Powdery mildew is a severe disease causing substantial yield losses in wheat production worldwide. The Chinese wheat landrace Changanhongmai (CAHM) exhibits high resistance to the physiological race E09 of powdery mildew. This study aims to characterize the powdery mildew resistance gene in CAHM, and develop molecular markers for marker-assisted selection of wheat. To investigate the genetic characteristics of this resistant gene, we developed F1 plants, F2 generation population, and F2:3 families from a cross between CAHM and SY225. Genetic analysis demonstrated that all F1 plants were resistant to the disease, while the ratio of resistant to susceptible plants was 3: 1 in both the F2 population and F2:3 families, indicating that CAHM is inherited in a manner of single dominant powdery mildew resistance gene, which was tentatively designated as PmCAHM. By using bulk segregation analysis, we constructed a genetic map encompassing Xgwm273, Xwmc626, Xgwm11, Xgwm18, Xgdm28, Xgpw7812, Xgpw5195, Xwmc694 and PmCAHM. Among these markers, Xgpw7812 and Xgpw5195 were flanking markers tightly linked to PmCAHM at a genetic distance of 2.5 cM and 8.4 cM, respectively. Furthermore, nullisomic-tetrasomic analysis revealed that PmCAHM is located on chromosome 1B. These results indicate that PmCAHM differs from the internationally recognized powdery mildew resistance genes in both location and source. In addition, a new germplasm/line NW1748 with large seeds and powdery mildew resistance was developed from the cross and back cross populations of Fengyou 1718 (FY1718)/CAHM//FY 1718. Therefore, PmCAHM can serve as a novel powdery mildew resistance source for breeding of wheat by using NW1748 as the donor in the future.

Background: Ankle fractures, comprising about 10% of musculoskeletal injuries, pose a significant healthcare burden with an increasing incidence, particularly among an aging population. This study focuses on isolated Danis-Weber type B fractures. Recent trends lean towards surgical intervention for anatomical restoration, quicker recovery, albeit with associated complications. This report aims to assess the safety and efficacy of NewClip narrow locking plate system with early weight bearing in treating isolated fibular fractures. Methods: The study includes patients with Danis-Weber type B fractures surgically treated with NewClip narrow locking plate system. Exclusions involved nondisplaced fractures, open fractures, or those requiring additional fixation.Results: Fifteen patients were enrolled in this study. Minor complications, including wound swelling, were observed in two cases. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain exhibited a steady decline postoperatively, with almost complete resolution by the third month. At three months, the FAOS demonstrated excellent results, and final follow-up at twelve months revealed complete osseous healing without complications.Conclusions: The use of this type of plates in treating isolated fibular fractures with early weight bearing shows promising results in terms of fracture healing, pain resolution, and functional outcomes warranting further investigation with larger cohorts.

A proposed low-temperature forging method aims to enhance stainless steel bearings by creating a martensitic subsurface layer, significantly boosting bearing fatigue life due to increased surface hardness. This technique induces beneficial residual stresses, particularly in axial bearings, streamlining their construction and improving machine elements. Challenges persist, especially with radial bearings, but simplicity in axial bearing forging promotes compact, resource-efficient facility construction. Future research will focus on applying this technique to axial bearing washers, potentially replicating success in other bearing components. Despite the energy ex-penditure for cooling during forging, the substantial increase in bearing fatigue life offsets this, enhancing overall longevity and reliability of critical machine components. Integration of this forging technique into bearing fabrication appears seamless, offering a promising trade-off be-tween energy use and enhanced performance.

Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) can be caused by mutations in PSEN1 that encodes presenilin-1, a component of the gamma-secretase complex that cleaves amyloid precursor protein. Alterations in calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis and glutamate signaling are implicated in the pathogenesis of FAD, however it has been difficult to assess in humans whether or not these phenotypes are the result of amyloid or tau pathology. This study aimed to assess early calcium and glutamate phenotypes of FAD by measuring the Ca2+ response of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons bearing PSEN1 mutations to glutamate and the ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists NMDA, AMPA and kainate compared to isogenic control and healthy lines. The data shows that in early neurons, even in the absence of amyloid and tau phenotypes, FAD neurons exhibit increased Ca2+ responses to glutamate and AMPA, but not NMDA or kainate. Together this suggests that PSEN1 mutations alter Ca2+ and glutamate signaling as an early phenotype of FAD.

This paper illustrates an experimental activity for the closed-loop position control of an actuator made using shape memory alloy (SMA) wire. A solution with the self-sensing effect was implemented to miniaturize the systems, i.e., without external sensors. A proportional control algorithm was initially used, demonstrating the idea's feasibility: the wire can behave simultaneously as an actuator and sensor. An experimental investigation was subsequently conducted for the optimization of the developed actuator. As for the material, a Flexinol wire, Ni-Ti alloy, with a diameter of 0.150 mm and a length of 200 mm, was used. Preliminarily, a characterization of the SMA wire at constant and variable loads was carried out: the characteristics detected are elongation vs. electric current and elongation vs. electrical resistance. The control system is PC-based with a data acquisition card (DAQ). A drive board has been designed and built to read the wire's electrical resistance and power it by pulse width modulation (PWM). A notable result is that the actuator works with good precision and in dynamic conditions, even when it is called to support a load up to 65% different from that for which the electrical resistance-length correlation has previously been experimentally obtained, on which the control is based. This opens up the possibility of using the actuator in a counteracting configuration with a spring, which makes hardware implementation and control management simple.

Mechanical power and motion are often transmitted by the gear-rotor-bearing system. When there are fitting clearances between the housing and outer ring in bearings, complex vibration responses will be generated, which makes the operating status difficult to identify. Therefore, for analyzing dynamic responses, a dynamic model of gear-rotor-bearing systems with bearing fitting clearances is proposed. In the model, the bearing system with fitting clearances and gear pair system are combined, and the coupling relationship is determined by the gyroscopic mo-tion of the shaft. The friction force and collision force caused by fitting clearances are also con-sidered, which are simulated by the Coulomb friction model and Hertz theory. The result shows that the meshing stiffness will also be excited by the bearing displacement. When there are fit-ting clearances on the bearing, the amplitude modulation of the bearing outer raceway to the system time-domain response is intensified, and the multiple harmonic frequency of bearings and gear pairs are generated on the spectrum, as well as defect frequencies of gear pairs. As the fitting clearance is increased, the higher multiple harmonic responses will be caused. Although the response amplitude of the gearbox is increased by raising the input speed, multiple harmon-ic responses are suppressed, which makes the system mainly vibrate at the fundamental fre-quency. Then, the dynamic model and the vibration analysis are experimentally verified.

In agriculture, soil-borne fungal pathogens, especially Fusarium oxysporum strains, are posing a serious threat to efforts to achieve global food security. In the search for safer agrochemicals, silica nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) have recently been proposed as a new tool to alleviate pathogen damage including Fusarium wilt. Hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs), a unique class of SiO2NPs, have been widely accepted as a desired pesticide carrier. However, their role in enhancing the disease resistance and the specific mechanism remain unknown. In this study, three sizes of HMSNs (19, 96 and 406 nm as HMSNs–19, HMSNs–96 and HMSNs–406, respectively) were synthesized and characterized to determine their effects on seed germination, seedling growth, and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseolus (FOP) suppression in cowpea roots by foliar spray using phenotypes, fresh biomass and disease progression as indicators. The results revealed that three HMSNs exhibited no adverse impacts on seed germination and tended to improve plant growth. Also, they exert their FOP suppression with a size- and concentration-dependent manner. HMSNs–406 possessed the best control effect at a concentration of 1000 mg/L showing an upto 40.00% decline in the disease severity. The Si(OH)4 control was also effective on FOP suppression at a lower concentration of 100 mg/L, whereas its higher concentrations exhibited obviously adverse impacts on FOP control, seed germination and plant growth. Moreover, we conformed that HMSNs posed their Fusarium wilt suppression in cowpea plant by activating SA (salicylic acid)-dependent SAR (systemic acquired resistance) responses rather than directly suppressing FOP. A higher level of SA content and elevated expression of its maker genes of PR-1 and PR-5 in HMSNs–406 treated cowpea roots provided substantial evidences of this mode of action. Other resistance-related genes, as well as defense-responsive enzymes, were also involved in the HMSNs-activated SAR pathway. Overall, for the first time, our results extended a new role of HMSNs as a potent elicitor to serve as a versatile alternative for plant disease protection of low cost, highly efficiency and sustainability.

Continuous technological progress places significant demands on the materials used in increasingly modern devices. An important parameter is often the long-term thermal resistance of the material. The use of heat-resistant polymer materials worked well in technologically advanced products. An economically justified direction in searching for new materials is the area of polymer nanocomposite materials. It is necessary to appropriately select both the polymer matrix and the nanofillers best able to demonstrate the synergistic effect. A promising area of exploration for such nanocomposites is the use of organosilicon polymers, which results from the unique properties of these polymers related to their structure. This review presents the results of the analysis of the most important literature reports regarding organosilicon polymer nanocomposites with increased thermal resistance. Particular attention was paid to modification methods of silicone nanocomposites focused on the increase of their thermal resistance related to the modification of siloxane molecular structure and by making nanocomposites using inorganic additives, carbon nanomaterials. Attention was also paid to such important issues as the influence of the dispersion of additives in the polymer matrix on the thermal resistance of silicone nanocomposites and the possibility of modifying the polymer matrix and permanently introducing nanofillers thanks to the presence of various reactive groups. The thermal stability mechanism of these nanocomposites was also analysed.

Culex quinquefasciatus is an important target for vector control because of its ability to transmit pathogens that cause disease. Most populations are resistant to pyrethroids and often to organophosphates, the two most common classes of active ingredients used by public health agencies. A knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation, resulting in a change from a leucine to phenylalanine in the voltage gated sodium channel, is one mechanism contributing to the pyrethroid resistant phenotype. Enzymatic resistance has also been shown to play a very important role. Recent studies have shown strong resistance in populations even when kdr is relatively low which indicates factors other than kdr may be larger contributors to resistance. In this study, we examined on a statewide scale (over 70 populations), the strength of the correlation between resistance in the CDC bottle bioassay and the kdr genotypes and allele frequencies. Spearman correlation analysis showed only moderate (-0.51) and weak (-0.29) correlation between the kdr genotype and permethrin and deltamethrin respectively. The frequency of the kdr allele was an even weaker correlate. These results indicate, in contrast to Aedes aegypti, assessing kdr in populations of Culex quinquefasciatus is not a good surrogate for phenotypic resistance testing.

Rice, as a staple crop feeding billions, faces constant threats from various diseases jeopardizing global food security. Precise understanding of disease resistance mechanisms is crucial for developing resilient rice varieties. Traditional genetic mapping methods, such as QTL mapping, provide valuable insights into the genetic basis of diseases. However, the complex nature of rice diseases demands a holistic approach to gain accurate knowledge of it. Omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, enable a comprehensive analysis of biological molecules, uncovering intricate molecular interactions within the rice plant. Integration of various mapping techniques using multi-omics data has revolutionized our understanding of rice disease resistance. By overlaying genetic maps with high-throughput omics datasets, researchers can pinpoint specific genes, proteins, or metabolites associated with disease resistance. This integration enhances the precision of disease-related biomarkers with better understanding of their functional roles in disease resistance. Improvement of rice breeding for disease resistance through this integration represents a significant stride in agricultural science because better understanding of the molecular intricacies and interactions underlying disease resistance architecture leads to more precise and efficient development of resilient and productive rice varieties. In this review, we explore how the integration of mapping and omics data can give a transformative impact on rice breeding for enhancing disease resistance.

Relative to several model bacteria, the ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis is shown here to have an elevated resistance to exogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) – both, with regard to peptide bulk concentration in the medium, and the numbers of peptide molecules per cell. By monitoring integration of the AMPs in the bacterial cell membrane and observing the resulting effect on membrane energy-coupling, it is concluded that the membranotropic effects of the tested AMPs in Z. mobilis and in Escherichia coli are comparable. The advantage of Z. mobilis over E. coli apparently results from its uncoupled mode of energy metabolism that, in contrast to E. coli, does not rely on oxidative phosphorylation, and hence, is less vulnerable to disruption of its energy-coupling membrane by AMPs. It is concluded that the high resistance to antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) observed in Z. mobilis not only proves crucial for its survival in its natural environment but also offers a promising platform for AMP production and sheds light on potential strategies for novel resistance development in clinical settings.

In order to tackle the issue of severe rocking phenomenon under seismic conditions in structures equipped with steel spring isolation bearings, this paper investigates a novel type of anti-rocking bearing. Firstly, the structural configuration and working principle of the novel anti-rocking bearing are introduced, and a design method for bearing parameters is proposed. Secondly, a finite element analysis model is established using SAP2000 software to conduct nonlinear dynamic time history analysis under seismic loading. The analysis results show that the structural arrangement of the novel anti-rocking bearing reduces both the vertical displacement difference and the rocking angle of the isolation layer. The bearing exhibits a certain level of anti-rocking effect, but it may cause significant tensile forces in some bearings, necessitating the installation of anti-tensile reinforcement. The effectiveness of the anti-rocking effect improves as the stiffness of the steel tension rod in the bearing increases; however, it also leads to higher maximum tension in individual bearings as well as the total tension in all bearings. For structures equipped with the novel anti-rocking bearing, the acceleration amplifies under most cases, with amplification coefficients ranging from 0.82 to 1.55. The performance of the novel anti-rocking bearing varies significantly for different seismic waves. The stiffness of the steel tension rod should be determined considering the reference pressure of the bearing and the maximum designed tension of the bearing. Through the finite element simulation of the bearing, the mechanical properties of the bearing are basically the same as the theoretical analysis results. For the cylinder and the joint bearing, certain structural measures need to be taken to ensure its strength and stiffness.

