bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Maternal immune activation accelerates puberty initiation and alters mechanical allodynia in male and female C57BL6/J mice
Authors: Zhao Xin , Erickson Mary , Mohammed Ruqayah , Kentner Amanda C. 
Published: January 2022

AbstractThe mechanisms that link maternal immune activation (MIA) with the onset of neurodevelopmental disorders remain largely unclear. Accelerated puberty is also associated with a heightened risk for psychopathology in later life but there is a dearth of evidence on the impacts of maternal infection on pubertal timing. We examined the effects of MIA on reproductive development, mechanical allodynia, and sensorimotor gating in juvenile, adolescent, and adult male and female mice. Moreover, we investigated hypothalamic neural markers associated with the reproductive and stress axes. Finally, we tested the mitigating effects of environmental enrichment (EE), which has clinical relevancy in human rehabilitation settings. Our results show that administration of polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) on gestational day 12.5 led to early preputial separation, vaginal openings, and age of first estrus in offspring. MIA exposure altered pain sensitivity across development and modestly altered prepulse inhibition. The downregulation ofNr3c1andOprkmRNA in the hypothalamus of juvenile mice suggests that MIA’s effects may be mediated through disruption of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. In contrast, life-long housing with EE rescued many of these MIA-induced consequences. Overall, our findings suggest that accelerated puberty may be associated with the deleterious effects of infection during pregnancy and the onset of psychopathology.
Automated atlas-based multi-label fetal cardiac vessel segmentation in Congenital Heart Disease
Authors: Gilliland Paula Ramirez , Uus Alena , van Poppel Milou P.M. , Grigorescu Irina , Steinweg Johannes K. , Lloyd David F.A. , Pushparajah Kuberan , King Andrew P. , Deprez Maria 
Published: January 2022

AbstractCongenital heart disease (CHD) is the most commonly diagnosed birth defect. T2w black blood MRI provides optimal vessel visualisation, aiding prenatal CHD diagnosis. Common clinical practice involves manual segmentation of fetal heart and vessels for visualisation and reporting purposes.We propose an automated multi-label fetal cardiac vessels deep learning segmentation approach for T2w black blood MRI. Our network is trained using single-label manual segmentations obtained through current clinical practice, combined with a multi-label anatomical atlas with desired multi-label segmentation protocol. Our framework combines deep learning label propagation with 3D residual U-Net segmentation to produce high-quality multi-label output well adapted to the individual subject anatomy.We train and evaluate the network using forty fetal subjects with suspected coarctation of the aorta, achieving a dice score of 0.79 ± 0.02 for the fetal cardiac vessels region. The proposed network outperforms the label propagation and achieves a statistically equivalent performance to a 3D residual U-Net trained exclusively on manual single-label data (p-value>0.05). This multi-label framework therefore represents an advancement over the single-label approach, providing label-specific anatomical information, particularly useful for assessing specific anomaly areas in CHD.
Activity of Estrogen Receptor β Agonists in Therapy-Resistant Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer
Authors: Datta Jharna , Willingham Natalie , Manouchehri Jasmine M. , Schnell Patrick , Sheth Mirisha , David Joel J. , Kassem Mahmoud , Wilson Tyler A. , Radomska Hanna S. , Coss Christopher C. , Bennett Chad E. , Ganju Ramesh K. , Sardesai Sagar D. , Lustberg Maryam , Ramaswamy Bhuvaneswari , Stover Daniel G. , Cherian Mathew A. 
Published: January 2022

