Forest canopy gaps are important for the ecosystem dynamics. Depending on tree species, small canopy openings might be also associated to intra-crown porosity and to space between crowns. Yet, little is known on the relationships between the fine-scaled pattern of canopy openings and biodiversity features. This research explored the possibility of i)- mapping forest canopy gaps from a very high resolution orthomosaic (10 cm), processed from a versatile imaging platform such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), ii)- to derive patch metrics that can be tested as covariates of variables of interest for forest biodiversity monitoring. This is attempted in a test area of 240 ha covered by temperate deciduous forest types in Central Italy and containing 50 forest inventory plots of about 530 m². Correlation and linear regression techniques were used to explore relationships between patch metrics and understorey (density, development and species diversity) or forest habitat biodiversity variables (density of micro-habitat bearing trees, vertical species profile, tree species diversity). The results revealed that small openings in the canopy cover (75% smaller than 7 m²) can be faithfully extracted from UAV RGB imagery, using the red band and contrast split segmentation. Highest correlations were observed in the mixed forest (beech and turkey oak), while beech forest had the poorest ones and turkey oak forest displayed intermediate results. Moderate to strong linear relationships were found between gap metrics and understorey variables in mixed forest type, with adjusted R² from linear regression ranging from 0.52 to 0.87. Equally good results, in the same forest types, were observed for forest habitat biodiversity variables (0.52<adjusted R²<0.79) with highest values found for density of trees with microhabitats and vertical species profile. In conclusion, this research highlights that UAV remote sensing can potentially provide covariate surfaces of variables of interest for forest biodiversity monitoring, conventionally collected in forest inventory plots. By integrating the two sources of data, these variables can be mapped over small forest areas with satisfactory levels of accuracy, at a much higher spatial resolution than would be possible by field-based forest inventory solely.

One mechanism by which fructose could exert deleterious effect in metabolism and inflammation is via its potency vis-à-vis de Maillard reaction. We employed simulated stomach and duodenum digestion of ovalbumin to test the hypothesis that indeed AGEs are formed by fructose during simulated digestion of an ubiquitous food protein with intrinsic allergenic potential and under model physiological conditions. Methods: OVA was subjected to simulated gastric and intestinal digestion using standard models, in presence of fructose or glucose (0-100 mM). Peptide fractions were analyzed by fluorescence spectroscopy and intensity at Excitation: λ370 nm, Emission: λ 440nm. Results: AGE adducts form between fructose and OVA which can be found in peptide fractions (< 5 kDa) at times (30 min) and concentration ranges (10 mM) plausibly found in the intestines, whereas no reaction occurs with glucose. The reaction is inhibited by chlorogenic acid at concentrations compatible with those found in the gut. The reaction is inhibited by AG, a specific antiglycation agent. Conclusion: Our proof of principle study shows that fructose-AGE formation on an ubiquitous allergenic protein indeed occurs in one hour and thereby may pave the way for the study of yet another mechanism by which the excess fructose in our Western diets is contributing to disease: intestinal AGE formation, absorption and RAGE engagement.

The poor solvent crystallization of carbapenem CS-023 has been performed at 25 °C. The following results have been obtained: 1) A solvate crystal Form A (5/2 Ethanol·1/2 H2O) is recovered from 80 v/v% ethanol solution, 2) Form A transforms to Form H (4H2O) by the solid-phase transition through the solvate-free polymorph, Form A-2, and Form A also transformed to Form C (1Ethanol·3H2O) by the solvent-mediated transformation. In the present study, we found that Form C also transforms to Form H by the solid-phase transition through the solvate-free polymorph, Form C-2. The three polymorphs, Form A, H, and C, were composed of the helical-chain structures, respectively. However, there was an incomprehensible affair in the solid phase transition among the three polymorphs. Namely, Form A comprised a left-handed helix.On the other hand, Form C and Form H’s helix chains were in a left- and right-handed helix complex. The solid-phase transition of Form A into Form H suggested the switch of helicity in the solid. We attempted to explain the helicity change in the solid phase transition. As a result, it was suggested that the over-absorption of water of Form A-2 at high humidity plays a vital role in the helicity change.

A cross-flow ultrafiltration harvesting system of a pre-concentrated microalgae culture was tested in an innovative anaerobic-based WRRF. The microalgae culture was cultivated in a membrane photobioreactor fed with the effluent from an anaerobic membrane bioreactor treating sewage. These harvested microalgae biomass was then anaerobically co-digested with primary and secondary sludge from the water line. Depending on the needs of this anaerobic co-digestion, the filtration harvesting process was evaluated intermittently over a period of 212 days for different operating conditions, mainly the total amount of microalgae biomass harvested and the desired final total solids concentration (up to 15.9 g·L1 with an average of 9.7 g·L1). Concentration ratios of 15-27 were obtained with average transmembrane fluxes ranged from 5 to 28 L·m2·h1. Regarding membrane cleaning, both backflushing and chemical cleaning resulted in transmembrane flux recoveries that were, on average, 21% higher than those achieved with backflushing alone. The carbon footprint assessment shows promising results as the GHG emissions associated with the cross-flow ultrafiltration harvesting process could be less than the emissions savings associated with the energy recovered from the biogas production from the anaerobic valorisation of the harvested microalgae.

This paper explores the latest developments in electrolysis technology, a key player in the transition to sustainable energy systems. Electrolysis, despite currently contributing a small share to global hydrogen production, holds immense potential for producing green hydrogen. The study delves into the efficiency of electrolysis systems, emphasizing ongoing efforts to enhance energy conversion rates. It investigates the impact of high-temperature electrolysis on reducing electricity consumption, thus making the process more efficient. The paper discusses the various challenges in the research on water electrolysis and underscores the critical role electrolysis plays in integrating renewable energy sources. The study emphasizes the need for continuous advancements in electrolysis technology to bridge existing gaps, making a compelling case for its pivotal role in the green hydrogen revolution.

The water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) system comprises multiple complex and nonlinear interactions related to society, economy, water resources and the water environment. A full understanding of its internal mechanism is conducive to the further improvement of the regional WRCC. This article focuses on the temporal and spatial variability of WRCC to explore a method of dynamic successive assessment. Firstly, the Pressure-State-Response (PSR)framework is used to develop a systematic and causal indicator system. Then, The Variable Fuzzy Pattern Recognition (VFPR) model and an analytic hierarchy process-entropy (AHP-E) model are combined to successively and dynamically assess WRCC. The proposed method is applied to the dynamic successive assessment of WRCC in Hebei Province, and it is obtained that the poor water resources carrying capacity in Hebei Province is mainly due to the basic attribute of the decision of the water resources shortage, but Hebei Province actively adopts a variety of measures to save water and pressurize mining, which makes the province's water resources carrying capacity have a tendency to become better gradually. At the same time, the system dynamics model (SD) of water resources carrying capacity based on the analysis of the model structure was established. Moreover, three scenarios were designed, including existing continuation, high-efficiency water-saving, cross-regional water transfer and coordinated development, each scenario divided into high and low-speed economic development and population growth schemes, then total 6 schemes between 2023 and 2030 were simulated and predicted respectively. The results indicate that if the current development model is adopted, the water resource carrying capacity will continue to maintain low levels. It was concluded that the high-speed development of economy and population, the efficient water conservation and inter-basin transfer scenario (scenario 2 with high-speed) is the best choice for sustainable development of water resources and social economy in Hebei.

Machine Learning can be used for social good. In this paper, we discuss how it can be used to combat climate change and facilitate land management and farming in developing countries and in particular in Côte d’Ivoire. This paper explores models that improve land and water management and agricultural farming cultivation to contrast climate change. Côte d’Ivoire is the largest producer of cocoa beans (43%) in the world, but deforestation, lack of rainfall, drought, and climate change threaten crops and the already fragile economy of Ivorian farmers. It is important to combat climate change with methods and techniques that are affordable to the local farmers and also induce positive effects in production. We discuss the use of low-cost sensors to collect data on the soil and open data and open source software to develop AI tools. We show that using deep neural networks (YOLOv5m) is effective for detecting healthy plants and pods of cocoa from damaged ones only using mobile phone images. Focusing on a single land is not enough to combat climate change, which has different causes and involves also knowledge at a higher scale. We propose a new method of forecasting for the analysis of remote sensors. Remote sensor data come from GRACE NASA Mission and ERA5 produced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF. We implement a new deep neural network architecture named CIWA-net. It is based on a Fully Convolutional Neural Network (FCN) [ 1] and it is a U-net like architecture [2]. The aim of CIWA-net is to forecast Total Water Storage Anomalies (TWSA). We show the quality of our model with a comparison to a vanilla Convolutional Neural Network. CIWA-net could be used also for the detection of lands that interfere with agricultural work and yields, such as deserted areas, water-soaking soil areas, zones at risk of desertification, and poor land use. The employment of AI at the service of agriculture can decrease crop losses and waste, lower the inputs onto the soil of fertilizers, responsible for the increase of Greenhouse Gases. It could be useful to help the small farmers (at a local scale) and also the policy-makers and farmers’ cooperatives (at the regional scale) to take valid and coordinated countermeasures to improve the correct use of the lands, helping to contrast and adapt to climate change.

Varunaivibrio sulfuroxidans type strain TC8T is a mesophilic, facultatively anaerobic, facultatively chemolithoautotrophic alphaproteobacterium, isolated from a sulfidic shallow-water marine gas vent located at Tor Caldara, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. V. sulfuroxidans belongs to the family Thalassospiraceae within the Alphaproteobacteria, with Magnetovibrio blakemorei as its closest relative. The genome of V. sulfuroxidans encodes the genes involved in sulfur, thiosulfate and sulfide oxidation, as well as nitrate and oxygen respiration. The genome encodes the genes involved in carbon fixation via Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle, in addition to genes involved in glycolysis and TCA cycle, indicating a mixotrophic lifestyle. Genes involved in the detoxification of mercury and arsenate are also present. The genome also encodes a complete flagellar complex, one intact prophage and one CRISPR, as well as a putative DNA uptake mechanism mediated by the type IVc (aka Tad pilus) secretion system. Overall, the genome of Varunaivibrio sulfuroxidans indicates that the bacterium is metabolically versatile and well-adapted to the dynamic environmental conditions of sulfidic gas vents.

This paper describes a novel concept of producing energy efficient ”Maroon enriched natural gas “ and then Pink hydrogen” from any hydrocarbon base. The key idea is the extraction of hydrogen from water in addition to that from the hydrocarbon in an optimal fashion. This has the benefit of higher water vapor to CO2 exhaust ratio than conventional carbonaceous fuels when generating energy via combustion, a prudent step in achieving Netzero goals in a shorter time, and creating energy independence in most places.. The process of production makes concentrated CO₂ available for use and or sequestration. The process also maximizes use of renewable electricity in hydrogen generation, and maximizes use of existing infrastructure, with a minimum capital cost by energy recycle in the process. The process design applies sound thermodynamic principles which evolved during the nineteenth century, and mimics the geochemical processes going on in some of the natural 'colorless hydrogen'.

Specific climate adaptation and resilience measures can be efficiently designed and implemented at the regional and local level. Climate and environmental databases are of critical importance to achieving sustainability goals (SDGs) and for the efficient planning and implementation of suitable mitigation measures: Available databases can serve municipalities as a vital starting points to determine requirements, prioritize resources and allocate investments under consideration of commonly tight budget restrictions. High-quality geo, climate and environmental data are now available – data from remote sensing, i.e. Copernicus services will be of crucial importance. Forward-looking approaches exist to using such data to derive forecasts for urban planning process optimization for municipal administrations. On municipal level, however, the existing data have so far only been used to a limited extent, since there are no practical tools for urban planning that can be used to merge and meaningfully combine remote sensing data with local data and to further process and apply in municipal planning processes. Therefore, our project CoKLIMAx aims at the development of new digital products, advanced urban services and procedures, such as the development of practice-oriented technical tools that acquire various remote sensing and in-situ data sets for validation and further processing.

There is great importance and need of improving existing carbon materials fabrication methods. As such, this work proposes to discuss, interrogate, and propose viable hydrothermal, solvothermal, and other advanced carbon materials synthetic methods. The advanced carbon materials to be interrogated will include the synthesis of carbon dots, carbon nanotubes, nitrogen/titania-doped carbons, graphene quantum dots, and their nanocomposites with solid/polymeric/metal oxide supports. This will be done with special mind to microwave-assisted solvothermal and hydrothermal synthesis due to their favourable properties such as rapidity, low cost, and green/environmentally-friendliness. Thus, these methods are important during the current and future synthesis and modification of advanced carbon materials for application in energy, gas separation, sensing, and water treatment. Simultaneously, the work will pay special cognizance to methods reducing the fabrication costs and environmental impact while enhancing the properties as a direct result of the synthesis methods. As a direct result, the expectation is to impart a significant contribution to the scientific body of work regarding the improvement of the said fabrication methods.

