Contemporary strategies and approaches for characterizing composition and enhancing biofilm penetration targeting bacterial extracellular polymeric substances

Extracellular polymeric substances(EPS)constitutes crucial elements within bacterial biofilms,facili-tating accelerated antimicrobial resistance and conferring defense against the host's immune cells.Developing precise and effective antibiofilm approaches and strategies,tailored to the specific charac-teristics of EPS composition,can offer valuable insights for the creation of novel antimicrobial drugs.This,in turn,holds the potential to mitigate the alarming issue of bacterial drug resistance.Current analysis of EPS compositions relies heavily on colorimetric approaches with a significant bias,which is likely due to the selection of a standard compound and the cross-interference of various EPS compounds.Considering the pivotal role of EPS in biofilm functionality,it is imperative for EPS research to delve deeper into the analysis of intricate compositions,moving beyond the current focus on polymeric materials.This ne-cessitates a shift from heavy reliance on colorimetric analytic methods to more comprehensive and nuanced analytical approaches.In this study,we have provided a comprehensive summary of existing analytical methods utilized in the characterization of EPS compositions.Additionally,novel strategies aimed at targeting EPS to enhance biofilm penetration were explored,with a specific focus on high-lighting the limitations associated with colorimetric methods.Furthermore,we have outlined the challenges faced in identifying additional components of EPS and propose a prospective research plan to address these challenges.This review has the potential to guide future researchers in the search for novel compounds capable of suppressing EPS,thereby inhibiting biofilm formation.This insight opens up a new avenue for exploration within this research domain.

Exploring Ester Prodrugs: A Comprehensive Review of Approaches, Applications, and Methods

The review provides an overview of the approaches, applications, and methods for ester prodrugs. Ester prodrugs are pharmacologically inactive compounds in their original form but become active drugs on biotransformation within the body, which offers advantages concerning the solubility, stability, and targeted delivery of the active drug. Several approaches of ester prodrugs have been reviewed in this review, including simple ester prodrugs, amino acid ester prodrugs, sugar ester prodrugs, lipid ester prodrugs, and polymeric ester prodrugs. This review incorporates in vitro and in vivo methods as well as the characterization of physical and chemical properties for ester prodrugs, cell culture systems, enzymatic assays, and animal models—all of these having a very important bearing on the evaluation of stability, bioavailability, and efficacy for ester prodrugs. While the benefits of using ester prodrugs are significant, there are also disadvantages like instability, poor or variable enzymatic hydrolysis, and toxicity from released promoieties or by-products. This review discusses solutions to the various limitations that include enhancing stability with ionizable promoieties and using physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling. The review also highlights the application of ester prodrugs in neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, and the ongoing efforts to address the critical limitations in treatment efficacy. Future prodrug strategies are poised to advance significantly by harnessing diverse transport mechanisms across the blood-brain barrier and integrating nanotechnology.

Gastrointestinal tuberculosis:Diagnostic approaches for this uncommon pathology

A case report entitled“Primary gastroduodenal tuberculosis presenting as gastric outlet obstruction”recently published in the World Journal of Clinical Cases presented a rare cause of gastric outlet obstruction and highlighted the atypical manner in which gastrointestinal tuberculosis(TB)can present.The literature with regards to this rare pathology is limited to case reports and case series with the largest being published using data from between 2003 and 2013.However,since then the diagnostic tools available have significantly changed with more modern and increasingly accurate tests now available.This editorial reviews the current state of the art with regards to diagnosis in gastrointestinal TB.

Enhancing perianal disease management with integrated physical and psychological approaches

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the study by Hou et al,focusing on the complex interplay between psychological and physical factors in the postoperative recovery(POR)of patients with perianal diseases.The study sheds light on how illness perception,anxiety,and depression significantly influence recovery outcomes.Hou et al developed a predictive model that demonstrated high accuracy in identifying patients at risk of poor recovery.The article explores the critical role of pre-operative psychological assessment,highlighting the need for mental health support and personalized recovery plans in enhancing POR quality.A multidisciplinary approach,integrating mental health professionals with surgeons,anesthesiologists,and other specialists,is emphasized to ensure comprehensive care for patients.The study’s findings serve as a call to integrate psychological care into surgical practice to optimize outcomes for patients with perianal diseases.

Optimizing a Transportation System Using Metaheuristics Approaches (EGD/GA/ACO): A Forest Vehicle Routing Case Study

The large-scale optimization problem requires some optimization techniques, and the Metaheuristics approach is highly useful for solving difficult optimization problems in practice. The purpose of the research is to optimize the transportation system with the help of this approach. We selected forest vehicle routing data as the case study to minimize the total cost and the distance of the forest transportation system. Matlab software helps us find the best solution for this case by applying three algorithms of Metaheuristics: Genetic Algorithm (GA), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), and Extended Great Deluge (EGD). The results show that GA, compared to ACO and EGD, provides the best solution for the cost and the length of our case study. EGD is the second preferred approach, and ACO offers the last solution.

