The effect of Mg particles on PLA's thermal, chemical, physical, and mechanical properties has been studied. The thermal and physical properties have been studied by differential scanning calorimetry, analysing the stability of the α and α’-crystals of the PLA. A colloidal route was used to introduce Mg particles inside the PLA matrix, ensuring a good dispersion of the particles. Materials with Mg contents from 0 to 10 wt.% have been prepared, with additions of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy has been used to confirm the influence of Mg, PEI, and PEG on PLA properties. The mechanical properties have been measured with a universal tensile test machine on printed filaments via Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), which were naturally aged to stable conditions. Filaments with and without a notch were studied to obtain the materials' tensile strength, elastic modulus, and fracture toughness. Different analytical models to explain the results of the PLA-Mg were studied, in which the interface strength of the PLA-Mg composites was calculated.

This paper seeks to examine how the Mn-Co spinel interconnect coating microstructure can in-fluence the Cr contamination in an oxygen electrode of intermediate temperature Solid Oxide Cells at the operating temperature of 750 °C. A Mn-Co spinel coating is processed on Crofer 22 APU substrates by electrophoretic deposition and subsequently sintered following both the one-step and two-step sintering, in order to obtain significantly different densification levels. The electrochemical characterization is performed on anode supported cells with a LSCF cathode. The cells were aged prior to the electrochemical characterization in contact with the spinel coated Crofer 22 APU at 750 °C for 250 hours. Current-voltage and impedance spectra of the cells were measured after the exposure with the interconnect. Post-mortem analysis of the interconnect and the cell was carried out in order to assess the Cr retention capability of coatings with different microstructures.

Introduction. Autopsy is a medical procedure that consists of the corpse’s examination to determine the cause of death and obtain information on pathological conditions or injuries present in the body. In recent years there has been a reduction in hospital autopsies and an increase in forensic autopsies. Material and methods. A retrospective observational study was conducted on the reports of all the 645 hospital autopsies performed at Polyclinic of Bari from 2006 to 2021.Results. Group A, 2006-2009, 174 cases were studied: 58% male, 58% adults, 55% neonatology, pulmonary disease was the cause of death in 23%, and 55% of discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnosis. Group B, 2010-2013, comprised 119 cases: 52% male, 46% infants, 48% neonatology, pulmonary disease was the cause of death in 25%, and 56% of discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnosis. Group C, 2014-2017, comprised 168 cases: gender equality, 37% infants, 25% gynecology, pulmonary disease was the cause of death in 24%, and 58% of discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnosis. Group D, 2018-2021 comprised 184 cases: 56% male, 38% adult, 32% gynecology, pulmonary disease was the cause of death in 27%, and 58% discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnosis.Conclusion. The study of hospital autopsies at the Polyclinic of Bari shows that the discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnosis is around 56.75%. Thus, the hospital autopsy is helpful in the modern age, especially for diagnosing fetal and neonatal diseases.

Cyclooxygenases (COX), or prostaglandin endoperoxide synthases (PTGS), are key enzimes in the synthesis of prostaglandins, which are chemical species critical in mediating inflammatory processes. There are two highly homologous COX isoforms: COX-1 and COX-2. COX-1 is involved in the production of prostaglandins, chemical compuounds that take part in physiological processes such as: protection of the gastric epithelium, maintenance of renal flow, platelet aggregation, neutrophil migration and, also, are expressed in the vascular endothelium. Meanwhile, COX-2 is induced by proinflammatory stimuli. It is very frequent the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to counteract the symptoms of inflammatory processes. These drugs, in addition to its benefits, can cause side effects on people’s health, such as cardiovascular and respiratory problems, among others. In the past years, it has been recognized the potential of plants secondary metabolites as pharmacological agents, prompting the need for investigations that shed light into its mechanism of action. In this work we have applied computational techniques, based on quantum chemistry and mechanical statistics, to study the protein-ligand interaction involving COX’s and secondary metabolites from natural sources. Our aim is to determine the structure activity interplay in processes involving the participation of secondary plant metabolites such as luteolin, galangin, kaempferol, apigenin, morine and quercetin on the inactivation of COX’s. From molecular docking analysis, we have extracted the energetics of the COX-(1,2)/metabolite coupling. By defining energy based factors, we have determined a procedure that predicts the chemical species with highest stability and selectivity towards inactivation of COX-2 over COX-1. The results are discussed with regard to conformational features of the selected ligands and its intermolecular strong/weak interactions inside the active-sites of the COX’s hosts.

Background: Metastatic tumors to the oro-facial tissues are rare, with an incidence ranging between 1% and 8% of all oral malignant tumors. Generally reported with a peak of incidence in the 5th–7th decades, but possibly occurring at any age, metastases may represent the first sign of an occult cancer or manifest in patient with an already known history of a primary carcinoma, mostly from the lungs, kidney, prostate, and colon-rectum in males, or uterus, breast, lung, and ovary in females. In the oro-facial tissues the sites mostly involved are the oral mucosa, gingiva/jawbones, tongue, and the salivary glands. Methods: A systemic Review of the literature on the oro-facial metastases from Renal Cell Carcinoma has been conducted by searching the most used databases, also focusing the attention on the Clear Cell histological variant, representing the most frequent one. Results: Among the 160 analyzed studies, 211 cases of oral metastases of renal cancer were found (148 in males, 70.1%; 63 in females, 29.8%), with an average age of 59.8 years. In almost 40% of cases, metastasis represented the first clinical manifestation of the primary tumor and 122 were histologically diagnosed as ccRCCs (57.8%). The tongue was involved in most of the cases (26% - 55 cases), followed by mandible (18.9% - 40 cases), gingiva (18.4% - 39 cases), maxilla (10.9% - 23 cases), parotid gland (10.4% - 22 cases), buccal mucosa (5.2% - 11 cases), lips (3.3% - 7 cases), hard palate (2.8% - 6 cases), soft palate, masticatory space and submandibular gland (0.9% - 2 cases), lymph nodes, tonsil and oral floor (0.4% - 1 case). Among the 122 ccRCCs (84 were males, 68.8 %; 38 females, 31.1%), with an average age of 60.8 years and representing in 33.6% the first clinical manifestation, the tongue remained the most involved site (25.4% - 31 cases), followed by the gingiva (17.2% - 21 cases), parotid gland (13,1% - 16 cases), mandibular bone (12.2% - 15 cases), maxillary bone (11.4% - 14 cases), buccal mucosa and lips (4.9% - 6 cases), hard palate (4% - 5 cases), submandibular gland and soft palate (1.6% - 2 cases), lymph nodes, tonsil, oral floor and masticatory space (0.8%. 1 case). The clinical presentation in soft tissues was represented by a fast-growing exophytic mass, sometimes accompanied by pain. Instead inn bone appeared as radiolucent lesions, with ill-defined borders and cortical erosion. Conclusions: Our data focus the attention on the incidence of Renal cancer Metastases in the oro-facial tissues. Their early identification surely represents a diagnostic challenge, especially when the clinical work-up is limited to the cervico-facial region. Nevertheless, early diagnosis and recently introduced adjuvant therapies may represent the key for better outcomes. Therefore, general guidelines about clinical and radiological identification of oro-facial potentially malignant lesions should be part of the cultural background of any dentists.

Tumid Lupus Erythematosus has been the subject of heated debate as to its correct nosographic classification. In particular, its definition has changed over time, depending on the different studies performed. In this review we address the initial definition of TLE, the changes that have taken place in the understanding and placement within the classification of Lupus Erythematosus (LE), and focus on clinical, histopathological, immunophenotypical and differential diagnosis aspects.

The stromal vascular cell fraction (SVF) of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue (VAT and SAT) has increasingly come into focus in stem cell research, since these compartments represent a rich source of multipotent adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). ASCs exhibit a self- renewal potential and differentiation capacity. Our aim was to study the different expression of embryonic stem cell markers NANOG, SOX2 and OCT3/4 and to evaluate if there exists a hierarchal role in this network in ASCs derived from both SAT and VAT. ASCs were isolated from SAT and VAT biopsies of 72 consenting patients (23 men, 47 women; age 45 ± 10; BMI between 25 and 30 range) undergoing elective open-abdominal surgery. Sphere-forming capability was evaluated by plating cells in low adhesion plastic. Stem cell markers CD90 and CD105 were analyzed by flow cytometry and stem cell transcription factors NANOG, SOX2 and OCT3/4 were detected by immunoblotting and Real-Time PCR. NANOG, SOX2 and OCT3/4 interplay was explored by gene silencing. ASCs from VAT and SAT confirmed their mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) phenotype expressing the specific MSC markers CD90, CD105, NANOG, SOX2 and OCT3/4. NANOG silencing induced a significant OCT 3/4 (70% ± 0.05) and SOX2 (75% ± 0.03) down-regulation whereas SOX2 silencing did not affect NANOG gene expression. Adipose tissue is an important source of MSC, and siRNA experiments endorse a hierarchical role of NANOG in the complex transcription network that regulates pluripotency and plasticity.

A Brewer Spent Grain (BSG), the most abundant by-product of the brewing process, is mainly used in animal feed and biogas production. The aim of the present work is BSG valorization by yeast fermentation to produce carotenoids. R. mucilaginosa CBS316 was cultured on BSG syrups, supplemented or not with YE and PEP (s-Fsa and Fsa). The biomass and carotenoid production were optimized in flasks and then scaled-up in bioreactor. In flask tests, the maximum biomass concentration was 5.3 and 6.2 g/L for Fsa and s-Fsa cultures, respectively. The maximum carotenoid production was 833 μg/L in Fsa and 1159 μg/L in s-FSA. Considering that the highest specific productivity value (P 7.16 μg/g*h) was obtained with Fsa syrup, this medium was selected for the process scale-up. In bioreactor tests, the maximum concentrations of biomass (4.29 g/L) and carotenoid (396 ug/L) was reached at 72 hours of fer-mentation, 24 h later than in flask. The total carotenoid produced was 524 and 150 ug in bioreactor and flask cultures, respectively. The carotenoids production by R. mucilaginosa was obtained both in Fsa and s-Fsa syrups. The results confirm the possibility to use the syrup as it is, Fsa, thus limiting the process costs.

Here we show how a recently-introduced method from algebraic topology, namely proximal planar vortex 1-cycles, might be helpful in detecting hidden features of the shapes and holes in images, therefore contributing to the solution of both cold and fresh forensic cases. In particular, we test the efficacy of this technique by assessing one of the most puzzling cases of recent history, i.e., Aldo Moro’s death. Terrorists of the Red Brigades claimed that they killed Moro when he was placed inside the trunk of a car,shooting him with a barrage of bullets. We demonstrate, based on the analysis of the photographs taken during the autoptic procedure, that the terrorist’s account does not hold true. Our results, showing different series of shots, point towards a three-step execution, with the first phasestaking place outside the car. In conclusion, the novel forensic analysis method introduced in this paper permits the evaluation of a collection of vortex cycles/nerves equipped with a connectedness proximity, which makes it possible to assess unexpected spatial clusters in photographs.

This review explores the combination of renewable energy production and agriculture through agrivoltaic, with a focus on its impact on fruit crops. As the world seeks alternatives to fossil fuels, agrivoltaics offers a promising solution by integrating solar panels with farming practices. The study examines various agrivoltaic configurations with different fruit crops, emphasizing their influence on microclimatic conditions beneath the panels and the effects on crop produc-tion. In particular, it underscores the need for tailored solutions to balance energy yield and crop productivity and quality, with different shading levels affecting fruit quality/production. De-spite ongoing research, a comprehensive understanding of agrivoltaics' potential benefits and challenges remains crucial for its successful application and implementation in sustainable ag-riculture.

