Search Results (21)

Background/Objectives: Niaprazine is widely used for the management of sleep disorders in pediatric and geriatric patients; however, no commercially available oral liquid formulation is currently available in Italy, making extemporaneous compounding necessary. In routine practice, the beyond-use date (BUD) is often limited to 30 days, potentially affecting therapeutic continuity. This study aimed to evaluate the chemical, physical, and microbiological stability of a compounded niaprazine syrup to support evidence-based BUD and to assess the suitability of selected ready-to-use compounding vehicles for preparing alternative niaprazine oral liquid formulations. Methods: A niaprazine syrup (3 mg·mL⁻¹) was prepared in a sucrose-based vehicle acidified with tartaric acid and preserved with potassium sorbate. Chemical stability of niaprazine was evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), whose specificity was confirmed by forced degradation studies. Stability was monitored for up to 9 months at 4–8, 25, and 40 °C and confirmed after 12 months by HPLC-DAD and mass spectrometry (MS). Physical stability of the formulation was monitored by pH and visual inspection up to 12 months. Microbiological quality was assessed for 2 months at 4–8 and 25 °C according to the European Pharmacopoeia. In parallel, four selected ready-to-use compounding vehicles were evaluated for their suitability to prepare stable niaprazine oral liquid formulations. Results: Niaprazine concentrations in the syrup remained within pharmacopeial acceptance limits (±10%) at all temperatures, although a decrease was observed under accelerated conditions (40 °C). pH remained stable (≤0.5-unit variation) and the formulation stayed clear and homogeneous throughout the study, with only minor visual changes after prolonged storage at 40 °C. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in both the HPLC-DAD and HPLC-MS datasets. Microbiological testing confirmed compliance up to 2 months at 4–8 and 25 °C (TAMC ≤ 10³ CFU/mL; TYMC ≤ 10² CFU/mL; Escherichia coli absent). Comparable chemical and physical stability was observed for three of the four formulations prepared with the ready-to-use vehicles over at least two months. Conclusions: The compounded niaprazine syrup demonstrated chemical, physical, and microbiological stability under refrigerated and room-temperature storage, supporting evidence-based beyond-use dating of up to two months under the tested conditions. Ready-to-use vehicles may represent a practical complementary approach, offering standardized alternatives for the preparation of niaprazine oral liquid formulations. Full article

The indoor microbiological contaminants present in the built environment, including residential buildings, can pose significant risks to human health and well-being and the sustainability of indoor environments. Therefore, the total aerobic microbial count (TAMC) and total yeast and mold count (TYMC) are key indicators used to evaluate microbial contamination levels in indoor spaces. This study presents an assessment of TAMC and TYMC in residential indoor environments in two cities in Spain, Pamplona and Seville, which represent different climate zones, with Seville characterized by extensive air conditioning use due to its high summer temperatures. We conducted sampling and analysis in 20 dwellings over two summer campaigns to quantify microbial populations and identify parameters that worsen TAMC and TYMC and promote amplification (I/O, indoor/outdoor). The results show that ventilation type, building design, and climatic conditions significantly influence indoor bacterial amplification. The study indicates that the implementation of the Spanish building code in 2006 has improved microbial Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), even in airtight and energy-efficient dwellings, highlighting the importance of integrating ventilation and health considerations into sustainable building design. Environmental parameters such as temperature and CO₂ concentration were reliable indicators of bacterial proliferation. Kitchen design and the presence of pets also emerged as relevant determinants of microbial loads. Overall, the use of I/O ratios proved effective for identifying indoor microbial amplification, supporting their application in future IAQ assessments, sustainable building evaluations, and healthy housing strategies. Full article

