bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
D3F: A Framework to Minimize the Impact of Intrusions
Authors: Baiardi Fabrizio , Sammartino Vincenzo
Published: July 2024

This paper presents Double Database Decomposition Framework, which integrates vertical and horizontal table decompositions to minimize data leakage due to intrusions. Vertical decompositions segregate sensitive attributes, while horizontal ones partition data based on user access patterns. In this way, the framework ensures that users access only the data necessary for their operations, adhering to the principle of least privilege. This double decomposition approach improves the robustness of the original database against impersonation attacks and limits the blast radius of potential intrusions. Furthermore, the framework significantly mitigates the risks associated with data breaches by confining unauthorized access to specific data subsets and restricting the exposure of sensitive information. Performance analysis highlights the trade-offs between robustness and overhead offered by distinct allocation strategies of the output of the decompositions to, among other, physical machines, virtual machines, and containers, to balance security and resource efficiency. We present a case study in a healthcare environment that confirms both the effectiveness of the framework and its applicability in complex systems where data security is paramount. By integrating advanced security measures and optimising data access, the framework results in a scalable and adaptable solution for enhancing database security and performance in various domains.
Design a Digital Tool Using Design Thinking to Monitor Patients with Atopic Dermatitis
Authors: Visiers-Jiménez Laura , González-Ramos Marta , Benito-Miguel Marta , Navalpotro-Fuster Lourdes , De Castro-De Frutos Nuria María , García-García Elena
Published: July 2024

Background: Atopic dermatitis is a chronic condition that significantly affects the daily life of those who suffer from it, requiring complex and personalized management with active participation of the patient in the management of their disease. Objective: to describe the design and development process of a mobile application, using the Design Thinking method, for the follow-up of patients with atopic dermatitis. Methods: User-centered design and prototype creation method, differentiating the phases of the empathize, define, idea, prototype, and test. A purposive snowball sampling was used to recruit patients with atopic dermatitis, family members, and health professionals. Three two-hour workshops were held, attended by 25 people. Results: the parameters to be monitored will include objective data (physical, behavioral, treatments, environmental, integration of daily routines) and subjective data (user experience). On the other hand, it will figure out behavior patterns, set up rewards, foster a feeling of community, and use notifications and a chatbot. Conclusion: The active integration of all stakeholders at each stage of the design and development of the digital solution has improved its relevance and acceptance, resulting in a tool that is expected to significantly improve the management of atopic dermatitis.
Study on the Equivalent Density Tool and Depressurization Mechanism of Suction-Type Depressurization Cycle
Authors: Ren Meipeng , Zhang Xingquan , Xie Renjun , Wang Junyan , Zhu Zhaopeng , 程 学彬 , Dou Liangbin
Published: July 2024

In order to further control the equivalent circulating density,a new type of annular pres-sure-reducing downhole tool for high temperature and high pressure wells-liquid-absorbing ECD tool is designed.Through this tool,the bottom hole pressure of the equivalent circulating drilling fluid can be close to its hydrostatic pres-sure,therebyachieving a deeper drilling depth.The tool is mainly composed of screw mo-tor,vortex blade,annular seal,universal joint and drill string.Its working principle is mainly to use the liquid absorption effect of the tool and the hydraulic energy of the circu-lating fluid extracted by the screw motor to convert it into mechanical energy,and to gen-erate suction force to improve the flow energy of the drilling fluid in the bottom hole an-nulusand reduce the equivalent circulation density.Based on ANSYS-FLUENT analysis andsimulation,the change of pressure drop characteristics under different drilling fluid density,displacement and tool size was simulated.The simulation results show that thedepressurization effect is 1.0MPa when the drilling fluid density is 1.2g/cm3. When the drilling fluid density is 1.5g/cm3,the depressurization is about 1.7MPa,and when thedrill-ing fluid density is 1.8g/cm3,the depressurization is about 1.9MPa.When the drilling fluid density is 2.0g/cm3,the pressure drop is about 2.3MPa.When the flow rate is from 1500-2500L/min,the maximum pressure can be reduced by 2.3MPa.When the viscosity is 40mPa•S and 60mPa•S,the pressure drop almost does not change.The increase of viscosi-ty has little effect on the pressure drop,and it is mainly affected by the flow rate under equal displacement.
SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF MODERN IV WORLD HYBRID WAR
Authors: Korostylov Gennadii
Published: July 2024

The article is devoted to the socio-philosophical analysis of the types of modern hybrid war, their main characteristics, the disclosure of the factors that influence these modern types of wars. The opinion regarding global transformations in the political, economic and technological spheres is substantiated, which led to the need to revise the concept of K. von Clausewitz. It has been proven that today’s war has its differences from previous wars, its typology, color and methods of conduct; the concept of "modern war" is considered and the modern understanding of war as hybrid is given, the types of modern hybrid war are highlighted. The role of technology, technology and science in modern hybrid war is revealed; justified, due to which the modern military picture of the world is formed.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: EVOLUTION OF CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES IN THE RETROSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL RELATIONS DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Donenko Vladyslav
Published: July 2024

