bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prospective Monitoring of Circulating Epithelial Tumor Cells (CETC) Reveals Changes in Gene Expression during Adjuvant Radiotherapy of Breast Cancer Patients
Authors: Mäurer Matthias , Pachmann Katharina , Wendt Thomas , Schott Dorothea , Wittig Andrea
Published: September 2021

Circulating epithelial tumor cells (CETC) are considered to be responsible for the formation of metastases. Therefore, their importance as prognostic and/or predictive markers in breast cancer is being intensively investigated. Here, the reliability of single cell expression analyses in isolated and collected CETC from whole blood samples of patients with early-stage breast cancer before and after radiotherapy (RT) using the maintrac® method was investigated. Single-cell expression analyses were performed with qRT-PCR on a panel of selected genes: GAPDH, EpCAM, NANOG, Bcl-2, TLR 4, COX-2, PIK3CA, Her-2/neu, Vimentin, c-Met, Ki-67. In all patients, viable CETC were detected prior to and at the end of radiotherapy. In 7 of the 9 (77.8%) subjects examined, the CETC number at the end of the radiotherapy series was higher than before. The majority of genes analyzed showed increased expression after completion of radiotherapy compared to baseline. Procedures and methods used in this pilot study proved to be feasible. The method is suitable for further investigation of the underlying molecular biological mechanisms occurring in cells surviving radiotherapy and possibly the development of radiation resistance.
Compositional Characteristics of Mediterranean Buffalo Milk and Whey
Authors: Garau Viviana , Manis Cristina , Scano Paola , Caboni Pierluigi
Published: September 2021

The main objective of this review is to summarize the compositional characteristics and the health and functional properties of Mediterranean buffalo milk and whey derived from mozzarella cheese production. Several studies have investigated the composition of buffalo milk and in particular its fat, protein, and carbohydrates contents. These characteristics may change depending on the breed, feeding regime, and rearing system of the animals involved in the study, and also with the seasons. In particular, buffalo milk showed a higher nutritional value and higher levels of proteins, vitamins, and minerals when compared to milks produced by other animal species. Additionally, buffalo milk contains beneficial compounds such as gangliosides that can provide antioxidant protection and neuronal protection, and can improve bone, heart, and gastrointestinal health in humans.
BioCPR–A Tool for Correlation Plots
Authors: Fey Vidal , Jambulingam Dhanaprakash , Sara Henri , Heron Samuel , Sipeky Csilla , Schleutker Johanna
Published: September 2021

A gene is a sequence of DNA bases through which genetic information is passed on to the next generation. Most genes encode for proteins that ultimately control cellular function. Understanding the interrelation between genes without the application of statistical methods can be a daunting task. Correlation analysis is a powerful approach to determine the strength of association between two variables (e.g., gene-wise expression). Moreover, it becomes essential to visualize this data to establish patterns and derive insight. The most common method for gene expression visualization is to use correlation heatmaps in which the colors of the plot represent strength of co-expression. In order to address this requirement, we developed a visualization tool called BioCPR: Biological Correlation Plots in R. This tool performs both correlation analysis and subsequent visualization in the form of an interactive heatmap, improving both usability and interpretation of the data. BioCPR is an R Shiny-based application and can be run locally in Rstudio or a web browser.
MRI versus Mammography plus Ultrasound in Women at Intermediate Breast Cancer Risk: Study Design and Protocol of the MRIB Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Trial
Authors: Bonelli Luigina Ada , Calabrese Massimo , Belli Paolo , Corcione Stefano , Losio Claudio , Montemezzi Stefania , Pediconi Federica , Petrillo Antonella , Zuiani Chiara , Camera Lucia , Carbonaro Luca Alessandro , Cozzi Andrea , De Falco Alfano Daniele , Gristina Licia , Panzeri Marta , Poirè Ilaria , Schiaffino Simone , Tosto Simona , Trecate Giovanna , Trimboli Rubina Manuela , Valdora Francesca , Viganò Sara , Sardanelli Francesco
Published: September 2021

In women at high/intermediate lifetime risk of breast cancer (BC-LTR), contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) added to mammography ± ultrasound (MX ± US) increases sensitivity but decreases specificity. Screening with MRI alone is an alternative and potentially more cost-effective strategy. Here, we describe the study protocol and the characteristics of enrolled patients for MRIB feasibility, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial, which aims to compare MRI alone versus MX+US in women at intermediate breast cancer risk (aged 40–59, with a 15–30% BC-LTR and/or extremely dense breasts). Two screening rounds per woman were planned in ten centers experienced in MRI screening, the primary endpoint being the rate of cancers detected in the 2 arms after 5 years of follow-up. From July 2013 to November 2015, 1254 women (mean age 47 years) were enrolled: 624 were assigned to MX+US and 630 to MRI. Most of them were aged below 50 (72%) and premenopausal (45%), and 52% used oral contraceptives. Among postmenopausal women, 15% had used hormone replacement therapy. Breast and/or ovarian cancer in mothers and/or sisters were reported by 37% of enrolled women, 79% had extremely dense breasts, and 41% had a 15–30% BC-LTR. The distribution of the major determinants of breast cancer risk profiles (breast density and family history of breast and ovarian cancer) of enrolled women varied across centers.
Ivermectin for Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Cruciani Mario , Pati Ilaria , Masiello Francesca , Malena Marina , Pupella Simonetta , De Angelis Vincenzo
Published: September 2021

