bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mind the Gap: Professionalization is the Key to Strengthening Safety and Leadership in the Construction Sector
Authors: Romero Álvaro , González María de las Nieves , Segarra María , Villena Blasa María , Rodríguez Ángel
Published: June 2019

The aim of this paper is to analyze the reality of risk prevention in construction sector companies in Spain, from the perspective of training, management, and risk prevention, as well as the amount of resources that are allocated to those budget headings. An in-depth comparative review has been conducted, using the data obtained from two focus groups that were expressly created for the study, in conjunction with the Second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emergent Risks (ESENER-2) and its Spanish counterpart (ESENER-2 Spain). The focus groups were formed with agents and entrepreneurs involved in the construction sector, from both the public and the private sector, in order to provide greater impartiality to the resulting data. The principal strategic indicators that served as a guideline for the moderators of the different focus groups were analyzed. The results obtained show great similarity between the data from the focus groups and the data from ESENER-2 and ESENER-2 Spain; which demonstrates the idiosyncrasies that surround this productive sector in the European setting, so badly treated by the economic crisis. All of these points highlight the imperative need to professionalize the construction sector, implementing a “risk prevention culture” among all of the agents involved in the constructive-preventive processes that surround construction activities.
Research on the Construction Method of the Service-Oriented Web-SWMM System
Authors: Xiao Dawei , Chen Min , Lu Yuchen , Yue Songshan , Hou Tao
Published: June 2019

On a global scale, with the acceleration of urbanization and the continuous expansion of cities, the problem of urban flooding has become increasingly prominent. An increasing number of experts and scholars have begun to focus on this phenomenon and build corresponding models to solve the problem. The storm water management model 5 (SWMM5) is a dynamic rainfall-runoff simulation model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); this model simulates urban flooding and drainage well and is widely favored by researchers. However, the use of SWMM5 is relatively cumbersome and limited by the operational platform, and these factors hinder the further promotion and sharing of SWMM5. Based on the OpenGMS platform, this study first encapsulates, deploys, and publishes SWMM5 and further builds the Web-SWMM system for the model. With Web-SWMM, the user can conveniently use network data resources online and call SWMM5 to carry out calculations, avoiding the difficulties caused by the localized use of SWMM5 and enabling the sharing and reuse of SWMM5.
Proteolytic Regulation of Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein: Functional Implications for Skeletal Malignancy
Authors: Frieling Jeremy , Lynch Conor
Published: June 2019

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), with isoforms ranging from 139 to 173 amino acids, has long been implicated in the development and regulation of multiple tissues, including that of the skeleton, via paracrine and autocrine signaling. PTHrP is also known as a potent mediator of cancer-induced bone disease, contributing to a vicious cycle between tumor cells and the bone microenvironment that drives the formation and progression of metastatic lesions. The abundance of roles ascribed to PTHrP have largely been attributed to the N-terminal 1–36 amino acid region, however, activities for mid-region and C-terminal products as well as additional shorter N-terminal species have also been described. Studies of the protein sequence have indicated that PTHrP is susceptible to post-translational proteolytic cleavage by multiple classes of proteases with emerging evidence pointing to novel functional roles for these PTHrP products in regulating cell behavior in homeostatic and pathological contexts. As a consequence, PTHrP products are also being explored as potential biomarkers of disease. Taken together, our enhanced understanding of the post-translational regulation of PTHrP bioactivity could assist in developing new therapeutic approaches that can effectively treat skeletal malignancies.
Gold Nanoparticles with Different Particle Sizes for the Quantitative Determination of Chlorpyrifos Residues in Soil by SERS
Authors: He Yong , Xiao Shupei , Dong Tao , Nie Pengcheng
Published: June 2019

Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is widely used in the prevention and control of crop pests and diseases in agriculture. However, the irrational utilization of pesticides not only causes environmental pollution but also threatens human health. Compared with the conventional techniques for the determination of pesticides in soil, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has shown great potential in ultrasensitive and chemical analysis. Therefore, this paper reported a simple method for synthesizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with different sizes used as a SERS substrate for the determination of CPF residues in soil for the first time. The results showed that there was a good linear correlation between the SERS characteristic peak intensity of CPF and particle size of the AuNPs with an R2 of 0.9973. Moreover, the prepared AuNPs performed great ultrasensitivity, reproducibility and chemical stability, and the limit of detection (LOD) of the CPF was found to be as low as 10 μg/L. Furthermore, the concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 10 mg/L were easily observed by SERS with the prepared AuNPs and the SERS intensity showed a good linear relationship with an R2 of 0.985. The determination coefficient (Rp2) reached 0.977 for CPF prediction using the partial least squares regression (PLSR) model and the LOD of CPF residues in soil was found to be as low as 0.025 mg/kg. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 3.69% and the recovery ranged from 97.5 to 103.3%. In summary, this simple method for AuNPs fabrication with ultrasensitivity and reproducibility confirms that the SERS is highly promising for the determination of soil pesticide residues.
Conservation of Small Regulatory RNAs in Vibrio parahaemolyticus: Possible role of RNA-OUT Encoded by the Pathogenicity Island (VPaI-7) of Pandemic Strains
Authors: Plaza Nicolás , Pérez-Reytor Diliana , Ramírez-Araya Sebastián , Pavón Alequis , Corsini Gino , Loyola David E. , Jaña Víctor , Pavéz Leonardo , Navarrete Paola , Bastías Roberto , Castillo Daniel , García Katherine
Published: June 2019

Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are molecules that play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. sRNAs in bacteria can affect important processes, such as metabolism and virulence. Previous studies showed a significant role of sRNAs in the Vibrio species, but knowledge about Vibrio parahaemolyticus is limited. Here, we examined the conservation of sRNAs between V. parahaemolyticus and other human Vibrio species, in addition to investigating the conservation between V. parahaemolyticus strains differing in pandemic origin. Our results showed that only 7% of sRNAs were conserved between V. parahaemolyticus and other species, but 88% of sRNAs were highly conserved within species. Nonetheless, two sRNAs coding to RNA-OUT, a component of the Tn10/IS10 system, were exclusively present in pandemic strains. Subsequent analysis showed that both RNA-OUT were located in pathogenicity island-7 and would interact with transposase VPA1379, according to the model of pairing of IS10-encoded antisense RNAs. According to the location of RNA-OUT/VPA1379, we also investigated if they were expressed during infection. We observed that the transcriptional level of VPA1379 was significantly increased, while RNA-OUT was decreased at three hours post-infection. We suggest that IS10 transcription increases in pandemic strains during infection, probably to favor IS10 transposition and improve their fitness when they are facing adverse conditions.
Enhanced Ganoderic Acids Accumulation and Transcriptional Responses of Biosynthetic Genes in Ganoderma lucidum Fruiting Bodies by Elicitation Supplementation
Authors: Meng Li , Bai Xiaoran , Zhang Shaoyan , Zhang Mengfei , Zhou Sen , Mukhtar Irum , Wang Li , Li Zhuang , Wang Wei
Published: June 2019

Ganoderic acids (GAs) are a type of highly oxygenated lanostane-type triterpenoids that are responsible for the pharmacological activities of Ganoderma lucidum. They have been investigated for their biological activities, including antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor, anti-HIV-1, antioxidation, and cholesterol reduction functions. Inducer supplementation is viewed as a promising technology for the production of GAs. This study found that supplementation with sodium acetate (4 mM) significantly increased the GAs content of fruiting bodies by 28.63% compared to the control. In order to explore the mechanism of ganoderic acid accumulation, the transcriptional responses of key GAs biosynthetic genes, including the acetyl coenzyme A synthase gene, and the expression levels of genes involved in calcineurin signaling and acetyl-CoA content have been analyzed. The results showed that the expression of three key GAs biosynthetic genes (hmgs, fps, and sqs) were significantly up-regulated. Analysis indicated that the acetate ion increased the expression of genes related to acetic acid assimilation and increased GAs biosynthesis, thereby resulting in the accumulation of GAs. Further investigation of the expression levels of genes involved in calcineurin signaling revealed that Na+ supplementation and the consequent exchange of Na+/Ca2+ induced GAs biosynthesis. Overall, this study indicates a feasible new approach of utilizing sodium acetate elicitation for the enhanced production of valuable GAs content in G. lucidum, and also provided the primary mechanism of GAs accumulation.
Urban Drainage Networks Rehabilitation Using Multi-Objective Model and Search Space Reduction Methodology
Authors: Ngamalieu-Nengoue Ulrich A. , Iglesias-Rey Pedro L. , Martínez-Solano F. Javier
Published: June 2019

The drainage network always needs to adapt to environmental and climatic conditions to provide best quality services. Rehabilitation combining pipes substitution and storm tanks installation appears to be a good solution to overcome this problem. Unfortunately, the calculation time of such a rehabilitation scenario is too elevated for single-objective and multi-objective optimization. In this study, a methodology composed by search space reduction methodology whose purpose is to decrease the number of decision variables of the problem to solve and a multi-objective optimization whose purpose is to optimize the rehabilitation process and represent Pareto fronts as the result of urban drainage networks optimization is proposed. A comparison between different model results for multi-objective optimization is made. To obtain these results, Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is first connected to a Pseudo Genetic Algorithm (PGA) for the search space reduction and then to a Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) for multi-objective optimization. Pareto fronts are designed for investment costs instead of flood damage costs. The methodology is applied to a real network in the city of Medellin in Colombia. The results show that search space reduction methodology provides models with a considerably reduced number of decision variables. The multi-objective optimization shows that the models’ results used after the search space reduction obtain better outcomes than in the complete model in terms of calculation time and optimality of the solutions.
Differences in the Effectiveness of Long-Acting Injection and Orally Administered Antipsychotics in Reducing Rehospitalization among Patients with Schizophrenia Receiving Home Care Services
Authors: Hsu Hsiao-Fen , Kao Chia-Chan , Lu Ti , Ying Jeremy C. , Lee Sheng-Yu
Published: June 2019

