Neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, are commonly associated with persistent neuro-inflammation, and there is an urgent need to discover new therapeutic agents that may target the various pathways involved in neurodegeneration. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of folecitin, a flavonoid isolated from Hypericum oblongifolium, against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced oxidative stress associated with neurodegeneration, amyloidogenic Aβ production pathway, and memory dysfunction in mice. LPS was administered i.p. at 250 µg/kg/day for 3 weeks, followed by the administration of folecitin at a dose of 30 mg/kg/day for the last two weeks. A Western blot technique was used to assess the expression of different proteins involved in oxidative stress, neurodegeneration, and neuronal synapse. Results indicated that folecitin significantly reduced LPS-induced apoptotic neurodegeneration, including the expression of BAX, Caspase-3, and PARP-1 proteins, inhibited BACE1, and the amyloidogenic Aβ production pathway. Folecitin improved both pre- and post-neuronal synapse, as well as memory dysfunction. Furthermore, folecitin significantly activated endogenous antioxidant proteins such as Nrf-2 and HO-1 via stimulating the phosphorylation of Akt proteins. These findings suggest that folecitin may be a suitable lead to design new drugs for neurotoxin-triggered neurodegenerative disorders.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease whose prevalence is increasing worldwide. Among medical strategies, the dietary therapy with exclusive enteral nutrition is recommended as first line option, at least for children, because it induces clinical remission and mucosal healing. Modulen®, a polymeric TGF-β2 enriched formula, has a good palatability and is widely used. For the first time in the literature, this review outlines and discusses the clinical outcomes obtained with this therapy, as well as the potential mechanisms of action of its compounds. It can be explained by its TGF-β2 content but also by its protein and lipid composition. Further well-designed studies are required to improve our knowledge and to optimize therapeutic strategies.

Latest evidence revealed a possible association between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and periodontitis. We explored the causal relationship of this association through two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) in European ancestry populations. To this end, we used openly accessible data of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on PD and periodontitis. As instrumental variables for periodontitis, seventeen single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from a GWAS of periodontitis (1817 periodontitis cases vs. 2215 controls) and forty-five SNPs from a GWAS of PD (20,184 cases and 397,324 controls). Eight non-overlapping SNPs of periodontitis from an additional GWAS assisted in the validation of association being studied. Multiple approaches of MR were carried-out. There was no evidence of genetic liability of periodontitis being associated with a higher risk of PD (B= -0.0003, Standard Error [SE] 0.0003, P = 0.26). The eight independent SNPs (B= -0.0000, SE 0.0001, P = 0.99) validated this outcome. We found no association of genetically primed PD towards periodontitis (B= -0.0001, SE 0.0001, P = 0.19). This MR study found no conclusive evidence to support a bidirectional causal genetic liability between PD and periodontitis. Further GWAS studies are needed to confirm the consistency of these results.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a valuable horticultural crop grown and consumed worldwide. Optimum production is hindered by several factors of which Verticillium dahliae, the cause of Verticillium wilt, is one of the major biological constraints in temperate production regions. V. dahliae is difficult to manage because it is a vascular pathogen, has a broad host range and worldwide distribution, and can persist in soil for years. Understanding the pathogen virulence and genetic diversity, host resistance, and plant-pathogen interactions can ultimately inform the development of integrated strategies to manage the disease. In recent years, considerable research has focused on providing new insight into these processes as well as the development and integration of environment-friendly management approaches. In this review, we discuss and summarize the recent findings on the race and population structure of V. dahliae; pathogenicity factors; host genes, proteins, and enzymes involved in defense; the emergent management strategies, and recent approaches to managing Verticillium wilt in tomatoes.

Recent studies supported a clinical association between Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and periodontitis. Hence, investigating possible protein interactions between these two conditions is of interest. In this study, we conducted a protein-protein network interaction analysis with recognized genes encoding proteins for PD and periodontitis. Genes of interest were collected via GWAS database. Then, we conducted a protein interaction analysis using STRING database, with a highest confidence cut-off of 0.9. Our protein network casted a comprehensive analysis of potential protein-protein interactions between PD and periodontitis. This analysis may underpin valuable information for new candidate molecular mechanisms between PD and periodontitis and may serve new potential targets for research purposes. These results should be carefully interpreted giving the limitations of this approach.

Rice is consumed as a staple food by majority of the people in the world and failure in rice crop, due to any reason, poses a severe threat of starvation. Rice blast, caused by a fungus blast has been ranked among the most important plant diseases. It is by far the most threatening disease of ric crop and it is found wherever rice is grown. All of the rice blast disease management strategies that have been employed have limited success and rice blast has never been eliminated from a region in which rice is grown. Hence there is need to look for the best remedy in terms of effectiveness and organic nature of the method etc. This study was aimed to determine the plant growth promoting and biopesticidal effects of bioactive components present in a mixture of Piper caninum and Piper betle var. Nigra leaf extracts. . The extracts were applied in the field to determine their inhibition effects against blast disease, growth and yield improvement.. Extract of both the plants promoted plant growth and exhibited antifungal activity against rice blast fungus, Pyricularia oryzae. However the synergistic effect of the mixture of the two extracts exhibited greater effects than an effect of a single extract. . All treatments reduced the intensity of blast disease on week 15 with disease intensity by 7.90%. The extracts could increase plant height, the numbers of tillers, number of leaves, number of grains per panicle number of heads per panicle, and the full-grain weight hill.. The highest potential yield (t/ha) was observed in the 2% extract treatment, and all treatment results significantly differed from that of the control. The potential grain yield was 3.23 t/ha in the control, while that in the treatment ranged from 3.81 t/ha to 5.61 t/ha. The high grain yield observed with the treatment was caused by the low intensity of blast disease.

Introduction: Lyme disease is a tickborne illness that generates controversy among medical providers and researchers. One of the key topics of debate is the existence of persistent infection with the Lyme spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in patients who have been treated with recommended doses of antibiotics yet remain symptomatic. Persistent spirochetal infection despite antibiotic therapy has recently been demonstrated in non-human primates. We present evidence of persistent Borrelia infection despite antibiotic therapy in patients with ongoing Lyme disease symptoms. Materials & Methods: In this pilot study, culture of body fluids and tissues was performed in a randomly selected group of 12 patients with persistent Lyme disease symptoms who had been treated or who were being treated with antibiotics. Cultures were also performed on a group of 10 control subjects without Lyme disease. The cultures were subjected to corroborative microscopic, histopathological and molecular testing for Borrelia organisms in four independent laboratories in a blinded manner. Results: Motile spirochetes identified histopathologically as Borrelia were detected in culture specimens, and these spirochetes were genetically identified as Borrelia burgdorferi by three distinct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. Spirochetes identified as Borrelia burgdorferi were cultured from the blood of seven subjects, from the genital secretions of ten subjects, and from a skin lesion of one subject. Cultures from control subjects without Lyme disease were negative for Borrelia using these methods. Conclusions: Using multiple corroborative detection methods, we showed that patients with persistent Lyme disease symptoms may have ongoing spirochetal infection despite antibiotic treatment, similar to findings in non-human primates. The optimal treatment for persistent Borrelia infection remains to be determined.

Major cardiovascular events (MACE) are a cause of major mortality worldwide. The narrowing and blockage of coronary arteries with atherosclerotic plaques is diagnosed and treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). During this procedure, coronary angiography (CAG) remains the most widely used guidance modality for the evaluation the affected blood vessel diameter in order to decide if intervention with stent colocation is suitable, where small blood vessels (< 2.75 mm) are majorly left untreated; however, small vessel coronary artery disease (SvCAD) is a significant risk factor for recurrence of MACE, and there are some limitations to the use of CAG that could be improved with the use of newer techniques such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), although at higher costs, which might explain their underuse. To address this discrepancy and identify specific cases for its use, we conducted a retrospective study in patients who underwent PCI for MACE with at least one small blood vessel affected. The affected small blood vessels’ diameter was obtained with both CAG and IVUS, additionally we underwent a multivariate analysis to identify risk factors associated with a change in diameter. We included information from 48 patients with mean + SD age of 69.1 + 11.9 years and 34% were masculine gender. We found a significant positive low correlation in diameter measurements of small blood vessels (r=0.1242 p=0.014). Mean diameter with CAG and IVUS was 2.1 mm (95% CI 1.9-2.2), and 2.8 (2.8-3.0) the estimated difference was of 0.8 mm (95 % CI 0.7-0.9). In total 37 (77%) of patients had a reclassification of their blood vessels from a small to medium (2.75-3.00 mm) in 21 cases, or even large (<3.00 mm) in 15 cases, after IVUS; this was important for the decision of intervention and stent collocation. The only variable associated with reclassification of blood vessels after adjusted in a multivariate analysis was DT2 (p=0 0.035). Our findings corroborate that blood vessels might appear smaller with CAG, especially in the diabetes population, therefore at least in these cases the use of IVUS is recommended over CAG.

Heart disease is one of the most common diseases in middle-aged citizens. Among the vast number of heart diseases, coronary artery disease (CAD) is considered a common cardiovascular disease with a high death rate. The most popular tool for diagnosing CAD is the use of medical imaging, e.g., angiography. However, angiography is known for being costly and also associated with a number of side effects. Hence, the purpose of this study is to increase the accuracy of coronary heart disease diagnosis by selecting significant predictive features in order of their ranking. In this study, we propose an integrated method using machine learning. The machine learning methods of random trees (RTs), the decision tree of C5.0, support vector machine (SVM), the decision tree of Chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID) are used in this study. The proposed method shows promising results and the study confirms that the RTs model outperforms other models.

Healthy life style is associated with decreased risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and mortality in the general population. However, there is no definitive evidence on the benefits of physical activity and other health-related behaviors in the early-stage CKD. This study aimed to explore the association between health-related behaviors and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and mortality in the early stages of CKD. The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database from January 1st, 2009 to December 31st, 2016 was used to screen 83,470 subjects with early stage CKD. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between health-related behaviors and ESRD and death. Kaplan-Meier curves for mortality and ESRD were plotted according to the physical activity, smoking status and alcohol consumption pattern. Risk of death decreased significantly in subjects who engaged in sufficient physical activity (adjusted Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.73; 95% CI: 0.64-0.83; p < 0.001). Risk of ESRD and death increased significantly in the current smoker with adjusted HR of 1.44 (95% CI: 1.06-1.95; p < 0.02) and 1.61 (95% CI: 1.44-1.80; p < 0.001) respectively. Therefore, systematic interventions to encourage physical activity and smoking cessation need to be actively considered in the early stages of CKD.

Early detection of neurological conditions is critical for timely diagnosis and treatment. Identifying cellular-level changes is essential for implementing therapeutic interventions prior to symptomatic disease onset. However, monitoring brain tissue directly through biopsies is invasive and high-risk. Bodily fluids such as blood or cerebrospinal fluid contain information in many forms, including proteins and nucleic acids. Particularly, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has potential as a versatile neurological biomarker. Yet, our knowledge of cfDNA released by brain tissue and how cfDNA changes in response to deleterious events within the brain is incomplete. Mapping changes in cfDNA to specific cellular events is difficult in vivo, where many tissues contribute to circulating cfDNA. Organoids are tractable systems for examining specific changes consistently in a human background. However, few studies have investigated cfDNA released from organoids. Here, we examined cfDNA isolated from cerebral organoids. We found that cerebral organoids release quantities of cfDNA sufficient for downstream analysis with droplet-digital PCR and whole-genome sequencing. Further, gene ontology analysis of genes aligning with sequenced cfDNA fragments revealed association with terms related to neurodevelopment and autism spectrum disorder. We conclude that cerebral organoids hold promise as tools for the discovery of cfDNA biomarkers related to neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders.

Hard tissue apposition along the root canal walls is a slow, normally occurring physiological aging process. In response to tooth wear, local deposition of hard tissue may also occur in the pulp at a slow pace. Sometimes, the rate of hard tissue deposition acceleration may seem to be uncontrolled after dental trauma, autotransplantation, and orthodontic therapy, leading to rapid partial or total obliteration of the root canal space. This situation is called calcific metamorphosis (CM) or pulp canal obliteration (PCO). Although the incidence of pulpal necrosis in these teeth is believed to be infrequent, conventional endodontic therapy in severely calcified canals poses extreme difficulties and a higher risk for procedural accidents. This article aims to review the available approaches for the predictable negotiation of calcified canals and to introduce the buckling resistance activation test (BRAT) technique.

