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Topic Review
Inflammatory Cytokines Induce Melanogenesis
The production of melanin pigments by melanocytes and their quantity, quality, and distribution play a decisive role in determining human skin, eye, and hair color, and protect the skin from adverse effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and oxidative stress from various environmental pollutants. Melanocytes reside in the basal layer of the interfollicular epidermis and are compensated by melanocyte stem cells in the follicular bulge area. Various stimuli such as eczema, microbial infection, ultraviolet light exposure, mechanical injury, and aging provoke skin inflammation. These acute or chronic inflammatory responses cause inflammatory cytokine production from epidermal keratinocytes as well as dermal fibroblasts and other cells, which in turn stimulate melanocytes, often resulting in skin pigmentation. It is confirmed by some recent studies that several interleukins (ILs) and other inflammatory mediators modulate the proliferation and differentiation of human epidermal melanocytes and also promote or inhibit expression of melanogenesis-related gene expression directly or indirectly, thereby participating in regulation of skin pigmentation. Understanding of mechanisms of skin pigmentation due to inflammation helps to elucidate the relationship between inflammation and skin pigmentation regulation and can guide development of new therapeutic pathways for treating pigmented dermatosis. 
  • 3.9K
  • 07 May 2021
Topic Review
New Uses of Common Vetch for Sustainable Agriculture
Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is a grain legume used in animal feed. It is rich in protein, fatty acid and minerals content, therefore is a very suitable component for feed enrichment. Furthermore, important pharmacological properties in humans have been described. Like other legumes, common vetch has the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, an important characteristic in sustainable agricultural systems. These characteristics enhance the usage of vetch as a cover crop and its use in intercropping systems. In addition, several studies have highlighted the potential of vetch in the phytoremediation of polluted soils. These features make common vetch an appropriate crop to address for various potential improvements. Comparative analyzes have allowed the identification of varieties with different flowering time, shattering resistance, yield, nutrient content and composition, drought response, rhizobacteria associations, nitrogen fixation capacity, and other agronomically relevant traits.
  • 3.9K
  • 16 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Health Impact of Drying Aral Sea: One Health
Once one of the largest saline lakes, the Aral Sea, was recognized as a significant environmental disaster as the water level decreased dramatically. Water level decrease increases water salinity, affecting biodiversity. Exposed lake beds become the source for fine dust picked up by the dust storms and spread across a long distance, affecting people’s health in surrounding areas. 
  • 3.9K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza's philosophy encompasses nearly every area of philosophical discourse, including metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. It earned Spinoza an enduring reputation as one of the most important and original thinkers of the seventeenth century. Samuel Shirley, who translated Spinoza's complete works into English, summed up the significance of Spinoza's philosophy as follows: Spinoza's philosophy is largely contained in two books: the Theologico-Political Treatise, and the Ethics. The former was published during his lifetime, but the latter, which contains the entirety of his philosophical system in its most rigorous form, was not published until after his death in 1677. The rest of the writings we have from Spinoza are either earlier, or incomplete, works expressing thoughts that were crystallized in the two aforementioned books (e.g., the Short Treatise and the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect), or else they are not directly concerned with Spinoza's own philosophy (e.g., The Principles of Cartesian Philosophy and The Hebrew Grammar). He also left behind many letters that help to illuminate his ideas and provide some insight into what may have been motivating his views.
  • 3.9K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Potato Proteins
About 35-45 % of all soluble potato proteins are fractions of albumin and globulin characterised by high molecular weight in the range of 40-45 kDa and high nutritive value, comparable to proteins of animal origin. They are soluble in water and in water and salt solutions, respectively; these are patatin glycoproteins, with a pIs in the range of 4.8–5.2. The second large group of potato proteins comprise fractions of protease inhibitors with a molecular weight in the range of 7–21 kDa, mostly acid soluble; they are often heat-resistant, showing a wide spectrum of healthpromoting effects, such as antimicrobial or antitumor, as well as antioxidant and antiradical. Properties of potato proteins depend strictly on the method of isolation and the applied factors, such as pH, ionic strength and temperature.
  • 3.9K
  • 26 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Water Cooler
A water cooler or water dispenser is a device that cools and dispenses water. Water coolers come in a variety of form factors, ranging from wall-mounted to bottle filler water cooler combination units, to bi-level units and other formats. They are generally broken up in two categories: point-of use (POU) water coolers and bottled water coolers. POU Water coolers are connected to a water supply, while bottled water coolers require delivery (or self-pick-up) of water in large bottles from vendors. Bottled water coolers can be top-mounted or bottom-loaded, depending on the design of the model. Bottled water coolers typically use 5 or 10-gallon dispensers commonly found on top of the unit. Pressure coolers are a subcategory of water coolers encompassing water fountains and direct-piping water dispensers. Water cooler may also refer to a primitive device for keeping water cool. Water coolers are a common metonym referring to workplace socialization.
