Air pollution poses a significant risk to public health and ecosystems. The use of sophisticated models to simulate the transformation and dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere is a recognized method to assess air pollution levels and its sources and inform policy decisions for effective mitigation strategies in urban and industrial environments. The reliability of models depends, in part, on the sensitivity to the variance of input parameters, which can introduce uncertainty into the model's predictions. This uncertainty is especially challenging when the input parameters exhibit inherent variability. In this study, we analyse the uncertainty of an integrated emission/dispersion model by evaluating the relationship between input parameters and model outcomes. We uncover new aspects of this relationship while clarifying some previously known dependencies. Wind speed was found to have the most significant effect on calculated concentrations, with small differences leading to substantial concentration variations. The time of day, which reflects prevailing vertical turbulence conditions, was also found to have a notable impact on concentrations, whereas ambient temperature can also significantly influence model’s results. Based on these findings, we offer specific recommendations for regulators and scientists involved in environmental impact assessment to improve the accuracy and reliability of air pollution modelling.

We used an ultrasensitive, broadband optomechanical ultrasound sensor to study the acoustic signals produced by pressurized nitrogen escaping from a variety of small syringes. Harmonically related jet tones extending into the MHz region were observed for a certain range of flow (i.e., Reynolds number), in qualitative agreement with historical studies on gas jets emitted from pipes/orifices of much larger dimensions. For higher turbulent flow rates, we observed broadband ultrasonic emission in the ~ 0 – 5 MHz range, likely limited on the upper end by attenuation in air. These observations are made possible by the broadband, ultrasensitive response (for air-coupled ultrasound) of our optomechanical devices. Aside from their theoretical interest, our results could have practical implications for the non-contact monitoring and detection of early-stage leaks in pressured fluid systems.

In recent years, many libraries and archives have started digitizing their collections thus making maps by Indigenous peoples more easily available for scholars to study. While a number of these maps were discussed by G. Malcolm Lewis in the History of Cartography series (volume 2, book 3, Chapter 4: 1984), more have since been found and disseminated. These maps are critical in understanding the historic and current land tenure of Indigenous groups. Further, Indigenous claims to land can be seen in their connections via toponymy. European concepts of territory and political boundaries did not coincide with First Nation/American Indian views resulting in the mistaken view that Natives did not have formal concepts of their territories. Further, Tribes/First Nations with cross-border territory have special jurisdictional problems. This paper will illustrate how many Native residents were very spatially cognizant of their own lands, as well as neighboring nations’ lands, overlaps between groups, hunting territories, populations, and trade networks. Currently, the Sinixt First Nation provides a perfect example of how an Aboriginal people are inputting and using a GIS representation of their territory with proper toponymy and use areas.

Polymeric wet-strength agents are important additives used in the paper industry to improve the mechanical properties of paper products, especially when they come in contact with water. These agents play a crucial role in enhancing the durability, strength, and dimensional stability of paper products. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the different types of wet-strength agents available and their mechanisms of action. We will also discuss the challenges associated with the use of wet-strength agents and the recent advances in the development of more sustainable and environmentally friendly agents. As the demand for more sustainable and durable paper products continues to grow, the use of wet strength agents is expected to increase in the coming years.

Electrowetting – induced detachment of droplets from solid surfaces is important for numerous applications in the fields of heat transfer and fluid mechanics. The forced oscillations of droplets on solid surfaces and their ability to detach are studied. In this study the process is efficiently simulated by implementing a powerful methodology developed by our team. Our results agree with experiments, showing that optimal detachment, in terms of actuation energy, is achieved when the application of voltage is synchronized with the spreading time of the droplet. Under these conditions, the droplet oscillates with a period close to that of a mirrored Rayleigh droplet. The relation between the droplet’s oscillation period and its physical properties is examined. During voltage-droplet synchronization, the droplet’s ability to detach depends mostly on its contact angle, its viscosity, and the applied voltage. An energy analysis is also conducted, revealing how energy is supplied to the droplet by electrowetting-induced detachment.

Thermal sterilization is generally avoided for 3-D printed components because of the relatively low deformation temperatures for common thermoplastics used for material extrusion-based additive manufacturing. 3-D printing materials required for high-temperature heat sterilizable components for COVID-19 and other applications demands 3-D printers with heated beds, hot ends that can reach higher temperatures than polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hot ends and heated chambers to avoid part warping and delamination. There are several high temperature printers on the market, but their high costs make them inaccessible for full home-based distributed manufacturing required during pandemic lockdowns. To allow for all these requirements to be met for under $1,000, the Cerberus – an open source three-headed self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) was designed and tested with the following capabilities: i) 200^oC-capable heated bed, ii) 500^oC-capabel hot end, iii) isolated heated chamber with 1kW space heater core and iv) mains voltage chamber and bed heating for rapid start. The Cereberus successfully prints polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) and polyetherimide (PEI, ULTEM) with tensile strengths of 77.5 and 80.5 MPa, respectively. As a case study, open source face masks were 3-D printed in PEKK and shown not to warp upon widely home-accessible oven-based sterilization.

The spectral properties of a one-dimensional photonic crystal bounded by a resonant absorbing nanocomposite layer with the near-zero permittivity have been studied. The problem of calculating the transmittance, reflectance, and absorptance spectra of such structures at the normal and oblique incidence of light has been solved. It is shown that, depending on the permittivity sign near zero, the nanocomposite is characterized by either metallic or dielectric properties. For the first time, the possibility of simultaneous formation of the Tamm plasmon polariton at the photonic crystal/metallic nanocomposite interface and the localized state similar to the defect mode with the field intensity maximum inside the dielectric nanocomposite layer is demonstrated. Specific features of field localization at the Tamm plasmon polariton and defect mode frequencies are analyzed.

Actuated carbon (AC) is utilized in various conditions of uses after its disclosure as a solid and dependable adsorbent. A review on AC is introduced along with returning to the wellsprings of AC age; strategies used to produce AC including pyrolysis enactment; actual actuation; synthetic initiation and steam pyrolysis. The significant variables influencing the AC creation, the potential uses of AC and their future possibilities are likewise examined. AC is applied in water, wastewater and leachate medicines in numerous nations, particularly to clean the shading, eliminate the smell and some substantial metals. Taking into account this, an exhaustive rundown of research on compound, physical and organic change strategies of initiated carbon relating to prevent of foreign substance expulsion from watery arrangements was aggregated and investigated. Additionally, the examination of the actual blending strategy and the impregnation technique in enactment with antacid metals shows that the actuated carbon got through actual blending had a higher porosity than the initiated carbon created by the impregnation technique. The uses of initiated carbon items were quickly surveyed.

A major obstacle faced by nanopore-based polymer sequencing and analysis is the high speed of translocation of an analyte (nucleotide, DNA, amino acid (AA), peptide) through the pore; the rate currently exceeds available detector bandwidth. Except for one method that uses an enzyme ratchet to sequence DNA, attempts to resolve the problem satisfactorily have been largely unsuccessful. Here a counterintuitive method based on reversing the pore voltage, and, with some analytes, increasing their mobility, is described. A simplified Fokker-Planck model shows a significant increase in translocation times for single nucleotides and AAs (up from ~10 ns to ~1 ms). More realistic simulations show that with a bi-level positive-negative pore voltage profile all four nucleotides in DNA (dAMP, dTMP, dCMP, and dGMP) and the 20 proteinogenic amino acids can be trapped inside the pore long enough for detection with bandwidths of ~1-10 Khz.

A label-free four-step procedure to identify amino acids (AAs) is described. In Step 1 molecules of AA, a tRNA, the related tRNA synthetase (AARS), and ATP are confined in a cavity to enable charging of tRNA. In Step 2 the tRNA, charged or uncharged, is separated from the other reactants (ATP, AARS, and possibly AMP and free AAs). In Step 3 the separated tRNA is subjected to non-enzymatic deacylation to dissociate the AA if tRNA is charged. In Step 4 the products are transferred to an electrolytic cell with a nanopore, where a current blockade occurs if and only if there is a dissociated AA. If a blockade is observed AA is immediately known, identification is unambiguous because of tRNA superspecificity. The exact blockade size need not be known (for any AA) in Step 4 so there is no need to distinguish among different AAs. This is unlike other nanopore-based methods, which are crucially dependent on precise blockade level measurements. The procedure is done in parallel with N (20 ≤ N ≤ 61) copies of AA, N reservoir-cavities, and N pairs of e-cells each with a different tRNA, related AARS, and ATP. At least one of the tRNAs gets charged. Assuming no charging errors, if N₁ tRNAs get charged in Step 1 and at least one of N₂ (≤ N₁) charged tRNAs is deacylated in Step 3, then with N₁N₂ tRNA molecules entering Step 1 AA can be identified with probability 1.

Single molecule de novo protein sequencing based on the 'superspecificity' of amino-acyl tRNA synthetases (aaRS) is proposed. An unfolded protein molecule is threaded through a nanopore in an electrolytic cell (e-cell) to expose the terminal residue in the e-cell's trans chamber. After the residue is cleaved with an exopeptidase, a set of tRNAs, their aaRSs, and ATP are added to trans. An aaRS charges a cognate tRNA molecule with the residue. The charged tRNA (along with the other reactants) is transferred to an extended e-cell with N (20 ≤ N ≤ 61) pores in N individual cis chambers and a single trans chamber. Each pore holds an RNA molecule ending in a unique codon that is exposed in trans. The charged tRNA's anticodon base-pairs with the terminal codon of an RNA. If tRNAs and residues are fluorescently tagged with two different colors, the residue can be identified from the observed position of the resulting color pair. As charging is 'superspecific' identification is unambiguous. The protein molecule in the first e-cell is advanced by one residue and the process repeated. In this approach there is no need for precise pore current or optical intensity measurements. Potential implementation issues are discussed. Other possibilities, including one in which the terminal residue is cleaved after charging, are also examined.

An orthogonal pore ('orthopore') is conceptually based on an electrolytic cell with a standard pore (the main or 'longitudinal' pore) between cis and trans compartments filled with electrolyte and augmented by a secondary or 'transverse' pore in the form of a channel that is perpendicular to and intersects the main pore. Orthopores can be designed at different scales: macro through micro to nano. With nano-sized pores an analyte (polymer) can be threaded through the main pore and exposed at the junction to electrolyte flow through the secondary pore. Polymer translocation speeds are then independent of the current measured, which can be of an arbitrary magnitude even with the polymer stationary. Orthopores have a wide range of potential applications, including polymer (DNA and protein) sequencing, DNA unzipping, logic circuitry, and protein identification. The present report shows how orthopores can be used to implement boolean logic.

Raman scattering has been employed to study in detail the concentration dependence of the vibrational modes for the hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) aqueous solutions. The formation of protonated and/or aggregated species has been clarified by comparing the experimental with the theoretically predicted vibrational spectra by means of quantum mechanical calculations. The analysis has shown that the vibrational modes of the solutions arise from a contribution of the vibrational modes of the HMTA self-aggregates and hetero-aggregates of HMTA with water molecules that are formed in the low- and intermediate-concentration region, respectively. The protonation of HMTA is ruled out due to the large differences between the experimental and the theoretically calculated spectra of the protonated molecules of HTMA in the fingerprint region. In the low-concentration solutions, the hetero-aggregation reaction of HMTA with water is the dominant mechanism, while at higher concentrations a self-aggregation mechanism occurs. Ultrasonic absorption and velocity measurements were carried out for hexamethylenetetramine aqueous solutions. The acoustic spectra reveal the presence of only one single Debye-type relaxation process that is assigned to the aggregation mechanism of HMTA. The sound absorption data follow two different dependencies on HMTA mole fraction. The crossover 0.018 mole fraction signifies two separate regions with distinct structural characteristics. The relaxation mechanism observed in dilute solutions is attributed to hetero-association of HMTA with water molecules, while at higher concentrations the observed relaxation process is assigned to the self-association reaction of HMTA molecules. This structural transformation is also reflected in several physicochemical properties of the system, including the kinematic viscosity, the mass density, the sound speed, and the adiabatic compressibility of the HMTA aqueous solutions. The combination of vibrational and acoustic spectroscopies with molecular orbital calculations allowed us to disentangle the underlying processes and to elucidate the observed relaxation mechanism in the HMTA aqueous solutions.