Carbapenem antibiotics are the drug of choice for treating multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) are carbapenemase capable of hydrolyzing nearly all therapeutically available beta-lactam antibiotics. Consequently, a need to assess the frequency and phenotypic resistance phenomena of two MBL genes in diarrheal and urinary tract infections (UTIs). Samples were collected through a cross-sectional study, with MBLs genes detected via PCR. Two hundred twenty eight diarrheal bacteria were isolated from 240 samples. The most predominant pathogens were Escherichia coli (32%) and Klebsiella spp. (7%). Phenotypic resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, aztreonam, cefuroxime, cefixime, cefepime, imipenem, meropenem, gentamicin, netilmicin, and amikacin was 50.4%, 65.6%, 66.8%, 80.5%, 54.4%, 41.6%, 25.7%, 41.2%, 37.2%, and 42.9%, respectively.  Total 142 UTI pathogens were obtained from 150 urine samples, with Klebsiella spp. (39%) and Escherichia coli (24%) are the major pathogens. Phenotypic resistance to amoxycillin-clavulanic acid, aztreonam, cefuroxime, cefixime, cefepime, imipenem, meropenem, gentamicin, netilmicin, and amikacin was 93.7%, 75.0%, 91.5%, 93.7%, 88.0%, 72.5%, 13.6%, 44.4%, 71.1%, and 43%, respectively.  Twenty four diarrheal isolates carried either blaNDM-1 or blaVIM genes; the overall MBL gene prevalence was 10.5%. Thirty six UTI pathogens carried either blaNDM-1 or blaVIM genes (25.4%). Seven isolates carried both blaNDM-1 and blaVIM genes.  MBL genes exhibited a strong association with phenotypic carbapenem and other beta-lactam antibiotic resistance. Resistance to carbapenems requires active surveillance and stewardship.

The hospital indoor environment plays a significant role in shaping the microbial exposures that humans encounter. Resistance to antibiotics is one of the mechanisms employed by bacteria to develop resilience against stress in indoor environments. The extensive usage of antibiotics has been a key factor in driving changes in the ecological function of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and their acquisition by pathogenic bacteria. By integrating the 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing and high throughput-qPCR approaches with water and air dust samples across seven departments at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, China, this study yielded intriguing findings regarding the department-specific variation, transmission, and correlation of bacteria, ARGs and MGEs within the hospital indoor environment. One notable observation was that the seasonal variation played a vital role in shaping the bacterial composition in the overall hospital indoor environment across seven studied departments. Nevertheless, a similar significant seasonal impact was only observed in the blood test room and emergency departments, rather than in the other five departments. Another intriguing finding was the correlation between ARGs and MGEs abundance. This correlation was evident in the overall hospital indoor environment, which was conversely not found in the emergency, pneumology and gynecology departments. Additionally, while there was no significant relationship that occurred between bacterial communities and ARGs/MGEs within the hospital, the gynecology department demonstrated a close link between bacterial communities and the presence of ARGs/MGEs. Notably, the gynecology department also stood out as an important source of bacteria and ARGs/MGEs for other departments. This study underscores the need for careful surveillance and monitoring of antibiotic resistance, particularly in Legionella spp. in man-made water systems. The findings also show the importance of monitoring and understanding the genetic elements such as Tp614 involved in gene transfer and recombination, as well as their impact on antimicrobial treatment efficacy.

This study explored the effects of cryogenic treatment on the microstructure, hardness, and wear-resistance of diamond-like carbon (DLC) by cryogenically treating NAK 80 mold steel coated with DLC. Raman spectroscopy analyzed the structure of the DLC film. Nanoindenter analyzed the hardness and Young’s modulus of the film, and their relationship determined the wear resistance. Wear test assessed the wear rate and friction coefficient of the DLC film. The results showed that cryogenic treatment increased the rate of carbide precipitation and refined the grain structure. Raman spectroscopy indicated that the Raman intensity rate (I_D/I_G) of treated DLC films was smaller than those without cryogenic treatment. When the sp3 bond increased, the hardness and wear-resistance of the DLC film also increased.

Efficiency improvement is the new challenge in all fields of design. In this scenario the reduction of power losses is becoming more and more a main concern also in the design of power transmissions. Appropriate models to predict power losses are therefore from the earliest stages of the design phase. The aim of the project is to carry on lubrication simulations of several variants of a cylindrical-roller-bearing to understand the lubricant distribution and the related churning power losses. Several strategies to reduce the computational effort have been used. Among them the sectorial symmetry and three innovative meshing strategies (purely analytical with and without interfaces and analytical/subtractive) that have been implemented in the OpenFOAM® environment. The results of the different approaches were compared among them and with experimental observations showing good agreement and reasonable savings in terms of computational effort.

This review article focuses on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in transforming healthcare in Africa, specifically in combatting infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and antimicrobial resistance. We provide a comprehensive overview of the significance of AI in the healthcare industry, highlighting its urgency and importance in addressing these specific health challenges in Africa. We begin by discussing the role of AI in infectious disease surveillance and outbreak detection. We explore how AI technology can be employed for real-time tracking and prediction of outbreaks, providing examples of successful AI applications in infectious disease surveillance within the African context.Next, we examine the potential of AI-enabled diagnosis and treatment for faster and more accurate diagnoses of infectious diseases and NTDs. We highlight specific examples of AI applications in diagnosing and treating these diseases in Africa, showcasing the potential of AI to improve clinical outcomes and save lives.Furthermore, we focus on how AI-driven drug discovery and development can expedite the search for new treatments for infectious diseases and combat antimicrobial resistance. We present examples of AI applications in drug discovery within the African context, illustrating the potential for AI to revolutionize the development of effective therapeutics.In addition, we delve into how AI-powered public health interventions can enhance the design and implementation of targeted interventions. We explore how AI can optimize resource allocation and facilitate data-driven decision-making processes, providing examples of AI applications in public health in Africa.Finally, we address the challenges and limitations of implementing AI in combatting infectious diseases, NTDs, and antimicrobial resistance in Africa. We discuss potential barriers and ethical concerns surrounding AI applications in healthcare, aiming to encourage informed and responsible utilization of AI technologies.Overall, this review emphasizes the importance and potential of AI in combatting infectious diseases, NTDs, and antimicrobial resistance in Africa. It positions AI as a catalyst for revolutionizing healthcare in the region, leading to more effective disease surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, drug discovery, and public health interventions.

The impact of systemic vascular resistance (SVR) in hypertrophic (HCM) and amyloid cardio-myopathies has been seldom investigated. We studied pressure-strain loop derived myocardial work (MW) indices and SVR in patients with either sarcomere HCM or wild type transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR), presented with heart failure and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF) at the outpatient cardiology units at Messina and Catania University Hospitals (Italy). Patients were in sinus rhythm and needed to have good transthoracic ultrasound imaging quality to undergo transthoracic strain-echocardiography. Other than conventional parameters, SVR and GWI (global work index) were measured. Based on cross-tabulation (a way to assess the ventricular-arterial coupling), the patients were then classified in 4 classes according to the cut-off values suggested by previous studies of 1,440 dyne/s/cm-5 for SVR (Stefadouros et al., 1973) and 1576 mm Hg% for GWI (Olsen et al., 2022). Sixty patients, 30 in each group, aged 61±16 years, 78% males, were studied. HCM were younger than ATTR patients and in a better clinical status (23% HCM vs 77% ATTR were NYHA class 3, p<0.001). Overall, 51 patients (85%) showed high SVR, of whom 21 were HCM (70%) and 30 ATTR (100%) (p<0.005). Both, SVR and GWI were impaired (the poorest class C) in 43% HCM patients (with greater left ventricular concentric hypertrophy) vs 93% of ATTR patients (in advanced NYHA class) (p<0.001). In conclusion, assessing SVR and GWI in HFpEF patients with HCM or ATTR can help clinicians to interpret the pathophysiological and clinical features of such complex diseases.

To further explore the bearing capacity and sustainable construction of vacuum drainage pipe (VDP) piles, field tests were carried out to compare and analyze the ultimate single pile bearing capacity, pile side friction and pile end resistance of ordinary piles and vacuum drainage pipe piles. The effect of the VDP pile on energy conservation and emission reduction in practical projects is discussed. The results shows that the VDP pile basically eliminated the soil squeeze and did not cause excessive relative displacement of pile and soil after vacuum consolidation. The VDP pile enhances pile side friction resistance, resulting in a 17.6% increase in ultimate bearing capacity compared to traditional piles. The VDP pile method can reduce carbon emissions by 31.4% compared to traditional methods. This study provides guidance for the production and design of VDP piles in the future and demonstrates their potential for energy conservation and emission reduction benefits compared to traditional methods.

The paper provides a discussion on the results of studies of the effect exerted by combined degradation factors typical of four types of wear: abrasion, impact-abrasion, tribocorrosion, and impact-abrasion-corrosion, conducted for chain wheels made of Ni-Cu alloyed Austempered Ductile Iron. The studies consisted in determining the content of retained austenite in the structure of the cast irons in question, establishing the measures of wear following wear testing, and identifying basic surface degradation mechanisms observed in the chain wheels tested following multifactorial wear processes. The chain wheels made of ADI were found to have sustained the greatest damage under the impact-abrasion-corrosion (three-factor) wear scenario, while the wear was least advanced in the abrasion (one-factor) wear case. Another observation derived from the studies is that the combined effect of dynamic forces, corrosion, and quartz sand-based abrasives causes increased surface degradation in the cast iron grades taken into consideration compared to processes characterised by a reduced number of degradation factors (i.e. one- or two-factor wear processes). Additional hardness tests and XRD analyses have revealed a distinctive effect attributable to combined degradation factors on the surface hardness increase value and implied that bench testing was followed by phase transition.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in males in America, with advanced prostate cancers exhibiting a 5-year survival rate of only 32%. Castration-resistance is often developed during the course of treatment, though its influences require further understanding. This study explores the human microbiome for its implications in castration-resistance and metastasis in prostate cancer. RNA sequencing data was downloaded for bone and soft tissue biopsies of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. These sequences were mapped to bacterial sequences to yield species-level abundance approximations. Numerous species were found to correlate to the expression of known markers of castration-resistance, including AR, PI3K, and AKT. Castration-resistance-associated signaling pathways were also enriched with these species, including PI3K-AKT signaling and endocrine resistance. For their implications in cancer aggression and metastasis, cancer stem cell markers were further explored for relation to these species. EGFR and SLC3A2 were widely downregulated with greater abundance of most species. Our results suggest that the microbiome is heavily associated with castration-resistance and stemness in prostate cancer. By considering the microbiome’s importance in these factors, we may better understand the highly aggressive and highly invasive nature of prostate cancer, allowing for needed improvement in the treatment of this disease.

Evidence suggests that COVID-19 infection can cause lasting health consequences. Multidiscipli-nary rehabilitation services have been recommended to reduce the sequalae. However, the effec-tiveness of physical exercise interventions remains insufficiently documented. The aim of this study was to develop and implement a specific and well tolerated protocol-based, intervention to reduce muscle weakness in older adults impacted by COVID-19. Forty six older adults random-ized into Intervention and Control Groups. Isometric and isokinetic strength assessments were conducted for selected muscle groups using JBA Staniak® torquemeter and Biodex System 3 dy-namometer. Functional abilities were evaluated with the Time Up and Go test and Chair Stand Tests. Men in intervention group demonstrated a significant improvement in static conditions for knee flexors (KF), trunk extensors (TE) and trunk flexors (TF) and in dynamic conditions for knee extensors (KE). Women in intervention group showed significant improvement in static condition for EF, KF, TE and TF and in dynamic for a KE and for a KF. The interaction GROUP x TESTING SESSION was significant for Chair test (s) and Chair test (n). Our results demonstrate the effec-tiveness of a well-tolerated, protocol-based approach that can be used to diminish long lasting functional deficits in post-covid survivors.

In the world's first pig-to-human cardiac xenotransplant, the elevated levels of porcine cytomeg-alovirus (PCMV) are considered key factors contributing to patient mortality. This has renewed attention to PCMV, a virus widely prevalent in pigs. Currently, there are no effective drugs or vaccines targeting PCMV, and its high detection difficulty poses challenges for prevention and control research. In this study, antiviral small hairpin RNA (shRNA) was selected and inserted into the Rosa26 and miR-17-92 loci of pigs via a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in strategy. Further in vitro viral challenge experiments demonstrated that these genetically edited pig cells could effec-tively limit PCMV replication. Through this process, we constructed a PCMV-infected cell model, validated partial viral interference sites, enhanced gene knock-in efficiency, performed gene editing at two different gene loci, and ultimately demonstrated that RNA interference (RNAi) technology combined with CRISPR/Cas9 has the potential to generate pig cells with enhanced antiviral infec-tion capabilities. This opens up possibilities for the future production of pig populations with anti-viral functionalities.

