bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Starvation and Refeeding on Growth, Digestion, Nonspecific Immunity and Lipid-Metabolism-Related Genes in Onychostoma macrolepis
Authors: Gou Nina , Wang Kaifeng , Jin Tiezhi , Yang Bin
Published: March 2023

The present research was conducted to assess the influences of starvation and refeeding on growth, nonspecific immunity and lipid metabolic adaptation in Onychostoma macrolepis. To date, there have been no similar reports in O. macrolepis. The fish were randomly assigned into two groups: control group (continuous feeding for six weeks) and starved–refed group (starvation for three weeks and then refeeding for three weeks). After three weeks of starvation, the results showed that the body weight (BW, 1.44 g), condition factor (CF, 1.17%), visceral index (VSI, 3.96%), hepatopancreas index (HSI, 0.93%) and intraperitoneal fat index (IPFI, 0.70%) of fish were significantly lower compared to the control group (BW, 5.72 g; CF, 1.85%; VSI, 6.35%; HSI, 2.04%; IPFI, 1.92%) (p < 0.05). After starvation, the serum triglyceride (TG, 0.83 mmol/L), total cholesterol (T-GHOL, 1.15 mmol/L), high-density lipoprotein (HDL, 1.13 mmol/L) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, 0.46 mmol/L) concentrations were significantly lower than those in the control group (TG, 1.69 mmol/L; T-GHOL, 1.86 mmol/L; HDL, 1.62 mmol/L; LDL, 0.63 mmol/L) (p < 0.05). The activities of intestinal digestive enzymes (amylase, lipase and protease) in the starved-refed group were significantly lower than those in the control group after three weeks of starvation (p < 0.05). The highest activities of immune enzymes such as lysozyme (LZM), acid phosphate (ACP), alkaline phosphate (ALP), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and catalase (CAT) in the hepatopancreas were presented in the starved–refed group at second week, and significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, starvation significantly improved intestinal immune enzymes activities (p < 0.05). the lowest TG contents and the highest expression levels of lipolysis genes including hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 isoform A (CPT-1A) appeared in the hepatopancreas, muscle and intraperitoneal fat after starvation, indicating the mobilization of fat reserves in these tissues (p < 0.05). After refeeding, the recovery of TG content might be mediated by the upregulation of the expression levels of lipogenesis genes such as sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS). Understanding the duration of physiological and metabolic changes in O. macrolepis and their reversibility or irreversibility to supplementary feeding response could provide valuable reference for the adaptability of O. macrolepis in large-scale culturing, proliferation and release.
Evaluation of Four Thermal Comfort Indices and Their Relationship with Physiological Variables in Feedlot Cattle
Authors: Arias Rodrigo A. , Mader Terry L.
Published: March 2023

Climatic data from different years and experiments conducted in Nebraska were used to estimate four comfort thermal indices and to predict the risk of heat stress and its relationship with pen surface temperature (PST). These included the temperature–humidity index (THI), the adjusted THI (THIadj), the heat load index (HLI), and THIPST using pen surface temperature instead of air temperature. Respiration rates (RR), tympanic temperatures (TT), and panting scores (PS) were also collected in each year and from each location. During 2007, mean values of soil temperature, PST, outgoing shortwave radiation, and TT were greater than in 2008 (p < 0.011). However, HLI, relative humidity, and incoming and outgoing long-wave radiation were greater during 2008 (p < 0.012). The TT was positively correlated with THIPST and THIadj (0.75 and 0.70, respectively), whereas RR had a moderate correlation with THI, THIadj, and HLI (0.32, 0.27, and 0.34, respectively; p < 0.001). Thermal comfort indices showed a positive correlation with TT, especially the THIPST. These relationships vary with location. However, all of the thermal indices showed weak relationships with the observed RR. This would confirm the different roles that TT and RR have as indicators of heat stress. The THIPST was the best index for predicting TT across years.
Porcine Lawsonia intracellularis Ileitis in Italy and Its Association with Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2) Infection
Authors: D’Annunzio Giulia , Ostanello Fabio , Muscatello Luisa Vera , Orioles Massimo , Bacci Barbara , Jacumin Niccolò , Leotti Giorgio , Tommasini Nicola , Alborali Giovanni Loris , Luppi Andrea , Vio Denis , Mandrioli Luciana , Sarli Giuseppe
Published: March 2023

