bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Antioxidant Assessment of Prenylated Stilbenoid-Rich Extracts from Elicited Hairy Root Cultures of Three Cultivars of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)
Authors: Gajurel Gaurav , Hasan Rokib , Medina-Bolivar Fabricio
Published: November 2021

Peanut produces prenylated stilbenoids upon biotic stress. However, the role of these compounds against oxidative stress have not been thoroughly elucidated. To this end, the antioxidant capacity of extracts enriched in prenylated stilbenoids and derivatives was studied. To produce these extracts, hairy root cultures of peanut cultivars Hull, Tifrunner, and Georgia Green were co-treated with methyl jasmonate, cyclodextrin, hydrogen peroxide, and magnesium chloride and then the stilbenoids were extracted from the culture medium. Among the three cultivars, higher levels of the stilbenoid derivatives arachidin-1 and arachidin-6 were detected in cultivar Tifrunner. Upon reaction with 2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl, extracts from cultivar Tifrunner showed the highest antioxidant capacity with an IC50 of 6.004 µg/mL. Furthermore, these extracts had significantly higher antioxidant capacity at 6.25 µg/mL and 3.125 µg/mL when compared to extracts from cultivars Hull and Georgia Green. The stilbenoid-rich extracts from peanut hairy roots show high antioxidant capacity and merit further study as potential nutraceuticals to promote human health.
Orientation Dependent Mechanical Responses and Plastic Deformation Mechanisms of ZnSe Nano Films under Nanoindentation
Authors: Xu Chao , Liu Futi , Liu Chunmei , Wang Pei , Liu Huaping
Published: November 2021

Although ZnSe has been widely studied due to its attractive electronic and optoelectronic properties, limited data on its plastic deformations are available. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we have investigated the indentations on the (001), (110), and (111) planes of ZnSe nano films. Our results indicate that the elastic modulus, incipient plasticity, elastic recovery ratio, and the structural evolutions during the indenting process of ZnSe nano films show obvious anisotropy. To analyze the correlation of structural evolution and mechanical responses, the atomic displacement vectors, atomic arrangements, and the dislocations of the indented samples are analyzed. Our simulations revealed that the plastic deformations of the indented ZnSe nano films are dominated by the nucleation and propagation of 1/2<110> type dislocations, and the symmetrically distributed prismatic loops emitted during the indenting process are closely related with the mechanical properties. By studying the evolutions of microstructures, the formation process of the dislocations, as well as the formation mechanisms of the emitted prismatic loops under the indented crystalline planes are discussed. The results presented in this work not only provide an answer for the questions about indentation responses of ZnSe nano films, but also offer insight into its plastic deformation mechanisms.
Nannochloropsis oceanica as a Microalgal Food Intervention in Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats
Authors: du Preez Ryan , Majzoub Marwan E. , Thomas Torsten , Panchal Sunil K. , Brown Lindsay
Published: November 2021

The microalgal genus Nannochloropsis has broad applicability to produce biofuels, animal feed supplements and other value-added products including proteins, carotenoids and lipids. This study investigated a potential role of N. oceanica in the reversal of metabolic syndrome. Male Wistar rats (n = 48) were divided into four groups in a 16-week protocol. Two groups were fed either corn starch or high-carbohydrate, high-fat diets (C and H, respectively) for the full 16 weeks. The other two groups received C and H diets for eight weeks and then received 5% freeze-dried N. oceanica in these diets for the final eight weeks (CN and HN, respectively) of the protocol. The H diet was high in fructose and sucrose, together with increased saturated and trans fats. H rats developed obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, fatty liver disease and left ventricular fibrosis. N. oceanica increased lean mass in CN and HN rats, possibly due to the increased protein intake, and decreased fat mass in HN rats. Intervention with N. oceanica did not change cardiovascular, liver and metabolic parameters or gut structure. The relative abundance of Oxyphotobacteria in the gut microbiota was increased. N. oceanica may be an effective functional food against metabolic syndrome as a sustainable protein source.
Geospatial Analysis of Food Deserts and Their Impact on Health Outcomes in Children with Cystic Fibrosis
Authors: Corbera-Hincapie Montserrat A. , Kurland Kristen S. , Hincapie Mark R. , Fabio Anthony , Weiner Daniel J. , Kim Sandra C. , Kazmerski Traci M.
Published: November 2021