Background. Ivermectin has received particular attention as a potential treatment for COVID-19. However, the evidence to support its clinical efficacy is controversial. Objectives. We undertook a new systematic review of ivermectin for the treatment and prophylaxis of COVID-19, including new primary studies, outcomes other than mortality, and grading the quality of the available evidence following the Cochrane guidance for methodology. Methods. We searched electronic databases, repository databases, and clinical trial registries (up to June 2021). The measure of treatment effect was risk difference (RD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The GRADE system was used to assess the certainty of the evidence. Results. The review includes 11 RCTs (2436 participants). The certainty of the available evidence was quite low or very low due to risk of bias, inconsistency, and imprecision. When the analysis was limited to patients with baseline mild or moderate disease (8 reports, 1283 patients), there were no differences in mortality between ivermectin and control groups (low level of certainty); in patients with baseline severe diseases (3 reports, 304 patients), the use of ivermectin significantly decreased mortality compared to the controls (RD −0.17; 95% CIs, −0.24/−0.10; p = 0.00001; low level of certainty). In terms of disease progression (to severe pneumonia, admission to intensive care unit, and/or mechanical ventilation), the results were much the same. At day 14, the rate of patients with a negative RT-PCR test was 21% higher (from 5 to 36% higher) for ivermectin recipients than it was for the controls (low quality of evidence). Three studies (736 subjects) indicated that prophylaxis with ivermectin increased the likelihood of preventing COVID-19 compared to controls (low quality of evidence). Serious adverse events were rarely reported. Conclusions. There is limited evidence for the benefit of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment and prophylaxis, and most of this evidence is of low quality. Further evidence is needed to fine-tune potential indications and optimal treatment protocols for ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.
Time-Dependent Dephasing and Quantum Transport
Authors: Moreira Saulo V. , Marques Breno , Semião Fernando L.
Published: September 2021

The investigation of the phenomenon of dephasing assisted quantum transport, which happens when the presence of dephasing benefits the efficiency of this process, has been mainly focused on Markovian scenarios associated with constant and positive dephasing rates in their respective Lindblad master equations. What happens if we consider a more general framework, where time-dependent dephasing rates are allowed, thereby, permitting the possibility of non-Markovian scenarios? Does dephasing-assisted transport still manifest for non-Markovian dephasing? Here, we address these open questions in a setup of coupled two-level systems. Our results show that the manifestation of non-Markovian dephasing-assisted transport depends on the way in which the incoherent energy sources are locally coupled to the chain. This is illustrated with two different configurations, namely non-symmetric and symmetric. Specifically, we verify that non-Markovian dephasing-assisted transport manifested only in the non-symmetric configuration. This allows us to draw a parallel with the conditions in which time-independent Markovian dephasing-assisted transport manifests. Finally, we find similar results by considering a controllable and experimentally implementable system, which highlights the significance of our findings for quantum technologies.
Robust Controller Design for Multi-Input Multi-Output Systems Using Coefficient Diagram Method
Authors: Liu Kai , Meng Fanwei , Meng Shengya , Wang Chonghui
Published: September 2021

The coupling between variables in the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems brings difficulties to the design of the controller. Aiming at this problem, this paper combines the particle swarm optimization (PSO) with the coefficient diagram method (CDM) and proposes a robust controller design strategy for the MIMO systems. The decoupling problem is transformed into a compensator parameter optimization problem, and PSO optimizes the compensator parameters to reduce the coupling effect in the MIMO systems. For the MIMO system with measurement noise, the effectiveness of CDM in processing measurement noise is analyzed. This paper gives the control design steps of the MIMO systems. Finally, simulation experiments of four typical MIMO systems demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Learners’ Performance in a MOOC on Programming
Authors: Feklistova Lidia , Lepp Marina , Luik Piret
Published: September 2021