Towards Innovative Research Approaches to Investigating the Role of Emotional Variables in Promoting Language Teachers’ and Learners’ Mental Health

The adequacy of language education largely depends on the favorable and unfavorable emotions that teachers and students experience throughout the education process.Simply said,emotional factors play a key role in improving the quality of language teaching and learning.Furthermore,these emotional factors also promote the well-being of language teachers and learners and place them in a suitable mental condition.In view of the favorable impact of emotional factors on the mental health of language teachers and learners,many educational scholars around the world have studied these factors,their background,and their pedagogical consequences.Nonetheless,the majority of previous studies have employed traditional research methods in assessing these variables and their influences on language teachers’and learners’mental health.Because of the complex and dynamic quality of emotional factors,traditional research approaches often fail to evaluate these factors and their dynamic,non-linear connections with teachers’and learners’mental health and well-being.Accordingly,some novel research approaches are required to measure the dynamicity and complexity of emotional factors in language education settings.To address this call,the current state-of-the-art conceptual article seeks to provide new insights for investigating emotional factors and their potential impact on language teachers’and learners’mental states.This study also intends to offer a comprehensive list of emerging methods that take into account the complex and dynamic nature of emotional variables.Finally,the study outlines the potential implications of this review for educational researchers.

Colon cancer and their targeting approaches through nanocarriers:A review

Colon cancer is the fifth most common type of cancer in the world.Colon cancer develops when healthy cells in the lining of the colon or rectum alter and grow uncontrollably to form a mass known as a tumor.Despite major medical improvements,colon cancer is still one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality globally.One of the main issues of chemotherapy is toxicity related to conventional medicines.The targeted delivery systems are considered the safest and most effective by increasing the concentration of a therapeutic substance at the tumor site while decreasing it at other organs.Therefore,these delivery systems required lower doses for high therapeutic value with minimum side effects.The current review focuses on targeting therapeutic substances at the desired site using nanocarriers.Additionally,the diagnostic applications of nanocarriers in colorectal cancer are also discussed.

Organic cathode materials for rechargeable magnesium-ion batteries:Fundamentals, recent advances, and approaches to optimization

Rechargeable magnesium-ion batteries(MIBs) are favorable substitutes for conventional lithium-ion batteries(LIBs) because of abundant magnesium reserves, a high theoretical energy density, and great inherent safety. Organic electrode materials with excellent structural tunability,unique coordination reaction mechanisms, and environmental friendliness offer great potential to promote the electrochemical performance of MIBs. However, research on organic magnesium battery cathode materials is still preliminary with many significant challenges to be resolved including low electrical conductivity and unwanted but severe dissolution in useful electrolytes. Herein, we provide a detailed overview of reported organic cathode materials for MIBs. We begin with basic properties such as charge storage mechanisms(e.g., n-, p-, and bipolartype), moving to recent advances in various types of organic cathodes including carbonyl-, nitrogen-, and sulfur-based materials. To shed light on the diverse strategies targeting high-performance Mg-organic batteries, elaborate summaries of various approaches are presented.Generally, these strategies include molecular design, polymerization, mixing with carbon, nanosizing and electrolyte/separator optimization.This review provides insights on exploring high-performance organic cathodes in rechargeable MIBs.

Asymmetric relationship between global and national factors and domestic food prices:evidence from Turkey with novel nonlinear approaches

This study investigates the asymmetric relationship between global and national fac-tors and domestic food prices in Turkey,considering the recent rapid and continuous increase in domestic food prices.In this context,six global and three national explana-tory variables were included,and monthly data for the period from January 2004 to June 2021 were used.In addition,novel nonlinear time-series econometric approaches,such as wavelet coherence,Granger causality in quantiles,and quantile-on-quantile regression,were applied for examination at different times,frequencies,and quan-tiles.Moreover,the Toda-Yamamoto(TY)causality test and quantile regression(QR)approach were used for robustness checks.The empirical results revealed that(i)there is a significant relationship between domestic food prices and explanatory variables at different times and frequencies;(ii)a causal relationship exists in most quantiles,excluding the lowest quantile,some middle quantiles,and the highest quantile for some variables;(iii)the power of the effect of the explanatory variables on domestic food prices varies according to the quantiles;and(iv)the results were validated by the TY causality test and QR,which show that the results were robust.Overall,the empiri-cal results reveal that global and national factors have an asymmetric relationship with domestic food prices,highlighting the effects of fluctuations in global and national variables on domestic food prices.Thus,the results imply that Turkish policymakers should consider the asymmetric effects of global and national factors on domestic food prices at different times,frequencies,and quantiles.

