bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Application of Procalcitonin for the Rapid Diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile Infection in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Xie Shuhua , Chen Peisong , Wang Dong , Jiang Xiaobing , Wu Zhongwen , Liao Kang , Liu Min , Zhang Shihong , Chen Yili
Published: December 2022

Background: The incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has increased in recent years in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). C. difficile is a toxin-producing bacterium, and CDI results in the worsening of underlying IBD, increasing the risk of IBD treatment failure, surgery, and hospitalization. Because the symptoms of CDI overlap with those of IBD, it is challenging to make a differential diagnosis. Therefore, early, rapid, and reliable diagnostic tools that can identify CDI in IBD patients would be valuable to clinicians. Methods: This study retrospectively collected 135 patients with IBD. Among them, 44 patients were diagnosed with CDI, and 42 patients were diagnosed with viral or fungal infections. A total of 49 patients without infections were defined as the control group. The diagnostic values of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), and white blood cell (WBC) count in the peripheral blood were examined. Results: In this study, PCT levels were significantly higher in patients with CDI than in non-CDI patients (including patients with viral/fungal infections and the control group; p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). CRP levels were significantly higher in patients with CDI than in non-CDI patients (p < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of PCT and WBC count were compared using DeLong’s test: the AUCs of PCT vs. CRP for the detection of the IBD–CDI group and the control group was 0.826 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.743–0.909] vs. 0.663 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.551–0.774] (p < 0.05), respectively. WBC count was inferior as a diagnostic tool for CDI. The sensitivity was 59.09% (95% CI: 43.2% to 73.7%), the specificity was 89.80% (95% CI: 77.8% to 96.6%), and the positive likelihood ratio LR (+) was 5.79 for PCT for the diagnosis of CDI. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates the superiority of PCT over CRP and WBC count for the rapid diagnosis of CDI in IBD patients.
Exploring Spatial Patterns of Interurban Passenger Flows Using Dual Gravity Models
Authors: Wang Zihan , Chen Yanguang
Published: December 2022

Geographical gravity models can be employed to quantitatively describe and predict spatial flows, including migration flows, passenger flows, daily commuting flows, etc. However, how to model spatial flows and reveal the structure of urban traffic networks in the case of missing partial data is still a problem to be solved. This paper is devoted to characterizing the interurban passenger flows in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region of China using dual gravity models and Tencent location big data. The method of parameter estimation is the least squares regression. The main results are as follows. First, both the railway and highway passenger flows can be effectively described by dual gravity models. A small part of missing spatial data can be compensated for by predicted values. Second, the fractal properties of traffic flows can be revealed. The railway passenger flows follow the gravity scaling law better than the highway passenger flows. Third, the prediction residuals indicate the changing trend of interurban connections in the study area in recent years. The center of gravity of the spatial dynamics has shifted from the Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan triangle to the Beijing–Baoding–Shijiazhuang axis. A conclusion can be reached that the dual gravity model is an effective tool for analyzing spatial structures and dynamics of traffic networks and flows. Moreover, the model provides a new approach to estimating the fractal dimensions of traffic networks and spatial flow patterns.
The Determination Method of Satisfactory Consistency of the Interval Number Pairwise Comparisons Matrix Based on Submatrix
Authors: Jin Fengxia , Wu Zhonghua , Zhao Kun , Guirao Juan L. G. , Chen Huatao
Published: December 2022

The decision-maker obtains the pairwise comparisons matrix by comparing two entities. In the process of comparing the two entities, the relationship between the two entities and other entities is not considered. In this way, the judgment may be illogical. This paper mainly studies the satisfactory consistency of the interval number pairwise comparisons matrix based on cyclic matrix. Firstly, the illogical judgment entity in the process of the decision-maker’s judgment is expressed by the cyclic matrix. There are three entities and four entities to form the cyclic matrix. The relationship and various forms of the cyclic cycle formed by the four entities and the three entities are discussed; then, the satisfactory consistency of the interval number pairwise comparisons matrix is determined by judging whether there is a cyclic matrix in the submatrix of the interval number pairwise comparisons matrix. Finally, two examples are given to verify the rationality and effectiveness of the method.
Robust Control Design of a Human Heart Rate System for Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise
Authors: Abbasi Saad Jamshed , Kim Won Jae , Kim Jaehyung , Lee Min Cheol , Lee Byeong Ju , Shin Myung Jun
Published: December 2022