Study design: Technical note. Objectives: To present a novel technique of treatment for patient with basilar invagination. Background : Basilar invagination (BI) is considered a congenital condition and can compress the cervicomedullary junction, causing neurologic deficit. Severe neurological deficit due to BI should be treated surgically. However, there is controversy regarding whether an anterior or posterior approach should be used. Anterior approach is optimal for decompression of cervicomedullary junction, but this approach has high complication rates. Posterior reduction has a high risk of occipital screws backout and/or instrument failure. Materials and Methods : A 15-year-old boy with severe myelopathy was referred to our hospital. He had neck pain, muscle weakness of bilateral upper limbs, gait disturbance appeared 3 months before he visited our hospital, he drops a cup several times recently. In the examination, he had hyperreflexia of upper and lower limbs and muscle weakness of bilateral arms (MMT 4), hypoesthesis was observed bilaterally below elbow and both legs. He also had clumsiness of bilateral hands, mild urinary and bowel incontinence, and spastic gait. His 10 second grip and release test was 16 in both hands. His grip power was 20 kg in right and 17 kg in left. Radiograms showed severe BI and spinal cord was severely compressed with odontoid process.. Results : The patinet underwent posterior surgery with C-arm free technique. All screws including occipital screws were inserted adequate position under navigation guidance. Reduction was achieved with skull rotation and distraction. A follow-up at one year we have these results : Manual muscle testing results and sensory function tests showed almost full recovery, bilateral arms (MMT 5) ,walking smoothly. Cervical Japanese orthopedic association score of the patient has improved from 9/17 to 16/17. Post-operative images showed an excellent spinal cord decompression, and no major or severe complications has occured . Conclusions/Level of Evidence : Basilar invagination with Klippel-Feil syndrome is relatively rare condition. Posterior approach and occipito-cervical fixation for BI treatment with navigation technique is a safe method to treat severe myelopaty with reducible odontoid. This novel navigation technique provides an excellent results for a patient with BI. Level V.

Cavitation bubbles are commonly existing in shipbuilding engineering, ocean engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, and aerospace. Asymmetric deformation of bubble occurs near the boundary, and the non-spherical cavitation bubbles have strong destructive effects, inducing high amplitude loading at the nearby boundary. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the laser-induced of cavitation bubble, non-spherical collapse behavior near the boundary. In this study, experimental data such as bubble pulsation process and bubble surface velocity distribution were obtained by high-speed camera technique and full-field velocity calculation. The results show that the bubble appeared non-spherical collapse shapes, near different boundaries, with near-hemispherical, near-ellipsoidal, near-cone and near-pea shapes, and the bubble surface velocity distribution is not uniform. When bubble near the free surface or rigid boundary, the smaller the stand-off r is, the more obvious the repulsive effect of the free surface and the attractive effect of the rigid boundary are. As the stand-off r decreases, the larger the Bjerknes force and the bubble surface velocity difference, the more pronounced the non-spherical shape.

Keywords: Cell-free DNA, sepsis, oxidative stress, immunoredox modulation, cecal ligation and puncture, toll-like receptor

Band structure calculations using the spin-polarized relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (SPRKKR) band structure method have been performed to determine the intrinsic magnetic properties (magnetic moments, magneto-crystalline anisotropy -MAE and Curie temperatures) of the Fe5-x-yCoxMySiB2 (M = Re, W) alloys. The general gradient approximation for ex-change-correlation potential and the atomic sphere approximation (GGA ASA) have been em-ployed. Previous studies showed that the Co doping is turning the in-plane into axial anisotropy for a certain doping range, whilst the 5d doping enables a strong spin-orbit coupling of Fe-3d and M-5d states which is needed to enhance the MAE. The theoretical calculations aim to find the dependence of the anisotropy constant K1 for combined Co and M doping, building a two-dimensional (2D) map of K1 for 0 ≤ x ≤ 2 and 0 ≤ y ≤ 1. Similar theoretical 2D maps for magnetization and Curie temperature vs. Co and M content (M = W and Re) have been built, allowing to select alloy compositions with enhanced values of uniaxial anisotropy, magnetization and Curie temperature. Magnetic properties of Fe4.1W0.9SiB2 alloy that meets the selection criteria for axial anisotropy K1 > 0.2 meV/f.u., Curie temperature Tc > 800 K determined by mean field approach and magnetization µ0Ms > 1 T are discussed.

This research investigates the utilization of human driving models in autonomous vehicles, particularly in scenarios with minimal or no interactions with other vehicles. Human driving models provide valuable insights into driver behavior and play a crucial role in shaping the behavior of autonomous vehicles, enhancing their performance and user experience. The primary focus of the study is the creation of a planning model for autonomous vehicles when navigating roundabouts in the absence of traffic. This model seeks to emulate human driving behavior, ensuring predictability, safety, optimization of traffic flow, and adaptation to various roundabout geometries. To achieve this, the research introduces a trajectory model that takes into account geometric attributes and speed variations within roundabouts. The model is calibrated using empirical data and generalizes parameters through statistical regression methodologies. This model is referred to as "MRoundabout" and is evaluated for its consistency in generating plans that closely mimic human driving behavior within roundabouts. While the study presents a promising approach, it acknowledges limitations related to the model's reliance on geometric attributes and its inability to account for external factors like weather conditions. This research underscores the importance of bridging the gap between theoretical research and practical application, with the aim of enhancing safety and the overall user experience in real-world driving scenarios.

This article presents the possibilities of using ferrite absorption material for shielding rooms with medical devices in order to additionally protect them against the limits of the electric component of the E field, which are up to 61 V/m. These values may appear in connection with the currently launched 5G system operating in the high-band frequency range, i.e. 28 GHz and 38 GHz, and may cause negative effects on the operation of medical devices. The possibilities of using ferrite absorption material for shielding rooms with medical devices were determined based on the results of measurements of the electrical properties of the ferrite material performed using two methods: the reflection method and the free space method. In the article, the complex electrical permittivity and complex magnetic permeability were determined for a ferrite plate based on measurements of the reflection coefficient and the transmission (attenuation) coefficient. The presented calculation and measurement results were used to show the properties of the ferrite material in the frequency range from 15 GHz to 45 GHz and to show the possibility of using it for shielding rooms as a material absorbing electromagnetic waves in this frequency range.

Rollover prevention of partially-filled tank trucks is an industry teaser, with the core challenge being real-time perception and observation of the liquid state inside the tank. In order realize re-liable observation of sloshing liquid, this article firstly proposes a sloshing modeling method based on multi-degree-of-freedom pendulum model, and derives the double mass trammel pendulum model (DMTP, 2DOF) accordingly, which accurately reflects the sloshing dynamics under more pervasive working conditions. Secondly, a free surface fluctuation sensor is designed based on magnetostriction, capable of measuring the inclination and height of the liquid level inside tanks filled with hazardous chemical. Finally, the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is utilized to synthesize the information of the two, establishing a credible real-time observation of the sloshing liquid. Verified through vehicle-fluid coupled co-simulation, under condition of con-secutive double lane change, observation error of the proposed method is only 25.9% that of the open-loop calculation, providing a secure guarantee for the observation of the state variables of the single pendulum model (SP) used for most kinds of anti-rollover controller.

Roller milling of sorghum and quinoa seeds into flour fractions (course, middle, and fine) was investigated, chemically analysed and applied in the baking of gluten-free sourdough bread. Gap settings were adjusted to 0, 5, 8 and 10 for quinoa and 3, 5, and 7 for sorghum. The fine fractions reached values of up to about 41% (gap 8) for quinoa and around 20% for sorghum (gap 5). SEM pictographs illustrated clear separation of each fraction with chemical analysis showing high contents of protein, TDF (total dietary fibre) and IDF (insoluble dietary fibre) in the course fraction. Up to 77% starch content was obtained in the fine fraction with significant amounts of SDF (soluble dietary fibre) which has good health benefits. Increasing the dough moisture up to 90% helped in decreasing the bread crumb firmness, while low Avrami parameters and RVA pasting behaviour indicated slow bread staling rate for both sourdough breads.

Various vestibuloplasty techniques have been reported to increase the attached mucosa (AM) and vestibular depth around dental implants. However, these surgical methods have disadvantages, such as limitations in manipulation, necessity of suturing, postoperative discomfort, swelling, and pain. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of laser-assisted periosteal fenestration (LA-PF) in treating a patient with a shallow vestibule and insufficient AM around dental implants. The LA-PF technique was performed using an Er:YAG laser. First, a partial-thickness apically positioned flap (APF) was performed. Horizontal periosteal fenestration was performed using an Er:YAG laser to expose the bones. Periosteal suturing was not required. After 12 months, sufficient AM and deepened vestibule were obtained and maintained. Thus, the LA-PF technique may be a simple and predictable treatment modality for vestibuloplasty around dental implants.

Coffee is not only a delicious beverage but also an important dietary source of natural antioxidants. We live in an oxidative world where it is impossible to avoid pollution, stress, food additives, radiation, and other sources of oxidants that eventually lead to severe health disorders. Fortunately, there are chemicals in our diet that counteract the hazards posed by the reactive species that trigger oxidative stress. They are usually referred to as antioxidants; some of them can be versatile compounds that exert such a role in various ways. This review summarizes, from a chemical point of view, the antioxidant effects of relevant molecules found in coffee. Their ways of action and trends in activity are analyzed, considering the data gathered so far from both theory and experiments. The influence of the media and pH in aqueous solution, and structure-activity relationships are discussed. The protective role of the explored compounds is examined. A particular section is devoted to derivatives of some coffee components, and another one to their bioactivity. The data used in the analysis come from theoretical anc computational protocols, which have been proven to be very usefull in this context. Hopefully, the information provided here will promote further investigations into the amazing chemistry contained in our morning cup.

Coffee is not only a delicious beverage but also an important dietary source of natural antioxidants. We live in an oxidative world where it is impossible to avoid pollution, stress, food additives, radiation, and other sources of oxidants that eventually lead to severe health disorders. Fortunately, there are chemicals in our diet that counteract the hazards posed by the reactive species that trigger oxidative stress. They are usually referred to as antioxidants; some of them can be versatile compounds that exert such a role in various ways. This review summarizes, from a chemical point of view, the antioxidant effects of relevant molecules found in coffee. Their ways of action and trends in activity are analyzed, considering the data gathered so far from both theory and experiments. The influence of the media and pH in aqueous solution, and structure-activity relationships are discussed. The protective role of the explored compounds is examined. A particular section is devoted to derivatives of some coffee components, and another one to their bioactivity. Hopefully, the information provided here will promote further investigations into the amazing chemistry contained in our morning cup.

This work aimed to develop an easy-to-use smartphone-based electrochemical biosensor to quickly assess coffee blend's total polyphenol (Phs) content at industrial and individual level. The device is based on a commercial carbon-based screen-printed electrode (SPE) modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and gold nanoparticles (GNPs). At the same time, the biotransducer, Laccase from Trametes versicolor, TvLac, was immobilized on the sensor surface by using glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linking agent. The platform was electrochemically characterized to ascertain the influence of the SPE surface modification on its performance. The working electrode (WE) surface morphology characterization was obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging. All the measurements were carried out with a micro-potentiostat Sensit Smart by PalmSens connected to a smartphone. The developed biosensor provided a sensitivity of 0.12 μA/μM, a linear response ranging from 5 to 70 μM, and a lower detection limit (LOD) of 2.99 μM. Afterwards, the biosensor was tested for quantifying the total Phs content in coffee blends, evaluating the influence of both the variety and the roasting degree. The smartphone-based electrochemical biosensor performance has been validated though the Folin-Ciocâlteu standard method.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) represent a cornerstone in the complexity of the proteome, significantly contributing to diversifying protein structure and function. PTMs can significantly influence protein function, stability, localization, and interactions with other molecules. Therefore, it is important when choosing a protein expression system to ensure the precise incorporation of PTMs during protein synthesis, which is paramount for producing biologically active proteins. Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) system has emerged as a powerful protein synthesis platform and research toolkit in synthetic biology. The open nature of the system allows the reaction environment to be tailored to any protein of interest to promote specific PTMs, thus allowing for the production of a protein with the desired modifications. This review presents various PTMs achieved in the CFPS systems, providing insights into the current challenges, successes, and future prospects.

