bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Polymeric Nanofibers of Various Degrees of Cross‐Linking as Fillers in Poly(styrene‐stat‐n‐butyl acrylate) Nanocomposites: Overcoming the Trade‐Off between Tensile Strength and Stretchability
Authors: Kim Hyun Jin , Ishizuka Fumi , Kuchel Rhiannon P. , Chatani Shunsuke , Niino Hiroshi , Zetterlund Per B. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractSynthesis of light polymer nanocomposites with high strength and toughness has been a significant interest for its potential applications in industry. Herein, the authors have synthesized polymerization‐induced self‐assembly (PISA) derived nanodimensional polymeric worm (fiber) reinforced polymer nanocomposites by a simple and environmentally friendly synthesis process without the addition of volatile organic compounds. PISA‐derived worms with a core‐forming block of low glass transition temperature (Tg ≈ 27.1 °C) comprising poly(styrene‐stat‐n‐butyl acrylate) have been employed as reinforcing filler. The influence of core‐segment cross‐linking on reinforcement efficiency has been explored by comparing noncross‐linked worms, and worms cross‐linked with a small amount of ethylene glycol diacrylate introduced att = 0 h ort = 2 h of polymerization. Upon addition of 1 wt% of noncross‐linked,t = 0 h cross‐linked, andt = 2 h cross‐linked worms, toughness of polymer nanocomposites can be enhanced by 62%, 114%, and 120%, respectively. The results suggest that the reinforcement efficiency of worms is significantly influenced by the cross‐linking of core‐segments regardless of cross‐linking methods. This work broadens the understanding in application of PISA‐derived worms as reinforcing filler by demonstrating the efficient reinforcement with lowTgworms.
A New Noncovalently Fused‐Ring Electron Acceptor Based on 3,7‐Dialkyloxybenzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b']dithiophene for Low‐Cost and High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells
Authors: Zhang Xin , Qin Linqing , Li Laiyang , Liu Xingzheng , Wei Yanan , Huang Hui 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe innovation of high‐performance fused‐ring electron acceptors (FREAs) has carried the field of organic solar cells (OSCs) toward a new stage of development. However, due to high synthetic complexity and production costs, FREAs may not be the most promising candidates for future commercialization applications. To address these disadvantages of FREAs, a series of low‐cost acceptors, named as noncovalently FREAs (NFREAs), is successfully constructed by employing the strategy of noncovalently conformational locks. Herein, a novel NFREA (BDTO‐4F) based on 3,7‐dialkyloxybenzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene is synthesized and fully characterized. Benefiting from the complementary absorption of the donor and acceptor, balanced charge transport, and favorable film morphology, J52:BDTO‐4F based OSCs afford a satisfied power conversion efficiency of 12.09%, much higher than PBDB‐T:BDTO‐4F‐based devices (8.30%). It is worth mentioning that BDTO‐4F possesses a higher figure‐of‐merit value of 55.65 in comparison with several representative FREAs based on a cost‐efficiency evaluation. This work demonstrates the potential of the novel benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b″]dithiophene derivative for constructing low‐cost and high‐performance NFREAs, providing a valuable insight on the materials design.
5‐Heptadecylresorcinol Protects against Atherosclerosis in Apolipoprotein E‐Deficient Mice by Modulating SIRT3 Signaling: The Possible Beneficial Effects of Whole Grain Consumption
Authors: Hao Yiming , Yang Zihui , Li Qing , Wang Ziyuan , Liu Jie , Wang Jing 
Published: March 2022

