Recently, with the rapid advancement of technology, Internet of Things (IoT‏‏‏‏) security has become more efficient and more complex, especially for resource-limited devices such as embedded devices, wireless sensors and radio frequency identification tags (RFID). Lightweight block ciphers (LBCs) provide security for these technologies to protect them against adversaries, but the need for low power consumption in LBCs is one of the most important challenges for IoT‏ technologies. Furthermore, these LBCs are subject to multiple attacks and side channel attacks (SCAs) are among the mentioned threats to these cryptosystems. A type of SCA is correlation power analysis (CPA) in which the attacker tries to reach the key using the relationship between the power consumption of the chip during the algorithm running, data processing, and operations. In this article, a CPA attack is designed to discover master key of the Midori-64 block cipher. According to the proposed method, an attack is done to the first round S-boxes to get half of the key bits. Then, the second round S-boxes were attacked to other half of key bits just use 300 plain text samples. Finally, the most important physical attacks performed on the Midori, are compared to our proposed CPA attack.

The genetic development of commercial broiler led to body misconfiguration and consequent walking disabilities, mainly at the slaughter age. The present study aimed to identify broiler locomotion ability using image analysis automatically. A total of 40 broiler 40 d-old were placed to walk on a specially built runway, and their locomotion was recorded. An image segmentation algorithm was developed, and the coordinates of the bird's center of mass were extracted from the segmented images for each frame analyzed, and the Unrest Index (UI) was applied. We calculated the center of mass's movement of the broiler walking's lateral images, therefore, capturing the bird's displacement speed in the onward direction. Results indicated that broiler speed on the runway tends to decrease with the increase of the gait score. The locomotion did not differ between males or females. The proposed algorithm was efficient if predicting the broiler gait score based on their displacement speed.

Background/Objectives: interpretation of evidence on de-escalation of triple therapy with with-drawal of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) to dual bronchodilator therapy with a long-acting musca-rinic antagonist (LAMA) and a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) in patients with chronic obstruc-tive pulmonary disease (COPD) is conflicting. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of ICS discon-tinuation from LABA-LAMA-ICS triple therapy compared to its continuation. Methods: we searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web Of Science, clinicaltrial.gov and CENTRAL for RCTs and observational studies from inception to March 22, 2024, investigating the effect of triple therapy de-escalation with withdrawal of ICS to dual therapy on the risk of COPD exacerbation, pneumonia and lung function. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42024527942. Results: 3335 studies were screened; three RCTs and three real-world non-interventional studies were ultimately identified as eligible. Analysis of the time to the first moderate or severe exacerbation showed a pooled HR of 0.96 (95% CI, 0.80 to 1.15; I²=77%) for ICS withdrawal compared with triple therapy continuation. Analysis according eosinophil levels showed that COPD subjects with ≥300 eosino-phils/µL had a significant increase in the incidence of moderate or severe exacerbations when de-escalated from ICS/LABA/LAMA to LABA/LAMA (pooled HR: 1.35, 95% CI 1.00-1.82; I2: 56%). The ICS withdrawal in favour of LABA/LAMA did not significantly affect the risk of mortality and pneumonia. Conclusions: the main findings of this meta-analysis are consistent with current recommendations and suggest that the use of eosinophil counts may be of help in guiding maintenance therapy. However, methodological heterogeneity between the included studies is evident.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious condition with a high mortality rate, even after surgery. Need for transfusion might be increased in surgery for IE. This review aims to identify the predictors for the need of transfusion in IE patients and the effect of transfusion on outcome. Only 17 manuscripts could be identified partially addressing this issue. Minimal access surgery and valve repair instead of replacement seems favorable in this respect. However, IE has opposing effects on the coagulation system with increase in bleeding and thromboembolic events. There are indications that in IE patients, transfusion need is higher but this might be compounded by the complexity of surgery and a prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time. Since organ dysfunction is associated with IE, this comorbidity could cloud the effect of the need for transfusion on outcome. To avoid potential adverse effect of transfusion, alternative methods have been proposed such as the use of cytokine absorbers during CPB run, intraoperative cell salvage and acute normovolemic hemodilution. These methods need further study in this subgroup of patients. In the meantime, allogeneic transfusion should be kept at a minimum, using only recently stored blood, to minimize harmful effects.

Low-cost monitors have made possible for the first time measurements of long-term (months to years) potential indoor exposures to fine particles. Indoor and outdoor measurements made over nearly 5 years (2017-2021) by the largest network of low-cost monitors in the United States (PurpleAir) are compared to the prevalence of adult smokers in 1650 Zip codes within the three West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. The results show that mean indoor exposures above the 75th percentile of adult smoking prevalence are more than 50% higher than those below the 25th percentile. Mean outdoor concentrations are also elevated, but by a smaller amount (20%). Both comparisons are significant at the p<0.001 level. The elevation of the PM2.5 concentrations with increasing smoking prevalence is evidence of environmental disparities in income, education, and other socioeconomic indices..

Keywords: Red meat; Processed meat; poultry; dairy; mortality

The search for active cellulolytic consortia among soil microorganisms is of significant applied interest, while the dynamics of the formation of such communities remain insufficiently studied. To gain insight into the formation of an active cellulolytic community, the experiment was designed to study the colonization of a sterile substrate (cellulose) by microorganisms from two soil types: sod-podzolic and chernozem. To achieve this, the substrate was placed in the soil and incubated for six months. To assess microbiome dynamics, the experiment employed sequencing of 16S rRNA and ITS2 amplicon libraries at four-time points. It was demonstrated that from the second month of the experiment, the prokaryotic component of the communities reached a state of stability, with a community composition that was specific to each soil type. The results demonstrated that there was no relationship between changes in community diversity and soil respiration. There also was no significant shift in community diversity throughout the chronosequence. Furthermore, the taxonomic composition of the community shifted towards a decrease in the proportion of Proteobacteria and an increase in representatives of the Bacteroidota, Bacillota, and Verrucomicrobiota phyla. The network analysis of the community demonstrated that, in contrast to sod-podzolic soil, chernozem is distinguished by a higher modularity, with the formation of taxon-specific groups of microorganisms at each stage of the chronoseries. These differences are attributed to alterations in the eukaryotic component of the community, particularly in the prevalence of nematodes and predatory fungi, which in turn influenced the cellulolytic community.