AbstractBackgroundAmong women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Estrogen receptor α positive (ERα+) breast cancer accounts for 70% of all breast cancer subtypes. Although ERα+ breast cancer initially responds to estrogen deprivation or blockade, resistance emergence compelling the use of more aggressive therapies. While ERα is a driver in ERα+ breast cancer, ERβ plays an inhibitory role in several different cancer types. To date, the lack of highly selective ERβ agonists without ERα activity has limited the exploration of ERβ activation as a strategy for ERα+ breast cancer.MethodsWe measured expression levels of ESR1 and ESR2 genes in immortalized mammary epithelial cells and different breast cancer cell lines. The viability of ERα+ breast cancer cell lines upon treatments with specific ERβ agonists, including OSU-ERb-12 and LY500307 was assessed. The specificity of the ERβ agonists, OSU-ERb-12 and LY500307, was confirmed by reporter assays. The effects of the agonists on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, colony formation, cell migration, and expression of tumor suppressor proteins were analyzed. The expression of ESR2 and genes containing ERE-AP1 composite response elements was examined in ERα+ human breast cancer samples to determine the correlation between ESR2 expression and overall survival and that of putative ESR2 regulated genes.ResultsIn this study, we demonstrate the efficacy of highly selective ERβ agonists in ERα+ breast cancer cell lines and drug-resistant derivatives. ERβ agonists blocked cell proliferation, migration and colony formation; and induced apoptosis and S and/or G2/M cell cycle arrest of ERα+ breast cancer cell lines. Also, increases in the expression of the key tumor suppressors FOXO1 and FOXO3a were noted. Importantly, the strong synergy between ERβ agonists and ERα antagonists suggested that the efficacy of ERβ agonists is maximized by combination with ERα blockade. Lastly, ESR2 (ERβ gene) expression was negatively correlated with ESR1 (ERα gene) and CCND1 RNA expression in human metastatic ER+/HER2-breast cancer samples.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that highly selective ERβ agonists attenuate the viability of ERα+ breast cancer cell lines in vitro and suggest that this therapeutic strategy merits further evaluation for ERα+ breast cancer.
In vivo Biomechanical Assessment of Iridial Deformations and Muscle Contractions in Human Eyes
Authors: Safa Babak N. , Fard Mohammad Reza Bahrani , Ethier C. Ross 
Published: January 2022

AbstractThe iris is a muscular organ whose deformations can cause primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG), a leading cause of blindness. PACG risk assessment does not consider iridial biomechanical factors, despite their expected influence on iris deformations. Here we exploited an existing biometric data set consisting of near-infrared movies acquired during the pupillary light reflex (PLR) as a unique resource to study iris biomechanics. The PLR caused significant (>100%) and essentially spatially uniform radial strains in the iris in vivo, consistent with previous findings. Inverse finite element modeling showed that sphincter muscle tractions were c. 5-fold greater than iridial stroma stiffness (range 4- to 13-fold, depending on sphincter muscle size). This muscle traction is greater than has been previously estimated, which may be due to methodological differences and/or to different patient populations in our study (European descent) vs. previous studies (Asian); the latter possibility is of particular interest due to differential incidence rates of PACG in these populations. Our methodology is fast and inexpensive and may be a useful tool in understanding biomechanical factors contributing to PACG.
Extant Sequence Reconstruction: The accuracy of ancestral sequence reconstructions evaluated by extant sequence cross-validation
Authors: Sennett Michael A. , Theobald Douglas L. 
Published: January 2022

AbstractAncestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) is a phylogenetic method widely used to analyze the properties of ancient biomolecules and to elucidate mechanisms of molecular evolution. Despite its increasingly widespread application, the accuracy of ASR is currently unknown, as it is generally impossible to compare resurrected proteins to the true ancestors. Which evolutionary models are best for ASR? How accurate are the resulting inferences? Here we answer these questions using a cross-validation method to reconstruct each extant sequence in an alignment with ASR methodology, a method we term “extant sequence reconstruction” (ESR). We thus can evaluate the accuracy of ASR methodology by comparing ESR reconstructions to the corresponding known true sequences.We find that a common measure of the quality of a reconstructed sequence, the average probability, is indeed a good estimate of the fraction of correct amino acids when the evolutionary model is accurate or overparameterized. However, the average probability is a poor measure for comparing reconstructions from different models, because, surprisingly, a more accurate phylogenetic model often results in reconstructions with lower probability. While better (more predictive) models may produce reconstructions with lower sequence identity to the true sequences, better models nevertheless produce reconstructions that are more biophysically similar to true ancestors. In addition, we find that a large fraction of sequences sampled from the reconstruction distribution may have fewer errors than the single most probable (SMP) sequence reconstruction, despite the fact that the SMP has the lowest expected error of all possible sequences. Our results emphasize the importance of model selection for ASR and the usefulness of sampling sequence reconstructions for analyzing ancestral protein properties. ESR is a powerful method for validating the evolutionary models used for ASR and can be applied in practice to any phylogenetic analysis of real biological sequences. Most significantly, ESR uses ASR methodology to provide a general method by which the biophysical properties of resurrected proteins can be compared to the properties of the true protein.
A giant virus genome is densely packaged by stable nucleosomes within virions
Authors: Bryson Terri D. , De Ioannes Pablo , Valencia-Sánchez Marco Igor , Henikoff Jorja G. , Talbert Paul B. , Scola Bernard La , Armache Karim-Jean , Henikoff Steven 
Published: January 2022

