According to global data, there is a male reproductive potential decrease. Pathogenesis of male infertility often is associated with autoimmunity towards sperm antigens essential for fertilization. Antisperm autoantibodies (ASAs) have immobilizing and cytotoxic properties, impairing spermatogenesis, causing sperm agglutination, altering spermatozoa motility and acrosomal reaction, thus preventing ovum fertilization. Infertility diagnosis requires mandatory check for the ASAs. The concept of blood-testis barrier currently is re-formulated with emphasis of informational paracrine and juxtacrine effects, rather than simple anatomical separation. Aetiology of male infertility includes both autoimmune and non-autoimmune diseases, but equally develops through autoimmune links of pathogenesis. Varicocele commonly leads to infertility due to testicular ischemic damage, venous stasis, local hyperthermia, and hypoandrogenism. However, varicocelectomy can alter blood-testis barrier facilitating ASAs production as well. There are contradictory data on the role of ASAs in pathogenesis of varicocele-related infertility. Infection and inflammation both promote ASAs production due to “danger concept” mechanisms and because of antigen mimicry. Systemic pro-autoimmune influences like hyperprolactinemia, hypoandrogenism and hypothyroidism also facilitate ASAs production. Diagnostic value of various ASAs was not yet clearly attributed, and their cut-levels not agreed neither in sera nor in ejaculate. The assessment of the autoimmunity role in pathogenesis of male infertility is ambiguous.

Incidence of autoimmune diseases increases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) testing is a critical tool for their diagnosis. However, ANA prevalence in health increased over last decades, especially among young people. ANA in health occur in low concentrations, with prevalence up to 50% in some populations, which demands a cutoff revision. The review deals with origin and probable physiological or compensatory function of ANA in health, according to the concept of immunological clearance, theory of autoimmune regulation of cell functions and the concept of functional autoantibodies. Considering ANA titers ≤1:320 as a serological marker of autoimmune diseases seems inappropriate. The role of anti-DFS70/LEDGFp75 autoantibodies is highlighted as possible anti-risk biomarker for autoimmune rheumatic disorders. ANA prevalence in health is different in various regions due to several underlying causes discussed in the review, all influencing in additive combinations according to the concept of the mosaic of autoimmunity. Not only titer, but the HEp-2 IFA staining patterns, like AC-2, is also important. Accepting autoantibodies as a kind of bioregulators, not only upper, but also lower borders of their normal range should be determined. Not only their excess, but also lack of them or “autoimmunodeficiency” could be a reason of disorders.

Wave steepness is presented as an extension and a valuable add-on to the conventional set of sea state parameters retrieved from satellite altimetry data. Following physical model based on recent advances of weak turbulence theory wave steepness is estimated from directly measured spatial gradient of wave height. In this way the method works with altimetry trajectories rather than with point-wise data. Moreover, in contrast to widely used parametric models this approach provides us with instantaneous values of wave steepness and period. Relevance of single-track estimates of wave steepness (period) is shown for wave climate studies and confirmed by a simple probabilistic model. The approach is verified via comparison against buoy and satellite data including crossover points for standard 1 second data of Ku-band altimeters. High quality of the physical model and robustness of the parametric ones are examined in terms of global wave statistics. Prospects and relevance of both approaches in the ocean wave climate studies are discussed.

NSCLC is a very aggressive solid tumor, with a poor prognosis due to post-surgical recurrence. Analysis of the specific tumor and immune signatures of NSCLC samples is a critical step in prognostic evaluation and management decisions for patients after surgery. Routine histological assay has some limitations. Therefore, new diagnostic tools with the capability to quickly recognize NSCLC subtypes and correctly identify various markers are needed. We developed a technique for ex vivo expansion of cancer and immune cells from surgical tumor and lung tissue samples of patients with NSCLC (adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas) and their examination on ex vivo cell preparations and, parallelly, on histological sections after Romanovsky–Giemsa and immunofluorescent/immunochemical staining for cancer-specific and immune-related markers. As a result, PD-L1 expression was detected for some patients only by ex vivo analysis. Immune cell profiling in the tumor microenvironment revealed significant differences in the immunological landscapes between the patients’ tumors, with smokers’ macrophages with simultaneous expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, neutrophils, and eosinophils being the dominant populations. The proposed ex vivo analysis may be used as an additional diagnostic tool for quick examining cancer and immune cells in whole tumor samples and avoiding false negatives in histological assays.

Cloud computing refers to applications delivered as services over the Internet. Cloud systems employ policies that are inherently dynamic in nature and that depend on temporal conditions defined in terms of external events, such as the measurement of bandwidth, use of hosts, intrusion detection or specific time events. In this paper, we investigate an optimized resource management scheme named v-Mapper. The basic premise of v-Mapper is to exploit application-awareness concepts using software-defined networking (SDN) features. This paper makes three key contributions to the field: (1) We propose a virtual machine (VM) placement scheme that can effectively mitigate the VM placement issues for data-intensive applications; (2) We propose a validation scheme that will ensure that a service is entertained only if there are sufficient resources available for its execution and (3) We present a scheduling policy that aims to eliminate network load constraints. An evaluation was carried out with various benchmarks and demonstrated that v-Mapper shows improved performance over other state-of-the-art approaches in terms of average task completion time, service delay time and bandwidth utilization. Given the growing importance of supporting large-scale data processing and analysis in datacentres, the v-Mapper system has the potential to make a positive impact in improving datacentre performance in the future.

The genus Colias Fabricius, 1807 includes numerous taxa and forms with uncertain status and taxonomic position. Among such taxa are Colias mongola Alphéraky, 1897 and Colias tamerlana Staudinger, 1897, interpreted in the literature either as conspecific forms, as subspecies of different but morphologically somewhat similar Colias species, or as distinct species-level taxa. Based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, we reconstruct a phylogeographic pattern of the taxa in question. We recover and include in our analysis DNA barcodes of the century-old type specimens, the lectotype of C. tamerlana deposited in the Natural History Museum (Museum für Naturkunde), Berlin, Germany (ZMHU), the paralectotype of C. tamerlana and the lectoptype of C. mongola deposited in the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia (ZISP). Our analysis grouped all specimens within four (HP_I-HP-IV) deeply divergent but geographically poorly structured clades which did not support nonconspecifity of C. mongola–C. tamerlana. We also show that all studied females of the widely distributed haplogroup HP_II were infected with a single Wolbachia strain belonging to the supergroup B, while the males of this haplogroup, as well as all other investigated specimens, were not infected. Our data underline the relevance of large-scale sampling dataset analysis and the need of testing for Wolbachia infection to avoid erroneous phylogenetic reconstructions and species misidentification.

The increasing growth in knowledge about functioning of the nervous system of mammals and humans, as well as the significant neuromorphic technologies development in recent decades, have led to the emergence of a large number of brain-computer interfaces and neuroprosthetics for the regenerative medicine tasks. Neurotechnologies have traditionally been developed for therapeutic purposes to help or replace motor, sensory or cognitive abilities damaged by injury or disease. They also have significant potential for memory enhancement. However, there are still no fully developed neurotechnologies and neural interfaces capable of restoring or expanding cognitive functions, in particular memory, in mammals or humans. In this regard, the search for new technologies in the field of restoration of cognitive functions is an urgent task of modern neurophysiology, neurotechnology and artificial intelligence. Hippocampus is an important brain structure connected to memory and information processing in the brain. The aim of this paper is to propose an approach based on deep neural networks for prediction of hippocampal signals in CA1 region based on received biological input in CA3 region. We compare results of prediction for two widely used deep architectures: reservoir computing (RC) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks. Proposed study can be viewed as a first step in the complex task of the development of a neurohybrid chip, which allows one to restore memory functions in the damaged rodent hippocampus.

The method of micro-arc oxidation has been utilized to synthesize a protective biocompatible coating for a bioresorbable orthopedic Mg implant. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive research of micro-arc coatings based on diatomite – a biogenic material consisting of shells of diatom microalgae. The main focus of this study was the functionalization of diatomite-based micro-arc coatings by incorporating the particles of titania (TiO2) into them. Various properties of the resulting coatings were examined and evaluated. The XRD analysis has revealed the formation of a new magnesium orthosilicate phase – forsterite (Mg2SiO4). It has been established that the corrosion current density of the coatings has decreased by 2-4 orders of magnitude after the inclusion of TiO2 particles, depending on the coating process voltage. The adhesion strength of the coatings has increased following the particle incorporation. The processes of dissolution of both coated and uncoated samples in a sodium chloride solution were studied. The in vitro cell viability was assessed, which showed that the coatings significantly reduce the cytotoxicity of Mg samples.

Transcription is carried out in most eukaryotes by three multimeric complexes (RNA polymerases I, II and III). However, plants contain two additional RNA polymerases (IV and V), which have evolved from RNA polymerase II. RNA polymerases II, IV and V contain both common and specific subunits that may specialize some of their functions. In this study, we conducted a search for the genes that putatively code for the specific subunits of RNA polymerases IV and V, as well as the corresponding of RNA polymerase II in olive. Based on the homology with the genes of Arabidopsis thaliana, we identified 13 genes that putatively code for the specific subunits of polymerases IV and V, and 16 genes that code for the corresponding specific subunits of polymerase II in olive. The transcriptomic analysis by RNA-Seq revealed that the expression of the RNA polymerases IV and V genes was induced during the initial stages of fruit development. Given that RNA polymerases IV and V are involved in the transcription of long non-coding RNAs, we investigated their expression and observed relevant changes in the expression of this type of RNAs. Particularly, the expression of the intergenic and intronic long non-coding RNAs tended to increase in the early steps of fruit development, suggesting their potential role in this process. The positive correlation between the expression of RNA polymerases IV and V subunits and the expression of non-coding RNAs supports the hypothesis that RNA polymerases IV and V may play a role in fruit development throughout the synthesis of this type of RNAs.

Pathological aseptic calcification is the most common form of structural valvular degeneration (SVD), leading to premature failure of heart valve bioprostheses (BHVs). The processing methods used to obtain GA-fixed pericardium-based biomaterials determine the hemodynamic characteristics and durability of BHVs. This article presents a comparative study of the effects of several processing methods on the degree of damage to the ECM of GA-fixed pericardium-based biomaterials as well as on their biostability, biocompatibility, and resistance to calcification. Based on the assumption that preservation of the native ECM structure will enable the creation of calcinosis-resistant materials, this study provides a soft biomimetic approach for the manufacture of GA-fixed biomaterials using gentle decellularization and washing methods. It has been shown that the use of soft methods for preimplantation processing of materials, ensuring maximum preservation of the intactness of the pericardial ECM, radically increases the resistance of biomaterials to calcification. The data obtained are of interest for the development of new calcinosis-resistant biomaterials for the manufacture of BHVs.

In this work, we investigated the effects of heat treatment on the microstructure, hydrogen storage characteristics and corrosion rate of a Ti₃₄V₄₀Cr₂₄Fe₂ alloy. The arc melted alloy was divided into three samples, two of which were separately quartz-sealed under vacuum and heated to 1000 °C for 1 h; one of these samples was quenched and the other furnace cooled to ambient temperature. The crystal structures of the samples were studied via X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microscopy. Absorption/desorption characteristics were investigated using a Sievert apparatus. Potentiostat corrosion tests on the alloys were performed using an AutoLab^® corrosion test apparatus and electrochemical cell. All samples exhibited a mixture of body-center-cubic (BCC) and Laves phase structures. The corrosion rate, maximum absorption, and useful capacities increased after both heat treatments. The annealed sample had the highest absorption and reversible capacity. The plateau pressure of the as-cast alloy increased after quenching. The corrosion rate increased from 0.0004 mm/y in as-cast sample to 0.0009 mm/y after annealing and 0.0017 mm/y after quenching, due to a decrease in the Cr-content of the C14 phase.

The injectable hydrated calcium phosphate bone-like paste (hCPP) have been developed with suitable nanoscale characteristics and unindered injection through 23G standard needles. In vitro assays showed the cytocompatibility of hCPP with mesenchymal embryonic C3H10T1/2 cell cultures. The hCPPs were identified to be composed of aggregated nano-sized particles with sphere-like shapes with low crystallinity. The ability of serum proteins (FBS) to adsorb on hCPP particles was also studied. The hCPP demonstrated high protein adsorption capacity, thereby indicating its potential in various biomedical applications. The results of the in vivo assay upon subcutaneous injection in Wistar rats indicated the nontoxicity and biocompatibility of experimental hCPP, as well as the gradual resorption of hCPP, comparable to the period of bone regeneration. The data obtained are of great interest for the development of commercial highly effective osteoplastic materials for bone tissue regeneration and augmentation.