The CACCC-box motif emerges as a pivotal cis-regulatory element implicated in diverse developmental processes and diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This study centers on the intricate interplay between the CACCC-box and its binding proteins such as: the Krüppel-like family (KLF) of transcription factors as primary effectors in the context of CVDs. Our analysis was through a bioinformatics approach, which reveal significant transcriptional activity among KLF subgroup 2, exhibiting the highest number of interactions focusing on the established roles: pluripotency, cancer, and cardiovascular development and diseases. Our analysis reveals KLF's interactions with GATA4, MEF2C, NKX2.5 and other ~ 90 potential genes that participate in the regulation of the hypertrophic environment (or CVD's Environment). Also, the GO analysis showed genes containing the motif CACCC were enriched for multiple CVD’s, in combination with STRING analysis these results pointed to a link between KLFs and these diseases. The analysis further identifies other potential CACCC-box binding factors, such as SP family members, WT1, VEZF1, and -SALL4, which are implicated in cardiac contraction, remodeling, and inflammation processes.

During the last few years, the world witnessed one of the worst calamities affecting humankind- the COVID-19 pandemic. We also witnessed the development of vaccines at an unprecedented pace against the SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent. India, which was one of the countries most impacted by COVID-19, developed its indigenous vaccine in addition to utilizing the ones developed by other countries. Initially, the antibody level and the neutralizing antibody titer against the pathogen were considered as the correlates of immune protection from the disease. The long-term protection from the pathogen is provided by the immune memory cells viz. T and B memory cells and their ability of efficient recall responses. In this regard, global research focused mainly on the mRNA-based vaccines. The studies on immune memory response, particularly- the B cell memory response bestowed by the vaccines given to Indians is relatively obscure. In this work, we examined the level of RBD specific memory B cells in the peripheral circulation of the study participants and the ability of B cells to secrete antigen-specific antibodies among Indians vaccinated with Covaxin (BBV152), Covishield (AZD1222), Corbevax (BECOV2D) and Sputnik Light as well as unvaccinated individuals. Our study revealed that Corbevax and Sputnik Light conferred better antibody-secreting cell (ASC) responses.

Radish (Raphanus sativus L.), a root vegetable belonging to the Brassicaceae family, is considered as one of the representative crops displaying sporophytic self-incompatibility (SSI). The utilization of a self-incompatibility system in F1 breeding can improve the efficiency of cross combinations, leading to a reduction in breeding time and aiding in the development of novel F1 varieties. The successful implementation of this system necessitates the rapid and accurate identification of S haplotypes in parental lines. In this study, we identified a total of 9 S haplotypes among 22 elite radish lines through Sanger sequencing. Subsequently, we obtained sequences for showing 95% similarity to 9 S haplotypes, along with sequences identified by other researchers using BLAST. Following this, multiple sequence alignment (MSA) was conducted to identify SRK and SLG sequence similarities, as well as polymorphisms within the class I, II groups. Subsequently, S haplotype-specific marker sets were developed, targeting polymorphic regions of SRK and SLG alleles. These markers successfully amplified each of 9 S haplotypes. these markers will play a crucial role in the rapid and precise identification of parental S haplotypes in the radish F1 breeding process, proving instrumental in the radish F1 purity test.

The cytokinins play important roles in plant growth and development by regulating gene expression at genome wide level. DNA methylation is responsive to the external environment, but whether DNA methylation changes in response to cytokinin treatment to regulate gene expression is still unclear. Here, we used bisulfite sequencing and RNA sequencing to examine genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression patterns in poplar (Populus tomentosa) after treatment with the synthetic cytokinin 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA). We identified 566 significantly differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in response to 6-BA treatment. Transcriptome analysis showed that 501 protein-coding genes, 262 long non-coding RNAs, and 15,793 24-nt small interfering RNAs were differentially expressed under 6-BA treatment. Among these, 79% were differentially expressed between alleles in P. tomentosa. Combined DNA methylation and gene expression analysis demonstrated that DNA methylation plays an important role in regulating allele-specific gene expression. To further investigate the relationship between these 6-BA-responsive genes and phenotypic variation, we performed SNP analysis of 507 6-BA-responsive DMRs via re-sequencing using a natural population of P. tomentosa and identified 206 SNPs that were significantly associated with growth and wood properties. Association analysis indicated that 53% of loci with allele-specific expression had primarily dominant effects on poplar traits. Our comprehensive analyses of P. tomentosa DNA methylation and the regulation of allele-specific gene expression suggest that DNA methylation is an important regulator of imbalanced expression between allelic loci.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, including in Croatia. Since most patients have multiple disorders and diseases caused largely by the same risk factors, and as it is essential to approach each patient as a person with all disorders, today we are talking about a new paradigm - cardio-renal-metabolic (CKM) syndrome and cardio-renal-metabolic health, which necessarily includes brain health. Elevated systolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes, impaired renal function or chronic kidney disease, which all stem from insufficient physical activity, unhealthy diet with excessive intake of table salt, and air pollution, are the leading causes of overall morbidity and mortality from CKM diseases, especially mortality from CVD. Experts from various fields key to CKM health have written this document with the aim of integrating it as part of the national plan for the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases with a focus on CVD, which should become mandatory and be based on the existing guidelines of professional societies.

