This paper deals with the characteristics of the cyclone separator from the Lagrangian perspective to design important dependent variables, develops a neural network model for predicting the separation performance parameter, and compares the predictive performance between the traditional surrogate model and the neural network model. In order to design the important parameters of the cyclone separator based on the particle separation theory, the force acting until the particles are separated was calculated using the Lagrangian-based CFD methodology. As a result, it was proved that the centrifugal force and drag acting on the critical diameter having a separation efficiency of 50% were similar, and the particle separation phenomenon in the cyclone occurred from the critical diameter, and it was set as an important dependent variable. For developing a critical diameter prediction model based on machine learning and multiple regression methods, Unsteady-RANS analyzes according to shape dimensions were performed. The input design variables for predicting the critical diameter were selected as four geometry parameters that affect the turbulent flow inside the cyclone. As a result of comparing the model prediction performances, the ML model showed the 32.5 % of improvement rate of R2 compared to the traditional MLR considering the nonlinear relationship between the cyclone design variable and the critical diameter. The proposed techniques have proven to be fast and practical tools for cyclone design.

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-negative bacterium that causes superficial and deep infections that can be mild or potentially fatal. Recently, the bacterium has gained significant attention due to the increased incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains that make treatment with antibiotics dif-ficult. Owing to the MDR strains, alternative therapies such as antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (PDT) have emerged as good options to treat non-systemic infections. PDT combines a photosensi-tiser (PS) with light and oxygen to generate free radicals that destroy bacterial structures such as the plasma membrane, matrix, and genetic material. This systematic review aimed to identify the ef-fectiveness of PDT delivered using different types of hydrogels for treating wounds, burns, and contamination by S. aureus. This systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines. Bibliographic research was conducted using the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Only full articles published in English between 2013 and 2024 from any country of origin (without restrictions) were included. The research was carried out from 15 June 2023 to 15 June 2024 and did not use any automatic biblio-graphic search tool. The articles collected were identified using keywords and selected using in-clusion and exclusion criteria in accordance with the PRISMA protocol. Seven articles were in-cluded that presented a good set of evidence associated with the use of PDT against S. aureus in in vitro and in vivo studies. To conclude, PDT can effectively complement antimicrobial therapy against S. aureus, in the healing of wounds and burns. The effectiveness of this technique depends on the PS used, hydrogel type, and lesion location. Some studies have already demonstrated the ef-fectiveness of PDT but most were in vitro and a few in vivo. Further studies are required to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of PDT delivered via hydrogels in in vivo models of bacterial infection.

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is one of the most common pathogens that cause myocarditis in humans. However, a sufficient therapeutic drug was not developed yet. Caboxamycin, a benzoxazole antibiotic, isolated from the culture broth of the marine strain Streptomyces sp., SC0774, displayed an antiviral effect in the CVB3-infected HeLa cells and CVB3-induced myocarditis mouse model. Caboxamycin significantly inhibited CVB3 VP1 production and cleavage of translation factor eIF4G1 from CVB3-infected HeLa cells at a 100 μg/ml concentration. Moreover, virus RNA amplification was dramatically reduced by caboxamycin treatment in HeLa cells. The caboxamycin cardiac protective effect was observed on the CVB3-mediated myocarditis mice model. The caboxamycin-treated mice survival was significantly increased compared to untreated mice (treated vs untreated, 100 vs 45 %). Heart histologic findings showed that myocardium damage and inflammation were significantly decreased by caboxamycin treatment. Caboxamycin directly inhibited caspase3 activity and cardiac myocytes apoptosis. These results suggested that caboxamycin strongly suppressed cardiac myocyte apoptosis and effectively inhibited the proliferation of CVB3 from in vitro and in vivo conditions. Furthermore, this study proposed that caboxamycin could potentially be applied in developing a new antiviral drug for CVB3-induced myocarditis.

AbstractPurpose: This study aimed to perform a psychometric evaluation of the preliminary preterm birth risk assessment scale (PBRAS-K) of 32-item. Method(s): There were 299 subjects, 167 in the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) group and 132 in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) group, who delivered before 37⁺⁰ weeks after having preterm symptoms and were admitted to high-risk pregnancy maternal-fetal intensive care units (MFICU). After an item reduction process in EFA, the psychometric property scales were assessed using SPSS 26, and CFA was accomplished using AMOS 27. Results: The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure (KMO) and Bartlett’s χ² test of sphericity confirmed the adequacy of the sample for factor analysis (KMO = .81 (> .80), χ² = 1841.38, p < .001). The final version of the PBRAS-K was comprised of 23 items within seven dimensions. Factor analysis identified items explaining 65.9% of the total variance. The PBRAS-K had a mean score of 35.58 (±10.35) and showed a high internal consistency and satisfactory reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .85. The PBRAS-K had a low correlation with risk scoring of preterm delivery (RPD) for discriminant validity (r = .45, p < .001), a positive, high correlation with the Somatic Awareness Scale with Spontaneous Preterm Labor (SPL-SAS) for criterion validity (r = .65, p < .001), and with pregnant stress for convergent validity (r = .57, p < .001). RPD and SPL-SAS were moderately correlated (r = .53, p < .001). Conclusion(s): The PBRAS-23-K is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing pregnant women’s risk of preterm birth. Clinical nurses are encouraged to apply and obtain information for effective interventions in MFICU. This scale has meaningful results and reflects the voices of women who had a preterm birth. The scale should be evaluated for standardization and cut-off scores using larger subject sizes in the future.

This study analyzed the impact of climate-related natural disasters (droughts, floods, storms/rainstorms) on economic and social variables. As the Africa-specific empirical literature is limited, this study used panel data from 1961–2011 on Africa. The study used a panel data regression model analysis. The results showed that climate change-related natural disasters affected Africa’s economic growth, agriculture, and poverty and caused armed conflicts. Among the disasters, droughts are the main cause of negative impact, severely affecting crops such as maize and coffee and resulting in increased urban poverty and armed conflicts. In contrast, international aid has a positive effect but the impact is insignificant compared to the negative consequences of climate-related natural disasters. Cereal food assistance has a negative crowding-out effect on cereal production. International donors should review their interventions to support Africa’s adaptative capacity to disasters. Government efficiency has reduced the number of deaths, and this is an area that supports Africa’s adaptative efforts.

Several Lung diseases can result in lung damage structural changes, with lung transplantation as a only therapeutic option when the disease reaches an advanced progression, unfortunately, the success of lung transplantation is limited. In this context, lung bioengineering is considered a potential therapeutic alternative and the current approach is based on the use of the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) of the decellularized lung. The use of undifferentiated cells to seed an ECM can be a more practical strategy for lung bioengineering but the sterilization of the organ for this recellularization process is still a challenge. In this sense, Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) can emerge as a potential treatment alternative. Therefore, the objective of this study was to verify if LLLT, can optimize lung recelularization with mesenchymal stem cells by cytokine modulation. For this, we decellularized lungs from C57BL/6 mice perfusing SDS 1% via pulmonary artery, sterilized with LLL (660nm, 100mW, 30s). Whole lung scaffolds were recellularized: (1) Recellularized Lung (2) Recellularized Lung + LLLT. Mesenchymal stem cells derived from human tooth pulp (DPSc) were seeded into lungs and incubated for 24 hours at 37ºC, 5% CO₂, in a bioreactor-like conditions, maintaining CPAP at 20cmH2O, 90% O2, and LLL at wavelength of 808nm, 100mW, 30s. Culture medium were analyzed at 24 hours. H&amp;E, immunostaining, SEM and ELISA assay were performed. We produced viable biological scaffolds absent of DNA content, preserving glycosaminoglycans and collagen I, III and IV, fibronectin, laminin and elastin and lung structure (SEM). The levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were stable during the 24 hours of culture. IFN-γ levels showed significant difference in the DPSc and DPSc+LLLT group in the 24-hour evaluation. The levels of IL-10 decreased after LLLT. These findings highlight LLLT's role in cytokine regulation and contamination prevention during lung recellularization with mesenchymal stem cells. Overall, these results demonstrated that LLLT's modulated cytokine levels and could prevent contamination during the lung recellularization process with mesenchymal stem cells, offering promise for enhanced therapeutic strategies in lung bioengineering.

.With the increasing use of carbon fiber reinforced plastics in various area, carbon fiber composites based on prepregs have attracted attention in industries and academia research. However, prepreg manufacturing processes are costly, and the strength of structures varies depending on the orientation and defects (pores and delamination). For non-contact evaluation of internal defects, we proposed lock-in infrared thermography to investigate orientation angles after a compression test. We also conducted a drop-weight impact test to study the behaviour of the composites after impact according the fibers orientation for composite fabricated using unidirectional carbon fiber prepregs. Using CAI tests, we determined the residual compressive strength and confirmed the damage modes using a thermal camera. The results of the drop weight impact tests show that the specimen laminated at 0° suffered the largest damage because of susceptibility of the resin to impact. In contrast, the specimens oriented in of 0°/90° and +45°/–45° directions transferred more than 90% of the impact energy back to the impactor because of the lamination of fibers in the orthogonal directions. Furthermore, the specimens that underwent complete damage in the impact tests were subjected to the lock-in method and showed internal delamination and cut fibers. With the finite elements analysis, the damage of each ply could be observed. Moreover, the temperature differences in the residual compression tests were not significant.

Edible oils have commercial and nutritional value due to the presence of essential fatty acids. They can be consumed fresh in the form of capsules known as nutraceuticals. The quality of such products is of interest to the consumer. In this context, this study describes a method based on high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopic analysis (FTIR), combined with statistical analyzes to differentiate different edible oils used as nutraceuticals in Brazil by fatty acid content. Through the analysis of 1H NMR spectra, the levels of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in edible oils were characterized and quantified. Statistical analysis of the data confirmed the real distinction between nutraceutical raw materials, with emphasis on ω-9, ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acids. The analytical approach presented also demonstrated potential to identify the origin (animal or vegetable) of edible oils used as nutraceuticals.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are a set of progressive, chronic, and incurable diseases characterized by the gradual loss of neurons, culminating in the decline of cognitive and/or motor functions. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the most common NDs and represent an enormous burden both in terms of human suffering and economic cost. The available therapies for AD and PD only provide symptomatic and palliative relief for a limited period and are unable to modify the diseases’ progression. Over the last decades, research efforts have been focused on developing new pharmacological treatments for these NDs. However, to date, no breakthrough treatment has been discovered. Hence, the development of disease-modifying drugs able to halt or reverse the progression of NDs remains an unmet clinical need. This review summarizes the major hallmarks of AD and PD and the drugs available for pharmacological treatment. It also sheds light on potential directions that can be pursued to develop of new, disease-modifying drugs to treat AD and PD, thereby decreasing the social and economic burdens linked to these NDs.

Here, we report a simple and effective method for separation of gram-negative bacteria using aptamer-modified microbeads and acoustophoresis. As acoustophoresis allows for simultaneous washing and size-dependent separation in continuous flow mode, we efficiently obtained gram-negative bacteria that showed high affinity without any additional washing steps. The proposed device has a simple and efficient channel design, utilizing a long, square-shaped microchannel that shows excellent separation performance in terms of the purity, recovery, and concentration factor. Microbeads (10 µm) coated with the GN6 aptamer can specifically bind gram-negative bacteria. Using acoustophoresis, gram-negative bacteria-bound microbeads and other unbound/contaminants can be separated by size with high purity and recovery. The device demonstrated excellent separation performance, with high recovery (up to 98%), high purity (up to 99%), and a high volume rate (500 µL/min), and a concentration factor of up to 20×. The acoustophoresis microfluidic device also showed binding affinity to multiple strains of gram-negative bacteria, but not to gram-positive bacteria. This study presents a new paradigm for early diagnosis of bacterial infectious diseases. In addition to detecting living bacteria or bacteria-derived biomarkers, this protocol can be extended to monitoring the contamination of water resources, and may aid quick responses to bioterrorism and pathogenic bacterial infections.

This work focuses on forced combustion with regards to the relationship between vent mixer models and several injection locations in unheated supersonic flow. A plasma jet torch was used to ignite the hydrogen–air mixture in a laboratory-scaled combustor duct. The flow field of the combustion was visualized with pressure and gas-sampling measurements. The vent mixers indicate good dispersion characteristics of the mixture for both parallel and normal 1 injections. However, forced combustion is dominantly governed by the injection rate toward the plasma jet (hot source) because the combustible region is restricted under the cold main flow. For this reason, the parallel injection, which provides the hydrogen–air mixture directly toward the plasma jet, shows good combustion performance. The normal 1 injection interacted with the vent mixers and shows slightly good combustion performance. Lastly, the normal 2 injection is little affected by the vent mixers and has poor combustion performance.

