bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics of Treated and Untreated Adults with Bulimia Nervosa and/or Binge-eating Disorder Recruited for a Large-Scale Research Study
Authors: Carrino Emily , Flatt Rachael , Pawar Pratiksha , Sanzari Christina , Tregarthen Jenna , Argue Stuart , Thornton Laura , Bulik Cynthia , Watson Hunna
Published: May 2023

Background:Eating disorders affect millions of people worldwide, but most never receive treatment. The majority of clinical research on eating disorders has focused on individuals recruited from treatment settings, which may not represent the broader population of people with eating disorders. This study compared the characteristics of individuals with eating disorders based on whether they self-reported accessing treatment or not, to identify potential differences and contribute to a better understanding of the diverse needs and experiences of individuals with eating disorders.Methods:The study population included 762 community-recruited individuals (85% female, M ± SD age = 30 ± 7 y) with bulimia nervosa and/or binge eating disorder (BN/BED) enrolled in the Binge-Eating Genetics Initiative (BEGIN) United States study arm. Participants completed self-report surveys on demographics, treatment history, past and current eating disorder symptoms, weight history, and current mental health and gastrointestinal comorbidity. Untreated participants (n= 291, 38%) were compared with treated participants (n= 471, 62%) who self-reported accessing BN/BED treatment at some point in their lives.Results:Untreated participants disproportionately self-identified as male and as a racial or ethnic minority compared with treated participants. Treated participants reported a more severe illness history, specifically, an earlier age at onset, more longstanding and frequent ED symptoms over their lifetime, and higher body dissatisfaction and comorbid mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, ADHD) at the time of the study. Those who reported a history of inpatient or residential treatment displayed the most severe illness history, whereas those who reported outpatient treatment had a less severe illness history, and untreated individuals had the mildest illness history.Conclusions:Individuals from historically overlooked or marginalized populations were less likely to access treatment. Those who accessed treatment had more severe ED and comorbid symptoms, which may have motivated them to seek treatment. Clinic-based recruitment samples may not accurately represent all individuals with EDs, particularly those with milder symptoms and those with gender or racial/ethnic diversity. The results of this study indicate that community-based recruitment is crucial for improving the ability to apply research findings to broader populations and to reduce disparities in medical research.TrialRegistration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04162574 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04162574)
D-Xylose, a Stimulator of Heparan Sulfate Biosynthesis, Exhibits Antiviral Properties Against SARS-CoV-2, ZIKV, HCMV and HIV-1 NL4-3 In Vitro
Authors: Cheudjeu Antony
Published: May 2023

Background
Primary human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection can be especially serious in pregnant women and cause severe consequences for newborns. We aimed to determine which metabolites, among the thousands in human sera, are strongly correlated with serious outcomes for pregnant women with HCMV. During the early stage of the pandemic, it was predicted that COVID-19 severity is correlated with serum D-xylose/xylitol levels, which has now been confirmed in two studies.
Methods
Between July 2022 and February 2023, four antiviral assays were performed by Virology Research Services Ltd. to test the antiviral activities of D-xylose, a small bioactive molecule, alone or in combination with insulin against HCMV in HFF, HIV-1 NL4-3 in HeLa TZM-bl, and ZIKV African strain and SARS-CoV-2 England strain separately in VeroE6, with incubation durations of 5 days, 48 h, 48 h and 72 h post-infection, respectively. Ganciclovir, 3′-Azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT), monensin and remdesivir were used as controls. An immunofluorescence method was used for readouts of all viruses except for SARS-CoV-2, for which CPE was considered. Cytotoxicity was assessed by an MTT assay.
Results
The results show that D-xylose exhibits antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-2, ZIKV, HCMV and HIV-1 in vitro, with preliminary selectivity indices of 11.6, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.6, respectively. Thus, D-xylose is more effective over a broader range of concentrations against HCMV and SARS-CoV-2 than against ZIKV and HIV-1. The EC50 value (in mM) for different assays must be placed in perspective; the average serum concentration of D-xylose in a healthy person is approximately 1.8 Mm.
Conclusions
The properties of the cell-layer HS stimulated by D-xylose and especially unfractionated heparin (UFH)—another antiviral compound against these viruses—combined with these results challenge the conclusion that HS promotes viral infections.
Trial Registration
Not Applicable.
Can Bangladesh bring back the green cover through indigenous species plantation?
Authors: Rahman Md Mizanur
Published: May 2023