In every course, there are learners who successfully pass assessments and complete the course. However, there are also those who fail the course for various reasons. One of such reasons may be related to success in assessment. Although performance in assessments has been studied before, there is a lack of knowledge on the degree of variance between different types of learners in terms of scores and the number of resubmissions. In the paper, we analyse the performance in assessments demonstrated by non-completers and completers and by completers with different engagement levels and difficulty-resolving patterns. The data have been gathered from the Moodle statistics source based on the performance of 1065 participants, as regards their completion status, the number of attempts made per each programming task and quiz, and the score received per quiz. Quantitative analysis was performed with descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Non-completers and completers were similar in resubmissions per quiz, but the former, expectedly, made more resubmissions per programming task and received lower quiz scores. Completers made more attempts per task than per quiz. They could provide a correct solution with a few resubmissions and receive good scores already at a pragmatic engagement level. At the same time, the increased use of help sources in case of difficulties was also associated with a higher number of attempts and lower quiz scores received. The study may have implications in understanding the role of assessments in dropouts and how completers with different engagement and difficulty-resolving patterns cope with assessments.
Active Sense: Early Staging of Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) Hinges upon Recognizing Daily Activity Pattern
Authors: Bahadur Erfanul Hoque , Masum Abdul Kadar Muhammad , Barua Arnab , Uddin Md Zia
Published: September 2021

The Human Activity Recognition (HAR) system allows various accessible entries for the early diagnosis of Diabetes as one of the nescient applications domains for the HAR. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) was applied and recognized 13 activities that resemble diabetes symptoms. Afterward, risk factor assessment for an experimental subject identified similar activity pattern attributes between diabetic patients and the experimental subject. Because of this, a trained LSTM model was deployed to monitor the average time length for every activity performed by the experimental subject for 30 consecutive days. Concurrently, the symptomatic diabetes activity patterns of diabetic patients were explored. The cosine similarity of activity patterns of the experimental subject and diabetic patients measured 57.39%, putting the experimental subject into moderate risk factor class. The experimental subject was clinically tested for risk factors using the diabetic clinical diagnosis process, known as the A1C. The A1C level was 6.1%, recognizing the experimental subject as a patient suffering from Diabetes. Thus, the proposed novel approach remarkably classifies the risk factor level based on activity patterns.
Multi-Stage Attention-Enhanced Sparse Graph Convolutional Network for Skeleton-Based Action Recognition
Authors: Li Chaoyue , Zou Lian , Fan Cien , Jiang Hao , Liu Yifeng
Published: September 2021

Graph convolutional networks (GCNs), which model human actions as a series of spatial-temporal graphs, have recently achieved superior performance in skeleton-based action recognition. However, the existing methods mostly use the physical connections of joints to construct a spatial graph, resulting in limited topological information of the human skeleton. In addition, the action features in the time domain have not been fully explored. To better extract spatial-temporal features, we propose a multi-stage attention-enhanced sparse graph convolutional network (MS-ASGCN) for skeleton-based action recognition. To capture more abundant joint dependencies, we propose a new strategy for constructing skeleton graphs. This simulates bidirectional information flows between neighboring joints and pays greater attention to the information transmission between sparse joints. In addition, a part attention mechanism is proposed to learn the weight of each part and enhance the part-level feature learning. We introduce multiple streams of different stages and merge them in specific layers of the network to further improve the performance of the model. Our model is finally verified on two large-scale datasets, namely NTU-RGB+D and Skeleton-Kinetics. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed MS-ASGCN outperformed the previous state-of-the-art methods on both datasets.
An Efficient Method to Compute Thermal Parameters of the Comfort Map Using a Decreased Number of Measurements
Authors: Cakó Balázs , Zoltán Erzsébet Szeréna , Girán János , Medvegy Gabriella , Miklós Mária Eördöghné , Nyers Árpád , Grozdics Anett Tímea , Kisander Zsolt , Bagdán Viktor , Borsos Ágnes
Published: September 2021

This paper presents an empirical approach to design ideal workplaces using the PMV-PPD (predicted mean vote–predicted percentage dissatisfied) method set in ISO 7730 in terms of thermal comfort. The key concept behind our method is that the overall employee satisfaction might be improved if they can select the most suitable desk based on their personal comfort preferences. To support desk sharing, we designed a comfort map toolkit, which can visualize the distribution of comfort parameters within office spaces. The article describes the steps to create comfort maps with methods already widely used, as well as a new one developed by our research team, including the measurement procedures and the theoretical background required.
Qualitative Research on Solving Difficulties in Maintaining Continuity of Food Supply Chain on the Meat Market during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Zielińska-Chmielewska Anna , Mruk-Tomczak Dobrosława , Wielicka-Regulska Anna
Published: September 2021

