Browse Articles

Integrated intraoperative predictive model for malignancy risk assessment of thyroid nodules with atypia of undetermined significance cytology

Spermine driven water deficit tolerance in early growth phases of sweet corn genotypes under hydroponic cultivation

Abstract Sweet corn is highly susceptible to water deprivation, making it crucial to identify effective strategies for enhancing its tolerance to water deficit conditions. This study investigates the novel application of Spermine as a bio-stimulant to improve sweet corn (Zea mays L. var. saccharata) resilience under hydroponic water deficit conditions. Four genotypes (Dessert, Messenger, Tyson, and Royalty) were treated with Spermine (0.2 mM foliar application), polyethylene glycol 6000 (8% and 12%), and their combinations. The impacts on growth parameters, photosynthetic performance, and oxidative stress markers were evaluated. Spermine significantly enhanced biomass parameters, counteracting the severe reductions caused by PEG-induced water deprivation. In the Dessert and Tyson genotypes, total biomass increased by 145%, while it increased by 118% in Messenger and 110% in Royalty when treated with Spermine under severe water deprivation. However, Spermine treatment application did not recorded higher differences compared to control under non water deficit conditions. In the Dessert genotype, root length increased by 36.6% under combined treatment compared to 12% PEG alone. Spermine also mitigated reductions in shoot length, improved by 90.6% and specific leaf area, with a notable 272.6% increase in Tyson under severe water deficit. Photosynthetic performance, including chlorophyll and carotenoid levels, was enhanced, with a 103.1% increase in relative chlorophyll content in Dessert under severe water deprivation. Spermine also reduced oxidative damage, as indicated by a 48.7% decrease in malondialdehyde levels in Tyson, and increased peroxidase activity, enhancing antioxidant defense in Messenger under severe water deprivation. The quantum efficiency of Photosystem II, which was significantly reduced by water deficit, showed substantial improvement with Spermine treatment, with increases of 107.2% in Tyson and 99.4% in Royalty under moderate water deprivation. These results highlight the potential of Spermine as an effective strategy to improve sweet corn resilience under water-limited conditions, offering a novel approach for sustainable crop management.

Hybrid stochastic and robust optimization of a hybrid system with fuel cell for building electrification using an improved arithmetic optimization algorithm

Serum assisted PD-L1 aptamer screening for improving its stability

A comparative study of LQU and LQFI in general qubit-qutrit axially symmetric states

Abstract We derive the compact closed forms of local quantum uncertainty (LQU) and local quantum Fisher information (LQFI) for hybrid qubit-qutrit axially symmetric (AS) states. This allows us to study the quantum correlations in detail and present some essentially novel results for spin-(1/2, 1) systems, the Hamiltonian of which contains ten independent types of physically important parameters. As an application of the derived formulas, we study the behavior of these two quantum correlation measures at thermal equilibrium. New features are observed in their behavior that are important for quantum information processing. Specifically, cascades of sudden changes in the behavior of LQU and LQFI are found with a smooth change in temperature or interaction parameters. Interestingly, in some cases, sudden transitions are observed in the behavior of LQU but not in LQFI, and vice versa. Moreover, our compact formulas open a way to apply them to other problems, for instance, when investigating the environmental effects on quantum correlations in open systems.

Effects of environmental factors on the phenotypic traits and seed element accumulation of wild Elymus nutans in Tibet

Dust removal on solar panels of exploration rovers using Chladni patterns

Exploring behavioral determinants of residents’ ecological conservation in rural tourism development

Angle-controlled strong and weak coupling in photon molecules

MLP Enhanced CO2 Emission Prediction Model with LWSSA Nature Inspired Optimization

Abstract Environmental degradation due to the rapid increase in CO₂ emissions is a pressing global challenge, necessitating innovative solutions for accurate prediction and policy development. Machine learning (ML) techniques offer a robust approach to modeling complex relationships between various factors influencing emissions. Furthermore, ML models can learn and interpret the significance of each factor’s contribution to the rise of CO2. This study proposes a novel hybrid framework combining a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) with an enhanced Locally Weighted Salp Swarm Algorithm (LWSSA) to address the limitations of traditional optimization techniques, such as premature convergence and stagnation in locally optimal solutions. The LWSSA improves the standard Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) by incorporating a Locally Weighted Mechanism (LWM) and a Mutation Mechanism (MM) for greater exploration and exploitation. The LWSSA-MLP framework achieved a prediction accuracy of 97% and outperformed traditional optimizer-based MLP models across several evaluation metrics. A permutation feature significance analysis identified global trade, coal energy, export levels, urbanization, and natural resources as the most influential factors in CO₂ emissions, offering valuable insights for targeted interventions. The study provides a reliable and scalable framework for CO₂ emission prediction, contributing to actionable strategies for sustainable development and environmental resilience.

