Cell aging is associated with the increased production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) due to mitochondrial dysfunction, and various phytonutrients and estrogens have been shown to improve skin health. Thus, the aim of the current study was to examine damage to dermal fibroblasts by chemically-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and to study the mechanism of the protective effects of carotenoids, polyphenols, and estradiol. Rotenone, a Complex I inhibitor, caused mitochondrial dysfunction in human dermal fibroblasts, substantially reducing respiration and ATP levels, followed by increased mitochondrial and cytosolic ROS, which resulted in apoptotic cell death, increased matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) secretion, and decreased collagen secretion. Pre-treatment with carotenoid-rich tomato extracts, rosemary extract, and estradiol reversed these effects. These protective effects can be partially explained by a cooperative activation of antioxidant response element (ARE/Nrf2) transcriptional activity by the protective compounds and rotenone, which led to upregulation of antioxidant proteins such as NQO1. To determine if ARE/Nrf2 activity is crucial for cell protection, we inhibited it using the Nrf2 inhibitors ML385 and ochratoxin A. This inhibition markedly reduced the protective effects of the test compounds by diminishing their effect to reduce cytosolic ROS. Our study results indicate that phytonutrients and estradiol protect skin cells from damage caused by mitochondria-generated ROS and, thus, may delay skin aging and improve skin health.

This article is a big picture of how electrical noise or conducted Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is generated and mitigated in power converters. It gives an overview of what EMI in power converters is – from generation through to conduction and mitigation. It is meant to cover the complete subject as a summary so that the reader will have an outline of how to control conducted EMI by design (where possible) and how to mitigate by filtering. A clear distinction is made between Differential Mode (DM) and Common Mode (CM) EMI generation and mitigation. By using a boost converter as an example the trade-offs for DM noise control are discussed. It is shown how CM EMI is generated in a boost converter using the concept of the “Imbalance Difference Model” (IDM). Practical measurements for an in-line power filter is given showing the effect of the filter on the total EMI of a boost converter. Measurements for the CM current produced due to the imbalance difference for different values of the boost conductor are also shown. The main contribution of this study is linking CM noise generation to DM EMI. It is shown that CM noise is a direct consequence of DM noise (although circuit imbalance and coupling to a common ground also play a role). This paper will be useful to designers seeking the “bigger picture” of how EMI is generated in power converters and what can be done to mitigate the noise.

Nutrition therapy is the best solution to human chronic diseases, especially beer and barley which play an important role in human health and civilization. We demonstrated the actional mechanism of functional ingredients in beer and barley to combat chronic diseases, based on PubMed, google, CNKI, and ISI Web of Science databases from 1997 to 2024. Beer is rich in functional ingredients that is a complex of barley malt and hops; the health effect of beer against 26 chronic diseases is highly similar to that of barley, due to molecular mechanism of polyphenols (phenolic acids, flavonoids), melatonin, minerals, bitter acids, vitamins, and peptides. The ancient German Beer Purity Law provides much scientific basis today, especially indirectly supporting the human one cell disease theory. Low purine beer can be produced by enzymatic and biological degradation and adsorption of purines as well as dandelion addition. Functional beer with low purine and high active ingredients made from Beer Purity and barley malt as well as functional foods addition will be the key and important development direction, such as ginger beer and ginseng beer, especially coix-lily beer at the ancestors ca. 9000 years ago. This review paper not only reveals the actional mechanism of beer overcoming human chronic diseases, but also provides scientific basis for the development of functional beer for the prevention and treatment of human chronic diseases.

This study outlines the development of an innovative method utilizing UHPLC-PDA for the simultaneous identification of polyphenols and bitter acids (alpha-acids, beta-acids, and iso-alpha-acids) in beer samples. The resulting chemical profiles were leveraged to distinguish the characteristics of four bergamot-flavored beers, each representing distinct styles (IPA, Lager, Blanche, and ALE), produced on a pilot-scale plant. In a streamlined 29-minute analysis, twenty-nine polyphenols and fourteen bitter acids were successfully identified under optimized separation conditions. Rigorous validation, encompassing parameters such as Limit of Detection (LOD), Limit of Quantification (LOQ), R-squared (R2), repeatability, and reproducibility, was conducted for polyphenol quantification using constructed calibration curves with seven levels. Exploring polyphenolic components as potential discriminators among different beer styles, a total of thirty-two polyphenolic compounds were identified and quantified, including characteristic bergamot peel polyphenols like neoeriocitrin, naringin, and neohesperidin. The determination of bitter units and total phenols further aided in style differentiation. Multivariate analysis provided additional insights into variations among specific beer styles, revealing discrepancies in the presence or relative concentrations of specific compounds linked to brewing ingredients and processes. This research enhances to trace the fingerprinting of the chemistry governing beer quality through a straightforward and cost-effective analytical approach, readily applicable in common laboratories.

The global craft beer market is witnessing substantial growth, with a particular spotlight on sour beers. These unique brews are created through lactic fermentation initiated by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). However, the presence of hops, renowned for their antimicrobial properties, can pose a limitation within the realm of sour beer production. This research aims to explore and assess the potential of sour beer as a probiotic beverage. It involves a comparative analysis of the viability of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei F19 (F19) and 431 (L431) in a sour beer with an International Bitterness Unit (IBU) value of 26.65, alongside examining the ex-pression of genes such as horA, horB, horC, hitA, bsrA, and recA, which are associated with hop resistance. The study encompasses the development of two formulations of sour beers characterized by both high hop content and a robust probiotic count (8.44 – 8.77 log CFU/mL). The findings suggest that both probiotic strains of F19 and L431, are well-suited to produce sour beers with elevated hop levels, demonstrating excellent stability. Notably, the expression of genes responsible for hops resistance exhibited distinct modulation patterns among the two strains. It appears that a higher concentration of bsrA, as observed in strain L431, may be more effective in mitigating the effects of hop-related stress, potentially surpassing the combined expression of horA and bsrA. Nonetheless, further research is essential to validate this observation in gene expression. F19 and L431 emerge as promising candidates for the development of sour beers with increased hop intensity.

In our study, we assessed the effects of verbenone, the most widely studied bark beetle aggregation inhibitor, on saproxylic beetles of a Mediterranean pine forest in Tuscany. Verbenone pouches were devised in the laboratory and then applied to Ips sexdentatus pheromone traps so that catches could be compared to those of traps with just the bait. The trial was carried out in spring-summer 2023, collecting insect catches every two weeks. A total of 9440 beetles were collected, belonging to 32 different families and 57 species. About 80% of captures were bark beetles, mainly Orthotomicus erosus. Beetle predators accounted for about 17% of the captures, with a total of 12 species. Some of these predator species had never been studied yet in relation to verbenone effects, like other saproxylic beetles recorded in this study. A significant reduction of captures was recorded for some beetles (e.g. I. sexdentatus and O. erosus), for other species no differences emerged, and in some cases captures increased significantly when verbenone was present in the traps (i.e.. Hylurgus ligniperda, Corticeus pini, Aulonium ruficorne). The diversity of caught saproxylic beetles increased significantly in verbenone traps, highlighting possible implications of the use of verbenone when managing bark beetle outbreaks.

The stability properties of the Hill equation are discussed, and especially those of the Mathieu equation that characterize ion motion in electrodynamic traps. The solutions of the Mathieu equation for a trapped ion are characterized by using the Floquet theory and Hill's Method solution, which yields an infinite system of linear and homogeneous equations whose coefficients are recursively determined. Stability is discussed for parameters $a$ and $q$ that are real. Characteristic curves are introduced naturally by the Sturm-Liouville problem for the well known even and odd Mathieu equations $ce_m(z,q)$ and $se_m(z,q)$. We illustrate the stability diagram for a combined (Paul and Penning) trap and represent the frontiers of the stability domains for axial and radial motion. In case of a Paul trap the stable solution corresponds to a superposition of harmonic motions. The problem of evaluating the maximum amplitudes of stable oscillations for the ideal conditions (taken into consideration) is also approached. Anharmonic corrections are discussed within the frame of the perturbation theory, while the frontiers of the modified stability domains are determined as a function of the chosen perturbation parameter. The results apply to 2D and 3D ion traps used for different applications in quantum engineering, among which optical clocks, quantum logic and quantum metrology, but not restricted only to these.

In this study, a critical review was carried out using the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection database to analyse the scientific literature published to date to identify lines of research and future perspectives on the presence of chemical pollutants in beer brewing. Beer is one of the world's most popular drinks and the most consumed alcoholic beverage. However, a widespread challenge with potential implications for human and animal health is the presence of physical, chemical and/or microbiological contaminants in beer. Biogenic amines, heavy metals, mycotoxins, nitrosamines, pesticides, acrylamide, phthalates, bisphenols, microplastics and, to a lesser extent, hydrocarbons (aliphatic chlorinated and polycyclic aromatic), carbonyls, furan-derivatives, polychlorinated biphenyls and trihalomethanes are the main chemical pollutants found during the beer brewing process. Pollution sources include raw materials, technological process steps, the brewery environment and packaging materials. Different chemical pollutants have been found during the beer brewing process, from barley to beer. Brewing steps such as steeping, kilning, mashing, boiling, fermentation and clarification are critical in reducing the levels of many of these pollutants. As a result, their residual levels are usually below the maximum levels allowed by international regulations.

Several studies in recent years have shown that the use of non-Saccharomyces yeasts, used both in single and in mixed fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae can help produce craft beers with distinctive compositional characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of three Metschnikowia pulcherrima strains, isolated from Albanian vineyards, to be used as starters in the brewing process. Due to its specific enzymatic activities (protease, β-glucosidase and β-lyase) and its low production of hydrogen sulfide, M. pulcherrima 62 was selected as a starter culture for the production of craft beer. Specifically, the aptitude of this yeast to be used in sequential inoculation with S. cerevisiae S04 for the production of an American IPA-style beer and the main volatile compounds produced during fermentation were evaluated. Results showed significant differences in glycerol, isoamyl alcohol and isoamyl acetate content in beer obtained with sequential inoculum of M. pulcherrima 62 with S. cerevisiae S04 compared to beer obtained using S. cerevisiae S04 as a single starter. Therefore, these preliminary data support a candidacy of M. pulcherrima 62 as a new starter in the brewing process.

Background: The genetic variants identified by three large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment were used to test a polygenic selection model. Methods: Average frequencies of alleles with positive effect (polygenic scores or PS) were compared across populations (N=26) using data from 1000 Genomes. A null model was created using frequencies of random SNPs. Results: Polygenic selection signal of educational attainment GWAS hits is high among a handful of SNPs within genomic regions replicated across GWAS publications. A polygenic score comprising 9 SNPs predicts population IQ (r=0.88), outperforming 99% of the polygenic scores obtained from sets of random SNPs (Monte Carlo p= 0.011). Its predictive power remains unaffected after controlling for spatial autocorrelation (Beta= 0.83). The largest polygenic score (161 SNPs) exhibits similar predictive power (Beta=0.8). Random polygenic scores are moderate predictors of population IQ (thanks to spatial autocorrelation), and their predictive power increases logarithmically with the number of SNPs, indicating an exponential reduction in noise. Conclusion: This study provides guidance for using GWAS hits together with random SNPs for testing polygenic selection using Monte Carlo simulations.

Spatial light modulators (SLMs) have been widely used to achieve dynamic control of optical traps. Often, holographic optical tweezers have been presumed to provide nanometer or sub-nanometer positioning accuracy. It is known that some features concerning the digitalized structure of SLMs cause a loss in steering efficiency of the optical trap, but their effect on trap positioning accuracy has been scarcely analyzed. On the one hand, the SLM look-up-table, which we found to depend on laser power, produces positioning deviations when the trap is moved at the micron scale. On the other hand, phase quantization, which makes linear phase gratings become phase staircase profiles, leads to unexpected local errors in the steering angle. We have tracked optically-trapped microspheres with sub-nanometer accuracy to study the effects on trap positioning, which can be as high as 2 nm in certain cases. We have also implemented a correction strategy that enabled the reduction of errors down to 0.3 nm.

A study analyzed financial statements in the beer sectors of Italy and Spain during 2019-2021 using compositional data analysis (CoDa) to gauge pre- and post-pandemic financial health and aid sector-level decision-making. Geometric averages were employed to mitigate statistical issues, offering more accurate insights than arithmetic averages. The exploratory, quantitative methodology calculated key financial ratios and profitability metrics. Results indicated satisfactory short-term solvency. Returns and margins remained subpar despite pandemic policies. Geometric averages proved essential in portraying sector health accurately, underscoring the need for their use in classic brewing sector ratios. The study also showcased CoDa's efficacy in diagnosing sectoral financial health for informed decision-making. Furthermore, a web analysis revealed varying transparency levels in communicating non-financial indicators, with Spain excelling in waste, water, and energy disclosures, while Italy prioritized energy and waste with less transparency.

