Background. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is accompanied by executive deficits. Objectives. To obtain evidence of the usefulness of the BRIEF-P and to analyse the possible ceiling and floor effect of its scores in the assessment of executive function in preschoolers with signs compatible with a possible diagnosis of ADHD. Methods. Seven articles were selected from 2538 potentially eligible articles from different databases. We included studies assessing samples of individuals with symptoms compatible with ADHD, with age range 2-6 years, published in English or Spanish, during the period 2012-2022. References published in: Science Direct, NCBI (PubMed), ProQuest Education Journals in the last decade. Risk of bias was assessed using the QUADAS-2 questionnaire. The main variables were: age and executive functioning. Conclusions. Executive deficits in early-life individuals with ADHD-compatible symptoms are more extensive than deficits in working memory. BRIEF-P is an instrument that facilitates obtaining a sensitive and discriminative executive profile. It should be used in combination with other neuropsychological performance tests, finding a floor effect in tests associated with warm executive functions and a ceiling effect in cold executive functions. This requires using a variety of tests to assess executive performance in preschoolers with symptoms compatible with ADHD and designing intervention proposals in line with them...

Providing safely-managed sanitation/hygiene requires key competencies for education, training, service delivery, enterprise development and management, product and infrastructure design and development, construction and installation, governance, financing, research, etc. These strategic sanitation capacities will have to be built from higher education’s academic and professional programmes structured and designed to produce skilled and knowledgeable professionals and practitioners. This study aims to investigate the quality of the sanitation/hygiene management content of Environmental Health programmes; the adequacy of the existing central curricula; and the perception of environmental health sanitation/hygiene-trained professionals to determine the next phase for building knowledge and capacity of sanitation professionals in Nigeria through higher education institutions. A multilevel mixed method concurrent study was used for sampling and data collection with a multilevel perception analysis to examine the perceptions of students, lecturers and graduate alumni as well as employers/supervisors and clients/service-users of sanitation/hygiene related graduates. The main findings of this paper show limited understanding of the concepts of contemporary issues of sanitation/hygiene management; the central/national teaching and curricula were found to be seriously out of date; and clients/service-users were dissatisfied with the skills and knowledge levels of the graduates. The study concludes by recommending a national sanitation management higher education pathway to guide the provision of integrated sanitation/hygiene management education at higher education institutions (HEIs), to build effective, efficient, competent, and sufficient workforce for the country.

In this study, multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) detached from lighting sector's waste electrical-electronic equipment (WEEE) are characterised for the presence of rare earth elements (REEs) and precious metals (PMs). Their digestion was carried out with HNO3 & aqua regia on a heating plate and characterised with the use of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) & scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). The contents of REEs and PMs are 0.84 wt% and 0.60 wt%, respectively, and create an economic stored value in MLCCs that is essentially defined by PMs of 98.67% and by Pd 78.37%. The content of the main elements is: Nd 0.366 wt%, Y 0.220 wt%, Dy 0.131 wt%, Ag 0.467 wt%, and Pd 0.105 wt%. The results confirm the need of selective removal and separate recycling process of MLCCs from WEEE drivers.

Formal Calculation uses an auxiliary form to calculate various nested sums and provides results in three forms. In addition to computation, it is also a powerful tool for analysis, allowing one to study various numbers in a unified way. This article contains many results of two types of Stirling numbers, associated Stirling numbers, and Eulerian numbers, making a great generalization of Euler polynomials, Wilson's theorem, and Wolstenholme's theorem, showing that they are just special cases. Formal Calculation provides a novel method for obtaining combinatorial identities and analyzing q-binomial.This article has obtained a large number of results in q-analogues, including inversion formulas for q-binomial coefficients. This article also introduces a theorem on symmetry.

Criminal investigations aimed to track the route walked by Missing Persons and Fugitives (MPFs) usually involve Intelligence analysts, military planners, experts in mobile forensics, traditional investigative methods, and sniffer dog handlers. Notwithstanding, when MPFs are devoid of any technological device and move in uninhabited rural areas devoid of tele cameras and densely covered by vegetation, tracking backwards the route walked by MPFs may be a much more arduous task. In such complex cases, a very efficient approach may consist in comparing the geological traces found on the MPFs with soils and plants exposed in the event scenes. In particular, the search for peculiar or rare particles and aggregates may strengthen the weight of the geological evidence comparisons. A match of mineralogical, textural, and botanical data may demonstrate the provenance of the traces from the soil of a specific site, linking in this way the MPFs to the scene of events. Based on the above, the present paper reports geological and botanical determinations accomplished for a “mediatic” casework. Results allowed to ascertain a general high degree of compatibility among traces collected on the MPFs and on the soil from the scene of events. The most significant positive matches, based on the finding of a ten of peculiar and rare particles and assemblages, allowed reconstructing a route about 1.1 km long, as the crow flies, on the event site. Notwithstanding this procedure was extremely time consuming and available only in a backwards reconstruction linked to the MPFs’ findings, it was of uttermost importance in strengthen the inferences proposed, where other methods could not provide any information.

This article introduces the design and analysis of a slope detection circuit tailored for on-chip sensing of the load current in DC-DC converters. The novel indirect sensing approach is grounded in measuring the output voltage slope across the filtering capacitor during discharge phases. Consequently, this slope data can be effectively harnessed to control the converter switches. The slope detector circuit was designed in standard 65 nm CMOS technology using the nominal supply voltage of 1.2 V and can be used for current sensing within the range from one to hundreds of mA. Since the proposed circuit has mainly digital character, the robustness to process, temperature and supply voltage variations can be ensured rather conveniently.

The ankle is a complex joint with a high injury incidence. Rehabilitation Robotics applied to the ankle is a very active research field. We present cable-driven reconfigurable robot kinematics and statics. We studied how the tendons pull mid-foot bones around the talocrural and subtalar axes. Likewise, we propose a hybrid serial-parallel mechanism analogous to the ankle. Then, using screw theory, we synthesized a cable-driven robot with the human ankle in the closed-loop kinematics. We incorporate a draw-wire sensor to measure the axes’ pose and compute the product of exponentials. We reconfigure the cables to balance the tension and pressure forces using the axis projection on the base and platform planes. Likewise, we also computed the workspace to show that the reconfigurable design fits several sizes. The data used is from anthropometry and statistics. Finally, we validated the robot’s statics with MuJoCo for various cable length groups corresponding to the axes’ range of motion. We suggested a platform adjusting system and an alignment method. The design is lightweight, and the cable-driven robot has advantages over rigid parallel robots, such as Stewart platforms. We will use compliant actuators.

Nigeria's upstream oil and gas sector is extensively contributing to the economic growth of the country, but the sector is plagued with challenges around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and taxation practices. Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is introduced to tackle these challenges towards promoting sustainable development in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to explore the PIA’s provisions on CSR and taxation, identify the Act’s implementation challenges and improvement opportunities, propose an integrated framework for monitoring and evaluating the PIA’s impact on CSR and taxation over time, and recommend measures for enhancing PIA’s impact on CSR and taxation support for sustainable development in Nigeria's upstream oil and gas sector. This study adopts the qualitative desk review method to analyze existent literature, reports, and documents regarding PIA’s provisions on CSR and taxation. Findings reveal that the PIA’s provisions greatly emphasize CSR initiatives and taxation transparency in improving responsible ethical business behaviour. An integrated framework for monitoring and evaluating PIA’s impact over time is developed. This study concludes that the PIA's provisions can balance CSR and taxation practices for sustainable development. The study’s recommendations include using the integrated framework as a structured strategy for monitoring and evaluating the PIA’s impact. This study contributes to the discussion on the imperatives of ethical business practices and regulatory frameworks for sustainable development drive in the oil and gas sector.

A hydrophilic silica-based stationary phase with surface bound N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc-silica) was prepared in house and characterized physically via Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and chromatographically over a wide range of mobile phase compositions. While both FTIR and TGA confirmed the attachment of the GlcNAc ligands to the silica surface, the chromatographic evaluation of the GlcNAc-silica with polar and slightly polar standard solutes (e.g., sugars, nucleic acid fragments, phenolic and benzoic acid derivatives) yielded the typical hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) behaviors in the sense that retention increased with increased solute’s polarity and the organic content (i.e., acetonitrile) of the hydro-organic mobile phase (i.e., ACN-rich mobile phase). Sugars derivatized with 1-naphthylamine (1-NA) and 2-aminoanthrcene (2-AA) such as xylose, glucose and short chains maltooligosaccharides constituted the most polar species for HILIC retention evaluation, and in addition the maltooligosaccharides offered a polar homologous series for gauging the hydrophilicity of the GlcNAc-silica in analogy with alkylbenzene homologous series and other nonpolar homologous for evaluating the hydrophobicity of non-polar stationary phases. On the other hand, the benzoic acid and phenolic acid derivatives were the probe solutes for evaluating the HILIC retention dependence of ionizable solutes on the pH of the mobile phase. Similarly, the nucleobase and nucleoside weak basic solutes as well as some typical cyclic nucleotide acidic solutes allowed the examination of the dependence of solute retention on the pH of the mobile as well as the polarity of the species.

Cyanobacteria, microorganisms performing oxygenic photosynthesis, must adapt their metabolic processes to environmental challenges such as day and night changes. PipX, a unique regulatory protein from cyanobacteria provides a mechanistic link between signalling protein PII, a widely conserved (in bacteria and plants) transducer of carbon/nitrogen/energy richness, and the transcriptional regulator NtcA, which controls a large regulon involved in nitrogen assimilation. PipX is also involved in translational regulation by interaction with the ribosome-assembly GTPase EngA. However, increases of the PipX/PII ratio are toxic, presumably by abnormally increased binding of PipX to other partner(s). Here we present mutational and structural analyses of reported PipX-PII and PipX-NtcA complexes, leading to identification of single amino acid changes that decrease or abolish PipX toxicity. Four out of 11 mutations decreasing toxicity did not decrease PipX levels, suggesting that the targeted residues (F12, D23, L36, R54) provide toxicity determinants. In addition, one of those four mutations (D23A) argued against the over-activation of NtcA as the cause of PipX toxicity. Since most mutations at residues contacting PII decreased PipX levels, PipX stability would depend on its ability to bind to PII, a conclusion supported by the light-induced decrease in PipX levels observed in Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942.

The objective of this research is to analyze metal elements like Na (sodium), Mg (magnesium), Al (aluminum), Si (silicon), Pb (lead), K (potassium), Ca (calcium), and Fe (iron) found in dust particles within two distinct areas from which the sampling has been done. First sampling was taken from the road verge of a highly trafficked road section, while the second sampling was done in a residential garden area 90 m away from the road. Several metal elements have been detected, with a high difference for Silicon Si, which present higher concentrations in the dust sampled from the road verge area. Pb has only been detected in the samples taken from the road verge, which could be explained by residual remnants from old lead gasoline, and wheel weights. Additionally, airborne particulate matter (PM) concentrations have been measured, during the same episode, in comparison between the road verge and the garden area, presenting a substantial difference in the concentration levels, deducing that dense vegetation is protecting and blocking a majority of airborne PM. A literature highlight of health effects of different metal elements and PM concentrations is presented.

The globose scale (GS) (Sphaerolecanium prunastri Boyer de Fonscolombe) is a sucking insect that feeds on saps of wild apricot tree (Prunus armeniaca L.) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. It feeds on branches of wild apricot leading to poor growth, leaf yellowing and leaf drop, and sometimes mortality. Since the initial infestation in 2018, all the main valleys of wild apricot trees have been affected, but there is little research on the host’s physiological response to GS infestation. We measured the differences in growth between infested and non-infested wild apricots. The results showed that the diameter of shoot branches, the fresh weight, dry weight, length, width, area, and chlorophyll content of leaves, and the longitudinal diameter of fruit, were all significantly less for infested wild apricot trees than for un-infested wild apricot. The branch length of shoots, cross diameter, and weight of fruit also decreased, although the differences were not significant. Overall, GS infestation significantly reduced the growth of wild apricot trees, and may accelerate the damage by GS to wild apricot over time.

