Glycosidic linkage analysis was conducted on the unfractionated polysaccharides in the alcohol-insoluble residues (AIRs) prepared from six red seaweeds (Gracilariopsis sp., Prionitis sp., Mastocarpus papillatus, Callophyllis sp., Mazzaella splendens, and Palmaria palmata) using GC-MS/FID analysis of partially methylated alditol acetates (PMAAs). The cell walls of P. palmata primarily contained mixed-linkage xylans and small amounts of sulfated galactans and cellulose. In contrast, the unfractionated polysaccharides of the other five species were rich in galactans displaying diverse 3,6-anhydro-galactose and galactose linkages with varied sulfation patterns. Different levels of cellulose were also observed. This glycosidic linkage method offers advantages for cellulose analysis over traditional monosaccharide analysis that is known for underrepresenting glucose in crystalline cellulose. Relative linkage compositions calculated from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements showed that anhydro sugar linkages generated more response in the latter detection method. This improved linkage workflow presents a useful tool for studying polysaccharide structural variations across red seaweed species. Furthermore, for the first time, relative linkage compositions from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements, along with normalized FID and total ion current (TIC) chromatograms without peak assignments, were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) as a proof-of-concept demonstration of the technique's potential to differentiate various red seaweed species.

Background: Educating college students about the importance of good sleep habits could lead to the adoption of healthier sleep routines, including sufficient sleep duration and sleep quality. The current pre-post study examines the impact of completing a sleep education program called “Sleep 101” on (1) sleep hygiene practices, (2) sleep quality, and (3) weekday and weekend sleep behaviors among college students. “Sleep 101” is an interactive online course developed to educate college students about the importance of sleep by addressing basic sleep physiology, the impact of sleep on mood, academic and physical performance, the interactions between sleep and various substances, and common sleep disorders. Methods: 338 college students were recruited from a midsized public university in the US and invited to participate in “Sleep 101”, of which 25 participants completed the baseline and post-intervention questionnaire. The Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) was utilized to evaluate sleep hygiene practices, while standard questions were employed to assess weekday and weekend sleep behaviors and overall sleep quality. Results: Those who completed the study demonstrated a significant increase in weekday sleep duration and were less likely to engage in negative prior bedtime activities. In addition, 40% of those who completed baseline and post-intervention assessments noticed improvements in their sleep quality. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a brief online program is beneficial in improving sleep behaviors among college and could be a scalable approach to addressing current sleep issues and preventing future sleep problems in college students.

The current study applied a new approach for the interpolation and regionalization of observed precipitation series to a smaller spatial scale (0.125° by 0.125° grid) across the Upper Indus Basin (UIB), with appropriate adjustments for the orographic effect and changes in glacier storage. The approach is evaluated and validated through reverse hydrology, guided by observed flows and available knowledge base. More specifically, the generated corrected precipitation data is validated by means of SWAT-modelled responses of the observed flows to the different input precipitation series (original and corrected ones). The results show that the SWAT- simulated flows using the corrected, regionalized precipitation series as input are much more in line with the observed flows than those using the uncorrected observed precipitation input for which significant underestimations are obtained.

This research elucidates the dynamic expression of expansin genes during the wheat grain (Triticum aestivum L.) development process using comprehensive meta-analysis and experimental validation. We leveraged RNA-seq data from multiple public databases, applying stringent criteria for selection, and identified 60,852 differentially expressed genes across developmental stages. From this pool, 28,558 DEGs were found to exhibit significant temporal regulation in at least two different datasets, and were enriched for processes integral to grain development such as carbohydrate metabolism and cell wall organization. Notably, 30% of the 241 known expansin genes showed differential expression during grain growth. Hierarchical clustering and expression level analysis revealed temporal regulation and distinct contributions of expansin subfamilies during the early stages of grain development. Further analysis using co-expression networks underscored the significance of expansin genes, revealing their substantial co-expression with genes involved in cell wall modification. Finally, qPCR validation and grain morphological analysis under field conditions indicated a significant negative correlation between expression of select expansin genes and grain size and weight. This study illuminates the potential role of expansin genes in wheat grain development and provides new avenues for targeted genetic improvements in wheat.

Traditional numerical techniques such as sliding mesh, dynamic grid mesh, and others, have many limitations in dealing with flow simulation with large-scale movement of solid boundaries; which is the case for complex-shaped hydraulic turbomachinery such as propellers, pumps and turbines. The immersed boundary (IB) method provides a new approach to solve the above limitations. Therefore, this study proposes an sharp-interface IB method based on the level-set function that is suitable for simulating the flow through turbomachinery with complex geometries. This method is applied to actual three-dimensional numerical simulations of high-Reynolds number propellers using an in-house computational fluid dynamics solver. The results show that the proposed method can provide comparatively accurate predictions of unsteady load coefficients within the propeller flow passage, and capture the correct propeller wake characteristics as well as the interaction between the propeller wake and free surface. This study aims at providing a theoretical basis and engineering reference for the application of the IB method in engineering numerical simulations.

The article presents an analysis of monthly precipitation totals based on the GPCC database, and monthly mean temperatures (NOAA data) for 377 catchments distributed across the globe. The analysis included 110-year data sequences from 1901 to 2010 calculated from grid data with a spatial resolution of 0.5°x 0.5° longitude and latitude. Long-term sequences of precipitation and temperature were used to assess the polarization of climatic phenomena. The noticeable impact of polarization in the area of extreme changes in temperature and precipitation is related to anthropogenic factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and pollution, which affect ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, water resources and economies. The paper demonstrates the existence of trends related to the polarization of temperature and precipitation phenomena. The measures of polarization used in science are discussed. A simple measure of polarization was proposed and applied to both long-term sequences of monthly precipitation totals and monthly mean temperature. Due to the nature of the proposed polarization measure, other characteristics of the precipitation and temperature sequences are also presented as background for the discussion of the polarization index. The paper presents, for a selection of several hundred catchments from around the world, analyses of the assessment of precipitation and temperature trends using non-parametric tests. The trend analyses use Mann -Kendall tests at the 5% significance level. A Pettitt test was used to determine the trend change point for precipitation and temperature data. The whole is supported by rich graphical analyses and the results are presented tabularly.

We present a normative methodology, for value-pricing B2B services, using a Nash Equilibrium mechanism. Value is fundamental to any service, yet it has defied a definition. The literature is conspicuously silent on how to define value, but abounds in richly descriptive characterizations. To overcome this deficit, we focus on the financial economics of service-value. We formulate an axiomatic definition and a differential equation that embodies the idea of service-value. We specify a set of value axioms and multidisciplinary postulates that coherently form our service-value constructs. Value-pricing is challenging. It is natural that providers desire a high price and customers want a low price. Realistically, both will agree on a win-win price. To uncover this price, we specify an algorithm to reveal the Nash Equilibrium. Once agreed, it validates providers’ and customers’ commitments, and payment obligations. Service value is cocreated by both provider and customer. For a reciprocal process, its treatment is remarkably asymmetric favoring the customer. We argue that one-sided descriptions of value-in-use and value-proposition are limiting mental models. We propose the additional ideas of value-from-use and value-supposition to strengthen the conceptual symmetry of cocreation. Our work reveals a critical gap in service science, metrology. Metrology, the science of measurements, is absent from service-science. Service-value is silent on the questions of quantities, units, scales, measurement principles and instruments. We argue for a call to action for Service Metrology. We sketch a roadmap of actionable suggestions to get started.

Background. Keyword co-occurrence analysis is a crucial tool for comprehending research trends, identifying relevant studies, and gaining insight into the connections between various concepts and topics. Objective. This study focuses on analyzing the co-occurrence of keywords using FP-growth algorithm and direct search methods. Materials and methods. The methodology involved extracting bibliometric data of Energies journal for 2023-2024 from MDPI publisher platform, keyword lemmatization and keyword co-occurrence estimation. Clustering and visualization were performed using Multidendrograms and Scimago Graphica software. Results. The results showed that the FP-growth algorithm can achieve a close match with the direct search results, which facilitates data preparation for clustering. In addition, finding the co-occurrence of three or more keywords significantly reduced the number of possible combinations, which allowed the identification of specific research topics. Conclusions. This study highlights the usefulness of the FP-growth algorithm in keyword analysis and provides insights into ways to refine search queries to abstract databases for the purpose of designing and writing literature and systematic reviews.

Decarbonization of air mobility requires the decarbonization of its energy. While biofuels will play an important role, other low carbon energy carriers based on electricity are considered: battery electrification, liquid hydrogen (LH₂) or eFuel, a hydrogen-based energy carrier. Each energy carrier has its own conversion steps and losses and its own integration effects with the aircraft. These combinations lead to different energy requirements and must be understood to compare their cost and CO₂ emissions. Since they are all electricity-based, this study compares these energy carriers using the well to rotor methodology when applied to a standard Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) air mobility mission. This novel approach allows one to understand that the choice of the energy carrier dictates the propulsive system architecture, leading to integration effects with the aircraft which can significantly change the energy required, from 400 to 2665 kWh for the same mission. These deviations lead significant differences in CO₂ emissions and costs. Battery electrification is impacted by the battery manufacturing but has the lowest electricity consumption. It is an optimum solution but only until the battery weight can be lifted. In all scenarios eFuel is more efficient than LH₂. We conclude that carrying the most efficient molecule in an aircraft pays the extra energy cost spent on the ground. Finally, we found that for each of these energy carriers, it is the electricity carbon intensity and price which will dictate the cost and CO₂ emissions of an air mobility mission.

The major challenge for membrane distillation (MD) is membrane wetting resistance induced by pollutants in the feed solution. The proposed solution for this issue was to fabricate membranes with hydrophobic properties. Hydrophobic electrospun Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) nanofibers membranes were produced for brine treatment using the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) technique. These nanofibers membranes were prepared from three different polymeric solution compositions to study the effect of solvent composition in the electrospinning process. Further, the effect of the polymer concentration was investigated by preparing polymeric solutions with three different polymer percentages: 6, 8, and 10%. All nanofibers membranes obtained from electrospinning were post-treated at varying temperatures. The effects of thickness, porosity, pore size, and LEP were studied. The hydrophobicity was determined by contact angle measurements, which were investigated by optical contact angle goniometry. The crystallinity and thermal properties were studied by DCS and XRD, while the functional groups were studied by FTIR. The morphological study was performed by AMF and described the roughness of nanofibers membranes. Finally, all nanofibers membranes have enough of a hydrophobic nature to be used in DCMD. PVDF membrane filter disc and all nanofibers membranes were applied in DCMD to treat brine water. The resulting water flux and permeate water quality were compared, and it was discovered that all produced nanofibers membranes showed good behavior with varying water flux, but the salt rejection was greater than 90%. A membrane prepared from DMF/acetone 5-5 with 10% PVDF-HFP provided perfect performance, with an average water flux of 44 kg.m-2.h-1 and salt rejection of 99.8%.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a potentially serious acute respiratory infection caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the virus has spread to more than 200 countries with more than 500 million cases and more than 6 million deaths reported globally. It has long been known that viral respiratory tract infections predispose patients to bacterial infections and that these co-infections often have an unfavourable clinical outcome. Moreover, nosocomial infections, also known as health care-associated infections (HAIs), are those infections that are absent at the time of admission and acquired after hospitalization. However, the impact of coinfections or secondary infections on the progression of COVID-19 disease and its lethal outcome is still debated. The aim of this review was to assess the literature on the incidence of bacterial co-infections and superinfections in patients with COVID-19. The review also highlights the importance of the rational use of antibiotics in patients with COVID-19 and the need to implement antimicrobial stewardship principles to prevent the transmission of drug-resistant organisms in healthcare settings. Finally, alternative antimicrobial agents to counter the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria causing healthcare-associated infections in COVID-19 patients will also be discussed.