This study aimed to determine the optimal drying, grinding, and extraction conditions for red sweet pepper, garlic, parsley, and celery to obtain concentrated extracts rich in bioactive compounds. Drying was performed using infrared ovens (FD-48 and Basic Station 3) at 30, 45, and 55 °C. The optimal temperature was 45 °C, ensuring effective moisture removal while preserving functional components. Grinding efficiency was compared between an IKA A 11 Basic analytical mill and a Pulverisette 0 vibratory micromill; the analytical mill demonstrated superior performance and processing speed. Soxhlet extraction with 96% ethanol enabled the preservation of flavor, aroma, and functional properties of the extracts. The influence of the herbal extract mixture on the organoleptic, physicochemical, and microbiological characteristics of culinary products was evaluated. For sauces, the optimal extract concentration was 5%, providing balanced taste, pleasant aroma, stable consistency, and intense color. Physicochemical analysis showed increases in protein (3.24–3.68%), ash (2.52–2.68%), dry matter (25.27–26.94%), and pH (4.11–4.24). Microbiological indicators (TAMC—3.0 × 10² CFU/g; molds—21 CFU/g; yeasts—9 CFU/g) complied with regulatory standards. For meat products (meatballs and pies), the optimal extract composition (garlic 30%, red pepper 25%, parsley 25%, celery 20%) was applied at 0.3–0.7% of meat mass. Sensory evaluation identified 0.5% as optimal. The developed technology enables the production of functional food additives rich in protein, antioxidants, and flavonoids and is suitable for industrial implementation. Full article

Emotion recognition in conversations (ERC) is a significant task in natural language processing, aimed at identifying the emotion of each utterance within a conversation. Current research predominantly relies on pre-trained language models, often incorporating sophisticated network architectures to capture complex contextual semantics in conversations. However, existing approaches have not successfully combined effective task-specific adaptation with adequate modeling of conversational context complexity. To address this, we propose a model named TAMC-ERC (Task-Adaptive and Multi-level Contextual Understanding for Emotion Recognition in Conversations). The model adopts a progressive recognition framework that sequentially builds on foundational utterance representations, integrates conversation-level contexts, and leads to a task-adaptive classification decision. First, the Task-Adaptive Representation Learning module produces highly discriminative utterance representations. It achieves this by integrating emotion space information into prompts and employing contrastive learning. Subsequently, the Multi-Level Contextual Understanding module performs in-depth modeling of the conversational context. It synergistically integrates both macroscopic narratives and microscopic interactions to construct a comprehensive emotional context. Finally, the classifier is directly parameterized by the emotion concept vectors from the task-adaptive stage. This creates a coherent task adaptation process, maintaining task-specific awareness from representation learning through to the final decision. Experiments on three benchmark datasets demonstrate that TAMC-ERC achieves highly competitive performance: it attains weighted average F1 scores of 71.04% on IEMOCAP, 66.95% on MELD, and 40.99% on EmoryNLP. These results set a new state of the art and demonstrate that the model outperforms most existing baselines. This work validates that integrating task adaptation with multi-level contextual modeling is key to addressing conversational complexity and improving recognition accuracy. Full article

This study compared the effects of storage time and electron beam (EB) irradiation on microbial counts and chemical stability of dried flowers from two hemp cultivars over 12 weeks. Cannabinoid and terpene content, as well as microbial load, were evaluated at 0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks in EB-irradiated and non-irradiated samples. Microbial count in non-irradiated flowers reached up to 4.1 × 10⁶ colony-forming units (CFU)/g; EB irradiation reduced these levels to <10² CFU/g. Cannabinoid contents were unaffected by EB irradiation and remained stable throughout storage. Terpene content decreased by 8.4% immediately after irradiation, followed by further declines during storage, reaching 22.3% and 24.0% average losses in non-irradiated and EB-irradiated samples after 12 weeks, respectively. EB irradiation caused a higher decrease in monoterpenes (10.8%) than in sesquiterpenes (2.5%). These findings confirm that EB irradiation is an effective sterilization method for hemp flowers that preserves chemical integrity. Storage time also significantly reduced microbial loads in non-irradiated samples; TAMC in cultivar B declined from 20,728 CFU/g to <LOQ (100 CFU/g), and TYMC decreased 16-fold. Cultivar A exhibited a sharp initial TAMC reduction followed by fluctuations and TYMC levels that were 7-fold lower by Week 12, reflecting natural microbial decay during hemp flower storage. Full article

