Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd.
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Correlating critical current density, quench protection, relaxation time and entropy in superconductors after disturbances—Intermediate summary
Get PDFThis paper summarizes results recently obtained from simulation of transient temperature excursions in filamentary and thin film superconductors. Under multi-component heat transfer in the complicated conductor cross sections and materials composition of present High Temperature Superconductors, numerical, Finite Element and Monte Carlo simulations are applied to solve Fourier’s differential equation with high spatial and temporal resolution. The overall aim was to encircle the quench problem in superconductors and to provide new stability criteria from correlations between superconductor critical current density, density of electron pairs, and relaxation time and entropy. Relaxation, correlation and entropy analysis presented in this paper extends the spectrum of standard methods to avoid quench to a new tool. As results, quench starts always locally, and as a highlight of this investigation, a second “critical” temperature, TQuench, has been identified that with high probability exists below standard critical temperature. Entropy is the driving force for relaxation of the superconductor to new equilibrium after a disturbance
Drug-eluting stent and drug-coated balloon for in-stent restenosis: A meta-analysis
Get PDFThe optimal strategy for patients with in-stent restenosis (ISR) is controversial. We aimed to compare the effects of a drug-coating balloon (DCB) and drug-eluting stent (DES) in ISR treatment. Clinical trials were extensively collected, and retrieved items were screened for inclusion. Both clinical (major adverse cardiac event (MACE); myocardial infarction (MI); and target lesion revascularization (TLR) and angiographic (minimal lumen diameter (MLD), and stenosis relative to reference lumen diameter (SRLD) endpoints were extracted and compared. MACE and MI were not significantly different between the groups. Pooled results of TLR showed a marginal effect that DES was superior to DCB (13.50% for DCB vs. 11.17% for DES, RR = 1.256, 95% CI: 0.997 to 1.583, P = 0.053), with heterogeneity across studies (I2 = 42.0%, Cochrane Q-test = 0.069). Meta-regression identified bare metal stent (BMS) or drug eluting stents (DES) implanted in the previous intervention and proportions of diabetes in the DCB group as sources of heterogeneity. DES implantation also significantly improved angiographic outcomes (WMD for MLD: −0.318, 95% CI: −0.424 to −0.213, P < 0.001; WMD for SRLD: 6.164%, 95% CI: 4.915% to 7.412%, P < 0.001). All DES, including everolimus-eluting ones, did not benefit BMS-ISR patients compared with DCB treatment. DES implantation, which is superior to DCB angioplasty only in DES-ISR patients, should be preferred in the DES-ISR population to reduce TLR. DCB may be preferred in BMS-ISR to avoid increasing stent layers
Chemical sensors: From fundamentals to the future—A review
Get PDFChemical sensors bridge the gap between the chemical and electrical/optical domains, offering a powerful tool for analyzing our environment. These ingenious devices, with detection limits reaching parts-per-billion (ppb) for some analytes, rely on interactions between a specific material and the target molecule. This interaction, which can involve changes in electrical current, light emission, or mass, is translated into a measurable signal. This review delves into the core working principles of various sensor types, highlighting their diverse applications. From environmental monitoring (tracking air and water pollutants at concentrations as low as 10 ppb) to medical diagnostics (detecting biomarkers for early disease identification), chemical sensors play a crucial role in shaping a safer and healthier future. Recent advancements, such as miniaturization and integration with nanomaterials, promise even greater sensitivity, portability, and affordability, paving the way for a new era of sensor-driven innovation. This review article explores these advancements and their potential impact on various fields, inspiring further development and exploration of this transformative technology
Sustainable and smart: Evaluating São Paulo’s tourist resorts with the “DTI-BR Model”
Get PDFThis paper evaluates the Smart Tourism Destination indicators and Standards for Sustainable and Smart Cities applied in Tourist Resorts in São Paulo State, Brazil, through the “DTI-BR Model”. This model selects the most suitable indicators for the Brazilian context, drawing on sources like SEGITTUR (the Spanish State-owned Company for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technologies) and the Brazilian Technical Standards for Smart Cities. The study emphasizes the importance of using indicators to assess and standardize the evaluation of municipal tourism departments, highlighting their role in optimizing tourist resources, and underscores the necessity for tourist destinations to comprehend and integrate these indicators fully to improve service quality, environmental management, and the overall tourist experience. The process of standardizing these indicators not only allows for effective comparisons across various destinations but also aids in identifying and adopting best practices. This approach is poised to make significant contributions towards the sustainable development of tourism by promoting the conservation of both natural and cultural resources, alongside stimulating local economic growth. By understanding and implementing these indicators, tourist destinations can enhance the quality of their services, environmental management, and tourist experience. Moreover, standardizing indicators facilitates comparison across different destinations and the identification of best practices. This can significantly contribute to the sustainable development of tourism, promoting the conservation of natural and cultural resources, as well as boosting the local economy. Therefore, the adoption of Smart Tourism Destination indicators and standards for sustainable and smart cities is crucial for fostering responsible and high-quality tourism