The article substantiates the theoretical and methodological foundations of public administration, which determined its evolution from the idea of management as a hierarchically organised system to the concept of a network structure of interaction between public, private and non-governmental organisations. Approaches to understanding the subject of public administration science, its content and place among other social sciences are analysed. It is proved that the network approach is currently the most effective methodology for analysing the modern political process. The author emphasises that under the influence of the information technologies, the very nature of the State as the most important political and legal institution is changing, and its functions are being redistributed at the supranational and subnational levels.
Identity Loss and Reconstruction in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Day
Authors: Song Jialu
Published: July 2024

Mordecai Richler, a contemporary Canadian Jewish writer, reveals the identity confusion faced by Jewish immigrants in their integration into Canadian society through the description of the life experience of the protagonist Duddy Kravitz in his novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959). Meanwhile, in the novel Day (1961), Elie Wiesel, a contemporary American Jewish writer born in Romania, examines how Holocaust survivors lose their identities and attempt to seek identity reconstruction within the context of traumatic memories and guilt through the perspective of the protagonist, Eliezer. This article aims to interpret the manifestations and reasons for identity loss and the possibility of identity reconstruction of the protagonists Duddy Kravitz and Eliezer based on identity theory. Through interpretation, it can be concluded that Duddy is marginalized by mainstream society and blamed for anti-Semitism within the Jewish community, resulting in a significant identity crisis. However, his success in purchasing land offers the possibility for him to escape marginalization and achieve identity reconstruction in mainstream society. Similarly, Eliezer, as a Holocaust survivor, experiences identity loss under the influence of traumatic memories and feelings of guilt, leading to questioning the existence of God and a death wish. Nevertheless, in the later part of the novel, he transitions from an unnamed narrator to “Eliezer”, and the ashes left after his portrait is burned symbolize his completeness, allowing him to regain self-identity.
PERENCANAAN SISTEM KENDALI MODEL REFERENCE
Authors: Al Al , Rahmawati Gusri , Premadi Aswir , Effendi Asnal
Published: July 2024

Penggunaan drone secara komersial meningkat pesat di sektor ini dalam beberapa dekade terakhir, salah satunya adalah Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Tipe Hexacopter. Hexacopter merupakan robot terbang tanpa pilot yang dapat dikendalikan secara manual dengan menggunakan remote control dan dikendalikan secara otomatis atau autopilot. Kelebihan dari hexacopter adalah kemampuannya dalam bermanuver dengan fleksibel, dapat bergerak ke 8 arah mata angin tanpa perlu berbelok terlebih dahulu. Namun, terlepas dari kelebihannya, hexacopter tertentu harus terus terbang dengan stabil dalam berbagai kondisi yang berubah, seperti perubahan cuaca, beban yang berbeda, atau perubahan kondisi lingkungan. Untuk itu diperlukan suatu sistem pengendalian yang mampu beradaptasi terhadap perubahan tersebut. Kondisi ini menjadi menarik untuk melakukan studi eksperimen dan simulasi yaitu merancang hexacopter dengan kendali Model Referene Adaptive Control (MRAC). Dengan menggunakan sistem kendali Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) dengan kendali utama menggunakan kendali PID, respon yang diberikan baik dan optimal, parameter sistem mencapai nilai : rise time (ts) 1.0709 s, delay time (td) 0.99 s , peak time (tp ) 2,6600 s, settling time (ts) 3,9351 s, overshoot (mp) 4,0847 dan steady state error 0,0001%. Analisis matematis sistem kendali MRAC perlu dipelajari lebih mendalam agar perhitungan kendali MRAC menjadi lebih akurat.
Evaluation of Health Risks in the Blood Serum of People Working in the Welding Industry as a Result of Exposure to Heavy Metals in Diyala Governorate / Iraq
Authors: Jbara Abdulwahab Abdulrazaq , Abed Noora Dhyaaldain , Mohammed Shahad Abdul Jabbar
Published: July 2024

