Emerging evidence has indicated the involvement of extra-hypothalamic kisspeptin and GnRHR in reproductive function. In this study, we evaluate if maternal exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF) and/or a high-fat diet (HFD) have an impact on the expression of kisspeptin and GnRHR in reproductive organ of offspring’s rats. 16 Pregnant rats are divided into 4 groups, control group (n=4), CPF group (4 rats exposed daily to 1/mg/kg/day), HFD group (4 rats randomly fed a 5,25 kcal/g HFD), co-exposed group (4 rats exposed to CPF and HDF). At postnatal development PND60, males and female offspring were sacrificed. The reproductive organs (ovary and testis) were removed and histological, immunohistological analysis and in silico quantification (software Tissuefax, HistoQuest) was assessed to investigate the impact of different treatment on kisspeptin and GnRHR expression in reproductive organs. The main outcomes of the study showed a significant decrease in rat offspring’s body weight in CPF group from PND30 andPND60 (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). Histological analysis shows a significant increase in atretic follicle and abnormal testis structure with germ cell desquamation at CPF exposed group. The immunodetection quantification of protein shows a significant decrease in GnRHR and kisspeptin in HFD and CPF exposed group, respectively in testis rat offspring. Perinatal exposure to CPF and HFD exposure affect the reproduction function of rat offspring.

The aim of this research work is to study the influence of temperature, solar irradiation and wind dust on the production of solar energy. In addition, it aims to study the assessment of water quality, in particular groundwater used for cooling and cleaning photovoltaic panels (quality analysis). it's an important source, stable and sustainable can be used entirely for cooling and cleaning PV modules from the sales dust, in order to improve their performance. To date, all research studies carried out in this context of cooling and cleaning using water have not taken account of the nature of this water. We have taken a sample of water from a well in a rural area in the Darra Tafilalet region of Morocco. This region has an arid and semi-arid climate, with very high temperatures and dust-laden winds, particularly in summer. These meteorological characteristics influence the efficiency of cells, particularly photovoltaic (PV) panels, reducing their performance. Next, the water sample was analysed in the laboratory. The results obtained show that the groundwater in this area is very sensitive to cooling and cleaning photovoltaic panels. Moreover, these results indicate that the temperature, solar irradiation and wind-blown dust have a significant influence on energy production.

This study investigates the evolving corporate governance mechanisms within the context of an emerging economy. Addressing a literature gap, we analyse the influence of corporate governance and earnings quality on idiosyncratic risk in an emerging economy. In particular, this research explores the impact of corporate governance practices and earnings quality on idiosyncratic risk. For this purpose, we utilise a sample of 75 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistani equity market over nine years from 2010 to 2018. Employing the generalised method of moments, the findings of our empirical analysis reveal that firms with robust governance mechanisms and higher earnings quality experience minimal idiosyncratic risk. These outcomes provide valuable insights for standard setters, regulatory authorities, policymakers, and other stakeholders, emphasising the importance of governance mechanisms and earnings management in mitigating idiosyncratic return volatility.

Fractal analysis of time series aims to extract the hidden or complex structures issued from the associated real data, such as scaling laws, non-stationary, dynamics, and so on. In the present work, the air quality index and its components are considered as time series owing fractal structures. To understand their underlying dynamics, wavelet multifractal approach is applied starting with a wavelet multifractal spectrum test to confirm the multifractality of the underlying data. Next, a new model is introduced improving the classical minmax one, provided with a statistical measure for the adequacy of the new model. The theoretical findings are applied to the north west Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia for environmental and climate data related to pollutants and factors involved in the estimation of the air quality index.

Human activity recognition (HAR) using wearable sensors is gaining popularity in the healthcare domain, enabling continuous monitoring and timely interventions. The conventional HAR systems are centralised and need data sharing with a server for processing and model training. However, this data sharing leads to various challenges, such as privacy concerns, increased communication and storage costs, inefficient computational algorithms, data scarcity due to unwillingness to share, and difficulty achieving high accuracy and personalised models simultaneously. To overcome these challenges, this paper introduces a privacy and energy-aware federated learning (FL) framework for model training without data sharing. The proposed scheme incorporates spiking neural networks (SNNs), which are particularly suited for resource-constrained devices due to their event-driven information processing. The key idea is to synergise the strengths of SNNs and long short-term memory (LSTM) to create a hybrid model for robust HAR. The proposed hybrid spiking LSTM (S-LSTM) model uses the LSTM as an input layer to capture temporal dependencies efficiently, followed by spiking layers that replace the typical activation using leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. We employ the combination of surrogate gradient learning and backpropagation through time (BPTT) to update the weights of SNN layers in a supervised manner. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using two publicly available datasets for both indoor and outdoor scenarios. The results show that the proposed S-LSTM performs much better than spike convolutional neural networks (S-CNN) and simple CNN, achieving the accuracy of 97% and 87% for indoor and outdoor datasets, respectively. Personalisation, also known as fine-tuning the global model using local data, is crucial in HAR. It allows the model to adapt to individual behaviour and preferences, making predictions more accurate. The results also show that personalisation improves the performance of participants up to 9% on average. Additionally, analysis with 50% random client participation reduces communication costs by 50% with minimal impact on accuracy.

Global climatic event on Middle Miocene triggered by geology activity is called by Mid- Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO). This event was widely distributed and associated with increasing temperature and CO2 content in the atmosphere. The effect of MMCO was widely known the mid-latitude region, but still limited information in low latitude sediments. This study try to perform the effect of MMCO at Cibulakan Formation in which deposited in the low latitude basin, Bogor Basin. Fifty eights samples from Cileungsi River were taken at Cibulakan Formation and quantitative nannoplankton analysis was carried out for this study. Nannoplankton shows the sensitive response with sea surface temperature changes. Increasing of total population nannoplankton indicates the rising of temperature and dropping temperature is marked by decreasing population. The effect of sea surface temperature changes relates with salinity changes as the effect of evaporation. Helicosphaera carteri and Umbilicosphaera jafari were counted to know the salinity trend at Cibulakan Formation. Sea surfaces temperature changes was observed on Early Miocene which was influenced by small scale Early Miocene glaciation and active tectonic during this period. Warming temperature taken place on Middle Miocene as the effect of warm and open sea during Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum. Afterwards, hot temperature continued on Late Miocene triggered by global increasing temperature at Pacific Ocean and widely distribution of clean water at North West Java Basin.

This study challenges the prevailing belief in the necessity of complex models for accurate forecasting by demonstrating the effectiveness of parsimonious econometric models, namely ARCH(1) and GARCH(1,1), over deep learning robust approaches, such as LSTM and 1D-CNN neural networks, in modeling historical volatility within pre-emerging stock markets, specifically the Moroccan and Bahraini stock markets. The findings suggest reevaluating the balance between model complexity and predictive accuracy. Future research directions include investigating the potential existence of threshold effects in market capitalization for optimal model performance. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of volatility dynamics and enhances forecasting models’ effectiveness in diverse market conditions.

In tracking-by-detection paradigm for multi-target tracking, target association is modeled as an optimization problem that is usually solved through network flow formulation. In this paper, we proposed combinatorial optimization formulation and used a bipartite graph matching for associating the targets in the consecutive frames. Usually, the target of interest is represented in a bounding box and track the whole box as a single entity. However, in the case of humans, the body goes through complex articulation and occlusion that severely deteriorate the tracking performance. To partially tackle the problem of occlusion, we argue that tracking the rigid body organ could lead to better tracking performance compared to the whole body tracking. Based on this assumption, we generated the target hypothesis of only the spatial locations of person’s heads in every frame. After the localization of head location, a constant velocity motion model is used for the temporal evolution of the targets in the visual scene. Qualitative results are evaluated on four challenging video surveillance dataset and promising results has been achieved.

The Ali-Cesaro Stolz theorem, introduced in this paper, extends the classical Cesaro-Stolz theorem by addressing cases where the latter does not yield results or provides a "Does Not Existe (DNE) form. This novel theorem leverages the properties of limits and Z-transforms, offering a robust framework for analyzing sequences and series. The theorem is particularly effective in scenarios where traditional approaches fail, providing new insights and tools for mathematical analysis. This paper presents a detailed formulation of the Ali-Cesaro Stolz theorem, including proofs, applications, and a discussion on its implications and advantages over existing methods.

The dopamine and uric acid are primary products of purine metabolism and they coexist in serum and the extracellular fluid of the central nervous system. Some diseases of the human body are due to abnormal levels of uric acid and dopamine. Thus, the clinical diagnosis of some diseases needs a sensitive and simultaneous analysis of uric acid and dopamine. In this study, a novel conductive composite film containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWTs) with cooper phthalocyanine attached to acrylate polymer (MWCNTs-CuMAPC-PnBA) was fabricated and dropped on a glassy carbon electrode and used for the simultaneous determination of Uric Acid (UA) and dopamine (DA). The modified glassy carbon electrode showed satisfactory electrocatalytic activity toward dopamine and uric acid. Low detection limits were achieved at 0.174 µM of DA and 6.87 µM of UA and the linear detection ranges of DA and UA are 5-200 µM and 20-250 µM respectively. The proposed sensing system based on the modified GCE offers promising results for rapid, cost-effective and selective simultaneous detection of uric acid and dopamine. Also, the complex modified electrode showed satisfactory results to detecting simultaneously UA and DA in real human samples (human Urine) via the standard addition method.

Cell aging is associated with the increased production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) due to mitochondrial dysfunction, and various phytonutrients and estrogens have been shown to improve skin health. Thus, the aim of the current study was to examine damage to dermal fibroblasts by chemically-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and to study the mechanism of the protective effects of carotenoids, polyphenols, and estradiol. Rotenone, a Complex I inhibitor, caused mitochondrial dysfunction in human dermal fibroblasts, substantially reducing respiration and ATP levels, followed by increased mitochondrial and cytosolic ROS, which resulted in apoptotic cell death, increased matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) secretion, and decreased collagen secretion. Pre-treatment with carotenoid-rich tomato extracts, rosemary extract, and estradiol reversed these effects. These protective effects can be partially explained by a cooperative activation of antioxidant response element (ARE/Nrf2) transcriptional activity by the protective compounds and rotenone, which led to upregulation of antioxidant proteins such as NQO1. To determine if ARE/Nrf2 activity is crucial for cell protection, we inhibited it using the Nrf2 inhibitors ML385 and ochratoxin A. This inhibition markedly reduced the protective effects of the test compounds by diminishing their effect to reduce cytosolic ROS. Our study results indicate that phytonutrients and estradiol protect skin cells from damage caused by mitochondria-generated ROS and, thus, may delay skin aging and improve skin health.

The hybrid seeds of several important crops with supreme qualities, including yield, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, have been cultivated from decades. Thus far, a major challenge with hybrid seed, it does not hold ability to produce plants with same qualities over subsequent generations. Apomixis exist naturally an asexual mode of reproduction in flowering plants via avoiding meiosis and ultimately leads to seed production. Apomixis possess potential to preserve hybrid vigor for multiple generations for economically important plant genotypes. The evolution and genetics of asexual seed production is unclear and need much more efforts to find its genetic architecture. To fix hybrid vigor synthetic apomixis has been suggested an alternative. The development of MiMe (Mitosis instead of Meiosis) genotypes are utilized further for clonal gametes production. However, the identification and parental origin of genes responsible for synthetic apomixis are less known and need further understanding. Genome modifications utilizing genome editing technologies (GETs) like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (cas9) a reverse genetics tool has paved way to utilize emerging technologies in plant molecular biology. From the last decade, several genes in important crops have been successfully edited. The vast availability of GETs has made the functional genomics studies easy to conduct in crops important for food security. The disruption of expression of genes specific to egg cell MATRILINEAL (MTL) or BABY BOOM1 (BBM1) through CRISPR/Cas genome editing system can promote haploid plants. The establishment of synthetic apomixis by engineering MiMe genotype by genome editing BBM1 expression or disruption of MTL leads toward clonal seed production. In present review, we discussed the current development in plants by utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technology and its possibility of promoting apomixis in crops to preserve hybrid vigour. In addition to this, genetics, evolution, epigenetic modifications and strategy for MiMe genotype development has been discussed in detail.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic Gram-negative bacterium that remains a prevalent clinical and environmental challenge. Quorum sensing (QS) molecules are effective biomarkers in pinpointing the presence of P. aeruginosa. This study aimed to develop a convenient-to-use whole-cell biosensor using P. aeruginosa reporters individually encapsulated within alginate-poly-L-lysine (alginate-PLL) microbeads to specifically detect the presence of bacterial autoinducers. The PLL-reinforced microbeads were prepared using a two-step method involving ionic crosslinking and subsequent coating with thin layers of PLL. The alginate-PLL beads showed good stability in the presence of a known cation scavenger (sodium citrate), which typically limits the widespread applications of calcium alginate. In media containing synthetic autoinducers, such as N-(3-oxo dodecanoyl) homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C12-HSL) and N-butanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C4-HSL) or cell-free supernatants of planktonic or flow cell biofilm effluent of wild P. aeruginosa (PAO1), the encapsulated bacteria enabled a dose-dependent detection of the presence of these QS molecules. The prepared bioreporter beads remained stable during prolonged storage at 4 and -80 °C and were ready for on-the-spot sensing without the need for recovery. This whole-cell biosensor demonstrates the practicality of the encapsulated bioreporter for bacterial detection based on specific QS molecules.

