Search Results (69)

This study evaluated the therapeutic potential of 70% ethanol extracts from six medicinal plants (Chenopodium album, Cassia tora, Cudrania tricuspidata, Dioscorea polystachya, Lonicera japonica, Solidago virgaurea subsp. gigantea) through their antibacterial, antioxidant, cytotoxic, and immunomodulatory activities, targeting applications in aquaculture. All extracts exhibited potent antibacterial activity (MIC ≤ 10 μg/mL) against Aeromonas spp. and Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae, but limited efficacy against Streptococcus parauberis. C. tricuspidata (CTR) and C. tora (CTO) demonstrated superior antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ = 1292 μg/mL and IC₅₀ = 227 μg/mL, respectively), correlating with high polyphenol content (1498 and 1409 mg GAE/g). CTR displayed significant concentration-dependent cytotoxicity (IC₅₀ = 904.2 μg/mL), while C. album (CA) promoted cell proliferation (132.3% viability). In LPS-stimulated CHSE-214 cells, D. polystachya (DP) induced the highest IL-8 expression (207-fold), followed by Chenopodium album (CA) (194-fold IL-8, 49-fold TNF-α) and CTR (245-fold RIPK2), activating NF-κB, MAPK, and NOD-like receptor pathways critical for teleost immunity. Lonicera japonica (LJ) suppressed TNF-α (0.4-fold) and IRF1 (0.3-fold), indicating anti-inflammatory potential, while S. virgaurea subsp. gigantea (SV) showed biphasic TNF-α modulation (79-fold at 10 μg/mL, 5-fold at 100 μg/mL). These diverse bioactivities, particularly the robust immunomodulatory effects, highlight the promise of these extracts as natural therapeutic agents for fish health management in aquaculture. Full article

The expansion of the aquaculture sector offers important economic opportunities but also presents significant challenges, particularly in disease management and prevention. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have become essential tools for supporting aquatic animal health activities. However, despite their benefits, GISs are still underutilized, particularly in developing countries. To promote the adoption of GISs among aquaculture professionals, a specialized GIS course was developed to improve the prowess of users, equipping them with geospatial analysis skills aimed at epidemiological surveillance and disease response in aquaculture. This study describes a GIS capacity-building initiative developed under the Aquae Strength project. The training approach focuses on the context-specific use of geospatial data and practical applications, and provides a learning environment that fosters autonomy through hands-on, problem-based learning. The program utilizes the open-source QGIS software version 3.28 and incorporates customized materials and exercises based on real-world aquaculture scenarios. The authors hypothesized that the course, due to its cost-effectiveness and use of open-source software, would be particularly beneficial in low- and middle-income settings. The methodological framework described is explicitly designed for easy replication, allowing aquaculture professionals worldwide to download all the course materials and implement similar GIS capacity-building initiatives. The project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and supported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). It runs from February 2022 to February 2025, with a one-year extension. Full article

The integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) systems has emerged as a transformative solution for latency-sensitive applications, leveraging UAVs’ unique advantages in mobility, flexible deployment, and on-demand service provisioning. This paper proposes a novel multi-agent reinforcement learning framework, termed Multi-Agent Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for Task Offloading and Resource Allocation (MATD3-TORA), to optimize task offloading and resource allocation in UAV-assisted MEC networks. The framework enables collaborative decision making among multiple UAVs to efficiently serve sparsely distributed ground mobile devices (MDs) and establish an integrated mobility, communication, and computational offloading model, which formulates a joint optimization problem aimed at minimizing the weighted sum of task processing latency and UAV energy consumption. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the algorithm achieves improvements in system latency and energy efficiency compared to conventional approaches. The results highlight MATD3-TORA’s effectiveness in addressing UAV-MEC challenges, including mobility–energy tradeoffs, distributed decision making, and real-time resource allocation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with cognitive inefficiencies related to cognitive flexibility, central coherence, and inhibition. Transdiagnostic cognitive remediation therapy (TCRT) is a new adaption of cognitive remediation therapy aimed at addressing these difficulties across ED diagnoses. This study investigates the effects of TCRT as an adjunctive treatment for patients with EDs on cognitive and clinical outcomes. Methods: A randomized controlled trial compared the effect of 9 individual sessions of TCRT in conjunction with treatment as usual (TAU) compared to TAU only for patients with EDs and concurrent cognitive difficulties. Participants were assessed at baseline, post-treatment (12 weeks after baseline), and follow-up (6 months after post-treatment assessment). The outcome measures included neuropsychological tests and self-report questionnaires measuring cognitive difficulties and ED psychopathology. The analysis was in accordance with intention to treat principles. Results: Sixty patients with various ED diagnosis and concurrent cognitive difficulties were recruited. The TCRT group (n = 30) displayed significantly greater improvement in self-reported executive functioning, measured by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Adult version compared to the control group (n = 30). However, no superiority of TCRT was observed on performance-based measures of set shifting, central coherence, or inhibition. Moreover, there was no significant difference in improvement in self-reported ED psychopathology. Conclusions: TCRT may enhance compensatory mechanisms for cognitive inefficiencies rather than improve cognitive effectiveness or ED symptoms directly for patients with EDs and concurrent cognitive difficulties. Further investigation of how these impact everyday functioning may provide valuable insights into TCRT’s role in ED treatment. Full article