General Background: The welding industry is associated with significant health risks due to occupational exposure to heavy metals. Specific Background: Workers in this industry are particularly vulnerable to toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, copper, iron, and zinc, which can lead to severe health issues. Knowledge Gap: There is limited data on the specific health risks and heavy metal concentrations in welders' blood serum in Diyala Governorate, Iraq. Aims: This study aims to identify the primary health risks associated with welding-related heavy metal exposure and to explore strategies to mitigate these risks. Methods: The study was conducted in several industrial areas in Diyala Governorate, where blood samples were collected from 40 welders and 40 control participants (employees and students from Diyala University). An atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used to measure heavy metal concentrations in blood serum. Results: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in heavy metal levels between welders and the control group (P Value < 0.05), indicating higher exposure among welders. However, no significant differences were found within welder subgroups based on age, smoking status, and duration of exposure. Novelty: This study provides the first comprehensive assessment of heavy metal exposure among welders in Diyala Governorate, highlighting the urgent need for improved protective measures. Implications: The findings underscore the necessity for environmental and health authorities to implement rapid interventions to protect welders from heavy metal toxicity. Current protective measures are inadequate, as evidenced by elevated levels of lead, cadmium, nickel, and zinc in welders' blood serum. Enhanced protective practices and stricter regulations are critical to reducing these occupational health risks.
Highlights:
1. Higher levels of heavy metals found in welders' blood compared to controls.2. No significant differences among welder subgroups by age, smoking, exposure duration.3. Urgent need for better protective measures and interventions in welding industry.
Keywords: Welding industry, heavy metals, occupational exposure, health risks, Diyala Governorate
Well Trajectory Optimization under Geological Uncertainties Assisted by a New Deep Learning Technique
Authors: Yousefzadeh Reza , Ahmadi Mohammad
Published: July 2024

The large number of geological realizations and well trajectory parameters make field development optimization under geological uncertainty a time-consuming task. A novel deep learning-based surrogate model with a novel well trajectory parametrization technique is proposed in this study to optimize the trajectory of wells under geological uncertainty. The proposed model is a deep neural network with ConvLSTM layers to extract the most salient features from highly channelized and layered reservoirs efficiently. ConvLSTM layers are used because they can extract spatiotemporal features simultaneously since layered reservoirs can be regarded as a time series of spatially distributed reservoir properties. The proposed surrogate model could predict the individual objective function with a coefficient of determination of 0.96. After verifying the validity of the surrogate model, four approaches were used to optimize well trajectories. Two of the approaches consumed all available realizations (surrogate model-based and simulation-based approaches), while the remaining two used a subset of realizations. The selection of the subset was based on the cumulative oil production (COP) and the diffusive time of flight (DTOF). Results showed that although the surrogate model used all realizations, it could provide similar results to the simulation-based optimization with only a 5% computational cost of the simulation-based approach. The novelty of this work lies in its proposal of an innovative surrogate model to improve the analysis of channelized and layered reservoirs and its introduction of a novel well trajectory optimization framework that effectively addresses the challenge of optimizing well trajectories in complex three-dimensional spaces, a problem not adequately tackled in previous works.
Metabolic syndrome and associated factors among females of reproductive age in Wakiso district, central Uganda: A cross sectional study
Authors: Lubogo David , Wamani Henry , Mayega Roy William , Mutungi Gerald , Ssenyonga Ronald , Orach Christopher Garimoi
Published: July 2024

Background The prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) in sub-Saharan African countries including Uganda is on the rise. Females of reproductive age (15–49 years) are more affected by MetS than males leading to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. This study assessed the prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and associated factors among females of reproductive age in Wakiso district, central Uganda to inform policy. Methods We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study among 697 women of reproductive age in Wakiso district, using multistage sampling method. In the first stage, 32 clusters/enumeration areas were randomly selected from a list of all Uganda National Bureau of Statistics enumeration areas in Wakiso district. In the second stage, 25 households were randomly selected from each cluster, totaling 800 households. In the third stage, one female respondent aged between 15–49 years was selected from each household. Quantitative data were collected on socio-demographic factors, behavioral risk factors, and physical (blood pressure, waist circumference, height and weight) and biochemical (High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose levels) measures using a structured questionnaire. MetS was defined by the Joint Interim Statement criterion. Modified Poisson regression with robust standard error estimates was fitted to obtain crude and adjusted prevalence ratios associated with the presence of MetS. All results were weighted based on sampling probabilities. Results The overall prevalence of MetS was (17.8%: 95% CI 13.2–23.6). The risk factors significantly associated with MetS included being overweight (APR: 3.21, 95% CI 1.88–5.45, p = < 0.001), obesity (APR: 5.33, 95% CI 3.35–9.12, p = < 0.001) and breastfeeding of most recent baby (APR: 0.55, 95% CI 0.37–0.82, p = 0.002). Conclusions Nearly one in five women of reproductive age in Wakiso district are affected by Metabolic Syndrome. Overweight and obese women were more likely to have Metabolic Syndrome. Breastfeeding offered protection against Metabolic Syndrome. Our findings suggest the need to promote breastfeeding and appropriate interventions towards reduction and management of overweight and obesity amongst reproductive age women in the communities. Interventions incorporating physical activity, nutrition education, counselling, and preventive screenings may have potential to effectively reduce weight and obesity. Further research should be undertaken to elucidate the best strategies towards reducing and managing overweight and obesity among women in the study settings.
Decomposing geographical and universal aspects of human mobility
Authors: Lehmann Sune , Boucherie Louis , Maier Benjamin
Published: July 2024

