D2O adsorption to well-ordered Cu2O(111) thin films has been explored with scanning tunneling microscopy, thermal desorption and infrared absorption spectroscopy. The molecules bind associatively to ...the oxide surface, whereby the first D2O layer experiences slightly stronger adhesion due to interfacial hydrogen bonds. At higher coverage, amorphous solid water (ASW) films condense on the Cu2O(111) surface, as concluded from a dominant 155 K desorption peak and a broad vibrational band centered at 2540 cm–1. Development of ASW is also observed on bare Au(111), being used as substrate for Cu2O growth. In contrast to the oxide surface, no binding enhancement is detected for the D2O monolayer and desorption is accompanied by dewetting and transformation to crystalline ice. The different binding schemes of water reflect the hydrophilic versus hydrophobic character of Cu2O(111) and Au(111) supports, respectively.
This study presents an evaluation of a potential alternative to plastic degradation in the form of organic composting. It stems from the urgent need of finding solutions to the plastic residues and ...focuses on the compost-based degradation of greenhouse film covers in an important rose exporter company in Ecuador. Thus, this study analyzes the physical, chemical, and biological changes of rose wastes composting, and also evaluates the stability of new and aged agricultural plastic under these conditions. Interestingly, results of compost characterization show a slow degradation rate of organic matter and total organic carbon, along with a significant increase in pH and rise of bacterial populations. However, the results demonstrate that despite these findings, composting conditions had no significant influence on plastic degradation, and while deterioration of aged plastic samples was reported in some tests, it may be the result of environmental conditions and a prolonged exposure to solar radiation. Importantly, these factors could facilitate the adhesion of microorganisms and promote plastic biodegradation. Hence, it is encouraged for future studies to analyze the ecotoxicity of plastics in the compost, as well as isolate, identify, and evaluate the possible biodegradative potential of these microorganisms as an alternative to plastic waste management.
Article highlights
The study assesse the stability of agricultural plastic films during real conditions of rose waste composting.
Environmental conditions such as a long-term exposure to solar radiation may account in part for the degradation of aged plastic films.
After composting, the chemical structure of the new plastic films changed but this finding may correspond to the protective additives.
Thrombolytic agents such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) are the only drug class approved to treat ischemic stroke and are usually administered within 4.5 h. However, only ~20% of ischemic ...stroke patients are eligible to receive the therapy. We previously demonstrated that early intravenous administration of human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) can limit brain inflammation and infarct growth in experimental stroke. Here, we have tested whether hAECs exert cerebroprotective effects in combination with tPA in mice.
Male C57Bl/6 mice were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion for 60 min followed by reperfusion. Immediately following reperfusion, vehicle (saline,
= 31) or tPA (10 mg/kg;
= 73) was administered intravenously. After 30 min of reperfusion, tPA-treated mice were injected intravenously with either hAECs (1×10
;
= 32) or vehicle (2% human serum albumin;
= 41). A further 15 sham-operated mice were treated with vehicle (
= 7) or tPA + vehicle (
= 8). Mice were designated to be euthanised at 3, 6 or 24 h post-stroke (
= 21, 31, and 52, respectively), and brains were collected to assess infarct volume, blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, intracerebral bleeding and inflammatory cell content.
There was no mortality within 6 h of stroke onset, but a high mortality occurred in tPA + saline-treated mice between 6 h and 24 h post-stroke in comparison to mice treated with tPA + hAECs (61% vs. 27%,
= 0.04). No mortality occurred within 24 h of sham surgery in mice treated with tPA + vehicle. We focused on early infarct expansion within 6 h of stroke and found that infarction was ~50% larger in tPA + saline- than in vehicle-treated mice (23 ± 3 mm
vs. 15 ± 2 mm
,
= 0.02) but not in mice receiving tPA + hAECs (13 ± 2 mm
,
< 0.01 vs. tPA + saline) in which intracerebral hAECs were detected. Similar to the profiles of infarct expansion, BBB disruption and intracerebral bleeding in tPA + saline-treated mice at 6 h was 50-60% greater than in vehicle-treated controls (2.6 ± 0.5 vs. 1.6 ± 0.2,
= 0.05) but not after tPA + hAECs treatment (1.7 ± 0.2,
= 0.10 vs. tPA + saline). No differences in inflammatory cell content were detected between treatment groups.
When administered following tPA in acute stroke, hAECs improve safety and attenuate infarct growth in association with less BBB disruption and lower 24 h mortality.
Abstract
The research proposes to design a software to visualize the relevant information of historical military objects through augmented reality technology, contributing to the modernization of the ...museum, generating a more attractive and autonomous visit for visitors. The research is embodied in two phases. In the requirements phase, data collection instruments were implemented in order to identify the functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed system; In the design phase, the block diagram and flow diagram are modeled to outline the software architecture and illustrate the communication between the different technologies that make up the system. As a result, the structure and characteristics of a model that meets the needs of the Infantery Museum Marine Park was obtained. It is concluded that this model can contribute to the digitization, exhibition and appropriation of the cultural content exhibited in the different scenarios of the Infantery Museum Marine Park in its processes of transmission of knowledge about the various cultural heritages of the museum.
Estimating the amount and center of distortion from lines in the scene has been addressed in the literature by the so-called ``plumb-line'' approach. In this paper we propose a new geometric method ...to estimate not only the distortion parameters but the entire camera calibration (up to an ``angular'' scale factor) using a minimum of 3 lines. We propose a new framework for the unsupervised simultaneous detection of natural image of lines and camera parameters estimation, enabling a robust calibration from a single image. Comparative experiments with existing automatic approaches for the distortion estimation and with ground truth data are presented.
To establish prevention strategies, recording the prevalence of foot injuries within a herd should be the starting point in determining the risk factors involved in digital diseases. This study aimed ...to assess the prevalence of claw disorders in lactating Jersey cows raised in a semi-confinement system.
Five hundred and eighty-four digits were examined from 73 lactating Jersey cows. The lameness score system was used to assess each cow while walking and on standing position, and digital lesions were evaluated with the cows restrained in a hydraulic cattle chute.
The prevalence of digital lesions was 93.1%. Among the 68 affected cows, only 21 were lame. Of the 584 digits examined, 970 lesions were recorded, corresponding to 13.3% lesions per cow and 1.66% injuries per digit. Forty-eight cows (65.7%) had lesions in all digits, and 92.8% of digits had at least one lesion. Lesions in digits of fore limbs were more common (55.3%) (p<0.0001) than those of hind limbs (44.7%). Foot injuries in medial digits of the fore limbs were more prevalent (56.8%) (p<0.001) than in the lateral digits (43.2%). The lesions' occurrence was similar in both medial and lateral digits of the hind limbs (p=0.8347). The primary diseases observed were heel horn erosion (53.8%), white line disease (19.3%), and double sole (12.4%), which together accounted for 92.4% and 84.9% of foot disorders diagnosed in the fore and hind limbs, respectively. Other digital diseases occurred less frequently.
The prevalence of foot disorders in lactating Jersey cows raised in semi-confinement systems was high. This could be due to the lack of preventive trimming, infectious diseases, and nutritional problems.
Alpha-neurofeedback (α-NFB) is a novel therapy which trains individuals to volitionally increase their alpha power to improve pain. Learning during NFB is commonly measured using static parameters ...such as mean alpha power. Considering the biphasic nature of alpha rhythm (high and low alpha), dynamic parameters describing the time spent by individuals in high alpha state and the pattern of transitioning between states might be more useful. Here, we quantify the changes during α-NFB for chronic pain in terms of dynamic changes in alpha states.
Four chronic pain and four healthy participants received five NFB sessions designed to increase frontal alpha power. Changes in pain resilience were measured using visual analogue scale (VAS) during repeated cold-pressor tests (CPT). Changes in alpha state static and dynamic parameters such as fractional occupancy (time in high alpha state), dwell time (length of high alpha state) and transition probability (probability of moving from low to high alpha state) were analyzed using Friedman's Test and correlated with changes in pain scores using Pearson's correlation.
There was no significant change in mean frontal alpha power during NFB. There was a trend of an increase in fractional occupancy, mean dwell duration and transition probability of high alpha state over the five sessions in chronic pain patients only. Significant correlations were observed between change in pain scores and fractional occupancy (
= -0.45,
= 0.03), mean dwell time (
= -0.48,
= 0.04) and transition probability from a low to high state (
= -0.47,
= 0.03) in chronic pain patients but not in healthy participants.
There is a differential effect between patients and healthy participants in terms of correlation between change in pain scores and alpha state parameters. Parameters providing a more precise description of the alpha power dynamics than the mean may help understand the therapeutic effect of neurofeedback on chronic pain.
We study the generation of EEG rhythms by means of realistically coupled neural mass models. Previous neural mass models were used to model cortical voxels and the thalamus. Interactions between ...voxels of the same and other cortical areas and with the thalamus were taken into account. Voxels within the same cortical area were coupled (short-range connections) with both excitatory and inhibitory connections, while coupling between areas (long-range connections) was considered to be excitatory only. Short-range connection strengths were modeled by using a connectivity function depending on the distance between voxels. Coupling strength parameters between areas were defined from empirical anatomical data employing the information obtained from probabilistic paths, which were tracked by water diffusion imaging techniques and used to quantify white matter tracts in the brain. Each cortical voxel was then described by a set of 16 random differential equations, while the thalamus was described by a set of 12 random differential equations. Thus, for analyzing the neuronal dynamics emerging from the interaction of several areas, a large system of differential equations needs to be solved. The sparseness of the estimated anatomical connectivity matrix reduces the number of connection parameters substantially, making the solution of this system faster. Simulations of human brain rhythms were carried out in order to test the model. Physiologically plausible results were obtained based on this anatomically constrained neural mass model.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The effects of onion and its by-products on metabolic changes induced by excessive consumption of a high fat diet have been the focus of many studies. The aim of this study was to systematically ...review the effects of onion and its by-products antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity in rats exposed to a high-fat diet. Five databases were used: Pubmed, EMBASE, Science Direct, Web of science and Scopus until June 2020 updated December 1, 2022. Research of the articles was carried out by two reviewers, searching and selecting studies after an initial reading of the titles and abstracts. In total, 2,448 papers were found and, after assessing against the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 papers were selected for this review. The findings of this review show the beneficial effects of onion and its by-products on inflammatory parameters, obesity, cardiovascular disease, thermogenesis and hepatic alterations generally associated with the consumption of a high-fat diet.
We analyze the functional significance of different event-related potentials (ERPs) as electrophysiological indices of face perception and face recognition, according to cognitive and neurofunctional ...models of face processing. Initially, the processing of faces seems to be supported by early extrastriate occipital cortices and revealed by modulations of the occipital P1. This early response is thought to reflect the detection of certain primary structural aspects indicating the presence grosso modo of a face within the visual field. The posterior-temporal N170 is more sensitive to the detection of faces as complex-structured stimuli and, therefore, to the presence of its distinctive organizational characteristics prior to within-category identification. In turn, the relatively late and probably more rostrally generated N250r and N400-like responses might respectively indicate processes of access and retrieval of face-related information, which is stored in long-term memory (LTM). New methods of analysis of electrophysiological and neuroanatomical data, namely, dynamic causal modeling, single-trial and time-frequency analyses, are highly recommended to advance in the knowledge of those brain mechanisms concerning face processing.
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