bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between Dietary Diversity Score and Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Adults: A Community-Based Prospective Cohort Study
Authors: Kim Jiyeon , Kim Minji , Shin Yoonjin , Cho Jung-Hee , Lee Donglim , Kim Yangha
Published: December 2022

Dietary diversity is recognized as a key indicator of dietary quality and is known to affect the burden of non-communicable diseases. This study examined the gender-stratified association between dietary diversity score (DDS) and risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in 5468 adults aged 40–69 years during a 12-year follow-up of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES). DDS was calculated according to the consumption of the five food groups based on the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for Koreans. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to evaluate MetS risk according to DDS. A higher DDS was negatively associated with the consumption of grains but positively associated with the consumption of fruits and non-salted vegetables. Furthermore, participants with a higher DDS showed higher consumption of fish and milk. Prospectively, a higher DDS was significantly associated with a lower risk of MetS in men (HR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.63–0.92, p < 0.01). In all participants, a higher DDS was inversely associated with the incidence of abdominal obesity (men, HR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.62–0.93, p < 0.01; women, HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.67–0.94, p < 0.01). Furthermore, men with a higher DDS had a lower risk of hypertriglyceridemia (HR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71–0.97, p < 0.05). These findings suggested that eating a more varied diet might have favorable effects on preventing MetS in Korean adults.
Cognitive Decline Related to Diet Pattern and Nutritional Adequacy in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Surface-Based Morphometry
Authors: Hsiao Hua-Tsen , Ma Mi-Chia , Chang Hsin-I , Lin Ching-Heng , Hsu Shih-Wei , Huang Shu-Hua , Lee Chen-Chang , Huang Chi-Wei , Chang Chiung-Chih
Published: December 2022

Dietary pattern (DP) results in nutrition adequacy and may influence cognitive decline and cortical atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study explored DP in 248 patients with AD. Two neurobehavioral assessments (intervals 13.4 months) and two cortical thickness measurements derived from magnetic resonance images (intervals 26.5 months) were collected as outcome measures. Reduced rank regression was used to assess the groups of DPs and a linear mixed-effect model to explore the cortical neurodegenerative patterns. At screening, underweight body mass index (BMI) was related to significant higher lipid profile, impaired cognitive function, smaller cortical thickness, lower protein DP factor loading scores and the non-spouse caregiver status. Higher mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores were related to the DP of coffee/tea, compared to the lipid/sugar or protein DP group. The underweighted-BMI group had faster cortical thickness atrophy in the pregenual and lateral temporal cortex, while the correlations between cortical thickness degeneration and high HbA1C or low B12 and folate levels were localized in the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex. The predictive model suggested that factors related to MMSE score were related to the caregiver status. In conclusion, normal or overweight BMI, coffee/tea DP group and living with a spouse were considered as protective factors for better cognitive outcomes in patients with AD. The influence of glucose, B12 and folate on the cortical degeneration was spatially distinct from the pattern of AD degeneration.
Sodium Reduction in Restaurant Food: A Randomized Controlled Trial in China
Authors: Du Wenwen , Zhang Puhong , Zhang Jiguo , Li Yuan , He Feng J. , Zhang Xiaofan , Su Chang , Jia Xiaofang , Li Li , Song Jing , Zhang Bing , Wang Huijun
Published: December 2022

Restaurant food is one of the important sources of sodium intake in China. We aimed to determine whether a restaurant-based comprehensive intervention program may induce lower sodium content in restaurant food. A randomized controlled trial was implemented between 2019 and 2020 in 192 restaurants in China. After baseline assessment, the restaurants were randomly assigned to either an intervention or a control group (1:1). Comprehensive activities designed for intervention restaurants were conducted for one year. The primary outcome was the difference in change of sodium content estimated by the mean values of five best-selling dishes for each restaurant, from baseline to the end of the trial between groups. In total, 66 control restaurants and 80 intervention restaurants completed the follow-up assessment. The average sodium content of dishes at baseline was 540.9 ± 176.8 mg/100 g in control and 551.9 ± 149.0 mg/100 g in intervention restaurants. The mean effect of intervention after adjusting for confounding factors was −43.63 mg/100 g (95% CI: from −92.94 to 5.66, p = 0.08), representing an 8% reduction in sodium content. The restaurant-based intervention led to a modest but not significant reduction in the sodium content of restaurant food. There is great urgency for implementing effective and sustainable salt reduction programs, due to the rapid increase in the consumption of restaurant food in China.
SARS-CoV-2 Exploits Non-Canonical Autophagic Processes to Replicate, Mature, and Egress the Infected Vero E6 Cells
Authors: Koči Juraj , Novotová Marta , Sláviková Monika , Klempa Boris , Zahradník Ivan
Published: December 2022