Analysis of the Impact of Optimal Solutions to the Transportation Problems for Variations in Cost Using Two Reliable Approaches

In this paper, we have used two reliable approaches (theorems) to find the optimal solutions to transportation problems, using variations in costs. In real-life scenarios, transportation costs can fluctuate due to different factors. Finding optimal solutions to the transportation problem in the context of variations in cost is vital for ensuring cost efficiency, resource allocation, customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, environmental responsibility, risk mitigation, and operational fortitude in practical situations. This paper opens up new directions for the solution of transportation problems by introducing two key theorems. By using these theorems, we can develop an algorithm for identifying the optimal solution attributes and permitting accurate quantification of changes in overall transportation costs through the addition or subtraction of constants to specific rows or columns, as well as multiplication by constants inside the cost matrix. It is anticipated that the two reliable techniques presented in this study will provide theoretical insights and practical solutions to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of transportation systems. Finally, numerical illustrations are presented to verify the proposed approaches.

Effect of two surgical approaches on the lung function and prognosis of patients with combined esophagogastric cancer

BACKGROUND Adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction has a center of origin within 5 cm of the esophagogastric junction.Surgical resection remains the main treatment.A transthoracic approach is recommended for Siewert I adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction and a transabdominal approach is recommended for Siewert III adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction.However,there is a need to determine the optimal surgical approach for Siewert II adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction to improve lung function and the prognosis of patients.AIM To investigate and compare the surgical effects,postoperative changes in pulmonary function,and prognoses of two approaches to treating combined esophagogastric cancer.METHODS One hundred and thirty-eight patients with combined esophagogastric cancer treated by general and thoracic surgeries in our hospital were selected.They were divided into group A comprising 70 patients(transabdominal approach)and group B comprising 68 patients(transthoracic approach)based on the surgical approach.The indexes related to surgical trauma,number of removed lymph nodes,indexes of lung function before and after surgery,survival rate,and survival duration of the two groups were compared 3 years after surgery.RESULTS The duration of surgery,length of hospital stay,and postoperative drainage duration of the patients in group A were shorter than those of the patients in group B,and the volume of blood loss caused by surgery was lower for group A than for group B(P<0.05).At the one-month postoperative review,the first second,maximum ventilation volume,forceful lung volume,and lung volume values were higher for group A than for group B(P<0.05).Preoperatively,the QLQ-OES18 scale scores of the patients in group A were higher than those in group B on re-evaluation at 3 mo postoperatively(P<0.05).The surgical complication rate of the patients in group A was 10.00%,which was lower than that of patients in group B,which was 23.53%(P<0.05).CONCLUSION Transabdominal and transthoracic surgical approaches are comparable in treating combined esophagogastric cancer;however,the former results in lesser surgical trauma,milder changes in pulmonary function,and fewer complications.

A Comparison between Deductive and Inductive Approaches for Teaching EFL Grammar to High School Students

This study had the purpose of testingtwo methods for teaching grammar in Englishasa Foreign Language(EFL)class:the deductive and inductive approaches in terms of effectiveness and rapport.This research was conducted in a public high school in Ecuador.Seventy students enrolled in the second year of senior high school participated.One in-service teacher taught the EFL classes during the process of intervention(10 weeks),and two EFL teachers observed all of these classes and recorded the information by filling in observation sheets.The students were administered grammar pretests and post-tests in order to assess their grammar knowledge.The results of the tests showed a significant difference in the scores in favor of the inductive approach.After the statistical analysis of the data obtained from the tests and observation sheets,we concluded that the inductive approach is more effective for teaching grammar in the EFL classroom in terms of instruction and rapport.

Interactive Approaches in ESL Teaching and Its Application

Traditionally,second language reading was considered as a simple passive decoding process.However,researchers began to study the issue from the psycholinguistic perspectives,and proposed the interactive approach to ESL reading.In this thesis,a brief review is made concerning the related theories.Some strategies are suggested to improve learners’ability in top-down and bottom-up models.Finally,it is pointed out that these two models interact in the reading process,and therefore the teaching methods should also be applied in good combination to improve reading.

Direct Approaches in L2 Instruction:A Turning Point in Communicative Language Teaching?(Ⅰ)

In 1990 Richards argued that there were two major approaches to teaching speaking skills,an indirect approach,"inwhich conversational competence is seen as the product of engaging learners in conversational interaction"(p.76),and a direct approach,which"6involvesplanninga conversational programme around the specific micro skills,strategies,and processes that are involved in fluent conversation"(p.77).