The current study explored the differences in the effectiveness of first and second generation long-acting injections and orally administered antipsychotics in reducing the rehospitalization rate among patients with schizophrenia receiving home care services in a medical center in Southern Taiwan. Longitudinal data between 1 January 2006, and 31 December 2015, were collected retrospectively. Patients were classified into three treatment groups: First generation antipsychotic (FGA) long-acting injection (LAI), second generation antipsychotic long-acting injection (SGA) (LAI), and oral antipsychotics. The primary outcomes were the rehospitalization rate and the follow-up time (duration of receiving home care services) until psychiatric rehospitalization. A total of 78 patients with schizophrenia were recruited. The average observation time was about 40 months. The oral treatment group tended to be older with a higher number of female patients and a lower level of education. The FGA treatment group tended to have a higher frequency and duration of hospitalization before receiving home care services. We found no significant differences in the follow-up time or psychiatric rehospitalization rate after receiving home care services among the three treatment groups. We propose that oral and LAI antipsychotics were equally effective when patients received home care services. Our results can serve as a reference for the choice of treatment for patients with schizophrenia in a home care program.
Drop of Butyrylcholinesterase Activity after Cyclophosphamide Conditioning as a Predictive Marker of Liver Transplant-Related Complications and Its Correlation with Transplant-Related Mortality in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Recipients
Authors: Maximova Natalia , Caddeo Giulia , Zanon Davide , Maestro Alessandra , Simeone Roberto
Published: June 2019

Transplant-related liver complications are a potentially fatal condition of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in pediatric patients, actually representing one of the main factors involved in transplant-related mortality (TRM). The search for a specific marker capable of predicting the development of this condition is a relevant clinical issue. We have observed a variable reduction in serum butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity after a cyclophosphamide-containing conditioning regimen. This study aims to determine the cutoff of BChE activity reduction that might be a specific prognostic marker for liver complications after HSCT. Our results show that the reduction of BChE values below 2000 U/L the day before the transplantation is an indicator strongly associated with the transplant-related liver complications (p < 0.0001). The incidence of overall survival at 1 year was significantly higher in the BChE > 2000 U/L group compared to the BChE < 2000 U/L group (84.7% versus 58.5%, p < 0.001), while the TRM rate was significantly lower (8.1% versus 23.1%, p < 0.05). None of the patients undergoing prophylaxis with defibrotide developed severe liver complications. Starting defibrotide treatment at the first signs of hepatic dysfunction in patients with particularly low BChE activity levels reduces severe liver transplant-related complications.
Mechanical Properties of Natural Rubber Filled with Foundry Waste Derived Fillers
Authors: Xie Ting , Wang Fajun , Xie Chan , Lei Sheng , Yu Shijin , Liu Jiawei , Huang Daqi
Published: June 2019

The main aim of this study is to evaluate the possibility of applying foundry dust (FD) derived filler for the preparation of natural rubber (NR) based composites by characterizing the mechanical properties. The as-received FD was processed via a simple and low-cost procedure, including sieving, deironing and milling using a variety of industrial equipment. FD powders before and after silane coupling agent (Si 69) modification were used as fillers for NR. NR composites inserted with different content of modified and unmodified FD up to 50 phr were prepared via dry-mixing method. Then, comprehensive mechanical performances were performed on the corresponding vulcanizates. It was demonstrated that NR composite filled with 50 phr of modified FD exhibited optimized comprehensive mechanical performance. Tear strength and hardness is increased by 21.3% and 12.8% than pure NR, respectively. Tensile strength is reduced by 21% and elongation at break remained nearly unchanged. Additionally, the composite showed a large increment of 50.9% for its wet grip property, while exhibited an increment of only 11.9% for its rolling resistance in comparison with the composite containing 10 phr of FD. The findings of this study may provide a new application area for the large amounts of utilization of foundry waste with a high level of value being added.
Controlling Power Consumption in a Heterogeneous Population Model of TCLs with Diffusion: The Green’s Function Approach
Authors: Hossain Md Musabbir , Zh. Khurshudyan Asatur
Published: June 2019

We consider a control problem for a diffusive PDE model of heterogeneous population of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) aiming to balance the aggregate power consumption within a given amount of time. Using the Green’s function approach, the problem is formulated as an approximate controllability problem for a residue depending on control parameters nonlinearly. A sufficient condition for approximate controllability is derived in terms of initial temperature distribution, operation time of TCLs and threshold value of the aggregate power consumption. Case studies allow to reveal the advantages of the proposed solution from numerical calculations point of view.
An Empirical Test on Harrod’s Open Economy Dynamics
Authors: Orlando Giuseppe , Della Rossa Fabio
Published: June 2019

This paper has the objective to empirically test Harrod’s explanations of economic dynamics addressing both growth and business cycles. In particular we test Harrod’s speculation that opening the economy to foreign trade could lead to a reduction of cyclical instability. The main variables determining the dynamic behaviour are wealth, savings, competitiveness and, therefore, balance of trade. The behaviour of the model under scrutiny is highly non-linear and the conclusion is that stable cycles are possible only under particular conditions. In fact, this empirical test shows a stable long-run pattern for those specific parameters.
The Mixed Scalar Curvature of a Twisted Product Riemannian Manifolds and Projective Submersions
Authors: Rovenski Vladimir , Stepanov Sergey , Tsyganok Irina
Published: June 2019

