bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trends of Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens, Difficult to Treat Bloodstream Infections, and Antimicrobial Consumption at a Tertiary Care Center in Lebanon from 2015–2020: COVID-19 Aftermath
Authors: Chamieh Amanda , Zgheib Rita , El-Sawalhi Sabah , Yammine Laure , El-Hajj Gerard , Zmerli Omar , Afif Claude , Rolain Jean-Marc , Azar Eid
Published: August 2021

Introduction: We studied the trend of antimicrobial resistance and consumption at Saint George Hospital University Medical Center (SGHUMC), a tertiary care center in Beirut, Lebanon, with a focus on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Materials and Methods: We calculated the isolation density/1000 patient-days (PD) of the most isolated organisms from 1 January 2015–31 December 2020 that included: E. coli (Eco), K. pneumoniae (Kp), P. aeruginosa (Pae), A. baumannii (Ab), S. aureus (Sau), and E. faecium (Efm). We considered March–December 2020 a surrogate of COVID-19. We considered one culture/patient for each antimicrobial susceptibility and excluded Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus coagulase-negative, and Corynebacterium species. We analyzed the trends of the overall isolates, the antimicrobial susceptibilities of blood isolates (BSI), difficult-to-treat (DTR) BSI, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) BSI, and restricted antimicrobial consumption as daily-defined-dose/1000 PD. DTR implies resistance to carbapenems, beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones, and additional antimicrobials where applicable. Results and Discussion: After applying exclusion criteria, we analyzed 1614 blood cultures out of 8314 cultures. We isolated 85 species, most commonly Eco, at 52%. The isolation density of total BSI in 2020 decreased by 16%: 82 patients were spared from bacteremia, with 13 being DTR. The isolation density of CRE BSI/1000 PD decreased by 64% from 2019 to 2020, while VREfm BSI decreased by 34%. There was a significant decrease of 80% in Ab isolates (p-value < 0.0001). During COVID-19, restricted antimicrobial consumption decreased to 175 DDD/1000 PD (p-value < 0.0001). Total carbapenem consumption persistently decreased by 71.2% from 108DDD/1000 PD in 2015–2019 to 31 DDD/1000 PD in 2020. At SGHUMC, existing epidemics were not worsened by the pandemic. We attribute this to our unique and dynamic collaboration of antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and control, and infectious disease consultation.
Plasma-Activated Saline Promotes Antibiotic Treatment of Systemic Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection
Authors: Yang Lu , Niyazi Gulimire , Qi Yu , Yao Zhiqian , Huang Lingling , Wang Zifeng , Guo Li , Liu Dingxin
Published: August 2021

Systemic infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are life-threatening due to their strong multidrug resistance, especially since the biofilms formed by MRSA are more difficult to inactivate by antibiotics, causing long term recurrence of infection. Plasma-activated saline (PAS), a derived form of cold atmospheric-pressure plasma, can effectively inactivate bacteria and cancer cells and has been applied to sterilization and cancer treatment. Previous studies have demonstrated that the pretreatment of MRSA with PAS could promote the action of antibiotics. Here, the PAS was used as an antibiotic adjuvant to promote the inactivation of MRSA biofilms by rifampicin and vancomycin, and the combined treatment reduced approximately 6.0-log10 MRSA cells in biofilms. The plasma-activated saline and rifampicin synergistically and effectively reduced the systemic infection in the murine model. The histochemical analysis and the blood hematological and biochemical test demonstrated that the combined treatment with plasma-activated saline and rifampicin improved the blood hematological and biochemical parameters of infected mice by reducing the infection. Therefore, PAS based on plasma technology represents a new strategy for the treatment of infectious disease caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria and alleviating antibiotic resistance.
Erratum: Callaway et al. Alternatives to Antibiotics: A Symposium on the Challenges and Solutions for Animal Health and Production. Antibiotics 2021, 10, 471
Authors: Callaway Todd R. , Lillehoj Hyun , Chuanchuen Rungtip , Gay Cyril G.
Published: August 2021

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]
Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction Optimization of Proanthocyanidins from Kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) Leaves and Evaluation of Its Antioxidant Activity
Authors: Lv Ji-Min , Gouda Mostafa , Zhu Yan-Yun , Ye Xing-Qian , Chen Jian-Chu
Published: August 2021

Using ultrasound (US) in proanthocyanidin (PA) extraction has become one of the important emerging technologies. It could be the next generation for studying the US mechnophore impact on the bioactive compound’s functionality. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the potential of US treatment on PAs extracted from kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) leaves, and to provide a comprehensive chemical composition and bioactivity relationship of the purified kiwifruit leaves PAs (PKLPs). Several methods like single-factor experiments and response surface methodology (RSM) for the four affected factors on US extraction efficiency were constructed. HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS, cytotoxicity analysis, and antioxidant activity were also demonstrated. In the results, the modeling of PA affected factors showed that 40% US-amplitude, 30 mL/g dry weight (DW) solvent to solid ration (S/S), and 70 °C for 15 min were the optimum conditions for the extraction of PAs. Furthermore, PKLPs exhibited significant radical scavenging and cellular antioxidant activity (p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study’s novelty comes from the broad prospects of using US in PKLP green extraction that could play an important role in maximizing this phytochemical functionality in drug discovery and food science fields.
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) Powder Has Anticarcinogenic Effects on Oral Carcinoma In Vitro and In Vivo
Authors: Mauramo Matti , Onali Tuulia , Wahbi Wafa , Vasara Jenni , Lampinen Anniina , Mauramo Elina , Kivimäki Anne , Martens Stefan , Häggman Hely , Sutinen Meeri , Salo Tuula
Published: August 2021