AbstractThe two doublet histones of Marseillevirus are distantly related to the four eukaryotic core histones and wrap 121 basepairs of DNA to form remarkably similar nucleosomes. By permeabilizing Marseillevirus virions and performing genome-wide nuclease digestion, chemical cleavage and mass spectrometry assays, we find that the higher-order organization of Marseillevirus chromatin fundamentally differs from that of eukaryotes. Marseillevirus nucleosomes fully protect DNA within virions as closely abutted 121-bp DNA wrapped cores without linker DNA or phasing along genes. Likewise, we observed that a large fraction of the nucleosomes reconstituted onto multi-copy tandem repeats of a nucleosome positioning sequence are tightly packed. Dense promiscuous packing of fully wrapped nucleosomes rather than “beads-on-a-string” with genic punctuation represents a new mode of DNA packaging by histones. We suggest that doublet histones have evolved for viral genome protection and may resemble an early stage of histone differentiation leading to the eukaryotic octameric nucleosome.
Divergent selection predating the Last Glacial Maximum mainly acted on macro-phenotypes in Norway spruce
Authors: Tiret M. , Olsson L. , Grahn T. , Karlsson B. , Milesi P. , Lascoux M. , Lundqvist S.-O. , García-Gil M.R. 
Published: January 2022

SummaryThe current distribution and population structure of many species were, to a large extent, shaped by cycles of isolation in glacial refugia and subsequent population expansions. Isolation in, and post-glacial expansion through heterogeneous environments led to either neutral or adaptive divergence. Norway spruce is no exception, and its current distribution is the consequence of a constant interplay between evolutionary and demographic processes. We investigated population differentiation and adaptation of Norway spruce for juvenile growth, diameter of the stem, wood density and tracheid traits at breast height. Data from 4,461 phenotyped and genotyped Norway spruce from 396 half-sib families in two progeny tests were used to test for divergent selection in the framework of QSTvs FST. We show that the macroscopic resultant trait (stem diameter), unlike its microscopic components (tracheid dimensions) and juvenile growth, was under divergent selection that predated the Last Glacial Maximum. Altogether, the current variation in these phenotypic traits in Norway spruce is better explained by local adaptation to ancestral environments than to current ones, where populations were partly pre-adapted, mainly through growth-related traits.
Knowledge management strategies and organizational improvisation: what changed after the emergence of technological turbulence caused by artificial intelligence?
Authors: Arias-Pérez José , Cepeda-Cardona Juan 
Published: January 2022

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the moderating effect of technological turbulence caused by artificial intelligence on the relationship between the traditional knowledge management strategies of personalization (tacit knowledge) and codification (explicit knowledge), and organizational improvisation, which refers to the firm's ability to generate ideas and respond to changes in the technological environment in real time. Until now, individuals have played a key and indispensable role in organizational improvisation since they are the owners of tacit knowledge and users of explicit knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThe research model was tested in a sample of firms from sectors in which the adoption of intelligent robots is growing.FindingsBoth personalization and codification have a positive and significant influence on improvisation, the former to a greater extent. Nevertheless, when technological turbulence caused by artificial intelligence occurs, the relationship between personalization and improvisation is weakened, whereas the link between codification and improvisation is strengthened.Originality/valueContrary to the pre-digital literature consensus, explicit knowledge is becoming the new major driver of organizational improvisation, while tacit knowledge sharing is losing strength and relevance. This finding may be a first indication that intelligent robots are the new exponents of improvisation for their ability to respond to changes in the environment in real time because of a combination of explicit knowledge, beyond being a mere support tool for humans.
CSR communication on social media: the impact of source and framing on message credibility, corporate reputation and WOM
Authors: Dalla-Pria Lisa , Rodríguez-de-Dios Isabel 
Published: January 2022

PurposeWhen communicating CSR initiatives on social media, companies need to choose the appropriate source and type of messages. Over the last few years, influencers have emerged as a relevant endorser for CSR messages, but there is a lack of research investigating their effectiveness. Hence, the purpose of the study is to analyze how the type of source and message framing on social media influence message credibility, corporate reputation (CR) and word-of-mouth (WOM).Design/methodology/approachAn online experiment with 2 (source: influencer vs corporate) × 2 (CSR frame motives: values-driven vs performance-driven) between-subject design was conducted among 200 participants.FindingsResults showed that the type of source does not affect message credibility or CR but a corporate source generates more WOM. Moreover, values-driven motives increase CR and generate more WOM. However, the type of frame motives does not impact message credibility.Originality/valueThe current paper tests the effect of framing and source when communicating CSR on social media. The paper shows that overall an effective CSR communication should be posted by a corporate source and framed by values-driven motives. Hence, the study contributes to the contemporary literature regarding CSR communication and provides practical implications for companies.
The role of ICT for school leadership and management activities: an international comparison
Authors: Tulowitzki Pierre , Gerick Julia , Eickelmann Birgit 
Published: January 2022

