Pancreatic beta cells secrete insulin in response to stimulation with glucose and other nutrients, and impaired insulin secretion plays a central role in development of diabetes mellitus. Pharmacological management of diabetes includes various antidiabetic drugs, including incretins. The incretin hormones, glucagon-like peptide-1 and gastric inhibitory polypeptide, potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by binding to G protein-coupled receptors, resulting in stimulation of adenylate cyclase and production of the secondary messenger cAMP, which exerts its intracellular effects through activation of protein kinase A or the guanine nucleotide exchange protein 2A. The mo-lecular mechanisms behind these two downstream signaling arms are still not fully elucidated and involve many steps in the stimulus-secretion coupling cascade, ranging from the proximal regula-tion of ion channel activity, to the central Ca2+ signal, and the most distal exocytosis. In addition to modifying intracellular coupling, the effect of cAMP on insulin secretion could also be at least partly explained by the impact on intercellular coupling. In this review, we systematically describe the possible roles of cAMP at these intra- and inter-cellular signaling nodes, keeping in mind the rele-vance for the whole organism and translation to humans.

Abstract: Rhizobia are soil proteobacteria able to engage in a nitrogen-fixing symbiotic interaction with legumes which involves root rhizobial infection and bacterial invasion of new organs formed by the plant in response to the presence of appropriate bacterial partners. This interaction relies on a complex molecular dialogue between both symbionts. Bacterial N-acetyl-glucosamine oligomers called Nod factors are indispensable in most cases for early steps of the symbiotic interaction. In addition, different rhizobial surface polysaccharides, such as exopolysaccharides (EPS), may also be symbiotically relevant. EPS are acidic polysaccharides located out of the cell with little or no cell association that carry out important roles both in free-life and in symbiosis. EPS production is very complexly modulated and, frequently, co-regulated with that of Nod factors, but the type of co-regulation varies depending on the rhizobial strain. Many studies point out a signalling role of EPS-derived oligosaccharides in root infection and nodule invasion but, in certain symbiotic couples, EPS can be dispensable for a successful interaction. In summary, the complex regulation of the production of rhizobial EPS varies in different rhizobia and the relevance of this polysaccharide in symbiosis with legumes depends on the specific interacting couple.

Current acceleration in digital innovations, unexpected challenges in our social interactions, acceleration to virtualization, limitation in our physical spaces, and unpredictable changes in our Old lifestyles - as originated from the COVID-19 global pandemic 2020 - continue to provide us with a framework, rapidly updating under our eyes, of the modifications our world is undergoing by pursuing into a New “digital age”. Or, as many scholars say nowadays, into the New Normal! These are shared and deep changes that concretely stress their effects on how ideally a city should function. Forcing us to reflect on the capability to achieve shared choices and visions for the future by taking vantage from both the New digital platforms and New suddenly opened paths. In the pages of this article authors, through different but shared viewpoints, propose an answer to the topic of "Governance 3.0", addressing the attempt of a radical change of those paradigms, now consolidated, within which the spatial dimensions, in which we live and act, are shaped. Also analyzing the relationship between Technocracy and Democracy as defined by Khanna, it is argued that it is possible to realize new forecasts and acquire a more democratic and participatory (inclusive) dimension of Governance, also thanks to new digital technologies, by exploring the general unconscious "feeling" of people, through anonymous data collection and without any direct or indirect interference with it. The analysis of the "Sentiment", already developed in other fields but easily exportable within the urban discipline, can be considered as the beginning of hybrid practices where digital and analogic find a compromise to make the "Urbs" more attractive and inclusive, while the "Civitas", connected to the Internet, can contribute to the optimization of services, of the "Polis" and a new social/spatial reorganization.

Many neonates undergoing whole body hypothermia (WBH) following moderate to severe perinatal asphyxia suffer from renal impairment. While recent data suggest a WBH-related reno-protection, the differences in serum creatinine (Scr) patterns to reference patterns were not yet reported. We therefore aimed to document Scr trends and patterns in asphyxiated neonates undergoing WBH, and compared these to centiles reference Scr dataset of non-asphyia neonates. Using a systematic review strategy, reports on Scr trends (mean ± SD, or median and range) were collected (day 1-7) in WBH cohorts, and compared to centiles of an earlier reported reference cohort of non-asphyxia cases. Based on 13 papers on asphyxia+WBH cases, a pattern on postnatal Scr trends in asphyxia+WBH cases was constructed. Compared to the reference cohort, mean or median Scr values at birth (>90th centile) and the first two days of WBH (>75th centile) remained clinical relevantly higher in asphyxia+WBH cases, with a subsequent decline to reach at best high or high normal creatinine values (all >50th centile, but mainly >75th centile) from day 4 onwards. Such patterns are valuable to anticipate average changes in renal clearance capacity relevant for pharmacotherapy, but do not yet cover the relevant inter-patient variability observed in WBH cases.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. Pathological deposits of neurotoxin proteins within the brain, such as amyloid-Beta and hyperphosphorylated tau tangles, are prominent features in AD. The prion protein (PrP) is involved in neurodegeneration via its conversion from the normal cellular form PrPc, to the infection form PrP Sc. Some studies indicated that posttranslationally modified PrPc isoforms plays a fundamental role in AD pathological progression. Several studies have shown that interaction of Aβ oligomers with N-terminal residues of the PrPc protein region appears critical for neuronal toxicity. The PrPc-Aβ binding always occur in AD brains and is never detected in nondemented controls and the binding of Aβ aggregates to PrPc is restricted to the N-terminus of PrPc.

The present study measured household hunger in South-East Nigeria amidst COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 1209 households (urban and rural locations) were sampled. Household hunger was determined using Radimer/Cornel hunger scale, while Chi-square test was done with significance of P<0.05. Results of this study revealed 82.7% prevalence of hunger among households before Covid-19 pandemic, while during Covid-19 lockdown, hunger prevalence rose to 98.6%. It was also observed that covid-19 lockdown significantly affected food prices.The major coping strategy employed by households was relying on less expensive foods(81.14%). A genuine fear of household hunger amidst Covid-19 lockdown in south-East Nigeria was confirmed.

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

In this research paper, a novel high step up dc-dc converter with a coupled inductor and voltage doubler circuits is proposed. The converter achieves a high step up voltage gain with an appropriate duty ratio and low voltage stress on the power switches. Also, the energy which is stored in the leakage inductor of the coupled inductor can be recycled to the output. The operating principles and the steady state analysis of the proposed converter are discussed in detail. Finally, a prototype circuit of the proposed converter is implemented in the laboratory in order to verify the performance of the proposed converter.

Parascaris sp. is the only ascarid parasitic nematode in equids and one of the most threatening infectious organisms in horses. Only a limited number of compounds are available for treatment of horse helminthiasis and Parascaris sp. worms have developed resistance to the three major anthelmintic families. In order to overcome the appearance of resistance, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic strategies. The active ingredients of herbal essential oils are potentially effective antiparasitic drugs. Carvacrol is one of the principal chemicals of essential oil from Origanum, Thymus, Coridothymus, Thymbra, Satureja and Lippia herbs. However, the antiparasitic mode of action of carvacrol is poorly understood so far. Here, the objective of the work was to characterize the activity of carvacrol on Parascaris sp. nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) function both in vivo with the use of worm neuro-muscular flap preparations and in vitro with two-electrode voltage-clamp electrophysiology on nAChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes. We have developed a neuromuscular contraction assay on Parascaris body flaps and obtained acetylcholine concentration-dependent contraction responses. Strikingly, we observed that 300 µM carvacrol fully and irreversibly abolished Parascaris sp. muscle contractions elicited by acetylcholine. Conversely, carvacrol antagonized acetylcholine-induced currents from both the nicotine-sensitive AChR and the morantel-sensitive AChR subtypes. Thus, we show for the first time that the body muscle flap preparation is a tractable approach to investigate the pharmacology of Parascaris sp. neuro-muscular system. Our results suggest an intriguing mode of action for carvacrol being a potent antagonist of muscle nAChRs of Parascaris sp. worms which may account for its antiparasitic potency.

Set theory faces two difficulties: formal definitions of sets/subsets are incapable of assessing biophysical issues; formal axiomatic systems are complete/inconsistent or incomplete/consistent. To overtake these problems reminiscent of the old-fashioned principle of individuation, we provide formal treatment/validation/operationalization of a methodological weapon termed “outer approach” (OA). The observer’s attention shifts from the system under evaluation to its surroundings, so that objects are investigated from outside. Subsets become just “holes” devoid of information inside larger sets. Sets are no longer passive containers, rather active structures enabling their content’s examination. Consequences/applications of OA include: a) operationalization of paraconsistent logics, anticipated by unexpected forerunners, in terms of advanced truth theories of natural language, anthropic principle and quantum dynamics; b) assessment of embryonic craniocaudal migration in terms of Turing’s spots; c) evaluation of hominids’ social behaviors in terms of evolutionary modifications of facial expression’s musculature; d) treatment of cortical action potentials in terms of collective movements of extracellular currents, leaving apart what happens inside the neurons; e) a critique of Shannon’s information in terms of the Arabic thinkers’ active/potential intellects. Also, OA provides an outer view of a) humanistic issues such as the enigmatic Celestino of Verona’s letter, Dante Alighieri’s “Hell” and the puzzling Voynich manuscript; b) historical issues such as Aldo Moro’s death and the Liston/Clay boxing fight. Summarizing, the safest methodology to quantify phenomena is to remove them from our observation and tackle an outer view, since mathematical/logical issues such as selective information deletion and set complement rescue incompleteness/inconsistency of biophysical systems.

The runtime environment is an important concern for self-adaptive systems (SASs). Although researchers have proposed many approaches for developing SASs that address the issue of uncertain runtime environments, the understanding of these environments varies depending on the objectives, perspectives, and assumptions of the research. Thus, the current understanding of the environment in SAS development is ambiguous and abstract. To make this understanding more concrete, we describe the landscape in this area through a systematic literature review (SLR). We examined 128 primary studies and 14 unique environment models. We investigated concepts of the environment depicted in the primary studies and the proposed environment models based on their ability to aid in understanding. This illustrates the characteristics of the SAS environment, the associated emerging environmental uncertainties, and what is expressed in the existing environment models. This paper makes explicit the implicit understanding about the environment made by the SAS research community and organizes and visualizes them.

Advancing models for accurate estimation of food production is essential for policymaking and managing national plans of action for food security. This research proposes two machine learning models for the prediction of food production. The adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) methods are used to advance the prediction models. In the present study, two variables of livestock production and agricultural production were considered as the source of food production. Three variables were used to evaluate livestock production, namely livestock yield, live animals, and animal slaughtered, and two variables were used to assess agricultural production, namely agricultural production yields and losses. Iran was selected as the case study of the current study. Therefore, time-series data related to livestock and agricultural productions in Iran from 1961 to 2017 have been collected from the FAOSTAT database. First, 70% of this data was used to train ANFIS and MLP, and the remaining 30% of the data was used to test the models. The results disclosed that the ANFIS model with Generalized bell-shaped (Gbell) built-in membership functions has the lowest error level in predicting food production. The findings of this study provide a suitable tool for policymakers who can use this model and predict the future of food production to provide a proper plan for the future of food security and food supply for the next generations.

Background: The rising prevalence of obesity has a significant impact on obstetrics practice regarding maternal and perinatal complications includes recurrent miscarriage, pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and prolonged labor. Objective: To assess the impact of obesity on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes among Saudi women. Methods: The study was conducted at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Jeddah. Design: A cross-sectional retrospective design. A total number of 186 participants were recruited from July to Dec.2018 according to eligibility criteria. The data were collected retrospectively by a review of the chart records of the labor and delivery department. Results: The mean (SD) age of participants was 31.94(5.67) years old; two-thirds were in obesity class1. There was a significant association between obesity and pre-existing thyroid disease and induced hypertension class3. However, episiotomy showed that obesity class3 was significantly different from obesity class2. Conclusion: This study concludes obesity affects the outcomes of pregnant Saudi associations between obesity and preeclampsia, perineal tears, and episiotomy variables, and other variables reflect no associations. Recommendations: Further studies are needed to generalize the results. This study endorses the pregnant women start the antenatal follow-up from 1st trimester so, the data will be available on the system for research.

