Lower Financial Costs Research Articles

Exploring Rheumatoid Arthritis: Unraveling Signaling Pathways, Advancing Management, and Charting Future Perspectives

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder in which inflammation occurs in the synovial joint and synovial membrane, and in severe condition, it leads to erosion of cartilage and bone. The etiology of RA is still indescribable; generally, RA is a multifactorial disease, wherein complex interactions between patients and different factors such as environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors determine the overall risk of disease. RA is classified based on the stage of disease. Treatment for RA is still a challenge for doctors and researchers. Effective treatment for RA can be achieved by decreasing disease activity or reduction of RA to other patients using currently available treatment options. This article gives a comprehensive perspective of data regarding different signaling pathways involved in RA development, factors affecting RA, stages of RA, and other treatments of RA. This article also suggests future research perspectives that would be helpful for the development of RA treatment (medicine) with more efficacy, safety profiles, and lower financial costs.

Material Properties and Engineering Performance of Bone Fracture Plates Made from Plant Fiber Reinforced Composites: A Review.

Bone fracture plates are usually made from titanium alloy or stainless steel, which are much stiffer than bone. However, overly stiff plates can restrict axial interfragmentary motion at the fracture leading to delayed callus formation and healing, as well as causing bone "stress shielding" under the plate leading to bone atrophy, bone resorption, and plate loosening. Consequently, there have been many prior efforts to develop nonmetallic bone fracture plates with customized material properties using synthetic fibers (e.g., aramid, carbon, glass) in polymer resin. Even so, plant fibers (e.g., flax, roselle, sisal) offer additional advantages over synthetic fibers, such as availability, biodegradability, less toxicity during processing, lower financial cost, and recyclability. As such, there is an emerging interest in using plant fibers alone, or combined with synthetic fibers, to reinforce polymers for various applications. Thus, this is the first review article on the material properties and engineering performance of innovative bone fracture plates made from composite materials reinforced by plant fibers alone or supplemented using synthetic fibers. This article presents material-level fiber properties (e.g., elastic modulus, ultimate strength), material-level plate properties (e.g., fatigue strength, impact toughness), and bone-plate engineering performance (e.g., overall stiffness, plate stress), as well as discussing general findings, study quality, and future work. This article may help engineers and surgeons to design, fabricate, analyze, and utilize novel bone fracture plates.

Shave procedures in the management of skin lesions where melanoma is a differential diagnosis.

Australia has the world's highest melanoma incidence. Diagnostic aids improve melanoma diagnosis, but most lesions excised on suspicion of being melanoma are benign. Reliance on formal ellipse is common. We explore the utility of shave procedures in melanoma management. The topic of shave procedures in the management of melanoma is controversial and attracts strongly held views both for and against. The available data shows that shaves can be employed safely and produce an acceptable cosmetic outcome with low financial costs while also being a time-efficient procedure both for the patient and the clinician alike.

Financing and Farm-Gate Pricing Strategies for Agricultural Cooperatives With Cash-Constrained Farmers

Equity investment in agricultural cooperatives (co-ops) is typically limited to farmer-members; yet farmers are usually cash-constrained. In addition to the common stock that is held by farmer-members, many co-ops are changing their financial structure by raising equity from external investors. This helps co-ops to collect capital, but also brings to the fore the conflicting benefits of farmers and external investors. In this paper, we develop a two-stage game-theoretic model to examine a start-up co-op’s farm-gate pricing and financing strategies, considering two types of external fund: preferred stock that bears a fixed return rate and outside stock that shares the net profit (in proportion to equity) with common stock. We characterize the co-op’s strategies in different scenarios and generate the following insights. First, while both types of external equity outperform the case with common stock only, the preferred stock generally outperforms outside stock due to its lower financial cost, higher tolerance for fund size limits, and flexibility in setting farm-gate prices. However, outside stock can outperform preferred stock if it allows a higher fund size limit. Second, the co-op’s financial strategy exhibits a similar structure in equilibrium regardless of whether it is preferred stock or outside stock, despite their distinct financial terms. Finally, farm-gate pricing has a unique role in co-ops affecting the returns to farmers and external investors, which also highlights the conflicting roles of farmers as both patrons and investors when external equity is used.