Driven by access to large volumes of detailed movement data, the study of human mobility has grown rapidly over the past decade. This body of work has argued that human mobility is scale-free, it has proposed models to generate scale-free moving distance distributions, and explained how the scale-free distribution arises from aggregating displacements across scales. The field of human mobility, however, has not explicitly addressed how mobility is structured by the constraints set by geography -- that mobility is shaped by the outlines of landmasses, lakes, and rivers; by the placement of buildings, roadways, and cities. Based on unique datasets capturing millions of moves between precise locations, we show how separating the effect of geography from mobility choices, reveals a universal power law spanning five orders of magnitude (10m to 1,000,000m). To do so we incorporate geography via the `pair distribution function', a fundamental quantity from condensed matter physics that encapsulates the structure of locations on which mobility occurs. We show that this distribution captures the constraints that geography places on human mobility across length scales. Our description conclusively addresses debates between distance-based and opportunity-based perspectives on human mobility: By showing how the spatial distribution of human settlements shapes human mobility, we provide a novel perspective that bridges the gap between these previously opposing ideas.
Photothermal Sensitive Nanocomposite Hydrogel for Infectious Bone Defects
Authors: Liao Jinfeng , Wu Yanting , Xie Xi , Luo Guowen , Xie Jing , Ye Xiuwen , Gu Wanrong , Mo Anchun , Qian Zhiyong , Zhou Chenchen
Published: July 2024

Infectious bone defects, a significant challenge in clinical settings, often need advanced therapeutic interventions. This study introduces a novel treatment system combining a photothermal therapy hydrogel with a pulsed drug release mechanism. The system employs a hydrogel matrix that is sensitive to the thermal fluctuations characteristic of bone defect sites, enables controlled and localized drug release. The key component of this system is the integration of mild photothermal agents, which are activated within 40-43°C to improve the precision and effectiveness of drug delivery. Our results indicate that the photothermal response significantly improves the localized delivery of therapeutic agents, reducing systemic side effects and enhancing efficacy at the defect site. The pulsed release with mild PTT addresses both infection control and bone regeneration. This innovative approach marks a substantial improvement in bone defect treatments, offering a more targeted, effective, and patient-friendly alternative to conventional methods. Our research aims to expand its applicability to a broader range of tissue regeneration scenarios, underscoring its potential in the field of regenerative medicine.
A Deep Learning Based Hybrid Recommendation Model for Internet Users
Authors: Sami Amany , Adrousy Waleed El , Sarhan Shahenda , Elmougy Samir
Published: July 2024

Recommendation Systems (RS) are essential for personalized item suggestions, but traditional approaches face limitations in accuracy, scalability, efficiency, and cold-start problems. This paper introduces the HRS-IU-DL model, a hybrid RS that leverages advanced techniques to enhance accuracy and relevance. The model integrates user-based and item-based Collaborative Filtering (CF) to analyze user-item interactions, Neural Collaborative Filtering (NCF) to capture non-linear interactions, and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) to identify sequential patterns in user behavior. Additionally, Content-Based Filtering (CBF) using Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) is employed to analyze item attributes. By combining CF, NCF, RNN, and CBF, the HRS-IU-DL model addresses challenges such as data sparsity, the cold-start problem, and the need for personalized recommendations. The proposed model utilizes N-Sample techniques to recommend the top 10 similar items based on user-specified genre, employing methods like Cosine Similarity, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and TF-IDF. Evaluation of the HRS-IU-DL model is conducted on the publicly available Movielens 100k dataset using train and test sets. Performance metrics, including Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Precision, and Recall, are employed to assess the model's performance. The results demonstrate that the HRS-IU-DL model outperforms state-of-the-art methods and achieves significant improvements across these metrics.
Does the first impression matter? Inconclusive evidence favoring anchoring effects in cognitive load assessment
Authors: Krieglstein Felix , Schmitz Manuel , Wesenberg Lukas , Spitzer Markus Wolfgang Hermann , Rey Günter Daniel
Published: July 2024