The management of urban water has evolved from single-function systems to more sustainable designs promoting society and nature as inputs to engineer novel infrastructure. In transdisciplinary research, co-design refers to a design thinking strategy in which people jointly frame a problem-solution. This article presents a conceptual framework to assess a case study focusing on the process of co-design and implementation of green infrastructure as a prototype for stormwater management. The evaluation is carried out from a self-reflective post-implementation perspective. Research activities are translated into the framework to evaluate conditions shaping the trajectory of the prototype. As a result, key aspects driving the research regarding levels of stakeholder participation and dimensions of power are identified. Planning resilient co-design strategies to retrofit urban spaces is necessary to avoid unintended consequences, especially at the initial experimental stages. This study aims to contribute to the continuous improvement of pilot strategies in urban spaces by providing a framework for a structured evaluation of research experiences.

Pharmaceutically active compounds and organic pollutants are becoming a major environmental dispute possessing serious threat to the water bodies and terrestrial ecosystem. Microorganisms are capable of the self-purification process, and hence the microbial degradation is considered a lucrative method to counteract the therapeutic and recalcitrant pollutants. Pharmaceutical toxicants in aquatic system can be treated by conventional wastewater treatment, but slow sludge settling, presence of mixture of pharmaceuticals and recalcitrant compounds often pose a potential ecological risk. Some microbial strains are very effective in reducing the chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), and turbidity in pharmaceutical industrial wastewater treatment. The natural microbial community has a significant role in the ecological processes of pharmaceutical and organic compounds, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, blood lipid regulators and other micropollutants. Specific bacterial isolates can act as biodegraders, and fungal treatment could offer protection to the ecosystem. These microorganisms use the pollutants as their sole carbon source and transform the contaminants by co-metabolic pathways. Natural attenuation by native microorganisms, biostimulation and bioaugmentation are the processes employed to degrade the target contaminant. Microorganisms may also be genetically engineered to improve the neutralization efficiency, which would assist in the mineralization of the pollutants. Thus, employing microorganisms to detoxify the pollutants probably enhances the sustainable potential biodegradability, improves water quality standards and ensures eco-friendly alternative bioremediation strategy.

There are two contrary opinions regarding the risk if mainland China (MC) moves away from its zero-COVID policy. Some experts think the risk shall be much lower than influenza as per MC’s own COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR), while some other experts think the risk shall be much higher than influenza as per the COVID-19 CFRs of other regions. We elucidate here that this and multiple other striking differences in the CFR between various scenarios all support and substantially resulted from the view that good IDM is highly powerful to mitigate COVID-19, where IDM (isolation-disinfection-maintenance) means isolation of COVID-19 cases from other people, disinfection of their living environments, and health maintenance (e.g., rest, nutrition, breathing). The high effect of good IDM is also supported by the theoretic functions of IDM in minimizing co-infections and maintaining body functions, and the fact that all the 505 COVID-19 deaths reported in MC in 2022 before May 5 died directly of severe underlying diseases with COVID-19. Although it is tough for people in poverty to obtain good IDM, good IDM can be feasible at home for the most mild cases and in hospitals for the most severe cases. Therefore, good IDM can be crucial to mitigating COVID-19 worldwide. It also suggests that the risk for China to end its zero-COVID policy depends on China’s control policies or measures. Based on the effect of IDM, the cautious co-existence policy was proposed for COVID-19 control. This policy could reduce the whole death toll in MC because good IDM is non-specific and can reduce deaths of various other diseases. The cautious co-existence policy (non-specific) and the vaccination policy (specific) aid each other to mitigate COVID-19, and they cannot replace each other. Those who are qualified in health for vaccination should be vaccinated against COVID-19 timely.

Threats emerging from microplastics pollution in the marine environment have received much global attention. This review assessed sources, fate, and impacts of microplastics in marine ecosystems and identified gaps. Most studies document ubiquity of microplastics and associated environmental effects. Effects include impacts to marine ecosystems, risks to biodiversity, and threats to human health. Microplastic leakage into marine ecosystems arises from plastic waste mismanagement and a lack of effective mitigative strategies. This review identified a scarcity of microplastics mitigation strategies across different stakeholders. Lack of community involvement in microplastic monitoring or ecosystem conservation exists due to limited existence of stakeholder co-management initiatives. Although some management strategies exist for controlling the effects of microplastics (often implemented by local and global environmental groups); a standardized management strategy to mitigate microplastics in coastal areas is urgently required. There is a need to identify focal causes of microplastic pollution in the marine environment through further environmental research. This would extend to creating more effective policies as well as harmonized and extended efforts of educational campaigns and incentives for counteraction and plastic waste reduction, while mandating stringent penalties for polluting the marine environment. This will help reduce microplastic leakage into the environment.

Background: Co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 with respiratory viruses, bacteria and fungi have been reported to cause a wide range of illness. Objectives: We asses s the prevalence of co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 with seasonal respiratory viruses, document the respiratory viruses detected among individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, and describe characteristics of individuals with respiratory virus co-infection detected. Methods: Specimens included in this study were submitted as part of routine clinical testing to Public Health Ontario Laboratory from individuals requiring testing for SARS-CoV-2 and/or seasonal respiratory viruses. Results: Co-infection was detected in a smaller proportion (2.5%) of individuals with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 than those with seasonal respiratory viruses (4.3%); this difference was not significant. Individuals with any respiratory virus co-infection were more likely to be younger than 65 years of age and male than those with single infection. Those with SARS-CoV-2 co-infection manifested mostly mild respiratory symptoms. Conclusions: Findings of this study may not support routine testing for seasonal respiratory viruses among all individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, as they were rare during the study period nor associated with severe disease. However, testing for seasonal respiratory viruses should be performed in severely ill individuals, in which detection of other viruses may assist with patient management.

The complex interplay among pathogens, host factors, and the integrity and composition of the endogenous microbiome determine the course and outcome of gastrointestinal infections. The model organism Yersinia entercolitica (Ye) is one of the five top frequent causes of bacterial gastroenteritis based on the Epidemiological Bulletin of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published on September 10, 2020. A fundamental challenge in predicting the course of an infection is to understand whether co-infection with two Yersinia strains differing only in their capacity to resist killing by the host immune system may decrease the overall virulence by competitive exclusion or increase it by acting cooperatively. Herein, we study the primary interactions among Ye, the host immune system and the microbiota, and their influence on Yersinia population dynamics. The employed model considers two host compartments, the intestinal mucosa and lumen, commensal bacteria, the co-existence of wild-type and mutant Yersinia strains, as well the host immune responses. We determine four possible equilibria: the disease-free, wild-type-free, mutant-free, and co-existence of wild-type and mutant equilibrium. We also calculate the reproduction number for each strain as a threshold parameter to determine if the population may either be eradicated or persist within the host. We conclude that the infection should disappear if the reproduction numbers for each strain fall below one, and the commensal bacteria’s growth rate exceeds the pathogens’ growth rates. These findings will help inform public health control strategies. The supplement includes MATLAB source script, Maple workbook, and figures.

Hydrogen is useful as a fuel and could be produced by a variety of means. One approach uses artificial photosynthesis where energy from sunlight powers the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. But, biological methods for producing hydrogen has emerged strongly over the past decades. In particular, specific microorganisms could use different substrates to produce hydrogen at differing yields. Such fundamental discoveries with industrial applications thus motivated the use of metabolic engineering approaches and methodologies in enhancing biological hydrogen production through a series of enzyme over-expression, pathway debottlenecking, and gene deletion. However, such approaches heavily rely on the selection of an appropriate microbial chassis for biohydrogen production. With the proper strain in hand, use of alternative substrates may engender greater hydrogen productivities. But learning from the bioprocessing field, co-culture of two compatible microorganisms have been sought after for improving biohydrogen production. In addition, thermophilic microbes may also be useful candidates for exploiting hydrogen production from composting. Future outlook in the field looks into filling our gaps in understanding of the metabolic network that feeds into hydrogen production in different organisms. But, more importantly, problems such as reduced growth rate in engineered microbes point to fundamental issues with using genetically engineered microorganisms for improved biohydrogen production, to which clever bioprocess engineering may yield solutions.

Renewable sources and electric distribution network can produce or make available a surplus of electric and thermal energies. The Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Electrolyzer (IT-SOE) fed by CO2-steam mixtures can store these electric and thermal energies producing CO-H2 mixtures with high conversion efficiency. Inside the IT-SOE, the CO2-steam mixtures are converted to CO-H2 mixtures and O2 through the cathode and anode electrochemical reactions and reverse water gas shift chemical reaction. In this article an IT-SOE stack fed by different types of steam mixtures was tested at different operating temperatures and the stack polarization and electric power curves were detected experimentally. At the highest hydrogen production operating temperature of the stack fed by steam mixtures, the experimental polarization and electric power curves of the stack fed by steam and CO2-steam mixtures were compared. A simulation model of the IT-SOE system (stack and furnace) fed by CO2-steam mixtures was formulated ad hoc and implemented in a Matlab environment and experimentally validated. At the highest hydrogen production stack operating temperature, the IT-SOE system thermal equilibrium current was evaluated through the simulation model. Moreover, the influence of this current on the IT-SOE system efficiency and the CO-H2 mixture degree of purity was highlighted.

The aim of this study was synthesize and evaluate the effects of Poly (D, L-Lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) Nanoparticles (NPs) of metformin (PLGA+ Met) on inflammation, and bone loss in a ligature-induced periodontitis rat model. The prepared NPs were characterized by mean diameter, size particle, polydispensity index and encapsulation efficiency by Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Male albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups of 20 rats in each group, and given the following treatments for 10 days to evaluate in vivo activity: (1) Sham: no ligature + water; (2) Positive control: ligature + water (with Periodontal disease and Diabetes); (3) ligature + PLGA+ 10 mg/kg Met (With Periodontal disease and Diabetes); and (4) ligature + PLGA+ 100 mg/kg Met (with Periodontal disease and Diabetes). Water or PLGA + Met was administered orally by gavage. Maxillae were fixed and scanned using Micro-computed Tomography (μCT) to quantify linear of bone loss. Histopathological characteristics were assessed through immunohistochemical staining for Osteocalcin, Cathepsyn K, RANKL/RANK/OPG pathway. IL-1β and TNF-α from gingival tissues were analysed by Elisa immunoassay. Quantitative RT-PCR reaction was used to evaluate gene expression of AMPK, NF-κB p-65, Hmgb1 and TAK-1 from gingival tissues. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA at 5% significance. The mean diameter of MET-loaded PLGA nanoparticles was in a range of 457.1 ± 48.9 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.285, zeta potential: 8.16 ± 1.1 mV and entrapment efficiency (EE) was 70%. The results suggest that the addition of MET in the core slightly affected the particle sizes. Treatment with PLGA+ 10 mg/kg Met showed low inflammatory cells, decreased bone loss and integrity cement and levels of IL-1β, and TNF-α (p < 0.05) were significantly reduced. Additionally, weak staining was shown by RANKL, Cathepsyn K, OPG, and osteocalcin. Radiographically, linear measurements showed a statistically significant reduction in bone loss after treatment with PLGA+ 10 mg/kg Met compared to the positive control (p < 0.05). RT-PCR showed increased AMPK expression (p < 0.05) and decreased expression of NF-κB P65, HMGB1 and TAK-1 after PLGA+ 10 mg/kg Met (p < 0.05). The PLGA nanoparticle + 10 mg/kg Met decreased glucose levels and also decreased the inflammatory response, and bone loss in ligature-induced periodontitis in rats.

