Explore the vast range of titles available.

The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of sewage sludge composting using a simple aeration method. Two consecutive composting trials (run A and run B) using Japanese sludge and woodchips (1:1, v/v) were conducted in cubic boxes (0.45 × 0.45 × 0.45 m3) made by plywood at Okayama University. Air was forced up through small holes perforated on two open-ended parallel PVC pipes (ø 16 mm, 0.25 m apart) laid at the base. The results show that compost temperatures were rapidly increased to the peak points of 47.4 °C (run A) and 74.8 °C (run B) within the first 2–3 days and varied depending on each composting run and vertical locations. The changes in physicochemical properties with particular attention to inorganic nitrogen (NH4–N, NO3–N) and free amino acid nitrogen (FAA-N) indicated that the biodegradation took place by different mineralization pathways during the composting process. The degradation of organic matter into amino acids followed by ammonification was predominant in run B, whereas the nitrification was greater in run A. A pot experiment using the two finished composts and their raw materials was carried out to study their effectiveness as fertilizer to Komatsuna (Brassica rapa var. perviridis). The total plant biomass produced by the composts was similar to chemical fertilizer. The lowering proportions of FAA-N/T-N, NH4–N/NO3–N, and C/N ratios in the composts compared to those in raw materials was found to correlate with the increase in plant biomass.

Physics informed neural networks have been gaining popularity due to their unique ability to incorporate physics laws into data-driven models, ensuring that the predictions are not only consistent with empirical data but also align with domain-specific knowledge in the form of physics equations. The integration of physics principles enables the method to require less data while maintaining the robustness of deep learning in modelling complex dynamical systems. However, current PINN frameworks are not sufficiently mature for real-world ODE systems, especially those with extreme multi-scale behavior such as mosquito population dynamical modelling. In this research, we propose a PINN framework with several improvements for forward and inverse problems for ODE systems with a case study application in modelling the dynamics of mosquito populations. The framework tackles the gradient imbalance and stiff problems posed by mosquito ordinary differential equations. The method offers a simple but effective way to resolve the time causality issue in PINNs by gradually expanding the training time domain until it covers entire domain of interest. As part of a robust evaluation, we conduct experiments using simulated data to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. Preliminary results indicate that physics-informed machine learning holds significant potential for advancing the study of ecological systems.

In this work, we proposed a facile approach to fabricate a superhydrophobic surface for anti-icing performance in terms of adhesive strength and freezing time. A hierarchical structure was generated on as-received Al plates using a wet etching method and followed with a low energy chemical compound coating. Surfaces after treatment exhibited the great water repellent properties with a high contact angle and extremely low sliding angle. An anti-icing investigation was carried out by using a custom-built apparatus and demonstrated the expected low adhesion and freezing time for icephobic applications. In addition, we proposed a model for calculating the freezing time. The experimented results were compared with theoretical calculation and demonstrated the good agreement, illustrating the importance of theoretical contribution in design icephobic surfaces. Therefore, this study provides a guideline for the understanding of icing phenomena and designing of icephobic surfaces.

The considered Tractor Trailer Wheeled Mobile Robot (TTWMR) is type of Mobile Robot including a master robot – Tractor and slave robots – Trailers which moves along Tractor to track a given desired trajectory. The main difficulties of the stabilization and the tracking control of TTWMR are due to nonlinear and underactuated systems subjected to nonholonomic constraints. In order to overcome these problems, firstly, we develop the model of TTWMR and transform the tracking error model to the triangular form to propose a control law and an adaptive law. Secondly, the varying time state feedback controllers are designed to generate actuator torques by using Backstepping technique and Lyapunov direct’s method, in that these are able to guarantee the stability of the whole system including kinematics and dynamics. In addition, the Babarlat’s lemma is used to prove that the proposed tracking errors converge to the origin and the proposed adaptive law is carried on to tackle unknown parameter problem. The simulations are implemented to demonstrate the effective performances of the proposed adaptive law and the proposed control law.

The occurrence of arsenic (As) in groundwater (drilled well water) that were used for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene and its risks to human health in Long An and Tien Giang provinces (Mekong delta, Vietnam) were evaluated in this study. The average As concentrations were 15.92 ± 11.4 μg/L ( n  = 24, Long An) and 4.95 ± 4.7 μg/L ( n  = 24, Tien Giang). The average concentrations of As in Long An had not reached the WHO and QCVN 01: 2009/BYT healthy drinking water standard (10 μg/L). When used as a source of water for drinking and daily activities, arsenic-contaminated groundwater may have a direct impact on human health. The risk assessment from groundwater established by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) was conducted. The risk assessment showed that the average cancer risk (CR) values were 8.68 × 10 −4 (adults) and 2.39 × 10 −3 (children) for Long An, and 2.70 × 10 −4 (adults) and 7.43 × 10 −4 (children) for Tien Giang. These results were significantly higher than the CR (1 × 10 −4 ) proposed by the USEPA. The adverse health effect was therefore specifically warned by the use of arsenic-contaminated groundwater. This research offers valuable knowledge for efficient water management approaches to guarantee local communities’ health protection.

