julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Swabian MOSES 2021: An interdisciplinary field campaign for investigating convective storms and their event chains
2022-10-05

The Neckar Valley and the Swabian Jura in southwest Germany comprise a hotspot for severe convective storms, causing tens of millions of euros in damage each year. Possible reasons for the high frequency of thunderstorms and the associated event chain across compartments were investigated in detail during the hydro-meteorological field campaign Swabian MOSES carried out between May and September 2021. Researchers from various disciplines established more than 25 temporary ground-based stations equipped with state-of-the-art in situ and remote sensing observation systems, such as lidars, dual-polarization X- and C-band Doppler weather radars, radiosondes including stratospheric balloons, an aerosol cloud chamber, masts to measure vertical fluxes, autosamplers for water probes in rivers, and networks of disdrometers, soil moisture, and hail sensors. These fixed-site observations were supplemented by mobile observation systems, such as a research aircraft with scanning Doppler lidar, a cosmic ray neutron sensing rover, and a storm chasing team launching swarmsondes in the vicinity of hailstorms. Seven Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) were conducted on a total of 21 operating days. An exceptionally high number of convective events, including both unorganized and organized thunderstorms such as multicells or supercells, occurred during the study period. This paper gives an overview of the Swabian MOSES (Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems) field campaign, briefly describes the observation strategy, and presents observational highlights for two IOPs.
Imaging of lactate metabolism in retinal Müller cells with a FRET nanosensor
2022-10-05

Abstract Müller cells, the glial cells of the retina, provide metabolic support for photoreceptors and inner retinal neurons, and have been proposed as source of the significant lactate production of this tissue. To better understand the role of lactate in retinal metabolism, we expressed a lactate and a glucose nanosensor in organotypic mouse retinal explants cultured for 14 days, and used FRET imaging in acute vibratome sections of the explants to study metabolite flux in real time. Pharmacological manipulation with specific monocarboxylate transporter (MCT) inhibitors and immunohistochemistry revealed the functional expression of MCT2 and MCT4 in Müller cells. The introduction of nanosensors to measure key metabolites at the cellular level may contribute to a better understanding of heretofore poorly understood issues in retinal metabolism.
The effects of social feedback on private opinions. Empirical evidence from the laboratory
2022-10-05

The question of how people change their opinions through social interactions has been on the agenda of social scientific research for many decades. Now that the Internet has led to an ever greater interconnectedness and new forms of exchange that seem to go hand in hand with increasing political polarization, it is once again gaining in relevance. Most recently, the field of opinion dynamics has been complemented by social feedback theory, which explains opinion polarization phenomena by means of a reinforcement learning mechanism. According to the assumptions, individuals not only evaluate the opinion alternatives available to them based on the social feedback received as a result of expressing an opinion within a certain social environment. Rather, they also internalize the expected and thus rewarded opinion to the point where it becomes their actual private opinion. In order to put the implications of social feedback theory to a test, we conducted a randomized controlled laboratory experiment. The study combined preceding and follow-up opinion measurements via online surveys with a laboratory treatment. Social feedback was found to have longer-term effects on private opinions, even when received in an anonymous and sanction free setting. Interestingly and contrary to our expectations, however, it was the mixture of supportive and rejective social feedback that resulted in the strongest influence. In addition, we observed a high degree of opinion volatility, highlighting the need for further research to help identify additional internal and external factors that might influence whether and how social feedback affects private opinions.
ProDMPs: A Unified Perspective on Dynamic and Probabilistic Movement Primitives
2022-10-05

