Search Results (9)

Background/Objectives: Vitamin C is frequently used in several dietary supplements due to its proposed health-promoting properties, while phenolic compounds and especially flavonoids have been suggested to provide synergistic antioxidant and cardiovascular benefits. However, the specific interactions between these compounds and their individual contributions to biological activity remain underexplored. This study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant potential and anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet biological effects of a high-dose (1 g) vitamin C–low-dose (50 mg) bioflavonoid (VCF)-based supplement using both in vitro and in vivo approaches in human platelets. Methods: Total phenolic content was quantified and antioxidant capacity was assessed using DPPH, FRAP, and ABTS assays and compared to individual phenolic standard compounds, including (simple phenolics like gallic acid, flavonoids like quercetin and catechin, and polyphenols like curcumin and tannin), and a standard supplement containing only high-dose vitamin C (VC). ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was used to assess molecular interactions between vitamin C and flavonoids. In vitro anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet activities of all supplements and standards were assessed by quantifying their IC₅₀ values against ADP, PAF, and thrombin-induced platelet aggregation. The in vivo evaluation of the efficacy and synergy of VCF supplement versus VC was achieved by a two-arm clinical study in healthy volunteers by quantifying their platelet reactivity, which was measured via EC₅₀ values on the aforementioned platelet agonists (PAF, ADP, and Thrombin) before (t = 0) and after receiving either solely VC or VCF supplementation for four weeks. Results: From all phenolic standards, the flavonoids and especially a mixture of flavonoids (catechin + quercetin) showed higher in vitro antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet efficacy, followed by polyphenols and then simple phenolics. The VCF supplement showed the most potent antioxidant capacity, but also the strongest anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet activities too, in comparison to the VC and the mixture of flavonoids, suggesting higher synergy and thus bio-efficacy as a result of the co-presence of flavonoids and vitamin C in this supplement. Platelet reactivity decreased over time for PAF and thrombin in both arms of the trial, but no significant differences were observed between treatment groups, suggesting that the number of flavonoids used was not sufficient to translate the in vitro findings to the in vivo setting. Conclusions: VC-containing supplements provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiplatelet benefits, while the incorporation of flavonoids may provide synergistic health benefits, but more in vivo assessment is needed to fully evaluate the dose efficacy. Full article

Background and objective: The symptoms of most neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), usually do not occur until substantial neuronal loss occurs. This makes the process of early diagnosis very challenging. Hence, this research used variant call format (VCF) analysis to detect variants and novel genes that could be used as prognostic indicators in the early diagnosis of prodromal PD. Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), and we analyzed prodromal patients with gVCF data collected in the 2021 cohort. A total of 304 participants were included, including 100 healthy controls, 146 prodromal genetic individuals, 21 prodromal hyposmia individuals, and 37 prodromal individuals with RBD. A pipeline was developed to process the samples from gVCF to reach variant annotation and pathway and disease association analysis. Results: Novel variant percentages were detected in the analyzed prodromal subgroups. The prodromal subgroup analysis revealed novel variations of 1.0%, 1.2%, 0.6%, 0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.4% for the genetic male, genetic female, hyposmia male, hyposmia female, RBD male, and RBD female groups, respectively. Interestingly, 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300, and PPP6R2) that were recently detected in PD patients were detected in the prodromal stage of PD. Conclusions: Genetic biomarkers are crucial for the early detection of Parkinson’s disease and its prodromal stage. The novel PD genes detected in prodromal patients could aid in the use of gene biomarkers for early diagnosis of the prodromal stage without relying only on phenotypic traits. Full article