Recycling waste products is an environmental-friendly activity that can bring benefits to accompany, saving manufacturing costs and improving economic efficiency. For the beer industry, recycling bottles can reduce manufacturing costs and reduce the industry's carbon footprint. This paper presents a model for a multi-objective collection-distribution center location and allocation problem in a closed loop supply chain for the beer industry, in which the objective is to minimize total costs and transportation pollution. Uncertainties in the form of randomness and fuzziness are jointly handled in this paper to ensure a more practical problem solution, for which returned bottle sand unusable bottles are considered fuzzy random variables. A heuristic algorithm based on priority-based global-local-neighbor particle swarm optimization (pb-glnPSO) is applied to ensure reliable solutions for this NP-hard problem. A case study on a beer operation company is conducted to illustrate the application of the proposed model and demonstrate the priority-based global-local-neighbor particle swarm optimization.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a highly heterogeneous and the most common form of head and neck cancer, posing significant challenges for disease management. Single-cell RNA sequencing (sc-RNAseq) has emerged as a valuable tool for addressing these challenges by enabling detailed characterization of the tumor microenvironment (TME) at the cellular level. This review assesses the utility of sc-RNAseq in HNSCC research, compiling current strategies employing single-cell technologies. For HNSCC etiology, sc-RNAseq allows for the construction of cellular atlases, characterization of different cell types, and investigation of key genes and processes involved in cancer initiation, development, and progression within the TME. In terms of HNSCC diagnosis and prognosis, the high resolution offered by sc-RNAseq enables the identification of cell type-specific signatures, enhancing prognostic models and disease stratifiers for more accurate patient outcome assessments. Regarding HNSCC treatment, sc-RNAseq provides insights into cellular responses to various treatments, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, contributing to improved patient stratification and personalized treatment strategies. This review highlights the unique contributions of sc-RNAseq to HNSCC research, addressing its cellular and biological complexity, and emphasizes its potential for advancing research and clinical practice in other cancer types.

The article reports morphotectonic and petrological characteristics of magmatic systems of Permo-Triassic traps in the sedimentary cover of the Siberian Craton, Taimyr, as well as in the crystalline basement of the Mesozoic cover of the West Siberian Plate and the Kara sedimentary basin based on the relief analysis, seismotomography data, magnetic and gravitational anomalies. Four development sectors of magma-permeable zones were distinguished along the perimeter of the craton of the Anabar Shield. The western sector is characterized by an extensive stretching area, on which the lava region of volcanic ridges junction of the Tunguska syncline formed. A striking feature of subaerial volcanism is the meridional petrochemical trend of increasing the silica of basic magmas in intrusive rocks of the Siberian Craton while the volumes of embedded melts are reduced.

Appropriate vaccine selection is crucial in the control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Vaccination can prevent clinical disease and reduces viral shedding, but there is a lack of cross-protection between the seven serotypes and their sublineages, making the selection of an adequately protective vaccine difficult. Since the exact composition of their vaccines is not consistently disclosed by all manufacturers, incompatibility of the strains used for vaccination with regionally circulating strains can cause vaccination campaigns to fail. Here, we present a deep sequencing approach for polyvalent inactivated FMD vaccines that can identify all component strains by their genome sequences. The genomes of all strains of a commercial pentavalent FMD vaccine were de-novo assembled and the vaccine composition determined semi-quantitatively. The genome assembly required high stringency parameters to prevent misassemblies caused by conserved regions of the genome shared by related strains. In contrast, reference-guided assembly is only recommended in cases where the number of strains is previously known and appropriate reference sequences are available. The presented approach can be applied not only to any inactivated whole-virus FMD vaccine, but also to vaccine quality testing in general and allows for better decision-making for vaccines with unknown composition.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, which is characterized by the appearance of vesicles in and around the mouth and feet of cloven-hoofed animals. BHK21 cells are the cell line of choice for the propagation of FMDV for vaccine production world-wide but vary in their susceptibility for different FMDV strains. Previous studies showed that the FMDV resistance of a certain BHK cell line can be overcome by using a closely related but permissive cell line for the pre-adaptation of the virus, but the adapted strains were found to harbor several capsid mutations. In this study, these adaptive mutations were introduced into the original Asia-1 Shamir isolate individually or in combination to create a panel of 17 Asia-1 mutants by reverse genetics and examine the effects of the mutations on receptor usage, viral growth, immunogenicity and stability. A single amino acid exchange from glutamic acid to lysine at position 202 in VP1 turned out to be of major importance for productive infection of the suspension cell line BHK-2P. In consequence, two traditionally passage-derived strains and two recombinant viruses with a minimum set of mutations were tested in vivo. While the passaged-derived viruses showed a reduced particle stability, the genetically modified viruses were more stable but did not confer a protective immune response against the original virus isolate.

Along with the familiar Rossby–Haurwitz waves, two-dimensional flows on the surface of a rotating sphere in the regime of zonostrophic turbulence harbour another class of waves known as zonons. Zonons are wave packets produced by energetic large-scale Rossby–Haurwitz wave modes `enslaving’ other wave modes. They propagate westward with the phase speed of the enslaving modes. Zonons can be visualized as enslaving modes’ `ringing’ in the enslaved ones with the frequencies of the former, the property that renders zonons non-dispersive. Zonons reside in high-shear regions confined between the opposing zonal jets yet they are mainly attached to westward jets and sustained by the ensuing barotropic instability. They exchange energy with the mean flow while preserving their identity in a fully turbulent environment, a feature characteristic of solitary waves. The goal of this study is to deepen our understanding of zonons’ physics using direct numerical simulations, a weakly non-linear theory, and asymptotic analysis, and ascertain that zonons are indeed isomorphic to solitary waves in the Korteweg - de Vries framework. Having this isomorphism established, the analysis is extended to eddies detected in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn based upon the observed mean zonal velocity profiles and earlier findings that circulations on both planets obey the regime of zonostrophic macroturbulence. Not only the analysis confirms that many eddies and eddy trains on both giant planets indeed possess properties of zonons, but the theory also correctly predicts latitudinal bands that confine zonal trajectories of the eddies.

The genetic variants identified by three large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment were used to test a polygenic selection model. Average frequencies of alleles with positive effect (polygenic scores or PS) were compared across populations (N=26) using data from 1000 Genomes. The PS of 161 GWAS significant SNPs in a recent meta-analysis was highly correlated to population IQ (r=0.863) and to the polygenic score of four alleles independently associated with general cognitive ability. High correlations with PISA scores for a subsample were observed.SNP p value predicted correlation to population IQ and factors from the two previous GWAS (r= -.25). Factor analysis produced similar estimates of selection pressure for educational attainment across the three datasets. Polygenic and factor scores computed using the top 20 significant SNPs showed very high correlation to population IQ (r=0.88; 0.9). Similar findings were obtained using 52 populations from another database (ALFRED). The results together constitute a replication of preliminary findings and provide strong evidence for recent diversifying polygenic selection on educational attainment and underlying cognitive ability.

Creating new business models is crucial for the implementation of clean technologies for industrial decarbonization. With incomplete knowledge of market processes and uncertain conditions, assessing the prospects of a technology-based business model is challenging. This study combines business model innovation, system dynamics and exploratory model analysis to identify new business opportunities in a context of socio-technical transition and assess their prospects through simulation experiments. Furthermore, insights are visualized in a roadmap to coordinate action among the actors involved. This combination of methods is applied to the case of a business model aiming at ensuring stability of the electrical grid by centralizing the management of flexible loads in industrial companies. A system dynamics model was set up to simulate the diffusion of flexible electrification technologies. Through scenario definition and sensitivity analysis, the influence of internal and external factors on diffusion was assessed. Results highlight the central role of energy costs and customer perception. The chosen combination of methods allowed the formulation of concrete recommendation for coordinated action, explicitly accounting for the various sources of uncertainty. We suggest testing this approach in further business model innovation contexts.

Creating new business models is crucial for the implementation of clean technologies for industrial decarbonization. With incomplete knowledge of market processes and uncertain conditions, assessing the prospects of a technology-based business model is challenging. This study combines business model innovation, system dynamics and exploratory model analysis to identify new business opportunities in a context of socio-technical transition and assess their prospects through simulation experiments. Furthermore, insights are visualized in a roadmap to coordinate action among the actors involved. This combination of methods is applied to the case of a business model aiming at ensuring stability of the electrical grid by centralizing the management of flexible loads in industrial companies. A system dynamics model was set up to simulate the diffusion of flexible electrification technologies. Through scenario definition and sensitivity analysis, the influence of internal and external factors on diffusion was assessed. Results highlight the central role of energy costs and customer perception. The chosen combination of methods allowed the formulation of concrete recommendation for coordinated action, explicitly accounting for the various sources of uncertainty. We suggest testing this approach in further business model innovation contexts.

In the global fight against malaria, standard vector control methods such as indoor residual spraying (IRS) and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) are intended to protect inside residential structures and sleeping spaces. However, these methods can still leave individuals vulnerable to residual transmission from vectors that they may be exposed to outdoors. Nchelenge District in northern Zambia experiences high persistent malaria transmission even with ITNs and IRS in place. However, very few studies have examined outdoor vector activity. To assess diversity and abundance of outdoor foraging female anopheline mosquitoes, CDC light traps were used as proxy measures for mosquito host-seeking, set in three outdoor trapping schemes randomly assigned on different nights: 1) locations where people congregate at night outside of the house within the peri-domestic space, 2) animal pens or shelters, and 3) high human-trafficked areas, such as paths to latrines, where traps were baited with BG-Lure®. 1,087 total female anophelines were collected over a total of 74 trap nights. Anopheles funestus s.s. comprised the majority of the collection (86%), with An. gambiae s.s. (2%) and a highly diverse sampling of other anophelines (12%) making up the remainder. Plasmodium falciparum parasites were only detected in An. funestus (1%). No significant difference in species diversity or female anopheline abundance was detected between trapping schemes. Outdoor foraging anopheline mosquitoes, including a number of infectious An. funestus, may partially explain the difficulty of controlling malaria transmission in Nchelenge District where vector control is only targeted indoors. BG-Lure® shows some promise as an alternative to human-baited landing catch collections in this resource-poor setting.

People often say that beer tastes better from a bottle than from a can. However, one can ask whether this perceived difference is reliable across consumers; And, if so, whether it is purely a psychological phenomenon (associated with the influence of packaging on taste perception), or whether instead it reflects some more mundane physico-chemical interaction between the packaging material (or packing procedure/process) and the contents. We conducted two experiments in order to address these important questions. In the main experiment, 151 participants at the 2016 Edinburgh Science Festival were served a beer in a plastic cup. The beer was either poured from a bottle or can (i.e., a between-participants experimental design was used) and the participants were encouraged to pick up the packaging in order to inspect the label before tasting the beer. The participants rated the perceived taste, quality, and freshness of the beer, as well as their likelihood of purchase, and their estimate of the price. All of the beer came from the same batch (from Barney’s Brewery in Edinburgh). Nevertheless, those who evaluated the bottled beer rated it as tasting better than those who rated the beer that had been served from a can. Having demonstrated such a perceptual difference in terms of taste, we then went on to investigate whether people would prefer one packaging format over the other when the beer from bottle and can was served to a new group of participants blind (i.e., when the participants did not know the packaging material). The participants in this control study (N = 29) were asked which beer they preferred or else could state that the two samples tasted the same. No sign of preference was obtained under such conditions. Explanations for the psychological impact of the packaging format, in terms of differences in packaging weight (between tin and glass), and/or prior associations of quality with specific packaging materials/formats (what some have chosen to call ‘image molds’) are discussed.

We firstly discuss classical stability for a dynamical system of two ions levitated in a 3D Radio-Frequency (RF) trap, assimilated with two coupled oscillators. We obtain the solutions of the coupled system of equations that characterizes the associated dynamics. In addition, we supply the modes of oscillation and demonstrate the weak coupling condition is inappropriate in practice, while for collective modes of motion (and strong coupling) only a peak of the mass can be detected. Phase portraits and power spectra are employed to illustrate how the trajectory executes quasiperiodic motion on the surface of torus, namely a Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) torus. In an attempt to better describe dynamical stability of the system, we introduce a model that characterizes dynamical stability and the critical points based on the Hessian matrix approach. The model is then applied to investigate quantum dynamics for many-body systems consisting of identical ions, levitated in 2D and 3D ion traps. Finally, the same model is applied to the case of a combined 3D Quadrupole Ion Trap (QIT) with axial symmetry, for which we obtain the associated Hamilton function. The ion distribution can be described by means of numerical modeling, based on the Hamilton function we assign to the system. The approach we introduce is effective to infer the parameters of distinct types of traps by applying a unitary and coherent method, and especially for identifying equilibrium configurations, of large interest for ion crystals or quantum logic.

