Background and Aim: Patients with Type 2-diabetes condition tend to have multiple medications in various dosage which leads to complex medication regimens. Complexity of regimen results in poor adherence, uncontrolled glycemic value and treatment failure. The research aimed to investigate medication regimen complexity index, medication adherence, and impact of medication regimen complexity on glycemic control and medication adherence.Materials and Methods: A Crossectional Study methods was conducted at Bheri Hospital Nepalgunj, among 145 Diabetes patients. Medication adherence was assessed by using a General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS Nep-Tool). Medication regimen complexity was assessed by using a Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI) tool. Chi-square test, One-way ANOVA, Paired t-test, and binary logistic regression were used for inferential statistics. Results: This study shows that most of the participants were female and aged group 50-59 years. Hypertension was the most common comorbidity, followed by hypothyroidism. The majority of participants exhibited partial adherence 90 (62.1%) to their medication regimen. It was seen that medications prescribed for diabetes were more complex than non-diabetes medications (Mean±SD MRCI: 8.28±3.155 vs. 4.57±2.107). The negative correlation was seen with diabetes MRCI and medication adherence (r=-0.090). There was statistically significant association between diabetes MRCI and glycemic control, (p<0.05). Binary logistic regression revealed that females had lower odds of high MRCI compared to males ( multivariate p-value: 0.014, AOR: 0.403, 95% CI: 0.195-0.832), while sedentary lifestyle showed high Diabetes MRCI (COR: 4.709, 95% CI: 0.962-23.05) and abnormal BMI were associated with higher MRCI (binary p-value: 0.067, COR: 2.30, 95% CI: 0.942-5.65; multivariate p-value: 0.092, AOR: 2.323, 95% CI: 0.878-5.67). Conclusion: Diabetes medications are more complex, reducing adherence and worsening A1C outcomes. Simplifying regimens improves results, with MRCI being valuable for healthcare providers. The medication adherence and therapeutic outcomes can be improved by the improved by the involvement of clinical pharmacist using MRCI.

Atrial fibrillation has progressively become a more common reason for emergency de-partment visits, representing 0.5% of presenting reasons. Registry data have indicated that about 60% of atrial fibrillation patients who present to the emergency department are admitted, emphasizing the need for more-efficient management of atrial fibrillation in the acute phase. Management of atrial fibrillation in the setting of emergency department varies between countries and health care systems. The most plausible reason to justify a conservative rather than aggressive strategy in the management of atrial fibrillation is the absence of specific guidelines from diverse societies. Several trials of atrial fibrillation treatment strategies, including cardioversion, have demonstrated that atrial fibrillation in emergency department can be treated safely and effectively, avoiding admission. In the present study, we review the epidemiology and characteristics of atrial fibrillation pa-tients presenting to the emergency department will be reviewed, as well as the impact of diverse management strategies on atrial fibrillation-related hospital admissions. Lastly, the design and initial data of the HEROMEDICUS protocol, which constitutes an elec-trophysiology-based aggressive rhythm control strategy in patients with atrial fibrillation in the emergency department setting will be presented.

Food fraud (often called fake food in South Africa), the deliberate misrepresentation or adulteration of food products for financial gain, is a growing problem in South Africa (SA) with severe public health and financial consequences for consumers and businesses. The recent public outcry against food fraud practices, especially in communities that have lost loved ones due to the consumption of allegedly unsafe foodstuffs, highlights the grave danger that food fraud poses to consumers and the potential for significant reputational damage to food manufacturers. Despite the risks, food fraud often goes undetected, as perpetrators are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The precise magnitude of food fraud remains obscure, as incidents that do not cause consumer illnesses are frequently unreported and, as a result, are not investigated. Food fraud costs the global economy billion annually. This cost is borne by consumers, businesses, and the government. Food fraud can occur at any stage of the food supply chain, from production to processing to retailing or distribution. This is due in part to the limitations of current analytical methods, which are not always able to detect food fraud. This systematic literature review of food fraud in SA looks at several factors that may be contributing to epidemic of food fraud (fake food), including lenient penalties, inadequate government commitment, a complex labelling regulations, emerging threats such as e-commerce, and a shortage of inspectors and laboratories. The review recommends establishing a single food control/safety authority, developing more food safety laboratories, and adopting innovative technologies to detect and prevent food fraud. SA faces a serious food fraud crisis unless decisive action is taken.

Laportea bulbifera (Sieb. et Zucc.) Wedd. (L. bulbifera) is a significant plant belonging to the Laportea genus. It has been traditionally used in ethnomedicine to treat various conditions such as rheumatic arthralgia, fractures, falling injuries, nephritis dropsy, limb numbness, pruritus, fatigue-induced internal imbalances, and irregular menstruation. Modern pharmacological studies have confirmed its therapeutic potential, as it exhibits anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, analgesic, and anti-rheumatoid arthritis properties. In order to gather in-depth information on L. bulbifera, a comprehensive literature search was conducted using databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, ProQuest, and CNKI. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of L. bulbifera by covering various aspects, including ethnomedicinal uses, geographical distribution, botanical description, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and quality control. By doing so, this review intends to lay a strong foundation and propose new research avenues for the exploration and development of potential applications of L. bulbifera. Thus far, a total of 189 compounds have been isolated and identified from L. bulbifera. These compounds include flavonoids, phenolics, nitrogen compounds, steroids, terpenoids, coumarins, phenylpropanoids, fatty acids and their derivatives, and other compounds. Notably, flavonoids and fatty acids in L. bulbifera have demonstrated remarkable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Furthermore, these compounds show promising potential in activities such as analgesia, hypoglycemia, and hypolipidemia, as well as toxicity. Despite the extensive fundamental studies conducted on L. bulbifera, further research is still needed to enhance our understanding of its credible mechanism of action and improve its quality control. This necessitates more comprehensive investigations to explore the specific material basis, uncover new mechanisms of action, and refine the quality control methods related to L. bulbifera. By doing so, we could contribute to the further development and utilization of this plant.

The Review examines studies aimed at the organization of energy (non-mechanical) control of high-speed flow/flight using spatially multi-component plasma structures and combined energy deposition. The Review covers selected works on experimental obtaining and numerical modeling multi-component plasma structures and use of sets of actuators based on the plasma of such a spatially type for the purposes of control of shock wave/bow shock wave – energy source interaction, as well as control of shock wave – boundary layer interaction. A series of works on repetitive multiple laser pulse plasma structures is also analyzed from the point of view of examining shock wave/bow shock wave boundary layer interaction. Self-sustained theoretical models for laser dual-pulse, multi-mode laser pulses and self-sustained glow discharge are also considered. Separate sections are devoted to high-speed flow control using combined physical phenomena and numerical prediction of flow control possibilities using thermal longitudinally layered plasma structures. The wide possibilities for organization and applying spatially multi-component structured plasma for the purposes of high-speed flow control are demonstrated.

The clinical relationship between diabetes and inflammation is well-established. Various branches of science independently have confirmed that disrupting oxidant-antioxidant equilibrium and elevated lipid peroxidation could be a potential mechanism for chronic kidney disease associated with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Under diabetic condition, hyperglycemia, especially inflammation, and increased reactive oxygen species generation are bidirectionally associated. Inflammation, oxidative stress and tissue damage are believed to have a role in the development of diabetes. Although the exact mechanism underlying the oxidative stress and its impact on diabetes progression remains uncertain, the hyperglycemia-inflammation-oxidative stress interaction clearly plays a significant role in onset and progression of vascular disease, kidney disease, hepatic injury, pancreas damage and, therefore holds promise as a therapeutic target. Evidence strongly indicates that the use of multiple antidiabetic medications therapy fails to achieve the normal range for glycated hemoglobin target, signifying treatment resistant diabetes. Antioxidants with polyphenols are considered useful as adjuvant therapy for their potential anti-inflammatory effect and antioxidant activity. We aimed to analyze the current major points reported in preclinical in vivo and clinical studies of antioxidants in the prevention or treatment of inflammation in T2DM. Then, we will share our speculative vision of the future diabetes clinical trials.

This study examines the impact of alcohol concentration on the precision of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. While the impact of alcohol impairment on various activities is well documented, its specific influence on drone piloting accuracy remains less studied. To address this, we carried out empirical research using an original methodology and a real-world environment. The study involved a group of 35 participants performing a series of flights using a selected drone (DJI Mavic2 Pro) on a bespoke obstacle route. Between each flight series, participants consumed a measured amount of alcohol, designed to incrementally increase their blood alcohol concentration monitored via breath tests. The precision of the drone pilot was evaluated by comparing various parameters from successive test flights, such as time, distance, average speed, and incident frequency, against a baseline trial executed with zero alcohol concentration. Our results indicate a noticeable decline in UAV piloting precision corresponding with increasing alcohol concentration. Parameters such as flight time, distance, speed, and incident frequency all demonstrated this trend. We conclude that alcohol consumption detrimentally affects the accuracy of drone operations. These findings underscore the need for clear policies and guidelines regarding the operation of UAVs under the influence of alcohol.

(1) In searching for herbal alternatives for treating coccidiosis in turkeys, this trial aimed to evaluate whether minced black garlic (Allium sativa) or turmeric powder (Curcuma longa) or their combination, included in dried alginate beads, were capable of controlling clinical coccidiosis in turkey male poults. (2) Four groups of 15 twelve-day-old turkey poults per group were set and rose in this trial until the end of week six. Groups were: CTR = control untreated turkeys; GAR = turkeys fed 4% of their diet with minced garlic included in dried alginate beads; CUR = treated fed 4% powder Curcuma, also prepared as dried alginate beads; and G.C. = turkeys fed 8% of their diet with the mixture of minced black garlic plus powder Curcuma (4% of each one), entrapped in dried alginate beads. Treatments were incorporated as feed-dressing, considering their mean feed intake. (3) Results reveal that turkeys in group G.C. showed a significant decrease in oocysts per gram of feces during the first six weeks of age compared to values found in the CTR group and the other treatments. These results identify that in turkey poults, there is a statistically significant anticoccidial activity of the combination of minced garlic plus powder Curcuma, included in alginate beads and administered as 4% of their feed intake. Additionally, better productive variables were recorded for this combination compared to the other three groups (P &lt;0.05). (4) The use of vehicles specifically designed for the digestive tract of turkeys may improve the effectiveness of plant extracts for the control of coccidiosis.

In recent times, the process control network (PCN) of oil and gas installation has been subjected to amorphous cyber-attacks which include Denial-of-Service (DoS), Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS), Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks, and this may have been caused majorly by the integration of open network to Operation Technology (OT) as a result of low-cost network expansion. The connection of the OT to the internet for firmware updates, third-party support, or vendor interventions, has exposed the industry to attacks. The inability to detect these unpredictable cyber-attacks exposes the PCN and a successful attack can lead to devastating effects. This paper reviews the different forms of cyber-attacks in PCN of oil and gas installations and proposes the use of machine learning algorithms to monitor data exchanges between the sensors, controllers, processes, and the final control elements on the network so as to detect anomalies in such data exchanges. Python 3.0 Libraries, Deep-Learning Toolkit, MATLAB, and Allen Bradley RSLogic 5000 PLC Emulator software were used in the simulation of process control. The outcome of the experiments shows the reliability and functionality of the different machine-learning algorithms in detecting these anomalies with significant precise attack detections identified using a coarse tree algorithm.

Starting from the fact that in sensorless control systems of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) the load torque can have short and significant variations, this paper presents the sensorless control of a PMSM based on a Linear Adaptive Disturbance Rejection Controller (LADRC) type controller. Essentially, the successful operation of the LADRC controller to achieve PMSM rotor speed control performance depends on a good estimation of the disturbances acting on the system. Traditionally, an Extended State Observer (ESO) is used to make such an estimate. In this paper, it is proposed to use a Disturbance Observer (DO) to estimate the external disturbances, and after their rejection, the LADRC controller ensures an equivalent global behavior of the control system with an ideal double integrator, and thus increased ease in achieving the desired control performance. Control structures and Matlab/Simulink implementation of the sensorless PMSM control system based on LADRC controller with ESO/DO type observer are presented, as well as its use in tandem with a Reinforcement Learning Twin-Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (RL-TD3) specially trained agent that provides correction signals for more accurate estimation of external disturbances and hence improved control performance. Qualitatively superior performance is achieved by using LADRC with the RL-TD3 agent control structure in terms of parametric robustness, response time, and steady-state error. Also, by calculating the fractal dimension (DF) of the controlled signal and the PMSM rotor speed, it is found that the higher the DF, the better the performance of the control system. The validation of the superiority of the proposed control structures is carried out by means of numerical simulations in the Matlab/Simulink environment.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of illnesses and deaths in Africa at large and Nigeria in particular, especially amongst pregnant women and children under the age of five years. Our research revealed that though the government has deployed so many intervention systems to contend with this death-causing vector—the mosquitoes, malaria related deaths (MRDs) have continued to increase. This is because people have not sufficiently adopted those intervention systems to protect themselves. Further enquiries into the ineffective compliance of the people to the intervention systems revealed that the interventions are passive in nature. Based on these, we set up three measurable research outcomes to enable us to determine the appropriateness of persuasive technology in solving the malaria problem. We technically avoided a one-size-fits-all design approach and adopted Participatory System Design (PSD) and User-Centered Design (UCD) approaches in our system design methodologies. Well-structured questionnaires were used to extract information from the participants. The data obtained from the research survey was used in modeling the intervention system. The research was conducted in three phases: baseline, development and deployment of an intervention system—the Malaria Prevention and Control Support System (MPCSS), and an evaluation study to determine the performance of the intervention system. The research led to the following achievements: (1) encouraged an increase in the number of people who participated in malaria prevention and control activities by lowering the rate of malaria cases from 96.9% to 68.5% and increasing ownership of mosquito nets from 54% to 85.5%; (2) demonstrated that persuasive technology could be used to increase public awareness and knowledge of a given subject as noted in our evaluation result; and (3) demonstrated that persuasive technology is a veritable active intervention to combat malaria.

