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The global burden of cancer, which constitutes approximately one-sixth of all worldwide mortalities, poses a significant challenge for scientific researchers in their pursuit of effective therapeutic interventions. This discourse delves into the potential of idarubicin (IDA), an anthracycline antibiotic with pronounced lipophilicity, known for its accelerated nuclear sequestration, enhanced cellular permeability, and potent cytotoxicity. Despite IDA’s demonstrated effectiveness in combating a spectrum of cancers, its therapeutic utility is significantly hampered by the onset of deleterious side effects such as cardiotoxicity and myelosuppression. The manuscript provides an exhaustive analysis of novel methodologies that have been developed to circumvent the impediments associated with IDA delivery, encompassing lipid-based nanoparticles (NPs), polymeric nanocarriers, carbonaceous nanostructures, and inorganic NPs. It examines key parameters such as drug release, encapsulation efficacy, loading proficiency, zeta potential, along with in vivo and in vitro characterizations, offering a comprehensive assessment of the advancements in disparate delivery systems for IDA. Furthermore, the manuscript probes into co-delivery formulations of IDA in conjunction with other anti-cancer agents, underscoring their promising implications for future oncological therapy. The discourse also highlights the paucity of empirical research in this domain. The revelations gleaned from this review are anticipated to make a substantial contribution to the genesis of innovative strategies for future oncological treatment.

HNRNPA1variants are known to cause degenerative motoneuron and muscle diseases which manifests in middle age or later. We report on a girl with early childhood onset, rapidly progressive generalized myopathy including ultrastructural findings in line with a proteinopathy. Proteomics of patient-derived muscle and combined screening of genomic data for copy number variations identified a HNRNPA1de novo intragenic deletion as causative for the phenotype. Our report expands the spectrum of HNRNPA1-related diseases towards early-childhood onset and adds HNRNPA1to the growing list of ALS and myopathy genes for which certain mutations may cause severe pediatric phenotypes.

To address the high demand for energy and fresh water, the effect of global warming and pollution generated by fossil fuels consumption needs to be minimized and replaced with alternative renewable energy. Hybrid renewable energy systems using solar energy and biomass will become more crucial. In this study a new design for continuous production process of power, biogas and fresh water is proposed. The challenge of the present research is to use different sources for energy production from renewable resources simultaneously including solar and biomass to produce power, fuel and fresh water, using 4-stage Multi Effect Distillation (MED) for desalination of seawater. To cope with constant and stable energy production required for renewable solar power plants at night, due to lack of sunlight, co-consumption of hybrid solar and biomass feedstocks is considered in this paper. The associated challenge is discussed by the assessments of Solar Heat transfer fluid (SHTF), Sewage sludge flowrates, biogas production, output waste stream of gasification reactor, power and fresh water production using ASPEN Plus software. The sensitivity analysis was performed to demonstrate the viability of the designed process and the resulting products. The gasification process produced 76.8586 tonhsyngas (CO and H2). Also, 34.547 MWof power with about 783 m3hof fresh water were produced with the overall exergy efficiency of 35.51 %, 52.260 MWexergy destruction and desalination efficiency of 52 %. Only 25 MWof solar power were necessary due to proper energy recovery throughout the entire process. The productivity of fresh water production was 50 %. 38908 m2of Parabolic trough collector (PTC) was needed to supply required solar energy during day light hours. It was revealed that the hybridization of solar & biomass energy resources for producing power, fresh water, and biogas could be a sustainable approach to cope with the increasing demand for fresh water, electricity, and fuel.

Estimates of demographic metrics are crucial to assess levels and trends of population health outcomes. The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations worldwide has underscored the need for timely estimates to understand this unprecedented event within the context of long-term population health trends. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 provides new demographic estimates for 204 countries and territories and 811 additional subnational locations from 1950 to 2021, with a particular emphasis on changes in mortality and life expectancy that occurred during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic period.

To prevent doping practices in sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency implemented the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) program, monitoring biological variables over time to indirectly reveal the effects of doping rather than detect the doping substance or the method itself. In the context of this program, a highly multiplexed mass spectrometry-based proteomics assay for 319 peptides corresponding to 250 proteins was developed, including proteins associated with blood-doping practices. “Baseline” expression profiles of these potential biomarkers in capillary blood (dried blood spots (DBS)) were established using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). Combining DBS microsampling with highly multiplexed MRM assays is the best-suited technology to enhance the effectiveness of the ABP program, as it represents a cost-effective and robust alternative analytical method with high specificity and selectivity of targets in the attomole range. DBS data were collected from 10 healthy athlete volunteers over a period of 140 days (28 time points per participant). These comprehensive findings provide a personalized targeted blood proteome “fingerprint” showcasing that the targeted proteome is unique to an individual and likely comparable to a DNA fingerprint. The results can serve as a baseline for future studies investigating doping-related perturbations.

