julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Biometrical analysis and thallus morphology characteristics of Placopsis antarctica from King George Island, Antarctica ( Short Communication )
2020-07-01

Placopsis antarctica is an ornithocoprophilous lichen that has been for a long time confused with P. contortuplicata I. M. Lamb. In our study, we focused on morphological characteristics of P. antarctica thalli. We report biometrical data on dominant morphological structures of P. antarctica thallus: cephalodia, marginal lobes, sorediate pits and soralia. Thalli of P. antarctica were collected at the King George Island, Antarctica and analyzed in a laboratory using a digital microscopy approach. Central cephalodium was found rather elliptic then round-shaped. Mean length/width was found 2.424/1.720 mm. Marginal lobes were found wider at the apex (1.415 mm) than basal part (0.495 mm). Side cephalodia were smaller, their mean length/width was found 1.034/0.610 mm.
Call for Review Papers: Tissue Engineering, Part B
2020-07-01

As we continue to navigate the disruption of the COVID-19 outbreak, Tissue Engineering, Part B: Reviews (IF 6.512) would like to personally invite all researchers in the field to submit their review papers for prompt and thorough consideration in the journal.Many researchers are currently experiencing multiple changes in their academic routines as presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.This is why the Editors-in-Chief of Tissue Engineering, Part B: Reviews would like to issue an open call for review articles to be given thorough, expedited review and consideration in the journal.Reviews of exceptional merit will receive an additional benefit of a global press release announcement highlighting their research to the global Tissue Engineering audience around the world, and
The anterior and medial thalamic nuclei and the human limbic system: tracing the structural connectivity using diffusion-weighted imaging
2020-07-02

Abstract The limbic system is a phylogenetically old, behaviorally defined system that serves as a center for emotions. It controls the expression of anger, fear, and joy and also influences sexual behavior, vegetative functions, and memory. The system comprises a collection of tel-, di-, and mesencephalic structures whose components have evolved and increased over time. Previous animal research indicates that the anterior nuclear group of the thalamus (ANT), as well as the habenula (Hb) and the adjacent mediodorsal nucleus (MD) each play a vital role in the limbic circuitry. Accordingly, diffusion imaging data of 730 subjects obtained from the Human Connectome Project and the masks of six nuclei (anterodorsal, anteromedial, anteroventral, lateral dorsal, Hb, and MD) served as seed regions for a direct probabilistic tracking to the rest of the brain using diffusion-weighted imaging. The results revealed that the ANT nuclei are part of the limbic and the memory system as they mainly connect via the mammillary tract, mammillary body, anterior commissure, fornix, and retrosplenial cortices to the hippocampus, amygdala, medio-temporal, orbito-frontal and occipital cortices. Furthermore, the ANT nuclei showed connections to the mesencephalon and brainstem to varying extents, a pattern rarely described in experimental findings. The habenula—usually defined as part of the epithalamus—was closely connected to the tectum opticum and seems to serve as a neuroanatomical hub between the visual and the limbic system, brainstem, and cerebellum. Finally, in contrast to experimental findings with tracer studies, directly determined connections of MD were mainly confined to the brainstem, while indirect MD fibers form a broad pathway connecting the hippocampus and medio-temporal areas with the mediofrontal cortex.
Robust Bilayer Charge Pumping for Spin- and Density-Resolved Quantum Gas Microscopy
2020-07-02

Quantum gas microscopy has emerged as a powerful new way to probe quantum many-body systems at the microscopic level. However, layered or efficient spin-resolved readout methods have remained scarce as they impose strong demands on the specific atomic species and constrain the simulated lattice geometry and size. Here we present a novel high-fidelity bilayer readout, which can be used for full spin- and density-resolved quantum gas microscopy of two-dimensional systems with arbitrary geometry. Our technique makes use of an initial Stern-Gerlach splitting into adjacent layers of a highly stable vertical superlattice and subsequent charge pumping to separate the layers by 21 μm. This separation enables independent high-resolution images of each layer. We benchmark our method by spin- and density-resolving two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard systems. Our technique furthermore enables the access to advanced entropy engineering schemes, spectroscopic methods, or the realization of tunable bilayer systems.
Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics
2020-07-02