Beer fermentation is typically monitored by periodic sampling and off-line analysis. In-line sensors would remove the need for time-consuming manual operation and provide real-time evaluation of the fermenting media. This work uses a low-cost ultrasonic sensor combined with machine learning to predict the alcohol concentration during beer fermentation. The highest accuracy model (R2=0.952, MAE=0.265, MSE=0.136) used a transmission-based ultrasonic sensing technique along with the measured temperature. However, the second most accurate model (R2=0.948, MAE=0.283, MSE=0.146) used a reflection-based technique without the temperature. Both the reflection-based technique and the omission of the temperature data are novel to this research and demonstrate the potential for a non-invasive sensor to monitor beer fermentation.

Infant mortality remains a major global concern. Sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) is reported globally and in the Western Cape of South Africa it accounted for 40% of all infant deaths between 2012 and 2016. Research highlighting molecular typing of respiratory viruses in SUDI cases is lacking. A total of 116 PCR-positive human rhinovirus (HRV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) swab samples collected from the lungs and trachea of SUDI cases admitted to Tygerberg Medico-legal Mortuary in Cape Town between 2015 and 2019 were included and underwent sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Three distinct HRV species were identified; HRV-A (n=28), HRV-C (n=11), and HRV-B (n=4), including eight HRV-A, seven HRV-C and one HRV-B genotypes. For RSV, both RSV-A (n=5) and -B (n=5) were detected, but no RSV-A. After amino acid alignment indicating 20 amino acid duplication and nine substitutions, two BA9 genotypes were confirmed. This study describes the first molecular and phylogenetic characterisation of respiratory viruses in SUDI cases in South Africa. The rapid decline in viral viability in post-mortem samples and the retrospective study design employed for the current study did not allow for any correlations between viral genotypes and cause of death and future prospective studies should investigate temporality and specific viral strains associated with clinical disease severity.

The increasing demand for craft beer drives the search for novel ale yeast cultures from brew-ing-related wild environments. The focus of bioprospecting for craft cultures is to identify feral yeasts suitable to imprint unique sensorial attributes to the final product. Here, we integrated phylogenetic, genotypic, genetic, and metabolomic techniques to demonstrate that sour beer during aging in wooden barrel is a source of suitable craft ale yeast candidates. Differently from traditional lambic beer maturation phase, during aging of sour-matured production style beer, different biotypes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae dominated the cultivable in-house mycobiota, fol-lowed by Pichia membranifaciens, Brettanomyces bruxellensis, and Brettanomyces anomalus. In addi-tion, three putative S. cerevisiae x Saccharomyces uvarum hybrids were identified. S. cerevisiae feral strains sporulated, produced viable monosporic progenies, and have STA1 gene as well as the full-length promoter. During hopped wort fermentation four S. cerevisiae strains and the S. cere-visiae x S. uvarum hybrid WY213 overcame non-Saccharomyces strains in fermentative rate and ethanol production, except for P. membranifaciens WY122. This strain consumed maltose after a long lag phase, in contrast with the phenotypic profile descripted for the species. According to STA1+ genotype S. cerevisiae partially consumed dextrin, but no 4-vynil guaiacol was detected among VOCs, suggesting that these strains were phenolic off flavor-negative (POF-). In conclu-sion, the strains characterized here have relevant brewing properties and are exploitable as in-digenous craft beer starters.

Introduction People are presenting with chronic musculoskeletal pain at a younger age, and many fulfil criteria for fibromyalgia. We have recently shown a strong association between fibromyalgia symptoms and autistic traits in a self-selected community population, with the relationship mediated in part by the presence of hypermobility. Many respondents also described food sensitivities and intolerances. This study explores relationships between food issues and fibromyalgia symptoms in this population Methods The study used a nonexperimental, correlational design with data collected from a volunteer sample of 442 adults (aged 18-60) who completed online self-report questionnaires assessing each of fibromyalgia symptoms (ACR criteria), autistic traits (RAADS score) and hypermobility (Beighton’s test). Subjects were also asked to record any food sensitivities, allergies, or intolerances, along with their consequences. Correlation analyses and linear regressions were used to test the relationships between these features and each of fibromyalgia, autistic traits and hypermobility. Data was analysed using parametric and non-parametric techniques to assess the strength and significance of relationships, causes of variance and the potential mediating effect of food-related symptoms in the correlation between fibromyalgia features and autistic traits Results Our self-selected community population had a mean age of 24 years and was 77% female. The prevalence of fibromyalgia, autistic traits and hypermobility was 40%, 65% and 44% respectively. Half of all subjects reported food sensitivity and 31% reported food intolerance. The incidence of food-related symptoms was higher among subjects who met criteria for fibromyalgia than those who reported autistic traits or hypermobility. Food sensitivity and food intolerance were both more significantly associated with fibromyalgia (r=0.24, p>0.001 and r=0.38, p>0.001) than with autistic traits (r=0.15, p>0.01 and r=0.17, p>0.01). Discussion This is the first community study to provide evidence for a direct association between features of fibromyalgia and reported food intolerance and sensitivity. Although self-selected, the findings in our predominantly young population suggest that gluten and lactose consumption may be associated with higher levels of musculoskeletal pain. Avoidance of these foodstuffs was commonly reported to reduce symptoms. Dietary adjustment may merit further investigation as a therapeutic modality for some patients with fibromyalgia.

Aberrant neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation and the loss of barrier integrity in inflamed intestinal tissues have long been associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, whether NETs alter intestinal epithelium permeability during colitis remains elusive. Here, we demonstrated that NETs promote the breakdown in intestinal barrier function for the pathogenesis of intestinal inflammation in mouse models of colitis. NETs were abundant in the colon of mice with colitis experimentally induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) or 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Analysis of the intestinal barrier integrity revealed that NETs impaired gut permeability, enabling the initiation of luminal bacterial translocation and inflammation. Furthermore, NETs induced the apoptosis of epithelial cells and disrupted the integrity of tight junctions and adherens junctions. Intravenous administration of DNase I, an enzyme that dissolves the web-like DNA filaments of NETs, during colitis restored the mucosal barrier integrity which reduced the dissemination of luminal bacteria, and attenuated intestinal inflammation in both DSS and TNBS models. We conclude that NETs serve a detrimental factor in the gut epithelial barrier function leading to the pathogenesis of mucosal inflammation during acute colitis.

We tested the use of mosquito traps as an alternative to insecticide spraying in Camargue (France) following the significant impacts observed on the non-target fauna through Bti persistence and trophic perturbations. In a village of 600 inhabitants, 16 Techno-Bam traps emitting CO₂ and using octenol lures were set from April to November 2016. Trap performance was estimated at 70% overall based on mosquito landing on human baits in areas with and without traps. Reduction of Ochlerotatus caspius and Oc. detritus, the two species targeted by Bti spraying, was respectively 74 and 98%. Traps were less efficient against Anopheles hyrcanus (46%), which was more attracted by lactic-acid than octenol lures based on previous tests. Nearly 300 000 mosquitoes from nine species were captured, with large variations among traps, emphasizing that trap performance is also influenced by surrounding factors. Environmental impact, based on the proportion of non-target insects captured, was mostly limited to small chironomids attracted by street lights. Breeding success of a house martin colony was not significantly affected by trap use, in contrast to Bti spraying. Our experiment confirms that deployment of mosquito traps can offer a cost-effective alternative to Bti spraying for protecting local populations from mosquito nuisance in sensitive natural areas.

Poor therapeutic outcomes have been attributed to inter-individual and interethnic variability in cytochrome P450 (CYP450)-dependent metabolism and altered drug retention associated with P-glycoprotein (P-gp). An individualized pharmacotherapeutic approach would benefit the genetically diverse South African population. The study aim was to develop a validated, targeted, analytical method to quantify seven probe drugs and their metabolites in dried blood spots (DBS) using the Mitra™ volumetric absorptive micro-sampling device for blood collection. An Agilent liquid chromatography (LC) system coupled to a Sciex 4000 QTRAP tandem mass spectrometer (MS) was used for method optimization and validation. Targeted LC-MS/MS methods were validated according to ICH guidelines. The validated LC-MS/MS method met the required bioanalytical standards for specificity, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, carry-over, and stability. This study successfully validated the use of DBS, collected with the Mitra™ microsampling device, to measure expected probe drug and metabolite concentrations using the “Geneva phenotyping cocktail” for the purpose of simultaneous phenotyping of in vivo CYP450 metabolic activity of the CYP1A2, -2B6, -2C9, -2C19, -2D6, and -3A4 enzymes, and P-gp transport activity. However, statistical analysis using Bland-Altman plots showed that not all analytes exhibited linear distribution pharmacokinetics between DBS and plasma, which influenced the predicted vs real plasma concentrations based on measurements in a DBS matrix. These findings were attributed to the blood-to-plasma concentration ratio, the physicochemical properties and stability of the analytes, and the extraction efficiency of the Mitra™ sampler. More research is required before DBS sampling can be substituted for conventional plasma sampling

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, drones) are not just a technological achievement based on modern ideas of artificial intelligence; they also provide a sustainable solution for green technologies in logistics, transport and material handling. In particular, using battery-powered UAVs to transport products can significantly decrease energy and fuel expenses, reduce environmental pollution, and improve the efficiency of clean technologies through improved energy-saving efficiency. We consider the problem of maximizing the average environmental benefit of a fleet of drones given a periodic schedule of tasks performed by the fleet of vehicles. To solve the problem efficiently, we formulate it as an optimization problem on an infinite periodic graph and reduce it to a special type of parametric assignment problem. We exactly solve the problem under consideration in O(n³) time, where n is the number of tasks performed by vehicles.

Neutrophils are the principal trouper of innate immune system. Activated neutrophils undergo a noble cell death termed NETosis and release a mesh-like structure called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) as a part of their defensive strategy against microbial pathogen attack. This web-like architecture includes a DNA backbone embedded with antimicrobial proteins like myeloperoxidase (MPO), neutrophil elastase (NE), histones etc. and deploys in the entrapment and clearance of encountered pathogens. Thus NETs play an inevitable beneficial role in the host's protection. However, recent accumulated evidence shows that dysregulated and enhanced NET formation has various pathological aspects including promotion of sepsis, pulmonary, cardiovascular, hepatic, nephrological, thrombotic, autoimmune, pregnancy, cancer diseases etc. and the list is increasing gradually. In this review, we summarize NETs mediated pathophysiology of different diseases, focus on some updated potential therapeutic approaches against NETs and share our future perspectives.

The possibilities of applying various methods to study Coleoptera give unexpected and original results. The studies were carried out with the help of fermental crown traps in 2018-2020 on the territory of eight regions in the central part of European Russia. The biodiversity of Coleoptera that fall into crown traps includes 294 species from 45 families. The number of species attracted to the fermenting bait is about a third of the total number of species in the traps (this is 97.4% of the number of all caught specimens). The largest number of species that have been found in traps belong to the families Cerambycidae, Elateridae and Curculionidae. The most actively attracted species mainly belong to the families Cerambycidae, Nitidulidae and Scarabaeidae. Species of these families are equally attracted by baits made of beer, white and red wines. To identify the Coleoptera biodiversity of a particular biotope, two-year studies are sufficient, which should be carried out throughout the vegetation season. Especially good results can be obtained from studies of rare species that are actively attracted by such baits. It is possible to study the verti-cal-horizontal distribution of Coleoptera fauna in individual biotopes.

This article examines the sustainability of beer production through a review of the available scientific literature. Beer production, a beverage of both cultural and industrial importance at a global level, significantly impacts the environment due to the use of natural resources and emissions generated during the various stages of the production process. This study adopts the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach to assess the environmental impact of beer production, from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of the finished product. Only peer-reviewed studies published between 2001 and July 2024 that address at least one stage of the beer production process were included in the review. The results highlight the critical points of the production cycle and suggest sustainable practices to reduce the environmental impact. This study provides a detailed overview of LCA methods applied to beer production, including defining objectives and scope, life cycle inventory, impact assessment and interpretation of results, and providing recommendations to improve sustainability in the brewing sector. The objectives of this study were to identify the critical point within the beer production cycle that significantly contributes to environmental impacts and to suggest sustainable practices and strategies that can be adopted to reduce the environmental footprint of beer production.

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile is an enteric pathogen of neonatal pigs with zoonotic transmission remaining a significant problem in humans, including nosocomial resurgence, following oral administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics. To date, the immune response to C. difficile has mostly focused on neutrophils and cytokine/chemokines, particularly in human infection. We show that porcine monocytes respond to C. difficile differently compared with many other bacterial infections. Infection of porcine monocytes with human C. difficile strains CD630 (Ribotype 078) or R20291 (Ribotype 027) for 3 or 24h post-infection (pi) resulted in a lack of oxidative burst or nitrite ion production when compared to uninfected controls (P >0.05). The survival dynamics of both CD630 and R20291 in monocytes were similar with intracellular bacterial numbers being similar at 3h pi and 24h pi (P >0.05). However, we show that porcine monocytes entrap C. difficile via extracellular DNA traps. This process began as early as 3h pi and at 24h pi the nuclei appeared to be depleted of DNA, although extracellular DNA was associated with the cell membrane. Our preliminary study also suggests that entrapment of C. difficile by extracellular DNA may occur via a process of monocyte etosis.