Trypsin is the gold-standard protease in bottom-up proteomics, but many sequence stretches of the proteome are inaccessible to trypsin and standard LC-MS approaches. Thus, multienzyme strategies are used to maximize sequence coverage in post-translational modification profiling. We present fast and robust SP3- and STRAP-based protocols for the broad-specificity proteases subtilisin, proteinase K, and thermolysin. All three enzymes are remarkably fast, producing near-complete digests in 1–5 min, and cost 200–1000× less than proteomics-grade trypsin. Using FragPipe resolved a major challenge by drastically reducing the duration of the required “unspecific” searches. In-depth analyses of proteinase K, subtilisin, and thermolysin Jurkat digests identified 7374, 8178, and 8753 unique proteins with average sequence coverages of 21, 29, and 37%, including 10,000s of amino acids not reported in PeptideAtlas’ >2400 experiments. While we could not identify distinct cleavage patterns, machine learning could distinguish true protease products from random cleavages, potentially enabling the prediction of cleavage products. Finally, proteinase K, subtilisin, and thermolysin enabled label-free quantitation of 3111, 3659, and 4196 unique Jurkat proteins, which in our hands is comparable to trypsin. Our data demonstrate that broad-specificity proteases enable quantitative proteomics of uncharted areas of the proteome. Their fast kinetics may allow “on-the-fly” digestion of samples in the future.

ABSTRACTDesign and management of events and festivals will create a new wave in the future of tourism education while they lead tourism transformation and innovation. Children’s festivals and events are tributes to the sound of children’s voices and can be a solution for attracting tourists to a destination, creating joy and happiness in these destinations. The aim of this study is to design an event calendar as an educational tool for kids in the city of Isfahan, Iran. A qualitative method (thematic analysis using MAXQDA) was applied in this research. Analysis of the data indicated 31 subthemes. Further analysis identified that historical-cultural events, environmental and agricultural events, children and health, literary festivals for children, art, sports and entertainment were determined as the main themes which are appropriate for designing the kids’ calendar in Isfahan.

I. INTRODUCTION 712 II. CAMPAIGN FINANCE CRIMES 712 A. Introduction 712 1. History of the Federal Election Campaign Act 713 2. Introduction of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 714 3. [...]

In the past two decades, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) has been vastly used in different industries such as automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors due to its mechanical strength, high heat stability, and excellent chemical resistance. Since this semi-crystalline polymer has a high melting temperature, the standard procedure to select extrusion-based 3D printing working parameters has many challenges to ensure each bespoke product with the best quality. Slight shift from optimum process parameters in fused deposition modeling (FDM) of PEEK has a remarkable impact on the final product quality. The present research addresses the long-standing problem of selecting a working setup quickly and accurately which is not dependent on the user's knowledge. In this article, to identify the best arrangement of FDM process parameters, an orthogonal matrix of Taguchi Design of Experiments (DoEs) is applied. Different values of bed, chamber, and nozzle temperatures, print speed, and layer thickness were thoroughly examined for the printing of standard tensile specimens. The mechanical properties and the fracture morphology of samples are examined in different printing conditions to explore a roadmap tool for designing better process parameters which satisfy mechanical requirements of products. In this study, the interpretation of the experimental results is investigated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA). The obtained results show that the best working set up for nozzle temperature, bed temperature, print speed, and layer thickness are 415°C, 160°C, 50 mm s−1, and 0.2 mm, respectively. This article consists of five sections. After introduction in the first section, the effects of working parameters on the strength of final fused products are investigated in Experimental setup section. The results and the confirmation test are considered in seperate sections, respectively. The research is summarized in the conclusion section.

The ongoing increase in salinity is a major threat to olive cultivation in the world. This study aims to screen growth and physiological changes in five superior olive cultivars (‘Zard’, ‘Meshkat’, ‘Zagros’, ‘Sevillana’ and ‘Direh’) and one olive genotype (‘Dehsefid’) subjected to salinity stress in order to identify the most salt-tolerant cultivar. To achieve this, young olive seedlings were transplanted to plastic pots in the open field and were exposed to four levels of salinity (distilled water as a control, 6, 12 and 18 ds.m−1NaCl as slight, moderate and severe stress, respectively). The obtained results revealed that growth attributes, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll (Chl) reduced salinity-severity behavior and reached minimum contents in severe stress, while malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage (EL) displayed counterintuitive results. ‘Dehsefid’ unquestionably outperformed due to the highest growth attributes, RWC and Chl. In contrast, ‘Direh’ was the most salinity-sensitive olive cultivar in this experiment. This result was attributable to the lowest growth parameters and the highest EL. These results recommend that ‘Dehsefid’ as the most salt-tolerant olive genotype could be a promising genotype to mitigate the detrimental effects of salinity on olive seedlings.

Over the past few years, continuous atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions have become a research priority. The global effort to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) has increased significantly. Carbon storage research currently focuses on carbon dioxide storage. This study aims to use flue gas in concrete production, resulting in a chemical reaction between concrete and carbon dioxide. The goal is to optimize carbon dioxide absorption while minimizing energy consumption. Additionally, the paper compares the technical, economic and environmental aspects of fuel oil and natural gas power plants as suppliers of carbon dioxide to the industry. It seeks to determine which power plant approach aligns better with maximizing carbon absorption and minimizing energy usage. The results show that the fuel oil power plant absorbs 71% of carbon dioxide, whereas the natural gas power plant absorbs 38%. Due to the lower electricity consumption of natural gas power plants, it’s a more favorable approach to energy minimization. Concerning the environmental aspect, the fuel oil power plant emits nearly 90% more carbon dioxide than the natural gas power plant, reflecting a negative impact. However, considering the aim of maximizing carbon dioxide intake, this power plant proves more suitable.

