Aquaponics is an integrated fish and crop production system that includes aquaculture and hydroponics. The purpose of this study was to assess aquaponic research and social media attention in light ...of the exponential growth of aquaponics systems. This article condenses numerous studies into a single paper, which provides insights into the worldwide growth and advancement of the study field and establishes a future research agenda. A thorough scientometric study of the worldwide scientific output on aquaponics from 2004 to 2021 was conducted using the Scopus database. Altmetric data for individual articles were collected from Altmetric.com. The analysis tools, MS Excel, Tableau, Biblioshiny, and VOSviewer, were used in this study. The results show that aquaponics research has been growing significantly over the years. In recent years, aquaponics research primarily focused on the optimization of system performance (component ratio, hydraulic loading rate, hydroponic component, etc.), wastewater treatment, nutrient management, system production, technology adoption, and varieties of plants and fishes. The study identified the most prolific authors, journals, and affiliations in the field of aquaponics. The USA, Europe, and some Asian countries, especially China and India, are the most innovative regions with significant research in this area. Altmetric analysis found that aquaponics research has not received impressive online social attention and needs further social media promotion. However, publications have a considerable readership on Mendeley.
Landslide is a natural hazard which carries water, mud, debris and sometimes large boulders. Earthquakes, heavy rainfall and tectonic forces are natural responsible factors for landslides, whereas ...overpopulation and rapid development in the hilly region are unnatural factors which involve human activities such as construction/maintenance of roads, highways, railways and buildings by the unplanned excavation of rock slopes. Both natural and unnatural factors have been accountable for the increase in the probability of landslides in the past few decades. In the present study, stability analysis of rock slopes has been carried out along Kulikawn to Saikhamakawn road section of Aizawl. Kinematic analysis has been performed to identify the road cut slopes which have the potential to fail, and mainly two types of failures were found, i.e., wedge and topple failure. In order to check the stability of road cut slopes, Geological Strength Index, slope mass rating (SMR) and continuous slope mass rating (CoSMR) have been used in this study. Numerical modelling has also been performed to assess the stability of the road cut slope. The maximum displacement of 0.79 m with a maximum velocity of 0.78 m/s has been found for rock slope at location L1 using numerical modelling which confirms the finding from kinematic analysis, SMR and CoSMR analysis.
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) are a group of heterogeneous clonal hematologic malignancies that are characterized by defective bone marrow (BM) hematopoiesis and by the occurrence of ...intramedullary apoptosis. During the past decade, the identification of key genetic and epigenetic alterations in patients has improved our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease. However, the specific molecular mechanisms leading to the pathogenesis of MDS have largely remained obscure. Recently, essential evidence supporting the direct role of innate immune abnormalities in MDS has been obtained, including the identification of multiple key regulators that are overexpressed or constitutively activated in BM hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Mounting experimental results indicate that the dysregulation of these molecules leads to abnormal hematopoiesis, unbalanced cell death and proliferation in patients' BM, and has an important role in the pathogenesis of MDS. Furthermore, there is compelling evidence that the deregulation of innate immune and inflammatory signaling also affects other cells from the immune system and the BM microenvironment, which establish aberrant associations with hematopoietic precursors and contribute to the MDS phenotype. Therefore, the deregulation of innate immune and inflammatory signaling should be considered as one of the driving forces in the pathogenesis of MDS. In this article, we review and update the advances in this field, summarizing the results from the most recent studies and discussing their clinical implications.
