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This research study is centered on the sono-assisted photocatalytic degradation of a well-known antibiotic (ciprofloxacin; CIP) in aquatic media using a g-C 3 N 4 /NH 2 -UiO-66 (Zr) catalyst under visible light irradiation. Initially, the catalyst was prepared by a simple method, and its physiochemical features were thoroughly analyzed by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDX, EDS-Dot-Mapping, and UV-Vis analytical techniques. After that, the impact of several influential factors affecting the performance of the applied sono-assisted photocatalytic process such as the initial concentration of CIP, solution pH, catalyst dosage, light intensity, and ultrasound power was fully assessed, and the optimal conditions were established. After 75 min of the sono-assisted photocatalytic treatment, the complete degradation of CIP (10 mg/L) was accomplished under the condition as follows: g-C 3 N 4 /NH 2 -UiO-66 (Zr), 0.6 g/L; pH, 5.0, and ultrasound power, light intensity 75 mw/cm 2 , 200 W/m 2 . Meanwhile, the photocatalytic degradation of CIP followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. In addition, the scavenger experiments demonstrated that OH˚ and O 2 ° - radicals played a key role in the sono-assisted photocatalytic degradation process. It is also acknowledged that the applied catalyst was reused for five consecutive runs with a minor loss observed in its degradation efficiency. In a further experiment, a significant synergistic effect with regard to the degradation of CIP was observed once all three major parameters (visible light, ultrasound waves, and catalyst) were used in combination compared to each used alone. To sum up, it is thought that the integration of g-C 3 N 4 /MOF-based catalyst, ultrasound waves, and visible light irradiation could be potentially applied as a promising strategy for the degradation of various pharmaceuticals on account of high degradation performance, simple operation, excellent reusability, and eco-friendly approach., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Niloufar Shashaani,1 Reza Shiari,2 Abdullah Karimi,3 Shima Salehi,4 Roxana Ghanaei,3 Mehrnoush Hassas Yeganeh,2 Sara Shiari,1 Khosro Rahmani,2 Vadood Javadi Parvaneh2 1Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, Mofid Children’s Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Infectious Diseases, Mofid Children’s Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 4Faculty of Medicine, Ali Asghar Children’s Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranCorrespondence: Reza Shiari Tel +98-21-22227033Email shiareza@yahoo.comIntroduction: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis that occurs mostly in children under five years old. Kawasaki affects the middle-size arteries, especially the coronary arteries. Therefore, without adequate treatment, it may cause coronary artery aneurysm in 25% of patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Kobayashi, Sano, and Egami criterions with coronary artery aneurysm in KD patients during the last ten years and to identify risk factors in patients with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)-resistant and coronary artery aneurysms.Methodology: Medical records of 363 Kawasaki patients referred during 2008– 2017 were reviewed. Patients’ demographic data and Kobayashi, Sano, and Egami scores of each patient were calculated. Based on echocardiographic findings, cases of coronary artery aneurysm were determined. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and the accuracy of each criterion were determined to predicting IVIG resistance and detect coronary artery aneurysm.Results: There was a slight relationship between IVIG-resistance in Kawasaki children and its prediction based on the Kobayashi risk score, but no relationship was found between the Egami and Sano criteria. Sixty-three patients (17.4%) had coronary artery lesions (CALs) on time of diagnosis. There were no statistically significant differences between gender and mean age of children with and without CALs. Also, there was no significant relationship between coronary artery aneurysm in Kawasaki children and its prediction based on the above three risk factors. The area under the ROC-curve of all three risk measures of Kobayashi, Egami, and Sano indicated that all three criteria were not useful in predicting CALs.Conclusion: Despite the low accuracy of the three above criteria to predictive of patients with IVIG resistance, it seems that the variables of age, duration of fever, and C-reactive protein (CRP) are more useful than other variables and may be utilized to evaluate patients by establishing a more appropriate cut-off point.Keywords: Kawasaki disease, coronary artery aneurysm, IVIG-resistant, Kobayashi, Sano, Egami

Sarcoidosis presents as a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology, characterized by the development of non-caseating granulomas that commonly affect the lungs, lymph nodes, skin, and eyes. Manifestations of various conditions such as infections, neoplasms, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and drug-induced diseases can bear resemblance to sarcoidosis. Coccidiosis, attributed to protozoan parasites of the Coccidia genus, primarily affects the intestinal tract but may also display systemic symptoms akin to those of sarcoidosis. In this particular case, we present a 46-year-old immunocompetent gentleman who had an extensive disease despite the patient's well-controlled diabetes and absence of residency in an endemic area with fungal infection, his only pertinent part of the history was his travel to endemic areas for short periods that raised the possibility of thinking about the disseminated fungal infection. The patient's symptoms initially attributed to and treated as sarcoidosis, which later did not respond to steroids, led us to consider other potential causes, including systemic fungal infection  Misdiagnosis of the sarcoidosis bears the risk of inappropriate treatment, potentially leading to exacerbated patient outcomes. Consequently, it is imperative for healthcare providers, particularly rheumatologists, to augment vigilance and conduct comprehensive diagnostic assessments encompassing microbiological testing and histopathological examination., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Aldookhi et al.)