The coronavirus transforms the cytoplasm of susceptible cells to support virus replication. It also activates autophagy-like processes, the role of which is not well understood. Here, we studied SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells using transmission electron microscopy and autophagy PCR array. After 6–24 h post-infection (hpi), the cytoplasm of infected cells only contained double-membrane vesicles, phagophores, and phagosomes engulfing virus particles and cytoplasmic debris, including damaged mitochondria. The phagosomes interacted with the viral nucleoprotein complex, virus particles, mitochondria, and lipid droplets. The phagosomes transformed into egress vacuoles, which broke through the plasmalemma and discharged the virus particles. The Vero E6 cells exhibited pronounced virus replication at 6 hpi, which stabilized at 18–24 hpi at a high level. The autophagy PCR array tests revealed a significant upregulation of 10 and downregulation of 8 autophagic gene markers out of 84. Altogether, these results underline the importance of autophagy-like processes for SARS-CoV-2 maturation and egress, and point to deviations from a canonical autophagy response.
Neuroprotective Effects of Some Nutraceuticals against Manganese-Induced Parkinson’s Disease in Rats: Possible Modulatory Effects on TLR4/NLRP3/NF-κB, GSK-3β, Nrf2/HO-1, and Apoptotic Pathways
Authors: Abu-Elfotuh Karema , Hamdan Ahmed Mohsen Elsaid , Mohammed Asmaa A. , Atwa Ahmed M. , Kozman Magy R. , Ibrahim Amany M. , Motawea Shaimaa M. , Selim Heba Mohammed Refat M. , Tohamy Sally Tohamy Kamal , Nour El-Din Mahmoud Nour , Zaghlool Sameh S. , Gowifel Ayah M. H. , Awny Magdy M.
Published: December 2022

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting the substantia nigra where functions controlling body movement take place. Manganese (Mn) overexposure is linked to a neurologic syndrome resembling PD. Sesamol, thymol, wheat grass (WG), and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) are potent antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic nutraceuticals. We investigated the potential protective effects of these nutraceuticals alone or in combinations against MnCl2-induced PD in rats. Seven groups of adult male Sprague Dawley rats were categorized as follows: group (I) was the control, while groups 2–7 received MnCl2 either alone (Group II) or in conjunction with oral doses of sesamol (Group III), thymol (Group IV), CoQ10 (Group V), WG (Group VI), or their combination (Group VII). All rats were subjected to four behavioral tests (open-field, swimming, Y-maze, and catalepsy tests). Biochemical changes in brain levels of monoamines, ACHE, BDNF, GSK-3β, GABA/glutamate, as well as oxidative stress, and apoptotic and neuroinflammatory biomarkers were evaluated, together with histopathological examinations of different brain regions. Mn increased catalepsy scores, while decreasing neuromuscular co-ordination, and locomotor and exploratory activity. It also impaired vigilance, spatial memory, and decision making. Most behavioral impairments induced by Mn were improved by sesamol, thymol, WG, or CoQ10, with prominent effect by sesamol and thymol. Notably, the combination group showed more pronounced improvements, which were confirmed by biochemical, molecular, as well as histopathological findings. Sesamol or thymol showed better protection against neuronal degeneration and some behavioral impairments induced by Mn than WG or CoQ10, partly via interplay between Nrf2/HO-1, TLR4/NLRP3/NF-κB, GSK-3β and Bax/Bcl2 pathways.
Rapid and Specific Action of Methylene Blue against Plasmodium Transmission Stages
Authors: Saison Nathanaël , Franetich Jean-François , Pinilla Yudi T. , Hoffmann Anton , Boussougou-Sambe Stravensky T. , Ngossanga Barclaye , Tefit Maurel , Ashraf Kutub , Amanzougaghene Nadia , Tajeri Shahin , Adegnika Ayola A. , Mazier Dominique , Borrmann Steffen
Published: December 2022

Methylene blue (MB) is the oldest synthetic anti-infective. Its high potency against asexual and sexual stages of malaria parasites is well documented. This study aimed to investigate possible additional activities of MB in interfering with parasite transmission and determine target stages in Anopheles vectors and humans. MB’s transmission-blocking activity was first evaluated by an ex vivo direct membrane feeding assay (DMFA) using Plasmodium falciparum field isolates. To investigate anti-mosquito stage activity, Plasmodium berghei-infected Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes were fed a second blood meal on mice that had been treated with methylene blue, 3, 6- and 15-days after the initial infectious blood meal. Anti-sporozoite and liver stage activities were evaluated in vitro and in vivo via sporozoite invasion and liver stage development assays, respectively. MB exhibited a robust inhibition of P. falciparum transmission in An. gambiae, even when added shortly before the DMFA but only a moderate effect against P. berghei oocyst development. Exposure of mature P. berghei and P. falciparum sporozoites to MB blocked hepatocyte invasion, yet P. berghei liver stage development was unaffected by MB. Our results indicate previously underappreciated rapid specific activities of methylene blue against Plasmodium transmission stages, preventing the establishment of both mosquito midgut and liver infections as the first essential steps in both hosts.
Mono-Rhamnolipid Biosurfactants Synthesized by Pseudomonas aeruginosa Detrimentally Affect Colorectal Cancer Cells
Authors: Twigg Matthew S. , Adu Simms A. , Sugiyama Suguru , Marchant Roger , Banat Ibrahim M.
Published: December 2022