In the present paper, we study twisted and warped products of Riemannian manifolds. As an application, we consider projective submersions of Riemannian manifolds, since any Riemannian manifold admitting a projective submersion is necessarily a twisted product of some two Riemannian manifolds.
Pre-Dual of Fofana’s Spaces
Authors: Feichtinger Hans G. , Feuto Justin
Published: June 2019

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the pre-dual of the spaces introduced by I. Fofana on the basis of Wiener amalgam spaces. These spaces have a specific dilation behaviour similar to the spaces L α ( R d ) . The characterization of the pre-dual will be based on the idea of minimal invariant spaces (with respect to such a group of dilation operators).
Production of New Antibacterial 4-Hydroxy-α-Pyrones by a Marine Fungus Aspergillus niger Cultivated in Solid Medium
Authors: Ding Lijian , Ren Lu , Li Shuang , Song Jingjing , Han Zhiwen , He Shan , Xu Shihai
Published: June 2019

Four 4-hydroxy-α-pyrones including three new ones named nipyrones A–C (1–3) together with one known analogue germicidin C (4) were discovered from a marine sponge-derived fungus Aspergillus niger cultivated in a solid rice culture. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated through a combination of spectroscopic data and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations as well as comparison with literature data. Compounds 1–4 were evaluated for their antibacterial activities against five pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Compound 3 showed promising activity against S. aureus and B. subtilis, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 8 μg/mL and 16 μg/mL, respectively, and displayed weak antitubercular activities against M. tuberculosis, with MIC value of 64 μg/mL, while compounds 1 and 2 exhibited moderate antibacterial efficacy against four pathogenic bacteria with MIC values of 32–64 μg/mL.
Characterization of Bulk Phosphatidylcholine Compositions in Human Plasma Using Side-Chain Resolving Lipidomics
Authors: Quell Jan D. , Römisch-Margl Werner , Haid Mark , Krumsiek Jan , Skurk Thomas , Halama Anna , Stephan Nisha , Adamski Jerzy , Hauner Hans , Mook-Kanamori Dennis , Mohney Robert P. , Daniel Hannelore , Suhre Karsten , Kastenmüller Gabi
Published: June 2019

Kit-based assays, such as AbsoluteIDQTM p150, are widely used in large cohort studies and provide a standardized method to quantify blood concentrations of phosphatidylcholines (PCs). Many disease-relevant associations of PCs were reported using this method. However, their interpretation is hampered by lack of functionally-relevant information on the detailed fatty acid side-chain compositions as only the total number of carbon atoms and double bonds is identified by the kit. To enable more substantiated interpretations, we characterized these PC sums using the side-chain resolving LipidyzerTM platform, analyzing 223 samples in parallel to the AbsoluteIDQTM. Combining these datasets, we estimated the quantitative composition of PC sums and subsequently tested their replication in an independent cohort. We identified major constituents of 28 PC sums, revealing also various unexpected compositions. As an example, PC 16:0_22:5 accounted for more than 50% of the PC sum with in total 38 carbon atoms and 5 double bonds (PC aa 38:5). For 13 PC sums, we found relatively high abundances of odd-chain fatty acids. In conclusion, our study provides insights in PC compositions in human plasma, facilitating interpretation of existing epidemiological data sets and potentially enabling imputation of PC compositions for future meta-analyses of lipidomics data.
Secondary Metabolites of Aeromonas veronii Strain A134 Isolated from a Microcystis aeruginosa Bloom
Authors: Weiss Gad , Kovalerchick Dimitry , Murik Omer , Sukenik Assaf , Kaplan Aaron , Carmeli Shmuel
Published: June 2019

Aeromonas veronii strain A134 was isolated from Microcystis aeruginosa colonies collected from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. The Aeromonas culture media inhibited the growth of M. aeruginosa (strain MGK). The crude extract of a large-scale culture of A. veronii A134 was separated in a few chromatographic steps to yield three new secondary metabolites, 9-chlorolumichrome (1), veronimide (2) and veronipyrazine (3), along with a known lumichrome and several known diketopiperazines. The structures of the new compounds were established by analyses of the data from 1D and 2D NMR experiments and HRMS data of the compounds, as well as a single-crystal X-ray analysis of synthetic 1. The structure elucidation and proposed biogenesis of the new compounds are described below.
The Influence of Microfungi on the Mycelial Growth of Ectomycorrhizal Fungus Tricholoma matsutake
Authors: Oh Seung-Yoon , Park Myung Soo , Lim Young Woon
Published: June 2019