Traditional marketing tactics have been significantly challenged by marketers, especially in the food sector. Companies have been engaging in covert and overt advertisements as an emerging marketing communication strategy to circumvent customer skepticism, build a good image, and create value for the brand. But there is a lack of literature regarding integrating traditional and new marketing tactics in building intention and ecologically conscious consumer behavior. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to provide empirical evidence concerning the integration of different marketing tactics, i.e., Green Product Features, Green Pricing, Covert Advertisement, Overt Advertisement and Guerrilla Marketing, and their effects on Purchase Intention and Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior. The study also employs moderation of Brand Evangelism, Environmental Knowledge and Habitat Attitude between intention and behavior building. A visual appraisal technique was used by showing a video or picture as a sample of covert or overt marketing tactics before filling out a close-ended questionnaire to get accurate responses. The data from 568 customers of the frozen food industry were analyzed using the co-variance-based structure equation modeling technique with the help of AMOS. The findings of the study elaborate that parallel to the significant impact of conventional marketing mix tactics, covert, overt and guerrilla marketing are strong antecedents for intention building, which eventually develops Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior (ECCB). The results also affirm that intention can lead to ECCB significantly through brand evangelism and environmental knowledge. These findings reflect the importance of shifting marketers from conventional marketing tactics to novel hidden marketing techniques.

Residential segregation refers to the phenomenon where people of different socioeconomic backgrounds live in spatially separated areas. It is essential to ensure equitable access to urban amenities for all residents in pursuit of the normative values in urban planning. To achieve this planning goal, the disparity in accessibility to urban amenities needs to be appropriately diagnosed. Private apartments and public rental apartments are representative types of residences where residential segregation is likely to occur in the context of South Korea, since these two types show considerable differences in the education, income, and occupations. The objective of this study is to develop an analysis framework for diagnosing the difference in accessibility to urban amenities between the two residential types, and to empirically demonstrate their utility in the planning process. The empirical analysis conducted on Seoul revealed that not only were there significant local variations in accessibility between the two segregated residential areas, but the overall differences across the entire area were also pronounced. The proposed framework is useful in supporting decision-making processes for locating new public facilities or identifying regional priorities for guiding the placement of private amenities, with the aim of mitigating differences between segregated residential areas.

Nollywood, based on the idea of Bollywood from India, is a series of outstanding movies that originate from Nigeria. Unfortunately, while the movies are in English, they are hard to understand for many native speakers due to the dialect of English that is spoken. In this article, we accomplish two goals: (1) create a phonetic sub-title model that is able to translate Nigerian English speech to American English and (2) use the most advanced toxicity detectors to discover how toxic the speech is. Our aim is to highlight the text in these videos which is often times ignored for lack of dialectal understanding due the fact that many people in Nigeria speak a native language like Hausa at home.

As the geolocation capabilities of smartphones continue to improve, developers have continued to create more innovative applications that rely on this location information for their primary function. This can be seen with Niantic's release of Pokémon GO, which is a massively multiplayer online role playing and augmented reality game. This game became immensely popular within just a few days of its release. However, it also had the propensity to be a distraction to drivers resulting in numerous accidents, and was used to as a tool by armed robbers to lure unsuspecting users into secluded areas. This facilitates a need for forensic investigators to be able to analyze the data within the application in order to determine if it may have been involved in these incidents. Because this application is new, limited research has been conducted regarding the artifacts that can be recovered from the application. In this paper, we aim to fill the gaps within the current research by assessing what forensically relevant information may be recovered from the application, and understanding the circumstances behind the creation of this information. Our research focuses primarily on the artifacts generated by the Upsight analytics platform, those contained within the bundles directory, and the Pokémon Go Plus accessory. Moreover, we present our new application specific analysis tool that is capable of extracting forensic artifacts from a backup of the Android application, and presenting them to an investigator in an easily readable format. This analysis tool exceeds the capabilities of UFED Physical Analyzer in processing Pokémon GO application data.

This paper describes some of the challenges that need to be addressed in order to develop collaborative spectrum sharing systems. The importance of these challenges stems from the assumption that rules for spectrum sharing can change after the deployment of radio networks and the whole system must be able to adapt to them. To address such a requirement, we used a policy-based approach in which transmissions are controlled by a policy interpreter system, and the policies can be modified during system operation. Our primary goal was to develop a prototype of such a system. In this paper, we outline the implementation of policy interpretation, automatic generation of transmission opportunities in case a request for transmission is denied by the policy reasoner, and the generation of rendezvous channels for the synchronization of otherwise asynchronously running software defined radios.

The main challenge in milk production has been to maintain a focus on efficient processes that enhance production outcomes, while aligning with animal welfare and sustainability and being valued by society. As an alternative to improve cow welfare in production and provide better handling of the waste generated by the activity, the system called compost-bedded pack barn (CBP) is an alternative that has been widely adopted in countries with temperate climates and higher milk production. This CBP has been attracting global interest, including from countries with tropical and subtropical climates, such as Brazil, where many producers have started to use it due to the response in terms of milk productivity. A CBP can be designed either in a) an open facility with natural ventilation or positive pressure ventilation system or b) totally closed facilities, equipped with negative pressure ventilation systems and permanent thermal control. The latter system is being implemented in Brazil, despite insufficient knowledge about its efficiency. The objective of this study was, through a review, to gather and describe the most recent information on the use of open and closed CBP systems for dairy cattle housing, mainly how it is applied in tropical climate regions. To achieve the proposed objective, this review study included the following topics related to CBPs: (i) implementation; (ii) bedding; (iii) general construction and architectural characteristics; iv) ambient thermal conditioning. Knowledge gaps and directions for future research are also identified.

Background: Two types of medicinal systems are available in Korea: Western and oriental. These exist as separate services that independently provide medical care to patients. We determined the utility and benefits of compressive and integrated medical services (CIMS) comprising 12 sessions of acupuncture and healing programs over 6 weeks. Methods: In this two-group parallel single-center randomized controlled assessor-blinded trial, 24 participants were assigned to either the experimental (conventional medical treatment plus CIMS, n = 12) or control (conventional medical treatment, n = 13) group. Spinal nerve root block was performed on the compressed spinal nerve root (identified using magnetic resonance imaging) when no improvement was observed after the initial treatment. The experimental group received 12 cycles of acupuncture and manual therapy for 6 weeks; the control group received conventional medical treatment alone. Results: The average age of participants in the experimental and control groups was 70.73 ± 5.95 and 67.33 ± 8.89 years, respectively. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, body mass index, Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs, sex, and current medical history. We found high compliance for both programs (acupuncture and healing). On exclusion of between-group effects, the visual analog scale (VAS) score improved significantly over time (p = 0.045). Further, comparison of the groups after excluding the effects of visits revealed significantly lower VAS scores in the experimental group than in the control group (p = 0.000). Conclusions: Patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis who mainly complain of radiating pain in the lower leg may benefit from CIMS after spinal nerve root block for ≤3 months after treatment. Our study findings suggest that this treatment improves spinal function and Oswestry Disability Index score. However, CIMS did not improve QoL.

Background: Some studies have shown that an increase in visceral fat is associated with postoperative clinical and oncologic outcomes. However, no studies have used bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to determine the effects of visceral fat on the oncologic outcomes of colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between visceral fat area (VFA) and clinical, and oncologic outcomes in CRC. Methods: This study included 203 patients who underwent anthropometric measurements by BIA before surgical treatment for CRC between January 2016 and June 2020. Results: According to the cutoff level of VFA by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, 85 (40.5%) patients had a low VFA, and 119 (59.5%) had a high VFA. Multivariate analysis found that preoperative CRP (hazard ratio [HR], 3.882; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001–15.051; p=0.050) and nodal stage (HR, 7.996; 95% CI, 1.414–45.209; p=0.019) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival, while sex (HR, 0.110; 95% CI, 0.013–0.905; p=0.040), lymphovascular invasion (HR, 3.560; 95% CI, 1.098–11.544; p=0.034), and VFA (HR, 4.263; 95% CI, 1.280–14.196; p=0.040) were independent prognostic factors for disease-free survival (DFS). Conclusion: High VFA preoperatively measured by BIA was associated with inflammations and was an independent prognostic factor for DFS.

The phylogenetic relationships among the Peninsular Malaysian orchid genus Coelogyne were studied by morphological characteristics and by sequencing the internal transcribed region (ITS) from the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA). Coelogyne is a large genus of about 200 species distributed in pantropical areas from the Himalayas, Sri Lanka, India, Southern China and throughout South East Asia to Papua New Guinea. The widely accepted previous classification system was exclusively based on floral morphology. There were very few molecular systematic studies of Coelogyne done in Peninsular Malaysia thus far. In this study, 59 Coelogyne taxa were collected from throughout Peninsular Malaysia and 57 of them were identified to the species level. To study the phylogeny of this genus, morphological characters were utilized together with molecular evidences to generate the systematic hypotheses. Cluster analysis was performed using both the vegetative and floral characters. The results showed that three sections of Peninsular Malaysian Coelogyne, namely Longifoliae, Speciosae and Fuliginosae were sister groups which were more closely related by forming one clade than they were with the other sections. Another clade consisted of four other sections, namely Flaccidae, Coelogynae, Tomentosae and Verrucosae. Molecular phylogenies obtained by using the Neighbour Joining method revealed the close relationship between the sections Tomentosae and Verrucosae, whereas usage of the Maximum Likelihood method demonstrated that three sections namely Longifoliae, Speciosae and Fuliginosae were sister groups since they formed a single clade.

Evidence on adult mammalian neurogenesis and scarce studies with human brains led to the idea that adult human neurogenesis occurs in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus and in the subventricular zone (SVZ). However, findings published from 2018 rekindled controversies on adult human SGZ neurogenesis. We systematically reviewed studies published during the first decade of characterization of adult human neurogenesis (1994–2004) – when the two-neurogenic-niche concept in humans was consolidated – and compared with further studies. The synthesis of both periods is that adult human neurogenesis occurs in an intensity ranging from practically zero to a level comparable to adult mammalian neurogenesis in general, which is the prevailing conclusion. Nonetheless, Bernier and colleagues showed in 2000 intriguing indications of adult human neurogenesis in a broad area including the limbic system. Likewise, we later showed evidence that limbic and hypothalamic structures surrounding the circumventricular organs form a continuous zone expressing neurogenesis markers encompassing the SGZ and SVZ. The conclusion is that publications from 2018 on adult human neurogenesis did not bring novel findings on location of neurogenic niches. Rather, we expect that the search of neurogenesis beyond the canonical adult mammalian neurogenic niches will confirm our indications that adult human neurogenesis is orchestrated in a broad brain area. We predict that this approach may, for example, clarify that human hippocampal neurogenesis occurs mostly in the CA1-subiculum zone and that the previously identified human rostral migratory stream arising from the SVZ is indeed the column of the fornix expressing neurogenesis markers.

Recurrent infections after root canal treatments often involve Enterococcus faecalis, a microorganism closely associated with therapy failures due to its biofilm production, survival in nutrient-deprived conditions, and antibiotic tolerance. Essential oils (EOs), which display anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antibacterial properties, exhibit inhibitory effects on the growth of many microorganisms including E. faecalis. This study assessed the in vitro efficacy of combining antibiotics (Gentamicin 1.5mg/ml, Streptomycin 2.5 mg/ml, Ampicillin 5 mg/ml, and Kanamycin 2.5 mg/ml) with Cinnamon (1.25% to 5%) or Clove (25% to 50%) EOs using disk diffusion tests. Disks were treated with EOs-only, antibiotics-only, or EO-antibiotic combinations, placed on BEA agar plates, incubated for 24 hours, and zones of inhibition were measured against E. faecalis. Results showed robust growth inhibition by cinnamon and clove EOs across all tested concentrations. Furthermore, there were synergistic antimicrobial effects when gentamicin, streptomycin and kanamycin were combined with 2.5% and 50% concentrations of cinnamon and clove EOs, respectively, leading to significant growth inhibition of E. faecalis by 139% to 193% compared to using antibiotics or EOs alone. Clove EO showed positive synergism with three antibiotics (gentamicin, streptomycin, and kanamycin) whereas cinnamon EO showed synergism with two antibiotics (streptomycin and kanamycin). These findings suggest that combining cinnamon and clove EOs with aminoglycoside antibiotics can significantly reduce the expansion of E. faecalis compared to antibiotics alone. Further in vivo studies should determine the safety, efficacy, and treatment duration, with the potential to reduce antibiotic dosages and associated toxicity while preventing recurrent infections.