ScopeWhole grain consumption has been proven to be inversely associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases. As a biomarker for whole grain dietary intake, 5‐heptadecylresorcinol (AR‐C17) has attracted increased attention due to its potential health‐improving activity. However, the beneficial effect of AR‐C17 on atherosclerosis prevention and the underlying mechanism remain unclear.Methods and ResultsHigh‐fat diet fed apolipoprotein E‐deficient (ApoE−/−) mice are administrated with or without AR‐C17 (30 and 150 mg kg−1) for 16 weeks. Histological staining is performed for plaque analysis. Immunofluorescence, western blot, and seahorse cell analysis are carried out to investigate the action of mechanism of AR‐C17. The results indicate that AR‐C17 supplementation lowered serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, VLDL‐C, and LDL‐C levels. Moreover, the atherosclerotic plaques in the aortic root region of mice heart are significantly reduced by AR‐C17 intervention compared with ApoE−/− control group. In addition, AR‐C17 treatment alleviates endothelial cell damage and apoptosis by improving mitochondrial function via sirtuin3 signaling pathway both in ApoE−/− mice and oxidized‐LDL‐treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells.ConclusionAR‐C17 may be applied as a promising grain‐based dietary bioactive ingredient for atherosclerosis prevention. Meanwhile, as a mitochondrial protective agent, it can offer support for the suggested health claim of whole grain diet.
RPS‐Net: An effective retinal image projection segmentation network for retinal vessels and foveal avascular zone based on OCTA data
Authors: Li Weisheng , Zhang Hongchuan , Li Feiyan , Wang Linhong 
Published: March 2022

AbstractBackgroundOptical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is an advanced imaging technology that can present the three‐dimensional (3D) structure of retinal vessels (RVs). Quantitative analysis of retinal vessel density and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area is of great significance in clinical diagnosis, and the automatic semantic segmentation at the pixel level helps quantitative analysis. The existing segmentation methods cannot effectively use the volume data and projection map data of the OCTA image at the same time and lack the trade‐off between global perception and local details, which lead to problems such as discontinuity of segmentation results and deviation of morphological estimation.PurposeIn order to better assist physicians in clinical diagnosis and treatment, the segmentation accuracy of RVs and FAZ needs to be further improved. In this work, we propose an effective retinal image projection segmentation network (RPS‐Net) to achieve accurate RVs and FAZ segmentation. Experiments show that this network exhibits good performance and outperforms other existing methods.MethodsOur method considers three aspects. First, we use two parallel projection paths to learn global perceptual features and local supplementary details. Second, we use the dual‐way projection learning module to reduce the depth of the 3D data and learn image spatial features. Finally, we merged the two‐dimensional features learned from the volume data with the two‐dimensional projection data, and used a U‐shaped network to further learn and generate the final result.ResultsWe validated our model on the OCTA‐500, which is a large multi‐modal, multi‐task retinal dataset. The experimental results showed that our method achieved state‐of‐the‐art performance; the mean Dice coefficients for RVs are 89.89 ± 2.60 (%) and 91.40 ± 9.18 (%) on the two subsets, while the Dice coefficients for FAZ are 91.55 ± 2.05 (%) and 97.80 ± 2.75 (%), respectively.ConclusionsOur method can make full use of the information of 3D data and 2D data to generate segmented images with higher continuity and accuracy. Code is available at https://github.com/hchuanZ/MFFN/tree/master.
Deep‐learning‐based projection‐domain breast thickness estimation for shape‐prior iterative image reconstruction in digital breast tomosynthesis
Authors: Lee Seoyoung , Kim Hyeongseok , Lee Hoyeon , Cho Seungryong 
Published: March 2022

AbstractBackgroundDigital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a technique that can overcome the shortcomings of conventional X‐ray mammography and can be effective for the early screening of breast cancer. The compression of the breast is essential during the DBT imaging. However, since the periphery of the breast cannot be compressed to a constant value, nonuniformity of thickness and in‐plane shape variation happen. These cause inconvenience in diagnosis, scatter correction, and breast density estimation.PurposeIn this study, we propose a deep‐learning‐based methodology for projection‐domain breast thickness estimation and demonstrate a shape‐prior iterative DBT image reconstruction.MethodsWe prepared the Euclidean distance map, the thickness map, and the thickness corrected image of the simulated breast projections for thickness and shape estimation. Each pixel of the Euclidean distance map denotes a distance to the closest skin‐line. The thickness map is defined as a conceptual projection of ideal breast support that differentiates the inner and outer regions of the breast phantom. The thickness projection map thus represents the X‐ray path lengths of a homogeneous breast phantom. We generated the thickness corrected image by dividing the projection image by the thickness map in a pixel‐wise manner. We developed a convolutional neural network for thickness estimation and correction. The network utilizes a projection image and a Euclidean distance image together as a dual input. An estimated breast thickness map is then used for constructing the breast shape mask by use of the discrete algebraic reconstruction technique.ResultsThe proposed network effectively corrected the breast thickness in various simulation situations. Low normalized root‐mean‐squared error (1.976%) and high structural similarity (99.997%) indicated a good agreement between the network‐generated thickness corrected image and the ground truth image. Compared to the existing methods and simple single‐input network, the proposed method showed outperformance in breast thickness estimation and accordingly in breast shape recovery for various numerical phantoms without provoking any significant artifact. We have demonstrated that the uniformity of voxel value has improved by the inclusion of a shape prior for the iterative DBT reconstruction.ConclusionsWe presented a novel deep‐learning‐based breast thickness correction and a shape reconstruction method. This approach to estimating the true thickness map and the shape of the breast undergoing compression can benefit various fields such as improvement of diagnostic breast images, scatter correction, material decomposition, and breast density estimation.
Electrospinning of polymer nanofibers based on chiral polymeric nanoparticles
Authors: Abuaf Meir , Mastai Yitzhak 
Published: March 2022