Movement Primitives (MPs) are a well-known concept to represent and generate modular trajectories. MPs can be broadly categorized into two types: (a) dynamics-based approaches that generate smooth trajectories from any initial state, e. g., Dynamic Movement Primitives (DMPs), and (b) probabilistic approaches that capture higher-order statistics of the motion, e. g., Probabilistic Movement Primitives (ProMPs). To date, however, there is no method that unifies both, i. e. that can generate smooth trajectories from an arbitrary initial state while capturing higher-order statistics. In this paper, we introduce a unified perspective of both approaches by solving the ODE underlying the DMPs. We convert expensive online numerical integration of DMPs into basis functions that can be computed offline. These basis functions can be used to represent trajectories or trajectory distributions similar to ProMPs while maintaining all the properties of dynamical systems. Since we inherit the properties of both methodologies, we call our proposed model Probabilistic Dynamic Movement Primitives (ProDMPs). Additionally, we embed ProDMPs in deep neural network architecture and propose a new cost function for efficient end-to-end learning of higher-order trajectory statistics. To this end, we leverage Bayesian Aggregation for non-linear iterative conditioning on sensory inputs. Our proposed model achieves smooth trajectory generation, goal-attractor convergence, correlation analysis, non-linear conditioning, and online re-planing in one framework.
Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry 2022 Goes Virtual
2022-10-05

Abstract The Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry (FiMC) meeting, which represents the largest international medicinal chemistry conference in Germany, took place from March 14 th to 16 th 2022 in a fully virtual format. Organized by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) together with the Division of Pharmaceutical &amp; Medicinal Chemistry of the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG) and a “local” organization committee from the University of Freiburg headed by Manfred Jung, the meeting brought together 271 participants from around 20 countries. The program included 33 lectures by leading scientists from industry and academia as well as early career investigators. 67 posters were presented in two poster sessions and with over 20.000 poster abstract downloads. The general organization and the time‐shift function were very much appreciated as demonstrated by almost 600 on‐demand contents retrieved. The online format fitted perfectly to bring together medicinal chemists from academia and industry across the globe.
Going Beyond Traits: Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Matter for Adolescents’ Success
2022-10-06

The present research addresses three key questions about social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills. First, how do SEB skills relate with the Big Five traits and Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core competencies? Second, how do SEB skills relate with consequential outcomes in adolescence? Third, do SEB skills provide incremental validity beyond personality traits? Results from a diverse sample of high school students ( N = 897) indicate that SEB skills converge with the Big Five traits and CASEL competencies in expected and conceptually meaningful ways. Analyses of self-reported and school-reported outcomes extend SEB skills’ nomological network by showing that they predict academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, civic engagement, and well-being. Finally, tests of incremental validity indicate that SEB skills provide unique information beyond personality traits and that this information matters for predicting outcomes during adolescence. These findings advance our understanding of the nature, correlates, and consequences of SEB skills.
ViSpa (Vision Spaces): A computer-vision-based representation system for individual images and concept prototypes, with large-scale evaluation.
2022-10-06

Quantitative, data-driven models for mental representations have long enjoyed popularity and success in psychology (e.g., distributional semantic models in the language domain), but have largely been missing for the visual domain. To overcome this, we present ViSpa (Vision Spaces), high-dimensional vector spaces that include vision-based representation for naturalistic images as well as concept prototypes. These vectors are derived directly from visual stimuli through a deep convolutional neural network trained to classify images and allow us to compute vision-based similarity scores between any pair of images and/or concept prototypes. We successfully evaluate these similarities against human behavioral data in a series of large-scale studies, including off-line judgments-visual similarity judgments for the referents of word pairs (Study 1) and for image pairs (Study 2), and typicality judgments for images given a label (Study 3)-as well as online processing times and error rates in a discrimination (Study 4) and priming task (Study 5) with naturalistic image material. <i>ViSpa</i> similarities predict behavioral data across all tasks, which renders <i>ViSpa</i> a theoretically appealing model for vision-based representations and a valuable research tool for data analysis and the construction of experimental material: <i>ViSpa</i> allows for precise control over experimental material consisting of images and/or words denoting imageable concepts and introduces a specifically vision-based similarity for word pairs. To make <i>ViSpa</i> available to a wide audience, this article (a) includes (video) tutorials on how to use <i>ViSpa</i> in R and (b) presents a user-friendly web interface at http://vispa.fritzguenther.de. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Three-Fluorophore FRET Enables the Analysis of Ternary Protein Association in Living Plant Cells
2022-10-06