There are numerous approaches to model an influence of manufacturing parameters on the dissolution and disintegration of solid dosage forms. A modern approach for modelling and simulating complex and heterogeneous systems such as pharmaceutical tablets focuses on computationally-intensive finite-element or discreet element methods. Industrial challenges such as Process Analytical Technology (PAT) and Quality by Design are stimulating computer-based technologies to design, control and improve the quality of pharmaceutical compacts and their performance. In this study the disintegration and dissolution model based on the numerical solutions of the Noyes-Whitney equation and cellular automata supported disintegration model are proposed and evaluated. The results from in vitro release studies of the mefenamic acid formulations were compared to the calculated release patterns from the tablet structures obtained from microtomography experiments and the purely algorithmically created virtual tablets.

Honey is a complex sweet food stuff with well-established antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. It has been used for millennia in a variety of applications, but those most noteworthy include treatment of surface wounds, burns and inflammation. A variety of substances in honey have been suggested as the key component to its antimicrobial potential; polyphenolic compounds, hydrogen peroxide, methylglyoxal and bee-defensin 1. These components vary greatly across honey samples due to botanical origin, geographical location and the individual bee. The use of medical grade honey, Medihoney and Revamil, in the treatment of surface wounds and burns has been seen to improve the healing process, reduce healing time, reduce scarring and prevent microbial contamination. Therefore, medical grade honeys should be used for these treatments and reduce the demand for antibiotic usage. In this review, we aim to outline the constituents of honey and how they affect the antibiotic potential of honeys in a clinical setting.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines placed the majority of the country under enhanced community quarantine, restricting the movement of most of its 100 million plus population. These aggressive measures were initiated on March 15, 2020 and intensified on March 17. According to official data, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has exponentially increased during this period, but it is important to note that the number of patients tested also substantially increased during the same period. It is not conclusive that widespread transmission of COVID-19 only started in March and our analysis suggests that community transmission was happening earlier. In discussing extended quarantine measures, it is important to properly understand the trends and recognize the limitations of the data. The unintended consequences on the population, especially in lower-middle income countries with fragile health systems like the Philippines, must be carefully considered.

In this study, we investigated the effects of Akebia quinata ethanol extract (AE), Akebia quinata sikhye (AS), and Akebia quinata water extract (AW) on alcohol-induced liver injury in rats. The hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and antioxidant effects of AE, AS, and AW were examined. Experimental animals were randomly divided into five groups: normal, ethanol, AE (10 mL/kg), AS (10 mL/kg), and AW (10 mL/kg). Each group was administered the respective treatment orally once per day for 21 days. CYP2E1 mRNA expression was significantly lower in the AE, AS, and AW groups than that in the ethanol group. Pro-inflammatory cytokines including cyclooxygenase-2, IL-6, and TNF-α increased significantly in the ethanol group but these increases were ameliorated with AE, AS, and AW treatment. Moreover, the expression of the apoptosis-associated proteins Bax, p53, procaspase-3, and PARP decreased after treatment with AE, AS, and AW. The expression of antioxidant enzymes including BCL-2, SOD, and GST slightly decreased in the ethanol group, but AE, AS, and AW treatment augmented their activities. AQ extracts and AS attenuated ethanol-induced increases in the levels of phosphorylated p-AKT, p-ERK, and p-JNK. These results demonstrate that AQ is a competence indicator for inhibiting alcoholic liver injury.

Miscarriage due to blastocyst implantation failure occurs in up to two-thirds of all miscarriage cases in human. The calcium ion has been shown to be involved in many cellular signal transduction pathways as well as in the regulation of cell adhesion, which is necessary for the embryo implantation process. Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDs) during early gestation results in disruption of intrauterine implantation and uterine reception, leading to implantation failure. In this study, ovarian estrogen (E2), bisphenol A (BPA), or 4-tert-octylphenol (OP), with or without ICI 182,780 (ICI) were injected subcutaneously from gestation day 1 to gestation day 3 post-coitus. The expression levels of the calcium transport genes were assessed in maternal uteri and implantation sites. The number of implantation sites was significantly low in the OP group, and implantation sites were absent in the E2 and EDs+ICI groups. There were different calcium transient transport channel expression levels in uterus and implantation site samples. The levels of TRPV5 and TRPV6 gene expression were significantly increased by EDs with/without ICI treatment in uterus. Whereas, TRPV5 and TRPV6 gene expression were significantly lower in implantation sites samples. NCX1 and PMCA1 mRNA levels were significantly decreased by OP and BPA in the implantation site samples. Compared to vehicle treatment in uterus, both the MUC1 mRNA and protein levels were markedly high in all but the BPA group. Taken together, these results suggest that both BPA and OP can impair embryo implantation through alteration of calcium transport gene expressions and by affecting uterine receptivity.

Osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) is an acute demyelinating disorder characterized by the loss of myelin in the center of the basis pons which is defined as central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) and demyelination process in locations outside the pons which is defined as extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM). ODS including CPM and EPM is mainly caused by the rapid correction of hyponatremia. However, there are several reports of ODS in medical condition such as malnutrition, alcoholism, liver transplantation, malignancy, sepsis, electrolyte imbalance including hypernatremia, hypokalemia, hypophosphatemia, and chronic illness. Rarely, ODS was reported in patients with hyperammonemia or hyperbilirubinemia without sodium fluctuations. The symptoms usually correspond to the lesion site and EPM precedes CPM. Because ODS may be irreversible, prevention is more important. Here, we report a case of ODS secondary to the hyperammonemia and hyperbilirubinemia, as it can have unfavorable prognosis.

Voice spoofing attempts to break into a specific automatic speaker verification (ASV) system by forging the user’s voice, and can be used through methods, such as text-to-speech (TTS), voice conversion (VC), and replay attacks. Recently, deep learning-based voice spoofing countermeasures have been developed. however, the problem with replay is that it is difficult to construct a large number of datasets because it requires a physical recording process. To overcome these problems, this study proposes a pre-training framework based on multi-order acoustic simulation for replay voice spoofing detection. Multi-order acoustic simulation utilizes existing clean signal and room impulse response (RIR) datasets to generate audios, which simulate the various acoustic configurations of the original and replayed audios. The acoustic configuration refers to factors, such as the microphone type, reverberation, time delay, and noise that may occur between a speaker and microphone during the recording process. We assume that a deep learning model trained on an audio that simulates the various acoustic configurations of the original and replayed audios can classify the acoustic configurations of the original and replay audios well. To validate this, we performed pre-training to classify the audio generated by the multi-order acoustic simulation into 3 classes: clean signal, audio simulating the acoustic configuration of the original audio, and audio simulating the acoustic configuration of the replay audio. We also set the weights of the pre-training model to the initial weights of the replay voice spoofing detection model using the existing replay voice spoofing dataset and then performed fine-tuning. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we evaluated the performance of the conventional method without pre-training and proposed method using an objective metric, i.e., the accuracy. As a result, the conventional method achieved 92.94% accuracy and proposed method achieved 98.16% accuracy.

The essay focuses, from a sociological perspective, on the phenomenon of depopulation of Inner Areas in Italy. In this areas, younger generations, live a great inequality that exposed them to risk of social vulnerability. So, on the one hand, the desire to leave their community is growing among younger, on the other hand, the desire to deal with extreme adverse conditions is falling down. The research aims to explore the depopulation phenomenon in the context of Southern Italy, considering it as an emerging social vulnerability that impacts very deeply onto the sustainability of a social, economic and community systems such as the Molise region one. The following paper therefore presents an empirical web-survey conducted in the Molise region. The methodology used is Quantitative, and the research design is Exploratory. The essay underlines how proximity welfare can act as a flywheel to counter the depopulation Inner Areas of Italy enacted by the younger generations.

This paper proposes a cognitive radio engine platform for making exploitation of available frequency channels usable for a tactical wireless sensor network in presence of incumbent communication devices known as the primary user (PU) required to be protected from undesired harmful interference. In the field of tactical communication networks, it is desperate to find available frequencies for opportunistic and dynamic access to channels in which PU is in active. This paper introduces a cognitive engine plaform for determining available channels on the basis of case-based reasoning technique deployable as core functionality on cognitive radio engine to enable dynamic spectrum access (DSA) with high fidelity. Towards this, this paper introduces a plausible learning engine to characterize channel usage pattern to extract best channel candiates for the tactical cognitive radio node (TCRN). Performance of the proposed cognitive engine is verified by conducting simulation tests which confirm the reliability in functional aspect of the proposed cognitive engine covering the learning engine as well as the case-based reasoning engine with showing how well TCRN can avoid the collision against the PU operation considered as the etiquette secondary user (SU) should have.

We evaluated oleanolic acid (OA)-induced anti-cancer activity, apoptotic mechanism, cell cycle status, and MAPK kinase signaling in DU145 (prostate cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer), and U87 (human glioblastoma) cells. The IC50 values for OA-induced cytotoxicity were 112.57 in DU145, 132.29 in MCF-7, and 163.60 in U87 cells, respectively. OA (at 100 µg/mL) increased the number of apoptotic cells to 27.0% in DU145, 27.0% in MCF-7, and 15.7% in U87 cells, when compared to control cells. This enhanced apoptosis was due to increases in p53, cytochrome c, and Bax expression. OA-treated DU145 cells were arrested in G2 because of the activation of p-ERK and p21, and the decrease in cyclin B1 and cyclin E expression. Furthermore, OA-treated MCF-7 cells were arrested in G1 owing to the activation of p-JNK, p-ERK, p21, and p27, and the decrease in p-AKT, cyclin E, and CDK2. U87 cells also exhibited G1 phase arrest caused by the increase in p-ERK, p-JNK, p21, and p27, and the decrease in CDK2. Thus, OA arrests the cell cycle in different phases, and increases apoptosis in cancer cells. These results suggest that OA may alter the expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins in a cancer type-dependent manner.

To improve the wear resistance of polyimide (PI), surface modification was developed. In this study, the tribological properties of graphene (GN), graphene oxide (GO), and KH550-grafted graphene oxide (K5-GO) modified PI were evaluated by molecular dynamics (MD) at the atomic level. The findings indicated that the addition of nanomaterials can significantly enhance the friction performance of PI. The friction coefficient of PI composites decreased from 0.253 to 0.232, 0.136, and 0.079 after coating GN, GO and K5-GO, respectively. Among them, the K5-GO/PI exhibited the best surface wear resistance. Importantly, the mechanism behind the modification of PI was thoroughly revealed by observing the wear state, analyzing the changes of interfacial interactions, interfacial temperature, and relative concentration.

Patients living with cancer often experience serious adverse events due to their condition or its treatments. Those events may lead to a critical care unit admission or even result in death. One of the most important but challenging part of care is to build a caring plan according to the patient’s wishes, meeting his goals and values. Advance directives (ADs) allow everyone to give their preferences in advance regarding life sustaining treatments, continuation, and withdrawal or withholding of treatments in case one is not able to speak his mind anymore. While the absence of ADs is associated with a greater probability of receiving unwanted intensive care around the end of his life, their existence correlates with the respect of the patient’s desires and his greater satisfaction. Although progress has been made to promote ADs’ completion, they are still scarcely used among cancer patients in many countries. Several limitations to their acceptation and use can be detected. Efforts should be made to provide tailored solutions for the identified hindrances. This narrative review aims to depict the situation of ADs in the oncology context, and to highlight the future areas of improvement.

Sperm during the freezing and thawing process is damaged by oxidative stress. Thus, its antioxidant scavenger is essential for sperm survival and death in frozen-thawed semen. We used melatonin and silymarin in experiments. Our study aimed to identify the effect of melatonin and silymarin on the motility and viability of sperm, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and nitric oxide (NO) production in frozen-thawed boar semen. Melatonin and silymarin were treated alone and co-treated in the fresh boar semen. Boar semen was collected using the gloved-hand method from ten crossbred pigs, and the age of the experimental ten male pigs was 28.7 ± 3.2 months. We evaluated sperm viability using SYBR-14 and PI kit, and ROS and NO production were detected by DCF-DA and DAF-2, respectively. The sperm motility was not significantly different between non-treatment and treatment. ROS and NO production in frozen-thawed sperm were decreased by melatonin and silymarin (P < 0.05). Moreover, silymarin significantly reduced NO production more than melatonin (P < 0.05). Melatonin (46.37 ± 1.10) and silymarin (46.13 ± 0.80) enhanced the viability of sperm (P < 0.05). We suggest that melatonin and silymarin are essential antioxidants in semen cryopreservation for protecting sperm damage and maintaining sperm viability. Melatonin and silymarin may be useful antioxidants in freezing boar sperm.