The free energy principle (FEP) is a mathematical and scientific principle that describes the relationship between the physical behavior of a dynamical system and the interpretation of such behavior as carrying out inference. It blurs the boundary between the ontological mode of the system of interest and the epistemological significance it acquires through its dynamic interaction with the environment. New materialism (or neo-materialism), despite lacking a single definition, refers to a range of emerging perspectives that attempt to dismantle the long-held divisions between ontology, epistemology, and even ethics, with the aim of achieving a comprehensive transformation of naturalized thinking. In this context, new materialism provides powerful tools to reframe some of the conceptual foundations of the FEP. This paper is the first in a series that aims to systematically construct a neo-materialistic perspective for the FEP, exploring its wide-ranging implications. It serves as an introduction to the series, arguing for the justification of deploying new materialism to reframe the FEP and introducing some essential concepts to be utilized in developing a neo-materialistic account of the FEP.

Diets that restrict the amount of carbohydrates positively affect markers related to metabolic syndrome (MS). However, completely carbohydrate-free diets have been studied in lesser extent, being their effect on biochemical and morphometric parameters in a rat model of MS the main objective of this study. MS was induced by a high-glucose diet for 20 weeks in male Wistar rats with a subsequent exposition to an essentially carbohydrate-free diet (CFD) for 20 weeks. Daily measurements of food consumption and monthly measurements of body weight were made. At week 40, glucose, insulin, lipid profile, ketone bodies, C-reactive protein (CRP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), urea, creatinine, liver and muscle glycogen, and serum, hepatic, renal and pancreatic malondialdehyde (MDA) were assessed. Exposition to CFD showed decrease in caloric intake and body weight. Likewise, the group showed normalization in liver and serum MDA parameters, insulin, lipid profile, ALT, liver glycogen, and creatinine. The CFD decreased glucose concentration and the inflammatory state, also, increased the concentration of ketone bodies and urea. The change towards CFD reverses the metabolic alterations generated with MS except for glycemia and uremia, probably due to the high rate of gluconeogenesis generated by the high protein content in the diet.

In this work we report recent theoretical calculations of a superconducting island in a strong vortex confinement regime. The obtained results reveal the evolution of superconducting condensate as a function of electron mean-free path (l) with the evolution of an applied magnetic field H0. The results of this study provide an insight about the emergent superconducting properties under such conditions, using the Ginzburg-Landau numerical simulations where spatial variation of thickness d on island, omnipresent in these kind of structures grown on Si (111), is taken into account. These results offer a new route to tailor superconducting circuits by using the controlled bombardment, in order to explore the impact on vortex distribution, phase of order parameter, number of vortices, free energy and the first H1 and second critical field H2.

In this work, we report the electric energy storage properties of (1-x)Bi0.5(Na0.8K0.2)0.5TiO3-xBi0.2Sr0.7TiO3 (BNKT-BST; x = 0.15-0.50) relaxor ferroelectric ceramics enhanced via a domain engineering method. A rhombohedral–tetragonal phase, the formation of highly dynamic PNRs, and a dense microstructure are confirmed from XRD, Raman vibrational spectra, and microscopic investigations. The relative dielectric permittivity (2664 at 1 kHz) and loss factor (0.058) were gradually improved with BST (x=0.45). The incorporation of BST into BNKT can disturb the long-range ferroelectric order, lowering the dielectric maximum temperature Tm and inducing the formation of highly dynamic polar nano-regions. In addition, the Tm shifts toward high temperature with frequency and a diffuse phase transition, indicating relaxor ferroelectric characteristics of BNKT-BST ceramics, which is confirmed by the modified Curie Weiss law (γ=1.83). The rhombohedral–tetragonal phase, fine grain size, and lowered Tm with relaxor properties synergistically contribute to a high recoverable energy density Wrec of 0.81 J/cm3 and a high energy efficiency η of 86.95% at 90 kV/cm for x = 0.45.

3D metal nanostructures are often the basis of several applications such as in catalysis, plasmonics, medical diagnosis, therapy, drug screening, ophthalmologic, and biomedical applications. Porous gold nanoparticles (PGNs) are intensively investigated due to their outstanding morphological as well as advantageous optical properties. Unfortunately, the thermal stability of these open-porous structures is poor, i.e. even as a result of low-temperature annealing (150$^\circ$C in air), their porosity disappears and they lose their favorable optical properties. In order to preserve their beneficial properties, a thin metal oxide coating can be applied. Changing the coating's thickness and/or composition, the optical response of the PGNs can also be tuned in a wide wavelength region. Moreover, these nanoparticles can be synthesized also in support-free form, which makes them more attractive from an application point of view. This review article summarizes some of the preparation modes of these complex nanostructures (fixed and support-free), as well as their thermal stability and optical responses.

Blood-based circulating cell free DNA(cfDNA) detection offers a non-invasive and easily accessible way for early cancer detection. Despite the extensive utility of cfDNA, there are still many challenges to develop the clinical biomarkers. For example, cfDNA with genetic alterations often compose a small portion of the DNA circulating in plasma, which can be confounded by cfDNA contributed by normal cells. Therefore, filtering out the potential false-positive cfDNA mutations from health population will be important for the cancer-based biomarkers. Additionally, many low-frequency genetic alterations are easily overlooked in small amount of cfDNA-based cancer test. We hypothesize that, the combination of diverse types of cancer studies on cfDNA can provide us a new insight to identify low-frequency genetic variant across cancer types for early clinical detection of cancers. By building a standardized computational pipeline for 1358 cfDNA samples across seven cancer types, we prioritize 129 shard genetic variants in the major cancer types. Further functional analysis of the 129 variants found that they are mainly enriched in ribosome pathways such as cotranslational protein targeting to membrane, some of which are tumor suppressor, oncogene and related to cancer initiation. In summary, our integrative analysis revealed the important roles of ribosome proteins as the common biomarkers in early cancer diagnosis.

A structural study of the 6√3 reconstruction conversion on 4H-SiC substrate surface in an Ar medium with a short sublimation annealing time into quasi-free epitaxial graphene by means of hydrogen intercalation between the upper layer of SiC and the adjacent reconstructed layer was carried out using the technique of reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) characterizing the surface of a crystalline material. A slight violation of the 6√3 reconstruction layer formation uniformity was found. The results of the study of the crystal structure of quasi-free graphene and single-layer graphene comprising a buffer layer formed on 4H-SiC in the traditional way in an Ar atmosphere without intercalation were compared.

Cell-free massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) has the potential of providing joint services including joint initial access, efficient clustering of access points (APs) and pilot allocation to user equipments (UEs) over large coverage area with reduced interference. In cell-free massive MIMO, large coverage area corresponds to provision and maintenance of scalable quality of service requirements for infinitely large number of UEs. The research in cell free massive MIMO is mostly focused on time division duplex mode due to availability of channel reciprocity which aids in avoiding feedback overhead. However, frequency division duplex (FDD) protocol still dominates the current wireless standards and the provision of angle reciprocity aids in reducing this overhead. The challenge of providing a scalable cell-free massive MIMO system in FDD setting is also prevalent, since computational complexity regarding signal processing tasks such as channel estimation, precoding/combining and power allocation, becomes prohibitively high with increase in number of UEs. In this work, we consider an FDD based scalable cell-free network with angular reciprocity and dynamic cooperation clustering approach. We have proposed scalability for our FDD cell-free and perform comparative analysis with reference to channel estimation, power allocation and precoding/combining techniques. We present expressions for scalable spectral efficiency, angle based precoding/combining schemes and provide comparison of overhead between conventional and scalable angle based estimation as well as combining schemes. Simulations confirm that the proposed scalable cell-free network based on FDD scheme outperforms the conventional matched filtering scheme based on non-scalable precoding/combiming schemes. The angle based LP-MMSE in FDD cell-free network provides 14.3% improvement in spectral efficiency and 11.11% improvement in energy efficiency compared to non-scalable MF scheme.

Research on the lead halide-based perovskite solar cells have obtained considerable interest in photovoltaic industry owing to their higher efficiency, easy manufacturing, light-weight and low cost. However, these lead halide-based solar cells are not suitable to manufacture commercially because of the toxicity of lead-based materials. In this context, a lead-free perovskite, cesium-bismuth iodide (Cs₃Bi₂I₉) is considered as a potential alternative to the lead halide-based cell due to their non-toxicity and stability, but this perovskite cannot be matched with random hole transport layer (HTL) and electron transport layer (ETL) materials compared to lead halide-based perovskite because of their crystal structure and band gap. Therefore, in this study, performance comparison of different ideal HTL and ETL materials for Cs₃Bi₂I₉ perovskite layer were studied using SCAPS-1D device simulation on the basis of open circuit voltage, short circuit current, power conversion efficiency (PCE) and fill factor (FF) as well as several novel PSC configuration model were designed that can direct for further experimental research for PSC device commercialization. Results from this investigation reveals that the maximum efficiency of 20.96% is obtained for the configuration ITO/WS₂/Cs₃Bi₂I_9­/NiO/Au with optimized parameters such as thickness 400 nm, band gap 2.1eV, absorber layer defect density 10¹² cm^-3, donor density of ETL 10¹⁸ cm^-3 and the acceptor density of HTL 10²⁰ cm^-3.

Histone deacetylases (HDAC) represent promising epigenetic targets for several diseases including different cancer types. The HDAC inhibitors approved to date are pan-HDAC inhibitors and most show a poor selectivity profile, side effects and especially hydroxamic acid based inhibitors lack good pharmacokinetic profiles. Therefore, the development of isoform-selective non-hydroxamic acid HDAC inhibitors is a highly regarded field in medicinal chemistry. In this study, we analyzed different ligand-based and structure-based drug design techniques to predict the binding mode and inhibitory activity of recently developed alkylhydrazide HDAC inhibitors. Alkylhydrazides have recently attracted more attention as they have shown promising effects in various cancer cell lines. In this work, pharmacophore models and atom-based quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were generated and evaluated. The binding mode of the studied compounds was determined using molecular docking as well as molecular dynamics simulations and compared with known crystal structures. Calculated free energies of binding were also considered to generate QSAR models. The models created show a good explanation of in vitro data and were used to develop novel HDAC3 inhibitors.

Heterojunctions based on metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are promising systems for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we coupled Cs3Bi2Br9 nanocrystals (NCs), obtained by wet ball milling synthesis, with g-C3N4 nanosheets (NSs) produced by thermal oxidation of bulk g-C3N4 in air. These methods are reproducible, inexpensive, and easy to scale up. Heterojunctions with different loadings of Cs3Bi2Br9 NCs were fully characterized and tested for HER. A relevant improvement of H2 production with respect to pristine carbon nitride was achieved at low NCs levels reaching values up to about 4600 µmol g-1 h-1. This work aims to provide insights on the synthesis of inexpensive and high performing heterojunctions using MHP for photocatalytic applications.

Many countries have implemented free early childhood education to solve the affordability and accessibility problems without considering the sustainability of policy; thus, they have to discontinue the policy. The city of Nanjing, China, is no exception. This case study adopted a mixed-methods approach to understanding how and why the policy was formulated, implemented, and failed in the city, using the “policy cycle” framework. Altogether 232 kindergarten principals and teaching/research staff were randomly sampled and surveyed, and 5 kindergarten principals and 5 teaching/researcher staff were interviewed. The results indicated that there were many obstacles to the policy’s sustainability, including the conflict of interest, the inefficient policy implementation, the insufficient funding, and more social inequality issues. And the policymakers made mistakes in the five domains of the policy cycle: the context of influence, the context of policy text production, the context of practice, the context of outcomes, and the context of political strategy. Finally, the lessons for a more sustainable policy decision process are discussed.

Transcription factors (TFs) are proteins that recognize specific DNA fragments in order to decode the genome and ensure its optimal functioning. TFs work at the local and global scales by specifying cell type, cell growth and death, cell migration, organization and timely tasks. We investigate the structure of DNA-binding motifs with the theory of finitely generated groups. The DNA ‘word’ in the binding domain -the motif- may be seen as the generator of a finitely generated group Fdna on four letters, the bases A, T, G and C. It is shown that, most of the time, the DNA-binding motifs have subgroup structure close to free groups of rank three or less, a property that we call ‘syntactical freedom’. Such a property is associated to the aperiodicity of the motif when it is seen as a substitution sequence. Examples are provided for the major families of TFs such as leucine zipper factors, zinc finger factors, homeo-domain factors, etc. We also discuss the exceptions to the existence of such a DNA syntactical rule and their functional role. This includes the TATA box in the promoter region of some genes, the single nucleotide markers (SNP) and the motifs of some genes of ubiquitous role in transcription and regulation.

