RS3 encapsulated in calcium alginate beads has a good encapsulation effect, and the content of SDS and RS is greatly increased. This study has important implications for reducing the digestion rate of starch and regulating the health of people with diabetes and obesity.In order to reduce the digestion rate of starch in human body and improve the content of slowly digestible starch (SDS) and resistant starch (RS), millimeter calcium alginate beads encapsulated with different proportions of recrystallized starch were constructed in this study. First, we prepared recrystallized starch (RS3) by debranching waxy corn starch and retrogradation, and then encapsulated RS3 in calcium alginate beads by the ionic gel method. The microstructure of the beads was observed by scanning electron microscope, and the gel texture properties, swelling properties, and in vitro digestibility of the beads were studied. The results showed that the beads after cooking still maintained high hardness and chewiness, and the swelling power and solubility of the beads were lower than that of native starch. Compared with native starch, the content of rapidly digestible starch (RDS) in beads decreased, while the content of SDS and RS increased. The sample with the highest content of RS is RS3 With economic development and the improvement of living standards, diabetes, obesity and the metabolic problems associated with them have become important problems that affect human health. How to reduce energy intake while providing satiety is an urgent issue at present. Starch is an important component of daily energy and the main ingredient of staple food. According to the digestibility of starch in the human body, starch can be divided into rapidly digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS), and resistant starch (RS) . ResistaIn recent years, physically entrapped starch RS1 and retrograded starch RS3 have attracted the interest of researchers. Natural RS1 is ubiquitously expressed in coarsely ground cereals and legume cells. Due to the presence of a dense cell wall barrier on the outside of starch, it has the property of heat resistance .RS3 is formed by recrystallization of starch after gelatinization in the cooling process. The preparation process is relatively easy to control, and there is no safety problem. It is the most promising type of RS. After gelatinization, the starch is fully hydrated and amylose escapes from the starch granules into the solution and randomly curls and winds to form a polymer. During the cooling process, the molecular chain of the polymer re-aggregates through hydrogen bonds to form a double helix structure . The douHigh-temperature treatment disrupts the RS3 double helix crystal structure. When the crystal structure is destroyed, the starch molecules in the free state are more susceptible to hydrolysis by digestive enzymes, so RS3 has the characteristics of heat intolerance. High-temperature treatment can damage the granule structure and degrade starch molecules , resulti2+ infiltrated in the microsphere core forms a dense structure with sodium alginate, and the debranched starch is embedded in the microsphere interior, so that the starch crystallization cannot be easily disrupted and has strong heat resistance [Inspired by native physically entrapped starch and retrograde starch, we found that debranched starch physically entrapped by calcium alginate has heat-resistant and digestion-resistant properties and plays an important role in the future development of functional dietary fibers. Sodium alginate is widely found in brown algae. The carboxyl group on the molecule can quickly cross-link with divalent metal ions, such as calcium ion, under mild conditions to form a dense gel. The gel has good biocompatibility, safety, and non-toxicity, and is widely used in the food field . Calciumsistance . ThroughIn this study, in order to reduce starch digestibility, we combined the preparation methods of RS1 and RS3. First, RS3 was prepared from debranched waxy corn starch, and then it was embedded in calcium alginate so that it could not be contacted by enzymes, thus achieving the effect of anti-digestion . This stWaxy maize starch from Shandong Fuyang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. . Pullulanase  was obtained from Novozymes Investment Limited Company . Medium viscosity sodium alginate and calcium chloride was obtained from Shenggong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. . Glucose oxidase–peroxidase assay kits (GOPOD) were purchased from Megazyme International Ireland Ltd. . All other reagents came from Shenggong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. .m/v) with a concentration of 10%. It was heated in a boiling water bath for 30 min and kept stirring to ensure the starch was fully gelatinized. It was taken down and cooled to 58 °C, and the pullulanase solution was added according to the amount of 30 ASPU/g starch, then the gelatinized starch solution was put into a thermostatic water bath at 58 °C for enzymolysis for 6 h, and the reaction was terminated after taking out and heating at 100 °C for 30 min. After centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 15 min to remove the precipitate, the supernatant was decanted and cooled to room temperature, and then stored in a refrigerator at 4 °C for 12 h for recrystallization. The self-assembled sample was washed several times at low temperature and then freeze-dried to obtain RS3.RS3 was prepared according to the method of Sun et al. . An amouw/v). They are collected in a filter and washed three times with distilled water. The prepared beads were dried in an oven at 45 °C for 24 h to obtain dry beads for subsequent physicochemical property and digestibility tests. The beads were prepared without any pH adjustment. There have been some relevant reports on the preparation of calcium alginate beads, but no research on the embedding of debranched starch by calcium alginate beads has been reported yet.As shown in The morphological characteristics of gel beads were observed by digital camera, ordinary optical microscope, and scanning electron microscope. When observed by scanning electron microscope, the samples were observed after spraying with gold.Texture profile is one of the most important indexes to evaluate food quality. TPA testing was conducted using a texture analyzer . The flat-bottom cylindrical probe P 36R was used to test the fresh beads and the cooked beads. Test conditions: The probe descending speed is 1.0 m/s, the return speed is 1.0 m/s, and the deformation force is 50%. Ten beads were selected for a single test to improve test accuracy. Each sample was tested three times and then averaged ,16.w/w) solution, which was continuously heated at 55 °C, 65 °C, 75 °C, 85 °C, and 95 °C for 30 min, respectively, and gently stirred with a glass rod every 5 min. The starch samples were then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 min, and the supernatant was placed in an oven to dry at 105 °C to a constant weight and weighed to obtain the amount of dissolved starch (A). The swelling power and solubility were calculated in combination with the precipitate slurry weight (B) in the centrifuge tube.The native starch and beads were mixed into a 1.0% /dry basis mass of starch × (100% − soluble carbohydrates as a percentage of dry-based starch), i.e.:4 solution was added to remove excessive lead. The amount of total glucose in the solution was determined using GOPOD, and the total starch content was calculated using the following equation [A sample of 2 g was first weighed, ground and passed through a 40-mesh sieve. The fat in the sample was washed off three times with 30 mL of diethyl ether, and the residue was washed again three times with 150 mL of 85% ethanol to remove soluble sugars. The residue was dissolved with 100 mL of water, and 30 mL of 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid was added and refluxed for 2 h before cooling with flowing water. Methyl red indicator solvent was added, and the sample hydrolysate was adjusted for neutralization by 40% NaOH solution and 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid. Then 20 mL of 20% neutral lead acetate solution was added to precipitate proteins, pectin, and other impurities. Another 20 mL of 10% NaSOequation :(3)TS(%)A is the absorbance of the reagent blank, FV is the final volume of the analyte (mL), and W is the weight (mg) of the sample to be analyzed.ΔEach 200 mg sample was weighed (based on dry starch), 18 mL sodium acetate buffer solution was added (pH 5.20) in a 100 mL conical flask, and the mixture was heated for 30 min at 100 °C. The mixture was cooled to 37 °C, and 2 mL of newly prepared mixed enzyme solution (pancreatin and amyloglucosidase) was added. The process of enzymatic hydrolysis was carried out in a 37 °C constant temperature shaker. At the digestion time of 0, 20, 60, 90, 120, and 180 min, 0.1 mL reaction solution was mixed with 0.9 mL 66% ethanol solution to terminate the reaction. After centrifugation at 4000 rpm/min for 10 min, 0.1 mL of the supernatant was taken and the content of glucose in the supernatant was measured using the GOPOD kit. The contents of RDS, SDS and RS are calculated according to the following formulas :%RDS = .In order to simulate the digestion of the human gastrointestinal tract, a first-order kinetic equation was used to fit the digestion curve of starch. The fitting equation is as follows: −1). The remaining undigested starch after time t (min) is 1 − C [C(%) is the proportion of digested starch to total starch at time t (min) and K is the digestion rate coefficient  was prepared, and then a calcium alginate layer was formed on the surface of RS3 to make calcium-alginate-encapsulated RS3 beads. The results showed that the beads after cooking still maintained high hardness and chewiness, and the swelling power and solubility of the beads are lower than those of starch. Compared with native starch, the content of RDS in the beads decreased, while the content of SDS and RS increased. The sample with the highest content of RS is RS3


The proposed method is effective for clinical application.This study aimed at developing a fully automatic technique for right lobe graft weight estimation using deep learning algorithms. The proposed method consists of segmentation of the full liver region from computed tomography (CT) images, classification of the entire liver region into the right and left lobes, and estimation of the right lobe graft weight from the CT-measured right lobe graft volume using a volume-to-weight conversion formula. The first two steps were performed with a transformer-based deep learning model. To train and evaluate the model, a total of 248 CT datasets  were used. The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), mean surface distance (MSD), and the 95th percentile Hausdorff distance (HD95) were used for evaluating the segmentation accuracy of the full liver region and the right liver lobe. The correlation coefficient (CC), percentage error (PE), and percentage absolute error (PAE) were used for the clinical evaluation of the estimated right lobe graft weight. The proposed method achieved high accuracy in segmentation for DSC, MSD, and HD95  and in clinical evaluation for CC, PE, and PAE . For the right lobe graft weight estimation, the present study underestimated the graft weight by − 1.8% on average. A mean difference of − 21.3 g (95% confidence interval: − 55.7 to 13.1,  Accurate graft weight estimation is vital to the safety of both recipients and donors in LDLT. An appropriately sized graft is essential for the success of LDLT. For the recipient, an inadequate graft could cause small-for-size syndrome10, whereas an excessively large graft could result in large-for-size syndrome11. For the donor, an insufficient remnant liver volume after graft harvest could lead to postoperative liver dysfunction13.Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has become an effective treatment option for patients with end-stage liver disease1 or indirectly using formulas that convert graft volume to graft weight18. Direct estimation of graft weight from graft volume was based on the assumption that the liver has the same density as water20; however, the density of the liver is slightly higher than that of water21. Thus, graft weight directly estimated from graft volume tended to be larger than actual graft weight measured intraoperatively26. The indirect formulas converting graft volume to graft weight can be classified into two groups; one with blood volume included in graft volume16 and the other with blood volume excluded from graft volume18. Formulas from the former group tended to have larger errors than those from the latter group because the graft weight measured intraoperatively excludes the weight of blood1.The right lobe graft weight has been estimated directly from the graft volume measured via computed tomography (CT) volumetry29 or deep learning algorithms30. Then blood vessels, including the hepatic vein and portal vein, are extracted and then excluded from the extracted full liver1. Next, the liver is manually divided into the left and right lobes based on anatomical landmarks14. Lastly, the graft volume is calculated from the divided right lobe. The total processing time is ranged from 1.3 to 8 min14. For example, Park et al. used a commercial software solution which applies a deep learning algorithm for fully automated segmentation of the liver. After they corrected any segmentation errors, they defined the resection plane for the right lobe graft based on the Cantlie line by manually drawing two dividing lines14. The entire process of their method is still not fully automatic due to the manual division of the liver into the left and right lobes. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a deep learning-based fully automatic technique for division of the liver into the left and right lobes for right lobe graft weight estimation and evaluate its performance.Graft volume is commonly measured using commercial software in clinical practice. First, the full liver is extracted from CT images either semi-automatically or fully automatically by conventional machine learning algorithmsThis study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Jeonbuk National University Hospital (IRB No. 2022-08-001). This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and participants’ informed consent was waived by the review board of Jeonbuk National University Hospital due to the retrospective nature of this study. We included 248 patients , with healthy livers at Jeonbuk National University hospital from January 2009 to December 2021. Among them, 228 patients were healthy persons for medical checkup, whereas 20 patients were healthy LDLT donors. The 228 patients for medical checkup were randomly split into 188 patients  and 40 patients  for training and validation of the proposed deep learning technique, respectively. The 20 LDLT donors  were used for test and clinical evaluation of the proposed deep learning technique. All the patients underwent abdominal CT examinations. The LDLT donors had their graft weights measured intraoperatively.CT scans were obtained by a 128-row multidetector CT scanner SOMATOM Definition AS+  using a standard four-phase  contrast enhanced imaging protocol. The resulting CT scans have a slice thickness of 1 mm or 3 mm. CT scans of the delayed phase were used in the present study.31. The classified left and right lobes were used as the ground truth images for the classification of the entire liver region into the left and right lobes. The volume of the segmented liver and that of the classified right lobe were measured using the summation-of-area method32.The ground truth images of the entire liver region and the left and right liver lobes were generated by an expert with more than ten years of experience in abdominal imaging using Dr. Liver , as shown in Fig. The liver graft of each LDLT donor was flushed at the back table with histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate solution  and then trimmed and weighed intraoperatively. The right liver lobes were harvested as liver grafts in the present study.33 was used. The UNETR model consists of a transformer encoder to learn contextual information from the embedded input patches and is connected to a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based decoder through a skip connection to predict the segmentation outputs. The datasets were split into training, validation, and test sets with proportions of 76%, 16%, and 8%, respectively. The CT images were resampled into the isotropic voxel spacing of 1.0 mm and then randomly cropped with volume sizes of 32 × 32 × 32. Data augmentation was applied to the training data with a random flip in axial, sagittal, and coronal views. The UNETR models in the two steps were trained using a workstation with two NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics cards. Both models were trained using the AdamW optimizer34 with an initial learning rate of 0.0001 and a decay rate of 0.00001. The model in the entire liver region segmentation step and that in the classification step were trained for 20,000 iterations and 10,000 iterations, respectively. For both models, the transformer-based encoder includes 12 layers and an embedding size of 768. A patch resolution of 16 × 16 × 16 was used. For post-processing, a 3D connected component method and morphological operations including erosion and dilation were used to improve segmentation results. For all datasets, the erosion operation with a radius of one was performed three times followed by three times of dilation with a radius of one. The parameters of the erosion and dilation operations were determined empirically.As shown in Fig. P) and G (SG), whereas HD measures the maximum surface distance. The three metrics are defined as follows:The segmentation results of the entire liver region and the right lobe were evaluated using the dice similarity coefficient (DSC), the 95th percentile of the Hausdorff Distance (HD95), and the mean surface distance (MSD). The DSC is used to measure the voxel overlap between the prediction (P) and the ground truth (G). The HD and MSD are used to measure the surface-based distance between the surfaces of P  and percentage absolute error . PE is defined as the ratio of the difference between the predicted graft weight and the actual graft weight to the actual graft weight. PAE is the absolute value of PE. Pearson’s correlation test was performed to obtain the coefficient of the correlation between the predicted graft weight and the actual graft weight. The paired t-test was used to test whether or not the predicted graft weight and the actual graft weight differed significantly from each other. All statistical tests were performed using Minitab version 18  at p < 0.05.For the clinical evaluation, a total of 20 donors with CT examinations and graft weights measured intraoperatively  were included. The graft volume from CT volumetry measured using the proposed deep learning method was converted to the graft weight (predicted graft weight) using the formula graft weight = 206.3 + 0.653 × graft volumeThe mean ± standard deviation (SD) values of DSC, MSD, and HD95 for the entire liver region segmentation were 95.9% ± 1.0%, 1.2 ± 0.4 mm, and 5.2 ± 1.9 mm, respectively (Table The mean (± SD) values of DSC, MSD, and HD95 for the segmentation of the right lobe were 92.4% ± 2.7%, 2.0 ± 0.7 mm, and 8.8 ± 2.9 mm, respectively Table . Figure p < 0.001). The paired t-test showed that the predicted graft weight did not significantly differ from the actual graft weight (t(19) = ‒1.29, p = 0.211). Figure The clinical evaluation results are shown in Table 35 . Kwon et al.’s method requires intensive manual intervention for CT volumetry using a commercial medical software application, whereas the proposed method is effective and fully automatic. The high accuracy of the proposed method is due to the high accuracy of the proposed the deep learning method in liver segmentation and left and right lobe classification and the volume-to-weight conversion formula. Furthermore, the exclusion of blood vessels from the segmented liver region contributes to the high accuracy of the proposed method as well because the graft is intraoperatively weighed after the blood in the liver is drained1. For segmentation of the liver, average DSC was 95.9% using the UNETR model in this study. In recent studies38, average DSC was ranged from 93.08 to 95.72% for segmentation of the liver on the Synapse dataset39 using various deep learning-based methods. The UNETR model we used incorporates a transformer encoder and a CNN-based decoder and has been proved to be promising for medical image segmentation33. Liver segmentation is still challenging due to the false inclusion of some organs such as the heart and spleen for some cases where the boundaries between the liver and other organs are severely blurry. For right lobe graft weight estimation, the present study underestimated the graft weight by − 1.8% on average. A mean difference of − 21.3 g  between the estimated graft weight and the actual graft weight was achieved in this study. Recently, Buijk et al. conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis which included 31 studies for comparing estimated graft volume and actual graft weight40. For the right liver graft, they reported that the 31 existing studies overestimated the graft volume by 2.99% on average for manual volumetry. A mean difference of 34.0 g  was obtained for manual volumetry. Through comparison, our deep learning-based fully automatic method outperformed the existing studies on average.In the present study, we proposed a fully automatic technique for estimating the right lobe graft weight using deep learning-based CT volumetry. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) segmentation of the entire liver region, (2) classification of the liver into the left and right lobes, and (3) estimation of the right lobe graft weight from right lobe graft volume with a volume-to-weight conversion formula. The proposed method achieved higher accuracy in right lobe graft weight estimation , compared to that reported in Kwon et al.’s study14 claimed that they applied deep learning in right lobe graft weight estimation. However, they only applied deep learning to the segmentation of the entire liver region but not to the classification of the liver into the left and right lobes. Then, they manually classified the liver into the left and right lobes. In our study, the classification of the liver into the left and right lobes was fully automatically performed using deep learning as well. Therefore, our method does not require any manual intervention by the users.For the first time, we proposed to use a deep learning-based method throughout the entire process of right lobe graft weight estimation. Especially, we proposed a deep learning-based method for fully automatic division of the liver into the left and right lobes. Park et al.1 established a graft weight formula using data from a single medical center and proved that the formula was still accurate by a cross validation using data from a different medical center, it is better to collect more data from different centers to assess the performance of our method. Second, we used CT scans from the delayed phase in the present study. We need to extend our method to the cases from other phases like the portal venous phase. Third, our study was limited by the exclusion of patients with liver masses and cirrhosis. Fourth, the volume-to-weight conversion formula used in the present study tended to underestimate the graft weight. The formula we used was not built with our data and it is linear, which could cause the underestimation. However, we haven’t found any higher-order or non-linear models. We need to establish our own formula by considering higher-order or non-linear models for a more accurate estimation of graft weight after collecting more data. We will address these issues in our future studies.Our study has several limitations. First, it was a single-center study. Though Yang et al.In conclusion, we proposed a deep learning-based fully automatic method for the entire right lobe’s graft weight estimation process. We evaluated our method in terms of accuracy and clinical practice. The proposed fully automatic method has been proven accurate in clinical practice.