2-Methylquinazolin-4(3H)-one was prepared by reaction of anthranilic acid, acetic anhydride and ammonium acetate. The reaction of 2-methylquinazolin-4(3H)-one with N-aryl-2-chloroacetamides in acetone in the presence of potassium carbonate gave nine N-aryl-2-(2-methyl-4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetamide compounds. The structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of their IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and HR-MS spectral data. These synthesized compounds containing the 2-methyl-3,4-dihydroquinazolin-4-one moiety exhibited excellent activity against Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae with LC50 values in the range of 2.085-4.201 μg/mL after 72 h exposure. Interestingly, these compounds did not exhibit toxicity to the non-target organism Diplonychus rusticus. In silico molecular docking revealed acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) to be potential molecular targets. These data indicated the larvicidal potential and environmental friendliness of these N-aryl-2-(2-methyl-4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetamide derivatives.

The purpose of the study was to describe and compare the pharmacokinetics of five commercial edible marijuana products, determine the influence of body composition on pharmacokinetics, and, in light of epidemiology suggesting marijuana may offer diabetes protection, explore the influence of edible marijuana on glucose tolerance. Seven regular users of marijuana self-administered five edible products in a randomized crossover design; each product contained 10mg of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). 30-minutes following marijuana ingestion, participants imbibed a 75g glucose beverage. Time-to-peak plasma THC concentration ranged between 35 and 90 minutes; maximal plasma THC concentration (Cmax) ranged between 3.2 and 5.5 ng/mL. Differences between products in plasma THC concentration during the first 20-to-30 minutes were detected (P=0.019). Relations were identified between body composition and pharmacokinetic parameters for some products; however, none of these body composition characteristics were consistently related to pharmacokinetics across all five of the products. Edible marijuana had no effect on oral glucose tolerance compared with a marijuana-free control (Matsuda Index; P>0.395). Commercially available edible marijuana products evoke different plasma THC concentrations shortly after ingestion, but do not appear to influence acute glucose regulation. These data may allow marijuana users to make informed decisions pertaining to rates of edible marijuana ingestion and avoid overdose.

An economic and business history approach is used to show the rise and relative failure of the Spanish wind industry during the period between 2004-2015, when Spain became the fourth country after China, the US and Germany in installed capacity of renewable energies and, in relative terms, the second country after Denmark. This study is unique in that it provides an integrated vision of the reasons for the relative fall of Spain in the world ranking of wind energy producers. The methodology of the economic analysis of industrial policies makes it possible to explain the fall in the relative importance of Spain in the international panorama of wind farms. There were no reasons related to technological obsolescence or inability of the CECRE managing renewable energies to explain the fall.

With the continuous development of Artificial Intelligence technology and Internet of Things engineering, more and more driver-less vehicles have been developed and put into the industrial production. The birth of driver-less vehicles undoubtedly brings new vitality to a large amount of industries, particularly in transportation. For the mining industry, transportation is undoubtedly an extremely important link in the whole production process. If the driver-less vehicles can be applied to the underground mines, it can not only improve the production and transportation capacity of the whole mine, but also can reduce the occurrence of many mine safety accidents. ZigBee WSN technology can play a greater role in the narrow environment like underground mines according to the relevant literature, this concept paper just like a engineering project plan mainly tries to integrate the ZigBee WSN technology and the communication-based train control (CBTC) system to explore the possibility of the driver-less vehicles to be used in the underground mines, which aims to solve practical engineering problems for the engineering projects. As the mining engineers, we put forward the concept of this integrated system in this concept paper, but we need to continue to work hard for the future of the underground mines. This concept paper serves just as a guide to the Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem, has a few implications for the development of underground mine transportation.

To quantify the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) for Malaysia using the COVID-19 incidence data., we used data the from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CCSE) Coronavirus repository. Day 1 was taken from the first assumed local transmission of COVID-19. Data was split into four intervals: a) Interval 1: from Day 1 to Day 10 MCO 1, b) Interval 2: from Day 1 to Day 10 MCO 2, c) Interval 3: from Day 1 to Day 10 MCO 3 and d) Interval 4: from Day 1 to Day 10 MCO 4. We estimated the Rt using the EpiEstim package. The means for Rt at Day 1, Day 5 and Day 10 for all MCOs ranged between 0.665 to 1.147. The average Rt gradually decreased in MCO 1 and MCO 2. However, Rt increased in MCO 3 before stabilized around 0.8 in MCO 4. MCO 1 and MCO 2 which were stricter coincide with the gradual reduction of Rt. However, the more relaxed MCO 3 and MCO 4 correspond to a slight increase in the Rt before it stabilized.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has raised numerous questions concerning the shape and range of state interventions whose goals are to reduce the number of infections and deaths. The lockdowns, which have become the most popular response worldwide, are assessed as being an outdated and economically inefficient way to fight the disease. However, in the absence of efficient cures and vaccines, there is a lack of viable alternatives. In this paper we assess the economic consequences of the epidemic prevention and control schemes that were introduced in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyses report the results of epidemic simulations that were obtained using the agent-based modelling methods under the different response schemes and their use in order to provide conditional forecasts of the standard economic variables. The forecasts were obtained using the DSGE model with the labour market component.

We report on space-selective crystallization of congruent and polar Sr2TiSi2O8 crystals in a stoichiometric SrO-TiO2-SiO2 glass induced by (1030 nm, 300 fs) femtosecond laser irradiation. This allows us to compare with non-congruent laser induced crystallization of polar LiNbO3, in non stoichiometric Li2O-Nb2O5-SiO2 glass and gain information on the mechanism of nanocrystals orientation with the laser polarization that we pointed out previously. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Second-harmonic generation (SHG) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), we studied the laser induced crystallization according to the laser processing parameters (pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, scanning speed). We found 1) a domain where the laser track is filled with crystals not perfectly textured (low energy), 2) a domain where an amorphous volume remain surrounded by a crystallized shell (high energy). This arises from Sr out-diffusion and may gives rise to crystallization of both SrTiO3 and Sr2TiSi2O8 phases at low speed. In the one-phase domain (at higher speed), it is found the possibility to elaborate a tube with a perfect fresnoite texture. Significant difference in size and morphology whereas crystallization threshold remains similar are discussed based on glases thermal propeties. Contrarily to Li2O-Nb2O5-SiO2 (LNS) glass, no domain of oriented nanocrystallization controlled by the laser polarization has been found in SrO-TiO2-SiO2 (STS) glass, which is attributed to the larger crystallization speed in STS glass. No nanogratings have also been found that is likely due to the congruency of the glass.

With the unceasing advancement in wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technology, the minimal reverse-recovery charge Qrr and other more powerful natures of WBG transistors enable totem-pole bridgeless PFC to become a dominant solution for energy storage systems (ESS). This paper focuses on design and implementation of a control structure for a totem-pole boost PFC with newfangled enhancement-mode Gallium Nitride (eGaN) FETs, not only to simplify the control implementation, but also to achieve high power quality and efficiency. The converter is designed to convert a 90-264-VAC input to a 385-VDC output for a 2.6-kW output power. Lastly, to validate the methodology, an experimental prototype is characterized and fabricated. The uttermost efficiency at 230 VAC attains 99.14%. The lowest total harmonic distortion in the current (ITHD) at high line condition (230 V) reaches 1.52% while the power factor gains 0.9985.

In this paper a full state feedback control of a double inverted pendulum on a cart (DIPC) are designed and compared. Modeling is based on Euler-Lagrange equations derived by specifying a Lagrangian, difference between kinetic and potential energy of the DIPC system. A full state feedback control with H infinity and H 2 is addressed. Two approaches are tested: open loop impulse response and a double inverted pendulum on a cart with full state feedback H infinity and H 2 controllers. Simulations reveal superior performance of the double inverted pendulum on a cart with full state feedback H infinity controller.

In addition to provide an extremely clean environment for primary loop of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR), the primary helium circulator (PHC) using electromagnetic levitation technology also provides an effective means for vibration control. Besides synchronous vibration produced by mass imbalance and sensor runout, double-frequency vibration produced by unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP) is serious in PHC engineering prototype (PHC-EP). In this paper, we firstly analyzed the mechanism of UMP and the multi-frequency vibration characteristics in combination with the PHC-EP. Then we put forward a distributed iterative learning control (ILC) algorithm and a parallel control scheme to suppress the periodic vibrations. Finally, we verified the methods by carrying out experimental researches on the active magnetic bearing (AMB) bench of PHC-EP. The results show that the methods put forward in this paper have significant control effect on the double-frequency vibration generated by UMP of the PHC-EP, and provide theoretical and practical references for the PHC safe operation in HTR.

Abstract— Flight Control System is an integrated avionics system equipped with the minimum required components for an autonomous flight. This paper focuses on the Hardware Design of the Flight Control System and presents specific details of the components and its interface. The system architecture is based on Field Programmable Gate Array and Digital Signal Processor. Employing these two processors in the flight control system would improve the Flight Control System performance in terms of fast sequential processing of high-level control algorithms. In addition to Field Programmable Gate Array and Digital Signal Processor, the flight control computer system will also make use of Global Positioning System and Micro Electro Mechanical System sensors. The project will be implemented using Altera’s System On Programmable Chip builder, currently known as Qsys – Platform Designer implemented in Quartus-II. The system employs Nios-II processor which is 32-bit soft-core embedded-processor architecture designed especially for the Altera’s family of Field Programmable Gate Array. From conceptualization to final design, this paper presents the functionality of the different modulus and complex interfaces employed in this Flight Control System.

Superior fiber quality is one of the most important objectives in cotton breeding. To detect the genetic basis underlying fiber quality, an F2 population containing 413 plants was constructed by crossing Jifeng 914 and Jifeng 173, both of which have superior fiber quality, with Jifeng 173 being better. Five fiber quality traits were investigated in the F2, F2:3, F2:4, and F2:5 populations. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping was conducted based on a high-density genetic map containing 11,488 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and spanning 4,202.12 cM in length. Transgressive segregation patterns and complex correlations in the five tested traits were observed. A total of 108 QTLs were found, including 27 for fiber length (FL), 16 for fiber strength (FS), 24 for micronaire (MC), 17 for fiber uniformity (FU), and 24 for fiber elongation rate (FE). Chromosome A7 contained 12 QTL, ranking the first. No QTL was found on chromosome D1 and D11. Each QTL contributed 1.98%–21.45% to the phenotypic variation (PV), including 13 major effect QTLs that contributed more than 10% toward PV. Two QTLs could be repeatedly detected in three populations, including qFL-D3-2 in F2, F2:4, and F2:5 with 9.18%–21.45% of PV, qFS-A11-1 in F2:3, F2:4 and F2:5 with 6.05%–10.41% of PV. Another seven stable QTLs could be detected in two populations, including four major effect QTLs: qFL-A12-3, qFS-D10-2, qMC-D6-2, and qMC-D8-1. Fourteen QTL-overlapping regions were found, which might explain the complex correlations among the five phenotypic traits. Four regions on chromosome A11, D3, D6, and D10 covered by both stable and major effect QTLs are promising for further fine mapping. The genomic regions of the two QTLs detected in three populations and the four major effect QTLs contain 810 genes. Gene functional analysis revealed that the annotated genes are mainly involved in protein binding and metabolic pathways. Fifteen candidate genes in the qFL-D3-2 region are highly expressed in fiber or ovules during fiber initiation, elongation, secondary cell wall thickening, or maturation stages. qRT-PCR revealed that Ghir_D03G005440.1 and Ghir_D03G011310.1 may play a role in promoting fiber initiation, Ghir_D03G006470.1 may be beneficial for promoting fiber elongation. This study provides more information for revealing the molecular genetic basis underlying cotton fiber quality.

