Building on a framework of risk transmission to children of depressed parents, the present study investigated the associations between parents’ self-compassion, parent’s depressive symptoms, and child adjustment. A total 189 Chinese parents (101 mothers) whose children were 2-8 years old were recruited to complete a questionnaire, including measures of self-compassion, depressive symptoms and children’s prosocial behavior, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Findings indicated mediation effects, in that parents’ depressive symptoms mediated the associ-ation between their self-compassion and child adjustment outcomes, namely children’s internal-izing and externalizing problems, after controlling the effects of monthly family income, child gender, and parent gender. Competing hypothesis suggested that parents’ self-compassion did not moderate between parents’ depressive symptoms and child adjustment outcomes. Hence, the association between parental depressive symptoms and child adjustment was not dependent on the level of parents’ self-compassion. As an implication, researchers and practitioners should be made aware of the protective role of parents’ self-compassion in the family context.

BACKGROUND&AIMS: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major public health problem. The interaction between HBV and the host inflammatory response is an important factor contributing to liver damage and disease development. We compared the correlation between the subclinical index and PBMCs concentration in two groups of pregnant women (HBsAg positive), which are different in HBV DNA concentration in Vietnam. METHODS: The Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was run with 20 different clustering methods on data collected from 80 Vietnamese pregnant women and their babies (60/80 cord blood). RESULTS: In the high viral load group (HBV DNA ≥ 5x10^7 copies/ml), a strong correlation between CBMCs with serum maternal Haemoglobin concentration and maternal platelet and maternal ALT. Their R values are: -0.88, 0.82, and 0.84 with p=8.97E-03, 2.41E-02 and 1.75E-01, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We found a significant correlation shift of subclinical index between the two groups, which may be important in diagnosing pregnant women with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

In the context of intelligent and integrative lighting, in addition to the need for color quality and brightness, the non-visual effect is essential. This refers to the retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) and their function, first proposed in 1927. The melanopsin action spectrum has been published in CIE S 026/E: 2018 with the corresponding melanopic equivalent daylight (D65) illuminance (mEDI), melanopic daylight (D65) efficacy ratio (mDER) and 4 other parameters. Due to the importance of mEDI and mDER, this work synthesizes a simple computational model of mDER as the main research objective, based on a database of 4214 practical spectral power distributions (SPDs) of daylight, conventional, LED, and mixed light sources. In addition to the high correlation coefficient R2 of 0.96795 and the 97% confidence offset of 0.0067802, the feasibility of the mDER model in intelligent and integrated lighting applications has been extensively tested and validated. The uncertainty between the mEDI calculated directly from the spectra and that obtained by processing the RGB sensor and applying the mDER model has reached ± 3.3% after an appropriate matrixing process and proper illumination characterization combined with the successful mDER calculation model. This result opens the potential of low-cost RGB sensors for applications in intelligent and integrative lighting systems to optimize and compensate the non-visual effective parameter mEDI using daylight and artificial light in indoor spaces. The goal of the research on RGB sensors and the corresponding processing method are also presented and their feasibility is methodically demonstrated. A comprehensive investigation with a huge amount of color sensor sensitivities is necessary in a future work of other researches.

The incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is rising in the West, but little is known in Asia. This study elucidated changes in the incidence and HPV-positive portion of OPSCC in Hong Kong. Data from population-based cancer registry were used to analyze the incidence of OPSCC in associate with other head and neck cancers. Archived tumour tissues were tested for HPV. From 1986 to 2020, there was a marked decrease in the incidence of nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers, but a persistent increase in OPSCC from 36 cases in 1986 to 116 cases in 2020. The average positive rate for high-risk HPV was 36.1% (112/310) among OPSCC diagnosed in 2010-2020. The HPV positive rate in recent years was significantly higher than earlier cases (tonsil SCC: 64.7% (55/85) in 2016-2020 vs. 40.4% (19/47) in 2010-2015, P = 0.007). Patients with HPV-positive tonsil cancers were significantly younger than those negative (mean [SD]: 58.9 [9.9] vs. 64.3 [13.3] years, P = 0.006), but no significant difference between genders. A persistent increase in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancer over the last few decades was observed in Hong Kong, which can be explained by the remarkable increase in HPV-positive tonsil cancers.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer characterized by the lack of estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors, and HER-2 receptors. Thus, TNBC tumours do not benefit from the current therapies targeting ER or HER-2. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel treatment for this subtype of breast cancer. Marijuana is a common name given to Cannabis plants, a group of plants in the Cannabis genus of the Cannabaceae family. Cannabis plants are among the oldest cultivated crops, traced back at least 12,000 years and are well known for their multi-purpose usage, including medicinal purposes. The main active compounds extracted from Cannabis plants are 21-carbon-containing terpenophenolics, which are referred to as phytocannabinoids. Of these, the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) group contains highly potent cannabinoids, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC) and delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆8-THC), which are the most abundant THCs and are largely responsible for psychological and physiological effects of marijuana. The use of Cannabis plants for medicinal purposes was first recorded in 2337 BC in China, where Cannabis plants were used to treat pains, rheumatism, and gout. Recently, several cannabinoids have been approved for a number of treatments, one of which is the treatment of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients. Furthermore, increasing evidence shows that cannabinoids not only attenuate side effects due to cancer treatment, but might also potentially possess direct antitumor effects in several cancer types, including breast cancer. However, anti-tumour activity of marijuana has been variable in different studies and even promoted tumour growth in some cases. In addition, the mechanisms of cannabinoid action in cancer remain unclear. This review summarizes evidence about the mixed actions of cannabinoids in cancer in general and triple-negative breast cancer in particular.

Abstract Background The number of immune-related endocrine dysfunctions (irEDs) has concurrently increased with the widespread use of immunotherapy in clinical practice and further expansion of the approved indications for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) combinations using different modalities of anti-cancer treatment. Method A retrospective analysis was conducted on consecutive patients >18 years of age with advanced solid malignancies who had received at least one dose of anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) and/or anti-CTLA4 antibodies between January 2014 and December 2019 at a Hong Kong university hospital. Patients were reviewed for up to two months after the last administration of an ICI. The types, onset times and grades of irEDs, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, adrenal insufficiency and immune-related diabetes mellitus, were recorded. Factors associated with irEDs were identified using multivariate analysis. Result A total of 953 patients (male: 603, 64.0%; median age: 62.0 years) received ICIs during the study period. Of these, 580 patients (60.9%) used ICI-alone, 132 (13.9%) used dual-ICI, 187 (19.6%) used an ICI combined with chemotherapy (chemo+ICI), and 54 (5.70%) used immunotherapy with a targeted agent (targeted+ICI). A significantly higher proportion of patients using targeted+ICI had irEDs and hypothyroidism; in contrast, a higher proportion of patients using dual-ICI had adrenal insufficiency. There was no significant difference in the incidence of irED between the younger (<65 years) and older (>65 years) patients. Using logistic regression, only treatment type was significantly associated with irEDs. Notably, older patients had a higher risk of having immune-related diabetes mellitus. Conclusions This large, real-world cohort demonstrates that combining ICI with targeted therapy has a higher risk of overall irED and hypothyroidism. Immunotherapy is safe and well-tolerated regardless of age, but close monitoring of fasting glucose is needed in older populations.

The skyrocketing growth in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices will certainly pose a huge traffic demand for fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks and beyond. In-band full-duplex (IBFD), which is theoretically expected to double the spectral efficiency of a half-duplex (HD) wireless channel and to connect more devices, has been considered as a promising technology to accelerate the development of IoT. To exploit the full potential of IBFD, the key challenge is how to handle network interference (including self-interference, co-channel interference and multiuser interference) more effectively. In this paper, we propose a simple yet efficient user grouping method, where a base station (BS) serves strong downlink users and weak uplink users and vice versa in different frequency bands, mitigating severe network interference. We aim to maximize a minimum rate among all users subject to bandwidth and power constraints, which is formulated as a highly nonconvex optimization problem. By leveraging inner approximation framework, we develop a very efficient iterative algorithm to solve this problem, which guarantees at least a local optimal solution. Numerical results are provided to show not only the benefit of using full-duplex raido at BS, but also the advantage of the proposed user grouping method.

Agricultural land fires have been linked to various and adverse impacts on ecosystems, food security and the agriculture sector. Understanding the patterns and drivers of agricultural land fires is essential for effective agricultural land fire management. The key objectives of this study were to (1) analyze the temporal and spatial patterns of agricultural land fires using satellite remote sensed data, (2) assess a range of environmental conditions that could drive the occurrence of agricultural land fires, (3) determine the best model for predicting agricultural land fires and (4) determine the relative contribution of each environmental condition variable on the best predictive model. We used both univariate and multivariate regressions for the fire prediction capability of four independent environmental conditions (fuel, weather, topographic and anthropogenic). Analysis of historical satellite data revealed that agricultural land fires were more frequent than forested land fires. Our analyses also revealed that fuel condition was the most important variable for predicting agricultural land fires followed by weather, topographic and anthropogenic conditions. This study provides a novel multivariate model for predicting agricultural land fires that harbors the potential to improve agricultural land fire management and reduce fire risk within the agricultural sector.

Background: Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), is a bacterial disease of whiteleg shrimp, which has a high mortality rate (100%) and incurs economic losses. Our objective was to identify the genes which lead to cell and organ damage and investigate bioproducts to prevent and treat. Methods: Litopenaeus vannamei shrimp in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam were collected from an infected pond and analysed at the Institute of Biotechnology, Hue University. The PirA gene of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain K5 was isolated and analyzed for nucleotide sequence and paired with the expression vector pQE30. The expression vector was transformed into E. coli strain M15, the PirA recombinant protein was expressed in the form of 6xHis-PirA fusion protein of about 15 kDa. PirA recombinant protein was purified and determined the PirAvp binding ratio, cloning and sequencing of PirA gene from Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain K5 causing AHPND by PCR method with specific primers and molecular weights of PirAvp and the PirAvp complex. Results: PirA gene from Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain K5 was cloned into pGEM-T easy vector (Promega, USA) and screened E. coli TOP10 colonies containing pGEM T easy/PirA recombinant plasmid on LB agar/ampicillin/IPTG/X-Gal medium. PCR showing a band of about 347 bp, matching the size of PirA gene and two nucleotide sequences (BamHI and HindIII). The results showed that PirA gene has a length of 336 bp and similar to PirA gene on GenBank (Code: KU556825.1). The results of protein extracted from E. coli M15 recombinant cells and 6xHis-PirA target protein was collected in elution fractions from EF2 to EF6, showed that the concentration of 6xHis-PirA protein and EF3 elution fraction collected a highest protein concentration (1,586.54 µg/ml). Conclusions: The purified PirA recombinant protein will provide materials for development research to create biological products to prevent and treat AHPND.

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

Objective: This study aimed to demonstrate the availability of portable devices for nasal FeNO measurement, which could replace exhaled NO measurement based on the continuous aspiration of multiple flow measurement systems. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study. The healthy subjects without rhinosinusis disorders (control group) and those with diagnosed allergic rhinitis (AR group) were enrolled in the study. They underwent nasal and bronchial FeNO measurements by both fixed flow NObreath® connected to nasal mask and multiple flows HypAir FeNO®. Results: A total of 153 people were recruited including 63 healthy subjects and 90 subjects with AR. There were no statistically significant differences in anthropometric characteristics between the two groups (P > 0.05). There were a significant increase in FeNO values in the AR group compared to the control group; concentrations of nasal and bronchial FeNO mearsured by NObreath® were 76.0 ± 50.7 ppb (vs 36.0 ± 28.1 ppb, P < 0.01) and 32.3 ± 15.4 ppb (vs 9.2 ± 5.6 ppb, P < 0.001), and those mearsured by NObreath® Hypair FeNO® were 1796.9 ± 523.3 ppb (vs 400.2 ± 123.1 ppb, P < 0.001) and 37.3 ± 23.0 ppb (vs 17.4 ± 18.3 ppb, P < 0.01). A weak correlation between the values measured by NObreath® and Hypair FeNO® devices was observed (r = 0.023 and r = 0.089, respectively; p < 0.05). Conclusions: The handheld NObreath® device is effective in measuring FeNO concentrations in both normal subjects and AR patients. The advantages in price and size, creating a compact, low-cost device that is convenient for use and research.

This study presents a tri-layer broadband metamaterial absorber which operates in the GHz range. The absorber was composed of a polyhedral iron-cobalt alloy/graphite nanosheet material arranged in a flat sheet with two punched-in rings for the top layer, a continuous FR-4 layer at the middle, and a continuous copper layer at the bottom. For the normal incidence of electromagnetic wave, the proposed absorber demonstrated an exceptional broadband absorption in a frequency range of 7.9-14.6 GHz, revealing an absorption exceeding 90%. The absorption magnitude remains to be above 90% in a frequency range of 8-11.1 GHz for transverse-electric-polarized waves at incident angles up to 55°. For both transverse-magnetic- and electric-polarized waves, the absorption exceeds 90% in a frequency range of 9.5-14.6 GHz. The physical mechanism behind the absorption properties is analyzed thoroughly through the electric- and magnetic-field distributions. The obtained results could contribute potentially to the development of microwave applications based on metamaterial absorbers, such as radar-stealth technology, electromagnetic shielding for health safety and reduced electromagnetic interferences for high-performance communications and electronic devices.

