In this study, we propose an eco-friendly method for synthesizing cerium tungstate nanoparticles using hydrothermal techniques. We used scanning, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction to analyze the morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles. The results showed that the synthesized nanoparticles were uniform and highly crystalline, with a particle size of about 50 nm. The electrocatalytic properties of the nanoparticles were then investigated using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. We further used the synthesized nanoparticles to develop an electrochemical sensor based on a carbon paste electrode that can detect hydroquinone. By optimizing the differential pulse voltammetric method, a wide linearity range of 0.4 to 45 µM and a low detection limit of 0.06 µM were obtained. The developed sensor also expressed excellent repeatability (RSD up to 3.8%) and reproducibility (RSD below 5%). Interferences had an insignificant impact on the determination of analytes, making it possible to use this method for monitoring hydroquinone concentrations in tap water. This study introduces a new approach to the chemistry of materials and the environment and demonstrates that a careful selection of components can lead to new horizons in analytical chemistry.

This article proposes a new framework of aerial reconfigurable intelligent surface (ARIS) enhancing the nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. The base station (BS) transmits superimposed signals to multiple users with different channel gains through ARIS which can flexibly change channel conditions and perform intelligent NOMA operations. It ensures that our system can perform well in providing services to multiple users simultaneously. In this system, the placement of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is jointly optimized along with the AIRS passive beam and the multiuser power allocation in order to maximize the communication sum rate. Since the joint optimization problem is nonconvex and coupled, it is hence disintegrated into three subproblems and it is solved alternately through the successive convex approximation (SCA). Moreover, semi definite programming (SDP) is used to deal with the rank one constraint of RIS reflection matrix and comparisons are made using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The numerical results show that the proposed ARIS-NOMA framework can achieve better sum rate performance than traditional NOMA with fixed RIS and OMA-ARIS.

Abstract Lipofibromatosis (LF) is a rare benign fibrofatty tumor of infancy and childhood with a predilection for distal extremities, poor margination, and a high local recurrence rate. We report a toddler who presented with an LF involving her right labiocrural fold. Imaging showed a soft tissue mass extending through the right labiocrural fold with possible infiltration into the underlying muscles. The mass was excised entirely, preserving adjacent structures. The histopathologic report revealed the mass to be LF. A 3-year follow-up revealed no disease recurrence. No other cases of LF in this localization have been presented in the literature. Despite its rarity, LF should be considered in diagnosing soft tissue neoplasms in children. Accurate diagnosis and proper surgical management with complete resection are essential to reduce the postoperative recurrence risk.

Introduction Inflammation can arise as a consequence of both extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) and ureteroscopy (URS) treatments. Alterations in inflammatory parameters may serve as indicators of kidney injuries and the ensuing inflammation. This study aims to investigate the effects of ESWL and URS procedures on inflammatory parameters for proximal ureteral stone treatment. Materials and methods A prospective interventional study comprised 120 patients with confirmed stones measuring less than 10 mm in the upper half of the proximal ureter. These patients were randomly assigned to either the ESWL or URS treatment groups. Laboratory analyses encompassed interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukocyte count, fibrinogen levels, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), which were assessed prior to the intervention, on the first postoperative day, and six months later. IL-6 levels in the serum were determined using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). Results There was no significant difference in IL-6 levels between pre-intervention and the first post-intervention day in patients treated with ESWL (1.8 (1.4-2.59) pg/mL vs. 2.33 (1.22-3.19) pg/mL). However, for patients treated with URS, the pre-intervention IL-6 value was 2.9 (1.9-3.34) pg/mL, and it increased significantly to 7.1 (3.85-28.07) pg/mL on the first post-intervention day (p<0.001). On the first post-intervention day, levels of IL-6, CRP, leukocyte count, and ESR were significantly higher in patients treated with URS compared to ESWL (p<0.001; p<0.001; p=0.03; p=0.03, respectively). Conclusion Our research findings suggest that monitoring IL-6 levels can offer valuable insights into the degree of inflammation and tissue damage during and following observed procedures, particularly among patients undergoing URS, even within the initial days post-procedure.