Gastric emptying rate (GER) may impact diabetes and obesity in humans and could provide a method to reduce canine weight gain. Starch, the most common source of carbohydrates (CHOs) in pet food, is classified as rapidly or slowly digestible, or resistant to digestion. This study investigated starch source effects in commercial extruded dog foods on the GER of 11 healthy adult Siberian Huskies (5.63±0.72 years; mean±SEM). Test diets were classified as traditional, grain-free, whole-grain, and vegan. Dogs received each diet once, a glucose control twice, and acetaminophen (Ac) as a marker for GER in a randomized, partially-replicated, 6x6 Latin square design. Pre- and post-prandial blood samples were collected at 16 timepoints from -15 to 480 minutes. Serum Ac concentrations were assessed via standard spectrophotometric assays and fitted with a mathematical model to estimate parameters of GER. Data was analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA, followed by a Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test when significant (p<0.05). More total emptying (p= 0.0430) occurred at faster rate (p=0.0668) in dogs fed the grain-free diet, which contained the lowest total starch (34.03 ± 0.23%) and highest resistant starch (0.52 ± 0.007%). This research may benefit future diet formulations to reduce the prevalence of canine weight gain.

Background: Ultrasonography’s usefulness in endometrial cancer (EC) diagnosis consists of its staging and predictive roles. Ultrasound-measured tumor-free distance from the tumor to the uterine serosa (uTFD) is a promising marker for this variable. The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of this biomarker in locoregional staging, and thus in the prediction of lymph node metastasis (LNM). Methods: We conducted a single-institutional, prospective study on 116 consecutive patients with EC who underwent 2D transvaginal ultrasound examination. The uTFD marker was compared with the depth of ultrasound-measured myometrial invasion (uMI). Univariate and multivariate logit models were evaluated to assess the predictive power of the uTFD and uMI in regard to LNM. The reference standard was a final histopathology result. Survival was assessed by the Kaplan-Meyer method. Results: LNM was found in 17% of the patients (20/116). In the univariate analysis, uMI and uTFD were significant predictors of LNM. Accuracy was 70.7%, and NPV was 92.68% (OR 4.746, 95% CI 1.710-13.174) for uMI (p = 0.002), and 63.8%, and 89.02% (OR 0.842, 95% CI 0.736 – 0.963), respectively, for uTFD (p = 0.01). The cut-off value for uTFD in the prediction of LNM was 5.2 mm. The absence of LNM was associated more with biomarker values uMI &lt;1/2 and uTFD &gt;=5.2 mm than with the presence of metastases with uMI &gt;1/2 and uTFD values &lt;5.2 mm. In the multivariate analysis, the accuracy of the uMI-uTFD model was 74%, and NPV was 90.24% (p = NS). Neither uMI nor uTFD are surrogates for overall and recurrence-free survivals in endometrial cancer. Conclusions: Both uMI and uTFD, either alone or in combination, are valuable tools for gaining additional preoperative information on expected lymph node status. Negative lymph nodes status is better described by ultrasound biomarkers than a positive status. It is easier to use uTFD measurement as a biomarker of EC invasion than uMI, and the former still maintains a similar predictive value for lymph node metastases to the latter at diagnosis.

This article presents, for the first time, the kinetics and the general conversion features of a 3-initiator system (A/B/N), based on proposed mechanism of Mokbel et al, for both free radical polymerization (FRP) of acrylates and the free radical promoted cationic polymerization (CP) of epoxides using copper complex as the initiator. Higher FRP and CP conversion can be achieved by co-initiators concentration [B] and [N], via the dual function of (i) regeneration [A], and (ii) generation of extra radicals S' and S. The FRP and CP conversion is proportional to, respectively, the nonlinear and linear power of bI[A][B], where b and I are the absorption coefficient and the light intensity, respectively. System in air has lower conversion than in laminate due to the oxygen inhibition effects. For thick samples (with thickness z), there is an optimal concentration [A*] which is inverse proportional (bzI), in contrast with very thin sample, in which the conversion is an increasing function of [A] and [B]. The unique feature of dark polymerization in CP conversion enables the polymerization to continue in living mode, in contrasts with that of the radical-mediated pathway in most conventional FRP. The measured results of Mokbel et al are well analyzed and matching the predicted features of our modeling.

In this article, a technology for producing wire and rod solder from 52In-48Sn alloy has been developed and investigated in the conditions of small-scale production. The use of direct extrusion of wire and rods instead of the traditional technology for producing solder, which includes pressing, rolling and drawing, can significantly reduce the fleet of required equipment. Using only a melting furnace and a hydraulic press, solder wires and rods can be produced in various sizes. Shortening the production cycle allows you to quickly fulfill small orders and be competitive in sales. The article developed a mathematical model of direct extrusion, which allows you to calculate: extrusion ratio, extrusion speed and pressing force. The results of modeling the process of extrusion of wire ∅2.00 mm and rods ∅8.0 mm made of 52In-48Sn alloy are presented. The temperature of the solder and the tool is simulation in software QForm based on the finite element method. Experimental results of manufacturing ∅2.0 mm solder wire and ∅8.0 mm rods are presented. The microstructure of the direct extruded solder is a eutectic of phases γ and β. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping of the 52In-48Sn alloy showed that the solder obtained by direct extrusion has a uniform distribution of structural phases. The developed technology can be used in the manufacture of wires and rods from other low-melting alloys.

Bacteria a Microscopic organisms are the most inexhaustible and flexible of microorganisms and constitute a huge division of the whole living earthly biomass, certain microorganisms were found to amass metallic components at a high limit Was Known as Bacterial Bio-sorption Due to their little size, capacity to become under controlled conditions, and their Accommodation to an extensive variety of ecological situations; Potent metal bio-sorbents among microorganisms, at low pH esteems, cell divider ligands are protonated and contend essentially with metals for official. With expanding pH, more ligands, such as amino and carboxyl groups, could be exposed, leading to attraction between these negative charges and the metals, and consequently increment bio-sorption onto the cell surface. Starting with Isolation and identification of heavy metal-resistant bacteria from rock Ore. Studying Factors Affecting Uranium Bio-sorption, Optimization of bacterial growth conditions and optimum for metal uptake by free and immobilized bacterial cells and Desorption ratio of uranium ions adsorbed by Coli. /alginate, All this evidence suggest that functions groups Represented in our study are responsible for metal uptake in our bacterial biomass beside change in peaks position which assigned for it's groups confirm bio-sorption of metal ions from waste due to ions charge interaction comparing with immobilized we found increase in no of binding sites indicate that immobilized bacterial have high efficiency for metal up take which also change in peaks position which assigned for its groups confirm bio-sorption of metal ions from waste due to ions charge interaction, Where the high bio-sorption yield obtained by bacteria, the Uranium & heavy metal bioremediation process expects microorganisms to be joined to a strong surface.

The synthesis of additives for thinning mineral suspensions based on sodium polyacrylate was carried out. The effect of molecular weight regulators on the molecular weight characteristics of the polymer and the effect of such polymers on the rheological properties of suspensions was studied. Sodium acrylate polymers are synthesized by free radical polymerization in aqueous solution using molecular weight regulators. The molecular weight characteristics of the polymeric samples were estimated by viscometry using Mark-Houwink-Kuhn-Sakurada (MHKS) equation. Synthesized polymers were used as thinners ceramic slurries, prepared according to the recipe of the enterprises producing ceramic products. The thinning ability of polymer samples with different molecular weights was estimated using an Engler viscometer from the time of the ceramic slurry flow. The influence of the type and amount molecular weight regulator on polyacryates was revealed. It was found that molecular weight synthesized samples was in the range of 21000 - 91000. It was determined that samples with a molecular weight of 28000 - 35000 synthesized using mercaptoethanol (at a dosage of 0.5-1.5% by weight of the monomer) provide optimal fluidity to the ceramic slurry.

As non-operative management (NOM) of esophageal and rectal cancer is becoming more prevalent, blood-biomarkers such as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may provide clinical information in addition to endoscopy and imaging to aid in treatment decisions following chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In this feasibility study, we prospectively collected plasma samples from locally advanced esophageal (n=3) and rectal cancer (n=2) patients undergoing multimodal neoadjuvant therapy to assess the feasibility of serial ctDNA monitoring throughout neoadjuvant therapy. Using the DIDA-Seq error-correction method, we serially interrogated plasma cell-free DNA at 28-41 tumor-specific genomic loci throughout therapy and in surveillance with an average limit of detection of 0.016% mutant allele frequency. In both rectal cancer patients, ctDNA levels were persistently elevated following total neoadjuvant therapy with eventual detection of clinical recurrence prior to salvage surgery. Among the esophageal cancer patients, ctDNA levels closely correlated with tumor burden throughout and following neoadjuvant therapy, which was associated with a pathologic complete response in one patient. In this feasibility study, patient and tumor-specific ctDNA levels correlated with clinical outcomes throughout multi-modality therapy suggesting that serial monitoring of patient ctDNA has the potential to serve as a highly sensitive and specific biomarker to risk-stratify esophageal and rectal cancer patients eligible for NOM. Further prospective investigation is warranted.

In this paper, we present and analyze a compact inner-wall grating slot microring resonator (IG-SMRR) with the footprint of less than 13 μm × 13 μm on the SOI platform for label-free sensing, which comprises a slot microring resonator (SMRR) and inner-wall grating (IG). Its detection range is significantly enhanced without the limitation of the free spectral region (FSR) owing to the combination of SMRR and IG. Structural parameters of IG and SMRR are investigated and optimized for favorable transmission properties. The simulation results shows that the IG-SMRR has an ultra-large quasi-FSR of 84.6 nm, and the concentration sensitivities of sodium chloride solutions and D-glucose solutions are up to 960.61 pm/% and 933.06 pm/%, respectively. The investigation on the combination of SMRR and IG is a valuable exploration of label-free sensing application for ultra-large detection range and ultra-high sensitivity in future.

High oxidative stress in cells due to inflammation process or excessive cell proliferation would produce oxidants or free radicals with biomarkers, one of which is malondialdehyde (MDA). Passion fruit seed’s contain high antioxidant and are expected to decrease the level of cholesterol and MDA. The objective is to identify the effect of passion fruit seed’s ethanol extract in Wistar rats that have been fed with atherogenic feed. The method was preclinical trial (post-test control group design) in rats, by administering passion fruit seed’s ethanol extract for 14 days. This study used 26 male rats aged two months, divided into 5 groups. The result showed significant difference in MDA level which was found in group that was given passion fruit seed extract 10mg/kg BW with positive control group that was given standard feed. Passion fruit seed’s extract showed significant difference in level of triglyceride, which was found in negative control group that was given atherogenic feed with group that was given passion fruit seed’s extract 5mg/kg BW (mean±standard deviation: 1.09±0.30 mg/dL vs 0.77±0.25mg/dL; p=0.048). This study showed that passion fruit seed’s ethanol extract had significant lowering effect in level of MDA, total cholesterol, and triglyceride for 14 days.

According to Copenhagen interpretation, a quantum particle can exist in a superposition of all possible states, out of which only one state is observed when it is measured. Interestingly, it has been observed that interaction with the quantum particle during measurement can also affect the outcome of the state. A scheme for interaction free measurement was proposed by Elitzur and Vaidman [Found. Phys. 23, 987 (1993)], where they used Mach Zehnder interferometer to detect whether a bomb is alive or dead. In 25 % of the cases they were able to detect that the bomb is alive without exploding it. Here, we demonstrate the above experiment using quantum computing, which can be realized in a quantum computer designing quantum circuits on it. We explicate all the cases, including whether the bomb is alive or dead by proposing new quantum circuits and executing those in QISKit as provided by IBM Quantum Experience platform and verify the obtained results.

Deep fat frying is not novel, but a classical antiquity culinary technique preferred chiefly for its swiftness, amenity, conferment of a crisp texture, attractive sensorial and organoleptic qualities and thus delectableness of the fries. Regrettably, repeated use of oils for deep frying impacts the storage life and nutritional suitability of fries. This concerted study investigated the effects of continuous deep fat frying on the physicochemical properties of ten brands of edible cooking oils: Fortune Butto, Roki, Tamu, Best Fry, Golden Fry, Mukwano, Sunny, Sunvita, Sunlite and Sunseed used in deep frying of potato chips in Kampala, Uganda. Three oil samples from local Irish chip fryers were also collected. The color value (CV) and the acidification of the oils as free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (POV), paraanisidine value (AnV) and iodine adsorption value (IV) before and between ten successive deep-fryings using potato chips were determined. The possible reuse of the oils was estimated from the frying round when a quality criterion surpassed national or CODEX specifications for the respective edible cooking oils. For fresh oils, the statistical parameter ranges were: CV (0.4R 3.4Y-7.7R 70Y), % FFA (0.0430-0.1508), POV (0.5951-6.6134 meqO₂/Kg), AnV (0.90-4.30) and IV (57.62-128.35gI₂/100g). By the tenth fry, the values were respectively 3.0R 23Y-20.4R 70Y, 0.2286-0.4817, 11.1138-15.7525 meqO₂/Kg, 10.31-22.16 and 53.66-126.03 gI₂/100g. Reuse of the oils for continuous frying of potatoes on the same day can be done only up to 7 times on average for hard oils and 6 times for soft oils.

