bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Potential miRNA biomarkers and therapeutic targets for early atherosclerotic lesions
Authors: Karere Genesio M. , Glenn Jeremy P. , Li Ge , Konar Ayati , VandeBerg John L. , Cox Laura A. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractIdentification of potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers indicative of burden of early atherosclerosis that occur prior to advancement to life-threatening unstable plaques is the key to eradication of CAD prevalence and incidences. We challenged 16 baboons with a high cholesterol, high fat diet for 2 years and evaluated early-stage atherosclerotic lesions (fatty streaks, FS, and fibrous plaques, FP) in formalin-fixed common iliac arteries (CIA). We used small RNA sequencing to identify expressed miRNAs in CIA and in baseline blood samples of the same animals. We found 412 expressed miRNAs in CIA and 356 in blood samples. Eight miRNAs (miR-7975, -486-5p, -451a, -191-5p, -148a-3p, -17-5p, -378c, and -144-3p) were differentially expressed between paired fatty streak lesion and no-lesion sites of the tissue, and 27 miRNAs (e.g., miR-92a-3p, -5001, -342-3p, miR-28-3p, -21-5p, -221-3p, 146a-5p, and -16-5p) in fibrous plaques. The expression of 14 blood miRNAs significantly correlated with extent of lesions and the number of plaques. We identified coordinately regulated miRNA-gene networks in which miR-17-5p and miR-146a-5p are central hubs and miR-5001 and miR-7975 are potentially novel miRNAs associated with early atherosclerosis. In summary, we have identified miRNAs expressed in lesions and in blood that correlate with lesion burden and are potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers. These findings are a first step in elucidating miRNA regulated molecular mechanisms that underlie early atherosclerosis in a baboon model, enabling translation of our findings to humans.
Multiple solutions for non-linear radiative mixed convective hybrid nanofluid flow over an exponentially shrinking surface
Authors: Sarfraz Mahnoor , Yasir Muhammad , Khan Masood 
Published: March 2023

AbstractHybrid nanofluids have gained too much attention due to their enhanced thermophysical properties and practical applications. In comparison to conventional nanofluids, their capacity to enhance heat transport is impressive. The simultaneous numerical calculations of hybrid and mono nanofluids across an exponentially shrinking surface in a porous medium are taken into consideration here. The analysis of the thermal energy distribution is carried out by using the convective boundary conditions. Shrinking, permeability, and magnetohydrodynamic controlled the motion of the flow. The objective of this research is to conduct stability analysis and identify the existence of dual solutions in the presence of heat source/sink and nonlinear Roseland thermal radiation. The technique, bvp4c, a collocation method is used to achieve numerical results. It is noted that the energy transport is enhanced immensely due to the presence of a mixture of nanoparticles (hybrid) in comparison to mono nanofluids. The stability analysis shows that the solutions for the upper branch were stable, while the solutions for the lower branch were unstable. Moreover, shrinking parameter contributes significantly to exhibit the dual nature of the solutions. Due to the increment in the heat generation/absorption and temperature ratio, the kinetic energy is inclined, which causes the temperature distribution to rise for both branches. For stable branches, an increase in wall stress values is evident as a result of permeability and stretching of sheet, whereas unstable branches show the opposite trend.
Training-induced impairment of endothelial function in track and field female athletes
Authors: Grandys Marcin , Majerczak Joanna , Frolow Marzena , Chlopicki Stefan , Zoladz Jerzy A. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractProfessional athletes are often exposed to high training loads that may lead to overfatigue, overreaching and overtraining that might have a detrimental effects on vascular health. We determined the effects of high training stress on endothelial function assessed by the flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and markers of glycocalyx shedding. Vascular examination as well as broad biochemical, hormonal and cardiometabolic evaluation of sprint and middle-distance female runners were performed after 2 months of preparatory training period and compared to age-matched control group of women. Female athletes presented with significantly reduced FMD (p < 0.01) and higher basal serum concentrations of hyaluronan (HA) and syndecan-1 (SDC-1) (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively), that was accompanied by significantly lower basal serum testosterone (T) and free testosterone (fT) concentrations (p < 0.05) and higher cortisol (C) concentration (p < 0.05). It resulted in significantly lower T/C and fT/C ratios in athletes when compared to controls (p < 0.01). Moreover, fT/C ratio were significantly positively correlated to FMD and negatively to HA concentrations in all studied women. Accordingly, the training load was significantly negatively correlated with T/C, fT/C and FMD and positively with the concentrations of HA and SDC-1. We concluded that young female track and field athletes subjected to physical training developed impairment of endothelial function that was associated with anabolic-catabolic hormone balance disturbances. Given that training-induced impairment of endothelial function may have a detrimental effects on vascular health, endothelial status should be regularly monitored in the time-course of training process to minimalize vascular health-risk in athletes.