Pomegranate (Punica granatumL.) is considered as a source of antioxidants with anticancer and antiviral activities. Optimal nutrition, especially the use of various forms of minerals can alleviate drought stress as a major challenge for pomegranate production. In this study, the effect of foliar application of various forms of zinc [zinc sulfate (5 and 10 mg L−1of ZnSO4) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (5 and 10 mg L−1of ZnO-NPs) and distilled water as a control] on some physiological and biochemical attributes of pomegranate plants under various levels of drought stress (100, 60 and 30% field capacity, FC) was assessed. SPAD, relative water content (RWC), content of chlorophyll aand b(Chl aand b)decreased by 16, 7, 46, and 14% under severe stress, respectively. In contrast, ZnSO4(10 mg L−1) significantly increased the amount of SPAD, RWC and total Chl compared to the control. In addition, ZnSO4(10 mg L−1) reduced the content of electrolyte leakage (23%) and malondialdehyde (13%) while ZnO-NPs (5 mg L−1) reduced the amount of hydrogen peroxide (9%) under severe drought. Foliar application of ZnSO4(10 mg L−1) under severe drought stress also led to an increase in antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase (1%), proline (27%), and carbohydrates (12%). Polyphenol oxidase (7%) also increased with the use of ZnO-NPs (5 mg L−1). It seems that the foliar application of Zn, especially ZnSO4(10 mg L−1) can be a useful solution to improve the tolerance of pomegranate plants to drought stress, especially in areas with zinc deficiency.

Cyclophosphamide is an alkylating agent that is widely used in cancer therapy. An important complication of this drug is hepatotoxicity. The hepatic prophylactic effects of ginger and pumpkin seeds were observed due to antioxidant effect. In the current study, the effects of ginger, pumpkin seed extracts, and their combination on cyclophosphamide-induced hepatotoxicity in rats were investigated. In this intervention study, a total of 70 male rats were randomly divided into 10 groups. The blood was taken after 2 weeks of treatment. Liver enzyme levels including ALT, AST and MDA were measured. Sections of the livers of all groups were provided and then histologically evaluated. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS software version 16. A significant increase in liver enzymes was observed in rats treated with cyclophosphamide compared to other groups. Liver enzyme levels were decreased in rats treated with ginger, pumpkin seed and combined extracts (P< 0.05). Histological examination of liver samples treated with ginger, pumpkin seeds and combined extracts showed a significant reduction in liver damage compared to the cyclophosphamide-treated group (P< 0.05). Ginger, pumpkin seeds and combined extracts could improve biochemical parameters such as AST and ALT and pathological damage in the liver of cyclophosphamide-treated rats.

The aim of this study was to investigate the interconnections among perceived teacher enthusiasm (TE), foreign language enjoyment (FLE), academic boredom, and willingness to communicate (WTC) among undergraduate EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in Iran. Further, the mediating impacts of boredom and FLE on TE-WTC connection were tested. Accordingly, 291 EFL students were invited through convenience sampling and requested to fill out self-report surveys. Validity and reliability of the questionnaires were examined. The results of structural equation modeling analysis indicated that TE could positively predict FLE and WTC and inversely predict boredom. Further, FLE positively and significantly predicted WTC. However, boredom could only indirectly affect WTC through the mediation of FLE. Another line of the findings revealed that FLE but not boredom mediated the impact of TE on WTC. Theoretical and empirical implications were discussed, and suggestions were made for future research.

In this project, the diffusion of fluid in complex porous media was simulated using D3Q27 model of Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in the presence of gravity force and at different temperatures and porosities. Also, the second-discretization version of LBM with Double Relaxation Times (DRT) was utilized for simulations. For better understanding of the paper regarding the order of steps of LBM calculations, a picture was drawn using a special web software to illustrate these steps in a detailed but completely regular and clear flowchart. The model of vessel (canal) including soil-like porous medium was constructed through image processing in three-dimensional space with randomly selected pixels colored as black for fixed obstacles and white pixels for fluid. For increase of accuracy, the nodes of LBM were taken as coincident on pixels of image. The entire pixels of porous medium were examined for not forming any “lake.” Furthermore, the critical point of calculation of exact value of gravity acceleration in LBM scale in various conditions and for different fluids was introduced. The mathematical programs were validated using density, velocity and pressure of fluid, and the excellent consistency in calculation of pressure from mechanics formula and thermodynamics formula was illustrated, and also, the satisfaction of valid equation of continuity was presented. For ensuring pure-diffusion regime for fluid (water vapor), the Péclet number Pe was assigned a value below 0.01. For taking into account the effect of presence of porous medium on diffusion coefficient of fluid, the tortuosity concept entered into calculations and a related equation in two forms was used and the comparison was made between them, with the Troeh et al. equation as a fundamental criterion in this regard. Because of existence of two main equations for tortuosity, velocity-based and streamline-based, both of them were used in this research, with results compared with each other. Also, the effects of temperature of fluid and the porosity of porous medium on fluid diffusion coefficient were examined thoroughly. Besides, the activation energies of diffusion in porous medium at different temperatures were evaluated using a general method beyond Arrhenius equation and the method was compared with Arrhenius equation. Also, the best criterion for investigation of sensitivity of diffusion coefficient to temperature was established.