Cryptosporidiosis is a major human health concern globally. Despite well-established methods, misdiagnosis remains common. Our understanding of the cryptosporidiosis biochemical mechanism remains limited, compounding the difficulty of clinical diagnosis. Here, we used a systems biology approach to investigate the underlying biochemical interactions in C57BL/6J mice infected with Cryptosporidium parvum. Faecal samples were collected daily following infection. Blood, liver tissues and luminal contents were collected 10 days post infection (dpi). High-resolution liquid chromatography and low-resolution gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry were used to analyse the proteomes and metabolomes of these samples. Faeces and luminal contents were additionally subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis of the acquired data illustrated altered host and microbial energy pathways during infection. Glycolysis/citrate cycle metabolites were depleted, while short-chain fatty acids and D-amino acids accumulated. An increased abundance of bacteria associated with a stressed gut environment was seen. Host proteins involved in energy pathways and Lactobacillus glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were upregulated during cryptosporidiosis. Liver oxalate also increased during infection. Microbiome-parasite relationships were observed to be more influential than the host-parasite association in mediating major biochemical changes in the mouse gut during cryptosporidiosis. Defining this parasite-microbiome interaction is the first step towards building a comprehensive cryptosporidiosis model towards biomarker discovery, and rapid and accurate diagnostics.

The Sei Dareh Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge located in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The bridge, has a main span of 123 meters length and 9 meters wide, crosses the Batanghari River. Traffic load is transmitted through 4 prestressed cables to a 42.4 meter high pylon made of concrete. Bridge deck and traffic loads are directly supported by steel box girders as main beams that are reinforced laterally with cross beams IWF 800.300.16.24 and stringers IWF 350.350.12.19. This paper discusses static and dynamic testing on the bridge which aims to assess the feasibility before it is opened for public. Based on the test, it was concluded that the 73% static load could not be achieved because the deflection that occurred was beyond the allowable deflection. This is exacerbated by the sound of a loud clanging sound on the ST2-X1 prestressed cable when loading to 240 tons or 58% of the targeted load. In addition, this bridge is included in the "lazy bridge" category because it takes 24 hours to return to an undeformed condition after loading. As a recommendation for this bridge, it is necessary to carry out a structural health monitoring system (SHMS) regularly on the vehicle floor and cables.

Nonionizing millimeter-waves (MMW) interact with cells in a variety of ways. Here the inhibited cell division effect was investigated using 85-105 GHz MMW irradiation within the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) non-thermal 20 mW/cm2 safety standards. Irradiation using a power density of about 1.0 mW/cm2 , SAR over 5-6 hours on 50 cells/μl samples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae model organism resulted in 62% growth rate reduction compared to the control (sham). The effect was specific for 85-105 GHz range, and was energy and cell density dependent. Irradiation of wild type and Δrad52 (DNA damage repair gene) deleted cells presented no differences of colony growth profiles indicating non-thermal MMW treatment does not cause permanent genetic alterations. Dose versus response relations studied using a standard horn antenna (~1.0 mW/cm2) and compared to that of a compact waveguide (17.17 mW/cm2) for increased power delivery resulted in complete termination of cell division via non-thermal processes supported by temperature rise measurements. We have shown that non-thermal MMW radiation has potential for future use in treatment of yeast related diseases and other targeted biomedical outcomes.

Achieving eco-efficiency in agriculture production at low environmental costs is key to sustainable agriculture. Using the DEA-SBM model, this study evaluated the agricultural eco-efficiency of the 77 counties and districts in China’s Jiangsu province from 1999 to 2018 and analyzed its spatio-temporal evolution pattern and influencing factors. The mains conclusions were as follows: (1) The overall agricultural eco-efficiency and its decomposition terms, pure technology efficiency and scale efficiency, exhibited a fluctuating downward trend. The regional inequality in agricultural eco-efficiency had been widening and exhibited a strong positive spatial association. (2) The agricultural eco-efficiency in Jiangsu province presented a “high south and low north” spatial pattern. High-level agricultural eco-efficiency areas were in the Taihu Plain in Sunan, while low-level agricultural eco-efficiency zones are distributed across Subei City. The High-High-type spatial association pattern is concentrated in the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region, while the Low-Low areas are mainly in the coastal regions of Subei and Suzhong. (3) The spatial pattern of PTE and SE generally exhibited a “high south and low north” distribution. Areas with positive growth in agricultural eco-efficiency, PTE, and SE, were situated in Xuzhou, Nanjing city, and the bordering regions between Yangzhou and Huai’an, and Changzhou and Wuxi. (4) The excessive redundant use and application of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, agricultural diesel, labor, land, and agricultural carbon emission have been the primary factor affecting Jiangsu's agricultural eco-efficiency. Irrigation had also signficantly impacted agricultural eco-efficiency, while mechanical power and agricultural film had minimal effect. The majority of counties and districts in Subei, Suzhong, and Ningzhen Yang Hilly region have issues regarding their excessive usage of chemical fertilizer, pesticide, chemical fertilizer, agricultural diesel, labor, and land. The findings of this study can contribute towards a better understanding of agricultural eco-efficiency and spatial association effect and can help policymakers increase agricultural eco-efficiency.

Background: The incidence of fracture and surgery of the hip and lower extremities is still high. Long postoperative bed rest has the potential to increase the incidence of various complications that may increase the morbidity and mortality rate of patients after hip and lower extremities surgery. Aim: This literature review aimed to identify the effects of early mobilization in hip and lower extremity postoperative. Method: Search for articles on several databases such as ProQuest, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, Medline, Wiley Online and Scopus, using the Boolean operator by combining several keywords according to the literature review topic, with inclusion criteria are published in the last 3 years (2019-2021), used a quantitative design, written in English and full text articles. A total of 435 articles were obtained, then screened and reviewed, so that there were 16 (sixteen) eligible articles.Result: There were 11 (eleven) effects of early mobilization, i.e. reducing length of stay, reducing the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), reducing pulmonary infections (pneumonia), reducing urinary tract infections, reducing the risk of wound infection, improving extremity function and ability to walk, reducing postoperative pain, reducing the risk of pressure sores, reducing postoperative delirium, reducing readmission and lowering hospitalization costs. Conclusion: This literature review showed that early mobilization is safe and effective in postoperative patients to reduce the risk of complications and adverse events. Nurses and health workers who care for patients could implement early mobilization and motivate patients to be cooperative in undergoing early mobilization.

Heavy metals have adverse effects on microalgae growth and metabolism. Photosynthesis and lipid profile are quite sensitive to heavy metal toxicity. The impact of chromium (Cr) on growth and photosynthetic activity of Dictyosphaerium pulchellum and Micractinium pusillum exposed to different concentrations (0 – 500 μg L-1) was investigated for 11 days. The influence of Cr on cell density and cell number followed similar trends, indicating a possible correlation among these growth responses. A significant (p &lt; 0.05) increase in lipid content was observed with the increasing concentration of Cr however, growth was suppressed at higher concentrations exceeding 100 μg L-1. Addition of Cr in the cell culture medium showed a negative effect on quantum yield (Fv/Fm) and a photosynthetic inhibition of &gt; 65% was noted in both species at 500 μg L-1. However, the lipid gravimetric analysis presented inner cell lipid content up to 36% and 30% of dry weight biomass for D. pulchellum and M. pusillum, respectively. The effects of chromium on growth and lipid accumulation in both microalgae species was concentration and exposure time dependent. This shows that an appropriate concentration of chromium in culture medium could be beneficial for higher lipid accumulation in freshwater eukaryotic microalgae species.

Microbial communities play a key role in sustainable agriculture. However, we still need more in-formation, to understand the complex response of the microbial community to long-term organic farming, which aims to reduce synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use in order to produce sustainably and improve soil quality. We have assessed the long-term effect of two organic cropping systems and a conventional system on the microbial soil community structure using high-throughput se-quencing analysis. We analyzed the link between these communities and changes in soil properties and crop yield. Results showed that the crop yield was similar among the three cropping systems. Soil properties, such as total organic carbon, nitrogen, ammonium, magnesium and boron, influ-enced changes in the bacterial community structure. A linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) showed different bacteria and fungi as key microorganism of each of the three different cropping systems, in addition, our results reflected that fungal community were more sensitive than bacteria to cropping system. This research provides an insight about changes occurred in soils, especially in microbial communities considering the effect of that changes in crop yield which were remained stable among the different cropping systems.

Fructan, a fructose polymer, is used as carbohydrate reserve in many plants. The nutritional and therapeutic benefits of fructans have attracted increasing interest by consumers and food industry. In the course of evolution, many plants have developed the ability of regulating plant frunctan metabolism genes to produce different structures and chain length fructans, which are strongly correlated with their survival in harsh environments. De nevo domestication of fructan-rich plants based on genome editing is a viable and promising approach to improve human dietary quality and reduce the risk of chronic disease. These advances will greatly facilitate breeding and production of tailor-made fructans as a healthy food ingredient from wild plants such as polygonati rhizoma. The purpose of this review is to broaden our knowledge on plant fructan biosynthesis, evolution and beneficial applications for human health.

Metal powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) builds metal parts layer by layer upon a substrate material. The strength of this interface between substrate and printed material is important to characterize, especially in applications where the substrate is retained and included in the finished part. This paper studied the tensile and torsional strengths of wrought and additively manufactured (through PBF) SS316L and compared them to specimens composed of half wrought material and half PBF material. The PBF specimens consistently exhibited higher strength and lower ductility than the wrought specimens. The hybrid PBF/wrought specimens performed similarly to the wrought material. In no specimens did any failure appear to occur at or near the interface between wrought substrate and PBF material. In addition, most of the deformation in the PBF/wrought specimens appeared to be limited to the wrought portion of the specimens. These results are consistent with microscopy showing smaller grain size in the PBF material, which often leads to increased strength in SS316L due to the Hall-Petch relationship.

Deforestation and forest degradation mostly caused by human interventions affects the capacity of forest ecosystem to provide ecosystem services and livelihood benefits. Forest Land Restoration (FLR) is an emerging concept which focuses on the improvement of ecosystem as well as livelihood of the people at the landscape level. Nepal has successfully recovered degraded forest land mainly from the hilly region through forest restoration initiatives especially community based forestry. However, the Terai region is still experiencing deforestation and forest degradation. This study navigated the gaps related to forest restoration in the existing policies and practices and revealed that the persistence of deforestation and forest degradation in Terai is a result of a complex socio-economic structure, limitation of government to implement appropriate management modality, unplanned infrastructure, and urban development. We suggest that forest restoration should focus on ecological and social wellbeing pathways at the landscape level, to reverse the trend of deforestation and forest degradation in the Terai regions of Nepal. The study provides a critical insight to the policy makers and practitioners of Nepal and other countries (with similar context) who are engaged in forest/ecosystem restoration enterprise.

Proteins are the main active molecules of Life. While natural proteins play many roles, as enzymes or antibodies for example, there is a need to go beyond the repertoire of natural proteins to produce engineered proteins that precisely meet application requirements, in terms of function, stability, activity or other protein capacities. Computational Protein Design aims at designing new proteins from first principles, using full-atom molecular models. However, the size and complexity of proteins require approximations to make them amenable to energetic optimization queries. These approximations make the design process less reliable and a provable optimal solution may fail. In practice, expensive libraries of solutions are therefore generated and tested. In this paper, we explore the idea of generating libraries of provably diverse low energy solutions by extending Cost Function Network algorithms with dedicated automaton-based diversity constraints on a large set of realistic full protein redesign problems. We observe that it is possible to generate provably diverse libraries in reasonable time and that the produced libraries do enhance the Native Sequence Recovery, a traditional measure of design methods reliability.

Staphylococcus aureus is a high-priority pathogen causing severe infections with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Many S. aureus strains are methicillin-resistant (MRSA) or even multi-drug resistant. It is one of the most successful and prominent modern pathogens. An effective fight against S. aureus infections requires novel targets for antimicrobial and antistaphylococcal therapies. Recent advances in whole-genome sequencing and high-throughput techniques facilitate the generation of genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs). Among the multiple applications of GEMs is drug-targeting in pathogens. Hence, comprehensive and predictive metabolic reconstructions of S. aureus could facilitate the identification of novel targets for antimicrobial therapies. This review aims at giving an overview of all available GEMs of multiple S. aureus strains. We downloaded all 114 available GEMs of S. aureus for further analysis. The scope of each model was evaluated, including the number of reactions, metabolites, and genes.Furthermore, all models were quality-controlled using Mᴇᴍᴏᴛᴇ, an open-source application with standardized metabolic tests. Growth capabilities and model similarities were examined. This review should lead as a guide for choosing the appropriate GEM for a given research question. With the information about the availability, the format, and the strengths and potentials of each model, one can either choose an existing model or combine several models to create models with even higher predictive values. This facilitates model-driven discoveries of novel antimicrobial targets to fight multi-drug resistant S. aureus strains.