Food insecurity (FI) is defined as “the limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” One root cause of FI is living in a food desert. FI rates among people with cystic fibrosis (CF) are higher than the general United States (US) population. There is limited data on the association between food deserts and CF health outcomes. We conducted a retrospective review of people with CF under 18 years of age at a single pediatric CF center from January to December 2019 using demographic information and CF health parameters. Using a Geographic Information System, we conducted a spatial overlay analysis at the census tract level using the 2015 Food Access Research Atlas to assess the association between food deserts and CF health outcomes. We used multivariate logistic regression analysis and adjusted for clinical covariates and demographic covariates, using the Child Opportunity Index (COI) to calculate odds ratios (OR) with confidence intervals (CI) for each health outcome. People with CF living in food deserts and the surrounding regions had lower body mass index/weight-for-length (OR 3.18, 95% CI: 1.01, 9.40, p ≤ 0.05 (food desert); OR 4.41, 95% CI: 1.60, 12.14, p ≤ 0.05 (600 ft buffer zone); OR 2.83, 95% CI: 1.18, 6.76, p ≤ 0.05 (1200 ft buffer zone)). Food deserts and their surrounding regions impact pediatric CF outcomes independent of COI. Providers should routinely screen for FI and proximity to food deserts. Interventions are essential to increase access to healthy and affordable food.
Synthesis of NIR-II Absorbing Gelatin Stabilized Gold Nanorods and Its Photothermal Therapy Application against Fibroblast Histiocytoma Cells
Authors: Oladipo Adewale , Lebepe Thabang Calvin , Parani Sundararajan , Maluleke Rodney , Ncapayi Vuyelwa , Mbaz Grace It Mwad , Songca Sandile Phinda , Kodama Tetsuya , Oluwafemi Oluwatobi Samuel
Published: November 2021

The excellent photothermal properties of gold nanorods (Au-NRs) make them one of the most researched plasmonic photothermal nanomaterials. However, their biological applications have been hampered greatly due to surfactant-induced cytotoxicity. We herein report a simple synthesis of highly biocompatible gelatin stabilized Au-NRs (gelatin@Au-NRs) to address this issue. The optical and structural properties of the as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs were investigated by Zetasizer, Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs were highly crystalline and rod-like in shape with an average length and diameter of 66.2 ± 2.3 nm and 10 ± 1.6 nm, respectively. The as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs showed high stability in common biological media (phosphate buffer saline and Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium) compared to CTAB capped Au-NRs. Similarly, the gelatin@Au-NRs showed an improved heat production and outstanding cell viability against two different cancer cell lines; KM-Luc/GFP (mouse fibroblast histiocytoma cell line) and FM3A-Luc (breast carcinoma cell line) compared to CTAB capped Au-NRs and PEG@Au-NRs. An in vitro photothermal therapy study against KM-Luc/GFP showed that gelatin@Au-NRs effectively destroys the cancer cells.
The Local Structure of the BiS2 Layer in RE(O,F)BiS2 Determined by In-Plane Polarized X-ray Absorption Measurements
Authors: Pugliese G. M. , Tortora L. , Paris E. , Wakita T. , Terashima K. , Puri A. , Nagao M. , Higashinaka R. , Matsuda T. D. , Aoki Y. , Yokoya T. , Mizokawa T. , Saini N. L.
Published: November 2021

We have investigated the local structure of BiS2-based layered materials by Bi L3-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements performed on single crystal samples with polarization of the X-ray beam parallel to the BiS2 plane. The results confirm highly instable nature of BiS2 layer, characterized by ferroelectric like distortions. The distortion amplitude, determined by the separation between the two in-plane (Bi-S1) bonds, is found to be highest in LaO0.77F0.23BiS2 with ΔR∼0.26 Å and lowest in NdO0.71F0.29BiS2 with ΔR∼0.13 Å. Among the systems with intrinsic doping, CeOBiS2 shows smaller distortion (ΔR∼0.15 Å) than PrOBiS2 (ΔR∼0.18 Å) while the highest distortion appears for EuFBiS2 revealing ΔR∼0.22 Å. It appears that the distortion amplitude is controlled by the nature of the RE(O,F) spacer layer in the RE(O,F)BiS2 structure. The X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra, probing the local geometry, shows a spectral weight transfer that evolves systematically with the distortion amplitude in the BiS2-layer. The results provide a quantitative measurements of the local distortions in the instable BiS2-layer with direct implication on the physical properties of these materials.
Zinc Oxide and Copper Chitosan Composite Films with Antimicrobial Activity
Authors: Gamboa-Solana Candy del Carmen , Chuc-Gamboa Martha Gabriela , Aguilar-Pérez Fernando Javier , Cauich-Rodríguez Juan Valerio , Vargas-Coronado Rossana Faride , Aguilar-Pérez David Alejandro , Herrera-Atoche José Rubén , Pacheco Neith
Published: November 2021

The role of the oral microbiome and its effect on dental diseases is gaining interest. Therefore, it has been sought to decrease the bacterial load to fight oral cavity diseases. In this study, composite materials based on chitosan, chitosan crosslinked with glutaraldehyde, chitosan with zinc oxide particles, and chitosan with copper nanoparticles were prepared in the form of thin films, to evaluate a new alternative with a more significant impact on the oral cavity bacteria. The chemical structures and physical properties of the films were characterized using by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR,) Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), elemental analysis (EDX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and contact angle measurements. Subsequently, the antimicrobial activity of each material was evaluated by agar diffusion tests. No differences were found in the hydrophilicity of the films with the incorporation of ZnO or copper particles. Antimicrobial activity was found against S. aureus in the chitosan film crosslinked with glutaraldehyde, but not in the other compositions. In contrast antimicrobial activity against S. typhimurium was found in all films. Based on the data of present investigation, chitosan composite films could be an option for the control of microorganisms with potential applications in various fields, such as medical and food industry.
A Review of the Effects of Collagen Treatment in Clinical Studies
Authors: Wang Hsiuying
Published: November 2021

