Introduction. The purpose of this study is to analyse the open-data policies concerning the availability of raw data in journals included in the Food Science and Technology (FST) subject category of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). We also analyse the correlation between these policies and the journal’s impact factor as reported in JCR. Methods. The policies regarding websites of 124 journals included in the FST category of JCR were reviewed. For each journal we documented the rules related to public availability of sharing research papers and data, where available, as stated in the instructions to authors on the journal’s website. Results. 65.4% of the journals support the storage in thematic or institutional repositories, 73.4% allow the reuse, 65.4% accept the data published in a website, and 59% accept supplementary material. Conclusions. Most of the journals admit the possibility that data are deposited in thematic or institutional repositories and also accept the deposit of supplementary material. A positive correlation between the policies of opening and the impact factor of journals and quartile in JCR has been found. Any journal requires the public repository of data as a condition of publication. \nKey words: Raw open-data, scientific journals, impact factor, food science
Although the transcription factor, nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) is known to regulate cell death and survival, its precise role in cell death within the central nervous system (CNS) remains unknown. We previously reported that mice with a homozygous deficiency for Nf-kbp50 spontaneously developed optic neuropathy. We studied the expression and activation of pro-apoptotic factor(s), which mediate optic nerve neuropathy in Nf-kbp50-null mice. Recombination activating gene 1 (RAG1) is known to control the recombination of immunoglobulin V(D)J. Experiments with genetically engineered mice revealed the involvement of RAG1 expression in the apoptosis of BRN3a-positive retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and also showed the specific effects of a Nf-kbp50-null on the activation of Rag1 gene transcription. Furthermore, a genetic analysis of murine neuronal stem-like cells clarified the biological significance of RAG1 in N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced neuronal cell death. The apoptotic inducing factors, BAX, and cleaved CASPASE 3, 8, and 9 were detected in HEK293 cells expressing the external molecule of RAG1, and a human histopathological examination revealed the expression of RAG1 in RGCs. Recent studies indicated that RAG1 played a role in optic nerve neuropathy as a pro-apoptotic candidate in Nf-kbp50-null mice. These results may lead to new therapeutic targets in optic nerve neuropathy.
The quality and quantity of the alveolar bone are crucial elements in the success rate of dental implants. However, the continuous resorption of the alveolar bone after tooth extraction is a challenge in dental implant treatment. Autografting and xenografting are techniques used to increase the alveolar bone. However, autografts are associated with the limitations of morbidity at the harvesting site and inflammation at the donor site. Xenografts are associated with the risk of disease transmission. Tissue engineering is another novel method used to regenerate alveolar bone volume and density, involving the use of a scaffold, cells, and bioactive factors. Statins have been used as a bioactive factor to enhance osteogenesis in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we investigated the effect of a fibrin-coated poly(lactic-coglycolide) (fibrin/PLGA) scaffold on the osteogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells after simvastatin treatment. The groups were divided according to the combinations of PLGA with or without fibrin coating and with or without simvastatin treatment.
Abstract - Authentication failures are caused by certain system violations. This can happen in many stages of authentication which may be the initial process or the post processing steps. Many authentication systems fear for user biometric security and also for endangered users. A biometric user centric authentication approach was proposed with involved a secured fusion of reference subject with the user’s biometric to generate the Bio Capsule. This Bio capsule was used for the authentication purpose. This approach was user- friendly, privacy preserving, resilient, and revocable even if BC is compromised. An ideal secured biometric system possesses various properties such as security, privacy- reservation, cross matching resistance etc. The traditional or single model biometrics cannot address one or more of these properties. In order to address these properties simultaneously and also to increase the security for the user biometrics, multimodal biometrics fusion is used. Thus this paper proposes a concept of feature level fusion of multiple biometrics of the user to fuse with the reference subject in order to generate a Bio Capsule. A multimodal sparse representation method, where the data is represented by a sparse linear combination of training data is utilized. In order to improve the recognition performance and to avoid the non linearity in the data, kernel learning is adopted with the current framework of multimodal biometric. Multimodal biometric kernel learning aims to integrate information from different features by learning a weighted combination of respective kernels. Various experiments show that the proposed method serves as a completely secure biometric authentication using the concept of Bio Capsule with feature level fusion of multimodal user biometrics.
