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Large-scale infrastructure monitoring and vulnerability assessment are crucial for the preservation and maintenance of built environments. To ensure the safety of urban infrastructure against natural and man-made disasters, constant monitoring is crucial. To do so, satellite Earth observation (EO) is being proposed, particularly
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Large-scale infrastructure monitoring and vulnerability assessment are crucial for the preservation and maintenance of built environments. To ensure the safety of urban infrastructure against natural and man-made disasters, constant monitoring is crucial. To do so, satellite Earth observation (EO) is being proposed, particularly radar-based imaging, because it allows large-scale constant monitoring since radar signals are not blocked by clouds and can be collected during both day and night. The proposed methodology for large-scale infrastructure monitoring and vulnerability assessment is based on MT-InSAR time series analysis. The homogeneity of the year-to-year displacement trend between each point and its surrounding points is evaluated to determine whether the area is a stable or vulnerable zone. To validate the methodology, four case studies of recently collapsed infrastructures are analyzed. The results indicate the potential of the proposed methodology for predicting and preventing structural collapses.
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Changes in the functional properties and structures of Clitocybe squamulosa protein isolate (CSPI) in the process of freeze–thaw (F–T) cycles were explored. Remarkable alterations and the reduced content of protein ordered structure were revealed through structural analysis of CSPI after F–T treatments. The
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Changes in the functional properties and structures of Clitocybe squamulosa protein isolate (CSPI) in the process of freeze–thaw (F–T) cycles were explored. Remarkable alterations and the reduced content of protein ordered structure were revealed through structural analysis of CSPI after F–T treatments. The surface hydrophobicity and free sulfhydryl content of CSPI first increased and then decreased. However, after the F–T treatments, the carbonyl content of CSPI continued to increase. Similarly, the water holding capacity (WHC), oil holding capacity (OHC), and solubility of CSPI all declined as the number of F–T cycles increased. The foaming properties and emulsifying properties of CSPI were significantly improved and reached maximum values after three F–T cycles. CSPI undergoing two F–T cycles showed the highest digestibility, maximum polypeptide content, and highest DPPH and ·OH-radical-scavenging activities. The ·OH-radical-scavenging activities and reducing power of the gastrointestinally digested CSPI had the highest value after one F–T cycle. Therefore, it has been demonstrated that F–T treatments could be a residue-free and cost-effective tool for improving mushroom protein functional properties.
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Excessive melanin deposition in the skin leads to various skin pigmentation diseases, such as chloasma and age spots. The deposition is induced by several factors, including tyrosinase activities and ultraviolet-induced oxidative stress. Herein, we propose a multi-component, multi-pathway drug combination, with glabridin, 3-O-ethyl-L-ascorbic
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Excessive melanin deposition in the skin leads to various skin pigmentation diseases, such as chloasma and age spots. The deposition is induced by several factors, including tyrosinase activities and ultraviolet-induced oxidative stress. Herein, we propose a multi-component, multi-pathway drug combination, with glabridin, 3-O-ethyl-L-ascorbic acid, and tranexamic acid employed as, respectively, a tyrosinase inhibitor, an antioxidant, and a melanin transmission inhibitor. Considering the poor skin permeability associated with topical application, dissolving microneedles (MNs) prepared with hyaluronic acid/poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(vinylpyrrolidone) were developed to load the drug combination. The drug-loaded microneedles (DMNs) presented outstanding skin insertion, dissolution, and drug delivery properties. In vitro experiments confirmed that DMNs loaded with active ingredients had significant antioxidant and inhibitory effects on tyrosinase activity. Furthermore, the production of melanin both in melanoma cells (B16-F10) and in zebrafish was directly reduced after using DMNs. Clinical studies demonstrated the DMNs’ safety and showed that they have the ability to effectively reduce chloasma and age spots. This study indicated that a complex DMN based on a multifunctional combination is a valuable depigmentation product worthy of clinical application.