Purpose: To examine associations between subjective quality of life and other socio-demographic variables and to explore differences in experiences of people with different levels of quality of life (low, moderate, high). Materials and methods: Semi-structured interviews and standardized measures of mobility, function, health-related quality-of-life, and quality-of-life were used to collect the data for this mixed-method study. Results: Twenty-four participants were interviewed with an average age of 55 years and 54% were male. High quality of life, according to quantitative analysis, was strongly associated with being male, attending rehabilitation, and being married. The qualitative findings supported the quantitative findings and also revealed that people with a low quality of life felt the neighborhood-built environment was not supportive of people with incomplete spinal cord injury who can walk. Participants who reported a low/ moderate quality of life reported feeling devalued by able-bodied people and that their mobility was getting worse over time. Conclusion: Findings suggest that those with incomplete spinal cord injuries who can walk could benefit from improved quality of life by modifying their social and neighborhood's built environment. For instance, sensitivity training for the general population could help to reduce negative attitudes and misperceptions about invisible impairments and promote inclusion.

Since 2012, the northeast of Tunisia has been experiencing an emergence of dog rabies. Published data revealed that the disease is widespread in the north of Tunisia. Even with studies on rabies, lacking knowledge on the associated risk factors was highlighted. Therefore, we conducted a case-control study on dog rabies in northeast Tunisia to identify potential risk factors for dog rabies occurrence. The cases group (n=77) included positive dog rabies confirmed at the referral laboratory using Fluorescent Antibody Test (FAT) in 2014 and 2018. The controls group (n=77) involved all negative cases received at the laboratory and 15-days quarantine dogs that received a certificate of absence of rabies after the observation period. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was conducted to explore the risk factors (age, sex, breed, confinement, vaccination status, presence of bites, owned or not and origin of dogs, sector, presence of rabies cases, and slaughterhouses, etc.…) related to the occurrence of rabies. The final logistic regression model revealed that unconfined dogs were almost twice as likely to be affected as confined dogs (OR=1.9; 95% CI: 1.17 to 3.27). The odds of rabies occurrence were 25 times higher in areas where rabies cases have been reported between 3 months and 1 year compared to the uninfected areas (25.7; 95% CI: 3.02-219.14). Similarly, the risk of rabies is significantly higher in dogs born in the home to the owner bitch (OR=2.41; 95% CI: 1.14-5.13). Living in areas with rabies cases in the last three months increases by 2.8 times the risk of getting rabies (2.8; 95% CI: 1.16-6.77). However, vaccination reduces by 1.6 times the risk of contracting rabies (0.6; 95% CI: 0.38-0.97). Our findings provide reliable data on dog rabies that will be very useful for decision-makers and could contribute to improving the ongoing national control program of rabies.

: Early and accurate detection of infectious diseases is a key step for surveillance, epidemiology, and control, notably timely disease diagnosis, patient management and follow-up. In this study, we aimed to develop hand-held ultra-fast duplex PCR assays coupled to amplicon detection by lateral flow (LF) immunoassay to deliver a rapid, and simple molecular diagnostic test for con-comitant detection and identification of the main Leishmania parasites encountered in Tunisia and the Old World. We selected two DNA targets to amplify L. major/L. tropica and L. infantum/L. tropica group of species DNAs, respectively. We optimized the experimental conditions of a du-plex ultra-fast PCR. The amplification is performed by a portable Palm convection PCR machine within 18 min and the products are detected by a LF cassette within 10 minutes. The test allows the identification of the infecting species according to the position and number of test lines re-vealed. Tested on a selection of DNAs of representative Leishmania strains of the three studied species (N=37), the ultra-fast duplex PCR-LF showed consistent, stable, and reproducible results. The analytical limit of detection of the test was 0.4pg for L. major, 4pg for L. infantum and 40pg for L. tropica.

The transition to sustainable energy systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region addresses critical challenges of environmental protection, energy security, and socio-economic resilience. Using neo-institutional theory, this paper examines the intricate relationship between formal and informal institutions and their significant impact on the region’s energy transition. Despite the MENA region’s abundant renewable energy resources, numerous institutional barriers, such as governance inefficiencies, regulatory inconsistencies, and entrenched socio-cultural norms, significantly hinder this transition. Through a review of existing literature, this study presents a comprehensive analytical framework designed to overcome these barriers, with a focus on the Just and Sustainable Energy Transition model. This strategic model emphasizes equity, sustainability, and inclusive governance as pillars for reform. The study offers detailed recommendations for institutional change and underscores the importance of collaborative efforts among governments, industry stakeholders, and international partners to unlock the MENA region’s renewable energy potential, advance global sustainability goals, and ensure a more secure and resilient energy future.

The main purpose of our research is the evaluation of the efficacity of solvent polarity on phenolic composition, as well as the antibacterial, and antioxidant activities of extract of Moroccan Mentha aquatica L., leaves. To attempt these objectives, the HPLC-DAD was used to identify the biomolecules. The total amount of phenolic and flavonoid content was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum trichloride processes as well as the DPPH, RP, and TAC tests were used to evaluate the antioxidant capabilities. In addition, by employing both in vitro and in silico analysis through the microdilution method, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the extracts were assessed against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Furthermore, the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis indicated that all extracts of M. aquatica were abundant in noteworthy phytochemical compounds, especially gallic acid, vanillic acid, chlorobenzoic acid, quercetin, and kaempferol. Furthermore, the results indicated that the total phenolic content was higher in hydroethanolic extract (62.19 ± 1.19 mg GAE/g DW) in contrast to the acetonic and aqueous extracts (22.22 ± 0.64, and 22.44± 0.57 mg GAE/g DW) respectively. Similarly, the aqueous ethanol extract contained the greatest flavonoid concentration, with values of 29.15± 0.09 mg QE/g DW when compared with the other extracts. The seam extract poses excellent antioxidant power with an IC50 of 0.06 ± 0.00 mg/mL for the DPPH test, and lower RP with EC50 of 80± 0.00 µg/ml when compared with acetonic and aqueous extract (370± 0.00 and 460± 0.01 µg/mL) respectively. Moreover, the hydroethanolic extract has a high level of TAC 75.09± 2.00 mg EAA/g DW, followed by aqueous extract carrying a value of 28.53 ± 1.36 mg EAA/g DW. The antibacterial capacity is ranged between 0.78 ± 0.05 mg/mL and 12.60 ± 0.00 mg/L. The results of the in-silico study demonstrated that quercetin, vanillic acid, and naringenin components contribute to the antioxidant capability. While gallic acid, kaempferol, and quercetin components are attributed to the antibacterial capacity.

.Background: Neither radiological phenotypic characteristics nor reconstruction CT scan to study the cranial contour in children with the so called the idiopathic type of West syndrome has been implemented to reach the etiology understanding. Material and Methods: The basic diagnostic measures and the traditional antiepileptic treatments have been applied to these children in accordance with the conventional protocol of investigations and treatment for children with West syndrome. Boys from three unrelated families were given the diagnosis of idiopathic type of West syndrome. Three boys aged 6,7,9 and three parents (age range of 28-41 year) were included in this study. These children and their parents were referred to our orthopedic departments because of variable skeletal deformities. All showed the history of intellectual disabilities, cryptogenic epileptic spasms and fragmented hypsarrhythmia. Recently, variable forms skeletal deformities of flat foot, torticollis and early onset osteoarthritis. We performed detailed clinical and radiological phenotypic characterization of every affected child, siblings and parents. All affected children underwent whole exome sequence analysis Results: The craniofacial phenotype of all children revealed apparent disruption of development of the cranial bones. Palpation of the skull bones showed unusual palpable boney ridges along different sutural locations. A-7-year-old child showed abnormal bulging over the sagittal suture associated with bilateral boney ridges over the sequamosal sutures. Examining his parents, we noticed a similar skull radiographic abnormality in his mother radiographs. A-10-year-old boy showed an extremely narrow frontal area, facial asymmetry and a well palpable ridge over the lambdoid sutures. 3D reconstruction CT scan confirmed the diagnosis of early closure . His mother showed typical radiographic skull phenotype with a history of postadulthood scoliosis. A- 12-year-old boy showed brachycephaly. Investigating his parents revealed a brachycephalic mother with border line intellegence. We affirm that the pattern of inheritance in the three boys was compatible with X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance . Whole exome sequencing showed non definite phenotype/genotype correlation. Conclusion: The aim of this study was fivefold. First, to refute the common usage of the term idiopathic and we affirm that our findings are Novel. Second, it could be possible that West syndrome is a symptom complex rather than a separate diagnostic entity. Third, to further detect the genetic carrier , we explored the connection between the cranial bones in the children with West syndrome with what is seen in parents.. Fourth, the differences in cranial bones abnormalities among every child and another seems to be heterogeneous. Fifth, it seems that the progressive deceleration in the development of this group of children is highly connected to the progressive closure of the cranial sutures.

Dental services are significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all dental procedures carry a high infection risk for providers and patients due to spread of aerosols. As a consequence, national public health agencies, and dental professional associations have issued guidelines for enhanced infection control, personal protection equipment and limiting care to urgent or emergency services. However, there is no dental service concept for disaster preparedness or response that might be applied. Similarly, pathways to care provision in a post-pandemic future are missing. We propose Safe Aerosol-free, Emergent Dentistry (SAFE Dentistry) as one approach to dental services during and emerging from pandemics. The concept’s starting point is the identification of the most common patient needs. The next step is to replace common treatments relating to the most common needs with alternative interventions with less infection risk because they do not generate aerosols. SAFE Dentistry is innovative, safe, and responds to the requirements of a pandemic and post-pandemic emergence where the risk of disease transmission remains high. SAFE Dentistry thereby ensures continuity of dental services while protecting providers and patients from infectious pathogens. Moreover, SAFE Dentistry allows dental service providers to remain operational and generate income even under pandemic conditions. Implementation and policy options for SAFE Dentistry include universal availability without co-payments by patients and a uniform bundled payment scheme for providers to simplify budgeting, reimbursement and to provide easier administration during a pandemic. Adaptations and adjustments of the concept are possible and encouraged, as long as the principle of avoiding aerosol-generation is maintained.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between dental caries, dental anxiety, and salivary cortisol levels in children visiting pediatric dental clinics and their implications on pediatric oral health. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a dental university in the UAE. A total of 60 children, aged 4-12 years, were included. Salivary cortisol levels were measured using an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Dental caries status was evaluated, and dental anxiety levels were assessed using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). Statistical analyses, including Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson's correlation coefficient, were performed to determine significant differences and associations. Results: The study group showed significantly higher salivary cortisol levels compared to the control group (p<0.0001). A strong positive correlation was found between salivary cortisol levels and dental caries status (p<0.001). However, no significant difference in dental anxiety levels was observed between the study and control groups (p=0.85). A strong positive correlation was found between dental anxiety levels and dental caries status (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings indicate a significant association between salivary cortisol levels and dental caries, suggesting that higher cortisol levels are associated with active caries. Dental anxiety levels were positively correlated with dental caries. Understanding the relationship between these variables can contribute to better oral health strategies and interventions for children, emphasizing the importance of managing dental anxiety and stress in pediatric dental care. Clinical Significance: This study highlights the potential of salivary cortisol as a biomarker for assessing stress and its impact on oral health in children. By addressing dental anxiety and stress, dental professionals can provide child-friendly dental care, enhance preventive measures, and improve oral health outcomes in pediatric patients.

In arid and semi-arid regions like Tunisia, irrigation water is typically saline, posing a soil and crop salinization risk and yield reduction. This research aims to study the combined effects of soil matric and osmotic potential stresses on tomato root water uptake. Plants were grown in pot and field experiments in loamy-clay soils and were irrigated with three different irrigation water qualities: 0, 3.5, and 7 dS/m. The Hydrus-1D model was used to simulate the combined dynamics of subsurface soil water and salts. Successful calibration and validation of the model against measured water and salt profiles enabled the examination of the combined effects of osmotic and matric potential stresses on root water uptake. Relative yields, indirectly estimated from actual and potential transpiration, indicated that the multiplicative stress response model effectively simulated measured yields and the impact of saline water irrigation on crop yields. The gradual salinization of the root zone further evidenced this effect. The scenario considering a temperature increase of 2°C had no significant impact on crop yields in the pot and field experiments.

This paper proposes a position control method for low cost EGR valve system in automotive application. Generally, position control system using in automotive application has many restrictions such as cost and space, the mechanical structure of actuator implies high friction and large difference between static friction and coulomb friction. This large friction difference occurs the vibrated position control result when the controller uses conventional linear controller such as P, PI. In this paper, low cost position control method which can apply under the condition of high difference friction mechanical system. Proposed method is verified by comparing conventional control result of experiments.

Fault detection at the early stage of development is of great importance in the maintenance of electric motors. In this regard, Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is cited in many articles to detect rotor bar fracture. The popularity of MCSA is due to its non-invasive and non-destructive nature, simplicity, and, compatibility with several signal processing tools. The vast variety of the signal processing tools which are commonly used for detecting the broken rotor bar fault is based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the stator current signal and analysis of the produced Fourier spectrum; however, because of the small amplitude at the fault frequency relative to the main frequency amplitude, the former cannot be easily discriminated from the latter. Therefore, the peak at the fault frequency is hidden in the shadow of the main frequency component, hence the fault will not be detectable. As a solution to vanish the base frequency component, a method based on the Algebraic Identity of trinomial expansion is proposed in this paper which enables us to display the difference between the frequency of the fault signature and the base frequency. In this article, the fault of the broken rotor bars of the squirrel cage induction motor is revealed by the proposed method. In addition, a frequency weighting technique is presented to magnify the component at the fault related frequency compared to the lower frequencies. To validate the proposed methods, they are examined on the laboratory data obtained from three different operating conditions including the direct online start, the direct torque control, and the scalar control and the results show the ability of the proposed methods in fault detection of an induction motor.