As bakery products contribute considerably to the daily intake of the carcinogen acting substance acrylamide (AA), the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the cropping system (conventional vs. organic farming) on AA precursor levels of free asparagine (Asn) across different cultivars of the cereal species, namely winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), winter spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta) and winter rye (Secale cereale) with simultaneous consideration of gained grain yields and flour qualities. For this purpose, orthogonal field trials were established at two sites in Southwest Germany over two growing seasons (2006-2007 and 2007-2008). The results indicated a significant impact of the cropping system on free Asn contents. Across all species, free Asn contents in the flour were 26 % lower under organic compared to conventional farming. The impact of the cropping system on individual cultivars was obvious with a maximum reduction in free Asn contents of 50 % (e.g. for cultivars Ludwig, Privileg, Capo) if organically produced. For spelt, a significant impact of the cropping system was only found in 2008 with a reduction in free Asn of up to 25 % if organically produced. Across both cropping systems, cultivar Franckenkorn reached the lowest levels of free Asn. For rye, a significant impact of the cropping system was observed only in 2007 with 33 % higher Asn amounts in the conventional cropping system. Independent of the cropping system, rye reached the highest levels of free Asn followed by wheat and spelt. Across both cropping systems, species and cultivars, the amount of free Asn correlated with the AA content in heated flour with R2=0.63***. Furthermore, the results indicated that lower AA contents in bakery products can be achieved by proper selection of species (e.g. 66 % lower if rye is replaced by wheat) and cultivars. With an appropriate choice of the cultivar, a reduction of up to 65 % was possible within wheat, along with a reduction of 44 % within spelt and 12.5 % within rye. In summary, the results indicated that organically produced wheat especially offers the opportunity to significantly lower the AA potential of bread and bread rolls by the choice of raw materials low in free Asn.

Free vibration analysis of the porous functionally graded circular plates has been presented on the basis of classical plate theory. The three defined coupled equations of motion of the porous functionally graded circular/annular plate were decoupled to one differential equation of free transverse vibrations of plate. The one universal general solution was obtained as linear combination of the multiparametric special functions for the functionally graded circular and annular plates with even and uneven porosity distributions. The multiparametric frequency equations of functionally graded porous circular plate with diverse boundary conditions were obtained in the exact closed-form. The influences of the even and uneven distributions of porosity, power-law index, diverse boundary conditions and the negligibled effect of the coupling in-plane and transverse displacements on the dimensionless frequencies of the circular plate were comprehensively studied for the first time. The formulated boundary value problem, the exact method of solution and the numerical results for the perfect and imperfect functionally graded circular plates have not yet been reported.

Satellite remote sensing is a powerful tool to map flooded areas. In the last years, the availability of free satellite data sensibly increased in terms of type and frequency, allowing producing flood maps at low cost around the World. In this work, we propose a semi-automatic method for flood mapping, based only on free satellite images and open-source software. As case studies, we selected three flood events recently occurred in Spain and Italy. Multispectral satellite data acquired by MODIS, Proba-V, Landsat, Sentinel-2 and SAR data collected by Sentinel-1 were used to detect flooded areas using different methodologies (e.g., MNDWI; SAR backscattering variation; Supervised classification). Then, we improved and manually refined the automatic mapping using free ancillary data like DEM based water depth model and available ground truth data. For the areas affected by major floods, we also validated and compared the produced flood maps with official maps made by river authorities. We calculated flood detection performance (flood ratio) for the different datasets we used. The results show that it is necessary to take into account different factors for the choice of best satellite data, among these, the time of satellite pass with respect to the flood peak is the most important one. SAR data showed good results only for co-flood acquisitions, whereas multispectral images allowed detecting flooded areas also with the post-flood acquisition. With the support of ancillary data, it was possible to produce reliable geomorphological based flood maps in the study areas.

Clinical rehabilitation and sports performance analysis both require the objectification of movement. Kinovea^© is a free 2D motion analysis software that enables the establishment of kinematics parameters. This low-cost technology has been used in sports sciences, as well as clinical field and research work. Although it has been validated as a tool with which to assess time-related variables, this is not yet the case regarding angular and distance variables. The main objective of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Kinovea software in obtaining angular and distance data at different perspectives of 90°, 75°, 60° and 45°. For this purpose, a figure with 29 points was designed (in AutoCAD) and 24 frames analysed. Each frame was examined by three observers who each made two attempts. For each export data item, 20 angles and 20 distance variables were calculated, with intra- and inter-observer reliability also analysed. To evaluate Kinovea reliability and validity a multiple approach was applied involving the following analysis: -systematic error with a two-way ANOVA 2x4; -relative reliability with ICC and CV (95% confidence interval); -absolute reliability with Standard Error. The results thus obtained indicate that the Kinovea software is a valid and reliable tool that is able to measure accurately at distances up to 5 m from the object and at an angle range of 90°–45°. Nevertheless, for optimum results an angle of 90° is suggested.

Age is the primary risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and a leading cause of death in the elderly population of the United States. No effective treatments for these diseases currently exist. Identifying effective treatments for Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases is a major current focus of national scientific resources, and there is a critical need for novel therapeutic strategies. Here we investigate the potential for targeting the kynurenine pathway metabolite 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3HAA) using Caenorhabditis elegans expressing amyloid-beta or a polyglutamine peptide in body wall muscle, modeling proteotoxicity in Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease-related, respectively. We show that knocking down the enzyme that degrades 3HAA, 3HAA dioxygenase (HAAO) delays age-associated paralysis in both models. This effect on paralysis was independent of protein aggregation in the polyglutamine model. We also show that the mechanism of protection against proteotoxicity from HAAO knockdown is mimicked by 3HAA supplementation, supporting elevated 3HAA as the mediating event liking HAAO knockdown to delayed paralysis. This work demonstrates potential for 3HAA as a targeted therapeutic in neurodegenerative disease, though the mechanism is yet to be explored.

Myotonic dystrophy is a hereditary disorder with systemic involvement. The Italian Neuro-Cardiology Network (INCN-RNC) is a unique collaborative experience involving neurology units combined with cardio-arrhythmology units. The INCN facilitates the creation of integrated neuro-cardiac teams in Neuromuscular Disease Centers for the management of cardiovascular involvement in the treatment of MD1.

Disease detection and prediction have been one of the most frequent uses of machine learning models in the last decade, and Parkinson's disease is no exception. It is common for people in their old age to have one form of disease or another depending on the circumstances in which they find themselves. This study analyzed and evaluated various supervised machine learning models to detect the presence of Parkinson's disease in elderly individuals. An extreme gradient boosting model, along with other models, such as naïve Bayes, random forest, K-nearest neighbor, and support vector machine (SVM), was implemented to determine the best outcome. The extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model is a powerful boosting machine learning technique, particularly in terms of speed and accuracy. The results showed that the XGBoost model, which is an optimized version of the other boosting models, is capable of projecting the presence of Parkinson's disease with very high accuracy compared to other algorithms. The implemented classification algorithm extreme gradient boosting method achieved approximately 98 % accuracy, 97.5 % precision, 100.0 % recall, and 98.7% f1-score which are high compared with the results found in the existing literature.

TAU is the main disease driver in Alzheimer’s and many other sporadic and genetic tauopathies. TAU is differently spliced, the role of individual splice-isoforms unclear. Murine Mapt-KO mice are healthy, and protected from Alzheimer’s, but no such case has been reported in humans. Using gnomad database, we here demonstrate that the only isoform expressed during fetal human brain development is intolerant to mutation, while other brain and peripheral nervous system TAU isoforms are dispensable. With TAU targeted therapies for Alzheimer’s and other tauopathies on the rise, we caution that TAU is essential human brain development.

Chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO), also known as chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), is a rare autoinflammatory bone disease primarily affecting children and adolescents. This review presents a comprehensive analysis of the intricate relationship between CNO and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), shedding light on shared pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical management. A thorough literature review was conducted, encompassing 24 case reports involving 40 patients. The demographic distribution of patients revealed a near-equal gender ratio, with a median age of diagnosis at 12 years. The diagnosis patterns showed a higher proportion of CNO as the initial diagnosis, while Crohn's disease was more prevalent than ulcerative colitis. The time interval between the clinical presentations varied, ranging from simultaneous detection to a substantial 15-year gap. Treatment modalities included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, aminosalicylates, and biologic agents, such as infliximab, often overlapping in their use, suggesting shared pathophysiological pathways. Both conditions displayed systemic manifestations, and patients often responded well to immunosuppressive medications. The pathophysiology of CNO involves genetic predisposition, cytokine dysregulation, and osteoclast activation. Dysregulated innate immunity results in immune cell infiltration into bones, causing sterile bone lesions. Notably, emerging evidence hints at a potential link between the microbiome and CNO. In contrast, IBD results from imbalanced mucosal immune responses to the intestinal microbiota. Polymorphisms in the promotor region of IL-10, common cytokines, immune cells, and genetic markers indicate shared immunological and genetic factors between CNO and IBD. Both conditions also involve extraintestinal symptoms. This analysis underscores the need for clinical awareness of the co-occurrence of CNO and IBD, especially among pediatric patients. A deepened understanding of the connections between these seemingly distinct diseases could lead to more effective management and improved patient outcomes.

In atherosclerosis patients, vascular endothelial dysfunction is commonly observed with damage of vascular endothelial glycocalyx, an extracellular matrix-bound to and encapsulating the endothelial cell lining the blood vessel wall. Unfavorable lifestyle; smoking and physical inactivity, also induces glycocalyx degradation. Moreover, the vascular endothelial glycocalyx is damaged by various unfavorable disease conditions like as dehydration, acute infectious disease, trauma, sepsis, ARDS, Kawasaki disease, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, atherosclerosis, stroke, dementia, microvascular angina, acute coronary syndrome, and heart failure. The vascular endothelial glycocalyx has been shown to be important not only as a physical cytoprotective barrier for vascular endothelial cells but also as a mechanism that regulates intracellular cell signaling. Therefore, vascular endothelial glycocalyx has great potential to explore new strategies for assessing the benefit conditions of our healthy vasculature.

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a significant concern in many countries due to the rapid rate of transmission between humans. Taking advantage of the experience of the last epidemics in 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), some regions of the world were well- prepared for the new outbreak. However, other countries needed to be adapted to the situation promptly. Many management strategies were established, and some restrictions were introduced in some regions. In this review, we aimed to determine countries’ public responses to the epidemic of COVID-19 and how they developed administrative approaches towards the outbreak.

RNA epigenetics is perhaps the most recent aspect of interest for translational epigeneticists. RNA modifications create such an extensive network of epigenetically driven combination whose role in physiology and pathophysiology is still far from being elucidated. Not surprisingly, some of the players determining changes into RNA structure are in common with those involved in DNA and chromatin structure regulation, while other molecules seem very specific to RNA. It is envisaged, then, that new small molecules, acting selectively on RNA epigenetic changes, will be reported soon, opening new therapeutic interventions based on the correction of the RNA epigenetic landscape. In this review, we shall summarize some aspects of RNA epigenetics limited to those in which the potential clinical translatability to cardiovascular disease is emerging.

A nutritional approach could be a promising strategy to prevent or slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, since there is no effective therapy for these diseases so far. The beneficial effects of omega-3 fatty acids are now well established by a plethora of studies through their involvement in multiple biochemical functions, including synthesis of antinflammatory mediators, cell membrane fluidity, intracellular signalling and gene expression. This systematic review will consider epidemiological studies and clinical trials that assessed the impact of supplementation or dietary intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Indeed, treatment with omega-3 fatty acids, being safe and well tolerated, represent a valuable and biologically plausible tool in the management of neurodegenerative diseases in their early stages.

Small bowel carcinomas (SBC) are uncommon neoplasms, whose predisposing conditions include hereditary syndromes and immune-mediated intestinal disorders, including coeliac disease (CD) and Crohn’s disease (CrD). Although both CD-associated SBC (CD-SBC) and CrD-associated SBC (CrD-SBC) arise from an inflammatory background, they differ substantially in tumour cell phenotype, frequency of microsatellite instability and nuclear β-catenin expression, as well as in prognosis. For these patients, high tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte density and glandular/medullary histotype represent independent positive prognostic factors. Dysplasia adjacent to SBC is rare and characterized by intestinal phenotype and nuclear β-catenin in CD, while it is frequent and typified by gastro-pancreatobiliary marker expression and preserved membranous β-catenin in CrD. Recent evidence suggests that Epstein-Barr virus-positive dysplasia and SBC, albeit exceptional, do exist and are associated with CrD. In this review we summarize the novel pathological and molecular insights of clinical and therapeutic interest to guide the care of CD-SBC and CrD-SBC.