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Data-driven algorithms have proven to be effective for a variety of medical tasks, including disease categorization and prediction, personalized medicine design, and imaging diagnostics. Although their performance is frequently on par with that of clinicians, their widespread use is constrained by a number
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Data-driven algorithms have proven to be effective for a variety of medical tasks, including disease categorization and prediction, personalized medicine design, and imaging diagnostics. Although their performance is frequently on par with that of clinicians, their widespread use is constrained by a number of obstacles, including the requirement for high-quality data that are typical of the population, the difficulty of explaining how they operate, and ethical and regulatory concerns. The use of data augmentation and synthetic data generation methodologies, such as federated learning and explainable artificial intelligence ones, could provide a viable solution to the current issues, facilitating the widespread application of artificial intelligence algorithms in the clinical application domain and reducing the time needed for prevention, diagnosis, and prognosis by up to 70%. To this end, a novel AI-based functional framework is conceived and presented in this paper.
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The rapid urbanization and industrialization in China have led to an urgent dilemma for controlling urban air pollution, including the intensified emission of gasoline vapor into the atmosphere. Herein, we selected highland barley straw as a raw material and KOH and tetramethylammonium hydroxide
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The rapid urbanization and industrialization in China have led to an urgent dilemma for controlling urban air pollution, including the intensified emission of gasoline vapor into the atmosphere. Herein, we selected highland barley straw as a raw material and KOH and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) as activators to synthesize nitrogen-doped layered porous carbon (K-thAC) by a three-step activation method. The obtained K-thAC materials had a high specific surface area, reaching 3119 m2/g. Dynamic adsorption experiments demonstrated a superior adsorption capacity of up to 501 mg/g (K-thAC-25) for gasoline vapor compared with other documented carbon adsorbents. Moreover, adjusting the ratio of raw materials with a series of active ingredients could further improve the pore properties of the obtained K-thACs and their adsorption performance for gasoline vapor. Furthermore, the K-thAC materials were also characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), synchronous thermogravimetry (STA), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and nitrogen adsorption tests. This study synthesized a novel plant-based material to treat gasoline vapor pollution efficiently.
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α–Mangostin, which is a natural xanthone compound, inhibits the metastasis and survival of various cancer cell types. However, its therapeutic effectiveness is limited by low water solubility and very poor absorption. There are several studies that developed the drug delivery system for α–mangostin,
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α–Mangostin, which is a natural xanthone compound, inhibits the metastasis and survival of various cancer cell types. However, its therapeutic effectiveness is limited by low water solubility and very poor absorption. There are several studies that developed the drug delivery system for α–mangostin, but they are still a remaining challenge. Drug delivery techniques are severely hampered by the breakdown of nanoparticles inside endosomes. The abrasive chemical environment in these compartments causes both the nanoparticles and the encapsulated α–mangostin to degrade throughout the course of the voyage. Intracellular defenses against external materials refer to this collective mechanism. A pH-responsive liposome named PAsp(DET-Cit)–Toc, made of lipids and a charge-conversion polymer (CCP), has been created for the targeted transport of α–mangostin in order to avoid this deteriorative outcome. The average hydrodynamic size of CCP–liposome particles is 98.59 ± 5.1 nm with a PDI of 0.098 ± 0.02 and a negative zeta potential of 22.31 ± 2.4 mV. TEM showed the shape of the spherical CCP–liposomes. α–Mangostin is successfully captured inside CCP–liposome and the loading yield reached the highest encapsulation efficiency of 83% with 150 μg/mL of α–mangostin. In the acidic condition of pH 5.0, an initial burst of α–mangostin reached 50% after 6 h in buffer solution. CCP–liposomes could escape from endosomes even after 3 h, and almost 80% of CCP–liposomes escaped after 24 h. The cell ability of α–mangostin-loaded-CCP–liposome incubated in buffer solutions of 5.0 decreased significantly and was close to free α–mangostin. Our data proved that α–mangostin-loaded CCP–liposome delivered more effectively α–mangostin into cells and prevented the degradation of α–mangostin inside cells, especially endosomal degradation.
