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ABSTRACTIntroductionThe introduction of targeted therapy and immunotherapy has tremendously changed the clinical outcomes and prognosis of cancer patients. Despite innovative pharmacological therapies and improved radiotherapy (RT) techniques, patients continue to suffer from side effects, of which oral mucositis (OM) is still the most impactful, especially for quality of life.Areas CoveredWe provide an overview of current advances in cancer pharmacotherapy and RT, in relation to their potential to cause OM, and of the less explored and more recent literature reports related to the best management of OM. We have analyzed natural/antioxidant agents, probiotics, mucosal protectants and healing coadjuvants, pharmacotherapies, immunomodulatory and anticancer agents, photobiomodulation and the impact of technology.Expert OpinionThe discovery of more precise pathophysiologic mechanisms of CT and RT-induced OM has outlined that OM has a multifactorial origin, including direct effects, oxidative damage, upregulation of immunologic factors, and effects on oral flora. A persistent upregulated immune response, associated with factors related to patients’ characteristics, may contribute to more severe and long-lasting OM. The goal is strategies to conjugate individual patient, disease, and therapy-related factors to guide OM prevention or treatment. Despite further high-quality research is warranted, the issue of prevention is paramount in future strategies.

Prediabetes, characterized by elevated blood glucose (BG) levels without reaching the threshold for diabetes, necessitates early detection to avert complications. Unfortunately, traditional BG monitoring methods involve painful finger pricking. Hence, exploring noninvasive alternatives for BG estimation and continuous monitoring is imperative. This article investigates electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency parameters, an underexplored aspect of prediabetes diagnosis. Our investigation involved 25 participants (17 healthy and 8 prediabetes) subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test. Continuous EEG signals were collected from three positions: frontal (F), occipital (O), and parietal (P). The analysis employed boxplots to elucidate signal patterns in three phases at 40-min equal time segments; start phase, middle phase, and end phase. The outcomes revealed compelling results: the left hemisphere’s occipital (O) recorded an impressive 90.3% and the right hemisphere’s parietal (P) exhibited a notable 90.5% change at the end phase analysis. These findings underscore the significance of EEG signal analysis for BG estimation, especially in O and P positions, where parameters, such as alpha and beta mean power (BMNP), showcase promise (P value < 0.05). Combining these EEG frequency parameters in a wearable device holds potential for healthcare and clinical solutions, facilitating noninvasive BG status estimation and prediabetes diagnosis.

The increasing interest in synthesizing nanocomposites using environmentally friendly methods has drawn considerable attention due to their non-toxic nature, cost-effectiveness, and ease of production. This research investigates the synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles and nanocomposites using an aqueous leaf extract of Aegle marmelos, along with chitosan biomolecules to improve their biological properties. The physicochemical analysis of copper oxide nanoparticles and chitosan-embedded copper oxide nanocomposites employed several techniques including UV–Visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis. The antibacterial efficacy of the copper oxide nanoparticles and nanocomposites was assessed against both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli)bacteria. Additionally, the bio-functionalized copper oxide nanoparticles and nanocomposites exhibited photocatalytic capabilities in degrading the industrial dye Methylene Blue. The synthesized nanostructures showed favorable sizes of 13.7 nm for copper oxide nanoparticles and 25.8 nm for nanocomposites, both displaying a crystalline structure. Notably, the maximum zone of inhibition is obtained for copper oxide nanocomposites against Staphylococcus aureus(30 mm) and Escherichia coli(25 mm) while for copper oxide nanoparticles, the inhibition zones were recorded as 21 mm for Staphylococcus aureusand 15 mm for Escherichia coli. Moreover, the copper oxide nanoparticles and nanocomposites displayed efficient photocatalytic dye degradation against Methylene Blue, achieving degradation rates of up to 60% and 92%, respectively, within 70 min without the use of any reducing agent. Bio-functionalized copper oxide nanocomposites show promising potential for biomedical applications and industrial wastewater treatment.

A significant concern regarding human health is the toxic substances present in water. The existence of arsenic contamination, in potable water, has been acknowledged as a significant global issue pertaining to human health. Numerous countries, including the USA, India, Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, Poland, Hungary, etc., face this issue regarding the percentage of arsenic being more than the acceptable limit in potable water as per United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), which is 10 μg/L. To get rid of this problem, various conventional technologies including precipitation, oxidation, adsorption etc., have been used, but unfortunately, most of these have been remained less effective due to their low efficiency to meet the requirement. In comparison to these traditional techniques, the other methods pertaining nanomaterials are found more promising due to available more surfaces to volume ration of the nanomaterials. In this regard, several nanomaterials have been studied; among these materials, magnetite (Fe3O4) is found as a potential candidate. The adsorbent Fe3O4being magnetic in nature has great benefit from its separation point of view, since it can be isolated using an external magnetic field, while other nanomaterials face problems of separation after they are used as adsorbents. In order to realize the systems containing Fe3O4nanomaterial as an adsorbent, it is essential to comprehend the entire process of arsenic adsorption by Fe3O4.Several matrices and surfaces have been used to coat the Fe3O4. In this review, at first, we aim to summarize the sources of arsenic, its harmful consequences on human health, and the technologies available for arsenic removal, which is accompanied by the detailed discussion of various methods and aspects of utilization of the Fe3O4for removing arsenic from drinking water. In general, experimental conditions shows impact on efficiency; thus, this review also discusses the impact of various experimental conditions like pH, temperature, time, competing species concentration, adsorbent size, and doses on eradication of arsenic.

Water pollution is affecting every aspect of our life. Over the few previous decades, various new practices have been developed to counter the increasing amount of wastewater, but conventional methods fall short when dealing with highly stable organic pollutants such as dyes and antibiotics. In comparison to modern techniques, advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have demonstrated their superior benefits such as high efficiency, cheap cost, rapid reaction rate, etc. There are different types of advanced oxidation processes that are being utilized for treating industrial discharge, although the AOP which shows the highest potential for wastewater treatment is sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation process (Sr-AOP). The Sr-AOP demonstrate good degradation in a broader pH range and, the sulfate radicals for Sr-AOP are generated either by help of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) or by persulfate (PS). There are numerous activators that may be used to activate the PMS, which is necessary for it to be employed in AOP. Cobalt ferrite and their composites can act as an excellent activator for PMS-based Sr-AOP. Therefore, in the present review work, we discussed numerous useful qualities of cobalt ferrite (CF) which makes it a better heterogeneous catalyst than available options. We also explained the basis of Sr-AOP along with an emphasis on the mechanism for cobalt ferrite-activated Sr-AOP. To counter various shortcomings of using cobalt ferrite, various cobalt ferrite-based composites were also addressed. Lastly, the various challenges and future directions for utilizing cobalt ferrite and their composites (CFC) for activating PMS-based AOP were discussed.

Many engineering components are subjected to random nature of loading during their life period. In this work, the fatigue crack growth in friction stir welded dissimilar AA6061 and AA7075 was investigated under different stress ratio. AA6061 was kept on the advancing side due to having a higher solidus temperature and softer than AA7075 for smooth material flow. The microstructure characterization, tensile and crack growth behavior was studied. It was observed that the joint material exhibited lower strength and ductility as compared to the base material. About 41%, 34%, and 66% reduction in tensile strength, yield strength, and percentage of elongation as compared to AA6061 (base material) were observed. About 27% higher hardness in the HAZ of retreating side than the advancing side was noticed. The crack deflection and tortuosity features were observed in the fatigue fractured specimens. In this paper, a comparative study using different crack growth models has been studied and a simple crack growth rate equation has been proposed considering the crack closure effect.

Diabetes is one of the most persistent and common immedicable diseases characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose, rendering the early detection and diagnosis of diabetes utmost important. Irrespective of currently available invasive and minimally invasive techniques, the noninvasive glucose measurement has drawn a lot of attention in recent years and continues to open up new areas for further research. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the developments over the last decade in the area of noninvasive blood glucose monitoring research, with particular reference given to the use of radio frequency electromagnetic (EM) wave for blood glucose sensing. The majority of the glucose sensors described in this article have been proven to be reliable by Clarke error grid analysis or similar methods but, amid all other known challenges such as reproducibility, specificity, and sensitivities, these glucose sensors were based on an expensive vector network analyzer (VNA). Finally, we conclude with a positive note that the noninvasive blood glucose monitoring research is beginning to be acknowledged not only on a global scale but also in applied physics and biomedical fields; however, more research is needed to overcome the challenges related to hardware alternative to a VNA and system integration involving enhancement of specificity and sensitivity.

Objective: Despite the clinical importance of glycemic variability and hypoglycemia, thus far, there is no consensus on the optimum method for assessing glycemic variability and risk of hypoglycemia simultaneously. Research design and methods: A novel metric, the gradient variability coefficient (GVC), was proposed for characterizing glycemic variability and risk of hypoglycemia. A total of 208 daily records of CGM encompassing 104 patients with T1DM and 2380 daily records from 1190 patients with T2DM were obtained in our study. Simulated CGM waveforms were used to assess the ability of GVC and other metrics to capture the amplitude and frequency of glucose fluctuations. In addition, the association between GVC and the risk of hypoglycemia was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: The results of simulated CGM waveforms indicated that, compared with the widely used metrics of glycemic variability including standard deviation of sensor glucose (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), and mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE), GVC could reflect both the amplitude and frequency of glucose oscillations. In addition, the area under the curve (AUC) of ROC was 0.827 in T1DM and 0.873 in T2DM, indicating good performance in predicting hypoglycemia. Conclusions: The proposed GVC might be a clinically useful tool in characterizing glycemic variability and the assessment of hypoglycemia risk in patients with diabetes.

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a class of open-ended voltage multipliers, of which the input is a displacement current from a Goubau line and the output is a multiplied DC voltage. When terminated with a 500 ohm load, the proposed voltage multipliers have rectified a microwave power at 20 dBm into a DC voltage 5–6 V, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of approximately 50%. The maximum voltage reaches 20 V if the circuit is unloaded. Due to its characteristic impedance being comparable to that of the free space, the Goubau line feeding the proposed voltage multipliers has been successfully used as a monopole antenna for capturing ground waves in an experimental system for wireless power transfer. Over a short range, with r ≪1.05 m, the open-ended voltage multipliers vertically mounted on the surface of a lossy dielectric material were at best able to generate a power proportional to 1/r0.4, where ris the distance between the receiver and the transmitter, suggesting that the received power is not a pure space wave.

This paper presents a new, compact, efficient, wideband and low side-level parasitically coupled notch-loaded antenna array for communication systems. The antenna structure consists of a circular microstrip antenna coupled parasitically with notch-loaded rings. The proposed antenna is also considered using different dielectric substrates and the results are compared. The simulated results are compared with the experimental results and are found to be in good agreement with each other.