bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Application of texture analysis methods for the characterization of cultured meat
Authors: Paredes Jacobo , Cortizo-Lacalle Diego , Imaz Ane Miren , Aldazabal Javier , Vila Mercedes 
Published: March 2022

AbstractMechanical characterization supposes a key step in the development of cultured meat to help mimicking the sensorial properties of already existing commercial products based on traditional meat. This work presents two well stablished methods that can help studying cultured meat mechanical characteristics: texture profile analysis (double compression test) and rheology. These techniques provide data about the elastic and viscous behaviour of the samples but also values about other texture characteristics such as springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience. In this work, we present a comparison of cultured meat-based samples with commercial of the shelf common meat products (sausage, turkey and chicken breast). Results show that both Young’s and Shear modulus in the cultured meat samples can be compared to commercial products in order to understand its properties. The texture characteristics for the cultured meat studied, show values within the range of commercial products. These results demonstrate the applicability of this methodology for the adjustment of mechanical properties of cultured meat products.
Anti-SARS-CoV-2 equine F (Ab′)2 immunoglobulin as a possible therapy for COVID-19
Authors: Botosso Viviane Fongaro , Jorge Soraia Attie Calil , Astray Renato Mancini , de Sá Guimarães Ana Marcia , Mathor Monica Beatriz , de Carneiro Patrícia dos Santos , Durigon Edison Luiz , Covas Dimas , de Oliveira Danielle Bruna Leal , das Neves Oliveira Ricardo , Maria Durvanei Augusto , Eto Silas Fernandes , Gallina Neuza Maria Frazatti , Pidde Giselle , Squaiella-Baptistão Carla Cristina , Silva Dilza Trevisan , Villas-Boas Isadora Maria , Fernandes Dayanne Carla , Auada Aline Vivian Vatti , Banari Alexandre Campos , de Souza Filho Antônio Francisco , Bianconi Camila , de Agostini Utescher Carla Lilian , Oliveira Denise Cristina André , Mariano Douglas Oscar Ceolin , Barbosa Flávia Ferreira , Rondon Giuliana , Kapronezai Josana , da Silva Juliana Galvão , Goldfeder Mauricio Barbugiani , Comone Priscila , Junior Regis Edgar Castilho , Pereira Taiana Tainá Silva , Wen Fan Hui , Tambourgi Denise V. , Chudzinski-Tavassi Ana Marisa 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe new outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected and caused the death of millions of people worldwide. Intensive efforts are underway around the world to establish effective treatments. Immunoglobulin from immunized animals or plasma from convalescent patients might constitute a specific treatment to guarantee the neutralization of the virus in the early stages of infection, especially in patients with risk factors and a high probability of progressing to severe disease. Worldwide, a few clinical trials using anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins from horses immunized with the entire spike protein or fragments of it in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 are underway. Here, we describe the development of an anti-SARS-CoV-2 equine F(ab′)2 immunoglobulin using a newly developed SARS-CoV-2 viral antigen that was purified and inactivated by radiation. Cell-based and preclinical assays showed that the F(ab′)2 immunoglobulin successfully neutralizes the virus, is safe in animal models, and reduces the severity of the disease in a hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease.
Patterns in schizomid flagellum shape from elliptical Fourier analysis
Authors: Kallal Robert J. , de Miranda Gustavo Silva , Garcia Erika L. , Wood Hannah M. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe arachnid order Schizomida is a relatively understudied group of soil-dwelling predators found on all continents except Antarctica. While efforts to understand their biology are growing, there is still much to know about them. A curious aspect of their morphology is the male flagellum, a sexually dimorphic, tail-like structure which differs in shape across the order and functions in their courtship rituals. The flagellar shape is important for taxonomic classification, yet few efforts have been made to examine shape diversity across the group. Using elliptical Fourier analysis, a type of geometric morphometrics based on shape outline, we quantified shape differences across a combined nearly 550 outlines in the dorsal and lateral views, categorizing them based on genus, family, biogeographic realm, and habitat, with special emphasis on Caribbean and Cuban fauna. We tested for allometric relationships, differences in disparity based on locations and sizes in morphospace among these categories, and for clusters of shapes in morphospace. We found multiple differences in all categories despite apparent overlaps in morphospace, evolutionary allometry, and evidence for discrete clusters in some flagellum shapes. This study can serve as a foundation for further study on the evolution, diversification, and taxonomic utility of the male flagellum.
Silent speech command word recognition using stepped frequency continuous wave radar
Authors: Wagner Christoph , Schaffer Petr , Amini Digehsara Pouriya , Bärhold Michael , Plettemeier Dirk , Birkholz Peter 
Published: March 2022