Homochirality is an obvious feature of life on Earth. On the other hand, extraterrestrial samples contain largely racemic compounds. The same is true for any common organic synthesis. Therefore, it has been a perplexing puzzle for decades how these racemates could have formed enantiomerically enriched fractions as a basis for the origin of homochiral life forms. Numerous hypotheses have been put forward as to how preferentially homochiral molecules could have formed and accumulated on Earth. In this article, it is shown that homochirality of the abiotic organic pool at the time of formation of the first self-replicating molecules is not necessary and not even probable. It is proposed to abandon the notion of a molecular ensemble and to focus on the level of individual molecules. Although the formation of the first self-replicating, most likely homochiral molecule is a seemingly improbable event, on a closer look, it is almost inevitable that homochiral molecules have formed simply on a statistical basis. In this case, the non-selective leap to homochirality would be one of the first steps in chemical evolution directly out of a racemic “ocean”. Moreover, most studies focus on the chirality of the primordial monomers with respect to an asymmetric carbon atom. However, any polymer with a minimal size that allows folding to a secondary structure, would spontaneously lead to asymmetric higher structures (conformations). Most of the functions of these polymers would be influenced by this inherently asymmetric folding. To summarize, simple and universal mechanisms may have led to homochiral self-replicating systems in the context of chemical evolution. A homochiral monomer pool is deemed unnecessary and probably never existed on primordial Earth.

The use of the Google Scholar produces about 278 hits on the term ‘‘inertial propulsion.’’ If patents are also included, the number of hits increases to 536. This paper discusses, in a critical way, some characteristic aspects of this controversial topic. The review starts with the halteres of athletes in the Olympic games of ancient times and then continues with some typical devices which were developed or/and patented from the second fourth of the twentieth century till today.

Significant advances in Penning trap measurements of atomic masses and mass ratios of the proton, deuteron, triton, helion, and alpha-particle have occurred in the last five years. These include a measurement of the mass of the deuteron against 12C with 8.5 x 10-12 fractional uncertainty; resolution of vibrational levels of H2+ as mass and the application of a simultaneous measurement technique to the H2+/D+ cyclotron frequency ratio, yielding a deuteron-proton mass ratio at 5 x 10-12; new measurements of HD+/3He+, HD+/T+ and T+/3He+ leading to a tritium beta-decay Q-value with an uncertainty of 22 meV, and atomic masses of the helion and triton at 13 x 10-12; and a new measurement of the mass of the alpha-particle against 12C at 12 x 10-12. Some of these results are in strong disagreement with previous literature values. Their impact in determining a precise proton/electron mass ratio and electron atomic mass from spectroscopy of the HD+ molecular ion is also discussed.

Amplitudes of quantum transitions containing time zigzags are considered. The discussion is carried out in the framework of the Minkowski metric and the standard quantum mechanics without adding new postulates. We argue that time zigzags are not suppressed at the quantum level, but their contribution to the amplitude is zero. The result is valid for a single particle and a non-interacting scalar field.

Matter grows and self-assembles to produce complex structures such as virus capsids, carbon fullerenes, proteins, glasses, etc. Due to its complexity, performing pen-and-paper calculations to explain and describe such assemblies is cumbersome. Many years ago, Richard Kerner presented a pen-and-paper path integral approach to understand self-organized matter. Although successfully addressed many important problems including the yield of fullerene formation, the glass transition temperature of doped chalcogenide glasses, the fraction of boroxol rings in B2O3 glasses, the first theoretical explanation for the empirical recipe of window and Pyrex glass and the understanding of virus capsid self-assembly, still is not the primary choice when tackling similar problems. The reason lies in the fact that it diverges from mainstream approaches based on the energy landscape paradigm and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. In this context, a critical review is presented, demonstrating that the Richard Kerner method is, in fact, a clever way to identify relevant configurations. Its equations are simplified, common physical sense versions to those found in the energy landscape kinetic equations. Subsequently, the utilization of equilibrium Boltzmann factors in the transition Markov chain probabilities is analyzed within the context of local two-level energy landscape models kinetics. This analysis demonstrates that their use remains valid when the local energy barrier between reaction coordinate states is small compared to the thermal energy. This finding places the Richard Kerner model on par with other more sophisticated methods and, hopefully, will promote its adoption as an initial and useful choice for describing the self-agglomeration of matter.

Coalescence of nanowires and other three-dimensional structures into continuous film is desirable for growing low dislocation density III-nitride and III-V materials on lattice-mismatched substrates, and interesting from the fundamental viewpoint. Here, we develop a growth model for vertical nanowires which, under rather general assumptions on the solid-like coalescence process within the Kolmogorov crystallization theory, results in a morphological diagram for the asymptotic coverage of a substrate surface. The coverage is presented as a function of two variables, the material collection efficiency on the top nanowire facet a, and the normalized surface diffusion flux of adatoms from the NW sidewalls b. The full coalescence of nanowires is possible only when a=1 regardless of b. At a>1, which is usual for vapor-liquid-solid growth with a catalyst droplet, nanowires can only partly merge but never coalesce into continuous film. These results can be used for predicting and controlling the degree of surface coverage by nanowires and three-dimensional islands by tuning the surface density, droplet size, adatoms diffusivity, and geometry of the initial structures in the vapor-liquid-solid, selective area or self-induced growth processes in different epitaxy techniques.

Viruses frequently contain overlapping genes, which encode functionally unrelated proteins from the same DNA or RNA region but in different reading frames. Yet overlapping genes are often overlooked during genome annotation, in particular in DNA viruses. Here we looked for the presence of overlapping genes likely to encode a functional protein in human parvovirus B19 (genus erythroparvovirus), using an experimentally validated software, Synplot2. Synplot2 detected an open reading frame, X, conserved in all erythroparvoviruses, which overlaps the VP1 capsid gene, and is under highly significant selection pressure. In a related virus, human parvovirus (genus tetraparvovirus), Synplot2 also detected an open reading frame under highly significant selection pressure, ARF1, which overlaps the VP1 gene. X and ARF1 have exactly the same location (both overlap the region of VP1 encoding the phospholipase A2 domain), and encode proteins with similar predicted properties, such as a transmembrane region, strongly suggesting that they are homologous. These findings provide compelling evidence that the X protein must be expressed and functional. It is probably translated either from a polycistronic mRNA by a non-canonical mechanism, or from an unmapped monocistronic mRNA. Finally, we also discovered proteins predicted to be expressed from a frame overlapping VP1 in other species related to parvovirus B19: porcine parvovirus 2 (Z protein) and bovine parvovirus 3 (X-like protein).

Sustainability means that the current use of resources does not compromise the well-being of future generations. Ever since Malthus (1798) forecast that population tends to grow faster than the growth of resources to support the population, people have claimed that current resource use is unsustainable, so future generations will be materially worse off than those in the present, yet for more than two centuries this has not been the case. The reason is that markets, and market prices, act to conserve scarce resources, and in market economies, entrepreneurs have an incentive to discover more efficient ways to use resources. The claim that twenty-first century market economies are not sustainable is not supported by the evidence. This paper explains why entrepreneurship in market economies produces sustainable economic progress.

A closed form solution for the common and differential modal currents induced on a pair of infinitely long parallel conductors by a voltage source was derived. For lossy conductors the current consists of a continuous spectrum of radiation modes and (for the common mode) a modified low loss Sommerfeld-Goubau mode and (for the differential mode) a quasi-TEM mode. This model is used to investigate the influence of a parallel conductor on microwave power line communication systems. For typical parameters, it is shown that the performance of these systems can be enhanced.

This paper is concerned with variational methods for open quantum systems with Markovian dynamics governed by Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic differential equations. These QSDEs are driven by quantum Wiener processes of the external bosonic fields and are specified by the system Hamiltonian and system-field coupling operators. We consider the system response to perturbations in these operators and introduce a transverse Hamiltonian which encodes the propagation of the perturbations through the unitary system-field evolution. This approach provides an infinitesimal perturbation analysis tool which can be used for the development of optimality conditions in quantum control and filtering problems. Such settings employ, as performance criteria, quadratic (or more complicated) cost functionals of the system and field variables to be minimised over the energy and coupling parameters of system interconnections. We demonstrate an application of the transverse Hamiltonian variational approach to a mean square optimal coherent quantum filtering problem for a measurement-free field-mediated cascade connection of a quantum system with a quantum observer.

This work communicates line strength data and associated scripts for computation and spectroscopic fitting of selected transitions of the diatomic molecules AlO, C2, CN, OH, N2+, NO, and TiO. For ease of use, the scripts for data analysis are designed for inclusion in various software packages or program languages. The accuracy of the data is of the order of less than one picometer, suitable for analysis of laser-induced fluorescence and laser-plasma spectra. Selected results demonstrate the applicability of the program for data analysis in laser-induced optical breakdown spectroscopy primarily at The University of Tennessee Space Institute, Center for Laser Applications. Representative spectra are calculated and referenced to measured data records.

We show that loophole-free Bell-type no-go theorems cannot be derived in theories involving local hidden fields. At the time of measurement, a contextuality loophole appears because each particle’s electromagnetic field interacts with the field of its respective apparatus, preventing the expression of the probability density as a function independent of the orientation of the measuring devices. Then, we use the dynamical evolution of the probability distribution to show that the spin-correlation integral can neither be expressed in terms of initial Cauchy data restricted to the particles. A correlation loophole ensues, which prevents the usage of the non-contextual correlation integrals required to demonstrate the CHSH-Bell inequality. We obtain a new inequality not violated by quantum correlation functions of entangled spin pairs, and propose that Maxwell’s electrodynamic field is the missing hidden variable triggering the coupled nonlinear oscillations of the particles, which bring about the synchronicities observed in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm (EPRB) experiment.

This work investigates spatial and temporal distributions of hydroxyl, OH, in laser-plasma in laboratory air at standard ambient temperature and pressure. Of interest are determination of temperature and density of OH and establishment of a correlation of molecular OH emission spectra with shadow graphs for time delays of 50 to 100 microsecond, analogous to previous work on shadow graph and emission spectroscopy correlation for cynaide, CN, in gas mixtures and for time delays of the order of 1 microsecond. Wavelength- and sensitivity- corrected spatiotemporal data analysis focuses on temperature inferences using molecular OH emission spectroscopy. Near-ir radiation from a Q-switched laser device initiates optical breakdown in laboratory air. The laser device provides 6 nanosecond, up to 850 milli Joule pulses at a wavelength of 1064 nanometer, and focal irradiance in the range of 1 to 10 Tera Watt per centimeter-squared. Frequency doubled beams are utilized for capturing shadow graphs for visualization of the breakdown kernel at time delays in the range of 0.1 to 100 microsecond. OH emission spectra of the laser plasma, spatially resolved along the slit dimension, are recorded in the wavelength range of 298 nm to 321 nm, and with gate widths adjusted to 10 microsecond for the intensified charge-coupled device that is mounted at the exit plane of a 0.64 m Czerny-Turner configuration spectrometer. Diatomic OH signals occur due to recombination of the plasma and are clearly distinguishable for time delays larger than 50 microsecond, but are masked by spectra of N2 early in the plasma decay.