The ends of linear chromosomes of most eukaryotes consist of protein-bound DNA arrays called telomeres, which play essential roles in protecting genome integrity. Despite general evolutionary conservation in function, telomeric DNA is known to drastically vary in length and sequence between different eukaryotic lineages. Bryophytes are a group of early diverging land plants that include mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. This group of ancient land plants recently emerged as a new model for important discoveries in genomics and evolutionary biology, as well as for understanding plant adaptations to a terrestrial lifestyle. We measured telomere length in different ecotypes of model Bryophyte species, including Physcomitrium patens, Marchantia polymorpha, Ceratodon purpureus, and in Sphagnum isolates. Our data indicate that all analyzed moss and liverwort genotypes have relatively short telomeres. Furthermore, all analyzed ecotypes and isolates of model mosses and liverworts display evidence of substantial natural variation in telomere length. Interestingly, telomere length also differs between male and female strains of the dioecious liverwort M. polymorpha and dioecious moss C. purpureus. Given that Bryophytes are extraordinarily well-adapted to different ecological niches from polar to tropical environments, our data will contribute to understanding the impact of natural telomere length variation on evolutionary adaptations in this ancient land plant lineage.

Recent works identified ClpXP, mitochondrial caseinolytic protease, as the only target of imipridones - new class of antitumor agents. Our study of the mechanism of imipridone derivative TR-57 action in SUM159 human breast cancer cells demonstrated mitochondrial fragmentation, degradation of mitochondrial mtDNA and mitochondrial dysfunction, due to inhibition of Complex I and Complex II activity. Complete inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation accom-panied with 90, 94, 88 and 87% decrease in the content of Complex I, II, III and IV proteins, respectively. The content of the FOF1-ATPase subunits decreased sharply by approximately 35% after 24 hours and remained unchanged up to 72 hours of incubation with TR-57. At the same time, a disappearance of the ATPIF1, natural inhibitor of mitochondrial FOF1-ATPase observed after 24 h exposure to TR-57. ATPase inhibitor oligomycin had no effect on the mitochondrial membrane potential in intact SUM159, whereas it caused a 65% decrease in TR-57-treated cells. SUM159 cells incubated with TR57 up to 72 hours retained the level of proteins facilitating the ATP transfer across the mitochondrial membranes: VDAC1 expression was not affected, while expression of ANT-1/2 and APC2 increased by 20% and 40%, respectively. Thus, our results suggest that alt-hough TR-57 treatment lead to complete inhibition of respiratory chain activity of SUM159 cells, hydrolysis of cytoplasmic ATP by reversal activity of FOF1-ATPase supports mitochondrial polarization.

Analysis of telomere length is an important component of many studies aiming to characterize the role of telomere maintenance mechanisms in cellular lifespan, disease, or in general chromosome protection and DNA replication pathways. Several powerful methods to accurately measure telomere length from Southern blots have been developed, but their utility for large-scale genomic studies has not been previously evaluated. Here we performed comparative analysis of two recently developed programs, TeloTool and WALTER, for extracting mean telomere length values from Southern blots. Using both software packages, we measured telomere length in two extensive experimental datasets for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, consisting of 537 natural accessions and 65 T-DNA mutant lines in the Col-0 reference background. We report that TeloTool substantially overestimates telomere length in comparison to WALTER, especially for values over 4,500 bp. Importantly, TeloTool and WALTER-calculated telomere length values correlate the most in the 2,100-3,500 bp range, suggesting that telomeres in this size interval can be estimated by both programs equally well. We further show that genome-wide association studies using datasets from both telomere length analysis tools can detect the most significant SNP candidates equally well. However, GWAS analysis with the WALTER dataset consistently detects fewer significant SNPs than analysis with the TeloTool dataset, regardless of the GWAS method used. These results imply that telomere length data generated by WALTER may represent a more stringent approach to GWAS and SNP selection for downstream molecular screening of candidate genes. Overall, our work revealed the unanticipated impact of telomere length analysis method on the outcomes of large-scale genomic screens.

The use of probiotics in reproductive-related dysbiosis is an area of continuous progress due to the growing interest from clinicians and patients suffering recurrent reproductive microbiota disorders. An imbalance in the natural colonization sites related to reproductive health: vaginal, cervicovaginal, endometrial and also pregnancy-related altered microbiota could play decisive role in reproductive outcomes. Oral and vaginal administrations are in continuous discussion regarding the clinical effect pursued, but probiotics as oral supplement therapy is the route administration better studied. To complement and summarise with qualitative and quantitative information of vaginal probiotics clinical studies, the main objective of this work was to retrieve the standardised protocols commonly used and their microbiota modulation capacities. The studies selected were related to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV) as the most commonly disorder, few studies on vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and also administration to stabilise microbiota before in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Probiotic doses administered were similar to oral probiotics protocols, ranging from ≥ 107 CFU/day to 2.5 x 1010 CFU/day, and variable regarding posology duration from 1 day to 12 weeks, being 1 week commonly applied. Moderate modulation was achieved regarding the relative abundance decrease of abnormal microbiota, coinciding with parallel increase in Lactobacillus species.

Neutral beam injection (NBI) is used for thermonuclear plasma heating, non-inductive current drive, rotation, operation scenario control, and for plasma diagnostics in nuclear fusion devices. NBI is the main source of fast particles in plasma which transmit energy to thermal plasma during their slow-down. Steady-state tokamak operation is only possible when the sub-thermal particles energy is absorbed and effectively confined in plasma volume. While NBI purposes and applications vary through different fusion systems, the engineering tasks performed during research and development (R&D) stage of neutral beamline design have much in common. The NBI studies, especially addressing long pulse and high-power operation typically include a beam transmission analysis and power loads distribution at the structural components of the beamline. Thermo-structural analysis is applied next to heat removal circuits design. ‘Beam Transmission’ (BTR) code is a dedicated tool, developed by a physicist and used by NBI physicists and engineers. BTR was created and 1^st applied during R&D phase of the world’s largest tokamak ITER. BTR code is intended for public usage and routinely applied for detailed simulations of neutral beam propagation through complex beamlines. BTR is flexible and intuitive in input, user-friendly and fully interactive. Thanks to visualization and high performance BTR looks and feels like a real NB flight simulator. Despite BTR ‘mature’ age, the code is still in evolution. Support is available to all new BTR users.

For development and successful application of any material, a clear understanding of their mechanical behavior is one of the most important things, but when it comes to nanofibers networks it become a challenge due to, their high porosity, many scales in their structure, and characteristics non-linear. Therefore, an experimental methodology in conjunction with a theoretical model that can fully consider their characteristics is still needed. In this work we proposed a model that incorporates the propagation of the elastic waves in two-phase media to determine the effective elastic modulus of electrospun membranes of PLA/gelatin given the mechanical properties of nanofibers, shape, distribution and concentration. The model was verified via laser ultrasonic testing. It was found that the values predicted for the effective modulus by the model were higher than the values obtained from experimental results. One explanation is due to the experimental density. As a result, the P-Wave velocity from the model best fit to experimental results and it has the same behavior, decrees as the concentration of gelatin in the solution. These results indicate the model and experimental methodology can assist in the dressing of nanofibers networks and electrospun materials.

Gender parity, is an important standard to be achieved by a society in which men and women are treated equally. The distinctions in the treatment may arise from psychology, biology, or cultural norms constructed by society. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many areas including health, education, personality, life expectancy, sports, interests, political empowerment, and careers. However, we are still far from reaching the objective, because there are conducts such as gender discrimination and expressions such as the purplewashing. In relation to feminism, purplewashing is used to define a diversity of marketing and political strategies intended at promoting people, companies, associations, and other organizations through an appeal to gender equality: they use only some of the feminist values at their convenience and in its actions, they are not really supportive of gender equality. In this opinion we aimed to address some of the reasons for inequality of opportunities based on gender; purplewashing is described as an expression that takes away the visibility of women's struggle. Additionally, we touch on some actions that promote gender equality in the family, educational, and work environments. Global leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to build gender-sensitive societies and economies. The challenges facing women today are essentially the same as they were a long time ago. It is time to break the bias.

Fractal array antennas are multiband arrays having ultra wide band and space filling facility. But Side lobe levels and large number of antenna elements are the major designing challenges of these arrays. In this paper, design and analysis of octagonal fractal array antenna is investigated with Morse-Thue fractal density tapering technique (MTFDT). Due to the proposed technique, a remarkable improvement has observed in Side lobe levels and thinning of the elements can also be attained at the various iterations of octagonal fractal array antenna. These arrays are analyzed and simulated by MATLAB-15 programming.

Today, mechanical tracking systems have been downsized to allow them to be used in the field of airborne laser communications and in the military domain. Risley systems are used for this purpose, which work by directing a beam of light to a given target point, this procedure is commonly known as the inverse problem. In this paper, an analytical method, the geometric method, has been designed and developed to determine the beam steering in a Risley system and solve the inverse problem. The method focuses on different geometric shapes, like circumference or ellipse, that are described when the beam passes through the second prism. The accuracy and efficiency of the geometric method has been analysed and found to be faster than the two-step method. Furthermore, the geometric method has been implemented in an iterative process and an accuracy of up to 1 pm has been achieved. This high accuracy would allow the geometric method to be applied in fields such as lithography, stereolithography or 3D printers.

Lymphedema refers to a group of disorders characterized by the accumulation of protein-rich fluid in the interstitial tissues, resulting from an imbalance between lymph production and it’s drainage via lymphatic vessels. More than 10 types of isolated primary LD is described, and among them CELSR1-associated lymphedema are one of the less studied. A family with two sibs, a 17-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, both diagnosed with primary LD, presented to the clinic. Both patients were observed with primary symptoms of LD at 2-3 months of age, presented by the swelling of right foot. Lymphatic pathologies were not diagnosed in parents or close relatives. The rare c.7664A>C variant, resulting in the H2555P missense mutation in the intracellular loop of CELSR1 transmembrane domain, was discovered in a patients. The clinical signs, MRL scanning data, in silico predictors and the absence of known pathogenic mutations or rare variants of unknown significance in other genes, associated with the development of primary lymphedema, allow us to assume that c.7664A>C variant of CELSR1 may be responsible for pathogenesis of the disease in the presented family case.

The study of the impact of polyQ expansion driven proteotoxicity on cell metabolism has evi-denced NAD molecule as a central player in regulating metabolic response and cell repair in neurodegeneration. The decline in NAD intracellular levels represents a hallmark of ageing aris-ing from a dysregulation between NAD-consuming and biosynthetic enzymatic reactions in which NMNAT plays a key role. By an integrated bioanalytical and proteomic experimental design, the derangement of NAD metabolism deriving from the accumulation of polyQ-Htt protein has been analysed in Saccha-romices cerevisiae harbouring a 103Q-Htt and compared with wild-type Htt, in absence and in presence of a phenolic extract from EVOO, as a source of antioxidant bioactive compounds. Quantification of NAD and its precursors and proteomic analysis of the differential protein ex-pression has been performed by LC-DAD-MS. Chronological lifespan and NAD homeostasis was strongly impaired by proteotoxic polyQ-Htt, eliciting a depletion of NAD levels and accumulation of NaMN. In parallel a downregulation of Sirt2 expression levels has been observed. Phenolic extract administration had no meaningful ef-fects on NAD replenishment to prevent proteotoxicity. NaMN can represent a biomarker of accel-erated aging, and/or a signaling molecule for cell repair.

We investigate the production of an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) via the phase-matching gating of high-harmonic generation by intense laser pulses. Our study is based on the integration of the propagation equation for the fundamental and generated fields with nonlinear polarisation found via the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. We study the XUV energy as a function of the propagation distance (or the medium density) and find that the onset of the IAP production corresponds to the change from linear to quadratic dependence of this energy on the propagation distance (or density). Finally, we show that the upper limit of the fundamental pulse duration for which the IAP generation is feasible is defined by the temporal spreading of the fundamental pulse during the propagation. This nonlinear spreading is defined by the difference of the group velocities for the neutral and photoionised medium.

In this study, the term dimension is introduced on fuzzy(neutrosophic) graphs. The classes of these specific graphs are chosen to obtain some results based on dimension. The types of crisp notions and fuzzy(neutrosophic) notions are used to make sense about the material of this study and the outline of this study uses some new notions which are crisp and fuzzy(neutrosophic).

The prevailing interpretations of physics are based on deeply entrenched assumptions, rooted in classical mechanics. Logical implications include: the denial of entropy as a fundamental physical property, and the inability to explain irreversible change, random quantum measurements, or nonlocality without untestable and implausible metaphysical implications. We propose a conceptual model that is based on empirically justifiable assumptions and consistent with observations. The WYSIWYG Conceptual Model (WCM) assumes no hidden properties: “What You can See Is What You Get.” The WCM contextually defines a system’s state with respect to its actual ambient background, and it extends existing models of physical reality by defining entropy and exergy as objective contextual properties of state. The WCM establishes the irreversible dissipation of exergy and the Second law of thermodynamics as a fundamental law of physics, it recognizes physical randomness, and it provides a physical explanation for nonlocality, consistent with Special Relativity, without hidden variables, superdeterminism, or “spooky action.”

