bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Histidine-Tagged Folate-Targeted Gold Nanoparticles for Enhanced Transgene Expression in Breast Cancer Cells In Vitro
Authors: Joseph Calrin , Daniels Aliscia , Singh Sooboo , Singh Moganavelli
Published: December 2021

Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising treatment strategy in gene therapy, especially against diseases such as cancer. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are regarded as favorable gene delivery vehicles due to their low toxicity, ease of synthesis and ability to be functionalized. This study aimed to prepare functionalized AuNPs (FAuNPs) and evaluate their folate-targeted and nontargeted pCMV-Luc-DNA delivery in breast cancer cells in vitro. CS was added to induce stability and positive charges to the AuNPs (Au-CS), histidine (Au-CS-His) to enhance endosomal escape and folic acid for folate-receptor targeting (Au-CS-FA-His). The FAuNP:pDNA nanocomplexes possessed favorable sizes (<135 nm) and zeta potentials (<−20 mV), strong compaction efficiency and were capable of pDNA protection against nuclease degradation. These nanocomplexes showed minimal cytotoxicity (>73% cell viability) and enhanced transgene activity. The influence of His was notable in the HER2 overexpressing SKBR3 cells, which produced higher gene expression. Furthermore, the FA-targeted nanocomplexes enhanced receptor-mediated endocytosis, especially in MCF-7 cells, as confirmed by the receptor competition assay. While the role of His may need further optimization, the results achieved suggest that these FAuNPs may be suitable gene delivery vehicles for breast cancer therapeutics.
Comparison of an Addictive Potential of μ-Opioid Receptor Agonists with G Protein Bias: Behavioral and Molecular Modeling Studies
Authors: Kudla Lucja , Bugno Ryszard , Podlewska Sabina , Szumiec Lukasz , Wiktorowska Lucja , Bojarski Andrzej J. , Przewlocki Ryszard
Published: December 2021

Among different approaches to the search for novel—safer and less addictive—opioid analgesics, biased agonism has received the most attention in recent years. Some μ-opioid receptor agonists with G protein bias, including SR compounds, were proposed to induce diminished side effects. However, in many aspects, behavioral effects of those compounds, as well as the mechanisms underlying differences in their action, remain unexplored. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of SR-14968 and SR-17018, highly G protein-biased opioid agonists, on antinociception, motor activity and addiction-like behaviors in C57BL/6J mice. The obtained results showed that the compounds induce strong and dose-dependent antinociception. SR-14968 causes high, and SR-17018 much lower, locomotor activity. Both agonists develop reward-associated behavior and physical dependence. The compounds also cause antinociceptive tolerance, however, developing more slowly when compared to morphine. Interestingly, SR compounds, in particular SR-17018, slow down the development of antinociceptive tolerance to morphine and inhibit some symptoms of morphine withdrawal. Therefore, our results indicate that SR agonists possess rewarding and addictive properties, but can positively modulate some symptoms of morphine dependence. Next, we have compared behavioral effects of SR-compounds and PZM21 and searched for a relationship to the substantial differences in molecular interactions that these compounds form with the µ-opioid receptor.
In Silico Screening of Available Drugs Targeting Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Targets: A Drug Repurposing Approach
Authors: Thirunavukkarasu Muthu Kumar , Suriya Utid , Rungrotmongkol Thanyada , Karuppasamy Ramanathan
Published: December 2021

The RAS–RAF–MEK–ERK pathway plays a key role in malevolent cell progression in many tumors. The high structural complexity in the upstream kinases limits the treatment progress. Thus, MEK inhibition is a promising strategy since it is easy to inhibit and is a gatekeeper for the many malignant effects of its downstream effector. Even though MEK inhibitors are under investigation in many cancers, drug resistance continues to be the principal limiting factor to achieving cures in patients with cancer. Hence, we accomplished a high-throughput virtual screening to overcome this bottleneck by the discovery of dual-targeting therapy in cancer treatment. Here, a total of 11,808 DrugBank molecules were assessed through high-throughput virtual screening for their activity against MEK. Further, the Glide docking, MLSF and prime-MM/GBSA methods were implemented to extract the potential lead compounds from the database. Two compounds, DB012661 and DB07642, were outperformed in all the screening analyses. Further, the study results reveal that the lead compounds also have a significant binding capability with the co-target PIM1. Finally, the SIE-based free energy calculation reveals that the binding of compounds was majorly affected by the van der Waals interactions with MEK receptor. Overall, the in silico binding efficacy of these lead compounds against both MEK and PIM1 could be of significant therapeutic interest to overcome drug resistance in the near future.
Molecular Recognition by Pillar[5]arenes: Evidence for Simultaneous Electrostatic and Hydrophobic Interactions
Authors: Gómez-González Borja , García-Río Luis , Basílio Nuno , Mejuto Juan C. , Simal-Gandara Jesus
Published: December 2021