Previous studies indicate that bilberry with high amounts of phenolic compounds can inhibit carcinogenic processes of colorectal cancer in vitro and in vivo. However, no studies have focused on the effects of bilberry on oral cancer. In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of bilberry powder on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells using both in vitro and in vivo assays. The effects of 0, 1, 10, and 25 mg/mL of whole bilberry powder on the viability, proliferation, migration, and invasion of OSCC (HSC-3) cells were examined and compared with 0.01 mg/mL of cetuximab. Two oral keratinocyte cell lines served as controls. Tumor area was analyzed in zebrafish microinjected with HSC-3 cells and treated with 2.5, 10, or 25 µg/mL of bilberry powder. Metastases in the head or tail areas were counted. Bilberry powder inhibited the viability, proliferation, migration, and invasion of HSC-3 cells (p < 0.05), which was more pronounced with higher concentrations. Cetuximab had no effect on HSC-3 cell migration or invasion. Compared to controls, the tumor area in zebrafish treated with bilberry powder (10 and 25 µg/mL) was reduced significantly (p = 0.038 and p = 0.021, respectively), but the number of fish with metastases did not differ between groups. Based on our in vitro and in vivo experiments, we conclude that whole bilberry powder has anti-tumor effects on OSCC cells.
Enzymatic Production of 3-OH Phlorizin, a Possible Bioactive Polyphenol from Apples, by Bacillus megaterium CYP102A1 via Regioselective Hydroxylation
Authors: Nguyen Ngoc Anh , Cao Ngoc Tan , Nguyen Thi Huong Ha , Ji Jung-Hwan , Cha Gun Su , Kang Hyung-Sik , Yun Chul-Ho
Published: August 2021

Phlorizin is the most abundant glucoside of phloretin from the apple tree and its products. Phlorizin and its aglycone phloretin are currently considered health-beneficial polyphenols from apples useful in treating hyperglycemia and obesity. Recently, we showed that phloretin could be regioselectively hydroxylated to make 3-OH phloretin by Bacillus megaterium CYP102A1 and human P450 enzymes. The 3-OH phloretin has a potent inhibitory effect on differentiating 3T3-L1 preadipocytes into adipocytes and lipid accumulation. The glucoside of 3-OH phloretin would be a promising agent with increased bioavailability and water solubility compared with its aglycone. However, procedures to make 3-OH phlorizin, a glucoside of 3-OH phloretin, using chemical methods, are not currently available. Here, a biocatalytic strategy for the efficient synthesis of a possibly valuable hydroxylated product, 3-OH phlorizin, was developed via CYP102A1-catalyzed regioselective hydroxylation. The production of 3-OH phlorizin by CYP102A1 was confirmed by HPLC and LC–MS spectroscopy in addition to enzymatic removal of its glucose moiety for comparison to 3-OH phloretin. Taken together, in this study, we found a panel of mutants from B. megaterium CYP102A1 could catalyze regioselective hydroxylation of phlorizin to produce 3-OH phlorizin, a catechol product.
Factors Behind the Effectiveness of an Unsupervised Neural Machine Translation System between Korean and Japanese
Authors: Choi Yong-Seok , Park Yo-Han , Yun Seung , Kim Sang-Hun , Lee Kong-Joo
Published: August 2021

Korean and Japanese have different writing scripts but share the same Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. In this study, we pre-train a language-generation model using a Masked Sequence-to-Sequence pre-training (MASS) method on Korean and Japanese monolingual corpora. When building the pre-trained generation model, we allow the smallest number of shared vocabularies between the two languages. Then, we build an unsupervised Neural Machine Translation (NMT) system between Korean and Japanese based on the pre-trained generation model. Despite the different writing scripts and few shared vocabularies, the unsupervised NMT system performs well compared to other pairs of languages. Our interest is in the common characteristics of both languages that make the unsupervised NMT perform so well. In this study, we propose a new method to analyze cross-attentions between a source and target language to estimate the language differences from the perspective of machine translation. We calculate cross-attention measurements between Korean–Japanese and Korean–English pairs and compare their performances and characteristics. The Korean–Japanese pair has little difference in word order and a morphological system, and thus the unsupervised NMT between Korean and Japanese can be trained well even without parallel sentences and shared vocabularies.
Sampling Rate Impact on Precise Point Positioning with a Low-Cost GNSS Receiver
Authors: Romero-Andrade Rosendo , Trejo-Soto Manuel E. , Vázquez-Ontiveros Jesús R. , Hernández-Andrade Daniel , Cabanillas-Zavala Juan L.
Published: August 2021