Logistics Engineering has transcended over the decades into an approach for competitive benefits in organisational performance and logistics efficiency. Most industries are recognising that significant savings are available to companies that are able to ordinate and improve within their logistics operations. Companies today face great challenges because the successful supply of many products and services needs to the effective integration of logistics activities across a prolongation supply chain and an increasing geographical separation. Moreover, logistics integration approach involves both internal integration for an ordinated, unified process as well as relationships to react flexibly, changeability, and responsibility to customer's demands. In this study, by using of Fuzzy Vikor (F-Vikor), the best combination of RIR was selected and RIR Locating was done. The main aim of this paper is survey and design of the integrated operational logistics network (IOLN) and also, a proposed IOLN to integration of the Iran Khodro Co Supply Network.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the circulation of non–SARS-CoV-2 respiratory viruses changed throughout the world. This study aimed to analyze the effect of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), metapneumovirus (MPV), rhinovirus (RV), and parainfluenza (PIV)-3 single infection, dual co-infection, and viral load on cytokine and chemokine expression in 300 Mexican patients with ARIs negative for SARS-CoV-2. Molecular detection and viral load were performed by RT-qPCR. Cytokine and chemokine expression was determined in samples positive for single RSV, MPV, RV, or PIV-3 infection, and in the most frequent dual co-infections, by a cytokine panel using a magnetic-bead-based multiplex immunoassay. Of the patients positive for viral infection, 91.7% had a single infection and 8.3% had dual co-infections. In this study, RSV was the respiratory virus with the highest prevalence, and the most common dual co-infection was RV+RSV. On the other hand, RV infections had the highest viral loads compared to the other viruses detected. FGF basic, MIP-1α IL-8, IP-10, MCP-1, IFN-γ, and RANTES showed differential expression between single infections and dual co-infections compared to healthy patients. We report, for the first time, the circulation of non-SARS-CoV-2 viruses in the south of Mexico and the cytokine and chemokine profiles associated with these viruses.

A bridged 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) derivative (PN-DOPO) in combination with aluminum phosphates coated sepiolite (Sep@AlPO4) was used to improve the flame retardancy, thermal stability and mechanical properties of poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO)/poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) blends. The synergistic effects of PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 on the fire resistance, thermal decomposition behavior and mechanical properties of PEO/PBAT composites were investigated systematically. The results indicated that 5 wt % Sep@AlPO4 combined with 10 wt% PN-DOPO into PEO/PBAT achieved a V-1 rating in UL-94 test and the LOI value increased to 23.7%, meanwhile, the peak-heat release rate (p-HRR), av-HRR and total heat release (THR) values of PEO/PBAT/PN10%/Sep5% composites decreased by 35.6%, 11.0% and 23.0% compared with those of PEO/PBAT, respectively. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results confirmed that PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 could enhance the initial thermal stability and char yield of PEO/PBAT matrix, and TGA/Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (TGA-FTIR) results revealed that the composites exhibited the absorption peaks of phosphorous-containing groups and an increase in gas-phase volatiles during the thermal decomposition process. The digital photographs and morphological structures of char residues demonstrated that PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 mixtures benefited to the formation of a more continuous and dense carbon layer on the composites surface during combustion. Rheological behavior revealed that a higher storage modulus, loss modulus and complex viscosity of PEO/PBAT/PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 composites could also promote the cross-linking structure during burning. Furthermore, the PEO/PBAT/PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 composites exhibited excellent mechanical properties in terms of elongation at break and flexural performance than the PEO/PBAT system. All the results demonstrated that PEO/PBAT system modified by the combination of PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 not only exhibited excellent synergistic effect on the flame retardance, but also had good improvement on thermal stability and mechanical properties, indicating the potential application in areas requiring fire safety.

Most smallscale farmers still use the traditional way of agricultural crop farming, and relay mostly use of chemical fertilizers (CF). Recently CF have become expensive and could in some way have a negative impact on soil quality after long term application. However, co-application of biogas slurry (BGS) with CF could help reduce farming costs while improving dry matter yields, grain yields, primary macronutrient uptake of (Nitrogen) N, (Phosphorus) P, (Potasium) K, (Calcium) Ca and (Magnesium) Mg and soil concentration of pH, (organic carbon) OC, N, P, K, Ca and Mg after crop harvest. The study was a field experiment conducted in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 growing seasons. The field experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The treatments were based on percentages of recommended N rates of 120 kg N ha-1 for maize production. The BGS/CF treatments were (i) 0/0, (ii) 0/120, (iii) 24/96, (iv) 48/72, (v) 72/48, (vi) 96/24, (vii) 120/0 kg N ha-1. The spreading of the combination of BGS/CF treatments was performed by hand and incorporated into the top soil (0-10 cm) in each experimental plots. BGS/CF (48/72) treatment resulted into higher dry matter yield in 2016-2017, which was higher than all other treatment combinations, while in the 2017-2018 season, treatment of (0/120) resulted into higher dry matter than all other treatment combinations. The 48/72 and 0/120 treatments resulted into similar grain yield in 2016-2017 season which were higher than all other treatments. Treatments of 48/72, 72/48 and 120/0 had higher N, P, K, Ca and Mg uptake than 0/0, 0/120, 24/96 and 96/24 treatments in both seasons. Soil pH, total N, K, and Mg were high from the treatment of (120/0) than all other treatments in 2016-2017 while in the 2017-2018 season, treatment of (48/72) had higher OC, P and K after maize harvest. The findings of his study show that co-application of BGS/CF at 48/72 and 72/48 have maize yield benefits compared to the two resources, BGS/CF (120/0) and BGS/CF (0/120), applied separately in soil especially in the arid and semi-arid regions.

The profile of secondary metabolites occurring in apple cuticular layer is not only characteristic for particular apple cultivar, but also dynamically reflects various external factors in growing environment. In this study, the possibility to authenticate apple samples based on analysis of their cuticular layer extracts was investigated. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) was employed for obtaining metabolomic fingerprints. In total, 274 authentic apple samples, four cultivars harvested within the seasons 2020 to 2022 in the Czech Republic and Poland were analysed. The generated complex data processed by univariate and multivariate statistical methods enabled to build classification models for discrimination of apple cultivars as well as their geographical origin. The models showed very good performance in differentiation of Czech and Polish samples for three of four cultivars: ‘Gala’, ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Idared’, moreover, the validity of the models was verified over harvest seasons. The diagnostic markers, besides metabolites of triterpene biosynthetic pathway, mainly represented wax esters. ‘Jonagold’, which is known to be susceptible to mutations, was the only cultivar for which the unambiguous classification of geographical origin was not possible.

Reducing CO2 emissions is urgently needed to slow down the impacts of climate change. CO2 capture using an amine solution has been developed and implemented on pilot and commercial scales. However, amine scrubbing, in particular, produces a lot of degraded solvent as waste and is energy intensive. Solid sorbents have been called to overcome those drawbacks. In this work, waste biomass-derived carbon materials were developed and tested for CO2 capture and conversion. Advanced thermal chemical processes i.e. hydrothermal and pyrolysis were applied to produce materials from agri-food waste such as soybean and okara. It was found that the number of functional groups (-C=O and -OH) in activated carbon appears in the synthesized materials, implying the generation of surface oxygenated groups. Preliminary results showed that the synthesized activated carbons are obtained with good yields, and a relatively high surface area, which may be applied as CO2 adsorption materials to solve the CO2 emission problems.

There are four categories of medical waste that cannot be mixed as this will cause serious problems such as environmental pollution or infection. In the past, the classification of medical waste often involved a lot of human and material resources to process, with workers at risk of exposure to infectious substances. Therefore, an augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) medical waste classification system and method were developed. This innovative medical waste classification system and method combines AR and AI identification technology to reduce the risk of manual judgment errors by clinical staff when handling medical waste.

The objective of the current investigation is to identify the first or first draining node or sentinel lymph node (SLN) from the primary tumor mass in a regional lymphocenter. Four different indirect lymphography (IL) methods were employed in 96 canine patients with different types of cancer between 2018 and 2021. The IL technique involved intradermal, submucosal, and peritumoral injections of 2ml contrast agent in the four-quadrant principle which were divided into equal aliquots. Lymphatic mapping with lipiodol (iodized oil) was 100% in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, anal sac apocrine gland adenocarcinoma, mast cell tumor, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, mammary carcinoma, and with methylene blue dye, 100% detection was achieved in testicular tumor and mammary carcinoma. Instead of a very short washout time of 2 minutes, Iohexol showed an excellent detection in indirect CT lymphography for histiocytic sarcoma and in indirect radiographic lymphography for lymphosarcoma. The significance of contrast and blue dyes in detecting the lymphatic spread of canine cancers is clearly emphasized in the current investigation. The nature of cancerous tissue was again analyzed through image and machine learning approach in this work. Supervised machine learning technique is applied in this work for automatic classification of cancerous and non-cancerous regions. Various statistical and texture-based features are extracted from X-Ray images and support vector machine with linear, polynomial, multilayer perceptron (MLP), and RBF kernel functions are applied for classification. Highest 95.53%, 94.64%, 93.05% sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, respectively, is achieved using RBF kernel function.

A digital text abstract presents the essential information of an article, and we can find the trend and value of the research by analyzing it rigorously and digging up knowledge. Therefore, this study focuses on the abstracts of index journals in China and Taiwan from July 2010 to June 2020 (a total of 3,283 abstracts). Through the concepts of text mining and natural language processing (NLP), it constructs processes such as text retrieval, text segmentation and word cloud analysis, TF-IDF weight analysis, co-word analysis, network analysis, and trend analysis, and analyses a large amount of text data. The results show that the scope of research in China covers the fields of social sports and sports science, and research in Taiwan covers both natural and social sciences. The network diagram highlights the richness of sports-related research fields in the two regions, but research on sports philosophy is relatively rare. It is suggested that all disci-plines/departments should re-allocate the same resources, so as to show a balanced development trend and help expand a new chapter in the sports academic field.

This note makes available five years of data gathered in a measurement site equipped with a micrometeorological station and two monitoring wells. Series of data of hydrological and atmospheric variables allow to estimate the flux of water across the atmosphere-land interface and to calculate the water budget, that are crucial topics in climate and environmental sciences. The measures of water-table began during 2017, one of the driest year of the whole instrumental period of climate history for the Central Mediterranean. Data from the micrometeorological station have been used to construct two more datasets of daily and monthly cumulative values of different terms of the surface water budget, from which the groundwater infiltration has been estimated. A significant decreasing trend characterizes both the data time series of piezometric heights and estimated infiltration in the considered period. All the data are collected in 2017-2022 datasets that are available in the supplementary material.

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

Mutations within the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome have been associated with rapid progres-sion to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, there is limited information regarding the prevalence and impact of these mutations in most of sub-Saharan Africa, including Botswana. We aimed to determine the prevalence of HBV mutations known to be associated with progression to HCC using a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of 48 previously generated HBV sequences from adults with concomitant HBV/HIV initiating HIV antiretroviral therapy in Botswana. The sequences were aligned with reference sequences, and HCC-associated mutations were manually identified using BioEdit. Sixteen (33.3 %) of 48 participant samples had 20 HCC-associated mu-tations. Seven HCC mutations were present in the core region, 4 in the preCore region, 7 in the X region, and one mutation in the surface region, as well as deletions within the preSurface 1 region. Seven of the 16 participants (43.8%) had multiple HCC-associated mutations. There were also previously uncharacterized mutations at positions with known HCC-associated mutations. HCC-associated mutations were common in this cohort; hence, some participants may require close clinical monitoring as they might be more prone to rapid disease progression. Other functionally uncharacterized polymorphisms were also detected and require characterization in future studies.

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

Irish beef farms have experienced poor viability longitudinally, with officially acknowledged ‘crisis’ levels in 2013. In response, beef Producer Organisation (PO) legislation was introduced. Through the lens of international evidence in the literature about how POs function, this paper presents an analysis of Irish stakeholders’ views in the context of a public consultation process. While stakeholders indicate the need for individual POs to collaborate, little emphasis is placed on other factors necessary for success: collaboration with other chain actors; and market differentiation of products. Stakeholders identified primary threats as poor engagement on the part of both farmers and processors/purchasers.