DFMA-oriented modular and parametric design and secondary splitting of vertical PC components
Authors: Dong Daode , Zou Yiquan , Pan Han , Zhou Guowei , Feng Yu , Tang Yuchen 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe design and production of assembled buildings are difficult to standardise, which limits their extensive application. In this paper, the design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) concept is applied to the design of vertical precast concrete (PC) components for assembled buildings. Taking vertical PC components as an example, the rapid modelling and whole life-cycle application of DFMA-oriented PC components for assembled buildings are investigated. Firstly, the modular design method is introduced. By combining parametric design and building information modelling (BIM), we propose a modular, parametric design method and process of PC components based on DFMA. Secondly, the design of standard modules after secondary splitting is introduced for a better DFMA-oriented parametric design of PC components. We explored the secondary development process of DFMA and BIM and the module creation process of the parametric standard based on family templates and DFMA. Thirdly, based on the parametric standard module, the application of the optimised whole life cycle of design, manufacture and assembly of PC components is introduced. Finally, the feasibility of this method is verified by practical cases. The design process for PC components is fast, accurate and standardised. The integrated application of BIM is accelerated, and digital collaboration in assembly construction is strengthened. The study results are conducive to establishing a standardised design and production system for PC components, reducing design costs, improving design efficiency and the comprehensive benefits of assembled buildings.
Recombinant ovine prion protein can be mutated at position 136 to improve its efficacy as an inhibitor of prion propagation
Authors: Kopycka Katarzyna , Maddison Ben C. , Gough Kevin C. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractPrion diseases are progressive neurodegenerative disorders with no effective therapeutics. The central event leading to the pathology in the diseases is the conversion of PrPC into PrPSc and its accumulation in the central nervous system. Previous studies demonstrated that recombinant PrP (rPrP) and PrP peptides can inhibit the formation of PrPSc. Here, the effectiveness of ovine rPrP mutants at codon 136 and peptides derived from this region were assessed for their ability to inhibit PrPSc replication, using protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). Based on a rPrP VRQ (rVRQ) genotype background (positions 136, 154 and 171) and mutations at position 136, the most effective inhibitors were V136R, V136K and V136P mutants, with IC50 values of 1 to 2 nM; activities much more potent than rVRQ (114 nM). rRRQ and rKRQ were also shown to effectively inhibit multiple ruminant prion amplification reactions that used distinct prion strain seeds and substrate PRNP genotypes. rRRQ, rKRQ and rPRQ were also shown to effectively protect Rov9 cells from scrapie infection when applied at 250 nM. The study demonstrates for the first time that the rPrP sequence can be mutated at sites known to be involved in prion disease susceptibility, to produce inhibitors with improved efficacy.
Top-down effect of dialogue coherence on perceived speaker identity
Authors: Warnke Lena , de Ruiter Jan P. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractA key mechanism in the comprehension of conversation is the ability for listeners to recognize who is speaking and when a speaker switch occurs. Some authors suggest that speaker change detection is accomplished through bottom-up mechanisms in which listeners draw on changes in the acoustic features of the auditory signal. Other accounts propose that speaker change detection involves drawing on top-down linguistic representations to identify who is speaking. The present study investigates these hypotheses experimentally by manipulating the pragmatic coherence of conversational utterances. In experiment 1, participants listened to pairs of utterances and had to indicate whether they heard the same or different speakers. Even though all utterances were spoken by the same speaker, our results show that when two segments of conversation are spoken by the same speaker but make sense for different speakers to say, listeners report hearing different speakers. In experiment 2 we removed pragmatic information from the same stimuli by scrambling word order while leaving acoustic information intact. In contrast to experiment 1, results from the second experiment indicate no difference between our experimental conditions. We interpret these results as a top-down effect of pragmatic expectations: knowledge of conversational structure at least partially determines a listener’s perception of speaker changes in conversation.