Nowadays, with the incursion of low-cost GNSS receivers with modern characteristics, it is common to investigate and apply new methodologies and solutions with different receivers of this nature. Based on this fact, the performance of the solution obtained from the low-cost GNSS receiver is evaluated compared to a geodetic grade GNSS receiver at different sampling frequencies for the PPP-static and PPP-kinematic modes. For this, the original RINEX observation files were analyzed and decimated into different sampling rates as 0.1, 0.2, 1, 5, 15 and 30 s with TEQC software. All RINEX files were submitted to the Canadian Spatial Reference System Precise Point Positioning (CSRS-PPP) online service for processing with static and kinematic modes. The PPP-derived coordinates from the low-cost GNSS receiver were compared with the geodetic receiver to evaluate the obtained solution. The results reveal that the behavior of all studied sampling rates from the low-cost GNSS receiver are constant in achieved positioning. In addition, the achieved precision shows that it is recommendable to use a high sampling rate to obtain a cm level in PPP-static mode by using a low-cost GNSS receiver, this mode being the most accurate and potential alternative for structural health monitoring studies, mapping and positioning in urban areas.
PDCA 4.0: A New Conceptual Approach for Continuous Improvement in the Industry 4.0 Paradigm
Authors: Peças Paulo , Encarnação João , Gambôa Manuel , Sampayo Manuel , Jorge Diogo
Published: August 2021

Continuous improvement (CI) is a key component of lean manufacturing (LM), which is fundamental for organizations to remain competitive in an ever more challenging market. At present, the new industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 (I4.0), is taking place in the manufacturing and service markets, allowing more intelligent and automated processes to become a reality through innovative technologies. Not much research was found regarding a holistic application of I4.0′s technological concepts towards CI, which clarifies the potential for improving its effectiveness. This clearly indicates that research is needed regarding this subject. The present publication intends to close this research gap by studying the main I4.0 technological concepts and their possible application towards a typical CI process, establishing the requirements for such an approach. Based on that study, a conceptual approach is proposed (PDCA 4.0), depicting how I4.0 technological concepts should be used for CI enhancement, while aiming to satisfy the identified requirements. By outlining the PDCA 4.0 approach, this paper contributes to increasing the knowledge available regarding the CI realm on how to support the CI shift towards a I4.0 industrial paradigm.
Doxycycline and Minocycline Act as Positive Allosteric Modulators of the PAC1 Receptor and Induce Plasminogen Activators in RT4 Schwann Cells
Authors: Thomas Broome Sarah , Musumeci Giuseppe , Castorina Alessandro
Published: August 2021

Regeneration of peripheral nerves depends on the ability of axons to navigate through an altered extracellular environment. It has been suggested that Schwann cells facilitate this process through their secretion of neuropeptides and proteases. Using the RT4-D6P2T Schwann cell line (RT4), we have previously shown that RT4 cultures endogenously express the neuropeptide PACAP, and respond to exogenous stimulation by inducing the expression of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) via PAC1 receptor activation. In this study, based on recent findings showing that doxycycline and minocycline act as positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of the PAC1 receptor, we tested if treatment with these tetracyclines induced the expression and activity of tPA and uPA in RT4 cells. Using ELISA and zymographic analyses, we demonstrate that doxycycline and minocycline reliably induce the secretion and activity of both tPA and uPA, which is paralleled by increased expression levels, as shown by immunocytochemistry and Western blots. These actions were mediated, at least in part, by the PAC1 receptor, as PACAP6-38 mitigated tetracycline-induced expression and activity of tPA and uPA. We conclude that doxycycline and minocycline act as PAMs of the PAC1 receptor to promote proteolytic activity in RT4 cells.
Effect of Adhesive Application Method on the Enamel Bond Durability of a Two-Step Adhesive System Utilizing a Universal Adhesive-Derived Primer
Authors: Takamizawa Toshiki , Yokoyama Munenori , Sai Keiichi , Shibasaki Sho , Barkmeier Wayne W. , Latta Mark A. , Tsujimoto Akimasa , Miyazaki Masashi
Published: August 2021

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the adhesive application method on the durability of the enamel bond and the thickness of the adhesive layer. A new-generation two-step universal adhesive system, G2-Bond Universal, and two conventional two-step adhesive systems were utilized. The shear bond strength to bovine enamel was measured after thermal cycling in both etch-and-rinse and self-etch modes. Fifteen specimens were divided into three groups as follows: Group I, wherein a strong air stream was applied over the bonding agent for 5 s; Group II, wherein a gentle air stream was applied over the bonding agent for 5 s; and Group III, which was prepared as in Group II, followed by the application of a second layer of the bonding agent and a gentle air stream for 5 s. The durability of the enamel bond and thickness of the tested adhesives were influenced by the application method in both etching modes. The application method used in Group II appeared to be most suitable in terms of the bonding of the adhesives to the enamel. The new-generation two-step self-etch adhesive, comprising a universal adhesive-derived primer and a hydrophobic bonding agent, showed superior bond performance to the conventional two-step adhesive systems.
Impact of One Additional Substitution on Player Load and Coaching Tactics in Elite Football
Authors: Meyer Johannes , Klatt Stefanie
Published: August 2021