Currently there are fewer depth models applied to pepper picking detection, while the existing generalized neural networks have problems such as large model parameters, long training time, and low model accuracy.In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes a Yolo-chili target detection algorithm for chili pepper detection. First, the classical target detection algorithm yolov5 is used as a benchmark model, and an adaptive spatial feature pyramid structure combining the attention mechanism and the idea of multi-scale prediction is introduced to improve the model's detection effect on occluded peppers and small target peppers. Secondly, a three-channel attention mechanism module is introduced to improve the algorithm's long-distance recognition ability and reduce the interference of redundant testers. Finally, the quantized pruning method is used to reduce the model parameters and realize the lightweight processing of the model. Applying the method to the homemade chili pepper dataset, the AP value of chili pepper reaches 93.11%; the accuracy rate is 93.51% and the recall rate is 92.55%.The experimental results show that yolo-chili is able to achieve accurate and real-time pepper detection under complex orchards.

The temporary immersion system bioreactor named GreenTray®[2], [3]presents advantages over the existing ones. Firstly, there is no need to use forceps to move the shoots or plantlets in or out of the recipient, neither the use of scalpel to divide them. Secondly, the basis of the shoot can remain in the GreenTray® and can sprout again in several cycles of growth. These two characteristics reduce the costs in the process of micropropagation. Besides, shoots or plantlets development is enhanced by the aeration of the recipient, thus enriching with CO2 the recipient atmosphere. The chapter describes and provides images and values of interest in (1) the micropropagation process of some commercial Prunus or Pyrus rootstocks; (2) the plantlet growth under autotrophic conditions; and (2) the inoculation of plants with pathogens that reproduce in vitro the symptoms observed in vivo, using the GreenTray® bioreactor.

Commercial banks are financial institutions that accept public deposits and provide loans for consumption and investment to generate profit. The term "bank" originates from the Italian word "banco," meaning "desk" or "bench," which was used by Florentine bankers during the Renaissance for conducting transactions. Banking activities, however, date back to ancient times. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of internal control components on the organizational performance of local commercial banks in Burao, Somaliland. A descriptive research design was employed, utilizing primary data collected from these banks to assess the role of internal controls on organizational performance.The findings indicate a strong influence of internal control systems on organizational performance, revealing a significantly positive relationship between the two. Effective internal control systems contribute to the administration, completeness, and accuracy of records, and provide a safeguard against fraud and collusion, particularly among those in positions of authority or trust. For optimal performance, internal control systems must be robust and well-implemented. It is recommended that local commercial banks conduct regular internal audits of their accounting systems to mitigate risk and enhance internal control measures. Strengthening internal control systems tailored to the organization's operations and ensuring strict authorization protocols for access to bank assets are essential for improving organizational performance.

Nuclear DNA mutations, mitochondrial DNA mutations, combined nuclear and mitochondrial DNA defects, and random occurrences are the main causes of mitochondrial disease. Black pigmentation loss is a major sign of Parkinsonism. Because of the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, it drops to less than 80%. The degree of motor impairment was correlated with the amount of black pigmentation loss. After RNA extraction, reverse transcription is carried out because reverse transcriptase was used to create cDNA. One microliter of total RNA supplemented with IORT Buffer, dNTPs, random hexamers, Multi-Scribe Reverse Transcriptase, and nuclease-free was used to create cDNA. The following was how the reaction was carried out in a thermal cycler: 10 minutes at 25°C, 120 minutes at 37°C, 5 seconds at 85°C, and lastly 4°C. The data was expressed as a v-value, which shows how much the target gene is enriched in comparison to the reference gene. Earlier research using mice injected with functional HtrA2/Omi protease activity revealed similar outcomes, including induced up-regulation of CHOP, decreased mitochondrial function, and early brain cell aging because of an increase in mtDNA deletions. The cell viability of the genotypes exhibits a dmg concentration-dependent effect in these results, suggesting that high content ratios of drug treatment with 6-OHDA may be the cause of cellular content depletion. After 6-OHDA neurotoxin treatment, CHOP is up-regulated. Prior in vitro research has shown that treatment with a model based on 6-OHDA neurotoxin causes the activation of mitochondrial stress pathways, which in turn promotes the death of neurons. 6-OHDA reversibly inhibited complexes I and IV's activities in rat brain cells, which led to dopaminergic neurodegeneration, a defining feature of PD pathogens. As a result, the number of living cells will directly correlate with the dmg concentration, supporting the results of the current study. Real-time PCR can generally demonstrate that the removal of HtrA 2 results in a significant up-regulation of Hsp60 expression when compared to WT cells. This could be linked to a decreased threshold for mitochondrial stress in HtrA2 KO cells, which would explain why, following ADEP4 and ACP5 treatment, Hsp60 is significantly up-regulated in HtrA2 KO cells compared to WT cells.

This research addresses the formidable challenge of achieving precise trajectory tracking for autonomous vehicle formations in uncertain environments. It introduces an adaptive control system tailored for autonomous vehicles, with a primary focus on ensuring prescribed performance in trajectory tracking within a leader-follower formation paradigm. The system incorporates a guidance law that allows the leader vehicle to dynamically adjust desired yaw angles and speeds for follower vehicles based on the established reference trajectory, enhancing tracking accuracy and responsiveness to environmental changes. To address practical external disturbances, the study utilizes Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN) in conjunction with second-order filters for error approximation. This approach is further strengthened by a carefully formulated adaptive law. The innovative integration of a barrier Lyapunov function with the backstepping method significantly enhances the system’s adaptability and robustness, ensuring trajectory tracking performance meets predetermined standards. Simulation results illustrate the control system’s adept handling of various external disturbances, consistently maintaining trajectory tracking errors within predefined limits. This underscores the system’s potential to markedly enhance the operational reliability and efficiency of autonomous vehicle formations in unpredictable environmental conditions.

Egg-laying is one of the key aspects of female reproductive behavior in insects. Egg-laying has been studied since the dawn of Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The female’s internal state, hormones, and external factors, such as nutrition, light, and social environment, affect egg-laying output. However, only recently, neurobiological features of egg-laying behavior have been studied in detail. Fruitless and doublesex, two key players in the sex determination pathway, have become focal points in identifying neurons of reproductive significance in both central and peripheral nervous systems. The reproductive tract and external terminalia house sensory neurons that carry the sensory information of egg maturation, mating and egg-laying. These se include the presence of male accessory gland products and mechanical stimuli. The abdominal neuromere houses neurons that receive information from the reproductive tract, including sex peptide abdominal ganglion neurons (SAGs), and send their information to the brain. In the brain, neuronal groups like aDNs and pC1clusters modulate egg-laying decision-making, and other neurons like oviINs and oviDNs are necessary for egg-laying itself. Lastly, motor neurons involved in egg-laying, which are mostly octopaminergic, reside in the abdominal neuromere and orchestrate the muscle movements required for laying the egg. Egg-laying neuronal control is important in various evolutionary processes like cryptic female choice, and using different Drosophila species can provide intriguing avenues for the future of the field.

Health communication has been highlighted as a cost-effective preventive intervention in Africa where prevalence of tobacco use is still relatively low compared to other World Health Organization (WHO) regions. This scoping review aims to examine tobacco control health communication interventions in Africa. The review was guided by the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Data was extracted from twenty peer-reviewed papers, WHO Global Health Observatory on Anti-tobacco mass media campaigns for 54 African countries, and six WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control reports on Article 12. Data extraction informed by JBI data extraction questions was used for peer review studies while a pre-determined template was used for the other sources. Narrative data synthesis informed by the JBI manual for evidence synthesis was employed. Lack of research that comprehensively address all areas of health communication and Inconsistent use of health communication campaigns was identified. Only an average of 6 countries had ever implemented effective mass media campaigns in a decade while an average of 33 countries consistently failed to conduct campaigns that lasted more than 3 weeks. Although the involvement of key populations was clearly vital to ensure content relevance and message clarity; a lack of health communication informed by young people was observed as they rarely participated in key decision-making despite reportedly being targets of interventions. Clear health communication for tobacco use prevention informed by young people is lacking in African countries. Active participation of young people in developing targeted campaigns is needed to facilitate content relevance and comprehension to ultimately contribute to tobacco use prevention.

Due to the nonlinear stiffness and fractional-order damping characteristics of some real suspension systems, coupled with the presence of viscoelastic materials, fractional-order nonlinear suspension system modeling has become a focus of research in recent years. In this study, an electric oil and gas actuator based on fractional-order PID position feedback control is proposed, through which the damping coefficient of the suspension system is adjusted to realize the active control of the suspension. A fractional order PID algorithm is used to control the motor's rotational angle to realize the damping adjustment of the suspension system. In this process, the road roughness is collected by the sensors as the criterion of damping adjustment, and the particle swarm algorithm is utilized to find the optimal objective function under different road surface slopes, to obtain the optimal cornering value. According to the mathematical and physical model of the suspension system, the simulation model and the corresponding test platform of this type of suspension system are built. The simulation and experimental results show that the simulation results of the fractional-order nonlinear suspension model are closer to the actual experimental values than those of the traditional linear suspension model, and the accuracy of each performance index is improved by more than 18.5%. The designed active suspension system optimizes the body acceleration, suspension dynamic deflection, and tire dynamic load to 89.8%, 56.7%, and 73.4% of the passive suspension, respectively. Notably, the designed fractional order PID control circuit for the motor shows better control results compared to the conventional PID control circuit. This study provides an effective theoretical and empirical basis for the control and optimization of fractional-order nonlinear suspension systems.

Tea infusions are the most consumed beverages in the world after water, their pleasant yet peculiar flavor profile drives consumer choice and acceptance and becomes a fundamental benchmark for industry. Any qualification method capable of objectifying the product's sensory features effectively supports industrial quality control laboratories guaranteeing high sample throughputs even without the human panel intervention. The current study presents an integrated analytical strategy acting as an Artificial Intelligence decision tool for black tea infusion aroma and taste blueprinting. Key markers validated by sensomics are accurately quantified in a wide dynamic range of concentrations. Thirteen key aromas are quantitatively assessed by standard addition with in-solution solid-phase microextraction sampling followed by GC-MS. On the other hand, nineteen key taste and quality markers are quantified by external standard calibration and LV-UV/DAD. The large dynamic range of concentration for sensory markers is reflected in the selection of seven high-quality teas from different geographical areas (Ceylon, Darjeeling Testa Valley and Castleton, Assam, Yunnan, Azores, and Kenya). The strategy acts as an AI smelling and taste machine predicting teas sensory features without the human panel intervention.

To address the trajectory tracking issue for quadrotors working under the influence of external disturbances, a control scheme is designed for position and attitude trajectory tracking. Firstly, the quadrotor dynamic model is derived for control design. Secondly, adaptive integral backstepping control (AIBS) is employed in the position loop in which adaptive estimation is used to estimate the upper bounds of disturbances. Subsequently, a new adaptive backstepping fast nonsingular integral terminal sliding mode control (ABFNITSM) is proposed to follow desired Euler angles. The intro-duction of fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode and integral element is to realize fast convergence and accurate tracking. Dead zone technique is applied to minimize estimation errors. Besides, a saturation function is utilized to eliminate chattering phenomenon. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted under the Simulink environment. The proposed control is verified by comparing it with traditional integral terminal sliding mode control (ITSM) and integral backstepping control (IBS).

In this paper, a buck DC-DC converter with the proposed twin frequency control scheme (TFCS) and accurate load current sensing (ALCS) have been designed and implemented with 0.18µm CMOS technology for a supply voltage ranging from 2.0-3.0V which is compatible with state-of-the-art batteries (NiCd/NiMH: 1.1-2V, Li-Ion: 2.5-4.2V). The proposed converter yields a peak efficiency of about 92.7% with a load current of 30mA. Furthermore, it only occupies a silicon area of 1.3mm2. The proposed buck converter is dedicated for smartphone applications whereby it spends most of its time in idle, low load conditions.

This paper presents various procedures for determining the optimal control law for a wing section in compressible flow. The flow regime includes subsonic as well as supersonic flows. For the evolution of the system in the Laplace plane the present method makes use of the exact unsteady aerodynamic forces in the Laplace plane once the control law is established. This is a great advantage against other results previously published, where the unsteady aerodynamics in the Laplace plane are just approximations of the curve-fitted values in the frequency domain (imaginary axis). Different control techniques are investigated like pole-placement, LQR and H-infinity norm. Among these, the H-infinity norm emerges as the optimal choice, exhibiting a norm magnitude approximately two orders of magnitude lower than the LQR case. Furthermore, the H-infinity controller demonstrates lower pole values that those of the pole placement and LQR compensator, showing the advantage of the H-infinity controller in terms of economic efficiency.