Regardless of personality, males show similar levels of plasticity in territory defense in a Neotropical poison frog
Authors: Peignier Mélissa , Bégué Lauriane , Ringler Max , Szabo Birgit , Ringler Eva 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAnimal personality traits are sometimes linked to an individual’s degree of plasticity, with certain personality types being more plastic than others. In territorial species, consistently high levels of aggression might increase the risk of harmful fights, while consistently low aggression might lead to the loss of a territory. Consequently, reacting plastically with an appropriate territorial response should be beneficial to avoid these risks. An integrative investigation of both personality traits and plasticity can help us better understand the dynamics of aggressive interactions during male-male competition. Here, we used a free-ranging Neotropical poison frog population to investigate the role of plasticity in male territorial aggression towards intruders. We conducted repeated standardized territorial intrusion experiments mimicking frogs of different body sizes via playback calls with different peak frequencies. We found individual repeatability for the latency to reach and approach a simulated intruder and observed that both aggressive and less aggressive males decreased their level of aggression towards big intruders. However, our results do not support a correlation between personality and plasticity in the context of male territory defense during the breeding season. We discuss how such a correlation between personality and plasticity might be conditional on the costs and benefits across contexts.
The endometrial microbiota of women with or without a live birth within 12 months after a first failed IVF/ICSI cycle
Authors: Bui Bich Ngoc , van Hoogenhuijze Nienke , Viveen Marco , Mol Femke , Teklenburg Gijs , de Bruin Jan-Peter , Besselink Dagmar , Brentjens Linda Stevens , Mackens Shari , Rogers Malbert R. C. , Steba Gaby S. , Broekmans Frank , Paganelli Fernanda L. , van de Wijgert Janneke H. H. M. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe endometrial microbiota composition may be associated with implantation success. However, a ‘core’ composition has not yet been defined. This exploratory study analysed the endometrial microbiota by 16S rRNA sequencing (V1–V2 region) of 141 infertile women whose first IVF/ICSI cycle failed and compared the microbiota profiles of women with and without a live birth within 12 months of follow-up, and by infertility cause and type. Lactobacillus was the most abundant genus in the majority of samples. Women with a live birth compared to those without had significantly higher Lactobacillus crispatus relative abundance (RA) (p = 0.029), and a smaller proportion of them had ≤ 10% L. crispatus RA (42.1% and 70.4%, respectively; p = 0.015). A smaller proportion of women in the male factor infertility group had ≤ 10% L. crispatus RA compared to women in the unexplained and other infertility causes groups combined (p = 0.030). Women with primary infertility compared to secondary infertility had significantly higher L. crispatus RA (p = 0.004); lower proportions of them had ≤ 10% L. crispatus RA (p = 0.009) and > 10% Gardnerella vaginalis RA (p = 0.019). In conclusion, IVF/ICSI success may be associated with L. crispatus RA and secondary infertility with endometrial dysbiosis, more often than primary infertility. These hypotheses should be tested in rigorous well-powered longitudinal studies.