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High temperatures exacerbate the ammonia inhibition of anaerobic digestion coupled with methanogenesis. The inhibition of methane production by ammonia has been observed in other studies. However, the underlying mechanism is not well understood and requires further investigation. This study explored the effect of
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High temperatures exacerbate the ammonia inhibition of anaerobic digestion coupled with methanogenesis. The inhibition of methane production by ammonia has been observed in other studies. However, the underlying mechanism is not well understood and requires further investigation. This study explored the effect of ammonia stress on archaeal 16S rRNA transcripts in thermophilic anaerobic digester sludge. Different ammonium concentrations were checked for their influence on the methanogenic rate and hydrogen accumulation. Quantitative PCR was used to compare the changes in total archaeal 16S rRNA expression. A Monte Carlo permutation test within redundancy analysis (RDA) was adopted for exploring the relationship between environmental variables and archaeal 16S rRNA and their transcripts. The results showed that with the increase in ammonium concentration, the methanogenic rate decreased and hydrogen accumulation occurred. The total archaeal 16S rRNA genes and transcripts copy numbers decreased significantly in treatments with higher ammonium concentrations (7 and 10 g NH4+-N/L), but did not change much at lower ammonia concentrations (3 g NH4+-N/L) compared with the 0 g NH4+-N/L treatment. The RDA analysis further revealed that most environmental variables, including ammonia and methane, except for formate, were significantly correlated with the community structure activity of archaeal 16S rRNA transcripts rather than the community structure of their genes. The composition of archaeal 16S rRNA transcripts showed that the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanothermobacter dominated the methanogenic community activity in all incubations. It exhibited sensitivity to ammonia stress and should be responsible for the methanogenic inhibition under thermophilic conditions. Our findings suggested that archaeal 16S rRNA transcripts, rather than 16S rRNA genes, are key indicators of ammonia stress and methanogenic activity.
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This paper provides a detailed analysis of the output voltage/current tracking control of a PWM DCDC converter that has been modeled as a Markov jump system. In order to achieve that, a dynamic sensorless strategy is proposed to perform active disturbance rejection control.
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This paper provides a detailed analysis of the output voltage/current tracking control of a PWM DCDC converter that has been modeled as a Markov jump system. In order to achieve that, a dynamic sensorless strategy is proposed to perform active disturbance rejection control. As a convex optimization problem, a novel reformulation of the problem is provided to compute optimal control. Accordingly, necessary less conservative conditions are established via Linear Matrix Inequalities. First, a sensorless active disturbance rejection design is proposed. Then, to carry out the control process, a robust dynamic observer–predictive controller approach is introduced. Meanwhile, the PWM DC-DC switching power converters are examined as discrete-time Markovian switching systems. Considering that the system is subject to modeling uncertainties, time delays, and load variations as external disturbances, and by taking partial input saturation into account, the Lyapunov–Krasovskii function is used to construct the required feasibility frame and less conservative stability conditions. As a result, the proposed design provides an efficient control strategy with disturbance rejection and time-delay compensation capabilities and maintains robust performance with respect to constraints. Finally, a PWM DC-DC power converter simulation study is performed in different scenarios, and the obtained results are illustrated in detail to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
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Cancer is a multifactorial disorder with extremely complex genetics and progression. The major challenge in cancer therapy is the development of cancer resistance and relapse. Conventional anticancer drugs directly target the DNA of the cell, while modern chemotherapeutic drugs include molecular-targeted therapy, such
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Cancer is a multifactorial disorder with extremely complex genetics and progression. The major challenge in cancer therapy is the development of cancer resistance and relapse. Conventional anticancer drugs directly target the DNA of the cell, while modern chemotherapeutic drugs include molecular-targeted therapy, such as targeting the abnormal cell signaling inside the cancer cells. Targeted chemotherapy is effective in several malignancies; however, the success has always been limited by drug resistance and/or side effects. Anticancer with multi-targeted actions simultaneously modulates multiple cancer cell signaling pathways and, therefore, may ease the chance of effective anticancer drug development. In this research, a series of 7-deazapurine incorporating isatin hybrid compounds was designed and successfully synthesized. Among those hybrids, compound 5 demonstrated a very potent cytotoxic effect compared to the reference anticancer drug against four cancer cell lines. Likewise, compound 5 inhibited the activity of four protein kinase enzymes in nanomolar ranges. Further analysis of the biological evaluation of compound 5 revealed the capability of compound 5 to arrest cell cycle progression and induce programmed cell death. Moreover, molecular simulation studies were performed to investigate the possible types of interactions between compound 5 and the investigated protein kinases. Finally, taking into consideration all the abovementioned findings, compound 5 could be a good candidate for further investigations.
