Top Ranking Research Articles

StackAHTPs: An explainable antihypertensive peptides identifier based on heterogeneous features and stacked learning approach.

Hypertension, often known as high blood pressure, is a major concern to millions of individuals globally. Recent studies have demonstrated the significant efficacy of naturally derived peptides in reducing blood pressure. Hypertension is one of the risks associated with cardiovascular disorders and other health problems. Naturally sourced bioactive peptides possessing antihypertensive properties provide considerable potential as viable substitutes for conventional pharmaceutical medications. Currently, thorough examination of antihypertensive peptide (AHTPs), by using traditional wet-lab methods is highly expensive and labours. Therefore, in-silico approaches especially machine-learning (ML) algorithms are favourable due to saving time and cost in the discovery of AHTPs. In this study, a novel ML-based predictor, called StackAHTP was developed for predicting accurate AHTPs from sequence only. The proposed method, utilise two types of feature descriptors Pseudo-Amino Acid Composition and Dipeptide Composition to encode the local and global hidden information from peptide sequences. Furthermore, the encoded features are serially merged and ranked through SHapley Additive explanations (SHAP) algorithm. Then, the top ranked are fed into three different ensemble classifiers (Bagging, Boosting, and Stacking) for enhancing the prediction performance of the model. The StackAHTPs method achieved superior performance compare to other ML classifiers (AdaBoost, XGBoost and Light Gradient Boosting (LightGBM), Bagging and Boosting) on 10-fold cross validation and independent test. The experimental outcomes demonstrate that our proposed method outperformed the existing methods and achieved an accuracy of 92.25% and F1-score of 89.67% on independent test for predicting AHTPs and non-AHTPs. The authors believe this research will remarkably contribute in predicting large-scale characterisation of AHTPs and accelerate the drug discovery process. At https://github.com/ali-ghulam/StackAHTPs you may find datasets features used.

Abstract NS2: Enhancing Door-In-Door-Out Times to Achieve Top Third Percentile Ranking for Large Vessel Occlusions Ischemic Stroke at a Primary Stroke Center Through Quality Improvement Initiatives

Abstract NS2: Enhancing Door-In-Door-Out Times to Achieve Top Third Percentile Ranking for Large Vessel Occlusions Ischemic Stroke at a Primary Stroke Center Through Quality Improvement Initiatives

Group treatment is favoured by Norwegian mental health leaders

Group therapy is not always acclaimed by leaders of mental health services. Recently, a survey in Norway gave group treatment top ranking. The Institute of Group Analysis and Group Psychotherapy (IGA) is the main training institution for group psychotherapy and group analysis in Norway. In this article, a founding member of the Norwegian IGA (SK), an earlier (SNB) and the current head of education (AU) of IGA, and a clinical director of a current group therapy unit (TNE), reflect upon the historical and current reasons for the positive evaluation from mental health leaders. We point to five important factors: 1) the training policy of IGA; 2) an initial support from influential psychiatrists; 3) support from the Norwegian Day Hospital Network; 4) backing from productive research groups; and 5) the current organization of group therapy units in mental health centres. We regard these historical-structural-clinical processes as important to know about also for international colleagues who strive for public recognition of their training and practice.

Macrostructures and rhetorical moves in research articles in nanotechnology.

Notwithstanding the fact that extensive studies focused on exploring generic structures in established disciplines, scant attention has been directed to macrostructures and rhetorical moves in RAs in some emerging disciplines. Based on a self-compiled corpus of 50 research articles (RAs) from five top ranking journals in the field of Nanotechnology, we explored the macrostructures and rhetorical moves in RAs in Nanotechnology. It was found that (i) scientists in Nanotechnology have a propensity to employ a merged [R&D] structure to immediately discuss and contribute new knowledge tentatively in the specific contextualised situation after research results were presented, (ii) Even though RAs in Nanotechnology largely follows IMRD structure by abiding writing conventions in the research world, disciplinary variations were found regarding the rhetorical structures, specifically, scientists in Nanotechnology tend to employ more moves and steps in establishing research niche, detailed description of research methods, suggesting future research, but less moves and steps related to promotional strategies (M3S4, M3S5, M3S6). The research results have significant implications for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors to make informed choices by using disciplinary empirical-based decisions to guide novice writers and students at tertiary level to write RAs by following disciplinary conventions of research communities in Nanotechnology so as to avoid overgeneralization.