There is a need for strategic healthcare workforce planning to address shortages and ensure universal health coverage, aiming to optimize work-force per population ratio, distribution, and competencies. Amidst rising demands exacerbated by aging populations and events like the COVID-19 pandemic, strategic workforce planning becomes crucial for addressing healthcare inequalities by forecasting needs, bridging skill gaps, and adapting to changing demographics and care models. Israel has invested in strategic planning to tackle healthcare workforce challenges; however, globally there is insufficient planning informed by health labor market analysis, which hinders efforts to address healthcare inequalities. The paper reviews national policies in Israel, Australia, Germany, and Norway, ex-amining statistics and government publications to highlight strategic plan-ning considerations and address challenges in healthcare workforce plan-ning. This paper focuses both on the critical role of physicians in healthcare systems, and on the changing borders between healthcare professions and different national contexts which demand more context dependent strategic workforce planning. We highlight common themes among national policies, including the need for data collection, increasing the capacity of domestic training programs, and the need to address geographic maldistribution of physicians. Ultimately, we aim to guide policy in the development of a re-silient and sustainable healthcare workforce capable of meeting diverse community needs and promoting equity in healthcare services.

ABSTRACT Heavy metals have been classified as dangerous environmental pollutants. Interest in feasible ways to reduce heavy metals pollution is a noble goal. Adsorption is an effective method based on its effectiveness and low- cost. Nowadays, low-cost bio-sorbents have been utilized to replace costly expensive adsorbents. Rich cellulose materials are effective heavy metal adsorbents, and their performance can be enhanced via chemical modification. The present work reviews the steady progress in the utilization of agriculture by-product wastes as heavy metal bio-sorbent. The unique advantages of these by-products such as renewability, abundance, simple processing, and low cost, justifier this work. The results confirm that the chemically treated agro-wastes exhibit high- removal efficiency (reaches 95% in most cases). The adsorption isotherm studies indicate that the concentration of the metal ions has a significant effect on the adsorption process. The Freundlich model provides a physical adsorption model of the metal ions on the bio-sorbent surface. Langmuir isotherm offers an estimate of the effect of different factors on the efficiency of the process. The adsorption kinetics studies offer an idea of reaction pathways including the adsorption mechanism and the efficiency of the metal ion removal. Applying the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models describes the adsorption kinetics. This information can be utilized in developing effective strategies to remove heavy metal ions using chemically treated agro-waste. The data confirmed that chemical modification is a significant parameter in the efficiency of metal ion removal. The feasibility and effectiveness of using these cellulosic by-products as bio-sorbent should be given attention and encouraged.

Water covers a greater part of the earth's surface. Even though we know very little about the underwater world as most parts of it remain unexplored. Oceans including other water bodies hold huge natural resources and also the aquatic lives. These are mostly unexplored and very few of those are known due to unsuited and hazardous environments for the human to explore. This vast underwater world can be monitored remotely from a distant location with much ease and less risk. To monitor water-bodies remotely in real-time, sensor networking has been playing a great role. It is needed to deploy a wireless sensor network over the volume which we want to surveil. For vast water bodies like oceans, rivers and large lakes, data is collected from the different heights of the water level which is sent to the surface sink. Unlike terrestrial communication, radio waves and other conventional mediums can't serve the purpose of underwater communication as they pose high attenuation and very reduced transmission range. Rather an acoustic medium can transmit data more efficiently and reliably in comparison to other mediums. To transmit data reliably from the bottom of the sea to the sinks at the surface, multi-hop communication is needed which must involve a certain scheme. For seabed to surface sink communication, leading researchers have proposed different routing protocols. The goal of these routing protocols is to make underwater communication more reliable, energy-efficient and delay efficient thus to improve the performance of the overall communication. This paper surveys the advancement and applications of the routing protocols which eventually helps in finding the most efficient routing protocol for the Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN).

Abstract: The empirical soil loss model, RUSLE, was used with a conjunction of remotely sensed data and geographic information system technology to delineate the soil erosion and watershed priorities in terms of conservation practices at seven boundary sub-watersheds (labeled as SW-00, SW-01, …, SW-06) between Iraq and Iran at Ali Al-Gharbi area, southern Iraq. The six factors of the RUSLE model, ie. the rainfall erosivity, the soil erodibility, the slope steepness length, the crop management, and management practice, were calculated or estimated using information from different data sources such as remotely sensed data and previous studies. The finding showed that the annual soil erosion loss ranges from 0 - 1890 (tons h-1 y-1) with an average of 0.66 (tons h-1 y-1). Values of soil erosion were classified into five classes: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. The potential soil loss in the high and very high classes ranges from 14.84 to 1890 (tons h-1 y-1), and these classes occupy only 27 km2 of the study area, indicating that the soil loss is very low in the area being examined. In terms of the spatial distribution of soil loss, the northern and northeastern parts (mountains and hills) of the sub-watersheds where the slope is steeper are more likely to erode than the plain area in the southern and southeastern portions, indicating that slope, in addition to rainfall erosivity, has a dominant effect on the soil erosion rate. The study of soil erosion in the watersheds under consideration reveals that only the northern portions of the SW-00, SW-02, and SW-04 watersheds require high priority conservation plans; however, these portions are primarily located in mountain regions, making conservation plans implementation in these areas impractical. Due to low soil loss, other sub-watersheds, particularly SW-01, SW-03, SW-05, and SW-06, are given low priority.

Deep Learning (DL) oriented document processing is widely used in different fields for extraction, recognition, and classification processes from raw corpora of data. The article examines the application of deep learning approaches, based on different neural network methods, including Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The compared models were combined with two different word embedding techniques, namely: Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers BERT and Gensim Word2Vec. The models are designed to evaluate the performance of architectures based on neural network techniques for the classification of CVs of Moroccan engineering students at ENSAK(National School of Applied Sciences of Kenitra, Ibn Tofail University). The used dataset included resumes collected from engineering students at ENSAK in 2023 for a project on the employability of Moroccan engineers in which new approaches were applied, especially machine learning, deep learning, and big data. Accordingly, 867 resumes were collected from five specialties of study (Electrical Engineering, Networks and Systems Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, Automotive Mechatronics Engineering, Industrial Engineering). The results revealed good performance of the proposed models based on the BERT embedding approach compared to models based on the Gensim Word2Vec embedding approach. Accordingly, the CNN-GRU/Bert model achieved slightly better accuracy with 0.9251 compared to other hybrid models.

Analytical instruments used for scientific research and education are often expensive. This limitation poses a challenge for schools and educators in low-income countries to provide practical science training to students. To address this problem, the improvisation of analytical instruments and instructional materials has emerged as a viable solution. By incorporating practical experiments into science education, students have the opportunity to engage directly with scientific instruments, conduct investigations, and collect data. This hands-on approach fosters a deeper understanding of scientific principles, enhances critical thinking skills, and cultivates scientific mindsets among students. Herein, we review and discuss, step-by-step, the approach of using a smartphone for quantitative analysis, referred to as smartphone digital image colorimetry (SDIC). SDIC, with its practicality and accessibility, utilizes smartphone digital cameras for image acquisition and the freely available image processing programs, such as ImageJ and smartphone Apps, for image quantification. Using SDIC can enable students in low-income countries to develop essential scientific skills, including critical thinking, data interpretation, and an evidence-based approach to scientific research. By leveraging the ubiquity and affordability of smartphone technology, SDIC offers an accessible and cost-effective approach to practical science education, bridging the gap between theory and practice in resource-constrained settings.

Introduction the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza conflict, initiated by a major attack on the civilian population in Israel provided a tragic opportunity to study the community wide association between severe emotional stressors related to acts of war and the incidence and clinical characteristics of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) in this scenario. Methods Eight consecutive cases of TCM diagnosed during the first 50 days of the Israel-Gaza conflict were retrospectively collected from two southern medical centers who provided care to most of the war victims throughout the period of monitoring. The medical records were thoroughly reviewed and analyzed. Results During the monitoring period, the incidence of TCM increased substantially compared to the control period. Eight patients were included in the analysis. All patients were female and 100% of patients presented within the first 3 weeks of conflict whereas after this initial phase, despite the continuing war, the incidence of TCM reverted to pre-conflict levels. Two patients (25%) were under 50 years of age. All patients had hazardous clinical characteristics including severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction (≤35%) and prolonged QTc interval (>500 ms). Five patients (62.5%) experienced complications. Nevertheless, no in-hospital mortality was reported. Conclusions Repeated exposure to severe emotional stress, on both personal and national level, due to mass crisis such as war is associated with an increased incidence of TCM potentially with high-risk phenotype in comparison to TCM following other, less potent, psychological insults.

In the Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), the investigations showed a wide range of active molecules their biological properties. However, most of these studies were conducted on the wid varieties, while cultivated plan addressed. This study aimed to characterize the biomolecules and biological activities of Lemongrass growing us African conditions sons in in Marocco. Marocco. Phenolic compound profiles of aqueous (AE) E) ethanol ethanol (EE), (EE), and methanol (ME) extract: fractions were obtained with steric exclusion chromatography on Sephadex 050 gel and identified by LC-MS/MS polyphenols (TPC), flavonoids (TFC), and antioxidant activities (FRAP: scavenging value and TAC: Total Antioxidant C the fraction were evaluated as well as the antimicrobial activity Obtained results showed that the ME contained e compounds (ie. Apigenine-7-0-rutinoside and myricitine-3-0-rutinoside). The AE showed the presence of five mole kaemiferol-3-0-glucuronide), while EE showed the presence of three molecules (Le. Quercetine-3-0-rutinoside). Reg chemical characterization, the rization, e highest value of Total phenolic content (TPC) was obtained in conten btained in AE ΑΕ (25) (4.60-0.29 mg highest value of Total flavonoids content (TFC) was obtained Ined in ME (29) (0.7±0.08 mg/g). Concerning the antioxide the highest FRAP was obtained in ME (29) (97.89%) and the highest total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was obtained (89.89%) Correlation between FRAP, TPC, and TFC was noted poly in fractions of AE and ME. All tested extracts of and their fractions showed a significant antimicrobial effect. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) wa for ME against E. col. Extracts biological activities and their fractions were governed by their active molecules. Ther new and clarify a novel aspect of bioactive molecules in the extracts of cultivated C. citratus Equaly, throughout this we clarified the relationship between identified molecules and their biological properties including antioxidant and comparative studies new activities, which is new for the study area. This study is suggested to be a reference. assays of other biological activities for the study plant

A conventional electrical grid mostly depends on the electrical power generated from fossil fuels. However, the pollutants from fossil fuels are the key factors for adverse climate change. Most of the developed countries of the world have already recognized the fact that the energy mix requires to be diversified by incorporating renewable energy. This is especially relevant for many of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of 57 countries, whose abundance of fossil fuel reserve indicates that much of their electric power is still generated from fossil fuels. In order to integrate renewable energy sources into the hybrid energy mix, an existing conventional grid needs to undergo drastic changes. Alongside this, the population boom in the OIC member countries has caused higher demand for a steady supply of electricity that the conventional grids have long been struggling to cope with. With a view to solving this multifaceted problem, incorporation of the smart power management schemes is indispensable using a smart electrical grid, where information and communications technology is integrated into its major building blocks. This allows advanced applications of a grid, such as the formation of micro-grids, demand-side management, energy storage, high-tech power electronic converters, etc. As the smart grids are being adopted by many developed countries, it is high time for the OIC member countries to pay due attention to this development, if they have not already done so. This paper explains, with special focus on the OIC member countries, the various smart power management technologies, their operations and applications, and the benefits and challenges. Then it goes on to carry out the Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat with Analytical-Heuristic-Procedure (SWOT-AHP) analysis to evaluate its feasibility of incorporation and the underlying strategies appropriate for its implementation. Furthermore, a Hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis is performed to evaluate the sequence of the emphasis that should be given on each of the technologies from those available for the smart power management initiative. Finally, the study reinforces the stance by drawing parallels from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and highlights the importance of the smart grid in line with the global vision of SDG. This paper aims at assisting the decision-makers in implementing smart power management schemes in the OIC member countries, in particular, and other countries of the world, in general.

Cardiac complications of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have been well-identified since the beginning of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Such conditions can occur of various etiologies, such as respiratory failure and hypoxemia, direct cardiac tissue damage due to viral replication, indirect myocarditis as systemic inflammation, and the interaction of different medications. Recently, with the start of the COVID-19 vaccination programs, COVID-19 vaccine-associated cardiac adverse events (AEs) have emerged and are increasingly being reported. Although these AEs are usually mild and self-limited, they can sometimes cause severe, catastrophic outcomes. This review compares the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of the de novo SARS-CoV-2 infection-related and COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis and pericarditis.

Abstract: The VSI represents a significant advancement in the assessment of gastrointestinal-specific anxiety among patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). However, an Italian version of the instrument is not yet available for the reference population. This study utilized a national sample of 500 individuals, including healthy controls and patients with Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease, to test the validity and reliability of the Italian VSI. Using back-translation methodology to ensure translation fidelity, the research applied a questionnaire and the VSI through an online format to 500 participants. Data analysis revealed that the Italian VSI had excellent psychometric properties, demonstrating high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.95) and construct validity. The scale proved sensitive in detecting significant differences in visceral sensitivity among groups, highlighting its utility as a clinical and research assessment tool. Specifically, the Italian VSI exhibited a unidimensional factorial structure and maintained a strong correlation with other measures of anxiety and the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms, confirming its role in enhancing the understanding and management of IBS and IBD in Italy.

