Scientific Reports

Size and shape of knee implants play an important role in the success of total knee arthroplasty. Several studies have identified anthropometric differences of the distal femur and proximal tibia between the genders and ethnicities. Ill-fitting prosthesis can cause overhang or under-fit resulting in persistence of pain, periprosthetic fracture and decreased range of motion. The purpose of this study was to estimate the aspect ratio of distal femur and proximal tibia in the Emirati population and determine whether gender differences exist within this group...

Graphene field effect transistor (FET) biosensors have attracted huge attention in the point-of-care and accurate detection. With the recent spread of the new emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the need for rapid, and accurate detection & screening tools is arising. Employing these easy-to-handle sensors can offer cheap, rapid, and accurate detection. Herein, we propose the design of a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) FET biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The main objective of this work is to detect the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antigen on spot selectively and rapidly...

Collagen has been postulated to be the most abundant protein in our body, making up one-third of the total protein content in mammals. However, a direct assessment of the total collagen levels of an entire mammal to confirm this estimate is missing. Here we measured hydroxyproline levels as a proxy for collagen content together with total protein levels of entire mice or of individual tissues. Collagen content normalized to the total protein is approximately 0.1% in the brain and liver, 1% in the heart and kidney, 4% in the muscle and lung, 6% in the colon, 20-40% in the skin, 25-35% in bones, and 40-50% in tendons of wild-type (CD1 and CB57BL/6) mice, consistent with previous reports...

For lightweight steel frame structures consisting of steel H-beams and cold-formed steel columns filled with concrete, seismic performance comparison tests and numerical simulation analyses were performed for bare and infilled frames. The effects of the lightweight wall panels, the axial compression ratio and the wall thickness of the steel sections of the columns on the seismic properties of the structure were investigated. The failure of the bare frame was concentrated in the weld fractures at the beam-column joints...

Malachite green used in textile and dyeing industries is a common persistent pollutant in wastewater and the environment causing major hazards to human health and aquatic organisms. In this study, the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the adsorptive removal of malachite green using nano-bentonite, MgO-impregnated clay, and Mucor sp. composites. The nano materials and Mucor sp. composite were characterized by FTIR, SEM and X-ray diffractometry. According to the obtained results, nano-bentonite exhibits a maximum MG adsorption efficiency of 98...

Human males are considered to be more competitive than females. However, females must also compete for resources necessary for their own and their offsprings' survival. Since females use more indirect forms of competition than males, comparing observable forms of competition may be misleading. One critical driver of competition is resource asymmetry. Since competition occurs primarily within sex, reactions to resource asymmetry with same-sex peers should provide an important measure of competitiveness. We asked 596 married participants, 25-45 years of age with at least one child from three different countries to evaluate how same-sex individuals they know would react to a target individual who had a valuable resource that the same-sex individuals did not have...

Our aim was to develop a tool to accurately predict the possibility of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis (NSLNM) during surgery so that a surgeon might decide the extent of further axillary lymph node dissection intraoperatively for patients with 1-3 positive sentinel lymph node(s) (SLN) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. After retrospective analysis of Asan Medical Center (AMC) database, we included 558 patients' records who were treated between 2005 and 2019. 13 factors were assessed for their utility to predict NSLNM with chi-square and logistic regression with a bootstrapped, backward elimination method...

Reference methods for microbiological safety assessments of cosmetics rely on culture methods that reveal colonies of live microorganisms on growth media. Rapid molecular technologies, such as qPCR, detects the presence of target DNA in samples from dead and viable cells. DNA intercalating dyes, such as propidium monoazide (PMAxx), are capable of restricting PCR amplification to viable microbial cells. Here we developed singleplex and multiplex real time (qPCR) assays for the detection of Bacillus cereus (B...

Existing salient object detection networks are large, have many parameters, are bulky and take up a lot of computational resources. Seriously hinder its application and promotion in boning robot. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a lightweight saliency detection algorithm for real-time localization of livestock meat bones. First, a lightweight feature extraction network based on multi-scale attention is constructed in the encoding stage. To ensure that more adequate salient object features are extracted with fewer parameters...

The horn of Africa is susceptible to droughts because of the persistent heat waves and insufficient precipitation. The growth of urban population and built-up urban environments exacerbate the overheating problems due to the urban heat island effects. Understanding the impacts of anthropogenic activities in such dry environments is important to control or mitigate extreme heat leading to droughts. This is required to preserve soil moisture, pothole waters, lakes and rivers that are required for pasture and drinking water...

