Humans are incapable of judging the temporal order of visual events at brief temporal separations with perfect accuracy. Their performance---which is of much interest in visual cognition and attention research---can be measured with the temporal-order judgment task, which typically produces S-shaped psychometric functions. Occasionally, researchers reported plateaus within these functions, and some theories predict such deviation from the basic S shape. However, the centers of the psychometric functions result from the weakest performance at the most difficult presentations and therefore fluctuate strongly, leaving existence and exact shapes of plateaus unclear. This study set out to investigate whether plateaus disappear if the data accuracy is enhanced, or if we are ``stuck on a plateau'', or rather with it. For this purpose, highly accurate data were assessed by model-based analysis. The existence of plateaus is confidently confirmed and two plausible mechanisms derived from very different models are presented. Neither model, however, performs well in the presence of a strong attention manipulation, and model comparison remains unclear on the question which of the models describes the data best. Nevertheless, the present study includes the highest accuracy in visual TOJ data and the most explicit models of plateaus in TOJ studied so far.

The implementation of green logistics can reduce the increasingly serious environmental damage and improve the operating efficiency of logistics enterprises. In this paper, through quantitative calculation of logistics negative external costs, including traffic accidents, atmospheric pollution, noise pollution, and pollution caused by packaging, we build accounting standards to calculate the negative external cost of logistics enterprises that mainly generate pollution from transportation and packaging. Then, assuming the impetus provided by government implementing incentive mechanisms in a free market economy, we establish a ‘Logistics Negative External Cost Internalizing’ model, which quantitatively analyzes the relationships among freight rate, freight volume, investment of enterprise for implementing green logistics, and the subsidy given by government, under the comparison of the two modes ‘enterprise operates first’ and ‘government subsidizes first’. The results show that the introduction of ‘government subsidizes first’ incentive mechanism and increasing freight rate are helpful in promoting the process of logistics market greening.

This study analyzes how Perceived Credibility of a 360-degree feedback and Evaluation of Outcome impact on ratees’ attitudes towards behavioral change. The study adopts a qualitative-quantitative mixed method approach. Reasoned Action Theory was selected as the theoretical framework, and ten 360-degree assessment ratees were interviewed on their perceived credibility, evaluation of outcome and attitude toward behavioral change in the 360-degree assessment practices. The qualitative inputs were analyzed under the methodology of grounded theory. Additional 159 respondents participated in the quantitative research phase of the research to validate the findings in the qualitative research phase. It was validated that Perceived Credibility, Evaluation of Outcome has impact on Attitude Toward Behavioral Change in 360-degree assessment.

In this paper, two double Jordan-type inequalities are introduced based on the papers [1]-[5]. These inequalities generalize the inequalities obtained in [1]-[5]. As a result, some new upper and lower bounds of the sinc function are obtained. This extension of Jordan’s inequality is enabled by considering the corresponding inequalities through the concept of stratified families of functions elaborated in [6]. Based on this approach, some optimal approximations of the sinc function are derived by determining corresponding minimax approximants, also described in the paper [6].

This study investigates the spatio-temporal variability of the onset, offset, and Length of the rainy season in Senegal over the 1981-2018 period. The onset, offset dates, and length of the rainy season are crucial parameters for agricultural planning in West Africa, which exhibits high interannual and spatial variability in rainfall. The objective is to detect and spatially classify these phenological parameters across Senegal using different approaches. Daily precipitation data from the Climate Hazards group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset over the study period and ERA5 reanalysis were used. The method of was applied to detect the onset, offset dates, and length of the rainy season. The Kohonen algorithm was then used to spatially classify these parameters on topological maps. A hierarchical ascendant classification was also performed to reduce the number of classes obtained. Finally, a composite analysis of moisture transport before the onset and end of the 1984 and 2007 seasons was conducted with ERA5 data. The results show a meridional gradient of the start of the season, progressively later from southeast to northwest, while the end follows a north-south gradient. The duration of the rainy season ranges from 45 days in northern Senegal to 150 days in the south. The maximum number of dry days also decreases from north to south. The Kohonen self-organizing maps allow spatial prediction of the onset, end date, and duration of the rainy season across Senegal. The dynamics analysis reveals that early onset years are associated with stronger and earlier northward moisture transport over West Africa, underscoring the role of this parameter in triggering the rainy season. These promising results can provide an early warning to policymakers and farmers on the start and end dates of the season in each area of Senegal.

Autonomous electronic area, territory, or space protection is getting more important. One of the areas of application of the system is to monitor the quarantine zones created during epidemics. The idea to create a system of mobile sensory units for defending quarantine zones was born during one of the phases of the Covid epidemic in 2020. The paper contains a brief technical description of a mobile sensor units and their network. This network surrounds an area of interest. The work includes a mathematical and data model of the protected area. In addition, the paper presents a method for distributing mobile sensor units in areas of interest.

Proteins having a variety of functions play many essential roles in maintaining various life activities in organisms. Various methods, by which new protein functions can be artificially produced, have progressed rapidly upon development in recombinant DNA technology and effective screening techniques. However, the obtainable scope of the new functions has been restricted in a narrow range, because only functions of presently existing proteins can be used. On the other hand, it has been considered that it would be impossible to create an entirely new protein, which does not show any meaningful homology with any other amino acid sequences of previously existing proteins. The reason is because one amino acid sequence for a protein cannot be selected out from an extraordinary large amino acid sequence diversity as ~10130. As a matter of course, it is impossible to design an amino acid sequence of a protein in advance and a gene encoding the protein cannot be also formed through random process. Nevertheless, extant organisms have generated a variety of entirely new proteins in some way to make full use of them. This means that extant organisms have equipped a mechanism with which entirely new proteins can be produced under the present core life system composed of protein, tRNA (genetic code) and gene. In this article, first I introduce the mechanism, with which entirely new proteins are created in extant organisms, and further propose a novel strategy for application of the mechanism to protein engineering through creation of entirely new proteins, which could contribute to development of various industries.

Understanding the mechanism, how entirely new (EntNew) gene/protein or the first ancestral gene/protein of a family was created, should be one of the most important issues in the biological sciences. However, the mechanism is totally unknown still now. On the other hand, it is well known that mature protein is generally rigid and one catalytic center exists on the protein. Creation of such a mature EntNew gene/protein should be, of course, carried out through random process, because it cannot be designed in advance. However, the EntNew gene/protein never be created by random polymerization of the respective monomeric units, because of the extraordinary large sequence diversities of ~10¹⁸⁰ and ~10¹³⁰, respectively. Protein 0^th-order structure or a specific amino acid composition, in which immature but water-soluble protein can be produced even through random process, holds the key for solving the difficult problem. As it was fragmentally described in the previous papers how and where EntNew gene/protein was created, I describe in detail in this review three processes generating EntNew gene/protein with some flexibility under three genetic codes, the universal genetic code, SNS primitive code and GNC primeval code, and discuss why the mature gene/protein could be created through the processes.

The presence of fecal indicator bacteria in therapeutic mineral waters (TMWs) represents an important factor that can alter their chemical properties and therapeutic effect, correlated with an increased health risk for patients. The purpose of study was to evaluate the interrelationship between the level of contamination with coliform bacteria/Escherichia coli determined by the culture-dependent method and the concentrations of major ions, trace elements and gases in mineral waters that are used for curative or prophylactic purposes. Coliform bacteria showed a degree of survival modulated by the physical-chemical profile of TMWs, their viable count being statistically correlated with T°C, pH, TDS, EC and major ions (Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe2+, Cl-, HCO3-, SO42-). The prevalence of E.coli bacteria was not sen-sitive to the oscillation of the values of T°C; pH; TDS; EC of TMWs, but on the other hand, for the concentration variations of Cl-, HCO3-, total miner-alization from the composition of lakes/bathing pools, a positive correla-tion was identified with its numerical density. For sulfurous TMWs, the results showed a negative correlation between H2S concentration and the level of CB or E.coli, and in carbonated TMWs, CO2/CB values varied di-rectly proportionally, while E.coli evolved numerically independently of CO2 concentration fluctuations, as expected, being aerobe/facultative an-aerobic bacteria.

Based on the perspective of complex directed weighted network analysis, this paper constructs a static resilience evaluation framework for trade networks from two dimensions: structural resilience and node resilience. It studies the evolution of static resilience in the upstream, midstream, downstream, and recycling trade networks of global wood forest products from 2002 to 2021. The study finds that the total trade volume of global wood forest products has increased by 58.0%, 77.3%, 71.2%, and 77.2% in the upstream, midstream, downstream, and recycling sectors, respectively. The downstream trade network exhibits efficient information transmission and resource mobility capabilities. All four types of trade networks exhibit scale-free characteristics, with core countries such as China, the United States, and Germany playing a dominant role in the network and playing a crucial role in network robustness, but also increasing network vulnerability. In terms of unweighted assortativity, all four networks exhibit the characteristic of "small countries relying on hubs," while the weighted assortativity of the downstream network is positive, indicating enhanced network resilience. In terms of node resilience, countries exhibit significant differences and dynamic changes. China demonstrates strong resilience and adaptability, while the United States maintains its core position. China's influence in the downstream network has significantly increased, and India has rapidly emerged in the recycling network. To enhance network resilience, it is necessary to increase diversity and redundancy, establish effective emergency response mechanisms, and promote the diversification and green transformation of the supply chain.

This study investigates the use of geopolymer technology as an alternative for the management of mine tailings, which is a serious environmental problem in mining environments including that of Arequipa region of Peru. In this study, the mixture of stabilized mine tailings with different percentages of binders (metakaolin and pumice) and their impact on the mechanical, microstructural, and toxicological properties of the synthesized geopolymers were analyzed. The ratios of mine tailings to binder material varied between 100/0 and 0/100. The activation was carried out with an alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide (10M) and sodium silicate (modulus 2.5). 50 mm cubic specimens were fabricated, and 7 mixtures with 3 replicates each were evaluated. The evaluations included compressive strength at 7, 14, 28, and 56 days of curing, chemical analysis by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), microstructural characterization by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM/EDS), thermal behavior by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) between 40°C and 1000°C, and toxicological tests by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP, EPA 1311) to determine the efficiency of immobilization of toxic metals. The results showed good mechanical strength, reaching 25 MPa at 7 days of curing, high microstructural stability with an average pore size of 7.21 μm, and good efficiency in the immobilization of heavy metals in geopolymers composed of 60% - 40% and 70% - 30% of the mine tailings - binders ratio, as the concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, Hg were below the established thresholds, acquiring the classification of non-hazardous materials. Geopolymers with 30 to 50% binder showed good mechanical behavior, microstructural stability, and high efficiency in the immobilization of heavy metals, complying with current regulations. Therefore, these geopolymers are suitable for various applications and in different environmental conditions.

Every country has a different philosophy of education, which in contemporary China manifests itself in ideological guidance at all levels and in all types of schools. China's education has entered a new era, but ideological and political education is still needed in schools and colleges, and its core interest is to cultivate newcomers of the times who can take on the important task of national rejuvenation; in other words, the education sector has to ensure the sustainability of the cultivation of talents as well as the sustainability of socialist development. In this context, ideological and political education has initiated a triple spatial shift, i.e., from classroom space to cyberspace, from physical space to virtual space, and from campus space to social space. The triple spatial transfer has a profound historical logic, which is the inevitable process of the continuous development of ideological and political education itself, and the historical convergence of the Party's proposition, people's expectation and social development in this era. The requirements of the external situation, the needs of internal development, and the needs of the political task constitute the direct reality of the triple spatial transformation. The future direction of the spatial transformation of ideological and political education will be reflected in the intersection of subject and space, the collision of individuality and commonality, and the fusion of unity and diversity.

Adults’ with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) experiences on occupational participation were explored through the prism of Occupational Justice model (MOJ) aiming to shape and develop an occupation-centered model of Quality of Life (QoL). In this qualitative study participated thirteen adults with ID (N=13). A semi-structured interview based on MOJ was constructed and administered to explore perspectives on QoL, as well as injustices regarding occupational participation. The interviews were processed with QSR NVivo8 following content analysis research methodology. An Occupational – Quality of Life (O-QoL) model with an everyday occupations core component has been formed. This model includes three core O-QoL domains: (i) social well-being, (ii) emotional – physical well-being and (iii) material adequacy. Main indicators of O-QoL were the recreational occupations and social activities, while socio-environmental factors such as occupational deprivation have been identified as aggravating. In addition, specific occupations such as leisure activities, physical exercise / sports, art, video games and vocational training could also be beneficial for O-QoL. Moreover, the importance of promoting and supporting the rights of people with ID for employment, independent living and sexual expression was highlighted. The O-QoL could be a valuable conceptual framework in the field of ID, however further research for developing specialized assessment tools and Occupational Therapy interventions to promote O-QoL is needed.