In this paper, we have established Hermite-Hadamard inequalities for r-preinvex functions via fractional integrals.

Ovariectomy appears to be the best method to control the density of wild ungulate populations. The aim of the present study was to compare two surgical approaches, via the flank and midline, in mouflon’s ovariectomy in field conditions. Twenty female mouflons were enrolled in the study. The animals were divided randomly in two groups, Group F animals were gonadectomized via flank approach, while Group A animals were sterilized via linea alba access. The parameters evaluated were duration of surgery, duration of anaesthesia, recovery time, intra- and post-operative complications, intra-operative nociception and pain in the post-operative period. There were no intra- and post-operative complications. The evaluated parameters showed a very similar trend in both groups. Both techniques are found to be effective and safe in execution.

In this paper, we classify the function space of all real-valued functions on R denoted as F(R,R) into 28 distinct blocks. Each block contains elements that share common features in terms of the cardinality of their sets of continuity and differentiability. Alongside this classification, we introduce the concept of the Connection, which reveals a special relationship structure between four well-known real-valued functions in real analysis: the Cantor function, Dirichlet function, the Thomae function, and the Weierstrass function. Despite the significance of this field, several perspectives remain unexplored.

The effective Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system can improve the reliability, safety and economic benefits of microgrid operation. In this research, the lower central controller and upper WEB monitoring system are connected by the SCADA system which is as the hub of microgrid intelligent monitoring platform. This system contains a set of specific functions programmed by Java as a middleware which can provide control and communication between the central controller and the upper monitoring system. The system realizes the real-time data acquisition and storage, the control instructions parsing and transmitting, the microgrid security and stability, the load balancing and resource recovery of the microgrid. All that functions have been tested and verified in the actual operation.

The human innate immune response to the pore-forming toxin of Vibrio cholerae VCC, is currently under study. Here, in vitro studies on a human macrophage cell line (THP-1), helped explore the activated pathways involved on the onset the innate immune response towards the cytotoxin. The secreted monomeric 65 KDa form interacts with mature macrophages in pg/ml concentrations, determined by dose response experiments after treatments under 1 h. Non vacuolating concentrations (pg/ml) were applied to the cells; immunoblots revealed activation of MAPKs: early overexpression of p38 and ERK. Cell lysis by release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was not apparent in the first hour, nonetheless it was positive after 24 h. Finally, to discern whether the VCC stimulates transcriptional activators via MAPKs pathway, NF-κB and AP-1 were studied by real time quantitation. Increased expression of p50 (NF-κB), cJun and cFos (AP-1) was observed. Given that NF-κB is the transcription factor initiating inflammation of innate immune response and in turn, AP-1 is responsible for cell surviving response, results from this study lead us to conclude that VCC in vitro treatments, induce a pro-inflammatory and a surviving response, in less than one hour on activated macrophages.

The “circular bioeconomy” offers numerous opportunities for the health, cosmetic, and nutrition sectors through the potential reuse of Castanea sativa by-products. This abundant and sustainable resource provides valuable bioactive secondary metabolites with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. The transformation of these by-products into high-value products for human health can contribute to sustainable economic growth and reduce the environmental impact of traditional waste disposal practices, thus creating added value from previously underutilized resources. In the present study, we investigated the antioxidant capacity, phytochemical composition and in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of C. sativa burrs (CSB) aqueous extract. The spectrophotometric study yielded optimal total phenolic content (TPC) values, along with significant antioxidant and anti-radical properties. The utilization of UPLC-MS-MS techniques for phytochemical investigation resulted in the identification of a total of 56 metabolites, providing confirmation of the presence of phenolic compounds in CSB. In addition, CSB significantly downregulated pro-inflammatory mediators in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells without significant cell toxicity.

Some peptide-based drugs including oxytocin, vasopressin, ziconotide, pramlintide, nesiritide, and octreotide, contain one intramolecular disulfide bonds. A novel and reusable monodispersed silica nanosphere-supported Pt(IV) complex (SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV)) was synthesized via a four-step procedure and used for formation of intramolecular disulfide bonds in peptides. TEM and chemical mapping results for the Pt(II) intermediates and for SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) show that the silica nanospheres possess a monodisperse spherical structure and contain uniformly distributed Si, O, C, N, Cl, and Pt. The valence state of Pt on the silica nanospheres was characterized by XPS. The Pt(IV) loaded on SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) was 0.15 mmol/g, as determined by UV-vis spectrometry. Formation of intramolecular disulfides in six dithiol-containing peptides of variable lengths by use of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) was investigated and the relative oxidation yields were determined by HPLC. In addition, peptide 1 (Ac-CPFC-NH2) was utilized to study the reusability of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV). No significant decrease in the relative oxidation yield was observed after ten reaction cycles. Moreover, the structure of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) after being used ten cycles was determined to be similar to its initial one, demonstrating the cycling stability of the complex.

We developed two human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)/human embryonic stem cell-specific glycan-recognizing mouse antibodies, R-10G and R-17F, using the Tic (JCRB1331) hiPSC line as an antigen. R-10G recognizes a low-sulfate keratan sulfate, and R-17F recognizes lacto-N-fucopentaose-1. To evaluate the general characteristics of stem cell glycans, we used the hiPSC line 201B7 (HPS0063), a prototype iPSC line. Using an R-10G affinity column, an R-10G-binding protein was isolated. The protein yielded a single but very broad band from 480 to 1,236 kDa by blue native gel electrophoresis. After trypsin digestion, the protein was identified as podocalyxin by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. According to Western blotting, the protein reacted with R-10G and R-17F. The R-10G positive band was resistant to digestion with glycan-degrading enzymes, including peptide N-glycanase, but the intensity of the band was decreased significantly by digestion with keratanase, keratanase II, and endo-β-galactosidase, suggesting the R-10G epitope to be a keratan sulfate. These results suggest that keratan sulfate-type epitopes are shared by hiPSCs. However, the keratan sulfate from 201B7 cells contained a polylactosamine disaccharide unit (Galβ1-4GlcNAc) at a significant frequency, whereas that from Tic cells consisted mostly of keratan sulfate disaccharide units (Galβ1-4GlcNAc(6S)). In addition, the abundance of the R-10G epitope was significantly lower in 201B7 cells than in Tic cells.

The Apennine sector formed by Sannio and Irpinia is one of the most important seismic districts in Italy, representing a good case of study due to the plenty of recorded earthquakes that have therein occurred from Roman times up to nowadays. We have merged the historical record and the new satellite techniques that allow a precise determination of ground movements, and then derived physical dimensions like strain rate. In this way, we have verified that in Irpinia the hazard of new strong shocks forty years after one of the strongest known seismic events in the district is still high. This aspect must be considered very important from many points of view, particularly for Civil Protection plans, as well as civil engineering and urban planning development.

As a prominent organizational issue there was limited evidence in the literature about the relationship between organizational strategy, workplace health, safety, and wellbeing, and performance measurement that demonstrate a measurable impact on organizational performance. Whilst the literature reports numerous studies into the relationship between employee engagement and performance, they hardly incorporate workplace health, safety, and well-being within this relationship. This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between organizational strategy, workplace health, safety, and wellbeing strategy, employee engagement, and strategy efficacy from a corporate perspective. Findings from Phase two, the online survey, revealed a seven-factor HSW Strategy framework. The workplace health, safety, and wellbeing strategy framework provide empirical evidence towards a suitable and valuable framework for high-risk businesses to improve individual and organizational performance.

Mass transfer restrictions of scaffolds are currently hindering the development of three-dimensional (3D), clinically viable, and tissue engineered constructs. For this situation, a 3D poly(lactide-co-glycolide)/hydroxyapatite porous scaffold, which was much favorable for transfer of nutrients to and waste products from the cells in the pores, was developed in this study. The 3D scaffold had an innovative structure, including macropores with diameters of 300−450 μm for cell ingrowth and microchannels with diameters of 2−4 μm for nutrition and waste exchange. The mechanical strength in wet state was strong enough to offer the structural support. The typical structure was more beneficial for the attachment, proliferation, and differentiation of rabbit bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs). The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium (Ca) deposition were evaluated on the differentiation of rBMSCs, and the results indicated that the microchannel structure was very favorable for differentiating rBMSCs into maturing osteoblasts. For repairing rabbit radius defects in vivo, there was rapid healing in the defects treated with the 3D porous scaffold with microchannels, where the bridging by a large bony callus was observed at 12 weeks post-surgery. Based on the results, the 3D porous scaffold with microchannels was a promising candidate for bone defect repair.

Uncovering hidden mixture correlation among variables have been investigating in the literature using mixture R-vine copula models. These models are hierarchical in nature. They provides a huge flexibility for modelling multivariate data. As the dimensions increases, the number of the model parameters that need to be estimated is increased dramatically, which becomes along with huge computational times and efforts. This situation becomes even much more harder and complicated in the mixture Regular vine models. Incorporating truncation method with mixture Regular vine models will reduce the computation difficulty for the mixture based models. In this paper, tree-by-tree estimation mixture model is joined with the truncation method, in order to reduce the computational time and the number of the parameters that need to be estimated in the mixture vine copula models. A simulation study and a real data applications illustrated the performance of the method. In addition, the real data applications show the affect of the mixture components on the truncation level.

The seed habit is the most complex and successful method of sexual reproduction in vascular plants. It represents a remarkable moment in the evolution of plants that afterwards spread on land. In particular, seed size had a pivotal role as for evolutionary success and agronomic trait, especially in the field of crop domestication. Given that crop seeds constitute one of the primary products for consumption, it follows that seed size represents a fundamental determinant of crop yield. This adaptative feature is strictly controlled by genetic traits from both maternal and zygotic tissues, although seed development and growth are also affected by environmental cues. Despite being a highly exploited topic for both basic and applied research, there are still many issues to be elucidated as for developmental biology as well as for agronomic science. This review addresses a number of open questions related to cues that influence seed growth and size, and how developmental processes are influenced by them. Besides, new insights on the genetic-molecular control of this adaptive trait are presented.

The oral administration of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate, allows inducing a beneficial level of blood ketone bodies without the adverse effects due to the adhesion to a ketogenic diet. Several studies documented the therapeutic effectiveness of the (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate in treating neurodegenerative diseases as well as its boosting activity of athletic and cognitive performances during prolonged physical exercises. Further studies considering this ketone body ester for therapy of other pathologies are also underway. In the present work, we describe the synthesis of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate through the enantioselective transesterification of racemic ethyl 3-hydroxybutyrate with (R)-1,3-butanediol catalyzed by immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B). The enantiopure (R)-1,3-butanediol was in turn obtained from the kinetic resolution of the racemate by CAL-B catalyzed acetylation with vinyl acetate. The economy of the synthetic procedure has been improved by recycling the unreacted (S) enantiomers of the ethyl 3-hydroxybutyrate and 1,3-buatnediol after stereochemical inversion achieved by tosylation and SN2 with ammonium acetate. The overall procedure allows to incorporate up to 70% of the starting racemic reagents into the final product.

The study of rare diseases is important not only for the individuals affected but also for the advancement of medical knowledge and a deeper understanding of human biology and genetics. The wide repertoire of structural information now available from reliable and accurate prediction methods provides the opportunity to investigate the molecular origins of most of the rare diseases reviewed in the Orpha.net database. Thus, it has been possible to analyze the topology of the missense mutations found in the 2,535 proteins involved in Mendelian rare diseases (MRD), which form the database for our structural bioinformatics study. The amino acid substitutions responsible for MRD show different mutation site distributions at different three-dimensional protein depths. We then predicted the depth-dependent effects of mutations for the 20,248 pathogenic variants that are present in our database. The results of this structural bioinformatics investigation are relevant, as they provide additional clues to mitigate the damage caused by MRD.