Protein-protein interaction studies provide valuable insights into cellular signaling. Brassinosteroid (BR) signaling is initiated by the hormone-binding receptor Brassinosteroid Insensitive 1 (BRI1) and its co-receptor BRI1 Associated Kinase 1 (BAK1). BRI1 and BAK1 were shown to interact independently with the Receptor-Like Protein 44 (RLP44), which is implicated in BRI1/BAK1-dependent cell wall integrity perception. To demonstrate the proposed complex formation of BRI1, BAK1 and RLP44, we established three-fluorophore intensity-based spectral Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and FRET-fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for living plant cells. Our evidence indicates that RLP44, BRI1 and BAK1 form a ternary complex in a distinct plasma membrane nanodomain. In contrast, although the immune receptor Flagellin Sensing 2 (FLS2) also forms a heteromer with BAK1, the FLS2/BAK1 complexes are localized to other nanodomains. In conclusion, both three-fluorophore FRET approaches provide a feasible basis for studying the in vivo interaction and sub-compartmentalization of proteins in great detail.
Longitudinal cellular and humoral immune responses after triple BNT162b2 and fourth full-dose mRNA-1273 vaccination in haemodialysis patients
2022-10-06

Haemodialysis patients respond poorly to vaccination and continue to be at-risk for severe COVID-19. Therefore, dialysis patients were among the first for which a fourth COVID-19 vaccination was recommended. However, targeted information on how to best maintain immune protection after SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations in at-risk groups for severe COVID-19 remains limited. We provide, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time longitudinal vaccination response data in dialysis patients and controls after a triple BNT162b2 vaccination and in the latter after a subsequent fourth full-dose of mRNA-1273. We analysed systemic and mucosal humoral IgG responses against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and ACE2-binding inhibition towards variants of concern including Omicron and Delta with multiplex-based immunoassays. In addition, we assessed Spike S1-specific T-cell responses by interferon γ release assay. After triple BNT162b2 vaccination, anti-RBD B.1 IgG and ACE2 binding inhibition reached peak levels in dialysis patients, but remained inferior compared to controls. Whilst we detected B.1-specific ACE2 binding inhibition in 84% of dialysis patients after three BNT162b2 doses, binding inhibition towards the Omicron variant was only detectable in 38% of samples and declining to 16% before the fourth vaccination. By using mRNA-1273 as fourth dose, humoral immunity against all SARS-CoV-2 variants tested was strongly augmented with 80% of dialysis patients having Omicron-specific ACE2 binding inhibition. Modest declines in T-cell responses in dialysis patients and controls after the second vaccination were restored by the third BNT162b2 dose and significantly increased by the fourth vaccination. Our data support current advice for a four-dose COVID-19 immunisation scheme for at-risk individuals such as haemodialysis patients. We conclude that administration of a fourth full-dose of mRNA-1273 as part of a mixed mRNA vaccination scheme to boost immunity and to prevent severe COVID-19 could also be beneficial in other immune impaired individuals. Additionally, strategic application of such mixed vaccine regimens may be an immediate response against SARS-CoV-2 variants with increased immune evasion potential.
In Operando Investigation of the Concentration Dependent NO2 Sensing Mechanism of Bi2S3 Nanorods at Low Temperatures and the Interference of O3
2022-10-06

The demand for gas sensors that can detect gases selectively at low temperatures has increased steadily over recent years. Most devices use semiconducting metal oxides as sensing materials which often require high operation temperatures and suffer from a lack of selectivity. Semiconducting metal sulfides were found to be a reasonable alternative for the application in sensing devices at low temperatures. Since metal sulfides are a relatively new class of materials applied in gas sensors, there is little work on sensing mechanisms and overall sensing characteristics of these materials. In this work, the authors investigated the sensing performance of Bi<sub>2</sub>S<sub>3</sub> nanorods operated at 50 °C in the presence of several target gases and found a selective response to oxidizing gases. With the help of DC resistance measurements, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy and work function measurements in a Kelvin Probe setup, the NO<sub>2</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> sensing mechanisms of Bi<sub>2</sub>S<sub>3</sub> nanorods were revealed. While initially sulfur vacancies were the predominant reaction sites, the formation of nitrates became the key reaction in higher NO<sub>2</sub> concentrations. Additionally, it was found that the reaction with O<sub>3</sub> healed sulfur vacancies effectively inhibiting the reaction with NO<sub>2</sub>.
Outcome of CRH stimulation test and overnight 8 mg dexamethasone suppression test in 469 patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome
2022-10-06