Professional football players, coaches, and researchers have discussed additional substitutions in football to reduce player load for a while. However, the effects of additional substitutions on the game have not yet been investigated in detail. The aim of this paper is to determine whether an additional substitution in (1) extra time and (2) regular time would be beneficial and would lead to (a) greater tactical influence of coaches on the match, (b) load reduction during one match, and (c) load reduction during one season. The methodological approach adopted includes two studies, both of which involve data analysis of substitution times (Study 1: n = 3060; Study 2: n = 1153) as well as a survey of football coaches (Study 1: n = 37; Study 2: n = 25). For assessing the effect of an additional substitution in regular time and in extra time, the substitutions made in the Bundesliga, U19-Bundesliga West, DFB-Cup, and 2018 World Cup were evaluated. The findings of this research clearly indicate the potential of an additional substitution by enabling almost 50% of additional load reduction in regular time and 27% in extra time. However, in practice, the findings showed the limits of an additional substitution in extra time on long-term load reduction.
High Performance DeepFake Video Detection on CNN-Based with Attention Target-Specific Regions and Manual Distillation Extraction
Authors: Tran Van-Nhan , Lee Suk-Hwan , Le Hoanh-Su , Kwon Ki-Ryong
Published: August 2021

The rapid development of deep learning models that can produce and synthesize hyper-realistic videos are known as DeepFakes. Moreover, the growth of forgery data has prompted concerns about malevolent intent usage. Detecting forgery videos are a crucial subject in the field of digital media. Nowadays, most models are based on deep learning neural networks and vision transformer, SOTA model with EfficientNetB7 backbone. However, due to the usage of excessively large backbones, these models have the intrinsic drawback of being too heavy. In our research, a high performance DeepFake detection model for manipulated video is proposed, ensuring accuracy of the model while keeping an appropriate weight. We inherited content from previous research projects related to distillation methodology but our proposal approached in a different way with manual distillation extraction, target-specific regions extraction, data augmentation, frame and multi-region ensemble, along with suggesting a CNN-based model as well as flexible classification with a dynamic threshold. Our proposal can reduce the overfitting problem, a common and particularly important problem affecting the quality of many models. So as to analyze the quality of our model, we performed tests on two datasets. DeepFake Detection Dataset (DFDC) with our model obtains 0.958 of AUC and 0.9243 of F1-score, compared with the SOTA model which obtains 0.972 of AUC and 0.906 of F1-score, and the smaller dataset Celeb-DF v2 with 0.978 of AUC and 0.9628 of F1-score.
Maintenance Prediction through Sensing Using Hidden Markov Models—A Case Study
Authors: Martins Alexandre , Fonseca Inácio , Farinha José Torres , Reis João , Cardoso António J. Marques
Published: August 2021

The availability maximization is a goal for any organization because the equipment downtime implies high non-production costs and, additionally, the abnormal stopping and restarting usually imply loss of product’s quality. In this way, a method for predicting the equipment’s health state is vital to maintain the production flow as well as to plan maintenance intervention strategies. This paper presents a maintenance prediction approach based on sensing data managed by Hidden Markov Models (HMM). To do so, a diagnosis of drying presses in a pulp industry is used as case study, which is done based on data collected every minute for three years and ten months. This paper presents an approach to manage a multivariate analysis, in this case merging the values of sensors, and optimizing the observable states to insert into a HMM model, which permits to identify three hidden states that characterize the equipment’s health state: “Proper Function”, “Alert state”, and “Equipment Failure”. The research described in this paper demonstrates how an equipment health diagnosis can be made using the HMM, through the collection of observations from various sensors, without information of machine failures occurrences. The approach developed demonstrated to be robust, even the complexity of the system, having the potential to be generalized to any other type of equipment.
On Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Light Show Systems: Algorithms, Software and Hardware
Authors: Huang Jie , Tian Guoqing , Zhang Jiancheng , Chen Yutao
Published: August 2021

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) light shows (UAV-LS) have a wow factor due to their advantages in terms of environment friendliness and controllability compared to traditional fireworks. In this paper, a UAV-LS system is developed including a collision-free formation transformation trajectory planning algorithm, a software package that facilitates animation design and real-time monitoring and control, and hardware design and realization. In particular, a dynamic task assignment algorithm based on graph theory is proposed to reduce the impact of UAV collision avoidance on task assignment and the frequency of task assignment in the formation transformation. In addition, the software package consists of an animation interface for formation drawing and 3D animation simulation, which helps the monitoring and control of UAVs through a real-time monitoring application. The developed UAV-LS system hardware consists of subsystems of decision-making, real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS), wireless communication, and UAV platforms. Outdoor experiments using six quadrotors are performed and details of implementations of high-accuracy positioning, communication, and computation are presented. Results show that the developed UAV-LS system can successfully complete a light show and the proposed task assignment algorithm performs better than traditional static ones.
Dynamics of the Vibration System Driven by Three Homodromy Eccentric Rotors Using Control Synchronization
Authors: Chen Xiaozhe , Liu Junqi , Li Lingxuan
Published: August 2021