AbstractChiral polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as a new and exciting field of research and in the last years due to their possible use for many applications in chiral chemistry however the efficiency of separating enantiomerically pure compounds has been always challenging. In this article, we focus on electrospun nanofibers formed by chiral functional NPs based on leucine or phenylalanine amino acids with polysulfone (PSF). Combining chiral functional NPs with PSF in electrospinning method provides us to get intertwined electrospun membranes with chiral property and used them for separation of racemic mixtures. We have also studied chiral functional conventional membranes formed by PSF and NPs. The NPs were prepared by miniemulsion polymerization and were characterized by DLS, SEM, MS, and NMR and display spherical structure with a narrow size distribution in the range of 200 to 250 nm. The characteristics of the membranes in terms of their morphology were analyzed. The permselective properties of the all membranes in the separation of racemic mixture were studied using aqueous solutions of leucine. Time‐resolved circular dichroism and chiral column high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to provide evidence for enantioselective separation. Our results show the membrane which is based on PSF and leucine NPs and formed by conventional method gives the best results for enantioselective separation by showing 18% enantiomeric excess (EE).
Selective ablation of Nfix in macrophages attenuates muscular dystrophy by inhibiting fibro‐adipogenic progenitor‐dependent fibrosis
Authors: Saclier Marielle , Angelini Giuseppe , Bonfanti Chiara , Mura Giada , Temponi Giulia , Messina Graziella 
Published: March 2022

AbstractMuscular dystrophies are genetic diseases characterized by chronic inflammation and fibrosis. Macrophages are immune cells that sustain muscle regeneration upon acute injury but seem deleterious in the context of chronic muscle injury such as in muscular dystrophies. Here, we observed that the number of macrophages expressing the transcription factor Nfix increases in two distinct mouse models of muscular dystrophies. We showed that the deletion of Nfix in macrophages in dystrophic mice delays the establishment of fibrosis and muscle wasting, and increases grasp force. Macrophages lacking Nfix expressed more TNFα and less TGFβ1, thus promoting apoptosis of fibro‐adipogenic progenitors. Moreover, pharmacological treatment of dystrophic mice with a ROCK inhibitor accelerated fibrosis through the increase of Nfix expression by macrophages. Thus, we have identified Nfix as a macrophage profibrotic factor in muscular dystrophies, whose inhibition could be a therapeutic route to reduce severity of the dystrophic disease. © 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Self‐assembly of triblock copolymers in the slits of neutral plates to form porous membranes and the pore size distribution: dissipative particle dynamics simulation
Authors: Li Hui , Wei Yuan‐Yuan , Wang Zhen‐Yu , Wang Ning , Zhang Long , Chen Zhen‐Bin , Lin Qiao‐Li , Liu Hong 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe self‐assembly morphology of triblock copolymers confined between the slits of neutral plates is investigated with the dissipative particle dynamics simulation method. A porous membrane structure with uniform pore size distribution is obtained. The pore size distribution shows linear laws affected by the concentration of the polymer solution, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of the block as well as the polymer topology and slit thickness. When the concentration is in the range 0.4 to 0.7, the linear triblock copolymer forms continuous circular pores through self‐assembly, and block components present a laterally layered texture. The ring triblock copolymer has no end groups and exhibits a unique self‐assembly behavior. The cyclic triblock copolymer self‐assembled in the slit is able to form an interpenetrating porous continuous structure, and the polymer film has a longitudinal layered structure. The star triblock copolymer has a more unique structure and can self‐assemble into worm micelles with irregular pore structure and continuous interpenetration. In addition, the microphase separation structure of the triblock copolymer melt between the slits is studied. Generally, linear triblock copolymers generate longitudinal stripes, ring triblock copolymers form horizontal stripes and star triblock copolymers form a ‘lattice’ structure. © 2022 Society of Industrial Chemistry.
Reliability measures of a non‐series parallel system of (m, nc${n_c}$, l) order with Weibull Failure Laws
Authors: Malik Suresh Chander , Ahlawat Nitika 
Published: March 2022