An on-site pharmacist (OSP) intervention was implemented which sought to improve medication management within residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The objectives of this mixed methods study were to evaluate the implementation fidelity of the OSP intervention and to determine the moderating factors which influenced delivery of this intervention.This convergent parallel mixed methods study was underpinned by Hasson’s conceptual framework for implementation fidelity. Implementation fidelity for seven intervention RACFs was quantitatively assessed using three quantitative data sets: (1) range of OSP intervention activities delivered; (2) random sample of 10% of medication reviews assessed for quality; (3) proportion of residents who received at least one medication review. Semi-structured interviews (n = 14) with managers and OSPs across the intervention RACFs were conducted to identify moderating factors which may have influenced OSP intervention delivery.The OSP intervention was generally delivered as intended with overall medium levels of implementation fidelity. This delivery was supported by a range of facilitation strategies with most participants perceiving that the intervention was delivered to a high standard. RACF managers and OSPs were mostly well engaged and responsive. A number of potential barriers  and facilitators  for OSP intervention delivery were identified which have potential implications for the roll out of OSPs within Australian RACFs.In this study, the implementation fidelity of OSP intervention delivery was assessed with overall medium levels of fidelity found across the intervention RACFs. This suggested that the OSP intervention can generally be delivered as intended in real world RACFs. OSP intervention delivery was influenced by a range of moderating factors, some of which posed barriers and others which facilitated the OSP intervention being delivered as intended.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-023-10172-9. Residents living in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) are at high risk of medication-related problems  which caPharmacists in Residential Aged Care Facilities (PiRACF) study evaluated the effectiveness and implementation of a 12-month OSP intervention which sought to improve medication management.The importance of improving medication managementImplementation fidelity is commonly described as the extent to which an intervention was delivered as intended . ImplemeThis mixed methods study was conducted within the context of the PiRACF study to understand the extent to which the OSP intervention was delivered as intended and determine the factors which influenced this intervention delivery across the seven intervention RACFs. This increased understanding has the potential to optimise the roll out of OSPs in Australian RACFs by determining whether the OSP intervention can be delivered as intended in real world RACFs. The identification of potential barriers and facilitators to successful OSP intervention delivery is also timely given that the Australian Government will be funding OSPs in RACFs from 2023 .The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation fidelity of the OSP intervention and understand the moderating factors which may have impacted delivery of the OSP intervention.This study’s focus on intervention delivery is consistent with Gearing et al.’s assertion that intervention delivery is a core aspect of implementation fidelity . The useImplementation consists of adherence components (measurable) and moderating factors (non-measurable) which inform and can influence fidelity . For thiIn this study, implementation fidelity adherence was assessed based upon quantitative data, consistent with previous health care implementation fidelity studies , 25, 29.The moderating factors influencing OSP intervention delivery were identified based upon qualitative data, consistent with previous health care implementation fidelity studies , 25, 29.Activities undertaken as part of OSP intervention delivery were reported by OSPs via online pharmacist diaries on the Qualtrics survey platform . These aManagers and OSPs across each of the seven intervention RACFs were invited by email to participate in semi-structured interviews with a purposive (stratified) sampling approach employed . These tThe online pharmacist diaries were downloaded from Qualtrics and cleaned and checked in Microsoft Excel. The proportion of residents who received at least one medication review was determined by the number of written medication reviews provided by OSPs to the study team. A random sample of 10% of these written medication reviews were assessed for quality by two Medication Management Review Accredited Pharmacists , medium (n = 3) through to low (n = 1) as illustrated in Table a priori activity target of 70% of residents receiving at least one medication review as part of the OSP intervention. OSPs supplied 588 written medication reviews to the study team and 61.1% of residents living across the seven intervention RACFs received at least one medication review as part of the OSP intervention. In this study, using the adherence scoring system, adherence to this fidelity measure ranged from high (n = 4), medium (n = 1) through to low (n = 2), see Table The proportion of residents who received at least one medication review was compared to the PiRACF study  low n = , see TabBased upon the three quantitative data sets, the overall implementation fidelity adherence score for the seven intervention RACFs ranged from high (n = 1), medium-high (n = 3) through to medium n = 2) and low-medium (n = 1), as illustrated in Table  and low-Fourteen interviews were undertaken with RACF managers (n = 7) and OSPs (n = 7 interviews with six OSPs [one OSP worked across two RACFs]). These interviews took between 38 and 163 min, with the median interview duration of 49 min for managers and 148 min for OSPs. Semi-structured interview participant details are shown in Table The qualitative interviews provided insights into the following moderating factors outlined in Hasson’s conceptual framework for implementation fidelity: intervention complexity, facilitation strategies, quality of delivery, participant responsiveness and context . Please The qualitative findings suggested that it took time for OSPs and RACF managers to work out how to deliver the OSP intervention, which is not unexpected given the relative novelty of the OSP role and the complexity of the intervention. OSPs considered that the OSP intervention description outlined in the study resource folder was informative and useful in assisting them with delivering this complex intervention. However, some OSPs and RACF managers mentioned that the OSP job description was not as descriptive or instructive as it could have been to support OSP intervention delivery.A range of facilitation strategies were employed to support delivery of the OSP intervention. These included face-to-face training sessions for OSPs, inclusive of the Residential Aged Care Pharmacist: Foundation Training Program facilitated by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), RACF induction checklist for onboarding OSPs, study team induction meeting with individual RACF managers, as well as with individual OSPs which focussed on OSP orientation, four hour face-to-face quarterly pharmacist support meetings held at the University of Canberra, Microsoft Teams Online Forum to allow OSPs to share information and ask questions in an asynchronous manner and ad hoc individual check ins with OSPs by the study team via face-to-face visits to RACFs and emails. All OSPs attended the half day face-to-face training session and pharmacist support meetings. Overall, OSPs indicated that the facilitation strategies employed, in particular, the pharmacist support meetings, were conducive to the OSP intervention being delivered as intended.There was however some room for improvement identified in relation to OSP training provided with two OSPs expressing an interest in more palliative care training and self-nominating to attend a Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) training session during the 12-month OSP intervention.Most of the RACF managers interviewed indicated that the OSP intervention was generally delivered to a high standard. With regards to quality of delivery, one key exception related to one OSP who was not able to offer vaccination services to RACF staff as they were unable to complete vaccination training due to COVID-19 restrictions affecting training availability. While all other OSPs offered vaccination services to RACF staff, some OSPs were not able to undertake these services due to vaccination fridge unavailability at two RACFs and due to one RACF using an existing external contractor arranged by their parent organisation. A specific barrier to the quality of delivery identified by four OSPs and two managers related to the part-time nature of the OSP role. One OSP worked across two intervention RACFs participating in the PiRACF study and described how their OSP experience at the first RACF aided them to support OSP intervention delivery with greater ease at the second RACF. This suggested that prior OSP experience was a potential facilitator for delivering the intervention.Most OSPs and managers engaged well with delivery of the OSP intervention with most participants perceiving that OSPs in RACFs added value and that the OSP intervention should be continued in the future. The qualitative findings also suggested that others, such as RACF staff, were responsive to delivery of the OSP intervention.However, three RACF managers did identify barriers which contributed to OSP intervention ‘missed opportunities’ within their RACFs. One RACF manager described that the OSP’s limited work day availability and being unwell at the start of the intervention contributed to delays with the OSP establishing relationships with General Practitioners. This meant that it took additional time for the OSP intervention to be optimally delivered.A second RACF manager perceived limitations on the impact of the OSP intervention due to the OSP at their RACF, who was not accredited, not focussing on medication reviews in the part-time role with limited hours available. The manager also highlighted that the OSP’s reliance upon RACF management to guide OSP intervention delivery meant that the OSP intervention may not have been optimally delivered.The one exception where an OSP was not able to vaccinate also presented a missed opportunity within that RACF. The manager at another RACF outlined their limited capacity to engage with the OSP to identify opportunities to work together to further optimise delivery of the OSP intervention.Based upon the semi-structured interviews with RACF managers and OSPs, OSP factors, RACF factors and an external factor may have influenced the fidelity of OSP intervention delivery.The qualitative findings suggested that RACFs with OSPs who took the time to establish relationships and were pro-active in informing OSP intervention delivery potentially increased the likelihood of the OSP intervention being delivered as intended. Three OSPs also considered that their accredited pharmacist status and experience conducting medication reviews may have helped them to deliver the OSP intervention.Semi-structured interview participants described how RACF leadership and culture affected OSP intervention delivery. RACFs with management who consistently took the time to work with OSPs to inform OSP intervention delivery and actively supported OSPs within their respective RACFs potentially increased the likelihood of the OSP intervention being delivered as intended. As might be expected, there was a sense that RACFs with a positive culture focussed on collaboration and patient-centred care also increased the likelihood of delivering the OSP intervention as intended.RACFs spread out over a large area with significant distance between resident dwellings was perceived as a potential barrier to OSP intervention delivery. One OSP who worked across two RACFs perceived that an RACF with this physical environment, as compared to one with a main RACF building, potentially decreased the likelihood of delivering the OSP intervention as intended. It appeared to be more difficult for an OSP to establish and maintain connections with health care team members and residents in the more spread out RACF physical environment