Three rice paddy fields under farmers’ actual management conditions were investigated from May to April at Bibai (43°18′N, 141°44′E), in central Hokkaido, Japan to evaluate the carbon (C) sequestration and contribution of CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes to a global warming potential (GWP). CH4 and N2O fluxes were measured by placing the chamber over the rice plants covering four hills and CO2 fluxes from rice plants root free space in paddy fields were taken as an indicator of soil microbial respiration (Rm) using the closed chamber method. Annual cumulative Rm ranged from 422 to 519 g C m-2 yr-1; which accounted for 54.7 to 55.5 % mainly during the rice growing season. Annual cumulative CH4 emission ranged from 75.5 to 116 g C m-2 yr-1 and this contribution occurred entirely during the rice growing period. Annual cumulative N2O emission ranged from 0.091 to 0.154 g N m-2 yr-1 and 73.5 to 81.3% of the positive annual N2O emission observed during the winter-fallow season. Soil C sequestration was estimated as the difference between net primary production (NPP) and C loss through Rm, CH4 emission and crop C harvest. The soil C sequestration ranged from -305 to -365 g C m- 2 yr-1, indicating that the C loss could not be compensated for by C input through NPP. Carbon loss was much higher (62 to 66%) in winter-fallow season than growing season. The annual net GWP from the investigated paddy fields ranged from 3823 to 5016 g CO2 equivalent m-2 yr-1. Annual GWPCH4 accounted for 71.9 to 86.1% of the annual net GWP predominantly from the rice growing period. These results indicate that CH4 dominated the rice paddy’s net GWP.

This study discusses the belonging, position, livelihood sustainability and vulnerabilities of fishery dependent nomadic community of Bangladesh. Nomads in Bangladesh are called as bede. With the technological advancements, infrastructural developments and advancements in medical science, ancient tradition and culture of the nomad’s community are in the verge of extinction. Fishing is found to be the most sustainable livelihood approach for nomadic community than any other professions. The average daily income is up to BDT 700±100 (mean ± standard deviation) during fishing season. Nomad community is a part of Bengali culture, but they are considered as socially backward community. They have faced numerous natural and anthropogenic threats and stressors affecting their traditional occupations and livelihoods which make their life more vulnerable. Natural drivers include climatic catastrophe, storms, winds, cyclone and tides. Anthropogenic drivers included ban period, dependency on single profession (fishing), lack of effective alternative income generating options, economic, social and cultural exclusion in the society. Proper measures should be taken to design the livelihood interventions of nomad fishers. The Government and responsible NGOs should take a holistic approach to livelihood intervention including financial support during the ban period and other unavoidable crises to continue their profession smoothly.

The classification of kidney tumors has undergone a remarkable evolution since the early 19th century, reflecting advances in medical science and technology. This historical overview traces the development of renal tumor classification, beginning with early clinical observations and macroscopic descriptions to the integration of molecular diagnostics in contemporary classifications. The establishment of international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) facilitated collaboration and standardization in tumor classification, leading to refined classifications and standardized nomenclature. Advancements in histological and molecular studies, particularly genetic analyses, revolutionized the understanding of renal cell carcinomas, enabling precise categorization based on molecular characteristics. The journey from rudimentary classifications to sophisticated systems based on detailed histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular criteria underscores the continuous evolution of kidney tumor classification. This article provides a comprehensive overview of this evolution, highlighting the contributions of scholars and the impact of technological advancements on our understanding and management of kidney tumors.

In this research, Cellulose Nanofibers (NFC) modified with a eutectic of lauric acid (LA) was prepared as a new form-stable phase change material (NFC-LA). Thermal properties of this composite were investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The results revealed that the melting temperature and latent heat of NFC/LA were 21.56 °C and 88.5 J/g, respectively; and the super cooling degree for the NFC-LA composite decreased to 13.99 °C when compared to 20.28 °C of the pure lauric acid. Natural clay was purified and modified with Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) to prepare organoclay. Through FTIR spectra, we have confirmed that the clay was successfully modified. The PCM-composite was then added to the organoclay to obtain a new composite denoted NFC-LA-OC. this latter was added to cement and was investigated as a reinforcement material in cement mortars for thermal energy storage application. The prepared material can both solve the leakage problem associated to the phase change material, and reduce or even avoid the use of heating and air conditioning systems, which are energy-intensive systems, and therefore reduce energy consumption.

Cash holding is important for Chinese manufacturing firms coping with the increasing cost of financing and stiff market conditions. This study examines the impact of cash holding on the firm value of Chinese manufacturing firms. We find evidence that a non-linear relationship exists between cash holding and firm value in manufacturing firms of China. The study reveals that financially constrained firms having a higher level of cash holding negatively affects the firm value, while the unconstrained firms having a lower level of cash holding positively influences the firm value. Finally, this research is enriched by adopting the novel measure of managerial op-timism and reveals the interactive role of cash holding and optimism on firm value. The study concludes that managerial optimism influences the firm’s cash holding decisions and this is more costly for unconstrained firms.

Mankind faces a coronavirus pandemic originating from a seafood market in Wuhan, China since December 2019. The pathogen was named novel coronavirus (n-CoV) and bats are the identified key reservoir. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly spread over China across the globe, turned into a pandemic with exponentially increasing numbers of cases and significant mortality rate. China reacted with lockdowns and strict control measurements to prevent spreading the virus. The treatment of severe cases was hampered by lack of specific vaccines. Vaccine-development and production is a painstaking process and can only be enforced by international cooperation. Different supportive treatment options surfaced due to combinations of antiviral agents with antibiotic drugs. Elderly, male, immune-suppressed patients with co-morbidities showed a high mortality rate. Health literacy, strong immune system, adequate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and healthy life style choices can support fast recovery. Antibiotic resistance needs to be addressed by development of new generation antimicrobials against nosocomial infections in preparation for future outbreaks. Plant-biosynthesis of nanomaterials and antiseptics may help in prevention and recovery rate. Prevalence of COVID-19 maybe inversely related to BCG vaccination, endemicity of malaria, humidy and temperature but directly with latitude. Recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 should be followed strictly.

The Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic situation has posed significant effect on tourism industry. Tourism destinations have embraced emergency health care measures and restrictions imposed on human movement around the world. Beaches and resorts are empty, peoples’ movements are stopped and travelling between territories is strictly controlled. The COVID-19 lockdown around the world has imposed negative impact on the livelihood of people and world economy as well. The present study attempts to find out the scopes for sustainable tourism development in near future from the consequences of social, economic, and environment in COVID-19 pandemic situation.

This study was undertaken to forecast waste generation rates of accommodation sector of North Cyprus as a case. Three predictor models including multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural networks (ANNs) and central composite design (CCD) were applied to predict the waste generation rate during the lean and peak seasons. ANN showed highest prediction performance, specifically, lowest values of the standard error of prediction (SEP = 2.153), mean absolute error (MAE=1.378) and highest R2 value (0.998) confirmed the accuracy of the model. The analysed wastes were categorised into recyclable, general waste and food residues. The authors estimated the total waste generated during the lean season as 2010.5 kg/day, in which large-sized hotel accounted for largest fraction (66.7%), followed by the medium hotels (19.4%) and guesthouse accounted for smallest part (2.6%). During the peak season, about 49.6% increases in the waste generation rates were obtained. Interestingly, 45% of the wastes were generated by the British tourists while the least waste was generated by African tourists (7.5%). The ANN predicted that the small and large hotels would produce 5.45 and 22.24 tons of waste by the year 2020, respectively. The findings herein are promising and useful in establishing a sustainable waste management system.

Marketing is the manner of how to make our sales the best in the market, our prices the most accessible, our clients satisfactory, and thus our brand is the largest distributed. This needs sophisticated and advanced understanding of the total network related. Indeed, marketing data may be seen in different forms such as qualitative and quantitative. However, in the literature, it is easily noticed that large bibliography may be collected about qualitative studies, against few studies on the quantitative point of view. This is a major drawback that makes the marketing science still focusing on the design, although the market is strongly depending on quantities such as money and time. Indeed, marketing data may be a time series such as brand sales per specified periods, brand related-prices over specified periods, market shares, ..., etc. The purpose of the present work is to investigate some marketing models based on time series due to brands. We will precisely study the effect of the time scale on the persistence of brands sales in the market and on the forecasting of such a persistence according to the characteristics of the brand and the related market competition or competitors. Our study is acted on a sample of Saudi brands during the period November 22, 2017 to December 30, 2021.

In the present paper, we investigate the impact of the timescale factor on the quality of life index behavior on specific time intervals characterized by the presence of socio-economic, political, and/or health severe movements such as pandemics and crises. We essentially aim to show that effectively the quality of life measuring based on a single index in the existing studies may be described more adequately by a variable index due to the social, political, economic, and also healthy environment. The variability discovered is expressed by the existence and the estimation of a multi-index instead of a single one relatively to many factors. Our focus is mainly on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life. Our model is applied empirically to a sample corresponding to Saudi Arabia as a case of study during the period from January 1990 to December 2021 as the main period affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample is based on social media conversations and texts discussing and describing the satisfaction with the quality of life. The study confirms effectively that the role of the timescale factor is more described when considering a multi-index rather than measurement on the whole time interval.

As 180-degree meanders are observed in abundance in nature, a meandering channel with two consecutive 180-degree bends was designed and constructed to investigate bed topography variations. These two 180-degree mild bends are located between two upstream and downstream straight paths. In this study, different mean velocity to critical velocity ratios have been tested at the upstream straight path to determine the meander's incipient motion. To this end, bed topography variations along the meander and the downstream straight path were addressed for different mean velocity to critical velocity ratios. In addition, the upstream bend's effect on the downstream bend has been investigated. Results indicated that the maximum scour depth at the downstream bend has increased as a result of changing the mean velocity to critical velocity ratio from 0.8 to 0.84, 0.86, 0.89, 0.92, 0.95, and 0.98 by respectively 1.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 12, and 26 times. Moreover, increasing the ratio increased the maximum sedimentary height by 3, 10, 23, 48, 49, and 56 times. The upstream bend's incipient motion was observed for the mean velocity to critical velocity ratio of 0.89, while the downstream bend was equal to 0.78.

Nanopeening treatment was applied to the AISI 420 steel to decrease its sensitivity to the tribocorrosion damage. Microstructural investigation highlighted that the Nanopeening treatment led to a high plastic deformation and nanostructured surface layer with 110 µm depth. . In order to study the combined effect of corrosion and mechanical wear, tribocorrosion tests were performed on non–treated and nanopeened samples in boric acid and lithium hydroxide solution, considering both continuous and intermittent sliding. It was found that the AISI 420 steel is sensitive the synergism between mechanical friction and electrochemical corrosion with a domination of abrasive wear. Adhesive wear was also detected in the wear track. Indeed, the mechanical wear was pronounced under intermittent sliding because of hard wear debris generation from the repassivated layer during rotating time. The Nanopeening treatment led to enhance mechanical performance and corrosion properties. Such improvement could be explained by the high plastic deformation resulting in the nano-structuration of grains and increasing hardness of AISI 420 steel.

Few assessments and indicators on cultural sustainability have been applied to national and local development policies in Indonesia. Said policies have had the notion of space solely defined through its physical aspect. This study aims to establish the cultural aspect of space as a workable indicator for sustainability in development planning. The study grounds itself in the coastal area of Kalibaru Subdistrict, North Jakarta, a region characterized by dense and culturally diverse residential areas located in between heavy industrial development. Primary data are gathered from 10 informants of varying occupations with residence in the area for more than 20 years. In-depth interviews and Spatial Cognitive Mapping were conducted to articulate the cultural spaces of their everyday activities. Prevalent themes of spatial practice were identified and described in 3 categories of 1. core cultural spaces, 2. tactical cultural spaces, and 3. spaces of cultural conflict. The participatory procedures to identify cultural spaces as described in the study were concluded to be operable within existing indicator or index frameworks for sustainability policy. The availability of cultural spaces and its enumeration may be incorporated into national surveys for effective data collection and use.

Ni-Al alloys have good corrosion-resistant properties making them preferable as a material of choice compared to ordinary metals. A good understanding of the phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of the Ni-Al alloy binary system is essential in determining relevant industrial applications of the system. The Ni-Al phase diagram is being reassessed since those found in the literatures are based on very old experimental studies. The phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of the Ni-Al alloy is determined using the Thermo-Calc 2022b software over a temperature range of 200 K to 2000 K and 1 atm of pressure. A total of nineteen fields (including elemental Al and Ni) comprising of five single solid phases, one liquid phase, and twelve double regions was obtained from the equilibrium calculation. The thermodynamic calculation has six invariant reactions comprising of two eutectic reactions (914.83 ± 0.025 K and 1641.80 ± 0.025 K), three peritectic reactions (1123.55 ± 0.025 K, 1400.72 ± 0.025 K and 1642.65 ± 0.025 K), and one peritectoid reaction (913.96 ± 0.025 K). The solubility of Al in Ni is also determined. The Thermo-Calc temperature – composition of the Ni-Al alloy is compared with the existing experimental studies to identify the physical properties of the different thermodynamic properties of the Ni-Al alloy binary system.