AbstractRecovering speech in the absence of the acoustic speech signal itself, i.e., silent speech, holds great potential for restoring or enhancing oral communication in those who lost it. Radar is a relatively unexplored silent speech sensing modality, even though it has the advantage of being fully non-invasive. We therefore built a custom stepped frequency continuous wave radar hardware to measure the changes in the transmission spectra during speech between three antennas, located on both cheeks and the chin with a measurement update rate of 100 Hz. We then recorded a command word corpus of 40 phonetically balanced, two-syllable German words and the German digits zero to nine for two individual speakers and evaluated both the speaker-dependent multi-session and inter-session recognition accuracies on this 50-word corpus using a bidirectional long-short term memory network. We obtained recognition accuracies of 99.17% and 88.87% for the speaker-dependent multi-session and inter-session accuracy, respectively. These results show that the transmission spectra are very well suited to discriminate individual words from one another, even across different sessions, which is one of the key challenges for fully non-invasive silent speech interfaces.
Co-functioning of 2AP precursor amino acids enhances 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline under salt stress in aromatic rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars
Authors: Renuka N. , Barvkar Vitthal T. , Ansari Zahid , Zhao Chunfang , Wang Cailin , Zhang Yadong , Nadaf Altafhusain B. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractAromatic rice (Oryza sativa) fetches a premium price due to the pleasant aroma. The major aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP) has been found to be enhanced under stress. This condition can be considered to study the genes, precursors, enzymes, and metabolites involved in elevated levels of 2AP biosynthesis. In the present study, 100 mM salt treatment was given to two aromatic rice cultivars Ambemohar-157 (A-157) and Basmati-370 (B-370) at the vegetative stage (VS3). After salt treatment, in the leaves, 2AP contents were elevated by 2.2 and 1.8 fold in A-157 and B-370, respectively. Under these elevated 2AP conditions, the precursor amino acids (glutamate, putrescine, ornithine, and proline), their related genes, enzymes, and metabolites (methylglyoxal and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) related to 2AP biosynthesis were analyzed. In addition, agronomic characters were also studied. It was observed that the proline content was enhanced in both the cultivars by 29% (A-157) and 40% (B-370) as compared to control. The Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) enzyme activity was increased in salt-treated plants leaf tissue by 31% (A-157) and 40% (B-370) compared to control. The P5CS gene expression was enhanced by A-157 (1.8 fold) and B-370 (2.2 fold) compared to control, putrescine content in A-157 and B-370 decreased by 2.5 and 2.7 fold respectively as compared to control. The ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity was enhanced in A-157 (12%) and B-370 (35%) over control. Further, ODC gene expression was enhanced in both the cultivars A-157 (1.5 fold) and B-370 (1.3 fold). The diamino oxidase (DAO) enzyme activity was increased by 28% (A-157) and 35% (B-370) respectively over control. The GABA content marginally increased over control in both the cultivars namely, A-157 (1.9%) and B-370 (9.5%). The methylglyoxal levels were enhanced by 1.4 fold in A-157 and 1.6 fold in B-370. Interestingly, the enhancement in 2AP in the vegetative stage also helped to accumulate it in mature grains (twofold in A-157 and 1.5 fold in B-370) without test weight penalty. The study indicated that the ornithine and proline together along with methylglyoxal contribute towards the enhancement of 2AP under salt stress.
miR-378 affects metabolic disturbances in the mdx model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Authors: Podkalicka Paulina , Mucha Olga , Kaziród Katarzyna , Szade Krzysztof , Stępniewski Jacek , Ivanishchuk Liudmyla , Hirao Hirofumi , Pośpiech Ewelina , Józkowicz Alicja , Kupiec-Weglinski Jerzy W. , Dulak Józef , Łoboda Agnieszka 
Published: March 2022