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Reservoirs are susceptible to interference from inter-basin water transfer projects intended to relieve serious water shortages. The Central Route of the South-to-North Water Division Project in China has altered the hydrological conditions and water storage status of the terminal reservoir, the Miyun Reservoir,
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Reservoirs are susceptible to interference from inter-basin water transfer projects intended to relieve serious water shortages. The Central Route of the South-to-North Water Division Project in China has altered the hydrological conditions and water storage status of the terminal reservoir, the Miyun Reservoir, thereby affecting the flood control reliability in the Chaobai River Basin. In this study, a dual-objective five-reservoir operation model was developed, in which reservoir releases are obtained through piecewise linear operating rules. The model considers the flooding risks both downstream of the basin and in the Miyun reservoir area. A parameterization-simulation-optimization approach was employed to obtain the Pareto-optimal front, providing decision-makers with a list of optimal rule parameters to select and match their own risk preferences. All optimized rules could ensure safe operation during the designed floods to be expected once (or more than once) every thousand years. In contrast, the current flood operation schemes largely ignore the water transfer between basins but primarily concentrate on storing water from floods. Thus, the Miyun Reservoir, whose design return period is 1000 years, can easily become filled during a 100-year flood, impeding the system’s flood control capacity. Compared to the operating rule optimized in this study, the current schemes result in a 10.5% higher upstream inundation loss and an unsatisfactory 17 million CNY of equivalent water transfer loss.
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The development of environment-friendly new Poly-adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-ribose Polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are highly essential because of their involvement in the survival of cancer cells. Therefore, a library of indazolyl-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazoles known to inhibit PARP in cancer cells was synthesized by a green protocol. Furthermore,
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The development of environment-friendly new Poly-adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-ribose Polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are highly essential because of their involvement in the survival of cancer cells. Therefore, a library of indazolyl-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazoles known to inhibit PARP in cancer cells was synthesized by a green protocol. Furthermore, the cytotoxic effects of these compounds were evaluated in human MCF-7 breast cancer (BC) cells, which revealed that the compound 2-(3-bromo-4-nitrophenyl)-5-(1-methyl-1H-indazol-3-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (8) inhibited viability with an IC50 value of 1.57 µM. Since the oxadiazole structure was extensively used in medicinal chemistry applications, the reported environment-friendly protocol was superior to the conventional method. Further, computational mechanistic studies revealed that the oxadiazole ring formation occurred spontaneously when compared to the conventional method. Additionally, the in silico bioinformatic studies of oxadiazole binding towards PARP1 showed that compound 8 could bind to PARP1 with higher binding energy (BE) of −7.29 kcal/mol when compound to compound 5s (BE = −7.17 kcal/mol), a known PARP cleavage oxadiazole structure (2-(3,4-Dimethoxybenzyl)-5-(3-(2-fluoro-3-methylpyridin-4-yl)phenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole) indicative of the improvement in the optimization process. In conclusion, a newer indazolyl-oxadiazole compound is reported, which could serve as a lead in developing PARP inhibitors in BC cells.
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Water management systems play a crucial role in efficiently allocating water resources while taking into account various demands such as agriculture, industry, domestic use, and environmental needs. These systems optimize the distribution of water, ensuring fair access and minimizing water scarcity and conflicts.