Homotopy perturbation and analysis methods have been widely used to obtain both approximate and exact so- lutions to nonlinear problems. In general, these two methods are based on the Taylor series with respect to an embedding parameter. Many researchers have compared the two methods and raised more concerns on the homo- topy perturbation method (HPM) because the homotopy analysis method (HAM) contains a convergence-control parameter ~: For this reason, in this article, a more general form of HPM is introduced as the -homotopy per- turbation method (-HPM), which contains a control parameter : The introduction of parameter  in this new modi cation gives a better way to adjust and control the convergence region and the rate of the series solution. We con rm through the given examples in this study that the HPM is a special case of the -HPM. The error and convergence analysis of this proposed method are also presented

For a number of reasons, a curative treatment for most chronic diseases is still unrealized [2–4] and the incidence of many chronic diseases is rapidly increasing [5–9]. A new model is offered as a solution; that being the individualized diagnosis of homeostasis, leading to the correction of epimutations. Individuals with chronic diseases are increasingly being defined by their epigenetic signatures [10,11]. Modern innovations in toxicogenomic studies are also becoming more accurate in their ability to identify the unique epigenetic signature of each toxin [12–14]. Hormesis studies (over 5,000) [15] suggest a universal principle, that a small dose is always a stimulant [16–18].These three facts present an opportunity; a method to diagnose and reverse chronic disease tendencies. This new model requires a paradigm shift in our understanding of disease origins: that dysfunctions in homeostasis [19,20] are the primary and deepest level of chronic disease causation. This is the level where the diagnosis needs to be made and where the corrections need to take place [21].

This paper presents a non-perturbative method for solving eigenproblems. This method applies to almost all potentials and provides non-perturbative approximations for any energy level. The method converts an eigenproblem into a perturbation problem, obtains perturbation solutions through standard perturbation theory, and then analytically continues the perturbative solution into a non-perturbative solution.

Teaching kinematic rotations is a daunting task for even some of the most advanced mathematical minds. However, envisioning and explaining the three-dimensional rotations can be highly simplified by changing the paradigm. This paradigm change allows for a high school student with a understanding of geometry to be able to not only develop the matrix but also explain the rotations at a collegiate level. The proposed method includes the assumption of a point (P) within the initial three-dimensional frame with axes (x ̂_i, y ̂_i, z ̂_i). It then utilizes a two-dimensional rotation view (2DRV) to measure how the coordinates of point P translate after the initial axis is rotated instead of using the established Euler's formula. The equations are used in matrix notation to develop a direction cosine matrix (DCM) for future equations. This method provides a high school student with an elementary and repeatable process to compose and explain kinematic rotations.

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

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

This paper is focused on typical rural settlements in the Stara Planina Mountain area in Serbia. They are distinguished by their authenticity, identity and character, and they have still not been destroyed by inappropriate development as is the case in some other mountain areas in Serbia, where the effects of urbanization, globalization and homogenization are obvious. Consequently, there is a need to prevent these effects in mountain areas where there is a threat of disbalance between development and the inherited natural and cultural values. The paper starts from several important concepts that relate contemporary approaches to cultural heritage preservation, place morphology and planning future development. The concept definitions from recent documents from related fields are used. These concepts are then applied to the area of Stara Planina Mountain and its rural settlements. The necessity for an integrative approach to planning this area with significant natural and anthropogenic potential is pointed out, including its integration into international programs of sustainable development.

Based on electromagnetic heat transfer and metal phase transformation co-simulations, we modeled an AISI 1045 specimen under high-frequency heat treatment. Hardening zone predictions were confirmed through cooling and metal phase transformation simulations after obtaining the results from electromagnetic heat transfer simulations. The cooling process was modeled by applying the cooling coefficient of the cooling water in the same way as the actual heat-treatment process. To obtain the current flowing through the coil during high-frequency induction heating, the voltage was measured and applied using the resistance–inductance–capacitance circuit calculation method. Experimental and simulated results of the heating temperature and curing depth of an AISI 1045 specimen with a carbon content of 0.45% were compared; the comparison indicated good agreement between the two. Using the simulation results, we established a method for obtaining the current flowing through the induction coil for predicting the extent and depth of the hardening zone during high-frequency induction heat treatment.

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

During the smelting process of AOD furnace, the unbalanced reaction of material will lead to the occurrence of splashing. It will not only damage the smelting equipment, but also seriously injure the personnel. In this study, first, the information of liquid level, audio information, and vibration information are detected by multiple sensors respectively. Then, the fused information is used to forecast the splashing. Finally, the multitasking fuzzy controller is used to suppress splashing. The results show that the method of forecasting and suppressing splashing can accurately forecast and achieve rapid suppression. Thus, the efficiency of smelting can be improved.

Satellite communication (Satcom) is an artificial geostationary satellite that facilitates a wide range of telecommunications. Considering its quality of service (QoS) and security is crucial in government/military applications. The most challenging situation for efficient Satcom is radio frequency interference (RFI) environment. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that transmissions are incorruptible or at least sense the quality of its spectrum. This paper presents a new method to recognize received signal characteristics using a hierarchical classification in a multi-layer perceptron neural network. We consider signal modulation and the type of RFI as the characteristics of a real-time video stream transmitted in the direct broadcast satellite. Four different modulation types are investigated in this study. Moreover, the combination of the communication signal with various kinds of interference and their effects on the classification method widely have been analyzed. Besides, two robust feature selection techniques have been developed to reduce the data-set dimensional, which leads to optimizing the classification process. The results show that the Genetic Algorithm (GA) slightly outperforms Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for feature selection. Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed techniques is assessed to detect unknown signals at different signal to noise ratios.

The eddy current loss should be optimized to be as less as possible for the stability of permanent magnet in high speed permanent magnet synchronous motor (HSPMSM) rotor and ensure the high efficiency and low temperature of the motor. This paper analyzes the eddy current distribution in rotor, with consideration of the conflict of the thickness of sleeve and diameter of the rotor, calculating the eddy current loss (ECL) and the thermal distribution via Separation of variables method for solving Maxwell's equations with analytical hieratical model of ECL constructed. The optimization result of ECL of the HSPMSM whose power and rated speed is 30kw 48000r/min can be got by multi-objective optimization method, combined weighting coefficient method and traversal algorithm based on chaotic local search particle swarm optimization (CLSPSO), utilizing ECL analytical model and other analytical constraints. Related experiment and measurement has been implemented with new approach of loss separation.

The devastating effects of COVID-19 permeates virtually all aspects of life across geographic boundaries. As the lockdown is eased, and reinstated, across many parts of the world, attention is now shifting towards how to navigate the ‘now normal’ rather than the ‘next normal,’ of doing business with a view to achieving sustainable development. This study highlights some of the challenges and opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Conceptual by orientation, the study provides a broad overview of trends in crises times, drawing upon a range of qualitative accounts. The overarching message is the current direction of travel for MSMEs in sustaining their bottom-line, not after the crisis, but at this particular moment in time. The study highlights some implications for ‘pivoting,’ in order to cushion the impact of the pandemic on efforts to capacitate MSMEs in leveraging value co-creation with the consumers. The implications of the here and now are discussed.

Promoting green development has become an important way to optimize the ecological and economic structure and promote sustainable development. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important economic corridor in China, and it remains to be examined whether the implementation of environmental regulations has enhanced the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities. This paper calculates the green total factor productivity of 107 cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the super-efficient SBM model and the GML index with Chinese city panel data from 2007-2019 and measures the intensity of environmental regulations through textual analysis. The bidirectional fixed-effects model constructed in this paper suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP, which is confirmed by a series of robustness tests. Green technology innovation and advanced industrial structure play a mechanism role in this. In regions with lower levels of green technology and industrial structure, the inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity is more significant. In addition, the phenomenon of GTFP rising and then falling because of environmental regulation is more obvious in cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and outside the urban agglomerations. Therefore, when formulating environmental regulation policies, it is necessary to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and harmonize the environment and economic development of the entire Yangtze River Basin.

This study aimed to establish and verify the validity of an acoustic simulation method during sustained phonation of the Japanese vowels /i/ and /u/. The study participants were six healthy adults. First, vocal tract models were constructed based on computed tomography (CT) data, such as the range from the frontal sinus to the glottis, during sustained phonation of /i/ and /u/. Next, cylindrical shapes virtually extended by 12 cm were added to the vocal tract models to imitate the trachea between the tracheal bifurcation and lower part of the glottis. The Kirchhoff–Helmholtz integral equation was formulated as the wave equation for sound propagation, and the boundary element method was used for discretization. As a result, the relative discrimination thresholds of the vowel formant frequencies for /i/ and /u/ against actual voice were 1.1%–10.2% and 0.4%–9.3% for the first formant and 3.9%–7.5% and 5.0%–12.5% for second formant, respectively. In the vocal tract model with nasal coupling, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 500 Hz, and for both /i/ and /u/, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 1000 Hz regardless of the presence or absence of nasal coupling. These findings demonstrated that /i/ and /u/ could be simulated with high validity in a vocal tract model constructed from CT data obtained during sustained phonation using the boundary element method.

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLC10A1 gene, coding for a functional receptor of hepatitis B virus (HBV), sodium taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide (NTCP), may influence the susceptibility, the outcome, and disease course of HBV infection in some populations. Aim: to determine the prevalence of SNPs of NTCP gene, rs2296651 and rs943277, and their relationship with chronic HBV infection in a group of Egyptian patients. Methods: 137 patients with HBV and 65 healthy controls were enrolled, and the patients were divided into two groups; group I chronic HBV infection (68 patients with normal ALT and minimal or no liver necroinflammation or fibrosis) and group II chronic hepatitis B (69 patients with elevated ALT and moderate or severe liver necroinflammation). They were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigations, abdominal ultrasound, and liver stiffness measurement using both Echosens® Fibroscan and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI). Real time PCR TaqMan 5’ allelic discrimination assay was applied to detect the SNPs in NTCP gene, rs2296651 and rs943277. Results: On studying the rs2296651 variant, all controls and patients had genotype GG without any significant association with HBV infection or disease progression. However, the rs943277 variant in all controls and 98% of patients had genotype GA, except for two chronic HBV infection patients who had genotype AA, but no significant difference between patients and controls was found. The non-invasive methods for liver fibrosis assessment ARFI, AST/platelet's ratio (APRI), and fibrosis-4 score (FIB-4) could predict the stages of fibrosis in agreement with Fibroscan with AUCOR 0.8, 0.79, and 0.76, respectively. Conclusion: These findings may suggest that there is no relation between these SNPs of the NTCP gene and susceptibility or chronicity of HBV infection in the Egyptian population. We also suggest that the use of the non-invasive methods for liver fibrosis assessment, ARFI, FIB-4, and APRI may decrease the need for liver biopsies in prediction of significant hepatic fibrosis in chronic HBV patients.

The wetlands in northeastern Bangladesh are home to some of the most prolific and valuable ecosystems on the planet, offering a wide range of benefits to both the local and wider communities. A limited number of research on this topic have been carried out in various wetlands in coastal hilsa, but none have been located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh. Thus, the goal of this study was to better understand the most commercially relevant species (anadromous hilsa) in northeastern Bangladesh as well as to assess the wetland ecosystem services more thoroughly with the contribution of their fish genetic resources. In addition to laboratory studies, fieldwork was done in the fishing settlements along the Surma River, Hakaluki Haor, and Tanguar Haor. The study classified 77 fish species into 21 subcategories of ecosystem services, of which 56% were not threatened, 17% were vulnerable, and 10% were highly endangered. The species Hilsa was found to be the most economically significant, accounting for 1% of the GDP overall. The study determined if the hilsa stock of the examined wetlands maintains a single or several subpopulations in comparison to other parts of the country when they migrate from saline water to northeastern Bangladesh (freshwater). But when compared to other groups, the FST score was between 0.000 to 0.017, indicating that the populations are identical and that there is genetic material sharing between them. Additionally, these statistics imply that the Sylhet haor and adjacent river systems contain a single stock of Hilsa fish. Nevertheless, a number of stresses and risks, including overexploitation, illicit and destructive fishing, siltation, and natural disasters like flash floods, have been linked to changes in the supply of hilsa and other ecosystem services. This study also emphasizes the necessity of policy attention and research to address the concerns.