Recent years have witnessed significant advances in reinforcement learning (RL), which has registered remarkable success in solving various sequential decision-making problems in machine learning. Most of the successful RL applications, e.g., the games of Go and Poker, robotics, and autonomous driving, involve the participation of more than one single agent, which naturally fall into the realm of multi-agent RL (MARL), a domain with a relatively long history, and has recently re-emerged due to advances in single-agent RL techniques. Although, typically, the communication protocol between agents is manually specified and not altered during training, recently, some papers have shown signs of trying to emerge a communication between agents on the one hand and, on the other hand, to understand what is exchanged between agents. So, there is a growing body of literature on this topic which includes qualitative and quantitative studies and the ones that apply mixed methods. This study presents the scoping review of the methodological strategies undertaken in a total of 16 research articles. The results present the critical appraisal of quantitative methods in terms of validity and reliability and for qualitative methods considering four trustworthiness factors. In the end, relevant insights are further explored with implications and reflections on how they can benefit one's research in the field.

water resources in Morocco have been severely influenced by climate change (CC) and pro-longed drought, particularly, in the pre-Saharan zone. The Tafilalet region faces increasing pres-sure due to high demographic growth, increased demand for water, excessive groundwater con-sumption, and investment in agriculture. Using the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP), this study assessed land cover and elevation and created future scenarios using the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standard Groundwater Level Index (SGI) to monitor hy-droclimate drought conditions in the Ziz watershed from 1989 to 2022. Results show decreasing precipitation, particularly from 2010-2020, with the last four years being the most challenging (SPI<-2). SPI and SGI have a high correlation, suggesting precipitation impacts groundwater in-dicators. Future scenarios predict a high risk of CC, with a 30% decrease in annual precipitation accumulation by 2100 under the optimistic scenario SSP126. Minimum temperature is expected to increase by 1.08°C (SSP126) and 2.61°C (SSP585), and maximum temperature by 1.05°C (SSP126) and 2.93°C (SSP585). Keywords: Climate Change, Water Resources, SPI, SGI, WEAP, Ziz watershed, Drought

There is a growing body of evidence supporting the significant role of bacterial biofilms in the pathogenesis of various human diseases including cancer. Biofilms are polymicrobial communities enclosed within an extracellular matrix composed of polysaccharides, proteins, extracellular DNA, and lipids. This complex matrix provides protection against antibiotics and host immune responses, enabling the microorganisms to establish persistent infections. Moreover, biofilms induce anti-inflammatory responses and metabolic changes in the host, further facilitating their survival. Many of these changes are comparable to those observed in cancer cells. This review will cover recent research on the role of bacterial biofilms in carcinogenesis, especially in colorectal (CRC) and gastric cancers, emphasizing the shared physical and chemical characteristics of biofilms and cancer. This review will also discuss the interactions between bacteria and the tumor microenvironment, which can facilitate oncogene expression and cancer progression. This information will provide insight into developing new therapies to identify and treat biofilm-associated cancers, such as utilizing bacteria as delivery vectors, using bacteria to upregulate immune function, or more selectively targeting biofilms and cancer for their shared traits.

The field of construction materials is pivotal in developing sustainable and resilient infrastructure. This demands continuous research to understand the properties and behaviors of these materials under diverse conditions. Although advancements in material science and numerical modeling have been significant, experimental testing remains indispensable for a thorough comprehension of material characteristics, particularly under extreme stresses and environmental factors. This need has forced the development of a wide array of testing techniques, each designed to evaluate specific engineering properties, thus creating a complex and varied landscape of experimental methodologies. This study provides a comprehensive overview of both conventional and innovative experimental testing techniques used to characterize construction materials. It explores the related methodologies and identifies potential gaps in their application within the industry. The spectrum of testing covered includes mechanical, chemical, thermal, microstructural, durability, physical, rheological properties, and non-destructive testing methods. Mechanical tests assess strength, hardness, and fatigue, whereas chemical analyses utilize techniques such as spectroscopy and chromatography. Thermal properties are examined using thermogravimetric analysis, and microstructural characteristics are explored through advanced imaging techniques. Durability testing focuses on materials’ resistance to environmental challenges, while physical properties tests evaluate aspects like porosity and water absorption. Rheological and non-destructive tests further examine materials’ behavior and integrity without causing damage. By discussing these methodologies, the study sheds light on various approaches to material evaluation and aims to enhance the selection, application, and development of testing standards. This overview seeks to inform and inspire future research and innovation in the science of construction materials, contributing to the development of more resilient and sustainable construction practices.

Three different fields intersect in search of an understanding of the point-of-origin of modern-age diseases: 1) D-amino acids and their role under stress conditions; 2) evolutionary origin of the mitochondrion organelle in the eukaryotic cell; and 3) gut microbiota and human healthHere it is first suggested that D-amino acids function as universal signaling agents, after having evolved as prokaryotic communication, part of an organic communication process that governs the basic activities of all the cells and coordinates cell action.Mitochondria (symbiotic prokaryotic organelles), are creative source of D-amino acids as signaling agents in the central nervous system and in the neuroendocrine systems.Amino acids racemases catalyzes the conversion between the L-enantiomers ( protein building blocks) into D-enantiomers (signaling agents).It is suggested that hectic modern life may affect human health by causing stress to the gut microbiota. These affected, gut microbiota then secrete D-amino acids that enter the blood stream, as signaling agents, causing communication errors in the central nervous system, and in the neuroendocrine systems due to excessive quantity of D-amino acids.Treating gut microbiota with inhibitors of amino acids racemases or finding D-amino acid scavengers may be used in developing novel therapeutic strategies for diseases related to the central nervous system and neuroendocrine systems caused by stressed gut microbiota.

Policing duties may inherently be dangerous due to stab, blunt trauma and ballistic threats. The addition of individual light armour vests (ILAVs) has been suggested as a means to protect officers. However, the addition of the extra load of the ILAV may affect officer ability to conduct occupational tasks. The purpose of this study was to determine if wearing any of 3 different ILAVs (ILAV A, ILAV B, & ILAV C) affected occupational task performance when compared to that in normal station wear. A prospective, within-subjects repeated measures design was employed, using a counterbalanced randomization in which each ILAV was worn for an entire day while officers completed a variety of occupationally relevant tasks. These tasks included a victim drag, car exit and 5 meter sprint, step down and marksmanship task. Results showed that performance in each task did not vary between any of the ILAV or normal station wear conditions. There was less variability in the marksmanship task with ILAV B, however. The results suggest that none of the ILAVs used in this study were heavy enough to significantly affect task performance in the assessed tasks when compared to wearing normal station wear.

The tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor 1 (TRAF1) plays a key role in promoting lymphocyte survival, proliferation, and cytokine production. Recent evidence showed that TRAF1 plays opposing roles in monocytes and macrophages where it controls NF-B activation and limits pro-inflammatory cytokine production as well as inflammasome-dependent IL-1 secretion. Importantly, TRAF1 polymorphisms have been strongly linked to an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, whether and how TRAF1 contributes to RA pathogenesis is not fully understood. Moreover, investigating the role of TRAF1 in driving RA pathogenesis is complicated by its multifaceted and opposing roles in various immune cells. In this study, we show that intraarticular injection of TRAF1 deficient macrophages into knee joints of wildtype (WT) mice subjected to the collagen antibody induced arthritis (CAIA) model of RA significantly exacerbated joint inflammation, immune cell infiltration and tissue damage compared to mice injected with WT macrophages. This study may lay the groundwork for novel therapies for RA that target TRAF1 in macrophages.

Hyperlipidemia is an identified risk factor for metabolic syndrome, obesity and cardiovascular complications characterized by elevated levels of lipids in blood. The present study aimed to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase with 15-oxoursolic acid through in-vivo and in-silico assessments. HFD-induced hyperlipidemia in rats was developed with a marked increase in total cholesterol (58.34 ± 0.21 mg/dl), triglycerides (45.45 ± 0.39 mg/dl), LDL-c (66.12 ± 0.10 mg/dl), VLDL-c (19.34 ± 0.16 mg/dl), and a decrease in HDL-c (10.34 ± 0.18 mg/dl). The oral administration of 15-oxoursolic acid at a concentration of 30 mg/Kg b.w significantly reduced the serum concentration of total cholesterol (42.65 ± 0.54 mg/dl), triglycerides (32.33 ± 0.16 mg/dl), LDL-c (50.34 ± 0.15 mg/dl) and VLDL-c (13.15 ± 0.45 mg/dl) respectively and an increased in the serum HDL-c (18.56 ± 0.34 mg/dl). 15-oxo ursolic acid also caused a decrease in the coronary risk index and atherogenic risk index. In-silico studies of 15-oxoursolic acid with HMG-CoA reductase showed significant interaction capability with binding energy (-9.26805 Kcal/mol). It is concluded that 15-oxoursolic acid could significantly reduce the total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL levels in HFD-induced hyperlipidemia rats which might lead to new medication with significant hypolipidemic potential.

Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) have garnered significant interest in the field of molecular magnetism due to their unique magnetic properties at the nanoscale. These molecular systems exhibit magnetisation behaviour reminiscent of conventional bulk magnets but with distinct advantages such as size-dependent properties and potential applications in quantum computing and high-density data storage. However, challenges remain in harnessing their properties for practical applications, including their susceptibility to degradation and limited control over their assembly and organisation.

Despite being extremely potent against malignancies, cisplatin (CIS) has limited practical applicability due to its adverse effects such as testicular damage. Consequently, it becomes necessary to reduce its toxicity. In this study, cilostazol, a selective phosphodiesterase-3 inhibitor that is frequently used in the treatment of intermittent claudication, was examined for its ability to abrogate CIS-induces testicular toxicity and its ameliorative effect was compared with two phosphodiesterase inhibitors, tadalafil and pentoxifylline. The study also focused on the possible mechanisms involved in the proposed protective effect. Ten groups of rats were included; Group (1): control, Groups (2-4): 5 mg/kg tadalafil or 75 mg/kg pentoxifylline or 20 mg/kg cilostazol respectively), Group (5):7 mg/kg CIS, Group (6&7): CIS + 5 mg/kg tadalafil or 75 mg/kg pentoxifylline, Group (8-10) CIS+ 5, 10 or 20 mg/kg cilostazol respectively. CIS treated rats showed a significant decrease in testicular function, serum testosterone and reduced glutathione levels, and significant elevation in malondialdehyde, total nitrite levels, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and nuclear factor-kappa β alongside caspase-3. These outcomes were confirmed by marked testicular architecture deterioration. Contrary, Cilostazol in a dose-dependent manner showed potential protection against testicular toxicity, reversion of the disrupted testicular function and improvement of the histological alterations through rebalancing of oxidative stress, inflammatory and apoptotic biomarkers. In addition, cilostazol exerted more pronounced protective effect in comparison to tadalafil and pentoxifylline. In conclusion, administrations of cilostazol might ameliorate cisplatin-induced testicular impairment through alteration of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptotic pathway, offering a promising treatment for cisplatin -intoxication in the testes.

E-commerce is a rapidly evolving global trend that is having a significant impact on consumer behavior and business strategies. Despite its growing impact, e-commerce adoption by Moroccan firms remains low and research on this topic in this context is scarce. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the main determinants influencing e-commerce adoption by Moroccan firms. We use logit, probit, and conditional mixed process-probit models to identify the critical factors driving e-commerce adoption. Our results reveal five key findings. First, newer firms that are more open to innovation and change are more likely to adopt e-commerce. Second, firms with a higher proportion of highly educated employees are more likely to adopt e-commerce. Third, the digital skills of new employees do not directly influence the likelihood of e-commerce adoption. Fourth, being listed on digital platforms increases the likelihood of e-commerce adoption. Finally, there is a positive relationship between firms engaged in innovation activities and e-commerce adoption. These findings highlight the need for additional investment in promoting modern organizational practices, reskilling workers, and implementing advanced technologies to facilitate effective e-commerce integration among Moroccan SMEs. By addressing these challenges, Moroccan firms can harness the full potential of e-commerce and contribute to the country’s economic growth and digital transformation.

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful models capable of managing intricate connections in non-Euclidean data, such as social networks, physical systems, chemical structures, and communication networks. Despite their effectiveness, the large-scale and complex nature of graph data demands substantial computational resources and high performance during both training and inference stages, presenting significant challenges, particularly in the context of embedded systems. Recent studies on GNNs have investigated both software and hardware solutions to enhance computational efficiency. Earlier studies on Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have indicated that methods like reconfigurable hardware and quantization are beneficial in addressing these issues. Unlike DNN research, studies on efficient computational methods for GNNs are less developed and require more exploration. This survey reviews the latest developments in quantization and FPGA-based acceleration for GNNs, showcasing the capabilities of reconfigurable systems (often FPGAs) to offer customized solutions in environments marked by significant sparsity and the necessity for dynamic load management. It also emphasizes the role of quantization in reducing both computational and memory demands through the use of fixed-point arithmetic and streamlined vector formats. This paper concentrates on low-power, resource-limited devices over general hardware accelerators and reviews research applicable to embedded systems. Additionally, it provides a detailed discussion of potential research gaps, foundational knowledge, obstacles, and prospective future directions.