AbstractHere, a non series‐parallel system of (m, , l) order is developed by introducing “l” additional components linked to arbitrary non‐adjacent and components of “m” parallel subsystems each containing components connected in series. The maximum number of effective duplication paths between IN and OUT terminals is formed using Logic Diagram Technique (LDT). Each path contains components whose successful operation can lead to successful operation of the system. The superior paths are discarded keeping in view of the fact that these paths have no effect on reliability of the system. The Path Tracing Method (PTM) is used to derive expressions for reliability and mean time to system failure (MTSF) by considering Weibull failure laws for the components. An illustration is given to highlight the application of the present study. The behavior of reliability of the system has been shown numerically and graphically for arbitrary values of the scale parameter (λ), shape parameter (β), number of additional components (l), scale parameter of additional component (), and shape parameter of additionalcomponent ( and operating time t = 5.
Flow amplitude or up‐ramping rate? Quantifying single and combined effects on macroinvertebrate drift during hydropeaking simulations, considering sensitive traits
Authors: Schülting Lisa , Dossi Florian , Graf Wolfram , Tonolla Diego 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe hydrological regime of many alpine rivers is heavily altered due hydroelectric power generation. Hydropeaking operation produces frequent and irregular discharge fluctuations. Depending on the operational changes of flow amplitude and/or up‐ramping rate as well as on river morphology, hydropeaking can lead to quick and strong variations in hydraulic stress affecting stream invertebrates and causing increased drift. In the present flume experimental study, we analyzed trait‐specific drift reactions to single and combined effects of increased flow amplitude and up‐ramping rate. We analyzed taxa according to their hydraulic habitat preference and flow exposure, as these traits seem to be indicative toward hydropeaking. The results show that the sudden increase in discharge and related flow velocity led to increased macroinvertebrate drift proportions in hydropeaking treatments, which differed significantly to parallel control runs (mean drift proportion in all hydropeaking setups: 13% compared to 5% in controls). Increasing flow amplitudes led to an increase in drift for most taxa and traits. This was particularly significant for taxa associated with lentic areas. The effect of the up‐ramping rate on macroinvertebrate drift was nonsignificant but showed strong interactive effects with the flow amplitude, especially for taxa dwelling on the substrate surface. Our results therefore indicate that discharge‐related parameters, such as flow velocity, primarily affect macroinvertebrate drift and the importance of the up‐ramping rate increases, if certain discharge‐related thresholds are exceeded. Vice versa, a reduction of the up‐ramping rate at hydropeaking events with high flow amplitudes may reduce the effect on macroinvertebrate drift. Flow‐exposed (surface) and flow‐sensitive (lentic) taxa showed distinct drift reactions following hydropeaking treatments, which were significantly higher compared to effects on taxa associated to lotic and interstital habitats. Therefore, we conclude that both traits (hydraulic and vertical habitat preference) have proven as promising for analyzing hydropeaking effects. The trait classifications should be extended to a higher number of taxa and to different life stages as these may show different drift patterns.
Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of Some New Spiropyrazoline Derivatives of 9α‐ and 9β‐Hydroxyparthenolide
Authors: Moumou Mohamed , Outahar Fatima , Ourhzif El‐Mahdi , Hannioui Abdellah , Bouamama Hafida , El Ammari Lahcen , Saadi Mohamed , Rakib El Mostapha , Akssira Mohamed 
Published: March 2022

