bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Deciphering β-tubulin gene of carbendazim resistant Fusarium solani isolate and its comparison with other Fusarium species
Authors: Datta Bejoysekhar , Tarafder Mrinmay 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Carbendazim resistance in phytopathogenic Fusarium species is being an immense problem in agricultural practices. Carbendazim exerts fungicidal activity through preventing cell division of target fungi and by binding to β-tubulin, a major component of microtubule. Several point mutations in the β-tubulin gene contribute to carbendazim resistance. A full-length (1619 bp) β-tubulin gene has been cloned and sequenced from a carbendazim resistant (SF0301) and a sensitive (SF0104) isolates of F. solani isolated from agricultural fields of Murshidabad (24.23°N, 88.25°E), West Bengal, India. The phylogenetic position of the isolates was confirmed using ITS and β-tubulin gene sequences. The β-tubulin based phylogenetic tree revealed nine species complexes among Fusarium species with available data and separated members of both F. solani species complex and F. fujikuroi species complex into three clades. The β-tubulin gene of F. solani isolates was organized into five exons and four introns. The intron positions were conserved, but their lengths were shortest among the Fusarium species. The β-tubulin gene encoded a 446 amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass 49.834 KD, extinction coefficient 41640 M− 1cm− 1 and an estimated isoelectric point of 4.64. Amino acid sequence comparison between the resistant and the sensitive isolates revealed that they were all identical, indicating that the mechanism of carbendazim resistance in F. solani SF0301 was not due to point mutation in β-tubulin gene. Homology model of β-tubulin of F. solani isolates was prepared and compared with that of other Fusarium species. The binding sites for GDP, carbendazim and α-tubulin were identified through molecular docking.
Endophenotypic Effects of the SORL1 Variant rs2298813 on Regional Brain Volume in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Chen Chun-Yu , Lin Yung-Shuan , Lee Wei-Ju , Liao Yi-Chu , Kuo Yu-Shan , Yang Albert C , Fuh Jong-Ling 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
BackgroundTwo common variants of sortilin-related receptor 1 gene (SORL1), rs2298813 and rs1784933, have been associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the Han Chinese population in Taiwan. However, neuroimaging correlates of these two SORL1 variants remain unknown. We aimed to determine whether the two SORL1 polymorphisms were associated with any volumetric differences in brain regions in AD patients.MethodsWe recruited 200 patients with late-onset AD from Taipei Veterans General Hospital. All patients received a structural magnetic resonance imaging brain scan and completed a battery of neurocognitive tests at enrollment. We followed up to assess changes in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores in 155 patients (77.5%) at an interval of 2 years. Volumetric measures and cortical thickness of various brain regions were performed using FreeSurfer. Regression analysis controlled for apolipoprotein E status. Multiple comparisons were corrected for using the false discovery rate.ResultsThe rs2298813 and rs1783933 genotypes were not associated with cognitive test performance or clinical progression. The homozygous major allele of rs2298813 was associated with larger volumes in the right putamen (p = 0.0442) and right pallidum (p = 0.0346). There was no link of the rs1784933 genotypes with any of the imaging measures. In the rs2298813 homozygous major allele carriers, the right putaminal volume was associated with verbal fluency (p = 0.008) and clinical progression (p = 0.020). In the minor allele carriers, the right putaminal and right pallidal volumes were not significantly related to cognitive test scores or clinical progression. ConclusionsThe major and minor alleles of rs2298813 had differential effects on the right lentiform nucleus volume and distinctively modulated the association between the regional volume and cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
An underdetermined convolutional blind separation algorithm for time-frequency overlapped wireless communication signals with unknown source number
Authors: Ma Hao , Zheng Xiang , Wu Xinrong , Yu Lu , Zhang Yu 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
It has been challenging to separate the time-frequency (TF) overlapped wireless communication signals with unknown number of sources in underdetermined cases. To address this issue, a novel blind separation strategy based on a TF soft mask is proposed in this paper. Based on the clustering property of the signals in the sparse domain, the angular probability density distribution is obtained by the kernel density estimation (KDE) algorithm, and then the number of source signals is identified by detecting the peak points of the distribution. Afterwards, the contribution degree function is designed according to the cosine distance to calculate the contribution degrees of the source signals in the mixed signals. The separation of the TF overlapped signals is achieved by constructing a soft mask matrix based on the contribution degrees. In this paper, the simulations are performed with digital signals of the same modulation and different modulation respectively. The results show that the proposed algorithm has better anti-aliasing and anti-noise performance than the benchmark algorithms.