This article explores the question of the rate of digital progress in the context of the labor market. Specific features of the current situation are indicated: temporality of socio-technological transformations, which is becoming less and less compatible with the harmonious development of man and society; the pace at which machines acquire intelligence; total devaluation of mental labor; unresolved issue of the role of man in the world of intelligent machines; the criticality of the problem of the labor market, due to its global nature, social significance and the rate of socio-technological changes. It is emphasized that these circumstances in the short term threaten the sustainable development of the global society, whose reactions to the transformation of technological and socio-economic infrastructure are significantly lagging behind. It is concluded that there is an urgent need to strengthen social responsibility, determined by the new ethics of relations between humans and machines with AI, supplemented by the primacy of the dignity of the social role of humans. The authors point out the urgent need to revise ideas about work as the main purpose of a person and about realization in the profession as the main factor that determines the self-esteem of an individual and his social status.

The interpretation of optical spectra requires thorough comprehension of quantum mechanics, especially understanding the concept of angular momentum operators. Suppose now that a transformation from laboratory-fixed to molecule-attached coordinates, by invoking the correspondence principle, induces reversed angular momentum operator identities. However, the foundations of quantum mechanics and the mathematical implementation of specific symmetries assert that reversal of motion or time reversal includes complex conjugation as part of anti-unitary operation. Quantum theory contraindicates sign changes of the fundamental angular momentum algebra. Reversed angular momentum sign changes are of heuristic nature and are actually not needed in analysis of diatomic spectra. This work addresses sustenance of usual angular momentum theory, including presentation of straightforward proofs leading to falsification of the occurrence of reversed angular momentum identities. This review also summarises aspects of a consistent implementation of quantum mechanics for spectroscopy with selected diatomic molecules of interest in astrophysics and in engineering applications.

The liver is a key node of whole-body nutrient and fuel metabolism and is also the principal site for detoxification of xenobiotic compounds. As such, hepatic metabolite concentrations and/or turnover rates inform the status of both hepatic and systemic metabolic diseases as well as the disposition of medications. As a tool to better understand liver metabolism in these settings, in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) offers a non-invasive means of monitoring hepatic metabolic activity in real time both by direct observation of concentrations and dynamics of specific metabolites as well as by observation of their enrichment by stable isotope tracers. This review summarizes the applications and advances in human liver metabolic studies by in vivo MRS over the past 35 years and discusses future directions and opportunities that will be opened by the development of ultra-high field MR systems and by hyperpolarized stable isotope tracers.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs, genus dependoparvovirus) are promising gene therapy vectors. In strains AAV1-12, the capsid gene VP1 encodes a recently discovered protein, MAAP, in an overlapping frame. MAAP binds the cell membrane by an unknown mechanism. We discovered that MAAP is also encoded in bovine AAV and in porcine AAVs (which have shown promise for gene transfer into muscle tissues), in which it is probably translated from a non-canonical start codon. MAAP is predicted to be mostly disordered except for a predicted C-terminal, membrane-binding amphipathic α-helix. MAAP has a highly unusual composition. In particular, it lacks internal methionines, and is devoid of tyrosines in most strains. Unexpectedly, we discovered that the N-terminus of VP1 also lacks several amino acids. In all AAVs that encode MAAP, the first 200 aas of VP1 are devoid of internal methionines, probably owing to a selection against ATG codons that could prevent translation of MAAP and of capsid isoforms (VP2, VP3). The N-terminus of VP1 also lacks cysteines, likely to avoid the formation of disulfide bridges when it becomes exposed outside of the capsid during post-endocytic trafficking. Finally, the region common to VP1 and VP2 lacks tyrosine in the vast majority of AAVs that encode MAAP. Avoiding these "forbidden" aas in MAAP and VP1 when creating recombinant AAV capsids might increase the efficiency of capsid design. Conversely, the presence of "forbidden" aas in some rare strains probably indicates that they have unusual properties that could help us understand the viral cycle.

Opportunistic routing is the latest technique that uses the broadcasting nature of the wireless medium to increase the number of potential forwarding nodes in the network. This, in turn improves the delivery rate and reliability of data transmission in the network. Compared to all previous classes of routing protocols, opportunistic routing offers numerous advantages which is exploited by the latest applications for efficient communication and resource sharing in dynamic ad hoc networks. These applications provide dynamic communication in disaster recovery environments. The objective of this research work is to review and classify all the major opportunistic routing protocols proposed for dynamic ad hoc networks. Further the issues and challenges with each of these existing protocol is discussed and future research directions are put forward

Opportunistic routing uses the broadcasting nature of the wireless medium to increase the number of potential forwarding nodes in the network. This, in turn improves the delivery rate and reliability of data transmission in the network. Compared to all previous classes of protocols, opportunistic routing offers numerous advantages which is exploited by the latest applications for efficient communication and resource sharing in dynamic ad hoc networks. The objective of this research work is to review and classify all the major opportunistic routing protocols proposed for dynamic ad hoc networks. Further the issues and challenges with each of these existing protocol is discussed and future research directions are put forward.

This paper describes the dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) method for obtaining glass transition temperature and the onset of crystallinity of skim milk powder (SMP). The methodology consists of exposing SMP samples to numerous constant temperatures, T, and water activities, a_w, and measuring the relaxation time. Measurements are based on changes in the loss-tangent height at its peak frequency. Glass transition times are identified at peaks in the loss-tangent height versus time curve and the onset of crystallinity times are identified when the loss-tangent height collapses. The analysis leads to two boundary curves: glass transition T_g, a_w curve and the onset of crystallinity T_c, a_w curve. They separate the SMP stable (long shelf life) and unstable (short shelf life) regions. Two curve fitting algorithms were developed for (a) a_w², t_g curve where t_g is the time to glass transition and a_w², t_c curve where time t_c is the time to onset of crystallinity and (b) T_g, a_w and T_c, a_w boundary curves. Finally, the DRS data are compared to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results.

The relationship of the animal with its environment has been of longstanding interest in philosophy and science. Here I provide a brief introduction to concepts that place an emphasis on mutualism as the basis of organism - environment interaction, in contrast to the long standing view that the environment exerts an instrumental role in shaping the organism. Two influential theories have been von Uexküll’s theory of umwelt and Gibson’s theory of affordances. The former envisioned the animal as immersed in its surroundings (umwelt) to form a functional unit. In a similar manner, the latter theory describes a unity between 1) environmental information that provides the animal with opportunities for action (affordances) and 2) the ability of the animal to perceive and engage with those affordances. These views have influenced more recent ecological models of the organism as the functional unit of biology and have also influenced models of immune function. In ecological models, agency is seen as the ability of the organism to predict and control its engagement with the environment in order to maintain its integrity. The predominant contemporary model of neural function in which perception and action are understood to operate through Bayes-like active inference complements the concept of agency as proposed by the mutualism models. However, it is suggested that rather than a constant mutualism, encounters between organism and environment range over a dynamic spectrum from dualism to mutualism. It is also suggested that along this spectrum, agency emerges when the balance of instrumentality shifts from the environment to the organism, and that the balance of this relationship can further progress towards a felicitous mutualism. Meaning emerges between environmental information and an agent as opportunity for action. Implications for opportunities to foster agency in animals within our care is noted.

In the weak-field approximation of covariant theory of gravitation the problem of 4/3 is formulated for internal and external gravitational fields of a body in the form of a ball. The dependence of the energy and the mass of the moving substance on the energy of field accompanying the substance, as well as the dependence on the characteristic size of the volume occupied by the substance are described. Additives in the energy and the momentum of the body, defined by energy and momentum of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields associated with the body are explicitly calculated. The conclusion is made that the energy and the mass of the body can be described by the energy of ordinary and strong gravitation, and through the energies of electromagnetic fields of particles that compose the body.

In this work, the possibility of fabrication magneto-optical ceramics by vacuum sintering of compacts prepared by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) from suspensions of (Ho0.95La0.05)2O3 (HoLa) nanopowders made by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis and (Y0.9La0.1)2O3 (YLa) nanopowders made by laser synthesis was systematically investigated. The processes of the formation of bulk one- and two-layer compacts by the EPD method from non-aqueous suspensions of nanopowders was studied. The use of acetylacetone and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) was shown to make it possible to obtain stable alcohol suspensions of the nanopowders characterized by high zeta potential values (+29…+80 mV) and to carry out a stable EPD process. One-layer compacts were made from the YLa and HoLa nanopowders with a density of 30–43%. It was found out that the introduction of PVB into the suspension leads to a decrease in the mass and thickness of the green bodies deposited, but does not significantly affect their density. A possibility to make two-layers (YLa/HoLa) compacts with a thickness of up to 2.6 mm and a density of up to 46% was demonstrated. Sintering such compacts in a vacuum at a temperature of 1750°C for 10 hours leads to the formation of ceramics with a homogeneous boundary between the YLa/HoLa layers and thickness of the interdiffused ions layer of about 30 μm.

The Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a local dilation of the abdominal aorta and it is a cause for serious concern because of the high mortality associated with its rupture. Consequently, the understanding of the phenomena related to the creation and the progression of an AAA is of crucial importance. In this work the complicated interaction between the blood flow and the AAA wall is numerically examined using a fully coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) method. The study investigates the possible link between the dynamic behaviour of an AAA and the blood viscosity variations attributed to the haematocrit value, while it also incorporates the pulsatile blood flow, the non-Newtonian behaviour of blood and the hyperelasticity of the arterial wall. It was found that blood viscosity has no significant effect on von Mises stress magnitude and distribution, whereas there is a close relation between the haematocrit value and the Wall Shear Stress (WSS) magnitude in AAAs. This WSS variation can possibly alter the mechanical properties of the arterial wall and increase its growth rate or even its rupture possibility. The relationship between haematocrit and dynamic behaviour of an AAA can be helpful in designing a patient specific treatment.

This mini-review deals with some non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) species with a controversial nature known to be both human and animal pathogens but also health-promoting and probiotic. The focus is put on Lactococcus garvieae, two Streptococcus species (Str. uberis and Str. parauberis), four Weissella species (W. hellenica, W. confusa, W. paramesenteroides and W. cibaria) and Mammalicoccus sciuri which worldwide are often found within the microbiotas of different kinds of cheese, mainly traditional artisanal ones made from raw milk and/or relying on environmental bacteria for their ripening. Based on literature data, their virulence and health-promoting effects are examined, and some of the mechanisms of these actions are investigated. Additionally, their possible roles in cheese ripening are also discussed. The analysis so far showed that, in general, the pathogenic and the beneficial strains, despite belonging to the same species, show pretty different genetic constitutions. Yet, when the safety of a given strain is assessed, genomic analysis on its own is not enough, and a polyphasic approach is needed including additional physiological and functional tests.

The mouth is a central feature of our face, without it we could not eat, breathe, nor communicate. A critical and early event in mouth formation is the creation of a “hole” which connects the digestive system and the external environment. This hole, which has also been called the primary or embryonic mouth in vertebrates, is initially covered by a 1-2 cell layer thick structure called the buccopharyngeal membrane. When the buccopharyngeal membrane does not rupture it impairs early mouth functions and may also lead to further craniofacial malformations. Using a chemical screen in an animal model (Xenopus laevis) and genetic data from humans, we determined that Janus kinase 2 (Jak2) could have a role in buccopharyngeal membrane rupture. We have determined that decreased Jak2 function, using antisense morpholinos or a pharmacological antagonist, caused a persistent buccopharyngeal membrane as well as the loss of jaw muscles. Surprisingly, we observed that the jaw muscle compartments were connected to the oral epithelium that is continuous with the buccopharyngeal membrane. Severing such connections resulted in buccopharyngeal membrane buckling and persistence. We also noted puncta accumulation of F-actin, an indicator of tension, in the buccopharyngeal membrane during perforation. Together the data has led us to a hypothesis where muscles are required to exert tension across the buccopharyngeal membrane, and such tension is necessary for its perforation.