Over the past 15 years, glycolipid-type biosurfactant compounds have been postulated as novel, naturally synthesized anticancer agents. This study utilized a recombinant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to biosynthesize a preparation of mono-rhamnolipids that were purified via both liquid and solid-phase extraction, characterized by HPLC-MS, and utilized to treat two colorectal cancer cell lines (HCT-116 and Caco2) and a healthy colonic epithelial cell line CCD-841-CoN. Additionally, the anticancer activity of these mono-rhamnolipids was compared to an alternative naturally derived anticancer agent, Piceatannol. XTT cell viability assays showed that treatment with mono-rhamnolipid significantly reduced the viability of both colorectal cancer cell lines whilst having little effect on the healthy colonic epithelial cell line. At the concentrations tested mono-rhamnolipids were also shown to be more cytotoxic to the colorectal cancer cells than Piceatannol. Staining of mono-rhamnolipid-treated cells with propidium iodine and acridine orange appeared to show that these compounds induced necrosis in both colorectal cancer cell lines. These data provide an early in vitro proof-of-principle for utilizing these compounds either as active pharmaceutical ingredient for the treatment of colorectal cancer or incorporations into nutraceutical formulations to potentially prevent gastrointestinal tract cancer.
Paper Flowers: Jane Campion, Plant Life, and The Power of the Dog (2021)
Authors: Cooper Sarah
Published: December 2022

Taking as its point of departure the place of the vegetal realm within Jane Campion’s filmmaking, this article attends to both living and artificial plants, homing in on the exquisitely crafted paper flowers of The Power of the Dog to explore their entanglement with human power relations. Manmade flowers are clearly distinct from the flowers of the garden or the prairie, but in this Western, they form part of a broader floral aesthetic with their living kin. Drawing upon thought that stems from actual plants (Deleuze and Guattari’s arboreal-rhizomatic thinking) and vegetal philosophy (Marder, Coccia), as well as parallel botany’s attention to the artificial (Lionni), I follow the fate of one paper flower as it intersects with the gendered history of artificial flower making and floral sexual symbolism. Thinking with this paper flower, I engage with theories that variously question binary power relations (Cixous, Barthes, Steinbock), reading these alongside scholarship on sex, gender, and masculinity in the Western (Neale, Mulvey, Bruzzi), and broaching the hierarchies of settler colonialism. The film’s floral aesthetic, I argue, challenges the either/or logic of male or female, masculine or feminine, and even though it cannot fully break away from the binaries it critiques, it is indebted to registering the importance of the nuance (Barthes) in the unthreading of power.
Preparation and Characterization of Nanostructured Inorganic Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide-Delafossite Nano/Micro Composite as a Novel Photodetector with High Efficiency
Authors: Ali Amira H. , Hassan Asmaa S. , Ahmed Ashour M. , Abdel-Khaliek Ahmed A. , Abd El Khalik Sawsan , Abass Safaa M. , Shaban Mohamed , Alzahrani Fatimah Mohammed , Rabia Mohamed
Published: December 2022

A novel photodetector, based on Cu2ZnSnS4, CZTS, is deposited on Cu/CuFeO2 for wavelength and light power intensity detection. The preparation of CuFeO2 is carried out by the direct combustion of Cu foil wetted with Fe(NO3)2 solution. The preparation of CZTS is carried out using the hydrothermal method, then it is dropped on CuFeO2 using the drop casting method at 70 °C. Various analyses are used to look at the chemical, morphological, and optical aspects of the Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS, such as UV–vis, SEM, TEM, selected-area electron diffraction, and XRD, in which all characteristic peaks are confirmed for the prepared materials. The Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS thin film’s SEM image has a homogeneous morphology, with particles that are around 350 nm in size, demonstrating a significant improvement in morphology over Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS thin film. The TEM analysis verified the nanostructured morphology of Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS. From XRD analysis of Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS, the high intensity of the generated peaks indexed to hexagonal (2H) CuFeO2 and kesterite CZTS crystal structures revealed a compact highly crystal material. From optical analysis, CZTS, Cu/CuFeO2, and Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS thin films recoded band gaps of 1.49, 1.75, and 1.23 eV, respectively. According to the band gap measurements, the optical absorption of the Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS photodetector has clearly increased. The Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS as photodetector has a detectivity (D) and responsivity (R) of 1.7 × 1010 Jones and 127 mAW−1, respectively. Moreover, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) is 41.5% at 25 mW·cm−2 and 390 nm. Hence, the prepared Cu/CuFeO2/CZTS photodetector has a very high photoelectrical response, making it very promising as a broadband photodetector.
A Simple Photonic System for DFS and AOA Simultaneous Measurement
Authors: Li Xintong , Tao Jinming , Li Jinye , Jia Qianqian , Wang Chaoquan , Liu Jianguo
Published: December 2022

A simple photonics-based dual-channel system is proposed to simultaneously measure the Doppler frequency shift (DFS) and angle of arrival (AOA) of microwave signals. The system applies two parallel push–pull Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZMs) for carrier suppression dual-sideband (CS-DSB) modulation. The introduction of the reference signal results in a DFS measurement without direction ambiguity. The DFS can be determined by measuring the frequency of the down-converted intermediate frequency (IF) signal, and the AOA can be calculated by comparing the phase shift of the two channels. A proof-of-concept experiment shows that the DFS measurement error is less than 0.4 Hz during ±100 kHz, and the AOA measurement error is within 1.5° in a range of 0–70°.
Diospyros villosa Root Monographic Quality Studies
Authors: Ribeiro Adriana , Serrano Rita , Silva Isabel B. Moreira da , Gomes Elsa T. , Pinto João F. , Silva Olga
Published: December 2022