An accurate radiative transfer model (RTM) is essential for the retrieval of soil moisture (SM) from microwave remote sensing data, such as the passive microwave measurements from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. This mission delivers soil moisture products based upon L-band brightness temperature data, via retrieval algorithms for surface and root-zone soil moisture, the latter is retrieved using data assimilation and model support. We found that the RTM based on the tau-omega (?-ω) model, can suffer from significant errors over croplands (in average between -9.4K and + 12.0K for Single Channel Algorithm SCA; -8K and + 9.7K for Dual-Channel Algorithm DCA) if the vegetation scattering albedo (omega) is treated as a constant and the temporal variations are not accounted. In order to reduce this uncertainty, we propose a time-varying parameterization of omega for the widely established zeroth order radiative transfer ?-ω model. The main assumption is that omega can be expressed by a functional relationship between vegetation optical depth (tau) and the Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF). The validation was performed from 14 May to 13 December 2015 over 61 Climate Reference Network sites (SCRN) classified as croplands. The application of the proposed time-varying vegetation scattering albedo results in a consistent improvement for the unbiased root mean square error of 16% for SCA and 15% for DCA. The reduction for positive and negative biases was 45% and 5% for SCA and 26% and 12% for DCA, respectively. This indicates that vegetation dynamics on croplands are better represented by a time-dynamic single scattering albedo.

Compared to conventional allothermal gasification of solid fuels (e.g. biomass, charcoal, lignite etc.), plasma-assisted gasification offers an efficient method to apply energy into the gasification process to increase the flexibility of operation conditions and to increase the reaction kinetics. In particular, non-thermal plasmas (NTP) are promising, in which thermal equilibrium is not reached and electrons have substantially higher mean energy than gas molecules. Thus it is generally assumed that in NTP the supplied energy is utilized more efficiently for generating free radicals initiating gasification reactions than thermal plasma processes. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we compared purely thermal to non-thermal plasma assisted gasification of biomass in steam in a drop tube reactor at atmospheric pressure. The NTP was provided by means of gliding arcs between two electrodes aligned in the inlet steam flow. Electric power of about 1 kW was supplied using a high voltage generator operating at frequencies between 70 and 150 kHz and voltage amplitudes up to 10 kV. A laser-assisted optical method (Raman spectroscopy) was applied for measuring the gas temperature both in the conventionally heated steam and flow-down of the visible plasma filaments of the gliding arcs. Reaction yields and rates were evaluated using these measured gas temperatures. The first experimental results have shown that the non-thermal plasma not only promotes the carbon conversion of the fuel particles, but also accelerates the reaction kinetics. The carbon conversion is increased by nearly 10% using wood powder as the fuel. With charcoal powder more than 3% are converted into syngas.

A low-cost data logging platform is presented for environmental monitoring projects that provides long-term operation in remote or submerged environments. Three premade “breakout boards” from the open-source Arduino ecosystem are assembled into the core of the platform. The components are selected based on low-cost and ready availability, making the loggers easy to build and modify without specialized tools, or a significant background in electronics. Power optimization techniques are explained. The platform has proven to be highly reliable, and capable of operating for more than a year on standard AA batteries. The flexibility of the system is illustrated with two ongoing field studies recording drip rates in a cave, and water flow in a flooded cave system.

Previous research has indicated that ultra-high pressure (UHP) technology is useful in speeding up the extraction process of cold brew (CB) coffee. However, the impact of different degrees of roasting on UHP CB coffee is still unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of three different degrees of roasting (light, medium, and dark) on the physicochemical and flavor characteristics of UHP CB coffee. The results of this study showed that most physicochemical characteristics of UHP coffee were similar to those of conventional CB coffee, regardless of the degree of roasting. However, the majority of physicochemical characteristics, non-volatile components, and sensory evaluation significantly increased with an increase in roasting degree. The HS-SPME-GC/MS analysis showed that most volatile components, such as pyrazines, furans (except furfural), esters, pyrrole, pyridine, and most aldehydes, increased from light to dark roasting, and this was significantly evident in CB coffee compared with UHP. The content of volatile components in UHP coffee was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that in CB coffee at the same degree of roasting, especially with dark roasting. The combination of orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the distance between coffee samples at different degrees of roasting under CB coffee was greater than that under UHP coffee. However, the distance between these two extraction methods at medium roasting was evidently closer than that at light and dark roasting. Moreover, 15 representative differential compounds, such as were Hazelnut pyrazine, linalool, butane-2,3-dione, 3- methylbutanal found by the calculation of odor-active values (OAVs) indicating the main contributing compounds to odor. Overall, the effect of roasting degrees on UHP coffee was less than that on CB coffee, which was consistent with the results of physicochemical characteristics, volatile components, and sensory evaluation.

The effects of chemical composition and solidification rate on the solidification behavior of high-Cr white irons were investigated through directional solidification. Increasing the solidi-fication rate in hypoeutectic alloys caused the finer dendrite arm spacing as expected. The eutec-tic structure which formed in the interdendritic region comprised of M7C3 and austenite, how-ever, secondary dendrite arms of hypoeutectic alloys contained a few M7C3 particles that solidi-fied prior to the eutectic structure. The transition from cellular to dendritic solidification oc-curred at a solidification rate between 50 µm/s and 100 µm/s in a near eutectic alloy. In the near eutectic alloy with cellular solidification, a directionally arrayed in-situ composite of M7C3/austenite formed within the cell. Speckle-like feature appeared in the intercellular region due to M23C6 carbide precipitation during subsequent cooling after freezing. Like dendrite arm spacing in hypoeutectic alloys, the inter-speckle spacing and the inter-fibre spacing became finer with increasing solidification rate in the cellular solidification range.

The production of particles outside the region of nucleon-nucleon kinematics due to interactions involving dense cold clusters of quark-gluon matter in nuclei is calculated. The possibility of observing this process in the region of central rapidities and large transverse momenta in heavy ion collisions at low energies with MPD detector at the NICA collider has been demonstrated.

This review is a first attempt at bringing together various concepts from research on wall- and magnetically-bounded turbulent flows. Brief reviews of both fields are provided: The main similarities identified are coherent (turbulent) structures, flow generation and transport barriers. Examples are provided and discussed.

This study describes all the properties of high T_c cuprates by introducing rotating holes that are created by angular momentum conservations on a 2D CuO₂ surface, and which have a different mass from that of a normal hole because of the magnetic field energy induced by the rotation. This new particle called a macroscopic Boson describes the doping dependences of pseudo-gap temperature and the transition temperature at which an anomaly metal phase appears and describes the origin of the pseudo-gap. Furthermore, this study introduces a new model to handle many-body interactions, which results in a new statistic equation. This statistic equation describing many-body interactions accurately explains why high T_c cuprates have significantly high critical temperatures. Moreover a partition function of macroscopic Bosons describes all the properties of anomaly metal phase, which sufficiently agree with experiments, using the result from our previous study [1] that analytically describes the doping dependence of T_c. By introducing a macroscopic Boson and the new statistical model for many-body interactions, this study uncovered the mystery of high T_c cuprates, which have been a challenge for many researchers. An important point is that, in this study, pure analytical calculations are consistently conducted, which agree with experimental data well (i.e., they do not use numerical calculations or fitting methods but use many actual physical constants).

To enable the deployment of battery-electric vehicles (BEV) as passenger cars in the private transport sector, a suitable charging infrastructure is crucial. In this paper a methodology for efficient spatial distribution of charging infrastructure is evaluated by investigating a scenario with a market penetration of BEVs of 100 percent (around 1.3 million vehicles). It aims towards the development of various charging infrastructure scenarios - including public and private charging - which are suitable to cover the charging demand. Therefore, these scenarios are investigated in detail with focus on number of public charging points, their spatial distribution, the available charging power and the necessary capital costs. For the creation of those charging infrastructure scenarios a placement model is developed. It uses the data of a MATSim (Multi-Agent Transport Simulation) traffic simulation of the metropolitan area of Berlin to evaluate and optimize different distributions of charging infrastructure. The model uses a genetic algorithm and the principle of multi-objective optimization. The capital cost of the charging points and the mean detour car drivers must cover additionally are used as optimization criteria. Using these criteria should lead to cost efficient infrastructure solutions which provide high usability at the same time. The main advantage of the method selected is that multiple optimal solutions with different characteristics can be found and suitable solutions can be selected by using other criteria subsequently. The optimized charging infrastructure solutions show capital costs between 624 and 2950 million euro. Users must cover an additionally mean detour of 254m to 590m per charging process to reach an available charging point. According to the results a suitable ratio between charging points and vehicles is between 11:1 and 5:1. A share of fast charging infrastructure (&gt;50kW) of less than ten percent seems to be sufficient, if it is situated at main traffic routes and highly frequented places.

At INFN-LNS, and in collaboration with the ATOMKI laboratories, an innovative multi-diagnostic system with advanced analytical methods has been designed and implemented. This is based on several detectors and techniques (Optical Emission Spectroscopy, RF systems, Interfero-polarimetry, X-ray detectors) and here we focus on high resolution spatially-resolved X-ray spectroscopy, performed by means of a X-ray pin-hole camera setup operating in the 0.5−20 keV energy domain. The diagnostic system was installed at a 14 GHz Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source (ATOMKI, Debrecen), enabling high precision X-ray spectrally-resolved imaging of ECR plasmas heated by hundreds of Watts. The achieved spatial and energy resolution were 0.5 mm and 300 eV at 8 keV, respectively. We here present the innovative analysis algorithm that we properly developed for obtaining Single Photon-Counted (SPhC) images providing the local plasma emitted spectrum in a High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) mode, by distinguishing fluorescence lines of the materials of the plasma chamber (Ti, Ta) from plasma (Ar). This method allows a quantitative characterization of warm electrons population in the plasma (and its 2D distribution) which are the most important for ionization, and also to estimate local plasma density and spectral temperatures. The developed post-processing analysis is also able to remove the readout noise, that is often observable at very low exposure times (msec). The setup is now under update including fast shutters and trigger systems in order to allow simultaneously space and time-resolved plasma spectroscopy during transients, stable and turbulent regimes.

The article presents results of research consisting in an attempt to assess the influence of temperature, heating time and cooling method on microstructure and residual strength properties of steel previously tempered during the production process. Simulated environmental conditions to which high-strength bolts, commonly used in steel construction, were subjected, were intended to reflect conditions of a natural fire that may occur in public facilities where the obligation to ensure safety of users and rescue teams is of key importance, also required by law. Furthermore, the tests carried out also comprised a simulated effect of a rescue and firefighting operation using shock, rapid cooling of some of the heated bolts. Samples cut out from the tested bolts, after they were properly prepared, were subjected to microstructural tests using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), phase analysis with the use of an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and quantitative analysis of the microstructure involving, inter alia, measuring the surface area of grains, their equivalent diameter and mean diameter. As a result of the tests, considerable microstructure changes were identified occurring in the bolt material as a result of exposing it to fire conditions, leading to a change in key, from the point of view of structural safety, mechanical properties. The results of the microstructure tests were compared with the results of previous strength tests, including hardness of the material after the heat treatment and the residual tensile strength of the material Rm. A conducted comparative analysis showed a significant effect of all such factors as the temperature level of the simulated fire, its duration and the fire-fighting method on the mechanical properties of bolts. Results obtained were provided with required comments and the concept of using the microstructure for the post-fire assessment of steel structures was referred to.

The rapid expansion of transcriptomics from increased affordability of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies generates rocketing amounts of gene expression data across biology and medicine, and notably in cancer research. Concomitantly, many bioinformatics tools were developed to streamline gene expression analysis and quantification. We tested the concordance of NGS RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis outcomes between the two predominant programs for reads alignment, HISAT2 and STAR, and the two most popular programs for quantifying gene expression in NGS experiments, edgeR and DESeq2, using RNA-seq data from a series of breast cancer progression specimens, which include histologically confirmed normal, early neoplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ and infiltrating ductal carcinoma samples microdissected from formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) breast tissue blocks. We identified significant differences in aligners’ performance: HISAT2 was prone to misalign reads to retrogene genomic loci, STAR generated more precise alignments, especially for early neoplasia samples. edgeR and DESeq2 produced similar lists of differentially expressed genes in stage comparisons, with edgeR producing more conservative, though shorter, lists of genes. Albeit, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed no skewness in significant GO categories identified among differentially expressed genes by edgeR vs DESeq2. As transcriptome analysis of archived FFPE samples becomes a vanguard of precision medicine, identification and fine-tuning of bioinformatics tools becomes critical for clinical research. Our results indicate that STAR and edgeR are well-suited tools for differential gene expression analysis from FFPE samples.

This paper identifies a criterion for choosing the largest set of rejected hypotheses in high-dimensional data analysis where Multiple Hypothesis testing is used in exploratory research to identify significant associations among many variables. The method neither requires predetermined thresholds for level of significance, nor uses presumed thresholds for false discovery rate. The upper limit for number of rejected hypotheses is determined by finding maximum difference between expected true hypotheses and false hypotheses among all possible sets of rejected hypotheses. Methods of choosing a reasonable number of rejected hypotheses and application to non-parametric analysis of ordinal survey data are presented.

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

The two-stage direct thermal contact (2sDTC) process is a rapid dewatering approach for fluid fine tailings (FFT) that is integrated into an oil sands bitumen extraction plant to reduce tailings pond storage and freshwater usage. In the first stage, combustion gas directly contacts atomized FFT, vaporizing water and yielding dry solids and steam-rich hot gas. The second stage involves pond effluent water directly contacting the steam-rich hot gas, recovering heat and condensing moisture. Case studies confirm the technical feasibility of the integration. Benefits include producing a dry discharge, reducing tailings water discharge and conserving an equivalent to 0.2 barrels of freshwater per barrel of oil produced. Most importantly, these benefits incur no additional energy cost to the plant as the integration eliminates the energy penalty and CO2 emissions associated with FFT dewatering. Further capacity enhancement can be achieved by using centrifuge-concentrated FFT. The study reveals that FFT concentrated to ~50 wt% solids could still maintain its pump-ability and be accommodated by the 2sDTC process, leading to an integration which could dewater more FFT annually and conserve more freshwater ( 0.58 barrels per barrel of oil produced), with the sole energy requirement being the power to drive the centrifuge machinery.