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are decentralized wireless networks characterized by dynamic topologies and the absence of fixed infrastructure. These unique features make MANETs critical for applications such as disaster recovery, military operations, and IoT systems. However, they also pose significant challenges for efficient and effective routing. This study evaluates the performance of eight MANET routing protocols: Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR), Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Ad Hoc On-Demand Multipath Distance Vector (AOMDV), Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA), Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP), and Geographic Routing Protocol (GRP). Using a custom simulation environment in OMNeT++ 6.0.1 with INET-4.5.0, the protocols were tested under four scenarios with varying node densities (20, 80, 200, and 500 nodes). The simulations utilized the Random Waypoint Mobility model to mimic dynamic node movement and evaluated key performance metrics, including network load, throughput, delay, energy consumption, jitter, packet loss rate, and packet delivery ratio. The results reveal that proactive protocols like OLSR are ideal for stable, low-density environments, while reactive protocols such as AOMDV and TORA excel in dynamic, high-mobility scenarios. Hybrid protocols, particularly GRP, demonstrate a balanced approach; achieving superior overall performance with up to 30% lower energy consumption and higher packet delivery ratios compared to reactive protocols. These findings provide practical insights into the optimal selection and deployment of MANET routing protocols for diverse applications, emphasizing the potential of hybrid protocols for modern networks like IoT and emergency response systems. Full article

Entrepreneurship is considered one of the key factors in facilitating a company’s pursuit of sustainable development. The findings of this study can help firms improve their entrepreneurial capacity and highlight its significance for sustainable development; therefore, the levels of entrepreneurship serve as indicators of the potentials of enterprises to achieve sustainable development goals. The existing literature has explored whether there are differences in the approaches between family and non-family firms as well as in their levels of entrepreneurship. Contributing to this ongoing debate, this article aims to compare the levels of entrepreneurship between these two types of companies in a selected small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector. The analysis encompasses eight dimensions of entrepreneurship: risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, inter-organizational cooperation, competitiveness, diversification, flexibility, and digitalization. This study was conducted on a sample of 145 small printing companies that operated in Poland in 2023. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that family firms exhibited a higher level of entrepreneurship when treated as a multidimensional construct. Moreover, family firms outperformed non-family firms across all of the analyzed dimensions, with statistically significant differences being observed in four dimensions: innovativeness, proactiveness, diversification, and competitiveness. This study confirmed the existing indications in the literature that family firms demonstrated higher levels of entrepreneurship, which may suggest their greater potential in pursuing sustainable development. The novelty of this research lies in its multidimensional approach, which offers a comprehensive analysis that integrates eight dimensions of entrepreneurship. This allowed for a deeper understanding of entrepreneurial behaviors and attitudes when highlighting the unique characteristics of family and non-family firms. The findings are particularly relevant for the owners and managers of family and non-family businesses; they provide tools for diagnosing entrepreneurship levels in a more comprehensive manner and applying tailored management practices for addressing areas that require improvement. One limitation of this study is its focus on a single sector; this may have affected the generalizability of the results. Future research could explore governance and ownership structures when analyzing entrepreneurial dimensions—particularly in the context of family firms. Full article

The enterobacterium Escherichia coli present in the human gut can reduce trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) to trimethylamine during anaerobic respiration. The TMAO reductase TorA is a monomeric, bis-molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide (bis-MGD) cofactor-containing enzyme that belongs to the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family of molybdoenzymes. TorA is anchored to the membrane via TorC, a pentahemic c-type cytochrome which receives the electrons from the menaquinol pool. Here, we designed an expression system for the production of a stable soluble form of multiheme-containing TorC, providing, for the first time, the purification of a soluble pentahemic cytochrome-c from E. coli. Our focus was to investigate the interaction between TorA and soluble TorC to establish the electron transfer pathway. We solved the X-ray structure of E. coli TorA and performed chemical crosslinking of TorA and TorC. Another goal was to establish an activity assay that used the physiological electron transfer pathway instead of the commonly used unphysiological electron donors methylviologen or benzylviologen. An AlphaFold model including the crosslinking sites provided insights into the electron transfer between TorC_C and the active site of TorA. Full article