Organizational and Social Psychological Foundations for the Development of Management Decisions

The head of a company makes important business decisions every day. The profit of the enterprise, the choice of reliable partners and the outcome of the work of the entire team depend on them. At the same time, all managers make management decisions differently. The article talks about the psychological basis for the development of management decisions. The social efficiency of a management decision is considered as the result of achieving social goals for a larger number of employees and the company in a shorter time, with fewer employees, and at lower financial costs. The organizational effectiveness of a management decision lies in the fact that the company’s personnel are involved in this work. Social is embedded in the personnel management mechanism, which includes levers of influence on people to coordinate their activities in the team. Formal relationships are consolidated in the form of functional or organizational structures of departments and the company as a whole. Informal (personal) relationships are established on the basis of common priorities of needs and interests, likes and dislikes. Informal relationships are also fixed in the form of a structure with leaders and subordinates, and have unwritten rules of relationship.

Urban flood forecast model: a data-based approach from the Ribeirão dos Padilhas river Basin, Curitiba (PR)

This is a study on natural disasters, with an emphasis on urban floods, which have occurred more often involving relevant socio-economic impacts. Among the measures aimed at minimizing the consequences of floods, the most noteworthy are the empirical models linked with new technologies in a promising way and with lower financial cost compared to the models. Thus, a flood forecast model with applicability improved by new technologies becomes a protagonist in reducing the impacts caused by floods. The aim of this study is to compare urban flood prediction models using data mining, geo-processing (GIS) and machine learning techniques. The results illustrate the feasibility of applying in urban areas from the case study, with the aim of contributing to the management of urban environment disasters. Predicting the occurrence of floods is fundamental for alerting the riverside population and for mobilizing the civil defense action teams. To do so, models for forecasting flooding were drawn up one day in advance, where the results obtained from the models built with the techniques for classifying the rules showed satisfactory results. Therefore, forecasting the occurrence of urban floods can be used as a tool to support decision-making to guide the actions of the public authorities in the management of this type of disaster. The knowledge presented seeks to contribute in the debates on socio-environmental issues and public policies. In addition, the results of this study can be replicated elsewhere and for other types of variable data.

Saliva as a Biological Fluid in SARS-CoV-2 Detection.

The polymerase chain reaction of upper respiratory tract swab samples was established as the gold standard procedure for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID pandemic. However, saliva collection has attracted attention as an alternative diagnostic collection method. The goal of this study was to compare the use of saliva and nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) samples for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. Ninety-nine paired samples were evaluated for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by saliva and swab for a qualitative diagnosis and quantitative comparison of viral particles. Furthermore, the detection limits for each sample collection technique were determined. The cycle threshold (CT) values of the saliva samples, the vaccination status, and the financial costs associated with each collection technique were compared. The results showed qualitative equivalence in diagnosis (96.96%) comparing saliva and swab collection, although there was low quantitative agreement. Furthermore, the detection limit test demonstrated equivalence for both collection methods. We did not observe a statistically significant association between CT values and vaccination status, indicating that the vaccine had no influence on viral load at diagnosis. Finally, we observed that the use of saliva incurs lower financial costs and requires less use of plastic materials, making it more sustainable. These findings support the adoption of saliva collection as a feasible and sustainable alternative to the diagnosis of COVID-19.

Residual Biomass Gasification for Small-Scale Decentralized Electricity Production: Business Models for Lower Societal Costs

Biomass gasification, a promising sustainable technology for decentralized electricity production, has the potential to displace fossil fuels while valorizing locally produced waste. Previous studies indicate that its technical and financial viabilities vary among projects, and few projects have been successfully developed, despite the sustainability benefits. This study identified and characterized the factors that influence the economic and environmental performances of such projects using a novel, hybrid method, with qualitative analysis using the Business Model Canvas and quantitative life-cycle costs (LCCs) considering the financial and external costs. The financial LCCs and external electricity generation costs were evaluated for business models in agro-industrial factories using proprietary residual biomasses and for those in isolated grids using local agricultural waste. The business models used for biomass gasification projects affect their LCCs and externalities more than factors such as their investment costs and energy efficiencies. The relationship between the business models, the financial performances of the projects, and their impacts on society are highlighted, showing that although projects using proprietary biomass waste have lower financial costs, off-grid projects generate more positive externalities, resulting in lower costs for society. These results indicate that policy support focused on appropriate business models may contribute to optimizing the use of financial incentives to foster investment in new sustainable technologies, contributing to the energy transition.