The introduction of digitization has changed all spheres of business on a global level, including geospatial data. In the Republic of Serbia, the process on this topic should begin with the introduction of the terms ePlan and eSpace. The general goal of the paper implies the construction and implementation of the ePlan as a future part of the eSpace for digital management of geospatial data, by creating co-creating value. For this purpose, the authors conducted research in which representatives of local self-governments and holders of public authority participated, by means of structured online research. The focus was on the digitization of urban and planning documents and the establishment a central database of spatial and planning documents in electronic format, and its further distribution through the one system. In that way, easy access to digital plan data expands the user community, and enables communication with different stakeholder groups. Ac-cording to the results of the research, the authors point out that it is necessary to form a new model for managing geospatial data through a eSpace system. This is achieved by shifting the focus from urban and spatial planning to other databases and their registers that are related to geospatial data. The goal of the paper indicates that it is necessary to raise the awareness of society, to introduce the concept of value co-creation, because conditions are created for the implementation of all measures aimed at digitization and management of electronic services in sustainable project society, at all countries.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) originated from an ancestral bidirectional gene (mirror symmetry) and through the evolution of the genetic code the twenty aaRSs exhibit a symmetrical distribution in a 6-dimensional hypercube of the Standard Genetic Code. In this work, we assume a primeval RNY code, and the Extended Genetic RNA code type II which includes codons of the type YNY, YNR and RNR. Each of the 4 subsets of codons can be represented in a 4-dimensional hypercube. Altogether these 4 subcodes constitute the 6-dimensional representation of the SGC. We identify the aaRSs' symmetry groups in each of these hypercubes. We show that each of the four hypercubes contains the following sets of symmetries for the two known Classes of synthetases: RNY: dihedral group D2; YNY: binary group Z2; YNR: amplified octahedral group Oh; and RNR: binary group Z2. We demonstrate that for each hypercube, the group of symmetries of Class 1 is the same as the group of symmetries of Class 2. The biological implications of these findings are discussed.

The inhibition of localised corrosion is known to involve multiple processes taking place over a range of time and length scales that are difficult to study by conventional electrochemical methods. This work demonstrates an approach to probing complex localised electrochemical processes by combining an electrochemically integrated multi-electrode array (also known as wire beam electrode (WBE)), scanning vibrating electrode technique, scanning electrochemical microscopy and surface analytical techniques. Each technique reveals certain aspects of the dynamically changing, multi-scale, inhibitor-microstructure interactions and local chemistry over a heterogeneous AA2024-T3 alloy surface in the presence of an environmentally friendly inhibitor; cerium diphenyl phosphate (Ce(dpp)3).

In this work, optimal consumption and investment strategies are derived for risk-averse investors under the 4/2 stochastic volatility class of models. We work under an expected utility (EUT) framework and consider a Constant Relative Risk Aversion (CRRA) investor, who might also be ambiguity-averse. The corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) and HJB-Isaacs (HJBI) equations are solved in closed-form for a subset of the parametric space and under some restrictions on the portfolio setting, for complete markets. Conditions for proper changes of measure and well defined solutions are provided. These are the first analytical solutions for the 4/2 stochastic volatility model and the embedded 3/2 model for the type of excess returns established in .

Medical Self-service Terminals (MST) offer potential for process optimization and enhanced patient convenience in hospitals, including the elderly. However, the behavioral inclination (BI) of elderly Chinese individuals towards MST adoption remains suboptimal. This study aims to elucidate BI determinants for MST among the aging demographic, focusing on User Interface (UI) attributes within the extended Unified Technology Acceptance and Use Theory (UTAUT) Model. The empirical inquiry examines seven factors, comprising three key UI attributes and four fundamental UTAUT factors. Results reveal significant positive associations of Performance Expectancy (β=0.40, p<0.001), Effort Expectancy (β=0.50, p<0.001), and Social Influence (β=0.25, p<0.05) with BI. Notably, User Interface Design positively correlates with Performance Expectancy (β=0.89, p<0.001) and Effort Expectancy (β=0.81, p<0.001). These findings emphasize the interplay between objective UI attributes and subjective UTAUT determinants. This research enhances understanding of UI's impact on MST BI and acceptance, particularly within the Chinese elderly population, urging MST researchers to prioritize elderly attitudes for effective technological integration in healthcare.

We explicate a traumatized child's narcissistic defense against trauma. Following a review of psychoanalytic understandings of trauma we explore the invocation of narcissistic defenses against trauma. The phenomenon of Nachträglichkeit or après-coup is explored, and the paper concludes with clinical illustration drawn from the experience of a young boy who suffered significant separation trauma during the Holocaust.

Current research on smart cities is primarily focused on the area of applicability of information and communication technologies. However, in the context of a multidisciplinary approach, it is also necessary to pay attention to the resilience and converged security of individual infrastructures. Converged security represents a particular security type based on a selected spectrum of certain convergent security types of, assuming the creation of a complementary whole. Considering the outputs of the analysis of security breaches manifestations, this kind of security makes it possible to detect emerging security breaches earlier (still in the symptom stage), thus providing a more efficient and targeted solution suitable for building smart city infrastructure. In its essence, the article refers the practical application of the theoretical principles of converged security presented in the publication to a functional sample, deployed and tested in practical conditions of selected smart city infrastructure protection and resilience. Considering the nature of the practical application, the convergence of a wider spectrum of smart security alarm systems in the context of resilience assessment is defined. In the beginning, the general principles of security/ safety and the need for their convergence are presented. In this context, the mathematical model called Converged Resilience Assessment method is presented for better understanding. Subsequently, PSIM and SIEM systems are described as a technological concept that can be used for resilience assessment. The most beneficial part is the structural, process and functional description of the Converged Security and Information Management System (CSIM) using the concept of smart security alarm systems converged security.

To provide the population with food, it is very important to re-cultivate "abandoned lands" that have been retired from agricultural use. Conversion of arable land into agricultural abandoned lands in the south of Kazakhstan is, first of all, was primarily associated with salinity. For the purposes of sustainable development, there is a need to develop proposals for re-mastering by studying their current state, reviewing world studies on the reclamation of salt-affected soils. Therefore, this study was devoted to the study of the current environmental and reclamation conditions of the abandoned lands of Otyrar district in the south Kazakhstan, as well as discussion and recommendations on their development. In the course of the research, the historical method is used in the study of the emergence and formation of abandoned lands, the method of geographical analysis during the territorial analysis of the research object, the statistical and comparison methods in showing the complexity and intensity of the problems, the cartographic, geo-informational and field research (reconnaissance) methods in the study of the condition of the abandoned lands in the research object and methods of grouping and analysis were used in the work with scientific data on the topic of research. By deciphering space images with the help of geoinformation technologies, it was revealed that the area of abandoned lands in the research object is 13688.9 ha, including the area of non-saline soils – 83.9 ha, weakly saline soils – 984.4 ha, medium saline soils – 2398.3 ha, highly saline soils – 10222,1 ha. A review of the methods and technologies proposed by scientists for the development and melioration of salt-affected lands was made. Taking into account the ecological and reclamation state of the object of research along with the material and technical capabilities of farms, 2 methods of developing abandoned lands (organic and agro-innovative) in the research object are proposed and the need for their use in case of soil salinization has been scientifically justified.

In order to investigate the relationship between government policy, the service and design of rural crowdsourcing spaces, the self-efficacy of returning youth, and the innovation performance of businesses, this study focuses on gathering data by distributing questionnaires to returning youth in rural crowdsourcing spaces and developing a structural model. The results demonstrate how important government policies are in encouraging youth entrepreneurship in their local communities. It has the potential to enhance both the development of rural crowdsourcing spaces and the self-efficacy of young entrepreneurs, thereby enhancing the innovative capabilities of local entrepreneurial businesses. Therefore, in order to encourage economic development in rural areas, the government should improve pertinent support measures.

The European Union of Aquarium Curators (EUAC) includes 150 members and is an important association for the European public aquarium community. Since 2004, over one quarter of a million euros were awarded by the EUAC Conservation Fund to approximately 50 projects, which spanned across the globe. While projects varied greatly in content and scope, several achieved a significant impact in local populations and/or their focus species. This paper reports on results achieved by these conservation efforts and what improvements can be made, to ensure that the funding is indeed invested in conservation efforts per se. Perhaps the most valid conclusion to be drawn from the list of projects covered in this work is the fact that, regardless of the outcome, as far as preservation of the species are concerned, local communities were actively engaged in a subject that would, otherwise, remain unknown to them. Additionally, these EUAC funded projects highlight how public aquarium activities reach far beyond the acrylic panels surrounding the tanks and indeed the walls of the institution, as they spread around the world and raise awareness within local communities to preserve biodiversity. These results further suggest that a future direction for EUAC, as well as the public aquaria it consists of, could – indeed should - include more strenuous lobbying with legislating bodies, to ensure more adequate – and stronger – in situ conservation measures. In conclusion, with so many doubts being raised by different movements about the existence of aquaria and zoos, it is important that the public is aware that it is their visit to see the ambassadors of different species of animals that supports the funding of many of these pilot projects that aim to preserve species in their natural environment.

The use of cemented aeolian sand-fly ash backfill (CAFB) material to fill the mining area to improve the surface subsidence damage caused by underground coal mining is in the development stage. Their performance with large overflow water and strength loss is not well understood. Few research has been conducted to understand the effects of aeolian sand and coal gangue on the rheological properties of CAFB with plasticizers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a plasticizer on the rheological properties, specifically yield stress and viscosity, of CAFB prepared with aeolian sand and coal gangue. CAFB mixes containing 0%, 0.05%, and 0.1% plasticizer were prepared, and yield stress and viscosity were determined at different time intervals over the period. Additional tests, such as thermal analysis and zeta potential analysis were also conducted. It was found that the rheological properties of CAFB is the comprehensive manifestation of the composite characteristics of various models. Reasonable particle size distribution and less amount of plasticizer can ensure the stability of slurry structure, reduce the slurry settlement and the risk of pipe blocking. The findings of this study will be beneficial in the design and production of CAFB material.

Previous research on the relative benefits of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems (AACs) has indicated controversial results regarding the effectiveness, the ease of use, and the preference for the different systems. The study aims to observe the comparative effectiveness of two different Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and a speech-generating device (SGD), as communication aids for children with autism. Three children with severe autism and minimally verbally or with no functional language participated. The results showed an increase of communicative behavior with both AAC intervention strategies and a speed acquisition time slightly shorter for the SGD training. Two of the three participants showed a preference for the use of the SGD. Reduction in problem behaviors and improvement in vocal production was observed for one of the participants. Results suggest that PECS and SGD are similarly appropriate for the development of initial request skills and that they can encourage vocal production in students with specific prerequisites.

This paper uses a qualitative case study to investigate the experiences of Korean special education teachers who instruct children with disabilities from multicultural families. Through a purposive sampling method, study participants were chosen from a pool of individuals that the Korean multicultural support center recommended. These individuals are special teachers who are currently teaching children with disabilities from multicultural families. The qualitative case study approach used in this study seeks to elicit the participants’ experiences of teaching their students with special needs. The teachers’ experiences were analyzed and categorized into two main categories: 1) a mother's lack of Korean linguistic ability and 2) governmental and societal support for multicultural special education. Additionally, results also produced four sub-categories and seventeen minor categories. Such analyses lead to a greater understanding of the intricacies of educating children with special needs. Lastly, the implications of this study provide direction for future policy--including social welfare and educational support—that will meet the needs of multicultural families raising children with disabilities.

Bhutan located in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region consists of several glaciers and glacial lakes at higher elevations.  With the rapid change in global temperature, glaciers are found to melt at an accelerated rate. This rapid melt of glaciers gets accumulated in weak moraine walls forming a glacial lake, posing a major threat to the downstream communities. As per the Bhutan Glacial Lake Inventory 2021, Bhutan has 567 glacial lakes. Furthermore, the Phochhu basin has the maximum glacial lakes (0.05%) and of which 9 are PDGL. Hence a need for a time monitoring system is imminent. With the availability of free High-resolution Satellite Imageries and Advanced Remote Sensing tools, it has been a sine qua no for monitoring glacial lakes in high areas. Therefore, using the Google Earth Engine and Qgis Platform a semi-automated technique was used to generate glacial lake inventories for Phochhu Sub-basin for the year 2021.  We found out that there are 166 glacial lakes covering an area of 24.051 km2.

The artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT can answer questions and solve tasks posed by the user within seconds. Using an exemplary task, this study investigates the reliability and con-sistency of the answers given by ChatGPT. For this purpose, it was analyzed whether the an-swers differ when a question is asked repeatedly and whether selected content categories and associated word combinations coincide with those from scientific literature. ChatGPT was asked 400 times, how the connectedness between humans and nature can be increased. The responses were classified into a categorization system and the most frequently occurring word combina-tions for each category were extracted. These word combinations were used for a search of re-lated scientific literature. In addition, the Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) between the 400 individual responses was calculated. The results show that the phrases used by ChatGPT within the categories are also found in the scientific literature, however, the number of mentions between scientific literature and ChatGPT differs. In addition, the NMI suggested that there are large differences between the categories mentioned in the individual answers. These results in-dicate that ChatGPT currently still has difficulties in answering complex questions and cannot yet replace scientific literature research or academic writing.