Collagen, an abundant extracellular matrix protein, has been found to have a lot of pharmaceuticals, medicine, food, and cosmetics applications. Increased knowledge of collagen sources, extraction techniques, structure, and properties in the last decades has helped develop more collagen-based products and tissue engineering biomaterials. Collagen products have been playing an important role in benefiting the health of the human body, especially for aging people. In this paper, the effects of collagen treatment in different clinical studies including skin regeneration, bone defects, sarcopenia, wound healing, dental therapy, gastroesophageal reflux, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis have been reviewed. The collagen treatments were significant in these clinical studies. In addition, the associations between these diseases were discussed. The comorbidity of these diseases might be closely related to collagen deficiency, and collagen treatment might be a good choice when a patient has more than one of these diseases, including the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It concludes that collagen-based medication is useful in treating comorbid diseases and preventing complications.
Precise Synthesis and Thermoresponsive Property of Poly(ethyl glycidyl ether) and Its Block and Statistic Copolymers with Poly(glycidol)
Authors: He Tingyu , Wang Yanqiu , Narumi Atsushi , Xu Liang , Sato Shin-ichiro , Shen Xiande , Kakuchi Toyoji
Published: November 2021

In this paper, we describe a comprehensive study of the thermoresponsive properties of statistic copolymers and multiblock copolymers synthesized by poly(glycidol)s (PG) and poly(ethyl glycidyl ether) (PEGE) with different copolymerization methods. These copolymers were first synthesized by ring-opening polymerization (ROP), which was initiated by tert-butylbenzyl alcohol (tBBA) and 1-tert-butyl-4,4,4-tris(dimethylamino)-2,2-bis[tris(dimethylamino)phosphoranylidenamino]-2Λ5,4Λ5-catenadi(phosphazene) (t-Bu-P4) as the catalyst, and then the inherent protective groups were removed to obtain the copolymers without any specific chain end groups. The thermoresponsive property of the statistic copolymer PGx-stat-PEGEy was compared with the diblock copolymer PGx-b-PEGEy, and the triblock copolymers were compared with the pentablock copolymers. Among them, PG-stat-PEGE, PG-b-PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE-b-PG, and PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, and even the specific ratio of PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, exhibited LCST-type phase transitions in water, which were characterized by cloud point (Tcp). Although the ratio of x to y affected the value of the Tcp of PGx-stat-PEGEy, we found that the disorder of the copolymer has a decisive effect on the phase-transition behavior. The phase-transition behaviors of PG-b-PEGE, part of PEGE-b-PG-b-PEGE, and PG-b-PEGE-b-PG copolymers in water present a two-stage phase transition, that is, firstly LCST-type and then the upper critical solution temperature (UCST)-like phase transition. In addition, we have extended the research on the thermoresponsive properties of EGE homopolymers without specific α-chain ends.
Toxicity of Antiretrovirals on the Sea Urchin Echinometra lucunter and Its Predicted Environmental Concentration in Seawater from Santos Bay (Brazilian Coastal Zone)
Authors: Cid Renato Sakai , Roveri Vinicius , Vidal Diogo Guedes , Dinis Maria Alzira Pimenta , Cortez Fernando Sanzi , Salgueiro Flávia Rigos , Toma Walber , Cesar Augusto , Guimarães Luciana Lopes
Published: November 2021

Antiretrovirals (ARVs) have been detected in aquatic ecosystems throughout the world; however, studies focused on assessing their ecotoxicological effects on marine aquatic organisms are still rare. In the present study, the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) of 13 ARVs was estimated for surface seawater from Santos Bay, Brazil, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) guidelines. The results indicated that all ARVs need to be assessed for their ecological effects, considering that they all exceeded the EMEA guideline limits (PEC > 0.01 µg L−1). In this sense, three ARVs (namely atazanavir, nevirapine and efavirenz) were selected for the acute and chronic tests with sea urchin (Echinometra lucunter). Furthermore, the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for these three ARVs was also performed by calculating the risk quotient. The acute and chronic toxicity results showed inhibitory concentrations (IC) for the fertilization (IC50; 1 h; range: 11.46–84.61 mg L−1) and for the embryo–larval development (IC50; 42 h; range: 0.52–0.97 mg L−1) of the sea urchin, respectively. Moreover, the ERA showed that these three ARVs are potentially hazardous for aquatic life in Santos Bay, raising concerns about the continuous introduction of ARVs in aquatic ecosystems. The data presented may contribute to the provision of subsidies for the development of monitoring public policies that aim to reduce the introduction of ARVs into the aquatic environment.
Simulating the Response of the Surface Urban Heat Environment to Land Use and Land Cover Changes: A Case Study of Wuhan, China
Authors: Gao Meiling , Li Zhenhong , Tan Zhenyu , Liu Qi , Shen Huanfeng
Published: November 2021