without the OSP making a concerted effort to overcome this barrier.One external factor was identified as a potential barrier to OSP intervention delivery, namely the COVID-19 pandemic. As the OSP intervention commencement was staggered from April 2020 – January 2021, this meant that the impact of COVID-19 varied across intervention RACFs, though there were commonalities in relation to an overall increased workload on RACF staff and managers trying to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 for residents and RACF staff. One OSP who commenced in 2020 described how the COVID-19 pandemic initially limited their capacity to engage with residents, family members and RACF staff and that it then took some time to re-engage with them.a priori activity target of 70%). The qualitative findings illustrated that the facilitation strategies in place supported OSP intervention delivery, that participants were mostly responsive to the OSP intervention and that the quality of delivery was generally perceived to be of a high standard. Importantly, missed opportunities were identified by three RACF managers which potentially impacted OSP intervention delivery. These included: OSP work day availability which contributed to delays in the OSP intervention being optimally delivered; perceived limited OSP intervention impact due to a non-accredited OSP who was not able to focus on medication reviews during their part-time role whom was also not pro-active in guiding OSP intervention delivery; one OSP not being able to vaccinate; and perceived limited capacity of a RACF manager to work with the OSP to further optimise OSP intervention delivery. Potential barriers  and facilitators  were also identified. Overall, it appears that the medium fidelity of OSP intervention delivery was influenced, either positively or negatively, by a range of moderating factors.The quantitative findings indicated that the OSP intervention was generally delivered as intended with a range of fidelity from low-medium to high and an overall finding of medium fidelity across the seven intervention RACFs. These adherence scores were based upon three quantitative data sets: (1) range of OSP intervention activities delivered; (2) random sample of 10% of medication reviews assessment for quality; (3) proportion of residents who received at least one medication review. Across the seven intervention RACFs, the full range of activities were delivered, there was an overall medium quality assessment of medication reviews and 61.1% of residents received at least one medication review  , GeneralIn anticipation of the roll out of OSPs within Australian RACFs it would be highly beneficial to consider the overall educational needs of pharmacists commencing in this recently created role. As there is sparse literature on the educational needs of OSPs working in RACFs, in time, when there is a body of experts with expertise on OSPs within RACFs, it is strongly encouraged that consensus be reached on OSP educational needs through undertaking either a Nominal Group Technique or Delphi Technique . Benson As identified by Tait et al., pharmacists can contribute to interprofessional collaborative care for older people living in the community and RACFs as they near their end of life . As suchConsistent with Choi et al.’s mixed method study  which exThis is the first study that has evaluated the implementation fidelity of an OSP intervention delivered within Australian RACFs. This study demonstrated that the OSP intervention could be delivered with medium fidelity across seven intervention RACFs and reaffirmed the importance of understanding moderating factors which could help to identify barriers or facilitators to successful OSP intervention delivery.Policy makers, primary health networks, peak pharmacy organisations, researchers, health professionals and RACF management are strongly encouraged to consider the findings of this study and recommendations made prior to the roll out of OSPs in Australian RACFs. These study findings could help inform future efforts to address potential barriers and enhance potential facilitators for successful adoption of OSPs in real world RACFs.Strengths of this study was the use of mixed methods study design, an existing implementation fidelity framework and development of objective fidelity scoring systems.Study limitations related to the qualitative findings not being generalisable to other non-metropolitan RACFs. As direct observations by the study team were not conducted and the quantitative activities data was self-reported, potential data accuracy issues may exist .This mixed methods study concluded that the OSP intervention was generally delivered as intended across the seven intervention RACFs with an overall medium fidelity rating. OSP intervention delivery was affected by a range of moderating factors, specifically, intervention complexity, facilitation strategies, quality of delivery, participant responsiveness and context. A number of potential barriers and facilitators to successful OSP intervention delivery were also identified. The findings of this study have important implications for the roll out of OSPs in Australian RACFs and further OSP research studies.Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.Supplementary Material 1Supplementary Material 2


In January, 2023, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward to 90s before midnight, reflecting the growing risk of nuclear war.Current nuclear arms control and non-proliferation efforts are inadequate to protect the world’s population against the threat of nuclear war by design, error, or miscalculation. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) commits each of the 190 participating nations “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control”.Any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for humanity. Even a “limited” nuclear war involving only 250 of the 13 000 nuclear weapons in the world could kill 120 million people outright and cause global climate disruption leading to a nuclear famine, putting two billion people at risk.The health community has had a crucial role in efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear war and must continue to do so in the future.In 2007, the IPPNW launched the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which grew into a global civil society campaign with hundreds of partner organisations. A pathway to nuclear abolition was created with the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, for which the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. International medical organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the IPPNW, the World Medical Association, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, and the International Council of Nurses, had key roles in the process leading up to the negotiations, and in the negotiations themselves, presenting the scientific evidence about the catastrophic health and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons and nuclear war. They continued this important collaboration during the First Meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which currently has 92 signatories, including 68 member states.11We now call on health professional associations to inform their members worldwide about the threat to human survival and to join with the IPPNW to support efforts to reduce the near-term risks of nuclear war, including three immediate steps on the part of nuclear-armed states and their allies: first, adopt a no first use policy;The danger is great and growing. The nuclear armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us. The health community played a decisive part during the Cold War and more recently in the development of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We must take up this challenge again as an urgent priority, working with renewed energy to reduce the risks of nuclear war and to eliminate nuclear weapons.Kamran Abbasi, Editor-in-Chief, British Medical Journal;Parveen Ali, Editor-in-Chief, International Nursing Review;Virginia Barbour, Editor-in-Chief, Medical Journal of Australia;Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Medical Association;Marcel GM Olde Rikkert, Editor-in-Chief, Dutch Journal of Medicine;Peng Gong, Editor-in-Chief, Chinese Science Bulletin;Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine;Ira Helfand, Past President, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War;Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet;Bob Mash, Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine;Arun Mitra, Past President, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War;Carlos Monteiro, Editor-in-Chief, Revista de Saúde Pública;Elena N. Naumova, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Public Health Policy;Eric J. Rubin, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine;Tilman Ruff, Past President, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War;Peush Sahni, Editor-in-Chief, National Medical Journal of India;James Tumwine, Editor-in-Chief, African Health Sciences;Paul Yonga, Editor-in-Chief, East African Medical Journal;Chris Zielinski, University of Winchester, World Association of Medical Editors.This editorial is being published simultaneously in multiple journals. For the full list of journals see: https://www.bmj.com/content/full-list-authors-and-signatories-nuclear-risk-editorial-august-2023


The International Journal of Telerehabilitation (IJT) is a biannual journal dedicated to advancing telerehabilitation by disseminating peer-reviewed information about current research and practices. IJT is indexed by PubMed and Scopus.IJT is published via the open journal system (OJS) and sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing at the University Library System. This institutional support enables IJT to be subscription free and require no author fees.IJT enjoys a diverse international audience due to the expanding global relevance of telemedicine, telehealth, and telerehabilitation. In this Spring 2023 issue, we are pleased to publish work by authors from Brazil, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Ukraine, and the United States.International Journal of Telerehabilitation (IJT) was launched fifteen years ago as part of the Department of Education Rehabilitation Research Center on Telerehabilitation. It was inconceivable in 2008 that IJT would be serving as a conduit to report updates from war torn Ukraine. We applaud the resilience of these Ukrainian scientists and clinicians.We are gratified that a researcher from the Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyrylo Malakhov continues to keep our readership updated on their clinical and research efforts in the form of a Letter to the Editor. The


During the vascular surgical reconstruction of aorto-iliac occlusive/aneurysmal disease, bifurcated grafts are used where vascular surgeons intra-operatively select the size and the relative lengths of the parent and daughter portions of the graft. Currently, clinical practice regarding the selection of the most favorable geometric configuration of the graft is an understudied research subject: decisions are solely based on the clinical experience of the operating surgeon. This manuscript aims to evaluate the hemodynamic performance of various diameters, D, of bifurcated aortic grafts and relate those with proximal/distal part length ratios (the angle φ between the limbs is used as a surrogate marker of the main body-to-limb length ratio) in order to provide insights regarding the effects of different geometries on the hemodynamic environment. To this end, a computationally intensive set of simulations is conducted, and the resulting data are analyzed with modern statistical regression tools. A negative curvilinear relationship of TAWSS with both φ and D is recorded. It is shown that the angle between limbs is a more important predictor for the variability of TAWSS, while the graft’s diameter is an important determinant for the variability of OSI. Large percentages of the total graft area with TAWSS < 0.4 Pa, which correspond to thrombogenic stimulating environments, are only observed for large values of φ and D > 20 mm. This variable ranges from 10%  to 55% . Our findings suggest that grafts with the smallest possible angle between the limbs  present the most favorable hemodynamic performance, yielding the smallest percentage of total graft area under thrombogenic simulating environments. Similarly, grafts with the smallest acceptable diameter should be preferred for the same reason. Especially, grafts with diameters greater than 20 mm should be avoided, given the abrupt increase in estimated thrombogenic areas. Traditionally, vascular surgery has mainly employed surgical procedures where a conduit is used in order to either bypass an occluded arterial segment (atherosclerotic occlusive disease) or replace a diseased and degenerated part of an artery . In one of the most common clinical scenarios, the occlusive or aneurysmal disease affects the aorto-iliac part of the vasculature; in this case, an aorto-bi-iliac or aorto-bi-femoral bifurcated graft is usually employed. Abdominal aortic aneurysms are found in 2–3% of the population older than 65 years of age in the developed world, which, should they escape diagnosis and then enlarge and eventually rupture, can cause an immediate threat to the patient’s life. Aorto-iliac obstructive disease is a distinct pathology that can significantly limit the walking ability of patients, affecting their quality of life and, in extreme cases, posing a threat to limb viability . ConsideOn the contrary, the specific anatomy of each patient may dictate the need for a relatively narrow or a relatively wide graft to be used, but a variety of options still exist that are compatible with these requirements. For example, for a 20 mm wide infrarenal aorta, a 16 mm, 18 mm, 20 mm, or 22 mm graft would be considered acceptable. The choice among these options is based on each surgeon’s personal experience and preference, in order to perform a technically sound proximal anastomosis between the native vessel and the synthetic graft. A clinical aspect that has been largely unexplored in the literature is the hemodynamic effects of blood on all alternative graft configurations. Many studies have used computational modeling to evaluate the hemodynamic performance of aortic endografts used during the endovascular repair of AAAs. These examine a variety of outcomes, such as displacement forces, wall stresses, the comparative effects of the “ballerina” versus the standard graft configuration, etc. Although research on the effects of different main body-to-limb length ratios in endovascular stent-grafts has been performed, this has not determined a definite conclusion on the configurations that may be beneficial ,5. MoreoThis manuscript aims to examine the hemodynamic effects of the alternative diameter values of a bifurcated aortic graft and relate them with various proximal/distal part length ratios, in order to provide insights regarding the hemodynamic performance of different geometric configurations and, consequently, to guide clinical practice. A high main body-to-limb length ratio is accompanied by an increased angle between the limbs of the graft, which could be hypothesized to result in flow disturbances and in an unfavorable hemodynamic profile. Additionally, the effect of the inlet diameter of the graft is examined to identify hemodynamically advantageous conditions. For this purpose, a computationally intensive set of simulations is conducted, and the numerical outputs are analyzed with modern statistical regression tools. The paper is organized as follows: Blood is considered an incompressible, non-Newtonian fluid and is simulated by solving the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes  and continuity equationsVarious non-Newtonian models have been proposed in the literature for mimicking blood behavior, all aiming to capture deviations from the corresponding Newtonian one. These models include the Carreau-Yasuda ,10,11,1250 kg/m3 .−5 and a time step of 0.005 s. Appropriate boundary conditions are considered. Specifically, velocity inlet and pressure outlet waveforms are taken from Olufsen et al. [A commercial finite volume solver is utilized , with a constant convergence criterion set equal to 10n et al.  and depiIn all cases, the flow remains laminar and the inlet velocity profile, y method , with a 0.The velocity profile is thus described in terms of the angular frequency, ω, and Bessel function, JA constant cardiac cycle of one second is assumed for all simulations and four cycles are considered before the results are collected, to ensure that all transient effects are washed out. This can be observed in The analyses that follow are based on thirty-five idealized geometries. In all cases, the distance between renal and femoral arteries is fixed (L = 25 cm) and the same holds for the distance between femoral arteries and the midline . Let WSS represent the WSS vector, defined as the dot product of the outward unit normal vector on a surface with the stress tensor. TAWSS is then calculated as the following integral [Vascular flows can be analyzed in terms of near-wall hemodynamic parameters over the entire cardiac cycle, T, such as the wall shear stress (WSS) and its most commonly used metrics, the time average wall shear stress , the oscillatory shear index (OSI), and the relative residence time TAWSSTAWSS quantifies the tangential force on the vessel wall due to blood flow as the average magnitude of the shear stress, but does not provide any information on the varying frequency of the WSS direction. In order to describe the oscillatory nature of flows, the non-dimensional OSI introduced in  is formuHimburg et al.  introduc−1 [RRT identifies regions of high-particle residence time close to the wall domain. The three aforementioned metrics have been associated with various diseased states, such as thrombogenic stimulating environments for TAWSS < 0.4 Pa, OSI > 0.3, and RRT > 10 Pa−1 ,23,24,25In all cases, the solid model is produced by SolidWorks and meshed with ANSA  using a pure hexahedral mesh. Hexahedral meshes require a fewer number of elements compared to tetrahedral or prismatic ones for a fixed level of accuracy, as shown in . A suffiTo assess mesh convergence, four meshes are constructed with a successive increase of elements by a factor approximately equal to two. Since it is not possible to validate convergence for all thirty-five simulations, one is selected as the benchmark. The chosen case corresponds to the triplet {φ(°)/D(mm)/d(mm)} = {70/12/6}, which is characterized by a significant boundary layer due to the smallest available diameter and non-trivial flow effects as a consequence of the largest available limb angle. An error threshold of 1% in TAWSS, OSI, and RRT is adopted for mesh convergence. The results are summarized in The associations of hemodynamic variables with D and φ are quantified with second order regressions that allow for curvilinear and interaction effects. The general linear (in parameters) specification predicts each response  samples . Statist samples  and quan samples .The second-order specification (8) is estimated by the widely adopted least absolute deviations  estimator , which cTM) is strongly, negatively associated with the corresponding values of both averaged RRT (RRTTM) and averaged OSI (OSITM). In fact, the correlation of TAWSSTM with RRTTM is almost perfect, which suggests that analyzing one variable from this pair is sufficient. Thus, the following statistical models use TAWSSTM as the response.The analyzed data are summaries of the hemodynamic variables, which correspond to alternative combinations of graft diameters (D/d) with limb angles φ. TM with both φ and D: the variance of the observed TAWSSTM decreases as φ and D increase. As expected, given the abovementioned, strong negative correlations for both OSITM and RRTTM are positively associated with φ and D. A general second-order specification, such as (8), is deemed adequate to capture the variability of the averaged hemodynamic variables. Indeed, the full second-order model explains the vast majority of the variability of TAWSSTM . This simple specification can be utilized to predict the percentages of the total graft area with TAWSS < 0.4 Pa for unobserved levels of φ, which lie within the examined levels (35–70°).A color map displaying thrombogenic regions along the surface of the idealized geometries for various angles is shown in This work is among the few that have utilized advanced, outlier-robust statistical models to analyze blood flow simulations ,31. The The abovementioned findings carry several clinical implications. First, regarding the open surgical reconstruction of aortic occlusive or aneurysmal disease, our results indicate that the proximal part of the bifurcated graft should be cut as short as possible, leaving two long distal limbs. This is the configuration that results in the smallest angle φ, which is hemodynamically advantageous. It should be stressed that these grafts are typically intra-operatively shaped by the operating physician. Thus, rendering a variety of different configurations is feasible, although there is currently no evidence to guide clinical practice and these configurations are interchangeably used . A possiAdditionally, the diameter of the surgical graft is chosen based on the native aortic diameter, but again, a variety of choices could be deemed appropriate, without any evidence being available to guide physicians. According to the present results, the lowest diameter graft that would be considered suitable should be chosen. It should be noted that a previous publication from our group indicated that, in terms of the parent-to-daughter limb length ratio, a longer parent tube configuration could be advantageous from a hemodynamic perspective, due to the reduced overall hydraulic resistance, as calculated by Poiseuille’s law . This anOur findings may carry implications not only for open surgical repair, but also for the endovascular treatment of aortic pathologies. Currently, a variety of aortic modular endografts are used for the treatment of AAAs. Each system has its own anatomic requirements, but these are mostly similar between different devices. In many cases, a variety of devices can be used to treat a given aortic pathology, which are interchangeably used . The desAs with the majority of studies, the design of the current work is subject to limitations. The first is the assumption that the vessel walls are rigid. Even though this may be close to reality, the expected effect of graft compliance is not considered. Secondly, additional geometric features, such as graft bending and twisting, as well as graft limb tortuosity, may also alter the presented results. The fact that simple idealized geometries have been taken into account limits the applicability of the present results, since other morphometric indices that might have a significant effect on the simulation results were discarded. Nevertheless, such a methodology is able to better delineate the effect of the different angles and diameters on hemodynamic simulations, which would not be possible in the presence of a plethora of confounding geometric variables encountered in patient-specific anatomies. Moreover, these are the only factors that the operating surgeon can modify, and therefore, the current methodology allowed a relevant and practical conclusion to be produced. Additionally, the flow split between the limbs is not expected to be exactly equal, but nevertheless, it still remains a reasonable assumption.Finally, the set of thresholds that have been chosen to define a hemodynamically thrombogenic environment may be suboptimal due to the lack of an adequate definition in the existing literature. Indeed, the available data mostly refer to atherogenic hemodynamic conditions, which cause endothelial damage and favor the formation of atheromatous plaque. In the present study, this would not be relevant since the hemodynamic environment inside a graft is our main focus. Nevertheless, recent reports that have studied the potential for thrombus formation inside the branches of custom-made endografts used during EVAR suggest values close to those used in the present study ,39. DespThe current study examines the hemodynamic behavior of various bifurcated aortic grafts for varying levels of proximal/distal length ratios and limb angles. Thirty-five cases are simulated with computational fluid dynamics techniques, assuming a non-Newtonian blood behavior, described by the Carreau-Yasuda rheological model. Our results indicate that grafts characterized by the smallest possible diameter and limb angle present a hemodynamic advantage and should be preferred by practitioners and clinicians.