The Victorian Government Inquiry into wildfires that killed 173 people in 2009 has driven an Australian policy shift from self-evacuation or staying and defending a well-prepared property (‘go or stay’) to self-evacuation under catastrophic fire weather (‘leave early’). The Inquiry also led to the establishment of national ‘performance standards’ for Private Fire Shelters (PFS, that also known as bunkers). Nonetheless, incorporation of PFS into national bushfire policy remains embryonic with only Victoria having streamlined accreditation and planning approval processes. Arguments against PFS include potentially engendering complacency about preparing dwellings to survive fire and encourage risky behavior in response to a fire threat. Counteracting these arguments is research that shows that residents without PFS have low engagement with bushfire preparation and typically delay evacuation. In any case, because wildfire is unpredictable it is accepted that self-evacuation plans must have fallback positions that include sheltering ‘in place’ from the bushfire, making properly used and well maintained PFS an important element of bushfire safety. A less discussed barrier to PFS uptake outside Victoria appears to hinge on a lack of clarity about obligations for their design, certification, and consistency with planning approvals. The escalating Australian fire crisis demands much greater research and development in legal frameworks, policy and planning processes for PFS, as well as design and construction standards.

Targeted cancer therapy has grown exponentially in the last decade, representing the largest frontier in the modern concept of precision medicine. This renaissance is largely due to our rapidly evolving ability to biochemically harness our immune systems to target cancer-specific antigens. Combined with an increasing armamentarium of surgical and non-invasive techniques for cancer mitigation we have upgraded cancer therapy from a non-specific assault on cell-division to a multi-modal, targeted approach. This renaissance has resulted in an increase in the perioperative footprint of patients with advanced cancer. The scope of the perioperative clinician has evolved from one of passive/reactive management of complications to a proactive approach that starts in the preoperative optimization phase and continues into the postoperative period. The perioperative world should not exist in a silo, and thus involvement of the oncology team is paramount. To provide safe oncologic care, it is essential to be up to date in newer cancer therapies, lest we act on erroneous and/or outdated information. Oncologists should weigh in on immune status, recent chemotherapeutic exposures, and potentially evolving toxicities. These might involve critical changes to perioperative infectious prophylaxis, steroid administration, and coagulopathy management. First, patients living beyond the typical life-expectancy for their cancer will carry a high burden of cancer-related downstream effects. General metabolic issues will include malnutrition, cachexia, and gastric outlet obstruction. Severe protein-calorie malnutrition, as well as hepatic and renal dysfunction can impact the metabolism and clearance of drugs. The cardiovascular, endocrinologic, pulmonary, and central nervous system implications of new cancer therapies will be discussed extensively below. Second, we have to enhance our ability to manage a cancer population who may be experiencing increasing novel chemotherapeutic toxicities. Newer agents differ from historical agents, which were blunt-force tools aimed at nonspecific destruction of cell-division. These drugs are efficacious but physiologically costly. Newer immunogenic therapies have a slightly improved acute safety profile, and a more complex chronic toxicity profile that may be overt or insidious. Chronic toxicities can present overtly or as a smoldering undertone to other active medical conditions such as sepsis, pneumonia, failure to thrive, or renal failure. The new therapies discussed in this review occur in the context of an overall increasingly multi-faceted cancer care machine. An example is screening for esophageal cancer in patients with Barrett's esophagus, or periodic chest CTs for patients with a strong history of tobacco use. These interventions are more likely to detect disease while it is still resectable, and resections will commonly accompany neo-adjuvant therapy. These approaches commonly involve new immunotherapies whose efficacy is higher-yield with a lower disease burden. In a recent example, the immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) ipilimumab plus nivolumab have significantly increased survival rate for squamous cell esophageal cancer when combined with standard chemotherapy. Surgical resection has evolved to one that often accompanies neoadjuvant chemo and radiation. The increasing efficacy of this approach may de-necessitate many major resections, and increase the number of sub-anatomic resections and minimally invasive procedures. Improved techniques - notably for hepatectomy, whipple procedure, prostatectomy, nephrectomy - have increased the safety profile and decreased the perioperative physiologic burden. This has enabled a broader subset of patients (due to cancer burden or due to medical comorbidities) to qualify for the operation, and increased the involvement of anesthesia and their perioperative services. With an increase in surgical candidacy comes an increase in post-surgical complications, and post-surgical maintenance such as drains, embolizations, imaging studies, etc. In the non-OR anesthesia realm, there have been considerable advancements in cancer “micro-treatments” such as hepatic metastasis embolization, tumor ablation, and peri-tumor vascular embolization. There are an ever-increasing number of IR-guided embolizations for bleeding tumors, aspiration of malignant effusions, and drainage of abscesses. This review serves to provide insight into new categories of chemotherapy and their perioperative implications.

Single particle analysis with cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) can determine high resolution structures of macromolecular assemblies. To reconstruct final three-dimension(3D) density map, a reliable initial model is essential and ab-initio reconstruction usually can avoid model bias. The grand challenge for ab-initio reconstruction is to alignment two-dimension(2D) low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of particle images with random and unknown parameters. Here we formulate a fast ab initio reconstruction method(named AlignFM) based on Fourier Mellin transform and particle-swarm intelligence optimization(PSO) algorithm. It enables simultaneous 2D alignment and 3D refinement, which can fast generate a reliable 3D map. After experiments on several real datasets. AlignFM shows high performance on fast ab initio reconstruction with a small amount of data.

In this study, we introduce a new class of bi-univalent functions using q-Janowski Function. We derive the Fekete-Szegö functional problems for functions in this new subclass, as well as estimates for the Taylor-Maclaurin coefficients |α2| and |α3|. Furthermore, a collection of fresh outcomes are3 presented by customizing the parameters employed in our initial discoveries.

Yaw misalignment can make a wake steer, which is an effective method to increase the power of wind farms, but it also increases the fatigue load of the turbines. In this paper, the method of combining yaw misalignment and pitch control (CYMP) is proposed to investigate the potential to mitigate wake interference, the wind velocity distribution and turbulence distribution in the wake, as well as the power and load changes of the wind turbine are studied, focusing on power in-crement and fatigue damage reduction. Although some studies have found that the method of CYMP are beneficial to increase power generation and reduce fatigue loads, there are no papers that have made a detailed analysis of the effects of wake turbulence, wind speed distribution, power, especially fatigue damage under this control. Simulation tool FAST.Farm is used to model and analyze wind farms, obtain the variation details of wake and provide simulation data for calculating power and fatigue load. The pitch control brings bias to the CYMP optimization results was neglected, the case studies show that the method of CYMP can reduce the fatigue load by 10.29% and increase the total power by 1.7% compared with only wake steering. The Model Predictive Control collaborative method based on CYMP is proposed, which can increase power by more than 2% and reduce thrust by more than 4% under 10m/s turbulent wind.

Here we have chosen to highlight the main natural molecules extracted from camellia sinensis, andrographis paniculata and curcuma longa that may possess antioxidant activities of interest for skin protection. The molecules involved, in the antioxidant process are respectively catechins derivatives, in particular EGCG, andrographolide and its derivatives as well as various curcuminoids. These plants are generally used as beverages for camellia sinensis (tea tree), as dietary supplements or as spices. The molecules they contain are known for their diverse therapeutic activities, including anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-cancer, antidiabetic and dermatological treatment. Their common antioxidant activities and therapeutic applications are widely documented, but their use in cosmetic is more recent. In this review, we will endeavor to compile the cosmetic uses of these natural molecules of interest, the various structural modulations reported, with the aim of improving their bioavailability as well as establishing their different mechanisms of action.

It is crucial to immediately curb the spread of a disease once an outbreak is identified in a pandemic. An agent based simulator will enable the policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of different hypothetical strategies and policies with a higher level of granularity. This will allow them to identify the vulnerabilities and asses the threat level more effectively, which in turn can be used to build resilience within the community against a pandemic. This study proposes a PanDemic SIMulator (PDSIM ) which is capable of modeling complex environments while simulating realistic human motion patterns. The ability of PDSIM to track the infection propagation patterns, contact paths, places visited, characteristics of people, vaccination, and testing information of the population, allows the user to check the efficacy of different containment strategies and testing protocols. The results obtained based on the case studies of Covid-19 are used to validate the proposed model. However, it is highly extendable to all pandemics in general, enabling robust planning for more sustainable communities.

Background: Caregivers of asthmatic children have poor knowledge of proper asthma man-agement practices in Nigeria. The objective of this study was to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviors of caregivers in the management of asthma in children under age 5 in Oyo State, Nigeria, using the Health Belief Model. Methods: While a mixed method was used in the original research, this brief describes the quantitative method used in this study to evaluate caregiver’s asthma management practices A 55-item questionnaire investigating childhood asthma knowledge, attitude, and practice was administered during child welfare clinic visits to 118 caregivers. To gain insights into caregivers’ beliefs about asthma management practice behavior, focus group discussions were conducted among two groups of 10 caregivers. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Version 25.0. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 and 95% CI. Result: More than 70% of caregivers knew that asthma is associated with airway inflammation and about 90% knew that Flu infections triggered asthma attacks in their children. Overall, 70% of caregivers from the focus group discussions found preventive measures including avoidance of common triggers like dust and smoke, wearing warm clothes in cold weather, environmental sanitation, regular visits to the clinic, and medication adherence helpful. Similarly, caregivers reported the use of quick-to-relieve OTC drugs rather than seeking medical attention. Caregivers with higher income (OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.558-5.778; P = 0.001) were 3.0 times more likely to practice proper asthma behavior than those with a lesser income. Conclusion: Despite having moderate knowledge of asthma, caregivers of asthmatic children had wrong perceptions and inadequate knowledge about preventive and treatment options. An optimal public health approach is needed to identify and target underserved communities that suffer poorer asthma outcomes and improve caregivers’ knowledge and skills in asthma management practices. The need to pay more attention to the proper management of childhood asthma among caregivers in underserved populations cannot be overemphasized.

Accurately predicting the power of solar power generation can greatly reduce the impact of the randomness and volatility of power generation on the stability of the power grid system, which is beneficial for the balanced operation and optimized dispatch of the power grid system, and reduces operating costs. Solar PV power generation depends on weather conditions, which are prone to large fluctuations under different weather conditions. Its power generation is characterized by randomness, volatility and intermittency. Recently, the demand for further investigation and effective use on the uncertainty of short-term solar PV power generation prediction has been getting increasing attention in many application of renewable energy sources. In order to improve the predictive accuracy of output power of solar PV power generation and develop a precise predictive model, the authors worked predictive algorithms for the output power of a solar PV power generation system. Moreover, since short-term solar PV power forecasting is one of the important aspects for optimizing the operation and control of renewable energy systems and electricity markets, this review focuses on the predictive models of solar PV power generation, which can be verified in the daily planning and operation of a smart grid system. In addition, the predictive methods in the reviewed literature are classified according to the input data source used for accurate predictive models, and the case studies and examples proposed are analyzed in detail. The contributions, advantages and disadvantages of the predictive probabilistic methods are compared. Finally, the future studies of short-term solar PV power forecasting is proposed.

Keywords: head-and-neck cancer; chemoradiation; cisplatin; carboplatin; loco-regional control; metastases-free survival; overall survival; toxicity.

The owners of forests with water protection functions in Bulgaria do not receive compensation for their limited right to use wood and non-wood forest products from the forest areas they own. At the same time, the contribution derived from forests with water protection functions is received by water users and water consumers, whereas the costs of managing the forests are borne by their owners. The problem thus defined is not a forestry one, but an economic one, and the purpose of this paper ensues therefrom, namely to propose and test a methodology for valuating the produc-tion function of forest areas with water protection function in Bulgaria, allowing a fair distribu-tion of income between the forest owner and the user of forest ecosystem services. The methodol-ogy is based on the form of forest management and the analytical expression of the economic rela-tionship between a forest owner and a user of forest ecosystem services, constructed using Schen-rock’s formula. It has been tested with actual data on forest areas with water protection functions falling within the administrative and territorial scope of Velingrad municipality and based on the obtained results proposals have been made for the distribution of the contributions generated by forest ecosystems between the forest owner and the user of the forest ecosystem services.

Insulator defect detection is of great significance to compromise the stability of the power transmission line. The state-of-the-art network of object detection, YOLOv5, has been widely used on insulator and defect detection. However, YOLOv5 network has some limitations like poor detection rate and high computational loads in detecting small insulator defects. To solve these problems, we proposed a light-weight network for insulator and defect detection. In this network, we introduced Ghost module into YOLOv5 backbone and neck to reduce the parameters and model size to enhance the performance in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Besides, we added small object detection anchors and layers for small defect detection. In addition, we optimized the backbone of YOLOv5 by applying convolutional block attention module (CBAM) to focus on critical information for insulator and defect detection and suppress uncritical information. The experiment result shows the mean average precision (mAP) 0.5 and the mAP0.5:0.95 of our model can reach 99.4% and 91.7%, the parameters and model weight are reduced to 3807372 and 8.79M, which can easily deploy to embedded devices like UAVs. And the speed of detection can reach 10.9ms/image, which can meet the real-time detection requirement.

