This study aimed to identify sociodemographic and health indicators of diet quality in pre-frail community-dwelling older adults. Pre-frail older adults are those at risk of progression to clinical manifestations of frailty and are targets for preventative intervention. We previously reported that pre-frail older adults have reasonably good overall diet quality. However, further analyses found low intake of energy, protein and several micronutrients. Methods: We collected detailed dietary intake from pre-frail (FRAIL scale 1-2) older adults using NZ Intake24, an online version of 24-hour multiple pass dietary recall. Diet quality was ascertained with the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I). We used regression Generalised Linear Models to determine predictors of diet quality and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis to examine the complex relationships of predictors and identified profiles of sub-groups of older adults that predict diet quality. Results. The median age in this sample (n=468) was 80.0 years (77.0-84.0). Living with others, high deprivation index and a higher BMI were independent predictors of poorer diet quality. With CART analysis, we found that those with a BMI >29 kg/m2, living with others and younger than 80 years were likely to have a lower diet quality. Conclusions: We found BMI, living arrangement and socioeconomic status were independent predictors of diet quality in pre-frail older adults, with BMI being the most important variable in this sample when the interacting relationships of these variables were considered. Future research is needed to determine the similarities and/or differences in the profile of subgroups of older adults with poorer diet quality.

The onset of neurodegenerative diseases involves a complex interplay of pathological mecha-nisms, including protein aggregation, oxidative stress, impaired autophagy. This review focuses on the intricate connection between oxidative stress and autophagy in neurodegenerative disor-ders, highlighting autophagy as pivotal in disease pathogenesis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play dual roles in cellular homeostasis and autophagy regulation, with disruptions of redox sig-naling contributing to neurodegeneration. The activation of the Nrf2 pathway represents a criti-cal antioxidant mechanism, while autophagy maintains cellular homeostasis by degrading al-tered cell components. The interaction between p62/SQSTM1, Nrf2 and Keap1 forms a regulatory pathway essential for cellular stress response, whose dysregulation leads to impaired autophagy and aggregate accumulation. Targeting the Nrf2-p62/SQSTM1 pathway holds promise for thera-peutic intervention, mitigating oxidative stress and preserving cellular functions. Additionally, the review explores the potential synergy between the endocannabinoid system and Nrf2 signal-ing for neuroprotection. Further research is needed to elucidate the involved molecular mecha-nisms and develop effective therapeutic strategies against neurodegeneration.

One purported benefit of technology is that it gives humans greater control over how they live their lives. Various technologies are used to protect humans from what are perceived to be the capricious whims of indifferent natural forces. Additionally, technology is used to create circumstances and opportunities that are believed to be preferable because they are more subject to human control. In large measure, the lives of late moderns are effectively constructed and asserted as artifacts of what they will themselves to be. This control is seen prominently at the beginning and end of life. Technology is employed to overcome infertility, prevent illness, disability, and undesirable traits, to select desirable traits and increasingly enhance them. At the end of life, late moderns have a far greater range of options at their disposal than past generations: they can choose to delay death, control pain, or end their lives at the time and with the means of their choosing. The greater control that technology offers helps humans to survive and even flourish, but it comes at a price. One such cost is that it tends to reduce humans to being little more than a will confined within a body. The body is thereby effectively perceived to be an impediment to the will that should be overcome. Is this troubling? Yes. I argue that the purported control technology offers often serves as a distraction or blind spot that may prevent humans from understanding and consenting to their good. In making this argument I draw upon the Christian doctrine of the incarnation as a way of disclosing the creaturely good of finitude against which the will should conform rather than attempting to overcome. I also draw upon Iris Murdoch’s and Simone Weil’s concept of “unselfing” as a way of conforming the will with this good. I revisit issues related to the beginning and end of life to draw-out some of the implications of my argument.

Bohrnstedt’s (1969) attempt to derive a formula to compute the partial correlation coefficient and simultaneously correct for attenuation sought to simplify the process of performing each task separately. He suggested that his formula, developed from algebraic and psychometric manipulations of the partial correlation coefficient, produces a corrected partial correlation value. However, an algebraic error exists within his derivations. Consequently, the formula proposed by Bohrnstedt does not appropriately represent the value he intended it to estimate. By correcting the erroneous step and continuing the derivation based upon his proposed procedure, the steps outlined in this paper ultimately produce the formula that Bohrnstedt desired.

As Li-ion batteries use is spreading, incidents in large energy storage systems (stationary storage containers, …) or in large-scale cell and battery storages (warehouse, recyclers, …), often leading to fire, are occurring on regular basis. Water remains one of the most efficient fire extinguishing agents for tackling those battery incidents and large quantities are usually necessary. Since bat-teries contains various potentially harmful components (metals and their oxides or salts, sol-vents…) and that thermal runway induced battery incidents are accompanied with complex and potentially multistage fume emissions (containing both gas and particles) the potential impact of fire run-off water on the environment should be considered and assessed carefully. The tests presented in this paper focus on the analysis of the composition of run-off waters used to spray NMC Li-ion modules under thermal runaway. It highlights that waters used for fire-fighting are susceptible to contain many metals, including Ni, Mn, Co, Li and Al mixed with other carbonaceous species (soot, tarballs) and sometimes undecomposed solvents used in the elec-trolyte. Extra-polation of pollutant concentrations compared with PNEC values showed that, for large scale incidents, run-off water could be potentially hazardous to the environment.

The diet and feeding behavior of South Polar Skuas (Stercorarius maccormicki) are well studied within the species' breeding range, but are poorly understood on the Haswell Islands. Goal: to establish how South Polar Skuas used the abundance of living resources of the Haswell Archipelago (66°31' S, 93°01' E, Davis Sea, Southern Ocean) under conditions of prolonged human activity. Methods: direct observations, study of pellets, spontaneous regurgitation and stomach contents of feathered birds. South Polar Skuas fed primarily on terrestrial resources. The dominant prey of skuas were vertebrates. Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) and Adélie Penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) make up the bulk of the skuas’ diet in the pre-breeding and breeding periods. Surface feeding at sea was observed in the post-breeding period, when the availability of land-based food resources was reduced. Throughout history, kitchen waste supported the skuas population. Scavenging is the dominant strategy for obtaining food. Predation (primarily on Adélie Penguin eggs and chicks) is of minor importance. South Polar Skuas do not affect the breeding success of Emperor Penguins if they feed on frozen chicks and eggs in their colony. Skua predation influences breeding success of Adélie Penguins and fulmarine petrels, but the extent of the impact is unknown.

Emotional eating (EE) can be understood as a manifestation of difficulties with emotion regulation (ER) among individuals with eating disorders. Existing interventions do not always successfully treat EE. We developed a novel ER intervention based upon virtual reality to improve EE among adults with an eating disorder diagnosis. The design pivoted to non-immersive virtual delivery to increase access, particularly given heightened demand during COVID-19 for EE treatment. The study aimed to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary signals of effectiveness of this novel ER protocol that utilized evidence-based strategies such as mindfulness and imagery rescripting as well as innovative techniques such as virtual reality. Twenty-one adults with a history of an eating disorder diagnosis and self-reported EE were recruited from the Adult Eating Disorders Program within Stanford University to receive seven weekly one-hour virtual experiences (VE) focusing on ER. Participants chose between the novel VE-Emotion Regulation (VE-ER) intervention or continuing with their current treatment as usual. Before and after the seven sessions, participants completed an assessment by filling out online questionnaires. Overall, VE-ER treatment was feasible (100% completion), and participant and therapist acceptability of VE-ER treatment was fairly high. In terms of preliminary effectiveness, the results showed a significant reduction in the frequencies of disordered eating behaviors in both groups, but a greater improvement in EE in the VE-ER group. The VE-ER group also had a significant reduction in emotion dysregulation after the treatment.

In recent decades, as eutrophication in inland and coastal waters (ICWs) has increased due to anthropogenic activities and global warming, so has the need for timely monitoring. Compared with traditional sampling and laboratory analysis methods, satellite remote sensing technology can provide macro-scale, low-cost, and near real-time water quality monitoring services. The Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), integrated onboard the Communication Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) from the Republic of Korea, was the first geostationary ocean color observation satellite and was operational from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2021. Over ten years, GOCI has observed oceans, coastal waters, and inland waters within its 2,500 km×2,500 km target area centered on the Korean Peninsula. The most attractive feature of GOCI, compared with other commonly used watercolor sensors, was its high temporal resolution (1h, eight times daily from 0 UTC to 7 UTC), providing the opportunity to monitor the quality of ICWs, where optical properties can change rapidly throughout the day. This systematic review aims to comprehensively review GOCI features and applications in ICWs, analyzing progress in atmospheric correction algorithms and water quality monitoring. Analyzing 123 articles from the Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) through a bibliometric quantitative approach, we examined GOCI’s strength and performance with different processing methods. These articles reveal that GOCI played an essential role in monitoring the ecological health of ICWs in its observation area in East Asia. GOCI has led the way to a new era of geostationary ocean satellites, providing new technical means for monitoring water quality in oceans, coastal zones, and inland lakes. We also discuss the challenges encountered by geostationary satellites in monitoring water quality and provide suggestions for improvements.

Environmental monitoring programs rely on periodic spot sampling at specific locations, followed by laboratory analysis, aiming at the evaluation of water quality at a catchment scale. For this purpose, automatic telemetric stations for specific parameters have been installed by the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters of Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (IMBRIW-HCMR) within several Greek rivers and lakes, providing continuous and temporal monitoring possibilities. Nevertheless, the employment of unmanned surface vehicles (USV) equipped with integrated sensors represents a tool valuable to several monitoring strategies, offering enhanced temporal and spatial coverage over specific timeframes, allowing for targeted examination of sites or events of interest. The USVs have been deployed by Athens Water and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) as a cost-effective tool for the environmental monitoring of surface water bodies of interest, with emphasis on the spatial fluctuations of chlorophyllα, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH, observed in Koumoundourou Lake and rivers Acheloos, Asopos and Kifissos. The effectiveness of an innovative heavy metal (HM) system installed in the USV for thein situ determination of copper and lead was also evaluated herewith. The results obtained demonstrate that both the timely detection of potential pollution from both anthropogenic activities and natural processes as well as the monitoring of inland waters are made feasible through the employment of USV.

This work examines dairy and sheep farmer attitudes toward antimicrobial use (AMU) in New Zealand. There is increasing public demand on livestock producers to reduce AMU in livestock. The demand stems from concerns about potential antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that could originate from food animals. There is limited practical data on farmer knowledge of AMU. An electronic survey was sent to dairy (n= 378) and sheep farmers (n= 551). Seventy-six dairy farmers (20%, n=76/378) returned the survey. Dairy farmers (69%) showed low levels of concern about antimicrobial resistance and awareness of the need to reduce AMU. Additionally, 76% of dairy farmers didn’t think it was possible to reduce AMU. Thirty-nine sheep farmers (7%, 39/551) returned the survey. 76% of sheep farmers were supportive of restricted use of AMU. The dairy and sheep farmers sourced most of the advice from veterinarians (>90%), the livestock industry (>80%) and their colleagues (>70%). This study shows that farmers showed varied concerns about AMR and AMU. Moreover, sheep farmers were more amenable to increased restriction on AMU than dairy farmers. This study suggests that knowledge gaps in farmers may best be filled by veterinarian input.

The invasion of ship domain stands out as a significant factor contributing to the risk of collisions during vessel navigation. However, there is a lack of research on the mechanisms underlying collision risks specifically related to merchant and fishing vessels in coastal waters. This study proposes an assessment method for collision risks between merchant and fishing vessels in coastal waters and validated through a comparative analysis through visualization. First of all, the operational status of fishing vessels is identified. Collaboratively working fishing vessels are treated as a unified entity, expanding their ship domain during operation to assess collision risks. Secondly, to quantify the collision risk between ships, a collision risk index (CRI) is proposed and visualized based on the severity of collision risk. Finally, taking the high risk area of merchant and fishing vessels collision in the Minjiang River Estuary as an example, this paper conduct the analysis involves classifying ship collision scenarios, extracting risk data under different collision scenarios, and visually analyzing areas prone to danger. The results indicate that this method effectively evaluates the severity of collision risk, and the identified high-risk areas resulting from the analysis is verified by accidents occurred in the recent three years.

The majority of adults in the world (around 83%) carry antibodies reactive with HCMV and are thought to retain inactive or latent infections lifelong. The virus is transmitted via saliva so infection events are likely to be common. Indeed it is hard to imagine a life without exposure to HCMV. From 45 seronegative individuals (13 renal transplant recipients, 32 healthy adults), we present seven cases who had detectable HCMV DNA in their blood and/or saliva, or a CMV-encoded homologue of IL-10 (vIL-10) in their plasma. One case displayed NK cells characteristic of CMV infection, and HCMV DNA became undetectable. In other cases, the infection may persist with seroconversion blocked by vIL-10. Future research should seek mechanisms that can prevent an individual from seroconverting despite a persistent HCMV infection, as HCMV vaccines may not work well in such people.

In eastern part of Ethiopia groundnut is very commonly intercropped with sorghum. Even though intercropping of sorghum with groundnut is practiced in the eastern part of Ethiopia the population density at what ratio should not be known. Therefore determining the population ratio is found to be crucial to draw management options. The study was conducted at two locations at Fadis (on station) and Babile (sub- station). Sorghum variety (Teshale) and groundnut (Fetene) were used as planting materials. All agronomic data were collected and analyzed by using GenStat software. Significant different were obtained among the treatments. The research result showed that, there were significance difference for both sorghum and ground nut yield per hectare in the years (2014 and 2015) among treatments. The result over time(in 2014 and 2015) at Fadis and Erer showed that the highest sorghum and groundnut yield per hectare were obtained/harvested from the intra row spacing of 25cmx20cm and 30cmx20cm intercropping sorghum with ground nut system with (1.27 and 1.31) respectively. The highest LER (1.31) and highest GMV (10218.00 ETBr/ha) were obtained from the intercropping of 30cmx20cm (Sorghum & groundnut). Clearly showed that, with intercropping of sorghum and Groundnut, it is possible to produce additional yield of sorghum without significant reduction in groundnut yield. As a result of this, the intra spacing of the main crop (sorghum) 25cm and 30cm and for the subsidiary crop (groundnut) 20cm was recommended for further production in the study areas of eastern Harerghe zone and similar agro-ecologies.