In this paper, a novel lattice constant prediction model based on valence electron and ionic radii is proposed. This enables us to achieve improved prediction performance of the lattice constant of ...structurally known perovskites. The lattice constants of these compounds exhibit a linear relationship when plotted against the average ionic radii
r
av (Å), but fall on different straight lines according to the valence electron product of the compounds. We have applied the proposed relation to ABX
3 (A: large cation with different valence, B: transition metal, and X: oxides and halides) and found a better agreement with the experimental data as compared to the values evaluated by earlier researchers.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is declared as an international emergency in 2020. Its prevalence and fatality rate are rapidly increasing but the medication options are still limited for ...this perilous disease. The emergent outbreak of COVID-19 triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) keeps propagating globally. The present scenario has emphasized the requirement for therapeutic opportunities to relive and overcome this latest pandemic. Despite the fact, the deteriorating developments of COVID-19, there is no drug certified to have considerable effects in the medical treatment for COVID-19 patients. The COVID-19 pandemic requests for the rapid testing of new treatment approaches. Based on the evidence, hydroxychloroquine is the first medicine opted for the treatment of disease. Umifenovir, remdesivir, and fevipiravir are deemed the most hopeful antiviral agent by improving the health of infected patients. The dexamethasone is a first known steroid medicine that can save the lives of seriously ill patients, and it is shown in a randomized clinical trial by the United Kingdom that it reduced the death rate in COVID-19 patients. The current review recapitulates the existing evidence of possible therapeutic drugs, peptides, humanized antibodies, convulsant plasma, and vaccination that has revealed potential in fighting COVID-19 infections. Many randomized and controlled clinical trials are taking place to further validate these agent's safety and effectiveness in curing COVID-19.
Delirium is a major cause of preventable mortality and morbidity in hospitalized adults, but accurately determining rates of delirium remains a challenge.
To characterize and compare medical ...inpatients identified as having delirium using two common methods, administrative data and retrospective chart review.
We conducted a retrospective study of 3881 randomly selected internal medicine hospital admissions from six acute care hospitals in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Delirium status was determined using ICD-10-CA codes from hospital administrative data and through a previously validated chart review method. Baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, processes of care and outcomes were compared across those without delirium in hospital and those with delirium as determined by administrative data and chart review.
Delirium was identified in 6.3% of admissions by ICD-10-CA codes compared to 25.7% by chart review. Using chart review as the reference standard, ICD-10-CA codes for delirium had sensitivity 24.1% (95%CI: 21.5-26.8%), specificity 99.8% (95%CI: 99.5-99.9%), positive predictive value 97.6% (95%CI: 94.6-98.9%), and negative predictive value 79.2% (95%CI: 78.6-79.7%). Age over 80, male gender, and Charlson comorbidity index greater than 2 were associated with misclassification of delirium. Inpatient mortality and median costs of care were greater in patients determined to have delirium by ICD-10-CA codes (5.8% greater mortality, 95% CI: 2.0-9.5 and $6824 greater cost, 95%CI: 4713-9264) and by chart review (11.9% greater mortality, 95%CI: 9.5-14.2% and $4967 greater cost, 95%CI: 4415-5701), compared to patients without delirium.
Administrative data are specific but highly insensitive, missing most cases of delirium in hospital. Mortality and costs of care were greater for both the delirium cases that were detected and missed by administrative data. Better methods of routinely measuring delirium in hospital are needed.
Understanding the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is critical to the water management in the fuel cell system. Low-humidity operating conditions present a complex interaction ...between dynamic behavior and water transport owing to different time scales of water transport mechanisms in the transient process. Toward understanding the effects of membrane properties on the dynamic behavior, this paper presents numerical simulations for a single channel PEM fuel cell undergoing changes in load, by subjecting the unit cell to step change in current. The complex interaction between cell voltage response and water transport dynamics for various membrane properties is explored in detail, where the performance is critically related to the water content of the membrane. Detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out to show that step increase in current density leads to anode dryout due to electro-osmotic drag, and to investigate the dependence of transient behavior on the variations in membrane properties. The results show that water uptake by the membrane is a crucial factor in determining the occurrence of anode dryout and hence voltage reversal, and can be avoided by a graded membrane design.
•Presents a detailed computational modeling of dynamic performance of PEM fuel cells.•Analyzes the effects of membrane properties on the fuel cell performance and water management.•Presents a novel graded design of membrane to prevent voltage reversals and dryout.