Abstract Understanding how climate influences plant reproduction and growth at contrasting range limits is crucial for predicting how species' ranges may shift in response to ongoing climate change. Trees and shrubs have shown warming‐induced increases in performance at upper elevation limits but reduced performance at lower distributional limits due to warming‐driven drought limitation. Whether these differential responses are also valid for alpine forbs exposed to accelerated warming remains largely unknown. We examined climate signal recorded in annual growth and recruitment over the past 60 years in the alpine forb Potentilla pamirica in Western Himalayas, and tested whether the responses to recent climate warming differ between dry steppe, wet alpine and cold subnival zone within the species 5,250–5,900 m elevation range. We reconstructed recruitment and growth chronologies from 1,019 individuals spanning 1–73 years, and more than 21,500 annual growth rings. We identified contrasting climatic controls of recruitment and growth at opposite elevation range margins, as well as contrasting demographic trends identified from age distributions. In lower‐elevation steppes, recruitment increased with high late‐winter snowfall and decreased with high summer temperatures, while growth increased with high summer precipitation. Conversely, warm winters and summers in higher‐elevation alpine and subnival zones support growth and recruitment, while snowy winters reduce them, especially at their upper elevation limit. The age distribution revealed greater numbers of younger individuals, indicating healthy growing populations, in the alpine habitat, while evidence of ageing plant populations was observed in steppe and subnival zones. Accelerated warming since the 1990s reduced growth and recruitment in dry steppes while supporting plant performance in the alpine habitat. The recruitment in the subnival zone did not peak during the past warmest decade due to concomitant extreme snowfall events. Synthesis . Our results provide novel information on population‐specific climate dependency of plant recruitment, growth and population dynamics, suggesting the high vulnerability of high‐elevation Himalayan ecosystems to climate change. This is partly balanced by high species longevity and slow radial growth securing a long‐term population persistence. Continuing trends of extreme snowfall events at higher elevations and droughts at lower elevations may lead to species range contraction.
Associations of exercise and social support with mental health during quarantine and social-distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey in Germany
2020-07-02

Abstract Introduction Social distancing and quarantine measures applied during the COVID-19 pandemic might result in mental health problems. In this cross-sectional study we examined if perceived social support, exercise in minutes per week and change in exercise are protective factors regarding symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleeping disorders. Method In April 2020, n = 4271 German adults completed an online survey including mental health questionnaires regarding depression (PHQ-D), anxiety (PHQ-D) and sleep (PSQI), as well as questionnaires related to protective factors such as exercise (BSA-F), physical activity-related health competence (PAHCO) and social support (F-SozU). Results Complete case analysis (n = 3700; mean age 33.13 ± 11.73 years, 78.6 % females) resulted in elevated prevalence of depressive disorder (31.4%), panic disorder (5.7%) and other anxiety disorders (7.4%). 58.3% reported symptoms of insomnia. Three separate models of multiple regression were conducted. Perceived social support was associated with lower values of anxiety ( beta = −0.10; t (19) = −6.46; p &gt;0.001), lower values of depressive symptoms ( beta = −0.22; t (19) = −15.71; p &lt; .001) and lower values of sleeping disorder symptoms ( beta = −0.15; t (19) = −9.55; p &lt; .001). Change towards less exercise compared to the time before Covid-19 was associated with and higher values of anxiety ( beta = −0.05; t (19) = −2.85; p = .004), higher values of depressive symptoms ( beta = −0.08; t (19) = - 5.69; p &lt; .001), and higher values of sleeping disorder symptoms ( beta = −0.07; t (19) = −4.54; p &lt; .000). Post-hoc analysis (ANOVAs) revealed that a change towards less exercise was significantly associated with more depressive, anxiety and sleeping disorder symptoms whereas a positive change was not. No significant association was found for exercise in minutes per week for all outcomes. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have a negative impact on mental health in the German population. Social Support and a stable amount of exercise might attenuate these negative mental health consequences. Ongoing monitoring of the impact of the pandemic on mental health and possible protective factors is needed in order to create a basis for the development of appropriate prevention and intervention measures.
Community‐scale effects and strain: Facilitation beyond conspicuous patterns
2020-07-02

