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In the woodlands of Sardinia, as in many other areas of the Mediterranean region, grazing of domestic animals is still very common, though often in the absence of any sustainable management logic or technique. The present work analyzes the effects of excessive grazing pressure on a wooded pasture in the municipality of Orgosolo (Nuoro province), emphasizing the effects on the natural regeneration of the oak species (Quercus ilex and Quercus pubescens). This study has revealed the positive effects of the interaction between shrubs and seedlings of tree species. Crataegus monogyna proved to be the most efficient shrub species in favouring the establishment and growth of saplings; Rubus ulmifolius is efficient in the establishing phase but somewhat less so in the following stages. The other shrub species (Prunus spinosa, Genista pichi-sermolliana, Stachys glutinosa) play a lesser facilitating role. Despite the fact that seedlings are found in more than half (56%) of the shrub patches, the average age of the seedlings (14±0.6 yrs) and their small average size (height 24±1.4cm) lead to think that the present grazing pressure is incompatible with any concrete chance of success for their natural regeneration.

Sergi Blancafort Alias,1 Zoraida Del Campo Carrasco,2 Ignacio Salvador-Miras,2 Sabina Luna Mariné,2 María José Gómez Prieto,2 Francesca Liñán Martín,2 Antoni Salvà Casanovas1 1Fundació Salut i Envelliment (Health and Ageing Foundation), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, 08041, Spain; 2Service of Ophthalmology, Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, 08025, SpainCorrespondence: Sergi Blancafort Alias, Fundació Salut i Envelliment (Health and Ageing Foundation), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 171, Barcelona, 08041, Spain, Tel +34 93 433 50 30, Email sergi.blancafort@uab.catPurpose: To explore quality of life related with intermediate vision of patients before and after cataract surgery, and to make patients’ experience available for the design of future scales that assess visual function related with intermediate distance.Patients and Methods: A qualitative research methodology based on thematic content analysis was used to explore vision-related quality of life based on the experiences of patients with cataract. Patients were recruited at the Service of Ophthalmology of the Hospital de Sant Pau (Barcelona, Spain). Data were collected through nineteen semi-structured interviews conducted with patients diagnosed with cataract and implanted with a standard aspheric monofocal intraocular lens (IOL) (Tecnis® ZA9003) (n = 6), an enhanced monofocal IOL (Tecnis® Eyhance ICB000) (n = 6), and patients from the waiting list (n = 7). The data analysis consisted in coding, aggregation, and theme development of the transcribed audios.Results: Patients on waiting lists reported difficulty and insecurity in performing daily and meaningful tasks related to near visual ranges (eg: threading a needle, reading price tags), intermediate (eg: using a computer or dialling numbers on a smartphone), and distant (eg: recognizing faces, walking on uneven surfaces). Patients after surgery with the standard IOL reported improvement in performing activities mainly in the distant visual range, but also the need for a better communication with clinical staff to adjust their own expectations on the results of the surgery. Finally, patients implanted with the enhanced IOL reported satisfaction and improved visual function in performing daily activities, especially those related to the intermediate visual range.Conclusion: Our exploratory study found that patients after cataract surgery with the enhanced IOL reported a better performance in activities that require the intermediate vision. These results will inform the development of scales to assess vision-related quality of life in the intermediate visual range prioritizing outcomes according to patients’ daily and meaningful activities.Keywords: quality of life, cataract, qualitative research, intraocular lenses

Rare earth ions-doped oxide glasses with improved traits are needed for sundry applications. Based on this fact, physiochemical and magnetic characteristics of Er3+ -doped lead–tellurite glasses embedded with gold nanoshapes (Au-NSPs) were customized via preparation and characterization. Glasses of composition 78.95TeO2–15PbO–5PbCl2–1Er2O3–0.05AuCl3 were made using conventional melt-quenching techniques at varying (1, 6, 16, and 24 h) heat treatment durations (HTDs) to optimize their morphology, structure, chemical, and magnetic properties. Structure analysis verified the amorphous nature of the as-quenched samples and the homogeneous distribution of Au-NSPs within a network matrix with an average diameter ranged from 1.32 to 7.12 nm. Significant chemical functional groups of the glasses were detected at 360 and 598 cm‒1, attributed to the number of non-bridging oxygen (NBO) in glass and the conversion of TeO4 tbp into TeO3 polyhedra through TeO3+1. The magnetic behavior of the glasses was due to the diffusion-limited growth of Au-NSPs as evidenced from the ESR and VSM results. Saturation magnetization and magnetic coercivity were in the range of 4.61 × 10–2 to 10.614 × 102 emu/g) and 1441.60 to 1992.20 Oe, respectively. The variations of g-factor, resonant magnetic field, and peak-to-peak line-width of the glasses were established to be promising for various functional applications especially for biomedical devices as antiviral screen protectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study introduces a hybrid weighted similarity measure (HWSM) for the analysis of symptoms and diseases in patients using a neutrosophic set (NS). NS proves valuable for modeling uncertainty by accommodating contradictory and ambiguous information. The development of a similarity measure for NS information is crucial in various applications, particularly in medical diagnostics, to quantify similarity between sets. While existing literature provides various similarity measures for NS, only a limited number incorporates hybrid techniques. This study proposes a hybrid similarity measure that combines existing measures and integrates them with an entropy weight measure. To elaborate, distance- based similarity measures for NS are initially considered. Subsequently, an entropy weight measure is employed to calculate the attributes' weight of the attributes. The work includes formulating the properties of the proposed HWSM and its practical application in medical diagnosis, focusing on assessing the possibility of medical diagnoses in a patient. The study examines five symptoms which are fever, headache, stomach pain, cough, and chest pain. The HWSM is applied to analyze these symptoms across five different diseases, resulting in consistent and reliable outcomes. This research contributes to the ongoing enhancement of diagnostic tools for medical practitioners, addressing challenges associated with uncertainty in patient information.

