julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
SMEs with legally restricted banking access: evidence from the US marijuana industry
2021-03-01

Abstract This paper examines how legally restricted access to banking services affects small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a highly developed country. Using a mixed-method approach, we examine the unique situation of the US marijuana industry. The industry benefits from the superior institutional environment in terms of legal protection and the labor market of the United States. However, due to conflicting state and federal laws it has no legal access to banking. We find significant value effects around three major events that affected future access to banking. These results indicate that banking access remains desirable for the marijuana industry. A survey taken by marijuana SMEs provides insights into what banking services are considered most valuable. We find that marijuana SMEs have problems to obtain financing and handle their transactions largely in cash, resulting in transaction inefficiency and high security concerns. Thereby, we shed light on the value of banks for SMEs in developed countries. We complement the literature on financial transaction services by highlighting the value for SMEs in developed markets.
Impact of VSIG4 gene polymorphisms on susceptibility and functional status of rheumatoid arthritis
2021-03-01

Abstract The complement receptor of the immunoglobulin superfamily (CRIg, encoded by the VSIG4 gene) is a macrophage receptor involved in the clearance of immune complexes and autologous cells. Our results suggest that the VSIG4 rs1044165T allele is a risk factor for severe functional status of rheumatoid arthritis in women, possibly by affecting VSIG4 gene expression.
Age and Overweight Are Not Contraindications for a Breast Reconstruction with a TMG-Flap—A Risk and Complication Analysis of a Retrospective Double Center Study Including 300 Patients
2021-03-01

Introduction: The transverse myocutaneous gracilis (TMG) flap has become a popular and reliable alternative for autologous breast reconstruction. Initially described as a valuable tissue source for women with low body-mass index, indications nowadays have widely expanded. The Western civilization demographic development with its aging population and the steady growing average BMI has led to increasing breast reconstructions with TMG flaps in overweight and aged individuals. Patients and Methods: A total of 300 TMG free flaps for unilateral autologous breast reconstruction were evaluated in the form of a retrospective double center cohort study. Data extraction, study group formation and statistical analysis (One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson’s chi-squared statistical analysis and relative risk calculation) were done specifically to evaluate age and BMI as risk factors for postoperative complications and outcome. Results: No significant differences in patients’ age and BMI in the complication groups compared to the no-complication group could be found. No significant difference regarding the occurrence of complications could be found in any of the formed risk-groups. No significant increase of minor-, major- or overall complications, flap loss or revision surgeries were found in the elderly patient groups or for patients with overweight. Conclusion: Age and overweight do not significantly increase the risk for postoperative complications after breast reconstructions with free TMG flaps. The findings of this study support the fact that microsurgical breast reconstruction with a free TMG flap should not solely be reserved for younger patients and females with a lower BMI.
The transCampus Metabolic Training Programme Explores the Link of SARS-CoV-2 Virus to Metabolic Disease
2021-03-01

Abstract Currently, we are experiencing a true pandemic of a communicable disease by the virus SARS-CoV-2 holding the whole world firmly in its grasp. Amazingly and unfortunately, this virus uses a metabolic and endocrine pathway via ACE2 to enter our cells causing damage and disease. Our international research training programme funded by the German Research Foundation has a clear mission to train the best students wherever they may come from to learn to tackle the enormous challenges of diabetes and its complications for our society. A modern training programme in diabetes and metabolism does not only involve a thorough understanding of classical physiology, biology and clinical diabetology but has to bring together an interdisciplinary team. With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, this prestigious and unique metabolic training programme is facing new challenges but also new opportunities. The consortium of the training programme has recognized early on the need for a guidance and for practical recommendations to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic for the community of patients with metabolic disease, obesity and diabetes. This involves the optimal management from surgical obesity programmes to medications and insulin replacement. We also established a global registry analyzing the dimension and role of metabolic disease including new onset diabetes potentially triggered by the virus. We have involved experts of infectious disease and virology to our faculty with this metabolic training programme to offer the full breadth and scope of expertise needed to meet these scientific challenges. We have all learned that this pandemic does not respect or heed any national borders and that we have to work together as a global community. We believe that this transCampus metabolic training programme provides a prime example how an international team of established experts in the field of metabolism can work together with students from all over the world to address a new pandemic.
Contemporaneous financial intermediation
2021-03-01

