Aharonov-Bohm differential conductance modulation in defective metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes

Using a perturbative approach, the effects of the energy gap induced by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux on the transport properties of defective metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (MSWCNTs) are investigated. The electronic waves scattered back and forth by a pair of impurities give rise to Fabry-Perot oscillations which constitutes a coherent backscattering interference pattern (CBSIP). It is shown that, the CBSIP is aperiodically modulated by applying a magnetic field parallel to the nanotube axis. In fact, the AB-flux brings this CBSIP under control by an additional phase shift. As a consequence, the extrema as well as zeros of the CBSIP are located at the irrational fractions of the quantity $\Phi_\rho={\Phi}/{\Phi_0}$, where $\Phi$ is the flux piercing the nanotube cross section and $\Phi_{0}=h/e$ is the magnetic quantum flux. Indeed, the spacing between two adjacent extrema in the magneto-differential conductance (MDC) profile is decreased with increasing the magnetic field. The faster and higher and slower and shorter variations is then obtained by metallic zigzag and armchair nanotubes, respectively. Such results propose that defective metallic nanotubes could be used as magneto-conductance switching devices based on the AB effect.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Do Android Taint Analysis Tools Keep Their Promises?

In recent years, researchers have developed a number of tools to conduct taint analysis of Android applications. While all the respective papers aim at providing a thorough empirical evaluation, comparability is hindered by varying or unclear evaluation targets. Sometimes, the apps used for evaluation are not precisely described. In other cases, authors use an established benchmark but cover it only partially. In yet other cases, the evaluations differ in terms of the data leaks searched for, or lack a ground truth to compare against. All those limitations make it impossible to truly compare the tools based on those published evaluations. We thus present ReproDroid, a framework allowing the accurate comparison of Android taint analysis tools. ReproDroid supports researchers in inferring the ground truth for data leaks in apps, in automatically applying tools to benchmarks, and in evaluating the obtained results. We use ReproDroid to comparatively evaluate on equal grounds the six prominent taint analysis tools Amandroid, DIALDroid, DidFail, DroidSafe, FlowDroid and IccTA. The results are largely positive although four tools violate some promises concerning features and accuracy. Finally, we contribute to the area of unbiased benchmarking with a new and improved version of the open test suite DroidBench

Corrigendum: Investigating the Effect of Selected Non-Saccharomyces Species on Wine Ecosystem Function and Major Volatiles [Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol., 6, (2018) (169)] DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2018.00169

In the original article, there was a mistake in Figure 2 as published. The order of the graphs (A-H) is incorrect and does not match the caption nor the in-text citation. The corrected Figure 2 appears below. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated

Content Analysis of Articles Published in Iranian Scientific Nursing Journals From 2009 Through 2011

Background: Little is known about the features of Iranian nursing journals, specifically the subject areas used in articles, study designs, sampling methods, international collaboration of Iranian nursing scholars, specialty and academic rank of authors, and the most frequently contributing academic institutions in articles. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the content of the articles published in Iranian scientific nursing journals. Materials and Methods: Quantitative content analysis was implemented to study Iranian nursing journals, which were approved by the commission for accreditation and improvement of Iranian medical journals in 2011. Thus, 763 articles from six journals, published from 2009 through 2011, were investigated. Data were extracted from the abstracts and when necessary, from the full-text of articles by visiting the websites of these journals. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: The main subjects of published articles in Iranian scientific nursing journals were consecutively renal dialysis (n = 21), intensive care unit (n = 16), nursing education (n = 15), patient satisfaction (n = 13), quality of life (n = 12), health education (n = 11), patient education (n = 11), pain (n = 10), and education (n = 9). The majority of authors had nursing and midwifery specialty (52.59%) followed by epidemiology/biostatistics specialty (7.72%). Isfahan, Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Iran, Baqiyatallah, and Urmia universities of medical sciences had consecutively the largest number of publications in the studied journals. Only three papers (0.39%) were published by the international collaboration. Conclusions: Iranian nursing journals should publish special issues in the neglected subject areas. These journals should encourage authors to publish research evidence with higher quality

Dynamics of threads and polymers in turbulence: power-law distributions and synchronization