Vancomycin is one of the ‘last-line’ classes of antibiotics used in the treatment of life-threatening infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Even though vancomycin was discovered in 1950s it was widely used after 1980s for the treatment of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococci as prevalence of such strains were increased. However, currently it is evident that vancomycin resistant Staphylococcusaureusandvancomycin-resistant Enterococci have been developed as a result of various reasons including use of avaparcin, which is an analog of vancomycin, as feed additive in livestock. In present day context, more attention should be paid on prevention of emergence of resistance for the antibiotics in order to keep antibiotics effective. In order to prevent emergence of resistance, proper guidance for the responsible use of antimicrobials is indispensable. Therefore, almost all stakeholders who use antibiotics should have in depth understanding on the antibiotic they use. As such, it is imperative to be aware of the important aspects of vancomycin. In the present review, efforts have been made to discussthe pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, indications, emergence of resistance, control of resistance, adverse effects and alternative therapy for vancomycin.

The service conditions of underground coal mine equipment are poor, and it is difficult to accurately extract the fault characteristics of rolling bearings. In order to better improve the accuracy of fault identification of rolling bearings, a fault detection method based on multiscale permutation entropy and SOA-SVM is proposed. First, the whale optimization algorithm is used to select the modal analysis number K and the penalty factor α of the variational mode decomposition algorithm. Then, the vibration signal of rolling bearings is dissolved according to the optimized variational mode decomposition algorithm, and the multi-scale permutation entropy of the main intrinsic mode function is calculated. Finally, the feature values of the matrix are entered into the SVM algorithm optimized by the seagull optimization algorithm to obtain the classification result. The experimental results based on the published rolling bearing datasets of Western Reserve University show that the identification success rate of the proposed method can reach 98.75%. The fault detection of the rolling bearings can be completed accurately and efficiently.

Condition monitoring of bearings is an open issue. The use of the stator current to monitor induction motors has been validated as a very advantageous and practical way to detect several types of faults. Nevertheless, for bearing faults the use of vibrations or sound generally offers better results in the accuracy of the detection although with some disadvantages related to the sensors used for monitoring. To improve the performance of bearing monitoring, it is proposed to take advantage of more information available in the current spectra, beyond the usually employed, incorporating the amplitude of a significant number of sidebands around the first eleven harmonics, growing exponentially the number of fault signatures. This is especially interesting for inverter-fed motors. But, in turn, this leads to the problem of overfitting when applying a classifier to perform the fault diagnosis. To overcome this problem, and still exploit all the useful information available in the spectra, it is proposed to use shrinkage methods, which have been lately proposed in machine learning to solve the overfitting issue when the problem has much more variables than examples to classify. A case study with a motor is shown to prove the validity of the proposal

The dissolution of Al2O3 non-metallic inclusions from slag containing FexO was investigated in this study. The slag system used in the experiments was a quaternary system of CaO-SiO2-Al2O3-FexO. The composition of the slag was studied by fixing the basicity (CaO/SiO2 ratio) to 1 and varying the FexO content to 10 and 20wt%. In addition, the experimental temperature was varied as 1550℃, 1575℃, and 1600℃ to study the effect of temperature on the Al2O3 dissolution behavior. The experimental equipment is a single hot thermocouple apparatus. The dissolution rate of Al2O3 particles increased linearly with increasing temperature and FexO content. In addition, the mass transfer activation energy of Al2O3 dissolution in FexO 10wt% and FexO 20wt% was calculated by an Arrhenius type analysis. The obtained mass transfer activation energies were 159 and 189 kJ/mole, respectively.

Nitride and carbide are the second phases which play an important role in the performance of bearing steel, and their precipitation behavior is complicated. In this study, TiN-MC_x precipitations in GCr15 bearing steels were obtained by non-aqueous electrolysis, and their precipitation mechanisms were studied. TiN is the effective heterogeneous nucleation site for Fe₇C₃ and Fe₃C, therefore, MC_x can precipitate on the surface of TiN easily, its chemistry component consists of M₃C and M₇C₃ (M = Fe, Cr, Mn) and Cr₃C₂. TiN-MC_x with high TiN volume fraction, TiN forms in early stage of solidification, and MC_x precipitates on TiN surface after TiN engulfed by the solidification advancing front. TiN-MC_x with low TiN volume fraction, TiN and MC_x form in late stage of solidification, TiN can not grow sufficiently and is covered by a large number of precipitated MC_x particles.

In recent years, polyureas with dynamic hindered urea bonds (HUBs), as a class of promising biomedical polymers, have attracted attention as a benefit of their controlled hydrolytic property. The effect of the chemical structures on the properties of polyureas and their assemblies was rarely reported. In this study, four kinds of polyureas with different chemical groups have been synthesized, and the polyurea from cyclohexyl diisocyanate and tert-butyl diamine showed the fastest hydrolytic rate. The amphiphilic polyurea composed of hydrophobic cyclohexyl-tert-butyl polyurea and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) was synthesized for controlled delivery of antitumor drug paclitaxel (PTX). The PTX-loaded PEGylated polyurea micelle more effectively entered into the murine breast cancer 4T1 cells and inhibited the corresponding tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the PEGylated polyurea with adjustable degradation might be a promising polymer matrix for drug delivery.

Extensive genome structure variation, such as copy number variations (CNVs) and presence/absence variations, is the basis for the remarkable maize genetic diversity; however, the effect of CNVs on maize herbivory defense remains largely underexplored. Here, we report that the naturally occurring duplication of the maize 9-lipoxygenase gene, ZmLOX5, leads to increased resistance of maize to herbivory by fall armyworms (FAW). Previously, we showed that ZmLOX5-derived oxylipins are required for defense against chewing insect herbivores and identified several inbred lines, including Yu796, that contained duplicated CNVs of ZmLOX5, referred to as Yu796-2×LOX5. To test whether introgression of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus into the herbivore-susceptible B73 background that contains a single ZmLOX5 gene is a feasible approach to increase resistance, we generated a series of near-isogenic lines that contained either 2, 1 or 0 copies of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus in the B73 background by six back crosses (BC6). Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) confirmed the successful introgression of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus in B73. The resulting B73-2×LOX5 inbred line displayed increased resistance against FAW associated with increased expression of ZmLOX5, increased wound-induced production of its primary oxylipin product, the α-ketol, 9-hydroxy-10-oxo-12(Z),15(Z)-octadecadienoic acid (9,10-KODA), and the downstream defense hormones regulated by this molecule, 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (12-OPDA) and abscisic acid (ABA). Surprisingly, wound-induced JA-Ile production was not increased in B73-2×LOX5, resulting from the increased JA catabolism. Furthermore, B73-2×LOX5 displayed enhanced drought tolerance likely due to increased ABA and 12-OPDA content. Taken together, this study revealed that the duplicated CNV of ZmLOX5 quantitively contributes to maize antiherbivore defense and presents proof-of-concept evidence that the introgression of naturally occurring duplicated CNVs of a defensive gene into the productive, but susceptible, crop varieties is a feasible breeding approach for enhancing plant resistance to herbivory and tolerance to abiotic stress.

A series of polynuclear, dinuclear, and mononuclear Mo(VI) complexes were synthesized with the hydrazonato ligands derived from 5-methoxysalicylaldehyde and the corresponding hydrazides (isonicotinic hydrazide (H2L1), nicotinic hydrazide (H2L2), 2-aminobenzhydrazide (H2L3) or 4-aminobenzhydrazide (H2L4)). The metallosupramolecular compounds obtained from non-coordinating solvents, [MoO2(L1,2)]n (1 and 2) and [MoO2(L3,4)]2 (3 and 4), formed infinite structures and metallacycles, respectively. By blocking two coordination sites with cis-dioxo ligands, the molybdenum centers have three coordination sites occupied by the ONO donor atoms from the rigid hydrazone ligands and one by N atom of pyridyl or amine-functionalized ligand subcomponents from the neighbouring Mo building units. The reaction in methanol afforded the mononuclear analogues [MoO2(L1-4)(MeOH)] (1a-4a) with additional monodentate MeOH ligand. All isolated complexes were tested as catalysts for cyclooctene epoxidation using tBuOOH (TBHP) as an oxidant in water. The impact of the structure and ligand lability on the catalytic efficiency in homogeneous cyclooctene epoxidation was elucidated through theoretical considerations. Thus, dinuclear assemblies exhibited better catalytic activity than mononuclear or polynuclear complexes.

Soil-borne Trichoderma spp. have been extensively studied for their biocontrol activities against pathogens and growth promotion ability with plants. However, the beneficial effect of Trichoderma on inducing resistance against insect herbivores has been considered only recently. Among diverse Trichoderma species, consistent with previous reports, we showed that root colonization by T. virens triggered induced systemic resistance (ISR) to leaf-infecting fungal pathogens. Whether T. virens induces ISR to insect pests has not been tested before. In this study, we investigated whether T. virens affects jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and defense against fall armyworm (FAW) and western corn rootworm (WCR). Unexpectedly, the results showed that T. virens colonization of maize seedlings grown in autoclaved soil suppressed wound-induced production of JA, resulting in reduced resistance to FAW. Similarly, the bacterial endophyte Pseudomonas chlororaphis 30-84 suppressed systemic resistance to FAW due to reduced JA. Further comparative analyses of the systemic effects of these endophytes when applied into sterile or non-sterile field soil showed that both T. virens and P. chlororaphis 30-84 triggered ISR against hemibiotrophic fungal pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola in both soil conditions, but only suppressed resistance to FAW in sterile soil. In contrast to the effect on FAW defense, T. virens colonization of maize roots suppressed WCR larvae survival and weight gain. This is the first report suggesting the potential role of T. virens as a biocontrol agent against WCR.

Probiotics are microorganisms infused in products for health benefits including acceleration of nutrient digestion, however, it is also important to ensure the safety prior to incorporation. Here, we present evidence of the ability of two probiotic isolates,Lacticaseibacillus paracasei BCRC-16100 and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei ZFM54, in the (1) enhancement of carbohydrate digestion, (2) tolerance to stress, and (3) antibiotic resistance. Approaches include whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis and bioactivity assays. WGS revealed genes suggesting the ability of the two isolates to promote carbohydrate digestion, tolerance to stress and antibiotic resistance. Carbohydrate digestive ability was confirmed through a biochemical assay where the two isolates cause glucose release from starch. The two isolates also showed versatility in a range of temperature and alcohol concentration. For antibiotic resistance particularly on vancomycin, there are three mechanisms namely transporter control, transcriptional regulation, and efflux pump. Furthermore, promoter and transposable element analysis showed that some of the active antibiotic resistant (AbR) genes can be laterally transferred. Altogether, we show the potential of two probiotic isolates to be incorporated in products for improved carbohydrate digestion and the need to address the removal of active and mobile antibiotic resistance genes that may compromise safety.

The study’s objective was to evaluate the influence of thinning on the quality and regularity of yield of 'Regina' cherries grown on a dwarf Gisela 5 rootstock. The experiments were conducted in the years 2009-2012 in Western Poland. Trees were thinned using a chemical agent, ammonium thiosulphate (ATS) at doses of 20g ATS × L-1, 30g ATS × L-1 and 40g ATS × L-1, and by hand, and the results of chemical and hand thinning were compared with those obtained for unthinned trees. The course of weather conditions in winter and during flowering had a significant impact on yield. Chemical thinning is known to be an effective method to regulate fruiting of pome trees, but it can also be successful if applied to cherry trees, as reflected by the alternate bearing index, which was the lowest after applying ATS at a dose of 40g. ATS treatment improved fruit quality in full crop years. Thinning resulted in, among other things, larger and darker fruit and higher content of total soluble solids and titratable acidity. Treatment with 40g ATS × L-1 significantly stimulated the vegetative growth of trees.

Elevated circulating triglyceride levels have been linked to an increased risk of diabetes, although the precise mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) for insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein served as mediators in this association across a sample of 18,435 US adults. Mediation analysis was conducted using the PROCESS Version 4.3 Macro for SPSS. Simple medi-ation analysis revealed that all three potential mediators played a role in mediating the associa-tion. However, in the parallel mediation analysis, where all three mediators were simultaneously included, HOMA for insulin resistance remained a significant mediator (indirect effect coefficient, 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43—0.52; p < 0.05) after adjusting for all tested confounding factors. Conversely, LDL cholesterol (indirect effect coefficient, -0.13; 95% CI, -0.31—0.05; p > 0.05) and C-reactive protein (indirect effect coefficient, 0.01; 95% CI, -0.003—0.02; p > 0.05) ceased to be significant mediators. HOMA for insulin resistance accounted for 49% of the association between triglycerides and diabetes. In conclusion, HOMA for insulin resistance was the dominant mediator underlying the association between triglycerides and diabetes. Therefore, reducing triglyceride levels may hold promise for improving insulin sensitivity in diabetic patients.