A simple mathematical interaction function, with the limit value w = e2π/e, derived as a basis for modelling emergent properties of nanoparticles, nanodrops and liquids, has been further developed. A correlation between physical systems of uniform particles and fundamental properties of natural numbers leads to a model, which acts as a bridge between properties of macroscopic systems and fundamental physical constants. The four fundamental coupling constants, and the masses of fundamental elementary particles, including the Higgs and Z bosons, are derived by using this interaction function. A proposal for the mass of the electron neutrino is given. Finally, the nuclear binding interaction is modeled with the interaction function. Only the experimental values of the Planck constant h and the speed of light c are needed for the model.

The first group to build artificial general intelligence or AGI stands to gain a significant strategic and market advantage over competitors, so companies, universities, militaries, and other actors have strong incentives to race to build AGI first. An AGI race would be dangerous, though, because it would prioritize capabilities over safety and increase the risk of existential catastrophe. A self-regulatory organization (SRO) for AGI may be able to change incentives to favor safety over capabilities and encourage cooperation rather than racing.

Industries, which are mainly responsible for high energy consumptions, need to invest in research projects in order to develop new managing systems for rational energy use and to tackle the devastating effects of climate change caused by human behavior. The study reported in this paper concerns the forging industry, where the production processes generally start with the heating of the steel in furnaces and continue with other processes, such as heat treatments and mechanical machining. One of the most critical operations, in terms of energy loss, is the opening of the furnace doors for the insertion and extraction operations. During this time, the temperature of the furnaces decreases by hundreds of degrees in a few minutes. Because the dispersed heat needs to be supplied again through the combustion of fuel, increasing the consumption of energy and the pollutant emissions, the evaluation of the amount of the lost energy is crucial for the development of operating or mechanical systems able to contain this dispersion. To perform this study, CFD simulation software was used. Results show that at the door opening, because of temperature and pressure differences between the furnace and the ambient, turbulences are generated. Results also show that the amount of energy lost for an opening of 10 minutes for radiation, convection and conduction is equal to 5606 MJ where convection is the main contributor with 5020 MJ. The model created, after being validated, has been applied to perform other simulations in order to improve the energy performance of the furnace. Results show that a reduction of the opening time of the door allows energy savings and limits pollutant emissions.

The scene for regional biogeography and human settlements in Central Amazonia is set by the river network, which presumably consolidated in the Pliocene. However, we present geomorphological and sediment chronological data showing that the river network has been anything but stable. Even during the last 50 kyr, the tributary relationships have repeatedly changed for four major rivers, together corresponding to one third of the discharge of the Amazon. The latest major river capture event converted the Japurá from a tributary of the Rio Negro to a tributary of the Amazon only 1000 years ago. Such broad-scale lability implies that rivers cannot have been as efficient biogeographical dispersal barriers as has generally been assumed, but that their effects on human societies can have been even more profound. Climate change and deforestation scenarios predict increasing water levels during peak floods, which will likely increase the risk of future river avulsions. This may have disastrous consequences for the local human societies, especially in those areas where the current floodplains are at only marginally lower elevations than the nearest water divide. We suggest that the prevailing paradigm of rivers as principal structuring elements of Amazonian biogeography needs to be re-evaluated, and that land use planning and civil risk assessment should take the possibility of river avulsions into account.

Polarons, quasiparticles resulting from the interaction between an impurity and the collective excitations of a medium, play a fundamental role in physics, mainly because they represent an essential building block for understanding more complex many-body phenomena. In this manuscript, we study the spectral properties of a single impurity mixed with identical bosons in a one-dimensional lattice with power-law hopping. In particular, based on the so-called T-matrix approximation, we show the existence of well-defined quasiparticle branches for several tunneling ranges and for both, repulsive and attractive impurity-boson interactions. Furthermore, we demonstrate the persistence of the attractive polaron branch when the impurity-boson bound state is absorbed into the two-body continuum and that the attractive polaron becomes more robust as the range of the hopping increases. The results discussed here are of relevance for the understanding of the equilibrium properties of quantum systems with power-law interactions.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) has a poor prognosis and displays resistance to immunotherapy. A better understanding of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) effects on immune responses might contribute to improved immunotherapy. EVs derived from Capan-2 and BxPC-3 PC cells isolated by ultracentrifugation were characterized by atomic force microscopy, western blot (WB), nanoparticle tracking analysis and label-free proteomics. Fresh PBMCs from healthy donors were treated with PC- or control-derived heterologous EVs followed by flow cytometry analysis of CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes. Proteomics of lymphocytes sorted from EV-treated, or -untreated PBMCs was performed and IFN-γ concentration was measured by ELISA. Notably, most of the proteins identified in Capan-2 and BxPC-3 EVs by proteomic analysis were connected in a single functional network (p=1x10-16) and were involved in “Immune System” (FDR: 1.10x10-24 and 3.69x10-19, respectively). Interestingly, treatment of healthy donor-derived PBMCs with Capan-2 EVs, but not with BxPC-3 EVs or heterologous control EVs induced early activation of CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes. Proteomics of lymphocytes sorted from EV-treated PBMCs was consistent with their activation by Capan-2 EVs, indicating IFN-γ among major upstream regulators, as confirmed by ELISA. Proteomic and functional analyses indicate that PC-EVs have pleiotropic effects, and some may activate early immune response, which might be relevant for the development of highly needed immunotherapeutic strategies in this immune-cold tumor.

In this paper, we present a novel approach for managing the file system in Linux using a voice assistant. Our system allows users to perform file system operations such as creating directories, renaming files, and deleting files by issuing voice commands. We develop a voice assistant using Python libraries and integrate it with the file system in Linux. The voice assistant is capable of understanding natural language and executing commands based on the user's voice inputs. We conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of the system and demonstrate that our approach is effective and efficient in managing the file system using voice commands. Our system can enhance the accessibility and usability of the file system in Linux for individuals with disabilities or those who prefer a hands-free approach to file management.

The Coronavirus pandemic has created complex challenges and adverse circumstances. This research discovers public sentiment amidst problematic socioeconomic consequences of the lockdown, and explores ensuing four potential sentiment associated scenarios. The severity and brutality of COVID-19 have led to the development of extreme feelings, and emotional and mental healthcare challenges. This research identifies emotional consequences - the presence of extreme fear, confusion and volatile sentiments, mixed along with trust and anticipation. It is necessary to gauge dominant public sentiment trends for effective decisions and policies. This study analyzes public sentiment using Twitter Data, time-aligned to COVID-19, to identify dominant sentiment trends associated with the push to 'reopen' the economy. Present research uses textual analytics methodologies to analyze public sentiment support for two potential divergent scenarios - an early opening and a delayed opening, and consequences of each. Present research concludes on the basis of exploratory textual analytics and textual data visualization, that Tweets data from American Twitter users shows more trust sentiment support, than fear, for reopening the US economy. With additional validation, this could present a valuable time sensitive opportunity for state governments, the federal government, corporations and societal leaders to guide the nation into a successful new normal future.

Along with the Coronavirus pandemic, another crisis has manifested itself in the form of mass fear and panic phenomena, fuelled by incomplete and often inaccurate information. There is therefore a tremendous need to address and better understand COVID-19's informational crisis and gauge public sentiment, so that appropriate messaging and policy decisions can be implemented. In this research article, we identify public sentiment associated with the pandemic using Coronavirus specific Tweets and R statistical software, along with its sentiment analysis packages. We demonstrate insights into the progress of fear-sentiment over time as COVID-19 approached peak levels in the United States, using descriptive textual analytics supported by necessary textual data visualizations. Furthermore, we provide a methodological overview of two essential machine learning classification methods, in the context of textual analytics, and compare their effectiveness in classifying Coronavirus Tweets of varying lengths. We observe a strong classification accuracy of 91% for short Tweets, with the Naive Bayes method. We also observe that the logistic regression classification method provides a reasonable accuracy of 74% with shorter Tweets, and both methods showed relatively weaker performance for longer Tweets. This research provides insights into Coronavirus fear sentiment progression, and outlines associated methods, implications, limitations and opportunities.

X-ray crystallographic and theoretical charge density data for a series of compounds [(Co(Ts3tren))M(Co(Ts3tren))] (M = Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba) is examined. The crystal structures are isostructural and the alkaline earth metal ions have the same arrangement of donor oxygen atoms despite the large variation in ionic radii. The isomorphism of these molecules is surprising and a theoretical examination of the electronic structures, with the different metal ions along the series, provides detailed insight into their stabilities. The theoretical and experimental data are consistent and agree well. The local properties of the Co(II) ion and its donor atoms are relatively independent of the alkali earth metal.

The present study comprises the second part of our previous work that dealt mainly with the phytochemical and physicochemical characterization of green coffee, clove, cinnamon/clove and nutmeg ethanolic extracts of grape origin. In the present study, we focused on producing a discriminating model concerning green coffee, clove, cinnamon, cinnamon and clove, and nutmeg fine powders based on multivariate analysis of variance and supervised learning on data of volatile compounds analysis, carried out with solid phase dynamic extraction in combination with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results showed that 7 volatile compounds namely ethylene, methanol, 3-methylpentane, ethyl acetate, 9-hexadecen-1-ol, toluene, and methyl acetate could differentiate the investigated samples resulting in a 100% classification rate using the cross-validation method of linear discriminant analysis. Results were further confirmed using partial least squares regression analysis. The study contributes to the typification of green coffee, cinnamon, clove, cinnamon and clove and nutmeg, based on selected volatile compounds, and provides further support to the literature by means of possible adulteration given the statistical models developed.

Response of tomato and eggplant to continuous lighting (CL) and abnormal light/dark (L/D) cycles was studied to elucidate the role of the absence of the dark period in the diurnal cycle in the development of leaf injuries under CL. Four light treatments were set: 16/8 h (control), 24/0 h (CL), 6/6 h, and 24/24 h (abnormal L/D cycles). These light treatments provided average daily light integrals of 17.3, 25.9, 13.0 and 13.0 mol m-2 day-1, respectively. Results of this work have shown that in both tomato and eggplant abnormal L/D cycles caused photoinhibition and leaf injuries similar to those in CL-grown plants. Induced defense mechanisms were not strong enough to contend against oxidative stress caused by light treatments that provided plants with even smaller DLI than 16/8 h photoperiod did. Half time during abnormal L/D cycles were dark periods. Despite these facts, abnormal L/D cycles were injurious. It is concluded that photooxidative stress induced by CL can not be attributed to excessive DLI or the continuity of light itself (the absence of dark periods). Therefore, we believe that the hypothesis suggesting circadian asynchrony to be the main triggering factor of CL-induced leaf injuries is the most plausible among many others proposed.

The development of anti-pain technologies in the complex treatment of pain syndromes is one of the most urgent tasks of modern medicine. We have undertaken a placebo-controlled experimental study of the therapeutic potential of low-intensity laser radiation when applied to acupuncture points, which are directly related to the autonomic nervous system. The adaptation effect of puncture photobiomodulation on the induction of stress-mediated autonomic reactions, oxidative metabolism and microcirculation in animals during the acute phase of pain stress was revealed. The data obtained are of interest for use in the complex rehabilitation of patients with pain syndrome.