Saussurea neoserrata Nakai offers a reliable and efficient source of antioxidants that can help alleviate adverse skin reactions triggered by air pollutants. Air pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM), have the ability to infiltrate the skin and contribute to the higher occurrence of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory ailments. Individuals with compromised skin barriers are particularly susceptible to the impact of PM since it can be absorbed more readily through the skin. This study investigated the impact of protocatechuic acid and syringin, obtained from the n-BuOH extract of S. neoserrata Nakai, on the release of PGE₂ and PGD₂ induced by PM₁₀. Additionally, it examined the gene expression of enzymes involved in the synthesis of PGE₂ and PGD₂ in human keratinocytes. The findings of this research highlight the potential of utilizing safe and efficient plant-derived antioxidants in dermatological and cosmetic applications to mitigate the negative skin reactions caused by exposure to air pollution.

This paper explores how the sustainable investment impacts financial returns and economic development in of Asia Pacific and North America, utilizing real data empirically. In academia and industrial field, it is polemical that indeed, the sustainable behavior has economic returns. In order to clarify that, we tested hypotheses with an analysis of seven stock markets, accounting of rates such as ROI, ROIC, and ROA in eleven companies, and GDP/GNI per capita. The results indicate that both financial return and economic development are positively germane to the sustainable investment. Besides, the variance of sustainability to economic development exists, depending on GDP per capita between two regions. We conclude, concerning the sustainability, by corroborating micro perspective for corporate level and macro perspective of economic development in the private and public sector. This research consequence will be interested in both practitioners and researchers in the measurement of sustainability performance

This paper investigates the roll parameter estimation of periodic disturbances where the amplitude, frequency, offset, and phase are hardly recognized in real practice. The key problem is to make an estimation that could eliminate the unknown disturbance parameters. An adaptive mechanism applies these four parameters to the globally exponential convergence using linear second-order filters and parameter estimation errors. Then, a backstepping controller is employed to make an exponential convergence to zero of the state variables. Moreover, reservoir computing is used to forecast chaotic roll motions to support predictability using Lyapunov exponents and the Poincaré map. Numerical simulations are demonstrated to validate the dynamical behaviors and efficacy of the proposed control scheme with machine learning.

An understanding of the mechanism underlying fruit ripening is critical for fruit quality improvement. Although post-harvest ethylene application is known to enhance the onset of fruit ripening, exact mechanisms remain unclear. To characterize the fruit ripening process and mechanism, we investigated the effects of exposing kiwifruit cultivars ‘Hayward’ and ‘Gamrok’ to exogenous ethylene treatment post-harvest using comprehensive proteomic analyses. Comparative two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that most of the proteins aggregated in ethylene-treated samples compared to the control (non-treated). We observed that among all ethylene treatments, 95 proteins from ‘Hayward’ and 106 from ‘Gamrok’ were differentially expressed. Interestingly, among the elicited protein successfully identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry, 50% from “Hayward’ and 60% from ‘Gamrok’ are associated with fruit ripening. Furthermore, 18% and 10% of proteins, respectively, are associated with defense response, whereas other major proteins are related to protein biosynthesis and photosynthesis/Calvin cycle. Interactions between identified proteins were demonstrated by bioinformatic analysis, providing insights into biological pathways and molecular functions in post-harvest kiwifruit ripening elicited by ethylene application. The present proteomic study in accordance with physiological analysis provides a quantitative evaluation of fruit ripening in response to exogenous ethylene in post-harvest kiwifruit.

The continuous nature of space and time is a fundamental tenet of many scientific endeavours. That digital representation imposes granularity is well recognized but whether it is possible to address space completely remains unanswered. Part 1 argues that Hales’ proof of Keppler’s conjecture on the packing of hard spheres suggests the answer to be ‘no’, providing examples of why this matters in GIS generally and spatio-temporal GIS in particular. Part 2 seeks to resolve the dichotomy between continuous and granular space, showing how a continuous space may be emergent over a random graph. However, its projection into 3D/4D imposes granularity. Perhaps surprisingly, representing space and time as locally conjugate may be key to addressing a ‘smooth’ spatial continuum. This insight leads to the suggestion of Face Centered Cubic Packing as a space-time topology but also raises further questions for spatio-temporal representation.

Currently, maritime traffic is increasing with economic growth in several regions worldwide. However, this growth in maritime traffic has led to increased risk of marine accidents. These accidents have a higher probability of occurring in regions where geographical features, such as islands, are present. Further, the positioning of rescue ships in a particular ocean region with a high level of maritime activity is critical for rescue operations. This paper proposes a method for determining an optimal set of locations for stationing rescue ships in an ocean region with numerous accident sites in the Wando islands of South Korea. The computational challenge in this problem is identified as the positioning of numerous islands of varying sizes located in the region. Thus, the proposed method combines a clustering-based optimization method and an image processing approach that incorporates flood filling to calculate the shortest distance between two points in the ocean that detours around the islands. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method reduces the distance from rescue ships and each accident site by 5.0 km compared to the original rescue ship locations. Thus, rescue time is reduced.

The introduction of electrical vehicle charging infrastructure including EV charger, renewable energy resource at secondary feeder in distribution system has been increased as one of countermeasure for global environmental issues. However, the Electric Vehicle Charging (EVC) infrastructure may act as the peak load in distribution system, which can adversely impact on the voltage stability when the electric vehicle is quickly charged. Therefore, to keep within the limit capacity of secondary feeder and allowable limit for feeder voltage, this paper proposes a stabilization method by the Energy Storage System (ESS) control strategy at secondary feeder in order to be not violated over than lower and upper limit. Also, this paper presents the estimation method to keep the proper standard value of State of Charge (SOC). From the simulation results, the voltage stabilization operation by ESS should make the feeder voltages of the distribution system(secondary feeder) introduced EVC Infra keep better voltage conditions, also estimation method to keep the proper standard value is confirmed that the SOC of ESS when is the standby condition could be exactly kept within the proper reference range.

This study examines whether gas is emitted from the materials used in the fabrication of metal vacuum panels or not and if emitted, their degree as time goes by. As experimental materials, metal sheets, foamed concrete as a core material, and polymer materials as a sealing material between metal sheets were selected. Experiments on the type and the degree of bending of metal materials showed that aluminum’s vacuum reaching time of 0.001 torr was at least 40 sec to 90 sec in its flat plate, but its vacuum reaching time increased from 3 times to 4.5 times in case of 90 ° and 135 ° bending state. For this reason, it is judged that stainless steel or steel material is suitable because aluminum is inadequate in terms of processability at the time of fabricating the metal vacuum panel. Also, vacuum arrival times and weight changes with increasing foam content of inorganic foamed concrete increased from 22,000 sec to 42,000 sec with increasing foaming rate and also, the weight change increased from 1.7% to 8%. Also, the experimental results on the type of honeycomb materials, the PE (polyethylene) with a vacuum reaching time of 30,000 sec and with a weight change of 0.5% and the PTFE (Poly-tetrafluoro ethylene) with a vacuum reaching time of 29,000 sec and with a weight change of 2.2% showed the optimum value.

In this paper, we investigate the new degenerate Daehee polynomials and numbers which are called the degenerate Daehee polynomials of the second kind, and derive some new and interesting identities and properties of those polynomials.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm constituting approximately 15% of newly diagnosed leukemia in adult patients. Development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have dramatically improved outcomes in patients with chronic CML in chronic phase. However, adverse drug events (ADEs) associated with TKI therapy have influenced drug adherence, resulting in adverse clinical outcomes and a decline in the quality of life (QoL). In this study, we carried out a unique questionnaire survey to evaluate ADEs, which comprised 14 adverse events. We compared drug adherence rates between patients using imatinib and those who switched from imatinib to nilotinib, a second-generation TKI. Following the switch, the total number of ADEs decreased considerably in most cases. Simultaneously, better QoL was observed in the nilotinib group than in the imatinib group. Drug adherence was measured using Morisky’s 9-item Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS). MMAS increased significantly after switching to nilotinib in all cases. Drug adherence is a critical factor for achieving molecular response in patients with CML. In fact, our results showed a strong inverse correlation between clinical outcome [international scale (IS)] and adherence (MMAS), with a stronger tendency in the nilotinib group than in the imatinib group. In conclusion, low occurrence of ADEs induced a high level of QoL and a good clinical response with second-generation TKI nilotinib treatment.

The bay is a space barrier for the development of island-type cities and a high-quality waterfront landscape resource. This study takes Xiamen a typical island city in China as an example. First, It use the method of satellite telemetry technology combined with GIS software and spatial syntax, respectively, from the material space level and social space level, to summarize the rapid urbanization process of this city since 1990-2018, focusing on the construction process of three large-scale waterfront park systems in the transition period of inter-island development in it, and comparing the similarities and differences of their spatial forms. Further, from the choice of the axis model and the integrated analysis results, we discuss the spatial efficiency changes. The construction of the three major bay waterfront park systems in this city reflects a huge change in development pattern from lagging construction, synchronous planning, to advanced layout, providing a continuous and variable spatial form for the development of the bay region and improving space efficiency, which one of the important ways to develop and transform island-type cities. We hope to provide the reference for the development including sustainable development of other island cities around the world

The feet cannot perform tasks as quickly and with as much dexterity as the hands. However, due to the heavy workload placed on the hands, there is potential for the feet to replace or assist the hands. In order to use the feet more effectively, this study aims to find ways to increase the speed and accuracy of directly touching a touchpad with the feet while in a seated position. The study investigates the effects of three factors: the slope of the touchpad, the direction of foot movement, and the touch area of the foot used. Regarding the direction of foot movement, the study found that the most effective direction for both accuracy and speed was at a 30-degree angle to the right when the front of the right foot was set at 0 degrees. The 0-degree and 60-degree angles showed similar efficiencies, but were lower than the 30-degree angle. The study also found that using the big toe as the touch area resulted in the best speed, accuracy, and subjective satisfaction. The index toe was the second-best option, while using the ball of the foot was the least accurate and slowest option. Lastly, using an slope angle of 15 degrees for the touchpad was found to increase work efficiency compared to using a 7-degree slope angle. These findings can serve as guidelines for designing foot interfaces.

In this study, changes in the microstructure of coal tar pitch during successive processes, including pyrolysis, polycondensation, and crystallization, were examined in connection with the resulting variations in structure factors, as measured by XRD analysis, and functional groups, as confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. To this end, four zones were defined based on variations in crystallinity, which were indicated by d002 and Lc. Each zone was further characterized by interpreting crystallinity development in relation to changes in functional groups and specimen height. At around 400 °C, polycondensation occurred as the C-Har and C-Hal peaks decreased in intensity. These peak reductions coincided with the formation of mesophase spheres, resulting in enhanced crystallinity. Subsequently, at around 500 °C, the peak intensity of C-H and COOH decreased, which was attributed to the release of large amounts of gasses. This led to sharp volume changes and a temporary reduction in crystallinity. All these results suggest that changes in the functional groups of coal tar pitch at lower temperatures (600 °C or less) during the carbonization process are closely associated with variations in its crystallinity. The major findings of the present study provide valuable insights for designing highly effective processes in the manufacturing of synthetic graphite blocks using CTP as a binder material, including by selecting appropriate temperature ranges to minimize volume expansion and crystallinity degradation and determining the lowest possible carbonization temperature to ensure adequate binder strength.

Various therapeutic approaches have been developed for neglect. Many studies have demonstrated the effect of Digital therapeutics(DTx) on neglect. By contrast, only a few studies have reported on the effects of DTx on egocentric and allocentric neglect. In this article, seven studies on DTx of egocentric and allocentric neglect were reviewed. DTx, which was employed in these studies, could be classified as follows: 1) software adaptation in traditional treatment, 2) VR game using the head-mount display as treatment, and 3) development of new digital program like ReMoVES. In addition, more studies and effective results were reported on egocentric neglect than allocentric neglect. In future studies, each effect on egocentric and allocentric neglect should be identified in detail through the appropriate use of differential evaluation and long-term application of independent digital therapeutics.

Background. Pose estimation based on deep learning has been expected to be a breakthrough method to increase the accuracy of clinical photographic evaluation and to decrease interobserver errors. The purpose is to quantify pose estimation from photography of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) using open-source software packages and determine correlations between parameters obtained by radiography and photography. Methods. We included 12 consecutive patients with AIS treated with spinal correction surgery. Photographs were taken preoperatively using a tripod-mounted camera (iPhone 13Pro) on an X-ray tube head. To assess photographic parameters obtained by photography, we defined 17 points to analyze posture and define parameters. Results. In the sagittal plane, there was a significant correlation between the radiographic trunk tilt angle and the photographic sagittal trunk tilt angle of the shoulder–hip and ear–hip. In the coronal plane, there was a significant correlation between the radiographic clavicle angle and the photographic shoulder height angle, and the radiographic C7–CSVL and the photographic coronal trunk tilt angle. Conclusions. Posture analysis by photography using popular mobile devices has clinical utility for improving and promoting the screening and early detection of AIS because it is simple, without patient exposure to X-ray radiation.