Modern agriculture demands for comprehensive information about the plant itself. Conventional chemistry-based analytical methods - due to their low throughput and high associated cost - are no longer capable of providing these data. In recent years, remote reflectance-based characterization has developed as one of the most promising solutions for rapid assessments for plant attributes. However, in many cases, expensive equipment is required because accurate quantifications need assessment of the full reflectance spectrum. We examined the versatility of visible colour sensors as reflectance measuring devices for biological / biochemical quantifications on sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum). Our results indicate for the wide potential of spectral colour sensors for quantitative determination of leaf phenolic compounds, flavonoids in particular, and non-invasive plant phenotyping in agricultural applications by low-cost sensors.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a cystic pulmonary disorder that has been known to primarily affect women of childbearing age. The disorder can develop with mutations in the tuberous sclerosis (TSC) genes TSC1 & TSC2 but may arise by other irregular cases in the lack of these mutations. LAM can manifest in a wide variety of ways and generally compounded in symptoms of other lung disorders such as bronchitis, emphysema, & asthma. However, due to lack of effective diagnostic methods, biomarkers of LAM leading to a treatment for the disorder are currently unmet. Using integrative dating analytics and bioinformatics approaches; this study used publicly available microarray data to identify biomarkers in LAM. The results showed important differential expressed genes (DEGs) including: CDH2, CXCL6, ANXA10, MFAP5, RPS4Y1, DCBLD2, PAPPA, TFPI2, SERPINE1, LOX, MYH11, RGS1, SEPP1, TMOD1, ID1, SFTPB, CDH1, HTR2B, OGN, and IGLC1. Furthermore, gene – network and gene ontology (GO) analysis were conducted to show the importance of these genes from a molecular understanding. Taken together, the results revealed could serve as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers with LAM patients.

Photoacoustic technology is a promising tool to provide morphological and functional information in biomedical research. To enhance the imaging efficiency, the reported photoacoustic probes have been designed coaxially involving complicated optical/acoustic prisms to bypass the opaque piezoelectric layer of ultrasound transducers, but leading to bulky probes and hindering the applications in limited space. Though the emergence of transparent piezoelectric materials helps to save the effort on the coaxial design, the reported transparent ultrasound transducers were still bulky. In this work, a miniature photoacoustic probe with an outer diameter of 4 mm was developed, in which an acoustic stack was made of the combination of transparent piezoelectric material and gradient-index lens as a backing layer. The transparent ultrasound transducer exhibited a high center frequency of ~47 MHz and a -6 dB bandwidth of 29.4%, which could be easily assembled with a pigtailed ferrule of a single-mode fiber. The multi-functional capability of the probe was successfully validated through the experiments of fluid flow sensing and photoacoustic imaging.

In recent years, drones have been used in a wide range of fields such as agriculture, transportation of goods, and security. Drones equipped with communication facilities are expected to play an active role as base stations in areas where ground base stations are unavailable, such as disaster areas. In addition, asynchronous operation is being considered for local 5G in order to support all kinds of use cases. In asynchronous operation, cross-link interference between base stations is an issue. This paper attempts to reduce the interference caused by the drone network by introducing circularly polarized antennas. Numerical analyses are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed system, where SIRs (Signal-to-Interference Ratio) are shown to be improved significantly as the numerical evaluation results.

This article explores how digitalisation is impacting the hospitality industry and assesses the evolving role of Information Technology (IT) strategy in the digitalisation process. The research approach is qualitative and inductive, based on six in-depth interviews with senior IT professionals in the hospitality industry. Findings indicate significant differences in the role of IT strategy in guiding digitalisation in the companies studied. The depth of information provided by the interviewees supports the development and application of a model that profiles the companies regarding their degree of digitalisation and technology integration. Analysis of interview material allows the identification of key properties for successful digitalization: process agility, workforce adaptability, and technology manageability, along with a clear data culture and ensured cybersecurity. However, disparate systems and technologies, and a lack of data integrity, are key issues that leave hospitality companies with difficult choices in progressing digitalisation initiatives. The applied model and identification of key properties for successful digitalisation contribute to the development of related theory and can also be used as a reference point for senior IT professionals working in the industry.

Objective: We tested a model of individual health literacy information sharing with family members, personal preventive behaviours and family well-being during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Hong Kong. Methods: We analysed data of 1501 randomly selected Chinese adults from a cross-sectional survey in Hong Kong from 9 to 23 April, 2020. Individual health literacy about COVID-19 with the items extracted from the questionnaire in World Health Organization Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Action Plan Guidance for COVID-19 preparedness and response, COVID-19 information sharing with family members, preventive behaviours against COVID-19 and family well-being were measured. Structural equation modelling analysis tested the proposed model. Findings: COVID-19 information sharing with family members partially mediated the association between individual health literacy and personal preventive behaviours. The direct effect of 0.24 was shown, and the indirect effect through COVID-19 information sharing with family members was small at 0.03 (Z = 3.66, p < 0.001). Family well-being was associated with personal preventive behaviours against COVID-19. The model was adjusted for sex, age, and socioeconomic status factors and had good fit with RMSEA = 0.04, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.96, and SRMR = 0.02. Conclusion: COVID-19 information sharing with family members was a partial mediator between individual health literacy and personal preventive behaviours against COVID-19. Strategies for enhancing health literacy and preventive measures against COVID-19 are needed to promote family well-being in the pandemic.

Apoptosis, the programmed and intentional death of senescent, damaged, or otherwise superfluous cells, is the natural end-point for most cells within multicellular organisms. Apoptotic cells are not inherently damaging, but if left unattended they can lyse through secondary necrosis. The resulting release of intracellular contents drives inflammation in the surrounding tissue and can lead to autoimmunity. These negative consequences of secondary necrosis are avoided by efferocytosis—the phagocytic clearance of apoptotic cells. Efferocytosis is a product of both apoptotic cell and efferocyte mechanisms, which cooperate to ensure the rapid and complete removal of apoptotic cells. Herein, the processes used by apoptotic cells to ensure their timely removal, and the receptors, signaling, and cellular processes used by efferocytes to identify, remove, and process the apoptotic cells, are reviewed.

.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.

This study investigates how customers’ technological readiness affects service quality and the adoption of self-service banking by developing an empirical model. The model was proposed to explore the relationships between technology readiness, self-service quality, and customer satisfaction. The hypotheses and stability of the model were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that technology readiness, including the optimism, innovation, and insecurity dimensions, had a significant positive impact on self-service quality. In addition, service quality fully mediated the relationship between technological readiness and customer satisfaction. These results suggest that when customers are ready to embrace and use new technology, their evaluation of service quality is high. Thus, bank managers should drive customer perceptions of the quality of self-service banking by improving their technological readiness through various measures. Furthermore, based on the mediating effect of self-service quality, banks must be aware that improving service quality can enhance customer satisfaction and maintain a competitive advantage.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is characterized by lung cysts that cause lung deterioration, changes in the lymphatic system, and tumors in the kidneys. It mainly affects women of reproductive age and is a progressive disease. LAM can occur as an isolated disease or coexist with tuberous sclerosis (TSC). The source of LAM cells is unknown. Patients with confirmed LAM should be treated with an mTOR inhibitor, sirolimus, or everolimus. We present a case of LAM with TSC in a patient whose symptoms, including lymph nodes and chyaloperitoneum, mainly concern the abdominal cavity.

The goal of the project was to gain an understanding of the secondary school youth experience with food literacy and school gardens on their mental well-being. Over the course of five months, sixteen youth participated in a photovoice research project in which they expressed their personal experiences about food and gardening through photography and writing. The aspects of secondary school youths’ life experiences affected by exposure to food literacy and school gardens and their impact upon their well-being were identified. These included emotions and feelings, having a safe place, nutrition and relaxation. The youth explicitly connected relaxation with the themes of love and connectedness, growing food, garden as a place, cooking, and food choices. This was linked to nature, beauty, environment and sustainability. Youth clubs or groups were also identified as a key enabler for connection. Youth shared their food literacy experiences, observing that their engagement improved some aspect of their mental well-being. They identified food literacy and gardens as being the most important to mental well-being including: connecting, personal health and personal growth. The youth recognized that connecting comes from having community, relationships and respect. Fostering opportunities for food literacy such as growing and preparing food contributes to resiliency.

Evaluation of agronomic practices, genetic diversity and population structure of Moringa oleifera (Lam.) is crucial to its sustainable utilization to ensure food and nutritional security. Four agronomic practices of field preparation and soil analysis, regeneration, weeding and pruning, as well as harvesting, were adopted. Genetic diversity and population structure of 20 populations were evaluated using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) primer pairs (E-ACC/M-CAC and E-ACA/M-CAG). The effects of agronomic practices on leaf quantity production were evaluated using standard procedures. The physico-chemical and morphological data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while genetic diversity, population structure, dendrogram reconstruction, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were analyzed from the AFLP genetic data. Significant effects (P ≤ 0.05) of agronomic practices on the quantity of leaf production were recorded across the accessions. The two primer pairs generated a total of 80 alleles with a mean major allele frequency of 0.0250. Gene diversity and polymorphic information content (PIC) values were high with a mean of 0.98 and 0.974, respectively. The Gst value of 0.0490 indicated that 5 % of the total genetic divergence was among the population while 95 % within the population. Dendrogram reconstruction with genetic distance ranging from 0.87 to 0.96 segregated the accessions into eleven clusters while PCA generated six cluster groups. Field preparation and physico-chemical soil properties, regeneration, weeding and pruning, and stand development, as well as harvesting, influenced the leaf yield and genetic diversity observed in this study. The genetic data revealed that some accessions were clustered along eco-geographical lines while others grouped disparately. Identified potential parent genotypes with valuable and desirable genetic traits can be exploited for commercial, breeding and conservation purposes to ensure sustainable utilization of the species in Nigeria.

(1) Background: It is unclear whether the reported presenting clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are useful in identifying high-risk patients for early testing and isolation in the emergency department (ED). We aimed to compare the exposure history, clinical, laboratory, and radiographic features of ED patients who tested positive and negative for COVID-19; (2) Methods: We conducted a case-control study in seven EDs during the first five weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong. Thirty-seven laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients were compared with 111 age- and gender-matched controls; (3) Results: There were no significant differences in patient characteristics and reported symptoms between the groups, except patient-reported fever. A positive travel history or contact history was the most significant predictor for COVID-19 infection. After adjustment for age and presumed location of acquiring the infection in Wuhan/Hubei, patient-reported fever (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 6.3), delayed presentation (OR 5.0, 95% CI 2.0 to 12.5), having medical consultation before ED presentation (OR 7.4, 95% 2.9 to19.1), thrombocytopenia (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.6 to 9.7), raised lactate dehydrogenase (OR 5.9, 95% CI 1.9 to 18.5), haziness, consolidation or ground-glass opacity on chest radiography (OR 5.6, 95% CI 2.0 to 16.0), and bilateral changes on chest radiography (OR 13.2, 95% CI 4.7 to 37.4) were associated with a higher odds of COVID-19 separately while neutrophilia was associated with a lower odds (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.8); and (4) Conclusions: This study highlights several features that may be useful in identifying high-risk patients for early testing and isolation while waiting for test result. Further studies are warranted to verify the findings.

In urban area, one of the great problem is the rise of temperature, which leads to form the urban heat island effect. This paper refers to the trend of the urban surface temperature extracted from the Landsat images from which to consider changes in the formation of surface urban heat island for the north of Ho Chi Minh city in period 1995-2015. Research has identified land surface temperature from thermal infrared band, according to the ability of the surface emission based on characteristics of normalized difference vegetation index NDVI. The results showed that temperature fluctuated over the city with a growing trend and the gradual expansion of the area of the high-temperature zone towards the suburbs. Within 20 years, the trend of the formation of surface urban heat island with two typical locations showed a clear difference between the surface temperature of urban areas and rural areas with space expansion of heat island in 4 times in 2015 compared to 1995. An extreme heat island located in the inner city has an area of approximately 18% compared to the total area of the region. Since then, the solution to reduce the impact of urban heat island has been proposed, in order to protect the urban environment and the lives of residents in Ho Chi Minh City becoming better

This study aimed to assess the variations in the nutritional attributes of thirteen Moringa oleifera cultivars. Leaves from six-month-old plants were harvested and tested for various nutritional attributes. There were significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in the carbohydrates, energy, some of the sugars and fibre amongst the cultivars. The levels of moisture in the cultivars ranged from 7.10% to 8.20%. Additionally, there were significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences across the cultivars in microelements studied except for zinc (Zn). These data revealed that plants from different geographical provenances differed in their adapting to varied environments. In general, under the same cultivation, management and environmental conditions, the main reasons for these differences occurred in cultivars could be associated with the genetic background of each M. oleifera germplasm. However, the study cautions on the differences of nutritional properties, as some of the cultivars have been reported not to be pharmacological potent.