The objective of this study was to employ a diagnostic algorithm, which involves detecting positive farms by stool PCR followed by PCR and histology/immunohistochemistry on ileum samples, for diagnosing Lawsonia intracellularis proliferative enteritis in Northern Italy. The primary aim was to examine the relationship between the gold standard of L. intracellularis diagnostics, namely histology and immunohistochemistry, and PCR in acute and chronic cases of L. intracellularis enteritides. An additional goal was to investigate the coinfection of L. intracellularis with porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2). Twenty-eight ileum samples, including four from acute cases and 24 from chronic cases, were collected. PCR yielded positive results in 19 cases (four acute and 15 chronic cases). In comparison, immunohistochemistry was positive in 16 cases (four acute and 12 chronic cases), with an observed agreement of 89%. The findings suggest that performing the two tests in series can increase the specificity of the causal diagnosis. PCR may be used as a screening tool to identify the presence of the microorganism, and only positive cases will be examined by histology and immunohistochemistry to confirm the causative role of L. intracellularis. Co-infection with PCV2 was demonstrate in two out of four acute cases and in two out of 24 chronic cases, providing further evidence to support the hypothesis that when the infection starts with ubiquitous pathogens such as L. intracellularis, it may boost the possibility of PCV2 replication, especially in acute cases. As a result, this may trigger a transition from subclinical to clinical forms of PCV2 disease.
Through Its Powerful Antioxidative Properties, L-Theanine Ameliorates Vincristine-Induced Neuropathy in Rats
Authors: Yang Chih-Chuan , Wang Mao-Hsien , Soung Hung-Sheng , Tseng Hsiang-Chien , Lin Feng-Huei , Chang Kuo-Chi , Tsai Cheng-Chia
Published: March 2023

L-theanine (LT), which is a major amino acid found in green tea, was shown to alleviate Vincristine (VCR)-induced peripheral neuropathy and associated neuronal functional changes in rats. To induce peripheral neuropathy, rats were administered VCR at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day intraperitoneally on days 1–5 and 8–12, while control rats received LT at doses of 30, 100, and 300 mg/kg/day intraperitoneally for 21 days or saline solution. Electrophysiological measurements were taken to evaluate the nerve functional loss and recovery through motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities. The sciatic nerve was examined for several biomarkers, including nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), total calcium, IL-6, IL-10, MPO, and caspase-3. The results showed that VCR caused significant hyperalgesia and allodynia in rats; decreased nerve conduction velocity; increased NO and MDA levels; and decreased GSH, SOD, CAT, and IL-10 levels. LT was found to significantly reduce VCR-induced nociceptive pain thresholds, decrease oxidative stress levels (NO, MDA), increase antioxidative strength (GSH, SOD, CAT), and reduce neuroinflammatory activity and apoptosis markers (caspase-3). LT’s antioxidant, calcium homeostasis, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and neuroprotective properties make it a potential adjuvant to conventional treatment in VCR-induced neuropathy in rats.
O-GlcNAcylation Is Required for the Survival of Cerebellar Purkinje Cells by Inhibiting ROS Generation
Authors: Liu Fengjiao , Li Shen , Zhao Xin , Xue Saisai , Li Hao , Yang Guochao , Li Ying , Wu Yan , Zhu Lingling , Chen Liping , Wu Haitao
Published: March 2023

Purkinje cells (PCs), as a unique type of neurons output from the cerebellar cortex, are essential for the development and physiological function of the cerebellum. However, the intricate mechanisms underlying the maintenance of Purkinje cells are unclear. The O-GlcNAcylation (O-GlcNAc) of proteins is an emerging regulator of brain function that maintains normal development and neuronal circuity. In this study, we demonstrate that the O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) in PCs maintains the survival of PCs. Furthermore, a loss of OGT in PCs induces severe ataxia, extensor rigidity and posture abnormalities in mice. Mechanistically, OGT regulates the survival of PCs by inhibiting the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). These data reveal a critical role of O-GlcNAc signaling in the survival and maintenance of cerebellar PCs.
Gaussian Mutation Specular Reflection Learning with Local Escaping Operator Based Artificial Electric Field Algorithm and Its Engineering Application
Authors: Adegboye Oluwatayomi Rereloluwa , Deniz Ülker Ezgi
Published: March 2023

During the contribution of a metaheuristic algorithm for solving complex problems, one of the major challenges is to obtain the one that provides a well-balanced exploration and exploitation. Among the possible solutions to overcome this issue is to combine the strengths of the different methods. In this study, one of the recently developed metaheuristic algorithms, artificial electric field algorithm (AEFA), has been used, to improve its converge speed and the ability to avoid the local optimum points of the given problems. To address these issues, Gaussian mutation specular reflection learning (GS) and local escaping operator (LEO) have been added to the essential steps on AEFA and called GSLEO-AEFA. In order to observe the effect of the applied features, 23 benchmark functions as well as engineering and real-world application problems were tested and compared with the other algorithms. Friedman and Wilcoxon rank-sum statistical tests, and complexity analyses were also conducted to measure the performance of GSLEO-AEFA. The overall effectiveness of the algorithm among the compared algorithms obtained in between 84.62–92.31%. According to the achieved results, it can be seen that GSLEO-AEFA has precise optimization accuracy even in changing dimensions, especially in engineering optimization problems.
Applied Agri-Technologies for Agriculture 4.0—Part I
Authors: Kateris Dimitrios , Bochtis Dionysis
Published: March 2023

Agriculture plays a vital role in the global economy, with much of the rural population in developing countries depending on it [...]
High Pressure Processing Has Variable Effects on Protein-Related and Sensory Properties of Cold and Hot Smoked Rainbow Trout
Authors: Kårlund Anna , Sulkula Katarina , Väkeväinen Kati , Korhonen Jenni
Published: March 2023