Extreme value analysis (EVA) is well-established to derive hydrometeorological design values for infrastructure that has to withstand extreme events. Since there is evidence of increased extremes with higher hazard potential under climate change, alterations of EVA are introduced for which statistical properties are no longer assumed to be constant but vary over time. In this study, both stationary and non-stationary EVA models are used to derive design life levels (DLLs) of daily precipitation in the pre-alpine Oberland region of Southern Germany, an orographically complex region characterized by heavy precipitation events and climate change. As EVA is fraught with uncertainties, it is crucial to quantify its methodological impacts: two theoretical distributions (i.e., Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Generalized Pareto (GP) distribution), four different parameter estimation techniques, (i.e., Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), L-moments, Generalized Maximum Likelihood Estimation (GMLE), and Bayesian estimation method) are compared. Discrepancies due to the parameter estimation methods may reach up to 45 % of the mean absolute value, while differences between stationary and non-stationary models are of the same magnitude (differences in design levels up to 40%). Despite the underlying large methodological uncertainties, there is a robust tendency for increased DLLs in the Oberland region towards the end of this century based on the (non-)stationary models.

Based on 541 Landsat images between 1988 and 2016, the normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVIs) of the wetland vegetation at Xitugou (XTG) and Wowachi (WWC) inside the Dunhuang Yangguan National Nature Reserve (YNNR) in northwest China were calculated for assessing impacts of climate change on wetland vegetation in the YNNR. It was found that the wetland vegetation at the XTG and WWC both had shown a significant increasing trend in the past 30 years, and the increase in both annual mean temperature and peak snow depth over the Altun Mountains led to the increase of wetland vegetation. The influence of local precipitation on the XTG wetland vegetation was greater than on the WWC wetland vegetation, which demonstrates that in extremely arid regions, the major constrain to the wetland vegetation is water availability in soils which is greatly related to the surface water detention and discharge of groundwater. At both XTG and WWC, snowmelt from the Altun Mountains is the main contributor to the groundwater discharge, while local precipitation plays a less role in influencing the wetland vegetation at the WWC than at the XTG, because the wetland vegetation grows on a relatively flat terrain at the WWC, while in a stream channel at the XTG.

This study investigates the influence of economic growth on CO2 emissions levels in three developed countries—Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, and South Korea—based on their status as high-income countries. We test the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis using the time series approaches to check the relationship and direction of causality among the variables over a sample spanning 1974–2020. The results show an inverted U-shaped short-run relationship in all three countries. In the long run, only South Korea supports the EKC hypothesis. Further, Granger causality results indicate the existence of causality. These long-run causal relationships between economic growth and emissions recommend one policy implication that wealthy governments must expand investments in renewable clean energy projects and R&D, with regulatory measures to suppress harmful environmental procedures and support environmentally friendly development.

In this paper, we introduce a specialized, fully automated experimental arrangement designed for assessing the effectiveness of augmented and virtual reality technologies in healthcare setting and explore its design principles focusing on depth sensor characterization. The main goal of this project is to establish a robust benchtop platform for the quantitative evaluation of extended reality technologies in a controlled environment, emphasizing the practical assessment of augmented reality head-mounted devices. We outline a design concept and considerations for an experimental configuration aimed at creating a realistic testing environment. This apparatus comprises an observation platform mounted on a three-degree-of-freedom motorized system and a test phantom stage. Focusing on real-case scenarios, we utilized a range of sensors, including readily available range-sensing cameras and commercial augmented reality headsets, such as the Intel RealSense L515 LiDAR camera, mounted on the motion control system. The setup enabled automated data collection and facilitates controlled assessments and validation of various facets of augmented reality technologies, including object, hand, and head tracking, as well as static and dynamic image registration. This paper describes the system architecture, the process of automated data collection, and presents several evaluation studies conducted with this setup, providing insights into the quality and temporal noise associated with static or moving objects or observers in augmented reality applications.

To conduct high-precision and high-resolution numerical simulation of complex flow structures in turbomachinery, a high-order finite volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for the large eddy simulation (LES) is improved and embedded into the three-dimensional viscous unsteady CFD solver NUAA-Turbo. Firstly, the spectral characteristics and unsteady convergence of the improved WENO scheme are studied. Compared with the classical WENO scheme, the improved WENO scheme has better dissipation and dispersion characteristics and faster convergence speed. Then, the coefficient CW of the Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity (WALE) model is calibrated by decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (DHIT) test case. Finally, the scheme is applied to conduct high-precision LES calculations of turbulent boundary layer flow, supersonic compression corner flow, and low-pressure turbine cascade separation flow. The numerical simulation results show that this WENO scheme has excellent shock wave capture ability and turbulence resolution and can capture more flow field details with less mesh size, greatly reducing the computational cost and laying a foundation for large-scale engineering application of LES.

To secure logic circuits against the illegal copying the insertion of the so-called key bit inputs using XOR/XNOR gates has been proposed in . The inserted gates modify (lock) the behavior of the original circuit and only the correct choice of the secret key bits guarantees the equivalent behaviour of the locked circuit to the original circuit. To break this kind of security, i.e. to find the secret key bits, there was a SAT solver based attack proposed in . The aim of this work is to experimentally verify this attack on several locked circuits with various number of primary inputs and outputs and with various number of gates. Except for the random placement of the key gates we evaluate also the positioning with chaining elimination. The obtained and presented results show that we were able to unlock 10 of 11 circuits within few minutes on a common PC.

Intermetallic compounds are increasingly being expected to utilize in tribological environments, but to date the works are hindered by insufficient ductility at low and medium temperature. This paper presents a novel multiphase intermetallic alloy with the chemical composition of Mo-40Ni-13Si (at.%). Microstructure characterization reveals that a certain amount of ductile Mo phases formed during the solidification process of ternary Mo-Ni-Si alloy melt, which is undoubtedly beneficial to the ductility improvement of intermetallic alloy. Tribological properties of the designed alloy, including wear resistance, friction coefficient and metallic tribological compatibility, were evaluated under dry sliding wear test conditions at room temperature. Results suggested that the multiphase alloy possesses an excellent property for room-temperature wear applications, which is attributed to the unique microstructural features and thereby good combination in hardness and ductility. The corresponding wear mechanism is also reported by observing the worn surface, subsurface and wear debris of alloy, which to be found is soft abrasive wear.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of brain activity. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology formed by the EEG signal has become one of the hotspots at present. How to extract the feature signal of EEG is the most basic research of BCI technology. In this paper, A new method of recognizing fatigue, conscious, concentrated state of human brain is proposed by the combination of discrete wavelet transform and the neural network based on EEG signal. First of all, the law signal is preprocessed by the wavelet denoising method because the law EEG signal contains a large number of high frequency noise, which is decomposed into multi-layer high frequency signal and low frequency signal. thus, δ wave, θ wave, α wave, β wave are obtained by the wavelet transform. And then, frequency band energy of the different wave is regards as the feature signal of EEG. In the experiment, the feature signal is classified by radial basic function (RBF) and annealed chaotic competitive learning network (ACCLN). RBF and ACCLN networks are trained with 500 sets of sample data and are tested by 100 sets of samples in different mental states. The experimental results show that the average accuracy of RBF network under three conditions are 88.75%, 88.25%, 88.5%, respectively, and the correct rate of ACCLN network is 97%, 98%, 98%, respectively.

A polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) composed of 50 wt% poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) as its base polymer, 40 wt% Aliquat® 336 as its extractant and 10 wt% dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as plasticizer provided efficient extraction of vanadium(V) from its sulfate solutions adjusted to pH 2.5. It was suggested that V(V) was extracted as VO2SO4− via an anion exchange mechanism. Quantitative back-extraction was achieved in a sulfuric acid solution (6 mol L-1) containing 1 v/v% of hydrogen peroxide. It was assumed that the back-extraction process involved the oxidation of VO2+ to VO(O2)+ by hydrogen peroxide. The newly developed PIM with the optimized composition mentioned above exhibited excellent selectivity for V(V) in the presence of metallic species present in digests of spent alumina hydrodesulfurization catalysts (i.e., Al(III), Co(II), Cu(II), Fe(III), Mn(II), and Ni(II)). The co-extraction of Mo(VI) with V(V) was eliminated by its selective extraction at pH 1.1. The optimized PIM was characterized by contact angle measurements, atomic-force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)/derivatives thermogravimetric analysis (DTGA), and the stress-strain measurements.

The pathogenesis of porcine circovirus type 2b (PCV2b) and swine influenza A virus (SwIV) during co-infection in swine respiratory cells is poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of PCV2b/SwIV co-infection, newborn porcine tracheal epithelial cells (NPTr) and immortalized porcine alveolar macrophages (iPAM 3D4/21) were co-infected with PCV2b and SwIV (H1N1 or H3N2 genotype). Viral replication, cell viability and cytokine mRNA expression were determined and compared between single-infected and co-infected cells. Finally, 3’mRNA sequencing was performed to identify the modulation of gene expression and cellular pathways in co-infected cells. It was found that PCV2b significantly decreased and improved SwIV replication, in co-infected NPTr and iPAM 3D4/21 cells respectively, compared to single infected cells. Interestingly, PCV2b/SwIV co-infection synergistically up-regulated IFN expression in NPTr cells whereas in iPAM 3D4/21 cells, PCV2b impaired the SwIV IFN induced response, both correlating with SwIV replication modulation. RNA-sequencing analyses revealed that the modulation of gene expression and enriched cellular pathways during PCV2b/SwIV H1N1 co-infection is regulated in a cell type-dependent-manner. This study revealed different outcomes of PCV2b/SwIV co-infection in porcine epithelial cells and macrophages and provides new insights on porcine viral co-infections pathogenesis.

Human-caused anthropogenic greenhouse emissions impact climate globally. In this pilot study, we aim to reveal the impact of oil and gas emissions from local oil deposits in the regime of their natural degradation and development and eco-physiological changes of pine forests in Tatarstan Republic, Russia over the past century. We performed stable carbon isotope analysis in pine tree rings (13Cptrw) to reveal the impact of oil and gas emissions from the giant oil field reservoirs located in Leninogorsk region (UVRT) and the natural reserve site in Raifa. Our results show decreasing 13Cptrw at UVRT in 1943 when oil extraction was started, and in 1970, when it reached the maximum production. We found that 13Cptrw from UVRT indicates on developing unfavourable drier conditions and suppressed tree growth caused by both human-induced oil and deposit infrastructure and natural processes compared to undisturbed Raifa. The 13Cptrw from Raifa is more negative compared to UVRT, which can be explained by higher forest sensitivity to human-induced impact. From an ecophysiological point of view decreasing intercellular to ambient CO2 concentration at the leaf level and increasing intrinsic water use efficiency along with decreasing tree-ring width at UVRT (1970-2021) indicate on development of drought conditions.

Early discharge after childbirth has led to a rise in neonatal readmission, becoming a major concern in recent decades. Our research aimed to identify the risk factors and incidence of neonatal readmission, as well as explore preventive measures. Our study at the Clinical Hospital of Pediatrics in Ploiești, Romania included 108 neonates admitted during the neonatal period. This accounted for 2.06% of all admissions (5226). The most prevalent cases were malnutrition (25%), fever (20.3%) and bronchiolitis (17.5%). Diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis were also observed (14.8%), along with acute rhinoconjunctivitis (9.2%) and late onset sepsis (3.7%). No deaths were recorded. The most significant characteristics identified were number of children (p&lt;0.001) and age at maternity discharge (p&lt;0.001). By following the prevention rules, malnutrition, feeding errors, and infections can be avoided. This includes practicing proper hand hygiene for both mothers and medical staff, as well as educating and demonstrating to mothers the benefits of breastfeeding. In addition, all newborns discharged from the maternity ward should benefit from follow-up at 7-10 days of life. Our results confirm the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team and endorse promoting breastfeeding. Implementing quality control measures and regularly evaluating the surveillance program will help improve its effectiveness.