The formation of inclusion complexes between alkylsulfonate guests and a cationic pillar[5]arene receptor in water was investigated by NMR and ITC techniques. The results show the formation of host-guest complexes stabilized by electrostatic interactions and hydrophobic effects with binding constants of up to 107 M−1 for the guest with higher hydrophobic character. Structurally, the alkyl chain of the guest is included in the hydrophobic aromatic cavity of the macrocycle while the sulfonate groups are held in the multicationic portal by ionic interactions.
Biological Distribution of Orally Administered [123I]MIBG for Estimating Gastrointestinal Tract Absorption
Authors: Kobayashi Masato , Mizutani Asuka , Muranaka Yuka , Nishi Kodai , Komori Hisakazu , Nishii Ryuichi , Shikano Naoto , Nakanishi Takeo , Tamai Ikumi , Kawai Keiichi
Published: December 2021

Gastrointestinal tract absorption of cationic anticancer drugs and medicines was estimated using whole-body imaging following oral [123I]MIBG administration. [123I]MIBG was added to cultures of human embryonic kidney (HEK)293 cells expressing human organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP)2B1, carnitine/organic cation transporter (OCTN)1 and OCTN2, and organic cation transporter (OCT)1, OCT2, and OCT3 with and without cimetidine (an OCTN and OCT inhibitor) and L-carnitine (an OCTN inhibitor). Biodistribution analyses and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging in normal and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced experimental colitis mice were conducted using [123I]MIBG with and without cimetidine. [123I]MIBG uptake was significantly higher in HEK293/OCTN1, 2, and OCT1-3 cells than in mock cells. Uptake via OCTN was inhibited by L-carnitine, whereas OCT-mediated uptake was inhibited by cimetidine. Biodistribution analyses and SPECT imaging studies showed significantly lower accumulation of [123I]MIBG in the blood, heart, liver, and bladder in DSS-induced experimental colitis mice and mice with cimetidine loading compared with normal mice, whereas significantly higher accumulation in the stomach and kidney was observed after [123I]MIBG injection. [123I]MIBG imaging after oral administration can be used to estimate gastrointestinal absorption in the small intestine via OCTN and/or OCT by measuring radioactivity in the heart, liver, and bladder.
Permeability of the Composite Magnetic Microcapsules Triggered by a Non-Heating Low-Frequency Magnetic Field
Authors: Burmistrov Ivan A. , Veselov Maxim M. , Mikheev Alexander V. , Borodina Tatiana N. , Bukreeva Tatiana V. , Chuev Michael A. , Starchikov Sergey S. , Lyubutin Igor S. , Artemov Vladimir V. , Khmelenin Dmitry N. , Klyachko Natalia L. , Trushina Daria B.
Published: December 2021

Nanosystems for targeted delivery and remote-controlled release of therapeutic agents has become a top priority in pharmaceutical science and drug development in recent decades. Application of a low frequency magnetic field (LFMF) as an external stimulus opens up opportunities to trigger release of the encapsulated bioactive substances with high locality and penetration ability without heating of biological tissue in vivo. Therefore, the development of novel microencapsulated drug formulations sensitive to LFMF is of paramount importance. Here, we report the result of LFMF-triggered release of the fluorescently labeled dextran from polyelectrolyte microcapsules modified with magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Polyelectrolyte microcapsules were obtained by a method of sequential deposition of oppositely charged poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) on the surface of colloidal vaterite particles. The synthesized single domain maghemite nanoparticles integrated into the polymer multilayers serve as magneto-mechanical actuators. We report the first systematic study of the effect of magnetic field with different frequencies on the permeability of the microcapsules. The in situ measurements of the optical density curves upon the 100 mT LFMF treatment were carried out for a range of frequencies from 30 to 150 Hz. Such fields do not cause any considerable heating of the magnetic nanoparticles but promote their rotating-oscillating mechanical motion that produces mechanical forces and deformations of the adjacent materials. We observed the changes in release of the encapsulated TRITC-dextran molecules from the PAH/PSS microcapsules upon application of the 50 Hz alternating magnetic field. The obtained results open new horizons for the design of polymer systems for triggered drug release without dangerous heating and overheating of tissues.
Compact Gas Sensor Using Silicon-on-Insulator Loop-Terminated Mach–Zehnder Interferometer
Authors: El Shamy Raghi S. , Swillam Mohamed A. , ElRayany Mohamed M. , Sultan Alaa , Li Xun
Published: December 2021

In this paper, we propose a compact optical gas sensor based on the widespread silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, operating in the near-infrared (NIR) region around the 1.55 µm wavelength. The sensor employs a loop-terminated Mach–Zehnder interferometer (LT-MZI) with a slot waveguide and a strip waveguide for the sensing arm and the reference arm, respectively. For the same arm length, the LT-MZI can achieve a detection limit two times lower than that of the conventional MZI. Different sensor components were designed, and the optimum dimensions were obtained using finite-difference eigenmode (FDE) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) solvers. With a sensing arm length of only 150 μm, our sensor achieves a device sensitivity of 1070 nm/RIU and a figure-of-merit (FOM) as high as 280.8 RIU−1 at the 1.55 μm wavelength. Higher values of FOM can be attained by employing a longer sensing arm. The whole sensor is subjected to air cladding; thus, there is no need for oxide deposition and a further lithography step for sensing-area patterning. The sensor is well suited for low-cost fabrication and large-scale production. Finally, the same LT-MZI device with strip and slot arms but with oxide cladding was fabricated and characterized. The measurements were in good agreement with the electromagnetic (EM) simulation results, ensuring the reliability of our proposed design.
Production of Bio-Oils and Biochars from Olive Stones: Application of Biochars to the Esterification of Oleic Acid
Authors: Sánchez-Borrego Francisco José , Barea de Hoyos-Limón Tomás Juan , García-Martín Juan Francisco , Álvarez-Mateos Paloma
Published: December 2021