High pressure processing (HPP) is a state-of-the-art food preservation method that can be applied to many types of food items, including fish products. HPP has been found to affect fish protein conformation, with potentially positive effects on protein digestibility, but detrimental effects on sensory quality. In this study, cold and hot smoked rainbow trout samples (CSRT and HSRT, respectively) were treated with 200, 400, and 600 MPa at 4 °C for 3 min and tested for solubility of proteins (SP) and water holding capacity (WHC). Level of proteolysis (LP) was tested in an in vitro digestion model. A consumer panel evaluated sensory properties with the Rate-All-That-Apply method. Treatment at 200 MPa positively affected LP in HSRT, while SP and WHC were reduced in CSRT with increasing pressure. HPP also significantly affected texture, appearance, and appeal, especially of CSRT samples. Reduction in SP and WHC contributed to colour changes in CSRT treated with 600 MPa. It was concluded that HPP had more pronounced effects on physicochemical and sensory properties of CSRT than HSRT. The results highlight the importance of optimising the HPP parameters for each product type, in order to minimise the potentially negative effects on protein-related properties and sensory quality.
Ecological Sensitivity Assessment and Spatial Pattern Analysis of Land Resources in Tumen River Basin, China
Authors: Feng Hengdong , Zhang Xiaoguang , Nan Ying , Zhang Da , Sun Yan
Published: March 2023

Ecological sensitivity is one of the important indicators of regional ecological fragility, which can represent the sensitivity of ecosystems to natural environmental conditions and human activity disturbances in the region. In this study, the ecological sensitivity of land resources in the Tumen River Basin of China was quantitatively evaluated by taking 3 ecologically sensitive impact types, including the natural environment, human disturbance, and soil erosion, as evaluation criteria, and 11 ecologically sensitive factors were selected to build an evaluation system using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, to determine the weights of the evaluation factors, combined with geographic information system (GIS) technology. The results show that: (1) Among the three types of ecological sensitivity factors, the influence of human disturbance is the most obvious, and the two factors of land use type and distance from construction land have the highest weights in the comprehensive ecological sensitivity evaluation. (2) There are no extremely sensitive areas or insensitive areas in the Tumen River Basin in China. Highly sensitive areas account for only 0.59% of the total area and are mainly concentrated in the lakes, rivers, and reservoirs in the study area. Moderately sensitive areas account for 54.12%, which are concentrated in the central part of the Tumen River Basin Slightly sensitive areas are mainly located in the mountainous areas in the north and south of the study area. (3) Among the various land resource types, the proportion of slightly sensitive areas and moderately sensitive areas of woodland is close (about 50%), while cultivated land, grassland, construction land, and bare land are mainly moderately sensitive areas (73.95%, 82.07%, 96.59%, and 78.78%), and water bodies are mostly distributed within highly sensitive areas (60.97%), and all wetlands with the smallest area are moderately sensitive. The results of the study can provide data support and a scientific basis for regional ecological protection and development planning.
Sample Reduction-Based Pairwise Linear Regression Classification for IoT Monitoring Systems
Authors: Gao Xizhan , Hu Wei , Chu Yu , Niu Sijie
Published: March 2023

At present, the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a significant symbol of the information age. As an important research branch of it, IoT-based video monitoring systems have achieved rapid developments in recent years. However, the mode of front-end data collection, back-end data storage and analysis adopted by traditional monitoring systems cannot meet the requirements of real-time security. The currently widely used edge computing-based monitoring system can effectively solve the above problems, but it has high requirements for the intelligent algorithms that will be deployed at the edge end (front-end). To meet the requirements, that is, to obtain a lightweight, fast and accurate video face-recognition method, this paper proposes a novel, set-based, video face-recognition framework, called sample reduction-based pairwise linear regression classification (SRbPLRC), which contains divide SRbPLRC (DSRbPLRC), anchor point SRbPLRC (APSRbPLRC), and attention anchor point SRbPLRC (AAPSRbPLRC) methods. Extensive experiments on some popular video face-recognition databases demonstrate that the performance of proposed algorithms is better than that of several state-of-the-art classifiers. Therefore, our proposed methods can effectively meet the real-time and security requirements of IoT monitoring systems.
An Investigation of Printing Parameters of Independent Extrusion Type 3D Print Continuous Carbon Fiber-Reinforced PLA
Authors: Jia Zhixin , Wang Qing , Liu Jiang
Published: March 2023

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology is highly favored by various industries as the simplest and most commonly used technology in additive manufacturing. The embedding of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTC) is a great help to compensate for the mechanical properties of FFF-printed specimens. In this paper, the optimal printing parameters of printed specimens containing continuous carbon fiber-reinforced PLA were investigated by the Taguchi method, full factorial analysis, and the tensile test. Fiber printing layer thickness and fiber printing speed are significant factors. After excluding the influence of fiber overlap, the optimal printing parameters were obtained. When the thickness of the fiber printing layer is 0.05 mm, the speed of the fiber printing nozzle is 250 mm/min, and the temperature of the fiber printing nozzle is 210 °C, the maximum tensile stress of the sample is 189.52 MPa. In this paper, the maximum tensile stress of the specimen printed by different printing parameters can be doubled, which shows the influence of printing parameters on the mechanical properties of the specimen. Compared with the specimen using pure PLA printing, the increase was 703.5%. Then the failure mechanism of 3D-printed CFRTC specimens with different layer thicknesses was investigated by using microstructural morphology and tensile fracture interfacial property analysis. The influence of layer thickness parameters on the interfacial bonding force was revealed. Through analysis, it is found that the lower the thickness of the specimen printing layer, the better the interface bonding force of the specimen, and the minimum layer thickness suitable for FFF independent extrusion printer is found.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Perception Augmentation and Reasoning
Authors: Zheng Wenfeng , Liu Chao , Yang Bo , Yang Yichao
Published: March 2023