A new approach to fabricate TiNi surfaces combining the advantages of both monolithic and porous materials for implants is used in this work. New materials were obtained by depositing a porous TiNi powder onto monolithic TiNi plates followed by sintering at 1200°C. Then, further modification of the material surface with a high-current-pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) was carried out. Three materials obtained (one after sintering and two after subsequent beam treatment by 20 and 30 pulses, respectively) were studied by XRD, SEM, EDX, EIS methods, profilometry and OCP measurements. Structural and compositional changes caused by HCPEB treatment were investigated. Surface properties of the samples during their storage in saline for 10 days were studied and a model experiment with cell growth (MCF-7) was carried out for the sample unmodified with electron beam to detect cell appearance on different surface locations.

Bacground, the increasing number of elderly is a new challenge for health care systems around the world. The phenomenon of the complex health problems experienced by the elderly encourages families to bring the elderly to a nursing home. The purpose of this study was to describe the condition of the elderly living in nursing homes and their care needs. Methodology, this research design is a literature review, article search using 5 databases, namely Scopus, ProQuest, Pubmed, CINAHL and Scient Direct. Articles reviewed from 2019 to 2021. Protocol and evaluation of literature review using the PRISMA checklist, and the assessment guide using the Joanna Briggs Institute Guideline. Results, the health conditions of the elderly who live in the orphanage are mostly aged 60 years and over, physically experiencing disturbances in their daily activities and dependence. Psychologically experiencing anxiety, depression, loneliness and even mental disorders and socially need family support. The care needs of the elderly in nursing homes include services by competent and culturally sensitive staff and nurses, safe and comfortable nursing home environmental services, privacy needs and social interactions, spiritual needs services, social guidance services, and skills guidance services. Conclusion, based on the literature review, it can be seen that nursing services should be provided in a humanistic and holistic manner, the elderly are clients who have both bio-psycho-socio-cultural and spiritual needs. So that nursing services are aimed at meeting the needs of the elderly in a comprehensive manner.

Biosensors have shown great potential in realizing rapid, low cost and portable on-site detection for diseases. This work reports the development of a new bioelectronic sensor called AC electrokinetics-based capacitive (ABC) biosensor, for the detection of genomic DNA (gDNA) of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The ABC sensor is based on interdigitated microelectrodes biofunctionalized with oligonucleotide probes. It uses a special AC signal for direct capacitive monitoring of topological change on nanostructured sensor surface, which simultaneously induce dieletrophoretic enrichment of target gDNAs. As a result, rapid and specific detection of gDNA/probe hybridization can be realized with high sensitivity. It requires no signal amplification such as labelling, hybridization chain reaction, or nucleic acid sequence-based amplification. This method involves only simple sample preparation. After optimization of nano-structured sensor surface and signal processing, the ABC sensor demonstrated fast turnaround of results (~10 s detection), excellent sensitivity (a detection limit of 4.7 DNA copies /µL MRSA gDNA) and high specificity, suitable for point of care diagnosis. As a bioelectronic sensor, the developed ABC sensors can be easily adapted for detection of other infectious agents.

Epigenetics refers to the DNA chemistry changes that result in the modification of gene transcription and translation independently of the underlying DNA coding sequence. Epigenetic modifications are reported to involve various molecular mechanisms, including classical epigenetic changes affecting DNA methylation and histone modifications and small RNA-mediated processes, particularly that of microRNAs. Epigenetic changes are reversible and are closely interconnected. They are recognised to play a critical role as mediators of gene regulation, and any alteration in these mechanisms has been identified to mediate various pathophysiological conditions. Moreover, genetic predisposition and environmental factors, including dietary alterations, lifestyle or metabolic status, are identified to interact with the human epigenome, highlighting the importance of epigenetic factors as underlying processes in the etiology of various diseases such as MetS. This review will reflect on how both the classical and microRNA regulated epigenetic changes are associated with the pathophysiology of Metabolic syndrome. We would then focus on the various aspects of epigenetic-based strategies used to modify MetS outcomes, including epigenetic diet, epigenetic drugs, epigenome editing tools, and miRNA-based therapies.

This review critically assesses the body of research about Measles-Mumps-and-Rubella (MMR) vaccine attitudes and uptake in the United Kingdom (UK) over the past 10 years. We searched PubMed and Scopus, with terms aimed at capturing relevant literature on attitudes, uptake, decision-making, and beliefs about the MMR vaccine. Two researchers screened for abstract eligibility and after de-duplication 934 studies were selected. After screening, 40 references were included for full-text review and thematic synthesis by three researchers. We were interested in the methodologies employed, and grouped findings by whether studies concerned: (1) Uptake and Demographics; (2) Beliefs and Attitudes; (3) Healthcare Worker Focus; (4) Experimental and Psychometric Intervention; (5) Mixed Methods. We identified group and individual level determinants for attitudes, operating directly and indirectly, that influence vaccine uptake. We found that access issues, often ignored within the public “anti-vax” debate, remain highly pertinent. Finally, a consistent theme was the effect of misinformation and lack of knowledge or trust in healthcare, often stemming from the Wakefield controversy. Future COVID-19 immunisation campaigns for children should consider both access and attitudinal aspects of vaccination, and incorporate a range of methodologies to assess progress, taking into account socio-economic variables and the needs of disadvantaged groups.

This review describes the subjective experience of visual aura in migraine, outlines theoretical models of this phenomenon, and explores how these may be linked to neurochemical, electrophysiological and psychophysical differences in sensory processing that have been reported in migraine with aura. Reaction-diffusion models have been used to model the hallucinations thought to arise from cortical spreading depolarisation and depression in migraine aura. One aim of this review is to make the underlying principles of these models accessible to a general readership. Cortical spreading depolarisation and depression in these models depends on the balance of the diffusion rate between excitation and inhibition, and the occurrence of a large spike in activity to initiate spontaneous pattern formation. We review experimental evidence, including recordings of brain activity made during the aura and attack phase, self-reported triggers of migraine, and psychophysical studies of visual processing in migraine with aura, and how these might relate to mechanisms of excitability that make some people susceptible to aura. Increased cortical excitability, increased neural noise, and fluctuations in oscillatory activity across the migraine cycle are all factors likely to contribute to the occurrence of migraine aura. There remain many outstanding questions relating to the current limitations of both models and experimental evidence. Nevertheless, reaction-diffusion models, by providing an integrative theoretical framework, support the generation of testable experimental hypotheses to guide future research.

Objective: The causes of vertigo and dizziness in children are diverse and require attention from various specialists. Numerous authors have reported that the commonest type of vertigo in children is migraine-associated vertigo (vestibular migraine and benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood - BPV). We aimed to check whether this could be applied to our group of patients. Materials and methods: A retrospective case series of 257 consecutive pediatric vertigo and diz-ziness patients referred to the tertiary pediatric ENT clinic from 2015 to 2020. Patients received a complete audiovestibular workup and were referred to pediatric neurologists and other special-ists depending on the signs and symptoms. Results: Of 257 children aged 1-17 years, almost one fifth of them, 49/257 (19.1 %) had a central type of vertigo, 20/257 of them (7.8%) had benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood and 4/257 (1.6%) had a migrainous type of vertigo. Most of the children, 112/257 (43.6%), remained unclas-sified, without a final diagnosis. Conclusion: Due to the numerous possible causes, a child presenting with dizziness and vertigo requires a multidisciplinary approach. In the majority of cases, vertigo spells are self-limiting. They stop spontaneously and sometimes remain clinically undiagnosed. The most prevalent reasons for pediatric vertigo may be temporary hemodynamic (vaso-vagal) and psychological imbalance.

Biodiesel has caught the attention of many researchers because it has great potential to be sustainable fossil fuel substitute. Biodiesel has non-toxic and renewable nature and has been proven to emit less amount of environmentally harmful emissions such as hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO), as well as smoke particles during combustion. Problems related to global warming caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could also be solved by utilizing biodiesel as a daily energy source. However, the expensive cost of biodiesel production, mainly because of the cost of natural feedstock, holds the potential of biodiesel commercialization. The selection of natural sources of biodiesel should be made with observations from economic, agricultural, and technical perspectives to obtain one feasible biodiesel with superior characteristics. This review paper presents a detailed overview of various natural sources, their physicochemical properties, as well as the performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of biodiesel when used in a diesel engine. The recent progress in studies about natural feedstocks and manufacturing methods used in biodiesel production were evaluated in detail. Finally, the findings of the present work reveal that transesterification is currently the most superior and commonly used biodiesel production method compared to other methods available.

Fermented milk product "Laban" in Libya is one of the most a traditional fermented milk product consumed a refreshing drink, particularly in the warm season The average values of the physicochemical including titratable acidity, pH, total solids, and fat were 0.73%, 4.16, 8.12%, and 1.54% respectively. Coliform, yeast and mold counts were 21×10⁴, 39×10⁴, and 41 ×10³ cfu/ ml., respectively. Most strains of coliform bacteria were Serratia odorifera, Escherichia coli 1, E. coli 2. and Klebsiella oxytoca. The average Lactococcus, Streptococcus, Mesophilic Lactobacillus / Leuconostoc and Thermophilic Lactobacillus counts were 99 ×10⁷, 96 ×10⁷, 93 ×10⁷ and 15 ×10⁷ cfu / ml. respectively. A total of 142 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates were identified to the genus level as Lactobacillus (48.59%), Lactococcus (43.66%), Streptococcus (4.93%) and Leuconostoc (2.82%). Sugar fermentation tests revealed the most frequent Lactobacillus species found to be Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. lactis (62.32%), followed by Lactobacillus plantarum (31.88%). Furthermore, other selected LAB isolates were identified by API 50 CH test as Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactics, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus brevis, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides ssp. cremoris. Thus, our research documented the lactic acid bacteria strains and will provides fundamental basic and useful information for further studies of strain selection starter culture, with regard to the industrial production of fermented dairy milk products.

The relationship between the street environment and the health, education, mobility, and criminal behaviors of its citizens has long been investigated by economists, sociologists and urban planners. Home buyers were found to pay a premium for better street appearance. Prior studies considering streetscapes mainly focus on objective measures such as the number of nearby trees, the tree canopy area, or the view index of physical features such as greenery, sky or building. However, subjective perceptions may have complex or subtle relationships to physical features, individual physical features or simply summing them up do not capture people’s comprehensive perception. In contrast, this study proposed a new approach for the urban-scale application to quantify both subjectively and objectively measured streetscape scores for six important perception qualities, namely Greenness, Walkability, Safety, Imageability, Enclosure, and Complexity. Built on prior quantitative studies in urban design quality and emerging applications in deep learning and open source street view imagery for urban perceptions, we integrated existing frameworks to (1) effectively collect and evaluate both subjectively and objectively- measured perceptions; (2) investigate the coherence and divergence in ML-predicted subjective scores and formula-derived objective scores; and (3) compare their effects in affecting house prices taking Shanghai as a case study using a large-scale dataset on home transactions. The results implied: first, the percentage increase in sales price attributable to street scores is significant for both subjective and objective measurements. In general subjective scores explained more variance over structural attributes and objective scores in hedonic price model. Particularly, objective Greenness, subjective Safety and Imageability scores positively affected house prices. Second, for Greenness and Imageability scores, the subjective and objective measures exhibited opposite signs in affecting house prices, which implied that there might be mechanisms related to the psychological, social-demographical characteristics of street users that have not been fully incorporated by objective measures that taking view indices or recombination of them. In addition, certain objective measure might outperform subjective counterpart when the connotation of the perception is self-evident and not complicated, for example the Greenness. For those concepts were not familiar to the average person, subjective framework exhibits better performance. This is the first study comprehensively expanding hedonic price method with both subjectively and objectively measured streetscape qualities. It suggested that city authorities could levy a street environment tax to compensate the public budget invested in street environment where developers secured benefits from a price premium. This study enriches our understanding of the economic values of the subjective and objective measures street qualities. It sheds light on promising future study areas where the coherence and divergence of the two measurements should be further stressed.

Physical activity is widely recognized as a biotherapy by WHO in the fight and prevention of bone diseases such as osteoporosis. It reduces the risk of disabling fractures associated with many comorbidities, and whose repair is a major public health and economic issue. Bone tissue is a dynamic supportive tissue that reshapes itself according to the mechanical stresses to which it is exposed. Physical exercise is recognized as a key factor for bone health. However, the effects of exercise on bone quality depend on exercise protocols, duration, intensity and frequency. Today, the effects of different exercise modalities on capillary bone vascularization, bone blood flow and bone angiogenesis remain poorly understood and unclear. As vascularization is an integral part of bone repair process, the analysis of the preventive and/or curative effects of physical exercise is currently very undeveloped. Angiogenesis-osteogenesis coupling may constitute a new way for understanding the role of physical activity, especially in fracturing or in the integration of bone biomaterials. Thus, this review aims to clarify the link between physical activities, vascularization and bone repair.