Abiotic stress is responsible for significant reduction in crop plant productivity worldwide. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a natural component of sunlight and a permanent environmental stimulus. This study investigated the distinct responses of young wheat and einkorn plants to excessive UV-B radiation (180 min at λmax 312 nm) following foliar pretreatment with 1 µM synthetic cytokinin 4PU-30. Results demonstrated that UV radiation significantly amplified hydrogen peroxide levels in both wheat and einkorn, with einkorn exhibiting more pronounced increase compared to wheat. This elevation indicated the induction of oxidative stress by UV radiation in the two genotypes. Intensified antioxidant enzyme activities and increased accumulation of typical stress markers and non-enzyme protectants were evidenced. Transcriptional activity of genes encoding key antioxidant enzymes was also investigated aiming to elucidate the genetic regulation of the antioxidant systems in both wheat and einkorn seedlings. Our results suggested a role for POX1 and POX7 genes in the UV-B tolerance of the two wheat species as well as a cytokinin stimulated UV-B stress response in einkorn mediated through upregulation of the tau subfamily gene GSTU6. Based on these findings it could be concluded that 4PU-30 had the potential of alleviating oxidative stress by attenuating the symptoms of superfluous UV-B illumination in the two examined plant species.

Recently, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced the New Radio (NR) technology for Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication to enable delay-sensitive and bandwidth-hungry applications in vehicular communication. The NR system is strategically crafted to complement the existing Long Term Evolution (LTE) Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) infrastructure, particularly to support advanced services such as the operation of automated vehicles. It is widely anticipated that the 5th generation (5G) NR system will surpass LTE C-V2X in terms of achieving superior performance in scenarios characterized by high throughput, low latency, and enhanced reliability, especially in the context of congested traffic conditions and a diverse range of vehicular applications. This article will provide a comprehensive literature review on vehicular communications from Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) to NR V2X. Subsequently, it delves into a detailed examination of the challenges and opportunities inherent in NR V2X technology. Finally, we proceed to elucidate the process of creating and analyzing an open-source 5G NR V2X module in network simulation-3 (ns-3) and then demonstrate the NR V2X performance in terms of different key performance indicators implemented through diverse operational scenarios.

The efficiency, durability, and overall performance of a car engine are influenced by several critical factors. The quality and properties of engine oil play a crucial role, and oil is used in internal combustion engines for lubrication and cooling purposes. This research study aimed to compare the impact of fullerene-C60 (99.5%), Fe2O3, and TiO2 nanoparticles on the thermal properties of C.A.L.T.E.X. red engine oil with grades 10W30, 20W40, and 20W50. This study focused on the effect of a nanoparticle concentration of 0.01 wt.% in different engine oil grades at various temperature values of 30-120 ℃. The Nanofluids were prepared using the two-step direct mixing method, employing a magnetic stirrer and an ultrasonicator, ensuring uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the base fluids. The thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of the base fluids and nanofluids were measured using the FLUCON LAMBDA thermal conductivity meter. Additionally, flash points were measured using the flash point tester. It was concluded that the thermal properties of TiO2 and Fe2O3 showed considerable enhancement; in contrast, Fullerene only showed the 212 ℃ flash point.

Hereditary cancer syndromes caused by germline mutations account for 5-10% of all cancers. The finding of a genetic mutation could have far-reaching consequences for pharmaceutical therapy, personalized prevention strategies, and cascade testing. According to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCN) and the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) guidelines, unaffected family members should be tested only if the affected one is unavailable. This article explores whether germline genetic testing may be offered to high-risk families for hereditary cancer even if a living affected relative is missing. A retrospective study was carried out on 103 healthy subjects tested from 2017 to 2023. We enrolled all subjects with at least two first or second-degree relatives affected by breast, ovarian, pancreatic, gastric, prostate, or colorectal cancer. All subjects were tested by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) multi-gene panel of 27 cancer-associated genes. In the study population, 5 (about 5%) pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants (PVs/LPVs) were found while 40 (42%) had a Variant of Uncertain Significance (VUS). This study highlights the importance of genetic testing for individuals with a strong family history of hereditary malignancies. This approach would allow women who tested positive to receive tailored treatment and prevention strategies based on their personal mutation status.

Investigating and classifying sentiments of social media users (e.g., positive, negative) towards an item, situation, and system are very popular among the researchers. However, they rarely discuss the underlying socioeconomic factor associations for such sentiments. This study attempts to explore the factors associated with positive and negative sentiments of the people about reopening the economy, in the United States (US) amidst the COVID-19 global crisis. It takes into consideration the situational uncertainties (i.e., changes in work and travel pattern due to lockdown policies), economic downturn and associated trauma, and emotional factors such as depression. To understand the sentiment of the people about the reopening economy, Twitter data was collected, representing the 51 states including Washington DC of the US. State-wide socioeconomic characteristics of the people (e.g., education, income, family size, and employment status), built environment data (e.g., population density), and the number of COVID-19 related cases were collected and integrated with Twitter data to perform the analysis. A binary logit model was used to identify the factors that influence people toward a positive or negative sentiment. The results from the logit model demonstrate that family households, people with low education levels, people in the labor force, low-income people, and people with higher house rent are more interested in reopening the economy. In contrast, households with a high number of members and high income are less interested to reopen the economy. The accuracy of the model is good (i.e., the model can correctly classify 56.18\% of the sentiments). The Pearson chi2 test indicates that overall this model has high goodness-of-fit. This study provides a clear indication to the policymakers where to allocate resources and what policy options they can undertake to improve the socioeconomic situations of the people and mitigate the impacts of pandemics in the current situation and as well as in the future.

I deduce an exact and analytic Bianchi type I solution of Einstein’s field equations which generalizes the isotropic ΛCDM universe model to a corresponding model with anisotropic expansion. The main point of the article is to present the anisotropic generalization of the ΛCDM universe model in a way suitable for investigating how anisotropic expansion modifies observable properties of the ΛCDM universe model. Although such generalizations of the isotropic ΛCDM universe model have been considered earlier, they have never been presented in this form before. Several physical properties of the model are pointed out and compared with properties of special cases such as the isotropic ΛCDM universe model. The solution is then used to investigate the Hubble tension. It has recently been suggested that that the cosmic large scale anisotropy may solve the Hubble tension. I consider those earlier suggestions and find that the formulae of these papers lead to the result that the anisotropy of the cosmic expansion is too small to solve the Hubble tension. Then I investigate the problem in a new way, using the exact solution of the field equations. This gives the result that the cosmic expansion anisotropy is still too small to solve the Hubble tension in the general Bianchi type I universe with dust and LIVE (Lorentz Invariant Vacuum Energy with a constant energy density which is represented by the cosmological constant) and anisotropic expansion in all three directions – even if one neglects the constraints coming from the requirement that the anisotropy should be sufficiently small, so that it does not have any significant effect upon the results coming from the calculations of the comic nucleosynthesis during the first ten minutes of the universe. If this constraint is taken into account, the cosmic expansion anisotropy is much too small to solve the Hubble tension.

Verification of inclusivity of molecular detection methods gives indications on the reliability of viral infections diagnosis because of the tendency of viral pathogens to undergo sequence variation. This study was aimed to select inclusive probe based reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assays for the diagnosis of the most widespread and detrimental viruses infecting honeybees, namely the acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), the black queen cell virus (BQCV), the chronic paralysis bee virus (CBPV), the deformed wing virus variants A (DWVA) and B (DWVB), and the sacbrood virus (SBV). Therefore, detection methods previously described were re-evaluated in silico for specificity and inclusivity. Based on this evaluation, selected methods were modified or new ones were designed and tested in duplex RT-qPCR reactions. The limits of detection (LODs), effect of multiplexing on sensitivity and viral RNA quantification potential in bees and hive debris were assessed. This study made available diagnostic assays able to detect an increased number of virus variants compared to previously described tests and two viral pathogens in a single PCR reaction.

In this paper glass crystallization behavior of 50ZnO:47B2O3:3Nb2O3:0.5Eu2O3 (G-0h) glass has been investigated in detail by DSC, XRD and TEM analysis. The luminescent properties of resulted glass-ceramics were also investigated. By XRD and TEM analysis crystallization of several crystalline phases have been proved (α-Zn3B2O6, β-Zn3B2O6 and ZnNb2O6). By calculating of crystal parameters it was found that europium ions are successfully incorporated in the β-Zn3B2O6. Photo-luminescent spectra show an increased emission in the resulting glass-ceramic samples as compared with the parent glass sample because of the higher asymmetry of Eu3+ ions in the crystalline phases obtained. It was established that the optimum emission intensity is registered for glass-ceramic sample obtained after 25 hours heat treatment of the parent glass.

Molecular overtone transitions provide optical frequency transitions sensitive to variation in the proton-to-electron mass ratio (μ = m_p/m_e). However, robust molecular state preparation presents a challenge critical for achieving high precision. Here, we characterize infrared and optical-frequency broadband laser cooling schemes for TeH⁺, a species with multiple electronic transitions amenable to sustained laser control. Using rate equations to simulate laser cooling population dynamics, we estimate the fractional sensitivity to μ attainable using TeH⁺. We find that laser cooling of TeH⁺ can lead to significant improvements on current μ variation limits.

A milk drink flavored with dates syrup produced at a lab scale level was evaluated. The production process of date syrup involves a sequence of essential unit operations, commencing with the extraction, filtration, and concentration processes from two cultivars: Sukkary and Khlass. Date syrup was then mixed with cow’s and camel’s milk at four percentages to form a nutritious, natural, sweet, and energy milk drink. Sensory, physical, and chemical characteristics of the milk drinks flavored with date syrup were examined. The objective of this work was to measure physiochemical properties of dates fruits and milk drinks flavored with dates syrup, then to evaluate the physical properties of milk drinks utilizing a non-destructive NIR spectra. The study assessed the characteristics of the milk drink enhanced with date syrup by employing near-infrared spectra (NIR) spectra and analyzed utilizing partial least-square regression (PLSR) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis. The NIR spectrum proved to be highly effective in estimating the physiochemical attributes of the flavored milk drink. The ANN model outperformed the PLSR model in this context. RMSECV is considered a more reliable indicator of a model's future predictive performance compared to RMSEC, R2 ranged between 0.946 and 0.989. Consequently, non-destructive NIR technology demonstrates significant promise for accurately predicting and contributing to the entire production process of the product's properties examined.

We present a summary of the main results within the Scale Invariant Vacuum (SIV) paradigm based on the Weyl Integrable Geometry (WIG) as an extension to the standard Einstein General Relativity (EGR). After a brief review of the mathematical framework, where we also highlight the connection between the weak-field SIV equations and the notion of un-proper time parametrization within the reparametrization paradigm, we continue with the main results related to early Universe; that is, applications to inflation, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and the growth of the density fluctuations within the SIV. In the late time Universe the applications of the SIV paradigm are related to scale-invariant dynamics of galaxies, MOND, dark matter, and the dwarf spheroidals where one can find MOND to be a peculiar case of the SIV theory. Finally, within the recent time epoch, we highlight that some of the change in the length-of-the-day (LOD), about 0.92 cm/yr, can be accounted for by SIV effects in the Earth-Moon system.

Drafting is a common technique to reduce the drag experienced by elite runners on races, leading to better running efficiency and energy savings. The tactic has been successfully used in previous races where world records were set, especially by Eliud Kipchoge in the 2018 and 2022 editions of the Berlin marathon. In the 2023 edition of the Chicago Marathon, Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum broke the Marathon record after a 2:00:35 finish. This feat becomes even more impressive by the lack of use of drafting formations, despite the availability of two pacers for the majority of the race. In this study, the drag faced by Kiptum and his pacers during the race is calculated by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The performance of each runner is evaluated from an energetic standpoint, and the analysis is extended to include more efficient drafting formations. Our results indicate that, by properly using the advantages of drafting, Kiptum could have finished the race at a staggering 1:57:34, a full three minutes better than his own record and 215 seconds better than the previous world record.