Climate change affects water resources through the decrease of rainfall and the increase in temperatures and evapotranspiration. An indirect impact of climate change is also the increase of water uses by human activities. In this review, 320 papers were retrieved, of which 134 spanning five continents impacts and solutions to be used to better understand the effects of climate change on water resources, ecosystems, human health, security and socio-economic aspects were selected. Here, suggestions and proposals by scientists from around the world towards solutions, tips and ideas to deal with climate change and the best solutions for future water management were presented. The main solutions highlighted concern integrated water resources management, political direction, policies, increase in knowledge and new technologies. Furthermore, most of the papers analyzed underline that water resources management needs to incorporate protection and restoration of ecosystems and their services. Nature-based solutions need to be the starting point of new scientific and innovative ways to deal with climate change and towards future climate adaptation. In this complex evolution of the water resource, where is the management of the water resource in Italy going?

The growing need for water has pressured society and governments to focus more on preservation, planning and management of this natural resource, in which is fundamental to ecosystems and especially to humans. In this sense, the goal of this study was to analyze the national policy of water resources in Brazil and Italy, figuring out aspects that could promote its improvement, aiming at the preservation of water sources, guaranteeing satisfactory quantity and quality. They were carried out in 2019 by the environmental agencies of both countries, listing the main disciplinary regulations. The results show that although they are countries with different realities, they resemble similarities in managerial aspects of water resources, with legislation addressing qualitative and quantitative aspects of water, with guiding principles, instruments and actions aimed at the defence of this natural resource.

The compatibility between the de Sitter Swampland conjecture and Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz $F(\bar{R})$ theories with a flat FLRW metric is studied. We first study the standard $f(R)$ theories and show that the only way in which the dS conjecture can be made independent of $R$ is by considering a power law of the form $f(R)\sim R^{\gamma}$. The conjecture and the consistency of the theory puts restrictions on $\gamma$ to be greater but close to $1$. For the $F(\bar{R})$ theories described by its two parameters $\lambda$ and $\mu$ we use the equations of motion to construct the function starting with an ansatz for the scale factor in the Jordan frame of the power law form. By doing a conformal transformation on the three metric to the Einstein frame we can obtain an action of gravity plus a scalar filed by relating the parameters of the theory. The non-projectable and projectable cases are studied and the differences are outlined. The $F(\bar{R})$ function obtained consists of terms of the form $\bar{R}^{\gamma}$ with the possibility of having negative power terms. The dS conjecture leads to inequalities for the $\lambda$ parameter, in both versions it gets restricted to be greater but close to $1/3$. For the general case in which $\mu$ and $\lambda$ are considered as independent, the action contains an extra term but we propose that the conjecture is still applicable. Once again the non-projectable and projectable cases are studied. The $F$ function obtained has the same form as before, the consistency of the theory and the dS conjecture lead to a set of inequalities on both parameters that are studied numerically. In all cases $\lambda$ is restricted by $\mu$ around $1/3$ and we obtain $\lambda\to1/3$ if $\mu\to0$. Finally we consider the $f(R)$ limit $\mu,\lambda\to1$ and we obtain consistent results.

In this work, we explore a the different forms of a new type of modified gravity, namely f(φ) gravity. We construct the Big Rip type for the energy density and the curvature of the universe. We show that dark energy is a result of the transformation of the field φ mass (dark matter) to energy. In addition, we provide that Ω_{m}≈0,050, Ω_{DM}≈0,2, Ω_{DE}≈0,746, is in excellent agreement with observation data. We explore a generalized formalism of braneworld modified gravity. We also construct a new field equations, which generalize the Einstein field equations. We provide a relation between the extra dimension in 3-brane with the vacuum energy density. We show that the energy density of matter depends directly on the number of dimensions. We manage to find the value of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling α=1/4 which is a good agreement with the results in the literature, this correspondence creates a passage between f(R) gravity and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, this comparison leads to a number of bulk dimensions equal to D=10¹²¹+4.

This review presents an updated overview of research concerning Leishmania protein structures, primarily sourced from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), that play a role in the metabolic pathways of the Leishmania parasite. Furthermore, we assess the current progress in the identification and development of bioactive chemical agents aimed at addressing this substantially overlooked tropical disease. We have analyzed experimental data obtained from in vitro, in vivo and in silico sources. This data has been categorized into four main areas: a) vector taxonomy and geographic distribution; b) parasite taxonomy and geographic distribution; c) enzymatic functions of proteins engaged in parasite/host interactions throughout various developmental stages (such as oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases, ligases, and cytokines); and d) established and experimental treatments employing bioactive chemical compounds. Our objective is to establish a foundational point of reference for research efforts concentrating on the elucidation of interaction mechanisms and the processes of ligand-protein activation/inactivation, specifically linked to Leishmania infections. Consequently, we emphasize enzymes recognized for their involvement in the biochemical pathways incited during Leishmania infection episodes. This review encapsulates the current understanding, offering insights to inform and direct future explorations aimed at targeting proteins and pathways to enhance the management of Leishmania-related diseases.

A wealth of Full Waveform (FW) LiDAR data are available to the public from different sources, which is poised to boost the extensive application of FW LiDAR data. However, we lack a handy and open source tool that can be used by potential users for processing and analyzing FW LiDAR data. To this end, we introduce waveformlidar, an R package dedicated to FW LiDAR processing, analysis and visualization as a solution to the constraint. Specifically, this package provides several commonly used waveform processing methods such as Gaussian, adaptive Gaussian and Weibull decompositions, and deconvolution approaches (Gold and Richard-Lucy (RL)) with users’ customized settings. In addition, we also developed functions to derive commonly used waveform metrics for characterizing vegetation structure. Moreover, a new way to directly visualize FW LiDAR data is developed through converting waveforms into points to form the Hyper Point cloud (HPC), which can be easily adopted and subsequently analyzed with existing discrete-return LiDAR processing tools such as LAStools and FUSION. Basic explorations of the HPC such as 3D voxelization of the HPC and conversion from original waveforms to composite waveforms are also available in this package. All of these functions are developed based on small-footprint FW LiDAR data, but they can be easily transplanted to the large footprint FW LiDAR data such as Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data analysis. It is anticipated that these functions will facilitate the widespread use of FW LiDAR and be beneficial for better estimating biomass and characterizing vegetation structure at various scales. The package and code examples can be found at https://github.com/tankwin08/waveformlidar.

Quasi-solid composited electrolytes were produced by LiFSI initiated polymerized poly-(Dioxolane) (PDOL) with garnet-LLZO (Li7La2Zr3O12) nanofibers and used in lithium-metal batteries. Linear sweep voltammetry shows that the initial oxidation voltage of 4.6 V for Gel-10% (G10, 10% wt. LLZO in PDOL) vs Li/Li+. EIS test of stainless steel// stainless steel symmetric cells for Gel-1% (G1), Gel-5% (G5) and Gel-10% (G10) show ion conductivity (5*10-5 S/cm). Li/G10/Li symmetric cells have stable stripping-plating cycling performance over 1300 hours continuously with the current density of 0.1 mA/cm2 at 25 oC, indicating a good interface contact and stable lithium-ion transport pathway through the composite electrolytes. LFP/G10/Li batteries have stable charge-discharge plateau, low polarization voltage of 0.07-volt, energy efficiency of 95% and coulombic efficiency of ~99% at current density of 26.3 mA/g at 25 oC for over 100 cycles.

Identification and segmentation of rock particles is very important in geology, mining, engineering construction, and environmental monitoring. Traditional methods for recognizing the rock particle characteristics are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and limited by the geographical scope of the sampling sites, which makes it more difficult to represent the spatial distribution of the rock particles accurately. Recent advancements in deep learning techniques offer promising solutions to automate this process. This study aims at utilizing state-of-the-art (SOTA) Mask R-CNN deep learning algorithm from the Detectron2 framework, to capture global features of rocks that will enable the recognition of rock particles more efficiently, just from having the rock images. These images are subject to image processing techniques such as a Gaussian filter, to denoise and smoothen the image, and an Illumination Adaptive Transformer (IAT) framework, to adjust the lighting exposure; all of which add to improve the quality of the image dataset. Afterward, the Mask R-CNN and Detectron2 models are utilized in training the images using transfer learning. Experimental results from evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithms showcase the effectiveness of the approach, thereby highlighting its potential to revolutionize rock particle segmentation across various domains.

(R)-(+)-3,5-Dinitro-N-(1-phenylethyl)benzothioamide 1 is a potential chiral solvating agent (CSA) for the spectral resolution of enantiomers by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The single enantiomer of 1 was synthesized from commercially (R)-(+)-a-methylbenzylamine 2 in two-steps with 85% yield.

We study certain function algebras and their operator algebra completions on r-discrete abelian groupoids, the corresponding conditional expectations, maximal abelian subalgebras (masa) and eigen-functionals.

The enhanced multi-objective symbolic discretization for time series (eMODiTS) method employs a flexible discretization scheme using different value cuts for each non-equal time interval, which requires a computational cost for evaluating each objective function. Therefore, surrogate models were implemented to minimize this disadvantage. Nevertheless, each solution found by eMODiTS is a different-sized vector, so the surrogate model must be able to handle data sets under this characteristic. Consequently, this work's contribution lies in analyzing the surrogate models' implementation on the time series discretization, where each potential scheme is a real-number different-sized vector. For this reason, the surrogate model proposed was k-nearest Neighbors for regression with Dynamic Time Warping as a distance measure. Results suggest our proposal finds a suitable approximation to the final eMODiTS solutions with a functions evaluation reduction rate between 15% and 95%. However, according to Pareto front performance measures, the proposal Pareto front is competitive compared to the eMODiTS Pareto front, reaching an average Generational Distance (GD) between 0.0447 and 0.0536. Moreover, the average Hypervolume Ratio (HVR) ranges between 0.334 and 0.3891. Finally, our proposal compared against SAX-based methods presents a similar behavior regarding classification tasks and statistical tests.

In recent years, Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ACVD), Obesity and Diabetes, have increase exponentially worldwide. In the present work, we evaluate the genoprotective effect of consuming a flavonoids-rich chocolate and the improvement in the biochemical parameters related to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular risk and metabolic syndrome in young Mexican adults. A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was undertaken in the Autonomous University of Baja California. The treatments were a daily intake of 2 grams of dark chocolate containing 70% cooca or milk chocolate. Total phenolic compounds and flavonoids were evaluated in both chocolates. Anthropometrical and Biochemical parameters were measured in the 84 participants before and after the study. Buccal epithelial genotoxicity was also evaluated from the beginning to the end of the experiment in the participants. Result suggested that flavonoids of cocoa intake have protective effects against DNA damage, and Biochemical parameters (total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol level in blood) and anthropometrical parameters (waist circumference) were also improved after six months of daily intake of 2 grams of dark chocolate with a 70% of cocoa.

Symmetry concepts in parametrized dynamical systems may reduce the number of external parameters by a suitable normalization prescription. If, under the action of a symmetry group G, parameter space A becomes a (locally) trivial principal bundle, A ~ A/G x G, then the normalized dynamics only depends on the quotient A/G. In this way, the dynamics of fractional variables in homogeneous epidemic SI(R)S models, with standard incidence, absence of R-susceptibility and compartment independent birth and death rates, turns out to be isomorphic to (a marginally extended version of) Hethcote's classic endemic model, first presented in 1973. The paper studies a 10-parameter master model with constant and I -linear vaccination rates, vertical transmission and a vaccination rate for susceptible newborns. As recently shown by the author, all demographic parameters are redundant. After adjusting time scale, the remaining 5-parameter model admits a 3-dimensional abelian scaling symmetry. By normalization we end up with Hethcote's extended 2-parameter model. Thus, in view of symmetry concepts, reproving theorems on endemic bifurcation and stability in such models becomes needless.