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

In the seasonally frozen regions, during the grouting of prestressed bridge ducts in low-temperature environments, incompletely cured grout materials undergo volumetric changes due to the freeze-thaw cycling, resulting in structural cracks along the prestressing ducts of the bridge, thereby diminishing the bridge's operational lifespan. To investigate the frost heaving characteristics of grout materials under freeze-thaw cycles and propose potential enhancements, this study was devised to conduct frost heaving stress tests on grout materials. Through this research, we gained insights into how various additives affect the frost heaving stress characteristics of grout materials under freeze-thaw cycles. Incorporating analyses of free water content, setting time, compressive strength, as well as macroscopic examinations such as XRD and SEM, this study delves into the mechanisms for enhancing frost heaving characteristics of grout materials. Furthermore, it proposes a research approach that utilizes multiple admixtures to improve the frost heaving properties of grout materials. Through frost heaving stress tests and other macroscopic experiments, the study investigates the influence of these combined admixtures on frost heaving stress in grout materials and elucidates the underlying improvement mechanisms. The results indicate that reducing the water-cement ratio, incorporating calcium formate, sulfoaluminate cement, air-entraining agents, and carbamide all have a positive impact on mitigating frost heaving stress in grout materials. However, the improvement mechanisms differ, and employing a single measure alone is insufficient to effectively reduce frost heaving stress while meeting performance criteria such as compressive strength, setting time, and flowability. Free water content emerges as a crucial indicator determining the magnitude of frost heaving stress in grout materials, with 11.5% of free water content representing the critical threshold for frost heaving in grout materials. Utilizing composite admixtures can simultaneously decrease free water content, lower the freezing point of free water, and alleviate frost heaving deformation, resulting in more efficient reduction of frost heaving stress. When the admixture content reaches 9.9%, frost heaving stress is eliminated, and the comprehensive performance parameters including compressive strength, setting time, and flowability meet the specified requirements.

Considering Cu(tda) chelate is a receptor for adenine and related 6-aminopurines, now we report the synthesis, molecular and crystal structures, thermal stability, spectral properties and DFT calculations on the [Cu(tda)(9heade)(H2O)]•2H2O (1). N7 is found to be the preferred donor atom of 9heade, that can favor the cooperation of a Cu-N7(9heade) bond and an (9heade)N6-H•••O(tda) interligand interaction. But unprecedentedly, the Cu(tda)-9heade molecular recognition in 1 is essentially featured the Cu-N1(9heade), without any N6-H•••O(carboxyl tda) interligand interaction. Nevertheless, being N1 the most basic donor for N9-substituted adenines, this Cu-N1 bond is now assisted by an O2-water mediated interaction (N6-H•••O2 and O2•••Cu weak contact). Also in the crystal packing, the O-H(ol) of 9heade interacts with its own adenine moiety by an O3-water mediated interaction (O(ol)-H•••O3 plus O3-H36•••π(adenine moiety). In turn these water-mediated interactions seems to be responsible to serious alterations on the physical properties of crystalline or grounded samples. Density functional theory calculations were used to evaluate the interactions energetically. Moreover, the quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) in combination with the noncovalent interaction plot (NCIPlot) were used to analyze the interactions and rationalize the existence and relative importance of hydrogen bonding, chalcogen bonding and π-stacking interactions.

Understanding platelet functionality has undergone a sea change in the last decade. No longer are platelets viewed simply as regulators of haemostasis; they are now acknowledged to be pivotal in coordinating the inflammatory and immune responses. This expanded role for platelets brings new opportunities for controlling a range of health conditions, targeting platelet activation and their interactions with other vascular cells. Antiplatelet drugs may be of wider utility than ever expected but often cause too strong a platelet suppression to be used out of clinical settings. Dietary antiplatelets represent a nutritional approach that can be efficacious while safe for general use. Here we review potential new uses for dietary antiplatelets outside the field of cardiovascular health, with specific reference to the water-soluble tomato extract Fruitflow®. Uses in different aspects of inflammation and immune function are discussed, highlighting exercise-induced inflammation, mediating the effects of air pollution, and controlling thrombotic aspects of the immune response. Potential future developments in women’s health, erectile dysfunction, and the allergic response give an indication of how wide-ranging the utility of dietary antiplatelets can possibly be.

We extensively studied serigraphic screen-printed commercial silver flake inks loaded with silicon inclusions in order to achieve pinning at the grain boundaries. Based on grain size measurements using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), commercial silver ink with silicon microparticle content of 5 wt.% shows a significant grain growth retardation compared to the pristine silver ink, which stabilizes electrical conductivity up to 700 ◦C via Zener pinning mechanism. The modified silicon-loaded silver ink experiences a two times increase in grain size when heated up to 700 ◦C, compared to a seven times increase for the pristine silver ink. In turn, this enables operation temperatures significantly higher than the conventional operational window of microparticle-based silver inks, which are usually limited to 400 ◦C. Using isothermal exposures of 10 minutes up to 4 hours this phenomenon is observed at temperatures ranging from 250 ◦C to 900 ◦C. The electrical conductivity stability, grain size evolution and oxide contents were studied up to 4 hours. The activation energy of silver ink with silicon inclusions is 54% lower than for the pristine silver ink due to pining effect, which retards grain growth via the Zener mechanism. Most importantly, the electrical resistivity becomes stable up to 700 ◦C, which is more than twice the operation limit for off-the-shelf screen-printable silver flake inks. Hence, we demonstrate that adding controlled amounts of silicon particles to silver inks towards grain structure engineering can open new vistas of possibilities for screen-printed metallic inks.

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools have revolutionized FPGA application development by providing a more efficient and streamlined approach, significantly impacting digital design methodologies. Despite the capability of FPGAs to customize numerical representations in data paths, most HLS projects have focused on fixed-point precision, while floating-point representations remain limited to vendor-provided single, double, and half-precision formats. This paper proposes a customized floating-point library compatible with HLS to address these limitations. This library allows programmers to define the number of exponent and mantissa bits at compile time, providing greater flexibility and enabling the use of mixed precision. Moreover, this library includes optimized implementations of common components such as vector summation (VSUM), dot-product (DP), and matrix-vector multiplication (MVM). Results demonstrate that the proposed library reduces latency and resource utilization compared to vendor IP blocks, particularly in VSUM, DP, and MVM operations. For example, the MVM operation involving a 32x32 matrix, using vendor IP requires 22 clock cycles, whereas CuFP completes the same task in just 7 clock cycles, using approximately 60% fewer DSPs, 10% fewer LUTs, and 60% fewer FFs.

Understanding speech in noise is particularly difficult for individuals occupationally exposed to noise due to a to a mix between noise-induced auditory lesions and energetic masking of speech signal. For years, the monitoring of conventional audiometric thresholds has been the usual way to check and preserve the auditory function. But the highlighting of supra-threshold deficits, notably speech in noise understanding difficulties, has pointed out the need for new monitoring tools. The present study aims to identify the most important variables that predict speech in noise under-standing in order to suggest a new way of regular monitoring. Physiological (distortion products of otoacoustic emissions, electrocochleography) and behavioral (amplitude and frequency modula-tion detection thresholds, conventional and extended high frequency audiometric thresholds) variables were collected in a population of individuals presenting a relative homogeneous occu-pational noise exposure. Those variables were used as predictors in a statistical model (random forest) to predict scores of three different speech in noise tests and a self-report of speech in noise ability. The extended high frequency threshold appears to be the best predictor and therefore an interesting candidate for a new way of monitoring noise exposed professionals.

This research paper focuses on the synthesis and characterization of Cu-doped Mg-Co ferrites with varying compositions (Mg_0.6-xCo_0.4Cu_xFe₂O₄, where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) using a solid-state reaction method. This paper also investigates the structural, morphological, magnetic, and electrical characteristics of synthesized Mg_0.6-xCo_0.4Cu_xFe₂O₄, where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique confirms the ferrites spinel structure in the Fd-3m space group, with average crystallite sizes ranging from 57.29 to 48.57 nm. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy verifies chemical and structural changes, while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals cubic crystal growth with an average grain size of 1 to 1.5 μm. DC electrical resistivity decreases with increasing temperature and Cu²⁺ substitution, ranging from 1.4 x 10⁶ Ω-cm to 6.7 x 10⁵ Ω-cm. The study suggests a correlation between resistivity and Cu²⁺ concentration. Magnetic behaviour, studied using a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM), shows dependence on dopant concentration, with coercivity ranging from 157 Oe to 256 Oe. The results indicate potential applications in magnetic storage devices, antennas, transformers, and high-frequency electronics.

Product introductions play a pivotal role in the success and competitiveness of manufacturing, particularly in the context of new product development. Low-volume manufacturing companies exhibit distinct characteristics that significantly influence the product introduction process. Notably, the quality of information exchange between product design and production interfaces becomes paramount in this high-mix and low-volume industry. Consequently, there exists a pressing need to explore various methods for adapting and customizing management mechanisms and strategies to align with the unique requirements and characteristics of low-volume manufacturing and its associated product introduction processes. While the need for this knowledge is critical in the context of low-volume manufacturing, a majority of existing studies predominantly focus on the management aspects within high-volume manufacturing. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to investigate the customization of product introduction management strategies to enhance the quality of information content within the realm of low-volume manufacturing. Drawing upon a longitudinal analysis of new product introductions within a low-volume manufacturing company, this study narratively elucidates how the examined company implemented product introduction management strategies to facilitate the enhancement of information content quality during the product introduction phase. The study presents its findings on management strategies across three key stages: pre-implementation, post-implementation, and subsequent modification and refinement of strategies following the initial round of implementation. By shedding light on these strategies, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of management approaches in the context of low-volume product introduction. As a result, it makes a valuable contribution to the discourse on information management and interface management in the high-mix, low-volume manufacturing literature.

J/ψ, a charmonium bound state made of a charm and an anti-charm quark, has been discovered in the 1970s and confirmed the quark model. Because the mass of charms quarks is significantly above the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) scale ΛQCD, charmonia are considered as excellent probes to test perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations. Over the past decades, they have been studied extensively at different high energy colliders. However, their production mechanisms, which involves multiple scales, are still not very well understood. Recently, in high multiplicity p+p collisions at RHIC and at the LHC, a significant enhancement of J/ψ production yield has been observed, which suggests a strong contribution from the Multi-Parton Interaction (MPI). This is different from the traditional pQCD picture where charm quark pairs are produced from a single hard scattering between partons in p+p collisions. In this work, we will report the J/ψ normalized production yield as a function of normalized charged particle multiplicity over a board range of rapidity and event multiplicity in the J/ψ→μ+μ− channel with PHENIX Run 15 p+p data at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV. The results are compared with PYTHIA 8 simulations with the MPI option on and off. Finally, the outlooks of J/ψ in p+Au and Au+p collisions along with Color Glass Condensate (CGC) predictions and of multiplicity dependent ψ(2S)/J/ψ ratio in p+p data will be briefly discussed.

The evaluation of HAADF-STEM images of a sample with the composition Nb18W16O93 provided new insights in its real structure. The basic structure comprises an intact octahedral framework of the tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) type. The partial occupation of the pentagonal tunnels (PT) by metal-oxygen strings determines the oxygen to metal ratio (O/SM with M = Nb,W). For a large area, the O/SM was determined to be 2.755 which is smaller than the value of Nb18W16O93 which is O/SM = 2. 735. To a large extent, the threefold TTB superstructure structure of Nb8W9O47 with a high oxygen content is present (O/SM = 2.765). In addition, a new fourfold TTB superstructure was found in small domains: Nb12W11O63 with an O/SM = 2.739 obviously accommodates a part of the sample’s metal excess compared to the stable phase Nb8W9O47.

An effective process monitoring strategy is a requirement for meeting the challenges posed by increasingly complex products and manufacturing processes. To address these needs, this study investigates a comprehensive scheme based on classical machine learning methods, deep learning algorithms, and feature extraction and selection techniques. In a first step, a novel deep learning architecture based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) and gated recurrent units (GRU) is introduced to predict the local weld quality based on mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and near-infrared (NIR) image data. The developed technology is used to discover critical welding defects including lack of fusion (false friends), sagging and lack of penetration, and geometric deviations of the weld seam. Additional work is conducted to investigate the significance of various geometrical, statistical, and spatio-temporal features extracted from the keyhole and weld pool regions. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed deep learning architecture is compared to that of classical supervised machine learning algorithms, such as multi-layer perceptron (MLP), logistic regression (LogReg), support vector machines (SVM), decision trees (DT), random forest (RF) and k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN). Optimal hyperparameters for each algorithm are determined by an extensive grid search. Ultimately, the three best classification models are combined into an ensemble classifier that yields the highest detection rates and achieves the most robust estimation of welding defects among all classifiers studied, which is validated on previously unknown welding trials.