Abstract: In recent years, hashing techniques become overwhelmingly popular for their high efficiency in handling the large-scale image retrieval. It has been shown that hashing techniques can significantly enhance performance of visual search tasks. Generally when high dimensional data is concerned, the image retrieval or the nearest neighbour search is performed by Locality sensitive Hashing (LSH). It hashes the input items such that it makes the similar items as a group with high probability. However LSH is different from other conventional hash functions as it maximizes the probability of the grouping of similar items, it is time complex and less accurate. Even several methods have been proposed for image retrieval from large scale images, they don’t overcome the drawback and it only satisfies the problem indirectly by increasing the accuracy alone that does not deliver a proper way out. In order to increase the accuracy and to make the process faster, an improved image indexing method is proposed that involves optimized Product Quantization (PQ) to reduce the dimensionality and then improved LSH for hashing, thus increasing the accuracy of indexing and decrease the time complexity. Initially, vectors of the keywords and the retrieved images are constructed using Markovian Chain by one step transition probability. Then Product quantization decomposes high dimensional vector space into Cartesian product of subspaces and then quantizes those subspaces separately that removes distortion and also reduces the dimensionality in an effective way. Finally, locality sensitive hashing is proposed to group the similar vectors into a bucket which has a high probability. This is refined by filtering process in order to increase the speed of the access. Hence the proposed technique has the advantages of the product quantization technique and the LSH image indexing method. Thus the combined work is proposed to evolve an efficient scheme for fast and accurate image indexing for large scale applications and the evaluation results show that the proposed metric is superior over other existing methodologies.
Haemophilus influenzae is antigenically classified into six types (a-f), and occupies the nasopharynx as a commensal opportunistic bacterium. The most recurrent and serious disease associated with Hib infection is meningitis, which can result in moderate to severe neurological sequelae. The worldwide incidence of Hib meningitis in children aged <5 years was 57/100,000 in the pre-vaccination era and this has dramatically reduced in the post-vaccination era. The first Hib capsular polysaccharide (CPS) vaccine was licensed in 1985; subsequently, conjugate vaccines have been developed and licensed. Serum anti-CPS antibodies confer immunity against invasive Hib disease. An anti-CPS concentration of ≥0.15
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible severe visual\n\nloss in the United States and Europe in people over 50 years of age [1]. Retinal angiomatous\n\nproliferation (RAP) is a distinct subgroup of AMD characterized by the origination of new\n\nvessels from the retina or from the choroid with early formation of a retinal choroidal\n\nanastomosis [2]. The diagnosis of RAP is similar with the diagnosis of the AMD, but retinal\n\npigment epithelial detachment, exudates and superficial hemorrhages are more common in\n\nRAP.\n\nAt present, different imaging modalities are used in the diagnosis of AMD. The imaging\n\nmethods fluorescein angiography (FA) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography\n\n(OCT) are widely used for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with this disease. Optical\n\ncoherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a recent noninvasive imaging tool capable of\n\nproviding the retinal and choroidal vasculature information using split-spectrum amplitude-\n\ndecorrelation angiography software without the need for dye injection.\n\nWe describe the case of a 63-year- old female with unilateral RAP, which was diagnosed and\n\nfollowed-up by using OCTA and treated successfully with intravitreal anti-VEGF injection.
: The present research studied the morphology, leaf surface anatomy and palynological proterties of two subspecies of C. rapunculoides (Campanulaceae) from Turkey. The seed coat, leaf surface and pollen morphology investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy. The leaves of these two taxa have been examined in the epidermis and compared with each other. Stomata type is amaryllis and anomocytic for both subsp. rapunculoides and subsp. cordifolia. Light and scanning electron microscopy showed that the pollen grains of the two subspecies are oblate-spheroidal, tri- and tetraporate, tectum rugulate-scabrate. In subsp. rapunculoides, the number of apertures was mostly tri-, tetra- (25%) but tetraporate ratio was higher (50%) in subsp. cordifolia. The seeds of both taxa were glabrous, elliptic to oblong, had a ribbed surface and were mostly brown in color. The results are illustrated by photographs. it is not possible to distinguish these two subspecies in terms of seed morphology, leaf morphology and palynology except for morphology.
The mealworm is an edible insect that has been approved as a food item in many countries. When the mealworm is processed to powder form, its shelf life and its desirability to consumers may increase. In order to find optimal producing conditions for mealworm powders, six different manufacturing conditions were used. Spray-dried, whole-fat mealworm powder (WF-SD), defatted with a solvent and ground with a cutter mill (SDF-C) were prepared. In addition, press-defatted mealworms that were ground with four different types of milling machines: pin mill (PDF-P), hammer mill (PDF-H), jet mill (PDF-J), and cutter mill (PDF-C), were also prepared. For evaluating the characteristics of mealworm powders, their compositions, sizes, shapes, physicochemical properties, and preferences were determined. In conclusion, whole-fat mealworm powder showed many limitations compared to defatted powders. In the case of the mealworm powders from which the fat was removed almost perfectly, those powders had better flowability and physicochemical properties than the powders that had less fat removed. However, the powders lacking fat were less desirable to consumers because of their flavorlessness. Among the press-defatted mealworm powders, PDF-J presented the highest preference score. Moreover PDF-J showed better flowability than the other press-defatted powders and also had fine physicochemical properties.
Organophosphorus pesticides were reported to impair male reproductive function. Admire and lebaycid are two widely used insecticides in agriculture to combat agricultural pests. It is unclear whether these pesticides impact human spermatozoa. We investigated the effects of admire and lebaycid on morphology and functional aspects of human spermatozoa. Human sperm were incubated with admire and lebaycid at different doses (1.25, 2.5 and 5 µg/mL) and Biggers Whitten Whittingham (BWW; control). Total motility, vitality, plasma membrane integrity, capacitation, acrosome reaction and sperm DNA damage was examined. The results indicated that admire and lebaycid inhibit total motility in a dose-dependent manner. The vitality and plasma membrane integrity decrease significantly in sperm incubated with the highest dose of admire and lebaycid. Similarly, the capacitation and acrosome reaction were impaired only at the high dose. Pesticides induced increased sperm DNA damages with increasing exposure levels. The results suggest a direct action of admire and lebaycid on the different parameters studied suggesting that exposure to these two pesticides may result in detrimental effect on human sperm function.
This paper endeavors to assess the impact of innovation policies pursued by selected Eastern European countries (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine) on the competitiveness of their respective economies in international trade. To this end, the methodology of Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA) of B. Balassa has been applied to identify potential comparative advantages enjoyed by these countries in international trade in technologically advanced goods, i.e. high-technology and medium-high-technology goods, which are a litmus test for the innovativeness of the economy and, even more so, for effectiveness of the innovation policy implemented in it. Incidentally, it is also the aim of the paper to fill in the existing gap in literature on empirical economic research into this issue. The analysis conducted has revealed that the low international competitiveness of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, as evidenced by the total lack of, or only very limited, long-term competitive advantages of these countries in international trade in technologically advanced goods in the analyzed period (1996-2012), is the upshot of these countries’ innovation policies being little effective, as well as of certain fundamental structural weaknesses of their socio-economic and political systems.
Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, survival results and factors associated with prognosis in patients with metastatic prostate carcinoma.\n\nPatients and Methods: Data of 123 patients who were metastatic at diagnosis between 2005- 2014 were investigated retrospectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to define statistically significant prognostic factors. For the analysis of survival rates, Kaplan–Meier method was used. \n\nResults: Median age of the patients was 70 (48.0-89.0) and 29.3 % was under the age of 65. Initial median Gleason score was 8.0 (5.0-10.0) and in 53.7 % of patients, the score was between 8- 10. Median serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level at diagnosis was 163.2 ng /mL (0.003-2551.0). Bone metastasis was detected in 93.5% and visceral metastasis in 22% of patients. 72.3% of patients underwent primary androgen deprivation treatment (ADT). In patients with resistance development against ADT treatment, the overall duration of median response was 24 months. Patients with the development of resistance to ADT (43.9%) received docetaxel. In patients receiving docetaxel, median overall survival (OS) was 45.0 months (95% CI: 3.5.3-54.7) and median progression-free survival (PFS) was 10.4 months (95% CI: 2.0-30.0). In all patients, median OS was found to be 39.0 (95% CI: 2.0-160.0) months. In univariate analysis, no relation was found between OS and age, comorbidity, smoking status, PSA level at diagnosis, and WBC. However, it was determined that anemia, thrombocytopenia, high levels of lactate dehydrogenase, calcium level over 10 gr/dl, albumin level under 3.5 gr/dl, the presence of visceral metastasis, Gleason score between 8-10 shortened overall survival, even if the difference was not statistically significant. It was also determined that ECOG PS ≥2 (p<0.001) and high levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (p=0.009) influences survival. In multivariate analysis, ECOG PS ≥2 (HR: 9.4 (4.9-17.7), p= <0.0001) was found to be statistically significant. \n\nConclusion: Metastatic improvement in survival rates was obtained with ADT as initial treatment and then with docetaxel-prednisolone treatment in hormone refractory patients. Performance status was found to be the most important prognostic factor influencing survival.
Ethnobotanical study was conducted in district Dir upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan during 2014 to explore the benefits of the wild flora and indigenous knowledge from the local residents about the uses of the plants. During survey, the indigenous information about the local ethnobotanical uses of plants was gathered through questionnaire method and individually every respondent was asked about the detail use of a plant. Majority of the plants are used as medicinal for various diseases. Commonly, remedies of the plants prepared in extraction and decoction form, normally, which is taken orally while some of them applied externally. Each plant specimen was arranged with their scientific name, family name, common name, vernacular name, plant habit, part used and local knowledge about its use in taxonomic order. From the research area, total 64 wild plants recorded as locally used for numerous aims. It was notified that the reported plants are collected by the local residents from wild and sold in the market that may improve the economy of the local people. The local populace has always used the medicinal plants for various diseases and have dependent on the plants for their food, shelter, health, fodder, fuel, medicine, and various cultural purposes. The collected plant specimens were identified, preserved and pasted on labeled herbarium cards and deposited in the Department of Weed Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar Pakistan. It was concluded that the inhabitants of the remote areas mostly dependent on plants, to be under risk, therefore it need instantaneous attempts for conservation of reported plant species.
New types of buildings are being erected in Algeria after the distractive Boumerdes earthquake in May, 2003. The new conception consists on concentrating reinforced concrete shear walls with L shape at the building corners. Previously, only linear reinforced concrete shear walls were used in buildings as a resisting system. No experience return, seismic behavior of such configuration, after an earthquake is known until now. Following an initial study, carried by the authors, which identified a shear stress concentration at the intersection of flanges of the L-shaped reinforced concrete walls subjected to seismic loading, a new series of numerical simulations were carried out for the same buildings incorporating this time a reinforced concrete column at the corner of the L shape walls. Analysis of the results showed that location of the peak shear stress moved to the flange-column corner of the wall. It also showed, that the stress is no more concentrate as it was found for the reinforced concrete walls without columns, but this time it was rather spread. The maximum shear stress was quietly reduced while incorporating columns at the corner of the L shape walls, regardless the wall thicknesses.
Cardiovascular disease(CVD) and CVD-related deaths have been increasing in the young population. Students should be informed about CVD and reduce risk of this disease. This study was conducted to determine the impact of the knowledge of CVD risk factors among nursing students on the results of risk assessments. The population of study, which had a cross-sectional design, was comprised 351 students. The data were collected using the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Knowledge Level (CARRF-KL) Scale, a physician scale, a tape measure, a digital blood pressure monitor, a glucometer, cholesterol and triglyceride measuring devices. The majority of the students (77.2%) were female, and the mean age was 20.77 years. The CARRF-KL Scale scores were low. Majority of the sample, the anthropometric measurement results, blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse rate, blood glucose level, cholesterol level, and triglyceride level were within normal limits. As the knowledge level of CVD risk factors increased among the students, the blood glucose and cholesterol levels decreased. Although they were in the minority, some of the students had an increased risk of CVD. Health screening programs should be performed more often at institutions that educate health professionals. Strategies for reducing the CVD risk in the risk students should be conducted, and be monitored closely.\nKey words: Assessment, cardiovascular disease, knowledge level, nursing students, risk factors.
