bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Antimicrobial properties of a multi-component alloy
Authors: Murray Anne F. , Bryan Daniel , Garfinkel David A. , Jorgensen Cameron S. , Tang Nan , Liyanage WLNC , Lass Eric A. , Yang Ying , Rack Philip D. , Denes Thomas G. , Gilbert Dustin A. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractHigh traffic touch surfaces such as doorknobs, countertops, and handrails can be transmission points for the spread of pathogens, emphasizing the need to develop materials that actively self-sanitize. Metals are frequently used for these surfaces due to their durability, but many metals also possess antimicrobial properties which function through a variety of mechanisms. This work investigates metallic alloys comprised of several metals which individually possess antimicrobial properties, with the target of achieving broad-spectrum, rapid sanitation through synergistic activity. An entropy-motivated stabilization paradigm is proposed to prepare scalable alloys of copper, silver, nickel and cobalt. Using combinatorial sputtering, thin-film alloys were prepared on 100 mm wafers with ≈50% compositional grading of each element across the wafer. The films were then annealed and investigated for alloy stability. Antimicrobial activity testing was performed on both the as-grown alloys and the annealed films using four microorganisms—Phi6, MS2, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli—as surrogates for human viral and bacterial pathogens. Testing showed that after 30 s of contact with some of the test alloys, Phi6, an enveloped, single-stranded RNA bacteriophage that serves as a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate, was reduced up to 6.9 orders of magnitude (> 99.9999%). Additionally, the non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA bacteriophage MS2, and the Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive B. subtilis bacterial strains showed a 5.0, 6.4, and 5.7 log reduction in activity after 30, 20 and 10 min, respectively. Antimicrobial activity in the alloy samples showed a strong dependence on the composition, with the log reduction scaling directly with the Cu content. Concentration of Cu by phase separation after annealing improved activity in some of the samples. The results motivate a variety of themes which can be leveraged to design ideal antimicrobial surfaces.
Rubber-enhanced polyamide nanofibers for a significant improvement of CFRP interlaminar fracture toughness
Authors: Maccaferri Emanuele , Dalle Donne Matteo , Mazzocchetti Laura , Benelli Tiziana , Brugo Tommaso Maria , Zucchelli Andrea , Giorgini Loris 
Published: December 2022

AbstractNanofibrous mats provide substantial delamination hindering in composite laminates, especially if the polymer (as rubbers) can directly toughen the composite resin. Here, the well-known Nylon 66 nanofibers were impregnated with Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) for producing rubber/thermoplastic membranes for hampering the delamination of epoxy Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs). The starting polyamide mats were electrospun using two different solvent systems, and their effect on the mat's thermal and mechanical properties was investigated, as well as the laminate Mode I delamination resistance via Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) tests. Plain Nylon 66 mats electrospun from formic acid/chloroform perform better than the ones obtained from a solvent system containing trifluoroacetic acid, showing up to + 64% vs + 53% in interlaminar fracture toughness (GI), respectively. The effect of NBR coating benefits both nanofiber types, significantly raising the GI. The best results are obtained when interleaving medium-thickness and lightweight mats (20 µm, 9–10 g/m2) with 70–80 wt% of loaded rubber, achieving up to + 180% in GI. The work demonstrates the ability of NBR at improving the delamination hindering of common polyamide nonwovens, paving the way to the use of NBR-coated Nylon 66 nanofibers as effective interleaves for GI enhancement and overall composite safety improvement.
