bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Isolation, characterization and biological activities of betulin from Acacia nilotica bark
Authors: Kaur Prabhjit , Arora Saroj , Singh Rajbir 
Published: June 2022

AbstractMedicinal plants are in use of humankind since ancient and still they are playing an important role in effective and safer natural drug delivery systems. Acacia nilotica (native of Egypt) commonly known as babul belongs to family Fabaceae, widely spread in India, Sri Lanka and Sudan. Being a common and important plant, using in many ways from fodder (shoots and leaves to animals) to dyeing (leather coloration) to medicine (root, bark, leaves, flower, gum, pods). The present study is focused on investigating the natural chemistry and important biological activities of the plant. Employing bioassay guided fractionation coupled with TLC and column chromatography, a pure fraction named AN-10 was isolated from ethyl acetate fraction of crude methanol extract which identified as “Betulin (Lupan-3ß,28-diol)” by Liebermann-Burchard test and structure elucidation by UV–Vis, NMR and MS techniques. A battery of in vitro biological assays for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer were performed and betulin showed excellent potential in all assays. It was found that the inhibitory potential in all assays were dose dependent manner and after a range of concentration, the activities get leveled off with no further increase in activity.
Modified natural kaolin clay as an active, selective, and stable catalyst for methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether
Authors: El-Aal Mohamed Abd , Said Abd El-Aziz Ahmed , Abdallah Mohamed H. , Goda Mohamed Nady 
Published: June 2022

AbstractIn this work, the production of dimethyl ether (DME) from methanol over natural kaolin clay modified through impregnation with various percentages of H2SO4, WO3, or ZrO2 catalysts was investigated. The prepared catalysts were characterized via X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and N2-sorption analysis. The acidity of these catalysts was determined through the dehydration of isopropyl alcohol and the chemisorption of pyridine. The catalytic activity performance revealed that the addition of modifiers into kaolin enhanced the latter’s activity toward DME production. In addition, the kaolin clay modified with 10 wt% ZrO2 exhibited excellent activity of 98% conversion with 100% selectivity at 275 °C. Moreover, this catalyst could proceed the reaction for a long time (6 days) without any noticeable deactivation. The remarkable improvement in the catalytic performance achievement was well correlated with the acidity and the structure of the catalysts.
Long-term persistence of treatment after hip fracture in a fracture liaison service
Authors: Naranjo Antonio , Molina Amparo , Quevedo Adrián , Rubiño Francisco J. , Sánchez-Alonso Fernando , Rodríguez-Lozano Carlos , Ojeda Soledad 
Published: June 2022

AbstractLong-term adherence to antiosteoporosis medication (AOM) in the setting of a fracture liaison service (FLS) are not well known. Patients ≥ 50 with hip fracture seen in an FLS and recommended for treatment to prevent new fractures were analyzed. Baseline data included demographics, identification mode, previous treatment and FRAX items. Patient records were reviewed 3–8 years later, and these data were collected: (1) survival; (2) major refracture; (3) initiation of treatment, proportion of days covered (PDC) and persistence with AOM. 372 patients (mean age, 79 years; 76% women) were included. Mean follow-up was 47 months, 52 patients (14%) had a refracture (22 hip) and 129 (34.5%) died. AOM was started in 283 patients (76.0%). Factors associated with initiation of AOM were previous use of bisphosphonate (OR 9.94; 95% CI 1.29–76.32) and a lower T-score lumbar (OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.65–0.99). Persistence decreased to 72.6%, 60% and 47% at 12, 36 and 60 months. A PDC > 80% was confirmed in 208 patients (55.7%) and associated with previous use of bisphosphonate (OR 3.38; 95% CI 1.34–8.53), treatment with denosumab (OR 2.69; 95% CI:1.37–5.27), and inpatient identification (OR 2.26; 95% CI 1.18–4.34). Long-term persistence with AOM was optimal in patients with hip fracture seen at an FLS. A PDC > 80% was associated with inpatient identification and prescription of denosumab.
Large-scale placenta DNA methylation integrated analysis reveals fetal sex-specific differentially methylated CpG sites and regions
Authors: Andrews Shan V. , Yang Irene J. , Froehlich Karolin , Oskotsky Tomiko , Sirota Marina 
Published: June 2022