Achieving climate change targets requires a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Paris agreement, this amount should be reached to 30 Gt/year CO2reduction. Among different energy and environmental technologies, CO2Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies are promising technologies to achieve those goals. Despite different technical, economical, and environmental CCS challenges, process development based on recent advances can significantly facilitate the CCS’s deployment. This study aims to simulate the absorption system of CO2with Methyl-Diethanolamine (MDEA) and Piperazine (PZ) absorbents. In this study, three different scenarios have been considered for designing the parts of the absorption tower and air blower that have the highest energy consumption to achieve the highest amount of absorption, purity, and CO2recovery. Compared results from the defined scenarios show that the use of an intercooler in the middle of the adsorption tower (Scenario 3) is the best design for the CO2capture simulated process where the adsorption rate is 90.1%, the purity is 82.26 (mol%) and CO2Recovered reaches 28.74 ton/hr. Since energy consumption in high CO2absorption rate and purity is one of the main challenges of such technologies, this study also evaluates the combination of the organic Rankin cycle (ORC) with air blowers by three refrigerants R290, R227, and R124 to reduce energy in the carbon capture units. The results show that in this cycle, R290 has the highest power output against R227 and R124 refrigerants under the same conditions. Combining ORC with an air blower reduces the cooling load of the whole process to 104.85 MW and the total power consumption to 46.375 MW. Finally, this study concludes that using different designs and combinations, including ORC cycles in high-energy CCS processes, can also reduce the cost of energy required, and its deployment can help prevent climate change.

The flavoenzyme nicotine oxidoreductase (NicA2) is a promising injectable treatment to aid in the cessation of smoking, a behavior responsible for one in ten deaths worldwide. NicA2 acts by degrading nicotine in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. Clinical use of NicA2 is limited by its poor catalytic activity in the absence of its natural electron acceptor CycN. Without CycN, NicA2 is instead oxidized slowly by dioxygen (O2), necessitating unfeasibly large doses in a therapeutic setting. Here, we report a genetic selection strategy that directly links CycN-independent activity of NicA2 to growth of Pseudomonas putidaS16. This selection enabled us to evolve NicA2 variants with substantial improvement in their rate of oxidation by O2. The encoded mutations cluster around a putative O2tunnel, increasing flexibility and accessibility to O2in this region. These mutations further confer desirable clinical properties. A variant form of NicA2 is tenfold more effective than the wild type at degrading nicotine in the bloodstream of rats.

Ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) are a common finding during cardiac stress tests. The independent prognostic value of these findings in patients in asymptomatic patients is unclear.

ABSTRACTEfficient bandwidth utilisation is significant in new communication systems where secondary users can be used besides primary users considering interference issues and idle state of primary users. Using secondary users as relays to transmit their own signals in addition to the primary signals can be applied for more reliability of the system where opportunistic relay selection can significantly enhance the performance of the system. The best-condition secondary user is selected as the optimum relay for retransmission of primary/secondary signal. Outage probability is analysed in this paper based on decode and forward technique in secondary users while the closed-form statement for outage probability is provided and verified by numerical evaluations.

A total of 60 offspring obtained from controlled reciprocal crosses of ‘Mamaei’ and ‘Marcona’ cultivars of almond along with parents were evaluated using 31 morphological and biochemical traits of the nut and kernel. According to the results, attribute values such as shell weight (1.39–5.68 g), shell retention (0–5 codes), nut weight (2.16–7.60 g), kernel weight (0.35–2.51 g), and double kernel percentage (0–60%) were variable. These traits showed a high coefficient of variation. Also, the values of biochemical characteristics and compounds of kernel include protein (14.54–25.16%), ash (1.79–4.69%), oil percentage (47.93–62.94%), soluble carbohydrates (0.64–4.65%), insoluble carbohydrate (3.30–7.13%), and vitamin E content (71–220 mg · 100 g−1FW) were variable in the offspring and parents. Simple correlation coefficients between traits showed a significant positive or negative correlation between some measured characteristics related to the nut, kernel, and biochemical characteristics. The principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the evaluated traits to 10 main factors that explained 74.45% of the total variance. The nut and kernel traits greatly affected the differentiation of cultivars and genotypes. Cluster analysis at 25 Euclidean distances divided cultivars and offspring into two main groups. Attributes such as nut length, width, and shape, as well as protein content and kernel taste, effectively differentiated the parents and progenies. By reducing the Euclidean distance, cultivars and offspring were divided into four main groups. Among the important factors for separating the main clusters were traits such as the length, width, and thickness of nut, as well as the weight, length, width, size, and taste of kernel and shell thickness. Finally, 16 offspring, including ‘MarM2’, ‘MarM4’, ‘MarM5’, ‘MarM6’, ‘MarM8’, ‘MarM10’, ‘MarM17’, ‘MMar2’, ‘MMar6’, ‘MMar7’, ‘MMar15’, ‘MMar24’, ‘MMar25’, ‘MMar27’, ‘MMar28’, and ‘MMar33’ with parents ‘Mamaei’ and ‘Marcona’ cultivars, showed relative superiority over other offspring in terms of morphological and biochemical traits. The identified superior offspring, which were even superior to the parents in some important almond breeding traits, are good candidates for use in almond breeding programs to achieve improved cultivars.