EV-A71 induced IL-1β production in THP-1 macrophages is dependent on NLRP3, RIG-I, and TLR3
Authors: Huang Hsing-I , Chio Chi-Chong , Lin Jhao-Yin , Chou Chia-Jung , Lin Chia-Chen , Chen Shih-Hsiang , Yu Liang-Sheng 
Published: December 2022

AbstractEnterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is an emerging enterovirus that can cause neurological complications. Enhanced serum IL-1β levels were observed in EV-A71 patients with severe neurological symptoms. However, the roles of sensors in enterovirus-induced IL-1β production are unclear. In this study, we identified that pattern recognition receptors, including RIG-I, TLR3, and TLR8, are implicated in EV-A71-triggered IL-1β release in human macrophages. EV-A71 infection results in caspase-1 and caspase-8, which act as regulators of EV-A71-induced NLRP3 and RIG-I inflammasome activation. Moreover, knockdown of the expression of TLR3 and TLR8 decreased the released IL-1β in an NLRP3-dependent manner. Since TLR3 and TLR8 ligands promote NLRP3 inflammasome activation via caspase-8, the alternative pathway may be involved. In summary, these results indicate that activation of the NLRP3 and RIG-I inflammasomes in EV-A71-infected macrophages is mediated by caspase-1 and caspase-8 and affected by TLRs, including TLR3 and TLR8.
New thiadiazole modified chitosan derivative to control the growth of human pathogenic microbes and cancer cell lines
Authors: Ibrahim Ahmed G. , Fouda Amr , Elgammal Walid E. , Eid Ahmed M. , Elsenety Mohamed M. , Mohamed Ahmad E. , Hassan Saber M. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe emergence of multidrug-resistant microbes and the propagation of cancer cells are global health issues. The unique properties of chitosan and its derivatives make it an important candidate for therapeutic applications. Herein, a new thiadiazole derivative, 4-((5-(butylthio)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl) amino)-4-oxo butanoic acid (BuTD-COOH) was synthesized and used to modify the chitosan through amide linkages, forming a new thiadiazole chitosan derivative (BuTD-CH). The formation of thiadiazole and the chitosan derivative was confirmed by FT-IR, 1H/13C-NMR, GC–MS, TGA, Elemental analysis, and XPS. The BuTD-CH showed a high antimicrobial effect against human pathogens Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans with low MIC values of 25–50 μg ml−1 compared to unmodified chitosan. The in-vitro cytotoxicity of BuTD-CH was evaluated against two cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and HepG2) and one normal cell (HFB4) using the MTT method. The newly synthesized derivatives showed high efficacy against cancerous cells and targeted them at low concentrations (IC50 was 178.9 ± 9.1 and 147.8 ± 10.5 μg ml−1 for MCF-7 and HepG2, respectively) compared with normal HFB4 cells (IC50 was 335.7 ± 11.4 μg ml−1). Thus, low concentrations of newly synthesized BuTD-CH could be safely used as an antimicrobial and pharmacological agent for inhibiting the growth of human pathogenic microbes and hepatocellular and adenocarcinoma therapy.
Chlamydia trachomatis suppresses host cell store-operated Ca2+ entry and inhibits NFAT/calcineurin signaling
Authors: Chamberlain Nicholas B. , Dimond Zoe , Hackstadt Ted 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe obligate intracellular bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, replicates within a parasitophorous vacuole termed an inclusion. During development, host proteins critical for regulating intracellular calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis interact with the inclusion membrane. The inclusion membrane protein, MrcA, interacts with the inositol-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R), an ER cationic channel that conducts Ca2+. Stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1), an ER transmembrane protein important for regulating store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE), localizes to the inclusion membrane via an uncharacterized interaction. We therefore examined Ca2+ mobilization in C. trachomatis infected cells. Utilizing a variety of Ca2+ indicators to assess changes in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration, we demonstrate that C. trachomatis impairs host cell SOCE. Ca2+ regulates many cellular signaling pathways. We find that the SOCE-dependent NFAT/calcineurin signaling pathway is impaired in C. trachomatis infected HeLa cells and likely has major implications on host cell physiology as it relates to C. trachomatis pathogenesis.
Emergence of phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Kloprogge Frank , Ortiz Canseco Julio , Phee Lynette , Sadouki Zahra , Kipper Karin , Witney Adam A. , Stoker Neil , McHugh Timothy D. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractConcentration dependency of phenotypic and genotypic isoniazid-rifampicin resistance emergence was investigated to obtain a mechanistic understanding on how anti-mycobacterial drugs facilitate the emergence of bacterial populations that survive throughout treatment. Using static kill curve experiments, observing two evolution cycles, it was demonstrated that rifampicin resistance was the result of non-specific mechanisms and not associated with accumulation of drug resistance encoding SNPs. Whereas, part of isoniazid resistance could be accounted for by accumulation of specific SNPs, which was concentration dependent. Using a Hollow Fibre Infection Model it was demonstrated that emergence of resistance did not occur at concentration–time profiles mimicking the granuloma. This study showed that disentangling and quantifying concentration dependent emergence of resistance provides an improved rational for drug and dose selection although further work to understand the underlying mechanisms is needed to improve the drug development pipeline.
Development of an optimized colorimetric RT-LAMP for SARS-CoV-2 assay with enhanced procedure controls for remote diagnostics
Authors: Raddatz Bruna Winkert , Kim Edson Yu Sin , Imamura Louise Matiê , Steil Gisleine Jarenko , Santiago Erika Bergamo , Soares Santiago Pedro Timm , Ribeiro Victor Henrique Alves , de Almeida Bernardo Montesanti Machado , Rogal Sergio Renato , Figueredo Marcus Vinícius Mazega 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe coronavirus pandemic accentuated the need for molecular diagnostic tests. A technique highly used to this end is the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)—a sensitive and specific technique commonly used as the gold standard for molecular diagnostics. However, it demands highly trained personnel and high-maintenance equipment and is relatively time-consuming. An alternative is the Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technique, which doesn’t need sample purification or expensive equipment, and is similar to PCR when compared in sensitivity and specificity. In this paper, we developed an optimized colorimetric Reverse Transcriptase Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) Point-of-Care test using a portable device to diagnose COVID-19. Variables such as concentration of primers, magnesium sulfate, betaine, hydrochloride guanidine, Bst, and temperature of the reactions were tested. We also created a pipetting quality control system—using a combination of dyes—to avoid false negatives due to a lack of samples added to the reaction test tube. Mineral oil was incorporated in the composition of the RT-LAMP reactions to avoid evaporation when a heating lid isn't available. The final RT-LAMP test is tenfold more sensitive when compared to the WarmStart Colorimetric Master mix from New England Biolabs with a sensitivity of 5 copies per μL.
Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
Authors: Sichimba F. , Janlöv A.‐C. , Khalaf A. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractMany elements of mental illness, including accessibility and utilization of mental health care, are influenced by societal cultural ideas. In Zambia, for example, traditional healers are not recognized, yet a large segment of the population continues to use their services due to their conviction. Despite this, studies on cultural beliefs and practices regarding mental illness in Zambia are scarce. Thus, this study is contextualized in Lusaka, Zambia, with the goal of filling a gap in the knowledge by exploring the cultural beliefs and practices surrounding mental illness as experienced by family caregivers caring for a next-of-kin with mental illness. Using a qualitative exploratory design, a purposeful sample of 15 family caregivers of next-of-kins diagnosed with mental illness were recruited. Data were collected via individual interviews, and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1)prevailing beliefs on cause of mental illness; (2)encountering social support and neglect; (3)recognizing the need of professional help;and (4)seeking culturally influenced help. Findings show that traditional attributions (for example, being bewitched, demon possession and sexual relations with uncleansed widows) are deeply embedded in beliefs and descriptions of what causes mental illness. These beliefs were found to influence not only help-seeking practices but also how people perceived and related to families. Given that beliefs influence caregiver help-seeking, these findings have implications for culturally sensitive practice. The study recommends that public health practitioners consider cultural beliefs and practices when developing health promotion programs, and public health messages.
Reliability of the pelvis and femur anatomical landmarks and geometry with the EOS system before and after total hip arthroplasty
Authors: Gasparutto Xavier , Besonhe Pauline , DiGiovanni Peter Luca , Zingg Matthieu , Boudabbous Sana , Armand Stéphane , Hannouche Didier 
Published: December 2022

AbstractBi-plane X-ray provides 3D measurements of the lower limb based on the identification of anatomical landmarks in sagittal and frontal X-rays. In clinical practice, such measurements involve multiple operators and sessions. This study aimed at evaluating the reliability of anatomical landmarks identification and geometric parameters of the pelvis and femur measured with bi-plane X-rays before and after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Twenty-eight patients undergoing primary THA were selected retrospectively. Two operators performed three reconstructions for each patient before and after THA. Intraclass correlation (ICC) and smallest detectable change (SDC) were computed for intra-operator, inter-operator, and test–retest conditions. Most anatomical landmark positions had good to excellent SDC (< 5 mm) apart from the centre of the sacral slope, greater trochanter, and anterior superior iliac spines (up to 7.1, 16.9, and 21.5 mm respectively). Geometric parameters had moderate to excellent SDC, apart from femoral and stem torsion, pelvic incidence, and APP inclination with poor SDC (9–12°). The sagittal view had significantly higher measurement errors than the frontal view. Test–retest and inter-operator conditions had no significant differences suggesting a low influence of patient posture. Osteoarthritis and the presence of implants did not seem to influence reliability and measurement error. This study could be used as a reference when assessing lower limb structure with bi-plane X-rays.
Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening of Nerium oleander L. extracts associated with toxicity profile
Authors: Bakir Çilesizoğlu Neşe , Yalçin Emine , Çavuşoğlu Kültiğin , Sipahi Kuloğlu Selin 
Published: December 2022

AbstractIn this study, phytochemical analysis and toxicity profile of leaf and flower extracts ofNerium oleanderL. species collected from Giresun province (Turkey) were investigated. In phytochemical analyzes, the cardiac glycoside, alkaloid, saponin and tannin contents of the extracts were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The physiological effects of extracts were determined by examining root elongation, weight gain and germination rates. Biochemical effects were determined by measuring the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), which are indicators of oxidative stress. Cytotoxic and genotoxic effects were investigated by mitotic index (MI), micronucleus (MN) and chromosomal abnormality (CA) tests.N. oleanderleaf and flower extract applications caused significant decreases in the physiological parameters ofAlliumbulbs. SOD and CAT activity in root tip cells increased significantly after the application of leaf extract compared to the control group. Similar changes were observed in the application of flower extract, but these increases were found to be at a lower level compared to the increases induced by the leaf extract. An increase in MDA levels and a decrease in GSH levels were observed in groups treated with leaf and flower extracts. These changes show that the extracts cause deterioration in antioxidant/oxidant balance. It was determined that the extracts, which caused a decrease in MI rates and an increase in MN and CAs frequencies, showed the most prominent cytotoxic and genotoxic effects at 250 μg/mL doses. These toxic effects were associated with the phytochemical content of the extracts, and it was thought that cardiac glycosides and alkaloids, whose presence were detected in qualitative and quantitative analyzes, may play an important role in toxicity. Studies investigating the therapeutic properties of plants as well as their toxic effects are insufficient, which leads to the fact that plants exhibiting potential toxicity are not well known. Therefore, this study will lead many studies on the toxicity profile of the phytochemical contents of plants. Therefore, this study will draw attention to the investigation of the toxicity profile and phytochemical contents of plants and will lead to similar studies.