Correction to: Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis 10.1007/s11239-023-02820-yThe original publication of this work  containe


We consider the problem of constructing an unconditionally secure cipher with a short key for the case where the probability distribution of encrypted messages is unknown. Note that unconditional security means that an adversary with no computational constraints can only obtain a negligible amount of information (“leakage”) about an encrypted message (without knowing the key). Here, we consider the case of a priori  unknown message source statistics. More specifically, the message source probability distribution belongs to a given family of distributions. We propose an unconditionally secure cipher for this case. As an example, one can consider constructing a single cipher for texts written in any of the languages of the European Union. That is, the message to be encrypted could be written in any of these languages. K , which is known to them in advance (but not to Eve). When Alice wants to send some message m, she first encrypts m using key K and sends it to Bob, who in turn decrypts the received encrypted message using the key K. Eve also receives the encrypted message and tries to decrypt it without knowing the key. The system is called unconditionally secure, or perfect, if Eve, with computers and other equipment of unlimited power and unlimited time, cannot obtain any information about the encrypted message. Not only did C. Shannon provide a formal definition of perfect  secrecy, but he also showed that the so-called one-time pad (or Vernam cipher) is such a system. One of the specific properties of this system is the equivalence of the length of the secret key and the message (or its entropy). Moreover, C. Shannon proved that this property must be true for any perfect system. Quite often this property has limited practical application as many modern telecommunication systems forward and store megabytes of information and the requirement to have secret keys of the same length seems to be quite stringent. There are, therefore, many different approaches to overcoming this obstacle. These include the ideal systems proposed by C. Shannon [The concept of unconditional security is very attractive to cryptography and has found many applications since C. Shannon described it in his famous article . The con Shannon , the so- Shannon , the so- Shannon  and some Shannon ,6,7,8,9.It is worth noting that quantum key distribution (QKD) is currently under active research, which can create an unconditional secure key for Alice and Bob, cf. ,11,12.The present work is concerned with entropically secure ciphers. It is important to note that an entropically secure cipher is not perfect, and Eve may obtain some information about the message—the property referred to as “leakage” (see the definition below), but this leakage can be made negligible. On the other hand, an entropically secure cipher makes it possible to significantly reduce the key length (compared to the perfect cipher).The concept of entropically secure cipher was proposed in 2006 by Russell and Wang in the paper  where thIn this paper, we consider the situation where encrypted messages obey an unknown  probability distribution. We propose an entropically secure cipher for which the key length depends on the universal code (or data compressor) used for encoding the source and on the admissible leakage of the cipher. The construction of the cipher is based on entropically secure ciphers ,5,8,9 ann-letter binary words, they obey a certain probability distribution p defined on the set p belongs to some given set P, K and possibly some random bits. Then, she sends the word M. The third participant is a computationally unconstrained adversary Eve, who knows p, and wants to find some information about M without knowing K.We consider the problem of symmetric encryption, where Alice wants to securely transmit a message to Bob. The messages are Y is said to hide all functions on A, there exists some adversary f,Y will be f is a map Russell and Wang  suggesteDefinition 1.The map YMA and A estimates the probability based on Note that, in a sense, Definition 1 is a generalization of Shannon’s notion of perfect security. Namely, if we take We will use another important concept, the notion of indistinguishability.Definition 2.A randomized map where for two distributions Importantly, G is independent of Dodis and Smith  showed tp is a probability distribution, In 2006 , the firand Wang  cipher wand Wang  and theiTheorem 1Let p be a probability distribution on Let us denote this cipher as . Let p m positions n to k. Note that the leakage k implies a smaller In a sense, this cipher generalizes the perfect Shannon cipher as follows: In a perfect cipher, the key is a word from natorics ,18,19.) h. So, it seems natural to transform the set p and hence the summand In equality , the lin n−h. In , this ap(p), see . Thus, tnoted in  by cipheTheorem 2Suppose there is a family P of probability distributions defined on for some Δ. Then,(i) (ii) . SupposNow we consider a simple example to illustrate the basic idea. Let y secure .p), the key length is p is unknown, but the messages are known to be generated by a Markov chain with known memory, then Obviously, the key length depends on the efficiency of the compression method, or code. Thus, in the case of known statistics  ).The problem of constructing a single code for multiple probability distributions (information sources) is well known in information theory, and there are currently dozens of effective universal codes based on different ideas and approaches. It is worth noting that, at present, there are dozens universal codes, which are the basis for so-called archivers . The first universal code for Bernoulli and Markov processes was proposed by Fitinghof , and thec has to“compress” sequences p, that is u). In [The universal code ncy r(p)  (here Epf u). In , an algor(p). In , it was see also  for the In this paper, we will use the so-called Shtarkov maximum likelihood code cSht , whose cShtakov proposed to build code sts, see ).Claim. If the set P is finite, then Proof. From the definition  we can sP contains probability distributions corresponding to several languages.Note that this claim is true when P generating words from q q according to (Compute the distribution rding to  and orde(ii)q by the trimmed Shannon code from [i and j, Encode the “letters” ode from . Denote fix λ(i) .(iii)Build the following randomized map (iv)For the desired leakage It is worth noting that Alice and Bob (and Eve) can perform all the calculations described independently of each other.Use of the cipher. Suppose Alice and Bob have a randomly chosen secret key K, m. To accomplish this, she computes K. As a result, he obtains the word m (this is possible because Bob receives the word The properties of this cipher are described in the following theorem.Theorem 3.Suppose there is a family P of probability distributions defined on (i) The (ii) The Proof. m and (i)(ii)For any )|),see . From dee  we  we p∈P, +2. From  (Theorem+2. From , we can □n, but depends on n. This example includes the case where one needs to have the same cipher for texts written in different languages. Here, the size of the set We described the cipher for a family of probability distributions


International Journal of Molecular Sciences [Of more than 16,400 papers published in 2022 in 2 and bicarbonate [Enzymes continue to be highly investigated proteins due to their involvement in all life processes in organisms all over the phylogenetic tree. More than 4000 papers dealing with these proteins were published in 2022 in the journal. I will highlight some of the research on one of my favorite proteins, the carbonic anhydrases , which catalyze the reversible conversion between COarbonate . Furtherarbonate ,6.2 sequestration processes for alleviating global warming [A relevant number of papers dealing with this enzyme, its inhibitors, activators and involvement in various diseases have been published in 2022 in this journal ,27,28,29 warming  or in ph warming ) were thA large number of CA-related papers dealt with the drug design of CA inhibitors (CAIs) with various applications as anticancer agents (both for treatment and imaging) ,17,18,19The role of the genetic deficiency of the mitochondrial enzyme CA VA which causes hyperammonemia in the affected patients has also been investigated  as well A consistent number of papers published in 2022 deal with the understanding of tumorigenesis and the development of anticancer agents, with more than 3800 such contributions found. Again, I will highlight only those who seemed more innovative and promising to me. Thus, Nakamura et al.  investigAcinetobacter baumannii biofilms [Staphylococcus aureus agents by targeting transcription [Pseudomonas aeruginosa [Escherichia coli infections [More than 1350 papers were published in 2022 on anti-infectives. Among them, I will highlight an interesting review on photodynamic therapy for the inactivation of biofilms , a compucription , antimicruginosa , silver fections , as wellfections .The antiviral landscape was obviously dominated by SARS-CoV-2 studies. Interesting SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors were reported by Geiger et al. , whereasThe Biochemistry section of the journal receives a large number of submissions and will continue the publication of high-quality research. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the journal, it is sometimes difficult to classify a submission as being mainly biochemical, pharmacological or strictly a medical work; this is, of course, a wealth for the journal, but also a source of potential problems, as it is not always easy to invite the best reviewers for such interdisciplinary submissions. Furthermore, this problem of finding appropriate reviewers is a general phenomenon in all peer review processes, which is, however, complicated in this journal due to specific requirements which should be simplified.The increase in the impact factor of the journal over the last years, the large number of citations of the published papers, and the number of submissions per se demonstrate that the journal is appreciated by the scientific community worldwide, but as editors, we should continue to improve the workflow and the quality of the published papers.