The high prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is well-established, with p16 expression being a strong predictor. HPV-related tumors exhibit unique mechanisms targeting p16 and p53 proteins. However, re-search on HPV prevalence and the combined predictive value of p16 and p53 expression in head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (HNCSCC), especially in Asian populations, is limited. This retrospective study surveyed 62 HNCSCC patients (2011–2020), excluding those with facial warts or other skin cancers. All patients underwent wide excision and biopsy. Immuno-histochemical staining for HPV, p16, and p53 yielded both positive and negative results. The relevance of each marker was investigated by categorizing the tumor locations into high-risk (Area H) and mid-risk (Area M) zones based on recurrence frequency. Of the 62 patients, 20 (32.26%) were male, with an average age of 82.27 years (26–103). Area H included 19 cases (30.65%), with the eyelid and lip being the most common sites (five cases, 8.06%). Area M in-cluded 43 cases (69.35%), with the cheek being the most common site (29 cases, 46.77%). p16 ex-pression was positive in 24 patients (38.71%), p53 expression in 42 patients (72.58%), and HPV in five patients (8.06%). No significant association was found between p16 expression and HPV presence (p > 0.99), with a positive predictive value of 8.33%. This indicates that p16, a surrogate marker of HPV in OPSCC, is not a reliable marker for HPV in HNCSCC. This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between HPV, p53, and p16 in HNCSCC in Asian populations and offers valuable insights for further research.

In conventional Federated Learning (FL), clients work together to train a model managed by a central server, intending to speed up the learning process. However, this approach imposes significant computational and communication burdens on clients, particularly with complex models. Additionally, while FL strives to protect client privacy, the server's access to local and global models raises security concerns. To address these challenges, Split Learning (SL) separates the model into parts handled by the client and the server, though it suffers from inefficiencies due to sequential client participation. To overcome these issues, SplitFed Learning (SFL) was proposed, which combines the parallelism of FL with the model-splitting strategy of SL, enabling simultaneous training by multiple clients. Our main contribution is the theoretical analysis of SFL, which, for the first time, includes non-i.i.d. datasets, non-convex loss functions, and both full and partial client participation. We provide convergence proofs for a state-of-the-art SFL algorithm based on conventional convergence analysis assumptions for FL. Our results prove that we can recover the linear convergence rate of conventional FL for the SFL algorithm with the distinction that increasing the number of local steps or clients may not speed up the convergence in SFL.

The cuttlebone-like structure is a complex porous bionic structure with asymmetric sinusoidal S-shaped wall structure connecting laminar septa, and studies have shown that the cuttlebone-like structure has light weight, high strength and excellent energy absorption capability. It has become an important research to investigate the mechanical mechanism of cuttlebone-like structure and to design a bionic structure beyond nature structure based on it. In order to investigate the mechanical properties of the static compression and shearing processes of the cuttlebone-like structure, this paper establishes theoretical formulas and analyzes the influence of dimensionless parameters such as height-to-thickness ratio $\lambda$, period-to-thickness ratio $\xi$ and amplitude to period ratio $\eta$ on the compression and shearing processes with the help of ABAQUS finite element software.The parameter sensitivity analysis method was used to compare the important influence degree of each dimensionless parameter on the mechanical properties of the structure and to determine the relative optimal parameters of the structural mechanical properties under compression and shearing. Based on the relatively optimal parameter of the cuttlebone-like structure, the cross-sectional geometry of the structure is improved to build a new cuttlebone-like structure.The experimental results showed that the new cuttlebone-like structure with revised cross-section improved the mechanical properties of the cuttlebone-like structure.The study results are of theoretical guidance to enhance the mechanical properties and geometric design of cuttlebone-like structures.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is a multifunctional protein that is involved in proliferation, inflammation and apoptosis mechanism of hepatocytes. HCV core protein genetic variability has been implicated in various outcomes of HCV pathology and treatment. In the present study, we aimed to analyze the role of HCV core protein in tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα)-induced death under the viewpoint of HCV genetic variability. Immortalized hepatocytes (IHH), and not the Huh7.5 hepatoma cell line, stably expressing HCV subtype 4a and HCV subtype 4f core proteins showed that only HCV 4a core protein could increase sensitivity to TNFα-induced death. Development of two transgenic mice expressing the two different core proteins under the liver-specific promoter of transthyretin (TTR) allowed for the in vivo assessment of the role of core in TNFα-induced death. Using the TNFα-dependent model of lipopolysaccharide/D-galactosamine (LPS/Dgal) we were able to recapitulate the in vitro results in IHH cells in vivo. Transgenic mice expressing HCV 4a core protein were more susceptible to the LPS/Dgal model while mice expressing HCV 4f core protein had the same susceptibility as their littermate controls. Transcriptome analysis in liver biopsies from these transgenic mice gave insights into HCV core molecular pathogenesis, while linking HCV core protein genetic variability to differential pathology in vivo.

Taste signaling is a complex process that is linked to obesity and its associated metabolic syndromes. The sweet taste is mediated through a heterodimeric G protein coupled receptor (GPRC) in a species-specific manner and at multi-tissue specific levels. The sweet receptor recognizes a large number of ligands with structural and functional diversities to modulate different amplitudes of downstream signaling pathway(s). The human sweet-taste receptor has been extremely difficult to study by biophysical methods due to inadequate methods for producing large homogeneous quantities of the taste-receptor protein and a lack of reliable in vitro assays to precisely measure productive ligand binding modes leading to activity upon their interactions with the receptor protein. We report a multimodal high throughput assays to monitor ligand binding, receptor stability and conformational changes to model the molecular interactions between ligand-receptor. We applied saturation transfer difference nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (STD-NMR) complemented by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy (IF) to characterize binding interactions. Our method using complementary NMR and biophysical analysis is advantageous to study the mechanism of ligand binding and signaling processes in other GPCRs.