The stability and optimal control for an SIS epidemic model with demographics and heterogeneous control strategies (immunization and quarantine) on complex networks are investigated. The epidemic threshold, disease-free and endemic equilibria are derived. Then, global asymptotical stability about the two equilibria are studied based on different methods. Furthermore, the optimal control issue about the system is also considered. We obtain the existence and uniqueness of the optimal control and optimal control tactics. Some numerical simulations were conducted to illustrate and supplement the theoretical results. Meanwhile, the effects of the combination of various immunization and quarantine schemes are studied and also compared with the optimal control strategies.

This paper is primarily focused on the robust control of an inverted pendulum system based on the policy iteration in reinforcement learning. First, a mathematical model of the single inverted pendulum system is established through a force analysis of the pendulum and trolley. Second, based on the theory of robust optimal control, the robust control of the uncertain linear inverted pendulum system is transformed into an optimal control problem with an appropriate performance index. Moreover, for the uncertain linear and nonlinear systems, two reinforcement-learning control algorithms are proposed using the policy iteration method. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to validate the reinforcement learning algorithms for the robust control of the inverted pendulum systems.

In this paper we study a bilinear optimal control problem related to a 2D parabolic-elliptic chemo-repulsion system consider a nonlinear chemical signal production term. We prove the existence of global optimal solutions with bilinear control, and applying a result on the existence of Lagrange multipliers in Banach spaces, we derive an optimality system for a local optimal solution.

The flow around thick airfoils at low Reynolds numbers and the possibility of using energy methods to control flowfield, increase lift and reduce drag are considered. For calculations, a series of propulsion airfoils is used, obtained by a combination of solving the inverse problem of aerodynamics and stochastic methods of global optimization. The calculations take into account the transition from the laminar flow regime to the turbulent one, which has a significant effect on the lift and airfoil drag. The applicability of various turbulence models for airfoil modelling at low Reynolds numbers is discussed. The results of numerical simulation make it possible to determine the dependence of the lift coefficient on the angle of attack and the optimal flow rate of air taken from the airfoil surface for each angle of attack. The results of numerical simulation are compared with the data of a physical experiment, and conclusions are drawn about the accuracy of various turbulence models.

There has been growing interest in using permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) for pumping applications to improve energy efficiency. One promising approach for powering these motors in variable speed applications is using modular multilevel cascaded converters based on a Triple-Star Bridge Cell (M3C) due to their inherent fault tolerance capability. However, M3C converters require a more complex control system than simpler converters. For instance, A basic M3C control system for power transmission requires seventeen (17) PI controllers, whose adjustment depends on the M3C’s dynamical model parameters’ value knowledge needing extensive and time-consuming testing to obtain them. To solve this control system issue, we propose an adaptive M3C control system for variable speed drives powering multiple PMSM-driven centrifugal pumps that reduces the number of controllers to six (6). Furthermore, the proposal does not require knowledge of the converter, motor, or load parameters, making it more practical and versatile. The proposal introduces an ad-hoc hybrid passivity-based model reference adaptive controller in cascade with a passivity-based control. It has been validated through theoretical stability proof and comparative simulation results with a basic control system under normal and fault operations. As a result, the proposal effectively follows the required rotor speed while enhancing performance by decreasing the current consumption and recovering from a 10% input phase imbalance, a cell short circuit, and an open cell.

The Eucalyptus genus is the most planted forest crop in the world, with Brazil being one of the countries with the greatest productive potential. However, the occurrence of weeds can cause losses in productivity. Chemical control is widely used, but the efficiency of herbicides depends on factors such as the presence of straw in the soil and the occurrence of rainfall. Due to the scarcity of results regarding the interaction between herbicide, straw, and water depth in the forest sector, the objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of S-metolachlor + glyphosate in the control of grasses in different densities of eucalyptus straw and with simulated rain after the application of the product. The experiment was conducted in DBC, factorial 3×3×2, with four replications. The first factor represented 0, 50 and 100% of the commercial dose of S-metolachlor + glyphosate, the second 0, 5, and 10 ton ha-2 of straw, and the third 25 and 50mm of water depth applied in soil with a mix of grasses previously sowed. The rainfall simulation was performed 24 hours after herbicide application on each straw volume. The fresh mass of the aerial part of the grasses was collected 43 days after sowing and dried in an oven to determine the dry mass. Visual analyzes of the percentage of control were performed with scales ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 represents no control and 100 efficient control. The fresh and dry mass and the grasses' dry mass/water ratio decreased with increasing herbicide dosage and straw density. The dosage of 2.12 + 1.59 kg i.a. ha-1 of S-metolachlor + glyphosate resulted in greater control of grasses, and the treatments without straw and with the application of the herbicide had the highest percentages of control. Applying different water depths (25 mm or 50 mm) did not influence the control. Despite the control of grasses, the efficiency of the herbicide mixture was affected by the presence of vegetation cover.

Sporisorium scitamineum, the basidiomycetous fungus causing sugarcane smut that leads to severe losses in sugarcane quantity and quality, undergoes sexual mating to form dikaryotic hyphae capable of invading the host cane. Therefore, suppressing dikaryotic hyphae formation would potentially be an effective way to prevent host infection by the smut fungus, and the following disease symptom development. The phytohormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) has been showed to induce plant defense against insects and microbial pathogens. In this study, we verified that exogenous addition of MeJA suppressed dikaryotic hyphae formation under in vitro culture condition, and effective in inhibiting maize smut disease symptom caused by Ustilago maydis. We constructed an Escherichia coli strain expressing plant JMT gene, encoding a jasmonic acid carboxyl methyl transferase that catalyzes conversion from jasmonic acid (JA) to MeJA. By GC-MS we confirmed that the transformed E. coli strain, designated as pJMT strain, was able to produce MeJA in the presence of JA and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM; as methyl donor). Furthermore, the pJMT strain was able to suppress S. scitamineum filamentous growth under in vitro culture condition. It waits to further optimize JMT expression under field condition, in order to utilize the pJMT strain as a biocontrol agent (BCA) of sugarcane smut disease. Overall, our study provides a potentially novel method for controlling crop fungal diseases by boosting phytohormone biosynthesis.

This paper presents some aspects of command and control of the new generation of machines-tools with numerical control. A problem faced by numerical control programmers is related to the length (relatively long) of the programs, with implications in the costs and duration of the manufacturing preparation. A method of reducing the main program and other redundant expenses is the introduction and use of processing cycles and subroutines for automatic calculation of the cutting tool trajectory, a fact that also allows the optimization and simplification of numerical control programming on flexible order manufacturing systems numeric. The method involves the use of predefined cycles and appropriate subroutines in order to improve the efficiency of the programming activity in a balanced way. It is a new and rapid method for optimize the structure of program using the numerical subroutine for command the movement of tool, in our case, with application for turning and milling.

In order to enable patients with severe disabilities who have lost their limbs to accurately control their wheelchair movement and optimize the power loss of smart wearable tongue control devices, a non-invasive intraoral stand-alone tongue control system based on RSIC-V edge computing is proposed in this paper. Patients can detect the pressure signal of the tongue muscles’ touching the palate by placing the flexible carbon nanotube-PDMS pressure sensor array in the mouth, and the erroneous movement signal can be avoided by setting the pressure threshold, thereby improving the reliability of the device and the user's experience. The system converts the pressure data into specific control instructions on the edge of the RSIC-V chip and transmits them to the receiver, thus reducing the transmission of data. In this experiment, the speed response time test, the center click task and the power consumption experiment are carried out, whose results show that the adaptive fuzzy PID control algorithm has good robustness in the system: when the DC motor with a given speed of 750r/min reaches the steady state, its rise time is 0.108s and the adjustment time is 0.59s. The dynamic power consumption of the non-intrusive intraoral stand-alone tongue control system proposed in this paper is tested to be 3.745 MW, which is 11.5% lower than the total power consumption of the sTDs system.

Green hydrogen is likely to play an important role in meeting the net zero targets of countries around the globe. Hence, producing green hydrogen cheaply and effectively is an important area of research. One potential option for green hydrogen production is to run electrolysers directly from offshore wind turbines, with no grid connection and hence no expensive cabling to shore. The removal of the grid presents an unusual integration challenge. The variable nature of wind turbines and farms results in a power output that can fluctuate more quickly than the electrolyser’s ability to respond without significantly stressing the electrolyser. Thus, the use of a battery, with the wind farm, becomes essential to even out some of the power variations that the electrolyser cannot deal with. In this work, a proof of concept of a wind farm control methodology designed to reduce variability in wind farm active power output is presented. Smoothing the power supplied by the wind farm to the battery reduces the size and number of battery charge cycles and helps to increase battery lifetime. Considering off-grid wind farms which exclusively power an electrolyser, this work quantifies the impact of the wind farm control method on battery lifetime for wind farms of 1, 4, 9 and 16 wind turbines. This is achieved using suitable wind farm, battery and electrolyser models. As an example, for the largest wind farm studied, consisting of 16 x 5 MW wind turbines, batteries with a lifetime of 15 years have approximately a 30 % reduction in required capacity (reduced from 14 MWh to 10 MWh) compared to operating without wind farm control. It is found that reducing the variability of the active power output of wind farms through the wind farm control methodology presented can have a significant impact on battery degradation and hence on battery lifetime. Hence, wind farm control can reduce the required battery capacity for a given lifetime or it can increase the lifetime of a given battery capacity. The work presented shows that wind farm control could play a critical role in reducing the levelised cost of green hydrogen produced from wind farms with no grid connection and paves the way for the design and testing of a full implementation of the wind farm control.

In modern inverter applications, multilevel converters are used thanks to their capability of reducing the passive fi lter volumes, improving the overall THD, sharing the power sources across the several converter cells, and providing a reconfi guration ability in case of failure. However, increasing the number of cells makes more complex the control of the converter. This article proposes a decentralized control technique based on the use of elementary modular controllers, associated with each converter cell and communicating with their close neighbors to obtain the balancing of the powers they supplied. Each modular controller can be dynamically removed or added to allow reconfi guration of the converter for functional safety purpose. This method is applied to a 240V/3A 5-cells Cascaded Full-Bridge Multilevel Converter. The response of the system to load transients and cell voltage disturbances demonstrates the robustness of the proposed decentralized control method. Thanks to the use of modular controllers, the number of levels of the converter can be extended to the order N without adding complexity to its control.

Neurodegeneration is an age-dependent progressive phenomenon with no defined cause. Aging is the main risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. During aging, activated microglia undergoes phenotypic alterations that can lead to neuroinflammation, which is well accepted event in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Several common mechanisms are shared by genetically or pathologically distinct neurodegenerative diseases, such as excitotoxicity, mitochondrial deficits and oxidative stress, protein misfolding and translational dysfunction, autophagy and microglia activation. Progressive loss of neuronal population due to increased oxidative stress leads to neurodegenerative diseases mostly due to the accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria. Mitochondrial dysfunction and excessive neuroinflammatory responses are both sufficient to induce pathology in age-dependent neurodegeneration. Therefore, mitochondrial quality control is key determinant for the health and survival of neuronal cells in the brain. Research has been primarily focused to demonstrate the significance of neuronal mitochondrial health, despite the important contributions of non-neuronal cells that constitutes significant portion of the brain volume. Moreover, mitochondrial morphology and function are distinctly diverse in different tissues; however, little is known about their molecular diversity among cell types. Mitochondrial dynamics and quality in different cell types markedly decides the fate of overall brain health, therefore it is not justifiable to overlook non-neuronal cells and their significant and active contribution in facilitating overall neuronal health. In this review article, we aim to discuss the mitochondrial quality control of different cell types in the brain and how important and remarkable is the diversity and highly synchronized connecting property of non-neuronal cells in keeping the neurons healthy to control neurodegeneration.

Although there are several access control systems in the literature for flexible policy management in multi-authority and multi-domain environments, achieving interoperability &amp; scalability, without relying on strong trust assumptions, is still an open challenge. We present HMBAC, a distributed fine-grained access control model for shared and dynamic multi-authority and multi-domain environments, along with Janus, a practical system for HMBAC policy enforcement. The proposed HMBAC model supports: (a) dynamic trust management between different authorities; (b) flexible access control policy enforcement, defined at domain and cross-domain level; (c) a global source of truth for all entities, supported by an immutable, audit-friendly mechanism. Janus implements the HMBAC model and relies on the effective fusion of two core components. First, a Hierarchical Multi-Blockchain architecture that acts as a single access point that cannot be bypassed by users or authorities. Second, a Multi-Authority Attribute Based Encryption protocol that supports flexible shared multi-owner encryption, where attribute keys from different authorities are combined to decrypt data distributedly stored in different authorities. Our approach was implemented using Hyperledger Fabric as the underlying blockchain, with the system components placed in Kubernetes Docker container pods. We experimentally validated the effectiveness and efficiency of Janus, while fully reproducible artifacts of both our implementation and our measurements are provided.