In the present study, the efficiency of a biomimetic approach by coating demineralized bone matrix (DBM) amorphous calcium phosphate (DBM+CaP), including its combination with serum albumin (DBM+CaP+BSA), was investigated. The intact structure of DBM promotes the transformation of amorphous calcium phosphate (CaP) into DPCD with a characteristic plate shape and particle size of 5–35 µm. The inclusion of BSA in the coating resulted in a better and more uniform distribution of CaP on the surface of DBM trabeculae. MG63 cells showed that both the obtained forms of CaP and its complex with BSA did not exhibit cytotoxicity up to a concentration of 10 mg/ml in vitro. Ectopic (subcutaneous) implantation in rats revealed pronounced biocompatibility, as well as strong osteoconductive, osteoinductive, and osteogenic effects for both DBM+CaP and DBM+CaP+BSA, but more pronounced effects for DBM+CaP+BSA. In addition, for the DBM+CaP+BSA samples, a pronounced full physiological intrafibrillar biomineralization and proangiogenic effect with the formation of bone-morrow-like niches, accompanied by pronounced processes of intramedullary hematopoiesis, indicating a powerful osteogenic effect of this composite have been achieved.

The aim of this work is to introduce new ways to model the I-V characteristic of a PV cell or PV module using straight lines and Bézier curves. This is a complete novel approach, Bézier curves being previously used mainly for computer graphics. The I-V characteristic is divided in three sections, modeled with lines and a quadratic Bézier curve in the first case and with three cubic Bézier curves in the second case. The result proves to be accurate and relies on the fundamental points usually present in the PV cell datasheets: Voc (the open circuit voltage), Isc (the short circuit current), Vmp (the maximum power corresponding voltage) and Imp (the maximum power corresponding current) and the parasitic resistances Rsh0 (shunt resistance at Isc) and Rs0 (series resistance at Voc). The proposed algorithm completely defines all the implied control points and the error is analyzed. The temperature and irradiance influence is also analyzed. The model is also compared using the least squares fitting method. The final validation shows how to use Bézier cubic curves to accurately represent the I-V curves of an extensive range of PV cells and arrays.

BACKGROUNDː The so-called Low Cardiac Output Syndrome (LCOS) is one of the most common complications in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease undergoing corrective surgery. LCOS requires high concentrations of inotropes to support cardiac contractility and improve cardiac output, allowing for a better systemic perfusion. To date, serum lactate concentrations and central venous oxygen saturation (ScVO2) are the most commonly used perfusion markers, but they are not completely reliable to identify a state of global tissue hypoxia. The study aims to evaluate whether the venoarterial carbon dioxide difference/arterial-venous oxygen difference ratio [P(v-a)CO2/C(a-v)O2] can be a good index to predict the development of LCOS in the aforemen-tioned patients, so as to treat it promptly. METHODSː This study followed a population of 98 children undergoing corrective cardiac surgery from June 2018 to October 2020 at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of University Hospital Inte-grated Trust and their subsequent admission at the Postoperative Cardiothoracic Surgery Intensive Care Unit. During the study, central arterial and venous blood gas analysis were carried out before and after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) (pre-CPB and post-CPB), at admission to intensive care unit, before and after extubation and at any time of instability or modification of the patient’s clinical and therapeutic conditions. RESULTSː The data analysis shows that 46.9% of the children developed a LCOS (in line with the current literature) but that there is no statistically significant association between the P(v-a)CO2/C(a-v)O2 ratio and LCOS onset. Despite the limits of statistical significance, however, a 31% increase in the ratio emerged from the pre-CPB phase to the post-CPB phase when LCOS is present. CONCLUSIONSː This study confirms a statistically significant association between the most used markers in adult patients (serum lactate concentration, ScVO2 and oxygen extraction ratio-ERO2) measured in the pre-CPB phase and the incidence of LCOS onset, especially in patients with he-modynamic instability before surgery.

Control over the composition of III-V ternary nanowires grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method is essential for bandgap engineering in such nanomaterials and fabrication of functional nanowire heterostructures for a variety of applications. From the fundamental viewpoint, III-V ternary nanowires based on group V intermix (InSbxAs1-x, InPxAs1-x, GaPxAs1-x and many others) present the most difficult case, because the concentrations of highly volatile group V atoms in a catalyst droplet are beyond the detection limit of any characterization technique and therefore principally unknown. Here, we present a model for the vapor-solid distribution of such nanowires, which fully circumvents the uncertainties that remained in the theory so far, and link the nanowire composition to the well-controlled parameters of vapor. The unknown concentrations of group V atoms in the droplet do not enter the distribution, despite of the fact that a growing solid is surrounded by the liquid phase. The model fits quite well the available data on the vapor-solid distributions of VLS InSbxAs1-x, InPxAs1-x and GaPxAs1-x nanowires grown with different catalyst. Even more importantly, it provides a basis for the compositional control of III-V ternary nanowires based on group V intermix, and can be extended over other material systems where two highly volatile elements enter a ternary solid alloy through a liquid phase.

The radiative heat transfer in arc plasma models is considered from the point of view of its description in terms of a net emission coefficient, the method of spherical harmonics in its lowest order, and the discrete ordinate method. Net emission coefficients are computed applying approximate and numerical approaches, the multi-band representation of the spectral absorption coefficient with three kinds of its averaging and two datasets. The self-consistent access to the radiative heat transfer is applied to a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of free-burning arc in argon at atmospheric pressure. The results obtained from the models employing the net emission coefficient, the method of spherical harmonics, and the discrete ordinate method are compared.

We prove an analog of the removable singularity theorem for bounded harmonic functions on stratified sets. The harmonic functions are understood in the sense of the soft Laplacian. The result can become one of the main technical components for extending the well-known Poincaré–Perron’s method of proving the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for the soft Laplacian.

Background: Fullerenes and metallofullerenes can be considered promising nanopharmaceuticals themselves and as a basis for chemical modification. As reactive oxygen species homeostasis plays a vital role in cells, the study of their effect on genes involved in oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory response is of particular importance. Methods: Human fetal lung fibroblasts were incubated with aqueous dispersions of C60, C70, and Gd@C82 in concentrations of 5 nM and 1.5 µM for 1, 3, 24, and 72 hours. Cell viability, intracellular ROS, NOX4, NFκB, PRAR-γ, NRF2, heme oxygenase 1, and NAD(P)H quinone dehydrogenase 1 expression have been studied. Results & conclusion: The aqueous dispersions of C60, C70, and Gd@C82 fullerenes are active participants in ROS homeostasis. Low and high concentrations of AFDs have similar effects. C70 was the most inert substance, C60 was the most active substance. All AFDs have both a “prooxidant” and “antioxidant” effect, but with a different balance. Gd@C82 was a substance with more pronounced antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, while C70 had more pronounced “prooxidant” properties.

F-type ATP synthases play a key role in oxidative and photophosphorylation processes producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for most biochemical reactions in living organisms. In contrast to the mitochondrial FOF1-ATP synthases those of chloroplasts are known to be mostly monomers with approx. 15% fraction of oligomers interacting presumably non-specifically in a thylakoid membrane. To shed light to the nature of this difference we studied interactions of the chloroplast ATP synthases using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) method. Here, we report evidence of I-shaped dimerization of solubilized FOF1-ATP synthases from spinach chloroplasts at different salinity. The structural data were obtained by SAXS and showed dimerization in response to changes in ionic strength. The best model describing SAXS data was two ATP-synthases connected through F1/F1’ parts, presumably via their δ-subunits, forming dimers with the “I” shape. Such I-shaped dimers might possibly connect the neighboring lamellae in thylakoid stacks assuming that the FOF1 monomers comprising such dimers are embedded in different thylakoid membranes. If this type of dimerization exists in nature, it might be one of the pathways of inhibition of chloroplast FOF1-ATP synthase for preventing of ATP hydrolysis in dark, when salinity in plant chloroplasts is rising. Together with a redox switch inserted into a γ-subunit of chloroplast FOF1 and lateral oligomerization, an I-shaped dimerization might comprise a subtle regulatory process of ATP synthesis and stabilize the structure of thylakoid stacks in chloroplasts.

A polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) composed of 50 wt% poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) as its base polymer, 40 wt% Aliquat® 336 as its extractant and 10 wt% dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as plasticizer provided efficient extraction of vanadium(V) from its sulfate solutions adjusted to pH 2.5. It was suggested that V(V) was extracted as VO2SO4− via an anion exchange mechanism. Quantitative back-extraction was achieved in a sulfuric acid solution (6 mol L-1) containing 1 v/v% of hydrogen peroxide. It was assumed that the back-extraction process involved the oxidation of VO2+ to VO(O2)+ by hydrogen peroxide. The newly developed PIM with the optimized composition mentioned above exhibited excellent selectivity for V(V) in the presence of metallic species present in digests of spent alumina hydrodesulfurization catalysts (i.e., Al(III), Co(II), Cu(II), Fe(III), Mn(II), and Ni(II)). The co-extraction of Mo(VI) with V(V) was eliminated by its selective extraction at pH 1.1. The optimized PIM was characterized by contact angle measurements, atomic-force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)/derivatives thermogravimetric analysis (DTGA), and the stress-strain measurements.

In this paper, we define a (p,v)-extension of Hurwitz-Lerch Zeta function by considering an extension of beta function defined by Parmar et al. [J. Classical Anal. 11 (2017) 81–106]. We obtain its basic properties which include integral representations, Mellin transformation, derivative formulas and certain generating relations. Also, we establish the special cases of the main results.

A novel low-power MOS-only voltage reference is presented. The Enz-Krummenacher-Vittoz (EKV) model is adopted to provide a new perspective on the operating principle. The normalized charge density, introduced as a new variable, serves as an indicator when trimming the output temperature coefficient. The proposed voltage reference consists of a specific current generator and a 5-bit trimmable load. Thanks to the well-match between the current source stage and the output stage, the non-linear temperature dependence of carrier mobility is automatically canceled out. The circuit is designed in 55 nm COMS technology. The operating temperature ranges from -40 ∘C to 120 ∘C. The average temperature coefficient of the output voltage can be reduced to 21.7 ppm/∘C by trimming. The power consumption is only 23.2 nW with a supply voltage of 0.8 V. The line sensitivity and the power supply rejection ratio at 100 Hz are 0.011 %/V and -89 dB respectively.

This review summarizes the most recent developments of research on protozoan parasite infections ac-quired through food and drinking water and is aimed at gathering updated knowledge on the risk factors, illnesses caused, and measures for prevention. Reports included dated from 2019 to the present and regarded recent outbreaks and cases of severe infec-tions, prevalence in different population segments and food handlers, and occurrence in food and drinking water. Cryptosporidium spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia intestinalis, Trypanosoma cruzi and Toxoplasma gondii were the microorganisms most frequently involved in large outbreaks and/or severe infections, while Cyclospora cayetanensis was most frequently involved in single case reports. Cystoisospora belli was implied in severe infections in immunocompromised patients, while Blastocystis homi-nis, Sarcocystis spp., Dientamoeba fragilis, Endolimax nana and Pentatrichomonas hominis appeared to be less relevant for number of symptomatic infections and pathogenic potential. A progressive improvement in surveillance of protozoan infections and infection sources was highlighted, especially in developed countries. The apparent increase in cases was concomitant with the implementa-tion of reporting systems and the application of molecular diagnostic methods that represent valuable in-struments for establishing epidemiological links and preventing or limiting outbreaks. The pathogenic role and sources of infection should be better elucidated for some species.

Transketolase (TKT) is an essential thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent enzyme of the non-oxidative branch of pentose phosphate pathway, with the glucose-6P flux through the pathway regulated in various medically important conditions. Here, we characterize the brain TKT regulation by acylation in rats with perturbed thiamine-dependent metabolism, known to occur in neurodegenerative diseases. The perturbations are modelled by administration of oxythiamine inhibiting ThDP-dependent enzymes in vivo, or by reduced thiamine availability in the presence of metformin and amprolium, inhibiting intracellular thiamine transporters. Compared to control rats, chronic administration of oxythiamine does not significantly change the modification level of the two detected TKT acetylation sites (K6 and K102), but doubles malonylation of TKT K499, concomitantly decreasing 1.7-fold the level of demalonylase sirtuin 5. The inhibitors of thiamine transporters do not change average levels of TKT acylation or sirtuin 5. TKT structures indicate that the acylated residues are distant from the active sites. The acylations-perturbed electrostatic interactions may be involved in conformational shifts and/or formation of TKT complexes with other proteins or nucleic acids. Acetylation of K102 may affect the active site entrance/exit and subunit interactions. Correlation analysis reveals that the action of oxythiamine is characterized by significant negative correlations of K499 malonylation or K6 acetylation with TKT activity, not observed upon the action of the inhibitors of thiamine transport. However, the transport inhibitors induce significant negative correlations between the TKT activity and K102 acetylation or TKT expression, absent in the oxythiamine group. Thus, perturbations in the ThDP-dependent catalysis or thiamine transport manifest in the insult-specific patterns of the brain TKT malonylation and acetylations.