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Water management systems play a crucial role in efficiently allocating water resources while taking into account various demands such as agriculture, industry, domestic use, and environmental needs. These systems optimize the distribution of water, ensuring fair access and minimizing water scarcity and conflicts. However, these critical systems are vulnerable to different types of attacks. Depending on the target, these attacks can take the form of physical, cyber, or combined assaults. The protection requirements for water objects, which are integral to critical infrastructure, are primarily defined by legal regulations, technical standards, and other third party requirements. These requirements necessitate the implementation of protective measures. One effective approach to implementing protective measures is through a physical protection system (PPS), which prevents unauthorized individuals from achieving their objectives. The current procedures for protecting these objects can be based on either a qualitative or quantitative approach. In this article, we present a use case that demonstrates a possible method for protecting a specific water reservoir, identified as a national element of critical infrastructure in the Drinking Water Provision subsector. The use case involves analyzing security requirements and designing a PPS for the water reservoir. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed PPS, a quantitative PPS model was developed using specialized software. Additionally, four potential attack scenarios were simulated to verify the functionality of the PPS.
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The accurate estimation of a regional ecosystem’s carbon storage and the exploration of its spatial distribution and influencing factors are of great significance for ecosystem carbon sink function enhancements and management. Using the Yellow River Basin as the study area, we assessed the
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The accurate estimation of a regional ecosystem’s carbon storage and the exploration of its spatial distribution and influencing factors are of great significance for ecosystem carbon sink function enhancements and management. Using the Yellow River Basin as the study area, we assessed the changes in regional terrestrial ecosystem carbon storage through geographically weighted regression modeling based on a large number of measured sample sites, explored the main influencing factors through geographic probe analysis, and predicted the carbon sequestration potentials under different scenarios from 2030 to 2050. The results showed that (1) the total carbon storage in the Yellow River Basin in 2020 was about 8.84 × 109 t. Above-ground biological carbon storage, below-ground biological carbon storage, and soil carbon storage accounted for 6.39%, 5.07%, and 89.70% of the total ecosystem carbon storage, respectively. From 2000 to 2020, the carbon storage in the basin showed a trend in decreasing and then increasing, and the carbon storage in the west was larger than in the east and larger in the south than in the north. (2) Forest ecosystem was the main contributor to the increase in carbon storage in the Yellow River Basin. Elevation, temperature, and precipitation were the main factors influencing the spatial pattern of carbon storage. (3) The ecological conservation scenario had the best carbon gain effect among the four future development scenarios, and appropriate ecological conservation policies could be formulated based on this scenario in the future to help achieve the goals of carbon sequestration and sink increase.
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The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to comprehensively assess masticatory function in maxillectomy patients with functioning removable prostheses. Their general and oral profiles, the measurement values of their oral functions, including masticatory function, and the history of tumor therapy were extracted
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The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to comprehensively assess masticatory function in maxillectomy patients with functioning removable prostheses. Their general and oral profiles, the measurement values of their oral functions, including masticatory function, and the history of tumor therapy were extracted from medical charts. The correlations of masticatory function with numerical data and the effects of tumor therapy-related factors on masticatory function were evaluated. In addition, a stepwise conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the potential predictive factors comprehensively. The data from 55 maxillectomy patients revealed that the median value of masticatory function (138.0 mg/dL) was higher than the threshold (100.0 mg/dL) based on the concept of oral hypofunction. Moderate correlations of masticatory function with the number of remaining teeth, the number of functioning occlusal supports, and maximum occlusal force were found, as well as a weak correlation with maximum tongue pressure. These variables also showed statistically significant coefficients (p < 0.01). No significant effect of each tumor therapy-related factor on masticatory function was detected. A logistic regression analysis identified the number of functioning occlusal supports as a significant predictive factor. These results implied the crucial interactions of masticatory function with various factors and the specificities of maxillectomy patients.
