Bovine lactoferrin (bLf) is a milk-derived protein that exhibits multiple biological activities and has been explored towards different therapeutic applications. Since this molecule is susceptible to degradation and some of its properties depend on its tertiary structure, the encapsulation of bLf in stimuli-responsive therapeutic formulations provides an added value to potentiate its biological activities when administered. Plasmonic magnetoliposomes emerge as promising nanosystems for dual hyperthermia (magneto-photothermia) and local therapy, since the combination of magnetic and gold nanoparticles (NPs) in a single nanosystem (multifunctional liposomes) enables the targeting and controlled release of encapsulated drugs. In this work, plasmonic magnetoliposomes (PMLs) containing manganese ferrite nanoparticles (28 nm size) and gold nanoparticles (~ 5 nm size) functionalized with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid or octadecanethiol, were synthesized and loaded with bLf. The structural, magnetic and optical properties of the nanoparticles were measured by TEM, SQUID and UV/vis/NIR absorption spectroscopy. Specific Absorption Rate was determined to assess the capabilities for magnetic and photothermal hyperthermia. Finally, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as an eukaryotic cellular model to assess the biological activity and the mechanism of entry of bLf-loaded PMLs, through counting of colony forming units and fluorescence microscopy, respectively. The results demonstrate that PMLs are mainly internalized through an energy- and temperature-dependent endocytic process, though the contribution of a diffusion component cannot be discarded. Most notably, only bLf-loaded PMLs exhibit cytotoxicity with an efficiency similar to free bLf, attesting their promising potential for bLf delivery in the context of therapeutic interventions.

Diabetes mellitus is a global health issue that necessitates the development of novel therapeutic approaches. Today numerous experimental methods have been used and set up to evaluate novel drugs with antidiabetic effects. In addition, several research studies have been done to induce diabetes under in vitro and in vivo conditions, but only a small number of these efforts are currently in a usable stage. This review aims to provide useful guidance for researchers who seek to evaluate the antidiabetic potential of drugs, agents, or new medications using the standard methods published by authorities and academics worldwide organizations and research centers. In this review, we collected 132 relevant articles from prominent databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and others to summarize in vitro and in vivo experimental validation of antidiabetic treatment from 1943 to present.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate parents’/guardians’ late recall of surgical procedures and risks of elective surgery after pre-operative interview with surgeons. Materials and Methods: All parents/guardians of patients <18 years of age undergoing elective procedures from January 15th to September 1st, 2022, were prospectively enrolled in the study. Before discharge, parents/guardians were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the duration of the consent procedure, duration of the interview, quality of the informative handouts, and their ability to recall the type of disease, type of surgical procedure, and surgical risks. Answers were graded from 1 to 4. Results: One hundred and two questionnaires were returned. In all cases, informed consent was obtained between 24 and 72 hours prior to surgery. The following responses were collected: 98/102 (96%) parents/guardians reported that the duration of the consent process was adequate; 95/102 (93%) reported that the handouts were fully informative, and 7/102 (7%) reported that they were partially informative regarding explanation of the disease and surgical procedure; regarding complications, 93/102 (91%) perceived the handouts to be fully/partially informative, while 4/102 (4%) perceived the handouts to be poorly/non-informative, and 5/102 (5%) did not provide a response; 94/102 (92%) stated that they remembered the pathology, but only 87/94 (93%) recalled it correctly; 90/102 (88%) stated that they remembered the type of procedure, but only 76/90 (84%) recalled it correctly; and 53/102 (52%) stated that they remembered the surgical risks, but only 20/53 (38%) could recall more than one complication. Conclusions: Late recall of surgical complications by parents was poor despite the high perceived quality of the surgical risk handouts and medical interview.

A modern definition of “deep sleep” is elusive despite being ubiquitously appreciated as an important physiological state supporting health and homeostasis. In modern times, human deep sleep is identified by specific bioelectric signatures in the electroencephalogram (EEG) emerging somewhere between periods of wakefulness. However, deep sleep has been used to describe states of quiescence well before the first electrical brain recordings in the late 1800s, highlighting its own evolution in both lay and medical literature. Furthermore, EEG states are not only ill-defined in most mammals outside of humans and laboratory rodents, but non-existent in some invertebrates. Given that all organisms rest and do so with seemingly well-defined utility, it remains a challenge linguistically, scientifically, and comparatively define what “deep sleep” means—or what it should—in a research context. Here, I explore standard definitions of deep sleep from a modern, comparative perspective, and discuss potential problems of using a strict and narrow definition of such a fleeting concept that has historically undergone significant updates. Finally, I suggest a path towards resolving inconsistencies around the meaning of “deep sleep” and consider whether it is truly reflected by any one measure.

Sharing activity is getting higher attention due to increasing popularity in recent years. In the paper, the authors investigated the main elements affecting the sharing activity. (1) Literature review: The theoretical part starts from the revision of definitions of sharing activity; description of the links between sharing and sustainable development, policy recommendations and relevant regulation in the field; later on, the study emphasises the key elements important for sharing. Finally, the authors investigated how the Covid-19 pandemic affected sharing activity; (2) Methods: During empirical research, the authors revised the list of 37 variables. The study uses data for each of the 27 EU countries from 2011 to 2020. The authors investigated correlation between macroeconomics variables to determine key variables for the regression model; (3) Results: The authors constructed a dynamic regression model that can be applied to predict the number of participants visiting sharing platforms in the European Union (EU); (4) Conclusions: The study shows that seeking to forecast the number of visits to sharing platforms it is necessary to use values of main macroeconomic variables such as consumer price index, productivity index, total unemployment rate, the number of users and households connected to the Internet, etc.

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 purpose of our study was to discuss Rab 7 effects in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Using WT and Rab 7-/- mice as target animal, and HK-2 and HMEC-1 cell co-cultured to make cell model. Measuring kidney tissues were evaluated by Sirius red staining, immunohistochemistry staining to CD 34 protein, Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and gelatin zymography to MMP-2 activities. The cell proliferation were measured by CCK-8 and Ki67 protein expression. Measuring cell invasion and total length were evaluated by transwell and in vitro angiogenesis assay. MMP-2 activities were evaluated by gelatin zymography in cell groups. The relative proteins expression were evaluated by Western blot in kidney tissues and cell groups. Results: Hypoxia promoted the expression of Rab7 in HMEC-1, and the activity of MMP-2 related with regulatory molecules such as reversion-inducing-cysteine-rich protein with kazal motifs (RECK), negative correlation with membrane-type 1 MMP (MT1-MMP or MMP-14) on the membrane of TECs. In addition, the up-regulation of the expression of Rab7 inhibited the activity of MMP-2 and proliferation and cyclization of endothelial cells, and the inhibitor of MMP-2 partially blocked the effects of Rab7 on angiogenesis. Furthermore, the similar data were also obtained in the fibrosis kidney tissues of mice. Conclusion: Rab 7 might be an important role in hypoxic TECs regulated angiogenesis, Rab 7 knockdown could improve hypoxic TECs regulated angiogenesis, the relative mechanisms might be correlation with RECK pathway and MMP-2 activities in vivo and vitro study.

(1) Background: Bacterial reinfection and root fracture are the main culprits related to root canal treatment failure. This study aimed to assess the utility of quercetin solution as an adjunctive endodontic irrigant that strengthen root canal dentin with commitment anti-biofilm activity and bio-safety. (2) Methods: Based on a noninvasive dentin infection model, dentin tubules infected with Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) were irrigated with sterile water (control group), and 0, 1, 2, 4 wt% quercetin-containing ethanol solutions. The live and dead bacteria proportions within E. fae-calis biofilms were analyzed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Elastic modulus and hydroxyproline release and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization was tested on irrigant-treated demineralized dentin to evaluate irrigants’ biostability. The cytotoxicity of irrigants was tested by CCK-8 assay. (3) Results: Quercetin increased the proportion of dead bacteria volumes within E. faecalis, and improved the flexural strength of dentin collagen com-pared to control group. The XPS characterization revealed an increase in C-O peak area under both C1s and O1s narrow-scan spectra. The CCK-8 assay confirmed no cytotoxicity of quercetin solutions. (4) Conclusions: Quercetin exhibited anti-biofilm activity, collagen-stabilizing effect as well as cytocompatibility, supporting quercetin as a potential candidate for endodontic irrigant.

The goal of this study is to better understand the relation between the practice of Mindfulness and the sexual activity, sexual satisfaction and erotic fantasies of Spanish-speaking participants. This research focuses on the comparison between people who practice Mindfulness versus naïve people, and explores the practice of Mindfulness and its relation with the following variables about sexuality: body awareness and bodily dissociation, personal sexual satisfaction, partner and relationship-related satisfaction, desire, subjective sexual arousal, genital arousal, orgasm, pain, attitudes towards sexual fantasies and types of sexual fantasies. The sample consisted of 106 selected adults, 32 men and 72 women, who completed six measures on an online survey platform: a) Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), b) Scale of Body Connection (SBC), c) New Sexual Satisfaction Scale (NSSS), d) Scale of Sexual Activity in Women (SSA-W) and Men (SSA-M), e) Hurlbert Index of Sexual Fantasy (HISF), f) Wilson's Sex Fantasy Questionnaire. In the MAAS, Body Awareness subscale (SBC), NSSS, SSA-W and SSA-M, HISF and intimate fantasies subscale (Wilson’s questionnaire), people in the Mindfulness condition showed higher scores and these differences were statistically significant. These results may have relevant implications in the sexuality of clinical and non-clinical samples.

Bartonella henselae is a fastidious Gram-negative intracellular bacterium which can cause cat scratch disease, endocarditis in humans and animals as well as other complications, leading to acute or chronic infections. The current treatment for Bartonella infections is not very effective due to antibiotic resistance and also persistence. To develop better therapies for persistent and chronic Bartonella infections, in this study, with the help of SYBR Green I/PI viability assay, we performed a high-throughput screening of an essential oil library against stationary phase B. henselae. We successfully identified 32 essential oils that had high activity, including four essential oils extracted from Citrus plants, three from Origanum, three from Cinnamomum, two from Pelargonium and two from Melaleuca, as well as frankincense, ylang ylang, fir needle, mountain savory (winter), citronella, spearmint, elemi, vetiver, clove bud, allspice and cedarwood essential oils. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination of these 32 top hits indicated they were not only active against stationary phase non-growing B. henselae but also had good activity against log phase growing B. henselae. The time-kill curve by drug exposure assay showed 13 active hits, including essential oils of oregano, cinnamon bark, mountain savory (winter), cinnamon leaf, geranium, clove bud, allspice, geranium bourbon, ylang ylang, citronella, elemi and vetiver, could eradicate all stationary phase B. henselae cells within 7 days at the concentration of 0.032% (v/v). Two active ingredients, carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde, of oregano and cinnamon bark essential oils, respectively, were shown to be very active against stationary phase B. henselae such that they were able to eradicate all the bacterial cells even at the concentration ≤ 0.01% (v/v). Our finding of active essential oils may help to develop more effective treatments for persistent Bartonella infections.

Background: Few studies have assessed built environment correlates of active commuting in low-and-middle-income countries, but the different context could yield distinct findings. This cross-sectional study investigated associations between home neighbourhood environment characteristics and active commuting in Chennai, India. Methods: Adults (N = 370, 47.2% female, mean age = 37.9 years) were recruited from 155 wards in the metropolitan area of Chennai in southern India between January and June 2015. Participants self-reported their usual mode of commute to work, with responses recoded into three categories: (1) multi-modal or active commuting (walking and bicycling); (2) public transit; and (3) private transport. Environmental attributes around participants’ homes were assessed using the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale-India (NEWS-India). Associations between environmental characteristics and likelihood of active commuting and public transit use were modelled using logistic regression with private transport (driving alone or carpool) as the reference category, adjusting for age, gender, and household car ownership. Results: Consistent with other international studies, participants living in neighbourhoods with a mix of land-uses and a transit stop within a 10-minute walk from home were more likely to use active commuting (both p < 0.01). Land-use mix was significantly associated with the use of public transit compared to private transport (aOR = 5.2, p = 0.002). Contrary to findings in high-income countries, the odds of active commuting were reduced with improved safety from crime (aOR = 0.2, p = 0.003), aesthetics (aOR = 0.2, p = 0.05) and street connectivity (aOR = 0.2, p = 0.003). Conclusions: Different environmental attributes were associated with active commuting, suggesting that these relationships are complex and may distinctly differ from those in high-income countries. Unexpected inverse associations of perceived safety from crime and aesthetics with active commuting emphasize the need for high quality epidemiologic studies with greater context-specificity in the study of physical activity in LMICs. Findings have public health implications for India and suggest that caution should be taken when translating evidence across countries.

Protein–nanoparticle hybridization can ideally lead to novel biological entities characterized by emerging properties, which can sensibly differ from those of the parent components. Herein, the effect of ionic strength on the biological functions of recombinant, His-tagged spermine oxidase (i.e., SMOX) was studied for the first time. Moreover, SMOX was integrated to colloidal surface active maghemite nanoparticles (SAMNs) by direct self-assembly, leading to a biologically active nano-enzyme (i.e., SAMN@SMOX). The hybrid was subjected to an in-depth chemical-physical characterization highlighting that protein structure was perfectly preserved. The catalytic activity of the nanostructured hybrid (SAMN@SMOX) was assessed by extracting kinetics parameters using spermine as substrate and compared to the soluble enzyme as a function of ionic strength. Results revealed that the catalytic function was dominated by electrostatic interactions and that they were drastically modified upon hybridization with colloidal ɣ-Fe2O3. Noteworthy, the affinity of SMOX toward spermine was significantly higher for the nanohybrid at low salinity. The present study supports the vision of using protein–nanoparticle conjugation as a mean for modulating biological functions.

Crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) are coral predators with advantages of having toxicity in their venom and tissue regeneration capabilities. With all these characteristics, only a handful of studies have highlighted the association of microorganisms with this organism. Crown of thorns starfish are common in Fiji and their analyses of microbial diversity for secondary metabolites could be of great interest to the scientific community. This study is an attempt to investigate Fijian-based A. planci for their venom and associated actinomycetes antibacterial activity and further identify the type of enzymes present in the crude venom extract. The CoTS venom extract (0.192 g) harbor enzymes such as gelatinase, caesinase, and amylase. An abundant and potent actinomycete strain, represented as FJA1 showed antibacterial activity against Enterococcus faecium with an inhibition zone of 10 mm. Moreover, all pathogenic test microorganisms were resistant against concentrations of 500 µg and 1 mg of A. planci venom extract.

