Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.: A Promising Pharmaceutical Resource for Multiple Diseases.

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) is widely distributed in the desert areas of the world. The fruit bodies of C. colocynthis are recognized for their wide range of nutraceutical potential, as well as medicinal and pharmaceutical uses. The plant has been reported for various uses, such as asthma, bronchitis, cancer, colic, common cold, cough, diabetes, dysentery, and jaundice. The fruit has been extensively studied for its biological activities, which include insecticide, antitumor, and antidiabetic effects. Numerous bioactive compounds have been reported in its fruit bodies, such as essential oils, fatty acids, glycosides, alkaloids, and flavonoids. Of these, flavonoids or caffeic acid derivatives are the constituents associated with the inhibition of fungal or bacterial growth, whereas eudesmane sesquiterpenes or sesquiterpene lactones are most active against insects, mites, and nematodes. In this review, the scientific evidence for the biological activity of C. colocynthis against insecticide, cytotoxic, and antidiabetic effects is summarized.

Time to Step Up Conservation: Climate Change Will Further Reduce the Suitable Habitats for the Vulnerable Species Marbled Polecat (Vormela peregusna).

Habitat loss and human threats are putting the marbled polecat (Vormela peregusna) on the brink of extinction. Numerous recent studies have found that climate change will further deteriorate the living environment of endangered species, leading to their eventual extinction. In this study, we used the results of infrared camera surveys in China and worldwide distribution data to construct an ensemble model consisting of 10 commonly used ecological niche models to specify potential suitable habitat areas for V. peregusna under current conditions with similar environments to the sighting record sites. Changes in the suitable habitat for V. peregusna under future climate change scenarios were simulated using mid-century (2050s) and the end of the century (2090s) climate scenarios provided by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). We evaluated the accuracy of the model to obtain the environmental probability values (cutoff) of the V. peregusna distribution, the current distribution of suitable habitats, and future changes in moderately and highly suitable habitat areas. The results showed that the general linear model (GLM) was the best single model for predicting suitable habitats for V. peregusna, and the kappa coefficient, area under the curve (AUC), and true skill statistic (TSS) of the ensemble model all exceeded 0.9, reflecting greater accuracy and stability than single models. Under the current conditions, the area of suitable habitat for V. peregusna reached 3935.92 × 104 km2, suggesting a wide distribution range. In the future, climate change is predicted to severely affect the distribution of V. peregusna and substantially reduce the area of suitable habitats for the species, with 11.91 to 33.55% of moderately and highly suitable habitat areas no longer suitable for the survival of V. peregusna. This shift poses an extremely serious challenge to the conservation of this species. We suggest that attention be given to this problem in Europe, especially the countries surrounding the Black Sea, Asia, China, and Mongolia, and that measures be taken, such as regular monitoring and designating protected areas for the conservation of vulnerable animals.

Mode selection in InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well photonic crystal lasers based on coupled double-heterostructure cavities.

Photonic crystal lasers with a high-Q factor and small mode volume are ideal light sources for on-chip nano-photonic integration. Due to the submicron size of their active region, it is usually difficult to achieve high output power and single-mode lasing at the same time. In this work, we demonstrate well-selected single-mode lasing in a line-defect photonic crystal cavity by coupling it to the high-Q modes of a short double-heterostructure photonic crystal cavity. One of the FP-like modes of the line-defect cavity can be selected to lase by thermo-optically tuning the high-Q mode of the short cavity into resonance. Six FP-like modes are successively tuned into lasing with side mode suppression ratios all exceeding 15 dB. Furthermore, we show a continuous wavelength tunability of about 10 nm from all the selected modes. The coupled cavity system provides a remarkable platform to explore the rich laser physics through the spatial modulation of vacuum electromagnetic field at submicron scale.

Prediction of the potential distribution pattern of the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) under climate change based on ensemble modelling.

BACKGROUND: Rodent infestation is a global biological problem. Rodents are widely distributed worldwide, cause harm to agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry production and spread a variety of natural focal diseases. In this study, 10 ecological niche models were combined into an ensemble model to assess the distribution of suitable habitats for Rhombomys opimus and to predict the impact of future climate change on the distribution of R. opimus under low, medium and high socioeconomic pathway scenarios of CMIP6. RESULTS: In general, with the exception of extreme climates (2090-SSP585), the current and potential future ranges of R. opimus habitat are maintained at approximately 220 × 104 km2 . In combination with human footprint data, the potential distribution area of R. opimus was found to coincide with areas with a moderate human footprint. In addition, this distribution area will gradually shift to higher-latitude regions, and the suitable habitat area of R. opimus will gradually shrink in China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan while increasing in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. CONCLUSIONS: These results help identify the impact of climate change on the potential distribution of R. opimus and provide supportive information for the development of management strategies to protect against future ecological and human health risks. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

PT symmetric single-mode line-defect photonic crystal lasers with asymmetric loss design.

