The formation of ethylene in CO2 electroreduction over rough copper electrodes is often explained by the presence of specific surface crystal steps, edges and defects. We demonstrate that an ...identical electrode covered with copper nanoparticles can yield either predominantly ethylene or methane, depending on the electrolyte concentration and applied CO2 pressure. Calculations of the pH near the electrode surface suggest that ethylene formation is favored by a relatively high (local) pH. Furthermore, the conditions leading to the formation of significant amounts of methane result in rapid deterioration of hydrocarbon production rates, whereas electrode performance in conditions favoring ethylene production can be sustained for hours. This study substantially alters the mechanistic interpretation of formation of ethylene over rough copper surfaces and implies that applied process conditions inducing pH variations near the electrode surface need to be taken into consideration.
Structure or Kinetics? The hydrocarbon selectivity in CO2 reduction over rough copper surfaces is determined by electrolyte concentration and CO2 pressure. The dramatic effect of these process conditions on selectivity and electrode stability can be explained by pH variations at the electrode surface.
Comparing the near-surface wind speeds obtained from the most recent global circulation model (GCM) simulations to well-known benchmark datasets like the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather ...Forecasts reanalysis Version 5 (ERA5) and the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA2), is necessary to make a critical assessment. Using 28 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6)-based monthly surface wind predictions, the multi-model ensemble (MME) approach in this study generates these predictions using random forest (RF) and multiple linear regression (MLR) methods over seven geographical regions in Türkiye with varying topographic complexity between 1980 and 2014, along with an offshore region. Benchmark datasets, station observations, and individual GCM predictions are used to compare the performances of MME predictions. The analysis showed that individual and the simple mean of GCM simulations are highly biased in spatial and temporal wind means. On the other hand, the MMEs formed by using groups of GCMs have significant skill for representing temporal variability in wind speed as well as for producing annual climatology and anomaly range for topographically complex regions. In MME predictions, the correlation improvements are 38–45% for RF and 22–34% for MLR. Moreover, the effect of the model group with dynamic vegetation growth on improvement remains only marginal.
Objectives: To evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with Behçet's syndrome (BS), and to define their associations with the presence of major organ involvement (MOI).
...Method: Medical records of 2118 patients (964 males, 1154 females) were analysed retrospectively. MOI was defined as the presence of at least one of vascular, eye, nervous, or gastrointestinal system involvement. Univariable and multivariable binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses were applied to assess the factors that were potentially associated with MOI.
Results: The mean ± sd age at diagnosis was 30.5 ± 9.4 years. Genital ulcer and joint involvement were more common in females (both p < 0.001), while MOI was more frequent in males (p < 0.001). Genital ulcer (p < 0.001) and vascular involvement (p = 0.006) were more common in patients with a younger age at diagnosis, while joint involvement was more common in older patients. A total of 1097 patients (51.8%) had at least one MOI, 322 (15.2%) at least two MOIs, and 48 (2.3%) at least three MOIs. Male gender, smoking history, and absence of genital ulcer were significantly associated with MOI in multivariable binary logistic regression. Multivariable ordinal regression analyses confirmed the association between MOI and male gender and smoking, but not the protective effect of genital ulcers. In both regression analyses, we found no significant effects of age, human leucocyte antigen-B51, skin involvement, or joint involvement on MOI.
Conclusion: Male gender and positive smoking history have a significant influence on the presence of MOI in patients with BS.
Purpose
To reveal the clinical significance of preoperative haematological inflammatory markers in the diagnosis of abdominal wall hernias with strangulation.
Methods
The data of 200 patients who ...underwent surgery for incarcerated hernia were retrospectively analysed. The patients were grouped into three groups; Group 1; only surgical reduction and hernia repair, Group 2; small bowel resection and Group 3; omentum resection. Age, gender, hernia type, the presence of radiological bowel obstruction and preoperative complete blood count data were obtained. Neutrophil-leukocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), haematological inflammatory index (HII) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) values were calculated.
Results
The study was consisted of; Group 1: 119 patients (59.5%), Group 2: 46 patients (23%) and Group 3: 35 patients (17.5%). Advanced age (
p
= 0.001), female gender (
p
= 0.036), incisional hernias (
p
= < 0.001) and the presence of bowel obstruction (
p
= < 0.001) were found to be statistically significant in terms of strangulation. NLR, PLR and SII values were significantly higher in Group 2 compared to Group 1, and PLR values were significantly higher in Group 2 compared with Group 3 (
p
< 0.05).