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

Retrospective information about the climate system and plant ecophysiology are key inputs in climate and Earth system modelling. Dendrochronology provides such information with large spatiotemporal coverage, and stable carbon isotope (¹³C/¹²C) analysis across tree-ring series is among the most advanced dendrochronological tools. For the past seventy years, this analysis was performed on whole molecules, and, to this day, ¹³C/¹²C variation is attributed to ¹³C discrimination during CO₂ diffusion into leaves and assimilation by rubisco. By contrast, ¹³C discrimination by post-rubisco processes is presumed constant. Here, recently reported results on the first dataset of intramolecular ¹³C discrimination in tree rings were synthesised by variance component analysis. The emerging picture is not consistent with the classical (DR-discrimination-centred) concepts and practices of carbon-isotope dendrochronology. Specifically, leaf and stem post-rubisco discrimination each account for more variation in the data than diffusion-rubisco discrimination, i.e., post-rubisco discrimination is not constant. Furthermore, diffusion-rubisco discrimination is used widely as proxy of leaf intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), a key determinant in the responses of global biogeochemical cycles to climate change. However, since diffusion-rubisco discrimination is a small component of the total data variance, whole-molecule analysis yields confounded iWUE estimates, yet intramolecular analysis will likely offer solutions. Lastly, all currently observed ¹³C/¹²C-climate relationships are attributed to diffusion-rubisco discrimination. However, here, relationships with temperature and radiation derive from leaf-level post-rubisco discrimination while relationships with precipitation derive from stem-level post-rubisco discrimination. That said, advances in mass spectrometry may soon make intramolecular ¹³C/¹²C analysis broadly available taking carbon-isotope dendrochronology to the next level.

Many industrial processes, several natural processes involving non-living matter, and all the processes occurring within living organisms take place in solution. This means that the molecules playing active roles in the processes are present within another medium, called solvent. The solute molecules are surrounded by solvent molecules and interact with them. Understanding the nature and strength of these interactions, and the way in which they modify the properties of the solute molecules, is important for a better understanding of the chemical processes occurring in solution, including possible roles of the solvent in those processes. Computational studies can provide a wealth of information on solute-solvent interactions and their effects. Two major models have been developed to this purpose: a model viewing the solvent as a polarizable continuum surrounding the solute molecule, and a model considering a certain number of explicit solvent molecules around a solute molecule. Each of them has its advantages and challenges, and one selects the model that is more suitable for the type of information desired for the specific system under consideration. These studies are important in many areas of chemistry research, from the investigation of the processes occurring within a living organism to drug design and to the design of environmentally benign solvents meant to replace less benign ones in the chemical industry, as envisaged by the green chemistry principles. The paper presents a quick overview of the modelling approaches and an overview of concrete studies, with reference to selected crucial investigation themes.

The purpose of water treatment through ultraviolet (UV) radiation is to interrupt the development and multiplication of microorganisms by preventing their growth and reproduction.Ultraviolet treatment has become a very affordable solution to produce clean water of optimal quality in regions where access to drinking water is essential. The experimental water treatment unit is powered by a photovoltaic (PV) source. It incorporates a discharge lamp used to generate ultraviolet radiation, which is harnessed to address bacteriological issues related to water quality. This lamp is continuously powered by a photovoltaic (PV) source through an inverter and an electronic ballast. The water treatment system also includes a motor pump designed to draw contaminated water from the input reservoir, a flow control valve to adjust flow rates as needed, and a filter aimed at enhancing the quality of the contaminated water. The water circulates between the input reservoir (contaminated water) and the output reservoir (treated water) through the UV lamp. The relationship between the intensity of the UV lamp and the water flow rate can ensure an adequate water quality.

This paper presented a two-dimensional, well-balanced hydrodynamic and sediment transport model based on the solutions of variable density shallow water equations (VDSWEs) for sediment-laden flows, and the Exner equation for bed changes. Those equations are solved in a coupled way by the first-order Godunov-type finite volume method. The Harten-Lax-van Leer-Contact (HLLC) Riemann solver is extended to find the local Riemann fluxes in order to maintain the exact balance between the momentum term and the bed slope term. The advantage of a well-balanced scheme over an unbalanced scheme is demonstrated by the synthetic standing contact-discontinuity test case. Then, the model is employed to simulate two laboratory experiments. At last, a field case, the 1996 Lake Ha! Ha! flood event (Canada), is simulated. Results of cross sectional geometries and profiles of longitudinal thalweg agree well with measurements. The accuracy and simplicity of the numerical model, together with the robust implementation, make the model a good candidate for practical engineering applications.

Aerogel-based adsorbents present extraordinary sorption capacity for hexavalent uranium that can be as high as 8.8 mol kg–1 (2088 g kg–1). The adsorption data follow generally the Langmuir isotherm model and the kinetic data are better described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, which is associated with chemisorption. Evaluation of the thermodynamic data reveals that the adsorption is generally an endothermic, entropy-driven process (ΔHo, ΔSo > 0). Spectroscopic studies (e.g., FTIR, XPS) indicate that the adsorption is based on the formation of in-ner-sphere complexes between surface active moieties and the uranyl cation. Regeneration and uranium recovery by acidification and complexation using carbonate or chelating ligands (e.g., EDTA) have been found to be successful. The application of aerogel-based adsorbents to uranium removal from industrial processes and uranium-contaminated waste waters was also successful, assuming that these materials could be very attractive as adsorbents in water treatment and uranium recovery technologies. However, the selectivity of the studied materials towards hexavalent uranium is limited suggesting further development of aerogel materials which could be modified by surface derivatization with chelating agents (e.g., salophen, iminodiacetate) presenting high selectivity for uranyl moieties.

To understand the physiological basis of tolerance to combined stresses to low phosphorus (P) and drought in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek), a core set of 100 accessions were evaluated in hydroponics at sufficient (250 μM) and low (3 μM) P, and exposed to drought (dehydration) stress. The principal component analysis and ranking of accessions based on relative values revealed that IC280489, EC397142, IC76415, IC333090, IC507340 and IC121316 performed superior while IC119005, IC73401, IC488526 and IC325853 performed poorly in all treatments. Selected accessions were evaluated in soil under control (sufficient P, irrigated), low P (without P, irrigated), drought (sufficient P, withholding irrigation) and combined stress (low P, withholding irrigation). Under combined stress, a significant reduction in gas exchange traits (photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, instantaneous water use efficiency), P uptake in seed and shoot was observed under combined stress as compared to individual stresses. Among accessions, IC488526 was most sensitive while IC333090 and IC507340 exhibited tolerance to individual or combined stress. The water balance and low P adaptation traits like membrane stability index, relative water content, specific leaf weight, organic acid exudation, biomass, grain yield and P uptake can be used as physiological markers to evaluate for agronomic performance. Accessions with considerable resilience to low P and drought stress can be either used as ‘donors’ in Vigna breeding program or cultivated in areas with limited P and water availability or both.

Water electrolysis provides efficient and cost-effective production of hydrogen from renewable energy. Currently, the oxidation half-cell reaction relies on noble-metal catalysts, impeding widespread application. In order to adopt water electrolyzers as the main hydrogen production systems, it is critical to develop inexpensive and earth-abundant catalysts. This review discusses the proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) and the progress in replacing the noble-metal catalysts with earth-abundant ones. Researchers within this field are aiming to improve the efficiency and stability of earth-abundant catalysts (EACs), as well as to discover new ones. The latter is particularly important for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under acidic media, where the only stable and efficient catalysts are noble-metal oxides, such as IrO_x and RuO_x. On the other hand, there is significant progress on EACs for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic conditions, but how many of these EACs have been used in PEM WEs and tested under realistic conditions? What is the current status on the development of EACs for the OER? These are the two main questions this review addresses.

There are currently around 78 Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in the world based on Boiling Water Reactors (BWR). The current parameter to assess BWR instability issues is the linear Decay Ratio (DR). However, it is well known that BWRs are complex non-linear dynamical systems that may even exhibit chaotic dynamics that normally preclude the use of the DR when the BWR is working at a specific operating point during instability. In this work a novel methodology based on an adaptive Shannon Entropy estimator and on Noise Assisted Empirical Mode Decomposition variants is presented. This methodology was developed for real-time implementation of a stability monitor. This methodology was applied to a set of signals stemming from several NPPs reactors (Ringhals-Sweden, Forsmark-Sweden and Laguna Verde-Mexico) under commercial operating conditions, that experienced instabilities events, each one of a different nature

This article reviews recent innovations in piezoelectric actuators, then indicates the future research targets. In the materials, the piezoelectric performances of relaxor-lead titanate (PZN-PT, PMN-PT) single crystals have been improved significantly by an AC electric poling technique. Also new loss characterization techniques facilitate developing high-power density piezoelectrics. The RMS vibration velocity reaches 0.6 m/s in the k₃₁ mode in lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nowadays, which corresponds to power density 30 W/cm³. Pb-free materials are urged due to the recent political regulation on toxic materials. In device designs, the original multilayer actuators (MLA) with Ag/Pd electrode have been switched to the ones with Cu or pure Ag, in order to suppress the heat generation, then to enhance the device power density. Piezoelectric micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS’s) started to utilize the <1 0 0> oriented epitaxial films of rhombohedral PZT compositions, which exhibits enhanced piezoelectric properties. Also for higher-power applications, aero-sol deposition (AD) methods have been introduced to 10 -thick films. Regarding drive/control techniques in piezo-actuators, three developments are on-going, that is, “negative capacitance” power supplies for driving off-resonance (pseudo-DC) piezo-actuators, capacitive AC power supplies for efficiently driving resonance piezo-actuators, and DC/DC converters for harvesting electric energy from high-impedance piezoelectric devices under noise vibration. The applications of piezoelectric actuators in the 21^st century seem to be oriented toward “politico-engineering” with four keywords, “cooperation, protection, reduction, and continuation”. The sustainability technologies include the following piezoelectric items: (a) Pb-free piezoelectrics, (b) ultrasonic technology for decomposing hazardous materials, (c) reduction of contamination gas, (d) piezoelectric energy harvesting, and (e) device improvement with high energy-efficiency. On the other hand, the following crisis technologies have been developed with piezoelectrics: (a) detection and neutralization technologies of infectious/epidemic diseases such as anthrax, (b) autonomous unmanned underwater, aerial, and land vehicles with piezoelectric actuators, (c) pin-point target weapons, (d) high voltage supplies with piezoelectric transformers, and (e) compact energy sources for remote actuating/sensing systems.

Ontological premises have profound theoretical implications. This analysis posits a single, universal structure composed of two ontic entities: discrete, quantized units of space ("Planck Spheres") and a State of Absolute Nothingness (the "SOAN"). Planck Spheres and the SOAN form a physical, ultra-high (3 x N) dimensional space ("Planck Space") and a discrete 3D space (or "4D spacetime"). Together, Planck Space and 4D spacetime form a tightly integrated ((3 x N) + 3) hyperspace (the "Dual Ontology"). Critically, a one-to-one mapping and identity exists between the Planck Spheres comprising 4D spacetime and Planck Space. The Dual Ontology conjecture supports radically simplified physical explanations for three distinct areas of theoretical physics: First, the conjecture reconciles fundamental issues in Special Relativity and quantum mechanics by explaining why single and N-body quantum states (a) dynamically evolve in 4D spacetime subject to the speed of light and (b) instantaneously collapse in a physical Planck Space that is not subject to Special Relativity. Second, the temporal and physical asymmetry between the dynamic evolution of quantum states in 4D spacetime subject to Special Relativity and the instantaneous collapse of quantum states in a Planck Space where Special Relativity is inapplicable explains quantum path irreversibility and the arrow of time. Third, at or near the heat death of 4D spacetime, the instantaneous collapse of the energy content of Planck Space and the simultaneous transition of 4D spacetime's extremely widely dispersed energy content to a non-singular, generally localized volume at t = 0 explains 4D spacetime's isotropy, homogeneity, extremely high energy, pressure, and temperature, flatness, and low gravitational entropy. It also explains the horizon and fine-tuning problems.

Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, poses significant threat to rice production. Rice blast susceptibility has been observed in Japanese rice varieties with excellent eating quality. Enhancing blast resistance is essential to ensure minimal use of agricultural chemicals. Two types of blast resistance are observed: true resistance, which is a type of qualitative resistance expressed by a major gene, and field resistance, which is a type of quantitative resistance expressed by multiple micro-acting genes. ‘Resistance collapse’, in which a variety with a true resistance gene becomes diseased by blast fungus races compatible with the resistance gene, has been observed. Varieties carrying blast-resistance genes, such as Pb1 (panicle blast resistance 1), have been developed through DNA marker-assisted selection. In this review, we focus on the Pb1, which expresses strong quantitative resistance to panicle blast and has been widely used in Japan without showing ‘resistance collapse’ for 40 years. Pb1 is an ‘adult plant resistance gene’ that does not exert strong selection pressure on the blast population during the leaf blast stage, thus preventing the selective multiplication of Pb1-compatible blast strains. This epidemiological mechanism prevents ‘resistance collapse’. Interdisciplinary research and breeding are required to sustainably use genes that induce high field resistance.

This paper aims to present the basic assumptions for creation of social Fröhlich condensate and attract attention of other researchers (both from physics and socio-political science) to the problem of modelling of stability and order preservation in highly energetic society coupled with social energy bath of high temperature. The model of social Fröhlich condensation and its analysis are based on the mathematical formalism of quantum thermodynamics and field theory (applied outside of physics). The presented quantum-like model provides the consistent operational model of such complex socio-political phenomenon as Fröhlich condensation. The model of social Fröhlich condensation is heavily based on theory of open quantum systems. Its consistent elaboration needs additional efforts. Evidence of such phenomenon as social Fröhlich condensation is demonstrated by stability of modern informationally open societies Approaching the state of Fröhlich condensation is the powerful source of social stability. Understanding its informational structure and origin may help to stabilize the modern society. Application of the quantum-like model of Frhlich condensation in social and political sciences is really the novel and original approach to mathematical modeling of social stability in society exposed to powerful information radiation from mass-media and internet based sources.