Wilms tumor (WT), the most prevalent type of renal cancer in children, exhibits overall survival rates exceeding 90%. However, chemotherapy resistance, which occurs in approximately 10% of WT cases, is a major challenge for the treatment of WT, particularly for advanced-stage patients. In this study, we aimed to discover potential mutation markers and drug targets associated with chemotherapy resistance in advanced stage WT. We performed exome sequencing to detect somatic mutations and molecular targets in 43 WT samples, comprising 26 advanced stage WTs, of which 7 cases are chemotherapy-resistant. Our analysis revealed four genes (ALPK2, C16orf96, PRKDC, and SVIL) that correlated with chemotherapy resistance and reduced disease-free survival in ad-vanced-stage WT. Additionally, we identified driver mutations in 55 genes within the chemo-therapy-resistant group, including 14 druggable cancer driver genes. Based on the mutation profile of the resistant WT samples, we propose potential therapeutic strategies involving platinum-based agents, PARP inhibitors, and antibiotic/antineoplastic agents. Our findings provide insights into the genetic landscape of WT and offer potential avenues for targeted treatment, particularly for patients with chemotherapy resistance.

The Sanaga River Valley is a deep-seated structure of about 220 km in width, bounded on its northern and southern sides by 025-0550 fault zones. Its internal structure has been very little described before this study. It is characterized by the presence of surface features where a thick stratum of shale and argillaceous sandstones have been documented. The use of electrical resistivity tomography for near-surface imaging and hydrogeological prospecting within shale succession is widespread. However, several methods of spatial modeling of resistivity contours are generally proposed for the interpretation of inverse resistivity model sections. To determine the most appropriate method for interpreting resistivity tomographies in the context of subsoil marked by significant heterogeneity, logarithmic contour intervals, and linear contour interval processing were implemented on data collected over five areas. The data consists of outcrops data, cuttings samples from groundwater boreholes, and resistivity sections ranging in length from 240 to 1000 m. Well-control of the inverse resistivity model sections derived from both processes shows that the linear contour intervals modeling gives a more realistic picture of the reservoir size of the wa-ter-bearing sand in both shale and argillaceous sandstone succession. The sedimentary architecture over Sanaga fault breccia is marked by vertical intrusion anomalies up to 80 m high. The shape of these anomalies, as well as the very low resistivity values that characterize them, suggests that they could be related to mud intrusion.

Background: The resurgence of syphilis, primarily in MSM populations, has necessitated novel prophylactic strategies, such as the use of doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP). However, the potential for increased doxycycline use to select for tetracycline resistance represents significant challenges in managing this sexually transmitted infection. This study aims to identify chromosomal mutations associated with tetracycline resistance in Spirochaetales to inform treatment strategies and surveillance measures.Methods: Whole genome sequences (WGS) from the Spirochaetales order, including 4,355 genomes, were analyzed for the presence of mutations in 16S rRNA and non-synonymous mutations in the rpsC and rpsJ genes. The study utilized WGS from GenBank® and sequence data from the PubMLST Treponema pallidum isolate collection. Genetic resistance to tetracycline was detected using a combination of BLASTN searches and gene-gene analysis. Results: A transition mutation TGA to TGG at positions 965-967 in the 16S rRNA gene was detected in 5.6% of Treponema spp. and 3.97% of Spirochaeta spp. genomes. The rpsJ gene exhibited a V57G amino acid substitution across a significant subset of Treponema spp. Notably, the V57K mutation was common in Spirochaeta spp. The rpsC gene had the H178Q mutation and was found to be present in the Spirochaetales bacterium.Conclusion: The identification of mutations associated with tetracycline resistance in Spirochaetales provides a foundation for the development of rapid molecular diagnostics and guides the clinical selection of antibiotics for syphilis treatment. This study underscores the complexity of antibiotic resistance mechanisms and the critical importance of surveillance in the era of antibiotic prophylaxis for STI management.

Vibration signal analysis is regarded as a fundamental approach in diagnosing faults in rolling bearings, and recent advancements have shown notable progress in this domain. However, the presence of substantial background noise often results in the masking of these fault signals, posing a significant challenge for researchers. In response, an Adaptive Denoising Autoencoder (ADAE) approach is proposed in this paper. The data representations are learned by the encoder through convolutional layers, while the data reconstruction is performed by the decoder using deconvolutional layers. Both the encoder and decoder incorporate adaptive shrinkage units to simulate denoising functions, effectively removing interfering information while preserving sensitive fault features. Additionally, dropout regularization is applied to sparsify the network and prevent overfitting, thereby enhancing the overall expressive power of the model. To further enhance ADAE's noise resistance, shortcut connections are added. Evaluation using publicly available datasets under scenarios with known and unknown noise demonstrates that ADAE effectively enhances the signal-to-noise ratio in strongly noisy backgrounds, facilitating accurate diagnosis of faults in rolling bearings.

This study addresses the critical issue of dowel-bearing strength in Bambusa blumeana, a key sus-tainable construction material crucial for climate change mitigation. Given the lack of bamboo connection standards, the research focuses on determining the dowel-bearing strength of Bambusa blumeana, emphasizing factors such as dowel diameter, node placements, and the physical prop-erties of bamboo. A predictive equation is derived, enhancing the practicality of bamboo in struc-tural design. The results underscore a notable correlation between dowel diameter and character-istic strength, with implications for engineering practices. Node placements significantly affect dowel-bearing capacity, while bamboo's physical attributes, including thickness, culm diameter, and moisture content, exhibit modest correlations with strength. The derived equation aims to assist in structural design, mitigating splitting and bearing failures in bamboo structures. This research establishes a foundation for optimizing the use of Bambusa blumeana in sustainable construction, advancing the understanding of its dowel-bearing strength for improved sustainability and resili-ence in the construction industry. Future research suggestions include exploring bamboo-mortar composites, additional node placements, and employing more comprehensive empirical equations and curve-fitting techniques. The study advocates for further investigations with more diverse and larger bamboo samples to bolster robustness. Additionally, delving into bamboo ductility may offer valuable insights.

A flexible structure is applied to improve the lubrication performance of a misaligned journal bearing. The journal bearing is representative sliding bearing and there are damages due to metal-to-metal contact by misalignment. Since misalignment is an unavoidable phenomenon, a journal bearing with a flexible structure was proposed as a way to improve it. The lubrication characteristics of the bearing are evaluated numerically under steady-state condition. EHL (elastohydrodynamic lubrication) analysis considering elastic deformation was performed. The lubrication performance is compared in accordance with variation of the geometry of the flexible structure and evaluated based on the minimum film thickness. Moreover, the results of the journal bearing with flexible structure are compared with those of the journal bearing without the flexible structure. The flexible structure is then applied in the form of a groove to the area supporting high load on the journal bearing; it is elastically deformed by the generated oil-film pressure, which helps to obscure a larger oil film. Through numerical analysis, it is found that the journal bearing with flexible structure can improve the lubrication performance in the misaligned condition.

This study aims to improve the shaft with hexagon joints to be a type not requiring welding or bolts in the static load test . In order to evaluate the bearing capacity of helical piles, two sites were selected to conduct pile installation for the field test and the pile load test. For the pile load test, the static pile load test and the dynamic pile load test were carried out, and torque was measured during pile installation for the field test to compare and analyze expected bearing capacity and thus assess the feasibility of the method for estimating the bearing capacity. The field pile load test revealed the bearing capacity of the gravity grout pile was the same or greater than 600kN in the static pile load test in accordance with AC 358 Code. The non-grout pile showed the bearing capacity the same or smaller than 600kN, suggesting gravity grouting is required. Moreover, the field pile load test was used to establish the bearing capacity equation considering the torque in pile installation, and a small number of samples were used to establish the equation which can be used as a basic data.

Blind deconvolution (BD) is one of the effective methods that help pre-process vibration signals and assist in bearing fault diagnosis. Currently, most BD methods design an optimization criterion and use frequency or time domain information independently to optimize a deconvolution filter. It recovers weak periodic impulses related to incipient faults. However, the random noise interference may cause the optimizer to overfit. The time-domain-based BD methods tend to extract fault-unrelated single peak impulse, and the frequency-domain-based BD methods tend to retain the maximum energy frequency component, which will lose the fault-related harmonics frequency components. To solve the above issue, we propose a hybrid criterion that combines the kurtosis for time domain optimization and the $G-l_1/l_2$ norm for the frequency domain. These two criteria are monotonically increasing and decreasing, so they mutually constrain to avoid overfitting. After that, we design a multi-task one-dimensional convolutional neural network with time and frequency branches to achieve an optimal solution for this hybrid criterion. The multi-task neural network realizes the simultaneous optimization of two domains. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.

The purpose of feature selection is to find important features from the original high-dimensional space. As atypical feature selection algorithm, Locally linear embedding(LLE)-based feature selection algorithm, which applies the idea of LLE to the graph-preserving feature selection framework, has been received wide attention. However, LLE-based feature selection framework is sensitive to noise and K-nearest neighbors. To address these problems, an improved LLE-based feature selection algorithm, robust LLE (RLLE) vote, is proposed. In this algorithm, $l_1$ and $l_2$ regularization are introduced into the high-dimensional reconstruction model of LLE. Furthermore, RLLE vote also proposes a criterion to measure the difference between the reconstruction features and the original features, and then the importance features can be selected by this criteria. Extensive experiments are carried out on a benchmark fault data set and the bearing data set collected from our own laboratory, and the experimental results demonstrate that RLLE vote achieves the most significant performance compared existing state-of-art methods.

Gastrointestinal tumors including pancreatic and colorectal cancers represent one of the greatest public health issues worldwide, leading to million global deaths. Recent research demonstrated that the human heavy chain ferritin (HFt) can encapsulate different type of drugs in its cavity and can bind to its receptor, CD71, in several solid and hematological tumors, thus highlighting the potential use of ferritin for tumor-targeting therapies. Here, we describe the development and characterization of a novel nanomedicine based on the HFt that is named The-0504. In particular, this novel system is a nano-assembly comprising an engineered version of HFt that entraps about 80 molecules of a potent, wide-spectrum, non-camptothecin topoisomerase I inhibitor (Genz-644282). The-0504 can be produced by a standardized pre-industrial process as a pure and homogeneously formulated product with favourable lyophilization properties. The preliminary anticancer activity was evaluated in cultured cancer cells and in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer. Overall results reported here make The-0504 a candidate for further preclinical development against CD-71 expressing deadly tumors

In this study one of the most innovative sintering techniques up to date was evaluated: Electro-Sinter-Forging (ESF). Despite it has been proved to be effective in densifying several different metallic materials and composites, bearing steels such as 100Cr6 have never been processed so far. Pre-alloyed Astaloy CrM powders have been ad-mixed with either graphite or graphene and then processed by ESF to produce a 100Cr6 equivalent composition. Porosity has been evaluated by optical microscopy and compared to that one of 100Cr6 commercial samples. Mechanical properties such as hardness and transverse rupture strength were tested on samples produced by employing different process parameters and then submitted to different treatments (machining, heat treatment). The experimental characterization highlighted that porosity is the factor mostly affecting mechanical resistance of the samples, correlating linearly to the transverse rupture strength. Hardness on the other side does not correlate to the mechanical resistance because process related cracking has a higher effect on the final properties. Promising results were obtained that give room to the sinterability by ESF of materials difficult to sinter by conventional press and sinter techniques.

To estimate the progressive collapse resistance capacity of a multi-column frame tube structure with the assembled truss beam composite floor (ATBCF), the pushdown analysis, and the nonlinear dynamic analysis as well, are conducted for such a structure by using the alternate load path (ALP) method. The bearing capacities of the remaining structures at three different work conditions, which are the side middle column failure, the edge middle column failure, and the corner column failure, are individually studied, and the collapse mechanism for the remaining structures is analyzed from the aspects of the internal force redistribution and the failure mode of the second defense line. Simultaneously, the influence of the column failure time on the dynamic response of the remaining structure and the dynamic amplification coefficient are discussed. The results show that the residual bearing capacity of the remaining structure with the bottom corner column failure is higher than that of the one with the side or edge middle column failure, while the latter has a stronger plastic deformation capacity. When the ALP method is adopted to operate the progressive collapse analysis, it is reasonable to take the column failure time as 0.1 times of the first-order vertical vibration period of the remaining structure, and it is suitable to set the dynamic amplification coefficient as of 2.0, which is the ratio of the maximum dynamic displacement to the static displacement of the remaining structure under the transient loading condition.

The dynamic resistance is an important parameter in flux pumping. It is simple to calculate in slab geometry but more complex in tapes. In this paper another simple geometry is analysed which is a wire loop. To do this it is essential to make clear what is meant by the term 'voltage', which is ambiguous when there are alternating magnetic fields present. The term can be used if it refers to the EMF along a specified path. However this means that results are dependent on how the voltage leads are attached. If the n value of the V-I characteristic is large simple analytic expressions can be obtained. This will be referred to as the 'Bean' model solution. A more exact approach uses Faraday's law to derive a differential equation which is solved and compared with the Bean model. The dynamic resistance of the loop can be used to drive a flux pump of the type proposed by Geng and Coombs [4] and again simple expressions can be obtained for the performance. If the load is of high inductance L2 and the loop has an inductance L1 then the load current increases exponentially with a characteristic number of cycles L2/L1. The final current can be close to the critical value.