  • 3.9K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Bladder Cancer Biomarkers
The high occurrence of bladder cancer and its tendency to recur combined with lifelong surveillance make the treatment of superficial bladder cancer one of the most expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, carcinoma in situ often leads to muscle invasion with an unfavourable prognosis. Currently, invasive methods including cystoscopy and cytology remain a gold standard. The aim is to find biomarkers with the best specificity and sensitivity, allowing the treatment plan to optimise and have potential applications in clinical practice. Such non-invasive methods can be measure in human body fluids, for example, urine or serum: Cytokeratin fragments (CYFRA 21.1), Excision Repair Cross-Complementation 1 (ERCC1), Tumour Protein p53 (Tp53), Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 3 (FGFR3), Tumor-Associated Trypsin Inhibitor (TATI).
  • 3.9K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Epidemiology of Plague
Globally about 600 cases of plague are reported a year. In 2017 and November 2019 the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar , and Peru. Local outbreaks of the plague are grouped into three plague pandemics, whereby the respective start and end dates and the assignment of some outbreaks to either pandemic are still subject to discussion. The pandemics were: However, the late medieval Black Death (roughly 1331 to 1353) is sometimes seen not as the start of the second, but as the end of the first pandemic – in that case, the first pandemic ended in around 1353, and the second pandemic's start would be about 1361. Also various end dates of the second pandemic are given in the literature, ranging from about 1840 to 1890.
  • 3.9K
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Phlegm Syndrome
Phlegm is defined as a viscous and turbid pathological factor that is formed due to an imbalance in body fluid in traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM) and accumulates in certain parts of the body as the form of condensation.
  • 3.9K
  • 12 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Sport Tourism
We define participatory sport event tourism as travel behavior in which people use leisure time to go to a destination to achieve the purpose of participating in sport events and obtain unique experiences. The tourism process integrates competition, entertainment, experience, health benefits, among others.
  • 3.9K
  • 11 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Greek Old Calendarists
Greek Old Calendarists (Greek: Παλαιοημερολογίτες, Paleoimerologites), sometimes abbreviated as GOC ("Genuine Orthodox Christians"), are groups of Old Calendarist Orthodox Christians that remained committed to the traditional Orthodox practice and are not in communion with many other Orthodox churches such as the Orthodox Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, or the Church of Cyprus. The split began with a disagreement over the abandonment of the traditional church calendar (also called the Julian calendar) in preference to the adoption of the Revised Julian calendar which is similar to the papal Gregorian calendar but will pull ahead by one day in the year 2800 and over other liturgical reforms that were introduced.
  • 3.9K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Interfacial Polymerization Techniques for TFC/TFN
Here, we review various novel/modified interfacial polymerization (IP) techniques for the fabrication of polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC)/thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes in both pressure-driven and osmotically driven separation processes. Although conventional IP technique is the dominant technology for the fabrication of commercial nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, it is plagued with issues of low membrane permeability, relatively thick PA layer and susceptibility to fouling, which limit the performance. Over the past decade, we have seen a significant growth in scientific publications related to the novel/modified IP techniques used in fabricating advanced PA-TFC/TFN membranes for various water applications. Novel/modified IP lab-scale studies have consistently, so far, yielded promising results compared to membranes made by conventional IP technique, in terms of better filtration efficiency (increased permeability without compensating solute rejection), improved chemical properties (crosslinking degree), reduced surface roughness and the perfect embedment of nanomaterials within selective layers. Furthermore, several new IP techniques can precisely control the thickness of the PA layer at sub-10 nm and significantly reduce the usage of chemicals.
  • 3.9K
  • 09 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Assessment of Gastrointestinal Autonomic Dysfunction
The autonomic nervous system delicately regulates the function of several target organs, including the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, nerve lesions or other nerve pathologies may cause autonomic dysfunction (AD). Some of the most common causes of AD are diabetes mellitus and α-synucleinopathies such as Parkinson’s disease. Widespread dysmotility throughout the gastrointestinal tract is a common finding in AD, but no commercially available method exists for direct verification of enteric dysfunction. Thus, assessing segmental enteric physiological function is recommended to aid diagnostics and guide treatment.