We compared the efficacy of a tailored and a targeted intervention designed to increase clinical breast exam (CBE), mammography, and genetic services/testing among young breast cancer survivors (YBCS) (diagnosed <45 years old) and their blood relatives. A two-arm cluster randomized trial recruited a random sample of YBCS from the Michigan cancer registry and up to two of their blood relatives. Participants were stratified according to race and randomly assigned as family units to the tailored (n=637) or the targeted (n=595) intervention. Approximately 40% of participants were Black; 12% YBCS and 27% relatives were living in more than 20 different U.S. States. Higher screening rates were reported by YBCS (CBE p=0.05; mammography p=0.04) and relatives (CBE p<0.01; mammography p=0.04) in the tailored arm, and by White/Other YBCS (CBE p=0.02) and relatives (CBE p<0.01; mammography p=0.03). YBCS genetic testing rates increased from 22% to 26% (p=0.11). Black YBCS and relatives reported higher self-efficacy and intention for genetic testing, and higher satisfaction and intervention acceptance. The tailored intervention improved CBE and mammography uptake - despite having minimal contact with participants. Professional referrals will improve genetic testing uptake. Intervention materials increased self-efficacy and satisfaction for Black women but could not overcome multiple access barriers.

Recreational water activities are widely recognized to have a positive impact on our physical and mental well-being. However, recreational water sources and their management are also a risk factor for human health, due to different agents, including the overgrowth of cyanobacteria and algae. These organisms have the potential to metabolize organic matter and produce thermophilic and thermotolerant toxins. Different species of algae participate in biofilm formation and impact on maintenance of equipment for water treatment. We reviewed the state of the art by providing basic definitions, taxonomy and the epidemiological and clinical issues related to the recreational uses of waters. Methods for treatments and monitoring are summarized, considering both traditional and innovative strategies. Public health and surveillance perspectives impose to focus on the detection of toxins, the formation of biofilms, the understanding of the benthonic and planktonic components as part of a larger microbial biodiversity.

This study focuses on the potential medicinal properties of Campsis radicans L. extracts and its aim is to investigate the antioxidant and antiproliferative effects of these extracts on the human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (HT-29). Cytotoxic activity in the HT-29 cell line was evaluated, and the 3-dimensional structures of phenolic compounds were obtained using the GC-MS method. Docking simulations were performed with AutoDock Vina, targeting proteins that are crucial in the apoptotic pathway (Bax, Bcl-2, and Caspase-3). Drug similarities and ADMET estimates of the phenolic compounds were obtained from databases. The highest antioxidant activity of Campsis radicans L. plant was observed in ethanol and water extracts, with notable inhibition capacities. While the total phenolic content was highest in ethanol, water, and ether extracts respectively the total flavonoid content was highest in ethanol, then ether, and water extracts. Certain elements were undetectable in mineral determination, and others exceeded the toxic doses for plants. The water extract exhibited dose-dependent cytotoxic activity in the HT-29 cell line, with an IC50 value of 4.47 mg/mL. Molecular docking results revealed the binding of phenolic molecules to the active sites of apoptotic pathway proteins. The findings suggest that Campsis radicans L. plant possesses cytotoxic properties, significant phenolic and flavonoid content, and a high antioxidant capacity. These properties make it a potential candidate for treatment use, emphasizing its potential therapeutic value in the HT-29 cell line. Further research and exploration on the identified phenolic compounds could contribute to the development of novel therapeutic agents.

Pigmented corn is a gramineae food of great biological, cultural and nutritional importance for many Latin American countries, with more than 250 breeds in the American continent. It confers a large number of health benefits due to its diverse and abundant bioactive compounds. In this narrative review we decided to organize the information on the nutrients, bioactive compounds and phytochemicals present in pigmented corn, as well as their effects on human health. Phenolic compounds and anthocyanins are some of the most studied and representative compounds in these grasses, with a wide range of health properties, mainly the reduction of prooxidant molecules. Carotenoids are a group of molecules belonging to the terpenic compounds, present in a large number of pigmented corn breeds, mainly the yellow ones, whose biological activity incorporates a wide spectrum. Bioactive peptides can be found in abundance in corn, having very diverse biological effects that include analgesic, opioid, antihypertensive, etc. activity. Other compounds with biological activity found in pigmented corn are resistant starches, some fatty acids, phytosterols, policosanols, phospholipids, ferulic acid and phlobaphenes, as well as a great variety of vitamins, elements, and fibers. This review aims to disseminate and integrate the existing knowledge on compounds with biological activity in pigmented corn, in order to promote their research, interest and use by scientists, nutrition professionals, physicians, industries and the general population.

L-Theanine, a unique non-protein amino acid, is an important bioactive component of green tea. Previous studies have shown that L-theanine has many potent health benefits, such as anti-anxiety effect, regulation of immune response, relaxing neural tension, reducing oxidative damage. However, little is known concerning whether L-theanine can improve the clearance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage in organisms. Here, we reported that L-theanine treatment increased ATP production and improved mitochondrial morphology to extend the lifespan of UVC-exposed nematodes. Mechanistic investigations showed that L-theanine treatment enhanced the removal of mtDNA damage and extended lifespan by activating autophagy, mitophagy, mitochondrial dynamics, and mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) in UVC-exposed nematodes. In addition, L-theanine treatment also up-regulated the expression of genes related to mitochondrial energy metabolism in UVC-exposed nematodes. Our study provided a theoretical basis for the possibility that tea drinking may prevent mitochondrial related diseases.

Kamchatka berries (Lonicera caerulea L.) are known for their high content of phenolic compounds or vitamins, which is reflected in their antibacterial, detoxifying and anti-inflammatory properties. They are used in the production of jams, juices, wines and as natural dye. A bioferment was prepared from the pomace of the Kamchatka berry varieties Aurora and Indigo Gem and the strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, which was used to prepare a cosmetic preparation with a concentration of 5% in accordance with the guidelines of the COSMOS certification body. Conducted physico-chemical and organoleptic analyses and bioactive profile characterisation (UHPLC-DAD and UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The results showed that the presence of caffeic acid 4.47 ± 0.07 mg/100g was detected after fermentation of Kamchatka berry pomace. Vitamin C content increased by 141% after fermentation of Kamchatka berry pomace. The results of stability tests showed that in the process of physicochemical analysis of cosmetic preparation with bioferment of Kamchatka berry pomace the pH should oscillate in the range of 4.38-4.76 ± 0.01. Stability tests showed that the cosmetic should be protected from high temperatures and UV radiation and proved that the product is stable under changing conditions, resulting in lower transport and storage costs.

The following study reports on the first thraustochytrid isolates identified from Iceland. They were collected from three different locations off the northern coast of the country (Location A, Skagaströnd; Location B, Hveravík; and Location C, Eyjafjörður). Using 18S rDNA sequence analysis, isolates from Locations A and B were identified within the Thraustochytrium kinnei species while other isolates within the Sicyoidochytrium minutum species when compared to other known strains. Cells isolated from Locations A (2.10 ± 0.70 g/L) and B (1.54 ± 0.17 g/L) produced more biomass than the ones isolated from Location C (0.43 ± 0.02 g/L). This study offers the first-time examination of the utility of byproducts from fisheries as a nitrogen source in media formulation for thraustochytrids. Experiments showed that isolates produced more biomass (per unit of substrate) when cultured on nitrogen of marine (2.55 ± 0.74 g/L) as compared to of commercial origin (1.06 ± 0.57 g/L). Glycerol (2.43 ± 0.56 g/L) was a better carbon source than glucose (1.84 ± 0.57 g/L) in growth studies. Fatty acid (FA) profiles showed that the isolates from Location C (S. minutum) had low ratios of monounsaturated (4.21 ± 2.96%) and omega-6 (0.68 ± 0.59%) FAs. However, the isolates also had high ratios of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 35.65 ± 1.73%) and total omega-3 FAs (40.39 ± 2.39%), indicating that they could serve as a source of marine oils for human consumption and in aquaculture feeds. The T. kinnei isolates from Location A could be used in biodiesel production due to their high ratios of monounsaturated (18.38 ± 6.27%) long chain (57.43 ± 8.27%) FAs.

Many protein expression systems are primary utilised to produce a single, specific recombinant protein. In contrast, most biological processes such as virus assembly rely upon a complex of several interacting proteins rather than the activity of a sole protein. The high complexity of the baculovirus genome, coupled with a multiphase replication cycle incorporating distinct transcriptional steps, made it the ideal system to manipulate for high-level expression of a single or co-expression of multiple foreign proteins within a single cell. We have developed and utilised a series of recombinant baculovirus systems to unravel the sequential assembly process of a complex non-enveloped model virus, Bluetongue virus (BTV). The high protein yields expressed by the baculovirus system not only facilitated structure-function analysis of each viral proteins but were also advantageous to crystallography studies and supported the first atomic level resolution of a recombinant viral protein, the major BTV capsid protein. Further, the formation of recombinant double-shelled virus-like particles (VLPs) provided insights into the structure-function relationships among the four major structural proteins of the BTV whilst also representing a potential candidate for a viral vaccine. The baculovirus multi-gene expression system facilitated the study of structurally complex viruses (both non-enveloped and enveloped viruses) and heralded in a new generation of viral vaccines.

Berberis vulgaris (L.) has remarkable ethnopharmacological properties and is widely used in traditional medicine. The present study investigates B. vulgaris stem bark (Berberidis cortex) by extraction with 50% ethanol. The main secondary metabolites were quantified, resulting in a polyphenols content of 17.6780 ± 3.9320 mg Eq Tannic acid / 100 g extract, phenolic acids amount of 3.3886 ± 0.3481 mg Eq Chlorogenic acid / 100 g extract and 78.95 µg/g berberine. The dried hydro-ethanolic extract (BVE) was thoroughly analyzed using Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC–HRMS/MS) and HPLC and 40 bioactive phenolic constituents were identified. Then, the antioxidant potential of BVE was evaluated using three methods; our results could explain the protective effects of Berberidis cortex EC50FRAP = 0.1398 mg/mL, IC50ABTS = 0.0442 mg/mL, IC50DPPH = 0.2610 mg/mL compared to ascorbic acid (IC50 = 0.0165 mg/mL). Next, the acute toxicity and teratogenicity of BVE and Berberine - Berberine sulfate hydrate (BS) - investigated on Daphnia sp reported significant BS toxicity after 24 h; BVE revealed considerable toxicity after 48 hours and induced embryonic developmental delays. Finally, the anticancer effects of BVE and BS were evaluated on different tumor cell lines after 24 and 48 hours of treatments. The MTS assay evidenced a dose- and time-dependent antiproliferative activity, higher on BS than BVE. The strongest diminution of tumor cell viability was recorded on breast (MDA-MB-231), colon (LoVo) cancer, and OSCC (PE/CA-PJ49) cell lines after 48 h of exposure (IC50 &lt; 100 µg/mL). However, no cytotoxicity was reported on normal epithelial cells (HUVEC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HT-29) cell lines. Extensive data analysis supports our results, showing a significant correlation between the BVE's concentration, phenolic compounds content, antioxidant activity, exposure time, and the viability rate of various normal cells and cancer cell lines.

Amidst worsening climate change, drought stress imperils global agriculture, jeopardizing crop yields and food security, necessitating urgent exploration of sustainable methods like biopriming, harnessing beneficial microorganisms to bolster plant resilience. Recent research has revealed diverse biological compounds with versatile applications produced by Schizophyllum commune, rendering this fungus as a promising contender for biopriming applications. For the first time this study aimed to investigate,the potential of S. commune exo- (EPSH) and intra-PSH (IPSH), isolated from two strains: Italian (ITA) and Serbian (SRB) under submerged cultivation, in enhancing the resilience of Pisum sativum L. seeds through biopriming technique. Testing of seed quality of bioprimed, hydroprimed, and unprimed seeds was done using a germination test, under optimal and drought conditions. In optimal conditions, the IPSH SRB increased germination energy by 5.50% compared to the control, while the highest percentage of germination (94.70%) was shown after biopriming with PSH isolated from the ITA strain. Additionally, all assessed treatments resulted in a boost in seedling growth and biomass accumulation, where the ITA strain demonstrated greater effectiveness in optimal conditions, whereas the SRB strain showed superiority in drought conditions. The drought tolerance indices increased significantly in response to all examined treatments during the drought, with EPSH ITA (23.00%) and EPSH SRB (24.00%) demonstrating the greatest effects. Results demonstrate a significant positive influence of fungal PSH, indicating their potential as biopriming agents and offers insights into novel strategies for agricultural resilience in the face of changing environmental conditions.

Ecological connectivity, as a research method related to spatial ecology and conservation biology, has attracted increasing attention from researchers at home and abroad in recent years. Habitat connectivity, as a key link in ecological connectivity, is of great significance to promote offshore ecological restoration and protection. However, there has been less systematic research about habitat connectivity, which lacks corresponding theories and practices. Therefore, this paper discusses habitat connectivity from three aspects: (1) the concept of habitat connectivity is introduced and clarified, (2) the application of connectivity in artificial habitat and adjacent waters and its relationship with biodiversity conservation are reviewed and illustrated with examples, and (3) the future development trends of this research direction are summarized and prospected, in order to provide a scientific basis and useful reference for the related work of offshore restoration projects in China. Generally, this paper argues that an increase in human behavior irreversibly destroys the connectivity of marine habitats and threatens the temporal scales of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Therefore, the theoretical research results and practical experience of ecological connectivity should be fully applied to marine ecosystems, and the restoration of degraded ecosystems should be encouraged and supported in ways that promote natural recovery.