Abstract The large majority of ‘facilitation studies’ focus on benefactor–beneficiary interactions. However, this may skew our view of the role of facilitation toward systems where it is most conspicuous, and perhaps toward harsh environments where discrete vegetation cover and pattern suggestive of facilitation are more common. Here we argue that a particular benefactor species is not required for facilitation to occur. Where vegetation cover is continuous, the community as a whole can ameliorate the abiotic conditions (community‐scale facilitative effect) and any species from the assembly experiencing stress (strain) could be facilitated. As a consequence, community‐scale facilitative effect might be generally common but often inconspicuous. Whether this community‐scale facilitative effect is influenced by particular characteristics of the vegetation cover is still largely unknown (e.g. biomass, species richness, functional composition and diversity). Expanding our research on facilitation beyond benefactor–beneficiary interactions and considering together the concept of community‐scale effect and strain might be key to progress our understanding of the general role of facilitation for species coexistence, ecosystem function, species distribution or climate change impact.
Heart Rate Variability as an Index of Differential Brain Dynamics at Rest and After Acute Stress Induction
2020-07-02

The brain continuously receives input from the internal and external environment. Using this information, the brain exerts its influence on both itself and the body to facilitate an appropriate response. The dynamic interplay between the brain and the heart and how external conditions modulate this relationship deserves attention. In high-stress situations, synchrony between various brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex and the heart may alter. This flexibility is believed to facilitate transitions between functional states related to cognitive, emotional, and especially autonomic activity. This study examined the dynamic temporal functional association of heart rate variability (HRV) with the interaction between three main canonical brain networks in 38 healthy male subjects at rest and directly after a psychosocial stress task. A sliding window approach was used to estimate the functional connectivity (FC) among the salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), and default mode network (DMN) in 60-s windows on time series of blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal. FC between brain networks was calculated by Pearson correlation. A multilevel linear mixed model was conducted to examine the window-by-window association between the root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats (RMSSD) and FC of network-pairs across sessions. Our findings showed that the minute-by-minute correlation between the FC and RMSSD was significantly stronger between DMN and CEN than for SN and CEN in the baseline session [<i>b</i> = 4.36, <i>t</i>(5025) = 3.20, <i>p</i> = 0.006]. Additionally, this differential relationship between network pairs and RMSSD disappeared after the stress task; FC between DMN and CEN showed a weaker correlation with RMSSD in comparison to baseline [<i>b</i> = -3.35, <i>t</i>(5025) = -3.47, <i>p</i> = 0.006]. These results suggest a dynamic functional interplay between HRV and the functional association between brain networks that varies depending on the needs created by changing conditions.
Schistosoma haematobium infection is associated with lower serum cholesterol levels and improved lipid profile in overweight/obese individuals
2020-07-02