The verticals of 5G, such as the automotive, smart grid and smart cities sectors, will bring lots of new sensors and IoT devices requiring Internet connectivity. Most of these machine-type terminals will be sparsely distributed, covering a very large geographical area and, from time to time, will have to update their software, firmware and/or other relevant data. Given this situation, one viable solution to implement the “Over-the-Air” update of these IoT terminals can be with the aid of GEO satellite systems. However, due to the ultra-dense radio frequency reuse that contemporary High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems implement in the access link to serve the IoT terminals, the use of a time-packed Free Space Optical (FSO) link represents a practical solution to avoid the bottleneck that the satellite gateway experiences in the feeder link. The performance of both Detect-and-Forward and Decode-and-Forward relaying strategies are studied, assuming that the single-carrier M-PAM symbols that are transmitted on the optical feeder link are mapped into M-QAM symbols that modulate the multiple subcarriers of the OFDM-based radio access link. In addition, the benefits of encapsulating the NB-IoT frames into DVB-S2(X) satellite frames is also analyzed in detail. The effects of the impairments introduced in both optical feeder and radio access links are characterized in detail, and the end-to-end error correction capabilities of the Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS) defined in the contemporary releases of the NB-IoT and DVB-S2(X) standards are studied for different working regimes.

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

Ground-based high-power lasers enable to, in principle, deorbit any kind of space debris object from the low Earth orbit (LEO) by remotely inducing laser-ablative momentum. However, the assessment of efficiency and operational safety depends on many factors like atmospheric constraints or the risk of debris disintegration during irradiation. We analyze laser momentum for a great variety of target geometries and sizes, and – for the first time in a large-scale simulation – include thermal constraints for laser irradiation configuration. Using a coherently coupled 100 kJ laser system at 1030 nm wavelength, 5 ns pulse duration in an optimized pointing elevation angle range, the pulse frequency should amount to less than 10 Hz to prevent fragment meltdown. For mechanically intact payloads or rocket bodies, repetition rates should be even lower. Small debris fragments sized between 10 and 40 cm can be de-orbited by around 100 to 400 station passes with head-on irradiation while objects exceeding 2 m typically require far more than 1000 irradiations for deorbit. Hence, laser-based debris removal cannot be considered a prime space sustainability measure tackling the top-risk large debris, yet it can provide for remediation of a multitude of small-sized debris using small networks of globally distributed laser sites.

Generalized relativistic pseudopotentials (GRPP) of atomic cores implying the use of different potentials for atomic electronic shells with different principal quantum numbers give rise to accurate and reliable relativistic electronic structure models of atoms, molecules, clusters, and solids. These models readily incorporate the effects of Breit electron-electron interactions and one-loop quantum electrodynamics effects. Here we report the computational procedure for evaluating one-electron integrals of GRPP over contracted Gaussian functions. This procedure was implemented in a library of routines named LIBGRPP, which can be integrated into existing quantum chemistry software, thus enabling the application of various methods to solve the many-electron problem with GRPPs. Pilot applications to electronic transitions in the ThO and UO2 molecules using the new library and intermediate-Hamiltonian Fock space relativistic coupled cluster method are presented. The results clearly demonstrate that rather economical tiny-core GRPP models can exceed in accuracy relativistic all-electron models defined by Dirac-Coulomb and Dirac-Coulomb-Gaunt Hamiltonians.

The combination of interstitial hyperthermia treatment (IHT) with high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) for prostate cancer treatment and has the potential to improve clinical outcome, since it highly enhances the efficiency of cell kill, especially when applied simultaneously. Therefore, we have developed the ThermoBrachy applicators. To effectively apply optimal targeted IHT, treatment planning is considered essential. However, treatment planning in IHT is rarely applied since it is regarded difficult to accurately calculate the deposited energy in the tissue in a short enough time for clinical practice. In this study, we investigated various time-efficient methods for fast computation of the electromagnetic (EM) energy deposition resulting from the ThermoBrachy applicators. Initially, we investigated the use of an electro-quasistatic solver. Next, we extended our investigation to the application of geometric simplifications. Furthermore, we investigated the validity of the superpositioning principle, which can enable adaptive treatment plan optimization without the need for continuous recomputation of the EM field. Finally, we evaluated the accuracy of the methods by comparing them to the golden standard Finite-Difference Time-Domain calculation method using gamma-index analysis. The simplifications considerably reduced the computation time needed, improving from &gt;12 h to a few seconds. All investigated methods showed excellent agreement with the golden standard by showing a &gt;99% passing rate with 1%/0.5 mm Dose Difference and Distance-to-Agreement criteria. These results allow the proposed electromagnetic simulation method to be used for fast and accurate adaptive treatment planning.

The vulnerability of alpine environments to climate change presses an urgent need to accurately model and understand these ecosystems. Popularity in use of digital elevation models (DEMs) to derive proxy environmental variables has increased over the past decade, particularly as DEMs are relatively cheaply acquired at very high resolutions (VHR; <1m spatial resolution). Here, we implement a multiscale framework and compare DEM-derived variables produced by Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and stereo-photogrammetry (PHOTO) methods, with the aims of assessing their relevance and utility in species distribution modelling (SDM). Using a case study on the arctic-alpine plant Arabis alpina in two valleys in the western Swiss Alps, we show that both LiDAR and PHOTO technologies can be relevant for producing DEM-derived variables for use in SDMs. We demonstrate that PHOTO DEMs rivalled the accuracy of LiDAR, putting the current paradigm of LiDAR being the more accurate of the two methods into question. We obtained DEMs at spatial resolutions of 6.25cm-8m for PHOTO and 50cm-32m for LiDAR, where we determined that the optimal spatial resolutions of DEM-derived variables in SDM were between 1 and 32m, depending on the variable and site characteristics. We found that the reduced extent of PHOTO DEMs altered the calculations of all derived variables, which had particular consequences on their relevance at the site with heterogenous terrain. However, for the homogenous site, we found that SDMs based on PHOTO-derived variables generally had higher predictive powers than those derived from LiDAR at matching resolutions. From our results, we recommend carefully considering the required DEM extent to produce relevant derived variables. We also advocate implementing a multiscale framework to appropriately assess the ecological relevance of derived variables, where we caution against the use of VHR-DEMs finer than 50cm in such studies.

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

Here we compile a detailed record of eddies and examine their intra-annual variability over the Spitsbergen Bank in the northwestern Barents Sea using spaceborne Sentinel-1 A/B synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired in 2018. Analysis of 3070 SAR images enabled to register 1758 eddy manifestations in the marginal ice zone (MIZ) and 1631 signatures in the open water (OW). Submesoscale and small mesoscale eddies were observed within a range 0.2-40 km with the range of MIZ eddies being twice larger than that of OW eddies. We note a strong seasonal variability of eddy diameters and the ratio of cyclones to anticyclones. The eddies were present in all seasons showing an approximate parity in eddy generation intensity in the surface layer between winter and summer. The peak eddy activity is observed during the first (January to March) and third (July-September) quarters of the year. A well-pronounced seasonality of SAR-derived eddy intensity correlates with that of eddy kinetic energy in the surface layer of the Eurasian Arctic. Eddies were detected most frequently in Storfjorden, south of Edge Island, near Hopen Island and along the entire eastern flank of the Spitsbergen Bank. Very low eddy activity was observed in the central part of the bank. The MIZ eddies were recorded during eight months of the year peaking in February, and being spatially limited by a 200-m isobath. The OW eddies were widely dispersed across the study domain peaking in August and tending to accumulate in regions of relatively weak surface currents. In summer, about 20-25% of them were observed within the Barents Sea Polar Front.

Surface processes such as coatings, corrosion, photocatalysis, and tribology are greatly diversified by acid-base interaction at the surface overlayer. This study focuses on the action of metallic copper surface as an electron donor/acceptor related to inactivation of viruses; it was found that regarding Cu2O or Cu materials electrostatic interaction plays a major role in virus inactivation. We applied TPPE method to clarify the mechanism of electron transfer (ET) occurring at light irradiated copper surfaces. The TPPE characteristics was strongly influenced by the environments, which correspond to the temperature and environment dependence of the total count of emitted electrons in the incident light wavelength scan (PE total count, NT), the photothreshold, and further the activation energy (E) analyzed from Arrhenius plot of NT values obtained in the temperature-increase and subsequent temperature-decrease processes. In this study we reexamined the dependence of the TPPE data from two types of Cu metal surfaces: Sample A, which was mechanically abraded in alcohols, water, and air, and Sample C, which was only ultrasonically cleaned in these liquids. The NT for both Samples slowly increased with increasing temperature, reached a maximum (NTmax) at 250C (maximum temperature, Tmax), and after that decreased. For Sample A the NTmax value decreased in the order H2O > CH3OH > C2H5OH > (CH3)2CHOH > C3H7OH, although the last alcohol gave Tmax = 100C, while with Sample C the NTmax value decreased in the order: C3H7OH > (CH3)2CHOH > C2H5OH > CH3OH > H2O. Interestingly, both orders of the liquids were completely opposite: this means that Cu surface can possess two-way character. The NT intensity was found to be strongly associated with the change of the hydroxyl group (Cu-OH) to the oxide oxygen (O2) in the O1s spectra in the XPS measurement. The difference between the above orders was explained by the acid-base interaction mode of the Cu-OH group with the adsorbed molecule on the surfaces. The H2O adsorbed on Sample A produces the electric dipole Cu-OH+---:OH2 (--- hydrogen bond), while the C3H7OH and (CH3)2CHOH adsorbed on Sample C produce ROH+---:O(H)-Cu (R = alkyl groups). Gutmann’s acceptor number (AN) representing the basicity of the liquid molecules was found to be related to the TPPE characteristics: (CH3)2CHOH (33.5), C2H5OH (37.1), CH3OH (41.3), H2O (54.8) (the AN of C3H7OH could not be confirmed). With Sample A the values of NTmaxa and EaUp1 both increased with increasing AN (Up1 means the 1st temperature-increase process). On the other hand, with Sample C the values of NTmaxc and EcUp1 both decreased with increasing AN. These findings suggest that Sample A acts as an acid, while Sample C functions as a base. However, in the case of both types of Samples A and C the NTmax values were found to increase with increasing EUp1. It was explained that the EUp1 values depending on the liquids originate from the difference in the energy level of the hydroxyl group radical at the surface denoted. This is able to attract electrons in the neighborhood of the Fermi level of the base metal by tunnelling. After that due to Auger emission electrons are released, leading to the ET in the overlayer. These electrons are considered to have a strong ability of reducibility.

In road construction, before applying an asphalt or concrete surface, the ground must be compacted and stabilized. There are two basic methods of soil stabilization: in situ and in a stationary node (ex-situ). The method of performing stabilization in place (in-situ) is the most frequently used method due to its convenience and lower price. The most popular type of binder for stabilization is a hydraulic binder (most often cement and various ashes). Such stabilization is performed at a depth of 10-50 cm, achieving the desired load-bearing parameters. In order to improve them, various chemical additives for stabilization are often used, such as ion exchange compounds, additives based on sulfuric acid, additives based on vinyl polymers or even organic additives using lignosulfonates. However, the use of such additives is associated with much greater costs and environmental burden, resulting in seeking for cheaper and equally effective alternatives. The win-win situation would be for instance recycling the problematic waste-based materials that on one hand are landfilled or impossible to recycle and on the other hand cause problems for the waste producers. Therefore, an interesting issue is the production of stabilization additives from various types of waste materials. As a result of the extensive testing of various waste-based materials blends with soil, the mechanical (compressive strength after 7 and 28 days) and hydraulic (capillary rise, water absorption, frost resistance) soil properties were measured. The optimization process led to obtaining additives compositions ensuring the best strengthening and sealing properties. These were for sandy soil: Pure foil (wax emulsion), Pure foil (wax emulsion) + waste sulphuric acid, RDF from waste tires (wax emulsion), Pure foil (wax emulsion) + “by-pass” waste ash + NaOHx2 and for clayey soil: Pure foil (wax emulsion) + NaOH, Pure foil (wax emulsion) + waste sulphuric acid, Tequant, Pure foil (wax emulsion).

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases in humans. It is characterized by visceral pain and/or discomfort, hypersensitivity and abnormal motor responses along with change in gut habits. Although the etio-pathogenesis of IBS is only partially understood, a main role has been attributed to psychosocial stress of different origin. Animals models such as neonatal maternal separation, water avoidance stress and wrap restraint stress have been developed as psychosocial stressors in the attempt to reproduce the IBS symptomatology and identify the cellular mechanisms responsible for the disease. The study of these models has led to the production of drugs potentially useful for IBS treatment. This review intends to give an overview on the results obtained with the animal models; to emphasize the role of the enteric nervous system in IBS appearance and evolution and as a possible target of drug therapies.

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing is a promising industrial technology that enables rapid prototyping of complex configurations. Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is one of the most popular AM techniques for metallic materials. Until today, only a few metals and alloys are available for AM, e.g. titanium alloys, the most common of which is Ti-6Al-4V. After optimization of the PBF parameters, with or without post processing such as heat treatment or hot isostatic pressing, the printed titanium alloy can easily reach tensile strengths of over 1100 MPa due to the quickly cooling of AM process. However, attributed to the unique features of metallurgical defects and microstructure introduced by this AM process, their fatigue strength has been low, often only not less than 30% of the tensile strength, especially in very-high-cycle regime, i.e. failure life beyond 107 cycles. Here, we have reviewed the current state of research on the very-high-cycle fatigue (VHCF) of additively manufactured (AMed) titanium alloys, refined the basic quantities of AMed microstructure and metallurgical defects, summarized the main factors limiting their VHCF strengths, and suggested possible ways to improve VHCF performance.

