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Cold temperature storage (lower than 10 °C) has been used as a management strategy to extend marketability and reduce potato storage losses. However, cold temperatures may result in dark-colored chips through a process known as cold-induced sweetening (CIS). ‘Dakota Crisp’ and ‘Dakota Diamond’ are two North Dakota State University potato breeding program cultivar releases selected for cold-chipping ability with high tuber yield potential. Two-year storage trials were conducted to examine sugar development and tuber processing quality of four cultivars grown at three nitrogen rates under irrigated and non-irrigated field conditions. The two-way interaction between storage period and storage temperature was significant for sucrose content, glucose content, visual chip color, and Agtron values, indicating a difference in sugar development for each storage temperature profile. Among the four cultivars evaluated under both irrigated and non-irrigated production conditions, ‘Dakota Pearl’ accumulated significantly less sucrose and glucose compared to other cultivars under the same storage conditions. ‘Dakota Crisp’ produced acceptable chip color from 8.9 °C after long term storage, while ‘Dakota Diamond’ produced acceptable chip color from 8.9 °C for up to 6 months of storage. These results emphasize the importance of developing cultivar-specific management profiles including storage and the informational need for producers and processors in determining the best practices for individual cultivars.

Abstract Background Breastfeeding is a critical health intervention in infants. Recent literature reported that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant mental health issues in pregnant and breastfeeding women due to social isolation and lack of direct professional support. These maternal mental health issues affected infant nutrition and decreased breastfeeding rates during COVID-19. Twitter, a popular social media platform, can provide insight into public perceptions and sentiment about various health-related topics. With evidence of significant mental health issues among women during the COVID-19 pandemic, the perception of infant nutrition, specifically breastfeeding, remains unknown. Methods We aimed to understand public perceptions and sentiment regarding breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic through Twitter analysis using natural language processing techniques. We collected and analyzed tweets related to breastfeeding and COVID-19 during the pandemic from January 2020 to May 2022. We used Python software (v3.9.0) for all data processing and analyses. We performed sentiment and emotion analysis of the tweets using natural language processing libraries and topic modeling using an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm. Results We analyzed 40,628 tweets related to breastfeeding and COVID-19 generated by 28,216 users. Emotion analysis revealed predominantly “Positive emotions” regarding breastfeeding, comprising 72% of tweets. The overall tweet sentiment was positive, with a mean weekly sentiment of 0.25 throughout, and was affected by external events. Topic modeling revealed six significant themes related to breastfeeding and COVID-19. Passive immunity through breastfeeding after maternal vaccination had the highest mean positive sentiment score of 0.32. Conclusions Our study provides insight into public perceptions and sentiment regarding breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to other topics we explored in the context of COVID (e.g., ivermectin, disinformation), we found that breastfeeding had an overall positive sentiment during the pandemic despite the documented rise in mental health challenges in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. The wide range of topics on Twitter related to breastfeeding provides an opportunity for active engagement by the medical community and timely dissemination of advice, support, and guidance. Future studies should leverage social media analysis to gain real-time insight into public health topics of importance in child health and apply targeted interventions.

This paper attempts to study the implementation of agile methods in a manufacturing industry and provides the best recommendation for improvement of efficiencies and optimization of costs, without compromising on quality and schedules. This study has been carried out in a real-time environment with actual data from the manufacturing unit and also several interviews with the vendors involved in supplying components and sub-assemblies. An attempt has been made to promote mutual trust and engage vendors as partners in business and bring in more transparency in everyday transactions. The study carried out resulted in adopting the agile supply chain for a select set of components which had well established vendors and had a high rate of acceptance. The idea was to run this as a pilot program and then extend this to the entire set of components and assemblies required for a weekly production schedule. In view of the very high daily production rates, the idea was to facilitate transformation with a very low element of risk. This pilot is likely to run for at least three months before the second wave of change sets in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial revolution has paved the path towards several other innovations in Science and Technology. One such revolution is seen in software industry. As such, software has its importance in every application, which has a value to human society. Therefore, it is critical for software industry to develop high quality software. This is because preservation of any software industry in industrial market is possible only if total customer satisfaction is achieved. Every customer will rate the end product to be of their satisfaction level only if it is of high quality. Hence, this paper put forth all those aspects of software development which has a modulating impact on retention of high quality in software products. This paper further presents a case study which comprises of deep investigation carried out on several leading software industries and across projects of various software application domains. The main intention of this research is to analyze all parameters which influence quality of the product, the process and the people components of an industry. This paper therefore presents a sample of such investigation carried out on empirical projects and their inferences drawn. Areas which need high attention such as effective management of scope creep, defect, testing, risk management, allocation of right project personnel is brought out. This part of the research also acts as a travel light for various researches to progress in above mentioned areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the management and treatment of asthma through homeopathic remedy. It relates that for easy management of asthma, one must have a clear understanding of the function of the respiratory tracts. Its management can be broken down into disease factors and patient related factors. Its management includes the selection of homeopathic remedy, potency and repetition, diagnosis of other synergistic and antidotal action of other medicine and devising ancillary measures.