Abstract: Two novel low-dimensional molecular magnetic materials were prepared by a self-assembling of 3d- and 5d-metal complexes. These are the first neutral heterobimetallic cyanobridged compounds involving one anisotropic Mn(III) Schiff base complex and one octacyanotungstate(V) per molecular unit. A slow diffusion of the constituents’ solutions leads to a formation of the 0D crystalline complex 1 due to coordination of a water molecule to the Mn center prevents a polymer formation. A rapid mixing of reagents results in a precipitation of the microcrystalline powder of the complex 2, which on a totality of experimental data possess 1D polymeric structure. The magnetic studies have shown that antiferromagnetic exchange interactions are dominating in 1 J/k_B= -13.1(7) K, D=-3.0(1.3) K, zJ'= -0.16(20) K and g_av=2.00(1); while the presence of the significant intramolecular Mn(III)–W(V) ferromagnetic couplings through cyanide bridges is characteristic for 2 (J/k_B = 46.1(5) K g_Mn = 2.11(3), fixed g_W = 2.0). Due to the weak interchain interactions, zJ'/k_B = –0.8(2) K, compound 2 is a metamagnet with the Néel temperature of 9.5 K undergoing a spin-flip transition at 2 kOe. The slow magnetization dynamics of 2 was investigated at DС field of 0 and 2 kOe, giving the values of τ₀ 32(15) and 36(15) ps respectively, well within the range typical for SCMs. The respective ∆_τ/k_B values were 48.4(1.2) and 44.9(1.0) K.

The incremental sheet forming represents a relatively recent technology that guarantees high customization, thanks to the layered manufacturing principle typical of rapid prototyping, and cost-effectiveness, because it does not require dedicated equipment. Research has initially shown that this process is effective in metal materials capable of withstanding plastic deformation but, in recent years, the interest in this technique has been increasing for the manufacture of complex polymer sheet components as an alternative to the conventional technologies, based on heating-shaping-cooling manufacturing routes. Conversely, incremental formed polymer sheets can suffer from some peculiar defects, for example twisting. To reduce the risk of this phenomenon and the occurrence of failures, a viable way is to choose toolpath strategies that make the tool/sheet contact conditions less severe, and this represents the main goal of the present research. Polycarbonate sheets were worked by incremental forming; in detail, cone frusta with a fixed wall angle were manufactured with a reference and a stair toolpath strategy, and both the forming forces and the twist angle were monitored. The analysis of the results highlighted that a stair toolpath involving an alternation of diagonal up and vertical down steps represents a useful strategy to mitigate the forming forces and, with them, the occurrence of the twisting phenomenon in incremental formed thermoplastic sheets.

Bacillus licheniformis produce several classes of antimicrobial substances which are mainly either peptides or proteins. Among of them bacteriocins - peptides or proteins of different structural composition including synthesized by bacteria ribosomally; non-ribosomally synthesized peptides and cyclic lipopeptides; exopolysaccharides. Different representatives of these classes act against Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria, fungal pathogens and amoebae cells. In this review, a detailed classification of antimicrobial substances produced by B. licheniformis based on their chemical structure and mode of the synthesis and activity is presented. For some (rather limited number) of secreted antimicrobials mechanism of their harmful effect on the target cells is established, however, for many of them it remains unknown. The antimicrobial activity for most substances was studied in vitro only, however some substances were characterized in vivo and are found practical applications in medicine and veterinary. The cyclic lipopeptides with surfactant properties are applied in industry. In this review, a special attention on antimycobacterials produced by B. licheniformis is made as a possible approach to combat multidrug resistant and latent tuberculosis. Indeed, a number of peptides and proteins revealed strong antimycobacterial activity. However, medical application of some bacteriocins with promising in vitro antimycobacterial activity is limited by their toxicity for animals and humans. In this connection, similarly with the enhancement of the antimycobacterial activity of natural bacteriocins using genetic engineering, reduction of the toxicity by the same approach looks feasible. A unique capability of B. licheniformis to synthesize and produce a bouquet of different antibacterial compounds allow to consider this organism as a universal natural vehicle for antibiotic substances in form of probiotic cultures strains to combat various types of pathogens including mycobacteria.

The paper presents an analysis of the method of recording the magnetic component of the Earth’s natural pulse electromagnetic field in an urban environment. This method of recording has already proved itself to be a method that allocates the stressed sections of rock mass at mining and, therefore, authors suppose its effectiveness for allocating active tectonic disturbances and forecasting accidents at underground utilities, what will help reduce the potential environmental hazard of these objects.

Analyses of the three predominant types of sedimentation – clastic, carbonate and black shale – revealed their discontinuity/continuity in different facies environments of the Middle and Late Devonian of the central part of the Volga-Urals petroleum province, namely (1) in depressions, both condensed and non-condensed, (2) on the slopes of depressions and (3) in shallow water environments represented by tectonic arches or localised biohermal uplifts. The regional zonation of conodonts, correlated with the global chronostratigraphic scheme, substantiates the stratigraphic completeness of the general Devonian sequence in this area. In particular, the sedimentation of organic-rich black shales, traditionally considered as source rocks, lasted more than 29 million years, starting from the Late Eifel and ending at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. There was only one hiatus in the deposition of both black shales and carbonate sediments, lasting about 2.5 million years at the end of the Frasnian. That interval is dominated by clastic sediments, which are considered to be the most productive reservoirs of the Volga-Ural province. In the time interval from the beginning of the Eifel to the end of the Frasnian (about 17 Ma), (a) clastic sediments show the highest accumulation rates; (b) the most complete sequences occur in depressions; and (c) arches and uplifts show the most significant gaps in the geological record. During Famennian, (a) clastic sedimentation has completely ceased; (b) differences between the slopes of troughs and shallow-water environments have diminished, resulting in stable accumulation of carbonate sediments in both settings; (c) the decrease in sequence thickness (up to 50 m) in depressions suggests reduced accumulation rates of deep-water organic-rich black shales. The results help to understand the complex spatial relationship between different coexisting sedimentation types and focus attention to the incompleteness of the geological record in different environments.

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

The development of magnesium calcium phosphate bone cements (MCPCs) have garnered big attention. MCPCs are bioactive and biodegradable and have appropriate mechanical and antimicrobial properties for use in reconstructive surgery. In this study, the cement powders based on a (Ca + Mg)/P = 2 system doped with Zn2+ at 0.5 and 1.0 wt.% were obtained and investigated. After the mixing with a cement liquid, structural and phase composition, morphology, chemical structure, setting time, compressive strength, degradation behavior, solubility, antibacterial activities, and in vitro behaviour of the cement materials were examined. A high compressive strength of 48 ± 5 MPa (mean ± SD) was achieved for the cement made from Zn2+ 1.0-wt.%-substituted powders. The Zn2+ introduction led to antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains, with an inhibition zone diameter up to 8 mm. Biological assays confirmed that the developed cements are cytocompatible and promising as a potential bone substitute in reconstructive surgery.

Sulfite and kraft pulping are two principal methods of industrial delignification of wood. In recent decades, those have been considered as possibilities to pretreat recalcitrant wood lignocellulosics for enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides and subsequent fermentation of obtained sugars to valuable bioproducts. Current work compares chemistry and technological features of two different cooking processes in the preparation of polysaccharide substrates for deep sacchari-fication with P. verruculosum glycosyl hydrolases. Bleached kraft and sulfite pulps were subjected to hydrolysis with enzyme mixture of high xylanase, cellobiohydrolase and β-glucosidase activities at a dosage of 10 FPU/g of dry pulp and fiber concentration of 2.5, 5 and 10%. HPLC was used to analyze soluble sugars after hydrolysis and additional acid inversion of oligomers to monosaccharides. Kraft pulp demonstrated higher pulp conversion after 48 h (74-99%), mostly resulted from deep xylan hydrolysis. Sulfite-pulp hydrolysates, obtained in similar conditions, due to higher hexose concentration (more than 50 g/L), had higher fermentability for industrial strains producing alcohols, microbial protein or organic acids. Along with saccharification, enzymatic modification of non-hydrolysed residues occurred, which led to decreased degree of polymerization and composition changes in two industrial pulps. As a result, crystallinity of kraft pulp increased by 1.3%, which opens possibilities for obtaining new types of cellulosic products in pulp and paper industry. The high adaptability and controllability of enzymatic and fermentation processes creates prospects for the modernization of existing factories.

Knowing professionals’ attitudes is the basis for the development of skills for dealing with drug dependence. These attitudes may affect patients’ clinical safety and the cost-benefit ratio of the interventions. The goal of this study was to assess emergency and mental health nurses’ attitudes and perceptions towards alcoholics. A multicenter prospective descriptive study was conducted in six hospitals with 167 emergency and mental health nurses. Nurses classified alcoholics as sick individuals, although there was a tendency to feel comfortable working with them. Results indicated that these professionals had a rejecting attitude towards moderate alcohol consumption. We found a significant association between the attitude of the nurse and gender, with the degree of rejection towards the alcoholic being higher in men than in women and with less punitive attitudes in professionals from 0 to 11 years of professional experience.

The removal of harmful arsenic(V) from aqueous solutions using Cyanex 923 (solvation extractant) was investigated under various experimental variables: equilibration time, acidity of the aqueous phase, temperature, extractant and arsenic concentrations, and O/A ratio. Cyanex 923 extracted As(V) (and sulphuric acid) from acidic solutions, thus, its use to remove the metal from slightly acid or neutral solutions it is not possible. Extraction of arsenic is exothermic, and responded to the formation of H3AsO4·nL species in the organic phase (L represented the extractant and the stoichiometric factor n: 1 or 2, depends on the acidity of the aqueous phase). Extraction isotherms are derived from experimental results. Both arsenic and sulphuric acid loaded onto the organic phase can be stripped with water, and stripping isotherms are also derived from the experimental results. The selectivity of the system against the presence of other metals (Cu(II), Ni(II), Bi(III), Sb(III)) are investigated, and also it is investigated the ability of Cyanex 923 to extract As(V) and sulphuric acid against the use of other P=O based solvation reagents, such dibutyl butylphosphonate (DBBP) and tri-butyl phosphate (TBP).

A novel type of phosphazene containing additive that act both as catalyst and as flame retardant for benzoxazine binders is presented in this study. The synthesis of a derivative of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCP) and meta-toluidine was carried out in the medium of the latter, which made it possible to achieve complete substitution of chlorine atoms in the initial HCP. Thermal and flammability characteristics of modified compositions are revealed. The modifier catalyzes the process of curing and shifts the beginning of reaction from 222.0 C for pure benzoxazine to 205.9 C for composition with 10 phr of modifier. The additive decreases the glass transition temperature of compositions. Achievement of the highest category of flame resistance (V-0 in accordance with UL-94) is ensured both by increasing the content of phenyl residues in the composition and by the synergistic effect of phosphorus and nitrogen. Brief research of the curing kinetics disclosed the complex nature of the reaction. An accurate two-step model is obtained using extended Prout-Tompkins equation for both steps.

Elevated antimony concentrations in aqueous environments from anthropogenic sources is becoming of global concern, here iron oxides are known to strongly adsorb aqueous antimony species with different oxidation states, but the effect of silica on the removal characteristics is not well understood despite being a common component in the environment. In this study, ferrihydrite was synthesized at various Si/Fe molar ratios to investigate its adsorption and co-precipitation behaviors with aqueous antimony anionic species, Sb(III) and Sb(V). The XRD analyses of the precipitates showed two broad diffraction features at approximately 35° and 62° 2θ, which are characteristic of 2-line ferrihydrite, no significant shifts in peak positions in the ferrihydrite regardless of the Si/Fe ratios. The infrared spectra showed a sharp band at ~990 cm⁻¹, corresponding to asymmetric stretching vibrations of Si-O-Fe bonds which increased in intensity with increasing Si/Fe molar ratios. Further, the surface charge on the precipitates became more negative with increasing Si/Fe molar ratios. The adsorption experiments indicated that Sb(V) was preferentially adsorbed at acidic conditions and decreased dramatically with increasing pH while the adsorption rate of Sb(III) ions was independent of pH, however, the presence of silica suppressed the adsorption of both Sb(III) and Sb(V) ions. The results showed that Sb(III) and Sb(V) ions were significantly inhibited by co-precipitation with ferrihydrite even in the presence of silica by isomorphous substitution in the ferrihydrite crystal structure.

Vertical III-V semiconductor nanowires have shown promising absorption of light for solar cell and photodetector applications. The absorption properties can be tuned through the choice of III-V materials and geometry of the nanowires. Here, we review recent progress in the design of the absorption properties of both individual nanowires and nanowire arrays. Future directions for the research field are proposed.

