bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Combination of PKCδ Inhibition with Conventional TKI Treatment to Target CML Models
Authors: Muselli Fabien , Mourgues Lucas , Morcos Rita , Rochet Nathalie , Nebout Marielle , Guerci-Bresler Agnès , Faller Douglas , William Robert , Mhaidly Rana , Verhoeyen Els , Legros Laurence , Peyron Jean-François , Mary Didier
Published: April 2021

Numerous combinations of signaling pathway blockades in association with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment have been proposed for eradicating leukemic stem cells (LSCs) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but none are currently clinically available. Because targeting protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ) was demonstrated to eliminate cancer stem cells (CSCs) in solid tumors, we evaluated the efficacy of PKCδ inhibition in combination with TKIs for CML cells. We observed that inhibition of PKCδ by a pharmacological inhibitor, by gene silencing, or by using K562 CML cells expressing dominant-negative (DN) or constitutively active (CA) PKCδ isoforms clearly points to PKCδ as a regulator of the expression of the stemness regulator BMI1. As a consequence, inhibition of PKCδ impaired clonogenicity and cell proliferation for leukemic cells. PKCδ targeting in K562 and LAMA-84 CML cell lines clearly enhanced the apoptotic response triggered by any TKI. A strong synergism was observed for apoptosis induction through an increase in caspase-9 and caspase-3 activation and significantly decreased expression of the Bcl-xL Bcl-2 family member. Inhibition of PKCδ did not modify BCR-ABL phosphorylation but acted downstream of the oncogene by downregulating BMI1 expression, decreasing clonogenicity. PKCδ inhibition interfered with the clonogenicity of primary CML CD34+ and BCR-ABL-transduced healthy CD34+ cells as efficiently as any TKI while it did not affect differentiation of healthy CD34+ cells. LTC-IC experiments pinpointed that PKCδ inhibition strongly decreased the progenitors/LSCs frequency. All together, these results demonstrate that targeting of PKCδ in combination with a conventional TKI could be a new therapeutic opportunity to affect for CML cells.
CO2 Methanation over Rare Earth Doped Ni-Based Mesoporous Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 with Enhanced Low-Temperature Activity
Authors: Yang Zhenglong , Cui Yan , Ge Pengxiang , Chen Mindong , Xu Leilei
Published: April 2021

The Ni-based catalysts have a wide range of industrial applications due to its low cost, but its activity of CO2 methanation is not comparable to that of precious metal catalysts. In order to solve this problem, Ni-based mesoporous Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 solid solution catalysts doped with rare earth were prepared by the incipient impregnation method and directly used as catalysts for the methanation of CO2. The catalysts were characterized systematically by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), N2 physisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersed spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H2 temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), CO2 temperature programmed desorption (CO2-TPD), and so on. The results show that Ni is highly dispersed in the mesoporous skeleton, forming a strong metal-skeleton interaction. Therefore, under the condition of CO2 methanation, the hot sintering of metallic Ni nanoparticles can be effectively inhibited so that these mesoporous catalysts have good stability without obvious deactivation. The rare earth doping can significantly increase the surface alkalinity of catalyst and enhance the chemisorption of CO2. In addition, the rare earth elements also act as electron modifiers to help activate CO2 molecules. Therefore, the rare earth doped Ni-based mesoporous Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 solid solution catalysts are expected to be an efficient catalyst for the methanation of CO2 at low-temperature.
Alkene Epoxidations Mediated by Mn-Salen Macrocyclic Catalysts
Authors: Pappalardo Andrea , Ballistreri Francesco P. , Toscano Rosa Maria , Chiacchio Maria Assunta , Legnani Laura , Grazioso Giovanni , Veltri Lucia , Trusso Sfrazzetto Giuseppe
Published: April 2021

Three new chiral Mn macrocycle catalysts containing 20 or 40 atoms in the macrocycle were synthetized and tested in the enantioselective epoxidation of cis-β-ethyl-styrene and 1,2-dihydronathalene. The effect of the presence of a binaphtol (BINOL) compound in the catalyst backbone has been evaluated, including by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations.
The Expression and Function of Metastases Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript-1 Long Non-Coding RNA in Subchondral Bone and Osteoblasts from Patients with Osteoarthritis
Authors: Alnajjar Fawzeyah A. , Sharma-Oates Archana , Wijesinghe Susanne N. , Farah Hussein , Nanus Dominika E. , Nicholson Tom , Davis Edward T. , Jones Simon W.
Published: April 2021