We study the behavior of threads and polymers in a turbulent flow. These objects have finite spatial extension, so the flow along them differs slightly. The corresponding drag forces produce a finite average stretching and the thread is stretched most of the time. Nevertheless, the probability of shrinking fluctuations is significant and is known to decay only as a power-law. We show that the exponent of the power law is a universal number independent of the statistics of the flow. For polymers the coil-stretch transition exists: the flow must have a sufficiently large Lyapunov exponent to overcome the elastic resistance and stretch the polymer from the coiled state it takes otherwise. The probability of shrinking from the stretched state above the transition again obeys a power law but with a non-universal exponent. We show that well above the transition the exponent becomes universal and derive the corresponding expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate synchronization: the end-to-end distances of threads or polymers above the transition are synchronized by the flow and become identical. Thus, the transition from Newtonian to non-Newtonian behavior in dilute polymer solutions can be seen as an ordering transition.Comment: 13 pages, version accepted to Journal of Statistical Mechanic

Undiagnosed diabetes from cross-sectional GP practice data: an approach to identify communities with high likelihood of undiagnosed diabetes

OBJECTIVES To estimate undiagnosed diabetes prevalence from general practitioner (GP) practice data and identify areas with high levels of undiagnosed and diagnosed diabetes. DESIGN Data from the North-West Adelaide Health Survey (NWAHS) were used to develop a model which predicts total diabetes at a small area. This model was then applied to cross-sectional data from general practices to predict the total level of expected diabetes. The difference between total expected and already diagnosed diabetes was defined as undiagnosed diabetes prevalence and was estimated for each small area. The patterns of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes were mapped to highlight the areas of high prevalence. SETTING North-West Adelaide, Australia. PARTICIPANTS This study used two population samples-one from the de-identified GP practice data (n=9327 active patients, aged 18 years and over) and another from NWAHS (n=4056, aged 18 years and over). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Total diabetes prevalence, diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes prevalence at GP practice and Statistical Area Level 1. RESULTS Overall, it was estimated that there was one case of undiagnosed diabetes for every 3-4 diagnosed cases among the 9327 active patients analysed. The highest prevalence of diagnosed diabetes was seen in areas of lower socioeconomic status. However, the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was substantially higher in the least disadvantaged areas. CONCLUSIONS The method can be used to estimate population prevalence of diabetes from general practices wherever these data are available. This approach both flags the possibility that undiagnosed diabetes may be a problem of less disadvantaged social groups, and provides a tool to identify areas with high levels of unmet need for diabetes care which would enable policy makers to apply geographic targeting of effective interventions

Lessons learned from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV : FDA-approved Abelson tyrosine-protein kinase 2 inhibitors may help us combat SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2 is a newly emerging infectious disease, which originated from Wuhan in the Hubei province of China in late December 2019 [1]. Since then, it has rapidly spread all over the world, and at the time of writing this letter, WHO statistics show more than 1,696,588 cases and 105,952 deaths confirmed across the world [2]. Although there is no specific therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection [3], combination therapy with antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs accompanied by supportive treatment have been used for SARS-CoV-2 patients [4]. The combination of well-known HIV protease inhibitors, such as ritonavir with lopinavir, has also been a common approach to treat SARS-CoV-2. Insufficient outcome in severe cases is, however, one of the main challenges associated with the current antiviral-based therapy for SARS-CoV-2 [5]. In view of the long period required for novel drug discovery and the desperate need for a prompt response to this pandemic infection, one must resort to repurposing FDA-approved drugs. In this direction, our experience with other close members of coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS has taught us that repurposing the current drugs is a reasonable strategy. Abelson tyrosine-protein kinase 2 (Abl2), the imatinib target, was required for efficient SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV replication in vitro [6]. Coleman et al. have shown that the imatinib target Abl2 is indispensable for efficient replication of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in vitro