With the rapid process of urbanization, the urban heat island (UHI), the phenomenon where urban regions become hotter than their surroundings, is increasingly aggravated. The UHI is affected by multiple factors overall. However, it is difficult to dissociate the effect of one aspect by widely used approaches such as the remote-sensing-based method. To qualify the response of surface UHI to the land use and land cover (LULC) changes, this study took the numerical land model named u-HRLDAS (urbanized high-resolution land data assimilation system) as the modeling tool to investigate the effect of LULC changes on the UHI from 1980 to 2013 in Wuhan city, China. Firstly, the simulation accuracy of the model was improved, and the summer urban heat environment was simulated for the summer of 2013. Secondly, taking the simulation in 2013 as the control case (CNTL), the LULC in 1980, 1990, and 2000 were replaced by the LULC while the other conditions kept the same as the CNTL to explore the effect of LULC on UHI. The results indicate that the proper configuration of the modeling setup and accurate surface input data are considered important for the simulated results of the u-HRLDAS. The response intensity of UHI to LULC changes after 2000 was stronger than that of before 2000. From the spatial perspective, the part that had the strongest response intensity of land surface temperature to LULC changes was the region between the third ring road and the inner ring road of Wuhan. This study can provide a reference for cognizing the urban heat environment and guide policy making for urban development.
GACM: A Graph Attention Capsule Model for the Registration of TLS Point Clouds in the Urban Scene
Authors: Zou Jianjun , Zhang Zhenxin , Chen Dong , Li Qinghua , Sun Lan , Zhong Ruofei , Zhang Liqiang , Sha Jinghan
Published: November 2021

Point cloud registration is the foundation and key step for many vital applications, such as digital city, autonomous driving, passive positioning, and navigation. The difference of spatial objects and the structure complexity of object surfaces are the main challenges for the registration problem. In this paper, we propose a graph attention capsule model (named as GACM) for the efficient registration of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud in the urban scene, which fuses graph attention convolution and a three-dimensional (3D) capsule network to extract local point cloud features and obtain 3D feature descriptors. These descriptors can take into account the differences of spatial structure and point density in objects and make the spatial features of ground objects more prominent. During the training progress, we used both matched points and non-matched points to train the model. In the test process of the registration, the points in the neighborhood of each keypoint were sent to the trained network, in order to obtain feature descriptors and calculate the rotation and translation matrix after constructing a K-dimensional (KD) tree and random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed method achieves more efficient registration results and higher robustness than other frontier registration methods in the pairwise registration of point clouds.
Barriers to Adopting New Technologies within Rural Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Authors: Fanelli Rosa Maria
Published: November 2021

The adoption of technologies by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that operate in several business sectors in rural areas is a crucial issue because they often need financial and technical incentives and support from public and local authorities. The question of whether and how innovation can be replicated and applied in a wider context is strictly connected to the understanding of those factors and mechanisms capable of determining the success or failure of the introduction of innovation itself. In this paper, the attention is focused on the impact of new technologies in order to increase SMEs’ competitiveness and productivity among the firms. For this purpose, only recent resources, research and studies that have been implemented during the last twenty years are taken into account. Firstly, based on these studies, the main disruptive technologies were selected. Secondly, the evidence is drawn from stakeholder data discussions of the Interreg Europe project “Regional policies for innovation driven competitiveness and growth of rural SMEs—INNOGROW”, covering eight European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom). Descriptive statistics were applied to describe the case identities. The cases’ needs, enablers and barriers in different groups were analyzed using a chi-square test and Mann–Whitney U Test. The results of this study are important for both researchers as well as small business practitioners (including government agencies and owners/managers) in order to provided policy recommendations, concerning how to establish favourable conditions and offer incentives to SMEs to integrate innovative solutions into their business models.
Business Process Re-Engineering to Digitalise Quality Control Checks for Reducing Physical Waste and Resource Use in a Food Company
Authors: Garcia-Garcia Guillermo , Coulthard Guy , Jagtap Sandeep , Afy-Shararah Mohamed , Patsavellas John , Salonitis Konstantinos
Published: November 2021

Quality control is an essential element of manufacturing operations that reduces product defects and provides excellent products of the right specifications to the end consumer. Industry 4.0 solutions, such as digitalisation, along with lean manufacturing tools, may support quality control operations. This paper presents a case study of a food company wherein quality control checks were optimised using business process re-engineering to reduce physical waste and resource usage. Following close analysis of the company’s pack-house operations, it was proposed to adopt elements of Industry 4.0 by digitalising the quality control process. Implementing such a solution led to a reduction in the time needed to complete recorded checks, an increase in the time the pack-house quality control team spends with packers on the production lines, and the facilitation of defects identification. It also ensured that the product met the customers’ specifications and reduced the likelihood of rejection at the customers’ depot. The new system also enabled monitoring of each line in real-time and gathering of additional information faster and more accurately. This article proves how employing lean principles in combination with Industry 4.0 technologies can lead to savings in resources and a reduction in waste, which leads to improvements in operational efficiency.
Sustaining Tribal Fisheries: U.S. Economic Relief Policies during COVID-19
Authors: Leonard Kelsey
Published: November 2021