Financial stress can have significant implications for individuals, businesses, asset prices and the economy as a whole. This study examines the nonlinear structure and dynamic changes in the multifractal behavior of cross-correlation between the financial stress index (FSI) and four well-known commodity indices, namely Commodity Research Bureau Index (CRBI), Baltic Dry Index (BDI), London Metal Index (LME) and Brent Oil prices (BROIL), using multifractal detrended cross correlation analysis (MFDCCA). For analysis, we utilized daily values of FSI and commodity index prices from 16th June 2016 to 9th July 2023. The following are the most important empirical findings: (I) All of the chosen commodity market indices show cross correlations with the FSI and have notable multifractal characteristics. (II) The presence of power law cross-correlation implies that a noteworthy shift in FSI is likely to coincide with a considerable shift in the commodity indices. (III) The multifractal cross-correlation is highest between FSI and Brent Oil (BROIL) and lowest with LME. (IV) The rolling windows analysis reveals a varying degree of persistency between FSI and commodity markets. The findings of this study have a number of important implications for commodity market investors and policymakers.

According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the world population will increase to about 91 million (Asia 51 million, Africa 19 million). A rise in the world’s population means an increased need for food. However, climate change has caused desertification and unpredictable weather, creating problems in the supply and demand of food. Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an alternative to solving the food problem, as it is one of the world’s most important food crops, especially in developing countries. The tuberous roots of sweet potato are usually used as staple food, animal feed, industrial material, or raw material for alcohol production. In the future, more variations of sweet potato will be needed for breeding this crop. Recently, molecular markers developed for sweet potato have demonstrated good potential for use in genetic selection. In this study, a cDNA library was constructed from the total RNA of sweet potato leaves. A total of 789 copies of the cDNA were cloned in Escherichia coli by employing the pGEM-T Easy vector. Sequencing was carried out by Solgent Co. (Korea). As many as 579 expressed sequence tag–simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were designed (73.38%) from the known cDNA nucleotide base sequences. The lengths of the developed EST-SSR markers ranged from 100 to 499 bp (average length 238 bp). Their motif sequence types were varied, with most being dinucleotides and pentanucleotides, and the most commonly found motifs were CAGAAT (29.0%) and TCT (2.8%). Based on these SSR-containing sequences, 619 pairs of high-quality SSR primers were designed using WebSat and Primer3web. The total number of primers designed was 144. Polymorphism was evident in 82 EST-SSR markers among 20 Korean sweet potato cultivars tested and in 90 EST-SSR markers in the two parents of a mapping population, Yeseumi and Annobeny. In this study, the hexaploid sweet potato (2n = 6x = 90) EST-SSR markers were developed in the absence of full-sequence data. Moreover, by acting as a molecular tag for particular traits, the EST-SSR marker can also simultaneously identify information about the corresponding gene. These EST-SSR markers will allow the molecular analysis of sweet potato to be done more efficiently. Thus, we can develop high-quality sweet potato while overcoming the challenges from climate change and other unfavorable conditions.

Ever since Varela and Maturana proposed the concept of autopoiesis as the minimal requirement for life, there has been a focus on cellular systems that erect topological boundaries to separate themselves from their surrounding environment. Here we reconsider whether the existence of such a spatial boundary is strictly necessary for self-producing entities. This work presents a novel computational model of a minimal autopoietic system inspired by dendrites and molecular dynamics simulations in three-dimensional space. A series of simulation experiments where the metabolic pathways of a particular autocatalytic set are successively inhibited until autocatalytic entities that could be considered autopoietic are produced. These entities maintain their distinctness in an environment containing multiple identical instances of the entities without the existence of a topological boundary. This gives rise to the concept of a metabolic boundary which manifests as emergent self-selection criteria for the processes of self-production without any need for unique identifiers. However, the adoption of such a boundary comes at a cost, as these autopoietic entities are less suited to their simulated environment than their autocatalytic counterparts. Finally, this work showcases a generalized metabolism-centered approach to the study of autopoiesis that can be applied to both physical and abstract systems alike.

Cultivated adlay or Job’s tear (Coix lacryma-jobi L.) is an important food crop having numerous therapeutic and nutraceutical health benefits. Our study aimed to determine nutrients, minerals, fatty acid composition, and functional groups of seven wild Adlay accessions (brown, black, yellow, grey, green, off-white, and purple) to find out their scope as cereal crops using simple, rapid, and modern analytical techniques. Results revealed variations among bulk densities, specific densities, percent empty spaces, and corresponding grain counts per 10g of sample are valuable characteristics in distinguishing the accessions. Contents of fat, protein, ash, and fibre were found to be comparable to cultivated Adlay. Brown adlay was measured with the highest protein, fat, and fibre contents, 15.82%, 4.76% and 2.37%, respectively. Phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and sodium ranged 0.3% - 2.2%, whereas boron, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese were in the range 1.6mg/kg - 20.8mg/kg. Wild adlay triglyceride composition constituted of polyunsaturated fatty acids as primary fraction followed by olein and palmitic acid as prominent fatty acids. Distinguishing functional groups expressed infra-red frequencies in narrow bands and fingerprint region of proteins associated with out-of-plane region evident structural differences among adlay accessions. Frequency of functional groups in seven accessions indicated black genotype promising for varietal development.

Natural spa springs are diffused all over the world and their use in pools is known since ancient times. This review underlines the cultural and social spa context focusing on hygiene issues, public health guidelines and emerging concerns regarding water management in wellness or recreational settings. The question of the "untouchability" of therapeutic natural waters and their incompatibility with traditional disinfection processes is addressed considering the demand for effective treatments that would respect the natural properties. Available strategies and innovative treatments are reviewed, highlighting potentials and limits for a sustainable management. Alternative approaches comprise nanotechnologies, photocatalysis systems, advanced filtration. State of the art and promising perspectives are reported considering the chemical-physical component and the biological natural complexity of the spa water microbiota.

Background: The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852), native to the United States and northern Mexico, has been introduced in many countries worldwide. The species has a remarkable invasiveness, due to its high reproductive rate and to its ability to tolerate broad ranges of water parameters like salinity. Nevertheless, no consistent observations of P. clarkii have been reported in the marine environment until now. Methods: Through the observations of a personal acquaintance and of two volunteers who published photos of the species on Facebook marine biology and fishing groups, we collected data showing the presence of the crayfish within marine ecosystems. Results: P. clarkii has been spotted in three different localities, in two of which observations are recurrent. The species can live miles from the nearest freshwater stream, and can colonise the depths up to 20 meters. Conclusions: The multiple observations of P. clarkii collected in our study uncover a persistent presence of the species within some marine areas, rather than its mere sporadic occurrence. As resistance to increasing salinities is influenced by multiple genes, genetic admixture between genetically-differentiated individuals coming from distinct geographical origins could have brought together different salinity-resistance genes, leading to the formation of these resilient phenotypes.

In this paper, we propose an imagined speech-based brain wave pattern recognition using deep learning. Multiple features were extracted concurrently from eight-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. To obtain classifiable EEG data with fewer number of sensors, we placed the EEG sensors on carefully selected spots on the scalp. To decrease the dimensions and complexity of the EEG dataset and to avoid overfitting during the deep learning algorithm, we utilized the wavelet scattering transformation. A low-cost 8-channel EEG headset was used with MATLAB 2023a to acquire the EEG data. The Long-Short Term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM-RNN) was used to decode the identified EEG signals into four audio commands: Up, Down, Left, and Right. Wavelet scattering transformation was applied to extract the most stable features by passing the EEG dataset through a series of filtration processes. Filtration has been implemented for each individual command in the EEG datasets. The proposed imagined speech-based brain wave pattern recognition approach achieved a 92.50% overall classification accuracy. This accuracy is promising for designing a trustworthy imagined speech-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) future real-time systems. For better evaluation of the classification performance, other metrics were considered, and we obtained 92.74%, 92.50% and 92.62% for precision, recall, and F1-score, respectively.

The study concentrated on Myzostomida, which are microscopic polychaetes that live in symbiosis with feather stars, within the coastal waters of Hainan Island. Specimens were collected by researchers using SCUBA diving techniques, leading to the identification of a new species, as well as the documentation of four species that had not been previously recorded in Chinese waters. This discovery stands apart from the seven known Myzostomida species found near Hong Kong and the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen. It underscores significant gaps in our comprehension of marine life in the South China Sea, suggesting the existence of unexplored biodiversity within the region.

Lactobacilli are considered an inexhaustible source of potentially bioactive substances; indeed, several products from their metabolism are known to have immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activity. Recently, we demonstrated that cell-free supernatants (CFS) obtained from Lactobacillus (L.) acidophilus, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. reuteri can impair Candida pathogenic potential in an in vitro model of epithelial vaginal infection. This effect could be ascribed to a direct effect of living lactobacilli on Candida virulence and to the production of metabolites which are able to impair fungal virulence. In the present work, stemming from those data, we deepened our knowledge on the CFS from these 4 lactobacilli by performing a metabolomic analysis to better characterize their composition. By using an untargeted metabolomic approach, we detected consistent differences in the metabolites produced by these four different lactobacilli. Interestingly, L. rhamnosus showed the most peculiar metabolic profile. Specifically, after a hierarchical clustering analysis in positive and negative ionization mode, L. rhamnosus showed a specific area of significant overexpressed metabolites that strongly differed from the same area in other lactobacilli. In this area, inosine was identified among the overexpressed metabolites of L. rhamnosus. This molecule has been described to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-infective and neuroprotective properties. The biological significance of its overproduction by L. rhamnosus might be important in its probiotic and/or postbiotic activity.

Six bacterial strains with differing abilities to produce varying concentrations of Indole Acetic Acid were tested individually and in consortia for plant growth promoting and fitness related traits of Cicer arietinum. In all experiments the presence of the nitrogen fixer Mesorhizobium ciceri resulted in increased biomass production. In the absence of this strain, IAA Psedomonas putida and Bacillus megaterium hinder plant growth and fitness related traits. The application of mixes of the three strains always resulted in better plant performance when M. ciceri was present. Whereas P. putida has a noticeable plant growth-promoting effect B. megaterium resulted less effective. The low levels of IAA produced by the selected strains had a significantly greater positive effect on plant biomass accumulation, flower, pods and seed production as well as on total plant nitrogen and nitrogen concentration in seed than high IAA producer strains.

This study explores the Experience Economy dimensions within fishing tourism, adopting a data science perspective by employing web crawling for extensive data gathering on reviewer profiles from TripAdvisor. Utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, it scrutinizes the relationship between Experience Economy dimensions and user profiling aspects. Findings reveal "Entertainment" as the predominant dimension in tourist reviews, followed by "Aesthetic," "Educational," and "Escapist." Particularly notable are the frequent co-occurrences of "Entertainment"-"Aesthetic" and "Educational"-"Entertainment" pairs. The practical implications underscore the potential socioeconomic benefits of fishing tourism for local communities and fishermen, emphasizing the necessity for governmental support in terms of infrastructure, leadership, legislation, and financial backing to foster sustainable development in this sector. Notably, this research stands as a pioneering effort in its focus on Experience Economy dimensions and user profiling within the context of fishing tourism, drawing data from business pages and user profiles.

Berberis vulgaris L. (Berberidaceae) is a shrub that has been widely used in European folk medicine as an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agent. The purpose of our study was to elucidate the mechanisms of antiproliferative action of the plant’s methanolic root extract (BVR) against colon cancer cells. Cytotoxicity and pro-apoptotic activity were determined in human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (LS180 and HT-29) and control colon epithelial CCD841 CoN cells. According to the MTT assay, after 48 h of cell exposure, the IC50 values were as follows: 4.3; 46.1 and 50.2 µg/mL for LS180, HT-29, and CCD841 CoN cells, respectively, showing the greater sensitivity of cancer cells to BVR. The Cell Death Detection ELISAPLUS kit demonstrated that BVR induced programmed cell death only against HT-29 cells. RT-qPCR with relative quantification method showed significant changes in the expression of genes related to apoptosis in both colon cancer cell lines. The genes BCL2L1 (126.84-366.66%), BCL2L2 (277.08-330.12%), CASP3 (180.36-261.36%) and CASP9 (158.08-213.46%) had significantly elevated expression, while BCL2 (23.08-52.06%) had reduced expression. Furthermore, in a panel of antioxidant tests, BVR showed positive effects (63.93±0.01, 122.92±0.01, and 220.29±0.02 mg Trolox equivalents (TE)/g in the DPPH•, ABTS•+ and ORAC assays, respectively). In the lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibition test, BVR revealed 62,60±0.87% of enzyme inhibition. The chemical composition of BVR was determined using UHPLC-UV-CAD-MS/MS analysis and confirmed the presence of several known alkaloids, including berberine, as well as other alkaloids and two derivatives of hydroxycinnamic acid (ferulic and sinapic acid hexosides). This is the first such extensive assessment of the biological activity of BVR. The results are very promising and encourage for the use of BVR as a comprehensive chemopreventive agent (anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and pro-apoptotic) in colorectal cancer.