Identification and empowerment of capabilities and potentials in urban tourism with an approach to enhancing brand image and personality: A case study of Tabriz City
Get PDFThis research focuses on identifying and enhancing the capabilities and potentials of urban tourism with the aim of improving the brand image and personality in Tabriz City. The research methodology, given its practical nature, is based on the analytical-survey method. The statistical population includes all city managers and experts in the tourism sector of Tabriz City. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, and the ANP and TOPSIS Fuzzy decision-making models were employed for prioritizing criteria. The results indicate that Tabriz City possesses exceptional tourism power, capacity, and potential. The examination of urban tourism capabilities and potentials in Tabriz demonstrates that its tourism capacity is particularly pronounced in the social, cultural, traditional, historical, and architectural domains. The social and cultural identity index of the city (celebrities, music) with a normalized weight of 0.0277, the presence of historical entities in the city with a normalized weight of 0.0274, the old context with traditional architecture (houses, mosques, etc.) with a normalized weight of 0.0272, great variety in souvenirs and food products with a normalized weight of 0.0271, creating a sense of belonging to a neighborhood among residents with a normalized weight of 0.0270, and special customs in the city (food styles, etc.) with a normalized weight of 0.0270 are among the most important indicators. Therefore, city managers and officials in the tourism sector of Tabriz should pay special attention to the social and cultural capacities and historical and architectural components to introduce Tabriz as a cultural and historical city at both the national and international levels. The tourism planning for Tabriz should be based on the city's cultural, architectural, and historical attractions
Decoding tourist experiences in the digital age: An introductory guide to conducting interviews in smart tourism research
Get PDFThis paper introduces a comprehensive interview guide aimed at enhancing smart tourism research. It discusses the integration of digital technology in tourism, highlighting the importance of understanding tourists’ experiences in this evolving landscape. By focusing on qualitative research through interviews, the study delves into tourists’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward technology in tourism. It underscores the necessity of a flexible and thorough interview guide for capturing the complexities of digital transformation in the tourism industry, providing valuable insights for improving smart tourism experiences. This research contributes to the academic discourse on smart tourism, offering a systematic approach to exploring technology’s impact on tourism and suggesting future research directions to enrich the field further
Classification of cotton water stress using convolutional neural networks and UAV-based RGB imagery
Get PDFEmbracing smart irrigation management techniques empowers growers to irrigate with greater efficiency, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural production. In this context, growers often rely on crop evapotranspiration (ETc) as a key factor in making informed irrigation decisions, underscoring the significance of accurately determining and spatially mapping crop water status. Technological progress, exemplified by the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has brought about a revolutionary shift in agricultural monitoring. UAV platforms can capture high-resolution images with centimeter-level spatial accuracy and offer higher temporal coverage compared to satellite imagery. Considering these advancements, this study introduces a robust method for classifying water stress in cotton using a compact UAV platform and convolutional neural networks (CNN). The experiment was conducted at the USDA-ARS Cropping Systems Research Laboratory (CSRL) in Lubbock, Texas, where the cotton field was divided into 12 drip zones. The study included three replications to evaluate four irrigation treatments: “rainfed”, “full irrigation”, “percent deficit of full irrigation”, and “time delay of full irrigation”. The results demonstrated that the CNN model successfully classified the cotton water stress using the UAV-based RGB image, achieving an overall best prediction accuracy of approximately 91%. By segmenting the original cotton images into separate canopy and soil areas using morphological image processing methods, the authors also isolated and analyzed the individual contributions of these components to cotton water stress. Additionally, a random forest classifier revealed the relative importance of different image features in the classification process through feature importance analysis. These findings highlighted the state-of-the-art performance of the proposed system in cotton water stress classification and provided valuable insights into the key image features contributing to accurate classification. The authors concluded that integrating UAV-based RGB imagery and CNN models had great potential for assessing water stress in cotton
Resistance of complex interspecific cotton hybrids to wilt