Metastasis Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript-1 (MALAT1) is implicated in regulating the inflammatory response and in the pathology of several chronic inflammatory diseases, including osteoarthritis (OA). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between OA subchondral bone expression of MALAT1 with parameters of joint health and biomarkers of joint inflammation, and to determine its functional role in human OA osteoblasts. Subchondral bone and blood were collected from hip and knee OA patients (n = 17) and bone only from neck of femur fracture patients (n = 6) undergoing joint replacement surgery. Cytokines were determined by multiplex assays and ELISA, and gene expression by qPCR. MALAT1 loss of function was performed in OA patient osteoblasts using locked nucleic acids. The osteoblast transcriptome was analysed by RNASeq and pathway analysis. Bone expression of MALAT1 positively correlated to serum DKK1 and galectin-1 concentrations, and in OA patient osteoblasts was induced in response to IL-1β stimulation. Osteoblasts depleted of MALAT1 exhibited differential expression (>1.5 fold change) of 155 genes, including PTGS2. Both basal and IL-1β-mediated PGE2 secretion was greater in MALAT1 depleted osteoblasts. The induction of MALAT1 in human OA osteoblasts upon inflammatory challenge and its modulation of PGE2 production suggests that MALAT1 may play a role in regulating inflammation in OA subchondral bone.
Impaired Mitochondrial Function in iPSC-Retinal Pigment Epithelium with the Complement Factor H Polymorphism for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Authors: Ebeling Mara C. , Geng Zhaohui , Kapphahn Rebecca J. , Roehrich Heidi , Montezuma Sandra R. , Dutton James R. , Ferrington Deborah A.
Published: April 2021

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly, is characterized by loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). While the disease mechanism remains unclear, prior studies have linked AMD with RPE mitochondrial defects and genetic polymorphisms in the complement pathway. This study used RPE generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-RPE), which were derived from human donors with or without AMD and genotyped for the complement factor H (CFH) AMD high-risk allele (rs1061170, Y402H) to investigate whether donor disease state or genotype had a detrimental effect on mitochondrial function and inflammation. Results show that cells derived from donors with AMD display decreased mitochondrial function under conditions of stress and elevated expression of inflammatory markers compared to iPSC-RPE from individuals without AMD. A more pronounced reduction in mitochondrial function and increased inflammatory markers was observed in CFH high-risk cells, irrespective of disease state. These results provide evidence for a previously unrecognized link between CFH and mitochondrial function that could contribute to RPE loss in AMD patients harboring the CFH high-risk genotype.
The Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on the Ocular Surface and Prevention Strategies
Authors: Kitazawa Koji , Deinhardt-Emmer Stefanie , Inomata Takenori , Deshpande Sharvari , Sotozono Chie
Published: April 2021

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global health problem. Although the respiratory system is the main impaired organ, conjunctivitis is one of its common findings. However, it is not yet understood if SARS-CoV-2 can infect the eye and if the ocular surface can be a potential route of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions. Our review focuses on the viral entry mechanisms to give a better understanding of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the eye. We highlighted findings that give evidence for multiple potential receptors of SARS-CoV-2 on the ocular surface. Additionally, we focused on data concerning the detection of viral RNA and its spike protein in the various ocular tissues from patients. However, the expression level seemed to be relatively low compared to the respiratory tissues as a result of a unique environment surrounding the ocular surface and the innate immune response of SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, our review suggests the ocular surface as a potential route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and as a result of this study we strongly recommend the protection of the eyes for ophthalmologists and patients at risk.
S100A4 in the Physiology and Pathology of the Central and Peripheral Nervous System
Authors: D’Ambrosi Nadia , Milani Martina , Apolloni Savina
Published: April 2021

S100A4 is a member of the large family of S100 proteins, exerting a broad range of intracellular and extracellular functions that vary upon different cellular contexts. While S100A4 has long been implicated mainly in tumorigenesis and metastatization, mounting evidence shows that S100A4 is a key player in promoting pro-inflammatory phenotypes and organ pro-fibrotic pathways in the liver, kidney, lung, heart, tendons, and synovial tissues. Regarding the nervous system, there is still limited information concerning S100A4 presence and function. It was observed that S100A4 exerts physiological roles contributing to neurogenesis, cellular motility and chemotaxis, cell differentiation, and cell-to cell communication. Furthermore, S100A4 is likely to participate to numerous pathological processes of the nervous system by affecting the functions of astrocytes, microglia, infiltrating cells and neurons and thereby modulating inflammation and immune reactions, fibrosis as well as neuronal plasticity and survival. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge concerning the localization, deregulation, and possible functions of S100A4 in the physiology of the central and peripheral nervous system. Furthermore, we highlight S100A4 as a gene involved in the pathogenesis of neurological disorders such as brain tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, and acute injuries.
Successful Use of Multidisciplinary Palliative Care in the Outpatient Treatment of Disseminated Histoplasmosis in an HIV Positive Child
Authors: Lopez Alison , Bacha Jason , Kovarik Carrie , Campbell Liane
Published: April 2021

Histoplasmosis is an uncommon opportunistic infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive children. The most common form is primary disseminated histoplasmosis, characterized by persistent fever and failure to thrive. A 10-year-old HIV positive girl presented to the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation—Tanzania Mbeya Center of Excellence (COE) with ulcerated skin lesions and a violaceous facial rash. She also had persistent fevers, severe acute malnutrition, and severe anemia. At diagnosis, the patient was failing first line antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a cluster of differentiation 4 immune cells (CD4) of 24 cells/µL and an HIV viral load (VL) of 196,658 cp/mL. The patient was changed to a second line ART regimen (abacavir, lamivudine, and ritonavir-boosted lopinavir) and received nutritional support, blood transfusions, multiple antibiotics, and meticulous wound care. She also received comprehensive symptom management, psychosocial support, and emergency housing through the COE’s palliative care program. Biopsy of a lesion showed intracytoplasmic organisms consistent with Histoplasmosis capsulatum var capsulatum. The patient was treated with conventional amphotericin B and oral itraconazole and she achieved wound healing as well as immune reconstitution and HIV viral suppression. Amphotericin infusions were given as an outpatient despite the resource constraints of the setting in southwestern Tanzania. Histoplasmosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of the immunocompromised host with unusual skin manifestations and persistent fever.
Study of Influential Parameters of the Caffeine Extraction from Spent Coffee Grounds: From Brewing Coffee Method to the Waste Treatment Conditions
Authors: Vandeponseele Alexandre , Draye Micheline , Piot Christine , Chatel Gregory
Published: April 2021