The stability of twenty seven composts and organic substrates (including raw, less stable and stable materials) was assessed using two different liquid phase tests were carried out. One of the tests was introduced in 1998 and was based on the calculation of a Specific Oxygen Uptake Rate (SOUR). The newly introduced liquid phase test presented here is simpler to set-up and to perform that the older liquid phase test. It is based on the quantification of oxygen consumption in the headspace of a BOD bottle that contains the liquid-solid solution. The results indicate that a marginal correlation does exist between the main indices calculated from both tests. The correlation was stronger for the indices calculated for stable-processed organics than for the raw (unprocessed materials). The SOUR ranged from 1520 to 3650mg O₂/kg VS-h for the raw materials and from 110 to 1150 mg O₂/kg VS-h for the processed materials, respectively. The corresponding stability rate related index (LSRI₂₄) of the new liquid phase test introduced here ranged from 240 to 1180 mg O₂/dry kg-h for the raw materials and from 64 to 792 mg O₂/dry kg-h for the processed ones.

A new research stream emerged in the 2000s dedicated to flexible work arrangements in public and private organizations, called “new ways of working” (NWW). This article aims to examine NWW from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, focusing on outcomes of this new concept and the debate between “mutual gains” vs. “conflicting outcomes.” Through a literature review, it examines this research field’s innovation and its rather vague theoretical foundations. Findings demonstrate that NWW definitions are diverse and somewhat imprecise, leading to fragmented research designs and findings; the research stream’s theoretical foundations should be better addressed. Findings also highlight the current lack of empirical data, which therefore does not allow any real conclusions on NWW’s effects on employees’ and organizations’ well-being and performance.

Geijera Schott is a plant genus of the Rutaceae Juss. (rue and citrus) family, comprising six species which are all native to Oceania. Of the plants belonging to this genus, the most significant species that has a customary use is Geijera parviflora, which was used by Indigenous Australians, primarily as a pain reliever. Herein, a comprehensive review of the literature published on the genus Geijera from 1930-2023 was conducted. This is the first review for this plant genus and it highlights the chemical constituents reported to date, together with the range of pharmacological properties described from the various species and different parts of the plant. These properties include anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-parasitic, insect repellent, analgesic, neuroactive, and anti-cancer activities. Finally, a reflection on some of the important areas for future focused studies of this plant genus is provided.

The aim of this study was to study the effect of leisure identity, flow, satisfaction, and re-participate intention among outdoor leisure activity participants in South Korea. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a tendency to more frequently participate in outdoor leisure activities as opposed to indoor leisure activities. Leisure activities bestow various benefits. Therefore, this study was used to analyze the relationships amongst leisure identity, flow, leisure satisfaction, and re-participate intention among various theories about leisure. The participants in this study were collected from amongst 369 people who were frequent participants in outdoor leisure activities. For the data analysis, the researchers used frequency, confirmatory analysis, reliability, correlation and structural equaling modeling. The findings were as follows: First, leisure identity had wielded an influence on leisure flow. Second, leisure identity had influence leisure satisfaction. did not have any significant influence on recreation specialization. Third, leisure identity had influence on re-participate intention. Fourth, leisure flow did not have any significant influence on leisure satisfaction. Fifth, leisure flow did not have any significant influence on leisure satisfaction. And finally, leisure satisfaction had an influence on re-participate intention. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new leisure identity has been formed, and it is believed to be a new study on leisure flow, leisure satisfaction, and re-participation intention. This study aims to provide basic data for constructing infrastructure to enable continued participation in outdoor sports in Korea.

Using the colloidal method, Au NP’s were deposited onto 6 different supports (TiO2,  and -Al2O3, HFeO2, CeO2, and C), and their catalytic activity and selectivity were compared in the alkylation of aniline by benzyl alcohol. Correlations were made between the nature of the support, the Au NP size and H-binding energy.

PcALCL mainly concerns elderly patients. It is a large CD30+ T-cell neoplasm composed of large cells with anaplastic, pleomorphic or immunoblastic morphology, with exclusively cutaneous onset and localization. The clinical course of pcALCL is predominantly indolent. Most elderly patients with lymphoma tend to have a sedentary lifestyle, which has a negative effect on their quality of life (QoL) and on their survival. Several studies indicate that exercise has a positive impact on QoL because it reduces peak oxygen consumption, improves physical capacity, increases self-esteem, reduces accumulated stress and promotes relaxation. Therefore, particularly in indolent lymphomas, it is necessary to indicate a program of physical activity to be practiced systematically. The complete surgical excision and local radiotherapy are the first line gold standard in pcALCL with solitary lesion.

The present study was designed to investigate the bioactive compound in Rumextunetanus extracts (polygonaceae), a plant growing in GarâaSejnane region (NW-Tunisia). Hydro-methanol extracts of flowers and stems of Rumextunetanus were analyzed by RP-UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS in the negative mode to identify the maximum of bioactive compounds. Applied the aforementioned method, a total of 60 bioactive compounds were characterized for the first time in Rumextunetanus between them, 18 photochemical were firstly identified in the Polygonaceae family in negative ionization mode. Quantification of the identified compounds revealed that quercetin-3-O-glucuronide and (-)-epicatechingallate were the most abundant phenolic compounds in flowers and stems, respectively. Moreover, positive correlations were found between the antioxidant activity measured by DPPH and FRAP assays with the total phenolic compounds (r = 0.98; r = 0.99, respectively) and the abundance of some phenolic subfamilies such as hydroxycinnamic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids, flavonols and flavones with r > 0.86. The compounds displaying significant (P < 0.01) and good correlations with the antioxidant activity (r > 0.93) were hydroxybenzoic acid, rutin, quercetin-3-O-glucuronide, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, quercetin and luteolin-7-O-rutinoside. In addition, the flowers and stems of Rumex tunetanus showed different bioactive compound profiles and significant antioxidant properties of extracts. These results highlight the potential of the RP-UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS and MS/MS system to identify untargeted metabolic profiling of Rumex tunetanus. Overall, these results contribute to the clear explanation of the past and current usage of genus Rumex in folk medicine. Future investigations are necessary to develop purified antioxidant extracts, with the application of more selective extraction techniques.

Streptococcus thermophilus is widely used as a starter culture in the dairy industry and has garnered attention as a beneficial bacterium owing to its health-promoting functionalities in humans. In this study, the probiotic potential of S. thermophilus MCC0200, isolated from a dairy product, was investigated through a combinatorial approach of in-vitro and in-silico studies. MCC0200 demonstrated the ability to survive harsh gastro-intestinal transit (GIT), adhere to intestinal mucosa and exert health-promoting traits in in-vitro studies. These findings were corroborated with in-silico evidence, wherein MCC0200 genome harboured genes associated with tolerance to GIT conditions, intestinal adhesion and colonization. Genome mapping also highlighted the ability of MCC0200 to produce compounds advantageous for host (folate, bacteriocins), to release enzymes that can reinforce the host ability (antioxidative enzymes), to metabolize food components that can be harmful to sensitive people (lactose). MCC0200 also demonstrated a positive effect on reducing cholesterol levels, proving to be a potential candidate for food and pharmaceutical applications. Absence of transmissible antibiotic resistance genes and virulence genes underscored the GRAS nature of MCC0200. This study explored the potential of Streptococcus thermophilus for its probable applications as a probiotic beyond the dairy industry.

: In this article, the authors propose an algorithmic approach to building a model of the dynamics of economic and, in particular, innovation processes. The approach under consideration is based on a complex algorithm that includes (1) decomposition of the time series into components using singular spectrum analysis; (2) recognition of the optimal component model based on fuzzy rules, and (3) creation of statistical models of individual components with their combination. It is shown that this approach corresponds to the high uncertainty characteristic of the tasks of the dynamics of innovation processes. The proposed algorithm makes it possible to create effective models that can be used both for analysis and for predicting the future states of the processes under study. The advantage of this algorithm is the possibility to expand the base of rules and components used for modeling. This is an important condition for improving the algorithm and its applicability for solving a wide range of problems.

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is associated with access and use of public open spaces. The “President João Goulart Elevated Avenue” and current denominated “Minhocão” is a facility for leisure activities that are open for people during the night/weekends. The aim of this study was to examine if the prevalence of LTPA among individuals living in the surroundings of Minhocão is different according to proximity to, and use of, the facility. We conducted a cross-sectional study with cluster sampling with people aged ≥18 years who lived in households until 500m and between 501m to 1500m of Minhocão. The survey was conducted between December/2017 until March/2019 with an electronic questionnaire self-responded. We conducted bivariate analysis and Poisson regression to examine possible differences in LTPA according to the proximity of residences and use of Minhocão. The analysis used post-stratification weights. A total of 12,030 telephone numbers of people were drawn (≤500m = 6,942; and &gt;500m to ≤1500m = 5,088). The final sample analyzed were of 235 residents who returned the questionnaires. There was a higher prevalence of individuals engaging in at least 150 minutes per week of LTPA among users than non-users (Prevalence Ratio=2.23, IC95%1.72-2.90). People who used the park had higher prevalence of all types of LTPA than non-users. The results can serve to inform government decision-making on the future of Minhocão.

The aim of this study was to determine gender differences in the level of motor skills and effects of a multi-year exercise program on the level of motor skills in 161 preschool children (5-6 yo). Patricipants were deployed into one control and three experimental groups. Motor skills were assessed with the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2). To determine difference in scores for each BOT-2 tests between control and experimental groups, one-way ANOVA was used for girls and boys separately while two-way ANOVA was employed to determine difference between the gender in the overall BOT-2 score. The results indicates that one-year multilateral exercise program has a positive effect on the level of motor skills in preschool children. Interestingly, additional years of participation in exercise program yielded in maintenance of acquired motor skills level. Also, exercise program affected more girls than preschool boys considering both individual and composite BOT-2 scores. According to the findings of this study, presented exercise program could have potential benefits on multilateral development of the motor skills in preschool children which could facilitate balance of locomotor and manipulative skills. Therefore, integration of multilateral program intended for preschool children could be considered for implementation within the kindergarten curriculum.

Wrist-worn fitness trackers and smartwatches are proliferating with an incessant attention towards health tracking. Given the growing popularity of wrist-worn devices across all age groups, a rigorous evaluation for recognizing hallmark measures of physical activities and estimating energy expenditure is needed to compare their accuracy across the lifespan. The goal of the study was to build machine learning models to recognize physical activity type (sedentary, locomotion, and lifestyle) and intensity (low, light, and moderate), identify individual physical activities, and estimate energy expenditure. The primary aim of this study was to build and compare models for different age groups: young [20-50 years], middle (50-70 years], and old (70-89 years]. Participants (n = 253, 62% women, aged 20-89 years old) performed a battery of 33 daily activities in a standardized laboratory setting while wearing a portable metabolic unit to measure energy expenditure that was used to gauge metabolic intensity. Tri-axial accelerometer collected data at 80-100 Hz from the right wrist that was processed for 49 features. Results from random forests algorithm were quite accurate in recognizing physical activity type, the F1-Score range across age groups was: sedentary [0.955 – 0.973], locomotion [0.942 – 0.964], and lifestyle [0.913 – 0.949]. Recognizing physical activity intensity resulted in lower performance, the F1-Score range across age groups was: sedentary [0.919 – 0.947], light [0.813 – 0.828], and moderate [0.846 – 0.875]. The root mean square error range was [0.835 – 1.009] for the estimation of energy expenditure. The F1-Score range for recognizing individual physical activities was [0.263 – 0.784]. Performances were relatively similar and the accelerometer data features were ranked similarly between age groups. In conclusion, data features derived from wrist worn accelerometers lead to high-moderate accuracy estimating physical activity type, intensity and energy expenditure and are robust to potential age-differences.

This study aimed to compare three different extracts of Saco sweet cherry, namely non-coloured fraction, coloured fraction and total extract concerning phenolic composition, antioxidant and antidiabetic potential, erythrocytes’ protection and effects on Caco-2 cells. A total of 22 phenolic compounds were identified by LC-DAD. Hydroxycinnamic acids were the most predominant in both non-coloured fraction and total extract, while cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside was the main anthocyanin found in the coloured fraction. The total extract was the most effective against DPPH, nitric oxide and superoxide radicals, and in the inhibition of α-glucosidase enzyme. Finally, the protective effect of the extracts to prevent oxidative damage in human erythrocytes was assessed. The coloured fraction revealed the best activity against hemoglobin oxidation and hemolysis. Regarding to Caco-2 cells, the coloured extract exhibited the most cytotoxic effects, while the total extract was the most efficient in protecting these cells against oxidative damage induced by t-BHP.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The pathogenesis of this disease is closely related to the estrogen receptor alpha subtype (ERα). Therefore, it is of great importance to develop effective inhibitors of ERα activity for the treatment of breast cancer. In this paper, we propose a novel ensemble machine learning model for quantitative structure-activity relationship of anti-breast cancer drugs, which can effectively predict drug activity in small samples with multiple characteristic variables. To avoid the problem of over-fitting caused by low-correlation independent variables, the scoring mechanism of random forest was improved by incorporating three relevance indicators, including the maximum mutual information number, Pearson correlation coefficient and distance correlation coefficient, and 20 optimal molecular descriptors were selected. The Bayesian hyperparameter optimization method was used to optimize the parameters of multiple linear regression (MLR), support vector regression (SVR), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), respectively. The AdaBoost strong learner was constructed by combining the weak learner with the weighted linear addition method. The results show that the proposed ensemble learning model has the best prediction performance compared to the three basic learner models and the CNN-LSTM combination prediction model. The root mean square error was reduced by 7.60%-26.51%. The mean relative error was reduced by 6.46%-30.92%. Goodness of fit increased by 9.57%-36.94%. Finally, the biological activities of 50 candidate compounds for ERα inhibitors were predicted, and it was found that 4-[2-benzyl-1-[4-(2-pyrrolidin-1-ylethoxy)phenyl]but-1-enyl]phenol had an excellent biological activity value pIC50, which had the potential to be an ERα inhibitor. The model proposed in this paper has good prediction accuracy, which can provide an effective reference for the discovery and development of anti-breast cancer drugs.