This paper provides a systematic review of the research around teaching English as a second or foreign language over the last ten years. The review aims to help second and foreign language researchers to recognize the trends that have impacted English teaching and learning research. More than 400 articles from four leading journals (TESOL Journal, TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, and Second Language Research) were reviewed to examine the trends and method that were used. The findings suggested that the research interests in the TESOL field have changed as many topics and trends have risen based on students’ academic and social needs. Topics such as teaching methodology, digital literacy, and using technology to teach English have dominated the research during the last decade.

Background and objective: Symptoms of most neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), usually do not occur until substantial neuronal loss occurs. This makes the process of early diagnosis very challenging. Hence, this research used variant call format (VCF) analysis to detect variants and novel genes that could be used as prognostic indicators in the early diagnosis of prodromal PD. Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), and we analyzed prodromal patients with gVCF data collected in the 2021 cohort. A total of 304 participants were included, including 100 healthy controls, 146 prodromal genetic individuals, 21 prodromal hyposmia individuals, and 37 prodromal RBDs. A pipeline was developed to process the samples from gVCF to reach variant annotation and pathway and disease association analysis. Results: Novel variant percentages were detected in the analyzed prodromal subgroups. The prodromal subgroup analysis revealed novel variations of 1.0%, 1.2%, 0.6%, 0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.4% for the genetic male, genetic female, hyposmia male, hyposmia female, RBD male, and RBD female, respectively. Interestingly, 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) that were recently detected in PD patients were detected in the prodromal stage of PD. Conclusion: Genetic biomarkers are crucial for the early detection of Parkinson’s disease and its prodromal stage. The novel PD genes detected in prodromal patients could aid in the use of gene biomarkers for early diagnosis of the prodromal stage without relying only on phenotypic traits.

In this paper, a new axial-type magnetic gear with auxiliary flux-enhancing structure (AFS-AMG) is proposed. Compared to conventional AFS-AMG, it has the higher torque density and higher permanent magnet (PM) utilization factor. Firstly, the design rules and operating principles of proposed AFS-AMG are elaborated. Then, the mapping relation between the radial-type magnetic gears (RMGs) and AMGs are elucidated. Compared to its counterpart in RMGs, AFS-AMGs achieve small size. Then, the geometrical parameters of AFS-AMGs are optimized to obtain the better electromagnetic performances, where the torque density per volume and per PM volume is adopted as the evaluation standard. Finally, three different AMG topologies are constructed in finite element analysis (FEA) software for comparison. It is proven that the AFS-AMG has the largest torque density per volume and per PM volume.

Tissue-like phantoms are widely used as a model for mimicking the optical properties of live tissue. This paper presents the results of a diffusion reflection method as well as fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy measurements of fluorescein-conjugated gold nanorods in solution as well as inserted in solid tissue-imitating phantoms. A lack of consistency between the fluorescence lifetime results of the solutions and the phantoms raises a question about the ability of tissue-like phantoms to maintain the optical properties of inserted contrast agents.

We consider a coded compressed sensing protocol for unsourced massive random access (URA) that concatenates a shared Patterned Reed-Muller (PRM) inner codebook to an outer error-correction code. In this paper, an iterative list PRM projection algorithm is proposed to supplant the signal detector associated with the inner PRM sequences. In particular, we first propose an enhanced paths-saving algorithm called list PRM projection detection for the single-user scenario that keeps multiple candidates for the first few layers to remedy the risk of spreading errors. On this basis, we further propose an iterative list PRM projection algorithm for the multi-user scenario. The vectors for PRM codes and channel coefficients are jointly detected in an iterative manner, which offers significant improvements regarding the convergence rate for signal recovery. Furthermore, the performances of the proposed algorithms are analyzed mathematically, and we verified that the theoretical simulations are consistent with the numerical simulations. Finally, we concatenate the inner PRM codes that employ the iterative list detection to two practical error-correction outer codes. According to the simulation results, we conclude that the packetized URA with the proposed iterative list projection detection works better than benchmarks in terms of the number of active users it can support in each slot and the amount of energy needed per bit to meet an expected error probability.

Food exchange lists have been widely used in dietary practice in health and disease situations, but there are still no exchange lists for sports foods. The aim of this study was to develop a sports foods exchange list based on previously published statistical criteria. A cross-sectional study of the nutritional composition of sports foods, regarding macronutrients and energy, was carried out. A total of 323 sports foods from 18 companies were selected and divided into seven groups: sports drinks; sports gels; sports bars; sports confectionery; protein powders; protein bars; and liquid meals. A sports foods composition database based on portion size was created. Food exchange groups, with the definition of the amounts - in grams - of each sports foods within each group, were designed using the same methodology and statistical criteria as previously published. The nutritional composition of the portions usually consumed by athletes and/or recommended in commercial packaging was used to calculate the mean energy and macronutrient values for each group. Within each sports foods group, different subgroups were defined due to differences in the main and/or secondary macronutrient. The mean nutrient values of each exchange group and the subgroups were determined according to previously established rounding criteria. This sports foods exchange list, made up of commercial sports products, is a novel tool for dietetic practice. Its management will allow dietitians to adapt dietary plans more precisely to the training and/or competition of the athlete.