Polyetheretherketone is a promising material for implants due to its good mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility. Its accessibility to a wide range of applications is facilitated by the ability to process it with an easy-to-use manufacturing process such as Fused Filament Fabrication. The elimination of disadvantages associated with the manufacturing process, such as a poor surface quality, is a main challenge to deal with. As part of the mass finishing process, centrifugal disc finishing has demonstrated good results in surface optimization, making it a promising candidate for post-processing of additively manufactured parts. The objective of this study is to identify the key parameters of the centrifugal disc finishing process on the waviness of additively manufactured PEEK specimen, which has not been investigated yet. Waviness of the specimen was investigated by means of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), while weight loss was additionally tracked. Six parameters were investigated: type, amount and speed of media, use of compound, amount of water and time. Type of media, time and speed were found to significantly influence waviness reduction and weight loss. Surface electron microscopy images demonstrated the additional effects of deburring and corner rounding. Results on previous studies with specimens made of metal showed similar results. Further investigation is required to optimise waviness reduction and polish parts in a second post-processing step.

A general procedure is described, to generate material parameter sets to simulate fire propagation in horizontal cable tray installations. Cone Calorimeter test data is processed in an inverse modelling approach. Here, parameter sets are generated procedurally and serve as input for simulations conducted with the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The simulation responses are compared with the experimental data and ranked based on their fitness. The best fitness was found for a test condition of \SI{50}{\kilo\watt\per\meter^2}. Low flux conditions \SI{25}{\kilo\watt\per\meter^2} and less exhibited difficulties to be simulated accurately. As a validation step, the best parameter sets are then utilised to simulate fire propagation within a horizontal cable tray installation and are compared with experimental data. It is important to note, the inverse modelling process is focused on the Cone Calorimeter and not aware of the actual validation step. Despite this handicap, the general features in the fire development can be reproduced, however not exact. The fire in the tray simulation extinguishes earlier and the total energy release is slightly higher as compared to the experiment. The responses of the material parameter sets are briefly compared with a selection of state of the art procedures.

The generation of isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines using CRISPR-Cas9 technology is a technically challenging, time-consuming process with variable efficiency. Here we use fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to sort biallelic CRISPR-Cas9 edited single-cell iPS clones into high-throughput 96-well microtiter plates. We used high-content screening (HCS) technology and generated an in-house developed algorithm to select the correctly edited isogenic clones for continued expansion and validation. In our model we have gene-corrected the iPSCs of a Parkinson’s disease (PD) patient carrying the autosomal dominantly inherited heterozygous c.88G>C mutation in the SNCA gene, which leads to the pathogenic p.A30P form of the alpha-synuclein protein. Undertaking a PCR restriction-digest mediated clonal selection strategy prior to sequencing, we were able to post-sort validate each isogenic clone using a quadruple screening strategy. Subsequent transfection with mRNA encoding excision-only transposase allows for the generation of footprint-free isogenic iPSC lines. These monoclonal isogenic iPSC lines retain a normal molecular genotype, express pluripotency markers and have the ability to differentiate into the three germ layers. This combinatory approach of FACS, HCS and post-sorted restriction digestion facilitates the generation of isogenic cell lines for disease modelling to be scaled-up on an automated platform.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies are transforming the design and manufacture of components and products across a variety of disciplines, however their application in the construction industry is still limited. Material deposition processes can achieve infinite geometries and have advanced from rapid prototyping and model-scale markets to their application in fabricating functional products, large objects and the construction of full-scale buildings. Many international projects have recently been realized and the construction industry is beginning to utilise these dynamic technologies. The potential advantages for integrating 3D printing into house construction are significant, these include the capacity for mass customization of designs and parameters for functional and aesthetic purposes, reduction in construction waste from highly precise material placement, and the use of recycled waste products in layer deposition materials. With the ultimate goal of improving construction efficiency and decreasing building costs, applying Strand7 Finite Element Analysis software, a numerical model was designed specifically for 3D printing in a cement mix incorporated with recycled waste product High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and found that construction of an arched truss-like roof was structurally feasible without the need for steel reinforcements. The lab sizes prototypes were manufactured based on the destined numerical model by using a 3D printing technology. Currently available 3D printing technologies can be adopted for building construction and this paper discusses the applications, advantages, limitations and future directions of 3D printing as an innovative and viable solution for affordable house construction.

During middle age, women are less susceptible to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) than men. Thus, we investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms behind these sexual differences using an established rat model of NASH. Mature female and male stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive 5/Dmcr rats were fed control or high-fat-cholesterol (HFC) diets for 2, 8, and 14 weeks. Although HFC-induced hepatic fibrosis was markedly less severe in females than in males, only minor gender differences were observed in expression levels of cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP)7A1, CYP8B1 CYP27A1, and CYP7B1, and multidrug resistance-associated protein 3, and bile salt export pump, which are involved in fibrosis-related bile acid (BA) kinetics. However, the BA detoxification-related enzymes UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) and sulfotransferase (SULT) 2A1, and the nuclear receptors constitutive androstene receptor (CAR) and pregnane X receptor (PXR), were strongly suppressed in HFC fed males, and were only slightly changed in HFC-diet fed females. Expression levels of the farnesoid X receptor and its small heterodimer partner were similarly regulated in a gender-dependent fashion following HFC feeding. Hence, the pronounced female resistance to HFC-induced liver damage likely reflects sustained expression of the nuclear receptors CAR and PXR and the BA detoxification enzymes UGT and SULT.

This review explores the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the entire winemaking process, from viticulture to bottling, with a particular focus on enhancing food safety and traceability. It discusses AI’s applications in optimizing grape cultivation, fermentation, bottling, and quality control, while emphasizing its critical role in managing microbiological risks such as mycotoxins. The review aims to show how AI technologies not only refine operational efficiencies but also raise safety standards and ensure traceability from vineyard to consumer. Challenges in AI implementation and future directions for integrating more advanced AI solutions into the winemaking industry will also be discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of AI's potential to revolutionize traditional practices.

This paper investigates the effects that rain drop erosion has on the integrity of wind turbine materials. This research involves analysis of impact models and theoretical equations to simulate the impact phenomena when a raindrop collides with a wind turbine blade at high speed. Impact phenomena that occur when a raindrop impacts with a wind turbine blade were evaluated. Additionally, the use of various types of software was considered to simulate this impact event. The model results of the raindrop impact with respect to a comparison of the governing equations and impact behaviour are addressed. Future work is outlined including adding variables to the erosion modelling algorithms.

Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) analysis between the anomalies of Lake Titicaca water levels (WLs) and the Pacific Interdecadal Oscillation (IPO) reveals a correlation coefficient of 0.71 between the WLs and the principal component (PC1). These findings demonstrate the high accuracy of the IPO in representing the positive and negative phases of the water levels. By utilizing wavelet functions, we identified multi-decadal variability with periods ranging between 20 and 30 years. The statistical techniques employed indicate a relationship between IPO and ENSO; however, they operate on different timescales of climate variability. The IPO exhibits longer-term variability, typically spanning 20-30 years, while ENSO events occur on average every 2-7 years. Nevertheless, the IPO has the ability to modulate the strength and frequency of El Niño and La Niña events, and vice versa. During the positive phase of the IPO, there is a tendency for more frequent and intense El Niño events, accompanied by fewer La Niña events. This can be attributed to warmer sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific, which create favorable conditions for El Niño development. Conversely, during the negative phase of the IPO, there is a tendency for more frequent and intense La Niña events, with fewer occurrences of El Niño events, due to cooler sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific.

Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) is an edible perennial grass-like plant that has long been recognized for its health benefits as it is rich in fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and natural sugars. It can be eaten raw, roasted or made into a refreshing milk which is very nutritive and healthy for consumption. There were several efforts to mass-produce the locally prepared tiger nut milk in our locality, but the fact that it has a shorter shelf-life, brings about a hindrance. The main objective of the present study is to unveil the cause for the easily spoilage of tiger nut milk and device ways to promote its production using different treatments. Tiger nut milk products were prepared using different methods; water soaked tiger nut milk (WSTM), toasted tiger nut milk (TTM), methanol soaked tiger nut milk (MSTM), and the pasteurised tiger nut milk (PTM). Each of these milk proucts prepared was divided into two portions; the first portion is treated with an antibiotic preservative, Nisin and the second portion was left untreated. The two portions were further divided into two; one stored at refrigerating temperature and the other at room temperature, making four different treatments per mixture and a total of 16 samples. These samples were subjected to proximate analysis; protein, fat, moisture, ash and carbohydrate. The chemical composition of the samples was significantly (P < 0.05) affected by processing treatment. All the samples had high moisture content, and a considerable amount of fat. The preservative treated samples that received pasteurized treatment were found to stay more than a week with fair quality. Findings from the study shows that the chemical characteristics of the various milk products were significantly affected by the different processing treatments.

The classification of Trojans in modern analog microcircuits is considered. Using high-speed operational amplifiers (Op-Amps) as an example, the relationship between Op-Amp circuit design and the formation of undesirable states in typical switching circuits is shown. Circuit solutions are proposed to minimize the Trojan states of high-speed Op-Amps. These include limiting the maximum output currents of the input stages of the Op-Amp during the transient process and the use of differentiating transient correction circuits in the Op-Amp.

Melting phase relations of the diamond-forming system olivine (Ol) – jadeite (Jd) – diopside (Di) – (Mg, Fe, Ca, Na)-carbonates (Carb*) – (C-O-H-fluid) are studied in experiments at 6.0 GPa in the polythermal section Ol74Carb*18.5(C-O-H)7.5 - Omp74Carb*18.5(C-O-H)7.5, where Ol = Fo80Fa20, Omp (omphacite) = Jd62Di38 and Carb* = (MgCO3)25(FeCO3)25(CaCO3)25(Na2CO3)25. Peritectic reaction of olivine and jadeite-bearing melt with formation of garnet has been determined as a physico-chemical mechanism of ultrabasiс-basiс evolution of the diamond-forming system. In the process CO2-component of the supercritical C-O-H-fluid can react with silicate components to form additional carbonates of Mg, Fe, Ca and Na. Solidus temperature of the diamond-forming system is depressed to 1000-1020°C by joint effect of the H2O-fluid and carbonate constituents thereof. The experimentally recognized peritectic mechanism of ultrabasiс-basiс evolution of the diamond-forming system explains the origin of the associated paragenetic inclusions of peridotite and eclogite minerals in diamonds as well as the xenoliths of diamond-bearing peridotites and eclogites of the kimberlitic deposits of diamond. The diamond-forming systems have formed with the use of material of the upper mantle native peridotite rocks. In this case the capacity of the rocks to run the peritectic reaction of olivine was transmitted with silicate components to the diamond-forming systems.

Many studies have demonstrated hydrogen's therapeutic and preventive effects on various diseases. Its selective antioxidant properties against hydroxyl radicals, which are responsible for the indirect effects of ionizing radiation, may make it worthy of attention as a new radio-protector. We recently developed new hydrogen water that is more stable and has higher antioxidant activity by using ultra-fine bubbles. In this study, female C57BL/6J mice given ad libitum access to ultra-fine bubble hydrogen water (UBHW) were subjected to whole-body irradiation (WBI) with X-rays, and the radio-protective effect of UBHW was evaluated. Sub-lethal WBI resulted in a 30-day survival rate of 100% in UBHW-fed mice, compared with 37% in control mice. In the case of lethal WBI, while the control mice died out in about 3 weeks, the 30-day survival rate improved to 40% by UBHW due to the high scavenging activity of hydroxy radicals. Twenty-six serum proteins involved in inflammatory and immune responses were significantly identified in UBHW-fed mice by proteomics, and UBHW may enhance and regulate these functions, resulting in reduced damage in mice exposed to WBI. We conclude that UBHW has good potential in radio-protection, with evidence that warrants further research efforts in this field.

The rehabilitation of the road embankments alongside the irrigation canal, which is constructed on a Bangkok soft clay foundation, has resulted from land use growth for several decades. As a result, the embankment is always confronted with the problem of instability. Numerous articles have demonstrated that rapid drawdown of the water level in the canal could be one of the most significant reasons, whereas vehicle cyclic loading may potentially contribute to some effect of the embankment failure. To explore and assess the effects of the influence factors, the finite element method (FEM) and conventional and dynamic triaxial approaches were employed. The study also investigated the consequences of varying thicknesses of soft clay and cyclic loading with different magnitudes and frequencies. Consequently, cyclic loading can lead to an augmentation in strain distribution and excess pore water pressure. Likewise, more significant deformation and excess pore water pressure were induced by a lower frequency and deeper thickness of soft clay compared to a higher frequency and thinner thickness. In brief, vehicle repetitive loading is one of the primary factors contributing to embankment failure, with the threshold stress being approximately three-fourths of the undrained shear strength. In contrast, threshold strain is approximately one to two-fold of the monotonic strain condition.

A facile and environmentally benign method for a single-phase barium titanate synthesis in water vapor medium was studied to reveal the mechanism of phase transformation of the initial simple oxides mixture and estimate the capability of the product to be used as a raw material for low-frequency dielectric ceramics. The composition and structure of the reaction mixture treated in vapor at 130…150 °C as well as 230 °C for various time were investigated by means of XRD, SEM, HRTEM, EDX, and FTIR methods. The kinetics of the occurring phase transformation was described by Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Erofeev equation. The reaction between the initial oxides was considered as a topochemical process with an apparent activation energy of 74…80 kJ mol^-1. A crucial role in this process belonged to the water vapor medium, which facilitated the generation of the reaction zone and its spreading inward the solid particles. The synthesized tetragonal barium titanate powder (mean particle size of 135 ± 24 nm) was sintered by a conventional technique at 1250 °C to obtain ceramics with grains of about 2 μm. Capacitance measurements performed a dielectric constant and loss tangent of ceramics, which reached 3879 and 6.7 10^-3, respectively, at 1 kHz and room temperature.