Balancing Sensitivity and Specificity Enhances Top and Bottom Ranking in Genomic Prediction of Cultivars

Genomic selection (GS) is a predictive methodology that is revolutionizing plant and animal breeding. However, the practical application of the GS methodology is challenging since a successful implementation requires a good identification of the best lines. For this reason, some approaches have been proposed to be able to select the top (or bottom) lines with more Precision. Despite the varying popularity of methods, with some being notably more efficient than others, this paper delves into the fundamentals of these techniques. We used five models/methods: (1) RC, known as the Bayesian Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (GBLUP); (2) R, which is like RC but uses a threshold; (3) RO, Regression Optimum, that leverages the RC model in its training process to fine-tune the threshold; (4) B, Threshold Bayesian Probit Binary model (TGBLUP) with a threshold of 0.5 to classify the cultivars as top or non-top; (5) BO is the TGBLUP but the threshold used is an optimal probability threshold that guarantees similar Sensitivity and Specificity. We also present a benchmark comparison of existing approaches for selecting the top (or bottom) performers, utilizing five real datasets for comprehensive analysis. For methods that necessitate a rigorous tuning process, we suggest a streamlined tuning approach that significantly decreases implementation time without notably compromising performance. Our analysis revealed that the regression optimal (RO) method outperformed other models across the five real datasets, achieving superior results in terms of the F1 score. Specifically, RO was more effective than models R, B, RC, and BO by 60.87, 42.37, 17.63, and 9.62%, respectively. When looking at the Kappa coefficient, the RO model was better than models B, BO, R, and RC by 37.46, 36.21, 52.18, and 3.95%, respectively. In terms of Sensitivity, the RO model outperformed models B, R, and RC by 145.74, 250.41, and 86.20, respectively. The second-best model was the model BO. It is important to point out that in the first stage, the BO and RO approaches train a classification and regression model, respectively, to classify the lines as the top (bottom) or not the top (not the bottom). However, both the BO and RO approaches optimize a threshold in the second stage to perform the classification of the lines that minimize the difference between the Sensitivity and Specificity. The BO and RO methods are superior for the selection of the top (or bottom) lines. For this reason, we encourage breeders to adopt these approaches to increase genetic gain in plant breeding programs.

Local Government Policy on Handling Stunting in Mandailing Natal Regency

Stunting is an issue that requires serious attention from the Central Government to the Regional Governments, particularly the Regional Government of Mandailing Natal Regency. This is because Mandailing Natal Regency is one of the regions in North Sumatra with a high stunting rate, reaching 47.7% in 2021, placing Mandailing Natal at the top rank in North Sumatra for stunting cases, according to the Indonesian Nutrition Status Study (SSGI). In 2022, Mandailing Natal dropped to third place with a stunting rate of 34.2%. However, this figure is still far from the national target set for Mandailing Natal, which is 14% by 2024. This study aims to analyze the policies of the Mandailing Natal Regional Government to reduce the stunting rate to 14% by 2024 and examine the various challenges faced. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive analysis. Data collection techniques include interviews, observation, and documentation. The informants for this study included officials from the Mandailing Natal Health Office, Family Planning Office, village heads, and village assistants. The study found that the Mandailing Natal Government has implemented cross-sectoral policies, specific interventions, and the "Foster Father" program to reduce stunting. Success depends on policy continuity, program optimization, and increasing public awareness. The main challenges are limited funding, poor sanitation, and cultural barriers.