Ethiopia has been known for its recurrent droughts and poverty due to extreme climate change and variability affecting agricultural production. This study was, therefore, conducted to analyze the seasonal and inter-annual variability in rainfall and temperature v over the past three decades in western Tigray. The study consisted of 34 years of temperature and rainfall data from nine stations in two administrative zones in the western part of Tigray. The climate data was obtained from the National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA) from 1983 to 2016. Total rainfall, simple daily intensity index, Rx1day and Rx5day, and maximum and minimum temperature, tropical nights, diurnal temperature range, cold spell and warm spell duration indicator values, cold days and cold nights, warm days, and warm nights were analyzed. RClimDex software was employed to analyze the trends and quality control of the extreme rainfall and temperature indices; in addition, the Mann-Kendall test was also used to detect the changes and variability of the variables. The trend analysis showed that there was significant (p<0.05) variability in extreme temperatures, with maximum and minimum temperatures varying from 0.04 to 0.051 0C, and 0.022 to 0.031 0C, respectively. The results also revealed that there was a negative trend in extreme rainfall, with no uniform pattern. The highest and smallest reduction in the annual rainfall was 14.6 mm and 8.4 mm, which were observed at Maygaba and Adigoshu, respectively. More than 60% of the total rainfall was received in July and August throughout the study areas, with the maximum monthly rainfall of 294.2 mm observed at Adiremets. Finally, this study demonstrated that areas in the northwestern and western zones of Tigray were significantly affected by extreme rainfall and temperature variability, which subsequently affected crop yield, natural resources, food security, and the livelihood of the community during the last three decades.

Among the various generalizations of persistent topology, the one based on rank functions and leading to indexing-aware functions appears to be particularly suited to catch graph-theoretical properties without the need for a simplicial construction and a homology computation. This paper defines and studies "simple" and "single-vertex" features in directed and undirected graphs, by which several indexing-aware persistence functions are produced, within the scheme of steady and ranging sets. The implementation of the "sink" feature and its application to trust networks provide an example of the ease of use and meaningfulness of the method.

PM-Gati-Shakti Initiative, integration of ministries, including railways, ports, waterways, logistic infrastructure, mass transport, airports, and roads. Aimed at enhancing connectivity and bolstering the competitiveness of Indian businesses, the initiative focuses on six pivotal pillars known as "Connectivity for Productivity": comprehensiveness, prioritization, optimization, synchronization, analytical, and dynamic. In this study, we explore the application of these pillars to address the problem of "Maximum Demand Forecasting in Delhi." Electricity forecasting plays a very significant role in the power grid as it is required to maintain a balance between supply and load demand at all times, to provide a quality electricity supply, for Financial planning, generation reserve, and many more. Forecasting helps not only in Production Planning but also in Scheduling like Import / Export which is very often in India and mostly required by the rural areas and North Eastern Regions of India. As Electrical Forecasting includes many factors which cannot be detected by the models out there, We use Classical Forecasting Techniques to extract the seasonal patterns from the daily data of Maximum Demand for the Union Territory Delhi. This research contributes to the power supply industry by helping to reduce the occurrence of disasters such as blackouts, power cuts, and increased tariffs imposed by regulatory commissions. The forecasting techniques can also help in reducing OD and UD of Power for different regions. We use the Data provided by a department from the Ministry of Power and use different forecast models including Seasonal forecasts for daily data.

Inorganic chemistry has contributed to the progress of human civilization in several different ways. Its activities at the interface with other scientific disciplines has led to emergence of several new fields like organometallic chemistry, bio-inorganic chemistry, solid-state chemistry, environmental chemistry, etc. In the past few decades, it has made inroads in yet another dimension of immense relevance, i.e. nano-science and –technology. In this assay an attempt has been made to present an overview of utility of inorganic and organometallic compounds as precursors for the synthesis of nano-materials with reference to catalysis and materials science. Applications of metal nanoparticles (NPs) and metal chalcogenide NPs, generated through molecular precursor route, in catalysis have been discussed. Synthesis of ternary and quaternary metal chalcogenide nano-materials by molecular precursor route has been reviewed.

Sudden unexpected death (SUD) is a fatal event that occurs in an apparently healthy subject so that such an abrupt outcome could have not been predicted. SUD - including sudden intrauterine unexplained death (SIUD), sudden neonatal unexpected death (SNUD), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sudden unexpected death of the young (SUDY), sudden unexpected death in the adult (SUDA) - occurs as the first manifestation of an unknown underlying disease or within a few hours of presentation of a disease. SUD is a major unsolved, shocking form of death that occurs frequently and can happen at any time without warning. For each case of SUD, a review of clinical history data and performance of a complete autopsy, particularly focused on the study of the cardiac conduction system were carried out according to the necropsy protocol devised by the Lino Rossi Research Center, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. Research cases are represented by 75 SUD victims, subdivided into 15 SIUD, 15 SNUD, 15 SUDY, and 15 SUDA victims, collected and selected for this study. After the routine autopsy and clinical history analysis, the death remained unexplained and hence a diagnosis of SUD was assigned to the 75. subjects, which included45 females (60%) and 30 (40%) males, ranging in age from 27 gestational weeks to 76 years. Serial sections of the cardiac conduction system disclosed frequent congenital alterations, of the cardiac conduction system in fetuses and infants. An age-related significant difference in distribution among the 5 age-related groups was detected for the following anomalies of the conduction system: central fibrous body (CFB) islands of conduction tissue, fetal dispersion, resorptive degeneration, Mahaim fiber, CFB cartilaginous meta-hyperplasia, His bundle septation, sino-atrial node (SAN) artery fibromuscular thickening, atrio-ventricular junction hypoplasia, intramural right bundle branch, and SAN hypoplasia. The results data are useful to understand the cause of death for all SUD cases that were unexpected and would have otherwise remained unexplained, so to motivate medical examiners and pathologists to perform more in-depth studies.

This qualitative research study explores the experiences of three Emirati women who have achieved significant success in their higher education institutes in the (UAE). The study aims to understand how childhood and adolescent experiences shape the leadership development of these women, both positively and negatively. The study also includes interviews with family members and close colleagues of the participants to gain additional perspectives. The findings the importance of family support, role models, and mentors in shaping the leadership development of women in the UAE. The study also sheds light on the challenges and barriers that women face in leadership positions, including gender bias and discrimination. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the experiences of Emirati women in leadership positions and provides insights into how to support their leadership development.

In this article, we analyze the thermodynamics, thermal fluctuations and quasi-normal modes of a torus-like charge AdS black hole. The parameters of a torus-like charged AdS black hole are its mass, electric charge, and cosmological constant. We used a torus-like charge AdS black hole to evaluate thermodynamics through thermal fluctuations and found that it significantly affected the corrected thermodynamic potentials. Black holes of larger radii are more stable and significant. The effect of thermal fluctuation has been investigated on the other thermodynamic potentials such as the Hemohltz free energy, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and specific heat, using the concept of corrected entropy. Finally, we use null geodesics to deal with quasi-normal modes. The null geodesics provide the photon sphere angular velocity and Lyapunov exponent, which are the real and imaginary components of the quasi-normal modes in the eikonal limit. With inceasing charge and photon radius, angular velocity reaches its maximum, similar to Lyapunov's exponent.

The classification of vessel types in SAR imagery is of crucial importance for maritime applications. However, the ability to use real SAR imagery for deep learning classification is limited, due to the general lack of such data and/or the labor-intensive nature of labeling them. Simulating SAR images can overcome these limitations, allowing the generation of an infinite number of datasets. In this contribution, we present a synthetic SAR imagery dataset with ship wakes, which comprises 46080 images for ten different real vessel models. The variety of simulation parameters includes 16 ship heading directions, 6 ship velocities, 8 wind directions, 2 wind velocities, and 3 incidence angles. In addition, we extensively investigate classification performance for noise-free, noisy, and denoised ship wake scenes. We utilize the standard AlexNet architecture and employ training from scratch. To achieve the best classification performance, we conduct Bayesian optimization to determine hyperparameters. Results demonstrate that the classification of vessel types based on their SAR signatures is highly efficient, with maximum accuracies of 96.16%, 92.7%, and 93.59%, when training using noise-free, noisy, and denoised datasets respectively. Thus, we conclude that the best strategy in practical applications should be to train convolutional neural networks on denoised SAR datasets. The results show that the versatility of the SAR simulator can open up new horizons in the application of machine learning to a variety of SAR platforms.

Enteropathogens, namely Salmonella and Campylobacter, are a concern in global public health and have been attributed in numerous risk assessments to a poultry source. During the last decade a large body of research addressing this problem has been published. The literature reviewed contains review articles on certain aspects of poultry production chain, however in the past decade there hasn’t been a review on the through production chain, farm to fork, production of poultry. This review, a pool of 514 articles were selected for relevance via a systematic screening process (from >7500 original search articles). These studies identified a diversity of management and intervention strategies for the elimination or reduction of enteropathogens in poultry production. Many studies were laboratory or limited field trials with implementation in true commercial operations being problematic. Entities considering using commercial anti-enteropathogen products and interventions are advised to perform an internal validation and fit for purpose trial as Salmonella and Campylobacter serovars and biovars may have regional diversity. Future research should focus on non-chemical application within the processing plant and how synergistic through chain intervention may contribute to reducing the overall carcass burden of enteropathogen, coupled with increased consumer education on safe handling and cooking of poultry.

HIV-1 protease (PR) is a viral enzyme that cleaves viral polyprotein precursors to convert them into functional forms, a process essential to generate infectious viral particles. Due to its broad substrate specificity, HIV-1 PR can also cleave certain host cell proteins. Several studies have identified host cell substrates of HIV-1 PR and described the potential impact of their cleavage on HIV-1-infected cells. Of particular interest is the interaction between PR and the caspase recruitment domain-containing protein 8 (CARD8) inflammasome. While PR typically has low levels of intracellular activity prior to viral budding, induction of premature PR activation to trigger CARD8-mediated cell killing may help eliminate latent reservoirs in people living with HIV. In this review, we discuss the viral and host substrates of HIV-1 protease and highlight potential applications and advantages of targeting CARD8 sensing of HIV-1 PR.

Natural cycles underpin the very stuff of life. In this commentary we consider unnatural cycles: that is, anthropogenic activities which have a circularity, but whose nature is to have a detrimental effect on human health, exacerbating existing problems. Natural cycles have feedback loops, some of which have recently come to light, with an understanding that everything is connected in some way. In health, feedback loops are imperative in homeostatic mechanisms. However, in the unnatural cycle the feedback loops serve to reinforce (and in some cases amplify) negative problems. We offer a commentary on an unnatural cycle moving from air quality to lung function and back to air quality; we call this the lung disease unnatural cycle. We suggest where links occur, and where wider consideration of interactions between various disciplines can lead to breaking this unnatural (or vicious) cycle, changing it to a healthy cycle where individual health can be improved, along with better global scale outcomes. We suggest that many activities within this unnatural cycle occur within silos. However, the improved cycle incorporates joint activities at geological, health, and financial levels, to the mutual benefit of all, breaking the unnatural cycle, and improving health, life and financial costs.

Electric streamer discharges (streamers) in air are a very important stage of lightning, taking place before formation of the leader discharge, and with which an electric discharge starts from conducting objects which enhance the background elecric field, such as airplanes. Despite years of research, it is still not well understood what mechanism determines the values of streamer parameters, such as its radius and propagation velocity. The Streamer Parameter Model (SPM) is aimed to understand this mechanism, as well as to provide a way to efficiently calculate streamer parameters. Previously, we demonstrated that SPM results compared well with a limited set of experimental data. In this Brief Report, we compare SPM predictions to the published hydrodynamic simulation (HDS) results.