This article reviews the individual spend plans of U.S. states granted a funding allocation under Sec. 12005 of the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to identify consistency with legislative mandates to support Tribal commercial, subsistence, cultural, or ceremonial fisheries negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing critical discourse analysis, this study identifies state discursive practices in supporting Tribal sovereignty in fisheries management for the advancement of Indigenous Ocean justice. State spending plans (n = 22) publicly available and submitted to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before July 2021 were reviewed. Few of the state spend plans listed impacts to Tribal fisheries due to the pandemic. Only two state plans included Tribal consultation and direct economic relief for commercial, subsistence, cultural, and/or ceremonial losses faced by neighboring Tribes and Tribal citizens. Overall, the protections within the CARES Act for Tribal fisheries were not integrated into state spend plans. The article identifies best practices for state fisheries relief policy content that is affirming of Tribal fishing rights and uses them to help address the ongoing pandemic crisis facing Tribal fisheries. These findings have relevance for future emergency relief programs that are inclusive of Tribal Nations. Honoring Tribal sovereignty and the federal trust responsibility must be the cornerstone of shared sustainable fisheries.
Nonlinear Elasto-Visco-Plastic Creep Behavior and New Creep Damage Model of Dolomitic Limestone Subjected to Cyclic Incremental Loading and Unloading
Authors: Wang Xingkai , Song Leibo , Xia Caichu , Han Guansheng , Zhu Zheming
Published: November 2021

For many rock engineering projects, the stress of surrounding rocks is constantly increasing and decreasing during excavating progress and the long-term operation stage. Herein, the triaxial creep behavior of dolomitic limestone subjected to cyclic incremental loading and unloading was probed using an advanced rock mechanics testing system (i.e., MTS815.04). Then, the instantaneous elastic strain, instantaneous plastic strain, visco-elastic strain, and visco-plastic strain components were separated from the total strain curve, and evolutions of these different types of strain with deviatoric stress increment were analyzed. Furthermore, a damage variable considering the proportion of irrecoverable plastic strain to the total strain was introduced, and a new nonlinear multi-element creep model was established by connecting the newly proposed damage viscous body in series with the Hookean substance, St. Venant body, and Kelvin element. The parameters of this new model were analyzed. The findings are listed as follows: (1) When the deviatoric stress is not more than 75% of the compressive strength, only instantaneous deformation, transient creep, and steady-state creep deformation occur, rock deformation is mainly characterized by the instantaneous strain, whereas the irrecoverable instantaneous plastic strain accounts for 38.02–60.27% of the total instantaneous strain; (2) Greater deviatoric stress corresponds to more obvious creep deformation. The visco-elastic strain increases linearly with the increase of deviatoric stress, especially the irrecoverable visco-plastic strain increases exponentially with deviatoric stress increment, and finally leads to accelerated creep and delayed failure of the sample; (3) Based on the experimental data, the proposed nonlinear creep model is verified to describe the full creep stage perfectly, particularly the tertiary creep stage. These results could deepen our understanding of the elasto-visco-plastic deformation behavior of dolomitic limestone and have theoretical and practical significance for the safe excavation and long-term stability of underground rock engineering.
Urban Integration of Green Roofs: Current Challenges and Perspectives
Authors: Joshi Mitali Yeshwant , Teller Jacques
Published: November 2021

Green roofs (GRs) are a sustainable alternative to conventional roofs that provide multiple ecosystem services. Integrating GRs into urban areas is highly relevant considering the rapidly increasing built-up in cities. Therefore, this paper systematically and comprehensively reviews the recent literature from 2011 to 2019 on GRs to identify the challenges and perspectives related to the urban integration of GRs. The review suggests that the effectiveness of GRs in delivering ecosystem services is largely dependent on context-specific parameters such as weather conditions and existing construction or design-related parameters. Integrating GRs into urban areas can be challenging given the diversity of actors, functions, and conditions characterizing these areas. Although significant research has already been conducted on GRs, research covering more geographical locations and contexts is needed. The review points out the need to include future urbanization scenarios, such as tall buildings while analyzing the impact of GRs on ecological networks. Additionally, the review emphasizes the inclusion of urban morphological parameters alongside an analysis of the impact of GRs on microclimate regulation and air quality. In terms of social acceptance, this review points out the need to consider the temporal cycles of vegetation for noting users’ perspectives. Additionally, further research is required on the social impact of GRs, considering their influence on property prices. Lastly, the review stresses the need for more city-scale studies on the impact of GRs on ecosystem services.
COVID-19 Syndrome: Nexus with Herbivory and Exposure Dynamics for Monitoring Livestock Welfare and Agro-Environment
Authors: Fayemi Peter Olutope , Fayemi Omolola Esther , Joel Luke Oluwaseye , Ogungbuyi Michael Gbenga
Published: November 2021