Although the pandemic phenomenon is not the first of its kind in human history, the common feature of COVID-19 is its rapid impact on the global economy. The challenge for the national economy on the world stage is to maintain a continuous food supply. The scientific purpose of the study is to report, analyze and evaluate backgrounds, causes of instabilities and their effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply and demand side of the meat market in the United States of America, China and Russia. The practical purpose of the study is to present implemented measures and recommendations on how to return to meat market equilibrium. In the theoretical part of the study, the revised public source of information coming from well-known organizations such as: EC, FAO, OECD, and WB, are used. In the practical part of the manuscript, qualitative research on the People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, and the United States of America, along with semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts and Ishikawa diagram are presented. The primary data come from authors’ own research and collection of multiple sources. The article indicates the use of qualitative systematic review, supported by a creation of a prototype of the issues of maintaining continuity of the food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic in the secondary sources, intensified by a keyword search. The results of the research are diverse and oriented toward the needs of the analyzed meat markets. In the case of the People’s Republic of China, the solution is to develop a system of subsidies and preferential rates for the use of rail transport in exports. In the case of Russia, the solution is to provide support to the meat and poultry farmers for cold storage of slaughtered animals. In the case of the USA, the solution is to develop technical and technological facilities in order to speed up the supply chain between local livestock with meat and poultry farmers. Moreover, the outcomes indicate that sustainability of the food supply chain needs well-thought-out support on agri-food supply production.
Analysis of the Financing Structure of China’s Listed New Energy Companies under the Goal of Peak CO2 Emissions and Carbon Neutrality
Authors: Li Fuyou , Di Hao
Published: September 2021

Under China’s “Dual Carbon” strategic goal, electric energy substitution on the energy consumption side and clean substitution on the energy supply side have become an important path to achieve peak CO2 emissions and carbon neutrality. Adjusting the energy structure and encouraging new energy to replace traditional energy is an important manifestation of China’s energy supply revolution. Therefore, China’s new energy companies have grown rapidly over the past decade. The development and growth of this industry is inseparable from government policy support. The profitability and economy are essential for the new energy industry to support its sustainable development., especially the choice of business models such as operation model and financing structures. Therefore, we build extended panel vector autoregression (PVAR) models with two-step system GMM(SYS-GMM) estimator which introduced predetermined and strictly exogenous variables to explore the dynamic correlation between financing structure and economic performance of China’s new energy public companies. The number of patent approvals and financial leverage are introduced as exogenous control variables. The results show that although the increase in costs caused by financing behavior will have a negative impact on the company’s return on equity in the short term, with the rational investment and utilization of funds, the negative impact will gradually weaken. Listed new energy companies can effectively use financing funds, and the use of different financing tools has different effects on company performance. Although debt financing can help promote the company’s profitability, it is detrimental to its future growth capacity.
High-Temperature Fluidized Bed Processing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) as a Way to Recover Raw Materials
Authors: Żukowski Witold , Kowalska Amelia , Wrona Jan
Published: September 2021

This paper explores the effectiveness of metal recovery and values of gaseous emissions during thermal e-waste processing followed by magnetic separation. The thermal process of conversion of this kind of waste is difficult due to the uncertainty of the operation when compared to the processing of homogeneous materials. This is due to their complex and heterogeneous structure. The adoption of the fluidized bed reactor makes the process feasible, stabilizing it significantly and limiting emissions of harmful gases. Mobile cellphones were used as the raw input material of 450 g total mass. During the thermal transformation, the exhaust gases such as: CO, CO2, NOx, SO2, HCI, HBr, HCN, NH3, phenol, hydrocarbons, HF and COCI2 were analysed. The thermal treatment resulted in 333.6 g of solids in the fluidized bed. They were fragmented into grains smaller than 1 mm and 0.5 mm. The process of magnetic enrichment was used next on grains greater than 1 mm and smaller than 0.5 mm. The process was carried out using a neodymium magnet for particles >1 mm and a plate electromagnetic separator (powered by a three-phase current) together with a 1-disc tape-type separator, which was used for particles <1 mm. Such an approach resulted in the recovery of 81.9% of cobalt, 96.6% of iron and 99.2% of neodymium. The most efficient method of magnetic enriching (MS) proved to be the use of the electromagnetic plate separator.
Redox Flow Batteries: Materials, Design and Prospects
Authors: Iwakiri Igor , Antunes Tiago , Almeida Helena , Sousa João P. , Figueira Rita Bacelar , Mendes Adélio
Published: September 2021

The implementation of renewable energy sources is rapidly growing in the electrical sector. This is a major step for civilization since it will reduce the carbon footprint and ensure a sustainable future. Nevertheless, these sources of energy are far from perfect and require complementary technologies to ensure dispatchable energy and this requires storage. In the last few decades, redox flow batteries (RFB) have been revealed to be an interesting alternative for this application, mainly due to their versatility and scalability. This technology has been the focus of intense research and great advances in the last decade. This review aims to summarize the most relevant advances achieved in the last few years, i.e., from 2015 until the middle of 2021. A synopsis of the different types of RFB technology will be conducted. Particular attention will be given to vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), the most mature RFB technology, but also to the emerging most promising chemistries. An in-depth review will be performed regarding the main innovations, materials, and designs. The main drawbacks and future perspectives for this technology will also be addressed.
Design of Gerotor Pump and Influence on Oil Supply System for Hybrid Transmission
Authors: Huang Mingyu , Shi Chongshi , Zhu Yu , Zhang Jiaqiao , Zhang Fubao
Published: September 2021

Electric continuously variable transmission (E-CVT) is a vital part of the automobile in order to enhance the power coupling. The oil pump is an important power source component in the hybrid transmission system. Its efficiency exerts a significant impact on the efficiency of the oil supply system and even the hybrid transmission system. In this study, a gerotor pump is designed in line with the requirements of a certain type of hybrid electric vehicle. A Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) genetic algorithm was employed to optimize the rotor tooth profile. The proportional-derivative (PD) control of the oil supply system was realized to lower the functional error of the oil supply system based on the AMESim simulation platform. In addition, the prototype test was performed to verify the rationality of the design.
Spectrum Demand Forecasting for IoT Services
Authors: Jaramillo-Ramirez Daniel , Perez Manuel
Published: September 2021

The evolution of IoT has come with the challenge of connecting not only a massive number of devices, but also providing an always wider variety of services. In the next few years, a big increase in the number of connected devices is expected, together with an important increase in the amount of traffic generated. Never before have wireless communications permeated so deeply in all industries and economic sectors. Therefore, it is crucial to correctly forecast the spectrum needs, which bands should be used for which services, and the economic potential of its utilization. This paper proposes a methodology for spectrum forecasting consisting of two phases: a market study and a spectrum forecasting model. The market study determines the main drivers of the IoT industry for any country: services, technologies, frequency bands, and the number of devices that will require IoT connectivity. The forecasting model takes the market study as the input and calculates the spectrum demand in 5 steps: Defining scenarios for spectrum contention, calculating the offered traffic load, calculating a capacity for some QoS requirements, finding the spectrum required, and adjusting according to key spectral efficiency determinants. This methodology is applied for Colombia’s IoT spectrum forecast. We provide a complete step-by-step implementation in fourteen independent spectrum contention scenarios, calculating offered traffic, required capacity, and spectrum for cellular licensed bands and non-cellular unlicensed bands in a 10-year period. Detailed results are presented specifying coverage area requirements per economic sector, frequency band, and service. The need for higher teledensity and higher spectral efficiency turns out to be a determining factor for spectrum savings.
Efficient Simulations of Propagating Flames and Fire Suppression Optimization Using Adaptive Mesh Refinement
Authors: Lapointe Caelan , Wimer Nicholas T. , Simons-Wellin Sam , Glusman Jeffrey F. , Rieker Gregory B. , Hamlington Peter E.
Published: September 2021

Fires are complex multi-physics problems that span wide spatial scale ranges. Capturing this complexity in computationally affordable numerical simulations for process studies and “outer-loop” techniques (e.g., optimization and uncertainty quantification) is a fundamental challenge in reacting flow research. Further complications arise for propagating fires where a priori knowledge of the fire spread rate and direction is typically not available. In such cases, static mesh refinement at all possible fire locations is a computationally inefficient approach to bridging the wide range of spatial scales relevant to fire behavior. In the present study, we address this challenge by incorporating adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) in fireFoam, an OpenFOAM solver for simulations of complex fire phenomena involving pyrolyzing solid surfaces. The AMR functionality in the extended solver, called fireDyMFoam, is load balanced, models gas, solid, and liquid phases, and allows us to dynamically track regions of interest, thus avoiding inefficient over-resolution of areas far from a propagating flame. We demonstrate the AMR capability and computational efficiency for fire spread on vertical panels, showing that the AMR solver reproduces results obtained using much larger statically refined meshes, but at a substantially reduced computational cost. We then leverage AMR in an optimization framework for fire suppression based on the open-source Dakota toolkit, which is made more computationally tractable through the use of fireDyMFoam, minimizing a cost function that balances water use and solid-phase mass loss. The extension of fireFoam developed here thus enables the use of higher fidelity simulations in optimization problems for the suppression of fire spread in both built and natural environments.
Effect of Novel Bacteriocinogenic Lactobacillus fermentum BZ532 on Microbiological Shelf-Life and Physicochemical and Organoleptic Properties of Fresh Home-Made Bozai
Authors: Rasheed Hafiz Abdul , Tuoheti Tuhanguli , Li Zhiyu , Tekliye Mekonen , Zhang Yongzhu , Dong Mingsheng
Published: September 2021

Bacteriocinogenic Lactobacillus fermentum BZ532 with novel bacteriocin LF-BZ532 was originally isolated from Chinese cereal fermented drink, showing an antimicrobial characteristic during fermentation. This study aimed to explore the in situ antimicrobial activities of L. fermentum BZ532 and co-culturing investigation against key food pathogens, i.e., Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli K-12, was conducted during fresh bozai production. The growth of spoilage bacteria was suppressed and bacterial count was reduced to a significantly low level during 48 h of co-cultures. In situ production of antimicrobial compounds expressed positive activity against S. aureus and E. coli K-12, but negative acitivity against Salmonella sp. D104. The total viable count of bozai BZ-Lf (bozai fermented with BZ532 strain) had a comparatively lower viable count than bozai BZ-C (bozai as an experimental control without BZ532) during storage of 7 days. Titratable acidity of bozai treatments (BZ-C, BZ-Lf) was increased, while pH declined accordingly during storage of 7 days. The organoleptic quality of bozai BZ-C had low sensorial scores as compared with BZ-Lf during storage. In comparison with naturally fermented bozai (BZ-C), L. fermentum BZ532 (BZ-Lf) could significantly reduce the microbial spoilage and extend the shelf-life based on microbiological examination. Conclusively, L. fermentum BZ532 can be used as a bio-protective culture for improving the safety of bozai.
Safety Aspects of the Use of Isolated Piperine Ingested as a Bolus
Authors: Ziegenhagen Rainer , Heimberg Katharina , Lampen Alfonso , Hirsch-Ernst Karen Ildico
Published: September 2021