Neoliberalusis aukštojo mokslo diskursas Lietuvos universitetų jungimo kontekste

University mergers are closely linked to the neoliberal higher education discourse which relies on competitiveness and the adoption of best market practices in institutional settings. The necessity of a second wave of university mergers has been dictated by the neoliberal order of higher education. The drive for greater competitiveness, more efficient system management and a better response to societal needs through university mergers coincides with the neoliberal higher education discourse. While mergers are not a new practice, they are often chosen as a policy instrument precisely because of the neoliberal conditions under which the system is organised. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to investigate how neoliberal discourses have been used to shape the perception of the need for university mergers in Lithuania.The analysis of online media messages related to university mergers (2005–2020) reveals that university mergers are an integral part of the discussions on other structural reforms of higher education, such as governance or funding. University mergers are framed as an imminent and obligatory solution to a wide range of higher education problems, mainly targeting discourses on study quality and international competitiveness. And while the arguments seem to remain similar over time, the content of both quality and competitiveness concepts is changing. Initially, quality was associated with standard setting and societal needs, with a later shift towards internationalisation and the labour market needs. The notion of competitiveness is also changing, from seeking to attract more domestic students, to the vision of attracting high-level academics and students from abroad, becoming regional or even European leaders and reaching top rankings.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Juvenile Crimes and Psychological Well-Being: Trends, Patterns, and Gaps in Research

Introduction: Adolescent criminal behaviour is considered to be a serious global societal concern, with adverse physical and psychological effects for both the victims as well as the perpetrators. According to studies, incarcerated adolescents experience a greater risk of mental illnesses than the overall juvenile population. Approximately 14% to 20% of young individuals in the general population are diagnosed with a mental condition, with 9% to 13% experiencing severe emotional distress. The current study aims to find the patterns of previously existing literature associating Juvenile Crimes and Psychological Well-Being.Methods: After screening the units through a Prisma model, 1068 documentary units were included for further analysis. The documentary units were analysed using VOS Viewer Software and Hazing’s Publish and perish software.Results: From the results it was found that the United States secured the top ranking in terms of the number of papers and citations with over 862 papers and 26544 citations with medicine being the top contributing area. The current study also identified top authors, journals and research papers that were the major contributors in the area. Further bibliometric analysis showed the collaboration between different authors, journals, themes and organizations.Conclusion: The study gives an overall understanding about the various research as well as various aspects with which researchers have studied the current area. The research gap is evident from the number of publications as well as the areas in which the research has been looked into which thereby lays the platform for future studies

Bending Force and Spring-Back in V-Die-Bending of Perforated Sheet-Metal Components Using VIKOR Method

Sheet metal can be made from different metals, including tin, nickel, steel, copper, brass, zinc, and chrome. Silver, gold, and palladium (which is also employed as a catalyst) are among significant sheet metals for aesthetic purposes. When force exerted to a sheet of metal, the materials is elastically deformed and its geometric is changed without any substance being removed. This is known as sheet metal shaping. In the sheet metal formation process, a metal is reshaped while it is still solid. Some metals' plasticity allows for the deformation of a solid piece of metal into a desirable shape without compromising mechanical integrity. Cutting, striking, folding, and welding flat pieces of steel or copper into metal structure or goods is known as sheet metal manufacturing. Almost any shape can be created by cutting, bending, or stretching sheet metal; this is typically accomplished by heating the metal. Alternative Taken as Thickness, Yield Strength, Ultimate tensile, Maximum elongation. Assessment option The cold-rolled materials used consisted of an electro-galvanized draw quality special killed steel of two different thickness (EGCR3, EGCR3- 2), hot dipped galvanized draw quality special killed steel (HDGCR3), carbon sheet Chrysler Spec MS-steel (CRDSTB), electro-galvanized-annealed high strength steel (HSGS25S), a generic carbon steel (EG250B). from the result is based on EGCR3-2 are the result seen and got the first Rank, whereas the EG250B got having the lowest rank. The Value of dataset for sheet metal components in VIKOR method shows that it results in EGCR3-2 and top ranking

Cell seeding success and efficacy in avian tendon xenografts - a promising alternative for tendon and ligament reconstruction using the COPRAS method

a primary prototype from which everything is created: archetype 2: a person who demonstrates the key characteristics of a later type 3: a typical or typical example the initial full-scale and frequently functional manifestation of a novel kind or design A concept is a device made to test concepts and adjustments before becoming the finished item. To test your idea's viability and validate the general user (UX) approach, you can build up every function and connection in your prototypes, just like you would with a fully created business. Design teams put ideas they have on paper or in the digital realm into concrete forms through iteration, an experiment. To record designers and test user reactions, teams create prototypes with varied levels of realism. You may improve and evaluate your designs with prototyping so that your company can release the proper products. Before spending time and energy, create a prototype of your company to test out your notions and explain to people the rationale behind each feature and the overarching design approach. Alternative taken as Adsorption Energy, Bond length, Adsorption height. Evaluation option: titanium boride, titanium carbide, Titanium silicon, Titanium Germanium, Titanium Dioxide. The result is titanium carbide result is viewed and ranked first received, whereas the Titanium Germanium is ranked low. The value of the dataset for prototype in COPRAS method shows that it results in titanium carbide Decision and top ranking.