Rapid advancements in the fifth generation (5G) communication technology and mobile edge computing (MEC) paradigm lead to the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in urban air mobility (UAM) networks, which provide intelligent services for diversified smart city scenarios. Meanwhile, the widely deployed internet of drones (IoD) in smart cities also brings up new concerns on performance, security, and privacy. The centralized framework adopted by conventional UAM networks is not adequate to handle high mobility and dynamicity. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure device authentication, data integrity, and privacy preservation in UAM networks. Thanks to characteristics of decentralization, traceability, and unalterability, Blockchain is recognized as a promising technology to enhance security and privacy for UAM networks. In this paper, we introduce LightMAN, a lightweight microchained fabric for data assurance and resilience-oriented UAM networks. LightMAN is tailored for small-scale permissioned UAV networks, in which a microchain acts as a lightweight distributed ledger for security guarantees. Thus, participants are enabled to authenticate drones and verify the genuineness of data that is sent to/from drones without relying on a third-party agency. In addition, a hybrid on-chain and off-chain storage strategy is adopted that not only improves performance (e.g,.latency and throughput) but also ensures privacy preservation for sensitive information in UAM networks. A proof-of-concept prototype is implemented and tested on a Micro Air Vehicle Link (MAVLink) simulator. The experimental evaluation validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed LightMAN solution.

The vascular endothelium is key target for immune, and thrombotic responses that has to be controlled in successful xenotransplantation. Several genes were identified that if induced or overexpressed help to regulate the inflammatory response and preserve the transplanted organ function and metabolism. However, few studies addressed combined expression of such genes. The aim of this work was to evaluate in vivo the effects of the simultaneous expression of a three human genes in a mouse generated using the multi-cistronic F2A technology. Male 3-month-old mice that express human heme oxygenase 1 (hHO-1), ecto-5’-nucleotidase (hE5NT), and ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 1 (hENTPD1) (Transgenic) were compared to wild-type FVB mice (Control). Background analysis include extracellular nucleotide catabolism enzymes profile on the aortic surface, blood nucleotide concentration and serum L-arginine metabolites. Furthermore, inflammatory stress induced by LPS in transgenic and control mice was used to characterize interleukin 6 (IL-6) and adhesion molecules endothelium permeabil-ity responses. Transgenic mice had significantly higher rates of extracellular adenosine triphosphate and adenosine monophosphate hydrolysis on the aortic surface in comparison to control. Increased levels of blood AMP and adenosine were also noticed in transgenics. Moreover, transgenic ani-mals demonstrated the decrease in serum monomethyl-L-arginine level and a higher L-arginine/ monomethyl-L-arginine ratio. Importantly, significantly decreased serum IL-6, and adhesion mol-ecule levels were observed in transgenic mice in comparison to control after LPS treatment. Fur-thermore, reduced endothelial permeability in the LPS-treated transgenic mice was noted as com-pared to LPS-treated control. The human enzymes (hHO-1, hE5NT, hENTPD1) simultaneously encoded in transgenic mice demonstrated benefits in sev-eral biochemical and functional aspects of endothelium. This is consistent in use of this approach in the context of xenotransplantation.

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the most crowded city and economic hub of Viet Nam, has been experiencing land subsidence over the past decades. This effort aims to contribute the spatial distribution of subsidence in HCMC in its horizontal and vertical components using synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) time series. To this purpose, an advanced Persistent Scatterers and Distributed Scatterers (PSDS) InSAR technique was applied to two European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 datasets consisting of 96 ascending and 202 descending images, acquired from 2014 to 2020 over the HCMC area. A time series of 33 COSMO-SkyMed ascending images was also used for comparison. The combination of ascending and descending satellite passes is used to decompose the light of sight velocities into horizontal east-west and vertical components. Taking into account the presence of east-west horizontal motion, our findings indicate that the accuracy of the decomposed vertical velocity can be improved by up to 3 mm/year for Sentinel-1 data. The obtained results revealed that subsidence is most pronounced in the areas along the Sai Gon River, in the northwest-southeast axis, and in the southwest of the city, with a maximum value of 80 mm/yr, which is in accordance with the findings of the literature. The amplitude of east-west horizontal velocities is relatively small and large-scale eastward movement can be observed in the west of the city at a rate of 3-5 mm/yr. This confirmed that the displacement in Ho Chi Minh City area is mainly vertical downward. Together, these results reinforced the remarkable suitability of ESA's SAR Sentinel-1 for subsidence applications, even for non-European countries such as Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Most diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) rely on sputum samples, which are difficult to obtain and have low sensitivity in immunocompromised patients, patients with disseminated TB, and children, delaying treatment initiation. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls for the development of a rapid, biomarker-based, non-sputum test capable of detecting all forms of TB at the point-of-care to enable immediate treatment initiation. Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) is the only WHO-endorsed TB biomarker which can be detected in urine, an easily collected sample. This review discusses the characteristics of LAM as a biomarker, describes the performance of first-generation urine LAM tests and reasons for slow uptake, and presents considerations for developing the next-generation of more sensitive and impactful tests. Next-generation urine LAM tests have the potential to reach adult and pediatric patients regardless of HIV status or site of infection and facilitate global TB control. Implementation and scale-up of existing LAM tests and development of next-generation assays should be prioritized.

Abstract: Introduction: A retrospective case-controlled study was performed to evaluate the out-comes of shoulder arthroplasty performed as a day case in carefully selected patients, compared to the traditional inpatient approach. Materials & Methods: Patients who had total or hemiarthro-plasty of the shoulder performed as a day case or inpatient procedure were recruited. The primary outcome compared rates of uneventful recovery, defined by the absence of any complications or readmission to hospital within six months of surgery, between Inpatient and Outpatient groups. Secondary outcomes included examiner-determined functional scores and patient-determined pain scores at one, six, twelve, and twenty-four weeks post-surgery. A further assessment of pa-tient determined pain scores was carried out at a minimum of two years post-surgery (5.8 ± 3.2). Results: 73 patients (36 Inpatients and 37 Outpatients) were included in the study. Within this time frame 25/36 inpatients (69%) had uneventful recoveries compared to 24/37 outpatients (65%) (p = 0.17). Outpatients showed significant improvement over pre-operative baseline levels in more of the secondary outcomes (strength and passive range-of-motion) by six months post-operation. Outpatients also performed significantly better than Inpatients in external rotation (p<0.05) and internal rotation (p=0.05) at six-weeks post-surgery. Both groups showed significant improvement compared to pre-operative baselines in all patient-determined secondary outcomes except level of activity at work and sport. Inpatients, however, less severe pain at rest at six weeks (p=0.03), sig-nificantly less frequent pain at night (p=0.03) and extreme pain (p=0.04) at 24 weeks; and less se-vere pain at night at 24 weeks (p<0.01). By minimum two years postoperation, inpatients were more comfortable repeating their treatment setting for future arthroplasty (16/18) compared to outpatients (7/22) (p = 0.0002). Conclusions: At a minimum of two years follow up, there were no significant differences in rates of complications, hospitalisations, or revision surgeries between pa-tients that underwent shoulder arthroplasty as an inpatient versus as an outpatient. Outpatients demonstrated superior functional outcomes but reported more pain at six months post-surgery. Patients in both groups expressed a preference for inpatient shoulder arthroplasty in future. What is Known About This Subject: Shoulder arthroplasty is a complex procedure, and has tradition-ally been performed on an inpatient basis, with patients admitted for six to seven days post-surgery. One of the primary reasons for this is the high level of postoperative pain, usually treated with hospital-based opioid therapy. Two studies demonstrated outpatient TSA to have a similar rate of complications as inpatient TSA, however these studies only examined patients within a shorter term 90 day postoperative period, and did not evaluate functional outcomes between the two groups or in the longer term. What This Study Adds to Existing Knowledge: This study provides evidence supporting the longer-term results of shoulder arthroplasty done as a day case in carefully selected patients, which are comparable to outcomes in patients that are admitted to hospital post-surgery.

The production of Moringa oleifera capsules has emerged as a promising agricultural activity in Mexico, driven by the plant’s well-documented health and nutritional benefits. In response, farmers have begun producing Moringa oleifera as a dietary supplement, using artisanal methods with minimal production controls. This study aimed to estimate the processing times of the Moringa oleifera production system using simulation modeling with Arena® software, and to evaluate the economic feasibility of capsule production. Methodologically, it was approached as a case study in the state of Veracruz, processing times were estimated through systematic sampling and modeled with Arena simulation software. Three simulation scenarios were considered to select a technically and economically viable alternative for agricultural producers: one with a 200-capsule encapsulator (1E200C), another with two 200-capsule encapsulators (2E200C) and a third with an 800-capsule encapsulator (1E800C). For the initial diagnosis a research stay was conducted for 180 days, and the production capacity was set at 24,000 capsules due to raw material limitations. Results indicated that the 1E800C scenario reduced processing time by 60% compared to the1E200C scenario, and by 35% compared to the 2E200C scenario. Additionally, the 1E800C model required only 2 days (16 hours) of work, while the 2E200C required 4 days (32 hours), and the 1E200C required 7 days (56 hours). In terms of production costs per unit of 90 capsules, the 1E200C was 3.93 USD the 2E200C 3.64 USD and the 1E800C 3.45 USD The study concluded that due to raw material limitations, the company can produce 12,800 units per year of 90 capsules. It is recommended to adopt the 1E800C encapsulator, which would lower overall production costs by 12.23%, representing 0.48 USD per unit produced, resulting in an additional profit of 6,150.50 USD Over a five-year evaluation period, the benefit-cost ratio was 5.03, the NPV was 922,370.11 and the IRR was 42.09%, indicating that this type of agribusiness in Mexico is both technically and economically feasible.

In today's world, news events are emerging incessantly. Classifying the same event reported by different countries is of significant importance for public opinion control and intelligence gathering. Due to the diverse types of news, relying solely on translators would be costly and inefficient, while depending solely on translation systems would incur considerable performance overheads in invoking translation interfaces and storing translated texts. To address this issue, we mainly focus on the clustering problem of cross-lingual news. To be specific, we use a combination of sentence vector representations of news headlines in a mixed semantic space and the topic probability distributions of news content to represent a news article. In the training of cross-lingual models, we employ knowledge distillation techniques to fit two semantic spaces into a mixed semantic space. We abandon traditional static clustering methods like K-Means and AGNES in favor of the incremental clustering algorithm Single-Pass, which we further modify to better suit cross-lingual news clustering scenarios. Our main contributions are as follows: (1) We adopt the English standard BERT as the teacher model and XLM-Roberta as the student model, training a cross-lingual model through knowledge distillation that can represent sentence-level bilingual texts in both Chinese and English. (2) We use the LDA topic model to represent news as a combination of cross-lingual vectors for headlines and topic probability distributions for content, introducing concepts such as topic similarity to address the cross-lingual issue in news content representation. (3) We adapt the Single-Pass clustering algorithm for the news context to make it more applicable. Our optimizations of Single-Pass include adjusting the distance algorithm between samples and clusters, adding cluster merging operations, and incorporating a news time parameter.

Ongoing climate change causes abnormal climate events worldwide such as increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. With South Korea facing growing damage from the increased frequency of localized heavy rains, the country is not an exception. In particular, its steep slope lands, including mountainous areas, are vulnerable to damage from landslides and debris flows. In addition, localized short-term heavy rains that occur in urban areas with extremely high intensity tend to lead a sharp increase in damage from soil-related disasters and cause huge losses of life and property. Currently, South Korea predicts landslides and debris flows using the standards for forecasting landslides and heavy rains. However, as the forecasting is conducted separately for rainfall intensity and accumulated rainfall, this lacks a technique that reflects both amount and intensity of rainfall in an episode of localized heavy rainfall. This study, therefore, aims to develop such a technique by collecting past cases of debris flow occurrences and rainfall events that accompanied debris flows to calculate the rainfall triggering index (RTI) reflecting accumulated rainfall and rainfall intensity. In addition, the RTI is converted into the critical accumulated rainfall (Rc) to use precipitation information and provide real-time forecasting. The study classifies the standards for flow debris forecasting into three levels: ALERT (10%–50%), WARNING (50%–70%), and EMERGENCY (70% or higher), to provide a nomogram for 6 hr, 12 hr, and 24 hr. As a result of applying this classification into the actual cases of Seoul, Chuncheon, and Cheongju, it is found that about 2–4 hr of response time is secured from the point of the Emergency level to the occurrence of debris flows.

Deep learning has been introduced to single-image super-resolution (SISR) in the last decade. These techniques have taken over the benchmarks of SISR tasks. Nevertheless, most architectural designs necessitate substantial computational resources, leading to a prolonged inference time on embedded systems or rendering them infeasible for deployment. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of plausible solutions and optimization methods to address this problem. Then, we propose a pipeline that aggregates the latter in order to enhance the inference time without significantly compromising the perceptual quality. We investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method on a lightweight GAN-based perceptual-oriented model as a case study. The experimental results show that our proposed method leads to significant improvement in the inference time on both Desktop and Jetson Xavier NX, especially for higher resolution input sizes on the latter, thereby making it deployable in practice.