Olive stones are a by-product of the olive oil industry. In this work, the valorisation of olive stones through pyrolysis was attempted. Before pyrolysis, half of the samples were impregnated with sulphuric acid. Pyrolysis was carried out in a vertical tubular furnace with a ceramic support. The pyrolysis conditions assayed were: temperature between 400 and 600 °C, heating ramp between 5 and 20 °C∙min−1, and inert gas flow rate between 50 and 300 mL Ar∙min−1. Among them, temperature was the only parameter that influenced the pyrolysis product distribution. The most suitable temperature for obtaining biochar was 400 °C for both non-treated and pre-treated raw material, while for obtaining bio-oil, it was 600 °C for impregnated olive stones and 400 °C for the raw material. The impregnated olives stones led to bio-oils with much higher amounts of high-added-value products such as levoglucosenone and catechol. Finally, the biochars were impregnated with sulphuric acid and assayed as biocatalysts for the esterification of oleic acid with methanol in a stirred tank batch reactor at 60 °C for 30 min. Biochars from non-treated olive stones, which had lower specific surfaces, led to higher esterification yields (up to 96.2%).
Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci for Leaf Rust and Stem Rust Seedling Resistance in Bread Wheat Using a Genome-Wide Association Study
Authors: Zatybekov Alibek , Genievskaya Yuliya , Rsaliyev Aralbek , Maulenbay Akerke , Yskakova Gulbahar , Savin Timur , Turuspekov Yerlan , Abugalieva Saule
Published: December 2021

In recent years, leaf rust (LR) and stem rust (SR) have become a serious threat to bread wheat production in Kazakhstan. Most local cultivars are susceptible to these rusts, which has affected their yield and quality. The development of new cultivars with high productivity and LR and SR disease resistance, including using marker-assisted selection, is becoming an important priority in local breeding projects. Therefore, the search for key genetic factors controlling resistance in all plant stages, including the seedling stage, is of great significance. In this work, we applied a genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach using 212 local bread wheat accessions that were phenotyped for resistance to specific races of Puccinia triticina Eriks. (Pt) and Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) at the seedling stages. The collection was genotyped using a 20 K Illumina iSelect SNP assay, and 11,150 polymorphic SNP markers were selected for the association mapping. Using a mixed linear model, we identified 11 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for five out of six specific races of Pt and Pgt. The comparison of the results from this GWAS with those from previously published work showed that nine out of eleven QTLs for LR and SR resistance had been previously reported in a GWAS study at the adult plant stages of wheat growth. Therefore, it was assumed that these nine common identified QTLs were effective for all-stage resistance to LR and SR, and the two other QTLs appear to be novel QTLs. In addition, five out of these nine QTLs that had been identified earlier were found to be associated with yield components, suggesting that they may directly influence the field performance of bread wheat. The identified QTLs, including novel QTLs found in this study, may play an essential role in the breeding process for improving wheat resistance to LR and SR.
A VIN3-like Protein OsVIL1 Is Involved in Grain Yield and Biomass in Rice
Authors: Yoon Jinmi , Jeong Hee-Joong , Baek Gibeom , Yang Jungil , Peng Xin , Tun Win , Kim Sun-Tae , An Gynheung , Cho Lae-Hyeon
Published: December 2021

In chromatin remodeling, the post-translational modification of histone proteins is mediated by multimeric protein complexes. VERNALIZATION INSENSITIVE3 (VIN3) forms a complex with Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2), which mediates the trimethylation of H3K27 to repress target gene expression. In rice, four genes (OsVIL1-OsVIL4) encoding the VIN3-like proteins are expressed ubiquitously in various tissues. Null mutants of osvil2 display pleiotropic phenotypes such as altered flowering time, floral organ defects, and reduced tiller size. In contrast, osvil1 mutants did not show significant phenotypes except in fertilization compared with the wild type. However, transgenic plants overexpressing OsVIL1 showed phenotypes of increased biomass and grain yield. Cross-sections of the basal region of elongating stems revealed that the increased biomass was mediated by inducing cell proliferation in the meristem. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay indicated that OsVIL1 repressed expression of cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase gene (OsCKX2) by binding to the promoter and genic regions of OsCKX2. We also observed that OsVIL1 modified the levels of H3K27me3 in the OsCKX2 chromatin. Because OsCKX2 encodes an enzyme that degrades active cytokinin, we conclude that OsVIL1 functions in the regulation of endogenous active cytokinin levels, thereby increasing plant height and productivity.
Plant Responses to Biotic Stress: Old Memories Matter
Authors: Bhar Anirban , Chakraborty Amrita , Roy Amit
Published: December 2021

