bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modeling of methane emissions from waste disposal sites at selected Egyptian governorates and potential energy production from waste-to-energy projects
Authors: Mohamed Naguib Mohamed Khafagy Shady , El Sammak Amr , Emara Karim 
Published: October 2024

AbstractWaste and energy sectors have significant contributions to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused primarily by the population expansion. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) is introduced to address the issue raised by both sectors simultaneously through utilization of the potential energy stored in municipal solid waste (MSW) as well as offsetting GHG emissions. Limited research have been conducted in Egypt to assess the current situation of MSW management and associated methane emissions. The current study focused on estimating the baseline methane emissions for six Egyptian governorates and determining the energy production potential from WtE projects. To achieve this aim, three scenarios have been assessed: Baseline, Landfill Gas to Energy (LFGE), and Incineration scenarios. Key results revealed that a total of 3.7 million tonnes of methane would be emitted from all studied governorates generated over 50 years. Incineration also found to be more favorable in all governorates in terms of energy production, quantity of avoided GHG emissions, and in terms of economic viability over LFGE. Implementing incineration in all governorates would generate about 5.6 TWh energy annually and could avoid about 5 Mt CO2 eq annually in comparison to LFGE that would generate about 0.6 TWh annually and could avoid about 2.5 Mt CO2 eq annually. In terms of economic viability of WtE projects, while they were generally not economically viable under the assumptions made in the current study, incineration technology deemed promising, but policy adjustments, such as competitive Feed-in Tariff (FiT) rates and the inclusion of gate fees, are necessary. Specific minimum gate fees and FiT were identified for each governorate, providing essential guidance for decision makers to ensure the viability of WtE implementation. This study would support the decision makers in assessing technically and financially feasible options for WtE technologies in the selected governorates.
The association between county-level premature cardiovascular mortality related to cardio-kidney-metabolic disease and the social determinants of health in the US.
Authors: Cotton Antoinette , Salerno Pedro R V O , Deo Salil V , Virani Salim , Nasir Khurram , Neeland Ian , Rajagopalan Sanjay , Sattar Naveed , Al-Kindi Sadeer , Elgudin Yakov E 
Published: October 2024

AbstractCardio-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome is defined by the American Heart Association as the intersection between metabolic, renal and cardiovascular disease. Understanding the contemporary estimates of CKM related mortality and recent trends in the US is essential for developing targeted public interventions. We collected state-level and county-level CKM-associated age-adjusted premature cardiovascular mortality (aaCVM) (2010–2019) rates from the CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER). We linked the county-level aaCVM with a multi-component social deprivation metric: the Social Deprivation Index (SDI: range 0–100) and grouped them as follows: I: 0–25, II: 26–50, III: 51–75, and IV: 76–100. We conducted pair-wise comparison of aaCVM between SDI groups with the multiplicity adjusted Wilcoxon test; we compared aaCVM in men versus women, metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan counties, and non-hispanic white versus non-hispanic black residents. In 3101 analyzed counties in the US, the median CKM associated aaCVM was 61 [interquartile range (IQR): 45, 82]/100 000. Mississippi (99/100 000) and Minnesota (33/100 000) had the highest and lowest values respectively. CKM associated aaMR increased across SDI groups [I – 45 (IQR: 36, 55)/100 000, II- 61 (IQR: 49, 77)/100 000, III- 77 (IQR: 61, 94)/100 000, IV- 89 (IQR: 70, 110)/100 000; all pair-wise p-values < 0.001]. Men had higher rates [85 (64, 91)/100 000] than women [41 (28, 58)/100 000](p-value < 0.001), metropolitan counties [54 (40, 72)/100 000] had lower rates than non-metropolitan counties [66 (49, 90)/100 000](p-value < 0.001), and non-Hispanic Black [110 (86, 137)/100 000] had higher aaMR than non-Hispanic White residents [59 (44, 78)/100 000](p-value < 0.001). In the US, CKM mortality remains high and disproportionately occurs in more socially deprived counties and non-metropolitan counties. Our inability to reduce CKM mortality rates over the study period highlights the need for targeted policy interventions to curb the ongoing high burden.
Isolation, characterization, and assessment of Bacillus rugosus potential as a new probiotic for aquaculture applications
Authors: Shokrak Nermeen M. , Khairi Nabilah , Hazrin-Chong Nur Hazlin , Mohamed Radi A. , Abdella Bahaa 
Published: October 2024

