Search Results (366)

Trichocentrum ascendens, commonly known as “cola de rata”, is an orchid traditionally used by Indigenous communities to remove warts and heal wounds and in cultural cleansing rituals (“limpia”). However, additional medicinal uses preserved by the Chinantec people of Oaxaca, Mexico, remain largely undocumented and are at risk of disappearing, as this knowledge is now held by only a few individuals. This study gathered information on the therapeutic applications of T. ascendens in the Chinantla region through semi-structured interviews with key collaborators. Information was collected regarding the socio-demographic profiles of the collaborators, as well as the conditions treated, plant parts used, preparation modes, and doses. The species is used to alleviate headaches, toothaches, stomach pains, menstrual pains, body aches, kidney diseases, and inflammation, as well as to treat cultural diseases known as “mal de orin” and “sangre sucia”. Infusions made from mature or developing leaves, along with topical application of crushed leaves, are the main forms of administration. The traditional knowledge documented here underscores the importance of further research to identify the bioactive compounds in T. ascendens and to evaluate their potential inflammatory and analgesic effect. Such studies could lead to the discovery of new pharmacologically active molecules while preserving valuable traditional knowledge. Full article

A number of products for maintaining intimate hygiene are available on the market. They consist of a blend of components intended to cleanse, care for and protect the area of application, and support its microbiological balance. The present study reviews the compositions of international intimate hygiene product brands currently available in Poland (within the European Union) and the frequency of their components: their surfactants, plant extracts, prebiotics, postbiotics and skin care agents. The most popular surfactants in rinse-off products for women were Cocamidopropyl Betaine, present in 72% of products, followed by Coco-Glucoside (58%) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (24%). Similarly, in the products for girls, the most common were Cocamidopropyl Betaine (55%), Lauryl Glucoside (45%), Coco-Glucoside (40%) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (20%). The intimate wipes contained mainly nonionic surfactants: PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil (28%), Coco-Glucoside and Polysorbate 20 (20% each). Many components with protective and caring properties were identified: plant extracts (e.g., Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Chamomilla Recutita Flower Extract), prebiotics (Inulin, Alpha-Glucan Oligosaccharide) and postbiotics (Lactobacillus Ferment, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate), as well as Lactic Acid, Glycerin, Citric Acid, Panthenol and Allantoin. Full article

This article argues that John Calvin’s account of the church in Institutes of the Christian Religion IV is best read through the formative logic of worship. Calvin famously identifies preaching the Word and administering the sacraments as the marks of the visible church. Rather than regarding these marks merely as identifiers, this study interprets them as worship practices that shape Christian life “in-between” church and society. First, the preached Word is not simply received as information but functions as the medium through which faith is generated and sustained, forming a community tasked to bear truth publicly. Second, the sacraments operate as embodied theology: baptism initiates believers into ecclesial belonging through cleansing, renewal, and confession, while the Lord’s Supper repeatedly schools the church in remembrance, thanksgiving, unity, and mutual love. Finally, by situating the Word and sacrament within the church’s maternal nurture and the ministry of reconciliation, the article shows how worship extends beyond the sanctuary, cultivating conscience and communal practices oriented toward public peace and responsibility. In Calvin’s Reformation vision, worship is thus the hinge that links ecclesiology to social ethics without collapsing the distinction between the church and civil society. Full article