Metal hyperaccumulating plants should have extremely efficient defence mechanisms, enabling growth and development in a polluted environment. Brassica species are known to display hyperaccumulation capability. Brassica juncea (Indiana mustard) v. Malopolska plants were exposed to trace elements, i.e., cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn), at a concentration of 50 M and were then harvested after 96 hours for analysis. We observed a high index of tolerance (IT), higher than 90%, for all B. juncea plants treated with the four metals, and we showed that Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn accumulation was higher in the above-ground parts than in the roots. We estimated the metal effects on the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the levels of protein oxidation as well as on the activity and gene expression of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). The obtained results indicate that organo-specific ROS generation was higher in plants exposed to essential metal elements (i.e., Cu and Zn), compared with non-essential ones (i.e., Cd and Pb), in conjunction with SOD, CAT and APX activity and expression at the level of encoding mRNAs and existing proteins. In addition to the potential usefulness of B. juncea in the phytoremediation process, the data provide important information concerning plant response to the presence of trace metals.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) holds significant therapeutic potential by silencing target genes through RNA interference. Current clinical applications of siRNA have been primarily limited to liver diseases, while achievements in delivery methods are expanding its applications to various organs, including the lungs. Cholesterol-conjugated siRNA emerges as a promising delivery approach due to its low toxicity and high efficiency. This study focuses on developing a cholesterol-conjugated anti-Il6 siRNA and the evaluation of its potency for the potential treatment of inflammatory diseases using the example of acute lung injury (ALI). The biological activities of different Il6-targeted siRNAs containing chemical modifications were evaluated in J774 cells in vitro. The lead cholesterol-conjugated anti-Il6 siRNA after intranasal instillation demonstrated dose-dependent therapeutic effects in a mouse model of ALI induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The treatment significantly reduced Il6 mRNA levels, inflammatory cell infiltration, and the severity of lung inflammation. IL6 silencing by cholesterol-conjugated siRNA proves to be a promising strategy for treating inflammatory diseases, with potential applications beyond the lungs.

Practically important properties of real liquids, including seawater, are their nonlinear properties, which include a nonlinear acoustic parameter, as well as cavitation strength – a rupture of the continuity of a liquid at high intensities in an acoustic wave. The manifestation of nonlinear effects is greatly facilitated by the presence of various nuclei in the liquid – gas bubbles, foreign particles, and other inclusions of various origins. For practical applications, it is important to study the properties of real liquids with inclusions in them. Due to the difficulties of measuring cavitation strength by acoustic methods, other methods are being sought. It is proposed to use an optoacoustic method associated with the use of laser radiation that causes optical breakdown - optical cavitation, that accompanied by a strong sound generation effect. The connection between optical breakdown thresholds and acoustic cavitation thresholds has been established, which can later be used to identify cavitation thresholds at high static pressures (at great depths in the sea), where the use of acoustic emitters is extremely difficult. The paper studies the bubble size distribution function in seawater, combined with studies of the acoustic nonlinearity parameter and cavitation strength at various depths. The interrelation of these characteristics for seawater is shown.

Bone involvement occurs in 75% of patients with Gaucher disease (GD), and comprises structural changes, debilitating pain, and bone density abnormalities. Osteoporosis is a silent manifestation of GD until a pathologic fracture occurs. Thus early diagnosis is crucial for identifying high-risk patients to prevent irreversible complications. Thirty-one patients with GD were assessed prospectively to identify predictive markers associated with bone density abnormalities, osteopenia (OSN), and osteoporosis (OSR). Subjects were categorized into three cohorts based on T- or Z- scores of bone mineral density (BMD): In GD cohort with no bone complication (Z-score≥-0.9; T-scores≥-1), the OSN group (-1.8 ≥ Z-score ≥ -1; -2.5 ≥ T-score ≥ -1) and OSR group (Z-score ≤ -1.9; T-scores ≤ -2.5). Serum levels of TRAP5b, RANKL, OPG, and RANK were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. TRAP5b was increased in GD and showed a positive correlation with GD biomarkers, including plasma glucosylsphingosine (Lyso-Gb1), macrophage activation markers CCL18 and chitotriosidase. The highest levels of TRAP5b was measured in patients with osteoporosis. The elevation of RANKL and RANKL/OPG ratio correlated with osteopenia in GD. Elevation of TRAP5b, RANKL, and RANKL/OPG indicate osteoclast activation in GD. TRAP5b is a potential bone biomarker for GD with the ability to predict the progression of bone density abnormalities.

Veratrum californicum is a rich source of steroidal alkaloids such as cyclopamine, a known inhibitor of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. Here we provide a detailed analysis of the alkaloid composition of V. californicum by plant part through quantitative analysis of cyclopamine, veratramine, muldamine and isorubijervine in the leaf, stem and root/rhizome of the plant. To determine if additional alkaloids in the extracts contribute to Hh signaling inhibition, we replicated the concentrations of these alkaloids observed in extracts using commercially available standards and compared the inhibitory potential of the extracts to alkaloid standard mixtures using Shh-Light II cells. Alkaloid combinations enhanced Hh signaling pathway antagonism compared to cyclopamine alone, and significant differences were observed in the Hh pathway inhibition between the stem and root/rhizome extracts and their corresponding alkaloid standard mixtures, indicating that additional alkaloids present in these extracts contribute to Hh signaling inhibition.

Integrated ultra-low-loss waveguides are highly desired for integrated photonics to enable applications that require long delay lines, high-Q resonators, narrow filters, etc. Here we present an ultra-low-loss silicon waveguide on 500 nm thick SOI platform. Meter-scale delay lines, million-Q resonators and tens of picometer bandwidth grating filters are experimentally demonstrated. We design a low-loss low-reflection taper to seamlessly integrate the ultra-low-loss waveguide with standard heterogeneous Si/III-V integrated photonics platform to allow realization of high-performance photonic devices such as ultra-low-noise lasers and optical gyroscopes.

A new method for the synthesis of azido-propargyloxy derivatives of 1,3,5-triazine has been developed. The antibacterial activity against E. coli bacteria of propargyloxy substituted 1,3,5-triazines - 2,4,6-trispropargyloxy-1,3,5-triazine, 2-azido-4,6-bispropargyloxy-1,3,5-triazine and 2,4-diazido-6-propargyloxy-1,3,5-triazine and their hyperbranched polymers. It has been shown that the presence of an azide group in the compound directly affects the antibacterial activity. The cytotoxicity of these compounds against the M-HeLa, FetMSC and Vero cell lines was studied. The IC50 value was determined for low molecular weight compounds. It has been shown that hyperbranched polymers without azide groups don’t exhibit pronounced cytotoxicity and can be used in biomedical applications.

Thanks to several Vitis vinifera backcrosses with an initial V. vinifera L. × V. rotundifolia (previously Muscadinia rotundifolia) interspecific cross, the MrRUN1/MrRPV1 locus (resistance to downy and powdery mildews) was introgressed in genotypes phenotypically close to V. vinifera varieties. To check the consequences of introgressing parts of the V. rotundifolia genome on gene expression during fruit development, we conducted a comparative RNA-seq study on single berries from different V. vinifera cultivars and V. vinifera × V. rotundifolia hybrids, including ‘G5’ and two derivative microvine lines, ‘MV102’ (resistant) and ‘MV32’ (susceptible) segregating for the MrRUN1/RPV1 locus. RNA-Seq profiles were analyzed on a comprehensive set of single berries from the end of the herbaceous plateau to the ripe stage. Pair-end reads were aligned both on V. vinifera PN40024.v4 reference genome, V. rotundifolia cv ‘Trayshed’ and cv ‘Carlos’, and to the few resistance genes from the original V. rotundifolia cv ‘52’ parent available at NCBI. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) led to classifying the differentially expressed genes into 15 modules either preferentially correlated with resistance or berry phenology and composition. Resistance positively correlated transcripts predominantly mapped on the 4-5 Mb distal region of V. rotundifolia chromosome 12 beginning with the MrRUN1/MrRPV1 locus, while the negatively correlated ones mapped on the orthologous V. vinifera region, showing this large extremity of LG12 remained recalcitrant to internal recombination during the successive backcrosses. Some constitutively expressed V. rotundifolia genes were also observed at lower density outside this region. Genes overexpressed in developing berries from resistant accessions, either introgressed from V. rotundifolia, or triggered by these in the vinifera genome, spanned various functional groups, encompassing calcium signal transduction, hormone signaling, transcription factors, plant–pathogen-associated interactions, disease resistance proteins, ROS and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. This transcriptomic insight provides a foundation for understanding the disease resistance inherent in these hybrid cultivars and suggests a constitutive expression of NIR NBS LRR triggering calcium signaling. Moreover, these results illustrate the magnitude of transcriptomic changes caused by the introgressed V. rotundifolia background in backcrossed hybrids, on a large number of functions largely exceeding the ones constitutively expressed in single resistant gene transformants.

This study developed gelatin-based films with incorporation of microcrystalline cellulose as reinforcement material. Clove (Syzygium aromaticum), nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), and black pepper (Piper nigrum) oleoresins containing antimicrobial compounds of natural origin were incorporated into films. The mechanical, thermal, optical, and structural properties, as well as color, resistance to sealing and permeability to water vapor, light, and oil of the films were determined. Adding oleoresins to the gelatin matrix increased elongation of the material and significantly diminished its permeability to water vapor and oil. Evaluation of the potential use of films containing different oleoresins as bread packaging material was influenced by the film properties. The biocomposite film containing oleoresin from black pepper was the most effective packaging material for maintaining the bread’s quality characteristics.

Rapid emergence of evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants is an on-going challenge for COVID-19 vaccinology. Traditional virus neutralization tests provide detailed datasets of neutralization titers against the viral variants. Such datasets are difficult to interpret and do not immediately inform on the sufficiency of the breadth of antibody response. Some of these issues could be tackled using the antigenic cartography approach. In this study, we created antigenic maps using neutralization titers of sera from donors who received Sputnik V booster vaccine after primary Sputnik V vaccination and compared them with the antigenic maps based on serum neutralization titers of Comirnaty-boosted donors. Traditional analysis of neutralization titers against WT, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 showed a significant booster humoral response after both homologous (Sputnik V) and heterologous (Comirnaty) revaccinations against all the studied viral variants. However, despite this, a more in-depth analysis using antigenic cartography revealed that Omicron variants remain antigenically distant from WT, which is indicative of the formation of insufficient levels of cross-neutralizing antibodies. The implications of these findings may be significant when developing a new vaccine regimen.

Vernonia amygdalina is an important nutritional and medicinal plant that is used to treat various diseases such as malaria and diabetes in Nigeria. In this study, we sequenced, assembled, and annotated the complete nucleotide sequence of the chloroplast genome of a V. amygdalina species isolated in Awka, Nigeria. The chloroplast genome is 153 149 bp in length and has a conserved structure that includes the LSC (84261 bp) region, the SSC (13152 bp) region, and the IR (27868 bp) regions. A total of 131 genes were identified, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Comparative analysis of the genome revealed species variations in the LSC region associated with the geographical location of the V. amygdalina plant. Phylogenetic analysis of the chloroplast genomes using FastTree showed that V. amygdalina clustered closest to the chloroplast of the Crepidiastrum genus. This study identifies the characteristics of the V. amygdalina chloroplast genome, which will improve our understanding of intraspecies diversity and the identification of potential molecular markers to determine geographical origin.

In the field of embedded systems, energy efficiency is a critical requirement, particularly for battery-powered devices. RISC-V processors have gained popularity due to their flexibility and open-source nature, making them an attractive choice for embedded applications. However, not all RISC-V processors are equally energy-efficient, and it is important to evaluate their performance in specific use cases. This paper evaluates the energy consumption and resource utilization of a new RISC-V processor, RisCO2, and four existing processors - Zero-riscy, Micro-riscy, Ri5cy, and CV32E40P - in a signal demodulation application for NDIR CO2 sensors. The processors were implemented in the PULPino SoC and synthesized using Vivado IDE. The processor named RisCO2 is based on the RV32E_Zfinx instruction set and was designed from scratch by the authors specifically for low-power signal processing applications such as signal demodulation in CO2 NDIR sensors. The other processors are Ri5cy, Micro-riscy, and Zero-riscy, developed by the PULP Platform team, and CV32E40P (derived from Ri5cy) from the OpenHW Group, all of them widely used in the RISC-V community. Our experiments showed that RisCO2 had the lowest energy consumption among the five processors, with a 53.5% reduction in energy consumption compared to CV32E40P and a 94.8% reduction compared to Micro-riscy. Additionally, RisCO2 had the lowest FPGA resource utilization compared to the best-performing processors, CV32E40P and Ri5cy, with a 46.1% and a 59% reduction in LUTs, respectively. Our findings suggest that RisCO2 is a highly energy-efficient RISC-V processor for NDIR CO2 sensors that require signal demodulation. The results also highlight the importance of evaluating processors in specific use cases to identify the most energy-efficient option. This paper provides valuable insights for designers of energy-efficient embedded systems using RISC-V processors.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is an enigmatic condition characterized by exacerbation of symptoms after exertion (post-exertional malaise or “PEM”), and by fatigue whose severity and associated requirement for rest are excessive and disproportionate to the fatigue-inducing activity. There is no definitive molecular marker or known underlying pathological mechanism for the condition. Increasing evidence for aberrant energy metabolism suggests a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in ME/CFS. Our objective was therefore to measure mitochondrial function and cellular stress sensing in actively metabolising patient blood cells. We immortalized lymphoblasts isolated from 51 ME/CFS patients diagnosed according to the Canadian Consensus Criteria and an age- and gender-matched control group. Parameters of mitochondrial function and energy stress sensing were assessed by Seahorse extracellular flux analysis, proteomics, and an array of additional biochemical assays. As a proportion of the basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR), the rate of ATP synthesis by Complex V was significantly reduced in ME/CFS lymphoblasts, while significant elevations were observed in Complex I OCR, maximum OCR, spare respiratory capacity, nonmitochondrial OCR and “proton leak” as a proportion of the basal OCR. This was accompanied by a reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential, chronically hyperactivated TOR Complex I stress signalling and upregulated expression of mitochondrial respiratory complexes, fatty acid transporters and enzymes of the β-oxidation and TCA cycles. By contrast, mitochondrial mass and genome copy number, as well as glycolytic rates and steady state ATP levels were unchanged. Our results suggest a model in which ME/CFS lymphoblasts have a Complex V defect accompanied by compensatory upregulation of their respiratory capacity that includes the mitochondrial respiratory complexes, membrane transporters and enzymes involved in fatty acid β-oxidation. This homeostatically returns ATP synthesis and steady state levels to “normal” in the resting cells, but may leave them unable to adequately respond to acute increases in energy demand as the relevant homeostatic pathways are already activated.

