The Na+/K+ ATPase is a protein involved in the active transport of ions across the cellular membrane. Ouabain is a cardiotonic glycoside that, by inhibiting the Na+/K+ pump, interferes with cell processes mediated directly by the pump, but also indirectly influences other cellular processes, such as cellular cycle and proliferation, growth, cell differentiation, angiogenesis, migration, adhesion and invasion. We used the SK-BR-3 breast cancer cell line, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and tumor-associated fibroblasts (TAFs) in vitro for determining the changes induced by Ouabain in concentration of 10-5 M, 10-6 M, 10-8 M, 10-9 M on these cellular types, employing specific methods: SEM for morphological evaluation; immunocytochemistry, flowcytometry to assess immunophenotypical markers expression, cell cycle and Annexin V/PI assay for cellular proliferation and viability testing; flowchamber assay to evaluate functional adhesion behavior; RT-PCR for Na+/K+ ATPase subunits molecular expression. Being indicative of the pro-apoptotic and inhibitory effect of Ouabain on tumor invasion and metastasis, the results support the addition of Ouabain to the oncological therapeutic arsenal, trailing the “repurposing drugs” approach.

This paper proposes several LabVIEW applications to accomplish the data acquisition, processing, features extraction and real-time classification of the electroencephalographic (EEG) signal detected by the embedded sensor of the NeuroSky Mindwave Mobile headset. The LabVIEW applications are aimed at the implementation of a Brain-Computer Interface system, which is necessary to people with neuromotor disabilities. It is analyzed a novel approach regarding the preparation and automatic generation of the EEG dataset by identifying the most relevant multiple mixtures between selected EEG rhythms (both time and frequency domains of raw signal, delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma) and extracted statistical features (mean, median, standard deviation, route mean square, Kurtosis coefficient and others). The acquired raw EEG signal is processed and segmented into temporal sequences corresponding to the detection of the multiple voluntary eye-blinks EEG patterns. The main LabVIEW application accomplished the optimal real-time artificial neural networks techniques for the classification of the EEG temporal sequences corresponding to the four states: 0 - No Eye-Blink Detected; 1 - One Eye-Blink Detected; 2 – Two Eye-Blinks Detected and 3 – Three Eye-Blinks Detected. Nevertheless, the application can be used to classify other EEG patterns corresponding to different cognitive tasks, since the whole functionality and working principle could estimate the labels associated with various classes.

Tourism is the main economic sector in the Balearic Islands (Spain) and hotel housekeepers (HHs) are a large occupational group, in which stress is becoming a major issue. This study aims at exploring in-depth factors perceived as stressors by HHs and key-informants, and their effects on work-life balance (WLB). A qualitative design with phenomenological approach was used, conducting six focus groups with 34 HHs and 10 individual interviews with key-informants. Results were analyzed adopting the job demands-resources model and a gender perspective. High demands –e.g work overload, time pressure, physical burden...-, lack of enough resources and little control –derived from role conflict, unexpected events...- were the most important factors explaining HHs’ stress. Additionally, this imbalance was perceived as leading to health problems –mainly musculoskeletal disorders-. Working schedule was mentioned as a facilitator to WLB, whereas an imbalance between job demands and resources led to work-home conflict –preventing them from enjoying leisure time-. Multiple roles at work and at home increased their stress. HHs experienced their job as invisible and unrecognised. Regarding practical implications, our recommendations for hotel organization include reducing workload and increasing resources, which would improve the job demands-resource balance, diminish negative mental and physical outcomes and improve WLB.

The article explores the concept of 'synthetic man' (SM) in the context of 'synthetic biology' (SB), analysing the potential, challenges, and ethical implications of these achievements. Through dialogue with ChatGPT 4, an in-depth understanding of the evolution, contributions of SM, ChatGPT's contribution, and concerns associated with SM is sought, providing insight into how this technology could affect our society. Our study uses a structured dialogue framework with ChatGPT that addresses essential SM questions regarding SM history, contributions, challenges, and concerns. ChatGPT responses are analysed to extract relevant information and identify trends and insights. The ChatGPT dialogue reveals that MS is still a theoretical and speculative concept with significant advances in gene therapy and genetic engineering. The potential contributions of SM in addressing global challenges such as health, environment and education are identified. Ethical and social concerns such as health risks and psychological impact are also highlighted. Differences in ChatGPT responses were observed between different sessions or even within the same session, which highlighted the limitations in the replicability of the research and sometimes the need for clarification of the questions. The article is distinguished by its unique approach of using an advanced language model to explore a complex and speculative topic. The LLM Dialogue Framework on Technology (LLM-DFonTech) framework proposal for structured dialogue with ChatGPT on various technological topics related to the original contribution provides an adaptable tool for interdisciplinary research in emerging technologies. This methodology opens up new possibilities for analyzing and developing trends in technology and society.

The study aimed to review the management of pediatric digestive duplications (DD) with regards to clinical presentation, operative procedures and complications in a single institution in Bucharest, Romania. A retrospective analysis was performed using patient records from ‘Grigore Alexandrescu’ Emergency Children’s Hospital from 2013 to 2023. All patients with a postoperative diagnosis of DD were selected. A total of 39 children (19 boys, 20 girls) with DD have been treated in our hospital in the past 10 years. Only N=5 of them have been diagnosed antenatally. In N=22 cases patients were referred to our hospital for tumors, while N=17 cases involved an acute setting. Comorbidities were encountered in N=16 patients. Duplications involved several parts of the digestive tract: ileal (N=19), colonic (N=10), esophageal (N=2), jejunal (N=2), gastric (N=2), duodenal (N=1), ileocecal (N=1), esogastric (N=1) and rectal (N=1). Two of the duplications were intraluminal, while the rest were cystic. There were N=28 open interventions and N=11 laparoscopies. Conversion was needed in N=2 cases due to (a) overdistended bowel and (b) dense adhesions between the ileum and the tumor. The tumor was resected in N=17 cases, while intestinal resection was required in N=22 cases. A drain was used in N=21 patients. The average hospital stay for open procedures was 10 days and for laparoscopic procedures 8 days. Complications arose in N=7 patients who had an open procedure and N=1 patient who had a laparoscopic procedure. There were no mortalities. With a low rate of antenatal diagnosis (12.82%), 43.58% of DD appeared in an acute setting. Open procedures were favored in acute cases and patients with comorbidities, but required a longer hospital stay. Laparoscopic management had a 18.18% conversion rate and a low rate of complications (9.09%).

Nutrition is one of the most influential environmental factor in both taxonomical shifts in gut microbiota as well as development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Emerging evidence has shown that the effects of nutrition on both these parameters is not mutually exclusive and that changes in gut microbiota and related metabolites such as short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and branched chain amino acids (BCAA) may influence systemic inflammation and signaling pathways that contribute to pathophysiological processes associated with T2DM. With this background, our review highlights the effects of macronutrients, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, as well as micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals, on T2DM, specifically through their alterations in gut microbiota and the metabolites they produce. Additionally, we describe the influences of common food groups, which incorporate varying combinations of these macronutrients and micronutrients, on both microbiota and metabolic parameters in the context of diabetes mellitus. Overall, nutrition is one of the first line modifiable therapies in the management of T2DM and better understanding of the mechanisms by which gut microbiota influence its pathophysiology provides opportunities for optimizing dietary interventions.

Male breast cancers are uncommon, as men account for less than 1 percent of all breast carcinomas. Among the predisposing risk factors for male breast cancer, the following appear to be significant: a) breast/chest radiation exposure, b) estrogen use, diseases associated with hyper-estrogenism, such as cirrhosis or Klinefelter syndrome, and c) family health history. Furthermore, there are clear familial tendencies, with a higher incidence among men who have a large number of female relatives with breast cancer and d) major inheritance susceptibility. Moreover, in families with BRCA mutations, there is an increased risk of male breast cancer, although the risk appears to be greater with inherited BRCA2 mutations than with inherited BRCA1 mutations. Due to diagnostic delays, male breast cancer is more likely to present at an advanced stage. A core biopsy or a fine needle aspiration must be performed to confirm suspicious findings. Infiltrating ductal cancer is the most prevalent form of male breast cancer, while invasive lobular carcinoma is extremely uncommon. Male breast cancer is almost always positive for hormone receptors. A worse prognosis is associated with a more advanced stage at diagnosis for men with breast cancer. And randomized controlled trials which recruit both female and male patients should be developed in order to gain more consistent data on the optimal clinical approach.

The anthropometric features offer an overall image of the nutritional status. The investigated groups were aged 19 and 21. The anthropometric measurements of height and weight were recorded following standard procedures. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the harmonious body development, the nutrition status and the body composition. The evolution of the stature increases until 20 years after which stagnation follows. The body mass index of subjects was found to be normal. The body fat may vary over time in subjects depending on age and gender. Body water and body muscle mass content increased with age. The harmony of body development was assessed by means of the Amar index. Regarding the constitutional index, the women subjects belong to the leptosome type and the male subjects belong to the picnic type. The status of the investigated subjects is within the average stature.

Collision tumors, even uncommon, characterized by two distinctive (morphological, as well immunohistochemical) and spatially independent tumor components in the same location, are always puzzling for clinicians, pathologists and patients because they don’t fit in usual approaching schemes, neither diagnostic, nor therapeutic. Reviewing the specialized literature, until now, collision tumors have been reported in multiple locations such as the skin, esophagus, stomach, liver, kidney, bladder, adrenal gland or thyroid. We report a case of coexistence on the same site of a malignant tumor of ascending colon and a benign one emerging from peritoneal lining, thought initially by the surgeon to be right sided serosal carcinomatosis. But the histopatological examination reveals that those multiple serosal nodules were benign granular cell tumors collided with highly aggressive transparietal signet-ring colon carcinoma. These results put the patient's prognosis and therapeutic strategy in a different light than the clinical-imaging and intraoperative assessment.

This paper presents the monitoring of an extremely eroding phenomenon (ravine) near Ciurila, Cluj County, Romania, using UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technologies, taking into account the objectives of SDG 15 of the UN resolution, which refers to life on earth. In this sense, the results of a monitoring through sustainable and non-invasive technologies are presented, follo-wing three cycles of observations, carried out between June 2019 and April 2021.The paper aims to present the advantages and limitations of such a study , as well as the importance of monitoring erosion phenomena (in this case, ravines) for the ecosystem, but also for the nearby inhabitants. Software and technologies are used that allow the automatic calculation of the volume of the ravine and the displacements between the different measurement cycles, which allows obtaining objective conclusions and pro-posing further measures.

Background – Endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most common types of tumors with such a location. Patients often present in advanced stages of the disease, which leads to a targeted therapeutic attitude of pneumonectomy, most of the time. Practicing a lung parenchyma-preserving surgery led us to do this review. Material and Methods - We used three search platforms SCIENCE, MEDLINE and PubMed, in order to identify studies presenting case reports, studies and reviews on endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma. We identified clinical and paraclinical features of endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma. All selected articles were in English and contained clinical criteria of endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma, autofluorescence bronchoscopy in endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma, imaging features of endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma, blood tumor markers specific for lung squamous cell carcinoma, histopathological features of endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma. Results - 73 articles were analyzed, from which 47 articles were selected as bibliographic references. We have presented the criteria found for endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma in order to highlight the main characteristics and high reliability technologies for the detection of this type of cancer. Conclusions – The current literature review highlights the clinical and paraclinical characteristics of endobronchial squamous cell carcinoma. It aims to open new horizons for research and early detection, frequent practice of lung parenchymal preservation surgery.

Abstract: The paper compares and analyses the effects of correctly and excessively executed heating cycles on flame straightening, far above the limits recommended by the steel manufacturer. The paperwork emphasizes the microstructural changes induced by overheating in the flame straightening process. Flame straightening is a flame heating process of metal constructions in which very limited areas of the construction are heated to the straightening temperature with the aim of inducing geometrical changes.The flame straightening process is used in most of metallic structure manufacturing companies. In many cases, it is not possible to carry out under economic conditions of metal structures without flame straightening.

(1) Introduction: Every two hours, a Romanian woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer [1] as the country ranks second in Europe in terms of mortality and incidence rate [2]. This paper aims to identify the main reasons that have led to this situation, focusing on the measures taken by the Romanian Ministry of Health for the prevention of this type of cancer national - programs for cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. (2) Materials and methods: We performed a study based on available secondary data from the National Statistics Institute, World Health Organization and Bucharest Institute of Oncology in order to assess the burden associated with cervical cancer and placing it in the context of known global and European incidence and mortality rates, thus evaluating the importance of this health issue in Romania. The second component of our study was a cross-sectional study, using a 14 questions questionnaire, applied to the women participating in the National Screening Program for Cervical Cancer, aimed to evaluate the women’s level of knowledge about screening and HPV vaccination and their access cervical cancer specific health-care services. (3) Results: The results of the research shows that a high percentage of women postpone the routine checks due to lack of time and financial resources and indicate that low level of knowledge about the disease and the specific preventive methods determines low participation screening and HPV vaccination programs implemented in Romania contributing to the country’s situation of cervical cancer. (4) Conclusions: The national programs have complicated procedures, are underfunded, and do not motivate enough health care workers. This combined with the lack of information adds up to an extremely low number of women screened and vaccinated. Our conclusion is that the Romanian Ministry of Health must take immediate action by conducting major awareness campaigns, implementing measures to make the programs functional and ensuring coherent funding.