The anchoring effect is a psychological phenomenon wherein individuals heavily rely on a previously presented anchor when making decisions. This anchor, often a numerical cue presented at the beginning, influences the perception and evaluation of subsequent information by serving as a reference point. The extent to which this effect plays a role in the assessment of cognitive load in educational psychology is not yet known. Particularly, when students need to indicate cognitive load multiple times during problem-solving, they may use heuristics to simplify the cognitively demanding assessment process. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to determine whether the cognitive heuristic of anchoring biases the assessment of cognitive load. In three experiments (N1 = 100, N2 = 87, N3 = 80), participants were asked to assess the complexity of a task environment with task units varying in complexity (low, moderate, and high) multiple times during problem-solving. In each experiment, the sequence of complexity was varied to investigate whether the first impression of complexity affects the immediately following assessment. The results are ambivalent, as the first impression of complexity did not have the expected influence on the immediately following assessment in Experiments 1 and 2. However, the hypothesized anchoring effect was demonstrated in Experiment 3. The results suggest that the anchoring effect occurs only when students are initially confronted with a highly complex task and that this has the strongest influence on the subsequent assessment.
Experimental Study on Grouting Diffusion and Reinforcement Law of Grouting Backfilling mining in Caving Zone
Authors: Li Zhihua , Zou Enlong , Yang Ke , Geng Qian , Ma Guojun , Qi Jiawei , Yang Zhi
Published: July 2024

Grouting filling in a caving zone has always been a "black box" project due to its complexity and unpredictability. The filling space, slurry flow characteristics, and the bearing capacity of the mixture formed by broken rock mass and slurry in the caving zone after grouting filling are difficult to visually express. To investigate these issues, experiments were conducted on the flow characteristics of fly ash slurry under different gangue particle grading schemes and confined compression tests before and after grouting in various gangue particle gradation scenarios. The research results indicate the following: 1) Under different gradation schemes, the theoretically calculated porosity is similar to the measured porosity, providing a preliminary means to assess the filling space. The injection amount of fly ash slurry is proportional to the porosity of the gangue bulk, but high slurry concentration or close particle combination within the gangue may lead to grouting infiltration. 2) Under different gradation schemes, the stress-strain curve of both gangue bulk and gangue-slurry mixture follows an exponential relationship. The maximum strain value in both gangue bulk and mixture tests is influenced by porosity and the proportion of large particle size gangue. 3) The internal energy changes of gangue bulk and mixture exhibit pronounced time series characteristics. The energy change in the early and late stages of the gangue bulk is relatively weak, while the medium-term shows a strong change trend, indicating that the internal structure adjustment in the initial and end stages is relatively gentle, and the energy fluctuation in the intermediate stage is more significant. 4) Creep tests on the mixture show a gradual axial strain change during the stable stress stage, suggesting that the mixture has better stability and bearing capacity.
Eigen-Factors a Bilevel Optimization for Back-end Plane SLAM of 3D Point Clouds
Authors: Ferrer Gonzalo , Iarosh Dmitrii , Kornilova Anastasiia
Published: July 2024

Modern depth sensors can generate a huge number of 3D points in few seconds to be later processed by Localization and Mapping algorithms.Ideally, these algorithms should handle efficiently large sizes of Point Clouds (PC) under the assumption that using more points implies more information available.The Eigen Factors (EF) is a new algorithm that solves PC SLAM by using planes as the main geometric primitive. To do so, EF exhaustively calculates the error of all points at complexity {\em O(1)}, thanks to the {\em Summation matrix S} of homogeneous points.
The solution of EF is a bilevel optimization where the {\em lower-level} problem estimates the plane variables in closed-form, and the {\em upper-level} non-linear problem uses second order optimization to estimate sensor poses (trajectory).We provide a direct analytical solution for the gradient and Hessian based on the homogeneous point-plane constraint. In addition, two variants of the EF are proposed: one pure analytical derivation and a second one approximating the problem to an alternating optimization showing better convergence properties.
We evaluate EF and other state-of-the-art plane SLAM back-end algorithms in a synthetic environment, and extended to ICL dataset (RGBD) and LiDAR KITTI datasets. EF demonstrates superior robustness and accuracy of the estimated trajectory and improved map metrics.Code is publicly available at \texttt{https://github.com/prime-slam/EF-plane-SLAM} with python bindings and pip package.
TL-SNN: Event-Driven Visual-Tactile Learning with Temporal and Location Spiking Neurons
Authors: Yang Jing , Yin Baofan , Li Shaobo , Su Zhidong , Zhang Zhaohu
Published: July 2024

With the continuous development of neuromorphic sensors and spiking neural networks, there is increasing attention on event-driven perception learning in both vision and tactile domains. However, due to the limited information representation capability of existing spiking neurons and the high spatio-temporal complexity of event-driven visual and tactile data, we focus on exploring the application potential of visual and tactile perception in event-driven datasets. We propose an innovative spiking neural network method for integrating visual and tactile perception, aiming to significantly enhance the perceptual and information integration capabilities of the fusion network. Our approach enables the extraction of features from both time and position dimensions, thereby more effectively capturing the spatio-temporal dependencies in event data. Additionally, we introduce a weighted spike loss function to optimize model performance and meet specific task requirements. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed visual and tactile fusion spiking neural network achieves superior performance compared to baseline algorithms on object recognition, container detection, and slip detection datasets.
Advanced Nano-Enhanced Therapies: The Role of Phenolic Acid-Infused(Syringic Acid, Sinapic Acid, and o-Coumaric Acid) Guar-Gum nanoformulation in Antimicrobial and Anti-inflammatory Wound Care
Authors: Mandal Debojyoti , Sarmah Jayanta K , Gupta Jeena
Published: July 2024