The rapid detection and quantification of microbial quantity and aflatoxin are crucial for food safety and quality. In order to achieve rapid detection, nutmeg with mildew, but with difficult-to-observe mildew characteristics, was selected as the research object. Its intrinsic component (dehydrodiisoeugenol) and exogenous noxious substances (the total number of colonies and aflatoxin B₁) were determined to clarify their changes during the mold process. Subsequently, electronic nose (E-nose) was employed to analyze the odor of nutmeg and was combined with six machine learning algorithms to establish a classification model for samples with different degrees of mold. Finally, three algorithms were chosen as the preferred options to establish the prediction models of indicator content, which can not only identify whether nutmeg is edible but also measure each index. The results demonstrate the enormous potential of E-nose for real-time detection for assessing food safety. In terms of qualitative analysis, the established classification model can achieve a more than 90% true positive rate, suggesting that E-nose could identify early mildew. In quantitative analysis, E-nose combined with Back Propagation Neural Network achieved the highest prediction accuracy, since the correlation coefficient between the predicted value and the measured value of aflatoxin B₁ is 0.9776, the TAMC is 0.9443, and the TYMC is 0.9685. This study provides a reference for the rapid and comprehensive quality evaluation of mildew-prone nutmeg, and it confirms that E-nose can be applied as a quick and simple technology. Full article

Three-dimensional (3D) Scene Understanding achieves environmental perception by extracting and analyzing point cloud data with wide applications including virtual reality, robotics, etc. Previous methods align the 2D image feature from a pre-trained CLIP model and the 3D point cloud feature for the open vocabulary scene understanding ability. We believe that existing methods have the following two deficiencies: (1) the 3D feature extraction process ignores the challenges of real scenarios, i.e., point cloud data are very sparse and even incomplete; (2) the training stage lacks direct text supervision, leading to inconsistency with the inference stage. To address the first issue, we employ a Masked Consistency training policy. Specifically, during the alignment of 3D and 2D features, we mask some 3D features to force the model to understand the entire scene using only partial 3D features. For the second issue, we generate pseudo-text labels and align them with the 3D features during the training process. In particular, we first generate a description for each 2D image belonging to the same 3D scene and then use a summarization model to fuse these descriptions into a single description of the scene. Subsequently, we align 2D-3D features and 3D-text features simultaneously during training. Massive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, outperforming state-of-the-art approaches. Full article

Despite significant advances in glioma diagnosis and treatment, overall outcomes remain suboptimal. Exploring novel therapeutic avenues show promise in advancing the field. Theranostics, an evolving discipline integrating diagnosis and therapy, emerges as a particularly auspicious approach. However, an unmet need exists for glioma-associated biomarkers as theranostic targets. Immuno-positron emission tomography (Immuno-PET), a pioneering method uniting PET diagnostic precision with antibody specificity, holds potential for identifying cancer-associated biomarkers. This review aims to provide an updated overview of immuno-PET applications in gliomas. Notably, [⁴⁴Sc]-CHX-A″-DTPA-Cetuximab-Fab targeting Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) has displayed promise in glioma xenografts, enabling potential imaging at 4 h post-injection. Similarly, [⁸⁹Zr]-bevacizumab targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) yielded encouraging results in preclinical models and a pioneering clinical trial for pediatric patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Several cell differentiation markers, including CD146, indicative of tumor aggressiveness, and CD11b, reflecting tumor-associated myeloid cells (TAMCs), proved effective targets for immuno-PET. Additionally, immuno-PET directed at prostate-specific antigen (PSMA) demonstrated efficacy in imaging glioma-associated neovasculature. While holding promise for precise diagnosis and treatment guidance, challenges persist in achieving target specificity and selecting suitable radionuclides. Further studies are imperative to advance the field and bridge a translational gap from bench to bedside. Full article

The socioeconomic contribution of microbusinesses towards emerging economies is undeniable. However, numerous factors have broadened the gap between microbusinesses and their smartification. This conceptual study proposes the Technology Adoption Model Canvas (TAMC) based on theories such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), and the Business Model Canvas (BMC) alongside four new/emerging variables, making it possible to understand technology adoption through both individual/cognitive and organizational/physical perspectives. The framework is developed for food service (FS) microbusinesses to facilitate their adaptability in current and future market conditions. Subsequently, we explain the development of the TAMC, including its significance, limitations, and avenues for future research. The proposed framework can provide a solution for FS microbusinesses towards a ‘smarter’ and more sustainable future. It further guides the evaluation of both microbusinesses’ readiness and the factors driving/impeding them towards/from adopting smart technology. Full article