This work presents a nonlinear model predictive control scheme that challenges overcoming the obstacles holding back over decades to develop affordable autonomous control and monitoring systems applied in the large-scale industry. Among the numerous proposals in the literature, most do not consider the significant fluctuation of kinetic parameters in the reduced mathematical model ADM2, widely used for control and monitoring purposes. The prevalent cause, on a basis, is the lack of information caused by some dynamics and parameters that cannot be measured in real-time by reliable sensors. In addition, to make matters worse, those systems inherently act with nonlinear nature and have a high sensitiveness to uncontrollable inputs and perturbations. Therefore, to prevent these drawbacks, this work proposes a new methodology that reconstructs the lack of information from the non-measurable dynamics, concentration of bacterias, and the kinetic parameters related to reaction rates. Simulations results demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology compared with traditional industrial control schemes.

Motor control, movement impairment and postural control recovery targeted in rehabilitation could be affected by pain. The main objective of this comprehensive review is to provide a synthesis of the effect of experimental and chronic pain on postural control throughout the available literature. After presenting the neurophysiological pathways of pain, we demonstrated that pain, preferentially localized at low back or in the leg induced postural control alteration. While proprioceptive and cortical excitability seems modified with pain, spinal modulation assessment might provide new understanding of the pain phenomenon related to postural control. Literature highlight that the motor control of trunk muscles in patient presenting with low back pain could be dichotomized in two populations, where the first one over-activate trunk muscles, the second one under-activate trunk muscles, and both generating increase of tissues loading. Taking account all this findings, will help clinician to provide adapted treatment for managing both pain and postural control.

Trash mulches are very effective in preventing soil erosion; reduce sediment transport rate, runoff rate and increasing infiltration. The study was carried out with the objectives to observe the sediment outflow from sugar cane leaf (trash) mulch treatments at selected land slopes under simulated rainfall conditions by using rainfall simulator of size 10 m × 1.2 m × 0.5 m with the locally available soil material collected from Pantnagar. In the present study, trash mulches with different quantities were selected to observe the effect of mulching in soil loss reduction. The quantity of mulch was taken as, 6 t/ha, 8 t/ha and 10 t/ha, three rainfall intensities viz. 11cm/h, 13cm/h and 14.65cm/h at 0%, 2% and 4% land slopes were selected. The duration of rainfall was fixed (10 minutes) for every mulch treatment. The total runoff volume was found to be varying with different mulch rates for particular rainfall input and land slope. The runoff distribution pattern was observed to be increasing with the increase in land slope. The average sediment concentration (SC) and outflow was found to be increasing with the increasing land slope, but SC and outflow decreased with increasing mulch rate for particular land slope and rainfall intensity. The SOR (SOR) for no mulch treated land was higher as compared to trash mulch treated lands. Mathematical relationships were developed for relating SOR, SC, land slope and rainfall intensity for a particular mulch treatment. It was observed that values of SOR and average SC had a good correlation with rainfall intensity and land slope for each mulch treatment. The correlation coefficients of developed models were found to be more than 90%.

The ABCDEFG Protocol provides an evolving tool for imposing structure on the flow of Covid infection information obtained from community testing, collective policy and individual compliance. ABCDEFG Protocol could not assume soundness, invariance, symmetry and completeness of the available information and relied on signaling game theory to design solutions that could evolve with the variable narratives, theories, individual utilities and pathogen variants. Thus, ABCDEFG Protocol suggests a novel and a very flexible pool-testing and badging protocol in the context of controlling contagious epidemics and tackling the far-reaching associated challenges, including understanding and evaluating individual and collective risks of returning prior infected individuals to normal society and other economic and social arrangements and interventions to protect against disease. AbCDEFG Proto uses both control theoretic and game theoretic mathematical models that may be centralized (an optimizing policy maker mandates behavior based on estimated models) or decentralized (a strategizing individual selects their behavior based on available asymmetric information). ABCDEFG protocol demonstrates how society can continue to carry out plausible economic activities in addition to controlling the prevalence of a contagious disease by keeping the number of infected people below a desired limit without compromising an individuals' privacy despite the presence of deception and selfishness among people, and limitations of available resources. Different types of badges would come with different restrictions. Badges would be reissued periodically by third-party testing centers via suitably frequent pool testing of samples of the participants. The size of the pools, frequency of tests, and allowable activities for people with a given type of badge would depend on the available resources, the prevalence of the disease, and the efficacy of the equipment used in the tests.

In recent years supply chains have evolved into huge ecosystems, demanding trust, provenance, and data privacy. Since blockchain technology (BCT) allows for the development of a distributed environment, it is ideal for supply chain management (SCM) applications. However, concerns regarding data privacy have impeded the development of blockchains. Despite the fact that some blockchains can restrict participants to read and write data, the blockchain’s transparency makes protecting sensitive data challenging. To solve the data privacy challenge, this paper proposes a framework, AccessChain, that is an SCM access control framework based on an attribute-based access control (ABAC) model that restricts access to competing parties while allowing for network scalability. This proposed AccessChain model has two types of ledgers in the system: local and global. Local ledgers are used to store business contracts between stakeholders and the ABAC model management, whereas the global ledger is used to record transaction data. AccessChain can enable decentralized, fine-grained and dynamic access control management in SCM when combined with the ABAC model and BCT. This paper’s experimental results illustrate that high throughput can be achieved in a large-scale request environment while maintaining data privacy and sustaining a scalable network.

Among post-translational modifications of proteins, ADP-ribosylation has been studied for over fifty years, assigning to this PTM a large set of functions, including DNA repair, transcription and cell signaling. This review presents an update on the function of a large set of enzyme writers, the readers that are recruited by the modified targets, and the erasers that reverse the modification to the original amino acid residue, removing the covalent bonds formed. In particular, the review provides details on the involvement of the enzymes performing MAR/PAR cycling in cancers. Of note, there is potential for application of the inhibitors developed for cancer also in the therapy of non-oncological diseases such as the protection against oxidative stress, suppression of inflammatory responses, and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This field of studies is not concluded, since novel enzymes are being discovered at a rapid pace.

Wearable cardiac sensors pave the way to advanced cardiac monitoring applications based on heart rate variability (HRV). In real-life settings, heart rate (HR) measurements are subject to mo-tion artifacts that can be timely removed from the recordings. This leads to frequent data loss in the HR signal, especially for commercial devices based on photoplethysmography (PPG). The cur-rent study had two main goals: (i) to provide a white-box quality index that estimates the amount of missing samples in any piece of HR signal; and (ii) to quantify the impact of data loss on feature extraction in a PPG-based HR signal. This was done by comparing real-life recordings from com-mercial sensors featuring both PPG (Empatica E4) and ECG (Zephyr BioHarness 3). After an out-lier rejection process, our quality index was used to isolate portions of ECG-based HR signal that could be used as benchmark, to validate the output of Empatica E4 at the signal level and at the feature level. Our results showed high accuracy for estimating the mean HR, poor accuracy for short-term HRV features and moderate accuracy for longer-term HRV features. Levels of error could be substantially reduced by using our quality index to identify time windows with few or no missing data.

Molten salt reactors have gained substantial interest in the last years due to their flexibility and their potential for simplified closed fuel cycle operation for massive net-zero energy production. However, a zero-power reactor experiment will be an essential first step into the process of delivering this technology. The topic of the control and shut down for a zero power reactor is for the first time introduced through a literature review and the reduction of the control approaches to a limited number of basic functions with different variations. In the following, the requirements for the control and shutdown system for a reactor experiment are formulated, and based on these assessments, an approach for the shutdown – splitting the lower part of the core with reflector, and an approach for the control – a vertically movable radial reflector are proposed. Both systems will be usable for a zero-power system with a liquid as well as with as a solid core and even more importantly, both systems somehow work on the integral system level without disturbing the central part of the core which will be the essential area for the experimental measurements. Both approaches have been investigated as a singular system as well as their interactions with one another and the sensitivity of the control system. The study has demonstrated that both proposed systems are able to deliver the required characteristics with sufficient shutdown margin and a sufficiently wide control span. The interaction of the system has been shown to be manageable and the sensitivity is on a very good level. The multi-group Monte-Carlo approach has been cross evaluated by a continuous energy test leading to good results, but they also demonstrate that there is room for improvement.

A novel adaptive neural network-based fault-tolerant control scheme is proposed for six-degree freedom nonlinear helicopter dynamic. The proposed approach can detect and mitigate sensors' faults in real-time. An adaptive observer-based on neural network (NN) and extended Kalman filter (EKF) is designed, which incorporates the helicopter's dynamic model to detect faults in the navigation sensors. Based on the detected faults, an active fault-tolerant controller, including three loops of dynamic inversion, is designed to compensate for the occurred faults in real-time. The simulation results showed that the proposed approach is able to detect and mitigate different types of faults on the helicopter navigation sensors, and the helicopter tracks the desired trajectory without any interruption.

Aging is accompanied by frontal lobe and non-dominant hemisphere recruitment that supports executive functioning, such as inhibitory control, which is crucial to all cognitive functions. Yet, the spatio-temporal sequence of processing underlying successful inhibition and how it changes with age is understudied. Thus, we assessed N200 (conflict monitoring) and P300 (response inhibition, performance evaluation) event-related potentials (ERPs) in young and healthy older adults during comparably performed successful stop-signal inhibition. We additionally interrogated the continuous spatio-temporal dynamics of N200- and P300-related activation within each group. Young adults had left hemisphere dominant N200, while older adults had overall larger amplitudes and right hemisphere dominance. N200 activation was biphasic in both groups but differed in scalp topography. P300 also differed, with larger right amplitudes in young, but bilateral amplitudes in old, with old larger than young in the left hemisphere. P300 was characterized by an early parieto-occipital peak in both groups, followed by a parietal slow wave only in older adults. A temporally similar but topographically different final wave followed in both groups that showed anterior recruitment in older adults. These findings illuminate differential age-related spatio-temporal recruitment patterns for conflict monitoring and response inhibition that are critically important for understanding age-related compensatory activation.

Training data for a deep learning (DL) neural network (NN) controller are obtained from the input and output signals of a conventional digital controller that is designed to provide the suitable control signal to a specified plant within a feedback digital control system. It is found that if the DL controller is sufficiently deep (four hidden layers), it can outperform the conventional controller in terms of settling time of the system output transient response to a unit-step reference signal. That is, the DL controller introduces a damping effect. Moreover, it does not need to be retrained to operate with a reference signal of different magnitude, or under system parameter change. Such properties make the DL control more attractive for applications that may undergo parameter variation, like sensor networks.

In this paper, we propose a multi-zone service control scheme to maximize the performance of each service zone when a large number of cellular service zones and D2D (Device-to-Device) service zones are composed to 5G cellular network. This paper also improves performance of service zone by dividing traffic into real-time traffic and non-real-time traffic in order to minimize traffic interference. Real-time traffic and non-real-time traffic have a significant impact on communication performance. We propose a new self-detection traffic interference control technique to improve the QoS and throughput of D2D and C2D communication in a cellular network, STICS (Self-detecting Traffic Interference Control Scheme). The proposed STICS scheme distinguishes between short-term traffic congestion process and long-term traffic congestion process according to traffic characteristics to detect and control traffic. When the proposed scheme is applied to the 5G-based cellular network environment, it is expected that the traffic type will be efficiently classified by self-detecting the traffic according to the flow. Such classified traffic is less sensitive to communication between the D2D and C2D links, thereby reducing traffic overload. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme through simulation and show that the proposed scheme is more efficient than other comparison schemes.

In this contribution, different lane-keeping control strategies for Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGV) have been analyzed and compared. The AGV must be oriented and kept within a given reference path using the front wheel steering angle as the control action for a specific longitudinal velocity. While non-linear models can describe the lateral dynamics of the vehicle in an accurate manner, they might lead to difficulties when computing some real-time control laws such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) models can provide a trade-off between computational complexity and model accuracy. Another way to reduce computational complexity is to explore other control strategies, for example, the one based on the Inverse Kinematic Bicycle model (IKIBI). Additionally, AGV sensors typically work at different measurement acquisition frequencies so that Kalman Filters (KF) are usually needed for sensor fusion. If these frequencies are slower than the actuation rate, a multi-rate KF may be needed. The two control strategies (MPC using a LPV model and IKIBI) have been compared in simulations over a circuit path in the presence of process and measurement Gaussian noise. The MPC controller has shown to provide a more accurate lane-keeping behavior than an IKIBI control strategy. Finally, it has been seen that Dual-Rate Extended Kalman Filters (DREKF) constitute an essential tool when only slow and noisy sensor feedback is available in an AGV lane-keeping application.