PurposeInformation and communication technologies (ICT) has an increasing impact on schools. School leaders play a key role in this context as drivers of innovation including those related to ICT. Against this background, the study presented in this article focuses on school leadership and management activities with ICT and related challenges. It sought to analyze how frequently German school principals use ICT compared to principals in other countries, what distinct clusters of German principals could be identified in terms of ICT usage and how principals viewed ICT in schools and related challenges.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach was chosen, using quantitative data from both the international comparative large-scale assessment study ICILS 2018 and the explorative qualitative data from Germany. For the international comparison, the school principal data sets of the 12 international participants of the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 were taken into account: Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Portugal, Uruguay and the United States. To look beyond averaged frequencies, a latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify possible clusters of school leaders with distinct usage patterns of ICT for leadership and management activities.FindingsThe results indicate that, in general, German principals use ICT for leadership and management activities on a similar level as their international colleagues. However, they seem to communicate with education authorities significantly more often than their international colleagues, whereas representative activities (presentations, home page) are rather infrequent. The qualitative data point to significant barriers to fully harnessing the potential of using ICT for leadership, management and school improvement such as lack of competencies and lack of adequate support.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on school leadership and management activities using ICT with such a data set. The results provide insights into how German principals use ICT to lead and manage their schools compared to their international counterparts. The qualitative data offers additional insights into possible reasons hindering a more effective use of ICT.
Antecedent and employee well-being outcomes of perceived benefits schemes: a two-wave study
Authors: Xiao Qijie , Cooke Fang Lee , Mavondo Felix , Bamber Greg J. 
Published: January 2022

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to examine the antecedent and employee well-being outcomes of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using both paper-based and web-based questionnaires over two time points (one month apart). The sample included 281 participants in eight companies in China. Structural equation modelling was employed to investigate the relationship between Chinese traditionality, perceived benefits schemes, job involvement and emotional exhaustion.FindingsChinese traditionality is an antecedent of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes. Perceived benefits schemes are negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Moreover, job involvement mediates the relationship between perceived benefits schemes and emotional exhaustion.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected in eight manufacturing companies in China, which may raise concerns about the generalisability of findings across industries, nations and cultures. Larger, more representative and cross-contextual samples are needed for future research to test the results further.Practical implicationsManagers should anticipate that employees with different cultural values may develop dissimilar perceptions of the same benefits schemes. Hence, managers need to communicate the benefits schemes to distinct employee groups in different ways.Originality/valueBased on the conservation of resources model, this research offers theoretical insights into the mechanisms through which perceived benefits schemes influence employee health well-being. In addition, this research tests an antecedent of perceived benefits schemes.
Data-driven approach to predict the sequence of component failures: a framework and a case study on a process industry
Authors: Antomarioni Sara , Ciarapica Filippo Emanuele , Bevilacqua Maurizio 
Published: January 2022

PurposeThe research approach is based on the concept that a failure event is rarely random and is often generated by a chain of previous events connected by a sort of domino effect. Thus, the purpose of this study is the optimal selection of the components to predictively maintain on the basis of their failure probability, under budget and time constraints.Design/methodology/approachAssets maintenance is a major challenge for any process industry. Thanks to the development of Big Data Analytics techniques and tools, data produced by such systems can be analyzed in order to predict their behavior. Considering the asset as a social system composed of several interacting components, in this work, a framework is developed to identify the relationships between component failures and to avoid them through the predictive replacement of critical ones: such relationships are identified through the Association Rule Mining (ARM), while their interaction is studied through the Social Network Analysis (SNA).FindingsA case example of a process industry is presented to explain and test the proposed model and to discuss its applicability. The proposed framework provides an approach to expand upon previous work in the areas of prediction of fault events and monitoring strategy of critical components.Originality/valueThe novel combined adoption of ARM and SNA is proposed to identify the hidden interaction among events and to define the nature of such interactions and communities of nodes in order to analyze local and global paths and define the most influential entities.