Objective To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation test and the overnight 8 mg dexamethasone suppression test (DST) for the differentiation of Cushing’s disease (CD) and ectopic Cushing’s syndrome (ECS). Methods Retrospective study in 6 European centers. Inclusion criteria: patients with a) overt adrenocorticotropin (ACTH)-dependent Cushing’s syndrome at the time of dynamic testing, b) histopathological confirmed tumors and/or c) postoperative biochemical remission and/or adrenal insufficiency. Optimal cut-offs were calculated via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis using CD as reference. Results 469 patients were analyzed [78% females; median age 43 years (IQR 19)]. CRH test and overnight 8 mg DST were performed in 420 [CD, n=394 (94%); ECS, n=26 (6%)] and 237 patients [228 CD (96%), 9 ECS (4%)]. Both tests were performed in 205 patients (44%). The post-CRH %-increase at 30 minutes of both ACTH (cut-off ≥31%, sensitivity 83%, specificity 85%, AUC 0.81) and cortisol (cut-off ≥12%, sensitivity 82%, specificity 89%, AUC 0.86) discriminated best between CD and ECS. A test duration of &amp;gt;60 minutes did not improve diagnostic performance of the CRH test. The optimal cortisol cut-off for the %-suppression during the 8 mg DST was ≥55% (sensitivity 80%, specificity 78%, AUC 0.75). Conclusion The CRH test has equivalent sensitivity but higher specificity than the 8 mg DST and is therefore the test of first choice. The diagnostic outcome of ACTH and cortisol is well comparable, however, sampling beyond 60 minutes post-CRH does not provide diagnostic benefits.
Comparison of functional classification systems
2022-10-06

Abstract In microbiome analysis, functional profiling is based on assigning reads or contigs to terms or nodes in a functional classification system. There are a number of large, general-purpose functional classifications that are in use, such as eggNOG, KEGG, InterPro and SEED. Smaller, special-purpose classifications include CARD, EC, MetaCyc and VFDB. Here, we compare the different classifications in terms of their overlap, redundancy, structure and assignment rates. We also provide mappings between main concepts in different classifications. For the large classifications, we find that eggNOG performs the best with respect to sequence redundancy and structure, SEED has the cleanest hierarchy, whereas KEGG and InterPro:BP might be more informative for medical applications. We illustrate the practical assignment rates for different classifications using a number of metagenomic samples.
Ordered Bose Glass of Vortices in Superconducting YBa2Cu3O7−δ Thin Films with a Periodic Pin Lattice Created by Focused Helium Ion Irradiation
2022-10-06

The defect-rich morphology of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) thin films leads to a glass-like arrangement of Abrikosov vortices which causes the resistance to disappear in vanishing current densities. This vortex glass consists of entangled vortex lines and is identified by a characteristic scaling of the voltage–current isotherms. Randomly distributed columnar defects stratify the vortex lines and lead to a Bose glass. Here, we report on the observation of an ordered Bose glass in a YBCO thin film with a hexagonal array of columnar defects with 30 nm spacings. The periodic pinning landscape was engineered by a focused beam of 30 keV He+ ions in a helium-ion microscope.
Effects of Bacterial Growth Conditions on Carbon and Chlorine Isotope Fractionation Associated with TCE Biotransformation
2022-10-06