Little is known about biological significance of effects of dietary Boron (B) and Calcium (Ca) interaction on health and production of farm animals. This is a preliminary investigation to evaluate ...the effects of B supplementation in lambs fed diets with (normal) or without adequate (low) levels of Ca. Twenty-four crossbred ram lambs were randomly distributed into four groups with six animals each in a 2x2 factorial design namely, normal-Ca diet (NCa) and low-Ca diet (LCa) fed without or with 40 ppm B (NCaB-40 and LCaB-40). The lambs were fed paddy straw and hybrid napier hay-based total mixed ration (60 roughage: 40 concentrate) during 180 days experimental period. Compared to control, the LCa diet lowered (P<0.01) average daily gain of lambs, but B-supplementation (LCaB-40) of the same nullified the effect. The lowered (P<0.05) total antioxidant activity and humoral immune response in lambs fed LCa diet were restored (P>0.05) to become at par with the control (NCa) upon supplementation of B (LCaB-40). The mRNA expression of SOD1 was lowered (P<0.05) due to LCa diet feeding which too was normalized on B-supplementation to become at par (P>0.05) with the control (NCa). Further, B-supplementation restored lowered (P<0.05) SOD1 gene expression on LCa diet, but enhanced (P<0.05) that in NCaB-40 group, when compared to the control (NCa) diet fed animals. However, these variations were not reflected in the SOD activity in the erythrocytes. The cell-mediated immune response was higher (P<0.05) in lambs fed LCa and LCaB-40 groups and there was no significant interaction between the levels of either Ca or B in diets with the period of immune response measurement. B- supplementation of LCa diet ameliorated tissue degenerative changes in liver and kidney. It was concluded that feeding LCa diet to lambs resulted in reduced growth rate, total antioxidant activity, humoral immune response along with degenerative changes in liver and kidney tissues, but B-supplementation of such diet restored most of these changes and ameliorated histopathological alterations.
The identification of differential proteins between X- and Y-sperm may be useful for immunological sexing of sperm. Hence, the present study was aimed to compare the protein profile of X- and ...Y-sorted Sahiwal bull semen using SDS-PAGE and Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (Nano LC-MS). Semen sample (n = 6) were categorized into three groups i.e., group I (X-sorted), group II (Y-sorted) and control group (both X- and Y- sperms). SDS PAGE revealed specific proteins of molecular weight between 18 and 24 kDa and between 30 and 37 kDa were present in X-sorted sperms. Also, band corresponding to 25 kDa was specific to Y-sorted sperms. Data obtained from Nano LC/MS is analysed by search engine database i.e., MASCOT and SEQUEST HT. Total, 241 proteins were identified, out of which 113 were differentially expressed between X- and Y-sorted sperms, in which 54 proteins showed at least two unique peptides. Out of 54 proteins, 27 were upregulated in X-sorted sample, 3 were upregulated in Y-sorted sample and 24 were differentially downregulated. Highly upregulated protein in X-sperm viz. Armadillo repeat containing 12 protein, NDC1 transmembrane nucleoporin, β-nerve growth factor, C-type natriuretic peptide, Nucleobindin-2, Phosphoglycerate mutase 2, Calmodulin along with one uncharacterised protein having accession number F1MN9 may have potential to be used as biomarker for separating X and Y sperm.
•Highly upregulated protein viz. Armadillo repeat containing 12 protein, NDC1 transmembrane nucleoporin, Beta-nerve growth factor, C-type natriuretic peptide, Nucleobindin 2, Phosphoglycerate mutase 2, Calmodulin along with one uncharacterised protein with accession number F1MN9 were identified.•These proteins may have the potential to be used as the biomarker for separating bovine X- and Y- sperm.•Ropporin-1, sperm acrosome membrane associated protein 3, seminal plasma protein PDC 109, calmodulin, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase testis specific proteins related to sperm motility and capacitation were also upregulated in Xsperm which may also have potential for X- and Y- sperm differentiation.•In future, it may further be analysed on large number by more sensitive and specific protein characterization methods to validate the present findings.
In the last few decades, several rock mass classification systems have been proposed to identify rock slope stability conditions, having high probability of failure and accordingly prioritize ...preventive measures. This paper reviews the various classification systems, highlighting their differences and similarities with regard to the factors involved and the mode of their failures. The advantages and limitations of each classification have also been compared. However, many of these existing systems fail to classify slope cuttings according to their actual vulnerability of failure, as they ignore important triggering factors such as earthquakes or precipitation. For example groundwater is considered as an instability causing factor with limited effect, rather than a triggering factor for failure. It is observed that rock slope should be classified according to their potential of failure, taking into account both their condition and the influence of triggering factors upon stability. It is also observed that it is important to analyse each type of failure separately, since each one is influenced by unique factors of instability. Finally, it provides suggestion for the improvement of existing classifications through incorporation of all the critical factors like slope aspect, mode of excavation, earthquake, and rainfall that would have caused slope instability.
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