Abstract: The article proposes to consider the possibility of connecting the problems of engineering synthesis of frequency control systems for asynchronous electric drives with the basic provisions of the theory of identification of asynchronous electric motors based on the equations of a generalized AC electric machine.The article presents the results of experimental studies of load parrying processes in asynchronous electric drives with vector and scalar controls. These results indicate the absence of fundamental advantages as processes in a drive with vector control. This advantage should have manifested itself in a more efficient formation of the moment and fast transients. It is suggested that the reason for this is in too significant errors, assumptions and simplifications of the equations adopted in the derivation of vector control and which are its theoretical basis. A method is proposed for describing asynchronous electric motors by nonlinear transfer functions, which made it possible to formulate the principle of correction of electric drives and a method for assessing their efficiency.The article shows. that the correction based on the proposed nonlinear transfer functions of the induction motor is much more efficient than the traditional vector control, which was confirmed by detailed experiments and modeling. The results of the most important of which are given in the article. An assumption was made. that the advantage in efficiency is due to a more accurate identification of the dynamics of an asynchronous electric motor with a gear function instead of vector equations.

This paper introduces a closed-loop control strategy for maintaining consistency of liquid temperature in commercial Drop on Demand (DoD) inkjet printing. No additional sensors or additional actuators are installed in the printhead while achieving the consistency in liquid temperature. To this end, this paper presents a novel in situ sensing-actuation policy at every individual liquid-nozzle, where the jetting mechanism has three distinct roles. It is used for jetting liquid droplet onto the print media based on the print-job. It is used as a soft sensor to estimate the real-time liquid temperature of the jetting nozzle. While not jetting liquid, it is used as a heating actuator to minimize the gradient of liquid temperature among nozzles. The soft sensing based in situ controller is implemented in an experimentally validated digital twin that models the thermo-fluidic processes of the printhead. The digital twin is scalable and flexible to incorporate an arbitrary number of liquid-nozzles, making the control strategy applicable for future designs of the printhead.

On March 11^th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) as a pandemic. Until an effective treatment or a vaccine is developed, the current recommendations are to contain the disease, and control its transmission. It is now clear that the primary mode of SARS-CoV2 transmission is aerosol/droplet spread, and by contacting virus contaminated surfaces acting as fomites (inanimate vectors). Furthermore, recent data indicate that the live virus particles are present in saliva, and, more alarmingly, asymptomatic individuals may transmit the infection. By virtue of the nature of the practice of dentistry where intrinsically, a high volume of aerosols are produced, as well as the close proximity of dentists and patients during treatment, dentists and allied dental staff are considered the highest risk health professional group for acquiring SARS-CoV2 during patient management. Therefore, several organizations and specialty associations have proposed guidelines and recommendations for limiting the transmission of SARS-COV2 from carriers to dentists and vice versa. This paper aims to provide a review of these guidelines, and concludes with a brief look at how the practice of dentistry may be impacted by COVID-19, in the post-pandemic era.

Vigorous early-season growth rate allows crops to compete more effectively against weeds and to conserve soil moisture in arid areas. Many crop species, including common bean, show genetic variation in growth rate between varieties. Despite this, the genetic basis of the early-season growth-related traits has not been well resolved in the species, in part due to historic phenotyping challenges. Using a range of UAV- and ground-based methods, we evaluated early-season growth vigor of two populations. These growth data were then used to find QTLs associated with several growth parameters. Our results suggest that early-season growth rate is the result of complex interactions between several genetic and environmental factors and highlight the need for the high-precision phenotyping provided by UAVs. The QTLs identified in this study are the first in common bean to be identified remotely using UAV technology and will be useful for developing crop varieties that compete with weeds more effectively. Ultimately, this will reduce crop losses and mitigate the need for herbicides and manual labor for weed control.

Precise and fast position tracking is essential for the correct operation of many industrial robots and CNC machine tools. This subject is also important in the control of the mount of the astronomical telescope, especially for the tracking of artificial satellites. As system parameters can change, a control method that is robust to changes in parameters must be used. Such a method is the sliding control, which, however, ensures the robustness only after reaching the sliding surface. Therefore, a new method was proposed in the paper, which eliminates the phase of reaching the sliding surface. The method consists of using a reference trajectory generator and determining the generalized error in relation to this trajectory. The procedure for designing the control system is presented. Next, the proposed method was verified on the laboratory stand. The described control method provides a robust system operation and can be easily implemented in the control system.

A novel coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, is responsible for current epidemic outbreaks in China and also other countries that cause acute pneumonia that was primarily linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China. To control and prevent the existing epidemic outbreaks of coronavirus in China, a precise and easy disinfection/sterilization technique is important to disinfect/sterilize the mass-level peoples and their ambient environments (e.g. atmospheric air/aerosols). Among the disinfection techniques, control fire/flame (CF) could be applied. Large-size CF (LSCF) can be generated by using gas burner, gas cylinder that used in restaurant, coals, kerosene (petroleum), dried straws, dried woods) at entry and exit points of big gathering locations (e.g. hospital, airport, rail stations, seaports, apartments, streets/roads, etc. Additionally, small-size CF (SSCF) can be produced by using gas burner of kitchen, electric heater, kindle or waste papers at individual home and ward/room at hospital. Individual person can be soaked/immersed their hands and their belongings nearby CF for a moment, likely followed sterilization during quantification of the number of bacteria in experimental observation, that can rapidly sterilize the person perfectly. Correspondingly, the ambient air/aerosols moved towards CF due to water evaporation by fire that subsequently refresh all ambient air/aerosols by killing all viruses. Such CF could certainly reach the temperature higher than 56 degree C that could effectively disinfect/sterilize/kill the coronavirus. Therefore, CF could be effectively applied to control and prevent the epidemic outbreaks of coronavirus across China and worldwide.

The concept of genetic improvement in relation to biological control involves the exploitation of natural genetic variation for the benefit of existing biological control agents (BCAs). Despite recent calls for this process to be adopted in biological control research, there is no clear overview of the current state of research into genetic variation within a biological control context, including quantifiable estimates such as narrow-sense heritability (h²). In this systematic review, we aim to determine the current state of research on the genetic variation of biological control traits in natural enemies. After the searching process, screening for papers that can deliver on our research question reduced the initial 2,927 search hits to only a mere 69 papers for data extraction. Of these, the majority (73.6%) did not report quantitative values for genetic variation. Extracting the traits measured in these papers, we categorized them according to two approaches; the first related to fitness components, and the second related to biological control importance. This systematic review highlights the need for more rigorous reporting of the quantitative values of genetic variation to enable the successful genetic improvement of biological control agents.

It is not understood how the numbers and identities of vertebrae are controlled during mammalian development. The remarkable robustness and conservation of segmental numbers may suggest a digital nature of the underlying process. Here I propose a mechanism that allows cells to obtain and store the segmental information in digital form, and to produce a pattern of chromatin accessibility that in turn regulates Hox gene expression specific to the metameric segment. The model requires that a regulatory element be present such that the number of occurrences of the motif between two consecutive Hox genes equals the number of segments under the control of the anterior gene. This is true for the recently discovered HRC3 motif, associated with histone modifications and developmental genes. The finding not only allows correctly predicting the numbers of segments using only sequence information, but also resolves the 40-year-old enigma of the function of temporal and spatial collinearity of Hox genes. The logic of the mechanism is illustrated in an animated video: https://youtu.be/4a3XOQ7Lz28. I also discuss how different aspects of the proposed mechanism can be tested experimentally.

This paper presents a control algorithm for soft-switching series LC converters. The conventional voltage-to-voltage controller is split into a master and a slave controller. The master controller implements constant-current-constant-voltage (CCCV) control, required for demanding applications, i.e. lithium battery charging or laboratory power supplies. It defines the set-current for the open-loop current slave controller, which generates the PWM parameters. The power supply achieves fast large-signal responses, e.g. from 5 V to 24 V, where 95% of the target value is reached in less than 400 µs. The design is evaluated extensively in simulation and on a prototype. A consensus between simulation and measurement is achieved.

This paper introduces a model-free, "on-the-fly" learning control strategy for arrays of energy converters with adjustable generator damping. The devices are arranged so that they are affected simultaneously by the energy medium. Each device uses a different control strategy, of which at least one has to be the machine learning approach presented in this paper. During operation all energy converters record the absorbed power and control output; the machine learning device gets the data from the converter with the highest power absorption and so learns the best performing control strategy for each state. Consequently, the overall network has a better overall performance than each individual strategy. This concept is evaluated for wave energy converter (WEC) with numerical simulations and experiments with physical scale models in a wave tank. In the first of two numerical simulations, the learnable WEC works in an array with four WECs applying a constant damping factor. In the second simulation, two learnable WECs were learning with each other. It showed that in the first test the WEC was able to absorb as much as the best constant damping WEC, while in the second run it could absorb even slightly more. During the physical model test, the ANN showed its ability to select the better of two possible damping coefficients based on real world input data.

Few switching transitions in high power and medium voltage application of Power converters are desirable. The selective harmonics elimination (SHE) pulse width modulation offers a better quality waveform with lower switching transitions and hence lower switching losses. The SHE is a pre-programmed modulation technique where certain amounts of lower order harmonics are removed and fundamental voltage is controlled. After Fourier analysis of output waveform, a set of nonlinear transcendental equations is obtained which exhibits, multiple, unique or no solution in different range of modulation index (MI). In this paper, an iterative method based on the Jacobian estimate is proposed to solve a highly non-linear set of SHE equations. The proposed technique is easy in implementation and can solve a large number of such equations as computation of the Jacobian matrix in the subsequent iteration is estimated from the previous values. Moreover, the proposed method also removes the singularity problem, especially for large SHE equations. High accuracy in the initial guess is also not essential for this method and can converge to the solution with any random initial guess. The computational and simulation results are given to validate the concept. The hardware result is provided to confirm the computational and simulation results.

We previously reported how the loss of CHIP expression (Carboxyl terminus of Hsc70-Interacting Protein) during pressure overload resulted in robust cardiac dysfunction, accompanied by a failure to maintain ATP levels in the face of increased energy demand. In this study, we analyzed the cardiac metabolome after seven days of pressure overload and found an increase in long- and medium-chain fatty acid metabolites in wild-type hearts, a response that was attenuated in mice that lack expression of CHIP (CHIP^-/-). These findings suggest that CHIP may play an essential role in regulating oxidative metabolism, pathways that are regulated in part by the nuclear receptor PPARα (Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor alpha). Next, we challenged CHIP^-/- mice with the PPARα agonist, fenofibrate. Surprisingly, treating CHIP^-/- mice with fenofibrate for five weeks under non-pressure overload conditions resulted in a loss of skeletal muscle mass and a marked increase in cardiac fibrosis, accompanied by a decrease in cardiac function. Isolated CHIP^-/- cardiac fibroblasts treated with fenofibrate did not increase synthesis of collagen or TGFβ, suggesting that the fibrosis observed in CHIP^-/- hearts likely depends on signaling from other cell types or circulating factors. In conclusion, in the absence of functional CHIP expression, fenofibrate results in unexpected cardiac pathologies. These findings are particularly relevant to patients harboring loss-of-function mutations in CHIP and are consistent with a prominent role for CHIP in regulating cardiac metabolism.

This article, we study the sufficient conditions for the controllability of second-order impulsive partial neutral evolution differential systems with infinite delay in Banach spaces by using the theory of cosine families of bounded linear operators and fixed point theorem.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a digital control system for modular multilevel converters (MMC) and its use in a 5-kW small scale prototype. To achieve higher system control reliability and multi-functionality, the proposed architecture has been built with an effective split of the control tasks between a master controller and six slave controllers, one for each of the six arms of the converter. The MMC prototype have been used for testing both converter and system level controls in a reduced scale laboratory set up of a Multi-Terminal DC transmission network (MTDC). The whole control has been tested in order to validate the proposed control strategies. The tests performed at system level allowed to explore the advantages of using an MMC in a MTDC system.

Air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), as well as water pollutants including heavy metal, are harmful to human and environment. Effective control and reduction of their pollution is therefore an important topic for today’s scientists. Fly ash (FA) is a type of industrial waste that can cause multiple environmental problems if discharged into the air. On the other hand, because of its high porosity, large specific surface area, and other unique characteristics, the FA can also be used as a low-cost and high efficient adsorbent with some simple modifications. This paper reviews the effects of FA on treatment of the above air and water pollution based on our research experience over many years, including to the current status of global FA utilization, physicochemical properties, principle of adsorption, and the application direction of FA in the future. It focuses on the use of nanocomposite technology to fabricate functional FA fibrous membranes to adsorb VOCs from air, and treat heavy metal wastewater. This present review first describes the fabrication technology of FA nanocomposites and their mechanism of adsorption VOCs from air. Utilization of nanofiber technology to fabricate multi-functional FA emerging composite materials to mitigate air and water pollution has great potential in the future, especially use of pollutant material to control other pollutants.