Get PDFIn the article, the results of determining the degree of tolerance to wilt disease in the wilt background of hybrid families obtained using the method of interspecies complex hybridization in the cotton plant are analyzed. In the F2–F4 generations of interspecies complex hybrids, a large-scale process of separation according to the sign of tolerance to wilt disease takes place, and among the hybrids, plants that are not damaged by wilt disease, partially damaged plants, and severely damaged plants are separated. With this in mind, it was confirmed that it is possible to isolate lines and varieties with different levels of wilt damage from complex hybrid combinations of interspecies with different genomes by purposefully conducting selection work by the breeder. A number of wilt disease-tolerant families compared to control cultivars have been isolated and are recommended for use as a starting source in genetic selection studies
Exosomal miR-522-3p Transferred from Cancer-associated Fibroblasts Promotes Lung Cancer Cell Progression via Regulating ZRANB2 Expression
No full textObjective: This study aimed to investigate the molecular insights by which microRNA (miR-522-3p) in cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) derived exosomes regulate lung cancer cell growth, proliferation, and invasive capabilities. Method: CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs) were isolated from lung cancer and adjacent non-cancerous/normal tissues and identified. Exosomes secreted from CAFs and NFs were isolated to analyze their effects on lung cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, and Transwell assays. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology was applied to analyze microRNAs (miRNA) expression within the exosomes, specificaly measuring miR-522-3p. Additionally, a dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was utilized to validate the binding of zinc-finger RAN-binding domain-containing protein 2 (ZRANB2) to miR-522-3p. Results: The proliferation ability of cells in the CAF-exosomes (exo) groups significantly increased compared to NF-exo group (p < 0.05). Up-regulated miR-522-3p expression level was found in CAFs-exo (p < 0.001). Functional experiments demonstrated that miR-522-3p inhibitor can suppress lung cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion compared to the control inhibitor-exo groups (p < 0.05). ZRANB2 was a target gene of miR-522-3p. Conclusions: The present study highlights the role of CAFs in promoting lung cancer progression and metastasis via exosomal miR-522-3p, suggesting that the inhibition of CAF-derived miR-522-3p is an alternative modality for lung cancer treatment. These outcomes also provide a new perspective for further research on the lung cancer microenvironment and the development of treatment strategies
The Upregulation of LINC01048 Activates YAP1, Thereby Impacting the Biological Function and Extracellular Matrix of Bladder Cancer via the Wnt/β-catenin Pathway
No full textBackground: LINC01048 is a recognized oncogene. LINC01048 regulates cellular functions through various mechanisms, affecting gene expression, activating cellular signaling pathways, and modulating the cellular functions. The primary aim of this research is to explore how LINC01048 influences the biological function of bladder cancer (BC) and the extracellular matrix (ECM), along with its regulatory role in the yes-related protein 1 (YAP1)/Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Method: Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data was utilized to acquire lncRNA expression and clinical information for bladder cancer (BC). Differential analysis compared normal and tumor groups, followed by survival analysis for the target lncRNA. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) identified regulatory pathways associated with LINC01048. Clinical samples were collected to measure LINC01048 expression in BC patients, and its correlation with clinical features was analyzed. In BC cell lines and normal bladder cells, LINC01048 mRNA expression was measured by Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR). Two groups of cells, with high and low LINC01048 expression, were transfected, and post-transfection levels were quantified. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, ECM receptor-related proteins (Collagen I, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), Integrin alpha 6 (ITGA6), CD44), and pathway proteins (YAP1/Wnt/β-catenin) were assessed using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), clonogenic formation, flow cytometry, and Western blot. Stable cell lines with high or low LINC01048 expression were established and injected into nude mice to create a BC model. Changes in tumor volume and mass were monitored among different transfection groups. LINC01048 expression in tumor tissues and pathway protein levels were measured. Result: LINC01048 was significantly overexpressed in both BC tissues and cell lines, showing a strong association with the ECM receptor interaction pathway. Overexpression enhanced BC cell growth, increased ECM receptor interaction proteins, and elevated YAP1/Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins while decreasing apoptosis. si-LINC01048 transfection yielded opposite effects (p < 0.05). In a nude mouse BC model, overexpression led to significantly larger tumor volumes, higher expression of ECM receptor interaction proteins, and upregulation of YAP1/Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins compared to the control group. si-LINC01048 led to smaller BC volumes, reduced expression of ECM receptor interaction proteins, and downregulation of YAP1/Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In bladder cancer, LINC01048 promotes the expression of ECM receptor interaction proteins and cellular behaviors by activating the YAP1/Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway