julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Late Plio-Pleistocene humidity fluctuations in the western Qaidam Basin (NE Tibetan Plateau) revealed by an integrated magnetic–palynological record from lacustrine sediments
2015-11-01

Deciphering the climatic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau region during the Plio-Pleistocene is hampered by the lack of continuous archives and proxy datasets indicative of moisture availability. Here we assess the suitability of magnetic susceptibility (χ) measured on lacustrine sediments as a paleohydrological proxy based on material from drill core SG-1 (2.69–0.08 Ma) from the western Qaidam Basin. Our assessment is based on directly comparing χ with the Artemisia /Chenopodiaceae (A/C) pollen ratio, which represents a sensitive, well-established proxy for moisture changes in arid environments. We find that higher and lower χ values represent drier and less dry conditions, respectively, for the Late Plio-Pleistocene. Less dry phases were likely caused by transiently increased influence of the westerlies and/or decreased influence of the Asian winter monsoon on glacial–interglacial time scales. An exception from this relationship is the interval between ~ 1.9 and 1.3 Ma, when the SG-1 χ record exhibits a 54 ka cyclicity, which may indicate summer monsoon influence on the Qaidam Basin during that time. After ~ 1.3 Ma, the summer monsoon influence may have ceased due to global cooling, with the consequence that the Asian winter monsoon and the westerlies exerted a stronger control on the hydrology of the Qaidam Basin.
Profiling of primary peripheral blood‐ and monocyte‐derived dendritic cells using monoclonal antibodies from the HLDA10 Workshop in Wollongong, Australia
2015-11-01

Dendritic cells (DCs) arise from hematopoietic stem cells and develop into a discrete cellular lineage distinct from other leucocytes. Mainly three phenotypically and functionally distinct DC subsets are described in the human peripheral blood (PB): plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), which express the key marker CD303 (BDCA‐2), and two myeloid DC subsets (CD1c + DC (mDC1) and CD141 + DC (mDC2)), which express the key markers CD1c (BDCA‐1) and CD141 (BDCA‐3), respectively. In addition to these primary cell subsets, DCs can also be generated in vitro from either CD34 + stem/progenitor cells in the presence of Flt3 (Fms‐related tyrosine kinase 3) ligand or from CD14 + monocytes (monocyte‐derived DCs (mo‐DCs)) in the presence of granulocyte–macrophage colony‐stimulating factor+interleukin‐4 (GM‐CSF+IL‐4). Here we compare the reactivity patterns of HLDA10 antibodies (monoclonal antibody (mAb)) with pDCs, CD1c + DCs and CD141 + DCs, as well as with CD14 + ‐derived mo‐DCs cultured for 7 days in the presence of 100 ng/ml GM‐CSF plus 20 ng/ml IL‐4. A detailed profiling of these DC subsets based on immunophenotyping and multicolour flow cytometry analysis is presented. Using the panel of HLDA10 Workshop mAb, we could verify known targets selectively expressed on discrete DC subsets including CD370 as a selective marker for CD141 + DCs and CD366 as a marker for both myeloid subsets. In addition, vimentin and other markers are heterogeneously expressed on all three subsets, suggesting the existence of so far not identified DC subsets.
Internal Motivation Buffers the Negative Effect of Identity Incompatibility on Newcomers’ Social Identification and Well-Being
2015-11-01

Abstract. Newcomers who enter a new group usually possess a number of established social identities. It has been demonstrated that incompatibility between established and new identities decreases social identification with the new group and well-being. We propose that internal motivation to become a group member helps newcomers to identify with their group despite incompatibility. Therefore, it was predicted that only newcomers low (but not high) in internal motivation to become a group member were affected by incompatibility. One experiment with university newcomers and two field studies with exchange students and university newcomers supported these predictions. The results highlight the fact that internal motivation is a strong resource when newcomers face obstacles, in the form of incompatibility between established and new identities.
From CELSIUS to COSY: on the observation of a dibaryon resonance
2015-11-01