This article aims to study the interest of spent coffee grounds (SCG) valorization through caffeine recovery. In an original way, this study takes into account all the parameters such as (i) the brewing coffee methods (household, coffee shops, etc.); (ii) the storage conditions, in particular the drying step; (iii) the solid/liquid extraction parameters such as the nature of solvent, the temperature, the extraction time and the solid/liquid ratio; and (iv) the liquid/liquid purification parameters such as the nature, the volume and the pH of extraction medium. Results have shown that spent coffee grounds from coffee-shops obtained by percolation contain a higher amount of caffeine than spent coffee grounds from households obtained from spent pods or filters. A drying treatment is not required when extraction is performed under one week after the spent coffee grounds collection with 96.4% of not degraded caffeine. Solid/liquid extraction performed with 25 mL.g−1 SCG of hydroalcoholic solvent (water/EtOH, v/v 60/40) at 60 °C during 15 min have given a caffeine yield up to 4.67 mg.g−1 SCG. When using ethyl acetate, 93.4% of the caffeine has been selectively recovered by liquid/liquid extraction. Finally, the extraction of caffeine for the valorization of spent coffee grounds is a promising and easy way, which fits with an already important and well established market.
Ruptured Emphysematous Liver Abscess: An Unusual Presentation in Kochs
Authors: Bakhshi Girish D. , Singh Gurpreet , Shah Jessica , Pawar Dinesh , Ram Srinivas , Raut Nimisha
Published: April 2021

Gas forming liver abscess (GFLA) though rare is seen in diabetic patients. Rupture of such abscesses usually requires surgical intervention. These cases are associated with high morbidity and mortality due to sepsis. Tuberculous liver abscesses are more often silent in presentation. GFLA formed in the background of a tuberculous liver abscess is rare. We present a case of ruptured GFLA with underlying tuberculous pathology in a normoglycemic patient. The abscess was managed by image guided intervention. A brief case report along with review of literature is presented.
Multi-Layer Graphene Oxide in Human Keratinocytes: Time-Dependent Cytotoxicity, Proliferation, and Gene Expression
Authors: Salesa Beatriz , Serrano-Aroca Ángel
Published: April 2021

Few-layer graphene oxide (GO) has shown no or very weak cytotoxicity and anti-proliferative effects in a wide range of cell lines, such as glioma cells and human skin HaCaT cells at concentrations up to 100 µg/mL. However, as multi-layer GO has hardly been explored in the biomedical field, in this study, this other type of GO was examined in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells treated with different concentrations, ranging from 0.01 to 150 µg/mL, for different periods of time (3, 12, and 24 h). The results revealed a time–concentration dependence with two non-cytotoxic concentrations (0.01 and 0.05 µg/mL) and a median effective concentration value of 4.087 µg/mL at 24 h GO exposure. Contrary to what has previously been reported for few-layer GO, cell proliferation of the HaCaT cells in contact with the multi-layer GO at 0.01 μg/mL showed identical proliferative activity to an epidermal growth factor (1.6-fold greater than the control group) after 96 h. The effects of the multi-layer GO on the expression of 13 genes (SOD1, CAT, MMP1, TGFB1, GPX1, FN1, HAS2, LAMB1, LUM, CDH1, COL4A1, FBN, and VCAN) at non-cytotoxic concentrations of GO in the HaCaT cells were analyzed after 24 h. The lowest non-cytotoxic GO concentration was able to upregulate the CAT, TGFB1, FN1, and CDH1 genes, which confirms multi-layer GO’s great potential in the biomedical field.
Antifungal Effect of Liposomal α-Bisabolol and When Associated with Fluconazole
Authors: Bezerra Camila F. , Júnior José Geraldo de A. , Honorato Rosilaine de L. , Santos Antonia Thassya L. dos , Silva Josefa Carolaine P. da , Silva Taís G. da , Freitas Thiago S. de , Vieira Thiago Adler T. , Bezerra Maria Clara F. , Lima Sales Débora , Rodrigues João Pedro V. , Filho José M. Barbosa , Peixoto Laisla R. , Pinheiro Allyson P. , Coutinho Henrique D. M. , Morais-Braga Maria Flaviana B. , Silva Teresinha G. da
Published: April 2021