Evaluation of Material Selection for Small Wind Turbine Blades Using the TOPSIS Method

When creating a wind turbine blade, the material choice is crucial. Small wind turbine blades can be made out of a variety of materials, including wood, metals, carbon fibre reinforced polymers, natural fibre reinforced polymers, glass fibre reinforced polymers, and nanocomposites. Low density, high strength, and a long fatigue life are three attributes that must be present in the material used to create turbine blades. The substance is additionally made to tolerate high aerodynamic drag, fatigue loads, and impacts from the environment including dust particulate collecting and humidity. The material used to make the turbine blades should have the aforementioned essential qualities, including low density, high strength, and long fatigue life. Additionally, the material is made to endure high aerodynamic drag, fatigue loads, and environmental effects including dust particle collection and moisture materials. In order to capture energy from moving air masses, rotor blade designs rely on the principles of lift or drag. The lift blade design generates a force that lifts the object perpendicular to the plane of motion using the same principle that allows aeroplanes, kites, and birds to fly. Low density, high strength, fatigue resistance, and damage tolerance are requirements for materials used to make wind turbine blades. Composite materials, or materials with an elevated component content, are used extensively in the construction of the blades. Top Rank by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria evaluation technique, makes use of numerous factors. The alternative must be the furthest away of the beneficial ideal solution (BIS) & the negative ideal solution (NIS) in order to be chosen. Topsis is built on this principle. The geometric gap between each choice and the most favourable option—that is, the option with the greatest score for each criterion—is calculated after a collection of alternatives is evaluated and the scores for all criteria are normalised. An analytical hierarchical process, the direct prioritisation approach, and other techniques can be utilised to calculate the value requirements according to the TOPSIS method. By using TOPSIS, parameters are thought to be steadily rising or decreasing. Alternate Parameters taken as Wood, Aluminium, epoxy based Carbon FRP (CFRPEP), epoxy based Glass FRP (GFRPEP), polypropylene based Glass FRP with (GFRPPP), epoxy based Cotton-Glass FRP (CGFRPEP), polypropylene based Cotton-Glass FRP (CGFRPPP), epoxy based FlaxGlass FRP (FGFRPEP), and epoxy based Sisal-Glass FRP with (SGFRPEP), plastic. Evaluation Parameters taken a Tensile Strength (MPa), Production Rate, Flexural Strength (MPa), Corrosion resistance, Blade Cost (USD), Setup Cost (USD), Density (kg/m^ {3}). From the result it is seen that epoxy based Carbon FRP (CFRPEP) got the first rank and Aluminium has the lowest rank. The first ranking epoxy based Carbon FRP (CFRPEP) is obtained with the lowest quality of Aluminium

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN FRONT OF PARK DEVELOPMENT IN SOFIA

The construction boom and the continuous migration to the city, as well as the ambition of the city administration to prevent the expansion of the physical boundaries of the city at the expense of densification and unregulated parking in the green areas, leads to a complete compromise of the meaning of the urban green system and quite logically ranks the city at the top of the negative rankings in recent years.Today, more than ever, Sofia needs a new, very well-thought-out regulatory framework with a long horizon and clear and pragmatic goals, in the context of modern challenges

IOF-Tracker: A Two-Stage Multiple Targets Tracking Method Using Spatial-Temporal Fusion Algorithm