The feedback collection and analysis has remained an important subject matter since long. The traditional techniques for student feedback analysis are based on questionnaire-based data collection and analysis. However, the student expresses their feedback opinions on online social media sites, which need to be analyzed. This study aims at the development of fuzzy-based sentiment analysis system for analyzing student feedback and satisfaction by assigning proper sentiment score to opinion words and polarity shifters present in the input reviews. Our technique computes the sentiment score of student feedback reviews and then applies fuzzy-logic module to analyze and quantify student’s satisfaction at the fine-grained level. The experimental results reveal that the proposed work has outperformed the baseline studies as well as state-of-the-art machine learning classifiers.

In response to growing industrial demands, necessitated by larger ships and increased cargo volumes, many port authorities worldwide are undertaking a significant expansion of their infrastructure to increase their capacity. Significant expansion raises challenges such as potential congestion and environmental concerns, especially for port located in urban area as the case study explored in this paper. To address these issues, the study employs a combination of scenario analysis developed in collaboration with the port authority and logistic system simulation. This approach assesses the capacity of existing access gates to handle the increased trucking traffic and optimizes the unloading process of construction trucks at a new terminal. Key findings suggest that while the current gate capacities are adequate, optimizing unloading times at the new terminal is critical to prevent road congestion in urban area before the gate and reduce negative impacts such as sound and atmospheric pollution. The study advocates for an appointment system during peak hours to manage traffic flow effectively and underscores the importance of collaboration between the city and port authorities in managing truck traffic to mitigate congestion on the city side. Nonetheless, the study recognizes certain constraints, including the incomplete evaluation of the influence of intermodal transport on truck traffic. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need for future research to consider the correlation between vehicle numbers and service levels, aiming to effectively adjust the time in the system.

Dictionary Learning (DL) and Sparse Representation (SR) based Classifier have impacted greatly on the classification performance and has had good recognition rate on image data. In Video Semantic Analysis (VSA), the local structure of video data contains more vital discriminative information needed for classification. However, this has not been fully exploited by the current DL based approaches. Besides, similar coding findings are not being realized from video features with the same video category. Based on the issues stated afore, a novel learning algorithm, called Sparsity based Locality-Sensitive Discriminative Dictionary Learning(SLSDDL) for VSA is proposed in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, a discriminant loss function for the category based on sparse coding of the sparse coefficients is introduced into structure of Locality-Sensitive Dictionary Learning (LSDL) algorithm. Finally, the sparse coefficients for the testing video feature sample are solved by the optimized method of SLSDDL and the classification result for video semantic is obtained by minimizing the error between the original and reconstructed samples. The experiment results show that, the proposed SLSDDL significantly improves the performance of video semantic detection compared with the comparative state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, the robustness to various diverse environments in video is also demonstrated, which proves the universality of the novel approach.

The present study analyzed the effect of temperature, pH, retention time, pretreatment and mixing ratio on the anerobic digestion process. The parameters during the anaerobic co digestion of cow manure and food waste were then optimized using the Taguchi experimental design method. ANOVA is carried out to find the significant parameters which influence the biogas production. Experimental tests were carried out at laboratory scale reactors kept at different temperatures (28 °C, 35 °C, and 50 °C). The specific methanogenic Performance (SMP) during anerobic digestion at higher temperatures was characterized with the analysis of acetate, propionate, butyrate, hydrogen, glucose, and formate. The improvement of biogas production with different pre-treatment i.e., ultrasonic, autoclave, and microwave techniques also analysed. The results showed that reactor that maintained at 35 °C showed the highest biogas production. While the reactor that maintained at lower temperature (28 °C) produced the lower volume of biogas. As the retention time increases, the amount of biogas produced increases. Methanogenic activities of microorganisms reduced at higher temperature conditions (65 °C). Biogas production increased by 28.1%, 20.23%, and 13.27 % when the of substrates treated with ultrasonic, autoclave, and microwave, respectively, compared to the untreated substrate. The optimized condition for the highest biogas production during anaerobic co digestion of food waste and cow manure is temperature of 35 °C, pH of 7 and mixing ratio (CM: FW=1.5:0.5). ANOVA showed that temperature is the most important input parameter affecting biogas production, followed by mixing ratio.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a significant cause of illness in adults, especially older adults and those with underlying conditions. This study aimed to assess the incidence of RSV hospitalizations in adults and identify risk factors for hospitalization and poor outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from two hospitals in southern Israel from 2016-2022. We calculated incidence rates of RSV and influenza hospitalizations. Risk factors for hospitalization were analyzed using Poisson regression. We evaluated poor outcomes (death, ICU admission, or mechanical ventilation) among RSV-hospitalized patients. Results: The median annual incidence of RSV hospitalization was 28.2/100,000 population, increasing with age to 199/100,000 in those ≥75 years. Significant risk factors for RSV hospitalization included pulmonary diseases (RR 4.2, 95% CI 3.4-5.2), cardiovascular diseases (RR 3.3, 95% CI 2.6-4.2), and chronic renal failure (RR 2.9, 95% CI 2.3-3.7). Among hospitalized RSV patients, 13.9% had poor outcomes. Renal failure (RR 1.81, 95% CI 1.23-2.66), neutropenia (RR 2.53, 95% CI 1.19-5.35), neutrophilia (RR 1.66, 95% CI 1.81-2.34), and lymphopenia (RR 2.03, 95% CI 1.37-3.0) were associated with poor outcomes. Conclusions: RSV causes a substantial burden of hospitalizations in adults, particularly among older adults and those with comorbidities. Identifying high-risk groups can help target prevention and treatment strategies, including vaccination.

In the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT), a network of sensors and actuators collaborates to fulfill specific tasks. As the demand for IoT networks continues to rise, it becomes crucial to ensure the stability of this technology and adapt it for further expansion. Through an analysis of related works including Feedback-based Optimized Fuzzy Scheduling Approach (FOFSA) algorithm, Adaptive Task Allocation Technique (ATAT) and Osmosis Load Balancing algorithm (OLB), we identify their limitations in achieving optimal energy efficiency and fast decision-making. To address these limitations, this research introduces a novel approach to enhance the processing time and energy efficiency of IoT networks. The proposed approach achieves this by efficiently allocating IoT data resources in the Mist layer during the early stages. We apply the approach to our proposed system known as the Mist-based Fuzzy Healthcare System (MFHS) that demonstrates promising potential to overcome the existing challenges and pave the way for efficient Industrial Internet of Healthcare Things (IIoHT) of the future.

A replicated outdoor pot experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effect of different phytohormone and siderophore producing, and P-solubilizing bacterial species on spinach nu-trient uptake, nitrate concentration and nitrate reductase activity. The mentioned parameters were determined in spinach leaves (Spinacia oleracea L.), non-inoculated and inoculated with four plant growth–promoting actinobacteria (Streptomyces griseus (S1), Streptomyces albogriseolus (S2), Strep-tomyces aurantiacus (S3) and Streptomyces kanamyceticus (S4) under the influence of two sources of nitrogen fertilizers including potassium nitrate and urea (100 and 200 ppm). Inoculation with the strains increased spinach shoot fresh weight by 16%–43% over the control. Bacterial inoculation gave leaf chlorophyll increases of 15%–40%. Inoculation increased plant height by 2.2%–24.6% in spinach. A close reverse relationship between nitrate concentration and enzyme activity (r2= 0.87) was demonstrated. The measured parameter responses were variable and dependent on the in-oculant strain, with highest enzyme activity and lowest nitrate concentration exhibited in S2 (S. albogriseolus) inoculation. The source and application dose of nitrogen fertilizer had varied impact on measured parameter. The maximum phosphorous and iron concentration were measured by soil inoculation with S4 and applying 200 ppm nitrate potassium nitrogen fertilizer. Application of 200 ppm KNO3 nitrogen fertilizer with different Streptomyces strains showed the capability of S2 in decreasing nitrate content while protein content increased. In particular, the strains S2 and S4 have great potential in being formulated and used as biofertilizers.

3D printing is commonly used to create complex objects at a low cost. It has also been applied in the fabrication of metamaterials and metasurfaces, which alter the propagation path of electromagnetic waves. These structures have diverse applications, including enhancing beam direction, improving antenna gain and signal-to-noise ratio, and creating filters and reflectors. Metasurfaces are cheap to fabricate and their use is expected to boost antenna efficiency in 5G telecommunications and beyond. However, accurately characterizing their profile remains a significant challenge. This paper presents a low-cost fully automated 4-axis instrument for microwave metasurface charac-terization, overcoming limitations of manual methods and offering an efficient and accurate approach. This research represents a significant advancement in microwave metasurface characterization, enabling sophisticated techniques to advance wireless communication technolo-gies, as it is the case of the future 5G and millimeter-wave communication systems. The equipment has an approximate cost of $1550 USD and was able to characterize a metalens with a focal distance of 20 cm designed for signals at 30 GHz. It was possible to create 2D and 3D profiles of the intensity distribution focused by the metalens and extract parameters such as the gain (8.05 dB), 3dB depth of focus (11 cm) and full width at half maximum (2.17 cm). The comparison of the measurements with the diffraction calculations of the metalens showed a very good agreement between the in-tensity distributions and the parameters of the metalens.

Energy storage systems play a crucial role in the overall performance of hybrid electric vehicles. Therefore, the state of the art in energy storage systems for hybrid electric vehicles has been discussed in this paper along with appropriate background information for facilitating future research in this domain. Specifically, we have compared the key parameters such as cost, power density, energy density, cycle life, and response time for various energy storage systems. For the energy storage systems employing ultra capacitors, we have presented the characteristics such as cell voltage, cycle life, power density and energy density. Furthermore, we have discussed and evaluated the interconnection topologies for the existing energy storage systems. We have also discussed the hybrid battery-flywheel energy storage system as well as the mathematical modeling of the battery-ultracapacitor energy storage system. Toward the end, we have discussed energy efficient powertrain for hybrid electric vehicles.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a highly heterogeneous and the most common form of head and neck cancer, posing significant challenges for disease management. Single-cell RNA sequencing (sc-RNAseq) has emerged as a valuable tool for addressing these challenges by enabling detailed characterization of the tumor microenvironment (TME) at the cellular level. This review assesses the utility of sc-RNAseq in HNSCC research, compiling current strategies employing single-cell technologies. For HNSCC etiology, sc-RNAseq allows for the construction of cellular atlases, characterization of different cell types, and investigation of key genes and processes involved in cancer initiation, development, and progression within the TME. In terms of HNSCC diagnosis and prognosis, the high resolution offered by sc-RNAseq enables the identification of cell type-specific signatures, enhancing prognostic models and disease stratifiers for more accurate patient outcome assessments. Regarding HNSCC treatment, sc-RNAseq provides insights into cellular responses to various treatments, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, contributing to improved patient stratification and personalized treatment strategies. This review highlights the unique contributions of sc-RNAseq to HNSCC research, addressing its cellular and biological complexity, and emphasizes its potential for advancing research and clinical practice in other cancer types.

With the emergence of blockchain and smart contracts, traditional digital applications 1 such as identity management, supply chain management, banking and finance etc. are expected 2 to be transformed into Decentralized Applications (DApps). Blockchain interoperability is a new 3 and exciting aspect of blockchain technology that is quickly gaining popularity in many industries. 4 However, the widespread use of blockchains has not yet been achieved because DApps running on the 5 blockchain using smart contracts require access to authentic off-chain data. Users are more conscious 6 of their personal data privacy and consequently are more reluctant to share their data, posing a 7 challenge in the adoption of DApps. To solve this challenge, we present a novel quantum-resistant, 8 data authentication and zero-knowledge proof scheme named zk-DASTARK. Based on our proposed 9 scheme, we present a novel framework which can be used to feed authenticated off-chain data to 10 DApps without compromising user data privacy. Our proposed framework is quite efficient against 11 well-known off-chain data authentication frameworks. The proposed framework is implemented on 12 state-of-the-art quantum-resistant IOTA Blockchain and is highly efficient as it takes approximately 13 60 ms to generate a proof and approximately 10 ms to verify a proof.

Multilayered metallic sheets fabricated by hot metal forming processes are attractive structural components in the aerospace and automobile industry. The strength of the mechanical bond between the different layers is critical to the applicability of such components in load bearing applications. While it is well understood that the process conditions such as temperature, deformation and rate of deformation influence the bond strength, a clear functional relationship between these conditions and the bond strength has yet to be established. The objective of the current study is to investigate the joining of Aluminum-6061 alloy specimens by hot compression bonding. Hot compression tests of beam specimen pairs were conducted at different temperatures (300-500℃), with different strains and strain rates (10-2-10-1 [1sec]). Coupled thermo-mechanical finite element models were utilized to compute the time dependent thermo-mechanical fields that develop along the specimen interface. The computed values were used to map the spatial distribution of a scalar parameter J which is hypothesized to govern bond formation. Mechanical tensile tests were used to determine the bond strength and expose the bonded surfaces. It is demonstrated that the computed J distribution can be correlated well with SEM observations of the debonded surface. It is also shown that the actual bonded area can be predicted from the computations for a certain range of critical J values.

For 80 years high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been a significant area for medical research. It is a non-invasive procedure which causes cell death in a highly localised area at a defined distance from the transducer. Since 2000, the clinical indications have broadened considerable as the technology has improved. This review looks back at the history of HIFU and the current clinical indications.