In response to the growing need for accessible data analytics education among low-computing disciplines, this study presents the design, implementation, and outcomes of a no-coding graduate-level data analytics course offered within the Engineering Management and Technology Department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The course utilizes Alteryx Designer 2025.2, an end-to-end, drag-and-drop analytics platform that enables students with minimal programming background to conduct complete data workflows, including data cleansing, transformation, and predictive modeling. Through a project-based learning (PBL) approach, students engage in real-world problem solving, developing data reasoning and interpretation skills rather than focusing on programming syntax. Course artifacts, student project outcomes, and instructional observations suggest that the use of a no-code platform, combined with hands-on assessment through video exercises and mentored projects, supports the development of analytical reasoning, engagement, and data interpretation skills. The paper concludes that GUI-based, no-code tools can effectively bridge the technical accessibility gap in data analytics education, making data-driven learning practical and scalable across low-computing academic programs. This paper is presented as a descriptive pedagogical case study, focusing on course design, instructional practices, and observed learning outcomes rather than a controlled empirical evaluation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Adequate bowel preparation (BP) is crucial for effective colorectal cancer (CRC) surveillance in ulcerative colitis (UC). While active inflammation is known to negatively impact cleansing, data regarding predictors of BP quality specifically in UC patients with inactive disease remain limited. This study aimed to investigate risk factors for inadequate BP in UC patients in clinical/endoscopic remission and to compare the efficacy of 1L-PEG-ASC versus 2L-PEG regimens. Methods: A multicentric, retrospective, cohort study was conducted across eight Italian centers. Consecutive adult outpatients with UC undergoing colonoscopy between January-2021 and December-2022 who were in endoscopic and clinical remission were included. Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS) was assessed in patients undergoing 1L-PEG-ASC or 2L-PEG bowel preparation. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors for inadequate BP and compare outcomes between PEG regimens. Results: A total of 379 patients were included (58% M, mean age 52.3 ± 15.4 years). The overall rate of adequate BP was 90.5%. Traditional risk factors, including demographic, clinical, and endoscopic characteristics, were not predictive of inadequate preparation in this remission cohort. Comparing regimens, 1L-PEG-ASC yielded significantly higher median total BBPS scores compared to 2L-PEG (8 [IQR 7–9] vs. 6 [IQR 6–8]; p < 0.001) and a higher exam completion rate (99.5% vs. 95.7%; p = 0.02), although the difference in adequate BP rates did not reach statistical significance (92.6% vs. 87.7%; p = 0.12). Multivariable analysis confirmed that 2L-PEG was independently associated with lower odds of achieving higher BBPS scores (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.20–0.45). Conclusions: In UC patients with clinical and endoscopic remission, BP adequacy rates are high and comparable to the general population, suggesting that traditional IBD-related risk factors are less relevant in the absence of active inflammation. However, the 1L-PEG-ASC regimen demonstrated superior cleansing quality and exam completion rates compared to 2L-PEG. These findings support the prioritization of 1L-PEG-ASC to optimize mucosal visualization during CRC surveillance in this population. Full article

Modern combine harvesters can collect real-time geolocated yield data, but it is subject to errors. Various protocols have been proposed to clean this data, each with varying levels of complexity. This data is valuable for precision agriculture to implement site-specific management and to train models to predict yield using remote sensing data. Machine learning and deep learning techniques have shown their potential for precision agriculture, and their performance shows no significant differences between models trained with data cleaned using a computationally demanding protocol or a simpler one, such as parametric filtering. However, parametric filtering approaches primarily rely on statistics that are highly sensitive to data distribution and do not effectively filter inliers. The objective of this study is to develop a data-cleansing method that leverages robust statistical measures, specifically the median and interquartile range, to effectively identify and filter outliers and inliers while retaining valid observations in datasets collected from combine harvesters, thereby minimizing the influence of non-normal data distributions. Different levels of data cleaning were applied to a total of 7399 ha of wheat and barley crops, and the quality of each cleaning level was compared. The selected protocol improved the spatial structure of the data, deleting up to 42% and 33% of the data at the polygon level, for wheat and barley, respectively. It increased the mean and median, and decreased the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of the data. Between 78.7% and 82.9% of the fields showed a normal distribution after applying the selected method, and machine learning performance improved compared with the raw data. Compared with previous data cleaning studies, the present work proposes an automatic, low-computational, parametric filtering method that uses robust statistics for non-normal distributions. In addition, its scalability has been demonstrated by applying the method to a large dataset, improving data quality and the performance of yield-prediction ML models in all cases. Full article

