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Garrison Wooten opublikował 1 rok, 3 miesiące temu
Within a systematic literature review (SLR), researchers are confronted with vast amounts of articles from scientific databases, which have to be manually evaluated regarding their relevance for a certain field of observation. The evaluation and filtering phase of prevalent SLR methodologies is therefore time consuming and hardly expressible to the intended audience. The proposed method applies natural language processing (NLP) on article meta data and a k-means clustering algorithm to automatically convert large article corpora into a distribution of focal topics. This allows efficient filtering as well as objectifying the process through the discussion of the clustering results. Beyond that, it allows to quickly identify scientific communities and therefore provides an iterative perspective for the so far linear SLR methodology.•NLP and k-means clustering to filter large article corpora during systematic literature reviews.•Automated clustering allows filtering very efficiently as well as effectively compared to manual selection.•Presentation and discussion of the clustering results helps to objectify the nontransparent filtering step in systematic literature reviews. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.The Hygiene Performance Rating scheme is developed by Animalia in Norway. This unique auditing tool for assessment of slaughter hygiene has been used in Norwegian abattoirs for the last 10 years. The Hygiene Performance Rating scheme visually evaluates and documents each operation on the slaughter line, assessing the factors that can affect the slaughter hygiene. The protocol is based on a systematic evaluation of general hygienic practices of each operation, such as the operators’ hygienic behavior and risk handling of the carcasses, along with routines and management. The scores are registered in a web-based application. The observations are given a score from 1 to 3, where 1 means „acceptable”, 2 = „potential for improvement”, and 3 = „not acceptable”. Scores for each position is multiplied with a weight factor for hygienic impact and risk (1, 3, 6 or 12) and economic consequences (1 or 2) describing whether the necessary improvement depends on a significant investment (1) or if it is a cheap quick-fix (2) and calculated into a percentage where 100% is perfect hygiene. A presentation of results for the involved parties, including operators, is a crucial part of the implementation of the Hygiene Performance Rating scheme.•Systematic auditing tool for evaluating slaughter hygiene.•Investigate and improve slaughter techniques and routines.•Comprehensive approach to achieve satisfactory results for slaughter hygiene. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.This article presents a stylized renewable energy (RE) investment project profitability analysis under a rate-of-return RE support type. We use a dynamic programming approach to value the real options. While the method is widely used in RE policy analysis, the rate-of-return support is presented in this framework for the first time. We formulate a stylized RE project under the rate-of-return regulation in the dynamic programming framework and solve for optimal investment timing and project size.•A stylized renewable energy (RE) investment under rate-of-return RE support is presented in the dynamic programming framework;•The system is solved for optimal capacity choice in the presence of the electricity price uncertainty. We also comment on the optimal investment timing, which turns out to be a now-or-never decision in this case. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.The method shown in this article simulates spontaneous pain in patients with nociplastic pain using rats; the measurement with this method could be related to better translation of analgesic efficacies of therapeutic compounds between rats and humans. Nociplastic pain occurs in various disorders including fibromyalgia. Because the pain in patients occurs without an external stimulus, we assessed spontaneous pain in rats. The grimace scale, a methodology for rating facial expression, has been used for measuring spontaneous pain in animals. However, the responses in animals have been rather short-lived, and the scale has never been applied to animals exhibiting nociplastic pain. Here, we apply the rat grimace scale (RGS) to the reserpine-induced fibromyalgia-like rat, which induces nociplastic pain. The ratings of the orbital tightening, nose/cheek flattening, and changes in characteristics of ears and whiskers by three raters, who were blinded to the treatment allocated to rats, demonstrated substantial, long-lasting change in facial expression of rats. In this article, reference images for raters, and sample images used for rater training are provided. All raters independently indicated that the RGS score is significantly elevated with this methodology in reserpine-induced fibromyalgia-like rats.•The grimace scale, a method for rating facial expression, is applied to the reserpine-induced fibromyalgia-like rat, which manifests nociplastic pain.•Facial expression change in the reserpine-induced fibromyalgia-like rat is substantial and long-lasting.•Elevation of the RGS score in the reserpine-induced fibromyalgia-like rat may simulate spontaneous pain in patients with nociplastic pain. © 2020 The Author(s).The present protocol describes the synthesis of di and tri-substituted s-triazine derivatives•s-Triazine undergoes sequential nucleophilic substitution reaction but order of nucleophile is very crucial.•It is very difficult to substitute any nucleophile except amine once amine is incorporated onto s-triazine.•During the synthesis of O,N-type substituted s-triazine, always O-type should be incorporated first. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.In this study, a new and effective catalyst for the synthesis of pyridazino[1,2-a]indazole, indazolo[2,1-b]phthalazine and pyrazolo[1,2-b]phthalazine derivatives was introduced. Triethanolammonium acetate ([TEAH][OAc]) accelerates the reaction in a one-pot and four-component condensation of aldehydes, hydrazine hydrate, succinic/phthalic anhydride, and 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. The yield of the products is high, and the reaction conditions are mild and solvent-free. Furthermore, the model reaction was conducted in the presence of triethanolammonium sulphate ([TEAH][HSO4] and triethanolammonium formate ([TEAH][HCOO]) under various conditions. In addition, the catalyst is recyclable, therefore, it can be reused several times. The structure of the obtained products was confirmed by comparing the M.P., IR, and 1H NMR. Advantages of this technique are as following•Synthesis of novel, green, and one-pot and four-component condensation (4CC) under solvent-free conditions at room temperature.•The catalytic reaction is performed under mild and environmentally friendly conditions in short reaction times and excellent yields.•The catalyst is easily recycled and exhibits good chemical and structural stability. © 2020 The Author(s).Electrochemical energy devices, such as batteries and fuel cells, contain active electrode components that have highly porous, multiphase microstructures for improved performance. Predictive electrochemical models of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode performance based on measured microstructures have been limited to small length scales, a small number of simulations, and/or relatively homogeneous microstructures. To overcome the difficulty in modeling electrochemical activity of inhomogeneous microstructures at considerable length scales, we have developed a high-throughput simulation application that operates on high-performance computing platforms. The open-source application, named Electrochemical Reactions in MIcrostructural NEtworks (ERMINE), is implemented within the MOOSE computational framework, and solves species transport coupled to both three-phase boundary and two-phase boundary electrochemical reactions. As the core component, this application is further incorporated into a high-throughput computational workflow. The main advantages of the workflow include•Straightforward image-based volumetric meshing that conforms to complex, multi-phased microstructural features•Computation of local electrochemical fields in morphology-resolved microstructures at considerable length scales•Implementation on high performance computing platforms, leading to fast, high-throughput computations. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.An animal model, suitable for resembling Parkinson’s disease (PD) progress, should show both, motor and non-motor alterations. However, these features have been scarcely evaluated or developed in parkinsonian models induced by neurotoxins. This protocol provides modifications to original methods, allowing six different motor and non-motor behavior tests, which adequately and timely emulate the main parkinsonian sensorimotor alterations in the rat or mouse (1) bilateral sensorimotor alterations, examined by the vibrissae test; (2) balance and motor coordination, evaluated by the uncoordinated gait test; (3) locomotor asymmetry, analyzed by the cylinder test; (4) bradykinesia, as a locomotor alteration evidenced by the open field test; (5) depressive-like behavior, judged by the forced swimming test; and (6) hyposmia, assessed by the olfactory asymmetry test. Some advantages of using these behavioral tests over others include•No sophisticated materials or equipment are required for their application and evaluation.•They are used in rodent models for parkinsonian research, but they can also be helpful for studying other movement disorders.•These tests can accurately discriminate the affected side from the healthy one, after unilateral injury of one hemisphere, resulting in sensorimotor, olfactory or locomotor asymmetry. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.We present two new methods for simultaneous smoothing and sharpening of color images the GMS3 (Graph Method for Simultaneous Smoothing and Sharpening) and the NGMS3(Normalized Graph-Method for Simultaneous Smoothing and Sharpening). They are based on analyzing the structure of local graphs computed at every pixel using their respective neighbors. On the one hand, we define a kernel-based filter for smoothing each pixel with the pixels associated to nodes in its same connected component. On the other hand, we modify each pixel by increasing their differences with respect to the pixels in the other connected components of those local graphs. Our approach is shown to be competitive with respect to other state-of-the-art methods that simultaneously manage both processes.•We provide two methods that carry out the process of smoothing and sharpening simultaneously.•The methods are based on the analysis of the structure of a local graph defined from the differences in the RGB space among the pixels in a 3 × 3 window.•The parameters of the method are adjusted using both observers opinion and the well-known reference image quality assessment BRISQUE (Blind/Referenceless images spatial quality Evaluator) score. © 2020 The Authors.Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important signal molecule produced in animal and plant cells. The balance of H2O2 between the intra- and extracellular space is regulated by integral membrane proteins, which thereby modulate signaling. Several methods have been established to analyze aquaporin mediated transport of H2O2 in whole cells with the intrinsic limitation that the amount of protein responsible for a certain activity cannot be standardized. As a consequence, the quantification of the transport and specific activity is difficult to extract making it problematic to compare isoforms and mutated variants of one specific target. Moreover, in cell-based assays, the expression of the target protein may alter the physiological processes of the host cell providing a complication and the risk of misleading results. To improve the measurements of protein based H2O2 transport, we have developed an assay allowing quantitative measurements.•Using purified aquaporin reconstituted in proteoliposomes, transport of H2O2 can be accurately measured.