Previous studies demonstrate the critical importance of non-coding RNAs interfacing with chromatin-modifying machinery resulting in promoter-enhancer-based gene regulation and raise the possibility that many other enhancer-like RNAs may operate via similar mechanisms. Critically, more than 80% of the disease-linked variations identified in genome-wide studies are located in the non-coding regions of genomes, especially non-coding RNA, suggesting non-coding RNAs are relevant to disease. Thus, a critical path forward for understanding non-coding RNAs' role, especially long non-coding RNAs, is to understand the genomic regions' transcriptional regulation, especially non-coding regions. Here, we developed a user-friendly R package called SomaGene for studying and identifying enhancer-like non-coding RNAs with enriched somatic mutations in the cancer genome. SomaGene accepts different genomic variants (whole genome/exome somatic point mutations, structural variations, copy number variations) to identify those RNAs that significantly mutated in diseases (e.g., cancer). It then uses multiple publicly available genomics and epigenetics datasets including ENCODE epigenomics annotations, FANTOM5 tissue-specific expression profiles, disease-associated genome-wide association SNPs, and tissue-specific eQTL pairs to identify those RNAs with potentially enhancer function. SomaGene, as a powerful R package, can provide the opportunity to cancer scientists to study the roles of non-coding RNAs in different cancer genomes.

The authors previously found a model of universal quantum computation by making use of the coset structure of subgroups of a free group $G$ with relations. A valid subgroup $H$ of index $d$ in $G$ leads to a \lq magic' state $\left|\psi\right\rangle$ in $d$-dimensional Hilbert space that encodes a minimal informationally complete quantum measurement (or MIC), possibly carrying a finite \lq contextual' geometry. In the present work, we choose $G$ as the fundamental group $\pi_1(V)$ of an exotic $4$-manifold $V$, more precisely a \lq small exotic' (space-time) $R^4$ (that is homeomorphic and isometric, but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean $\mathbb{R}^4$). Our selected example, due to to S. Akbulut and R.~E. Gompf, has two remarkable properties: (a) it shows the occurence of standard contextual geometries such as the Fano plane (at index $7$), Mermin's pentagram (at index $10$), the two-qubit commutation picture $GQ(2,2)$ (at index $15$) as well as the combinatorial Grassmannian Gr$(2,8)$ (at index $28$) , (b) it allows the interpretation of MICs measurements as arising from such exotic (space-time) $R^4$'s. Our new picture relating a topological quantum computing and exotic space-time is also intended to become an approach of \lq quantum gravity'.

In this article, we give a brief review of the origin of the neutrino mass in some interesting non-linear supersymmetric models with R-symmetry. These models are able to address and solve the most important problems of the particle physics and provide mechanisms for neutrino mass generation and their mixing parameters in agreement with the current experimental data. Their prediction could be experimentally tested in the near future by collider experiments.

This paper presents a script that classify spatial patterns of residential urban growth using a morpho-structural approach. The script performs a combination of variography analysis and morphological closings over buildings possessing a residential function in 2002 and 2017 within a region located in southern France named Centre-Var. The different bounding regions then allow classifying new residential buildings into different categories according to their degrees of clustering/scattering and to their locations regarding existing urban areas. Preliminary results show that this protocol is able to provide useful insights regarding the degree of contribution of each new residential building to different patterns of urban growth (clustered infill, scattered infill, clustered edge-expansion, scattered edge-expansion, clustered leapfrog and scattered leapfrog). Open-access to the script and to the test region data is provided.

This article introduces a new fractional approach to the concept of information dimension of complex networks, based on a (q,q′)-entropy proposed in the literature. The q parameter measures how far is the number of subsystems (for a given size ε) from the mean number of overall sizes. The q′ (interaction index) measures when the interactions between subsystems are greater (q′>1), lesser (q′<1) or equal to the interactions into these subsystems. The computations of the proposed information dimension are carried out on several real-world and synthetic complex networks. The results from the proposed information dimension are compared with those from the information dimension based on the Shannon entropy.

Background: Fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) have been proposed as an alternative to traditional metal alloys for the realization of frameworks in full-arch implant supported prostheses. The aim of the present in vitro study was to evaluate the deflection under load of seven prostheses endowed with frameworks made of different materials, including different types of fiber reinforced composites (FRCs). Methods: A master cast with four implant analogues in correspondence of the two lateral incisors and the two first molars was used to create full-arch fixed prostheses with the same shape and different materials. Prostheses were made in different materials (framework+veneering material): gold alloy+resin (Au+R), titanium+resin (Ti+R), FRC with multi-directional carbon fibers+resin (ICFRC+R), FRC with unidirectional carbon fibers+composite (UCFRC+C), FRC with glass fibers+resin (GFRC+R), FRC with glass fibers+composite (GFRC+C), resin (R, full-acrylic prosthesis). Flexural tests were conducted using Zwick/Roell Z 0.5 machine and the deflection of the lower surface of the prosthesis was measured in order to obtain load/deflection graphs. Results: Greater rigidity and less deflection were recorded for UCFRC+C, GFRC+C, followed by Ti+R, and Au+R. The greatest deformations were observed for resin alone, ICFRC+R and GFRC+R. The results were slightly different in the incisal region probably due to the greater amount of veneering material in this area. Conclusions: When used to realize full-arch frameworks, Au and Ti allow a predictable mechanical behavior with gradual deformations with increasing load. UCFRC also demonstrated good outcomes and less deflection than ICFRCs when loaded. The GFRC full-arch framework may be a valid alternative, however showed greater deflections. Further studies are needed in order to evaluated how different prosthesis design and material thickness might affect the outcomes.

Background: the Investigator ESSplex SE QS Kit (Qiagen) is a next generation PCR kit that, in 60 minutes, amplifies 17 STRs markers, including the 5 European Standard Set (ESS) loci, the SE33 marker and the locus Amelogenin for sex determination. Two Quality Sensors (QS1 and QS2) are co-amplified to check PCR performance. Since forensic laboratories carry out annually hundreds of DNA typing, we verified the kit performance using half reaction volumes with the aim to improve the number of samples that may amplified with a kit, reducing consequently the laboratory costs. Methods: in the study, that is intended as a technical note and not an internal validation, were analyzed control samples (oral swabs) with known DNA profiles and 40 real caseworks samples. Results: we observed that reducing the total reaction volume, while keeping unaltered all components ratio’s, yields DNA profiles comparable to the ones obtained using standard reaction volumes and with alleles peaks higher than with standard volumes.. Conclusions: the use of half volumes for PCR amplification allows the analysis of a wider number of samples than the standard protocol, reducing laboratory costs while maintaining unaltered the quality level of the analysis.

Telemedicine is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for clinical health care from a distance. The exchange of radiographic images and electronic patient health information/records (ePHI/R) for diagnostic purposes has the risk of confidentiality, ownership identity, and authenticity. In this paper, a data hiding technique for ePHI/R is proposed. The color information in the cover image is used for key generation, and stego-images are produced with ideal case. As a result, the whole stego-system is perfectly secure. This method includes the features of watermarking and steganography techniques. The method is applied to radiographic images. For the radiographic images, this method resembles watermarking, which is an ePHI/R data system. Experiments show promising results for the application of this method to radiographic images in ePHI/R for both transmission and storage purpose.

A facilitative transport system exists on the blood brain barrier (BBB) that has been tacitly assumed to be a path for glutamate entry to brain. But glutamate is a non-essential amino acid whose brain content is much greater than plasma, and studies in vivo show that glutamate does not enter brain in material quantities except in those small regions with fenestrated capillaries (circumventricular organs). The situation became understandable when luminal (blood facing) and abluminal (brain facing) membranes were isolated and studied separately. Facilitative transport of glutamate and glutamine exist only on the luminal membranes whereas Na+-dependent transport systems for glutamate, glutamine and some other amino acids are present only on the abluminal membrane. The Na+-dependent cotransporters of the abluminal membrane are in a position to actively transport amino acids from the extracellular fluid (ECF) into the endothelial cells of the BBB. These powerful secondary active transporters couple the energy of the Na+-gradient to move glutamate and glutamine into the ECF whereupon glutamate can exit to blood on the luminal facilitative glutamate transporter. Glutamine may also exit brain on a separate facilitative transport system that exists on the luminal membranes or glutamine can be hydrolyzed to glutamate within the BBB thereby releasing ammonia that is freely diffusible. The γ-glutamyl participate cycle participates indirectly by producing oxoproline (pyroglutamate) that stimulates almost all secondary active transporters yet discovered in the abluminal membranes of the BBB.

We investigate and discuss in detail the structure of the restricted singular value decomposition for a tensor triplet under t-product (T-RSVD). The algorithm is provided with a numerical example illustrating the main result. For applications, we consider color image watermarking processing with T-RSVD.

A Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker space-time model with all curvatures k=0,±1 is explored in f(R,T) gravity. The solutions are obtained via the parametrization of the scale factor that leads to a model transiting from a decelerated universe to an accelerating one. The physical features of the model are discussed and analysed.

Single image deraining (SID) has shown its importance in many advanced computer vision tasks. Though many CNN based image deraining methods have been proposed, how to effectively remove raindrops while maintaining background structure remains a challenge that needs to be overcome. Most of the deraining work focuses on removing rain streaks, but in heavy rain images, the dense accumulation of rainwater or the rain curtain effect significantly interferes with the effective removal of rain streaks, and often introduces some artifacts that make the scene more blurry. In this paper, we propose a new network structure R-PReNet for single image deraining with good background structure maintaining. This framework fully utilizes the cyclic recursive structure of PReNet. Moreover, we introduce residual channel prior (RCP) and feature fusion modules for better deraining performance by focusing on background feature information. Compared with the previous methods, our method has significantly improvement effect on the rainstorm image with the artifacts removing and good visual detail restoring.

We analyze the behavior of relativistic spherical objects within the context of modified $f(R,T)$ gravity considering Tolman VI spacetime, where gravitational lagrangian is a function of Ricci scalar(R) and trace of energy momentum tensor(T) i.e,$ f(R,T)= R+ 2\beta T$, for some arbitrary constant $\beta$. For developing our model, we have chosen $\pounds_{m} = -p$, where $ \pounds_{m}$ represents matter lagrangian. For this investigation, we have chosen three compact stars namely PSR J1614-2230 [Mass=(1.97$\pm$ 0.4)M$_\odot$; Radius= 9.69$_{-0.02} ^{+0.02}$ Km] ,Vela X-1 [Mass=(1.77$\pm$ 0.08)M$_\odot$; Radius= 9.560$_{-0.08} ^{+0.08}$ Km] and 4U 1538-52 [Mass=(9.69)M$_\odot$; Radius= 1.97 Km]. In this theory the equation of pressure isotropy is identical to standard Einstein's theory. So all known metric potential solving Einstein's equations are also valid here. In this paper, we have investigated the effort of coupling parameter ($\beta$) on the local matter distribution. Sound of speed and adiabatic index are higher with grater values of $\beta$ while on contrary mass function and gravitational redshift are lower with higher values of $\beta$ . For supporting the theoretical results, graphical representation are also employed to analyze the physical viability of the compact stars.