Piperine is a natural ingredient of Piper nigrum (black pepper) and some other Piper species. Compared to the use of pepper for food seasoning, piperine is used in food supplements in an isolated, concentrated form and ingested as a bolus. The present review focuses on the assessment of the possible critical health effects regarding the use of isolated piperine as a single ingredient in food supplements. In human and animal studies with single or short-term bolus application of isolated piperine, interactions with several drugs, in most cases resulting in increased drug bioavailability, were observed. Depending on the drug and extent of the interaction, such interactions may carry the risk of unintended deleteriously increased or adverse drug effects. Animal studies with higher daily piperine bolus doses than in human interaction studies provide indications of disturbance of spermatogenesis and of maternal reproductive and embryotoxic effects. Although the available human studies rarely reported effects that were regarded as being adverse, their suitability for detailed risk assessment is limited due to an insufficient focus on safety parameters apart from drug interactions, as well as due to the lack of investigation of the potentially adverse effects observed in animal studies and/or combined administration of piperine with other substances. Taken together, it appears advisable to consider the potential health risks related to intake of isolated piperine in bolus form, e.g., when using certain food supplements.
Numerical Solutions of Fractional Differential Equations by Using Laplace Transformation Method and Quadrature Rule
Authors: Soradi-Zeid Samaneh , Mesrizadeh Mehdi , Cattani Carlo
Published: September 2021

This paper introduces an efficient numerical scheme for solving a significant class of fractional differential equations. The major contributions made in this paper apply a direct approach based on a combination of time discretization and the Laplace transform method to transcribe the fractional differential problem under study into a dynamic linear equations system. The resulting problem is then solved by employing the numerical method of the quadrature rule, which is also a well-developed numerical method. The present numerical scheme, which is based on the numerical inversion of Laplace transform and equal-width quadrature rule is robust and efficient. Some numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the suggested framework.
From Child to Adulthood, a Multidisciplinary Approach of Multiple Microdontia Associated with Hypodontia: Case Report Relating a 15 Year-Long Management and Follow-Up
Authors: Thomas Charlotte , Vaysse Frédéric , Courset Teva , Nasr Karim , Courtois Bruno , L’Homme Arnaud , Chassaing Nicolas , Vinel Alexia , Bailleul-Forestier Isabelle , Raynaldy Luc , Laurencin-Dalicieux Sara
Published: September 2021

Oral rehabilitation of patients presenting multiple microdontia is a real therapeutic challenge. These alterations in size, often associated with other dental anomalies, have aesthetic and functional repercussions for patients and can lead to significant psycho-social consequences. We report here the case of an 11-year-old patient with bilateral sectorial microdontia and agenesis of teeth numbers 13 and 23. She also presented staturo-ponderal delay and a history of acute coronary syndrome with a lower coronary occlusion of unknown aetiology. At first, additive coronoplasties and an orthodontically retained interim prosthesis answered the aesthetic and functional need during childhood and adolescence. Once she reached adulthood, a multidisciplinary meeting was conducted and a treatment plan was established. The decision was made to rehabilitate the upper arch with a permanent bridge and the lower arch with indirect adhesive restorations. This solution solved the problem of the bilateral lateral infraocclusions and tooth agenesis, restoring both aesthetics and function. This paper presents 15 years of management and treatment of a patient presenting multiple microdontia associated with hypodontia. Both the multidisciplinary approach and coordination between the different medical team members was essential to maintain the existing dentition while preparing, planning, and carrying out a personalized treatment plan once maxillofacial growth was complete.
Current ECG Aspects of Interatrial Block
Authors: Bayés-de-Luna Antoni , Fiol-Sala Miquel , Martínez-Sellés Manuel , Baranchuk Adrian
Published: September 2021