Automatic, precise, and accurate heart rate control during treadmill exercise is an interesting topic among researchers. The human heart is a highly nonlinear system. Conventional control techniques are not sufficient and it is difficult to accurately model the human heart. Two different robust controllers were designed for this nonlinear system. Firstly, sliding mode control (SMC) was implemented; SMC is robust against parametric uncertainties and external disturbance but its robustness is not guaranteed during the reaching phase, especially in heart rate control, and implementation of SMC requires the linear parameters of the system (human heart rate model). In this research, the signal compression method (SCM) was used for approximately linearized modeling of the human heart rate. The extraction of the human heart rate model using SCM requires experiment and computation. Furthermore, it was observed in this research that SCM is not a precise method. Therefore, integral sliding mode control (ISMC) was designed and implemented to overcome these difficulties. By introducing an auxiliary sliding surface, the reaching phase and effect of the perturbation on an actual sliding surface were eliminated; furthermore, implementation of ISMC does not require the linear parameters of the system. Simulations were performed in MATLAB/Simulink and experiments were conducted in a hospital. Six clinical subjects participated in this experiment. Both forms of control logic were implemented during the desired heart rate tracking test. Results showed that the desired heart rate tracking of ISMC is better than that of SMC. The tracking error of ISMC is smaller than that of SMC. However, ISMC control output has chattering, which needs to be reduced.
A Novel Approach for Emotion Detection and Sentiment Analysis for Low Resource Urdu Language Based on CNN-LSTM
Authors: Ullah Farhat , Chen Xin , Shah Syed Bilal Hussain , Mahfoudh Saoucene , Hassan Muhammad Abul , Saeed Nagham
Published: December 2022

Emotion detection (ED) and sentiment analysis (SA) play a vital role in identifying an individual’s level of interest in any given field. Humans use facial expressions, voice pitch, gestures, and words to convey their emotions. Emotion detection and sentiment analysis in English and Chinese have received much attention in the last decade. Still, poor-resource languages such as Urdu have been mostly disregarded, which is the primary focus of this research. Roman Urdu should also be investigated like other languages because social media platforms are frequently used for communication. Roman Urdu faces a significant challenge in the absence of corpus for emotion detection and sentiment analysis because linguistic resources are vital for natural language processing. In this study, we create a corpus of 1021 sentences for emotion detection and 20,251 sentences for sentiment analysis, both obtained from various areas, and annotate it with the aid of human annotators from six and three classes, respectively. In order to train large-scale unlabeled data, the bag-of-word, term frequency-inverse document frequency, and Skip-gram models are employed, and the learned word vector is then fed into the CNN-LSTM model. In addition to our proposed approach, we also use other fundamental algorithms, including a convolutional neural network, long short-term memory, artificial neural networks, and recurrent neural networks for comparison. The result indicates that the CNN-LSTM proposed method paired with Word2Vec is more effective than other approaches regarding emotion detection and evaluating sentiment analysis in Roman Urdu. Furthermore, we compare our based model with some previous work. Both emotion detection and sentiment analysis have seen significant improvements, jumping from an accuracy of 85% to 95% and from 89% to 93.3%, respectively.
Prediction of Fruit Maturity, Quality, and Its Life Using Deep Learning Algorithms
Authors: Aherwadi Nagnath , Mittal Usha , Singla Jimmy , Jhanjhi N. Z. , Yassine Abdulsalam , Hossain M. Shamim
Published: December 2022

Fruit that has reached maturity is ready to be harvested. The prediction of fruit maturity and quality is important not only for farmers or the food industry but also for small retail stores and supermarkets where fruits are sold and purchased. Fruit maturity classification is the process by which fruits are classified according to their maturity in their life cycle. Nowadays, deep learning (DL) has been applied in many applications of smart agriculture such as water and soil management, crop planting, crop disease detection, weed removal, crop distribution, strong fruit counting, crop harvesting, and production forecasting. This study aims to find the best deep learning algorithms which can be used for the prediction of fruit maturity and quality for the shelf life of fruit. In this study, two datasets of banana fruit are used, where we create the first dataset, and the second dataset is taken from Kaggle, named Fruit 360. Our dataset contains 2100 images in 3 categories: ripe, unripe, and over-ripe, each of 700 images. An image augmentation technique is used to maximize the dataset size to 18,900. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) and AlexNet techniques are used for building the model for both datasets. The original dataset achieved an accuracy of 98.25% for the CNN model and 81.75% for the AlexNet model, while the augmented dataset achieved an accuracy of 99.36% for the CNN model and 99.44% for the AlexNet model. The Fruit 360 dataset achieved an accuracy of 81.96% for CNN and 81.75% for the AlexNet model. We concluded that for all three datasets of banana images, the proposed CNN model is the best suitable DL algorithm for bananas’ fruit maturity classification and quality detection.
Single Energy X-ray Image Colorization Using Convolutional Neural Network for Material Discrimination
Authors: Yagoub Bilel , Ibrahem Hatem , Salem Ahmed , Kang Hyun-Soo
Published: December 2022

Colorization in X-ray material discrimination is considered one of the main phases in X-ray baggage inspection systems for detecting contraband and hazardous materials by displaying different materials with specific colors. The substructure of material discrimination identifies materials based on their atomic number. However, the images are checked and assigned by a human factor, which may decelerate the verification process. Therefore, researchers used computer vision and machine learning methods to expedite the examination process and ascertain the precise identification of materials and elements. This study proposes a color-based material discrimination method for single-energy X-ray images based on the dual-energy colorization. We use a convolutional neural network to discriminate materials into several classes, such as organic, non-organic substances, and metals. It highlights the details of the objects, including occluded objects, compared to commonly used segmentation methods, which do not show the details of the objects. We trained and tested our model on three popular X-ray datasets, which are Korean datasets comprising three kinds of scanners: (Rapiscan, Smith, Astrophysics), SIXray, and COMPASS-XP. The results showed that the proposed method achieved high performance in X-ray colorization in terms of peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and learned perceptual image patch similarity (LPIPS). We applied the trained models to the single-energy X-ray images and we compared the results obtained from each model.
Advances in Exploration, Development and Utilization of Coal and Coal-Related Resources: An Overview
Authors: Li Jing , Cai Yidong , Zhao Lei
Published: December 2022

