julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Tracking heavy‐water‐incorporated confocal Raman spectroscopy for evaluating the effects of PEGylated emulsifiers on skin barrier
2020-09-25

Abstract The class of PEGylated emulsifiers finds broad application in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. We target on one of the categories of polyethylene glycol (PEG) alkyl ethers with different lipophilic and hydrophilic chain length and aim to examine their effects on the skin comprehensively. In this study, we employed confocal Raman spectroscopy for skin depth profiling and imaging. A unique probe of heavy water (D 2 O) was incorporated, which can be tracked percutaneously and simultaneously monitor the effects caused by emulsifiers. According to the results, most of the PEGylated emulsifiers caused changes in skin lipid content/organization and induced the alteration in relative water content/hydrogen bonding structure. The results obtained from the depth profiling analysis provided the possibility to estimate the least penetration depth of emulsifiers. Among them, PEG‐20 ethers displayed the most penetration ability. Meanwhile, it is interesting to find that the treatment of emulsifiers also affected the spatial distribution of D 2 O whose differences were in line with the molecular skin variations. In particular, the isotopic H/D substitution in the skin was highlighted in detail. This result supports the possibility to use D 2 O as an excellent and cost‐effective probe to evaluate the skin barrier function.
Social personalities in sports: an analysis of the differences in individuals’ self-presentation on social networks
2020-09-25

People use the various social media very differently. And such activity clearly demonstrates how usage establishes notably differentiated characters and behaviours. This article bases itself on Goffman to apply his theory on people’s self-presentation to the field of social networks and to analyse such behaviour through various examples. Accordingly, we have quantitively and qualitatively investigated social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for 15 people in Germany from three different areas (sports, media/entertainment and politics). Our results allow us to determine clear differences in usage of different social media channels between the groups of people, but also among the sportspersons, above all regarding extent, way used or authenticity. We, therefore, advocate in future discussing multiple social personalities in social media instead of the appearance on it.
Group 6 Carbonyl Complexes of C-Ylidic Cp Ligands
2020-09-25

The synthesis and the analytical features of group 6 carbonyl complexes of electron-poor mono(imidazolium)- and bis(imidazolium)-substituted Cp ylides are presented. With the neutral ylidic imidazolium Cp and the monocationic 1,3-bis(imidazolium) Cp ligand all of the group 6 carbonyl complexes were prepared, while in the case of the 1,2-disubstituted Cp ylide only the chromium Cp complex was accessible. The donor properties of the ligands were elucidated experimentally by means of the CO stretching frequencies of their group 6 metal complexes and theoretically by DFT calculations. Every imidazolium substituent and the planar conjugated π system of the imidazolium moieties annelated to the Cp ring increase the average CO stretching frequencies by about 20 cm–1. Overall, the donor properties of the C-ylidic Cp ligands are still stronger than those of the benzene ligand. Additionally, the protonation of the Cp ligands was investigated, and the basicity correlates qualitatively with the electron-donor character of the ylidic Cp ligands.
Motion Coherence and Luminance Contrast Interact in Driving Visual Gamma-Band Activity
2020-09-25

Abstract Synchronized neuronal population activity in the gamma-frequency range (&amp;gt;30 Hz) correlates with the bottom-up drive of various visual features. It has been hypothesized that gamma-band synchronization enhances the gain of neuronal representations, yet evidence remains sparse. We tested a critical prediction of the gain hypothesis, which is that features that drive synchronized gamma-band activity interact super-linearly. To test this prediction, we employed whole-head magnetencephalography in human subjects and investigated if the strength of visual motion (motion coherence) and luminance contrast interact in driving gamma-band activity in visual cortex. We found that gamma-band activity (64–128 Hz) monotonically increased with coherence and contrast, while lower frequency activity (8–32 Hz) decreased with both features. Furthermore, as predicted for a gain mechanism, we found a multiplicative interaction between motion coherence and contrast in their joint drive of gamma-band activity. The lower frequency activity did not show such an interaction. Our findings provide evidence that gamma-band activity acts as a cortical gain mechanism that nonlinearly combines the bottom-up drive of different visual features.
Anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder in patients with coronary heart disease
2020-09-25

Background: Anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are known etiologic and prognostic risk factors in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). However, few studies have assessed the prevalence of a comprehensive set of anxiety and stress related disorders in CHD. Moreover, it is unclear whether these disorders are associated with CHD symptoms, severity and cardiovascular events and procedures. Methods: We determined the 12-month prevalence of anxiety disorders and PTSD in N = 1024 hospitalized patients with CHD and examined associations with cardiac disease characteristics, cardiovascular events and procedures. Anxiety and PTSD diagnoses were determined with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Socio-demographic variables were assessed with a questionnaire and cardiovascular variables were extracted from medical charts. Results: 12-month prevalence for any anxiety disorder was 11.2% for men and 24.8% for women; 12-month PTSD prevalence was 1.1% and 5.2%, respectively. The most common anxiety disorders were specific phobia (men: 8.2%, women: 18.8%) and agoraphobia and/or panic disorder (combined prevalence men: 2.9%, women: 9.9%). Anxiety disorders were not associated with any cardiovascular variables. Limitations: Due to lack of follow-up data no conclusions regarding stability of diagnoses are possible. Associations of PTSD and medical variables could not be determined because of low PTSD prevalence. Conclusions: Compared to the general population, anxiety disorders were more frequent in younger (<50) and middle-aged (50-64) women and middle-aged men with CHD. Reliable assessments of mental disorder prevalence in patients with CHD are the basis for improved patient care and prevention of adverse progression.
Horizontal gene transfer-mediated bacterial strain variation affects host fitness
2020-09-25

Abstract How microbes affect host fitness and environmental adaptation has become a fundamental research question in evolutionary biology. We tested for associations of bacterial genomic variation and Drosophila melanogaster offspring number in a microbial Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS). Leveraging strain variation in the genus Gluconobacter , a genus of bacteria that are commonly associated with Drosophila under natural conditions, we pinpoint the thiamine biosynthesis pathway (TBP) as contributing to differences in fitness conferred to the fly host. By tracing the evolutionary history of TBP genes in Gluconobacter , we find that TBP genes were most likely lost and reacquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). We suggest that HGT might contribute to microbiome flexibility and speculate that it can also more generally contribute to host adaptation.
Peer Review #2 of "Exploring the role of individual learning in animal tool-use (v0.1)"
2020-09-25

The notion that tool-use is unique to humans has long been refuted by the growing number of observations of animals using tools across various contexts.Yet, the mechanisms behind the emergence and sustenance of these tool-use repertoires are still heavily debated.We argue that the current animal behaviour literature is biased towards a social learning approach, in which animal, and in particular primate tool-use repertoires are thought to require social learning mechanisms (copying variants of social learning are most often invoked).However, concrete evidence for a widespread dependency on social learning is still lacking.On the other hand, a growing body of observational and experimental data demonstrates that various animal species are capable of acquiring the forms of their tool-use behaviours via individual learning, with (non-copying) social learning regulating the frequencies of the behavioural forms within (and, indirectly, between) groups.As a first outline of the extent of the role of individual learning in animal tool-use, a literature review of reports of the spontaneous acquisition of animal tool-use behaviours was carried out across observational and experimental studies.The results of this review suggest that perhaps due to the pervasive focus on social learning in the literature, accounts of the individual learning of tool-use forms by naïve animals may have been largely overlooked, and their importance under-examined.
Peer Review #1 of "Exploring the role of individual learning in animal tool-use (v0.1)"
2020-09-25

The notion that tool-use is unique to humans has long been refuted by the growing number of observations of animals using tools across various contexts.Yet, the mechanisms behind the emergence and sustenance of these tool-use repertoires are still heavily debated.We argue that the current animal behaviour literature is biased towards a social learning approach, in which animal, and in particular primate tool-use repertoires are thought to require social learning mechanisms (copying variants of social learning are most often invoked).However, concrete evidence for a widespread dependency on social learning is still lacking.On the other hand, a growing body of observational and experimental data demonstrates that various animal species are capable of acquiring the forms of their tool-use behaviours via individual learning, with (non-copying) social learning regulating the frequencies of the behavioural forms within (and, indirectly, between) groups.As a first outline of the extent of the role of individual learning in animal tool-use, a literature review of reports of the spontaneous acquisition of animal tool-use behaviours was carried out across observational and experimental studies.The results of this review suggest that perhaps due to the pervasive focus on social learning in the literature, accounts of the individual learning of tool-use forms by naïve animals may have been largely overlooked, and their importance under-examined.
Faculty Opinions recommendation of An RNA vaccine drives immunity in checkpoint-inhibitor-treated melanoma.
2020-09-26

Treating patients who have cancer with vaccines that stimulate a targeted immune response is conceptually appealing, but cancer vaccine trials have not been successful in late-stage patients with treatment-refractory tumours1,2. We are testing melanoma FixVac (BNT111)-an intravenously administered liposomal RNA (RNA-LPX) vaccine, which targets four non-mutated, tumour-associated antigens that are prevalent in melanoma-in an ongoing, first-in-human, dose-escalation phase I trial in patients with advanced melanoma (Lipo-MERIT trial, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02410733). We report here data from an exploratory interim analysis that show that melanoma FixVac, alone or in combination with blockade of the checkpoint inhibitor PD1, mediates durable objective responses in checkpoint-inhibitor (CPI)-experienced patients with unresectable melanoma. Clinical responses are accompanied by the induction of strong CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity against the vaccine antigens. The antigen-specific cytotoxic T-cell responses in some responders reach magnitudes typically reported for adoptive T-cell therapy, and are durable. Our findings indicate that RNA-LPX vaccination is a potent immunotherapy in patients with CPI-experienced melanoma, and suggest the general utility of non-mutant shared tumour antigens as targets for cancer vaccination. PMID: 32728218
Foolbox Native: Fast adversarial attacks to benchmark the robustness of machine learning models in PyTorch, TensorFlow, and JAX
2020-09-27

Machine learning has made enormous progress in recent years and is now being used in many real-world applications.Nevertheless, even state-of-the-art machine learning models can be fooled by small, maliciously crafted perturbations of their input data.Foolbox is a popular Python library to benchmark the robustness of machine learning models against these adversarial perturbations.It comes with a huge collection of state-of-the-art adversarial attacks to find adversarial perturbations and thanks to its framework-agnostic design it is ideally suited for comparing the robustness of many different models implemented in different frameworks.Foolbox 3 aka Foolbox Native has been rewritten from scratch to achieve native performance on models developed in PyTorch (Paszke et al.,
Idle chatter or compelling conversation? The potential of the social media‐based #NGSSchat network for supporting science education reform efforts
2020-09-27

Abstract The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) chat (#NGSSchat) is a social media‐based professional network used to discuss topics related to the NGSS in the United States. While successful reforms involve and coordinate the work of multiple stakeholders, recent research points out a striking lack of coordination between the individuals working in different educational roles—to the detriment of intended changes in the system. In this study, we analyzed more than 7,000 posts from individuals participating in #NGSSchat on Twitter ( n = 247) during 2 years of 1‐hr synchronous discussions. We studied the depth and types of conversations that took place, the extent to which the involvement of teachers, administrators, researchers, and organizations was balanced, and what explains participation in the network over time. Using a mixed‐methods approach involving social network analysis, we found that conversations were primarily transactional, or social, and substantive, or providing opportunities for sense‐making about the standards or for participants to transform their practice and that individuals from diverse roles participated, with teachers comprising the plurality of those involved. Additionally, researchers, administrators, and teachers were the most active in the network, with no differences in both initiating, or sending, and being the recipients of, or receiving, replies as a part of conversations. Finally, we found that being a teacher or administrator, as well as receiving replies from individuals who were important in the network, were positively related to sustained involvement in the network in the following year. We discuss how #NGSSchat—as a social media‐based professional network—demonstrates similar features in other effective networks, and how social media‐based networks invite new visions for how to implement ambitious, large‐scale changes in science education.
Evidence of three mechanisms explaining the radius anomaly of hot Jupiters
2020-09-28

Context. The anomalously large radii of hot Jupiters are still not fully understood, and all of the proposed explanations are based on the idea that these close-in giant planets possess hot interiors. Most of the mechanisms proposed have been tested on a handful of exoplanets. Aims. We approach the radius anomaly problem by adopting a statistical approach. We want to infer the internal luminosity for the sample of hot Jupiters, study its effect on the interior structure, and put constraints on which mechanism is the dominant one. Methods. We developed a flexible and robust hierarchical Bayesian model that couples the interior structure of exoplanets to the observed properties of close-in giant planets. We applied the model to 314 hot Jupiters and inferred the internal luminosity distribution for each planet and studied at the population level (i) the mass–luminosity–radius distribution and as a function of equilibrium temperature the distributions of the (ii) heating efficiency, (iii) internal temperature, and the (iv) pressure of the radiative–convective–boundary (RCB). Results. We find that hot Jupiters tend to have high internal luminosity with 10 4 L J for the largest planets. As a result, we show that all the inflated planets have hot interiors with an internal temperature ranging from 200 up to 800 K for the most irradiated ones. This has important consequences on the cooling rate and we find that the RCB is located at low pressures between 3 and 100 bar. Assuming that the ultimate source of the extra heating is the irradiation from the host star, we also illustrate that the heating efficiency increases with increasing equilibrium temperature and reaches a maximum of 2.5% at ~1860 K, beyond which the efficiency decreases, which is in agreement with previous results. We discuss our findings in the context of the proposed heating mechanisms and illustrate that ohmic dissipation, the advection of potential temperature, and thermal tides are in agreement with certain trends inferred from our analysis and thus all three models can explain various aspects of the observations. Conclusions. We provide new insights on the interior structure of hot Jupiters and show that with our current knowledge, it is still challenging to firmly identify the universal mechanism driving the inflated radii.
Speech metrics, general disability, brain imaging and quality of life in multiple sclerosis
2020-09-28

Background and purpose Objective measurement of speech has shown promising results to monitor disease state in multiple sclerosis. In this study, we characterize the relationship between disease severity and speech metrics through perceptual (listener based) and objective acoustic analysis. We further look at deviations of acoustic metrics in people with no perceivable dysarthria. Methods Correlations and regression were calculated between speech measurements and disability scores, brain volume, lesion load and quality of life. Speech measurements were further compared between three subgroups of increasing overall neurological disability: mild (as rated by the Expanded Disability Status Scale ≤2.5), moderate (≥3 and ≤5.5) and severe (≥6). Results Clinical speech impairment occurred majorly in people with severe disability. An experimental acoustic composite score differentiated mild from moderate ( P &lt; 0.001) and moderate from severe subgroups ( P = 0.003), and correlated with overall neurological disability ( r = 0.6, P &lt; 0.001), quality of life ( r = 0.5, P &lt; 0.001), white matter volume ( r = 0.3, P = 0.007) and lesion load ( r = 0.3, P = 0.008). Acoustic metrics also correlated with disability scores in people with no perceivable dysarthria. Conclusions Acoustic analysis offers a valuable insight into the development of speech impairment in multiple sclerosis. These results highlight the potential of automated analysis of speech to assist in monitoring disease progression and treatment response.
Postural Control When Using an Industrial Lower Limb Exoskeleton: Impact of Reaching for a Working Tool and External Perturbation
2020-09-28

Objective To investigate postural control related to a lower limb exoskeleton (Chairless Chair) when (a) reaching for a working tool, and (b) an external perturbation occurs. Background Lower limb exoskeletons aiming to reduce physical load associated with prolonged standing may impair workers’ postural control and increase the risk of falling. Method Forty-five males were reaching for an object (3-kg dumbbell) at the lateral end of their reaching area without the exoskeleton in upright standing (STAND) and with the exoskeleton at a high (EXO HIGH.SEAT ) and low sitting position (EXO LOW.SEAT ). The task was performed with the object placed in three different angles (120°, 150°, and 180°) in the transversal plane. The minimum absolute static postural stability (SS ABS.MIN ) as the shortest distance (mm) of the center of pressure to the base of support border was measured (zero indicates risk of falling). Additionally, eight subjects were standing without the exoskeleton or sitting on it (EXO HIGH.SEAT and EXO LOW.SEAT ) while being pulled backward. The tilting moment when subjects lost their balance was assessed. Results SS ABS.MIN was lower when using the exoskeleton ( p &lt; .05) but still about 17 mm. The location of the object to be reached had no influence. Tilting moments of less than 30 nm were sufficient to let people fall backward when sitting on the exoskeleton (50 nm for STAND). Conclusion Impairments in postural control by the exoskeleton may not be relevant when reaching laterally for objects up to 3 kg. When an external perturbation occurs, the risk of falling may be much higher; irrespective of factors like uneven or slippery flooring. Application The risk of falling using the exoskeleton seems to be low when reaching laterally for an object of up to 3 kg. In situations where, for example, a collision with coworkers is likely, this exoskeleton is not recommended.
Dietary Rapeseed Oil Supplementation Reduces Hepatic Steatosis in Obese Men—A Randomized Controlled Trial
2020-09-28

Scope Effective treatment for obesity associated non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is limited. Dietary supplementation of n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, specifically alpha linolenic acid (ALA), can resolve intrahepatic lipid content (IHL). This study investigates the effect of daily supplementation of either refined rapeseed (RA), containing high amounts of ALA, or refined olive (OL) oil on IHL and glucose metabolism in NAFLD patients. Methods and results 27 obese men consumed an isocaloric diet including either 50 g of RA or OL daily for 8 weeks. Hepatic proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, hyperinsulinemic–euglycemic clamp studies and blood tests are performed before and at the end of the study. At 8 weeks a significant reduction in IHL is observed for RA (13.1 ± 1.6 before versus 11.1 ± 1.6% after intervention) versus OL (13.3 ± 2.5 before versus 15.7 ± 2.7% after intervention). For RA, a 21% reduction ( P &lt; 0.02) in serum free fatty acids (FFA) and a 1.68‐fold increase ( P = 0.03) of serum interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) is observed after 8 weeks. Conclusion RA has a beneficial effect on hepatic lipid metabolism as shown by reduced IHL and serum FFA. RA induced IL‐6 production seems to be liver protective confirming previous results.
Geochemical analyses suggest stratigraphic origin and late Miocene age of reworked vertebrate remains from Penanjong Beach in Brunei Darussalam (Borneo)
2020-09-28

We report on sporadic fossil vertebrates from Brunei Darussalam (Borneo). Most of these isolated remains are reworked and derive from Penanjong Beach known for former coastal cliffs used to be rich in marine molluscs. Previously, the only vertebrate remains reported were shark teeth. With new material, the fish fauna is now represented by six shark and a single ray taxa, while remains of three turtle families were discovered (Trionychidae, Cheloniidae, Geoemydidae). This fauna is compared to nearby upper Miocene fossiliferous beds from where remains of cheloniid and trionychid turtles were unearthed. To assess the origin of the reworked remains, rare earth element (REE) concentrations of the fossil bioapatite were compared between the reworked and the geographically closest in-situ Ambug Hill fauna. The obtained trend in REE variations are identical, revealing similar REE uptake mechanism and early diagenetic conditions. With the additional fact that the succession outcropping at Ambug Hill cuts the coastline imply that the majority of the reworked fossils derive from the local Miocene beds. This is supported by Sr-isotope ages from reworked calcite bivalve shells ranging from 9.74 to 6.62&amp;nbsp;Ma. These turtle remains thus represent the hitherto known first Neogene fossil tetrapods from Borneo.