We present a summary of the main results within the Scale Invariant Vacuum (SIV) paradigm as related to the Weyl Integrable Geometry. After a brief review of the mathematical framework, we will highlight the main results related to inflation within the SIV [9], the growth of the density fluctuations [8], and the application of the SIV to scale-invariant dynamics of Galaxies, MOND, Dark Matter, and the Dwarf Spheroidals [7]. The connection of the weak-field SIV results to the un-proper time parametrization within the reparametrization paradigm is also discussed [14].

Wearable technology has been proposed as a potential tool to change the way of human life, such as the smart bracelet and the Google Glass. In the wearable technology, the inertial sensor has great significance in tracking the object movements. The paper focused on detecting the movements of user’s finger based on the inertial sensor to give the control signals. Firstly, the attitude matrix, which represented the transformation relation of carrier coordinate system and the navigation coordinate system, was obtained. Secondly, the attitude matrix was expressed based on the quaternions. Thirdly, the finger gesture was processed by the attitude matrix to get the attitude angle. Finally, the robot was controlled by attitude angle to make the moving action. The experimental results showed the detection of the finger movement is effective.

Transition metal alloys have emerged as promising electrocatalysts due to their ability to modulate key parameters such as d-band electron filling, Fermi level energy, and interatomic spacing, thereby influencing their affinity towards reaction intermediates. However, the structural stability of alloy electrocatalysts during alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains a subject of debate. In this study, we systematically investigate the structural evolution and catalytic activity of the c-Co/Co3Mo electrocatalyst under alkaline HER conditions. We reveal that the instability of the Co3Mo alloy and H0.9MoO3 during alkaline HER leads to the destruction of the crystal structure, resulting in the formation of hexagonal cobalt (h-Co) from hexagonal Co(OH)2 as an intermediate species. Furthermore, we explore the re-adsorption and surface coordination of the Mo element, which enhances the catalytic activity for alkaline HER. This work provides valuable insights into the dynamic behavior of alloy-based electrocatalysts, shedding light on their structural stability and catalytic activity during electrochemical reduction processes

The quality of waste activated sludge produced in urban wastewater treatment systems varies according to the efficiency of the operation of treatment units along the content of microflora and organic carbon. However, these represent a biogas-energy alternative through anaerobic co-digestion, contributing to reducing the environmental impacts caused by their inadequate disposal. Biogas production by the Two-stage production method in batch digesters was evaluated by two qualities of waste activated sludge (SLB50 y SLB90) and with a mixture of two co-substrates: cattle manure (CEV50 y CEV90) and residual edible oil with mixing, pH and temperature control. Bacteria in good quality sludge (SLB90) showed a faster adaptation of 2 days than those in low quality (SLB50) with 25 days lag phase. The highest CH4 production was for SLB90 (303.99cm3 d-1) compared to SLB50 (4.33 cm3 d-1); while cow manure sludge mixture (CEV90) contributed to increasing production of CH4 (42 422.8 cm3 d-1) compared to CEV50 (12 881.45 cm3 CH4 d-1), while in residual edible oil mixture they were 767.32 cm3 d-1 and 211.42 cm3 d-1 for CAV90 y CAV50, respectively. The addition of sludge co-substrates improves the nutrient balance, C/N rate and micro flora diversity; consequently methane production improves too; this methodology could be integrated into concepts of Circular economy.

Sexual selection involving female choice or female preference (‘inter-sexual’ selection) or male-male competition (‘intra-sexual’ selection) is one of the key mechanisms for evolutionary diversification and speciation. In particular, sexual selection is recently suggested to be an important mode to drive the evolution of “novel” phenotype (i. e. “evolutionary novelty”). Despite extensive studies performed on sexually selected traits or male-specific ornaments (or weapon-like structures) with respect to their evolutionary origin and history and fitness benefits, relatively little is known about the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying their developmental process. However, with advances of genomic technologies (including whole transcriptome analysis using Next Generation Sequencing [NGS] techniques; RNA-Seq), progresses have been made to unveil the genetic background underpinning diverse sexually selected traits in different animal taxa. In the present review, we compile empirical data on the genes, genetic mechanisms or regulatory pathways underlying various sexually selected traits to explore whether the “common” genetic architectures shape the development and evolution of those traits across evolutionarily distant animal lineages. We show that the recruitment of pre-existing genetic network for a new purpose (i.e. gene network “co-option”) is rather widespread in the development and evolution of sexually selected traits, indicating that particular genes or gene-sets are repeatedly involved in different sexually selected traits. Information of genes or genetic mechanisms regulating the development of sexually selected traits would be an essential piece to complete a whole picture of the origin and evolution of sexually selected traits.

Cobalt-doped alumina catalysts were prepared by different methods, applying either the conventional wet impregnation (WI) and/or the advanced spray impregnation (SI), and evaluated as novel oxidation catalysts for CO and MeOH oxidation. The spray impregnation technique aims towards the synthesis of core-shell catalytic nanostructures to secure chemical/thermal stability of the active sites on the catalyst carrier. The catalysts were further promoted with low Pd content (0.5 wt.%) applying either incipient wetness impregnation (DI) or spray impregnation. The results revealed the superior performance of spray impregnated catalysts (Co/γ-Al2O3-SI) for both reactions. The deposition of Co oxide on the outer surface of the alumina particle (SEM images) and the availability of the active Co phase, resulted in the enhancement of Co/γ-Al2O3 catalysts oxidation activity. Pd incorporation increased catalysts reducibility (TPR-H2) and improved the catalysts performance for both reactions. However, Pd incorporation method affected the catalytic performance; as with the SI method the active phase of Co3O4 was probably covered from PdO and was not available for the oxidation reactions. On the contrary, the incorporation of Pd with the DI method resulted in better dispersion of PdO all over the Co/Al catalyst surface, maintaining available Co active sites and better Pd-Co interaction. MeOH desorption studies revealed the methanol oxidation mechanism; Co/Al catalysts promote partial oxidation of MeOH to formaldehyde (HCHO) and dehydration to dimethyl ether (DME), while Pd-based Co/Al catalysts enhance the complete oxidation of methanol to CO2 and H2O.

Scenario analysis is a widely employed method for addressing uncertainties when assessing the physical and socio-economic impacts if climate change. Global scenarios have been extensively used in this context. However, these scenarios are in most cases not suitable for supporting local analyses. On the other hand, locally developed scenarios may lack the global context, thus having limited comparability with or transferability to other locations. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, which have been primarily developed for climate impact research, provide the possibility to extend the existing global narratives and adapt them to local characteristics in order to develop locally relevant scenarios. Here, we propose a methodological framework for producing harmonized scenarios across different case studies. This framework was developed in the EVOKED project and combines elements of top-down and bottom-up approaches to develop local scenarios for five regions in northern Europe. We employ the SSP as boundary conditions and, in cooperation with stakeholders from these five regions, develop local scenarios for a range of SSP. The developed sets of scenarios are consistently informed by global developments and are therefore comparable with other downscaled scenarios developed in different regions. At the same time, they have been based on local participatory processes, thus being locally credible and relevant to the needs of stakeholders. The local scenarios constitute a climate service per se as they can raise stakeholder awareness of the processes that will drive risk, exposure, and adaptive capacity in the future and inform discussions on mitigation strategies and adaptation pathways.

Fruit softening is an important characteristic of peach fruit ripening. The auxin receptor TIR1 (Transport Inhibitor Response 1) plays an important role in plant growth and fruit maturation, but little research has been conducted on the relation of TIR1 to the softening of peach fruits. In this study, the hardness of isolated peach fruits was reduced under exogenous NAA treatment of low concentration, at the same time, the low concentration of NAA treatment reduced the transcription level of PpPG and Ppβ-GAL genes related to cell wall softening, and PpACS1 genes related to ethylene synthesis. The transient over-expression of the PpTIR1 gene in peach fruit blocks caused significant down-regulation of the expression of early auxin-responsive genes, ethylene synthesis and cell wall metabolic genes related to fruit firmness. Through yeast two-hybrid technology, bimolecular fluorescence complementary technology, and firefly luciferase complementation imaging assay, an interaction between PpTIR1 and PpIAA1/3/5/9/27 proteins was revealed, and the interaction depended on auxin and its type and concentration. These results show that PpTIR1-Aux/IAA module has a possible regulatory effect on fruit ripening and softening.

When present in specific amounts in the air, the colorless, odorless, and tasteless gases monoxide and carbon dioxide may either replace oxygen in red blood cells (CO) or increase the respiratory rate causing cardiac arrhythmias (CO2), leading to death. Commercial sensors take around 8 h to detect levels of CO (50 PPM), causing moderate poisoning. SnO2 presents controlled interactions with the atmosphere using conductance and vacancy adjustments to capture electrical properties. However, the selectivity of gas detection by SnO2 can still be improved, thus also increasing the application possibilities. The present study aimed to optimize the sensing of CO and CO2 in SnO2 using palladium functionalization. The vapor-liquid-solid method synthesized a network of SnO2 nanobelts decorated with palladium nanoparticles. The sensitivity of the sensors for CO and CO2 were evaluated, characterizing parameters such as response time, a wide range of CO and CO2 concentrations, and temperature. In the seventh measurement cycle, the sensor response for different concentrations of gases in consecutive cycles showed a sensitivity of up to 125% for CO in 60 s. Furthermore, we observed increased sensor sensitivity with material doping with nanoparticles from 130 ppm to 1360 ppm in 30 seconds to CO. Conclusion: The results provide a better understanding of the sensitivity of SnO2 in palladium-decorated nanoparticles, offering insights for detecting low CO concentrations quickly. The behavior of these doped nanosensors showed us the importance of considering them as a practical possibility for detecting these gases of importance to human health.

The power utility, Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) is faced with challenges of supplying adequate power to the ever-increasing demand. To this end, this paper explores the installed Ubungo Gas Power Plant (UGP II) located in Dar es Salaam to find means of utilizing it in co-generation method. The study embarked on detailed modelling of the system and run simulations which indicated that the co-generation can result to power generation efficiency increase between 10.42 to 50.92%. It is recommended to change the UGP II to exploit this co-generation method. Further, the study could be improved by including more parameters of the gas and steam plant and verify them experimentally.

Objective: Taiwan Government’s organizations have endeavored to promote the applications of big data and open data. The “My Health Bank” is one of the measures promoted by the National Health Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare. This study proposes the perspective of the “value co-creation” with the attempt to extend the concept of service ecosystem and apply it on the platform of My Health Bank to examine whether people (patients, families, and caregivers) can promote their health literacy? Method: This cross-sectional study, with people that have registered at “My Health Bank” as subjects. Complying with the inclusion criteria, 401 questionnaires were delivered, with 391 valid ones, excluding those incompletely and inaccurately filled. Result: That the affecting factors of the co-creation of values: age, education level, annual income, and platform operation show to be significant ( p＜0.05); and gender, occupation, and resource exchange do not reach the significant level (p＞0.1). Conclusion: We found My Health Bank changed the inertia of “value creation” in the traditional medical value, it allows the traditional medical and healthcare industry to expose to the impacts of the mega trend of the internet, the transformation of the platform in a necessary trend.