Fungal pathologies caused by the genus Candida have increased in recent years due to the involvement of immunosuppressed people and the advance of resistance mechanisms acquired by these microorganisms. Liposomes are nanovesicles with lipid bilayers in which they store compounds. α-Bisabolol is a sesquiterpene with proven biological activities, and in this work it was tested alone in liposomes and in association with Fluconazole in vitro to evaluate the antifungal potential, Fluconazole optimization, and virulence inhibitory effect in vitro. Antifungal assays were performed against standard strains of Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, and Candida krusei by microdilution to identify the IC50 values and to obtain the cell viability. The Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) was performed by subculturing on the solid medium, and at their subinhibitory concentration (Matrix Concentration (MC): 16,384 µg/mL) (MC/16), the compounds, both isolated and liposomal, were associated with fluconazole in order to verify the inhibitory effect of this junction. Tests to ascertain changes in morphology were performed in microculture chambers according to MC concentrations. Liposomes were characterized from the vesicle size, polydispersity index, average Zeta potential, and scanning electron microscopy. The IC50 value of the liposomal bisabolol associated with fluconazole (FCZ) was 2.5 µg/mL against all strains tested, revealing a potentiating effect. Liposomal bisabolol was able to potentiate the effect of fluconazole against the CA and CT strains by reducing its concentration and completely inhibiting fungal growth. α-Bisabolol in liposomal form inhibited the morphological transition in all strains tested at a concentration of MC/8. The liposomes were homogeneous, with vesicles with diameters of 203.8 nm for the liposomal bisabolol and a surface charge potential of −34.2 mV, conferring stability to the nanosystem. Through scanning microscopy, the spherical shapes of the vesicles were observed.
Comparing Statistical and Neural Machine Translation Performance on Hindi-To-Tamil and English-To-Tamil
Authors: Ramesh Akshai , Parthasarathy Venkatesh Balavadhani , Haque Rejwanul , Way Andy
Published: April 2021

Phrase-based statistical machine translation (PB-SMT) has been the dominant paradigm in machine translation (MT) research for more than two decades. Deep neural MT models have been producing state-of-the-art performance across many translation tasks for four to five years. To put it another way, neural MT (NMT) took the place of PB-SMT a few years back and currently represents the state-of-the-art in MT research. Translation to or from under-resourced languages has been historically seen as a challenging task. Despite producing state-of-the-art results in many translation tasks, NMT still poses many problems such as performing poorly for many low-resource language pairs mainly because of its learning task’s data-demanding nature. MT researchers have been trying to address this problem via various techniques, e.g., exploiting source- and/or target-side monolingual data for training, augmenting bilingual training data, and transfer learning. Despite some success, none of the present-day benchmarks have entirely overcome the problem of translation in low-resource scenarios for many languages. In this work, we investigate the performance of PB-SMT and NMT on two rarely tested under-resourced language pairs, English-To-Tamil and Hindi-To-Tamil, taking a specialised data domain into consideration. This paper demonstrates our findings and presents results showing the rankings of our MT systems produced via a social media-based human evaluation scheme.
Climate Justice in an Intergenerational Sustainability Framework: A Stochastic OLG Model
Authors: Cisco Gianluigi , Gatto Andrea
Published: April 2021

Climate justice is conceived as the intertemporal climate equity and equality exchange amongst generations. Sustainability—intended as the interplay amongst the economy, the society, the environment, and the governance—is essential to forge the climate justice theoretical framework. On this base, the study attempts to model the intertemporal choice of the status quo amongst generations in these four domains, making use of an overlapping generations (OLG) model making use of an intertemporal choice framework. The proxies detected are GDP growth (economy), environmental quality (environment), and labor growth, and environmental investment (society) as assumptions. The governance dimension is captured by the difference in wealth between young and old generations. The work aims at replying to the following research question: Which are the conditions for sustainable development such that climate justice holds? The intra-intergenerational exchange is defined in two periods, while the individual provides their preferred economic and environmental choice mix as consumption-saving. This study shows that keeping the business-as-usual scenario, young generations will have to bear the brunt of sustainable development. Additionally, reduced emissions are only achievable with increased efforts by the youth by reducing their leisure and consumption. These facts call for enhanced intergenerational sustainability and climate justice policies.
Supporting SLA via Adaptive Mapping and Heterogeneous Storage Devices in Ceph
Authors: Chum Sopanhapich , Park Heekwon , Choi Jongmoo
Published: April 2021

This paper proposes a new resource management scheme that supports SLA (Service-Level Agreement) in a bigdata distributed storage system. Basically, it makes use of two mapping modes, isolated mode and shared mode, in an adaptive manner. In specific, to ensure different QoS (Quality of Service) requirements among clients, it isolates storage devices so that urgent clients are not interfered by normal clients. When there is no urgent client, it switches to the shared mode so that normal clients can access all storage devices, thus achieving full performance. To provide this adaptability effectively, it devises two techniques, called logical cluster and normal inclusion. In addition, this paper explores how to exploit heterogeneous storage devices, HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) and SSDs (Solid State Drives), to support SLA. It examines two use cases and observes that separating data and metadata into different devices gives a positive impact on the performance per cost ratio. Real implementation-based evaluation results show that this proposal can satisfy the requirements of diverse clients and can provide better performance compared with a fixed mapping-based scheme.
UFMC Waveform and Multiple-Access Techniques for 5G RadCom
Authors: Khelouani Imane , Zerhouni Kawtar , Elbahhar Fouzia , Elassali Raja , Idboufker Noureddine
Published: April 2021

In recent years, multiple functions traditionally realized by hardware components have been replaced by digital-signal processing, making radar and wireless communication technologies more similar. A joint radar and communication system, referred to as a RadCom system, was proposed to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional existent radar techniques while using the same system for intervehicular communication. Consequently, this system enhances used spectral resources. Conventional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) was proposed as a RadCom waveform. However, due to OFDM’s multiple shortcomings, we propose universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC), a new 5G waveform candidate, as a RadCom waveform that offers a good trade-off between performance and complexity. In addition to that, we propose multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) as a multiple-access (MA) technique that can offer great performance in terms of multiuser detection and power efficiency. Moreover, we study how UFMC filter length and MC-CDMA spreading sequences can impact overall performance on both radar and communication separately under a multipath channel. Analysis of the bit error rate (BER) of the UFMC waveform was performed in order to confirm the experiment results.
A Simulated Annealing Algorithm and Grid Map-Based UAV Coverage Path Planning Method for 3D Reconstruction
Authors: Xiao Sichen , Tan Xiaojun , Wang Jinping
Published: April 2021

With the extensive application of 3D maps, acquiring high-quality images with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for precise 3D reconstruction has become a prominent topic of study. In this research, we proposed a coverage path planning method for UAVs to achieve full coverage of a target area and to collect high-resolution images while considering the overlap ratio of the collected images and energy consumption of clustered UAVs. The overlap ratio of the collected image set is guaranteed through a map decomposition method, which can ensure that the reconstruction results will not get affected by model breaking. In consideration of the small battery capacity of common commercial quadrotor UAVs, ray-scan-based area division was adopted to segment the target area, and near-optimized paths in subareas were calculated by a simulated annealing algorithm to find near-optimized paths, which can achieve balanced task assignment for UAV formations and minimum energy consumption for each UAV. The proposed system was validated through a site experiment and achieved a reduction in path length of approximately 12.6% compared to the traditional zigzag path.
Effect of the HPDI and PPCI Combustion Modes of Direct-Injection Natural Gas Engine on Combustion and Emissions
Authors: Jin Shouying , Li Jinze , Deng Longfei , Wu Binyang
Published: April 2021

Natural gas (NG) engines have very broad application prospects. The pilot-ignited NG diesel engine can be organized into two combustion modes according to the sequence of oil and gas injection: (1) High-pressure direct injection, where NG is mainly diffused combustion; and (2) partially premixed compression ignition, where NG is mainly premixed combustion. In this study, we used CONVERGE to explore the influence of the NG injection timing on the distribution of the mixture equivalence ratio, ignition characteristics, thermal efficiency, emission, and combustion reaction rate under the two combustion modes. We also used a multi-step soot model to analyze the particle mass and quantity. We showed herein that the NG injection timing significantly affects the mixture distribution in the cylinder, thereby consequently affecting the combustion process. Both very early and very late injection times were not conducive to NG combustion. In addition, the mass, quantity, and diameter of the soot produced by diffusion combustion were larger than those produced with premixed combustion.
Techno-Economic Analysis of a Fuzzy Logic Control Based Hybrid Renewable Energy System to Power a University Campus in Japan
Authors: Hinokuma Tatsuya , Farzaneh Hooman , Shaqour Ayas
Published: April 2021

In order to reduce the load demand of buildings in Japan, this study proposes a grid-tied hybrid solar–wind–hydrogen system that is equipped with a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system, using a fuzzy logic control (FLC) algorithm. Compared with the existing MPPTs, the proposed MPPT provides rapid power control with small oscillations. The dynamic simulation of the proposed hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) was performed in MATLAB-Simulink, and the model results were validated using an experimental setup installed in the Chikushi campus, Kyushu University, Japan. The techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the proposed system was performed to estimate the optimal configuration of the proposed HRES, subject to satisfying the required annual load in the Chikushi campus. The results revealed a potential of 2% surplus power generation from the proposed HRES, using the FLC-based MPPT system, which can guarantee a lower levelized cost of electricity (LOCE) for the HRES and significant savings of 2.17 million yen per year. The TEA results show that reducing the cost of the solar system market will lead to a reduction in LCOE of the HRES in 2030.
Practically-Achievable Energy Savings with the Optimal Control of Stratified Water Heaters with Predicted Usage
Authors: Ritchie Michael J. , Engelbrecht Jacobus A.A. , Booysen Marthinus J.
Published: April 2021