AI has seen great progress in recent decades, with a rapidly increasing computing capacity and the exponentially growing amount and types of processed data [...]
Simulation of Cross-Correlated Random Fields for Transversely Anisotropic Soil Slope by Copulas
Authors: Zhou Xinlong , Sun Yueyang , Xiao Henglin
Published: March 2023

Multi-source uncertainties yielded by randomness, spatial variability and cross-correlation of soil parameters severely affect the realization of random fields. However, current studies rarely account for these simultaneously, leading to inevitable bias in random field simulation and subsequent structure analysis. In this paper, copula-based cross-correlated random fields for transversely anisotropic soil slope are proposed. Firstly, based on the traditional probabilistic method and random field theory, the effect of the cross-correlation of soil parameters on the random field is comprehensively analyzed. Then copulas, which mainly characterize the dependent structures of random variables, are further expanded to connect multivariate random fields. Four special algorithms associated with Gaussian, Frank, Plackett and No. 16 copulas are subsequently developed. At last, the performance and effectiveness of copula-based cross-correlated random fields are illustrated by means of assumed and engineering slope cases. The results show that the proposed method is amenable to characterizing spatial variability comprising multiple cross-correlated soil parameters of transversely anisotropic slope. Soil profiles can be represented with a relatively high accuracy. Moreover, the performance of copula-based CCRF is simultaneously governed by margins, cross-correlated coefficients and copulas. The proper selection of these crucial factors can considerably reduce multi-source uncertainties. Overall, the proposed method could provide a useful guideline for accurately modeling cross-correlation random fields of soil slope.
The Role of Belgian Airborne Sniffer Measurements in the MARPOL Annex VI Enforcement Chain
Authors: Van Roy Ward , Merveille Jean-Baptiste , Scheldeman Kobe , Van Nieuwenhove Annelore , Van Roozendael Benjamin , Schallier Ronny , Maes Frank
Published: March 2023

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences launched its airborne sniffer program in 2015 whereby a custom-built sniffer sensor was installed onboard the Belgian coastguard aircraft enabling the measurement of SO2 and NOx emitted by ocean-going vessels (OGVs). The data gathered on non-compliant OGVs were subsequently sent to port inspection authorities, who were then able to trigger inspections more rapidly than had they not had the data from the aircraft. This study reveals the added value of airborne alerts on port inspection effectiveness, a subject that had not been previously documented. This article demonstrates that airborne alerts have not only led to increased sanctions but have also drastically improved the efficiency of port inspection authorities, leading to a 50% reduction in the enforcement cost per confirmed violation. Port inspection authorities were able to follow up on 46% of the generated Fuel Sulphur Content (FSC) alerts. Of the alerts that were followed up, 43% were confirmed as non-compliant after inspection. This means that 20% of the total number of generated airborne alerts, which includes those that were not able to be followed up, met conditions for legal sanctioning. In contrast, for NOx alerts, only limited follow-ups were conducted by port inspection authorities. None of the alerts were confirmed with those inspections, mainly due to the lack of inspection mechanisms for real-world NOx emissions under IMO and EU regulations. In addition, for this study, a large-scale remote FSC measurement validation analysis was conducted for the first time, comparing airborne FSC measurements and FSC reference data. In order to obtain FSC reference data, onboard measurements from exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCSs) were collected, together with fuel samples from Belgian port inspection authorities. The validation analysis revealed that the empiric deviation in the airborne FSC measurements with the FSC reference data was 9%, which was significantly lower than the 25% uncertainty used in the reporting of the alerts. This study helps pave the way for an increased role of airborne monitoring in the MARPOL Annex VI enforcement chain.
Modeling Tool for Estimating Carbon Dioxide Fluxes over a Non-Uniform Boreal Peatland
Authors: Mukhartova Iuliia , Kurbatova Julia , Tarasov Denis , Gibadullin Ravil , Sogachev Andrey , Olchev Alexander
Published: March 2023