Plants provide humans with more than just food and shelter; they are also a major source of medications. The purpose of this research was to investigate the antioxidant and hypoglycemic potential of green synthesized CeONPs using Mentha royleana leaves extract. The morphological and physicochemical features of CeONPs were evaluated by UV-Visible spectrophotometry, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-rays and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, Dynamic light scattering, Atomic Force Microscopy, Zeta Potential...

In this work, an SEIR epidemic model with time-dependent transmission rate parameters for the multiple waves of COVID-19 infection was investigated. It is assumed that the transmission rate is determined by the superposition of the Gaussian pulses. The interaction of these dynamics is represented by recursive equations. Analysis of the overall dynamics of disease spread is determined by the effective reproduction number Re (t) produced throughout the infection period. The study managed to show the evolution of the epidemic over time and provided important information about the occurrence of multiple waves of COVID-19 infection in the world and Indonesia...

The FBN1 gene encodes profibrillin protein that is cleaved by the enzyme furin to release fibrillin-1 and a glucogenic hormone, asprosin. Asprosin is implicated in diverse metabolic functions as well as pathological conditions in mammals. However, till date, there are no studies on asprosin in any non-mammalian vertebrate. In this study, we have retrieved the spotted snakehead Channa punctata fbn1 gene (ss fbn1) from the testicular transcriptome data and validated it. The transcript is predicted to encode 2817 amino acid long putative profibrillin protein...

There is little data concerning the implications of PIK3CA mutations outside of the known hotspots described in ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Similarly, PIK3R1 mutations could also lead to activation of PI3K pathway, but are poorly described. We determined the incidence and type of all somatic PIK3CA and PIK3R1 mutations by whole exome sequencing (WES) in a pan-cancer cohort of 1200 patients. Activation of the PI3K pathway was studied using phospho-AKT immunohistochemistry. Associations between PIK3CA/PIK3R1 mutations and response to chemotherapy were studied in mBC cases...

Endothelial dysfunction is an early event of vascular injury defined by a proinflammatory and procoagulant endothelial cell (EC) phenotype. Although endothelial glycocalyx disruption is associated with vascular damage, how various inflammatory stimuli affect the glycocalyx and whether arterial and venous cells respond differently is unknown. Using a 3D round-channel microfluidic system we investigated the endothelial glycocalyx, particularly heparan sulfate (HS), on porcine arterial and venous ECs. Heparan sulfate (HS)/glycocalyx expression was observed already under static conditions on venous ECs while it was flow-dependent on arterial cells...

In this study, a powerful and rapid aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) method was used to extract polysaccharides from Codonopsis pilosula. The ATPS process was investigated with response surface methodology (RSM). At an ammonium sulfate concentration of 17%, ethanol concentration of 30%, and extraction temperature of 40 °C at pH 6, the total extraction yield of polysaccharides reached (31.57 ± 1.28)%. After separation and purification, a homogenized polysaccharide CPP 2-4 with molecular weight of 3...

This study provides a more profound understanding of the influence of the phases of fiber-reinforced recycled-aggregate concrete (FRRAC), on its elastic properties, in particular Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. Multi-scale modeling analyses of mortar and FRRAC were conducted to assess the effect of variations in the fiber content, fiber elastic modulus, RA content, and water-to-cement ratio (w/c) on the elastic properties at each scale. Thus, the analytic Mori-Tanaka (MT) homogenization algorithm developed in Python programming language and the three-dimensional finite element (FE) homogenization scheme were applied to evaluate the elastic properties of FRRAC...

Phase-alteration phenomenon has a considerable influence on the dynamics and distribution of fluids in porous media. One of the major factors affecting the phase behaviour of fluids in reservoirs is the capillarity effect, which becomes unavoidably significant as the media becomes tighter (confinement effect) and contains more pores at nano sizes. Comprehending the nature of vaporization and condensation of hydrocarbon in such confined media is important for accurate modelling of two-phase envelopes and thereby the performance of energy production from hydrocarbon reservoirs...

This study aims at increasing earthquake preparedness knowledge perception and practice among Nepalese immigrants residing in Japan through an educational intervention. A single arm quasi experimental study was conducted among Nepalese immigrants residing in Japan. An educational intervention was prepared along with a 52 itemed questionnaire. In total, 165 participants responded to our questionnaire. Majority of them were male (67.88%), and the mean age was 32.78 years. Generalized equation model showed that the knowledge score of earthquake preparedness was 4...

Male and female pollinators often exhibit sex-specific preferences for visiting different flowers. Recent studies have shown that these preferences play an important role in shaping the network structure of pollination mutualism, but little is known about how they can mediate plant-plant interactions and coexistence of competing plants. The ecological consequences of sex-specific pollination can be complex. Suppose that a plant is favoured by female pollinators. They produce male pollinators, who may prefer visiting other competing plants and intensify the negative effects of inter-plant competition...