Plastic microbeads, widely incorporated into personal care and cleansing products, have emerged as a pervasive contaminant in freshwater systems, including in North America. Historical estimates indicate that North American consumers alone contributed trillions of microbeads daily to municipal wastewater, with global usage reaching quadrillions per day. Regulatory actions in 2017 in Canada and the USA to ban microbeads in personal care products appear to have greatly reduced microbead contamination levels, including a decrease in microbead proportion from 2 to 5% to 0.003%, and an 86% reduction in PE microbead discharge from wastewater treatment plants. Yet these particles still persist in the environment due to their resistance to degradation and continued release from unregulated sources, including industrial abrasives and certain cleaning agents. Studies across the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest freshwater systems, have documented widespread microbead contamination in surface waters, sediments, and shorelines, highlighting their persistence and accumulation. This review synthesizes findings from key studies conducted between 2013 and 2017 to establish a pre-ban baseline of microbead distribution in the Great Lakes, and presents new data collected from 2018 to 2021 as a post-ban contamination assessment. The review emphasizes the unique challenges posed by microbeads within the broader context of microplastic pollution. We also hope that this paper underscores the critical role of polymer chemists and engineers in developing innovative materials and removal strategies to mitigate future contamination. Full article

Self-cleansing intrusion-tolerant systems mitigate attacker intrusions and control through periodic recovery, thereby enhancing both availability and security. However, vulnerabilities in the control link render these systems susceptible to request forgery attacks. Furthermore, existing research on the modeling and performance analysis of such systems remains insufficient. To address these issues, this paper introduces an authentication mechanism to fortify control link security and employs Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets for system evaluation. We constructed Petri net models for three distinct scenarios: a traditional system, a system compromised by forged controller requests, and a system fortified with authentication mechanism. Subsequently, isomorphic Continuous-Time Markov Chains were derived to facilitate theoretical analysis. Quantitative evaluations were performed by deriving steady-state probabilities and conducting simulations on the PIPE platform. To further assess practicality, we conduct scalability analysis under varying system scales and parameter settings, and implement a prototype in a virtualized testbed to experimentally validate the analytical findings. Evaluation results indicate that authentication mechanism ensures the reliable execution of cleansing strategies, thereby improving system availability, enhancing security, and mitigating data leakage risks. Full article

Cosmetic wipes are made for multiple functions, baby care, hand washing, feminine and personal cleansing, removing makeup, and applying products such as deodorants and sunless tanners among other uses. Despite the presence of preservatives, cosmetic wipes can become contaminated during processing steps and usage, which may lead to skin infections and other health issues for consumers. No validated method exists for the microbiological testing of cosmetic wipes. The goal of this study was to develop and validate a specific sample preparation method for the quantitative detection of microorganisms in cosmetic wipes for inclusion in the FDA Biological Analytical Manual (BAM). Ten wipe types differing in their composition and preservative combinations were inoculated with Bacillus cereus spore suspensions at three concentration levels and aged for 14 days. Three extraction methods were compared: mBAM1g (reference method using 1 g samples), mBAMww (whole wipe method based on BAM Chapter 23), and ISOww (whole wipe method based on ISO method without Tween 80). For commercial wipes, mBAMww and ISOww, using whole wipes, performed similarly (p ≥ 0.05) or significantly better (p < 0.05) than mBAM1g. For laboratory-made wipes, 1 g samples showed higher recovery rates than whole wipes, likely due to cell loss during aging. Inoculation method and preservatives affect microbial distribution, survival, and recovery rates. T80 may have a positive effect on the recovery of B. cereus from wipes. This study recommends mBAMww for the microbiological analysis of cosmetic wipes. Full article