This study presents a dynamic modeling approach to investigate the impact of saturation dynamics on HIV/AIDS transmission in the presence of vertical transmission and treatment strategies. The proposed model incorporates disease-free and endemic equilibria, with a focus on analyzing the basic reproduction number and conducting stability analysis. Results indicate that the disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable under certain conditions. The findings suggest that a combination of treatment interventions and awareness campaigns, along with other control measures, may play a crucial role in curbing the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus. This research contributes to understanding the complex dynamics of HIV/AIDS epidemics and highlights the importance of considering saturation effects in epidemic modeling.

Background: Fibromyalgia patients suffer from widespread chronic pain throughout the musculoskeletal system. There are no apparent clinical visible symptoms, and the syndrome lacks a clear medical explanation. Female fibromyalgia patients often feel they suffer from a transparent disease which is not acknowledged as an illness by their social circle. Hence, they are often exposed to skeptics and critics. One of the challenges fibromyalgia patients faces is to convince their surroundings that they are in pain and accept the presence of the invisible disease and the chronic pain in their lives. A multidisciplinary Fibrotherapy treatment model, implemented at the Ezra Le'Marpeh Rehabilitation Center, supports female fibromyalgia patients through a holistic mind-body approach, delivered in three 10-week cycles totaling 30 weeks of treatment. The research aims to understand the experiences of female fibromyalgia patients who perceive themselves as suffering from an invisible disease and the personal and familial aspects of transitioning from lack of acceptance to coping with reality and adaptation. Methods: We interviewed 16 female fibromyalgia patients in Israel and qualitatively analyzed the data using the Grounded Theory approach. Results: Following participation in the program, the fibromyalgia patients accepted the presence of the disease in their lives and changed their attitude toward the disease and its consequences. Conclusions: As fibromyalgia symptoms are invisible and can suddenly burst into their lives without warning, female fibromyalgia patients often face skepticism from their social circle and have self-doubt. Therefore, participating in holistic intervention programs may improve how they accept the disease and come to terms with its existence by taking a proactive coping approach.

Still’s disease, also known as systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, is an autoimmune disorder with a triad of fever, salmon pink rash, and inflammatory polyarthritis. Its diagnosis is quite challenging due to the lack of specific symptoms and overlap with many other rheumatological and autoimmune disorders. However, recent studies have shown that high serum ferritin levels can act as a biomarker for this disease. Ferritin is an intracellular iron storage protein that acts as a pro-inflammatory reactant. There are various explanations indicating the presence of higher ferritin levels in Still's disease. High ferritin tells us about disease severity, and prognosis and can also predict life-threatening complications that can be easily prevented and thus it helps in reducing mortality associated with Still's disease. However, there are certain limitations to the use of ferritin as the only diagnostic marker for Still's disease. Overcoming those limitations can take the diagnosis of Still's disease to a higher level.

The evolutionary theory of aging, particularly antagonistic pleiotropy (AP), provides an account of the ultimate origins of aging. What remains unclear is the nature of the proximate mechanisms by which AP gives rise to diseases of aging, like cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Damage-centric theories focusing on loss of genetic and cellular function have been proposed, as well as programmatic theories focusing on unwanted gene and cellular function. The latter include the hyperfunction and developmental theory that view aging as the futile continuation, or run-on, of growth and developmental programmes into later life. Yet neither type of theory has performed well in explaining late-life disease aetiology, particularly with respect to disease onset, presentation and progression. What is proposed here in this review is a new programmatic theory of aging. We argue that the emergence of many specific diseases may involve quasi-programmes that are not the result of run-on, but rather are triggered by other factors in late life. Such triggers may be non-programmatic (e.g. infection, mechanical injury) or programmatic. Moreover, the consequent pre-pathological and pathological changes may in some cases trigger further changes, leading to futile and destructive cascades of quasi-programmes and pathology. The origins of triggered quasi-programmes can be traced to biological constraint i.e. the inability of organisms to optimise all functions at once. And, to some extent, the new theory presented here revises the understanding of AP. That is, because any gene can be triggered in an erroneous manner, every gene is potentially an AP gene that risks pathology, though level of risk varies according to constraint. To help validate the theory, we test it against several complex diseases of aging. The new model in this review attempts to provide a blueprint understanding that, to a certain extent, closes the gap in the causal chain of events between evolutionary causes of aging and the aetiology of age-related diseases. It also helps to explain why certain disorders mimic accelerated aging and how interventions, such as the suppression of IIS and mTOR retard many aspects of aging; notably, though, unlike prior programmatic theories, the new theory is not mTOR-centric. Finally, it provides new perspectives on possible treatment of aging.

Microglia together with other permanent macrophages in central nervous system (CNS) are responsible for regulating the innate immune response of the brain and spinal cord. Upon activation, microglia triggers the release of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, chemokines, and other proteins related to neuro-inflammation. Elevated levels of neuro-inflammation have been linked to a decline in cognitive performance manifested in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). There are mounting evidence in the literature to suggest that microglia are responsible for a substantial amount of the synaptic damage seen in AD. Most importantly, scientific studies have suggested that overexpression of microglia-derived neuro-inflammation elevates amyloid beta (Aβ) plaque formation, and hyperactivation of tau protein; the two main pathological characteristic features of AD. Alternatively, Aβ and tau formation further activate microglia to sustain the neuro-inflammation triggering a vicious cascade of neurodegeneration in AD. Here in this review, we discussed the role of microglia associated neuroinflammation for the pathogenesis of AD.

Background: Senescence is a cellular ageing process in all multicellular organisms. It is characterized by a decline in cellular functions and proliferation, resulting in increased cellular damage and death. This condition plays an essential role in the ageing process and significantly contributes to the development of age-related complications. On the other hand, ferroptosis is a systemic cell death characterized by excessive iron accumulation followed by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative stress is a common trigger of this condition and may be induced by various factors such as toxins, drugs, and inflammation. Ferroptosis is linked to numerous illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Relevance of these conditions to ageing and disease: Senescence is believed to contribute to the decline in tissue and organ function that occurs with ageing. It has also been linked to the development of age-related pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. In particular, senescent cells have been shown to produce inflammatory cytokines and other pro-inflammatory molecules that can contribute to these conditions. On the other hand, ferroptosis has been linked to the development of various health disorders, including neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, and cancer [1]. It is known to play a role in developing these diseases by promoting the death of damaged or diseased cells and contributing to the inflammation often associated with them. Both senescence and ferroptosis are complex processes that are still not fully understood. Further research is needed to thoroughly understand the role of these processes in ageing and disease, and to identify potential interventions to target these processes to prevent or treat age-related conditions. Objectives: This systematic review aims to assess the potential mechanisms underlying the link connecting senescence, ferroptosis, ageing, and disease.

Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease, causing about 60,000 deaths annually. One of the reasons for the severe course of leptospirosis is a cytokine storm, which develops as a result of an excessive immune response. The gut microbiota that resides in the gastrointestinal tract provides essential health benefits to its host, particularly by regulating immune homeostasis and a bidirectional relationship with many internal organs. A change in the gut microbiota can be caused not only by antibiotics, but also by infectious agents such as the coronavirus or the flu virus. It is known that L. interrogans can change the microbiota of mice. Thus, gut dysbiosis in leptospirosis can affect the clinical course of the disease, through the gut–organ axis. Modulation of intestinal microbiota by probiotics and/or fecal microbiota transplantation in leptospirosis may become an important area of scientific research.

Pompe disease is a glycogen storage disease caused by a deficiency in acid α-glucosidase (GAA) – a hydrolase necessary for the degradation of lysosomal glycogen. This deficiency in GAA results in muscle and neuronal glycogen accumulation, which causes respiratory insufficiency. Pompe disease rodent models provide a means of assessing respiratory pathology and are important for pre-clinical studies of novel therapies that aim to treat respiratory dysfunction and improve quality of life. This review aims to compile and summarize existing manuscripts which characterize the respiratory phenotype of Pompe rodent models. Manuscripts included in this review were selected utilizing specific search terms and exclusion criteria. Analysis of these findings demonstrate that Pompe disease rodent models have respiratory physiological defects as well as pathologies in the diaphragm, tongue, phrenic and hypoglossal motor nucleus, phrenic and hypoglossal nerves, neuromuscular junctions, and airway smooth muscle and higher order respiratory control centers. Overall, the culmination of these pathologies contributes to severe respiratory dysfunction, underscoring the importance of characterizing the respiratory phenotype while developing effective therapies for patients.

(1) Background: The lateral arm flap has been the very useful choice in the reconstruction of small- to medium-sized defects like hand, extremity, oral head and neck area reconstructions. Its versatile characteristics and surgical feasibility allow this flap to be widely applied, but the reconstructive potential in facial subunit after tumor ablative procedures has never been reported. In this study, we aimed to utilize the advantages of the flap to treat facial temple subunit defect reconstruction. (2) Methods: Between 2020 and 2023, 12 patients underwent temple reconstruction with lateral arm free flaps after malignant tumor wide excision. There were 7 women and 5 men, and the mean patient age was 60.6 years old. Among the patients with cancer, 6 had squamous cell carcinoma, 5 had basal cell carcinoma and 1 had myxofibrosarcoma. All the flaps were elevated under general anesthesia. Aloprostadil(PGE1, Eglandin®) were administered postoperatively. (3) Results: All the flap types were fasciocutaneous type with varied sizes from 3 × 4 to 5 × 7 cm (Average size of flap 22.7cm2) were utilized. The average pedicle length was 6.1cm. The versatility of the lateral arm flap enabled successful coverage of all cases with no specific complications. Good functional outcome and range of motion in the recipient arm were obtained after surgery. (4) Conclusion: The authors successfully verified the advantages of lateral arm flaps in the treatment of medium sized facial subunt temple defect reconstruction.

The generation of high-quality wideband frequency sweeps presents a significant challenge, particularly in modern telecommunication, radar, and measurement systems where miniaturization is paramount. While phase-locked loops (PLLs) have become the dominant technique for signal generation, their application in broadband sweeps necessitates fractional-N operation. This, in turn, degrades phase noise and introduces unwanted spurs. This paper proposes a novel approach for broadband signal generation. By cascading two PLLs and utilizing a coaxial resonator, we achieve a high-performance oscillator that operates without the excessive fractional spurs, maintaining their level below -80 dBc across the entire frequency band. The prototype demonstrates non-degraded phase noise performance, reaching -102 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset and -121 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset for signal at 10 GHz. Despite significant frequency jumps, our design achieves lock times below 41 µs. These results, supported by theoretical analysis, validate the proposed method's effectiveness in generating low-noise broadband frequency sweeps, ideal for local oscillator applications.

This paper addresses the input coupling problem for the shape memory alloy (SMA) actuated parallel platform with completely unknown nonlinear dynamics. The problem means that in a parallel platform with multiple SMA actuators acting together, the displacement of one of the actuators will simultaneously affect the remaining actuators to change. Due to the coupling problem and nonlinear characteristics of the SMA actuators, it is not easy to control the platform to achieve bi-directional swing with completely unknown nonlinear dynamics. Therefore, a model-free adaptive sliding mode control method is proposed to improve the control accuracy of the complex motion of the platform, avoiding the complex modeling process of the SMA actuated parallel platform. Based on the model-free adaptive control (MFAC) theory, a multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) dynamic linearized mathematical model of the parallel platform is established using the online input and output data of the system. Then, a sliding mode controller is designed based on the dynamic model. A rigorous theoretical analysis proves that the proposed model-free adaptive sliding mode controller is able to stably control the SMA actuated parallel platform, and its tracking error is uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB). Finally, experiments are conducted on the established SMA actuated parallel platform. The results show that the proposed model-free controller is feasible and effective, and can control the system well to achieve the complex motion of bi-directional swing.

We presented unusual case of double left ventricular false aneurysm complicating late presentation AMI successfully treated with the combination of urgent surgical drainage of tamponade, staged PCI of non-culprit lesion, preventive implantation of ICD-DR, guideline directed heart failure medical therapy and delayed but effective reconstructive operation.