This review covers the last 25 years literature on analogs of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA, known also as Vorinostat) acting as HDAC inhibitor. In particular, the topic has been focused on the synthesis and biological activity of compounds where the phenyl group (the surface recognition moiety, CAP) of SAHA has been replaced by an azaheterocycle through a direct bond with amide nitrogen atom, and the methylene chain in the linker region is of variable length. Most of the compounds reported displayed good to excellent inhibitory activity against HDACs and in many cases showed anti-proliferative activity against human cancer cell lines.

The vibration signal of the engine contains strong background noise and many kinds of modulating components, which is difficult to diagnose. Variational mode decomposition (VMD) is a recently introduced adaptive signal decomposition algorithm with a solid theoretical foundation and good noise robustness compared with empirical mode decomposition (EMD). VMD can effectively avoid endpoint effect and modal aliasing. However, VMD cannot effectively eliminate the random noise in the signal, so the random decrement technique is introduced to solve the problem. Based on the crankshaft bearing fault simulation experiment, the four kinds of wear state vibration signals are decomposed by VMD, and the modal components with smaller permutation entropy are selected as fault components. Then the fault component is processed by the random decrement technique, and the Hilbert envelope spectrum of the fault component is obtained. Compared with the fault feature extraction method based on EMD and EEMD, the feature extraction results of the proposed method are better than those of the above two methods. The simulation analysis and the simulation test of the crankshaft bearing fault verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical study on the behavior of cold-formed thick-walled steel plates connected by a single bolt under double shear. Experimental studies were conducted on a total of 54 bolted connections fabricated from two thickness of cold-formed thick-walled steel plates with the nominal thickness of 6 mm and 10 mm. The effects of end distance, edge distance and steel plate thickness were investigated on the bolt bearing behavior. Codes of (modified) ANSI/AISC 360-16 and EN1993-1-8 were applied to predict failure modes and bearing resistance of connections and the predictions were compared with that of measurements. A method was proposed to calculate the elongation of bolt hole at ultimate load. The studies show that fractures occurred on shear planes of specimens failed by shear out due to reduced ductility caused by cold forming process. The modified ANSI/AISC gives the most accurate predictions of failure modes and bearing resistance. However, the bearing resistance will be overestimated if the reduction in area of shear planes caused by occurrence of fracture is ignored for specimens with end distance being higher than 2.0d0 and a reduction factor is needed for calculating bearing resistance of connections. The method proposed in our paper can predict the elongation of bolt hole very well.

This paper realizes early bearing fault warning through bearing fault time series prediction, and proposes a bearing fault time series prediction model based on optimized maximum correlation kurtosis deconvolution (MCKD) and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network to ensure bearings operation reliability. The model is based on lifecycle vibration signal of the bearing, to begin, the cuckoo search (CS) is utilized to optimize the parameter filter length L and deconvolution period T of MCKD, taking into account the influence and periodicity of the bearing time series, the fault impact component of the optimized MCKD deconvolution time series is improved. Then select the LSTM learning rate α depending on deconvolution time series. Finally, the dataset obtained through various preprocessing approaches are used to train and predict the LSTM model. The average prediction accuracy of the optimized MCKD-LSTM model is 26 percent higher than that of the original time series, proving the efficiency of this method, and the prediction results track the real fault data well, according to the XI'AN JIAOTONG University XJTU-SY bearing dataset.

In this paper, we introduce the Prognostics and Health Management of gear bearing system using autoencoder neural networks. Bearings and gears are the most common mechanical components in rotating machines, and their health conditions are of great concern in practice. This study presents an outlier modeling method for forecasting the gear bearing system failure using the health indicators constructed from mechanical signal processing and modeling. Outlier modeling aims to find patterns in data that are significantly different from what is defined as normal. In the unsupervised outlier modeling setting, prior labels about the anomalousness of data points are not available. In such cases, the most common techniques for scoring data points for outlyingness include distance-based methods density-based methods, and linear methods. The conventional outlier modeling methods have been used for a long time to detect anomalous observations in data. However, this paper shows that autoencoders are a very competitive technique compared to other existing methods. The developed method is demonstrated using the IMS bearing data from NASA Acoustics and Vibration Database.

Tracked vehicles play a vital role in accessing challenging terrains, offering stability, traction, and versatility for various applications, including deep-sea exploration. However, the seafloor and sediment contain valuable but poorly understood resources, making it a significant challenge for tracked vehicles during exploration. Consequently, it is imperative to conduct comprehensive studies before considering these terrains for off-road purposes. In this study, we developed a rigid, flexible track vehicle equipped with various sensors, focusing on monitoring pressure sinkage. Cohesive soils like Bentonite and Diatom soil, particularly when combined with sand and gravel mixtures, were used for the investigation and assessed for ground pressure, bearing capacity, and sinkage in rigid-flexible tracked vehicles on these characterized terrains under varying moisture conditions. Our findings indicated that increased moisture content in bentonite soil resulted in significantly higher track slippage and sinkage compared to diatomaceous earth soil. Regarding soil behavior, diatom soil exhibited notable compaction and sinkage characteristics compared to bentonite soil. These significant variations between these two soil types under changing moisture conditions highlight the complexity of such terrains. Therefore, understanding the soil and its physical properties is crucial before applying them to natural terrains. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of precision in assessing the physical properties of natural terrains for the development of tracked vehicles for off-road exploration. This knowledge contributes to better vehicle design and a deeper comprehension of terrain mechanics.

The fault diagnosis of the gearbox is primarily based on the analysis of the harmonic response. However, the generation mechanism of the harmonic response of the gear pair is still not distinctly explained in a healthy gearbox. Therefore, this paper is dedicated to establishing a dynamic model of the gearbox for this issue. In this model, the contact force of the bearing and the meshing stiffness of the gear pair are determined by the Hertz theory and the potential energy method, then the shaft motion is used as the connection to establish the coupling relationship between the gear pair and the bearing. After this dynamic model is confirmed by experiments and existing models, the coupling relationship inside the gearbox and the harmonic response of the gear pair are studied using this model. The result demonstrates that a closed control loop is formed due to the vibration transmission between the gear pair, the bearing and the shaft, and there is a strong coupled vibration between the gear pair and the bearing in the gearbox. Due to the generation of the center distance error, misalignment angle and disorganized meshing process of the gear pair, the meshing stiffness is altered, which excites the harmonic response of the gear pair. When the speed of the gearbox is increased, although the vibration amplitude of the gearbox is increased, the system predominantly vibrates at the fundamental frequency, and the harmonic of the gear pair is also shifted to the low frequency band.

Past exploration for U deposit in the Philippines discovered the mineralization of radioactive allanite in Palawan. The allanite occurs as sand component in the heavily populated beach of Erawan, San Vicente, Palawan. This work assessed the risks associated with the radionuclides in Erawan beach by in situ ground radiometric survey of K, U, and Th in 694 sampling points. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to determine the similarity between the radionuclides and to identify other probable anthropogenic sources of radionuclides. Our results show that the mean activity concentrations of K (597.8 Bq kg^-1) and Th (93.15 Bq kg^-1) are equivalent to 1.5 and 3.1 times of the world average natural radioactivity levels in soil, respectively, while the mean U (34.7 Bq kg^-1) is similar to the world average. The mean radiological risk assessments like radium equivalent, gamma specific activity index, external hazard index, internal hazard index, absorbed gamma dose rate, annual effective dose equivalent, annual gonadal equivalent dose, and excess lifetime cancer risk are 213.96 Bq kg^-1, 0.78, 0.58, 0.67, 97.24 nGy h^-1, 119.25 µSv y^-1, 684.39 µSv y^-1, and 0.42 (10^-3), respectively. Th consistently correlated most to the risks. We attribute the occurrence of Th to the presence of allanite, K to fertilizer use for farming, and U to both the allanite and farming. The results of our study can provide important baseline data for future detailed studies or monitoring of the long-term effects of elevated radiation levels to the local population of Erawan.

Viroids are known the smallest plant pathogens, and although their genome sequences do not encode proteins, they can cause disease in economically important crops. In order to control viroid diseases and mitigate their damage, genetic resources used for breeding of the viroid-resistant crop have been searched, but the practical resistant trait has not been found in almost all viroid-crop combinations, as well as the tolerant trait. Due to the difficulty in exploiting naturally occurring resistance or tolerance, various effective strategies have been devised to control viroid diseases using non-transforming or transforming techniques. Meanwhile, extensive findings related to viroid resistance and tolerance may lead to confer resistance or tolerance to viroid infection by combining with the recently emerged new technologies (e.g., spray-induced gene silencing and genome-editing technologies), which are believed to be more environmentally viable and acceptable to the general public than previously reported approaches. In particular, some genome-modified crops produced by the latter technology are already on the market. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the current status about investigation of naturally occurring genetic traits for viroid resistance and tolerance, accumulating knowledge about host factors involved in viroid pathogenicity, and various basic technologies developed to try to possible viroid disease control strategies. Furthermore, we discuss prospects and challenges for the achievement of more effective, practical, and sustainable disease control of viroid.

Natural gas hydrate has gained significant attention in recent years. To safely and sustainably exploit the natural gas from gas hydrate-bearing sediments, it is crucial to understand the long-term mechanical characteristics of the hydrate reservoir. In this study, the influence of hydrate and fine particles on the strain rate dependence of hydrate-bearing sediments under plane strain conditions has been studied. The experimental results show that the strain rate dependency of the mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments is positively correlated with hydrate saturation instead of the morphology of hydrate in sediments. The residual strength of hydrate-bearing sediments is primarily controlled by the hydrate saturation and is independent of the strain rate. Changes in hydrate saturation, and fines content, can affect the relationship between the strain rate and shear band angle. Finally, the local volumetric expansion effect of hydrate-bearing sediments without fines content is more significant and shows a strong strain rate dependence characteristic. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the long-term mechanical characteristics of hydrate reservoirs. These insights can contribute to the development of a constitutive model of hydrate-bearing sediments with time-dependence in the future, and which is meaningful to the exploitation of natural gas hydrate.

Grinding processes’ stochastic nature poses a challenge in predicting the quality of the resulting surfaces. Post-production measurements for form, surface roughness, and circumferential waviness are commonly performed due to infeasibility in measuring all quality parameters during the grinding operation. Therefore, it is challenging to diagnose the root cause of quality deviations in real-time resulting from variations in the machine’s operating condition. This paper introduces a novel approach to predicting the overall quality of the individual parts. The grinder is equipped with sensors to implement condition-based maintenance and is induced with five frequently occurring failure conditions for the experimental test runs. The crucial quality parameters are measured for the produced parts. Fuzzy c-means (FCM) and Hotelling’s T-squared (T2) have been evaluated to generate quality labels from the multi-variate quality data. Benchmarked random forest regression models are trained using fault diagnosis feature set and quality labels. Quality labels from the T2 statistic of quality parameters are preferred over FCM approach for their repeatability. The model, trained from T2 labels achieves more than 94% accuracy when compared to the measured ring disposition. The predicted overall quality using the sensors’ feature set is compared against the threshold to reach a trustworthy maintenance decision.

In recent years, intelligent fault diagnosis algorithms using deep learning method have achieved much success. However, the signals collected by sensors contain a lot of noise, which will have a great impact on the accuracy of the diagnostic model. To address this problem, we propose a one-dimensional convolutional neural network with multi-scale kernels (MSK-1DCNN) and apply this method to bearing fault diagnosis. We use a multi-scale convolution structure to extract different fault features in the original signal, and use the ELU activation function instead of the ReLU function in the multi-scale convolution structure to improve the anti-noise ability of MSK-1DCNN; then we use the training set with pepper noise to train the network to suppress overfitting. We use the Western Reserve University bearing data to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm and compare it with other fault diagnosis algorithms. Experimental results show that the improvements we proposed have effectively improved the diagnosis performers of MSK-1DCNN under strong noise and the diagnosis accuracy is higher than other comparison algorithms.

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is a highly curable disease (70-80%), even though long-term toxicities, drug resistance, and predicting clinical responses to therapy are major challenges in cHL treatment. To solve these problems, we characterized two cHL cell lines with acquired resistance to doxorubicin, KM-H2dx and HDLM-2dx (HRSdx), generated from KM-H2 and HDLM-2 cells, respectively. HRSdx cells developed cross-resistance to vinblastine, bendamustin, cisplatin, dacarbazine, gem-citabine, brentuximab vedotin (BV), and γ-radiation. Both HDLM-2 and HDLM-2dx cells had an intrinsic resistance to BV but not to the drug MMAE. HDLM-2dx acquired cross-resistance to caelyx. HRSdx cells had in common: decreased CD71, CD80, CD54, cyt-ROS, HLA-DR, DDR1, CD44; increased Bcl-2, CD58, COX2, CD26, CCR5, invasive capability; increased CCL5, TARC, PGE2, TGF-β, and capability to hijack monocytes. In HRSdx cells, less sensitive to DNA damage and oxidative stress, the efflux drug transporters MDR1 and MRP1 were not up-regulated, and doxorubicin accumulated in cytoplasm rather than in nucleus. Both autophagy inhibitor chloroquine and extracellular vesicles (EVs) release inhibitor GW4869 enhanced doxorubicin activity and counteracted doxorubicin resistance. In conclusion, this study identifies common modulated antigens in HRSdx cells, the associated cross-resistance patterns, and new potential therapeutic options to enhance doxorubicin activity and overcome resistance.