AbstractAquaculture is an important component of the world food supply and a significant source of protein. However, this industry faces numerous problems. Including poor fish feed digestion and uneconomic nutrient utilization. This can result in unsatisfactory growth rates and poor stock performance. Utilizing probiotics, which are beneficial microbes that can enhance digestive systems and general fish health, is one possible way to address these issues. This study was designed to identify and evaluate a novel strain of Bacillus as a promising probiotic. The strain of Bacillus rugosus that was examined and coded NM007 showed promising probiotic characteristics that could help fish digest and utilize their feed more efficiently, reduce feed waste, and improve their digestive systems. B. rugosus NM007 exhibited the ability to produce digestive enzymes like protease, amylase, and lipase, which are the main digestive enzymes. It showed strong auto-aggregation activity and co-aggregation activity with Aeromonas sp. and Streptococcus sp. It also demonstrated tolerance to the presence of bile salt, acidic pH, and salinity up to 60 ppt. The sensitivity analysis towards antibiotics, hemolytic activity and the safety assessment on Nile tilapia fish (Oreochromis niloticus) confirmed the safety of this isolate. Based on the findings of this investigation and the isolate’s characterization, Bacillus rugosus NM007 could serve as a new promising probiotic bacterium for aquaculture.
Effect of glycerin on the physical properties of polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate blend
Authors: Fahmy Ahmed , Badry Rania , Khafagy Rasha M. , Ibrahim Medhat A. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractBecause of the abundance of sodium resources, sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) offer a promising alternative electrochemical energy storage solution. One of the current roadblocks to the development of NIBs technology is a lack of electrode materials capable of reversibly storing/releasing sodium ions for a sufficiently long time. Thus, this work aims to study, theoretically, the effect of glycerin incorporation on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sodium alginate (Na Alg) blend as electrode materials for NIBs. The electronic, thermal, and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) descriptors of polymer electrolytes based on a blend of PVA and Na Alg and glycerin are the main topics of this work. These properties are examined here using semi-empirical methods and the density functional theory (DFT). Bandgap energy (Eg) is examined because the structural analysis reveals details regarding the interactions between PVA/Na Alg and glycerin. The findings indicate that the addition of glycerin caused the Eg value to drop to 0.2814 eV. The molecular electrostatic potential surface, or MESP, shows the electron-rich and deficit regions throughout the electrolyte system as well as the distribution of molecular charges. Thermal parameters that are studied include enthalpy (H), entropy (ΔS), heat capacity (Cp), Gibbs’ free energy (G), and heat of formation. Additionally, the study examines several QSAR descriptors, such as total dipole moment (TDM), total energy (E), ionization potential (IP), Log P, and Polarizability. The results show that H, ΔS, Cp, G, and TDM increased with increasing temperature and glycerin content. Meanwhile, heat of formation, IP, and E decreased, improving reactivity and polarizability. Additionally, the cell voltage increased to 2.488 V due to glycerin addition. The overall DFT and PM6 calculations of cost-effective PVA/Na Alg based glycerin electrolytes indicate that they can partially replace lithium-ion batteries due to their multifunctionality, but requires further improvement and investigations.
Modelling post-chemotherapy stem cell dynamics in the bone marrow niche of AML patients
Authors: Zhu Chenxu , Stiehl Thomas 
Published: October 2024