Two interesting compounds such as quaternary ammonium lignin(QAL) and 2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) were synthesized as ionic liquids(QP-ILs) for the extraction of metal ions. The extraction behavior of Co(II) and Ni(II) from chloride solution was compared between QP-ILs and P507. The results showed that the extraction rates of Co(II) and Ni(II) in the two solutions varied with the extraction conditions, but QP-ILs has stronger extractability for cobalt than P507, while Ni is on the contrary. Under the same conditions, the Co/Ni separation performance(βCo/Ni) in QP-ILs is superior to that in p507. At pH4.0, 55℃, concentration of 20%, extraction time of 10 minutes, the βCo/Ni of QP-ILs reached to 2703, while that of P507 was only 164. In conclusion, QP-ILs was more efficient than P507 for separating Co from mixed solutions.

Brain aging causes a wide variety of changes at molecular and cellular levels, leading to the decline of cognitive functions and increased vulnerability to neurodegenerative disorders. The research aimed at understanding the aging of the brain has made much progress in recent decades. Technological innovations such as single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), proteomic analyses, and spatial transcriptomic analyses have facilitated the research on the dynamic changes occurring within neurons, glia, and other cells along with their impacts on intercellular communication during aging. In this review, we introduce recent trends of how neurons and glia change during aging and discuss the impact of the brain microenvironment such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB).

In this paper, we study the semilinear pseudo-parabolic equations $\displaystyle u_{t} - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u_{t} = \left|u\right|^{p-1}u$ on a manifold with conical singularity, where $\triangle _{\mathbb{B}}$ is Fuchsian type Laplace operator investigated with totally characteristic degeneracy on the boundary $x_{1} = 0$. Firstly, we discuss the invariant sets and the vacuum isolating behavior of solutions with the help of a family of potential wells. Then, we derive a threshold result of existence and nonexistence of global weak solution: for the low initial energy $J(u_{0})<d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) >0$ or $\displaystyle\Vert \nabla_{\mathbb{B}}u_{0}\Vert_{L_{2}^{\frac{n}{2}}(\mathbb{B})} = 0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$; for the critical initial energy $J(u_{0}) = d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) \geq0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$. The decay estimate of the energy functional for the global solution and the estimates of the lifespan of local solution are also given.

Multimodal remote sensing data classification can enhance the model’s ability to distinguish land features through multimodal data fusion. In this context, how to help models understand the relationship between multimodal data and target tasks is the focus of researchers. Inspired by human feedback learning mechanisms, causal reasoning mechanisms, and knowledge induction mechanisms, this paper integrates causal learning, reinforcement learning, and meta learning into a unified remote sensing data classification framework and proposed the causal meta-reinforcement learning (CMRL). First, based on feedback learning mechanisms, we have overcome the limitations of traditional implicit optimization of fusion features and customized a reinforcement learning environment for multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks. Through feedback interactive learning between agents and the environment, we help them understand the complex relationships between multimodal data and labels, thereby achieving full mining of multimodal complementary information. Second, based on the causal inference mechanism we designed causal distribution prediction action, classification reward, and causal intervention reward, capturing pure causal factors in multimodal data and cutting off false statistical associations between non-causal factors and class labels. Finally, based on the knowledge induction mechanism, we designed a bi-layer optimization mechanism based on meta-learning. By constructing a meta training task and meta validation task simulation model in the generalization scenario of unseen data, we helped the model induce cross-task shared knowledge, thereby improving its generalization ability for unseen multimodal data. The experimental results on multiple sets of multimodal datasets show that the proposed method achieved state-of-the-art performance in multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks.

Moso bamboo is famous for fast growing and biomass accumulation, as well as high annual output for timber and bamboo shoots. These high outputs require high nutrient inputs to maintain and improve stand productivity. Soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are important micronutrients for plant growth and productivity. Due to high variability of soils, analysing spatial patterns of soil N, P and K stocks is necessary for scientific nutrient management in Moso bamboo forests. In this study, soils were sampled from 138 locations across Yong’an City and ordinary kriging was applied for spatial interpolation of soil N, P and K stocks. Soil N stock showed a strong spatial dependence while soil N and P stocks presented a moderate spatial dependence, indicating soil N was mainly controlled by intrinsic factors while soil N and P stocks were controlled by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Different spatial patterns were observed for soil N, P and K stocks across the whole study area, indicating that fertilizations with different ratios of N:P:K should be applied for different sites to maintain and improve stand productivity. The total soil N, P and K stocks within 0-60 cm were 0.624, 0.020 and 0.583 Tg, respectively.

With the increasing concern of environment, the energy-efficiency scheduling of manufacturing industry is becoming urgent and popular. In turning processes, both spindle speed and processing time can affect the final energy consumption and thus the spindle speed and scheduling scheme need to be optimized simultaneously. Since the turning workshop can be regarded as the flexible flow shop, this paper formulates a mixed integer linear programming model for energy-efficient scheduling of flexible flow shop. Accordingly, a new decoding method is developed by considering of the optimization of spindle speed and scheduling scheme simultaneously, and an estimation of distribution algorithm adopting the new decoding method is proposed to solve large-size problems. The parameters of this algorithm are determined by statistical technique with a simplified practical case. In order to validate the proposed method, a case from practical factories is studied, in which the makespan can be shortened by 25.22%, and the consumed energy can be saved by 5.48%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model and algorithm.

Drought is one of the most serious abiotic stressors in the environment, restricting agricultural production by reducing plant growth, development, and productivity. To investigate such a complex and multifaceted stressor and its effects on the plants, a systems biology-based approach is necessitated, entailing the generation of co-expression networks, identification of highly-priority transcription factors (TFs) dynamic mathematical modeling, and computational simulations. Here, we studied a high-resolution drought transcriptome of Arabidopsis. We revealed distinct temporal transcriptional signatures and demonstrated the involvement of specific biological pathways. Generation of a large-scale co-expression network followed by network centrality analyses identified 117 TFs that possess critical properties of hubs, bottlenecks, and high clustering coefficients nodes. Dynamic transcriptional regulatory modeling on integrated TF-target and transcriptome datasets uncovered major transcriptional events during the course of drought stress. Mathematical transcriptional simulations allowed us to ascertain the activation status of major TFs as well as the transcriptional intensity and amplitude of their target genes. Finally, we validated our predictions by providing experimental evidence of gene expression under drought stress for a set of four TFs and their major target genes using qRT-PCR. Taken together, we provided a systems-level perspective on the dynamic transcriptional regulation during drought stress in Arabidopsis and uncovered numerous novel TFs that can potentially be used in future genetic crop engineering programs.

The study of co-fusion was one of the essential topics in the history of metallurgy in China. Simulation experiments had been an essential concept in the study of the co-fusion steelmaking process. This paper mainly studied the simulation experiments of co-fusion from two aspects: the replication of co-fusion swords by three different methods, and the micro-analysis of the co-fusion samples. The experimental results indicated that several co-fusion swords could be made by different processes, but the carbon content and surface hardness were quite different. During repeated forging welded, the microstructure of the samples transformed from laminated to homogenized, finally the steel with a uniform carbon content was obtained. It was challenging to find the characteristics of co-fusion from the homogenized samples. The results prompted people to rethink the microstructure characteristics of ancient co-fusion artifacts.

Lignocellulosic biomass, an abundant and renewable resource, serves as a crucial raw material for the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and various value-added products. This paper aims to develop and optimize a mild alkaline treatment of sawdust assisted by ultrasound, along with enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated material. The sonochemical pretreatment with alkali emerged as the optimal approach to enhance the susceptibility of cellulose to subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis, thereby increasing the yield of reducing sugars. A comparative study was performed using various ultrasonic applicators (horn and bath) and conventional assisted alkaline pretreatment. The ultrasonic assisted pretreatment revealed a higher delignification as 68% (horn) and 57% (bath) comparing with conventional pretreatment. Processes were optimized using a statistical analysis based on a 23 factorial design. The ratio between sawdust and alkanine solution (RSL = 0.5–1.5 g/100 mL), US amplitude (A = 20–60%), and working temperature (t = 30–50 °C) were selected as process factors. The optimal operating conditions to maximize the reducing sugar yield (138.15 mg GE /gsubstrate) were found as following: solid/liquid ratio RSL,opt = 1.25 g/100 mL, US amplitude Aopt = 60%, and and pretreatment temperature topt = 50 °C. The overall outcomes clearly confirmed the intensification of delignification by ultrasound assisted alkaline pretreatment

At 12:28 UTC (8:28 PM, local time) on 15 January 2023, a shallow, moderate earthquake with a magnitude (Mw) of 4.7 and a depth of one (1) kilometer shook the northern part of Leyte Island in the central part of the Philippines. The ground shaking was felt at PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) VI, (very strong) equivalent to Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI in areas along the strike of the Leyte segment of the Philippine Fault. Even though this earthquake is classified as moderate in size, significant geologic, structural, and socio-economic impacts were documented. Most of the earthquake impacts that include surface rupture, liquefaction, and mass movements are limited near the epicentral area. The earthquake produced an 8-km-long surface rupture, the first documented rupture generated by a magnitude &lt;6 along the Philippine Fault, and is unusual in other surface rupturing earthquakes worldwide. It injured 18 persons and damaged 434 residential buildings and 26 public infrastructures which amounts to about 500 thousand US dollars. Structural damages were caused by surface rupture and/or poor engineering construction practices. Analysis of the seismic waveform and recorded peak ground acceleration (PGA) suggests that the subsurface geology influenced the ground motion amplification in an area near the epicenter. Based on the hypocenter, focal mechanism solution, aftershock distribution, and actual field observation, the causative fault for this event is the northern end of the Philippine Fault – Leyte segment. Moderate in size, this earthquake emphasizes the need and importance of documenting moderate-sized earthquakes as a tool and guide for medium and long-term earthquake risk assessment and resiliency.

Background: The bacterium Capnocytophaga spp. is a part of the oral microbiome of dogs, which has zoonotic potential. This study aimed to assess factors that influence the prevalence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and Capnocytophaga canimorsus in Wrocaw’s dog population. Methods: Molecular detection (PCR) involved 105 swabs, examining parameters such as oral cavity condition, underlying health issues, recent antibiotics, age, medications, material collection, and dog chews. Results: The study highlighted significant associations between the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and oral cavity condition, material collection method, and use of dog’s chews. Conclusions: Correlations obtained in this study between the oral health of Wroclaw's dog population and the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi suggest its significance in the oral microbiome of dogs. Limitations, including the small sample size, highlight the need for more research to comprehensively understand additional factors that affect the prevalence of Capnocytophaga spp. in dogs

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

The assortment of low-cost 3D printers for “in-practice” use, e.g., for clear aligner therapies, is ever increasing. To address concerns about the accuracy of orthodontic models produced on such printers when cost efficient modes of 3D printing are employed, this study examined the effect of print model body type and print angulation on accuracy. Six printing-configuration groups were included: 2 model types (solid or hollow shell) combined with 3 print angles (0°, 70°, or 90°) with 10 models/group; all models were printed with 100-µm layer thickness using a digital light processing-based 3-dimensional printer. Eleven selected structures and distances were measured on the printed models with a digital microscope and compared to the same measures on a digitized master model. The clinically-acceptability range was set at ±0.25 mm difference from the master model for single tooth measurements (intra-tooth) and ±0.5 mm for cross-arch measurements (inter-tooth). For individual measurements across all models, 98% fell within clinical acceptability. For mean measurements within each model group, only canine height for the shell-0° model had a mean difference (0.26 mm ± 0.03) outside the clinically acceptable range for intra-tooth measurements. Standard deviations for all intra-tooth measurements were within 0.07 mm. While none of the mean inter-tooth measurements exceeded the acceptability range, the standard deviations were larger (0.04 to 0.30 mm). Accuracy of orthodontic models for clear aligner therapies was not impacted beyond the clinically acceptable range when altering model body type and print angulation to improve efficiency of 3D printing. These findings suggest greater flexibility of the practitioner to alter print settings to address time and cost efficiency in various clinical scenarios and still maintain clinically acceptable model accuracy.