Juvenile hormones (JH) play crucial roles in insect development, reproduction, and other physi-ological functions. Because JH is specific to arthropods, including insects, it has long been stud-ied for use in pest control. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify the substances that act as JH disruptors from edible plants. Curcuminoids generally exhibit a wide range of biological ac-tivities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and insecticidal properties, and they exhibit insect growth inhibitory effects. Demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin, two curcuminoids from the turmeric plant Curcuma longa L. inhibit the formation of a metho-prene-tolerant (Met)–Taiman (Tai) heterodimer complex as shown through in vitro yeast two-hybrid assays. An artificial diet containing 1% (w/v) demethoxycurcumin or bisdemethox-ycurcumin reduced the number of larvae, leading to no pupal development. Building on our re-sults regarding curcuminoids, researchers can use our study as a reference to develop eco-friendly pesticides.

Bioelectric effect is known as combinatorial biofilm treatment with low dose of antibiotics with small electricity. When external electric field or current are applied, biofilms can be affected by the electrostatic force, non-uniform distribution of essential electrolytes, induction of low activity of enzyme, and increase of permeability of biofilms. In this work, we have focused on the reduction of applied electric power consumption that could avoid water electrolysis which was one of major challenges for biomedical applications. We have developed a new type of electrical signal that enhances the efficacy of biofilm removal. The results show combination of alternating and direct current remove biofilm effectively without causing electrolysis. We further developed an oral healthcare device as a bioelectric toothbrush and tested in dental clinic. The results demonstrated 75% reduction of gingivitis. In addition, we have tested a mimicked air conditioner biofilms that are root causes of aerobic hygiene infection. The result demonstrates 81.8% increased biofilm removal. In conclusion, a new bioelectric technology has been developed and demonstrated the biofilm removal efficacy without the electrolysis.

The Neotropical region is one of the most diverse regions of the globe in terms of macro-organismic species. Regarding the microbial world, however, little is known about the diversity and biogeography patterns of micro-organisms in the Neotropics. In this context, the study of several microbial taxonomic groups is still missing and/or incomplete, such as the protists. Our goal here was to summarize the available information of Neotropical protists, focusing on molecular data from environmental continental samples, to explore what these data evidence on their ecology and biogeography. For this, we reviewed the findings from all articles that focused on or included the terrestrial protists using metabarcoding approach and identified the gaps and future perspectives in this research field. We found that Neotropical protists diversity patterns seem to be, at least in part, congruent with that of macro-organisms and, different than plants and bacteria, just weakly explained by environmental variables. We argue that studies with standardized protocols including different biomes are necessary to fully characterize the ecology and biogeography on Neotropical protists. Furthermore, dismember evolutionary lineages and functional guilds of protists are important to better understand the relationship between diversity, dispersal abilities and functionality of particular taxa of protists in their habitats.

The investigation by the integrated approach newly introduced for this study indicates that insulin resistance (IR) would develop first preferentially in the muscle tissue with a relatively low cell turnover and then progress in sequence to the subcutaneous adipose tissue, to the visceral adipose tissue, and to the liver with higher cell turnovers. Moreover, metabolic disruptions due to IR vary widely from tissue to tissue, contrary to the conventional notion that IR merely impairs glucose uptake in the whole body. This warrants that IR be divided better into four distinct tissue specific IRs: muscle insulin resistance (MIR), subcutaneous adipose insulin resistance (s-AIR), visceral adipose insulin resistance (v-AIR), and hepatic insulin resistance (HIR). Tissue-specific IRs developing in the order of MIR, s-AIR, v-AIR, and HIR – producing tissue specific metabolic disruptions – would amount to nothing but the whole body insulin resistance (WBIR) evolving in four distinctively insulin resistant stages. The four stage metabolic evolution from rapid weight gain to visceral obesity to rapid weight loss to full blown diabetes not only complies well with the natural development history of diabetes but also resolves most of the controversies regarding obesity or diabetes, including visceral obesity, obesity paradox, and dawn phenomenon that have long remained metabolic puzzles. In addition, the four-stage WBIR evolution model refutes the entrenched notion of the lipid-induced insulin resistance (LIIR) but supports instead the glycation-induced insulin resistance (GIIR) proposed in this study. A speculation is that the glycation reaction activated ever more with WBIR evolving may serve as the common thread connecting each other a cluster of disorders or diseases that are often collectively referred to as the metabolic syndrome, such as obesity, diabetes, cardio/cerebral vasculopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy.

Pesticides are often used in different applications including agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, food industry, etc in order to insect pests and weeds. The indiscriminate usage of pesticides poses a massive threat to food, environmental and human health safety. Hence, the fabrication of a sensitive, and reliable sensor for the detection of pesticide residues in agro products and environmental samples is a critical subject to be considered. Recently, the graphene family including graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have been frequently employed in the construction of sensors owing to their biocompatibility, high surface area to volume ratio, and excellent physiochemical, optical, and electrical properties. The integration of bio-recognition molecules with GO/rGO nanomaterials offers a promising detection strategy with outstanding repeatability, signal intensity, and low background noise. This review focuses on the latest developments (2018 to 2022) in the different types of GO/rGO-based biosensors such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and electrochemical based techniques, etc for pesticide analysis. The critical discussions on the advantages, limitations, and sensing mechanisms of emerging GO/rGO-based biosensors have been highlighted as well. Additionally, we explore the existing hurdles in GO/rGO-based biosensors, such as handling of difficult biological samples, reducing the total cost, and so on. This review also provides research gaps and viewpoints for future innovations in GO/rGO-based biosensors for pesticide determination mainly in areas with insufficient resources.

In the field of quality control, the critical challenge of analyzing microdefects in steel filament holds significant importance. This is particularly vital as steel filaments serve as reinforced fibers in the use and applications within various component manufacturing industries. This paper addresses the crucial requirement of identifying and investigating microdefects on steel filaments. Eddy current signals are used for the identification of microdefects, and an in-depth investigation is conducted. The core objective is to establish the relationship between the depth of defects and the signals detected through the eddy current sensing principle. The threshold of eddy current instrument was set at 10%, corresponding to a created depth of 20 µm, to identify defective specimens. A total of 30 defective samples were analyzed, and the phase angles between the experimental and theoretical results were compared. The depths of defects ranged from 20 to 60 µm, with one sample having a depth exceeding 75 µm. The calculated threshold of 10.18% closely aligns with the set threshold of 10%, with a difference of only 1.77%. The resulting root mean square error (RMSE) was found to be 10.53 degrees, equivalent to 3.49 µm for the difference in depth and phase between measured results and estimated results. This underscores the methodology's accuracy and its applicability across diverse manufacturing industries.

A programmable DC power supply with Real-time Digital Simulator (RTDS)-based photovoltaic (PV) Power Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) simulators have been used to improve the control algorithm and reliability of PV Inverter. This paper proposes a supervisory control algorithm for PV PHIL simulator with non-RTDS device that is an alternative solution of high cost PHIL simulator. However, when such a simulator with conventional algorithm which is used in RTDS is connected to a PV inverter, the output is in the transient state and it makes it impossible to evaluate the performance of the PV Inverter. Therefore proposed algorithm controls the voltage and current target values according to the constant voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) modes to overcome the limitation of the Computing Unit, DC power supply and also uses a multi-rate system to account for the characteristics of each component of simulator. A mathematical models of a PV system, programmable DC power supply, isolated DC measurement device and Computing Unit are integrated to form a real-time processing simulator. Performance tests using a PV PHIL simulator which is applied proposed algorithm connected a PV inverter are carried out and proved superiority and utility of this method against conventional methods.

This study focused on the development and implementation of an educational simulation program based on Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS) for nurses in emergency medical centers who completed KTAS training. We also examined its educational effects based on the evaluation of clinical decision-making ability, job satisfaction, and customer orientation. The study participants were 30 nurses in the emergency medical center of a general hospital. Data were collected from May 3 to 24, 2017, and analyzed using SPSS 22.0. There was a significant difference in the mean scores in clinical decision-making ability, job satisfaction, and customer orientation before and after simulation education. In other words, emergency nurses who received KTAS-based simulation education program improved their clinical decision making ability, job satisfaction, and customer orientation. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that it can be used for KTAS education, and it was found that simulation-based education is a useful learning method for triage nurses in emergency medical center.

On October 18, 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping presented the blueprint for building a modernized socialist nation through the realization of the Xiao Kang (Every nation enjoys a peaceful and affluent life, it is meaningless to eliminate the poor) social construction at the 19th Congress of China. Subsequent to the 2008 financial crisis, the world has moved on to the new economic status of the New Normal. China has also entered the era of “Xinchang Thai,” which is moving from the high-growth to the moderate-growth phase. Therefore, the government of China emphasizes privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. China is also influenced by government policies due to the nature of socialism. This study confirms China’s current stage of economic development based on Barro’s theory. Thus, we use a quantile regression model and examine the correlation between economic growth and functional classification of government expenditure during Xi Jinping's term of office. Furthermore, we selected Korea as a comparative country as the two countries have common features.

This paper investigates the photocatalytic characteristics of Ag Nanowire (AgNW)/TiO2 and AgNW/TiO2/Graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites. Samples were synthesized by the direct coating of TiO2 particles on the surface of silver nanowires. As-prepared AgNW/TiO2 and AgNW/TiO2/GO nanocomposites were characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV/visible absorption spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images confirmed the successful deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of AgNWs. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized nanocomposites was evaluated using Rhodamine B (RhB) in an aqueous solution as the model organic dye. Results showed that synthesized AgNW/TiO2/GO nanocomposite has superior photocatalytic activities when it comes to the decomposition of RhB.

Biocontrol strategies are gaining tremendous attention with the growing awareness of the irreparable harm caused by the continuous use of synthetic pesticides. This study examines the proteolytic and chitinolytic activities of Bacillus velezensis CE 100 and its termiticidal effect through cuticle degradation. The proteolytic and chitinolytic activities of B. velezensis CE 100 systematically increased with cell growth to the respective peak of 68.3, and 128.3 units/mL after seventh days of inoculation, corresponding with the highest cell growth of 16 x 107 colony forming units (CFU)/mL. The in vitro termiticidal assay showed that B. velezensis CE 100 caused a rapid and high rate of termite mortality with the median lethal time (LT50) of &gt; 1h, and the highest mortality rate of 91.1% and 92.2% recorded at 11h and 12h in the bacterial broth culture and crude enzyme fraction, respectively. In addition to broken setae and deformed sockets, termites treated with the bacterial broth culture exhibited degraded epicuticles, while the crude enzyme fraction caused severe disintegration of both the epicuticle and endocuticle. These results indicate a tremendously higher prospect of B. velezensis CE 100 in the biological control of subterranean termites compared to the previously used entomopathogenic bacteria.

Orchids totalling close to 4000 species in Malaysia are one of the most diverse and most widespread family here had gained momentum in recognition among policy makers and guardians of the forest as one of the profiles that fit and can benefit plant conservation on a broad scale in recent years. Listed not only as conservation indicator but also as priority germplasm for sustainable floriculture industry in the country, a milestone that could safeguard wild orchids from verge of extinction in the natural habitat. Through our 30 years of studying orchids in the wild, we understand more about the distribution, rarity, threats and extinction of orchids than ever before, and we have the scientific tools to address many of the problems, yet many species face daily threats including habitat loss and unsustainable exploitation mainly via Internet trade. Prior to executing workable conservation plan, various research institutions working closely with Forestry Departments in Malaysia to first inventory and document the orchid species richness in the country. Selangor, Sarawak and Perlis Forestry Departments in collaboration with UPM have published seven orchid books that cover various habitat types. Selangor Forestry Department is leading on publishing biodiversity data in form of books for its various ecotourism’s sites and State Parks, and had published two books on orchids. Sarawak state has published one on the limestone orchids, and Perlis is the first to embark on the feat published one in 2010 and currently preparing a new book that includes other flagship wild flowers. Realizing the importance of documenting its biodiversity wealth, Malaysia has developed an information system that would be a one-stop retrieval point or repository for biodiversity facts and as a part of the commitments to CBD to facilitate reporting and the transfer of biological diversity and conservation-related information both nationally and internationally.

Aims TRAIL is a promising anticancer agent that has the potential to sensitize a wide variety of cancer or transformed cells by inducing apoptosis. However, resistance to TRAIL is a growing concern. Current manuscript aimed to employing combination treatment to investigate resveratrol induced TRAIL sensitization in NSCLC. Method A549 and HCC-15 cells were used in experimental design. Cell viability was determined by morphological image, crystal violet staining and MTT assay. Apoptosis was evaluated by LDH assay, Annexin V and DAPI staining. Autophagy and apoptosis indicator protein were examined by western blotting. TEM and puncta assay were carried out to evaluate the autophagy. MTP and ROS activity were evaluated by JC-1 and H₂DCFDA staining. Findings Resveratrol is a polyphenolic compound capable of activation of tumor suppressor p53 and its pro-apoptotic modulator PUMA. Herein, we showed the p53-independent apoptosis by decrease the expression of phosphorylated Akt-mediated suppression of NF-κB that is also substantiated with the downregulation of anti-apoptotic factors Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl in NSCLC, resulting in an attenuation of TRAIL resistance in combined treatment. Furthermore, apoptosis was induced in TRAIL-resistant lung cancer cells with a co-treatment of resveratrol and TRAIL assessed by the loss of MMP, ROS generations which resulting the translocation of cytochrome c from the mitochondria into the cytosol due to mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, autophagy flux was not affected by resveratrol-induced TRAIL-mediated apoptosis in NSCLC. Significance Overall, targeting the NF-κB (p65) pathway via resveratrol attenuates TRAIL resistance and induces TRAIL-mediated apoptosis which could be the effective TRAIL-based cancer therapy regimen.

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that continuously change their shape. Their main function is ATP production; however, they are additionally involved in a variety of cellular phenomena, such as apoptosis, cell cycle, proliferation, differentiation, reprogramming, and aging. The change in mitochondrial morphology is closely related to the functionality of mitochondria. Normal mitochondrial dynamics are critical for cellular function, embryonic development, and tissue formation. Thus, defect in proteins involved in mitochondrial dynamics that control mitochondrial fusion and fission can affect cellular differentiation, proliferation, cellular reprogramming, and aging. Here we review the processes and proteins involved in mitochondrial dynamics and its various associated cellular phenomena.

With the rapid developments that have been made in computer vision and computer technology, semantic segmentation of high-resolution images has emerged as a mainstream and challenging task. The, segmentation of water areas remains a complex task due to the similar features between water areas or between water areas and other land objects. Meanwhile, since coastlines and riverbanks are typically presented in irregular shapes, it is difficult to obtain the categories of pixels at boundaries. This paper proposed the use of a Water-Land Boundary Attention Network (WLBANet) to improve the accuracy of pixels at boundaries between water and land. This network also reinforced the performance of contextual information extraction into distinguishing between water areas and other land objects. To prove the validity of this proposed network, WLBANet was performed on the Water Land Dataset (WLD), which is also by this paper, and which contains water areas and other land objects categories. The results demonstrates that the proposed method has significant effectiveness.

Regardless of country and age, the importance of history education is always being emphasized. Although the importance of history education is being emphasized in Korea, there are many difficulties in getting students to understand history properly through school classes alone, and it is also difficult to attract students to participate in classes. The effectiveness of education using games has been proven 20 years ago, and the demand for game-based education is gradually increasing in the current education world, which is becoming more open. In this paper, based on the effects proven through research on the existing game-based education, the improvement of historical thinking ability, experiential history learning, and the problems of game-based education introduced in the ESN report and the discomfort of teachers who participated in the education were improved. A plan was suggested to select and use games suitable for basic education. In this thesis, we selected a history game with a clear historical and periodic background and without distortion of history, and experimented with teaching using games focusing on historical thinking and empirical history learning. The learning achievement of textbook-based education was compared.

Regardless of country and age, the importance of history education is always being emphasized. Although the importance of history education is being emphasized in Korea, there are many difficulties in getting students to understand history properly through school classes alone, and it is also difficult to attract students to participate in classes. The effectiveness of education using games has been proven 20 years ago, and the demand for game-based education is gradually increasing in the current education world, which is becoming more open. In this paper, based on the effects proven through research on the existing game-based education, the improvement of historical thinking ability, experiential history learning, and the problems of game-based education introduced in the ESN report and the discomfort of teachers who participated in the education were improved. A plan was suggested to select and use games suitable for basic education. In this thesis, we selected a history game with a clear historical and periodic background and without distortion of history, and experimented with teaching using games focusing on historical thinking and empirical history learning. The learning achievement of textbook-based education was compared.

This paper studies the dividend optimization problem in the entropy regularization framework by following the same continuous-time reinforcement learning setting as in Wang et al. (2020). The exploratory HJB is established and the optimal exploratory dividend policy is a truncated exponential distribution. We show that, for suitable choices of the maximal dividend paying rate and the temperature parameter, the value function of the exploratory dividend optimization problem could be significantly different from the value function in the classical dividend optimization problem. In particular, the value function of the exploratory dividend optimization problem could be classified into three cases based on its monotonicity. Numerical examples are also presented to show the impact of temperature parameter on the solution.

Variations in threshold voltage (VTH) and charge distributions in noncircular cells of three-dimensional (3D) NAND flash memory are investigated. The electric field difference in the circular and spike regions causes nonuniform trapped electron density in the charge trap layer (CTL) and influences the VTH variation. Such less-trapped electron (LT) regions in CTL between the circular and spike regions exhibit a lower electric field during the program, resulting in a higher current flow through that region. For the two-spike cells, the charge distribution and VTH variation are analyzed at different heights (HSpike) and angles between spikes. These irregular cells decrease VTH as the HSpike increases.

Ensuring safe, high-quality food is an ongoing priority, yet consumers face heightened risk from foodborne pathogens due to extended supply chains and climate change in food industry. Nanomaterial-based assays are popular and have recently been developed to ensure food safety and high quality. This review discusses strategies for using nanomaterials in colorimetric biosensors. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors are commonly utilized for colorimetric biosensing. Several emerging technologies aimed at simple and rapid immunoassays for onsite applications have been introduced in the food industry. In the foreseeable future, field-friendly colorimetric biosensors could be adopted in food monitoring systems. The onsite and real-time detection of possible contaminants and biological substances in food and water is essential to ensure human health safety.

Savolitinib is a highly selective small molecule inhibitor of the mesenchymal epithelial transition factor (MET) tyrosine kinase, primarily developed for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with MET mutations. It is also being investigated as a treatment for breast, head and neck, colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, and other gastrointestinal cancers. In both preclinical and clinical studies, it has demonstrated efficacy in lung, kidney, and stomach cancers. Savolitinib is an oral anti-cancer medication taken as a 600 mg dose once daily. It can be used as a monotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer with MET mutations, and in combination with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors for patients who have developed resistance to them. Furthermore, savolitinib has shown positive results in gastric cancer treatment, particularly in combination with docetaxel. As a result, this review aims to validate its efficacy in NSCLC and suggests its potential application in other gastrointestinal cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, based on related research in gastric and renal cancer.

Speech/music classification that facilitates optimized signal processing from classification results has been extensively adapted as an essential part of various electronics applications, such as multi-rate audio codecs, automatic speech recognition, and multimedia document indexing. In this paper, a new technique to improve the robustness of speech/music classifier for 3GPP enhanced voice service (EVS) using long short-term memory (LSTM) is proposed. For effective speech/music classification, feature vectors implemented with the LSTM are chosen from the features of the EVS. Experiments show that LSTM-based speech/music classification produces better results than conventional EVS under a variety of conditions and types of speech/music data.

The paper introduces a control hybrid model that is designed on the basis of OOSEM (Object-Oriented Systems Engineering Method), MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) concepts, RealTime UML/SysML (Unified Modeling Language/Systems Modeling Language), and an algorithm based on UKF (Unscented Kalman Filter). This hybrid model enables the implementation of control elements for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and can be adapted to reuse for most standard AUV platforms. To obtain this goal, the dynamic model of AUV is integrated with the following specializations of OOSEM/MDA, in which the analysis model is clarified via the use-case model definition and then combines with HA (hybrid automata) to precisely define the requirements for control. Next, the designed model is specialized via real-time UML/SysML to get the core control blocks, which describe the behaviors and structures of control parts in detail. This design model is then transformed into the model of implementation with the assistance of round-trip engineering to conveniently realize the controller of AUVs. Based on this new model, an AUV controller for low-cost turtle-shaped AUVs is implemented that performs tracking for a planar trajectory with accepted feasibility.

PEBAX-2533/metal salt/Al salt membranes were prepared for mixed olefin/paraffin separation. PEBAX-2533 with 80% ether group and 20% amide group was suggested as the polymer matrix for comparison of separation performance according to the functional group ratio in copolymer PEBAX. In addition, Al salts were used to stabilize metal ions for a long time as additives. High permeance was expected with the proportion of high ether groups since these functional groups provided relatively permeable regions. As a result, the PEBAX-2533 composite membrane showed a selectivity of 5 (propylene/propane) with 10 GPU. However, the permeance of membrane was not unexpectedly improved and the selectivity was reduced. The result was analyzed by SEM, FT-RAMAN and TGA, including FT-IR. The reduction in separation performance was determined by FT-IR. From these results, in order to stabilize the metal ions interacting with the polymer through Al(NO3)3, it was concluded that specific ratio of amide group was needed in PEBAX as polymer matrix.

Thin Slab Casting and Directing Rolling (TSCDR) has become a major process for flat- rolled production. However, the elimination of slab reheating and limited number of thermomechanical deformation passes leave fewer opportunities for austenite grain refinement resulting in some large grains persist in the final microstructure. In order to achieve excellent Ductile to Brittle Transaction (DBTT) and Drop Weight Tear Test (DWTT) properties in thicker gauge high strength low alloy products, it is necessary to control austenite grain coarsening prior to the onset of thermomechanical processing. This contribution proposes a suite of methods to refine the austenite grain from both theoretical and practical perspective including: increasing cooling rate during casting, liquid core reduction, increasing austenite nucleation sites during the delta ferrite to austenite phase transformation, controlling holding furnace temperature and time to avoid austenite coarsening, and producing new alloy with two phase pinning to arrest grain coarsening. These methodologies can not only refine austenite grain size in the slab center, but also improve the slab homogeneity.

Space-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) applications have been widely used to monitor the cryosphere over past decades. Because of temporal decorrelation, interferometric coherence often severely degrades on fast moving glaciers. In addition, higher sensitivity ambiguity occurs in large baseline configurations, which are needed for extracting topographic information over low relief areas such as the surface of a glacier. TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X) observations, which overcome the temporal decorrelation because of their simultaneous measurements by two satellite constellations, have used a short baseline sufficient for generation of excellent digital elevation models in most locations around the world. However, it remains difficult to estimate detailed topographic characteristics over low slope glacier surfaces because of the relatively less sensitive height ambiguity from the small baselines. In this study, we used the TanDEM-X pursuit monostatic mode with large baseline formation following a scientific phase timeline to develop highly sensitive topographic elevation models of the Petermann Glacier of Northwest Greenland. As expected, coherent interferometric phases (> 0.8) were well maintained over the glaciers despite their fast movement thanks to the nearly simultaneous TanDEM‐X measurements. The height ambiguity, which defined as the altitude difference correspondent to phase change of flattened interferogram, of the dataset was 10.63 m, which is favorable for extracting topography in a low relief region. We validated the TanDEM‐X derived glacial topography by comparing it to the SAR/Interferometric radar altimeter observations acquired by CryoSat‐2 and the IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper laser altimeter measurements. Both observations showed very good correlation within a few meters of the offsets (‐12.5 – ‐3.1 m) with respect to the derived glacial topography. Because of highly sensitive ambiguity, we could successfully extract detailed geomorphological features on the glaciers. Routine TanDEM-X observations will be very useful to better understand the dynamics of glacial movements and topographic change.

In this work, an algorithm was developed to measure the respiration rate for an embedded device that can be used by a field robot for relief operation. With this algorithm, the rate measurement was calculated based on direct influences of respiratory-induced intensity variation (RIIV) on blood flow in cardiovascular pathways. For that, a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor was used to determine changes in heartbeat frequencies. The PPG sensor readings were filtered using an Information Filter and a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to determine the state of RIIV. With a relatively light initialization, the information filter can estimate unknown variables based on a series of measurements containing noise and other inaccuraties. Therefore, this filter is suitable for application on an embedded device. For faster calculation time in the implementation, the FFT analysis was calculated only for a major peak in the frequency domain. Test and measurement of respiration rate was conducted based on the device algorithm and spirometer. Heartbeat measurement was also evaluated by comparing the heartbeat data of the PPG sensor and the medical tool kit. Based on the test, the implemented algorithm can measure respiration rate with about 80% accuracy compared with the spirometer.