In the last decade, readily available electronic devices have created unprecedented opportunities for teens to access a wide variety of information and media – both positive and negative – on the internet. Despite the increasing number of initiatives taking place worldwide intended to assess and mitigate the online risks encountered by children and adolescents, there is still a need for a better understanding of how adolescents use the internet and what consequences they may face. We conducted a cross sectional online survey of a convenience sample of 733 8th and 9th grade students in Utah. The survey contained eight questions regarding students’ exposure to three types of online risk scenarios: content risk, contact risk, and commercial risk. Independent variables included students’ online behaviors, use of social media and private messaging apps, and adult supervision of online activities. Logistic and negative binomial regression models indicated that female gender, social media use, and chatting with strangers were associated with exposure to multiple unsafe online scenarios. Our results provide critical information to practitioners involved in the development of educational initiatives by building a profile of potentially risky online behaviors and allow them to tailor their initiatives to meet the needs of more vulnerable populations.

The Mediterranean diet represents one of the most studied dietary patterns, however, there is no single tool for measuring the grade of adherence and no single criteria to adapting these indices to pregnant women. We characterized the adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MDA) of pregnant women participating in the NELA cohort and identified the sociodemographic determinants and lifestyle habits associated with a higher risk of a low MDA. Maternal diet during gestation was assessed by a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) (n=665). We estimated Relative Mediterranean Diet score (rMED), Alternative Mediterranean Diet score (aMED) and Alternate Healthy Index-2010 (AHEI-2010). Multivariate regression models were performed to identify the sociodemographic and lifestyle factors associated to each index. Mothers with lower age and more previous deliveries had a greater probability of low MDA (P &lt;0.05). Only, for aMED index, mothers with university education and / or who practiced 2 or more hours per week sport activities had a lower probability of a low MDA (P &lt;0.01). These results may be useful in order to design intervention strategies and dietary recommendation for pregnant women.

Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) was associated with increased cardiometabolic risk. However, it is not fully understood which lifestyle factors are associated with MUO in youth. We aimed to investigate the relationship between MUO and lifestyle patterns in youth. 7-17 years old youth with overweight (N=48; 60.4% girls) and obesity (N=71; 56.3% girls) were recruited in the Pediatric Clinic, Luxembourg (cross-sectional study). Eating and sedentary habits, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and vigorous physical activity (VPA) were assessed. 72.3% of the participants had MUO. Multivariable logistic regressions showed that MUO is most likely to be associated with moderate to low weekly levels of MVPA [OR: 2.09 (95% CI: 1.07 – 4.09; p = 0.030)] and moderate to high weekly soda and lemonade drinks consumption [OR: 2.92 (95% CI: 1.32 – 6.48; p = 0.008)]. After adjustment for age, gender and Tanner stages, MUO was most likely to be associated with moderate to high soda and lemonade drinks consumption [OR: 2.72 (95% CI: 1.21– 6.12; p = 0.016)] and with Tanner stages [OR: 2.06 (95% CI: 1.08– 3.94; p = 0.029)]. We support the promotion of MVPA and the moderation in the sugar-sweetened beverages consumption to manage cardiometabolic health in youth with obesity.

The first attempt to control and mitigate an epidemic outbreak caused by a previously unknown virus occurs primarily via non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which since the early days of 2020 caused the COVID-19 pandemic, NPIs aimed at reducing transmission enabling contacts between individuals. The effectiveness of contact reduction measures directly correlates with the number of individuals adhering to such measures. Here, we illustrate by means of a very simple compartmental model how partial noncompliance with NPIs can prevent these from stopping the spread of an epidemic.

Iloperidone (ILO) is a second-generation antipsychotic drug and a first-line treatment approved by USFDA in May 2009. Iloperidone belongs to Biopharmaceutical Classification Systems (BCS) class II; thus, it is poorly water-soluble, highly permeable, and has pH-dependent solubility. Cyclodextrins and their derivatives have a wide range of applications in different formulations due to their complexation ability, which improves the solubility, stability, safety, and bioavailability of a drug. We have tried the complexation of iloperidone with sulfobutyl ether-β-cyclodextrin (SEβCD) to improve its solubility and dissolution. Complexation was done by the kneading method. The characterization of the SEβCD complexes with Iloperidone was done by FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), saturation solubility, etc. A multimedia dissolution of the complex was carried out and compared with the plain drug. A significant improvement in drug release was found from SEβCD complexes in all media when compared with the drug alone.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the suitability of agro-wastes and crude vegetable oils for the cost effective production of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), to evaluate growth kinetics and PHB production in Alcaligenes faecalis RZS4 and Pseudomonas sp. RZS1 with these carbon substrates and to study the biodegradation of PHB accumulated by these cultures. Alcaligenes faecalis RZS4 and Pseudomonas sp. RZS1 accumulate higher amounts of PHB corn (79.90% of dry cell mass) and rice straw (66.22% of dry cell mass) medium respectively. The kinetic model suggests that the Pseudomonas sp. RZS1 follows the Monod model more closely than A. faecalis RZS4. Both the cultures degrade their own PHB extract under the influence of PHB depolymerase. Corn waste and rice straw appear as the best and cost-effective substrates for the sustainable production of PHB from Alcaligenes faecalis RZS4 and Pseudomonas sp. RZS1. The biopolymer accumulated by these organisms is biodegradable in nature. The agro-wastes and crude vegetable oils are good and low cost sources of nutrients for the growth and production of PHN and other metabolites. Their use would lower the production cost of PHN and the low cost production will reduce the sailing price of PHB based products. This would promote the large scale commercialization and popularization of PHB as ecofriendly bioplastic/biopolymer.

Viral infections, such as those caused by Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1) and SARS-CoV-2, affect millions of people each year. However, there are few antiviral drugs that can effectively treat these infections. The standard approach in the development of antiviral drugs involves the identification of a unique viral target, followed by the design of an agent that addresses that target. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent a novel source of potential antiviral drugs. AMPs have been shown to inactivate numerous different enveloped viruses through the disruption of their viral envelopes. However, the clinical development of AMPs as antimicrobial therapeutics has been hampered by a number of factors, especially their structure as peptides. We have examined the antiviral potential of peptoid mimics of AMPs (sequence-specific N-substituted glycine oligomers). These peptoids have the distinct advantage of being insensitive to proteases, and also exhibit increased bioavailability and stability. Our results demonstrate that several peptoids exhibit potent in vitro antiviral activity against both HSV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 when incubated prior to infection. Visualization by cryo-EM shows viral envelope disruption similar to what has been observed with AMP activity against other viruses. This suggests a common or biomimetic mechanism, possibly due to the differences between the phospholipid head group makeup of viral envelopes and host cell membranes. Furthermore, we observed no cytotoxicity against primary cultures of oral epithelial cells, thus underscoring the potential of this class of molecules as safe and effective broad-spectrum antiviral agents.

Tryptophan metabolism, via the kynurenine (Kyn) pathway, and microbial transformation of tryptophan to indolic compounds, are fundamental for host health; both of which are altered in colon carcinogenesis. Alterations in tryptophan metabolism begin early in colon carcinogenesis as an adaptive mechanism for the tumor to escape immune surveillance and metastasize. The microbial community is a key part of the tumor microenvironment and influences cancer initiation, promotion and treatment response. A growing awareness of the impact of the microbiome on tryptophan (Trp) metabolism in the context of carcinogenesis has prompted this review. We first compare the different metabolic pathways of Trp under normal cellular physiology to colon carcinogenesis, in both the host cells and the microbiome. Second, we review how the microbiome, specifically indoles, influence host tryptophan pathways under normal and oncogenic metabolism. We conclude by proposing several dietary, microbial and drug therapeutic modalities that can be utilized in combination to abrogate tumorigenesis.

A number of studies have been conducted to improve the accessibility of images using touchscreen devices for screen reader users. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of 33 papers to get a holistic understanding of existing approaches and to suggest a research road map given identified gaps. As a result, we identified types of images, visual information, input device and feedback modalities that were studied for improving image accessibility using touchscreen devices. Findings also revealed that little has studied how to automate the generation of image-related information, and that screen reader users play important roles during the evaluation but the design process. Then we introduce two of our recent studies on the accessibility of artwork and comics, AccessArt and AccessComics respectively. Based on the identified key challenges, we suggest a research agenda for improving image accessibility for screen reader users.

Nowadays, cervical cancer (CC) is treated as the leading cancer among women throughout the world. Despite effective vaccination and improved surgery and treatment, CC remains its fatality rate about half of the infected populations globally. The major screening biomarkers and therapeutic target identification have now become a global concern. The present study, we have employed systems biology approaches to retrieve the potential biomarkers and pathways from the transcriptomic profiling. Initially, we have identified 76 of each up-regulated and down-regulated gene from a total of 4,643 differentially expressed genes. The up-regulatory genes are mainly concentrating on immune-inflammatory response and the down-regulatory genes are on receptor binding and gamma-glutamyltransferase. The involved pathways associated with these genes were also assessed through pathway enrichment and they were mainly focused on different cancer pathways, immunoresponse, and cell cycle pathways. After the subsequent enrichment of these genes, we have identified 12 hub genes, which play a crucial role in CC. Furthermore, the survival of the hub genes was also assessed, and among them, finally, CXCR4 has identified as one of the most potential differentially expressed gene that might play a vital role to the survival of CC patients. Thus CXCR4 could be used as a prognostic biomarker and development of a drug target for CC.

Recently, much attention has been devoted to finding highly efficient and powerful activation functions for CNN layers. Because activation functions inject different nonlinearities between layers that affect performance, varying them is one method for building robust ensembles of CNNs. The objective of this study is to examine the performance of CNN ensembles made with different activation functions, including six new ones presented here: 2D Mexican ReLU, TanELU, MeLU+GaLU, Symmetric MeLU, Symmetric GaLU, and Flexible MeLU. The highest performing ensemble was built with CNNs having different activation layers that randomly replaced the standard ReLU. A comprehensive evaluation of the proposed approach was conducted across fifteen biomedical data sets representing various classification tasks. The proposed method was tested on two basic CNN architectures: Vgg16 and ResNet50. Results demonstrate the superiority in performance of this approach. The MATLAB source code for this study will be available at https://github.com/LorisNanni.

Plant pathogenic fungi are the largest group of disease-causing agents on crop plants and represent a persistent and significant threat to agriculture worldwide. Conventional approaches based on the use of pesticides raise social concern for the impact on the environment and human health and alternative control methods are urgently needed. The rapid improvement and extensive implementation of RNAi technology for various model and non-model organisms has provided the initial framework to adapt this post-transcriptional gene silencing technology for the management of fungal pathogens. In this review, we describe exogenous RNAi involved in plant pathogenic fungi and discuss small RNA production, formulation, and RNAi delivery methods. We explore some challenges with possible solutions. Furthermore, exogenous RNAi holds great potential for RNAi-mediated plant pathogenic fungal disease control.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a growing global concern, threatening human and environ-mental health, particularly among urban populations. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are thought to be “hotspots” for antibiotic resistance dissemination. The conditions of WWTPs, in conjunction with the persistence of commonly used antibiotics, may favor the selection and trans-fer of resistance genes among bacterial populations. WWTPs provide an important ecological niche to examine the spread of antibiotic resistance. We used heterotrophic plate count methods to identify phenotypically resistant cultivable portions of these bacterial communities and charac-terized the composition of the culturable subset of these populations. Resistant taxa were more abundant in raw sewage and wastewater before the biological aeration treatment stage. While some antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) were detectable downstream of treated wastewater re-lease, these organisms are not enriched relative to effluent-free upstream water, indicating effi-cient removal during treatment. Combined culture-dependent and culture-independent analyses revealed a stark difference in community composition between culturable fractions and the envi-ronmental source material, irrespective of culturing conditions. Higher proportions of the envi-ronmental populations were recovered than predicted by the widely accepted 1% culturability paradigm. These results represent baseline abundance and compositional data for ARB commu-nities for reference in future studies addressing the dissemination of antibiotic resistance associ-ated with urban wastewater treatment ecosystems.

For several years, drugs bearing reactive electrophilic appendages have been developed. These units typically confer prolonged residence time of the drugs on their protein targets, and may assist targeting shallow binding sites and/or improving drug-protein target spectrum. Studies on natural electrophilic molecules have indicated that in many instances natural electrophiles use similar mechanisms to alter signaling pathways. However, natural reactive species are also endowed with other important mechanisms to hone signaling properties that are uncommon in drug design. These include ability to be active at low occupancy and elevated inhibitor kinetics. Here we discuss how we have begun to harness these properties in inhibitor design.

