Finding related sentence pairs in MEDLINE

We explore the feasibility of automatically identifying sentences in different MEDLINE abstracts that are related in meaning. We compared traditional vector space models with machine learning methods for detecting relatedness, and found that machine learning was superior. The Huber method, a variant of Support Vector Machines which minimizes the modified Huber loss function, achieves 73% precision when the score cutoff is set high enough to identify about one related sentence per abstract on average. We illustrate how an abstract viewed in PubMed might be modified to present the related sentences found in other abstracts by this automatic procedure

Ammonia-Nitrogen Recovery from Synthetic Solution using Agricultural Waste Fibers

In this study, modification of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) fibers as a means to recover ammonianitrogen from a synthetic solution was investigated. Methods: The EFB fiber was modified using sodium hydroxide.Adsorption-desorption studies of ammonia nitrogen into the modified EFB fiber were investigated Findings: Theincrease in adsorption capacity was found to be proportional with the increase of pH up to 7, temperature and ammoniaconcentration. The maximum adsorption capacity is 0.53-10.89 mg/g. The attachment of ammonia nitrogen involves ionexchange-chemisorption. The maximum desorption capacity of 0.0999 mg/g. Applications: This study can be used as abaseline for designing a low cost adsorbent system for ammonia nitrogen recovery drainage and industrial wastewater aswell as EFBs-palm oil mill effluent composting

Stochastic upscaling of hydrodynamic dispersion and retardation factor in a physically and chemically heterogeneous tropical soil

[EN] Stochastic upscaling of flow and reactive solute transport in a tropical soil is performed using real data collected in the laboratory. Upscaling of hydraulic conductivity, longitudinal hydrodynamic dispersion, and retardation factor were done using three different approaches of varying complexity. How uncertainty propagates after upscaling was also studied. The results show that upscaling must be taken into account if a good reproduction of the flow and transport behavior of a given soil is to be attained when modeled at larger than laboratory scales. The results also show that arrival time uncertainty was well reproduced after solute transport upscaling. This work represents a first demonstration of flow and reactive transport upscaling in a soil based on laboratory data. It also shows how simple upscaling methods can be incorporated into daily modeling practice using commercial flow and transport codes.The authors thank the financial support by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (Project 401441/2014-8). The doctoral fellowship award to the first author by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES) is acknowledged. The first author also thanks the international mobility grant awarded by CNPq, through the Sciences Without Borders program (Grant Number: 200597/2015-9). The international mobility grant awarded by Santander Mobility in cooperation with the University of Sao Paulo is also acknowledged. DHI-WASI is gratefully thanked for providing a FEFLOW license.Almeida De-Godoy, V.; Zuquette, L.; Gómez-Hernández, JJ. (2019). Stochastic upscaling of hydrodynamic dispersion and retardation factor in a physically and chemically heterogeneous tropical soil. 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Prevalence, associated factors and predictors of anxiety: a community survey in Selangor, Malaysia

Background: Anxiety is the most common mental health disorders in the general population. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anxiety, its associated factors and the predictors of anxiety among adults in the community of Selangor, Malaysia. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in three districts in Selangor, Malaysia. The inclusion criteria of this study were Malaysian citizens, adults aged 18 years and above, and living in the selected living quarters based on the list provided by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOS). Participants completed a set of questionnaires, including the validated Malay version of Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD 7) to detect anxiety. Results: Of the 2512 participants who were approached, 1556 of them participated in the study (61.90 %). Based on the cut-off point of 8 and above in the GAD-7, the prevalence of anxiety was 8.2 %. Based on the initial multiple logistic regression analysis, the predictors of anxiety were depression, serious problems at work, domestic violence and high perceived stress. When reanalyzed again after removing depression, low self-esteem and high perceived stress, six predictors that were identified are cancer, serious problems at work, domestic violence, unhappy relationship with family, non-organizational religious activity and intrinsic religiosity. Conclusion: This study reports the prevalence of anxiety among adults in the community of Selangor, Malaysia and also the magnitude of the associations between various factors and anxiety

Chemical treatment of orange tree sawdust for a cationic dye enhancement removal from aqueous solutions: kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic studies

International audienceIn order to assess the potential use of low-cost materials for dye removal from aqueous solutions, the adsorption of cationic dye methylene blue (MB) onto orange tree sawdust was studied under static mode using raw sawdust (ROS) and chemically modified sawdust (MOS). The effect of several parameters such as contact time, initial dye concentrations, initial pH, adsorbent dose, and temperature were also investigated. Results showed that the adsorption kinetic data of MB onto both materials were well fitted by the second-order model and the equilibrium state was reached after 180 min of contact time. For both ROS and MOS, MB removal efficiency was improved by the increase in the initial aqueous concentrations, adsorbent dose, and aqueous pH. Moreover, MB adsorption data at equilibrium were well fitted by Langmuir model suggesting a probable monolayer adsorption process. The chemical treatment of the orange tree sawdust with sodium hydroxide (1 M) significantly increased the density of sorption sites and lead to the appearance of new functional groups. Therefore, MB removal capacity increased from about 40 mg/g for ROS to 111 mg/g for MOS at an initial pH value 6.0. The thermodynamic study demonstrated that MB adsorption was endothermic for ROS and spontaneous and exothermic for MOS, respectively. Desorption experiments with HNO3 acidic solutions proved that MB was significantly desorbed from the tested adsorbents, which offers a possible reusability. All these findings indicate that alkaline-treated orange tree sawdust could be employed as an efficient low-cost and eco-friendly adsorbent for cationic dye removal from industrial wastewaters. © 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved

Long term human primary hepatocyte cultures in a microfluidic liver biochip show maintenance of mRNA levels and higher drugs metabolisms when compared to Petri cultures.