In this paper, by developing a mathematical model, the operating temperature of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) under different operating conditions has been calculated. It is found that by reducing the density of tail states at the interfaces, acting as recombination centres, through some passivation mechanisms, the operating temperature can be reduced significantly at higher applied voltages. The results show that if the density of tail states at the interfaces is reduced by three orders of magnitude through some passivation mechanisms, then the active layer may not undergo any phase change up to an ambient temperature 300 K and it may not degrade up to 320 K. The calculated heat generation at the interfaces at different applied voltages with and without passivation shows that the heat generation can be reduced by passivating the interfaces. It is expected that this study may provide a deeper understanding of the influence of interface passivation on the operating temperature of PSCs.

African swine fever (ASF) is a notifiable viral disease of domestic and wild suids. Despite intensive re-search efforts, the pathogenesis of the disease is still far from being understood. Analysis of biomarkers in different body fluids may supplement traditional pathogenesis studies. As reliable protocols are often es-tablished in laboratories with lower biosafety, reliable inactivation of samples is crucial. The objective of this study was to find a procedure that inactivates the virus while preserving the biomarkers for down-stream analyses. To this means, three different inactivation protocols were employed, namely Tergitol-type NP-40 (NP-40) and polyoxyethylene-p-t-octylphenol (Triton X-100), respectively, and one with 95 °C heating. It could be demonstrated that all samples treated with 0.5% (v/v) concentration of both deter-gents showed absence of virus infectivity. The same was true for heated samples. However, heated serum was not suitable for analyses. Next, the treatment impact on biomarker readouts was assessed. While all protocols had an impact on the detection of biomarkers, correlation was retained. Especially NP-40 could be the desired detergent for more accurate measurements while achieving efficient virus inactivation. Based on these studies, samples can be reliably inactivated for most biomarker analyses and thus broader interdisciplinary cooperation is possible.

Safe sample transport is of great importance for infectious diseases diagnostics. Various treatments and buffers are used to inactivate pathogens in diagnostic samples. At the same time, adequate sample preservation, particularly of nucleic acids, is essential to allow an accurate laboratory diagnosis. For viruses with single-stranded RNA genomes of positive polarity, such as foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), however, naked full-length viral RNA can itself be infectious. In order to assess the risk of infection from inactivated FMDV samples, two animal experiments were performed. In the first trial, six cattle were injected with FMDV RNA (isolate A22/IRQ/24/64) into the tongue epithelium. All animals developed clinical disease within two days and FMDV was reisolated from serum and saliva samples. In the second trial, another group of six cattle was exposed to FMDV RNA by instilling it on the tongue and spraying it into the nose. The animals were observed for 10 days after exposure. All animals remained clinically unremarkable and virus isolation as well as FMDV genome detection in serum and saliva were negative. No transfection reagent was used for any of the animal inoculations. In conclusion, cattle can be infected by injection with naked FMDV RNA, but not by non-invasive exposure to the RNA. Inactivated FMDV samples that contain full-length viral RNA carry only a negligible risk of infecting animals.

This study explored the beer consumers’ and producers’ perception of using local fruit and agroindustrial by-products in brewing. An online survey was conducted in Italy with 496 beer consumers and 54 beer producers. The survey assessed sociodemographic information, consumption behavior, support for brewery neolocalism, alongside brewers’ perception of sustainability of their breweries. Findings showed high consumers’ involvement in sustainable eating and high support for breweries utilizing local resources and that operate in a sustainable way. Breweries rated their sustainability practices as moderate, and most of them considered their efforts in using local raw materials and repurposing by-products as “excellent”. Both consumers and producers considered beer made with agroindustrial by-products less tasty than those with local fruit (p < 0.05), but no significant difference in willingness to buy was observed (p > 0.05). According to cluster analysis results, the ideal consumer profile for sustainable beers was characterized by a higher proportion of females prioritizing sustainability and local sourcing over sensory quality. Therefore, using local materials or agroindustrial by-products can align brewers’ practices with consumers’ preferences, enhancing competitiveness and market positioning by fostering a sense of sustainability and locality.

In this review, we provide an overview of the most common majority and minority charge carrier traps in n-type 4H-SiC material. We focus on the results obtained by different applications of junction spectroscopy techniques. The basic principles behind the most common junction spectroscopy techniques are given. These techniques, namely, deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), Laplace DLTS (L-DLTS) and minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS) have led to recent progress in identifying and better understanding of the charge carrier traps in n-type 4H-SiC material.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex causes tuberculosis (TB), a disease that causes pulmonary inflammation but can also affect other tissues. Despite macrophages having a defined role in TB immunopathogenesis, other innate immune cells, such as neutrophils, are involved in this process. These cells have high phagocytic ability and a microbial-killing machine comprised of enzymes, antimicrobial peptides, and reactive oxygen species. In the last two decades, a new neutrophil immune response, the neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), has been intensely researched. NETs comprise DNA associated with histones, enzymes, and antimicrobial peptides. These structures are related to antimicrobial immune response and some immuno-pathogenesis mechanisms. This mini review highlights the role of NETs in tuberculosis and how they can be helpful as a diagnostic tool and/or therapeutic target.

The first description of a new form of neutrophil cell death distinct from that of apoptosis or necrosis was discovered in 2004 and coined neutrophil extracellular traps “(NETs)” or “NETosis”. Different stimuli for NET formation, and pathways that drive neutrophils to commit to NETosis have been elucidated in the years that followed. Critical enzymes required for NET formation have been discovered, and targeted therapeutically. NET formation is no longer restricted to neutrophils but has been discovered in other innate cells: Macrophages/Monocytes, Mast Cells, Eosinophils, Basophils, Dendritic cells, and extracellular DNA is extruded from both B and T cells. It has become clear that although this mechanism is thought to enhance host defence by ensnaring bacteria within large webs of DNA to increase bactericidal killing capacity, it is also injurious to innocent bystander tissue. Proteases and enzymes released from extracellular traps (ETs), injure epithelial and endothelial cells perpetuating inflammation. In the context of autoimmunity ETs release over 70 well known autoantigens. ETs are associated with pathology in multiple diseases: lung diseases, vasculitis, autoimmune kidney diseases, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Defining these pathways that drive ET release will provide insight into mechanisms of pathological insult, and provide potential therapeutic targets.

The management of patients with spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1) is constantly evolving. In just a few decades the medical approach has switched from an exclusively palliative therapy to a targeted therapy, transforming the natural history of the disease, improving survival time and quality of life, and creating new challenges and goals. Many nutritional problems, gastrointesti-nal disorders and metabolic and endocrine alterations are commonly identified in patients af-fected by SMA1 during childhood and adolescence. For this reason, a proper pediatric multidis-ciplinary approach is then required in the clinical care of these patients, with a specific focus on the prevention of most common complications. The purpose of this narrative review is to provide the clinician with a practical and usable tool about SMA1 patients care, through a comprehensive insight into the nutritional, gastroenterological, metabolic and endocrine management of SMA1. Considering the possible horizons opened thanks to new therapeutic frontiers, a nutritional and endo-metabolic surveillance is a crucial element to be considered for a proper clinical care of these patients.

A rapid and efficient technique using an electronic nose based on a mass detector combined with headspace sampling (HS-SPME-MS e-nose) and chemometric tools was applied to classify beer samples between fresh and aged and between samples contained in aluminium cans or glass bottles, and to predict the shelf life of beer. The mass spectra obtained from the HS-SPME-MS e-nose contain information on the volatile compounds, recorded as the abundance of each ion at different mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios. The analysis was performed on 53 samples aged naturally for eleven months in the absence of light and with a controlled temperature of around 14° C +/- 0.5° C. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on the data, showing a grouping of samples between fresh and aged. Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) allowed discriminating fresh from aged beers but was not able to discriminate samples packaged in aluminium cans or in glass bottles. Finally, Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) was applied to build a prediction model and showed to be effective to predict beer shelf life.

Understanding African swine fever virus (ASFV) transmission is essential for strategies to minimize virus spread during an outbreak. ASFV can survive for extended time periods in animal products, carcasses, and the environment. While ASFV genome was found in the environment around infected farms, data on the virus survival in soil are scarce. We investigated different soil matrices spiked with ASFV-positive blood from infected wild boar to see if ASFV can remain infectious in the soil beneath infected carcasses. As expected, ASFV genome detection was possible over the entire sampling period. Soil pH, structure, and ambient temperature played a role for the stability of infectious ASFV. Infectious ASFV was demonstrated in specimens originating from sterile sand for at least three weeks, from beach sand for up to two weeks, from yard soil for one week, and from swamp soil for three days. Virus was not recovered from two acidic forest soils. All risk mitigation experiments with citric acid or calcium hydroxide resulted in complete inactivation. In conclusion, stability of infectious ASFV is very low in acidic forest soils but rather high in sandy soils. However, given the high variability, treatment of carcass collection points with disinfectants should be considered.

(1) As the craft beer industry continues to expand in Canada, understanding the regional differences between the Eastern and Western markets becomes pivotal for brewing ingredient companies seeking to penetrate or expand within these regions. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of these two distinctive markets, focusing on economic, logistical, ingredient, and cultural differences. (2) The study primarily relies on secondary data from government, industry reports, and scholarly publications, providing a holistic view of the Canadian craft beer landscape. It further highlights the need to consider market distinctions between Canada and the United States. (3) Findings reveal that Western Canadian breweries, unlike their Eastern counterparts, operate under constrained storage space, prefer locally-sourced ingredients, and offer a distinct variety of beer styles catering to local tastes. The study further uncovers the regulatory and financial complexities of the Canadian market compared to the United States. (4) Based on these findings, this study provides strategic recommendations for brewing ingredient companies, emphasizing domestic logistics, local sourcing, product adaptation, educational support, and regulatory navigation, fostering success in the Canadian craft beer landscape.

As governments in various countries and regions issue tourism-friendly policies in the post-pandemic period, the voices for tourism consumption recovery and innovative transformation have attracted great attention. Many scholars, experts and industry professionals in the field of festivals are actively exploring efficient solutions for festival marketing and sustainability. It is worth rethinking tourists’ consumption psychology and perceived image toward exiting festival products as well as the antecedents that affect festival loyalty. The Qingdao International Beer Festival, as one of the most influential festivals in China, was selected as the research case for this study. The main goal of this study was to investigate festival consumption promotion mechanism by proposing a conceptual framework in which the associations from destination familiarity and product familiarity to loyal intentions (re-patronage and recommendation) were examined, with mediators of overall festival image, perceived value and overall satisfaction. Furthermore, the moderating role of visitor involvement in the proposed framework was also adequately demonstrated. The research findings are expected to provide a significant reference for the recovery and competitiveness improvement of the entire festival industry.

Membrane-based beverage dealcoholization is a successful process for producing low- and non-alcoholic beer and represents a fast-growing industry. Polyamide NF and RO membranes are commonly applied for this process. Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) NF membranes are emerging as industrially relevant species and their unique properties (usually hollow fiber geometry, high and tunable selectivity, low fouling) underlines the importance of testing them in the food industry as well. To test PEM NF membranes for beer dealcoholization, at small pilot scale we dealcoholized filtered and unfiltered lager beer with the tightest available commercial polyelectrolyte multilayer NF membrane (NX Filtration dNF40), which has a MWCO=400Da which is quite high for these purposes. Dealcoholization is possible with a reasonable flux (10 LMH) at low pressures (5-8.6 bar) with a real extract loss of 16-18% and an alcohol passage of ~100%. Inorganic salt passage is high (which is typical for PEM NF membranes), which greatly affected beer flavor. During the dealcoholization process, the membrane underwent changes which substantially increased its salt rejection values (MgSO4 passage decreased 4-fold) while permeance loss was minimal (less than 10%). According to our sensory examination, the process yielded an acceptable flavored beer which could be greatly enhanced by the addition of the lost salts and glycerol.

Chemical analysis of the organic components in beers has applications to quality control, authenticity and improvements to the flavor characteristics and brewing process. This study aims to show the complementary nature of two instrumental techniques which in combination can identify and quantify the majority of organic components in a beer sample. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was used to provide concentrations of twenty five different organic compounds including alcohols, organic acids, carbohydrates, and amino acids. Calorie content was also estimated for the samples. NMR data for ethanol concentrations were validated by comparison to a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) method. Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction (SPME) Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) was used to identify a range of volatile compounds such as alcohols, esters and hop derived aroma compounds. A simple and inexpensive conversion of a Gas Chromatography Flame Ionization Detector (GC FID) instrument to allow the use of Solid-Phase Microextraction was found to be useful for the quantification of volatile esters.