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a public health emergency that turns the year 2020–2021 into annus horribilis for millions of people across international boundaries. The interspecies transmission of this zoonotic virus and mutated variants are aided by exposure dynamics of infected aerosols, fomites and intermediate reservoirs. The spike in the first, second and third waves of coronavirus confirms that herd immunity is not yet reached and everyone including livestock is still vulnerable to the infection. Of serious concern are the communitarian nature of agrarians in the livestock sector, aerogenous spread of the virus and attendant cytocidal effect in permissive cells following activation of pathogen recognition receptors, replication cycles, virulent mutations, seasonal spike in infection rates, flurry of reinfections and excess mortalities that can affect animal welfare and food security. As the capacity to either resist or be susceptible to infection is influenced by numerous factors, identifying coronavirus-associated variants and correlating exposure dynamics with viral aerosols, spirometry indices, comorbidities, susceptible blood types, cellular miRNA binding sites and multisystem inflammatory syndrome remains a challenge where the lethal zoonotic infections are prevalent in the livestock industry, being the hub of dairy, fur, meat and egg production. This review provides insights into the complexity of the disease burden and recommends precision smart-farming models for upscaling biosecurity measures and adoption of digitalised technologies (robotic drones) powered by multiparametric sensors and radio modem systems for real-time tracking of infectious strains in the agro-environment and managing the transition into the new-normal realities in the livestock industry.
Bayesian Estimation for the Coefficients of Variation of Birnbaum–Saunders Distributions
Authors: Puggard Wisunee , Niwitpong Sa-Aat , Niwitpong Suparat
Published: November 2021

The Birnbaum–Saunders (BS) distribution, which is asymmetric with non-negative support, can be transformed to a normal distribution, which is symmetric. Therefore, the BS distribution is useful for describing data comprising values greater than zero. The coefficient of variation (CV), which is an important descriptive statistic for explaining variation within a dataset, has not previously been used for statistical inference on a BS distribution. The aim of this study is to present four methods for constructing confidence intervals for the CV, and the difference between the CVs of BS distributions. The proposed methods are based on the generalized confidence interval (GCI), a bootstrapped confidence interval (BCI), a Bayesian credible interval (BayCI), and the highest posterior density (HPD) interval. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to evaluate their performances in terms of coverage probability and average length. The results indicate that the HPD interval was the best-performing method overall. PM 2.5 concentration data for Chiang Mai, Thailand, collected in March and April 2019, were used to illustrate the efficacies of the proposed methods, the results of which were in good agreement with the simulation study findings.
The Efficiency of Using Mirror Imaged Topography in Fellow Eyes Analyses of Pentacam HR Data
Authors: Fathy Arwa , Lopes Bernardo T. , Ambrósio Renato , Wu Richard , Abass Ahmed
Published: November 2021

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of flipping left corneas topography and analysethem quantitively along with fellow right corneas based on the assumption that they are mirror images of each other. Methods: The study involved scanning both eyes of 177 healthy participants (aged 35.3 ± 15.8) and 75 keratoconic participants (aged 33.9 ± 17.8). Clinical tomography data were collected for both eyes using the Pentacam HR and processed by a fully automated custom-built MATLAB code. For every case, the right eye was used as a datum fixed surface while the left cornea was flipped around in the superior–inferior direction. In this position, the root-mean-squared difference (RMS) between the flipped left cornea and the right cornea was initially determined for both the anterior and posterior corneal surfaces. Next, the iterative closest point transformation algorithm was applied on the three-dimensional flipped cornea to allow the flipped left corneal anterior surface to translate and rotate, minimising the difference between it and the right corneal anterior surface. Then, the RMS differences were recalculated and compared. Results: A comparison of the dioptric powers showed a significant difference between the RMS of both the flipped left eyes and the right eyes in the healthy and the KC groups (p < 0.001). The RMS of the surfaces of the flipped left corneas and the right corneas was 0.6 ± 0.4 D among the healthy group and 4.1 ± 2.3 among the KC group. After transforming the flipped left corneas, the RMS was recorded as 0.5 ± 0.3 D and 2.4 ± 2 D among the healthy and KC groups, respectively. Conclusions: Although fellow eyes are highly related in their clinical parameters, they should be treated with care when one eye topography is flipped and processed with the other eye topography in an optic-related research analysis where translation might be needed. In KC, an asymmetric disease, it was observed that a portion of the asymmetry was due to a corneal apex shift interfering with the image acquisition. Therefore, transforming the flipped left eyes by rotation and translation results in a fairer comparison between the fellow KC corneas.
Fabrication of Enzyme-Loaded Cartridges Using CO2-Assisted Polymer Compression
Authors: Aizawa Takafumi , Matsuura Shun-ichi
Published: November 2021

An enzyme-loaded disk-shaped cartridge was fabricated using CO2-assisted polymer compression (CAPC), which is a polymer-bonding method that does not use heat. In this process, after the enzyme was loaded onto mesoporous silica, it was placed in a container fabricated from laminated fibrous sheets using CAPC. Subsequently, the lid and container were bonded via CAPC. Verification using the reductive decomposition reaction of an azo dye (methyl red) showed that the enzyme was not deactivated and that a reaction cartridge was created successfully.
Mycosubtilin Produced by Bacillus subtilis ATCC6633 Inhibits Growth and Mycotoxin Biosynthesis of Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium verticillioides
Authors: Yu Chenjie , Liu Xin , Zhang Xinyue , Zhang Mengxuan , Gu Yiying , Ali Qurban , Mohamed M. Sherif Ramzy , Xu Jianhong , Shi Jianrong , Gao Xuewen , Wu Huijun , Gu Qin
Published: November 2021

Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium verticillioides are fungal pathogens that cause diseases in cereal crops, such as Fusarium head blight (FHB), seedling blight, and stalk rot. They also produce a variety of mycotoxins that reduce crop yields and threaten human and animal health. Several strategies for controlling these diseases have been developed. However, due to a lack of resistant cultivars and the hazards of chemical fungicides, efforts are now focused on the biocontrol of plant diseases, which is a more sustainable and environmentally friendly approach. In the present study, the lipopeptide mycosubtilin purified from Bacillus subtilis ATCC6633 significantly suppressed the growth of F. graminearum PH-1 and F. verticillioides 7600 in vitro. Mycosubtilin caused the destruction and deformation of plasma membranes and cell walls in F. graminearum hyphae. Additionally, mycosubtilin inhibited conidial spore formation and germination of both fungi in a dose-dependent manner. In planta experiments demonstrated the ability of mycosubtilin to control the adverse effects caused by F. graminearum and F. verticillioides on wheat heads and maize kernels, respectively. Mycosubtilin significantly decreased the production of deoxynivalenol (DON) and B-series fumonisins (FB1, FB2 and FB3) in infected grains, with inhibition rates of 48.92, 48.48, 52.42, and 59.44%, respectively. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that mycosubtilin significantly downregulated genes involved in mycotoxin biosynthesis. In conclusion, mycosubtilin produced by B. subtilis ATCC6633 was shown to have potential as a biological agent to control plant diseases and Fusarium toxin contamination caused by F. graminearum and F. verticillioides.
Silencing of Unintegrated Retroviral DNAs
Authors: Goff Stephen P.
Published: November 2021

Retroviral infection delivers an RNA genome into the cytoplasm that serves as the template for the synthesis of a linear double-stranded DNA copy by the viral reverse transcriptase. Within the nucleus this linear DNA gives rise to extrachromosomal circular forms, and in a key step of the life cycle is inserted into the host genome to form the integrated provirus. The unintegrated DNA forms, like those of DNAs entering cells by other means, are rapidly loaded with nucleosomes and heavily silenced by epigenetic histone modifications. This review summarizes our present understanding of the silencing machinery for the DNAs of the mouse leukemia viruses and human immunodeficiency virus type 1. We consider the potential impact of the silencing on virus replication, on the sensing of the virus by the innate immune system, and on the formation of latent proviruses. We also speculate on the changeover to high expression from the integrated proviruses in permissive cell types, and briefly consider the silencing of proviruses even after integration in embryonic stem cells and other developmentally primitive cell types.
Development of a Hamster Natural Transmission Model of SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Authors: Dowall Stuart , Salguero Francisco J. , Wiblin Nathan , Fotheringham Susan , Hatch Graham , Parks Simon , Gowan Kathryn , Harris Debbie , Carnell Oliver , Fell Rachel , Watson Robert , Graham Victoria , Gooch Karen , Hall Yper , Mizen Simon , Hewson Roger
Published: November 2021

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to an international thrust to study pathogenesis and evaluate interventions. Experimental infection of hamsters and the resulting respiratory disease is one of the preferred animal models since clinical signs of disease and virus shedding are similar to more severe cases of human COVID-19. The main route of challenge has been direct inoculation of the virus via the intranasal route. To resemble the natural infection, we designed a bespoke natural transmission cage system to assess whether recipient animals housed in physically separate adjacent cages could become infected from a challenged donor animal in a central cage, with equal airflow across the two side cages. To optimise viral shedding in the donor animals, a low and moderate challenge dose were compared after direct intranasal challenge, but similar viral shedding responses were observed and no discernible difference in kinetics. The results from our natural transmission set-up demonstrate that most recipient hamsters are infected within the system developed, with variation in the kinetics and levels of disease between individual animals. Common clinical outputs used for the assessment in directly-challenged hamsters, such as weight loss, are less obvious in hamsters who become infected from naturally acquiring the infection. The results demonstrate the utility of a natural transmission model for further work on assessing the differences between virus strains and evaluating interventions using a challenge system which more closely resembles human infection.
Resolution Dependence of Regional Hydro-Climatic Projection: A Case-Study for the Johor River Basin, Malaysia
Authors: Tan Mou Leong , Liang Ju , Hawcroft Matthew , Haywood James M. , Zhang Fei , Rainis Ruslan , Ismail Wan Ruslan
Published: November 2021

High resolution models from the High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP), part of CMIP6, have the capacity to allow a better representation of the climate system in tropical regions, but how different model resolutions affect hydrological outputs remains unclear. This research aims to evaluate projections of hydro-climatic change of the Johor River Basin (JRB) in southern Peninsular Malaysia between 1985 to 2015 and 2021 to 2050, focusing on uncertainty quantification of hydrological outputs from low (>1°), medium (0.5° to 1°) and high (≤0.5°) horizontal resolution models. These projections show future increases in annual precipitation of 0.4 to 3.1%, minimum and maximum temperature increases of 0.8 to 0.9 °C and 0.9 to 1.1 °C, respectively. These projected climate changes lead to increases in annual mean streamflow of 0.9% to 7.0% and surface runoff of 7.0% to 20.6% in the JRB. These annual mean changes are consistent with those during the wet period (November to December), e.g., streamflow increases of 4.9% to 10.8% and surface runoff of 28.8 to 39.9% in December. Disagreement in the direction of change is found during the dry seasons, (February to March and May to September), where high resolution models project a decrease in future monthly precipitation and streamflow, whilst increases are projected by the medium- and low-resolution models.
Technical means of customs control and their classification
Authors: Akhmetov Minnegaley Gizyatovich
Published: November 2021

