available information
Recently Published Documents


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

3590
(FIVE YEARS 1578)

H-INDEX

75
(FIVE YEARS 13)

2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 210-222
Author(s):  
Sinta Dwi Juniar ◽  
Innas Safira Putri ◽  
Tasya Wikassa ◽  
Reny I’tishom

The new coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) had a worldwide impact, this disease was affecting almost everyone's lives. It has caused many health issues to spiral out of control, one of them is myopia. Evidence suggests that myopia is impacted by environmental and lifestyle factors, with the importance of continuous usage of nearby digital screens being highlighted. The systematic review aims to analyze all the available information about the impact of digital screen use on myopia progression in a COVID-19 pandemic. The literature was searched from e-database PubMed and ScienceDirect. Quality assessment was done using the LEGEND (Let Evidence Guide Every New Decision) Evidence Evaluation Tools & Resources. A total of 10 papers were assessed qualitatively. The prevalence or incidence of myopia was reported in all ten studies. All of the studies discussed in this review suggest a relationship or impact between digital screen use and myopia progression. Four (40%) of the ten studies were cross-sectional, while the other six (60%) were cohort studies. The sample size ranged from 115 to 123535 participants. The majority of the participants in the studies were school-age children (primary and secondary school), but one study included university students. There were three studies involving subjects with myopia at baseline, one study involving subjects without myopia at baseline, and six studies involving subjects with myopia and without myopia. This systematic review shows that there is a significant progression of myopia as an impact of digital screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic.


2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-148
Author(s):  
Nico Manzonelli ◽  
Taylor Brown ◽  
Antonio Avellandea-Ruiz ◽  
William Bagley ◽  
Ian Kloo

Traditionally, a significant part of assessing information operations (IO) relies on subject matter experts’ time- intensive study of publicly available information (PAI). Now, with massive amounts PAI made available via the Internet, analysts are faced with the challenge of effectively leveraging massive quantities of PAI to draw meaningful conclusions. This paper presents an automated method for collecting and analyzing large amounts of PAI from China that could better inform assessments of IO campaigns. We implement a multi-model system that involves data acquisition via web scraping and analysis using natural language processing (NLP) techniques with a focus on topic modeling and sentiment analysis. After conducting a case study on China’s current relationship with Taiwan and comparing the results to validated research by a subject matter expert, it is clear that our methodology is valuable for drawing general conclusions and pinpointing important dialogue over a massive amount of PAI.


2022 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Raffo ◽  
Flavio Paoletti

The fresh-cut industry supplies the food market with healthy fresh fruit and vegetables and, in that way, may contribute to improve the nutritional status of the general population. On the other hand, over the last few years increasing concerns have been raised regarding the environmental impact of the fresh-cut industry, human health risks from exposure to disinfection by-products found in fresh-cut products and chlorine-based disinfection treatments during produce processing. This review provides a comprehensive view of the main interlinked aspects related to food safety and environmental impact of processing of fresh-cut vegetables. Advantages and downsides of the mainstream disinfection strategy, based on the use of chlorine-related disinfecting agents, along with some alternative treatments close to a wide commercial application, are discussed. Limitation in the application of these strategies to processing of organic fresh-cut produce are also highlighted, examining the specific environmental and food safety problems in the organic sector. Areas where lack of available information hinders at present a clear understanding of priorities of research and action are pointed out. Innovative conceptual tools are proposed to address these multiple and interlinking issues and to overcome limitations of currently available technologies. A comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach is suggested to move toward a more safe and environmentally sustainable production of fresh-cut products.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gul Deniz Salali ◽  
Mete Sefa Uysal ◽  
Gizem Bozyel ◽  
Ege Akpınar ◽  
Ayca Aksu