The expression of polysialic acid (polySia) on the neuronal cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), is called NCAM-polysialylation, which is strongly related to the migration and invasion of tumor cells and with aggressive in the clinic. Thus, it’s important to select a proper drug to block tumor cell migration for clinic treatment. In this study, we proposed that lactoferrin (LFcinB11) may be a more ideal candidate for inhibition of NCAM polysialylation comparing with CMP and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), which were determined based on our NMR studies. On the other hand, because neutrophil extracellular traps (NET) is the most dramatic stage in cell death process, and NETs’ release are related to pathogenesis of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, with proposed involvement in glomerulonephritis, chronic lung disease, sepsis and vascular disorders. In this study, the molecular mechanism of inhibition of NETs’ release using LFcinB11 as inhibitor was also determined. Based on these results, LFcinB11 is proposed to be bifunctional inhibitor for inhibiting both NCAM polysialylation and NETs releases.

This study describes the development of an image-based insect trap diverging from the plug-in camera insect trap paradigm. In short, a) it does not require manual annotation of images to learn how to count targeted pests and, b) it self-disposes the captured insects, and therefore is suitable for long-term deployment. The device consists of an imaging sensor integrated with Raspberry Pi microcontroller units with embedded deep learning algorithms that count agricultural pests inside a pheromone-based funnel trap. The device also receives commands from the server which configures its operation while an embedded servomotor can automatically rotate the detached bottom of the bucket to dispose of hydrated insects as they begin to pile up. Therefore, it completely overcomes a major limitation of camera-based insect traps: the inevitable overlap and occlusion caused by the decay and layering of insects during long-term operation, thus extending the autonomous operational capability. We study cases that are underrepresented in literature such as counting in situations of congestion and significant debris using crowd counting algorithms encountered in human surveillance. Finally, we perform comparative analysis of the results from different deep-learning approaches (YOLO7/8, crowd counting, deep learning regression) and we open-source the code and a large database of Lepidopteran plant pests.

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the major threats to pig production, and real-time PCR (qPCR) protocols are integral part of ASF laboratory diagnosis. With the pandemic spread of ASF, commercial kits have risen on the market. In Germany, the kits have to go through an approval process and thus, general validation can be assumed. However, they were never compared to each other. In this study, 12 commercial PCR kits were compared to an OIE recommended method. Samples representing different matrices, genome loads, and genotypes were included in a panel that was tested under diagnostic conditions. The comparison included user-friendliness, internal controls, and the time required. All qPCRs were able to detect ASFV genome in different matrices across all genotypes and disease courses. With one exception, there were no significant differences when comparing the overall mean. The overall specificity was 100 % [95 % CI 87.66 - 100], and the sensitivity was between 95 % and 100 % [95 % CI 91.11 - 100]. As can be expected, variability concerned samples with low genome load. Concluding, all tests were fit for purpose. The test system can therefore be chosen based on compatibility and prioritization of the internal control system.

This study aimed to determine the pathogenicity of the bacteria isolated and characterized from the kpètè kpètè used to produce two fermented beers in Benin. Species were identified by specific biochemical tests such as catalase, coagulase, and API 20 E. Antibiotic sensitivity was tested according to the French Society of Microbiology Antibiogram Committee. The crystal violet microplate technique and conventional PCR evaluated biofilm production to identify genes encoding virulence and macrolide resistance. Our data shows that Kpètè Kpètè used to produce beers are contaminated by Enterobacteriaceae species (Klebsiella terrigena, Enterobacter aerogens, Providencia rettgeri, Chryseomonas luteola, Serratia rubidae, and Enterobacter cloacae) and Staphylococcus spp. These multidrug-resistant strains can produce biofilms with a strong predominance of Enterobacter aerogens, Klebsiella terrigena (100%), and Staphylococcus spp (60%). Enterobacter cloacae (4%) and Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (5.55%) harbor the macrolide resistance gene. For other strains, these genes were not detected. Foods contaminated with bacteria resistant to antibiotics and carrying a virulence gene could constitute a potential public health problem. There is a need to increase awareness campaigns on hygiene rules in preparing and selling these traditional beers.

A growing number of companies in the brewery industry have made commitments to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, many brewers, particularly craft brewers with relatively low rates of production, have struggled to meet these commitments. The purpose of this research was to investigate the challenges and benefits of measuring and reducing GHG emissions in the craft brewery industry. The research was conducted in Ontario, Canada, which has seen strong recent growth in the craft brewery industry. A case study and semi-structured interviews among Ontario Craft Brewers were conducted. The case study found that indirect (scope 3 emissions under the WBCSD & WRI GHG Protocol) GHG sources accounted for 46.4% of total GHGs, with major sources from barley agriculture, malted barley transportation, and bottle production. Direct emissions (scope 1) accounted for only 14.9% of GHGs, while scope 2 emissions, comprised mainly of energy consumption, accounted for 38.7% of GHGs. The case study and interviews found that the main challenges in calculating brewery GHGs are secondary data availability, technical knowledge, and finances. The study also found that the main benefits for Ontario breweries to measure their GHGs include sustainability marketing and preserving the environment. The interviews also found a poor understanding of carbon regulation among Ontario Craft Brewers, which is interesting considering that Ontario implemented a provincial cap and trade program in 2017.

This work aims to investigate systematically the tecno-economic feasibility of ther-mos-catalytic cracking process for two solid waste materials, a lipid-base material (re-sidual fat/scum from retention box of the University Restaurant of UFPA) and a lig-nin-cellulosic material Açaí seed (Euterpe oleracea. Mart). The thermo-catalytic process-es were carried out in pilot scale (THERMTEK/LEQ/UFPA/IME/RJ), and their economic feasibility analyzed. The yields of biofuels produced by fractional distillation were al-so studied. The physicochemical characteristics of the raw materials, the organic liquid product (bio-oil) and the chemical composition of kerosene, light-diesel and heavy-diesel from the lipid-base material, as well as those of kerosene and light-diesel from the Açaí seed were also determined. The economic indicators for the evaluation of the most viable cracking (pyrolysis) and distillation process of bio-oils were: a) the sim-ple payback criterion, b) discounted payback, c) net present value (NPV), d) internal rate of return (IRR), and e) index of profitability (IP). The analysis of the indicators showed the economic viability of crude palm oil (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq) and unfeasibil-ity for the palm oil neutralization. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) obtained is this work for the biofuels was of 1.34 US$/L) and the breakeven point obtained was of 1.28 US$/L. The sensibility analysis demonstrated that the pyrolysis and distillation yields are the most important variables to affect the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP).

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic Gram-negative bacterium that remains a prevalent clinical and environmental challenge. Quorum sensing (QS) molecules are effective biomarkers in pinpointing the presence of P. aeruginosa. This study aimed to develop a convenient-to-use whole-cell biosensor using P. aeruginosa reporters individually encapsulated within alginate-poly-L-lysine (alginate-PLL) microbeads to specifically detect the presence of bacterial autoinducers. The PLL-reinforced microbeads were prepared using a two-step method involving ionic crosslinking and subsequent coating with thin layers of PLL. The alginate-PLL beads showed good stability in the presence of a known cation scavenger (sodium citrate), which typically limits the widespread applications of calcium alginate. In media containing synthetic autoinducers, such as N-(3-oxo dodecanoyl) homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C12-HSL) and N-butanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C4-HSL) or cell-free supernatants of planktonic or flow cell biofilm effluent of wild P. aeruginosa (PAO1), the encapsulated bacteria enabled a dose-dependent detection of the presence of these QS molecules. The prepared bioreporter beads remained stable during prolonged storage at 4 and -80 °C and were ready for on-the-spot sensing without the need for recovery. This whole-cell biosensor demonstrates the practicality of the encapsulated bioreporter for bacterial detection based on specific QS molecules.

Several traps are recommended for monitoring corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), an important pest of field, vegetable and fruit crops in the U.S. These traps, which are meant to capture H. zea in many cases end up capturing other insects. Helicoverpa zea has recently been found feeding on different seeds and dual-type (seed and fiber) hemp, Cannabis sativa L. (Rosales: Cannabaceae) causing serious damage. Limited work has been done on developing integrated pest management (IPM) for H. zea industrial hemp in Missouri. We evaluated the attractiveness of different traps with the aim of developing a monitoring system for the adult male H. zea in industrial hemp fields in two Missouri locations In addition, we recorded other non-target insects in the traps to determine trap selectivity. Commercially available green, clear, tricolor bucket traps Heliothis Scentry and Scentry Delta 1X traps baited with H. zea sex pheromones were evaluated in 2021 and 2022. Tricolor traps captured significantly more adult male H. zea than the other traps in both years. Non-target insects, mainly Xylocopa virginica (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Bombus spp (Hymenoptera: Apidae), and Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) were also captured. The tricolor trap captured the most bees. The presence of non-target species highlights the risk of using tricolor traps as a monitoring tool. This data provides information for planning the monitoring of corn earworm in industrial hemp farms in Missouri.

African swine fever (ASF) is a pandemic threat to the global pig industry and wild suids. A safe and efficacious vaccine could monumentally assist in disease eradication. In the past years, promising live attenuated vaccine candidates emerged in proof-of-concept experiments, among them, “ASFV-G-∆MGF”. In our study, we tested the vaccine candidate in three animal experiments intramuscularly in domestic pigs one orally in wild boar. Further, a macrophage-grown vaccine virus and a virus grown on permanent cells could be employed. Irrespective of the production system of vaccine virus, a two-dose intramuscular immunization could induce close to sterile immunity with full clinical protection against challenge infection. After oral immunization, 50% of the vaccinees seroconverted and all responders were completely protected against subsequent challenge. All non-responders developed ASF upon challenge with two acute lethal infections and two mild and transient courses. The latter results show a lower efficiency after oral administration that would have to be taken into consideration when designing vaccination-based control measures. Our findings suggest that “ASFV-G-∆MGF” could help to contain the disease under an appropriate vaccination campaign. Further research is needed to characterize safety aspects and define possible improvements of oral efficiency.

Progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been associated with an escape of tumor cells from the host immune surveillance with growing evidence of its underlying molecular mechanisms and its interaction with the immune cell control. In this study the expression of HLA class I (HLA-I) antigens and of components of the antigen processing machinery (APM) was analyzed in 160 consecutive human papilloma virus (HPV)-negative OSCC lesions and correlated to tumor specific parameters, the intratumoral immune cell response and to the patients outcome. A heterogeneous, but predominantly lower constitutive protein expression of HLA-I APM components was seen in OSCC sections when compared to non-neoplastic cells. Based on the expression levels of HLA-I APM components three main OSCC subgroups were detected and categorized into HLA-Ihigh/APMhigh, HLA-Ilow/APMlow and HLA-Idiscordant high/low/APMhigh phenotypes. In the HLA-Ihigh/APMhigh group, the highest frequency of intratumoral CD8+ T cells and lowest number of CD8+ T cells close to FoxP3 cells was found. Despite being associated with the highest T cell infiltration, patients within this group presented the most unfavorable survival, which was most evident in stage T2 tumors. Thus, the presented findings strongly indicate the presence of additional factors involved in the immunomodulatory process of HPV-negative OSCC with a possible tumor-burden-dependent complex network of immune escape mechanisms beyond HLA-I/APM components and T cell infiltration in this tumor entity.

Analytical instruments used for scientific research and education are often expensive. This limitation poses a challenge for schools and educators in low-income countries to provide practical science training to students. To address this problem, the improvisation of analytical instruments and instructional materials has emerged as a viable solution. By incorporating practical experiments into science education, students have the opportunity to engage directly with scientific instruments, conduct investigations, and collect data. This hands-on approach fosters a deeper understanding of scientific principles, enhances critical thinking skills, and cultivates scientific mindsets among students. Herein, we review and discuss, step-by-step, the approach of using a smartphone for quantitative analysis, referred to as smartphone digital image colorimetry (SDIC). SDIC, with its practicality and accessibility, utilizes smartphone digital cameras for image acquisition and the freely available image processing programs, such as ImageJ and smartphone Apps, for image quantification. Using SDIC can enable students in low-income countries to develop essential scientific skills, including critical thinking, data interpretation, and an evidence-based approach to scientific research. By leveraging the ubiquity and affordability of smartphone technology, SDIC offers an accessible and cost-effective approach to practical science education, bridging the gap between theory and practice in resource-constrained settings.

Multi-sensor data fusion of E-tongue and E-nose can provide a more comprehensive and more accurate analysis results. However, it also brings some redundant information, it is a hot issue to reduce the feature dimension for pattern recognition. In this paper, the taste-olfactory data fusion based on E-tongue and E-nose combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM) was used to classify five different beers. First, the taste and olfactory feature information were obtained based on E-tongue and E-nose. Second, the original feature data of single system were fused, then Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to extract principal components, Genetic Algorithm-Partial Least Squares (GA-PLS) was used to select the characteristic variables, 20 subsets were generated with those variables based on the best Variable Importance of Projection (VIP) score. Finally, the classification models based on SVM were established, also c and g of SVM were calculated by Grid Search (GS), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), the classification results of all subsets were obtained. The results showed that the classification accuracy using data fusion was much higher over single E-tongue and single E-nose, and the variable selection method by VIP had the best classification performance in #12 subset coupled with GA-SVM.

Progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been associated with an escape of tumor cells from the host immune surveillance due to an increased knowledge of its underlying molecular mechanisms and its modulation by the tumor microenvironment and immune cell repertoire. In this study the expression of HLA class I (HLA-I) antigens and of components of the antigen processing machinery (APM) was analyzed in 160 pathologically classified human papilloma virus (HPV)-negative OSCC lesions and correlated to the intra-tumoral immune cell response, IFN- signaling and to the patients outcome. A heterogeneous, but predominantly lower constitutive protein expression of HLA-I APM components was found in OSCC sections when compared to non-neoplastic cells. Tumoral HLA-I APM component expression was further categorized into the three major phenotypes HLA-Ihigh/APMhigh, HLA-Ilow/APMlow and HLA-Idiscordant high/low/APMhigh. In the HLA-Ihigh/APMhigh group, the highest frequency of intra-tumoral CD8+ T cells and lowest number of CD8+ T cells close to FoxP3+ cells was found. Patients within this group presented the most unfavorable survival, which was significantly evident in stage T2 tumors. Despite a correlation with the number of intra-tumoral CD8+ T cells, tumoral JAK1 expression as a surrogate marker for IFN- signaling was not associated with HLA-I/APM expression. Thus, the presented findings strongly indicate the presence of additional factors involved in the immunomodulatory process of HPV-negative OSCC with a possible tumor-burden-dependent complex network of immune escape mechanisms beyond HLA-I/APM components and T cell infiltration in this tumor entity.

Accurate retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis (LNM) prediction in early-stage testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) harbours the potential to significantly reduce over- or undertreatment and treatment-related morbidity in this group of young patients as an important survivorship imperative. We investigated the role of computed tomography (CT) radiomics models integrating clinical predictors for the individualized prediction of LNM in early-stage TGCT. Ninety-one patients with surgically proven testicular germ cell tumours and contrast-enhanced CT were included in this retrospective study. Dedicated radiomics software was used to segment 273 retroperitoneal lymph nodes and extract features. After feature selection, radiomics-based machine learning models were developed to predict LN metastasis. The robustness of the procedure was controlled by 10-fold cross-validation. Using multivariable logistic regression modelling, we developed three prediction models: A radiomics-only model, a clinical-only model and a combined radiomics-clinical model. The models' performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Finally, decision curve analysis was performed to estimate the clinical usefulness of the predictive model. The radiomics-only model for predicting lymph node metastasis reached a greater discrimination power than the clinical-only model, with an AUC of 0.84 (± 0.17; 95% CI ) vs 0.60 (± 0.22; 95% CI) in our study cohort. The combined model integrating clinical risk factors and selected radiomics features outperformed the clinical-only and the radiomics-only prediction models and showed good discrimination with an area under the curve of 0.94 ( ± 0.10; 95% CI). The decision curve analysis demonstrated the clinical usefulness of our proposed combined model. The presented combined CT-based radiomics-clinical model represents an exciting non-invasive prediction tool for individualized prediction of LN metastasis in testicular germ cell tumours. Multi-centre validation is required to generate high-quality evidence for its clinical application.

Non-alcoholic beer (NAB) or low alcoholic beer (LAB) are taking over the market with a growing sale. Sus-tainable recycling and valorization of exhausted brewer’s spent grains (BSG) coming from craft beer is a relevant issue in brewing process. In this work, recycled BSG and BSG+GJ (supplemented with 10% grape juice) were used as wort-substrate to inoculate already selected non-conventional yeasts to produce NABLAB craft beer. Results showed that wort composed by only recycled BSG produced appreciate NAB beers (ethanol from 0.12% to 0.54 % v/v) while the addition of 10% of grape juice made LAB beers (ethanol from 0.82 to 1.66 % v/v). As expected, volatile compounds production was highest with the addition of grape juice. Lachancea thermotolerans confirmed the lactic acid production and, as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is characterized by (in both worts) ethyl butyrate and isoamyl acetate, while Torulaspora delbrueckii produced relevant amounts of exanol, phenylethyl acetate and β-phenyl ethanol (wort added with grape juice). Wickeramhomyces anomalus and Pichia kluyvery showed consistent volatile production but only in wort with grape juice addition where a fermentation activity was exhibited. The overall results indicated that reused BSGs, non-conventional yeasts and grape juice is a suitable strategy for specialty NABLAB beer.

Modern agriculture requires technology to give precise measures about relevant parameters such as pest control. Here, we developed an algorithm model as base for bait spray intervention, by monitoring the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi), with conventional traps, in 24.3 Hectares of non-irrigated Baladi olive cultivars, in Hassbaya region. We installed 49 yellow sticky traps with ammonium bicarbonate. The adults, males and females were monitored, on weekly basis. The traps and the trees were georeferenced, and the parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, tree phenology (BBCH), and fruit load rate were compiled. The results showed that the infested fruits were correlated as much with the fruit load rate as with the number of adults captures which were correlated more to the temperature than the relative humidity. The number of the males captured was higher than the females all over the cultivation period. The first symptoms of the fruits were observed from 22 September when the BBCH was equal to 85%, with an average of adult captures lesser than 5 adults by trap by 7 days.

Sink waste traps and drains are a reservoir for multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria in the hospital environment. It has been suggested that these bacteria can migrate through hospital plumbing. Hospital waste traps were installed in a laboratory model system where sinks were connected through a common wastewater pipe. Enterobacterales populations were monitored using selective culture, MALDI-TOF identification and antibiotic resistance profiling before and after a wastewater backflow event. When transfer between sinks was suspected, isolates were compared using whole-genome sequencing. Immediately after the wastewater backflow, two KPC-producing Enterobacter cloacae were recovered from a waste trap in which Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) had not been detected previously. The isolates belonged to ST501 and ST31 and were genetically indistinguishable to those colonising sinks elsewhere in the system. Following inter-sink transfer, KPC-producing E. cloacae ST501 successfully integrated into the microbiome of the recipient sink and was detected in the waste trap water at least six months after the backflow event. Seven weeks and three months after the backflow, other inter-sink transfers involving Escherichia coli ST5295 and KPC-producing E. cloacae ST501 were also observed.

In contrast to previous incursions of highly pathogenic H5 viruses, H5N8 clade 2.3.4.4b caused numerous lethal infections in white-tailed sea eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Germany during the winter 2016/2017. Until April 2017, 17 HPAIV H5N8-positive white-tailed sea eagles had been detected (three alive and 14 dead). Mainly young eagles died (before reaching the adult plumage at 5 years), often with severe neurological symptoms, where histopathology revealed mild to moderate, oligo- to multifocal necrotizing polioencephalitis. Lethal lead (Pb) concentrations, proven as main mortality factor of the sea eagles could be ruled out since values measured in liver or kidney tissue were all within background levels (< 1 ppm). Since the fall of 2016, the epizootic of HPAIV H5 clade 2.3.4.4b reportedly induced, for the first time, fatal disease in European white-tailed see eagles. The virus strain may become a new threat to a highly protected species across its distribution range in Eurasia. Positive cloacal swaps have proven that the eagles can spread the virus with their faeces.

This study was designed to improve Ethiopian traditional beer – tella with the substitution of gesho by moringa leaves to enhance micronutrients. Substation of gesho by moringa from 50 – 100% against the biochemical dynamics, nutritional and sensorial profiles of tella was assessed. Incorporation of moringa suppressed the activities of yeast and favored that of lactic acid bacteria, which shifted the property of the product from mild alcoholic nature to low alcoholic and mild acidic nature, revealing the probiotic potential of tella. Moringa leaves at 100% substitution for gesho resulted in to the least yeast count compared to the other formulations. The storage of tella samples over periods of 10 days also strengthened the probiotic nature of tella by drastically reducing the yeast cell counts (from 5 logs to &lt;1). This corresponded to the slow increase in the acidity (0.63 to 0.99%), indicating comparatively higher activities of lactic acid bacteria. The best nutritional contents (dietary minerals) and sensorial acceptance of the product was attained at the 50% substitution of gesho by moringa. The implication of the present study is that ethnic foods and beverages can be innovated to meet the nutritional needs of the community

Radiomics refers to the extraction and analysis of a wide range of medical imaging features in a non-invasive and cost-effective manner to comprehensively characterise tumours. In this study, machine learning models combining radiomics and clinical factors were developed to predict retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis in testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs), with the aim of reducing unnecessary treatment in this group of young patients. Ninety-one patients with surgically proven testicular germ cell tumours and contrast-enhanced CT were included in this retrospective study. After segmenting 273 retroperitoneal lymph nodes using dedicated radiomics software, we developed machine-learning prediction models using Random Forest (RF), Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM), Support Vector Machine Classifier (SVC), and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN). For each classifier, we developed a radiomics-only, clinical-only, and combined radiomics-clinical prediction model. The models’ performances were evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs). The RF-based combined clinical and radiomic model showed the most robust performance in predicting LNM with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95 (±0.03; 95% CI), accuracy 87%, precision 89%, recall 86% and F1 score 87%, followed by the LGBM model with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.93 (±0.05; 95% CI), accuracy 83%, precision 87%, recall 80% and F1 score 82%. Decision curve analysis demonstrated the clinical utility of our proposed RF-based combined clinical–radiomics model. Our study has identified reliable and predictive machine-learning techniques for predicting lymph node metastasis in early-stage testicular cancer. Identifying the most effective machine-learning approaches for predictive analysis based on radiomics integrating clinical risk factors can expand the applicability of radiomics in precision oncology and cancer treatment. Multi-centre validation is required to provide high-quality evidence for clinical application.

The yak (Poephagus grunniens) has evolved unique adaptations to survive the harsh environment of the Tibetan Plateau, while their gut microorganisms play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the animal. Gut microbes spread through the animal population not only by horizontal transmission but also vertically, which enhances microbial stability and inheritance between generations of the population. Homogenization of gut microbes in different animal species occurs in the same habitat enhancing interspecies coexistence. Using the yak as a model animal, this paper reviews the adaptive strategies under extreme environments and how the gut microbes of the yak circulate throughout the Tibetan Plateau system, which not only affects other plateau animals such as plateau pikas, but can also have a profound impact on the health of people. By examining the relationships between yaks and their gut microbes, this review provides new perspectives in understanding the adaptations of plateau animals and the stability of the ecosystem.

The rapid spread of African swine fever virus (ASFV), causing severe and often lethal disease in domestic pigs and Eurasian wild boar, continues to be a threat for pig populations and dependent industries. Despite scientific achievements that deepen our understanding of ASFV pathogenesis, alternative transmission routes for ASFV remain to be elucidated. We previously demonstrated the efficient transmission of ASFV from infected boars to naïve recipient gilts via artificial insemination, thereby highlighting the importance of surveillance in boar semen prior to shipment. Since accurate and reliable detection of even low amounts of ASFV in boar semen is key for disease prevention and control, we established a suitable diagnostic pipeline to efficiently detect ASFV genome in boar semen. Here, we assessed sensitivity, specificity and overall performance of various routine nucleic acid extraction kits as well as qPCR protocols in detecting ASFV genome in blood and semen of boars. Feasibility of respective kits and methods for future use in boar studs was also considered. Variability in sensitivity mostly concerned samples with low to very low amounts of ASFV genome. Ultimately, we defined a well-suited pipeline to precisely detect ASFV genome in boar semen, as early as 2 days post ASFV infection.

The search for novel brewing strains from non-brewing environments represents an emerging trend to increase genetic and phenotypic diversities in brewing yeast culture collections. Another valuable tool is hybridization, where beneficial traits of individual strains are combined in a single organism. This has been used successfully to create de novo hybrids from parental brewing strains by mimicking natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae ale x Saccharomyces eubayanus lager yeast hybrids. Here, we integrated both these approaches to create synthetic hybrids for lager fermentation using parental strains from niches other than beer. Using a phenotype-centered strategy, S. cerevisiae sourdough strains and the S. eubayanus x Saccharomyces uvarum strain NBRC1948 (also referred to as Saccharomyces bayanus) were chosen for their brewing aptitudes. We demonstrated that, in contrast to S. cerevisiae x S. uvarum crosses, hybridization yield was positively affected by time of exposure to starvation, but not by staggered mating. In laboratory-scale fermentation trials at 20°C, one triple S. cerevisiae x S. eubayanus x S. uvarum hybrid showed a heterotic phenotype compared with the parents. In 2L wort fermentation trials at 12°C, this hybrid inherited the ability to consume efficiently maltotriose from NBRC1948 and, like the sourdough S. cerevisiae parent, produced appreciable levels of the positive aroma compounds 3-methylbutyl acetate (banana/pear), ethyl acetate (general fruit aroma) and ethyl hexanoate (green apple, aniseed, and cherry aroma). Based on these evidences, the phenotype-centered approach appears promising for design of de novo lager beer hybrids and may help to diversify aroma profiles in lager beers.