Despite the popularity of Zumba in several countries, research is scarce about its impact on older adults. Meanwhile, the integration of cognitive tasks with physical exercises, known as dual-tasking, is an evolving strategy to facilitate activities for older people. This study investigated the perceptions of older adults regarding Zumba and the potential of implementing it in a dual-task program. We conducted a qualitative-descriptive research involving 44 Filipino older adults from August to November 2020. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data. Four themes were identified: moving towards match or mismatch; balancing benefits with burdens; dual-tasking as innovative yet potentially challenging; and overcoming barriers with enablers. While Zumba is an inclusive and beneficial activity, individual and contextual limitations could hinder its suitability for older people. Dual-tasking in Zumba was also recognized as an innovative approach, although challenges should be addressed to promote its utility. Several strategies could support the design of these programs in communities. This is the first study to explore older adults’ perceptions towards Zumba and its potential utilization as a dual-tasking program. Findings could guide the implementation of appropriate Zumba and dual-tasking activities that seek to integrate cognitive and physical training for older adults.

Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality for non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) across all TNM-stages. Locoregional control rates have been impressive even from the 2D-radiotherapy (RT) era, except when the ability to deliver optimal dose coverage to the tumor is compromised. However, short- and long-term complications following head and neck RT are potentially debilitating, and thus, there had been much research investigating technological advances in RT delivery over the past decades, with the primary goal of limiting normal tissue damage. On this note, with a plateau in gains of therapeutic ratio by modern RT techniques, future advances have to be focused on individualization of RT, both in terms of dose prescription and delineation of target volumes. In this review, we analyzed the guidelines and evidence related to contouring methods, and dose prescription for early and locoregionally-advanced (LA-) NPC. Next, with the preference for induction chemotherapy (IC) in patients with LA-NPC, we assessed the evidence concerning radiotherapy adaptations guided by IC response, as well as functional imaging and contour changes during treatment. Finally, we discussed on RT individualization that is guided by EBV DNA assessment, and its importance in the era of combinatorial immune checkpoint blockade therapy with RT.

The study examines the return performance and resilience to market volatility of the recently introduced Environment, Social/Sustainable, and Governance (ESG) weight-tilted Hang Seng Index (HSIESG) compared to its parent, the Hang Seng Index (HSI). The ESG-infused index has a higher mean return and lower return volatility than the parent index, although the differences are statistically and economically insignificant, a result consistent with the high correlation between the two index returns. Most important, the ESG weighted-tilted index is more resilient to volatility spikes than the parent index and therefore has lower downside risks. The overall results show that stocks with high ESG ratings are less susceptible to trading pressures triggered by volatility-induced turnovers. The paper contributes to the literature by providing significant incremental information on the emerging market for ESG-related equity products in Hong Kong.

Since first described by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1967, the clinical diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) has remained relatively unchanged. However, studies since then have suggested that diagnoses using only that original clinical criteria may lead to underdiagnosis. In this review, updated KD diagnostic methods, diagnostic methods for “atypical” KD, diagnostic pitfalls, and other differential diagnoses are discussed. Peripheral blood eosinophil showed important in distinguishing KD from febrile children. We review herein the current literature regarding new biomarkers, scoring systems, and microRNA panels that may aid in the diagnosis of KD, the importance of eosinophil and treatment updates.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of incorporating linseed oil and fish oil in the diet on intake, ruminal fermentation milk yield and milk fatty acid profile in dairy goats. Four crossbred Saanen lactating goats in mid-lactation and milking 1.30±0.28 g/day were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. The basal diet consisted of concentrate and Para grass (C:F 40:60). Treatments included the basal diet without oil supplement (Ctrl) or with 2.5% linseed oil (LO2.5), 2.5% linseed oil and fish oil (3:2, w/w, LFO2.5), and 4.16% linseed oil and fish oil (3:2, w/w, LFO4.16). Diets had no effect on intake, milk yield, milk composition and ruminal fermentation patterns (P > 0.05). The lower (P < 0.05) proportions of C10:0-C14:0 in milk fat were observed with LFO4.16 compared with Ctrl. Compared with the Ctrl and linseed oil added alone, feeding LFO4.16 resulted in a 589% and 303% increase in C18:1 t11, respectively. Milk c9,t11 CLA was markedly increased with the LFO4.16 diet, accounting for 4.53 and 2.94 times greater concentrations than those in Ctrl and LO2.5 diets, respectively (P < 0.01). Goats fed LFO2.5 and LFO4.16 had greater levels of C22:6n-3 (0.63% and 0.87%; P < 0.001) compared with those fed Ctrl and LO2.5 diets (0.06% and 0.08%). Overall, the combined data suggested that including 4.16% linseed oil and fish oil in the diet of dairy goats is effective for improving the concentrations of healthy fatty acids in milk, without affecting milk production.

The structure characterization of two new polysaccharides from Agrocybe aegerita (AA-P) and Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus (HO-P) by HPGPC, GC-MS, NMR and FT-IR indicated that AA-P was composed of Galactose, Glucose and Arabinose, in the ratio of 3:2:1. Its skeleton structure was consisted of (1→4)-Arap, (1→4,6)-Glup and (1→6)-Galp with one branched chain. The HO-P was consisted of mannose, galactose and glucose in a ratio of 1:1:2. Its skeleton structure was consisted of (1→6)-Galactose residues, (→1)-glucose residues, (1→4)-glucose residues and (1→4,6)-D-mannose residues. There were two branched chains connected to the main chain. AA-P and HO-P had the best stimulation effect on B cells and RAW264.7 cells, respectively, and could both mainly by impacting and reducing G0/G1 phase which lead to a significant proliferation of B cells, T cells and RAW264.7 cells. In addition, AA-P and HO-P could significantly promote the secretion of TNF-α from T cells, the secretion of IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and IgM from B cells, and the secretion of TNF-α from RAW264.7 cells, but neither of them could impact the secretion of IL-1β from RAW264.7 cells.

There is a major clinical need for accurate biomarkers for prostate cancer prognosis, to better inform treatment strategies and disease monitoring. Current clinically recognised prognostic factors, including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, lack sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing aggressive from indolent disease, particularly in patients with localised intermediate grade prostate cancer. There has therefore been a major focus on identifying molecular biomarkers that can add prognostic value to existing markers, including investigation of DNA methylation, which has a known role in tumorigenesis. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of DNA methylation biomarker studies in prostate cancer prognosis, and highlight the advances that have been made in this field. We cover the numerous studies into well-established candidate genes, and explore the technological transition that has enabled hypothesis-free genome-wide studies and the subsequent discovery of novel prognostic genes.

Allanite minerals are the principal host of REEs in the Sin Quyen, Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) type deposit. The studied allanites have concentrations of: REE (14-27 wt%), Ca (9-16 wt%), Al (8-19 wt%), Si (26-34 wt%) and Fe (12-21 wt%). Two populations of allanite are documented, the first is texturally older probably related to the Ca-K alteration (second stage of crystallization). This population has higher REE concentrations ranging from 20 to 27 wt%, and the second population texturally younger has lower total REE concentration ranging from 14 to 19.9 wt%, which occur as a rim surrounding the older and likely arose during the K alteration with Cu-Au mineralization (third crystallization). Differences between the two allanite populations are documented by both optical properties and analysis of their chemical composition. The last parameter indicate that the studied allanites belong to the Ce-La-ferriallanite family, with low HREE with an average of 0.21 wt.%. Temperature 355ºC which was calculated using value of δ34S isotopes is interpreted as a temperature of the second crystallization stage of allanite. The pressure of crystallization solution was calculated and is ranging from 0.98 to 5.88 MPa.

Most research findings in Ghana and all over the globe lay much emphasis on the technical knowledge of plastics; especially giving preference to the biodegradable over the synthetic/Single-Use plastics. Questionnaires were administered to about 200 respondents in the Ho Municipality out of which 163 responses were filled and returned. Results showed that of all the variables tested only Legislative Framework has a meaningful impact on the behaviour of Ho indigenes. Awareness level: (Synthetic Plastics and Biodegradable Plastics) as well as Attitudinal Change do not influence people’s behaviour when using plastics. Findings from this study are further discussed and recommendations were proffered to instil eco-friendly behaviour among people.

This study proposes a novel hybrid machine learning approach for modeling of rainfall-induced shallow landslides. The proposed approach is a combination of an instance-based learning algorithm (k-NN) and Rotation Forest (RF), state of the art machine techniques that have seldom explored for landslide modeling. The Lang Son city area (Vietnam) is selected as a case study. For this purpose, a spatial database for the study area was constructed, and then, was used to build and evaluate the hybrid model. Performance of the model was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), area under the ROC curve (AUC), success rate and prediction rate, and several statistical evaluation metrics. The results showed that the model has high performance with both the training data (AUC = 0.948) and the validation data (AUC = 0.848). The results were compared with those obtained from soft computing techniques i.e. Random Forest, J48 Decision Trees, and Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks. Overall, the performance of the proposed model is better than those obtained from the above methods. Therefore, the proposed model is a promising tool for landslide modeling. The research result can be highly useful for land use planning and management in landslide prone areas.

This paper comprehensively reviews sensors and sensing devices developed or/and proposed so far utilizing two smart materials: electrorheological fluids (ERFs) and magnetorheological materials (MRMs) whose rheological characteristics such as stiffness and damping can be controlled by external stimuli, an electrical voltage for ERFs and a magnetic field for MRMs, respectively. In this review article, the MRMs are classified into magnetorheological fluid (MRF), magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) and magnetorheological plastomer (MRP). To easily understand the history of sensing research using the two smart materials, the order of this review article is organized in a chronological manner of ERF sensors, MRF sensors, MRE sensors and MRP sensors. Among many sensors fabricated from each smart material, one or two sensors or sensing devices are adopted to discuss on the sensing configuration, working principle and specifications such as accuracy and sensitivity. Some sensors adopted in this article include force sensor, tactile device, strain sensor, wearable bending sensor, magnetometer, display device and flux measurement sensor. After briefly describing what have been reviewed in a conclusion, several challenging future works, which should be done for practical applications as sensors or sensing devices, are remarked in terms of new technologies such as artificial intelligence neural network in which several parameters affecting the sensor signals can be precisely tuned or controlled. It is sure that this review article is very helpful to make creative sensors using not only the proposed smart materials but also several different types of smart materials including shape memory alloys and active polymers.

The Vu Gia - Thu Bon River Basin (VG-TB) is confronting numerous challenges related to water security (WS), particularly in the face of the impacts of climate change. These challenges manifest in salinity intrusion, altered rainfall patterns, and reduced water supply in downstream areas. To assess the current state of water security in the basin, the study employed statistical analysis methods, Process Analysis Method (PAM), SMART, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop a comprehensive Assessment Framework for Water Security (AFWS) in the VG-TB. The AFWS encompasses five key dimensions, 17 indicators, and 28 variables, aligning with the UN-Water definition of water security and addressing the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) criteria for global water sustainability. It also adheres to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) approach to water security assessment as outlined in the Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) reports. This allows for the computation of a comprehensive Water Security Index (WSI) for specific regions, serving as a foundation for decision-making and policy formulation aimed at enhancing water security in the context of climate change and facilitating sustainable basin development in the future.

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging has attracted more and more interests because of its widespread applications, especially in information and life science. These techniques can be broadly divided into two types: ray-based and wavefront-based 3D imaging. Issues such as imaging quality and system complexity of these techniques limit the applications significantly, and therefore many investigations have focused on 3D imaging from depth measurements. This paper presents an overview of 3D imaging from depth measurements, and provides a summary of the connection between these the ray-based and wavefront-based 3D imaging techniques.

This study is the first to investigate the asymmetric effects of oil price volatility on stock returns for the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE). We utilized weekly series of VN30-Index, WTI crude oil prices, geopolitical risks (GPR) index and gold prices spanning from 6 February 2012 to 31 December 2023 as data sources. Using a nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) bounds testing approach, we found that in the short-term, oil price volatility has negative asymmetric effects on the market returns. Specifically, in the short-term, a one percent increase in oil price volatility immediately leads to a 2,6868 percent decrease in the market returns while a similar magnitude decrease in oil price volatility is associated with 6.3180 percent increase in the market returns. In addition, the results obtained from the NARDL model indicated that, in the long-term, the negative and positive changes of oil price volatility have significantly negative effects on the market returns. Finally, the findings derived from the error correction model (ECM) show that 98.21 percent of the disequilibria from the previous week are converged and corrected back to the long-term equilibrium in the current week.

The southeast of Spain is one of the most arid and desertification-prone areas in continental Europe, with climate change contributing to this situation. Climatic conditions affect the availability of water in the plant structures of wild species, facilitating the onset and/or spread of forest fires and increasing aridity. The Region of Murcia, in southeastern Spain, has small forest stands of gall oak (Quercus faginea) with relict value. It is of interest to investigate the situation of these stands, allowing us to know about their distribution and their evolution in the face of climate change. For this purpose, previous dasometric, available from a specific stand, studies are considered to be contrasted with current data, individual trees were geolocated, and distribution maps of contrasting environmental conditions were created. In general, gall oak has been observed to be distributed up to 1200 m altitude, especially in shady areas and embedded valleys and north-northeast orientations. Importantly, there was a positive evolution of the vegetative development, with increments in the number of trees during the study period, despite some negative affections in specific areas due to climate change.