Plants are fascinating organisms present in most ecosystems and a model system for studying different facets of ecological interactions on Earth. In the environment, plants constantly encounter a multitude of abiotic and biotic stresses. The zero-avoidance phenomena make them more resilient to such environmental odds. Plants combat biotic stress or pathogenic ingression through a complex orchestration of intracellular signalling cascades. The plant–microbe interaction primarily relies on acquired immune response due to the absence of any specialised immunogenic cells for adaptive immune response. The generation of immune memory is mainly carried out by T cells as part of the humoral immune response in animals. Recently, prodigious advancements in our understanding of epigenetic regulations in plants invoke the “plant memory” theory afresh. Current innovations in cutting-edge genomic tools have revealed stress-associated genomic alterations and strengthened the idea of transgenerational memory in plants. In plants, stress signalling events are transferred as genomic imprints in successive generations, even without any stress. Such immunogenic priming of plants against biotic stresses is crucial for their eco-evolutionary success. However, there is limited literature capturing the current knowledge of the transgenerational memory of plants boosting biotic stress responses. In this context, the present review focuses on the general concept of memory in plants, recent advancements in this field and comprehensive implications in biotic stress tolerance with future perspectives.
Modelling the Plant Uptake of Metals from Release Rates Obtained by the EUF Method
Authors: Sager Manfred
Published: December 2021

In this study, soil dissolution kinetics were evaluated to predict the metal uptake of lettuce plants under varying conditions of fertilisation and metal pollution. Velocities and time dependencies of soil dissolution obtained by electro-ultrafiltration (EUF), which prevents back reaction, were modelled in three ways, obtained from suspensions in 0.002 M DTPA at determined soil pH levels, for cases in which sampling versus time led to decreasing concentrations. The models yielded a maximum achievable concentration, a timespan needed for it to be reached, a slope, and an intercept of the respective fitted curves. Three geogenically metalliferous soil samples and one ambient soil sample, both as originals, fertilised with PK or soaked with a Cd-Ni-Pb solution, were used as solid samples. The resulting kinetic parameters were correlated with the amounts absorbed by lettuce plants grown with these substrates in pot experiments, which yielded fairly good correlations with Zn, but also with Li and Sr, as well as Ni and Pb, mainly because of differences due to the addition of a metallic salt solution. Plant growth was hardly influenced by the additions.
Physiological and Morphological Responses of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) to Rhizoglomus irregulare Inoculation under Ample Water and Drought Stress Conditions Are Cultivar Dependent
Authors: Eltigani Amna , Müller Anja , Ngwene Benard , George Eckhard
Published: December 2021

Okra is an important crop species for smallholder farmers in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Its interaction with mycorrhiza has been rarely studied, and little is known about its mycorrhizal dependency, especially under drought stress. In a glasshouse experiment, we investigated the effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi (AMF) inoculation on growth, evapotranspiration, mineral nutrition and root morphology of five okra cultivars under ample water and drought stress conditions. ‘Khartoumia’, ‘HSD6719’, ‘HSD7058’, ‘Sarah’ and ‘Clemson Spineless’-cultivars commonly used by farmers in Sudan were chosen for their geographical, morphological and breeding background variations. The plants were either inoculated with R. irregulare or mock-inoculated. Seven weeks after seeding, the soil–water content was either maintained at 20% w/w or reduced to 10% w/w to impose drought stress. Drought stress resulted in plant P deficiency and decreased shoot dry biomass (DB), especially in HSD7058 and Clemson Spineless (69% and 56% decrease in shoot DB, in the respective cultivars). Plant inoculation with AMF greatly enhanced the shoot total content of P and the total DB in all treatments. The mycorrhizal dependency (MD)—the degree of total plant DB change associated with AM colonization—differed among the cultivars, irrespective of the irrigation treatment. Key determinants of MD were the root phenotype traits. Khartoumia (with the highest MD) had the lowest root DB, root-to-shoot ratio, and specific root length (SRL). Meanwhile, HSD6719 (with the lowest MD) had the highest respective root traits. Moreover, our data suggest a relationship between breeding background and MD. The improved cultivar Khartoumia showed the highest MD compared with the wild-type Sarah and the HSD7058 and HSD6719 landraces (higher MD by 46%, 17% and 32%, respectively). Interestingly, the drought-affected HSD7058 and Clemson Spineless exhibited higher MD (by 27% and 15%, respectively) under water-deficiency compared to ample water conditions. In conclusion, the mediation of drought stress in the okra plant species by AMF inoculation is cultivar dependent. The presence of AMF propagules in the field soil might be important for increasing yield production of high MD and drought susceptible cultivars, especially under drought/low P environments.
Synthesis of Hollow PVP/Ag Nanoparticle Composite Fibers via Electrospinning under a Dense CO2 Environment
Authors: Hu Xin , He Jiayang , Zhu Li , Machmudah Siti , Wahyudiono Wahyudiono , Kanda Hideki , Goto Motonobu
Published: December 2021

