bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Interaction Effect of Nomination Committee’s Effectiveness on Board of Directors’ Characteristics and Firm Performance
Authors: Al-Absy Mujeeb Saif Mohsen , AlMahari Nada Hameed
Published: May 2023

This study aimed to examine the interaction effect of the nomination committee’s effectiveness on the board of directors’ characteristics and firm performance (measured by return on assets and earnings per share). The nomination committee was scored for committee separation, size, independence, meeting frequency, and the number of female directors. The study selected all listed firms on the Bahrain Bourse for two years, 2020 and 2021, using ordinary least-squares regression to examine the relationship. The results showed that the interaction of the nomination committee with some characteristics of the board of directors had a significant impact on firm performance. With the interaction of the nomination committee, board meeting frequency became significantly positively associated with firm performance as measured by return on assets and earnings per share, as opposed to the insignificant results found in the direct relationship. Similarly, with the interaction of the nomination committee, the number of female directors became more significantly positively associated with firm performance using the measurement of return on assets, while it became significantly positively associated with firm performance using earnings per share, compared to an insignificant positive impact found in the direct relationship. The results show that there is a need to re-evaluate the role of the board of directors and strengthen its effectiveness. This study is the first to alert policymakers, businesses and their stakeholders, and researchers to the significance of having an effective nomination committee, which could play an important role in enhancing the board of directors’ effectiveness and hence firm performance. It makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the interaction impact of NC (as a score) on BOD characteristics and firm performance.
Rapid Parametric CAx Tools for Modelling Morphing Wings of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs)
Authors: Rodríguez-Sevillano Ángel Antonio , Casati-Calzada María Jesús , Bardera-Mora Rafael , Nieto-Centenero Javier , Matías-García Juan Carlos , Barroso-Barderas Estela
Published: May 2023

This paper shows a series of tools that help in the research of morphing micro air vehicles (MAVs). These tools are aimed at generating parametric CAD models of wings in a few seconds that can be used in aerodynamic studies, either via CFD directly using the model obtained or via wind tunnel through rapid prototyping with 3D printers. It also facilitates the analysis of morphing wings by allowing for the continuous parametric deformation of the airfoils and the wing geometry. In addition, one of the tools greatly simplifies the purely experimental design of this type of vehicle, allowing the transfer of experimental measurements to the computer, generating virtual models with the same deformation as the physical model. This software has two fundamental parts. The first one is the parameterization of the airfoils, for which the CST (Class-Shape Transformation) method will be used. CST coefficients can be modified according to the actuator variable that changes the wing geometry. The second part is the generation of a three-dimensional parametric model of the wing. We used OpenCASCADE technology in its Python version called PythonOCC, which enables the generation of geometries with good surface quality for typical and non-standard wing shapes. Finally, the use of this software for the study of a morphing aircraft will be shown, as well as improvements that could be incorporated in the future to increase its capabilities for the design and analysis of MAVs.
PDD-Net: Plant Disease Diagnoses Using Multilevel and Multiscale Convolutional Neural Network Features
Authors: Alghamdi Hamed , Turki Turki
Published: May 2023

Overlooked diseases in agriculture severely impact crop growth, which results in significant losses for farmers. Unfortunately, manual field visits for plant disease diagnosis (PDD) are costly and time consuming. Although various methods of PDD have been proposed, many challenges have yet to be investigated, such as early stage leaf disease diagnosis, class variations in diseases, cluttered backgrounds, and computational complexity of the diagnosis system. In this paper, we propose a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based PDD framework (i.e., PDD-Net), which employs data augmentation techniques and incorporates multilevel and multiscale features to create a class and scale-invariant architecture. The Flatten-T Swish (FTS) activation function is utilized to prevent gradient vanishing and exploding problems, while the focal loss function is used to mitigate the impact of class imbalance during PDD-Net training. The PDD-Net method outperforms baseline models, achieving an average precision of 92.06%, average recall of 92.71%, average F1 score of 92.36%, and accuracy of 93.79% on the PlantVillage dataset. It also achieves an average precision of 86.41%, average recall of 85.77%, average F1 score of 86.02%, and accuracy of 86.98% on the cassava leaf disease dataset. These results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of PDD-Net in plant disease diagnosis.
Identifying Predictors Associated with Risk of Death or Admission to Intensive Care Unit in Internal Medicine Patients with Sepsis: A Comparison of Statistical Models and Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Mirijello Antonio , Fontana Andrea , Greco Antonio Pio , Tosoni Alberto , D’Agruma Angelo , Labonia Maria , Copetti Massimiliano , Piscitelli Pamela , De Cosmo Salvatore ,   on behalf of the Internal Medicine Sepsis Study Group
Published: May 2023