Throughout the world, salinity is a major environmental issue that limits agricultural productivity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. In addition, climate change is the most important reason for the salinization of agricultural soils in the world, so it is now essential to find solutions to increase salinity tolerance in plants. This study investigated the potential of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation to enhance the growth and yield performances of flax under different salinity levels by conducting a pot experiment. The experiment was laid out in a two-factor completely randomized design including AMF inoculation (AMF+: with and AMF-: without inoculation) and irrigation water salinity (0, 50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl). According to the results, it is evident that salt stress caused negative physiological effects, including limited growth, reduced photosynthesis, and decreased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content in shoots and roots of flax plants. Moreover, mycorrhizal association improved the salt tolerance of the plants by increasing chlorophyll content, enhancing N and P shoot and root contents, and consequently yield parameters, such as seed, and stem fiber yield, particularly at moderate salt concentrations (50 and 100 mM NaCl). As a result of using AMF, flax plants grown under salt stress exhibited tolerance, suggesting that AMF could be applied in saline environments to maintain ecological stability.

Earth Observation (EO) techniques have significantly evolved over time, covering a wide range of applications in different domains. The scope of this study is to review the research conducted on EO in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa (EMMENA) region and to identify the main knowledge gaps. We searched through the Web of Science database for papers published between 2018 and 2022 for EO studies in the EMMENA. We categorized the papers in the following thematic areas: Atmosphere, Water, Agriculture, Land, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Cultural Heritage, Energy, Marine Safety and Security (MSS) and Big Earth Data (BED); 6647 papers were found with the highest number of publications in the thematic areas of BED (27%) and Land (22%). Most of the EMMENA countries are surrounded by sea, yet there was a very small number of studies on MSS (0.9% of total number of papers). This study detected a gap in fundamental research in the BED thematic area. Other future needs identified by this study are the limited availability of very high resolution and near real time remote sensing data, the lack of harmonized methodologies and the need for further development of models, algorithms, early warning systems and services.

In the implementation of thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) techniques, the temperature impact on relative permeability in oil - water systems is of special concern. Hence, developing a fast and reliable tool to model the temperature effect on two-phase oil - water relative permeability is still a major challenge for precise studying and evaluation of TEOR processes. To reach the goal of this work, two promising soft-computing algorithms, namely Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) and Gene Expression Programming (GEP) were employed to develop reliable, accurate, simple and quick to use paradigms to predict the temperature dependency of relative permeability in oil - water systems (K_rw and K_ro). To do so, a large database encompassing wide-ranging temperatures and fluids/rock parameters, including oil and water viscosities, absolute permeability and water saturation, was considered to establish these correlations. Statistical results and graphical analyses disclosed the high degree of accuracy for the proposed correlations in emulating the experimental results. In addition, GEP based correlations were found to be the most consistent with root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.0284 and 0.0636 for K_rw and K_ro, respectively. Lastly, the comparison of the performances of our correlations against those of the preexisting ones indicated the large superiority of the introduced correlations compared to previously published methods. The findings of this study can help for better understanding and studying the temperature dependency of oil - water relative permeability in thermal enhanced oil recovery processes.

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

The demands for high power and low emissions put focus on energy efficiency when developing new engines. An important part is the UAV engine cooling system, which cools the engine structure below damaging temperatures. For high temperatures in the cooling system there is a risk that boiling occurs and while the initial nucleate boiling enhances the cooling effect, the subsequent Film boiling decreases the heat transfer drastically. It is important to understand the benefits and limitations of various fluids when designing a two-phase cooling system. This paper proposes an alternative organic coolant. Its normal application range is 15°C to 400°C, and its pressure range is from atmospheric to 10.6 bar. DOWTHERM A fluid possesses unsurpassed thermal stability at temperatures of 400°C. This fluid, in both the liquid and vapor form, is noncorrosive toward common metals and alloys. Even at the high temperatures involved, the equipment usually exhibits excellent service life. Original equipment in many systems is still being used after 30 years of continuous service. The numerical results, described in this paper, show the potential of DOWTHERM A as a good alternative for cooling a UAV engine. It will extend the working temperature range of the Diesel engine and will maintain the structural integrity of the piston, cylinder and the piston rings.

High temperature (HT) geothermal wells can provide green power 24h a day 7 days a week. Harsh environmental and operational conditions, long-term durability requirements of such wells require special cementitious composites for well construction. This paper reports a comprehensive assessment of geothermal cement composites in cyclic pressure function laboratory tests, field exposures in an HT geothermal well (300-350oC) as well as a numerical model to complement the experimental results. Performances of calcium-aluminate-cement (CAC)-based composites and calcium free cement were compared against reference Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)/silica blend. The stability and degradation of the tested materials was characterized by crystalline composition, thermo-gravimetric, and elemental analyses, morphological studies, water-fillable porosity, and mechanical properties measurements. All CAC-based formulations outperformed the reference blend both in the function and exposure tests. The reference OPC/silica lost its mechanical properties during the 9-month well exposure through extensive HT carbonation, while properties of the CAC-based blends improved over that period. The Modified Cam-Clay (MCC) plasticity parameters of several HT cement formulations were extracted from triaxial and Brazilian tests and verified against the experimental results of function cyclic tests. These parameters can be used in well integrity models to predict field-scale behavior of the cement sheath under geothermal well conditions.

Engineering application of additively manufactured (AM) metallic materials is quite limited by their fatigue behaviors which are very inconsistent with that of conventionally wrought or cast ones. Here, based on advanced material characterization techniques, such as focused ion beam (FIB), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the mi-crostructures underneath fracture surfaces were thoroughly investigated in an AM aluminium (AlSi10Mg) alloy with horizontal and vertical building orientation endured very-high-cycle fa-tigue (VHCF) loading under stress ratios R = –1, 0 and 0.5. Two VHCF failure specimens A and B were representatively selected to further SEM examine and TEM samples preparation via FIB milling. Specimen A was horizontally printed and failed at R = –1; specimen B was vertically printed and failed at R = 0. TEM samples A1 and B1 were lifted from locations near the crack ini-tiation sites on the fracture surfaces of specimens A and B; The locations of TEM samples A2 and B2 kept away from the crack origin sites but still within the “fish-eye” region of crack steady growth. TEM observations show that there was no characteristic microstructure induced by VHCF in different oriented specimens and under various R values.

This paper attempts to develop a Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) based Reduced Order Model (ROMs) which can quickly but accurately predict the forces and moments experienced by a road vehicle such that they be used by an on-board controller to determine the vehicle's trajectory. DMD can linearize a large dataset of high-dimensional measurements by decomposing them into low-dimensional coherent structures and associated time-dynamics. This ROM then also can be applied to predict the future state of the fluid flow. Existing literature on DMD is limited to low Reynolds number applications. This paper presents DMD analyses of the flow around an idealized road vehicle, called the Ahmed body, at a Reynolds number of 2.7E6. The high dimensional dataset used in this paper was collected from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation performed using Menter's shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model within the context of Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations (IDDES). The DMD algorithm, as available in literature, was found to suffer nonphysical dampening of the medium-to-high frequency modes. Enhancements to the existing algorithm were explored, and a modified DMD approach is presented in this paper which includes: (a) a requirement of higher sampling rate to obtain higher resolution of data, and (b) a custom filtration process to remove spurious modes. The modified DMD algorithm thus developed was applied to the high Reynolds number, separation dominated flow past the idealized ground vehicle. The effectiveness of the modified algorithm was tested by comparing future predictions of force and moment coefficients as predicted by the DMD-based ROM to the reference CFD simulation data, and found to offer significant improvement.

A novel stationary phase for affinity separations is presented. This material is based on sintered borosilicate glass readily available as semi-finished filter plates with defined porosity and surface area. The material shows fast binding kinetics and excellent long-term stability under real application conditions due to lacking macropores and high mechanical rigidity. The glass surface can be easily modified with standard organosilane chemistry to immobilize selective binders or other molecules used for biointeraction. In this paper, the manufacturing of the columns and their respective column holders by 3D printing is shown in detail. The model system protein A/IgG was chosen as an example to examine the properties of such monolithic columns under realistic application conditions. Several specifications, such as (dynamic) IgG capacity, pressure stability, long-term performance, productivity, non-specific binding, and peak shape, are presented. It could be shown that due to the very high separation speed, 250 mg antibody per hour and column can be collected, which surpasses the productivity of most standard columns of the same size. The total IgG capacity of the shown columns is around 4 mg (5.5 mg/mL), which is sufficient for most tasks in research laboratories. The cycle time of an IgG separation can be less than 1 minute. Due to the glass material's excellent pressure resistance, these columns are compatible with standard HPLC systems. This is usually not the case with standard affinity columns, limited to manual use or application in low-pressure systems. The use of a standard HPLC system also improves the ability for automation, which enables the purification of hundreds of cell supernatants in one day. The sharp peak shape of the elution leads to an enrichment effect, which might increase the concentration of IgG by a factor of 3. The final concentration of IgG can be around 7.5 mg/mL without the need for an additional nanofiltration step. The purity of the IgG was > 95% in one step and nearly 99% with a second polishing run.

We extended our model of the S1 tubular segment to address the mechanisms by which SGLT1 interacts with lateral Na/K pumps and tight junctional complexes to generate isosmotic fluid reabsorption via tubular segment S3. The strategy applied allowed simulation of laboratory experiments. Reproducing known experimental results constrained the range of acceptable model outputs and contributed to minimizing the free parameter space. 1. In experimental conditions, published Na and K concentrations of proximal kidney cells were found to deviate substantially from their normal physiological levels. Analysis of the mechanisms involved suggested insufficient oxygen supply as the cause and indirectly, that a main function of the Na/H exchanger (NHE3) is to extrude protons stemming from mitochondrial energy metabolism. 2. The water path from the lumen to the peritubular space is through aquaporins on the cell membrane and claudin-2 at paracellular tight junctions, with a smaller additional contribution to water transport by the coupling of 1 glucose:2 Na:200 H2O in SGLT1. 3. A Na+-uptake component passed through paracellular junctions by solvent drag in Na- and water-permeable claudin-2, thus bypassing the Na/K-pump, in agreement with the findings of early studies. 4. Electrical cross talk between apical rheogenic SGLT1 and lateral rheogenic Na/K pumps results in tight coupling of luminal glucose uptake and transepithelial water flow. 5. Isosmotic transport is achieved by Na-mediated ion recirculation at the peritubular membrane.

It is estimated that 3 billion tons of concrete are used globally each year. Cement is a critical component of concrete, and its production accounts for nearly 5-7% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Producing one ton of concrete (OPC) releases approximately one ton of CO2. These CO2 emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect, leading to global warming, polar ice cap melting, sea level rise, coastal city flooding, land desertification, decreased agricultural productivity, ecosystem damage, and adverse effects on human health. This situation is concerning, and there is an urgent need to minimize CO2 emissions from the cement industry. This paper focuses on incorporating various materials into concrete to increase its strength and reduce emissions of CO2 and other harmful substances, thereby mitigating the impacts of the greenhouse effect and achieving the great vision of carbon neutrality. The study theoretically analyzes the issues of coconut shell disposal in Southeast Asia and waste tire disposal in Europe and the United States. This paper uses Abaqus to model and analyze various green concretes and compares the data with that of ordinary concrete.

Consciousness is a special type of interaction between subjects exchanging by lingua quanta (phonemes). A set of lingua quanta composes a thesaurus placed on the edge of chaos. Its library is a memory, modification of which is due to tuning of memristive neural elements scattered in the brain volume. The memristive neural model takes into consideration two types of neurons - excitatory and inhibitory and the current leakage, all at the body temperature, T = 309 K. At such temperatures only heavy ions like hydrogen ions - protons can pass robustly through the water medium of the brain. The robust ion transport is proton water wires supported by the Grotthuss mechanism. Final aims of the ions are the gap junctions (electric synapses) linking nearest neurons. Following these observations, a model of excitable nervous tissue is constructed. Namely, a difference mapping on the basis of sigmoid curves can reproduce chaotic modes of neural activity proved by positive values of the Lyapunov exponent. The edge of chaos is placed near the bifurcation boundary dividing the chaos and the periodic convulsive activity typical at the epileptic discharges. In this region the self-sustained spiral waves occur. An intermittent activity of the competing excitatory and inhibitory neurons is observed on the edge of chaos. The intermittent electrical activity of neural tissues is demonstrated by records both from different literature issues and records made by the author together with DR. A. Dudkin on slices of CA1 field of the hippocampus.