Per capita forestland in Bangladesh is declining at an alarming rate. The recurrent anthropogenic disturbances have rendered the natural forests inhospitable for the natural regeneration and growth of wild plant associates, causing a net loss of biodiversity. Instead of native species plantation, exotic species have become an increasingly important source of timber, which negatively impacts the natural habitats. Hence, the study explored different options for native species plantation based on habitat types and the level of degradation. It is revealed that natural succession is suitable for increasing the canopy coverage in natural forest areas. In the core and buffer zones of each forest natural regeneration should be facilitated to maintain the ecological balance and to ensure continuous forest coverage. In addition, direct seeding in the buffer zone and degraded forest areas can improve the naturalness. Advanced regeneration of rare or endangered species can protect the species from extinction. Very fast-growing and timbering native species should be planted in the encroached areas. The deep-rooted species can reinforce riverbanks against erosion better than the shallow-rooted ground cover. Trees with large canopies and deep roots can protect the coastal belt. Screw pine (Pandanus) can grow on dunes and has thick ‘prop roots’ to anchor itself in the loose sand. Tanguya plantation should consist of growing annual crops along with forest trees during the early establishment of forest plantations on the hills. Fast-growing and timbering trees can increase the green cover in the fallow land. The ornamental trees simultaneously can increase the green cover and beauty in urban areas.
Study the effects of flotation agents on ABS – PS flotation
Authors: Fagkaew Pattarasiri , Chawaloesphonsiya Nattawin , Painmanakul Pisut
Published: May 2023

The use of appropriate flotation agents is mandatory to effectively separate plastic mixtures with analogous physicochemical characteristics by flotation. In this study, both virgin and post-consumer ABS and PS plastics were chosen as research objects to investigate the effects of flotation agents in ABS – PS flotation and an appropriate condition was then identified for effective separation. The wetting behaviors of wetting agents on ABS and PS surfaces were further studied. As a result, TA demonstrated better selective performance than LS in ABS – PS flotation due to its selective wettability on the ABS surface, referring to a greater surface free energy and a stronger repulsive interfacial interaction. Additionally, laureth-5 was found to be used potentially as a frother in ABS – PS flotation as well as MIBC; however, its application was limited at high concentrations due to its tendency to rapidly reduce surface tension. These findings suggest that the selection of a suitable frother for ABS – PS flotation should not only consider the ability to produce fine bubbles and stabilize the froth but also the ability to reduce the surface tension of the liquid medium. Overall, high recovery and purity of both virgin and post-consumer ABS – PS flotation were achieved by more than 90% under the conditions of TA concentration of 5 mg/L, MIBC concentration of 5 mg/L, and conditioning time of 15 minutes.
Lactylome analyses suggest systematic lysine- lactylated substrates in oral squamous cell carcinoma under normoxia and hypoxia
Authors: Song Fan , Hou Chen , Liang Jianfeng , Cai Hongshi , Tian Guoli , Jiang Yaoqi , Wang Ziyi , Qiu Danqi , Hou Jinsong
Published: May 2023

Background Intracellular lactate is shown to drive a novel type of post-translational modification (PTM), lysine lactylation (Kla), which has been confirmed to affect the malignant progression of tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and gastric cancer. However, the systemic lactylome profiling of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is still unclear.Methods In this study, we utilized liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to conduct the quantitative lactylome analyses in OSCC cell line under normoxia and hypoxia. Then, bioinformatics analyses were applied to reveal the conserved motif sequences and enrichment pathways. What’s more, Immunoprecipitation and western blotting verified the results of lactylome.Results The integrative lactylome and proteome analyses identified 1011 Kla sites within 532 proteins and 1197 Kla sites within 608 proteins in SCC25 cells under normoxic and hypoxic environments, respectively. Among these lactylated proteins, histones accounted for only a small fraction, suggesting the presence of Kla modification in large number of non-histones proteins. Notably, Kla prefers to enrich in spliceosome, ribosome and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway in both normoxic and hypoxic cultures. Compared with normoxia, 231 differentially lactylated proteins with 334 differentially lactylated sites were detected under hypoxia, which were mainly associated with glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway by KEGG analysis. Importantly, we verified the presence of lactylation in spliceosomal proteins SF3A1 and hnRNPA1 as well as the glycolytic enzyme PFKP.Conclusion Our study is the first report to elucidate the lactylome and its biological function in OSCC, which deepens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying OSCC progression and provides a novel strategy for targeted therapy for OSCC.
ANOVA-based analysis using MATLAB for Groundwater quality assessment
Authors: S Shankar B , Arcot Usha
Published: May 2023

The study involves an ANOVA-based analysis using MATLAB to detect the quality of groundwater in Bellandur area in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the suitability of water for drinking and domestic uses. In this work, water samples were collected from thirty groundwater sampling locations of Bellandur, in two (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons) of 2020. Student’s t-test and one way ANOVA are performed using MATLAB version 2015a for key physico-chemical characteristics of water. Six major parameters of water are considered, for which the testing of hypothesis has been carried out employing t-test and analysis of variance. In both the cases, after the hypothesis test was conducted and it was observed that the calculated values were not within the acceptance region. The p-value of the anova table shows that it is above the significance level which hypothize that the differences between the means are not statistically significant. This infers that the water is not potable as it falls outside the permissible limits as prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation was calculated for the six parameters of the collected samples, and a positive correlation was observed, ranging from 0.7 to 0.9 for total hardness and chloride, total dissolved solids, and nitrate, chloride and TDS as well as nitrate and TDS.
Synthesis of Novel Methylsulfonylacrylimidamide via Click Chemistry approach, Computational analysis and α- glucosidase inhibition activity
Authors: Surve Santosh Kumar , Birmule Pramod R. , Sankpal Sandeep A. , Patil Sandeep. B. , Kalalawe Virbhadra G. , Salunke-Gawali Sunita , Hangirgekar Shankar
Published: May 2023