Bangladeshi medicinal plants (BMP) have been used as traditional medicinal plants to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, but the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the bark of BMP are not yet known. The objective of this study was to determine antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities using methanolic extracts of bark obtained from 15 medicinal spices of Bangladesh plants. The bark methanol extracts of BMP evaluated the total antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Among the 15 bark extracts of BMP, Albizia odoratissima (A. odoratissima), Engelhardia spicata (E. spicata), and Shorea robusta (S. robusta) showed the highest total phenolic contents and total antioxidant capacity by reducing free radicals scavenging activity. In particular, the three bark extracts significantly reduced the mRNA expression of LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines and inflammation-inducible enzymes in macrophages. Also, the mRNA expression of NADPH oxidase 2 was significantly suppressed by three bark extracts in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages. The results suggest that among the 15 bark extracts obtained from medicinal plant in Bangladesh, three bark extracts of A. odoratissima, E. spicata, and S. robusta exert total antioxidant capacity by reducing free radicals scavenging activity and inhibitory effects on LPS-stimulated inflammation in macrophages.

Agricultural soils serve as crucial storage sites for soil organic carbon (SOC). Their appropriate management is pivotal for mitigating climate change. To evaluate spatial and temporal changes in SOC within agricultural fields, continuous monitoring is imperative. In-field data sets of Vis-NIR soil spectra were collected on a long-term experimental site using an on-the-go spectrophotometer. Data processing for continuous SOC prediction involves a two-steps modelling approach. In Step 1, a Partial Least Square (PLSR) regression model is trained to establish a relationship between the SOC content and the spectral information also including spectral preprocesisng. In Step 2, the predicted SOC content obtained from the PLSR models is interpolated using ordinary kriging. Among the tested spectral preprocessing techniques and semivariogram models, SG and gapDer preprocessing along with a Gaussian semivariogram model, yielded the best performance resulting in a root mean square error of of 1.24 and 1.26 g kg-1. A striping effect due to the transect-based data collection was addressed by testing the effectiveness of extending the spatial separation distance, employing data aggregation, and defining the distribution based on treatment plots using block kriging. Overall, the results highlight the immense potential of on-the-go spectral Vis-NIR data for field-scale spatial-temporal monitoring of SOC.

The recent development of the Internet has boosted the extension of online food services by enabling people to search, compare prices and conveniently access these services. Because, only with an online system, small and medium-sized economic actors can compete with established food company such as McD and KFC. Therefore, it is important to know consumer behavior patterns from online food ordering systems for developing marketing strategies. Exploring online consumer behavior provides a better understanding of consumer segmentation in food demand and thus helps to lay the foundation for developing an online marketing strategy for competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to finding factors affecting attitude towards online food retailing. This study uses a quantitative approach by involving respondents who often use online food ordering systems (Go-Food) applications in Bandung. The results showed that hedonic motivation and price saving orientation had no significant effect on behavior intention toward OFD services by Go-Food, while time saving orientation, prior online purchase experience and convenience motivation had a significant effect on behavior intention toward OFD services.

Individual investors often struggle to predict stock prices due to the limitations imposed by the computational capacities of personal laptop Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) when running intensive deep learning models. This study proposes solving these GPU constraints by integrating deep learning models with technical analysis methods. This integration significantly reduces analysis time and equips individual investors with the ability to identify stocks that may yield potential gains or losses in an efficient manner. Thus, a comprehensive buy and sell algorithm, compatible with average laptop GPU performance, is introduced in the study. This algorithm offers a lightweight analysis method that emphasizes factors identified by technical analysis methods, thereby providing a more accessible and efficient approach for individual investors. To evaluate the efficacy of this approach, we analyzed the performance of eight deep learning models: LSTM (4 layers), CNN, BiLSTM (4 layers), CNN Attention, BiGRU CNN BiLSTM Attention, BiLSTM Attention CNN, CNN BiLSTM Attention, and CNN Attention BiLSTM. These models were used to predict stock prices for Samsung Electronics and Celltrion Healthcare. The CNN Attention BiLSTM model displayed superior performance among these models, with the lowest validation mean absolute error value. In addition, an experiment was conducted using WandB Sweep to determine the optimal hyperparameters for four individual hybrid models. These optimal parameters were then implemented in each model to validate their back-testing rate of return. The CNN Attention BiLSTM hybrid model emerged as the highest-performing model, achieving an approximate rate of return of 5 percent. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the performance of various deep learning and hybrid models in predicting stock prices. These findings can assist individual investors in selecting appropriate models that align with their investment strategies, thereby increasing their likelihood of success in the stock market.

The use of smartphones, coupled with different sensors, makes it an attractive solution for measuring different physical and physiological features, allowing for the monitoring of various parameters and even identifying some diseases. The BITalino device allows the use of different sensors, including Electroencephalography (EEG) and Electrocardiography (ECG) sensors, to study different health parameters. With these devices, the acquisition of signals is straightforward, and it is possible to connect them using a Bluetooth connection. With the acquired data, it is possible to measure parameters such as calculating the QRS complex and its variation with ECG data to control the individual's heartbeat. Similarly, by using the EEG sensor one could analyze the individual's brain activity and frequency. The purpose of this paper is to present a method for recognition of the diseases related to ECG and EEG data, with sensors available in off-the-shelf mobile devices and sensors connected to a BITalino device. The data were collected during the elderly's experiences, performing the Timed-Up and Go test, and the different diseases found in the sample in the study. The data were analyzed, and the following features were extracted from the ECG, including heart rate, heart rate variability, the average QRS interval, the average R-R interval, and the average R-S interval, and the EEG, including frequency and variability. Finally, the diseases are correlated with different parameters, proving that there are relations between the individuals and the different health conditions.

Autophagy, an alternative cell death mechanism, is also termed programmed cell death type II. Autophagy in cancer treatment needs to be regulated. In our study, autophagy inhibition by desipramine or the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) enhanced tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptor-2 [death receptor (DR5)] expression and subsequently TRAIL-induced apoptosis in TRAIL-resistant A549 lung cancer cells. Genetic inhibition of DR5 substantially reduced desipramine-enhanced TRAIL-mediated apoptosis, proving that DR5 was required to increase TRAIL sensitivity in TRAIL-resistant cancer cells. Desipramine treatment upregulated p62 expression and promoted conversion of light chain 3 (LC3)-I to its lipid-conjugated form, LC3-II, indicating that autophagy inhibition occurred at the final stages of autophagic flux. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed the presence of condensed autophagosomes, which resulted from the late stages of autophagy inhibition by desipramine. TRAIL, in combination with desipramine or CQ, augmented the expression of apoptosis-related proteins cleaved caspase-8 and cleaved caspase-3. Our results contributed to the understanding of the mechanism underlying the synergistic anti-cancer effect of desipramine and TRAIL and presented a novel mechanism of DR5 upregulation. These findings demonstrated that autophagic flux inhibition by desipramine potentiated TRAIL-induced apoptosis, suggesting that appropriate regulation of autophagy is required for sensitizing TRAIL-resistant cancer cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis.

Facing with errors of a product after machining was a big title in this field. That will affect to product’s quality with unpredictable situation when products is in use for some particular application such as in medical facilities. Improving the precision of machine tools by exploring temperature on multiple points and measuring differential locations of the spindle is going to be executed in this study. A temperature measurement tool and a software running on Windows platform have been developed and combining with Non-bar system in order to support analyzing the temperature rising with the changes of length of the spindle to find the compensation solution based on eccentricity and length distortion. In this study, the whole tests have done on UX300 five – axis CNC machine tools for this investigation and the errors after applying compensation function have reduced 70% at least, with respect to the errors after machining without using compensation function.

Cryptotanshinone (CTT) is a natural product and a quinoid diterpene isolated from the root of the Asian medicinal plant, Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge. Notably, CTT has a variety of anti-cancer actions, including the activation of apoptosis, anti-proliferation, and a reduction in angiogenesis. We further investigated the anti-cancer effects of CTT in A549 and H460 which are NSCLC cell lines. CTT treatment in NSCLC cells reduced cell growth through PI3K/Akt/GSK3β pathway inhibition, G0 / G1 cell cycle arrest, and the activation of apoptosis. CTT induced increase of Bax and cleavage of apoptosis-related signaling such as caspase-3, caspase-9, poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), and Bax, as well as inhibition of anti-apoptosis related signaling such as Bcl-2, survivin, and cellular-inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 and 2 (cIAP-1 and -2). It also induced G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest by decreasing the expression of cyclin A, cyclin D, cyclin E, Cdk 2, and Cdk 4. In addition, CTT reduced the protein expression of the PI3K/Akt/GSK3β signaling pathway related to cell proliferation. These results highlight the latent potential of CTT as natural therapeutic agent for NSCLC.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a leading gastrointestinal disease that cause hospitalization. Initial management in the first 72 h after the diagnosis of AP is pivotal, which can influence the clinical outcomes of the disease. Initial management, including fluid resuscitation, pain control, nutritional support, antibiotic use, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in gallstone pancreatitis, plays a fundamental role in AP treatment. Recent updates for fluid resuscitation, including treatment goals, the type, rate, volume, and duration, have triggered a paradigm shift from aggressive hydration with normal saline to goal-directed and non-aggressive hydration with lactated Ringer’s solution. Evidence of the clinical benefit of early enteral feeding is becoming definitive. Routine use of prophylactic antibiotics is generally limited, and the procalcitonin based algorithm of antibiotic use has recently been investigated to distinguish between inflammation and infection in patients with AP. Although urgent ERCP (within 24 h) should be performed for patients with gallstone pancreatitis and cholangitis, urgent ERCP is not indicated in patients without cholangitis. Furthermore, convalescent treatment, including cholecystectomy in gallstone pancreatitis and alcohol intervention in alcoholic pancreatitis, is also important for improving the prognosis and prevent recurrence in patients with AP. This review focuses on recent updates on the initial and convalescent management strategies for AP.

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is an autoimmune disease which is a type of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis that frequently affects the lungs and kidneys. However, GPA limited to a single organ has also been reported. A 73-year-old man was admitted for back pain and fever. We detected elevated levels of inflammatory markers and myeloperoxidase-ANCA. Magnetic resonance imaging indicated diffuse inflammation of the back and psoas muscles. Histology showed degenerated muscle fibers and granulomatosis vasculitis with mixed lymphoplasma cell infiltration. High-dose methylprednisolone therapy improved his symptoms. A final diagnosis of GPA limited to the muscles was made.

Let ${\mathcal{SR}}^*$ be the class of starlike functions with real coefficients, i.e., the class of analytic functions $f$ which satisfy the condition $f(0)=0=f'(0)-1$, Re{z f'(z) / f (z)} > 0, for $z\in\mathbb{D}:=\{z\in\mathbb{C}:|z|<1 \}$ and $a_n:=f^{(n)}(0)/n!$ is real for all $n\in\mathbb{N}$. In the present paper, the sharp estimates of the third Hankel determinant $H_{3,1}$ over the class ${\mathcal{SR}}^*$ are computed.

Building a new power plant to address the growing demand for power due to population concentration in the metropolitan area is one of the world's major concerns. However, since a large power plant can not be located around the city due to burden of economic cost, building power plant outside metropolitan and cities is necessary. Therefore, new power generation facilities are promoting policies to provide distributed generator(DG) with a small capacity relatively near the metropolitan. When the DG (photovoltaic, wind farm, etc.) is connected with the grid using medium voltage direct current (MVDC) system, voltage sourced converter(VSC) should supply reactive power to the grid, because of fault ride through(FRT) operation in grid fault. If the voltage drop is severe, the converter should be disconnected from the grid immediately without supplying the reactive power, resulting in a considerable economic loss. In general, superconducting fault current limiter(SFCL) is introduced as a measure to enhance FRT capability. In this paper, we use trigger type SFCL which protects superconducting element and reduces low voltage. On the other hand, the active power unbalance of the DC-link and the DC voltage rise due to the reactive power supply of the grid-side converter. The rise of the DC voltage causes the P (active power), Q (reactive power) control of the converter to deviate, causing malfunction and damage of the DC equipment. Therefore, the rise of the DC voltage must be prevented. In this paper, we consider the suppression the DC voltage rising caused by the FRT operation through the active power tracking control (APTC).