AbstractAcute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a stem cell-driven malignancy of the blood forming (hematopoietic) system. Despite of high dose chemotherapy with toxic side effects, many patients eventually relapse. The “7+3 regimen”, which consists of 7 days of cytarabine in combination with daunorubicin during the first 3 days, is a widely used therapy protocol. Since peripheral blood cells are easily accessible to longitudinal sampling, significant research efforts have been undertaken to characterize and reduce adverse effects on circulating blood cells. However, much less is known about the impact of the 7+3 regimen on human hematopoietic stem cells and their physiological micro-environments, the so-called stem cell niches. One reason for this is the technical inability to observe human stem cells in vivo and the discomfort related to bone marrow biopsies. To better understand the treatment effects on human stem cells, we consider a mechanistic mathematical model of the stem cell niche before, during and after chemotherapy. The model accounts for different maturation stages of leukemic and hematopoietic cells and considers key processes such as cell proliferation, self-renewal, differentiation and therapy-induced cell death. In the model, hematopoietic (HSCs) and leukemic stem cells (LSCs) compete for a joint niche and respond to both systemic and niche-derived signals. We relate the model to clinical trial data from literature which longitudinally quantifies the counts of hematopoietic stem like (CD34+CD38-ALDH+) cells at diagnosis and after therapy. The proposed model can capture the clinically observed interindividual heterogeneity and reproduce the non-monotonous dynamics of the hematopoietic stem like cells observed in relapsing patients. Our model allows to simulate different scenarios proposed in literature such as therapy-related impairment of the stem cell niche or niche-mediated resistance. Model simulations suggest that during the post-therapy phase a more than 10-fold increase of hematopoietic stem-like cell proliferation rates is required to recapitulate the measured cell dynamics in patients achieving complete remission. We fit the model to data of 7 individual patients and simulate variations of the treatment protocol. These simulations are in line with the clinical finding that G-CSF priming can improve the treatment outcome. Furthermore, our model suggests that a decline of HSC counts during remission might serve as an indication for salvage therapy in patients lacking MRD (minimal residual disease) markers.
Genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyses of early anatomical changes in rose adventitious root formation
Authors: Wamhoff David , Marxen Annina , Acharya Bhawana , Grzelak Monika , Debener Thomas , Winkelmann Traud 
Published: October 2024

AbstractAdventitious root (AR) formation is a genetically complex trait with high genotypic variability. Therefore, only a limited range of cultivars are currently propagated by cuttings in rose. In this study, we analysed the anatomy of in vitro shoots, the early formation of root primordia (RP) and the formation of ARs in a diverse set of 106 rose genotypes. Correlation analysis indicated that the growth in shoot diameter and the vasculature dimensions after 1 week of rooting contributed to successful AR formation. Using phenotypic data for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analyses, nine significantly associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genomic regions contributing to various RP and AR formation traits were identified. The contribution of genomic regions to trait variation was notably greater for traits associated with earlier processes than for traits associated with later developmental stages. The combination of RP and AR data allowed the detection of regions by GWAS that contain factors that potentially limit RP emergence. Homologues of 47 genes known to be involved in AR formation from the literature could be assigned to the identified peaks. Further studies are needed to investigate the suitability of SNPs exhibiting strong effects as allele-specific PCR markers for use in breeding.
Differential effects of alendronate on chondrocytes, cartilage matrix and subchondral bone structure in surgically induced osteoarthritis in mice
Authors: Ehrnsperger Marianne , Taheri Shahed , Pann Patrick , Schilling Arndt F. , Grässel Susanne 
Published: October 2024

AbstractBisphosphonates (BP) are considered a treatment option for osteoarthritis (OA) due to reduction of OA-induced microtrauma in the bone marrow, stabilization of subchondral bone (SB) layer and pain reduction. The effects of high-dose alendronate (ALN) treatment on SB and articular cartilage after destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) or Sham surgery of male C57Bl/6J mice were analyzed. We performed serum analysis; histology and immunohistochemistry to assess the severity of OA and a possible pain symptomatology. Subsequently, the ratio of bone volume to total volume (BV/TV), epiphyseal trabecular morphology and the bone mineral density (BMD) was analyzed by nanoCT. Serum analysis revealed a reduction of ADAMTS5 level. The histological evaluation displayed no protective effect of ALN-treatment on cartilage erosion. NanoCT-analysis of the medial epiphysis revealed an increase of BV/TV in ALN-treated mice. Only the DMM group had significantly higher SB volume accompanied by decreased subchondral bone surface. Furthermore Nano-CT analysis revealed an increase in trabecular density and number, a decreased BMD and reduced osteophyte formation in the ALN mice. ALN treatment affected bone micro-architecture by reducing osteophytosis with simultaneous increasing subchondral bone plate thickness, trabecular thickness and BMD. Accordingly, ALN cannot be considered as a potential treatment strategy in general, however in a subgroup of patients with high bone turnover in an early-stage of OA, ALN might be an option when applied during a restricted time frame.
Clinical usefulness of digital twin guided virtual amiodarone test in patients with atrial fibrillation ablation
Authors: Hwang Taehyun , Lim Byounghyun , Kwon Oh-Seok , Kim Moon-Hyun , Kim Daehoon , Park Je-Wook , Yu Hee Tae , Kim Tae-Hoon , Uhm Jae-Sun , Joung Boyoung , Lee Moon-Hyoung , Hwang Chun , Pak Hui-Nam 
Published: October 2024