A series of Novel Methylsulfonylacrylimidamide analogs (4a – 4h) were designed, synthesized, and screened for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The results indicated that some of the synthesized derivatives displayed inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase with IC50 values ranging from 10.35 ± 0.15 to 60.39 ± 1.77 µM when compared to standard drug acarbose (IC50 832.22 ± 2.00 µM). Among the synthesized derivatives, compounds 4f & 4h with a dicyclohexyl and dioctyl substitution in the acrylimidamide displayed the most significant inhibitory activity with the IC50 value of 14.54 ± 0.19 µM and 10.35 ± 0.15 µM. The inhibitory action of compounds 4f and 4h against α-glucosidase was studied by enzyme kinetic and molecular docking. In vitro, cytotoxicity showed that 4f and 4h exhibited low cytotoxicity against human cell lines. The ADME study suggested that most compounds will likely be orally active as they obeyed Lipinski's rule of five. Our studies showed that these derivatives could be considered a new class of α-glucosidase inhibitors.
Assessing the Role of Morticulture in biodiversity conservation in Bangladesh
Authors: Rahman Md Mizanur
Published: May 2023

Deadwood plays a critical role in the functioning of forest ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity. The deadwood in the forests of Bangladesh is almost absent due to the scarcity of fuelwood. On the other hand, biodiversity loss occurs in Bangladesh at an alarming rate. The study aimed to assess how deadwood can enrich biodiversity in Bangladesh. Based on the respondents' perceptions, it was revealed that deadwood conservation in the natural habitats can increase the abundance of chickadees, Streak-breasted Woodpecker, Fairy bluebirds, leafbirds, common kestrels, magpie robins, Bay woodpeckers, Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, etc. The endangered small mammals and amphibians can be increased through morticulture. Simultaneously, the decayed deadwood adds organic matter to the forest soil which in turn promotes the natural succession of many plant species. With the support of the key informants, approaches for deadwood conservation in Bangladesh were developed.
FTO rs9939609:T>A variant and physical inactivity as important risk factors for morbid obesity: A cross-sectional study
Authors: Martinez-Lopez Erika , Perez-Robles Mariana , Torres-Vanegas Joel , Godinez-Mora Sissi , Llamas-Covarrubias Iris Monserrat , Campos-Perez Wendy
Published: May 2023

Background The prevalence of obesity has been increasing worldwide. It has been reported that physiological, environmental factors such as: diet, culture, physical activity, and genetics, are the principal factors related with obesity. The FTO rs9939609:T > A variant has been associated with obesity. The A variant has been correlated with anthropometric and metabolic alterations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the association of the FTO rs9939609: T > A variant and environmental factors with clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical variables in subjects with morbid obesity.Results The A variant frequency was higher in morbid obesity group compared with normal weight group (44% vs 25%, p < 0.001). Subjects with the AA genotype had higher BMI than those with the AT genotype (35.46 kg/m2 (31-39.8) vs 26.91 kg/m2 (23.7–30), p = 0.005). Women with the AA genotype showed higher waist circumference than the AT group (101.07cm (90.9-111.1) vs 85.45cm (77-93.8) p = 0.047). The FTO A variant increases the risk 3.54 times, and the physical inactivity 6.37 times for morbid obesity.Conclusions Our results suggest that among the studied variables, the most associated with morbid obesity were the FTO risk genotype (A allele) and physical inactivity. Therefore, it is important to promote physical activity as a lifestyle, mainly in subjects with risk genotype.
Trust and Deception in Proximity：Independent director-Executives Faultlines and Executive corruption
Authors: liu yuwei , ma sheng
Published: May 2023

Using a sample of China-A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2017, we examine the impact of the independent director-executives faultlines on executive corruption. The results suggest that the independent director-executives faultlines have a “double-edged sword” effect; it significantly inhibits the possibility of executives explicit corruption but aggravates executives implicit corruption. Further tests show that independent directors with legal backgrounds and academic experience have a more obvious inhibitory effect on explicit corruption. The non-local independent directors play a catalytic impact on the faultlines, and the power constraint of executives forms a superimposition effect with the faultlines, which all strengthen the faultlines inhibition effect on explicit corruption and the aggravation effect on implicit corruption. The research of this study shows the governance of independent directors under a “ties-oriented” culture in China and plays a specific enlightening role in the reconstruction of the ecology of independent directors.
Bitcoin versus Commodity assets: Impact on the US equity market before and after COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from PLS regression
Authors: mbarek Mohammed hedi Hadj , GAM Imen
Published: May 2023