AbstractAlthough male–female differences in placental structure and function have been observed, little is understood about their molecular underpinnings. Here, we present a mega-analysis of 14 publicly available placenta DNA methylation (DNAm) microarray datasets to identify individual CpGs and regions associated with fetal sex. In the discovery dataset of placentas from full term pregnancies (N = 532 samples), 5212 CpGs met genome-wide significance (p < 1E−8) and were enriched in pathways such as keratinization (FDRp-value = 7.37E−14), chemokine activity (FDRp-value = 1.56E−2), and eosinophil migration (FDRp-value = 1.83E−2). Nine differentially methylated regions were identified (fwerArea < 0.1) including a region in the promoter ofZNF300that showed consistent differential DNAm in samples from earlier timepoints in pregnancy and appeared to be driven predominately by effects in the trophoblast cell type. We describe the largest study of fetal sex differences in placenta DNAm performed to date, revealing genes and pathways characterizing sex-specific placenta function and health outcomes later in life.
Subfascial infiltration of 0.5% ropivacaine, but not 0.25% ropivacaine, exacerbates damage and inflammation in surgically incised abdominal muscles of rats
Authors: Shen Dandan , Sugiyama Yuki , Ishida Kumiko , Fuseya Satoshi , Ishida Takashi , Kawamata Mikito , Tanaka Satoshi 
Published: June 2022

AbstractRopivacaine-induced myotoxicity in surgically incised muscles has not been fully investigated. We evaluated the effects of infiltration anesthesia with ropivacaine on damage, inflammation and regeneration in the incised muscles of rats undergoing laparotomy. Ropivacaine or saline was infiltrated below the muscle fascia over the incised muscles. Pain-related behaviors and histological muscle damage were assessed. Macrophage infiltration at days 2 and 5 and proliferation of satellite cells at day 5 were detected by CD68 and MyoD immunostaining, respectively. Pain-related behaviors were inhibited by 0.25% and 0.5% of ropivacaine for 2 h after surgery. Single infiltration of 0.5% ropivacaine did not induce injury in intact muscles without incision, but single and repeated infiltration of 0.5% ropivacaine significantly augmented laparotomy-induced muscle injury and increased the numbers of CD68-positve macrophages and MyoD-positive cells compared to those in rats with infiltration of saline or 0.25% ropivacaine. In contrast, there were no significant differences in them between rats with saline infusion and rats with 0.25% ropivacaine infiltration. In conclusion, single or repeated subfascial infiltration of 0.25% ropivacaine can be used without exacerbating the damage and inflammation in surgically incised muscles, but the use of 0.5% ropivacaine may be a concern because of potentially increased muscle damage.
Experimental study on rubber concrete filled steel tube members under pure bending
Authors: Wu Hongshuang , Wang Cong , Bai Yikui , Tong Shiyu , Liu Yanhua 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThe test of four rubber concrete filled steel tube (RuCFST) members, one concrete filled steel tube (CFST) member and one empty member were conducted under pure bending. The main parameters were the shear span ratio (λ) from 3 to 5, and the rubber replacing ratio (r) from 10% to 20%. The bending moment-strain curves, the bending moment-deflection curves and the bending moment–curvature curves were obtained. The failure modes of core rubber concrete were analyzed. The failure mode of RuCFST members was bending failure from the results. The cracks of rubber concrete were distributed evenly and sparsely, and the filling of rubber in core concrete prevented the development of cracks. The shear span ratio has little effect on the behavior of the tested specimens. While the rubber replacing ratio had little effect on the bending moment capacity, but had some influence on the bending stiffness of the tested specimens. After filling in rubber concrete, the bending moment capacity and the bending stiffness can be improved compared with the empty steel tube specimen.
Statistics of antibody binding to the spike protein explain the dependence of COVID 19 infection risk on antibody concentration and affinity
Authors: Williams David E. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThe increase of COVID-19 breakthrough infection risk with time since vaccination has a clear relationship to the decrease of antibody concentration with time. The empirically-observed dependence on blood IgG anti-receptor binding domain antibody concentration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine efficacy against infection has a rational explanation in the statistics of binding of antibody to spike proteins on the virus surface, leading to blocking of binding to the receptor: namely that the probability of infection is the probability that a critical number of the spike proteins protruding from the virus are unblocked. The model is consistent with the observed antibody concentrations required to induce immunity and with the observed dependence of vaccine efficacy on antibody concentration and thus is a useful tool in the development of models to relate, for an individual person, risk of infection given measured antibody concentration. It can be used to relate population breakthrough infection risk to the distribution across the population of antibody concentration, and its variation with time.
Machine learning generalizability across healthcare settings: insights from multi-site COVID-19 screening
Authors: Yang Jenny , Soltan Andrew A. S. , Clifton David A. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractAs patient health information is highly regulated due to privacy concerns, most machine learning (ML)-based healthcare studies are unable to test on external patient cohorts, resulting in a gap between locally reported model performance and cross-site generalizability. Different approaches have been introduced for developing models across multiple clinical sites, however less attention has been given to adopting ready-made models in new settings. We introduce three methods to do this—(1) applying a ready-made model “as-is” (2); readjusting the decision threshold on the model’s output using site-specific data and (3); finetuning the model using site-specific data via transfer learning. Using a case study of COVID-19 diagnosis across four NHS Hospital Trusts, we show that all methods achieve clinically-effective performances (NPV > 0.959), with transfer learning achieving the best results (mean AUROCs between 0.870 and 0.925). Our models demonstrate that site-specific customization improves predictive performance when compared to other ready-made approaches.
Antimicrobial ‘inks’ for 3D printing: block copolymer-silver nanoparticle composites synthesised using supercritical CO2
Authors: Larder Ryan R. , Krumins Eduards , Jacob Philippa L. , Kortsen Kristoffer , Cavanagh Robert , Jiang Long , Vuotto Claudia , Francolini Iolanda , Tuck Christopher , Taresco Vincenzo , Howdle Steven M. 
Published: June 2022