Diospyros villosa L. (De Winter) (Ebenaceae) is a shrub whose root (DVR) is used as a toothbrush and to treat oral infections in Mozambique. The present work aims at establishing monographic quality criteria to allow the sustainable and safe development of pharmaceutical preparations with this herbal drug. This includes setting botanical (qualitative and quantitative) and chemical identification parameters, purity tests (loss on drying and total ash), quantifying the major classes of constituents identified, and particle size characterization of the powdered drug. DVR samples are cylindrical and microscopically characterized by: a periderm, with six layers of flattened phellem cells, with slightly thickened walls and few layers of phelloderm; cortical parenchyma with brachysclereids with a short, roughly isodiametric form (13.82–442.14 μm2 × 103), surrounded by a ring of prismatic calcium oxalate crystals; uniseriate medullary rays and prominent vessels of the xylem with single or double shape; numerous single and clustered starch grains, within the cortical parenchyma, medullar parenchyma, and ray cells. Polyphenols, mainly hydrolyzable tannins (212.29 ± 0.005 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of dried DVR), are the main marker class of constituents. Furthermore, the average diameter of the particles of the powder, 0.255 mm, allows its classification as a fine powder.
Physio-Biochemical Responses of Sweet Cherry Leaf to Natural Cold Conditions
Authors: Vosnjak Matej , Sircelj Helena , Vodnik Dominik , Usenik Valentina
Published: December 2022

Trees of the sweet cherry cultivar ‘Grace Star’ (Prunus avium L.) were exposed to low temperatures without frost for two consecutive nights under natural conditions 36 d after flowering, to study the effects on the physiological properties and metabolic status of leaves. The response was studied by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange parameters and by analyzing chloroplast pigments (i) immediately after exposure, (ii) 24 h and (iii) 48 h later. The first exposure at 2.4 (±0.2) °C and a minimum of 0.8 °C elicited more changes than the second exposure at 4.9 (±0.3) °C and a minimum of 2.4 °C. After the first exposure, the maximum quantum yield of PS II (Fv/Fm), effective quantum efficiency of PS II, net photosynthesis (PN), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration, and intercellular CO2 concentration were significantly lower, and after the second exposure, the content of chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, β-carotene, and lutein were lower. The content of antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin was higher immediately after both exposures, and that of antheraxanthin was also higher 24 h later. Recovery took longer in trees that were exposed twice. Fv/Fm recovered within 48 h, but the de-epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle pool, PN, and gs did not reach the level of controls, indicating that the stress effect lasted several days which is probably sufficient to cause fruit drop and reduce yield.
The Role of γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) in the Occurrence of Adventitious Roots and Somatic Embryos in Woody Plants
Authors: Pei Lu , Zhao Yue , Shi Xinru , Chen Rongrong , Yan Jiawei , Li Xu , Jiang Zeping , Wang Junhui , Shi Shengqing
Published: December 2022

The occurrence of adventitious roots and somatic embryos is a crucial step in micropropagation that frequently limits the application of this technique in woody plants. Recent studies demonstrated that they can be negatively or positively regulated with γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is a four-carbon non-proteinous amino acid that not only acts as a main inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammals. It has been reported that GABA affects plant growth and their response to stress although its mode of action is still unclear. This review dealt with the effects of GABA on adventitious root formation and growth as well as on somatic embryogenesis. Furthermore, we focused on discussing the interaction of GABA with phytohormones, such as auxin, ethylene, abscisic acid, and gibberellin, as well as with the carbon and nitrogen metabolism during adventitious root development. We suggested that research on GABA will contribute to the application of micropropagation in the recalcitrant fruit and forest species.
Sustainable Materials Based on Geopolymer–Polyvinyl Acetate Composites for Art and Design Applications
Authors: Ricciotti Laura , Occhicone Alessio , Manzi Stefania , Saccani Andrea , Ferone Claudio , Tarallo Oreste , Roviello Giuseppina
Published: December 2022

The recent introduction of the Next Generation EU packages on the circular economy and the Italian Ecological Transition Plan has further boosted the research of effective routes to design materials with low energy and low environmental impact, in all areas of research, including art and design and cultural heritage. In this work, we describe for the first time the preparation and characterization of a new sustainable adhesive material to be used in the art and design sector, consisting of a geopolymer-based composite with polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), both considered more environmentally acceptable than the analogous inorganic or polymeric materials currently used in this sector. The key idea has been the development of organic–inorganic composites by reacting low molecular weight polymers with the geopolymer precursor to obtain a material with reduced brittleness and enhanced adhesion with common substrates. Structural, morphological, and mechanical studies pointed out the consistent microstructure of the composite materials if compared to the neat geopolymer, showing lower density (up to 15%), improved flexural strength (up to 30%), similar water absorption and a relevant toughening effect (up to 40%). Moreover, the easy pourability in complex shapes and the excellent adhesion of these materials to common substrates suggest their use as materials for restoration, rehabilitation of monuments, and decorative and architectural intervention. The organic–inorganic nature of these new materials also makes them easily recognizable from the support on which they are used, favoring, in line with the dictates of good restoration practices, their possible complete removal. For all these reasons, these new materials could represent promising candidates to overcome the limits related to the creative industry for what concerns the selection of environmentally friendly materials to meet design requirements with low environmental impacts.
How to Choose the Suitable Steel of Wellhead, Wellbore, and Downhole Tools for Acid Gas Reinjection Flooding
Authors: Geng Yudi , Liu Zhendong , Zeng Wenguang , Feng Yibo , Ding Baodong , Li Wenxia , Wang Qinying
Published: December 2022