Camelina (Camelina sativa L.) is an oilseed with potential for use as a raw material in second-generation biofuels. Camelina has a seed yield of up to 2380 kg ha^-1 and contains around 45% fatty acids. Selection of a suitable site is critical for production optimization. The objective of this study was to determine Chilean agro-climatic suitability for establishing camelina as a productive alternative. Climate and soil requirements and geographical restraints were evaluated for the species, considering the climatological characteristics of its regions of origin, as well as regions where camelina is successfully grown in the rest of the world. The variables considered include factors (maximum temperatures of the warmest month, water deficits, and degree days) and limitations (altitude, geomorphology, and current land use), which permitted the evaluation of the national territory for a certain level of suitability. It was determined that 1.3% of the national territory (960,664 ha) has some degree of suitability for camelina adoption. Between the Biobío and Los Lagos regions, 49.0% of land (471,203 ha) is in the category of without thermic restrictions, with mild water restrictions, and mild soil restrictions or without information, which can be used for camelina production. The Los Ríos region had 21.4% surface area (321,176 ha) with some level of suitability for camelina, the most suitable region to establish this crop in Chile.

Binge-eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) have adverse psychological and medical consequences. Novel interventions, like the integration of virtual reality (VR) with cue-exposure therapy (VR-CET), enhance outcomes for refractory patients compared to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of translating VR-CET into real-world settings. To investigate this question, adults previously treated for BED or BN with at least one objective or subjective binge episode/week were recruited from an outpatient University eating disorder clinic to receive up to eight weekly one-hour VR-CET sessions. Eleven of 16 (68.8%) eligible patients enrolled; nine (82%) completed treatment; 82% (9/11) provided follow-up data 7.1 (SD=2.12) months post-treatment. Overall, participant and therapist acceptability of VR-CET was high. Intent-to-treat objective binge episodes (OBEs) decreased significantly from 3.3 to 0.9/week (p &lt; .001). Post-treatment OBE 7-day abstinence rate for completers was 56%, with 22% abstinent for 28 days at follow-up. Among participants purging at baseline, episodes decreased from a mean of one to zero/week, with 100% abstinence maintained at follow-up. The adoption of VR-CET into real-world clinic settings appears feasible and acceptable, with a preliminary signal of efficacy. Findings, including some loss of treatment gains during follow-up may inform future treatment development.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a form of chronic lung disease that develops in neonates as a consequence of preterm birth and arrested fetal lung development. The incidence of BPD remains on the rise, as a result of increasing survival of extremely preterm infants. Severe BPD contributes to significant health care costs and is associated with prolonged hospitalizations, respiratory infections, and neurodevelopmental deficits. In this study, we aimed to detect novel biomarkers of severe BPD. We collected tracheal aspirates (TA) from preterm babies with mild/moderate (n = 8) and severe (n = 17) BPD, and we profiled the expression of 1048 miRNAs using a PCR array. Associations with biological pathways were determined with the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software. We found 31 miRNAs differentially expressed between the two disease groups (2-fold change, FDR &lt; 0.05). Of these, 4 miRNAs displayed significantly higher expression levels, and 27 miRNAs had significantly lower expression levels in the severe BPD vs. the mild/moderate BPD group. IPA identified cell signaling and inflammation pathways associated with miRNA signatures. We conclude that TAs of extreme premature infants contain miRNA signatures associated with severe BPD. These signatures may serve as biomarkers of disease severity in infants with BPD.

Although the water absorption feature (WAF) at 970 nm is not very well-defined, it may be used alongside other indices to estimate the canopy water content. The individual performance of a number of existing vegetation water content (VWC) indices against the WAF is assessed using linear regression model. We developed a new Combined Vegetation Water Index (CVWI) by merging indices to boost the weak absorption feature. CVWI showed a promise in assessing the vegetation water status derived from the 970 nm absorption wavelength. CVWI was able to differentiate two groups of dataset when regressed against the absorption feature. CVWI could be seen as an easy and robust method for vegetation water content studies using hyperspectral field data.

Carbonate rocks occupy about 6490 km2 in Albania (23% of the country) and the total exploitable karst water resources are estimated in 2.84*109 m3/year (about 65% of the total exploitable groundwater resources in the country, and about 70% of those used for water supply). In addition, karst massifs are very rich in thermal waters, related to the ascending fluids which are essential for the development of hypogenic karstification in the outer Albanides. This type of karst facilitates the circulation regime of deep fluids, which are revealed at the surface through both numerous phenomena of hypogene karst and hot springs. The relatively small Kruja Tectonic Zone is characterized by the presence of SE-NW oriented carbonate structures, rich in thermal sources, and contains more than the 80% of Albania thermal springs. One of its most interesting carbonate structures, for the presence of both cold and thermal waters, is the small karst structure of Makaresh, with a surface of 22 km2. The purpose of this article is to describe the characteristics and factors that affect the quantitative and qualitative formation of cold and thermal groundwater in this massif. Based on the physico-chemical characteristics, groundwaters of the study area are classified in cold and thermal waters. The former are mainly of HCO3-Ca or HCO3-Ca-Mg type (Electrical Conductivity 580-650 μS/cm, Temperature 13.9-16.6° C). Thermal waters are mainly of the Cl-Na-Ca type (EC 7200-7800 μS/cm, T 18.5-22.5° C); further, they are characterized by high hydrogen sulphide concentration, up to about 350 mg/l. The presence of two groundwater types in the Makaresh massif is connected to the presence of two groundwater circulation systems. The main factors of the groundwater physic-chemical quality are the solution of rocks and minerals therein contained, the presence of hypogenic speleogenesis, and the mixing of the groundwater of the two systems. The hydrogeological studies proved that karst rocks contain considerable fresh water resources; the capacity of water wells used for the drinking water supply reaches up to about 50 l/s. Thermal waters are not currently exploited due to their temperature, but they are potentially suitable for thermal uses, by drilling boreholes at depth of about 1000 m.

The Florida Keys, a delicate archipelago of sub-tropical islands extending from the south-eastern tip of Florida, host the vast majority of the only coral barrier reef in the continental United States. Abiotic as well as microbial components of the surrounding waters are pivotal for the health of reef habitats, and thus could play an important role in understanding the development and transmission of coral diseases in Florida. In this study, we analyzed microbial community structure and abiotic factors in waters around the Florida Reef Tract. Both, bacterial and eukaryotic community structure were significantly linked with variations in temperature, dissolved oxygen and total organic carbon values. High abundances of copiotrophic bacteria as well as several potentially harmful microbes, including coral pathogens, fish parasites and taxa that have been previously associated with Red Tide and shellfish poisoning were present in our datasets and may have a pivotal impact on reef health in this ecosystem.

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. belongs to the Cactaceae family and the genus Opuntia; it is a succulent plant that adapts to extreme climatic conditions. The aerial part of the plant consists of the cladodes, morphological changes of branches that appear green, are covered with thorns, and are essential to reduce excessive perspiration of water. The composition of cladodes is very varied, and the main constituents are water, fibers, polysaccharides, proteins, fatty acids, vitamins, sterols, minerals, and polyphenols. Polyphenols are responsible for many beneficial activities for human health, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and nutritional properties. The purpose of this manuscript was to compare the properties of cladodes belonging to the same plant but with different stages of maturity. Relative extracts were tested both in vitro and on a cell line and antioxidant and anti-apoptotic properties were found. The antioxidant activity was tested by the ORAC test, the DPPH test, and the measurement of cellular accumulation of ROS. Anti-apoptotic activity was evaluated by the annexin/PI assay and measurement of caspases 9 and 3 expression. The results obtained have shown that the extracts considered possess antioxidant and anti-apoptotic properties. However, the different stages of maturity of cladodes are essential for the performance of both functions. In addition, important variations have been made in the dissolution of extracts that have brought greater safety in their use. In conclusion, this manuscript provides further information on cladodes of Opuntia ficus-indica, which can be used as adjuvants in many human pathologies.

The chemical investigation of the anti-yeast methanol extract from the stem bark of Terminalia mantaly led to the isolation of seven compounds: 3-O-methyl-4-O-α-rhamnopyranoside ellagic acid (1), 3-O-mehylellagic acid (2), arjungenin or 2,3,19,23-tetrahydroxyolean-12-en-28-oïc acid (3), arjunglucoside or 2,3,19,23-tetrahydroxyolean-12-en-28-oïc acid glucopyranoside (4), 2α,3α,24-trihydroxyolean-11,13(18)-dien-28-oïc acid (5), stigmasterol (6), stigmasterol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (7). Their structures were established by means of spectroscopic analysis and comparison with published data. Compounds 1-5 were tested in vitro for activity against three pathogenic yeast isolates, Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis and Candida krusei. The activity of compounds 1, 2 and 4 were comparable to that of the reference compound fluconazole (MIC values below 32 µg/ml) against the three tested yeast isolates. They were also tested for inhibitory properties against four enzymes of metabolic significance: Glucose-6-Phosphate Deshydrogenase (G6PD), human erythrocyte Carbonic anhydrase I and II (hCA I and hCA II), Glutathione S-transferase (GST). Compound 4 showed highly potent inhibitory property against the four tested enzymes with overall IC₅₀ values below 4 µM and inhibitory constant (Ki) <3 µM.

The extent of single and multi-cropping systems in any region, and potential changes to it, have consequences on food and resource use raising important policy questions. However, addressing these questions is limited by a lack of reliable data on multi-cropping practices at a high spatial resolution, especially in areas with high crop diversity. In this paper, we describe a relatively low-cost and scalable method to identify double cropping at the field-scale using satellite (Landsat) imagery. The process combines machine learning methods with expert labeling. We demonstrate the process by measuring double cropping extent in a portion of Washington State in the Pacific Northwest United States--- a region with significant production of more than 60 distinct types of crops including hay, fruits, vegetables, and grains in irrigated settings. Our results indicate that the current state-of-the-art methods for identifying cropping intensity---that apply rule-based thresholds on vegetation indices---do not work well in regions with high-crop-diversity. Our deep learning model was able to capture the diverse nuances and achieve a high accuracy (99\% overall accuracy and 0.92 Kappa coefficient). Our expert labeling process worked well and has potential as a relatively low-cost, scalable approach for remote sensing applications. The product developed here is valuable to inform several policy questions related to food production and resource use.

Adlay seed samples were collected from 3 adlay growing regions (Yeoncheon, Jeonnam and Eumseong regions) in Korea during 2012. Among all the samples collected, 400 seeds were tested for fungal occurrence by standard blotter and test tube agar methods and different taxonomic groups of fungal genera were detected. The most predominant fungal genera encountered were Fusarium, Phoma, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Cochliobolus and Leptosphaerulina. The occurrence of Fusarium species were 45.6% and based on the combined sequences of two protein coding genes, EF-1a, Beta-tubulin and phylogenetic analysis, 10 species were characterized as F. incarnatum (11.67%), F. kyushense (10.33%), F. fujikuroi (8.67%), F. concentricum (6.00%), F. asiaticum (5.67%), F. graminearum (1.67%), F. miscanthi (0.67%), F. polyphialidiom (0.33%), F. armeniacum (0.33%) and F. thapsinum (0.33%). The ability of these isolates to produce mycotoxins fumonisin (FUM) and zeralenone (ZEN) were tested by ELISA quantitative analysis method. The result revealed that fumonisin (FUM) was produced only by F. fujikuroi and zeralenone (ZEN) by F. asiaticum & F. graminearum. Mycotoxigenic species were then examined for their morphological characteristics to confirm their identity. Morphological observations of the species correlated well with their molecular identification and confirmed as F. asiaticum, F. fujikuroi and F. graminearum.

In the Mediterranean Sea, there are two critical issues affecting marine benthic biocenosis: the sedimentation process and the increasing trend in marine biodiversity loss. These processes are very marked along the western side of Calabria coastline where siltation is one of the main reasons for the regression of Posidonia beds in the regional coastal waters. This research aims to investigate the relationships between the geomorphological features of the debris source areas, represented by fluvial basins, and the distribution of Posidonia meadows. So, a geomorphological study of the Tyrrhenian fluvial basins with area greater than 200 km2 and its correlation with the mapping of the meadows in the Calabria Tyrrhenian waters was carried out. Furthermore, in order to assess the increased level of burial in a Posidonia oceanica meadow and its health state over time, a program of Posidonia monitoring was undertaken between 2000 and 2010, in a test area located in the Marine Regional Park of Isca (Calabria, Southern Italy). The results of this survey highlighted that, at the beginning of the study period, for a silting rate of 4 - 5 cm/year, the meadow suffered a reduction of its photosynthetic ratio with a rate of mortality of 50%. In the following years, the siltation rate reach 12 cm/year in 2010 and the meadow began to disappear. Therefore, the marine pollution by sedimentation represents a serious factor for the regression of Posidonia oceanica meadows, enhancing the risk of a gradual loss in marine biodiversity.

Newly build offshore wind farms (OWFs) render a collision risk between ships and installations. The paper proposed a real-time traffic monitoring method based on machine vision and deep learning technology to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the traffic monitoring system in the vicinity of offshore wind farms. Specifically, the method employs real automatic identification system (AIS) data to train a machine vision model, which is then used to identify passing ships in OWF waters. Furthermore, the system utilizes stereo vision techniques to track and locate the positions of passing ships. The method is tested in offshore water in China to validate its reliability. The results prove that the system sensitively detects the dynamic information of the passing ships, such as the distance between ships and OWFs, ship speed and course. Overall, this study provides a novel approach to enhancing the safety of OWFs, which is increasingly important as the number of such installations continues to grow. By employing advanced machine vision and deep learning techniques, the proposed monitoring system offers an effective means of improving the accuracy and efficiency of ship monitoring in challenging offshore environments.

Industrialization, intensive farming, rapid population growth and urbanization are the source of a large number of pollutants entering the environment. The current concentration of xenobiotics released into the environment exceeds its natural ability to decompose them. Enzymatic degradation of pollutants seems to be an environmentally friendly process. Due to the wide spectrum of substrate specificity, from inorganic compounds to high molecular weight organic compounds such as PAH or dyes, as well as favorable biochemical properties, laccase has been used in the biological removal of xenobiotics from the environment. It is important to understand the degradation mechanisms of pollutants and to evaluate the final products in terms of their toxicity. The laccase oxidizes the substrates with the simultaneous reduction of molecular oxygen to water, which is the purest reaction co-substrate. That is why it is called a green biocatalyst. The trend is an increase in the production of enzymes related to the intensive development of industry, bioremediation or synthetic chemistry. This leads to the search for laccases with greater activity and stability under extreme conditions. The potential of laccases to degrade xenobiotics can be promoted by improving enzymatic catalytic characterization using protein engineering and other genetic engineering methods.