Interatrial blocks like other types of block may be of first degree or partial second degree, also named transient atrial block or atrial aberrancy, and third degree or advanced. In first degree, partial interatrial block (P-IAB), the electrical impulse is conducted to the left atrium, through the Bachmann’s region, but with delay. The ECG shows a P-wave ≥ 120 ms. In third-degree, advanced interatrial block (A-IAB), the electrical impulse is blocked in the upper part of the interatrial septum (Bachmann region); the breakthrough to LA has to be performed retrogradely from the AV junction zone. This explains the p ± in leads II, III and aVF. In typical cases of A-IAB, the P-wave morphology is biphasic (±) in leads II, III and aVF, because the left atrium is activated retrogradely and, therefore, the last part of the atrial activation falls in the negative hemifield of leads II, III and aVF. Recently, some atypical cases of A-IAB have been described. The presence of A-IAB is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, stroke, dementia, and premature death.
“Like Wringing Water from a Stone!” Information Extraction from Two Rock Graffiti in North Kharga, Egypt
Authors: Lazaridis Nikolaos
Published: September 2021

In the course of the last ten years, the North Kharga Oasis–Darb Ain Amur Survey team, led by Salima Ikram (American University in Cairo), has been exploring a network of interconnected desert paths in Egypt’s Western Desert, known as Darb Ain Amur. These marked paths run between Kharga Oasis and Dakhla Oasis, linking them to Darb el-Arbain, a notorious caravan route facilitating contacts between Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa since prehistoric times. Ancient travelers using the Darb Ain Amur spent several days in the midst of the Western Desert and were thus forced to use areas around sandstone rock outcrops as makeshift stopovers or camping sites. During these much-needed breaks, ancient travelers identified accessible, inscribable surfaces on the towering sandstone massifs and left on them their personalized markings. In this essay, I examine two short rock graffiti carved by such travelers in a site north of Kharga Oasis, focusing on the types of information one may extract from such ancient epigraphic materials.
Textile Dyes from Gokstad Viking Ship’s Grave
Authors: Łucejko Jeannette Jacqueline , Vedeler Marianne , Degano Ilaria
Published: September 2021

The grave from Gokstad in Norway, dating to ca 900 AD, is one of the best-preserved Viking Age ship graves in the world. The grave mound contained a variety of goods along with human remains, buried in a Viking ship. Several textiles, including embroideries and shreds of what might have been the ship’s tent, were also found. The colors of the textile fragments are now severely faded, but the high quality of the embroidery made of gold and silk threads is still apparent. The style of the embroidery is exceptional, having no equivalents in other Scandinavian graves. The analyses by HPLC coupled with both diode array and mass spectrometric detectors revealed that the striped “tent” cloth as well as the silk thread used for the embroidery were originally dyed with anthraquinones of plant origin (alizarin, purpurin, pseudopurpurin, and anthragallol), markers of madder-type dyestuffs.
Can Biostimulants Increase Resilience of Hydroponically-Grown Tomato to Combined Water and Nutrient Stress?
Authors: Kalozoumis Panagiotis , Vourdas Christos , Ntatsi Georgia , Savvas Dimitrios
Published: September 2021

In the current experiment, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Nostymi F1) was cultivated in an open hydroponic system under optimal or stress conditions caused by reducing the supply of nutrient solution by 35–40% and treated with biostimulants to test whether their application can increase crop resilience to combined shortage of nutrients and water. The four different biostimulant treatments were: (i) no biostimulant application, (ii) treatment with the protein-based biostimulants COUPÉ REGENERACIÓN Plus and PROCUAJE RADICULAR provided by EDYPRO, (iii) treatment with a novel biostimulant based on strigolactones, provided by STRIGOLAB and (iv) treatment with MAXICROP, a commercial product consisting of seaweed extracts. Combined stress significantly reduced NO3−, P, and K in the root zone of tomato plants. However, the application of the strigolactone-based biostimulant to stressed plants maintained NO3− in the root zone to similar levels with non-stressed plants during the first and third months of cultivation. The biostimulants did not increase the vegetative plant biomass at 70 and 120 days after transplanting (DAT). The strigolactone-based biostimulant increased early leaf area development (70 DAT) and early fruit production compared to untreated plants but had no effect on total tomato yield (120 DAT). Maxicrop also increased early fruit yield, while Edypro decreased early and total yield compared to the control plants, an effect ascribed to overdosing, as the application rate was that suggested for soil-grown crops, while the plants were cultivated on an inert substrate. Strigolactone-based biostimulant and Maxicrop could be further studied by testing multiple applications during the cropping period.
Is “Wild” a Food Quality Attribute? Heavy Metal Content in Wild and Cultivated Sea Buckthorn and Consumers’ Risk Perception
Authors: Petrescu-Mag Ruxandra Malina , Vermeir Iris , Roba Carmen , Petrescu Dacinia Crina , Bican-Brisan Nicoleta , Martonos Ildiko Melinda
Published: September 2021