The worldwide development of clean and low-carbon energy is undoubtedly imperative in the coming decades [...]
A Heuristic Approach to Optimal Crowbar Setting and Low Voltage Ride through of a Doubly Fed Induction Generator
Authors: Reddy Kumeshan , Saha Akshay Kumar
Published: December 2022

In this paper, a heuristic approach to doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) protection and low voltage ride through (LVRT) is carried out. DFIG-based wind systems are rapidly penetrating the power generation section. Despite their advantages, their direct coupling grid makes them highly sensitive to symmetrical faults. A well-known solution to this is the crowbar method of DFIG protection. This paper provides a method to determine the optimal crowbar resistance value, to ensure a strong trade-off between the rotor current and DC voltage transients. Further, since the crowbar method requires disconnection from the grid, the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is applied to the system. This is to ensure fault ride through compliance with recent grid code requirements. The well-known PSO, as well as the recently developed African vultures optimization algorithm (AVOA), was applied to the problem. The first set of results show that for severe symmetrical voltage dips, the AVOA provides a good option for crowbar magnitude optimization, whereas PSO performed better for moderately severe dips. Secondly, when the LQR was optimized via the AVOA, it exhibited superiority over the conventional PSO-based PI controller. This superiority was in terms of rotor current transient magnitude, DC voltage transient magnitude, and reactive power steady-state ripple and were in the order of 67.5%, 20.35%, and 37.55%, respectively. When comparing the crowbar method and the LQR, it was observed that despite the LQR exhibiting superiority in terms of transient performance, the crowbar method offered a unanimously superior settling time.
Economic Analysis of P2G Green Hydrogen Generated by Existing Wind Turbines on Jeju Island
Authors: Cho Youngmin , Lee Sanglae , Lim Jinseok , Lee Jaewoo
Published: December 2022

Every wind turbine is subject to fluctuations in power generation, depending on climatic conditions. When electricity supply exceeds demand, wind turbines are forced to implement curtailment, causing a reduction in generation efficiency and commercial loss to turbine owners. Since the frequency and amount of curtailment of wind turbines increases as the amount of renewable energy become higher on Jeju Island in South Korea, Jeju is configuring a Power to Gas (P2G) water-electrolysis system that will be connected to an existing wind farm to use the “wasted energy”. In this study, economic analysis was performed by calculating the production cost of green hydrogen, and sensitivity analysis evaluated the variance in hydrogen cost, depending on several influential factors. Approaches to lower hydrogen costs are necessary for the following reasons. The operating company needs a periodical update of hydrogen sale prices by reflecting a change in the system margin price (SMP) with the highest sensitivity to hydrogen cost. Technical development to reduce hydrogen costs in order to reduce power consumption for producing hydrogen and a decrease in annual reduction rate for the efficiency of water electrolysis is recommended. Discussions and research regarding government policy can be followed to lower the hydrogen cost.
Influence of Hydrogen Enrichment Strategy on Performance Characteristics, Combustion and Emissions of a Rotary Engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Authors: Kucuk Merve , Surmen Ali , Sener Ramazan
Published: December 2022

In recent years, there has been great interest in Wankel-type rotary engines, which are one of the most suitable power sources for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications due to their high power-to-size and power-to-weight ratios. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential of a hydrogen enrichment strategy for the improvement of the performance and reduction of the emissions of Wankel engines. The main motivation behind this study was to make Wankel engines, which are already very advantageous for UAV applications, even more advantageous by applying the hydrogen enrichment technique. In this study, hydrogen addition was implemented in a spark-ignition rotary engine model operating at a constant engine speed of 6000 rpm. The mass fraction of hydrogen in the intake gradually increased from 0% to 10%. Simulation results revealed that addition of hydrogen to the fuel accelerated the flame propagation and increased the burning speed of the fuel, the combustion temperature and the peak pressure in the working chamber. These phenomena had a very positive effect on the performance and emissions of the Wankel engine. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) increased by 8.18% and 9.68% and the indicated torque increased by 6.15% and 7.99% for the 5% and 10% hydrogen mass fraction cases, respectively, compared to those obtained with neat gasoline. In contrast, CO emissions were reduced by 33.35% and 46.21% and soot emissions by 11.92% and 20.06% for 5% and 10% hydrogen additions, respectively. NOx emissions increased with the application of the hydrogen enrichment strategy for the Wankel engine.
Experimental Study of a Novel Non-Packing Closed Evaporative Cooling Tower with Vertical 3D Deformation Tubes
Authors: Tu Aimin , Liu Shijie , Mo Xun , Chen Erxiong , Zhan Xuefeng , Zhu Dongsheng
Published: December 2022