Abstract: To reduce the indiscriminate use of pesticides and extend the postharvest shelf life of peach fruit (cv. Baihua) from southeast China, microbial antagonism of indigenous yeasts was mainly studied and applied in construction of composite film. After isolation, purification, cultivation and identification, a total of 14 yeast strains from 9 genera were screened out from the surface of peaches. By experimental analysis of in vitro inhibition zone and in vivo colonizing capacity, Candida oleophila sp-ELPY12B and Cryptococcus laurentii sp-ELPY15A, which have conservative structure of D1/D2 domain sequences and were considered as new species by phylogenetic analysis, were finally chosen as fungicides against the major pathogens. In combination of Na-alginate film (0.4 % glycerin as plasticizer and 0.1 % Tween-80 as emulsifier), the preservative effects of composite-treated groups (1 × 108 CFU mL−1 of Candida oleophila sp-ELPY12B and Cryptococcus laurentii sp-ELPY15A) showed best antifungal effects, which significantly delayed the postharvest preservation period about 6 - 7 d under ambient temperature of 25 ± 3°C and relative humidity of 50 - 70%.

Mesoporous TiO2/reduced graphene oxide/Ag (TiO2/RGO/Ag) ternary nanocomposite with effective electrons transfer pathway is obtained by an electrostatic self-assembly method and photo-assisted treatment. Compared with bare mesoporous TiO2 (MT) and mesoporous TiO2/RGO (MTG), the ternary mesoporous TiO2/RGO/Ag (MTGA) nanocomposite exhibited superior photocatalytic performance for the degradation of MB under visible light, and the degradation rate reached 0.017 min-1, which was 3.4 times higher than that of MTG. It is proposed that Ag nanoparticles can form the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) to absorb the visible light and distract the electrons into MT, and RGO can accept the electrons from MT to accelerate the separation efficiency of carriers. The establishment of MTGA ternary nanocomposite make the three components act synergistic effect to enhance the photocatalytic performance.

Cancer patients undergoing major interventions face numerous challenges, including the adverse effects of cancer and the side effects of treatment. Cancer rehabilitation is vital in ensuring cancer patients have the support they need to maximise treatment outcomes and minimise treatment-related side effects and symptoms. The Active Together service is a multi-modal rehabilitation service designed to address critical support gaps for cancer patients. The service is located and provided in Sheffield, UK, an area with higher cancer incidence and mortality rates than the national average. The service aligns with local and regional cancer care objectives and aims to improve clinical and quality of life outcomes of cancer patients by using lifestyle behaviour change techniques to address their physical, nutritional, and psychological needs. This paper describes the design and initial implementation of the Active Together service, highlighting its potential to support and benefit cancer patients.

The conventional phytopathogen Pseudomonas syringae has been identified several significant virulence determinants against Caenorhabditis elegans, but their mechanisms of action remain elusive. Here, we report the nematicidal activity and action receptor of a methyl-accepting chemotaxis protein (MCP03) of a wild-type P. syringae MB03 against C. elegans. Purified MCP03 exhibited significant nematicidal toxicity against C. elegans, with a half-lethal concentration of 124.4 μg mL1, and detrimental effects on the growth and brood size of C. elegans. Additionally, MCP03-treated worms showed severe pathological destruction of the intestine and ovary, and depressed wrinkles of the cuticle. Through yeast two-hybrid assays, we identified a subunit of a COP9 signalosome, namely CSN-5, functionated as an action receptor of MCP03. In vitro pull-down and in vivo co-localization assays verified the binding interaction between MCP03 and CSN-5. RNA interference assays confirmed that MCP03 acts on CSN-5 to adversely affect the brood size, growth, and cuticle integrity of C. elegans. Following MCP03 infection, the expression of several genes relative to reproduction, growth, and cuticle formation, such as kgb-1, unc-98, and col-117, were significantly downregulated, which implicated the pathological changes of MCP03-treated nematodes. Thus, this study demonstrates that MCP03 acted on the receptor protein CSN-5 causing lethality and detrimental effects on the fertility, growth, and morphogenesis of C. elegans, which will provide new insights into the signaling pathways and mechanism underlying the nematicidal action of MCP03 towards C. elegans.

Protein hydrolysates show great promise as bioactive food and feed ingredient and for valorization of side-streams from e.g. the fish processing industry. This study characterizes bulk emulsifying, foaming, and in vitro antioxidative properties of hydrolysates derived from cod frame by application of Alcalase and Neutrase, individually and sequentially as well as the influence of heat-treatment prior to hydrolysis. We present a novel approach that utilizes proteomics data for calculation of weighted mean peptide properties (length, molecular weight, and charge) and peptide-level abundance estimation. Using subsequent bioinformatic prediction of biofunctional properties to describe observed bulk properties, we are able to provide an in-depth hydrolysate characterization not previously seen. All hydrolysates displayed comparable or higher emulsifying activity and stability than sodium caseinate. Heat-treatment significantly increased stability but showed a negative effect on the activity and degree of hydrolysis. Combining peptide abundance with predicted emulsifying activity, we were able to identify several peptides that are likely linked to the observed differences in bulk emulsifying properties. In general, decreased hydrolysis resulted in significantly higher chelating activity, while the opposite was observed for radical scavenging activity. The study highlights the prospects of applying proteomics and bioinformatics for hydrolysate characterization and in food protein science.

This study aimed to verify the effects of an acute increase in blood pressure (BP) and/or renal sympathetic nerve activity (rSNA) on the renal excretion of sodium and water and its potential effect on the regulation of NHE3 activity. Uninephectomized anesthetized male Wistar rats were divided into three experimental groups: 1) Sham, the rats had their BP and rSNA recorded, and urine was collected for 2 h; 2) bicuculline (Bic) paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), rat BP, and rSNA were recorded, and urine was collected for 1 h at baseline conditions and 1 h after bicuculline injection into the PVN; 3) RNS + Bicuculine injection into the PVN, BP, and rSNA were recorded, and urine was collected 1h after RNS and 1 h after bicuculline injection into the PVN. Renal nerve stimulation (RNS) decreased sodium and water excretion independent of changes in BP. However, after Bic in the PVN during RNS stimulation, BP and rSNA increased up to 30% and 60%, respectively, increasing diuresis (5-fold) and natriuresis (2.3-fold), accompanied by a significant reduction in the NHE3 activity independent of GFR changes. In conclusion, an acute increase in BP overcomes such effects, generating diuresis, natriuresis, and NHE3 activity inhibition.

In our tactic to construct bio-active molecules, a series of novel pyrimido[2,1-c][1,2,4]triazine-3,4-diones based heterocycles, were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial impacts. The exploratory bioassay results declared that, the majority of the evaluated compounds exhibited considerable anti-microbial activity comparable to the reference drugs. Conjugates 15j, 15f, 15i, 15h, 15g and 15a were found to be the most potent antibacterial, indicating that conjugates bearing electron-attracting substituents exhibited higher potency than these with electron-releasing substituents.

Gymnema sylvestre is a pharmacological plant which has a rich source of bioactive compounds specifically gymnemic acid (GA) and phenolic compounds (PC) that used for pharmaceutical industries. Sources for naturally occurring bioactive compounds are limited, due to geographical and seasonal variations; on the other hand, it is commercially in demand. Biosynthesis of G. sylvestre phytochemicals through in vitro culture often enhanced by elicitation. The use of cell suspension cultures (CSC) has interested serious attention on the production of essential phytochemicals. The current study is aimed at improving the contents of GA and PC in G. sylvestre CSC using the copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs). Callus was obtained on MS medium with 2.0 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 0.1 mg/L kinetin (KIN), phytoagar (8.0 g/L), and sucrose (30 g/L). The above medium devoid of agar was used for the initiation of CSC. The CSC was treated with three levels of CuO NPs (1, 3 or 5 mg/L) to enhance the production of GA and PC. The greatest amount of GA (89.25 mg/g dry cell mass, DCM), total phenolic (245.10 mg/g), and flavonoid (4.57 mg/g) in CSC were achieved when G. sylvestre cells were treated for 48 h with 3 mg/L CuO NPs. Also, the biomedical potential (antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer activities) were also high in the CuO NPs (3 mg/L) treated CSC extracts of G. sylvestre. CuO NPs elicitation of CSC significantly increased production of GA (9-fold), and PC than non-elicited CSC in G. sylvestre.

Plant biomass could become a new world-class "currency" because almost everything can be made of it: fuels, foods, feeds, constructing materials, furniture, etc. Currently, growing biomass for energy needs is particularly relevant in so complicated socioeconomical situation. There are important its productivity and the lowest possible ecological footprint. Can increasing crop biodiversity address these challenges? A field experiment was started at the Vytautas Magnus University Agricultural Academy in 2020-2022. Maize, hemp and faba bean were grown as single, binary and ternary crops to determine its effect on soil properties. Studies have shown that most intercrops failed to stabilize soil aggregate composition, NPK levels and pH, and enzyme urease activity. Binary maize-hemp and the ternary crops reduced the amount of the main macroelements in the soil the most because of the highest yields, which were removed from the fields. Regardless of the ecological services provided by faba beans, biomass removal leads to degradation of most soil properties and making the soil vulnerable to erosion. In the future, the cultivation of such multicrops should be investigated under conditions of more abundant fertilization or the effect of green manure should be used by increasing the number of fast- and short-growing interior plant species in the cultivation.

Background: The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a challenge in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). We aimed at identifying clinical risk factors or early markers of MetS in SCI that would facilitate a timely diagnosis and implementation of preventive/therapeutic strategies. Methods: 168 patients with chronic (>1 year) SCI underwent clinical and biochemical evaluations. MetS was diagnosed according to modified criteria of the International Diabetes Federation validated in people with SCI. Results: MetS was diagnosed in 56 of 132 men (42.4%) and 17 of 36 women (47.2%). At univariate regression analyses, putative predictors of MetS were an older age, a higher number of comorbidities, a lower insulin-sensitivity, the presence and intensity of pain, a shorter injury duration, a poorer leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and an incomplete motor injury. At the multiple regression analysis, a significant independent association with MetS only persisted for a poorer LTPA in minutes/week (OR: 0.998, 95%CI: 0.996, 0.999) and more severe pain symptoms as assessed by numeral rating scale (OR: 1.353, 95%CI: 1.085, 1.793). Conclusions: In patients with SCI, intense pain symptoms and poor LTPA may suggest a high likelihood of MetS, regardless of age, SCI duration, motor disability degree, insu-lin-sensitivity and comorbidities.

The cork oak (Quercus suber L.), endemic essence of the Mediterranean Basin, is commonly used in traditional pharmacopoeia. The main objective of this work is to enhance the valorization of this plant species through the study of the anticandidosic activity of cork oak bark methalonic extracts in order to develop an efficient natural formulation for Candidiasis treatment.The anticandidosic activity of methanolic extracts of Q. suber bark stemming from decoction, maceration and Soxhlet methods of extraction in was tested on five different Candida albicans strains. Our results showed that all the tested extracts displayed an inhibitive activity, which varies according to the obtained extract and the tested strain. The best anticandidosic potential was observed with extracts obtained with Soxhlet method. The study of the acute toxicity showed that the lethal dose is 1150 mg/kg in mice, which remained moderately toxic according to Hodge and Sterner classification scale. Thus, this extract can be used in phytotherapy without danger in doses that are below 300 mg/kg of corporal weight. Based on these results, we can conclude that Cork oak bark extracts can be used to treat Candida albicans infections.

Background: Barleria lupulina Lindl. (Hop-headed) is a small shrub, possess potent anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-leukemic, antitumor, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-amoebic, virucidal, diuretic, bactericidal and antibiotic properties. Methods: Cytotoxicity, bioactive assay and genetic analysis of B. lupulina were investigated in the present communication. The leaf extract was investigated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT), Neutral red uptake (NRU), DNA fragment, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) assay, gene expression analysis and cDNA synthesis to evaluate anti-cancerous potency using cancerous THP-1 cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Results: HPTLC analysis reveals four spots and GC-MS analysis displayed the presence of eleven bioactive compounds among which benzofuranon, hexadecanoic acid, ethyl 9,12,15-octadecatrienoate, and 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-2-hexadecanoic acid were the most prominent compounds. The ethanolic extract showed significant cytotoxicity (P<0.5) against THP-1 cell line at a concentration of 1mg/mL. The cells were also observed for apoptosis through DNA fragmentation in B. lupulina treated cells. Conclusions: It can be concluded that if the dose range was further refined within the range of 100-1000 µg/mL there could be dose at which the entire population of the THP-1 cell line would be apoptosis induced. The extract induced ROS in the cells after 30 minutes of exposure displaying cytotoxic effects and DNA fragmentation assay.

COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced physical activity (PA) behaviors of many people. Physical education (PE) is considered one of the privileged instruments to promote youths’ PA. We aimed to investigate the effects of lockdown on PE teachers’ behaviors promoting their students’ out-of-school PA and differences between three European countries. 1146 PE teachers (59.5% females) from France, Italy, and Turkey answered an online questionnaire about guiding students to engage in out-of-school PA, helping them to set PA goals, encouraging in self-monitoring PA, the pedagogical formats of these behaviors and feedback asked to students. RM-MANCOVAs were performed with a 2 Time (before and during the lockdown) × 3Country (France, Italy, Turkey) × 2 Gender factorial design, using teaching years and perceived health as covariates. A significant multivariate main effect Time×Country×Gender (p&lt;.001) was reported for the behaviors promoting students’ PA, with French and Italian teachers increasing some behaviors, while Turkish teachers showing opposite trends. Significant multivariate main effects Time×Country were found for formats supporting the behaviors (p &lt; .001) and for asked feedback formats (p&lt;.001). The massive contextual change imposed by lockdown caused different reactions in teachers from the three countries. Findings are informative for PA promotion and PE teachers’ education.