A comparative trend analysis of maternal and child health service utilization before and during Covid-19 at Dire Dawa administration public health facilities, Ethiopia, 2021
Authors: Tefera Bereket , Tariku Zerihun , Kebede Mesfin , Mohammed Hussein 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. While child health encompasses health care services ranging from neonatal to under five years old. Evidences has shown that, the presence of Covid-19 has resulted significant disruption in the health service utilization. This study aims to describe maternal and child health service utilization before and during Covid-19 announcement in Ethiopia and forecast 12 months client flow, at Dire Dawa Public Health Facilities. We used Interrupted time series analysis to examine two years trend of maternal and child health service utilization. The interruption point was set be Covid-19 announced to Ethiopia. Data was extracted from client registers. Kobo toolbox was used to collect the data. Microsoft Excel and statistical package for social sciences version 26 were used for data management and analysis. Traditional Expert Modeler and one way ANOVA were used for data analysis. Findings are presented in tables, means, point percentages, time line plots and sequence charting. A total of 34,576 client registers were reviewed, where 17,100 (49.5%) and 17,476 (50.5%) had visited the MCH service before and during Covid-19 announcement in Ethiopia respectively. Total services utilization has shown a steady fall during the interruption point. Family planning, Institutional delivery, and child immunization has shown sharp fall during Covid-19 announcement to Ethiopia. Though the total client visit has shown an increase in percentage point of 2%, postnatal care and child immunization has shown 30% and 16% percentage point drop respectively. The total client visit has shown a difference in client visit before and during the time of covid-19 (f=4.6 , p<0.4). It is evidenced that maternal and child health services are highly impacted by the presence of covid-19, where family planning, institutional delivery, and child immunization has shown sharp fall. Forecasting to the next 12 months has also shown no promising improvement in service visits. Hence the health system should mobilize the work force and resources to the lower service delivery inlet, health post, and directs its approach to community-based service to access missed mothers and children who had not come to facility.
Cyclic oxidation behaviour of ZrB2-20 vol.%MoSi2 based ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composite between 1100°C and 1300°C
Authors: Saha Mainak , Pramanik Sourajit , Banik Rajdeep , Maurya Pooja , Singh Simrat , Raj S. Vandan , Madhur D. Prem , Paul Tanay Rudra , Mitra Rahul , Mondal Manas Kumar , Mallik Manab 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
While descending through different layers of atmosphere with tremendously high velocities, hypersonic re-entry nosecones fabricated using ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composites (UHTCMCs) are subjected to repeated thermal shocks. This necessitates extensive investigations on the cyclic oxidation behaviour of UHTCMCs at temperatures ranging from 1100°C to 1300°C (service temperature of the nosecones). To this end, the present work is aimed at investigating the cyclic oxidation behaviour of ZrB2-20 vol.%MoSi2 (ZM20) UHTCMC (a very widely investigated ZM CMC) by carrying out cycles for 6h, at 1cycle/h and estimating oxidation kinetic law. This has been followed by extensive characterisation using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to indicate the phases formed during oxidation and Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), in order to determine the chemical composition of the oxides formed between 1100°C and 1300°C.
LMO7 regulates smooth muscle cell cholesterol esterification to influence plaque stability
Authors: Xie Yi , Winter Hanna , Rotlan Noemi , Ostriker Allison , Chakraborty Raja , Zhang Xinbo , Hwa John , Fernández-Hernando Carlos , Maegdefessel Lars , Martin Kathleen 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Smooth muscle cells (SMC) can undergo distinct fate transitions that influence atherosclerotic plaque phenotype: SMC make up the protective fibrous cap that prevents plaque rupture, but can also transdifferentiate to a destabilizing pro-inflammatory phenotype. We found that LMO7, a scaffolding protein that modulates SMC phenotype, is induced in atherosclerosis. SMC LMO7 deletion produced a paradoxical phenotype with enhanced indices of plaque stability despite greater lipid content. We determined that LMO7 promotes SOAT1 ubiquitination and degradation. LMO7 depletion thus favored cholesterol esterification and “safe” storage, relieving ER stress and subsequent induction of KLF4 and SMC transdifferentiation. Immunostaining and single cell sequencing confirmed that SMC LMO7 depletion enhanced cap stabilizing fate transitions while substantially reducing inflammatory transdifferentiation. Similarly, LMO7 was induced in human atherosclerosis, but at lower levels in stable versus ruptured plaques. These findings reveal that SMC cholesterol esterification, rather than total cholesterol content, influences plaque composition and stability.