To understand dynamics in climate change, informing policy decisions and prompting timely action to mitigate its impact, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the short-term trend of year-on-year CO2 emission changes across ten countries, considering a broad range of factors including socioeconomic, CO2-related industry, and education. This study uniquely goes beyond the common country-based analysis, offering a broader understanding of the interconnected impact of CO2 emissions across countries. Our preliminary regression analysis, using the ten most significant features, could only explain 66% of variations in the target. To capture emissions trend variation, we categorized countries by the change in CO2 emission volatility (high, moderate, low with upward or downward trends), assessed using standard deviation. We employed machine learning techniques, including feature importance analysis, Partial Dependence Plots (PDPs), sensitivity analysis, and Pearson and Canonical correlation analyses, to identify influential factors driving these short-term changes. The Decision Tree Classifier was the most accurate model, with an accuracy of 96%. It revealed population size, CO2 emissions from coal, the three-year average change in CO2 emissions, GDP, CO2 emissions from oil, education level (incomplete primary), and contribution to temperature rise as the most significant predictors, in order of importance. Furthermore, this study estimates the likelihood of a country transitioning to a higher emission category. Our findings provide valuable insights into the temporal dynamics of factors influencing CO2 emissions changes, contributing to global efforts to address climate change

Inconel 718 is a widely popular aerospace superalloy known for its high-temperature performance and resistance to oxidation, creep, and corrosion. Traditional manufacturing methods, like casting and powder metallurgy, face challenges with intricate shapes that can result in porosity and uniformity issues. On the other hand, Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques such as Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Direct Energy Deposition (DED) can allow the creation of intricate single-part components to reduce weight and maintain structural integrity. However, AM- parts often exhibit directional solidification, leading to anisotropic properties and potential crack propagation sites. To address this, post-processing treatments like HIP and heat treatment are necessary. This study explores the effects of the raster and stochastic spot melt scanning strategies on the microstructural and mechanical properties of IN718 parts fabricated using Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF). The research demonstrates that raster scanning produces columnar grains with higher aspect ratios. In contrast, stochastic spot melt scanning promotes the formation of equiaxed grains, enhancing microstructural refinement and reducing anisotropy. Microhardness values also show variation in strength in build direction, denoting changes in mechanical performance due to scanning strategies. These findings emphasize the critical role of scanning strategies in optimizing the EB-PBF process for improved material properties.

The current globally dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants are showing immune escape and reduced susceptibility to antiviral drugs. Therefore, agencies responsible for drug evaluation and regulation such as the FDA and EMA are revising their emergency authorization use of several COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies. These MAbs proved to be unlikely effective against new variants especially Omicron descendants and several pharmaceutical companies are pursuing the development of more potent neutralizing antibodies. To address this issue, we used In Silico method we previously developed to assess 10 anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies propensity to neutralize the new Omicron’s subvariants EG.5, BA.2.86 and JN.1, based on comparative binding affinity of 3D generated models and previous experimental and clinical observations. Nine of these MAbs were once granted emergency use authorization, and one is currently under clinical investigation. The results showed that one antibody showed a marked increase of the binding energy for EG.5 compared to two antibodies that showed a significant increase with Pirola (BA.2.86) and JN.1. This data indicates that the new SARS-CoV-2 variant escapes neutralization of most of the available therapeutic NAbs. Furthermore, the data showed new potential therapeutic MAbs combination that could be effective for the treatment countermeasure of the new Omicron’s descendants or potential novel variants.

Xinjiang, as a climate-sensitive region in northwest China, holds significant importance in studying extreme weather events for agricultural production and socioeconomic development. Based on data from 52 meteorological stations and 23 extreme climate indicators in Xinjiang from 1960 to 2021, the 5a moving average, linear trend estimation, climate tendency rate, and GIS spatial analysis methods are used to analyze the distribution and change characteristics of extreme climate. The results revealed that from 1960 to 2021, TXx, TNx, TXn, TNn, FD, ID, TN10p, TX10p, and WSDI showed a significant upward trend, while SU, TR, TN90p, TX90p, and CSDI showed a significant downward trend. What is more, the range of changes in the extreme temperature indexes from 1990 to 2021 is higher than that of 1960 to 1989. The high-value areas of extreme indexes are primarily concentrated in the northern part, while the high-value areas of cold event indexes are mainly distributed in the southern part. The upward/downward trends all accounting for over 80.00% of the entire region. The Rx1day, Rx5day, PRCPTOT, R95p, R99p, R10, R20, and R25 showed a significant growth trend from 1960 to 2021, and the range of change in the extreme precipitation indexes from 1990 to 2021 was lower than that from 1960 to 1989. Moreover, their high-value areas and high climate tendency areas are mainly concentrated in the northern and western parts of Xinjiang, with upward trends all accounting for over 71.00% of the entire region. The research results provide theoretical foundations for formulating climate risk strategies in the northwest region of China.

This study explores the complementary or synergistic effects of medicinal cannabis constituents, particularly terpenes, concerning their therapeutic potential, known as the entourage effect. A systematic review of the literature on cannabis entourage effects was conducted using the PRISMA model. Two research questions conducted the review: (1) What are the Physiological Effects of Terpenes and Terpenoids found in Cannabis? (2) What are the proven Entourage Effects of Terpenes in Cannabis? The initial approach involved an exploratory search in electronic databases using predefined keywords and Boolean phrases across PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases, using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Analysis of published studies shows no evidence of neuroprotective or anti-aggregatory effects of α-pinene and β-pinene against β-amyloid-mediated toxicity, however, modest lipid peroxidation inhibition by α-pinene, β pinene, and terpinolene may contribute to the multifaceted neuroprotection properties of these C. sativa-prevalent monoterpenes and their triterpene friedelin. Myrcene demonstrated anti-inflammatory proprieties topically, however, in combination with CBD did not show significant additional differences. Exploratory evidence suggests various therapeutic benefits of terpenes, such as myrcene for relaxing; linalool as sleep aid, exhaustion relief and mental stress; D-limonene as an analgesic; caryophyllene for cold tolerance and analgesia; valencene for cartilage protection, borneol for antinociceptive and anticonvulsant potential; and eucalyptol for muscle pain. While exploratory research suggests terpenes as influencers in the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids, the potential for synergistic or additive enhancement of cannabinoid efficacy by terpenes remains unproven. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm these constituents' individual and combined effects.