In the case of long-stator linear drive, unlike rotative drives for which speed or position sensors are a single unit attached to the shaft, these sensors extend along the guideway. The position signals transmitted from maglev vehicle can’t meet the need of the real-time propulsion control in the on-ground inverter power substations. In this paper the design of the propulsion inverter control system with a position estimator for driving long-stator synchronous motor in high speed maglev train is proposed. The experiments have been carried out at the 150m long guideway in O-song test track. To investigate the performance of the position estimator, the propulsion control system with and without the position estimator are compared. The result confirms that the proposed strategy can meet the dynamic property need of propulsion inverter control system for driving long-stator linear synchronous motors

In this paper, a new approach to the sliding-mode control of single-phase inverters under linear and non-linear loads is introduced. The main idea behind this approach is to utilize a non-linear, flexible and multi-slope function in controller structure. This non-linear function makes the controller possible to control the inverter by a non-linear multi-slope sliding surface. In general, this sliding surface has two parts with different slopes in each part and the flexibility of the sliding surface makes the multi-slope sliding-mode controller (MSSMC) possible to reduce the total harmonic distortion, to improve the tracking accuracy, and to prevent overshoots leading to undesirable transient-states in output voltage which are occurred when the load current sharply rises. In order to improve the tracking accuracy and to reduce the steady-state error, an integral term of the multi-slope function is also added to the sliding surface. The improved performance of the proposed controller is confirmed by simulations and finally, the results of the proposed approach are compared with a conventional SMC and a SRFPI controller.

The Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance–executive and arousal components (ANTI-Vea) is a computerized task of 32 min duration in the standard format. The task simultaneously assesses the main effects and interactions of the three attentional networks (i.e., phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control) and two dissociated components of vigilance with reasonable reliability (executive and arousal vigilance). We present this free and publicly accessible resource (ANTI-Vea-UGR; https://anti-vea.ugr.es/) developed to easily run, collect, and analyze data with the ANTI-Vea (or its subtasks measuring some attentional and/or vigilance components embedded in the ANTI-Vea). Available in six different languages, the platform allows for adaptation of stimuli timing and procedure to facilitate data collection from different populations (e.g., clinical patients, children). Collected data can be freely downloaded and easily analyzed with the provided scripts and tools, including a Shiny app. We discuss previous evidence supporting that attention and vigilance components can be assessed in typical lab conditions as well as online and outside the laboratory. We hope this tutorial will help researchers interested in measuring attention and vigilance with a tool useful to collect data from large sample sizes and easy to use in applied contexts.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore, from the perspective of government interven-tion, behavioral logic and game relationship among farmers, service organizations and the gov-ernment in the pest and disease control outsourcing system, as well as the endogenous motiva-tion of each subject. The results indicate that the stronger the willingness of each subject, the faster the stable state of joint pest and disease control among the three parties can be formed; In the case of implementing a single policy tool, the convergence rate of each party that imple-ments the regulatory policy alone is fast but may be unstable, while the rate is slow but more stable when a guidance- or incentive-based policy is solely applied; The effect of policy tool combination is much better than that of a single policy tool applied. The simultaneous imple-mentation of the three types of policy tools can form a policy system with both positive and negative mechanisms, which can maximize complementary and superposition effect.

The minimum requirement for uncertainty estimation is to use only intermediate precision (R_w), especially for measurands lacking a reference measurement system such as thyroid functions tests (TFT). In this study, measurement uncertainty (MU) for TSH and FT4 from long-term internal quality control (IQC) data was estimated while reference change values (RCV) were calculated from estimated MU. Furthermore, intermediate precision (R_w) was used to establish appropriate risk-based QC frequency. Twenty fore months of third party IQC data were collected retrospectively, on the Abbott ARCHITECT i1000sr analyzer from INSTITUT PASTEUR OF MSILA laboratory, ALGERIA. The MU, RCV and sigma-metric were estimated simply from the intermediate precision (R_w), while a nomogram relating sigma performance to run size was used to establish QC frequency. The MU for the TSH and FT4 was 12% and 8% respectively. The U _one-sided for the TSH and FT4 was 10%, 6.6% respectively. MU and U _one-sided of TSH and FT4 met quality requirements for permissible uncertainty (pU %) and allowable total error (ATE %). When monitoring thyroid replacement therapy, an upward minimum change (RCV) of 54% and 22% or a downward of 35% and 18% in serum TSH and FT4 respectively, would be considered significant. Optimal QC strategy for serum TSH was selected to run 4 QC materials every 190 patients sample and to use a multi-rule (1_3s/2_2s/R_4s/4_1s). Our results suggest that MU estimation from long-term IQC alone may be acceptable for TFT to assist physician in results interpretation and to establish appropriate QC frequency.

Micro-grids’ operations offer local reliability; in the event of faults or low voltage/frequency events on the utility side, micro-grids can disconnect from the main grid and operate autonomously while providing the continued supply of power to local customers. With the ever-increasing penetration of renewable generation, however, the operations of micro-grids become increasingly complicated because of the associated fluctuations of voltages. As a result, transformer taps are adjusted frequently, thereby leading to the fast degradation of expensive tap-changer transformers. In the islanding mode, the difficulties also come from the drop of voltage and frequency upon disconnecting from the main grid. To appropriately model the above, the nonlinear AC power flow constraints are necessary. Computationally, the discrete nature of tap-changer operations and the stochasticity caused by renewables add two layers of difficulty on top of a complicated AC-OPF problem. To resolve the above computational difficulties, the main principles of the recently-developed "l1-proximal" Surrogate Lagrangian Relaxation are extended. Testing results based on 9-bus system demonstrate the efficiency of the method to obtain the exact feasible solutions for micro-grid operations thereby avoiding approximations inherent to existing methods, while demonstrating that through the optimization, 1. the number of tap changes is drastically reduced, and 2. the method is capable of handling networks with meshed topologies.

A delayed crosslinked polymer gel was developed for indepth water control in mature oilfields. The thermal gelation behavior of nonionic polyacrylamide (NPAM) and PEI was investigated, and sodium citrate (NaCit) was selected as a new retarder to prolong the gelation time. The gelation performance of NPAM/PEI gel system can be adjusted by the variation of NPAM or PEI concentration, and a quadratic model was developed by statistical analysis, which predict the gelation time of NPAM/PEI gel system. The obtained model showed high significance and good reliability as suggested by the F-ratio of 175.16 and high adjusted R-square value (0.9732). The decrease of the initial pH value of gelling solution leads to the weaker gel viscosity and longer gelation time due to the protonation of amine groups on the PEI chains. Increasing temperature resulted in higher gel viscosity but shorter gelation time. The addition of NaCit showed a good delayed gelation effect on the NPAM/PEI gel system, and the gel system in the presence of NaCit exhibited a good compatibility with injected and formation water. A dense three-dimensional structure was observed in matured NPAM/PEI/NaCit gel, and it could keep stable below 150℃. The gel system could effectively reduce the permeability (>95%) and restricted the flow of water after matured in natural cores.

Motivated by Autonomous vehicle idea and driving safety issues, driver assistance system such as Active braking, Cruise Control, Lane departure warning lane keeping and etc. has become a very active research area. However, this paper presents the performance and robustness analysis of a model predictive control and proportional integral derivative control for lane keeping maneuvers of an autonomous vehicle using computer vision simulation studies. A simulation study was carried out where a vehicle model based on single tracked bicycle model was developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment together with a vision dynamic system. Both PID controller and MPC were simulated to maintain the desired reference trajectory of the vehicle by controlling steering angle. Further performance and robustness analysis were carried out and the simulation results show that the proposed control system for the PID control achieved its objective even though it was less robust in maintaining its performance under various conditions like vehicle load change, different longitudinal speed and different cornering stiffness. While in the case of MPC the optimizer made sure that the predicted future trajectory of the vehicle output tracks the desired reference trajectory and was more robust in maintaining its performance under same conditions as in PID.

Dreams and positive symptoms of schizophrenia are similar in many aspects, such as bizarre-ness, impairment of reality testing, intense emotional participation. Hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thoughts have been proposed to be an intrusion of the dreaming state in wake-fulness: conversely, psychotic patients’ abnormal cognitive and behavioral features could over-flow into sleep, transferring peculiar features to their dreams which would differ, in quantity and quality, from those of healthy people. Here we assess this latter hypothesis by analyzing the dreams of 46 patients, hosted in a residential facility or in a day-treatment center, affected by disorders of the schizophrenic spectrum with psychotic symptoms, versus those of 28 healthy controls, in terms of several quantitative and qualitative characteristics. In patients, we also in-vestigated whether dream variables correlated with the severity of symptoms assessed via the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Overall, patients reported fewer and shorter dreams than controls, with a reduction of many ele-ments like characters and settings. The greatest differences regarded emotions, which were less frequent in patients and inversely correlated with symptoms’ severity. This evidence supports the hypothesis that dreams are crucial for emotion regulation during wakefulness and that this func-tion could be totally or partially ineffective in psychoses.

Strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora is one of the main diseases of strawberry and significantly impacts the yield and quality of strawberry fruit. There are now no effective control techniques available except for fungicide sprays, which may directly impact consumers. Biological control is becoming an alternative method for the control of plant diseases to replace or decrease the application of traditional synthetic chemical fungicides. Trichoderma is widely used as a biological agent for controlling strawberry root rot. In order to provide resources for screening the highly effective biocontrol fungus for controlling strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora, the biocontrol mechanism,the control effects of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 against strawberry root rot and growth-promoting effects on strawberry seedlings were investigated by plate culture, microscopy observation and root drenching methods.The results showed that CMT10 had obvious competitive, antibiotic and hyperparasitism effects on Neopestalotiopsis clavispora CMGF3. The CMT10 could quickly occupy nutritional space, and the inhibition rates of CMT10 against CMGF3 in confrontation culture on 7 d was 65.49%. The inhibition rates of volatile metabolite and fermentation metabolite produced by CMT10 against CMGF3 were 79.67% and 69.84%, respectively. The mycelium of strain CMT10 can act as hyperparasites by making contacting, winding and penetrating hyphae of CMGF3. Pot experiment showed that the biocontrol efficacy of CMT10 on strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora was 63.00%. CMT10 had obvious promotion effect on strawberry growth, the plant height, root length, total fresh weight, root fresh weight, stem fresh weight and root dry weight, with the promotion rates were 20.09%, 22.39%, 87.11%, 101.58%, 79.82% and 72.33%, respectively. Overall, this study showed the ability of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 to control strawberry root rot and their potential to develop as novel biocontrol agents to replace chemical fungicides for eco-friendly, sustainable agriculture.

In this paper we study a class of impulsive delayed neural networks with parameter uncertainties and reaction-diffusion terms. Using the properties of M-matrices and some inequality techniques, some sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the global exponential stability of the given system. The results obtained are presented by simple algebraic inequalities, which are certainly more concise than previous methods. Finally, the validity and usefulness of our results are illustrated by arithmetic examples.

Pyrops candelaria is one of the common pests of fruit trees, but the research on the pathogenic microorganisms it may carry is very limited. Therefore, it is essential to reveal the pathogenic microbes it carries and their potential hazards. This study found a new virus from the transcriptome of P. candelaria, which was first reported in P. candelaria and named as PyCaV (Pyrops candelaria associated virus). RACE and bioinformatics assay revealed that the full-length of PyCaV is 10855 bp with the polyA tail, containing a single open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein consisting of 3171 amino acid (aa). The virus has a typical Iflavirus structure, including two rhv domains, a RNA helicase domain (HEL), a 3C cysteine protease domain (Pro), and a RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domain (RdRp). Further phylogenetic analysis revealed that this virus belongs to family Iflaviridae and sequence alignements analysis suggedted PyCaV is new member in unassigned genus of family Iflaviridae. Further in-depth analysis of virus-infection-part showed that PyCaV is distributing in the whole longan lanternfly, including its head, chest, and abdomen, but more PyCaV was identified in the chest. The distribution of PyCaV in different parts of P. candelaria was further explored, which showed that more PyCaV were detected in its piercing-sucking mouthparts and chest viscera. Statistical analysis showed that the PyCaV infection was affected by time and locations.

Apis mellifera, especially weak ones, are highly vulnerable to Carpoglyphus lactis mites, which can rapidly infest and consume stored pollen, leading to weakened colonies and potentially colony collapse. This study aimed to ascertain and investigate the prevalence of this mite in honeybee colonies across 9 provinces in the Republic of Korea (ROK). A total of 615 honeybee colonies were collected, from 66 apiaries during the spring and 58 apiaries during the summer of 2023. A 1,242 bp segment of the the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction method. The detection levels of C. lactis in the honeybees were compared between winter and summer. Based on the COI sequence analysis, the nucleotide sequence similarity of C. lactis mites isolated in the ROK with those from China (NC048990.1) was found to be 99.5%, and with those from the United Kingdom (KY922482.1) was 99.3%. This study is the first report of C. lactis in Korean apiaries. The findings in this study demonstrate a significantly higher detection rate in winter, which is 4.1 times greater than that in summer (p &lt; 0.001). Furthermore, the results underscore the usefulness of molecular diagnostic techniques for detecting C. lactis mites.