The growing demand for nutritious foods has spurred investigations into alternative sources of nutrition beyond traditional options. For this reason, the present study approaches the amaranth, which is a plant with high potential, highlighting the morphological growth, grain biomass pro-duction, and quantitative traits of seven varieties of amaranth cultivated in the pedoclimatic con-ditions of Somes meadow in Transylvania. A bifactorial trial was implemented with factors ama-ranth species and amaranth varieties. Two amaranth species and seven varieties were studied. Differences are reported between morpho-productive and quantitative traits of the seven amaranth varieties studied in this research. The interrelationships between amaranth morphological traits quantified by using Pearson simple correlations show that morphological traits moderately con-tribute to grain fresh biomass yield, while morphological traits and fresh biomass strongly con-tributed to grains dry biomass yield. Our study shows that morpho-productive, and nutritional characteristics of the seven amaranth varieties comprised by our study recommend the plans to be used in various nutritional aims, being a valuable replacer of traditional raw materials in specific food and feed industry sectors.

There are many welded structures in the world such as bridges and viaducts that are subject to fatigue. These structures, generally made of non-alloy or low-alloy steels, have been put into operation some of them with many years ago and have accumulated a large number of variable load cycles over the time. For this reason the occurrence of fatigue phenomenon is inevitable and consists in the occurrence of failures at stresses applied to the structure, below the yield limit of the material. These stresses under the static loads would not cause the failures to appear..This paper will investigate whether two reconditioning techniques “weld toe grinding” and “WIG remelting weld toe”, influences favorably the behavior of welded structures made from HSLA steel, in static and variable loads and therefore if the application of these techniques is justified in both cases. In the paper will be presented the chemical composition and mechanical properties of the base and filler materials, micro and macrostructures, graphics with the variation of microhardness, static and fatigue tensile tests will be performed, and it will be rised durability curve in case of fatigue tests.

In this report, we demonstrate that it is possible to design epitope-based peptide vaccine candidates to counteract the novel China coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by using an approach similar to the one used in cancer neoantigen vaccination therapy. We identified multiepitope peptide vaccine candidates against 2019-nCov that can potentially trigger both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell immune response with increased efficiency due to the presence of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell epitopes and a cathepsin-sensitive linker. Furthermore, we suggest that the peptide design strategy should incorporate population-specific HLA alleles in order to optimize binding specificity of the peptides. We refer to this as populationalized vaccinomics.

Lignocellulosic biomass, an abundant and renewable resource, serves as a crucial raw material for the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and various value-added products. This paper aims to develop and optimize a mild alkaline treatment of sawdust assisted by ultrasound, along with enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated material. The sonochemical pretreatment with alkali emerged as the optimal approach to enhance the susceptibility of cellulose to subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis, thereby increasing the yield of reducing sugars. A comparative study was performed using various ultrasonic applicators (horn and bath) and conventional assisted alkaline pretreatment. The ultrasonic assisted pretreatment revealed a higher delignification as 68% (horn) and 57% (bath) comparing with conventional pretreatment. Processes were optimized using a statistical analysis based on a 23 factorial design. The ratio between sawdust and alkanine solution (RSL = 0.5–1.5 g/100 mL), US amplitude (A = 20–60%), and working temperature (t = 30–50 °C) were selected as process factors. The optimal operating conditions to maximize the reducing sugar yield (138.15 mg GE /gsubstrate) were found as following: solid/liquid ratio RSL,opt = 1.25 g/100 mL, US amplitude Aopt = 60%, and and pretreatment temperature topt = 50 °C. The overall outcomes clearly confirmed the intensification of delignification by ultrasound assisted alkaline pretreatment

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a serious contagious disease of canines, cats and sometimes ra-coons. The study included seven raccoons from Timisoara Zoo. The detection of CDV in all raccoons was accomplished using qRT-PCR, but several other exams were also conducted. Clinically, severe digestive disorders were observed, characterized by diarrhea and repeated hematemesis. Pseudomembranous gastroenteritis, congestion and pulmonary edema were found during the ne-cropsy of two racoons. Immunohistochemically, the brown color was highlighted in the examined sectionsand it was present in the cytoplasm of the cells from the germinal centers of the medullary area. Histopathological examination revealed lymphocyte depletion and intranuclear and intracy-toplasmic inclusions in the intestine. Based on the qRT-PCR assay, laboratory tests and lesions ob-served, it was established that the raccoons got infected with CDV, and two of them died as a result. The necropsy, histological lesions and immunohistochemical results are comparable between dogs and racoons. Through the results obtained, it was concluded that the interspecific infection is possible and the epidemiological risk of infection transmitted by racoons to domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, needs to be examined in the future.

(1) Background: Mouse-mammary tumor virus (MMTV) might play a role in the etiology of some breast cancers in humans. The purpose of our study was to identify MMTV DNA sequences in breast tissue samples from breast cancer patients operated in our regional center from Romania. (2) Methods: We have selected 75 patients with non-metastatic breast cancer treated with curative intent and searched with PCR the MMTV-like DNA sequence in the breast cancer tissue and normal breast tissue obtained from the same patients. (3) Results: None of the examined samples was positive for MMTV-like target sequences on PCR. (4) Conclusions: We could not prove that MMTV plays a role in the etiology of breast cancer in our patient group. This finding is similar to findings of other geographically related research groups and might be due to the fact that only the Mus musculus domesticus mouse species was proven to carry infectious MMTV, but not the Mus musculus musculus species, which is specific to South-Eastern Europe and some parts of Asia.

Breast cancer, although the most frequently diagnosed malignant tumour in humans, has a less clear aetiology compared to other frequent cancer types. Mouse-mammary tumour virus (MMTV) is involved in breast cancer in mice and dogs and might play a role in the aetiology of some breast cancers in humans, since it has been identified in 20-40% of breast cancer samples in Western Europe, USA, Australia and some other parts of the world population. The purpose of our study was to identify MMTV DNA sequences in breast tissue samples from breast cancer patients operated in our regional centre from Romania. We have selected 75 patients with non-metastatic breast cancer treated with curative intent and searched with PCR the MMTV-like DNA sequence in the breast cancer tissue and normal breast tissue obtained from the same patients. Since none of the examined samples was positive for MMTV-like target sequences on PCR we could not prove that MMTV plays a role in the aetiology of breast cancer in our patient group. This finding is similar to publications of other geographically related research groups and might be due to the fact that only the Mus musculus domesticus mouse species was proven to carry infectious MMTV, but not the Mus musculus musculus species, which is specific to South-Eastern Europe (including Romania) and some parts of Asia.

This study explores the complexities involved in the extraction and purification of catechins, prominent bioactive compounds found in plant extracts and tea. It addresses challenges arising from the intricate molecular structure of catechins and their inherent variability across botanical sources. Despite these obstacles, catechins present significant potential, particularly in healthcare. Their potent antioxidant properties have been extensively investigated and associated with numerous health benefits, positioning them as promising therapeutic agents for combating chronic diseases. Furthermore, catechins have diverse applications across various industries, including food and beverage, cosmetics, agriculture, and materials science. This abstract emphasizes the importance of continued research and innovation in catechin extraction and utilization, which hold promise for advancing human health and technological progress across multiple domains.

Management of synchronous colorectal cancer with liver metastases (SCLM) is still on debate, regarding timing, indications and complications of the 3 strategies: classic approach (first tumor resection), simultaneous resection and reverse approach (liver first). A retrospective single-centre evaluation of synchronous approach was accomplished, focusing on surgical technique, indications and perioperative complications. Between 2017 and 2020, 31 SCLM patients benefited from synchronously colorectal and hepatic approach: segmental colectomies/rectal resections, simultaneously with liver metastasectomies (associated with radiofrequency ablation). Post-therapeutic imaging monitoring was performed from every 3 to 6 months. There were no perioperative complications related to the combination of the two procedures, low morbidity and zero postoperative mortality. The follow-up period was from 10 to 40 months: 13 patients had no evidence of recurrence, 10 patients had hepatic metastases in regression, 4 of them had signs of peritoneal carcinomatosis and 4 patients showed progression of liver disease; all patients were on chemotherapy. During follow-up 4 patients died. Experience shows that the simultaneous approach of recto-colic and hepatic resections in colo-rectal cancers is a safe procedure, with low morbidity, the limits being dictated by the size of the liver metastases. The results at long-distance must be drawn by further consistent trials.

The paper aims to introduce user-friendly modelling approaches to analyze how abiotic factors influence various trophic levels within the marine ecosystem, both naturally and through human impact. It specifically investigates the connections between environmental parameters (like temperature, salinity, and nutrients) and plankton along the Romanian Black Sea coast during the warm season (May-September) over a decade. Utilizing machine learning (ML) algorithms and data collected during this period, models were developed to project the proliferation of zooplankton. During the warm season, water temperature emerged as a significant factor affecting copepods and “other groups” zooplankton densities, while no discernible impact was noted on Noctiluca scintillans blooms. Salinity fluctuations notably influenced typical phytoplankton proliferation, with phosphate concentrations primarily driving widespread blooms. Two scenarios were explored for forecasting zooplankton growth: Business as Usual, predicting modest increases in temperature, salinity, and constant nutrient levels, and the Mild scenario, anticipating more substantial temperature and salinity increases while nutrients decrease significantly by 2042. The findings highlight that under both scenarios, Noctiluca scintillans displays notably high densities, with the second scenario projecting even higher values, surpassing the first by around 70%. These densities indicate characteristics of a eutrophic ecosystem, suggesting the potential implications of altered abiotic factors on ecosystem health.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a devastating illness whose biomedical basis is now beginning to be elucidated. We reported previously that, after recovery from frozen storage, lymphocytes (peripheral blood monocytic cells, PBMCs) from ME/CFS patients die faster in culture medium than those from healthy controls. We also found that lymphoblastoid cell lines (lymphoblasts) derived from these PBMCs exhibit multiple abnormalities in mitochondrial respiratory function and signalling activity by the cellular stress-sensing kinase TORC1. These differences were correlated with disease severity, as measured by the Richardson and Lidbury Weighted Standing Test. The clarity of the differences between these cells derived from ME/CFS patient blood and those from healthy controls suggested that they may provide useful biomarkers for ME/CFS. Here we report a preliminary investigation into that possibility using a variety of analytical classification tools, including linear discriminant analysis, logistic regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. We found that results from three different tests, lymphocyte death rate, mitochondrial respiratory function and TORC1 activity could each individually serve as biomarker with better than 90% sensitivity but only modest specificity vís a vís healthy controls. However, in combination they provided a cell-based biomarker with sensitivity and specificity approaching 100% in our sample. This level of sensitivity and specificity was almost equalled by a suggested protocol in which the frozen lymphocyte death rate was used as a highly sensitive test to triage positive samples to the more time consuming and expensive tests measuring lymphoblast respiratory function and TORC1 activity. This protocol provides a promising biomarker that could assist in more rapid and accurate diagnosis of ME/CFS.

In this paper, the extraction of essential oil (EO) from thyme by consecutive use of ultrasound and microwave treatments is presented. The aim of the study was to apply an ultrasound pre-treatment of thyme leaves to enhance the thymol content and the extraction yield of the EO obtained by microwave-assisted hydro-distillation (MWHD). Compared with the conventional hydro-distillation (CHD), the consecutive use of ultrasound and microwave treatments resulted in a 72% lower extraction time. When the ultrasound pre-treatment (using the ultrasonic processor with an amplitude of 70%) was applied, the EO content was 23% higher compared to the extraction without pre-treatment. The EO samples were analyzed by GC/MS. The results showed that the major component, thymol, varied from 43.54% (by CHD) to 65.94% (by consecutive use of ultrasound and microwave treatments).

Wound healing involves physical, chemical and immunological processes. Transient receptor potential (TRP) and other ion channels are implicated in epidermal re-epithelization. Ion movement across ion channels can induce transmembrane potential that leads to transepithelial potential (TEP) changes. TEP present in epidermis surrounding the lesion decreases and induces an endogenous direct current generating an epithelial electric field (EF) that could be implicated in wound re-epithelialization. TRP channels are involved in the activation of immune cells during the inflammatory phase of wound healing. The aim of the study was to review the mechanisms of ion channel involvement in wound healing in in vivo experiments in rodents (mice, rats, rabbits) and how can this process be influenced. This review used the latest results published in scientific journals over the last year and this year to date (1 January 2023–31 December 3000) in order to include the in-press articles. Some types of TRP channels, such as TRPV1, TRPV3, and TRPA1, are expressed in immune cells and can be activated by inflammatory mediators. The most beneficial effects in wound healing are produced using agonists of TRPV1, TRPV4 and TRPA1 channels or by inhibiting with antagonists, antisense oligonucleotides or knocking down TRPV3 and TRPM8 channels.