The material selection of injection gas wells in acid gas flooding is the bottleneck of the successful implementation of the technical scheme. Through standard and literature research, the materials of the wellhead, wellbore, and packer for reinjection well in acid gas flooding are preliminarily established, and then the suitable materials are further screened by using the weight-loss and surface characterization method. Finally, a new type of packer is designed to optimize the wellbore material. The results show that 35CrMo (CR = 0.0589 mm/y) steel is used for wellhead materials, 625 alloy steel is selected as the sealing surface, and 625 or 825 alloys (with CR ≤ 0.0055 mm/y) steel is used for wellhead sealing material. The main material of the packer is 718 Alloy (with CR ≤ 0.0021 mm/y). The cost of T95 steel within 20 years (1263 ten thousand yuan) of service is much smaller than that of G3 alloy (1771 ten thousand yuan), but after 30 years of service, its cost is close to that of G3 alloy. A kind of downhole packer for acid gas reinjection is designed. Among them, G3 alloy steel tubing is used between the packer and the relief valve, T95 steel tubing is selected above the packer and below the safety valve, and the packer is set in the G3 steel tubing. The serious pitting corrosion of T95 steel in the liquid phase environment is due to the uneven deposition of FeS and FeCO3 on the steel surface.
Potential Efficacy of Bacillus coagulans BACO-17 to Modulate Gut Microbiota in Rats Fed High-Fat Diet
Authors: Chan Zu , Saw Chiou-Yeong , Wu Yi-Ching , Lau Der-Kai , Chen Wei-Jen , Chu Hui-Fang , Liu Cheng-Yen , Tseng Ai-Lun , Chau Chi-Fai
Published: December 2022

This study aimed to evaluate the potential efficacy of Bacillus coagulans BACO-17 in ameliorating body fat accumulation as well as gut microbiota dysbiosis in animals, which were given a high-fat diet to mimic the adverse effect of an unhealthy dietary pattern. Compared with normal control, high-fat consumption resulted in significant (p < 0.05) elevations in weight gain (168%), feed efficiency (176%), visceral fat accumulation (228%), and a lesser total fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) (−27.5%). A significant shift of fecal Fimicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio from 1.13 to 3.14 was also observed. After 12 weeks of experiment, a supplementation of B. coagulans BACO-17 at high dose (9 log CFU/day) along with a high-fat diet could exert an apparent fat reduction ability by decreasing weight gain (by 23.7%) and visceral fat mass (by 24.0%). It was found that B. coagulans BACO-17 was able to increase fecal SCFA concentrations and revert Fimicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio back to the level comparable with the normal control. It could play a probiotic effect by increasing and decreasing the abundance of Muribaculaceae and Allobaculum, respectively. Therefore, a supplementation of adequate amount of B. coagulans BACO-17 might confer a concreted amelioration of deteriorated bacteria profiles and body fat accumulation due to high-fat consumption.
The Effect of the New Imidazole Derivatives Complexation with Betacyclodextrin, on the Antifungal Activity in Oropharyngeal Infections
Authors: Lisa Elena Lacramioara , Dragostin Oana Maria , Petroaie Antoneta Dacia , Gurau Gabriela , Cristea Alina , Pavel Alexandra , Bonifate Florina , Popa Paul Serban , Matei Madalina
Published: December 2022

Ketoconazole (KZ) is a broad-spectrum drug used to treat fungal infections. Local use of ketoconazole has been associated with some side effects in healthy adults, especially local reactions, such as stinging, severe irritation, and itching. Moreover, the bioavailability of KZ after oral administration is low in tablets due to its low water solubility. In addition, oral administration of ketoconazole produces systemic exposure, associated with significant side effects, such as cholestatic and hepatocellular lesions. In an attempt to reduce hepatotoxicity, ketoconazole may be administered at the primary site of infection with cutaneous candidiasis, specifically on the skin tissue. However, the use of ketoconazole in topical dosage forms is limited by its high lipophilicity and extremely poor aqueous solubility (1 ng/mL), thus leading to the rare availability of topical dosage forms on the market. Therefore, a new approach to the effective delivery of ketoconazole to the site of infection is targeted, including obtaining new derivatives (keeping the imidazolic nucleus), with a similar spectrum of action, and finally, their inclusion in betacyclodextrin complexes in order to optimize bioavailability and physico-chemical stability.
Validation of a Classical Sliding Mode Control Applied to a Physical Robotic Arm with Six Degrees of Freedom
Authors: González-Rodríguez Andres , Baray-Arana Rogelio E. , Rodríguez-Mata Abraham Efraím , Robledo-Vega Isidro , Acosta Cano de los Ríos Pedro Rafael
Published: December 2022