We present a modeling tool capable of computing carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes over a non-uniform boreal peatland. The three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic model is based on the “one-and-a-half” closure scheme of the system of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes and continuity equations. Despite simplifications used in the turbulence description, the model allowed obtaining the spatial steady-state distribution of the averaged wind velocities and coefficients of turbulent exchange within the atmospheric surface layer, taking into account the surface heterogeneity. The spatial pattern of CO2 fluxes within and above a plant canopy is derived using the “diffusion–reaction–advection” equation. The model was applied to estimate the spatial heterogeneity of CO2 fluxes over a non-uniform boreal ombrotrophic peatland, Staroselsky Moch, in the Tver region of European Russia. The modeling results showed a significant effect of vegetation heterogeneity on the spatial pattern of vertical and horizontal wind components and on vertical and horizontal CO2 flux distributions. Maximal airflow disturbances were detected in the near-surface layer at the windward and leeward forest edges. The forest edges were also characterized by maximum rates of horizontal CO2 fluxes. Modeled turbulent CO2 fluxes were compared with the mid-day eddy covariance flux measurements in the southern part of the peatland. A very good agreement of modeled and measured fluxes (R2 = 0.86, p < 0.05) was found. Comparisons of the vertical profiles of CO2 fluxes over the entire peatland area and at the flux tower location showed significant differences between these fluxes, depending on the prevailing wind direction and the height above the ground.
Future Ozone Levels Responses to Changes in Meteorological Conditions under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 Scenarios over São Paulo, Brazil
Authors: Peralta Alejandro H. Delgado , Gavidia-Calderón Mario , Andrade Maria de Fatima
Published: March 2023

Since the implementation of emission control policies in 1983, the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP) has experienced a significant decrease in the annual mean concentration of air pollutants, except for ozone, which has remained relatively stable. This work analyzes the future impact on surface ozone formation in the MASP caused by changes in atmospheric conditions. The authors performed air quality simulations using the weather research and forecasting with chemistry (WRF-Chem) model under two representative concentration pathway (RCP) atmospheric conditions. A base case simulation from September and October 2018 was compared to scenarios for the same months in 2030, using the same anthropogenic emissions. Results show an average increase in peak ozone concentrations (0.43% for RCP 4.5 and 5.92% for RCP 8.5) with variations depending on the month and location. However, under the RCP 4.5 scenario, peak ozone concentrations in October were higher in urban areas than under the RCP 8.5. These outcomes can assist decision-makers in understanding the potential future impacts of high ozone formation, which has historically occurred in September and October in São Paulo by considering the effects of changing meteorological conditions, such as increased temperatures, higher surface radiation, and reduced cloudiness.
Self-Reported Hearing-Aid Use Patterns in an Adult Danish Population
Authors: Narayanan Sreeram K. , Houmøller Sabina S. , Wolff Anne , Lund Katja , Möller Sören , Hougaard Dan D. , Gaihede Michael , Schmidt Jesper H. , Hammershøi Dorte
Published: March 2023

The retrospective reporting of users’ hearing aid (HA) usage can provide insight into individualized HA usage patterns. Understanding these HA usage patterns can help to provide a tailored solution to meet the usage needs of HA users. This study aims to understand the HA usage pattern in daily-life situations from self-reported data and to examine its relationship to self-reported outcomes. A total of 1537 participants who responded to questions related to situations where they always took off or put on the HAs were included in the study. A latent class analysis was performed to stratify the HA users according to their HA usage pattern. The results showed distinct usage patterns in the latent classes derived for both scenarios. The demographics, socio-economic indicators, hearing loss, and user-related factors were found to impact HA usage. The results showed that the HA users who reported using the HAs all the time (regular users) had better self-reported HA outcomes than situational users, situational non-users, and non-users. The study explained the underlying distinct HA usage pattern from self-reported questionnaires using latent class analysis. The results emphasized the importance of regular use of HAs for a better self-reported HA outcome.
A Coupled PDE-ODE Model for Nonlinear Transient Heat Transfer with Convection Heating at the Boundary: Numerical Solution by Implicit Time Discretization and Sequential Decoupling
Authors: Filipov Stefan M. , Hristov Jordan , Avdzhieva Ana , Faragó István
Published: March 2023

This article considers heat transfer in a solid body with temperature-dependent thermal conductivity that is in contact with a tank filled with liquid. The liquid in the tank is heated by hot liquid entering the tank through a pipe. Liquid at a lower temperature leaves the tank through another pipe. We propose a one-dimensional mathematical model that consists of a nonlinear PDE for the temperature along the solid body, coupled to a linear ODE for the temperature in the tank, the boundary and the initial conditions. All equations are converted into a dimensionless form reducing the input parameters to three dimensionless numbers and a dimensionless function. A steady-state analysis is performed. To solve the transient problem, a nontrivial numerical approach is proposed whereby the differential equations are first discretized in time. This reduces the problem to a sequence of nonlinear two-point boundary value problems (TPBVP) and a sequence of linear algebraic equations coupled to it. We show that knowing the temperature in the system at time level n − 1 allows us to decouple the TPBVP and the corresponding algebraic equation at time level n. Thus, starting from the initial conditions, the equations are decoupled and solved sequentially. The TPBVPs are solved by FDM with the Newtonian method.
Off-Resonant Dicke Quantum Battery: Charging by Virtual Photons
Authors: Gemme Giulia , Andolina Gian Marcello , Pellegrino Francesco Maria Dimitri , Sassetti Maura , Ferraro Dario
Published: March 2023