The high reliable correlations between CBR and DCP in general proposed are presented in this paper. We analyzed the test data and correlations from many researchers to find the best equation for prediction the CBR from DCP test. The findings show that all correlations from existing paper are based on local material and cannot apply to soil in a different location in general purpose. New correlations between CBR and DCP were proposed and validated in this paper for general uses. The validation confirmed that these new correlations can predict well with higher R2.

In this study, two donor-acceptor (D-A) type conjugated polymers namely PQSeCz and PQSeFl were designed and synthesized. Selenophene was incorporated as a π -bridge, quinoxaline as an acceptor unit while carbazole and fluorene were used as the donor units. Polymers were synthesized via palladium catalyzed Suzuki polymerization reaction. All molecules were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR Spectroscopy. The weight and number average molecular weights of the two polymers were determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical characterizations of the polymers were performed to investigate their optoelectronic properties. Oxidation potentials were 1.15 V/ 0.82 V and 1.11 V/ 0.82 V for PQSeCz and PQSeFl respectively, while reduction potentials were -1.26 V /-1.14 V and -1.48 V/ -1.23 V, respectively. In the visible region, maximum absorption wavelengths for the two polymers were 551 nm and 560 nm, respectively. Optical band gaps (Egop) were found from the lowest energy π – π∗ transition onsets as 1.71 eV and 1.58 eV, respectively. Both polymers showed good solubility in common solvents.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous malignancy with complex carcinogenesis. Although there has been significant progress in the treatment of HCC over the past decades, drug resistance to chemotherapy remains a major obstacle in its successful management. In this study we were able to reduce chemoresistance in cisplatin-resistant HepG2 cells by either silencing the expression of transglutaminase type 2 (TG2) using siRNA or by pre-treatment of cells with the TG2 enzyme inhibitor cystamine. Further analysis revealed that, whereas the full-length TG2 isoform (TG2-L) was almost completely cytoplasmic in its distribution, the majority of the short TG2 isoform (TG2-S) was membrane-associated in both parental and chemoresistant HepG2 cells. Following induction of cisplatin toxicity in non-chemoresistant parental cells, TG2-S together with cisplatin quickly relocated to the cytosolic fraction. Conversely, no cytosolic relocalisation of TG2-S or nuclear accumulation cisplatin was observed following identical treatment of chemoresistant cells, where TG2-S remained predominantly membrane-associated. This suggests that deficient subcellular relocalisation of TG2-S from membranous structures into the cytoplasm may limit the apoptic response to cisplatin toxicity in chemoresistant cells. Structural analysis of TG2 revealed the presence of binding motifs for interaction of TG-S with the membrane scaffold protein LC3/LC3 homologue that could contribute to a novel mechanism of chemotherapeutic resistance in HepG2 cells.

Globally increasing antibiotic resistance has been connected to the use of antibiotics in medical, veterinary, and agricultural medicine, contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Asia and Europe. The main objective of this study was to correlations of antimicrobial-resistant of various pathogens in three compartments: humans, animals and the environment in India and Germany. A systematic search was carried out in Medline via PubMed, Google Scholar, and science direct, including studies published in 2022. Out of 532 papers, 24 were considered for meta-analysis. This study reveals that in India, β-lactam is highly resistant in animals. Quinolone, on the other hand, was highly resistant in humans. Furthermore, in the environment and integrated studies, aminoglycosides and β-lactams is resistant. While in Germany, a high rate of AMR resistance in all three sectors was reported in β-lactam. However, E. coli was the most frequent pathogen in both countries and is highly resistant to β-lactam, followed by cephalosporin in all the compartments. Monitoring and evaluating antibiotic-sensitivity patterns and developing proper antibiotic regimens may lead to improved outcomes for inhibiting and controlling E. coli infections in various parts of the world.

In this work, the resistance/susceptibility (R/S) profile of Staphylococcus equorum strains (n=30) from cheese to 16 antibiotics was determined by broth microdilution. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for all antibiotics was low in most strains, although higher MICs compatible with acquired genes were also noted. Genome analysis of 13 strains showed the S. equorum resistome to be composed of intrinsic mechanisms, acquired mutations, and acquired genes. However, the genetic data did not always correlate with the phenotype. As such, a cat gene providing resistance to chloramphenicol was found on a plasmid in one strain; this was able to provide resistance to Staphylococcus aureus after electroporation. An msr(A) polymorphic gene was identified in five strains. The Mrs(A) variants were associated with variable resistance to erythromycin. All strains harboured a polymorphic fosB/fosD gene, although only one acquired copy was associated with strong resistance to fosfomycin. Similarly, a plasmid-associated blaR1-blaZI operon encoding a penicillinase was identified in five ampicillin- and penicillin G-susceptible strains. Identified genes not associated with resistance further included mph(C) in two strains and norA in all strains. The antibiotic R/S status and gene content of S. equorum strains intended to be employed in food systems should be carefully determined.

JIS SUJ2 is most widely used in bearing steels. The advantages are good hardenability, excellent fatigue, wear resistance and comprehensive mechanical properties. For wear resistance and fatigue resistance of the steel are getting more and more attention, the residual stress state and its distribution on the surface of the heat affect zone are critical factors affecting the fatigue life and wear resistance of the parts. In this study, using the SUJ2 as the material to talk about the surface residual stress and retained austenite distribution. Doing the quenching and tempering treatment to obtain different microstructures, using the induction method to re-quench the case region. After the heat treatment, measuring the residual stress and retained austenite volume on the surface by X-ray diffraction, observing the microstructure and comparing the hardness. The results show that the microstructure after heat treatment contains unsolidified carbides, tempered martensite and retained austenite. The residual stress on the surface is the tensile state. In the re-hardened area after induction quenching, the residual stress is all compressive, and the values are more than -800 MPa. In conclusion, in the same output power condition can be observed that the microstructure of the specimens before induction hardening has a significant impact on the effective case depth. The surface residual stress has changed from a tensile to a compressive state. In the re-hardened area, the maximum of the residual compressive stress increased with the austenitized temperature increase.

Platinum group metals (PGMs) high-grade ore tonnage from Merensky reef keeps on depreciating forcing the metallurgical industry to explore beneficiating PGMs from upper group 2 (UG2) ore which has up to 60% content of chromite and from secondary sources. The PGMs are naturally associated with base metal sulphides and the efficacy of the PGMs extraction processes is dependent on the processing of PGMs-bearing base metal sulphides. These processes include concentrating PGMs-bearing base metal sulphides through flotation, oxidation, etc. prior the metal extraction processes. The evolving mineralogy of PGMs ores has necessitated the use of multiple reagents to enhance the efficiency of the concentration process. This has led to an increased amount of inor-ganic chemicals disposal to the environment and the processing of PGMs to be less economic. Bio-technology has been investigated as a potential low cost, ecologically safe substitute for many current minerals processing methods. The metabolites produced by microorganisms have been used for many years with great success in the leaching and flotation of metals from medium and low-grade sulphide minerals. The possible application of microorganism mainly Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (A. ferrooxidans) in the metallurgical processing of PGMs-bearing base metal sulphides is systematically reviewed in this paper. The main emphasis is on the use of A. ferrooxidans in bio-oxidation and bioleaching, as well as their potential to substitute inorganic reagents in the flo-tation of PGMs-bearing base metal sulphides from primary and secondary sources

The current study aimed to investigate the antitumor effects and potent mechanism of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells combined with irreversible electroporation (IRE) via an in vitro function assay in an in vivo Panc02 cell–bearing mouse model. We established an in vitro culture assay for CIK cells and determined the proportions of different peripheral lymphocytes. The antitumor effect of the combination of IRE and CIK cells in a Panc02 pancreatic-cancer (PC) subcutaneous-xenograft model was investigated; tumor size and mouse survival rates were recorded. We used flow cytometry (FCM) to analyze the proportion of intratumoral lymphocytes, the expression of chemokine receptors, and the proliferative activity of CIK cells. The proportion of cells that were positive for clusters of differentiation 3 and 8 (CD3+CD8+) and the proportion of CD3+CD56+ cells were both significantly increased after 21 days of in vitro culture. Combined IRE/CIK cell treatment significantly inhibited tumor growth and increased the survival rate of Panc02 cell–bearing mice. Furthermore, infiltration of lymphocytes into tumor tissue was significantly increased by this combination therapy compared with the untreated group or monotherapy group. In addition, IRE significantly enhanced the expression of chemokine receptors elicited by, and the proliferative activity of, CIK cells. In conclusion, IRE combined with CIK cells showed superior antitumor efficacy in a PC subcutaneous-xenograft model, which we attributed to the promotion of lymphocytic infiltration, as well as to upregulation of chemokine receptor expression and of regulators of CIK cell proliferation.

Various studies have addressed the role of neutrophils in cancer wherein the focus has been drawn on the elevated neutrophil count in blood or at tumor loci. However, cancer has a systemic impact which targets various organs thus challenging the overall physiology of the host. So, it is worthwhile to explore whether and how neutrophils contribute to systemic deterioration in cancer. To discern the systemic role of neutrophils, we monitored their number and function at different stages of tumor growth in Dalton’s lymphoma mice model. Notably, we observed a gradual increase in neutrophil count in blood and their infiltration in vital organs of tumor bearing mice. In parallel, we observed damaged histoarchitecture with significant alterations in biochemical parameters that aggravated with tumor progression. We next examined systemic impact of neutrophil by assessing neutrophil elastase, myeloperoxidase, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-8 and MMP-9) wherein we found their upregulated expression and activity in tumor condition. Taken together, our results demonstrate high infiltration and hyperactivation of neutrophils which possibly account for gradual systemic deterioration during cancer progression. Our findings thus implicate neutrophils as a potential therapeutic target that may help to reduce the overall fatality rate of cancer.

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

Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was the first virus to be studied in detail and for many years TMV and other tobamoviruses, particularly tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) and tobamoviruses infecting pepper (Capsicum spp.), were serious crop pathogens. By the end of the twentieth and for the first decade of the twenty-first century tobamoviruses were under some degree of control due to introgression of resistance genes into commercial tomato and pepper lines. However, tobamoviruses remained as important models for molecular biology, biotechnology and bio-nanotechnology. Recently, tobamoviruses have again become serious crop pathogens due to the advent of tomato brown rugose fruit virus, which overcomes tomato resistance against TMV and ToMV, and the slow but apparently inexorable worldwide spread of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus, which threatens all cucurbit crops. This review discusses a range of mainly molecular biology-based approaches for protecting crops against tobamoviruses. These include cross-protection (using mild tobamovirus strains to ‘immunize’ plants against severe strains), expressing viral gene products in transgenic plants to inhibit the viral infection cycle, inducing RNA silencing against tobamoviruses by expressing virus-derived RNA sequences in planta or by direct application of double-stranded RNA molecules to non-engineered plants, gene editing of host susceptibility factors, and the transfer and optimization of natural resistance genes.

Influenza viruses cause acute respiratory infections responsible for significant mortality and morbidity around the world. Various factors, such as antigenic drift, allow influenza strains to avoid being fully suppressed by seasonal vaccines. This has led to the increased scrutiny of antivirals as treatment and prophylaxis options for seasonal outbreaks and potential pandemics. Unfortunately, many influenza antivirals suffer from a lack of adequate clinical trials, as well as a lack of toxicity data. This is especially true of umifenovir (arbidol), a drug popularly used for the prevention and treatment of influenza strains in China and Russia. Neuraminidase inhibitors, though widely prescribed, display a potential for future resistance. Adamantanes, while proven to be effective in treating influenza A, are already encountering rapid and widespread cross-resistance and are effectively obsolete. Baloxavir marboxil, a newer antiviral, shows promise in treating acute uncomplicated influenza and may avoid the development of resistance when co-administered with other antiviral drugs. Indeed, the low genetic barrier to resistance associated with influenza antivirals could potentially be overcome by co-administration with other antivirals. This review explores the most widely prescribed antivirals for influenza treatment, their mechanisms of action, and the data currently available about their susceptibility to resistance and efficacy.

Human exposure to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through food is now very imperfectly understood, creating a significant gap in the design of interventions. The interchange of AMR genes and the transfer of AMR bacteria from animals to humans through the food chain necessitate comprehensive methods to risk reduction. With a focus on AMR in bacterial species isolated from food products, foods (of both animal and non-animal origin), and ambient samples, the current meta-analysis gathered up-to-date information on the epidemiology of AMR in animal-source food chain. As a result, the combined prevalence of AMR across the various food sources was calculated. From the 18,784 food samples obtained as a result of selected publications, 7,676 (40.9%) samples were contaminated, including 4343 (56.6%) and 3363 (43.4%) samples from Taiwan and India, respectively. Meat (chicken, pork, and beef), fish and milk all have moderate to medium potential for AMR exposure to both Gram-positive and Gram-negative foodborne pathogens such S. aureus, Clostridium, E. coli, Salmonella, etc. Antibiotic resistance to β-lactam, fluoroquinolone, carbapenem etc, is present in the majority of food samples. The results of this study emphasize the persistent danger of antimicrobial residue in animal-derived foods in Taiwan, India, and other nations with comparable customs.