Fluorescence has shown its superior performance in the fields of starch physicochemical properties, starch–based materials, and the interactions of starch with small molecules. However, it has not been well explored in the fluorescence characteristics of starch. Herein, the fluorescence properties of four crystalline starches  were investigated using salicylic acid (SA) as an indicator. The results of inverted fluorescence microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis indicated that SA could be included by starch. X–ray diffraction analysis further demonstrated that the inclusion of SA did not change the crystalline of the four crystal types of starches, which could provide a prerequisite for comparing the different fluorescence properties of the four crystal types of starches. Fluorescence enhancements of the four inclusions were 264.5 (B–type), 206 (C–type), 51.2 (V–type), and 28 (A–type). These results provide new insights for analyzing the fluorescence response of starch. Starch is a polymeric carbohydrate composed of glucose units connected by α-1, 4 or α-1, 6 glycosidic linkages. Starch is currently classified into A–, B–, C–, and V–types based on X–ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. A–type starch, which is mostly stored in cereal crops, has monoclinic crystals with eight water molecules among the double helices. B–type starch, which is mainly found in plant tubers and some high–amylose grain seeds, has a hexagonal shape with 36 water molecules among the double helices. C–type starch is a combination of the characteristics of A–type and B–type starches, and is naturally present in legumes and some rhizomes . V–type The fluorescent dye absorbs light at a certain wavelength and emits light waves at wavelengths greater than the absorbed wavelength. Fluorescence is widely used in starch–related fields due to its high sensitivity and short response time. Current studies on fluorescence in the field of starch include the preparation of starch–based fluorescent materials, the construction of fluorescent probes, and the preparation of starch–based fluorescent nanomicrospheres ,7,8. HowIn this study, tapioca starch, potato starch, and pea starch were chosen as A–type, B–type, and C–type starches, respectively. V–type starch, prepared using common corn starch and stearic acid, was selected. The inclusion of SA and different crystalline starches was carried out under proper ultrasound treatment. Inverted fluorescence microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and thermogravimetric (TGA) were used to characterize the inclusions formed by starch and SA (S–SA). The crystal types of the four inclusions were determined using wide–angle X–ray diffraction (XRD). The fluorescence spectrometer was used to determine the fluorescence spectra of the four inclusions. This study not only provides new insights into the differences in the fluorescence response properties of different crystal types of starch, but also shows promise for applications in identifying the structure of different crystal types of starch.Cassava starch was supplied by Yuanye Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ; pea starch was acquired from Fengwei Industrial Co., Ltd. ; and common corn starch was obtained from Starpro Starch Co., Ltd. . Potato starch, absolute ethanol, potassium bromide, and stearic acid were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd. . DASPI (98%) was purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Life Sciences and Tech. Co., Ltd. . All chemicals and reagents used were of analytical grade unless otherwise noted.V–type starch was prepared according to the method of Sun et al. , with slFour different crystal types of starches  at 500 mg were separately blended with 50 mL of DASPI and SA solution (0.015 mg/mL) and then sonicated for 30 min  by an ultrasonic cell crusher . After sonication, all solutions were quantitatively diluted 100–fold as test samples. The control groups were only the two dyes and a physical mixture of four starches, and DASPI or SA with the same concentration as the experimental group. In order to enhance the fluorescence effect of the experimental group for DASPI, two experimental groups with a mass ratio (DASPI: starch) of 0.6 and 6 were set up for screening. Hitachi F–7000 was used to measure the fluorescence spectra, and the solution was thoroughly shaken prior to testing. The following parameters were set: DASPI excitation wavelength, 365 nm; SA excitation wavelength, 297 nm; excitation and emission slits, 5 nm; photomultiplier voltage, 700 V; scanning speed, 1200 nm/min; and emission wavelength range was 385–700 nm for DASPI and 300–550 nm for SA. Measurements were conducted in a light–proof environment.−4 mol/L, was then poured into these four beakers. The mixtures were placed in an ultrasonic cell crusher for sonication with the following sonication parameters: 30% power, on–time 3 s, off–time 15 s, and 30 min sonication time. The resulting mixture was transferred to a 500 mL brown volumetric flask, and the beakers were washed several times with deionized water. The washing solution was then transferred to a volumetric flask for volume fixation, and 10 mL was carefully transferred to a 100 mL brown volumetric flask for volume fixation for quantitative fluorescence intensity measurement. The control groups were a physical mixture of A–, B–, C–, and V–type starch and SA, and the same concentration of SA. The treatment of the control group was the same as that of the experimental group, except for the ultrasound. After each test, the cuvette was washed thrice with anhydrous ethanol and water. Furthermore, sonicated A–type starch and SA, B–type starch and SA, and C–type starch and SA were extracted via a 0.45 μm microporous filter membrane and washed several times with deionized water until the filtrate was free of distinctive emissions. The sonicated V–type starch and SA were washed three times  with deionized water by centrifugation . Four washed inclusions were placed in a 40 °C oven for 24 h. They were then milled into a powder  and used as samples for inclusion behavior analysis.Each of the four crystal types of starch was weighed to 500 mg and placed in four 50 mL beakers, respectively. SA (50 mL), at a concentration of 1 × 10A small amount of each of the four prepared inclusions and four crystal types of starches was evenly spread on a slide to form a thin layer before being placed on a carrier table for observation using an inverted fluorescence microscope  with a 20× objective and a DAPI excitation filter. Fluorescence was detected in the dark field after an appropriate field of vision was found in the bright field, and the entire operation was performed under light–proof conditions.−1 to 400 cm−1 with a resolution of 4 cm−1 and a total of 32 scans.The physical mixture of starch and SA (S–SA–P), four inclusions, four crystal types of starches, and SA were added to dried potassium bromide powder at a ratio of 1:100 in an agate mortar and ground well. The pressed tablets of potassium bromide were produced using a tablet press machine as test samples. An infrared lamp was used throughout the process. The sample spectra were recorded using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy  in the wavenumber range of 4000 cmo), peak (Tp), and conclusion (Tc) temperature) and enthalpy change (ΔH). The experiment was repeated at least three times.Each starch sample (3 mg) was weighed and placed in an aluminum pan. Deionized water (6 μL) was added, and the tablets were pressed and placed in the refrigerator to equilibrate overnight. The above samples were tested by DSC  at a heating rate of 10 °C/min from 20 to 100 °C, with an empty pan as a control. The system was calibrated with indium. The parameters recorded are gelatinization temperatures  was employed to investigate the thermodynamic degradation properties of the four inclusions, corresponding physical mixtures, four crystal types of starches, and SA at a heating rate of 10 °C/min under nitrogen atmosphere (flow rate 50 mL/min). A ceramic pan was loaded with approximately 3 mg of sample, and the temperature was increased from 50 to 600 °C.An X–ray diffractometer  was used to analyze the diffraction patterns of the four inclusions, corresponding physical mixtures, four crystal types of starches, and SA. The operating voltage and current of the instrument are 30 kV and 10 mA, respectively. Diffractograms were recorded at room temperature in the 2θ angle region from 5° to 35° with a step size of 0.03° and a scan speed of 3°/min.The fluorescence spectra of the four inclusions, corresponding physical mixture, four crystal types of starches, and SA were obtained separately using a fluorescence spectrophotometer . The fluorescence intensity at 402 nm emission wavelength was recorded and the solutions were shaken well before each measurement. The parameters were set as follows: excitation wavelength, 297 nm; emission wavelength range, 300–550 nm; scanning speed, 1200 nm/min; excitation and emission slit, 5 nm; and photocell multiplication voltage (PMT), 700 V. Experimental and control samples were prepared and tested under light–proof conditions.F1 and F2 represent the fluorescence intensities of the four inclusions and SA, respectively. The difference between the former and latter, that is, ΔF, represents the extent of fluorescence enhancement.The extent of the fluorescence enhancement of the four inclusions was determined using Equation (1):Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation, and each group of trials was repeated three times before being evaluated using one–way ANOVA. ORIGIN PRO 2021 was used to perform one–way ANOVA on the data.The fluorescence spectra of the experimental and control groups in the presence of DASPI and SA are shown in −1, intermolecular hydrogen bonding vibration at 2856 cm−1, carboxyl group vibration at 2597 cm−1, carbonyl group vibration at 1664 cm−1, C=C in the benzene ring vibration at 1614 cm−1, and phenolic hydroxyl group vibration at 1480 cm−1 [−1, showing that the physical mixtures were a simple superposition of starch and SA. However, in the FTIR spectra of the four inclusions, the distinctive bands of SA at 3239, 2597, and 1614 cm−1 vanished, indicating that SA was successfully included by starch. In addition, the hydroxyl bands of the four inclusions were shifted from 3423, 3460, 3446, and 3445 cm−1 to 3384, 3413, 3422, and 3401 cm−1, respectively, compared to that of the four crystal types of starches. This indicates that the included SA may form hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl groups of the four crystal types of starches.The FTIR spectra of the four inclusions, corresponding physical mixtures, four crystal types of starches, and SA are shown in 480 cm−1 . The FTIThe crystal types of starches were identified by XRD. F values of the four inclusions listed in F of the four inclusions. This might be due to the fact that the tightest arrangement of the A–type starch helix is unfavorable for the inclusion of SA, making the fluorescence response enhancement ineffective. In contrast to A–SA, B–SA exhibits the largest ΔF. The helix arrangement of the B–type starch is the loosest and most favorable for SA inclusion. Therefore, the B–type starch might include more SA than the other three crystal types of starches. The ΔF value of C–SA is second only to that of B–SA. The pea starch used in this experiment is C–type starch. The C–type starch contains both A–type and B–type crystals. This might explain why ΔF of C–SA is lower than that of B–SA. The ΔF of V–SA is smaller than that of C–SA. This could be due to the tighter arrangement of the V–type starch helix than that of the B–type. Although ΔF of V–SA is greater than that of A–SA, there is no significant difference between them. This might be because both A–type and V–type starches have a more compact helical arrangement. However, it is currently uncertain how much more compact they are. Putaux et al. [In addition, it should be noted that the Δx et al.  reportedF was greatest for B–, C–, V–, and A–type, in descending order, and there was a significant difference in the fluorescence response between the A–, B–, and C–type. These findings provide new insights for analyzing the fluorescence response of different crystal types of starch.In this study, SA was selected as the most suitable fluorescent dye. Inverted fluorescence micrographs, FTIR, and TGA demonstrated that SA was successfully included by the four crystal types of starches after sonication. The XRD analysis further indicated that the included SA did not change the starch crystal type. The inclusion of SA by the four crystalline starches enhanced the fluorescence response. At 402 nm, Δ