AbstractIt would be clinically valuable if the efficacy of antiarrhythmic drugs could be simulated in advance. We developed a digital twin to predict amiodarone efficacy in high-risk atrial fibrillation (AF) patients post-ablation. Virtual left atrium models were created from computed tomography and electroanatomical maps to simulate AF and evaluate its response to varying amiodarone concentrations. As the amiodarone concentration increased in the virtual setting, action potential duration lengthened, peak upstroke velocities decreased, and virtual AF termination became more frequent. Patients were classified into effective (those with virtually terminated AF at therapeutic doses) and ineffective groups. The one-year clinical outcomes after AF ablation showed significantly better results in the effective group compared to the ineffective group, with AF recurrence rates of 20.8% vs. 45.1% (log-rank p = 0.031, adjusted hazard ratio, 0.37 [0.14-0.98]; p = 0.046). This study highlights the potential of a digital twin-guided approach in predicting amiodarone’s effectiveness and improving personalized AF management. Clinical Trial Registration Name: The Evaluation for Prognostic Factors After Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: Cohort Study, Registration number: NCT02138695. The date of registration: 2014-05. URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02138695.
Deficiency of GPR10 and NPFFR2 receptors leads to sex-specific prediabetic syndrome and late-onset obesity in mice
Authors: Morgan Alena , Shekhar Nivasini , Strnadová Veronika , Pirník Zdenko , Haasová Eliška , Kopecký Jan , Pačesová Andrea , Železná Blanka , Kuneš Jaroslav , Bardová Kristina , Maletínská Lenka 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
GPR10 and neuropeptide FF receptor 2 (NPFFR2) play important role in the regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis. Understanding the interaction between these receptors and their specific ligands, such as prolactin-releasing peptide, is essential for developing stable peptide analogs with potential for treating obesity. By breeding and characterizing double knockout (dKO) mice fed standard or high-fat diet (HFD), we provide insights into the metabolic regulation associated with the GPR10 and NPFFR2 deficiency. Both WT and dKO mice were subjected to behavioral tests and an oral glucose tolerance test. Moreover, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) followed by indirect calorimetry were performed to characterize dKO mice. dKO mice of both sexes, when exposed to an HFD, showed reduced glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance compared with controls. Moreover, they displayed increased liver weight with worsened hepatic steatosis. Mice displayed significantly increased body weight, which was more pronounced in dKO males and caused by higher caloric intake on a standard diet, while dKO females displayed obesity characterized by increased white adipose tissue and enhanced hepatic lipid accumulation on an HFD. Moreover, dKO females exhibited anxiety-like behavior in the open field test. dKO mice on a standard diet had a lower respiratory quotient, with no significant changes in energy expenditure. These results provide insights into alterations associated with disrupted GPR10 and NPFFR2 signaling, contributing to the development of potential anti-obesity treatment.
FAFTransformer: Multivariate time series prediction method based on multi‐period feature recombination
Authors: Zhang WenChang , Yuan LuZhi , Sha Yun , Yang LingLin , Liu XueJun , Yan Yong 
Published: October 2024

AbstractMultivariate time series forecasting is widely used in various fields in real life. Many time series prediction models have been proposed. The current forecasting model lacks the mining of correlation between sequences based on different periods and correlation of periodical features between different periods when dealing with data. In this paper, we propose a multivariate data prediction model FAFTransformer based on the reorganization of multi‐periodic features, which first extracts the multi‐periodic information of the time series using the method of frequency domain analysis. The temporal dependencies within sequences are then captured using convolution based on different periods, and the correlations between sequences are learned by combining the multivariate attention mechanism to obtain the intra‐sequence and inter‐sequence correlations under the same period. Finally, period fusion is proposed to capture the correlation of period characteristics between different periods. The experimental results show that the model achieves the best results on multiple datasets compared to the latest seven predictive models for time‐series data.
A semi‐supervised segmentation network fusing pseudo‐label with multi‐level feature consistency correction for hard exudates
Authors: Zhang Xinfeng , Zhang Jiaming , Shao Jie , Li Hui , Liu Xiaomin , Jia Maoshen 
Published: October 2024