Dye sensitized solar cell technology is having an important role in renewable energy research due to its features and low cost manufacturing processes. Devices based on this technology appear very well suited for integration into glazing systems due to their characteristics of transparency, color tuning and manufacturing directly on glass substrates. Field data of thermal and electrical characteristics of dye sensitized solar modules (DSM) are important since they can be used as input of building simulation models for the evaluation of their energy saving potential when integrated into buildings. However still few works in the literature provide this information. The study here presented wants to contribute to fill this gap providing a thermal and electrical characterization of a DSM in real operating conditions using a method developed in house. This method uses experimental data coming from test boxes exposed outdoor and dynamic simulation to provide thermal transmittance and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of a DSM prototype. The device exhibits an U-value of 3.6 W/m²K, confirmed by an additional measurement carried on in the lab using a heat flux meter, and a SHGC of 0.2, value compliant with literature results. Electrical characterization evidences an increase of module power with respect to temperature causing DSM suitable for integration in building facades.

The main contribution of this paper is to develop a graphical tool to evaluate the suitability of a candidate parametric model to fit a data set. The practical motivation is to check the adequacy of the so called SAINT model proposed in Jarner and Kryger (2011). This model has been implemented in practice by an important European pension fund concerned with setting annuity reserves for all current or former employees of Denmark. So, one particular relevant question is whether this mortality model is actually fitting old-age. Our graphical test can be described as follows. First we transform the data by means of the parametric model which is being evaluated. Should the model be correct, the transformed data will be in accordance with an Exponential distribution with rate 1. Then we construct a family of local linear hazard estimates based on the data on the transformed scale. Finally we use the statistical tool SiZer to assess the goodness-of-fit of the Exponential distribution to the data on the transformed scale. If the model is correct the SiZer map should not reveal any significant feature in the family of kernel estimates. Our method allow us to establish a diagnostic regarding the validity of the SAINT model when describing mortality patterns in four different countries.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide receptor 1 (PAC1-R) has a higher affinity for pituitary adenylate cyclase- activating polypeptide (PACAP) than for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). PACAP exerts its neuroprotective effects through PAC1-R. PAC1-R has become a target for drug development, and we targeted PAC1-R to screen small positive allosteric modulator 1 (SPAM1). SPAM1 has a neuroprotective effects, and in the D-galactose (D-gal) mouse model, SPAM1 improved the structure of the hippocampal dentate gyrus and restored the number of neurons. Compared with D-gal model mice, SPAM1 treatment upregulated the expression of Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) and Lamin B1, and downregulated the expression of YinYang 1 (YY1) and p16. Consistent with this, the same results were obtained in senescent RGC-5 cells. Meanwhile, SPAM1 was also found to up-regulate SIRT6 and down-regulate YY1 expression in normal RGC-5 cells. Then, we further explored the mechanism of SPAM1 neuroprotection by whole transcriptome sequencing and proteomic analysis, and found that SPAM is involved in the longevity regulating pathway, and confirmed the up-regulation of neurofilament light polypeptide and neurofilament medium polypeptide by western blot, thus laying a pharmacological foundation for SPAM1 as a therapeutic agent for neurodegenerative diseases. polypeptide and neurofilament medium polypeptide. Thus, it lays a pharmacological foundation for SPAM1 as a therapeutic drug for neurodegenerative diseases.

In this paper, we first define the concepts of r-fuzzy soft α-open (semi-open and δ-open) sets on fuzzy soft topological spaces based on the article Aygunoglu et al. (Hacet. J. Math. Stat., 43 (2014), 193-208), and the relations of these sets with each other are established. In addition, we introduce the concepts of fuzzy soft δ-closure (δ-interior) operators, and study some properties of them. Also, the concept of r-fuzzy soft δ-connected sets is introduced and studied with help of fuzzy soft δ-closure operators. Thereafter, we define the concepts of fuzzy soft α-continuous (β-continuous, semi-continuous, pre-continuous and δ-continuous) functions, which are weaker forms of fuzzy soft continuity, and some properties of these functions along with their mutual relationships are discussed. Moreover, a decomposition of fuzzy soft α-continuity and a decomposition of fuzzy soft semi-continuity is obtained. Finally, as a weaker form of a fuzzy soft continuity, the concepts of fuzzy soft almost (weakly) continuous functions are defined, and some properties are specified. Additionally, we explore the notion of continuity in a very general setting called, fuzzy soft (L, M, N, O)-continuous functions and a historical justification is introduced.

Low-resource languages often face the problem of insufficient data, which leads to poor quality in machine translation. One approach to address this issue is data augmentation. Data augmentation involves creating new data by transforming existing data through methods such as flipping, cropping, rotating, and adding noise. Traditionally, pseudo-parallel corpora are generated by randomly replacing words in low-resource language machine translation. However, this method can introduce ambiguity as the same word may have different meanings in different contexts. This study proposes a new approach for low-resource language machine translation, which involves generating pseudo-parallel corpora by replacing phrases. The performance of this approach is compared with other data augmentation methods, and it is observed that combining it with other data augmentation methods further improves performance. To enhance the robustness of the model, R-Drop regularization is also used. R-Drop is an effective method for improving the quality of machine translation. The proposed method was tested on Chinese-Kazakh (Latin script) translation tasks, resulting in performance improvements of 4.99 and 7.7 for Chinese-to-Kazakh and Kazakh-to-Chinese translations, respectively.

Early detection of wildfires has been limited using the sun-synchronous orbit satellites due to their low temporal resolution and wildfires’ fast spread in the early stage. NOAA’s geostationary weather satellites GOES-R can acquire images every 15 minutes at 2km spatial resolution, and have been used for early fire detection. However, advanced processing algorithms are needed to provide timely and reliable detection of wildfires. In this research, a deep learning framework, based on Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), is proposed to detect wildfires at early stage using GOES-R dense time series data. GRU model maintains good performance on temporal modelling while keep a simple architecture, makes it suitable to efficiently process time-series data. 36 different wildfires in North and South America under the coverage of GOES-R satellites are selected to assess the effectiveness of the GRU method. The detection times based on GOES-R are compared with VIIRS active fire products at 375m resolution in NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). The results show that GRU-based GOES-R detections of the wildfires are earlier than that of the VIIRS active fire products in most of the study areas. Also, results from proposed method offer more precise location on the active fire at early stage than GOES-R Active Fire Product in mid-latitude and low-latitude regions.

We present a methodology to enable users to interact with statistical information owned by an institution and stored in a cloud infrastructure. Mainly based on R, this approach was developed following the open-data philosophy. Also, since we use R, the implementation is mainly based on open-source software. R gives several advantages from the point of view of data management and acquisition, as it becomes a common framework that can be used to structure the processes involved in any statistical operation. This simplifies the access to the data and enable to use all the power of R in the cloud information. This methodology was applied successfully to develop a tool to manage the data of the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió, but it can be applied to other institutions to enable open access to its data. The infrastructure also was deployed to a cloud infrastructure, to assure the scalability and a 24/7 access.

The present work aimed to validate a low-cost passive monitoring procedure. For its validation, the monitoring of atmospheric organic pollutants - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) was carried out in a capital of the central-western region of Brazil. The sensors were fixed on poles intended for electrification during the dry season. After 15 days, samples were extracted by solvent extraction and analysed by High-Resolution Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (HRGC-FID). For the validation of the procedure, PAHs monitored and standardised by the American Environmental Agency (EPA), a benchmark for environmental monitoring of air quality by several countries, were analysed. The results demonstrated that the low-cost passive monitoring method was effective in the quantification of PAH in the environment-air, capable of being used by countries that do not have many resources for monitoring air quality.

The oil and gas industry in Nigeria, a vital contributor to the nation's economy, has long been associated with significant environmental challenges. Pollution, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions have raised global concerns about sustainability and corporate responsibility. This empirical study explores the relationship between environmental accounting practices and the financial performance of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. We investigated eight oil and gas companies that are publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market (NGX) as of January 17, 2022, from 2011 to 2022. The study employs Driscoll-Kraay standard errors and reveals that environmental accounting had significant effects on returns on assets, earnings per share, and liquidity ratio. The study revealed that the implementation of environmental accounting practices had diverse effects on the performance of oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The findings encourage policymakers and stakeholders in the sector to utilise the insights and design more effective regulations and incentives that promote environmental corporate responsibility. Also, valuable insights into the potential benefits and challenges associated with adopting environmental accounting practices, and influencing the decision-making processes of corporate stakeholders were provided to ensure sustainability in terms of improved financial performance of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

The review scrutinizes the currently performed research on the new methods for enhancing bituminous binder performance through radiation and radical grafting of polymer modifers of bitumen. It investigates innovative methods, including using waste polymers as modifiers, and applying radiation for polymer grafting, to overcome challenges like high costs, low aging resistance and storage stability issues, of which separation of phases polymer/bitumen is the most significant obstacle. These advanced modification techniques promise sustainability through the decrease of the carbon footprint of transportation systems by improving the properties and durability of binders. Additionally, the review discusses the parameters and mechanistic aspects from a scientific perspective, shedding light on the underlying processes that contribute to the improved performance of modified bituminous binders.

It has been proven that in standard Einstein gravity, exotic matter (i.e. matter violating the point-wise and averaged weak and null energy conditions) is required to stabilize traversable wormholes. Quantum field theory permits these violations due to the quantum coherent effects found in any quantum field . Even reasonable classical scalar fields violate the energy conditions. In the case of the Casimir effect and squeezed vacuum states, these violations have been experimentally proven. It is advantageous to investigate methods of minimizing the use of exotic matter. One such area of interest is extended theories of Einstein gravity. It has been claimed that in some extended theories, stable traversable wormholes solutions can be found without the use of exotic matter. There are many extended theories of gravity and in this review paper we first explore f(R) theories and then explore some wormhole solutions in f(R) theories including Lovelock gravity.

We analyse recent contradictory results and conclusions about the spectrum of the screened Coulomb potential $V(r)=-r^{-1}e^{-C/r}$. The well known Hellmann-Feynman theorem shows that all the bound states of the Coulomb potential ($C=0$) remain bounded as $C$ increases. We derive a simple approximate analytical expression for the eigenvalues for sufficiently small values of the screening parameter $C$ and an approximate asymptotic expression for the asymptotic behaviour of the s-state eigenvalues when $C\rightarrow \infty $. Present results are expected to resolve the discrepancy about the spectrum of the quantum-mechanical model just mentioned.

A locally-rotationally-symmetric Bianchi-I model filled with strange quark matter (SQM) is explored in f(R, T) gravity. We take f(R, T) = R + 2 f(T) = R + 2λT, where R is the Ricci scalar, T is the trace of energy-momentum tensor and λ is an arbitrary constant. Exact solutions are obtained by assuming that the expansion scalar is proportional to the shear scalar. This yields a constant value for the deceleration parameter, q = 2, which corresponds to the decelerated phase of the universe. The model is found to be physically viable for λ < −1. SQM during early evolution mimics ultra-relativistic radiation whereas at late times, it behaves as dust, quintessence or even the cosmological constant depending on the value of λ. The effective matter acts as a stiff fluid irrespective of the matter content and of the f(R, T) terms. The model is shear free at late times but remains anisotropic throughout the evolution. In the absence of the f(R, T) terms, SQM accelerates the universe. In the specific case when SQM vanishes at late times, the effect of f(R, T) is to accelerate the universe. The model admits the possibility that SQM could be an alternative to dark energy.