With the burgeoning growth of online retail, the issue of counterfeit products has become a significant threat to both consumer trust and brand integrity, posing challenges to sustainable market practices. Online retail platforms are promoted to redesign their channel structures and enhance brand traceability to tackle counterfeits using blockchain technology. To investigate the interactions between blockchain technology and the channel structures of online retail platforms, we design a game theory model incorporating a manufacturer with(out) blockchain participation selling products via an online retail platform that operates an agency channel and/or a reselling channel. We show that the critical trade-off of blockchain participation comprises the brand assurance effect of the blockchain, the channel competition intensification effect, and the blockchain adoption cost. The platform is capable of strategically designing the channel structure to encourage (while discouraging) blockchain participation by the manufacturer. Our analysis highlights the complementarity between blockchain participation and the channel structure. Furthermore, the effect of the consumer’s belief in the reselling channel, the commission fee in the agency channel, and the substitutability between channels are investigated in depth. The research provides valuable insights for online retail platforms and policymakers seeking to foster a sustainable and trustworthy e-commerce ecosystem.

In this paper, we extend the KdVSKR equations in (1+1)-dimension and (2+1)-dimension to fractional KdVSKR equations with modified Riemann-Liouville derivative. The (2+1)-dimensional KdVSKR equation, which is a recent extension of (1+1)-dimensional KdVSKR equation, can model the resonances of solitons in shallow water. By means of the Hirota bilinear method, finite symmetry group method and consistent Riccati expansion method, many new interaction solutions have been derived. Soliton-cnoidal interaction solution of the (1+1)-dimensional fractional KdVSKR equation has been derived for the first time. For the (2+1)-dimensional frac-tional KdVSKR equation, two-wave interaction solutions and three-wave interaction solutions, including dark-soliton-sine interaction solution, bright-soliton-elliptic interaction solution, and lump-hyperbolic-sine interaction solution, have been derived. Impact of the fractional order on the shapes of these solutions has been illustrated by figures. Three-wave interaction solutions of fractional systems have not been reported in the existing references. The research idea in this paper can be applied to other fractional differential equations.

COX II containing a dual core CuA active site is one of the three core subunits of mitochondrial Cco, which plays a significant role in the physiological process. In this report, the full-length cDNA of COXⅡ gene was cloned from Sitophilus zeamais, which had an ORF of 684 bp encoding 227 amino acids residues. The predicted COXⅡ protein had a molecular mass of 26.2 kDa with pI value of 6.37, and multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sitophilus zeamais COXⅡ had high sequence identity 78.51% with the COXⅡ of other insect species, especially similarity to sitophilus oryzae. This gene was subcloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a, and induced by IPTG in E.coli Transetta (DE3) expression system. Finally the COXⅡ with 6-His tag was purified using affinity chromatography with Ni²⁺-NTA agarose. WB showed the recombinant COXⅡ was about 44 kD, and the concentration of fusion protein was 50μg/mL. UV-spectrophotometer and infrared spectrometer analysis showed that recombinant COXⅡ could catalyze the oxidation of substrate Cytc, and influenced by AITC. It was found that AITC could form a hydrophobic region with COXⅡ protein via molecular docking, besides, a sulfur atom of AITC structure could form a length of 2.9 Å hydrogen bond with Leu-31. These results will provide valuable information for elucidating the role of COXⅡ in Sitophilus zeamais responses to AITC, meanwhile, it will helpful to carry out a point mutation in AITC binding sites for the future research.

The properties of the annual, semiannual and triennial oscillations (AO, SAO and TO) in the middle atmosphere have been investigated using the TIMED/SABER temperature data. The Lomb-Scargle and wavelet spectra were used to determine the dominant oscillations in the background temperature field. The AO is prominent at the mid-latitudes. The AO amplitudes present an asymmetry between the two Hemispheres, being larger in the mesosphere than in the stratosphere. The SAO dominates the tropical regions, with three amplitude maxima at altitudes of 45, 75, and 85 km. The SAOs in the upper mesosphere (75 km) are out of phase with those in the mesopause (85 km) in the tropical regions, which can generate an enhancement of 11 K at each equinox, contributing to the lower mesospheric inversion layer. The TO is significant in the tropical region, with amplitude being maximum at 35, 45 and 85 km. Result shows that there may be potential interaction by the TO with SAO at 85km at the equator. The relation between ENSO and TO has also been discussed. The ENSO signal may modulate the amplitude of the TO, mainly in the lower stratosphere. The real origin of the TO may lie in the wave-mean-flow interaction.

As the world population grows, fulfilling the need for biomaterials in the healthcare system becomes increasingly important. Biomaterials, which include metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites, play an important role in the creation of medical devices that improve people's lives. The European Society for Biomaterials described biomaterials as non-biological materials used in medical devices to interact with biological systems. This definition has developed to encompass materials that treat, assess, or replace tissues or bodily functions. Biocompatibility, as defined by the FDA, is a key feature of biomaterials, as is the requirement to fulfil design requirements such as mechanical performance, geometry, and electrical control. Over the last decade, advances in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering have boosted biomaterials' usage in medical applications dramatically. Despite its promise, scientists, engineers, and physicians continue to face significant challenges due to the complexity of biomaterials. Biomaterials have various benefits, including biodegradability, non-toxicity, and biocompatibility, making them extremely useful for replacing, sustaining, or improving biological activities in damaged tissues. They are used in a wide range of applications, including tissue engineering implants, human tissue healing and regeneration, medication delivery systems, and biosensors. This study gives insights into the fundamental characteristics, case studies, and ethical issues associated with the usage and use of biomaterials, further examining their potential and significance in healthcare and medicine.

The paper describes the new method for image compression based on coordinated group signal transformation. The algorithm is a type of difference coding. Coordinated processing significantly simplifies the difference signal conversion scheme using a single group codec for all signals. The described method considers color channels as correlated signals of a multi-channel communication system. The specifics of the processed data required modification of the coordinated group processing algorithm. First, we changed how to calculate the difference signals to prevent data loss. Secondly, the group codec was supplemented with a neural network to improve the quality of reconstructed images. We considered the following types of neural networks: fully connected, recurrent, convolution, and convolution in the Fourier space. Based on the simulation results, it is best to use fully connected neural networks if the goal is to minimize processing delay time. These networks have a response time of 13 ms. On the other hand, if the priority is to improve quality in cases where delays are not critical, then convolution neural networks in the Fourier space should be used. These networks have a response time of 140 ms and are of significant interest.

In electromagnetic ultrasonic testing, it is difficult to recognize small-size bottom cracks by time of flight (ToF), and the lift-off fluctuation of the probe affects the accuracy and consistency of the inspection results. In order to overcome the difficulty, a novel EMAT (electromagnetic acoustic transducer)-PEC (pulse eddy current) composite sensor is designed. We use amplitude of bottom echo recorded by EMAT to identify the tiny bottom crack as well as the amplitude of PEC signals picked up by the integrated symmetric coils to measure the average lift-off of the probe in real time. Firstly, the effects of lift-off and bottom cracks on amplitude of bottom echo are distinguished combining the theoretical analysis and finite element method (FEM). And then an amplitude correction method based on the fusion of EMAT and PEC signals is proposed to reduce the impact of lift-off on the defect signal. The experimental results demonstrate that the designed composite sensor can effectively detect the bottom crack as small as 0.1mm* 0.3mm. The signal fusion method can accurately correct the amplitude of defect signal and the relative error is less than ±8%.

The studied solar pot is a recent invention, which gained a utility model protection in 2021 from the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office under patent number 5489. The device is made for environmentally friendly cooking or heating (by utilizing solar energy) of foods and liquids. Its structure is similar to a double pipe heat exchanger, it has an outer mantle and an inner cooking tank. The goals of the paper are proposing a new physically-based mathematical model describing the solar pot and carrying out computer experiments with it, assembling an experimental system of the pot connected with a solar collector and performing measurements on it. Based on the results, the solar pot can successfully be used for cooking or sterilizing foods or liquids during the studied time period, in Hungary.

The research reported on this paper was aimed at improving the overall efficiency of a PDO certified artisanal cheese production process. Being a PDO certified foodstuff by the EU, it is considered to have properties and qualities determined by the geographical environment in which is made, with its production taking place in a specific and determined geographical location, in this case the Serra da Estrela region. In that sense, the authors conducted a mapping according to a systemic perspective of the processes involved in the context of manufacturing and distribution of certified Serra da Estrela cheese. Numerous methods were used throughout the process, such as a systemic design analysis, and techniques derived from ethnographic methods, which led to the collection of data in the field and consequently provided the immersion of the researcher in genuine work situations. Critical points were identified and emphasized in the systemic map with the purpose of encouraging initiatives to address and overcome the gaps and inefficiencies detected. The systemic design analysis triggered the development of design work. Observations following an ethnographic approach identified ergonomic risks in cheese making during the process of cutting excess chips, fostering the emergence of musculoskeletal disorders at the wrist. A tool that fits best to the task at hand was developed. A prototype of the new tool enabled collecting feedback from use in the work context, in order to inform product development. The domains of agricultural production and microbiology, considering the specific microorganisms developed trough the ripening process of the cheese, turned out to be aspects of high importance for the issue under focus, contributing to a broader understanding of the ripening process and its risks, simultaneously improving the efficiency and success of cheese production. If it were not for the systemic analysis, which served as a link between the boundaries of distinct domains such as the risk of microorganism contamination, ergonomics, energy efficiency, legislation and regulation policies, transportation challenges and economic viability, approached throughout the research. Simultaneously creating bridges between them, the various problems might not have been detected in the first place, as they are usually addressed in specialized disciplines, predetermined by the restrictions of each specific area of knowledge. As a consequence of the development of this research, which was based on an analysis that sought to establish possible connections between various disciplines and tried to constantly maintain a holistic perspective, making new connections and observing the issues from a new angle, apart from the already established methodologies. All this allowed to lay out the seeds for the development of a plan to tackle the critical points identified by the systemic analysis reported in this paper.

The recently approved maternal vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can reduce its burden among infants. Vaccine hesitancy/resistance can undermine the beneficial impact of RSV vaccination. The aim of this study was to assess the willingness of pregnant women in Jordan to receive RSV vaccination and its associated determinants. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in obstetrics/gynecology clinics in Jordan during January-February 2024, with convenience sampling. Attitude to RSV vaccination was assessed using the previously validated ABCDEF scale. A total of 404 pregnant women participated in the study with a mean age of 30 years. A majority of the participants showed willingness to receive RSV vaccination (n=313, 77.5%), with hesitancy among 25 participants (6.2%), and resistance among 66 participants (16.3%). Variables that were significantly associated with a higher RSV vaccine acceptance in multivariate analysis were: age <30 years (aOR: 2.45, p=0.010), undergraduates (aOR: 3.27, p=0.026), being a healthcare worker (aOR: 4.50, p=0.036), and the history of previous COVID-19/influenza vaccine uptake (aOR: 2.47, p=0.045). Two out of the six ABCDEF constructs were significantly associated with RSV vaccine acceptance, namely the “Advice” construct (aOR: 10.38, p<0.001) and the “Fear” construct (aOR: 21.49, p<0.001). This study highlighted the multifaceted nature of attitude towards maternal RSV vaccination among pregnant women. The study showed the role of demographic variables, prior vaccination experience, trust in credible health institutions and vaccine safety, and fear of RSV disease consequences in infants in shaping maternal attitude to RSV vaccination. Addressing these factors can help to effectively promote RSV vaccine uptake, subsequently helping to protect infants from the significant RSV disease burden.

Cholangiocarcinoma is an aggressive cancer with limited treatment options. Current therapies, such as cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), often cause side effects and drug resistance. This study investigated a potential new approach by combining a peanut skin extract (KK4-PSE) with these drugs. The extract effectively inhibited the growth of cholangiocarcinoma cells in laboratory studies and showed even greater selectivity for cancer cells compared to healthy cells. When combined with cisplatin or 5-FU, KK4-PSE enhanced the drugs' effects, leading to cell cycle arrest and increased cell death. These combined treatments also reduced levels of proteins that promote cancer cell survival. In animal models, KK4-PSE combined with 5-FU showed superior tumor suppression compared to the combination with cisplatin. Overall, these findings suggest that KK4-PSE may be a promising synergistic agent to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for cholangiocarcinoma, warranting further clinical investigation.