This study investigates the interactions among US stock market, crude oil, natural gas and bitcoin assets using daily data covering the period from January 20, 2015 to December 10, 2021, through PLS regression method. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the study period is characterized by lockdowns and mobility. This situation may affect the global economy and the financial market in the USA. Thus, a conscientious analysis of the incidence of a sanitary crisis such as COVID-19 on equity market seems to be primordial. Results are very interesting and approve the presence of a significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. financial market. More importantly, the follow up of the interconnections between the three assets under consideration and the US stock market proved that the strengthen of these interdependences have been changed due to the sanitary crisis. Moreover, like after the financial crisis of 2008, during the sanitary crisis the crude oil asset seems to be the most decisive to boost the US stock market. Taken together, our empirical findings are effective for the relevant authorities and policymakers in the United States to establish an appropriate financial and fiscal policy such as promoting investment in crude oil in order to boost the US equity market.
JEL codes: F65 – Q41 – G12
Intention process mining using a context-aware Hidden Markov Model
Authors: Choukri Imane , Guermah Hatim , Hafiddi Hatim , Nassar Mahmoud
Published: May 2023

The emerging availability of digital devices that can be utilized for activity tracking and context sensing opened new opportunities for context awareness and user intention recognition. Mainly, the opportunity to use generated data during user operational process execution and understand the intention behind its behavior under a given context. The hidden Markov model (HMM) has been widely used in many fields, such as speech recognition and computational biology. It can be seen as a class of stochastic processes that have a finite-state structure. It then offers a good promise for their applications in process mining. Then, much research has been done to build generic process models based on the study of user behavior captured during the implementation of operational processes. But they merely considered the relationship between the observed activities and their sequences. They ignored the implicit intention and the surrounding context, conditioning the user’s behavior when triggering the actual process. Consequently, the objective of this research was twofold. First, we specify a context HMM for intention mining in an unsupervised manner. Secondly, we upgrade the resulting model within context awareness property. Finally, we evaluated these models in a case study with a travel activity dataset. The experiments revealed that intention mining within a context-aware model had better precision in discovering the correct intentions.
Degradation of Pharmaceuticals from Simulated and Real Hospital Wastewater applying Conventionnal Fenton Process: Optimization conditions and application
Authors: APPIA Foffié Thiery Auguste , OUATTRA Lassiné
Published: May 2023

This study concerns the treatment of simulated and real hospital wastewater enriched in amoxicillin (AMX), ceftriaxone (CTX) and telebrix (TLX) by the Fenton process. The initial concentration of the compound, the molar ratio [H2O2]/[Fe2+]=k and the pH were used to determine the optimal conditions on the simulated wastewater. Then comes the study of the effects of inorganic ions, temperature and degradation of CTX and TLX. Chemical oxygen requirements (COD) and amoxicillin concentrations were used to monitor the experiments. The results obtained indicate that the optimum degradation (78.86%) is obtained at 0.5mM from the initial concentration, k=2 and pH=3. For instance, it has been found that the Fenton process does not degrade pharmaceuticals with the same efficacy. Furthermore, inorganic ions and high temperature reduce the performance of conventional Fenton. Moreover, this process hardly degrades (37.05%) real hospital wastewater, which contain inorganic ions in terms of COD removal. However, the successive addition of Fenton reagents provides a better COD removal rate for the treatment of this actual wastewater (88.96%). On the other hand, alternatives such as increasing the molar ratio as well as decreasing the quantities of Fenton reagents while keeping k constant did not have a positive effect on the removal rate of the actual wastewater. The formation of intermediate compounds was shown by comparison of the evolution of the concentration of the compound and the COD.
Acute collapse of a left atrial myxoma caused by multiple internal hemorrhages: a case report and literature review
Authors: Kato Takayoshi , Umeda Etsuji , Suzui Natsuko , Fujii Ryo , Ogura Hiroki , Sakai Osamu , Shimabukuro Katsuya , Doi Kiyoshi
Published: May 2023

Background: Left atrial myxoma is the most common benign tumor. Its growth rate is still unknown because it does not present specific symptoms until before the tumor grows to a certain size; early surgical management is performed in most of cases once physicians detect it. Despite the common perception of cardiac myxomas as slow-growing tumors, some authors have reported rapid enlargement of myxomas.
Case presentation: A 64-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with a diagnosis of left atrial tumor. The pointed tumor changed morphologically in a few hours and her respiratory condition, which had been normal at admission, suddenly deteriorated. Emergent surgery was performed, and the diagnosis was myxoma with multiple intratumor massive hematomas. The patient recovered uneventfully and was discharged on postoperative day 12 without any complications.
Conclusions: We report an extremely rare case of left atrial myxoma collapsed by acute multiple hemorrhages within itself. Massive internal hemorrhage alters the size, shape, and fragility of the tumor. We should recognize the potential risk of internal hemorrhage, which leads to acute deterioration in myxomas, that are so called ‘slow-growing benign’ tumors.
Rapamycin protects dopaminergic neurons by suppressing TLR2 mediated neuroinflammation and enhancing autophagy in rotenone-induced PD mice
Authors: xie xifang , Su Songxue , Huang Yujiao , Cui Qunli , Zang Weidong
Published: May 2023