The article discusses the classification of technical means of customs control. The modern views on the field of application of technical means of customs control when passing goods and vehicles through the customs border of the Eurasian Union are disclosed. The approaches to grouping, classification of technical means of customs control are clarified. The data in the article can be used by customs authorities in organizing the practical application of technical means of customs control and in the educational process of higher educational institutions in the «Customs» field of study.
teoría del todo del “Modelo universal de aprendizaje por comprensión integral significativa”
Authors: Aráuz Rodríguez Mario Roberto , Aráuz Chávez Andrea
Published: November 2021

La investigación tuvo como objetivo optimizar  el   rendimiento   académico  y la comprensión lectora estudiantil y científica, con base en la aplicación de los adelantos científicos en diferentes ramas del Modelo universal  de  aprendizaje por comprensión integral significativa. Metodológicamente fue una investigación bibliográfica multicientífica, enfoque interpretativo, diseño funcional y aplicacióndecampoparasucomprobación  y verificación. Los resultados develaron la optimización del rendimiento estudiantil y la comprensión lectora científica  por el uso de dos condicionantes: 1. Un proceso de aprendizaje fundamentado en cibernética, psicopedagogía, informática, desarrollo del pensamiento, neurología electro química, principio macro – micro, metodologías educativas presentadas en orden cronológico según su aparición  en la historia de la humanidad, y 2. La aplicación de una técnica de comprensión lectora en unaconstruccióny comprensión de nivel superior de conocimiento. Se concluyó que no hay aprendizaje óptimo si no existe la progresión y secuencialidad del proceso de aprendizaje y la aplicación de la técnica de comprensión.
Interculturalidad en el Desarrollo de la Identidad Nacional en estudiantes del Colegio Emblemático Nº 56001 “Mateo Pumacahua”, Sicuani-Cusco
Authors: Araoz Enriquez Clotilde , Blanco Ayala Luis Fernando , Obregón Alzamora Norka Inés , Ruiz Conejo Ada Lucía Gallegos
Published: November 2021

El presente artículo contribuye  al análisis e interpretación de la interculturalidad y  la identidad nacional en estudiantes para reflexionar sobre las políticas educativas. El   objetivo   principal    es    determinar la influencia entre las variables. La investigación es cuantitativa. La muestra se determinó por muestreo aleatorio simple, a quienes se aplicó la fórmula para determinar el tamaño de la muestra 51 profesores y 217 estudiantes. Se diseñaron dos instrumentos de recopilación  de  datos y para su aplicación se sometieron a pruebas de confiabilidad estadística para ello se utilizó el procedimiento estadístico: coeficiente de Alfa de Cronbach. Los resultados demuestran que los aspectos interculturales aplicados por los maestros durante la enseñanza, son buenos y promueven el desarrollo de la Identidad Nacional de los estudiantes. Concluimos que la Interculturalidad utilizada por los maestros  influye  significativamente  en  el desarrollo de la Identidad Nacional en estudiantes del Colegio Emblemático nº 56001 “Mateo Pumacahua”, Sicuani–Cusco.
О трехмерных начально-краевых задачах динамики толстых упругих плит
Authors: Стоян Владимир Антонович , Волощук Сергей Дмитриевич
Published: November 2021

Решены сложные задачи трехмерной теории упругости для толстых упругих плит с произвольной геометрией их боковой поверхности. Построены аналитические зависимости компонент поля упругих динамических смещений внутренних точек плиты от предельно-поверхностных внешнединамических возмущающих факторов, определенных непрерывными функциями или векторами их значений. Предполагается, что эти возмущения имеют классически определенный силовой характер или задаются определенным количеством дифференциальных преобразований компонент поля динамических смещений точек плиты. Отсутствие количественных и качественных ограничений на названные преобразования первоначально-краевые задачи динамики рассматриваемых плит делает некорректными и неразрешимыми методами классической и вычислительной математики. предложена методика среднеквадратичного математического моделирования дискретно и непрерывно заданных наблюдений за начально-краевым состоянием плиты системой моделирующих функций и векторов их значений. Построенные при этом компоненты поля пространственно-динамических смещений точек плиты, точно удовлетворяя классическим уравнениям Ляме, с имеющейся информацией о начально-краевом состоянии ее согласовываются по среднеквадратическому критерию. Исследован вопрос однозначности полученных решений, проведена оценка их точности относительно информации о внешне-динамическом состоянии исследуемой плиты. Развернута динамика плиты в установившемся режиме, для случаев отсутствия информации о внешне-динамических воздействиях на нее и в условиях ее геометрической вырожденности по пространственным координатам. Компьютерная реализация полученных математических результатов инженерно проста и может быть легко реализована известными методами вычислительной математики.