The closed evaporative cooling tower (CECT) is widely used in the field of industrial cooling. At present, most CECTs still mainly adopt the horizontal-tube falling-film cooling method. In this paper, a novel vertical CECT using 3D deformation tubes is developed. To investigate the vertical surface falling-film evaporative cooling effect of this novel cooling equipment, a traditional horizontal CECT was modified to produce a prototype of vertical non-packing CECT. The cooling performance of the novel vertical CECT has been investigated and compared to the previous traditional horizontal CECT by experimental method. The results show that the convective heat transfer coefficient of the water film outside the tube was increased by 5.87~12.95% and the overall cooling performance was increased by 7.31% on average. This indicates that the cooling load can be increased by changing the traditional horizontal-tube falling-film evaporative cooling method to the vertical falling-film evaporative cooling method. Moreover, the heat flux of the novel vertical CECT decreases by about 7% when the wet bulb temperature increases by 1 °C under the test range of wet bulb temperature, which indicates that the ambient wet bulb temperature has an obvious influence on the cooling load. The research results can provide reference for the optimization design of the CECT.
Numerical Analysis of Thermal Impact between the Cooling Facility and the Ground
Authors: Sokołowski Paweł , Nawalany Grzegorz , Jakubowski Tomasz , Popardowski Ernest , Lopushniak Vasyl , Atilgan Atilgan
Published: December 2022

The article presents the results of research on the range of the impact of a cooling facility on the surrounding ground. An analysis of the heat exchange with the ground and through the building partitions was carried out. The analysis was carried out on the basis of the results of actual field tests carried out throughout the measurement year. The object of the research was an agricultural cold store located in southern Poland. The computational analysis of the interaction between the cooling facility and the ground was based on the numerical elementary balances method. The validation of the calculation model was performed based on the adopted boundary conditions. Calculations for the analyzed variants were carried out on the basis of a geometric model of the cooling facility built in the WUFI®plus program, corresponding to the actual dimensions. The analysis of the energy balance of the studied facility showed that the share of energy flow through the floor to the ground constitutes 8.2% of all energy flows through other partitions and the ventilation system. In order to maintain the set air temperature inside the studied building, intensive cooling was required with an energy demand of 5184.5 kWh/year. The results of the research showed that the range of the thermal impact of the building changes depending on the location of the studied ground area in terms of cardinal direction. The external and internal microclimate characteristics also affect the extent of the impact of the cooling facility on the surrounding ground. Under the assumption of stable values of Θi within a range of 0.0–4.0 °C, the largest range of influence (4.0 m) occurs in the summer.
Distribution Characteristics and Influence Factors of Rhizosphere Glomalin-Related Soil Protein in Three Vegetation Types of Helan Mountain, China
Authors: Hou Hui , Yan Peixuan , Xie Qinmi , Zhao Hongliang , Zhang Haiying , Lv Yingze , Pang Danbo , Hu Yang , Li Jingyao , Wang Fang , Ni Xilu
Published: December 2022

To reveal distribution characteristics of glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) and it’s influencing factors under different vegetation types in the drought-tolerant shrubland of Helan Mountain, we chose three vegetation types as study subjects: Stipa breviflora (Grassland, G), Amygdalus mongolica (Shrub, S), and Stipa breviflora-Amygdalus mongolica (Grassland-Shrub, G×S) and bare soil was used as the control (CK). The contents of easily extractable glomalin-related soil protein (EE-GRSP) and total glomalin-related soil protein (T-GRSP), soil physicochemical properties, colonization rate, spore density, and species abundance in the rhizosphere soil were determined. The results indicated that EE-GRSP and T-GRSP showed significant difference (p < 0.05) among vegetation types, with GRSP content highest under G×S (5.68 and 6.27 mg·g−1, respectively) and lowest under CK (3.84 and 4.48 mg·g−1, respectively). EE-GRSP/soil organic carbon (SOC) and T-GRSP/SOC showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). The trends of colonization rate, spore density, and species abundance were the same and were significantly different from those of GRSP content (p < 0.05), with maximum values of 75.6%, 20.7 × 10 g−1, and 29.7, and minimum values of 55.6%, 13.0 × 10 g−1, and 12.7, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that EE-GRSP was significantly positively correlated with SOC, total phosphorus, available phosphorus, and colonization rate (p < 0.05), and it showed an extremely significant positive correlation with available potassium, spore density, and species abundance (p < 0.01). T-GRSP was significantly positively correlated with total phosphorus and available phosphorus (p < 0.05), as well as with soil organic carbon, available potassium, spore density, colonization rate, and species abundance (p < 0.01). The redundancy analysis (RDA) showed similar results. Therefore, the distribution characteristics of GRSP and its influencing factors under different vegetation types in the low elevation area of Helan Mountain were influenced by vegetation types, physicochemical properties of rhizosphere soil, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization, thus providing a scientific basis for soil quality improvement and vegetation restoration.
Image Segmentation Method for Sweetgum Leaf Spots Based on an Improved DeeplabV3+ Network
Authors: Cai Maodong , Yi Xiaomei , Wang Guoying , Mo Lufeng , Wu Peng , Mwanza Christine , Kapula Kasanda Ernest
Published: December 2022