Formidable and often seemingly insurmountable conceptual, technical, and methodological challenges hamper the measurement of oxidative stress in humans. For instance, fraught and flawed methods, such as the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay kits for lipid peroxidation, rate-limit progress. To advance translational redox research, we present ten comprehensive “cheat codes” for measuring oxidative stress in humans. The cheat codes include analytical approaches to assess reactive oxygen species, antioxidants, biomarkers of oxidative damage and redox regulation. They provide essential conceptual, technical, and methodological information inclusive of curated “do” and “don’t” guidelines. Given the biochemical complexity of oxidative stress, we present a research question-grounded decision tree guide for selecting the most appropriate cheat code (s) to implement in a prospective human experiment. Worked examples demonstrate the benefits of the decision tree-based cheat code selection tool. The ten cheat codes define an invaluable resource for measuring oxidative stress in humans.

At the end of 2023 the Whole Mouse Brain Atlas was announced, revealing that there are about 5,300 molecularly defined neuronal types in the mouse brain. We ask whether brain models exist that contemplate how this is possible. The conventional columnar model, implicitly used by the authors of the Atlas, is incapable of doing so with only 20 brain columns (5 brain vesicles with 4 columns each). We argue that definition of some 1,250 distinct progenitor microzones, each producing over time minimally 4-5 neuronal types, may be sufficient. This is nearly achieved presently by the prosomeric model amplified by secondary dorsoventral and anteroposterior microzonation of progenitor areas, plus clonal variation of cell types produced on average by each of them.

Oilseed plants of the Brassicaceae plant family are cultivated for food, feed and industrial purposes on large-scale in Europe. This review gives an overview of current market-oriented applications of new genomic techniques (NGTs) in relevant Brassicaceae oilseed crops based on a literature survey. In this respect, changes in oil quality, yield, growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress are goals in oilseed rape (B. napus) and camelina (C. sativa). Environmental risk assessment scenarios are developed for specific NGT applications in Brassicaceae oilseed crops with either a changed oil composition or with fitness related traits. In case of a changed oil composition an increase or decrease of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) demonstrates risks for health and survival of pollinators. In case of fitness related traits other risks were identified, i. e. an increased risk of spread and persistence of NGT plants. Furthermore, there are indications for potential disturbance of interactions with the environment, involving signalling pathways and reaction to stress conditions. It is shown that for a comprehensive risk assessment the technological potential of NGTs, the plants’ biology and the scale of releases have to be considered in combination. Therefore, the release of NGT plants into the environment for agricultural purposes will require risk assessment and monitoring of single traits as well as of combinatorial and long-term cumulative effects. In addition, risk management should develop concepts and measures to control and potentially restrict the scale of releases. This is especially relevant for NGT Brassicaceae in Europe which is a centre of diversity of this plant family.

Background. Gastrointestinal (GI) distress is prevalent and often persistent among cancer survivors, impacting their quality of life, nutrition, daily function, and mortality. GI health screening is important to prevent and manage this distress. However, accurate classification methods for GI health remain unexplored. We aimed to develop machine learning (ML) models to classify GI health status (better vs. worse) by incorporating biological aging and social determinants of health (SDOH) indicators in cancer survivors. Methods. We included 645 adult cancer survivors from the 1999-2002 NHANES survey. Using training and test datasets, we employed six ML models to classify GI health conditions (better vs. worse). These models incorporated leukocyte telomere length (TL), SDOH, and demographic/clinical data. Results. Among the ML models, the random forest (RF) performed the best, achieving a high area under the curve (AUC = 0.98) in the training dataset. The gradient boosting machine (GBM) demonstrated excellent classification performance with a high AUC (0.80) in the test dataset. TL, several socio-economic factors, cancer risk behaviors (including lifestyle choices), and inflammatory markers were associated with GI health. The most significant input features for better GI health in our ML models were longer TL and an annual household income above the poverty level, followed by routine physical activity, low white blood cell counts, and food security. Conclusions. Our findings provide valuable insights into classifying and identifying risk factors related to GI health, including biological aging and SDOH indicators. To enhance model predictability, further longitudinal studies and external clinical validations are necessary.

Background: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPAs) are responsible for disease onset and progression, however, our knowledge is limited on ligand binding affinities of autoantibodies with different citrulline-peptide specificity. Methods: Citrulline-peptide specific ACPA IgGs were affinity purified and tested by ELISA. Binding affinities of ACPA IgGs and serum antibodies were compared by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis. Bifunctional nanoparticles harboring a multi-epitope citrulline-peptide and a complement activating peptide were used to induce selective depletion of ACPA producing B cells. Results: KD values of affinity purified ACPA IgGs varies between 10-6-10-8 M and inversely correlate with disease activity. Based on their cross-reaction with citrulline-peptides we designed a novel multi-epitope peptide, containing Cit-Gly and Ala-Cit motifs in two-two copies, separated with a short, neutral spacer. This peptide detects antibodies in RA sera with 66 % sensitivity and 98 % specificity in ELISA and is recognized by 90% of RA sera, while none of the healthy samples in SPR. When coupled to nanoparticles, the multi-epitope peptide specifically targets and depletes ACPA producing B cells ex vivo. Conclusions: The unique multi-epitope peptide designed on the basis of ACPA cross-reactivity might be suitable to develop better diagnostics and novel therapies for RA.