Pine mushroom (Tricholoma matsutake) is one of the most valued ectomycorrhizal fungi in Asia because of its unique pine-like aroma; however, due to exceptionally slow growth of its mycelia in artificial conditions, its cultivation has been largely deemed as not possible. Previous studies have shown that some bacteria and a few Trichoderma species associated with pine mushroom promoted the growth of T. matsutake isolate, but this effect is relatively unexplored. In this study, we investigated the diversity of microfungi in the fairy ring of T. matsutake and their effect on the growth of T. matsutake isolate. From 184 fungal isolates, 28 species were identified based on suitable molecular markers. Penicillium was most frequently observed (16 species), followed by Trichoderma (4 species). Five Zygomycota species showed a high promoting effect on the growth of T. matsutake while the effects of ascomycetes were mixed. The microfungi that promote the growth of T. matsutake can be useful for forest nursery and artificial cultivation of T. matsutake.
Characterization of Sinomonas gamaensis sp. nov., a Novel Soil Bacterium with Antifungal Activity against Exserohilum turcicum
Authors: Fu Yansong , Yan Rui , Liu Dongli , Zhao Junwei , Song Jia , Wang Xiangjing , Cui Lin , Zhang Ji , Xiang Wensheng
Published: June 2019

A novel Gram staining positive, aerobic bacterium NEAU-HV1T that exhibits antifungal activity against Exserohilum turcicum was isolated from a soil collected from Gama, Hadjer lamis, Chad. It was grown at 10–45 °C (optimum 30 °C), pH 5–10 (optimum pH 8), and 0–4% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain NEAU-HV1T was closely related to Sinomonas susongensis A31T (99.24% sequence similarity), Sinomonas humi MUSC 117T (98.76%), and Sinomonas albida LC13T (98.68%). The average nucleotide identity values between NEAU-HV1T and its most closely related species were 79.34−85.49%. The digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between NEAU-HV1T and S. susongensis A31T, S. albida LC13T, and S. humi MUSC 117T were 23.20, 23.50, and 22.80%, respectively, again indicating that they belonged to different taxa. The genomic DNA G+C content was 67.64 mol%. The whole cell sugars contained galactose, mannose, and rhamnose. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, and four glycolipids. The respiratory quinone system comprised MK-9(H2), MK-10(H2), and MK-8(H2). The major cellular fatty acids (>5%) were anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, C16:0, and iso-C15:0. Based on the polyphasic analysis, it is suggested that the strain NEAU-HV1T represents a novel species of the genus Sinomonas, for which the name Sinomonas gamaensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-HV1T (= DSM 104514T = CCTCC M 2017246T).
Obesity and the Mediterranean Diet: A Review of Evidence of the Role and Sustainability of the Mediterranean Diet
Authors: D’Innocenzo Santa , Biagi Carlotta , Lanari Marcello
Published: June 2019

Several different socio-economic factors have caused a large portion of the population to adopt unhealthy eating habits that can undermine healthcare systems, unless current trends are inverted towards more sustainable lifestyle models. Even though a dietary plan inspired by the principles of the Mediterranean Diet is associated with numerous health benefits and has been demonstrated to exert a preventive effect towards numerous pathologies, including obesity, its use is decreasing and it is now being supplanted by different nutritional models that are often generated by cultural and social changes. Directing governments’ political actions towards spreading adherence to the Mediterranean Diet’s principles as much as possible among the population could help to tackle the obesity epidemic, especially in childhood. This document intends to reiterate the importance of acting in certain age groups to stop the spread of obesity and proceeds with a critical review of the regulatory instruments used so far, bearing in mind the importance of the scientific evidence that led to the consideration of the Mediterranean Diet as not just a food model, but also as the most appropriate regime for disease prevention, a sort of complete lifestyle plan for the pursuit of healthcare sustainability.
Delivery of Poorly Soluble Drugs via Mesoporous Silica: Impact of Drug Overloading on Release and Thermal Profiles
Authors: Le Tuan-Tu , Elzhry Elyafi Abdul Khaliq , Mohammed Afzal R. , Al-Khattawi Ali
Published: June 2019

Among the many methods available for solubility enhancement, mesoporous carriers are generating significant industrial interest. Owing to the spatial confinement of drug molecules within the mesopore network, low solubility crystalline drugs can be converted into their amorphous counterparts, which exhibit higher solubility. This work aims to understand the impact of drug overloading, i.e., above theoretical monolayer surface coverage, within mesoporous silica on the release behaviour and the thermal properties of loaded drugs. The study also looks at the inclusion of hypromellose acetate succinate (HPMCAS) to improve amorphisation. Various techniques including DSC, TGA, SEM, assay and dissolution were employed to investigate critical formulation factors of drug-loaded mesoporous silica prepared at drug loads of 100–300% of monolayer surface coverage, i.e., monolayer, double layer and triple layer coverage. A significant improvement in the dissolution of both Felodipine and Furosemide was obtained (96.4% and 96.2%, respectively). However, incomplete drug release was also observed at low drug load in both drugs, possibly due to a reversible adsorption to mesoporous silica. The addition of a polymeric precipitation inhibitor HPMCAS to mesoporous silica did not promote amorphisation. In fact, a partial coating of HPMCAS was observed on the exterior surface of mesoporous silica particles, which resulted in slower release for both drugs.
Pharmacists’ Knowledge Regarding Drug Disposal in Karbala
Authors: Albaroodi Khansaa A. Ibrahim
Published: June 2019