Интернационализация текста в парадигме лингвистическихитранслатологическихисследований: глобальное и предлокализационное направления интернационализации

The research deals with linguistic and extralinguistic features of the internationalization process of multimedia products text materials. The term internationalization is considered in the paper within the framework of the translation activity “GILT processes” (processes of globalization, internationalization, localization and translation). The article describes the current state of linguistic and translatological studies of the internationalization process. The paper presents the definition of the internationalization concept. The range of procedures carried out in the process of internationalization is defined. The paper describes the most significant technical procedures performed on the product during internationalization. The paper provides some characteristic linguistic transformations caused by the tasks of internationalization. The research paper offers several examples of using internationalization in the video game industry, the film industry and in creating multilingual and global versions of websites. As a result of the conducted research, two directions of internationalization were identified: pre-localization and global ones. The pre-localization direction of internationalization is to create an intermediate version of the product (mainly in English), which serves to simplify localization (following internationalization) into other languages. This approach significantly reduces the cost of creating a multilingual version of the product. The global direction of internationalization is to create a global version of this product in English. It is assumed that users of the global version can be not only native English speakers, but also those who speak it as a foreign language. Due to the wide spread of English as a foreign language in the world, the creation of an internationalized English version of the product allows companies to enter the global market with significantly lower financial costs and in a shorter timeframe than in the case of creating a multilingual version of the same product.

Um novo modelo visando ao ensino e pesquisa da radiologia torácica em cadáveres de cães quimicamente preparados

ABSTRACT: Nowadays, alternative methods that do not use formaldehyde to preserve cadavers must be used due to this substance’s toxicity. Synthetic models are a training option for teaching, but cost makes their use unviable in most underdeveloped countries. The present study’s main objective was to develop a model for education and researching thorax radiology in cadavers of chemically prepared dogs. Megaesophagus, pleural effusion, pneumothorax, and bronchography, as well as pulmonary insufflation, were simulated in 32 dogs cadavers, which received 150 mL/kg of pure ethyl alcohol solution with 5% glycerin followed by injection of 120 mL/kg of a solution containing 20% sodium chloride, 1% sodium nitrite and 1% sodium nitrate; they were kept refrigerated between 2 to 6 °C, for 30, 60, 90 or 120 days (G30, G60, G90, G120). There was no contamination, putrid odor, or subcutaneous emphysema. The pulmonary insufflation was kept, and the color and the consistency were similar to a fresh corpse after 120 days of conservation. It was possible to perform radiographic procedures, and almost all affections could be greatly mimicked. Megaesophagus and bronchography were easily simulated. Pneumothorax was the most challenging condition to be reproduced, especially in cadavers with some liquid in the thorax. The alcoholic and curing salt solutions are an embalming alternative with low financial and environmental costs and proved to preserve corpses.

Detection of vulnerable areas to the occurrence of floods in tropical regions, from morphometric attributes

Floods are the principal natural disasters responsible for social, economic, and environmental damages in tropical and subtropical regions of Brazil. The objective of this research was to establish a procedure to remotely determine areas vulnerable to the occurrence of floods in a watershed using a geographic information system. Therefore, a morphometric analysis of the drainage network and the relief was performed in 170 hydrographic subbasins from the Alto Sapucaí watershed, Minas Gerais Southern and São Paulo Northeast states, Brazil. This study considered the following parameters: compactness coefficient, drainage density, stream frequency, roughness index, stream surface length and form factor or Gravelius´s shape index. Therefore, a cluster analysis was executed to identify similar characteristics in the 170 subbasins to discriminate those most susceptible to flooding due to the morphometric characteristics of the drainage, relief, and basins. It was possible to separate the subbasins into two groups. The first includes 85% of the area and did not present significant risks for floods. The second, which represents 15%, is classified as a risk zone. In the second group are the municipalities of Itajubá, Piranguinho, Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Piranguçu, and Delfim Moreira, which, according to the civil defense bulletins, suffer from recurrent floods. The diagnosis was followed by a list of suggestions for planning and managing areas subject to natural disasters. The procedure adopted was efficient and can be applied in other regions for the effective planning of public policies for the use and occupation of urban and rural areas, with lower financial costs and saving lives.

Senolytic and senomorphic secondary metabolites as therapeutic agents in Drosophila melanogaster models of Parkinson's disease.