Abstract Digital innovations in banking and payments recently have garnered a great deal of attention. Specifically, distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to fundamentally change the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in the financial sector. DLT is a novel and fast-evolving approach to record and share data, e.g., payment transactions, among members of a decentralized network. Using transaction cost theory, the paper examines how DLT will change the cross-border payment infrastructure. DLT can reduce the overall transaction costs potentially resulting in the disappearance of correspondent banks.
Metabolic Engineering von Cyanobakterien für nachhaltiges Bioplastik
2021-03-01

Abstract Global crises like climate change require the transformation of our industry towards more sustainability. Applying metabolic engineering to cyanobacteria promises to use these phototrophic bacteria for the biosynthesis of carbon-neutral products. As one example, we present how recent advances in basic research have now led to the ability to produce high quantities of bioplastics in cyanobacteria.
Development and Evaluation of an Interventional Training Model for Flexible Endoscopy In Roux-En-Y Anatomy
2021-03-01

Aims Surgery in the upper gastrointestinal tract can result in significantly altered anatomy. A common variation of the resulting anatomy is the Roux-Y reconstruction. Altered anatomy leads to an increasing risk for technically failures during follow-up endoscopies. Especially interventions for choledocholithiasis after bariatric surgery are complex. A realistic and patient-analogue training model is not yet available, but could improve the quality of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy in patients with surgically altered anatomy.
Objective Monitoring of Spectacle Wearing Times in Adult Subjects Using the Theramon® Thermosensor
2021-03-01

A reliable and objective determination of spectacle wearing times is possible on the basis of TM temperature measurements in a standard clinical setting. Measurements of one inner TM seem to be sufficient to determine the wearing times and are more appealing. Poor spectacle position can be determined reliably by analysing visually the time logged temperatures. The findings of this study require further studies on larger groups of affected, amblyopic patients and children, to analyse the real impact of spectacle wearing times and poor spectacle position on visual development.
Dysarthria
2021-03-01

In their seminal work on motor speech disorders, Darley, Aronson, and Brown applied the term dysarthria to all abnormalities of spoken language "resulting from disturbances in muscular control over the speech mechanisms due to damage of the central or peripheral nervous system". A little researched field is the dysarthrias associated with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition acquired in childhood, which make up the largest etiological group among the population of dysarthric persons. Reduced intelligibility is probably the most important consequence of dysarthric impairment, but an unnatural or bizarre voice or prosody can be equally stigmatizing. Unlike the auditory-perceptual dimensions of respiratory, laryngeal, articulatory and prosodic impairments in dysarthria, the restrictions a speech motor impairment imposes on these communicative parameters are more reliably assessed by laypersons than by clinical experts, especially those responsible for the dysarthric person.
Pituitary in the Spotlight
2021-03-01

Abstract The German Society of Endocrinology (DGE) has a long-standing scientific and clinical focus on the pituitary. The pituitary working group ‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hypophyse’ is an interdisciplinary special interest group with a focus on advancing diagnosis and treatment of pituitary conditions. On the occasion of the English publication of the S2K clinical guideline Diagnosis and therapy of clinically hormonally inactive pituitary tumors, we present here a series of 12 articles from internationally renowned authors from inside and outside of Germany.
Impaired dopamine- and adenosine-mediated signaling and plasticity in a novel rodent model for DYT25 dystonia
2021-03-01

