In this paper, the active front-end (AFE) converter topology for the total harmonic distortion (THD) reduction in a wind energy system (WES) is used. A higher THD results in serious pulsations in the wind turbine (WT) output power and in several power losses at the WES. The AFE converter topology improves capability, efficiency and reliability in the energy conversion devices; by modifying a conventional back-to-back converter, from using a single voltage source converter (VSC) to use pVSC connected in parallel the AFE converter is generated. The THD reduction is done by applying a different phase shift angle at the carrier of digital sinusoidal pulse width modulation (DSPWM) switching signals of each VSC. To verify the functionality of the proposed methodology, the WES simulation in Matlab-Simulink® is analyzed, and the experimental laboratory tests using the concept of rapid control prototyping and the real-time simulator Opal-RT® Technologies is achieved. The obtained results show a type-4 WT with total output power of 6MVA, generating a THD reduction up to 5.5 times at the WES.

Retired Electric vehicles (EVs) batteries are reused in second life energy storage applications. However, the overall performance of repurposed energy storage system (ESS) is limited by the unevenness of individual batteries use in it. Therefore, battery grading is required for optimal performance of ESS. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) based evaluation of battery aging is a promising way to grade lithium-ion batteries. However, it is not practical to measure impedance of mass retired batteries due to high complexity and slowness. In this paper, a broadband multi-sine binary signal (MSBS) perturbation integrated with multichannel EIS system is presented to measure impedance spectra for high-speed aging evaluation of lithium-ion batteries or modules. The measurement speed is multi-times higher than conventional EIS with single-channel configuration. The broadband MSBS is validated with reference sinusoidal sweep perturbation and corresponding root-mean-square error (RMSE) analysis is performed. Moreover, the accuracy of the presented multichannel EIS system is validated by impedance spectra measurement of Samsung INR18650-29E batteries and comparing it with those measured with commercial EIS instrument. A chi-squared error under 0.641% is obtained for all 8-channels. Since the non-linearity of battery has significant impact on quality of impedance spectra. Therefore, Kronig-Kramer (KK) transform validation is also performed.

The modern economic landscape, now more competitive than ever, compels companies to create increasingly innovative, cutting-edge, and cost-effective products. In this regard, design and development phases play a crucial role, since they closely determine the final satisfaction of the customer. As a consequence, the need for a structured approach is evident, since it allows the companies to identify product key characteristics. With the purpose of creating a new product with an extended horizon to various markets, this work is based on the use of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology for the identification and optimization of Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) features, aiming at making the project as responsive as possible to customer needs. Two main themes are addressed. The first one is the analysis of the integrated product development process with the Six Sigma methodology for achieving design excellence; the second one is the application of the Identify phase of the IDOV (Identify, Design, Optimise, Validate) approach through a DFSS case study.

Despite extensive research on autism in children, much less attention has been given to the transition into adulthood. This study aims to address this gap by examining the dietary behaviors of young adults with autism during this critical transition period, highlighting the role of diet in enhancing their readiness for adulthood. Forty-seven participants (mean age 21.0 ± 1.1 years), both male and female, were involved in this study. Participants had various comorbidities, such as mood disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, and anxiety disorders, for which they required medication. Dietary behavior was assessed using the Starting the Conversation: Diet survey, while transition readiness was measured with the Transition Readiness Sur-vey. T-test and regression analysis were utilized to evaluate the data. The results indicated that participants did not follow healthy eating habits, as reflected by the dietary scores (1.08 ± 0.07), and were not adequately prepared for adulthood, as shown by the transition readiness scores (3.19 ± 1.10). A statistically significant and negative correlation was found between dietary pat-terns and transition readiness (r = -0.51, p < 0.001), indicating an adverse relationship: transition readiness ratings decline as diet scores rise. Linear regression analysis revealed that dietary habits accounted for 26.20% of the variation in transition readiness, with the confidence interval for the coefficient of dietary habits being -2.89 to -0.95 (p = 0.002). The negative significant correlation between dietary scores and transition readiness scores shows that diet behavior significantly influences participants’ assessed readiness for transition.

Background and Objectives. To examine trends in the links between induced abortion and subsequent mental health problems for U.S. women approaching completed fertility. Materials and Methods. Panel data on a nationally-representative cohort of 3,842 ever-pregnant women assessed at mean ages of 15, 22, 28 and 37 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were examined for pregnancy outcome-related mental health disorders, with extensive adjustment for confounders including sociodemographic dif-ferences, mental health history, and unwanted pregnancies. Outcomes were defined using pub-lished diagnostic criteria or validated index for depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide ideation (affective problems); alcohol abuse, drug abuse, opioid abuse, and cannabis abuse (substance abuse problems); and summary counts of affective problems, substance abuse problems and total disorders. Results were adjusted for abortion under-reporting using cross-wave analysis. Results. The relative risk of mental health disorder with exposure to induced abortion followed an inverted “V” pattern as women aged to midlife, increasing from Wave III (age 22; IRR 1.41) to Wave IV (age 28; IRR 1.67), then dropping sharply by Wave V (age 37; IRR 1.20). The population at-tributable fraction of mental health disorder due to abortion dropped from 18.1% at Wave IV to 8.0% at Wave V. Unlike previous Waves, at Wave V mental health risk was more strongly reduced by exposure to childbirth (IRR 0.70, 95% CI .63, .78, p < .001). Reduced relative metrics at Wave V were not due to reduced prevalence of mental health disorders for ever-aborting women, which increased from Wave IV to Wave V by 1.7%, but increased much more, by 20.5%, for never-aborting women. Conclusion. At midlife approaching completed fertility, differential negative psychological out-comes for ever-aborting U.S. women remained elevated but reduced from younger ages.

Abstract Background: Occipital neuralgia is a debilitating condition and traditional treatments often provide limited or temporary relief. Recently, ultrasound-guided hydrodissection of the greater occipital nerve (GON) has emerged as a promising minimally invasive approach. Objectives: To describe two novel ultrasound-guided hydrodissection with 5% dextrose for GON and discuss their advantages, disadvantages, and considerations. Methods: Two case reports are presented. Case 1 describes a lateral decubitus approach for hydrodissecting the GON between the semispinalis capitis (SSC) and obliquus capitis inferior (OCI) muscles. Case 2 details a cranial-to-caudal approach for hydrodissecting the GON within the SSC and upper trapezius (UT) muscles when the GON pass through these two muscles. Results: Both patients experienced significant and sustained pain relief with improvements in function and quality of life. Conclusions: Ultrasound-guided GON hydrodissection using 5% dextrose is a promising treatment for occipital neuralgia. The lateral decubitus and cranial to caudal approaches provide additional options to address patient-specific anatomical considerations and preferences.

Engineer-to-order manufacturing, characterized by highly customized products and complex workflows, presents unique challenges for warehouse management and operational efficiency. This paper explores the potential of a digital twin as a transformative solution for engineer-to-order environments in manufacturing companies realizing prefabricated building components. The paper outlines a methodology encompassing users’ requirement and the design to support development of a digital twin that integrates Internet of Things devices, Building Information Modeling, and Artificial Intelligence capabilities. It delves into the specific challenges of outdoor warehouse optimization and worker safety within the context of engineer-to-order manufacturing, and how the digital twin aims to address these issues through data collection, analysis, and visualization. The research is conducted through an in-depth analysis of the warehouse of Focchi S.p.A., a leading manufacturer of high-tech prefabricated building envelopes. Focchi's production processes and stakeholder interactions are investigated, and the paper identifies key user groups and their multiple requirements for the warehouse improvement. It also examines the potential of the digital twin to streamline communication, improve decision-making, and enhance safety protocols. While preliminary testing results are not yet available, the paper concludes by underlining the significant opportunities offered by a BIM, IoT, and AI-powered Digital Twin for engineer-to-order manufacturers. The research, developed within the IRIS project serves as a promising model for integrating digital technologies into complex warehouse environments, paving the way for increased efficiency, safety, and ultimately, a competitive edge in the market of manufacturing companies working in construction industry.

Background. Transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) is a safe and effective treatment in symptomatic patients with mitral regurgitation (MR). We aimed to investigate the short-term impact of mitral TEER on left ventricular (LV) performance and identify echocardiographic prognostic indicators. Methods. Seventy-eight patients with severe MR (organic and functional etiologies) were included retrospectively. All patients had a baseline and short-term echocardi-ography after TEER and were followed up for the primary composite endpoint (heart failure hos-pitalization and cardiovascular death) over a median period of 13 months. Results. A significant decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), all myocardial work indices (except global wasted work), and left atrial reservoir were observed after TEER. Additionally, there was an im-provement in the pulmonary artery systolic pressure and tricuspid annular plane systolic excur-sion/pulmonary artery systolic pressure (TAPSE/PASP) ratio. 34% of all patients presented the primary composite endpoint. A TAPSE/PASP ratio post-TEER < 0.47 (HR: 4.76, p-value = 0.039), and left atrial reservoir post-TEER < 9.0% (HR: 2.77, p-value = 0.047) were independently associ-ated with the primary endpoint. Conclusions. Echocardiography post-TEER reflects impairment in ventricular performance due to preload reduction and right ventricular to pulmonary artery coupling improvement. Short-term echocardiography after TEER identifies high-risk patients who could benefit from a close clinical follow-up.

Speech recognition, also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), is a technology that enables software to transcribe spoken language into text. However, existing Amharic ASR methods require multiple separate blocks, such as language, acoustic, and pronunciation models with dictionaries, which can be time-consuming and influence performance. This study proposes an approach that replaces much of the speech pipeline with a single recurrent neural network (RNN) architecture. Our proposed architecture is based on a hybrid approach that combines a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a recurrent neural network (RNN) and a connectionist temporal classification (CTC) loss function. We conducted several experiments with noisy audio data that contain 20,000 valid sentences. The model was evaluated using the word error rate (WER) metric, achieving impressive results of 7% WER on noisy data. This approach has significant implications for the field of speech recognition, as it reduces the human effort required to create dictionaries and improves the efficiency and accuracy of ASR systems, making them more practical for real-world applications.

The 2022-2023 Mpox multi-country outbreak, identified in over 110 WHO Member States, revealed a predominant impact on cisgender men, particularly those engaging in sex with men, while less frequently affecting women. This disparity prompted a focused investigation into the gender-specific characteristics of Mpox infections, particularly among women, to address a notable knowledge gap. This review systematically gathers and analyzes scientific literature and case reports concerning Mpox infections in women, covering a broad geographical spectrum including regions such as Buenos Aires, Brazil, Northern California, Colombia, Nigeria, Europe, Vietnam, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. The analysis delves into various aspects of Mpox in women, including clinical features, epidemiology, psychological impacts, preparedness strategies, and case studies, with particular attention to pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions. Empirical data from multiple studies underscore the unique epidemiological and clinical patterns of Mpox in women. In the United States, a small percentage of Mpox cases were reported among cisgender women, with a notable portion involving non-Hispanic Black or African American, non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicities. The primary transmission route was identified as sexual or close intimate contact, with the virus predominantly manifesting on the legs, arms, and genital areas. Further, a study in Spain highlighted significant disparities in diagnosis delays, transmission modes, and clinical manifestations between genders, indicating a different risk profile and disease progression in women. Additionally, a case from Vietnam linked to a new Mpox sublineage in women emphasizes the role of women in the transmission dynamics and the importance of genomic monitoring. This review emphasizes the necessity for inclusive surveillance and research to fully understand Mpox dynamics across diverse population groups, including women. Highlighting gender and sexual orientation in public health responses is crucial for an effective approach to managing the spread and impact of the disease. The findings advocate for a gender-diverse assessment in health services and further research to explore the nuances of Mpox transmission, behavior, and progression among different groups, thereby enhancing the global response to Mpox and similar public health challenges.

In many developing countries of the world including Pakistan motorcycle steeling is one of the main issue that needs to be dealt with an iron hand as it leads to economic losses as well as crime increase in the society, according to the DOWN REPORT there were 28609 motorcycle stolen in 2019 and this number has been increased to 34908 in 2020. Now due to the increasing motorcycles stealing crime what measures can we take to reduce the number of motorcycle theft the rule of technology is enormous in this regards specially information technology (IT) , information technology can play an important role in the security of motorcycles from being theft by the thieves, Information technology provide us the GSM based control system which can be very help full to construct a security system for motorcycle in order to make it antitheft.

A simple method is presented for the continuous generation of carbon nanotube forests stably anchored on stainless-steel surfaces using a reactive-roll-to-roll (RR2R) configuration. No addition of catalyst nanoparticles is required for the CNT-forest generation, the stainless-steel substrate itself being tuned to generate the catalytic growth sites. The process enables very larges surfaces covered with CNT forests having individual CNT roots anchored to the metallic ground through primary bonds. Fog water harvesting is demonstrated and tested as one potential application using long CNT-covered wires. The RR2R is performed in the gas phase, no solution processing of CNT suspensions is used contrary to usual R2R CNT-based technologies. Full or partial CNT-forest coverage provides tuning of the ratio and shape of hydrophobic and hydrophilic zones on the surface. This enables optimization of fog water harvesters for droplet capture through the hydrophobic CNT forest, and water removal from the hydrophilic SS surface. Water recovery tests using small harp-type harvesters with CNT-forest generate water capture of up to 2.2 g/cm2h under ultrasound-generated fog flow. The strong CNT root anchoring on the stainless steel surfaces provides opportunities for (i) robustness and easy transport of the composite structure, (ii) chemical functionalization and/or nanoparticle decoration of the structures, and opens the road for a series of applications on large scale surfaces, including fog harvesting.