Cannabis has long been used for its medicinal and psychoactive properties. With the relatively new adoption of formal medicinal cannabis regulations worldwide, the study of cannabinoids, both endogenous and exogenous, has similarly flourished in more recent decades. In particular, research investigating the role of cannabinoids in regeneration and neurodevelopment has yielded promising results in vertebrate models. However, regeneration-competent vertebrates are few, whereas a myriad of invertebrate species have been established as superb models for regeneration. As such, this review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the endocannabinoid system, with a focus on current advances in the area of endocannabinoid system contributions to invertebrate neurodevelopment and regeneration.

Stream chemistry effectively integrates watershed ecosystem processes on both spatial and temporal scales. Streams of coastal areas integrate a more homogeneous, flat topography wherein there can be interactions between the stream and the body of water into which it drains, especially where tidal fluxes occur. The present study assessed water quality of Thompson Bayou, which comes to the campus of the University of West Florida in a wetland after flowing through 4 km of commercial and private property with associated impacts on water quality. Sampling was carried out for one year at eight discrete sites along Thompson Bayou from the UWF campus to the Escambia River. We used a portable field meter to measure temperature, pH, dissolved O2 (DO), and specific conductivity (SC). Except for temperature, all variables exhibited a spatial pattern of significant variation with distance, with consistent increases in DO and SC as the stream approached the river. These variables also exhibited a temporal pattern of significant seasonal variation, including—and especially—temperature. Data suggest that spatial and temporal patterns of water quality of Thompson Bayou are determined by (1) processing of water by the wetland, (2) interactions of the stream channel with upland forest stands, and (3) the tidal hydrology of the Escambia River.

Aboriginal Australians have a fundamental human right to opportunities that lead to healthy and flourishing lives. While the impact of trauma on Aboriginal Australians is well-documented, a pervasive deficit narrative that focuses on problems and pathology persists in research and policy discourse. This narrative risks further exacerbating Aboriginal disadvantage, through a focus on ‘fixing what is wrong’ with Aboriginal Australians, and the internalising of these narratives by Aboriginal Australians. While a growing body of research adopts strength-based models, limited research has sought to explore Aboriginal flourishing. This conceptual paper seeks to contribute to a burgeoning paradigm shift in Aboriginal research, seeking to understand what can be learned from Aboriginal people who flourish, how we best determine this, and in what contexts this can be impactful. Within, we argue the case for a new approach to exploring Aboriginal wellbeing that integrates salutogenic, positive psychology concepts with complex systems theory to understand and promote Aboriginal wellbeing and flourishing, While deeper work may be required to establish the parameters of a strength-based, culturally aligned Aboriginal conceptualisation of positive psychology, we suggest the integration of Aboriginal and Western methodologies offer unique and potent means of shifting the dial on seemingly intractable problems.

Today's city needs more than ever methodological devices that ensure a specific urbanism, in keeping with the complexity of relationships that occur in the urban space. Networks or systems of diverse nature must be activated to achieve a certain success of the city, even more so in its fragile central fabrics. The study is focused on the historic neighborhoods of the city of Jaén (Spain), which have a high vulnerability index. The aim is to establish a strategy to revitalize their urban and social capital and improve their articulation with the rest of the urban and territorial structure. A methodological proposal for the analysis of vulnerability factors and an urban and cartographic analysis of the public space is addressed through an interweaving of a triple network: environmental, social, and urban. For this purpose, the configuration of this overlapping network of analysis and formulation of criteria is presented, which considers the urban multiplicity and promotes new dynamics for the integrated urban regeneration of the area and for the activation of public and collective urban spaces.

Shipping is a vital component of global trade. However, shipping activities have negative environmental impacts, including emissions to air and water. The Baltic Sea is severely affected by eutrophication, mainly due to nutrient inputs, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. The aim of this research is to quantify the nutrient content of black and grey water discharged from cargo ships in the Baltic Sea in order to assess their contribution to the total nutrient load. Specifically, the research examines the nitrogen and phosphorus loadings from ships calling the port of HaminaKotka and addresses key questions regarding nutrient generation, discharge proportions, emission shares by ship type and their importance compared to other sources. Using a methodology based on ship data and nutrient production estimates, the study found that 2545 cargo ships generated a total of 781 kg of nitrogen and 134 kg of phosphorus in their effluents during their voyages to the port in 2021. However, only a small fraction (0.5%) of the cargo ships discharged their wastewater at port reception facilities. The study concludes that, although nutrient discharges from cargo ships are relatively small compared to other nutrient sources, efforts to promote port reception or onboard treatment are important for environmental sustainability. Further research is recommended to assess the effectiveness of onboard treatment systems, the impact of other contaminants in wastewater and the development of port reception facilities to facilitate proper wastewater management in the maritime trade.

A substantial amount of phosphorus (P) in soil is not readily available for plant uptake. Certain species may enhance P availability from poorly soluble P forms. This research aimed to compare the P solubilization capacity of the soil of two Lupine species, L. albus, and L. angustifolius, with a control crop of oats (Avena strigosa L.). Plants were planted in pots in four soils with varying texture, organic matter content, acidity, and P availability. Phosphorus solubilization capacity was assessed on variations of P availability (PBray1) at four points in time, comparing soils with lupine to oat-containing soils and their baseline values. At harvest, measurements of plant shoot biomass included their shoot dry weight and some nutrient concentrations such as P, nitrogen (N), manganese (Mn), and lupine nitrogen fixation. Compared to soils containing oats, lupine soils significantly increased PBray1 concentrations; increments ranged from 0.9 to 5.4 mg kg-1, depending on species, sampling time, and soil type. Lupine-induced soil acidification did not fully explain this P increase., As a proxy measurement of organic acid exudation, Manganese concentration was high in both lupine species' shoot biomass; however, these legumes had divergent Mn accumulation responses to soil acidity and P availability. Nitrogen fixed quantity varied with Lupine species (105-240 mg pot-1) and soil type (60-240 mg pot-1). Lupinus albus had a higher ability to mobilize non-labile P and provide N through biological N fixation (BNF), positioning it as a suitable crop for diversifying Uruguay's agricultural crop rotation systems.

Currently, there is a tenacious need to find new ways to purify water by eliminating bacterial biofilms, textile dyes, and toxic water pollutants. These contaminants pose significant risks to both human health and the environment. To address this issue, in this study, we have developed an eco-friendly approach that involves synthesizing Cobalt-doped Cerium Iron Oxide (CCIO) nanocomposite (NC) using an aqueous extract of Gossypium arboreum L. stalks. The resulting nanoparticles can be used to effectively purify water and tackle the challenges associated with these harmful pollutants. Nanoparticles excel in water pollutant removal by providing high surface area for efficient adsorption, versatile design for simultaneous removal of multiple contaminants, catalytic properties for organic pollutant degradation, and magnetic features for easy separation, offering cost-effective and sustainable water treatment solutions. CCIO nanocomposite has been synthesized by green co-precipitation method due to biomolecules and co-enzymes present in the aqueous extract of Gossypium arboreum L. stalk; a single-step procedure completed in 5 h reaction time. Further, the synthesis of nanocomposites was confirmed by various characterization techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX). CCIO NCs were discovered to have a spherical shape and an average size of 40 nm. Based on DLS zeta potential analysis, CCIO NCs were found to be anionic. Also, CCIO NCs showed significant antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. Overall, considering the physical and chemical properties, the application of CCIO NCs in the adsorption of various dyes (~91 %) and water pollutants (chromium = ~ 60 %) has been considered since they exhibit great adsorption capacity owing to their microporous structure which can be a step forward in water purification.

High Brassicaceae consumption reduces the risk of developing several cancer types, probably due to their glucosinolate amount. Extracts from Sinapis nigra L. and Sinapis alba L. have been obtained from leaves and seeds under different conditions using ethanol/water mixtures because well accepted by food industry. The EtOH/H2O 8:2 mixture gives better yields in glucosinolate amounts from grinded seeds, mainly sinalbin in S. alba and sinigrin in S. nigra. The highest antiproliferative activity in both non-tumour and tumour cell lines was induced by S. alba seeds extract. To evaluate whether Sinapis spp effect was only due to glucosinolate content or it was influenced by the extracts’ complexity, cells were treated with extracts or glucosinolates, in the presence of myrosinase. Pure sinigrin did not modify cell proliferation, while pure sinalbin was less effective than the extract. The addition of myrosinase increased the antiproliferative effects of the S. nigra extract and sinigrin. Antiproliferative activity was correlated to MAPKs modulation, which was cell and extract-dependent. Cell-cycle analysis evidenced a proapoptotic effect of S. alba on both tumour cell lines and of S. nigra only on HCT 116. Both extracts showed good antimicrobial activity in disc diffusion tests and on ready-to-eat fresh salad. These results underline the potential effects of Sinapis spp in chemoprevention and food preservation.

The Upper Hunter Valley is a major coal mining area containing approximately 40% of the currently identified total coal reserves in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Due to the ongoing increase of mining activities, PM10 (air-borne particle with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres) pollution has become a major air quality concern in local communities. This paper summarises the spatial and temporal variability modes of PM10 pollution in the region, based on long-term multi-site monitoring data and the application of the rotated principal component analysis (RPCA) and wavelet analysis techniques. RPCA identified two distinct air quality clusters/subregions in the valley, one in the west/northwest, the other in the southeast. Wavelet analysis revealed the annual cycle to be most persistent temporal mode of PM10 variability in both subregions, with intermittent signals observed at time scales of around 120, 30~90 and under 30 days. How these variation modes are related to the effects of local PM10 emissions and the influence of meteorology at different time scales deserves further attention in future work. The findings will be used in air quality reporting and forecasting in NSW. The methodology and results can also be useful for air quality research in similar regions elsewhere.

Uranium (U) is enriched in the waters of the southern Colorado Plateau, including waters of the Navajo Nation. The region has naturally occurring U in rocks and a history of U mining which may increase U concentrations in waters. Despite prior research into the concentration of U in the waters of the Navajo Nation, a framework has not been established to understand the variation of U in the region’s groundwater. To this end, we examined data from five studies to establish where and why U is likely to be enriched in waters of the southern Colorado Plateau. We show that U concentrations are related to the presence of U-rich rock bodies, surface elevation, and local aquifer salinity. Additionally, we show that the distance to the nearest mine is a significant predictor of U in water sources. Our work can act as a guide for local water withdrawal, regional water remediation and mitigation efforts, and provides a means for understanding the geographical patterns of U concentration in waters of the southern Colorado Plateau.

In this study, we evaluated the physicochemical and microbial qualities of source and stored household waters in some communities in Southwestern Nigeria using standard methods. Compared parameters include physicochemical constituents; Temperature (T), pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Magnesium ion (Mg²⁺) and Calcium ion (Ca²⁺) and microbiological parameters included Total Coliform Counts (TC), Faecal Coliform Counts (FC), Fungal Counts (Fung C), Heterotrophic Plate Counts (HPC). Comparing Stored and Source samples, the mean values of some physicochemical parameters of most of the stored water samples significantly (P<0.05) exceeded that of Sources and ranged in the following order: T (15.3±0.3^oC - 28.3±0.5^oC), pH (6.4±0.1 - 7.6±0.1), TDS (192.1±11.1 ppm - 473.7±27.9 ppm), TH (10.6±1.7 mg/L - 248.6±18.6 mg/L), BOD (0.5±0.0 mg/L - 3.2±0.3 mg/L), Mg²⁺ (6.5±2.4 mg/L - 29.1±3.2 mg/L) and Ca²⁺ (6.5±2.4 mg/L - 51.6±4.4 mg/L). The mean microbial counts obtained from microbial comparison of different points (Stored and Source) of collection showed that most of the stored water had counts significantly exceeding (P<0.05) those of the source water samples (cfu/100 mL) which ranged as follows: TC (3.1±1.5 - 156.8±42.9), FC (0.0±0.0 - 64.3±14.2) and HPC (47.8±12.1 - 266.1±12.2) across all sampled communities. Also, the predominant isolates recovered from the samples were identified as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aerogenes, Aspergillus spp, Mucor spp, Rhizopus spp and Candida spp. The presence of these pathogenic and potentially pathogenic organisms in the waters and the high counts of the indicator organisms suggest the waters to be a threat to public health.

We present synthetic experiments of lactic acid (LA) polycondensation to produce poly(lactic acid) (PLA), as well as kinetic modeling calculations that capture the polymer molecular weight increase with time, given the initial concentrations. Tin-octoate-catalyzed polycondensation of (D,L)- or L-lactic acid, was carried out in pre-dried toluene after azeotropic dehydration for 48-120 hours at 130-137 °C. The polymerization was optimized by varying lactic acid and catalyst concentrations as well as the temperature. Gel Permeation Chromatography was used to experimentally follow the evolution of molecular weights and the products were characterized by NMR, TGA, DSC and IR. Under optimal conditions, PLLA with weight-average molecular weight (Mw) of 161 kDa could be obtained. The rate equations that describe polycondensation kinetics were recast in a condensed form that allowed very fast numerical solution and calculation of the number-average molecular weight with time. Deviations with respect to the experiment were minimized in a least-squares fashion, to determine rate constants. The optimized kinetics parameters are shown to reproduce the experimental data accurately

The zoonotic Anisakidae nematodes Anisakis sp., Pseudoterranova sp., Contracaecum sp. have been found in Baltic Sea fish species. In particular, there has been an alarming increase in the dispersion of Contracaecum sp. over the last decade, due to the growing number of grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) in the area. This marine mammal is also the final host in the Pseudoterranova sp. life cycle. The aim of our study was to summarize the presence of Anisakidae nematodes in the salmon (Salmo salar) and other commercially important fish species (cod, herring and sprat) from Polish marine waters. This was evaluated by parasitological inspection of the internal organs and body cavities of 89 individual salmon and the results were compared with infection levels in cod, herring and sprat. The presence of Pseudoterranova sp. is reported for the first time here in the muscle tissue of salmon from the Baltic Sea. In addition, we highlight the elevated levels of cod and sprat infection with Contracaecum sp. over the last decade. The presence of Anisakidae nematodes in commercially important fish species may have implications for human health since these parasites pose a risk of anisakidosis.