IMPORTANCE: Fear is commonly experienced by individuals newly diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between gender and fears of low-risk PTC disease progression, as well as its potential surgical treatment. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This single-center prospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary care referral hospital in Toronto, Canada, and enrolled patients with untreated small low risk PTC (&lt;2 cm in maximal diameter) that was confined to the thyroid. All patients had a surgical consultation. Study participants were enrolled between May 2016 and February 2021. Data analysis was performed from December 16, 2022, to May 8, 2023. EXPOSURES: Gender was self-reported by patients with low-risk PTC who were offered the choice of thyroidectomy or active surveillance. Baseline data were collected prior to the patient deciding on disease management. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Baseline patient questionnaires included the Fear of Progression–Short Form and Surgical Fear (referring to thyroidectomy) questionnaires. The fears of women and men were compared after adjustment for age. Decision-related variables, including Decision Self-Efficacy, and the ultimate treatment decisions were also compared between genders. RESULTS: The study included 153 women (mean [SD] age, 50.7 [15.0] years) and 47 men (mean [SD] age, 56.3 [13.8] years). There were no significant differences in primary tumor size, marital status, education, parental status, or employment status between the women and men. After adjustment for age, there was no significant difference observed in the level of fear of disease progression between men and women. However, women reported greater surgical fear compared with men. There was no meaningful difference observed between women and men with respect to decision self-efficacy or the ultimate treatment choice. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cohort study of patients with low-risk PTC, women reported a higher level of surgical fear but not fear of the disease compared with men (after adjustment for age). Women and men were similarly confident and satisfied with their disease management choice. Furthermore, the decisions of women and men were generally not significantly different. The context of gender may contribute to the emotional experience of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer and its treatment perception.

The Firefly Algorithm (FA) is a highly efficient population-based optimization technique developed by mimicking the flashing behavior of fireflies when mating. This article proposes a method based on Differential Evolution (DE)/current-to-best/1 for enhancing the FA's movement process. The proposed modification increases the global search ability and the convergence rates while maintaining a balance between exploration and exploitation by deploying the global best solution. However, employing the best solution can lead to premature algorithm convergence, but this study handles this issue using a loop adjacent to the algorithm's main loop. Additionally, the suggested algorithm’s sensitivity to the alpha parameter is reduced compared to the original FA. The GbFA surpasses both the original and five-version of enhanced FAs in finding the optimal solution to 30 CEC2014 real parameter benchmark problems with all selected alpha values. Additionally, the CEC 2017 benchmark functions and the eight engineering optimization challenges are also utilized to evaluate GbFA’s efficacy and robustness on real-world problems against several enhanced algorithms. In all cases, GbFA provides the optimal result compared to other methods. Note that the source code of the GbFA algorithm is publicly available at https://www.optim-app.com/projects/gbfa.

Background. Given limited therapy time, it is important to practice tasks that optimize transfer to other tasks that cannot be practiced during therapy. However, little is known about how tasks [...]

ABSTRACTDespite advances in modern human and veterinary medicine, gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infections remain a significant health issue worldwide, mainly in developing countries. Increasing evidence of the multi-drug resistance of these parasites and the side effects of currently available synthetic drugs have led to increased research on alternative medicines to treat parasitic infections. The exploration of potential botanical antiparasitics, which are inexpensive and abundant, may be a promising alternative in this context. This study summarizes the in vitro/in vivoantiparasitic efficacy of different medicinal plants and their components against GI parasites. Published literature from 1990–2020 was retrieved from Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus. A total of 68 plant species belonging to 32 families have been evaluated as antiparasitic agents against GI parasites worldwide. The majority of studies (70%) were conducted in vitro. Most plants were from the Fabaceae family (53%, n = 18). Methanol (37%, n = 35) was the most used solvent. Leaf (22%, n = 16) was the most used plant part, followed by seed and rhizome (each 12%, n = 9). These studies suggest that herbal medicines hold a great scope for new drug discoveries against parasitic diseases and that the derivatives of these plants are useful structures for drug synthesis and bioactivity optimization.

Among the most promising features of additive manufacturing are tool or form-free manufacturing and the ability to create intricate geometries that are difficult or even impossible to fabricate with traditional methods. These advantages can be employed to produce enhanced grinding tools. Efficient coolant fluid delivery into the cutting zone of the grinding operation has been a challenging problem since high frictional contact in the arc zone deteriorates the resin bond and lessens the grinding performance. This research study was dedicated to assessing the influence of internal cooling along with surface structures on the grinding performance of resin-bonded grinding wheels fabricated via additive manufacturing. This research introduced a novel structure that benefits from internal venturi shape cooling channels to provide exceptional fluid velocity in the tool and workpiece interaction zone. The grinding wheels have been produced employing vat photopolymerization. Grinding experiments with and without internal cooling were conducted on an aluminium plate to study the impact of introduced structures on the main aspects of grinding performance, such as cutting forces, surface roughness, tool wear, and dimensional accuracy. Two different grinding scenarios comprising shallow (10 μm depth of cut) and deep grinding (100 μm depth of cut) were carried out to reveal the influence of the material removal rate on the grinding experiments. The measured grinding forces revealed that integrating internal cooling channels and surface slots in a grinding tool could significantly reduce the grinding forces, which was more pronounced in the case of using venturi channels. Measured tool wear and dimensional accuracy together with calculated grinding ratio revealed that using cooling channels could participate in a notable increase in tool life and material removal ability, especially for venturi channels, due to improved cutting conditions, by which higher dimensional accuracy was obtained as well for the ground parts. Besides, it was discovered that the cooling channels could improve the surface quality of the ground part, which was less noticeable with the venturi channel grinding wheel. Furthermore, the optical and confocal microscopy detection confirmed that internal cooling channels could reduce chip loading on the grinding wheel surface, decrease the required number of dressing intervals, and cause effective promotion of tool life.

