An Action Research for Designing and Implementing an EFL Communicative and Task Based -gn in a Group of 17-25-year-old Students

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Enzymatic treatment shapes in vitro digestion pattern of phenolic compounds in mulberry juice

The health benefits of mulberry fruit are closely associated with its phenolic compounds. However, the effects of enzymatic treatments on the digestion patterns of these compounds in mulberry juice remain largely unknown. This study investigated the impact of pectinase (PE), pectin lyase (PL), and cellulase (CE) on the release of phenolic compounds in whole mulberry juice. The digestion patterns were further evaluated using an in vitro simulated digestion model. The results revealed that PE significantly increased chlorogenic acid content by 77.8 %, PL enhanced cyanidin-3-O-glucoside by 20.5 %, and CE boosted quercetin by 44.5 %. Following in vitro digestion, the phenolic compound levels decreased differently depending on the treatment, while cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside content increased across all groups. In conclusion, the selected enzymes effectively promoted the release of phenolic compounds in mulberry juice. However, during gastrointestinal digestion, the degradation of phenolic compounds surpassed their enhanced release, with effects varying based on the compound's structure.

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Peihuan Luo mail , Jian Ai mail , Qiongyao Wang mail , Yihang Lou mail , Zhiwei Liao mail , Francesca Giampieri mail francesca.giampieri@uneatlantico.es, Maurizio Battino mail maurizio.battino@uneatlantico.es, Elwira Sieniawska mail , Weibin Bai mail , Lingmin Tian mail ,

Luo

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Effects of strength training with free weights and elastic resistance in older adults: A randomised clinical study

Background The aging process leads to negative changes in various bodily systems, including the neuromuscular system. Strength training, is considered the best strategy to counteract these neuromuscular changes, preventing sarcopenia and frailty in older adults. Objective To compare the effects of strength training with elastic resistance and free weights on the muscle strength of knee extensors and flexors and functional performance in the older adults. Methods This was a randomised clinical study. Thirty-one participants of both sexes were allocated randomly into two groups: Training Group Free Weight (TGFW, n = 15) and Training Group with Elastic Resistance (TGER, n = 16). Two individuals were excluded and so, twenty-nine individuals were evaluated before and after eight weeks training protocol, which was performed three times a week. The determination of the training load was obtained using a protocol of 10 repetitions maximum. Results No significant differences were found in either the intra- or the inter-group comparisons, on functional performance and peak muscle strength. In the intra-groups (pre- and post-strength training), it was observed that both groups significantly increased the training load (10 RM) for the extensors (TGFW p = 0.0002; TGER p = 0.0001) and the knee flexors (TGFW p = 0.006; TGER p = 0.0001). Conclusion Both training protocols similarly were effective in increasing the training load observed by the 10 RM test of the extension and flexion movements of the knee.

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Rafaela Zanin Ferreira mail , Antonio Felipe Souza Gomes mail , Marco Antonio Ferreira Baldim mail , Ricardo Silva Alves mail , Leonardo César Carvalho mail , Adriano Prado Simão mail ,

Ferreira

<a href="/15983/1/Food%20Science%20%20%20Nutrition%20-%202025%20-%20Tanveer%20-%20Novel%20Transfer%20Learning%20Approach%20for%20Detecting%20Infected%20and%20Healthy%20Maize%20Crop.pdf" class="ep_document_link"><img class="ep_doc_icon" alt="[img]" src="/style/images/fileicons/text.png" border="0"/></a>

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Novel Transfer Learning Approach for Detecting Infected and Healthy Maize Crop Using Leaf Images

Maize is a staple crop worldwide, essential for food security, livestock feed, and industrial uses. Its health directly impacts agricultural productivity and economic stability. Effective detection of maize crop health is crucial for preventing disease spread and ensuring high yields. This study presents VG-GNBNet, an innovative transfer learning model that accurately detects healthy and infected maize crops through a two-step feature extraction process. The proposed model begins by leveraging the visual geometry group (VGG-16) network to extract initial pixel-based spatial features from the crop images. These features are then further refined using the Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB) model and feature decomposition-based matrix factorization mechanism, which generates more informative features for classification purposes. This study incorporates machine learning models to ensure a comprehensive evaluation. By comparing VG-GNBNet's performance against these models, we validate its robustness and accuracy. Integrating deep learning and machine learning techniques allows VG-GNBNet to capitalize on the strengths of both approaches, leading to superior performance. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed VG-GNBNet+GNB model significantly outperforms other models, achieving an impressive accuracy score of 99.85%. This high accuracy highlights the model's potential for practical application in the agricultural sector, where the precise detection of crop health is crucial for effective disease management and yield optimization.