Currently, there are no pharmacological treatments able to reverse nigral degeneration in Parkinson’s disease (PD), hence the unmet need for the provision of neuroprotective agents. Cannabis-derived phytocannabinoids (CDCs) and resveratrol (RSV) may be useful neuroprotective agents for PD due to their anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. To evaluate this, we undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to assess the neuroprotective effects of CDCs and RSV treatments in pre-clinical in vivo animal models of PD. The literature databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, PubMed and Web of Science core collection were systematically searched to cover relevant studies. A total of 1034 publications were analyzed, of which 18 met the eligibility criteria for this review. Collectively, the majority of neurotoxin-induced PD rodent studies demonstrated that treatment with CDCs or RSV produced a significant improvement in motor function and mitigated the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Biochemical analysis of rodent brain tissue suggested that neuroprotection was mediated by anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic mechanisms. This review highlights the neuroprotective potential of CDCs and RSV for in vivo models of PD, and therefore suggests their potential translation to human clinical trials to either ameliorate PD progression and/or be implemented as a prophylactic means to reduce the risk of development of PD.

While entropy was introduced in the second half of the 19th century in the international vocabulary as a scientific term, in the 20th century it became common in colloquial use. Popular imagination has loaded “entropy” with almost every negative quality in the universe, in life and in society, with a dominant meaning of disorder and disorganization. Exploring the history of the term and many different approaches on it, we show that entropy has a universal stochastic definition which is not disorder. The accompanying principle of maximum entropy, which lies behind the Second Law, gives explanatory and inferential power to the concept and promotes entropy as the mother of creativity and evolution. As social sciences are often contaminated by subjectivity and ideological influences, we try to explore whether the maximum entropy, applied to the distribution of wealth quantified by annual income, can give an objective description. Using publicly available income data, we show that the income distribution is consistent with the principle of the maximum entropy. The increase of entropy is associated to increase of society’s wealth yet a standardized form of entropy can be used to quantify inequality. Historically, technology has played a major role in development and increase of the entropy of income. Such findings are contrary to the theories of ecological economics and other theories which use the term entropy in a Malthusian perspective.

The Saudi government has undertaken rapid and swift actions, such as suspending Omrah and holding international flights. Such affirmative actions enhanced citizens and residents’ confidence in the government officials’ ability to fight the pandemic. However, there are more than 361,178 reported cases of Covid-19 with 6131 deaths as of December 22, 202. As nurses are the largest component of the health care workforce in Saudi Arabia, it is important that they are trained and have the skills and resources to adapt, whether on the frontline of a crisis or in a clinical environment. Nurses play a key function in fulfilling the needs of medical treatment by being the most important part of the health care delivery system.

Objective: We aim to assess the reporting discrepancy and the difference between confirmed and unreported COVID-19-like death counts.Study Design: The study is based on time-series data.Methods: We used publicly available data to explore the differences between confirmed death counts and deaths with Codiv-19 symptoms between March 8, 2020, and July 11, 2020, in Bangladesh.Results: During the week ending May 9, 2020, the unreported COVID-19-like death count was higher than the confirmed COVID-19 death count; however, it was lower in the following weeks. On average, unreported COVID-19-like death counts were similar to the confirmed COVID-19 death counts during the same period. However, the reporting authority neither considers these deaths nor adjusts for potential seasonal influenza or other related deaths, which might produce incomplete COVID-19 data and respective mortality rates. Conclusions: Documenting unreported deaths with COVID-19 symptoms needs to be included in provisional death counts because it is essential to estimate a robust COVID-19 mortality rate and to offer data-driven pandemic response strategies. An urgent initiative is needed to prepare an acceptable guideline for COVID-19 death reporting.

Improving the effectiveness of health interventions is a major challenge in public health research and program development. A large body of literature has found low or no impact of health education and promotional interventions. We aim to develop a conceptual framework in support of intervention designs for preventive health behavior improvement programs and outcomes. The proposed approach is based on a narrative review of empirical literature assessing the limitations of less effective or ineffective field experiments regarding preventive health education and promotion interventions. We found three major limitations regarding the mental model’s balance of treatment and comparison groups, treatment groups’ willingness to adopt suggested behaviors, and the type, length, frequency, intensity, and sequence of treatments. To minimize the influence of these concerns, we propose a mental model-based repeated multifaceted (MRM) intervention design framework to provide an intervention design for improving health education and promotional programs.

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that influenced customer satisfaction in the Moscow taxi market. The previous researches in customer satisfaction of transportation services laid the foundation of factor model. The resulting list of factors was revised by taxi market experts. The augmented model provided the basis for quantitative survey. The research sample included 310 respondents who have been using taxi services in Moscow during past 2 years. Survey data was analyzed using multiple choice regression method. Analysis results show significant differences between frequent and casual taxi users and a certain number of passenger experience factors that have no influence on customer satisfaction:for frequent users it is discount, for regular users - trip environment, and for rare clients - technical support&security and trip comfort.

The primary screening of hybridoma cells is a time-critical and laborious step during the development of monoclonal antibodies. Often critical errors occur in this phase, which supports the notion that the generation of monoclonal antibodies with hybridoma technology is difficult to control and hence a risky venture. We think that it is crucial to improve the screening process to eliminate most of the immanent deficits of the conventional approach. With this new microarray-based procedure, several advances could be achieved: Selectivity for excellent binders, high throughput, reproducible signals, avoidance of misleading avidity (multivalency) effects, and simultaneous performance of competition experiments. The latter can directly be used to select clones of desired cross-reactivity properties. In this paper, a model system with two excellent clones against carbamazepine, two weak clones and blank supernatant has been designed to examine the effectiveness of the new system. The excellent clones could be detected largely independent of the IgG concentration, which is unknown during the clone screening since the determination and subsequent adjustment of the antibody concentration is not possible in most cases. Furthermore, in this approach, the enrichment, isolation, and purification of IgG for characterization is not necessary. Raw cell culture supernatant can be used directly, even when fetal calf serum (FCS) or other complex media had been used. In addition, an improved method for the oriented antibody-immobilization on epoxy-silanized slides is presented. Based on the results of this model system, we conclude that this approach should be preferable to most other protocols leading to many of false positives, causing expensive and lengthy confirmation steps to weed out the poor clones.

Vitrimers are covalent network materials, comparable in structure to classical thermosets. Unlike normal thermosets, they possess a chemical bond swap mechanism that makes their structure dynamic and suitable for activated welding and even autonomous self-healing. The central question in designing such materials is the trade-off between autonomy and material stability: The swap mechanism facilitates the healing but it also facilitates creep, which makes the perfectly stable self-healing solid a hard goal to reach. Here, we address this question for the case of self-healing vitrimers made from star polymers. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we study the adhesion of two vitrimer samples and find that they bond together on timescales that are much shorter than the stress relaxation time. We show that the swap mechanism allows the star polymers to diffuse through the material through coordinated swap events, but the healing process is much faster and does not depend on this mobility.

Small business sector around the world is regarded as a catalyst of employment for the largest number of people. To reduce massive unemployment and inequality in the country, the Government of South Africa introduced various initiatives to stimulate and support small businesses, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is one of such initiatives. The enterprise development approach, is one of the delivery mechanisms of the EPWP, which seeks to transfer income to poor households in the short to medium-term. This study critically assess the impact and effectiveness of training and support interventions provided to small businesses through the EPWP. The study employs a quantitative research method and due to the size, availability and ease of access to the participants, the entire population of twenty (20) small businesses supported by the EPWP in Pretoria Region was sampled. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The study demonstrates that the training intervention provided through the EPWP is making positive impact and achieving its intended goals of enhancing business management skills to participants. It also reveals an interesting outcome that the majority of the participants are women. The study also identified some weaknesses in the programme which leads to the recommendation that long-term support mechanisms are essential to ensure sustainability of emerging enterprises.

Micro-plasma is generated in ultra-high-pure hydrogen gas filled inside a cell at a pressure of (1.08 ± 0.033) × 10⁵ Pa (810 ± 25 Torr) by using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser device operated at 1064 nm wavelength and 14 ns pulse duration. Micro-plasma emission spectra of the hydrogen Balmer alpha line, H_α, are recorded with a Czerny-Turner type spectrometer and an intensified charge-coupled device. The spectra are calibrated for wavelength and corrected for detector sensitivity. During the first few tens of nanoseconds after initiating optical breakdown, significantly Stark-broadened and Stark-shifted H_α lines mark the well-above hypersonic outward expansion. The vertical diameters of the spectrally resolved plasma images are measured for time delays of 10 ns to 35 ns to determine expansion speeds of the order of 100 km/s to 10 km/s. For time delays of the order of 0.5 µs to 1 µs, the expansion decreases to the speed of sound of 1.3 km/s in the near ambient temperature and pressure hydrogen gas.

Conservation scientists recognize that additional protected areas are needed to maintain biological diversity and ecological processes. As regional conservation planners embark on recommending additional areas for protection in formal conservation reserves, it is important to evaluate candidate lands for their role in building a resilient protected areas system of the future. Here, we evaluate North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures with respect to their (i) ecological integrity, (ii) role in connecting existing core protected areas, (iii) potential to diversify the ecosystem representation of reserves, and (iv) role in maintaining hotspots of biologically-rich areas not well protected. Mountain Treasures represent a citizen inventory of roadless areas and serve as candidates for elevated levels of conservation protection on U.S. federal lands. We compared Mountain Treasures to other candidate lands throughout the country to evaluate their potential national significance. While the Mountain Treasures tended to be more impacted by human modifications than other roadless areas, they are as important as other roadless areas with respect to their role in connecting existing protected areas and diversifying representation of ecosystems in conservation reserves. However, Mountain Treasures tended to have a much higher biodiversity priority index than other roadless areas leading to an overall higher composite score compared to other roadless areas. Our analysis serves as an example of how using broad-scale datasets can help conservation planners assess the national significance of local areas.

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, is an invasive beetle of East Asian origin that in North America and Russia killed millions of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.). In September 2020, EAB was de-tected in Saint Petersburg, becoming resonant event for the metropolitan city. The aim of the present study was to investigate occurrence and ecology of EAB in Saint Petersburg. The presence of two distinct enclave populations of EAB was revealed, each of which has (very likely) been established by separate events of “hitchhiking” transport vehicles. Following the invasion, further spread of EAB in Saint Petersburg was slow and locally restricted, main explanation for which is climatic factor. Due to spread by “hitchhiking”, the possibility of EAB further long-distance ge-ographic spread of EAB in the Baltic Sea region (EU) is high, and not only by ground transport (120–130 km distance from EU borders), but also by ferries transporting cars (traditional means of transportation across the Baltic Sea). In certain cases, development of EAB on F. excelsior was more successful (stem portion colonized, larval densities, number of galleries, exit holes, viable larvae, emerged beetles) than in (adjacent) F. pennsylvanica trees. Observed relatively high EAB-sensitivity of F. excelsior therefore questions the efficacy and benefits of the currently ongoing selection and breeding projects against ash dieback (ADB), caused by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. Inventory, mapping, and monitoring of surviving F. excelsior trees in areas infested by both ADB and EAB are necessary to acquire genetic resource for work on strategic long-term restoration of F. excelsior, tackling (inevitable) invasion of EAB to the EU.

Owing to the time-varying characteristics and nonlinearities of industrial processes, control has higher difficulties and results in challenges for advanced technology. In this paper, a self-tuning controller that includes a nonlinear proportional-integral-derivative (NPID) control function as well as a self-tuning function is proposed for first-order plus time delay (FOPTD) process control. The NPID control function is implemented using the nonlinear PID controller whose optimum parameters are adapted by a neural network (NN). The self-tuning function is able to identify the process dynamics using a short period of process behavior and tune NPID parameters based on the identified parameters. The advantage of the proposed method is validated with a set of simulation works on three processes and the comparison results are presented.