AbstractTimely detection of hard exudates in fundus images can effectively avoid the severity of the disease, but the labelling of small and numerous lesion areas requires a lot of labour costs. This paper proposes a semi‐supervised segmentation network, which integrates pseudo‐labels and multi‐level features consistency correction. It achieves accurate segmentation of hard exudates by making full use of a small amount of labelled data and a large amount of unlabelled data. The network effectively extracts features from the unlabelled data through knowledge transfer of the teacher‐student model, and incorporates a Transformer network for auxiliary training to promote the quality of transfer. In addition, three unsupervised losses are introduced to improve the performance: the perturbation loss improves the robustness of the model to noise by adding different noises to the same input; the multi‐level feature consistency correction loss ensures the consistency of features of the student model at different scales; and the pseudo‐labelling cross‐supervision loss utilizes the generated pseudo‐labels for supervision between CNN and Transformer. By comparing the segmentation results with different proportion of the labelled data, it has better segmentation performance compared to other methods. The proposed methods can totally increase dice by 16.56% and mean intersection over union (MIoU) by 25.11%.
L-Serin als Selenoprotein-P-Aktivator
Authors: Gröber Uwe 
Published: October 2024

ZusammenfassungDie Aminosäure L-Serin ist essenziell für Selenoproteine, insbesondere von
Selenoprotein P. Üblicherweise transportiert Transfer-RNA (tRNA) Aminosäuren zum
Ribosom, wo sie die Translation der mRNA in Polypeptide ermöglicht. Bei
Selenoproteinen ist das etwas anders. Die Standardaminosäuren sind hierfür nicht
ausreichend.
Diagnostik von Nahrungsmittelunverträglichkeiten
Authors: Schütz Burkhard , Crecelius Meike 
Published: October 2024

ZusammenfassungNahrungsmittelunverträglichkeiten sind auf unterschiedliche Ursachen zurückzuführen. Sie können angeboren, im Laufe des Lebens erworben sein oder aber auch als Begleiterscheinung anderer Erkrankungen auftreten. Da die Unverträglichkeiten auf verschiedenen Mechanismen beruhen, werden bei Betroffenen Allergien erst nach langer „Spurensuche“ erkannt. Dabei ist nicht jede Unverträglichkeit einer Allergie gleichzusetzen. Neben der klassischen durch IgE-Antikörper vermittelten Allergie gibt es auch Allergien, die durch Lymphozyten vermittelt werden. Diese weisen aber nicht die klassischen Symptome einer Allergie direkt nach dem Essen auf, sondern gehen mit verzögerten Symptomen einher. Relativ häufig finden sich auch Störungen in der Verwertung von Kohlenhydraten wie die Laktosemalabsorption. Der Beitrag geht auf die Unterschiede ein.
Reizdarmsyndrom und Nahrungsmittelunverträglichkeiten – Aktuelle Therapieoptionen mit Heilerde
Authors: Raithel Martin , Engels Elke 
Published: October 2024

ZusammenfassungZunehmend mehr Menschen sind vom Reizdarmsyndrom (RDS) betroffen. Die Diagnose ist schwierig, weil die Symptome individuell variieren. Es kann zu Bauchschmerzen, Blähungen, Krämpfen, Verstopfung oder Durchfall kommen, wobei die Symptome unterschiedlich dominant sein können. Zudem treten die Symptome unberechenbar auf, sodass die Betroffenen im Alltag und im sozialen Leben sehr beeinträchtigt sind. Der Leidensdruck ist groß, da die Ursachen des RDS selten klar zugeordnet werden können. Eine potenziell wirksame und verträgliche Therapieoption kann hier Luvos Heilerde darstellen. Der Beitrag geht auf das Spektrum des Reizdarmsyndroms ein und zeigt verschiedene Anwendungsfelder der Heilerde auf.