Terahertz graphene-based multi-functional anisotropic metamaterial and its equivalent circuit model
Authors: Asgari Somayyeh , Fabritius Tapio 
Published: March 2023

AbstractIn this paper, a graphene-based multi-functional anisotropic metamaterial composed of two finite parallel graphene ribbons in each unit cell is designed and proposed in the 0.1–5.5 terahertz (THz) region. Simulations are performed by the finite element method (FEM) in the frequency-domain solver of CST Software. An equivalent circuit modeling (ECM) as a simplified approach has been provided by a MATLAB code to model the performance of the metamaterial. The metastructure is polarization-sensitive because of the geometric non-symmetry. The absorption/reflection spectrum of the metamaterial is dynamically tunable by changing the Fermi energy level of the graphene. The introduced metamaterial can act as a THz switch and inverter at 1.23 and 4.21 THz. It acts as an ON state when the incident electric field is in the x-direction and acts as an OFF state when the incident electric field is in the y-direction. It can also act as a bi-functional mirror: a triple-band mirror for the incident electric field in the x-direction and an ultra-broadband mirror for the incident electric field in the y-direction. The proposed metamaterial has a maximum absorption of 100%, maximum linear dichroism (LD) of 100%, and a maximum switching extinction ratio of 33.01 dB. The metamaterial and its applications could be used as a potential platform in future THz devices and systems.
Age and sex differences in the effectiveness of intradialytic resistance training on muscle function
Authors: Zelko Aurel , Rosenberger Jaroslav , Kolarcik Peter , Madarasova Geckova Andrea , van Dijk Jitse P. , Reijneveld Sijmen A. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractPrevious research shows the beneficial effects of an intradialytic resistance training (IRT) on muscle function in haemodialysis patients. However, patients vary highly in their functional responses to IRT, may be due to effects of age and sex heterogeneities in adaptation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which the effects of IRT on the muscle function of haemodialysis patients vary by age and sex. We included 57 patients who completed a 12-week IRT (EXG) and 33 patients who received no IRT (CNG) during haemodialysis. Muscle function (MF) was assessed using dynamometry before and after a 12-week intervention and after a 12-week follow-up. After the 12-week intervention, we found a moderation effect of age in the relative (%) change (p = 0.011) and absolute (Δ) change (p = 0.027) of MF, and a moderation effect of sex in %MF (p = 0.001), but not in ΔMF (p = 0.069). Regarding patients’ age, the change of MF was only significantly different between EXG and CNG patients aged 60–70 years (%MF, EXG: + 34.6%, CNG: − 20.1%, p < 0.001; ΔMF, EXG: + 44.4 N, CNG: − 22.1 N, p < 0.001). Regarding patients’ sex, the change of MF was only significantly different between EXG and CNG female patients (%MF, EXG: + 23.9%, CNG: − 23.6%, p < 0.001). Age and sex did not significantly moderate changes in MF measures after 12 weeks of follow-up. We conclude that both age and sex of haemodialysis patients affect their functional response to IRT in the short term.Trial Registration: Intradialytic Resistance Training in Haemodialysis Patients (IRTHEP)—#NCT03511924, 30/04/2018, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03511924.
Melanopic irradiance defines the impact of evening display light on sleep latency, melatonin and alertness
Authors: Schöllhorn Isabel , Stefani Oliver , Lucas Robert J. , Spitschan Manuel , Slawik Helen C. , Cajochen Christian 
Published: March 2023

AbstractEvening light-emitting visual displays may disrupt sleep, suppress melatonin and increase alertness. Here, we control melanopic irradiance independent of display luminance and colour, in 72 healthy males 4 h before habitual bedtime and expose each of them to one of four luminance levels (i.e., dim light, smartphone, tablet or computer screen illuminance) at a low and a high melanopic irradiance setting. Low melanopic light shortens the time to fall asleep, attenuates evening melatonin suppression, reduces morning melatonin, advances evening melatonin onset and decreases alertness compared to high melanopic light. In addition, we observe dose-dependent increases in sleep latency, reductions in melatonin concentration and delays in melatonin onset as a function of melanopic irradiance—not so for subjective alertness. We identify melanopic irradiance as an appropriate parameter to mitigate the unwanted effects of screen use at night. Our results may help the many people who sit in front of screens in the evening or at night to fall asleep faster, feel sleepier, and have a more stable melatonin phase by spectrally tuning the visual display light without compromising the visual appearance.