Shear Strength Assessment of Moist Sands Using Direct Shear Tests
Authors: Saha Riju Chandra , Dhar Ashutosh Sutra 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Granular materials are commonly used to backfill buried structures due to its free-draining property and higher shearing resistance. Conventional analysis of soil-structure interaction is performed assuming soil parameters based on typical values available in published literature for the standard and natural soils. Engineers often require replacing natural sand with locally manufactured sand as a backfill material for buried structures due to the scarcity of material and environmental considerations. This thesis presents a laboratory investigation of a locally manufactured sand which is classified as well-graded clean sand. Considering the various factors on which the strength parameters of soil depend, a series of direct shear tests are performed with varying density, normal stress, moisture content, shear displacement rate. As the soil used as a backfill for the buried structure is usually moist (unsaturated), the entire test program focuses on investigating the behavior of moist sand. The conventional test apparatus is used in this study as the special apparatus typical used in the research with unsaturated soil is not readily available to the practicing engineer. The study reveals that the conventional test apparatus can reasonably be used to estimate the design parameters for moist sand. For the manufactured sand used in this study, the effect of capillary suction on the shear strength parameters is found to be less significant. While the strength parameters depend on the degree of saturation, these depend extensively on the dry density of the soil with a higher angle of internal friction for the soil with higher dry density.
Evaluating the ecological hypothesis: Early life salivary microbiome assembly predicts dental caries in a longitudinal case-control study
Authors: Blostein Freida Anne , Bhaumik Deesha , Davis Elyse , Salzman Elizabeth , Shedden Kerby , Duhaime Melissa , Bakulski Kelly M , McNeil Daniel W , Marazita Mary L , Foxman Betsy 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Background
Early childhood caries (ECC) – dental caries (cavities) occurring in primary teeth up to age 6-years - is a prevalent childhood oral disease that includes a microbial etiology. Streptococcus mutans was previously considered a primary cause, but recent research promotes the ecologic hypothesis, in which a dysbiosis in the oral microbial community leads to caries. In this incident density sampled case control study of 189 children followed from 2-months to 5-years, we use the salivary bacteriome to 1) prospectively test the ecological hypothesis in salivary bacteriome communities and 2) identify co-occurring salivary bacterial communities predicting future ECC.
Results
Supervised classification of future ECC case status using salivary samples from age 12-months using bacteriome-wide data (AUC-ROC 0.78 95% CI: (0.71–0.85)) improves prediction of future ECC status over using S. mutans amplicon abundance alone (AUC-ROC 0.44 (0.35–0.53)). Dirichlet multinomial community state typing and co-occurrence network analysis identified similar robust and replicable groups of co-occurring taxa. Mean relative abundance of a Haemophilus parainfluenzae/Neisseria/Fusobacterium periodonticum group was lower in future ECC cases (0.14) than controls (0.23, P value < 0.001) in pre-incident visits, positively correlated with saliva pH (Pearson rho = 0.31, P value < 0.01) and reduced in individuals who had acquired S. mutans by the next study visit (0.12) versus those who did not (0.19, P value < 0.01). In a subset of whole genome shotgun sequenced samples, case plaque had higher abundances of antibiotic production and resistance gene orthologs, including a major facilitator superfamily multidrug resistance transporter (MFS DHA2 family PBH value = 1.9*10− 28), lantibiotic transport system permease protein (PBH value = 6.0*10− 6) and bacitracin synthase I (PBH value = 5.6*10− 6). The oxidative phosphorylation KEGG pathway was enriched in case plaque (PBH value = 1.2*10− 8), while the ABC transporter pathway was depleted (PBH value = 3.6*10− 3).
Conclusions
Early-life bacterial interactions predisposed children to ECC, supporting a time-dependent interpretation of the ecological hypothesis. Bacterial communities which assemble before 12-months of age can promote or inhibit an ecological succession to S. mutans dominance and cariogenesis. Intragenera competitions and intergenera cooperation between oral taxa may shape the emergence of these communities, providing points for preventive interventions.
Novel Ti3C2Tx MXene Nanozyme with Manageable Catalytic Activity and Application to Electrochemical Biosensor
Authors: Yu Rongjun , Xue Jian , Wang Yang , Qiu Jingfu , Huang Xinyi , Chen Anyi , xue jianjiang 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
In this work, Ti3C2Tx MXene was identified as efficient nanozyme with area-dependent electrocatalytic activity in oxidation of phenolic compounds, which originated from the strong adsorption effect between the phenolic hydroxyl group and the oxygen atom on the surface of Ti3C2Tx MXene flake. On the basis of the novel electrocatalytic activity, Ti3C2Tx MXene was combined with alkaline phosphatase to construct a novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy using 1-naphthyl phosphate (1-NPP) as substrate, thereby realizing efficient electrochemical signal amplification. Taking advantage of the novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy, an electrochemical biosensor was fabricated for BCR/ABL fusion gene detection, which achieved excellent sensitivity with linear range from 0.2 fM to 20 nM and limit of detection down to 0.05 fM. This biosensor provided a promising tool for ultrasensitive fusion gene detection in early diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia. Moreover, the manageable catalytic activity of MXene broke a path for developing nanozymes, which possessed enormous application potential in not only electrochemical analysis but also the extensive fields including organic synthesis, pollutant disposal and so on.