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a suitable nanoscale reinforcement for thermosetting polymers, such as epoxy resin systems in order to modify its mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. The inclusion of POSS in the epoxy resin at higher loading (greater than 1 wt.%), however, introduces the ductility during the fracture behavior of these nanocomposites. Consequently, the J-integral is used to quantify the fracture behavior of these materials and characterize the crack growth resistance curve against stable crack growth. A range of nanocomposites is prepared by adding 0.5, 1, 3, 5, and 8 wt.% of glycidyl POSS into DGEBF epoxy resin cured with an amine-based curing agent. From the fracture toughness experiment the load-displacement result confirms that when the POSS reinforcement is greater than 1 wt.%, the fracture behavior of the nanocomposite changes from brittle to ductile. For both brittle and ductile nanocomposites, the addition of POSS molecules improves the crack initiation toughness. The development of POSS–POSS compliant domains are reported previously, is attributed for this change in the failure behavior. The fractured images of POSS–epoxy nanocomposites, obtained using scanning electron microscopy, show that the increase in fracture resistance at higher values of POSS loading occurs due to the extensive shear yielding. Meanwhile, the increased fracture toughness at lower values of POSS loading occurs due to crack pinning and crack deflection.

We obtain exact solutions to the field equations for 5 dimensional LRS Bianchi type-I spacetime in $f(R,T)$ theory of gravity where specifically the following three cases are considered: (i) $f(R,T)=\mu(R+T)$, (ii) $f(R,T)=R \mu + R T \mu^2$ and (iii) $f(R,T)=R+\mu R^2+\mu T$ where $R$ and $T$ respectively the Ricci scalar and trace of the energy-momentum tensor. It is found that the equation of state (EOS) parameter $w$ is governed by the parameter $\mu$ involved in the $f(R,T)$ expressions. We fine-tune the parameter $\mu$ to obtain effect of phantom energy in the model, however we also restrict this parameter to obtain a stable model of the universe. It is noted that the model isotropizes at finite cosmic time.

In this paper, we introduce a new generalization of the r-Stirling numbers of the second kind based on the q-numbers via an exponential generating function. We investigate their some properties and derive several relations among q-Bernoulli numbers and polynomials, and newly de…ned (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind. We also obtain q-Bernstein polynomials as a linear combination of (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind and q-Bernoulli polynomials in w.

Fowlpox virus (FPV) has been used as a vector for many years. To date, surprisingly, very little data exist on the persistence of fowlpox vaccines in chicken tissues, or what kind of immune cells respond to the vaccination at the site of inoculation. Although both humoral and cellular mediated immunity (CMI) play a part in overall immunity against FPV, little is known regarding the cell-mediated immune responses to FPV infection. The main aim of this paper was to measure persistence of the recombinant fowlpox vaccine in the skin tissues following vaccination. The results showed that the recombinant FPVs do not persist for long, and are cleared by 6 days post-vaccination (dpv). The response of immune cells (macrophages, B cells, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) that infiltrating the site of vaccination was estimated.

The mining industry is known for the intense environmental impacts it triggers, especially when it is developed in an open environment. Pit lakes are formed in depleted deposits and may be promising opportunities for use by society as well as troubling environmental liabilities. While these artificial basins are increasing numerically in many parts of the world, they are still little known researchers in the Environmental Sciences, which makes their environmental management challenging. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental quality of sediments from three deactivated open-pit gold mines, located in the Mara Rosa, Brazil, through chemical, ecotoxicological and genotoxicology analyses. For this purpose, we collected samples in the dry season boom, and subsequently, we analysed metals. In sequence, acute ecotoxicological and a genotoxicology test (comet assay) were developed with Danio rerio fishes, in concentrations of 3.12%; 6.25%; 12.5%; 25%; 50% and 100%, in addition to the control group. The results indicated that the three lakes are environmentally compromised, especially Lago Azul, whose waters and sediments are undergoing an intense process of geological conditioning. Our results did not verify the ecotoxicity of the sediments of any of the lakes, only behavioural alterations in the test organisms exposed to the concentrations of 25%, 50% and 100% of the samples obtained in the Lago Azul. About the sediments, DNA damage at Danio rerio was detected in the three investigated environments, although fishes kept in the water sampled at Lago Azul presented the most extension of DNA damages.

Chamois are mountain ungulates (Subfamily Caprinae) which inhabit several medium and high altitude mountain ranges from southern Europe to the Near East. The first findings of Sarcocystis cysts in the musculature of chamois were reported in the 1970s. However, only limited work on the epidemiology of sarcocystosis and identification of the species of Sarcocystis in chamois has been done in the past. The present work was part of a comprehensive study on the parasites of chamois in Germany aiming to provide, for the first time, data on the prevalence and intensity of Sarcocystis infection in native Alpine chamois using histology examination of heart and/or diaphragm tissue samples collected from 216 chamois (40 kids and 176 chamois ranging of one up to 18 years of age). Sarcocysts were detected in either heart or diaphragm of 167/216 chamois (77.3%) with 131 of 183 heart samples and 127 of 215 diaphragm samples testing sarcocyst positive. Of the 181 chamois with both heart and diaphragm available (34 kids and animals up to 18 years of age), sarcocysts were detected in heart and/or diaphragm of 142 animals translating in an overall 78.5% prevalence of Sarcocystis infection (95%CI 72.5% - 84.4%). Sarcocysts were more frequently recorded in heart vs. diaphragm (72.4% vs. 56.4%; p=0.0021), and diaphragm positivity was associated with heart positivity (p=0.0001). Sarcocyst positivity (heart and/or diaphragm) was significantly (p<0.001) lower in kids than in the older chamois (27.1% vs. 88.6%, respectively) but prevalence did not differ between the sexes, regardless of the chamois’ age (p>0.3). Intensity of infection was generally low (<10 sarcocysts per cm² muscle cut) in both heart positive and diaphragm positive animals (94.7% and 93.7%, respectively) with heart yielding higher sarcocyst counts than diaphragm (p<0.001). Both heart and diaphragm sarcocyst counts were significantly (p<0.001) lower in kids than in the older chamois. Sarcocystis infection was demonstrated to be prevalent in chamois in Germany but intensity is apparently low. Further studies are desired to identify the species of Sarcocystis parasitizing the chamois using both phenotypic and molecular characteristics.

Alzheimer´s Disease (AD) has currently no effective treatment; however, preventive measures can significantly delay the progress/onset of the disease. Thus, accurate and early prediction of risk is an important strategy to alleviate the AD burden. Neuroinflammation is a major factor prompting the onset of the disease. Inflammation exerts its toxic effect via multiple mechanisms. Amongst others, it is affecting gene expression via modulation of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as miRNAs. Recent evidence supports that inflammation can also affect long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) expression. While the association between miRNAs and inflammation in AD has been extensively studied, the role of lncRNAs in neurodegenerative diseases has been less explored. In this review, we focus on lncRNAs and inflammation in the context of AD. Furthermore, since plasma-isolated extracellular vesicles (EVs) are increasingly recognized as an effective monitoring strategy of brain pathologies, we have focused on the studies reporting dysregulated lncRNAs in EVs isolated from AD patients and controls. The revised literature shows a positive association between pro-inflammatory lncRNAs and AD. However, the reports evaluating lncRNAs alterations in EVs isolated from plasma of patients and controls, although still limited confirm the value of specific lncRNAs associated with AD as reliable biomarkers. This is an emerging field that will open new avenues to improve risk prediction, patients’ stratification and may lead to the discovery of potential novel therapeutic targets for AD

Residual dizziness after a liberating maneuver is often referred to by patients as a more disabling set of symptoms than the positional vertigo itself. This situation seems to involve more than half of subjects with labyrintholithiasis. The authors examine the hypothesis according to which residual dizziness involves subjects with labyrintholithiasis on the basis of otoconia.

The vast array of interconnected microbes across earth’s ecosystems and within holobionts has been called the “Internet of Microbes.” Research into the fundamental microbial properties has demonstrated that bacteria and archaea are masters of energy and information collection, storage, transformation, and dissemination using both “wired” and wireless (at a distance) capacities. These features suggest that microbes are quantum entangled within and between earth’s holobionts, and that specific tools affecting energy and information functions could provide an effective strategy for managing microbial populations. Microbes use four critically important microbial networking functions (sound, light, electricity, and magnetism). This narrative review focuses on microbial management based on two of the four: sound and light (as well as related vibrations). These are examined as: 1) tools for managing microbial populations, 2) tools to support new technologies, and 3) tools for healing humans and other holobionts. Given microbial sensitivity to sound, light, and vibrations, it is critical that microbial populations and microbe-laden holobionts are protected from potentially damaging exposures. We conclude that sound, light, and vibrations are useful therapeutic tools that can help support useful microbial populations and help to address ongoing challenges of holobiont disease.

Lung cancer remains the main cause of global cancer-related deaths. Currently low-dose computed tomography (LD-CT) shows a 20% reduction of mortality. However, its clinical suitability is hindered by cost, radiation, and some false positives. Thus, the discovery non-invasive and less-expensive biomarker is urgent needed. In this scenario, proteins released in biological fluids could be considered interesting biomarkers for their role in cancer development. We conducted a pioneering case-control pilot study aimed at assessing the usefulness of Raf Kinase Inhibitory Protein (RKIP) and its phosphorylated form (pRKIP) as potential early-stage lung cancer biomarkers. Urine and Blood samples of two consecutive and independent cohorts of lung cancer patients and healthy controls were screened by means of a novel experimental ELISA assay designed to evaluate both forms of the biomarker. Although urinary levels of RKIP were not statistically different between the lung cancer group and high-risk healthy group, serum ones instead increased significantly in early stage LC patients and permitted to discriminate LC patients from both low-risk (HS) and high-risk healthy subjects (HR-HS) with an overall 93% accuracy (AUC 0.93) when LC was compared to HS and 74% (AUC 0.73) when it was compared to high-risk group. Of note, the analysis of RKIP/pRKIP ratio also showed a high accuracy (90% - AUC 0.95) in discriminating LC patients from HS and more importantly, it allowed to identify LC patients compared to HR-HS, with a higher accuracy (79% - AUC 0.79) than RKIP alone. We hypothesize that serum RKIP levels may be correlated to the activation of the immune systems against the tumor during the first phases of its development. Our study identified a preliminary, non-invasive, RKIP and pRKIP profile able to discriminate with high specificity and sensitivity the early-stage lung cancer patients from high-risk Healthy Subjects. These results, although preliminary, suggest the utility of measuring RKIP/pRKIP as potential new screening test for lung cancer and provide the basis for future validation studies.

Recently, a significant number of tools for detecting dangerous objects have been developed. Unfortunately, the performance offered by them is overestimated due to the poor quality of the datasets used (insufficiently numerous, contain items not strictly related to dangerous objects, insufficient range of presentation conditions). To fill in a gap in this area we have built an extensive dataset dedicated to detecting the objects most often used in various acts of breaching public security (baseball bat, gun, knife, machete, rifle). This collection contains images presenting the detected objects with different quality and under different environmental conditions. We believe that the results obtained from it are more reliable and give a better idea of the detection accuracy that can be achieved under real conditions. We used the Faster R-CNN with different backbone networks in the study. The best results were obtained for the ResNet152 backbone. The mAP value was 85%, while the AP level ranged from 80% to 91%, depending on the item detected. An average real-time detection speed was 11-13 FPS. Both the accuracy and speed of the Faster R-CNN model allow it to be recommended for use in public security monitoring systems aimed at detecting potentially dangerous objects.