During autumn/winter in 2016 – 2017 and 2020 – 2021, highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) caused severe outbreaks in Germany and Europe. Multiple clade 2.3.4.4b H5 HPAI subtypes were responsible for increased mortality in wild birds and high mortality and massive losses in the poultry sector. To clarify putative entry sources and delineate interconnections between outbreaks in poultry holdings and wild birds, we applied whole-genome sequencing and phylodynamic analyses combined with the results of epidemiological outbreak investigations. Varying outbreak dynamics of the distinct reassortants allowed for the identification of individual, putatively wild bird-mediated entries into backyard holdings, several clusters comprising poultry holdings, local virus circulation for several weeks, direct farm-to-farm transmission and potential reassortment within a turkey holding with subsequent spill-over of the novel reassorted virus into the wild bird population. Whole-genome sequencing allowed for allowed for a unique high-resolution molecular epidemiology analysis of HPAIV H5Nx outbreaks, recommended to be used as a standard tool. The presented detailed account of the genetic, temporal and geographical characteristics of the recent German HPAI H5Nx situation emphasizes the role of poultry holdings as an important source of novel genetic variants and reassortants.

Background/objective: Tools to accurately and efficiently measure the dietary intake of Nigeria are lacking. We aimed to develop and assess the usability of a new online dietary assessment tool for Nigeria, myfood24 West Africa. Methods: We developed myfood24 West Africa database using data from existing food composition tables, back-of-pack labels of packaged foods and research articles. A 7-step approach was used: identified data sources, selected foods, processed/cleaned data, calculated nutrient content of recipes, created/allocated portion sizes, quality-checked database, and developed food accompaniments. To pilot myfood24 West Africa, we recruited 179 university staff living in Nigeria using a cross-sectional design; usability was assessed using a questionnaire that incorporated the System Usability Scale (SUS) and feedback session. Results: The database included 924 foods with up to 54 nutrients and 35 portion-size images allocated to foods. 60% of the data were sourced from the 2019 West Africa Food Composition Table, 17% from back-of-pack labels, 14% from the 2017 Nigeria Food Composition Table, 5% from generated recipes and 4% items from published literature. 30% (n=53) self-recorded their diet on their own and 1345 entries were made. The mean SUS score of 74 (95% CI: 68,79) indicated good usability. The feedback showed the tool was easy to use, educative, and included a variety of locally foods consumed. Conclusion: This new tool will enhance the dietary assessment of the Nigerian population. More work will cover more foods from other regions of Nigeria and West African countries.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a rare severe hereditary skin disease characterized by skin and mucosa fragility, resulting in blister formation. The most severe complication in RDEB patients is the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) leading to premature death. Multiple evidences suggest a permissive tumor micro-environment (TME) as driver of SCC development in RDEB patients. In a cohort of RDEB patients, we characterized the immune profiles of RDEB-SCCs and compared them with clinical, histopathological, and prognostic features. RDEB-SCCs were subdivided into 4 groups based on their occurrence (first onset or recurrences) and grading according to their clinical-histopathological parameters of aggressiveness. Thirty-eight SCCs from 20 RDEB patients were analysed. Five RDEB patients experienced an unfavorable course af-ter the diagnosis of the first SCC, with early recurrence or metastasis, whereas 15 pa-tients developed multiple SCCs without metastasis. High-risk primary RDEB-SCCs showed a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in the tumor microenvironment, and an increased proportion of neutrophil extracellular traps (NET). Additionally, citrullinated histone H3, a marker of NETs, was increased in the serum of RDEB patients with high-risk primary SCC, suggesting that this modified form of histone H3 may serve as a potential blood marker of unfavorable prognosis in RDEB-SCCs.

Background/Objectives: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most prevalent form of human cancer, is traditionally treated by surgical and alternative destructive or topical chemical means, each with its advantages, challenges and drawbacks. We describe our experience treating BCCs with a topical concentrate of proteolytic enzymes enriched in bromelain (CPEEB) sourced from pineapple stems. CPEEB has strong proteolytic, antitumor-proapoptotic and inflammation modulation activities, and is approved for debridement of deep burns and starting phase 3 for chronic wounds. Methods: In the first proof of concept (POC) study (published), six BCCs on 3 individuals were treated with 5-6 daily CPEEB 10% topical applications under a Zinc Oxide based occlusive dressing for 9-12 hours each during a period of up to 10 days. These patients were followed for up to 4 years. In an additional 2 POC studies, 16 patients with one BCC each were treated every other day for a total of 7 applications of topical CPEEB 5% under a variety of occlusive dressings. The wounds were followed for up to 2 months before undergoing diagnostic excisional biopsy. Results: In the first study, clinical assessment of the BCCs and 2 excisional biopsies after 6 months suggested that all lesions were eradicated with spontaneous healing within ~2 weeks without clinical or histological recurrence for over 4 years. In the 2 subsequent studies, 16 histologically diagnosed superficial and nodular BCCs were treated using 4 application techniques. Excisional histology after 2 months confirmed BCC eradication in 7 of the patients. In 9 patients, with compromised occlusive dressings, histological eradication was incomplete. Treatment was well tolerated by all patients with the expected local skin reactions that completely healed within 2-3 weeks. Conclusions: Topical CPEEB 10% and 5% resulted complete eradication of the BCC when appropriately applied. CPEEB was well tolerated in all patients and all treated sites’ erosions healed without scars in <3 weeks. Further research is necessary to corroborate the results, refine the application technique and complete the regulatory process.

Rapid spread of African swine fever virus (ASFV), causing severe disease with often high fatality rates in Eurasian suids, prevails as a threat for pig populations and dependent industries world-wide. Although advancing scientific progress continually enhances our understanding of ASFV pathogenesis, alternative transmission routes for ASFV have yet to be assessed. Here, we demonstrate that ASFV can efficiently be transferred from infected boars to naïve recipient gilts through artificial insemination (AI). In modern pig production, semen from boar studs often supplies many sow herds. Thus, the infection of a boar stud presents the risk of rapidly and widely distributing ASFV within or between countries. Daily blood and semen collection from four boars after intramuscular inoculation with ASFV strain ‘Estonia 2014’ resulted in detection of ASFV genomes in the semen as early as 2 dpi, in blood at 1 dpi while semen quality remained largely unaffected. Ultimately, after insemination with extended semen, 7 of 14 gilts were ASFV positive by 7 days post insemination, and all gilts were ASFV positive by 35 days post insemi-nation. Twelve out of 13 gilts aborted at the onset of fever. A proportion of fetuses originating from the remaining gilt showed both abnormalities and replication of ASFV in fetal tissues. Thus, we present evidence for the efficient transmission of ASFV to gilts via AI and also to im-planted embryos. These results underline the critical role that boar semen could play in ASFV transmission.

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most important and devastating viral diseases in wild boar and domestic pigs worldwide. In the absence of vaccines or treatment options, early clinical detection is key and requires sound knowledge of disease characteristics. To provide practitioners and state veterinarians with detailed information, the objective of the present study was to characterize the ASF virus (ASFV) isolate “Belgium 2018/1” in subadult and weaning domestic pigs. To this end, two animal trials were performed. Trial A included eight subadult domestic pigs and trial B five weaner pigs. In general, clinical signs and pathological lesions were in line with previous studies utilizing highly virulent ASF genotype II viruses. However, in trial A, four subadult domestic pigs survived and recovered pointing to an age dependent outcome. The long-term fate of those survivors remains under discussion and would need further investigations.

Progress in laser-driven proton acceleration requires increasing the proton maximum energy and laser-to-proton conversion efficiency, while reducing the divergence of the proton beam. However, achieving all these qualities simultaneously has proven challenging experimentally, the increase in beam energy often coming at the cost of beam quality. Numerical simulations suggest that coupling multi-PW laser pulses with ultrathin foils could offer a route for such simultaneous improvement. Yet experimental investigations have been limited by the scarcity of such lasers and the need for very stringent temporal contrast conditions to prevent premature target expansion before the pulse maximum. Here, combining the newly commissioned Apollon laser facility that delivers high-power ultrashort (∼24fs) pulses, with a double plasma mirror scheme to enhance its temporal contrast, we demonstrate the generation of up to 35 MeV protons with only 5 J of laser energy. This approach also achieves improved laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency, reduced beam divergence, and optimized spatial beam profile. Therefore, despite the laser energy losses induced by the plasma mirror, the proton beams produced by this method are enhanced on all accounts compared to those obtained under standard conditions. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that this improvement results from the intensified electrostatic field caused by a more compact hot-electron distribution.

It is currently unknown whether thrombin generation is associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE) recurrence, major bleeding, and mortality in the elderly. Therefore, our aim was to prospectively study the association between thrombin generation and VTE recurrence, major bleeding and mortality in elderly patients with acute VTE. Consecutive patients aged ≥65years with acute VTE were followed for 2 years starting from 1 year after the index VTE. Primary outcomes were VTE recurrence, major bleeding and mortality. Thrombin generation was assessed in 565 patients 1 year after the index VTE. At this time, 59% of patients were still anticoagulated. Thrombin generation was discriminatory for VTE recurrence, but not for major bleeding and mortality in non-anticoagulated patients. Moreover, peak ratio (adjusted subhazard ratio 4.09, 95% CI, 1.12-14.92) and normalized peak ratio (adjusted subhazard ratio 2.18, 95% CI, 1.28-3.73) in presence/absence of thrombomodulin were associated with VTE recurrence, but not with major bleeding and mortality after adjustment for potential confounding factors. In elderly patients, thrombin generation was associated with VTE recurrence, but not with major bleeding and/or mortality. Therefore, our study suggests the potential usefulness of thrombin generation measurement after anticoagulation completion for VTE to help identifying among elderly patients those at higher risk of VTE recurrence.

Background: Early diagnosis of postoperative complications is an urgent task, allowing timely prescribing of appropriate therapy and reducing the cost of patient treatment. Prognostic models based on various data could help in the early diagnosis of postoperative complications after cardiac surgery. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to determine whether an integrated approach based on clinical data along with metabolites and biomarkers had greater predictive value than the models built on less data. Methods: The study included patients (n=62) admitted for planned cardiac surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting with cardiopulmonary bypass), who were retrospectively divided into two groups depending on the presence (n=26) or absence (n=36) of postoperative complications of all types. Clinical and laboratory data on the first day after surgery were analyzed. Additionally, patients' blood samples were collected before and on the first day after surgery to determine biomarkers (interleukin-6, procalcitonin, NT-proBNP, high-sensitivity troponin T) and metabolites (8 aromatic and 2 dicarboxylic acids were detected using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry). Results: Patients before surgery, compared with healthy donors, differed in the concentration of metabolites (p &lt; 0.05), and had concentrations of a number of biomarkers exceeding the corresponding reference values. Multivariate PLS-DA models, predicting the presence or absence of postoperative complications, were built using clinical data (ROC-AUC=0.71), concentrations of metabolites and biomarkers (ROC-AUC=0.60), and the entire data set (ROC-AUC=0.75). For comparison we built univariate models using the EuroScore2 (ROC-AUC=0.59) and SOFA (ROC-AUC=0.76) scales; concentrations of lactate (ROC-AUC=0.71), the dynamic changes of 4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid (ROC-AUC=0.69), and the sum of three sepsis-associated metabolites (ROC-AUC=0.70). The proposed complex model using entire data set was comparable to the SOFA scale, which confirms the expediency of searching for new predictive models based on a variety of factors.

Milk serves as a crucial source of natural bioactive compounds essential for human nutrition and health. The gastrointestinal digestion of milk proteins releases various biologically active peptides that positively impact human health and enhance physiological performance. With the growing production of cheese, Greek yogurt, and other dairy products, the volume of unutilized acid whey is significantly increasing. Acid whey, containing almost all whey proteins and approximately one-quarter of casein, presents a valuable raw material for generating peptides with potential health benefits. These peptides exhibit properties such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic, antihypertensive, antithrombotic, opioid, mineral-binding, and growth-stimulating activities, contributing to improved human immunity and the treatment of chronic diseases. Enzymatic hydrolysis of milk proteins has been developed as a method to produce these peptides, facilitating their use in food fortification. To incorporate whey into functional beverages, it undergoes fermentation by lactic acid bacteria with proteolytic activity. To specifically enrich these beverages with peptides exhibiting targeted bioactivities, it is essential to select lactic acid bacteria strains possessing the requisite protease profiles. Additionally, the sensory properties of the final product can be enhanced using starter cultures with diverse metabolic capabilities, even in the absence of added flavoring agents. Given the imperative to develop waste-free technologies and enhance the profitability of the dairy industry, there is a growing need to efficiently utilize and transform acid whey into a broad spectrum of valuable products and food additives. This approach is justified not only by the nutritional benefits of the bioactive components in whey but also by the commercial potential of safe and health-enhancing products.