Infection with parasitic helminths has been reported to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis, lowering the risk for type 2 diabetes. However, little is known about its impact on whole-body lipid homeostasis, especially in obese individuals. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was carried out in lean and overweight/obese adults residing in the Lambaréné region of Gabon, an area endemic for Schistosoma haematobium. Helminth infection status, peripheral blood immune cell counts, and serum metabolic and lipid/lipoprotein levels were analyzed. We found that urine S. haematobium egg-positive individuals exhibited lower serum total cholesterol (TC; 4.42 vs 4.01 mmol/L, adjusted mean difference [95%CI] -0.30 [-0.68,-0.06]; P = 0.109), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-C (1.44 vs 1.12 mmol/L, -0.24 [-0.43,-0.06]; P = 0.009) and triglyceride (TG; 0.93 vs 0.72 mmol/L, -0.20 [-0.39,-0.03]; P = 0.022) levels than egg-negative individuals. However, when stratified according to body mass index, these effects were only observed in overweight/obese infected individuals. Similarly, significant negative correlations between the intensity of infection, assessed by serum circulating anodic antigen (CAA) concentrations, and TC (r = -0.555; P<0.001), HDL-C (r = -0.327; P = 0.068), LDL-C (r = -0.396; P = 0.025) and TG (r = -0.381; P = 0.032) levels were found in overweight/obese individuals but not in lean subjects. Quantitative lipidomic analysis showed that circulating levels of some lipid species associated with cholesterol-rich lipoprotein particles were also significantly reduced in overweight/obese infected individuals in an intensity-dependent manner. In conclusion, we reported that infection with S. haematobium is associated with improved lipid profile in overweight/obese individuals, a feature that might contribute reducing the risk of cardiometabolic diseases in such population.
Myopia induces meridional growth asymmetry of the retina: a pilot study using wide-field swept-source OCT
2020-07-02

Abstract Myopic axial eye growth has mechanical implications on ocular structures, such as the retinal and foveal shape integrity or choroidal thickness. The current study investigated myopia-related changes of retinal radius of curvature, foveal width, depth, slope and choroidal thickness. Wide-field swept-source OCT line and volume scans were performed on 40 young adult participants in horizontal and vertical directions. OCT scans were corrected for their scan display distortions before automated extraction of retinal and foveal shape parameters. All findings were correlated to refractive error and axial length. The horizontal retinal radius of curvature and the directional ratio between horizontal and vertical retinal shape correlated significantly with axial length ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.53</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ). Vertical retinal shape and foveal pit parameters neither showed any significant correlations with axial length nor refractive error (all <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&gt;</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> 0.05). Choroidal thickness correlated significantly with refractive error in all analyzed regions ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.39</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mi>to</mml:mi> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.52</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ), but less with axial length ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.18</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> to − 0.37). Horizontal retinal shape and choroidal thickness, but not foveal pit morphology, were altered by myopic eye growth. Asymmetries in horizontal versus vertical retinal shape with increasing myopia were detected. These parameters could act as promising biomarkers for myopia and its associated complications.
Targeting Rad51 as a strategy for the treatment of melanoma cells resistant to MAPK pathway inhibition
2020-07-02

Abstract Rad51 is an essential factor of the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway and therefore plays an important role in maintaining genomic stability. We show that RAD51 and other homologous recombination repair genes are overexpressed in metastatic melanoma cell lines and in melanoma patient samples, which correlates with reduced survival of melanoma patients. In addition, Rad51 expression in melanoma cells was regulated on a transcriptional level by the MAPK signaling pathway with Elk1 as the main downstream transcriptional effector. Most strikingly, melanoma cells which developed resistance towards MAPK inhibitors could be efficiently targeted by Rad51 inhibitors similar to their sensitive counterparts, leading to DNA damage, G2/M arrest and apoptosis. Furthermore, the treatment of MAPK inhibitor resistant cells with Rad51 inhibitors enhances the susceptibility of these cells for MAPK inhibitor treatment in vitro and in vivo. These data indicate that Rad51 plays a critical role in the survival of metastatic melanoma cells and is a promising target for the therapy of melanoma irrespective of its MAPK inhibitor resistance status.
Decoupling of folded‐end dipole antenna elements of a 9.4 T human head array using an RF shield
2020-07-02