The control of robotic manipulators has become increasingly difficult over recent years due to their high accuracy, performance, speed, and reliability in a variety of applications, such as industry, medicine, research, etc. These serial manipulator systems are extremely complex because their dynamic models include perturbations, parametric variations, coupled nonlinear dynamics, and non-modular dynamics, all of which require robust control for trajectory tracking. This paper compares two control techniques: computational torque control (CTC) and sliding mode control (SMC). In this study, the latter was used for a physical robotic arm with six degrees of freedom (DOF) and online experiments were conducted, which have received little attention in the literature. As a result, the contribution of this work was based on the real-time application of this controller via a self-developing interface. The great resilience of sliding mode controllers to disturbances was also demonstrated in this study.
Investigating the Relationship between Centrality of Religiosity, Instrumental Harm, and Impartial Beneficence through the Lens of Moral Foundations
Authors: Paruzel-Czachura Mariola , Charzyńska Edyta
Published: December 2022

A growing body of work suggests that religiosity is typically associated with deontological or non-utilitarian moral judgments. However, recent conceptualizations of utilitarian psychology show that instrumental harm is just one (negative) dimension of utilitarianism. In the new two-dimensional model of utilitarian psychology, impartial beneficence is the second (positive) dimension of utilitarianism. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between the centrality of religiosity and utilitarianism (its two dimensions) among adults (N = 401). We also examined whether five moral foundations serve as mediators of this relationship. We found that religiosity was directly and indirectly (through the care foundation) related to impartial beneficence. Although the direct effect of religiosity on instrumental harm was insignificant, we found two indirect effects through purity and authority foundations. The results suggest that the relationship between religiosity and utilitarianism is more complex than previously assumed.
Exploring the Best-Matching Plant Traits and Environmental Factors for Vegetation Indices in Estimates of Global Gross Primary Productivity
Authors: Zhao Weiqing , Zhu Zaichun
Published: December 2022

As the largest source of uncertainty in carbon cycle studies, accurate quantification of gross primary productivity (GPP) is critical for the global carbon budget in the context of global climate change. Numerous vegetation indices (VIs) based on satellite data have participated in the construction of GPP models. However, the relative performance of various VIs in predicting GPP and what additional factors should be combined with them to reveal the photosynthetic capacity of vegetation mechanistically better are still poorly understood. We constructed two types of models (universal and plant functional type [PFT]-specific) for solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv), and Leaf Area Index (LAI) based on two widely used machine learning algorithms, i.e., the random forest (RF) and back propagation neural network (BPNN) algorithms. A total of thirty plant traits and environmental factors with legacy effects are considered in the model. We then systematically investigated the ancillary variables that best match each vegetation index in estimating global GPP. Four types of models (universal and PFT-specific, RF and BPNN) consistently show that SIF performs best when modeled using a single vegetation index (R2 = 0.67, RMSE = 2.24 g C·m−2·d−1); however, NIRv combined with CO2, plant traits, and climatic factors can achieve the highest prediction accuracy (R2 = 0.87, RMSE = 1.40 g C·m−2·d−1). Plant traits effectively enhance all prediction models’ accuracy, and climatic variables are essential factors in improving the accuracy of NIRv- or LAI-based GPP models, but not the accuracy of SIF-based models. Our findings provide valuable information for the configuration of the data-driven models to improve the accuracy of predicting GPP and provide insights into the physiological and ecological mechanisms underpinning GPP prediction.
The Likely Thermal Evolution of the Irregularly Shaped S-Type Astraea Asteroid
Authors: Zhong Zhen , Yan Jianguo , Chen Shiguo , Liu Lu , Fenucci Marco , Wen Qilin
Published: December 2022

The thermal evolution of asteroids provides information on the thermal processes of the protoplanetary disk. Since irregular bodies have a large surface subject to fast heat loss, we used the finite element method (FEM) to explore the likely thermal pathways of one of these bodies. To test our FEM approach, we compared the FEM to another algorithm, the finite difference method (FDM). The results show that the two methods calculated a similar temperature magnitude at the same evolutionary time, especially at the stage when the models had temperatures around 800 K. Furthermore, this investigation revealed a slight difference between the methods that commences with a declining temperature, particularly around the center of the model. The difference is associated with the tiny thickness of the boundary used in the FDM, whereas the FEM does not consider the thickness of the boundary due to its self-adapting grid. Using the shape data provided by DAMIT, we further explored the likely thermal evolution pathway of the S-type asteroid Astraea by considering the radionuclide 26Al. Since we only focused on the thermal pathways of conduction, we considered that the accretion lasts 2.5 Ma (1 Ma = 1,000,000 years) by assuming that Astraea has not experienced iron melting. The results show a high interior temperature area with a shape similar to the shape of Astraea, indicating the influence of the irregular shape on thermal evolution. The interior of Astraea achieved the highest temperature after 4.925 Ma from the accretion of planetesimals. After that time of high temperature, Astraea gradually cooled and existed more than 50 Ma before its heat balanced approximately to its external space. We did not find signs of apparent fast cooling along the shortest z-axis as in previous studies, which could be due to the hidden differences in the distances along the axes. The methodology developed in this paper performs effectively and can be applied to study the thermal pathways of other asteroids with irregular shapes.
Assessing the Accuracy of Landsat Vegetation Fractional Cover for Monitoring Australian Drylands
Authors: Sutton Andres , Fisher Adrian , Metternicht Graciela
Published: December 2022