AbstractAlthough Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) primarily affects muscle tissues, the alterations to systemic metabolism manifested in DMD patients contribute to the severe phenotype of this fatal disorder. We propose that microRNA-378a (miR-378) alters carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in dystrophic mdx mice. In our study, we utilized double knockout animals which lacked both dystrophin and miR-378 (mdx/miR-378−/−). RNA sequencing of the liver identified 561 and 194 differentially expressed genes that distinguished mdx versus wild-type (WT) and mdx/miR-378−/− versus mdx counterparts, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis predicted, among others, carbohydrate metabolism disorder in dystrophic mice, as functionally proven by impaired glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. The lack of miR-378 in mdx animals mitigated those effects with a faster glucose clearance in a glucose tolerance test (GTT) and normalization of liver glycogen levels. The absence of miR-378 also restored the expression of genes regulating lipid homeostasis, such as Acly, Fasn, Gpam, Pnpla3, and Scd1. In conclusion, we report for the first time that miR-378 loss results in increased systemic metabolism of mdx mice. Together with our previous finding, demonstrating alleviation of the muscle-related symptoms of DMD, we propose that the inhibition of miR-378 may represent a new strategy to attenuate the multifaceted symptoms of DMD.
Source time functions of earthquakes based on a stochastic differential equation
Authors: Hirano Shiro 
Published: March 2022

AbstractSource time functions are essential observable quantities in seismology; they have been investigated via kinematic inversion analyses and compiled into databases. Given the numerous available results, some empirical laws on source time functions have been established, even though they are complicated and fluctuated time series. Theoretically, stochastic differential equations, including a random variable and white noise, are suitable for modeling complicated phenomena. In this study, we model source time functions as the convolution of two stochastic processes (known as Bessel processes). We mathematically and numerically demonstrate that this convolution satisfies some of the empirical laws of source time functions, including non-negativity, finite duration, unimodality, a growth rate proportional to $$t^3$$