The present study aims to prepare and evaluate solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) loaded with irinotecan (IRN) drug and daidzein (DZN) isoflavonoid and surface coated with ligand materials such as hyaluronic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) with additional coating of chitosan for active targeting to receptors present on colon surface epithelium for oral targeted delivery. The optimized batch was evaluated for particle size, zeta potential exhibiting nanometric size with good entrapment efficiency. Nanoparticles were found to be spherical. FTIR and DSC revealed that all the excipients and formulation were compatabile to each other and showed better encapsulation exhibiting amorphous and crystallinity forms. In vitro drug release of SLNs confirmed that initially a burst release, followed by sustained release pattern was exhibited. Cell lines studied performed on HT-29 cells showed demonstrated that conjugated SLNs inhibited cytotoxicity at 75 μg/ml, indicating that cells were taken up through a receptor-mediated endocytosis process. Cell cycle analysis showed that cell arrest was done at 67.8 % (G0/G1 phase) and inhibited apoptosis by 56 %. Further during In vivo studies, RT-PCR study revealed downregulation of Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a non-specific serum biomarker overexpressed in tumor cells and upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α. Histopathological study revealed that conjugated (HA-BSA) coated with chitosan SLNs restored normal mucosa and colon architecture, depicting all mucosal layers. Hence, these conjugated SLNs may serve as a novel combination for the treatment of colon cancer., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The present study aimed to objectively assess the charge integration efficiency (CIE) of the auditory nerve using electrically-evoked stapedial reflex threshold (eSRT) measurements in paediatric cochlear implant users., Design: The eSRT was estimated in two ways: by keeping pulse width constant while increasing pulse amplitude and vice versa. The electrical dynamic range (EDR) obtained for eSRT was measured with increasing pulse amplitude (EDR PA ) and pulse width (EDR PW ) by calculating the difference in charge units between eSRT and behavioural thresholds; further, CIE was estimated., Study Sample: Fifteen paediatric cochlear implant users., Results: EDR PW was 1.4 to 1.7 times larger than EDR PA . The EDR PW was significantly greater than the EDR PA . A significant correlation was observed between both EDR measures. However, the CIE measure did not significantly correlate with the behavioural threshold. Further, there was no significant effect of electrode location on the CIE., Conclusions: The CIE estimated with objective measures such as eSRT is comparable to those estimated using behavioural loudness judgments. eSRT can serve as a quick method to estimate the CIE, which can be easily implemented in the paediatric population. The CIE could be a valuable tool for differentiating electrodes with excellent and poor charge integration efficiency.

Cold temperature storage (lower than 10 °C) has been used as a management strategy to extend marketability and reduce potato storage losses. However, cold temperatures may result in dark-colored chips through a process known as cold-induced sweetening (CIS). 'Dakota Crisp' and 'Dakota Diamond' are two North Dakota State University potato breeding program cultivar releases selected for cold-chipping ability with high tuber yield potential. Two-year storage trials were conducted to examine sugar development and tuber processing quality of four cultivars grown at three nitrogen rates under irrigated and non-irrigated field conditions. The two-way interaction between storage period and storage temperature was significant for sucrose content, glucose content, visual chip color, and Agtron values, indicating a difference in sugar development for each storage temperature profile. Among the four cultivars evaluated under both irrigated and non-irrigated production conditions, 'Dakota Pearl' accumulated significantly less sucrose and glucose compared to other cultivars under the same storage conditions. 'Dakota Crisp' produced acceptable chip color from 8.9 °C after long term storage, while 'Dakota Diamond' produced acceptable chip color from 8.9 °C for up to 6 months of storage. These results emphasize the importance of developing cultivar-specific management profiles including storage and the informational need for producers and processors in determining the best practices for individual cultivars.

Neonatal intensive care unit resuscitative care continually evolves and increasingly relies on data. Data driven precision resuscitation care can be enabled by leveraging informatics tools and artificial intelligence. Despite technological advancements, these data are often underutilized due to suboptimal data capture, aggregation, and low adoption of artificial intelligence and analytic tools. This review describes the fundamentals and explores the evidence behind informatics and artificial intelligence tools supporting neonatal intensive care unit resuscitative care, training and education. Key findings include the need for effective interface design for accurate data capture followed by storage and translation to wisdom using analytics and artificial intelligence tools. This review addresses the issues of data privacy, bias, liability and ethical frameworks when adopting these tools. While these emerging technologies hold great promise to improve resuscitation, further study of these applications in neonatal population and awareness of informatics and artificial intelligence principles among clinicians is imperative., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with limited symptomatic treatment options. Targeting phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) has shown a promising result in several preclinical studies. In our study, we aim to repurpose US FDA-approved PDE4 inhibitor for PD. Through in-silico study, we identified roflumilast (ROF) as the potential candidate targeting PDE4B2. In Drosophila PD expressing the A30P mutant α-synuclein model, ROF exhibited anti-PD effects as indicated by negative geotaxis and antioxidant activities. Given the low brain distribution of ROF (<50%) at clinical doses, incorporation into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) was carried out to enhanced blood-brain barrier permeability. In vitro release studies indicated sustained ROF release from NLCs (≈75%) over 24 h. Single-dose oral toxicity studies reported no mortality or toxicity signs. ROF-loaded NLCs significantly alleviated behavioural deficits, increased antioxidant parameters ( p  < 0.05), and reduced TNF-α and IL-6 levels ( p  < 0.5) in the striatum compared to pure ROF. ROF-loaded NLCs demonstrated potential anti-PD effects with high efficacy than pure ROF. Our study suggests that nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) can be a promising drug delivery system to overcome limitations associated with poor brain bioavailability of lipophilic drugs like ROF for PD treatment. Further investigation related to brain occupancy and underlying mechanisms of our formulation is warranted to confirm and strengthen our current findings.