To solve the limitation of vibration synchronization, this paper investigates the dynamics of a vibration system driven by three homodromy eccentric rotors (ERs) using control synchronization. According to the synchronous condition and the stability condition, the changes of the phase differences of the three-ERs system and the two-third ERs system are obtained. Based on the electromechanical mathematic model of the vibration system and the master-slave control strategy, the synchronous target that three ERs achieve the same phase motion is converted into velocity and phase tracking of ERs. Considering the coupling characteristic of the self-adjusting of the system in the state of vibration synchronization, the velocity and phase controllers are designed by employing discrete-time sliding mode control. An experimental system for control synchronization is designed, including hardware composition and software programming. For the feedback signal used to match control targets, a method of calculating velocity and the phase difference is proposed from engineering. Recording the rotational velocities, phase differences, and system response, three group experiments with different control schemes are achieved. According to the experimental data, the coupling characteristic of the vibration system adopting control synchronization is analyzed, which can provide the basis for designing vibration machines using control synchronization.
Optimization of the Measurement Technique for Emissions in Reverberation Chamber Using the Equivalence Principle
Authors: De Leo Alfredo , Cerri Graziano , Russo Paola , Mariani Primiani Valter
Published: August 2021

This paper presents an optimization of a method to reconstruct the radiated emissions of an equipment under test by the measurement of the electric field samples collected on the walls of a reverberation chamber. This means that only the orthogonal component of the electric field is necessary to obtain the radiative behavior of the device in free space conditions. The use of the equivalence principle allows one to reduce the number of equivalent sources used to reconstruct the radiation of the device. In fact, in the previous version of the method, the sources are placed into the entirety of working volume of the reverberation chamber. In the current version of the method, only the surface surrounding the equipment under test is discretized. The analytical implementation of the method is proposed for a particular stirring action: the multiple monopole source stirring technique. This technique is based on an array of monopoles placed onto the walls of the cavity, and therefore no further hardware is needed for the reconstruction of the radiated emissions. The method is experimentally validated in a real scenario.
Mathematical Modeling and Computer-Aided Simulation of the Acoustic Response for Cracked Steel Specimens
Authors: Akbar Arbab , Kamran Muhammad Ahmad , Kim Jeesu , Jeong Myung Yung
Published: August 2021

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is an emerging nondestructive testing technique to evaluate ever-growing steel products and structures for safety and reliability. In this study, we have analyzed steel material with inbuilt cracks using computer-aided numerical simulations, imitating the PAI methodology. Cracks are introduced in a steel cylinder along three axes at different locations, and then a finite element method simulation in Abaqus software is performed to generate an acoustic wave and read it back at sensing locations after passing through the crack. The data are observed, analyzed, and modeled using the composite sine wave data fitting modeling technique. Afterwards, the Nelder–Mead simplex method is used to optimize the parameters of the model. It is concluded that with the change in the crack location, there is a change in the model parameters such as amplitude and frequencies. Results for cracks at seven different locations along each of the three axes are added, and listed in tabular form to present an analysis and comparison of the changes in the modeled parameters with respect to these crack locations.
Locality Preserving and Label-Aware Constraint-Based Hybrid Dictionary Learning for Image Classification
Authors: Song Jianqiang , Wang Lin , Liu Zuozhi , Liu Muhua , Zhang Mingchuan , Wu Qingtao
Published: August 2021

Dictionary learning has been an important role in the success of data representation. As a complete view of data representation, hybrid dictionary learning (HDL) is still in its infant stage. In previous HDL approaches, the scheme of how to learn an effective hybrid dictionary for image classification has not been well addressed. In this paper, we proposed a locality preserving and label-aware constraint-based hybrid dictionary learning (LPLC-HDL) method, and apply it in image classification effectively. More specifically, the locality information of the data is preserved by using a graph Laplacian matrix based on the shared dictionary for learning the commonality representation, and a label-aware constraint with group regularization is imposed on the coding coefficients corresponding to the class-specific dictionary for learning the particularity representation. Moreover, all the introduced constraints in the proposed LPLC-HDL method are based on the l2-norm regularization, which can be solved efficiently via employing an alternative optimization strategy. The extensive experiments on the benchmark image datasets demonstrate that our method is an improvement over previous competing methods on both the hand-crafted and deep features.
The Study of Thermal Properties of Blackberry, Chokeberry and Raspberry Seeds and Oils
Authors: Piasecka Iga , Górska Agata , Ostrowska-Ligęza Ewa , Kalisz Stanisław
Published: August 2021