International audienceHuman primary hepatocytes were cultivated in a microfluidic bioreactor and in Petri dishes for 13 days. mRNA kinetics in biochips showed an increase in the levels of CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2C8, CYP3A4, CYP1A2, CYP2D6, HNF4a, SULT1A1, UGT1A1 mRNA related genes when compared with post extraction levels. In addition, comparison with Petri dishes showed higher levels of CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2C8, CYP3A4, CYP1A2, CYP2D6 related genes at the end of culture. Functional assays illustrated a higher urea and albumin production over the period of culture in biochips. Bioreactor drug metabolism (midazolam and phenacetin) was not superior to the Petri dish after 2 days of culture. The CYP3A4 midazolam metabolism was maintained in biochips after 13 days of culture, whereas it was almost undetectable in Petri dishes. This led to a 5000-fold higher value of the metabolic ratio in the biochips. CYP1A2 phenacetin metabolism was found to be higher in biochips after 5, 9 and 13 days of culture. Thus, a 100-fold higher metabolic ratio of APAP in biochips was measured after 13 days of perfusion. These results demonstrated functional primary human hepatocyte culture in the bioreactor in a long-term culture

Modeling the Translocation and Transformation of Chemicals in the Soil-Plant Continuum: A Dynamic Plant Uptake Module for the HYDRUS Model

Food contamination is responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide every year. Plants represent the most common pathway for chemicals into the human and animal food chain. Although existing dynamic plant uptake models for chemicals are crucial for the development of reliable mitigation strategies for food pollution, they nevertheless simplify the description of physicochemical processes in soil and plants, mass transfer processes between soil and plants and in plants, and transformation in plants. To fill this scientific gap, we couple a widely used hydrological model (HYDRUS) with a multicompartment dynamic plant uptake model, which accounts for differentiated multiple metabolization pathways in plant's tissues. The developed model is validated first theoretically and then experimentally against measured data from an experiment on the translocation and transformation of carbamazepine in three vegetables. The analysis is further enriched by performing a global sensitivity analysis on the soil-plant model to identify factors driving the compound's accumulation in plants' shoots, as well as to elucidate the role and the importance of soil hydraulic properties on the plant uptake process. Results of the multilevel numerical analysis emphasize the model's flexibility and demonstrate its ability to accurately reproduce physicochemical processes involved in the dynamic plant uptake of chemicals from contaminated soils

Zn2+ and Cu2+ doping of one-dimensional lead-free hybrid perovskite ABX3 for white light emission and green solar cell applications

International audienceThe one-dimensional ABX3 hybrid perovskite (A=(CH3)2NH2=DMA, B=Cd and X=Cl) was synthesized and structurally characterized. The optical analysis showed that the material has a direct band-gap nature with a gap energy of 5.36 eV. The obtained compound exhibited a “cold” white-light emission under an excitation wavelength of 240 nm with a color-rendering index up to 92 and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 7582 K. The doping of the crystal with Cu2+ ions decreased the gap energy toward 2.51 eV. The partial substitution of the Cd atoms with Cu atoms decreased the intensity of the emitted white-light under 240 nm and led to a “cold” white-light emission with a CCT of 7117 K. The doping of the material with Zn2+ yielded a blue-shift and the emitted light revealed a CCT of 11,028 K. On the other hand, by incorporating Cu2+ions into the B site a broad absorption band is observed in the visible region resulting from the d-d transitions around the copper atoms which makes the material a good visible-light absorber. Hence, the Cu doped compound could be suitable for both white-light emission and photovoltaic solar cells

The use of exhausted grape marc to produce biofuels and biofertilizers: Effect of pyrolysis temperatures on biochars properties

International audienceThe wine industry represents an important economic sector in the Mediterranean countries. Currently, grape marc is valorized for ethanol production by distillation process generating a second residue called exhausted grape marc (EGM) that should be properly managed in order to avoid any related negative impacts onto the environment. In the present investigation, an innovative strategy was proposed to convert EGM into biofuels and biofertilizers through thermochemical conversion process such as carbonization/pyrolysis technique. In order to select the appropriate operating parameters, the impact of the slow pyrolysis temperatures of EGM (from 300 to 700 °C) on biochar production yields as well as their physico-chemical characteristics were assessed. The experimental results showed that the biochars yields production decrease with increasing the pyrolysis temperature and reach a plateau above 500 °C. The biochar yield at 500 °C is around 33%, which is amongst the highest values obtained for food processing residues. The biochar physico-chemical characterization showed a higher surface area (253.4 m2/g) was obtained for the char prepared at 600 °C. However, the maximum nutrients contents, namely potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus were registered at 500 °C. Based on the biochar yields and characteristics, it seems that EGM biochar produced through slow pyrolysis at 500 °C could be considered as a promising biofertilizer for agricultural purposes