Conclusion
The preoperative elevated NLR, PLR and SII values may indicate strangulation and possible intestinal resection, in incarcerated abdominal wall hernias.
The effect of the addition of lemon albedo on the functional properties of emulsions was studied by using a model system. Oil/water (O/W) model emulsion systems were prepared by the addition of two ...types of lemon albedo (raw and dehydrated) at five concentrations (0.0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10%) to mechanically deboned chicken meat. The emulsion capacity, stability, viscosity and flow properties of the prepared model emulsions were analyzed. In addition, the colour parameters of cooked emulsion gel were determined. The addition of lemon albedo increased the emulsion capacity (EC) and the highest EC value was reached with 5% of albedo added. However, further increase in the albedo concentration caused an inverse trend in the EC values. A similar trend was observed in the emulsion stability (ES) values. Dehydrated albedo (DA) addition caused higher EC and ES values than did raw albedo (RA). DA increased the
L
∗,
a
∗ and
b
∗ values of the cooked emulsion gels. Emulsion viscosity (EV) values were positively correlated with an increase in albedo concentration and the highest EV value was obtained from the emulsions with 10% albedo. Albedo addition did not change the flow properties of the emulsions and, in addition, increased the pseudoplasticity. As a consequence, the use of lemon albedo might be a potential dietary fiber source to enhance the functional and technological properties for frankfurter-type meat products.
CD55 and CD59 are complement regulatory proteins suggested to be related with progression of diabetes and its complications. The stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) and C-X-C chemokine receptor ...type 4 (CXCR-4) are chemokine proteins. We aimed to investigate the relation of CD55 and CD59 expression levels and polymorphisms of SDF-1 and CXCR-4 with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its complications. Seventy-five T2DM patients and 73 controls were enrolled. Expression levels of CD55 and CD59 were measured by FACS Calibur; qRT-PCR was used to determine SDF-1 and CXCR-4 gene polymorphisms. CD55 and CD59 expressions in patients with nephropathy, retinopathy and cardiovascular disease were significantly lower than controls. Frequency of CXCR-4 T allele carrying was high in patients and created 1.6 fold risk for the disease (p = .07). CXCR-4 a allele carriers had decreased nephropathy; although there was no statistical significance in carrying CXCR-4 T allele, presence of nephropathy was approximately 2 times higher (p = .254). The nephropathy risk increased 10-fold in CXCR-4 TT genotype carriers (p = .02). All SDF-1 CC genotype carriers had retinopathy, so, it was considered that the CC genotype was effective in retinopathy development (p = .031). For the presence of cardiovascular disease, significant difference was observed for SDF-1 genotypes. Increased cardiovascular risk of 5- and 1.9-fold in SDF-1 T (p = .007) and CXCR-4 T (p = .216) allele carriers, respectively, was observed. We suggest that CD55 and CD59 protein levels and SDF-1 and CXCR-4 have predictive importance in process, complications and tendency of T2DM.
The International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) defined involved-site radiotherapy (ISRT) guidelines. These rules offer a certain variability that allows for autonomous decision-making in ...diverse clinical settings. However, this flexibility also gives rise to conflicts about the selection of treatment fields in the daily decision-making process. The aim of this study was to show the extent of interobserver variability when ILROG-ISRT recommendations were used in different clinical scenarios.
The 10-question survey used in our study consisted of two parts (part A and part B) and was prepared by four senior radiation oncologists experienced in the haemato-oncology field. The results were presented by stratifying according to clinical experience (<10 years, ≥10 years). Binomial tests (one-sided) were conducted to assess whether answers for each group and the whole group reached a consensus.
Twenty-six radiation oncologists, 13 of whom had less than 10 years of experience and 13 seniors, participated in the survey. Eighty per cent of respondents thought ILROG did not bring sufficient solutions for all clinical scenarios but offered solutions in some cases. In different case-based scenarios, the consensus among the respondents decreased down to 38%. Senior radiation oncologists were found to have more doubts about the adequacy of current guidelines.
ILROG guidelines allow for a high degree of variability in real-life clinical scenarios and different interpretation of the recommendations may lead to increased toxicity and recurrences. Therefore, there is a need for refinement in ISRT delineation strategies. On behalf of the Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology Hematological Oncology, Pediatric Oncology and TBI Study Group, we are planning to carry out further educational contouring sessions to detect the interobserver variability in real-life contouring cases.