This is a retrospective chart review of outcomes of maxillofacial microvascular free flap reconstructions in pediatric and adolescent patients. A single head and neck surgical team performed all the included 136 procedures. Demographic and surgical patient data were recorded. Type of transfer performed in each recipient site and major complications were analyzed. Relevant influencing factors, such as age, gender and etiology of defect were determined using the ANOVA test and χ² test of independence. Results indicate a 90% success rate. No significant relation was found between the incidence of total flap loss and patient age, etiology or graft source. The maxillary reconstructions showed a higher incidence of total flap loss compared to mandibular ones (11 vs. 3 cases). Despite the high success rate, the findings underline the necessity for further research to validate these observations and enhance surgical methods for pediatric and adolescent patients.

Excessive body fat is a major contributor to obesity, which is related to high blood, total cholesterol and triglycerides. Lemons (Citrus limon) are renowned for their antioxidant and lipid-lowering properties. First, Sugar-free fermentation demonstrated better results lower sugar content and was identified as the preferred fermentation method. Next, the effect of two doses of sugar-free fermented lemon peel juice (SF-FLPJ) on obesity was investigated. Sprague Dawley (male rats) were randomly divided into 4 groups and fed a standard feed or high-fat diet (HFD) to induce fatness for eight weeks. The two groups of rats fed an HFD were administered SF-FLPJ at 0.45 or 0.9 g/kg body weight daily for eight weeks. The obese rats administered 0.9 g/kg (body weight/day) of SF-FLPJ exhibited significant reductions in body fat mass and percentage; they also had lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels than the other groups. Additionally, the rats displayed diminished liver fat accumulation. The results suggest that SF-FLPJ can be a supplement in managing body fat, contributing positively to addressing obesity within the context of health management, and reduce obesity-associated issues.

De-escalation is currently taking place both in surgical and systemic treatment of breast cancer. The introduction of trastuzumab, the first monoclonal antibody against the HER2 receptor over 20 years ago was a milestone in the treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer and marked the beginning of a new era in targeted tumor therapy. In the sense of de-escalation, omitting non-targeted cytotoxic chemotherapy altogether is often hailed as the ultimate goal of oncological research. Especially in case of small, node-negative, HER2 positive early breast cancer, it remains a challenge for clinicians to establish the safest and most efficient treatment plan while considering the significant potential for toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy and HER2 targeted therapy, and the generally excellent prognosis. In this context, several ongoing studies are currently assessing chemotherapy-free regimens as part of strategies aimed at de-escalating therapy in the field of HER2 positive early breast cancer. Despite promising early results from these studies, combination of anti-HER2 treatment with chemotherapy backbone remains standard of care.

Amid the deepening imbalance in the supply and demand of allogeneic organs, xenotransplanta-tion can be a practical alternative because it makes an unlimited supply of organs possible. How-ever, to perform xenotransplantation on patients, the source animals to be used must be free from infectious agents. This requires breeding of animals using assisted reproductive techniques, such as somatic cell nuclear transfer, embryo transfer, and cesarean-section, without colostrum de-rived in designated pathogen-free (DPF) facilities. Most infectious agents can be removed from animals produced by these methods, but several viruses known to pass through the placenta are not easy to remove, even with these methods. Therefore, in this review, we look at the characteris-tics of several viruses known to cross the placenta and determine how they can be detected. This review is intended to help maintain DPF facilities by preventing animals infected with the virus from entering DPF facilities and to help select pigs suitable for xenotransplantation.

The incidence of celiac disease and gluten intolerance has been significantly rising globally. Gluten-free product consumption registered a sudden rise also among tolerant people, due to psychosocial factors. Biscuits are popular, low-cost bakery foods, consumed by nearly everyone worldwide. The removal of gluten from the baked product causes some undesirable traits and different textures and tastes. The main goal consists of creating a food product with the same taste and texture as a product with gluten. Moreover, gluten-free bakery products are usually low-grade sources of protein and poor in dietary fiber. Quinoa is a source of TDF and valuable protein. In this study, quinoa flour was used as the main constituent in the formulation of gluten-free c to improve their nutritional properties. Six different recipes with different percentages of quinoa flour have been realized. The formulations were compared, by rheological analysis, of each other and with a wheat flour control shortbread. The recipes with rheological features more similar to control shortbread were subjected to a discrimination analysis and the preferred was characterized from a chemical-physical and sensorial point of view. The experimental shortbreads constituted a good compromise to exploit the good nutritional composition of quinoa maintaining an acceptable sensory profile.

The retrospective noninterventional study investigated the kinetic energy of video images of 18 fertilized eggs (7 were normal and 11 were abnormal) recorded by a time-lapse device leading up to the beginning of the first cleavage. The norm values of cytoplasmic particles were measured by the optical flow method. Three phases profile for normal cases were found regarding the kinetic energy that were 2.199×10⁻²⁴±2.076×10⁻²⁴, 2.369×10⁻²⁴±1.255×10⁻²⁴, and 1.078×10⁻²⁴±4.720×10⁻²⁵ (J) for the phases 1, 2, and 3, respectively. In phase 2, the energies were 2.369 × 10⁻²⁴ ± 1.255 × 10⁻²⁴ and 4.694 × 10⁻²⁴ ± 2.996 × 10⁻²⁴ (J) (mean ± SD, P = 0.0372), and the time required was 8.114 ± 2.937 and 6.018 ± 5.685 (H) (P = 0.0413) for the normal and abnormal cases, respectively. The kinetic energy change was considered a condition for applying the free energy principle that states that, for any self-organized system to be in equilibrium in its environment, it must minimize its informational free energy. The kinetic energy while interpreting it in terms of the free energy principle suggesting clinical usefulness would further our understanding of the phenomenon of fertilized egg development with respect to the birth of human life.

Dacomitinib is an irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR-activating mutations. Proton pump inhibitors decreased dacomitinib exposure. This anal-ysis summarizes the effect of H2RA on dacomitinib exposure. A within-patient comparison of steady-state trough concentrations (Ctrough,ss) of dacomitinib and its active metabolite and active moiety with and without concomitant use of H2RA was conducted using a linear mixed effects model with pooled data from 11 clinical studies in patients with NSCLC. An oral absorption PBPK model was constructed and verified using clinical PK data after a single dose of dacomitinib in healthy volunteers to estimate the effect of gastric pH altered by an H2RA on dacomitinib PK. The adjusted geometric mean of dacomitinib Ctrough,ss of dacomitinib parent, metabolite and active moiety following co-administration with H2RA was approximately 86%, 104% and 100% relative to that following dacomitinib 45 mg administration without H2RA (P>0.05). The PBPK modeling showed negligible change in dacomitinib Cmax and AUC over 0-24 hours after H2RA administra-tion, when compared with those administered dacomitinib alone. Co-administration of an H2RA with dacomitinib is not expected to have any clinically relevant effect on dacomitinib exposure.

Photosystem II (PSII) is a quinone-utilising photosynthetic system that converts light energy into chemical energy and catalyses the splitting of water. PsbA (D1) and PsbD (D2) are the core subunits of the reaction centre that provide most of the ligands to the redox-active cofactors and exhibit photooxidoreductase activities that convert quinone and water into quinol and oxygen. This analysis explored the putative uncoupled electron transfer pathways surrounding P680+ induced by far-red light (FRL) based on photosystem II (PSII) complexes containing substituted D1 subunits in Halomicronema hongdechloris. Chlorophyll f-synthase (ChlF) is a D1 protein paralog. Modelling PSII-ChlF complexes determined several key protein motifs of ChlF. The PSII complexes showed a dysfunctional Mn4CaO5 cluster if ChlF replaced the D1 protein. We propose the mechanism of chlorophyll f synthesis from chlorophyll a via free radical chemistry in an oxygenated environment created by over-excited pheophytin a and an inactive water splitting reaction due to an uncoupled Mn4CaO5 cluster in PSII-ChlF complexes. The role of ChlF in the formation of an inactive PSII reaction centre is under debate and the putative mechanisms of chlorophyll biosynthesis are discussed.

Oriented object detection is a challenging task in scene text detection and remote sensing image analysis, which has attracted extensive attention in recent years with the development of deep learning. Currently, mainstream oriented object detectors are based on preset anchor boxes. This method increases the computational load of the network and cause a large amount of anchor box redundancy. To solve this problem, we propose anchor-free oriented object detection based on the Gaussian centerness(AOGC), a single-stage anchor-free detection method. Our method uses contextual attention FPN(CAFPN) to obtain the contextual information of the target. Then we design a label assignment method for oriented objects. Finally, we develop a Gaussian kernel-based centerness branch, which can effectively determine the significance of different anchors. AOGC achieves mAP of 74.30% on the DOTA-1.0 datasets and 89.80% on the HRSC2016 datasets, respectively. AOGC exhibits superior performance to other methods in oriented anchor-free object detection methods.

Uzbekistan, as an emerging national economy, aims to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to foster the development of its free economic zones (FEZs). While recent policy reforms have enhanced the country's appeal to investors and facilitated the inflow of international capital, challenges persist in attracting investment. This study employs an economic geographical approach to analyze and propose solutions to these obstacles. By examining the spatial patterns of FEZs and FDI through a comprehensive geographical lens, this research utilizes document analysis as an alternative to empirical analysis, considering the broader context rather than focusing on a specific FEZ. The findings reveal that the insufficiency of an innovation-driven environment, logistical systems, energy resource-related issues, among others, negatively impact the inflow of FDI into FEZs. Moreover, the study underscores the significance of economic geography in understanding these factors. Finally, relevant insights and recommendations are provided from an economic geographical perspective.

Formation of the excited doublet (D) and quartet (Q) states of free radicals under their photoexcitation is discussed. Relative positions of D and Q states are compared to the positions of photoexcited states of organic molecules (Jablonsky diagram). A number of representative cases of the detected by emission or absorption excited is presented. A special case of the population lowest Q-state in some radicals of is discoursed. Spin-statistical factor in the reactions of Q and D is debated.

Free route airspace (FRA) is a new concept of European air transport. It has been designed to eliminate the negative impact of air traffic on the environment, minimize fuel consumption, simplify and expand flight planning. In our research, FRA is modelled by using graph theory, networks, and convex analysis. We also looked for answers to the question which are the basic mathematical properties of airspace? Basic mathematical properties are expressed using axioms. Therefore, in our work, we state the general, basic axiom of airspace based on our FRA research. The axiom is given using practical, significant entry points and geodetic coordinates.

Fatty acids (FFAs) are important biological molecules that serve as a major energy source and are key components of biological membranes. Besides, FFAs play important roles in metabolic regulation and contribute to the development and progression of metabolic disorders like diabetes. Recent studies have shown that FFAs can act as important ligands of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) on the surface of cells and impact key physiological processes. Free fatty acid activated receptors include FFAR1 (GPR40), FFAR2 (GPR43), FFAR3 (GPR41) and FFAR4 (GPR120). FFAR2 and FFAR3are activated by short chain fatty acids like acetate, propionate and butyrate whereas FFAR1 and FFAR4 are activated by medium and long chain fatty acids like palmitate, oleate, linoleate and others. FFARs have generated considerable attention over the last few years and have become attractive pharmacological targets in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Several lines of evidence point to their importance in the regulation of whole-body metabolic homeostasis including adipose metabolism. Here we summarize our current understanding of the physiological functions of FFAR isoforms in adipose biology and explore the prospect of FFAR based therapies to treat patients with obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

In proteomics, it is essential to quantify proteins in absolute terms if we wish compare results among studies and integrate high-throughput biological data into genome-scale metabolic models. While labeling target peptides with stable isotopes allows protein abundance to be accurately quantified, the utility of this technique is constrained by the low number of quantifiable proteins that it yields. Recently, label-free shotgun proteomics has become the “gold standard” for carrying out global assessments of biological samples containing thousands of proteins. However, this tool must be further improved if we wish to accurately quantify absolute levels of proteins. Here, we used different label-free quantification techniques to estimate absolute protein abundance in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. More specifically, we evaluated the performance of seven different quantification methods, based either on spectral counting (SC) or extracted-ion chromatogram (XIC), which were applied to samples from five different proteome backgrounds. We also compared the accuracy and reproducibility of two strategies for transforming relative abundance into absolute abundance: a UPS2-based strategy and the total protein approach (TPA). This study mentions technical challenges related to UPS2 use and proposes ways of addressing them, including utilizing a smaller, more highly optimized amount of UPS2. Overall, three SC-based methods (PAI, SAF, and NSAF) yielded the best results because they struck a good balance between experimental performance and protein quantification.