Antisense mediated blockade of Dickkopf 1 attenuates tumor survival, metastases and bone damage in experimental osteosarcoma

Assessment of upper respiratory and gut bacterial microbiomes during COVID-19 infection in adults: potential aerodigestive transmission

Probabilistic nested model selection in pharmacokinetic analysis of DCE-MRI data in animal model of cerebral tumor

Abstract Best current practice in the analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI is to employ a voxel-by-voxel model selection from a hierarchy of nested models. This nested model selection (NMS) assumes that the observed time-trace of contrast-agent (CA) concentration within a voxel, corresponds to a singular physiologically nested model. However, admixtures of different models may exist within a voxel’s CA time-trace. This study introduces an unsupervised feature engineering technique (Kohonen-Self-Organizing-Map (K-SOM)) to estimate the voxel-wise probability of each nested model. Sixty-six immune-compromised-RNU rats were implanted with human U-251 N cancer cells, and DCE-MRI data were acquired from all the rat brains. The time-trace of change in the longitudinal-relaxivity (ΔR 1 ) for all animals’ brain voxels was calculated. DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis was performed using NMS to estimate three model regions: Model-1: normal vasculature without leakage, Model-2: tumor tissues with leakage without back-flux to the vasculature, Model-3: tumor vessels with leakage and back-flux. Approximately two hundred thirty thousand (229,314) normalized ΔR 1 profiles of animals’ brain voxels along with their NMS results were used to build a K-SOM (topology-size: 8 × 8, with competitive-learning algorithm) and probability map of each model. K -fold nested-cross-validation (NCV, k = 10) was used to evaluate the performance of the K-SOM probabilistic-NMS (PNMS) technique against the NMS technique. The K-SOM PNMS’s estimation for the leaky tumor regions were strongly similar (Dice-Similarity-Coefficient, DSC = 0.774 [CI: 0.731–0.823], and 0.866 [CI: 0.828–0.912] for Models 2 and 3, respectively) to their respective NMS regions. The mean-percent-differences (MPDs, NCV, k = 10) for the estimated permeability parameters by the two techniques were: -28%, + 18%, and + 24%, for v p , K trans , and v e , respectively. The KSOM-PNMS technique produced microvasculature parameters and NMS regions less impacted by the arterial-input-function dispersion effect. This study introduces an unsupervised model-averaging technique (K-SOM) to estimate the contribution of different nested-models in PK analysis and provides a faster estimate of permeability parameters.

Mind the leaf anatomy while taking ground truth with portable chlorophyll meters

Abstract A wide range of portable chlorophyll meters are increasingly being used to measure leaf chlorophyll content as an indicator of plant performance, providing reference data for remote sensing studies. We tested the effect of leaf anatomy on the relationship between optical assessments of chlorophyll (Chl) against biochemically determined Chl content as a reference. Optical Chl assessments included measurements taken by four chlorophyll meters: three transmittance-based (SPAD-502, Dualex-4 Scientific, and MultispeQ 2.0), one fluorescence-based (CCM-300), and vegetation indices calculated from the 400–2500 nm leaf reflectance acquired using an ASD FieldSpec and a contact plant probe. Three leaf types with different anatomy were included: dorsiventral laminar leaves, grass leaves, and needles. On laminar leaves, all instruments performed well for chlorophyll content estimation (R2 > 0.80, nRMSE < 15%), regardless of the variation in their specific internal structure (mesomorphic, scleromorphic, or scleromorphic with hypodermis), similarly to the performance of four reflectance indices (R2 > 0.90, nRMSE < 16%). For grasses, the model to predict chlorophyll content across multiple species had low performance with CCM-300 (R2 = 0.45, nRMSE = 11%) and failed for SPAD. For Norway spruce needles, the relation of CCM-300 values to chlorophyll content was also weak (R2 = 0.45, nRMSE = 11%). To improve the accuracy of data used for remote sensing algorithm development, we recommend calibration of chlorophyll meter measurements with biochemical assessments, especially for species with anatomy other than laminar dicot leaves. The take-home message is that portable chlorophyll meters perform well for laminar leaves and grasses with wider leaves, however, their accuracy is limited for conifer needles and narrow grass leaves. Species-specific calibrations are necessary to account for anatomical variations, and adjustments in sampling protocols may be required to improve measurement reliability.