Hong Kong is the biggest consumer of eggs in the world and ranks on the top with an average consumption of 24.52kg/capita/year. The egg consumption trend in Hong Kong has been increasing specifically; a drastic increase of about 100% has been observed from 2008 to 2020. One of the reasons behind this significant increase is the increase in the gross national income of Hong Kong in addition to the population growth rate. However, there was a slight decline in egg consumption trend in the year 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been estimated that there was a bulk of 17,100 tons of recoverable waste eggshells in 2019 (pre-COVID-19 situation), having a daily yield of 47 tons per day. Based on the linear regression, it may be expected that if the pre-COVID-19 trend of egg consumption remains sustained, there will be a big bulk of more than 45,000 tons per year and up to 125 tons per day of waste eggshells till 2050. In addition, a public survey was conducted across the city targeting individuals, families, and restaurants majorly on egg consumption and reuse. The survey outcomes revealed that Chinese eggs have an extensive market in Hong Kong, and people have a positive attitude towards eggshell recycling. Also, a massive population disposes of the waste eggshells while only a trace population reuses them. Therefore, Hong Kong has a very high potential to improve the circular economy by reusing waste eggshells on a commercial level in cementitious products.

Clinically, knowing the number of red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) helps doctors to make the better decision on accurate diagnosis of numerous diseases. The manual cell counting is a very time-consuming and expensive process, and it depends on the experience of specialists. Therefore, a completely automatic method supporting cell counting is a viable solution for clinical laboratories. This paper proposes a novel blood cell counting procedure to address this challenge. The proposed method adopts SegNet - a deep learning semantic segmentation to simultaneously segment RBCs and WBCs. The global accuracy of the segmentation of WBCs, RBCs, and the background of peripheral blood smear images obtains 89% when segment WBCs and RBCs from the background of blood smear images. Moreover, an effective solution to separate grouped or overlapping cells and cell count is presented using Euclidean distance transform, local maxima, and connected component labeling. The counting result of the proposed procedure achieves an accuracy of 93.3% for red blood cell count using dataset 1 and 97.38% for white blood cell count using dataset 2.

Exergy analysis evaluates the efficiency of system components by quantifying the rate of entropy generation. In general, the exergy destruction rate or irreversibility rate was directly obtained through the exergy-balance equation. However, this method cannot determine the origin of the component's entropy generation rate, which is a very important factor in system design and improvement. In this study, a thorough energy, exergy thermoeconomic analysis of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was performed, providing the heat transfer rate, entropy generation rate and cost loss rate of each component. The irreversibility rate of each component is obtained by the Gouy-Stodolar theorem. Detailed and extensive exergy and thermoeconomic analyses of PEMFC system have determined that water cooling units experience the greatest heat transfer among the components in the studied PEMFC system, resulting in the greatest irreversibility and thus the greatest monetary flow loss.

Recent prolonged dry periods and lack of irrigation water have severely affected the productivity of coffee farms’ in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. This paper analyzes the efficiency of irrigation water use for Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) in Lam Dong province, Highlands, Vietnam. A Cobb-Douglas production function was used to determine coffee productivity’s response to the application of irrigation water and other production factors using data collected from 194 farmers while the Technical Efficiency (TE) and Irrigation Water Use Efficiency (IWUE) were analyzed using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The correlation of different factors to IWUE was determined using the Tobit model. The production function analysis using Cobb-Douglas shows that the volume of irrigation water, amount of working capital, labor and farm size significantly influence coffee productivity. It also shows that indigenous farmers are more efficient in utilizing irrigation water than the (mostly Kinh) migrant farmers. The Tobit result, on the other hand. indicates that farmers’ experience, education level, distance of farm to water source, security of access to water source, extension contact and credit access significantly affect IWUE. The study findings further suggest that mitigating water shortages in coffee farms require sub-regional and national policy support such as better access to credit and extension services, training, land management and household-level effort to improve farming practices, through the application of appropriate technologies and traditional knowledge.

Helicobacter pylori is a gastric oncopathogen that infects over half of the world’s human population. It is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic, helix-shaped bacterium that is equipped with flagella, which provide high motility. Colonization of the stomach is asymptomatic in up to 90% of people but is a recognized risk factor for developing various gastric disorders such as gastric ulcers, gastric cancer and gastritis. Invasion of the human stomach occurs via numerous virulence factors such as CagA and VacA. Similarly, outer membrane proteins (OMPs) play an important role in H. pylori pathogenicity as a means to adapt to the epithelial environment and thereby facilitate infection. While some OMPs are porins, others are adhesins. The epithelial cell receptors SabA, BabA, AlpA, OipA, HopQ and HopZ have been extensively researched to evaluate their epidemiology, structure, role and genes. Moreover, numerous studies have been performed to seek to understand the complex relationship between these factors and gastric diseases. Associations exist between different H. pylori virulence factors, the co-expression of which appears to boost pathogenicity of the bacterium. Improved knowledge of OMPs is a major step towards combatting this global disease. Here, we provide a current overview of different H. pylori OMPs and discuss their pathogenicity, epidemiology and correlation with various gastric diseases.

5G heterogeneous network overlaid by millimeter-wave (mmWave) access employs mmWave meshed backhauling as a promising cost-efficient backhaul architecture. Due to the nature of mobile traffic distribution in practice which is both time-variant and spatially non-uniform, dynamic construction of mmWave meshed backhaul is prerequisite to support the varying traffic distribution. Focusing on such scenario of outdoor dynamic crowd (ODC), this paper proposes a novel method to control mmWave meshed backhaul for efficient operation of mmWave overlay 5G HetNet through Software-Defined Network (SDN) technology. Our algorithm is featured by two functionalities, i.e., backhauling route multiplexing for overloaded mmWave small cell base stations (SC-BSs) and mmWave SC-BSs’ ON/OFF status switching for underloaded spot. In this paper, the effectiveness of the proposed meshed network is confirmed by both numerical analyses and experimental results. Simulations are conducted over a practical user distribution modeled from measured data in realistic environments. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can cope with the locally intensive traffic and reduce energy consumption. Furthermore, a WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance certified) device based testbed is developed for Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and preliminary measurement results confirm the proposed dynamic formation of the meshed network’s efficiency.

This paper examines the relationship between the ratio of independent board member to the financial performance of the company under the mediation of the three pillars of environment, society, and governance (ESG) in Taiwan. The study addresses a research gap between independent directors and corporate financial performance, an issue that is rarely discussed today. The author develops the hypotheses and tests them by applying panel data regression to the data tables taken from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database to analyze data on 173 Taiwanese companies that reported ESG from 2009 to 2021. The results show that the relationship between the ratio of independent directors and financial performance has a positive relationship. At the same time, the 3 pillars of ESG also clearly show the intermediary role in this relationship. Finally, this study provides additional insights into the relationship between the ratio of independent directors and financial performance in the Taiwan context.

Background: Cutaneous Melanoma (SKCM) is characterized by significant heterogeneity in its molecular, genomic, and immunologic characteristics. Methods: Whole transcriptome RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas of SKCM (n=328) was utilized. The immune microenvironment was characterized using CIBERSORTX to identify immune cell type composition. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering was performed based on immune cell type content. Samples were separated into those obtained from the primary tumor site and regional skin or soft tissue (locoregional), or distant metastasis and regional lymph node (metastatic). Analysis of overall survival (OS) was performed using Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox-regression multivariable analyses. Results: Four immune clusters were identified, largely defined by lymphocyte:monocyte (L:M) ratio, monocyte-enrichment, and M0-macrophage-enrichment (L:MLow, MonocyteHigh, M0High; L:MLow, MonocyteMid, M0Low; L:MMid, MonocyteLow, M0Low; L:MHigh, MonocyteLow, M0Low). The L:MLow, MonocyteHigh, M0High cluster demonstrated significantly worse OS than clusters 2-4 in the locoregional group (HR 2.804, 95% CI 1.262–6.234, p=0.0114). Membership in the L:MLow, MonocyteHigh, M0High cluster was an independently poor prognostic factor for survival (HR 3.03, 95% CI 1.12–8.20, p=0.029). The L:MLow, MonocyteHigh, M0High cluster correlated with higher rates of metastasis and decreased predicted response to immune checkpoint blockade compared to the other clusters as determined by the Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion tool (TIDE). Conclusion: Distinct tumor immune clusters with a M0-macrophage-enriched, L:M ratio low phenotype in the primary melanoma tumor site independently characterize an aggressive phenotype that may differentially respond to treatment.

Investigating the network response to node removal and the efficacy of the node removal strategies are related and fundamental questions in network science. Research studies proposed many node centralities based on the network structure ranking node to remove. The random walk (RW) on networks describes a stochastic process in which a walker travels among nodes. RW can be a model of transport, diffusion, and search on networks, and an essential tool for studying the importance of network nodes. In this manuscript, we propose four new measures of node centrality based on RW. Then, we compare the efficacy of the new RW node removal strategies to network dismantle with effective node removal strategies from the literature, such as betweenness and closeness node removal over synthetic and real-world networks. We evaluate the network dismantle along node removal using the size of the largest connected component (LCC). We find that, hence the betweenness nodes attack is the best strategy overall, the new node removal strategies based on RW show the highest efficacy in peculiar network topology. Specifically, RW strategies based on covering times emerge as the most effective strategy on a synthetic lattice network and two real-world road networks. Our results may be useful in selecting the best node attack strategies in a specific class of networks and in building more robust network structures.

In this study, the literature on varnish contamination is investigated among the various con-taminations of lubricant. As the period of use of lubricant increases, the lubricant deteriorates and becomes contaminated. The varnish causes filter plugging, sticking of hydraulic valves and fuel injection pumps, obstruction of flow, reduction of clearance, poor heater and cooler perfor-mance, and increase of friction and wear in various lubrication systems. These problems also cause mechanical system failure, performance degradation, and increased maintenance and re-pair cost. To improve the problems causes by the varnish, an adequate understanding of varnish is required. Therefore, in this literature review, definitions and characteristics, generating ma-chinery, generating mechanisms, causes, measurement methods, and prevention or removal methods are summarized. Most of the data are reports of companies related to lubricant and machine maintenance, and are included in some papers. We hope that this summary of varnish will be helpful to those who are engaged in reducing or preventing varnish problems.

Although global life expectancy has increased over the past 20 years due to improvements in managing infectious diseases, one in five people still succumbs to infections. Humanity is tirelessly working towards developing vaccines and antimicrobial agents in response to this ongoing threat. However, pathogens continue to acquire numerous resistance mechanisms and proliferate. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to recognize that focusing solely on the killing strategies of immunology and microbiology in complex and multisystemic infectious diseases is insufficient for understanding survival. In essence, there is a need for a treatment approach centered on disease tolerance, capable of alleviating pathology and/or promoting physiological functions in conjunction with the existing strategies of host immune response and pathogen destruction. Against this backdrop, this narrative review comprehends and introduces microbiome therapeutics, which recently garnered attention as next-generation treatments regarding two defense strategies against infectious diseases. First, we delineate the application of existing probiotics and then the microbiome in infectious diseases. Subsequently, we expand this concept to encompass host microbiome crosstalk and present related microbiome therapeutics' current status and direction. Ultimately, the review presents a fresh perspective on understanding microbiome therapeutics in infectious diseases based on a cooperative defense system.

Background and objectives: TSC1 is a crucial component of the mTOR pathway, impacting cell growth, proliferation, and autophagy, while TSC2 is a tumor suppressor gene that regulates cell growth and is associated with the mTOR signaling pathway. In the present study, we analyzed TSC1 and TSC2 mRNA expression levels in rectal cancer, and evaluated the clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics of TSC1 and TSC2. Materials and Methods: TSC1 and TSC2 mRNA expression was examined in various cancer types. We further evaluated survival to determine the prognostic significance of TSC1 and TSC2 mRNA in CRC using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. Results: The study focused on rectal cancer, as it exhibited the most promising results. The patients were split into two subgroups, each comprising 50% of the total, based on the TSC gene expression levels. This division was made to assess the clinical characteristics associated with the expression of TSC1 and TSC2 genes. In the study, lower TSC1 expression was linked to venous invasion in rectal cancer patients, and there was also a related trend with lymphatic invasion, although it didn't reach statistical significance. Lower TSC2 expression was observed in younger patients and had some associations with sex and M stage, but these correlations were not statistically significant. When it came to survival analysis, TSC1 expression did not significantly impact overall survival, while higher TSC2 expression was associated with a poorer prognosis in rectal cancer. To enhance our comprehension, additional research, especially in larger case studies, is needed to explore the molecular mechanisms and clinical characteristics of TSC genes in colorectal cancer.

