Search Results (27)

The gas-phase delivery of lignin into the hot zone of cw-CO₂ laser-powered homogeneous pyrolysis (LPHP) reactor under “wall-less” conditions led to the breakdown of lignin macromolecules into neutral oligomers and paramagnetic fragments deposited onto the reactor cell walls. The formation of PAHs was observed during the defragmentation of lignin, accelerated with increased laser power. Remarkably, no phenolic compounds were detected among lignin fragments—intermediate radicals and neutral oligomers. It is concluded that the PAH and soot-like conjugated particulates are formed in the hot zone of the LPHP reactor, resembling the high-temperature combustion processes. The key role of the resonantly stabilized radicals in the formation of low-molecular-weight PAHs is outlined. An alternative pathway is proposed for the generation of PAH involving the formation of cyclopentadienyl radical precursors (CPDa) that are adsorbed onto or trapped within lignin macromolecules. Full article

Background: In vitro blood circulation loop systems are utilized to assess the hemocompatibility and performance of medical devices that come into contact with blood, in accordance with the international standards ASTM F1830 and ASTM F1841. However, a method for evaluating the specific type of anticoagulant and the blood characteristics of each animal species is necessary to ensure consistent and reliable results. Methods: Blood was collected from healthy rabbits, pigs, rhesus monkeys, and cynomolgus monkeys to evaluate whole blood preserved in anticoagulants (ACD-A, CPDA-1, and heparin). For each sample, red blood cells were monitored over time, and their morphological characteristics were documented. Results: The morphological grade of erythrocytes gradually decreased over time. Significant differences were observed based on the type of anticoagulant used in the experiment, and variations were noted among different animal species. Conclusions: The hemocompatibility of in vitro blood circulation loop systems may vary depending on the animal species. Observing erythrocyte morphology can serve as a control measure to ensure reproducible results. Full article

Coded distributed computing (CDC) is a powerful approach to reduce the communication overhead in distributed computing frameworks by utilizing coding techniques. In this paper, we focus on the CDC problem in $(H,L)$-combination networks, where H APs act as intermediate pivots and $K=\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{H}{L}}\right)$ workers are connected to different subsets of L APs. Each worker processes a subset of the input file and computes intermediate values (IVs) locally, which are then exchanged via uplink and downlink transmissions through the AP station to ensure that all workers compute their assigned output functions. In this paper, we first novelly characterize the transmission scheme for the shuffle phase from the view point of the coefficient matrix and then obtain the scheme by using the Combined Placement Delivery Array (CPDA). Compared with the baseline scheme, our scheme significantly improves the uplink and downlink communication loads while maintaining the robustness and efficiency of the combined multi-AP network. Full article

Existing methods for detecting road damage mainly depend on manual inspections or sensor-equipped vehicles, which are inefficient, have limited coverage, and are susceptible to errors and delays. These traditional methods also struggle with detecting minor damage, such as small cracks and initial potholes, making real-time road monitoring challenging. To address these issues and improve the performance for real-time road damage detection using Street View Image Data (SVRDD), this study propose DAPONet, a new deep learning model. DAPONet proposes three main innovations: (1) a dual attention mechanism that combines global context and local attention, (2) a multi-scale partial overparameterization module (CPDA), and (3) an efficient downsampling module (MCD). Experimental results on the SVRDD public dataset show that DAPONet reaches a mAP50 of 70.1%, surpassing YOLOv10n (an optimized version of YOLO) by 10.4%, while reducing the model’s size to 1.6 M parameters and cutting FLOPs to 1.7 G, resulting in a 41% and 80% decrease, respectively. Furthermore, the model’s mAP50-95 of 33.4% on the MS COCO2017 dataset demonstrates its superior performance, with a 0.8% improvement over EfficientDet-D1, while reducing parameters and FLOPs by 74%. Full article

Nature equipped red blood cells (RBCs) with diverse mechanical properties, which makes it possible to examine blood with different RBC properties (size, shape, aggregability, deformability). We investigated whether the shelf life of cow blood (stiff RBCs, low aggregability) is longer compared with pig blood (deformability/aggregability comparable to human) due to a delay in RBC clustering and decomposition. Blood was drawn from conscious pigs and cows in their familiar environment to reduce stress and stored 30 days at +7 °C. RBCs remained intact in cow samples whereas pig samples became hemolytic after day 20. White blood cells and platelets decreased with similar percentages in both species. Hematocrit (HCT) decreased due to RBC shrinking in bovine samples and due to RBC decay in porcine samples. Blood viscosity increased in both species although HCT decreased. In porcine samples, shear thinning decreased progressively, indicating a gradual loss of sample cohesion with storage. Yield stress and storage modulus decreased with hemolysis. In HCT-native cow samples, shear thinning, yield stress, and storage modulus showed high intraindividual variability, but the mean values did not change over the time course. In HCT-adjusted (38%) cow samples, solidification occurred after day 7, followed by a reduction in cohesion and shear thinning until the end of storage. Full article