Multi-object tracking aims to track multiple objects across consecutive frames in a video, assigning a unique classifier to each object. However, issues such as occlusions, directional changes, or shape alterations can cause appearance variations, leading to detection and matching problems that in turn result in frequent ID switches. To solve these issues, this paper proposes a two-stage multi-object tracking framework based on a spatial and temporal fusion algorithm. First, the video frames are processed by a detector to identify objects and form rectangular detection areas. Meanwhile, an estimator predicts the target rectangular areas in the next frame. Then, we extract the optical flow of the target pixels within the detection and prediction areas, and then a temporal information model is established by calculating the average of the target pixels’ optical flow. Afterward, we present a spatial information model using the R-IoU (Reverse of Intersection over Union) between the detection and prediction areas. This spatial and temporal information is combined with weighted matrix fusion, which achieves the feature matching and association task. Finally, we implement a two-stage association multi-object tracking model using the mentioned fusion algorithm. Experiments on the MOTChallenge dataset using the official detector show that our two-stage multi-object tracking method based on the spatial and temporal fusion algorithm is robust in handling occlusions and ID switch issues. As of the submission of this paper, the proposed method has achieved the top ranking in the MOT17 benchmark when evaluated with the official detector.

The top scientist in each research sub-field in the top 2% most influential scientists (career impact) (1960–2023)

Researchers at Stanford University in the USA identified the world's Top 2% of Scientists based on data from the Scopus database. This study recognized leading scientists across various sub-fields, ranking them by the sm-subfield-1 (ns) indicator. A total of 174 distinguished scientists from 25 countries were highlighted, with a notable concentration from the USA. Harvard University was a leader, producing top scientists in 16 sub-fields. Among the 174 recognized, four are Nobel Prize Laureates, and two have received the Fields Medal. Ten scientists authored the most frequently cited papers across categories in the Web of Science, including the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). Professor Georg Kresse authored the most cited paper in three Web of Science categories: multidisciplinary materials science, applied physics, and condensed matter physics. The study further analyzed GDP and population metrics for each top scientist by sub-field. Seventy of the 174 scientists have consistently maintained their top rankings over the past five years.

Acupuncture and moxibustion as adjunctive therapy for postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction in gastric cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

This study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of different acupuncture and moxibustion techniques as adjunctive therapy in addressing Postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction (PGD) associated with gastric cancer (GC). Eight medical databases were comprehensively searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as of October 2024. A network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed using frequency models, combining all available direct and indirect evidence from RCTs. Time of first bowel sounds (TFBS) was set as the primary outcome, and time to first defecation (TFD) and time to first flatus (TFF) were set as the secondary outcomes. All outcomes were ranked using surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) probabilities to determine a hierarchy of treatments, and the probability that the intervention will be in one of the top ranks increases with a higher SUCRA value. With 28 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 2,459 patients, 18 of which involved adjuvant acupuncture treatments. NMA based on SUCRA rankings showed that routine care (RC) with acupuncture (ACU), with acupressure (ACUP), with moxibustion (MOX) and acupoint injection (AI) were the top-ranked therapies for shortening TFBS and TFF in patients with GC compared with RC; additionally, RC + MOX + CUP and RC + MOX were the relatively best therapies for TFD. No serious adverse events were reported in the studies assessing the safety of adjunctive acupuncture therapy. Our study found that ST36, ST37, ST39, and PC6 were the most commonly used acupoints for adjuvant acupuncture treatments in treating PGD associated with GC. Acupuncture and moxibustion, when used as supplementary therapies, demonstrated efficacy and relative safety in managing PGD associated with GC. The recommended order for adjunctive acupuncture- and moxibustion-related therapies for PGD in patients with GC, in terms of conservativeness, is as follows: RC + ACU, RC + MOX + AI, RC + ACUP, RC + MOX + CUP and RC + MOX. Despite their inclusion, the overall methodological quality of the studies was poor, which need for further high-quality randomized controlled trials to support existing results. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO.