In recent years, cannabis has been proposed and promoted not only as a medicine for the treatment of a variety of illnesses, but also as an industrial crop for different purposes. Being an agricultural product, cannabis inflorescences may be contaminated by environmental pathogens at high concentrations, which might cause health problems if not controlled. Therefore, limits have to be placed on the levels of aerobic bacteria as well as yeast and mold. To ensure the safety of cannabis plant material and related products, a remediation process has to be put in place. Gamma irradiation is a sterilization process mainly used for pharmaceuticals, foods, cosmetics, agricultural, and herbal products including cannabis plant material. This study was designed to determine the effect of irradiation on the microbial count as well as on the chemical and physical profiles of the cannabis biomass, particularly cannabinoids, terpenes, and moisture content. The full cannabinoid profile was measured by GC/FID and HPLC analysis, while terpene profile and moisture content were determined using GC/MS and Loss on Drying (LoD) methods, respectively. Analyses were conducted on the samples before and after gamma irradiation. The results showed that the minimum and maximum doses were 15 and 20.8 KiloGray (KGY), respectively. Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC) and Total Yeast and Mold Count (TYMC) were determined. The study showed that irradiation has no effect on the cannabinoids and little effect on terpenes and moisture content, but it did result in the virtual sterilization of the plant material, as evidenced by the low levels of bacterial and fungal colony-forming units (CFUs) < 10 after gamma irradiation. Full article

This paper presents the total angular momentum-conserving Poincaré sphere (TAM-C PS), which offers a novel framework for efficiently characterizing a wide range of vector vortex beams. Unlike other types of Poincaré spheres, the TAM-C PS achieves a better balance between generality and validity, while also providing clearer physical interpretation. By linking the poles of different spheres, the study also introduces two distinct categories of TAM-C PS braid clusters, enabling the representation of various Poincaré spheres within a unified framework. The Poincaré spheres include classical, higher-order, hybrid-order, Poincaré sphere with orbital angular momentum, and TAM-C PS. This is the first clear and unified approach to express multiple Poincaré spheres within a single framework. The TAM-C PS and its braid cluster can be employed to guide the creation of targeted vector vortex light beams, offer a geometric description of optical field evolution, and calculate the geometric phase of optical cyclic evolution. Full article

The agricultural policy of the European Union is currently focused on increasing the area of organic farming. Medicinal plants, including milk thistle (Silybum marianum [L.] Gaertn.), are particularly suitable for this type of cultivation. The aim of this study was to compare milk thistle fruits from organic and conventional farming in terms of the content of silymarin and individual flavonolignans, oil content, microbiological purity, as well as antimicrobial activity of the silymarin extract, mainly in relation to microorganisms responsible for skin infections. The raw material of Silybi mariani fructus obtained from organic farming did not differ in terms of silymarin and oil content compared to the raw material from conventional cultivation. However, it differed in the composition of silymarin and the level of microbiological contamination. Raw material from organic farming was mostly characterized by a higher proportion of the sum of silydianin and silychristin in the silymarin complex than the sum of silybinin A and silybinin B. In the samples from conventional cultivation, only genotypes with a predominance of silybinins were present. Although the total number of microorganisms (TAMC) and yeasts and molds (TYMC) on fruit from organic farming were several times higher than on fruit from conventional farming, it was still within the standards set for food products. All raw materials were free of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. In addition, it was shown that the silymarin extract from organic farming was generally characterized by greater antimicrobial activity, especially in relation to Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant and troublesome in skin infections. Full article