Using the high-quality beam of storage rings in combination with a pellet target and the hermetic WASA detector covering practically the full solid angle the two-pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions has been systematically studied by exclusive and kinematically complete measurements -- first at CELSIUS and subsequently at COSY. These measurements resulted in a detailed understanding of the two-pion production mechanism by -channel meson exchange. The investigation of the ABC effect in double-pionic fusion reactions lead the trace to the observation of a narrow dibaryon resonance with about 80 MeV below the nominal mass of the conventional system. New neutron-proton scattering data, taken with polarized beam at COSY, produce a pole in the coupled - partial waves at ( ) MeV establishing thus the first observation of a genuine -channel dibaryon resonance.
Identification of an organic semiconductor superlattice structure of pentacene and perfluoro-pentacene through resonant and non-resonant X-ray scattering
2015-11-01

Highly crystalline and stable molecular superlattices are grown with the smallest possible stacking period using monolayers (MLs) of the organic semiconductors pentacene (PEN) and perfluoro-pentacene (PFP). Superlattice reflections in X-ray reflectivity and their energy dependence in resonant soft X-ray reflectivity measurements show that PFP and PEN MLs indeed alternate even though the coherent ordering is lost after ∼ 4 ML. The observed lattice spacing of 15.9 Å in the superlattice is larger than in pure PEN and PFP films, presumably because of more upright standing molecules and lack of interdigitation between the incommensurate crystalline PEN and PFP layers. The findings are important for the development of novel organic quantum optoelectronic devices.
cFAST: A fast color feature detector
2015-11-01

By extending the basic idea of FAST it is possible to create a detector that can operate directly on a RGB color image and on it detect a higher number of features. The higher number of points and the simplification of the metric put us in the position to impose an additional condition on the keypoints. In order to do so we picked up a problem of FAST and defined a condition for similar points. This additional condition enables results that are better than FAST with regard to stability. Furthermore this condition enables a fast implementation, so that with the triple amount of input data due to the color channels less than threefold of time is required.
Collisions of Planetesimals and Formation of Planets
2015-11-01

Abstract We present preliminary results of models of terrestrial planet formation using on the one hand classical numerical integration of hundreds of small bodies on CPUs and on the other hand—for comparison—the results of our GPU code with thousands of small bodies which then merge to larger ones. To be able to determine the outcome of collision events we use our smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code which tracks how water is lost during such events.
Microbially Supported Recovery of Precious Metals and Rare Earth Elements from Urban Household Waste Incineration Slag
2015-11-01

The use of precious metals and Rare Earth Elements in electronic, medical, and automobile industries is drastically increasing. To meet this demand and to escape the financial pressure of the global metal market, not only mining activities but recently also the recovery of these elements from industrial and urban household waste is in the focus of research. It has been shown that the application of extracting solutions with pH values lower than 4 lead to an economically feasible recovery of industrially precious metals. It is unclear, however, whether and to which extent this abiotic extraction efficiency can potentially be increased by using microorganisms capable of dissolving more stable minerals at low pH. The goal of this project therefore is to first view urban household waste as a resource for metals and evaluate combined abiotic and biotic extraction procedures for an increase in metal extraction efficiency.
Spatial structure counts: the relevance of regional labour-market conditions for educational transitions to vocational training
2015-11-02

Regional context conditions can have a crucial impact on school-to-work transitions and subsequently individual life chances. This paper aims to develop an approach to analyse the spatial references of regional socio-economic contextual settings young adults are embedded in. We apply this approach to assess the impact of regional unemployment on the transition from lower or intermediate compulsory schooling to vocational education and training (VET) in Germany. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) and merge these with administrative time series data on NUTS 3-regions level. We attach geocodes to the administrative districts to allow for a flexible operationalisation of the spatial reference of regional socio-economic contextual settings. Our results indicate, first, a negative relation between regional unemployment and the chances of entering vocational training in the dual system. Second, the effects of unemployment on adolescents' transition chances have a specific spatial structure: The labour-market situation in the respondent's district of residence moderates the relation between the labour-market situation in surrounding districts and the school graduates' chances of entering dual training.
Enhanced FGF23 production in mice expressing PI3K‐insensitive GSK3 is normalized by β‐blocker treatment
2015-11-02

Glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)‐3 is a ubiquitously expressed kinase inhibited by insulin‐dependent Akt/PKB/SGK. Mice expressing Akt/PKB/SGK‐resistant GSK3α/GSK3β ( gsk3 KI ) exhibit enhanced sympathetic nervous activity and phosphaturia with decreased bone density. Hormones participating in phosphate homeostasis include fibroblast growth factor (FGF)‐23, a bone‐derived hormone that inhibits 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D 3 (1,25(OH) 2 D 3 ; calcitriol) formation and phosphate reabsorption in the kidney and counteracts vascular calcification and aging. FGF23 secretion is stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system. We studied the role of GSK3‐controlled sympathetic activity in FGF23 production and phosphate metabolism. Serum FGF23, 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 , and urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) were measured by ELISA, and serum and urinary phosphate and calcium were measured by photometry in gsk3 KI and gsk3 WT mice, before and after 1 wk of oral treatment with the β‐blocker propranolol. Urinary VMA excretion, serum FGF23, and renal phosphate and calcium excretion were significantly higher, and serum 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 and phosphate concentrations were lower in gsk3 KI mice than in gsk3 WT mice. Propranolol treatment decreased serum FGF23 and loss of renal calcium and phosphate and increased serum phosphate concentration in gsk3 KI mice. We conclude that Akt/PKB/SGK‐sensitive GSK3 inhibition participates in the regulation of FGF23 release, 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 formation, and thus mineral metabolism, by controlling the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.—Fajol, A., Chen, H., Umbach, A. T., Quarles, L. D., Lang, F., Föller, M. Enhanced FGF23 production in mice expressing PI3K‐insensitive GSK3 is normalized by β‐blocker treatment. FASEB J. 30, 994–1001 (2016). www.fasebj.org
A Global View on Future Major Water Engineering Projects
2015-11-02

Human activities have altered how the world functions. During the past decades, we have globally, fundamentally, in the long-term, and in most cases irreversibly modified all spheres of earth. This new epoch, often referred to as the Anthropocene, is just in its early stages. Indeed, there is general agreement that the transformation of our globe takes speed, with consequences that we can hardly imagine but that may threaten our own survival. This goes along with the general idea that major infrastructure projects are a sign of technological progress and believed to stimulate economic development and to improve living conditions for humans. In the present essay, a representative inventory of future major engineering projects, either planned or under construction in aquatic systems worldwide, shows that the rapid transformations of the Anthropocene are particularly evident in the freshwater domain. Worldwide examples of very large dams, major interbasin water-transfer and navigation projects, as well as large-scale restoration schemes, underline the dimensions of and the challenges associated with future megaprojects that will change our freshwater environment. Opportunities to mitigate the consequences of megaprojects based on the lessons learnt from projects in other infrastructure sectors range from ecological engineering to smart water investments that are adjusted to the respective national, social, economic, and environmental conditions.
Vertical segregation of two cell-cycle phases of the calcifying freshwater phytoflagellatePhacotus lenticularis(Chlorophyta)
2015-11-02

Specific responses of cells from different cell-cycle phases to environmental variations strongly impact their ecology and productivity. We quantified responses of both the motile, calcified growing cell phase (G1 phase) and the calcite shell forming, non-motile mitotic phase (S, G2 and M phase) of the freshwater phytoflagellate &lt;it&gt;Phacotus lenticularis&lt;/it&gt; to changes in depth-specific physicochemical parameters and meteorological parameters over two growing seasons. Growing (GCs) and mitotic cells (MCs) segregated vertically during peak development. GCs accumulated within the thermocline, whereas MCs aggregated in the epilimnion down to 4 m depth, which corresponded to the maximum depth of mixing. GCs and MCs differed in their preference with respect to pH and water temperature, but not to water density. Interestingly, pH and temperature variations in the epilimnion, where MCs aggregate and calcify, explained up to 83% of the variance of GC density at a time lag of one and more days in a daily sampling campaign. Among the meteorological variables we tested, rainfall and air temperature had an additional positive effect on GC density. The results suggest that &lt;it&gt;Phacotus&lt;/it&gt; cells migrate upwards prior to loss of motility to layers that reduce sinking but likely enhance calcification rates, which translates into a response of GC density.
Regular Languages Are Church-Rosser Congruential
2015-11-02

This article shows a general result about finite monoids and weight reducing string rewriting systems. As a consequence it proves a long standing conjecture in formal language theory: All regular languages are Church-Rosser congruential. The class of Church-Rosser congruential languages was introduced by McNaughton, Narendran, and Otto in 1988. A language L is Church-Rosser congruential if there exists a finite, confluent, and length-reducing semi-Thue system S such that L is a finite union of congruence classes modulo S . It was known that there are deterministic linear context-free languages which are not Church-Rosser congruential, but the conjecture was that all regular languages are of this form. The article offers a stronger statement: A language is regular if and only if it is strongly Church-Rosser congruential. It is the journal version of the conference abstract which was presented at ICALP 2012.
Sensory properties of the PII signalling protein family
2015-11-03

P II signalling proteins constitute one of the largest families of signalling proteins in nature. An even larger superfamily of trimeric sensory proteins with the same architectural principle as P II proteins appears in protein structure databases. Large surface‐exposed flexible loops protrude from the intersubunit faces, where effector molecules are bound that tune the conformation of the loops. Via this mechanism, P II proteins control target proteins in response to cellular ATP / ADP levels and the 2‐oxoglutarate status, thereby coordinating the cellular carbon/nitrogen balance. The antagonistic ( ATP versus ADP ) and synergistic (2‐oxoglutarate and ATP ) mode of effector molecule binding is further affected by P II ‐receptor interaction, leading to a highly sophisticated signalling network organized by P II . Altogether, it appears that P II is a multitasking information processor that, depending on its interaction environment, differentially transmits information on the energy status and the cellular 2‐oxoglutarate level. In addition to the basic mode of P II function, several bacterial P II proteins may transmit a signal of the cellular glutamine status via covalent modification. Remarkably, during the evolution of plant chloroplasts, glutamine signalling by P II proteins was re‐established by acquisition of a short sequence extension at the C‐terminus. This plant‐specific C‐terminus makes the interaction of plant P II proteins with one of its targets, the arginine biosynthetic enzyme N ‐acetyl‐glutamate kinase, glutamine‐dependent.
Spatial and temporal aridity gradients provide poor proxies for plant–plant interactions under climate change: a large‐scale experiment
2015-11-03

Summary Plant–plant interactions may critically modify the impact of climate change on plant communities. However, the magnitude and even direction of potential future interactions remains highly debated, especially for water‐limited ecosystems. Predictions range from increasing facilitation to increasing competition with future aridification. The different methodologies used for assessing plant–plant interactions under changing environmental conditions may affect the outcome but they are not equally represented in the literature. Mechanistic experimental manipulations are rare compared with correlative approaches that infer future patterns from current observations along spatial climatic gradients. Here, we utilize a unique climatic gradient in combination with a large‐scale, long‐term experiment to test whether predictions about plant–plant interactions yield similar results when using experimental manipulations, spatial gradients or temporal variation. We assessed shrub–annual interactions in three different sites along a natural rainfall gradient (spatial) during 9 years of varying rainfall (temporal) and 8 years of dry and wet manipulations of ambient rainfall (experimental) that closely mimicked regional climate scenarios. The results were fundamentally different among all three approaches. Experimental water manipulations hardly altered shrub effects on annual plant communities for the assessed fitness parameters biomass and survival. Along the spatial gradient, shrub effects shifted from clearly negative to mildly facilitative towards drier sites, whereas temporal variation showed the opposite trend: more negative shrub effects in drier years. Based on our experimental approach, we conclude that shrub–annual interaction will remain similar under climate change. In contrast, the commonly applied space‐for‐time approach based on spatial gradients would have suggested increasing facilitative effects with climate change. We discuss potential mechanisms governing the differences among the three approaches. Our study highlights the critical importance of long‐term experimental manipulations for evaluating climate change impacts. Correlative approaches, for example along spatial or temporal gradients, may be misleading and overestimate the response of plant–plant interactions to climate change.
EU, US and ASEAN Actorness in G20 Financial Policy‐Making: Bridging the EU Studies–New Regionalism Divide
2015-11-03

Abstract This article compares the European Union's (EU) actorness in foreign financial policy to that of the US and ASEAN. It thus contributes to the dialogue between EU studies and the New Regionalism by putting it into practice through comparative research. It argues that a process‐oriented interpretation of the actorness concept can be used to compare the EU to both nation‐states and international organizations at the same time. This makes it possible to examine the ‘nature of the beast’ in specific foreign policy contexts on empirical grounds. The case study analyses EU, US and ASEAN actorness in the IMF reform negotiations within the G20 framework. The findings suggest that a ‘two‐way comparison’ of the EU is not only possible but also provides valuable empirical insights into the role of informal politics in the EU and other regions.
Characterization of α-taxilin as a novel factor controlling the release of hepatitis C virus
2015-11-03

Although it is well established that the release of HCV (hepatitis C virus) occurs through the secretory pathway, many aspects concerning the control of this process are not yet fully understood. α-Taxilin was identified as a novel binding partner of syntaxin-4 and of other members of the syntaxin family, which are part of SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein-attachment protein receptor) complexes and so are involved in intracellular vesicle traffic. Since α-taxilin prevents t-SNARE (target SNARE) formation by binding exclusively to free syntaxin-4, it exerts an inhibitory effect on the vesicular transport. HCV-replicating Huh7.5 cells and HCV-infected primary human hepatocytes and liver samples of patients suffering from chronic HCV contain significantly less α-taxilin compared with the controls. HCV impairs the expression of α-taxilin via NS5A-dependent interruption of the Raf/MEK [MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase)/ERK (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase) kinase] signal transduction cascade. Moreover, the half-life of α-taxilin is significantly reduced in HCV-replicating cells. Whereas modulation of α-taxilin expression does not significantly affect genome replication, the overexpression of α-taxilin prevents the release of HCV. In contrast with this, silencing of α-taxilin expression leads to increased release of infectious viral particles. This is due to the negative effect of α-taxilin on t-SNARE formation that leads to impaired vesicular trafficking. Accordingly, overexpression of the t-SNARE component syntaxin-4 increases release of HCV, whereas silencing leads to an impaired release. These data identify α-taxilin as a novel factor that controls the release of HCV and reveal the mechanism by which HCV controls the activity of α-taxilin.
Diversity of sharp-wave–ripple LFP signatures reveals differentiated brain-wide dynamical events
2015-11-04

Significance Sharp-wave–ripple (SPW-R) episodes observed in the electrical activity of mammalian hippocampus are traditionally associated to memory consolidation during sleep but have been recently observed during active behavior. Their involvement in various cognitive functions suggests the existence of SPW-R subtypes engaged in distinct neuronal activity patterns at multiple scales. We use concurrent electrophysiological and functional MRI (fMRI) recordings in macaque monkeys to investigate this hypothesis. We discover several subtypes of SPW-R with distinct electrophysiological properties. Importantly, fMRI recordings reveal differences between the large-scale signatures of SPW-R subtypes, indicating differentiated interactions with neocortex, and contributions of neuromodulatory pathways to the SPW-R phenomenon. Understanding the detailed properties of hippocampal SPW-Rs at multiple scales will provide new insights on the function of memory systems.