Exchange field enhanced upper critical field of the superconductivity in compressed antiferromagnetic EuTe2
Authors: Sun Hualei , Qiu Liang , Han Yifeng , Zhang Yunwei , Wang Weiliang , Huang Chaoxin , Liu Naitian , Huo Mengwu , Li Lisi , Liu Hui , Liu Zengjia , Cheng Peng , Zhang Hongxia , Wang Hongliang , Hao Lijie , Li Man-Rong , Yao Dao-Xin , Hou Yusheng , Dai Pengcheng , Wang Meng 
Published: March 2023

AbstractUnderstanding the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism has been a longstanding challenge in condensed matter physics. Here we report high pressure studies on the C-type antiferromagnetic semiconductor EuTe2 up to 36.0 GPa. A structural transition from the I4/mcm to the C2/m space group is identified at ~16 GPa. Superconductivity is observed above ~5 GPa in both structures. In the low-pressure phase, magnetoresistance measurements reveal strong couplings between the local moments of Eu2+ and the conduction electrons of Te 5p orbits. The upper critical field of superconductivity is well above the Pauli limit. While EuTe2 becomes nonmagnetic in the high-pressure phase and the upper critical field drops below the Pauli limit. Our results demonstrate that the high upper critical field of EuTe2 in the low-pressure phase is due to the exchange field compensation effect of Eu2+ and the superconductivity in both structures may arise in the framework of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory.
Visible-light-driven 3-hydroxybutyrate production from acetone and low concentrations of CO2 with a system of hybridized photocatalytic NADH regeneration and multi-biocatalysts
Authors: Kita Yu , Amao Yutaka 
Published: March 2023

Visible-light-driven 3-hydroxybutyrate production from low-concentration CO2 and waste acetone was developed for the first time by using the system of hybridized photocatalytic NADH regeneration and multi-biocatalysts.
Ultrathin CuBi2O4 on a bipolar Bi2O3 nano-scaffold: a self-powered broadband photoelectrochemical photodetector with improved responsivity and response speed
Authors: Dong Boheng , Zhang Xinya , Cheng Hui , Jiang Xiang , Wang Fuxian 
Published: March 2023

Bi2O3 nano-scaffold supported ultrathin CuBi2O4 exhibits improved light absorption and charge separation, enabling self-powered photodetection of broadband light with high responsivity (75 mA W−1) and response speed (0.18/0.19 ms).
Associative learning mechanism for drug‐target interaction prediction
Authors: Zhu Zhiqin , Yao Zheng , Qi Guanqiu , Mazur Neal , Yang Pan , Cong Baisen 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAs a necessary process of modern drug development, finding a drug compound that can selectively bind to a specific protein is highly challenging and costly. Exploring drug‐target interaction strength in terms of drug‐target affinity (DTA) is an emerging and effective research approach for drug development. However, it is challenging to model drug‐target interactions in a deep learning manner, and few studies provide interpretable analysis of models. This paper proposes a DTA prediction method (mutual transformer‐drug target affinity [MT‐DTA]) with interactive learning and an autoencoder mechanism. The proposed MT‐DTA builds a variational autoencoders system with a cascade structure of the attention model and convolutional neural networks. It not only enhances the ability to capture the characteristic information of a single molecular sequence but also establishes the characteristic expression relationship for each substructure in a single molecular sequence. On this basis, a molecular information interaction module is constructed, which adds information interaction paths between molecular sequence pairs and complements the expression of correlations between molecular substructures. The performance of the proposed model was verified on two public benchmark datasets, KIBA and Davis, and the results confirm that the proposed model structure is effective in predicting DTA. Additionally, attention transformer models with different configurations can improve the feature expression of drug/protein molecules. The model performs better in correctly predicting interaction strengths compared with state‐of‐the‐art baselines. In addition, the diversity of drug/protein molecules can be better expressed than existing methods such as SeqGAN and Co‐VAE to generate more effective new drugs. The DTA value prediction module fuses the drug‐target pair interaction information to output the predicted value of DTA. Additionally, this paper theoretically proves that the proposed method maximises evidence lower bound for the joint distribution of the DTA prediction model, which enhances the consistency of the probability distribution between actual and predicted values. The source code of proposed method is available at https://github.com/Lamouryz/Code/tree/main/MT‐DTA.