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to mental health problems worldwide. Nurses are particularly prone to stress because they directly care for individuals with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19. The aim of this study is to explore the association between the mental health promotion strategies used by nurses during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and their symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, and to compare the strategies and symptoms of mental health nurses and non-mental health nurses. Cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 821 nurses. Portuguese nurses demonstrated high symptoms of depressive symptoms, stress, and anxiety. Healthy eating, physical activity, rest between shifts, maintaining social contacts, verbalizing feelings/emotions, and spending less time searching for information about COVID-19 are associated with better mental health. Mental health nurses have less depression, anxiety, and stress, and use more strategies to promote mental health than other nurses. We consider it important to promote nurses’ mental health literacy by encouraging them to develop skills and strategies aimed at improving their resilience and ability to deal with difficult situations while caring for the population.

Among the biggest challenges facing the contemporary human condition, and therefore also education, is responding to the climate crisis. The source of the crisis is assumed to be absent-mindedness, presented by Leslie Dewart as a distortion of the development of human consciousness. Dewart's poorly-known philosophical consciousness study is presented in this paper in broad outline. The problems in the study of consciousness, the most important of which are the qualitative representations – qualia – and the question of free will, are also briefly discussed. These problems are then examined transcendental analytically, with the question of what one must assume in order to allow the emergence of these phenomena. From the resulting conception of causal relationship, we proceed to the circular causality as a prerequisite for life, namely the homeostatic systems and negative feedback. An organization of action that is essential to animals and humans is presented, using William Powers’ perceptual control theory (PCT), and the role of consciousness in this organization is drafted according to the studies of Martin Taylor. Action is seen as continuous problem solving, in which negative feedback is used to bring perceptions into line with the goals. The fundamental function of consciousness is revealed as the direction and enhancement of learning. Based on PCT, it can be shown that the main practical problems in animal and, especially, human action, are related to adverse side effects of action and the resulting various conflicts. The climate crisis is a typical example of the problematic side effects of collective action. Dewart's concept of absent-mindedness can therefore be defined as an inability to responsibly account for the side effects of action. Thus, the main task of education is to forestall, through negative feedback and in cooperation with learner consciousness, absent-mindedness and the problems it causes.

The astacin protease Meprin β represents an emerging target for drug development due to its potential involvement in disorders such as acute and chronic kidney injury and fibrosis. Here, we elaborate on the structural basis of inhibition by a specific Meprin β inhibitor. Our analysis of the crystal structure suggests different binding modes of the inhibitor to the active site. This flexibility is caused, at least in part, by movement of the C-terminal region of the protease domain (CTD). The CTD movement narrows the active site cleft upon inhibitor binding. Compared with other astacin proteases, among those the highly homologous isoenzyme Meprin α, differences in the subsites account for the unique selectivity of the inhibitor. Although the inhibitor shows substantial flexibility in the orientation within the active site, the structural data as well as binding analyses including molecular dynamics simulations support a contribution of electrostatic interactions, presumably by arginine residues, to binding and specificity. Collectively, the results presented here and previously support an induced fit and substantial movement of the CTD upon ligand binding and, possibly, during catalysis. To the best of our knowledge, we here present the first structure of a Meprin β holoenzyme containing a zinc ion and a specific inhibitor bound to the active site. The structural data will guide rational drug design and the discovery of highly potent Meprin inhibitors.

Currently, the clinical impact of cell therapy after a myocardial infarction (MI) is limited by low cell engraftment due to significant cell death, including apoptosis, in an infarcted, inflammatory, poor angiogenic environment, low cell retention and secondary migration. Cells interact with their environment through integrin mechanoreceptors that control their survival/apoptosis/differentiation/migration/proliferation. Optimizing these interactions may be a way of improving outcomes. The association of free cells with a 3D-scaffold may be a way to target their integrins. Collagen is the most abundant structural component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the best contractility levels are achieved with cellular preparations containing collagen, fibrin, or Matrigel (i.e. tumor extract). In the interactions between cells and ECM, 3 main proteins are recognised: collagen, laminin and RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) peptide. The RGD plays a key role in heart development, after MI, and on cardiac cells. Cardiomyocytes secrete their own laminin on collagen. The collagen has a non-functional cryptic RGD and is thus suboptimal for interactions with associated cells. The use of a collagen functionalized with RGD may help to improve collagen biofunctionality. It may help in the delivery of paracrine cells, whether or not they are contractile, and in assisting tissue engineering a safe contractile tissue.

Origins of the time, mass, electric charges and magnetic monopoles are explained. The energies, electric charges and magnetic charges of the particles are defined as E = cDtDV and |q| = cDt = E/DV, and |q_m| = c²Dt, respectively, for the 3-D quantized spaces warped along the time axis direction of ct in the 4-D Euclidean space. The energy (or mass) and charges (or electric charges and magnetic charges) are the vectors along the time axis of ct in the 4-D Euclidean space. This new concept is closely connected to the wave function of the quantum mechanics. The electric charges, magnetic charges and energies have the property of the space direction independence. Magnetic monopoles (charges) are the force carrying bosons with the inside electric field time loop. Electric monopoles are the elementary fermions. Photon space fluctuations are explained with the quantized magnetic charges.

In this paper, a novel synthesis for a chemical precursor for nanocrystalline VO2 coatings is elaborated. The compatibility of the precursor towards the substrate is optimized for spin coating. This is done by subjecting multiple solvents to contact angle measurements. A suitable thermal treatment is developed to densify the coating and to induce crystallization. Afterwards the microstructure of the coating is investigated using X-Ray diffraction, electron microscopy and ellipsometry techniques. To assess the thermochromic properties of the fabricated device, optical transmission experiments were conducted both at room temperature and at elevated temperature. A correlation between these thermochromic properties and coating thickness was investigated in order to obtain an optimized thermochromic device, where both high visual transparency and prominent thermochromic switching abilities are aimed for. In this work, an optimal coating thickness is proposed for a thermochromic coating with high switching ability and solar modulation.

Interleaved power factor correction (PFC) is widely used circuit topology due to good efficiency and power density for single-switch boost PFC. As the differential mode (DM) electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise magnitude depends upon the input current ripple, this research details a comprehensive study of DM EMI filter design for interleaved boost PFC with the aim of minimizing the component size. It is also demonstrated that the different numbers of interleaved stages and switching frequency influence the filter attenuation requirement and, thus, the EMI filter size. First, an analytical model is derived on the basis of the Norton equivalent circuit model for the differential mode noises of interleaved boost PFC within the frequency range of 9-500 kHz. The derived model can help identify the optimal phase shifting among the interleaved boost converters in order to minimize the considered differential mode noises at the filter design frequency. So, a novel phase-shift method is developed to get a minimized attenuation required by a filter in Band B. Further, a volume optimization of the required DM filter was introduced based on the calculated filter attenuation and volumetric component parameters. Based on the obtained results, unconventional and conventional phase shifts have demonstrated a good performance in decreasing the EMI filter volume in Band B and Band A, respectively. A 2-kW interleaved PFC case study is presented to verify the theoretical analyses and the impact of phase-shifting on EMI filter size.

Solar cell layers technology has achieved global standing in the solar cell layers deposition process, and it covers the innovative methods and techniques in significant applications. Recent solar cell layers technology has an advanced interest in a refined approach to enhance performance and highlights the importance of recent proficient procedures for manufacturing. For example, the application is used to search for novel materials for solar cells' layers to clarify the current energy crisis. The technological process and various types of solar cells depend on climate change. Among them, layers of solar cells and silicon wafer solar cells are very encouraging. Solar cell layers technology has led to solar cells being a more reasonable active option in design and production. The productivities facilitated by new solar cells still need to be enhanced for the various processes involved in the additional enhancement from Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) microfilms to solar cell crystal structure dye-sensitized solar cells. The hydrophobic coating works as an anti-dust coating, enhancing efficiency and decreasing the cost of cleaning solar cells. In Saudi Arabia Majmaah City, most solar projects are in dry regions, where the dusty weather reduces solar cell efficiency. Therefore, combining these two properties and applying an anti-reflective and superhydrophobic coating will increase solar cell efficiency by 20%. Solar cells' crystal structure results are substituted with layers or new materials to balance environmental impact and toxic nature.

Biomedical implants are the need of this era due to the increase in number of accidents and follow-up surgeries. Different types of bone diseases such as osteoarthritis, osteomalacia, bone cancer, etc. are increasing globally. Mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs) are used in biomedical devices due to their osteointegration and bioactive properties. In this study, silver (Ag) and strontium (Sr) doped mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (Ag-Sr MBGNs) were prepared by a modified Stöber process. In this method, Ag+ & Sr2+ were co-substituted in pure MBGNs to harvest the antibacterial properties of Ag ions, as well as pro-osteogenic potential of Sr2 ions. The effect of the two ion concentration on morphology, surface charge, composition, antibacterial ability, and in-vitro bioactivity was studied. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the doping of Sr and Ag in MBGNs. SEM and EDX analysis confirmed the spherical morphology and typical composition of MBGNs, respectively. The Ag-Sr MBGNs showed a strong antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus carnosus and Escherichia coli bacteria determined via turbidity and disc diffusion method. Moreover, the synthesized Ag-Sr MBGNs develop apatite-like crystals upon immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF), which suggested that the addition of Sr improved in-vitro bioactivity. The Ag-Sr MBGNs synthesize in this study can be used for the preparation of scaffolds or as a filler material in the composite coatings for bone tissue engineering.

Many studies have found that future predicted CO2 levels (< 800 ppm) can increase plant mass but dilute N content in leaves, impacting antiherbivore compounds. Nitrogen-fixing plants may balance leaf C:N ratio under elevated CO2, counteracting this dilution effect. The aim of this study was to look at how nitrogen-fixing plants grow and respond to herbivore damage at different CO2 levels. Alnus incana ssp. rugosa was grown at 400, 800, or 1600 ppm CO2 in soil collected from the field, inoculated with Frankia and exposed to herbivores (Orgyia leucostigma). Elevated CO2 increased nodulated plant biomass and stimulated the nitrogen fixation rate in the early growth stage. However, nitrogen-fixing plants were not able to balance the C:N ratio under elevated CO2 after grown 19 weeks. When plant were grown at 400 and 1600 ppm CO2, herbivores preferred to feed on leaves of nodulated plants. At 800 ppm CO2, nodulated plants accumulated more total phenolic compounds in response to herbivore damage than plants in the non-Frankia and non-herbivore treatments. Our results suggest that plant leaf defence, not leaf nutritional content, is the dominant driver of herbivory and nitrogen fixing plants have limited ability to balance C:N ratios at elevated CO2 in natural soil.

Knowledge of the interaction between inorganic and organic phosphates with soil minerals is vital for improving the soil P fertility. To achieve an in-depth understanding we combined adsorption experiments and hybrid ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the adsorption of common phosphates, i.e. orthophosphate (OP), glycerolphosphate (GP) and inositolhexaphosphate (IHP), onto the 100 surface plane of goethite. Experimental adsorption data per mol P-molecule basis fitted to the Freundlich model show the adsorption strength increases in the order GP &lt; OP &lt; IHP, and IHP adsorption being saturated faster followed by GP and OP. Modeling results show that OP and GP form stable monodentate (M) and binuclear bidentate (B) motifs with B being more stable than M, whereas IHP forms stable M and 3M motifs. Interfacial water plays an important role through hydrogen bonds and proton transfers with OP/GP/IHP and goethite. It also controls the binding motifs of phosphates with goethite. Combining both experimental and modeling results, we propose that the B motif dominates for OP, whereas GP forms M and IHP forms a combination of M and 3M motifs. The joint approach plausibly explains why IHP is the predominant organically bound P form in soil. This study could be considered as a preliminary step for further studies for understanding the mechanisms of how microbes and plants overcome the strong IHP–mineral binding to implement the phosphate groups into their metabolism.

The social confinement resulting from the COVID-19 crisis temporarily reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Although experts consider that the decrease in pollution rates was not drastic, some surveys detect a growth in social concern about the climate. In this new climate-conscious environment, municipalities and local governments are promoting a new way of living and caring for cities, even before they can regain national and international freedom of movement. This work analyzes the connection between the new climate awareness arising from the COVID-19 crisis, the proposals of sustainable citizenship around the world, and its communication on Twitter to educate the new eco-conscious audience. The methodology mixes quantitative and qualitative analysis, using the Twitonomy Premium tool and the Twitter research tool, with data extracted at the end of December 2020. Among the top 10 most influential and active accounts, the results show educational institutions, local institutions, companies, neighborhood, associations, and influencers. The impossibility of living the city, has not prevented citizen education and commitment to make real change for when that city and its citizens return to normality. Although this new normality must be different: more ecological, more responsible, more sustainable and practiced from early childhood.