Background: Sepsis is a time-dependent disease: the early recognition of patients at risk for poor outcome is mandatory. Aim: To identify prognostic predictors of the risk of death or admission to intensive care units in a consecutive sample of septic patients, comparing different statistical models and machine learning algorithms. Methods: Retrospective study including 148 patients discharged from an Italian internal medicine unit with a diagnosis of sepsis/septic shock and microbiological identification. Results: Of the total, 37 (25.0%) patients reached the composite outcome. The sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score at admission (odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.41–2.39; p < 0.001), delta SOFA (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.28–2.10; p < 0.001), and the alert, verbal, pain, unresponsive (AVPU) status (OR: 5.96; 95% CI: 2.13–16.67; p < 0.001) were identified through the multivariable logistic model as independent predictors of the composite outcome. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.894; 95% CI: 0.840–0.948. In addition, different statistical models and machine learning algorithms identified further predictive variables: delta quick-SOFA, delta-procalcitonin, mortality in emergency department sepsis, mean arterial pressure, and the Glasgow Coma Scale. The cross-validated multivariable logistic model with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalty identified 5 predictors; and recursive partitioning and regression tree (RPART) identified 4 predictors with higher AUC (0.915 and 0.917, respectively); the random forest (RF) approach, including all evaluated variables, obtained the highest AUC (0.978). All models’ results were well calibrated. Conclusions: Although structurally different, each model identified similar predictive covariates. The classical multivariable logistic regression model was the most parsimonious and calibrated one, while RPART was the easiest to interpret clinically. Finally, LASSO and RF were the costliest in terms of number of variables identified.
Germination and Simulated Gastrointestinal Digestion of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Exhibiting In Vitro Antioxidant Activity in Gastrointestinal Epithelial Cells
Authors: Newton Ashley , Majumder Kaustav
Published: May 2023

Plant-based proteins, in particular pulse proteins, have grown in popularity worldwide. Germination, or sprouting, is an effective method to release peptides and other dietary compounds. However, the combination of germination and gastrointestinal digestion in enhancing the release of dietary compounds with potential health-beneficial biological activity has yet to be entirely elucidated. The present study illustrates the impact of germination and gastrointestinal digestion on the release of dietary compounds with antioxidant activity from chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.). Germination up to 3 days (D0 to D3) increased the peptide content by denaturing chickpea storage proteins and increased the degree of hydrolysis (DH) in the gastric phase. The antioxidant activity was measured at three different dosages (10, 50, and 100 μg/mL) and compared between D0 and D3 on human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (HT-29). A significant increase in antioxidant activity was observed in the D3 germinated samples in all three tested dosages. Further analysis identified 10 peptides and 7 phytochemicals differentially expressed between the D0 and D3 germinated samples. Among the differentially expressed compounds, 3 phytochemicals (2′,4′-dihydroxy-3,4-dimethoxychalcone, isoliquiritigenin 4-methyl ether, and 3-methoxy-4,2′,5′-trihydroxychalcone) and 1 peptide (His-Ala-Lys) were identified only in the D3 samples, indicating their potential contribution towards the observed antioxidant activity.
DWPIS: Dynamic-Weight Parallel Instance and Skeleton Network for Railway Centerline Detection
Authors: Li Xiaofeng , Guo Yuxin , Yang Han , Ye Qixiang , Jia Limin
Published: May 2023

The primary premise of autonomous railway inspection using unmanned aerial vehicles is achieving autonomous flight along the railway. In our previous work, fitted centerline-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation is proven to be an effective method to guide UAV autonomous flying. However, the empirical parameters utilized in the fitting procedure lacked a theoretical basis and the fitted curves were also not coherent nor smooth. To address these problems, this paper proposes a skeleton detection method, called the dynamic-weight parallel instance and skeleton network, to directly extract the centerlines that can be viewed as skeletons. This multi-task branch network for skeleton detection and instance segmentation can be trained end to end. Our method reformulates a fused loss function with dynamic weights to control the dominant branch. During training, the sum of the weights always remains constant and the branch with a higher weight changes from instance to skeleton gradually. Experiments show that our model yields 93.98% mean average precision (mAP) for instance segmentation, a 51.9% F-measure score (F-score) for skeleton detection, and 60.32% weighted mean metrics for the entire network based on our own railway skeleton and instance dataset which comprises 3235 labeled overhead-view images taken in various environments. Our method can achieve more accurate railway skeletons and is useful to guide the autonomous flight of a UAV in railway inspection.
GNSS Signal Quality in Forest Stands for Off-Road Vehicle Navigation
Authors: Rybansky Marian , Kratochvíl Vlastimil , Dohnal Filip , Gerold Robin , Kristalova Dana , Stodola Petr , Nohel Jan
Published: May 2023