The skin functions as a crucial defensive barrier against external dangers, and any harm to it leads to the development of wounds, which can range in seriousness from immediate to long-lasting and may include tissue loss. Microbial infections, including those produced by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, frequently hinder the wound healing process, resulting in delayed recovery and harmful consequences. Utilizing natural chemicals and advanced delivery technologies has become a viable approach to address microbial infections and improve wound healing. Guar gum, which is biocompatible, biodegradable, and mucoadhesive, is perfect for developing nanoformulations for promoting wound healing. The aim of the present study is to develop guar gum-based nanoformulations encapsulating bioactives i.e. Syringic acid, Sinapic acid, or o-coumaric acid for treating wound healing-related microbial infections. The nanoformulations' particle size distribution (around 15-25nm) and zeta potential values (-16 mV to -24 mV) made them stable and suitable for targeted medication administration. Antimicrobial activity testing showed concentration-dependent suppression of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Candida albicans(C. albicans), proving the formulations' efficiency against wound infections. At lower concentrations, the nanoformulations showed negligible cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells, proving their wound treatment safety and biocompatibility. Furthermore, the developed nanoformulations successfully reduce inflammation by lowering TNF-α and Cox-II levels in normal as well as LPS treated condition. Therefore, nanoformulations offer a new path to wound care drugs with better antibacterial activity and low cytotoxicity. In vivo and human trials are needed to confirm their efficacy and safety for wound treatment.
Immature dendritic cell-targeting mRNA vaccine expressing PfCSP enhances protective immune responses against Plasmodium liver infection
Authors: Sriniva Prakash , Yanik Sean , Venkatesh Varsha , Gordy James , Alameh Mohamad-Gabriel , Meza Jacob , Li Yangchen , Glass Elizabeth , Flores-Garcia Yevel , Tam Ying , Chaiyawong Nattawat , Sarkar Deepti , Weissman Drew , Markham Richard
Published: July 2024

Resurgence in malaria has been noted in 2022 with 249 million clinical cases resulting in 608,000 deaths, mostly in children under five. Two vaccines, RTS, S, and more recently R21, targeting the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) are recommended by the WHO but are not yet widely available. Strong humoral responses to neutralize sporozoites before they can infect the hepatocytes are important for vaccine-mediated protection. Suboptimal protection conferred by these first-generation vaccines highlight the need for approaches to improve vaccine-induced immune responses. With the recent success of mRNA-LNP vaccines against COVID-19, there is growing interest in leveraging this approach to enhance malaria vaccines. Here, we present the development of a novel chemokine fusion mRNA vaccine aimed at boosting immune responses to PfCSP by targeting the immunogen to immature dendritic cells (iDC). Vaccination of mice with mRNA encoding full-length CSP fused to macrophage inflammatory protein 3 alpha (MIP3α) encapsulated within lipid nanoparticles (LNP) elicited robust CD4 + T cell responses and enhanced antibody titers against NANP repeat epitopes compared to a conventional CSP mRNA-LNP vaccine. Importantly, the CSP-MIP3α fusion vaccine provided significantly greater protection against liver infection upon challenge with P. berghei PfCSP transgenic sporozoites. This enhanced protection was associated with multifunctional CD4 + T cells levels and anti-NANP repeat titers. This study highlights the potential to augment immune responses to PfCSP through iDC targeting and bolster protection against malaria liver infection.
Increased Catalytic Activity of the Sabatier Reaction for Space Applications
Authors: Higashi Shougo , Maegawa Yoshifumi , Goto Yasutomo , Miwa Kazutoshi , Yokoi Masahiro , Takahashi Naoko , Kosaka Satoru , Urushihara Daisuke , Asaka Toru , Teschner Detre , Vélez Juan , Cruz Daniel , Blume Raoul , Schloegl Robert , Cuenya Beatriz Roldan , Knop-Gericke Axel
Published: July 2024