According to the eminent scholar, philosopher, and physician Avicenna, "the doctor has three tools: the word, the plant, the knife." The plant kingdom is recognized as humanity's earliest and most ancient healing source, employed for the management and prevention of illnesses. Tracing back through history, the most ancient documented proof of plants' utilization in medicine dates back to a Sumerian clay slab discovered in Nagpur roughly 5000 years ago. This artifact included a compilation of twelve medicinal recipes that involved over 250 diverse plant species. Sumerian healers extracted powders and infusions from plant roots and stems, while also crediting healing properties to pears and figs. Additionally, they utilized dried and ground young shoots of willow and plum trees, pine and fir needles as a component in compresses and poultices. Often, powders from animal and mineral sources were blended with those extracted from dried and crushed plants. Notably, in addition to water, wine and beer served as solvents. Thus, at least 80 centuries ago, people utilized the most uncomplicated medicinal plant-based preparations for treatment [1]. The "Pen T'Sao," an ancient Chinese text on roots and herbs, authored by Emperor Shen Nung approximately 2500 BC, contains descriptions of 900 medicaments (comprising dried components of medicinal plants). Several of these substances are still in use today, including Rhei rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium, Podophyllum, great yellow gentian, ginseng, datura, cinnamon bark, and ephedra [2]. Regarding Kazakh folk medicine, an area that has yet to be fully explicated and substantiated, it can be stated that the traditional medicinal knowledge of the Kazakh people transcends the mere treatment of ailments and rests on robust theoretical underpinnings. Oteiboydak Tleukabyluly (1388-1478), an astute healer and prominent figure in Kazakh folk medicine during the 15th century, comprehensively explicated the secrets of the healing art in his medical and ethnographic work "Medical Narrative," which he composed between 1466 and 1473 at the behest of az-Zhanibek Khan, who held him in high esteem as a great healer. This medical encyclopedia delineates the functions of various organs of the human body and provides a catalogue of the primary diseases associated with them. Furthermore, it includes a meticulous description of the methods used in traditional medicine at present, such as setting bones, listening to the pulse, and incantations. Through practical experimentation and experimentation conducted in the steppe laboratory, the healer formulated a total of 1,108 different medicinal compounds, of which 858 were derived from medicinal plants, 318 were extracted from animal organs, and roughly 60 were sourced from metals. The moniker "Teacher without a teacher" was bestowed on Oteiboydak Tleukabylov, who discovered methods for treating 1,050 different diseases [3]. At present, the employment of phytotherapy has gained widespread acceptance on a global scale. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) global review of national policies concerning traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine, as well as the regulation of herbal medicines, there is an evident growth in the European and Asian market for herbal medicines [4]. Kazakhstan boasts a natural flora of over 6,000 plant species [5]. The exact number of medicinal plant species present in Kazakhstan remains uncertain, as the list continues to expand annually. More than 150 plant species have been employed in both official and folk medicine for various ailments. This review focuses on a selection of medicinal plants growing within the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan that have traditionally been used to alleviate skin diseases. In conducting this study (2010-2023), emphasis was placed on the plants' phytochemical composition, with a particular focus on the principal components responsible for their therapeutic effects against inflammatory skin conditions such as dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, and eczema.

Abstract: Increasing physical activity (PA) and personal and social values are two of the greatest demands in the current educational system. This study examined the effect of a hybrid pro-gramme based on the Personal and Social Responsibility Model and Gamification. A total of 58 students (13.89 years old, SD = 1.14) in two groups (Experimental and Control) participated dur-ing a complete academic year. Motivation, physical activity and sedentary behaviour were as-sessed though questionnaires. Physical fitness was evaluated using previously validated field tests. The results showed significant differences over time between EG and CG in afterschool physical activity (APA) at the weekend (p = 0.003), sedentary time (p = 0.04) and speed-agility (p = 0.04). There were no significant differences in motivation. Regarding the intervention, speed-agility (p = 0.000), strength (p = 0.000), agility (p = 0.000), cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.001), APA-weekend (p = 0.000), APA-week (p= 0.000) and sedentary time (p = 0.000) increased signifi-cantly in the EG. Speed-agility (p = 0.000), APA-weekend (p = 0.03) and sedentary time (p = 0.008) increased in the CG. The use of this hybrid program can be useful to produced improvements in physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary hevaviours. The use of a hybrid program based on teaching personal and social responsibility and gamification strategies, produced improvements in physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary behavior, but not in motivation variables. Further research is demanded in order to contrast this relevant findings due to the potential drawbacks and diversity found in the scientific literature among model-based practice.

The efficiency and performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) are primarily influenced by ORR electrocatalysts. In recent years, atomically dispersed met-al-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalysts have gained significant attention due to their high active center density, high atomic utilization, and high activity. These catalysts are now considered the preferred alternative to traditional noble metal electrocatalysts. The unique properties of M-N-C catalysts are anticipated to enhance the energy conversion efficiency and lower the manufac-turing cost of the entire system, thereby facilitating the commercialization and widespread ap-plication of fuel cell technology. This article initially delves into the origin of performance and degradation mechanisms of Fe-N-C catalysts from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. Building on this foundation, the focus shifts to strategies aimed at enhancing the activity and durability of atomically dispersed Fe-N-C catalysts. These strategies encompass the use of bi-metallic atoms, atomic clusters, heteroatoms (B, S, and P), and morphology regulation to optimize catalytic active sites. The article concludes by detailing the current challenges and future pro-spects of atomically dispersed Fe-N-C catalysts.

The concerning rise in emergence and prevalence of resistant strains to drugs of M. tuberculosis has ,the prompted researchers to look for new and effective treatments. With this motive, biscoumarins were identified as the lead molecules on a whole-cell-based screening of several less explored low molecular weight bioactive compounds against M. tuberculosis strains. Among the screened biscoumarins, the highest dock score derivatives were synthesized (a-h) using a programmable microwave synthesizer for better yields and reaction control. The synthesized derivatives were evaluated against H37Rv, H37Ra, M. smegmatis, an MDR surrogate model, and other bacterial strains for the structure-activity response. Assessment of the synthesized library against mycobacterial strains led to the identification of compounds (f and d) as lead anti-tuberculosis agents. Compounds (f and d) exhibited less toxicity against human cell lines. At the same time, it displayed enjoyable activity wherein MIC concentrations were observed to be 16- and 32 µg/mL against the susceptible H37Rv, and H37Ra strains of M. tuberculosis and MIC value of 128 µg/mL for M. smegmatis, respectively. For mechanistic insights and identification of drug binding targets, molecular docking and dynamic simulations were employed for a panel of 16 mycobacterial enzymes essential for mycobacterial growth and survival. These in silico studies revealed the DprE1 enzyme as a druggable target for the anti-tuberculosis activity of the selected biscoumarins derivatives. Further investigation is underway in our laboratory, leading to its development as an anti-tuberculosis drug (animal model studies).

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder that limits social interactions, cognitive skills, and abilities. Since ASD can last during an affected person's entire life cycle, the diagnosis at the early onset can yield a significant positive impact. The current medical diagnostic systems (e.g., DSM-5/ICD-10) are somewhat subjective; rely purely on the behavioral observation of symptoms, and hence, some individuals often go misdiagnosed or late-diagnosed. Therefore, researchers have focused on developing data-driven automated diagnosis systems with less screening time, low cost, and improved accuracy while significantly reducing professional intervention. Human Activity Analysis (HAA) is considered one of the most promising niches in computer vision research. This paper aims to analyze its potentialities in the automated detection of autism by tracking the exclusive characteristics of autistic individuals such as repetitive behavior, atypical walking style, and unusual visual saliency. This review provides a detailed inspection of HAA-based autism detection literature published in 2011 on-wards depicting core approaches, challenges, probable solutions, available resources, and scopes of future exploration in this arena. According to our study, deep learning outperforms machine learning in ASD detection with a classification accuracy of 76\% to 95\% on different datasets comprise of video, image, or skeleton data that recorded participants performing a large number of actions. However, machine learning provides satisfactory results on datasets with a small number of action classes and has a range of 60\% to 93\% accuracy among numerous studies. We hope this extensive review will provide a comprehensive guideline for researchers in this field.

Essential oils (EOs) have gained economic importance due to their biological activities, and increasing amounts are demanded everywhere. However, substantial differences between the same essential oil samples from different suppliers are reported due to numerous companies involved in EOs production and the continuous development of online sales. The present study investigates the antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of 2-4 samples of five commercially available essential oils (Oregano, Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Clove, and Peppermint oils) from different manufacturers. Their effects were evaluated in vitro on Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). The antibacterial efficacy (ABE%) and antibiofilm efficacy (ABfE%) were determined spectrophotometrically at 562 and 570 nm using microplate cultivation techniques. The essential oils' calculated parameters were compared with those of three standard broad-spectrum antibiotics: Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid (AMC), Gentamycin (GEN), and Streptomycin (STR), active on tested bacteria. The results showed that at the first dilution (D1 = 2.5 mg/mL), all essential oils (EOs) exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. On S. aureus and E. coli, EOs had considerable antibacterial effects (ABE = 79.70—92.80%, respectively, 71.30 ‒ 94.00%). The highest antibacterial effects of commercially available EOs were against P. aeruginosa because all exhibited a significant antibiofilm activity. Their antibiofilm efficacy intensively decreased on E. coli and S. aureus. Generally, the samples with different manufacturers of the same EO showed similar effects. Only Clove and Peppermint oils samples displayed a higher variability associated with active metabolites' different contents, maybe due to various zones of harvesting raw material, numerous technologies involved in EOs obtaining processes, and complex interactions between components.

The key objective of the experiment was to show the environmental based of copper nanoparticles which counters the growth of bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. To begin with the experiments, root extract of Asparagus racemosus was used to synthesise Copper nanoparticles. To confirm the formation of Cu-NPs, it was subjected to characterization such as Ultra Violet analysis, X-ray Diffraction method, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscope images. Later the antibacterial activity of Cu-NPs was studied by incorporating it into two bacterial pathogens (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus). The outcome displayed a satisfactory antibacterial activity against the bacterial pathogens by the biosynthesized copper nanoparticles. To boost up the enzyme inhibition property of the Cu NPs, Antioxidant and Antidiabetic assay were also performed. The biosynthesised Cu NPs displayed a satisfied result in Antifouling function. The result was used assessed with green algae bloom water.

Flowers have always accompanied people thanks to their manifold aesthetic properties. Some species have also become a component of human diet. Recent years have seen an increased interest in edible flowers and, consequently, research has been undertaken to determine their chemical composition. Dyes abundantly contained in flowers, whose role is to attract pollinating animals, are recognized substances with health promoting properties. Anthocyanins are a group of dyes that is very common in petals and other parts of flowers. Studies carried out in the twentieth and twenty-first century have found very strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of anthocyanins. Therefore, flowers used by humans for centuries to decorate their surroundings may become an easily available source of nutrients and health-promoting substances. This paper discusses the health-promoting properties of anthocyanins and collects literature on anthocyanin content in edible flowers commonly grown on balconies, terraces and roofs.

Background: Demographic aging is a reality in developed countries, which poses a social challenge of great responsibility. Thus, numerous studies have been developed in an attempt to understand which factors best predict healthy aging. The aim of this study was to investigate and systematize literature on intervention programs that simultaneously include cognitive stimulation and physical activity, understand the importance of the use of new technology in these programs, and understand their impact on cognitive function in older adults, giving indications about their contribution to healthy aging. Methods: A narrative approach was used for extraction and synthesis of the data. Relevant studies were identified from electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Academic Search Complete. Results: Thirty-two articles, involving 2815 participants, were identified. All selected studies were randomized controlled studies. The studies were published between 2011 and 2020. All studies included a combination of cognitive and physical interventions. Many of the studies used technology to administer the cognitive stimulation program. Conclusions: Most of the analyzed studies use new technologies in physical and cognitive interventions, demonstrating that this new form of intervention exerts lasting and stable benefits in cognition.

The aim of this study was to investigate the parameters affecting the extraction of positive molecules such as chlorogenic acids and antioxidants, as well as potentially carcinogenic substances such as acrylamide, in different coffee brewing methods. Three coffee varieties, each assigned to different roasting degree, were used to prepare coffee brews following eight diverse preparation methods. Acrylamide was quantified by HPLC-MS/MS instrument while chlorogenic acids and caffeine by HPLC-DAD system. Three spectrophotometric analyses were also performed (DPPH, TFC and TPC) to evaluate antioxidant activity as well. The results showed that the main brewing parameters, that have the greatest influence on the final content of these compounds were the volume of water used, more specifically the brewing ratio (coffee to water ratio), the extraction time and the particle size of the coffee powder.

This study explores the potential of Eisenia fetida (Savigny) in vermicompost production within vermipits during winter months in the Rampur region of Uttar Pradesh, India. The vermipits were inoculated with 0.33 kg of E. fetida per pit, against the recommended rate of inoculation for assessment of real-time potential of earthworm on seasonal and regional grounds. The results revealed a significant increase in earthworm population, with three times production (4.1 kg) of the inoculated number (1.0 kg). The productivity dynamics of compost vs E. feida revealed a notable threefold and fourfold effectiveness, respectively. This dual advantage signifies the success of composting process, with the increased worm population indicating enhanced decomposition. The study attributes the combination of regional and edaphic factors viz., sandy loam soil with high humus content and good water passage, facilitating earthworm survival, reproduction and decomposition of agricultural waste. The loose and perforated soil structure allowed easy penetration of earthworms, transforming the soil into fertile compost. The research emphasizes the importance of soil moisture of semi-arid ecosystems thus highlighting the seasonal significance governing earthworm activity. The study provides insights into the mechanical ability of earthworms, its sensitivity to soil compaction and the influence of high hydration of the region. Inoculation during the winter period indicates increased earthworm activity setting the stage for enhanced compost production in the upcoming hot periods of summer months. The findings suggest that optimizing vermicomposting practices with altered feeding stocks, could further improvise compost and earthworm production and productivity in subsequent seasons. The study contributes for sustainable utilization of E. fetida in composting, its regional and seasonal efficacy turns trash to treasure for enhanced agricultural efficacy.