Understanding the concepts related to real function is essential in learning mathematics. To determine how students understand these concepts, it is necessary to have an appropriate measurement tool. In this paper, we have created a web application using 32 items from conceptual understanding of real functions (CURF) item bank. We conducted a psychometric analysis using Rasch model on 207 first-year students. The analysis showed that CURF is a dependable and valid instrument for measuring students’ CURF. The test is uni-dimensional; all items are consistent with the construct and have excellent item fit statistics. The results indicate that the items are independent of each other and unbiased towards the gender and high school background of the students.

Simple Summary Innovations in the value chain of traditional meat products, leading to higher quality or healthier products, can support the niche market for local pig breeds and contribute to their more sustainable conservation. In this context, the present study investigated whether the quality traits of smoked dry-cured ham derived from the local Turopolje pig could be improved by including acorns in the animal’s diet or by innovations in processing methods, such as smoke reduction. The results show that feeding acorns to pigs increased the processing yield but had a limited effect on the quality of the dry-cured ham, as only a few differences in the physicochemical, textural or colour parameters and volatile profile were observed. However, some sensory attributes, such as odour typicality, were affected by the acorn diet. Conversely, this innovation in processing led to a significant reduction in smoke-derived volatile compounds and an improved texture to the lightly smoked hams, as shown by both instrumental and sensory analysis. Abstract The Turopolje pig (TP) is a local Croatian pig breed that almost became extinct in the second half of the 20th century. Today, the TP is still endangered, and a new conservation strategy based on products with higher added value is needed to preserve the breed. There is little information on the quality of TP meat products such as smoked and dry-cured ham, including the impact of natural feeds or processing innovations such as smoke reduction. This study, therefore, investigated the effects of the animal’s diet (either conventionally fed or acorn-supplemented) and the processing method (standard or lightly smoked) on the quality traits of dry-cured TP ham. Twenty hams, evenly distributed among the treatments, were processed for 15 months and then analysed for physicochemical and textural traits, volatiles and sensory profile. The hams from acorn-supplemented pigs lost less weight during processing (p ≤ 0.05). Otherwise, the diet had no significant effect on most examined ham traits. The exceptions were protein content and the texture parameter hardness, which decreased (p ≤ 0.05), and the degree of proteolysis and colour parameters, which increased (p ≤ 0.05) as a result of acorn supplementation. However, these effects were generally small and varied between the inner (m. biceps femoris) and outer (m. semimembranosus) muscles. Furthermore, acorn supplementation was associated with less typical ham odour and lower sensory scores for sweetness and colour uniformity (p ≤ 0.05). The smoke reduction had no effect on the physicochemical and colour properties but resulted in a significant reduction (p ≤ 0.05) in the volatile phenolic compounds and an improved texture to the hams. This was reflected both in reduced (p ≤ 0.05) hardness, identified in the instrumental analysis, and in an increased (p ≤ 0.05) softness, solubility and moistness, identified in the sensory evaluation. To summarize, the quality of the TP ham under the conditions studied was only slightly affected by acorn supplementation, whereas reduced smoking had a more significant effect, which was mainly reflected in an improved texture.

During the COVID pandemic, research has shown an increase in candidemia cases following severe COVID infection and the identification of risk factors associated with candidemia. However, there is a lack of studies that specifically explore clinical outcomes and mortality rates related to candidemia after COVID infection.

Abstract The impact of logistics performance in the era of sustainable mobility on the overall economic development of a country is inevitable. It can even be said to represent an extremely important component in identifying economic conditions and provides the possibility of defining adequate strategies. In this article, the evaluation of the member countries of the European Union was carried out on the basis of the logistics performance index (LPI) according to the latest report of the World Bank (WB). A unique and original Multiple-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach has been created, and it involves the application of four methods: Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation, Method based on the Removal Effects of Criteria, and Entropy and Fuzzy ROV (Range of Value). The weighting coefficients of six factors were obtained with the first three methods in crisp form, so they were converted into Triangular Fuzzy Number. The Fuzzy ROV method has been created for the first time in the literature and represents a great contribution from the methodological aspect. The results of the developed model and the applied steps show that there are certain differences in the rankings compared to the World Bank report, with a note that the best-ranked countries have maintained their positions. In addition, verification tests of the originally obtained results were created, with an emphasis on the importance of evaluation parameter values and their impact on the LPI ranking.