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

The impact of interaction SS with MJO on rainfall along Java Island to East Nusa Tenggara has been studied using daily rainfall observation data from 2140 weather observation stations, which are also equipped with GSMaP, OLR, and ERA5 data. There were 61 SS events found, 17 during active MJO and 44 in inactive MJO. Rainfall increases more in the western study area when the active MJO and more in the eastern study area when the inactive MJO is due to SS. SS reduces rainfall in the Jakarta region, regardless of the activity or inactivity of the MJO. SS causes extreme rainfall to only occur in a small part of certain areas, so it tends to significantly reduce the possibility of extreme rainfall. In the southern part of the IMC, SS predominates over MJO in supporting increased water vapor transport. Large-scale synoptic circulations like the monsoon, SS, and MJO can interact with local land-sea wind circulation to produce spatiotemporal variability in rainfall on Java Island. Rainfall mostly increases in the afternoon and decreases in the morning when SS occurs, whether there is MJO or not. Convective instability analysis indicates that SS increases precipitation, most likely by lowering CIN and raising VIMFC.

In order to shorten the detection time and improve the average precision on embedded devices, A lightweight and high accuracy model is proposed for passion fruit in complex environments (backlight, occlusion, overlap, sunny, cloudy, rainy). Firstly, replacing the backbone network of YOLOv5 with a lightweight GhostNet model reduces the number of parameters and computation while improving detection speed. Secondly, a new feature branch is added to the GhostNet network, and the feature fusion layer in the neck network is reconstructed to effectively combine the lower-level and higher-level features, which not only improves the accuracy of the model but also maintains its lightweight. Finally, the knowledge distillation methods are used to transfer the knowledge from the more capable teacher model to the less capable student model, which significantly improving the detection accuracy. The improved model is denoted as G-YOLO-NK. The average accuracy of the G-YOLO-NK network is 96.00%, which is 1.00% higher than the original YOLOv5s model. Furthermore, the improved model size is 7.14MB, reduced to half of the original model, and the real-time detection frame rate is 11.25 FPS on the Jetson Nano. Compared to the state-of-the-art model, the proposed model outperforms them in terms of average precision and detection performance. The present work provides an effective model for real-time detection of passion fruits in complex orchard scenes, which can provide valuable technical support for the development of orchard picking robots and greatly improve the intelligence level of orchards.

The Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) scanner is an easy and portable Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data acquisition device. Its main output is a 3D point cloud covering the scanned scene. Regarding the importance of accuracy in the survey domain, this paper aims to assess the accuracy of two SLAM scanners: the NavVis VLX and the BLK2GO Scanner. This assessment is conducted for both outdoor and indoor environments. In this context, two types of reference data are used: the Total Station (TS) and the static scanner Z+F Imager 5016. To carry out the assessment, four comparisons are tested: cloud to cloud, cloud to mesh, mesh to mesh, and edge detection board assessment. However, the results of the assessments confirm that the accuracy of indoor SLAM scanner measurements (5 mm) is greater than that of outdoor ones (between 10 mm and 60 mm). Moreover, the comparison of cloud to cloud provides the best accuracy regarding direct accuracy measurement without manipulations. Finally, based on the high accuracy, scanning speed, flexibility, and the accuracy differences between tested cases, it is confirmed that SLAM scanners are effective tools for data acquisition.

In recent years, electroencephalogram (EEG) emotion recognition has emerged as a research hotspot in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite advancements in EEG-based emotion recognition, room for enhancing performance persists due to EEG signal redundancy and limitations in feature extraction, leading to inefficient models and emotional information loss. To fully utilize EEG's emotional information and improve recognition accuracy while reducing computational costs, this paper proposes a Convolutional-Recurrent Hybrid Network with a dual-stream adaptive approach and an attention mechanism (CSA-SA-CRTNN). Firstly, the model utilizes a CSAM module to assign corresponding weights to EEG channels. Then, an adaptive dual-stream convolutional-recurrent network (SA-CRNN and MHSA-CRNN) is applied to extract local spatial-temporal features. After that, the extracted local features are concatenated and fed into a temporal convolutional network with a multi-head self-attention mechanism (MHSA-TCN) to capture global information. Finally, the extracted EEG information is used for emotion classification. We conducted binary and ternary classification experiments on the DEAP dataset, achieving 99.26% and 99.15% accuracy for arousal and valence in binary classification, and 97.69% and 98.05% in ternary classification, surpassing relevant algorithms. Additionally, the model's efficiency is significantly higher than other models, achieving better accuracy with lower resource consumption.

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

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

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

Superior fiber quality is one of the most important objectives in cotton breeding. To detect the genetic basis underlying fiber quality, an F2 population containing 413 plants was constructed by crossing Jifeng 914 and Jifeng 173, both of which have superior fiber quality, with Jifeng 173 being better. Five fiber quality traits were investigated in the F2, F2:3, F2:4, and F2:5 populations. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping was conducted based on a high-density genetic map containing 11,488 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and spanning 4,202.12 cM in length. Transgressive segregation patterns and complex correlations in the five tested traits were observed. A total of 108 QTLs were found, including 27 for fiber length (FL), 16 for fiber strength (FS), 24 for micronaire (MC), 17 for fiber uniformity (FU), and 24 for fiber elongation rate (FE). Chromosome A7 contained 12 QTL, ranking the first. No QTL was found on chromosome D1 and D11. Each QTL contributed 1.98%–21.45% to the phenotypic variation (PV), including 13 major effect QTLs that contributed more than 10% toward PV. Two QTLs could be repeatedly detected in three populations, including qFL-D3-2 in F2, F2:4, and F2:5 with 9.18%–21.45% of PV, qFS-A11-1 in F2:3, F2:4 and F2:5 with 6.05%–10.41% of PV. Another seven stable QTLs could be detected in two populations, including four major effect QTLs: qFL-A12-3, qFS-D10-2, qMC-D6-2, and qMC-D8-1. Fourteen QTL-overlapping regions were found, which might explain the complex correlations among the five phenotypic traits. Four regions on chromosome A11, D3, D6, and D10 covered by both stable and major effect QTLs are promising for further fine mapping. The genomic regions of the two QTLs detected in three populations and the four major effect QTLs contain 810 genes. Gene functional analysis revealed that the annotated genes are mainly involved in protein binding and metabolic pathways. Fifteen candidate genes in the qFL-D3-2 region are highly expressed in fiber or ovules during fiber initiation, elongation, secondary cell wall thickening, or maturation stages. qRT-PCR revealed that Ghir_D03G005440.1 and Ghir_D03G011310.1 may play a role in promoting fiber initiation, Ghir_D03G006470.1 may be beneficial for promoting fiber elongation. This study provides more information for revealing the molecular genetic basis underlying cotton fiber quality.

Currently there are fewer depth models applied to pepper picking detection, while the existing generalized neural networks have problems such as large model parameters, long training time, and low model accuracy.In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes a Yolo-chili target detection algorithm for chili pepper detection. First, the classical target detection algorithm yolov5 is used as a benchmark model, and an adaptive spatial feature pyramid structure combining the attention mechanism and the idea of multi-scale prediction is introduced to improve the model's detection effect on occluded peppers and small target peppers. Secondly, a three-channel attention mechanism module is introduced to improve the algorithm's long-distance recognition ability and reduce the interference of redundant testers. Finally, the quantized pruning method is used to reduce the model parameters and realize the lightweight processing of the model. Applying the method to the homemade chili pepper dataset, the AP value of chili pepper reaches 93.11%; the accuracy rate is 93.51% and the recall rate is 92.55%.The experimental results show that yolo-chili is able to achieve accurate and real-time pepper detection under complex orchards.

The temporary immersion system bioreactor named GreenTray®[2], [3]presents advantages over the existing ones. Firstly, there is no need to use forceps to move the shoots or plantlets in or out of the recipient, neither the use of scalpel to divide them. Secondly, the basis of the shoot can remain in the GreenTray® and can sprout again in several cycles of growth. These two characteristics reduce the costs in the process of micropropagation. Besides, shoots or plantlets development is enhanced by the aeration of the recipient, thus enriching with CO2 the recipient atmosphere. The chapter describes and provides images and values of interest in (1) the micropropagation process of some commercial Prunus or Pyrus rootstocks; (2) the plantlet growth under autotrophic conditions; and (2) the inoculation of plants with pathogens that reproduce in vitro the symptoms observed in vivo, using the GreenTray® bioreactor.

The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the clinical outcomes of treating isolated surgical neck fractures of the humerus using either the intramedullary nail or the MIROS (Minimally Invasive Reduction and Osteosynthesis System®) system. The study included 42 patients who underwent surgical treatment at the Polyclinic from January 2014 to June 2020. The results indicated that both treatments were effective; however, the MIROS system exhibited a higher complication rate. Intramedullary nailing was more reliable, thus recommended as the primary treatment method. This study underscores the importance of selecting the appropriate fixation technique to minimize complications and enhance patient outcomes.

Aiming at the problems of inaccurate segmentation of long object and information loss of small object in real-time semantic segmentation algorithm, this paper proposes a lightweight multi-branch real-time semantic segmentation network based on BiseNetV2. The new auxiliary branch makes full use of spatial details and context information to cover the long object in the field of view. Meanwhile, in order to ensure the inference speed of the model, the asymmetric convolution is used in each stage of the auxiliary branch to design a structure with low computational complexity. In the multi-branch fusion stage, the alignment and fusion module is designed to provide guidance information for deep and shallow feature mapping, so as to make up for the problem of feature misalignment in the fusion of information at different scales, and thus reduce the loss of small target information. In order to further improve the model’s awareness of key information, a global context module is designed to capture the most important features in the input data. The proposed network uses NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU experiment, on the road street view data set Cityscapes and CamVid average occurring simultaneously ratio reached 77.1% and 78.4% respectively, with running speed of 127 frames/s respectively and 112 frames/s. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve real-time segmentation and improve the accuracy significantly, showing good semantic segmentation performance

Excess nitrogen in agricultural drainage poses a serious threat to the water quality safety of the Yellow River basin. Utilizing aquatic plants to modify the rhizosphere microbial community structure and facilitate nitrogen transformation is a crucial strategy for mitigating regional water eutrophication. Our results revealed that the denitrification rate (DR), dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium rate (DNRAR) and nitrogen fixation rate (NFR) of rhizosphere sediments exhibited a significant increase in artificially cultivated ditch. Compared with those in natural ditches, the richness of the bacterial community and the relative abundances of Bacteroidota, Verrucomicrobiota, Firmicutes, Anaeromyxobacter and Geobacter, which are involved mainly in the nitrogen cycle, in the rhizosphere sediments of artificially cultivated ditch were significantly greater due to improvements in environmental conditions. In artificially cultivated ditch, the dominant functional genes affecting DRNARs in the rhizosphere sediments of P. australis were nrfC and nrfA, while DRs were driven mainly by norB and napA, which were influenced by the nitrogen and carbon levels; and the dominant functional genes affecting NFRs in the rhizosphere sediments of T. orientalis were nifD, nifK and nifH. Our results provide a scientific basis for the use of aquatic plants for mitigating excess nitrogen levels in agricultural drainage.

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

In this paper we study a class of impulsive delayed neural networks with parameter uncertainties and reaction-diffusion terms. Using the properties of M-matrices and some inequality techniques, some sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the global exponential stability of the given system. The results obtained are presented by simple algebraic inequalities, which are certainly more concise than previous methods. Finally, the validity and usefulness of our results are illustrated by arithmetic examples.

Pyrops candelaria is one of the common pests of fruit trees, but the research on the pathogenic microorganisms it may carry is very limited. Therefore, it is essential to reveal the pathogenic microbes it carries and their potential hazards. This study found a new virus from the transcriptome of P. candelaria, which was first reported in P. candelaria and named as PyCaV (Pyrops candelaria associated virus). RACE and bioinformatics assay revealed that the full-length of PyCaV is 10855 bp with the polyA tail, containing a single open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein consisting of 3171 amino acid (aa). The virus has a typical Iflavirus structure, including two rhv domains, a RNA helicase domain (HEL), a 3C cysteine protease domain (Pro), and a RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domain (RdRp). Further phylogenetic analysis revealed that this virus belongs to family Iflaviridae and sequence alignements analysis suggedted PyCaV is new member in unassigned genus of family Iflaviridae. Further in-depth analysis of virus-infection-part showed that PyCaV is distributing in the whole longan lanternfly, including its head, chest, and abdomen, but more PyCaV was identified in the chest. The distribution of PyCaV in different parts of P. candelaria was further explored, which showed that more PyCaV were detected in its piercing-sucking mouthparts and chest viscera. Statistical analysis showed that the PyCaV infection was affected by time and locations.