This study aimed to increase the energy independence of buildings by utilizing solar energy to produce renewable energy. The subject of this study was a shading structure installed in an outdoor space to provide solar energy. Solar panels were applied to the shaded structures to generate energy actively. The solar panels were designed to be moved according to the optimal tilt angle each month to produce the optimal renewable energy. The architectural design of the shading structure and the energy simulation of the solar panels were conducted using a parametric design. The results of the energy simulation showed the generation of 31,570 kWh· year−1 of renewable energy. This amount of energy is 10% higher than that produced by fixed solar panels. Thus, the moving solar panel system developed in this study not only increases the energy independence of buildings, but also has the advantage of higher renewable energy production compared with fixed solar panels. Additionally, various types of shading structures can be designed depending on the combination of solar panel modules; in particular, moving solar panels have the potential to facilitate ecofriendly designs when applied to the exterior of buildings.

This study aimed to improve sensitivity of ferrous particle sensors used in various mechanical systems such as wind power gearboxes to detect abnormalities by measuring the amount of ferrous wear particles generated by metal-to-metal contact. Existing sensors collect ferrous particles using a permanent magnet. However, its ability to detect abnormalities is limited because it only measures amounts of ferrous particles collected on the top of the sensor. To overcome this limitation, this study evaluated sensibility of an existing sensor using a multi-physics analysis method and improved it by changing the core shape inside the sensor. The detection ability of the improved sensor was analytically shown to be better than the existing sensor. This study highlights the use of analytical methods and multi-physics analysis for developing a ferrous particle sensor and presents a method to compare sensibility analytically. Results of the improved sensor are expected to enhance the ability to detect abnormalities in the lubrication system where ferrous wear particles are generated. This study will contribute to the development of more effective ferrous particle sensors, which can potentially improve the performance and reliability of mechanical systems.

This study has investigated the effect of nutrition labeling on consumer guilt, in situations where consumers ingest products that have an unhealthy image. The first investigation has examined the effects of types of nutrition labeling (adding healthy ingredients/reducing unhealthy ingredients). The second investigation has examined the influence of two goal-activation types(utilitarian and hedonic) and nutrition labeling on consumer guilt. The findings reveal that the utilitarian-goal-activation group felt less guilty about consuming a product with a reduced unhealthy ingredient than they did about consuming a product with an added healthy ingredient. In addition, there were interactions between the two variables, since consumer goal activation had more effect on consumer guilt about products with reduced unhealthy ingredients than on products with added healthy ingredients. Based on these results, the academic and practical implications of the present study are discussed. and proposes several directions for future research.

Many theoretical models of iron-based superconductors have been proposed but Tc calculations based on the models are usually missing. We have chosen two models of iron-based superconductors in the literature and then compute the Tc values accordingly: Recently two models have been announced which suggest that superconducting electron concentration involved in the pairing mechanism of iron-based superconductors may have been underestimated, and that the antiferromagnetism and the induced xy potential may even have a dramatic amplification effect on electron-phonon coupling. We use bulk FeSe, LiFeAs and NaFeAs data to calculate the Tc based on these models and test if the combined model can predict the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of the nanostructured FeSe monolayer well. To substantiate the recently announced xy potential in the literature, we create a two-channel model to separately superimpose the dynamics of the electron in the upper and lower tetrahedral plane. The results of our two-channel model support the literature data. While scientists are still searching for a universal DFT functional that can describe the pairing mechanism of all iron-based superconductors, we base on the ARPES data to propose an empirical combination of DFT functional for revising the electron-phonon scattering matrix in the superconducting state, which ensures that all electrons involved in iron-based superconductivity are included in the computation. Our computational model takes into account this amplifying effect of antiferromagnetism and the correction of the electron-phonon scattering matrix together with the abnormal soft out-of-plane lattice vibration of the layered structure, which allows us to calculate theoretical Tc values of LiFeAs, NaFeAs and FeSe as a function of pressure that correspond reasonably well to the experimental values. More importantly, by taking into account the interfacial effect between an FeSe monolayer and its SrTiO3 substrate as an additional gain factor, our calculated Tc value is up to 91 K high, and provides evidence that the strong Tc enhancement recently observed in such monolayers with Tc reaching 100 K may be contributed from the electrons within the ARPES range.

Rotorcrafts operate HUMS for fault diagnosis, but the capabilities of HUMS analysts are important due to the complex mechanical configuration of rotorcraft and the difficulty of analysis. Accordingly, an advanced algorithm is needed to identify faults, and flight data can be used to develop the algorithm. However, flight data contains abnormal or missing data due to problems such as sensor defects, which can be a major problem in algorithm development. Therefore, in this paper, we study a gap filling method using MLP to obtain normal data when there are problems such as abnormal or missing data in rotorcraft flight data. Existing methods typically fill the gap through interpolation or curve fitting using the before and after values of missing data. However, in this study, normal values were estimated using the values of other parameters at the moment of missing or abnormal data occurred. As a result of evaluating the performance of the trained MLP using normal data, it was confirmed that the output of the model well estimates the changing trend of the target. And when abnormal data was applied to the trained model, it was confirmed that point outliers were eliminated and appropriate values were found in the case of missing data.

Abstract: The frequency and intensity of air pollution are two of most critical issues the world faces in dealing with global environmental problems. They are both important areas that need to be improved. Our previous research [20] examines the assessment of fine dust pollution in Baekryeong island by statistical reasoning through one specific example of inland city (Yanggu) in Republic of Korea; however, given that Baekryeong Island is a remote island, there has been little focus on in-depth examination of its effect on the high density of fine dust in Baekryeong Island. The purpose of this article is twofold: (i) to examine the effect of a remote island on the high density of fine dust on Baekryeong Island using statistical reasoning and to provide a more specific statistical basis for the claim that one of the non-negligible factors influencing the high density of fine dust on Baekryeong Island is the geographic proximity to China; and (ii) to present brief discussion of fundamental cause of fine dust and global air pollution issues, which are not discussed in [20].

Surface treatment of implants facilitates osseointegration, with nanostructured surfaces exhibiting accelerated peri-implant bone regeneration. This study compared bone-to-implant contact (BIC) in implants with hydroxyapatite (HA), sand-blasted and acid-etched (SLA), and SLA with calcium (Ca)-coated (XPEED®) surfaces. Seventy-five disk-shaped grade 4 Ti specimens divided into three groups were prepared, with 16 implants per group tested in New Zealand white rabbits. Surface characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), digital microscopy, and a contact angle analyzer. Cell viability, proliferation, and adhesion were assessed using MC3T3-E1 cells. Apatite formation was evaluated using modified simulated body fluid (m-SBF) incubation. After 4 weeks of healing, the outcomes reviewed were BIC, bone area (BA), removal torque tests, and histomorphometric evaluation. Microstructure analysis revealed irregular pores across all groups, with the XPEED group exhibiting a nanostructured Ca-coated surface. Surface characterization showed a crystalline CaTiO3 layer on XPEED surfaces, with evenly distributed Ca penetrating the implants. All surfaces provided excellent environments for cell growth. The XPEED and SLA groups showed significantly higher cell density and viability with superior osseointegration than HA (p &lt; 0.05); XPEED exhibited the highest absorbance values. Thus, XPEED surface treatment improved implant performance, biocompatibility, stability, and osseointegration.

Background: To date, FM using middle ear packing has rarely reported. In this study, we hypothesized that middle ear packing with dexamethasone soaked gelfoam and fibrin glue over the fat graft could promote the success rate of TMP closure regardless of perforation size. Methods: Between January 2005 and July 2020, a total of 209 patients who underwent fat myringoplasty due to chronic TMP at tertiary referral center were encountered and analyzed. The success rate and audiologic outcome was analyzed. Results: The mean successful TM closure rate was 88.0 %. The success rate by different age generation was not significant difference. The size of the perforation grade showed no significant difference. The perforation site by anterior or posterior was not significant. The preoperative mean threshold of AC, BC and ABG were 55.71, 12.98 and 42.73 dB respectively. The postoperative mean threshold of AC, BC and ABG were 23.67, 12.98 and 10.69 dB. The change of preoperative and postoperative hearing showed statistically significant. Conclusion: From our results, the simple trimming of the perforation edge and middle ear packing with external ear canal packing using fibrin glue induced the stable adhesion between the remnant TM and the fat graft.

This study analysed trends of first-time patients visiting the paediatric psychiatry clinic in a university hospital. The medical records from 2009 to 2016 of first-time patients visiting the Kyung Hee university hospital were reviewed, focusing on children in grades 1–12. We analysed the prevalence rate of psychiatric disorders per 100,000 general populations by gender and grade, and the characteristics of patients who sought outpatient care more than three times. The study included 1,467 participants, of which 931 were males (63.5%). The number of male patients per 100,000 populations significantly decreased from 4.14 in 2009 to 2.03 in 2016. While hyperkinetic disorders had the highest prevalence in males, neurotic disorders were most frequent in females. Prevalence of disruptive behaviour disorders in males and mental retardations in females decreased significantly during the study period. The factors affecting continuity were being female, studying in grades 7–12, and diagnosis of depressive, hyperkinetic, and tic disorders. Physicians should consider the new paediatric patients’ gender, grade, and expected diagnosis from their first visit to improve treatment compliance.

Weighted Student Funding (WSF) systems have been implemented in various countries to give schools more autonomy over how to allocate their funding. School principals use funding to maintain school operations and foster innovation for achieving educational goals. However, despite the importance of this process, scholarly research has largely overlooked how principals make decisions about their financial resources. Accordingly, this study seeks to provide practical insights into the strategies used by one school by highlighting their staff’s perceptions about using their WSF to maintain school operations and spur innovation. Using a case study approach, we investigated a principal who effectively used a school’s WSF to transform a failing school into an innovative one. The findings revealed that the principal strategically implemented financial management mechanisms in a way that inspired teachers to deeply consider how a school's WSF can help achieve educational goals. The principal fostered consensus on the school's direction, encouraged innovation through hands-on experiential learning and strategic planning, and facilitated funding for innovative teachers by guiding proposal development. Insights into the shifting cultural and practical landscape of financial resource utilization within schools are discussed.

Maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) is a surgical intervention that reduces the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea via anterior repositioning of the upper and lower jaws. Pre-operative orthodontic alignment is often a critical component in aiding MMA. Orthodontia are important in intraoperative anchorage for intermaxillary fixation, healthy post-operative occlusion, and post-operative skeletal stability. Sequential clear aligners (SCA) refer to removable orthodontic appliances that are replaced at regular intervals to stimulate dental migration without the use of bonded hardware. These aligners have demonstrated efficacy in aiding orthognathic surgery for dentofacial deformities, which share some technical similarities with MMA for OSA. Here, we explore the treatment protocol for MMA followed by post-operative SCA treatment. Our experiences show that post-operative orthodontic treatment with SCAs results in similarly successful post-operative surgical outcomes given that the patient’s pre-operative occlusion is stable.

A digital text abstract presents the essential information of an article, and we can find the trend and value of the research by analyzing it rigorously and digging up knowledge. Therefore, this study focuses on the abstracts of index journals in China and Taiwan from July 2010 to June 2020 (a total of 3,283 abstracts). Through the concepts of text mining and natural language processing (NLP), it constructs processes such as text retrieval, text segmentation and word cloud analysis, TF-IDF weight analysis, co-word analysis, network analysis, and trend analysis, and analyses a large amount of text data. The results show that the scope of research in China covers the fields of social sports and sports science, and research in Taiwan covers both natural and social sciences. The network diagram highlights the richness of sports-related research fields in the two regions, but research on sports philosophy is relatively rare. It is suggested that all disci-plines/departments should re-allocate the same resources, so as to show a balanced development trend and help expand a new chapter in the sports academic field.

Liquid biopsy, a non-invasive diagnosis that examines circulating tumor components in body fluids, is increasingly used in cancer management. An overview of relevant literature emphasizes the current state of liquid biopsy applications in cancer care. Liquid biopsy, particularly circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor RNAs (ctRNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles, and other cell-free nucleic acids, offers promising opportunities for early cancer diagnosis, treatment selection, monitoring, and disease assessment. The implementation of liquid biopsy in precision medicine has shown significant potential in various cancer types, including lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. Advances in genomic and molecular technologies, such as next generation sequencing (NGS) and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) have expanded the utility of liquid biopsy, enabling the detection of somatic variants and actionable genomic alterations in tumors. Liquid biopsy has also demonstrated utility in predicting treatment responses, monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD), and assessing tumor heterogeneity. Nevertheless, standardizing liquid biopsy techniques, interpreting results, and integrating them into clinical routine remain challenges. Despite these challenges, liquid biopsy has significant clinical implications in cancer management, offering a dynamic and non-invasive approach to understanding tumor biology and guiding personalized treatment strategies.

This study aims at the sustainable valorization of eggshells (ES) from different countries of origin in cement concrete as a cement replacement for Hong Kong. For this purpose, sixteen different eggs from different regions across the world were selected from the local market. Firstly, the extent of uniformity in the weight and mineral content of sampled eggshells were assessed by a specific gravity test and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. It was found that specific gravity varies between 2.02 and 2.39, with an average value of 2.20 ± 0.01, whereas CaCO₃ varies between 94.65% and 97.23%, with an average value of 96.33%. These values were a bit lower than those of extra-pure limestone (LS) because of the organic part and the porous structure of eggshells. Secondly, three different eggshells were selected for cement replacement in cement concrete, both in the uncalcined and calcined states, based on having the highest, medium, and lowest CaCO₃ content, respectively. To get the calcined eggshells, the eggshells were calcined at 800^oC for three hours. It was found that the strength of eggshells varies with CaCO₃, but the variation was acceptable. The calcined eggshells showed comparatively more compressive strength and were close to the LS because of the free CaO and the absence of an organic part. In general, the variation in the basic properties of eggshells from different regions across the world is negligible and suitable to use as a cement replacement with acceptable variation in strength in Hong Kong.