The prognosis of patients with recurrent or metastatic of the head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC) refractory to platinum-based chemotherapy is severe and, consequently, the identification of therapeutic options for this category of patients is a priority. Nivolumab, an anti- programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) monoclonal antibody, has been approved for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic HNSCC after platinum-based therapy progressing. We present the early experience of two academic center including diagnostic, clinical, biological, therapeutic and outcomes characteristics of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients treated with Nivolumab. The purpose of the study is to identify certain peculiarities and to report them compared to the data from the literature in order to generate some hypotheses that coud constitute criteria for the selection of cases with maximum benefit to immunotherapy. Analyzing the data obtained from 18 patients treated in Emergency County Hospital Craiova, "Saint Nectarie" Oncological Hospital Craiova and Euroclinic Oncological Center Iasi January 2020 and March 2023 it could be hypothesized that lower nadir values of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (<3.5) and the adition of intensive regimens of chemotherapy and radiotherapy could justify a favorable response in terms of progression free survival (PFS) during immunotherapy with Nivolumab. To our knowledge, the study included the first two cases of second primary malignancy (SPM) in the head neck region treated with Nivolumab. The reported data support a possible benefit of the sequential administration of radiotherapy, immunotherapy for SPM cases. Higher positive dynamic of neutrophil to lymphocyt ratio (NLR) could be associated with worst outcome during immunotherapy. All study observations including the role of infections and antibiotic treatment as well as the possible biomarker value of NLR variation during immunotherapy should be investigated in multicenter clinical trials.

The compilation summarizes results so far gathered in a project that investigates the atom with classical (Newtonian) physics. It posits that the atom’s wave-particle dual nature is real, objective and intrinsic; the wave gives rise to the cosmic vacuum field while the particle, of course, manifests condensed matter. Light’s π radians oscillation manifests, on molar scale, significant radial tension in the vacuum field, the effect, amongst others, causes molecular matter to precipitate out of the vacuum – so-called ‘molecular outflow’. Cosmic vacuum field radial tension relates to molecular mass, in other words, a mass-radius (M-R) relationship is uncovered. It is argued that using the M-R relation it is possible to perform a valid simulation of the cosmic physical reality. The three states of matter are meaningfully accounted for using the atom’s e-m radiation wavelength. It is explained that force, be it of any kind whatsoever, originates in the atomic waveform, i.e., the cosmic vacuum field.

Oil spills may have devastating effects on marine ecosystems, public health, the economy, and coastal communities. Therefore, scientific literature contains various up-to-date, advanced oil spill predictive models, capable to simulate the trajectory and evolution of an oil slick generated by the accidental release from ships, hydrocarbons production, or other activities. To predict in near real time oil spill transport and fate with increased reliability these models are usually coupled operationally to synoptic meteorological, hydrodynamic, and wave models. The present study reviews the available different met-ocean forcings that have been used in oil spill modeling, simulating hypothetical or real oil spill scenarios, worldwide. Nine state-of-the-art oil spill models are critically examined in terms of the met-ocean data used as forcing inputs in the simulation of twenty-four case studies. Results illustrate that most oil spill models are coupled to different resolution, forecasting meteorological and hydrodynamic models, posing, however, limited consideration in the forecasted wave field (expressed as the significant wave height, the wave period and the Stokes drift) that may affect oil transport, especially at the coastal areas. Moreover, the majority of oil spill models lacks any linkage to the background biogeochemical conditions, hence, limited consideration is given in processes like oil biodegradation, photo-oxidation and sedimentation. Future advancements in oil spill modeling should be directed towards the full operational coupling with high-resolution atmospheric, hydrodynamic, wave, and biogeochemical models, improving our understanding in the relative impact of each physical and oil weathering process.

The high morbidity and mortality rate of the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is partially explained by the metabolic deregulation associated with the disease. The present study identified statistically significant increase of the glucose transporter solute carrier family 2 (Slc2a1), beta nerve growth factor (Ngf), and nuclear factor erythroid derived 2, like 2 (Nfe2l2) on three standard PAH rat models and their healthy counterpart. PAH was induced by subjecting the animals to hypoxia (HO group) or by injecting them with monocrotaline in either normal (CM) or hypoxic (HM) atmospheric conditions. The Western blot and double immunofluorescent experiments were complemented with the gene expression profiling of the animal lungs analyzed from the perspective of the Genomic Fabric Paradigm. We found substantial remodeling of the genomic fabrics of the citrate cycle, pyruvate metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and fructose and manose pathways. According to the novel transcriptomic distance criterion, the most comprehensive measure of the transcriptomic alteration, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis was the most affected functional pathway in all three PAH models. PAH decoupled the coordinated expression of many metabolic genes and replaced Pmm2 with Pmm1 in the center of the fructose and mannose metabolism. Our data show that metabolic dysregulation is a major pathogenic factor of the PAH.

Infection with the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus type 1 (PRRSV-1) has serious economic consequences for the pig industry. Swine practitioners and other agricultural advisors often describe an increase in antibiotic use when PRRSV-1 is circulating. Our objective was to assess the impact of PRRSV-1 stabilization programmes on reducing antibiotic use. The study was carried out on 19 French farrow-to-finish farms that successfully implemented a PRRSV-1 stabilization protocol between 2007 and 2019. For each farm, antibiotic consumption (expressed in mg/PCU and ALEA) were compared one year before (P1) and one year after (P2) the implementation of such a protocol and the change between P1 and P2 were calculated in percentages. Data were then analysed by level of consumption. Antibiotic use decreased significantly between P1 and P2 if expressed in mg/PCU and showed a decreased tendency in terms of exposure (ALEA). Concerning the change from P1 to P2, our results showed that the higher consumption levels in P1, the greater antibiotic reduction in P2. This study highlights the ability of a stabilization protocol against PRRSV-1 to reduce antibiotic use, especially on farms that have high consumption. These hopeful results show that further investigations about the relationship between PRRSV-1 and antibiotic usage could be beneficial.

Promoting the use of solar energy resources has always faced the challenges of instability and supply-demand mismatch. The key to solving these issues is to efficiently store and utilize solar energy resources using high-performance heat storage devices. This study designed a high-performance shell-and-tube phase change thermal storage device and established a numerical model using ANSYS software to summarize the device's dynamic melting law. To verify the accuracy of the numerical simulation, a performance testing platform for the phase change thermal storage device was built to investigate the impact of factors such as inlet water temperature, inlet water flow rate, type of heat storage, and initial temperature of the device, and to reveal the change law of the device's performance. The results show that the inlet water temperature has the most significant impact on the device's heat storage and release performance. When the device's heat storage or release is used for heating, changing the inlet water flow rate has a weak and limited effect on the device's performance. However, when the device's heat release is used to provide domestic hot water, increasing the makeup water temperature and reducing the inlet water flow rate can significantly improve the device's effective heat release. Furthermore, based on the experimental validation of the model's correctness, this study further simulated and studied the impact of different factors on the device's heat storage process to optimize its structural design and provide technical references for the device's actual operation and installation. The results show that the placement of fins has a negligible effect on the performance of the heat storage device while reducing the fin spacing and increasing the fin thickness can significantly improve the melting efficiency of the phase change material (PCM). Additionally, the heat storage characteristics of the device are significantly better in the vertical installation mode than in the horizontal installation mode. This study provides theoretical guidance and technical references for the design and use of phase change thermal storage devices.

As the first pilot ecological civilization zone in China, Fujian Province has an excellent ecological environment quality, and its ecological environment-related indices continue to be among the highest in the country. In order to investigate the causes of the excellent ecological quality in Fujian Province in the past 15 years, this paper selects MODIS images, land use data and provincial and municipal statistical yearbook data of Fujian province from 2005 to 2020 as data sources, evaluates the ecological system health of Fujian Province by remote-sensing ecological index (i.e. RSEI), constructs the land use intensity system of Fujian Province at the same time, and uses a coupled coordination model to analyze the coupling between RSEI and The coupled coordination model was used to analyze the coupling relationship between RSEI and land use intensity, and finally the spatial and temporal evolution of ecological health in Fujian Province from 2005 to 2020 was analyzed. The results show that the coupled coordination between land use intensity and ecosystem health in Fujian province showed a continuous increase between 2005 and 2020, especially in Ningde, where the increase was most significant, from 0.0993 to 0.963, this pattern of spatial distribution is lower in the south-eastern coastal region than in the north-western interior, higher in the south-western region than in the north-western region, and higher in the north-eastern region than in the south-eastern region. In terms of the type of role, the land use intensity of most cities in Fujian Province in 2005 played an obvious role in blocking the degree of ecosystem health, but as time changed, urban land use continued to be optimized and reached moderate or even high quality coordination with the quality of the ecological environment, but Xiamen City developed relatively slowly and its 2020 coupling degree value was 0.315, which was still in mild disorder. This study fills a gap in the research mechanism of the interaction between the degree of ecosystem health and land use intensity, and also provides a new perspective for the construction of ecological civilization and the assessment of the degree of ecosystem health in Fujian Province and the whole country.

This article proposes the multilayer and multilevel cosmological model, on average, balanced with respect to the Einsteinian vacuum. This hierarchical model is based on 10 possible Kottler solutions of the extended Einstein's field equations. The extension of the Einstein field equations is associated with the addition of an infinite number of lambda_j-terms to these equations with the condition that the series (i.e., the total sum) of these terms converges to zero. A simplified ten-layer and ten-level case is considered, in which ten spherical formations are sequentially nested into each other like "nesting dolls", while the radii of these spherical formations correspond to the characteristic sizes of a discrete sequence of observed spherical objects: metagalaxy core, galactic cores, stellar (planet) core, biological cells and nuclei of atoms and elementary particles, etc. As an example, from the general ten-level (hierarchical) solution of extended Einstein's field equations, two antipodal spherical formations with a core radius commensurate with the classical electron radius are singled out. Therefore, the metric-dynamic models of these formations obtained in this way are called «electron» and «positron». The article is aimed at the development of differential geometry and the program for the complete geometrization of physics by Clifford-Einstein-Wheeler.

Based on a reflection on the tensions between play, education, and learning in early childhood, this article aims to identify and analyze the factors that limit or negatively condition the possibilities for play at school during the transition between Early Childhood Education and Primary Education in Chile. The study was conducted in four Chilean schools, with the Transition Levels of Chilean Early Childhood Education (children aged 4 and 5) and the first two levels of Primary Education (children aged 6 and 7). Based on an ethnographic approach, we combined 22 ethnographic observation days spread over two consecutive years and 59 interviews of various types with children, educators, and parents. The results show structural-material limitations on school play that mainly affect children in Primary Education. Beyond, factors associated with routines, indications, and statements governing functioning and participation in this level tend to limit or prevent play, often considered a "non-legitimate" activity. Conclusions highlight the potentialities that children's restricted or resisted play can present in terms of learning.

We have shown that according to the predictions of the standard quantum theory, signaling is possible using a postponed compensation Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer, although it violates Lorentz invariance. We argue that new physics is required to deal with such a paradox. Either quantum principles or relativity needs reassessment. We propose an experiment that can decide whether relativity rules over quantum or vice versa.

The cultivation of berry crops by the type of "intensive plantings" is an economic and scientific approach in modern horticulture. The principles of forming a red currant assortment adapted to mechanized harvesting are considered. The bush should be compact for mechanized harvesting and have a straight-growing or slightly spreading shape. The morphological structure of the bush is a feature determined by the genotype. The ripening period of berries and the mechanical parameters of berries assess the effectiveness of the berry harvesting process. With the help of agrotechnical techniques, the mechanical parameters of berries cannot be improved and are de-termined by weather, soil, water, and climatic factors. The present study was conducted in the 2021-2022 season using 14 red currant genotypes of different geographical and genetic origins to assess cultivars' suitability for machine harvesting. In most of the studied cultivars, berry quality indicators, the parameters of separation force (Fs) and crushing force (Fc) decreased by the time of biological maturity of the genotype. Several cultivars have shown a non-simultaneous decrease in Fs and Fc. A minor limiting feature determines the duration of harvesting. The high correlation of Fs and Fc (R=0.75-0.85) allows us to predict the most significant period for the high-quality operation of a mechanized harvester. There was no dependence of the strength of the attachment of berries to the peduncle on the thickness of the skin of the berries. Jonkheer Van Tets, Red Lake, Rovada, Rolan, Vika, Asya, and Niva can be attributed to technological cultivars as sources of compact and erect bush habit, Jonkheer Van Tets, Rovada, Rolan, Vika, and Asya are recommended for mechanized harvesting.

The presence of the quantum Rayleigh scattering, or spontaneous emission, inside a dielectric medium such as a beam splitter or an interferometric filter, prevents a single-photon from propagating in a straight-line. Modelling a beam splitter by means of a unitary transformation is physically meaningless because of the loss of photons. Additional missing elements from the conventional theory are: 1) the quantum Rayleigh stimulated emission which can form groups of photons of the same frequencies, and 2) the unavoidable parametric amplification of single-photons in the original parametric crystal. An interference filter disturbs, through multiple internal reflections, the original stream of single-photons, thereby confirming the existence of groups of photons being spread out to lengthen the coherence time. The approach of modelling individual, single measurements with statistical ensemble probability amplitudes leads to the counterintuitive explanations of the experimental outcomes and should be replaced with pure states describing instantaneous measurements which are afterwards averaged.