Conformist social influence is a double-edged sword when it comes to vaccine promotion. On the one hand, social influence may increase vaccine uptake by reassuring the hesitant about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine; on the other, people may forgo the cost of vaccination when the majority is already vaccinated – giving rise to a public goods dilemma. Here, we examine whether available information on the percentage of double-vaccinated people affects COVID-19 vaccination intention among unvaccinated people in Turkey. In an online experiment, we divided participants (n = 1013) into low, intermediate, and high social influence conditions, reflecting the government’s vaccine promotion messages. We found that social influence did not predict COVID-19 vaccination intention, but psychological reactance and collectivism did. People with higher reactance (intolerance of others telling one what to do and being sceptical of consensus views) had lower vaccination intention, whilst people with higher collectivism (how much a person considers group benefits over individual success) had higher vaccination intention. Our findings suggest that advertising the percentage of double-vaccinated people is not sufficient to trigger a cascade of others getting themselves vaccinated. Diverse promotion strategies reflecting the heterogeneity of individual attitudes could be more effective.


2022 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boniface Pone Kamdem ◽  
Eutrophe Le Doux Kamto ◽  
Aboubakar ◽  
Dieudonné Emmanuel Pegnyemb ◽  
Ferreira Elizabeth Igne

Background: Plants from the genus Nymphaea L. have been used for decades to treat various diseases, including dysentery, diarrhea, uterine cancer, gonorrhea, inflammation conditions, among others. The present study aims to critically analyze comprehensive literature on ethnopharmacological uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicity of Nymphaea L. Methods: The available information on Nymphaea L. was obtained from textbooks, theses, as well as published articles through libraries, and electronic databases. Results: More than 150 compounds, including flavonoids, phenolics, alkaloids, miscellaneous compounds, etc. were identified from Nymphaea L. extracts and pure molecules from Nymphaea L. exhibited a wide range of pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, cytotoxic, among others. Conclusion: Referring to in vitro and in vivo studies, Nymphaea sp. are very promising medicinal plants, however, more in vivo experiments, cytotoxicity tests, and detailed mechanisms of action of their extracts, and compounds are recommended to confirm their ethnomedicinal claims into scientific rationale-based information.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grigory A. Demyashkin ◽  
Vasily D. Yartsev ◽  
Eugenia L. Atkova ◽  
Maxim A. Ekaterinchev ◽  
Vladimir I. Shchekin

Abstract Purpose: morphological assessment of the lacrimal ducts at various anatomical levels in patients with primary (PANDO) and secondary (SALDO) obstruction after radioactive iodine therapy.Methods. The material was obtained during endoscopic dacryocystorinostomy with revision of Hasner's valve in patients with PANDO (n=7) in the distal segments of the nasolacrimal duct and in patients with SALDO (n=7) after radioactive iodine therapy. During the surgery, a biopsy of Hasner's valve, as well as a biopsy of the lacrimal sac wall were performed. The resulting material was stained with hemotoxylin and eosin, alcyan blue and by Masson method. Morphological and morphometric analyses were performed in semi-automatic mode. The results of histochemical staining of sections were translated into points taking into account the area and optical density (chromogenicity) in relative units: 1 – weak (0 – 0.3); 2 – moderate (0.3 – 0.6); 3 – significant (>0.6). The nonparametric Mann-Whitney criterion was used for statistical analysis. The differences were considered significant at p<0.05.Results. The comparative morphological study both confirmed the available information concerning the radiation nature of the obstruction and allowed to quantify the fibrosis level of the stromal component and other lacrimal ducts structures.Conclusion. It was shown that the nasolacrimal duct sclerosis is significantly lower (p=0.029) in patients with SALDO than in patients with PANDO while fibrosis in the lacrimal sac is the same in patients of the compared groups.


Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Haiyu Song ◽  
Hongda Zhang ◽  
Houjie Li ◽  
Pengjie Wang

The ever-increasing size of images has made automatic image annotation one of the most important tasks in the fields of machine learning and computer vision. Despite continuous efforts in inventing new annotation algorithms and new models, results of the state-of-the-art image annotation methods are often unsatisfactory. In this paper, to further improve annotation refinement performance, a novel approach based on weighted mutual information to automatically refine the original annotations of images is proposed. Unlike the traditional refinement model using only visual feature, the proposed model use semantic embedding to properly map labels and visual features to a meaningful semantic space. To accurately measure the relevance between the particular image and its original annotations, the proposed model utilize all available information including image-to-image, label-to-label and image-to-label. Experimental results conducted on three typical datasets show not only the validity of the refinement, but also the superiority of the proposed algorithm over existing ones. The improvement largely benefits from our proposed mutual information method and utilizing all available information.