The review analyzes a possible role of autoimmune processes in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and evolution of concepts on this issue from its origin to present. Risks of autoimmune processes causing schizophrenia are associated with several factors: an impaired functioning of dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems in the brain, kynurenine pathway disorder with overproduction of quinolinic, anthranilic and kynurenic acids (possibly altering both neurons and T-regulators), increased intestinal permeability, as well as food antigens’ effects, stress and infections with various pathogens at different stages of ontogenesis. An increase in the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines as well as a decrease in the levels of anti-inflammatory ones also may contribute to schizophrenia risks. Schizophrenia often occurs in those patients having various autoimmune diseases and their first-degree relatives. Cases of schizophrenia resulted from autoimmune pathogenesis (including autoimmune encephalitis caused by autoantibodies against various neuronal antigens) are characterized by quite severe cognitive and psychotic symptoms and less favorable prognosis. This severe course may result from the chronic immune damage of the neuronal receptors such as NMDA, GABA, and others and depend on hyperprolactinemia, induced by antipsychotics, but aggravating autoimmune processes [with 2 tables, 4 figures, bibliography: 99 references].

This project focuses on using machine learning classification algorithms to determine whether two people are 6 feet apart or not. Two Raspberry Pis were used simulate smart phones. RSSI values of the Bluetooth beacons transmitted between the Raspberry Pis were collected and recorded to train the classifier. The Gaussian Support Vector Machine Classifer yielded the highest testing accuracy of 79.670 and the Decision Tree Classifier yielded the highest AUC of 0.80.

Some recent studies show that filters in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have low color selectivity in datasets of natural scenes such as Imagenet. CNNs, bio-inspired in the visual cortex, are characterized by their hierarchical learning structure, which appears to gradually transform the representation space. Inspired by the direct connection between the LGN and V4, which allows V4 to handle low-level information closer to the trichromatic input in addition to processed information that comes from V2/V3, we propose the addition of a long skip connection (LSC) between the first and last blocks of the feature extraction stage to allow deeper parts of the network to receive information from shallower layers. This type of connection improves classification accuracy by combining simple-visual and complex-abstract features to create more color-selective ones. We have applied this strategy to classic CNN architectures and quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the improvement in accuracy while focusing on color selectivity. The results show that, in general, skip connections improve accuracy, but LSC improves it even more and enhances the color selectivity of the original CNN architectures. As a side result, we propose a new color representation procedure for organizing and filtering feature maps, making their visualization more manageable.

Inherited retinal diseases (IRD) comprise a heterogeneous set of clinical and genetic disorders that lead to blindness. Given the emerging opportunities in precision medicine and gene thera-py, it has become increasingly important to determine whether DNA variants with uncertain significance (VUS) are responsible for the patients’ IRD. This research was performed to assess the functional consequence of six VUS identified in patients with IRD. Clinical assessments in-cluded an ophthalmic examination, best corrected visual acuity, and kinetic perimetry. Imaging was acquired with the Optos ultra-widefield camera and spectral-domain optical coherence to-mography (SD-OCT). Genetic testing was performed by Molecular Vision Laboratories. VUS that were predicted to alter splicing were analyzed with a minigene assay which revealed that VUS in the genes OPA1, CNGB1, and CLUAP1 altered spicing mechanisms. Due to the emerging gene and cell therapies, these results expand the genotype-phenotype correlations for patients diag-nosed with an IRD.

The natural flavonoid epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has a wide range of biological activities including binding to nucleic acids; however, mechanisms of interaction of EGCG with DNA organized in chromatin have not been systematically studied. In this work, interaction of EGCG with chromatin in cells, and with nucleosomes and chromatosomes in vitro was studied using fluorescent microscopy and single particle Förster resonance energy transfer approaches, respectively. EGCG effectively penetrates into the nuclei of living cells and binds to DNA there. Interaction of EGCG with nucleosomes in vitro induces large-scale, reversible uncoiling of nucleosomal DNA that occurs without dissociation of DNA or core histones at sub- and low-micromolar concentrations of EGCG. EGCG does not reduce the catalytic activity of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1), but causes modulation of the structure of the PARP1-nucleosome complex. EGCG significantly changes the structure of chromatosomes, but does not cause dissociation of the linker histone. Reorganization of nucleosomes and chromatosomes by EGCG might facilitate access of protein factors involved in DNA repair, replication and transcription to DNA and thus might contribute to the modulation of gene expression by EGCG that was reported earlier.

In order to obtain the good match between yield strength and low-temperature toughness, the short-time partial austenitization (SPA) process was employed for V-microalloying 0.22C-5.24Mn steel. The initial microstructure after intercritical tempering was dual-phase ferrite and reversed austenite (RA), while the final microstructure was consisted of ferrite, RA and secondary martensite (SM) after subjected to SPA process. (V, Mo)C with disc-like morphology mainly precipitated during intercritial tempering, and the aspect ratio of particle decreased, leading to the appearance of near-spherical morphology. After subjected to SPA process, the resultant multiphase hierarchical microstructure (three layers: out layer of ferrite, interlayer of SM and inner layer RA) enabled high yield strength of 1097 MPa, total elongation of 14%, and impressive impact energy of 33.3 J at -20 °C. The strengthening contribution of (V, Mo)C precipitation was estimated about 108 MPa.

The powdered sorbents were applied in a batch system under "static" conditions and showed a much higher adsorption capacity than the granular one. These type of sorbents are more suitable for small quantities of water with a high concentration of arsenic. The possibilities of using all the tested methods for arsenic removal have been evaluated, and a scheme of the technological process has been proposed.

Curcumin, a polyphenol with a rich history spanning two centuries, has emerged as a promising therapeutic agent targeting multiple signaling pathways and exhibiting cellular-level activities that contribute to its diverse health benefits. Extensive preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated its ability to enhance the therapeutic potential of various bioactive compounds. While its reported therapeutic advantages are manifold, predominantly attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, its efficacy is hindered by poor bioavailability stemming from inadequate absorption, rapid metabolism, and elimination. To address this challenge, nano-delivery systems have emerged as a promising approach, offering enhanced solubility, biocompatibility, and therapeutic effects for curcumin. We have analyzed the knowledge on curcumin nano-encapsulation and its synergistic effects with other compounds, extracted from electronic databases. We discuss the pharmacokinetic profile of curcumin, current advancements in nano-encapsulation techniques, and the combined effects of curcumin with other agents across various disorders. By unifying existing knowledge, this analysis intends to provide insights into the potential of nano-encapsulation technologies to overcome constraints associated with curcumin treatments, emphasizing the importance of combinatorial approaches in improving therapeutic efficacy. Finally, this compilation of study data aims to inform and inspire future research into encapsulating drugs with poor pharmacokinetic characteristics and investigating innovative drug combinations to improve bioavailability and therapeutic outcomes.

The present work was aimed at the investigation of effect of High Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) time on the sintering kinetics, structure, and properties of heavy tungsten alloy (HTA) W-7%Ni-3%Fe. The HTA samples were obtained from the nanopowders (20-80 nm) by conventional liquid phase sintering (LPS) in hydrogen and by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) in vacuum. The HTA density was shown to depend on the HEBM time non-monotonously that originates from the formation of non-equilibrium solid solutions in the W-Ni-Fe systems during HEBM. The SPS kinetics of the HTA nanopowders was shown to have a two-stage character, the intensity of which depends on the Coble diffusion creep rate and on the intensity of diffusion of the tungsten atoms in the crystal lattice of the -phase. The kinetics of sintering of the initial submicron powders have a single-stage character originating from the intensity of the grain boundary diffusion in the -phase. The dependencies of the hardness and of the yield strength on the grain sizes were found to obey the Hall-Petch relation. The hardness, strength, and dynamic strength in the compression tests of the fine-grained tungsten alloys obtained by SPS and LPS were studied.

The concept of targeted drug delivery can be described in terms of the drug’s ability to mimic the other biological objects’ property to localize to target cells or tissues. For example, drug delivery systems based on red blood cells or mimicking some of their useful features, such as long circulation in stealth mode, have been known for decades. On the contrary, therapeutic strategies based on macrophages have gained very limited attention until recently. Here we review two biomimetic strategies associated with macrophages, that can be used to develop new therapeutic modalities: First, the mimicry of certain types of macrophages (i.e., the use of macrophages, including tumor-associated, or macrophage-like particles as a carrier for targeted delivery of therapeutic agents); and Second, the mimicry of ligands, naturally absorbed by macrophages (i.e., the use of therapeutic agents specifically targeted at macrophages). We discuss potential applications of biomimetic systems involving macrophages for the new advancements in treatment of infections, inflammatory diseases, and cancer.

The ciguatera is a food poisoning caused by the consumption of primarily coral fish; these species exist in large numbers in the seas that bathe the Colombian territory. The underreported diagnosis of this clinical entity has been widely highlighted due to multiple factors, as are among others, ignorance by the primary care practitioner consulted for this condition, clinical similarity with secondary gastroenteric symptoms, to common food poisonings of bacterial, parasitic or viral etiology. Eventually people affected by ciguatotoxin are related to trips to coastal areas hours before the onset of symptoms. Thanks to multiple studies over the years it has been possible to identify the relation of the dinoflagellates in the assembly of said toxin and its introduction into the food chain, starting by fish primarily inhabiting reef ecosystems and culminating in the intake of these by humans. Identifying the epidemiological link, its cardinal symptoms and affected systems such as gastrointestinal, peripheral nervous system and fortunately with a low frequency, the cardiovascular system, leads to a purely clinical diagnostic impression without further complementary studies, performing an adequate treatment primarily symptomatic without underestimating or overlooking any associated complications.

The use of analytical techniques is important and critical in all areas of REE research such as exploration, mining, extraction, and metallurgical activities at different stages. At every stage of these activities, rock, ore, mineral, and other related materials have to be analysed for their REE contents in terms of elemental, isotopic, and mineralogical concentrations using different analytical techniques. Spectacular developments have taken place in the area of analytical instrumentations during the last four decades, with some of them having shrunk in size and become hand-held. Among laboratory-based techniques, F-AAS, GF-AAS, ICP-OES, and MP-AES have become very popular. Because of high sensitivity, less interference effects, and ease of use. ICP-MS techniques such as quadrupole-ICP-MS, ICP-MS/MS, ICP-TOF-MS, MH-ICP-MS, HR-ICP-MS, and MC-ICP-MS, with both solution nebulisation as well as direct solid analysis using laser ablation sample introduction methods, have become extremely popular for REE analysis. For direct analysis of solids INAA, XRF, and LIBS techniques besides LA-based ICP-MS techniques are being extensively utilised. LIBS technique in particular requires little to no sample preparation. TIMS, SIMS, and SHRIMP techniques are being used for isotopic as well as dating REE depots. Portable analytical techniques such as pXRF, pLIBS, and Raman spectrometers are able to do in situ analysis even in the field helping to take fast decisions during exploration studies. At present hyperspectral remote sensing techniques including hand-held, drone, and satellite-based techniques have become very popular in REE exploration studies because of their ability to cover larger areas in a limited time and thus became very cost-effective. Deployment of microanalytical devices/sensors mounted in remotely operated vehicles (ROV) is being successfully utilized in detecting REE-rich deposits in the deep oceans. Providing updated in-depth information on all these important aspects with suitable examples, especially from the point of view of REE research studies is the focal point of this review article.