A new synthetic methodology to produce polymer-AgNP composite microparticles using scCO2 is presented. These microparticle possessed long-lived antimicrobial activity and were tested for compatibility in the Laser Sintering 3D printing process.
Comparing the folding landscapes of evolutionarily divergent procaspase-3
Authors: Yao Liqi , Clark A. Clay 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
All caspases evolved from a common ancestor and subsequently developed into two general classes, inflammatory or apoptotic caspases. The caspase-hemoglobinase fold has been conserved throughout nearly one billion years of evolution and is utilized for both the monomeric and dimeric subfamilies of apoptotic caspases, called initiator and effector caspases, respectively. We compared the folding and assembly of procaspase-3b from zebrafish to that of human effector procaspases in order to examine the conservation of the folding landscape. Urea-induced equilibrium folding/unfolding of procaspase-3b showed a minimum three-state folding pathway, where the native dimer isomerizes to a partially folded dimeric intermediate, which then unfolds. A partially folded monomeric intermediate observed in the folding landscape of human procaspase-3 is not well-populated in zebrafish procaspase-3b. By comparing effector caspases from different species, we show that the effector procaspase dimer undergoes a pH-dependent conformational change, and that the conformational species in the folding landscape exhibit similar free energies. Together, the data show that the landscape for the caspase-hemoglobinase fold is conserved, yet it provides flexibility for species-specific stabilization or destabilization of folding intermediates resulting in changes in stability. The common pH-dependent conformational change in the native dimer, which yields an enzymatically inactive species, may provide an additional, albeit reversible, mechanism for controlling caspase activity in the cell.
An improved bearing fault detection strategy based on artificial bee colony algorithm
Authors: Wang Haiquan , Yue Wenxuan , Wen Shengjun , Xu Xiaobin , Haasis Hans‐Dietrich , Su Menghao , liu Ping , Zhang Shanshan , Du Panpan 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThe operating state of bearing affects the performance of rotating machinery; thus, how to accurately extract features from the original vibration signals and recognise the faulty parts as early as possible is very critical. In this study, the one‐dimensional ternary model which has been proved to be an effective statistical method in feature selection is introduced and shapelet transformation is proposed to calculate the parameter of one‐dimensional ternary model that is usually selected by trial and error. Then XGBoost is used to recognise the faults from the obtained features, and artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) is introduced to optimise the parameters of XGBoost. Moreover, for improving the performance of intelligent algorithm, an improved strategy where the evolution is guided by the probability that the optimal solution appears in certain solution space is proposed. The experimental results based on the failure vibration signal samples show that the average accuracy of fault signal recognition can reach 97%, which is much higher than the ones corresponding to traditional extraction strategies. And with the help of improved ABC algorithm, the performance of XGBoost classifier could be optimised; the accuracy could be improved from 97.02% to 98.60% compared with the traditional classification strategy.
Cross‐domain sequence labelling using language modelling and parameter generating
Authors: Zhou Bo , Chen Jianying , Cai Qianhua , Xue Yun , Yang Chi , He Jing 
Published: June 2022