Abstract: In this paper, we developed a Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) problem with the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) in which the new concept of positive and negative ideal solutions as well as the weights of criteria in linguistics terms to analyze the ranking by using the problems of transgender, when the collected data’s are expressed in terms of trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The proposed method provides us a useful way to handle fuzzy multiple attributes group decision-making problem. Therefore, an extension of TOPSIS method is proposed using Trapezoidal fuzzy number, where the correlation information among factors provided by experts is in the form of uncertain linguistic term and it is transformed into Trapezoidal fuzzy number. An example is shown to highlight the procedure of the proposed method at the end of this paper
In the experiment, initially salt-stress and then salicylic acid were applied to soybean (Glycinemax. L.) seedlings. The combinedand individualeffects of bothapplications were testedon proline and antioxidant enzymes in soybean plants. Different concentrations of salt (50, 75, 100, 125and 150 mM) and salicylic acid (0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.25 mM) were applied to soybean seedlings for 12 days in perlite medium. The results showed thatsalicylic acid reduced oxidative damage. It was found that salicylic acid played a protective role against oxygen radicals, thus reducing certain enzyme amounts as a result.Salt stress increased prolinecontent and decreased by applyingsalicylic acidand catalase that has a deterministic role on enzyme activity increased, which was considered as a protective mechanism against stress. It was determined that especially 1.0 mM salicylic acid concentration had tolerance increasing effect against salt stress.
Fifty-three species and one species variety belonging to 16 genera were isolated from barley, sorghum and corn grains on dichloran rose Bengal and dichloran glycerol agar media at 28°C. The most common genera were isolated from three substrate on two types medium were Aspergilus , Penicillium and Fusarium. From the Above genera the most common species were A. flavus and A.niger. For mycotoxins determination fourteen isolates of Aspergillus flavus and A. niger which isolated in high frequency of occurrence on two types of media from barley, sorghum and corn grains were found toxigenic and produce aflatoxins and ochratoxins. On the other hand four samples of barley, three samples of corn and four samples of sorghum grains were tested for the presence of aflatoxins and ochratoxins, the results show that all samples mycoyoxigenic and produce aflatoxins and ochratoxins by fluorometric method. Henc, attempts for controlling fungi in barley, sorghum and corn grains were made, showed that antifungal (cinnamon and cumin oils) have significant depressive effect at all or most doses (three different concentrations) used on dichloran rose Bengal agar medium, it was observed that cinnamon and cumin oils ( all concentrations) significantly inhibited the total counts and counts of fungal species where their counts were significantly decreased with various treatments. Also, we found that the cinnamon oil ( all concentrations ) was more effective than cumin oil.
Seventy-five species and 3 species varieties belonging to 21 genera were collected from air, soil and leaf surface of broad bean plant on dicholran chloramphenicol malt extract agar (DCMA) and dichloran Rosebengal chloramphenicol agar (DRBC) at 28?C. The results obtained from leaf surface (phyllosphere and phylloplane), soil and atmosphere were basically similar on two types of media and the most common fungi were: Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Cladosporium cladosporioides, C. sphaerospermum, Drechslera neergaardii. The monthly counts of these fungi on two types of media irregularly fluctuated giving maxima at various months. Aspergillus flavus was in the top of fungi in producing both exo- and endo-ß-1,4-glucanases among the 9 tested isolates. Maximum production of two enzymes by A. flavus was 8 and 6 days after incubation at 30°C with culture medium containing glucose and cellulose as carbon sources and sodium nitrate as nitrogen source and initially adjusted to pH 6.