Canine mammary tumors represent one of the leading malignant pathology in female dogs, displaying the importance of efficient therapeutic findings, beside the golden standard surgery, able to limit the development of the disease. Studies in human cancers demonstrated that Doxorubicin presents a good effect in different biological processes like apoptosis, autophagy, cell cycle, cell invasion and epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Our study following the effects of Doxorubicin on two canine mammary cancer cell lines P114 and CMT-U27, showing an inhibitory effect in cell proliferation and an expression alteration of the EMT related genes.

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.

Evaluating the integrity of structures is an important issue in engineering applications. The use of vibration-based techniques has become a common approach to assessing cracks, which are the most often occurring damage in structural elements. When involving an inverse method, it is necessary to know the influence of the position and the geometry of the crack on the modal parameter changes. The geometry of the crack, both in size and shape, defines the damage severity (DS). In this study, we present a method (DS-SHC) used for estimating the DS for closed and open transverse cracks in beam-like structures by using the intact and damaged beam deflections under its weight and a Stochastic Hill Climbing (SHC) algorithm. After describing the procedure of applying DS-SHC, we calculate for a prismatic cantilever beam the severities for different crack types and depths. The results are tested by comparing the DS obtained with DS-SHC with those acquired from dynamic tests made using professional simulation software. We obtained a good fit between the severities determined in these two ways. Afterward, we performed laboratory experiments and find out that the severities obtained with the DS-SHC method can accurately predict the frequency changes due to the crack. Hence, these severities are a valuable tool for damage detection.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia associated with various risk factors and significant morbidity and mortality. This article presents findings from a study involving 115 patients with permanent AF. The study examined demographics, risk factors, associated pathologies, complications, and anticoagulant therapy. The results showed a slight predominance of AF in males, with the highest incidence in individuals aged 75 and above. Common risk factors included arterial hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes mellitus type 2, and obesity. Comorbidities such as congestive heart failure, mitral valve regurgitation, and pulmonary disorders were prevalent among the patients. Major complications included congestive heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction. Thromboembolic and bleeding risk assessment using CHAD2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores demonstrated a high thromboembolic risk in all patients. The majority of patients were receiving novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) before admission, while NOACs were also the most prescribed antithrombotic therapy at discharge. The study highlights the importance of risk factor management and appropriate anticoagulant therapy in AF patients to reduce complications and improve outcomes.

Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a severe complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) strongly linked to a nearly five-fold higher risk of cardiovascular mortality. Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are a significant cohort in which these assessments have particular relevance to the increased cardiovascular risk inherent in the condition. This study aimed to explore the subtle correlation between the Ewing test, Sudoscan-cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy score, and cardiovascular risk calculated using SCORE 2 Diabetes in individuals with T2DM. The cohort consisted of 211 patients diagnosed with T2DM with overweight or obesity without established ASCVD, aged between 40 to 69 years. The prevalence of CAN in our group was 67.2%. In the study group, according SCORE2-Diabetes, four patients (1.9%) were classified with moderate cardiovascular risk, thirty-five (16.6%) with high risk, and one hundred seventy-two (81.5%) with very high cardiovascular risk. On multiple linear regression, the SCORE2-Diabetes algorithm remained significantly associated with Sudoscan CAN-score and Sudoscan Nephro-score and Ewing test score. Testing for the diagnosis of CAN in very high-risk patients should be performed because approximately 70% of them associate CAN. Increased cardiovascular risk is associated with sudomotor damage and that Sudoscan is an effective and non-invasive measure of identifying such risk.

This article explores the relationship between metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, providing a comprehensive overview of its risk factors and prevalence. Metabolic syndrome, characterized by a cluster of interconnected risk factors, significantly increases the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. The study, conducted over a one-year period, involved 117 patients with ages between 30 to 79 years old. Various elements such as gender, age, education level, background, smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary aspects, physical activity, and their contribution in developing the metabolic syndrome, were analysed.Central adiposity and high blood pressure emerged as prominent elements of the condition. The findings underscore the importance of a healthy lifestyle in the prevention and management of metabolic syndrome. Encouraging regular physical activity, maintaining a balanced diet, rich in fresh vegetables and fruits, and avoiding harmful behaviours, such as smoking or alcohol consumption, are essential in reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome and its associated cardiovascular complications. The study highlights the need for public health initiatives, as well as individualized preventive strategies to combat the rising prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Through promoting awareness of its risk factors and implementing effective interventions, healthcare professionals can contribute to better cardiovascular health worldwide. Further research in this area will continue to enhance our understanding of the metabolic syndrome and refine preventive and therapeutic approaches for its management.

Introduction: Birth Asphyxia is a severe condition that includes many potential pathways of occurrence both in utero and during childbirth. We aimed to identify and describe specific macroscopic and microscopic placental injuries in birth asphyxia to serve as a quick tool to stratify a newborn’s potential further evolution, as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy can be responsible for neonatal death or severe neurologic sequelae further compromising the affected persons’ quality of life. Materials and methods: We conducted an observational prospective study over 3 years. 62 patients diagnosed with birth asphyxia which had placental histopathological examination performed were enrolled. The control group consisted of 69 term newborns that required neonatal intensive care for at least three days, in the same period, for any other reason and that also had available placental exams. In our study, placental histopathological lesions identified in birth asphyxia have been classified according to Amsterdam Criteria. Results: We analysed data gathered from both groups by applying specific statistical tests for each type of variable and hypothesis. Thus, umbilical cord abnormalities were associated with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in a statistically significant manner when comparing the birth asphyxia group of newborns with the control group. Also, we identified a high statistical level of significance for maternal and fetal vascular malperfusion and the occurrence of hypoxic-ischemic syndrome when comparing the two groups (p = .00). Conclusion: The macroscopic and microscopic placental examination can provide important information on the evolution of the disease in selected newborns according to the identified lesions.

Ideas about Artificial Intelligence appeared about half a century ago, but only now is it becoming an essential element of everyday life. The data provided is getting bigger and bigger and, in this case, we need artificial intelligence that helps us with superhuman powers. The interaction with medicine is getting closer and closer, medicine being a field that continues to be perfected. Machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, computer vision are some of the mechanisms that are already applied in medicine, becoming a trend in healthcare worldwide. Artificial intelligence will be the thing that will change contemporary medicine. Developed countries such as Japan, France, Germany have already implemented artificial intelligence in their medical systems. The help is in medical diagnosis, patient monitoring, personalized therapy, and workflow optimization. Artificial intelligence will help surgeons to perfect their skills, to standardize techniques, to choose the best surgical technique. The goal is to predict complications, reduce diagnostic time, diagnose complex pathologies, guide the surgeon intraoperatively and reduce medical errors. We are at the beginning but the potential is enormous.

The use of nanoparticles as antimicrobial agents can be one of the strategies to overcome the tendency of microbes to become resistant to antibiotics’ action. In this study, two composites ZnO/Au and ZnO/Ag, having 1% wt. of noble metal content, were synthesized by simple aqueous solution methods. The structure and morphology of the resulting nanocomposites were analyzed by standard structural and optical characterization methods. The formation of Au NPs and Ag NPs in these experiments was also discussed. The antimicrobial properties of ZnO, ZnO/Au and ZnO/Ag nanomaterials were investigated against Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus). The electrostatic interaction between ZnO and noble metals nanoparticles have contributed to a better visible light adsorption, which led to an enhanced antimicrobial activity. The photocatalytic tests indicated an improvement in photocatalytic degradation of the methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation using ZnO/Au and ZnO/Ag nanocomposites compared to bare ZnO. The introduction of noble metallic nanoparticles in ZnO matrix proved to be an effective strategy to increase their antimicrobial activity against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus and their photocatalytic activity evaluated through the degradation of MB dye. Comparing the enhancing effects of Au and Ag, it was found that ZnO/Au was a better antimicrobial agent while ZnO/Ag was more effective photocatalyst under UV irradiation.

(1) Background: Breast cancer-associated lymphedema (BCRL) is a major complication of breast cancer treatment, affects the quality of life of breast cancer survivors who develop it. Manual lymphatic drainage has a beneficial result in combating lymphedema in patients who have undergone breast cancer surgery. The hypothesis consists in complete decongestive therapy reduces the lymphedema at the level of the upper limb on the side of mastectomy. (2) Methods: Twenty-five patients with radical mastectomy and upper limb lymphedema on the mastectomy side were included in this study. Upper limb circumferences were measured with a tape measure at the following levels: metacarpophalangeal joint; distal radioulnar joint; 10 cm distal to lateral epicondyle; 5 cm proximal to elbow joint; 10 cm proximal to lateral epicondyle. (3) Results: Patients received twice weekly manual lymphatic drainage, multi-layer compression bandaging and upper limb muscle stimulation exercises on the mastectomy side twice weekly. The circumference assessed at the level of the metacarpophalangeal joints and distal radio-carpal joint decreased at the final evaluation. Forearm perimetery - 5 and 10 cm distal to the lateral epicondyle the circumference decreased at the final assessment. (4) Conclusions: Patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema should receive comprehensive decongestive therapy in the early stage of lymphedema to achieve rapid clinical results and improved quality of life

The Emergency Department (ED) represents an important setting for addressing inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing practices, due to the time constraints and duration of microbiolo-gical diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the etiology and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern of the community-acquired pathogens, as well as the epidemiological characteristics of patients admitted through ED, in order to guide appropriate antibiotic therapy. (2) Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed on 657 patients, from whom clinical samples for microbiological diagnosis were collected, in the first 3 days after presentation in the ED. The identification of pathogens and the antibiogram with minimum inhibitory concentration determination were carried out according to the laboratory protocols. (3) Results: From the 767 biological samples analyzed, 903 microbial isolates were identified. E. coli was isolated most frequently (24.25%), followed by Klebsiella spp, S. aureus (SA) and non-fermentative Gram-negative bacilli. E. coli strains maintained their natural susceptibility to most antibiotics tested. In the case of Pseudomonas spp. and Acinetobacter spp., increased rates of AMR were identified. Also, 32.3% of SA strains were community-acquired MRSA. (4) Conclusions: The introduction of rapid microbiological diagnostic methods in emergency medicine is imperative in order to timely identify AMR strains and improve therapeutic protocols.

Background: The modified Duke index derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) was designed to predict cardiovascular outcomes based on the severity of coronary ste-nosis. However, it does not take into consideration the presence or severity of peri-coronary in-flammation. The peri-coronary fat attenuation index (FAI) is a novel imaging marker determined by CCTA which reflects the degree of inflammation in the coronary tree in patients with coronary artery disease. Purpose: To assess the association between the modified Duke index assessed by CCTA, cardiovascular risk factors and peri-coronary inflammation in the coronary arteries of pa-tients with coronary artery disease. Methods: One hundred seventy-two patients who underwent CCTA for typical angina were assigned into two groups based on the modified Duke index: group 1 – patients with low index ≤ 3 (n=107) and group 2 – patients with high index > 3 (n=65). Demo-graphic, clinical and CCTA data were collected for all patients, and FAI analysis of coronary in-flammation was performed. Results: Patients with increased values of the modified Duke index were significantly older compared to those with a low index (61.83 ± 9.89 vs. 64.78 ± 8.9; p = 0.002). No differences were found between the two groups in terms of gender distribution, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia or smoking history (all p > 0.5). The FAI score was significantly higher in patients from group 2, who presented a significantly higher score of inflammation compared to the patients in group 1, especially at the level of the right coronary artery (FAI score 20.85 ± 15.80 vs. 14.61 ± 16.66; p = 0.01 for the right coronary artery, 13.85 ± 8.04 vs. 10.91 ± 6.5; p = 0.01 for the circumflex artery, and 13.26 ±10.18 vs. 11.37 ± 8.84; p = 0.2 for the left anterior descending artery). CaRi-Heart® analysis identified a significantly higher risk of future events among patients with a high modified Duke index (34.84 % ± 25.86 % versus 16.87 % ± 15.80 %; p

The COVID-19 pandemic and tuberculosis have epidemiological similarities, being transmitted airborne, favored by direct contact, crowded environments and vulnerable biological status. We performed a retrospective study of 45 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis associated with COVID-19 (TB+COV+) compared to 45 cases with tuberculous monoinfection (TB+COV-), hospitalized during 2021-2022. The demographic characteristics were similar in the two groups, predominating men, a median age of 51 years, living in rural areas, medium level of education and smoking. Common symptoms of the two groups were cough, weight loss, profuse sweating, loss of appetite and hemoptysis, while fever, headache, myo-arthralgias and digestive symptoms characterized the TB+COV+ forms. The scores of radiological lesions in the TB+COV+ compared to TB+COV- group were significantly higher and persistent, revealing more frequent bilateral extensive lung lesions. There were no significant differences in the biological parameters between the two groups. Mortality was 2.2%, regardless of the association of COVID-19. The frequency of infections with Clostridioides difficile was higher in TB+COV+ cases. In conclusion, the co-infection of COVID-19 had an impact on the clinical and biological expression of tuberculosis diagnosed in a pandemic context.