The paper discusses the mechanism of montmorillonite structure alteration and bentonites properties modification (on the example of samples from clay deposit Taganka, Kazakhstan) due to the thermochemical treatment (treatment with inorganic acid solutions at different temperatures, concentrations and reaction times). With the use of the suit of methods certain processes were distinguished: transformation of montmorillonite structure, which appears in the leaching of interlayer and octahedral cations, protonation of the interlayer and OH groups at octahedral sheets. Changes in the structure of the 2:1 layer of montmorillonite and its interlayer result in significant changes in the properties – reduction of cation exchange capacity and an increase of specific surface area. The results of the work showed that bentonite clays retain a significant portion of its adsorption properties even after the long term and intense thermochemical treatment (6M HNO3, 60°C, 108 hours)

Laminate structures composed of stiff plates and thin soft interlayers are widely used in aerospace, automotive and civil engineering encouraging the development of reliable non-destructive strategies for their condition assessment. In the paper, elastodynamic behaviour of such laminate structures is investigated with emphasis on its application in ultrasonic based NDT and SHM for the identification of interlayer mechanical and interfacial contact properties. A particular attention is given to the practically important frequency range, in which the wavelength considerably exceeds the thickness of the film. Three layer model with spring-type boundary conditions employed for imperfect contact simulation is used for numerical investigation. Novel effective boundary conditions are derived via asymptotic expansion technique and used for analysis of the peculiar properties of elastic guided waves in considered laminates. It is revealed that the thin and soft film influences the behaviour of the laminate mainly via the effective stiffnesses being a combination of the elastic moduli of the film, its thickness and interface stiffnesses. To evaluate each of these parameters separately (or to figure out that the available experimental data are insufficient), a step-wise procedure employing the effective boundary conditions is proposed and tested versus the laser Doppler vibrometry data for Lamb waves in Aluminium/Polymer film/Alumunium structure. The possibility of using film-related thickness resonance frequencies to estimate the film properties and contact quality is also demonstrated. Additionally, the rich family of edge waves is also investigated, and the splitting of fundamental edge waves into pairs is revealed.

This paper investigates the density, phase composition, microstructure and mechanical properties (microhardness, fracture toughness) of binderless WC + SiC ceramics obtained by conventional pressureless sintering (CPS) and Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). α-WC nanopowders obtained by DC arc plasma chemical synthesis and β-SiC powders have been used as raw materials. The content of SiC particles was 1, 3, 5% wt. Excess graphite (0.3, 0.5% wt.) was added to α-WC nanopowders to decrease the volume fraction of W2C particles that negatively affect the mechanical properties of ceramics. WC + 1% wt. SiC + 0.3% wt. C ceramics are shown to have a homogeneous fine-grained microstructure, high relative density, increased microhardness and Palmquist fracture toughness. The CPS and SPS activation energies of WC + SiC nanopowders at an intensive shrinkage stage are determined using the Young-Cutler model. The effect of carbon and SiC particles on the CPS and SPS activation energies of tungsten carbide nanopowders has been analyzed. The CPS activation energies of WC, WC + C and WC + SiC + C nanopowders are shown to be closer to the carbon diffusion activation energy along α-WC grain boundaries. The SPS activation energies of WC and WC + SiC nanopowders turn out to be lower than the carbon grain boundary diffusion activation energy of α-WC.

In order to enable patients with severe disabilities who have lost their limbs to accurately control their wheelchair movement and optimize the power loss of smart wearable tongue control devices, a non-invasive intraoral stand-alone tongue control system based on RSIC-V edge computing is proposed in this paper. Patients can detect the pressure signal of the tongue muscles’ touching the palate by placing the flexible carbon nanotube-PDMS pressure sensor array in the mouth, and the erroneous movement signal can be avoided by setting the pressure threshold, thereby improving the reliability of the device and the user's experience. The system converts the pressure data into specific control instructions on the edge of the RSIC-V chip and transmits them to the receiver, thus reducing the transmission of data. In this experiment, the speed response time test, the center click task and the power consumption experiment are carried out, whose results show that the adaptive fuzzy PID control algorithm has good robustness in the system: when the DC motor with a given speed of 750r/min reaches the steady state, its rise time is 0.108s and the adjustment time is 0.59s. The dynamic power consumption of the non-intrusive intraoral stand-alone tongue control system proposed in this paper is tested to be 3.745 MW, which is 11.5% lower than the total power consumption of the sTDs system.

In this paper, we explore the black hole solutions with the rainbow deformed metric in the presence of the exponential form of the nonlinear electrodynamics with asymptotic Reissner- Nordstr ̈om properties. We calculate the exact solution of metric function and explore the geometri- cal properties in the background of massive gravity. From the obtained solution, the existence of the singularity is confirmed in proper limits. Using the solutions we also investigate the thermodynamic properties of the solutions by checking the validity of the first law of thermodynamics. Continuing the thermodynamic study, we investigate the conditions under which the system is thermally stable from the heat capacity and the Gibbs free energy. We also discuss the possible phase transition and the criticality of the system. It was found that the quantum gravitational effects of gravity’s rain- bow render the thermodynamic system stable in the vicinity of the singularity. Hence, we obtained a first order phase transition which is interpreted as the large/small black hole phase transition. From the equation of state it was found that after diverging at the singularity, the system evolves asymptotically into pressure-less dust as one moves away from the central singularity. We also calculated the quantum work using the change of the Helmholtz free energy.

The monitoring of river discharge is vital for the correct management of water resources. A worldwide facility used for measuring discharge are flat-V gauging weirs. These structures consist of a small weir, with a triangular cross-section and a flat “V”-shaped notch. Their extensive use is a consequence of their utility in the measurement of both low and high flow conditions. However, depending on their size, local morphology and river discharge can act as full or partial hydraulic barriers to fish migration. To give answer to this question, the present work studies fish passage performance over flat-V weirs considering their hydraulic performance. For this, radio-tracking and video monitoring observations were combined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models in two flat-V weirs, using Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei) as target species. Results show that fish passage is conditioned by both hydraulic and behavioral processes, providing evidences about the scenarios where flat-V weirs may act as full or partial barriers to upstream movements. For the studied flat-V weirs, a discharge range of 0.27-8 m3/s, with a water drop difference between upstream and downstream water levels lower than 0.7 m and a depth downstream the weir higher than 0.30 m can be considered as an effective passage situation for barbels. These findings are of interest to quantify flat-V weir impacts, for engineering applications and to establish managing or retrofitting actions when required.

Fe- and Al-rich metapelite from the Transangarian segment of the Yenisey Ridge (East Siberia, Russia) is a potential new source of high-alumina refractories. The rocks have relatively high average contents of Al2O3 (20 wt.%) and Fe2O3 (7.91 wt%), moderate K2O (3.44 wt%), and low CaO (0.74 wt%). Their dominant mineral assemblages are andalusite + muscovite + margarite + chlorite + biotite + quartz or staurolite + kyanite or/and andalusite + chlorite + muscovite + biotite + quartz with ±garnet and ±plagioclase. Al2SiO5 polymorphs occur as up to 1.5 cm andalusite porphyroblasts and partial or complete pseudomorphs after andalusite (kyanite and staurolite). Accessories include abundant Fe-Ti oxides and sporadic REE-, Y-, Ca-phosphates; sulfides are negligible. The composition of Al2SiO5 concentrates obtained in laboratory by heavy-media and magnetic separation from ≥0.06 mm fractions meet all requirements for raw material of this type: >56 wt% Al2O3, <42 wt% SiO2, <1 wt% Fe2O3, <1.2 wt% TiO2, and <0.2 wt% (CaO+MgO). The andalusite, kyanite, and mixed ores yield 0.7-4.1 wt%, 0.7-2.2 wt%, and 1.9-6.0 wt% of concentrate, respectively. The best-quality ores rich in Al2SiO5 polymorphs reside in zones of contact and/or dynamic metamorphism superimposed over regional metamorphism of Al-rich rocks.

RISC-V offers a modular technical approach combined with an open, royalty-free instruction set architecture (ISA). This openness allows various researches to incorporate RISC-V into both open and proprietary solutions or services. However, despite its advantages as a fundamental building block for many embedded systems, the escalating complexity and functional demands of real-time applications have made adhering to response time deadlines challenging. This has led to an increased demand for comprehensive development insights for real-time systems based on RISC-V. To improve development efficiency, we offer a detailed performance analysis of RISC-V in comparison to various ISAs. In this paper, we analyze the real-time performance of RISC-V through two real-time approaches based on processor architectures. For RTOS applications, we adopted FreeRTOS and evaluated its performance on HiFive1 Rev B (RISC-V) and STM3240G-EVAL (ARM M) to evaluate real-time performance. For Real-time Linux, we utilized Linux with the Preempt-RT patch and tested its performance on VisionFive 2 (RISC-V), MIO5272 (x86-64), and Raspberry Pi 4 B (ARM A). Through these experiments, we examined the real-time mechanism of each operating system. Additionally, in the Preempt-RT experiments, scheduling latencies were evaluated using cyclictest. Finally, in order to practically show the real-time capabilities of RISC-V, we implemented motion control of a six-axis collaborative robot, which was performed on the VisionFive 2 platform. This implementation provided a comparative result of RISC-V’s performance against the x86-64 architecture of MIO-5272. Ultimately, the results indicated that the real-time performance of RISC-V for real-time applications was slightly inferior to that of the x86-64 architecture. A noticeable achievement of this research was the first implementation of an EtherCAT Master on RISC-V designed for real-time applications featuring a multi-tasking structure. The research offers valuable insights into the real-time capabilities of RISC-V compared to established architectures like x86-64. While RISC-V might not surpass these architectures in real-time performance, its flexibility, modularity, and open nature make it a compelling choice for a wide range of real-time applications. The successful implementation of the EtherCAT Master on RISC-V further expands its potential in the domain of real-time embedded control systems.

Mining-induced water contamination remains a significant concern in many regions of the world due to the high concentrations of toxic ions often associated with it. In this study, cellulose-supported ferrihydrite composites (CNF-Fe) were prepared by seeding of ferrihydrite nanoparticles on cellulose nanofibres (CNFs) and employed for the removal of As(III), As(V) and Cr(VI) from contaminated water. The adsorbent was characterized by electron microscopy, gas adsorption, point of zero charge (pH_PZC), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), as well as infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Compared to parent CNFs, CNF-Fe adsorbents had lower crystallinity and a higher surface area: 218.76 m² g^-1. Further, with a pH_PZC of 6.3, CNF-Fe was positively charged at low pH and suitable for adsorption of anions at acidic conditions characteristic of acid mine drainage. In single-ions solutions, the removal efficiency of CNF-Fe was in the order Cr(VI)>As(V)>As(III) (i.e. 0.15, 0.12 and 0.11 mg g^-1 respectively). Adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo second-order model and isotherms were best fitted by the Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Temkin models. However, when CNF-Fe was applied to AMD-contaminated water (pH 2.7), Cr(VI) uptake decreased to ~39% which was likely due to competition from sulphate and selenium ions. Nevertheless, the adsorbent displayed regeneration capabilities with ~98% As and ~45% Cr desorbed after 24 hours of treatment. Together, these results suggest that cellulose supported ferrihydrite composites can be applied in treatment of mine drainage-contaminated water in conjunction with pre-treatments that limit SO₄^2- and selenium concentrations.

The study is based on the results of long-term field studies, satellite and aerial data analysis. In the maximum of the Little Ice Age (LIA) 243 glaciers with a total area of 353.4 km2 were reconstructed. By the results of interpretation of Corona images by 1968 the number of glaciers increased (236), the total area reduced to 242 km2. In 2010 glaciation was represented by 237 glaciers with a total area of 201 km2. Thus, from the maximum of the LIA, the glaciation of the Tavan-Bogd mountains decreased by 43%, which is somewhat less than the neighboring glacial centers (Ikh-Turgen, Tsambagarav, Tsengel-Khayrkhan and Mongun-Taiga mountains). The probable cause is the predominance of larger glaciers relatively resistant to warming and higher altitudes. The effect of glacier size on their stability is supported by differences in the relative shrinkage of glaciers in different parts of the Tavan-Bogdo-Ola massif: the smallest decline occurred in the basins of the Tsagan-Gol (31.7%) and Sangadir (36.4%) rivers where the largest glaciers are located. On the contrary, on the lower periphery of the massif, where small glaciers predominate, the relative reduction was large (74-79%). On the background of the general retreat trend large valleys glaciers retreated faster in 1968-1977 and after 2010. In 1990-s the retreat was slow. After 2010 the glacial retreat was extremely fast. The retreat of glaciers in the last 50-60 years was caused by a trend towards a decrease in the amount of precipitation until the mid-1970s and a sharp warming in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Nowadays there is a need to increase the density of interconnections on printed circuit boards (PCBs). Does this mean that the only way out for quality PCB manufacturing is to proportional increase in precision of equipment, or is there another way? One of the main constraints to increasing the density of PCB interconnections is the transition holes. As the number of conductive layers increases, the number of vias increases and they cover a significant space on the PCB. On the other hand, reducing the size of the vias is limited by the capability of spatial alignment of the PCB stack during manufacturing. There are standards that set limits for the design of contact pads on a PCB (IPC-A-600G, IPC-6012B). However, depending on the precision of production, the contact pads may be of poor quality. This raises the issue of determining the reliability of a contact pad with defined parameters at the design stage, taking into account manufacturing capabilities. This research proposes an analytical method for evaluation of reliability of a via or plated through-hole based on calculation of its probability of production in accordance with the current standards. On the basis of the method a model was developed both for the case of a contact pad without any conductors connected to it (nonfunctional contact pad) and for the real case with a connected conductor. The model estimates the probability of making an acceptable via for a given reliability class depending on parameters such as the conductor width (minimum permissible and usable), drilled hole diameter and pad diameter, as well as the accuracy of the drilling operation. The analysis of the modeling results showed that for the real case, a reduction in the reliability class would insignificantly affect the probability of making an acceptable via due to the tight limitation on the connection place of the conductor and the contact pad. In conclusion, we propose an algorithm for determining the optimal parameters of teardrops to minimize the negative impact of the conductor on the reliability of the vias.