Background and Objectives: Constipation affects health-related quality of life and increases hospital visits. We conducted this prospective cohort study to assess laxative use, health outcomes of constipation in medically hospitalized patients, and related health outcomes. Materials and Methods: A prospective single-center study included all adult patients admitted under the General Internal Medicine Unit from 1 February 2022, to 31 August 2022. Constipation was defined using the Constipation Assessment Scale (CAS). Patients were assessed for 28 days during their hospital stay and up to 90 days post-discharge. Result: Among the included patients, 62.45% experienced constipation, which was associated with poor health outcomes including delirium ( p = 0.048), intensive care admission ( p < 0.01), cardiopulmonary arrest ( p < 0.01), inpatient mortality ( p < 0.01), longer hospital stay ( p < 0.01), 90-day mortality ( p < 0.01), and 90-day hospital readmission ( p < 0.01). Laxative treatment was administered to only 33.93% of patients with constipation and was more commonly used among older patients ( p < 0.01), those with high CAS scores ( p < 0.01), longer hospital stays ( p < 0.01), and critically ill patients (intensive care admission) ( p = 0.01), as well as those who had cardiopulmonary arrest ( p < 0.01) and high inpatient mortality ( p < 0.01). Conclusions: This study identified several associations between constipation and poor health outcomes and highlighted the underutilization of laxatives in treating constipation. It is vital to interpret our results with caution. Therefore, we believe that a randomized controlled trial will help enhance our understanding of the interaction between constipation, laxative use, and poor health outcomes.

Competing Interests: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing discipline that has the potential to transform the way we approach problems in a variety of fields, including agriculture. The use of nanotechnology in sustainable agriculture has gained popularity in recent years. It has various applications in agriculture, such as the development of nanoscale materials and devices to boost agricultural productivity, enhance food quality and safety, improve the efficiency of water and nutrient usage, and reduce environmental pollution. Nanotechnology has proven to be very beneficial in this field, particularly in the development of nanoscale delivery systems for agrochemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, and growth regulators. These nanoscale delivery technologies offer various benefits over conventional delivery systems, including better penetration and distribution, enhanced efficacy, and lower environmental impact. Encapsulating agrochemicals in nanoscale particles enables direct delivery to the targeted site in the plant, thereby reducing waste and minimizing off-target effects. Plants are fundamental building blocks of all ecosystems and evaluating the interaction between nanoparticles (NPs) and plants is a crucial aspect of risk assessment. This critical review therefore aims to provide an overview of the latest advances regarding the positive and negative effects of nanotechnology in agriculture. It also explores potential future research directions focused on ensuring the safe utilization of NPs in this field, which could lead to sustainable development. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Background: Cancer immunotherapy approaches that elicit immune cell responses, including T and NK cells, have revolutionized the field of oncology. However, immunosuppressive mechanisms restrain immune cell activation within solid tumors so additional strategies to augment activity are required., Methods: We identified the co-stimulatory receptor NKG2D as a target based on its expression on a large proportion of CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from breast cancer patient samples. Human and murine surrogate NKG2D co-stimulatory receptor-bispecifics (CRB) that bind NKG2D on NK and CD8+ T cells as well as HER2 on breast cancer cells (HER2-CRB) were developed as a proof of concept for targeting this signaling axis in vitro and in vivo., Results: HER2-CRB enhanced NK cell activation and cytokine production when co-cultured with HER2 expressing breast cancer cell lines. HER2-CRB when combined with a T cell-dependent-bispecific (TDB) antibody that synthetically activates T cells by crosslinking CD3 to HER2 (HER2-TDB), enhanced T cell cytotoxicity, cytokine production and in vivo antitumor activity. A mouse surrogate HER2-CRB (mHER2-CRB) improved in vivo efficacy of HER2-TDB and augmented NK as well as T cell activation, cytokine production and effector CD8+ T cell differentiation., Conclusion: We demonstrate that targeting NKG2D with bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) is an effective approach to augment NK and CD8+ T cell antitumor immune responses. Given the large number of ongoing clinical trials leveraging NK and T cells for cancer immunotherapy, NKG2D-bispecifics have broad combinatorial potential., (© 2024. The Author(s).)