The world faces two seemingly unrelated challenges—a shortfall in the STEM workforce and increasing antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. We address these two challenges with Tiny Earth, an undergraduate research course that excites students about science and creates a pipeline for antibiotic discovery.

Eicheon properties are discussed. It is shown that the eicheon surface allows setting a boundary condition for the vacuum polarization and obtaining a solution describing the dark matter tail in the Milky Way. That is, the dark matter in the Milky Way is explained as the F-type of vacuum polarization, which could be treated as dark radiation. The model presented is spherically symmetric, but a surface density of a baryonic galaxy disk is taken into account approximately by smearing the disk over a sphere. This allows the reproduction of the large distance shape of the Milky Way rotational curve. Andromeda's rotational curves are also discussed.

International basins are divided into sub-basins that are managed at the national and local levels, within the territory of each country, before reaching the level of international concern. The management of international basins could be developed using an integrated water management, based on multi-level governance model in which many actors are involved, from local to international scale. However, in the La Plata River Basin this model is not working, even with international agreements such as the La Plata Basin Treaty, which was signed in 1969. The understanding of political interests behind the law helps to explain its inefficiency. Therefore, considering the lack of a systemic view in an international watershed, it could be possible to have accumulating effects caused by the transformations of watercourses in the sub-basins. Then, the 2014 water crisis in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, is an example of the possible consequences arising from the lack of an integrated water management in the La Plata River Basin. Finally, this article demonstrates that the only way to have water resources utilization efficiency in an international basin is considering it as an integrated ecosystem, in order that any local problem may affect the whole basin.

Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) are anchored floating structures often made with cheap scrapped materials and used to aggregate pelagic fish under their artificial shadow. Globally, the dangerous impact of FADs has well known. They pose a severe threat due to known and unknown levels of bycatch, the danger to navigation, and their high potential to become marine litter. Entanglement and consequent mortality in FADs of protected species and species of conservation concern (e.g., sharks, sea turtles, and cetaceans) are a serious concern for several international inter-governmental bodies (e.g., EU, GFCM, and IWC). This work describes the first case of a cetacean, a striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), killed by a FAD in the Mediterranean Sea. This dolphin was found stranded along the coast of the central Tyrrhenian Sea. The evidence suggests that this specimen suffered a painful death. Although this is the first confirmed case of a cetacean killed by a FAD in Italian waters, given the extent of the deployment of FADs, the scale of this type of interaction with protected species might be seriously underestimated. Therefore, actions and monitoring need to be implemented urgently to effectively protect and conserve marine biodiversity.

Decapod assemblages in Zostera marina beds from two bays adjacent to unvegetated habitats were investigated to assess their influence on decapod assemblages. Thirty-eight decapod species belonging to 4 taxa were collected using a small beam trawl at four habitat types from two different locations off the coast of Namhae Island, southern Korea. Dominant decapod taxon at all habitats was the caridean shrimps, with Eualus leptognathus, Heptacarpus pandaloides, Latreutes anoplonyx, La. laminirostris and Palaemon macrodactylus being the most abundant caridean species. Crabs were characterized by the highest biomass, but moderate species richness and abundance. Penaeoids and sergestoids shrimps only accounted for <1% of the total decapod abundance. The number of species, their abundance, and the diversity of decapod assemblages varied greatly by habitat type, season, and diel patterns. Species number and abundance peaked in seagrass beds of southern exposed bays during the autumn, and were lowest in unvegetated habitats during the summer months. Diel decapod species and catch rates were higher at night. Dense seagrass vegetation and nighttime supported greater decapod species richness and higher mean densities, but not diversity. Multivariate analyses revealed that habitat type and season significantly affected the structure of decapod assemblages, but diel patterns had a minor influence. Among decapod species, Pa. macrodactylus and Pugettia quadridens characterized the decapod assemblages in seagrass beds at the northern semi-closed bay, while Telmessus acutidens, Crangon affinis, Cr. hakodatei, Charybdis japonica and Portunus sanguinolentus were significantly associated with both vegetated and unvegetated habitats at the southern exposed bay, with the former two species more abundant during winter and spring.

The first diastereoselective synthesis of (–)-1-epi-lentiginosine stars from a common chiral trans-epoxyamide derived from 2-pyridincarbaldehyde is reported. This methodology involves a sequential oxirane ring opening and intramolecular 5-exo-tet cyclization of tosylate tras-epoxyalcohol to afford a diastereomeric mixture of indolizinium salts in a one-pot fashion, followed by regio- and diastereospecific pyridinium ring reduction.

Fish species diversity in the Black Sea is affected by the introduction of non-indigenous species, particularly through the process of "mediterranization" and the expansion of the ranges of invasive species. In August 2023, we documented an increasing quantity of four non- indigenous sparid species, namely Spicara smaris (Linnaeus, 1758), Diplodus puntazzo (Walbaum, 1792), Diplodus annularis (Linnaeus, 1758), and Lithognathus mormyrus (Linnaeus, 1758), in the coastal Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea, based on citizen science data obtained from small-scale fisheries and pelagic trawlers. However, in the autumn of 2022, only small quantities of S. smaris were collected periodically, indicating significant fluctuations in abundance and occasional presence. The other three species were recorded in August 2023 in the central coastal region near the Fandakliyska River, at depths of less than 10 m. This brief communication presents information on the identified species, including sampling locations and biological data, and examines the sparid species records in the Black Sea. In addition, we reviewed recent studies on the distribution and biological traits of the identified species in their natural Mediterranean habitats.

rdinary people and political leaders must know the sources of greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on global climate change before they have ability to make decisions to reduce emissions and increase sinks of these gases. These people must, however, understand where greenhouse gas emissions are formed and how reductions can be made: they must understand where carbon dioxide sinks are and how to preserve or increase these sinks. North Savo is the example used in this work to describe the present emissions and sinks. There are proposals on what should and could be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by traffic, heating, forests and agriculture. There are possibilities of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in traffic and heating in spite of the fact that the province has a low population density with long distances between homes and workplaces and schools, and a cold climate. We believe that research will also find solutions for reducing greenhouse gases and protecting waters, which are used for recreational purposes and for raw water of drinking water in many places. Luckily forests cover large areas of North Savo and their growth is an important carbon dioxide sink. In addition, forest soils serve as a valuable storage of carbon. Besides carbon dioxide emissions, emissions of nitrous oxide and methane must also be considered since they are more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide and land use can thus influence these gas emissions.

Over the past two decades, persistent occurrences of harmful algal blooms (HAB; Karenia brevis) have been reported in Charlotte County, southwestern Florida. We developed data-driven models that rely on spatiotemporal remote sensing and field data to identify factors controlling HAB propagation, provide a same-day distribution (nowcasting), and forecast their occurrences up to three days in advance. We constructed multivariate regression models using historical HAB occurrences (213 events reported from January 2010 to October 2017) compiled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and validated the models against a subset (20%) of the reported historical events. The models were designed to specifically capture the onset of the HABs instead of those that developed days earlier and continued thereafter. A prototype of an early warning system was developed through a threefold exercise. The first step involved the automatic downloading and processing of daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua products using SeaDAS ocean color processing software to extract temporal and spatial variations of remote sensing-based variables over the study area. The second step involved the development of a multivariate regression model for same-day mapping of HABs and similar subsequent models for forecasting HAB occurrences one, two, and three days in advance. Eleven remote sensing variables and two non-remote sensing variables were used as inputs for the generated models. In the third and final step, model outputs (same-day and forecasted distribution of HABs) were posted automatically on a web-based GIS (http://www.esrs.wmich.edu/webmap/bloom/). Our findings include the following: (1) the variables most indicative of the timing of bloom propagation are bathymetry, euphotic depth, wind direction, SST, chlorophyll-a [OC3M] and distance from the river mouth, and (2) the model predictions were 90% successful for same-day mapping and 65%, 72% and 71% for the one-, two- and three-day advance predictions, respectively. The adopted methodologies are reliable, dependent on readily available remote sensing data sets, and cost-effective and thus could potentially be used to map and forecast algal bloom occurrences in data-scarce regions.

During the bioassay, on leaf sections of the A. roylei species, a significantly higher number of T. tabaci females was recorded compared to the cv. Tęcza of the A. cepa species and the cv. Kroll of the A. fistulosum species, in each observation period. Significantly more thrips settled on cv. Kroll compared to Alibaba and Bila. Regarding the results obtained on A. cepa, significantly fewer females were found on cv. Bila compared to cv. Tęcza. Opposite results were observed in a combination of cvs. Tęcza - Alibaba, where significantly more insects settled on leaves of cv. Alibaba. Statistically significant differences of cultivars/species were found in the number of hatched larvae on the leaves of the tested cultivars/species of onion. The significantly lowest number of larvae hatched from eggs laid on A. roylei compared to A. fistulosum and cultivars of A. cepa, except for Bila.

A U.S. government health agency conducted epidemiological studies to evaluate whether exposures to drinking water contaminated with volatile organic compounds at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were associated with increased health risks to children and adults. These health studies required knowledge of contaminant concentrations in drinking water—at monthly intervals—delivered to family housing, barracks, and other facilities within the study area. Because concentration data were limited or unavailable during much of the period of contamination (1950s–1985), the historical reconstruction process was used to quantify estimates of monthly mean contaminant-specific concentrations. This paper integrates many efforts, reports, and papers into a synthesis of the overall approach to, and results from, a drinking-water historical reconstruction study. Results show that at the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant (WTP) reconstructed (simulated) tetrachloroethylene (PCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 183 micrograms per liter (ug/L) compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 215 ug/L and exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 ug/L during the period November 1957–February 1987. At the Hadnot Point WTP, reconstructed trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 783 ug/L compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 1,400 ug/L during the period August 1953–December 1984. The Hadnot Point WTP also provided contaminated drinking water to the Holcomb Boulevard housing area continuously prior to June 1972, when the Holcomb Boulevard WTP came on line (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 32 ug/L) and intermittently during the period June 1972–February 1985 (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 66 ug/L). Applying the historical reconstruction process to quantify contaminant-specific monthly drinking-water concentrations is advantageous for epidemiological studies when compared to using the classical exposed versus unexposed approach.

Bacteriological and physico-chemical analyses of fish pond water are very important in aquaculture as they give insights into likely threats to aquaculture and associated personnel. Bacteriological and physico-chemical profiles of selected fish ponds in the Ilorin West area of Kwara State, Nigeria, were investigated to evaluate the water quality of rearing enclosures. Physico-chemical analyses revealed quality parameters were within the recommended range for aquaculture. Following bacteriological analyses of static water pond culture, the TVC and TCC showed temporal variations, with concentration increasing with sampling time. However, the FCC showed fluctuation. Totally, 8 bacteria groups were isolated from both rearing enclosures. Of these, Gram-negative bacteria showed dominance. In which 5 Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Proteus spp, Serratia spp, Enterobacter spp, and Pseudomonas spp) and 3 Gram-positive (Staphylococcus spp, Streptococcus spp, and Bacillus spp) were encountered. Estimates of bacteria occurrence in both rearing facilities respectively gave: Staphylococcus spp (20%), Streptococcus spp (12%), Proteus spp (8%) Enterobacter spp (20%), Serratia spp (16%), Bacillus spp (9%), Escherichia coli (8%), Pseudomonas spp (7%) from earthen pond water sampled. While Staphylococcus spp (18%), Streptococcus spp (16%), Proteus spp (8%), Enterobacter spp (22)%, Serratia spp (8%), Bacillus spp (15%), Escherichia coli (8%), Pseudomonas spp (6%) from concrete water sampled. Conclusively, although there is the presence of bacteria groups of public health concern, the static water exchange provides benefits of natural processing of wastes and restoration of the pond ecosystem. Notably, the presence of Escherichia coli indicates the presence of pathogenic organisms of enteric origin. The presence of these organisms has been associated with a lack of tentative pond management and effective biosecurity procedures.