Residential water heaters use a substantial amount of electrical energy and contribute to 25% of the energy usage in the residential sector. This raises concern for users in countries with flat rate electricity fees and where fossil fuels are used for electricity generation. Demand side management of tanked water heaters is well suited for energy-focused load reduction strategies. We propose a strategy for providing an electric water heater (EWH) with the optimal temperature planning to reduce the overall electrical energy usage while satisfying the comfort of the user. A probabilistic hot water usage model is used to predict the hot water usage behaviour for the A*-based optimisation algorithm, which accounts for water stratification in the tank. A temperature feedback controller with novel temperature and energy-correcting capabilities provides robustness to prediction errors. Three optimal control strategies are presented and compared to a baseline strategy with the thermostat always on: The first ensures temperature-matched water usages, the second ensures energy-matched water usages, and the third is a variation of the second that provides Legionella prevention. Results were obtained for 77 water heaters, each one simulated for four weeks. The median energy savings for predicted usage were 2.2% for the temperature-matched strategy, and 9.6% for both of the energy-matched strategies. We also compare the practical energy savings to the ideal scenario where the optimal scheduling has perfect foreknowledge of hot water usages, and the temperature and energy-matched strategies had a 4.1 and 11.0 percentage point decrease from the ideal energy savings.
A Two-Step State Estimation Algorithm for Hybrid AC-DC Distribution Grids
Authors: Roy Gaurav Kumar , Pau Marco , Ponci Ferdinanda , Monti Antonello
Published: April 2021

Direct Current (DC) grids are considered an attractive option for integrating high shares of renewable energy sources in the electrical distribution grid. Hence, in the future, Alternating Current (AC) and DC systems could be interconnected to form hybrid AC-DC distribution grids. This paper presents a two-step state estimation formulation for the monitoring of hybrid AC-DC grids. In the first step, state estimation is executed independently for the AC and DC areas of the distribution system. The second step refines the estimation results by exchanging boundary quantities at the AC-DC converters. To this purpose, the modulation index and phase angle control of the AC-DC converters are integrated into the second step of the proposed state estimation formulation. This allows providing additional inputs to the state estimation algorithm, which eventually leads to improve the accuracy of the state estimation results. Simulations on a sample AC-DC distribution grid are performed to highlight the benefits resulting from the integration of these converter control parameters for the estimation of both the AC and DC grid quantities.
The Evaluation of the Corrosion Rates of Alloys Applied to the Heating Tower Heat Pump (HTHP) by Machine Learning
Authors: Liu Qingqing , Li Nianping , A Yongga , Duan Jiaojiao , Yan Wenyun
Published: April 2021

The corrosion rate is an important indicator describing the degree of metal corrosion, and quantitative analysis of the corrosion rate is of great significance. In the present work, the support vector machine (SVM) and the artificial neural network (ANN) integrating the k-fold split method and the root-mean-square prop (RMSProp) optimizer are used to evaluate the corrosion rates of alloys, i.e., copper H65, aluminum 3003, and 20# steel, applied to the heating tower heat pump (HTHP) in various anti-freezing solutions at different corrosion times, flow velocities, and temperatures. The mean-square error (MSE) versus the epoch of the ANN model shows that the result breaks the local minimum and is at or close to the global minimum. Comparisons of the SVM-/ANN-evaluated corrosion rates and the measured ones show good agreements, demonstrating the good reliability of the obtained SVM and ANN models. Moreover, the ANN model is recommended since it performs better than the SVM model according to the obtained R2 value. The present work can be further applied to predicting the corrosion rate without any prior experiment for improving the service life of the HTHP.
Quantifying the Low Salinity Waterflooding Effect
Authors: Chaabi Omar , Al Kobaisi Mohammed , Haroun Mohamed
Published: April 2021

Low salinity waterflooding (LSW) has shown promising results in terms of increasing oil recovery at laboratory scale. In this work, we study the LSW effect, at laboratory scale, and provide a basis for quantifying the effect at field scale by extracting reliable relative permeability curves. These were achieved by experimental and numerical interpretation of laboratory core studies. Carbonate rock samples were used to conduct secondary and tertiary unsteady-state coreflooding experiments at reservoir conditions. A mathematical model was developed as a research tool to interpret and further validate the physical plausibility of the coreflooding experiments. At core scale and a typical field rate of ~1 ft/day, low salinity water (LS) resulted in not only ~20% higher oil recovery compared to formation water (FW) but also recovered oil sooner. LS water also showed capability of reducing the residual oil saturation when flooded in tertiary mode. The greater oil recovery caused by LSW can be attributed to altering the wettability of the rock to less oil-wet as confirmed by the numerically extracted relative permeability curves.
Analysis of Key Factors of a SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Program: A Mathematical Modeling Approach
Authors: Martínez-Rodríguez David , Gonzalez-Parra Gilberto , Villanueva Rafael-J.
Published: April 2021

The administration of vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) started in early December of 2020. Currently, there are only a few approved vaccines, each with different efficacies and mechanisms of action. Moreover, vaccination programs in different regions may vary due to differences in implementation, for instance, simply the availability of the vaccine. In this article, we study the impact of the pace of vaccination and the intrinsic efficacy of the vaccine on prevalence, hospitalizations, and deaths related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Then we study different potential scenarios regarding the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in the near future. We construct a compartmental mathematical model and use computational methodologies to study these different scenarios. Thus, we are able to identify some key factors to reach the aims of the vaccination programs. We use some metrics related to the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to assess the impact of the efficacy of the vaccine and the pace of the vaccine inoculation. We found that both factors have a high impact on the outcomes. However, the rate of vaccine administration has a higher impact in reducing the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. This result shows that health institutions need to focus on increasing the vaccine inoculation pace and create awareness in the population about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines.
Durum Wheat (Triticum durum L.) Landraces Reveal Potential for the Improvement of Grain Carotenoid Esterification in Breeding Programs
Authors: Requena-Ramírez María Dolores , Hornero-Méndez Dámaso , Rodríguez-Suárez Cristina , Atienza Sergio G.
Published: April 2021