With increasing air and sea temperatures, the thermodynamic environments over the oceans become more favourable for the development of intense tropical cyclones (TCs) with rapid intensification (RI). In fact, the number of TCs undergoing RI is rising (Zhao, et al., 2018; Bhatia, et al., 2019; Song, et al., 2020; Hong & Wu, 2021; Liu, et al., 2022). RI over coastal sea areas before landfalling is particularly impactful and threatening to coastal lives and properties. There have been studies showing that offshore areas within 400 km of the coastline have experienced a significant increase in RI events with the count tripling from 1980 to 2020 (Li et al., 2023). The south China coastal region consists of highly densely populated cities especially the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. Intense TCs maintaining its strength or RI of TCs close to the coastal region presents substantial forecasting challenges. This study investigates the effect of sea surface and subsurface temperature and salinity on the intensification of five TCs, namely Super Typhoons Hato in 2017 and Mangkhut in 2018, Typhoon Talim, Super Typhoon Saola and Severe Typhoon Koinu in 2023, which significantly affected the south China coastal region and triggered high TC warning signals in Hong Kong. The analysis utilized the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) TC track and intensity data, along with the sea temperature and salinity profiles generated using the China Ocean ReAnalysis version 2 (CORA2) of the National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS) of China. While high sea surface temperature (SST) of 30°C or above, low surface sea surface salinity (SSS) of 34 psu or below, and strong salinity stratification of at least 0.8 psu per 100 m depth may offer useful hints for predicting RI, they are part of a broader set of contributing factors. This study represents the initial documentation of sub-surface salinity's impact on intense TCs over the South China Sea (SCS) in recent years and will encourage further research to refine forecasting RI of TCs before making landfall near PRD taking into account the effect of freshwater from the Pearl River.

In an age of market liberalization, globalization, and expanding agribusiness, there is a danger that small-scale farmers will find difficulty in fully participating in the market economy. One of the solutions to solve the above situation is to strengthen linkages between farmers and firms through contract farming. The purpose of this study is to assess the factors affecting the level of linkages between businesses and farmers in crop development in Thai Binh province, Vietnam. The two main research methods used were exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and regression analysis with survey data which was conducted from 300 farmers, 10 firms, and 15 factors related to contract-farming. The results indicated that there are 5 factors that significantly affect the level of participation of farmers in the linking process, the order of impacts from strong to weak is as follows: (1) Commitment and sharing of benefits and risks between farmers and firms in the linking process, (2) Issues related to management skills and enterprises capacity of link firms, (3) Price issues that farmers are interested in in the process of implementing links with firms, (4) Policy environment - Institutions related to farmer contracts between firms and farmers, (5) Household awareness about the benefits brought about by farmer contracts with firms. Based on results, a number of specific solutions have been proposed to enhance the efficiency of farming contracts between firms and farmers in cultivation production.

Background: Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) play a vital role in the innate immune response by activating Th17 cells, which in turn release the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17. We hypothesised that following repetitive mechanical strain, tenocytes activate monocyte-derived dendritic cells, which in turn, drive the pathogenesis of tendinopathy. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine if monocyte-derived dendritic cells are upregulated in a human tendinopathy model. Method: Torn supraspinatus tendon and matched intact subscapularis tendon samples were collected from 7 patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Healthy control samples of subscapularis tendon were collected from 5 patients undergoing arthroscopic stabilization surgery. Tendon biopsy samples were evaluated immunohistochemically by quantifying the presence of monocyte-derived dendritic cells (CD11C and CD206). Results: Tendinopathic tendon samples exhibited significantly greater (2-3-fold) monocyte-derived dendritic cell expression when compared with healthy control tissue (P &lt; .05). Conclusion: This study provides evidence for a monocyte-derived dendritic cell upregulation in early-stage human tendinopathy.

CASBEE-City tool determines the city’s Built Environment Efficiency (BEE) by calculating the improvement of Quality of Life (Q) over human activities’ Environmental Load (L) within the city’s hypothetical boundary. A total of 58 variables (57 Q indicators and one variable for L) are used in the worldwide version of CASBEE-City which were grounded using ISO 37120:2014 Sustainable Development of Communities and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN). This paper examines the application of CASBEE-City for Malaysian cities using the case of Johor Bahru City and identifies assessment indicators which are customised based on the data availability, reliability and suitability through focus group discussions (FGDs) which involved 36 respondents (researchers, urban planners and stakeholders). This paper reveals Johor Bahru with moderate score B+ in 2010 and 2025. Consensus were also achieved from the 36 FGD respondents for the practicability and future potential of CASBEE-City and BEE framework in Johor Bahru.

Thin people who undergo implant insertion into the chest wall face a high risk of implant exposure to the external environment. Five months after an 8-year-old boy underwent implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation in a subcutaneous pocket in the left anterolateral chest wall to manage long QT syndrome, ICD replacement became necessary owing to exposure risk from distal and lateral thinning of the ICD pocket. Pocket rupture and exposure would increase the risk of infection; therefore, we performed ICD removal and primary pocket closure. Two weeks later, a new suprafascial pocket was created, acellular dermal matrix (ADM) was attached to the inner wall to prevent ICD protrusion, and a new ICD was inserted. One year postoperatively, the ADM was engrafted, and no complications were observed. A thin subcutaneous layer increases the risk of ICD implantation complications. Inner wall strengthening with ADM can help prevent pocket rupture.

Keywords: mHealth; peritoneal dialysis; functionality; usability

Sweetpotato is an important miscellaneous grain crop in China, which is threatened by a variety of diseases and insect pests in the process of cultivation and production. sweetpotato stem rot is one of the common sweetpotato diseases, which seriously affects the yield and quality of sweetpotato. However, there are few studies on the mechanism of resistance to stem rot in sweetpotato. In this study, transcriptome sequencing analysis was carried out on the samples at different stages (T1, T2, T3) of stem rot pathogen infecting Xushu 48, and 44839 (T1-VS-T2), 81436 (T1-VS-T2) and 61932 (T2-VS-T3) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained. The DEGs were mainly concentrated in Alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism (ko00250), Carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms (ko00710) and Amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism (ko00520) and some candidate genes related to plant pathogen infection, such as receptor-like protein kinase (RLK5, RLK7), LRR receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase (SERK1), bHLH137, ERF9, MYB73 and NAC053, were screened. The results of this study provide genetic resources for the research on stem rot resistance of sweetpotato and provide theoretical basis for sweetpotato resistance breeding.

Claudin-18.2 (CLDN18.2) is specifically expressed in pancreatic precancerous lesions and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We assessed clinical characteristics of patients with CLDN18.2 overexpressing pancreatic cancer to identify patients who might benefit from CLDN18 targeted treatment. 130 patients with surgically resected PDAC were investigated the immunohistochemical expression of claudin-18 (CLDN18). The CLDN18 staining intensities (0-3+) and relative proportion of positive tumor cells were analyzed by two independent raters. Tumor as positive for CLDN18 expression was defined as ≥80% of tumor cells with 2+ or 3+ staining intensity on CLDN18 immunohistochemical assay. Positive CLDN18 expression was present in 41/130 (31.5%) surgically resected PDAC and the relative proportion of positive tumor cells and the staining intensity were directly correlated (p &lt; 0.001). Positive CLDN18 expression was significantly associated with well-differentiated tumor (p&lt;0.001) and less regional node involvement (p=0.045). The positive CLDN18 expressing group showed no statistical difference in median overall survival (17.4 months vs. 20.6 months, p=0.770) compared to negative CLDN18 expressing group. Distant nodal metastasis was more frequent in positive CLDN18 expressing group (p=0.011). CLDN18 is frequently expressed in PDAC, and high CLDN18 expressing PDAC showed some different clinicopathologic characteristics. High CLDN18 expression was not associated with prognosis in patients with surgically resected PDAC.

This study reports the preparation of silica and nano-fructosome encapsulated Candida antarctica lipase B particles (CalB@NF@SiO2) and demonstration of their enzymatic hydrolysis and acylation. CalB@NF@SiO2 particles were prepared as a function of TEOS concentration (3-100 mM). Their mean particle size was 185 nm by TEM. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed to compare catalytic efficiencies of CalB@NF and CalB@NF@SiO2. Catalytic constants (Km, Vmax, and Kcat) of CalB@NF and CalB@NF@SiO2 were calculated with Michaelis-Menten equation and Line-weaver Burk plot. Optimal stability of CalB@NF@SiO2 was found at pH 8 and temperature of 35 ℃. Moreover, CalB@NF@SiO2 particles were reused for seven cycles to evaluate their reusability. In addition, enzymatic synthesis of benzyl benzoate was demonstrated by an acylation reaction with benzoic anhydride. The efficiency of CalB@NF@SiO2 for converting benzoic anhydride to benzyl benzoate by the acylation reaction was 97%, indicating that benzoic anhydride was almost completely converted to benzyl benzoate. Consequently, CalB@NF@SiO2 particles are better than CalB@NF particles for enzymatic synthesis. In addition, they are reusable with high stability at optimal pH and temperature.

Among the many neglected underutilized species, tuberous Andean root crops like the ahipas (Pachyrhizus ahipa) constitute a promising alternative for increasing diversity in nutrient sources and food security at a regional level. In this study, we present the content of some functional compounds in tuberous roots from several ahipa accessions and the progenies of the interspecific hybrid X207 (P. ahipa × P. tuberosus). A significant objective was to determine protein and free amino acids in the roots to evaluate their food quality as protein supply. The interspecific hybrids have been found to possess the root quality to provide the crop with a higher dry matter content. The high dry matter content of the P. tuberosus Chuin materials is retained in the root quality of the hybrids. Food functional components like carbohydrates, organic acids, and proteins were determined in several ahipa accessions and a stable (non-segregating) progeny of the interspecific hybrid, X207. The X207 roots showed a significantly higher dry matter content and a lower content in soluble sugars, but no significant differences were found in starch content or organic acids compared to the ahipa accessions. About the root mineral contents, Fe and Mn concentrations in X207 were significantly raised compared to the average of ahipa accessions. Among the ahipa and the hybrid, no prominent differences in protein content or protein amino acids were found, being both partially defective in providing sufficient daily intake of some essential amino acids. Root weight, a central component of root yield, was significantly higher in X207, but thorough field studies are required to substantiate the hybrid’s superior yield performance..

This study focused on the precise detection and concordant analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to verify the usefulness of CTCs as promising clinical markers. CTCs are traditionally achieved using immune-fluorescence and morphological techniques. By combining two prostate cancer-specific genes (PSA and PSMA) and two epithelial-specific genes (EpCAM and KRT19), the CTC detection efficiency can be enhanced. The detection rates of localized prostate cancer (LPC), locally advanced prostate cancer (LAPC), metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC), and metastatic castration-resistive prostate cancer (mCRPC) were 63.04 % (29/46), 70.59% (34/51), 94.34% (50/53), and 90% (126/140), respectively. Subsequent correlation analysis between the four genes, baseline PSA, and CTC count revealed that only the CTC count correlated with baseline PSA in the localized stages of prostate cancer, whereas all four genes were correlated with baseline PSA and CTC count in the metastatic stages of prostate cancer. The precise detection of CTCs using both numerical and transcriptomic analyses can improve the accuracy of biomarker investigations. This study provides valuable insights into the limitations of serum PSA testing and offers a promising alternative to diagnose and manage prostate cancer via the CTC number and specific genes for prostate cancer.

In this paper, the overall performance of Cu-(In,Ga)-Se₂ (CIGSe) solar cells was improved in the ultraviolet (UV)–visible wavelength region by two-segment process. In which, adjusting DC sputtering powers (20–40 W) for absorbers (segment I), and metal-alloy compositions (CdS, ZnO/CdS, ZnMgO/CdS and ZnMgO) for buffers (segment II) were explored and characterized. Upon choosing the optimal-30-W CIGSe-absorber (with 0.95-CGI ratio) sputtered by the segment-I process, the Cu-rich film can distinctly boost grain growth, thus reducing the trap state density. After segment-II process as the toxic-CdS alternative, the optimal Zn_0.9Mg_0.1O-alloy buffer can reach the best conversion efficiency (η = 8.70%) was attained for the environmental protection. Meanwhile, and the overall internal/external quantum efficiencies (IQE/EQE) were improved by 13.15%, respectively for the 2.48–3.62-eV bandgap (short wavelength) range. The developed photovoltaic (PV) module (with 9 optimum-CIGSe cells) exhibits acceptable stability with a variance within ±5% over the 60-day experiment. This discovery in PV-device research contributes to a new scientific understanding of renewable energy. Furthermore, this study undeniably enhances the progress of practical applications for PV-modules in alignment with sustainable development goals. It also actively supports the development of eco-friendly communities.