Purpose: To clarify the mechanism of state anxiety on intertemporal decision-making, two studies were conducted to investigate the role of trait anxiety and inhibitory control. Study 1 examined the moderating effect of trait anxiety. Study 2 continued to investigate the mediating effect of inhibition control on the basis of study 1. Methods: A total of 266 Chinese college students participated. Participants’ state anxiety, trait anxiety and intertemporal decision-making were measured by questionnaires (scales) respectively. And inhibition control was evaluated by two-choice oddball paradigm. Results: The results of Study 1 indicated that state anxiety could predict intertemporal decision-making and that the moderating effect of trait anxiety on this relationship was significant. Study 2 found that inhibitory control could completely moderate the relationship between state anxiety and intertemporal decision-making and that this indirect effect was affected by trait anxiety. Conclusion: 1)Individuals with higher trait anxiety are more inclined to make more impulsive and intertemporal decisions when they have a high level of state anxiety; 2)state anxiety allows inhibitory control ability to have a further effect on intertemporal decision-making; and 3)the higher trait anxiety in individuals, the stronger mediating effect of inhibitory control on the relationship between state anxiety and intertemporal decision-making.

In this study, we used statistical models to analyze nonlinear behavior links with atmospheric teleconnections between hydrometeorological variables and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) mode over the East Asia (EA) region. The analysis of atmospheric teleconnections was conducted using principal component analysis and singular spectrum analysis techniques. Moreover, the nonlinear lag-time correlations between climate indices and hydrological variables were calculated using mutual information (MI) techniques. The teleconnection-based nonlinear correlation coefficients (CCs) were higher than the linear CCs in each lag time. Additionally, we documented that the IOD has a direct influence on hydro-meteorological variables, such as precipitation within the Korean Peninsula (KP). Moreover, during the warm season (June to September) the variation of hydro-meteorological variables in the KP demonstrated significantly decreasing patterns during positive IOD years and they have neutral conditions during negative IOD years in comparison with long-term normal conditions. Finally, the revealed relationship between climate indices and hydro-meteorological variables and their possible changes will allow better understanding of stakeholder decision-making regarding to manage of freshwater management over the EA region. It can also provide useful data for long-range water resources prediction, to minimize hydrological uncertainties in a changing climate.

This research was conducted to manufacture thermally expandable microspheres (TEMs) for vehicles’ underbody coating and to apply them on an industrial scale. TEMs heat resistance was studied depending on the ratios of a cross-linking agent and an initiator. This research focused on the content of a cross-linking agent and how it affected the results. The TEMs’ outer shell was thickened to solve the problem of the foam expansion ratio’s reduction that occurred due to the shrinkage after the maximum expansion (Tmax) was reached. After foaming, the cross-sectional thickness and surface of the sample with thickened outer shell were observed. The TEMs with the thickened shell showed the least shrinkage, which indicated excellent shrinkage stability, even after prolonged exposure to heat.

This research was conducted to manufacture thermally expandable microspheres (TEMs) for vehicles’ underbody coating and to apply them on an industrial scale. TEMs heat resistance was studied depending on the ratios of a cross-linking agent and an initiator. This research focused on the content of a cross-linking agent and how it affected the results. The TEMs’ outer shell was thickened to solve the problem of the foam expansion ratio’s reduction that occurred due to the shrinkage after the maximum expansion (Tmax) was reached. After foaming, the cross-sectional thickness and surface of the sample with thickened outer shell were observed. The TEMs with the thickened shell showed the least shrinkage, which indicated excellent shrinkage stability, even after prolonged exposure to heat.

Abstract: Global ecological concern regarding the transfer of fouling organisms to ship hulls is increasing. This study investigated the species composition, dominant species, distribution patterns, community structure, and life-cycle differences of hull-fouling macroinvertebrates on five research vessels (R/Vs: Isabu, Onnuri, Eardo, Jangmok 1, and Jangmok 2) operated by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST). Hull-fouling macroinvertebrates were collected three to five times on quadrats from the upper and middle sectors of the hull sides, bottom, and niche areas (the propellers and shafts and the thrusters). A total of 47 macroinvertebrate species were identified, represented by 8,519 individuals(ind.)/m2 and a biomass of 1,967 gWWt/m2 on the five vessels. The number of species, density, and biomass were greater on the coastal vessels the Eardo, Jangmok 1, and Jangmok 2 than on the ocean-going vessels the Isabu and Onnuri. Among the coastal vessels, barnacles were the most abundant and had the greatest density, while mollusks had the highest biomass. Differences between hull sectors showed that the highest species abundance and density appeared on all hulls in ports and bays where the Jangmok 1 operated, while the highest species abundance, density, and biomass were identified in the niche areas of the Eardo, which operated farther from the coast. The hull-fouling macroinvertebrates that exceeded 1% of all organisms were the barnacles Amphibalanus amphitrite, Balanus trigonus, and Amphibalanus improvisus; the polychaete Hydroides ezoensis; the bivalves Magallana gigas and Mytilus galloprovincialis; and the amphipod Jassa slatteryi. The dominant species were cosmopolitan and globally distributed, and many of them were cryptogenic. Six native species were identified: M. gigas, H. ezoensis, the amphipod Melita koreana, the isopod Cirolana ko-reana, and the barnacle B. trigonus and F. kondakovi. Eight non-indigenous species (NIS) were de-tected: barnacles A. amphitrite and A. improvisus, the bivalve M. galloprovincialis, the polychaete Perinereis nuntia, amphipods J. slatteryi and Caprella californica, and bryozoans Bugulina californica and Bugula neritina. Of the fouling macroinvertebrates found on the vessel hulls, 13% were native and 17% were NIS. The nMDS ordination analysis of the five vessels showed four clusters of fouling macroinvertebrate communities: two ocean clusters (the Isabu and Onnuri), one coastal cluster (the Eardo and Jangmok 2), and one local cluster (the Jangmok 1). More diverse communities developed on the hulls of vessels that operated locally rather than globally or in deep oceans. Spearman rank correlation showed that biological indices such as number of species, density, and biomass correlated highly and positively with the numbers of days on coastal operations and negatively with the number days on ocean operations. The species diversity index correlated positively with the total number of anchoring days and coastal operation days and negatively with the total number of operation days and ocean operation days. The macroinvertebrates differed by the area of operation, the port of anchorage, the number of days in operation and at anchor, and the hull sectors. There is no previous research data on hull-fouling macroinvertebrates in the Republic of Korea, and this study provides a basis for future studies to identify introduced species and their differences based on operation area.

The way people innovate and create new ideas and bring them to the market is undergoing a fundamental change from closed innovation to open innovation. Why and how do firms perform open innovation? Firms’ open innovation is measured through the levels of firms’ joint patent applications. Next, we analyze network structures and characters of firms’ joint patent applications such as betweenness and degree centrality, structure hole, and closure. From this research, we drew conclusions as follows. First, the structure of collaboration networks has both direct and indirect effects on firms’ innovative performance. Second, in the process of joint patent applications, there is a long tail phenomenon in networks of joint patent applications. Third, the number of patents and International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses together constitute a meaningful measure of the innovation performance of firms.

In recent years, 360o videos have gained the attention of researchers investigating their educational potential. Given the ongoing debate about their impact on learning, particularly with young students where existing research is minimal, a comprehensive study was conducted to evaluate their effectiveness relative to other media forms. The study involved 44 kindergarten students learning about wild animals over nine sessions. The 360o videos were compared to printed materials and conventional videos to measure knowledge acquisition, motivation, enjoyment/positive feelings, immersion, and ease of use. The findings suggest that, compared to printed materials, 360o videos enhance knowledge acquisition. However, this advantage does not extend to comparisons with conventional videos. Similarly, while enjoyment and motivation were higher for 360o videos compared to printed materials, they did not surpass those associated with conventional videos. Despite their potential, 360o videos were deemed the least easy to use, likely due to the employment of low-cost HMDs. Immersion emerged as the only factor where 360o videos excelled, demonstrating a notable influence on learning outcomes. The implications of the study are also discussed.

Immunity against respiratory pathogens is often short-term, and consequently there is an unmet need for effective prevention of such infections. One such infectious disease is COVID-19, which is caused by the novel Beta coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged around the end of 2019. The World Health Organization declared the illness a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and since then it has killed or sickened millions of people globally. The development of COVID-19 systemic vaccines, which impressively led to a significant reduction in disease severity, hospitalization, and mortality, con-tained the pandemic's expansion. However, these vaccines have not been able to stop the virus from spreading because of the restricted development of mucosal immunity. As a result, breakthrough infections have frequently occurred and new strains of the virus have been emerging. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 will likely continue to circulate and, like the influenza virus, co-exist with humans. The upper respiratory tract and nasal cavity are the primary sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection and thus, a mucosal/nasal vaccination to induce a mucosal response and stop the virus transmission is warrant-ed. In this review, we present the status of the systemic vaccines, of the approved mucosal vaccines and those under evaluation in clinical trials. Furthermore, we present our approach of a B-cell pep-tide-based vaccination applied by prime-boost schedule for eliciting both systemic and mucosal immunity.

Dynamical manipulation of plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) in graphene metasurfaces is promising for optoelectronic devices such as optical switching and modulating, however, previous design approaches are limited within one or two bright/dark modes, and the realization of dual PIT windows through triple bright modes in graphene metasurfaces is rare and urgently needed. Here we demonstrate that dual PIT can be realized through a symmetry-engineered graphene metasurface, which consists the graphene central cross (GCC) and graphene rectangular ring (GRR) arrays. The GCC supports a bright mode from electric dipole (ED), the GRR supports two nondegenerate bright modes from ED and electric quadrupole (EQ) due to the C2v symmetry breaking, and the resonant coupling of these three bright modes induces the dual PIT windows. A triple coupled-oscillator model (TCM) is proposed to evaluate the transmission performances of the dual PIT phenomenon, and the results are in good agreement with the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. In addition, the dual PIT windows are robust to the variation of the structural parameters of the graphene metasurface except the y-directioned length of the GRR. By changing the carrier mobility of graphene, the amplitudes of the two PIT windows can be effectively tuned. The alteration of the Fermi level of graphene enables the dynamic modulation of the dual PIT with good performances for both modulation degree (MD) and insertion loss (IL).

This study examined ways to prevent failures in the front-end of forklifts by addressing the center of gravity of heavy objects carried by forklifts, predicting the remaining useful lifetime (RUL), and the fault diagnosis based on alarm rules. In the research process, acceleration signals were acquired from the outer beam of the front-end of the forklift. A one-second window was applied to extract the time-domain statistical features, which were then set as variables. An exponentially weighted moving average was used to smooth the noise in the feature data set. The AWGN and LSTM autoencoders were used for data augmentation. Based on them, random forest and lightGBM models were used to develop classification models for the weight center of heavy objects carried by a forklift. In addition, contextual diagnosis performed by applying exponentially weighted moving averages to the classification probabilities of the machine learning models showed that random forest achieved an accuracy of 0.9563 and lightGBM achieved an accuracy of 0.9566. In addition, the acceleration data were collected through experiments to predict forklift failure and RUL because of the repeated forklift use when the center of heavy objects carried by the forklift was skewed to the right. The time-domain statistical features of the acceleration signals were extracted and set as variables by applying a 20-second window. Subsequently, logistic regression and random forest models were used to classify the failure stages of the forklifts. The f1-score (macro) obtained were 0.9790 and 0.9220 for logistic regression and random forest, respectively. In addition, the random forest probabilities for each stage were combined and averaged to generate a degradation curve and derive the failure threshold. The coefficient of the exponential function was calculated using the least squares method on the degradation curve, and the RUL prediction model was developed to predict the failure point. In addition, the SHAP algorithm was used to identify the significant features in classifying the stage. The alarm rule-based fault diagnosis was performed using the threshold of the normal stage distribution of the significant features.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel transfer learning regularization method based on knowledge distillation. Recently, transfer learning methods have been used in various fields. However, the problems such as knowledge loss still occur during the process of transfer learning to a new target dataset. To solve these problems, there are various regularization methods based on knowledge distillation techniques. In this paper, we propose a transfer learning regularization method based on feature map alignment used in the field of knowledge distillation. The proposed method is composed of two attention based submodules: self-pixel attention (SPA) and global channel attention (GCA). The self-pixel attention submodule utilizes both the feature maps of the source and target models, so that it provides an opportunity to jointly consider the features of the target and the knowledge of the source. The global channel attention submodule determines the importance of channels through all layers, unlike the existing methods that calculate these only within a single layer. Accordingly, transfer learning regularization is performed by considering both the internal of each single layer and the depth of the entire layer. Consequently, the proposed method using both of these submodules showed overall improved classification accuracy than the existing methods in classification experiments on commonly used dataset.