Antioxidant Capacity and Cardiovascular Benefits of Fruits and Vegetables: A Proposal for Comparative Scales

Fruits and vegetables are sources of natural nutraceuticals. They contain a variety of bioactive compounds such as vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers and other phytochemicals that contribute to their health-promoting properties and disease prevention. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables should be eaten to ensure that an individual’s diet includes a combination of phytonutraceuticals and to obtain all their health benefits. This study aimed to compare the antioxidant potential and cardiovascular benefits within a restricted sample of ten fruits and ten vegetables, previously reported as largely consumed in Portugal. With data available from the literature, antioxidant potential scales were established. Additionally, a set of seven criteria, including high antioxidant capacity (FRAP values above 1), presence of n-3 fatty acids, saturated fat, cholesterol, trans fatty acids, fiber and sodium was used to create comparative scales of their potential cardiovascular benefits. The main results showed that the fruits that simultaneously exhibited the highest antioxidant potential values and the highest cardiovascular potential benefit were lemon, grapes, and melon; among vegetables, the top rankings were found to be tomato and onion. These products have been recognized as interesting sources of natural nutraceuticals for the food and pharmaceutical industries. In the future, similar approaches are desirable to translate complex scientific data into practical, simple and user-friendly information for food literacy initiatives, including nutrition education materials, about the relative level of the potential cardiovascular benefits of a wide diversity of food products.

Israel, Palestine, and the Road to October 7: Dead End or Deadly Detour?

An abandoned peace process, increasingly severe Israeli restrictions on Gaza, and divided Palestinian leadership set the stage for the October 2023 surprise attack by Hamas. The devastating Israeli response has left much of the territory in ruins and decimated Hamas’s top ranks, while setting off a wider regional war involving Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Iran. US-led attempts to negotiate a cease-fire and resurrect the goal of a two-state solution have proved futile to date, as both sides remain irreconcilable, even in terms of basic understandings of the situation. Peace appears more distant than ever, though global views of the conflict are shifting.

Comparative efficacy of Chinese tonic medicines for treating sepsis or septic shock: A systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BackgroundSepsis or septic shock is a life-threatening medical emergency with a poor prognosis and a high economic burden for both individuals and healthcare resources. Evidence suggests that Chinese tonic medicines (CTMs), as adjuvant treatments, are effective in treating this disease. Nevertheless, the ongoing discourse regarding the optimal CTMs persists. This study was conducted to further explore the comparative effectiveness of CTMs for patients with sepsis or septic shock. MethodsWe systematically searched Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese Biomedical Literature (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database, VIP database from inception to November 15, 2023. Primary outcomes encompassed the delta Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (ΔSOFA) score at day 7 after interventions and 28-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included delta serum lactate (ΔLac) and delta mean arterial pressure (ΔMAP) levels at day 7 after interventions, as well as the duration of vasoactive drug administration. The safety outcome was adverse drug reactions or adverse drug events (ADRs/ADEs). The risk ratio (RR) and mean difference (MD) with a 95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) were selected as effect measures. The Bayesian network meta-analysis was conducted by R version 4.2.2 software. The surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) values were used to rank each treatment. The Cochrane Risk of Bias V.2.0 tool was employed to assess the within-study risk of bias. The CINeMA (Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis) web application was utilized to assess the quality of evidence. This protocol was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD4202348572). ResultsA total of 45 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 3433 patients were identified in this study. Seven CTMs including Shenfu injection (SF), Shenmai injection (SM), Sini decoction (SN), Shenfu and Shengmai granules (SF+SGM), Shengmai injection (SGM), Yiqifumai injection (YQFM), and Shenqifuzheng injection (SQFZ) were involved. Regarding the ΔSOFA score, interventions combining SM with Western medicine (WM) (MD, −2.77; 95 %CI, −3.28 to −2.27), YQFM+WM (MD, −1.76; 95 %CI, −2.73 to −0.79), SGM+WM (MD, −1.11; 95 %CI, −1.88 to −0.34), and SF+WM (MD, −0.98; 95 %CI, −1.17 to −0.78) demonstrated superiority over WM alone. According to the SUCRA values, SM+WM (99.28 %) achieved the highest ranking for the ΔSOFA score. Concerning 28-day mortality, SM+WM (RR, 0.51; 95 %CI, 0.35 to 0.72) and SF+WM (RR, 0.73; 95 %CI, 0.65 to 0.83) exhibited a superior effect in reducing 28-day mortality. Based on the SUCRA values, SM+WM (82.49 %) secured the top ranking for 28-day mortality. Among the secondary outcomes, SM+WM (MD, −2.50; 95 %CI, −4.15 to −0.83; SUCRA, 94.27 %) emerged as the most favorable in reducing serum lactate levels. SF+WM (MD, 10.78; 95 %CI, 3.11 to 18.71; SCURA, 78.3 %) exhibited superior effectiveness compared to other treatments in improving mean arterial pressure (MAP). The certainty of evidence for these outcomes was assessed as low. ConclusionCTMs combined with WM led to a significant improvement in ΔSOFA score and MAP, as well as a reduction in 28-day mortality and serum lactate levels. SM+WM emerged as the optimal treatment regimen for enhancing ΔSOFA, reducing 28-day mortality, and lowering serum lactate levels. Additionally, SF+WM exhibited superiority in improving MAP. Nevertheless, there is a need for large-scale, multicenter, and direct comparative RCTs to generate higher-quality evidence.