Water is crucial in space missions, and developing lightweight, high-performing catalysts for water recycling is essential. Extensive research on nanosized and even single-atom catalysts supported on oxides has been conducted for this purpose. However, the oxide supports usually constitute over 90% of the total mass, so the catalysts are heavy. Here, we fabricated a light, fibrous RuO2 nanostructured textile consisting solely of RuO2 nanoparticles (NPs), which did not require an oxide support, and evaluated it in the Sabatier reaction for water recycling. Remarkably, this support-free catalyst textile displayed an unprecedented catalytic mass activity (~60 mmolCH4 h-1 gcat-1 at 160 °C), which was approximately 20 times higher than that of a previously reported Ru/TiO2 catalyst, and the highest TOF (0.021 s-1 at 160 °C). Although well-known catalyst degradation was observed during prolonged testing, the performance of the textile remained exceptional even after 46 hours of continuous operation. A detailed surface analysis unveiled phenomena such as RuO2 reduction, nanoparticle growth, surface smoothing, and Ru loss during the reaction, contributing to degradation. We expect that addressing these intrinsic and thermodynamically driven phenomena will improve activity and durability.
Phyllosphere microbiome assembly in wild green foxtail: designing synthetic communities for domesticated millet protection
Authors: Zai Xiaoyu , Zhu Feng , Zhao Meicheng , Diao Xianmin , Zhang Fusuo , Dini-Andreote Francisco , Melkonian Chrats , Medema Marnix H. , Raaijmakers Jos M. , Cordovez Viviane , Song Chunxu
Published: July 2024

Designing effective synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) allows for reconstitution of specific microbiome-associated plant phenotypes, including enhanced growth and tolerance to (a)biotic stresses. In particular, understanding the interplay of mechanisms dynamically structuring the microbiota assembly and functioning of wild crop ancestors has been proposed as a novel strategy to ‘rewild’ crop microbiomes for enhanced growth and health. Here, we profiled the phyllosphere microbiota of wild green foxtail millet plants collected from seven geographically diverse natural ecosystems and showed that variations in soil parameters and climatic conditions as well as plant genetic distance significantly correlated with bacterial and fungal community compositions. Environmental selection was found to strongly govern the assembly of bacterial communities with narrow habitat niche breadth, while dispersal limitation was predominant in structuring the assembly of fungal communities displaying broader substrate utilization. Specific bacterial and yeast genera were identified as core phyllosphere taxa based on their abundance and prevalence across the seven sampling sites. Moreover, several bacterial (Bacillus, Pantoea, Methylobacterium) and yeast genera (Vishniacozyma, Filobasidium, Sporobolomyces) displayed significant correlations with the abundances of one or more foliar pathogenic fungi, in particular Alternaria. Subsequent isolation and identification of these bacterial and yeast genera allowed the design of SynComs that protected the domesticated foxtail millet from leaf infections by Alternaria alternata. These results show that fundamental knowledge of the phyllosphere microbiota of a wild crop ancestor across large geographic scales can be leveraged to design cross-kingdom SynComs with beneficial traits for the health of their domesticated crop counterparts.
Assessment of Radiological Impacts for Individuals Associated with Natural Occurring Radioactive Materials in Ceramic Industry
Authors: Taha T M
Published: July 2024

There is a trend in public worldwide to use ceramic tiles in domestic decoration , monitoring the radiation risk for individuals due to used ceramic materials is needed. The current study aims at assessing the radiological impact to individuals associated with natural radioactivity levels in ceramic materials. The specific activity of natural radionuclides was measured in the investigated ceramic materials using high purity germanium detector gamma spectrometry (HPGe) with 25% coaxial efficiency. The raw materials of the ceramic are made of a mixture of bicarbonate perc, clay, feldspar, glass sand, limestone, talc, kaolin minerals, and zalouky and zirconium silicates. The Radium equivalent activity, annual effective dose, and external hazard indexes (Hex) and excess cancer life risk (ECLR) were assessed using standard protocols. The present results indicated that the annual effective dose resulting from 226Ra, 232Th, 40K is within dose constrains and lower than the public dose limit recommended by ICRP.
Infantile Colic in Karachi: Exploring Maternal Awareness, Attitude and Management Approaches
Authors: Ali Syed Rohan , Raqib Moosa Abdur , Mehtab Kiran , Nafees Munir , TAFHEEM MALIK HAMDAN
Published: July 2024

Objective:
This study aimed to provide updated insights into the epidemiology of infantile colic in Karachi, contributing to targeted healthcare interventions and policies aimed at alleviating colic-related distress among infants and their families in urban settings
Marketing Strategy as an Effective Tool for Government Procurement Management
Authors: Smerichevska Svitlana , Postnikov Oleksii
Published: July 2024