This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using airborne acoustic emission in laser beam butt welding for the development of an automated classification system based on neural networks. The focus was on monitoring the formation of joint gaps during the welding process. To simulate various sizes of butt joint gaps, controlled welding experiments were conducted, and the emitted acoustic signals were captured using audible to ultrasonic microphones. To implement an automated monitoring system, a method based on short-time Fourier transformation was developed to extract audio features, and a convolutional neural network architecture with data augmentation was utilized. The results demonstrated that this non-destructive and non-invasive approach was highly effective in detecting joint gap formations, achieving an accuracy of 98%. Furthermore, the system exhibited promising potential for low latency monitoring of the welding process. The classification accuracy for various gap sizes reached up to 90%, providing valuable insights for characterizing and categorizing joint gaps accurately. Additionally, increasing the quantity of training data with quality annotations could potentially improve the classifier model's performance further. This suggests that there is room for future enhancements in the study.

All severe cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections are characterized by a high risk of disease progression towards ARDS, leading to bad outcome. Respiratory symptoms in COVID-19 patients often do not correspond to disease’s worsening. A dysregulated host response to the large viral load could play a key role in the disease progression. In our sample median age was 74 years (72-75) and 54% were men. Median period of hospitalization was 9 days. Firstly, we observed an asynchronous trend of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in 764 selected among 963 patients who were consecutively recruited in two hospitals (Cannizzaro, S. Marco) in Catania, Italy. NLR values in deceased patients showed an increase from baseline over time. By contrast, CRP tended to fall from baseline to median day of hospitalization in all four subgroups, but steeply increased at the end of hospitalization only in ICU-admitted patients. Then we evaluated the relationships between NLR and CRP as continuous variables with PaO2/FiO2 ratio (P/F). Finally, we made mediation and moderation analyses to determine the link between inflammation (CRP), immune system (neutrophils and lymphocytes) and respiratory failure (P/F). CRP, neutrophils and P/F are linked in the same pathogenetic chain leading to respiratory failure.

Quantitative biomarkers derived from positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) have been suggested as prognostic variables in immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As such data for first-line ICI therapy and especially for chemotherapy-ICI combinations are still scarce, we retrospectively evaluated baseline 18F-FDG-PET/CT of 85 consecutive patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab with chemotherapy (n=70) or as monotherapy (n=15). Maximum and mean standardized uptake value, metabolic tumor volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis and bone marrow-/ spleen to liver ratio (BLR/SLR) were calculated. Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox-regression models were used to assess progression-free/overall survival (PFS/OS) and their determinant variables. Multivariate selection for PFS/OS revealed MTV as most relevant PET/CT biomarker (p<0.001). Median PFS/OS were significantly longer in patients with MTV≤70mL versus >70mL (PFS: 10 months (M; 95% confidence interval 4-16) vs. 4M (3-5), p=0.001; OS: not reached vs. 10M (5-15), p=0.004). Disease control rate was 81% vs. 53% for MTV≤/>70mL (p=0.007). BLR ≤1.06 versus >1.06 was associated with better outcomes (PFS: 8M (4-13) vs. 4M (3-6), p=0.034; OS: 19M (12-/) vs. 6M (4-12), p=0.005). In patients with MTV>70mL, concomitant BLR≤1.06 indicated a better prognosis. Higher MTV is associated with inferior PFS/OS in first-line ICI treated NSCLC, with BLR allowing additional risk stratification.

The article is focused on detailed framework process for hierarchized construction of periodic freight train paths (PFTPs) – allocation of pre-arranged railway capacity to freight rail operators. The framework process considers fluctuations in demand for capacity from freight rail opera-tors, so the quality of a freight train path is related with its construction priority. Introduced framework process aims to offer freight rail operators attractive train paths, with low number of scheduled stops, and this way enhance competitiveness and decrease energy consumption of freight railway as a factor for sustainable development. The proposed generic process is in-tended for all time horizons of capacity allocation. Correctness of the framework process is tested on the example of mainline Prague – Dresden, in the context of prospective (denser) mod-el passenger timetable.

The most popular schemes of digital potentiometers (DP) and digital-to-analog converters (DAC) are considered. DP and DAC use how elements of parameter adjustment of active RC-filters. The circuits of the DAC on the Kelvin-Varley divider, the Kelvin divider based on the R-2R matrix, and the architecture of the DAC with a segmented circuit are shown. The internal structure of DP an Analog Devices and Intersil company is shown, and also the DP switching circuits in a tunable low-pass filter and a band-pass filter, a programmable inverting amplifier and a voltage regulator are presented.

This paper draws an earlier book (with Evans and Higgins) entitled Bad Call: Technology’s Attack on Referees and Umpires and How to Fix It (hereafter Bad Call) and its various precursor papers. These show why it is that current match officiating aids are unable to provide the kind of accuracy that is often claimed for them and that sports aficianados have been led to expect from them. Accuracy is improving all the time but the notion of perfect accuracy is a myth because, for example, lines drawn on sports fields and the edges of balls are not perfectly defined. The devices meant to report the exact position of a ball – for instance ‘in’ or ‘out’ at tennis – work with the mathematically perfect world of virtual reality, not the actuality of an imperfect physical world. Even if ball-trackers could overcome the sort of inaccuracies related to fast ball speeds and slow camera frame-rates the goal of complete accuracy will always be beyond reach. Here it is suggested that the purpose of technological aids to umpires and referees be looked at in a new way that takes the viewers into account.

The present grievous situation of the tuberculosis disease can be improved by efficient case management and timely follow-up evaluations. With the advent of digital technology this can be achieved by quick summarization of the patient-centric data. The aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness of the ODK Scan paper-to-digital system during testing period of three months. A sequential, explanatory mixed-method research approach was employed to elucidate technology use. Training, smartphones, application and 3G enabled SIMs were provided to the four field workers. At the beginning, baseline measures of the data management aspects were recorded and compared with endline measures to see the impact of ODK Scan. Additionally, at the end, users’ feedback was collected regarding app usability, user interface design and workflow changes. 122 patients’ records were retrieved from the server and analysed for quality. It was found that ODK Scan recognized 99.2% of multiple choice bubble responses and 79.4% of numerical digit responses correctly. However, the overall quality of the digital data was decreased in comparison to manually entered data. Using ODK Scan, a significant time reduction is observed in data aggregation and data transfer activities, however, data verification and form filling activities took more time. Interviews revealed that field workers saw value in using ODK Scan, however, they were more concerned about the time consuming aspects of the use of ODK Scan. Therefore, it is concluded that minimal disturbance in the existing workflow, continuous feedback and value additions are the important considerations for the implementing organization to ensure technology adoption and workflow improvements.

Zebrafish have been found to be the premier model organism in biological and biomedical research, specifically offering many advantages in developmental biology and genetics. This unique aquatic species has been found to have the capacity to regenerate their spinal cord after injury. However, the complete molecular and cellular mechanisms behind glial bridge formation in the central and peripheral nervous systems upon glial cell injury remains unclear. This review paper focuses on the molecular mechanisms and cellular processes that underlie spinal cord regeneration in four initial phases: proliferation and initial migration; migration and differentiation; glial bridge formation; and remodeling. We propose that within these four phases the cellular mechanisms that underlie spinal cord regeneration each express a terminating signal that aborts one step of the process and initiates the next. Specifically, future studies would be devoted to investigate transmitting signals in the spinal cord injury micro-environment in hope to contribute to the understanding of underlying cellular mechanisms by connecting each process of spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish.

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), also known as hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type IV (HSAN IV), is an exceedingly rare genetic disorder characterized by the inability to perceive pain, inability to sweat, and various neurological and orthopedic complications. This is a case report of a 3-year-old female patient diagnosed with CIPA syndrome who presented repeatedly to Children’s Clinical University Hospital (CCUH) in Riga, Latvia with severe orthopedic manifestations. The patient had repeated fractures, several surgeries, and extensive spread of the disease throughout the left leg, which caused significant functional impairment and decreased quality of life. Despite aggressive orthopedic interventions including surgical interventions and physical therapy, the patient's condition remained challenging to manage due to the inherent limitations posed by the insensitivity to pain. The council of doctors discussed the patient's condition and changes, deciding that reconstructive surgery is not feasible, and amputation is recommended. Through this case report, we aim to highlight the unique orthopedic challenges encountered in the management of CIPA patients, emphasizing the importance of a multidisciplinary approach involving orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians, geneticists, and physiotherapists. Additionally, we discuss the need for further research to elucidate optimal management strategies and improve outcomes in this rare and complex patient population.

This article discusses how, in today’s world of disruptive and dramatic social change (DSC), non-sports related coaching, which includes a wide range of services such as life coaching, career coaching, executive coaching, and team coaching, can inadvertently fuel undesirable social dynamics. There is little or no awareness of this risk among coaches and coachees. The global, fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar industry aimed at supporting people and organisations to perform better and increase wellbeing while managing and adapting to change has been developed with limited sociological input. The article is based on 15 years of social constructionist-informed reflective practice by a sociologist-turned-coach, and uses a multi-layered autoethnographic account to argue for a sociologically informed paradigm shift in coaching, as well as relevant sociological knowledge and social and human sciences research methodology in coaches’ education. It presents the rationale and key features of a new coaching approach that places DSC-relevant sociological concepts at the heart of the coaching process, helps people develop psycho-sociological awareness, and uses a learning-to-develop through research design. A new definition of coaching to address DSC is derived. Coaching practitioners will find DSC-relevant sociological concepts, critical reflections, coaching questions, and procedures to expand coaching effectiveness. Interdisciplinary research topics combining coaching sociology and coaching psychology are suggested.

The rapid proliferation of information in the digital era underscores the importance of accurate historical representation and interpretation. While artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in various fields, its potential for historical fact-checking and gap-filling remains largely untapped. This study evaluates the performance of three large language models (LLMs)—GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and Google- BARD—in the context of predicting and verifying historical events based on given data. A novel metric, "Distance to Reality" (DTR), is introduced to assess the models' outputs against established historical facts. The results reveal a substantial potential for AI in historical studies, with GPT-4 demonstrating superior performance. This paper underscores the need for further research into AI's role in enriching our understanding of the past and bridging historical knowledge gaps.

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) elicits an acute inflammatory response which comprises numerous cell populations. It is driven by the immediate response of macro-phages and reactive M1 microglia, which triggers activation of genes responsible for the dysregulated microenvironment within the lesion site and in the spinal cord parenchyma immediately adjacent to the lesion. Recently published data indicate that microglia induces astrocyte activation and determines the fate of astrocytes. Conversely, astrocytes have the potency to trigger microglial activation and control their cellular functions. Here we review current information about the release of diverse signaling molecules (pro-inflammatory vs anti-inflammatory) in individual cell phenotypes (microglia, astrocytes, blood inflammatory cells) in acute and subacute SCI stages, and how they contribute to delayed neuronal death in a the surrounding spinal cord tissue which is spared and functional but reactive. In addition, temporal correlation in progressive degeneration of neurons and astrocytes and their functional interactions after SCI are discussed. Finally, the review highlight the time-dependent transformation of reactive mi-croglia (M1) and astrocytes (A1) into their neuroprotective phenotypes (M2a, M2c and A2) which are crucial for spontaneous post-SCI locomotor recovery. We also provide sug-gestions on how to increase functional outcome after SCI and discuss key therapeutic approaches.

Background: The epidemiological situation generated by COVID-19 has cast into sharp relief the delicate balance between public health priorities and the economy, with businesses obliged to toe a line between employee health and continued production. In an effort to detect as many cases as possible, isolate contacts, cut transmission chains and limit the spread of the virus in the workplace, mass testing strategies have been implemented in both public health and industrial contexts to minimize the risk of disruption in activity. Objective: To evaluate the economic impact of mass workplace testing strategy as carried out by a large automotive company in Catalonia in terms of health and healthcare resource savings. Methodology: Analysis of health costs and impacts based on the estimation of mortality and morbidity avoided because of screening and the resulting savings in healthcare costs. Results: The economic impact of the mass workplace testing strategies (using both PCR and RAT tests) was approximately €10.44 per test performed or €5,575.49 per positive detected. 38% of this figure corresponds to savings derived from better use of health resources (hospital beds, ICU beds and follow-up of infected cases), while the remaining 62% corresponds to improved health rates due to avoided morbidity and mortality. In scenarios with higher positivity rates and a greater impact of the infection on health and the use of health resources, these results could be up to ten times higher (€130.24 per test performed or €69,565.59 per positive detected). Conclusion: In the context of COVID-19, preventive actions carried out by the private sector to safeguard industrial production also have concomitant public benefits in the form of savings in healthcare costs. Thus, governmental bodies need to recognize the value of implementing such strategies in private settings and facilitate them through, for example, subsidies.

Background: The use of technology in paediatrics is increasing, and new health technology will change the way in which paediatric care is delivered in the future. This review is part of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Paediatrics 2040 project, which is developing a credible vision for the future of paediatrics in the UK. Aims: To summarise the impact of health technology on the delivery of paediatric care over the last ten years. To learn from existing technology use and make recommendations for future implementation. Methods: A search strategy was developed and two databases (Cochrane Library and PubMed) were systematically searched in August 2019 for relevant publications in English. Searches were limited to papers published between January 2009 and August 2019 (with further rapid review of papers published between September 2019 and November 2020). We included papers that studied young people up to the age of 24 or on those providing care for this population. A thematic synthesis of the data from the included studies was undertaken using seven domains of paediatric care. Results: 128 studies were included, grouped by domain of care. Most included studies were defined as digital (n=55) or communication (n=37). Studies looked at the different types of health technology used within different domains of care, including secondary and tertiary care (n=39), public health and prevention (n=29), and community (n=20). Studies were assessed on delivery of care outcomes using positive, negative, mixed and no effect. The most common outcomes reported were adherence and satisfaction. Discussion: This review highlights the growing importance of technology in delivering paediatric care. Six themes emerged: the importance of clear guidelines, continuity of care, confidentiality and privacy, digital poverty, using a personalised approach, and using technology to supplement rather than replace. In future, technology development should involve the end user throughout the design process.