The African continent has the highest prevalence of hypertension globally, with South Africa reporting the highest prevalence in Southern Africa. While the influence of genetic variability in the pathogenesis of hypertension is well described internationally, limited reports are available for African populations. This study aimed to assess the association of genetic variants and essential hypertension in a cohort of two ethnic South African population groups. Two hundred and seventy-seven hypertensive and one hundred and seventy-six normotensive individuals were genotyped for 79 variants. Genotyping was performed using the Illumina GoldenGate Assay and allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. The association of variants was assessed using the Fisher Exact test under the additive and allelic genetic models, while multivariate logistic regression was used to predict the development of hypertension. Five variants (CYP11B2 rs179998, AGT rs5051 and rs699, AGTR1 rs5186 and ACE rs4646994) were significantly associated with essential hypertension in the cohort under study. Furthermore, AGTR1 rs5186 and AGT rs699 were identified as risk factors for the development of hypertension in both ethnic groups. In two ethnic South African populations an association was observed between Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS) related genes and the development of hypertension.

In recent decades, the creation and availability of Voluntary Geographic Information (VGI) has changed the paradigm associated with the production of Geospatial Information (GI), since due to its free access, citizens can view, analyse, process, and validate this type of data. One of the most popular examples of VGI is the collaborative OpenStreetMap (OSM) project which covers a wide range of themes or characteristics associated with the real world. One of these themes is the feature “waterway” that represents watercourses. The quality of OSM data characteristics is an issue that has been published by many authors in recent years, particularly on the analysis of the completeness indicator. However, few references are found in literature to studies that analyse the completeness of OSM watercourses. This study presents an analysis of the variation over time in completeness/coverage of the OSM "waterway" feature in the epochs of 2014 and 2023 in a mountainous region included in the Mondego River basin, located in Inland of Portugal. The results show that the completeness of this OSM feature (waterway) has a slight increase, considering the amplitude of this period (nine years) and the fact that, nowadays, digital mobile devices enable access to satellite images, therefore allowing in an easy way the digitalization of entities or objects of the real world remotely. Regarding the indicator’s altitude, slope and location/proximity of settlements, it was not possible to observe their influence on the evolution of the completeness of this geographic entity (OSM waterway).

The global steel industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and the adoption of green hydrogen in Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) production has the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and support climate targets. This review explores the environmental, economic, technological, and social implications of using green hydrogen in DRI processes. The findings suggest that green hydrogen can reduce emissions by up to 90% compared to traditional methods, enhance energy security, and stimulate local economic development. However, high initial costs, energy efficiency concerns, and social acceptance issues remain significant barriers. The review also highlights the importance of integrating carbon capture and storage technologies, addressing logistical challenges, and considering the geopolitical implications of a shift towards green hydrogen. Green hydrogen presents a promising solution for decarbonising the steel industry but continued research, investment in infrastructure, and strategic planning are essential to overcome the challenges and drive widespread adoption.

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic; hence it is crucial to understand how it can be effectively prevented/treated. Thus, obesity should be tackled considering that it is a multifactorial condition. This work examines a wide range of factors and attempts to understand which contribute most to variability in overweight/obesity. Eighty-four subjects with overweight/obesity were recruited. Dietary baseline information was obtained by analyzing three 24-hour recalls. Resting metabolic rate was measured using indirect calorimetry, physical activity through accelerometry, cardiometabolic parameters were determined in blood samples and body composition by anthropometry and bioimpedance. Factor analysis of principal components (PCA) was carried out (SPSS v22.0). Large interindividual variability was observed in dietetic, biochemical, and physical activity measurements (coefficient of variation ≥30%), but body composition was homogeneous. Volunteers had an unbalanced diet and low physical activity. PCA reduced the 26 analyzed variables into 7 factors, accounting for 81,5% of total data variability. The main factor was the ‘‘caloric and lipid factor’’ related to diet, responsible for 25.9% of total variability, followed by ‘‘adiposity factor’’ (16,9%) and ‘‘cardiometabolic risk factor’’ (13,2%). Diet seems to be the factor that contributes the most to data variability in people with overweight/obesity, especially the intake of lipids, energy and proteins.

We discuss a central concept of nanothermdynamics; the subdivision potential. We explain how it can be measured or calculated for some typical ensembles, as this has been disputed in the literature. We proceed to discuss its meaning for particular systems, and predict scaling laws for three ensembles. The laws depend on the small system geometry in a predictable way for an ideal gas model with surface adsorption. We provide new equations which relate the subdivision potential to experimental investigations, and give expressions for grand canonical ensembles of spheres, cylinders, slit pores and fluids confined in porous media. The subdivision potential is not compatible with the popular Hadwiger theorem in geometry, and can therefore not be described by a Minkowski set of variables. It is equivalent to Gibbs descriptions when shape- and size variables are defined.

Objective: To explore the hot spots and development trends of community public health research. Methods: The literature related to this topic was searched in CNKI and PubMed databases, and the trend map of the number of articles was drawn according to the obtained data. The included literature were analyzed with Vosviewer software for keyword and author co-occurrence, and CiteSpace 6.3.R1 Basic software was used for mechanism co-occurrence, key emergence and clustering analysis, and timeline distribution map drawing. Results: 189 Chinese literature and 77 English literature were selected. The Chinese literature focused on “community public health service, emergency management, and community governance”, and the research trend was “community public health emergency management and community governance”; English literature focuses on “nursing education, health education, human qualitative research”. Conclusion: Although the Chinese and English literature shows that scholars in this field have different emphases, the primary community health is the key and difficult point to realize the national public health service project, and improving the basic public health service in the primary community is related to the health of all the people, so it is very important.

