bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Information normally considered task-irrelevant drives decision-making and affects premotor circuit recruitment
Authors: Schreiner Drew C. , Cazares Christian , Renteria Rafael , Gremel Christina M. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractDecision-making is a continuous and dynamic process with prior experience reflected in and used by the brain to guide adaptive behavior. However, most neurobiological studies constrain behavior and/or analyses to task-related variables, not accounting for the continuous internal and temporal space in which they occur. We show mice rely on information learned through recent and longer-term experience beyond just prior actions and reward - including checking behavior and the passage of time - to guide self-initiated, self-paced, and self-generated actions. These experiences are represented in secondary motor cortex (M2) activity and its projections into dorsal medial striatum (DMS). M2 integrates this information to bias strategy-level decision-making, and DMS projections reflect specific aspects of this recent experience to guide actions. This suggests diverse aspects of experience drive decision-making and its neural representation, and shows premotor corticostriatal circuits are crucial for using selective aspects of experiential information to guide adaptive behavior.
Sea ice–air interactions amplify multidecadal variability in the North Atlantic and Arctic region
Authors: Deng Jiechun , Dai Aiguo 
Published: April 2022

AbstractWinter surface air temperature (Tas) over the Barents–Kara Seas (BKS) and other Arctic regions has experienced rapid warming since the late 1990s that has been linked to the concurring cooling over Eurasia, and these multidecadal trends are attributed partly to internal variability. However, how such variability is generated is unclear. Through analyses of observations and model simulations, we show that sea ice–air two-way interactions amplify multidecadal variability in sea-ice cover, sea surface temperatures (SST) and Tas from the North Atlantic to BKS, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) mainly through variations in surface fluxes. When sea ice is fixed in flux calculations, multidecadal variations are reduced substantially (by 20–50%) not only in Arctic Tas, but also in North Atlantic SST and AMOC. The results suggest that sea ice–air interactions are crucial for multidecadal climate variability in both the Arctic and North Atlantic, similar to air-sea interactions for tropical climate.
Structural transformation and catalytic hydrogenation activity of amidinate-protected copper hydride clusters
Authors: Liu Chun-Yu , Yuan Shang-Fu , Wang Song , Guan Zong-Jie , Jiang De-en , Wang Quan-Ming 
Published: April 2022