Abstract The olive trituration activity is one of the most important industrial activities in Fez, Morocco. These effluents are highly loaded with organic, inorganic, and phenolic compounds without any preliminary treatment that affects water quality. In this sense, the waters of Oued Fez are deteriorating due to the discharge of wastewater from oil mills and the excessive proliferation of Pistia stratiotes L., an invasive macrophyte that represents a significant stress to the aquatic ecosystem, eutrophication, and a reduction in biodiversity. This ecological situation has prompted us to carry out phytotoxicity bioassays based on the detection of the lethal concentration of P. stratiotes in the wastewater from the olive oil mill to evaluate the sensitivity and tolerance of macrophytes to the different concentrations of total polyphenols (TPP) present in the olive mill wastewater. To estimate their impact on the environment. Fresh whole plants of P. stratiotes were exposed to varying concentrations of olive oil mill wastewater with a series of TPP concentrations (0–30 mg/l) for 1 week in the natural environment. The results also show that P. stratiotes is able to grow rapidly in culture with 20 mg/l of TPP; the highest growth of wet weight of P. stratiotes occurred at 20 mg/l treatment with an average of 13 g wet weight increase. At 0 mg/l, treatment is known to cause very slow growth with an average of 2 g. Olive oil mill wastewater was toxic to the plant at concentrations higher than 30 mg/l, and the phytotoxic effect was manifested by retardation of growth, detachment of roots, wilting, and chlorosis of leaves. This indicates that polyphenols have great potential to inhibit the proliferation of P. stratiotes in aquatic environments.

Introduction: There is considerable concern with rising rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with its subsequent impact on morbidity, mortality and costs. In low- and middle-income countries, a key driver of AMR is the appreciable misuse of antibiotics in ambulatory care, which can account for up to 95% of human utilisation. A principal area is the selling of antibiotics without a prescription. There is conflicting evidence in South Africa regarding this practice alongside rising AMR rates. Consequently, there is a need to explore this further, especially in more rural areas of South Africa. A pilot study was undertaken to address this. Materials and Methods: A two-step descriptive approach involving a self-administered questionnaire amongst pharmacists and their assistants followed by cognitive interviews with some of the participants. Results: Twenty-one responses were obtained from nine of the 11 community pharmacies invited to participate. Participating pharmacies were all independently owned. Ten of the 21 participants admitted dispensing antibiotics without a prescription, including both adults and children, representing five of the nine participating pharmacies. A minority dispensed antibiotics before recommending suitable over-the-counter medicines. These high rates were exacerbated by patient pressure. There were issues with the length of the questionnaire and some of the phraseology, which will be addressed in the main study. Conclusion: There were concerns with the extent of purchasing antibiotics without a prescription in this pilot in South Africa study. Key issues will be explored further in the main study.

In the public safety sector, 5G offers immense opportunities for enhancing mission-critical services by provisioning virtualized service functions at the network edge, which enables achieving high reliability and low-latency. One of these mission-critical services is Back Situation Awareness (BSA) that supports Emergency Vehicles (EmVs) by increasing awareness about them on the roads. In this article, we introduce an on-demand BSA application service, which has been developed for multi-domain Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) systems, enabling early notification for vehicles on the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of an approaching EmV. The state-of-the-art approaches inform civilian vehicles about EmVs only when they are in a close proximity (up to 300 m). However, in some situations (e.g., in congested areas), this may not be enough for the civilian vehicles to safely and timely maneuver out of the lane of an EmV. Our approach is, to the best of our knowledge, a unique way to significantly extend this awareness by creating an orchestrated 5G-based MEC deployment of BSA application service on optimally selected edges, thereby stretching over multiple edge domains and even countries. While consuming the real-time location, speed, and heading of an EmV, such application service affords the drivers with sufficient time to create a clear corridor, allowing the EmV to pass through unhindered in a safe manner thereby increasing the mission success. The detailed design and the performance analysis of the BSA application service that has been created following modern cloud-native principles based on Docker and Kubernetes, is presented in terms of the impact of emergency scale on the MEC system resources and service response time. Moreover, we also introduce a metric called panic indicator, which depicts how the proposed BSA service can potentially help in enabling drivers to calmly maneuver out of the path of an EmV, thereby increasing road safety.