Atenolol (ATN) belongs to a class of drugs known as β-blockers. This medicine works on the heart and blood vessels by blocking the action of some natural chemicals in the body. ATNs are present in surface water and sediments from hospitals and wastewater treatment plants. In the current study ATN degradation using hybrid processes of peroxymonosulfate (PMS)/ultraviolet (UV)/ microwave (MW) were investigated. The reaction kinetics and scavengers’ effects were also evaluated. Experiments were carried out in a 1.5-L reactor with UV lamp and MW and then analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Artificial neural networks was implemented for modelling and particle swarm optimization technique was used to specify the optimal status for ATN degradation. According to the result, only MW power and PMS parameters had a linear relationship with efficiency, and other parameters had non-linear relationship. Moreover, increasing PMS dosage and MW power in neutral pH has a significant effect on ATN degradation. As per our result, optimum conditions in the experiments were pH 6.2 and 28.8 mg/L ATN initial concentration, 3.05 mg/L PMS concentration, 14.30 min UV time, 19.90 min MW time and 630 W MW power. In this situation the ATN degradation rate was about 97% which according to the sensitivity analysis by Pearson correlation method, pH had the greatest effect on the degradation efficiency in the range of 3–7. Nitrate (NO3–), chloride (Cl–) and humic acid (HA) were used as scavengers. The findings showed that increasing the concentration in HA and NO3–decreased the efficiency, but Cl–did not have much effect on the results. According to the results, this method can be efficient for the degradation of ATN.

The objective of the current study was to identify native bacterial strains with potential to mitigate abiotic stress, caused by the topical application of the herbicide imazethapyr, as well as promoting growth of alfalfa (Medicago sativa). The initial investigation involved the isolation of bacteria from the rhizosphere of field-grown alfalfa, which were subsequently screened for their ability to fix nitrogen, synthesize auxin, solubilize phosphate and potassium, and produce lipase, protease, and cellulase enzymes, in addition to their tolerance to imazethapyr. Among the selected isolates, Serratia rubidaea(A), Pseudomonas putida(B), and Serratiasp. (C) were found to have highest potential for these growth-promoting traits. However, auxin production was only detected in S. rubidaea. In the second phase of the study, the effects of soil inoculation with bacterial species A, B, and C and Sinorhizobium meliloti(R) on the growth and development of alfalfa were assessed in pot and field experiments. The results of these experiments indicated that herbicide application decreased both crop yield and photosynthetic pigments. In most cases, the herbicide was shown to have less impact upon the growth of the inoculated plants compared to the control. However, increase in yield traits, photosynthetic pigments, and microbial population only occurred in plants treated by AB, AR, and ABR bacterial inoculations. Thus, alleviation of herbicide stress in conjunction with growth promotion has been achieved by using native rhizosphere-associated bacterial isolates. These findings open new avenues of research to develop potent biofertilizers that are effective under herbicide-stressed conditions.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the size effect phenomena in compressive strength of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) with different water to cement ratios, and attempts to model the experimental data coming from [...]

ABSTRACT In this study, the influence of nanosilica hydrosols and rice husk ash (RHA) on the compressive strength, chloride permeability, electrical resistivity and capillary absorption of single and binary blended [...]

Purpose Nitric oxide (NO) is a potential marker in the diagnosis and monitoring of treatment for the management of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR). The study aimed to determine the value of nasal fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in the diagnosis and treatment response of AR patients.Methods The participants were divided into control and allergic rhinitis groups based on the clinical symptoms and skin prick tests. The AR group was treated with intranasal corticosteroid after the diagnosis. The nasal fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) levels were compared between control and AR groups. In the AR group, the visual analogue scale (VAS), Nasal Obstruction Symptoms Evaluation (NOSE) questionnaire, and nasal fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) were assessed pre- and post-treatment.Results One hundred ten adults were enrolled. The nasal FeNO level was significantly higher in AR compared to control (p< 0.001). Both the subjective (VAS and NOSE), both (p<0.01) and objective (nasal FeNO, p< 0.001) assessments showed significant different pre- and post-treatment. The threshold level of nasal FeNO in the diagnosis of AR was 390.0 ppb (sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 80%) based on the receiver operator characteristic curve.Conclusion Nasal FeNO level is significantly higher in AR compared to control group with significant difference pre- and post-treatment. The findings suggest nasal FeNO can serve as an adjunct diagnostic tool together with the monitoring of treatment response in AR.

In recent years, the implementation of spiking neural models to understand how spiking neural networks interact is focused in many neuroscience papers. The main purpose in this file is finding the solution to behave different neurological diseases. This implementation should be examined and analyzed in two perspectives: model presentation and hardware implementation. In this paper, Morris–Lecar model is selected based on including more biological parameters to match the spiking behaviors of neural system. Due to the nonlinear nature of the differential equations of Morris–Lecar model including hyperbolic functions and multiplicative calculations, linear approximation of the equations is proposed to achieve the low-cost and high-speed realization. The approach of linear fragmentation of Morris–Lecar model leads to an efficient Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) implementation with higher frequency and simpler structure. In addition, hyperbolic function is modeled by the suggested 2Xmodule and the multiplicative calculations are done based on simple arithmetic operations and logical shift which causes more improvements in the final realization.