Irrigated agriculture determines large blue water withdrawals, and it is considered a key intervention area to reach sustainable development objectives. Precision agriculture technologies have the potential to mitigate water resource depletion that often characterizes conventional agricultural approaches. This study investigates the factors influencing farmers' intentions to adopt variable rate irrigation (VRI) technology. The Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM-3) was employed as a theoretical framework to design a survey to identify the factors influencing farmers' decision-making process when adopting VRI. Data were gathered through quantitative face-to-face interviews with a sample of 138 fruit and grapevine producers from the Northeast of Italy (Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia). Data were analyzed using partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM). The results highlight that personal attitudes, such as perceived usefulness and subjective norm, positively influence the intention to adopt VRI. Also, the perceived ease of use positively affects intention, but it is moderated by subject experience.

COVID-19 has affected 212 countries around the world, killing nearly 300,000 and infecting more than 4.4 million by May 14, 2020. Bangladesh, a South Asian low-middle-income economy, has experienced a demographic and epidemiological transition with rapid urbanization and a gradual increase in life expectancy. It is the seventh most populous country in the world and population of the country is expected to be nearly double by 2050. The increasing burden of communicable diseases in Bangladesh can be attributable to rapid urbanization and nearly 50% of all slum dwellers of the country live in Dhaka division. In 2017, National Rapid Response Team of IEDCR investigated 26 incidents of disease outbreak. The joint survey of the Power and Participation Research Centre and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development reveals that per capita daily income of urban slum and rural poor drops by 80% due to present countrywide shutdown enforced by the government to halt the spread of Covid-19. 40%-50% of these population took loans to meet the daily expenses. However, the country has just 127,000 hospital beds, 91,000 of them in government-run hospitals. Researchers say, the country’s economy is economy is losing BDT 33 billion every day from its service and agriculture sectors during the nationwide shutdown.

The Regulation (EU) 2016/429 establishes new extensive guidelines for managing transmissible animal diseases, including zoonoses. The Commission Implementing Regulation 2018/1882 classifies diseases into five categories based on their prevalence and the required response, ranging from eradication to surveillance. Key aspects of the regulations concern emphasis on animal traceability, biosecurity, wildlife pathogen control, sustainable farming, and the reduction of the impact of diseases on both public and animal health, as well as on the environment. These align with the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the One Health approach. In Italian inland areas—similarly to other European regions that are fragile, remote from major service centers, and often neglected—agropastoral and agri-food activities are beneficial for tourism, commercialization of typical foods, and recreational activities. In these areas including the Molise Region, the activation of optional programmes within the framework of the aforementioned regulations could help control infectious animal diseases that are not subject to mandatory eradication but cause income loss and trade restrictions, such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and paratuberculosis, a suspected zoonosis potentially linked to Crohn's disease in humans. These programmes could boost the economic income of local extensive breeding, counteract depopulation, and protect human health and the environment.

This study examines the differential impact of proactive and reactive job crafting behaviors on job well-being, drawing from the perspective of boundary theory. The increasing popularity of work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) after work has attracted widespread attention from scholars on the relationship between WCBA and employee well-being. One view suggests that the impact of WCBA is negative, while another view suggests it is positive. Obviously, the impact of (WCBA) on well-being at work is still contradictory. To clarify the complexity of the impact of WCBA on well-being at work, based on boundary theory, we divided WCBA into proactive WCBA (PC) and reactive WCBA (RC), and examined the double-edged sword effect of WCBA on well-being at work, as well as the mediating mechanisms of job control and work-to-home conflict, and the moderated effects of boundary segmentation preferences. This study uses empirical sampling method to collect data from 125 employees for a period of five days for quantitative research. The results show that, first, PC has an inverted U-shaped effect on job control, and job control is negatively related to well-being at work. Thus the mediating effect of job control is significant. Second, RC has a negative impact on job control, and there is also a negative relationship between job control and well-being at work. Therefore, the mediating effect of job control is significant. Third, PC and RC are positively correlated with work-to-home conflict, and work-to-home conflict has a significant positive impact on well-being at work. Therefore, the mediating effect of work-family conflict is significant. Fourth, the study also found that integration preference moderates the relationship between work-to-home conflict and PC on well-being at work, that is, the mediating effect of work-to-home conflict is stronger for employees with low integration preference. This study enriches our understanding of WCBA, PC and RC from the perspective of proactive and passive employee behaviors. The study also provides a new interpretation of the impact of WCBA on well-being at work and offers valuable insights for the sustainable development in digital social transformation and the application of boundary theory and the theory of empowerment-subjugation in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the study deepens our understanding of the heterogeneous regulatory role played by work-family integration preferences in influencing well-being at work under different types of WCBA.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) based gene-editing has begun to transform the treatment landscape of genetic diseases. The history of the discovery of CRISPR/CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins/single guide RNA (sgRNA)-based gene-editing since the first report of repetitive sequences of unknown significance in 1987 is fascinating, instructive, and inspiring for future advances. The recent approval of CRISPR-Cas9-based gene therapy to treat patients with severe sickle cell anemia and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia has renewed hope for treating other hematologic diseases, including patients with germline predisposition to hematologic malignancies, who would benefit greatly from the development of CRISPR-based gene therapies. The purpose of this manuscript is three-fold: first, a chronological description of the history of CRISPR-Cas9-sgRNA-based gene editing; second, a brief description of the current state of clinical research in hematologic diseases, including selected applications in treating hematologic diseases with CRISPR-based gene therapy; and third, the current progress in gene therapies in inherited hematologic diseases and bone marrow failure syndromes, to hopefully stimulate efforts towards developing these therapies for patients with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes and other inherited conditions with germline predisposition to hematologic malignancies.

The emergence of acquired resistance to EGFR-TKIs is almost inevitable even after a remarkable clinical response. Secondary mutations such as T790M and C797S are responsible for the resistance to 1st/2nd generation (1/2G) TKIs and 3G TKIs, respectively. To overcome both the T790M and C797S mutations, novel 4G EGFR-TKIs are now under early clinical development. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of a 4G EGFR-TKI in the treatment of lung cancer with EGFR mutation as well as explored resistance mechanisms to a 4G TKI. First, we compared the efficacies of seven TKIs including a 4G TKI, BI4020, against Ba/F3 cell models that simulate resistant tumors after frontline osimertinib treatment failure because of a secondary mutation. We also established acquired re-sistant cells to BI4020 by chronic drug exposure. Ba/F3 cells with an osimertinib-resistant secondary mutation were refractory to all 3G TKIs tested (alflutinib, lazertinib, rezivertinib, almonertinib, and befotertinib). BI4020 inhibited the growth of C797S-positive cells; however it was not effective against L718Q-positive cells. Erlotinib was active against all Ba/F3 cells tested. In the analysis of resistance mechanisms of BI4020 resistant (BIR) cells, none harbored secondary EGFR mutations. HCC827BIR cells had MET gene amplification and were sensitive to a combination of capmatinib (MET-TKI) and BI4020. HCC4006BIR and H1975BIR cells exhibited epithelial to mesenchymal transition. This study suggests that erlotinib may be more suitable than 4G TKIs to overcome sec-ondary mutations after front-line osimertinib. We found that off-target mechanisms that cause re-sistance to earlier generation TKIs will also cause resistance to 4G TKIs.

Abstract: The establishment of a circular economy in the mining sector, taking advantage of innovations in the exploration and development of hydrocarbon reserves, [ ], their [ ], transportation [ ] and subsequent processing [ ] are significant concerns. The issues surrounding the employment of technology targeted at enhancing environmental safety to increase the productivity of the reproduction process of the natural gas and oil resource base are equally important. The paper discusses the use of green seismic technology of survey to determine the oil and gas potential of the subsoil. A methodological toolkit is proposed for carrying out technical and economic calculations to determine indicators of the environmental and economic efficiency of using innovative resource-saving technology for geological survey in areas densely planted with forests. The purpose of the work is to establish the viability of employing resource-saving technology known as Green Seismic to search for promising hydrocarbon objects in forested areas and determine the expected environmental and economic benefits of geological exploration using the suggested enhanced methodology for their evaluation. The tasks set to achieve the goal were solved using methods of geological and economic assessment of the hydrocarbon raw material potential of territories and water areas, environmental assessment of the negative influence of anthropogenic environmental impact on the natural environment, economic and statistical methods of performing technical and economic calculations to determine performance indicators for the implementation of innovative projects in the field of geological exploration. The novelty of the results obtained lies in the proposed improved algorithm for conducting an environmental and economic assessment of geological exploration for hydrocarbon raw materials, a conceptual description of the Green Seismic technology, systematization of technical, economic, and environmental risks, justification of new regional directions for geological exploration using resource-saving seismic exploration technology.

Multiple Gateways (GWs) provide network connectivity to Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in a Wide Area Network (WAN). The End Nodes (ENs) can connect to any GW by discovering and acquiring its periodic beacons. This provides GW diversity and hence improves coverage. If the GWs are within vicinity to each other, and they keep sending periodic beacons to be discovered, the result is interference and collisions. In this study, the impact of such intra-network interference is analyzed to determine the maximum number of GWs that can co-exist within a given urban neighborhood. The paper shows the relationship between beacon collisions and the resulting packet loss rates in a given urban environment. The expected collision rates are calculated for the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The eventual packet loss rates are calculated with the MAC and Physical (PHY) layers combined. For this purpose, a new co-channel interference model is presented. The model calculates the average Carrier to Interference ratio (C/I) averaged across all the colliding events. It takes into account the partial overlap durations and the relative power of each colliding signal. The model shows that a collision does not always cause a packet loss. Packet losses occur if there is a collision and if the C/I is below a threshold. The performance evaluation is presented using a combination of analytical and simulation methods. The analytical methods provide the theoretical foundation, and have been used to validate the simulation results. Furthermore, the system models are developed from experimental data obtained from measurements with real hardware. Numerical results are provided with a low bit rate Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) modulation at the PHY layer, which is derived from the IEEE 802.15.4 standard specification. This paper provides guidance on selecting the right GFSK modulation parameters for such low bit-rate and narrow bandwidth IoT applications. The analysis and simulation results show that larger beacon intervals help in reducing beacon loss rates, at the cost of larger beacon acquisition latency. On the flip side, the gateway discovery latency reduces with increasing GW density thanks to abundance of beacons.

Abstract: Background: This research aims to investigate the oral health status and needs of individuals with disabilities, a vulnerable population that is facing barriers in accessing and maintaining oral care. Methods: Data for this study were obtained through self-administered questionnaires distributed to individuals with disabilities who were receiving assistance from Helping Restore Ability and Neuro Assistance Foundation. The data were analyzed using statistical methods using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to identify patterns and associations related to oral health maintenance among individuals with disabilities. Results: The findings of this research indicate a high prevalence of poor oral hygiene, periodontal diseases, and untreated dental caries, risk factors of oral cancer among individuals with disabilities. Social determinants were found to have a significant influence on the oral health status of this population. The study also highlights the crucial role of caregivers in ensuring oral health maintenance. Conclusion: The results of this study underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions and improved caregiver awareness to address the oral health needs of individuals with disabilities. By addressing the disparities and barriers faced by people with disabilities in accessing dental care, we can mitigate the health, social, and economic burdens associated with poor oral health in this vulnerable population.

During the past few years unexpected developments have driven studies in the field of clinical immunology. One driver of immense impact was the outbreak of a pandemic caused by the novel virus SARS-CoV-2. Excellent recent reviews address diverse aspects of immunological re-search into cardiovascular diseases. Here, we specifically focus on selected studies taking ad-vantage of advanced state-of-the-art molecular genetic methods ranging from genome-wide epi/transcriptome mapping and variant scanning to optogenetics and chemogenetics. First, we discuss emerging clinical relevance of advanced diagnostics for cardiovascular diseases - includ-ing those associated with COVID-19 - with a focus on the role of inflammation in cardiomyopa-thies and arrhythmias. Second, we consider newly identified immunological interactions at or-gan and systems level which affect cardiovascular pathogenesis. Thus, studies into immune in-fluences arising from the intestinal system are moving towards therapeutic exploitation. Fur-ther, powerful new research tools have enabled novel insight into brain – immune system inter-actions at unprecedented resolution. This latter line of investigation emphasizes the strength of influence of emotional stress - acting through defined brain regions - upon viral and cardiovas-cular disorders. Several challenges need to be overcome before the full impact of these far-reaching new findings will hit the clinical arena.

This paper presents a microgrid distributed energy resources (DERs) for a rural standalone system. It is made up of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) system, battery energy storage system (BESS), and wind turbine coupled to permanent magnet synchronous generator (WT-PMSG). The DERs are controlled by maximum power point tracking (MPPT) based proportional intergral (PI) controllers for both maximum power tracking and error feedback compensation. The MPPT uses the perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm for tracking the maximum power point of the DERs. The PI gains are tuned using the Ziegler-Nichol’s method. The developed system was built and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink under two conditions - constant load, and step load changes. The controllers enabled the BESS to charge even during conditions of varying load and other environmental factors such as change of irradiance and wind speed. The reference was tracked very well by the output voltage of the DC grid. This is a useful research for electrifying the rural islanded areas, too far from the grid.

Background:Although highly strict social distancing and viral spread protection guidelines are in force, the reported numbers of COVID-19 cases across the world are still increasing. This indicates that we are still unable to completely understand the transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2. One of the possible routes that can play a significant role is the fecal-oral transmission since SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in the intestines as demonstrated by isolation of infectious virus from fecal samples of COVID-19 cases. Scope and approach:In this review, we compare the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 with the distinctive characteristics of enteric foodborne viruses. We also discuss and respond to the arguments given in some reports that downplay the importance of foodborne transmission route of SARS-CoV-2. Key findings and conclusions:Enteric viruses such as human noroviruses (HuNoVs) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) are known to transmit through foods such as fresh produce and berries, leading to frequent multistate foodborne disease outbreaks all over the world. SARS-CoV-2 was found to share four distinctive characteristics of foodborne viruses that allow them to transmit through foods. This similarity in characteristics, recent report of detecting SARS-CoV-2 particles from frozen food packages in China, and recent suspected foodborne COVID-19 case in New Zealand, indicate that foodborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is more evident than previously thought possible. To support or deny this route of transmission, urgent research needs to be undertaken to answer two primary questions and many secondary ones as described in this review.

Highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are naturally restricted to H5 and H7 subtypes with a polybasic cleavage site (CS) in the hemagglutinin (HA) and any AIV with an intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) ≥1.2. Only few non-H5/H7 viruses fulfill the criteria of HPAIVs; nevertheless, it remains unknown why these viruses did not spread in domestic birds. In 2012, a unique H4N2 virus with a polybasic CS 322PEKRRTR/G329 was isolated from quails in California which, however, was avirulent in chickens. This is the only known non-H5/H7 virus with four basic amino acids in the HACS. Here, we investigated the virulence of this virus in chickens after expansion of the polybasic CS by substitution of T327R (322PEKRRRR/G329) or T327K (322PEKRRKR/G329) with or without reassortment with HPAIVs H5N1 and H7N7. The impact of single mutations or reassortment on virus fitness in vitro and in vivo was studied. Efficient cell culture replication of T327R/K carrying H4N2 viruses increased by trypsin, particularly in MDCK cells, and reassortment with HPAIV H5N1. Likewise, replication, virus excretion and bird-to-bird transmission of H4N2 was remarkably compromised by the CS mutations, but restored after reassortment with HPAIV H5N1, although not with HPAIV H7N7. Viruses carrying the H4-HA with or without R327 or K327 mutations and the other gene segments from HPAIV H5N1 exhibited high virulence and efficient transmission in chickens. Together, increasing the number of basic amino acids in the H4N2 HACS was detrimental for viral fitness particularly in vivo but compensated by reassortment with HPAIV H5N1. This may explain the absence of non-H5/H7 HPAIVs in poultry.

Pieron's and Chocholle’s seminal psychophysical work predicts that human response time to information relative to visual contrast and/or sound frequency decreases when contrast intensity or sound frequency increases. The goal of this study is to bring to the fore the ability of individuals to use visual contrast intensity and sound frequency in combination for faster perceptual decisions of relative depth (“nearer”) in planar (2D) object configurations on the basis of physical variations in luminance contrast. Computer controlled images with two abstract patterns of varying contrast intensity, one on the left and one on the right, preceded or not by a pure tone of varying frequency, were shown to healthy young humans in controlled experimental sequences. Their task (two-alternative forced-choice) was to decide as quickly as possible which of two patterns, the left or the right one, in a given image appeared to “stand out as if it were nearer” in terms of apparent (subjective) visual depth. The results show that the combinations of varying relative visual contrast with sounds of varying frequency exploited here produced an additive effect on choice response times in terms of facilitation, where a stronger visual contrast combined with a higher sound frequency produced shorter forced-choice response times. This new effect is predicted by cross-modal audio-visual probability summation.

During the 2008 Great Recession, many families with children relied on cash assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The present study applied Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) tools to analyze geographically varying spatial clusters of states’ unemployment rates, TANF caseload growth rates, TANF policy choices such as benefit levels and TANF responsiveness rates to the recession. We analyzed 45 contiguous states and Washington D.C. A standardized TANF responsiveness index was developed to compare states’ TANF growth rates relative to their labor market conditions. The western states were found to be very responsive to the recession with ratios greater than one. In contrast, Texas and Arizona, with ratios below 1, were unresponsive to the recession. The presence of strong spatial clusters in unemployment rate and TANF maximum aid were found. In the case of maximum aid, there was a strong presence of Low-Low spatial clusters in Southern States and High-High clusters in Northeastern States. The findings suggest that several neighboring states in the northeast and some in the south had similar levels of financial commitment during the 2008 recessionary as the ones found by earlier research conducted during non-recessionary periods. The findings have implications for future federal actions and for state level collaboration.

One important motivation for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive is the creation of non-market environmental benefits such as improved ecological quality, or greater opportunities for open-access river recreation via microbial pollution remediation. Pollution sources impacting on ecological or recreational water quality can be uncorrelated but non-market benefits arising from riverine improvements are typically conflated within benefit valuation studies. Using stated preference choice experiments, we seek to disaggregate these sources of value for different river users, thereby allowing decision makers to understand the consequences of adopting alternative investment strategies. Our results suggest anglers derive greater value from improvements to the ecological quality of river water, in contrast to swimmers and rowers for whom greater value is gained from improvements to recreational quality. We also find three distinct groups of respondents: a majority preferring ecological over recreational improvements, a substantial minority holding opposing preference orderings and a small proportion expressing relatively low values for either form of river quality enhancement. As such, this research demonstrates that the non-market benefits which may accrue from different types of water quality improvements are nuanced in terms of their potential beneficiaries and, by inference, their overall value and policy implications.

Whereas waste management research has focused on mostly urban municipalities in South Africa, not much is known about the current performance of waste management services from the perspective of community residents in rural municipalities. This study reports on the status and effectiveness of waste management practices from the perspective of community residents in the Umkhanyakude and Zululand Districts in the rural areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Making use of structured questionnaires, primary data was obtained by interviewing 333 respondents representing households in the study area. Results have revealed several shortfalls in the provision of municipal waste management services, except for solid waste removal from households (66%), and management of landfill sites (41%). The degree of dissatisfaction for waste management services rendered was very high (97.3%). Furthermore, the majority (61.4%) of respondents were not willing to participate in waste segregation due to lack of appropriate knowledge and infrastructure. The study also pinpointed some benefits associated with waste minimization, as well as barriers constraining effective waste recycling. Based on these findings, there is a dire need for transforming current waste management practices toward increased recycling rates by creating more environmental awareness and a supporting infrastructure.

There are many molecules used as drug carrier. TUD-1 is a newly synthesized mesoporous silica (SM) molecule possess two important features; consists of mesoporous so it is very suitable to be drug carrier in addition to that it has the ability to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. However, the effect of TUD-1 appears to act as cell death inducer, regardless of whether it is necrosis or apoptosis. Unfortunately, recent studies indicate that a proportion of cells undergo necrosis rather than apoptosis, which limits the use of TUD-1 as a secure treatment. On the other hand, lithium considered as necrosis inhibitor element. Hence, current study based on the idea of production a new Li/TUD-1 by incorporated mesoporous silica (TUD-1 type) with lithium in order to produce a new compound that has the ability to activate apoptosis by mesoporous silica (TUD-1 type) and at the same time can inhibit the activity of necrosis by lithium. Herein, lithium was incorporated in TUD-1 mesoporous silica by using sol-gel technique in one step synthesis procedure. Moreover, lithium was incorporated in TUD-1 with different loading in order to form different active sites such as isolated lithium ions, nanoparticles of Li2O, and bulky crystals of Li2O. The ability of the new compounds to induce apoptosis and prevent necrosis was evaluated on three different types of cancer cell lines which are; liver HepG-2, Breast MCF-7 and colon HCT116. The obtained results show that Li/TUD-1has the ability to control necrosis and thus reduce the side effects of treatments containing silica in the case of lithium has been added to them, especially in chronic cases. This has been demonstrated by the significant increase in the IC50 value and cell viability comparing to control groups. Consequently, the idea is new, so it definitely needs more develop and test with materials that have more apoptotic impact than silica in order to induce apoptosis without induction of necrosis.

The present study was developed based on the data of The PDWAVES Consortium (www.pdwaves.eu) and the PharmaCog project. The Partners and institutional affiliations are reported on the cover page of this manuscript. In this study, the clinical, neuropsychological, and magnetic resonance imaging data collection and analysis in patients with ADMCI and healthy control participants were partially supported by the funds of “Ricerca Corrente 2022-2023” (Italian Ministry of Health) to the IRCCS Synlab SDN of Naples (Italy), IRCCS Ospedale San Martino of Genoa (Italy), Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina (Italy), IRCCS Fatebenefratelli of Brescia (Italy), and IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana of Rome (Italy). Prof. Claudio Del Percio’s and Dr. Roberta Biundo’s work for this study was supported by funds of the “PRIN-2022” project entitled "AmyEEG” (Italian Ministry of University and Research, Prot. 2022FJAXY8). At the same time, Prof. Claudio Babiloni’s work was supported by funds of the “Horizon Marie S. Curie Doctoral Network ” project entitled "CombiDiag” (European Committee, Proposal: 101071485).

The article discusses the problem of digital transformation of school mathematics education. Two traditions of mathematical education in Kazakhstan are considered in historical perspective: “factory” and creative, research. The key features of the current state of the school education system in Kazakhstan in the framework of the mass school system and alternative systems are considered. The system of state final and current student assessment, elements of the digital economy of education are characterized. The socio-economic and political prerequisites for the possibility of significant changes in the education system are formulated. The necessity is substantiated for the effective development of the country in the 21st century of personality qualities brought up in creative mathematical education in the context of tasks that are “not known how to solve”. It is shown that due to the use of digital technologies, in particular AI technologies, the process of transformation of the education system can be started in modern Kazakhstan. This transformation will be aimed at bringing the education system in line with the needs of the modern economy and modern society. The main components and dimensions of this process are considered. In particular, the necessary changes in the system of training and professional development of mathematics teachers and the necessary elements of continuity of this system with a comprehensive school are indicated.

The cement industry is a significant contributor (around 8 %) to CO2 global emissions. About 60 % of emissions come from limestone calcination, essential for clinker production, while 40 % result from fuel combustion. Reducing these emissions is challenging due to limestone’s role as the primary raw material for cement. Cement plants are required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as outlined in the 13th United Nations Sustainable Goals. One strategy to achieve this goal, involves Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). Among the options for CO2 utilisation, the Power-to-Liquid (PtL) strategy offers a means to mitigate CO2 emissions. In PtL, CO2 captured from cement industrial flue gas is combined with hydrogen generated by renewable electrolysis (green hydrogen) and catalytically converted into renewable methanol (e-MeOH). In this sense, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the worldwide existing pilot and demonstration units, and projects funded by EU across several industries. It specifically focuses on PtL technology worldwide within cement plants. This work covers 18 locations worldwide, detailing technology existent at plants of different capacities, location, and project partners. Finally, the review analyses techno-economic assessments related to e-MeOH production processes, highlighting the potential impact on achieving carbon neutrality in the cement industry.

Circles, semicircles and its derived circular sectors are ubiquitous both in human creations and in the natural realm. However, mathematically speaking they have always represented a certain level of enigma or even mysticism since ancient times for being such a perfect shape that enclosed the irrational value that we now call π. Such figure was relatively unknown until the seventeenth century; polymaths like Guarini even equated it, after so many centuries, to the Archimedes fraction of 22/7 or sometimes 25/8 which, giving a value 3.125 introduces a considerable degree of error; Eventually, Lambert had to demonstrate, well advanced the eighteenth century that π was actually an irrational number. In recent years, the author has worked with sections of spheres and other curved bodies as related to radiative heat transfer and applied to the finding of form factors pertaining to such special geometries, to the point of defining new postulates. The main theorems so far enunciated refer to the radiative exchange between circles and half disks, but recently the possibility to treat circular sectors has arrived, thanks to the research already conducted in which, by virtue of Cabeza-Lainez first postulate, we are able to know the form factor of any spherical segment over itself, discarding in this way, the former uncertainties that appeared when dealing with the inner side of spherical surfaces. As it is known, to find the exact expression of the configuration factor by integration alone is mostly a tedious task and the results are not readily available as it has been frequently proved. In the said problem of the circular sectors, the author could integrate the first two steps of the basic formulation for radiant exchange. Subsequently, the novelty of the procedure lies in introducing a finite differences approximation for the third and fourth integrals which still remain unsolved, once that we have been able to find the first and second integrals of the form factor. This possibility had not been identified by former research. This sole output provides us with an ample variety of scenarios previously unforeseen. As a consequence, we would be able to analyze with more precision but freely, the spatial transference of radiant heat for figures composed of circular sectors such as spherical sectors like quarters or octaves of spheres. Many architectural, industrial or aircraft modules and objects fall into this category. We already know that spherical shapes cannot be discretized with any accuracy as there are no spherical tiles of the same size, therefore we hope to overcome with our finding a persistent extent of error. In this situation we are able to reduce a considerable amount of hindrances in the progress of thermal radiation science, due to the advances hereby presented. As the new formulations found can be adapted for algorithms, they will be integrated in simulation procedures with significant avail. Our achievement may be considered timely in the effort invested to square the elements of mathematics for radiative transfer. Important sequels are already being derived for radiation in the entrance to tunnels, aircraft design, low-energy building construction and also lighting and HVAC industries to cite just a few.

Comprising the largest population cohort on this planet, Gen Z presents a future-oriented consumer segment driven by climate change and food. This study sought to investigate Gen Zs’ perceptions to-ward plant-based foods and diets, and explore the relationship between attitude components, meal preparation involvement, personal and lifestyle factors, and perceived barriers in adopting a plant-based diet with willingness to adopt green-eating practices. Using cross-sectional data from uni-versity students in Greece, India and UK, various tools were employed to determine the factors influ-encing youths’ consumer behavior toward animal-protein substitutes. PCA indicated the underlying dimensions of students’ viewpoints on plant-based foods, whereas hierarchical and k-means clustering provided the cluster structure. An ordered probit model was estimated to delineate Gen Zs’ willingness to adopt plant-based diets and distinguish among mostly unwilling, somewhat willing and mostly willing youths. Our findings identified two consumer segments, namely proponents and opponents toward plant-based foods and diets, with statistically significant differences in the perceived health benefits of plant-based diets, attachment to animal-based proteins, perceived exclusion of ani-mal-based foods, dissatisfaction with plant-based foods attributes and demand for ensuring adequate protein intake. The ordered probit model estimates showed that there is a rather «homogeneity» in the factors influencing youths’ intention to adopt plant-based diets, with attitude components, meal prep-aration indicators, perceived barriers to eating “green” and personal factors, viz. self-assessed knowledge on healthy eating and physical activity, being strongly associated with students’ willingness to switch to plant-based diets in all three countries. Mapping potential obstacles and enablers in terms of shifting to more green-eating behaviors, our findings could add information to better understand the factors affecting food choice and youths’ transition to a more sustainable lifestyle.

A testable hypothesis with quantitative predictions is put forward, proposing that strong acids produced on land are a major cause of increasing atmospheric pCO2. Our modelling analysis of reactions by dissolved inorganic carbon shows that increasing atmospheric CO2 could be caused thermodynamically by falling land surface pH values. This hypothesis challenges the imbalance assumed between the global uptake of CO2 by photosynthesis and emissions of CO2 from all sources, including the combustion of fossil fuels. Strong acids generated by oxygen from reduced nitrogen and sulphur emits CO2 almost stoichiometrically from dissolved bicarbonate in the pH range of most global soils from pH 6.5 to above 8. Each general decrease of aqueous pH value of 0.01 units from acidification of surface water potentially increases the pCO2 in the atmosphere by about 7 ppmv. Contrary to prevailing assumptions that CO2 emissions from combusting fossil fuels can remain in the atmosphere for more than a millennium, such emissions may be partly nullified by global greening from enhanced rates of photosynthesis as well as oceanic absorption. The surface pH value of the ocean has been shown to decrease as atmospheric pCO2 rises. Therefore, our qualitative estimates of increasing atmospheric CO2 driven by irreversible acidification on land are critical and need broad scale validation. To the extent that significant acidification of the land is occurring, through export of alkaline produce, the use of artificial nitrogen fertilisation and possible other causes, the prevailing methods of reducing CO2 emissions will fail. However, these acidifying processes on land have not been considered by previous biogeochemical reviews. Despite counter measures, including carbon capture and geological storage, the increasing Keeling curve for pCO2 may continue to rise because zero carbon policies do not address such a major cause. This hypothesis can be tested by in situ experiments in neutral soils and water, designed to compare CO2 emissions under the acidifying conditions described in this article with those when corrective counter measures are applied.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2016, the goals of limiting climate change and moving toward climate resilience stand. With a share of about \SI{80}{\percent} of global \ce{CO2} emissions, the energy sector is an essential driver for these goals. A shift to low-carbon energy production and a decentralized system for more efficient energy transmission distribution is necessary. In this paper, we present our work on Modeling of Power Exchanges, Algorithms for \ac{LEM}, Competitiveness of \ac{CHP} and Energy Feedback Devices. The study was conducted considering technical, economic, social and regulatory framework. For easy integration into energy simulations or a \ac{DEMS}, a model for power exchanges was created that allows flexible input or deterministic price patterns. The algorithm handles the clearing of an \ac{LEM} by a district aggregator using limit orders with the goal of increasing the share of locally consumed electricity using economic incentives. An investigation was conducted into the operation of flexible \acp{CHP} in low-carbon power systems to balance the volatility of renewable energy. An energy signal light was developed as an energy feedback device, which is integrated into the \ac{DEMS} in a living lab and allows individual configuration. In summary, the results presented should be compared with those of other research approaches in the future and require qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

Fluidic larger-scale integration (LSI) resides at the heart of comprehensive sample-to-answer automation and parallelization of assay panels for frequent and ubiquitous bioanalytical testing in decentralized the point-of-use / point-of-care settings. This paper develops a novel “digital twin” strategy with an emphasis on rotational, centrifugo-pneumatic flow control. The underlying model systematically connects retention rates of rotationally actuated valves as a key element of LSI to experimental input parameters; for the first time, the concept of band widths in frequency space as the decisive quantity characterizing operationally robustness is introduced, a set of quantitative performance metrics guiding algorithmic optimization of disc layouts is defined, and the engineering principles of advanced, logical flow control and timing are elucidated. Overall, the digital twin enables efficient design for automating multiplexed bioassay protocols on such “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) systems featuring high packing density, reliability, configurability, modularity and manufacturability to eventually minimize cost, time and risk of development and production.

Several problems of radiative transfer are yet unsolved because of the difficulties of the calculations involved in them, especially if the intervening shapes are geometrically complex. The main goal of our investigation in this domain is to convert the formulas that were previously derived, into a graphical interface based on the projected solid-angle principle. Such procedure is now feasible by virtue of several widely diffused programs for Algorithms Aided Design (AAD). Accuracy and reliability of the process is controlled by means of the analytical software DianaX developed at an earlier stage by the authors. With this new approach the often cumbersome procedure of lighting and thermal exchange calculations can be simplified and made available for the neophyte, with the undeniable advantage of reduced computer time.

Smart Living, an increasingly prominent concept, entails incorporating sophisticated technologies in homes and urban environments to elevate the quality of life for citizens. A critical success factor for Smart Living services and applications, from energy management to healthcare and transportation, is the efficacy of human action recognition (HAR). HAR, rooted in computer vision, seeks to identify human actions and activities using visual data and various sensor modalities. This paper extensively reviews the literature on HAR in Smart Living services and applications, amalgamating key contributions and challenges while providing insights into future research directions. The review delves into the essential aspects of Smart Living, the state of the art in HAR, and the potential societal implications of this technology. Moreover, the paper meticulously examines the primary application sectors in Smart Living that stand to gain from HAR, such as smart homes, smart healthcare, and smart cities. By underscoring the significance of the four dimensions of Context Awareness, Data Availability, Personalization, and Privacy in HAR, this paper serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners striving to advance Smart Living services and applications.

Smart living, a concept that has gained increasing attention in recent years, revolves around integrating advanced technologies in homes and cities to enhance the quality of life for citizens. Sensing and human action recognition are crucial aspects of this concept. Smart living applications span various domains, such as energy consumption, healthcare, transportation, and education, which greatly benefit from effective human action recognition. This field, originating from computer vision, seeks to recognize human actions and activities using not only visual data but also many other sensor modalities. This paper comprehensively reviews the literature on human action recognition in smart living environments, synthesizing the main contributions, challenges, and future research directions. This review selects five key domains: Sensing Technology, Multimodality, Real-time Processing, Interoperability, and Resource-Constrained Processing, as they encompass the critical aspects required for successfully deploying human action recognition in smart living. These domains highlight the essential role that sensing and human action recognition play in successfully developing and implementing smart living solutions. This paper serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to explore further and advance the field of human action recognition in smart living.

Background: Vascular inflammation plays a crucial role in peripheral arterial disease (PAD), although the role of the mediators involved has not yet been properly defined. The aim of this work is to investigate gene expression and plasma biomarkers in chronic limb-threating ischemia (CLTI). Methods: Using patients from the GHAS trial, both blood and ischemic muscle samples were obtained to analyze plasma markers and mRNA expression, respectively. Statistical analy-sis was performed by using univariate (Spearman, t-Student, X2) and multivariate (multiple lo-gistic regression) tests. Results: 35 patients were available at baseline (29 for mRNA expression). Baseline characteristics (mean): Age:71.4±12.4 (79.4% male); TNF-α:10.7±4.9; hs-CRP:1.6±2.2; Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR):3.5±2.8. Plasma TNF-α was found elevated (≥8.1) in 68.6% of patients, while high hs-CRP (≥0.5) in 60.5%. Diabetic patients with high level of inflammation showed significantly higher levels of NOX4 expression at baseline (p=0.0346). Plasma TNF-α had a negative correlation with eNOS expression (-0.5, p=0.015) and hs-CRP with VEGF-A (-0.63, p=0.005). The expression of NOX4 was parallel to that of plasma TNF-α (0.305, p=0.037), especial-ly in DM. Cumulative mortality at 12-month was related to NLR ≥3 (p=0.019) and TNF-α ≥8.1 (p=0.048). The best cut-off point for NLR to predict mortality was 3.4. Conclusions: NOX4 and TNF-α are crucial for the development and complications of lower limb ischemia, especially in DM. hs-CRP could have a negative influence on angiogenesis too. NLR and TNF-α represent suita-ble markers of mortality in CLTI. These results are novel because they connect muscle gene expres-sion and plasma information in patients with advanced PAD, deepening the search of new and ac-curate targets for this condition.

The article discusses determinants of living environment in Central and Eastern Europe. As an example, the city of Radzionkow was chosen, with 16 thousand inhabitants, located in the Silesia agglomeration in southern Poland, in the area where hard coal has been mined for almost two hundred years, which largely serves as a source of heating for houses and flats. 360 buildings in 6 groups of 60 buildings were examined in the selected city, which allowed to distinguish 3 different areas in terms of the quality of the living environment depending on the technical condition of buildings, the method of heating and location. To a large extent, determinants are the existing spatial and geophysical conditions of a given location. Many research and reports on the living environment do not take into account the factors mentioned, focusing only on the statistical data of pollution, excluding spatial factors. In the research presented, the author, taking into account location variables, shows differences in the measurements of air pollution in relation to the designated location zones depending on the morphological structure of the building, the degree of its modernization and the types of heating used in buildings.

Forecasting streamflow accurately is essential to achieve an efficient integrated water resources management strategy and provide consistent support to water decision-makers. We present a simple, low-cost and robust approach for forecasting monthly and yearly streamflow during the hydrological year in course, applicable to headwater catchments. It combines the use of regression analysis techniques, the two-parameter Gamma continuous cumulative probability distribution function and the Monte Carlo method. It is based on a probabilistic comparison of the progression of the current hydrological year with the historic observed series. The methodology has been successfully applied to two headwater reservoirs within the Guadalquivir River Basin in southern Spain. The root-mean-square error and correlation coefficient were used to measure the accuracy of the model and the results showed good levels of reliability. The outputs are the probabilistic monthly and yearly streamflow and 80% confidence interval. Further reductions in prediction errors may be achieved from increasing the number of observed years. These risk-based predictions are of great value, especially, before the intensive irrigation campaign starts (usually in April), when Water Authorities are to take responsible management decisions about the best allocation of the available water volume between the different water users and environmental needs.

The Indian educational system grapples with deep-rooted structural and systemic challenges that have hindered equitable access to quality education across all levels. Central issues include outdated curricula that fail to equip students with contemporary skills, significant socio-economic disparities limiting access and outcomes, and inadequate teacher training alongside deficient infrastructure, particularly in rural and economically disadvantaged areas. These challenges contribute to unequal educational opportunities and outcomes, with a stark divide between urban and rural, and between private and public institutions. This review delves into these pervasive issues, analyzing how they manifest from primary through tertiary education. In primary education, the focus often remains on rote learning, overlooking critical thinking and problem-solving skills. At the secondary and tertiary levels, curriculum relevance remains a concern, as courses frequently do not align with modern industry demands or technological advancements, creating a skills gap among graduates. Addressing these challenges, this review proposes a series of reforms aimed at building a more inclusive and effective system. Key reforms include curriculum modernization to incorporate skills for the 21st century, integrating digital learning tools to expand access and facilitate adaptive learning, and comprehensive teacher development programs that emphasize continuous professional growth. Together, these initiatives aim to create an educational environment that is not only inclusive but also adaptive to the evolving demands of a globalized world, thereby enhancing the quality and reach of education across India.

Despite the potential benefits of generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI), concerns about its psy-chological impact on medical students, especially with regard to job displacement, are apparent. This pilot study, conducted in Jordan during July–August 2024, aimed to examine the specific fears, anxieties, mistrust, and ethical concerns medical students could harbor towards genAI. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 164 medical students studying in Jordan across various academic years, employing a structured self-administered questionnaire with an internally consistent FAME scale—representing Fear, Anxiety, Mistrust, and Ethics and comprising 12 items, with three items for each construct. The results indicated variable levels of anxiety towards genAI among the participating medical students: 34.1% reported no anxiety about genAI role in their future careers (n = 56), while 41.5% were slightly anxious (n = 61), 22.0% somewhat anxious (n = 36), and 2.4% extremely anxious (n = 4). Among the FAME constructs, Mistrust was the most agreed upon (mean: 12.35±2.78), followed by Ethics construct (mean: 10.86±2.90), Fear (mean: 9.49±3.53), and Anxiety (mean: 8.91±3.68). Sex, academic level, and Grade Point Average (GPA) did not significantly affect the students’ perceptions of genAI. However, there was a notable direct association between the students’ general anxiety about genAI and elevated scores in the Fear, Anxiety, and Ethics constructs of the FAME scale. Prior exposure to genAI and its previous use did not significantly modify the scores of the FAME scale. These findings highlighted the critical need for refined educational strategies to address the integration of genAI in medical training. The results demonstrated a pervasive anxiety, fear, mistrust, and ethical concerns among medical students regarding the deployment of genAI in healthcare, indicating the necessity for curriculum modifi-cations that focus specifically on these areas. Interventions should be tailored to increase genAI familiarity and competency, which would alleviate apprehension and equip future physicians to engage with this inevitable technology effectively. The study also highlighted the importance of incorporating ethical discussions into medical courses to address mistrust and concerns about the human-centered aspects of genAI. Conclusively, the study calls for a proactive evolution of medical education to prepare students for AI-driven healthcare practices shortly to ensure that physicians are well-prepared, confident, and ethically informed in their professional interactions with genAI technologies.

This review systematically examines the progression of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection algorithms from YOLOv1 to the recently unveiled YOLOv10. Employing a reverse chronological analysis, this study examines the advancements introduced by YOLO algorithms, beginning with YOLOv10 and progressing through YOLOv9, YOLOv8, and subsequent versions to explore each version's contributions to enhancing speed, accuracy, and computational efficiency in real-time object detection. The study highlights the transformative impact of YOLO across five critical application areas: automotive safety, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, surveillance, and agriculture. By detailing the incremental technological advancements that each iteration brought, this review not only chronicles the evolution of YOLO but also discusses the challenges and limitations observed in each earlier versions. The evolution signifies a path towards integrating YOLO with multimodal, context-aware, and General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) systems for the next YOLO decade, promising significant implications for future developments in AI-driven applications.