Challenges for the food/non-food applications of starch mostly arise from its low stability against severe processing conditions , inordinate retrogradability, as well as restricted applicability. These drawbacks have been addressed through the modification of starch. The escalating awareness of individuals toward the presumptive side effects of chemical modification approaches has engrossed the attention of scientists to the development of physical modification procedures. In this regard, starch treatment via ionizing  and non-ionizing  radiations has been introduced as a potent physical strategy offering new outstanding attributes to the modified product. Ionizing radiations, through dose-dependent pathways, are able to provoke depolymerization or cross-linking/grafting reactions to the starch medium. While non-ionizing radiations could modify the starch attributes by changing the morphology/architecture of granules and inducing reorientation/rearrangement in the molecular order of starch amorphous/crystalline fractions. Apart from its naturally occurring presence in foods, starch has been involved in various food/pharma formulations to endow novel promising characteristics to the fabricated products. However, the widespread application of starch has been restricted by some limitations including its low shear/thermal resistibility, as well as retrogradability. Presently, starch modification through chemical  physical  and enzymatic techniques has been the most developed approach to come across such shortcomings . Apart fRecent years have witnessed the increasing focus of researchers on developing promising modified starches through their exposure to ionizing/non-ionizing radiations. More interestingly the emergence of new starches extracted from new sources has drawn the attention of scientists to explore their behavior under various irradiation conditions. Thereby, the main focus of this review was the recent advances in the impacts of ionizing/non-ionizing radiations on various features  of starches extracted from conventional and novel sources.22.160Co) and cesium-137 (137Cs). On the contrary, electron beam consists of accelerated electrons, which are charged particles produced by regular electricity using usually linear accelerators that do not involve sources of radioactive isotopes (The most applied ionizing radiation types to process/modify biomacromolecules are gamma rays (electromagnetic radiation) and electron beam (high-energy particle radiation). Gamma rays are emitted by radionuclides such as isotopes of cobalt-60  Macromolecule Factors- type of macromolecule, water content, density, dielectric properties, penetration depth, temperature, and ii) Radiation Processing parameters - radiation type, radiation source, process variables , system geometry, oxygen presence, exposure time.3Numerous researches have explored the use of ionizing radiations to prevent food microbial deterioration without compromising the food safety, quality, or nutritional content . However, the molecular structure and composition of their constituents, particularly those of starch, proteins, vitamins, and lipids, could be altered upon irradiation. For instance, a). They suggested that α-1,6-glycosidic linkages are more prone to breakage than α-1,4-glycosidic bonds resulting in the formation of short chain amylose-like structures. In another study the molecular structure of EB treated rice starch was assessed by  radiation on starch molecules. In a recent attempt  studied Fig. 2essed by . Their Hessed by  outlined3.23.2.1c-f). Comparable morphological changes were obtained in case of gamma irradiated broad bean starch  , moisture content of the specimen and the crystalline pattern of the starch are the dominant factors determining the morphological behavior of starch upon irradiation. In a recent attempt  revealedFig. 2n starch , bean stn starch , lotus sn starch , red potg. 2g-j)  and lotug. 2g-j) . On the g. 2g-j)  that stug. 2g-j) , or the g. 2g-j)  report wb). .  also obs3.2.2k) which could be the result of its more sensitivity against irradiation.Starches with different crsytalline pattern have experienced various alterations upon irradition. In general, without any change in the crystalline pattern of the starch, its relative crystallinity would be reduced following irradiation which causes a drop in intensity of X-ray diffraction peaks. This change could be the result of the disordered starch granule’s double helices and the destruction of the ordered structure (i.e. amylopectin). For instance,  obtainedFig. 23.2.3l)  . Similarl) . On the l) , (Navaf l) , and   obtained3.2.4When exposed to ionizing radiations up to 20 kGy, the starches' water absorption capacity (WAC) increases. The structural unwinding of starch branches and the development of simple sugars with a stronger affinity for water are considered to be the causes of the increased WAC. Because it affects various functional and sensory aspects of the food, water absorption is essential to the food preparation process . The swe3.2.5In general, the structural breakdown of starch molecules caused by irradiation, lowers the pasting characteristics , and rheological features . The setback viscosity values provide details on starch retrogradation and syneresis during thawing and storage. The primary chemical that causes greater levels of retrogradation and ultimate viscosity is amylose. Pasting characteristics can be simply linked to the textural characteristics and the final product quality; peak viscosity provides an idea of the capacity to bind water, while a higher breakdown value indicates that the final product will taste better. These characteristics are quite significant and helpful when developing the processing parameters (44.1Microwaves are non-ionizing radiation that has frequencies between infrared and radio waves (300 MHz-30 GHz). Microwave is electromagnetic waves of radiant energy . During 4.1.14.1.1.1Microwave radiation modifies the physicochemical characteristics of starch by affecting water evaporation, swelling power, crude protein, and solubility. These characteristics can vary depending on the type of starch, moisture content, processing time, temperature, and absorbed energy. Numerous investigations have employed microwave treatment to modify starch characteristics. It has been reported that microwave could reduce moisture content, crude protein, crude fiber, water absorption, sugar level and absolute density while it increased the ash level . HoweverIn the case of starch, the molecular rearrangements, which alter the hydration and pasting properties, require a little amount of water in order to absorb radiation and to have a plasticizing impact. Thus, the moisture content is one of the main factors that influences the extent of alterations in presence of irradiation. In an attempt, the ability of MW to alter the techno-functional characteristics and gel viscoelasticity of starchy flour system was investigated by MW irradiation may cause a break in α-1,4 and α-1,6 glycosidic linkages. Thus, the amylose and amylopectin content could be affected upon MW. It has been found that the amylose content of MW treated starches is significantly higher than the native starch, and this can be predicted by the disintegration of amylopectin branches and its long-chain structure. Moreover, the amylose that was held inside the granule structure by the amylopectin groups can escape the semi-crystalline structure due to the swelling of starch during MW and contribute to the measured amylose content . It has 4.1.1.21HNMR spectroscopy further supported these conclusions  are less hampered by the steric hindrance and are more mobile than those located in the crystalline lamellae, they appeared to be more vulnerable to MW energy, which is the likely the source of a selective degradation. It has been stated that the central amorphous region is more susceptible to degradation. The major degradation occurs in the internal chains at the first stage (5 min), while the external chains  mostly destroy at the second stage (10 min) as stated by . They alclusions . This ficlusions .Table 2A4.1.1.3c)   and potato  starches.The morphological properties of starch are mostly dependent on the amount of applied MW treatment where some of the starch granules can retain their structure when treatment is below the gelatinization temperature while, beyond the gelatinization temperature the granular structure could be completely destroyed . During Fig. 3c) . PinholeFig. 3d) . The surFig. 3d) . The sagFig. 3d) . Similar4.1.1.4k). The swelling power values of waxy and non-waxy hull-less barley kernels reduced with the increasing MW conditions (power × time). The internal structure of starch granules varies as a result of MW radiation, which may result in a rearrangement in the crystalline areas and cause variations in starch swelling   , and milk) .4.2k). They also indicated although MW induced no change in starch crystallinity, RF diminished the RC of modified starches  and concluded that RF could be a potent technique for annealing modification of starches. The impact of RF on physicochemical and structural attributes of starch are provided in detail in Apart from microwave, other types of non-ionizing radiations viz. radiofrequency radiation, ultraviolet radiation as well as infrared radiation could also provoke various alterations to physicochemical, structural and nutritional attributes of starches. However, compared with microwave, limited studies have investigated the impact of these methods on starch characteristics. Radiofrequency radiations are electromagnetic waves possessing the longest wavelengths and smallest frequencies (1––300 MHz) which induce severe molecular rotation/frictions within the medium. Although the principle of generating heat upon RF is similar to the microwave process, the product processed by RF possesses superior quality. Given the longer wavelength of RF waves, they are more potent to penetrate deep into the medium thereby distributing heat more uniformly throughout the product. Hitherto, the successful application of RF in food processing has been reported by numerous researchers . RF treaFig. 3Ultraviolet radiation is another type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 100 to 400 nm. UV through indirect photochemical reactions, such as the generation of free radicals, might cause ultrastructural alterations. Reportedly, the surface, hydrophilicity, and thermal stability of polysaccharides can be altered upon UV radiation. Due to the poor penetration of UV radiation, rheological and textural changes could occur only at the surface of UV irradiated materials . In this5Starch-based materials have received great attention in the agricultural, food, packaging, and biomedical sectors owing to their biodegradability and low cost . Applyin5.1Besides being cheap and efficient, the packing industry understands that synthetic polymer-based packaging are not biodegradable and cause environmental damage. For this reason, studies on starch and starch composites have been initiated in recent years to elaborate starch based films and packings. Normally, starch in its native form is not suitable for such applications, but when modified, can be employed alone or in blends/composites to improve the barrier properties and thermal and mechanical characteristics of the films . Further−1, and compared with native starch. The applied doses increased the tensile strength of the films, while the water vapor permeability decreased with the increasing doses. According to the authors, between all treatments, the 30-kGy irradiated corn starch film showed great potential for developing biodegradable starch film with improved properties.The commonly used biopolymers are starch, chitosan, alginate, gelatin, and shellac, but poor mechanical properties and hydrophilic nature are the major drawbacks of the films made with these materials. For this reason, numerous studies are in progress to overcome these limitations to offer physicochemical characteristics comparable to those of synthetic polymer-based materials ; within Another study conducted by 5.2Hydrogels are formed by physically or chemically crosslinked macromolecules, forming a three-dimensional network capable of retaining water without disintegration . Their eIn another attempt, The effect of degree of substitution and irradiation on the properties of hydrogels prepared from carboxymethyl-sago starch and polyethylene glycol were investigated by 6The digestibility of foods determines how effectively the gastrointestinal tract digests and absorbs the macronutrient . The molThere are also numerous attempts investigating the impact of non-ionizing radiation on starch digestibility. In this line,  revealed7There has been an increasing interest towards the development of starches with modified morphologies and functionalities offering advantages over their conventional counterparts in various food and biomedical applications. Although ionizing/non-ionizing radiation treatments are proven to be rapid and effective techniques for improvement of nutritional and techno-functional properties of starches, there are still some issues that need to be addressed. The relatively high cost of radiation-assisted modification compared to the commonly used conventional techniques and the limited availability of the irradiation facilities contribute to the failure of their widespread industrial applications. In case of ionizing irradiation, the main limitation of irradiation treatment in food industrial applications is the toxicological hazards it imparts to food materials. In this regard various national and international agencies has been established to develop strict legislations for irradiated foods . Moreover, functional properties of starches treated by radiation are shown to be affected by the radiation type and treatment conditions applied. Besides, bioactivity of special interest such as antioxidant activity are indicated to be negatively affected by the irradiation dose . On the Dr. M.R. Nemțanu acknowledges that her contribution to this work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-1778, within PNCDI III.