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All-solid-state lithium batteries are a promising alternative to commercially available lithium-ion batteries due to their ability to achieve high energy density, safety, and compactness. Electrolytes are key components of all-solid-state batteries, as they are crucial in determining the batteries’ efficiency. Herein, the structure
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All-solid-state lithium batteries are a promising alternative to commercially available lithium-ion batteries due to their ability to achieve high energy density, safety, and compactness. Electrolytes are key components of all-solid-state batteries, as they are crucial in determining the batteries’ efficiency. Herein, the structure of LiM2(PO4)3 (M = Ti, Ge, Zr) and lithium-ion migration mechanisms are introduced as well as different synthetic routes and doping (co-doping), and their influence on conductivity is discussed. The effective methods of reducing electrolyte/electrode interface resistance and improving ion-conducting properties are summarized. In addition, different polymer/NASICON composites are considered. The challenges and prospects of practical applications of NASICON-type lithium phosphates as electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries are discussed.
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At present, modern society is experiencing a significant transformation. Thanks to the digitization of society and manufacturing, mainly because of a combination of technologies, such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, machine learning, smart cyber-physical systems, etc., which are making the smart
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At present, modern society is experiencing a significant transformation. Thanks to the digitization of society and manufacturing, mainly because of a combination of technologies, such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, machine learning, smart cyber-physical systems, etc., which are making the smart factory and Industry 4.0 a reality. Currently, most of the intelligence of smart cyber-physical systems is implemented in software. For this reason, in this work, we focused on the artificial intelligence software design of this technology, one of the most complex and critical. This research aimed to study and compare the performance of a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network designed for solving the problem of character recognition in three implementation technologies: personal computers, cloud computing environments, and smart cyber-physical systems. After training and testing the multilayer perceptron, training time and accuracy tests showed each technology has particular characteristics and performance. Nevertheless, the three technologies have a similar performance of 97% accuracy, despite a difference in the training time. The results show that the artificial intelligence embedded in fog technology is a promising alternative for developing smart cyber-physical systems.
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The non-farming use of cropland has led to food insecurity in China due to drastic land use (LU) changes under the stresses of ecological restoration and urbanization, particularly in non-major grain-producing areas. Questions were raised about spatiotemporal cropland losses/gains and their drivers in
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The non-farming use of cropland has led to food insecurity in China due to drastic land use (LU) changes under the stresses of ecological restoration and urbanization, particularly in non-major grain-producing areas. Questions were raised about spatiotemporal cropland losses/gains and their drivers in these areas in the future for sustainable development of the agriculture sector. However, the answers to these questions have not been well acknowledged. This study, therefore, presents analyses of cropland area change from 1990 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2051 in Shaanxi province based on the Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model that follows the integration of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2 and the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (SSP245) within the International Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6). The results highlight that ecological restoration and fast-paced urbanization mainly drove the alarming non-farming use of cropland. The per capita cropland area is projected to increase, but the cropland loss will still occur, which potentially causes food insecurity. Thus, food security will be a challenging issue in the near future. The quantitative findings call for careful designs of LU policies, taking into account cropland protection, socio-economic development, and ecological restoration.
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Hummus is a traditional and very popular Mediterranean ready-to-eat (RTE) food, with growing popularity worldwide. However, it has a high water activity and is susceptible to microbial growth and post-process contamination that limit its quality and shelf-life. For this purpose, the present study
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Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is used as a bridging treatment in liver transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the main tumor marker used for HCC surveillance. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of using the AFP change
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Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is used as a bridging treatment in liver transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the main tumor marker used for HCC surveillance. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of using the AFP change after the first TACE in the prediction of complete tumor necrosis. The study comprised 101 patients with HCC who underwent liver transplantation (LT) after TACE in the period between January 2011 and December 2020. The ΔAFP was defined as the difference between the AFP value before the first TACE and AFP either before the second TACE or the LT. The receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves were used to identify an optimal cut-off value. Complete tumor necrosis was found in 26.1% (18 of 69) and 6.3% (2 of 32) of patients with an initial AFP level under and over 100 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.020). The optimal cut-off value of ΔAFP for the prediction of complete necrosis was a decline of ≥10.2 ng/mL and ≥340.5 ng/mL in the corresponding subgroups. Complete tumor necrosis rates were: 62.5% (5 of 8) in patients with an initial AFP < 100 ng/mL and decline of ≥10.2 ng/mL; 21.3% (13 of 61) in patients with an initial AFP < 100 ng/mL and decline of <10.2 ng/mL; 16.7% (2 of 12) in patients with an initial AFP > 100 ng/mL and decline of ≥340.5 ng/mL; and null in 20 patients with an initial AFP > 100 ng/mL and decline of <340.5 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.003). The simple scoring system, based on the initial AFP and AFP decline after the first treatment, distinguished between a high, intermediate and low probability of complete necrosis, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.699 (95% confidence intervals 0.577 to 0.821, p = 0.001). Combining the initial AFP with its change after the first treatment enables early identification of the efficacy of TACE.