The variability of reported carbon and chlorine isotope enrichment factors (εC and εCl) for trichloroethene (TCE) respiration even for pure bacterial cultures limits the applicability of compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) for quantitative assessment of TCE biotransformation. As the growth and metabolism of bacteria in the environment can differ substantially from standardized laboratory conditions, we investigated the effects of environmentally relevant variables on microbial TCE isotope fractionation including adaptation period to TCE exposure, temperature, electron donor/acceptor concentration, and supplied cobalt species, as well as coculture effects. Desulfitobacterium hafniense strain Y51 was chosen as a model organism, as it contains only one reductive dehalogenase enzyme allowing for an unequivocal assignment of observed isotope fractionation variability to specific environmental factors. In 20 independent TCE transformation experiments, the εC values differed only slightly by 1‰ despite drastic variations in the growth conditions. These robust εC values reflect the intrinsic isotope fractionation of the TCE-catalyzing enzyme, as changes in both, the enzymatic reaction mechanism and rate-determining steps, can be excluded based on robust two-dimensional isotope analysis (δ 13C/δ 37Cl). Thus, growth conditions that cells, holding only one enzyme for TCE transformation, encounter in the environment are not expected to affect isotope fractionation during biotransformation and thus likely do not contribute to the reported variability of carbon and chlorine isotope enrichment factors for reductive dechlorination of TCE.
Accuracy of the Fluorescence-Aided Identification Technique (FIT) for Detecting Residual Composite Remnants after Trauma Splint Removal—A Laboratory Study
2022-10-06

Distinguishing composite remnants from tooth structure after trauma splint removal can be challenging. This study aimed to compare the Fluorescence-aided Identification Technique (FIT) with conventional light illumination (CONV) in terms of accuracy and time required for the detection of composite remnants after trauma splint removal. Ten bovine tooth models containing anterior teeth from 12 to 22 with composite remnants after trauma splint removal were used. These models were examined by 10 students and 10 general dentists. Each examiner assessed the 10 models using CONV or FIT three times with an interval of 2 weeks each using a prototype fluorescence-inducing headlamp with a spectral bandwidth of (405 ± 7) nm for FIT and a dental unit lamp for CONV. The examiners charted the location of identified composite remnants, and the procedure time needed for each method was recorded. Statistical analysis was performed with R 3.2.2 software with a significance level of α = 5%. FIT was more accurate and less time-consuming than CONV (p &lt; 0.001). There were no significant differences between dentists and students concerning accuracy (CONV: p = 0.26; FIT: p = 0.73). Students performed FIT significantly faster than the dentists (p &lt; 0.001). FIT is a quick and reliable method of identifying composite remnants after trauma splint removal.
Millennial-scale changes in abundance of brachiopods in bathyal environments detected by postmortem age distributions in death assemblage (Bari Canyon, Adriatic Sea)
2022-10-06

Abstract Inferring the composition of pre-Anthropocene baseline communities on the basis of death assemblages (DAs) preserved in a surface mixed layer requires discriminating among recently-dead shells sourced by living populations and older shells from extirpated populations. Here, we assess the distribution of postmortem ages in the DA formed by the brachiopod Gryphus vitreus at 580 m depth in the Bari Canyon (Adriatic Sea), with no individuals collected alive. The Gryphus DA exhibits millennial time averaging (inter-quartile range = 1250 years) and two modes in abundance at 500 and 1750 years BP. As high abundance of species in time-averaged DAs can reflect passive accumulation of shells sourced by populations with low standing population density, we reconstruct changes in annual density on the basis of the abundance maxima detected in the distribution of postmortem ages and on the basis of estimates of per-specimen disintegration rate. We find that adults (&gt;20 mm) achieved densities of at least 10–20 individuals/m 2 (assuming lifespan is 10 years), and the pulses in abundance were thus associated with a high population density in the past, followed by the decline over the last few centuries. We infer that bathyal populations were volatile during the Late Holocene, with brachiopods sensitive to siltation that was induced by temporal changes in sediment dispersal into the Bari Canyon due to deforestation and climatic changes.