Soil erosion seriously affects vineyards. In this study, the influence of two plant covers on soil moisture and the effect of different physiographic conditions on runoff and sediment yields were evaluated in a rainfed vineyard formed by four fields (NE Spain) during 15 months. One field had spontaneous vegetation as plant cover and three fields had a cover crop of common sainfoin. The vineyards’ rows were dry and stable, whereas the inter-row areas were wet although very variable, and the corridors were wet and very stable. Soil moisture in the inter-row areas with Common sainfoin was much higher than in the rows (62% - 70%) whereas this difference was lower with spontaneous vegetation (40%). Two runoff and sediment traps (STs) were installed in two ephemeral gullies, and 26 time-integrated surveys (TIS) done. The mean and maximum runoff yields were 9.8 and 30.7 l TIS^–1 in ST2 and 13.5 and 30.2 l TIS^–1 in ST3. The mean turbidity was 333 and 19 g l^–1, and the maximum sediment yields were 41,260 and 2,778 g TIS^–1 in ST2 and ST3. Changes in the canopy covers (grapevines and plant covers) and rainfall parameters explained the runoff and sediment dynamics.

Pakistan relies mostly on fossil fuel for fulfilling its energy demand which is expensive as 11 well as not friendly for the environment. The need of the hour is to shift from fossil fuels to renew-12 able energy resources like geothermal, wind, solar etc. to cater for global warming issues. Pakistan 13 has a lot of potential geothermal sites because of several fault lines and hot springs. A sound 14 knowledge of ground temperature is essential to use geothermal energy, which is obtained by drill-15 ing boreholes and putting sensors making it an expensive procedure. Thus, to avoid huge cost for 16 drilling bore holes, particularly for ground temperature analysis, a numerical approach has been 17 considered for determining ground temperature. Furthermore, correlation charts between air and 18 ground temperatures have been developed as there were no proper studies on the ground temper-19 ature of Pakistan. Then, with the help of a boreholes drilled in National University of Sciences and 20 Technology Islamabad Pakistan, the actual ground and numerically calculated temperatures have 21 been compared which shows an error margin in the range between 0.27% for higher depths to 7.3% 22 near surface. Thus, it is shown that the proposed method is easy to implement and better than large 23 scale testing methods for the depths at which geothermal energy is extracted.

Alkaloids are the most diversified nitrogen-containing secondary metabolites having antioxi-dant, and antimicrobial properties and are extensively used in pharmaceuticals to treat different types of cancer. Nicotiana serves as a reservoir of anticancer alkaloids and is also used as a model plant for the de novo synthesis of various anti-cancer molecules through genetic engineering. Up to 4% of the total dry weight of Nicotiana was found to be composed of alkaloids where nicotine, nornicotine, anatabine, and anabasine are reported as the dominant alkaloids. And, among the alkaloids present in Nicotiana, β-carboline (Harmane and Norharmane), Kynurenines are found to show anti-tumor effects, especially in the case of colon and breast cancer. Creating new or shunting of existing biosynthesis pathways in different species of Nicotiana resulted in de novo or increased synthesis of different anti-tumor molecules or their derivatives or precursors includ-ing Taxadiane (~22.5 µg/g), Artemisinin (~120 μg/g), Parthenolide (~2.05 ng/g), Costunolide (~60 ng/g), Etoposide (~1 mg/g), Crocin (~400 µg/g), Catharanthine (~60 ng/g), Tabersonine (~10 ng/g), Strictosidine (~0.23 mg/g), etc. Enrich precursor pool especially Dimethylallyl Diphos-phate (DMAPP) and down-regulating of other bi-product pathways, compartmentalization or metabolic shunting, or organelle-specific reconstitution of the precursor pool might trigger the enhanced accumulation of the targeted anticancer alkaloid in Nicotiana.

All living cells maintain a charge distribution across their cell membrane (membrane potential) by carefully controlled ion fluxes. These bioelectric signals regulate cell behavior (such as migration, proliferation, differentiation) as well as higher-level tissue and organ patterning. Thus, voltage gradients represent an important parameter for diagnostics as well as a promising target for therapeutic interventions in birth defects, injury, and cancer. However, despite much progress in cell and molecular biology, little is known about bioelectric states in human stem cells. Here, we present simple methods to simultaneously track ion dynamics, membrane voltage, cell morphology, and cell activity (pH and ROS), using fluorescent reporter dyes in living human neurons derived from induced neural stem cells (hiNSC). We developed and tested functional protocols for manipulating ion fluxes, membrane potential, and cell activity, and tracking neural responses to wounding and re-innervation in vitro. Finally, using morphology sensor, we tested and quantified the ability of physiological actuators (neurotransmitters and pH) to manipulate nerve wound re-innervation. These methods are not specific to a particular cell type and should be broadly applicable to the study of bioelectrical controls across a wide range of combinations of models and endpoints.

Background: The genetic variants identified by three large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment were used to test a polygenic selection model. Methods: Average frequencies of alleles with positive effect (polygenic scores or PS) were compared across populations (N=26) using data from 1000 Genomes. A null model was created using frequencies of random SNPs. Results: Polygenic selection signal of educational attainment GWAS hits is high among a handful of SNPs within genomic regions replicated across GWAS publications. A polygenic score comprising 9 SNPs predicts population IQ (r=0.88), outperforming 99% of the polygenic scores obtained from sets of random SNPs (Monte Carlo p= 0.011). Its predictive power remains unaffected after controlling for spatial autocorrelation (Beta= 0.83). The largest polygenic score (161 SNPs) exhibits similar predictive power (Beta=0.8). Random polygenic scores are moderate predictors of population IQ (thanks to spatial autocorrelation), and their predictive power increases logarithmically with the number of SNPs, indicating an exponential reduction in noise. Conclusion: This study provides guidance for using GWAS hits together with random SNPs for testing polygenic selection using Monte Carlo simulations.

Beta thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that results in inefficient erythropoiesis due to genetic mutation that leads to reduction or absence of the hemoglobin beta-globulin protein. Approximately 8.5% of UAE residents suffer from β-thalassemia, a significant health and financial problem. The treatment options available for β-Thalassemia major are limited and associated with a wide range of complications. β-thalassemia gene therapy is emerging as a potential novel treatment option that eliminates the complications caused by the current long-term treatment modalities and the associated economic burden. This paper reviews the scientific literature related to emerging gene-therapy for β-Thalassemia by analyzing all the articles published from January 2010 to December 2023 in the English language on Databases like PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and CINAHL. The use of gene therapy has demonstrated promising outcomes for a permanent cure of β-Thalassemia. ZYNTEGLO (Betibeglogene autotemcel) is the only cell-based gene therapy which was approved by the FDA on 19th August, 2018. To conclude, Gene therapy is an innovative solution. It demonstrates a promising future, but does come with its own set-backs and is something that must be tackled in-order to revolutionize it in the medical world. FDA approved ZYNTEGLO is a potentially one-time curative treatment for β-Thalassemia. Although cutting-edge, its use is limited because of the high cost; a price of $2.8million per patient.

In recent years, extensive research has focused on investigating rubberized concrete as a structural material due to its enhanced properties, including increased ductility, improved energy dissipation, and higher damping ratios. Additionally, rubberized concrete contributes to sustainable development by recycling non-biodegradable waste and reducing the use of natural aggregates in concrete mixtures. However, its performance in retrofitting existing structures remains unclear and requires thorough investigation before it can be widely implemented in construction activities. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete buildings strengthened with rubberized concrete jackets under severe earthquake excitations. To achieve this, laboratory tests were conducted to assess the properties of high-performance, self-compacting rubberized concrete mixes with various rubber content levels. Additionally, finite element models of reinforced concrete retrofitted with these mixes were analyzed using nonlinear response history analysis to compare their performance against control models. The results of this experimental work indicate a significant reduction in the mechanical properties of rubberized concrete. However, there is a considerable improvement in the damping ratio, which enhances the energy dissipation capacity of the structures. This improvement contributes to an increase in damping energy and a reduction in hysteretic energy, suggesting that rubberized concrete jackets can enhance the seismic resilience of reinforced concrete buildings.

Neuro-rehabilitation services are essential in reducing post-stroke impairments, enhancing independence, and improving recovery in hospital and post-discharge. However these services are therapist-dependent and resource intensive. Patients’ disengagement and boredom in stroke units are common which adversely affect functional and psychological outcomes. Novel techniques such as use of iPads™ are increasingly researched to overcome such challenges. The aim of this review is to determine the feasibility, effectiveness, acceptability, and barriers to the use of iPads™ in stroke neuro-rehabilitation. Four databases and manual literature search were used to identify published studies using the terms “iPad”, “Stroke”, and “neuro-rehabilitation”. Studies were included in accordance with the review selection criteria. A total of 16 articles were included in the review. The majority of the studies focused on iPads use in speech and language therapy. Although of small scale, the studies highlighted that iPads are feasible, have the potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes, and can improve patient’s social isolation. Patients’ stroke severity and financial limitations are some of the barriers highlighted in this review. This review presents preliminary data supportive for the use of iPad technology in stroke neuro-rehabilitation. However, further research is needed to determine impact on rehabilitation goals acquisition, clinical efficacy, and cost-efficiency.

Streptococcus mutans is a key bacterium in dental caries- one of the most prevalent chronic infectious diseases. Conventional treatment both fails to specifically target the pathogenic bacteria and at-tempts to eradicate commensal bacteria as well. Thus, caries remains one of most common and challenging diseases. The use of bacterial viruses as anti-bacterial agents, is gaining interest worldwide. Hardly any phages were described against S. mutans. The objective of this study was to isolate anti-S. mutans phages and to characterize their antimi-crobial properties. Human saliva samples were filtered and screened for potential phages. Standard double-layered agar method was used for isolation. Whole genome sequence analysis and morphology visualization by TEM, were used for anti-S. mutans phage identification. Antibacterial properties were evaluated using clinical strains and ATCC strains of S. mutans in various states. Antibacterial effect was also tested on human cariogenic dentin. One phage against S. mutans was isolated and termed SMHBZ8. This phage showed effective lytic activity in vitro against both planktonic and biofilm S. mutans cultures. Moreover, the phage showed antibacterial effect when used on cariogenic dentin. The isolation and characterization of SMHBZ8 may be the first step in developing a potential phage therapy for dental caries.

Polymer electrolyte was used as a medium for testing the performance of microband electrodes under conditions of linear diffusion. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry experiments were performed in such viscous medium, where diffusion rates are much slower than in fluid solutions. Confirmation of the existence of such conditions from the log i vs. log v or log i vs. log t relationships in the current equation always yielded values lower than the expected value of 0.5. This could indicate impure linear diffusion profile, i. e. some contribution from radial diffusion (edge effect). However, performing these tests in monomeric solvents of similar viscosities, such as glycerol or propylene glycol, gave the desired value of 0.5. These results lead to the conclusion that current equations which are based on Fick’s laws may not be applicable for polymer electrolytes, where various obstruction to diffusion make it a more complicated process than in monomeric solvents.

This paper presents a novel method for automatic modulation classification (AMC) for cognitive radio (CR) networks based on a simple classifier that is trained with high-order cumulant. The proposed method focuses on the statistical behavior of modulated signals and includes analog modulation and digital schemes, which received less attention in the literature. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulation results using high-quality generated signals under different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and channel conditions. The classification performance achieved by the proposed method is superior to that of the more complex deep learning methods, making it well-suited for deployment in end units of CR networks, particularly in military and emergency service applications. The proposed method offers a cost-effective, high-quality solution for AMC that meets the stringent requirements of these critical applications.

Recently we have seen a relaxation of the historic restrictions on the use and subsequent research on the Cannabis plants, generally classified as Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica. What research has been performed to date has centered on chemical analysis of plant flower products, namely cannabinoids and various terpenes that directly contribute to phenotypic characteristics of the female flowers. In addition, we have seen many groups recently completing genetic profiles of various plants of commercial value. To date, no comprehensive attempt has been made to profile the proteomes of these plants. We report herein our progress on constructing a comprehensive draft map of the Cannabis proteome. To date we have identified over 17,000 potential protein sequences. Unfortunately, no annotated genome of Cannabis plants currently exists. We present a method by which “next generation” DNA sequencing output and shotgun proteomics data can be combined to produce annotated FASTA files, bypassing the need for annotated genetic information altogether in traditional proteomics workflows. The resulting material represents the first comprehensive annotated protein FASTA for any Cannabis plant. Using this annotated database as reference we can refine our protein identifications, resulting in the confident identification of 13,000 proteins with putative function. Furthermore, we demonstrate that post-translational modifications play an important role in the proteomes of Cannabis flower, particularly lysine acetylation and protein glycosylation. To facilitate the evolution of analytical investigations into these plant materials, we have created a portal to host resources we have developed from proteomic and metabolomic analysis of Cannabis plant material as well as our results integrating these resources. All data for this project is available to view or download at www.CannabisDraftMap.Org

Several factors influence traffic congestion and overall traffic dynamics. Simulation modeling has been utilized to understand the traffic performance parameters during traffic congestions. This paper focuses on driver behavior of route selection by differentiating three distinguishable decisions, which are shortest distance routing, shortest time routing and less crowded road routing. This research generated 864 different scenarios to capture various traffic dynamics under collective driving behavior of route selection. Factors such as vehicle arrival rate, behaviors at system boundary and traffic light phasing were considered. The simulation results revealed that shortest time routing scenario offered the best solution considering all forms of interactions among the factors. Overall, this routing behavior reduces traffic wait time and total time (by 69.5% and 65.72%) compared to shortest distance routing.