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Muhammad Usama Tanveer mail , Kashif Munir mail , Ali Raza mail , Laith Abualigah mail , Helena Garay mail helena.garay@uneatlantico.es, Luis Eduardo Prado González mail uis.prado@uneatlantico.es, Imran Ashraf mail ,

Tanveer

<a class="ep_document_link" href="/15987/1/s41598-024-83147-3.pdf"><img class="ep_doc_icon" alt="[img]" src="/style/images/fileicons/text.png" border="0"/></a>

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A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution

Steganography is used to hide sensitive types of data including images, audio, text, and videos in an invisible way so that no one can detect it. Image-based steganography is a technique that uses images as a cover media for hiding and transmitting sensitive information over the internet. However, image-based steganography is a challenging task due to transparency, security, computational efficiency, tamper protection, payload, etc. Recently, different image steganography methods have been proposed but most of them have reliability issues. Therefore, to solve this issue, we propose an efficient technique based on the Least Significant Bit (LSB). The LSB substitution method minimizes the error rate in the embedding process and is used to achieve greater reliability. Our proposed image-based steganography algorithm incorporates LSB substitution with Magic Matrix, Multi-Level Encryption Algorithm (MLEA), Secret Key (SK), and transposition, flipping. We performed several experiments and the results show that our proposed technique is efficient and achieves efficient results. We tested a total of 165 different RGB images of various dimensions and sizes of hidden information, using various Quality Assessment Metrics (QAMs); A name of few are; Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC), Image Fidelity (IF), Peak Signal Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Quality Index (QI), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), Mean Square Error (MSE), Entropy, Contrast, and Homogeneity, Image Histogram (IH). We also conducted a comparative analysis with some existing methods as well as security analysis which showed better results. The achieved result demonstrates significant improvements over the current state-of-the-art methods.

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Shahid Rahman mail , Jamal uddin mail , Hameed Hussain mail , Sabir Shah mail , Abdu Salam mail , Farhan Amin mail , Isabel de la Torre Díez mail , Debora L. Ramírez-Vargas mail debora.ramirez@unini.edu.mx, Julio César Martínez Espinosa mail ulio.martinez@unini.edu.mx,

Rahman

<a class="ep_document_link" href="/16011/1/sports-13-00007.pdf"><img class="ep_doc_icon" alt="[img]" src="/style/images/fileicons/text.png" border="0"/></a>

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External Load Variability in Elite Futsal: Positional Demands and Microcycle Structuring for Player Well-Being and Performance

The aim of this study was to compare the external load of each session along competitive microcycles on an elite futsal team, considering the positions and relationships of the players. The external load of 10 elite players from a First Division team in the Spanish Futsal League (age 27.5 ± 7 years, height 1.73 ± 0.05 m, weight 70.1 ± 3.8 kg) were recorded across 30 microcycles. The players’ external loads were monitored using OLIVER devices. To analyse the external load, Levene’s test was conducted to assess the homogeneity of variances, followed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify differences in dependent variables across the different microcycle days and player positions. Regarding external load during the microcycle, the day with the lowest external load was MD-1, and the days with the highest external load were MD-3 and MD-4. In addition, considering playing positions, pivots exhibited the lowest loads throughout the microcycle, whereas wingers and defenders exhibited the highest loads, depending on the variables analysed. By providing reference values from elite contexts, this study offers practical insights for S&C coaches to optimize microcycles. Furthermore, it contributes to workload management strategies within sport science and public health frameworks, promoting sustainable performance and athlete wellness in futsal.

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Héctor Gadea-Uribarri mail , Elena Mainer-Pardos mail , Ainhoa Bores Arce mail ainhoa.bores@uneatlantico.es, Rafael Albalad-Aiguabella mail , Sergio López-García mail , Carlos Lago-Fuentes mail carlos.lago@uneatlantico.es,

Gadea-Uribarri