Journals
2019 EN
Hidayat Ullah · Wanggen Wan · Saqib Ali Haidery
+3 more
Green parks are vital public spaces and play a major role in urban living and well-being. Research on the attractiveness of green parks often relies on traditional techniques, such as questionnaires and in-situ surveys, but these methods are typically insignificant in scale, time-consuming, and expensive, with less transferable results and only site-specific outcomes. This article presents an investigative study that uses location-based social network (LBSN) data to collect spatial and temporal patterns of park visits in Shanghai metropolitan city. During the period from July 2016 to June 2017 in Shanghai, China, we analyzed the spatiotemporal behavior of park visitors for 157 green parks and conducted empirical research on the impacts of green spaces on the public’s behavior in Shanghai. Our main findings show (i) the check-in distribution of users in different green spaces; (ii) the seasonal effects on the public’s behavior toward green spaces; (iii) changes in the number of users based on the hour of the day, the intervals of the day (morning, afternoon, evening), and the day of the week; (iv) interesting user behavior variations that depend on temperature effects; and (v) gender-based differences in the number of green park visitors. These results can be used for the purpose of urban city planning for green spaces by accounting for the preferences of visitors.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Ali Nehme · Fouad A. Zouein · Zeinab Deris Zayeri
+1 more
In its classical view, the renin angiotensin system (RAS) was defined as an endocrinesystem involved in blood pressure regulation and body electrolyte balance. However, the emergingconcept of tissue RAS, along with the discovery of new RAS components, increased thephysiological and clinical relevance of the system. Indeed, RAS has been shown to be expressed invarious tissues where alterations in its expression were shown to be involved in multiple diseasesincluding atherosclerosis, cardiac hypertrophy, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and renal fibrosis. In thischapter, we describe the new components of RAS, their tissue-specific expression, and theiralterations under pathological conditions, which will help achieve more tissue- and conditionspecifictreatments.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Pritesh Prasad · Angela A. Salim · Shamsunnahar Khushi
+3 more
Keywords: ethanolysis; solvolysis; artifact; leucettazoles; leucettazines; macrocyclic alkaloids; Leucetta ; Australian sponge; GNPS.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Ahmed H. Elbanna · Zeinab G. Khalil · Paul V. Bernhardt
+1 more
Chemical analysis of a cultivation of an Australian Mugil mullet gastrointestinal tract (GIT) derived fungus, Scopulariopsis sp. CMB-F458, yielded the known lipodepsipeptides scopularides A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ). A comparative global natural product social (GNPS) molecular networking analysis of ×63 co-isolated fungi, detected two additional fungi producing new scopularides, with Beauveria sp. CMB-F585 yielding scopularides C-G ( 3 - 7 ) and Scopulariopsis sp. CMB-F115 yielding scopularide H ( 8 ). Structures inclusive of absolute configurations were assigned by detailed spectroscopic and C 3 Marfey's analysis, together with X-ray analyses of 3 and 8 , and biosynthetic considerations. Scopularides A-H ( 1 - 8 ) did not exhibit significant growth inhibitory activity against a selection of Gram positive (+ve) and negative (-ve) bacteria, a fungus, or a panel of three human carcinoma cell lines.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Zeinab Mirzaei · Mohammad Reza Khalesi
In mineral processing, liberation of valuable mineral from gangue minerals is the most important stage before the concentration process. Comminution, which leads to liberation, includes two types of random and non-random breakages. The contribution of random and non-random breakage is very important in modelling the liberation phenomenon. In this paper, a simulator based on 2D Voronoi tessellation is introduced which can simulate random, preferential and detachment breakages of binary ores (valuable and gangue mineral). This simulator has been validated by image analysis of fragmented artificial ores which were made in different grades and comminuted in different energy levels by a drop weight device. The data obtained from images of comminuted particles were processed using the codes prepared in MATLAB®. Results showed that for the samples used in this study, the proportion of the intergranular breakage changes as the grade of the ore changes, with an agreement between simulations and experiments, independently from the energy level of comminution.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Ilaria Demori · Zeinab El Rashed · Viola Corradino
+9 more
Amphibian skin is not to be considered a mere tegument; it has a multitude of functions related to respiration, osmoregulation, and thermoregulation, thus allowing the individuals to survive and thrive in the terrestrial environment. Moreover, amphibian skin secretions are enriched with several peptides, which defend the skin from environmental and pathogenic insults and exert many other biological effects. In this work, the beneficial effects of amphibian skin peptides are reviewed, in particular their role in speeding up wound healing and in protection from oxidative stress and UV irradiation. A better understanding of why some species seem to resist several environmental insults can help to limit the ongoing amphibian decline through the development of appropriate strategies, particularly against pathologies such as viral and fungal infections.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
El Hassane Anouar · Moustapha E. Moustapha · Muhammad Taha
+7 more
β-glucuronidase is a lysosomal glycosidase enzyme which catalyzes the extracellular matrix of cancer and normal cells and the glycosaminoglycans of the cell membrane, which is important for cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Liver cancer, colon carcinoma, and neoplasm bladder are triggered by the increase of the level of β-glucuronidase activity. The most valuable structures are indole and oxadiazole which has gain immense attention because of its pharmacological behavior and display many biological properties. Twenty-two ( 1 ⁻ 2 2 ) analogs of indole based oxadiazole were synthesized and screened for their inhibitory potential against β-glucuronidase. Majority of the compounds showed potent inhibitory potential with IC 50 values ranging between 0.9 ± 0.01 to 46.4 ± 0.9 µM, under positive control of standard drug d-saccharic acid 1,4 lactone (IC 50 = 48.1 ± 1.2 µM). Structural activity relationship (SAR) has been established for all synthesized compounds. To shed light on molecular interactions between the synthesized compounds and β-glucuronidase, 1 , 4 , and 6 compounds were docked into the active binding site of β-glucuronidase. The obtained results showed that this binding is thermodynamically favorable and β-glucuronidase inhibition of the selected compounds increases with the number of hydrogen bonding established in selected compound-β-glucuronidase complexes.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Zeinab Abdulwanis Mohamed · Enas Mohamed Eliaser · Emanuela Mazzon