Climate change and anthropogenic replantation are supposed to greatly change vegetation coverage and ecosystem stability and functions, e.g., net primary productivity (NPP), evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE). Our study compared WUE of nature- and human-induced forest cover increase on the Loess Plateau since 2000 using satellite-derived Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF), NPP, ET. This study also applied over 30 years of model-based NPP and meteorological observations to compare the stability and changes brought up by the Grain for Green Project. The result showed that the average forest coverage fraction increased from 7.1% (~4.5 × 10⁴ km²) in 2000 to 11.2% (~7.3 × 10⁴ km²) in 2014. Artificial forest cover increase occupied 76.43% of the significantly increasing tree cover regions. The role of revegetation practice in NPP and ET became gradually more dominant than climate factors in artificial forests from the northern to the southern part of the Loess Plateau. For areas experiencing limited forest coverage increase, artificial forest areas showed higher WUE than natural forest areas under similar mean annual precipitation (MAP). The difference in stability was small between neighboring natural and artificial forest areas. The northwest of the Loess Plateau had an increasing resilience, whereas the south of the Plateau had an increased resistance to precipitation and temperature change. The higher dependency of the northern reforested areas on climate fluctuation indicates a growing threat of water scarcity to the sustainability of anthropogenic reforestation in semi-arid regions. Full article

This work aims to determine the optimized ultrafiltration conditions for industrial wastewater treatment loaded with oil and heavy metals generated from an electroplating industry for water reuse in the industrial process. A ceramic multitubular membrane was used for the almost total retention of oil and turbidity, and the high removal of heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, and Cu (>95%) was also applied. The interactive effects of the initial oil concentration (19–117 g/L), feed temperature (20–60 °C), and applied transmembrane pressure (2–5 bar) on the chemical oxygen demand removal (RCOD) and permeate flux (Jw) were investigated. A Box–Behnken experimental design (BBD) for response surface methodology (RSM) was used for the statistical analysis, modelling, and optimization of operating conditions. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed that the COD removal and permeate flux were significant since they showed good correlation coefficients of 0.985 and 0.901, respectively. Mathematical modelling revealed that the best conditions were an initial oil concentration of 117 g/L and a feed temperature of 60 °C, under a transmembrane pressure of 3.5 bar. In addition, the effect of the concentration under the optimized conditions was studied. It was found that the maximum volume concentrating factor (VCF) value was equal to five and that the pollutant retention was independent of the VCF. The fouling mechanism was estimated by applying Hermia’s model. The results indicated that the membrane fouling given by the decline in the permeate flux over time could be described by the cake filtration model. Finally, the efficiency of the membrane regeneration was proved by determining the water permeability after the chemical cleaning process. Full article

An extraction method for deep-seated thick seam deposits by underground mining with high resource recovery has remained a great challenge for Indian mining engineers, whereas the longwall top coal caving (LTCC) method has evolved as an effective method for various geo mining conditions in China and other counties. The percentage of top coal recovery (TCR) plays a predominant role in determining the feasibility of LTCC, which relies on the First Top Coal Caving Distance (FTCD). In this paper, the critical geotechnical parameters are identified, numerically simulated, and statistically analyzed, and the FTCD for Indian geo-mining conditions is developed and validated. A financial assessment is conducted, considering 70% top coal recovery at 85% performance level, cost of production escalated by 20% and fall in coal grade by two grades. The internal rate of return (IRR) for LTCC is 30.24% as per the sensitivity analysis where it is only 18% in single pass longwall method. This study contributes to evaluating both the technical and economic feasibility of introducing LTCC in Indian geo-mining conditions. Full article

Satellite-based land cover products play a crucial role in sustainability. There are several types of land cover products, such as qualitative products with discrete classes, semiquantitative products with several classes at a predetermined ratio, and quantitative products with land cover fractions. The proportions of land cover types in the grids with coarse resolution should be considered when used at the regional scale (e.g., modeling and remote sensing inversion). However, uncertainty, which varies with spatial distribution and resolution, needs to be studied further. This study used MCD12, ESA CCI, and MEaSURES VCF land cover data as indicators of qualitative, semiquantitative, and quantitative products, respectively, to explore the uncertainty of multisource land cover data. The methods of maximum area aggregation, deviation analysis, and least squares regression were used to investigate spatiotemporal changes in forests and nontree vegetation at diverse pixel resolutions across China. The results showed that the average difference in forest coverage for the three products was 8%, and the average deviation was 11.2%. For forest cover, the VCF and ESA CCI exhibited high consistency. For nontree vegetation, the ESA CCI and MODIS exhibited the lowest differences. The overall uncertainty in the temporal and spatial changes of the three products was relatively small, but there were significant differences in local areas (e.g., southeastern hills). Notably, as the spatial resolution decreased, the three products’ uncertainty decreased, and the resolution of 0.1° was the inflection point of consistency. Full article

Quick capacity loss due to the polysulfide shuttle effects is a critical challenge for high-performance lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. Herein, a novel 2D/1D V₂O₅ nanoplates anchored carbon nanofiber (V-CF) interlayer coated on standard polypropylene (PP) separator is constructed, and a stabilization mechanism derived from a quasi-confined cushion space (QCCS) that can flexibly accommodate the polysulfide utilization is demonstrated. The incorporation of the V-CF interlayer ensures stable electron and ion pathway, and significantly enhanced long-term cycling performances are obtained. A Li–S battery assembled with the V-CF membrane exhibited a high initial capacity of 1140.8 mAh·g⁻¹ and a reversed capacitance of 1110.2 mAh·g⁻¹ after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. A high reversible capacity of 887.2 mAh·g⁻¹ is also maintained after 500 cycles at 1 C, reaching an ultra-low decay rate of 0.0093% per cycle. The excellent electrochemical properties, especially the long-term cycling stability, can offer a promising designer protocol for developing highly stable Li–S batteries by introducing well-designed fine architectures to the separator. Full article

Globally, the spatial distribution of vegetation is governed primarily by climatological factors (rainfall and temperature, seasonality, and inter-annual variability). The local distribution of vegetation, however, depends on local edaphic conditions (soils and topography) and disturbances (fire, herbivory, and anthropogenic activities). Abrupt spatial or temporal changes in vegetation distribution can occur if there are positive (i.e., amplifying) feedbacks favoring certain vegetation states under otherwise similar climatic and edaphic conditions. Previous studies in the tropical savannas of Africa and other continents using the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation continuous fields (VCF) satellite data product have focused on discontinuities in the distribution of tree cover at different rainfall levels, with bimodal distributions (e.g., concentrations of high and low tree cover) interpreted as alternative vegetation states. Such observed bimodalities over large spatial extents may not be evidence for alternate states, as they may include regions that have different edaphic conditions and disturbance histories. In this study, we conduct a systematic multi-scale analysis of diverse MODIS data streams to quantify the presence and spatial consistency of alternative vegetation states in Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is based on the premise that major discontinuities in vegetation structure should also manifest as consistent spatial patterns in a range of remote sensing data streams, including, for example, albedo and land surface temperature (LST). Our results confirm previous observations of bimodal and multimodal distributions of estimated tree cover in the MODIS VCF. However, strong disagreements in the location of multimodality between VCF and other data streams were observed at 1 km scale. Results suggest that the observed distribution of VCF over vast spatial extents are multimodal, not because of local-scale feedbacks and emergent bifurcations (the definition of alternative states), but likely because of other factors including regional scale differences in woody dynamics associated with edaphic, disturbance, and/or anthropogenic processes. These results suggest the need for more in-depth consideration of bifurcation mechanisms and thus the likely spatial and temporal scales at which alternative states driven by different positive feedback processes should manifest. Full article

Individualized medicine enables better diagnoses and treatment decisions for patients and promotes research in understanding the molecular underpinnings of disease. Linking individual patient’s genomic and molecular information with their clinical phenotypes is crucial to these efforts. To address this need, the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic has implemented a genomic data warehouse and a workflow management system to bring data from institutional electronic health records and genomic sequencing data from both clinical and research bioinformatics sources into the warehouse. The system is the foundation for Mayo Clinic to build a suite of tools and interfaces to support various clinical and research use cases. The genomic data warehouse is positioned to play a key role in enhancing the research capabilities and advancing individualized patient care at Mayo Clinic. Full article