The seeds of berry fruits are a component of fruit waste occurring in the production process. Circular economy rules focus on decreasing the amount of waste produced and reusing by-products when it is possible. To determine the possible applications of the studied fruit industry wastes, the thermal properties of berry seeds and of oil extracted from the tested material were examined. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC), and thermogravimetry (TG) of blackberry, chokeberry, and raspberry seeds were carried out. The properties of oil extracted in the Soxhlet apparatus were studied by pressure differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC), TG, and gas chromatography (GC) measurements. The results show that berry seeds lipids are from different melting fraction groups with a dominance of low-melting fraction, which consists of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. There are also occurring residues of carbohydrates and inorganic, thermostable substances in the studied seeds. A GC analysis of oil confirms that the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are most abundant and amount to 78.72 ± 0.06% in blackberry seed oil, 73.79 ± 0.14% in chokeberry seed oil, and 82.74 ± 0.03% in raspberry seed oil. The PDSC study showed that the most oxidative stable oil is blackberry seed oil, followed by raspberry and chokeberry seed oils. According to the obtained results, berry seeds can be used as a source of oil in food or other production chains. However, more detailed characteristics of berry seed oils are needed to determine their applicability.
Profile of Carotenoids and Tocopherols for the Characterization of Lipophilic Antioxidants in “Ragusano” Cheese
Authors: Rotondo Archimede , La Torre Giovanna Loredana , Bartolomeo Giovanni , Rando Rossana , Vadalà Rossella , Zimbaro Venusia , Salvo Andrea
Published: August 2021

Lipophilic antioxidants such as carotenoids and tocopherols are appreciated components in food because of their potential health benefits. The aim of this study was to describe the composition of these microconstituents in “Ragusano”, a typical Sicilian historical pasta filata cheese, and to compare them during two different production seasons. Specifically, the tocopherols’ composition was evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FD); whereas the contents of three main carotenoids were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization and mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS). The scope included studying the influence of dietary supplementation on the potential enrichment of “Ragusano” in antioxidants. The main results regarding the composition of lipophilic vitamins of 56 “Ragusano” cheeses, collected in winter and spring, revealed that α-tocopherol was the predominant component amongst tocopherols and carotenoids, while β-carotene prevailed among the carotenoids. The cheeses obtained in spring turned out to contain larger amounts of antioxidants, both tocopherols and carotenoids, while the dietary supplementation with minerals-vitamins led to a barely detectable increase of antioxidants compared to a measured control group.
Complex Maturity Method for Estimating the Concrete Strength Based on Curing Temperature, Ambient Temperature and Relative Humidity
Authors: Utepov Yelbek , Aniskin Aleksej , Tulebekova Assel , Aldungarova Aliya , Zharassov Shyngys , Sarsembayeva Assel
Published: August 2021

The maturity method is deservedly considered one of the reliable indirect methods for determining the strength at the early stages of concrete curing. The main parameter in the calculation is the internal temperature of concrete that accumulates during the chemical reaction of concrete curing, while external factors such as ambient temperature and relative humidity are fallaciously omitted. In this work, the complex maturity method was developed based on ASTM C1074, accounting for the influence of ambient temperature and relative humidity and coefficients indicating their influence weight. The laboratory testing to measure the concrete strength by compression method and non-destructive sclerometer method were performed on concrete samples according to ASTM C109, GOST 22690, and GOST 10180. According to the calibration dependence of the existing and proposed methods results in comparison with the strength of cubic samples, the highest coefficient of determination R2 = 0.976 was revealed for the complex method of maturity, which indicates its reliability in contrast with sclerometer and traditional maturity methods. The determination of complex maturity allows for an evaluation of the current state of concrete strength, but also reduces the waiting time for concrete curing and increases the economic effect during construction.
Flavonoids from Fig (Ficus carica Linn.) Leaves: The Development of a New Extraction Method and Identification by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS
Authors: Zhao Chunjian , Li Shen , Li Chunying , Wang Tingting , Tian Yao , Li Xin
Published: August 2021

Flavonoid-rich leaves of the Ficus carica L. plant are usually discarded as waste. In this work, ultrasonic enzyme-assisted aqueous two-phase extraction (UEAATPE) was proposed as an innovative method to estimate the total flavonoids present in F. carica L. leaves. Total flavonoids were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by UPLC-QTOF-MS. At 38% (w/w) ethanol/18% (w/w) ammonium sulfate, we achieved the optimum conditions in which to establish an easy-to-form aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) as the final system. The optimal UEAATPE conditions were set at an enzymatic concentration of 0.4 U/g, 150 min enzymolysis time, an enzymolysis temperature of 50 °C, a liquid–solid ratio of 20:1 (mL/g), and 30 min ultrasonic time. The yields of the total flavonoids, i.e., 60.22 mg/g, obtained by UEAATPE were found to be 1.13-fold, 1.21-fold, 1.27-fold, and 2.43-fold higher than those obtained by enzyme-assisted ATPE (EAATPE), ultrasonic-assisted ATPE (UAATPE), ATPE, and soxhlet extraction (SE) methods, respectively. Furthermore, eleven flavonoids from the leaves of the F. carica L. plant were completely identified and fully characterized. Among them, ten flavonoids have been identified for the first time from the leaves of the F. carica L. plant. These flavonoids are quercetin 3-O-hexobioside-7-O-hexoside, 2-carboxyl-1,4-naphthohydroquinone-4-O-hexoside, luteolin 6-C-hexoside, 8-C-pentoside, kaempferol 6-C-hexoside-8-C-hexoside, quercetin 6-C-hexobioside, kaempferol 6-C-hexoside-8-C-hexoside, apigenin 2″-O-pentoside, apigenin 6-C-hexoside, quercetin 3-O-hexoside, and kaempferol 3-O-hexobioside. Therefore, F. carica L. leaves contain new kinds of unidentified natural flavonoids and are a rich source of biological activity. Therefore, this research has potential applications and great value in waste handling and utilization.
A New and Simple Design Method for End-Fire Dipole Antenna Array and Three Two-Element 24 GHz Planar End-Fire Dipole Antenna Arrays
Authors: Mao Yanfei , E Shiju , Zhu Chungeng
Published: August 2021

For an RF system, a high-gain antenna helps to improve the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the transmitter and an end-fire antenna array helps to improve the directivity (D) and half power beam width (HP) of the antenna. This work presents a new and simple design method for end-fire antenna array design. The method states that when antenna elements are λ/2 apart, a simple end-fire antenna array could be designed and constructed easily without matching networks between antenna elements. Utilizing Rogers 4350 PCB technology, three 24 GHz high-gain, compact planar two-element end-fire dipole antenna arrays are designed to verify this new design method. The achieved results are three two-element end-fire antennas with gains of 8.8, 9.9 and 9.1 dBi. These antenna arrays are characterized by high gain and simplicity in design. They are also very compact in size, with an area of about 1.9 × 1.7 cm2. The benefit of this work is that a new and simple design for end-fire antenna design is suggested, and three two-element end-fire dipole antenna arrays in planar technology which adopt the design method are presented. A utility model patent was granted for this end-fire dipole array antenna topology, ZL 202022106332.1.
Design and Experimental Evaluation of an Electrorheological Haptic Module with Embedded Sensing
Authors: Mazursky Alex , Koo Jeong-Hoi , Mason Taylor , Woo Sam-Yong , Yang Tae-Heon
Published: August 2021

We present a miniature haptic module based on electrorheological fluid, designed for conveying combined stiffness and vibrotactile sensations at a small scale. Haptic feedback is produced through electrorheological fluid’s controllable resistive force and varies with the actuator’s deformation. To demonstrate the proposed actuator’s feedback in realistic applications, a method for measuring the actuator’s deformation must be implemented for active control. To this end, in this study, we incorporate a sensor design based on a bend-sensitive resistive film to the ER haptic actuator. The combined actuator and sensor module was tested for its ability to simultaneously actuate and sense the actuator’s state under indentation. The results show that the bend sensor can accurately track the actuator’s displacement over its stroke. Thus, the proposed sensor may enable control of the output resistive force according to displacement, which may lead to more informed and engaging combined kinesthetic and tactile feedback.
Low-Cost and Easily Fabricated Ultrasound-Guided Breast Phantom for Breast Biopsy Training
Authors: Ng Si Yen , Kuo Yao-Lung , Lin Chi-Lun
Published: August 2021

We aimed to develop an inexpensive and easy-to-fabricate gelatin-based training phantom for improving the breast biopsy skill and confidence level of residents. Young’s modulus and acoustic properties of the gelatin tissue phantom and simulated tumors were investigated. Six residents were requested to evaluate the effectiveness of the breast phantom. The results showed that 83% (n = 5) of the participants agreed that the ultrasound image quality produced by the breast phantom was excellent or good. Only 17% (n = 1) of the participants claimed that there was room for improvement for the haptic feedback they received during the placement of the core needle into the breast phantom. The mean pre-instructional score was 17% (SD 17%) for all participants. The mean post-instructional score was 83% (SD 17%), giving an overall improvement of 67%. In conclusion, the mean needle biopsy skill and confidence levels of the participants substantially increased through simulation training on our breast phantom. The participants’ feedback showed the phantom is sufficiently realistic in terms of ultrasound imaging and haptic feedback during needle insertion; thus, the training outcome can be linked to the performance of residents when they perform a live biopsy.
Performance Estimation of Intensity Accumulation Display by Computer-Generated Holograms
Authors: Liu Jung-Ping , Lin Yu-Chih , Jiao Shuming , Poon Ting-Chung
Published: August 2021

The image generated by binary computer-generated holograms (CGHs) always suffers from serious speckle noise. Thanks to the fast frame rate of the binary spatial light modulator, the speckle can be significantly suppressed by intensity accumulation, i.e., the sequential display of multiple CGHs of the same scene. If enough randomness is added to the CGHs, the speckle noise can be mostly averaged out. Intuitively, the quality of the reconstructed image should be proportional to the number of intensity accumulation. However, there is no simple method to predict the dependence of the average noise and accumulation number, and we can only know the results after finishing the full computation. In this paper, we propose an empirical formula of the average noise based on the speckle phenomenon in a laser projector. Using this model, we have confirmed that the randomness induced by random phase is equivalent to that induced by random down-sampling for the generation of binary CGHs. In addition, if the computational efficiency is a concern, the CGH calculated with iterations is not recommended for intensity accumulation display. Finally, there is an upper-quality limit of the reconstructed image by intensity accumulation. Thus, a strategy for efficient intensity accumulation is suggested.
Theoretical Methane Emission Estimation from Volatile Fatty Acids in Bovine Rumen Fluid
Authors: Lee Sang-Ryong , Cho Yunseo , Ju Hyuck K. , Kim Eunjeong
Published: August 2021