<strong>Raw data of Figure 5 </strong>- (D) Summary plots of Tau values (left) and AMPA/NMDA ratio (right), measured from Gnal+/+ and Gnal+/- EPSCs showing no significant difference between genotypes (Tau: Gnal+/+, 9.47 ± 0.50 ms, n=31; Gnal+/-, 10.05 ± 0.66 ms, n=27; p=0.4832; AMPA/NMDA ratio: Gnal+/+ , 1.27 ± 0.14, n=10; Gnal+/-, 1.24 ± 0.13, n=15; Mann Whitney test p=0.9779). (E) Summary plot of PPR values showing similar facilitation in both genotypes. Each data point represents mean ± SEM (Gnal+/+, n=30, 50 ms: 1.22 ± 0.04; 100 ms: 1.16 ± 0.03; 150 ms: 1.11 ± 0.40; Gnal+/-, n=25, 50 ms: 1.28 ± 0.03; 100 ms: 1.17 ± 0.03; 150 ms: 1.09 ± 0.02; two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni posttest: ISI p&lt;0.0001, genotype p=0.2405).
The Surfactin-Like Lipopeptides From Bacillus spp.: Natural Biodiversity and Synthetic Biology for a Broader Application Range
2021-03-02

Surfactin is a lipoheptapeptide produced by several Bacillus species and identified for the first time in 1969. At first, the biosynthesis of this remarkable biosurfactant was described in this review. The peptide moiety of the surfactin is synthesized using huge multienzymatic proteins called NonRibosomal Peptide Synthetases. This mechanism is responsible for the peptide biodiversity of the members of the surfactin family. In addition, on the fatty acid side, fifteen different isoforms (from C12 to C17) can be incorporated so increasing the number of the surfactin-like biomolecules. The review also highlights the last development in metabolic modeling and engineering and in synthetic biology to direct surfactin biosynthesis but also to generate novel derivatives. This large set of different biomolecules leads to a broad spectrum of physico-chemical properties and biological activities. The last parts of the review summarized the numerous studies related to the production processes optimization as well as the approaches developed to increase the surfactin productivity of Bacillus cells taking into account the different steps of its biosynthesis from gene transcription to surfactin degradation in the culture medium.
Large-scale discovery of protein interactions at residue resolution using co-evolution calculated from genomic sequences
2021-03-02

Abstract Increasing numbers of protein interactions have been identified in high-throughput experiments, but only a small proportion have solved structures. Recently, sequence coevolution-based approaches have led to a breakthrough in predicting monomer protein structures and protein interaction interfaces. Here, we address the challenges of large-scale interaction prediction at residue resolution with a fast alignment concatenation method and a probabilistic score for the interaction of residues. Importantly, this method (EVcomplex2) is able to assess the likelihood of a protein interaction, as we show here applied to large-scale experimental datasets where the pairwise interactions are unknown. We predict 504 interactions de novo in the E. coli membrane proteome, including 243 that are newly discovered. While EVcomplex2 does not require available structures, coevolving residue pairs can be used to produce structural models of protein interactions, as done here for membrane complexes including the Flagellar Hook-Filament Junction and the Tol/Pal complex.
Expression levels of HLA-DR in acute myeloid leukemia: implications for antigenicity and clinical outcome
2021-03-02

Low human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR expression might compromise CD4<sup>+</sup> T-cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity. Its immunological and clinical significance however remain undefined in non-promyelocytic acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Taking advantage of mass spectrometry-based immunopeptidome analysis of primary AML samples (<i>n</i> = 31), we studied the implications of low HLA-DR expression for antigen presentation and analyzed its association with disease characteristics and survival within a cohort of 399 AML patients. Remarkably, overall HLA-DR/DQ immunopeptidome diversity was preserved in AML with low HLA-DR expression (HLA-DR<sup>low</sup> AML) and was associated with a shift in HLA-DR/DQ allotype abundances (HLA-DQ to HLA-DR/DQ ligand ratio 0.36 vs 0.19 in HLA-DR<sup>low</sup> and HLA-DR<sup>high</sup> patients, respectively). Consistent with unimpaired antigenicity, survival was similar in HLA-DR<sup>low</sup> and HLA-DR<sup>high</sup> patients. Demonstrating for the first time that overall HLA-DR/DQ antigen presentation is preserved in HLA-DR<sup>low</sup> AML, our findings provide a rationale for the non-inferior outcome observed in HLA-DR<sup>low</sup> AML patients.
Kinetics of Network Formation and Heterogeneous Dynamics of an Egg White Gel Revealed by Coherent X-Ray Scattering
2021-03-02