Gedanken experiments illustrating exemplifications of the Landauer principle in the free falling Einstein elevator are treated. Double-well simplest information system embedded into the free falling elevator is addressed. Infinitesimal horizontal force applied to the particle m transfers it from position “0” to position “1”, emerging from the free falling double-well system confining mass m. When thermal noise is considered, the potential barrier of kBT should be surmounted for the erasing of one bit of information. Entropic forces arising in the free falling elevator are considered. The maximal change in the entropy of free-joint polymer chain attached to the free falling elevator is estimated as ΔSmax≅kB, and it is remarkably independent of the mass attached to the chain and the parameters of the chain itself. Free falling minimal Szilard engine is treated. The informational re-interpretation of the minimal Szilard process is shaped as follows: the energy kBTln2 necessary for erasing of 1 bit of information is spent for lifting up mass, whatever, is the value of this mass. Appropriate choice of frames enables elimination of gravity in the considered system; however elimination of the thermal noise (dissipation processes) by the same procedure is impossible.

. This article presents, for the first time, the kinetics and the general features of a photopolymerization system (under visible light) G1/ Iodonium/ TEA/gold chloride (or A/B/N/G), having initial concentrations of A0, B0, N0 and G0, based on the proposed mechanism of Tar et al. Analytic formulas are developed to explore the new features including: (i) both FRP efficacy and the production of nanogold (NG) are proportional to the relative concentration ratios of (A0+B0+N0)/G0, which may be optimized for maximum efficacy; (ii) the two competing procedure of NG production and efficacy of free radical photopolymerization (FRP) can be tailored for optimal system with nanogold in the polymer matrix;(ii) the FRP efficacy is contributed by 3 components: the coupling of the excited state of copper complex (T) with the radicals (R and S) produced by the iodonium and the amine; (iii) the production of NG is contributed by 2 components: the coupling of T and radical (S) with gold ion; (iv) NG production has a transient state value which is an increasing function of light intensity and the combined concentration ratio [(A0/G0)+(N0/(K'M0). whereas it has a steady-state independent to the light intensity.

Our main objective in this work was to examine the possibility of non-intrusive, label-free, detection of whole Zika viruses using terahertz signals with or without a targeting/binding oligonucleotide (aptamers). We report for the first time the use of terahertz electromagnetic waves (0.75 THz – 1.1 THz) to detect Zika viruses. The Zika/aptamer complexes showed a reproducible terahertz reflection coefficient minimum at 1.064 THz while the Zika virus’s reflection minimum was at 1.073 THz. Of different substrates we examined, the polyester petri dish provided a very low loss and excellent terahertz transmission. To increase the interaction between the terahertz signal and the sample we also used polyester microbeads coated with aptamers. We then measured the terahertz reflection from the microbeads as a function of Zika concentration. The resulting terahertz Zika sensor had sensitivity of 63 Hz/Zika and minimum detectable signal of ~ 16x10³ Zika. Other substrates such as Graphene on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), 50 nm-thick gold film on polycarbonate, thin (30 um-thick) glass slide and Teflon were also examined. Graphene substrate enabled direct detection of the Zika without any aptamers.

A modified free-wake vortex ring model is proposed to compute the dynamics of a floating horizontal-axis wind turbine. The model is divided into two parts. The near wake model uses a blade bound vortex model and trailed vortex model, which is developed based on vortex filament method. By contrast, the far wake model is based on the vortex ring method. The proposed model is a good compromise between accuracy and computational cost, for example when compared with more complex vortex methods. The present model is used to assess the influence of floating platform motions on the performance of a horizontal-axis wind turbine rotor. The results are validated on the 5MW NREL rotor and compared with other aerodynamic models for the same rotor subjected to different platform motions. It was found that the results from the proposed method are more reliable than the results from BEM theory especially at small angles of attack in the region of low wind speeds, on the one hand, and high wind speeds with blade pitch motions, on the other hand. And also the proposed method is less time consuming and has similar accuracy when comparing with more advanced vortex based methods.

Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising field for sustainable energy production using hydrogen. Development of efficient catalysts is essential for resourceful hydrogen production. The most efficient catalysts reported to date have been extremely precious rare-earth metals. One of the biggest hurdles in this research area is the difficulty of developing highly efficient catalysts comparable to the noble metal catalysts. Here, we report that non-noble metal dichalcogenide (Co₃Se₄) catalysts made using a facile one-pot electrodeposition method, showed highly efficient photoelectrochemical activity on a Si photocathode. To enhance light collection and enlarge its surface area even further, we implemented surface nano-structuring on the Si surface. The nano-structured Si photoelectrode has an effective area greater than that of planar silicon and a wider absorption spectrum. Consequently, this approach exhibits reduced overvoltage as well as increased photo-catalytic activity. Such results show the importance of controlling the optimized interface between the surface structure of the photoelectrode and the electrodeposited co-catalyst on it to improve catalytic activity. This should enable other electrochemical reactions in a variety of energy conversion systems.

For cereals grown under organic conditions, information on levels of free asparagine (free Asn) as a precursor to acrylamide (AA) formation, is almost completely lacking. This study investigated the impact of organically grown cereal species and cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), winter spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta), winter rye (Secale cereale), winter einkorn (Triticum monococcum) and winter emmer (Triticum dicoccum) on the level of free Asn with simultaneous consideration of grain yields and flour qualities over three growing seasons (2005–2006, 2006–2007 and 2007–2008) in Southwest Germany. Additionally, the relation of free Asn and AA was investigated. Heritability revealed how strongly the level of free Asn was linked to the genotype. In this context free Asn of species and cultivars grown at a second location in Southern Germany were analysed. The level of free Asn was significantly influenced by species and within species by cultivars. Rye was found to exhibit the highest free Asn amount (52 mg 100 g⁻¹), followed by einkorn (32 mg 100 g⁻¹), emmer (16 mg 100 g⁻¹) wheat (10 mg 100 g⁻¹) and spelt (8 mg 100 g⁻¹), which showed the overall lowest free Asn content. Hence, replacing rye with spelt in food products would lead to an 85% reduction of free Asn in raw material. Within species, cultivars differed in their levels of free Asn by up to 67% for wheat, 55% for spelt and 33% for rye. Year also had a significant impact as almost all samples were significantly higher in their level of free Asn in 2008 compared to 2006 and 2007. Rye was most significantly affected by year as the level of free Asn varied by up to 32% between years. In contrast, wheat and spelt were only affected minimally by year. A high heritability was found for wheat (0.79) and spelt (0.91) concerning locations in 2008, meaning that the level of free Asn is mainly determined by the genotype and less influenced by environmental conditions. In contrast, heritability was low for wheat (0.23) but high for spelt (0.71) and rye (0.67) regarding years. As for organically grown cereals the relation between free Asn and AA formation was never investigated before. Correlation of both parameters was calculated. There was also a close correlation between free Asn and AA. Across species and years, the amount of free Asn correlated with the AA content in heated flour with R² = 0.69***. Thus, free Asn can serve as an indicator for AA formation during processing. In conclusion, the level of free Asn can be highly influenced by proper selection of species and cultivars under organic growing conditions.

Genetic disorders are quite a major topic of discussion and debate in the recent world of biological sciences. Turner’s syndrome is one such disorder caused by a chromosome aneuploidy and it has characteristic symptoms in the patient or the affected individual. The amniotic fluid is a complex biological material found in the amniotic sac of pregnant women and they can provide valuable knowledge and understanding of the pathogenesis of this particular chromosomal abnormality. In this study, global gene expression analysis of cell-free RNA in amniotic fluid supernatant was used to detect genes/organ systems which may be significant in the pathophysiology of Turner’s syndrome. The cell-free RNA from the amniotic fluid of five mid-trimester Turner’s syndrome fetuses and five euploid female fetuses matched for age of gestation were extracted, amplified and hybridized onto Affymetrix U33 Plus 2.0. array. The paired t-test was used to identify the significantly differentially regulated genes. Biological interpretation was conducted using ingenuity pathway analysis and BioGPS gene expression atlas. Of the genes, XIST was especially downregulated and SHOX was not expressed differentially. One of the most highly represented organ systems was the hematologic/immune system, differentiating the transcriptome of Turner’s syndrome from other chromosomal aneuploidies that are discussed in this area of science. The differences in the transcriptome of the Turner’s syndrome are due to genome-wide dysregulation. The hematologic/immune system differences are significant in early-onset autoimmune dysfunction. There are other genes which have been identified that are associated with the cardiovascular and the skeletal system, as these are often seen to be affected in the female patients with turner’s syndrome. Hopefully, such knowledge gained from this study will help us to understand the deeper mechanisms of this disorder and the possible treatments of this disease.

Orbit and clock products are used in real-time GNSS precise point positioning without knowing their quality. This study develops a new approach to detect orbit and clock errors through comparing geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities in PPP model. The reparameterization and estimation procedures of the geometry-free and geometry-based ambiguities are described in detail. The effects of orbit and clock errors on ambiguities are given in analytical expressions. The numerical similarity and differences of geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are analyzed using different orbit and clock products. Furthermore, two types of typical errors in orbit and clock are simulated and their effects on wide-lane ambiguities are numerically produced and analyzed. The contribution discloses that the geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are equivalent in terms of their formal errors. Although they are very close in terms of their estimates when the used orbit and clock for geometry-based ambiguities are precise enough, they are not the same, in particular, in the case that the used orbit and clock, as a combination, contain significant errors. It is discovered that the discrepancies of geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are coincided with the actual time-variant errors in the used orbit and clock at the line-of-sight direction. This provides a quality index for real-time users to detect the errors in real-time orbit and clock products, which potentially improves the accuracy of positioning.

This article presents a self balanced multistage DC-DC step-up converter for photovoltaic applications. Proposed converter topology is designed for unidirectional power transfer and provides a doable solution for photovoltaic applications where voltage is required to be stepped up without magnetic components (Transformer-less and Inductor-less). The output voltage obtained from renewable sources will be low and must be stepped up by using a DC-DC converter for photovoltaic applications. K diodes and K capacitors along with two semiconductor control switch are used in the K-stage proposed converter to obtain an output voltage which is (K+1) times the input voltage. The conspicuous features of proposed topology are i) Magnetic components free (Transformer-less and Inductor-less). ii) Continuous input current iii) Low voltage rating semiconductor devices and capacitors iv) Modularity v) Easy to add a higher number of levels to increase voltage gain vi) Only two control switches with alternating operation and simple control. The proposed converter is compared with recent existing transformer-less and Inductor-less power converter in term of voltage gain, number of devices and cost. The application of proposed circuit is discussed in detail. The proposed converter has been designed with rated power of 60W, input voltage is 24V, output voltage is 100V and switching frequency is 100 kHz. The performance of the converter is verified through experimental and simulation results.

Neurological disorders are the leading cause of cognitive and physical disability worldwide, affecting 15% of the global population. Due to the demographics of aging, the prevalence of neurological disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, will double over the next two decades. Unfortunately, while available therapies provide symptomatic relief for cognitive and motor impairment, there is an urgent unmet need to develop disease-modifying therapies that slow the rate of pathological progression. In that context, biomarkers could identify at-risk and prodromal patients, monitor disease progression, track response to therapy, and parse causality of molecular events to identify novel targets for further clinical investigation. Thus, identifying biomarkers that discriminate between diseases and reflect specific stages of pathology would catalyze the discovery and development of therapeutic targets. This review will describe the prevalence, known mechanisms, ongoing or recently concluded therapeutic clinical trials, and biomarkers of three of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s disease (PD).

The acute phase protein Serum Amyloid A (SAA) is synthesised by the liver in response to inflammatory stimuli. Previous studies have revealed that SAA may be a better predictive marker for the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) compared to C-reactive protein (CRP). Hence, this retrospective monocentric study evaluated whether SAA correlates with biomarkers like faecal calprotectin (FC), CRP, the Neutrophil to Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and clinical disease activity of IBD patients. Serum samples from the IBD outpatient clinic of the University Hospital Heidelberg were analysed for their SAA concentrations if a FC concentration measurement was available from 14 days before or after collection of the serum sample. 306 serum samples from 265 patients (166 with Crohn’s disease, 91 with ulcerative colitis, 8 with IBD unclassified) met the inclusion criteria. There was a significant positive correlation between SAA and FC, CRP, the NLR and the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index. The cut-off for SAA serum concentration at 4.55 mg/l achieved a sensitivity of 57.5% and a specificity of 69.7% for the detection of active inflammation in IBD. SAA may be used as an additional biomarker in the disease monitoring strategy of IBD patients, especially in patients with low CRP concentrations.