We investigate a Dicke quantum battery in the dispersive regime, where the photons trapped in a resonant cavity are much more energetic with respect to the two-level systems embedded into it. Under such off-resonant conditions, even an empty cavity can lead to the charging of the quantum battery through a proper modulation of the matter–radiation coupling. This counterintuitive behaviour has its roots in the effective interaction between two-level systems mediated by virtual photons emerging from the fluctuations of the quantum electromagnetic field. In order to properly characterize it, we address relevant figures of merit such as the stored energy, the time required to reach the maximum charging, and the averaged charging power. Moreover, the possibility of efficiently extracting energy in various ranges of parameters is discussed. The scaling of stored energy and power as a function of the number N of two-level systems and for different values of the matter–radiation coupling is also discussed, showing, in the strong coupling regime, performances in line with what is reported for the Dicke quantum battery in the resonant regime.
MalBERTv2: Code Aware BERT-Based Model for Malware Identification
Authors: Rahali Abir , Akhloufi Moulay A.
Published: March 2023

To proactively mitigate malware threats, cybersecurity tools, such as anti-virus and anti-malware software, as well as firewalls, require frequent updates and proactive implementation. However, processing the vast amounts of dataset examples can be overwhelming when relying solely on traditional methods. In cybersecurity workflows, recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) models can aid in proactively detecting various threats. In this paper, we present a novel approach for representing the relevance and significance of the Malware/Goodware (MG) datasets, through the use of a pre-trained language model called MalBERTv2. Our model is trained on publicly available datasets, with a focus on the source code of the apps by extracting the top-ranked files that present the most relevant information. These files are then passed through a pre-tokenization feature generator, and the resulting keywords are used to train the tokenizer from scratch. Finally, we apply a classifier using bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) as a layer within the model pipeline. The performance of our model is evaluated on different datasets, achieving a weighted f1 score ranging from 82% to 99%. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for proactively detecting malware threats using NLP techniques.
A Mixed Malay–English Language COVID-19 Twitter Dataset: A Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Kong Jeffery T. H. , Juwono Filbert H. , Ngu Ik Ying , Nugraha I. Gde Dharma , Maraden Yan , Wong W. K.
Published: March 2023

Social media has evolved into a platform for the dissemination of information, including fake news. There is a lot of false information about the current situation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, such as false information regarding vaccination. In this paper, we focus on sentiment analysis for Malaysian COVID-19-related news on social media such as Twitter. Tweets in Malaysia are often a combination of Malay, English, and Chinese with plenty of short forms, symbols, emojis, and emoticons within the maximum length of a tweet. The contributions of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we built a multilingual COVID-19 Twitter dataset, comprising tweets written from 1 September 2021 to 12 December 2021. In particular, we collected 108,246 tweets, with over 67% in Malay language, 27% in English, 2% in Chinese, and 4% in other languages. We then manually annotated and assigned the sentiment of 11,568 tweets into three-class sentiments (positive, negative, and neutral) to develop a Malay-language sentiment analysis tool. For this purpose, we applied a data compression method using Byte-Pair Encoding (BPE) on the texts and used two deep learning approaches, i.e., the Multilingual Bidirectional Encoder Representation for Transformer (M-BERT) and convolutional neural network (CNN). BPE tokenization is used to encode rare and unknown words into smaller meaningful subwords. With the CNN, we converted the labeled tweets into image files. Our experiments explored different BPE vocabulary sizes with our BPE-Text-to-Image-CNN and BPE-M-BERT models. The results show that the optimal vocabulary size for BPE is 12,000; any values beyond that would not contribute much to the F1-score. Overall, our results show that BPE-M-BERT slightly outperforms the CNN model, thereby showing that the pre-trained M-BERT network has the advantage for our multilingual dataset.
Improving Bioactive Characteristics of Small Diameter Polytetrafluoroethylene Stent Grafts by Electrospinning: A Comparative Hemocompatibility Study
Authors: Avci-Adali Meltem , Grözinger Gerd , Cabane Vincent , Schreve Michiel , Wendel Hans Peter
Published: March 2023