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In situ weather sensors aiming at the measurement of liquid atmospheric precipitation (rainfall) experienced limited conceptual innovation in recent decades, except for the data recording and transmission components [...]
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rain Sensors)
Saudi Arabia has an alarmingly high incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors. To effectively assess CVD risk, it is essential to develop tailored models for diverse regions and ethnicities using local population variables. No CVD risk prediction model has
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Saudi Arabia has an alarmingly high incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors. To effectively assess CVD risk, it is essential to develop tailored models for diverse regions and ethnicities using local population variables. No CVD risk prediction model has been locally developed. This study aims to develop the first 10-year CVD risk prediction model for Saudi adults aged 18 to 75 years. The electronic health records of Saudi male and female patients aged 18 to 75 years, who were seen in primary care settings between 2002 and 2019, were reviewed retrospectively via the Integrated Clinical Information System (ICIS) database (from January 2002 to February 2019). The Cox regression model was used to identify the risk factors and develop the CVD risk prediction model. Overall, 451 patients were included in this study, with a mean follow-up of 12.05 years. Thirty-five (7.7%) patients developed a CVD event. The following risk factors were included: fasting blood sugar (FBS) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), heart failure, antihyperlipidemic therapy, antithrombotic therapy, and antihypertension therapy. The Bayesian information criterion (BIC) score was 314.4. This is the first prediction model developed in Saudi Arabia and the second in any Arab country after the Omani study. We assume that our CVD predication model will have the potential to be used widely after the validation study.
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Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare disability causing female-oriented pediatric neurodevelopmental unmet medical need. RTT was recognized in 1966. However, over the past 56 years, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has authorized no effective treatment for RTT. Recently, Trofinetide was
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Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare disability causing female-oriented pediatric neurodevelopmental unmet medical need. RTT was recognized in 1966. However, over the past 56 years, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has authorized no effective treatment for RTT. Recently, Trofinetide was approved by the USFDA on 10 March 2023 as the first RTT treatment. This article underlines the pharmaceutical advancement, patent literature, and prospects of Trofinetide. The data for this study were gathered from the PubMed database, authentic websites (Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Neuren Pharmaceuticals, and USFDA), and free patent databases. Trofinetide was first disclosed by Neuren Pharmaceuticals in 2000 as a methyl group containing analog of the naturally occurring neuroprotective tripeptide called glycine-proline-glutamate (GPE). The joint efforts of Acadia Pharmaceuticals and Neuren Pharmaceuticals have developed Trofinetide. The mechanism of action of Trofinetide is not yet well established. However, it is supposed to improve neuronal morphology and synaptic functioning. The patent literature revealed a handful of inventions related to Trofinetide, providing excellent and unexplored broad research possibilities with Trofinetide. The development of innovative Trofinetide-based molecules, combinations of Trofinetide, patient-compliant drug formulations, and precise MECP2-mutation-related personalized medicines are foreseeable. Trofinetide is in clinical trials for some neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including treating Fragile X syndrome (FXS). It is expected that Trofinetide may be approved for treating FXS in the future. The USFDA-approval of Trofinetide is one of the important milestones for RTT therapy and is the beginning of a new era for the therapy of RTT, FXS, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), brain injury, stroke, and other NDDs.
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