Sea level rise due to global warming is a continuing and, disappointingly, accelerating process, which has already affected and will further impact coastal lowlands and the social and economic activities in these areas. Delos Island, situated in the middle of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, was considered the most sacred of all islands in ancient Greek culture and a trading hub for the entire eastern Mediterranean. Uninhabited since the 7th century AD, and consistently the focus of research and touristic attention, the island is designated as an archaeological site and inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Previous studies on the relative sea level (rsl) changes suggest a steadily rsl rise during the last 6,300 years, starting from a sea level at -4.80±0.20m in the Late Neolithic. The seafront of the ancient city of Delos is subject to the effects of the rsl rise, which have caused significant coastline retreat and exposure to the northerly winds and waves, whereas parts of the coastal lowland where the remains of the ancient city lie are inundated, forming extended wetlands. The future impacts of rsl rise on the seafront of ancient Delos are illustrated on very high-resolution digital surface models, evaluating both the flooding risk under different climatic projections, as provided by the IPCC AR6 report, and the ongoing land subsidence, as recorded by GNSS data. An rsl rise ranging from 87cm (SSP1-2.6 scenario) to 148cm (SSP5-8.5 scenario) is anticipated by 2150, requiring both resilience strategies and adaptation solutions as well as mitigation policies to cope with the effects of climate change.

The diverse socio-economic and environmental impacts that the set-up of a new photovoltaic installation has must be weighed carefully in order to reach the best possible solution. Among the different photovoltaic systems there are several classification criteria, depending on the technology, application and the size of the modules that define them. The size (installed nominal capacity) stands out as an impartial and critical measure in the decision making process. In this article we use a multi-criteria decision making method to analyse the responses of five experts to a detailed questionnaire in which several different criteria are correlated with various photovoltaic installation sizes. The limitation associated to the low number of experts is addressed with a robustness and sensitivity analysis. With this study we seek first, to apply and demonstrate the feasibility of a methodology which combines technical information with multi-criteria decision making methods, and second, to obtain a clear result oriented that increases the benefits of a forthcoming photovoltaic installation of modules in distributed generation adding up to 1GW total peak power in standard conditions. We observe a consistent result in which smaller photovoltaic modules are the ideal solution that maximises the socio-economic benefits of any installation. If a decision has to be taken about the type of photovoltaic plant to be installed, the conclusion is clear: given a certain size, small, easily scalable installations are the best solution for stake-holders, for the inhabitants, and for the environment.

This work presents the mathematical framework of the Second-Order Comprehensive Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology for Response-Coupled Forward/Adjoint Linear Systems (abbreviated as “2nd-CASAM-L”), which enables the most efficient computation of exactly obtained mathematical expressions of first- and second-order sensitivities of a generic system response with respect to functions (“features”) of model parameters. Subsequently, the first- and second-order sensitivities with respect to the model’s uncertain parameters, boundaries, and internal interfaces are obtained analytically and exactly, without needing large-scale computations. Within the 2nd-FASAM-L methodology, the number of large-scale computations is proportional to the number of model features (defined as functions of model parameters), as opposed to being proportional to the number of model parameters, which are considerably more than the number of features, being incomparably more efficient and more accurate than any other methods (statistical, finite differences, etc.) for computing exact expressions of response sensitivities (of any order) with respect to the model’s features and/or primary uncertain parameters, boundaries, and internal interfaces. The application of the 2nd-CASAM-L methodology is illustrated using a simplified energy-dependent neutron transport model of fundamental significance in nuclear reactor physics.

Addressing global environmental problem, water splitting to produce hydrogen fuel by solar energy is getting so much attention. In the water splitting, the essential problem to solve is the development of efficient　catalysts for oxygen production. In this paper, having the prospect for a practical application of photocatalysts to artificial photosynthesis, molecular mechanisms in the current literature are briefly reviewed. At first, recent progress in the function of Mn cluster at the natural photosystem II is briefly described. The kinds of devices in which oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts are used were designated; water electrolyzers, photoelectrodes, and photocatalysts. Some methods for analyzing molecular mechanism in OER catalysis, emphasized by FTIR method, are shown briefly. After describing common OER mechanisms, the molecular mechanisms are discussed for TiO2 and BiVO4 photoelectrodes with our novel data, followed by presenting of co-catalysts IrO2, RuO2, NiO2, and other metal oxides for OER catalysts. Recent reports describing OER catalysts of perovskites, layered double hydroxides (LDH), metal-organic frameworks (MOF), single atom catalysts, as well as metal complexes are reviewed. Finally, by comparing with natural photosystem, the requiring factors to improve the activity of the catalysts for artificial photosynthesis will be discussed.

The reported study was devoted to the investigation of viscoelastic behavior for solid and porous ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) under compression. The obtained experimental stress curves were interpreted using a two-term Prony series to represent the superposition of two coexisting activation processes corresponding to long molecular (~160 s) and short structural (~20 s) time scales, respectively, leading to good statistical correlation with the observations. In the case of porous polymer, the internal strain redistribution during relaxation was quantified using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) analysis. The strongly inhomogeneous deformation of the porous polymer was found not to affect the relaxation times. In order to generalize the results to three dimensions, X-ray tomography was used to examine the porous structure at the macro- and micro-scale levels. DIC analysis revealed positive correlation between the applied force and relative density. The apparent stiffness variation for UHMWPE foams with mixed open and closed cells was described using a newly proposed three-term expression. Furthermore, the in situ tensile loading and X-ray scattering study was applied for isotropic solid UHMWPE specimens to investigate their parameters of internal structure during orientation and stress relaxation process at another mode.

Introduction: Due to COVID-19 pandemic, performance of many program has been declined and Tuberculosis (TB) program is not an exception. TB case detection and notification has been recognized as one of worst hit area. The objective of this study was to explore the TB notification status of India during this pandemic and explore options to mitigate the issue. Methods: A secondary data analysis was performed on open source TB notification database of India. Relevant literature review was done to find out remedies based on the different initiative taken by different states of India. Results: In 2020, total TB notification decreased in all the states in comparison to 2019. The percentage of loss in the country was 34%. Private TB notification also decreased in 2020 in all the states except in Jharkhand. The percentage of loss in private TB notification in the country was 35%. Notification started declining in the month of February 2020 and it was lowest in the month of April-2020. The trend of notification began to improve since May 2020 when the States started taking innovative initiatives like Integrated TB Covid Case Search. Conclusion: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the notifications of TB cases declined noticeably which has a serious implication in terms of silent spread within household and community. But the picture can be improved with integrated approach for TB-COVID case finding and management.

Background: Cervical cancer prevention in regions with limited access to screening and HPV vaccination necessitates innovative approaches. This study explored the potential of a test-and-treat strategy using mRNA HPV tests to impact cervical cancer prevention in a high-prevalence HIV population. Methods: A cervical screening study was conducted at three South African hospitals involving 710 under-screened, non-pregnant women (25 to 65 years) without known cervical diseases. Cytology, HPV testing, colposcopy, and biopsies were performed concurrently. Histopathologists determined final histological diagnoses based on biopsy and LLETZ histology. mRNA-HPV-genotyping for 3 (16, 18, 45) to 8 (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, 58) high-risk types was performed on leftover liquid-based cytology material. The preventive potential of the test-and-treat approach was estimated based on published data, reporting the causative HPV types in cervical cancer tissue from South African women. Treatment was provided as needed. Results: HPV positivity rate more than doubled from 3-type (15.2%; 95% CI: 12.6-17.8) to 8-type mRNA (31.5%; 95% CI: 28.8-34.9) combinations, significantly higher among HIV-positive women. CIN3+ prevalence among HIV-positive women (26.4%) was double that of HIV-negative women (12.9%) (p&lt;0.01). The 6-type combination showed the best balance of sensitivity, specificity and treatment group size, and effectiveness to prevent cervical cancer. A 4-type combination (16, 18, 35, 45) could potentially prevent 77.6% (95% CI: 71.2-84.0) of cervical cancer burden by treating 20% and detecting 41.1% of CIN3 cases in the study group. Similarly, a 6-type combination (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45), treating 25% and including 62% of CIN3 cases, might prevent 85% of cervical cancer cases (95% CI: 79.6-90.6) among HIV-positive and negative women. Conclusion: Employing mRNA HPV tests within a test-and-treat approach holds huge promise for targeted cervical cancer prevention in under-screened populations. Testing for mRNA of the 6 highest-risk HPV types in this population and treating them all is projected to effectively prevent progression from CIN3 to invasive cervical cancer while reducing overtreatment in resource-constrained settings.

It has been proposed that tumourigenicity was an intrinsic feature of embryonic/germ cell developmental axis as well as embryonic/germ cell-related genes play a crucial role in tumourigenicity. Our previous studies indicated that primordial germ cell (PGC)-like potential could be reactivated in tumourigenesis. In this study, 4T1, 168FARN and 67NR cells which originated from the same mouse breast cancer were studied and the results indicated that the acquisition of embryonic/germ cell-like state is essential for tumourigenicity. We further demonstrated that somatic to PGC-like transformation (SPLT) was activated in 4T1 cells and that inhibition of PGC-like cell formation by depleting pluripotency and/or PGC specification-related genes markedly repressed SPLT and the tumourigenicity. Collectively, our findings reveal that tumourigenicity is linked to the acquisition of PGC-like state through SPLT in 4T1 cells, provide new insight into deeper understanding the biological nature of tumours and novel therapeutical strategies for cancer targeting.

Recent wastewater testing suggests the poliovirus is reemerging, raising questions about the efficacy of the current inactivated polio vaccine and mass vaccination to eradicate poliomyelitis. The present study reassessed reported outcomes from the placebo-control study of the 1954 Salk inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine field trial, which studied a population of 1,829,916 U.S. school children from the first three grades. The placebo-control study of the trial reported that the polio vaccine was 80% to 90% effective in reducing cases of laboratory confirmed paralytic poliomyelitis, 60% to 70% effective against type 1 of the virus, and greater than 90% effective against types 2 and 3 of the poliovirus. However, these outcomes are reported as relative risk reductions, and the absolute risk reductions of the 1954 polio vaccine field trial were never reported to the public. The present paper’s analysis reveals to the public for the first time that the inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine's absolute risk reduction of laboratory confirmed paralytic poliomyelitis in the placebo-control study is 0.01% to 0.02%, an extraordinarily low clinical effect that impugns the Salk polio vaccine’s reported effectiveness. Furthermore, absolute risk reductions for the three poliovirus types are 0.01%, 0.00%, and 0.01%, respectively. Outcome reporting bias in the 1954 inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine field trial casts doubt on eradication of the poliovirus through mass vaccination.

The central reason behind emergence of clinically-detectable tumors is evasion from immune surveillance due to lack of cancer cells surface membrane expression of tumor-specific peptides in association with MHC class I molecules, concealment of natural killer cells-activating molecules, and absence of inflammation resulting from inefficient stimulation of innate immunity receptors and co-stimulatory molecules. The tumor microenvironment (TME) also contributes to tumor initiation, progression and resistance to therapeutic interventions because of its dense, fibrogenic, barrier-like composition, aberrant vasculature, and production of cytokines and chemokines responsible for recruitment of immune suppressive cells, notably myeloid-derived suppressor cells, M2 macrophages, regulatory T cells, extracellular trap-forming neutrophils, and cancer-associated fibroblasts. We herein show that the relentless efforts and strategies to overcome the TME elusive tumor-promoting impact produced contrasting, opposed, controversial effects, characterized by limited efficacy and proven adversity, and most importantly deterred from attempts to discover and counteract the fundamental inherent mechanisms initiating, and not consequent to, carcinogenesis.

The use of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (i.e., LASERs or lasers) by the U.S. Department of Defense is not new and includes laser weapons guidance, laser-aided measurements, even lasers as weapons (e.g., Airborne Laser). Lasers in support of telecommunications is also not new. The use of laser light in fiber optics shattered thoughts on communications bandwidth and throughput. Even the use of lasers in space is no longer new. Lasers are being used for satellite-to-satellite crosslinking. Laser communication can transmit orders-of-magnitude more data using orders-of-magnitude less power and can do so with minimal risk of exposure to the sending and receiving terminals. What is new is using lasers as the uplink and downlink between the terrestrial segment and the space segment of satellite systems. More so, the use of lasers to transmit and receive data between moving terrestrial segments (e.g., ships at sea, airplanes in flight) and geosynchronous satellites is burgeoning. This manuscript examines the technological maturation of employing lasers as the signal carrier for satellite communications linking terrestrial and space systems. The purpose of the manuscript is to develop key performance parameters (KPPs) to inform U.S. Department of Defense initial capabilities documents (ICDs) for near-future satellite acquisition and development. By appreciating the history and technological challenges of employing lasers rather than traditional radio frequency sources for satellite uplink and downlink signal carrier, this manuscript recommends ways for the U.S. Department of Defense to employ lasers to transmit and receive high bandwidth, large-throughput data from moving platforms that need to retain low probabilities of detection, intercept, and exploitation (e.g., carrier battle group transiting to a hostile area of operations, unmanned aerial vehicle collecting over adversary areas). The manuscript also intends to identify commercial sector early-adopter fields and those fields likely to adapt to laser employment for transmission and receipt.