Titanium dioxide -mediated regulation of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, pigments, and diosgenin content promotes cold stress tolerance in Trigonella foenum-graecum L.

Sinomenine attenuates uremia vascular calcification by miR-143-5p

Abstract Vascular calcification is considered to be a killer of the cardiovascular system, involved inflammation and immunity. There is no approved therapeutic strategy for the prevention of vascular calcification. Sinomenine exhibited anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects. Objective of this study was to investigate the effect of sinomenine in vascular calcification and its potential molecular mechanism. Adenine-induced uremic rats were constructed and administrated with sinomenine. Optical clearing of aortas, alizarin red staining, von Kossa staining, calcification quantification, micro-CT analyses of vascular calcification were performed to analyze calcification in aortas. Administration of 40 mg/kg/d sinomenine effectively alleviated vascular calcification in uremic rats. The miRNA sequencing revealed differentially expressed miRNAs in aortas and bioinformatic analysis assisted with miRNA screening. We screened 9 differential expressed miRNAs and their predicted target genes. By qRT-PCR, we validated that the expression of rno-miR-143-5p was corresponding to our prediction. Sinomenine inhibited vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) calcification, accompanied with miR-143-5p upregulation. MiR-143-5p mimic decreased VSMCs calcification in high phosphate condition. On the contrary, miR-143-5p inhibitor increased VSMCs calcification in high phosphate condition, which was inhibited by sinomenine. In chronic kidney disease patients with vascular calcification, the expression level of circulating miR-143-5p was lower than those without vascular calcification. Sinomenine significantly inhibited vascular calcification in VSMCs and uremic rat. MiR-143-5p was one of the collection of miRNAs modified by sinomenine in vascular calcification. Reduction of miR-143-5p in VSMCs was not only a concomitant phenomenon in pro-calcification condition but also contribute to VSMCs calcification. Circulating miR-143-5p was supposed to be a potential biomarker for vascular calcification in chronic kidney disease patients. In conclusion, sinomenine effectively alleviated vascular calcification, which was attributed to miR-143-5p regulation partly.

Photocatalytic removal of textile wastewater-originated methylene blue and malachite green dyes using spent black tea extract-coated silver nanoparticles

Relationship between oral hypofunction and medical expenditure in older adults in Japan

Contributions of distractor dwelling, skipping, and revisiting to age differences in visual search

Abstract Visual search becomes slower with aging, particularly when targets are difficult to discriminate from distractors. Multiple distractor rejection processes may contribute independently to slower search times: dwelling on, skipping of, and revisiting of distractors, measurable by eye-tracking. The present study investigated how age affects each of the distractor rejection processes, and how these contribute to the final search times in difficult (inefficient) visual search. In a sample of Dutch healthy adults (19–85 years), we measured reaction times and eye-movements during a target present/absent visual search task, with varying target-distractor similarity and visual set size. We found that older age was associated with longer dwelling and more revisiting of distractors, while skipping was unaffected by age. This suggests that increased processing time and reduced visuo-spatial memory for visited distractor locations contribute to age-related decline in visual search. Furthermore, independently of age, dwelling and revisiting contributed stronger to search times than skipping of distractors. In conclusion, under conditions of poor guidance, dwelling and revisiting have a major contribution to search times and age-related slowing in difficult visual search, while skipping is largely negligible.

Optic nerve sonographic parameters in idiopathic intracranial hypertension, case-control study

Abstract The most common diagnostic error of IIH is inaccurate funduscopic examination. Moreover, IIH could be diagnosed without papilledema. Trans orbital sonography could be used as a non-invasive and cheap tool for discovering increased ICP (intracranial Pressure). Aim of our study was discovering the changes in ultra-sonographic indices and which one could predict the increased ICP. Sixty-eight patients were diagnosed as definite IIH and 68 healthy volunteers are included in the study who had the same sex and age. ONSD, peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), and resistance index (RI) were estimated by transorbital color Doppler. Multivariate linear regression was used to discover the predictors of increased ICP. ROC curve was plotted for the predictor. A statistically significant difference was found between IIH patients and controls regarding ONSD, EDV and RI. Multivariate linear regression revealed that ONSD is the only predictor of increased CSP pressure. Its cut-off value indicating high ICP was 5.7 mm on Rt and Lt eye (AUC: 0.916; 95% confidence interval 0.867–0.965; p < 0.001; 90% sensitivity, 80% specificity at Rt eye. AUC: 0.902; 95% confidence interval 0.845–0.958; p < 0.001; 91% sensitivity, 80% specificity at Lt eye).