The cryopreservation of gametes and embryos is an important element of biodiversity conservation. One species in need of conservation is the honey bee Apis mellifera L. Changing environmental factors, especially the anthropogenic factor, have led to a reduction in the numbers of this insect species. In this study, we provide an example of the creation of a biobank of honey bee drone sperm. For sperm cryopreservation, drones of the most common subspecies of honey bees common in Russia were selected. These were the dark forest bee, Apis mellifera mellifera from the Republic of Bashkortostan, with three subspecies (A. m. carnica, A. m. carpatica, and A. m. caucasica) from the southern regions of Russia, as well as two breeding stocks, the Far Eastern bee and Prioksky bee. For subspecies identification, morphometric and genetic methods were used. The subspecies of the studied samples were confirmed by the analysis of the tRNAleu-COII locus of mitochondrial DNA and nine microsatellite markers of nuclear DNA. It was shown that bees of the Prioksky breeding stock belong to the subspecies A. m. caucasica based on phylogenetic analysis, and the Far Eastern breeding stock is a stable hybrid, descending on the maternal line from the evolutionary lineage C or O. The results of the morphometric analysis are consistent with the results of the genetic analysis. For the cryopreservation of sperm, we used a honey diluent. As a result, the viability of frozen–thawed sperm decreased by 20.3% compared to fresh sperm, and overall motility decreased by 25-fold. The measurement of the sperm concentration in the spermatheca of artificially inseminated queens showed that it varied from 0.22 to 4.4 million/μL. Therefore, the use of honey in sperm cryopreservation has great potential.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has been an important source of income for communities in the Madre de Dios River Basin in Peru for hundreds of years. However, in recent decades, the scale of ASGM activities in the region has increased dramatically, and exposures to a variety of occupational and environmental hazards related to ASGM, including mercury, are becoming more widespread. The aims of our study were to: (1) examine patterns in the total hair mercury level of human participants in several communities in the region and compare these results to the 2.2 µg/g total hair mercury level equivalent to the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee of Food Additives (JECFA)’s Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI); and (2), to measure the mercury levels of paco (Piaractus brachypomus) fish raised in local aquaculture ponds, in order to compare these levels to the EPA Fish Tissue Residue Criterion of 0.3 µg Hg/g fish (wet weight). We collected hair samples from 80 participants in four communities (one control and three where ASGM activities occurred) in the region, and collected 111 samples from fish raised in 24 local aquaculture farms. We then analyzed the samples for total mercury. Total mercury levels in hair were statistically significantly higher in the mining communities than in the control community, and increased with increasing distance away from the Madre de Dios headwaters (as the crow flies), did not differ by sex, and frequently exceeded the reference level. Regression analyses indicated that higher hair mercury levels were associated with residence in ASGM communities. The analysis of paco fish samples found no samples that exceeded the EPA tissue residue criterion. Collectively, these results align with other recent studies showing that ASGM activities are associated with elevated human mercury exposure. The fish farmed through the relatively new process of aquaculture in ASGM areas appeared to have little potential to contribute to human mercury exposure. More research is needed on human health risks associated with ASGM to discern occupational, residential, and nutritional exposure, especially through tracking temporal changes in mercury levels as fish ponds age, and assessing levels in different farmed fish species. Additionally, research is needed to definitively determine that elevated mercury levels in humans and fish result from the elemental mercury from mining, rather than from a different source, such as the mercury released from soil erosion during deforestation events from mining or other activities.

Previous research has proven that one of the fundamental requirements for ensuring increased profitability and economic competitiveness of offshore-based projects is co-locating different technologies within the same marine space. This paper presents a number of techno-feasibility analyses for floating offshore technologies for the Maltese Islands, located in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The first part compares the feasibility of offshore-based solar photovoltaic prices with those onshore, taking into consideration Malta’s land prices. The second part considers the use of a novel floating breakwater design that integrates energy storage. The breakwater is used to create a sheltered water area in deep waters for a multi-use marine park. Different revenue streams for the floating break water are considered, including renting the sheltered marine space out to operators of floating solar farms, aquaculture cages and vessel berthing facilities, and the provision of energy storage services. It is found that the combined income from the multiple revenue streams is still insufficient to justify the investment and that financially support from Government is essential to render the floating breakwaters viable.

Frequent flooding from sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the immediate climate change impacts affecting low-lying and exposed coastal communities. These communities rely upon the delivery of three-waters services for wastewater, stormwater and water supply. Due to ongoing SLR, managing these networks will increasingly be a challenge. This raises the issue of how local government can reconcile maintaining levels of service as the impacts of climate change and their uncertainties worsen over the coming decades (and beyond). Can they be adapted over time to retain levels of service or will they eventually require retreat and if so at what adaptation threshold? This paper explores managed retreat of two-waters infrastructure (wastewater and stormwater) as an adaptation option using a Dynamic Adaptive Pathway Planning (DAPP) approach. In the study, we use DAPP to frame the retreat of two-water networks, developing a combination of an area specific retreat strategy, pathway portfolios, retreat phases, land use change signaling and identify pathway conflicts and synergies. Repurposing retreated areas by utilizing Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) options was found to extend retreat thresholds for adjacent areas. A systematic ’routine’ developed in this study provides a structured approach for managed retreat of two-water infrastructure with the aim to reduce future disruption from flooding, signal land use changes early and allow for gradual budget adjustments by the agencies to manage expenditure over time. This approach helps inform and improve the decision-making process for the agencies and the communities they serve, by providing a stepwise process that can be communicated spatially and visually, thereby making a retreat adaptation option more manageable.

Transportation systems through the ages have seen drastic evolutions in terms of transportation methods, speed of transport, infrastructure, technology, connectivity, influence on the environment, and accessibility. The massive transformation seen in the transportation sector has been fueled by the industrial revolutions which have continued expansion and progress into the fourth industrial revolution. However, the methodologies of data collection and processing used by the many drivers of this progress differ. The significance of standardized data and its mode of collection cannot be overstated as it has a major impact on the process outcomes. In order to achieve a better understanding of the impact of this, this study methodically reviewed the literature on the subject of the data collection and processing mechanism of 4IR technologies in the context of the transport industry with an emphasis on the areas of accomplishment of several studies and drawing attention to their limitations. Although the industry has advanced significantly as a result of the adoption and application of various research studies in this field, considerable focus needs to be placed in the areas of standardized data collection and computational approaches, which will ultimately assist in achieving various benefits in the transportation industry.

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an attractive candidate for sustainable pest management due to its abundance of bioactive compounds with potential pesticidal properties. Solvent choice has a significant impact on the extraction efficiency of bioactive compounds. Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) are gaining popularity in extraction because they are safe and environmentally friendly, making them viable alternatives to organic solvents (OSs). This research first compared the extraction efficiency of OSs on the extraction of phytochemicals from the infloresences of two hemp varieties, Citrus and Cherry Dwarf. Inflorescences were extracted using three OSs, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and hexane. The highest level of cannabidiol (CBD; 0.69%) was extracted from Cherry Dwarf using ethanol while the level of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol THC (0.19%) was essentially the same in both. Therefore, Cherry Dwarf was selected to compare the extraction efficiency of DESs to the OSs. The DESs were choline chloride/ethylene glycol, citric acid/ethylene glycol, menthol/lauric acid, choline chloride/urea and choline chloride/glycerol. In the targeted analysis, choline chloride/ethylene glycol extracted the highest amount of CBD (0.87%) followed by choline chloride/urea (0.78%). As some DESs outperformed ethanol, the popular solvent for extracting cannabinoids, DESs are viable candidates to replace organic solvents.

Keywords: contamination; bioaccumulation; fish and mollusks tissue; ecosystem components; heavy metals; organochlorine pesticides; polychlorinated biphenyls; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Sustainable food systems imply the re-use of biowastes and water. In this paper we characterize 30 top soil improvers of anthropogenic, animal and green waste origin, and 11 irrigation waters from rivers, channels, and civil wastewater treatment plants (cWWTPs) for the presence of antimicrobials. Liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS/MS) was applied to determine 50 different drugs belonging to the classes of sulfonamides (11), tetracyclines (7), fluoroquinolones (10), macrolides (12), amphenicols (3), pleuromutilins (2), diaminopyrimidines (1), rifamycines (1) and lincosamides (1). Biowastes from cWWTPs and animal manure, slurry and litter revealed the highest loads for sulfonamides, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, and macrolides (80, 470, 885, and 4,487 ng/g wet weight, respectively) with nor- and cipro-floxacin as marker of anthropogenic sources. In composts and digestates antimicrobials were almost below the determination limits. Re-used waters for irrigation in open field lettuce production resulted contaminated in the range of 12-221 ng/L for sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones, against very few detects in channels and surface waters. Antimicrobials Hazard Index (HI) based on Predicted No Effect Concentration for Antimicrobial Resistance (PNEC_AMR) was largely >100 in contaminated top soil improvers from urban and animal sources. Accounting for worst-case inputs from top soil improvers and irrigation water and dilution factors of amended soil, fluoroquinolones only showed a HI around 1 in open fields for lettuce production. The origin of top soil improvers plays a pivotal role for safe and sustainable leafy vegetable productions, to abate the risk of AMR onset in food-borne diseases, as well the transfer of AMR elements to human gut flora.

Nowadays, the identification and characterization of grapevine cultivars resilient to climate and water stress while preserving quality traits is crucial for the wine industry. Therefore, the objective of this work was to characterize according to their aromatic potential 9 white and 6 red minority cultivars recently recovered from Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain), subjected at two different water deficit regimes: rainfed, with subsistence irrigation, and irrigated. For this, the varietal aromatic potential index (IPAv) and the detailed aromatic composition were analyzed by HS-SBSE-GC/MS, in extracts of two different ph. For IPAv values, red varieties did not show a clear trend with respect to irrigation. However, in white minority varieties, higher values were obtained under irrigation conditions. Thus, a clear differentiation of the minority varieties in comparison to the references was observed, primarily attributed to the content of esters and acids, in both white and red varieties. A notable contrast was observed at different pH, indicating a greater extractability of certain compounds like linalool, under more acidic conditions. This suggests that some recovered minority cultivars could be promising for cultivation in semi-arid regions with limited water, contributing to the wine sector sustainability in the future.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis variant bovis (MBO) has one of the widest known mammalian host ranges, including humans. Despite characterization of this pathogen in the 1800s, and whole genome sequencing of a UK strain (AF2122) nearly two decades ago, the basis of its host specificity and pathogenicity remains poorly understood. Recent experimental calf infection studies show that MBO strain Ravenel (MBO Ravenel) is attenuated in the cattle host. In the present study, experimental infections were performed to define attenuation and whole genome sequencing completed to identify regions of differences (RD) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to explain the observed attenuation. Comparative genomic analysis of MBO Ravenel against three pathogenic strains of MBO (strains AF2122-97, 10-7428 and 95-1315) was performed. Experimental infection studies on 5 calves each, with either MBO Ravenel or 95-1315, revealed no visible lesions in all 5 animals in the Ravenel group despite robust IFN-γ responses. Out of 486 polymorphisms in the present analysis, 173 were unique to MBO Ravenel among the strains compared. A high-confidence subset of 9 unique SNPs were missense mutations in genes with annotated functions impacting 2 major MBO survival and virulence pathways: 1) Cell wall synthesis & transport [espH (A103T), mmpL8 (V888I), aftB (H484Y), eccC5 (T507M), rpfB (E263G)], and 2) Lipid metabolism & respiration [mycP1(T125I), pks5 (G455S), fadD29 (N231S), fadE29 (V360G)]. These substitutions likely contribute to the observed attenuation. Results from experimental calf infections and the functional attributions of polymorphic loci on the genome of MBO Ravenel provide new insights into the strain’s genotype-disease phenotype associations.

Within the field of guilt and shame, two competing perspectives have been advanced. The first, the social-adaptive perspective, proposes that guilt is an inherently adaptive emotion and shame is an inherently maladaptive emotion; thus, those interested in moral character development and psychopathology should work to increase an individual’s guilt-proneness and decrease an individual’s shame-proneness. The functionalist perspective, in contrast, argues that both guilt and shame can serve a person adaptively or maladaptively—depending on the situational appropriateness, duration, intensity, and so forth. This paper reviews the research conducted supporting both positions, critiques some issues with the most widely used guilt- and shame-proneness measure in the social-adaptive research (the TOSCA), and discusses the differences in results found when assessing guilt and shame at the state versus trait level. The conclusion drawn is that although there is broad support for the functionalist perspective across a wide variety of state and trait guilt/shame studies, the functionalist perspective does not yet have the wealth of data supporting it that has been generated by the social-adaptive perspective using the TOSCA. Thus, before a dominant perspective can be identified, researchers need to (1) do more research assessing how the social-adaptive perspective compares to the functionalist perspective at the state level, and (2) do more trait research within the functionalist perspective to compare functionalist guilt- and shame-proneness measures with the TOSCA.

Urban environments face escalating challenges, e.g. due to uncontrolled urbanization, rapid population growth or climate changes, prompting the exploration of sustainable solutions for enhancing urban green spaces (UGS). For this reason, poplars (Populus L.), due to their rapid growth, wide range adaptability to environmental conditions and versatility of use, would have emerged as very promising. This comprehensive review synthesizes current knowledge regarding poplar's application in urban landscapes, emphasizing its multifaceted contributions and benefits. However, challenges arise from the variable lifespans of different poplar cultivars, necessitating strategic management approaches. Selecting cultivars based on growth rates, root system characteristics, and adaptability to urban conditions is pivotal. Adaptive replanting strategies, incorporating species with varying lifespans, offer solutions to maintain continual greenery in urban landscapes. Collaborative efforts between researchers, urban planners, and policymakers are essential for devising comprehensive strategies that maximize benefits while addressing challenges associated with their variable lifespans. In conclusion, harnessing poplar's potential in urban greenery initiatives requires a balanced approach that capitalizes on their benefits while mitigating challenges. Further research and adaptive strategies are crucial for sustained and effective utilization in creating resilient and vibrant urban landscapes.

Environmental degradation leads to a totally unsustainable food system. In addition to this is-sue, the consumption of foods that improve people's health and well-being is recommend-ed. These guidelines create new challenges and the demand for alternatives to meet these needs in the short term. One of the alternatives is undoubtedly the use of by-products of winemaking, namely in the form of grape pomace flour (GPF), which is obtained in a totally sustainable way, requires no further water consumption or agricultural land, and is an ingredient that boasts all the characteristics that meet the circular economy and has colossal potential in promoting nutrition and healthy eating. To verify the benefits of using the Touriga Nacional and Arinto (Vitis vinifera L.) flour varieties, analytical determinations were made to identify and quantify different components, such as nitrogen and extractable phosphorus, ash, moisture, proteins, fats, dietary fibers, total sugars, and phenolic content. GPF could become a valuable ingredient due to its nutritional quality and high content in various polyphenols namely flavonoids and pyranoanthocyanins.