Microglia inflammation and autophagy play important roles in the initiation and progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) activation is closely related to microglial activation and enhances the cell-to-cell propagation of a-synuclein pathology. Clinical and preclinical samples also observed the impaired autophagy-lysosomal systems. As such, therapeutic strategies that inhibit TLR2 and/or modulate autophagy may be effective for PD treatment. As an autophagy inducer, rapamycin is initially used in the treatment of a variety of tumors by inhibiting mTORC1. Recently, rapamycin was reported to exert the anti-inflammatory effects in a variety of inflammatory diseases. Here, we employed the rotenone-induced Parkinson’s disease mouse model and peptidoglycan (PGN) cultured BV-2 cells to investigate whether rapamycin (Rapa) can act on PD by influencing TLR2 activation in vitro and in vivo experiments. The autophagy flux and the expression of inflammation related pathways downstream of TLR2 were examined. Our results showed that rapamycin increased the expression of LC3β to clear the accumulation of α-synuclein S129 phosphorylated(P-α-syn) and improved motor dysfunction in rotenone-induced PD mice, moreover, rapamycin inhibited the expression of TLR2 in microglia, further reduced nuclear translocation of nuclear factor of activated T cells, cytoplasmic 2(NFATc2) and downregulated gene expression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate that rapamycin exerts therapeutic effects via enhancing autophagy and suppressing the expression of TLR2 in rotenone-induced PD mice.
Laboratory weathering studies to evaluate the water quality impact of a lithium mining in Portugal
Authors: Antão Ana Maria M. C. , Rodrigues Pedro M. S. M. , Rodrigues Ricardo , Couto Guilherme
Published: May 2023

In recent decades, the increasing demand for energy and raw materials in modern societies has led to a significant increase in mining exploration. However, this has also sparked the emergence of movements against mining exploration all over the world, particularly in Europe. During the operation of open pit mines, materials are deposited on the surface and subjected to weathering processes. These processes can create an environmental impact by causing the migration of chemical elements from soils to waters. Given the importance of the theme of water and soil contamination nowadays, it is important to verify the potential environmental impact resulting from open pit mine exploration. Laboratory tests were used to simulate weather conditions due to leaching of soils in a lithiniferous feldspar mine located in the centre of Portugal. Soil samples, resulting from the activity of the C57 mine (Guarda, Portugal) were collected and determined its granulometry. Water samples (surface and underground) were also collected in the area to allow a characterization of the existing waters upstream and downstream of the mining operation. To simulate the soil leaching process, the Soxhlet extractor method was utilized, and spectroscopic methods were used to determine the alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as the transition and post-transition metals. Upon comparison with the results obtained for surface and groundwater, the findings suggest that there are notable concentrations of certain elements in the weathering solution, throughout the 3,000-hour duration of the laboratory test. This indicates that, for certain chemical elements, particularly aluminium and chromium, there may be some adverse effects on water quality.
Hybrid Security Model for Securing Healthcare Data on Cloud
Authors: Sambyal Sidhant , Arora Bhavna
Published: May 2023

The protection and affording privacy for patients’ data in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and associated systems along with medical databases is referred to as medical data security. Security requirements concerning patients’ information availability, confidentiality, and integrity have arisen as a result of the increased digitization of medical data. Consequent to which the attackers have become capable of attacking the transmission channels and server to extract information and misuse them for various purposes. In order to secure the patients’ and other related data, it becomes imperative to secure healthcare sector as it may involve exploitation, insurance frauds, data manipulation in bio sensors etc. due to which the loss may be in millions and would go unaccounted. Strong security measures are now more crucial than ever as a result of the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks against healthcare companies who now largely depend on cloud environment to store and safely secure their data. The paper discusses largely the data security issues of patients’ data on cloud environment in an technical way. An outline of medical data security, including typical threats and weaknesses, legal requirements, and recommended practices are given in this paper. It emphasizes the significance of having strong security measures in place, such as encryption and integrity in order to protect patient data thus assuring the healthcare providers trust in a cloud based environment. A model HSMDC (Hybrid Security Model for Healthcare Data on Cloud) has been proposed in this paper that uses multiple algorithms for providing security to ensure the security of the healthcare data in cloud environment.
On the structure-activity relationship of glyceryl oleate friction modifiers and its synergistic mechanism on phosphate ester antiwear additives
Authors: Qiu Feng , Feng Weimin , Song Hui , Yang Zhiquan , Zhang Fei , Hu Xianguo
Published: May 2023