  • 3.9K
  • 24 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Interferometric Fiber Optic Sensors
Due to the improvement of living standards, people’s attention to health has gradually increased. More and more people are willing to spend money and time on health management. The vital signs monitoring system based on fiber optic interferometers, including the design of sensor structures, signal demodulation methods and data analysis. After a large number of trials, the system can achieve long-term stable heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR) and body temperature monitoring, and the collected data can be used for health analysis. Due to the high sensitivity, low cost, and light weight of the interferometric fiber optic sensor, it can be integrated under a mattress or a cushion, which is very suitable for daily use. The system has great application prospects in the field of healthcare. 
  • 3.9K
  • 26 Jan 2022
Topic Review
The Swimming Mode of Fish
Starting from the morphological function of fish, there are many swimming modes of fish in nature, the most authoritative classification of which, based on the organ of propulsion, was first proposed by Breder and Webb. There are two main categories of propulsion methods, body caudal fin (BCF) propulsion and median paired fin (MPF) propulsion. In 1978, Lindsey classified the different families of fish species according to their mode of propulsion, which provided the essential foundation for the improvement of the overall performance of undulating propulsion biomimetic robots.
  • 3.9K
  • 05 Sep 2023
Topic Review
1994 Scotland RAF Chinook Crash
On 2 June 1994, a Chinook helicopter of the Royal Air Force (RAF), serial number ZD576, crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, in foggy conditions. The crash resulted in the deaths of all twenty-five passengers and four crew on board. Among the passengers were almost all the United Kingdom's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. The accident is the RAF's worst peacetime disaster. In 1995, an RAF board of inquiry ruled that it was impossible to establish the exact cause of the accident. This ruling was subsequently overturned by two senior reviewing officers, who stated the pilots were guilty of gross negligence for flying too fast and too low in thick fog. This finding proved to be controversial, especially in light of irregularities and technical issues surrounding the then-new Chinook HC.2 variant which were uncovered. A Parliamentary inquiry conducted in 2001 found the previous verdict of gross negligence on the part of the crew to be 'unjustified'. In 2011, an independent review of the crash cleared the crew of negligence.
  • 3.9K
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Evaluation of Externalities of Highway Infrastructures
Various externalities caused by highway infrastructures, such as promoting economic development, traffic congestion, and air pollution, are becoming more and more important. Currently, there is no multi-dimensional quantitative evaluation of the externalities of highway infrastructures, hindering the sustainable planning and development of highway infrastructures. A summary of the status of the evaluation of the externalities of highway infrastructures is from four perspectives: social evaluation, economic evaluation, ecological evaluation, and comprehensive evaluation.
  • 3.9K
  • 11 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Monotremata
Monotremes (/ˈmɒnətriːmz/) are prototherian mammals of the order Monotremata. They are one of the three groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria). Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other body parts compared to the more common mammalian types. In addition, they lay eggs rather than bearing live young, but, like all mammals, the female monotremes nurse their young with milk. Monotremes have been considered members of Australosphenida, a clade which contains extinct mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Madagascar, South America and Australia, though this is disputed. The only surviving examples of monotremes are all indigenous to Australia and New Guinea although there is evidence that they were once more widespread, as Monotrematum is known from the Paleocene of South America. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and four species of echidnas. There is currently some debate regarding monotreme taxonomy. The name monotreme derives from the Greek words μονός (monós 'single') and τρῆμα (trêma 'hole'), referring to the cloaca.
  • 3.9K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Detection and Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19
Latest weeks the humanity is faced with the spread of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 that causes a respiratory illness with high mortality rates, COVID-19. Since there is no approved treatment or vaccination against that specific coronavirus the reduce in virus spread is essential. That is based in the use of appropriate tools, enabling the accurate and early detection. Molecular biology and immunological techniques are widely used in order to predict the COVID-19 cases in a very short period of time. These are commonly based either in identification of the SARS-CoV-2’s genetic material or in detection of antibodies that have been produced by the immune system against the virus. Many of the above mentioned tests have been validated and approved by local authorities. However, there are much more companies that provide detection tests, without basic validation processes, contributing in non-precise data. The present review aim to analyze the most common platforms that are used in COVID-19 detection, analyzing their advantages and weaknesses. Therefore, each physician will be equipped with appropriate information required for each test.
  • 3.9K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
L-Twin
A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longitudinally), V-twin engines have also been used for industrial engines and in several small cars. The V-twin design dates back to the late 1880s.
  • 3.9K
  • 28 Nov 2022
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