The kinetics of heat-induced gelation and the microscopic dynamics of a hen egg white gel are probed using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy along with ultrasmall-angle x-ray scattering. The kinetics of structural growth reveals a reaction-limited aggregation process with a gel fractal dimension of ≈2 and an average network mesh size of ca. 400 nm. The dynamics probed at these length scales reveals an exponential growth of the characteristic relaxation times followed by an intriguing steady state in combination with a compressed exponential correlation function and a temporal heterogeneity. The degree of heterogeneity increases with decreasing length scale. We discuss our results in the broader context of experiments and models describing attractive colloidal gels.
Multilevel Analysis of Mediation, Moderation, and Nonlinear Effects in Small Samples, Using Expected a Posteriori Estimates of Factor Scores
2021-03-02

In the analysis of hierarchical data, multilevel structural equation modeling (multilevel SEM) has become the standard in the social sciences. To estimate these models, maximum likelihood (ML) approaches have been applied because they are the default in latent variable software. However, one drawback of ML is that it tends to suffer from estimation problems such as nonconvergence when the sample size is small to moderate, and the results that come from nonconverged solutions are useless in research practice. Nonconvergence is a particularly serious problem when more complex multilevel SEMs are estimated. Therefore, in this article, we show how factor score regression (FSR) can be used to obtain estimates of multilevel mediation, moderation, and nonlinear effects. We conducted two simulation studies to validate our approaches. Our findings were generally promising, which renders FSR an attractive alternative to ML.
Identification of potential novel hosts and the risk of infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus in humans in Gabon, Central Africa
2021-03-02

This study determined for the first time the seroprevalence of LCMV in Gabon, and revealed that local rodents, shrews, and porcupines in areas surrounding semi-urban cities posed an infection risk. Hence, LCMV infection should be considered a significant public health concern in Africa.
CADA: Phenotype-driven gene prioritization based on a case-enriched knowledge graph
2021-03-02

Abstract Many rare syndromes can be well described and delineated from other disorders by a combination of characteristic symptoms. These phenotypic features are best documented with terms of the human phenotype ontology (HPO), which is increasingly used in electronic health records (EHRs), too. Many algorithms that perform HPO-based gene prioritization have also been developed, however, the performance of many such tools suffers from an overrepresentation of atypical cases in the medical literature. This is certainly the case if the algorithm cannot handle features that occur with reduced frequency in a disorder. With CADA we built a knowledge-graph that is based on case annotations and disorder annotations and show that CADA exhibits superior performance particularly for patients that present with the pathognomonic findings of a disease. Crucial in the design of our approach is the use of the growing amount of phenotypic information that diagnostic labs deposit in databases such as ClinVar. By this means CADA is an ideal reference tool for differential diagnostics in rare disorders that can also be updated regularly.
Human stem cell-based retina-on-chip as new translational model for validation of AAV retinal gene therapy vectors
2021-03-02

Summary Gene therapies using adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are amongst the most promising strategies to treat or even cure hereditary and acquired retinal diseases. However, the development of new efficient AAV vectors is slow and costly, largely because of the lack of suitable non-clinical models. By faithfully recreating structure and function of human tissues, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived retinal organoids could become an essential part of the test cascade addressing translational aspects. Organ-on-Chip (OoC) technology further provides the capability to recapitulate microphysiological tissue environments as well as a precise control over structural and temporal parameters. By employing our recently developed Retina-on-chip that merges organoid and OoC-technology, we analyzed the efficacy, kinetics and cell tropism of seven first and second generation AAV vectors. The presented data demonstrate the potential of iPSC-based OoC models as the next generation of screening platforms for future gene therapeutic studies.
How many grains are needed for quantifying catchment erosion fromtracer thermochronology?
2021-03-02

Abstract. Detrital tracer thermochronology exploits the relationship between bedrock thermochronometric age-elevation profiles and a distribution of detrital grain-ages collected from river, glacial, or other sediment to study spatial changes in the distribution of catchment erosion. If ages increase linearly with elevation, spatially uniform erosion is expected to yield a detrital age distribution that mirrors the catchment's hypsometric curve. Alternatively, a mismatch between detrital and hypsometric distributions may indicate non-uniform erosion within a catchment. For studies seeking to identify the pattern of erosion, measured grain-age populations rarely exceed 100 grains due largely to the time and costs related to individual measurements. With sample sizes of this order, discerning between two detrital age distributions produced by different catchment erosion scenarios can be difficult at a high statistical confidence level. However, there is no established method to quantify the sample-size-dependent uncertainty inherent to detrital tracer thermochronology, and practitioners are often left wondering how many grains is enough?. Here, we investigate how sample size affects the uncertainty of detrital age distributions and how such uncertainty affects the ability to uniquely infer the erosional pattern of the upstream area. We do this using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic as metric of dissimilarity among distributions, based on which the statistical confidence of detecting an erosional pattern is determined through Monte Carlo sampling. The techniques are implemented in a new tool (ESD_thermotrace) to consistently report confidence levels as a function of sample size and application-specific variables. The proposed tool is made available as a new open-source Python-based script along with test data. Testing between different hypothesized erosion scenarios with this tool provides thermochronologists with the minimum sample size (i.e. number of bedrock and detrital grain-ages) required to answer their specific scientific question, at their desired level of statistical confidence. Furthermore, in cases of unavoidably small sample size (e.g., due to poor grain quality or low sample volume), we provide a means to calculate the confidence level of interpretations made from the data.
Stand halten. Adliges Handeln und Erleben in Preußen um 1800
2021-03-02

Zusammenfassung So far, the history of the nobility has mainly focused on the biographies of the lucky few who were rich and left behind large archives. It may, however, gain new insights by searching for fragmentary evidence of the many lesser nobles that did not leave behind a trail of sources, but whose lives can only be traced through various scattered sources. This material directs our attention towards situations in which the meaning of being a noble was constantly negotiated and re-negotiated. This article concentrates on two such situations: first, on banquets involving nobles and non-nobles that spiralled out of control, and second, on acts of self-ennoblement that sometime worked and sometimes failed. As these examples show, the estate-based society, at least in Prussia, was multi-faceted and malleable before 1800 and continued to be so throughout the 19th century. The material further highlights that more such fragments are needed in order to analyse the changes of the Prussian nobility from the inside and downside.
Faculty Opinions recommendation of Potential therapeutic effect of low-dose paclitaxel in melanoma patients resistant to immune checkpoint blockade: A pilot study.
2021-03-02

The low dose application of chemotherapeutic agents such as paclitaxel was previously shown to initiate anti-tumor activity by neutralizing myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in melanoma mouse models. Here, we investigated immunomodulating effects of low-dose paclitaxel in 9 metastatic melanoma patients resistant to prior treatments. Three patients showed response to therapy (two partial responses and one stable disease). In responding patients, paclitaxel decreased the frequency and immunosuppressive pattern of MDSCs in the peripheral blood and skin metastases. Furthermore, paclitaxel modulated levels of inflammatory mediators in the serum. In addition, responders displayed enhanced frequencies of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells and their activity indicated by the upregulation of CD25 and TCR ζ-chain expression. Our study suggests that low-dose paclitaxel treatment could improve clinical outcome of some advanced melanoma patients by enhancing anti-tumor immunity and might be proposed for combined melanoma immunotherapy.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. PMID: 33383383