Estrogen receptor positive (ER⁺) breast cancer (BCa) accounts for the highest proportion of breast cancer-related deaths. While endocrine therapy is highly effective for this subpopulation, endocrine resistance remains a major challenge and the identification of novel targets is urgently needed. Previously, we have shown that Semaphorin 3C (SEMA3C) is an autocrine growth factor that drives the growth and treatment resistance of various cancers, but its role in breast cancer progression and endocrine resistance is poorly understood. Here, we report that SEMA3C plays a role in maintaining the growth of ER⁺ BCa cells and is a novel, tractable therapeutic target for the treatment of ER⁺ BCa patients. Analyses of publicly available clinical datasets indicate that ER⁺ BCa patients express significantly higher levels of SEMA3C mRNA than other subtypes. Furthermore, SEMA3C mRNA expression was positively correlated with ESR1 mRNA expression. ER+ BCa cell lines (MCF7 and T47D) expressed higher levels of SEMA3C mRNA and protein than a normal mammary epithelial MCF10A cell line. ER siRNA knockdown was suppressed, while dose-dependent beta-estradiol treatment induced SEMA3C expression in both MCF7 and T47D cells, suggesting that SEMA3C is an ER-regulated gene. The stimulation of ER⁺ BCa cells with recombinant SEMA3C activated MAPK and AKT signaling in a dose-dependent manner. Conversely, SEMA3C silencing inhibited Estrogen Receptor (ER) expression, MAPK and AKT signaling pathways while simultaneously inducing apoptosis, as monitored by flow cytometry and Western blot analyses. SEMA3C silencing significantly inhibited the growth of ER⁺ BCa cells, implicating a growth dependency of ER⁺ BCa cells on SEMA3C. Moreover, the analysis of tamoxifen resistant (TamR) cell models (TamC3 and TamR3) showed that SEMA3C levels remain high despite treatment with tamoxifen. Tamoxifen-resistant cells remained dependent on SEMA3C for growth and survival. Treatment with B1SP Fc fusion protein, a SEMA3C pathway inhibitor, attenuated SEMA3C-induced signaling and growth across a panel of tamoxifen sensitive and resistant ER⁺ breast cancer cells. Furthermore, SEMA3C silencing and B1SP treatment were associated with decreased EGFR signaling in TamR cells. Here, our study implicates SEMA3C in a functional role in ER⁺ breast cancer signaling and growth that suggests ER⁺ BCa patients may benefit from SEMA3C-targeted therapy. Full article

In recent years, the scientific community has made significant progress in understanding nutrition, leading consumers to shift their preferences away from animal-based protein products and towards natural, plant-based protein sources. This study aimed to determine the nutritional value, in vitro cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity for different sources of high protein content products (pea, yeast, almond, spirulina and Pleurotus spp.) with potential usage as raw materials for dietary supplements, especially since these products do not benefit from stricter regulation requirements regarding their actual health benefits. The characterization of raw materials consisted in evaluation of their nutritional profile (by addressing moisture content, crude protein content, extractable fat, ash, carbohydrates) and microbial contamination (TAMC, TYMC, Enterobacteriaceae and β-glucuronidase positive Escherichia coli), total content of free amino acids, soluble proteins, phenols and flavonoids, as well as antioxidant activity through chemical assays. We used 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release to evaluate the potential cytotoxicity of selected raw materials. Results obtained indicate high percentages of proteins for the pea powder (77.96%) and Spirulina powder (64.79%), Pleurotus spp. flour had strong antioxidant activity, while the highest contamination values were registered for Pleurotus spp. powder (4.6 × 10⁵ CFU/g or 5.66 log CFU/g). Cytotoxicity results demonstrate that tested ingredients have an impact on the metabolic activity of cells, affecting cellular integrity and provoking leakage of DNA at several concentrations. While plant-based protein supplementation may appear to be a promising solution to balance our busy lives, there are several advantages and disadvantages associated with them, including issues related to their absorption rate, bioavailability, cytotoxicity and actual nutritional benefits. Full article

Objective: Previous studies found that Wnt7b played a unique and indispensable role in the process of osteoblast differentiation and could accelerate the repair of bone loss. However, what is the role of Wnt7B in osteogenesis? Is it possible to increase the expression of Wnt7b to promote the repair of skull defects? This study intends to provide the basic data for the application of Wnt7b in the treatment of craniomaxillofacial bone repair. Methods: A calvarial defect mouse model that could induce Wnt7b overexpression was established. Three days after the operation, the mice in each group were intraperitoneally injected with tamoxifen (TAM) or oil eight times every other day. There were three groups. The TAMc group (R26^Wnt7b/Wnt7b) was injected with tamoxifen. The Oil group (3.2 kb Col1-Cre-ER^T2; R26^Wnt7b/Wnt7b) was injected with oil. The TAM group (3.2 kb Col1-Cre-ER^T2; R26^Wnt7b/Wnt7b) was injected with tamoxifen. Four weeks after the surgery, micro-CT scanning was utilized to observe new bone formation and compare the ability to form new bone around the defect area. Results: Four weeks after the operation, bone healing conditions were measured by using micro-CT scanning. The defect area of the TAM group was smaller than that of the other groups. Similarly, the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) significantly increased (p < 0.05), the trabecular number (Tb.N) increased, and the trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) decreased. Conclusions: Wnt7b participates in the bone formation process after calvarial damage, indicating the important role of Wnt7b in osteogenesis. Full article