Optimization of Bioactive Compound Extraction from Iranian Brown Macroalgae Nizimuddinia zanardini with Ultrasound and Microwave Methods Using Fuzzy Logic.

In this study, three extraction methods of bioactive compounds from the brown algae Nizimuddinia zanardini were ranked using the fuzzy weighting system in two stages, ranking between different conditions and choosing the optimal conditions for each extraction method separately. The inputs included extraction yield (EY), antioxidant activity (DPPH), total flavonoid content (TFC), total phenolic content (TPC), total phlorotannin content (TPhC), time, temperature, power, and cost. The top ranks of the first phase output included: Maceration Extraction (ME) with a score of 52.67, Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE) with a score of 54.31, and Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE) with a score of 73.09. The results of the second stage indicated that the lowest and highest extraction yields were obtained using UAE and MAE, respectively. The TFC in the UAE was determined as 103.29 mg QE (Quercetin Equivalent)/g as the lowest value and, in the ME, 140.95 mg QE/g was the highest value. The highest and lowest TPC and TPhC were observed with MAE and UAE, respectively. DPPH decreased in UAE, MAE, and ME, respectively. According to the fuzzy weighted results and considering the purpose of extraction, MAE can be introduced as the optimal method for extracting bioactive compounds from N. zanardini. The findings on extraction methods underscore the potential to reduce costs and improve the yields of bioactive compounds, such as antioxidants and polyphenols, thereby enhancing the economic viability of functional foods and nutraceuticals.

Exploring bacterial key genes and therapeutic agents for breast cancer among the Ghanaian female population: Insights from In Silico analyses.

Breast cancer (BC) is yet a significant global health challenge across various populations including Ghana, though several studies on host-genome associated with BC have been investigated molecular mechanisms of BC development and progression, and candidate therapeutic agents. However, a little attention has been given on microbial genome in this regard, although alterations in microbiota and epigenetic modifications are recognized as substantial risk factors for BC. This study focused on identifying bacterial key genes (bKGs) associated with BC infections in the Ghanaian population and exploring potential drug molecules by targeting these bKGs through in silico analyses. At first, 16S rRNA bacterial sequence data were downloaded from NCBI database comprising 520 samples from BC patients and 442 from healthy controls. Analysis of 16S rRNA-Seq data showed significant differences in bacterial abundance between BC and healthy groups and identified 26 differential genera with the threshold values at |log2FC|>2.0 and p-value≤0.05. It was observed that two genera Prevotella and Anaerovibria are significantly upregulated in BC patients and others are downregulated. Functional analysis based on all differential genera identified 19 MetaCyc signaling pathways, twelve of which were significantly enriched in BC patients by containing 165 genes Top-ranked 10 genes mdh, pykF, gapA, zwf, pgi, tpiA, pgk, pfkA, ppsA, and pykA were identified as BC-causing bacterial key genes (bKGs) through protein-protein interaction network analysis. Subsequently, the bKG-guided top ranked 10 drug molecules Digitoxin, Digoxin, Ledipasvir, Suramin, Ergotamine, Venetoclax, Nilotinib, Conivaptan, Dihydroergotamine, and Elbasvir were identified using molecular docking analysis. The stability of top-ranked three drug-target complexes (Digitoxin-pykA, Digoxin-mdh, and Ledipasvir-pgi) were confirmed through the molecular dynamics simulation studies. Therefore, these findings might be useful resources to the wet-lab researchers for further experimental validation on bacterial therapies against BC.