AbstractCopper hydrides are important hydrogenation catalysts, but their poor stability hinders the practical applications. Ligand engineering is an effective strategy to tackle this issue. An amidinate ligand, N,N′-Di(5-trifluoromethyl-2-pyridyl)formamidinate (Tf-dpf) with four N-donors has been applied as a protecting agent in the synthesis of stable copper hydride clusters: Cu11H3(Tf-dpf)6(OAc)2 (Cu11) with three interfacial μ5-H and [Cu12H3(Tf-dpf)6(OAc)2]·OAc (Cu12) with three interstitial μ6-H. A solvent-triggered reversible interconversion between Cu11 and Cu12 has been observed thanks to the flexibility of Tf-dpf. Cu11 shows high activity in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, while Cu12 displays very low activity. Deuteration experiments prove that the type of hydride is the key in dictating the catalytic activity, for the interfacial μ5-H species in Cu11 are involved in the catalytic cycle whereas the interstitial μ6-H species in Cu12 are not. This work highlights the role of hydrides with regard to catalytic hydrogenation activity.
Deep insights into the gut microbial community of extreme longevity in south Chinese centenarians by ultra-deep metagenomics and large-scale culturomics
Authors: Li Congyong , Luan Zhe , Zhao Yiming , Chen Jun , Yang Yanan , Wang Cong , Jing Yujia , Qi Shirui , Li Zhuanyu , Guo Hao , Xu Wenyi , Zhao Bowen , Wu Chongming , Wang Shufang , Yang Yunsheng , Sun Gang 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThe gut microbes play important roles in human longevity and the gut microbiota profile of centenarians shows some unique features from young adults. Nowadays, most microbial studies on longevity are commonly based on metagenomic sequencing which may lose information about the functional microbes with extremely low abundance. Here, we combined in-depth metagenomic sequencing and large-scale culturomics to reveal the unique gut microbial structure of a Chinese longevity population, and to explore the possible relationship between intestinal microbes and longevity. Twenty-five healthy Hainan natives were enrolled in the study, including 12 centenarians and 13 senior neighbors. An average of 51.1 Gb raw sequencing data were obtained from individual fecal sample. We assembled 1778 non-redundant metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs), 33.46% of which cannot be classified into known species. Comparison with the ordinary people in Hainan province, the longevous cohort displayed significantly decreased abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria and largely increased proportion of Escherichia coli, Desulfovibrio piger and Methanobrevibacter smithii. These species showed a constant change with aging. We also isolated 8,030 strains from these samples by large-scale culturomics, most of which belonged to 203 known species as identified by MALDI-TOF. Surprisingly, only 42.17% of the isolated species were also detected by metagenomics, indicating obvious complementarity between these two approaches. Combination of two complement methods, in-depth metagenomic sequencing and culturomics, provides deeper insights into the longevity-related gut microbiota. The uniquely enriched gut microbes in Hainan extreme decades population may help to promote health and longevity.
Identification and characterization of novel endolysins targeting Gardnerella vaginalis biofilms to treat bacterial vaginosis
Authors: Arroyo-Moreno Sara , Cummings Matthew , Corcoran David B. , Coffey Aidan , McCarthy Ronan R. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBacterial vaginosis (BV) is a recurrent dysbiosis that is frequently associated with preterm birth, increased risk for acquisition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The overgrowth of a key pathobiont, Gardnerella vaginalis, as a recalcitrant biofilm is central to the development of this dysbiosis. Overgrowth of vaginal biofilms, seeded by initial G. vaginalis colonization, leads to recurrent symptomatic BV which is poorly resolved by classically used antibiotics. In this light, the use of bacteriophages and/or their proteins, represents a promising alternative. Here we identify 84 diverse anti-Gardnerella endolysins across 7 protein families. A subset of 36 endolysin candidates were refactored and overexpressed in an E. coli BL21 (DE3) system and 5 biochemically and structurally diverse endolysins were fully characterized. Each candidate endolysin showed good lytic activity against planktonic G. vaginalis ATCC14018, as well as G. vaginalis clinical isolates. These endolysin candidates were assayed in biofilm prevention and disruption assays, with biofilm disruption at low microgram concentrations (5 μg/ml) observed. In addition to clonal G. vaginalis biofilms, endolysin candidates could also successfully disrupt polyspecies biofilms. Importantly, none of our candidates showed lytic activity against commensal lactobacilli present in the vaginal microbiota such as L. crispatus, L. jensenii, L. gasseri, and L. iners or against Atopobium vaginae (currently classified as Fannyhessa vaginae). The potency and selectivity of these novel endolysins constitute a promising alternative treatment to combat BV, avoiding problems associated with antibiotic resistance, while retaining beneficial commensal bacteria in the vaginal flora. The diverse library of candidates reported here represents a strong repository of endolysins for further preclinical development.
Toward therapeutic electrophysiology: beta-band suppression as a biomarker in chronic local field potential recordings
Authors: Feldmann Lucia K. , Lofredi Roxanne , Neumann Wolf-Julian , Al-Fatly Bassam , Roediger Jan , Bahners Bahne H. , Nikolov Petyo , Denison Timothy , Saryyeva Assel , Krauss Joachim K. , Faust Katharina , Florin Esther , Schnitzler Alfons , Schneider Gerd-Helge , Kühn Andrea A. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractAdaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) is a promising concept for feedback-based neurostimulation, with the potential of clinical implementation with the sensing-enabled Percept neurostimulator. We aim to characterize chronic electrophysiological activity during stimulation and to validate beta-band activity as a biomarker for bradykinesia. Subthalamic activity was recorded during stepwise stimulation amplitude increase OFF medication in 10 Parkinson’s patients during rest and finger tapping. Offline analysis of wavelet-transformed beta-band activity and assessment of inter-variable relationships in linear mixed effects models were implemented. There was a stepwise suppression of low-beta activity with increasing stimulation intensity (p = 0.002). Low-beta power was negatively correlated with movement speed and predictive for velocity improvements (p < 0.001), stimulation amplitude for beta suppression (p < 0.001). Here, we characterize beta-band modulation as a chronic biomarker for motor performance. Our investigations support the use of electrophysiology in therapy optimization, providing evidence for the use of biomarker analysis for clinical aDBS.
Electrophysiological dataset from macaque visual cortical area MST in response to a novel motion stimulus
Authors: Wild Benedict , Maamoun Amr , Mayr Yifan , Brockhausen Ralf , Treue Stefan 
Published: April 2022

AbstractEstablishing the cortical neural representation of visual stimuli is a central challenge of systems neuroscience. Publicly available data would allow a broad range of scientific analyses and hypothesis testing, but are rare and largely focused on the early visual system. To address the shortage of open data from higher visual areas, we provide a comprehensive dataset from a neurophysiology study in macaque monkey visual cortex that includes a complete record of extracellular action potential recordings from the extrastriate medial superior temporal (MST) area, behavioral data, and detailed stimulus records. It includes spiking activity of 172 single neurons recorded in 139 sessions from 4 hemispheres of 3 rhesus macaque monkeys. The data was collected across 3 experiments, designed to characterize the response properties of MST neurons to complex motion stimuli. This data can be used to elucidate visual information processing at the level of single neurons in a high-level area of primate visual cortex. Providing open access to this dataset also promotes the 3R-principle of responsible animal research.
OSASUD: A dataset of stroke unit recordings for the detection of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Authors: Bernardini Andrea , Brunello Andrea , Gigli Gian Luigi , Montanari Angelo , Saccomanno Nicola 
Published: April 2022