This article investigates theoretical and methodological approaches to developing a marketing strategy for public procurement management in the context of European integration processes and reform of the public procurement system in Ukraine. The necessity of implementing a marketing strategy as an effective tool to increase the efficiency and transparency of public procurement activities is substantiated under modern economic conditions. The conceptual foundations for the formation of a marketing strategy for public procurement management are defined. Its main goal is to build successful and long-term partnerships between public customers and supplier companies based on the rational use of budget funds and the development of effective competition. Priority functions of the marketing strategy are outlined: comprehensive marketing analysis of public customers’ needs; market research to find the most competitive suppliers; ensuring effective communication between all participants; and the implementation of effective marketing measures to increase transparency and the openness of procurement procedures. A universal step-by-step algorithm for the formation of a public procurement marketing strategy is developed, including the following: analysis of the current state and identification of deficiencies in the existing system; clear definition of targets, objectives and priority areas for reform; selection of optimal marketing tools; directly implement the strategy and continuously monitor the results. A comprehensive classification of the types of marketing strategies in public procurement by their target orientation is presented. To increase the validity and minimize risks in decision-making regarding supplier selection, an original mathematical model for the formation of competitive prices based on nonlinear programming methods is proposed. This model allows considering the interests of all participants in the procurement process: determining the optimal vector of prices for goods/services based on the utility functions and preferences of customers, their budget constraints, and the technological capabilities of potential suppliers. The versatility of the model lies in the possibility of its application for any number of participants and product groups. The implementation of an effective marketing strategy for public procurement management will contribute to the formation of a highly efficient, transparent and competitive public procurement system focused on the rational use of budget funds, the development of fair competition among suppliers, and the minimization of corruption risks in this area.
The Mediating Path of Transformational Leadership: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chinese Context
Authors: Abbas Zaheer , Song Jiang Wang , Fakhar Zaman Hafiz Muhammad , Azam Tamoor
Published: July 2024

Organisations that are going through transformative processes need to make sure that they have effective change management and employee engagement. Considering the function that transformational leadership plays as a mediator, this study aims to investigate the connection between employee engagement and the change management process. This research uses a cross-sectional methodology and gathers information from a wide range of people working for various companies. Employee engagement, opinions of the change management process, and transformational leadership are all measured using a standard questionnaire. Statistically, statisticians use tools like mediation analysis and correlational testing to look into the purported links. Findings indicate a strong positive correlation between change management and the variables that inspire employee engagement. The research findings have also demonstrated that transformational leadership is an important mediator between organisational change management and employee engagement. This research suggests that transformational leaders can make employee engagement an even more powerful tool for effective change management. This study shed light on the need to develop transformational leadership skills and encourage employee participation in initiatives to bring about organisational change. Organisations should prioritise strategies that enhance employee engagement, such as communication, competition, environment, management support, innovation, job characteristics, organisational system, organisational structure, reward, and workplace well-being. Moreover, the success of change management activities can be improved by investing in leadership development programmes that aim to create transformational leadership behaviours. An empirical investigation of the function that transformational leadership plays as a mediator in the connection between the process of change management and employee engagement is the contribution that this study makes to the current body of research. Businesses can improve employee engagement and leadership practices during times of transformation if they shed light on this complex interplay and gain a more profound comprehension of the factors that drive successful change implementation.
Modeling and optimization of costs associated with the development of clustered organizational management structures in construction companies
Authors: Serat J.
Published: July 2024

The article aims to examine models and methods of cost optimization associated with the development of clustered organizational structures in construction companies. The research methodology involved an analysis of existing approaches, simulation modeling, and econometric equation analysis. As a result, different approaches to cost estimation and optimization applied in the construction sphere are presented. Particular attention is paid to the development of complex models and their optimization under the conditions of uncertainty through simulation modeling of various scenarios of cluster organizational structures in construction companies. The analysis also includes an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of econometric semi-linear dynamic equations and the feasibility of their application. The discussion section emphasizes the importance of integrating different optimization methods to achieve the most optimal outcome in the management of construction companies. Further research directions are outlined. The results can be relevant when formulating development strategies and making investment decisions in the construction sphere. The research conclusions confirm the significance of applying modern cost optimization methods to improve the management efficiency of construction companies and their competitiveness in the market of construction services.
Spatial transformation of industrial territories: Experience and prospects of Tyumen
Authors: Geleznjakova M. A. , Kozlov V. V.
Published: July 2024

Transformation of the architectural heritage of large cities, which also includes that of industrial areas, can be seen as a development and reconstruction driver of modern urban development. In this work, we aimed to propose methods for spatial transformation of urban industrial or mixed areas in the structure of a large city. A structural assessment of the urban planning practice and experience in the city of Tyumen was conducted to identify architectural and planning approaches to the reconstruction of depressive post-industrial areas. Following an analysis of the existing location and concentration of industrial areas, along with their main parameters, and the experience of experimental design of renovated districts, the Babarinka industrial district in the northern part of the city was selected. This district is characterized by its direct interconnection with the city center, a combined type and small-cell structure of the existing buildings, and its historical interrelation with the open space of the river. Typological and morphological features of the existing industrial areas in the city, interacting with the surrounding urban areas in different ways, were determined based on the theory of mixed urban development. A combined assessment of urban planning data enables the key parameters of urban transformation to be determined and the basic planning structures to be identified. The latter include spatial planning, transportation and pedestrian networks, landscaping, and functional zoning. These planning structures determine the key qualitative parameters of the transformation design concept of industrial areas, thus serving as criteria for evaluating various-scale design solutions.