One of the basic possibilities of orientation in forest stands is the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Today, these systems are used for pedestrian orientation and also for off-road vehicle navigation. This article presents the results of research aimed at measuring the quality of GNSS signal in different types of coniferous and deciduous vegetation for the purpose of optimizing the navigation of off-road vehicles. To determine the structure (density) of the forest stand, tachymetry was chosen as the reference method. The Trimble Geo 7X cm edition device with Tornado for 7X antenna devices using real time VRS (virtual reference station) method was used to measure GNSS signal quality. This article presents the results of recorded numbers of GNSS satellites (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou) during the driving of a terrain vehicle in two different forest locations. Significant presented results include the deviations of vehicle positions determined by GNSS from tachymetrically precisely measured and marked routes along which the vehicle was moving. The authors of the article focused on the accuracy of determining the position of the vehicle using GNNS, as the most commonly used device for off-road vehicle navigation. The measurement results confirmed the assumption that the accuracy of positioning was better in deciduous forest than in coniferous (spruce) or mixed vegetation. This research was purposefully focused on the possibilities of navigation of military vehicles, but the achieved results can also be applied to the navigation of forestry, rescue and other types of off-road vehicles.
Blind Spot Detection Radar System Design for Safe Driving of Smart Vehicles
Authors: Kim Wantae , Yang Heejin , Kim Jinhong
Published: May 2023

Recently, there has been extensive research and development in the field of smart cars, including technologies related to autonomous driving. Various industries are actively working towards creating efficient and safe self-driving cars. Sensor technologies are emerging to prevent traffic accidents and support safe driving in complex environments where human perception may be limited. One of the representative technologies being researched is the use of Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar. Automobile manufacturers are improving driving safety by equipping cars with Blind Spot Detection (BSD) radar systems that use FMCW technology. As the complexity of driving environments continues to grow, ongoing research is aimed at enhancing the accuracy and reliability of BSD radar technology for detecting blind spots in vehicles. This paper presents the signal processing and tracking algorithms that are the core technologies of the BSD radar, and the design for a BSD radar system. The designed radar system was installed on a vehicle to verify its performance in real-world road environments. The ultimate objective of this research is to design a BSD radar system with high accuracy and reliability in BSD detection using AI technology. In pursuit of this goal, this paper presents the hardware design of the BSD radar system, including antenna and modem designs.
Bioactive Glasses for Soft and Hard Tissue Healing Applications—A Short Review
Authors: Negut Irina , Ristoscu Carmen
Published: May 2023

Bioactive glasses have developed into a variety of items that are used in order to treat a wide range of medical problems. Apart from being mostly applied in the healing processes of hard tissues, bioactive glasses are becoming very popular materials in soft tissues healing. Bioactive glasses have exhibited the ability to accelerate skin regeneration by enhancing angiogenesis and collagen deposition in the proliferation stage, as well as positive effects on all the other important stages of wound healing. They can adhere to hard tissues such as bone and aid in the regeneration of those tissues by forming a calcium–phosphate-like layer on their surfaces. The formation of this apatite layer results in a linkage between the hard tissue and the glass, which further leads to bone healing. This short review summarizes the dynamic process of wound healing along with the basic concepts of bioactive glasses applied in this domain. We aimed to explore constructs which aid different phases of wound healing. Moreover, several research studies dedicated to bioactive glass thin films are briefly discussed.
Research on a 3D Seismic Horizon Automatic-Tracking Method Based on Corrugated Global Diffusion
Authors: Su Mingjun , Qian Feng , Cui Shengkai , Yuan Cheng , Cui Xiangli
Published: May 2023

The core challenges to automatic full-horizon tracking are how to establish a potential local connection relationship between the horizon points, conduct accurate global diffusion in a three-dimensional space, and finally, how to form a complex horizon surface. The existing attribute-based horizon-tracking methods based on waveform similarity, dip guidance, and RGT (relative geological time) can not solve the problems of local connection and global diffusion at the same time. In view of this challenge, this paper proposes an automatic 3D seismic horizon-tracking method based on global corrugated diffusion, which can completely integrate local connection and global diffusion so that all horizons in the whole data volume can be interpreted simultaneously. For the problem of local horizon-point connection, this paper uses the correlation between seismic trace pairs based on DTW (dynamic time warping) correlation to mine the connection mode between horizon points. For the global diffusion problem, this paper proposes the realization of global modeling based on the relationship between seismic samples, constructing a complex 3D horizon through a central ripple-diffusion process. The example shows that the horizon tracked by this method well reflects the original stratum occurrence and stratum-contact relationship, retains the structural details, accurately reflects the structural shape, and realizes automatic tracking across faults.
Myotonometry in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: Assessment of Pre and Post Treatment through Comparisons with Healthy Controls
Authors: Zippenfening Himena Adela , Amaricai Elena , Lupsa Matichescu Marius , Militaru Marius , Simu Mihaela
Published: May 2023