Mercury has a strong environmental impact since both its organic and inorganic forms are toxic and it represents a pollutant of global concern. Liquid Hg is highly volatile and it can be released during natural and anthropogenic processes in the hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. In this study the distribution of Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) and the total and leached mercury concentrations on paints, plasters, roof tiles, concretes, metals, dust and wood structures were determined in the main buildings and structures of the former Hg-mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Siena, Central Italy). The mining complex (divided into 7 units) covers a surface of about 65 ha and contains mining structures and managers and workers buildings. In this work, nine surveys of GEM measurements were carried out from July 2011 to August 2015 for the buildings and structures located in the units 2, 3 and 6. Moreover, detailed measurements were performed in February, April, July, September and December 2016 in the edifices and mining structures of Unit 6. GEM concentrations showed a strong variability in terms of space and time mostly depending on the distance from the building hosting driers, furnaces and condensers and ambient temperature, respectively. In the Unit 2 surveys carried out in the hotter period (from June to September) showed GEM concentrations up to 27,500 ng m⁻³, while in the Unit 6 they were on average much higher and occasionally they saturated the GEM measurement device (>50,000 ng m⁻³). Concentrations of total (in mg kg⁻¹) and leached (in μg L⁻¹) mercury measured in different building materials (up to 46,580 mg kg⁻¹ and 4,470 mg L⁻¹ for total and leached mercury, respectively) showed for the same type of material highly variable values in dependence on the edifice or mining structure from which they were collected. The results obtained in this study are of relevant interest for the operational cleanings to be carried out during the reclamation activities.

Burkholderia are a group of Gram-negative bacteria that can cause a variety of diseases in at-risk populations. B. pseudomallei and B. mallei, the etiological agents of melioidosis and glanders, respectively, are the two clinically relevant members of the B. pseudomallei complex (Bpc). The development of vaccines against Bpc species has been accelerated in recent years, resulting in numerous promising subunits and glycoconjugate vaccines incorporating a variety of antigens. However, a second group of pathogenic Burkholderia species exists known as the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), a group of opportunistic bacteria which tend to affect individuals with weakened immunity or cystic fibrosis. To date there have been few attempts to develop vaccines to Bcc species. Therefore, the primary goal of this review is to provide a broad overview of the various subunit antigens that have been tested in Bpc species, their protective efficacy, study limitations, and known or suspected mechanisms of protection. Then, we assess the reviewed Bpc antigens for their amino acid sequence conservation to homologous proteins found in Bcc species. We propose that protective Bpc antigens with a high degree of Bpc-to-Bcc sequence conservation could serve as components of a pan-Burkholderia vaccine capable of protecting against both disease-causing groups.

Halitosis can be defined as bad breath or a condition frequently characterized by a disagreeable or unpleasant odor emanating from the oral cavity. Most modern toothpaste used today cater for general oral hygiene and not for specific tooth-mouth maladies like halitosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to produce herbal toothpaste for halitosis control. Using the method of Mamatha and Naveen (2007) for herbal toothpaste production, the following natural components; Bridelia ferrugeinea and alum were utilized. Different toothpaste samples were also produced using different components in different proportions. Bacteria were isolated from the oral cavity of selected respondents. To assay the efficacy of the herbal toothpaste produced, sensitivity tests, and physiochemical tests for toothpaste efficacy were used. Comparative analysis between the toothpaste produced and commercial toothpaste was also carried out. Physicochemical properties of the herbal toothpastes produced showed that they were purely alkaline, while the selected commercial toothpaste was slightly alkaline. Also, they had consistency in foaming ability, moisture contents, and volatile contents. Sensitivity tests of the herbal toothpastes produced showed that they were effective antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus isolates. From the results obtained our toothpaste showed efficacy in terms of halitosis control.

There is a need to develop enriched milk drinks with healthy and natural additives. A consumer test was conducted to compare milk (cow and camel) flavored with date syrup (Khlass and Sukkary varieties) at different percentage. The objective of the present work was to study consumers liking patterns for flavored milk drinks from dates syrup (from Khlass and Sukkary dates), at different percentages, added to milk (cow and camel) utilizing preference mapping analysis. A total of sixteen trained panelists took part in the test. The obtained data were used to develop an internal preference map for these samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithms were used to construct the preference map. The first component signifies overall acceptance of taste and color, while the second focuses on texture and flavor. Consumers were grouped into five clusters based on preferences. Cluster two favored both components positively, while cluster four leaned negatively on both. A factorial ANOVA was performed and the results showed a significant effect of the main factors as well as the interactions. Panelists preferred cow's milk over Camel’s milk in all aspects. For taste, cow’s milk with 20% Khlass syrup or 10% Sukkary syrup was favored, while in flavor, it was cow’s milk with 5% Khlass syrup and Camel’s milk with 10% Sukkary syrup. Texture-wise, Camel’s milk with 5% Khlass syrup and 15% Sukkary syrup, along with cow’s milk with 10% Khlass syrup, received top marks. In color evaluation, cow’s milk with 15% Sukkary syrup was the preferred choice. Finally, for overall color score, cow’s milk with 10% Sukkary syrup led, followed by cow’s milk with 5% Sukkary syrup. This research suggests that dairy companies may have more impact if they use date syrup as a natural and healthy flavor. The preference map includes two main dimensions; the first represents overall acceptance, taste, and color while the second is related to flavor and texture attributes. The preference map can be used in product optimization and development.

This paper describes new horizons in the diversity and taxonomy of negev-like viruses encoding the membrane-embedded SP24 protein. First, our data extend the known host range of SP24-encoding negev-like viruses to include brown algae, fungi, green plants, the phylum Entoprocta, the phylum Mollusca, and vertebrates. Second, our phylogenetic analysis suggests that the evolution of the SP24 gene family may have involved frequent events of inter-order virus genome shuffling. Third, the identification of 2-3 copies of SP24 protein genes in some virus RNAs shows that virus genomes may have acquired additional SP24 genes during the evolutionary process due to duplications or new acquisition steps. Forth, the broad host specificity of some SP24-encoded viruses may be related to an important adaptive role of SP24. Fifth, insect and nematode genomes may acquire viral SP24 genes by putative horizontal transfer from negev-like viruses known to infect species of both taxa.

The emergence of drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis (Mtb) and the phenomenon of phe-notypic tolerance to drugs challenge the goal of tuberculosis (TB) elimination worldwide. By using the ex vivo cultures of alveolar macrophages obtained from lung tissues of TB patients after intensive antimicrobial chemotherapy before surgery, different subpopulations of multi-drug-tolerant Mtb with a spectrum of phenotypic and growth features were identified in the same TB lesions. Our results indicative of not only passive mechanisms generating nonheritable resistance of Mtb to antibiotics, which are associated mainly with a lack of Mtb growth, but also some active mechanisms of Mtb persistence, such as cell wall and metabolic pathway remod-eling. In one of the subpopulations, non-acid-fast Mtb have undergone significant repro-gramming with the restoration of acid-fastness, lipoarabinomannan expression and replication in host cells of some patients after withdrawal of anti-TB drugs. Our data indicate the universal stress protein Rv2623 as a clinically relevant biomarker of Mtb that have lost acid-fastness in human lungs. The studies of Mtb persistence, dormancy, and resumption and the identification of biomarkers characterizing these phenomena are very important to develop vaccines and drug regimens with the individualized management of patients for overcoming the re-sistance/tolerance crisis in anti-TB therapy.

In recent years Pd-containing catalytic systems for tandem processes has drawn special attention due to the enhanced catalytic properties and possibility to perform several reactions without the necessity to separate the intermediates. In this review, recent progress in Pd-catalyzed tandem processes is considered. Three types of catalytic systems were described: homogeneous catalysts (including immobilized Pd complexes); heterogeneous catalysts supported on oxides, MOFs, COFs, etc. with particular attention to the supports containing acid/base sites; metal-enzyme catalysts for chemoenzymatic tandem processes applied in fine organic synthesis and biotechnology. For homogeneous Pd-catalyzed reactions different tandem reactions were considered, i.e. cross-coupling, cyclization, carbonylation, isomerization, alkylation, arylation, etc.

Bifunctional catalysts consisting of mono- or bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) and zeolite supports received considerable attention due to excellent catalytic properties in numerous reactions including direct and indirect biomass processing. Here, we discuss major approaches to the preparation of NPs in zeolites, concentrating on methods allowing the best interplay (synergy) between metal and acid sites which is normally achieved for small NPs well-distributed through zeolite. We focus on modification of zeolites to provide structural integrity and controlled acidity which can be accomplished by incorporation of certain metal ions or elements. The other modification avenue is the adjustment of the zeolite morphology including creation of numerous defects for the NP entrapment and designed porosity. In this review we also provide examples of synergy between metal and acid sites and emphasize that without density functional theory calculations many assumptions about interactions between active sites stay unvalidated. Finally, we describe the most interesting examples of direct and indirect biomass (waste) processing for the last five years.

Germanium is an essential microelement, and its deficiency can result in numerous diseases, particularly oncogenic conditions. Consequently, water-soluble germanium compounds, including inorganic and coordination compounds, have attracted significant attention due to their biological activity. The review analyzes the primary research from the last decade related to the anticancer activity of germanium compounds. Furthermore, the review clarifies their actual toxicity, identifies errors and misconceptions that have contributed to the discrediting of their biological activity, and suggests a putative mechanism of germanium-mediated protection from oxidative stress. Finally, the review provides clarifications on the discovery history of water-soluble organic germanium compounds, which was distorted and hushed up for a long time.

Tubulin superfamily (TSF) proteins are widespread and known for multifaceted roles as cytoskeletal proteins underpinning many basic cellular functions including morphogenesis, division, and motility. In eukaryotes, tubulin assembles into microtubules, a major component of the dynamic cytoskeletal network of fibres, whereas the bacterial homolog FtsZ assembles the division ring at midcell. Functions of the lesser-known archaeal TSF proteins are beginning to be identified, and show surprising diversity, including homologs of tubulin and FtsZ, and a third archaea-specific family, CetZ, implicated in the regulation of cell shape and possibly other unknown functions. In this study, we defined sequence and structural characteristics of the CetZ family and CetZ1 and CetZ2 subfamilies, identified CetZ groups and diversity amongst archaea, and identified potential functional relationships through analysis of the genomic neighbourhoods of cetZ genes. At least three subfamilies of orthologous CetZ proteins were identified in the archaeal class Halobacteria, including CetZ1 and CetZ2 and a novel uncharacterized subfamily. CetZ1 and CetZ2 were correlated to one another and to cell shape and motility phenotypes across diverse Halobacteria. Amongst other known CetZ clusters in orders Archaeoglobales, Methanomicrobiales, Methanosarcinales, and Thermococcales, an additional uncharacterized group from Archaeoglobales and Methanomicrobiales affiliated strongly with Halobacteria CetZs, suggesting they originated via horizontal transfer. Subgroups of Halobacteria CetZ2 and Thermococcales CetZ genes were found adjacent to different type IV pili regulons, suggesting a potential utilization of CetZs by type IV systems. More broadly conserved cetZ gene neighbourhoods included nucleotide and cofactor biosynthesis (e.g., F420) and predicted cell surface sugar epimerase genes. The findings imply that CetZ subfamilies are involved in multiple functions linked to the cell surface, biosynthesis and motility.

Wearable and mobile technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in the last decade with technological advances creating a role from enhancing healthy living to monitoring and treating disease. However, the discussion about the ethical use of such commercial technology in the community, especially in minors, is lacking behind. In this paper, we first summarize the major ethical concerns that arise from the usage of commercially available wearable technology in children, with a focus on smart watches, highlighting issues around the consent process, mitigation of risk and potential confidentiality and privacy issues, as well as the potential for therapeutic misconceptions when used without medical advice. Then through a relevant thought experiment we move on to outline some further ethical concerns that are connected to the use of wearables by minors, to wit the issue of informed consent in the case of minors, forcing them to live in the spotlight, and compromising their right to an open future. We conclude with the view that mitigating potential pitfalls and enhancing the benefits of wearable technology especially for minors requires brave and comprehensive moral debates.