AbstractPolysomnography (PSG) is a fundamental diagnostical method for the detection of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). Historically, trained physicians have been manually identifying OSAS episodes in individuals based on PSG recordings. Such a task is highly important for stroke patients, since in such cases OSAS is linked to higher mortality and worse neurological deficits. Unfortunately, the number of strokes per day vastly outnumbers the availability of polysomnographs and dedicated healthcare professionals. The data in this work pertains to 30 patients that were admitted to the stroke unit of the Udine University Hospital, Italy. Unlike previous studies, exclusion criteria are minimal. As a result, data are strongly affected by noise, and individuals may suffer from several comorbidities. Each patient instance is composed of overnight vital signs data deriving from multi-channel ECG, photoplethysmography and polysomnography, and related domain expert’s OSAS annotations. The dataset aims to support the development of automated methods for the detection of OSAS events based on just routinely monitored vital signs, and capable of working in a real-world scenario.
16S rRNA and metagenomic shotgun sequencing data revealed consistent patterns of gut microbiome signature in pediatric ulcerative colitis
Authors: Zuo Wenxuan , Wang Beibei , Bai Xin , Luan Yihui , Fan Yingying , Michail Sonia , Sun Fengzhu 
Published: April 2022

AbstractDysbiosis of human gut microbiota has been reported in association with ulcerative colitis (UC) in both children and adults using either 16S rRNA gene or shotgun sequencing data. However, these studies used either 16S rRNA or metagenomic shotgun sequencing but not both. We sequenced feces samples from 19 pediatric UC and 23 healthy children ages between 7 to 21 years using both 16S rRNA and metagenomic shotgun sequencing. The samples were analyzed using three different types of data: 16S rRNA genus level abundance, microbial species and pathway abundance profiles. We demonstrated that (a) the alpha diversity of pediatric UC cases is lower than that of healthy controls; (b) the beta diversity within children with UC is more variable than within the healthy children; (c) several microbial families includingAkkermansiaceae, Clostridiaceae, Eggerthellaceae,Lachnospiraceae, andOscillospiraceae, contain species that are depleted in pediatric UC compared to controls; (d) a few associated species unique to pediatric UC, but not adult UC, were also identified, e.g. some species in theChristensenellaceaefamily were found to be depleted and some species in theEnterobacteriaceaefamily were found to be enriched in pediatric UC; and (e) both 16S rRNA and shotgun sequencing data can predict pediatric UC status with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of close to 0.90 based on cross validation. We showed that 16S rRNA data yielded similar results as shotgun data in terms of alpha diversity, beta diversity, and prediction accuracy. Our study demonstrated that pediatric UC subjects harbor a dysbiotic and less diverse gut microbial population with distinct differences from healthy children. We also showed that 16S rRNA data yielded accurate disease prediction results in comparison to shotgun data, which can be more expensive and laborious. These conclusions were confirmed in an independent data set of 7 pediatric UC cases and 8 controls.
Preferential stimulation of melanocytes by M2 macrophages to produce melanin through vascular endothelial growth factor
Authors: Han Heeju , Kim Yena , Mo Hyunkyung , Choi Si Hwa , Lee Kijun , Rim Yeri Alice , Ju Ji Hyeon 
Published: April 2022

AbstractPost-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is a skin discoloration process that occurs following an inflammatory response or wound. As the skin begins to heal, macrophages first exhibit a proinflammatory phenotype (M1) during the early stages of tissue repair and then transition to a pro-healing, anti-inflammatory phenotype (M2) in later stages. During this process, M1 macrophages remove invading bacteria and M2 macrophages remodel surrounding tissue; however, the relationship between macrophages and pigmentation is unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of macrophages on melanin pigmentation using human induced pluripotent stem cells. Functional melanocytes were differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells and named as hiMels. The generated hiMels were then individually cocultured with M1 and M2 macrophages. Melanin synthesis decreased in hiMels cocultured with M1 macrophages but significantly increased in hiMels cocultured with M2 macrophages. Moreover, the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor was increased in M2 cocultured media. Our findings suggest that M2 macrophages, and not M1 macrophages, induce hyperpigmentation in scarred areas of the skin during tissue repair.
The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees
Authors: Völter Christoph J. , Reindl Eva , Felsche Elisa , Civelek Zeynep , Whalen Andrew , Lugosi Zsuzsa , Duncan Lisa , Herrmann Esther , Call Josep , Seed Amanda M. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractExecutive functions (EF) are a core aspect of cognition. Research with adult humans has produced evidence for unity and diversity in the structure of EF. Studies with preschoolers favour a 1-factor model, in which variation in EF tasks is best explained by a single underlying trait on which all EF tasks load. How EF are structured in nonhuman primates remains unknown. This study starts to fill this gap through a comparative, multi-trait multi-method test battery with preschoolers (N = 185) and chimpanzees (N = 55). The battery aimed at measuring working memory updating, inhibition, and attention shifting with three non-verbal tasks per function. For both species the correlations between tasks were low to moderate and not confined to tasks within the same putative function. Factor analyses produced some evidence for the unity of executive functions in both groups, in that our analyses revealed shared variance. However, we could not conclusively distinguish between 1-, 2- or 3-factor models. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the ecological validity of current psychometric research.
Feces DNA analyses track the rehabilitation of a free-ranging beluga whale
Authors: Günther Babett , Jourdain Eve , Rubincam Lindsay , Karoliussen Richard , Cox Sam L. , Arnaud Haond Sophie 
Published: April 2022