The article explores Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), an approach for establishing causal relationships between conditions and outcomes. QCA, applied in case studies and empirical analyses, facilitates generalizations for future research and addresses causal complexity by identifying various causal "recipes" leading to the same outcome. Three widely used QCA variants are Crisp-Set QCA (csQCA), Multi-value QCA (mvQCA), and Fuzzy-Set QCA (fsQCA), each with unique approaches. The article emphasizes the significance of bibliometric analysis in mapping a research field's intellectual structure, revealing key contributions and trends. In QCA, bibliometric analysis identifies leading researchers, affiliations, and influential countries. Results show QCA's widespread adoption across disciplines, with continuous growth in article production since 2013. The favored variant is fsQCA, followed by csQCA, and China notably contributes to QCA-related research. In conclusion, QCA proves a potent tool for discerning complex causal relationships in empirical studies, with its increasing interdisciplinary use indicating substantial potential for advancing scientific knowledge.

This paper introduces the spatial component in cross-section econometric estimations and specifically, the spatial dependence effect inherent in some of the variables involved in the modelling process. First, the spatial structure of the data from thematic maps is observed and Moran's spatial autocorrelation indicators are presented. Subsequently, the spatial weights matrix is built under different specifications. Finally, several modelling specification strategies are shown and the interpretation of the estimated coefficients. The theoretical concepts are illustrated with examples and their corresponding R software codes. This code and databases are available in a freely accessible repository in the BE2SHARE-EUDAT platform so that they can be easily reproduced.

This paper introduces an application of R programming language for geostatistical data processing with a case study of the Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean. The formation of the Mariana Trench, the deepest among all hadal oceanic depth trenches, is caused by complex and diverse geomorphic factors affecting its development. Mariana Trench crosses four tectonic plates: Mariana, Caroline, Pacific and Philippine. The impact of the geographic location and geological factors on its geomorphology has been studied by methods of statistical analysis and data visualization using R libraries. The methodology includes following steps. Firstly, vector thematic data were processed in QGIS: tectonics, bathymetry, geomorphology and geology. Secondly, 25 cross-section profiles were drawn across the trench. The length of each profile is 1000-km. The attribute information has been derived from each profile and stored in a table containing coordinates, depths and thematic information. Finally, this table was processed by methods of the statistical analysis on R. The programming codes and graphical results are presented. The results include geospatial comparative analysis and estimated effects of the data distribution by tectonic plates: slope angle, igneous volcanic areas and depths. The innovativeness of this paper consists in a cross-disciplinary approach combining GIS, statistical analysis and R programming.

Radar altimetry provides valuable measurements to characterize the state and the evolution of the Antartica and Greenland ice sheet cover. Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has the potential capacity of complementing the dedicated radar altimeters incrementing the temporal and spatial resolution of the surface height measurements. In this work we perform an study of the Greenland ice sheet using data obtained by the GNSS-R instrument aboard the British TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) satellite mission, designed primarily to provide sea state information, like sea surface roughness or wind, but not altimetric products. The data has been analyzed with altimetric methodologies, already proved in aircraft based experiments, to extract signal delay observables to be used to infer the topography of the Greenland cover. The penetration depth of the GNSS signals into ice has also considered. The topographic signal obtained is consistent with those obtained with other passive or active microwave sensors. The main conclusion derived from this work is that GNSS-R also provides valuable measurements of the ice sheet cover and, as taken at a variety of geometries and at least two frequency bands, they prospect different depths into the ice. They have thus potential to complement our understanding of the ice firn and its evolution.

In this paper, we explore a new norm on L^p-space called r-norm, and hence producing a new normed space called r-normed space. Measure theoretic and functional analytic properties are covered such as the relation between r-norm and the classical p-norm. An application of r-normed space in probability theory and statsitics is also presented, notably, its role as a rigorous framework in describing the coefficient of determination.

Motivation: UCSC Xena platform provides huge amounts of processed cancer omics data from big public projects like TCGA or individual reserach groups for enabling unprecedented research opportunities. In 2019, we developed UCSCXenaTools, an R package for retrieval of UCSC Xena data. However, an easier dataset exploration and analysis tool is still lack, especially for researchers without programming experience. Results: We develop UCSCXenaShiny, an R Shiny package to quickly explore, download all datasets from UCSC Xena data hubs. In addiction, a module based analysis framework is constructed to analyze and visualize data. Availability: https://github.com/openbiox/UCSCXenaShiny or https://cran.r-project.org/package=UCSCXenaShiny.

In this paper we have defined the effect of bulk viscosity on Quintessence model and scaler field potential as well as on classical field. We have shown the same effect for modified gravity with f(R,T)= R+f(T). In the derivation we have predicted the possibility of time dependent evolution of gravitational constant G and anisotropy.

Background: Several kinds of research say that adjuvant blood glucose and blood pressure are usual, but an efficient solution for medical application count remains. This review analyzes the pandemic blood pressure and blood glucose to identify the publications which tell about the clinical practices and research gaps in systematic research.Methods: A study guides to identify the research of Blood Pressure (BP) and Blood Glucose. In order to analyze the recent innovations and research on BP and Blood glucose, the relevant publications and literature from journals were identified.Results: Co-morbidity of BP and Blood glucose is reported as very high. The commonness of blood pressure is thrice as high in type I diabetes patients and almost two times higher in type II diabetes patients when compared to others without Diabetes. The pervasiveness of getting depression is more in the female when compared with men. A detailed study about the linkage of BP and blood glucose tells that the relationship between them is not exactly clear.Limitations: Nearly all reviews providing the linkage of BP and blood glucose are with some limitations and they are not providing any clear conclusion.Conclusions: Present research tells that people having high blood glucose will have a greater chance of getting high blood pressure. More research is needed to state the linkage between BP, blood glucose, and the growth of diabetes mellitus issues and to provide support for managing Diabetes.

Micellar Casein Concentrate (MCC) is manufactured from microfiltration (MF) of skim milk utilizing ceramic or polymeric membrane filtration. While ceramic filtration has higher efficiency, use of polymeric is cost effective and the process is familiar to several US dairy processors. The aim of the present study was to develop an optimized membrane filtration process to produce MCC using spiral wound polymeric membrane filtration (SW MF) system by systematic selection of transmembrane pressure (TMP) and level of diafiltration (DF). Using skim milk as feed material, preliminary lab-scale MF experiments were conducted using 0.5 µm polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. Three TMP (34.5, 62.1, and 103.4 kPa) and three levels of DF (70, 100, and 150%) along with a process without DF as control were used in the study. Effect of TMP and effectiveness of DF on flux rates, SP removal, casein to total protein (CN/TKN) ratio, casein to true protein (CN/TP) ratio, rejection of casein (rej CN) and SP (rej SP) were evaluated. At all TMP values used in the study, the overall flux (O Flux) increased with the level of DF. Highest O Flux of 30.77 liter per meter square per hour (LMH) was obtained with 34.5 kPa pressure and 150% DF. The impact of DF was more pronounced at lower pressures than at the higher pressures used in the study. With controlled DF, instantaneous flux was maintained within 80% of initial flux for the entire process run. For all the experiments, casein has a rejection of 0.97 to 1.0, while serum protein has the lowest rejection of 0.10 at 34.5 kPa pressure and 150% DF level. Use of 34.5 kPa and DF level of 150 % contributed to 81.45% SP removal, and casein to true protein ratio of 0.96. SP removal data from the lab-scale experiments were fitted into a mathematical model using DF and square of TMP as factors. The model predicts SP removal within 90-95% of actual SP removal got from the pilot plant experiments.

Yerba maté, an herbal tea derived from Ilex paraguariensis, has previously been reported to be protective against obesity-related and other cardiometabolic disorders. Using high-resolution respirometry and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, the effects of four weeks of yerba maté consumption on mitochondrial efficiency and cellular redox status in skeletal muscle, adipose, and liver, tissues highly relevant to whole body metabolism, were explored in healthy adult mice. Yerba maté treatment increased mitochondrial oxygen consumption in adipose, but not in other tissues examined. Yerba maté increased ATP concentration in skeletal muscle and decreased ATP concentration in adipose. Combined with observed changes in oxygen consumption, these data yielded a significantly higher ATP:O2, a measure of mitochondrial efficiency, in muscle and a significantly lower ATP:O2 in adipose, which were consistent with yerba maté-induced weight loss. Yerba maté treatment also altered the hepatic glutathione (GSH)/glutathione disulfide (GSSG) redox potential to a more reduced redox state, suggesting potential protective effects against oxidative stress and preservation of cellular function. Together, these data indicate beneficial, tissue-specific effects of yerba maté supplementation on mitochondrial bioenergetics and redox states in healthy mice that are protective against obesity.

This study empirically analyzes how R&D expenditures affect firm value using a regression model for listed firms in Shandong Province, China. The dependent variable is measured by To-bin Q, which measures firm value, and the experimental variable among the independent varia-bles is R&D expenditure. In addition, financial leverage and firm size, which have been found to have a significant impact on firm value in previous studies, were selected as control variables. The study sample consisted of 554 data points analyzed over a nine-year period from 2010 to 2018. Without controlling for variables that affect firm value, the correlation analysis shows that R&D expenditures of listed firms in Shandong Province, China have a significant positive impact on firm value at the 1% level. For a more precise analysis, we ran a multivariate regression analysis controlling for other variables that affect firm value and found that R&D expenditure has a significant positive impact on firm value at the 1% level. These findings suggest that man-agers of listed companies in Shandong Province, China, need to actively engage in R&D activi-ties to increase firm value. Companies in Shandong Province, China, are currently experiencing very strong growth, and this study, which shows that R&D is the key to increasing the value of these companies, can help companies in Shandong formulate their business strategies.

In this article we estimate the value of “Non-R&D Innovation Expenditures” in Europe. We use data from the European Innovation Scoreboard-EIS of the European Commission from the period 2010-2019. We test data with the following econometric models i.e.: Pooled OLS, Dynamic Panel, Panel Data with Fixed Effects, Panel Data with Random Effects, WLS. We found that “Non-R&D Innovation Expenditures” is positively associated among others to “Innovation Index” and “Firm Investments” and negatively associated among others to “Human Resources” and “Government Procurement of Advanced Technology Products”. We use the k-Means algorithm with either the Silhouette Coefficient and the Elbow Method in a confrontation with the network analysis optimized with the Distance of Manhattan and we find that the optimal number of clusters is four. Furthermore, we propose a confrontation among eight machine learning algorithms to predict the level of “Non-R&D Innovation Expenditures” either with Original Data-OD either with Augmented Data-AD. We found that Gradient Boost Trees Regression is the best predictor for OD while Tree Ensemble Regression is the best Predictor for AD. Finally, we verify that the prediction with AD is more efficient of that with OD with a reduction in the average value of statistical errors equal to 40,50%.

Stage of cancer is a discrete ordinal response that indicates aggressiveness of disease and is often used by physicians to determine the type and intensity of treatment to be administered. For example, the FIGO stage in cervical cancer is based on the size and depth of the tumor as well as the level of spread. It may be of clinical relevance to identify molecular features from high-throughput genomic assays that are associated with stage of cervical cancer, to elucidate pathways related to tumor aggressiveness, identify improved molecular features that may be useful for staging, and identify therapeutic targets. High-throughput RNA-Seq data and corresponding clinical data (including stage) for cervical cancer patients has been made available through The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA). We recently described penalized Bayesian ordinal response models that can be used for variable selection for over-parameterized datasets such as the TCGA-CESC dataset. Herein, we describe our ordinalbayes R package, available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN), which is capable of fitting cumulative logit models when the outcome is ordinal and the number of predictors exceeds the sample size, P>N, such as for TCGA data. We demonstrate use of this package through application to TCGA cervical cancer dataset. Our ordinalbayes package can be used to fit models to high-dimensional dataset and effectively performs variable selection.