+3 more
Plant natural compounds have great potential as alternative medicines for preventing and treating diseases. Melicope lunu-ankenda is one Melicope species (family Rutaceae ), which is widely used in traditional medicine, consumed as a salad and a food seasoning. Consumption of different parts of this plant has been reported to exert different biological activities such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, resulting in a protective effect against several health disorders including neurodegenerative diseases. Various secondary metabolites such as phenolic acid derivatives, flavonoids, coumarins and alkaloids, isolated from the M. lunu-ankenda plant, were demonstrated to have neuroprotective activities and also exert many other beneficial biological effects. A number of studies have revealed different neuroprotective mechanisms for these secondary metabolites. This review summarizes the most significant and recent studies for neuroprotective activity of M. lunu-ankenda major secondary metabolites in neurodegenerative diseases.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Zeinab Shirvani · Omid Abdi · Manfred F. Buchroithner
Despite increasing efforts in the mapping of landslides using Sentinel-1 and -2, research on their combination for discerning historical landslides in forest areas is still lacking, particularly using object-oriented machine learning approaches. This study was accomplished to test the efficiency of Sentinel-derived features and digital elevation model (DEM) derivatives for mapping old and new landslides, using object-oriented random forest. Two forest subsets were selected including a protected and non-protected forest in northeast Iran. Landslide samples were obtained from CORONA images and aerial photos (old landslides), and also field mensuration and high-resolution images (new landslides). Segment objects were generated from a set combination of Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-2A, and some topographic-derived indices using multiresolution segmentation algorithm. Various object features were derived from the main channels of Sentinel images and DEM derivatives in the seven main groups, including spectral layers, spectral indices, geometric, contextual, textural, topographic, and hydrologic features. A single database was created, including landslide samples and Sentinel- and DEM-derived object features. Roughly 20% of landslide-affected objects and non-landslide-affected objects were randomly selected as an input for training the random forest classifier. Two-thirds of the selected objects were assigned as learning samples for classification, and the remainder were used for testing the accuracy of landslide and non-landslide classification. Results indicated that: (1) The sensitivity of mapping historical landslides was 86.6% and 80.3% in the protected and non-protected forests, respectively; (2) the object features of Sentinel-2A and DEM obtained the highest importance with the total scores of 55.6% and 32%, respectively in the protected forests, and 65.4% and 21% respectively in the non-protected forests; (3) the features derived from the combination of Sentinel-1 and -2A demonstrated a total importance of 10% for mapping new landslides; and (4) textural features were obtained in approximately two-thirds of the total scores for mapping new landslides, however a combination of topographic, spectral, textural, and contextual features were the effective predictors for mapping old landslides. This research proposes applying a synergetic analysis of Sentinel- and DEM-derived features for mapping historical landslides; however, there are no uniformly pre-defined influential variables for mapping historical landslides in different forest areas.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Journals
2019 EN
Mehdi Makvandi · Baofeng Li · Mohamed Elsadek
+2 more
Numerous cities face the serious problems of rapid urbanization and climate change, especially in recent years. Among all cities, Wuhan is one of the most affected by these changes, accompanied by the transformation of water surfaces into urban lands and the decline of natural ventilation. This study investigated the impact of surface urban heat island enlargement (SUHI) and block morphology changes in heat balance. Accordingly, the interactive impact of building diversity with major building forms (low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise) on thermal balance and microclimate changes under the influence of urban land expansion at the residential block scale was studied. To investigate the heat balance changes by air temperature intensification and air movement reduction, a long-term and field observational analysis (1980–2018) coupled with computational fluid dynamic simulation (CFD) was used to evaluate the impact of building diversity on thermal balance. Outcomes show that urban heat island intensity (UHII) increased by 2 °C when water surfaces in urban areas decreased; consequently, there was a deterioration in the air movement to alleviate UHII. Thus, the air movement declined substantially with UHII and SUHI enlargement, which, through increased urban surfaces and roughness length, will become worse by 2020. Furthermore, the decline in air movement caused by the transformation of urban water bodies cannot contribute to the heat balance unless reinforced by the morphology of the urban blocks. In the design of inner-city blocks, morphological indicators have a significant impact on microclimate and heat balance, where increasing building density and plot ratio will increase UHII, and increasing water surfaces will result in an increase in urban ventilation. Lastly, a substantial correlation between air temperature and relative humidity was found, which, together with the block indicators, can help control the air temperature and adjust the urban microclimate.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute