The impact of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) on microbiota engraftment in patients with metabolic syndrome is uncertain. We aimed to study whether combining FMT with lifestyle modification ...could enhance the engraftment of favourable microbiota in obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
In this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, 61 obese subjects with T2DM were randomly assigned to three parallel groups: FMT plus lifestyle intervention (LSI), FMT alone, or sham transplantation plus LSI every 4 weeks for up to week 12. FMT solution was prepared from six healthy lean donors. Faecal metagenomic sequencing was performed at baseline, weeks 4, 16 and 24. The primary outcome was the proportion of subjects acquiring ≥20% of microbiota from lean donors at week 24.
Proportions of subjects acquiring ≥20% of lean-associated microbiota at week 24 were 100%, 88.2% and 22% in the FMT plus LSI, FMT alone, and sham plus LSI groups, respectively (p<0.0001). Repeated FMTs significantly increased the engraftment of lean-associated microbiota (p<0.05). FMT with or without LSI increased butyrate-producing bacteria. Combining LSI and FMT led to increase in
and
compared with FMT alone (p<0.05). FMT plus LSI group had reduced total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and liver stiffness at week 24 compared with baseline (p<0.05).
Repeated FMTs enhance the level and duration of microbiota engraftment in obese patients with T2DM. Combining lifestyle intervention with FMT led to more favourable changes in recipients' microbiota and improvement in lipid profile and liver stiffness.
NCT03127696.
The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one high-energy neutrino was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an ...exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident with another high-energy neutrino. Our observations, including a bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support a TDE origin of this flare. The probability of finding two such bright events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for neutrino production and show that AT2019fdr is capable of producing the observed high-energy neutrino, reinforcing the case for TDEs as neutrino sources.
Aim
Iodine (I) deficiency is distinct from other micronutrient deficiencies in human populations in having a high endemic prevalence both in well-developed and in developing countries. The very low ...concentration of iodine in agricultural soils and cereal-based foods is widely believed to be the main reason of iodine deficiency in humans, especially in developing countries. In the present study, the possibility of using iodine containing fertilizers for agronomic biofortification of cereal grains with iodine was studied. The aim was to establish the best application method (to the soil or as foliar spray), the best form of iodine (potassium iodate or potassium iodide) and the optimal dose of iodine. Additionally, experiments were conducted to study transport of iodine in plants and localization of iodine within the grains.
Materials and methods
Experiments were conducted both under greenhouse conditions and in the field on wheat (
Triticum aestivum
) grown in Turkey and Pakistan, on rice (
Oryza sativa
) grown in Brazil, Thailand and Turkey and on maize (
Zea mays
) grown in Turkey. The iodine concentration in the grain, localization of iodine in different grain fractions of wheat (i.e., endosperm, bran and embryo) and iodine concentration of both brown rice and polished rice was analyzed. In short-term experiments, the translocation of iodine from older into younger leaves was also studied. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used for analysis of iodine in plant and soil samples.
Results
In greenhouse experiments on wheat, soil-applied potassium iodide (KI) and potassium iodate (KIO
3
) at increasing rates (i.e., 0, 0.1, 0.25, 1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg I kg
−1
soil) both iodine forms substantially increased iodine concentration in the shoot, with the highest shoot iodine resulting from the KI treatments. However, these soil treatments did not affect iodine concentrations in the wheat grain, with the exception of the highest iodine rates (i. e., 10 and 20 mg I kg
−1
soil) which also depressed the grain yield. In contrast to the soil applications, foliar spray of KI and KIO
3
at increasing rates during heading and early milk stages did enhance grain iodine concentrations up to 5- to 10-fold without affecting grain yield. Including KNO
3
or a surfactant to the iodine containing foliar spray further increased the grain iodine concentration. In a short-term experiment using young wheat plants, it was found that iodine is translocated from older into younger leaves after immersion of the older leaves in solutions containing KI or KIO
3
. Adding KNO
3
or a surfactant in the immersion solution also promoted leaf absorption and translocation of iodine into younger leaves. Field experiments conducted in different countries confirmed that foliar application with increasing rates of iodine significantly increased grain iodine concentrations in wheat, brown rice and maize. This increase was also found in the iodine concentration of the endosperm part of wheat grains and in polished rice.
Conclusions
The results of the present study clearly show that foliar application of iodine containing fertilizers is highly effective in increasing grain iodine concentrations in wheat, rice and maize. Presented results suggest that iodine is translocated from shoot to grain by transport in the phloem. Spraying KIO
3
up to the rate of 0.05%
w
/
v
is suggested as the optimal form and rate to be used in agronomic biofortification with iodine. The substantial increase in grain iodine concentrations could contribute to the prevention of iodine deficiency in human populations with low dietary iodine intake. The reasons behind the higher effectiveness of foliar-applications compared to the soil applications of iodine fertilizers in improving grain iodine concentration are discussed.