An architectural and cultural heritage analysis is performed in this study by systematically examining the social significance of historical hammams in today’s Historical Peninsula of Istanbul, which symbolize washing–cleansing–hygiene activities and also have socialization–entertainment–economic dimensions, as well as reflecting urban development and change. Within this scope, 81 historic hammams listed as cultural heritage sites were researched using a multi-layered dataset that integrates on-site morphological studies and historical maps. The physical and intangible transformations of these hammams are analyzed based on a database of 24 examples documented through in situ observations of hammams still in active use, revealing the effects of changing cultural and historical contexts on these buildings. The other 19 examples, which are not currently operating as hammams but still exist as buildings, are assessed to determine their current purpose or whether they are undergoing restoration. The findings reveal the evolution of hammams and identify dominant architectural typologies, such as double and single hammams. In this paper, a conceptual framework is presented that places the cultural heritage–tourism combination within a broader discussion while also revealing the current state of hammams in the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul, the primary source of their physical and cultural existence and development. This study demonstrates that hammams constitute an important part and provide concrete evidence of regional cultural heritage areas, human–environment interactions, and the spatial representation of urban memory regarding preservation and transmission to future generations. Full article

Background and Objectives: Colorectal cancer caused over 1.9 million new cases and 0.9 million deaths in 2020, ranking third in incidence and second in cancer mortality worldwide. Poor bowel preparation may hide adenomas, increasing the colorectal cancer risk. This retrospective study aims to identify differences and associations in bowel preparation quality in relation to gender, age, timing of preparation, and the type of cleansing agent used. Materials and Methods: We analyzed the quality of bowel preparation in a total of 4609 colonoscopies performed between June 2019 and April 2022. We used t-tests and ANOVA to assess differences in bowel preparation quality according to participants’ characteristics. The multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between bowel preparation quality, withdrawal time, adequate bowel preparation, and total colonoscopy. Results: 70.9% of patients had adequate bowel preparation quality. Enema (β = −0.20, p < 0.001), bisacodyl (β = −0.16, p < 0.001), and senna solution (β = −0.03, p = 0.012) were linked to poorer bowel preparation quality in comparison with polyethylene glycol. Older age was associated with a slight decrease in the probability of adequate bowel preparation (adjusted OR 0.98 per year, p < 0.001), whereas female gender was associated with an increase in this probability (OR 1.18, p = 0.038). Bowel preparation in winter is associated with a lower likelihood of adequate preparation compared to summer (OR 0.74, p = 0.004). The type of bowel preparation agent affected outcomes, with enema (OR 0.22, p < 0.001) and bisacodyl (OR 0.35, p < 0.001) associated with the less clean bowels. Longer withdrawal time was inversely associated with adequate preparation (OR 0.94, p < 0.001). For total colonoscopy, the strongest predictor was adequate bowel preparation (OR 23.6, p < 0.001), with gender, ulcerative colitis, and polyps also influencing the outcome. Conclusions: Age, gender, season, medications, withdrawal time, and the type of colorectal lesions influence bowel preparation quality. Personalized approaches, including patient education and targeted interventions, might contribute to improved bowel preparation, especially in older patients, and should be evaluated in future studies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Vaginitis is a prevalent inflammatory disorder of the vaginal mucosa, frequently arising from its anatomical proximity to the anorectal region and a microenvironment conducive to pathogen colonization and dysbiosis. This prospective, multicenter, randomized, third-party-blinded study assessed the efficacy and safety of a plasma vaginal cleanser (WOMEN CARE^®) employing plasma-activated water (PAW) as a non-pharmacological alternative to conventional antimicrobials for restoring vaginal homeostasis. Methods: Women aged ≥19 years with clinically suspected vaginitis were assigned to either the experimental group (WOMEN CARE^®) or the control group (standard pharmacotherapy). The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants exhibiting decreased Nugent scores between baseline and Visit 4. Results: Of 144 participants in the experimental group, 125 completed the study. The experimental group showed comparable outcomes to standard pharmacotherapy group across Nugent scores, vaginal pH, and symptoms severity, with pathogen suppression confirmed as non-inferior. Additionally, PAW exerted anti-HPV activity through a potential effect against new genotypic HPV infection. While the control group experienced antibiotic-associated adverse effects (e.g., headache, abdominal discomfort, nausea), no treatment-related adverse events occurred in the WOMEN CARE^® group. Conclusions: These results indicate that PAW vaginal cleansing provides an effective, safe, non-antibiotic approach for managing vaginitis and maintaining vaginal ecological balance. Full article