The study aims to assess the myotonometer parameters of major pectoralis, biceps brachialis, femoral biceps and anterior tibialis in patients with Parkinson’s disease before and after medical treatment using comparisons with healthy controls. A total of 49 patients with Parkinson’s disease (69.76 ± 6.39 years) and 42 healthy controls (60.48 ± 7.62 years) were tested using MyotonPRO before and one hour after drug administration. Five parameters were recorded (frequency [Hz], stiffness [N/m], decrement, relaxation [ms] and creep). At pre-treatment assessment, significantly increased values of myotonometer parameters were recorded for major pectoralis and biceps brachialis, with the exception of decrement. Frequency and decrement were significantly higher in patients’ femoral biceps and anterior tibialis. For all assessed muscles, frequency was significantly higher in Parkinson’s disease patients one hour after medication intake. Stiffness, relaxation and creep had increased values in major pectoralis. For the lower limb muscles, decrement had greater values. We concluded that there were no significant differences of major pectoralis and biceps brachialis elasticity between patients with Parkinson’s disease and healthy controls pre and post drug administration, with improved viscoelastic properties of biceps brachialis after medication. After drug administration, no significant differences of femoral biceps and anterior tibialis stiffness were noted between patients and controls.
Multi-Issue Negotiation Protocol with Pre-Domain Narrowing
Authors: Hosokawa Yuta , Fujita Katsuhide
Published: May 2023

Consensus building among agents is crucial in multi-agent systems because each agent acts independently according to its utility function, and conflict among agents can occur. Therefore, automated negotiation is an essential technology for efficiently resolving conflicts and forming consensuses while also maintaining agents’ privacy. As the domain to be negotiated is large, the computational cost of reaching a consensus increases and the agreement rate decreases. Some negotiation protocols have been proposed wherein a mediator collects the utility information of each agent and creates multiple alternatives of agreements to handle large-scale multi-issue negotiations. However, in such protocols, a limitation is placed on agents’ privacy because all agents have to disclose their private information by following the mediator and pre-decided negotiation rules. In this study, we propose a negotiation protocol with a predomain-narrowing phase to enable efficient negotiations in large-scale domains which can maintain the privacy of information that agents should not disclose to their opponents or the mediator. The proposed protocol divides the negotiation process into a predomain-narrowing phase and the main negotiation phase. In the proposed protocol, the parts subject to negotiation are first narrowed in upon, and then the main negotiation is performed. We also propose two narrowing methods: issue- and option-narrowing. Further, we propose naive agent strategies considering the predomain-narrowing phase. We perform comparative simulation experiments between the baseline negotiation protocol without a domain-narrowing phase and the proposed negotiation protocol with the predomain-narrowing phase. The experimental results show that the proposed protocol achieves higher agreement rates in less negotiation time than the baseline.
The Concurrent Validity of Mobile Application for Tracking Tennis Performance
Authors: Bilić Zlatan , Dukarić Vedran , Šanjug Sara , Barbaros Petar , Knjaz Damir
Published: May 2023

The SwingVision (SV) application represents software for the automatic analysis of movement and specific parameters in tennis, but no study evaluated its applicability so far. Therefore, the aim of this research is to determine the validity of SwingVision for monitoring speed and placement parameters when performing serve and the frequency, type, and rotation of each stroke in the game. The sample of participants (N = 5) consisted of elite male junior tennis players (mean age 15.6 ± 0.35 years, mean height 179.16 ± 5.71 cm, and mean weight 72.62 ± 3.89 kg). Video analyses of closed and open character exercises were used to compare real data and those obtained using SV. The placement results determined good and very good validity (ICC = 0.83–0.87). In terms of speed, the results were found to have good validity (Speed_AD-ICC = 0.76–0.80). SV provided very good validity (ICC = 0.97) in the stroke detection parameter and also presented good validity in recognizing the rotation of shots (ICC = 0.76). SV provides valid objective feedback on tennis performance. Thus, the results justify the use of SV as a helpful tool in the training process, both in training and matches.
Tensor Eigenvalue and SVD from the Viewpoint of Linear Transformation
Authors: Zhao Xinzhu , Dong Bo , Yu Bo , Yu Yan
Published: May 2023

A linear transformation from vector space to another vector space can be represented as a matrix. This close relationship between the matrix and the linear transformation is helpful for the study of matrices. In this paper, the tensor is regarded as a generalization of the matrix from the viewpoint of the linear transformation instead of the quadratic form in matrix theory; we discuss some operations and present some definitions and theorems related to tensors. For example, we provide the definitions of the triangular form and the eigenvalue of a tensor, and the theorems of the tensor QR decomposition and the tensor singular value decomposition. Furthermore, we explain the significance of our definitions and their differences from existing definitions.
Quaternionic Shape Operator and Rotation Matrix on Ruled Surfaces
Authors: Li Yanlin , Çalışkan Abdussamet
Published: May 2023