Background: Consumers and caregivers should remove expired, or unwanted, medications to minimize the chance for misuse or accidentally using those medicines. This study investigated pharmacists’ knowledge regarding drug disposal in Karbala, Iraq. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey among pharmacists in Karbala. It was performed from December 2018 until January 2019. A standardized, 12-item, self-administered questionnaire was designed, developed and validated to assess pharmacists’ knowledge when generating pharmaceutical waste in pharmacies. Results: One hundred twenty-nine participants enrolled in the study. The mean age of participants was 33 ± 9.3 years—more than two-thirds (65.9%)—agreed that the return of medications to the source would be appropriate drug disposal. A good proportion of participants agreed with disposing of drugs in the trash. Further, 63.6% believe that education is the main barrier opposing the implementation of a medicine–take–back program in Iraq. Conclusion: Pharmacists had relatively poor knowledge regarding drug disposal methods. Health care providers (not only pharmacists) need educational courses and workshops to improve their knowledge regarding medication disposal in Iraq.
Waterlogging Causes Early Modification in the Physiological Performance, Carotenoids, Chlorophylls, Proline, and Soluble Sugars of Cucumber Plants
Authors: Barickman T. Casey , Simpson Catherine R. , Sams Carl E.
Published: June 2019

Waterlogging occurs because of poor soil drainage and/or excessive rainfall and is a serious abiotic stress affecting plant growth because of declining oxygen supplied to submerged tissues. Although cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is sensitive to waterlogging, its ability to generate adventitious roots facilitates gas diffusion and increases plant survival when oxygen concentrations are low. To understand the physiological responses to waterlogging, a 10-day waterlogging experiment was conducted. The objective of this study was to measure the photosynthetic and key metabolites of cucumber plants under waterlogging conditions for 10 days. Plants were also harvested at the end of 10 days and analyzed for plant height (ht), leaf number and area, fresh mass (FM), dry mass (DM), chlorophyll (Chl), carotenoid (CAR), proline, and soluble sugars. Results indicated that cucumber plants subjected to the 10-day waterlogging stress conditions were stunted, had fewer leaves, and decreased leaf area, FM, and DM. There were differences in physiological performance, Chl, CAR, proline, and soluble sugars. Overall, waterlogging stress decreased net photosynthesis (A), having a negative effect on biomass accumulation. However, these decreases were also dependent on other factors, such as plant size, morphology, and water use efficiency (WUE) that played a role in the overall metabolism of the plant.
Expanding Avenue of Fast Neutron Mediated Mutagenesis for Crop Improvement
Authors: Kumawat Surbhi , Rana Nitika , Bansal Ruchi , Vishwakarma Gautam , Mehetre Sayaji T. , Das Bikram Kishore , Kumar Manish , Yadav Satish Kumar , Sonah Humira , Sharma Tilak Raj , Deshmukh Rupesh
Published: June 2019

Fast neutron (FN) radiation mediated mutagenesis is a unique approach among the several induced mutagenesis methods being used in plant science in terms of impacted mutations. The FN mutagenesis usually creates deletions from few bases to several million bases (Mb). A library of random deletion generated using FN mutagenesis lines can provide indispensable resources for the reverse genetic approaches. In this review, information from several efforts made using FN mutagenesis has been compiled to understand the type of induced mutations, frequency, and genetic stability. Concerns regarding the utilization of FN mutagenesis technique for a plant with different level of ploidy and genome complexity are discussed. We have highlighted the utility of next-generation sequencing techniques that can be efficiently utilized for the characterization of mutant lines as well as for the mapping of causal mutations. Pros and cons of mapping by mutation (MutMap), mutant chromosome sequencing (MutChromSeq), exon capture, whole genome sequencing, MutRen-Seq, and different tilling approaches that can be used for the detection of FN-induced mutation has also been discussed. Genomic resources developed using the FN mutagenesis have been catalogued wooing to meaningful utilization of the available resources. The information provided here will be helpful for the efficient exploration for the crop improvement programs and for better understanding of genetic regulations.
Radio Frequency Oscillations in Gyrotropic Nonlinear Transmission Lines
Authors: Karelin Sergey Y. , Krasovitsky Vitaly B. , Magda Igor I. , Mukhin Valentin S. , Sinitsin Victor G.
Published: June 2019

The paper considers the quasi-monochromatic radio frequency oscillations that are observable in transmission lines of doubly connected cross-sections, partially filled with a magnetized ferrite. The frequencies and amplitudes of the oscillations appearing under the impact of short carrier-free electric pulses are determined by dispersive and non-linear properties of the line’s structure. The dispersion characteristics are governed by the geometry and size of the line and the spatial arrangement in the line of the ferromagnetic material with its intrinsic dispersion. The dependences shown by the oscillation parameters in real physical experiments are reproduced and analyzed via numerical simulation within models which account separately for different physical properties of the material and the structure.
Enhanced Anaerobic Performances of Kitchen Wastes in a Semi-Continuous Reactor by EDTA Improving the Water-Soluble Fraction of Fe
Authors: Liu Yali , Kang Xiaorong , Cheng Han
Published: June 2019