How many different writers authored the huge number of texts attributed to Galen of Pergamum (129~216 AD), medical doctor and philosopher, a giant in the history of medicine? To find out which texts were his and which ones were written by others is known as the “Galenic Question”. We propose a “solution” to it through a multidisciplinary approach based: (a) on historical research and (b) on a mathematical analysis of the Greek texts. The historical approach has considered historical independent sources and anachronisms. The mathematical approach has been based on a mathematical theory concerning deep–language variables, rarely consciously controlled by any author, therefore capable of giving indications on similarity of texts, with little or no bias. The multidisciplinary approach has convinced us that at least three authors wrote the texts attributed to Galen. The first two very likely were real historical persons: (a) a certain Galen living between the end of the I century BC and the second half of the I century AD; (b) the historical Galen of Pergamum (II–III centuries AD) and (c) several unknown authors hiding under the name Galen, but surely living after Galen of Pergamum’s death.

In the context of the minimally extended varying speed of light (meVSL) model, both the absolute magnitude and the luminosity distance of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) differ from those predicted by general relativity (GR). Utilizing the Pantheon+ data, we examine the plausibility of various dark energy models under meVSL. Both ωCDM and CPL parameterization dark energy (DE) models exhibit indications of cosmic variations in the speed of light at the 1-σ level. For Ωm0=0.30,0.31, and 0.32 with (ω0,ωa)=(−1,0), the 1-σ range of c˜˙0/c˜0(10−13yr−1) is (-8.76 , -0.89), (-11.8 , 3.93), and (-14.8 , -6.98), respectively. Meanwhile, the 1-σ range of c˜˙0/c˜0(10−12yr−1) for CPL dark energy models with −1.05≤ω0≤−0.95 and 0.28≤Ωm0≤0.32, is (-6.31 , -2.98). The value of c˜ at z=3 can exceed that of the present by 0.2∼3 % for ωCDM models and 5∼13 % for CPL models. Additionally, for viable models except for the CPL model with Ωm0=0.28, we find −25.6≤G˜˙0/G˜0(10−12yr−1)≤−0.36. For this particular model, we obtain an increasing rate of the gravitational constant within the range 1.65≤G˜˙0/G˜0(10−12yr−1)≤3.79.

The importance of frailty in older people is getting constant recognition as an important aspect both in terms of public health, as well in personal level for the appropriate management of an older person health condition. This is reflected by the continuously increasing number of research studies carried out in several settings across different countries. Sometimes this is very solid, but in other cases there is a considerable gap in terms of accurate and well grounded documentation of frailty status. This is the case in Greece, where we are missing clinically validated tools to approach frailty. We are missing frailty screening tools, such as for instance PRISMA 7, the gold standard tool of Fried criteria is somehow problematic since the question referring to physical activity originates from a questionnaire that has not been translated and validated, while Clinical Frailty Scale has been validated for the translation but not for the capacity to detect frailty. Aim of this study is to validate these tools for their accuracy to detect frailty by using a measurable index of frailty, previously proposed for use in clinical studies: the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). 74 male and female participants have been evaluated for their frailty status using different tools. We observed that PRISMA 7 translation detects frailty only when one question is removed at a cut-off of ≥ 2 and indicated a sensitivity of 88.1%, and specificity of 99.9% with a good correlation with SPPB measurements (r = 0.858; p < 0.001). When CFS was validated using SPPB it demonstrated a very good correlation (r = -0.838; p < 0.001 respectively) as it was the case for the modified Fried Criteria (r = -0.725; p < 0.001). All items demonstrated a good correlation between them. We can here propose that we can accurately assess frailty status in the community setting by using a modified version of Fried criteria, Clinical Frailty Scale translation in Greek and we can screen for frailty by using the Greek translation of PRISMA 7 only after removing the item 6 of the questionnaire.

If "quantization is an art" then it can be greatly rened by adopting cyclic time formalism. In past papers we have proven the effectiveness of a formulation of physics based on cyclic relativistic time. Now we can demonstrate in a general way, by using theorems of Geometric Quantization, that the Poisson brackets of intrinsically cyclic time dynamics directly imply the ordinary canonical commutation relations and the other Dirac's rules of canonical Quantum Mechanics. In other words, according to our result, canonical quantization is an implicit way of imposing intrinsically cyclic time dynamics without explicitly saying that time is a cyclic dimension.

In this work we study the intersection properties of a finite disk system in the euclidean space. We accomplish this by utilizing subsets of spheres with varying dimensions and analyze specific points within them, referred to as poles. Additionally, we introduce two applications: estimating the common scale factor for the radii that makes the re-scaled disks intersects in a single point, this is the \v{C}ech scale, and constructing the minimal Axis-Aligned Bounding Box (AABB) that encloses the intersection of all disks in the system.

The molecular mechanisms underlying insect gall formation remain unclear. A major reason for the inability to identify the responsible genes is that most insect galls are produced on woody plants and therefore cannot be experimentally validated in the laboratory. To overcome these problems, we established a new galling insect model, Smicronyx madaranus. Our manipulation experiments using nail polish sealing and insecticide treatment revealed an age-dependent change in gall formation during S. madaranus; adult females and larvae are responsible for gall induction and enlargement, respectively. Furthermore, it has been suggested that substances released during oviposition and larval feeding are involved in each process. Phylogenetic analysis showed that most gall-forming weevils, including S. madaranus, belong to a single lineage, suggesting that gall-forming traits evolved in a specific lineage within Smicronyx. The efficacy of RNA interference (RNAi) in S. madaranus was confirmed by targeting multicopper oxidase 2 gene. It is expected that the mechanisms of gall formation will be elucidated by a comprehensive functional analysis of candidate genes using RNAi and the S.madaranus galling system in the near future.

This article focuses on the issue of urban development of cities and their residential development from the perspective of spatial planning. Spatial planning fundamentally determines, what kind of construction is feasible in cities. However, spatial plans often do not consider spatial limits, which often go against the proposed ways of using of the given sites, or make their use fundamentally difficult, for example by disproportionately increasing of the costs of residential construction, when it is necessary to remediate old burdens in the defined locality. The subject of the presented research was to examine the possibility of establishing an Index of Residential Development (IoRD), which evaluates the possibilities of residential development in the territory of urban agglomerations. The aim of the research, in the form of establishing of an Index of Residential Development (IoRD), was to assess, how it is possible to consider spatial limits associated with residential construction in urban intravilanes in order to identify the objectives of further spatial development planned by cities. Subsequently, the partial aim of the research was also to create a usable tool for support in the decision making of development organizations on the location of their project in a given space. Based on the results of the research, it was deduced that the limits associated with the residential development in intravilanes based on the IoRD could be considered. Clear links were also shown between the limits in the territory and the impaired possibility of construction in cities with zoning plans, which did not respond to the limits in the territory by adding other design zones, or completely ignored them. Although the methodology for determining of the Index of Residential Development (IoRD) was verified due to the availability of data in the case study carried out in the Czech Republic – the city of Brno, the methodology is applicable to any urban agglomeration even outside the Czech Republic when fulfilling the conditions defined in the article.

Cloud platforms are widely employed in today's educational context to enhance collaborative learning and the overall quality of the teaching-learning process. In 2016, Nextcloud was im-plemented in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technological University of Havana "José Antonio Echeverría" (CUJAE), Cuba. Subsequently, an evaluative phase was conducted to ensure the continuous development of the platform. The objective was to assess the use and ac-ceptance of the Nextcloud platform from the perspective of students and professors in the Fac-ulty. An exploratory, non-experimental, and cross-sectional study was conducted. Data was col-lected through observation and a survey. Matomo Analytics tool was employed for observation, revealing low visitation numbers. The survey was based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model. Better results were obtained in positive acceptances compared to negative ones, both for professors and students. It is concluded that the evaluation of the Next-cloud platform is infrequently used by users; however, there were higher positive acceptances than negatives from the perspectives of both students and professors.

This article is the third part of a scientific project under the general title "Geometrized vacuum physics based on the Algebra of Signatures". In the first two papers [1,2], the ideal (i.e., non-curved and immobile) local region of vacuum was studied and the foundations of the Algebra of Signatures were laid. This article considers the possibilities of describing the curved and moving state of the same vacuum region on the basis of the mathematical apparatus of the Algebra of Signatures. The reasons for the multilateral consideration of vacuum and twisting of intra-vacuum processes into spiral bundles are disclosed. The 4-tensor is introduced for two-sided and 16-sided consideration of the curvature of the local vacuum region. On the basis of kinematic models, the following assumptions were made: about the inert properties of vacuum layers; about the possibility of displacement of vacuum layers relative to each other at a speed significantly exceeding the speed of light; about the possibility of "rupture" of the local region of vacuum. The proposed kinematic models of the movement of vacuum layers can be a theoretical basis for the development of "zero" (i.e., vacuum) technologies.

Cadmium (Cd) is a major heavy metal pollutant and a significant cause of abiotic stress in the environment. Organisms have developed various pathways to protect themselves against Cd stress. MYB protein is a large transcription factor family in plants. Many members of the family have been found to regulate developmental processes and stress responses. However, the function and mechanism of MYB116 are far from clear. In a recent study, we found that MYB116 of Chinese cabbage enhances Cd tolerance in yeast. BrMYB116 is transiently inducible by Cd treatment in Chinese cabbage. When expressed in yeast cells, it enhances tolerance against Cd stress and reduces Cd accumulation in the cells. Further analysis shows that BrMYB116 protein enhances Cd tolerance in yeast cells by activating one target gene that encodes the facilitator of iron transport 3 (FIT3). ScFIT3 is activated through specific binding with its promoter. More importantly, the expression of ScFIT3, leads to a substantial reduction of Cd accumulation in both yeast and Chinese cabbage. This finding implies that a similar network may exist in other biological systems, which presents a promising avenue for enhancing Cd tolerance in plants and developing Cd-resistant crops.

The COVID-19 pandemic has invited us to envision education anew, embracing a new era of instructional practices and learning environments. This study explores language teachers' and students' experiences in the post-pandemic landscape, providing valuable insights into the challenges, adaptations, and opportunities. Grounded in socio-cultural perspectives and educational theories, such as Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory and Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, the study employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to comprehensively analyze secondary data sources. Findings reveal the significant role of social interaction and cultural context in language learning, amid reduced face-to-face contact and increased reliance on technology. The study uncovers the intricate interplay between individual, interpersonal, and environmental factors, shedding light on educators' and learners' challenges. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness emerge as crucial for intrinsic motivation and optimal learning outcomes. While acknowledging limitations related to secondary data sources, the study offers a comprehensive overview of the literature, informing language education practices in the post-pandemic era. It contributes to understanding the complex dynamics and interactions within language education and calls for future research using primary data collection methods to explore experiences and perspectives further. By understanding post-pandemic experiences, this study aims to shape education policies, practices, and pedagogical approaches, supporting effective language learning and the well-being of educators and learners in this transformed educational context.

The method propose in this study for stock market multi-objective mathematical model was linear programming using simplex algorithms to optimize the portfolio in the Nigerian Stock Market. The study selected five banks from the list of operators in the market and data were gathered from the banks to have individual market performances over a period of 5years. The data collected contains: Geometric Mean of Monthly Capital Gain Yields and Annual Capital Gain Yields from which Dividend Yields (%) were deducted to arrive Actual rate of return for the banks and the expected rate of return. Furthermore, the risk of semi-absolute deviation below the expected return is reduced. The data was analysed using Python programming because of some clauses in the data gathered. At first, the data assumes integer (-or +) and random in nature. As such, Python programming is one of the software suitable for such solution since the barrier for additivity is broken. Based on the analysis, the study therefore conclude that the potential investor(s) should invest in 13 units of investment x(GTbank Plc), 3 units of First Bank Plc`s Investment (y), 450 units of Zenith bank`s investment (z), and 8 units of Wema bank`s investment (m), and no units of investment of (n) Access bank. These investment quantities will result in the Optimal profit of p= 12797.902 billion naira.