Prevention, inhibition, and degradation effects of melittin alone and in combination with vancomycin and rifampin against strong biofilm producer strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) bacteria are being recognized as true pathogens as they are able to resist methicillin and commonly form biofilms. Recent studies have shown that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising agents against biofilm-associated bacterial infections. In this study, we aimed to explore the antibiofilm activity of melittin, either alone or in combination with vancomycin and rifampin, against biofilm-producing MRSE strains. Minimum biofilm preventive concentration (MBPC), minimum biofilm inhibition concentration (MBIC), and minimum biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC), as well as fractional biofilm preventive-, inhibitory-, and eradication concentrations (FBPCi, FBICi, and FBECi), were determined for the antimicrobial agents tested. Cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity of melittin at its synergistic concentration were examined on human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293) and Red Blood Cells (RBCs), respectively. The effect of melittin on the downregulation of biofilm-associated genes was explored using Real-Time PCR. MBPC, MBIC, and MBEC values for melittin were in the range of 0.625–20, 0.625–20, and 10–40 μg/μL, respectively. Melittin showed high synergy (FBPCi, FBICi and FBECi < 0.5). The synergism resulted in a 64–512-fold, 2–16 and 2–8-fold reduction in melittin, rifampicin and vancomycin concentrations, respectively. The synergistic melittin concentration found to be effective did not manifest either cytotoxicity on HEK-293 or hemolytic activity on RBCs. Results showed that melittin downregulated the expression of biofilm-associated icaA, aap, and psm genes in all isolates tested, ranging from 0.04-folds to 2.11-folds for icaA and from 0.05 to 3.76-folds for aap and psm. The preventive and therapeutic indexes of melittin were improved 8-fold when combined with vancomycin and rifampin. Based on these findings, the combination of melittin with conventional antibiotics could be proposed for treating or preventing biofilm-associated MRSE infections

Monitoring Rice Land Changes Using GIS and RS

IntroductionRice is the fourth most consumed grain worldwide. In recent years, monitoring the area under rice cultivation; as a strategic crop in Gilan province has become more important because of the uncontrolled migration of residents of the southern provinces to it. Remote sensing is one of the practical tools to study the trend of changes in the area under cultivation of agricultural and horticultural products on a large scale and in a short time. This technique can help policymakers to make true and timely decisions. The aim of this study is to estimate the area under rice cultivation in Kiashahr county of Gilan province.Materials and MethodsThe images of the TM sensor of Landsat 5 satellite and the OLI sensor of Landsat 8 satellite were used to prepare land use maps. First, geometric and atmospheric corrections were made to the images. Then, supervised classification using the maximum likelihood algorithm was used to prepare land use maps for each year. Seven main classes/land covers, based on the available data of the area were determined: rice-land, semi-dense forest, sparse forest, built-up area (towns and other urbanized areas), waterbody, sandy area and other areas. Then, the area of each land use was calculated by GIS, and their changes were compared.Results and DiscussionOverall accuracy and kappa coefficient of classification were 98.45% and 0.98 for 2000, 97.59% and 0.97 for 2010, and 98.72% and 0.98 for 2020, respectively. According to the results, rice land area decreased by 4.42% from 2000 to 2010. It also had a decrease of 2.64% between 2010 and 2020. In total, rice lands decreased by 6.94% between 2000 and 2020, so its area has decreased to 10311.69 hectares. This downward trend can be due to the conversion of rice land to the built-up area. The area of semi-dense forest decreased by 47.48% between 2000 and 2010, but its downward trend decreased to 26.36% between 2010 and 2020. In total, semi-dense forest area decreases by 61.32%, equal to 682.25 hectares over a period of 20 years. This is due to the uncontrolled cutting of trees and the change of land use from semi-dense forests to sparse forests and built-up areas. Also, during this period, built-up areas and sparse forests have grown by 67.94% and 18.73%, respectively. But, semi-dense forests, water bodies and sandy areas have decreased by 61.32%, 4.91% and 61.48%, respectively.ConclusionThe reduction rate in the area of rice land and semi-dense forest classes between 2010 and 2020 was lower than the ten-year period before, which can be attributed to the adoption of restrictive laws and more inspections by relevant organizations. However, the downward trends in these land uses have continued over the past decade. Meanwhile, the increase of 67.94% of built-up lands indicates that the lost lands in the forest and rice land classes have been converted into the built-up area. The rate of land-use change in the built-up class has the highest rate among the studied classes. This result indicates the need for serious attention to land-use change in the rural area more than before. Another point is that there was a growth in sparse forests between 2000 and 2010, and then a reverse trend was observed between 2010 and 2020, which shows that in a period of 10 years, deforestation has taken place, and in 10 years later, the lands from these destructions have been converted to the built-up area. As a result, serious attention to natural resource organizations is necessary. It is considered that there was a deliberate destruction of forests over time with the aim of personal profit