Treating infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is increasingly difficult due to high antimicrobial resistance, materialized through the presence of multiple resistance strains, as well as due to rapid development of resistance throughout treatment. The present survey was conducted to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogens, in two University Veterinary hospitals from different geographical regions of Romania (i.e., south-west - Timisoara county and north-east – Iasi county) involved in canine superficial infections. A total of 142 swab specimens were collected from dogs with superficial infections (superficial skin infections, otitis externa, perianal abscess), with the aim of assessing the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, based on phenotypic and molecular characterization. Fifty-eight samples (40.84%; 58/142) were positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (according to their confirmed morphological and molecular features). Susceptibility to usual antibiotics used in the treatment of canine skin conditions was tested for all Pseudomonas strains that were isolated from canine superficial infections, using the Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Drug resistance was observed in the case of all tested antibiotics. The susceptibility rate of P. aeruginosa strains that were tested in this study was in the following order: ampicillin sulbactam (55.17%; 32/58), followed by ceftazidime (53.44%; 31/58), aztreonam (51.72%; 30/58), amikacin (44.82%; 26/58), azithromycin (41.37%; 24/58), gentamycin (37.93%; 22/58), cefepime (36.20%; 21/58) meropenem (25.86%; 13/58), piperacillin-tazobactam (25.86%; 13/58) imipenem (22.41%; 13/158), ciprofloxacin (17.24%; 10/58) tobramycin (8.62; 5/58), and polymyxin B (1.72; 1/58) respectively. The results highlight the importance of antibiotic susceptibility testing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from dogs with superficial infections, in order to use an adequate treatment plan for the management of the skin condition, and other pathology (otitis externa and perianal abscesses).

There is a huge interest in developing novel hollow fiber (HF) membranes able to modulate neural differentiation to produce in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models for biomedical and pharmaceutical research, due to the low cell-inductive properties of the polymer HFs used in current BBB models. In this work, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and composite PCL/graphene (PCL/G) HF membranes were prepared by phase inversion and were characterized in terms of mechanical, electrical, morphological, chemical, and mass transport properties. The presence of graphene in PCL/G membranes enlarged the pore size and the water flux and presented significantly higher electrical conductivity than PCL HFs. Biocompatibility assay showed that PCL/G HFs significantly increased C6 cells adhesion and differentiation towards astrocytes, may be attributed to their higher electrical conductivity in comparison to PCL HFs. On the other hand, PCL/G membranes produced a cytotoxic effect on the endothelial cell line HUVEC presumably related with a higher production of intracellular reactive oxygen species induced by the nanomaterial in this particular cell line. These results prove the potential of PCL HF membranes to grow endothelial cells and PCL/G HF membranes to differentiate astrocytes, the two characteristic cell types that could develop in vitro BBB models in future 3D co-culture systems.

(1) Importance of problem: Breast cancer accounted for 685.000 deaths globally in 2020, and half of all cases occur in women with no specific risk factor beside gender and age-group. During last 4 decades we see a reduction by 40% of age-standardized breast cancer [1], which in turn means that the number of mastectomies performed for younger women increased, raising the need for adequate breast reconstructive surgery. Advances in oncological treatment have made it possible to limit the extent of what represents radical surgery for breast cancer, yet in the past decade, we see a marked trend toward mastectomy in breast conserving surgery eligible patients [2]. Prophylactic mastectomy has also registered an upward trend [3,4]. This trend together with new indication for breast reconstruction like chest feminization in transgender patients [5] have increased the need for breast reconstruction surgery. (2) Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the types of reconstructive procedures, their indications, their limitations, their functional results and the safety profiles when used during the integrated treatment plan of the oncologic patient; (3) Methods: We conducted an extensive literature review of the main reconstructive techniques, especially the autologous procedures, summarized the findings and presented a few cases from our own experience for exemplification of the usage of breast reconstruction in oncologic patients. (4) Conclusions: Breast reconstruction has become a necessary step in the treatment of most breast cancers and many reconstructive techniques are now routinely practiced. Microsurgical techniques are considered the "gold standard", but they are not accessible to all services, from a technical or financial point of view, so pediculated flaps remain the safe and reliable option, along with alloplastic procedures, to improve the quality of life of these patients.

Due to its similarity with human milk and its low allergenic properties, donkey milk has long been used as an alternative for infants and patients with cow's milk protein allergy. In addition, this milk is attracting growing interest in human nutrition because of presumed health benefits. It has antioxidant, antimicrobial, antitumoral, antiproliferative, and antidiabetic activity. Also, it stimulates the immune system, regulates the gastrointestinal flora, and prevents inflammatory diseases. Although all components of donkey milk can contribute to functional and nutritional effects, it is generally accepted that the whey protein fraction plays a major role. The purpose of this review is to highlight the active proteins and peptides of donkey milk in comparison with other types of milk, emphasizing their properties and their roles in different fields.

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a very rare and potentially life-threatening genetic disease characterized by low levels of C1-INH inhibitor esterase and involving recurrent attacks of non-pruritic angioedema that do not leave subcutaneous or mucosal wells without the presence of hives. It occurs worldwide in 1 in 50,000 to 150,000 individuals and accounts for approximately 2% of clinical angioedema. It affects both sexes equally and can affect all races without ethnic differences. Methods: We conducted a review in Pubmed regarding this disease using keywords such as: hereditary angioedema, guideline, treatment, prophylaxis, management. Results: We analysed 195 articles and we focused our study on 17 reviews about type I of HAE published in English in the last 10 years. Conclusions: Screening among the family members of affected individuals (even if symptoms are absent) is mandatory, since it is a life-threatening condition. Moreover, advances in diagnosis and management have significantly improved the outcomes and quality of life of patients with hereditary angioedema.

The X-linked FMR1 gene contains a non-coding trinucleotide repeat in its 5’ region that in normal, healthy individuals contains 20-44 copies. Large expansions of this region (>200 copies) cause fragile X syndrome (FXS), but expansions of 55-199 copies (referred to as premutation alleles) predispose carriers to a neurodegenerative disease called fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). The cytopathological mechanisms underlying FXTAS are poorly understood, but abnormalities in mitochondrial function are believed to play a role. We previously reported that lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs, or lymphoblasts) of premutation carriers have elevated mitochondrial respiratory activities. In the carriers, especially those not clinically affected with FXTAS, AMPK activity was shown to be elevated. In the FXTAS patients, however, it was negatively correlated with brain white matter lesions, suggesting a protective role in the molecular mechanisms. Here we report an enlarged and extended study of mitochondrial function and associated cellular stress-signalling pathways in lymphoblasts isolated from male and female premutation carriers, regardless of their clinical status, and healthy controls. The results confirmed the elevation of AMPK and mitochondrial respiratory activities and reduction of reactive O2 species (ROS) levels in premutation cells and revealed for the first time that TORC1 activities are reduced. Extensive correlation, multiple regression and Principal Components analysis revealed the best fitting statistical explanations of these changes in terms of the other variables measured. These suggested which variables might be the most “proximal” regulators of the others in the extensive network of known causal interactions amongst the measured parameters of mitochondrial function and cellular stress signalling. In the resulting model, the premutation alleles activate AMPK and inhibit both TORC1 and ROS production, the reduced TORC1 activity contributes to activation of AMPK activation and of nonmitochondrial metabolism, and the higher AMPK activity results in elevated catabolic metabolism, mitochondrial respiration and ATP steady state levels. In addition the results suggest a separate CGG repeat number-dependent elevation of TORC1 activity that is insufficient to overcome the inhibition of TORC1 in premutation cells, but may presage the previously reported activation of TORC1 in FXS cells.

Background: This literature review investigates qualitative and quantitative uses of indocyanine green (ICG) in surgical treatment, as this novel technique has become increasingly popular in ORs (operating rooms) worldwide due to its many advantages. Method: An extensive literature review was performed by searching for relevant terms in 5 international databases (www.pubmed.gov, www.sciencedirect.com, www.scopus.com, www.Oxfordjournals.com, www.reaxys.com). The results of this search were summarized into the main advantages of employing ICG in colorectal surgery as follows: a) intraoperative fluorescence angiography capability; b) fluorescence-guided identification of lymph node involvement in colorectal cancer and the sentinel lymph node method; c) positive fluorescence flagging of a liver tumour as small as "only" 200 tumour cells; d) facilitation of fistula diagnosis; and e) tumour tattooing. Moreover, in addition to qualitative intraoperative ICG use, this technique can be combined with quantitative methods and parameters, such as maximum intensity, relative maximum intensity, and different inflow parameters (time-to-peak, slope, and t1/2max). The conclusion of this article is that fluorescence surgery with ICG aided by near-infrared (NIR) light is a relatively recent technology, an advantage of which is improving the specific anatomic and functional information provided, thus allowing more comprehensive and safer tumour removal as well as preservation of important structures.

Chronic kidney disease patients treated by hemodialysis present a high cardio-vascular morbidity and mortality. There is an imperative need for novel biomarkers in identifying and to offer possible therapeutically intervention in these patients. We performed a prospective observational cohort study on 77 patients in the period October 2021 – October 2023. We measured serum plasma levels of Interleukin 1-Beta, Galectin 3, human suppression of tumorigenicity factor 2, bone morphogenetic protein 2 and fibroblastic growth factor 23 at the inclusion. We evaluated the correlations of these biomarkers with cardiac function and structure evaluated by echocardiography. Mean age was 61.02 (±11.81) years, 45 (56.2%) males and with a dialysis vintage of 4.95 (2.4-7.8) years. Median ejection fraction was 51 (43-54 %) and more than two thirds of the patients presented valvular calcifications. Overall mortality was 22%. Interleukin 1-Beta correlated positively with ejection fraction and global longitudinal strain and negatively with left atrium diameter and left ventricle tele systolic diameter. Galectin 3 values negatively correlated with aortic valve fibrosis and mitral valve calcifications and human suppression tumorigenity factor 2 negatively correlated with mitral valve calcifications. Some of these novel biomarkers could be used to better asses the cardio-vascular disease in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

Cardiotoxicity remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in childhood cancer survivors. This study aimed to evaluate cardiotoxic side effects of chemotherapeutic regimens in a pediatric population, as revealed by assessment of baseline end-of-treatment and in follow-up after 1 year. A prospective study was conducted on 39 children, enrolled over a period of 5 years (2017-2022), diagnosed with leukemia and receiving chemotherapy regimens. A multimodal echocardiographic evaluation was done (two-dimensional echocardiography and M-mode, tissue doppler imaging (TDI) and 2D-speckle tracking (2DST) before the initiation of the cytostatic treatment, at the end of the treatment and 1 year after the treatment. Ultrasound-derived parameter values were compared between evaluations and correlated with cumulative doses of chemotherapeutic agents used. There were no significant differences in mean values for any of the imagistic parameters analyzed. However, a significant correlation was found between E’value percentage variation and cumulative dose of both anthracyclines and antimetabolics administered (p=0.03). Moreover, a significant linear regression correlation was found between alkylating agent dose and global longitudinal strain (GLS)(p<0.01). Non-invasive cardiovascular imaging parameter values did not differ significantly from baseline in our study, but some of them seem to be dependent upon cumulative dose of cytostatic agents used. Further studies on larger populations and involving a longer follow-up period might provide more insight into cardiotoxicity of chemotherapy regimens.

Tomato is considered the most important vegetable crop worldwide. Improving the nutritional value of fruits must be based on sustainable production in terms of varieties and fertilization management. This study aimed to improve the nutritional value (total soluble solids, acidity, lycopene, β-carotene, polyphenols, macro and microelements) of two tomato varieties (‘Cristal’ and ‘Siriana’) under three fertilization types (NPK chemical fertilizer, chicken manure and biological fertilizer with microorganisms) for the greenhouse. Primary metabolism compounds do not vary significantly according to the type of fertilizer used. The results for the antioxidant compounds showed a better effect of biological fertilization compared to chemical fertilizer and control unfertilized. The tomato fruits from the local cultivar (‘Siriana’) are richer in nutritional compounds such as rutin, regardless of the type of fertilization, which denotes a good ability to adapt to crop conditions. Tomato cultivars reacted positively to microbiological fertilization compare to chemical, thus producing nutritious fruits under sustainable management. Tomato fruits were richer in the quality of microelement contents.

This study is part of an extended investigation into the quantitative detection of therapeutic molecules with antineoplastic properties, specifically focusing on bleomycin. The objective is to minimize adverse effects while maximizing therapeutic effectiveness. We are presenting the results for bleomycin detection, in terms of cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. We are continuing an approach we have recently started, of an electrochemical biosensor based on graphene, which is evidenced to be a revolutionary nanomaterial. The vertical graphene biosensor exhibited improved sensitivity, faster response, faster occurrence of the chemical reactions, and higher electrode surface conductivity, than the classical gold IDE sensor. The construction of the electrochemical sensor involved growing vertically aligned graphene nanosheets on the conductive surface of interdigitated electrodes. The results for bleomycin detection emphasized that a simpler surface modification method proved to be more efficient.

Aspects are presented on the interpretation of certainties by assessing risks with maximum level in order to establish reasonable limits of acceptance, tolerance or assumption of risks, supplementing environmental risk factors with external, social, financial elements and introducing a category in the work system analysis.Comparative aspects between INCDPM and MEvAR methods are presented as proposals in the associated tables.The conclusions highlight the current aspects implemented in the method and their usefulness.

Despite the extensive literature on missing data theory and cautionary articles emphasizing the importance of realistic analysis for healthcare data, a critical gap persists in incorporating domain knowledge into missing data problem formulation, assumption specification, and method development. In this paper, we highlight the gap particularly for observational data from healthcare facilities. We address this gap by identifying ten fundamental missingness scenarios arising during data measurement, recording, and pre-processing in observational health data, influenced by physicians, patients, healthcare facilities, and data scientists. We analyze the effect of scenarios on estimand formulation, missing data identification, estimation, and sensitivity analysis. To emphasize how domain-informed analysis can improve method reliability, we conduct simulation studies under the influence of various missingness scenarios. We compare the results of three common methods in medical data analysis (complete-case analysis, Missforest imputation, and inverse probability weighting estimation) for two estimands (variable mean estimation and classification accuracy). We advocate for our analysis approach as a reference for the analysis of observational health data. Furthermore, we posit that the proposed analysis framework is applicable to other medical domains, including medical wearable data analysis.

The incidence and mortality of cervical cancer are high in Romania compared to other European countries, particularly for locally advanced cervical cancer cases, which are predominant at the time of diagnosis. Widely accepted therapeutic guidelines indicate that the treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer consists of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (total dose 85-90Gy at point A), with surgery not being necessary as it does not lead to improved survival and results in significant additional morbidity. In Romania, the treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer differs, involving lower-dose chemotherapy (total dose 60-65Gy at point A), followed by surgery which, under these circumstances, ensures better local control. In this regard, we attempted to evaluate the role and necessity of surgery in Romania, considering that in our study, residual lesions were found in 55.84% of cases on resected specimens, especially in cases with unfavorable histology (adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma). This type of surgery was associated with significant morbidity (28.22%) in our study. The recurrence rate was 24.21% for operated patients compared to 62% for non-operated patients receiving suboptimal concurrent chemotherapy alone. In conclusion, In Romania, surgery will continue to play a predominant role until radiotherapy achieves the desired effectiveness for local control.

At the level of skin wounds, an electrical potential difference develops between the edges of the wound and the cen-ter of the wound, which favors the migration of cells in the process of their healing. Cells migrate in an electric field because they have a certain electrical membrane potential. This potential is due to differences in the trans-membrane electrochemical gradient. The transmembrane electrochemical gradient is due to the migration of sodium, potassium and calcium ions into the corresponding ion channels. If this is the case, the modification of the func-tionality of these ion channels should influence the membrane potential and, as a consequence, the wound healing process. In this experiment, we aimed to investigate to what extent amiodarone influences the wound healing pro-cess. Amiodarone blocks several types of ion channels but at different concentrations: at low concentrations it blocks only potassium channels, at medium concentrations potassium and calcium channels, and at high concentra-tions it blocks potassium, calcium and sodium channels. We worked on rats that were given experimental skin le-sions and evaluated the influence of the healing of these lesions upon the topical administration of amiodarone in 3 concentrations, 200nM, 2000nM and 200000nM, compared to an untreated group and a group treated with benzyl alcohol, the amiodarone solvent. In our experimental conditions, low concentration amiodarone promoted wound healing both in terms of duration of healing and also in terms of speed of healing. This means that blocking some ions, possibly potassium channels, might promote wound healing.

Many relevant health social actors have voiced concerns about the danger of self-medication in times of growing use of over-the-counter medicines and, in some contexts, unregulated selling of them. Previous research has examined the incidence of parental self-medication as well as the use and abuse of antibiotics without professional advice. However, these studies have limited evidence on the role of family doctors and the perceived severity of self-medication in the case of parents. Based on Health Belief Model, our research tested the effects of exposure to medical information on the perceived level of self-treating the children without medical advice. Specifically, we aimed to assess whether exposure to information warning about the risks of treating children without a medical prescription influences parents' attitudes toward administering medicines to their children without medical advice. The results showed that our respondents evaluated the practices of self-medication negatively, especially when it came to treating their children without medical advice. However, their attitudes towards self-medication varied depending on their beliefs about administering certain medications. Additionally, the results showed that the perceived level of satisfaction with the family physician could be a significant factor in controlling and avoiding the treatment of children without professional advice.

Several strategies promote phyllosphere colonization by soil-born Trichoderma plant-beneficial strains. One of these is foliar spraying with suspensions containing large amounts of chlamydospores – spores with a thick cell wall structure that makes them highly resistant to harsh environmental conditions. Trichoderma biomass was produced by cultivation on cornmeal medium and compared by microscopic and thermogravimetric analysis with the biomass produced in potato dextrose broth. Both analyses revealed higher chlamydospores content and thicker mycelium in the fungal biomass produced on cornmeal medium. The Trichoderma suspension rich in chlamydospores was sprayed on bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) leaves at two concentration levels, 106 and 108 ufc/ml. The effect of these treatments on plant physiological parameters, leaf photosynthetic pigments, polyphenol and flavonoid contents, antioxidant activity of leaves and fruits and yield was compared to the control (plants sprayed with water) and to the experimental treatment sprayed with 108 ufc propagules produced in potato dextrose broth. The effect of chlamydospore-rich suspensions on plant physiological parameters was more pronounced and long-lasting compared with the other treatments. The treatment with chlamydospore-rich suspension enhanced the accumulation of polyphenols and flavonoids in the leaves and fruits and increased the antioxidant activity. The application of the foliar treatment with Trichoderma suspensions did not modify the cytocompatibility of the extracts from fruits determined on L929 cells.

(1) Background: Show caves are unique natural attractions and touristic traffic can trigger their degradation within a very short time. There are no universal solutions to counter the effects of the touristic impact upon cave environment and both protection protocols and management plans have to be established on a case-by-case basis; (2) Methods: The study includes four show caves from the Romanian Carpathians, where monitoring of the number of visitors, paralleled by the monitoring of the main physico-chemical parameters of the air and water (CO2, temperature, humidity, drip rate, conductivity, and pH) was implemented; (3) Results and Conclusions: The results of the study has: (i) established a monitoring protocol to be applied to each of the four show caves; (ii) established a set of basic principles to be enforced by the management of show caves; (iii) issued a set of preventive measures and instructions to be followed by the personnel and stakeholders of the caves.

Background: Neonatal sepsis associated with severe morbidity and mortality defines the systemic condition arising from the bacterial, viral, fungal origin associated with hemodynamic and clinical alterations. Symptomatology can be different, from subclinical to severe, focal or systemic disease. The causal agent comes from maternal flora or can be of community/hospital origin. Material and method: Our retrospective study evaluated 121 newborns (both preterm and term), divided into three groups: early onset sepsis (35), late onset sepsis (39), and control group (47), from 0 to 28 days old. Blood samples and cultures were collected at admission, after 24 hours, and 72 hours. Results: The two-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed a statistically significant difference between the initial and final measures of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and ferritin within the early onset sepsis (EOS) and late onset sepsis (LOS) groups. No significant differences were observed for those two variables within the control group. There were significant differences for first and last measurements of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) (p = 0.029), leukocyte count (p = 0.002), and platelets (TR) (p = 0.00001). Conclusions: Ferritin is a potential biomarker that can be associated with systemic response and sepsis in both cases of early and late onset sepsis.

Cervical cancer remains a major public health problem. Despite the screening programs, cervical cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer. Most of the cases occur in less developed countries, and it is the third leading cause of cancer death among females. In 2000–2007, the five-year relative survival rate for European women diagnosed with cervical cancer was 62%.[1] Standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer reveals external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with concurrent chemotherapy followed by image-guided adaptive brachytherapy (IGABT) boost [2, 3]. In the last years, the Gynaecological (GYN) working group composed of Group Européen de Curiethérapie-European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (GEC-ESTRO) has developed new recommendations for the treatment of cervical cancer based on IGABT. The treatment plan includes 3-dimensional (3D) imaging based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT), adaptive to the target volume and organ at risk [4–6]. The brachytherapy insertion is made under anaesthesia. At the time of the application insertion, the ultrasound is used to guide the dilatation of the uterine canal and assess the depth of the uterine cavity. In this paper, we review the data available in international literature about the use of ultrasound (US) in brachytherapy treatment of cervical cancer.

NAD⁺ is known classically as a metabolite that participates in catabolic and anabolic pathways throughout the metabolism that is taught to students in introductory biochemistry courses. However, non-classical studies starting over a decade ago found that NAD⁺ is also involved in higher order functions, in part because of its involvement in the activation of SIRTs and the support of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response. Many studies since have suggested that NAD⁺ is involved in an extensive spectrum of human pathologies, including neurodegenerative disorders, cardiomyopathy, obesity, and diabetes, Further, healthy aging and longevity appear to be closely related to NAD⁺ and its related metabolites, including NAR and NMN. Together, these studies show that this system has value as a dietary supplement to improve general health overall, as well as mitigating specific disease conditions. Accordingly, many are now recommending the consumption of materials in this system as dietary supplements. Nicotinamide riboside (NAR) appears to have special value in this regard. It appears to be better tolerated than other molecules in this system, as well as better pharmacodynamics and greater potency. Unfortunately, NAR is a reactive molecule, often unstable during its manufacturing, transport, and storage. Indeed, HPLC analyses of many commercial samples of NAR shows that they contain substantial amounts of material that are not, in fact, NAR. In some of these commercial preparations, NAR is a minority component. Therefore, more stable derivatives of NAR that are easily converted upon consumption into NAR are therefore desired. Recently work related to prebiotic chemistry provided the borate derivative of NAR. NARB is considerably more stable than NAR itself. However, immediately upon consumption, the borate dissociates from NARB, and is lost in the body through dilution and binding to other species, notably carbohydrates such as fructose and glucose. The NAR left behind is expected to behave pharmacologically in ways identical to NAR itself. This review provides a comprehensive summary (through Q1 of 2023) of literature that makes the case for the consumption of NAR as a dietary supplement. It then summarizes the challenges of delivering quality NAR to consumers using standard synthesis, manufacture, shipping, and storage approaches. It concludes by outlining the advantages of NAR-borate in these processes.

Coronavirus infection disease -2019 (COVID-19) was a global pandemic with high mortality and morbidity, that lead to an increased health burned all over the world. Although the virus affects mostly pulmonary tract, cardiovascular implications were often among COVID-19 positive patients, and are predictive for poor outcomes. Increased values of myocardial biomarkers such as Troponin I or NT-proBNP were proven to be risk factors for respiratory failure (26). Although the risk of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) was greater in acute-phase of COVID-19, there were lower rates of hospitalization for ACS, due to patient’s hesitation for presenting at the hospital (22). Hospitalized ACS patients with COVID-19 infection, had a prolonged symptom-to-first medical contact time, and longer door-to-balloon time. The mechanisms of myocardial injurie in COVID -19 patients are not still not clear, most often is incriminated: the down-regulation of ACE2 inhibitors, endothelial disfunction, pro-coagulant status, increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 survivors that presented an acute myocardial infarction by reviewing existing data.

Context: Endobronchial tumors are relatively rare. Pathological types are varied, both benign and malignant. Establishing the diagnosis and sleeve resection criteria for such tumors remains a challenge for pulmonologists, bronchoscopists, radiologists, thoracic surgeons, and pathologists. The management of the preoperative assessment of these patients and the establishment of the indication for sleeve resection, represent a big problem. Lung parenchymal sparing surgery remains a challenge, especially in neoplastic patients. Material and methods: We carried out a monocentric retrospective study, during the period 2009-2017, on a number of 57 patients. In our center they benefited from clinical examination, radiography, tomography, respiratory function evaluations, autofluorescence bronchoscopy, cardiological evaluation and detection of blood tumor markers. All the patients benefited from the analysis of the tumorboard of our institute and the establishment of the surgical indication for scleev resection. Results: Sparing of the lung parenchyma was achieved in case of the 57 patients included in the study. The complex evaluations of laboratory parameters, functional tests, CT examination, bronchoscopy, cardiology, were analyzed by the tumor board, so that the indication for surgical intervention was sleeve resection with preservation of the lung parenchyma. Conclusions: We selected patients for sleeve resection, those who presented endobronchial tumors of 2 cm in diameter, with cartilages and bronchial mucosa intact at least 1 cm or 2 cartilages from the formation, on CT and bronchoscopic examination. Cardiological examination and functional tests showed values that do not contradict surgical intervention.

Background and Objectives: Renal cell carcinomas and upper tract urothelial carcinomas are types of malignancies that originate in the kidneys. Each of these examples shows an increasing trend in the frequency and the mortality rate. This study aims to comprehensively define carcinomas by analysing clinical, paraclinical, and histological aspects to predict aggressiveness and mortality. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective investigation on a group of patients suspected with kidney cancers. Results: We identified 188 cases. We observed a higher mortality rate and older age in individuals with urothelial carcinomas. Anemia, acute kidney injury, hematuria and perineural invasion were the main risk factors that predicted their mortality. Tumour size in renal cell carcinomas correlates with the presence of necrosis and sarcomatoid areas. Factors that indicate a higher rate of death are older age, exceeding of the renal capsule, the lesion that includes the entire kidney, lymphovascular invasion, acute kidney injury, and anemia. Conclusions: Even if they originate at the renal level, and the clinical-paraclinical picture is similar, the histopathological characteristics make the difference. In addition, to these are added the previously mentioned common parameters that can represent important prognostic factors. In conclusion, the characteristics commonly identified in one type of cancer may act as risk factors for the other tumor. The detected data include threshold values and risk factors, making a significant contribution to the existing literature.

The present study focused on the development of gel-based capsules from sodium alginate and different berries fresh juice: chokeberry, sea buckthorn, and blueberry. Obtained through extrusion method, the macrocapsules were added into yoghurt, a well-known and consumed dairy product. In order to establish the changes that can occur into the food product, the samples were tested during 7, respectively 15 days storage in refrigeration conditions. According to the results, the antioxidant activity increased during storage and gels can represent a good option for bioactive substances’ encapsulation. Sensorial analysis performed indicated that consumers are open to consuming yoghurt berries capsules and, according to the results observed into scientific literature, they no longer rejected the product due to bitterness and sourness of sea buckthorn or aronia.

The paper focuses on the application of a multilevel, integrative and territorial approach to the protection of cultural heritage through planning instruments in Serbia. It points out the problems of the sectoral approach and discusses international recommendations that can be integrated into the planning methodology. The case study is the area of Djerdap National Park, which has an already established international and national importance. The research suggests that the cultural heritage in the area, with the exception of the Roman limes, is still recognized at the level of individual localities. The study emphasizes the importance of aligning all levels of governance to safeguard the whole spatial entity rather than focusing solely on its particular areas. The interna-tional and national importance of the planning area contributes to the strengthening of awareness of heritage and its institutional protection. However, the vitality of the area, which is key to its sustainable development, comes from the local level. Planning documents contribute to the inte-gration of local values and local communities into development programs and projects.

Glycosidic linkage analysis was conducted on the unfractionated polysaccharides in the alcohol-insoluble residues (AIRs) prepared from six red seaweeds (Gracilariopsis sp., Prionitis sp., Mastocarpus papillatus, Callophyllis sp., Mazzaella splendens, and Palmaria palmata) using GC-MS/FID analysis of partially methylated alditol acetates (PMAAs). The cell walls of P. palmata primarily contained mixed-linkage xylans and small amounts of sulfated galactans and cellulose. In contrast, the unfractionated polysaccharides of the other five species were rich in galactans displaying diverse 3,6-anhydro-galactose and galactose linkages with varied sulfation patterns. Different levels of cellulose were also observed. This glycosidic linkage method offers advantages for cellulose analysis over traditional monosaccharide analysis that is known for underrepresenting glucose in crystalline cellulose. Relative linkage compositions calculated from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements showed that anhydro sugar linkages generated more response in the latter detection method. This improved linkage workflow presents a useful tool for studying polysaccharide structural variations across red seaweed species. Furthermore, for the first time, relative linkage compositions from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements, along with normalized FID and total ion current (TIC) chromatograms without peak assignments, were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) as a proof-of-concept demonstration of the technique's potential to differentiate various red seaweed species.

Background: Educating college students about the importance of good sleep habits could lead to the adoption of healthier sleep routines, including sufficient sleep duration and sleep quality. The current pre-post study examines the impact of completing a sleep education program called “Sleep 101” on (1) sleep hygiene practices, (2) sleep quality, and (3) weekday and weekend sleep behaviors among college students. “Sleep 101” is an interactive online course developed to educate college students about the importance of sleep by addressing basic sleep physiology, the impact of sleep on mood, academic and physical performance, the interactions between sleep and various substances, and common sleep disorders. Methods: 338 college students were recruited from a midsized public university in the US and invited to participate in “Sleep 101”, of which 25 participants completed the baseline and post-intervention questionnaire. The Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) was utilized to evaluate sleep hygiene practices, while standard questions were employed to assess weekday and weekend sleep behaviors and overall sleep quality. Results: Those who completed the study demonstrated a significant increase in weekday sleep duration and were less likely to engage in negative prior bedtime activities. In addition, 40% of those who completed baseline and post-intervention assessments noticed improvements in their sleep quality. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a brief online program is beneficial in improving sleep behaviors among college and could be a scalable approach to addressing current sleep issues and preventing future sleep problems in college students.

The profile of secondary metabolites occurring in apple cuticular layer is not only characteristic for particular apple cultivar, but also dynamically reflects various external factors in growing environment. In this study, the possibility to authenticate apple samples based on analysis of their cuticular layer extracts was investigated. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) was employed for obtaining metabolomic fingerprints. In total, 274 authentic apple samples, four cultivars harvested within the seasons 2020 to 2022 in the Czech Republic and Poland were analysed. The generated complex data processed by univariate and multivariate statistical methods enabled to build classification models for discrimination of apple cultivars as well as their geographical origin. The models showed very good performance in differentiation of Czech and Polish samples for three of four cultivars: ‘Gala’, ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Idared’, moreover, the validity of the models was verified over harvest seasons. The diagnostic markers, besides metabolites of triterpene biosynthetic pathway, mainly represented wax esters. ‘Jonagold’, which is known to be susceptible to mutations, was the only cultivar for which the unambiguous classification of geographical origin was not possible.

(1) Background: This study aimed to outline the antitumoral, antioxidant, and cytotoxic proprie-ties of various types of Perilla frutescens extracts obtained from the leaves of the species; (2) Methods: We determined total polyphenols, flavonoids and anthocyanins contents, as well as the in vitro antioxidant, antitumoral, and cytotoxic actions in 3 types of ethanolic extracts (E1, E2, E3) and in 3 types of ethanol: acetone extracts (A1, A2, A3) of Perilla frutescens according to standardized procedures; (3) Results: We found that Perilla frutescens ethanolic extracts had higher total phenol concentrations (p= 0.002). Flavonoids and anthocyanins concentrations were not statistically different between the two extracts. The iron chelating capacity, hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity, superoxide anion radical scavenging capacity, and lipoxygenase inhibition capacity showed a significant increase with higher concentrations of Perilla frutescens extracts, particularly the ethanolic extracts. Perillyl alcohol had greater cytotoxic capacity on MG-63 cell line and E1 extract showed similar significant cytotoxic effects on A431 cell line; (4) Conclusions: Both ethanolic and ethanol: acetone extracts from Perilla frutescens exhibited important antioxi-dant and antitumoral actions in vitro, which proportionally increased with concentration. The cytotoxic threshold determined in this study for various types of extracts could help determine the best dosage with the maximum antioxidant and antitumoral potential.

Strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora is one of the main diseases of strawberry and significantly impacts the yield and quality of strawberry fruit. There are now no effective control techniques available except for fungicide sprays, which may directly impact consumers. Biological control is becoming an alternative method for the control of plant diseases to replace or decrease the application of traditional synthetic chemical fungicides. Trichoderma is widely used as a biological agent for controlling strawberry root rot. In order to provide resources for screening the highly effective biocontrol fungus for controlling strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora, the biocontrol mechanism,the control effects of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 against strawberry root rot and growth-promoting effects on strawberry seedlings were investigated by plate culture, microscopy observation and root drenching methods.The results showed that CMT10 had obvious competitive, antibiotic and hyperparasitism effects on Neopestalotiopsis clavispora CMGF3. The CMT10 could quickly occupy nutritional space, and the inhibition rates of CMT10 against CMGF3 in confrontation culture on 7 d was 65.49%. The inhibition rates of volatile metabolite and fermentation metabolite produced by CMT10 against CMGF3 were 79.67% and 69.84%, respectively. The mycelium of strain CMT10 can act as hyperparasites by making contacting, winding and penetrating hyphae of CMGF3. Pot experiment showed that the biocontrol efficacy of CMT10 on strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora was 63.00%. CMT10 had obvious promotion effect on strawberry growth, the plant height, root length, total fresh weight, root fresh weight, stem fresh weight and root dry weight, with the promotion rates were 20.09%, 22.39%, 87.11%, 101.58%, 79.82% and 72.33%, respectively. Overall, this study showed the ability of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 to control strawberry root rot and their potential to develop as novel biocontrol agents to replace chemical fungicides for eco-friendly, sustainable agriculture.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) treatment is an alternative to erythrocyte transfusions in neonates with anemia of prematurity (AOP). This study assesses the impact of rhEPO administration within the first week of life on the incidence of AOP (any stage, individual AOP stages, and red-blood-cell (RBC) transfusions. Out of 108 preterm neonates, 49 were administered rhEPO and compared to the remaining group using univariate and multivariate analyses. Univariately, gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (HCT), and RBC levels, and iron administration were significantly associated to AOP (p&lt;0.05 each); however, only the latter remained significant after adjusting for covariates (AOR: 2.75, 95% CI, 1.06–7.11). Multinomial analysis revealed rhEOP therapy was associated with a near 3-fold reduction in moderate AOP incidence (OR: 0.36, 95% CI, 0.15–0.89). Furthermore, ANCOVA revealed positive correlations between rhEPO administration and 21-day Hb (p&lt;0.01), HCT (p&lt;0.05), and EPO (p&lt;0.001) levels. The results confirm previously reported benefits of rhEPO treatment, such as reduced moderate AOP incidence and increased Hb, HCT, and serum EPO levels.

The aim of the study was to identify the existence of positive relationships between certain psychomotor behaviors, which we consider specific to swimming, and learning the execution technique of some styles (front crawl and backstroke). The study was carried out during 10 months, including 76 children (40 boys and 36 girls) aged between 6-9 years who practice recreational swimming in a Romanian city. Several tests were used: Tapping test for manual dexterity and laterality, the Goudenough test for body schema, the Flamingo test for static balance, the horizontal buoyancy test for body balance on the water. Results indicated better ratings on all psychomotor behaviors analyzed by gender (in favor of girls compared to boys), except for laterality. The levels of all analyzed psychomotor behaviors are directly proportional to the age of the subjects. Also, moderate positive correlations of manual dexterity (rs = 0.63 in front crawl; rs = 0.57 in backstroke) and strong correlations were identified for body scheme, laterality, static balance and buoyancy, coordination with the learning of the two styles of swimming (r or rs between 0.77 and 0.85). In conclusion, psychomotor behaviors can be predictors for learning swimming styles.

Apis mellifera, especially weak ones, are highly vulnerable to Carpoglyphus lactis mites, which can rapidly infest and consume stored pollen, leading to weakened colonies and potentially colony collapse. This study aimed to ascertain and investigate the prevalence of this mite in honeybee colonies across 9 provinces in the Republic of Korea (ROK). A total of 615 honeybee colonies were collected, from 66 apiaries during the spring and 58 apiaries during the summer of 2023. A 1,242 bp segment of the the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction method. The detection levels of C. lactis in the honeybees were compared between winter and summer. Based on the COI sequence analysis, the nucleotide sequence similarity of C. lactis mites isolated in the ROK with those from China (NC048990.1) was found to be 99.5%, and with those from the United Kingdom (KY922482.1) was 99.3%. This study is the first report of C. lactis in Korean apiaries. The findings in this study demonstrate a significantly higher detection rate in winter, which is 4.1 times greater than that in summer (p &lt; 0.001). Furthermore, the results underscore the usefulness of molecular diagnostic techniques for detecting C. lactis mites.

COX II containing a dual core CuA active site is one of the three core subunits of mitochondrial Cco, which plays a significant role in the physiological process. In this report, the full-length cDNA of COXⅡ gene was cloned from Sitophilus zeamais, which had an ORF of 684 bp encoding 227 amino acids residues. The predicted COXⅡ protein had a molecular mass of 26.2 kDa with pI value of 6.37, and multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sitophilus zeamais COXⅡ had high sequence identity 78.51% with the COXⅡ of other insect species, especially similarity to sitophilus oryzae. This gene was subcloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a, and induced by IPTG in E.coli Transetta (DE3) expression system. Finally the COXⅡ with 6-His tag was purified using affinity chromatography with Ni²⁺-NTA agarose. WB showed the recombinant COXⅡ was about 44 kD, and the concentration of fusion protein was 50μg/mL. UV-spectrophotometer and infrared spectrometer analysis showed that recombinant COXⅡ could catalyze the oxidation of substrate Cytc, and influenced by AITC. It was found that AITC could form a hydrophobic region with COXⅡ protein via molecular docking, besides, a sulfur atom of AITC structure could form a length of 2.9 Å hydrogen bond with Leu-31. These results will provide valuable information for elucidating the role of COXⅡ in Sitophilus zeamais responses to AITC, meanwhile, it will helpful to carry out a point mutation in AITC binding sites for the future research.

The properties of the annual, semiannual and triennial oscillations (AO, SAO and TO) in the middle atmosphere have been investigated using the TIMED/SABER temperature data. The Lomb-Scargle and wavelet spectra were used to determine the dominant oscillations in the background temperature field. The AO is prominent at the mid-latitudes. The AO amplitudes present an asymmetry between the two Hemispheres, being larger in the mesosphere than in the stratosphere. The SAO dominates the tropical regions, with three amplitude maxima at altitudes of 45, 75, and 85 km. The SAOs in the upper mesosphere (75 km) are out of phase with those in the mesopause (85 km) in the tropical regions, which can generate an enhancement of 11 K at each equinox, contributing to the lower mesospheric inversion layer. The TO is significant in the tropical region, with amplitude being maximum at 35, 45 and 85 km. Result shows that there may be potential interaction by the TO with SAO at 85km at the equator. The relation between ENSO and TO has also been discussed. The ENSO signal may modulate the amplitude of the TO, mainly in the lower stratosphere. The real origin of the TO may lie in the wave-mean-flow interaction.

This paper is focused on typical rural settlements in the Stara Planina Mountain area in Serbia. They are distinguished by their authenticity, identity and character, and they have still not been destroyed by inappropriate development as is the case in some other mountain areas in Serbia, where the effects of urbanization, globalization and homogenization are obvious. Consequently, there is a need to prevent these effects in mountain areas where there is a threat of disbalance between development and the inherited natural and cultural values. The paper starts from several important concepts that relate contemporary approaches to cultural heritage preservation, place morphology and planning future development. The concept definitions from recent documents from related fields are used. These concepts are then applied to the area of Stara Planina Mountain and its rural settlements. The necessity for an integrative approach to planning this area with significant natural and anthropogenic potential is pointed out, including its integration into international programs of sustainable development.

The research reported on this paper was aimed at improving the overall efficiency of a PDO certified artisanal cheese production process. Being a PDO certified foodstuff by the EU, it is considered to have properties and qualities determined by the geographical environment in which is made, with its production taking place in a specific and determined geographical location, in this case the Serra da Estrela region. In that sense, the authors conducted a mapping according to a systemic perspective of the processes involved in the context of manufacturing and distribution of certified Serra da Estrela cheese. Numerous methods were used throughout the process, such as a systemic design analysis, and techniques derived from ethnographic methods, which led to the collection of data in the field and consequently provided the immersion of the researcher in genuine work situations. Critical points were identified and emphasized in the systemic map with the purpose of encouraging initiatives to address and overcome the gaps and inefficiencies detected. The systemic design analysis triggered the development of design work. Observations following an ethnographic approach identified ergonomic risks in cheese making during the process of cutting excess chips, fostering the emergence of musculoskeletal disorders at the wrist. A tool that fits best to the task at hand was developed. A prototype of the new tool enabled collecting feedback from use in the work context, in order to inform product development. The domains of agricultural production and microbiology, considering the specific microorganisms developed trough the ripening process of the cheese, turned out to be aspects of high importance for the issue under focus, contributing to a broader understanding of the ripening process and its risks, simultaneously improving the efficiency and success of cheese production. If it were not for the systemic analysis, which served as a link between the boundaries of distinct domains such as the risk of microorganism contamination, ergonomics, energy efficiency, legislation and regulation policies, transportation challenges and economic viability, approached throughout the research. Simultaneously creating bridges between them, the various problems might not have been detected in the first place, as they are usually addressed in specialized disciplines, predetermined by the restrictions of each specific area of knowledge. As a consequence of the development of this research, which was based on an analysis that sought to establish possible connections between various disciplines and tried to constantly maintain a holistic perspective, making new connections and observing the issues from a new angle, apart from the already established methodologies. All this allowed to lay out the seeds for the development of a plan to tackle the critical points identified by the systemic analysis reported in this paper.

Promoting green development has become an important way to optimize the ecological and economic structure and promote sustainable development. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important economic corridor in China, and it remains to be examined whether the implementation of environmental regulations has enhanced the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities. This paper calculates the green total factor productivity of 107 cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the super-efficient SBM model and the GML index with Chinese city panel data from 2007-2019 and measures the intensity of environmental regulations through textual analysis. The bidirectional fixed-effects model constructed in this paper suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP, which is confirmed by a series of robustness tests. Green technology innovation and advanced industrial structure play a mechanism role in this. In regions with lower levels of green technology and industrial structure, the inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity is more significant. In addition, the phenomenon of GTFP rising and then falling because of environmental regulation is more obvious in cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and outside the urban agglomerations. Therefore, when formulating environmental regulation policies, it is necessary to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and harmonize the environment and economic development of the entire Yangtze River Basin.

The wetlands in northeastern Bangladesh are home to some of the most prolific and valuable ecosystems on the planet, offering a wide range of benefits to both the local and wider communities. A limited number of research on this topic have been carried out in various wetlands in coastal hilsa, but none have been located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh. Thus, the goal of this study was to better understand the most commercially relevant species (anadromous hilsa) in northeastern Bangladesh as well as to assess the wetland ecosystem services more thoroughly with the contribution of their fish genetic resources. In addition to laboratory studies, fieldwork was done in the fishing settlements along the Surma River, Hakaluki Haor, and Tanguar Haor. The study classified 77 fish species into 21 subcategories of ecosystem services, of which 56% were not threatened, 17% were vulnerable, and 10% were highly endangered. The species Hilsa was found to be the most economically significant, accounting for 1% of the GDP overall. The study determined if the hilsa stock of the examined wetlands maintains a single or several subpopulations in comparison to other parts of the country when they migrate from saline water to northeastern Bangladesh (freshwater). But when compared to other groups, the FST score was between 0.000 to 0.017, indicating that the populations are identical and that there is genetic material sharing between them. Additionally, these statistics imply that the Sylhet haor and adjacent river systems contain a single stock of Hilsa fish. Nevertheless, a number of stresses and risks, including overexploitation, illicit and destructive fishing, siltation, and natural disasters like flash floods, have been linked to changes in the supply of hilsa and other ecosystem services. This study also emphasizes the necessity of policy attention and research to address the concerns.

In this paper, we introduce a specialized, fully automated experimental arrangement designed for assessing the effectiveness of augmented and virtual reality technologies in healthcare setting and explore its design principles focusing on depth sensor characterization. The main goal of this project is to establish a robust benchtop platform for the quantitative evaluation of extended reality technologies in a controlled environment, emphasizing the practical assessment of augmented reality head-mounted devices. We outline a design concept and considerations for an experimental configuration aimed at creating a realistic testing environment. This apparatus comprises an observation platform mounted on a three-degree-of-freedom motorized system and a test phantom stage. Focusing on real-case scenarios, we utilized a range of sensors, including readily available range-sensing cameras and commercial augmented reality headsets, such as the Intel RealSense L515 LiDAR camera, mounted on the motion control system. The setup enabled automated data collection and facilitates controlled assessments and validation of various facets of augmented reality technologies, including object, hand, and head tracking, as well as static and dynamic image registration. This paper describes the system architecture, the process of automated data collection, and presents several evaluation studies conducted with this setup, providing insights into the quality and temporal noise associated with static or moving objects or observers in augmented reality applications.

To conduct high-precision and high-resolution numerical simulation of complex flow structures in turbomachinery, a high-order finite volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for the large eddy simulation (LES) is improved and embedded into the three-dimensional viscous unsteady CFD solver NUAA-Turbo. Firstly, the spectral characteristics and unsteady convergence of the improved WENO scheme are studied. Compared with the classical WENO scheme, the improved WENO scheme has better dissipation and dispersion characteristics and faster convergence speed. Then, the coefficient CW of the Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity (WALE) model is calibrated by decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (DHIT) test case. Finally, the scheme is applied to conduct high-precision LES calculations of turbulent boundary layer flow, supersonic compression corner flow, and low-pressure turbine cascade separation flow. The numerical simulation results show that this WENO scheme has excellent shock wave capture ability and turbulence resolution and can capture more flow field details with less mesh size, greatly reducing the computational cost and laying a foundation for large-scale engineering application of LES.

To secure logic circuits against the illegal copying the insertion of the so-called key bit inputs using XOR/XNOR gates has been proposed in . The inserted gates modify (lock) the behavior of the original circuit and only the correct choice of the secret key bits guarantees the equivalent behaviour of the locked circuit to the original circuit. To break this kind of security, i.e. to find the secret key bits, there was a SAT solver based attack proposed in . The aim of this work is to experimentally verify this attack on several locked circuits with various number of primary inputs and outputs and with various number of gates. Except for the random placement of the key gates we evaluate also the positioning with chaining elimination. The obtained and presented results show that we were able to unlock 10 of 11 circuits within few minutes on a common PC.

Intermetallic compounds are increasingly being expected to utilize in tribological environments, but to date the works are hindered by insufficient ductility at low and medium temperature. This paper presents a novel multiphase intermetallic alloy with the chemical composition of Mo-40Ni-13Si (at.%). Microstructure characterization reveals that a certain amount of ductile Mo phases formed during the solidification process of ternary Mo-Ni-Si alloy melt, which is undoubtedly beneficial to the ductility improvement of intermetallic alloy. Tribological properties of the designed alloy, including wear resistance, friction coefficient and metallic tribological compatibility, were evaluated under dry sliding wear test conditions at room temperature. Results suggested that the multiphase alloy possesses an excellent property for room-temperature wear applications, which is attributed to the unique microstructural features and thereby good combination in hardness and ductility. The corresponding wear mechanism is also reported by observing the worn surface, subsurface and wear debris of alloy, which to be found is soft abrasive wear.

With the integrated development of the Internet, wireless sensor technology, cloud computing, and mobile Internet, there has been a lot of attention given to research about and applications of the Internet of Things. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is one of the important information technologies in the Internet of Things; it integrates multi-technology to detect and gather information in a network environment by mutual cooperation, using a variety of methods to process and analyze data, implement awareness, and perform tests. This paper mainly researches the localization algorithm of sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network. Firstly, a multi-granularity region partition is proposed to divide the location region. In the range-based method, the RSSI (Received Signal Strength indicator, RSSI) is used to estimate distance. The optimal RSSI value is computed by the Gaussian fitting method. Furthermore, a Voronoi diagram is characterized by the use of dividing region. Rach anchor node is regarded as the center of each region; the whole position region is divided into several regions and the sub-region of neighboring nodes is combined into triangles while the unknown node is locked in the ultimate area. Secondly, the multi-granularity regional division and Lagrange multiplier method are used to calculate the final coordinates. Because nodes are influenced by many factors in the practical application, two kinds of positioning methods are designed: the unknown node is in the positioning unit or not. When the unknown node is on the side of the positioning unit, we use the method of vector similarity. Moreover, we use the centroid algorithm to calculate the ultimate coordinates of unknown node. When the unknown node is not on the side of the positioning unit, we establish a Lagrange equation containing the constraint condition to calculate the first coordinates. Furthermore, we use the Taylor expansion formula to correct the coordinates of the unknown node. In addition, this localization method has been validated by establishing the real environment.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of brain activity. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology formed by the EEG signal has become one of the hotspots at present. How to extract the feature signal of EEG is the most basic research of BCI technology. In this paper, A new method of recognizing fatigue, conscious, concentrated state of human brain is proposed by the combination of discrete wavelet transform and the neural network based on EEG signal. First of all, the law signal is preprocessed by the wavelet denoising method because the law EEG signal contains a large number of high frequency noise, which is decomposed into multi-layer high frequency signal and low frequency signal. thus, δ wave, θ wave, α wave, β wave are obtained by the wavelet transform. And then, frequency band energy of the different wave is regards as the feature signal of EEG. In the experiment, the feature signal is classified by radial basic function (RBF) and annealed chaotic competitive learning network (ACCLN). RBF and ACCLN networks are trained with 500 sets of sample data and are tested by 100 sets of samples in different mental states. The experimental results show that the average accuracy of RBF network under three conditions are 88.75%, 88.25%, 88.5%, respectively, and the correct rate of ACCLN network is 97%, 98%, 98%, respectively.