2022 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
A.S. Dixit ◽  
◽  
R. Chetri ◽  
N.S. Singh ◽  
◽  
...  

Migratory birds undergo physiological and behavioral changes to fuel their high energy demanding migratory flights. They increase their food intake as a part of the preparation for migration which results in increase in their body mass. Fat, carbohydrate and protein acquired from food are stored mainly in the adipose tissue (triglycerides), muscle and liver (glycogen) and body organs (protein) in migratory birds. These stored foods act as fuels to support birds’ migratory flights. Dietary carbohydrates and lipids not only provide energy for migration but also help in fattening as carbohydrates can be converted into fat and lipids which can be stored. Lipolysis of adipose-stored fats leads to the production of triglycerides, fatty acids and glycerol, which provide energy for migration. Fats are depleted after long migratory flights and replenished during refueling at the stopover sites. Being chemically reduced and hydrophobic in nature, fat releases more energy on oxidation as compared to carbohydrate and protein. Due to its high energy-yielding nature, the fat is the preferred fuel to support migration in birds. Migratory birds deposit fat and deplete it during the course of migration. Though, the stored fat acts as the primary source of energy, metabolism of body protein also provides energy for migratory flights. Uric acid in plasma is elevated when protein is catabolized. The metabolism of carbohydrate, stored as glycogen in liver and muscle in migratory birds, produces glucose which also fuels migration. Glucose in migratory birds is maintained at stable levels in plasma and it provides energy only for a flight of short period. Further, catabolism of carbohydrate and protein results in release of metabolic water which helps the migratory birds to maintain their water balance during long dehydrating flight conditions. Different levels of plasma metabolites in migratory birds act as significant indicators of their physiological and metabolic state. Plasma metabolites also give an idea of feeding, fasting and refueling during migration in birds. The available information is scanty and fragmented about how birds meet their migratory requirements and overcome the physiological challenges encountered during migration. The present review article, therefore, focuses on the biomolecules and their plasma biochemistry during migration in birds.


Zootaxa ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 5087 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-382
Author(s):  
MARCO ULIANA ◽  
OLIVIER MONTREUIL

Amphimallon alexandri Uliana & Montreuil, new species, is described from continental Greece, near Volos. The species has diurnal activity and is close to A. arianae (Fairmaire, 1879), A. krali Montreuil, 2002, and A. spartanum (Brenske, 1884), but is well characterized and easily distinguished from all of them by several morphological characters. Detailed comparative illustrations of the main diagnostic traits of the new species and the most similar one (A. krali) are provided. After reviewing the available information, Amphimallon atrum is removed from the Greek fauna.  


2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenguo Shi ◽  
Barbara Lothenbach

Effective mitigation of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is critical for producing durable concrete. The use of alumina-rich supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and chemical admixtures such as lithium salts to prevent expansion caused by ASR was first reported 70 years ago, shortly after the discovery of ASR in 1940s. Despite numerous investigations, the understanding of the mechanisms of Al and Li for mitigating ASR remain partially inexplicit in the case of Al, and hardly understood in the case of Li. This paper reviews the available information on the effect of Al and Li on ASR expansion, the influencing factors, possible mechanisms and limitations. The role of Al in mitigating ASR is likely related to the reduction of dissolution rate of reactive silica. Moreover, the presence of Al may alter the structure of crystalline ASR products to zeolite or its precursor, but such effect seems to be not that significant at ambient conditions due to the slow kinetics of zeolite formation. Several mechanisms for the lithium salts in mitigating ASR have been proposed, but most of them are not conclusive primarily due to the lack of knowledge about the formed reaction products. Combination of Al-rich SCMs and lithium salts may be used as an economic solution for ASR mitigation, although systematic studies are necessary prior to the applications.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document