In this article, we examine the relationship between Darboux frames along parameter curves and the Darboux frame of the base curve of the ruled surface. We derive the equations of the quaternionic shape operators, which can rotate tangent vectors around the normal vector, and find the corresponding rotation matrices. Using these operators, we examine the Gauss curvature and mean curvature of the ruled surface. We explore how these properties are found by the use of Frenet vectors instead of generator vectors. We provide illustrative examples to better demonstrate the concepts and results discussed.
New Algorithms for Dealing with Fractional Initial Value Problems
Authors: Batiha Iqbal M. , Abubaker Ahmad A. , Jebril Iqbal H. , Al-Shaikh Suha B. , Matarneh Khaled
Published: May 2023

This work purposes to establish two small numerical modifications for the Fractional Euler method (FEM) and the Modified Fractional Euler Method (MFEM) to deal with fractional initial value problems. Two such modifications, which are named Improved Modified Fractional Euler Method 1 (IMFEM 1) and Improved Modified Fractional Euler Method 2 (IMFEM 2), endeavor to further enhance FEM and MFEM in terms of attaining more accuracy. By utilizing certain theoretical results, the resultant error bounds of the proposed methods are analyzed and estimated. Several numerical comparisons are carried out to validate the efficiency of our proposed methods.
Optimized Solutions of Electrocardiogram Lead and Segment Selection for Cardiovascular Disease Diagnostics
Authors: Shi Jiguang , Li Zhoutong , Liu Wenhan , Zhang Huaicheng , Guo Qianxi , Chang Sheng , Wang Hao , He Jin , Huang Qijun
Published: May 2023

Most of the existing multi-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) detection methods are based on all 12 leads, which undoubtedly results in a large amount of calculation and is not suitable for the application in portable ECG detection systems. Moreover, the influence of different lead and heartbeat segment lengths on the detection is not clear. In this paper, a novel Genetic Algorithm-based ECG Leads and Segment Length Optimization (GA-LSLO) framework is proposed, aiming to automatically select the appropriate leads and input ECG length to achieve optimized cardiovascular disease detection. GA-LSLO extracts the features of each lead under different heartbeat segment lengths through the convolutional neural network and uses the genetic algorithm to automatically select the optimal combination of ECG leads and segment length. In addition, the lead attention module (LAM) is proposed to weight the features of the selected leads, which improves the accuracy of cardiac disease detection. The algorithm is validated on the ECG data from the Huangpu Branch of Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital (defined as the SH database) and the open-source Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt diagnostic ECG database (PTB database). The accuracy for detection of arrhythmia and myocardial infarction under the inter-patient paradigm is 99.65% (95% confidence interval: 99.20–99.76%) and 97.62% (95% confidence interval: 96.80–98.16%), respectively. In addition, ECG detection devices are designed using Raspberry Pi, which verifies the convenience of hardware implementation of the algorithm. In conclusion, the proposed method achieves good cardiovascular disease detection performance. It selects the ECG leads and heartbeat segment length with the lowest algorithm complexity while ensuring classification accuracy, which is suitable for portable ECG detection devices.
Regeneration or Scarring Derive from Specific Evolutionary Environmental Adaptations of the Life Cycles in Different Animals
Authors: Alibardi Lorenzo
Published: May 2023

The ability to heal or even regenerate large injuries in different animals derives from the evolution of their specific life cycles during geological times. The present, new hypothesis tries to explain the distribution of organ regeneration among animals. Only invertebrates and vertebrates that include larval and intense metamorphic transformations can broadly regenerate as adults. Basically, regeneration competent animals are aquatic while terrestrial species have largely or completely lost most of the regeneration ability. Although genomes of terrestrial species still contain numerous genes that in aquatic species allow a broad regeneration (“regenerative genes”), the evolution of terrestrial species has variably modified the genetic networks linking these genes to the others that evolved during land adaptation, resulting in the inhibition of regeneration. Loss of regeneration took place by the elimination of intermediate larval phases and metamorphic transformations in the life cycles of land invertebrates and vertebrates. Once the evolution along a specific lineage generated species that could no longer regenerate, this outcome could not change anymore. It is therefore likely that what we learn from regenerative species will explain their mechanisms of regeneration but cannot or only partly be applied to non-regenerative species. Attempts to introduce “regenerative genes” in non-regenerative species most likely would disorder the entire genetic networks of the latter, determining death, teratomas and cancer. This awareness indicates the difficulty to introduce regenerative genes and their activation pathways in species that evolved genetic networks suppressing organ regeneration. Organ regeneration in non-regenerating animals such as humans should move to bio-engineering interventions in addition to “localized regenerative gene therapies” in order to replace lost tissues or organs.
Emerging Role and Mechanism of the FTO Gene in Cardiovascular Diseases
Authors: Xu Zi-Yang , Jing Xia , Xiong Xing-Dong
Published: May 2023

The fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene was the first obesity-susceptibility gene identified through a genome-wide association study (GWAS). A growing number of studies have suggested that genetic variants of FTO are strongly associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension and acute coronary syndrome. In addition, FTO was also the first N6-methyladenosine (m6A) demethylase, suggesting the reversible nature of m6A modification. m6A is dynamically deposited, removed, and recognized by m6A methylases, demethylases, and m6A binding proteins, respectively. By catalyzing m6A demethylation on mRNA, FTO may participate in various biological processes by modulating RNA function. Recent studies demonstrated that FTO plays a pivotal role in the initiation and progression of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial fibrosis, heart failure, and atherosclerosis and may hold promise as a potential therapeutic target for treating or preventing a variety of cardiovascular diseases. Here, we review the association between FTO genetic variants and cardiovascular disease risk, summarize the role of FTO as an m6A demethylase in cardiovascular disorders, and discuss future research directions and possible clinical implications.
Exercise-Induced Alternations of Adiponectin, Interleukin-8 and Indicators of Carbohydrate Metabolism in Males with Metabolic Syndrome
Authors: Makiel Karol , Suder Agnieszka , Targosz Aneta , Maciejczyk Marcin , Haim Alon
Published: May 2023

Adiponectin (ADIPO) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) are proteins that play a significant, albeit opposing, role in metabolic syndrome (MetS). The reported data on the effect of physical activity on the levels of these hormones in the population of people with MetS are conflicting. The aim of the study was to evaluate the changes in hormone concentrations, insulin-resistance indices and body composition after two types of training. The study included 62 men with MetS (age 36.6 ± 6.9 years, body fat [BF] = 37.53 ± 4.5%), randomly assigned to: an experimental group EG1 (n = 21) with aerobic exercise intervention, an experimental group EG2 (n = 21) with combined aerobic and resistance exercise intervention, both for 12 weeks, and a control group CG (n = 20) without interventions. Anthropometric measurements and body composition (fat-free mass [FFM], gynoid body fat [GYNOID]), as well as a biochemical blood analysis (adiponectin [ADIPO], interleukin-8 [IL-8], homeostatic model assessment—adiponectin (HOMA-AD) and homeostatic model assessment—triglycerides (HOMA-TG) were performed at baseline, and at 6 and 12 weeks of intervention and 4 weeks after the intervention (follow-up). Intergroup (between groups) and intragroup (within each group) changes were statistically evaluated. In the experimental groups EG1 and EG2, no significant changes were observed in the ADIPO concentration, but a decrease of GYNOID and insulin-resistance indices was confirmed. The aerobic training led to favorable changes in IL-8 concentration. The use of combined resistance and aerobic training led to improved body composition, decreased waist circumference and better insulin-resistance indices in men with MetS.
AI-Aided Search for New HIV-1 Protease Ligands
Authors: Arrigoni Roberto , Santacroce Luigi , Ballini Andrea , Palese Luigi Leonardo
Published: May 2023

The availability of drugs capable of blocking the replication of microorganisms has been one of the greatest triumphs in the history of medicine, but the emergence of an ever-increasing number of resistant strains poses a serious problem for the treatment of infectious diseases. The search for new potential ligands for proteins involved in the life cycle of pathogens is, therefore, an extremely important research field today. In this work, we have considered the HIV-1 protease, one of the main targets for AIDS therapy. Several drugs are used today in clinical practice whose mechanism of action is based on the inhibition of this enzyme, but after years of use, even these molecules are beginning to be interested by resistance phenomena. We used a simple artificial intelligence system for the initial screening of a data set of potential ligands. These results were validated by docking and molecular dynamics, leading to the identification of a potential new ligand of the enzyme which does not belong to any known class of HIV-1 protease inhibitors. The computational protocol used in this work is simple and does not require large computational power. Furthermore, the availability of a large number of structural information on viral proteins and the presence of numerous experimental data on their ligands, with which it is possible to compare the results obtained with computational methods, make this research field the ideal terrain for the application of these new computational techniques.
Impact of Non-Invasive Physical Plasma on Heat Shock Protein Functionality in Eukaryotic Cells
Authors: Wang Yanqing , Abazid Alexander , Badendieck Steffen , Mustea Alexander , Stope Matthias B.
Published: May 2023

Recently, biomedical research has increasingly investigated physical plasma as an innovative therapeutic approach with a number of therapeutic biomedical effects. It is known from radiation and chemotherapy that these applications can lead to the induction and activation of primarily cytoprotective heat shock proteins (HSP). HSP protect cells and tissues from physical, (bio)chemical, and physiological stress and, ultimately, along with other mechanisms, govern resistance and treatment failure. These mechanisms are well known and comparatively well studied in drug therapy. For therapies in the field of physical plasma medicine, however, extremely little data are available to date. In this review article, we provide an overview of the current studies on the interaction of physical plasma with the cellular HSP system.
Polyvinylpyrrolidone Nanofibers Incorporating Mesoporous Bioactive Glass for Bone Tissue Engineering
Authors: Matos Ricardo J. R. , Silva Jorge C. , Soares Paula I. P. , Borges João Paulo
Published: May 2023