As the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance genes is increasing in microbes, we are facing the return of the preantibiotic era. Consecutively, the number of studies concerning antibiotic resistance and its spread in the environment is rapidly growing. Next generation sequencing technologies are widespread used in many areas of biological research and antibiotic resistance is no exception. For the rapid annotation of whole genome sequencing and metagenomic results considering antibiotic resistance, several tools and data resources were developed. These databases, however can differ fundamentally in the number and type of genes and resistance determinants they comprise. Furthermore, the annotation structure and metadata stored in these resources can also contribute to their differences. Several previous reviews were published on the tools and databases of resistance gene annotation, however, to our knowledge, no previous review focused solely and in depth on the differences in the databases. In this review, we compare the most well-known and widely used antibiotic resistance gene databases based on their structure and content. We believe that this knowledge is fundamental for selecting the most appropriate database for a research question and for the development of new tools and resources of resistance gene annotation.

Rosette caused by rose rosette virus (RRV) is the most devastating malady of rose in the United States. Because of the recent discovery of the virus and the completion of Koch’s postulates all assumptions about the disease are based on visual observations of material that may or may have not been infected by the virus. This study addresses several aspects of virus and disease epidemiology. Twenty rose genotypes were screened for mite and/or virus resistance. Phyllocoptes fructiphilus the only known vector of RRV, was able to establish, lay eggs and develop to nymphs and adults in all genotypes. ‘Stormy Weather’ shows resistance to the virus as assessed by both mite and cleft-grafting transmission experiments. The acquisition/latent and inoculation access periods were studied revealing long acquisition/latent periods but rapid inoculation time frames. The outputs of this study will assist in the better management of the vector and the disease. The resistant genotype identified could be used in areas with high disease pressure to minimize spread and for identification of the mechanisms behind resistance or as breeding material to incorporate virus resistance to new cultivars. The short inoculation access period indicates that chemical control for the vector may be a challenging undertaking.

In this paper, low circumferential reciprocating load foot-scale tests were performed on two truncated PHC B 600 130 tubular piles with bearing nodes to characterize the damage process and morphology of the specimens and to investigate the load-carrying performance of the members. The test results reveal that under the action of tensile-bending-shear loading, the bearing concrete in the node area buckles and is damaged, the anchored reinforcement in the node area yields, the constraint is weakened, an articulation point is formed, and the node rotational capacity increases. When the embedment depth increases from 200 mm to 300 mm, the ultimate bearing capacities of the positive and negative nodes increase by 57.60% and 54.60%, respectively. A numerical simulation is used to verify the test results. Considering the three types of piles with truncated nodes, the numerical simulation is used to analyze the node-bearing capacity at different embedment depths. Finally, two preferred node types are proposed as follows: pipe pile core-filled longitudinal reinforcement anchored into the bearing node and pipe pile body longitudinal reinforcement anchored into the bearing node + pipe pile core-filled longitudinal reinforcement anchored into the bearing node, with preferred embedment depths of 350 mm and 200 mm, respectively.

In the evolving landscape of vibration analysis, the integration of machine learning technologies for semi-automated analytical processes presents challenges in establishing clear cause-and-effect relationships in decision-making formulas. This research addresses this gap by exploring analytical diagnosis through residual signals, enabling the identification of anomalies and underperformance in machinery. Vibration signature analysis, focusing on distinctive vibration patterns, proves instrumental in detecting bearing defects and optimizing maintenance for enhanced operational efficiency and safety. Mathematical modeling, particularly worst-case analysis, provides a structured framework for decision-making under uncertainty. The research employs descriptive methods to analyze bearing wear data, transforming it into quantitative data for multiple regression equations. The derived equations reveal the dominance of harmonics in determining bearing wear stages, with PeakVue and overall vibration further indicating damage progression. The findings emphasize the significance of harmonic detection and high-frequency vibration analysis in predicting bearing health, offering a comprehensive approach to enhance machinery reliability. The study concludes with practical recommendations for bearing damage diagnosis based on the developed mathematical models, providing valuable insights for predictive maintenance strategies.

To address friction and wear challenges in dry contacts, manufacturers often employ self-lubricating materials. Graphite and its derivatives stand out as particularly suitable due to their exceptional tribological properties. However, under intense friction conditions, graphite can experience a decline in lubricating efficiency due to severe abrasive wear. This abrasive damage results in elevated activated carbon surfaces with increased surface energy, fostering greater adhesion between sliding surfaces. The low friction coefficient of graphite is not an inherent property but rather a consequence of water vapor adsorption by the material. Beyond 150°C, desorption of the vapor occurs, leading to a transition in the friction coefficient from µ=0.1 to µ=0.6. To address this issue, impregnation solutions for self-lubricating materials have been developed, with various compositions tailored to specific objectives. Common types include molybdenum disulfide, soft metals, or polymers. In this predominantly experimental study, the impact of polymer impregnation on the evolution of friction force and wear rate in graphite material bearings subjected to a dry fretting contact under severe thermal stresses at 270°C was investigated. Additionally, the mechanical stresses in the bearings throughout different phases of our tests were analyzed using a numerical model.

This research presents a novel Customised Load Adaptive Framework (CLAF) for fault classifica-tion in Induction Motors (IMs), utilizing the Machinery Fault Prevention Technology (MFPT) Bearing Dataset. CLAF represents a pioneering approach that extends traditional fault classification methodologies by accounting for load variations and dataset customization. Through a meticulous two-phase process, it unveils load-dependent fault subclasses that have not been readily identified in traditional approaches. Additionally, new classes are created to accommodate the dataset's unique characteristics. Phase 1 involves the exploration of load-dependent patterns in time and frequency domain features using one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) ranking and validation via bagged tree classifiers. In Phase 2, CLAF is applied to identify mild, moderate, and severe load-dependent fault subclasses through optimal Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) selection through Wavelet Singular Entropy (WSE) and CWT energy analysis. The results are compelling, with a 96.3% classification accuracy achieved when employing a wide neural network to classify proposed load-dependent fault subclasses. This underscores the practical value of CLAF in en-hancing fault diagnosis in IMs and its future potential in advancing IM condition monitoring.

Japanese plums form part of a multi-billion rand deciduous fruit industry in South Africa. Despite this, there is a paucity of knowledge on the seasonal water requirements of plum orchards. In a time of changing climatic conditions and diminishing water resources, this gap in literature poses an imminent threat to the long-term sustainability and global competitiveness of the South African plum industry. Therefore, this paper aimed to provide a review of the available literature on the crop water requirements of full-bearing well-irrigated Japanese plum orchards for improved agricultural water management. Full-year water requirements for well-watered full-bearing Japanese orchards ranged between 921 and 1 211 mm a-1 with a mean value of 1 084 ±140 mm a-1. Canopy growth and pruning appeared to be the most common causes of differences in water requirement estimates. Growing season length also plays a role with late-season maturing orchards having higher water requirements than their early and mid-maturing counterparts. The knowledge review provided benchmark figures for the annual water requirements of Japanese plums. However further research is required to determine the water requirement of plums from planting to full-bearing age and the response of plum trees to water stress, in a South African context.

In Ecuador, particularly in the El Oro province, gold mining has been historically hampered by arsenic contamination in the ores. This research addresses the persistent issue of arsenic in gold-bearing ores from Miraflores Mine in Cerro Azul, Atahualpa Canton, and the challenges it presents to mining operations. The study's purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of an alkaline leaching process for arsenic removal. The ore underwent thorough characterisation, employing advanced techniques like fire assay and atomic absorption. Once the ore's nature was discerned, an arsenic extraction experiment using a leaching solution was conducted. The implemented process achieved an arsenic removal efficiency of 90.54%. This enhanced ore quality facilitates efficient metallurgical applications and, more notably, reduces the environmental footprint by diminishing the need for harmful reagents like sodium cyanide. However, a significant implication of this method is the added cost due to the need for heat during the leaching test, amounting to an approximate $30 per ton increase. The alkaline leaching process emerges as a promising solution for arsenic challenges in El Oro’s mining sector. While the findings are encouraging, further expansive tests are recommended to validate the results and underscore the urgency for sustainable and hazard-conscious mining practices.

Condition monitoring is today a crucial and unavoidable practice related to the use of widespread mechanical components as rolling element bearings. Despite the diffusion of new data-driven techniques to analyze vibrational signals and detect the state of health of the system, mathematical tools, deriving more or less directly from the Fourier transform and defined either on the time or the frequency domain or on a combination of them (i.e. signal-based techniques), remain still essential and irreplaceable in the light of the deep and detailed information they provide. In this paper the diagnostic efficacy of an ample spectrum of these methods is investigated, applying them to study faults occurrence in the first bearing dataset released by NASA IMS Center. Thanks to their analytical definition, which is formulated taking into consideration to some extent the mathematical nature of the signal, faults signatures can be clearly identified and their temporal development can be fully traced, confirming their ability as powerful means to constantly monitor the state of a system even in real-time applications.

In the subcratonic mantle beneath Leningrad pipe, West Ukukit field, Yakutia garnet thermoba-rometry give division to 7 horizons (paleosubduction slabs). Cr-bearing amphiboles >500 reveal a broad range changing from Cr- pargasitic hornblendes to pargasites, edinites, kataforites, К-richterites with increasing pressure determined with new amphibole thermobarometer. Cr-hornblendes compiles the high-temperature branch from 3.5 GPa to Moho for basaltic melt. Amphiboles in the middle eddinites and high-pressure interval reveal different PT ranges from 35 to 40 mw/m2. Richterites near the lithosphere base both trace low –T and convective branches. The amphiboles reveal the 9 geochemical groups. The low-temperature varieties reveal Eu minima and U, Ba, Sr peaks high LILE, Sr, Rb and troughs in Nb, Pb. While high –T varieties have no Eu dips and reveal higher HFSE. Clinopyroxenes and garnets show variable trace ele-ment patterns and divisions in groups eth the plume and subduction signs. The contrasting be-haviour of Ta and Nb is regulated by the rutile partition coefficients likely for primary eclogites. Subduction and Na and K (siliceous) types of fluids percolated through the mantle with abun-dant eclogites causing amphibolization at the different levels of the mantle column. The plume melts produced hybridism and more smooth trace element patterns in reacted minerals, clino-pyroxene. monomineral thermobarometry.

Ensuring optimal performance and reliability in rotor-bearing systems is crucial for industrial applications. Imbalance and shaft bow in these systems can lead to decreased efficiency and increased vibrations. Early detection and mitigation of a rotor’s faults are essential, and model-based fault identification has gained much attention in the manufacturing industry for years. Over the past two decades, however, the development of fault diagnosis rules with data-driven and artificial intelligence (AI) has become a trend, and in the foreseeable future, AI combined with big data will become mainstream. Nevertheless, the critical role of rotating machinery in manufacturing introduces a challenge, as the availability of fault data is often insufficient. This limitation renders the establishment of diagnostic rules using data-driven methods and AI technologies impractical. In light of these challenges, this study proposes a novel hybrid approach, that combines a physical model with machine learning (ML) techniques for the diagnosis of multi-faults (imbalance and shaft-bow demonstrated) in a Jeffcott rotor. To overcome the lack of real-world faulted, labeled datasets, a physics-based Jeffcott rotor model is first derived and then used to generate abundant fault datasets for ML. Subsequently, simulated data are employed for the training of an artificial neural network (ANN), enabling the network to learn from and analyze the vast array of generated data. The results prove that a well-trained feed-forward neural network (FNN) can accurately isolate and diagnose the imbalance and shaft-bow faults using the simulated data and the real data from the Jeffcott rotor experiment. These physics-based and ML approaches prove effective particularly for multi-fault, offering new possibilities for advanced rotor system monitoring and maintenance strategies in industrial applications.

In the field of engineering, tracked vehicles play a significant role in accessing challenging terrains. Maintaining trafficability is of the utmost importance when it comes to tracked vehicles traversing rugged terrains; it provides stability, traction, and adaptability for a wide range of applications, including deep-sea exploration. The terrain characteristics pertain to the interactions that determine the mobility of tracked vehicles. Traditional Terramechanics models are in-adequate in depicting the correlation between tracks and soil. An important issue is the lack of consideration for the moisture content in the soil and the rate at which sinking occurs in these models. Examining sinkage speed helps describe the ability of tracked vehicles to move at high speeds. The focus is on the critical factors influencing the mobility of tracked vehicles, precisely the sinkage speed and its relationship with pressure. Experimental tests in a soil bin, utilizing Bentonite/Diatom sediment soil, aim to measure these terrain factors. The study introduces a rubber-tracked vehicle, pressure, and moisture sensors to monitor pressure sinkage and moisture, evaluating cohesive soils (Bentonite/Diatom) in combination with sand and gravel mixtures. Findings reveal that higher moisture content in Bentonite soil leads to increased track slippage and sinkage compared to Diatom soil. Regarding soil behavior, diatom soil exhibited notable compaction and sinkage characteristics in contrast to bentonite soil. The distinct behaviors of these soils underscore the complexity of terrains, emphasizing the need for a meticulous understanding of soil properties before applying them in natural environments. Furthermore, this study contributes precision in assessing natural terrains, enhancing tracked vehicle design, and advancing terrain mechanics comprehension for off-road exploration. This knowledge contributes to better vehicle design and a deeper comprehension of terrain mechanics.