Background: Alfalfa, the most economically important forage legume worldwide, features modest genetic progress due to long selection cycles and large extent of non-additive genetic variance associated with its autotetraploid genome. Methods: To improve the efficiency of genomic selection in alfalfa, we explored the effects of genome parametrization (as autotetraploid and diploid dosage, plus allele ratios) and SNP marker subsetting (all available SNPs; only genic regions; only non-genic regions) on genomic regressions, together with various levels of filtering on reading depth and missing rates. We used Genotyping by Sequencing-generated data and focused on traits of different genetic complexity, i.e., dry biomass yield in moisture-favorable (FE) and drought stress (SE) environments, leaf size, and onset of flowering, assessed on 143 genotyped plants from a genetically-broad European reference population and their phenotyped half-sib progenies. Results: On average, allele ratio improved the predictive ability compared with other genome parametrizations (+7.9% vs. tetraploid dosage, +12.6% vs. diploid dosage), SNP subsetting offered an advantage compared with any tested subsettings (+3.7% vs. genic regions, +7.6% vs. non-genic regions). However, when focusing on specific traits, different combinations of genome parametrization and subsetting reached better performances. We also released Legpipe2, a SNP calling pipeline tailored for reduced representation (GBS, RAD) medium-sized genotyping experiments.

We present a summary of the main results within the Scale Invariant Vacuum (SIV) paradigm based on the Weyl Integrable Geometry (WIG) as an extension to the standard Einstein General Relativity (EGR). After a brief review of the mathematical framework, where we also highlight the connection between the weak-field SIV equations and the notion of un-proper time parametrization within the reparametrization paradigm, we continue with the main results related to early Universe; that is, applications to inflation, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and the growth of the density fluctuations within the SIV. In the late time Universe the applications of the SIV paradigm are related to scale-invariant dynamics of galaxies, MOND, dark matter, and the dwarf spheroidals where one can find MOND to be a peculiar case of the SIV theory. Finally, within the recent time epoch, we highlight that some of the change in the length-of-the-day (LOD), about 0.92 cm/yr, can be accounted for by SIV effects in the Earth-Moon system.

Climate change is challenging the agricultural sector worldwide. The pressure exerted by the altered thermal conditions drives the zonal shift for various cultivations. This study presents the multiyear analysis of the Growing Degree Days (GDD) index over the Northern Mediterranean Basin (NMB), focused on the high-value vine cultivation derived from the E-OBS dataset. To handle this extensive environmental dataset, R-language scripts and packages were applied, along with the capabilities of the GIS software. The investigated time period spans from 1969 to 2018, and the performed analysis indicates a broad shift/expansion in areas of GDD exceeding 2000 heat units. The extracted results specify the viticultural areas where the GDD index surpasses the suitable values for vine cultivation, owing to the increase of the thermal stress risk. In addition to mapping areas with GDD ≥ 2000, spatial calculations of the surface of areas meeting this criterion per country in the study area were made. In the northern parts of the NMB, the rise of the GDD index values indicates the establishment of vine plantations in the future.

In this article, we describe a simple procedure for evaluating the sterility of nutrient media using a shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) biosensor. We used the SH-SAW biosensor platform to monitor the time-dependent phase responses of the material for the media that binds to a monolayer of 3-mercaptopropanyl-N-hydroxy succinimide on the biosensor surface. Increases in the phase shift less than 50% of the starting phase shift recorded 180 minutes after the sterilization indicate a successful sterility test of the media. Our devices were then applied to sterility testing using a viable Escherichia coli (E. coli) K-12 solution to confirm our hypothesis. Filtered LB Broth was the negative control, and a 24-hour culture of E. coli was the positive control. Before testing, the cell solution was pelleted, the media decanted and then replaced with a 1x phosphate-buffered saline solution (1x PBS). Since we know that the N-hydroxysuccinimide residues will bind to amine groups, only in cases where microbial species are present will the surface binding increase greater than 50%. We confirmed our hypothesis using SH-SAW biosensors and overnight E. coli cultures. The sensitivity for our 250 MHz quartz SH-SAW sensors was calculated based on the response from the E. coli K-12 solution over the linear dynamic range, which appears to be 2x104 – 2x107 CFU per ml and has a sensitivity of S = 1.655x105 o m2 Kg-1. The limit of detection (LOD) for these sensors was calculated to be approximately 2x10-9 grams (g) which is estimated to be approximately 2,000 Escherichia coli (E. coli) K-12 cells. However, the sensitivity and insertion loss remained approximately unchanged before and after coating the sensor with 3,3'-Dithiobis(succinimidyl) Propionate (DSP).

Regeneration of lost tail is of great importance to lizards. Anolis carolinensis, a green lizard, is capable of regenerating its tail efficiently after autotomy. Hence, it is considered as a model organism in regeneration study. A. carolinensis shed its tail in order to distract the predator’s attention and thus makes a way to escape. Restoring of the amputated tail takes several days and the mechanism is currently clearly understood. Although save its life, tail regeneration is associated with the impairment of several vital functions in Anoles. In addition, various differences have been observed between original and regenerated tail in terms of mechanism and structure. To date, very little work has been conducted on tail autotomy and regeneration at molecular and genetic level. The genes responsible for regeneration in anoles are identified recently. These genes are evolutionarily conserved through all tetrapod vertebrates. They are, however, in a state of ‘switched-off’ in other vertebrates including humans. Consequently, a throughout study of these so called ‘switched-off’ genes may provide a way of restoring lost organs in human, and thus could revolutionize the modern medical science.

The strong competition in the automotive industry has required manufacturers to implement lean production, both with methods and techniques specific to Industry 4.0. At the same time, universities must provide graduates with specific skills for applying these new production methods and techniques. In this context, a Lean Learning Factory was developed in the Pitesti University Center, which allows students to learn, experiment, and research, in an environment similar to that of enterprises, the new Lean Manufacturing methods and techniques, and Industry 4.0. The research presented in this study had as its objective identifying the minimum number of repetitions necessary to train operators who serve two differently organized workstations, one classic, the other including digital techniques, but on which the same assembly operation is performed. Several indicators were considered in the analysis, such as the number of errors, the number of stops, the effective duration of the work cycle, and the percentage ratio between the standard duration of cyclical activities and the effective duration of the work cycle. The evolution of these indicators was mathematically modelled by regression functions, using the least squares method. The obtained results also highlight the usefulness of applying the DOJO method as a Lean manufacturing-specific learning technique and the efficiency of implementing digital techniques in work organization.

A sustainable solution for crack maintenance in geopolymers is necessary if they are to be the future of modern green construction. This study thus aimed to develop self-healing biogeopolymers that could potentially rival bioconcrete. First, a suitable healing agent was selected from Bacillus subtilis, B. sphaericus, and B. megaterium by directly adding their spores in the geopolymers and subsequently exposing them to a large amount of nutrients for 14 days. SEM-EDX analysis revealed the formation of biominerals for B. subtilis and B. sphaericus. Next, the effect of biochar-immobilization and co-culturing (B. sphaericus and B. thuringiensis) on the healing efficiencies of the geopolymers were tested and optimized by measuring their ultrasonic pulse velocities weekly over a 28-day healing period. The results show that using co-cultured bacteria significantly improved the observed efficiencies, while biochar-immobilization had a weak effect but yielded an optimum response between 0.3-0.4 g/mL. The maximum crack width sealed was 0.65 mm. Through SEM-EDX and FTIR analyses, the biominerals precipitated in the cracks were identified to be mainly CaCO3. Furthermore, image analysis of the XCT scans of some of the healed geopolymers confirmed that their pulse velocities were indeed improving due to the filling of their internal spaces with biominerals. With that, there is potential in developing self-healing biogeopolymers using biochar-immobilized spores of bacterial cultures.

Classifying network flow subsequences in an Industrial IoT gateway is an effective method for identifying Industrial IoT faults. This paper proposes a subsequence classification algorithm SSGBUL-IKNN based on unsupervised learning encoding to address the problem of low classification accuracy. Firstly, we built a network module based on unsupervised learning to encode the flow sequence of the Industrial IoT gateway. In the encoding module, a subsequence calibration algorithm controls the increasing error during the coding process. Then, the specific fault type is obtained through an improved KNN classification algorithm based on the indication distance source from the integrated coding sequences converted by multi-dimensional network flow sequences. The test result on three Industrial IoT datasets of a sewage treatment plant shows that the accuracy of SSGBUL-IKNN in this paper exceeds 92%, significantly higher than the algorithm DTW and TSF. It reaches the classification requirements of Industrial IoT fault diagnosis.

In this paper, we study the global existence and exponential decay for a dynamic contact problem between a Timoshenko beam with second sound and two rigid obstacles, of which the heat flux is given by Cattaneo's law instead of the usual Fourier's law. The main difficulties arise from the irregular boundary terms, from the low regularity of the weak solution and from the weaker dissipative effects of heat conduction induced by Cattaneo's law. By considering related penalized problems, proving some a priori estimates and passing to the limit, we prove the global existence of the solutions. By considering the approximate framework, constructing some new functionals and applying the perturbed energy method, we obtain the exponential decay result for the approximate solution, and then prove the exponential decay rate to the original problem by utilizing the weak lower semicontinuity arguments.

Reducing the hardness of hard water is of great concern nowadays due to some adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Using the method of biomineralization to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions to become carbonate minerals was one of the most important innovations for reducing the hardness of hard water. The present study sought to explore the physical and chemical conditions of carbonates bio-precipitation and the potential use of Bacillus licheniformis SRB2 strain (GenBank: KM884945.1) isolated from sludge sample of Moshui River (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China) in reducing the hardness of hard waters by the induction of carbonate minerals. In this study, B. licheniformis SRB2 strain was identified based on the morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequence homology analysis. The carbonate minerals induced by B. licheniformis bacteria in the liquid culture medium with 3% NaCl and Mg/Ca molar ratio of 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 were investigated. The culture medium was inoculated with the bacterial liquid seed was set as the experimental group and the other culture medium was inoculated with the same volume of distilled water was set as the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray detector, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The bacterial concentrations and pH values of the solution were measured by a spectrophotometer and a pH meter, respectively. The urease secreted by B. licheniformis SRB2 was found to greatly increase the pH values of the liquid medium, which favored the formation of calcium carbonate.As a result, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations decreased greatly due to the biomineralization of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals in the presence of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacterium. There were only few calcium carbonates and no nesquehonite minerals in the control groups. It was also found that the minerals of nesquehonite induced by B. licheniformis SRB2 had a phenomenon of preferred orientation. What was more, even though Mg²⁺ ions inhibited the precipitation of Ca²⁺ ions, but under the action of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacteria, the inhibition effect was significantly declined. The bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals may represent a new method of pretreatment for the hardness reduction of hard water. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineralization in natural environment, and maybe also has a certain application value in the former processing of hard water

In this paper, a novel permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance machine (PMASynRM) with rare-earth PMs and ferrite magnets is proposed. The performance of PMASynRM is discussed with respected to the different magnet ratio of rare-earth PMs and ferrite magnets. Some characteristics including the flux density, output torque, cogging torque, output power, power factor, torque ripple, loss, efficiency, and demagnetization are calculated by 2-D finite element analysis (FEA). The analysis results show that the excellent performance can be obtained by using hybrid magnet of rare-earth PMs and ferrite magnets with the suitable magnet ratio, and provide some desirable cost-performance trade-off.

Saikosaponin (SS) a is a compound with various pharmacological properties and easily degraded into SSb1 and SSg in acid condition. In present work another two new degradation products of SSa formed under acid hydrolytic condition were detected and isolated by analytical and semi-preparative liquid chromatography technology, furthermore their structures were characterized as hydroxyl-saikosaponin a and SSb2 by spectral analysis, which is not only essential in stability-indicating method development and validation but also could be used as a worst case to assess the analytical method performance of SSa. Moreover their structural transformation pathways were also proposed.