Composite biomaterials that combine osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties are a promising approach for bone tissue engineering (BTE) since they stimulate osteogenesis while mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM) morphology. In this context, the aim of the present research was to produce polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofibers containing mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) 80S15 nanoparticles. These composite materials were produced by the electrospinning technique. Design of experiments (DOE) was used to estimate the optimal electrospinning parameters to reduce average fiber diameter. The polymeric matrices were thermally crosslinked under different conditions, and the fibers’ morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Evaluation of the mechanical properties of nanofibrous mats revealed a dependence on thermal crosslinking parameters and on the presence of MBG 80S15 particles inside the polymeric fibers. Degradation tests indicated that the presence of MBG led to a faster degradation of nanofibrous mats and to a higher swelling capacity. The assessment of in vitro bioactivity in simulated body fluid (SBF) was performed using MBG pellets and PVP/MBG (1:1) composites to assess if the bioactive properties of MBG 80S15 were kept when it was incorporated into PVP nanofibers. FTIR and XRD analysis along with SEM–EDS results indicated that a hydroxy-carbonate apatite (HCA) layer formed on the surface of MBG pellets and nanofibrous webs after soaking in SBF over different time periods. In general, the materials revealed no cytotoxic effects on the Saos-2 cell line. The overall results for the materials produced show the potential of the composites to be used in BTE.
Wearable Multi-Channel Pulse Signal Acquisition System Based on Flexible MEMS Sensor Arrays with TSV Structure
Authors: Kang Xiaoxiao , Huang Lin , Zhang Yitao , Yun Shichang , Jiao Binbin , Liu Xin , Zhang Jun , Li Zhiqiang , Zhang Haiying
Published: May 2023

Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensors play a significant role in pulse wave acquisition. However, existing MEMS pulse pressure sensors bound with a flexible substrate by gold wire are vulnerable to crush fractures, leading to sensor failure. Additionally, establishing an effective mapping between the array sensor signal and pulse width remains a challenge. To solve the above problems, we propose a 24-channel pulse signal acquisition system based on a novel MEMS pressure sensor with a through-silicon-via (TSV) structure, which connects directly to a flexible substrate without gold wire bonding. Firstly, based on the MEMS sensor, we designed a 24-channel pressure sensor flexible array to collect the pulse waves and static pressure. Secondly, we developed a customized pulse preprocessing chip to process the signals. Finally, we built an algorithm to reconstruct the three-dimensional pulse wave from the array signal and calculate the pulse width. The experiments verify the high sensitivity and effectiveness of the sensor array. In particular, the measurement results of pulse width are highly positively correlated with those obtained via infrared images. The small-size sensor and custom-designed acquisition chip meet the needs of wearability and portability, meaning that it has significant research value and commercial prospects.
Retirement Planning and Financial Anxiety among Nigerian Civil Servants: Insights from Social Comparison Theory
Authors: Ugwu Lawrence Ejike , Idemudia Erhabor Sunday
Published: May 2023

The psychological implication of retirement is underemphasised. This study examined the relationship between proactive personality, social comparison, and retirement anxiety among Nigerian civil servants. The study is a cross-sectional design, using proactive personality, social comparison orientation, and Nigerian pre-retirement anxiety scales. Five hundred and eight staff members in government-owned tertiary institutions with five years or less to go until retirement, and at a mean age of 57.47 (SD = 3.02), were surveyed. The study established that a proactive personality negatively predicted retirement anxiety and that civil servants engage in diverse forms of intrapreneurship/entrepreneurship to augment their savings. The study also revealed that social comparison (opinion) mediated the relationship between proactive personality and retirement anxiety (financial preparedness and social alienation). In addition, the study found that social comparison (opinion and ability) mediated the relationship between proactive personality and retirement anxiety (financial preparedness) in a sequential order. The findings suggest that retirees in Nigeria face complex challenges, including financial unpreparedness, social alienation, and uncertainty. The study highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between personality traits, social comparison, and retirement anxiety in order to develop effective interventions and policies that support retirees in Nigeria.
Improving the Indoor Environment through an Indoor Green Curtain System
Authors: Qadir Ghulam , Wijesooriya Niranjika , Brambilla Arianna , Alonso-Marroquin Fernando
Published: May 2023