In recent years, exterior-rotor brushless DC motors have become increasingly popular in robotics applications due to their compact shape and high torque density. However, these motors were originally used for continuous operation in drones. For applications such as exoskeletons, prostheses, or legged robots, short bursts of high power are often required. Unfortunately, vendors do not typically provide data on the motors' performance under these conditions. This paper presents experimental data on the torque-speed relationship, efficiency, and thermal responses of one of the most widely used outrunner-type brushless motors across its full operating range, including high-power, short-duration operation. The results of this study can inform the selection and design of actuators for a range of robotics applications, particularly those that require high power output for brief periods of time.

A two-year-old male Pomeranian dog visited the hospital due to side effects of surgical correction for patellar luxation. Stifle joint arthrodesis (SJA) was performed on the patient’s right leg using autologous bone grafting techniques. The right leg’s femur and tibial joint were angled 120-130◦ and the SJA plate was fixed on the front of the two bones. After performing joint fusion of the right limb, medial patellar luxation (MPL)-corrective surgery was performed to cut the tibial tuberosity on the left leg and the fixing force was increased using the figure-of-eight tension band wiring technique. The results were observed for walking and trotting of the right hind limb, evaluated for 27 days after surgery. It was difficult for the patient to walk because weight loading was not performed for 3 days after surgery; short strides and partial weight bearing were possible 5 to 7 days after surgery. After 10 days, the patient was able to move while bearing weight with a slight disruption. For trotting, the patient showed intermittent normal steps 5 to 7 days after surgery, but the disruption continued. After 14 days, trotting was possible and movements were shown to be maintained during everyday activities.

Cisplatin (CDDP), an important chemotherapeutic agent, could result in potential hepatotoxicity, but the precious molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, the protective effect of ellagic acid (EA) on CDDP exposure-induced hepatotoxicity and underlying molecular mechanisms were investigated using a mouse model. Mice were randomly divided into control, CDDP model, EA100 (i.e., EA 100 mg/kg/day), and CDDP plus EA 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg/day. Mice in all CDDP-treated groups were intraperitoneally injected with CDDP 20 mg/kg/day for 2 days. In all EA co-treatments, mice were orally administrated with EA for 7 days. Our results found that, compared to the control group, CDDP treatment resulted in liver dysfunction, oxidative stress, and hepatocyte necrosis, which are effectively revised by EA supplementation in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, EA supplementation inhibited CDDP-induced the elevation of caspases-9 and -3 activities in the liver tissues of mice. Furthermore, EA supplementation significantly downregulated CDDP exposure-induced the increases of NF-κB, IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6 proteins and mRNAs, while further upregulated the expression of Nrf2, and HO-1 proteins and mRNAs. Taken together, our results reveal that EA supplementation could ameliorate CCDP-induced liver injury in mice via the opposite regulation of Nrf2/HO-1 and NF-kB pathways.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between smartphone addiction of middle school students and smartphone usage types, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), stress, interpersonal problems, and parenting attitude. This study was also performed with the aim of verifying the relationships among depression, ADHD, perceived stress, interpersonal problems, and parenting attitude, which are predictors of smartphone addiction. The subjects of this study were 487 local middle school students (234 males and 253 females). The measurement instruments used were the smartphone addiction scale, depression scale (PHQ-9), ADHD scale (K-ARS), perceived stress scale (PSS), interpersonal problem scale (KIIP-SC), and the parenting attitude scale. This study identified the relationships between the variables with correlation analysis and examined the predictors of smartphone addiction with hierarchical multiple regression analysis. According to the study results, the factors that influenced smartphone addiction were gender, stress, and interpersonal problems. In addition, when the confounding variables of smartphone addiction were controlled to examine the effects of smartphone usage types on smartphone addiction, social media use and music/videos were found to have a positively significant effect on smartphone addiction while study had a negatively significant effect. The order of the usage types with the highest influence on smartphone addiction was enjoying music/videos, social media use, and study. This suggests that selective intervention depending on the main smartphone usage type can be effective.

The association between the choice of general anesthetic agents and the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) and long-term renal function after nephrectomy has not yet been evaluated. We reviewed 1087 cases of partial or radical nephrectomy. The incidence of postoperative AKI, new-onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 3a and CKD upstaging were compared between different general anesthetic agent groups: propofol, sevoflurane, and desflurane. Four different propensity score analyses were performed to minimize confounding for each pair of comparison (propofol vs sevoflurane; propofol vs desflurane; sevoflurane vs desflurane; propofol vs volatile agents). Study outcomes were compared before and after matching. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis was performed to compare renal survival determined by the development of CKD stage 3a between groups up to 36 months after nephrectomy before and after matching. Propofol was associated with a lower incidence of AKI, CKD upstaging and a higher three-year renal survival after nephrectomy compared to sevoflurane or desflurane group after matching (AKI: propofol 23.2% vs. sevoflurane 39.5%, P=0.004, vs. desflurane 34.3%, P=0.031; CKD upstaging: propofol 27.2% vs. sevoflurane 58.4%, P<0.001, vs. desflurane 48.6%, P=0.017; Log-rank test propofol vs. sevoflurane P<0.001, vs. desflurane P=0.015). Propofol was also associated with a lower incidence of new-onset CKD after nephrectomy compared to sevoflurane after matching (P<0.001). However, there were no significant differences between sevoflurane and desflurane. In conclusion, propofol, compared to volatile agents, may be the reasonable choice of general anesthetic agent for nephrectomy to attenuate postoperative renal dysfunction. Randomized prospective trials are warranted to test this hypothesis.

The taxonomic identity and phylogenetic relationships of several southern African perennial taxa related to Frankenia repens are discussed. In particular, F. nodiflora Lam., a misunderstood species described from the Cape region and synonymised to F. pulverulenta, is restored for plants endemic to salt-pans and riverbeds in the coastal lowlands across the Cape plains (Western Cape Province, South Africa). Further, a revision of morphologically close plants, usually identified as F. pulverulenta or F. repens, also occurring in similar saline ecosystems of the inland western South Africa revealed the existence of two distinct new entities not matching any described taxa of the genus. Molecular analyses of nuclear ribosomal (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region) DNA sequence data together with morphological divergence allow recognition of those taxa at species rank, within an independent lineage close to F. repens. In consequence, two new species are described in the so-called “F. repens group”: F. nummularia from the Nama-Karoo Biome (Western Cape and Northern Cape Provinces), and F. namaquana from the Succulent Karoo Biome (Northern Cape Province). Full morphological description and type designation are reported for each accepted species, as well as data on ecology, habitat, distribution and taxonomic relationships to other close relatives are given. Further, an identification key is presented to facilitate recognition of the southern African taxa of Frankenia.

The broad emission bump in the electromagnetic spectra observed following the detection of gravitational waves created during the kilonova event of merger of two neutron stars in August 2017, GW170817, has been linked to the heavy elements of lanthanides (Z=57-71), and a new understanding of creation of heavy elements in the r-process. The initial spectral emission bump has a wavelength range of 3000 - 7000 \AA, thus covering the region of ultraviolet (UV) to optical (O) wavelengths, and is similar to those seen for lanthanides. Most lanthanides have large number of closely lying energy levels which introduce extensive sets of radiative transitions which often form broad region of lines of significant strength. The current study explores these broad features through photoabsorption spectroscopy of 25 lanthanides ions, Ho I-III, Er I-IV, Tm I-V, Yb I-VI and Lu I-VII. With excitations only to a few orbitals up beyond the ground configurations, we find most of these ions cover large number of bound levels with open $4f$ orbital and produce tens to about hundred thousands lines that may form one or multiple broad features in X-ray to UV, O, and infrared (IR) regions. Spectrum of each of 25 ions is presented indicating presence, shape and wavelength region of the features. Accuracy of atomic data to interpret the merger spectra has been a outstanding problem. The present study aims at providing improved atomic data for energies and transition parameters obtained using relativistic Breit-Pauli approximation implemented in the atomic structure code SUPERSTRUCTURE. The present data have been benchmarked with available experimental data for energies and transition parameters. The study finds that number of ions under the present study are possible contributors of the emission bump of GW170817. All atomic data will be made available online at NORAD-Atomic-Data database.

Vascular calcification (VC) is associated with increased cardiovascular risks in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, like empagliflozin, can improve cardiovascular and renal outcomes. We assessed the expression of Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor (Nrf2), and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) in inorganic phosphate–induced VC in mouse VSMCs to investigate the mechanisms underlying empagliflozin’s therapeutic effects. We evaluated biochemical parameters, mean artery pressure (MAP), pulse wave velocity (PWV), transcutaneous glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and histology in an in vivo mouse model with VC induced by an oral high-phosphorus diet following a 5/6 nephrectomy in ApoE−/− mice. Compared to the control group, empagliflozin-treated mice showed significant reductions in blood glucose, MAP, PWV, and calcification, as well as increased calcium and GFR levels. Empagliflozin inhibited osteogenic trans-differentiation by decreasing inflammatory cytokine expression and increasing AMPK, Nrf2, and HO-1 levels. Empagliflozin mitigates high phosphate–induced calcification in mouse VSMCs through the Nrf2/HO-1 anti-inflammatory pathway by activating AMPK. Animal experiments suggested that empagliflozin reduces VC in CKD ApoE−/− mice on a high-phosphate diet.

While human activities and climate change are threatening available natural ecosystems, targeted studies on the biological cycle, propagation, and cultivation of threatened species are crucial both for their conservation and sustainable exploitation. This study was designed to bridge extant research gaps regarding the vulnerable local endemic Campanula pelviformis, a wild edible green traditionally consumed in Crete (Greece) with agro-alimentary and medicinal interest as well as ornamental value. New knowledge was obtained on the abiotic environmental conditions prevailing in its wild habitats (natural distribution mapped in Geographical Information Systems and linked with open-source databases). We collected seeds from wild-growing populations (three lowland, two semi-mountainous), we tested their germination at four different temperatures (10, 15, 20 and 25oC) and under different light conditions (light/dark and darkness), and we performed fertilization trails [integrated nutrient management (INF), chemical fertilization (ChF), control] examining morphological and physiological characteristics, above- and below-ground macro- and micronutrients contents, as well as their phenol content and antioxidant capacity. There were population and temperature effects on seed germination and their interaction was statistically significant. Campanula pelviformis germinated better at 10 and 15 oC (&gt;85% for all populations) with no preference on light conditions (98.75% and 95% in light and dark conditions). The INF application increased root dry mass, chlorophyll content index and chlorophyll fluorescence compared to other treatments and was beneficial for macro- and micronutrients concentrations in above-ground parts compared to previously studied wild-growing material, while below-ground parts were positively impacted by both fertilization types. Total phenols and antioxidant capacity were both increased by ChF fertilization. The data furnished herein led to the re-evaluation and upgrade of the feasibility and the readiness timescale for its sustainable exploitation in different economic sectors.

The advancement of urban scholarship and the effective addressing of urban environment challenges necessitate the adoption of sophisticated analytical methods. Urban scholars and policymakers need advanced analytical methods to tackle issues like gentrification, housing affordability, and urban sprawl. Predictive models are crucial in the realm of urban studies, and hyperparameter tuning methods can significantly improve their accuracy and efficiency. Our study compares three such methods — Optuna, Random Search, and Grid Search — using a housing transaction dataset. We find that Optuna is not only 4 to 6 times faster than the other two methods when applied to Gradient Boosting Machine and Random Forest algorithms, but also achieves lower error values in key evaluation metrics on the test set, such as mean absolute error, mean squared error, mean absolute percentage error and root mean squared error.

This research deals with risk assessment for human life, man-made infrastructure, and agriculture in a landslide-prone area using GIS-based spatial methods. The study area landslide inventory map was prepared based on previous landslide information, aerial photograph analysis, and several field observations. A total of 550 landslides have been included with 182 debris flow and 368 soil slides. All included landslides were classified into two groups by random selection; half were used for model calibration and the rest were used for cross-validation. In the analysis, fourteen causative factors were vastly used, such as aspect, slope, curvature, elevation, topographic wetness index, forest timber diameter, forest type, forest crown density, forest age, land-use, geology, soil drainage, soil depth, and soil texture. Moreover, to identify the interaction between occurred landslides and causative factors, the affected pixels were divided into different sub-classes using a frequency ratio method. Based on the total dataset, three landslide susceptibility maps were constructed using Bayesian prediction, likelihood ratio, and fuzzy set method. By evaluating cross-validation and success rate curve, model susceptibility results were plotted with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) was estimated. In addition, for risk assessment, each social data layer such as agriculture, house, industry, business, road, river, population intensity, monetary value, and vulnerability level was added based on the local standard and incident time and was converted into US dollars. During the analysis, each method hazard map was used with a specific group of thematic data layers. Subsequently, for preparing the probability table, study area total pixels and predictive landslide affected pixels were considered. Matching with the affected pixels, a standard of 5000 pixels was selected to run the final evaluation. Based on the results, the agricultural field showed the highest vulnerability and estimated risk of US $ 16.3 million. Further, the man-made infrastructure map showed a risk of US $ 31.3 million. The total estimated population casualties were 6.77, which was relatively similar to the published data.