Polyurethane (PU) is a polymer widely used by humans whose recycling is highly complex due his chemical structure, being limited to incineration or accumulation in landfills. Biodegradation by enzymes and microorganisms has been studied for decades as an effective method of biological decomposition. In this study, Tenebrio molitor larvae (T. molitor) were fed with polyurethane foams, which gut enzymes and microorganisms were capable of degrading the polymer by 35% in 17 days of treatment, producing a weight loss of 14% in the mealworm. Changes in T. molitor gut bacterial community and diversity were observed, which may be due to colonization of species associated with PU degradation. Physical and structural biodegradation in PU by T. molitor compared to virgin PU, was demonstrated by Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microphotography (SEM).

In this study a material based on Polyethylene (PE) and Microcrystalline Cellulose (MC) was developed as a breathable packaging film. Surface functionalization of MC with 3 aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) shows to be an efficient alternative to tailor their properties and increase opportunities for the application of MC on the reinforcement of polymers such polyethylene (PE). Functionalization of MC with mentioned silane derivative was achieved using a green method and later used on the development of composites with PE in three percentages (1, 3 and 5%). All the materials were prepared by melt blending and characterized, in terms of structural properties (ATR-FTIR and FTIR in transmittance, EDX, SEM), thermal properties (DSC and TGA), thermomechanical properties (DMA), contact angle measurements and permeability to oxygen and water vapor. The materials demonstrated to have potential to be used as breathable film packaging of fresh products.

Ultrasonic based inspection of thin-walled structures often requires prior knowledge of their mechanical properties. Their accurate estimation could be achieved in a non-destructive manner employing, e.g., elastic guided waves. Such procedures require efficient approaches for experimental data extraction and processing, which is still a challenging task. An advanced automated technique for material properties identification of an elastic waveguide is proposed in this investigation. It relies on the information on dispersion characteristics of guided waves, which are extracted by applying the matrix pencil method to the measurements obtained via laser Doppler vibrometry. Two objective functions have been successfully tested, and the advantages of both approaches are discussed (accuracy vs computational costs). The numerical analysis employing the synthetic data generated via the mathematical model as well as experimental data shows that both approaches are stable and accurate. The influence of the presence of various modes in the extracted data is investigated. One can conclude that the influence of the corruptions related to the extraction of dispersion curves is not critical if the majority of guided waves propagating in the considered frequency range are presented. Possible extensions of the proposed technique for damaged and multi-layered structures are also discussed.

This study aims to establish a link between disturbances in the night sleep habitus, quality of sleep, and daytime sleepiness in adolescents with Internet addiction and different types of content consumed. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study of a school sample in three large cities in Central Siberia. 4,615 schoolchildren of 12–18 years old were examined. The Russian-language versions of the Chen Internet Addiction Scale, the Game Addiction Scale for Adolescents, and the Social Media Disorder Scale were used to identify Internet addiction. Questions from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire were used to assess nighttime sleep. Daytime sleepiness was assessed using the Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale questionnaire. Results: Adolescents with Internet addiction go to bed and wake up late; they are characterized by a decrease in the duration of nighttime sleep, an increase in sleep onset latency, and frequent nighttime awakenings, as well as more pronounced daytime sleepiness. Among the sleep parameters studied, the indicators of daytime sleepiness and night awakening scales have the highest effect size in Internet-addicted adolescents, regardless of the media consumed. Conclusion: Internet-addicted adolescents are characterized by significant disturbances in the quality of nighttime sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness, which requires appropriate psychological correction.

The enhancement of health-beneficial omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LC-PUFA) contents in the muscle, liver, heart and kidney of Australian prime lambs through pasture grazing and supplementation with oil infused pellets was investigated. Forty-eight first-cross prime lambs were randomly assigned into a split-plot design with pasture type as the main plot effect and pellet supplementation as a sub-plot effect in a feeding trial that lasted for nine weeks. The n-3 LC-PUFA content in Longissimus dorsi muscle of all lambs was well above the 30 mg threshold for “omega-3 source” nutrition claim under the Australian Food Standards and Guidelines. Pasture type impacted the fatty acid contents in muscle, heart and kidney of prime lambs. Lambs grazing cocksfoot only had the highest 18:3n-3 (ALA) and n-3 LC-PUFA contents (67.1 mg/100g and 55.2 mg/100 g, respectively). Supplementation of pellets with or without oil infusion to grazing lambs decreased the ALA and n-3 LC-PUFA contents and increased n-6/n-3 ratio in Longissimus dorsi muscle. The fatty acid content in internal organs of grazing lambs was also affected by pellet supplementation. The liver and kidney of grazing lambs were both “good sources” (60 mg/100 g) of omega-3. The cocksfoot grass showed considerable potential for producing healthy, premium quality meat with high contents of n-3 and n-3 LC-PUFA which may consequently enhance the omega-3 intake of Australian lamb consumers.

Osteopetrosis is a group of rare inheritable disorders of the skeleton characterized by increased bone density. The disease is remarkably heterogeneous in clinical presentation and often misdiagnosed. Therefore, genetic testing and molecular pathogenicity analysis are essential for precise diagnosis and new targets for preventive pharmacotherapy. Mutations in the CLCN7 gene give rise to the complete spectrum of osteopetrosis phenotypes and are responsible for about 75% of cases of autosomal dominant osteopetrosis. In this study, we report the identification of a novel variant in the CLCN7 gene in a patient diagnosed with osteopetrosis and provide evidence for its significance (likely deleterious) based on extensive comparative genomics, protein sequence and structure analysis. A set of automated bioinformatics tools used to predict consequences of this variant identified it as deleterious or pathogenic. Structure analysis revealed that the variant is located at the same “hot spot” as the most common CLCN7 mutations causing osteopetrosis. Deep phylogenetic reconstruction showed that not only Leu614Arg, but any non-aliphatic substitutions in this position are evolutionarily intolerant, further supporting the deleterious nature of the variant. The present study provides further evidence that reconstructing a precise evolutionary history of a gene helps predicting phenotypical consequences of variants of uncertain significance.

Stabilized melanocortin analog peptide ACTH(6-9)PGP (FRWGPGP) possess a wide range of neuroprotective activities. However, its mechanism of action remains poorly understood. In this paper, we studied the pro-proliferative and cytoprotective activity of the adrenocorticotropic hormone fragment 6-9 (FRWG) linked with the peptide Prolyl-Glycyl-Proline on the SH-SY5Y cells in the model of oxidative stress-related toxicity. The peptide dose-dependently protected cells from H2O2, tert-butyl hydroperoxide, and KCN. The mechanism of its action was the modu-lation of proliferation-related (NF-kB and Nrf-2) and antioxidant-related (HO-1, Nqo1, Gclc) genes and apoptosis decrease.

This study investigated live animal performance and carcass characteristics of Australian prime lambs fed oil based polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) enriched pellets in a feedlot system. The tested hypothesis was that supplementation of lambs with a variety of dietary oil based PUFA enriched pellets would enhance growth and carcass characteristics compared with the control lambs on lucerne only. Seventy-two, 6 months old White Suffolk x Corriedale first-cross prime lambs with an average liveweight (LWT) of 35.7 ± 0.9 kg were allocated to six treatment groups in a completely randomised experimental design. The treatments were: (1) control: lucerne hay only; or lucerne hay plus wheat-based pellets infused with 50 ml/kg DM of oils from (2) rice bran (RBO); (3) canola (CO); (4) rumen protected (RPO); (5) flaxseed (FO) and (6) safflower (SO) dietary sources. All lambs had ad libitum access to lucerne hay and clean fresh water. Supplemented lambs were fed 1kg of pellet/head/day for 10 weeks. Feed intake, final LWT, average daily gain (ADG), body conformation and carcass characteristics of lambs in the supplemented groups were all greater than for the control group. SO lambs had the lowest ADG of 190.3 g/day. RBO and CO treatments had the lowest feed cost per unit gain of AU$ 3.0/kg. Supplemented lambs had similar over the hooks (OTH) incomes that were all higher than that of the control group. This empirical evidence-based data demonstrated that supplementation of lambs with RBO and CO had comparatively lower feed costs without compromising ADG, carcass characteristics and OTH income.

The article shows materials to the question about algebraic features of the genetic code and about the dictatorial influence of the DNA and RNA molecules on the whole organism. Presented results testify in favor that the genetic code is an algebraic code related with a wide class of algebraic codes, which are a basis of noise-immune coding of information in communication technologies. Structural features of the genetic systems are associated with hypercomplex double (or hyperbolic) numbers and with bisymmetric doubly stochastic matrices. The received results confirm that represented matrix approaches are effective for modeling genetic phenomena and revealing the interconnections of structures of biological bodies at various levels of their organization. This allows one to think that living organisms are algebraically encoded entities where structures of genetic molecules have the dictatorial influence on inherited structures of the whole organism. New described algebraic approaches and results are discussed.

In this paper, we relate Poisson’s summation formula to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. They both express Fourier dualities within the space of tempered distributions and these dualities are furthermore the inverses of one another. While Poisson’s summation formula expresses a duality between discretization and periodization, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle expresses a duality between regularization and localization. We define regularization and localization on generalized functions and show that the Fourier transform of regular functions are local functions and, vice versa, the Fourier transform of local functions are regular functions.

The research was undertaken to study the way deformation behaves in ultrafine-grained (UFG) conducting Al-Zr alloys doped with Sc, Hf, and Yb. All in all, 8 alloys were studied with zirconium partially replaced by Sc, Hf, and/or Yb. Doping elements (X = Zr, Sc, Hf, Yb) in the alloys total 0.4 wt.%. The choice of doping elements is conditioned by possible precipitation of Al3X particles with L12 structure while annealing these alloys. Such particles provide higher thermal stability of a nonequilibrium UFG microstructure. Initial coarse-grained samples were obtained by induction casting. The UFG microstructure in the alloys was formed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) at 225°C. Superplasticity tests were carried out at temperatures ranging from 300 to 500 °C and strain rates varying between 3.310-4 and 3.310-1 s-1. The highest values of elongation to failure are observed in Sc-doped alloys. A UFG Al-0.2%Zr-0.1%Sc-0.1%Hf alloy has maximum ductility: at 450 °C and a strain rate of 3.310-3 s-1, relative elongation to failure reaches 765%. At the onset of superplasticity, stress–strain curves are characterized by a stage of homogeneous strain and a long stage of localized plastic flow. The dependence of homogeneous strain (eq) on test temperature in UFG Sc-doped alloys is increasing uniformly, which is not the case for other UFG alloys with eq(T) dependence peaking at 350-400 оС. Strain rate sensitivity coefficient of flow stress m is small and does not exceed 0.26-0.3 at 400-500 °C. In UFG alloys containing no scandium, m coefficient is observed to go down to 0.12-0.18 at 500 оС. It has been suggested that lower m values are driven by intensive grain growth and pore formation in large Al3X particles, which develop specifically at the ingot crystallization stage.

The uterine leiomyoma is the most common benign tumor in women of childbearing age. It may lead to problem of conception or complications during gestational period. The methods of treatment can be surgical (myomectomy and hysterectomy, embolization of arteries) and therapeutic treatment (Ulipristal acetate, Leuprolide acetate, Cetrorelix, Goserelin, Mifeprestone). Both approaches are efficient, but are incompatible with pregnancy planning. Therefore, there is a call for medical practice in developing therapeutical means of preventing leiomyoma onset in patients planning on pregnant. Based on the analysis of GWAS data on the search for mononucleotide polymorphisms associated with the risk of leiomyoma, meta-transcriptomic and meta-methylomic studies, target proteins have been proposed. Prospective therapeuticals of leiomyoma may be based on chemical compounds, humanized recombinant antibodies, vaccines based on markers of the uterine leiomyoma cells that are absent in the adult organism, DNA and RNA preparations. Three different nosological forms of the disease associated with driver mutations in the MED12, HMGA2 and FH genes should be considered when developing or prescribing drugs. E.g. synthetic inhibitors and vaccines based on matrix metalloproteinases MMP11 and MMP16 are expected to be effective only for the prevention of the occurrence of MED12-dependent nodules.