Within this paper, electro-mechanical long-term tests on a thrust bearing are presented. The effects of an additional electrical load on the bearing raceways and the used lubricant are investigated. Chemical and rheological investigations are presented which show the changes in the lubricant. These investigations are compared with the electrical loads and the occurring raceway damage. In addition, a comparison is made with mechanical reference tests. This procedure makes it possible to classify the changes that occur due to the electrical load and to distinguish the effects from each other. The background to these investigations is the increased occurrence of parasitic currents in electric motors, which can lead to damage to machine elements. The phenomena that occur here are new challenges in the development of drive trains.

Bearings are widely used in various types of electrical machinery and equipment. As their core components, failures will often cause serious consequences . At present, most methods of parameter adjustment are still manual adjustment of parameters. This adjustment method is susceptible to prior knowledge and easy to fall into the local optimal solution, failing to obtain the global optimal solution and requires a lot of resources.Therefore, this paper proposes a new method of bearing fault diagnosis based on wavelet packet transform and convolutional neural network optimized by simulated annealing algorithm.The experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper has a more accurate effect in feature extraction and fault classification compared with traditional bearing fault diagnosis methods. At the same time, compared with the traditional artificial neural network parameter adjustment, this paper introduces the simulated annealing algorithm to automatically adjust the parameters of the neural network, thereby obtaining an adaptive bearing fault diagnosis method. To verify the effectiveness of the method, the Case Western Reserve University bearing database was used for testing, and the traditional intelligent bearing fault diagnosis method was compared. The results show that the method proposed in this paper has good results in bearing fault diagnosis. Provides a new way of thinking in the field of bearing fault diagnosis in parameter adjustment and fault classification algorithms

A general approach to substituted pyrrolidines via [3 + 2] 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between nonstabilized azomethine ylides and cyanosulfones was developed. The efficient method provides a series of substituted pyrrolidines bearing a quaternary carbon center in high yields (up to 98%) excellent diastereoselectivities (up to &gt;25:1 dr) under ambient reaction conditions.

In human body, carboxylesterases (CEs) play the crucial roles in xenobiotic metabolism and lipid homeostasis. But the abnormal CEs expression is highly associated with some diseases, such as hyperlipidemia, diabetes and liver cancer. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop an efficient tool for the accurate detection of CEs in living organisms. Herein, an innovative near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe TTAP−AB has been designed for CEs detection based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) mechanism. This probe exhibits rapid response (2 min), excellent sensitivity (limit of detection = 8.14×10−6 U/mL), and high selectivity towards CEs. Additionally, owing to the good biocompatibility, probe TTAP−AB enables to monitor the dynamic changes of CEs level under drug-induced modulation in living cells and zebrafish. More importantly, probe TTAP−AB is successfully employed to image the liver tumor and assist tumor resection by the real-time monitoring of CEs, indicating that TTAP−AB is promising to guide liver cancer surgery. Therefore, probe TTAP−AB can not only enrich the strategies for CEs detection in biological systems, but also has great potential for some clinical imaging applications, including medical diagnosis, preclinical research, and imaging-guided surgery.

Patients recovering from bone disruption due to trauma or surgery need to limit movement to minimize shear force, thereby protecting callus formation and osteogenesis. Patients often use their arms to assist with functional activities, but pushing is frequently limited to <10 lb (4.5 kg). With only verbal instructions, patients’ ability to accurately limit weight-bearing (WB) force is poor. A therapeutic intervention to improve patient adherence with upper extremity (UE) WB guidelines during functional mobility using an instrumented walker could be beneficial. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe a feedback training protocol to improve the ability to modulate weight-bearing force in older adults and then provide an overview of the efficacy of this protocol and subsequent development of a Clinical Force Measuring Walker. An instrumented walker was used to measure UE WB during functional mobility in older healthy subjects (n = 30) before, during, and after (immediately and 2 hours) a visual and auditory concurrent feedback training session. During feedback training, force was significantly reduced with all 3 sessions as compared to baseline. When using the front wheeled walker, UE WB force during the second and third feedback training trials went down compared to the first trial. During the third feedback training trial, force was greater than the two previous trials while transferring sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit. After completion of practice with feedback, UE WB force was significantly reduced and remained so 2 hours later. These findings suggest that feedback training is effective for helping patients to modulate UE WB. Use of an instrumented walker and feedback training would be beneficial in clinical practice, especially with older patients. A more intensive feedback training with additional trials and or simultaneous visual and auditory cues during whole-practice may be needed to get UE WB below a 10 lb threshold.

This article describes the study and digital implementation of a system onboard a TMS 3208F28335 ® DSP for vector control of the bearing motor speed with 4 poles split winding with 250W of power. Smart techniques: ANFIS and Neural Networks were investigated and computationally implemented to evaluate the bearing motor performance under the following conditions: operating as an estimator of uncertain parameters and as a speed controller. Therefore, the MATLAB program and its toolbox were used for the simulations and the parameter adjustments involving the structure ANFIS (Adaptive-Network-Based Fuzzy Inference System) and simulations with the Neural Network. The simulated results showed a good performance for the two techniques applied differently: the estimator and a speed controller using both a model of the induction motor operating as a bearing motor. The experimental part for velocity vector control uses three control loops: current, radial position, and speed, where the configurations of the peripherals, that is, the interfaces or drivers for driving the bearing motor.

Wear usually occurs in the loaded part of hydrodynamic bearings and leads the bearing geometry imperfections. This paper investigates the effects of wear-induced geometric imperfections of tilting pad journal bearings (TPJBs) on the dynamic behavior of the system. Furthermore, the effect of wear on the journal-bearing rub-induced contact pressure severity is investigated. A novel tribo-dynamic model is proposed for a flexible rotor-worn TPJB which integrates a mixed elastohydrodynamic model with a rotor-worn TPJB thermal and dynamic model to assess the effects of the bearing wear progression on the rotor-TPJB behavior. Based on the results, wear changes the temperature distribution of the pads and oil film as well as the dynamic behavior of the system. Dynamic simulations reveal a higher vibration level and contact pressure for the worn TPJBs near the system's critical speed and service speed. Finally, thermal and dynamic condition indicators are suggested to detect TPJB wear severity at its early stages.

In the subcratonic lithospheric mantle (SCLM) beneath Leningrad pipe (West Ukukit field), Yakutia garnet thermobarometry allows us to identify seven horizons (paleo subduction slab). Microprobe data for Cr-bearing amphiboles >500 grains from mantle xenoliths and concentrates reveal a broad range of compositions changing from Cr- pargasitic hornblendes to pargasites, edinites, kataforites, К-richterites with increasing pressure determined with new amphibole ther-mobarometer constructed by the first author The low pressure (LP) Cr-hornblendes and pargasites compiles the high-temperature branch (90-60 mw/m2) from 3.5 GPa to Moho traced by basaltic cumulates. In the middle part of SCLM edinites mark 35 to 40 mw/m2 geotherms. At high pres-sures kataforites also vary in thermal conditions. Richterites near the lithosphere base trace both low –and high temperature convective branches. The amphiboles reveal divisions into 9 chemical groups. The melts coexistion with amphiboles have concave patters typical for subduction related melts. LP varieties reveal Eu inflection U, Rb, Ba, Sr peaks and deep troughs in HFSE (except Zr), Pb. The pargasites show high U peaks and relativle less HFSE depressions. Encreasing in pressure for edinites, kataforites and richterise are accompanied byrise in U and Zr peak gentling of depressions in Th, Sr, Nb and Hf and less in Nb,Ta, Hf and peak in Zr and also decrease in LREE and REE. Clinopyroxenes and garnets show variable trace element patterns and divisions in groups with the plume and subduction signatures. The contrasting behaviour of Ta and Nb is regulated by the rutile partition coefficients likely for primary eclogites. Subduction and Na and K (siliceous) types of fluids percolated through the mantle with abundant eclogites possibly was accompanied by amphibolization at the different levels through all the mantle column. The plume melts produced hybridism with the mantle metasomatic assembleges which created more smooth trace element patterns in reacted minerals, clinopyroxene. The new version of monomineral amphibole thermobarometry is suggested

In this study we used a non-autonomous Chua’s Circuit, and the fractional Lorenz chaos system together with a detection method from Extension theory to analyze the voltage signals. The measured bearing signals by acceleration sensor were introduced into the master and slave systems through a Chua’s Circuit. In a chaotic system minor differences can cause significant changes that generate dynamic errors, and extension matter-element models can be used to judge the bearing conditions. Extension theory can be used to establish classical and sectional domains using the dynamic errors of the fault conditions. The results obtained were compared with those from Discrete Fourier Transform analysis, Wavelet analysis and an integer order chaos system. The diagnostic ratio showed the fractional order master and slave chaos system calculations. The results show that the method presented in this paper is very suitable for monitoring the operational state of ball bearing system to be superior to the other methods. The diagnosis ratio was better and there were other significant advantages such as low cost and few.

Background: Scientific literature on COVID-19 is still limited about long-term impacts on the all-body systems and they treatments. The aim of the study was to create a safe protocol-based in-tervention to improve functional and equilibrium abilities in older adults impacted by COVID-19. Methods: The study completed 46 people (intervention group: n=26; control group: n=20). Re-sistance training (RT) was held twice a week, 60 min per session for 8 weeks. The postural stability and quality of life questionnaire (WHQOOL) were conducted during pre- and post-testing. Results: Results indicated significant differences in overall stability index (OSI) with eyes open (EO), ante-rior-posterior stability index (APSI) EO, fall risk index 6-2 (FRI6-2) values in males (p

Evidence from large epidemiological studies has shown that obesity may predispose to increased Th2 inflammation and increase the odds of developing asthma. On the other hand, there is growing evidence suggesting that metabolic dysregulation that occurs with obesity, and more specifically hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, may modify immune cell function and in some degree systemic inflammation. Insulin resistance seldom occurs on its own, and in most cases constitutes a clinical component of metabolic syndrome, along with central obesity and dyslipidemia. Despite that, in some cases, hyperinsulinemia associated with insulin resistance has been proven a stronger risk factor than body mass in developing asthma. This finding has been supported by recent experimental studies showing that insulin resistance may contribute to airway remodeling, promotion of airway smooth muscle (ASM) contractility and proliferation, increase of airway hyper-responsiveness and release of pro-inflammatory mediators from adipose tissue. All these effects indicate the potential impact of hyperinsulinemia on airway structure and function, suggesting the presence of a specific asthma phenotype with insulin resistance. Epidemiologic studies have found that individuals with severe and uncontrolled asthma have a higher prevalence of glycemic dysfunction, whereas longitudinal studies have linked glycemic dysfunction to an increased risk of asthma exacerbations. Since the components of metabolic syndrome interact with one another so much, it is challenging to identify each one's specific role in asthma. This is why, over the last decade, additional studies have been conducted to determine whether treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus affects comorbid asthma as shown by the incidence of asthma, asthma control and asthma-related exacerbations. The purpose of this review is to present the mechanism of action, and existing preclinical and clinical data, regarding the effect of insulin resistance in asthma.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health issue worldwide that affects the world economy. The concern associated with this issue increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The misuse of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic will have catastrophic implications for the control of AMR. In 2019, the coronavirus illness COVID-19 first appeared in China. COVID-19 infection is a surface-to-surface communicable disease. It is considered the most vital global health disaster of the century. It has rapidly spread around the world and is the greatest challenge for humankind. This chapter discusses the origin, symptoms, transmission, treatment, and recommendations of the COVID-19 disease.

In sustainable agriculture, plant nutrients are the most important elements. Biofertilizers introduce microorganisms that improve the soil nutrients and increase their accessibility to crops. In order to meet the demands of a growing population, healthy crops need to be produced using the right type of fertilizers to provide them with all the major nutrients they require. However, an increasing dependency on chemical fertilizers is destroying the environment and negatively af-fecting the health of humans. Thus, using microbes as bioinoculants as the best replacement of chemical fertilizers as eco-friendly way for plant growth and soil fertility is believed to be the best method for improving plant growth and soil fertility. In sustainable agriculture, these microbes provide significant benefits to crops. In addition to colonizing plant systems (epiphytic, endo-phytic, and rhizospheric), beneficial microbes play a key role in absorbing nutrients from surrounding ecosystems. Plant associate microbes can promote plant growth regardless of natural and extreme conditions. Plant growth promoting microbes promote plant growth through a variety of direct and indirect methods, such as nitrogen fixation, plant growth hormone production, siderophores, HCN, several hydrolytic enzymes, and potassium, zinc, and phosphorus solubilization. Research on biofertilizers has been extensive and even available, which demonstrates how these microbes can deliver nutrients to crops in sufficient quantities to enhance their yield. This review examines in detail the direct and indirect mechanisms of PGPR action and their interaction in plant growth and resistance.

To identify soil microbial communities, it is essential to understand their phenotypic and genetic characteristics. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are bacteria capable of promoting plant growth. In addition, rhizobacteria also serve as biological control agents. In addition to fixing atmospheric nitrogen, solubilising insoluble phosphate and secreting hormones such as indoloacetic acid, kinetics and gibberellins, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria help plants grow directly. Furthermore, they facilitate plant growth indirectly by inducing systemic resistance, siderophores, antibiotics, lytic enzymes, hydrogen cyanide production and stress regulation. This review examines in detail the direct and indirect mechanisms of PGPR action and their interaction in plant growth and resistance.