Carotenoids are essential in the human diet for their important functions in health. Besides, they are responsible for the yellow pigments desirable for industrial quality in durum wheat. The remarkable carotenoid content of durum wheat endosperm is mostly due to lutein. However, lutein esters have not been previously detected in durum wheat as in other cereals such as common wheat, tritordeum or Hordeum chilense. Esterification increases carotenoid stability and allows greater retention and accumulation through the food chain. Therefore, carotenoid esterification is revealed as a new key target in breeding. We characterized the carotenoid profile of 156 accessions of the Spanish durum wheat collection, searching for landraces with esterification ability. Interestingly, four accessions produced lutein monoesters and diesters. Also, traces of lutein monoesters were detected in eleven accessions. The identification of the first durum wheat accessions with esterification ability reported herein is a remarkable advance for carotenoid biofortification. Furthermore, variation for the relative content of zeaxanthin, α-carotene and β-carotene was also observed. This diversity for the β,ε and β,β branches of the carotenogenic pathway also represents a new opportunity for breeding for specific carotenoids in biofortification programs.
Screening of Twelve Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Cultivars and Their Isolates Focusing on the Protein Characterization, Functionality, and Sensory Profiles
Authors: García Arteaga Verónica , Kraus Sonja , Schott Michael , Muranyi Isabel , Schweiggert-Weisz Ute , Eisner Peter
Published: April 2021

Pea protein concentrates and isolates are important raw materials for the production of plant-based food products. To select suitable peas (Pisum sativum L.) for protein extraction for further use as food ingredients, twelve different cultivars were subjected to isoelectric precipitation and spray drying. Both the dehulled pea flours and protein isolates were characterized regarding their chemical composition and the isolates were analyzed for their functional properties, sensory profiles, and molecular weight distributions. Orchestra, Florida, Dolores, and RLPY cultivars showed the highest protein yields. The electrophoretic profiles were similar, indicating the presence of all main pea allergens in all isolates. The colors of the isolates were significantly different regarding lightness (L*) and red-green (a*) components. The largest particle size was shown by the isolate from Florida cultivar, whereas the lowest was from the RLPY isolate. At pH 7, protein solubility ranged from 40% to 62% and the emulsifying capacity ranged from 600 to 835 mL g−1. The principal component analysis revealed similarities among certain pea cultivars regarding their physicochemical and functional properties. The sensory profile of the individual isolates was rather similar, with an exception of the pea-like and bitter attributes, which were significantly different among the isolates.
Quality Characteristics of Semi-Dried Restructured Jerky Processed Using Super-Heated Steam
Authors: Kim Se-Myung , Kim Tae-Kyung , Kim Hyun-Wook , Jung Samooel , Yong Hae In , Choi Yun-Sang
Published: April 2021

Moisture content and water activity play important roles in extending the shelf life of dried meat products, such as jerky. However, the commonly used hot air drying process is time-consuming, costly, and adversely affects the quality of dried meat products, warranting the development of an advanced and economical drying method. This study investigated the effect of super-heated steam (SHS) drying on the quality characteristics of semi-dried restructured jerky as a measure to prevent the excessive quality deterioration of meat products during drying. The control sample was dried using hot air, and the treatment samples were dried using SHS at different temperatures (200, 250, and 300 °C) and for different durations (90, 105, and 120 min). With increasing SHS temperature and duration, the moisture content, water activity, and residual nitrite content of the jerky were reduced. The shear force values for treatments at 200 and 250 °C were lower than those for the control. With a non-significant difference in lipid oxidation compared with the control, the overall acceptability score was the highest for the treatment at 250 °C for 120 min. In conclusion, SHS (250 °C for 120 min) drying has a potential industrial value to replace the hot air drying method.
Elucidation of Early Evolution of HIV-1 Group M in the Congo Basin Using Computational Methods
Authors: Tongo Marcel , Martin Darren P. , Dorfman Jeffrey R.
Published: April 2021

The Congo Basin region is believed to be the site of the cross-species transmission event that yielded HIV-1 group M (HIV-1M). It is thus likely that the virus has been present and evolving in the region since that cross-species transmission. As HIV-1M was only discovered in the early 1980s, our directly observed record of the epidemic is largely limited to the past four decades. Nevertheless, by exploiting the genetic relatedness of contemporary HIV-1M sequences, phylogenetic methods provide a powerful framework for investigating simultaneously the evolutionary and epidemiologic history of the virus. Such an approach has been taken to find that the currently classified HIV-1 M subtypes and Circulating Recombinant Forms (CRFs) do not give a complete view of HIV-1 diversity. In addition, the currently identified major HIV-1M subtypes were likely genetically predisposed to becoming a major component of the present epidemic, even before the events that resulted in the global epidemic. Further efforts have identified statistically significant hot- and cold-spots of HIV-1M subtypes sequence inheritance in genomic regions of recombinant forms. In this review we provide ours and others recent findings on the emergence and spread of HIV-1M variants in the region, which have provided insights into the early evolution of this virus.
Genome-Wide Analysis of Terpene Synthase Gene Family in Mentha longifolia and Catalytic Activity Analysis of a Single Terpene Synthase
Authors: Chen Zequn , Vining Kelly , Qi Xiwu , Yu Xu , Zheng Ying , Liu Zhiqi , Fang Hailing , Li Li , Bai Yang , Liang Chengyuan , Li Weilin , Lange Bernd
Published: April 2021

Terpenoids are a wide variety of natural products and terpene synthase (TPS) plays a key role in the biosynthesis of terpenoids. Mentha plants are rich in essential oils, whose main components are terpenoids, and their biosynthetic pathways have been basically elucidated. However, there is a lack of systematic identification and study of TPS in Mentha plants. In this work, we genome-widely identified and analyzed the TPS gene family in Mentha longifolia, a model plant for functional genomic research in the genus Mentha. A total of 63 TPS genes were identified in the M. longifolia genome sequence assembly, which could be divided into six subfamilies. The TPS-b subfamily had the largest number of genes, which might be related to the abundant monoterpenoids in Mentha plants. The TPS-e subfamily had 18 members and showed a significant species-specific expansion compared with other sequenced Lamiaceae plant species. The 63 TPS genes could be mapped to nine scaffolds of the M. longifolia genome sequence assembly and the distribution of these genes is uneven. Tandem duplicates and fragment duplicates contributed greatly to the increase in the number of TPS genes in M. longifolia. The conserved motifs (RR(X)8W, NSE/DTE, RXR, and DDXXD) were analyzed in M. longifolia TPSs, and significant differentiation was found between different subfamilies. Adaptive evolution analysis showed that M. longifolia TPSs were subjected to purifying selection after the species-specific expansion, and some amino acid residues under positive selection were identified. Furthermore, we also cloned and analyzed the catalytic activity of a single terpene synthase, MlongTPS29, which belongs to the TPS-b subfamily. MlongTPS29 could encode a limonene synthase and catalyze the biosynthesis of limonene, an important precursor of essential oils from the genus Mentha. This study provides useful information for the biosynthesis of terpenoids in the genus Mentha.
BRCA1/2 Mutation Detection in the Tumor Tissue from Selected Polish Patients with Breast Cancer Using Next Generation Sequencing
Authors: Szczerba Ewelina , Kamińska Katarzyna , Mierzwa Tomasz , Misiek Marcin , Kowalewski Janusz , Lewandowska Marzena Anna
Published: April 2021

(1) Background: Although, in the mutated BRCA detected in the Polish population of patients with breast cancer, there is a large percentage of recurrent pathogenic variants, an increasing need for the assessment of rare BRCA1/2 variants using NGS can be observed. (2) Methods: We studied 75 selected patients with breast cancer (negative for the presence of 5 mutations tested in the Polish population in the prophylactic National Cancer Control Program). DNA extracted from the cancer tissue of these patients was used to prepare a library and to sequence all coding regions of the BRCA1/2 genes. (3) Results: We detected nine pathogenic variants in 8 out of 75 selected patients (10.7%). We identified one somatic and eight germline variants. We also used different bioinformatic NGS software programs to analyze NGS FASTQ files and established that tertiary analysis performed with different tools was more likely to give the same outcome if we analyzed files received from secondary analysis using the same method. (4) Conclusions: Our study emphasizes (i) the importance of an NGS validation process with a bioinformatic procedure included; (ii) the importance of screening both somatic and germline pathogenic variants; (iii) the urgent need to identify additional susceptible genes in order to explain the high percentage of non-BRCA-related hereditary cases of breast cancer.
Actin-Related Protein 4 Interacts with PIE1 and Regulates Gene Expression in Arabidopsis
Authors: Nie Wen-Feng , Wang Jinyu
Published: April 2021

As essential structural components of ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complex, the nucleolus-localized actin-related proteins (ARPs) play critical roles in many biological processes. Among them, ARP4 is identified as an integral subunit of chromatin remodeling complex SWR1, which is conserved in yeast, humans and plants. It was shown that RNAi mediated knock-down of Arabidopsisthaliana ARP4 (AtARP4) could affect plant development, specifically, leading to early flowering. However, so far, little is known about how ARP4 functions in the SWR1 complex in plant. Here, we identified a loss-of-function mutant of AtARP4 with a single nucleotide change from glycine to arginine, which had significantly smaller leaf size. The results from the split luciferase complementation imaging (LCI) and yeast two hybrid (Y2H) assays confirmed its physical interaction with the scaffold and catalytic subunit of SWR1 complex, photoperiod-independent early flowering 1 (PIE1). Furthermore, mutation of AtARP4 caused altered transcription response of hundreds of genes, in which the number of up-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was much larger than those down-regulated. Although most DEGs in atarp4 are related to plant defense and response to hormones such as salicylic acid, overall, it has less overlapping with other swr1 mutants and the hta9 hta11 double-mutant. In conclusion, our results reveal that AtARP4 is important for plant growth and such an effect is likely attributed to its repression on gene expression, typically at defense-related loci, thus providing some evidence for the coordination of plant growth and defense, while the regulatory patterns and mechanisms are distinctive from other SWR1 complex components.