model of data–knowledge–services.Design/methodology/approachThe ontology model of knowledge representation of construction safety accidents is constructed by integrating entity relation and logic evolution. Then, the database of safety incidents in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is established based on the collected construction safety incident reports and related dispute cases. The construction method of construction safety accident knowledge graph is studied, and the precision of BERT-BiLSTM-CRF algorithm in information extraction is verified through comparative experiments. Finally, a safety accident report is used as an example to construct the AEC domain construction safety accident knowledge graph (AEC-KG), which provides visual query knowledge service and verifies the operability of knowledge management.FindingsThe experimental results show that the combined BERT-BiLSTM-CRF algorithm has a precision of 84.52%, a recall of 92.35%, and an F1 value of 88.26% in named entity recognition from the AEC domain database. The construction safety knowledge representation model and safety incident knowledge graph realize knowledge visualization.Originality/valueThe proposed framework provides a new knowledge management approach to improve the safety management of practitioners and also enriches the application scenarios of knowledge graph. On the one hand, it innovatively proposes a data application method and knowledge management method of safety accident report that integrates entity relationship and matter evolution logic. On the other hand, the legal adjudication dimension is innovatively added to the knowledge graph in the construction safety field as the basis for the postincident disposal measures of safety accidents, which provides reference for safety managers' decision-making in all aspects.
Understanding the effects of service innovation capability on firm performance in AEC industry: mediating role of business model
Authors: Tang Xiaoying , Wang Mengjun , Li Hui 
Published: September 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine whether service innovation capability can affect firm performance in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) context, and, if so, how.Design/methodology/approachThis study developed a theoretical framework illustrating the performance impacts of service innovation capability through the business model in the AEC sector. An empirical study was conducted to test the hypotheses using 374 valid questionnaires using structure equation model (SEM).FindingsThe results verify that service innovation capability positively influences firm performance mediated by the business model. As to the direct effect, service innovation capability is positively associated with firm performance.Originality/valueThis study highlights how service innovation capability affects performance and reveals the underlying mechanism.
Pollution control bonds and environmental performance in energy utility firms: is there an incantation effect?
Authors: Khanchel Imen , Lassoued Naima , Bargaoui Ines 
Published: September 2023

Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of green financing through pollution control bonds (PCBs) on environmental performance.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a panel of 189 US energy utility firms observed over the period, 2011–2021 ; this study applies Generalized Method of Moments regressions.

Findings
This study found that PCBs positively affect environmental performance (aggregate measure, greenhouse emissions, waste landfill, waste incineration and waste recycling). These findings remain robust when this study considers alternative measures of PCBs and environmental performance, the quantile regression method and some firms’ attributes such as financial performance and firm age.

Practical implications
The results indicate that US energy utility firms have to adopt more PCBs. This study helps researchers, practitioners, shareholders, bondholders, equity analysts and local authorities such as the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, municipalities and investors understand PCBs issuance, usefulness and relevance.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the effectiveness of PCBs in reducing pollution.
Wine consumer typologies based on level of involvement: a case of Turkey
Authors: Koksal Haluk , Seyedimany Arian 
Published: September 2023

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to segment Turkish wine customers based on their level of involvement. This study profiles them based on their wine drinking motivations, wine attributes, information sources, wine purchasing and consumption behaviour and socio-demographic characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach
For this study, a structured online questionnaire was used to collect data from the listed email addresses of institutes, universities and commercial websites. The sample size was 708 people. After splitting consumers into three groups based on their involvement levels in wine (high, moderate and low), the study profiles them by implementing ANOVA, principal component and chi-square analyses.

Findings
The study identifies the differences between groups with different involvement levels in wine regarding drinking motivations, wine attributes, information sources, consumption and purchasing behaviour as well as socio-demographic characteristics.

Originality/value
Although there are a few studies in the literature evaluating wine consumers from various nations, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating wine consumers based on involvement levels in Turkey, where alcoholic beverages are excessively taxed, and advertising is banned and promoting them is limited.
Beliefs in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia from a cross-cultural lens
Authors: Otgaar Henry , Zhang Yikang , Li Chunlin , Wang Jianqin 
Published: September 2023

Purpose
This study aimed to examine beliefs in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia from a cross-cultural perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
Chinese (n = 123) and Belgian student participants (n = 270) received several statements tapping into various dimensions of repressed memory and dissociative amnesia. Participants provided belief ratings for each of these statements. Because the field of psychoanalysis is less well developed in China, it was expected that Chinese participants would believe less in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia than their Belgian counterparts.

Findings
Overall, beliefs in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia were high among all participants. Although confirmatory analyses revealed that most belief ratings concerning statements did not statistically significantly differ between the two samples, Chinese participants did statistically believe less that therapy can recover lost traumatic memories than Belgian participants. Also, exploratory analyses showed that Chinese participants were more critical towards the idea that traumatic memories can be unconsciously repressed and that these memories can be accurately retrieved in therapy than Belgian participants. Many participants also confused repressed memory with plausible memory mechanisms such as ordinary forgetting.

Originality/value
The current study extends previous surveys on repressed memory and dissociative amnesia by comparing their beliefs in different cultures.
Income smoothing through R&D management and credit ratings
Authors: Park Sang Hyun , Jung Sean 
Published: September 2023

Purpose
Prior studies generally focus on income smoothing through discretionary accruals and document that managers have incentives to smooth earnings due to various reasons. This paper aims to focus on income smoothing through research and development (R&D) management and examine whether and how income smoothing through R&D management affects credit rating agencies’ perception of firm risk.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors use financial statement data from the CRSP/Compustat Merged data set universe for the period from 1992 to 2019 after excluding financial and utility industries. The authors follow the model for credit ratings used in previous literature to test the hypothesis. Specifically, the authors use an ordered probit model to express credit ratings as a function of income smoothing attributes.

Findings
The authors find that R&D-based income smoothing improves a firm’s credit rating. However, the positive effect of R&D-based income smoothing on credit ratings is less than that of accruals-based income smoothing. This study also shows that the positive effect of R&D-based income smoothing is more pronounced for firms less subject to opportunistic incentives, further strengthening the notion that managers smooth earnings through R&D management to provide more informative earnings.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the income smoothing literature in several ways. First, the authors contribute to the research by showing that managers’ income smoothing activity through R&D management positively affects firms’ credit rating. Second, the authors also document the relative benefits of the two different income smoothing techniques in terms of improving credit agencies’ perception of firms’ creditworthiness.
Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese ports
Authors: Shang Fulin , Teng Xiyue , Park Minyoung 
Published: September 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to quantify port efficiency assessment indicators to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) ports.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized a grey prediction model GM(1,1) to forecast five relevant indicators for each of the 17 OBOR ports both with and without COVID-19 background conditions. Additionally, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency assessment approach was used to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on port efficiency.FindingsThe results indicate that cargo and container throughput growth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic are reduced by 1.7 and 2.1%, respectively. There was also a noticeable reduction in technological efficiency (TE) as well as pure technological efficiency (PTE), while scale efficiency (SE) remained largely unaffected. Furthermore, the dynamic efficiency MI was mainly negatively impacted by changes in overall efficiency change (EFFCH), where pure efficiency change (PECH) less than one contributed significantly towards overall regression of port efficiencies during this period.Originality/valueThis paper is unique in its use of a combination of the grey prediction model and DEA efficiency assessment to quantify changes in important indicators during pandemic periods. This approach not only provides a quantitative understanding of the impact on port-level efficiency through numerical quantification but also offers readers an intuitive understanding.