Satellite-derived vegetation fractional cover (VFC) has shown to be a promising tool for dryland ecosystem monitoring. This model, calibrated through biophysical field measurements, depicts the sub-pixel proportion of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and bare soil (BS). The distinction between NPV and BS makes it particularly important for drylands, as these fractions often dominate. Two Landsat VFC products are available for the Australian continent: the original Joint Remote Sensing Research Program (JRSRP) product, and a newer Digital Earth Australia (DEA) product. Although similar validation statistics have been presented for each, an evaluation of their differences has not been undertaken. Moreover, spatial variability of VFC accuracy within drylands has not been comprehensively assessed. Here, a large field dataset (4207 sites) was employed to compare Landsat VFC accuracy across the Australian continent, with detailed spatial and temporal analysis conducted on four regions of interest. Furthermore, spatiotemporal features of VFC unmixing error (UE) were explored to characterize model uncertainty in large areas yet to be field sampled. Our results showed that the JRSRP and DEA VFC were very similar (RMSE = 4.00–6.59) and can be employed interchangeably. Drylands did not show a substantial difference in accuracy compared to the continental assessment; however contrasting variations were observed in dryland subtypes (e.g., semi-arid and arid zones). Moreover, VFC effectively tracked total ground cover change over time. UE increased with tree cover and height, indicating that model uncertainty was low in typical dryland landscapes. Together, these results provide guiding points to understanding the Australian ecosystems where VFC can be used with confidence.
Correction: Czerkawski et al. Deep Internal Learning for Inpainting of Cloud-Affected Regions in Satellite Imagery. Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 1342
Authors: Czerkawski Mikolaj , Upadhyay Priti , Davison Christopher , Werkmeister Astrid , Cardona Javier , Atkinson Robert , Michie Craig , Andonovic Ivan , Macdonald Malcolm , Tachtatzis Christos
Published: December 2022

Following the publication of the article [...]
OrtDet: An Orientation Robust Detector via Transformer for Object Detection in Aerial Images
Authors: Zhao Ling , Liu Tianhua , Xie Shuchun , Huang Haoze , Qi Ji
Published: December 2022

The detection of arbitrarily rotated objects in aerial images is challenging due to the highly complex backgrounds and the multiple angles of objects. Existing detectors are not robust relative to the varying angle of objects because the CNNs do not explicitly model the orientation’s variation. In this paper, we propose an Orientation Robust Detector (OrtDet) to solve this problem, which aims to learn features that change accordingly with the object’s rotation (i.e., rotation-equivariant features). Specifically, we introduce a vision transformer as the backbone to capture its remote contextual associations via the degree of feature similarities. By capturing the features of each part of the object and their relative spatial distribution, OrtDet can learn features that have a complete response to any direction of the object. In addition, we use the tokens concatenation layer (TCL) strategy, which generates a pyramidal feature hierarchy for addressing vastly different scales of objects. To avoid the confusion of angle regression, we predict the relative gliding offsets of the vertices in each corresponding side of the horizontal bounding boxes (HBBs) to represent the oriented bounding boxes (OBBs). To intuitively reflect the robustness of the detector, a new metric, the mean rotation precision (mRP), is proposed to quantitatively measure the model’s learning ability for a rotation-equivariant feature. Experiments on the DOTA-v1.0, DOTA-v1.5, and HRSC2016 datasets show that our method improves the mAP by 0.5, 1.1, and 2.2 and reduces mRP detection fluctuations by 0.74, 0.56, and 0.52, respectively.
Essential Oils of Taxodium distichum Winter Leaves Obtained by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction Method and Hydrodistillation
Authors: Djapic Nina
Published: December 2022

The extraction of Taxodium distichum needles was done using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction and hydrodistillation. SC CO2 extraction of T. distichum winter leaves was conducted at different pressures and temperatures using a central composite rotatable design. The optimal extraction conditions concerning the yield and α-tocopherol relative amount were determined by response surface methodology. The optimal conditions for the highest extraction yield of 3.97% were at 17.79 MPa and 62.70 °C and the highest α-tocopherol relative amount of 85.99 mg per 100 g of the plant material was at 22.07 MPa and 35.86 °C. The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation contained 62 compounds and (-)-caryophyllene oxide was dominant (55.55%). The T. distichum essential oil obtained by SC CO2 extraction and hydrodistillation had a different composition. The desirable compounds influence the choice of the extraction method.
Target Discovery of Flavonoids from Elymus nutans Griseb Using Medium- and High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography Combined with Online High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl Detection
Authors: Sheng Lili , Hou Zhaofei , Hu Yufeng
Published: December 2022