Şerefeddin Sabuncuoğlu (c. 1385–1470) was one of the most prominent surgeons of the early Ottoman period, particularly noted for his systematic and visually documented surgical approaches to breast tissue. His principal work, Cerrahiyyetü’l-Hâniyye, is based on the 30th volume of the Andalusian physician al-Zahrawi’s Kitab al-Tasrif, yet it goes well beyond a translation by incorporating Sabuncuoğlu’s clinical observations, experiential knowledge, and original surgical explanations. The text provides detailed descriptions of breast pathologies, including gynecomastia, and outlines diagnostic procedures, therapeutic strategies, surgical drainage methods, local wound-cleansing practices, and the definitions and uses of numerous surgical instruments, many of which are illustrated via miniatures. His second major work, Mücerrebnâme, is equally significant from a pharmacotherapeutic perspective, containing experiential prescriptions for swelling, inflammation, and painful breast lesions and reflecting the empirical reasoning he applied to drug-based treatments. Together, these two works portray Sabuncuoğlu as a versatile physician who combined operative techniques with pharmacological knowledge, offering a comprehensive view of medical practice in the early Ottoman period. His detailed account of gynecomastia surgery, supported by observations on pre- and postoperative care, represents an important source for understanding both medieval surgical practice and the development of anatomical and therapeutic knowledge in the Islamic medical tradition. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of adding extracts obtained from by-products on the physicochemical and functional properties of cleansing gels. Micellar extraction (2% decyl glucoside solution in water) was performed on secondary raw materials: banana peel (BP), pomegranate peel (PP), tomato pomace (TP), and grape pomace (GP). The extracts were analyzed for soluble substances and active compounds (polyphenols, carotenoids, and vitamin C). Cleansing gels containing plant extracts were also prepared and evaluated for their color and physicochemical and functional properties. The extracts contained natural polyphenols (10.99–16.54 mg·100 mL⁻¹), carotenoids (1.391–2.402 mg·mL⁻¹), and vitamin C (0.651–1.529 mg·100 mL⁻¹). The extract-enriched gels showed altered color (lower brightness, greater redness and yellowness), enhanced foaming properties, and modified viscosity (402.9–416.8 mPA for BP and GP; lower for PP and TP). The pH of the gels ranged from 5.391 to 5.917, which is within the physiological range of human skin. Dissolution times were reduced by up to 60% compared to the control, with PP extract producing the shortest time of 15.7 min. These results indicate that plant by-product extracts can improve both the functional performance and skin compatibility of cleaning gels. Full article

A reliable protocol for comprehensive rice yield data management was established to overcome the heterogeneity and inconsistency inherent in using diverse data sources, measurement conditions, and units. This methodology defines systematic routines for data collection, cleansing, calibration, homogenization, analysis, and visualization. Data were collected over an eight-year period from various yield monitors across extensive cultivated areas within the Axios River Plain, Greece. The protocol relies on a Geographic Information System (GIS) to ensure high data integrity. Following calibration against in-situ weighing records, the data accuracy was confirmed as consistently high, ranging between 91.7% and 96.6% annually. Post-processing revealed a critical finding: the within-field yield variability (approx. 8.6%) was significantly lower than the inherent variability of underlying environmental factors (soil and spectral properties (33–35%)), indicating successful resource management by the farmers. Comparative analysis demonstrated that farms employing site-specific fertilization achieved significantly higher average yields (9.87 t/ha) compared to those using conventional, uniform fertilization (9.11 t/ha). The resulting calibrated yield maps are communicated via a web-based Farm Management Information System (FMIS). The established protocol has since been fully integrated into a commercial precision agriculture service, underscoring its practical efficiency and operational value. Full article