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used for treating hematological malignancies despite their multiple adverse effects. The biological response to GCs relies on glucocorticoid receptor (GR) transrepression (TR) that mediates the anticancer effects and transactivation (TA) associated with the side effects. Selective GR agonists (SEGRAs) preferentially activating GR TR could offer greater benefits in cancer treatment. One of the well-characterized SEGRAs, 2-(4-acetoxyphenyl)-2-chloro-N-methylethylammonium-chloride (CpdA), exhibited anticancer activity; however, its translational potential is limited due to chemical instability. To overcome this limitation, we obtained CpdA derivatives, CpdA-01–CpdA-08, employing two synthetic strategies and studied their anti-tumor activity: 4-(1-hydroxy-2-(piperidin-1-yl)ethyl)phenol or CpdA-03 demonstrated superior GR affinity and stability compared to CpdA. In lymphoma Granta and leukemia CEM cell lines, CpdA-03 ligand exhibited typical SEGRA properties, inducing GR TR without triggering GR TA. CpdA-03 effects on cell viability, growth, and apoptosis were similar to the reference GR ligand, dexamethasone (Dex), and the source compound CpdA. In vivo testing of CpdA-03 activity against lymphoma on the transplantable P388 murine lymphoma model showed that CpdA-03 reduced tumor volume threefold, outperforming Dex and CpdA. In conclusion, in this work, we introduce a novel SEGRA CpdA-03 as a promising agent for lymphoma treatment with fewer side effects. Full article

Background: This study was conducted to confirm the reliability of an in vitro mechanically induced hemolysis test (ISO 10993-4:2017), which is essential for ensuring the safety of blood pumps. Methods: For appropriate anticoagulant selection, porcine blood was prepared in anticoagulant citrate dextrose solution A (ACD-A), heparin, and citrate phosphate dextrose adenine (CPDA-1), respectively, according to the ASTM F1830 standard. Anticoagulant-treated porcine and bovine blood were circulated in a mock circulatory loop (MCL) for 6 h to observe the rate of plasma-free hemoglobin (pfHb) and RBCs with morphological integrity. Results: A morphological loss of red blood cells (RBCs) was observed over time. While there were differences in morphological loss depending on the anticoagulant, no consistent trend could be identified. The pfHb concentration was significantly higher in bovine than in porcine blood. Conversely, the number of RBCs with morphological integrity decreased over time in both, but the ratio of RBCs with morphological integrity was similar across all timepoints. Conclusions: The percentage of RBCs with morphological integrity can be used as a reliable indicator for the interpretation of mechanically induced hemolysis results in different blood types. Furthermore, the reliability of the in vitro mechanically induced hemolysis test (ISO 10993-4:2017) was assessed. Full article

Dietary supplementation with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) has been found to be beneficial in rodent rheumatoid arthritis models and human trials. However, the molecular targets of n-3 PUFAs and their beneficial effects on rheumatoid arthritis are under-researched. Free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFA4, also known as GPR120) is a receptor for n-3 PUFA. We aim to investigate whether FFA4 activation reduces collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis (CIA) by using an FFA4 agonist, compound A (CpdA), in combination with DBA-1J Ffa4 gene wild-type (WT) and Ffa4 gene knock-out (KO) mice. CIA induced an increase in the arthritis score, foot edema, synovial hyperplasia, pannus formation, proteoglycan loss, cartilage damage, and bone erosion, whereas the administration of CpdA significantly suppressed those increases in Ffa4 WT mice but not Ffa4 gene KO mice. CIA increased mRNA expression levels of pro-inflammatory Th1/Th17 cytokines, whereas CpdA significantly suppressed those increases in Ffa4 WT mice but not Ffa4 gene KO mice. CIA induced an imbalance between Th1/Th17 and Treg cells, whereas CpdA rebalanced them in spleens from Ffa4 WT mice but not Ffa4 gene KO mice. In SW982 synovial cells, CpdA reduced the LPS-induced increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine levels. In summary, the present results suggest that the activation of FFA4 in immune and synovial cells could suppress the characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis and be an adjuvant therapy. Full article