Forage-based nutrients constitute the main forage value of forage grass. Elymus nutans Griseb possesses a wide ecological adaptability, enhanced crude protein content, good palatability, and excellent genes. Herein, employing medium- (MPLC) and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), along with online HPLC-DPPH (OHD)-based identification, two primary radical scavenging compounds were extracted and identified from the methanolic extract of Elymus nutans Griseb. With a starting material of 300 g of Elymus nutans Griseb, 5.95 g of the target DPPH suppressors fraction (Fr6) was separated following one cycle of MCI GEL® CHP20P medium pressure liquid chromatography. A Kromasil 100-5-Phenyl column was subsequently employed for further purification of the fraction, which yielded 432.16 mg of Fr62 (7.26% recovery) and 489.01 mg of Fr63 (8.22% recovery). The target compounds were then assessed based on their structure and purity, and two compounds (salcolin A and tricin) were extracted with > 95% purity. This newly designed procedure was highly effective for the targeted flavonoids, and high-purity radical scavenger extraction from forage extracts. This methodology can potentially provide a scientific basis for their quality evaluation.
Simple and Sensitive Analysis of Clenbuterol in Urine Matrices by UHPLC-MS/MS Method with Online-SPE Sample Preparation
Authors: Slíž Kristián , Olešová Dominika , Piešťanský Juraj , Mikuš Peter
Published: December 2022

Clenbuterol is one of the most misused anabolic agents in professional sports. Therefore, the monitoring of clenbuterol in body fluids such as human urine is related to the development of rapid, selective and sensitive analytical methods that produce reliable results. In this work, these requirements were met by a two-dimensional separation method based on online solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (SPE–UHPLC–MS/MS). The developed method provides favorable performance parameters, and it is characterized by minimum manual steps (only dilution and the addition of an internal standard) in the sample preparation. A limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.1 ng/mL, excellent linearity (0.9999), remarkable precision (1.26% to 8.99%) and high accuracy (93.1% to 98.7%) were achieved. From a practical point of view, the analytical performance of the validated SPE–UHPLC–MS/MS method was demonstrated on blinded spiked urine samples from ten healthy volunteers. The estimated concentrations of clenbuterol were in accordance with their corresponding nominal values, as supported by the precision and accuracy data (relative standard deviation ≤5.4%, relative error ≤11%). The fulfillment of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s screening and confirmation criteria indicates that the proposed method is suitable for implementation in routine use in toxicologic and antidoping laboratories. Due to its high orthogonality and separation efficiency, the SPE–UHPLC–MS/MS method should also be easily adapted to the separation of structurally related compounds (such as clenbuterol metabolites). Thus, future antidoping applications could also include monitoring of clenbuterol metabolites, providing a longer detection widow.
Ensemble of Networks for Multilabel Classification
Authors: Nanni Loris , Trambaiollo Luca , Brahnam Sheryl , Guo Xiang , Woolsey Chancellor
Published: December 2022

Multilabel learning goes beyond standard supervised learning models by associating a sample with more than one class label. Among the many techniques developed in the last decade to handle multilabel learning best approaches are those harnessing the power of ensembles and deep learners. This work proposes merging both methods by combining a set of gated recurrent units, temporal convolutional neural networks, and long short-term memory networks trained with variants of the Adam optimization approach. We examine many Adam variants, each fundamentally based on the difference between present and past gradients, with step size adjusted for each parameter. We also combine Incorporating Multiple Clustering Centers and a bootstrap-aggregated decision trees ensemble, which is shown to further boost classification performance. In addition, we provide an ablation study for assessing the performance improvement that each module of our ensemble produces. Multiple experiments on a large set of datasets representing a wide variety of multilabel tasks demonstrate the robustness of our best ensemble, which is shown to outperform the state-of-the-art.
The Impact of Customer Participation on Customer Value: Does Customer Resource and Regulatory Focus Matter?
Authors: Sun Zhongyuan , Li Yucheng , Lou Xuming
Published: December 2022

With the development of technology and the improvement of customer awareness, customers and enterprises are becoming more and more proactive in the process of cooperation. Among these developments is the value creation of customers in the brand network. The community changes with the accumulation of resources during the customer journey, and it is particularly important to explore the impact of customer resource accumulation and regulatory focus of enterprises for customers on customer value. Previous research mainly focused on the role of customer resources in the stages of value creation and value realization, ignoring the impact of customer participation on customer resources accumulation and customer value during the customer journey and the moderating effect of customer regulatory focus between them. This paper investigates this from the perspective of resource theory. Based on the investigation in 451 active customers in the Chinese famous brand network community, it uses the SEM method to test the relationships among customer participation, customer resources and customer value, and the moderating role of regulatory focus during the customer journey. The empirical results show that both customer relationship resources and human resources positively affect customer lifetime value and customer engagement value and play a mediating role between customer participation and customer value during the customer journey. Furthermore, the customer promotion focus positively moderates the relationships between customer participation and customer resources, while the prevention focus only positively moderates the relationship between customer participation and customer human resources. The research results provide a theoretical basis for brand network communities to sustainably cultivate and guide customers to contribute a higher value.