In the Mediterranean, the probability of tsunamis is lower than in other coastal areas such as the Pacific Ring, where tsunamis are more familiar and memory of past events and anticipatory signals and protective measures is preserved by local culture, along with media and scientific sources, therefore tsunami risk is more likely to be downplayed or neglected. Past research identified socio-demographic and spatial factors that may affect tsunami risk perception. This research is based on a sample of 5842 CATI interviews to investigate whether and how risk perception and risk knowledge were affected by a major event such as the 1908 Reggio Calabria Messina tsunami, by making a comparison between areas hit by that event and unaffected areas, also providing some explanatory hypotheses. Despite differences between Calabria and Sicily, data anyway show higher levels of tsunami risk perception in the area affected by the 1908 event, along with a major role of interpersonal sources, playing a relevant role in information gathering and understanding. Research also suggests the need to better integrate different sources of knowledge to improve people’s understanding as to effectively cope with tsunami risk.

Background: MR image classification in datasets collected from multiple sources is complicated by inconsistent and missing DICOM metadata. Therefore, we aimed to establish a method for the efficient automatic classification of MR brain sequences. Methods: Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) were trained as one-vs-all classifiers to differentiate between six classes, T1 weighted (w), contrast-enhanced T1w, T2w, T2w-FLAIR, ADC, and SWI. Each classifier yields a probability, allowing threshold-based and relative probability assignment while excluding images with low probability (label: unknown, open-set recognition problem). Data from three high-grade glioma (HGG) cohorts was assessed; C1 (320 patients, 20101 MRI images) was used for training, while C2 (197, 11333) and C3 (256, 3522) were for testing. Two raters manually checked images through an interactive labeling tool. Finally, MR-Class' added value was evaluated via radiomics models' performance for progression-free survival (PFS) prediction in C2, utilizing the concordance index (C-I). Results: Approximately 10% of annotation errors were observed in each cohort between the DICOM series descriptions and the derived labels. MR-Class accuracy was 96.7% [95%-Cl: 95.8, 97.3] for C2 and 94.4% [93.6, 96.1] for C3. 620 images were misclassified; Manual assessment of those frequently showed motion artifacts or alterations of anatomy by large tumors. Implementation of MR-Class increased on average the PFS model C-I by 14.6% compared to a model trained without MR-Class. Conclusions: We provide a DCNN-based method for sequence classification of brain MR images and demonstrate its usability in two independent HGG datasets.

Jellyfish search (JS) algorithm impersonates the foraging behavior of jellyfish in the ocean. It is a new developed meta-heuristic algorithm that solves complex and real world optimization problems. The global explore capability and robustness of JS are strong, but JS still has great development space in solving complex optimization problems with high dimensions and multiple local optima. Therefore, an enhanced jellyfish search (EJS) algorithm is developed in this study, and three improvements are made: (i) By adding sine and cosine learning factors, the jellyfish can learn from both random individual and best individual during Type B motion in swarm to enhance the optimization capability and convergence speed; (ii) Adding local escape operator can skip local optimal trap and boost the exploitation ability of JS; (iii) Opposition-based learning operator and quasi-opposition learning operator can increase and strengthen the population distribution more diversified, and better individuals are selected from present and new opposition-solution to participates in the next iteration, which can boost the solution’s quality, meanwhile convergence speed is fasted and its precision is increased. In addition, the performance contrast of the developed EJS and some previous outstanding and advanced methods are evaluated on CEC2017, CEC2019 test suite and six real engineering example of case. It is demonstrated that EJS algorithm escaped the trap of local optimum, enhanced the solution’s quality and the calculation speed. What’s more, the practical engineering applications of EJS algorithm also verify its superiority and effectiveness in solving both constrained and unconstrained optimization problems, and it stretched one’s mind for solving such optimization problems.

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4) is a cell surface proteoglycan that is currently under investigation as a marker of cancer malignancy, and as a potential target of anticancer drug treatment. CSPG4 acts as a driver of tumourigenesis by regulating turnover of the extracellular matrix (ECM) to promote tumour cell invasion, migration as well as inflammation and angiogenesis. While CSPG4 has been widely studied in certain malignancies, such as melanoma, evidence is emerging from global gene expression studies, which suggests a role for CSPG4 in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). While relatively treatable, lack of widely agreed upon diagnostic markers for SCCs is problematic, especially for clinicians managing certain patients, including those who are aged or infirm, as well as those with underlying conditions such as epidermolysis bullosa (EB), for which a delayed diagnosis is likely lethal. In this review, we have discussed the structure of CSPG4, and quantitatively analysed CSPG4 expression in the tissues and pathologies where it has been identified. The aim of this review has been to collate the information available from functional studies and recent transcriptome analysis to determine the usefulness of CSPG4 expression as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in management of malignant SCC.

Biological events—including outbreaks and pandemics, biological weapons use, or accidental laboratory release—have the potential to be extremely disruptive. The ability to accurately investigate, identify origins of, and attribute these events is critical for deterring deliberate events and implementing interventions to prevent future natural or accidental events. However, historical examples of biological event attribution and origins investigations illustrate significant gaps in processes, from technical capabilities to communications, and have lacked conclusive consensus among decision makers, the public, and scientists. This study aimed to assess attitudes and expectations of a broad range of stakeholders regarding investigations and evidence generated for biological attribution. We interviewed 41 experts in disciplines related to attribution and investigations and analyzed interview content using a mixed-methods approach. Interviews generated a list of factors to consider when planning or conducting investigations, presented here. Opinions concerning the conduct and reporting of biological samples analyses and perceptions of feasibility of attribution varied among interviewees representing different fields of study. Participant opinions varied less in regard to requirements, protocols, and guidelines thought to be important to maintain confidence and trust in an investigation and evidence. Findings from this study can inform planning for future events.

Base on building information modeling(BIM) plus with Robotic process automation (RPA) technology is rapid development in smart building operations and maintenance (O&M). RPA is a workflow-based automated execution tool that is particularly well suited for replacing manual execution of simple and repetitive tasks using computer systems. The use of RPA technology can saves man-hours and increases productivity, which is important for the automation of building operations and maintenance operations.. The BIM technology, as an advanced technology in the construction industry, it can provide new ideas and methods for building operation and maintenance based on its visualization characteristics. That’s integrating RPA with BIM technology which will enhance the digitalization and virtualization of smart building operation and management. In this article will first introduce the features of RPA and BIM technology and then discuss the technical roadmap for remote automated operation and maintenance of smart building equipment room to implemention a low-cost and high efficient building equipment room operation and maintenance solution.

Wounds represents a medical problem that contribute importantly to patient morbidity and to the healthcare costs in several pathologies. In Hidalgo, Mexico, Bacopa procumbens plant has been traditionally used for wound healing care for several generations; in vitro and in vivo experiments were design to evaluate the effects of bioactive compounds obtained from B. procumbens aquoethanolic extract and to determine the key pathways involved in wound regeneration. Bioactive compounds were characterized by HPLC- QTOF-MS and proliferation, migration, adhesion, and differentiation studies were done on NIH/3T3 fibroblasts. Polyphenolic compounds from Bacopa procumbens (PB) regulated proliferation and cell adhesion; enhanced migration reducing the artificial scratch area; and modulated cell differentiation. PB compounds were included in a hydrogel for topical administration on rat excision wound model. Histological, histochemical and mechanical analysis showed that PB treatment accelerates wound closure in at least 48 h; reduce inflammation, increasing cell proliferation and deposition and organization of collagen in earlier times. These changes resulted in the formation of a scar with better tensile properties. Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR molecular analyses demonstrated that treatment induces: i) overexpression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β); and ii) the phosphorylation of Smad 2/3 and ERK1/2, suggesting the central role of some PB to enhance wound healing, modulating TGF-β activation.

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of links between satellite-measured vegetation vigor and climate variables in Armenian mountain grassland ecosystems in years 1984–2018. NDVI is derived from MODIS and Landsat data, temperature and precipitation data are from meteorological stations. Two study sites were selected, representing arid and semi-arid grassland vegetation types, respectively. Various trend estimators including Mann-Kendall (MK) and derivatives were combined for vegetation change analysis at different time scales. Results suggest that temperature and precipitation had negative and positive impacts on vegetation growth, respectively, in both areas. NDVI-to-precipitation correlation was significant but with an apparent time-lag effect that was further investigated. No significant general changes were observed in vegetation along the observed period. Further comparisons between results from corrected and uncorrected data led us to conclude that MODIS and Landsat data with BRDF, topographic and atmospheric corrections applied are best suited for analyzing relationships between NDVI and climatic factors for the 2000-2018 period in grassland at a very local scale, but in the absence of correction tools and information, uncorrected data can still provide meaningful results. Future refinements will include removal of anthropogenic impact, and deeper investigation of time-lag effects of climatic factors on vegetation dynamics.

The 2019-2020 Australian bushfires followed by the COVID-19 pandemic brought the significant mental health implications of working in healthcare to the fore. The importance of appropriate support services to ensure the resilience and recovery of healthcare workers has been highlighted. In response to healthcare staff experiences during the bushfires, the SEED Wellness Program was created in 2020 in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, in NSW Australia. SEED used a participatory action methodology to engage and collaborate with healthcare staff teams in workplace-based restorative activities. Guided by Practice Theory, this study aimed to identify and describe SEED wellness practices that supported healthcare staff. Thirty-three healthcare workers participated in focus groups or individual interviews between June 2021 and March 2022. The analysis involved inductive thematic individual and collective exploration of SEED practices, including co-analysis with participants. Eight core practices that supported participants’ wellbeing were identified including responsive and compassionate leading, engaging staff at every stage of the recovery process, creating a sense of connection with others, and collective caring. The study found that workplace wellness initiatives are optimised when place-based and grounded in local knowledge, needs, and resources incorporating a collective and supportive team approach. Moreover, to ensure engagement in, and sustainability of these initiatives, both bottom-up and top-down commitment is required.

Lynch syndrome (LS) is an inherited disorder in which affected individuals have a significantly higher-than-average risk of developing colorectal and non-colorectal cancers, often before the age of 50 years. In LS, mutations in DNA repair genes lead to a dysfunctional post-replication repair system. As a result, the unrepaired errors in coding regions of the genome produce novel proteins, called neoantigens. Neoantigens are recognised by the immune system as foreign and trigger an immune response. Due to the invasive nature of cancer screening tests, universal cancer screening guidelines unique for LS (including colonoscopy) are poorly adhered to by LS variant heterozygotes (LSVH). Currently, it is unclear whether immunogenomic components produced as a result of neoantigen formation can be used as novel biomarkers in LS. We hypothesize that: (i) LSVH produce measurable and dynamic immunogenomic components in blood, and (ii) these quantifiable immunogenomic components correlate with cancer onset and stage. Here, we discuss feasibility and propose the potential to: (a) identify personalised novel immunogenomic biomarkers, (b) reduce invasive cancer screening tests and thus increase non-invasive cancer surveillance, (c) improve compliance and adherence to recommended cancer screening guidelines in LSVH.

Design changes seem inevitable in engineering, procurement and construction EPC projects. Such changes create a need for a proactive approach to adjusting project scope, cost and time (the triple constraints) for efficiency and effectiveness in overall delivery. This study investigates the causes and implications of design changes in order to improve design change management practices. Data for the study was obtained through online interviews with New Zealand industry practitioners. Thematic analysis was used to collate the results into meaningful data. The study found that design changes were predominantly caused by clients' inadequate strategic planning, insufficient attention to design, EPC contractors' inadequate design ability, and on-site variations. There were three categories of such design changes: direct impact on the project, the reciprocal and complementary effect on stakeholders, and the far-reaching impact on the community. The study concludes by suggesting improvements, such as strengthening the integration of project teams to enhance design quality, strategic alignment of stakeholders at the planning stage, early contractor involvement (ECI) between the planning and design phases, and improving collaboration between design and construction teams. Further, a combination of high technical skills (e.g. design ability) and soft skills (can-do attitude, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, documentation skills, etc.) are needed to effect the desired improvement in design change management.

The following article presents an analysis of the determinants of diabetes using a dataset containing the surveys of 2000 patients from the Frankfurt Hospital in Germany. The data were analyzed using the following models, namely: Tobit, Probit, Logit, Multinomial Logit, OLS, WLS with heteroskedasticity. The results show that the presence of diabetes is positively associated with "Pregnancies", "Glucose", "BMI", "Diabetes Pedigree Function", "Age" and negatively associated with "Blood Pressure". A cluster analysis is realized using the fuzzy c-Means algorithm optimized with the Elbow method and three clusters were found. Finally a confrontation among eight different machine learning algorithms is realized to select the best performing algorithm to predict the probability of patients to develop diabetes.

Electric energy has become essential nowadays not only for the daily life of each of us but also for the economy of different countries. The dissemination of geographic information plays an important role in national development as it facilitates communication between managers, investors, and consumers in this sector. Since the management of electricity network data was previously done in Tunisia based on paper maps and plans, the purpose of this article is to present a case of planning based on GIS, Web, and 3D Web GIS, which would have significant positive consequences on this sector from a technical and financial sides with an improvement in customer satisfaction and the creation of an intelligent electricity network which will be a real decision-making tool. This work draws up an inventory of the network MV (Medium Voltage)/LV (Low Voltage) of the region of Medjez El Bab which routes electricity to the big centers of consumption with access to MV/LV subscribers. The analysis of the network's impedance allowed carrying out different scenarios to optimize performance and obtain more realistic routes. Many thematic maps were produced as part of this project (Slope map, Land use map, map of the MV voltage domains, map of the MV/LV transformer stations power, etc.). A three-dimensional virtual city has been developed to visualize the graphical and attribute data for the study area. A Web and 3D Web GIS applications that allows the publication of the interactive maps on the Web as well as the database information have been developed to offer users the possibility of consulting the produced products by internet. Finally, a website related to the study was developed.

(1) The article is devoted to the development of a theoretical and algorithmic basis for numerical modeling of the spontaneous potential method (SP) as applied to the study of sandy-argillaceous reservoirs. (2) In terms of coupled flows, we consider a physical-mathematical model of SP signals from an electrochemical source, with regard to the case of fluid-saturated shaly sandstone. (3) An algorithm for 2D finite-element modeling of SP signals was developed and implemented in software, along with its internal and external testing with analytical solutions. The numerical SP modeling was carried out, with determining the dependences on the reservoir thickness and porosity, the amount of argillaceous material and the type of minerals. We performed a comparative analysis of the simulated and field SP data, using the results of laboratory core examinations taken from wells in a number of fields in the Latitudinal Ob Region of Western Siberia. (4) The results of the study may be used either for the development of the existing SP techniques, by providing them with a consistent computational model, or for the design of new experimental approaches.

Anemia and thyroid disorders are global health issues that affect all ages but are more apparent in women. In this case, some serological components responsible for IDA and TSH disorders in women have been found actively regulated through a complex steroidal-calcitriol mediated pathway. This research has been investigated the correlation between Calcitriol and the serological components responsible for IDA and TSH disorders in childbearing and non-child-bearing women of different health conditions. Experimental sampling from 452 women suffering from both IDA and TSH disorders were taken, aged between 0 and 70 years. Serological parameters, such as iron, total iron-binding capacity and ferritin, were assessed for IDA profiling, whereas thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxin were for TSH profiling based on the individual’s serum calcitriol status. The resulted serological data were interpreted using sophisticated computer programming language and algorithms for quantitative biochemical analysis. The study resulted in a significant correlation between FT4 and Calcitriol (P<0.0001) for all age groups. TSH also showed strong interactions with the fluctuation of calcitriol level (P<0.0001), except for the children aged below 10 years (P<0.063). The iron, TIBC, TSH, and FT4 showed phenomenal regulation with the steroidal-calcitriol concentration for congenital patients. Unlike the others, ferritin has a substantial connection with Calcitriol (P<0.0064) fluctuation in the serum. To ratify, the concentrations of TSH, FT4, iron, TIBC, and ferritin were found to be significantly interconnected in terms of serum calcitriol level in women suffering from IDA and TSH disorders simultaneously. To understand the accuracy and efficacy of the Calcitriol in IDA and TSH disorders, some other inflammatory markers and parathyroid hormone analysis are need in future studies, besides a large number of samples.

Child and adolescent sexual abuse (CSA) is an international public health problem. Despite the importance of the CSA, there is no consensus definition, and the lack of consensus is related to difficulties in conducting prevalence studies, as well as research in other areas. To establish a consensual definition, legal aspects such as the age of sexual consent and the difference in age or power between victim and aggressor, aspects related to sexual freedom and sexual indemnity must be considered. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to analyze the age of sexual consent in the legal systems of Spanish-speaking countries and to examine whether the Romeo and Juliet clause is established. To achieve the proposed aims, we employed the legal interpretation method, and we analyzed the current Criminal Codes of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. From the results, it is found that the age of sexual consent varies between countries, establishing valid sexual consent between 13 and 18 years. In addition, only six countries have the Romeo and Juliet clause that protects sexual freedom in adolescents. Finally, we discussed the lack of consensus on the age of sexual consent and the limitations presented by the Romeo and Juliet clause.

Survivors of severe brain injury may require care in a neurointensive care unit (neuro-ICU), where the brain is vulnerable to secondary brain injury. Thus, there is a need for noninvasive, bedside, continuous cerebral blood flow monitoring approaches in the neuro-ICU. Our goal is to address this need through combined measurements of EEG and functional optical spectroscopy (EEG-Optical) instrumentation and analysis to provide a complementary fusion of data about brain activity and function. The present case demonstrates in a patient with traumatic brain injury, noninvasive cerebral blood flow transients can be recorded that correlate with gold-standard invasive measurements and with the frequency content changes in the EEG data during clinical care.

Family Phyllanthaceae is one of the largest segregates of the eudicot order Malpighiales and its species are herb, shrub, and tree, which are mostly distributed in tropical regions. Certain taxonomic discrepancies exist at genus and family level. Here, we report chloroplast genomes of three Phyllanthaceae species—Phyllanthus emblica, Flueggea virosa, and Leptopus cordifolius— and compare them with six others previously reported Phyllanthaceae chloroplast genomes. The species of Phyllanthaceae displayed quadripartite structure, comprising inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) that separate large single copy (LSC) and small single copy (SSC) regions. The length of complete chloroplast genome ranged from 154,707 bp to 161,093 bp; LSC from 83,627 bp to 89,932 bp; IRs from 23,921 bp to 27,128 bp; and SSC from 17,424 bp to 19,441 bp. Chloroplast genomes contained 111 to 112 unique genes, including 77 to 78 protein-coding, 30 transfer RNA (tRNA), and 4 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) that showed similarities in arrangement. The number of protein-coding genes varied due to deletion/pseudogenization of rps16 genes in Baccaurea ramiflora and Leptopus cordifolius. High variability was seen in number of oligonucleotide repeats while analysis of guanine-cytosine (GC) content, codon usage, amino acid frequency, simple sequence repeats analysis, synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions, and transition and transversion substitutions showed similarities in all Phyllanthaceae species. We detected a higher number of transition substitutions in the coding sequences than non-coding sequences. Moreover, the high number of transition substitutions was determined among the distantly related species in comparison to closely related species. Phylogenetic analysis shows the polyphyletic nature of the genus Phyllanthus which requires further verification. We also determined suitable polymorphic coding genes, including rpl22, ycf1, matK, ndhF, and rps15 which may be helpful for the reconstruction of the high-resolution phylogenetic tree of the family Phyllanthaceae using a large number of species in the future. Overall, the current study provides insight into chloroplast genome evolution in Phyllanthaceae.

Combined systems for power production and thermally activated cooling have a high potential for improving the efficiency and utilisation of thermal systems. In this regard, various configurations have been proposed and are comprehensively reviewed. They are primarily based on absorption systems and the implementation of multiple levels of complexity and flexibility. The configuration of the absorption power and cooling combined cycle proposed herein has wide commercial applicability owing to its simplicity. The configuration of the components is not new. However, the utilisation of aqueous salt solutions, the comparison with ammonia chiller and with absorption power cycles, the focus on parameters that are important for real-life applications, and the comparison of the performances for constant heat input and waste heat recovery are novel. The proposed cycle is also compared with a system based on the organic Rankine cycle and vapour compression cycle. An investigation of its performance proves that the system is suitable for a given range of boundary conditions from a thermodynamic standpoint, as well as in terms of system complexity and technical feasibility. New possibilities with regard to added power production have the potential to improve the economics and promote the use of absorption chiller systems.

In mountain communities like Sebei, Uganda, that are highly vulnerable to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, community-based surveillance plays an important role in the monitoring of public health hazards. In this survey, we explored capacities of Village Health Teams (VHTs) in Sebei communities of Mount Elgon in undertaking surveillance tasks for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the context of a changing climate. We used participatory epidemiology techniques to elucidate VHTs’ perceptions on climate change and public health and assess their capacities in conducting surveillance for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Overall, VHTs perceived climate change to be occurring with wider impacts on public health. However, they have inadequate capacities in collecting sur-veillance data. The VHTs lack transport to navigate through their communities and have in-sufficient capacities in using mobile phones for sending alerts. They do not engage in reporting other hazards related with the environment, wildlife and domestic livestock that would ac-celerate infectious disease outbreaks. Records are not maintained for disease surveillance ac-tivities and the abilities of VHTs to analyze data are also limited. However, VHTs have access to platforms that can enable them to disseminate public health information. The VHTs thus need to be retooled to conduct their work effectively and efficiently through equipping them with adequate logistics and knowledge on collecting, storing, analyzing, and relaying data, which will improve infectious disease response and mitigation efforts.

Low-cost miniature hyperspectral and thermal cameras onboard lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) bring new opportunities for monitoring land surface variables at unprecedented fine spatial resolution with acceptable accuracy. This research applies hyperspectral and thermal imagery from a drone to quantify upland rice growth and water use efficiency (WUE) after biochar application in a Costa Rican dry region. The field flights were conducted over two experimental groups with bamboo biochar and sugarcane biochar amendments and one control group without biochar application. Rice canopy biophysical variables were estimated by inversion of a canopy radiative transfer model on hyperspectral reflectance. Variations in gross primary production (GPP) and WUE across treatments were estimated from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), canopy chlorophyll content (CCC), and evapotranspiration. We found that GPP was increased by 41.9±3.4 % when using bamboo biochar and 17.5±3.4 % when using sugarcane biochar, which was probably due to higher soil moisture in the biochar-amended plots and led to significantly higher WUE by 40.8±3.5 % in bamboo biochar and 13.4±3.5 % in sugarcane biochar. This study demonstrated the use of hyperspectral and thermal imagery from drone to provide indicators for quantifying biochar effects on tropical dry cropland by integrating with ground point samples and physical models.

To identify gender- and age-related associations between adult dental checkups and unmet dental care needs, we analyzed data of 14,000 participants, ages ≥ 19, from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016–2018) (KNHANES VII). Data was collected via self-report questionnaires and interviews. Complex sample chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis indicated 31.7% of participants had unmet dental care needs; in the prior 12months, 67.1% had not utilized dental services, and 43.3% had not received dental checkups. Odds ratios (ORs) for dental checkups and unmet dental needs were 8.87 (CI:7.80–10.09, p < 0.001) for those who used dental services and 1.28 (CI: 1.13–1.44, p < 0.001) for those who had not. Significant age-dependent associations between those not receiving dental checkups and the rate of unmet dental care include men and women aged 50–59 years (OR: 1.77; CI = 1.22–2.58 and OR: 1.43; CI: 1.02–2.02; p = 0.040, respectively) and women ≥ 70 years (OR = 1.79, CI = 1.20–2.66, p = 0.004). Reducing unmet dental care needs requires greater public health promotion and education regarding regular dental checkups; additional practical strategies could enhance dental checkup compliance.

Proper treatment of infectious air could potentially mitigate the spread of airborne viruses such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). The objective of this research is to test the effectiveness of ultraviolet (UV) in inactivating aerosolized PRRSV, specifically, four UV lamps, UV-A (365 nm, both fluorescent and LED-based), "excimer" UV-C (222 nm), and germicidal UV-C (254 nm), were tested. The two UV-C lamps effectively irradiated fast-moving PRRSV aerosols with short treatment times (<2 s). One-stage and two-stage UV inactivation models estimated the UV doses needed for target percentage (%) reductions on PRRSV titer. UV-C (254 nm) dose needed for 3-log (99.9%) reduction was 0.521 and 0.0943 mJ/cm2, respectively, based on one-stage and two-stage models. An order of magnitude lower UV-C (222 nm) doses were needed for a 3-log reduction, i.e., 0.0882 and 0.048 mJ/cm2, based on one-stage and two-stage models, respectively. However, the cost of 222-nm excimer lamps is still economically prohibitive for scaling-up trials. The UV-A (365 nm) lamps could not reduce PRRSV titers for tested doses up to 4.11 mJ/cm2. Pilot-scale or farm-scale testing of UV-C on PRRSV aerosols simulating barn ventilation rates are recommended based on its effectiveness and reasonable costs comparable to HEPA filtration.

Nanotechnology is an emerging field of modern science based on the use of nanoparticles (NPs) with a huge potential in many sectors, including nanomedicine. Their small size confers them unique properties because they are subject to physical laws that are in the middle between classical and quantum physics. In this context, NPs project plays a pivotal role because the composition, size, shape and surface proprieties need to be carefully considered for their optimal design and application. As reported in this review, NPs are classified in inorganic (metallic NPs; quantum dots; carbon-based nanostructures; mesoporous silica nanoparticles) and organic (liposomes and micelles, dendrimers and polymer nanoparticles) ones. Here, we report an accurate description of the potential of each NPs type focusing on their multiple areas of application like theranostics drug delivery, imaging, tissue engineering, antimicrobial techniques and nanovaccines, and therefore they represent a promise to revolutionize the new era of nanomedicine, especially in cancer research.

In the last decades, intensive crop management has involved excessive use of pesticides or fertilizers, compromising environmental integrity and public health. Accordingly, there has been worldwide pressure to find an eco-friendly and safe strategy to ensure agricultural productivity. Recently, Plant Growth-Promoting (PGP) rhizobacteria are receiving increasing attention as suitable biocontrol agents against agricultural pests. In the present study, 22 spore-forming bacteria were selected among a salt-pan rhizobacteria collection for their PGP traits and their antagonistic activity against the plant pathogen fungus Macrophomina phaseolina. Based on the higher antifungal activity, strain RHFS10, identified as Bacillus vallismortis, was furtherly examined and cell-free supernatants assays, column purification, and tandem mass spectrometry employed to purify and preliminarily identify the antifungal metabolites. Interestingly, the minimum inhibitory concentration assessed for the fractions active against M. phaseolina, resulted 10 times lower and more stable than the one estimated for the commercial fungicide pentachloronitrobenzene. These results suggest the use of B. vallismortis strain RHFS10 as a potential Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria to efficiently control phytopathogenic fungus M. phaseolina, in alternative to chemical pesticides.

Mapping forest extent and forest cover classification are important for the assessment of forest resources in socio-economic as well as ecological terms. Novel developments in the availability of remotely sensed data, computational resources, and advances in areas of statistical learning have enabled fusion of multi-sensor data, often yielding superior classification results. Most former studies of nemoral forests fusing multi-sensor and multi-temporal data have been limited in spatial extent and typically to a simple classification of landscapes into major land cover classes. We hypothesize that multi-temporal, multi-censor data will have a specific strength in further classification of nemoral forest landscapes owing to the distinct seasonal patterns of the phenology of broadleaves. This study aimed to classify the Danish landscape into forest/non-forest and further into forest types (broadleaved/coniferous) and species groups, using a cloud-based approach based on multi-temporal Sentinel 1 and 2 data and machine learning (random forest) trained with National Forest Inventory (NFI) data. Mapping of non-forest and forest resulted in producer accuracies of 99% and 90 %, respectively. The mapping of forest types (broadleaf and conifer) within the forested area resulted in producer accuracies of 95% for conifer and 96% for broadleaf forest. Tree species groups were classified with producer accuracies ranging 34-74%. Species groups with coniferous species were the least confused whereas the broadleaf groups, especially Oak, had higher error rates. The results are applied in Danish National accounting of greenhouse gas emissions from forests, resource assessment and assessment of forest biodiversity potentials.

This paper presents a discrete compartmental Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered/Dead (SEIR/D) model to address the expansion of Covid-19 pandemic. When time passes, the status of the cells is determined by binary rules that update following both a neighbourhood and a delay pattern. The model assumes the environmental parameters have a crucial impact on the expansion of the disease so a grid is assigned to each parameter to model the single effect caused by this parameter. The expansion is then the weighted sum of all the grids. This proposal shows how the grid architecture, along with an update rule and a neighbourhood pattern is a valuable tool to model the pandemic expansion. This model has already been analyzed in previous works and compared with the corresponding continuous models solved by ordinary differential equations (ODE), coming to find the homologous parameters between both approaches. Thus, it has been possible to prove that the combination neighborhood-update rule is responsible for the rate of expansion and recovering/death of the illness. The delays (between Susceptible and Asymptomatic, Asymptomatic and Infected, Infected and Recovered/Dead) may have a crucial impact on both the peak of Infected and the Recovery/Death rate. This theoretical model has been successfully tested in the case of the dissemination of information through mobile social networks and in the case of plant pests.

The Coastal Patrol and Surveillance Application (CPSA) is developed and deployed to detect, track and monitor water vessel traffic using automated devices. Latest advancements of marine technologies, including the Automatic Underwater Vehicles, have allowed the development of this type of applications. To facilitate their operations, installation of a Coastal Patrol and Surveillance Network (CPSN) is mandatory. One of the primary design objectives of this network is to deliver adequate amount of data within an effective time period. This is particularly essential for reporting a detection and notifying the current status of an intruder’s vessel through the adverse underwater communication channels. Additionally, intermittent connectivity of the nodes remain another important obstacle to overcome to allow smooth functioning of CPSA. Taking these objectives and obstacles into account, this work proposes a new protocol, named UDTN-RS, which is developed by ensembling forward error correction technique (namely Reed-Solomon codes or RS) in Underwater Delay Tolerant Network (UDTN) routing protocol with probabilistic spraying technique. In addition, the existing binary packet spraying technique is enhanced for supporting encoded packet exchange between the contacting nodes. A comprehensive simulation campaign is performed in identifying the effectiveness of the proposed protocol. The obtained results suggest that the proposed UDTN-RS protocol can be considered a suitable alternative of the existing protocols for sparse networks like CPSN.

We address security and privacy problems for digital devices and biometrics from an information-theoretic optimality perspective, where a secret key is generated for authentication, identification, message encryption/decryption, or secure computations. A physical unclonable function (PUF) is a promising solution for local security in digital devices and this review gives the most relevant summary for information theorists, coding theorists, and signal processing community members who are interested in optimal PUF constructions. Low-complexity signal processing methods such as transform coding that are developed to make the information-theoretic analysis tractable are discussed. The optimal trade-offs between the secret-key, privacy-leakage, and storage rates for multiple PUF measurements are given. Proposed optimal code constructions that jointly design the vector quantizer and error-correction code parameters are listed. These constructions include modern and algebraic codes such as polar codes and convolutional codes, both of which can achieve small block-error probabilities at short block lengths, corresponding to a small number of PUF circuits. Open problems in the PUF literature from a signal processing, information theory, coding theory, and hardware complexity perspectives and their combinations are listed to stimulate further advancements in the research on local privacy and security.

This paper discovers that current variational principle and Noether theorem for different physics systems with (in)finite freedom systems have missed the double extremum processes of the general extremum functional that both is deduced by variational principle and is necessarily taken in deducing all the physics laws, but these have not been corrected for over a century since Noether's proposing her famous theorem, which result in the crisis deducing relevant mathematical laws and all physics laws. This paper discovers there is the hidden logic cycle that one assumes Euler-Lagrange equations, and then he finally deduces Euler-Lagrange equations via the equivalent relation in the whole processes in all relevant current references. This paper corrects the current key mistakes that when physics systems choose the variational extreme values, the appearing processes of the physics systems are real physics processes, otherwise, are virtual processes in all current articles, reviews and (text)books. The real physics should be after choosing the variational extreme values of physics systems, the general extremum functional of the physics systems needs to further choose the minimum absolute extremum zero of the general extremum functional, otherwise, the appearing processes of physics systems are still virtual processes. Using the double extremum processes of the general extremum functionals, the crisis and the hidden logic cycle in current variational principle and current Noether theorem are solved. Furthermore, the new mathematical and physical double extremum processes and their new mathematical pictures and physics for (in)finite freedom systems are discovered. This paper gives both general variational principle and general Noether theorem as well as their classical and quantum new physics, which would rewrite all relevant current different branches of science, as key tools of studying and processing them.

Conventional mechanical Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTS) are able to simultaneously measure absorption and dispersion spectra of gas-phase samples. However, they usually need very long measurement times to achieve time-resolved spectra with a good spectral and temporal resolution. Here, we present a mid-infrared dual-comb-based FTS in an asymmetric configuration, providing broadband absorption and dispersion spectra with a spectral resolution of 5 GHz, a temporal resolution of 20 μs, and a total measurement time of a few minutes. We used the dual-comb spectrometer to monitor the reaction dynamics of methane and ethane in an electrical plasma discharge. We observed ethane/methane formation as a recombination reaction of hydrocarbon radicals in the discharge in various static and dynamic conditions. The results demonstrate a new analytical approach for measuring fast molecular absorption and dispersion changes and monitoring fast dynamics of chemical reactions, which can be interesting for chemical kinetic research and particularly for the combustion and plasma analysis community.

The Autopoiesis and Cognition Theory (ACT), by Maturana and Varela, based on the notions of Biological Closure and Structural Coupling, is a well-known theory on how to understand biological organization [1, 2, 3]. Although, for example, the Free Energy Principle framework evokes some entailments of autopoiesis in a more formal setting [4, 5]; and ACT has been used in many fields, its impact has been restricted because it lacks quantitative analysis. Here we present a theoretical framework grounded in accepted and well-developed ideas from Mathematics and Physics which advance the understanding of the Principles of Biological Organization under the guidance of Biological Closure and Structural Coupling. The disciplines of Differential Geometry/Topology, Mechanics and Complex Dynamical Systems provide a powerful, elegant, and well-established body of knowledge to support our Biological Organization Principles (BOP) framework. In particular, Stochastic Mechanics and KAM theory (from Kolmogorov, Arnold and Moser theorem) allow us to develop, using the notions of Biological Closure and Structural Coupling, a central core of BOP termed Dynamical Closure Mechanism. Under the proposed framework, a wide variety of bio- logical phenomena can be understood, shedding new light on biological explanations. However, an understanding of biological organization may require the re-evaluation of dogmas on how we think on biology as it seems inescapable that what is needed is an integration of analysis and notions derived from mathematics, physics, and biology to generate a new landscape of ideas.

The KcsA is a prokaryotic potassium-oriented channel, which is sourced from the Streptomyces lividans soil bacteria. From extensive studies that have been carried over the KcsA potassium channel, it has been proved that various factors enable the gating and shuttling of the potassium ions into and out of the cells. Some of the factors include the different concentration of protons in the inside and outside membrane. The other factor is the existence of the selectivity filter equipped in the exit of channel pore, which enables the movement of the K⁺ ions. Not only are potassium ions present in the channel but also sodium ions. Potassium and sodium ions are the ions that are essential in the conductivity of a cell because of their charge. An intuitive idea about why K⁺ ions are at least 10,000 times more permeant than Na⁺ ions is presented in various entities. The hypothesis is that the selectivity ratio is probably related to the successive entry of Na⁺ ions, based on the premise that the ratio seems to be relevant to unpredictable quantities caused by Brownian corrosion of ions.

Distributed Systems architectures are becoming the standard computational model for processing and transportation of information, especially for Cloud Computing environments. The increase in demand for application processing and data management from enterprise and end-user workloads continues to move from a single-node client-server architecture to a distributed multitier design where data processing and transmission are segregated. Software development must considerer the orchestration required to provision its core components in order to deploy the services efficiently in many independent, loosely coupled - physically and virtually interconnected - data centers spread geographically, across the globe. This network routing challenge can be modeled as a variation of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). This paper proposes a new optimization algorithm for optimum route selection using Algorithmic Information Theory. The Kelly criterion for a Shannon-Bernoulli process is used to generate a reliable quantitative algorithm to find a near optimal solution tour. The algorithm is then verified by comparing the results with heuristic solutions in 3 test cases. A statistical analysis is designed to measure the significance of the results between the algorithms and the entropy function can be derived from the distribution. The tested results shown an improvement in the solution quality by producing routes with smaller length and time requirements. The quality of the results proves the flexibility of the proposed algorithm for problems with different complexities without relying in nature-inspired models such as Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing. This algorithm can be used by orchestration applications to deploy services across large cluster of nodes by making better decision in the route design.

Reduced nutrient mineralization rates under minimum tillage are usually compensated by mineral fertilizer application. These cannot be applied in organic farming systems, however. We hypothesized that organic minimum tillage based on frequent cover cropping and application of dead mulch will improve soil fertility and can compensate for the potential negative effects of minimum tillage. Two long-term field experiments were set up in 2010 and 2011 comparing plough versus minimum tillage including application of transferred mulch. As second factor, the application of compost versus mineral potassium and phosphorus was compared. In 2019, soils were analyzed for soil pH, organic carbon, macro-, micronutrients, microbial biomass, microbial activity and total nematode abundance. In addition, performance of pea in the same soils was determined under greenhouse conditions. Across both experiments, macronutrients (+52%), micronutrients (+11%), microbial biomass (+51%), microbial activity (+86%), and bacterivorous nematodes (+112%) increased in minimum tillage compared with the plough-based system. In the greenhouse, pea biomass was 45% higher in the soil that had been subjected to minimum tillage compared to the plough. In conclusion, soil fertility can be improved in organic minimum tillage systems by intensive cover cropping and application of dead mulch to levels higher than in a plough-based system.