Early discharge after childbirth has led to a rise in neonatal readmission, becoming a major concern in recent decades. Our research aimed to identify the risk factors and incidence of neonatal readmission, as well as explore preventive measures. Our study at the Clinical Hospital of Pediatrics in Ploiești, Romania included 108 neonates admitted during the neonatal period. This accounted for 2.06% of all admissions (5226). The most prevalent cases were malnutrition (25%), fever (20.3%) and bronchiolitis (17.5%). Diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis were also observed (14.8%), along with acute rhinoconjunctivitis (9.2%) and late onset sepsis (3.7%). No deaths were recorded. The most significant characteristics identified were number of children (p&lt;0.001) and age at maternity discharge (p&lt;0.001). By following the prevention rules, malnutrition, feeding errors, and infections can be avoided. This includes practicing proper hand hygiene for both mothers and medical staff, as well as educating and demonstrating to mothers the benefits of breastfeeding. In addition, all newborns discharged from the maternity ward should benefit from follow-up at 7-10 days of life. Our results confirm the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team and endorse promoting breastfeeding. Implementing quality control measures and regularly evaluating the surveillance program will help improve its effectiveness.

Wearable technology has been proposed as a potential tool to change the way of human life, such as the smart bracelet and the Google Glass. In the wearable technology, the inertial sensor has great significance in tracking the object movements. The paper focused on detecting the movements of user’s finger based on the inertial sensor to give the control signals. Firstly, the attitude matrix, which represented the transformation relation of carrier coordinate system and the navigation coordinate system, was obtained. Secondly, the attitude matrix was expressed based on the quaternions. Thirdly, the finger gesture was processed by the attitude matrix to get the attitude angle. Finally, the robot was controlled by attitude angle to make the moving action. The experimental results showed the detection of the finger movement is effective.

Two interesting compounds such as quaternary ammonium lignin(QAL) and 2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) were synthesized as ionic liquids(QP-ILs) for the extraction of metal ions. The extraction behavior of Co(II) and Ni(II) from chloride solution was compared between QP-ILs and P507. The results showed that the extraction rates of Co(II) and Ni(II) in the two solutions varied with the extraction conditions, but QP-ILs has stronger extractability for cobalt than P507, while Ni is on the contrary. Under the same conditions, the Co/Ni separation performance(βCo/Ni) in QP-ILs is superior to that in p507. At pH4.0, 55℃, concentration of 20%, extraction time of 10 minutes, the βCo/Ni of QP-ILs reached to 2703, while that of P507 was only 164. In conclusion, QP-ILs was more efficient than P507 for separating Co from mixed solutions.

Brain aging causes a wide variety of changes at molecular and cellular levels, leading to the decline of cognitive functions and increased vulnerability to neurodegenerative disorders. The research aimed at understanding the aging of the brain has made much progress in recent decades. Technological innovations such as single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), proteomic analyses, and spatial transcriptomic analyses have facilitated the research on the dynamic changes occurring within neurons, glia, and other cells along with their impacts on intercellular communication during aging. In this review, we introduce recent trends of how neurons and glia change during aging and discuss the impact of the brain microenvironment such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB).

In this paper, we study the semilinear pseudo-parabolic equations $\displaystyle u_{t} - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u_{t} = \left|u\right|^{p-1}u$ on a manifold with conical singularity, where $\triangle _{\mathbb{B}}$ is Fuchsian type Laplace operator investigated with totally characteristic degeneracy on the boundary $x_{1} = 0$. Firstly, we discuss the invariant sets and the vacuum isolating behavior of solutions with the help of a family of potential wells. Then, we derive a threshold result of existence and nonexistence of global weak solution: for the low initial energy $J(u_{0})<d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) >0$ or $\displaystyle\Vert \nabla_{\mathbb{B}}u_{0}\Vert_{L_{2}^{\frac{n}{2}}(\mathbb{B})} = 0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$; for the critical initial energy $J(u_{0}) = d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) \geq0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$. The decay estimate of the energy functional for the global solution and the estimates of the lifespan of local solution are also given.

Multimodal remote sensing data classification can enhance the model’s ability to distinguish land features through multimodal data fusion. In this context, how to help models understand the relationship between multimodal data and target tasks is the focus of researchers. Inspired by human feedback learning mechanisms, causal reasoning mechanisms, and knowledge induction mechanisms, this paper integrates causal learning, reinforcement learning, and meta learning into a unified remote sensing data classification framework and proposed the causal meta-reinforcement learning (CMRL). First, based on feedback learning mechanisms, we have overcome the limitations of traditional implicit optimization of fusion features and customized a reinforcement learning environment for multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks. Through feedback interactive learning between agents and the environment, we help them understand the complex relationships between multimodal data and labels, thereby achieving full mining of multimodal complementary information. Second, based on the causal inference mechanism we designed causal distribution prediction action, classification reward, and causal intervention reward, capturing pure causal factors in multimodal data and cutting off false statistical associations between non-causal factors and class labels. Finally, based on the knowledge induction mechanism, we designed a bi-layer optimization mechanism based on meta-learning. By constructing a meta training task and meta validation task simulation model in the generalization scenario of unseen data, we helped the model induce cross-task shared knowledge, thereby improving its generalization ability for unseen multimodal data. The experimental results on multiple sets of multimodal datasets show that the proposed method achieved state-of-the-art performance in multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks.

Moso bamboo is famous for fast growing and biomass accumulation, as well as high annual output for timber and bamboo shoots. These high outputs require high nutrient inputs to maintain and improve stand productivity. Soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are important micronutrients for plant growth and productivity. Due to high variability of soils, analysing spatial patterns of soil N, P and K stocks is necessary for scientific nutrient management in Moso bamboo forests. In this study, soils were sampled from 138 locations across Yong’an City and ordinary kriging was applied for spatial interpolation of soil N, P and K stocks. Soil N stock showed a strong spatial dependence while soil N and P stocks presented a moderate spatial dependence, indicating soil N was mainly controlled by intrinsic factors while soil N and P stocks were controlled by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Different spatial patterns were observed for soil N, P and K stocks across the whole study area, indicating that fertilizations with different ratios of N:P:K should be applied for different sites to maintain and improve stand productivity. The total soil N, P and K stocks within 0-60 cm were 0.624, 0.020 and 0.583 Tg, respectively.

With the increasing concern of environment, the energy-efficiency scheduling of manufacturing industry is becoming urgent and popular. In turning processes, both spindle speed and processing time can affect the final energy consumption and thus the spindle speed and scheduling scheme need to be optimized simultaneously. Since the turning workshop can be regarded as the flexible flow shop, this paper formulates a mixed integer linear programming model for energy-efficient scheduling of flexible flow shop. Accordingly, a new decoding method is developed by considering of the optimization of spindle speed and scheduling scheme simultaneously, and an estimation of distribution algorithm adopting the new decoding method is proposed to solve large-size problems. The parameters of this algorithm are determined by statistical technique with a simplified practical case. In order to validate the proposed method, a case from practical factories is studied, in which the makespan can be shortened by 25.22%, and the consumed energy can be saved by 5.48%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model and algorithm.

Objective: The objective of our study was to explore the potential benefits of combining moderate alcohol consumption with regular vigorous physical activity on HDL-cholesterol levels and its potential positive impact on cardiovascular health. Material and method: The study comprised two groups: group A (102 patients) who consumed 1 gram of alcohol per day, specifically red wine, and increased their exercise levels in addition to their standard medical treatment, and group B (108 patients) who adhered only to their standard medical treatment. The patients were monitored for a year, during which various clinical parameters were observed. Results:Our study showed that moderate alcohol consumption, particularly red wine, along with increased physical activity levels, was associated with enhancements in exercise tolerance and elevated levels of HDL-cholesterol. Our findings suggest the efficacy of the intervention in improving lipid profiles, with the group that consumed alcohol as part of their treatment scheme, generally experiencing more pronounced positive effects. Statistically significant differences between groups in terms of angina evolution, AMI recurrence, or arrhythmias evolution were not found. However, there were important differences in terms of EF improvement and quality of life, with the alcohol consuming group displaying greater improvements in both aspects. Conclusions:In conclusion, our study emphasizes the potential benefits of combining moderate alcohol consumption, specifically red wine, with increased physical activity levels for improving exercise tolerance and enhancing HDL-cholesterol levels. However, further research and clinical trials are essential to fully understand the mechanisms and optimize the integration of these lifestyle elements for improved cardiovascular health outcomes.

At 12:28 UTC (8:28 PM, local time) on 15 January 2023, a shallow, moderate earthquake with a magnitude (Mw) of 4.7 and a depth of one (1) kilometer shook the northern part of Leyte Island in the central part of the Philippines. The ground shaking was felt at PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) VI, (very strong) equivalent to Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI in areas along the strike of the Leyte segment of the Philippine Fault. Even though this earthquake is classified as moderate in size, significant geologic, structural, and socio-economic impacts were documented. Most of the earthquake impacts that include surface rupture, liquefaction, and mass movements are limited near the epicentral area. The earthquake produced an 8-km-long surface rupture, the first documented rupture generated by a magnitude &lt;6 along the Philippine Fault, and is unusual in other surface rupturing earthquakes worldwide. It injured 18 persons and damaged 434 residential buildings and 26 public infrastructures which amounts to about 500 thousand US dollars. Structural damages were caused by surface rupture and/or poor engineering construction practices. Analysis of the seismic waveform and recorded peak ground acceleration (PGA) suggests that the subsurface geology influenced the ground motion amplification in an area near the epicenter. Based on the hypocenter, focal mechanism solution, aftershock distribution, and actual field observation, the causative fault for this event is the northern end of the Philippine Fault – Leyte segment. Moderate in size, this earthquake emphasizes the need and importance of documenting moderate-sized earthquakes as a tool and guide for medium and long-term earthquake risk assessment and resiliency.

Background: The bacterium Capnocytophaga spp. is a part of the oral microbiome of dogs, which has zoonotic potential. This study aimed to assess factors that influence the prevalence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and Capnocytophaga canimorsus in Wrocaw’s dog population. Methods: Molecular detection (PCR) involved 105 swabs, examining parameters such as oral cavity condition, underlying health issues, recent antibiotics, age, medications, material collection, and dog chews. Results: The study highlighted significant associations between the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and oral cavity condition, material collection method, and use of dog’s chews. Conclusions: Correlations obtained in this study between the oral health of Wroclaw's dog population and the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi suggest its significance in the oral microbiome of dogs. Limitations, including the small sample size, highlight the need for more research to comprehensively understand additional factors that affect the prevalence of Capnocytophaga spp. in dogs

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

The assortment of low-cost 3D printers for “in-practice” use, e.g., for clear aligner therapies, is ever increasing. To address concerns about the accuracy of orthodontic models produced on such printers when cost efficient modes of 3D printing are employed, this study examined the effect of print model body type and print angulation on accuracy. Six printing-configuration groups were included: 2 model types (solid or hollow shell) combined with 3 print angles (0°, 70°, or 90°) with 10 models/group; all models were printed with 100-µm layer thickness using a digital light processing-based 3-dimensional printer. Eleven selected structures and distances were measured on the printed models with a digital microscope and compared to the same measures on a digitized master model. The clinically-acceptability range was set at ±0.25 mm difference from the master model for single tooth measurements (intra-tooth) and ±0.5 mm for cross-arch measurements (inter-tooth). For individual measurements across all models, 98% fell within clinical acceptability. For mean measurements within each model group, only canine height for the shell-0° model had a mean difference (0.26 mm ± 0.03) outside the clinically acceptable range for intra-tooth measurements. Standard deviations for all intra-tooth measurements were within 0.07 mm. While none of the mean inter-tooth measurements exceeded the acceptability range, the standard deviations were larger (0.04 to 0.30 mm). Accuracy of orthodontic models for clear aligner therapies was not impacted beyond the clinically acceptable range when altering model body type and print angulation to improve efficiency of 3D printing. These findings suggest greater flexibility of the practitioner to alter print settings to address time and cost efficiency in various clinical scenarios and still maintain clinically acceptable model accuracy.

Background: Alfalfa, the most economically important forage legume worldwide, features modest genetic progress due to long selection cycles and large extent of non-additive genetic variance associated with its autotetraploid genome. Methods: To improve the efficiency of genomic selection in alfalfa, we explored the effects of genome parametrization (as autotetraploid and diploid dosage, plus allele ratios) and SNP marker subsetting (all available SNPs; only genic regions; only non-genic regions) on genomic regressions, together with various levels of filtering on reading depth and missing rates. We used Genotyping by Sequencing-generated data and focused on traits of different genetic complexity, i.e., dry biomass yield in moisture-favorable (FE) and drought stress (SE) environments, leaf size, and onset of flowering, assessed on 143 genotyped plants from a genetically-broad European reference population and their phenotyped half-sib progenies. Results: On average, allele ratio improved the predictive ability compared with other genome parametrizations (+7.9% vs. tetraploid dosage, +12.6% vs. diploid dosage), SNP subsetting offered an advantage compared with any tested subsettings (+3.7% vs. genic regions, +7.6% vs. non-genic regions). However, when focusing on specific traits, different combinations of genome parametrization and subsetting reached better performances. We also released Legpipe2, a SNP calling pipeline tailored for reduced representation (GBS, RAD) medium-sized genotyping experiments.