The structure-activity relationship of glyceryl oleate organic friction modifiers and the difference in interaction with antiwear additives significantly affect the friction and wear characteristics of the lubrication system. This paper comprehensively considers the differences between polar functional groups and hydrocarbon tail chains, a combination of experiments and simulations were used to investigate the structure-activity relationships of three glyceryl oleate friction modifiers and the synergistic antiwear mechanisms with phosphate ester additives. The results indicate that the reduction of hydroxyl groups in glyceryl oleate weakens the electrostatic interaction with the metal interface and hydrogen bonding interaction, and the increase in hydrocarbon tail chains leads to the enhancement of the steric hindrance effect. Resulting in the substitution of polar functional groups and the increase in hydrocarbon tail chains deteriorating tribological properties. In addition, the binary additive system of glyceryl monooleate and phosphate ester exhibits a significant synergistic antiwear effect. It is attributed to the chemisorption of additive O(C = O/P-O/P = O) active sites and the Fe2O3 metal interface, GMO hydrogen bond interactions, the deprotonation of phosphate ester, as well as the carbonate and phosphate protective film generated by tribochemical reaction.
PAF-FHE: Low-Cost Accurate Non-Polynomial Operator Polynomial Approximation in Fully Homomorphic Encryption Based ML Inference
Authors: Dang Jingtian , Tong Jianming , Golder Anupam , Raychowdhury Arijit , Hao Cong , Krishna Tushar
Published: May 2023

Machine learning (ML) is getting more pervasive. Wide adoption of ML in healthcare, facial recognition, and blockchain involves private and sensitive data. One of the most promising candidates for inference on encrypted data, termed Fully Homomorphic Encryp-tion (FHE), preserves the privacy of both data and the ML model. However, it slows down plaintext inference by six magnitudes, with a root cause of replacing non-polynomial operators with latency-prohibitive 27-degree Polynomial Approximated Function (PAF). While prior research has investigated low-degree PAFs, naive stochastic gradient descent (SGD) training fails to converge on PAFs with degrees higher than 5, leading to limited accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art 27-degree PAF. Therefore, we propose four training techniques to enable convergence in the post-approximation model using PAFs with an arbitrary degree, including (1) Dynamic Scaling (DS) and Static Scaling (SS) to enable minimal approximation error during approximation, (2) Coefficient Tuning (CT) to obtain a good initial coefficient value for each PAF, (3) Progressive Approximation (PA) to simply the two-variable regression optimization problem into single-variable for fast 1 and easy convergence, and (4) Alternate Training (AT) to retraining the post-replacement PAFs and other linear layers in a decoupled divide-and-conquer manner. A combination of DS/SS, CT, PA, and AT enables the exploration of accuracy-latency space for FHE-domain ReLU replacement. Leveraging the proposed techniques, we propose a systematic approach (PAF-FHE) to enable low-degree PAF to demonstrate the same accuracy as SotA high-degree PAFs. We evaluated PAFs with various degrees on different models and variant datasets, and PAF-FHE consistently enables low-degree PAF to achieve higher accuracy than SotA PAFs. Specifically, for ResNet-18 under the ImageNet-1k dataset, our spotted optimal 12-degree PAF reduces 56% latency compared to the SotA 27-degree PAF with the same post-replacement accuracy (69.4%). While as for VGG-19 under the CiFar-10 dataset, optimal 12-degree PAF achieves even 0.84% higher accuracy with 72% latency saving. Our code is open-sourced at: https://github.com/TorchFHE/PAF-FHE
Space exposure enhanced pectin-degrading enzymes expression and activity in Aspergillus costaricaensis
Authors: Song Xiaohui , Li Tang , Gu Hui , Yin Heng
Published: May 2023

Aspergillus is a well-studied fungal genus that is widely used in the processing of plant biomass in industries. This study investigated the effects of space exposure on the ability of Aspergillus costaricaensis, a filamentous fungus isolated from rotten orange peel, to degrade pectin. The fungus was carried into space by the Long March 5B carrier rocket and exposed to cosmic radiation for 79 hours. After the flight, the strains were screened using pectin as the sole carbon source for directed screening and pectinase activity evaluation. The space-exposed strains showed increased biomass accumulation ability and pectin-degrading activity compared to the ground control strain. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that several CAZymes genes were significantly upregulated in the space-exposed strains, especially those related to pectin degradation. Among the 44 pectinases identified from the annotated genome, 42 were up-regulated. The identified activities of these pectinases can break down the four basic structures of pectin, and work together to break down pectin substrates. In addition, the expression of some genes involved in metabolism, sugar transport, and stress response were altered. These results suggest that the space environment can be used as a mutagenesis breeding technique to create highly efficient biomass-degrading microbial strains, with potential applications in biotechnology and bioengineering.
Anisotropic higher rank $\mathbb{Z}_N$ topological phases on graphs
Authors: Ebisu Hiromi , Han Bo
Published: May 2023