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a commonly used biomaterial for the manufacturing of vascular grafts and several strategies, such as coatings, have been explored to improve the hemocompatibility of small-diameter prostheses. In this study, the hemocompatibility properties of novel stent grafts covered with electrospun PTFE (LimFlow Gen-1 and LimFlow Gen-2) were compared with uncoated and heparin-coated PTFE grafts (Gore Viabahn®) using fresh human blood in a Chandler closed-loop system. After 60 min of incubation, the blood samples were examined hematologically and activation of coagulation, platelets, and the complement system were analyzed. In addition, the adsorbed fibrinogen on the stent grafts was measured and the thrombogenicity was assessed by SEM. Significantly lower adsorption of fibrinogen was measured on the surface of heparin-coated Viabahn than on the surface of the uncoated Viabahn. Furthermore, LimFlow Gen-1 stent grafts showed lower fibrinogen adsorption than the uncoated Viabahn®, and the LimFlow Gen-2 stent grafts showed comparable fibrinogen adsorption as the heparin-coated Viabahn®. SEM analysis revealed no sign of thrombus formation on any of the stent surfaces. LimFlow Gen-2 stent grafts covered with electrospun PTFE exhibited bioactive characteristics and revealed improved hemocompatibility in terms of reduced adhesion of fibrinogen, activation of platelets, and coagulation (assessed by β-TG and TAT levels) similar to heparin-coated ePTFE prostheses. Thus, this study demonstrated improved hemocompatibility of electrospun PTFE. The next step is to conduct in vivo studies to confirm whether electrospinning-induced changes to the PTFE surface can reduce the risk of thrombus formation and provide clinical benefits.
Experimental Demonstration of Compact Polymer Mass Transfer Device Manufactured by Additive Manufacturing with Hydrogel Integration to Bio-Mimic the Liver Functions
Authors: Narendran Ganesan , Walunj Avdhoot , Kumar A. Mohan , Jeyachandran Praveen , Awwad Nasser S. , Ibrahium Hala A. , Gorji M. R. , Perumal D. Arumuga
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we designed and demonstrated a stimuli-responsive hydrogel that mimics the mass diffusion function of the liver. We have controlled the release mechanism using temperature and pH variations. Additive manufacturing technology was used to fabricate the device with nylon (PA-12), using selective laser sintering (SLS). The device has two compartment sections: the lower section handles the thermal management, and feeds temperature-regulated water into the mass transfer section of the upper compartment. The upper chamber has a two-layered serpentine concentric tube; the inner tube carries the temperature-regulated water to the hydrogel using the given pores. Here, the hydrogel is present in order to facilitate the release of the loaded methylene blue (MB) into the fluid. By adjusting the fluid’s pH, flow rate, and temperature, the deswelling properties of the hydrogel were examined. The weight of the hydrogel was maximum at 10 mL/min and decreased by 25.29% to 10.12 g for the flow rate of 50 mL/min. The cumulative MB release at 30 °C increased to 47% for the lower flow rate of 10 mL/min, and the cumulative release at 40 °C climbed to 55%, which is 44.7% more than at 30 °C. The MB release rates considerably increased when the pH dropped from 12 to 8, showing that the lower pH had a major impact on the release of MB from the hydrogel. Only 19% of the MB was released at pH 12 after 50 min, and after that, the release rate remained nearly constant. At higher fluid temperatures, the hydrogels lost approximately 80% of their water in just 20 min, compared to a loss of 50% of their water at room temperature. The outcomes of this study may contribute to further developments in artificial organ design.
Innate Immune Recognition, Integrated Stress Response, Infection, and Tumorigenesis
Authors: Kubelkova Klara , Bostik Vanda , Joshi Lokesh , Macela Ales
Published: March 2023

Engagement of PRRs in recognition of PAMPs or DAMPs is one of the processes that initiates cellular stress. These sensors are involved in signaling pathways leading to induction of innate immune processes. Signaling initiated by PRRs is associated with the activation of MyD88-dependent signaling pathways and myddosome formation. MyD88 downstream signaling depends upon the context of signaling initiation, the cell (sub)type and the microenvironment of signal initiation. Recognition of PAMPs or DAMPs through PRRs activates the cellular autonomous defence mechanism, which orchestrates the cell responses to resolve specific insults at the single cell level. In general, stressed endoplasmic reticulum is directly linked with the induction of autophagy and initiation of mitochondrial stress. These processes are regulated by the release of Ca2+ from ER stores accepted by mitochondria, which respond through membrane depolarization and the production of reactive oxygen species generating signals leading to inflammasome activation. In parallel, signaling from PRRs initiates the accumulation of misfolded or inappropriately post-translationally modified proteins in the ER and triggers a group of conserved emergency rescue pathways known as unfolded protein response. The cell-autonomous effector mechanisms have evolutionarily ancient roots and were gradually specialized for the defence of specific cell (sub)types. All of these processes are common to the innate immune recognition of microbial pathogens and tumorigenesis as well. PRRs are active in both cases. Downstream are activated signaling pathways initiated by myddosomes, translated by the cellular autonomous defence mechanism, and finalized by inflammasomes.
Cellular Localization of Orexin 1 Receptor in Human Hypothalamus and Morphological Analysis of Neurons Expressing the Receptor
Authors: Vraka Konstantina , Mytilinaios Dimitrios , Katsenos Andreas P. , Serbis Anastasios , Baloyiannis Stavros , Bellos Stefanos , Simos Yannis V. , Tzavellas Nikolaos P. , Konitsiotis Spyridon , Vezyraki Patra , Peschos Dimitrios , Tsamis Konstantinos I.
Published: March 2023

The orexin system is related to food behavior, energy balance, wakefulness and the reward system. It consists of the neuropeptides orexin A and B, and their receptors, orexin 1 receptor (OX1R) and orexin 2 receptor (OX2R). OX1R has selective affinity for orexin A, and is implicated in multiple functions, such as reward, emotions, and autonomic regulation. This study provides information about the OX1R distribution in human hypothalamus. The human hypothalamus, despite its small size, demonstrates a remarkable complexity in terms of cell populations and cellular morphology. Numerous studies have focused on various neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in the hypothalamus, both in animals and humans, however, there is limited experimental data on the morphological characteristics of neurons. The immunohistochemical analysis of the human hypothalamus revealed that OX1R is mainly found in the lateral hypothalamic area, the lateral preoptic nucleus, the supraoptic nucleus, the dorsomedial nucleus, the ventromedial nucleus, and the paraventricular nucleus. The rest of the hypothalamic nuclei do not express the receptor, except for a very low number of neurons in the mammillary bodies. After identifying the nuclei and neuronal groups that were immunopositive for OX1R, a morphological and morphometric analysis of those neurons was conducted using the Golgi method. The analysis revealed that the neurons in the lateral hypothalamic area were uniform in terms of their morphological characteristics, often forming small groups of three to four neurons. A high proportion of neurons in this area (over 80%) expressed the OX1R, with particularly high expression in the lateral tuberal nucleus (over 95% of neurons). These results were analyzed, and shown to represent, at the cellular level, the distribution of OX1R, and we discuss the regulatory role of orexin A in the intra-hypothalamic areas, such as its special role in the plasticity of neurons, as well as in neuronal networks of the human hypothalamus.
A Bacterial Form I’ Rubisco Has a Smaller Carbon Isotope Fractionation than Its Form I Counterpart
Authors: Wang Renée , Liu Albert , Banda Douglas , Fischer Woodward , Shih Patrick
Published: March 2023