Manzamines are complex polycyclic marine-derived β-carboline alkaloids with reported anticancer, immunostimulatory, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antimalarial, neuritogenic, hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis suppression bioactivities, putatively associated with inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3, cyclin-dependent kinase 5, and vacuolar ATPases. We hypothesized that additional and yet undiscovered molecular targets might be associated with Manzamine A (MZA) reported pharmacological properties. We report herein for the first time to our knowledge that MZA inhibited a 90kDa ribosomal protein kinase S6 (RSK1) when screened against a panel of 30 protein kinases. Furthermore in vitro RSK kinase assays demonstrated a 10-fold selectivity in potency of MZA against RSK1 versus RSK2. MZA’s differential binding and selectivity toward the two isoforms is also supported by computational docking experiments. Specifically, the RSK1-MZA (N- and C-termini) complexes appear to have stronger interactions and preferable energetics contrary to the RSK2-MZA ones. In addition, our computational strategy suggests that MZA binds to the N-terminal kinase domain of RSK1 rather than the C-terminal domain. RSK is a vertebrate family of cytosolic serine-threonine kinases that act downstream of the ras-ERK1/2 (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2) pathway, which phosphorylates substrates shown to regulate several cellular processes including growth, survival and proliferation. Consequently, our findings have lead us to hypothesize that MZA and the 80 currently known manzamine-type alkaloids isolated from several sponge genera, may have novel pharmacological properties.

If we assume that: a. The four fundamental forces of nature are independent waves without rest masses, and their speeds are constant in a vacuum, just like light. b. Light or electromagnetic waves and gravity are comparable in structures. Weak and strong interactions are similar in structures. c. Light and weak interaction have the same speed c_L with spin number +1 or –1. d. Gravity and strong interaction have the same speed c_G without spin. e. The primary particles, namely electrons, electron neutrinos, and dark neutrinos in this paper, are made by the above four waves. We can find and describe some fundamental characteristics of the primary particles (e.g., their sizes, energies, and interactions) and introduce new attractive results from them (e.g., the source of the Pauli exclusion principle, the solution to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, and c_G slightly faster than c_L).

Nicotiana benthamiana plants infected with a potato virus Y isolate (PVYO) under ambient conditions of 25 °C and ~405 parts-per-million (ppm) ambient CO2 display symptoms of chlorosis, leaf curling, and stunting. However, under elevated temperature and CO2 levels (30 °C, 970 ppm), systemic viral titers decrease several-fold, and plants appear asymptomatic. Under the latter conditions we have studied how infection, drought, or both combined affect infection, drought-driven loss of leaf turgor, plant water content, stomatal conductance, metabolome, and hormone (ABA, SA, and JA) levels. We found that drought did not affect viral titers. As expected, drought decreased plant water content and stomatal conductance. Under drought conditions, infection did not alter significantly final water content or loss of leaf turgor progression, but it increased the levels of some sugars and other osmo-protectants. Infection and drought altered the levels of many components of the metabolome. Some components altered by infection were not altered by drought, but most of those altered by drought were also altered by infection. Drought increased the levels of ABA, infection increased the levels of ABA, SA, and JA, and altered their relative balance. The effects of drought and of infection on hormone levels were cumulative when combined. Thus, under ambient conditions that turn a severe infection into an asymptomatic one both, plant physiology parameters and the interplay with drought are affected.

Let $f\left(1\right)=1$ , and let $f(n+1)=2^{2^{f\left(n\right)}}$ for every positive integer n. We consider the following hypothesis: if a system S ⊆ {x_i · x_j = x_k : i, j, k ∈ {1, . . . , n}} ∪ {x_i + 1 = x_k : i, k ∈{1, . . . , n}} has only finitely many solutions in non-negative integers x₁, . . . , x_n, then each such solution (x₁, . . . , x_n) satisfies x₁, . . . , x_n ≤ f (2n). We prove: (1) the hypothesisimplies that there exists an algorithm which takes as input a Diophantine equation, returns an integer, and this integer is greater than the heights of integer (non-negative integer, positive integer, rational) solutions, if the solution set is finite; (2) the hypothesis implies that there exists an algorithm for listing the Diophantine equations with infinitely many solutions in non-negative integers; (3) the hypothesis implies that the question whether or not a given Diophantine equation has only finitely many rational solutions is decidable by a single query to an oracle that decides whether or not a given Diophantine equation has a rational solution; (4) the hypothesis implies that the question whether or not a given Diophantine equation has only finitely many integer solutions is decidable by a single query to an oracle that decides whether or not a given Diophantine equation has an integer solution; (5) the hypothesis implies that if a set $\mathfrak{M}$ ⊆ has a finite-fold Diophantine representation, then $\mathfrak{M}$ is computable.

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication plays a pivotal role in modern intelligent transportation systems, enabling seamless information exchange among vehicles to enhance road safety, traffic efficiency, and overall driving experience. However, the secure transmission of sensitive data between vehicles remains a critical concern due to potential security threats and vulnerabilities. This research paper focuses on investigating the security protocols employed in Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication systems. A comprehensive review and analysis of relevant literature and research papers is conducted to gather information on existing V2V communication security protocols and techniques. The analysis encompasses key areas, including authentication mechanisms, encryption algorithms, key management protocols, and intrusion detection systems specifically applicable to V2V communication networks. Within the context of real-world V2V environments, this study delves into the challenges and limitations associated with implementing these protocols. Moreover, to foster a deeper understanding, the paper investigates present communication protocols in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) that are tailored for V2V. Various parameters, such as band-width consumption, energy consumption, latency, and message size, are considered during the evaluation of these protocols to gauge their effectiveness. The research outcomes aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the current V2V communication security protocols. Furthermore, based on the findings, this paper will propose improvements and recommendations to enhance the security measures of the V2V communication protocol. Ultimately, this research will contribute to the development of more secure and reliable V2V communication systems, propelling the advancement of intelligent transportation technology.

We consider the financial planning problem of a retiree wishing to enter a retirement village at a future uncertain date. The date of entry is determined by the retiree's utility and bequest maximisation problem within the context of uncertain future health states. In addition, the retiree must choose optimal consumption, investment, bequest and purchase of insurance products prior to her full annuitisation on entry to the retirement village. A hyperbolic absolute risk-aversion (HARA) utility function is used to allow necessary consumption for basic living and medical costs. The retirement village will typically require an initial deposit upon entry. This threshold wealth requirement leads to exercising the replication of an American put option at the uncertain stopping time. From our numerical results, active insurance and annuity markets are shown to be a critical aspect in retirement planning.

India’s increasing reliance on equated monthly installments (EMIs) has reshaped household financial behavior in ways that pose significant risks to long-term economic stability. This paper examines the growing trend of EMI-driven debt accumulation, highlighting its detrimental effect on household savings and the rising financial vulnerability across demographic groups. Leveraging data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), CRISIL, and the National Statistical Office (NSO), the study delves into how debt dynamics are shifting within Indian households, particularly in the context of broader economic trends. Retail credit has expanded rapidly, growing from 12.1% of GDP in 2017 to 19.4% by 2023, with housing loans now making up nearly half of all retail loans. Concurrently, the growth of unsecured loans, such as credit card debt, has surged at an annual rate of 21.3% between 2021 and 2024, reflecting the increasing ease of borrowing for consumers. However, this boom in credit has coincided with a marked drop in household financial savings, which fell to a 47-year low of 5.3% in FY22, underscoring a troubling shift from saving to borrowing. The younger population, particularly those under 35, have been the most active in taking on debt, with loans to this group nearly doubling between 2015 and 2021 due to the rise of fintech platforms and non-banking financial companies. This shift has contributed to a steep rise in debt-service-to-income ratios, amplifying the financial risks for these households in the face of potential economic shocks. By connecting these micro-level household debt trends to broader macroeconomic risks, this paper reveals how India’s EMI culture could deepen the impact of future financial crises, leading to widespread defaults and destabilizing the economy. The study calls for proactive regulatory measures and enhanced financial literacy programs to curb the growing reliance on consumer credit and mitigate the risks of a broader financial collapse.

Endometrial preparation is crucial in in vitro fertilization (IVF) protocols to create optimal conditions for embryo implantation and pregnancy. Successful embryo nidation requires a receptive endometrium, which is influenced by factors such as endometrial thickness, hormonal environment, autocrine and paracrine growth factors, and the presence of resident and non-resident stem cells within the endometrium basalis. Synchronization between endometrial and embryonic development is also essential. Endometrial preparation, whether achieved through spontaneous cycles, natural cycles with minimal support, ovulation induction, or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), results from a combination of biochemical and biophysical conditions, each independent of the others. These conditions are difficult to pinpoint within a fixed period (Window of Implantation, WOI) using any specific examination due to the variability in estrogen and progesterone production rates, their metabolic clearance rates (MCR) when administered exogenously, and their metabolism when given systemically, topically, or orally. These variations also occur in different phenotypes and over different durations. Moreover, the synchronization of endometrial preparation with incomplete decidualization and the uncertain duration of the implantation window pose challenges. It is also unknown if there are compliance mechanisms similar to diapause seen in other species. This review aims to outline a clinical approach that, while not an absolute clinical recommendation due to the lack of definitive certainties, assists in understanding complementary phenomena and provides a useful orientation for clinical practice.

(1) Introduction: Every two hours, a Romanian woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer [1] as the country ranks second in Europe in terms of mortality and incidence rate [2]. This paper aims to identify the main reasons that have led to this situation, focusing on the measures taken by the Romanian Ministry of Health for the prevention of this type of cancer national - programs for cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. (2) Materials and methods: We performed a study based on available secondary data from the National Statistics Institute, World Health Organization and Bucharest Institute of Oncology in order to assess the burden associated with cervical cancer and placing it in the context of known global and European incidence and mortality rates, thus evaluating the importance of this health issue in Romania. The second component of our study was a cross-sectional study, using a 14 questions questionnaire, applied to the women participating in the National Screening Program for Cervical Cancer, aimed to evaluate the women’s level of knowledge about screening and HPV vaccination and their access cervical cancer specific health-care services. (3) Results: The results of the research shows that a high percentage of women postpone the routine checks due to lack of time and financial resources and indicate that low level of knowledge about the disease and the specific preventive methods determines low participation screening and HPV vaccination programs implemented in Romania contributing to the country’s situation of cervical cancer. (4) Conclusions: The national programs have complicated procedures, are underfunded, and do not motivate enough health care workers. This combined with the lack of information adds up to an extremely low number of women screened and vaccinated. Our conclusion is that the Romanian Ministry of Health must take immediate action by conducting major awareness campaigns, implementing measures to make the programs functional and ensuring coherent funding.

Rescaling of rainfall requires measurements of rainfall rates over many dimensions. This paper develops one approach using 10 m vertical spatial observations of the Doppler spectra of falling rain every 10 seconds over intervals varying from 15 up to 41minutes in two different locations and in two different years using two different Micro-Rain Radars (MRR). The transformation of the temporal domain into spatial observations uses the Taylor ‘frozen’ turbulence hypothesis to estimate an average advection speed over an entire observation interval. Thus, when no other advection estimates are possible, this paper offers a new approach for estimating the appropriate frozen turbulence advection speed by minimizing power spectral differences between the ensemble of purely spatial radial power spectra observed at all times in the vertical and those using the ensemble of temporal spectra at all heights to yield statistically reliable scaling relations. Thus, it is likely that, MRR and other vertically pointing Doppler radars may often help to obviate the need for expensive and immobile large networks of instruments in order to determine such scaling relations, but not the need of those radars for surveillance.

The simplified, combined protocol admits children with a mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) of <125 mm or edema to malnutrition treatment with ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) prescribing 2 daily RUTF sachets to children with MUAC <115 mm or edema and 1 daily sachet to those with MUAC ≥115 mm but <125 mm. This treatment has previously been shown to result in non-inferior programmatic outcomes compared to standard treatment. We aimed at observing its effectiveness in a routine setting at scale, including via delivery by community health workers (CHW). A total of 27 601 children were admitted to the simplified, combined treatment. Treatment resulted in 96% overall recovery with a mean LOS of 40 days and a mean RUTF consumption of 63 sachets per child treated. Among children admitted with MUAC <115 mm or edema 94% recovered with a mean LOS of 55 days and consuming an average of 97 RUTF sachets. Recovery in all sub-groups studied exceeded 90%.Treatment by CHWs resulted in similar (96%) recovery as treatment by formal health care workers (96%). The simplified, combined protocol results in high recovery and low RUTF consumption per child treated, and can safely be adopted by CHWs to provide treatment in the community-level.

Measures in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were based on rough ideas regarding transmission routes of pathogens. Quantified models of physical transmission routes are mostly lacking, a gap to be filled. Vaccines and medicines, important, are not studied here. We first survey main routes, from primary production in the alveoli and intestines to emissions, environmental routes, to exposure and alveolar infection. Next, specific routes are modelled, mostly at a preliminary state, open to systematic improvement. Starting from a standardized emitter, modelling results show extreme differences in potential exposure, in a range covering up to 4 orders of magnitude. The outcomes are pathogen-specific, already different between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Extreme exposures may result in smaller spaces; with lower ventilation rates; with a high density of emitting persons per m3; who stay there for several hours; and visitors staying more than a few minutes. In spaces where a build-up of concentrations is low, exposures are low, lowest in open air situations. A main conclusion for the next pandemic is that a quantified model can give strong guidance on where measures are primarily due. For SARS-CoV-2, ventilation can be improved short-term. Longer-term, effective ventilation rules and adaptation of buildings may reduce high exposures substantially.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the discovery that proteins with various cellular functions can be temporarily immobilized in the nucleolus, a process known as nucleolar sequestration. This review reflects on the progress made to understand the physiological roles of nucleolar sequestration and the mechanisms involved in protein immobilization. We discuss how nucleolar sequestration consists of a highly choreographed amyloidogenic liquid-to-solid phase transition that converts the nucleolus into Amyloid bodies (A-bodies). The study of solid condensates A-bodies will offer unique perspectives on cellular assembly of membrane-less compartments and provide alternative insights on pathological amyloidogenesis involved in neurological disorders.