With over 1 million incidence cases and more than 780,000 deaths in 2018, gastric cancer (GC) was ranked as the 5th most common cancer and the 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Though several biomarkers, including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), and cancer antigen 72-4 (CA72-4), have been identified, their diagnostic accuracies were modest. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cells derived from tumors and present in body fluids, have recently emerged as promising biomarkers, diagnostically and prognostically, of cancers, including GC. In this review, we present the landscape of CTCs from migration, to the presence in circulation, biologic properties, and morphologic heterogeneities. We evaluated clinical implications of CTCs in GC patients, including diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic management, as well as their application in immunotherapy. On the one hand, major challenges in using CTCs in GC were analyzed, from the differences of cut-off values of CTC positivity, to techniques used for sampling, storage conditions, and CTC molecular markers, as well as the unavailability of relevant enrichment and detection techniques. On the other hand, we discussed future perspectives of using CTCs in GC management and research, including the use of circulating tumor microembolies; of CTC checkpoint blockade in immunotherapy; and of organoid models. Despite the fact that there are remaining challenges in techniques, CTCs have potential as novel biomarkers and/or a non-invasive method for diagnostics, prognostics, and treatment monitoring of GC, particularly in the era of precision medicine.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315762.].

A novel approach for battery-free food freshness monitoring is proposed and demonstrated in this study. The aim is to track the freshness of different sorts of food such as pork, chicken, and fish during storage. To eliminate the drawbacks of conventional food monitoring methods, which are normally based on measuring gas concentration emitted from food in a container, this approach measures the gradual increase in air pressure caused by the gas emission during storage. Additionally, we aim to design a smart sensor tag that can operate in fully passive mode without an external power source. To achieve this goal, near-field communication (NFC)-based energy harvesting is utilized in this work to achieve a self-powered operation of the sensor tag. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, experiments with the above-mentioned food were tested at room and refrigerated temperatures in 2 and 4 days, respectively. For each experiment, 200 g of the target food was placed in a 2-L container with the smart sensor tag. The experiments were conducted with both rigid and flexible containers to consider real food packaging environments. The air pressure inside the container was monitored as an indicator of food freshness by a sensitive pressure sensor on the smart sensor tag. The experimental results showed a remarkable increase in air pressure, which was able to be detected with high accuracy by the pressure sensor. The fabricated battery-free smart sensor tag is small (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) and is capable of less than 1 mW of power consumption, which is ultra-low relative to other ordinary approaches that have a power consumption that normally surpasses 10 mW. The pressure value was used to classify food freshness into different levels on a mobile display to provide food freshness status using an NFC-enabled smartphone.

Background Although hemorrhoidal disease is common worldwide, real-world evidence on the effectiveness of conservative treatments during the acute phase remains limited. Objective We aimed to assess the effectiveness of conservative treatment in improving symptoms and quality of life in patients with acute hemorrhoids in Vietnam. Patients and methods This was a prospective, international, observational, longitudinal study based on a subanalysis of the aCute HemORrhoidal disease evALuation International Study conducted from January 2022 to June 2022 at five major hospitals in Vietnam. The present study included adult patients (≥18 years) diagnosed with acute hemorrhoidal disease (≤48 h since onset) who received conservative treatment and did not require surgical intervention. Results Among the 202 patients, 53% were male; the mean population age was 40.5 ± 13.7 years, and the mean body mass index was 22.13 ± 2.59 kg/m2. The distribution of hemorrhoid severity was as follows: grade I, 22.3%; grade II, 59.9%; grade III, 12.4%; and grade IV, 5.4%. The mean number of symptoms per patient decreased from 4.6 ± 1.9 at baseline to 1.0 ± 1.5 at week four. At week one, the venoactive drug group showed symptom improvement rates of 63% for pain, 56.8% for discomfort, and 68.2% for bleeding. The Hemorrhoid and Fissure Quality of Life significantly decreased across all domains (p < 0.05). Patient and physician satisfaction with conservative treatment was high, at 88.7% and 87.7%, respectively. Conclusion Conservative treatment, particularly micronized purified flavonoid fraction–based therapy, improved the clinical symptoms and quality of life in patients with acute hemorrhoids in Vietnam.

The gas sensing properties of two novel series of Mg-incorporated metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), termed Mg-MOFs-I and -II, were assessed. The synthesized iso-reticular type Mg-MOFs exhibited good crystallinity, high thermal stability, needle-shape morphology and high surface area (up to 2900 m2·g−1), which are promising for gas sensing applications. Gas-sensing studies of gas sensors fabricated from Mg-MOFs-II revealed better sensing performance, in terms of the sensor dynamics and sensor response, at an optimal operating temperature of 200 °C. The MOF gas sensor with a larger pore size and volume showed shorter response and recovery times, demonstrating the importance of the pore size and volume on the kinetic properties of MOF-based gas sensors. The gas-sensing results obtained in this study highlight the potential of Mg-MOFs gas sensors for the practical monitoring of toxic gases in a range of environments.