Introduction The Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) block is a novel technique that allows for analgesia of the anterior hip capsule via the articular branches of the accessory obturator nerve and femoral nerve, which have a significant role in the innervation of the hip capsule. PENG blockade is effective in both adult and pediatric patients. However, there are no studies in the available literature on patients under five years of age. Herein, we describe our experience with two pediatric patients with hip dysplasia. Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the analgesic effect of the pericapsular nerves group (PENG) in small children undergoing hip surgery. Patients and methods This study included two patients, aged 2 and 4 years old, who qualified for hip surgery. General or spinal anesthesia with the addition of a PENG block was performed. During the procedure, the basic hemodynamic parameters were monitored. After the surgery, the patients received 15mg/kg-1 iv paracetamol every 6 hours to prevent rebound pain. The pain was assessed using the FALCC score. The 15mg/kg-1 metamizole was administered if the FLACC score was 3. In the FLACC score 4, the application of 0,2mg/kg-1 Nalpain was ordered. Results The patient's hemodynamic parameters were stable and within normal range. FLACC scores from all patients ranged from 0 and 3 in the first 24 h period. One patient required metamizole 12 hours after surgery. No evidence of block complications was observed. Conclusions This case series showed that PENG block provided adequate postoperative analgesia and assured opioid-free pain management. However, we are convinced that future randomized, controlled trials are needed in this field.

In any region of a space, the gravitational field cannot be eliminated. The speed of light in a vacuum has never been observed and cannot be observed with current technology. Till now, only the speed of light in a gravitational field has been observed. It results in that all the observed speed of light are always being varied by the gravity. Here, it is presented that light could be dispersion in a gravitational field analogous to the dispersion of light in the Newtonian prism experiment. The relativistic mass density on the surface of a neutron star is on the level of 10¹⁷kg/m³ while on the surface of the Earth is only 10^-7kg/m³, the effect of the gravitational field acting on the speed of light by a neutron star is much larger than that by the Earth. Therefore, the dispersion of light in strong gravitational field could be generally observed from the image of a star and it should have been observed through the double-image gravitational lensing and the spectroscopic binary system. And, it should affect the observed numbers, spectrogram, size and distance of the celestial objects.

Properties of the Voronoi tessellations arising from the random 2D distribution points are reported. We applied the procedure of dividing the sides of Voronoi cells into equal or random parts to Voronoi diagrams generated by a set of randomly placed on the plane points. The dividing points were then used to construct the following Voronoi diagram. Repeating this procedure led to a surprising effect of positional ordering of Voronoi cells, reminiscent of the formation of lamellae and spherulites in linear semi-crystalline polymers and metallic glasses. Thus, we can conclude, that by applying even a simple set of rules to a random set of seeds we introduce order into an initially disordered system. At the same time, the Voronoi entropy showed a tendency to values typical for completely random patterns and did not distinguish the short-range ordering. The Voronoi entropy and the continuous measure of symmetry of the patterns demonstrated the distinct asymptotic behavior, while approaching the close saturation values with the increase of the number of the iteration steps. Voronoi entropy grew, with the number of iterations, whereas the continuous measure of symmetry of the same patterns demonstrated the opposite asymptotic behavior. The Voronoi entropy is not an unambiguous measure of order in the 2D patterns. The more symmetrical patterns may demonstrate the higher values of the Voronoi entropy.

With the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, the world saw a humungous loss of human life and economic resources globally but also the rapid appearance of SARS-CoV-2 variants which have exhibited a higher transmissibility and/or virulence and which also evade immune system to such an extent that it raises a big question mark on the efficacy of current diagnostics, vaccines and convalescent plasma and mAb therapies. This has been attributed to the emergence of huge spectrum of mutations, especially in the virus’s spike (S) protein, occurring in regions harboring high concentration of B cell epitopes thus allowing neutralizing antibody escape. The mutations resulting in ACE 2 receptor recognition failure (T19R), unfavorable electrostatic interactions (E484K), structural change (∆69-70), disruption of hydrogen bonds, salt bridges or hydrophobic interactions (K417N, N501Y, ∆Y145) and change in orientation (N501Y) cause strong immune evasion by these variants. Further, the recent emergence of Omicron with more than 30 mutations in the S protein VOC allows it to escape and fail diagnosis as well as immune system and the protection generated by different vaccination regimes. Yet Omicron may not be the end of the story. This review presents an insight of the immunity escape and its mechanisms followed by different SARS-CoV-2 variant of concerns.

After proposing a natural metric for the space in which particles spin which implements the principle of maximum frequency, E=hf is generalised and its inverse Fourier transform is calculated. As a necessary result, a metric is found for the space in which quantum particles spin, hence the possibility of explanation of correlation of spacelike-separated particles is opened up.

In light of the self-simulation hypothesis, a simple form implementation of the principle of efficient language is discussed in a self-referential geometric quasicrystalline state sum model in three dimensions. Emergence is discussed in context of geometric state sum models.

Studying the two famous old problems that why the moon can move around the Sun and why the orbit of the Moon around the Earth cannot be broken off by the Sun under the condition that calculating with F=GMm/R^2, the attractive force of the Sun on the Moon is almost 2.2 times that of the Earth. We found that the planet and moon are unified as one single gravitational unit which results in that the Sun cannot have the force of F=GMm/R^2 on the moon. The moon is moved by the gravitational unit orbiting around the Sun. It could indicate that the gravitational field of the moon is limited inside the unit and the gravitational fields of both the planet and moon is unified as one single field interacting with the Sun. The findings are further clarified by reestablishing Newton’s repulsive gravity.

In the present paper, based on the ideas of Algerian physicist M.E. Hassani, the generalized Hassani spatio-temporal transformations in real Hilbert space are introduced. The original transformations, introduced by M.E. Hassani, are the particular cases of the transformations, introduced in this paper. It is proven that the classes of generalized Hassani transforms do not form a group of operators in the general case. Further, using these generalized Hassani transformations as well as the theory of changeable sets and universal kinematics, the mathematically strict models of Hassani kinematics are constructed and the performance of the relativity principle in these models is discussed.

Neonatal palliative care (NPC) is an integrated and holistic approach that is an integral part of the contemporary neonatal treatment delivery paradigm. It is the highest fulfillment of the notion of beneficence (doing or creating 'good') that has otherwise been neglected/underestimated by the focus of modern medicine on technology and instrumental treatments by its commitment to alleviating patient pain and quality of life. For decades, the Double-Effect Doctrine (DDE) has been used to consider and address a range of ethically questionable circumstances, often at the end of life, including euthanasia, termination of pregnancy to save maternal life, and morally justified warfare. The theory has continued to be mired in controversy as ethicists, legal scholars, theologians, and philosophers discuss the abstract concepts of moral reasoning, purpose, foresight, and other underlying moral theories. In this paper, the moral theory of DDE is discussed in its clinical application to the ethical decision-making process in neonatal palliative and end-of-life treatment, specifically 1) the administration of opioids as required for symptom control and 2) the use of palliative sedation for intractable symptom care.

In this paper, we found a new model for compact star with charged anisotropic matter distribution considering an extended version of the Chaplygin equation of state. We specify a particular form of the metric potential Z(x) that allows us to solve the Einstein-Maxwell field equations. The obtained model satisfies all physical properties expected in a realistic star such that the expressions for the radial pressure, energy density, metric coefficients, measure of anisotropy and the mass are fully well defined and are regular in the interior of star. The solution obtained in this work can have multiple applications in astrophysics and cosmology.

Quality of Service (QoS) metrics deal with network quantities, e.g. latency and loss, whereas Quality of Experience (QoE) provides a proxy metric for end-user experience. Many papers in the literature have proposed mappings between various QoS metrics and QoE. This paper goes further in providing analysis for QoE versus bandwidth cost. We measure QoE using the widely accepted Mean Opinion Score (MOS) rating. Our results naturally show that increasing bandwidth increases MOS. However, we extend this understanding by providing analysis for internet access scenarios, using TCP, and varying the number of TCP sources multiplexed together. For these target scenarios our analysis indicates what MOS increase you get by further expenditure on bandwidth. We anticipate that this will be of considerable value to commercial organizations responsible for bandwidth purchase and allocation.

Together with display and input, storage and processing are requisite to computing. While storage technologies have improved tremendously in capacity and speed over the years, the basic principles enabling information storage into digital 1 and 0 remains the same: induction of phase change in the storage substrate. But recently, there has been much research into structural phase change material (SPCM) and exploration of its possible use in various types of memory storage applications. Despite unconventional use of structural change between amorphous and crystalline state as well as that between crystal structures for encoding information, key barriers for its widespread use remains access speed, capacity to cost ratio, and fidelity of storage. Hence, given the performance requirement of SPCM for memory applications, what are the material and design considerations that feed into translating a promising application into a practical reality? Given the important role of kinetic and thermal energy in structural organization of a phase change material, precise characterization of structural change in the material with external physical factors such as heat, voltage and current, is critical for storage material design. Next comes the precision at which individual memory cells for storing single bits of information could be defined reproducibly and at high fidelity using SPCM. In congruent with memory cell definition lies the equally important aspect of constraining the field characteristics used in modulating the phase state of the memory medium. Specifically, while heat is useful for mediating the “melting” of a crystalline material into its amorphous state, heat conduction is less useful for transferring the “switch command” from the effector to the memory material. More importantly, choice of structural phase change material for memory applications likely revolves around those where individual memory cells could be defined in a cross array format, which is amenable to high density information storage. Durability and fidelity of information storage are additional factors of design that favours selection of SPCM with phase change occurring at narrow operating windows without hysteresis over extended cycling. But, the most important requirement is speed of access. To this end, energetic cost of phase transitions might affect operation of the phase change memory at the system level: for example, usage of large current for high energy transition step may impact on device durability. Ultimately, there is a fundamental limit on the number of reproducible phase transitions in a SPCM before fidelity of information storage is no longer guaranteed. Hence, what are the drivers for uptake of phase change memories in consumer devices? Performance gains must be realized in access speed, storage capacity, form factor, and fidelity of information storage for practical application of structural phase change memories.

Electrical contractors have experienced a rise in occupational fatalities in recent years. In 2017, electrical contractors also had the second highest number of non-fatal injuries among specialty trade contractors. Identifying statistically significant dependencies between these catastrophic outcomes and a handful of well-defined contributing factors in construction accidents offers a first step in mitigating the risks of construction accidents in this trade. Therefore, this study used methodologies of descriptive and quantitative statistics to identify the contributing factors most affecting occupational accident outcomes among electrical contracting enterprises, given an accident occurred. Accident reports were collected from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fatality and catastrophe database. To ensure the reliability of the data, the team manually codified more than 600 incidents through a comprehensive content analysis using injury-classification standards. Inclusive of both fatal and non-fatal injuries, the results showed that most accidents happened in nonresidential buildings, new construction, and small projects (i.e., $50,000 or less). The main source of injuries manifested in parts and materials (46%), followed by tools, instruments, and equipment (19%), and structure and surfaces (16%). The most frequent types of injuries were fractures (31%), electrocutions (27%), and electrical burns (14%); the main injured body parts were upper extremities (25%), head (23%), and body system (18%). Among non-fatal cases, falls (37%), exposure to electricity (36%), and contact with objects (19%) caused most injuries; among fatal cases, exposure to electricity was the leading cause of death (50%), followed by falls (28%) and contact with objects (19%). The analysis also investigated the impact of several accident factors on the degree of injuries and found significant effects from such factors such as project type, source of injury, cause of injuries, injured part of body, nature of injury, and event type. In other words, the statistical probability of a fatal accident—given an accident occurrence—changes significantly based on the degree of these factors. Beyond these outcomes, the described content-analysis methodology contributes to the accident-analysis body of knowledge by providing a framework for codifying data from accident reports to facilitate future analysis and modeling attempts (e.g., developing logistic regression models) to subsequently mitigate more injuries in other fields.