Drosophila melanogaster is a valuable model organism for a wide range of biological exploration. The well-known advantages of D. melanogaster include its relatively simple biology, the ease with which it is genetically modified, the relatively low financial and time costs associated with their short gestation and life cycles, and the large number of offspring they produce per generation. D. melanogaster has facilitated the discovery of many significant insights into the pathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) and has served as an excellent preclinical model of PD-related therapeutic discovery. In this review, we provide an overview of the major D. melanogaster models of PD, each of which provide unique insights into PD-relevant pathology and therapeutic targets. These models are discussed in the context of their past, current, and future potential use for studying the utility of secondary metabolites as therapeutic agents in PD. Over the last decade, senolytics have garnered an exponential interest in their ability to mitigate a broad spectrum of diseases, including PD. Therefore, an emphasis is placed on the senolytic and senomorphic properties of secondary metabolites. It is expected that D. melanogaster will continue to be critical in the effort to understand and improve treatment of PD, including their involvement in translational studies focused on secondary metabolites.

Measuring Procedures for Evaluating the Surface Roughness of Machined Parts

This article deals with the problems that arise during the evaluation of the surface of the components, which can have a fundamental impact on the functionality and service life of the component as well as the entire product. A fast method for estimating the condition and maximum error of the surface tester used for assessing the surface roughness of components was proposed. Using the secondary surface roughness standard, a uniform distribution law of the measured data was experimentally identified as a suitable model, according to which it is then possible to determine the coverage factor for determining the measurement uncertainty. The design of surface roughness measurement methodology for Ra determination is critical when selecting optimal settings of conditions and measurement parameters for various types of component surface treatment technologies. This is mainly due to the effect of the selection of the evaluation standard, the effect of the measurement speed, and the effect of setting the cut-off filter for the evaluation of the quantity Ra. Etalon samples of surface roughness realized by different technologies were used for experimental verification of these phenomena. Large sets of measurements were carried out on selected samples from each technology, and, accordingly, a methodology was proposed for determining the optimal number of measurements for determining the surface roughness of the investigated component, which represents an important factor for achieving measurement results with minimal measurement uncertainties at low financial costs.

Investigating and acquiring motor expertise using virtual reality.

After just months of simulated training, on January 19, 2019 a 23-year-old E-sports pro-gamer, Enzo Bonito, took to the racetrack and beat Lucas di Grassi, a Formula E and ex-Formula 1 driver with decades of real-world racing experience. This event raised the possibility that practicing in virtual reality can be surprisingly effective for acquiring motor expertise in real-world tasks. Here, we evaluate the potential of virtual reality to serve as a space for training to expert levels in highly complex real-world tasks in time windows much shorter than those required in the real world and at much lower financial cost without the hazards of the real world. We also discuss how VR can also serve as an experimental platform for exploring the science of expertise more generally.

Contactless Camera-Based Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate Monitoring Using AI on Hardware.

Detecting vital signs by using a contactless camera-based approach can provide several advantages over traditional clinical methods, such as lower financial costs, reduced visit times, increased comfort, and enhanced safety for healthcare professionals. Specifically, Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM) or Remote Photoplethysmography (rPPG) methods can be utilised to remotely estimate heart rate and respiratory rate biomarkers. In this paper two contactless camera-based health monitoring architectures are developed using EVM and rPPG, respectively; to this end, two different CNNs, (Mediapipe's BlazeFace and FaceMesh) are used to extract suitable regions of interest from incoming video frames. These two methods are implemented and deployed on four off-the-shelf edge devices as well as on a PC and evaluated in terms of latency (in each stage of the application's pipeline), throughput (FPS), power consumption (Watt), efficiency (throughput/Watt), and value (throughput/cost). This work provides important insights about the computational costs and bottlenecks of each method on each hardware platform, as well as which platform to use depending on the target metric. One of our insights shows that the Jetson Xavier NX platform is the best platform in terms of throughput and efficiency, while Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB is the best platform in terms of value.

Old Drugs, New Indications (Review)