Adverse drug events (ADEs) occur frequently and are a common cause of suffering, hospitalizations, or death, and can be caused by harmful combinations of medications. One method used to prevent ADEs is by using clinical decision support systems (CDSSs). Janusmed Risk Profile is a CDSS evaluating the risk for nine common or serious ADEs resulting from combined pharmacodynamic effects. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of potential ADEs identified using CDSS algorithms from Janusmed Risk Profile. This retrospective, cross-sectional study covered the population of a Swedish region (n = 246,010 inhabitants in year 2020) using data on all medications dispensed and administered. More than 20% of patients had an increased risk of bleeding, constipation, orthostatism, or renal toxicity based on their medications. The proportion of patients with an increased risk varied from 3.5% to almost 30% across the nine categories of ADEs. A higher age was associated with an increased risk of potential ADEs and there were gender differences. A cluster analysis identified groups of patients with an increased risk for several categories of ADEs. This study shows that combinations of medications that could increase the risk of ADEs are common. Future studies should examine how this correlates with observed ADEs. Full article

Insight into phototactic responses by herbivorous crop pests may be used to manipulate their vertical distribution in crop canopies. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the deployment of specific light sources elicits positive or negative phototactic responses and can be used to enhance performance of miticide applications. We characterized movement responses by two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) (spider mites) to seven light sources [ambient (control), UV-C, UV-B, blue, red, white, and near-infrared (NIR)] under experimental conditions. Separate experiments were conducted with/without the presence of a shelter. An analytical approach based on linear regression coefficients (intercept and slope) from observations in ascending order was used. Linear regression coefficients from UV-B indicated significantly negative phototactic bio-response. We examined settlement of spider mites when exposed to 11 light source configurations and with adaxial leaf sides facing either upwards or downwards. This experiment revealed strong positive and negative phototactic bio-responses to blue light and UV-B light, respectively. As a validation experiment, soybean plants were experimentally infested with spider mites and subjected to one of the following three treatments: (1) no treatment (control), (2) miticide [pyrethrins and Beauveria bassiana (BotaniGard Maxx)] only, and (3) a combination of blue and UV-B for 10 min immediately prior to miticide application. Integration of miticide application with prior deployment of blue and UV-B lights significantly increased the performance of miticide application. Results from this study supported the hypothesis. As a pest management approach, the integration of blue light (to elicit positive phototactic response) and UV-B (to elicit negative phototactic response) is believed to be of particular relevance to organic crop producers and/or to producers of crops for which limited numbers of miticides are registered. Full article

The lower Messinian Calcare di Rosignano Formation (Tuscany, Italy, 43° N) preserves one of the youngest and northernmost examples of coral reefs in the Mediterranean. The outcropping succession of the Acquabona quarry consists of four main facies, namely, in ascending stratigraphic order: (1) coral boundstone, (2) coralline algal rudstone, (3) serpulid floatstone to packstone, and (4) peloidal packstone to grainstone. The succession displays a trend toward increasingly more shallow conditions and progressively more restricted water circulation. The coral reef displays a limited coral biodiversity and a remarkable abundance of heterotrophs, similar to modern coral reefs developed at the edges of the ecological niche of symbiont-bearing colonial corals. The widespread presence of coral colonies pervasively encrusted by coralline algae and benthic foraminifera suggests that short-term environmental perturbations caused temporary shutdowns of the coral-dominated carbonate factory. Moving upwards, there are fewer corals and more highly adaptable carbonate producers like coralline algae and serpulids. This suggests that the decline of corals had been caused by the conditions in the basin becoming more stressful, up to the collapse of the coral community. The overall succession indicates that coral-dominated ecosystems located at the edges of the coral zone are very sensitive; they can be affected even by minor perturbations and easily collapse if negative conditions persist. Full article

Jasmonates, including jasmonic acid (JA) and its derivatives such as methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or jasmonly isoleucine (JA-Ile), regulate plant responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we applied exogenous MeJA onto Senna tora leaves subjected to wounding and conducted a transcriptome deep sequencing analysis at 1 (T1), 3 (T3), 6 (T6), and 24 (T24) h after MeJA induction, along with the pretreatment control at 0 h (T0). Out of 18,883 mapped genes, we identified 10,048 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the T0 time point and at least one of the four treatment times. We detected the most DEGs at T3, followed by T6, T1, and T24. We observed the upregulation of genes related to JA biosynthesis upon exogenous MeJA application. Similarly, transcript levels of genes related to flavonoid biosynthesis increased after MeJA application and tended to reach their maximum at T6. In agreement, the flavonols kaempferol and quercetin reached their highest accumulation at T24, whereas the levels of the anthraquinones aloe-emodin, emodin, and citreorosein remained constant until T24. This study highlights an increase in flavonoid biosynthesis following both MeJA application and mechanical wounding, whereas no significant influence is observed on anthraquinone biosynthesis. These results provide insights into the distinct regulatory pathways of flavonoid and anthraquinone biosynthesis in response to MeJA and mechanical wounding. Full article

Appetite loss is prevalent in patients with advanced cancer and negatively affects their quality of life. However, understanding of the factors associated with appetite loss is limited. The current study aims to explore characteristics and therapeutic interventions used for patients with and without appetite loss admitted to an acute palliative care unit. Patient characteristics and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), using the 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS 0–10), were registered. Descriptive statistics, independent samples T-tests and chi-square tests were utilized for data analysis. Of the 167 patients included in the analysis, 62% (104) had moderate to severe appetite loss at admission, whereof 63% (66) improved their appetite during their hospital stay. At admission, there was a significant association between appetite loss and having gastrointestinal cancer, living alone, poor performance status and withdrawn anticancer treatment. Patients with appetite loss also experienced more nausea, depression, fatigue, dyspnea and anxiety. In patients with improved appetite during hospitalization, mean decrease in NRS was 3.4 (standard error (SE) 0.27). Additionally, patients living alone were more likely to improve their appetite. Appetite improvement frequently coincided with alleviation of fatigue. Understanding these associations may help in developing better interventions for managing appetite loss in patients with advanced cancer. Full article

In this paper, a gradient dynamics-based control method is proposed to directly tackle the singularity problem in the backstepping control design of the TORA system. This method is founded upon the construction of an energy-like positive function, which includes an auxiliary variable in terms of the intermediate virtual control law. On this basis, a gradient dynamics is created to obtain a new virtual control command, which is capable of making the auxiliary variable gradually approach zero, thereby mitigating the issue of division by zero. The core innovation is the integration of the gradient dynamics into the recursive backstepping design to overcome the singularity problem and stabilize the system at the equilibrium quickly. In addition, it rigorously proves that all the signals in the closed-loop control system are uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood around zero through a Lyapunov-based stability analysis. Comparative simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach not only avoids the singularity issue, but also achieves a better transient performance over other methods. Full article

Soil organic matter (SOM) is essential for nutrient cycling and soil carbon (C) accumulation, both of which are heavily influenced by the quality and quantity of plant litter. Since SOM dynamics in relation to plant diversity are poorly understood, we investigated the effects of willow variety and mixture, and site on the soil C stocks, SOM chemical composition and thermal stability. Using pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry (Py-FIMS), a method of stepwise thermal degradation in ultrahigh vacuum combined with soft ionization in a high electric field, followed by mass-spectrometric separation and detection of molecular ions, we analyzed SOM in the top 10 cm of soil from two 7-year-old experimental sites in Germany and Sweden. Monocultures and mixtures of two willow varieties (Salix spp.) belonging to different species were grown at the experimental plots. Overall, site had the strongest effect on SOM quality. The results showed significant variability across sites for willow identity and mixture effects on C accumulation and SOM chemistry. In the German site (Rostock), yearly soil C accumulation was higher (p < 0.05) for variety ‘Loden’ (1.0 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) compared to ‘Tora’ (0.5 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹), whilst in the Swedish site (Uppsala), both varieties exhibited similar soil C accumulation rates of around 0.6 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Willow variety identity significantly affected SOM quality at both sites, while mixing had minor effects. Our findings emphasize the significance of site-specific context and variety and species identity in shaping soil C accumulation in willow plantations. Full article

Despite sparse evidence and limited guidance on indications, use, and dosing, midazolam is widely used in palliative care. We aimed to describe and compare the use of midazolam in three different countries to improve clinical practice in palliative care. We performed an online survey among palliative care physicians in Norway, Denmark, and the United Kingdom (UK). The focus was indications, dosing, administration, and concomitant drugs. A web-based questionnaire was distributed to members of the respective national palliative medicine associations. The total response rate was 9.4%. Practices in the UK, Norway, and Denmark were overall similar regarding the indications of midazolam for anxiety, dyspnoea, and pain treatment in combination with opioids. However, physicians in the UK used a higher starting dose for anxiety, dyspnoea, and pain treatment compared to Norway and Denmark, as well as a higher maximum dose. Danish physicians preferred, to a higher degree, on-demand midazolam administration. Despite practice similarities in the UK, Norway, and Denmark, differences exist for midazolam dosing and administration in palliative medicine. We demonstrated a lack of consensus on how midazolam should be used in palliative care, setting the stage for future studies on the topic. Full article