Rough neutrosophic multisets (RNM) is an uncertainty set theory generalized from the rough neutrosophic set. In the same equivalence relation, the universal set is a neutrosophic multisets with boundary regions involving lower and upper approximation. To date, to handle the multiplicity of information collected, the rough neutrosophic multisets geometric aggregation operator (RNMGAO) is introduced. The algebraic operations of RNM used in the derivation of RNMGAO are defined. The entropy measure of RNM is also discussed as a weighted assign for each criterion simultaneously with the geometric aggregation operator. The roughness Dice similarity measure of RNM is combined in methodology for ranking purposed. The application in medical diagnosis of three epidemic diseases Coronavirus, Influenza, and Pneumonia is implemented as a case study.

Leaf spot of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in North America consists of a group of diseases involving tan spot [Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechs.], Stagonospora nodorum blotch [Phaeosphaeria nodorum (E.Mϼller) Hedjarroude], and Septoria tritici blotch [Mycosphaerella graminicola (Fückl) J. Schröt. in Cohn]. A complex of these diseases occurs in nature hence managing leaf spots is difficult. Use of resistant cultivars is the most effective and economical means of controlling leaf spot; however, none of the widely grown wheat cultivars in North America show high levels of resistance to these diseases. Hence, this study aimed to identify new sources of resistance to leaf spotting diseases. To achieve this objective, 975 accessions of wheat and its relatives were evaluated for P. tritici-repentis, race 1, resistance under controlled environments. Of these 975 accessions, 40 selected accessions were further screened against six virulent races (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 11) of P. tritici-repentis and to foliar pathogens P. nodorum and M. graminicola. New sources of resistance effective against the three leaf spotting disease were identified in accessions of T. monococcum L., T. mrgidum L., T. dicoccum Schrank ex Schübler, T. dicoccoides (Körn. ex Asch and Graebner) Schweinf., T. timopheevii (Zhuk.) Zhuk., T. spelta L., and T. aestivum L. including synthetic wheat. Resistance was observed in all three ploidy levels of the wheat genome and presently efforts are being made to transfer the leaf spot resistance into adapted wheat and durum cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sampling was carried out regularly from March 2003 until April 2004, at a fringe mangrove forest at Cape Rachado, Malaysia. Seawater temperature ranged 22-32°C whereas salinity ranged from 23 to 33‰. Nitrate ranged from 0.27 to 3.86 µM whereas both nitrite and ammonium ranged 0.04-0.95 µM and 0.73-2.13 µM, respectively. Phosphate ranged 0.16 to 2.42 µM, and silicate ranged 2.44 to 38.67 µM. Chlorophyll a (Chl a) fluctuated within a small range (0.89-5.15 µg L-1), and correlated positively with silicate (R² =0.503, n = 9, p ≤ 0.05), suggesting silicate limitation. Biovolume measurements were carried out, and carbon conversion factor estimated was 31.6 fg C bacterium-1 and 0.17 pg C protist-1. Bacterial abundance varied from 1.4 to 4.4 x 106 cells mL-1 whereas protists were from 4.8 to 21.7 x 10³ cells mL-1. There was a highly significant coupling between bacteria and protists (R²=0.543, n = 9, p≤0.05), suggesting that bacterial abundance was controlled by protists. Bacterial production (BP) ranged 90 to 169 mg C m-3 d-1, and annual BP was calculated at 42.7 g C m-3 yr-1 whereas bacterial carbon demand (BCD) was estimated at 474 g C m-3 yr-1 (assuming a bacterial growth efficiency of 9%). In this sampling site, annual gross primary production was estimated at 374 g C m-3 yr-1, and was not sufficient to support BCD. Other sources of organic matter fro example from mangrove trees could have made up this deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A filamentous benthic cyanobacteria, strain USMAC16, was isolated from the High Arctic Svalbard archipelago, Norway, and a combination of morphological, ultrastructural and molecular characterisation (16S rRNA gene sequence) used to identify to species level. Cell dimensions, thylakoid arrangement and apical cell shape are consistent with the Pseudanabaena genus description. The molecular characterisation of P. catenata gave 100% similarity with Pseudanabaena catenata SAG 1464-1, originally reported from Germany. Strain USMAC16 was cultured under a range of temperature and photoperiod conditions, in solid and liquid media, and harvested at exponential phase to examine its phenotypic plasticity. Under different culture conditions, we observed considerable variations in cell dimensions. The longest cell (5.91±0.13 μm) was observed at 15°C under 12:12 light:dark, and the widest cell (3.24±0.06 μm) at 4°C under 12:12 light: dark in liquid media. The study provides baseline data documenting the morphological variation of P. catenata in response to changing temperature regimes.