Mass-producible High Performance NiNx Electro-Catalyst Prepared via Surface Immobilization
Authors: Hou Qiankun , Liu Kang , Huang Yuchang , MAKSOUD Walid AL , Yang Pengfei , Ding De , Yang Nan , Luo Tianyong , Lei Yongpeng , Zhang Yi , Zheng Li Rong , Liu Min , Lin Bin , Chen Yin , BASSET JEAN 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Nonprecious-metal catalysts with atomically dispersed active sites demonstrated high activity and selectivity in a series of catalysis reactions, the rational design and massive synthesis of such catalysts are of great interest but remains a huge challenge. Current approaches often require harsh conditions and tedious procedures. Here, we demonstrated a facile and scalable preparation strategy by anchoring pre-organized NiNx site on the surface of a layered Co-methylimidazole coordination compound. In two simple steps, single-site Ni electro-catalyst can be synthesized up to kilogram-scale with a yield of 75% under mild conditions. This catalyst exhibits excellent catalysis performances in both oxygen evolution and reduction reactions. Besides, it has tunable catalysis activity, high catalysis reproducibility and stability. The atomically dispersed NiNx sites are tolerate with high Ni concentration, indicating that the random reactions or metal nanoparticle formation generally observed at high temperature were avoided. This strategy presents a practical and green method for the industrial manufacture of nonprecious-metal single-site catalysts with predictable structure.
Water security assessment in ungauged regions using the water balance and water footprint concepts and satellite observations
Authors: Nkiaka Elias 
Published: February 2022

AbstractWater security assessments often rely on outputs from hydrological models that are applicable only in gauged regions where there are river discharge data to constrain the models. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore new methods for assessing water security in ungauged regions. This study proposes the use of the water balance and water footprint concepts and satellite observations to assess water security in Anglophone Cameroon, which is an example of a typically ungauged region. Specifically, the study assesses demand-driven water scarcity in terms of blue and green water scarcities and population-driven water scarcity quantified using the Falkenmark index across all districts in Anglophone Cameroon. The study also performs a spatiotemporal trend analysis of precipitation and temperature in the study area using the Mann–Kendall test. Precipitation trend analysis returns varying strengths and magnitudes for different districts unlike temperature which demonstrates an upward trend in all districts. The water security assessment shows that blue water scarcity is substantially low across most districts, whereas population-driven water scarcity is observed in densely populated districts (&lt;1,700 m3/capita/year). The results from this study suggest that the proposed method may be used to assess water security in ungauged regions irrespective of climate or population size.
Ionic strength of the liquid phase of different sludge streams in a wastewater treatment plant
Authors: Prot T. , Korving L. , Van Loosdrecht M. C. M. 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
In a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), several sludge streams exist and the composition of their liquid phase varies with time and place. For evaluating the potential for formation of precipitates and equilibria for weak acids/bases, the ionic strength and chemical composition need to be known. This information is often not available in literature, and even neglected in chemical model-based research. Based on a literature review, we proposed three ranges of concentration (low, typical and high) for the major constituents of the liquid phase of the different streams in a WWTP. The study also discusses the reasons for the concentration evolution, and the exceptional cases, to allow readers to consider the right range depending on their situation. The ionic strength of the different streams and the contribution of its constituents were calculated based on the ionic composition. The major contributors to the ionic strength for the wastewater-based streams (influent, effluent and mixed sludge) were Na+, Cl−, Mg2+ and Ca2+, representing 50–70% of the ionic strength. For digestate, and accounted for 65–75% of the ionic strength. Even though the ionic strength is recognized to impact several important wastewater treatment processes, its utilization in literature is not always adequate, which is discussed in this study.
Using multi-event hydrologic and hydraulic signatures from water level sensors to diagnose locations of uncertainty in integrated urban drainage models used in living digital twins
Authors: Pedersen A. N. , Pedersen J. W. , Borup M. , Brink-Kjær A. , Christiansen L. E. , Mikkelsen P. S. 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Digital twins of urban drainage systems require simulation models that can adequately replicate the physical system. All models have their limitations, and it is important to investigate when and where simulation results are acceptable and to communicate the level of performance transparently to end users. This paper first defines a classification of four possible ‘locations of uncertainty’ in integrated urban drainage models. It then develops a structured framework for identifying and diagnosing various types of errors. This framework compares model outputs with in-sewer water level observations based on hydrologic and hydraulic signatures. The approach is applied on a real case study in Odense, Denmark, with examples from three different system sites: a typical manhole, a small flushing chamber, and an internal overflow structure. This allows diagnosing different model errors ranging from issues in the underlying asset database and missing hydrologic processes to limitations in the model software implementation. Structured use of signatures is promising for continuous, iterative improvements of integrated urban drainage models. It also provides a transparent way to communicate the level of model adequacy to end users.