The advent of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has enabled the flexible provisioning of services on Fog-Cloud Computing-based Networks (CFCN) and has facilitated the implementation of 5G networks. NFV transforms hardware middleboxes into sets of software-based Virtual Network Function (VNF) that can host the growing demand for latency-sensitive services at the FCCN. Latency-sensitive and complex services can be provided by composing multiple VNF instances in the Service Function Chain (SFC). VNF instances can be deployed as virtual machines on FCCN components. In general, finding the optimal solution for placement of SFC requests based on VNF instances on FCCN is known as an NP-Hard problem. Dynamic placement of SFCs by reusing VNF instances can improve resource utilization and save time. In this paper, Dynamic SFC placement with VNF reuse (DSPVR) algorithm in FCCN using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is proposed. DSPVR is a dynamic planning model for SFC placement based on the preliminary VNFs reuse that can reconcile between Quality of Service (QoS) and service costs under FCCN constraints. DSPVR is based on DRL and has been developed with the purpose of maximizing long-term cumulative reward (LTCR). In addition, the DSPVR includes an SFC queue network for efficient distribution of VNFs required over time, which can affect the routing of future requests placement. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed DSPVR algorithm compared to state-of-the-art methods such as DRL-SFCP and DDQP. The DSPVR outperforms the DRL-SFCP by 4.9% and 9.2% by DDQP in terms of monetary cost.

Metformin is increasingly being used during pregnancy, with potentially adverse long-term effects on children. We aimed to examine adiposity in children of women with type 2 diabetes from the Metformin in Women with Type 2 Diabetes in Pregnancy (MiTy) trial, with and without in-utero exposure to metformin, up to 24 months of age.

This paper examines Iran’s border power plants from the perspective of fuel consumption as targets for threats. Targets with more attractive threats have been identified and preventive strategies to counter threats have been identified. A comprehensive model should be used in the evaluation of cross-border power plants as a threat to identify targets with accurate evaluation. One of the well-known models in the field of threats is the Carver matrix model. Due to its comprehensiveness and breadth, the Carver matrix model has been used as a target of threats to evaluate border power plants from the perspective of fuel type. Carver model has six main factors, each of which has a certain coefficient. To evaluate the objectives of Iran's border power plants, information on the capacity, type of fuel consumed, location, number and location of Iran’s border power plants, as well as various groups based around Iran have been collected. According to the information of the power plants and the specified coefficients of the Carver matrix, the border power plants of Iran have been evaluated as targets from the perspective of the type of fuel consumed. The results of this study indicate that most of the border power plants in Iran are very attractive for threats. Most of the border power plants of Iran has a high dependency on gas fuel and it should be changed.

Computational sprinting is a class of mechanisms that boost performance but dissipate additional power. We describe a sprinting architecture in which many, independent chip multiprocessors share a power supply and sprints are constrained by the chips’ thermal limits and the rack’s power limits. Moreover, we present the computational sprinting game, a multi-agent perspective on managing sprints. Strategic agents decide whether to sprint based on application phases and system conditions. The game produces an equilibrium that improves task throughput for data analytics workloads by 4–6× over prior greedy heuristics and performs within 90% of an upper bound on throughput from a globally optimized policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kidney cyst expansion in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) or polycystic kidney disease (PKD) requires active secretion of chloride (Cl−) into the cyst lumen. In PKD, Cl−secretion is primarily mediated via the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in principal cells. Kidney cystogenesis in TSC is predominantly composed of type A intercalated cells, which do not exhibit noticeable expression of CFTR. The identity of the Cl−-secreting molecule(s) in TSC cyst epithelia remains speculative. RNA-sequencing analysis results were used to examine the expression of FOXi1, the chief regulator of acid base transporters in intercalated cells, along with localization of Cl−channel 5 (ClC5), in various models of TSC. Results from Tsc2+/−mice showed that the expansion of kidney cysts corresponded to the induction of Foxi1 and correlated with the appearance of ClC5 and H+-ATPase on the apical membrane of cyst epithelia. In various mouse models of TSC, Foxi1was robustly induced in the kidney, and ClC5 and H+-ATPase were expressed on the apical membrane of cyst epithelia. Expression of ClC5 was also detected on the apical membrane of cyst epithelia in humans with TSC but was absent in humans with autosomal dominant PKD or in a mouse model of PKD. These results indicate that ClC5 is expressed on the apical membrane of cyst epithelia and is a likely candidate mediating Cl−secretion into the kidney cyst lumen in TSC.

ABSTRACTIrving Kirsch is a leading figure in the field of psychological science who has advanced our understanding of hypnosis in key respects that have withstood the tests of time and replication. We honor his prodigious contributions over his distinguished career and extend his response expectancy theory in an integrative model that encompasses predictive coding. We review the construct of expectancies that he articulated and championed for decades and extended in response set theory. We propose novel hypotheses to align his innovative contributions with the most current findings in psychological science and to acknowledge the heuristic value of his work. We especially focus on (I) how the response set theory can be conceptualized in terms of the predictive coding model and (II) psycho-social constructs that need to be considered to better understand the effects of expectancies on hypnotic phenomena in an open and evidence-based integrative model of hypnosis.

Osteosarcoma (OST) and Ewing sarcoma (ES) are the most common pediatric bone cancers. Patients with metastatic disease at diagnosis have poorer outcomes compared with localized disease. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries, we identified children and adolescents diagnosed with OST or ES between 2004 and 2015. We examined whether demographic and socioeconomic disparities were associated with a higher likelihood of metastatic disease at diagnosis and poor survival outcomes. In OST, Hispanic patients and those living in areas of high language isolation were more likely to have metastatic disease at diagnosis. Regardless of metastatic status, OST patients with public insurance had increased odds of death compared to those with private insurance. Living in counties with lower education levels increased odds of death for adolescents with metastatic disease. In ES, non-White adolescents had higher odds of death compared with white patients. Adolescents with metastatic ES living in higher poverty areas had increased odds of death compared with those living in less impoverished areas. Disparities in both diagnostic and survival outcomes based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors exist in pediatric bone cancers, potentially due to barriers to care and treatment inequities.