In this study, we aim to evaluate how cyclodextrin molecules affect the hydrophilicity and selec-tivity of PVDF membrane. Herein, we prepared PVDF-PVP(1-x) β-CDx membranes, with x rang-ing from 0 to 1 wt%. The membranes were deeply characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR-IR), Raman spectroscopies, Thermal gravimet-ric analysis (TGA), Contact angle measurement (CA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The study unequivocally demonstrates the effectiveness of the addition of β-CD molecules on membranes' structural, morphological, and dielectric properties. Adding 0.25wt% β-CD enhanced hydrophilicity, with CA decreasing from 72.6° to 56° and roughness decreasing from 81 to 29 nm. The PVDF-PVP(1-x) β-CDx membranes were then fully characterized using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to determine their dielectric properties, which clearly showed that the presence of β-CD induced polarization of the mem-brane. The separation of various dyes with different sizes and charges was utilized. These dyes included methylene blue (MB, positive, 0.504 nm), methyl red (MR, neutral, 0.487 nm), rose Bengal (RB, negative, 0.588 nm), and brilliant blue (BB, negative, 0.798 nm). Based on our re-search, we found that the membrane's selectivity is determined by both exclusion factors (such as size and dielectric properties) and inclusion inside the β-CD cage. We found that using alpha-CD instead of beta-CD led to the disappearance of dye inclusion. These findings strongly sug-gest that β-CD molecules can be a viable solution for dye removal from wastewater.

Curcumin is one of the bioactive metabolites of turmeric (Curcuma longa), known for its pleiotropic pharmacological actions, including antioxidant and anti-inflammation, anticholinesterase, immunomodulation, and neuroprotection. Substantial evidence suggests the therapeutic benefits of curcumin against neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), acting on a diverse array of brain targets that make the molecular mechanisms complicated. System biology level-investigation could potentially present a comprehensive molecular mechanism to delineate the neuropharmacological action of curcumin. In this study, we used integrated system pharmacology and molecular simulation analysis to gain insights into the underlying mechanism of curcumin action against AD. Network pharmacology study identified curcumin-targeted potential cellular pathways such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) signaling, neurotrophin signaling, toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling, and autophagy, and proteins such as tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), liver X-receptor-beta (LXR-β), estrogen receptor-β (ER-β), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), TLR-2, N-methyl-D-acetate receptor subunit 2B (GluN2B), β-secretase and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), which are intimately associated with neuronal growth and survival, immune response, and inflammation. Moreover, the molecular modeling further verified that curcumin showed a significant binding affinity to mTOR, TrkB, LXR-β, TLR-2, ER-β, GluN2B, β-secretase, and GSK-3β, which are the crucial regulators of molecular and cellular processes associated with AD. Together, the present system pharmacology and in silico findings demonstrate that curcumin might play a significant role in modulating AD-pathobiology, supporting its therapeutic application for the prevention and treatment of AD.

A two scalar field model that incorporates non Riemannian Measures of integration or usually called Two Measures Theory (TMT) is introduced, in order to unify the early and present universe. In the Einstein frame, a K-essence is generated and as a consequence for the early universe, we can have an Inflation for the very early universe and then, after inflation, an early dark energy period and a late dark energy period for the present universe dark, both dark energy epochs have a consistent generation of dark energy (DE), dark matter (DM) and stiff matter. This is obtained when the scale invariance is introduced and then is spontaneously broken from the integration of the degrees of freedom associated with the modified measures. The resulting effective potentials and K-essence in the Einstein frame produce the three flat regions corresponding to the different epochs mentioned before. For the first flat region, we can associate an inflationary universe. Also assuming this first plateau, we study the inflation in the framework of the slow-roll approximation. In this scenario under the slow roll approximation, we obtain a linear combination that is a constant. The corresponding cosmological perturbations in our model are determined and we also obtain the different constraints on the parameter-space from the Planck data. The slow roll approximation can be arranged so that the transition from inflation to the next flat region can be achieved without problems. In the following two flat regions, in addition to the inflation phase, representing the Early Dark Energy and Late Dark Energy Periods, with DE and also the DM, do not need to be introduced separately, they are instead a result of a K-essence induced by the multi measures, multi field theory. Therefore the scalars generate both the DE and the DM . Also a stiff matter component is automatically generated from the K-essence theory from two scalar fields. From the perturbative analysis associated to the perturbation solution of background, we find a correlation between the two scalars. Besides, we obtain that our model during the dark epoch has a behaviour of tracking freezing mode

The Capital Asset Pricing Model is a widely applied model to describe risky markets and to deduce their systematic risk. Its estimation, therefore, remains an important task in Econo-financial studies. Empirically, it focuses on the impact of return interval on the betas. Existing studies somehow turn around the same idea of measuring the value of the beta according to the uniform intervals of time during a fixed period. However, it is noticed easily, and especially in the last decade that many factors such as socio-political, and Econo-environmental ones have led to a perturbation in the timeline of the worldwide development, and especially in countries and regions having political changes. This led us to introduce a new idea of risk estimation taking into account the non-uniform changes in markets by introducing a non-uniform wavelet analysis. We aim to explain the Econo-political situation of Arab spring countries and the effect of the revolutions on the market beta. The main novelty is firstly the construction of a dynamic backward-forward model for missing data, and next the application of random non-uniform wavelets. The proposed procedure will be acted empirically on a sample corresponding to TUNINDEX stock as a representative index of the Tunisian market actively traded over the period January 14, 2016, to January 13, 2021. The chosen 5-years period is important as it constitutes the first 5-years-after the revolution and depends strongly on the Socio-Econo-political stability in the revolutionary countries.

Herbal Coffee is getting more popular due to its unique flavor and higher concentration of bioactive compounds, mainly polyphenols. Rosemary is a unique herb with potent antioxidant properties. A green technique called ultrasound aids in releasing bioactive substances from the plant cell wall. In this context, ultrasound-assisted herbal coffee prepared and their anti-diabetic, anti-Alzheimer, and antioxidant activities were measured while the LC/MS was used to determine the bioactive components from the herbal coffee infusion. A total of 95 secondary metabolites were putatively reported, including alkaloids, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, which we identified in the herbal coffee infusion. The total phenolic content (61.5 ± 5.1 mg GAE/g), total flavonoid content (19.3 ± 0.9 mg QE/g), and total condensed tannin (7.6 ± 0.7 mg CE/g) of herbal coffee infusion were observed to be highest of the two remaining samples. The herbal coffee extracts were used to determine all samples' antioxidant, anti-diabetic, and anti-Alzheimer activities. Using LC-MS/MS, we semi-quantified 19 phenolic metabolites. The results show numerous bioactive components in herbal coffee infusion with more potent antioxidant, antidiabetic, and anti-Alzheimer potential. Moreover, more studies must be conducted to confirm how the metabolomic profile of herbal coffee affects its flavor profile.

Ocular drug delivery is one of the most challenging administration routes due to the very low drug bioavailability. In this work, we produce and characterize mucoadhesive mixed polymeric micelles (PMs) made of chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) backbones graft-hydrophobized with short poly(methyl methacrylate) blocks and use them to encapsulate cannabidiol (CBD), an anti-inflammatory cannabinoid. CBD-loaded mixed PMs are physically stabilized by ionotropic crosslinking of the CS domains with sodium tripolyphoshate and spray-drying. These mixed PMs display CBD loading capacity of 20% w/w and sizes of 100-200 nm, and spherical morphology (cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy). The good compatibility of the unloaded and CBD-loaded PMs is assessed in a human corneal epithelial cell line. Then, we confirm the permeability of CBD-free PMs and nanoencapsulated CBD in cornea cell monolayers under liquid-liquid and air-liquid conditions. Overall, our results highlight the potential of these polymeric nanocarriers for ocular drug delivery.

The realization of a BRST cohomology of the 4D topological gauge-affine gravity is established in terms of a superconnection formalism. Identification of fields in the quantized theory is occurred directly as usual in terms of superconnection and its supercurvature components with the double covering of the general affine group GA¯(4,R). Then, by means of an appropriate decomposition of the metalinear double-covering group SL¯(5,R) with respect to the general linear double-covering group GL¯(4,R) one can easily obtain the enlargements of the fields while remaining consistent with the BRST algebra. This leads to the descent equations allowing us to build the observables of the theory by means of the BRST algebra constructed using a sa¯(5,R) algebra-valued superconnection. In particular, we discuss the construction of topological invariants with torsion.

This study analyzed the anaerobic co-digestion of Inoculum (I), Rubber Plant Effluent (RPE) and Gliricidia leaves (GLS) at different mixing ratios for the simultaneous production of methane and organic fertilizer. The results were analyzed for volatile fatty acids, pH, C/N ratio, and methane production. The organic quality of the substrate mixture before and after anaerobic digestion was analyzed for organic carbon, Kjeldahl nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus content. The study concluded that the inoculum, Rubber Plant Effluent (RPE), and Gliricidia leaves (GLS) mixed in the ratio of 10:2:2 showed higher methane production than other experiments conducted at different mixing ratios. The nitrogen, Potassium and phosphorus content of the substrates are increased after anaerobic digestion. However, the organic carbon content in the substrate decreased in all experiments. This research recommends the planting of rubber trees and Gliricidia maculata to promote economic development in Mauritania. Keywords: Biogas production; Gliricidia leaves; Methane; Rubber Plant Effluent; Organic Manure

The increasing popularity of unconventional wells has sparked a heightened interest in evaluating and predicting their production performance. With the use of extended reach well structures, these wells are able to generate and access larger reservoir volumes. Hence, it is crucial to understand how the well's lateral trajectory affects its transient production performance. The assessment of lateral trajectory undulating amplitude effect on the flow behavior is performed in the current study based on the experimental results obtained at the University of North Dakota, Undulated Two-Phase (UTP) Flow Loop, injecting air and water mixture through a variable undulating amplitude section followed by a vertical section. The experiments showed that the undulating amplitude increase induced lower translational velocity, frequency, and length, with a consistent slug acceleration through the system profile from the inlet to the vertical section and a decreasing frequency when the slugs travel through the vertical section. Measured data shows that an increase of the horizontal pressure losses and variability is expected with a higher undulation amplitude, translating the fact that larger instabilities are observed for higher amplitudes. The numerical simulation predicted lower translational velocity and frequency, higher slug’s lengths, and similar vertical pressure losses when compared to the experimental results.

Sulfated polysaccharides from seaweed are highly active natural substances having valuable applications. In the present paper, attempts have been made to discuss the physicochemical and structural features of polysaccharides isolated from red marine alga Alsidium corallinum (ACPs) and its protective effect in hepatic impairments induced by tebuconazole (TBZ) in rats. Structural features were determined using High performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transformed infrared, and solid state ¹H and ¹³C-Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. ACPs are found to be hetero-sulfated-anionic polysaccharides that contained carbohydrates, sulfate groups and uronic acids. In vitro biological activities suggested the effective antioxidant and antimicrobial capacities of ACPs. For antioxidant testing in vivo, the biochemical analysis and plasma profiles displayed that oral administration of ACPs could mitigate blood lipid indicators, including total cholesterol, triglyceride, low and high density lipoprotein cholesterol, bilirubin, liver function indexes involving alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, showed that ACPs possessed obvious antioxidant activities. Besides, the intervention of ACPs potentially inhibited lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, key enzymes of lipid metabolism (<0.001) and increased levels and antioxidant status (<0.05). Histomorphological observation confirmed that ACPs intervention could partially repair liver injuries caused by TBZ. The computational results showed that A. corallinum monosaccharides bound 1JIJ, 1HD2 and 1WL4 receptors with acceptable affinities, which together with deep embedding and molecular interactions support the antioxidant, antimicrobial and hypolipidemic outlined effects in the in vitro and in vivo findings. In view of their prominent antioxidant effects, ACPs stand for promising candidates in liver diseases and need be considered in pharmaceutical applications.

Recent years have seen dramatic growth in the number of scholarly scientific works dedicated to the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), banking, and finance. With the development of scientometric tools, it is now possible to map, visualize, analyze, and assess scientific activities in many fields of engineering and social sciences including Islamic banking and finance. Based on data retrieved from the Scopus database and using a qualitative method, this study investigates, evaluates, and identifies significant development, trends, and players in the application of AI in Islamic banking and finance using the Visualization Of Similarities Method (VOS) between objects in VOSviewer. From 2006 to 2022, 387 documents were retrieved from the Scopus database; Results revealed that the top five most active countries in terms of publications are Malaysia (117 documents), Indonesia (89 documents), the United Kingdom (36 documents), the USA (24 documents), and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain (24 documents each). The International Islamic University Malaysia and Universitas Indonesia came out on top of active institutions while the top funding source came from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. The comprehensive findings and analysis reported in this study serve as a roadmap for future academics to create theory and practice for applying AI in Islamic banking and finance.

Discovered as an apparent pattern, a universal relation between geometry and information called the holographic principle has yet to be explained. This relation is unfolded in the present paper. As it is demonstrated there, the origin of the holographic principle lies in the fact that a geometry of physical space has only a finite number of points. Furthermore, it is shown that the puzzlement of the holographic principle can be explained by a magnification of grid cells used to discretize geometrical magnitudes such as areas and volumes into sets of points. To wit, when grid cells of the Planck scale are projected from the surface of the observable universe into its interior, they become enlarged. For that reason, the space inside the observable universe is described by the set of points whose cardinality is equal to the number of points that constitute the universe’s surface.

This paper presents a new method for approximating the classical arcsine function. The proposed approximating methodology is simpler in its approach than other classical approaches and undeniably innovative. It is based on matrix representation besides the basic interpolation to approximate the inverse trigonometric function. It provides an efficient model which allows for reliable and precise calculations. The results are as per our knowledge unseen results in the previous literature.