The Impact of Byline Order of Corresponding Author - A Preliminary Study

Corresponding author (C-Au) holds an important position in byline order. Some papers have analyzed the contribution of C-Au, but they do not consider the variation in different byline order. Furthermore, some studies use ques-tionnaire and found that people perception on other authors’ contribution would be influence by the byline order of C-Au, but the real situation remains unclear. Thus, this poster aims to analyze two questions: (1) What kind of byline order do C-Au have and are their contribution influenced by their by-line order? (2) Are other authors contributions influenced by the byline order of C-Au? Three main findings emerge: firstly, the last author are not always to be C-Au; following with the decline of byline order of C-Au, the contribution of C-Au deceases; finally, as the byline order of C-Au changes, other authors’ contribution change significantly. For instance, second author has the lowest contribution when the last author is C-Au

Types of Scientific Collaborators: A Perspective of Author Contribution Network

The purpose of this study is to investigate interaction between collaborators within individual studies by measuring how they made contributions to their studies. Author contribution network is constructed based on the author contribution statements of 140,000 full-text articles in PloS by viewing every collaborator as a node and a shared contribution as an edge. Three types of contributors are identified: general team-players, factotums, and mavericks. The preliminary result suggests that division of labor widely exists in scientific re-search and the latter two types of collaborators are common in small teams

Co-contributorship Network and Division of Labor in Individual Scientific Collaborations

Collaborations are pervasive in current science. Collaborations have been studied and encouraged in many disciplines. However, little is known how a team really functions from the detailed division of labor within. In this research, we investigate the patterns of scientific collaboration and division of labor within individual scholarly articles by analyzing their co-contributorship networks. Co-contributorship networks are constructed by performing the one-mode projection of the author-task bipartite networks obtained from 138,787 papers published in PLoS journals. Given a paper, we define three types of contributors: Specialists, Team-players, and Versatiles. Specialists are those who contribute to all their tasks alone; team-players are those who contribute to every task with other collaborators; and versatiles are those who do both. We find that team-players are the majority and they tend to contribute to the five most common tasks as expected, such as "data analysis" and "performing experiments". The specialists and versatiles are more prevalent than expected by a random-graph null model. Versatiles tend to be senior authors associated with funding and supervisions. Specialists are associated with two contrasting roles: the supervising role as team leaders or marginal and specialized contributions.Comment: accepted by JASIS

Effects of Intravitreal Ranibizumab Injection on Chinese Patients with Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration: 5-Year Follow-Up Results

Purpose. To observe the effect of intravitreal ranibizumab injection on wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) over 5 years in Chinese patients. Methods. Thirty-seven patients who were diagnosed with wAMD in our hospital from June 2007 to June 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. The PRN regimen and the treatment and extend regimen were applied. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), number of ranibizumab injections, and changes in the choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesion over 5 years were analyzed. Results. The mean BCVA measured by the ETDRS chart at baseline was 47.4 and 5 years after the treatment it was 34.89 letters, which was significantly different (p=0.013). Fourteen eyes (37.8%) had improved visual acuity after 5 years. The number of injections in 5 years was 11.53, and most of the injections were in the first two years. Seventeen (45.9%) cases developed fibrous lesions, and 2 (5.4%) cases had atrophic lesions after 5 years. The fibrosis/atrophy was significantly correlated with the injection numbers (Pearson, r=0.663, and p=0.000). Conclusion. Most of the patients can maintain visual acuity treated by ranibizumab in the first 3 years. After 5 years, some patients can still improve or maintain visual acuity. Fibrous scarring of the lesion is the main reason for a decrease in vision of wAMD patients

LDM: Lineage-Aware Data Management in Multi-tier Storage Systems

We design and develop LDM, a novel data management solution to cater the needs of applications exhibiting the lineage property, i.e. in which the current writes are future reads. In such a class of applications, slow writes significantly hurt the over-all performance of jobs, i.e. current writes determine the fate of next reads. We believe that in a large scale shared production cluster, the issues associated due to data management can be mitigated at a way higher layer in the hierarchy of the I/O path, even before requests to data access are made. Contrary to the current solutions to data management which are mostly reactive and/or based on heuristics, LDM is both deterministic and pro-active. We develop block-graphs, which enable LDM to capture the complete time-based data-task dependency associations, therefore use it to perform life-cycle management through tiering of data blocks. LDM amalgamates the information from the entire data center ecosystem, right from the application code, to file system mappings, the compute and storage devices topology, etc. to make oracle-like deterministic data management decisions. With trace-driven experiments, LDM is able to achieve 29–52% reduction in over-all data center workload execution time. Moreover, by deploying LDM with extensive pre-processing creates efficient data consumption pipelines, which also reduces write and read delays significantly

Pregel algorithms for graph connectivity problems with performance guarantees

Graphs in real life applications are often huge, such as the Web graph and various social networks. These massive graphs are often stored and processed in distributed sites. In this paper, we study graph algorithms that adopt Google's Pregel, an iterative vertexcentric framework for graph processing in the Cloud. We first identify a set of desirable properties of an efficient Pregel algorithm, such as linear space, communication and computation cost per iteration, and logarithmic number of iterations. We define such an algorithm as a practical Pregel algorithm (PPA). We then propose PPAs for computing connected components (CCs), biconnected components (BCCs) and strongly connected components (SCCs). The PPAs for computing BCCs and SCCs use the PPAs of many fundamental graph problems as building blocks, which are of interest by themselves. Extensive experiments over large real graphs verified the efficiency of our algorithms. © 2014 VLDB Endowment 21508097/14/10

The technological development of infrared sensors in substations and the key determining factors affecting the accuracy of measurement data

An overview of the developmental history, characteristics, and applications of infrared sensors are firstly provided in the paper. Subsequently, it delves into the sensing mechanisms of commonly employed infrared sensors in substations, namely the thermistor sensors, pyroelectric sensors, and photoconductive sensors. Thermistor infrared sensors gauge infrared radiation by tracking changes in material resistance with temperature. Pyroelectric sensors detect thermal changes in objects based on the thermal effects induced by infrared radiation. Photoconductive-type sensors leverage the photoconductive effect of semiconductors to convert optical signals into electrical signals, adapting to various light conditions. In the process of measurements, variables like temperature, distance between the target object and the infrared sensor, and electromagnetic interference impact accuracy. In extreme temperatures, the cooling precision of infrared thermal imaging systems may decline, affecting measurement accuracy. The distance between the target and sensor also influences results due to energy attenuation in the infrared radiation path through the atmosphere. Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction warns of potential electromagnetic interference signals in substations, causing device breakdowns, output image halo, or increased internal noise. Finally, the paper envisions the future development of infrared sensors

Breastmilk microbiome changes associated with lactational mastitis and treatment with dandelion extract

IntroductionDandelion (Pugongying) is one of the most frequently used Chinese herbs for treating lactational mastitis (LM). Pugongying granules, a patented medication primarily comprised of dandelion extract, have been approved by CFDA for LM treatment in China. The aims of this study were to investigate the etiology of LM and the mechanism by which Pugongying granules decrease LM symptoms, with a particular focus on the microbial communities found in breastmilk.MethodsParticipants were recruited from a previously performed randomized controlled trial (Identifier: NCT03756324, ClinicalTrials.gov). Between 2019 and 2020, women diagnosed with unilateral LM at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Third Affiliated Hospital were enrolled. In total, 42 paired breastmilk samples from the healthy and affected breasts of the participants were collected. Additionally, 37 paired pre- and post-treatment breastmilk samples from the affected breast were collected from women who received a 3-day course of either Pugongying granules (20 women) or cefdinir (17 women). Clinical outcomes [e.g., body temperature, visual analogue scale (VAS) score for breast pain, the percentage of neutrophils (NE%)] were analyzed pre- and post-treatment, and the breastmilk samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing to analyze the alpha and beta diversities and identify significant bacteria. Finally, the relationship between microorganisms and clinical outcomes was analyzed.ResultsThere was no significant difference in fever and pain between the Pugongying group and cefdinir group. The most prevalent bacterial genera in breastmilk were Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. Compared to healthy breastmilk, microbial diversity was reduced in affected breastmilk, and there was a higher relative abundance of Streptococcus. After Pugongying treatment, there was an increase in microbial diversity with significantly higher abundance of Corynebacterium. A negative correlation was found between Corynebacterium, VAS score, and NE%. Treatment with cefdinir did not affect microbial diversity. Taken together, our results show a correlation between LM and reduced microbial diversity, as well as an increased abundance of Streptococcus in affected breastmilk.ConclusionPugongying granules enhanced microbial diversity in breastmilk samples. Given the substantial variation in individual microbiomes, identifying specific species of Streptococcus and Corynebacterium associated with LM may provide additional insight into LM pathogenesis and treatment