The ongoing increase in salinity is a major threat to olive cultivation in the world. This study aims to screen growth and physiological changes in five superior olive cultivars (‘Zard’, ‘Meshkat’, ‘Zagros’, ‘Sevillana’ and ‘Direh’) and one olive genotype (‘Dehsefid’) subjected to salinity stress in order to identify the most salt-tolerant cultivar. To achieve this, young olive seedlings were transplanted to plastic pots in the open field and were exposed to four levels of salinity (distilled water as a control, 6, 12 and 18 ds.m−1NaCl as slight, moderate and severe stress, respectively). The obtained results revealed that growth attributes, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll (Chl) reduced salinity-severity behavior and reached minimum contents in severe stress, while malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage (EL) displayed counterintuitive results. ‘Dehsefid’ unquestionably outperformed due to the highest growth attributes, RWC and Chl. In contrast, ‘Direh’ was the most salinity-sensitive olive cultivar in this experiment. This result was attributable to the lowest growth parameters and the highest EL. These results recommend that ‘Dehsefid’ as the most salt-tolerant olive genotype could be a promising genotype to mitigate the detrimental effects of salinity on olive seedlings.

In this research, Taguchi–grey relational analysis has been applied to mitigate the insufficient assumptions made on the optimization of mechanical and structural (mechanostructural) properties of synthesized hydroxyapatite (HAp)–alumina–titanium nanocomposite. This nanocomposite has already been developed and studied in the previous study. This paper employs the L9 (3**3) orthogonal array, including displaying factors and levels of 3, 5, 7 wt % for alumina, 5, 10, 15 wt % for titanium, and 1100, 1150, 1200 °C sintering temperature. The computational analysis presents the predicted mechanostructural grey relational response as 0.7271, higher than the highest response shown in the ninth experimental run. The optimal control factors are analyzed to be 7 wt % alumina, 15 wt % titanium, and 1200 °C sintering temperature. The obtained result elucidates the hypothesis that a singular response optimization is not enough in the fabrication of biomedical material, disproving the assumption made in the previous literature. Importantly, to fabricate a high clinical grade HAp–alumina–titanium nanocomposite, titanium is the most invaluable contributor with a contribution of 49.11%, followed by alumina (45.52%), and then sintering temperature (3.2%). Although the confidence level and probability distribution analysis show that all the experimental mechanostructural responses were within the 95% confidence level, the employment of the predicted optimal factors is strongly recommended for experimentation.

Over the past years, many efforts have been accomplished to achieve fast and accurate meta-heuristic algorithms to optimize a variety of real-world problems. This study presents a new optimization method based on an unusual geological phenomenon in nature, named Geyser inspired Algorithm (GEA). The mathematical modeling of this geological phenomenon is carried out to have a better understanding of the optimization process. The efficiency and accuracy of GEA are verified using statistical examination and convergence rate comparison on numerous CEC 2005, CEC 2014, CEC 2017, and real-parameter benchmark functions. Moreover, GEA has been applied to several real-parameter engineering optimization problems to evaluate its effectiveness. In addition, to demonstrate the applicability and robustness of GEA, a comprehensive investigation is performed for a fair comparison with other standard optimization methods. The results demonstrate that GEA is noticeably prosperous in reaching the optimal solutions with a high convergence rate in comparison with other well-known nature-inspired algorithms, including ABC, BBO, PSO, and RCGA. Note that the source code of the GEA is publicly available at https://www.optim-app.com/projects/gea.

Abstract: The magnitude, distance from the epicenter, effective duration, fault mechanism, and soil conditions influence the structural consequences of earthquakes. Variations in these characteristics cause structures to behave differently during seismic events. This study investigated the influence of some of these parameters on the seismic performance of moment-resistant frames. This was accomplished by simulating various well-known structures while accounting for panel zone and nonlinear component behaviour. Following that, these structures were exposed to several classified earthquake records. The distance from the fault, the soil type, and the fault mechanism were considered while classifying earthquakes. The findings revealed that the median value of story drift in strike-slip fault mechanism holds a greater level of significance when compared to reverse fault mechanism specifically in the context of far-field records. Also applying the near-field records has a greater impact on drifts in taller frames on stiff soils, and increasing the height of the frame has less impact on the fault mechanism effect on structures built on soft soils. Graphical Abstract:

Modafinil (MOD, 2‐diphenyl‐methyl‐sulphinil‐2‐acetamide) is a stimulant-like medicine used to treat narcolepsy. Off-label uses include improving cognitive ability in the course of other diseases. This review aims to discuss findings demonstrating the memory and learningenhancing activity of MOD in experimental and clinical studies. We included behavioral evaluations alongside the effects of MOD at the cellular and molecular level. MOD in different animal disease models exerted beneficial effects on induced memory and learning impairment, which in some cases were accompanied by modulation of neurotransmitter pathways or neuroplastic capabilities, reducing oxidative stress, or expression of synaptic proteins. Individuals treated with MOD showed improved memory and learning skills in different conditions. These effects were associated with regulating brain activity in some participants, confirmed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Presented herein, data support the use of MOD in treating memory and learning deficits in various disease conditions.