Sanitation, water supply and their governance remain major challenges in many Pacific Island Countries. National sustainable development strategies (NSDSs) are promoted throughout the Pacific as overarching improved governance instruments to identify priorities, plan solutions and fulfill commitments to sustainable development. Their relevance to local village-level development priorities is uncertain. The Kingdom of Tonga provides opportunities to compare both. Tonga’s Strategic Development Frameworks (TSDFI 2011-2014 and TSDFII 2015-2025) were developed to focus government and its agencies on national outcomes. From 2007 to 2016, 136 villages throughout Tonga’s five Island Divisions (IDs) formulated Community Development Plans (CDPs) involving separately 80% of women, youth and men in each village. Censuses in 2006 and 2016 show linked improvements in water supply and sanitation systems but reveal IDs with continuing challenges. Sanitation and water are prominent in TSDFI but absent from the current TSDFII. In contrast, CDPs show in one ID, 53% of villages ranked sanitation as a priority with marked differences between IDs and between women, youth and men. CDPs’ sanitation priorities in IDs mostly correspond to sanitation and water metrics in the Censuses, but some reflect impacts of natural disasters. Explanations for differences in sanitation priorities between national and local development plans, as well as suggestions for improving NSDS processes in island countries, are advanced.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or specific PTSD symptoms may evoke disordered eating and unhealthy lifestyles, resulting in adverse cardiometabolic events (e.g., hypertension and obesity) in certain groups, which may implicate the treatment of this complex condition. The diagnostic criteria of PTSD have lately expanded beyond the three common symptoms (intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal). Simultaneously, four-, five-, and six-dimensional structures of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), a popular PTSD measure, seem to be more robust than the original three-dimension structure. Within the context of COVID-19, this instrumental study used a convenience sample of 58 dental healthcare workers (HCWs) from Russia (mean age = 44.1±12.2 years, 82.8% females) to examine the criterion and predictive validity of two IES-R structures: the IES-R3 and the IES-R6 (with the added symptoms of numbing, sleep disturbance, and irritability). The subscales of the two IES-R structures expressed good internal consistency, strong correlations with the PTSD Symptom Scale (PSS), hypertension diagnosis, and high body mass index (BMI). In receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, all IES-R models perfectly predicted the PSS (all area under the curve (AUC) >0.9, p values <0.001). The IES-R, both hyperarousal subscales, and the IES-R3 intrusion subscale significantly predicted high BMI. Both avoidance subscales and the IES-R3 intrusion subscale, not the IES-R, significantly predicted hypertension. In conclusion, both IES-R structures can reliably measure PTSD symptoms. The IES-R, hyperarousal, and intrusion may be credible criterion variables for predicting high BMI within PTSD while the intrusion and avoidance subscales may reflect the cardiovascular consequences associated with PTSD more reliably than the IES-R itself. The IES-R subscales may predict cardiometabolic adversities in PTSD, signifying a need for proper assessment of lifestyle and the application of dietary and exercise interventions in order to lower physical morbidity in PTSD. Replicating the study in larger samples, which comprise different physical and mental conditions from heterogenous cultural contexts is pivotal to validate the results (e.g., in specific groups such as those with confirmed traumatic exposure and comorbid mood dysfunction).

There is a growing need to implement modern technologies, such as digital twinning, to improve the efficiency of transport fleet maintenance processes and maintain the company's operational capacity at the required level. Therefore, the paper reviews the existing literature to present an up-to-date and content-relevant analysis in this field. The proposed methodology is a systematic literature review using the Primo multi-search tool following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) guidelines. The main inclusion criteria included the publication dates (studies published from 2012–2024) and studies published in English. This resulted in the selection of 201 of the most relevant papers in the area of investigation. Finally, selected articles in this review were categorized into seven groups: a) air transportation, b) railway transportation, c) land transportation (road), d) in-house logistics, e) water and intermodal transportation, f) supply chain operation, and g) other applications. One of the main advantages of the study is that the results are obtained from different scientific sources/databases thanks to using the multi-search tool. Moreover, a bibliometric analysis of the selected papers was performed. The results have led the authors to specify the main research problems and trends related to the analyzed area and to identify the main research gaps for future investigation from academic and engineering perspectives. In addition, based on the review results, a framework for DT in transportation system maintenance was developed. The study ends with conclusions and future research directions.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most frequent form of kidney cancer. Metastatic stages of ccRCC reduce the five-year survival rate to 15%. In this report we analyze the ccRCC-induced remodeling of the five KEGG-constructed excretory functional pathways in a surgically removed right kidney and its metastasis in the chest wall from the perspective of the Genomic Fabric Paradigm (GFP). GFP characterizes every single gene in each region by the independent variables: average expression level (AVE), relative expression variability (REV) and expression correlation (COR) with each other gene. While traditional approach is limited to only AVE analysis, the novel REV analysis indicates genes whose correct expression level is critical for cell survival and proliferation. COR analysis determines the real gene networks responsible for functional pathways. The analyses covered the pathways: aldosterone-regulated sodium reabsorption, collecting duct acid secretion, endocrine and other factor-regulated sodium reabsorption, proximal tubule bicarbonate reclamation, and vasopressin-regulated water reabsorption. The present study confirms the conclusion of our previously published articles on prostate and kidney cancers that even equally graded cancer nodules from the same tumor have different transcriptomic topologies. Therefore, the personalization of the anti-cancer therapy should go beyond the individual to his/her major cancer nodules.

Paving blocks are concrete pieces placed in exposed places to the weather, which are sub-jected to loads and wear. Hence, quality control in the manufacture of paving blocks is es-sential to guarantee the properties and durability of the product in construction projects. In Ecuador, the requirements are described in the Ecuadorian technical standard "NTE INEN 3040", and tensile splitting strength is a fundamental requirement to guarantee product quality. It is analyzed using quality control measurements such as dimensions, the weight of the fresh paving block in the vibro-compacted process, and the percentage of water absorption in order to know how the variables influence and manage to predict the tensile splitting strength to avoid product non-conformity in advance, having a timely and better control of the manufacturing process. The data was obtained from a company that can produce 30 000 units per day of rectangular paving blocks with 6 cm thickness. Mul-tivariate models such as multiple linear regression, regression trees, random forests and neural networks are performed to predict the tensile splitting strength variable through two groups of predictors; the first group is the thickness mm, width mm, length mm, mass of fresh paving block g and percentage of water absorption %. The second group of pre-dictor variables is the density of the fresh paving block kg/m3 and the percentage of water absorption %. It is concluded that the multiple linear regression method performs better in predicting the first group of predictor variables with a mean square error (MSE) of 0.110086, followed by the neural network without hidden layers resulting in an MSE of 0.112198. The best method for the second set of predictors was the neural network with-out hidden layers with a mean square error ( MSE ) of 0.112402, closely followed by the multiple linear regression model with an MSE of 0.115044.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a solid tumor occurring in infancy and childhood, whose high-risk form has currently a survival rate &lt; 50 %, despite aggressive treatments. Additionally, drugs-induced secondary tumorigenesis and the emergency of drug resistance worsen the already worrying scenario, calling for an urgent development of new extra-genomic treatments. Quaternary phosphonium salts (QPSs) possess both antimicrobial and anticancer effects. Triphenyl phosphonium salts (TPPs) are mitochondria-targeting compounds, exerting anticancer effects, impairing mitochondria functions and damaging DNA, at the same time. TPP-based bola-amphiphiles, previously proven to self-assemble nanoparticles (NPs) in water and successfully assayed as possible antibacterials, were never tested as suitable antitumor agents. Here, aiming at the development of new antitumor devices to counteract resistant forms of NB, the anticancer effects of a TPP-based amphiphile molecule have been investigated for the first time. To this end, we considered the water-soluble sterically hindered quaternary phosphonium salt (BPPB) encompassing two triphenyl phosphonium groups linked by a C12 alkyl chain, thus embodying both the characteristics of mitochondria-targeting compounds and those of bola-amphiphiles. The anticancer effects of BPPB were assessed against HTLA-230 human stage-IV NB cells and their counterpart resistant to etoposide (ETO), doxorubicin (DOX) and to many other therapeutics (HTLA-ER). Determined IC50 values were very low on both cell populations, already after 24 hours of treatment, when cells viability did not significantly differ from that observed for the longest exposure timing. Moreover, to investigate a putative future inclusion of BPPB in a chemotherapeutic cocktail for NB, its cytotoxic effects were assessed against mammalian cell lines. These included monkey kidney cells (Cos-7), human hepatic cells (HepG2), a lung-derived fibroblast cell line (MRC-5) and red blood cells. From appreciable to very high selectivity indices have been determined after 24 hours treatments, an exposure time after which both NB cell populations tested appeared already fully exterminated.

We report a case of colloid carcinoma (CC) arising from an intestinal-type intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm with high-grade dysplasia (IPMNHGD) of the pancreas, diagnosed with serial pancreatic juice aspiration cytological examination (SPACE). A rapidly growing intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) in a 71-year-old Japanese man accelerated his hospitalization in our institute. Clinically, a large, ruptured pancreatic cyst was suspected. Cytologically, several mucin-positive signet-ring cells were scattered in the inflammatory, necrotic, or mucinous background. Signet-ring cells in cell block specimens were immunoreactive for MUC2, MUC5AC, maspin, S100P, and claudin-18. The final cytologic diagnosis was CC arising in an intestinal-type IPMNHGD with intraperitoneal penetration. The patient died two months postoperatively. The cytologic diagnosis was achieved through SPACE, and the presence of signet-ring cells was characteristic. Anti-claudin-18.2-specific monoclonal antibody therapy will likely be used to treat patients with IPMNHGD in the future. To our knowledge, this is the first report in English on mucin-positive signet-ring cells of CC arising in an intestinal-type IPMNHGD evaluated by SPACE cytology.

The awareness of the existence in plants of bioactive compounds namely phytochemicals (PHYs), having health properties is progressively expanding. Therefore, their massive introduction in the normal diet, in food supplements, and their use as natural therapeutics to treat several diseases are increasingly emphasized by several sectors. Particularly, most PHYs possessing antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiulcer, anti-cholesterol, hypoglycemic, immunomodulatory, and antioxidant properties have been isolated from plants. Additionally, their secondary modification with new functionalities, to further improve their intrinsic beneficial effects, is extensively investigated. Unfortunately, although the idea of exploiting PHYs as therapeutics is amazing, its realization is far from simple, and the possibility of exploiting them as effective orally administrable drugs is almost utopic. Most PHYs are insoluble in water and, when introduced orally, they scarcely reach the site of action in therapeutic concentrations. Degradation by enzymatic and microbial digestion, occurring in the mouth, stomach, and intestine, as well as fast metabolism and rapid excretion via the kidney, biliary, or lung, strongly limit their in vivo activity. To overcome these drawbacks, several nanotechnological approaches have been used and many PHYs-loaded delivery systems with dimensions of nanometers have been developed. This paper, also by reporting various recent case studies, reviews the foremost nano-suspension and nano-emulsion-based techniques developed for formulating the most relevant PHYs in more bioavailable nanoparticles (NPs), suitable or promising for clinical application. Also, the acute and chronic toxic effects due to the exposure to NPs reported so far, the possible nanotoxicity which could derive by their massive employment, as well as the ongoing actions to improve the knowledge in the field were discussed. The state of the art concerning the actual clinical application of both PHYs and the nanotechnologically engineered PHYs was also reviewed.

A method for calibrating models of agricultural production and resource use presented by Howitt [1] for policy analysis is proposed to leverage multidisciplinary agricultural research at the National Center for Alluvial Aquifer Research (NCAAR). An illustrative example for Sunflower County, MS is presented to show how plot-level research can be extended to draw systemic region or basin wide implications. A hypothetical improvement in yields for dryland soybean varieties is incorporated to the model and shown to have a positive impact on aquifer outcomes and producer profits. The example illustrates that a change in one practice-crop combination can have system-wide impacts as evidenced by the change in acreages for all crops and practices.

The morphology of virgin reactor powder (RP) of high-density polyethylene HDPE with MW = 160,000 g/mol was investigated with the help of DSC, SEM, SAXS and WAXS methods. The morphological SEM analysis showed, that the main morphological units of RP are macro- and micro-shish kebab structures with significantly different geometric dimensions, as well as individual lamellae of folded chain crystals. Quantitative analysis of an asymmetric SAXS reflection made it possible to reveal the presence of several periodic morphoses in the RP with long periods from 20 nm to 60 nm and to correlate them with the observed powder morphology. According to the DSC crystallinity data, the thickness of the lamellae in each long period was estimated. Their surface energy was calculated in the framework of the Gibbs-Thompson theory. The presence of regular and irregular folds on the surface of the different shish-kebab lamellae is discussed. The percentage of identified morphoses in the RP was calculated. It has been suggested that the specific structure of HDPE RP is due to the peculiarity of polymer crystallization during suspension synthesis in a quasi-stationary regime, in which local overheating and inhomogeneous distribution of shear stresses in a chemical reactor are possible.

The vast majority of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) suffer cachexia. Although cachexia results from concurrent loss of adipose and muscle tissue, most studies focus on muscle alone. Emerging data demonstrate the prognostic value of fat loss in cachexia. Here we sought to identify the muscle and adipose gene profiles and pathways regulated in cachexia. Matched rectus abdominis muscle and subcutaneous adipose tissue were obtained at surgery from patients with benign conditions (n=11) and patients with PDAC (n=24). Self-reported weight loss and body composition measurements defined cachexia status. Gene profiling was done using Ion proton sequencing. Results were queried against external datasets for validation. 961 DE genes were identified from muscle and 2000 from adipose tissue, demonstrating greater response of adipose than muscle. In addition to known cachexia genes such as FOXO1, novel genes from muscle, including PPP1R8 and AEN correlated with cancer weight loss. All the adipose correlated genes including SCGN and EDR17 are novel for PDAC cachexia. Pathway analysis demonstrated shared pathways but largely non-overlapping genes in both tissues. Age related muscle loss predominantly had a distinct gene profiles compared to cachexia. This analysis of matched, externally validate gene expression points to novel targets in cachexia.