t
3

, $$\omega ^{-2}$$

ω

-
2

-type spectra, and frequency distribution (i.e., the Gutenberg–Richter law). We interpret this convolution and speculate that the stress drop rate and fault impedance follow the same Bessel process.
The RNA helicase DDX3 promotes IFNB transcription via enhancing IRF-3/p300 holocomplex binding to the IFNB promoter
Authors: Saikruang Wilaiporn , Ang Yan Ping Lena , Abe Hiroto , Kasumba Dacquin M. , Kato Hiroki , Fujita Takashi 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe human DEAD-box protein 3 (DDX3) has been reported as a positive regulator and functions in the induction of type I interferon signaling. We elucidated the function of DDX3 in the positive regulation of IFNB production in non-pDC cells. We found that DDX3 regulates virus-induced activation of IFNB at the level of IRF-3. However, it does not affect conventional innate signaling, including IRF-3 phosphorylation, dimerization, or nuclear translocation of IRF-3, but has some downstream events after IRF-3 phosphorylation. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that DDX3 interacts with IRF-3 through its DNA-binding domain and promotes IRF-3-mediated IFNB promoter activation. DDX3 does not affect the formation of the IRF-3/p300/CBP complex. Instead, ChIP and EMSA assay revealed that DDX3 promotes the recruitment of IRF-3 and transcriptional co-activator p300/CBP to the IFNB promoter. The ATP binding pocket of DDX3 is involved in this association and is essential for the transcriptional activation. Taken together, our study demonstrates that DDX3 plays an important role in guiding a transcription factor complex formed by antiviral signaling to the target gene promoter.
Interpreting the role of nuchal fold for fetal growth restriction prediction using machine learning
Authors: Teng Lung Yun , Mattar Citra Nurfarah Zaini , Biswas Arijit , Hoo Wai Lam , Saw Shier Nee 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe objective of the study is to investigate the effect of Nuchal Fold (NF) in predicting Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR) using machine learning (ML), to explain the model's results using model-agnostic interpretable techniques, and to compare the results with clinical guidelines. This study used second-trimester ultrasound biometry and Doppler velocimetry were used to construct six FGR (birthweight < 3rd centile) ML models. Interpretability analysis was conducted using Accumulated Local Effects (ALE) and Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP). The results were compared with clinical guidelines based on the most optimal model. Support Vector Machine (SVM) exhibited the most consistent performance in FGR prediction. SHAP showed that the top contributors to identify FGR were Abdominal Circumference (AC), NF, Uterine RI (Ut RI), and Uterine PI (Ut PI). ALE showed that the cutoff values of Ut RI, Ut PI, and AC in differentiating FGR from normal were comparable with clinical guidelines (Errors between model and clinical; Ut RI: 15%, Ut PI: 8%, and AC: 11%). The cutoff value for NF to differentiate between healthy and FGR is 5.4 mm, where low NF may indicate FGR. The SVM model is the most stable in FGR prediction. ALE can be a potential tool to identify a cutoff value for novel parameters to differentiate between healthy and FGR.
Scanning laser-induced endothelial injury: a standardized and reproducible thrombosis model for intravital microscopy
Authors: Larsson P. , Tarlac V. , Wang T.-Y. , Bonnard T. , Hagemeyer C. E. , Hamilton J. R. , Medcalf R. L. , Cody S. H. , Boknäs N. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractVascular injury models are indispensable for studying thrombotic processes in vivo. Amongst the available methods for inducing thrombosis, laser-induced endothelial injury (LIEI) has several unique advantages. However, a lack of methodological standardization and expensive instrumentation remain significant problems decreasing reproducibility and impeding the adoption of LIEI in the wider scientific community. In this, study, we developed a standardized protocol for scanning laser-induced endothelial injury (scanning-LIEI) of murine mesenteric veins using the intrinsic 405 nm laser of a conventional laser scanning confocal microscope. We show that our model produces thrombi with prominent core–shell architectures and minimal radiation-related fluorescence artefacts. In comparison with previous methods, the scanning-LIEI model exhibits reduced experimental variability, enabling the demonstration of dose–response effects for anti-thrombotic drugs using small animal cohorts. Scanning-LIEI using the intrinsic 405 nm laser of a confocal laser scanning microscope represents a new method to induce standardized vascular injury with improved reproducibility of thrombus formation. The reduced need for instrument customisation and user experience means that this model could be more readily adopted in the research community.
Object detectors involving a NAS-gate convolutional module and capsule attention module
Authors: Viriyasaranon Thanaporn , Choi Jang-Hwan 
Published: March 2022

AbstractSeveral state-of-the-art object detectors have demonstrated outstanding performances by optimizing feature representation through modification of the backbone architecture and exploitation of a feature pyramid. To determine the effectiveness of this approach, we explore the modification of object detectors’ backbone and feature pyramid by utilizing Neural Architecture Search (NAS) and Capsule Network. We introduce two modules, namely, NAS-gate convolutional module and Capsule Attention module. The NAS-gate convolutional module optimizes standard convolution in a backbone network based on differentiable architecture search cooperation with multiple convolution conditions to overcome object scale variation problems. The Capsule Attention module exploits the strong spatial relationship encoding ability of the capsule network to generate a spatial attention mask, which emphasizes important features and suppresses unnecessary features in the feature pyramid, in order to optimize the feature representation and localization capability of the detectors. Experimental results indicate that the NAS-gate convolutional module can alleviate the object scale variation problem and the Capsule Attention network can help to avoid inaccurate localization. Next, we introduce NASGC-CapANet, which incorporates the two modules, i.e., a NAS-gate convolutional module and capsule attention module. Results of comparisons against state-of-the-art object detectors on the MS COCO val-2017 dataset demonstrate that NASGC-CapANet-based Faster R-CNN significantly outperforms the baseline Faster R-CNN with a ResNet-50 backbone and a ResNet-101 backbone by mAPs of 2.7% and 2.0%, respectively. Furthermore, the NASGC-CapANet-based Cascade R-CNN achieves a box mAP of 43.8% on the MS COCO test-dev dataset.
Synthesis and investigation of dielectric ceramic nanoparticles for microstrip patch antenna applications
Authors: Siragam Srilali , Dubey R. S. , Pappula Lakshman , Satheesh Babu G. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractZinc aluminate (ZnAl2O4) is a well-recognized ceramic demanded in several microwave applications. Further, the addition of dielectric materials in ZnAl2O4 improved its dielectric properties, which is promising for the realization of a microstrip patch antenna. This article reports the investigation of ZnAl2O4TiO2 (ZAT) dielectric ceramic nanoparticles synthesized by the sol–gel process. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the crystalline nature of the prepared nanoparticles, with a tetragonal structure of anatase-, and rutile-TiO2 phases coexisting with the cubic phase of ZnAl2O4. The estimated crystallite size of the dielectric ceramic is 13.3 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs demonstrated the spherical grains with their mean diameter of 14.75 nm, whereas the selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern endorsed the crystallinity of the sample. Raman measurement revealed the vibrational modes in accordance with the TiO2 and ZnAl2O4 compounds. The dielectric properties of the ZAT sample showed the dielectric permittivity in the range of 22.12–21.63, with its minimum loss from 0.056 to 0.041. Finally, a prototype microstrip antenna was fabricated using the prepared nanoparticles, which demonstrated a return loss of − 30.72 dB at the resonant frequency of 4.85 GHz with its bandwidth of 830 MHz.
Hidden transition in multiplex networks
Authors: da Costa R. A. , Baxter G. J. , Dorogovtsev S. N. , Mendes J. F. F. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractWeak multiplex percolation generalizes percolation to multi-layer networks, represented as networks with a common set of nodes linked by multiple types (colors) of edges. We report a novel discontinuous phase transition in this problem. This anomalous transition occurs in networks of three or more layers without unconnected nodes, $$P(0)\,=\,0$$

P
(
0
)

=

0

. Above a critical value of a control parameter, the removal of a tiny fraction $$\Delta$$
Δ
of nodes or edges triggers a failure cascade which ends either with the total collapse of the network, or a return to stability with the system essentially intact. The discontinuity is not accompanied by any singularity of the giant component, in contrast to the discontinuous hybrid transition which usually appears in such problems. The control parameter is the fraction of nodes in each layer with a single connection, $$\Pi \,=\,P(1)$$

Π

=

P
(
1
)

. We obtain asymptotic expressions for the collapse time and relaxation time, above and below the critical point $$\Pi _c$$

Π
c

, respectively. In the limit $$\Delta \rightarrow 0$$

Δ
→
0

the total collapse for $$\Pi \,>\,\Pi _\text {c}$$

Π

>

Π
c

takes a time $$T \propto 1/(\Pi -\Pi _\text {c})$$

T
∝
1
/
(
Π
-

Π
c

)

, while there is an exponential relaxation below $$\Pi _\text {c}$$

Π
c

with a relaxation time $$\tau \propto 1/[\Pi _\text {c}-\Pi ]$$

τ
∝
1
/
[

Π
c

-
Π
]

.
The effect of combining vibratory platform and unstable footwear on static balance in active young people
Authors: Varangot-Reille C. , Salvador-Coloma P. , Biviá-Roig G. , Múzquiz-Barberá P. , Lisón J. F. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractVibratory platforms (VPs) and unstable footwear (UF) have both shown benefits on balance in some populations. However, there is no evidence about the combined effects of using UF while training on an VP in healthy and physically active young people. We aimed to evaluate the effects of wearing unstable footwear (UF) while training on a whole-body VP on balance in healthy, physically active young people. 23 participants were randomized into groups assigned UF (n = 11) or stable footwear (SF; n = 12). Both groups followed the same training program on an VP with the assigned footwear type twice a week for 12 weeks. The training consisted of performing 8 isometric exercises for progressively longer periods and higher oscillation amplitudes (15–60 s, 1–3 mm), at a fixed vibration frequency (20 Hz). The main outcomes were the antero-posterior and medio-lateral velocities of the center of pressure (COP) recorded using a plantar pressure corridor at baseline, post-treatment and 1-month follow-up. We found a statistically significant difference in the antero-posterior velocity during the monopodal test in the UF group between the different time-points (χ2(2) = 13.282, p = 0.001). Mediolateral COP velocity ranking during the bipodal test was lower for UF than for SF group (U = 19.50, z = − 2.86, p = 0.003) at follow-up. The traditional vibratory platform training does not seem to be effective to improve static balance in physically active young people, however, adding UF provided slightly greater effect.