This paper discusses a sweetgum leaf-spot image segmentation method based on an improved DeeplabV3+ network to address the low accuracy in plant leaf spot segmentation, problems with the recognition model, insufficient datasets, and slow training speeds. We replaced the backbone feature extraction network of the model’s encoder with the MobileNetV2 network, which greatly reduced the amount of calculation being performed in the model and improved its calculation speed. Then, the attention mechanism module was introduced into the backbone feature extraction network and the decoder, which further optimized the model’s edge recognition effect and improved the model’s segmentation accuracy. Given the category imbalance in the sweetgum leaf spot dataset (SLSD), a weighted loss function was introduced and assigned to two different types of weights, for spots and the background, respectively, to improve the segmentation of disease spot regions in the model. Finally, we graded the degree of the lesions. The experimental results show that the PA, mRecall, and mIou algorithms of the improved model were 94.5%, 85.4%, and 81.3%, respectively, which are superior to the traditional DeeplabV3+, Unet, Segnet models and other commonly used plant disease semantic segmentation methods. The model shows excellent performance for different degrees of speckle segmentation, demonstrating that this method can effectively improve the model’s segmentation performance for sweetgum leaf spots.
Optimizing Somatic Embryogenesis Initiation, Maturation and Preculturing for Cryopreservation in Picea pungens
Authors: Cao Xi , Gao Fang , Qin Caiyun , Chen Shigang , Cai Jufeng , Sun Changbin , Weng Yuhui , Tao Jing
Published: December 2022

Picea pungens (Engelm.), known for its blue-green needles, has become a likable ornamental species in northeast China since 2000. Nonetheless, a lack of propagation methods that can maintain genetic fidelity and develop seedlings at a large scale prevents the further expansion of the species. Somatic embryogenesis (SE), paired with cryopreservation technologies, may provide a valid alternative. Picea pungens SE is not new, but its practical application has been limited due to low efficiencies in SE initiation and maturation as well as a lack of effective cryopreservation technology. In this study, experiments were carried out to overcome the limitations by modifying culture media. For initiation, the efficiency was enhanced by adjusting concentrations of 2.4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D), 6-benzyl amino–purine (6-BA) or sucrose supplemented to the induction medium. The concentrations of 4.0 mg/L 2,4-D, 2 mg/L 6-BA, and 5 to 10 g/L sucrose were found optimal in maximizing initiation efficiency. For maturation, the efficiency, expressed as the number of mature somatic embryos per gram of fresh mass cultured (E/gFM), varied greatly with the choices of the basal medium and concentration of abscisic acid (ABA) of the maturation medium. Based on our results, the judicial choices were using the DCR medium as the basal medium and 10 mg/L ABA. The maturation efficiency could also be improved by adjusting the maturation medium’s osmotic pressure by manipulating the concentrations of carbohydrate and Gelrite and culture density. While the maturation medium, using sucrose as carbohydrate source or supplemented with a low (<8 g/L) Gelrite concentration, facilitated maturation, optimal selections were truly genotype-dependent. Our results also suggest that, while the optimal culture density varied with genotype, in general it is needless to culture more than 100 mg embryogenesis tissues per dish (size: 10 × 1.5 cm). Based on this study, the optimum pretreatment for embryogenesis tissue cryopreservation was culturing the tissues on the proliferation medium with 0.4 mol/L sorbitol for 24 h, followed by treatment with 5% Dimethyl sulfoxide. This study significantly improved the initiation (achieved a frequency of 0.56) and embryo maturation efficiencies (achieved 1030 E/gFM) and established an effective preculturing protocol for cryopreservation (recovered 1354 E/gFM) for the species. The protocols developed here, paired with the available ones for other SE steps in the literature, form a well-refined SE technology intended for commercial application to Picea pungens.
Investigation on Phoenix dactylifera/Calotropis procera Fibre-Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composites
Authors: Mazaherifar Mohammad Hassan , Hosseinabadi Hamid Zarea , Coșereanu Camelia , Cerbu Camelia , Timar Maria Cristina , Georgescu Sergiu Valeriu
Published: December 2022

This paper presents the investigations conducted on three types of fibre-reinforced epoxy-resin hybrid composites with different structures, manufactured using midrib long fibres of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and Calotropis procera fibres. The two types of fibres were formed into flat sheets, without adding other chemicals or resins, and employed as reinforcing layers in the structure of the multi-layered laminate composites. Three-layer and five-layer epoxy-reinforced laminates were manufactured from the sheets of date-palm fibres and Calotropis sheets bonded with laminar epoxy resin. Water resistance investigation and mechanical testing under tensile, bending and impact loads were conducted in the research in order to evaluate and compare the performance of the resulting composites. Emphasis was put on the effect of various factors, such as the type of reinforcement material and the number of plies in the laminate on the mechanical behavior of the composites. The interpretation of those results was supported by the stereo-microscopic investigation of the adhesion between the layers of the composites, and the vertical density profile (VDP), which showed the repartition of the density on the composite thickness depending on the layer material. The results of the mechanical performance of the composites showed lower values of tensile strength, tensile modulus of elasticity and impact resistance and an increase of water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS) for the five-layer composites compared to the three-layer composites. Contrarily, the addition of Calotropis fibres improved the flexural strength and the flexural modulus of elasticity. The alkali treatment of the Calotropis fibres improved the mechanical performance of the composites compared to the ones made with untreated fibres, because of an apparent increase in cellulose content and free hydroxyl groups revealed by FTIR spectra.
Contribution of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities to Soil Carbon Accumulation during the Development of Cunninghamia lanceolata Plantations
Authors: Liu Zhiyuan , Han Yu , Lai Faying , Zhao Haiying , Cao Jiling
Published: December 2022