Supplementation with fish oil rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) effectively reduces acute and chronic alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis. We aimed to find molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of n-3 PUFAs in alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis. Because free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFA4, also known as GPR120) has been found as a receptor for n-3 PUFAs in an ethanol-induced liver steatosis model, we investigated whether n-3 PUFAs protect against liver steatosis via FFA4 using AH7614, an FFA4 antagonist, and Ffa4 knockout (KO) mice. N-3 PUFAs and compound A (CpdA), a selective FFA4 agonist, reduced the ethanol-induced increase in lipid accumulation in hepatocytes, triglyceride content, and serum ALT levels, which were not observed in Ffa4 KO mice. N-3 PUFAs and CpdA also reduced the ethanol-induced increase in lipogenic sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c expression in an FFA4-dependent manner. In Kupffer cells, treatment with n-3 PUFA and CpdA reversed the ethanol-induced increase in tumor necrosis factor-α, cyclooxygenase-2, and NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 expression levels in an FFA4-dependent manner. In summary, n-3 PUFAs protect against ethanol-induced hepatic steatosis via the anti-inflammatory actions of FFA4 on Kupffer cells. Our findings suggest FFA4 as a therapeutic target for alcoholic hepatic steatosis. Full article

The article aims to identify how systemic, multi-scale dynamics influence access to adequate and healthy food and eating and how food is produced and circulated in the Amazonian context of the Metropolitan Region of Santarém (PA). We conducted a literature review, qualitative interviews with key actors, discussion groups and visits to food retailers to address the following research questions: how do socio-economic and political dynamics, especially those related to the soy-meat agroindustrial complex, create or reproduce social inequalities, injustices and inequities, and how do they affect the access to adequate and healthy food? Our findings suggest that the expansion of large-scale soybean growing and livestock, forming the industrial soy-meat complex, contributes to the impoverishment of certain social segments of the local population, accompanied by the erosion of the base for food production. Smallholder farmers and Indigenous and traditional people are among the main affected groups, while violence in rural areas contributes to restricting access to adequate and healthy food. The novelties of our study lie in approaching food systems, taking access to food as the entry point and linking adverse effects of the soy-meat complex to inequalities in access to healthy food. The study also discusses value conflicts between “traditional” and “modern food” (e.g., ultra-processed food), reflecting intergenerational disputes between ways of life and culture, which are also nurtured by the expansion of the soy-meat complex. These multi-scale dynamics have significant repercussions on how food is produced and circulated and highlight the relations between local food politics and conflicts, as well as their connections with processes beyond the local scale. Finally, the article calls for advancing integrated and multi-scale analysis of food production and access to address challenges of social injustices in food system transitions, fostering sustainability, human health and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Full article

Forest is an important resource for human survival, and forest fires are a serious threat to forest protection. Therefore, the early detection of fire and smoke is particularly important. Based on the manually set feature extraction method, the detection accuracy of the machine learning forest fire detection method is limited, and it is unable to deal with complex scenes. Meanwhile, most deep learning methods are difficult to deploy due to high computational costs. To address these issues, this paper proposes a lightweight forest fire detection model based on YOLOv8 (FFYOLO). Firstly, in order to better extract the features of fire and smoke, a channel prior dilatation attention module (CPDA) is proposed. Secondly, the mixed-classification detection head (MCDH), a new detection head, is designed. Furthermore, MPDIoU is introduced to enhance the regression and classification accuracy of the model. Then, in the Neck section, a lightweight GSConv module is applied to reduce parameters while maintaining model accuracy. Finally, the knowledge distillation strategy is used during training stage to enhance the generalization ability of the model and reduce the false detection. Experimental outcomes demonstrate that, in comparison to the original model, FFYOLO realizes an mAP_0.5 of 88.8% on a custom forest fire dataset, which is 3.4% better than the original model, with 25.3% lower parameters and 9.3% higher frames per second (FPS). Full article

This review is focused on synephrine, the principal phytochemical found in bitter orange and other medicinal plants and widely used as a dietary supplement for weight loss/body fat reduction. We examine different aspects of synephrine biology, delving into its established and potential molecular targets, as well as its mechanisms of action. We present an overview of the origin, chemical composition, receptors, and pharmacological properties of synephrine, including its anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activity in various in vitro and animal models. Additionally, we conduct a comparative analysis of the molecular targets and effects of synephrine with those of its metabolite, selective glucocorticoid receptor agonist (SEGRA) Compound A (CpdA), which shares a similar chemical structure with synephrine. SEGRAs, including CpdA, have been extensively studied as glucocorticoid receptor activators that have a better benefit/risk profile than glucocorticoids due to their reduced adverse effects. We discuss the potential of synephrine usage as a template for the synthesis of new generation of non-steroidal SEGRAs. The review also provides insights into the safe pharmacological profile of synephrine. Full article