People are spending more and more of their lives indoors, making thermal comfort and air quality essential factors for their health and well-being. The use of natural elements within indoor spaces can improve the indoor environment and air quality, but can also bring multiple health and well-being, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral benefits due to its biophilic effect. Indoor vertical greenery strategy in buildings can give these benefits to the building occupants. In this study, a prototype of a living green curtain is assessed to evaluate the benefits that may derive when used as a shading device. The analysis evaluated the performance of the green curtain prototype compared to the other two scenarios, no curtains (control module) and external blind. Temperature, relative humidity, air quality, and solar radiation were measured in the indoor environment. Results indicate that the green curtain module was cooler by 0–4 °C than the control module during the peak solar radiation hours, and the difference even reached up to 8 °C on hotter days. Due to the evapotranspiration effect, the green curtain recorded the highest daily average relative humidity of 67%. This study demonstrates the potential ability of a green curtain to improve air quality and thermal comfort.
A Test Road with Unbound Base and Sub-Base Course from MSWI Bottom Ash Mixtures
Authors: Vaitkus Audrius , Škulteckė Judita , Šernas Ovidijus
Published: May 2023

A considerable amount of literature has been published on municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) bottom ash as a substitute for natural road materials. However, most studies are conducted in the laboratory, and as a result, very little is known about the construction of pavement structural layers from MSWI bottom ash mixtures and their performance under real conditions. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the bearing capacity and compaction level of the unbound base and sub-base course constructed from the MSWI bottom ash mixtures. For this purpose, three MSWI bottom ash mixtures (70–100% of MSWI bottom ash) and reference mixtures only from natural aggregates were designed and used to construct the unbound base and sub-base courses on a regional road in Lithuania. In total, five different pavement structures with MSWI bottom ash mixtures and a reference one with natural aggregates were constructed and tested. The results from this study showed that unbound mixtures with 70–100% of MSWI bottom ash are suitable to construct the unbound base and sub-base courses since the bearing capacity of those layers met the requirements (≥80 MPa for the sub-base course and ≥120 MPa for the base course) and was similar to that of the reference pavement (161 MPa for sub-base course and 212 MPa for base course).
Statistical Analyses of the Non-Uniform Longitudinal Temperature Distribution in Steel Box Girder Bridge
Authors: Ma Wenda , Wu Bo , Qin Dingsong , Zhao Bin , Yang Xianyi
Published: May 2023

The frequently conventional assumption that bridge temperature is uniformly distributed on long-span bridges could lead to uncertainty when analyzing temperature effects. This study investigated the surface temperature of steel box girders on a long-span suspension bridge, emphasizing the distribution characteristics in the longitudinal (spanwise) direction. The girder surface temperature distribution was monitored using the long-term structural health monitoring system (SHMS). First, the probability density functions (PDF) of the girder surface temperature were analyzed. The results showed that the PDFs had bimodal characteristics and could be well-fitted using the weighted superposition of two normal distributions. Meanwhile, there was an obvious difference between the PDFs of the measuring points at different longitudinal sections of the bridge, which is inconsistent with the assumption that the temperature was uniformly distributed in the longitudinal direction. Subsequently, the longitudinal distributions of the girder surface temperature were statistically analyzed, and polynomial functions were introduced to fit the distribution curves along the left and right sides of the mid-span. A correlation analysis was then performed, highlighting the variability in temperature in the longitudinal direction. Additionally, the longitudinal temperature distribution pattern could be summarized as (i) the highest in the mid-span, the lowest in the tower, and increasing along the side span; (ii) there were also significant differences between the left and right sides of the mid-span. Finally, the time- and space- distributions of the temperature were studied, and a contour map was displayed. The results showed that the girder surface temperature had significant three-dimensional spatial characteristics and was not only non-uniformly distributed in space but also in time. This work is useful for a more accurate analysis of temperature effects on long-span bridges.
Water-Assisted Cold Sintering of Alumina Ceramics in SPS Conditions
Authors: Kholodkova Anastasia A. , Kornyushin Maxim V. , Pakhomov Mikhail A. , Smirnov Andrey V. , Ivakin Yurii D.
Published: May 2023

A developing energy-saving approach of cold sintering in a pure aqueous medium was applied to the preparation of α-Al2O3 ceramics and performed on spark plasma sintering equipment. The initial γ-Al(OH)3 and γ-AlOOH powders and the cold-sintered ceramics were studied by X-ray diffraction analysis, infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and scanning electron microscopy to reveal the chemical and structural transformations they experienced during the cold sintering. At 450 °C and 70 MPa, initially γ-AlOOH transformed into a fragile α-Al2O3 material. Porous α-Al2O3 ceramics with about 60% porosity were obtained after cold sintering of γ-Al(OH)3 in the same conditions combined with subsequent annealing at 1250 °C for 3 h. The role of water molecules in the studied processes was considered as the enhancement of structural mobility in the cold-sintered material due to its reversible hydroxylation similar to earlier investigated supercritical water actions on the precursors during α-Al2O3 formation. Further improvement of the cold sintering setup and regimens would open prospects in α-Al2O3 ceramics manufacturing by an ecologically benign route.