Introduction. The drug can be used in the treatment of one disease and for the prevention and treatment of another pathological process. This is possible due to the repurposing of medicines. Creating drugs from scratch takes a long time to develop and implement, which leads to large financial costs, and also has a high dropout rate of candidate substances and requires significant financial costs. The main advantage of repurposing instead of creating new drug is relatively low financial costs and a significant reduction in the first two phases of clinical trials.Text. Drug repurposing is based on pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmaceuticals and clinical trials, where the first two phases are significantly reduced compared to the creation of a completely new. There are examples of successful repurposing and negative side effects with off-label drug use, which is unsafe but the best solution for orphan diseases. A targeted search for the possibility of repurposing drugs using an automatic procedure is being carried out, where a large number of chemical compounds are tested for activity or affinity for receptors and enzymes – high-throughput screening. Computer design has become widespread, which or repurposing "in silico", where information about the drug is used: targets, chemical structures, metabolic pathways, side effects, followed by the construction of appropriate models. Machine learning (ML) algorithms: Bayes classifier, logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest and others are successfully used in biochemical pharmaceutical, toxicological research. But the most promising development of reprofiling is associated with the use of deep neural networks (DNN). Using deep learning, DNN were found to outperform other algorithms for drug development and toxicity prediction.Conclusion. Currently, interest in drug repurposing has grown markedly. A search for the keywords «drug repurposing» showed 2,422 articles on the problem of new uses for drugs that already exist in medicine.

Challenges of Print Newspapers in Kosovo in the Period 1999 to 2020

The research objective is to examine the challenges faced by newspapers in Kosovo from 1999 to 2020. By using qualitative methods, the study aims to identify the factors that have led to the discontinuation of daily printed newspapers in Kosovo. The main drivers of this trend have been identified as the speed at which news can reach readers through electronic media, as well as the financial burden of unsold newspapers on the editorial offices, rather than on distribution networks. The findings of the study indicate that, as of March 2020, Kosovo has been left without daily newspapers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as the government implemented measures that resulted in the temporary closure of business that newspapers. This has led to the accelerated closure of four daily print newspapers in Kosovo, which now only continue to publish in an electronic format. The pressure caused by these circumstances ultimately led to the discontinuation of printing and the shift to electronic version, which have a much lower financial cost.

Optimization of treatment for women with infertility

Annotation. Up to 20-25% of women with PCOS are resistant to clomiphene citrate. The aim of the study is to optimize the baseline ovarian response in clomiphene-resistant women to ovulation induction with minimal drug costs. Materials and methods of research: the study included 40 clomiphene-resistant women with PCOS. For women in group I, we used clomiphene citrate 100mg + human menopausal gonadotropin (HMG)37.5 IU / day. Group II received only HMG 37.5 using a low dose escalating protocol. The use of this protocol enables monofollicular growth and a decrease in the risk of multiple pregnancies and, in turn, is the prevention of ovarian hyperstimulation. The results of the study showed that in group I compared with group II, the frequency of ovulation was significantly higher (60% versus 35%). Conclusions. The combined administration of CC + HMG in clomiphene-resistant women with PCOS compared to the use of HMG alone, gives higher ovulation rates and lower financial costs.

Relationship between efficient management of working capital and profitability (EBIT) of the prepared food and beverage industry in Ecuador

Working capital is made up of current assets and current liabilities with a higher degree of liquidity (inventory, accounts receivable and accounts payable), adequate management allows companies to have the resources to carry out the operations of the company and reduces the need for financing with banks, which leads to a lower financial cost. The objective of this essay is determine and analyse the importance of proper management of working capital in the prepared food and beverage industry in Ecuador, proposing a regression model that allows determining the relationship between and the independent variables: cash conversion cycle , days inventory oustanding , days receivable oustanding , days inventory oustanding . Additionally, the following are considered as control variables: performance index, and efficiency index.

Potassium and growth-promoting fungi improve the postharvest quality of grape tomato

Tomato plants respond well to potassium fertilization, whose insufficiency leads to a drop in fruit production and quality. On the other hand, the association of growth-promoting fungi (GPF) with roots has been shown to be able to optimize nutrient absorption, which implies lower financial costs and a decreased risk of loss of K applied to the soil. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of inoculation with GPF and K rates on the postharvest quality of grape tomato hybrid ‘Mascot’ grown in a hydroponic system. The plants were cultivated in a hydroponic drip system using washed and sterilized sand as substrate. They were trained with two stems, leaving three bunches per stem. The experiment was carried out in a splitsplit-plot arrangement in a completely randomized design with three replicates. Ripe fruits were stored for 30 days in PET containers in storage chambers at a temperature of 25 °C. After 0, 10, 20 and 30 days of storage, five fruits were collected to determine the titratable acidity (TA) and soluble solids (SS), reducing sugars (RS) and vitamin C contents. The K rates provided an increase in the quality attributes. At low K rates, inoculation with GPF led to higher TA, SS, RS and vitamin C values. Inoculation of the plants with GPF improved the postharvest preservation of the fruits, especially when the plants underwent nutritional stress during cultivation.