Single-cell-resolution transcriptome map revealed novel genes involved in testicular germ cell progression and somatic cells specification in Chinese tongue sole with sex reversal

19 pages, 7 figures, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-021-2236-4.-- Data availability: The data reported in this study are available in the CNGB Nucleotide Sequence Archive (CNSA: https://db.cngb.org/cnsa; accession number CNP0002135).Female-to-male sex reversals (pseudomales) are common in lower vertebrates and have been found in natural populations, which is a concern under rapid changes in environmental conditions. Pseudomales can exhibit altered spermatogenesis. However, the regulatory mechanisms underlying pseudomale spermatogenesis remain unclear. Here, we characterized spermatogenesis in Chinese tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis), a species with genetic and environmental sex determination, based on a high-resolution single-cell RNA-seq atlas of cells derived from the testes of genotypic males and pseudomales. We identified five germ cell types and six somatic cell types and obtained a single-cell atlas of dynamic changes in gene expression during spermatogenesis in Chinese tongue sole, including alterations in pseudomales. We detected decreased levels of Ca2+ signaling pathway-related genes in spermatogonia, insufficient meiotic initiation in spermatocytes, and a malfunction of somatic niche cells in pseudomales. However, a cluster of CaSR genes and MAPK signaling factors were upregulated in undifferentiated spermatogonia of pseudomales. Additionally, we revealed that Z chromosome-specific genes, such as piwil2, dhx37, and ehmt1, were important for spermatogenesis. These results improve our understanding of reproduction after female-to-male sex-reversal and provide new insights into the adaptability of reproductive strategies in lower vertebratesThis work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0900301), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31722058, 31802275, 31472269), the AoShan Talents Cultivation Program Supported by Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (2017ASTCP-ES06), the Taishan Scholar Project Fund of Shandong of China to C.S., the National Ten-Thousands Talents Special Support Program to C.S., the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS (2020TD19) and the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-47-G03)With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)Peer reviewe

SPPS: A Sequence-Based Method for Predicting Probability of Protein-Protein Interaction Partners

Background: The molecular network sustained by different types of interactions among proteins is widely manifested as the fundamental driving force of cellular operations. Many biological functions are determined by the crosstalk between proteins rather than by the characteristics of their individual components. Thus, the searches for protein partners in global networks are imperative when attempting to address the principles of biology. Results: We have developed a web-based tool ‘‘Sequence-based Protein Partners Search’ ’ (SPPS) to explore interacting partners of proteins, by searching over a large repertoire of proteins across many species. SPPS provides a database containing more than 60,000 protein sequences with annotations and a protein-partner search engine in two modes (Single Query and Multiple Query). Two interacting proteins of human FBXO6 protein have been found using the service in the study. In addition, users can refine potential protein partner hits by using annotations and possible interactive network in the SPPS web server. Conclusions: SPPS provides a new type of tool to facilitate the identification of direct or indirect protein partners which may guide scientists on the investigation of new signaling pathways. The SPPS server is available to the public a