This study evaluates the historical mean surface temperature (hereafter T2m) and examines how T2m changes over East Africa (EA) in the 21^st century using CMIP6 models. An evaluation was conducted based on mean state, trends, and statistical metrics (Bias, Correlation Coefficient, Root Mean Square Difference, and Taylor skill score). For future projections over EA, five best performing CMIP6 models (based on their performance ranking in historical mean temperature simulations) under the shared socioeconomic pathways SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios were employed. The historical simulations reveal an overestimation of the mean annual T2m cycle over the study region with fewer models depicting underestimations. Further, CMIP6 models reproduce the spatial and temporal trends within the observed range proximity. Overall, the best performing models are as follows: FGOALS-g3, HadGEM-GC31-LL, MPI-ESM2-LR, CNRM-CM6-1, and IPSL-CM6A-LR. During the three-time slice under consideration, the Multi Model Ensemble (MME) project many changes during the late period (2080 – 2100) with expected mean changes at 2.4 °C for SSP2-4.5 and 4.4 °C for the SSP5-8.5 scenario. The magnitude of change based on Sen’s slope estimator and Mann-Kendall test reveal significant increasing tendencies with projections of 0.24°C decade-1 (0.65°C decade-1) under SSP2-4.5 (SSP5-8.5) scenarios. The findings from this study illustrate higher warming in the latest model outputs of CMIP6 relative to its predecessor, despite identical instantaneous radiative forcing.

When the antioxidants in our immune system cannot neutralize or convert Reactive oxygen species into safe molecules at the rate at which it is produced then this imbalance is termed as “oxidative stress”. It is related with a wide array of diseases that includes cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension etc. These ROS species however are utmost essential for the proper functioning of human body which are produced as a consequence of partial oxidation of cellular metabolism performing essential functions such as protein phosphorylation, activation of several transcriptional factors, apoptosis, immunity, and differentiation. The sources by which these are produced can be broadly classified are intrinsic and extrinsic sources. There are variety of natural antioxidant enzymes of human body that combat against this oxidative stress. The extrinsic sources of ROS include the use of natural plants, extracted flavonoids and vitamins. In this review we will briefly explain how the sources of ROS, its essential function in human body, its elevation and associated damage to organs and effect on various diseases, and a hope of finding a way of how this oxidative stress can be exploited for therapeutic potential.

We characterize the performance of a system based on a magnetoresistor array. This instrument is developed to map the magnetic field, and to track a dipolar magnetic source in the presence of a static homogeneous field. The position and orientation of the magnetic source with respect to the sensor frame is retrieved together with the orientation of the frame with respect to the environmental field. A nonlinear best-fit procedure is used, and its precision, time performance, and reliability are analyzed. This analysis is performed in view of the practical application for which the system is designed that is an eye-tracking diagnostics and rehabilitative tool for medical purposes, which require high speed ($\ge 100$~Sa/s) and sub-millimetric spatial resolution. A throughout investigation on the results makes it possible to list several observations, suggestions, and hints, which will be useful in the design of similar setups.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a vaccine preventable disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), which is primarily prevalent in Asia. JEV is a Flavivirus, classified into a single serotype with five genetically distinct genotypes (I, II, III, IV, and V). JEV genotype III (GIII) had been the most dominant strain and caused numerous out breaks in the JEV endemic countries until 1990. However, recent data shows the emergence of genotype I (GI) as a dominant genotype and it is gradually displacing GIII. The exact mechanism of this genotype displacement is still unclear. The virus can replicate in mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts to maintain its zoonotic life cycle; pigs and aquatic wading birds act as an amplifying/reservoir hosts, and humans and equines are the dead end hosts. The important role of pigs as an amplifying host for JEV is well known. However, the influence of other domestic animals especially birds that live in high abundance and close proximity to human is not well studied. Here, we strive to briefly highlight the role of birds in JEV zoonotic transmission, discovery of birds as a natural reservoirs and amplifying host for JEV, species of birds susceptible to JEV infection, and the proposed effect of JEV on poultry industry in future perspective which have been neglected for a long times. We also discussed the recent in vitro and in vivo studies which show that the newly emerged GI viruses replicated more efficiently in bird-derived cells and ducklings/chicks than GIII, and an important role of birds in the JEV genotype shift from GIII to GI.

This addendum contains clarifications and a sharpening of some of the results on the VIT transform framework developed in [1]. The focus is on the right-coefficient and left- coefficient forms of the transform, the extraction of a first-order term from a left polynomial fraction, and the application to linear time-varying systems.

In this work, kinetics of the reaction between 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(N-methylpyridium-4-yl)porphyrin and Ni2+ species were investigated in aqueous solution at 25 ±1 ºC in I = 0.10 M (NaNO3). Speciation of Ni2+ was carried out in I = 0.10 M (NaNO3) in order to provide the distribution of the Ni2+ species with different solution pH. The experimental data have been compared with the speciation diagram constructed from the values of hydrolysis constants of Ni2+ ion. Speciation data showed that the hexaaquanickel(II), [Ni(H2O)6]2+, ions take place in hydrolysis reactions through formation of [Ni(OH2)6-n(OH)n]2-n species with solution pH. Based on the speciation of Ni2+ and pH dependent rate constants, rate expression can be written as: d[Ni(TMPyP)4+]/dt = (k1[Ni2+(aq)] + k2[Ni(OH)+(aq)] + k3[Ni(OH)2o(aq)] + k4[Ni(OH)3-(aq)])[H2TMPyP4+], where k1, k2, k3 and k4 were found to be k1 = (0.62 ± 0.22) × 10-2; k2 = (3.60 ± 0.40) × 10-2; k3 = (2.09 ± 0.52) × 10-2, k4 = (0.53 ± 0.04) × 10-2 M-1s-1 at 25 ±1 °C, respectively. Kinetic results showed that monohydroxo, [Ni(H2O)5(OH)]+, is the most reactive among the [Ni(OH2)6-n(OH)n]2-n species. The enhanced reactivity has been ascribed to the formation of hydrogen bonding between oxygen atom of hydroxyl group of the [Ni(H2O)5(OH)]+ species and the pyrrolic hydrogen atom of the [H2TMPyP]4+. The rate of formation of [Ni(II)TMPyP]4+ complex was to be 3.99 × 10-2 M-1s-1 in I = 0.10 M, NaNO3 (25 ± 1 ºC). Ionic strength effect on the reaction rate is suggested that the net charge of the tetracationic porphyrin is to be +3.6 on the basis of Brønsted-Bjerrum equation. The UV-Vis and fluorescence data revealed that [Ni(II)TMPyP]4+ and H2(TMPyP)4+ interact with DNA, and UV-Vis results suggest that Ni(II)-porphyrin and free base porphyrin interact with DNA via outside binding with self-stacking and intercalation, respectively. Mechanism of kinetics of formation of the [Ni(II)TMPyP]4+ complex in aqueous medium is discussed. An investigation of application of the [Ni(II)TMPyP]4+ complex along with other metalloporphyrins such as Zn2+-, Ru2+-, Pt2+-, [Au(III)TMPyP]5+ as anti-COVID-19 agents is now in progress under international collaboration.

In this paper, we introduce a computational procedure that enables autonomous LEO laser trackers endowed with INSs to increase the current accuracy when shooting at middle distant medium-size LEO debris targets. The code is designed for the trackers to throw the targets into the Atmosphere by means of ablations. In case that the targets are eclipsed to the trackers by the Earth, the motions of the trackers and targets are modeled by equations that contain post-Newtonian terms accounting for the curvature of space. Otherwise, when the approaching targets become visible for the trackers, we additionally use more accurate equations, which allow to account for the local bending of the laser beams aimed at the targets. We observe that under certain circumstances the correct shooting configurations that allow to safely and efficiently shoot down the targets, differ from the current estimations by distances that may be larger than the size of many targets. In short, this procedure enables to estimate the optimal shooting instants for any middle distant medium-size LEO debris target.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisaged under Agenda 2030 are a set of seventeen goals which envisage a holistic approach towards attaining certain targets keeping humankind and the planet at center. There are total 169 targets spread across seventeen goals covering wide ranging issues and challenges the world is facing in the twenty-first century. And they are to be achieved by 2030. Concerted efforts of all the stakeholders ranging from indigenous communities, common citizens, scientists, policy makers, world leaders are needed to achieve all the goals and targets Of the seventeen goals, at least seven goals are of interest to the ethnobotanists and are associated with traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. Therefore to achieve those set of goals, a thorough understanding is required to disentangle the intricacies involving traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, indigenous people as traditional knowledge holders and their future role. Understanding relationships between traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and indigenous communities, seeking cooperation from and establishing partnerships with them would help us design policies to achieve intended outcomes of SDGs. In this paper, particular attention is attracted towards the potential role of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge in achieving select sustainable development goals and targets.

Formation of new blood (angiogenesis) and lymphatic (lymphangiogenesis) vessels are major events associated with most epithelial malignancies, including breast cancer. Angiogenesis is essential for cancer cell survival. Lymphangiogenesis is critical in maintaining tumoral interstitial fluid balance and importing tumor-facilitatory immune cells. Both vascular routes also serve as conduits for cancer metastasis. Intratumoral hypoxia promotes both events by stimulating multiple angiogenic/lymphangiogenic growth factors. Studies on tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis and its exploitation for therapy have received less attention from the research community than those on angiogenesis. Inflammation is a key mediator of both processes, hijacked by many cancers by aberrant expression of the inflammation-associated enzyme cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2. In this review, we focus on breast cancer and show that COX-2 is a major promoter of both events, primarily resulting from the activation of Prostaglandin (PG) E receptor EP4 on tumor cells, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and endothelial cells; and induction of oncogenic microRNAs. COX-2/EP4 pathway also promotes additional events in breast cancer progression, such as cancer cell migration, invasion, and stimulation of stem–like cells. Based on a combination of studies using multiple breast cancer models, we show that EP4 antagonists hold a major promise in breast cancer therapy in combination with other modalities including immune check-point inhibitors

In this paper, we propose and evaluate two mechanisms aimed at improving the communication reliability of IEEE 802.15g SUN (Smart Utility Networks) in industrial scenarios: RTS (Re-Transmission Shaping), which uses acknowledgements to track channel conditions and dynamically adapt the number of re-transmissions per packet, and AMS (Adaptive Modulation Selection), which makes use of reinforcement learning based on MAB (Multi-Armed Bandits) to choose the modulation that provides the best reliability for each packet re-transmission. The evaluation of both mechanisms is performed through computer simulations using a dataset obtained from a real-world deployment and two widely used metrics, the PDR (Packet Delivery Ratio) and the RNP (Required Number of Packet transmissions). The PDR measures the ratio between received and transmitted packets, whereas the RNP is the number of packet repetitions before a successful transmission. The results show that both mechanisms allow to increase the communication reliability while not jeopardizing the battery life-time constraints of end devices. For example, when three re-transmissions per packet are allowed, the PDR reaches 98/96\% with a RNP of 2.03/1.32 using RTS and AMS, respectively. Additionally, the combination of both proposed mechanisms allows to reach a 99% PDR with a RNP of 1.7, making IEEE 802.15.4g SUN compliant with the stringent data delivery requirements of industrial applications.

This study intends to study a distinct typology of vernacular architecture built by the Manipuri communities of Bangladesh. The Manipuris are one of the ethnic diasporic communities in Bangladesh commonly known for their diverse cultural practice, including their dance form. This research aims to reveal the cultural entity of Manipuri that has been transformed into their living environment and household architecture. Architectural elements adapted by the Manipuris are assessed here as a part of cultural symbols to have a rigorous view of the philosophy of living. This study is a documentation of Manipuri habitat culture through the intervention of their living environment, which will attract any future working on this issue. This research shows that despite a rapid socio-economic change of context, the Manipuri housing practice is deeply connected to their socio-cultural and religious values. As the authors used an observational and ethnographical approach to studying vernacular architecture for this research.

Affordable Housing, the basic human necessity has now become a critical problem in global cities with direct impacts on people's well-being. While a well-functioning housing market may augment the economic efficiency and productivity of a city, it may trigger housing affordability issues leading crucial economic and political crises side by side if not handled properly. In global cities e.g. Singapore and Hong Kong where affordable housing for all has become one of the greatest concerns of the Government, this issue can be tackled capably by the provision of public housing. In Singapore, nearly 90% of the total population lives in public housing including public rental and subsidized ownership, whereas the figure tally only about 45% in Hong Kong. Hence this study is an effort to scrutinizing the key drivers of success in affordable public housing through following a qualitative case study based research methodological approach to present successful experience and insight from different socio-economic and geo-political context. As a major intervention, this research has clinched that, housing affordability should be backed up by demand-side policies aiming to help occupants and proprietors to grow financial capacity e.g. subsidized rental and subsidized ownership can be an integral part of the public housing system to improve housing affordability.