This study measures the noise levels in a baseball stadium and analyzes baseball fans’ attitude of effect of recreational noise exposure on their hearing. In the baseball stadium, noise levels were measured in four seating sections using a sound level meter during the games. The LAeq average of the 16 measures produced 91.7 dBA, showing a significantly high noise level in the red and navy sections. As a function of frequency by LZeq analysis, the noise levels were significantly higher in low frequencies than other frequencies. For the survey sample, 688 randomly selected participants completed a 16-question survey on their noise exposure during the game and on the potential risk of hearing loss. Despite the very high noise levels, 70% of the respondents preferred sitting in either the red or the navy section to be closer to the cheerleaders and to obtain a good view. Most respondents reported that they did not consider wearing earplugs, and one-third experienced hearing muffled speech after the game. We conclude that the noise levels in baseball stadiums are high enough to cause hearing damage and/or tinnitus later, but expect these results to improve public education regarding safe noise exposure during popular sports activities.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that aims to enable the interconnection of a large number of smart devices and heterogeneous networks. Ad hoc networks play an important role in the designing of IoT-enabled platforms due to their efficient, flexible, low-cost, and dynamic infrastructures. These networks utilize the available resources efficiently to maintain the Quality of Service (QoS) in a multi-hop communication. However, in a multi-hop communication, the relay nodes can be malicious, thus requiring a secured and reliable data transmission. In this paper, we propose a QoS-aware secured communication scheme for IoT-based networks (QoS-IoT). In QoS-IoT, a Sybil attack detection mechanism is used for the identification of Sybil nodes and their forged identities in multi-hop communication. %by high-power and mobile nodes. After Sybil nodes detection, an optimal contention window (CW) is selected for QoS provisioning, i.e., to achieve per-flow fairness and efficient utilization of the available bandwidth. In a multi-hop communication, the MAC layer protocols do not perform well in terms of fairness and throughput, especially when the nodes generate a large amount of data. It is because the MAC layer has no capability of providing QoS to prioritized or forwarding flows. We evaluate the performance of QoS-IoT in terms of Sybil attack detection, fairness, throughput, and buffer utilization. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing schemes and significantly enhances the performance of the network with a large volume of data. Moreover, the proposed scheme is resilient against Sybil attack.

In this paper, we revisit a modified version of the classical Whitehead's theory of gravity in which all possible bilinear forms are considered to define the corresponding metric. Although, this is a linear theory that fails to give accurate results for the most sophisticated predictions of general relativity, such as gravity waves, it can still provide a convenient framework to analyze some new phenomena in the Solar System. In particular, recent development in the accurate tracking of spacecraft and the ephemerides of planetary positions have revealed certain anomalies in relation with our standard paradigm for celestial mechanics. Among them the so-called flyby anomaly and the anomalous increase of the astronomical unit play a prominent role. In the first case the total energy of the spacecraft changes during the flyby and a secular variation of the semi-major axis of the planetary orbits is found in the second anomaly. For this to happen it seems that a net energy and angular momentum transfer is taken place among the orbiting and the central body. We evaluate the total transfer per revolution for a planet orbiting the Sun in order to predict the astronomical unit anomaly in the context of Whitehead's theory. This could lead to a more deeply founded hypothesis for an extended gravity model.

The development of new diabetes drugs continues to be explored. Loureirin B, a flavonoid, extracted from Dracaena cochinchinensis, has been confirmed to increase insulin secretion and decrease blood glucose levels. For understanding the mechanism, a series of experiments had been employed based on computational methods and cell experiments. The insulin secretion significantly increased with the incubation of 0.01μM loureirin B for 4 hours. The viability of Ins-1 cells showed no significant difference with the treatment of loureirin B. Through computational methods, we hypothesized that loureirin B could interacts with K_ATP channels to promote insulin secretion. In cell experiments, it could be found that the current of K_ATP channel of Ins-1 cells was inhibited by the effect of loureirin B. After then, the voltage-dependent calcium channels were activated, the increase of Cx43 protein expression might mediate the Ca²⁺ to the intracellular. In summary, it could be concluded that loureirin B promoted insulin secretion mainly through inhibiting K_ATP current, the influx of Ca²⁺ to the Intracellular and the expression of Cx43.

We assume that the current mathematical knowledge K is a finite set of statements from both formal and constructive mathematics, which is time-dependent and publicly available. Any theorem of any mathematician from past or present belongs to K. The set K exists only theoretically. Ignoring K and its subsets, sets exist formally in ZFC theory although their properties can be time-dependent (when they depend on K) or informal. In every branch of mathematics, the set of all knowable truths is the set of all theorems. This set exists independently of K. Algorithms always terminate. We explain the distinction between algorithms whose existence is provable in ZFC and constructively defined algorithms which are currently known. By using this distinction, we obtain non-trivial statements on decidable sets X⊆N that belong to constructive and informal mathematics and refer to the current mathematical knowledge on X. This and the next sentence justify the article title. For any empirical science, we can identify the current knowledge with that science because truths from the empirical sciences are not necessary truths but working models of truth from a particular context. The feature of mathematics from the article title is not quite new. Church's thesis, which is known from the beginning of computability theory, is based on the observation that the currently known computable functions are recursive, where the notion of a computable function is informal. It proves that the predicate of the current mathematical knowledge slightly increases the intuitive mathematics. For a set X⊆N whose infiniteness is false or unproven, we define which elements of X are classified as known. No known set X⊆N satisfies Conditions (1)-(4) and is widely known in number theory or naturally defined, where this term has only informal meaning. (1) A known algorithm with no input returns an integer n satisfying card(X)<ω ⇒ X⊆(-∞,n]. (2) A known algorithm for every k∈N decides whether or not k∈X. (3) No known algorithm with no input returns the logical value of the statement card(X)=ω. (4) There are many elements of X and it is conjectured, though so far unproven, that X is infinite. (5) X is naturally defined. The infiniteness of X is false or unproven. X has the simplest definition among known sets Y⊆N with the same set of known elements. We prove that the set X={n∈N: the interval [-1,n] contains more than 29.5+(11!/(3n+1))∙sin(n) primes of the form k!+1} satisfies Conditions (1)-(5) except the requirement that X is naturally defined. 501893∈X. Condition (1) holds with n=501893. card(X∩[0,501893])=159827. X∩[501894,∞)={n∈N: the interval [-1,n] contains at least 30 primes of the form k!+1}. If we add to X some set W satisfying 14≤card(W)≤23, then the following statements hold: X does not satisfy Condition (1), 159827+14≤card(X), the above lower bound is currently the best known, card(X)<ω ⇒ card(X)≤159827+23, the above upper bound is currently the best known, X satisfies Conditions (2)-(5) except the requirement that X is naturally defined. Analogical statements hold, if we add to X the set ⋃_{x∈N, x divides 99!} {k∈N: k-501894 is the x-th element of P(n^2+1)}, where P(n^2+1) denote the set of primes of the form n^2+1. For a non-negative integer n, let θ(n) denote the largest integer divisor of 10^{10^{10}} smaller than n. Let κ:N→N be defined by setting κ(n) to be the exponent of 2 in the prime factorization of n+1. The set X={n∈N: (θ(n)+κ(n))^2+1 is prime} satisfies Conditions (1)-(5) except the requirement that X is naturally defined. Condition (1) holds with n=0^{10^{10}}. We present a table that shows satisfiable conjunctions of the form #(Condition1)∧ (Condition 2)∧#(Condition 3)∧(Condition 4)∧#(Condition 5), where # denotes the negation ¬ or the absence of any symbol. No set X⊆N will satisfy Conditions (1)-(4) forever, if for every algorithm with no input, at some future day, a computer will be able to execute this algorithm in 1 second or less. The physical limits of computation disprove this assumption.

Spectrally weighed irradiance on the corneal plane is often used to determine the visual and non-visual potency of light. Spectral irradiance or illuminance is measured with a diffuser in the so-called 2π geometry (i.e., a hemispheric measurement). Due to anatomical conditions, the human binocular field of view (FOV) does not correspond to a hemisphere but is occluded upwards and downwards. FOV-restricted measurements are scarce, however, and thus the error when using hemispheric measurements is yet to be determined. For our study, we designed and 3D printed FOV occlusions as attachments to spectral measurement devices. Measurements with and without the occlusion were taken in different lighting situations in the laboratory (light from different directions) and in real-world conditions (light typically from above). Our measurements show a reduction of visual and melanopic values due to the FOV occlusion ranging from negligible to over 60% for realistic scenarios. Further, the reduction was comparable for visual and melanopic parameters, as the distribution of light in the FOV was generally spectrally homogeneous. In the case of an exemplary and artificial laboratory situation, however, the melanopic daylight (D65) efficacy ratio changed by more than a factor of 2 only due to the FOV occlusion. Finally, head orientation showed a marked impact on all quantities. Our results reveal the potential for considerable error when just evaluating and comparing vertical, hemispheric measurements in experiments and non-visual lighting design projects. We thus encourage the (additional) use of a FOV occlusion for eye-level measurements in typical viewing directions and provide open-source 3D-print files.

Newly characterising 245 Italian and Albanian HCV-2 NS5B sequences collected between 2001 and 2016 was used to reconstruct the origin and dispersion pathways of HCV-2c. The tree of a subset of these sequences aligned with 247 publicly available sequences was reconstructed in spatio-temporal scale using the Bayesian approach, and the effective replication number (Re) was estimated using the birth-death model. Our findings show that HCV-2c was the most prevalent subtype in Italy and Albania, and that GT2 originated in Guinea Bissau in the XVI century and spread to Europe in the XX century. The HCV-2c subtype had two internal nodes respectively dating back to the 1930s and 1950s having as most probable locations Ghana and Italy, respectively. Phylodynamic analysis revealed an exponential increase in the effective number of infections and Re in both Italy between the 1950s and 1980s, and Albania between the 1990s and the early 2000s. It seems very likely that HCV-2c reached Italy from Africa at the time of the second Italian colonisation (1936-1941), but did not reach Albania until the period of dramatic migration to Italy in the 1990s.

Determination of the presence in the blood of antibodies specific to the causative agent of a particular disease (serodiagnosis) is an effective approach in medical analytical chemistry. Serodiagnostics performed in the lateral flow immunoassay format (immunochromatography) meet the modern requirements for point-of-care testing and are supported by existing technologies of large-scale diagnostic tests production—thus raising increased attention in a tense epidemiological situation. For traditional lateral flow serodiagnostics formats, a large number of nonspecific immunoglobulins in the sample significantly reduces the degree of detectable binding. To overcome these limitations, an assay based on the formation of immobilized antigen— specific antibody—labeled antigen complexes detection was proposed. However, the requirements for its implementation, providing maximum sensitivity, have not been established. This article describes the mathematical model for the above assay. The influence of the ratio of reagent concentrations on the analysis results is considered. It is noted that the formation of specific antibody complexes with several labeled antigens is the main limiting factor in reducing the detection limit, and methods are proposed to minimize this factor. Recommendations for the choice of the assay conditions, following from the analysis of the model, are confirmed experimentally.

Background: Transcription factors (TFs) are main regulators of eukaryotic gene expression. The cooperative binding to genomic DNA of at least two TFs is the widespread mechanism of transcription regulation. Cooperating TFs can be revealed through the analysis of co-occurrence of their motifs. Methods: We applied Motifs Co-Occurrence Tool (MCOT) that predicted pairs of spaced or overlapped motifs (composite elements, CEs) for a single ChIP-seq dataset. We improved MCOT capability for prediction of asymmetric CEs with one of participating motifs possessing higher conservation than another does. Results: Analysis of 119 ChIP-seq datasets for 45 human TFs revealed that almost for all families of TFs the co-occurrence with an overlap between motifs of target TFs and more conserved partner motifs was significantly higher than that for less conserved partner motifs. The asymmetry toward partner TFs was the most clear for partner motifs of TFs from ETS family. Conclusion: Co-occurrence with an overlap of less conserved motif of a target TF and more conserved motifs of partner TFs explained a substantial portion of ChIP-seq data lacking conserved motifs of target TFs. Among other TF families, conservative motifs of TFs from ETS family were the most prone to mediate interaction of target TFs with its weak motifs in ChIP-seq.

The Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture has evolved as a powerful and versatile approach for improving the performance and efficiency of deep learning models. This survey aims to provide the fundamental principles of MoE in details, a paradigm that harnesses the collective power of multiple specialized "expert" models working in concert to tackle complex tasks.Our exploration is a thorough analysis of the core components that constitute the MoE framework. We begin by dissecting the routing mechanism, a crucial element responsible for dynamically assigning input data to the most appropriate expert models. This routing process is pivotal in ensuring that each expert's specialized knowledge is optimally utilized. The survey places significant emphasis on expert specialization, a key feature that sets MoE apart from traditional architectures. We examine various strategies for developing and training specialized experts, exploring how this specialization enables MoE models to effectively handle diverse and multifaceted problems.Load balancing, another critical aspect of MoE systems, receives thorough attention. We discuss techniques for efficiently distributing computational resources among experts, ensuring optimal model performance while managing hardware constraints. This section provides insights into the delicate balance between model capacity and computational efficiency. Furthermore, we provide an in-depth discussion of the expert models themselves, examining their architectural designs, training methodologies, and how they interact within the larger MoE framework. This includes an analysis of different types of experts, from simple neural networks to more complex, task-specific architectures. The survey also navigates through diverse research avenues within the MoE landscape, highlighting recent advancements and innovative applications across various domains of machine learning. We pay particular attention to the burgeoning use of MoE in two rapidly evolving fields: computer vision and large language model (LLM) scaling. By providing this comprehensive overview, our survey aims to offer researchers and practitioners a deep understanding of MoE's capabilities, current applications, and potential future directions in the ever-evolving landscape of deep learning.The Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture has evolved as a powerful and versatile approach for improving the performance and efficiency of deep learning models. This survey aims to provide the fundamental principles of MoE in details, a paradigm that harnesses the collective power of multiple specialized "expert" models working in concert to tackle complex tasks.Our exploration is a thorough analysis of the core components that constitute the MoE framework. We begin by dissecting the routing mechanism, a crucial element responsible for dynamically assigning input data to the most appropriate expert models. This routing process is pivotal in ensuring that each expert's specialized knowledge is optimally utilized. The survey places significant emphasis on expert specialization, a key feature that sets MoE apart from traditional architectures. We examine various strategies for developing and training specialized experts, exploring how this specialization enables MoE models to effectively handle diverse and multifaceted problems.Load balancing, another critical aspect of MoE systems, receives thorough attention. We discuss techniques for efficiently distributing computational resources among experts, ensuring optimal model performance while managing hardware constraints. This section provides insights into the delicate balance between model capacity and computational efficiency. Furthermore, we provide an in-depth discussion of the expert models themselves, examining their architectural designs, training methodologies, and how they interact within the larger MoE framework. This includes an analysis of different types of experts, from simple neural networks to more complex, task-specific architectures. The survey also navigates through diverse research avenues within the MoE landscape, highlighting recent advancements and innovative applications across various domains of machine learning. We pay particular attention to the burgeoning use of MoE in two rapidly evolving fields: computer vision and large language model (LLM) scaling. By providing this comprehensive overview, our survey aims to offer researchers and practitioners a deep understanding of MoE's capabilities, current applications, and potential future directions in the ever-evolving landscape of deep learning.

Let S be a Fermat surface of degree 5 and let k be an algebraically closed field of characteristic p = 2. We give a fibration ƒ: S → P with upper limit 1 and lower limit k, and investigate the geometric properties of fiber of ƒ. Furthermore, we investigate the fibration-preserving automorphisms group Aut_{Pwith upper limit 1 and lower limit k}(S) of ƒ. We obtain that Aut_{Pwith upper limit 1 and lower limit k}(S) is a p-group of order 256.

Point of Sales (POS) systems are an important component of sales and inventory management for many businesses. This article discusses the development of a POS application designed to simplify the process of selling products in stores. The application uses PHP for the server, JavaScript for the client, Bootstrap for responsive design, and MySQL as the database. Its main features include a dashboard with daily sales summary, visual graphs, product category management, product addition and editing, admin and access rights management, ease of sales transaction processing, access to sales reports and analyses by leaders, and provision of sales reports in various formats. The clean and easy-to-use interface is expected to improve the efficiency of sales and inventory management, and assist businesses in making data-driven decisions.

Dicrocoeliosis is a common parasitic disease in European sheep farming. The prevalence of infec-tion by this parasite can reach almost 70% in areas where the environment is favourable to inter-mediate hosts. In France, only one drug is currently available for the treatment of dicrocoeliosis, albendazole at a dose of 15 mg/kg in a single administration. However, a control coproscopy fol-lowing a routine treatment led us to suspect that the efficacy of albendazole against Dicrocoelium dendriticum had diminished. We therefore carried out an efficacy test on 15 animals by treating them with albendazole at a dose of 15 mg/kg and performing a coproscopy on D0 and a control coproscopy 14 days later. We obtained a 38% reduction in the excretion of Dicrocoelium dendriticum eggs. This shows a re-duction in the expected efficacy of albendazole, which is normally more than 90% in other studies involving this molecule at a dosage of 15 mg/kg.

The research investigates the factors affecting the financial performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia and their impact on the country’s economic growth. The research methods of the studies involve data collection through surveys or interviews, followed by statistical analysis. The study found that entrepreneurial qualities such as motivation, entrepreneurial orientation, and risk behavior positively influence the financial performance of MSMEs. MSMEs that manage working capital optimally tend to increase profitability and growth, despite operational difficulties like worker shortages. MSMEs engaged in foreign trade usually achieve higher profitability. Bank loans can enhance profitability and sales, but the collateral requirement may hinder growth. The owner’s involvement doesn’t affect growth but can enhance profitability. Factors like the Human Capital Index, interest rates, the Indonesian Rupiah exchange rate, and inflation do not significantly impact MSME investment. However, business units, labor, investment, and exports of MSMEs significantly influence Indonesia’s economic growth. MSMEs play a crucial role in job creation, rural development, economic diversification, and GDP contribution in Indonesia. Despite challenges, they have the potential for sustainable growth. The research also explores strategies for overcoming challenges faced by MSMEs and investigates the role of universities in supporting the MSME sector. The University of Indonesia (UI) supports the MSME sector through strategic initiatives, including education, training, mentoring, and internship programs. The research provides valuable insights into the operation of MSMEs in Indonesia and their contribution to the economy, highlighting areas for further exploration and potential strategies for supporting the growth and sustainability of these enterprises.

The crust region is a tiny fraction of neutron stars, but it has a variety of physical properties and plays an important role in astronomical observations. One of the properties characterizing the crust is the elasticity. In this review, with the approach of asteroseismology, we systematically examine neutron star oscillations excited by crust elasticity, adopting the Cowling approximation. In particular, by identifying the quasi-periodic oscillations observed in magnetar flares with the torsional oscillations, we make a constraint on the nuclear saturation parameters. In addition, we also discuss how the shear and interface modes depend on the neutron star properties. Once one detects an additional signal associated with neutron star oscillations, one can get a more severe constraint on the saturation parameters and/or neutron star properties, which must be a qualitatively different constraint obtained from terrestrial experiments, and help us to complementarily understand astrophysics and nuclear physics.

The relationship between perception of anxiety and quality of life in caregivers of children with autism was verified. To verify quality of life, the Short Form Healthy Survey Item was used; perception of anxiety was assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory. 80 caregivers of children with autism participated, with 68.7% of caregivers being mothers. Of the total number of caregivers, 68.8% had a severe level of anxiety. Regarding quality of life, they demonstrated greater impairment in Limitation due to physical aspects, Limitation due to emotional aspects, Vitality and Pain. Caregivers with severe anxiety levels had worse quality of life in the domains of pain (p = 0.012), social aspects (p =&lt; 0.001), limitation due to emotional aspects (p = 0.001) and mental health (p =&lt; 0.001). However, in the functional capacity domain, caregivers with a moderate level of anxiety had a better physical capacity score (p = 0.001). There was a negative correlation between the general anxiety score and the general physical (p = 0.029) and general emotional component of quality of life (p =&lt; 0.001). It was found that caregivers of children with ASD present losses related to psychological factors, quality of life and the lack of social support.

In the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, the Permanent Denial of Service (PDoS) attacks have emerged as a particularly damaging form of cyber aggression. Unlike the more well-known Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which disrupt services temporarily, PDoS attacks aim to inflict irreversible damage to systems, often resulting in significant system overhauls and requiring hardware replacement. To enable the development of effective security measures, but also to address the knowledge gaps, this paper offers an in-depth exploration of PDoS attacks, emphasizing their distinguishing characteristics, underlying mechanisms, and potential further development. Through a comprehensive case study, the research highlights diverse tactics and strategies employed by attackers, from targeting IoT devices to manipulating boot processes and exploiting firmware vulnerabilities. A novel classification of PDoS attack vectors is proposed, that also explains the ways in which the systems can be compromised. The findings confirm the pressing need for adaptive and robust defense mechanisms to mitigate the threats posed by PDoS attacks in our interconnected digital world.

This paper will argue that memory from early childhood underlies many practices and beliefs that we commonly refer to as “religious”. The consciousness of young children does not yet have certain features that characterizes adult consciousness. This paper will concentrate on four of these: (I) a reality that is recognizable; (II) a sense of temporal duration; (III) a sense of self; (IV) an experience of the world that is deeply affected by our acquaintance with (a) language. Absence of these features presumably characterizes the consciousness of infants. It also often characterizes mystical experiences. The paper will argue that the human tendency to engage in so-called religious practices and beliefs makes most sense on the assumption that adults somehow preserve the memory of their state of being in childhood.

Background: Autonomic neuropathy commonly arises as a long-term complication in end stage kidney disease (ESKD) and can be diagnosed from heart rate variability (HRV), calculated from electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings. There is limited data about HRV using real-time ECG to predict HD efficiency in patients with ESKD who are routinely doing HD in real-world practice. Methods: Total of 50 patients (62.1 ± 10.7 years) with ESKD underwent continuous real-time ECG monitor (237.4 ± 15.3 min) during HD for HRV using remote monitoring system and checked electrolyte levels before/after HD. And we compared HRV according to electrolyte levels. Results: During the monitor, we checked total 2374 times of ECG and electrolyte level simultaneously of all patients. Both time and frequency domain HRV were higher when the patients had lower K+ level (&lt;0.5 mEq/L) and P+ level change (&lt;2 mEq/L) before/after HD as compared with those with higher K+ level (≥0.5 mEq/L) and P+ level (≥2 mEq/L) change respectively. In addition, there were higher incidence of arrhythmic events including atrial/ventricular premature complexes, even though no difference of mean heart rate in patients with lower K+ and P+ level change group (p &lt; 0.001). Conclusions: Higher HRV was independently associated with poor controlled K+ and P+ level during hemodialysis in patients with ESKD. This is further substantiated by independent continuous associations between real-time measures of higher HRV and K+ and P+ level. These data strongly suggest that cardiac autonomic dysfunction can be caused by lower change of electrolytes before/after hemodialysis alone.

Epilepsy, a disorder of unprovoked recurring seizures, continues to be seen as a growing medical concern worldwide. It represents the most common, non-communicable brain disorder, affecting persons of all ages. Every year over five million persons are formally diagnosed with epilepsy when seeking medical care. Often diagnosed as a young child, most persons can live a seizure-free life once there is an early diagnosis, proper patient education, and keen clinical management. However, the reoccurrence of status epilepticus, a neurological emergency, can be linked to untreated underlying causes and lead to serious morbidity and even early mortality if not properly managed. The prognosis is heavily reliant on the discovery of the underlying cause. Epilepsy, in recent times, provides a terminology for ease of identification of the associated clinical symptomology. Epilepsy, an umbrella term, can manifest differently as either idiopathic, symptomatic, or cryptogenic. However, distinguishing epilepsy from other seizure mimics is critical to preventing complications. Epilepsy research, like many other neurological symptoms, is limited in low-resource areas. Therefore, through greater awareness of epilepsy and public education campaigns, better health outcomes can be achieved. There is huge utility in clear communication of medical information among healthcare providers as well as in optimizing treatment plans.

With increasing concerns over environmental impact, and overall health of both the environment and its people, a need to quantify contaminants is of the utmost importance. Chemosensors with low detection limits and relative ease of application can address this challenge. Nitrite ions are known to be detrimental to both the environment and human health. A new colorimetric chemodosimeter has been prepared from a homolytic photochemical cleavage of a reaction between pyrrole and pyridine. The product, 4(pyrrol1-yl)pyridine, yields a limit of detection of 0.330 (±0.09) ppm for the detection of nitrite in aqueous solution, employing a colorimetric change from yellow to pink. It is also highly selective for nitrite when various competitive anions such as SO32- , NO3-, PO43-, SO4-2, Cl-, F-, I-, Br-, and CN- are present in great excess. The molecule’s especially high sensitivity to nitrite is apparently the result of a complex supramolecular mechanism, characterized by both dynamic light scattering of the aggregate and the Tyndall effect. Consequently, this new sensor provides a simple, low-cost way to rapidly detect nitrite anions in aqueous solution.

Trend patterns of melanoma skin in Serbia from 1999 to 2020 *Rancic K. Natasa 1,2, Tiodorovic B. Danica 1,4, Ilic V. Mirko 2, Biljana N. Kocic 1,2, Maksimovic S. Natasa 3, Ilija D. Kocic 4, Dusan P. Miljkovic 4, Otasevic A. Suzana 1,2 Introduction. Melanoma of the skin represents about 1% of all skin cancers and it causes nearly 80% of skin cancer deaths. Due to its increasing incidence, particularly in the most developed countries it represents a great challenge for primary prevention. Objective. To explore patterns and analyze incidence trends of melanoma in Central Serbia from 1999 to 2020. Materials and Methods. Descriptive study was done and data were obtained from the Population-based Cancer Registry of Serbia. The joinpoint regression analysis was done to assess the incidence trend of the melanoma skin: the annual percent change (APC) along with its 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was calculated. Results. A total number of 9952 new melanoma cases were registered melanoma (5204 in males and 4748 in females) during the observed period. Males represented 52.3% of all patients, with male to female ratio of incidence 2.09:1. A non significant increasing trend of incidence in males from 1999 to 2013 with APC of 2.53% (95%CI: from -18.2 to 21.9, p=1) and significantly increasing trend from 2013 to 2020 with the APC of 11.29 % (95%CI: from 1.4 to 5.8, p<0.001) was established. An incidence trend in females has stabilized in the whole studied period, with APC of 0.42% (95%CI: from -3.3 to 6.8, p=0.1). Melanoma of the skin was not common before the age of 30. Out of all cases and about of 76% new cases were diagnosed in persons ≥ 50 years of age. Conclusion. The incidence trend of new melanoma cases significantly increase in the whole population from 1999 to 2020. The significant increasing of incidence trend in males and stabilization of incidence trend in females was established. Males had significantlly higher incidence rates than femalesand over of 76% new melanoma cases were diagnosed in persons above 50 years of age.

Understanding the origins of life involves dealing with the unresolved question of how the first informational polymers and cell-like structures emerged from prebiotic chemistry. The formation of thermal proteinoids through the heating of mixtures of amino acids, leading to the spontaneous formation of protocells enclosed by membranes, presents a compelling model for the synthesis of polypeptides in an abiogenic context. Recent research has revealed the presence of electrical excitability and signal processing capacities in proteinoids, indicating the possibility of primitive cognitive functions and problem-solving capabilities. The present study provides a comprehensive examination of the features shown by heat proteinoids and their potential significance in the context of the artificial formation of polypeptides during the early stages of Earth’s development. Experiments showcasing the possibility for unconventional computing with proteinoids as well as modelling proteinoid assemblies into synthetic proto-brains are given. Proteinoids’ robust abiogenic production, biomimetic features, and computational capability shed light on potential phases in the evolution of polypeptides and primitive life from the primordial environment.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs), a new category of contaminants in limelight, is a major issue of global concern. The pervasive nature of CECs and its harmful effects, such as cancer, reproductive disorders, neurotoxicity etc., make the situation alarming. The perilous nature of CECs lies in the fact that even very small concentration of CECs can cause great impacts on living beings. It also has a nature of bioaccumulation. Thus, it is the ultimate need to have efficient sensors for detection of CECs to ensure safe living environment. Electrochemical sensors are an efficient platform for CEC detection as they are highly selective, sensitive, stable, reproducible, and prompt, and can detect very low concentrations of analyte. Major classes of CECs are pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, personal care products, endocrine disruptors, newly registered pesticides, and disinfection by-products. This review focusses on CECs, including their sources and pathways, health effects caused by them, and electrochemical sensors as reported in literatures under each category for the detection of major CECs.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) treatment is an alternative to erythrocyte transfusions in neonates with anemia of prematurity (AOP). This study assesses the impact of rhEPO administration within the first week of life on the incidence of AOP (any stage, individual AOP stages, and red-blood-cell (RBC) transfusions. Out of 108 preterm neonates, 49 were administered rhEPO and compared to the remaining group using univariate and multivariate analyses. Univariately, gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (HCT), and RBC levels, and iron administration were significantly associated to AOP (p&lt;0.05 each); however, only the latter remained significant after adjusting for covariates (AOR: 2.75, 95% CI, 1.06–7.11). Multinomial analysis revealed rhEOP therapy was associated with a near 3-fold reduction in moderate AOP incidence (OR: 0.36, 95% CI, 0.15–0.89). Furthermore, ANCOVA revealed positive correlations between rhEPO administration and 21-day Hb (p&lt;0.01), HCT (p&lt;0.05), and EPO (p&lt;0.001) levels. The results confirm previously reported benefits of rhEPO treatment, such as reduced moderate AOP incidence and increased Hb, HCT, and serum EPO levels.

Paper is one of the most promising materials for food packaging and wrapping due to its low environmental impact, but surface treatments are often needed to improve some performance, e.g. the resistance to fats and oils. In this context, this research is focused on the formulation of a new paper bio-coating. Paper was coated with liquids containing Poly(hexano-6-lactone) (PCL), Glycerol and variable percentages of starch (5 - 10% w/w PCL dry weight), agar agar (0 - 1.5% w/w PCL dry weight) and PEG (5% or 15% w/w PCL dry weight) to improve coating uniformity and diffusion. A Design of Experiments approach was implemented to find statistically reliable results in terms of best coating formulation. Coated paper was characterized through mechanical and physical properties. Results showed that agar content (1.5% w/w PCL dry weight) has a beneficial effect on increasing the resistance to oil. Furthermore, the best coating composition has been calculated, and it is: 10% w/w PCL dry weight of Starch, 1.5% w/w PCL dry weight of agar and 15% w/w PCL dry weight of PEG.

Some key issues in AGN and galaxy formation are discussed. Very successful Unified Models explain much of the variety of AGN with orientation effects; ingredients are shadowing by a dusty “torus" and relativistic beaming. A spinoff result is described which is important for the formation of massive elliptical galaxies. It’s the most spectacular and unequivocal AGN feedback phenomenon known. This is the so-called “alignment effect" in powerful radio galaxies at z > 1. One of them is a BAL radio galaxy! I explain a very robust derivation of the reddening law for nuclear dust, which reveals a dearth of small grains. Then the quasistatic thin accretion disk model, thought by many to explain the energetically dominant optical/UV continuum, is thoroughly debunked. Much of this was known when the model was proposed 35 years ago. A new argument is given that trivially falsifies a huge superset of such models. It’s possible to see the central engine spectrum with the atomic and dust emission surgically removed! Few noticed this breakthrough work. The far IR dust emission in Cygnus A is 10% polarized, and so far high nuclear dust polarization is seen in all radio loud objects, but no radio quiet ones.

Keywords: Pain; Nociception; Disorders of Consciousness; Consciousness

Laboratory diagnosis of leishmaniasis remains a major challenge, demonstrating variable efficacy in detecting infected mammalian hosts. Thus, there is a great need for the accuracy of the identification of appropriate antigens to also improve diagnostic tests. This review brings to the fore the sensitivity of the balance in canine and human leishmaniasis, which greatly influences the progression of the disease and especially the diagnostic methods. The problem of diagnosis arises in asymptomatic leishmaniasis, since in these conditions the methods considered as reference in the diagnosis of leishmaniasis no longer show certainty, being influenced for the most part by the immune response of the host, which is different according to the presence of other associated diseases or even according to the breed, when we talk about dogs. Consequently, the diagnosis and surveillance of leishmaniasis cases remains an open topic, with the need for new methods adapted to the immunological status of the host.

Canine hypoadrenocorticism is a rare chronic disease, which demands intense dog-owner interaction, as its treatment requires to be individualised. The aim of this study was a qualitative analysis of the challenges owners face when dealing with the disease, especially regarding its management and how this affects quality of life. By promoting an online discussion between owners, we transcribed and summarised their experiential knowledge in dealing with the disease. Owners were recruited for the online seminars via social media. After a theoretical introduction, participants were free to share experiences and ask questions. The recorded events were retrospectively analysed. Twenty-four owners of 22 Addisonian dogs took part in four events. Owners felt most “traumatised” when experiencing their dog’s acute adrenal crisis. The initial adjustment phase and distinguishing the non-specific symptoms of hypoadrenocorticism from those of other diseases were also challenging. Overall, owners were well informed on the disease and committed to its long-term adjustment. Adrenal crisis and the initial adjustment phase may be more burdening to owners than expected. Understanding what their clients’ concerns are, can help veterinarians provide better care and reduce the negative impacts of canine hypoadrenocorticism. Promoting peer to peer support, as well as providing a framework for participative communication might also help.

The elegance of mathematical models in quantum mechanics has often been seen with awe, and especially frustration. Nonetheless, the mathematical physics of quantum mechanics is fascinating beyond measure. And fortunately, there are quite baffling things about quantum mechanics that showed us what we never thought could be seen, making it simpler to figure out the behavior of physical systems without having to delve into the subtleties of the subject. In this paper, we present a review on the density of quantum states in an intuitive fashion that is easily comprehensible to undergraduate students with an elementary background in physics.

There has been a disconnect between our understanding of the universe's working at the micro and macro scale - that is, disagreement between quantum mechanics (QM) and general relativity (GR). A theory of vacuum-matter equilibrium is presented from scratch to bridge this gap. It is proposed that gravitons are both quanta of matter and gravitation, as every matter entity is believed to interact with gravitation. The vacuum has an energy density that gives rise to virtual-graviton pairs. Upon collision, a virtual-graviton may get stuck to the matter while a graviton from the matter gets ejected. It is possible as all gravitons are identical in mass and size. Equilibrium is thus established where matter erodes in the vacuum, and the vacuum condenses as matter. The probability of graviton exchange depends on the relative energies of the virtual-graviton and matter entity, as calculated in the inertial frame of reference (IFoR) decided by the state motion of vacuum energy at that place. If the rate of matter-vacuum equilibrium is taken as a constant, it leads to the notion of time and time dilation. The force appearing on a matter entity through collision with virtual-gravitons is calculated, and the expression is a hybrid of Newton's and Einstein's equation. It further helps to answer the queries related to phenomena like the flatness of galaxy rotation curves, misconceptions about relativistic mass and length contraction, the relation between time, gravity, and quantum entanglement (QE), and the composite nature of the universal gravitational constant.

Introduction: Since its emergence COVID-19 has become a global health threat. In Uganda, a number of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been put in place by the Ministry of Health Uganda, to mitigate the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic among the population. Despite the putting in place COVID-19 SOPs, the deadly COVID-19 pandemic is still ravaging the population of Iganga District. This study investigated the level of compliance to guidelines for prevention of COVID-19 in public places in Iganga District so as to guide decision makers in making recommendations towards the entire public in order to prevent community acquisition and spread of COVID-19. Methodology: To deliver answers to the research objectives, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey design to guide the study process. Quantitative method of data collection using observational checklist were adopted for this study. The same data abstraction form helped to collect data from 3 public places which included: 3 markets, 5 public transport stations and 8 financial banks. Compliance was measured were the YES scored 1 and NO scored 0 and the ten indicators measured included: temperature screening, wearing of face masks, hand washing or sanitizing, physical distancing of at least 2 meters, information display on COVID-19, regular cleaning of public service places, cleaning of communal places, adequate ventilation, adequate waste management facilities and cleanliness of the work area. Overall a 4 point Likert scale used was: 0-2 poor, 3-5 fair, 6-8 good, 9-10 excellent were each indicator was equally important. Data was entered, cleaned and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2019 spread sheet packages to generate tables and bar graphs. Results: Out of 5 public transportation stations studied, 80% were observed to be poorly compliant to covid-19 SOPs. On the other hand, out of 8 Financial Banks included in this study, 75% were observed to have excellent compliance levels to COVID-19 SOPs. Meanwhile, out of 3 Market places studied, 66.7% were observed to be poorly compliant to covid-19 SOPs. Conclusion; The results of the study revealed that; public places in Iganga district generally have low level of compliance to COVID-19 SOPs in terms of temperature screening, wearing of face masks, hand washing or sanitizing, social distancing of at least 2 meters and information display on COVID-19 Dos and Don’ts. Our findings suggest that there is a need to mobilize the population in Iganga district to comply with COVID-19 SOPs in terms of temperature screening, wearing of face masks, hand washing or sanitizing, social distancing of at least 2 meters and information display on COVID-19 Dos and Don’ts.

Malaria is a parasitic infection that is a great public health concern and is responsible for high mortality rates worldwide. Different strategies have been employed to improve disease control, demonstrating the ineffectiveness of controlling vectors, and parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs requires the development of an effective preventive vaccine. There are countless challenges to the development of such a vaccine directly related to the parasite's complex life cycle. After more than four decades of basic research and clinical trials, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the pre-erythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum (RTS, S) malaria vaccine for widespread use among children living in malaria-endemic areas. However, there is a consensus that major improvements are needed to develop a vaccine with a greater epidemiological impact in endemic areas. This review discusses novel strategies for malaria vaccine design taking the target stages within the parasite cycle into account. The design of the multi-component vaccine shows considerable potential, especially as it involves transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs) that eliminate the parasite's replication towards sporozoite stage parasites during a blood meal of female anopheline mosquitoes. Significant improvements have been made but additional efforts to achieve an efficient vaccine are required to improve control measures. Different strategies have been employed, thus demonstrating the ineffectiveness in controlling vectors, and parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs requires the development of a preventive vaccine. Despite having a vaccine in an advanced stage of development, such as the RTS, S malaria vaccine, the search for an effective vaccine against malaria is far from over. This review discusses novel strategies for malaria vaccine design taking into account the target stages within the parasite’s life cycle.

Forests are a large reservoir of biodiversity on which riparian populations frequently rely. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important source of income for millions of people living in forest-adjacent communities. This study aims at characterizing the types and uses of NTFPs in order to determine whether their exploitation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is sustainable. Interviews and direct observation were carried out with NTFP stakeholders (harvesters, sellers, and consumers) in Kalonge, near the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. The results showed that 40 NTFPs of plant origin and 10 NTFPs of animal origin are commonly exploited and used in food and traditional medicine. The most common NTFP harvesting techniques are debarking, picking, digging up, felling, and wine extraction, which are all tailored to the plant part. A significant relationship (p-value&lt; 0.001) has been established between the types of NTFPs used and harvesting methods as well as between the types of NTFPs used and organs retrieved. NTFP products are mainly obtained from the natural forest KBNP but also in the woodland, trees grown outside of forest or through domestication. Their abundance, however, is hampered by the extraction of wood for charcoal, energy, and timber, as well as agricultural expansion. The supply of NTFPs is determined by the market demand for the products, the nature of the product, and the ease of disposal. The NTFPs value chain in Kalonge is important to the local economy, however exploitation of NTFP products remains uncontrolled and should be well managed to ensure sustainability.

Unusual outbreak of Covid 19 has put the whole new challenges around the globe. In a short span of time, the world has been changed, lifestyles, social events, cultural, political events everything has been put on hold as number of countries has enforced partial or complete lockdown that resulted positive in context of controlling spread and contamination of COVID-19. Such activities have also put some effects on environment in both positive and negative way. In this study only positive impacts of COVID-19 on Environment have been highlighted that played role in regeneration of natural systems i.e., reduced air emissions, cleaner air, beaches &water bodies, reduced noise levels, biodiversity rehabilitation etc.

The annual energy matrix has been changing in the last years because of the necessity of less dependence on fossil fuels, which are running out on the planet. Therefore, a study was started to simulate the most efficient production of H2 through COMSOL Multiphysics®, as it is a gas that in the future will be essential to supply the world's energy necessities, due to its easy to get and insert in piped gas pipes. From this study, we were able to present an optimization of parameters that presents good indications of how to obtain efficient hydrogen production in an idealized reactor.

Expansion of the universal space was never directly observed. It is an unproven assumption. Measurement of the gravitational redshift proves only gravitational redshift and nothing more. Gravitational redshift is proven by the Mössbauer experiment. Claiming that gravitational redshift proves universal space expansion is false because there is no causality between gravitational redshift and hypothetical expansion. Even if universal space would expand, gravitational redshift could not be taken as proof of expansion. The Doppler effect was never observed in an expanding space and claiming that cosmological redshift is partially caused by the Doppler effect caused by the expanding of space is an unproved assumption. The discovery of CMB proves only that the entire universal space radiates CMB. CMB is not proof of the existence of the recombination period.

In this paper, bikeshare data in Chicago on weather-friendly days in 2019 and 2020 were analyzed to investigate the variation in bikeshare travel before and during the pandemic. Our results show that bikeshare trips during the pandemic were much longer than prior to the pandemic. The increased rate of bikeshare usage was unbalanced spatially and varied significantly for different user types. Specifically, bikeshare was used significantly more by casual users than by subscribers, and the increase occurred much more in the outskirts of the city. The increase in bikeshare travel was associated with a reduction in travel by ride-hailing and public transit, especially in the urban periphery. The correlation of bikeshare use with the bus system was much less significant than with the rail system. Bike lanes/facilities had a mixed effect on bikeshare travel. Weekend bike trips increased in areas where there was no bike lane. Weekday trips, on the contrary, increased in the vicinity of bike greenways.

The current paper is devoted to the introduction of simpler Eulerian variational principles from which all the relevant equations of non-barotropic stationary magnetohydrodynamics can be derived for magnetic fields which lie on surfaces. A variational principle is given in terms of three independent variables for stationary non-barotropic magnetohydrodynamic flows. This is a smaller number of variables than the eight variables which appear in the standard equations of non-barotropic magnetohydrodynamics which are the magnetic field, the velocity field, the specific entropy and the density. We further investigate the case in which the flow along magnetic lines is not ideal.

Two distinct isolates of the facultative parasite, Tetrahymena rostrata were compared, identifying and utilising markers that are useful for studying clonal variation within the species. The mitochondrial genomes and several nuclear genes were determined using Illumina short read sequencing. The two T. rostrata isolates had similar morphology and were pathogenic for Deroceras reticulatum slugs. The linear mitogenomes had the gene content and organisation typical of the Tetrahymena genus, comprising 8 tRNA genes, 6 ribosomal RNA genes and 45 protein coding sequences (CDS), twenty-two of which had known function. The two isolates had nucleotide identity within common nuclear markers encoded within the histone H3 and H4 and small subunit ribosomal RNA genes and differed by only 2-4 nucleotides in a region of the characterised actin genes. Variation was observed in several mitochondrial genes and was used to determine intraspecies variation and may reflect the natural history of T. rostrata from different hosts or the geographic origins of the isolates.

Globalization plays a very important role in the advancement of science and technology today, especially in Indonesia. Globalization has also succeeded in changing all aspects of human life. In addition to having a positive impact on the development of science and technology in Indonesia, globalization also has a negative impact that is quite visible on the character of today's youth. The crisis of the character of Indonesian youth is a serious matter and is reflected in the behavior of Indonesian youth today which does not coincide with the identity of the Indonesian nation and the values ​​of Pancasila. This paper examines the lack of implementation of Pancasila values ​​in the life of the globalization era and also how globalization affects moral decadence among the younger generation. The method used is the Literature Review method, which is a qualitative research method by collecting data from the literature. The lack of practice of Pancasila values ​​and the emergence of globalization is increasingly diminishing the character of Indonesian youth. The implementation of Pancasila values ​​among teenagers needs to be increased so that the nation's moral character is not eroded by the currents of globalization.

Indonesia is an archipelago with diverse ethnicities, races, languages, cultures, beliefs, and customs. As Indonesians, with these differences, they should respect each other, or what is commonly known as tolerance. However, in the 21st century, tolerance between people in Indonesia is starting to fade. This is due to the development of the times accompanied by technology development, which causes globalization to enter quickly. The culture of tolerance typical of Indonesian society is starting to fade due to the influence of globalization. Based on these problems, this study aims to determine what causes the decline intolerance of Indonesian society in the 21st century and answer what solutions can be given to prevent the decline intolerance of Indonesian society in the 21st century. The research method used is descriptive-qualitative through literature review by analyzing data following the topic to be discussed. The data used are from 20 journal articles with a span of 2019-2021. The results of this study are in the form of a decline in intolerance that the Indonesian people own due to technological advances in the form of adverse use of social media. However, with the existence of moral education and the role of teachers and the government to overcome the decline intolerance, it is hoped that the Indonesian people will understand the meaning and importance of tolerance. This study also has limitations, namely only on the causes of the fading of tolerance in Indonesian society.

The Novel Coronavirus Disease (nCOVID) has grabed the whole world recently since its origin in Wuhan city of China. There is very dire consequences the whole world is going through because of nCOVID. The unprecedented nCOVID and associated consequences pushed the public health system in the crisis. Undoubtedly, it has affected almost all countries of the world. Nevertheless, hardly a few country it has spared from its dire consequences in terms social and economical losses. However, it is worth of observing that some of the positive consequences are also results of this pandemic. Consequently, this paper discusses the pros and cons of the pandemic from various perspective such as social and economical impacts on human lives and livelihoods.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric evidence of the original and brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) in Spanish in a sample of 245 Peruvian adolescents and adults (mean age = 21.04 years, SD = 3.07, 47.8% male and 52.2% female), selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling. Additionally, the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were applied. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, internal consistency reliability methods, hierarchical sequence of variance models and Graded Response Model were used. Results indicate that both versions of the SCSRFQ showed robust psychometric properties: adequate unidimensional structure, adequate difficulty and discrimination parameters, and significant relationships with the measures of fear of COVID-19 and satisfaction with life. The original version of the SCSRFQ showed evidence of strict measurement invariance by gender and age; whereas the short version showed strict invariance by gender and configural invariance by age. Both versions showed acceptable reliability indices. In conclusion, the original and brief versions of the SCSRFQ show evidence of psychometric indicators that support their use to assess the strength of religious faith

This paper explores multiple perspectives and proofs regarding the validity of what is considered to be one of the – if not THE - most controversial proofs in the field of mathematics, historical and contemporary applications alike. We consider the various explanations and equivalents of the axiom along with the more widely receptive alternatives. Furthermore, we review the resistance the axiom has encountered in various fields and its potential use in the research and expansion of said fields.

The study aims to identify the difference in communication needs of women giving birth and women during puerperium. An additional goal includes the analysis of the experience and communication needs through the context of a woman's approach to childbirth. The study is a prospective, cross-sectional, self-report survey. 521 women between 5 and 10 days after birth participated in the study. Women perceived information provided by the medical staff as the most helpful aspect of verbal communication both during labour and puerperium. Maintaining eye contact with the medical staff was perceived as the most helpful aspect of non-verbal communication. Women were more satisfied with communication during labour and birth than in the maternity ward and those after non-instrumental childbirth were more satisfied with communication compared to the instrumental birth group. Women perceiving childbirth as the natural, physiological process considered verbal and non-verbal communication during and after childbirth as less helpful than women perceiving birth as more risky and requiring interventions. The results of the study emphasize the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication during birth and puerperium and different communication needs during labour and early postpartum. It also showed that women who perceive labour as a physiological process seem to be less dependent on the communication with the medical staff than women who accept medical interventions during labour and birth as necessary.

It is shown through three different approaches that, contrary to a long-standing conviction, the orbit of Mercury behaves as required by Newton's equations with a very high precision if one correctly analyzes the situation in the framework of the two-body problem without neglecting the mass of Mercury.

More than 1.1 billion people lack access to electricity in the world, among them 600 million are in sub-Saharan African countries. The socio-economic life of the rural communities is highly affected by electricity supply. The demanding Interest for growth and development in developing countries led to a renewed interest in solar lights. Liter of the night light is a solar-powered light that is constructed from waste plastic bottles which light up the rural community. This paper is about experimental analysis of liter of night light for potential use in rural electrification. The technology uses environmentally friendly and locally available materials. The system is provided with battery storage, which allows it to operate for 13.5 hours continuously at full charge. Solar radiation is converted by PV solar panel to electric current. Circuit board is developed and fabricated to regulate and deliver a consumable amount of voltage by the rechargeable lead-acid battery. After testing five different solutions, the study found out that vinegar solution as the optimal solutions for the technology that can deliver 27lux of light to the surrounding. Simultaneously the study found out, that the light that is emitted from the bottle bulb is a function of volume, depth and solution type. And for this relationship curves are developed. And, the technology can be used for rural communities as it is.