Objectives of and Approaches to Ecological City Construction

It has become a trend of the city development in the world to build up the ecological city with an ecological system that is balanced in structure,high-efficient in service function.Taking Suzhou as a case,the authors believe that the construction of an ecological city is a process of the progressive and well-organized systematic development and of the ecological function consummation,which will require five stages to complete,including ecological hygiene,ecological security,ecological industry,ecological landscape,and ecological culture.The problems presently encountered in the construction of ecological city in Suzhou can be solved through the following approaches:(1) To rebuild the relationship between man and nature when the planning is worked out;(2) To observe the principle of ecology in city design;(3) To choose the local plant species in city afforestation;(4) To choose those plantlets with vigorous growth,good shape,and high survival rate,observing the growth rule of plant and paying much attention to forest landscape,ecological system and biological diversity,rationally allocating the plant species resources;(5) To aim at the implementation of the less-labor management even the zero-labor management.

Estimating the severity levels of road traffic crashes in Bahrain with crash costs estimated with different approaches

An important issue in analyzing accident blackspots is the estimation of severity levels of different types of accidents.This study aims to estimate the severity level of accidents in Bahrain using crash costs.These crash costs were calculated by the Human Capital Approach(HCA)and total reported costs from the victims.The data was collected from the General Directorate of Traffic,insurance companies,Ministry of Works(MoW)and Ministry of Health.It was found,from the survey responses,that there was no significant effect of victim characteristics on the total cost of the accidents.The severity levels were found to be higher than those found in previous literature or adopted by local authorities which could be attributed to the economic conditions of Bahrain.Moreover,the weights found by both approaches were different from each other.Therefore,it is recommended to use the HCA approach due to its comprehensive calculations involving future costs.

Approaches for Improvement of Competitiveness of Bama Rural Health-caring Tourism from the Deep Perspective of Tourism,China

After analysis of characteristics of Bama rural health-caring tourism,it had highlighted monopolisticness of longevity culture,diversity of tourist resources,and harmony between human and nature.The paper pointed out that,to accelerate new countryside construction of Bama rural health-caring tourism,it should realize nearby employment and increase farmers' income;complete construction of rural basic facilities;ameliorate rural sanitary condition and transform villagers' thought;promote adjustment of rural industrial structure;and establish protection mechanism of longevous people.After survey on development of Bama rural tourism,it concluded bottlenecks restricting Bama rural tourism development,which were that environment at longevity area had suffered pollution;that the development was disordered and lacked of management;and that basic facilities waited for improvement.On this basis,approaches for improvement of competitiveness of Bama health-caring tourism had been proposed.It emphasized that it should enhance protection of longevity tourist resources,build farmhouse inn demonstration base,implement admittance system,establish community health-care system,beneficial to realizing economic,social and ecological benefits,and further manifesting its exuberant vitality.

Low-carbon Landscape Construction Approaches Based on Human Behavior

After the analysis of connotations of human behavior and low-carbon landscape,according to relevant theories of behavioral science and psychology,the internal relation between behavior and lowcarbon landscape has been discussed.They relate to,interact on and are the precondition of each other.Reasonable landscape environment has carried people's expectation for nature,and different landscapes give people different feelings and present to be of different behavior features.Finally,the paper has proposed constructing low-carbon landscape in the perspective of landscape design idea,design methods,construction process and later management,providing a theoretical basis for advocating energy saving and environmental protection,and creating green ecology.

On the Study of Translation Approaches of Culture-loaded Words in Literary Works

Culture-loaded words refer to expressions and idioms that carry typically culture messages. The peculiarity of one culture cannot be understood or accepted by readers from another culture. The uniqueness very likely makes misunderstanding and may lead to cultural vacancy in other cultures. Due to the culture differences between Chinese and English, it is hard for a translator to achieve complete equivalence at the level of word. This paper discusses the translation approaches of Chinese cultureloaded words in literary works.

On the Options of EFL Methodological Approaches

ＯｎｔｈｅＯｐｔｉｏｎｓｏｆＥＦＬＭｅｔｈｏｄｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌＡｐｐｒｏａｃｈｅｓ党金学（西安外国语学院）ＴａｋｉｎｇａｂｏｕｔｔｈｅａｐｐｒｏａｃｈｅｓｔｏｔｅａｃｈｉｎｇＥｎｇｌｉｓｈａｓａｆｏｒｅｉｇｎｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ（ＥＦＬ），ｎｅａｒｌｙｅ...