GenAD: General unsupervised anomaly detection using multivariate time series for large‐scale wireless base stations
Authors: Hua Xiaolei , Zhu Lin , Zhang Shenglin , Li Zeyan , Wang Su , Deng Chao , Feng Junlan , Zhang Zhao , Wu Wei 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe reliability of wireless base stations is essential to guarantee the user experiences in wireless networks, thereby employing the anomaly detection on multivariate time series is indispensable for network operators to monitor the behaviours of large‐scale wireless base stations. In this paper, a general unsupervised anomaly detection model is proposed using multivariate time series for large‐scale wireless base stations, called GenAD. Firstly, multi‐correlation attention and time‐series attention are employed to learn the representations of the complex correlations and various temporal patterns of multivariate series. Secondly, a general model on large‐scale wireless base stations is pre‐trained with self‐supervision, which can be easily transferred to a specific station with a small amount of training data. Experimentals show that GenAD boosts F1‐score by total 9% on real‐world datasets.
Enhanced dual branches network for arbitrary‐scale image super‐resolution
Authors: Li Guangping , Xiao Huanling , Liang Dingkai 
Published: December 2022

AbstractDeep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are of great improvement for single image super‐resolution (SISR). However, most existing SISR pre‐trained models can only perform single image restoration and the upscale factors cannot be non‐integers, which limits its application in real‐world scenarios. In this letter, an enhanced dual branches network (EDBNet) in upsampling network is proposed to generate arbitrary‐scale super‐resolution (SR) images. Specifically, the authors design a scale‐guidance upsampling module (SGU) by adding the scale factors and pixel‐level features to guide the weights of convolution. The SGU module performs discriminant learning for each instance in the same batch. Extensive experiments on four benchmark datasets show that the proposed method can achieve superior SR results.
Face anti‐spoofing from the perspective of data sampling
Authors: Muhammad Usman , Oussalah Mourad 
Published: December 2022

AbstractWithout deploying face anti‐spoofing countermeasures, face recognition systems can be spoofed by presenting a printed photo, a video, or a silicon mask of a genuine user. Thus, face presentation attack detection (PAD) plays a vital role in providing secure facial access to digital devices. Most existing video‐based PAD countermeasures lack the ability to cope with long‐range temporal variations in videos. Moreover, the key‐frame sampling prior to the feature extraction step has not been widely studied in the face anti‐spoofing domain. To mitigate these issues, this paper provides a data sampling approach by proposing a video processing scheme that models the long‐range temporal variations based on Gaussian weighting function (GWF). Specifically, the proposed scheme encodes the consecutive t frames of video sequences into a single RGB image based on a Gaussian‐weighted summation of the t frames. Using simply the data sampling scheme alone, it is demonstrated here that state‐of‐the‐art performance can be achieved without any bells and whistles in both intra‐database and inter‐database testing scenarios for the three public benchmark datasets; namely, replay‐Attack, MSU‐MFSD, and CASIA‐FASD. In particular, the proposed scheme provides a much lower error (from 15.2% to 7.6% on CASIA‐FASD and 5.9% to 4.9% on replay‐attack) compared to baselines in cross‐database scenarios.
Calculation of magnetic field and eddy current loss in end clamping ring of 300MVA synchronous condenser based on a novel semi‐analytical method
Authors: Zhu Erhang , Liang Yanping , Han Xiao , Bian Xu , Wang Dongmei 
Published: December 2022

AbstractIt is very important to consider the eddy current reaction of the metal structure in large electric machines, which has a direct impact on the calculation results of induced current and loss. In order to solve the problem that the complex end leakage magnetic field is difficult to calculate directly, a new semi‐analytical method (NSM) considering the eddy current reaction is proposed. Firstly, the corresponding relationship between the external magnetic field and the global magnetic field of the clamping ring in two simple calculation models is obtained by the 3‐D finite element method. Then, the external magnetic field of the clamping ring in a 300MVA synchronous condenser under rated operating conditions is calculated, and the global magnetic field of the clamping ring is determined based on the obtained corresponding relationship. The eddy current density and eddy current loss of the clamping ring are calculated using the external magnetic field and the global magnetic field respectively. Finally, the calculation results were compared with the 3‐D finite element results, which verified the importance of the global magnetic field and the accuracy of the NSM.