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can establish mutual association with most land plants, and impact a series of important ecological processes, including plant productivity, ecological succession and soil carbon (C) accumulation. Understanding the AM fungal diversity and community assembly, and their associated soil C sequestration, could be a crucial interest for the forest ecologist. In this study, the AM fungal abundances and community structure as well as glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) concentrations were investigated in typical development stages (young, middle and mature) of Cunninghamia lanceolate plantations, which are widely distributed species in subtropical regions. The mycorrhizal colonization, spore density, AM fungal biomass and diversity were higher in mature than younger stands. The development of C. lanceolata also increased soil GRSP concentrations, and enhanced their C contribution to soil organic C. Soil difficulty extractable (DE) GRSP demonstrated a greater C contribution to soil organic C relative to easily extractable (EE) GRSP. Linkage analyses found that AM fungal biomass demonstrated a positive correlation with GRSP concentrations, and soil organic C positively related to DE-GRSP and total (T) GRSP. Soil AM fungal community structure differed dramatically across all studied C. lanceolata plantations with a decrease in Gigasporaceae and increase in Acaulosporaceae. Soil AM fungal community assembly was more phylogenetic clustering than expected by chance and primarily shaped by deterministic processes, with a non-shift during the development of C. lanceolata. Collectively, C. lanceolata development shaped the AM fungal communities and enhanced their biomass and GRSP contents, which might, in turn, partially contribute to soil C accumulation.
Impact of Aspect on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Diversity and Community Composition in a Natural Toona ciliata var. pubescens Forest in Subtropical China
Authors: Wang Qiong , Pan Jianfeng , Ke Yunfang , Yu Suqin , Murray Philip J. , Luo Tianyu , Zhang Lu , Liu Wei
Published: December 2022

The aspect can affect plant communities and soil physical and chemical properties through different microclimates. However, little is known about the effect of aspect on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal diversity and community composition, although AM fungi are beneficial for plant nutrient absorption and natural restoration. In this study, AM fungal community and diversity distribution patterns in the rhizosphere soil and roots of seven widespread plants in a natural Toona ciliata var. pubescens (Tc) forest on the north-facing (NF) aspect and south-facing (SF) aspect were investigated using Illumina PE250 high-throughput sequencing in the Guanshan National Nature Reserve, Jiangxi Province, China. Our results exhibited that aspect did not affect AM fungal diversity but significantly affected AM fungal community structure and composition. Glomeraceae was the most common and abundant family in the Tc natural forest. The Glomeromycota sequence proportion of root AM fungal community was significantly larger on NF than on SF (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of Acaulosporaceae of root AM fungal community differed significantly with aspect, being greater on NF than on SF (p < 0.05). In addition, the number of Glomeromycota sequences was significantly larger on SF than on NF, while the number of OTUs and the relative abundance of unclassified fungi in rhizosphere soil in Tc showed the opposite trend (p < 0.05). The soil properties (organic matter, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and pH) were significantly correlated with these changes. These findings indicate that the habitat of NF with low insolation, high soil moisture, and high nutrient content might promote the functional realization of AM fungi; the habitat of SF with high insolation, low soil moisture, and low soil nutrient content might be beneficial for the proliferation and preservation of AM fungal groups. This study provides important information on the ecological processes of AM fungal community construction and microbiological mechanisms in natural Tc forests.
Revealing the Changes in Compounds When Producing Strong-Flavor Daqu by Statistical and Instrumental Analysis
Authors: Yang Shiqi , Duan Jiawen , Lv Silei , Xu Ling , Li Hehe
Published: December 2022

Daqu is not only a crucial starter in the production of baijiu, but it is also an important source of flavoring substances, so maintaining a stable quality is an important part of improving the quality of baijiu. Nonetheless, since the production of daqu is still a natural fermentation process, which is influenced by seasonal factors, the rapid testing of daqu quality is a problem that must be solved. In this study, headspace solid-phase microextraction technology (HS-SPME) was used to explore the volatile components in daqu, and a total of 115 volatile components were extracted. By constructing an untargeted statistical model, the variation in volatile compounds in dissimilar production processes of daqu was studied, and the differences between different maturation stages and the correlations between volatile compounds were analyzed. Subsequently, six compounds, including ethyl acetate, ethanol, phenylethanol, (R,R)-2,3-butanediol, ethyl caproate, and 2,3-butanediol, were further screened out by partial least squares discrimination analysis (PLS-DA), and the symbolic combination of daqu’s maturity was speedily judged in accordance with the changes in marker compound concentrations to lay the foundation for the mechanization of baijiu production.
Immunity and Neuroimmune Interactions at the Mucosal Barriers in Fish
Authors: Zaccone Giacomo
Published: December 2022