Globally, the consumption of herbal supplements is on an upward trend. As the food supplement industry thrives, so does the need for consumers’ awareness of health risks. This contribution is grounded on two assumptions. Firstly, not always “wild” is a food quality attribute, and secondly, the food chain is judged as a noteworthy route for human exposure to soil contamination. Sea buckthorn (SBT) was selected for investigation due to its versatility. In addition to its wide therapeutic uses, it is present in ecological rehabilitation which may raise concerns regarding its safety for human consumption as a consequence of the accumulation of contaminants in the plant. The study aims to discover if the objective contamination of SBT with toxic residues is congruent with people’s subjective evaluation of SBT consumption risk. A quantitative determination of heavy metals was performed by atomic absorption spectrometry. The metals abundance followed the sequence Fe > Cu > Zn > Mn > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cd. Quantitative data on consumers’ subjective risk evaluations were collected through an online survey on 408 Romanians. Binary logistic shows that the consumption of SBT is predicted by the perceived effect of SBT consumption on respondents’ health. The study confirms that the objective contamination of wild and cultivated SBT is in line with the perceived contamination risk. It is inferred that a joint effort of marketers, media, physicians, and pharmacists is needed to inform consumers about the risks and benefits of SBT consumption.
Effect of Motor Imagery Training on Motor Learning in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Behrendt Frank , Zumbrunnen Valerie , Brem Lynn , Suica Zorica , Gäumann Szabina , Ziller Carina , Gerth Ulrich , Schuster-Amft Corina
Published: September 2021

Background: There is an urgent need to systematically analyze the growing body of literature on the effect of motor imagery (MI) training in children and adolescents. Methods: Seven databases and clinicaltrials.gov were searched. Two reviewers independently screened references and full texts, and extracted data (studies’ methodology, MI elements, temporal parameters). Two studies were meta-analyzed providing the standard mean difference (SDM). Selected studies were evaluated with the risk of bias (RoB) and GRADE tools. Results: A total of 7238 references were retrieved. The sample size of the 22 included studies, published between 1995 and 2021, ranged from 18 to 136 participants, totaling 934 (nine to 18 years). Studies included healthy pupils, mentally retarded adolescents, children with motor coordination difficulties or with mild mental disabilities. The motor learning tasks focused on upper, lower and whole body movements. SMDs for the primary outcome of pooled studies varied between 0.83 to 1.87 (95% CI, I2, T2 varied 0.33–3.10; p = 0.001; 0–74%; 0–0.59). RoB varied between some concerns and high risk. GRADE rating was low. Conclusions: MI combined with physical practice (PP) might have a high potential for healthy and impaired children and adolescents. However, important reporting recommendations (PETTLEP, TIDieR, CONSORT) should be followed. The systematic review was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42021237361.
New Nurses’ Experience of Caring for COVID-19 Patients in South Korea
Authors: Ji Eun-Joo , Lee Young-Hee
Published: September 2021

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of new nurses who took care of COVID-19 patients. For this study, study subjects were conducted with a total of nine new nurses, and data were collected through individual in-depth interviews from September to November 2020. The data were analyzed using the phenomenological analysis method suggested by Colaizzi. New nurses’ experience of caring for COVID-19 patients consisted of three categories. The three categories are “The fear as a new nurse about infectious diseases that they have not experienced”, “Physical and psychological burden in an isolated environment”’, and “Building professional values”. Findings from this study presented vivid experiences of new nurses who took care of COVID-19 patients. This study is meaningful in that it grasped the physical and psychological difficulties of nurses nursing COVID-19 patients, especially the difficulties as a new nurse, and the implications for developing and growing within them. It is expected that it will serve as basic data for the establishment of strategies for infectious education programs for new nurses.
Characteristics and Service Utilization by Complex Chronic and Advanced Chronic Patients in Catalonia: A Retrospective Seven-Year Cohort-Based Study of an Implemented Chronic Care Program
Authors: Santaeugènia Sebastià J. , Contel Joan C. , Vela Emili , Cleries Montserrat , Amil Paloma , Melendo-Azuela Eva M. , Gil-Sánchez Esther , Mir Victoria , Amblàs-Novellas Jordi
Published: September 2021

The Chronic Care Program introduced in Catalonia in 2011 focuses on improving the identification and management of complex chronic (CCPs) and advanced chronic patients (ACPs) by implementing an individualized care model. Its first stage is their identification based on chronicity, difficult clinical management (i.e., complexity), and, in ACPs, limited life prognosis. Subsequent stages are individual evaluation and implementation of a shared personalized care plan. This retrospective study, including all CCPs and ACPs identified in Catalonia between 2013 and 2019, was aimed at describing the characteristics and healthcare service utilization among these patients. Data were obtained from an administrative database and included sociodemographic, clinical, and service utilization variables and morbidity-associated risk according to the Adjusted Morbidity Groups (GMA) stratification. During the study period, CCPs’ and ACPs’ prevalence increased and was higher in lower-income populations; most cases were women. CCPs and ACPs had all comorbidities at higher frequencies, higher utilization of healthcare services, and were more frequently at high risk (63% and 71%, respectively) than age-, sex-, and income level-adjusted non-CCP (23%) and non-ACP populations (30%). These results show effective identification of the program’s target population and demonstrate that CCPs and ACPs have a higher burden of multimorbidity and healthcare needs.