In recent years, Additive Manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, has garnered the attention of the scientific community due to its capacity to transform ordinary and traditional items into customized materials at an affordable cost, through various AM processes. Antimicrobial/antibiofilm 3D printed materials are one of the most trending research topics, owing to the growing concerns over the emergence of complex microbial structures called "biofilms" on various surfaces. The review provides an overview of the evolution of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and their various derivatives, along with a brief description of their materials and applications. It also introduces how biofilms can represent an advantageous lifestyle for microbial populations. The primary objective of this research was to conduct a systematic review on the development of planctonic or biofilm forms of microorganisms on 3D printed materials. The article summarizes commonly studied microorganisms on these materials and presents their 3D printing process, materials, as well as the fields covered by each of the analyzed papers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first all-inclusive systematic review that amalgamated research conducted in diverse fields to assess the development of biofilms on surfaces produced through three-dimensional printing. Most notably, this review presents a comprehensive account of sustainable approaches for producing antimicrobial materials through 3D printing. Additionally, we assess their advancements in various fields such as medicine, environment, agri-food, and other relevant sectors. The findings of our literature review can be used to recommend appropriate microorganisms, 3D printing materials, and technologies for academic and industrial research purposes focusing on the development of microbial biofilms on 3D printed surfaces. Furthermore, it highlights the potential of environmentally-friendly modified AM technologies to combat biofilms in clinical and non-clinical areas. Our goal with this review is to help readers gain a better understanding of fundamental concepts, inspire new researchers, and provide valuable insights for future empirical studies focused on eradicating biofilms from 3D printed materials.

Helicobacter pylori infections are still an urgent and hot topic. This is related to the involvement of H. pylori in human diseases (including gastric diseases, gastric adenocarcinoma, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, and diabetes), the number of which is constantly increasing. At the same time, agents effective against these bacteria are decreasing due to spreading resistance. Our research focused on extracts of the Rubus genus, commonly present in Central and Eastern Europe and very useful in folk medicine. Results have shown that the extract from Rubus idaeus 'Willamette' shoots, and the extract from R. idaeus 'Poranna Rosa' fruits and R. idaeus 'Laszka' R. occidentalis Litacz' fruits prevent the formation of biofilm by H. pylori on intravenous infusions (they reduce living cells, which was detected using triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) as a dye) at concentrations of 6.65 and 16.65 mg/mL, respectively. However, the living bacteria in the formed biofilm are affected by the extract from the shoots of R. idaeus 'Willamette' and the fruit of R. idaeus 'Poranna Rosa' at a concentration of 16.65 mg/ml, and the remaining extracts at a concentration of 33.3 mg/ml. The results of the study of interactions of extracts from Rubus sp. and the 2 antibiotics against H. pylori planktonic bacteria showed doxycycline synergism with all tested extracts, but only the extract of R. occidentalis 'Litacz' with levofloxacin. The remaining tested extracts showed indifference with levofloxacin. However, studies on the interaction between antibiotics and extracts of R. idaeus 'Willamette' shoot showed synergy with doxycycline and levofloxacin, additivity with amoxicillin and clarithromycin, and indifference with metronidazole. The tests were carried out on fragments of intravenous infusions with TTC as a dye. The tested extracts may be elements of broadly understood anti-H. pylori therapy.

Osteoarthritis (OA) poses a growing challenge for the aging population, especially in hip and knee joints, contributing significantly to disability and societal costs. Conventional clinical evaluations, typically performed in controlled settings, face difficulties in capturing the dynamic characteristics of rehabilitation and functioning in real-life scenarios. The study assessed the use of automated unsupervised evaluations in the rehabilitation process for patients after hip and knee replacements. We analyzed data from 1144 individuals who used a digital application after surgery, activity data were collected using the Garmin Vivofit 4. Several parameters such as the Peak 6-Minute Consecutive Cadence (P6MC) and Peak 1-Minute Cadence (P1M) were computed and analyzed on a daily basis. The results indicated that cadence measurements, specifically, can effectively differ among individuals with hip and knee conditions as well as the recovery process. Moreover, these metrics demonstrated a high level of responsiveness in monitoring the progress of recovery, surpassing the effectiveness of simply measuring the total number of steps taken. The study highlighted the capacity of technology-driven, patient-centered rehabilitation to improve accuracy, tailor therapy to individual patients, and increased patient involvement. This research also highlighted the significance of automated, unsupervised assessments in enhancing rehabilitation results for OA patients following hip and knee replacement, as tele-rehabilitation becomes increasingly important.

Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (I/R) and the resulting heart failure is one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Camphene has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic properties, however, its role in the protection of the heart from ischemia and reperfusion has not been investigated. The cardioprotective role of camphene and the mechanism that mediates its action against I/R injury was evaluated in the present study. A single dose of camphene was administered in adult rats prior to ex vivo I/R induction. Infarct size was measured using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and cardiomyocyte injury was assessed by determining the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme. Camphene pretreatment provided significant protection reducing myocardial infarct size and cell death after I/R. The effect was correlated with the activation of antioxidant defense mechanisms, namely CAT, MnSOD, GPx and GR, and reduction of oxidative stress as evidenced by determination of protein carbonylation and GSH/GSSG ratio in cardiomyocytes. The results suggest that camphene can protect the heart against I/R injury by maintaining redox homeostasis and can hold therapeutic potential for mitigating the detrimental effects of I/R in the heart.

This work reports the isolation, purification, and anti-inflammatory evaluation of compounds from the plant species Ageratina pichinchesis. Using open-column chromatography, 11 known compounds were purified, whose chemical structures were elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance techniques (1D and 2D). All compounds were evaluated in the in vitro model of RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells measuring nitric oxide inhibition as a determination of the anti-inflammatory effect. Outstandingly, the compound betuletol 3-O-β-glucoside (11) exhibited inhibition of nitric oxide with an IC50 of 75.08 ± 3.07% at 75 µM, additionally, it inhibited the secretion of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and activation of nuclear factor (NF-kβ). These results show that compound 11 could be considered as a potential anti-inflammatory agent in suppressing the expression of NF-kβ target genes such as the proinflammatory pathway and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Consequently, the medicinal use attributed in traditional medicine to the A. pichinchensis species is due to the diversity of compounds that the plant biosynthesizes, demonstrating that its effect relates to anti-inflammatory effects associated with compound 11.

Fluorescent labels, especially FRET probes, are promising tools for studying a number of bio-chemical processes. In this paper, we promoted 2 important applications of FRET probes (MUTMAC-R6G and FITC-R6G): i) the formation of micelles from surfactants of various natures and polymers (chitosan – fatty acid), as well as ii) monitoring of enzymatic activity with improved parameters (increased analytical signal and improved selectivity due to shift to the long-wavelength region). The formation of micelles is accompanied by the convergence of fluorophores in the hydrophobic micelle core by a distance closer than in the buffer solution, thus r/R0 (where R0 – Foerster radius) is chosen as an analytical signal of micelle formation, including critical micelle concentration (CMC) and critical pre-micelle concentration (CPMC). The CMC values calculated using FRET probes are in a good agreement with literature data. At the same time, the r/R0 function provides valuable information about the nature and mechanism of micelle formation. With the second analytical application of FRET probes, we considered the optimization of techniques for studying enzymatic activity. The enzyme catalyses the reaction with the release of a fluorescent product, the signal from which may not be enough for detection, or it may be quenched, for example, in the reverse micelles (AOT-octane). Here we have proposed a solution – a FRET probe containing a rhodamine 6G (R6G) acceptor, which allows us to monitor the enzymatic reaction selectively (in the red region, 550-600 nm), and obtain a significantly higher fluorescence yield (potentially from 10 to 250 times). Thus, we have demonstrated a high potential for the FRET probes application as indicators of micelle formation as well as for the study of the enzyme catalytic activity. In the future, the method developed has prospects for application in the visualization of the enzyme functioning in cells due to the shift of the fluorescence signal to the long-wavelength region with an increase in the signal selectivity to suppress autofluorescence.

German chamomile galenic preparations are used to treat mild skin diseases, inflammation and spasms, and they have also reported to have anxiolytic and sedative effects. The medicinal use of chamomile is well-known in ethnomedicine. Since chamomile has shown to have some adverse effects, there is a need to develop new formulations, such as dry extracts, for the present herb. The aims of this study were (1) to develop a novel method for preparing essential oils and dry extracts from German chamomile flowers, (2) to reveal the phytochemical composition of such extracts, and (3) to verify the analgesic and soporific activity of extracts in vivo with a rodent animal model. Furthermore, our study aims to gain knowledge of the ethnomedical status of chamomile in the past and presence. Essential oils and dry extracts were successfully prepared from the tincture and aqueous extracts obtained after hydrodistillation and from a tincture powder. Total 22 phenolic compounds (7 hydroxycinnamic acids, 13 flavonoids and 2 phenolic acids), were found in the dry extracts by using UPLC-MS/MS. Total 9 main terpenoids were identified in the chamomile oil, and these terpenoids represent the chemotype rich in bisabolol oxides A and B. In the highest yield, the ratio of phenolic compounds and extract was in the range of 1:14-1:16 and triple extraction was performed. In in-vivo studies with mice and rats, the extracts showed analgesic activity and improvements in sleep. The highest sedative effect in rodents was found with the extract prepared by using a 70% aqueous ethanol solution for extraction. The administration of such extract at the dose of 50 mg/kg significantly prolonged the sleeping time in rats.

Fish processing by-products such as frames, trimmings, and viscera of commercial fish species are rich in proteins. Thus, they have the potential to be an economical source of proteins that may be used to obtain bioactive peptides and functional protein hydrolysates for the food and nutraceutical industries. The structure, composition, and biological activities of peptides and hydrolysates depend on the freshness and the actual composition of the material. Peptides isolated from fisheries by-products showed antioxidant activity. Changes of hydrolysis parameters changed the sequence and properties of the peptides, and determined their physiological functions. Optimization of the value of such peptides and the production costs must be considered for each particular source of marine by-products and for their specific food applications. This review will discuss the functional properties of fisheries by-products prepared using hydrolysis and their potential food applications. It also reviews the structure-activity relationships of the antioxidant activity of peptides as well as challenges to the use of fisheries by-products for protein hydrolysates production.

Bitcoin has been launched for over a decade and made an increasing impact on the world’s financial order, which attracted extensive attention of researchers. Bitcoin system runs on a dynamic P2P network, containing tens of thousands of nodes including reachable nodes and unreachable nodes. In this article, a detection system BNS (Bitcoin Network Sniffer) was prososed, which could collect as many Bitcoin nodes as possible. For reachable nodes, the authors designed an algorithm BRF (Bitcoin Reachable-nodes Finding) based on node activity evaluation, which reduced the nodes to be detected and greatly shortened the detection time. For unreachable nodes, the authors trained a dicision tree model BUF(Bitcoin Unreachable-nodes Finding) to identify unreachable nodes based on attribute features from massive node addresses. Experiments showed that BNS performed better than the website "Bitnodes" in total number and efficiency. Based on the experimental results, the authors analyzed the real network size, node "churn" and geographical distribution.

Plants have been used in alternative medicine for centuries in the treatment of many diseases with the metabolites they contain. The goal of this work was to investigate the phenolic profile, antioxidant capacity and biological activity of I. helenium subsp. pseudohelenium extracts. Phe-nolic (HPLC) substances in leaf ethanol (L-EtOH), leaf pure water (L-PW), root ethanol (R-EtOH), and root pure water (R-PW) extracts of Inula helenium subsp. pseudohelenium plant were investi-gated. Also, in vitro the antimicrobial (hollow agar), antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS.+, FRAP, CU-PRAC), antiproliferative (MTT assay against HT-29, MCF-7 and L-929), and DNA (Agarose gel electrophoresis) protective activities of the samples were examined. Although gallic acid was not detected in the extracts, the presence of curcumin was detected only in EtOH extracts. L-EtOH exhibited the best antimicrobial activity. According to the antioxidant results, it was found that the L-EtOH extract had an activity profile close to the standard antioxidants in general. It was also found that the L-EtOH extract stabilized the DNA by disrupting the scavenging effect of H2O2+DMSO. According to the antiproliferative activity results, EtOH extracts exhibited the strongest effect, especially against MCF7. When evaluated in general terms, it was found that L-EtOH extract showed better activity than other extracts. It is important to conduct more in vivo and in vitro studies after isolating the active components of extracts e.g. L-EtOH, which have good effects in terms of biological activity.

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) with unique structures from marine animals show intriguing pharmacological activities and negligible biological risks, providing more options for us to explore safer agents. Swim bladder is a tonic food and folk medicine, and its GAGs show good anticoag-ulant activity. In this study, two GAGs SJG-1.0 and GMG-1.0 have been extracted and isolated from the swim bladder of Sphyraena jello and Gadus morhua. The physicochemical properties, pre-cise structural characteristics, and anticoagulant activities of these GAGs were determined. The analysis results of the SJG-1.0 and GMG-1.0 showed that they were chondroitin sulfate (CS)/dermatan sulfate (DS) hybrid chains with molecular weights of 109.32 kDa and 123.13 kDa, respectively. They were mainly composed of the repeating disaccharide unit of -{IdoA-α1,3-GalNAc4S-β1,4-}- (DS-A). The DS-B disaccharide unit of -{IdoA2S-α1,3-GalNAc4S-β1,4-}- also existed in both SJG-1.0 and GMG-1.0. SJG-1.0 had a higher proportion of CS-O disaccharide unit -{-GlcA-β1,3-GalNAc-β1,4-}-, while GMG-1.0 contained higher proportion of CS-E disaccha-ride unit -{-GlcA-β1,3-GalNAc4S6S-β1,4-}-. The disaccharide compositions of the GAGs varied in a species-specific manner. Anticoagulant activity assay revealed that both SJG-1.0 and GMG-1.0 had potent anticoagulant activity, which can significantly prolong activated partial thrombosis time. GMG-1.0 also can prolong the thrombin time. SJG-1.0 showed no intrinsic tenase inhibition ac-tivity, while GMG-1.0 can obviously inhibit intrinsic tenase with EC50 of 58 nM. Their significantly different anticoagulant activities may be due to their different disaccharide structural units and proportions. These findings suggested that the swim bladder CS/DS hybrid chains with well-defined structure may be safer anticoagulants with low bleeding risk.

Eurotium is the teleomorph genus associated with section Aspergillus. Eurotium comprises approximately 20 species, which are widely distributed in nature and human environments. Eurotium is usually the key microorganism for the ferment ation of traditional food, such as Fuzhuan brick tea, Liupao tea, Meju, and Karebushi, thus Eurotium is an important fungus in food industry. Eurotium has been extensively studied because they contain a series of interesting, structurally diverse, and biologically important secondary metabolites, including anthraquinones, benzaldehyde derivatives, and indol diketopiperazine alkaloids. These secondary metabolites have shown multiple biological activities, including antioxidative, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antitumor, insecticidal, antimalarial, and anti-inflammatory activities. This study presents an up-to-date review of the phytochemistry and biological activities of all Eurotium species. This review will provide the recent advances on the secondary metabolites and their bioactivities in genus Eurotium for the first time and serve as a database for future research and drug development from the genus Eurotium.

Seaweeds have been the target of much attention due to the known bioactivities of some of their compounds. Although many studies about the application of seaweeds in various areas are available, these data are mostly about the raw extracts and not about specific compounds, such as seaweeds pigments. Moreover, the fungal infections of the skin, nails and hair caused by dermatophytes, are the most common fungal infections in humans. These pathologies require long periods of topical and/or systemic treatment that are associated with adverse effects and contraindications. This study had two objectives, the first was to evaluate the possibility of isolating and characterizing the pigments of Calliblepharis jubata and Fucus vesiculosus; the second was to assess their antifungal activity. The extraction of pigments was performed using a method of extraction by exhaustion; the purification was carried out by column chromatography. Three techniques were used to characterize the pigments, thin layer chromatography (TLC), UV-visible spectrophotometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The antifungal activity was evaluated using the micro-dilution method, following the EUCAST international standards, on three dermatophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum canis. It was possible to observe that the extract obtained from the seaweed C. jubata and F. vesiculosus, corresponding to the purified pigment phycobiliprotein, and the crude extract, an enriched extract, obtained from the seaweed C. jubata showed antifungal activity against the three fungal agents of human skin infection.

This study uses explainable artificial intelligence to analyze major predictors of poor self-rated health, dementia and their comorbidity, which include various aspects of social support. Data came from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2016-2018), with 5527 participants aged 56 or more. The dependent variables were: (1) poor self-rated health (SRH) with 5 categories (very good, good, middle, poor, very poor); (2) dementia (no, yes); and (3) their comorbidity with 4 categories (SRH very good, good or middle, dementia no; SRH very good, good or middle, dementia yes; SRH poor or very poor, dementia no; SRH poor or very poor, dementia yes). The 49 demographic, socioeconomic and health-related predictors were included. The accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were compared for logistic regression and the random forest. Logistic regression and the random forest registered similar AUCs with the range of 0.80-0.87. Based on random forest variable importance, 18 out of top-20 predictors were identical for SRH, dementia and their comorbidity: previous SRH, life satisfaction - health, age, body mass index, income, chronic diseases, life satisfaction - economic, life satisfaction - overall, grandchildren alive, friendship meeting, brothers/sisters alive, class identity, children alive, social activity - friendship, education, children in weekly contact, religion and drinker. However, some variations were found among the three dependent variables, i.e., previous SRH for comorbidity (1st) and SRH (1st) compared to dementia (11th), grandchildren alive for SRH (6th) and dementia (4th) compared to comorbidity (9th), chronic diseases for comorbidity (6th) compared to SRH (10th) and dementia (10th). In terms of Shapley Additive Explanation (SHAP) values, the probability of dementia is expected to decrease by 5.57% in case a predictor grandchildren alive is included to the model. This study highlights the importance of social support for the prediction of poor self-rated health, dementia and their comorbidity. Specifically, the promotion of family support and friendship activity for elders would be vital for the prevention and management of their self-rated health and dementia.

This work demonstrates the antimycotic activity and structural damage of stingless bee propolis against Malassezia pachydermatis,causative agent of canine otitis.Two propolis ethanolic extracts(EEP) derived from the stingless bees, Scaptotrigona mexicana and Tetragonisca angustula were tested against three clinical strains of Malassezia pachydermatis and one of reference (ATCC 14522). Each ethanolic extract of propolis was analyzed by Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry(GC-MS). Antimycotic activity was evaluated by plate microdilution. To evaluate the induced changes in yeasts, by fluorescence microscopy, stains were performed with chalcofluor white and propidium iodide. For both propolis, sesquiterpenes were the main components determined by GC-MS. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 32 mg/mL and a minimum fungicidal concentration of 64 mg/Ml were determined in both extracts. EPP of Scaptotrigona mexicana and Tetragonisca angustula caused significant damage to yeast morphology. Propidium iodide penetration was observed, indicating damage to the yeast and with calcofluor-white stain, only morphology deformation was observed..The antimycotic activity and structural damage of propolis from Scaptotrigona mexicana and Tetragonisca angustula against Malassezia pachydermtais was demonstrated .This probably being the first scientific report that demonstrates structural damage in Malassezia pachydermatis of Mexican stingless bee propolis

The purpose of this study was to quantify characteristics of bimanual movement intensity during 30-hour Hand Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy (HABIT) and bimanual performance (activities and participation) in real-world using accelerometers in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP). Twenty-five children with UCP participated in a 30-hour HABIT program. Data was collected from bilateral wrist-worn accelerometers during 30-hours HABIT to quantify the movement intensity, and three days pre- and post-HABIT to assess real-world performance gains. Movement intensity and performance gains were measured using six standard accelerometer-derived variables. Bimanual capacity (body function and activities) was assessed using standardized hand function tests. We found that accelerometer variables increased significantly during HABIT, indicating increased bimanual symmetry and intensity. Post-HABIT, children demonstrated significant improvements in all accelerometer metrics, reflecting real-world performance gains. Children also achieved significant and clinically relevant changes in the hand capacity following HABIT. Therefore, our findings suggest that accelerometers can objectively quantify bimanual movement intensity during HABIT. Moreover, HABIT enhances hand function as well as activities and participation in real-world situation in children with UCP.

This study aims to investigate the spectroscopic and structural properties of the compound Lumefantrine which is important in pharmacology because of its anti-malarial effect. The structural and spectroscopic properties of this molecule such as bond lengths, bond angles, FT-IR and NMR spectra were handled computationally using a computational chemistry suite: Spar-tan’14. Both HF and DFT methods were used with different basis sets for the calculations. The re-sults calculated by the software were compared to experimental results from the literature. Both Computational and experimental results were exhibited as tables. Also some calculated results such as HOMO-LUMO boundary orbitals and electrostatic potential map, were given as graphics and pictures.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the etiological agent of tuberculosis (TB), a disease that alt-hough preventable and curable, remains a global epidemic due to the emergence of resistance and a latent form responsible for a long period of treatment. Drug discovery in TB is a challenging task due to the heterogeneity of the disease, the emergence of resistance and an uncomplete knowledge of the pathophysiology of the disease. The limited permeability of the cell wall and the presence of multiple efflux pumps remain a major barrier to achieve effective intracellular drug accumulation. While the complete genome sequence of Mtb has been determined and several potential protein targets have been validated, the lack of adequate models for in vitro and in vivo studies is a limit-ing factor in TB drug discovery programs. In current therapeutic regimens, less than 0.5% of bac-terial proteins are targeted being the biosynthesis of the cell wall and the energetic metabolism two of the most important processes exploited for TB chemotherapeutics. This review provides an overview on the current challenges in TB drug discovery and emerging Mtb druggable proteins, and how chemical probes for protein profiling enabled the identification of new targets and bi-omarkers, paving the way to disruptive therapeutic regimens and diagnostic tools.

As part of valorisation of agricultural waste into bioactive compounds, a series of structurally novel oleanolic acid ((3β-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid, OA-1)-phtalimidines (isoindolinones) conjugates 18a-v bearing 1,2,3-triazole moieties were designed and synthesized by treating a previously azide 4 prepared from OA-1 isolated from olive pomace (Olea europaea L.) with a wide range of propargylated phtalimidines using the Cu(I)-catalyzed click chemistry approach. OA-1 and its newly prepared analogues 18a-v were screened in vitro for their antibacterial activity against two Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes; and two Gram-negative bacteria, Salmonella thyphimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Attractive results were obtained notably against L. monocytogenes. Compounds 18d, 18g and 18h exhibited the highest antibacterial activity when compared with OA-1 and other compounds in the series against tested pathogenic bacterial strains. Molecular docking study was performed to explore the binding mode of the most active derivatives against the target protein from L. monocytogenes. Results showed the importance of both hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions with the target protein and are in favor to the experimental data.

Anthropogenic activities are the main cause of climate change globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized that heating and precipitation are the reason for climate change due to anthropogenic actions over the past 30 years and claim 150,000 lives annually. Climate change is also affecting the atmospheres of polar regions. Numerous diseases are linked with climate change like cardiovascular mortality and respiratory illnesses. Due to climate change, lack of long-term and high-quality data sets, variations in drug resistance and immunity, the amplification or the resurgence of diseases, as well as many socio-economic factors, are uncertain.Potentially susceptible regions consist of the temperate latitudes, the regions near the Indian and Pacific oceans are affected due to the heavy rainfall where the heat of the cities could increase life-threatening climatic proceedings. The association between climate and health poses a risk to health under future guesses. Over the current decades, warming has contributed to increased mortality and morbidity in various provinces of the globe. The current study reviews the potential effects of climate change on temperature, human health, air quality, food & nutrition, livelihoods, and livestock & fisheries in detail.

Although renal denervation (RDN) protects against hypertension, hypertrophy, and heart failure (HF), it is not clear whether RDN preserves ejection fraction (EF) during heart failure (HFpEF). To test this hypothesis, we simulated chronic congestive cardiopulmonary heart failure (CHF) by creating aorta-vena cava fistula (AVF) in C57BL/6J wild type (WT) mice. There are four ways to create experimental CHF: (1) myocardial infarction (MI) which is basically ligating coronary by instrumenting and injuring the heart; (2) trans-aortic constriction (TAC), although it mimics systematic hypertension but TAC again constricts aorta on top of the heart and exposes the heart; (3) acquired CHF such as by dietary factors, diabetes/salt diets etc. but it is multifactorial, and finally (4) AVF, which is the only one wherein AVF is created ~1cm below the kidney where the aorta and vena cava share the common middle-wall. By creating fistula, the red blood enters vena cava without an injury to the heart. This model mimics CHF such as during aging where with age the preload keeps increasing than the aging heart can pump out due to the weakened cardiac myocytes. This also involves the right ventricle to lung to left ventricle flow, thus creating congestion. The heart in AVF goes to transition from preserved to reduced EF (i.e., HFpEF to HFrEF). In fact, there are more models of volume overload, such as the pacing-induced and mitral valve regurgitation but these are also injurious models. Our lab is one of the original labs in creating and studying the AVF phenotype. The RDN was created by treating the cleaned bilateral renal artery. After 6 weeks, blood, heart, and renal samples were analyzed for exosome, cardiac regeneration markers and renal cortex proteinases. Cardiac function was analyzed by echocardiogram (ECHO). Fibrosis was analyzed with trichrome staining. The results suggested that there was robust increase in exosomes’ level in AVF blood, suggesting compensatory systemic response during AVF-CHF. During AVF there was no change in cardiac eNOS, Wnt1 and β-catenin, however; during RDN there was robust increase in eNOS, Wnt1 and β-catenin compared to the sham group. As expected in HFpEF there was perivascular fibrosis, hypertrophy and pEF. Interestingly, increased levels of eNOS suggested that despite fibrosis, the NO generation was higher that most likely contributed to pEF during HF. The RDN intervention revealed an increase in renal cortical caspase 8 and a decrease in caspase 9. Since caspase 8 is protective and caspase 9 is apoptotic, we suggest that RDN protects against renal stresses, and apoptosis. Our findings also suggest that RDN is cardioprotective during HFpEF via the preservation of eNOS and accompanied endocardial-endothelial function.

This study analysed through the perspective of networks the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight low-income schoolchildren from the perspective of complex systems. Methods: The sample consisted of 41 overweight children between 6 and 10 years old (56% girls). PA and SB were analysed by accelerometer, and the measures of cardiovascular factor risk were: anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements, body fat, lipid profile and glucose, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), left ven-tricular mass (LVM), and Sokolov-Lyon. Network analysis with Boot-strap-1000 was performed to analyze the association between PA, SB and the cardiovascular risk factors. Results: Moderate to vigorous PA was positive related with Waist circumference (WC; 0.499), HDL-C (0.307), and CRF (0.276), and negatively associated with BMI (-0.251) and Fat (-0.341). For SB, positive associations were seen with WC (0.326), CRF (0.296), LVM (0.250) and Sokolov (0.215). Adicionalment, the centrality indicators highlighted WC as the most important variable in the network. Conclu-sion: Interventions that aim to mitigate the harmful effects of obesity on cardiovascular risk factors in overweight children should consider WC as an important variable in of system.

Heating has been recently used as an alternative application to electrical stimulation to modulate excitability and to induce neuritogenesis and the expression of neuronal markers, but a long-term functional differentiation has not been described so far. Here we present the results obtained by a new approach for scalable thermal stimulation on the behavior of a model of dorsal root ganglion neurons, the F-11 cell line. Initially, we performed experiments of bulk stimulation in incubator for different time intervals and temperatures, and significant differences in neurite elongation and in electrophysiological properties were observed in cultures exposed at 41,5°C for 30 minutes. Thus, we exposed the cultures to the same temperature increase by irradiating, with a near infrared laser, a disc of Prussian Blue nanoparticles and poly-vinyl alcohol, that we stuck on the outer surface of the petri dish. In irradiated cells neurites were significantly longer and the electrophysiological properties (action potential firing frequency and spontaneous activity) were significantly increased compared to the control. These results suggest that a targeted thermal stimulation could be a promising technique to induce differentiation and support the future application of this method as a strategy to modify neuronal behavior in vivo.

This paper describes the successful application of the Transformer model used in the natural language processing and vision tasks as a means of processing the time series of signals from gyroscope and accelerometer sensors for the classification of human activities. The Transformer model is based on deep neural networks with many layers which can generalize well on signals. All measured signals come from a smartphone placed in a waist bag. Activity prediction is sequence-to-sequence, each time step of the signal is assigned a designation of the performed activity. Emphasis is placed on attention mechanisms, which express individual dependencies between signal values within a time series. In comparison with another recent result, the recognition precision was improved from 89.67 percent to 99.2 percent. The transformer model should in the future be included among the top options in machine learning methods for human activity recognition.

An astonishing increase in temperature is posing several harmful impacts on crop plants. Heat stress is an abiotic environmental phenomenon that causes limits, inhibits plant growth, metabolism, and productivity worldwide, resulting in losses in production yields. Heat stress is caused by human activities and global warming,s such as greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapour. There are many pieces of evidence to support that heat stress reduces the crop plants yield worldwide, and the effects of heat stress are challenging to meet nutritional security and global food security for human beings. Heat stress has negative impacts on each developmental stage, including from germination to harvesting. Prevalent approaches for heat adaption is inadequate management that is unable either to increase the crop productivity or sustain ld. Several responses to dissect the relevant knowledge about heat stress mechanism involving morphological phenomena, physiological phenomena, reproductive replies, and molecular responses such as heat shock proteins act as mRNA synthesis, mRNA control (effects of genes during heat stress), the translation process, heat response element. There are such phenomena involving disseminating the knowledge concerning heat stress. In this review, we summarise the effect of heat stress on plant mechanisms, including morphological, biochemical and molecular responses.

The search for new chemical compounds with antitumor pharmacological activity is a necessary process for creating more effective drugs for each specific malignancy type. This review presents the outcomes of screening studies of natural compounds with high anti-glioma activity. Despite significant advances in cancer therapy, there are still some tumors currently considered completely incurable including brain gliomas. This review covers the main problems of the glioma chemotherapy including drug resistance, side effects of common anti-glioma drugs, and genetic diversity of brain tumors. The main emphasis is made on the characterization of natural compounds isolated from marine organisms because taxonomic diversity of organisms in seawaters significantly exceeds that of terrestrial species. Thus, we should expect greater chemical diversity of marine compounds and greater likelihood of finding effective molecules with antiglioma activity. The review covers at least 15 classes of organic compounds with their chemical formulas provided as well as semi-inhibitory concentrations, mechanisms of action, and pharmacokinetic profiles. In conclusion, the analysis of the taxonomic diversity of marine species containing bioactives with antiglioma activity is performed noting cytotoxicity indicators and to the tumor cells in comparison with similar indicators of antitumor agents approved for clinical use as antiglioblastoma chemotherapeutics.

This case study examined changes in body composition, resting metabolic rate (RMR), aerobic capacity, and daily physical activity in a patient who had ulcerative colitis who underwent ileal pouch‒anal anastomosis (IPAA) surgery. Body composition, RMR, and VO2 peak were assessed prior to, 4, 8, and 16 weeks after IPAA surgery. Daily physical activity data was extracted from a wrist-worn activity tracker preoperatively and 16 months postoperatively. At baseline, total body mass was 95.3 kg; body fat, 11.6 %; lean body mass, 81.1 kg; RMR, 2,416 kcal/d; and V̇O2peak, 42.7 mL/kg/min. All values decreased from baseline at 4 weeks postoperatively, body mass was 85.2 kg (-10.5%); body fat, 10.9% (-6.0%); lean body mass, 73.1 kg (-9.9%); RMR 2,210 kcal/d (-8.5%) and V̇O2peak, 25.5 mL/kg/min (-40.3%). At 16 weeks postoperatively, most parameters were near their baseline levels (within 1%-7%); exceptions were V̇O2peak, which was 20.4% below baseline, and RMR, which increased to nearly 20% above baseline. After the patient had an IPAA surgery, his total and lean body masses, RMR, and aerobic capacity were markedly decreased. Daily physical activity decreased postoperatively and likely contributed to the decreased aerobic capacity, which may take longer to recover compared to body composition and RMR parameters.

With the widespread of embedded sensing capabilities of mobile devices, there has been unprecedented development of context-aware solutions. This allows the proliferation of various intelligent applications such as those for remote health and lifestyle monitoring, intelligent personalized services, etc. However, activity context recognition based on multivariate time series signals obtained from mobile devices in unconstrained conditions is naturally prone to imbalance class problems. This means that recognition models tend to predict classes with the majority number of samples whilst ignoring classes with the least number of samples, resulting in poor generalization. To address this problem, we propose to augment the time series signals from inertia sensors with signals from ambient sensing to train deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) models. DCNN provides the characteristics that capture local dependency and scale invariance of these combined sensor signals. Consequently, we developed a DCNN model using only inertial sensor signals and then developed another model that combined signals from both inertia and ambient sensors aiming to investigate the class imbalance problem by improving the performance of the recognition model. Evaluation and analysis of the proposed system using data with imbalanced classes show that the system achieved better recognition accuracy when data from inertial sensors are combined with those from ambient sensors such as environment noise level and illumination, with an overall improvement of 5.3% accuracy.

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage disease. To expand the donor reserve, it is necessary to use marginal/sub optimal donors that provide marginal organs. We retrospectively evaluated the short and long-term outcome of elderly kidney transplantation using allografts with vascular abnormalities. Between January 1999 and December 2018, 740 transplants from cadaveric donors were performed. Thirty-four elderly patients received a kidney transplantation with vascular anatomical variants (Group 1) were compared with 34 patients who received a kidney transplantation with single renal artery (SRA) (Grroup2) pair-matched by age, dialysis age, donor age, comorbidity. All participants completed the Long Form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at baseline and after 4, 8, and 12 weeks after transplantation. The overall rate of surgical complications was 17.6% in Group 1 and 20.6% in Group 2, indicating that kidney with vascular anatomical variant might be successfully transplanted. Our data also emphasizes the importance of individualized physical activity in kidney transplantation with multiple arteries. Physical activity should be considered as an essential part of the medical care for renal-transplanted recipients.

One-dimensional nanostructures such as silver nanowires (AgNWs) have attracted considerable attention owing to their outstanding electrical, thermal and antimicrobial properties; however, their application in the prevention of infections linked to bone tissue regeneration interventions has not yet been explored. Here we report on the development of an innovative scaffold prepared from chitosan, composite hydroxyapatite and AgNWs (CS-HACS-AgNWs) having both bioactive and antibacterial properties. In vitro results highlighted the antibacterial potential of AgNWs against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The CS-HACS-AgNWs composite scaffold demonstrated suitable Ca/P deposition, improved gel strength, reduced gelation time, and sustained Ag+ release within therapeutic concentrations. Antibacterial studies showed that the composite formulation was capable of inhibiting bacterial growth in suspension and of completely preventing biofilm formation on the scaffold in the presence of resistant strains. The hydrogels were also shown to be biocompatible, allowing cell proliferation. In summary, the developed CS-HACS-AgNWs composite hydrogels demonstrated significant potential as a scaffold material to be employed in bone regenerative medicine, as it presents enhanced mechanical strength combined with the ability to allow calcium salts deposition, while efficiently decreasing the risk of infections. The results presented justify further investigations into potential clinical applications of these materials.

Selenium (Se) is an essential element of the human diet. Therefore, it is necessary to implement Se in agricultural fertilization, although it is not considered as an essential element for plants, Se provides benefits at the level of redox metabolism, increasing the resistance of plants to various stress factors. The increase of the availability of selenium with the use of biopolymer complexes was sought in Great Lakes lettuce grown in substrate pots treated with SeO₂ (5 mg L Se), Cs-PAA + Se (5 mg L Se), and Cs-PAA. The redox metabolism was modified by increasing the enzymatic activity of glutathione peroxidase. The use of Cs-PAA + Se biopolymer complexes increase selenium up to 24 mg/Kg dry weight (DW) in plant tissues.

An azaphenothiazine derivative, 6-chloroethylureidoethyldiquino[3,2-b;2’,3’-e][1,4]thiazine (DQT) has recently been shown to exhibit immunosuppressive activities in mouse models. It also inhibited the expression of CXCL10 at the protein level, at non-toxic concentrations, in the culture of KERTr cells treated with double-stranded RNA, poly(I:C). In this report, we demonstrated that DQT inhibits the transcription of the CXCL10 gene. Although CXCL10 is an IFNγ-inducible protein, we found that the CXCL10 protein was induced without the detectable release of IFNγ or IκB degradation. Hence, we concluded that IFNγ or NFκB were not involved in the regulation of the CXCL10 gene in KERTr cells transfected with poly(I:C) as well as in the inhibitory activity of DQT. On the other hand, we found that IFNβ was induced under the same conditions and its expression was inhibited by DQT. Kinetic analysis showed that an increase in IFNβ concentrations occurred 4-8 h after poly(I:C) treatment, while the concentration of CXCL10 was undetectable at that time and started to increase later, when IFNβ reached high levels. Therefore, DQT may be regarded as a new promising inhibitor of IFNβ expression and IFNβ-dependent downstream genes and proteins, e.g., CXCL10 chemokine, which is implicated in pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.

Tamarix nilotica (Ehrenb.) Bunge (Tamaricaceae), an indigenous plant to the Middle East region, is well-known as a medicinal plant for treating many human ailments. The current study aimed at exploring the polyphenols profile of T.nilotica alcohol soluble fraction of aqueous extract, assessing its in-vivo antifibrotic activity and the possible underlying mechanism, to unravel the impact of quantitative difference of sulphated polyphenols content on the antifibrotic activity of T.nilotca grown in two different habitats. Polyphenols profiling of T. nilotica extracts was performed using HPLC-HRESI-QTOF-MS-MS. The major polyphenol components included sulphated flavonoids, phenolic acids and free aglycones. The antifibrotic activity was evaluated through carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis in rats. Biochemical evaluations revealed that both fractions ameliorated the increased levels of hepatic aminotransferases, lipid peroxidation, hydroxyproline, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). Moreover, both fractions reduced catalase activity (CAT) and enhanced hepatic glutathione (GSH) content. Histopathological imaging undoubtedly confirmed such results. In conclusion, T. nilotica polyphenols rich fraction exhibited potential antifibrotic activity in rats. Significant alterations in GSH levels were recorded based on sulphated polyphenol metabolites content.

Education outside the classroom (EOtC) can be beneficial for students. The relationship between biological stress markers and sedentary behavior (SB) plus physical activity (PA) is insufficiently evaluated in school settings. This exploratory study aims to evaluate the association between students’ cortisol, plus circulating cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) levels, and their SB, light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) during outdoor and indoor classes in different seasons. We assessed data from an education outside the classroom (EOtC) program (n = 48; intervention group [IG], n = 37; control group [CG], n = 11). We sampled data on 3 school-days in three seasons (fall, spring, and summer) in normal teaching indoors (CG) and outdoor lessons (IG) in the forest. SB and PA were evaluated by accelerometry, and cortisol and cfDNA levels by saliva samples. The compositional data analysis approach analyzed SB and PA. Fitted Bayesian hierarchical linear models evaluated the association between cortisol and cfDNA, and SB/LPA/MVPA. A steady decline of cortisol in the outdoor setting is associated with relatively high levels of LPA. SB and MVPA tended to exhibit a similar effect in the indoor setting. CfDNA is positively associated with a relatively high amount of SB in the IG, the same association is likely for LPA and MVPA in both groups. LPA seems to support a healthy cortisol decrease in children during outdoor lessons. The relevance of SB/PA as a composition in relation to students stress response in school should be emphasized. This study facilitates the formulation of straightforward and directed hypotheses for further research.

We evaluated oleanolic acid (OA)-induced anti-cancer activity, apoptotic mechanism, cell cycle status, and MAPK kinase signaling in DU145 (prostate cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer), and U87 (human glioblastoma) cells. The IC50 values for OA-induced cytotoxicity were 112.57 in DU145, 132.29 in MCF-7, and 163.60 in U87 cells, respectively. OA (at 100 µg/mL) increased the number of apoptotic cells to 27.0% in DU145, 27.0% in MCF-7, and 15.7% in U87 cells, when compared to control cells. This enhanced apoptosis was due to increases in p53, cytochrome c, and Bax expression. OA-treated DU145 cells were arrested in G2 because of the activation of p-ERK and p21, and the decrease in cyclin B1 and cyclin E expression. Furthermore, OA-treated MCF-7 cells were arrested in G1 owing to the activation of p-JNK, p-ERK, p21, and p27, and the decrease in p-AKT, cyclin E, and CDK2. U87 cells also exhibited G1 phase arrest caused by the increase in p-ERK, p-JNK, p21, and p27, and the decrease in CDK2. Thus, OA arrests the cell cycle in different phases, and increases apoptosis in cancer cells. These results suggest that OA may alter the expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins in a cancer type-dependent manner.

Wound infections evidently appeared in times of World War I that accounted a significant mortality and morbidity rate among injured soldiers. Currently, around 11 million people worldwide require medical treatment for wound infections and 300,000 die every year due to untreated wound infection. The extensive use of antibiotics to treat wound infection leads to emerging new microbial strains that are resistant to many antibiotics. There is a growing concern on the emergence and re-emergence of drug-resistant pathogens such as multi-resistant bacterial strains. Hence, the development of new antimicrobial compounds or the modification of those that already exist to improve antibacterial activity is a high priority area of research. During the past few decades, nanotechnology has arisen with new promising technology for synthesis of nanobiomaterials. Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are considered as new alternative treatment with superior antibacterial activity. In this study, new formulation of titanium oxide (TiO2) NPs with different sizes were synthesized and characterized. Genotoxicity, mutagenicity and antibacterial activities of TiO2 NPs against the causative agents of wound infection were investigated. Antibacterial activity of TiO2 NPs was conducted against three ATCC ® bacterial strains: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results clearly illustrate a superior antibacterial activity of all newly formulated TiO2 NPs against the most causative agents of wound infection. Most of our TiO2 NPs showed non-genotoxic and non-mutagenic results at the maximum concentrations. Findings of this study will enhance the future of the therapeutic strategies against the resistant pathogenic strains that cause wound infections.