This study purposes the use of plug-in electric vehicles for demand side management (DSM) considering uncertainties in demand as well as uncertainties due to mobility of PEV to mitigate peak demand. The solution also seeks to reduce electric cost in addition to reducing the effects of greenhouse gases. In recent years DSM using distributed storage system such as battery energy management system (BESS) and plugged-in electric vehicles (PEV) have become very prevalent with most implementations resorting to deterministic load forecast. These methods do not consider the potential growth in demand making their solutions less robust. In this study we propose a real-time density demand forecast and stochastic optimization for robust operation of PEV for a building. This method accounts for demand uncertainties in addition to uncertainties in mobile energy storage as found in PEV, making the resulting solution robust as compared to the deterministic case. A case study on a real site in South Korea is used for verification and testing. The proposed study is verified and tested against existing algorithms. The result verifies the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Safety limits application has always been a traditional approach to ensure the safe operation of electro-mechanical systems within many industries including automated vehicles, robotics, aerospace, traditional automotive, railways, manufacturing, etc. In all of these applications, control and safety limits are usually hard-coded into the production firmware and are fixed throughout the entire product life cycle. Currently, due to the evolving needs of automated systems like automated vehicles and robots, this traditional approach does not address all the use cases and scenarios to ensure safe operation. Especially for data-driven machine learning applications that constantly evolve and learn over time, it is important to be able to adjust the safety limits application strategy to be more flexible and adaptable based on different Operational Design Domains (ODDs) and scenarios. Our ITSC conference paper ~\cite{4} introduced the concept of a new safety limits application strategy called the Dynamic Control Limits Application (DCLA) strategy that supports the flexible application of diverse limits profiles based on the parameters involved within the dynamic scenario at different layers of the Autonomy software stack.This paper extends the DCLA strategy to derive the complete methodology for safety limits application based on ODD elements, scenario identification and scenario classification using Decision Making Engines. It leverages the layered architecture introduced in the ITSC conference paper to implement the Decision Making (DM) algorithms. Another important extension is the use of cloud infrastructure that is based on the Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technology to store the scenarios and the limits mapping to serve as a ground truth and/or a backup mechanism in case of errors or failures associated with the main Decision Making (DM) Engine. There is also a focus on providing a more comprehensive list of scenarios and a custom built experimental dataset to cover the maximum ODD elements, and multiple tables of safety limits to be chosen from, which eventually helps in creating different safety limits application profiles. These distinct safety limits application profiles are based on the scenario parameters that are perceived by the system upon which the Decision Making algorithms are applied or trained. This systematic approach can be used within the industry for any of the future automated vehicles and systems until Level 5 Autonomy.

Soft-Core architecture for Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) sampling is useful for mixed signal applications. Soft-core architecture for cutting edge odd or even ADC sampling with interface to block RAM memory has not been found. Soft-core architecture as a concept has become popular due to the advantage of customization for different applications as compared to general-core architecture suited for single application. The latest generation of piece wise sampling is odd sampling and was introduced in the second decade of the 20th century. Odd and even order sampling techniques are analogue in nature driven by a tuned (tuned for odd or even) mixer. This paper proposes a third-generation piece wise sampling with soft-core architecture that enables an option to select both odd and even while interfacing to memory mapping. The proposed odd/even has superior SNR performance of 6 dB as compared to existing architecture such as Mod-∆ which recorded worst performance of 18 dB. Advances in soft-core technology have allowed a niche odd/even switching field to be identified and studied, the study has also been extended to include memory architecture.

This review article is focused on the analysis of the state of the art of sensors for guided 9 ultrasonic waves for the detection and localization of impacts, therefore of interest for the structural 10 health monitoring (SHM). The recent developments in sensor technologies are then reported and 11 discussed through the many references in recent scientific literature. The physical phenomena re-12 lated to impact event and the main physical quantities are then introduced to discuss their im-13 portance in the development of the hardware and software components for SHM systems. An im-14 portant aspect of the article is the description of the different ultrasonic sensor technologies cur-15 rently present in the literature and what advantages and disadvantages they could bring, in relation 16 to the various phenomena investigated. In this context, the analysis of the front-end electronics is 17 deepened, the type of data transmission both in terms of wired and wireless technology and in terms 18 of online and offline signal processing. The integration aspects of sensors for the creation of net-19 works with autonomous nodes with the possibility of powering through energy harvesting devices 20 and the embedded processing capacity is also studied. Finally, the emerging sector of processing 21 techniques using deep learning and artificial intelligence concludes the review by indicating the 22 potential for the detection and autonomous characterization of the impacts.

There is no formal difference between particles and black holes. This formal similarity lies in the intersection of gravity and quantum theory; quantum gravity. Motivated by this similarity, `wave-black hole duality' is proposed, which requires having a proper energy-momentum tensor of spacetime itself. Such a tensor is then found as a consequence of `principle of minimum gravitational potential'; a principle that corrects the Schwarzschild metric and predicts extra periods in orbits of the planets. In search of the equation that governs changes of observables of spacetime, a novel Hamiltonian dynamics of a Pseudo-Riemannian manifold based on a vector Hamiltonian is adumbrated. The new Hamiltonian dynamics is then seen to be characterized by a new `tensor bracket' which enables one to finally find the analogue of Heisenberg equation for a `tensor observable' of spacetime.

Formalism proofing general derivation, applying matrix properties operations, showing fundamental relationships with inner product to outer product has been advanced here. This general proof formalism has direct application with physics to quantify quantum density at micro scale level to time commutator at macro scale level. System of operator algebraic equations have been rigorously derived to obtain analytic solutions which are physically acceptable. Extended physics application will include metricizing towards unitarization to achieve gaging Hamiltonian mechanics to electromagnetic gravitational strong theory, towards grand unifying physics atomistic to astrophysics or vice versa via quantum relativistic general physics thereby patching to classical physics fields energy.

More than half a century has passed since the discovery of the genetic code, but its origin is still one of the greatest mysteries in life science, although a plenty of theories have been proposed so far, as none can explain satisfactorily why the genetic code evolved in such a way, especially in the context of the biochemical system, a relation of part to whole. Here, a new hypothesis is proposed, according to which ATP is at the origin of the genetic code by its coevolution with the pristine biochemical system of the protocell. This hypothesis shows how primitive life with its genetic code emerged through a series of processes from energy flow to information communication mediated by ATP. First, ATP is the only energetic product of photosynthesis, and is at the energetic heart of the extant biochemical systems. Second, ATP serves as not only an energy carrier but also an informatization molecule, as ATP could energetically elongate chains of both polynucleotides and polypeptides, thus providing a bridge between these molecules and eventually mediating biochemical innovation in the protocell from energy transformation to informatization, a process for creating and managing information. Informatization was inevitably coupled with structuralization (processes for organizing or incorporating cellular structures), cyclizing polynucleotides and polypeptides into a feedback loop of reciprocal causation. The triplet codon might be only for stereochemical handling of amino acids through, e.g., Watson–Crick pairing interactions. It is only the evolutionary completion of the genetic code from RNA to DNA that, contrary to the central dogma, marked the dawn of cellular life, when Darwinian evolution began to operate. The ATP hypothesis sheds light on the origin of life, together with the formation of both photosynthetic and biochemical systems, which remains largely unknown thus far.

This work presents an illustrative application of the newly developed “Second-Order Features Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology for Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (2nd-FASAM-NODE)” methodology to determine most efficiently the exact expressions of the first- and second-order sensitivities of NODE-decoder responses to the neural net’s underlying parameters (weights and initial conditions). The application of the 2nd-FASAM-NODE methodology will be illustrated using the Nordheim-Fuchs phenomenological model for reactor safety, which describes a short-time self-limiting power transient in a nuclear reactor system having a negative temperature coefficient in which a large amount of reactivity is suddenly inserted. The representative model responses that will be analyzed in this work include the model’s the time-dependent total energy released, neutron flux, temperature and thermal conductivity. The 2nd-FASAM-NODE methodology yields the exact expressions of the first-order sensitivities of these decoder responses with respect to the underlying uncertain model parameters and initial conditions, requiring just a single large-scale computation per response. Furthermore, 2nd-FASAM-NODE methodology yields the exact expressions of the second-order sensitivities of a model response requiring as few large-scale computations as there are features/functions of model parameters, thereby demonstrating its unsurpassed efficiency for performing sensitivity analysis of NODE-nets.

Leishmaniases are zoonotic vector-borne diseases caused by a wide variety of Leishmania species with complex transmission cycles involving different reservoirs, potential new hosts and vectors. Similarly, to other eukaryotes, Leishmania release extracellular vesicles (LEVs) to play important initial interactions that are crucial to modulate the subsequent systemic immune response on the establishment of infection in humans and others hosts like dogs. Recent studies in endemic areas of Brazil concluded that canine infections were predominantly due to L. amazonensis and not restricted to L. infantum (syn. Leishmania chagasi). Under these premises, the diagnosis of leishmaniasis needs to be improved with the identification of current etiological agent and the histopathologic features, highlighting the differential diagnosis and the molecular components of LEVs. In this way, the dual aim of that study is to register collected observations of natural canine infections, enhancing the relevance of differential diagnosis in companion animals and inserting in vitro results in the field of LEVs that still research gaps to be filled to understand the mechanisms and biological aspects involving the parasite-host interactions. Therefore, improve these studies of Parasitology research is important for diagnostic, prognostic, treatment advances and continuing need for global prevention, control, elimination/eradication of these parasitic infections.

Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) is a radar imaging technique in which the relative motion of the sensor is used to synthesize a very long antenna and obtain high spatial resolution. Standard SAR raw data processing techniques assume uniform motion of the satellite (or aerial vehicle) and a fixed antenna beam pointing sideway orthogonally to the motion path, assumed rectilinear. Despite SAR data processing is a well established imaging technology that has become fundamental in several fields and applications, in this paper a novel approach has been used to exploit coherent illumination, demonstrating the possibility of extracting a large part of the ancillary data information from the raw data itself, to be used in the focusing procedure. In this work an effort has been carried out to try to focus the raw SAR complex data matrix without the knowledge of anyof the parameters needed in standard focusing procedures as Range Doppler (RD) algorithm, ω - K algorithm and Chirp Scaling (CS) algorithm. All the literature references regarding the algorithms needed to obtain a precise image from raw data use such parameters that refer both to the SAR system acquisition geometry and its radiometric specific parameters. In [12], authors introduced a preliminary work dealing with this problem and able to obtain, in the presence of a strong point scatterer in the observed scene, good quality images, if compared to the standard processing techniques. In this work the proposed technique is described and performances parameters are extracted to compare the proposed approach to RD.

The last 50 years witnessed the emergence of various so called “hyperpolarization technologies” that allow generating large magnetizations of spin ensembles. This Editorial Essay provides a brief overview of the use of these technologies in various fields, including medicine, chemistry, and quantum sensing. It is concluded that critical questions still need to be addressed to harness benefits of nuclear hyperpolarization in clinical medical imaging while interdisciplinary innovation can unlock potential of novel (yet unexplored) methods. My hope is that this Editorial Essay provides valuable insights into the current state and future directions of spin technologies.

Perhaps the greatest challenge in the graft copolymerization of acrylic acid onto starch initiated by Fenton’s is the selectivity of the grafting reaction. Low selectivity means that too much of unwanted homopolymer polyacrylic acid is produced. In this paper, it has been analyzed why with this reaction system, involving a water soluble monomer and indirect initiation, the graft selectivity is such a challenge. Several other grafting reactions, especially with monomers of low water solubility or when direct initiation is applied, show a better grafting performance. A scheme is presented based on reaction engineering principles, that supports an explanation of the observed differences. A more selective activation of starch is a factor, but perhaps even more important is a low monomer to starch ratio at the starting sites of graft reactions. Based on these insights, several methods to improve the graft selectivity are evaluated, with the help of literature data but mostly by experimental explorations in our laboratory. Most promising appears to be a dedicated dosage method, to add monomer in portions over time, tested in a batch reactor with gelatinized cassava starch. This way, both grafting percentage and graft selectivity could be improved. Such could not be realized with the more conventional dosage, which is to add all monomer before the start of the reaction. This can be considered a principal breaktrough. Still, more research and development would be needed to refine the method and to implement the idea also in a continuous reactor at larger scale.

Research question/problem: This comprehensive review and comparative analysis aims to investigate the significance of enhancing oxygen provision in the context of COVID-19, focusing on the implications for healthcare policies and services.Background/context: The study addresses the shift in the oxygen dissociation curve of blood in COVID-19 patients, emphasizing the impact on oxygen delivery to tissues and the challenges it poses for clinical management. It also explores the disruption of healthcare systems due to the pandemic and the integration of social determinants of health in clinical environments.Methodology: The research incorporates a thorough literature review, comparative analysis of diverse approaches to oxygen delivery, and examination of successful interventions through case studies and best practices. Data collection techniques include the review of scholarly articles, case studies, and policy documents.Results/Key findings: The study highlights the imperative for augmented oxygen supply and the significance of maintaining appropriate oxygen saturation levels, especially in the context of respiratory illnesses like COVID-19. It also emphasizes the positive correlation between increased oxygen saturation levels and life expectancy, indicating potential health benefits of enhanced oxygen availability.Conclusions/Implications: The findings underscore the need for a structured approach to oxygen therapy and the importance of equitable distribution of oxygen to underserved regions. The implications of the research extend to enhancing healthcare policies and services regarding oxygen provision during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in rural and remote areas.

We assume that poetic devices have an implicit goal: producing an overall sound scheme that will induce the reader to associate intended and expressed meaning to the sound of the poem. Sounds may be organized into categories and assigned presumed meaning as suggested by traditional literary studies. In my work, I have extracted automatically the sound grids of all the sonnets by William Shakespeare and have combined them with the themes expressed by their contents. In a first experiment I have computed lexically and semantically based sentiment analysis obtaining an 80% of agreement. In a second experiment sentiment analysis has been substituted by Appraisal Theory thus obtaining a more fine-grained interpretation which in some cases contradicts the first one. The computation for the second poet - regarded by many critics the best of last century - includes both vowels and consonants. In addition, it combines automatic semantically and lexically based sentiment analysis with sound grids. The results produce visual maps that clearly separate poems into three clusters: negative harmony, positive harmony and disharmony where the latter instantiates the need by the poet to encompass the opposites in a desperate attempt to reconcile them.