AbstractSequence labelling (SL) tasks are currently widely studied in the field of natural language processing. Most sequence labelling methods are developed on a large amount of labelled training data via supervised learning, which is time‐consuming and expensive. As an alternative, domain adaptation is proposed to train a deep‐learning model for sequence labelling in a target domain by exploiting existing labelled training data in related source domains. To this end, the authors propose a Bi‐LSTM model to extract more‐related knowledge from multi‐source domains and learn specific context from the target domain. Further, the language modelling training is also applied to cross‐domain adaptability facilitating. The proposed model is extensively evaluated with the named entity recognition and part‐of‐speech tagging tasks. The empirical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the cross‐domain adaption. Our model outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art methods used in both cross‐domain tasks and crowd annotation tasks.
Unexplored outflows in nearby low luminosity AGNs
Authors: Cazzoli S. , Hermosa Muñoz L. , Márquez I. , Masegosa J. , Castillo-Morales Á. , Gil de Paz A. , Hernández-García L. , La Franca F. , Ramos Almeida C. 
Published: June 2022

Context.Multi-phase outflows play a central role in galaxy evolution shaping the properties of galaxies. Understanding outflows and their effects in low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs), such as low ionisation nuclear emission line regions (LINERs), is essential. LINERs bridge the gap between normal and active galaxies, being the most numerous AGN population in the local Universe.Aims.Our goal is to analyse the kinematics and ionisation mechanisms of the multi-phase gas of NGC 1052, the prototypical LINER, in order to detect and map the ionised and neutral phases of the putative outflow.Methods.We obtained Very Large Telescope MUSE and Gran Telescopio Canarias MEGARA optical integral field spectroscopy data for NGC 1052. In addition to stellar kinematics maps, by modelling spectral lines with multiple Gaussian components, we obtained flux, kinematic, and excitation maps of both ionised and neutral gas.Results.The stars are distributed in a dynamically hot disc (V/σ∼ 1.2), with a centrally peaked velocity dispersion map (σc= 201 ± 10 km s−1) and large observed velocity amplitudes (ΔV= 167 ± 19 km s−1). The ionised gas, probed by the primary component is detected up to ∼30″ (∼3.3 kpc) mostly in the polar direction with blue and red velocities (∣V∣ < 250 km s−1). The velocity dispersion map shows a notable enhancement (σ> 90 km s−1) crossing the galaxy along the major axis of rotation in the central 10″. The secondary component has a bipolar morphology, velocity dispersion larger than 150 km s−1, and velocities up to 660 km s−1. A third component is detected with MUSE (and barely with MEGARA), but it is not spatially resolved. The broad-line region (BLR) component (used to model the broad Hαemission only) has a full width at half maximum of 2427 ± 332 and 2350 ± 470 km s−1for MUSE and MEGARA data, respectively. The maps of the NaD absorption indicate optically thick neutral gas with complex kinematics. The velocity field is consistent with a slow rotating disc (ΔV= 77 ± 12 km s−1), but the velocity dispersion map is off-centred without any counterpart in the (centrally peaked) flux map.Conclusions.We found evidence of an ionised gas outflow (secondary component) with a mass of 1.6 ± 0.6 × 105 M⊙, and mass rate of 0.4 ± 0.2M⊙yr−1. The outflow is propagating in a cocoon of gas with enhanced turbulence and might be triggering the onset of kiloparsec-scale buoyant bubbles (polar emission), both probed by the primary component. Taking into account the energy and kinetic power of the outflow (1.3 ± 0.9 × 1053erg and 8.8 ± 3.5 × 1040erg s−1, respectively) as well as its alignment with both the jet and the cocoon, and that the gas is collisionally ionised (due to gas compression), we consider that the most likely power source of the outflow is the jet, although some contribution from the AGN is possible. The hints of the presence of a neutral gas outflow are weak.
Asteroseismology of evolved stars to constrain the internal transport of angular momentum
Authors: Moyano F. D. , Eggenberger P. , Meynet G. , Gehan C. , Mosser B. , Buldgen G. , Salmon S. J. A. J. 
Published: June 2022