Corona virus disease (COVID-19) has infected over more than 10 million people around the globe and killed at least 500K worldwide by the end of June 2020. As this disease continues to evolve and scientists and researchers around the world now trying to find out the way to combat this disease in most effective way. Chest X-rays are widely available modality for immediate care in diagnosing COVID-19. Precise detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 from these chest X-rays would be practical for the current situation. This paper proposes one shot cluster based approach for the accurate detection of COVID-19 chest x-rays. The main objective of one shot learning (OSL) is to mimic the way humans learn in order to make classification or prediction on a wide range of similar but novel problems. The core constraint of this type of task is that the algorithm should decide on the class of a test instance after seeing just one test example. For this purpose we have experimented with widely known Generalized Regression and Probabilistic Neural Networks. Experiments conducted with publicly available chest x-ray images demonstrate that the method can detect COVID-19 accurately with high precision. The obtained results have outperformed many of the convolutional neural network based existing methods proposed in the literature.

The COVID-19 infections in Pakistan are spreading at an exponential rate and a point may soon be reached where rigorous prevention measures would need to be adopted. Mathematical models can help define the scale of an epidemic and the rate at which an infection can spread in a community. I used ARIMA Model, Diffusion Model, SIRD Model and Prophet Model to forecast the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan and compared the numbers with the reported cases on the national database. Results depicts that Pakistan could hit peak number of infectious cases between June 2020 and July, 2020.

Analyses of the Hubble diagrams are presented for SN1a supernovae and gamma ray bursts in the redshift ranges z = 0.01–1.3 and 0.034–8.1, respectively. Data are presented on the typical z/μ scale and also on the less common yet increasingly sensitive photon flight time t/(z+1) scale. The primary conclusion is that on the basis of the presently accessible data in the redshift range z = 0.01–8.1, the slope of the Hubble diagram is, or is extremely close to, exponential.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we introduce a geometric approach to study the circular orbit of a particle in static and spherically symmetric spacetime based on Jacobi metric. Second, we apply the circular orbit to study the weak gravitational deflection of null and time-like particles based on Gauss-Bonnet theorem. By this way, we obtain an expression of deflection angle and extend the study of deflection angle to asymptotically non-flat black hole spacetimes. Some black holes as lens are considered such as a static and spherically symmetric black hole in the conformal Weyl gravity and a Schwarzschild-like black hole in bumblebee gravity. Our results are consistent with the previous literature. In particular, we find that the connection between Gaussian curvature and the radius of a circular orbit greatly simplifies the calculation.

This note first summarizes the history of the manuscript "On a Continuum Model for Avalanche Flow and Its Simplified Variants" by Grigorian and Ostroumov―published in the Special Issue on snow avalanche dynamics of Geosciences―since the early 1990s and explains the guiding principles in editing it for publication. The changes are then detailed and some explanatory notes given for the benefit of readers who are not familiar with the early Russian work on snow avalanche dynamics. Finally, the editor's personal views as to why he still considers this paper of relevance for avalanche dynamics research today are presented in brief essays on key aspects of the paper, namely the role of simple and complex models in avalanche research and mitigation work, the status and possible applications of Grigorian's stress-limited friction law, and non-monotonicity of the dynamics of the Grigorian–Ostroumov model in the friction coefficient. A comparison of the erosion model proposed by those authors with two other models suggests to enhance it with an additional equation for the balance of tangential momentum across the shock front. A preliminary analysis indicates that continuous scouring entrainment is possible only in a restricted parameter range and that there is a second erosion regime with delayed entrainment.

Most police Mental Health Act (Section 136) detentions in England and Wales relate to suicide prevention. Despite attempts to reduce detention rates, numbers have risen almost continually. Although Section 136 has been subject to much academic and public policy scrutiny, the topic of individuals being detained on multiple occasions remains under-researched and thus poorly understood. A mixed methods study combined six in-depth interviews with people who had experienced numerous suicidal crises and police intervention, with detailed police and mental health records. A national police survey provided wider context. Consultants with lived experience of complex mental health problems jointly analysed interviews. Repeated detention is a nationally recognised issue. In South East England it almost exclusively relates to suicide or self-harm and accounts for a third of all detentions. Females are detained with the highest frequencies. The qualitative accounts revealed complex histories of unresolved trauma that had catastrophically damaged interviewee’s relational foundations, rendering them disenfranchised from services and consigned to relying on police intervention in repeated suicidal crises. A model is proposed that offers a way to conceptualise the phenomenon of repeated detention, highlighting that long-term solutions to sustain change are imperative, as reactive-only responses can perpetuate crisis cycles.

Children’s beneficial relationships with animals are well known. Companion animals, particularly dogs have become an integral part of family life and children’s material culture. Aside the proven physiological benefits there is little research about what children say about their relationships with animals and how they describe them. In this paper we bring together both horse-human and dog-human interactions, finding common ground for understanding the complexity of human development, well-being and flourishing. Dogs in schools are fast becoming a trend in helping support and enhance children’s learning as well as their social and emotional well-being. Studies have shown that the very presence of a dog can increase children’s concentration, executive function and behavior. Also, equine therapy is gaining momentum and empirical studies are showing noteworthy benefits to children and young people. However, the lack of children’s voices means that the mechanisms for these benefits are somewhat unknown and unclear. In seeking to explore this, the authors utilize a visual, sensory and diffractive ethnographic approach to illuminate and illustrate, experiment and re-enact, how the children relate, share spaces and multiple subjectivities with their classroom canine, “Ted” and companion horse “Henry”. ”Henry” is part of a programme in which youngsters care for and engage in activities with horses.

Farm activities continued sand winning operations and the allocation of plots of land to prospective developers in Ghana pose a serious threat to the forest covers and lifespan of the Forest and game reserves. With all the positive add ups to the country from forests, Ghana has lost more than 33.7%(equivalent to 2,500,000 hectares) of its forest, since the early 1990s between 2005 and 2010, the rate of deforestation in Ghana was estimated at 2.19% per annum; the sixth highest deforestation rate globally for that period. This shows how important forest monitoring can be to the forestry commission in Ghana. Despite the frameworks which have been developed to help Ghana to protect and restore its forest resources, inadequate monitoring systems remain a barrier to effective implementation. In this study, Google earth engine was used to map and analyze the structural changes of forest cover using JavaScript to query and compute Landsat, MODIS and NOAA AVHRR satellite imageries of the study area (Ghana) with spatial resolutions 30m, 250m and 7km respectively. A supervised classification was performed on three multi-temporal satellite imageries and a total of six major land use and land cover classes were identified and mapped. By using random Forest-classification technique, from 1985 to 2018 recorded by NOAA AVHRR, forest cover has decreased by 66% and 2000 to 2018 recorded by Landsat and MODIS 61% and 47% respectively. A decrease in the forest has been as a result of anthropogenic activities in Ghana. A change detection analysis was performed on these images and it was noted that Ghana is losing forest reserves in every 5years. Overlay of the reserved forest of the 2000 and the classified map of 2018 shows vegetation changed during 2000-2018 remarkably. Therefore, forest-related institutions like the Forestry Commission can employ and use this monitoring system on Google Earth Engine for processing satellite images particularly Landsat, MODIS and NOAA AVHRR for forest cover monitoring and analysis for fast, efficient and reliable results.

In emergency scenarios service vehicles must identify potential route(s) and use the best available route. However, route identification requires intelligent decision-support systems which generally use non-traditional approaches with tools characterised by flexible non-hierarchical structures. Conventional models using group decision-support systems have been applied; however, when used in smart urban environments, emergency response services have limitations in their ability to identify unobstructed paths (routes) in dynamic operating environments. In this paper we introduce a novel path planning method for autonomous vehicle control in emergency situations. The proposed model uses self-organizing maps in an integrated Spiral STC algorithm termed the: Hybrid SOM-Spiral STC model which uses hedge algebras and \emph{Kansei} evaluation in group decision-support. The proposed model has been designed to quantify qualitative factors using sensor derived data processed with human sensibilities and preferences in emergency decision support. The experimental results show that the proposed model achieves significant improvements in group decision-support under dynamic uncertainty. We posit that our novel approach holds the prospect of improvements in the provision of emergency services.

The contribution of extra-tropical synoptic cyclones to the formation of summer-mean atmospheric circulation patterns in the Arctic is investigated by clustering the dominant Arctic circulation patterns by the self-organizing maps (SOMs) using the daily mean sea level pressure (MSLP) in the Arctic domain (≥ 60°N). Three SOM patterns are identified: one with prevalent low pressure anomalies in the Arctic Circle (SOM1) and two opposite dipoles with primary high pressure anomalies covering the Arctic Ocean (SOM2 and SOM3). The time series of summertime occurrence frequencies demonstrate the largest inter-annual variation in the SOM1, the slight decreasing trend in the SOM2, and the abrupt upswing after 2007 in the SOM3. The relevant analyses with produced cyclone track data confirm that the vital contribution. The Arctic cyclone activity is enhanced in the SOM1 because the meridional temperature gradient increases over the land–Arctic Ocean boundaries co-located with major extra-tropical cyclone pathways. The composite daily synoptic evolutions for each SOM reveal that the persistence of all the three SOMs is less than 5 days on average. These evolutionary short-term weather patterns have substantial variability at inter-annual and longer timescales. Therefore, the synoptic-scale activity is central to forming the seasonal-mean climate of the Arctic.

No research to date has explored the possibility of context-specific, within-relationship fluctuation in attachment security. In this present article, two cross-sectional studies were designed (1) to develop and validate context-specific attachment scales in Traditional-Chinese, and (2) to explore fluctuations in within-parent attachment security between the contexts of sport and academics, in relation to global attachment patterns and indicators of psychological wellbeing. Results indicated that youth can and do perceive within-parent attachment patterns differently depending upon context but that the relationship of such differences to context-specific outcomes is complex. Of particular interest was that the degree of within-parent attachment variability between contexts was clearly and negatively related to indices of psychological wellbeing. This suggests that contextual variation may be a meaningful and useful way to explore within-parent attachment fluctuation.

Strip-mined land (SML) disturbed by coal-mining is the non-crop land resource that can be utilized to cultivate high-yielding energy crops such as miscanthus for bioenergy applications. However, the biomass yield potential, annual availability and environmental impacts on growing energy crops in SML are less understood. In this study, we estimated the yield potential of miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis) in SML and its environmental impacts on local streams using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). After calibration and validation of the SWAT model, the results demonstrated that miscanthus yield potentials were 2.6 (0.8−5.53), 10.0 (1.3−16.0) and 16.0 (1.34−26.0) Mg ha^-1 with the fertilizer application rate of 0, 100, and 200 kg-N ha^-1 respectively. Furthermore, cultivation of miscanthus in the SML has the potential to reduce sediment (~20%) and nitrate (2.5%−10.0 %) loads reaching to water streams with a marginal increase in phosphorus load. The available SML in the United States could produce about 10 to 16 dry Tg of biomass per year without negatively impacting the water quality. In conclusion, SML can provide a unique opportunity to produce biomass for bioenergy applications, while improving stream water quality in highly dense mining area (the Appalachian region) in the United States.

The aim of this article has been to evaluate the impact of a physical-sport education programme, based on the pedagogical model of Sport Education within the framework of quality Physical Education and approached from the field of social and emotional learning, on a set of psychological variables: subjective well-being (quality of life related to health, positive affect and negative affect); trait emotional intelligence and social anxiety. A total number of 113 Compulsory Secondary Education students were involved, aged 12 to 15 years old, 44 of whom belonged to the control group (CG) and 69 to the experimental group (EG). A quasiexperimental design of repeated pretest and posttest measures with the CG was used. The results obtained in this investigation revealed that the intervention programme caused significant improvements in the subjective well-being and the trait emotional intelligence for the EG. These findings reinforce the pedagogical efficiency of the programme with regards to the aim that has been set. Likewise, the findings also highlight the suitability and appropriateness in terms of innovative teaching proposals. In the same way, the results showed relevant empirical contributions in this given school context due to its psychological benefits and the encouragement of healthy living.

The origination of most free-living animal species is predictable. ‘Light’ order production in the trophic levels below is the key. Absent from the abiotic environment (pre-primary level) and prokaryotes, ‘light’ order consists of differences in species composition between highly-developed, species-packed communities in which extinction may be the precursor to speciation, particularly ecologically comparable tropical continental lowland ones of Africa, Australia, India, and South America. Based on but not itself of matter and non-burnable, its nil waste heat content ‘compensates’ for burned-up food energy. Where the amounts of it on infra-apical trophic levels form an inverted pyramid like waste heat’s, occupancy of trophic levels from primary to apical is predictable (variation and selection assumed). Terminal non-inversion predicts post-apical vacancy. Examined communities were from grasslands (grasses, large grazing mammals, large carnivores), and woodlands (woody plants, butterflies, insect-eating birds, raptorial birds). Linnaeus’s binomial classificational system turned out to be unexpectedly rich in new content. A new object of study, the neoLinnaean, is recognised and a new process, the neoLyellian, advanced to explain it. Relations to Darwin’s and Lyell’s non-predictive theories of change, to ecology and evolution, to thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics, and to neurology are discussed.