Randomly oriented vanadium dioxide (VO2) nanowires were produced on a glass substrate by spin coating from a cosolvent. SEM studies reveal that highly dense VO2 nanowires were grown at an annealing ...temperature of 400 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) provides evidence of the high crystallinity of the VO2 nanowires-embedded VO2 thin films on the glass substrate at 400 °C. Characterization by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) confirmed the formation of VO2 nanowires. The optical band gap of the nanowires-embedded VO2 thin films was also calculated from the transmittance data to be 2.65–2.70 eV. The growth mechanism of the solution-processed semiconducting VO2 nanowires was proposed based on both solvent selection and annealing temperature. Finally, the solar water splitting ability of the VO2 nanowires-embedded VO2 thin films was demonstrated in a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC).
Abstract
The diesel engines is used in many industrial applications in addition to that in cars. In this type of engine the fuel-air mixture will burn behind the piston inside the cylinder and will ...produce high temperature. Developing diesel engines to be more efficient, less fuel consumption, low gas emissions, and high performance that has been pursued for more than two decades. Increased combustion temperature can enhance engine power and efficiency while lowering specific fuel consumption and CO emission rates. Ceramic thermal barrier coatings have been identified as the most promising method for achieving these goals. Due to the abundance of materials and technologies, it is necessary to understand the best material suitable for depositing and the techniques required to complete the process. Many researchers have studied a wide range of materials like ZrO2, Al2O3, mullite, YSZ, and forsterite to develop suitable systems that use thermal barrier coatings. Additionally, many techniques such as EB-PVD and ASP have been developed to meet the requirements of these systems. This paper will examine the materials and technologies that can be used to improve internal diesel engine performance.
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the entire world dramatically. The unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic has widely impacted on Malaysia’s economy, especially towards the small-scale economic ...activities related to the small medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this paper aims to determine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic towards the resilience of SMEs in Johor, Malaysia. The research methodology employed a quantitative method through a survey method via questionnaire sampling of 60 owners involved in SMEs operators across the case study. The research finding indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic had a massive influence on the economy of the majority of SMEs operators, especially on their income generations which average losses in revenue of more than 50 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic compared to 2019. This resulted from the shutdown of their business activities to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Other findings highlighted that the government’s initiatives to address the economic impact of SMEs yet insufficient to sustain business activities and income generations for instance access to financing facilities, product marketing opportunities and others. Therefore, required immediate initiatives should be made by all the stakeholders to reduce the economic impacts among the SMEs.
The conversion of forest cover due to anthropogenic activities is of great concern in the Madhupur Sal Forest in Bangladesh. This study explored the land use changes in the Sal Forest area from 1991 ...to 2020, with the prediction of 2030 and 2040. This study examined and analyzed the changes in five land use classes viz., waterbodies, settlement, Sal Forest, other vegetation, and bare land, and predict those classes using Cellular Automated Artificial Neural Network (CA-ANN) model. The Sankey diagram was employed to represent the change percentage of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC). The LULC for 1991, 2000, 2010, and 2020 derived from Landsat TM and Landsat OLI images, were used to predict the periods of 2030 and 2040. During the last 30 years, the Sal Forest area decreased by 23.35%, whereas the settlement and bare land area increased by 107.19% and 160.89%. The greatest loss of the Sal Forest was observed from 1991 to 2000 by 46.20%. At the same period of time the settlements were increased by 92.68% indicating the encroachment of settlement in the Sal Forest area. The Sankey diagram revealed a major conversion was found between other vegetation and the Sal Forest area. There was a vis-à-vis between other vegetation and the Sal Forest area from 1991 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2010. Interestingly, there was no conversation of the Sal Forest area to other land use from 2010 to 2020, and the prediction showed that the Sal Forest area will be increased by 52.02% in 2040. The preservation and increment of the Sal Forest area suggested strong governmental policy implementation to preserve the forest.
Assembly line balancing (ALB) problem has evolved in lined with the manufacturing advancement. Previous research in ALB mostly assumed that all workstations are having similar capabilities including ...the machines, tools and worker skills. Recently, researchers started to consider the ALB with resource constraint (ALB-RC) such as machine and worker. This paper aim to evaluate new rank-based crossovers to optimize real-life ALB-RC problem. Prior to this work, the authors had proposed rank-based crossover type I and II (RBC-I and II) to enhance the performance of Genetic Algorithm (GA) in optimizing ALB-RC problem. An industrial case study has been conducted in electronics industry. The results of industrial case study confirmed that the proposed ALB-RC model is capable to be used for the real industrial problem. At the same time, the result indicated that the GA with rank-based crossover is capable to optimize real-life problem. As a comparison, the number of workstation, resources and workers had reduced between 10 - 15% for the optimised layout using GA with RBC, compared with the original layout in the case study problem
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