Cadmium Sulfide nanoparticle (CdS-LA hybrid nanoparticles) was synthesized here by a green approach using the precursor cadmium acetate and sodium sulphide along with the extract of a plant Lathyrus aphaca L. containing the phytochemicals which were responsible for surface modification of nanoparticles. The nanoparticle was used to evaluate their inhibition potential against species of bacteria and fungi. The nanoparticles were characterized by XRD which demonstrates the hexagonal crystal structure. SEM confirms the homogenous surface appearance of the CdS-LA hybrid crystalline structure. EDX analysis confirms surface modification of nanoparticles by phytochemicals. FTIR confirmed the Cd-S linkage laterally with the related functional groups and the presence of metabolites on the surface of nanoparticles. The UV-visible spectroscopy confirmed the peak at the characteristic wavelength range but a slight shift occurred in the peak of the CdS nanoparticles due to the presence of the phytochemicals. This study particularly provides an environment-friendly strategy to synthesize the CdS nanoparticles capped by Lathyrus Aphaca L. extract that are biologically active due to the mediation of the plant extract. CdS-LA hybrid nanoparticles have shown inhibition potential against various species of bacteria and fungi and realize the biological importance of the green synthesis of nanoparticles especially mediated with the plant extract.

Mulberry leaves are a classic herb commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, and experience since ancient times has shown that leaves collected after frost have better medicinal properties. However, the characteristics of the changes of critical metabolic components in mulberry leaves, especially Morus nigra L., are still unknown. To further study the influence of harvesting time on the dynamic changes of metabolites, especially DNJ compounds and flavonoids, in mulberry leaves after frost. We used metabolomics technology to select 100+ metabolites as indexes to reflect the dynamic changes of metabolites in mulberry leaves comprehensively. The results showed significant differences in the effects of defrosting on the accumulation of metabolites in the leaves of Morus nigra L. and Morus alba L. The content of DNJ in the leaves of Morus nigra L. showed a decreasing trend after the frost, while flavonoids reached the peak of the second frost. For Morus alba L, DNJ showed an increasing trend after frost, especially reaching its peak one day after the second frost. Flavonoids mainly peak in the week before the frost. In addition, by analyzing the influence of picking time on metabolite accumulation in two mulberry leaves, it was concluded that higher DNJ alkaloids and flavonoids would be obtained in mulberry leaves collected in the morning. This study also provides scientific guidance for the optimum harvesting time of mulberry leaves.

Brazil is the number-one country in pesticide consumption, and corn is the second most cultivated crop in the country. Chemical control of weeds associated with corn cultivation is performed by application of herbicides with pre- and postemergence action, such as S-metolachlor. Currently, the toxicity of herbicides is a task of great concern. In this regard, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of an S-metolachlor-based herbicide through bioassays with the plant model Lactuca sativa L. (lettuce) and Zea mays L. (maize). The herbicidal test solutions containing 7.5, 15, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360, 480, 600, and 720 mg L-1 of the active ingredient S-metolachlor were prepared from commercial products. Distilled water was used as a negative control, and aluminum was used as a positive control. Macroscopic analyses (germination and growth) were performed for the two species, and microscopic analyses (chromosomal and nuclear changes) were performed for L. sativa. Negative interference of the S-metolachlor-based herbicide on lettuce was observed for all macroscopic and microscopic parameters tested. In maize, there was no significant interference in germination; however, the herbicide interferes negatively in seedling development. In brief, the herbicide based on S-metolachlor has phytotoxic potential, just as discussed.

Three-Dimensional reconstruction of the corneal surface provides a powerful tool for managing corneal diseases. This study proposes a novel method for reconstructing the corneal surface from elevation point clouds, using modal schemes capable of reproducing corneal shapes using surface polynomial functions. The multivariable polynomial fitting was performed using a non-dominated sorting multivariable genetic algorithm (NS-MVGA). Standard reconstruction methods using least-squares discrete fitting (LSQ) and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) were compared with the evolutionary algorithm-based approach. The study included 49 eyes of 49 patients (ages 11-63) sorted in two groups: control (33 eyes) and keratoconus (KC) (16 eyes). Tomographic information (Sirius, Costruzione Strumenti Oftalmici, Italy) was processed using Matlab. The goodness of fit for each method was evaluated using mean squared error (MSE), measured at the same nodes where the elevation data were collected. Polynomial fitting based on NS-MVGA improves MSE values by 86% compared to LSQ-based methods in healthy patients. Moreover, this new method improves aberrated surface reconstruction by 43% for Amsler-Krumeich (AK) Grade 1 keratoconus patients. Finally, significant improvements were also found in morpho-geometric parameters, such as asphericity and corneal curvature radii.

This research was conducted to analyze the content of Fe, Cu, Cd, Cr, and Pb in several species of fish taken from three lakes that is closely to disposal of industrial waste in Indonesia. The fish samples were taken from three lakes, namely, Muara Angke, Weda, and Morowali. The samples from Morowali were analyzed in April 2019, those from Weda from November to December 2019, and those from Muara Angke in June 2018. All the samples were then analyzed at the chemistry laboratory of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, University of Indonesia, and the Integrated Laboratory of IPB. The results showed that all types of fish from Morowali and Weda were no longer safe to consume because they contained Fe, Cu, Cd, and Cr exceeding the threshold of metal contamination. Meanwhile, all types of fish from Muara Angke, except for ayam-ayam, are still safe for consumption. The results of this study can be a source of information regarding metal content in fish and fish feed for safe consumption. Several studies have been done to determine the metal pollutants contained by fish. Given the high consumption rate of fish and the hazards of heavy metals on humans’ health, such research must be furthered

The environmental problems generated by waste from the mining industry in the mineral extraction for business purposes are known worldwide. The aim of this work is to evaluate the microalga Muriellopsis sp. as a potential remover of metallic ions such as copper (Cu⁺²), zinc (Zn⁺²) and iron (Fe⁺²), pollutants of AMD type waters. For this, the removal of these ions was verified in artificial acid waters with high concentrations of the ions under examination. As well as, the removal was evaluated in waters obtained from areas contaminated by mining waste. The results showed that Muriellopsis sp. removed metals in waters with high concentrations after 4 to 12 hours and showed tolerance to pH between 3 to 5. These results allow proposing this species as a potential bioremediator for areas contaminated by mining activity. In this work, some potential alternatives for application in damaged areas are proposed as a decontamination plan and future prevention.

Enforcement of animal welfare statutes are the primary protection given for the maintenance of animal welfare and prevention of cruelty. It is speculated that animal law enforcement in Australia has a number of weakness in the enforcement model. These weaknesses create a gap between the goals of animal law enforcement and the reality of the animal law justice system. This gap is defined as the ‘enforcement gap’. This paper identifies and investigates the causes of this gap. The hypothesized causes discussed are (1) the impact the public can have on reporting animal cruelty, (2) the reliance on charitable organizations as enforcement bodies, (3) the inconsistencies in animal welfare legislation, and (4) the role of the sentencing courts. Thus, the causes of the enforcement gap are multifactorial; derived from all stages of the enforcement process. Further research is needed to investigate the concepts raised in this paper. However, it is likely that a combination of structural change to enforcement agencies, legislative reform and public education is required to reduce the enforcement gap.

Mangroves offer vital ecological advantages including air and water filtration, coastal and estuarine habitat provision, sediment stabilization, and wave energy absorption. Their intricate root systems play a key role in safeguarding shorelines from tsunamis and erosive storms by dissipating wave energy. Moreover, mangroves shield against boat wakes and wind-waves, bolstering shoreline defense. Wave dissipation is a function of forest width, tree diameter, and forest density. Restoration efforts of juvenile mangroves in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon (IRL) aim to reduce wave energy in areas vulnerable to erosion. Physical model testing of wave dissipation through mangroves is limited due to the complexity in representing the mangrove structure, where prop roots are non-uniform in both diameter and location. Previous studies have quantified wave dissipating effects through use of scaled and parameterized mangrove structures. This study measures the dissipation effects of live mangroves in a wave flume, forced by conditions representative of the IRL. These measurements are used to validate a parameterized dowel model. Error between wave attenuation factors for the live mangrove and dowel system was on average 2.5%. Validation of the modularized dowel system allowed for further parameterized testing to understand forest structure effects, such as sediment stabilization and wave attenuation.

Water quality assessment stands as a fundamental step in water resource management. In addition to substances and organisms present in the water, land use and land cover are two factors affecting also water quality. This study analyzed the correlation and influence between water quality and land use and land cover in the Miranda River Basin (MRB) and the natural wetlands in the Pantanal Biome. Using a watershed-wide approach, results suggested that water quality management policies can be considered in terms of sub-basins (smaller planning units). The Water Quality Index (WQI) was considered GOOD or EXCELLENT throughout the MRB. It was observed that the natural wetlands have the capacity to contribute to improve WQI, with reductions in thermotolerant coliforms and turbidity; however, high values were found for thermotolerant coliforms, a temporal increasing trend of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and a reduction in dissolved oxygen and total phosphorus. Conversely, it was found in these flooded areas a trend of decrease in dissolved oxygen and an increase in BOD concentrations. Natural wetlands play important hydrological and ecological roles in water quality, storing, removing, and cycling nutrients. They are highly relevant areas for defining watershed management and conservation strategies, environmental protection, and providing ecosystem services.

Major marine construction projects, resulting in the release of sediments, are subject to environmental assessment and other regulatory approval processes. An important tool used for this is the development of specialized numerical methods for these marine activities. An integrated set of numerical methods addresses four distinct topics: the near-field release and mixing of suspended sediments into the water column (i.e. the initial dilution zone); the transport of the suspended sediments under the influence of complex ocean currents in the far-field; the settling of the transported suspended sediments onto the seabed; and the potential for resuspension of the deposited sediments due to sporadic occurrences of unusually large near-bottom currents. A review of projects subjected to environmental assessment in the coastal waters of British Columbia from the year 2006 to 2017, is presented to illustrate the numerical models being used and their ongoing development. Improvements include higher resolution model grids to better represent the near-field, the depiction of particle size dependent vertical settling rates and the computation of resuspension of initially deposited sediments, especially in relation to temporary subsea piles of sediments arising from trenching for marine pipelines. The ongoing challenges for this numerical modeling application area are also identified.

The shallow water equations are widely applied for the simulation of flow routing in rivers and floodplains, as well as for flood inundation mapping. From a mathematical point of view, they are a hyperbolic system of nonlinear partial differential equations, whose numerical integration is sometimes computationally burdensome. For this reason, the interest of many researchers has been focused on the study of simplified forms of the original set of equations, which requires less computational effort. One of the most commonly applied simplifications consists in neglecting the inertial terms, which changes the hyperbolic model to a parabolic one. The effects of such a choice on the outputs of the simulations of flooding events are controversial and an important topic of debate. In the present paper, two numerical models, recently proposed for the solution of the complete and zero-inertia forms of the shallow waters equations, are applied to several unsteady flow routing scenarios. We simulate synthetic and laboratory studies, starting from very simple geometries and moving towards complex topographies. Analyzing the role of the terms in the momentum equations, we try to understand the effect, on the computed results, of neglecting the inertial terms in the zero-inertia formulation. We analyze the computational costs.

Phylogenomic analyses have revolutionized the study of biodiversity, but they have revealed that estimated tree topologies can depend, at least in part, on the subset of the genome that is analyzed. For example, estimates of trees for avian orders differ if protein coding or non-coding data are analyzed. The bird tree is a good study system because the historical signal for relationships among orders is very weak, which should permit subtle non-historical signals to be identified, while monophyly of orders is strongly corroborated, allowing identification of strong non-historical signals. Hydrophobic amino acids in mitochondrially-encoded proteins, which are expected to be found in transmembrane helices, have been hypothesized to be associated with non-historical signals. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the evolution of transmembrane helices and extramembrane segments of mitochondrial proteins from 420 bird species, sampled from most avian orders. We estimated amino acids exchangeabilities for both structural environments and assessed the performance of phylogenetic analysis using each data type. We compared those relative exchangeabilities with values calculated using a substitution dataset for transmembrane helices from a variety of sampled set of nuclear- and mitochondrially-encoded proteins, allowing us to compare the bird-specific mitochondrial models with a general model of transmembrane protein evolution. To complement our amino acid analyses, we examined the impact of protein structure on patterns of nucleotide evolution. Models of transmembrane and extramembrane sequence evolution for amino acids and nucleotides exhibited striking differences, but there was no evidence for strong topological data type effects. However, incorporating protein structure into analyses of mitochondrially-encoded proteins improved model fit. Thus, we believe that considering protein structure will improve analyses of mitogenomic data, both in birds and in other taxa.

Despite the Hebrides and Cleveland basins being geographically close, research has not previously been carried out to determine faunal similarities and assess the possibility of links between the dinosaur populations. The palaeogeography of both areas during the Middle Jurassic shows that there were no elevated landmasses being eroded to produce conglomeratic material in the basins at that time. The low-lying landscape and connected shorelines may have provided connectivity between the two dinosaur populations. The dinosaur fauna of the Hebrides and Cleveland basins has been assessed based primarily on the abundant ichnites found in both areas as well as their skeletal remains. In the two basins the dinosaur faunas are very similar, consisting of non-neosauropod eusauropods, a possible basal titanosauriform, large and small theropods and ornithopods and europodan thyreophorans. The main difference in the faunas is in the sizes. In the Cleveland Basin the ichnites suggest that there were medium and large theropods alongside small to medium sized ornithopods whereas in the Hebrides Basin the theropods were from small to large and the ornithopods were medium to large. It is suggested that migrations could have taken place between the two areas during the Middle Jurassic. A tentative food chain from the herbivorous dinosaurs to the top predators can be inferred from the footprints.