Surface transportation has evolved through technology advancements using parallel knowledge areas such as machine learning (ML). However, the transportation industry has not yet taken full advantage of ML. To evaluate this gap, we utilized a literature review approach to locate, categorize, and synthesize the principal concepts of research papers regarding surface transportation systems using ML algorithms, and we then decomposed them into their fundamental elements. We explored more than 100 articles, literature review papers, and books. The results show that 74% of the papers concentrate on forecasting, while multilayer perceptions, long short-term memory, random forest, supporting vector machine, XGBoost, and deep convolutional neural networks are the most preferred ML algorithms. However, sophisticated ML algorithms have been minimally used. The root-cause analysis revealed a lack of effective collaboration between the ML and transportation experts, resulting in the most accessible transportation applications being used as a case study to test or enhance a given ML algorithm and not necessarily to enhance a mobility or safety issue. Additionally, the transportation community does not define transportation issues clearly and does not provide publicly available transportation datasets. The transportation sector must offer an open-source platform to showcase the sector’s concerns and build spatiotemporal datasets for ML experts to accelerate technology advancements.

Reduction of the transportation sector's air emissions has been an essential goal for decreasing the emissions' externalities and slowing climate change. This study evaluated the emission impacts of low-level automated vehicles (LAVs) in 86 metropolitan areas in the United States, based on county-specific emission costs of morbidity, mortality, and environmental damages. Twelve LAV technologies were investigated to estimate their impacts on CO2, CO, NOx, PM2.5, SOx, NH3, and VOC. The study analyzed the LAV technologies' direct and indirect emission impacts, including accident-related and non-accident-related congestion reductions, aerodynamic force reduction, the operational load of equipment, and traffic rebound. The results show that the LAV technologies could reduce the annual social costs of emissions by between 9 and 20 billion USD2019 in these metropolitan areas. This is equal to approximately 20% of the vehicles' emissions. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the technologies' market penetration rates (MPRs), demonstrating that the rate strongly influences the emission savings. This study revealed that LAVs' savings per vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) vary between areas, with the technologies performing differently in different areas due to both geographical factors (e.g., population) and technological factors (e.g., internal combustion engine performance). The study provides extensive resources for policymakers to develop targeted incentives and maximize the social benefits of the LAV technologies.

There is increasing demand for natural food preservative in food manufacturing industry as it is the key to meet consumers' preferences toward healthier food choice. Plant is listed among the most important resources of bioactive components to be utilized as the green and natural food preservatives. There are more than 10,000 kinds of bioactive components in plants that possess antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Artemisia with potential antimicrobial and antioxidant attributes, as well as functional and medicinal properties, is one of the most important plant species. The manuscript presents a comprehensive review of the potential of the Artemisia species as natural food preservatives. The current challenges and ways forward in using Artemisia EOs and extracts as food preservatives are also discussed. This topic is timely and important considering the natural preservatives used to replace chemical ingredients, sustaining quality, healthy properties, and shelf life of food products as well as efficient and novel extraction techniques., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest relevant to this article., (© 2024 The Author(s). Food Science & Nutrition published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Bone Morphogenetic Proteins and the related Growth and Differentiation Factors (GDFs) are much conserved signaling proteins. GDF5 is pivotal for skeletal development. Several skeletal dysplasia and malformation syndromes are known as a result of mutations in GDF5 . Multiple Synostosis Syndrome2 (SYNS2) is characterized by tarsal-carpal coalition, humeroradial synostosis, brachydactyly, and proximal symphalangism. In this study, we analyzed a large Iranian pedigree affected with a new type of SYNS2 (Farhud Type) in five successive generations., Methods: In this family-based study (1982-2022), Genetic linkage analysis of the pedigree (58affected, 62healthy) excluded the locus on chromosome 17q21-q22 in our previous study. Thus, we focused on 20q11.22 locus and GDF5 gene. Genetic investigations were performed on 16 patients with SYNS2 and 40 healthy individuals., Results: Whole-exome-sequencing results identified a heterozygote missense mutation in exon2 of GDF5 (NG_008076.1:g.9239G>A, NM_000557.2:c.1424G>A, S475N, rs121909347). This mutation was found in all patients but not in the unaffected individuals. This missense mutation is notable because S475 is strictly conserved among different species, and it is located in a highly conserved and active mature domain of GDF5 (phyloP100way=7.64). The corresponding defect in GDF5 may have unknown interaction with normal active 3 rd and 4 th structure of the product. Further bioinformatics study (amino acid multiple alignments) showed that the S475 is a much-conserved residue in many different species., Conclusion: These results introduce a new role of GDF5 in pathogenesis of a SYNS2 (Farhud Type), considered in genetic counseling, prenatal diagnosis, and as a potential target for molecular therapy, if possible., (Copyright© 2024 Farhud et al. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.)

Herein, a new MOF-based modified adsorbent for the efficient removal of Hg(ii) ions from water media was successfully prepared. Initially, a MOF nanocomposite was synthesized and applied as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of the target heavy metal ion. Following the synthesis, the MOF-based modified adsorbent was identified and characterized by SEM, XRD and FT-IR analytical instruments. The impact of several key variables such as pH of aqueous solution, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and initial concentration of the analyte of interest on the adsorption efficiency was also investigated in detail. Under the optimal conditions established (pH, 3; dose of adsorbent, 0.4 g L -1 ; contact time, 40 min and the analyte's concentration of 1 mg L -1 ) the removal efficiency of 96.3% for Hg(ii) was obtained. The results of the studies on the isotherm and kinetics of adsorption revealed that the adsorption process of Hg(ii) matched with the Langmuir isotherm ( R 2 > 0.990) and the pseudo 2nd-order kinetic models ( R 2 > 0.998). Additionally, reuse of the applied adsorbent for five consecutive tests exhibited a small percentage of drop (about 8%) in the removal efficiency of the target ion. Finally, the results indicated that the MOF-based modified compound could be potentially applied as a highly efficacious adsorbent for the discharge of Hg(ii) from aquatic media., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)