The addition of Fe2+ is considered an effective method for increasing methane production, but the added Fe2+ may not be absorbed by anaerobic microorganisms due to complex chemical reactions. In this study, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was used as a ligand of Fe2+ (EDTA-Fe) to promote the dissolution of Fe, and the anaerobic performances of kitchen wastes (KWs) in a semi-continuous reactor were studied. The results indicated that the biogas yields and methane contents were enhanced to 594–613 mL·g−1VSadd·d−1 and 63.6–64.4% at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.5 gVSadd·L−1·d−1 due to EDTA-Fe addition. Simultaneously, the EDTA-Fe was more effective than Fe2+ in preventing the acidification of KWs with a high OLR (5.0 gVSadd·L−1·d−1). In addition, the sequential extraction results showed that the water-soluble fraction of Fe in the R3 (EDTA-Fe addition) was 1.49-fold of that in the R2 with Fe2+ addition. The contents of coenzymes F420 and F430 were also improved 1.09 and 1.11 times, respectively. Mechanism analysis confirmed that the EDTA enhanced methane production and operational stability by promoting the dissolution of Fe and maintaining a high content of water-soluble Fe.
Molecular Recognition and Cell Surface Biochemical Response of Bacillus thuringiensis on Triphenyltin
Authors: Zhang Hongling , Ye Jinshao , Qin Huaming , Liang Xujun , Long Yan
Published: June 2019

Triphenyltin (TPT) has severely polluted the environment, and it often coexists with metal ions, such as Cu2+. This paper describes the cell’s molecular recognition of TPT, the interaction between TPT recognition and Cu2+ biosorption, and their effect on cell permeability. We studied the recognition of TPT by Bacillus thuringiensis cells and the effect of TPT recognition on Cu2+ biosorption by using atomic force microscopy to observe changes in cell surface mechanical properties and cellular morphology and by using flow cytometry to determine the cell growth status and cell permeability. The results show that B. thuringiensis can quickly recognize different media. The adhesion force of cells in contact with Tween 80 was significantly reduced to levels that were much lower than that of cells in contact with PBS. Conversely, the cell surface adhesion force increased as TPT became more degraded. B. thuringiensis cells maintained their original morphology after 48 h of TPT treatment. The amount of Cu2+ adsorption by TPT-treated cells was positively correlated with the surface adhesion force (r = 0.966, P = 0.01). The cell adhesion force significantly decreased after Cu2+ adsorption, and cell recognition of TPT and/or Cu2+ hindered the entrance of 2’,7’-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) into the cell. The initial diffusion time of DCFH-DA into cells treated by PBS, Cu2+, TPT, and TPT+Cu2+ was 4, 10, 30, and 30 min, respectively, and the order of the fluorescence intensity was PBS >> Cu2+ > TPT > TPT+Cu2+. We conclude that changes in the cell surface properties of the microbe during recognition of pollutants depend on the contaminant’s properties. B. thuringiensis recognized TPT and secreted intracellular substances that not only enhanced the adsorption of Cu2+, but also formed a “barrier” on the cell surface that reduced permeability. These findings provide a novel insight into the mechanism of microbial removal of pollutants.
Purification of Amygdalin from the Concentrated Debitterizing-Water of Apricot Kernelsusing XDA-1 Resin
Authors: Zhang Qing-An , Wu Dong-Dong , Wei Chen-Xi
Published: June 2019

In this study, six macroporous resins were screened on their adsorption and de-adsorption characteristics for the amygdalin in the debitterizing wastewater concentrate (DWC). The results indicate that the XDA-1 resin exerts good adsorption and de-adsorption capacities on the amygdalin. In order to further confirm its feasibility, the factors affecting the capacity of adsorption and de-adsorption, and its adsorption mechanisms were also investigated. The results suggest that the optimum purification conditions were as follows: loading concentration of samples with 78.05 mg/mL, flow rate of 2 mL/min, and de-adsorption with 80% ethanol solution. The recovery rate was 88.75% and the relative content achieved 61.58% after purification by XDA-1 resin. The Freundlich model can be used to describe the entirety of the exothermic and physical adsorption processes. In summary, the conclusion which can be made from this research is that the wastewater generated from the debitterizing of apricot kernels can be well treated by resin to recycle the amygdalin and reduce its pollution to environment.
Enabling A Conversation Across Scholarly Monographs through Open Annotation
Authors: Bertino Andrea C. , Staines Heather
Published: June 2019

The digital format opens up new possibilities for interaction with monographic publications. In particular, annotation tools make it possible to broaden the discussion on the content of a book, to suggest new ideas, to report errors or inaccuracies, and to conduct open peer reviews. However, this requires the support of the users who might not yet be familiar with the annotation of digital documents. This paper will give concrete examples and recommendations for exploiting the potential of annotation in academic research and teaching. After presenting the annotation tool of Hypothesis, the article focuses on its use in the context of HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science Infrastructure), a project aimed to improve the Open Access digital monograph. The general line and the aims of a post-peer review experiment with the annotation tool, as well as its usage in didactic activities concerning monographic publications are presented and proposed as potential best practices for similar annotation activities.
Understanding Connections: Examining Digital Library and Institutional Repository Use Overlap
Authors: Phillips Mark E. , Andrews Pamela , Krahmer Ana
Published: June 2019

The University of North Texas Libraries’ Digital Collections are situated as a unified whole within their preservation infrastructure, with three separate user interfaces serving the content to different audiences. These separate interfaces are: The UNT Digital Library (DL), The Portal to Texas History, and The Gateway to Oklahoma History. Situated within each interface are collections, and hosted within these collections are digital objects. One collection, the UNT Scholarly Works Repository, specifically serves UNT’s research and creative contributions and functions as the Institutional repository (IR) for the University of North Texas. Because UNT Scholarly works is seated as a collection amongst other collections, users can access faculty research, not just out of an interest in research from specific faculty members, but also as it ties into the user’s broader understanding of a given topic. With flexible infrastructure and metadata schema that connect collections beneath the umbrella of the wider preservation infrastructure, the UNT DL employs full-text searching and interlinked metadata to strengthen and make visible the connections between objects in different collections. This paper examined how users navigated between other collections within the UNT IR, as well as within the UNT DL. Through this examination, we observed patterns between how users navigated between objects, understood which collections may have related to one another, examined why some unique items were used more than others, and viewed the average number of items used within a session.
PIXE and Its Applications to Elemental Analysis
Authors: Ishii Keizo
Published: June 2019

When charged particles collide with atoms, atomic inner shell electrons become ionized, producing characteristic X-rays. This phenomenon is called particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The characteristic X-ray production cross-sections from PIXE are very large, and the characteristic X-rays of elements contained in a sample are easily measured by a Silicon detector with a high energy resolution. Hence, sodium to uranium can be detected with a sensitivity of ppb~ppm, and PIXE has been applied to trace element analysis. Scanning ion beams can be used to obtain the spatial distributions of elements in a sample. Furthermore, the distributions of elements inside a cell can be investigated using micro ion beams. PIXE analysis is a very useful technique for multi-elemental analysis and is now widely used in many fields and applications, including chemistry, medicine, biology, archaeology, agriculture, materials science, fisheries science, geology, petrology, environmental study, contamination monitoring, resource search, semiconductors, metal, astrophysics, earth science, criminal investigations, and food.
TopoLAP: Topology Recovery for Building Reconstruction by Deducing the Relationships between Linear and Planar Primitives
Authors: Liu Xinyi , Zhang Yongjun , Ling Xiao , Wan Yi , Liu Linyu , Li Qian
Published: June 2019

Limited by the noise, missing data and varying sampling density of the point clouds, planar primitives are prone to be lost during plane segmentation, leading to topology errors when reconstructing complex building models. In this paper, a pipeline to recover the broken topology of planar primitives (TopoLAP) is proposed to reconstruct level of details 3 (LoD3) models. Firstly, planar primitives are segmented from the incomplete point clouds and feature lines are detected both from point clouds and images. Secondly, the structural contours of each plane segment are reconstructed by subset selection from intersections of these feature lines. Subsequently, missing planes are recovered by plane deduction according to the relationships between linear and planar primitives. Finally, the manifold and watertight polyhedral building models are reconstructed based on the optimized PolyFit framework. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed pipeline can handle partial incomplete point clouds and reconstruct the LoD3 models of complex buildings automatically. A comparative analysis indicates that the proposed method performs better to preserve sharp edges and achieves a higher fitness and correction rate than rooftop-based modeling and the original PolyFit algorithm.
End-to-End Change Detection for High Resolution Satellite Images Using Improved UNet++
Authors: Peng Daifeng , Zhang Yongjun , Guan Haiyan
Published: June 2019

Change detection (CD) is essential to the accurate understanding of land surface changes using available Earth observation data. Due to the great advantages in deep feature representation and nonlinear problem modeling, deep learning is becoming increasingly popular to solve CD tasks in remote-sensing community. However, most existing deep learning-based CD methods are implemented by either generating difference images using deep features or learning change relations between pixel patches, which leads to error accumulation problems since many intermediate processing steps are needed to obtain final change maps. To address the above-mentioned issues, a novel end-to-end CD method is proposed based on an effective encoder-decoder architecture for semantic segmentation named UNet++, where change maps could be learned from scratch using available annotated datasets. Firstly, co-registered image pairs are concatenated as an input for the improved UNet++ network, where both global and fine-grained information can be utilized to generate feature maps with high spatial accuracy. Then, the fusion strategy of multiple side outputs is adopted to combine change maps from different semantic levels, thereby generating a final change map with high accuracy. The effectiveness and reliability of our proposed CD method are verified on very-high-resolution (VHR) satellite image datasets. Extensive experimental results have shown that our proposed approach outperforms the other state-of-the-art CD methods.