The term dehumanisation refers to the ways in which a person is perceived to be less than human or treated as if they are less than human. It involves treating a person as if they are a child or infant, like an animal or non-living object, or as if they are dead, or any other way in which someone fails to be treated like a human being with an adult identity. Dehumanisation is widespread in dementia care; it is a major obstacle to person-centred care and has poor outcomes for people with dementia. This article proposes a new model of dehumanisation. The New Model presents a new way of describing dehumanisation that has been synthesised from current understanding about the phenomenon and reflects what is presently known about the subject. The model aims to summarise existing theories and models of dehumanisation and make dehumanisation theory accessible to students and trainees in healthcare. This article describes the new model, discusses existing models and theories in the literature, and explores the potential role of the new model in solutions for reducing dehumanisation in dementia care.

In this paper we will consider the cosmic fluid to be dissipating i.e it has both bulk and shearing viscosity. We propose the Hamiltonian formalism of Bianchi type 1 cosmological model for cosmic fluid which is dissipating i.e it has both shearing and bulk viscosity. We have considered both the equation of state parameter ω and the cosmological constant Λ as the function of volume V(t) which is defined by the product of three scale factors of the Bianchi type 1 line element. We propose a Lagrangian for the anisotropic Bianchi type-1 model in view of a variable mass moving in a variable potential . We can decompose the anisotropic expansion of Bianchi type 1 in terms of expansion and shearing motion by Lagrangian mechanism. We have considered a canonical transformation from expanding scale factor to scalar field ø which helps us to give the proper classical definition of that scalar field in terms of scale factors of the mentioned model. By this transformation we can express the mass to be moving in a scalar potential field. This definition helps us to explain the nature of expansion of universe during cosmological inflation. We have used large anisotropy(as in the cases of Bianchi models) and proved that cosmic inflation is not possible in such large anisotropy. Therefore we can conclude that the extent of anisotropy is less in case of our universe. Otherwise the inflation theory which explained the limitations of Big Bang cannot be resolved. In the case of bulk and shearing viscous fluid we get the solution of damped harmonic oscillator after the cosmological inflation.Part I contains the calculations of bulk viscous fluids and Part II contains the calculations of bulk and shearing viscous fluid.At the end we have also provided the relation of shearing and expansion.Part III will give the approximation of low viscosity to solve the viscous fluid problem.

In this work, we apply ensemble formalism to a geometric agents model to study the effect of saving propensity in a system with money, credit, and debt. We calculate the partition function to obtain the total money of the system, with which we give an interpretation of the economic temperature in terms of the different payment methods available to the agents. We observe an interplay between the fraction of money that agents can save and the debt that can be financed. We also observe that the system’s entropy increases as the saved proportion increases and increases, even more, when debt is present.

The Burnout syndrome is a negative experience for the athlete development and it has been demonstrated that it gets worse when a sport is practiced in an obsessive way. The interventions about a positive vision through the sport could be a protective factor to boost the athlete’s wellbeing. The aim of the present study was to analyze the mediator effect from social support, the relationship between the burnout, positivity and passion in young Mexican athletes. The sample was composed by 452 Mexican athletes, males and females from 12 to 18 years of age (M = 16.29, SD = 1.66). Participants answered the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire, The Scale of the Social Support Perceived by Athletes, the Passion Scale and the Positivity Scale. The results of structural equation modeling showed the model presented a good adjustment (χ2 = 813.507; df = 229; χ2 /df = 3.552; p &lt; 0.01; CFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.91; IFI = 0.93; NFI = 0.91; RMSEA = 0.07). The positivity and harmonious passion presented direct and indirect effects over the burnout, being the perceived social support the mediator variable of the indirect effects. However, the effect of the obsessive passion mediated by the perceived social support did not resulted significant.

Background: Post-operative delirium in elderly with hip fracture is associated with various adverse clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, the pathophysiological processes underpinning delirium have remained elusive. The aim of this study is to explore the associations between delirium and its features and immune-inflammatory and blood gas biomarkers.Methods: In this prospective study we examined 65 patients who underwent a hip fracture surgery and assessed the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU), Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS), and Delirium Rating Scale Revised-98 (DRS-R-98) before and during 4 days after the surgery. Complete Blood Count (CBC) and venous blood gas markers were obtained at the same time points.Results: Delirium was observed in 19 patients and was accompanied by significantly increased pO2, number of white blood cells, neutrophil percentage, and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and lower mean platelet volume (MPV) (after adjusting for age, central nervous system (CNS) disease, blood loss during surgery, sleep disorders, and body mass index. The severity of delirium was associated with lowered number of platelets and MPV. Psychomotor disorders were associated with lower bicarbonate levels. The requirement of physical restraint of the patients was predicted by increased percentages of neutrophils and lymphocytes. Prior CNS disease was together with these biomarkers a significant predictor of delirium and severity of delirium. Conclusion: Delirium and psychomotor disorders following hip fracture and surgery may be caused by immune-inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways probably attributable to an aseptic inflammatory process. Oxygen administration may aggravate these pathways.

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a well-known group of viruses in veterinary medicine. We currently know four genera of Coronavirus, alfa, beta, gamma and delta. Wild, farmed and pet animals are infected with CoVs belonging to all four genera. Seven human respiratory coronaviruses have still been identified, four of which cause upper respiratory tract diseases, specifically, the common cold, and the last three that have emerged cause severe acute respiratory syndromes, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. In this review we briefly describe animal coronaviruses and what we actually know about SARS-CoV-2 infection in farm and domestic animals.

The purpose of this article is to analyze, in a three-stage research, the relationships between environmental expenses, the improvements achieved in 5 environmental variables analyzed and efficiency, from an economic and operational perspective. The stages of this research are analyzing the sustainability reports to determine the level of information, analyzing the economic and operational efficiency, and analyzing the alignment with the environmental priorities of the Eco Ports-ESPO (European Sea Ports Organization). The results reveal that (1) the type of traffic does not condition environmental actions; (2) environmental performance (improvements) depends on environmental expenditures; (3) environmental spending and efficiency in port operations are correlated; and (4) environmental spending and port economic efficiency are correlated.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogenous RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by targeting either the 3′ untranslated or coding regions of genes. They have been reported to play key roles in a wide range of biological processes. The recent remarkable developments of transcriptomics technologies, especially next-generation sequencing technologies and advanced bioinformatics tools, allow more in-depth exploration of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) including miRNAs. These technologies have offered great opportunities for a deeper exploration of miRNA involvement in farm animal diseases, as well as livestock productivity and welfare. In this review, we provide an overview of the current knowledge of miRNA roles in farm animal diseases with a particular focus on diseases of economic importance. In addition, we discuss the steps and future perspectives of using miRNAs as biomarkers and molecular therapy for livestock disease management as well as the challenges and opportunities for understanding the regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs related to disease pathogenesis.

The focus of this study is to identify whether resilience and sustainable development can be used as an image for strategic planning of the city marketing. Resilience is about building and planning for future proof the cities. How urban challenges and crisis have the lowest impact and the maximum of bounce back and evolution. Resilience is part of the sustainable development. Thus, it is important for the decision-makers to define the mission on their strategic planning in a holistically way taking into consideration the basic assets of a city, the environment, the economy and the society and how can all of them can be combined to marketing the city and take into consideration the internal and external environment. As the past few years’ city marketing has become an important tool for the urban development. The main goal is to show how city marketing can be applied on a city that tries to be more resilient and more sustainable by using strategic urban planning to set the vision, to identify the challenges and the problematic areas and to set new goals and objectives in order to plan and build to future proof the complexity of an urban system. For answering the questions of this article we use two case studies Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Thessaloniki (Greece), using a literature review and researches conducted alongside with a benchmarking of their resilient strategies as both of the cities are members of the Resilient Cities Network. From a different perspective of resilient thinking, both of the cities have managed to use resilience as a marketing image for further sustainable development.

Energy and institutional quality are two factors that determine economic output, but these two factors are often neglected in the search for economic output. Therefore, this study examines the relative importance of energy use and its interaction with institutional quality for economic output. We employ a robust econometric estimation technique on a panel sample of 21 African countries between 2002-2019. Our results show that energy use is significant and negatively related to economic output while moderating terms of institutional quality are significantly associated with economic output, but the direction of the association depends on the specific quality. We find the moderating term control of corruption and government effectiveness to be negative and significantly associated with economic output, whilst political stability, regulatory quality, rule of laws, voice, and accountability positively impact. Our results imply that improved economic output is possible when there are specific institutional strategies.

Background. False memories tend to increase in healthy and pathological aging, and their reduction could be useful in improving cognitive functioning. The objective was to use an active-placebo method to verify whether the application of tDCS in improving true recognition and reducing false memories in healthy older people. Method. Participants were 29 healthy older adults (65-78 years old) assigned to active or placebo group; active group received anodal stimulation at 2mA for 20 min over F7. An experimental task was used to estimate true and false recognition. The procedure took place in two sessions on two consecutive days. Results. A mixed ANOVA of true recognition showed a significant main effect of session (p = .004), indicating an increase from before treatment to after it. False recognition showed a significant main effect (p = .004), indicating a decrease from before treatment to after it and a significant session x group interaction (p < .0001). Conclusions. Overall, our results show that tDCS is an effective tool for increasing true recognition and reducing false recognition in healthy older people, and suggest that stimulation improves recall by increasing the number of items a participant can recall and reducing the number of memory errors.

Coral reefs are declining worldwide due to global changes in the marine environment. The increasing frequency of massive bleaching events in the tropics is highlighting the need to better understand the stages of coral physiological responses to extreme conditions. Moreover, like many other coastal regions, coral reef ecosystems are facing additional localized anthropogenic issues such as nutrient loading, increased turbidity, and coastal development. Different strategies have been developed to measure the health status of a damaged reef, ranging from the resolution of individual polyps to an entire coral community, but techniques for measuring coral physiology in situ are not yet widely implemented. For instance, while there are many studies of the coral holobiont response in single or limited-number multiple stressor experiments, they provide only partial insights to metabolic performance under more complex temporally and spatially variable natural conditions. Here, we discuss the current status of coral reefs and their global and local stressors in the context of experimental techniques that measure core processes in coral metabolism (respiration, photosynthesis, and biocalcification) in situ, and their role in indicating the health status of colonies and communities. We highlight the need to improve the capability of in situ studies in order to better understand the resilience and stress response of corals under multiple global and local scale stressors.

Centromeres are among the fastest evolving genomic regions in a diverse array of organisms. The evolutionary process driving this rapid evolution has not been unambiguously established. Here I integrate diverse information to motivate a model in which centromeres evolve rapidly because of their intrinsic molecular phenotype: they tightly bind centromeric proteins throughout the cell cycle. DNA-bound proteins have been shown to cause stalling and collapse of DNA replication forks in many genomic regions, including centromeres. Collapsed replication forks generate one-sided double strand breaks (DSBs) that are repaired by the Break-Induced Repair (BIR) pathway. Here I show why this repair is expected to generate tandem repeat structure and three key features at centromeres: i) increased nucleotide substitution mutation rates, ii) out-of- register re-initiation of replication that leads to indels spanning one or more repeat units, and iii) elevated rates of large and small transpositions within centromeres and between genomic regions. These phenotypes lead to: i) a rapid rate of nucleotide substitutions within a clade of centromeric sequences, ii) continual turnover of monomers within centromeres that fosters molecular-drift and molecular-drive, and iii) recurrent quantum leaps in centromere sequence due to the formation of mosaic monomers and new sequences transposed into non-homologous centromeres. These features are plausibly the major reason centromeres evolve so rapidly. I also speculate on how the DNA sequence of centromeres might perpetually coevolve with the protein sequence of histone CENH3 –the major epigenetic mark of centromeres.

In this article we report the first investigation over time of the atmospheric conditions around TGFs occurrence, using GPS sensors in combination with geostationary satellite observations and ERA5 reanalyses data. The goal is to understand which characteristics are favourable to the development of these events and to investigate if any precursor signals can be expected. A total of 9 TGFs, occurred at a distance lower than 45 km from a GPS sensor, were analysed and two of them are shown here as an example analysis. Moreover, the lightning activity, collected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) was used in order to identify any links and correlations with TGF occurrence and PWV trends. The combined use of GPS and the stroke rate trends identified, for all cases, a recurred pattern in which an increase of PWV is observed on a timescale of about two hours before the TGF occurrence that can be placed within the lightning peak. The temporal relation between the PWV trend and TGF occurrence is strictly related to the position of GPS sensors in relation to TGF coordinates. The life cycle of these storms observed by geostationary sensors, described TGFs producing clouds as intense with a wide range of extensions and, in all cases, the TGF is located at the edge of the convective cell. Furthermore, the satellite data give an added value in associating the GPS water vapor trend to the convective cell generating the TGF. The investigation with ERA5 reanalyses data showed that TGFs mainly occur in convective environment with not exceptional values with respect to the monthly average value of parameters measured in the same location. Moreover the analysis showed the strong potential of the use of GPS data for the troposphere characterization in areas with complex territorial morphology. This study provided indications on the dynamics of convective systems linked to TGFs and will certainly help refine our understanding on their production highlights a potential approach through the use of GPS data to explore the lightning activity trend and the TGFs occurrence.