In this paper we define a continuous wavelet transform of a Schwartz tempered distribution $f \in S^{'}(\mathbb R^n)$ with wavelet kernel $\psi \in S(\mathbb R^n)$ and derive the corresponding wavelet inversion formula interpreting convergence in the weak topology of $S^{'}(\mathbb R^n)$. It turns out that the wavelet transform of a constant distribution is zero and our wavelet inversion formula is not true for constant distribution, but it is true for a non-constant distribution which is not equal to the sum of a non-constant distribution with a non-zero constant distribution.

The study focuses on the application of R programming language towards marine geological research with a case study of Mariana Trench. Due to its logical and straightforward syntax, multi-functional standard libraries, R is especially attractive to the geologists for the scientific computing. Using R libraries, the unevenness of various factors affecting Mariana Trench geomorphic structure has been studied. These include sediment thickness, slope steepness, angle aspect, depth at the basement and magmatism of the nearby areas. Methods includes using following R libraries: {ggplot2} for regression analysis, Kernel density curves, compositional charts; {ggalt} for Dumbbell charts for data comparison by tectonic plates, ranking dot plots for correlation analysis; {vcd} for mosaic plots, silhouette plots for compositional similarities among the bathymetric profiles, association plots; {car} for ANOVA. Bathymetric GIS data processing was dome in QGIS and LaTeX. The innovativeness of the work consists in the multi-disciplinary approach combining GIS analysis and statistical methods of R which contributes towards studies of ocean trenches, aimed at geospatial analysis of big data.

Automated Electrocardiogram (ECG) processing is an important technique which helps in identifying abnormalities in the heart before any formal diagnosis. This research presents a real-time and lightweight R-assisted feature extraction algorithm and a heartbeat classification scheme which achieves highly accurate abnormality detection. In the proposed algorithm, we extract fifteen features from each heartbeat taken from raw Lead-II ECG signals. The features carry medically valuable information such as locations, amplitude and energy of ECG waves (P, Q, R, S, T waves) which are then used for detection of any abnormality that might be present in the heartbeat using various classification algorithms. We have used four popular databases from Physionet and extracted ten thousand ECG signals from each for training the models and benchmarking results. Four classification models i.e. Naïve Bays, k-Nearest Neighbor, Neural Network, Decision Tree were used for abnormality detection validating the efficiency of the system.

Biodiversity has become an issue of global anxiety over the past decades due to its rapid decline worldwide. Bangladesh as one of the most densely populated countries in the world is no more exception. The country, although, was once very rich in biodiversity, during the last few decades as a consequence of the rapid reduction in forest area, urbanisation, habitat modification, unsustainable natural resources use and collection and overall climate change it has decreased alarmingly. Of late, the government, as a signatory of various regional and international conservation treaties, has taken various initiatives to improve country’s dwindling biodiversity. This paper reviews the present situation of biodiversity in Bangladesh, management trends and major causes of biodiversity loss. A separate statutory body is fundamental to ensure conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits arisen from biodiversity in the country.

Previous studies showed that some lamellarin-resembling annelated azaheterocyclic carbaldehydes and related imino adducts, sharing the 1-phenyl-5,6-dihydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline (1-Ph-DHPIQ) scaffold, are cytotoxic in tumor cells and may reverse multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Herein, we synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity in four tumor cell lines (RD, HCT116, HeLa, A549) and ability of inhibiting P-gp-mediated MDR some ten diversely substituted 1-Ph-DHPIQ derivatives bearing at position 2 carboxylate groups (COOH, COOEt), nitriles (CN) and Mannich bases (e.g., morpholinomethyl derivatives). Lipophilicity parametrization and molecular docking calculations improved the understanding of the structure-activity relationships in cytotoxicity and P-gp inhibition of the investigated 1-Ph-DHPIQs, which led us to disclose a novel Mannich base HCl salt (8b’), which proved to be cytotoxic to all the tested tumor cell lines in the low micromolar range (IC50 &lt; 20 M) and to inhibit in-vitro the efflux pumps P-gp and MRP1 responsible for MDR, with IC50s of 0.45 and 12.1 M, respectively.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is believed to follow a waxing and waning course, often according to environmental stressors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-existing OCD symptoms were reported to increase and to change from checking to washing behaviors, while new-onset symptoms were predominantly of the hoarding type. In the present study, we followed the evolution of OCD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and insight of illness in forty-six OCD patients throughout the pandemic. Clinical measures were collected at four different time points before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Within-subject comparisons were used to compare clinical scale scores across time, and correlations were examined between patients' baseline characteristics and changes in clinical scores. We found that all clinical measures increased during the first Italian lockdown, with respect to the pre-pandemic values. Anxiety decreased during the temporary elimination of restriction provisions, whereas severity of OCD symptoms and insight returned to pre-pandemic values during the second mandatory lockdown. These results were observed only in two sub-groups of patients: those taking benzodiazepines and those with shorter illness duration. Our findings suggest the need of additional clinical attention to these specific sub-groups of OCD patients in case of particularly distressing circumstances, while pointing to a possible adaptive role of their OCD symptoms when the environment requires a higher care of hygiene and extraordinary supply of essential resources.

Ridge regression is one of the most popular shrinkage estimation methods for linear models. Ridge regression effectively estimates regression coefficients in the presence of high-dimensional regressors. Recently, a generalized ridge estimator was suggested by generalizing the uniform shrinkage of ridge regression to the non-uniform shrinkage, which was shown to perform well under sparse and high-dimensional linear models. In this paper, we introduce our newly developed R package “g.ridge” (the first version published on 2023-12-07 at https://cran.r-project.org/package=g.ridge) that implements both the ridge estimator and generalized ridge estimators. The package equips with the generalized cross-validation for automatic estimation of shrinkage parameters. The package also includes a convenient tool for generating a design matrix. By simulations, we test the performance of the R package under sparse and high-dimensional settings with the normal and skew-normal error distributions. From the simulation results, we conclude that the generalized ridge estimator is superior to the benchmark ridge estimator based on “glmnet”, and hence, it can be the most recommended estimator under sparse and high-dimensional models. We demonstrate the package using the intracerebral hemorrhage data.

Large doses of steroids are integral to R-CHOP, a first-line systemic therapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). Patients on R-CHOP often develop clinically significant hyperglycemia from steroids. There is evidence of harms from steroid-induced hyperglycemia in the context of chemotherapy which are associated with a reduction in overall survival [1, 2]. The objective of our study was to characterize the effect of steroid-induced hyperglycemia on outcomes of R-CHOP chemotherapy for DLBCL. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of 188 patients with DLBCL treated with R-CHOP through CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) from January 01, 2010 to December 31, 2014. Patients diagnosed with DLBCL were identified through the Manitoba Cancer Registry. The CCMB electronic medical record was reviewed to examine association between steroid-induced hyperglycemia and subsequent infection, including febrile neutropenic events, and overall survival (OS). Results: Patients who developed hyperglycemia with steroid exposure became hyperglycemic during their first R-CHOP cycle. No significant differences in OS or rates of infection were found between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients destined to develop steroid-induced hyperglycemia declare themselves early in the course of steroid exposure. No statistically significant reduction in overall survival attributable to steroid-induced hyperglycemia was found.

Abstract: This work is part of the interest of solving the problems of water contamination with last generation pollutants, for which a novel and in an aqueous medium FeBTC material incorporated with magnetite nanoparticles was proposed. That material was synthesized by in situ solvothermal method, the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were added during the Fe-BTC MOF synthesis and used in the drug’s adsorption. The materials were characterized by XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, and N2-physisorption at 77 K. Fe3O4-FeBTC material showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 357.1 mg g−1 for diclofenac sodium, 70.9 mg g−1 for naproxen sodium, and 122.9 mg g−1 for Ibuprofen. A pseudo-second-order kinetic model can describe the adsorption process, and the thermodynamic study revealed that the adsorption of the three drugs was a feasible, spontaneous, and exothermic process. The incorporation of magnetite nanoparticles in the FeBTC considerably increased the adsorption capacity of pristine FeBTC. Also, hybridization of the FeBTC with magnetite nanoparticles reinforced the most vulnerable part of the MOF, increasing its thermal and aqueous media stability. The electrostatic interaction, H-bonding, and interactions in the open-metal sites played a vital role in drug adsorption. The competition of sites in the multicomponent mixture's adsorption showed selective adsorption at diclofenac sodium and naproxen sodium.

Machine Learning deals with creating algorithms capable of learning from the provided data. These systems have a wide range of applications and can also be a valuable tool for scientific research which in recent years has been focused on finding new diagnostic techniques for particle accelerator beams. In this context SPARC_LAB is positioned, a facility located at the Frascati National Laboratories of INFN, where the progress of beam diagnostics is one of the main developments of the entire project. With this in mind, you aim to present the design of two neural networks aimed at predicting the spot size of the electron beam of the plasma-based accelerator at SPARC_LAB, which powers an undulator for the generation of x-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). Data-driven algorithms use two different data preprocessing techniques, namely autoencoder neural network and PCA. With both approaches, the predicted measurements can be obtained with an acceptable margin of error and most importantly without activating the accelerator, thus saving time, even compared to a simulator that can produce the same result but much more slowly. The goal is to lay the groundwork for creating a digital twin of linac and conducting virtualized diagnostics using an innovative approach.

Drug-resistance represents one of the great plagues of our time worldwide, largely limiting the treatment of common infections, and accounting for the urge in the development of new antibiotics or other alternative approaches. Noteworthy, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics is mostly responsible for the selection of mutations that confer drug-resistance to microbes. Recently, beyond molecules of natural origin and synthetic ones studied to tackle microbial infections, ozone is raising interest for its unique biological properties, in particular when dissolved in natural oils. In fact, ozonated oils have been reported to act in a non-specific way on microorganisms hindering the acquisition of advantageous mutations resulting in resistance. Here, we focused on comparing the antimicrobial effect of two different types of ozonated oils over a panel of opportunistic and pathogenic microbes. Ozonated olive (OOO) and sunflower seeds (OSO) oils were preliminarily characterized by chemico-physical investigation and tested by in-vitro experiments. Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli have been challenged with different ozonated oils concentrations to evaluate their antimicrobial profile by agar diffusion and broth dilution methods. Cytotoxicity was also evaluated in keratinocytes and endothelial cells. Overall, our results revealed that both OOO and OSO showed a potent microbicidal effect especially against C. albicans (IC50 = OOO: 0.3 mg/mL and OSO: 0.2 mg/mL) and E. faecalis (IC50 = OOO: 0.4 mg/mL and OSO: 2.8 mg/mL) albeit exerting a certain effect also against S. aureus and E. coli. Moreover, both OOO and OSO do not yield any relevant cytotoxic effect at the active concentrations in both cell lines indicating that these ozonated oils are not toxic for mammalian cells despite exerting a potent antimicrobial effect on specific microorganisms. Therefore, OOO and OSO may be considered to integrate standard therapies in the treatment of common infections, likely overcoming drug resistance issues.

Here we report a comparative study of the pyhtochemical profile and a biological activity of the two onion extracts, namely A. cepa L. and A. × cornutum (Clementi ex Visiani 1842). Identification of flavonoids and anthocyanins and their individual quantities were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The potency of both extracts to scavenge free radicals was determined by DPPH (2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical-scavenging activity and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) methods. DNA protective role was further tested by single-cell gel electrophoresis (COMET) assay and by Fenton’s reagent causing double strand brakes on pUC19 plasmid. In the presence of both extracts, a significant decrease in the DNA damage was observed, which indicates a protective role of A. cepa and A. × cornutum on the DNA strand brakes. Additionally, cytotoxicity was tested on glioblastoma and breast cancer cell lines. The results showed that both extracts had antiproliferative effect, but the most prominent decrease in cellular growth was observed with glioblastoma cells