Immune and neuronal cells are often colocalized at defined anatomical sites, forming neuronal cell units, where both cells coordinate their responses [...]
Varietal Effect on Composition and Digestibility of Seedless Table Grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) under In Vitro Conditions
Authors: Rodríguez Marianela Desireé , García-Cordero Joaquin , Suárez-Coca Diana , Ruiz del Castillo Maria Luisa , Blanch Gracia Patricia , de Pascual-Teresa Sonia
Published: December 2022

Grapes are one of the richest sources of polyphenols in the Mediterranean diet and, therefore, a very good source of antioxidants in the human diet. For practical reasons, in recent years the market for seedless grape varieties has grown exponentially. These varieties are not well characterized yet, and therefore it is necessary to study the changes in composition that these new varieties bring in. Likewise, the effect of digestion on the bioavailability of polyphenols in foods of plant origin is well known, which, consequently, will also affect antioxidant activity and, in general, bioactivity. In this work, we studied the effect of the grape variety on the initial grape composition and on the absorbable fraction, as it would reach the intestine after in vitro digestion. Our results showed that black and red varieties have great potential for increasing the antioxidant content of the diet. Additionally, we have concluded that all polyphenols, with the exception of flavanols, see their bioavailable fraction diminished under in vitro conditions.
The Effect of Climate Change on Food Crop Production in Lagos State
Authors: Tajudeen Tawakalitu Titilayo , Omotayo Ayo , Ogundele Fatai Olakunle , Rathbun Leah C.
Published: December 2022

Climate change is set to be particularly disruptive in poor agricultural communities. This study examines the effects of, and farmer’s perceptions of, climate change on farming practices for cassava and maize in Lagos, Nigeria. Analysis of weather data from 1998 to 2018 (the most recent available) reveals little impact on cassava yield but a significant impact on maize yield. Furthermore, survey results indicate that farmers in this area are currently implementing techniques to adapt to changes in climate based on the type of crop grown. Agriculture in Lagos, Nigeria, is largely rain-fed and climate change negatively impacts crop productivity by decreasing crop yield and soil fertility, limiting the availability of soil water, increasing soil erosion, and contributing to the spread of pests. A decline in crop production due to climate change may be further exasperated by a lack of access to farming technology that reduces over-reliance on the rain-fed farming system and subsistence agriculture. This study indicates that there is a need for initiatives to motivate young and older farmers through access to credits, irrigation facilities, and innovative climate change adaptive strategies.
Walnut Male Flowers (Juglans regia L.) as a Functional Addition to Wheat Bread
Authors: Pycia Karolina , Pawłowska Agata Maria , Kaszuba Joanna , Żurek Natalia
Published: December 2022

The aim of this study is to assess the effect of adding dried and ground walnut male flowers to wheat flour on selected physicochemical and antioxidant properties of the obtained wheat bread. The control sample was bread without the addition of walnut male flowers. In the tests, the addition of flowers was used in the amounts of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% and 2.5% of the weight of the flour used in the control sample. Bread dough was prepared according to the direct method with the use of yeast. The parameters of the baking process of the control bread and of the test bread were calculated. The selected parameters determining the quality of the obtained bread, including the loaf volume, the specific volume, the crumb porosity, the crumb texture and the color were measured. The antioxidant potential and total polyphenol content were tested both in the dough and in the bread. The test results were analyzed statistically. It was found that the partial replacement of wheat flour with walnut male flowers resulted in a significant reduction in the loaves’ volume and in the darkening of both the color of the dough and the crumb. The value of the L* parameter decreased with the increasing addition of walnut flowers. The lowest values of this parameter were found to be 53.87 (crust) and 39.94 (crumb) in the sample with 2.5% addition. The average volume of the loaves ranged from 565 cm3 (0.5%) to 675 cm3 (control). The use of the additive in the amount of 2.5% caused significant changes in the values of most of the examined parameters of the bread crumb texture. The addition of walnut male flowers to the flour had a significant effect on the antioxidant potential and the total polyphenol content of the tested doughs and breads. In the case of bread, the total polyphenol content value ranged from 96.90 mg GAE/g dw to 208.08 mg GAE/g dw. Similarly, the antioxidant potential increased with increasing walnut male flower supplementation. The antioxidant potential determined by the ABTS and FRAP methods ranged from 1.42 mmol TE/g dw to 2.02 mmol TE/g dw and from 0.08 mmol TE/g dw to 0.33 mmol TE/g dw, respectively. The obtained research results prove the application potential of walnut flowers in the design of food, with beneficial pro-health properties, and are an example of the use of plant by-products in the process of food enrichment.
Effect of Frozen Treatment on the Sensory and Functional Quality of Extruded Fresh Noodles Made from Whole Tartary Buckwheat
Authors: Guo Zicong , Wang Lijuan , Cao Ruge , Qiu Ju
Published: December 2022

Extruded noodles made from whole Tartary buckwheat are widely known as healthy staple foods, while the treatment of fresh noodles after extrusion is crucial. The difference in sensory and functional quality between frozen noodles (FTBN) and hot air-dried noodles (DTBN) was investigated in this study. The results showed a shorter optimum cooking time (FTBN of 7 min vs. DTBN of 17 min), higher hardness (8656.99 g vs. 5502.98 g), and less cooking loss (5.85% vs. 21.88%) of noodles treated by freezing rather than hot air drying, which corresponded to better sensory quality (an overall acceptance of 7.90 points vs. 5.20 points). These effects on FTBN were attributed to its higher ratio of bound water than DTBN based on the Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance results and more pores of internal structure in noodles based on the Scanning Electron Microscopy results. The uniform water distribution in FTBN promoted a higher recrystallization (relative crystallinity of FTBN 26.47% vs. DTBN 16.48%) and retrogradation (degree of retrogradation of FTBN 34.67% vs. DTBN 26.98%) of starch than DTBN, strengthening the stability of starch gel after noodle extrusion. FTBN also avoided the loss of flavonoids and retained better antioxidant capacity than DTBN. Therefore, frozen treatment is feasible to maintain the same quality as freshly extruded noodles made from whole Tartary buckwheat. It displays significant commercial potential for gluten-free noodle production to maximize the health benefit of the whole grain, as well as economic benefits since it also meets the sensory quality requirements of consumers.
CELO Fiber1 Knob Is a Promising Candidate to Modify the Tropism of Adenoviral Vectors
Authors: Sun Yangyang , Zou Xiaohui , Guo Xiaojuan , Yang Chunlei , Hung Tao , Lu Zhuozhuang
Published: December 2022

Fowl adenovirus 4 (FAdV-4) has the potential to be constructed as a gene transfer vector for human gene therapy or vaccine development to avoid the pre-existing immunity to human adenoviruses. To enhance the transduction of FAdV-4 to human cells, CELO fiber1 knob (CF1K) was chosen to replace the fiber2 knob in FAdV-4 to generate recombinant virus F2CF1K-CG. The original FAdV4-CG virus transduced 4% human 293 or 1% HEp-2 cells at the multiplicity of infection of 1000 viral particles per cell. In contrast, F2CF1K-CG could transduce 98% 293 or 60% HEp-2 cells under the same conditions. Prokaryotically expressed CF1K protein blocked 50% transduction of F2CF1K-CG to 293 cells at a concentration of 1.3 µg/mL while it only slightly inhibited the infection of human adenovirus 5 (HAdV-5), suggesting CF1K could bind to human cells in a manner different from HAdV-5 fiber. The incorporation of CF1K had no negative effect on the growth of FAdV-4 in the packaging cells. In addition, CF1K-pseudotyped HAdV-41 could transduce HEp-2 and A549 cells more efficiently. These data indicated that CF1K had the priority to be considered when there is a need to modify adenovirus tropism.
The Role of Nuclear-Encoded Mitochondrial tRNA Charging Enzymes in Human Inherited Disease
Authors: Del Greco Christina , Antonellis Anthony
Published: December 2022

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) are highly conserved essential enzymes that charge tRNA with cognate amino acids—the first step of protein synthesis. Of the 37 nuclear-encoded human ARS genes, 17 encode enzymes are exclusively targeted to the mitochondria (mt-ARSs). Mutations in nuclear mt-ARS genes are associated with rare, recessive human diseases with a broad range of clinical phenotypes. While the hypothesized disease mechanism is a loss-of-function effect, there is significant clinical heterogeneity among patients that have mutations in different mt-ARS genes and also among patients that have mutations in the same mt-ARS gene. This observation suggests that additional factors are involved in disease etiology. In this review, we present our current understanding of diseases caused by mutations in the genes encoding mt-ARSs and propose explanations for the observed clinical heterogeneity.
Deviations from Mendelian Inheritance on Bovine X-Chromosome Revealing Recombination, Sex-of-Offspring Effects and Fertility-Related Candidate Genes
Authors: Id-Lahoucine Samir , Casellas Joaquim , Fonseca Pablo A. S. , Suárez-Vega Aroa , Schenkel Flavio S. , Cánovas Angela
Published: December 2022

Transmission ratio distortion (TRD), or significant deviations from Mendelian inheritance, is a well-studied phenomenon on autosomal chromosomes, but has not yet received attention on sex chromosomes. TRD was analyzed on 3832 heterosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 400 pseudoautosomal SNPs spanning the length of the X-chromosome using 436,651 genotyped Holstein cattle. On the pseudoautosomal region, an opposite sire-TRD pattern between male and female offspring was identified for 149 SNPs. This finding revealed unique SNPs linked to a specific-sex (Y- or X-) chromosome and describes the accumulation of recombination events across the pseudoautosomal region. On the heterosomal region, 13 SNPs and 69 haplotype windows were identified with dam-TRD. Functional analyses for TRD regions highlighted relevant biological functions responsible to regulate spermatogenesis, development of Sertoli cells, homeostasis of endometrium tissue and embryonic development. This study uncovered the prevalence of different TRD patterns across both heterosomal and pseudoautosomal regions of the X-chromosome and revealed functional candidate genes for bovine reproduction.