Methane production from livestock farming is recognized as an important contributor to global GHGs. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) found in bovine rumen may be utilized as a substrate for methanogens to form CH4, and thus improvement of quantitative VFA measurements can help facilitate greater understanding and mitigation of CH4 production. This study aims to contribute to the development of more accurate methods for the quantification and specification of VFAs in bovine rumen. The VFAs were analyzed using the conventional method and an alternative catalytic esterification reaction (CER) method. Substantial differences in the detected concentrations of the C3+ VFAs (chain length ≥ 3) were observed between both methods, especially for butyric acid. Evaluation of the sensitivity of both methods to detecting the VFA concentrations in standard solutions confirmed that the values resulting from the CER method were closer to the known concentrations of the standard solution than those from the conventional method. The results of this study provide the first quantitative proof to show the improved accuracy of the measurements of C3+ VFAs when using the CER method compared with the conventional method. Therefore, the CER method can be recommended to analyze the VFAs found in rumen, especially butyric acid and other C3+ VFAs.
6mAPred-MSFF: A Deep Learning Model for Predicting DNA N6-Methyladenine Sites across Species Based on a Multi-Scale Feature Fusion Mechanism
Authors: Zeng Rao , Liao Minghong
Published: August 2021

DNA methylation is one of the most extensive epigenetic modifications. DNA N6-methyladenine (6mA) plays a key role in many biology regulation processes. An accurate and reliable genome-wide identification of 6mA sites is crucial for systematically understanding its biological functions. Some machine learning tools can identify 6mA sites, but their limited prediction accuracy and lack of robustness limit their usability in epigenetic studies, which implies the great need of developing new computational methods for this problem. In this paper, we developed a novel computational predictor, namely the 6mAPred-MSFF, which is a deep learning framework based on a multi-scale feature fusion mechanism to identify 6mA sites across different species. In the predictor, we integrate the inverted residual block and multi-scale attention mechanism to build lightweight and deep neural networks. As compared to existing predictors using traditional machine learning, our deep learning framework needs no prior knowledge of 6mA or manually crafted sequence features and sufficiently capture better characteristics of 6mA sites. By benchmarking comparison, our deep learning method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on the 5-fold cross-validation test on the seven datasets of six species, demonstrating that the proposed 6mAPred-MSFF is more effective and generic. Specifically, our proposed 6mAPred-MSFF gives the sensitivity and specificity of the 5-fold cross-validation on the 6mA-rice-Lv dataset as 97.88% and 94.64%, respectively. Our model trained with the rice data predicts well the 6mA sites of other five species: Arabidopsis thaliana, Fragaria vesca, Rosa chinensis, Homo sapiens, and Drosophila melanogaster with a prediction accuracy 98.51%, 93.02%, and 91.53%, respectively. Moreover, via experimental comparison, we explored performance impact by training and testing our proposed model under different encoding schemes and feature descriptors.
A Comparison between Particle Swarm and Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithms for Improving the Battery Autonomy in a Photovoltaic System
Authors: Kraiem Habib , Aymen Flah , Yahya Lobna , Triviño Alicia , Alharthi Mosleh , Ghoneim Sherif S. M.
Published: August 2021

This research focuses on a photovoltaic system that powers an Electric Vehicle when moving in realistic scenarios with partial shading conditions. The main goal is to find an efficient control scheme to allow the solar generator producing the maximum amount of power achievable. The first contribution of this paper is the mathematical modelling of the photovoltaic system, its function and its features, considering the synthesis of the step-up converter and the maximum power point tracking analysis. This research looks at two intelligent control strategies to get the most power out, even with shading areas. Specifically, we show how to apply two evolutionary algorithms for this control. They are the “particle swarm optimization method” and the “grey wolf optimization method”. These algorithms were tested and evaluated when a battery storage system in an Electric Vehicle is fed through a photovoltaic system. The Simulink/Matlab tool is used to execute the simulation phases and to quantify the performances of each of these control systems. Based on our simulation tests, the best method is identified.
KGGCN: Knowledge-Guided Graph Convolutional Networks for Distantly Supervised Relation Extraction
Authors: Mao Ningyi , Huang Wenti , Zhong Hai
Published: August 2021

Distantly supervised relation extraction is the most popular technique for identifying semantic relation between two entities. Most prior models only focus on the supervision information present in training sentences. In addition to training sentences, external lexical resource and knowledge graphs often contain other relevant prior knowledge. However, relation extraction models usually ignore such readily available information. Moreover, previous works only utilize a selective attention mechanism over sentences to alleviate the impact of noise, they lack the consideration of the implicit interaction between sentences with relation facts. In this paper, (1) a knowledge-guided graph convolutional network is proposed based on the word-level attention mechanism to encode the sentences. It can capture the key words and cue phrases to generate expressive sentence-level features by attending to the relation indicators obtained from the external lexical resource. (2) A knowledge-guided sentence selector is proposed, which explores the semantic and structural information of triples from knowledge graph as sentence-level knowledge attention to distinguish the importance of each individual sentence. Experimental results on two widely used datasets, NYT-FB and GDS, show that our approach is able to efficiently use the prior knowledge from the external lexical resource and knowledge graph to enhance the performance of distantly supervised relation extraction.