We study unusual gapped topological phases where they admit \mathbb{Z}_NℤN fractional excitations in the same manner as topologically ordered phases, yet their ground state degeneracy depends on the local geometry of the system. Placing such phases on 2D lattice, composed of an arbitrary connected graph and 1D line, we find that the fusion rules of quasiparticle excitations are described by the Laplacian of the graph and that the number of superselection sectors is related to the kernel of the Laplacian. Based on this analysis, we further show that the ground state degeneracy is given by \bigl[N\times \prod_{i}\text{gcd}(N, p_i)\bigr]^2[N×∏igcd(N,pi)]2, where p_ipi’s are invariant factors of the Laplacian that are greater than one and gcd stands for the greatest common divisor. We also discuss braiding statistics between quasiparticle excitations.
Los cuidados parentales en las relaciones de equidad de género en el hogar
Authors: Lenin Mendieta Toledo , Moran Ruth Ericka
Published: May 2023

El estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar la incidencia de los cuidados parentales en las relaciones de equidad de género en niños de 5 a 6 años. Fue un estudio cualitativo, interpretativo, observacional, descriptivo, exploratorio, bibliográfico, de campo, se emplearon técnicas de observación, encuestas, entrevistas, criterios adicionales de inclusión y exclusión, y consentimiento informado por escrito con sus respectivos instrumentos. Los principales resultados fueron que los padres consideran que los niños y las niñas tienen que tener los mismos derechos sociales; en cuanto a los roles que desempeñan en el hogar, el 33.33% considera que las niñas deben hacer tareas de cocina y los niños de mecánica; En las preguntas sobre las políticas y acciones de la Institución, los docentes están completamente de acuerdo en que se aplican las medidas correctas; el 100% de los profesores son mujeres; en la entrevista la directora aseguró que la institución vela por la equidad de género. Se concluye el cuidado parental está condicionado por el sistema de creencias que acarrean consigo los progenitores y estos determinan las enseñanzas sobre equidad de género a sus hijos.
Improving Marketing Performance and Product Innovation Capability through Digital Knowledge Sharing: A Case Study in SME`s Food Processing
Authors: Sudarti Ken , Dewi Putri Wira Paramita
Published: May 2023

The research aimed to examine a mediating role of product innovation capability with customer orientation and digital knowledge sharing to increase marketing performance. The research employed a total of 185 food processing SMEs in Blora, Central Java, Indonesia who often did digital knowledge sharing. They became the respondents of the research selected by using purposive sampling. The research model was tested using multiple linear regression analysis with SPSS software. The results show that product innovation capability is proven to mediate customer orientation and digital knowledge sharing on marketing performance. Furthermore, the research expects that good customer orientation, digital knowledge sharing, and product innovation capability become the beginning of success in achieving and improving the marketing performance of food processing SMEs in Blora during the pandemic so that SMEs can continue to operate and develop. It is necessary for future research to involve some other SMEs from within and outside Blora in order to expand the population and samples.
Decentralization and Managerial Performance: A Mediated Budget Participation on the Village Government in West Halmahera Regency
Authors: Hasnin Muhammad , Muhammad Musdar , Buamonabot Irfandi
Published: May 2023

The research aimed to examine the budgetary participation variable as a mediator on the relationship between decentralization and managerial performance. The sample was determined using a purposive sampling method with the consideration of being involved in budgeting. They were village heads in 159 villages in West Halmahera Regency. The data were collected by a survey with a questionnaire. The used analytical tools are simple regression and hierarchical regression as a statistical analysis and IBM SPSS statistics version 24. The results showed that budgetary participation fully mediates the relationship between decentralization and managerial performance. The conclusion provides three main contributions as well as their implications, namely providing new findings related to budget participation as a mediating variable, terms of age at work, and the level of education.
Intenção Empreendedora:
Authors: Dias de Oliveira Silva Gabriela , Ferraz Gomes Almiralva , Oliveira Lima Alves Rita de Cássia , Gusmão Piau Santana Weslei
Published: May 2023

O empreendedorismo tem contribuído na geração de riquezas e criação de produtos e serviços inovadores que beneficiam a sociedade. Portanto, faz-se necessária a promoção de uma cultura empreendedora que possibilite o desenvolvimento de novos negócios. Diante disso, este estudo objetivou conhecer a percepção discente a respeito da intenção empreendedora de estudantes de Instituições de Educação Superior (IES) que oferecem cursos presenciais de Administração em Vitória da Conquista, região sudoeste da Bahia. Trata-se de uma pesquisa do tipo descritivo-exploratória e de natureza empírica, que aplicou questionários a uma amostra de 80 alunos regularmente matriculados no último ano de graduação. Utilizou-se o software SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) para verificar a frequência das respostas e posterior análise dos dados, portanto, o tratamento foi quantitativo. Os resultados apontaram ausência de ações adequadas nas IES em relação a educação empreendedora e baixo número de estudantes com intenção de ter o próprio negócio.
Assessment of the Health Risk of Indigenous People by the Consumption of Fish with Hg and As in Villages Located Close to Mining
Authors: da Silva Luciano , Pereira Simone , Carneiro Cristiane , e Silva Thiago , Rocha Ronaldo , da Costa Hemilton , e Silva Cleber , de Souza Alan , da Silva Maria
Published: May 2023