Context.Asteroseismology provides constraints on the core rotation rate for hundreds of low- and intermediate-mass stars in evolved phases. Current physical processes tested in stellar evolution models cannot reproduce the evolution of these core rotation rates.Aims.We investigate the efficiency of the internal angular momentum redistribution in red giants during the hydrogen-shell and core-helium burning phases based on the asteroseismic determinations of their core rotation rates.Methods.We computed stellar evolution models with rotation and model the transport of angular momentum by the action of a sole dominant diffusive process parameterised by an additional viscosity in the equation of angular momentum transport. We constrained the values of this viscosity to match the mean core rotation rates of red giants and their behaviour with mass and evolution using asteroseismic indicators along the red giant branch and in the red clump.Results.For red giants in the hydrogen-shell burning phase, the transport of angular momentum must be more efficient in more massive stars. The additional viscosity is found to vary by approximately two orders of magnitude in the mass rangeM ∼ 1–2.5M⊙. As stars evolve along the red giant branch, the efficiency of the internal transport of angular momentum must increase for low-mass stars (M ≲ 2 M⊙) and remain approximately constant for slightly higher masses (2.0 M⊙ ≲ M ≲ 2.5M⊙). In red clump stars, the additional viscosities must be an order of magnitude higher than in younger red giants of similar mass during the hydrogen-shell burning phase.Conclusions.In combination with previous efforts, we obtain a clear picture of how the physical processes acting in stellar interiors should redistribute angular momentum from the end of the main sequence until the core-helium burning phase for low- and intermediate-mass stars to satisfy the asteroseismic constraints.
Head Injury Assessment in the Elite Level Rugby Union in Japan:
Review of 3 Seasons
Authors: Tajima Takuya , Ota Osamu , Nagayama Masataka , Takahashi Masayasu , Yamada Mutsuo , Ishiyama Nobuo , Yoshida Ichiro , Takemura Masahiro , Hara Kenji , Akama Takao , Mitsumori Norio , Higashihara Junichiro , Toyama Yukimasa , Furuya Masahiro , Chosa Etsuo , Nakamura Akihiko 
Published: June 2022

AbstractHead Injury Assessment (HIA) is the screening tool for head injury during a rugby
game. The purpose of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of HIA in
the Japan Rugby Top League (JRTL). The incidences of HIA, defined concussion
(per 1,000 player-hours) and repeated concussions were evaluated in three
seasons (2016-17, 2017–18, 2018–19; total 360 games). The HIA
incidence rates were 12.7 (95% confidence interval 9.5–15.9),
20.8 (16.8–24.9), and 25.0 (20.5–29.5) in each season. HIA-1
criteria 2, which is applied for suspected concussion cases, was performed for
46 cases in the 2016–17 season, 81 cases in the 2017–18 season,
and 88 cases in the 2018–19 season. The concussion incidence rates were
significantly greater in the 2017–18 season (9.6/1000
player-hours, 95% confidence interval 6.8–12.4) and the
2018–19 season (14.4, 11–17.8) compared to the 2016–17
season (4.8, 2.8–6.8). The number of repeated concussion cases in the
same season was 1 in the 2016–17 season and 4 in both the
2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons. This study confirmed significantly
higher HIA and concussion incidence rates over time. Although the HIA system
might have been established in the three seasons in JRTL, comprehensive
management needs to be improved to prevent repeated concussions.