A non-relativistic theory of inertia based on Mach's principle is presented as has been envisaged but not achieved by Ernst Mach in 1872. Central feature is a space-dependent, anisotropic, symmetric inert mass tensor. The contribution of a mass element $dm$ to the inertia of a particle $m_0$ experiencing an acceleration from rest is proportional to $\cos^2\alpha$, where $\alpha$ is the angle between the line connecting $m_0$ and $dm$ and the direction of the acceleration. Apsidal precession for planets circling around a central star is not a consequence of this theory, thereby avoiding the prediction of an apsidal precession with wrong sign as is done by Mach-like theories with isotropic inert mass.

A Smart Home is characterized by the presence of a huge number of small, low power devices, along with more classical devices. According to the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, all of them are expected to be always connected to the Internet in order to provide enhanced services. In this scenario, an attacker can undermine both the network security and the user’s security/privacy. Traditional security measures are not sufficient, because they are too difficult to setup and are either too weak to effectively protect the user or too limiting for the new services effectiveness. The paper suggests to dynamically adapt the security level of the smart home network according to the user perceived risk level what we have called network sentiment analysis. The security level is not fixed, established by a central system (usually by the Internet Service Provider) but can be changed with the users cooperation. The security of the smart home network is improved by a distributed firewalling and Intrusion Detection Systems both to the smart home side as to the Internet Service Provider side. These two parts must cooperate and integrate their actions for reacting dynamically to new and ongoing threats. Moreover, the level of network sentiment detected can be propagate to nearby home networks (e.g. the smart home networks of the apartments inside a building) to increase/decrease their level of security, thus creating a true in-line Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). The paper also presents a test bed for Smart Home to detect and counteract to different attacks against the IoT devices,,Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections .

Tobacco use, most people would say. Smoking tobacco increases the risk of developing many types of cancer and is responsible for approximately one-third of all cancer deaths. The association between tobacco use and lung cancer is well known; lung cancer occurs about 20 times more often in heavy smokers than in nonsmokers [1]. However, many lung cancers are diagnosed in never smokers [2], and most smokers do not develop lung cancer [3,4].

Hearing-loss (HL) is a major public health issue albeit data is limited. Objectives: were to determine the frequency and factors. Design: was descriptive cross-sectional using web-based self-administered google-form questionnaire. Data analyzed by-IBM SPSS-V-24-Windows. Results: In 789 responses, 6.6 % reported HL, 62.4% from Eastern-region of which 41.2% were employed and 31.7% students. Despite 36.5% reported HL &gt; 5-years, 21.2% sought treatments. 19.2% reported diabetes and 51.9% had family-history. Ages 11– 50 years showed female predominance (females 59.1%, males 41%). Age was significant in HL (P &lt;0.001) irrespective of gender (males 6.8%, females 6.4%, P value =0.838) reaching peaks at 17.2% 51-60 years and 25% in 71-80 implying a potential risk (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 0.78-2.81, p = 0.032). 34.6% indicated genetics then noise (26.9%), while infections, stroke, and fevers made 19.2%. Air or sea travels (7.7%) were insignificant (P = 0.628) while head injuries (11.5%), or low- and high-altitudes showed 21.2%. Noise-hazard (P = 0.048) and medications (P = 0.017) were significant in HL. Conclusion: thus, we show geriatric age, noise, and inheritance-history as major predispositions. However, the study was limited by small sampling. Future large cohort multicenter studies on factual clinical data would gain more insights into the HL.

This work presents the results of optimizing the physicochemical properties of composite briquettes based on microsilica for metallurgical-grade silicon production. Microsilica, a waste product of silicon production, contains a sufficiently high amount of silicon dioxide (96-97%). This fact makes microsilica a promising composite material for metallurgical processing. However, its granulometric composition limits its direct use. The method of briquetting on an industrial briquetting press was used. The influence of the granulometric composition of the composite mixture on the heat tolerance and strength of the finished briquettes was studied. The methods of obtaining and testing the briquettes, their composition, and the briquetting and drying process are described. The obtained briquettes were tested for the smelting of metallurgical silicon. The silicon recovery rate in the metal with the standard charge was 71%, while the recovery rate with the briquetted monocharge was 85%. The results of silicon smelting from the briquettes demonstrated the high quality of the obtained metal, corresponding to the standards of metallurgical-grade silicon. The implementation of these technologies not only improves the quality of the final product but also addresses environmental issues related to the disposal of microsilica, reducing its accumulation and minimizing its impact on the environment.

(1) Background: Violence against each other via social media has increased and caused cyberbullying that can happen anytime through electronic communication tools that everyone can access easily. So, this study aims to investigate causal factors contributing to youth cyberbullying in Thailand's three Southern border provinces. (2) Methods: The subject group consisted of 340 youths and the data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM). (3) Results: The study found that the model of the causal factors resulting in youth cyberbullying in the three Southern border provinces was consistent with the empirical data (the relative chi-square (χ2/df) was 1.77. The goodness-of-fit index (GFI) was 0.95. The root-mean-square-error of approximate (RMSEA) was 0.049). Cyberbullying was positively influenced directly and indirectly by negative upbringing, the influence of personal violence, and the influence of media violence at a statistically significant level of 0.001, with total effect sizes of 1.13, 0.74, and 0.64, respectively. Additionally, cyberbullying was positively influenced directly by negative mental traits with a statistically significant level of 0.05 and a total effect size of 0.17. (4) Conclusions: The study results could be beneficial in concretely forming policies and strategies to prevent and mitigate the problem of youth cyberbullying.

On 17 October 1947, Niels Bohr was made a knight of the Order of the Elephant by the King of Denmark in view of his outstanding achievements and contributions to science. Bohr designed his own coat of arms that featured a pattern of Yin and Yang (Tai Chi symbol) to symbolize the wave-particle complementarity. However, Bohr’s Yin-Yang diagram (YYD) was neither drawn based on the principles of quantum mechanics, nor did it originate from the traditional Taoist YYD. Scientists still have doubts about the legitimacy of using YYD as the icon of the wave-particle complementarity, because the YYD belonging to quantum mechanics itself is unknown so far. This article reports the YYDs existing in quantum mechanics and justifies the role of YYD in the wave-particle duality by showing that any system, whether classical or quantum, has an ideal YYD as long as it satisfies Bohr’s principle of complementarity (BPC). The deviation of a deformed YYD from the ideal YYD indicates the extent to which a real system satisfies BPC. This article constructs the quantum YYD by the complex quantum trajectory of a particle tunneling via a step barrier, which displays the continuous transition between the wave behavior and the particle behavior. It appears that the YYD designed by Bohr in his coat of arms resembles the YYD generated by tunneling motion, not only in appearance but also in the governing equation.

The Ionian Sea is a crucial intersection for various water masses in the Mediterranean. Its hydrography and dynamics play a significant role in the seawater budgets and biogeochemistry of the neighboring sub-basins. Multiple theories have been formulated to gain a better understanding of the Ionian dynamics. These theories primarily attribute the variability of the near-surface Ionian circulation to internal processes. Here, we utilize horizontal currents and temperature-salinity profiles from the Copernicus reanalysis to examine the contribution of baroclinic modes to the variability of the basin horizontal circulation. Our findings demonstrate that, although the basin vertical structure is characterized by three layers, the primary patterns of the Ionian circulation can be attributed to the first baroclinic mode. This mode, along with the barotropic mode, accounts for over 85% of the overall variability in the Ionian circulation, suggesting that only one of the three interfaces separating the different water masses in the basin is dynamically active. We estimate the depth of this interface to be about 490 m. Additionally, our analysis shows that more than 90% of the kinetic energy over the water column is localized above this interface, indicating that the deep layer of the Ionian is dynamically nearly inert.

Contrary to previous belief, mutation frequency also depends on how essential a gene is. Mutation frequency is substantially lower in the coding regions of essential genes and higher in less essential genes. Even though the mutation bias based on gene essentiality is incapable of invalidating Darwinism, this bias certainly added a rather unsubtle obstacle to it by contradicting a paradigm that was widely held: that mutations are random in the sense of being independent of their function for the organism. The reason this bias occurs is currently unknown. Here, I present the theoretical solution of why genetic mutations also depend on whether the gene is more or less essential. My theory is that each gene or epigene has its own level of resistance to entropic elevation, something directly proportional to the frequency of its expression. The more a gene is expressed, the higher is its resistance to entropic elevation and vice versa. For genetic information to be conserved instead of suffering mutation, a relevant factor is also the frequency of its expression. The energy expenditure directed to a gene of current utility engenders resistance to entropic elevation of the information encoded in that gene, as energy enables not only the existence of information but also its conservation. My theory—which is based on fundamental physics and contains predictions that can be empirically tested—solves a crucial problem in evolutionary biology and genetics; if I am right, I will have established a biological law. Finally, my aim here is also to provide a substantial advance in knowledge about the relationship between information, genetics, and thermodynamics.

Body-centered cubic bismuth (Bi) is considered an enticing pressure marker, and therefore it is highly desirable to command its accurate equation of state (EOS). However, significant discrepancies are noted among the previous experimental EOSs. In the present work, the EOS up to 300 GPa is theoretically obtained by direct solving the partition function via a direct integral approach (DIA). The calculated results nearly reproduce the hydrostatic experimental measurements below 75 GPa, and the deviations from the measurements gradually get larger with increasing pressure. Based on the ensemble theory of equilibrium state, DIA works with high precision particularly in high-pressure conditions, so the hydrostatic EOS presented in this work is expected to be a reliable pressure standard.

In Nigeria, Cervical cancer (CC) and lack of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) awareness poses significant HPV infection risk among women. This study was conducted at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) University in Nigeria; focused on assessing HPV awareness and knowledge, particularly concerning its association with CC and oral contraceptive (OC) pills among students and staff. We adapted and validated a 20-item HPV knowledge scale and explored factors influencing knowledge, vaccination rates, awareness, and the impact of ethnicity on HPV knowledge. Also, due to the non-normality of the knowledge score, non-parametric tests were done. Data were summarized using median and interquartile range (IQR), while categorical data were presented in frequency and percentage distribution. We established the reliability of the 20-item knowledge scale with a strong Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.913, indicating internal consistency. However, it revealed a concerning lack of awareness and knowledge about HPV, only 34.8% of participants were aware of HPV infection, and only 25.0% knew about HPV vaccine. Additionally, ethnicity was identified as a significant factor affecting HPV knowledge. Considering these findings, this study emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to enhance HPV awareness and knowledge, particularly among specific ethnic groups. Despite the development and validation of a reliable knowledge scale, the study underscores the importance of educational initiatives to address this knowledge gap, ultimately reducing the risk of HPV infection and CC in Nigeria.

The authors of the article analyze the existing methods and models of technological preparation of machine-building industries. The structure of a three-level simulation model with network-centric control, the structures of individual elements of the simulation model and the process of simulation modeling are described. The criteria for choosing a rational option for the processing technological route have been determined. During the research, a simulation program was implemented in C++. It allows you to select the optimal scenario for the operation of a production site based on two criteria: time and cost. The volume of implementation is about 2x103 lines of code. A diagram of the modeling algorithm for the implemented program, a description of the classes and their interactions are given in the article. The developed simulation model was tested at a machine-building enterprise using the example of the “Pusher” part, manufactured under single-unit production condi-tions. The technological equipment used for the manufacture of this part was formed in the form of input data of the simulation model. The results of simulation modeling for the selected part are described. For each variant of the technological processing route, the values of variable costs and the duration of the production cycle were determined.

The hydrodynamics of plasma formed in the interaction of 100-ns UV KrF laser pulses with foam targets with volume densities from 5 to 500 mg/cm3 was studied. Initial and dynamic transmittance at 248-nm wavelength have been measured. At intensities about 1012 W/cm2, the propagation rates of radiation through foam targets reached 80 km/s, while plasma stream velocities from both front and rear sides of targets were approximately the same ~ 75 km/s, which confirms a volumetric absorption of radiation within the target thickness and the explosive nature of the plasma formation and expansion.