Microencapsulation of polyherbal formulation (PHF) extract was carried out by freeze drying method, by employing gum arabic (GA), gelatin (GE), and maltodextrin (MD) with their designated different combinations as encapsulating wall materials. Antioxidant components (i.e total phenolic contents (TPC),Total flavonoids contents (TFC), and total condensed contents (TCT)), antioxidant activity (i.e. DPPH, β-carotene & ABTS⁺ assays), moisture contents, water activity (aw), solubility, hygroscopicity, glass transition temperature (T_g), particle size, morphology, in vitro alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition and bioavailability ratios of the powders were investigated. Amongst all encapsulated products, T_B (5% GA and 5% MD) and T_C (10% GA) has proven to be the best treatments with respect to the highest preservation of antioxidant components and their antioxidant potential by DPPH and β-carotene assays and noteworthy for an ABTS⁺ assays, in addition, the aforesaid treatments also demonstrated lower moisture content, aw, particle size and higher solubility, hygroscopicity and glass transition temperature (T_g). All freeze dried samples showed irregular (asymmetrical) microcrystalline structures. Furthermore, T_B and T_C also illustrated the highest in vitro anti-diabetic potential due to great potency for inhibiting alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase activities. In the perspective of bioavailability, T_A, T_B and T_C demonstrated the excellent bioavailability ratios (%).Futhermore, the phytochemo-profiling of ethanolic extract of PHF was also revealed to find out the bioactive compounds.

This study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activities (AA) of lyophilized rosemary extract and lyophilized sage extract and their effects on the oxidative stability of poultry pátê. For this purpose, four poultry pátê formulations with rosemary, sage, sodium erythorbate, and a control (without antioxidants) were produced. The rosemary and sage were characterized according to total phenolic compounds (TPC), and AA by several methods. The poultry pátês stored at 4°C were evaluated by the lipid oxidation. High concentrations of TPC were detected in rosemary extract and sage extract (46.48 and 41.61 mg GAE/g: Gallic acid equivalent respectively). The AA of rosemary and sage extracts by free radical-scavenging were 4745.72 and 2462.82 µmol Trolox/g, respectively. The high concentration of catechin, rutin, myricetin and p-coumaric acids in these extracts may be responsible for the strong inhibitory action against food pathogens. Besides these compounds can be responsible for the best performance in inhibiting lipid oxidation in poultry pátês during the storage. This study suggests that rosemary and sage extracts may be used as a natural antioxidant in meat products.

Retinal lipofuscin accumulates with age in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) where its fluorescence properties are used to assess the retinal health. It was observed that there is a decrease in lipofuscin fluorescence above the age of 75 years and in early stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of lipofuscin isolated from human RPE, and lipofuscin-laden-cells to visible light, and determine whether an abundant component of lipofuscin, docosahexaenoate (DHA) can contribute to lipofuscin fluorescence upon oxidation. Exposure of lipofuscin to visible leads to a decrease of its long-wavelength fluorescence at about 610 nm with concomitant growth of the short-wavelength fluorescence. The emission spectrum of photodegraded lipofuscin exhibits similarity with that of oxidized DHA. Exposure to light of lipofuscin-laden cells leads to loss of lipofuscin granules from cells, while retaining cell viability. The spectral changes of fluorescence in lipofuscin-laden cells resemble those seen during photodegradation of isolated lipofuscin. Our results demonstrate that fluorescence emission spectra together with quantitation of intensity of long-wavelength fluorescence can serve as a marker useful for lipofuscin quantification and for monitoring its oxidation, thereby useful for screening the retina for increased oxidative damage and early AMD-related changes.

The promising antimicrobial activity of essential oils (EOs) led researchers to use them in combination with antimicrobial drugs in order to reduce drug toxicity, side effects, and resistance with single agents. In Pancalieri (Turin, Italy), there is a local production of Mentha x piperita worldwide known as “Mentha of Pancalieri”. The EO from this Mentha is considered as one of the best peppermint EO in the world. In our research, we assessed the antifungal activity of “Mentha of Pancalieri” EO either alone or in combination with azole drugs (fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole) against a wide panel of yeast and dermatophyte clinical isolates. The EO was analyzed by GC-MS and its antifungal properties were evaluated by MIC/MFC parameters, according to the CLSI guidelines, with some modifications. The interaction of peppermint EO with azoles was evaluated through the chequerboard and isobologram methods. Results suggest this EO exerts a fungicidal activity against yeasts, and a fungistatic activity against dermatophytes. Interaction studies with azoles indicate mainly synergistic profiles between itraconazole and peppermint EO vs. Candida spp., Cryptococcus neoformans and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Peppermint of Pancalieri EO may act as a potential antifungal agent and may serve as a natural adjuvant for fungal infection treatment.

: This article was not intended to be a complete report of a standard clinical trial. It is a report of the outcomes of preliminary data for validation of the CMECD procedure (Coletti Method of EMG ChemoDenervation) protocol for the treatment of chronic pain resulting from chronic muscle spasm. Methods are here detailed on how to approach the patient with chronic pain, identify the presence of chronic muscle spasm, undertake the treatment protocol and how to perform the follow up process to confirm that chronic pain secondary to chronic muscle spasm was the accurate diagnosis. Furthermore, this article presents the results of a cohort of more than 90 patients treated by the CMECD procedure regarding location and duration of prior pain, prior treatment strategies, degree of success in resolving pain and duration of relief. Outcome data consisting of patient and staff reporting of specific situations in which the chronic pain treatment was successful has been included to help establish the “believability” of outcome successes and to elucidate the potential life altering effects of successful treatment of chronic pain secondary to chronic muscle spasm. This article will hopefully increase the interest in this treatment protocol and increase the chance that a classical international clinical trial will be undertaken.

Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) leaves possess diverse antioxidant properties, mainly due to the different classes of phenolics. In this study, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) of wild strawberry phenolics were carried out to understand the impact of extraction temperature, extraction time and solvent-to-sample ratio (SSR) on the quantitative and qualitative properties of the obtained extracts. The highest total phenolic content (8027 mg GA/100 g DW), as well the highest DPPH• antiradical activity (903 mol TE/g DW) was obtained with ASE at 150 °C, static time 5 min and SSR of 40:1; while the highest ABTS•+ antiradical activity (681 mol TE/g DW,) and FRAP (2389 mol TE/g DW) was obtained with MAE after 5 min at 80 °C and a SSR of 40:1. The correlation analysis showed that phenolics largely contributed to the antioxidant properties of the studied MAE extracts, while correlation was not found in ASE extracts. A total of 54 different phenolics were identified by UPLC/MS-MS in MAE and ASE extracts obtained at optimal extraction conditions. MAE extract was shown to have a higher content of phenolic acids (40%), but lower content of proanthocyanidins (88%), flavonols (29%), flavan-3-ols (50%) and flavones (39%) than ASE extract.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a major human pathogen that requires new antibiotics with unique mechanism. A new pleuromutilin derivative, 14-O-[(4,6-Diaminopyrimidine-2-yl) thioacetyl] mutilin (DPTM), has been synthesized and proved as a potent antibacterial agent using in vitro and in vivo assays. In the present study, DPTM was further in vitro evaluated against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from dairy farms and outperformed tiamulin fumarate, a pleuromutilin drug used for veterinary. Moreover, a murine skin wound model caused by MRSA infection was established and the healing effect of DPTM was investigated. The results showed that DPTM could promote the healing of MRSA skin infection, reduce the bacterial burden of infected skin MRSA and decrease the secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α inflammatory cytokines in plasma. These results provided the basis for further in-depth drug targeted studies of DPTM as a novel antibacterial agent.

The aim was to examine the sociodemographic predictors associated with changes in movement behaviours (physical activity, screen time and sleep) among toddlers and pre-schoolers during the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Chile. Caregivers of 1- to 5-year-old children completed an online survey between March 30th and April 27th, 2020. Information about the child's movement behaviours before (retrospectively) and during the pandemic, as well as family characteristics were reported. In total, 3,157 participants provided complete data (mean children age: 3.1±1.38 years). During early stages of the pandemic, time spent in physical activity decreased, recreational screen time and sleep duration increased, and sleep quality declined. Toddlers and pre-schoolers with space to play at home and living in rural areas experienced an attenuated impact of the pandemic restrictions on their physical activity levels, screen time, and sleep quality. Older children, those whose caregivers had a higher educational level, and children living in apartments had greater changes, mainly a decrease in total physical activity and increase in screen time. This study has shown the significant impact of the pandemic restrictions on movement behaviours in toddlers and pre-schoolers in Chile.

Failure to meet the deadlines for the implementation of investment and construction projects is a problem in all countries of the world, and leads to unstable activity of construction companies. The article studies the most important destabilizing factors affecting the main indicator of sustainable activity of construction companies-the duration of the implementation of an investment and construction projects. To determine and assess the impact of destabilizing factors on the duration of implementation of selected investment and construction projects, a survey was conducted, in which a number of customers, consultants and contractors involved in construction projects took part. Questionnaires developed on the basis of a cluster sample were sent to respondents, 48 responses were received in response to the assessment of destabilizing factors. To analyze the received and grouped information, structural equation modeling using the Smart-PLS program was used. As a result of modeling, a number of results were obtained, the most important of which are the identification of the main reasons that lead to an average (20% - 50%) increase in the duration of projects in the construction sector. The most significant were: the lack of an appropriate procurement program for materials; inefficient scheduling by contractors and instability of construction production; poor-quality processing of incoming information and untimely deci-sion-making due to changes in projects during their implementation. Destabilizing factors con-tribute to an increase in the duration of construction sector projects, which leads to time overruns, cost overruns, and an increase in the negative impact on the overall use of resources. As a result of the study, a set of recommendations was formed, the most important of which is the use of possible compensatory measures that can allow construction companies to eliminate the risks of disrupting construction deadlines for sustainable activities. These compensatory measures include: - recommendations to customers of the construction project; - recommendations to contractors; - recommendations to the consultant. Moreover, the control of destabilizing factors that can cause delays, the improvement of contracts and the precise and clearer definition of all elements of the project can help to reduce the duration of construction, and will allow companies to maintain sustainable activities in the construction industry.

Blackcurrant juice (Ribes nigrum L.) was subjected to supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCD) at 10, 30 and 60 MPa for 10 min at 45°C as well as thermally treated at 45°C and 85°C for 10 min to determine the stability, antioxidant capacity (AC) and bioaccessibility (BAc) of vitamin C, total anthocyanins and their individual monomers. An in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model completed with dialysis was used to assess BAc. The use of SCCD at each of the pressures applied improved the stability of vitamin C, total anthocyanins, and AC before in vitro digestion. As a result of digestion, L-ascorbic acid was oxidized to L-dehydroascorbic acid, and finally, the total content of vitamin C, anthocyanins, and AC decreased. SCCD did not significantly improve the BAc of vitamin C and total anthocyanins. The highest BAc of vitamin C was noted in fresh juice (FJ) (40%) and after mild heat treatment at 45°C (T45) (46%). The highest BAc of total anthocyanins was also noted in the FJ (4.4%). The positive effect of the application of SCCD on the BAc of the delphinidin-3-O-glycosides was observed compared to T45 and thermal pasteurization at 85°C (T85). Moreover, cyanidins were generally more bioaccessible than delphinidins in all samples. AC after digestion was higher in SCCD samples compared to thermally treated measured using ABTS+• and DPPH• assays, whereas in dialysate similar trends were observed only for AC measured using the ABTS+• assay. This phenomenon was justified by the formation of individual metabolites detected by UPLC-PDA-MS / MS in the model experiment with delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside. The protocatechuic acid which is well known as a strong antioxidant was detected in the model experiment after digestion. Further research is needed to better understand the metabolic pathway of anthocyanins and the possible uses of SCCD to improve the health properties of fruit products.

Exoskeletons designed to assist patients with activities of daily living are becoming increasingly popular, but still are subject to research. In order to gather requirements for the design of such systems, long-term gait observation of the patients over the course of multiple days in an environment of daily living are required. In this paper a wearable all-in-one data acquisition system for collecting and storing biomechanical data in everyday life is proposed. The system is designed to be cost efficient and easy to use, using off-the-shelf components and a cloud server system for centralized data storage. The measurement accuracy of the system was verified, by measuring the angle of the human knee joint at walking speeds between 3 and 12 km/h in reference to an optical motion analysis system. The acquired data was uploaded to a cloud database via a smartphone application. Verification results showed that the proposed toolchain works as desired. The system reached an RMSE from 2.9° to 8°, which is below most of the comparable system. The system provides a powerful, scalable platform for collecting and processing biomechanical data, which can help to automize the generation of an extensive database for human kinematics.

Single-fluid electrospinning creates nanofibers from molten polymer solutions with active ingredients. The study utilized a combination of a fractional factorial design and a Box-Behnken design to examine crucial factors among a multitude of parameters and to optimize the electrospinning conditions that impact the fiber mats' morphology and entrapment efficiency of the Senna alata leaf extract. The findings indicated that the shellac content had the greatest impact on both fiber diameter and bead formation. The optimum electrospinning conditions were identified as a voltage of 24 kV, a solution feed rate of 0.8 mL/h, and a shellac-extract ratio of 38.5:3.8. These conditions produced nanosized fibers with a diameter of 306 nm, a low bead-to-fiber ratio of 0.29, and an extract entrapment efficiency of 96% within the fibers. The biphasic profile of optimized nanofibers was confirmed through an in vitro release study. This profile consisted of an initial burst release of 88% within the first hour, which was succeeded by a sustained release pattern surpassing 90% for the next 12 h, as predicted by zero-order release kinetics. The optimized nanofibers demonstrated antimicrobial efficacy against diverse pathogens, suggesting promising applications in wound dressings and protective textiles.

The article explores the task of making higher education more profession-oriented. In this context, we consider the technology of structuring and matching professional activities and content of professional education curricula with the help of ontology. This technology employs intelligent analysis of labor market and educational content matching with the aim to organize educational programs and verify professional competences based on their ontological properties. The article also considers development of a professional training cognitive map that can help design the student’s personalized educational trajectory factoring in the given parameters.