Ozonation of activated sludge in the present of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as catalyst to enhance the production of hydroxyl radical was evaluated in comparison to the sole ozonation process. In this process, the catalytic ozontion showed improvement in increasing ozone consumption and improving activated sludge disintegration and solubilisation. The reduction of total suspended solid (TSS), volatile suspended solid (VSS) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) solubilisation was better in the catalytic ozonation system. Initial pH 7 of activated sludge was found best to disintegrate and solubilise the sludge flocs. However upon additional of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in pH adjustment enhanced the solubilisation of organic matter from the flocs and cells, making the initial pH 9 is the best condition for activated sludge solubilisation. Yet the initial pH 7 of activated sludge supernatant was the best condition to achieve SCOD solubilisation due to sludge floc disintegration, when it had stronger correlation between TSS reduction and SCOD solubilisation (R2=0.961). Lower amount of catalyst of 100 mgTiO2/gTSS was found to disintegrate and solubilise the activated sludge better with 30.4% TSS reduction and 25.2% SCOD solubilisation efficiency, compared to 200 mgTiO2/gTSS with 21.9% and 17.1% TSS reduction and SCOD solubilisation, respectively.

Concrete is extensively used as construction materials in Malaysia. Concrete contributes suitable feature for construction industry for instance durability, adequate compressive strength, fire resistance, availability and is economic as compared to other construction materials. Depletion of natural resources and disposal of construction and demolition waste remarkably claim environmental threat. In this paper, the engineering behavior, durability, and concrete microstructure of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) on short-term concrete properties were investigated. The studied concrete at design mix proportion of 1:0.55:2.14:2.61 (weight of cement :coarse aggregates :sand :water) used to obtain medium-high compressive strength with 20%, 50%, and 100% of RCA. Results show that for the same water/cement ratio, RCA replacement up to 50% still achieved the targeted compressive strength of 25 MPa at 28 curing days. Addition, at similar RCA replacement, the highest carbonation depth value was found at 1.03 mm which could be attributed to the pozzolanic reaction, thus led to lower carbonation resistance. Scanning electron microscopy microstructure shows that the RCA surface was porous and covered with loose particles. Moreover, the interfacial transition zone was composed of numerous small pores, micro cracks, and fissures that surround the mortar matrix. On the basis of the obtained results, recommendable mineral admixtures of RCA are necessary to enhance the quality of concrete construction.

Background: Mechanisms of coronary occlusion in ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (STE-ACS) are poorly understood. We have previously reported accumulation of neutrophils (polymorphonuclear cells [PMNs]) in culprit lesion site thrombi. The goal of the present study was to quantify PMNs, their formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), and to examine the relationships of extracellular DNA, DNase and clinical outcomes.Methods and Results: We analyzed coronary thrombectomy aspirates from 112 patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Compared to systemic PMNs, coronary thrombus PMNs were characterized by high expression of activation markers and by the formation of aggregates with platelets. Nucleosomes, neutrophil elastase, myeloperoxidase and myeloid-related protein 8/14 were increased in coronary plasma, and NETs significantly contributed to the scaffolds of particulate coronary thrombi. Thrombus NET burden was directly correlated with infarct size, while culprit site DNase activity showed a reverse correlation with infarct size. Recombinant DNase accelerated lysis of coronary thrombi ex vivo.Conclusion: PMNs are highly activated in STE-ACS and undergo NETosis at the culprit lesion site. Coronary NET burden and DNase activity are predictors of myocardial infarct size. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]