An intelligent, vision-guided welding robot is highly desired in machinery manufacturing, the ship industry, and vehicle engineering. The performance of the system greatly depends on the effective identification of weld seam features and the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the weld seam position in a complex industrial environment. In this paper, a 3D visual sensing system with a structured laser projector and CCD camera is developed to obtain the geometry information of fillet weld seams in robot welding. By accounting for the inclination characteristics of the laser stripe in fillet welding, a Gaussian-weighted PCA-based laser center line extraction method is proposed. Smoother laser centerlines can be obtained at large, inclined angles. Furthermore, an improved chord-to-point distance accumulation (CPDA) method with polygon approximation is proposed to identify the feature corner location in center line images. The proposed method is validated numerically with simulated piece-wise linear laser stripes and experimentally with automated robot welding. By comparing this method with the grayscale gravity method, Hessian-matrix-based method, and conventional CPDA method, the proposed improved CPDA method with PCA center extraction is shown to have high accuracy and robustness in noisy welding environments. The proposed method meets the need for vision-aided automated welding robots by achieving greater than 95% accuracy in corner feature point identification in fillet welding. Full article

The members of Microbacterium isolated from different environments are known to form peptidoglycan. In this study, we compared the biofilm-forming abilities of Microbacterium sp. PAMC22086 (PAMC22086), which was isolated from the soil in the South Shetland Islands and Microbacterium sp. PAMC21962 (PAMC21962), which was isolated from algae in the South Shetland Islands. The analysis of average nucleotide identity and phylogeny of PAMC22086 revealed a 97% similarity to Microbacterium oxydans VIU2A, while PAMC21962 showed a 99.1% similarity to Microbacterium hominis SGAir0570. For the comparative genomic analysis of PAMC22086 and PAMC21962, the genes related to biofilm formation were identified using EggNOG and KEGG pathway databases. The genes possessed by both PAMC22086 and PAMC21962 are cpdA, phnB, rhlC, and glgC, which regulate virulence, biofilm formation, and multicellular structure. Among the genes indirectly involved in biofilm formation, unlike PAMC21962, PAMC22086 possessed csrA, glgC, and glgB, which are responsible for attachment and glycogen biosynthesis. Additionally, in PAMC22086, additional functional genes rsmA, which is involved in mobility and polysaccharide production, and dksA, GTPase, and oxyR, which play roles in cell cycle and stress response, were identified. In addition, the biofilm-forming ability of the two isolates was examined in vivo using the standard crystal violet staining technique, and morphological differences in the biofilm were investigated. It is evident from the different distribution of biofilm-associated genes between the two strains that the bacteria can survive in different niches by employing distinct strategies. Both strains exhibit distinct morphologies. PAMC22086 forms a biofilm that attaches to the side, while PAMC21962 indicates growth starting from the center. The biofilm formation-related genes in Microbacterium are not well understood. However, it has been observed that Microbacterium species form biofilm regardless of the number of genes they possess. Through comparison between different Microbacterium species, it was revealed that specific core genes are involved in cell adhesion, which plays a crucial role in biofilm formation. This study provides a comprehensive profile of the Microbacterium genus’s genomic features and a preliminary understanding of biofilm in this genus, laying the foundation for further research. Full article

The experimental and theoretical study of influence of the conformational state and association on the chirality of the stereochemically nonrigid biologically active bis-camphorolidenpropylenediamine (CPDA) and its ability to induce the helical mesophase of alkoxycyanobiphenyls liquid–crystalline binary mixture was carried out. On the basis of quantum-chemical simulation of the CPDA structure, four relatively stable conformers were detected. A comparison of the calculated and experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and ¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N NMR spectra, as well as specific optical rotation and dipole moments, allowed to establish the most probable trans-gauche conformational state (tg) of dicamphorodiimine and CPDA dimer with a predominantly mutually parallel arrangement of molecular dipoles. The induction of helical phases in LC mixtures based on cyanobiphenyls and bis-camphorolidenpropylenediamine was studied by polarization microscopy. The clearance temperatures and the helix pitch of the mesophases were measured. The helical twisting power (HTP) was calculated. The decrease in HTP with increasing dopant concentration was shown to be connected with the CPDA association process in the LC phase. The effect of camphor-containing chiral dopants of various structures on nematic LCs was compared. The values of the permittivity and birefringence components of the CPDA solutions in CB-2 were measured experimentally. A strong effect of this dopant on the anisotropic physical properties of the induced chiral nematic was established. A significant decrease in the dielectric anisotropy was associated with the 3D compensation of the LC dipoles during the formation of the helix. Full article