We report the treatment of a 21-year-old female Covid-19 patient by a novel combination of minocycline and a guanosine-restricted diet. Minocycline is an antibiotic with well documented broad spectrum anti-viral effects, including evidence of activity against SARS-CoV-2. Deprivation of guanosine has been documented as an effective anti-viral modality in vitro and in animal models, and specific in vitro activity against CoV-SARS-2 has been reported. The patient's symptoms resolved rapidly.

Adult neurogenesis is an evolutionary conserved process occurring in all vertebrates. However, striking differences are observed between the taxa, considering the number of neurogenic niches, the neural stem cell (NSC) identity and brain plasticity under constitutive and injury-induced conditions. Zebrafish has become a popular model for the investigation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in adult neurogenesis. Compared to mammals, the adult zebrafish displays a high number of neurogenic niches distributed throughout the brain. Furthermore, it exhibits a strong regenerative capacity without scar formation or any obvious disabilities. In this review, we will first discuss the similarities and differences regarding (i) the distribution of neurogenic niches in the brain of adult zebrafish and mammals (mainly mouse) and (ii) the nature of the neural stem cells within the main telencephalic niches. In the second part, we will describe the cascade of cellular events occurring after telencephalic injury in zebrafish and mouse. Our study clearly shows that most early events happening right after the brain injury are shared between zebrafish and mouse including cell death, microglia and oligodendrocyte recruitment, as well as injury-induced neurogenesis. In mammals one of the consequences following an injury is the formation of a glial scar that is persistent. This is not the case in zebrafish, which may be one of the main reasons that zebrafish display a higher regenerative capacity.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas is critical for forest conservation policies and priorities. To evaluate their effectiveness, we used 30-m resolution forest cover change data between 1990 and 2010 for ~4,000 protected areas and analyzed the relationships of the effectiveness of protected areas with socio-economic variables. Our results show that protected areas in the Tropics avoided 83,500 ± 21,200 km2 of deforestation during the 2000s. Brazil’s protected areas have the largest amount of avoided deforestation of 50,000 km2. We also show the amount of international aid received by tropical countries compared to the effectiveness of protected areas. International aid had major benefits in Latin America led by Brazil while tropical Asian countries used the resource ineffectively. Our results demonstrate that protected areas have been relatively more efficient in countries where deforestation pressures were increasing, and governance and forest change monitoring capacity are important factors for enhancing the efficacy of international aid.

Philippine Lime or Calamansi is considered one of the Philippine high-value crops in Nueva Ecija province. This article presents some issues and problems of the calamansi industry in terms of marketing. The study used a descriptive survey of 56 farm-owners or calamansi growers. Findings revealed that lime production could be a stable income source if the growers can provide the necessary production inputs on a sustainable basis. Calamansi farmers in the province some often confronted with the following problems: the high cost of farm inputs, price fluctuations, price manipulation of big-time traders, and other intermediaries. The study also found out that the existing actors in the chain were limited to growers, laborers, agri-supply shops, nursery owners, intermediaries, and traders. In terms of trading, there is a high degree of competition among traders in the market. The findings and results from this study may have important factors in developing and designing effective agricultural marketing program and startegic development plan by the authorities in the region.

Wearable technology will become available and allow prolonged electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring in the home environment of patients with epilepsy. Neurologists analyse the EEG visually and annotate all seizures, which patients often under report. Visual analysis of a 24 hour EEG recording typically takes one to two hours. Reliable automated seizure detection algorithms will be crucial to reduce this analysis. We study a dataset of behind-the-ear EEG measurements. Our first aim was to develop a methodology to reduce the EEG dataset by classifying part of the data automatically, while retaining 100% detection sensitivity (DS). Prediction confidences are determined by temperature scaling of the classification model outputs and trust scores. A DS of approximately 90% (99%) can be achieved when automatically classifying around 90% (60%) of the data. Perfect DS can be achieved when automatically classifying 50% of the data. Our second contribution demonstrates that a common modelling strategy, where predictions from several short EEG segments are used to obtain a final prediction, can be improved by filtering out untrustworthy segments with low trust scores. The false detection rate shows a relative decrease between 21% and 43%, and the DS shows a small increase or decrease.

During the COVID-19 pandemic face masks grew in importance as their use by the general population was recommended by health officials in order to minimize the risk of infection and prevent further spread of the virus. To ensure health protection of medical personal and other system relevant staff, it is of considerable interest to quickly test if a certain lot of filtering facepiece masks meets the requirements or if the permeability changes under different conditions. As certified penetrometers are rather expensive and were difficult to obtain during the COVID-19 pandemic, we describe two quite simple and cheap methods to quickly test the filter permeability based on an electronic cigarette. The first method uses a precision scale, the second method uses a light scattering detector to measure the filter penetration. To make sure these two methods yield reliable results, both were tested with freshly cut filter samples covering the range of approx. 7% to 60% permeability and compared to the results of a certified penetrometer. The comparison of the two methods with the certified penetrometer showed a good correlation and therefore allow a quick and rather reliable estimation of the permeability. Several examples about the use of faulty masks and the resulting health risks show that simple, fast, cheap and broadly available methods for filter characterization might be useful in these days.

In many image processing and computer vision applications, the main aim is to describe image contents. So, different visual properties such as color, texture and shape are extracted to make aim. In this respect, texture information play important role in image description and visual pattern classification. Texture is referred to a specific local distribution of intensities that is repeated throughout the image. Since now different operations or descriptors have been proposed to analysis texture characteristics. In the multi object images specific texture operators usually doesn’t provide accurate results. So, in many cases, combination of texture operators are used to achieve more discriminant features. In this paper, some combination methods are survived to analysis effect of combinational texture features in image content description. Also, in the result part, different related methods are compared in terms of accuracy and computational complexity.

(1) Background: Nicotine is implicated in the SARS-COV-2 infection through activation of the α7-nAChR and over-expression of ACE2. Our objective is to clarify the role of nicotine in SARS-CoV-2 infection exploring its molecular and cellular activity. (2) Methods: HBEpC or si-mRNA-α7-HBEpC were treated for 1, 48 h or continuously with 10-7 M Nicotine, a concentration mimicking human exposure to a cigarette. Cell viability and proliferation were evaluated by trypan blue dye exclusion and cell counting, migration by cell migration assay, senescence by SA-beta-Gal activity, and anchorage-independent growth by cloning in soft agar. Expression of Ki67, p53/phospho-p53, VEGF, EGFR/pEGFR, phospho-p38, intracellular Ca+2, ATP and EMT were evaluated by ELISA and/or western blotting. (3) Results: Nicotine induced through α7-nAChR (i) increase in cell viability (ii) cell proliferation; (iii) Ki67 over-expression, (iv) phospho-p38 up-regulation (v) EGFR/pEGFR over-expression; (vi) increase in basal Ca+2 concentration, (vii) reduction of ATP production; (viii) decreased level of p53/phospho-p53, (ix) delayed senescence, (x) VEGF increase, (xi) EMT and consequent (xii) enhanced migration, and (xiii) ability to grow independently of the substrate. (4) Conclusions: Based on our results and on evidence showing that Nicotine potentiates viral infection it is likely that Nicotine is involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection and severity

Pediculus humanus capitis, the head louse, is an obligate blood-sucking ectoparasite that occurs in six divergent mitochondrial haplogroups (A, D, B, F, C and E), each exhibiting a particular geographic distribution. A few years ago, several studies reported the presence of different pathogenic agents in head lice specimens from different clades collected worldwide. These findings suggest that head louse could be a vector for dangerous diseases and therefore a serious public health problem. Herein, we aimed to study the mitochondrial genetic diversity, the PHUM540560 gene polymorphisms profile of head lice collected in Guinea, as well as to screen for the pathogens present in these lice. In 2018, a total of 155 head lice were collected from 49 individuals at the Medicals Centers of rural (Maférinyah village) and urban (Kindia city) areas, in Guinea. All head lice were subjected to genetic analysis and screened for the presence of several pathogens using molecular tools. The results showed that all head lice belonged to the haplogroups C/E using the duplex qPCR which detects both clades. Standard PCR and sequencing revealed that all specimens belonged to the haplogroup E, including 8 haplotypes, whither 6 new identified for the first time in this study. The study of the PHUM540560 gene polymorphisms in our Guinean head lice revealed that 7/40 (17.5%) of our tested samples exhibit three different polymorphism profiles compared to the clade A-head lice PHUM540560 gene profile, while the remaining specimens 33/40 (82,5%) showed the same PHUM540560 gene polymorphism profile as the previously reported clade A-body lice. Molecular investigations of the targeted pathogens revealed only the presence of Acinetobacter species in 9% of our samples using real time PCR. Sequencing results identified highlighted the presence of several Acinetobacter species, including Acinetobacter baumannii (14.3%), Acinetobacter nosocomialis (14.3%), Acinetobacter variabilis (14.3%), Acinetobacter haemolyticus (7.2%), Acinetobacter towneri (7.2%). Furthermore, a candidate new species of Acinetobacter sp. (7.2%) was detected. Positive specimens were collected from 24,5% individuals in Maférinyah. We also investigated in our study the carbapenem’s-resistant profile of A. baumannii, none of our specimens were positive for the following resistance genes blaOXA-21, blaOXA-24 and blaOXA-58. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to report the existence of the Guinean haplogroup E, the PHUM540560 gene polymorphism profile as well as the presence of Acinetobacter species in head lice collected from Guinea.

An increasingly frail population in nursing homes accentuates the need for high quality care at the end of life and better access to palliative care in this context. Implementation of palliative care and its outcomes can be monitored by using quality indicators. Therefore, we developed a quality indicator set for palliative care in nursing homes and a tailored measurement procedure using a mixed-methods design. We developed the instrument in three phases: 1) literature search, 2) interviews with experts and 3) indicator and measurement selection by expert consensus (RAND/UCLA). Second, we pilot tested and evaluated the instrument in nine nursing homes in Flanders, Belgium. After identifying 26 indicators in the literature and expert interviews, 19 of them were selected through expert consensus. Setting-specific themes were advance care planning, autonomy and communication with family. The quantitative and qualitative analyses showed the indicators were measurable, had good preliminary face validity and discriminative power and were considered useful in terms of quality monitoring according to the caregivers. The quality indicators can be used in a large implementation study and process evaluation in order to achieve continuous monitoring of the access to palliative care for all residents in nursing homes.

The acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are the main drugs for symptomatic treatment of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. A recently designed, synthesized and tested hybrid compound between the AChE inhibitor galantamine (GAL) and the antioxidant polyphenol curcumin (CU) showed high AChE inhibition in vitro. Here, we describe tests for acute and short-term toxicity in mice as well as antioxidant tests on brain homogenates measured the levels of malondialdehide (MDA) and glutathione (GSH). Haematological and serum biochemical analyses were also performed. In the acute toxicity tests, the novel AChE inhibitor given orally in mice showed LD50 of 49 mg/kg. The short-term administration of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg did not show toxicity. In the ex vivo tests, the GAL-CU hybrid performed better than GAL and CU themselves. In a dose of 5 mg/kg, it demonstrates 25% reduction in AChE activity, 28% and 73% increase in the levels of MDA and GSH, respectively. No significant changes in blood biochemical data were observed. The GAL-CU hybrid is a novel non-toxic AChE inhibitor with high antioxidant activity which makes it a perspective multitarget drug candidate for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

This investigation explores a novel path-planning and optimization strategy for multiple cooperative robotic agents, applied in a fully observable and dynamically changing obstacle field. Current dynamic path planning strategies employ static algorithms operating over incremental time-steps. We propose a cooperative multi-agent (CMA) based algorithm, based on natural flocking of animals, using vector operations. It is preferred over more common graph search algorithms like A* as it can be easily applied for dynamic environments. CMA algorithm executes obstacle avoidance using static potential fields around obstacles, that scale based on relative motion. Optimization strategies including interpolation and Bezier curves are applied to the algorithm. To validate effectiveness, CMA algorithm is compared with A* using static obstacles due to lack of equivalent algorithms for dynamic environments. CMA performed comparably to A* with difference ranging from -0.2% to 1.3%. CMA algorithm is applied experimentally to achieve comparable performance, with an error range of -0.5% to 5.2%. These errors are attributed to the limitations of the Kinect V1 sensor used for obstacle detection. The algorithm was finally implemented in a 3D simulated space, indicating that it is possible to apply with drones. This algorithm shows promise for application in warehouse and inventory automation, especially when the workspace is observable.