Form I rubiscos evolved in Cyanobacteria ≥ 2.5 billion years ago and are enzymatically unique due to the presence of small subunits (RbcS) capping both ends of an octameric large subunit (RbcL) rubisco assembly to form a hexadecameric (L8S8) holoenzyme. Although RbcS was previously thought to be integral to Form I rubisco stability, the recent discovery of a closely related sister clade of octameric rubiscos (Form I’; L8) demonstrates that the L8 complex can assemble without small subunits (Banda et al. 2020). Rubisco also displays a kinetic isotope effect (KIE) where the 3PG product is depleted in 13C relative to 12C. In Cyanobacteria, only two Form I KIE measurements exist, making interpretation of bacterial carbon isotope data difficult. To aid comparison, we measured in vitro the KIEs of Form I’ (Candidatus Promineofilum breve) and Form I (Synechococcus elongatus PCC 6301) rubiscos and found the KIE to be smaller in the L8 rubisco (16.25 ± 1.36‰ vs. 22.42 ± 2.37‰, respectively). Therefore, while small subunits may not be necessary for protein stability, they may affect the KIE. Our findings may provide insight into the function of RbcS and allow more refined interpretation of environmental carbon isotope data.
Celastrol Supplementation Ablates Sexual Dimorphism of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation in Mice
Authors: Javidan Aida , Jiang Weihua , Yang Lihua , Frony Ana Clara , Subramanian Venkateswaran
Published: March 2023

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are permanent dilations of the abdominal aorta with 4–5 times greater prevalence in males than in females. The aim of this study is to define whether Celastrol, a pentacyclic triterpene from the root extracts of Tripterygium wilfordii, supplementation influences angiotensin II (AngII)-induced AAAs in hypercholesterolemic mice. Methods: Age-matched (8–12 weeks old) male and female low-density lipoprotein (Ldl) receptor-deficient mice were fed a fat-enriched diet supplemented with or without Celastrol (10 mg/kg/day) for five weeks. After one week of diet feeding, mice were infused with either saline (n = 5 per group) or AngII (500 or 1000 ng/kg/min, n = 12–15 per group) for 28 days. Results: Dietary supplementation of Celastrol profoundly increased AngII-induced abdominal aortic luminal dilation and external aortic width in male mice as measured by ultrasonography and ex vivo measurement, with a significant increase in incidence compared to the control group. Celastrol supplementation in female mice resulted in significantly increased AngII-induced AAA formation and incidence. In addition, Celastrol supplementation significantly increased AngII-induced aortic medial elastin degradation accompanied by significant aortic MMP9 activation in both male and female mice compared to saline and AngII controls. Conclusions: Celastrol supplementation to Ldl receptor-deficient mice ablates sexual dimorphism and promotes AngII-induced AAA formation, which is associated with increased MMP9 activation and aortic medial destruction.
Real-Life Comparison of Fosfomycin to Nitrofurantoin for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Lower Urinary Tract Infection in Women
Authors: Shafrir Asher , Oster Yonatan , Shauly-Aharonov Michal , Strahilevitz Jacob
Published: March 2023

In this study, we compared the failure rates of fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin for uncomplicated urinary tract infections. We used Meuhedet Health Services’ large database to collect data on all female patients, older than 18 years, who were prescribed either antibiotic during 2013–2018. Treatment failure was a composite endpoint of hospitalization, emergency-room visit, IV antibiotic treatment, or prescription of a different antibiotic, within seven days of the initial prescription. Reinfection was considered when one of these endpoints appeared 8–30 days following the initial prescription. We found 33,759 eligible patients. Treatment failure was more common in the fosfomycin group than the nitrofurantoin group (8.16% vs. 6.87%, p-value < 0.0001). However, reinfection rates were higher among patients who received nitrofurantoin (9.21% vs. 7.76%, p-value < 0.001). Among patients younger than 40 years, patients treated with nitrofurantoin had more reinfections (8.68% vs. 7.47%, p value = 0.024). Treatment failure rates were mildly higher in patients treated with fosfomycin, despite having less reinfections. We suggest that this effect is related to a shorter duration of treatment (one vs. five days) and encourage clinicians to be more patient before declaring fosfomycin failure and prescribing another antibiotic.