The exploration of parity-time (PT) symmetry in micro-/nano-cavity lasers has recently gained immense research interest. The PT symmetric phase transition to single-mode lasing has been achieved by arranging the spatial distribution of optical gain and loss in single or coupled cavity systems. In terms of photonic crystal (PhC) lasers, a non-uniform pumping scheme is usually employed to enter the PT symmetry-breaking phase in a longitudinal PT symmetric system. Instead, we use a uniform pumping scheme to enable the PT symmetric transition to the desired single lasing mode in line-defect PhC cavities based on a simple design with asymmetric optical loss. The flexible control of gain-loss contrast is realized by removing a few rows of air holes in PhCs. We obtain single-mode lasing with a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of around 30 dB without affecting the threshold pump power and linewidth. The output power of the desired mode is six times higher than that in multimode lasing. This simple approach enables single-mode PhC lasers without sacrificing the output power, threshold pump power, and linewidth of a multimode cavity design.

Using Computer Vision to Automate Hand Detection and Tracking of Surgeon Movements in Videos of Open Surgery.

Open, or non-laparoscopic surgery, represents the vast majority of all operating room procedures, but few tools exist to objectively evaluate these techniques at scale. Current efforts involve human expert-based visual assessment. We leverage advances in computer vision to introduce an automated approach to video analysis of surgical execution. A state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architecture for object detection was used to detect operating hands in open surgery videos. Automated assessment was expanded by combining model predictions with a fast object tracker to enable surgeon-specific hand tracking. To train our model, we used publicly available videos of open surgery from YouTube and annotated these with spatial bounding boxes of operating hands. Our model's spatial detections of operating hands significantly outperforms the detections achieved using pre-existing hand-detection datasets, and allow for insights into intra-operative movement patterns and economy of motion.

Arsenic and fluoride exposure in drinking water: children's IQ and growth in Shanyin county, Shanxi province, China.

BACKGROUND: Recently, in a cross-sectional study of 201 children in Araihazar, Bangladesh, exposure to arsenic (As) in drinking water has been shown to lower the scores on tests that measure children's intellectual function before and after adjustment for sociodemographic features. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of As and fluoride exposure on children's intelligence and growth. METHODS: We report the results of a study of 720 children between 8 and 12 years of age in rural villages in Shanyin county, Shanxi province, China. The children were exposed to As at concentrations of 142 +/- 106 microg/L (medium-As group) and 190 +/- 183 microg/L (high-As group) in drinking water compared with the control group that was exposed to low concentrations of As (2 +/- 3 microg/L) and low concentrations of fluoride (0.5 +/- 0.2 mg/L). A study group of children exposed to high concentrations of fluoride (8.3 +/- 1.9 mg/L) but low concentrations of As (3 +/- 3 microg/L) was also included because of the common occurrence of elevated concentrations of fluoride in groundwater in our study area. A standardized IQ (intelligence quotient) test was modified for children in rural China and was based on the classic Raven's test used to determine the effects of these exposures on children's intelligence. A standardized measurement procedure for weight, height, chest circumference, and lung capacity was used to determine the effects of these exposures on children's growth. RESULTS: The mean IQ scores decreased from 105 +/- 15 for the control group, to 101 +/- 16 for the medium-As group (p < 0.05), and to 95 +/- 17 for the high-As group (p < 0.01). The mean IQ score for the high-fluoride group was 101 +/- 16 and significantly different from that of the control group (p < 0.05). Children in the control group were taller than those in the high-fluoride group (p < 0.05); weighed more than the those in the high-As group (p < 0.05); and had higher lung capacity than those in the medium-As group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children's intelligence and growth can be affected by high concentrations of As or fluoride. The IQ scores of the children in the high-As group were the lowest among the four groups we investigated. It is more significant that high concentrations of As affect children's intelligence. It indicates that arsenic exposure can affect children's intelligence and growth.

Studies on exposure status of inhabitants to water-arsenic valence states in areas with endemic arsenism in the Datong basin in Shanxi.

This study aimed to describe the distribution of water-arsenic (As) valence states and its relationship to areas with endemic arsenism in the Datong basin. Drinking water samples of patients with endemic arsenism and a control group were examined using hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS). We analyzed the data using SPSS10.0 for Windows. The As(III)/As ratio was 52.1% in the water sample, exceeding the national standard of 0.05 mg/L. The As(III)/As ratio significantly varied among the different stages in the disease-state groups, and with the control group (χ (2) = 22.4, P<0.01). The As(III)/As(V) ratio significantly varied in the four groups (χ (2) = 26.19, P<0.01), with a tendency to increase along with the seriousness of the disease state. The most common type of drinking water arsenic valence state was As(III) in the endemic disease-areas. Endemic arsenism was positively correlated with As(III). This led us to conclude that the fraction of each water-arsenic valence state should be studied when determining the arsenic content of drinking water.