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is used in a wide variety of applications because of its unique chemical and physical features, including its biocompatibility and low toxicity. In this study, hollow PVP/silver nanoparticle (PVP/Ag NP) composite fibers were synthesized. Stable, spherical Ag NPs, with an average size of 14.4 nm, were produced through a facile sonochemical reduction method. A small amount of starch as a potent reducing and stabilizing agent was used during the reduction of Ag ions to Ag NPs. The fabricated Ag NPs were then added to a 10 wt% PVP-dichloromethane (DCM) solution, which was utilized as an electrospinning feed solution under a dense carbon dioxide (CO2) environment at 313 K and 5 MPa and an applied voltage of 15 kV. The dense CO2 enabled rapid extraction of DCM from the PVP-Ag NPs-DCM solution, which was then dissolved into PVP/Ag NPs, resulting in a hollow structure. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-iR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), were used to characterize the electrospinning products.
A Relation between Exopolysaccharide from Lactic Acid Bacteria and Properties of Fermentation Induced Soybean Protein Gels
Authors: Yang Xiaoyu , Feng Jiao , Zhu Qianqian , Hong Rui , Li Liang
Published: December 2021

Exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is considered to be an effective texture improver. The effect of LAB strains (different EPS production capacity) on physicochemical properties (texture profile, water distribution, rheological properties, and microstructure), protein conformation, and chemical forces of soybean protein gel was investigated. Correlations between EPS yield and gel properties were established. Large masses of EPS were isolated from L. casei fermentation gel (L. casei-G, 677.01 ± 19.82 mg/kg). Gel with the highest hardness (319.74 ± 9.98 g) and water holding capacity (WHC, 87.74 ± 2.00%) was also formed with L. casei. The conversion of β-sheet to α-helix, the increased hydrophobic interaction and ionic bond helped to form an ordered gel network. The yield was positively correlated with hardness, WHC, A22, viscoelasticity, and viscosity, but negatively correlated with A23 (p < 0.05). The macromolecular properties of EPS (especially the yield) and its incompatibility with proteins could be explained as the main reason for improving gel properties. In conclusion, the EPS producing LAB, especially L. casei used in our study, is the best ordinary coagulate replacement in soybean-based products.
Effect of Copper (II) Sulfate on the Properties of Urea Formaldehyde Adhesive
Authors: Zhao Hui , Li Xianzhen , Wang Xi , Meng Mianwu , Wang Xiujian , Huang Siyu , Gan Weixing
Published: December 2021

The purpose of this work is to investigate the effects of copper (II) sulfate on the formaldehyde release and the mechanical properties of urea formaldehyde (UF) adhesive. Copper (II) sulfate has been used as a formaldehyde scavenger in UF resin, and its effects on the physical and chemical properties of UF adhesive have been studied. Moreover, the mechanical properties and formaldehyde release of plywood prepared with modified UF resin have been determined. The UF resin has been characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). FTIR spectra showed that the addition of copper (II) sulfate to the UF resin does not affect the IR absorptions of its functional groups, implying that the structure of UF is not modified. Further results showed that the free formaldehyde content of the UF resin incorporating 3% copper (II) sulfate was 0.13 wt.%, around 71% lower than that of the untreated control UF adhesive. With a copper (II) sulfate content of 3%, the formaldehyde release from treated plywood was 0.74 mg·L−1, around 50% lower than that from the control UF adhesive, and the bonding strength reached 1.73 MPa, around 43% higher than that of the control.
Fibrous Polymer-Based Composites Obtained by Electrospinning for Bone Tissue Engineering
Authors: Peranidze Kristina , Safronova Tatiana V. , Kildeeva Nataliya R.
Published: December 2021

Currently, the significantly developing fields of tissue engineering related to the fabrication of polymer-based materials that possess microenvironments suitable to provide cell attachment and promote cell differentiation and proliferation involve various materials and approaches. Biomimicking approach in tissue engineering is aimed at the development of a highly biocompatible and bioactive material that would most accurately imitate the structural features of the native extracellular matrix consisting of specially arranged fibrous constructions. For this reason, the present research is devoted to the discussion of promising fibrous materials for bone tissue regeneration obtained by electrospinning techniques. In this brief review, we focus on the recently presented natural and synthetic polymers, as well as their combinations with each other and with bioactive inorganic incorporations in order to form composite electrospun scaffolds. The application of several electrospinning techniques in relation to a number of polymers is touched upon. Additionally, the efficiency of nanofibrous composite materials intended for use in bone tissue engineering is discussed based on biological activity and physiochemical characteristics.
Toward Polymeric and Polymer Composites Impeller Fabrication
Authors: Zirak Nader , Shirinbayan Mohammadali , Deligant Michael , Tcharkhtchi Abbas
Published: December 2021

Impellers are referred to as a core component of turbomachinery. The use of impellers in various applications is considered an integral part of the industry. So, increased performance and the optimization of impellers have been the center of attention of a lot of studies. In this regard, studies have been focused on the improvement of the efficiency of rotary machines through aerodynamic optimization, using high-performance materials and suitable manufacturing processes. As such, the use of polymers and polymer composites due to their lower weight when compared to metals has been the focus of studies. On the other hand, methods of the manufacturing process for polymer and polymer composite impellers such as conventional impeller manufacturing, injection molding and additive manufacturing can offer higher economic efficiency than similar metal parts. In this study, polymeric and polymer composites impellers are discussed and conclusions are drawn according to the manufacturing methods. Studies have shown promising results for the replacement of polymers and polymer composites instead of metals with respect to a suitable temperature range. In general, polymers showed a good ability to fabricate the impellers, however in more difficult working conditions considering the need for a substance with higher physical and mechanical properties necessitates the use of composite polymers. However, in some applications, the use of these materials needs further research and development.
Research Progress of Wood-Based Panels Made of Thermoplastics as Wood Adhesives
Authors: Mo Xianfeng , Zhang Xinhao , Fang Lu , Zhang Yu
Published: December 2021

When thermoplastic resins such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are selected as wood adhesives to bond wood particles (fibers, chips, veneers) by using the hot-pressing technique, the formaldehyde emission issue that has long existed in the wood-based panel industry can be effectively solved. In this study, in general, thermoplastic-bonded wood-based panels presented relatively higher mechanical properties and better water resistance and machinability than the conventional urea–formaldehyde resin-bonded wood-based panels. However, the bonding structure of the wood and thermoplastic materials was unstable at high temperatures. Compared with the wood–plastic composites manufactured by the extruding or injection molding methods, thermoplastic-bonded wood-based panels have the advantages of larger size, a wider raw material range and higher production efficiency. The processing technology, bonding mechanism and the performance of thermoplastic-bonded wood-based panels are comprehensively summarized and reviewed in this paper. Meanwhile, the existing problems of this new kind of panel and their future development trends are also highlighted, which can provide the wood industry with foundations and guidelines for using thermoplastics as environmentally friendly adhesives and effectively solving indoor pollution problems.
Design of a High Efficiency High Step-Up/Step-Down Bidirectional Isolated DC–DC Converter
Authors: Wu Yu-En , Lin Pin-Jyun
Published: December 2021

This paper presents a novel bidirectional DC–DC converter, equipped with a three-winding coupled inductor, that can be applied to high-voltage, bidirectional DC–DC energy conversion and meet battery charging and discharging requirements. The architecture consists of a semi-Z-source converter and a forward–flyback converter featuring a three-winding coupled inductor with an iron core. This proposed topology retains the current continuity characteristics of the low-voltage side, all switches possess the zero-voltage switching feature, and the switches on the low-voltage side in the step-down mode have a synchronous rectification function. A 500-W bidirectional converter is implemented to examine the practicality and feasibility of the proposed topology. The relatively streamlined design of the converter can greatly reduce production costs. In the step-up and step-down modes, the maximum energy conversion efficiencies are 95.74% and 96.13%, respectively.
RUL Prediction of Switched Mode Power Supply Using a Kalman Filter Assisted Deep Neural Network
Authors: Kwon Jae Eon , Shifat Tanvir Alam , Kareem Akeem Bayo , Hur Jang-Wook
Published: December 2021

Switched-mode power supply (SMPS) has been of vital importance majorly in power management of industrial equipment with much-improved efficiency and reliability. Given the diverse range on loading and operating conditions of SMPS, several anomalies can occur in the device resulting to over-voltage, overloading, erratic atmospheric conditions, etc. Electrical over-stress (EOS) is one of the commonly used causes of failure among power electronic devices. Since there is a limitation for the SMPS in terms of input voltage and current (two methods of controlling an SMPS), the device has been subjected to an accelerated aging test using EOS. This study presents a two-fold approach to evaluate the overall state of health of SMPS using an integration of extended Kalman filter (EKF) and deep neural network. Firstly, the EKF algorithm would assist in fusing fault features to acquire an comprehensive degradation trend. Secondly, the degradation pattern of the SMPS has been monitored for four different electrical loadings, and a bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) deep neural network is trained for future predictions. The proposed model provides a unique approach and accuracy in SMPS fault indication with the aid of electrical parameters.
Polarization in Quasirelativistic Graphene Model with Topologically Non-Trivial Charge Carriers
Authors: Grushevskaya Halina , Krylov George
Published: December 2021

Within the earlier developed high-energy-k→·p→-Hamiltonian approach to describe graphene-like materials, the simulations of band structure, non-Abelian Zak phases and the complex conductivity of graphene have been performed. The quasi-relativistic graphene model with a number of flavors (gauge fields) NF=3 in two approximations (with and without a pseudo-Majorana mass term) has been utilized as a ground for the simulations. It has been shown that Zak-phases set for the non-Abelian Majorana-like excitations (modes) in graphene represent the cyclic Z12 and this group is deformed into a smaller one Z8 at sufficiently high momenta due to a deconfinement of the modes. Simulations of complex longitudinal low-frequency conductivity have been performed with a focus on effects of spatial dispersion. A spatial periodic polarization in the graphene models with the pseudo Majorana charge carriers is offered.
Revenge Is a Genre Best Served Old: Apocalypse in Christian Right Literature and Politics
Authors: Douglas Christopher
Published: December 2021