AbstractFollowing the sudden appearance, and subsequent efforts to support the survival of a beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) speculated to have been previously trained off the coast of Norway, we investigate the animal’s ability to readapt to life in the wild. Dietary DNA (dDNA) analysis was used to assess diet throughout this rehabilitation process, and during a return to unassisted foraging and self-feeding. Metabarcoding of feces collected throughout this process, confirmed the diversification of the beluga whale’s diet to local prey. These findings are indicative of improved foraging behavior, and the ability of this individual to resume wild foraging following a period of dependency in managed care. New insight of digestion rates, and the time window during which prey detection through dDNA analysis is appropriate was also obtained. Beyond the case study presented here, we demonstrate the power of dDNA analysis as a non-intrusive tool to assess the diet of large mammals and track progress adapting to life in the wild following release from captivity and rehabilitation programs.
Preventive aerobic training preserves sympathovagal function and improves DNA repair capacity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in rats with cardiomyopathy
Authors: Ghignatti Paola Victória da Costa , Russo Mariana Kras Borges , Becker Tiago , Guecheva Temenouga Nikolova , Teixeira Luciele Varaschini , Lehnen Alexandre Machado , Schaun Maximiliano Isoppo , Leguisamo Natalia Motta 
Published: April 2022

AbstractTo evaluate the effect of preventive aerobic exercise training on sympathovagal function, cardiac function, and DNA repair capacity in a preclinical model of doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiomyopathy. Forty male Wistar-Kyoto rats were allocated into four groups (n = 10/group): D (DOX-treated) and C (controls) remained sedentary, and DT (DOX-trained) and CT (control-trained) performed aerobic training 4 days/week, during 4 weeks before exposure to DOX (4 mg/kg/week during 4 weeks) or saline solution. We evaluated cardiac function (echocardiography), hemodynamic and sympathovagal modulation (artery-femoral cannulation), cardiac troponin T levels, and DNA repair capacity (comet assay). Exercise training preserved ejection fraction (D: − 14.44% vs. DT: − 1.05%, p < 0.001), fractional shortening (D: − 8.96% vs. DT: − 0.27%, p = 0.025) and troponin T levels (D: 6.4 ± 3.6 vs. DT: 2.8 ± 1.7 ng/mL, p = 0.010). DOX increased heart rate variability (C: 27.7 ± 7.9 vs. D: 7.5 ± 2.2 ms2, p < 0.001) and induced sympathovagal dysfunction (LF/HF, C: 0.37 ± 0.15 vs. D: 0.15 ± 0.15, p = 0.036) through exacerbation of sympathetic function (LF, C: 0.22 ± 0.01 vs. D: 0.48 ± 0.24 Hz, p = 0.019). Peripheral mononuclear blood cells of DT animals presented lower residual DNA damage (D: 43.4 ± 8.4% vs. DT: 26 ± 3.4%, p = 0.003 after 1 h). Cardioprotective effects of preventive aerobic exercise training are mediated by preservation of sympathovagal function and improvement of DNA repair capacity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
A multi-parameter persistence framework for mathematical morphology
Authors: Chung Yu-Min , Day Sarah , Hu Chuan-Shen 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThe field of mathematical morphology offers well-studied techniques for image processing and is applicable for studies ranging from materials science to ecological pattern formation. In this work, we view morphological operations through the lens ofpersistent homology, a tool at the heart of the field of topological data analysis. We demonstrate that morphological operations naturally form a multiparameter filtration and that persistent homology can then be used to extract information about both topology and geometry in the images as well as to automate methods for optimizing the study and rendering of structure in images. For illustration, we develop an automated approach that utilizes this framework to denoise binary, grayscale, and color images with salt and pepper and larger spatial scale noise. We measure our example unsupervised denoising approach to state-of-the-art supervised, deep learning methods to show that our results are comparable.