The Amazon suffers from the occurrence of mining along its hydrographic routes, which releases toxic substances into the aquatic environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk of contamination by As and Hg that indigenous peoples are exposed to through the consumption of fish in an area impacted by mining activity in the basin of the Curuá and Baú Rivers, Altamira-PA. In total, 55 fish specimens and 30 surface water samples were collected. The decomposition of the fish samples was done by wet method with the use of nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and microwaves. The quantification of total mercury (THg) and total arsenic (TAs) was carried out by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry with vapor generation (VG-ICP OES). The methodology proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was used. The results showed that TAs presents safe levels; however, THg presents a sample with levels up to (4.6 µg g-1), exceeding the permitted levels (1 µg g-1). The risk assessment shows that only the consumption of fish, linked to Hg, represents the existence of deleterious risks to indigenous peoples (hazard quotient (HQ)) > 1). Bioaccumulation factor (BAF) in fish represents a risk to indigenous people, because of the Hg’s presence. The study identified that illegal mining activities are responsible for Hg pollution in the Baú and Curuá Rivers. The fish species analyzed can be used as bioindicators of Hg in the rivers, which is relevant for making environmental and public health policy decisions.
Dynamic Games with Incomplete Knowledge in Metric Spaces
Authors:   Kazan Federal University, Konnov Igor
Published: May 2023

We describe a model of a discrete time dynamic system with active elements (players) and states in a metric space. Each state is associated with the common utility value and player shares. Coalitions of players can change the system state, but each move requires their expenses. The players may have only restricted and local knowledge about the system. We define the concept of an equilibrium state in this dynamic game and present iterative algorithms that create feasible trajectories tending to equilibrium states under rather general conditions.
Equilibrium Supply-Demand Allocation in a Single-Commodity Network
Authors:   St. Petersburg State University, Krylatov Alexander Y. ,   Institute of Applied Mathematical Research of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Raevskaya Anastasiya P. ,   St. Petersburg State University, Li Jiangrong ,   Yan'an University
Published: May 2023

This paper is devoted to the recent findings in the analytical research of supply-demand allocation in a single-commodity network with distant (in space) suppliers and consumers. The allocation problem is formulated as an equilibrium flow assignment problem with affine functions of demand, supply, and logistic costs in a network represented by a digraph with suppliers and consumers located in nodes. We offer a brief overview of supply-demand relocation patterns obtained for elastic, shortage, and overproduction cases. Such kinds of results seem valuable since they allow one to develop different competitive distribution models to facilitate the decisionmaking of supply chain managers. In particular, supply chain managers can use available patterns to design decision-making strategies that mitigate risks concerning disruption or ripple effects.
Importance of Agents in Networks: Clique Based Game-Theoretic Approach
Authors:   National Pipeline Network Group Southwest Pipeline Co, Li Juping , Tur Anna ,   St. Petersburg State University, Zavrajnov Maksim ,   St. Petersburg State University
Published: May 2023

Centrality measures are commonly used to detect important nodes. There are some metrics that measure a node's connectivity to different communities. This paper extends the standard network centrality measures and proposes to estimate the importance of nodes in network as a solution of a cooperative game. Three ways of defining such cooperative game are introduced. Each of them uses the concept of a clique in graph. Examples are considered
Vector Epidemic Model of Malaria with Nonconstant-Size Population
Authors:   St. Petersburg State University, Ndiaye Serigne Modou
Published: May 2023

The paper presents the dynamic characteristics of a vector-host epidemic model with direct transmission. The malaria propagation model is defined by a system of ordinary differential equations. The host population is divided into four subpopulations: susceptible, exposed, infected and recovered, and the vector population is divided into three subpopulations: susceptible, exposed and infected. Using the theory of the Lyapunov functions, certain sufficient conditions for the global stability of the disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium are obtained. The basic reproduction number that characterizes the evolution of the epidemic in the population was found. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to study the influence of the key parameters on the spread of vector-borne disease.
Dynamic Cost-Sharing Game with Spanning Arborescence
Authors:   St. Petersburg State University, Ye Peichen , Li Yin ,   St. Petersburg State University,   Harbin Institute of Technology, Petrosian Ovanes ,   St. Petersburg State University
Published: May 2023

This paper presents the dynamic Shapley value for cost-sharing game with spanning arborescence. The cooperative behaviour of players is determined, and a two-stage directed network game is considered. At each stage, a cost matrix associated with the directed network is defined by players adopting strategies, and a minimum cost spanning arborescence on the directed network is determined. After the first stage, a particular player will leave the game with a certain probability, which depends on all players' behaviours in the first stage. The characteristic function is defined. Using the Imputation Distribution Procedure(IDP), the dynamic Shapley value in the game is constructed.