Apocalypse is a phenomenology of disorder that entails a range of religious affects and experiences largely outside normative expectations of benevolent religion. Vindication, judgment, revenge, resentment, righteous hatred of one’s enemies, the wish for their imminent destruction, theological certainty, the triumphant display of right authority, right judgement, and just punishment—these are the primary affects. As a literary genre and a worldview, apocalypse characterizes both the most famous example of evangelical fiction—the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins—and the U.S. Christian Right’s politics. This article’s methodological contribution is to return us to the beginnings of apocalypse in Biblical and parabiblical literature to better understand the questions of theodicy that Left Behind renews in unexpected ways. Conservative white Christians use apocalypse to articulate their experience as God’s chosen but persecuted people in a diversely populated cosmos, wherein their political foes are the enemies of God. However strange the supersessionist appropriation, apocalypse shapes their understanding of why God lets them suffer so—and may also signal an underlying fear about the power and attention of their deity.
Novel Foods and Neophobia: Evidence from Greece, Cyprus, and Uganda
Authors: Tsimitri Paraskevi , Michailidis Anastasios , Loizou Efstratios , Mantzouridou Fani Th , Gkatzionis Konstantinos , Mugampoza Ediriisa , Nastis Stefanos A.
Published: December 2021

The exploitation of agri-food industrial by-products to produce novel foods is a promising strategy in the framework of policies promoting the bioeconomy and circular economy. Within this context, this study aims to examine the effect of food neophobia and food technology neophobia in the acceptance of a novel food by consumers (through an EU research project: Sybawhey). As a case study, a functional yogurt-like product was developed by synergistic processing of halloumi cheese whey, enriched with banana by-products. The present study contributes to the literature by examining consumers’ perceptions for such a novel food, identifying the profile of potential final users and classifying them according to their “neophobic tendency”. A comparative approach among groups from Greece, Cyprus and Uganda was adopted to explore whether respondents have a different attitude towards this novel yogurt. Results suggest that there is a potential for increasing consumption of novel foods derived by agri-food industrial by-products, but more information about the importance of using by-products are required to enhance consumers’ acceptance of this novel food. Such results may be useful to policy makers, aiming to promote strategies towards the effective reuse of food outputs leading to the manufacture of sustainable novel foods.
Methodology for Combining Data Acquired by Unmanned Surface and Aerial Vehicles to Create Digital Bathymetric Models in Shallow and Ultra-Shallow Waters
Authors: Lubczonek Jacek , Kazimierski Witold , Zaniewicz Grzegorz , Lacka Malgorzata
Published: December 2021

This paper presents a method for integrating data acquired by unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. The aim of this work was to create a uniform bathymetric surface extending to the shoreline. Such a body of water is usually characterized by ultra-shallow depths, which makes measurement impossible even with hydrographic autonomous vessels. Bathymetric data acquired by the photogrammetric method are, however, characterized by large errors with increasing depth. The presented method is based on processing of two data sets using a bathymetric reference surface and selection of points on the basis of generated masks. Numerical bathymetric models created by interpolation methods confirmed the usefulness of the concept adopted.
TAE-Net: Task-Adaptive Embedding Network for Few-Shot Remote Sensing Scene Classification
Authors: Huang Wendong , Yuan Zhengwu , Yang Aixia , Tang Chan , Luo Xiaobo
Published: December 2021

Recently, approaches based on deep learning are quite prevalent in the area of remote sensing scene classification. Though significant success has been achieved, these approaches are still subject to an excess of parameters and extremely dependent on a large quantity of labeled data. In this study, few-shot learning is used for remote sensing scene classification tasks. The goal of few-shot learning is to recognize unseen scene categories given extremely limited labeled samples. For this purpose, a novel task-adaptive embedding network is proposed to facilitate few-shot scene classification of remote sensing images, referred to as TAE-Net. A feature encoder is first trained on the base set to learn embedding features of input images in the pre-training phase. Then in the meta-training phase, a new task-adaptive attention module is designed to yield the task-specific attention, which can adaptively select informative embedding features among the whole task. In the end, in the meta-testing phase, the query image derived from the novel set is predicted by the meta-trained model with limited support images. Extensive experiments are carried out on three public remote sensing scene datasets: UC Merced, WHU-RS19, and NWPU-RESISC45. The experimental results illustrate that our proposed TAE-Net achieves new state-of-the-art performance for few-shot remote sensing scene classification.
Hyperspectral Pansharpening in the Reflective Domain with a Second Panchromatic Channel in the SWIR II Spectral Domain
Authors: Constans Yohann , Fabre Sophie , Seymour Michael , Crombez Vincent , Deville Yannick , Briottet Xavier
Published: December 2021

Hyperspectral pansharpening methods in the reflective domain are limited by the large difference between the visible panchromatic (PAN) and hyperspectral (HS) spectral ranges, which notably leads to poor representation of the SWIR (1.0–2.5 μm) spectral domain. A novel instrument concept is proposed in this study, by introducing a second PAN channel in the SWIR II (2.0–2.5 μm) spectral domain. Two extended fusion methods are proposed to process both PAN channels, namely, Gain-2P and CONDOR-2P: the first one is an extended version of the Brovey transform, whereas the second one adds mixed pixel preprocessing steps to Gain-2P. By following an exhaustive performance-assessment protocol including global, refined, and local numerical analyses supplemented by supervised classification, we evaluated the updated methods on peri-urban and urban datasets. The results confirm the significant contribution of the second PAN channel (up to 45% of improvement for both datasets with the mean normalised gap in the reflective domain and 60% in the SWIR domain only) and reveal a clear advantage for CONDOR-2P (as compared with Gain-2P) regarding the peri-urban dataset.
Plant Factory: A New Playground of Industrial Communication and Computing
Authors: Liu Yu , Mousavi Sepehr , Pang Zhibo , Ni Zhongjun , Karlsson Magnus , Gong Shaofang
Published: December 2021

Plant Factory is a newly emerging industry aiming at transforming crop production to an unprecedented model by leveraging industrial automation and informatics. However, today’s plant factory and vertical farming industry are still in a primitive phase, and existing industrial cyber-physical systems are not optimal for a plant factory due to diverse application requirements on communication, computing and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we review use cases and requirements for future plant factories, and then dedicate an architecture that incorporates the communication and computing domains to plant factories with a preliminary proof-of-concept, which has been validated by both academic and industrial practices. We also call for a holistic co-design methodology that crosses the boundaries of communication, computing and artificial intelligence disciplines to guarantee the completeness of solution design and to speed up engineering implementation of plant factories and other industries sharing the same demands.
Scheduling PID Attitude and Position Control Frequencies for Time-Optimal Quadrotor Waypoint Tracking under Unknown External Disturbances
Authors: Kang Cheongwoong , Park Bumjin , Choi Jaesik
Published: December 2021

Recently, the use of quadrotors has increased in numerous applications, such as agriculture, rescue, transportation, inspection, and localization. Time-optimal quadrotor waypoint tracking is defined as controlling quadrotors to follow the given waypoints as quickly as possible. Although PID control is widely used for quadrotor control, it is not adaptable to environmental changes, such as various trajectories and dynamic external disturbances. In this work, we discover that adjusting PID control frequencies is necessary for adapting to environmental changes by showing that the optimal control frequencies can be different for different environments. Therefore, we suggest a method to schedule the PID position and attitude control frequencies for time-optimal quadrotor waypoint tracking. The method includes (1) a Control Frequency Agent (CFA) that finds the best control frequencies in various environments, (2) a Quadrotor Future Predictor (QFP) that predicts the next state of a quadrotor, and (3) combining the CFA and QFP for time-optimal quadrotor waypoint tracking under unknown external disturbances. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method by showing that it reduces the travel time of a quadrotor for waypoint tracking.
Time Series Classification with InceptionFCN
Authors: Usmankhujaev Saidrasul , Ibrokhimov Bunyodbek , Baydadaev Shokhrukh , Kwon Jangwoo
Published: December 2021

Deep neural networks (DNN) have proven to be efficient in computer vision and data classification with an increasing number of successful applications. Time series classification (TSC) has been one of the challenging problems in data mining in the last decade, and significant research has been proposed with various solutions, including algorithm-based approaches as well as machine and deep learning approaches. This paper focuses on combining the two well-known deep learning techniques, namely the Inception module and the Fully Convolutional Network. The proposed method proved to be more efficient than the previous state-of-the-art InceptionTime method. We tested our model on the univariate TSC benchmark (the UCR/UEA archive), which includes 85 time-series datasets, and proved that our network outperforms the InceptionTime in terms of the training time and overall accuracy on the UCR archive.
Apple Leaf Disease Identification with a Small and Imbalanced Dataset Based on Lightweight Convolutional Networks
Authors: Li Lili , Zhang Shujuan , Wang Bin
Published: December 2021

The intelligent identification and classification of plant diseases is an important research objective in agriculture. In this study, in order to realize the rapid and accurate identification of apple leaf disease, a new lightweight convolutional neural network RegNet was proposed. A series of comparative experiments had been conducted based on 2141 images of 5 apple leaf diseases (rust, scab, ring rot, panonychus ulmi, and healthy leaves) in the field environment. To assess the effectiveness of the RegNet model, a series of comparison experiments were conducted with state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks (CNN) such as ShuffleNet, EfficientNet-B0, MobileNetV3, and Vision Transformer. The results show that RegNet-Adam with a learning rate of 0.0001 obtained an average accuracy of 99.8% on the validation set and an overall accuracy of 99.23% on the test set, outperforming all other pre-trained models. In other words, the proposed method based on transfer learning established in this research can realize the rapid and accurate identification of apple leaf disease.