Dipole antennas have recently been introduced to the field of MRI and successfully used, mostly as elements of ultra‐high field (UHF, ≥ 7 T) human body arrays. Usage of dipole antennas for UHF human head transmit (Tx) arrays is still under development. Due to the substantially smaller size of the sample, dipoles must be made significantly shorter than in the body array. Additionally, head Tx arrays are commonly placed on the surface of rigid helmets made sufficiently large to accommodate tight‐fit receive arrays. As a result, dipoles are not well loaded and are often poorly decoupled, which compromises Tx efficiency. Commonly, adjacent array elements are decoupled by circuits electrically connected to them. Placement of such circuits between distantly located dipoles is difficult. Alternatively, decoupling is provided by placing passive antennas between adjacent dipole elements. This method only works when these additional components are sufficiently small (compared with the size of active dipoles). Otherwise, RF fields produced by passive elements interfere destructively with the RF field of the array itself, and previously reported designs have used passive dipoles of about the size of array dipoles. In this work, we developed a novel method of decoupling for adjacent dipole antennas, and used this technique while constructing a 9.4 T human head eight‐element transceiver array. Decoupling is provided without any additional circuits by simply folding the dipoles and using an RF shield located close to the folded portion of the dipoles. The array reported in this work demonstrates good decoupling and whole‐brain coverage.
Spread of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria by Moth Flies from Hospital Waste Water System
2020-07-02

We documented and analyzed moth fly occurrence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria in a tertiary care hospital in Germany. The moth flies (Clogmia albipunctata) bred in the sewage system, then moved into the hospital, carrying biofilm and multidrug-resistant bacteria on their feet. Subsequently, the hospital developed a pest control protocol.
Feasibility of precise and reliable glucose quantification in human whole blood samples by 1 tesla benchtop NMR
2020-07-02

The standard procedure for blood glucose measurements is enzymatic testing. This method is cheap, but requires small samples of open blood with direct contact to the test medium. In principle, NMR provides non‐contact analysis of body fluids, but high‐field spectrometers are expensive and cannot be easily utilized under clinical conditions. Low‐field NMR systems with permanent magnets are becoming increasingly smaller and more affordable. The studies presented here aim at exploring the capabilities of low‐field NMR for measuring glucose concentrations in whole blood. For this purpose, a modern 1 T benchtop NMR spectrometer was used. Challenges arise from broad spectral lines, the glucose peak locations close to the water signal, low SNR and the interference with signals from other blood components. Whole blood as a sample comprises even more boundary conditions: crucial for reliable results are avoiding the separation of plasma and cells by gravitation and reliable reference values. First, the accuracy of glucose levels measured by NMR was tested using aqueous glucose solutions and commercially available bovine plasma. Then, 117 blood samples from oral glucose tolerance testing were measured with minimal preparation by simple pulse‐acquire NMR experiments. The analysis itself is the key to achieve high precision, so several approaches were investigated: peak integration, orthogonal projection to latent structure analysis and support vector machine regression. Correlations between results from the NMR spectra and the routine laboratory automated analyzer revealed an RMSE of 7.90 mg/dL for the best model. 91.5% of the model output lies within the limits of the German Medical Association guidelines, which require the glucose measurement to be within 11% of the reference method. It is concluded that spectral quantification of glucose in whole blood samples by high‐quality NMR spectrometers operating at 1 T is feasible with sufficient accuracy.
Planning Punic cities: geophysical prospection and the built environment at Motya, Sicily
2020-07-02

The urban plan of ancient Motya on the Isola di San Pantaleo on the west coast of Sicily and its relationship to developments in Phoenician and Punic societies have been investigated since the early 1960s. Data from geophysical surveys in the north-eastern quadrant of Motya show the regular organisation of urban insulae framed by two broad roads. These results, combined with data from previous nearby excavations, improve the modelling of Motya's layout, and contribute to the wider discussion of Phoenician/Punic and broader Mediterranean urban traditions between the sixth and fourth centuries BC.