In this study, the impact of various rescaling approaches in the framework of data fusion is explored. Four different soil moisture products (Advanced Scatterometer; Advanced Microwave Scanning ...Radiometer for EOS, AMSR‐E; Antecedent Precipitation Index; and Global Land Data Assimilation System‐NOAH) are fused. The systematic differences between products are removed before the fusion utilizing various rescaling approaches focusing on different methods (regression, variance/cumulative distribution function (CDF) matching, multivariate adaptive regression splines, and support vector machines based), stationarity assumptions (constant or time‐varying rescaling coefficients), and time‐frequency techniques (periodic or nonperiodic high‐ and low‐frequency components). Given that statistical descriptions (e.g., standard deviation and correlation coefficient) of reference data sets are utilized in rescaling approaches, the precision of the selected reference data set also impacts the final fused product precision. Experiments are validated over 542 soil moisture monitoring sites selected from the International Soil Moisture Network data sets between 2007 and 2011. Overall, results highlight the importance of reference data set selection—particularly that a more precise reference product yields a higher precision fused soil moisture product. This conclusion is sensitive neither to the number of fused products nor the rescaling procedure. Among rescaling approaches, the precision of fused products is most affected by the choice of rescaling stationary assumption and time‐frequency decomposition technique. Variations in rescaling methods have only a small impact on the precision of pair fused products. In contrast, utilizing a time‐varying stationary assumption and nonperiodic decomposition technique produces correlation improvements of 0.07 − and 0.02 −, respectively, versus the other widely implemented rescaling approaches.
Key Points
Precision of the fused products obtained using suitable linear rescaling methods is similar to the ones obtained using nonlinear methods
Selection of better reference data set yields more precise fused product
Application of a smooth‐deviance decomposition rescaling technique improves correlations
Exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing starter cultures are preferred for the manufacture of fermented milk products to improve rheological and technological properties. However, no clear correlation ...exists between EPS production and the rheological and technological properties of fermented milk products such as the yogurt drink ayran. In this study, 4 different strain conditions (EPS− and EPS+Streptococcus thermophilus strains) were tested as a function of incubation temperature (32, 37, or 42°C) and time (2, 3, or 4 h) to determine the effect of culture type and in situ EPS production on physicochemical, rheological, sensory, and microstructural properties of ayran. Furthermore, we assessed the effect of fermentation conditions on amounts of EPS production by different EPS-producing strains during ayran production. A multifactorial design of response surface methodology was used to model linear, interaction, and quadratic effects of these variables on steady shear rheological properties of ayran samples and in situ EPS production levels. The physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of ayran samples altered depending on incubation conditions and strain selection. Steady shear tests showed that ayran samples inoculated with EPS+ strains exhibited pseudoplastic flow behavior. Production of ayran with EPS− strain (control sample) resulted in the lowest apparent viscosity values (η50), whereas those produced with the combination of 2 EPS+ strains yielded ayran with notably increased η50 values. We concluded that incubation time was the variable with the greatest effect on η50, consistency coefficient (K), and flow behavior index (n) values. In situ EPS production was also affected by these conditions during ayran fermentation in which strain-specific metabolism conditions were found to be the most important factor for EPS production. In addition, these findings correlated the amount of in situ EPS produced with the rheological properties of ayran. Scanning electron microscopy images of the samples showed differences in structural features, revealing a prominent network strand structure in the ayran samples inoculated with the admixture of 2 EPS-producing strains incubated at 37°C for 3 h. These results provide useful information for large-scale production of ayran by the dairy industry.
An objective methodology that does not require any user‐defined parameter assumptions is introduced to obtain an improved soil moisture product along with associated uncertainty estimates. This new ...product is obtained by merging model‐, thermal infrared remote sensing‐, and microwave remote sensing‐based soil moisture estimates in a least squares framework where uncertainty estimates for each product are obtained using triple collocation. The merged anomaly product is validated against in situ based soil moisture data and shows higher correlations with observations than individual input products; however, it is not superior to a naively merged product acquired by averaging the products using equal weighting. The resulting combined soil moisture estimate is an improvement over currently available soil moisture products due to its reduced uncertainty and can be used as a standalone soil moisture product with available uncertainty estimates.
Key Points
Errors are objectively estimated
Uncertainty estimate of soil moisture is obtained
Improved soil moisture product is obtained
PDF