AbstractIn the present study, we efficiently synthesized two new series of spiropyrazoline derivatives from 9α‐ and 9β‐hydroxyparthenolide (isolated from the aerial parts ofAnvillea radiata). The compounds were obtained by modifications at the C−13 and C−9 positions via 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition followed by O−H acylation at the C1−C10 using epoxidation with metachloroperoxybenzoic acid (m‐CPBA) followed by 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition on the double bond α‐methylene‐γ‐lactones. The structures and stereochemistry of the cycloadducts were established by spectroscopic methods, including X‐ray diffraction data. Some compounds were tested for antibacterial activity. Several spiropyrazoline derivatives showed good to moderate activity against bacteria.
Highly Reversible “Off‐On‐Off” Dual‐channel Fluorescence Probe Based on Amino Pyrazole and Phenothiazine for Sensing Extremely Alkaline Solution
Authors: Li Xiaohong , Zhao Xiaoli , Wu Linli , Leng Yanli , Cai Xiaohua 
Published: March 2022

AbstractAcid‐base balance is related to many cell functions, and its disorders can lead to many diseases. Real‐time detection of intracellular pH fluctuation is very important to prevent many diseases and environmental water samples. Here, we report a dual‐channel fluorescence probe PTZ‐aminopyrazole based on low‐cost phenothiazine and 3‐aminopyrazole, which can detect pH fluctuation highly sensitively through protonation under acidic condition and deprotonation under alkaline condition. The probe exhibits a fluorescence intensity and UV absorbance characteristics in the extreme acidity range of 2.6‐5.5 and especially in the extreme alkaline range of 11.1‐13.8, respectively. In addition, PTZ‐ aminopyrazole has high pH‐selective reaction to metal ions, good reversibility and excellent photostability. Furthermore, PTZ‐aminopyrazole can be fixed on a test paper, which shows a rapid and reversible colorimetric response to HCl/NaOH vapor with naked‐eye.
Harnessing Heteropolar Lithium Polysulfides by Amphoteric Polymer Binder for Facile Manufacturing of Practical Li‐S Batteries
Authors: Li Shizhen , Xiao Wenshan , Do Hainam , Yang Hangqi , Xu Xiaoqi , Peng Chuang 
Published: March 2022

AbstractEnabling efficient and durable charge storage under high sulfur loading and lean electrolyte remains a paramount challenge for Li‐S battery technology to truly demonstrate its commercial viability. This work reports an amphoteric polymer binder, whose negatively and positively charged moieties allow for coregulation of both lithium cations and heteropolar lithium polysulfides through multiple intermolecular interactions. These interactions and the physical properties lead to simultaneously improved Li+ transport, polysulfide adsorption and catalysis, cathode robustness and anode stability. Therefore, this multifunctional binder endows Li‐S batteries with compelling overall performances even under rigorous conditions. At low sulfur loading and copious electrolyte, the cell shows a low capacity‐fading rate of 0.056% cycle‐1 upon 700 cycles. At sulfur loading of 6.8 mg cm–2 and low E/S of 6 µL mg–1, the cell still delivers stable areal capacities between 4.2 and 4.8 mAh cm–2 in 50 cycles without obvious decay at 0.2 C. The commercial feasibility of this work is further manifested by its zero added weight, low material cost, and ease of manufacturing and scale‐up. The efficacy and simplicity of this work symbolize an example of lab‐scale battery research aiming at improved technology and manufacturing readiness level.
Giant umbilical cord with impending heart failure—Prognostic significance of prenatal ultrasound
Authors: Reddy Ravikanth 
Published: March 2022

AbstractDetection of giant umbilical cord prenatally should lead to vigilant monitoring particularly at term as fetal demise is a possibility, as noted in the present case because of altered hemodynamics and related vascular complications such as compromised fetal circulation. A case of prenatally diagnosed, giant umbilical cord with fetoplacental insufficiency and impending heart failure is reported. An 18‐year‐old primigravida, presented at 34 weeks of gestational age with complaints of acute onset abdominal pain. Fetal umbilical artery obstetric Doppler examination demonstrated reversal of diastolic flow. 2D echocardiography demonstrated dilated all 4 chambers of the heart with reduced contractility suggesting impending heart failure. Subsequently, fetal demise was noted after 2 days, and labour was induced followed by vaginal delivery of the dead fetus. A giant umbilical cord was seen at delivery with absent knots or strictures. This case report deserves a special mention as there were no earlier reported cases of giant umbilical cord in literature presenting with impending heart failure and fetal demise. We have presented the detailed clinical course of the fetus with giant umbilical cord along with a review of the related literature.