Lactoperoxidase (LP) is an important enzyme of the salivary and mammary glands. It has been proven to increase the shelf life of raw milk by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, especially Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas spp. The aim of this work was to verify the use of LP to extend the shelf life of meat products. In vitro experiments showed inhibitory effects against selected bacteria (Listeria innocua (ATCC 33090), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (CP054440.1), and Pseudomonas fluorescens (ATCC 13525) due to prolongation of the lag phase of growth curves. A lower increase in viable counts (P < 0.05) was also found by testing the pork cubes surface treated with LP solution (5%) + L. innocua and stored for 7 days at 15 °C. LP has also been studied at concentrations of 0.25 and 0.50% in meat products (pork ham and pâté) during refrigerated storage (4 °C for 28 days). Lower viable counts were observed throughout the storage experiment, especially for 0.50% LP (P < 0.05). Meat products containing LP also showed lower levels of oxidation (MAD) (P < 0.05). According to these results, LP could extend the shelf life of a wider range of products.

One of the main challenges of cultured meat is reducing the costs of production, often described as scaling. The main components of the cultivation process include: cells, media, scaffolds and bioreactors. This work presents an alternative to current stainless steel or glass bioreactors and uses food-grade plant-based scaffolds. Bioreactors must be sterile and leak-free to maintain a proper environment for cell growth. Thermoplastic films are a popular material for constructing these fluidic systems, but traditional methods of welding these film are expensive and do not allow rapid prototyping resulting in high research and development costs for companies. In this study, a laser welding method was developed to join thermoplastic films in a way that prevents contamination and leaks, affording effective macro-fluidics fabrication. This technique was tested using polyethylene (PET) films and a laser cutter operating with settings calibrated for the material to be welded or cut. The laser welding method was found to produce strong, leak-free seals in PET films with minimal heat-induced damage to the films. The ability to design fluidics, chambers and ports of various size. Using this method afforded the incorporation of plant-based scaffolds from food-grade plants (Rice). The laser welding method developed in this study provides a reliable, contamination-free method for the rapid fabrication of fluidic systems for cell cultivation. This technique has the potential to be compatible with a vast range of cell types and scaffolds and to be widely adopted in tissue engineering for regenerative medicine and food applications such as cultured meat.

In the face of escalating climate concerns and the push for sustainable development, the global shift towards renewable and decentralized energy systems presents new challenges and opportunities. This study investigates integrating decentralized energy production, particularly photovoltaic (PV) systems, into national energy planning, aiming to optimize energy strategies that balance local production and consumption with national objectives. By analyzing the Swiss energy model, the research employs the EnergyScope and REHO models to assess the strategic implications of decentralized versus centralized energy systems. Results show that a decentralized approach can significantly reduce PV installation needs to 35 GW, about 23% of potential capacity, and decrease annual system costs by 10% to CHF 1230 per capita. This strategy emphasizes local consumption, minimizes grid reinforcement demands, and leverages economic advantages while addressing overproduction challenges through effective energy storage and grid management. Conclusions underline the strategic value of combining centralized and decentralized methods for resilient and sustainable energy planning. The study contributes to the discourse on energy policy and infrastructure planning, advocating for a hybrid model that accommodates both local conditions and broader energy objectives, urging further research into climate impacts and technology integration for a comprehensive energy future.

The Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) plays an inevitable role across the world. In particular, the attention for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) connected with wind farm is popular. This paper deals with the literature review that describes the recent advances, progresses and innovatory trends on PMSGs for WECS. Comparison between geared and direct-driven conversion systems and the classification of electrical machines used in WECS are discussed. A detailed analysis on the design aspects considering various topologies of PMSGs are encompassed in the literature. The PMSG design and optimization problems are solved by field computation techniques and optimized by using Soft Computing (SC) techniques .The three-dimensional, finite element software platform for the analysis and design of PMSGs is discussed. This paper also deals with the interdisciplinary modeling, analysis, and optimization of PMSG using Finite Element Analysis (FEM) and SC techniques. Finally, PMSGs are reviewed and compared for further exploration.

Amuyo Ponds (AP) are a group of three hydrothermal lagoons located at 3,700 m above sea level, in a pre-Andean setting at the Atacama Desert. Each pond shows a conspicuous green, red, or yellow coloration, and discharge waters rich in arsenic and boron into the Caritaya River (Camarones Basin, Arica and Parinacota Region, in northern Chile). Microorganisms at these ponds are subjected to harsh environmental conditions, and microbial composition and diversity in Amuyo Ponds sediments are unknown. Then, microbial life colonizing AP sediments was explored by metagenomics analyses. This approach showed a highly diverse microbial life dominated by members of the Bacterial Domain (nearly 800 bacterial genome sequences) and includes sequences associated to Archaea, Eukarya, and viruses. We also report putative functional capabilities related to virulence and defense genes, and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Thirteen bacterial and fourteen virus metagenome-assembled genomes were reconstructed and are here informed. This work expands our knowledge on the richness of microorganisms in AP and open further studies on the ecology and genomics of this striking Andean geosite.

The issue of degradation of drinking water quality has become a problem of great concern in Pakistan, and especially availability of water treatment facilities in the Sindh province of Pakistan is almost negligible, particularly in rural areas. And, the public has been using traditional methods to reduce the concentration of physic-chemical parameters in drinking water. Therefore this study was carried out to analyze the impact of a Clay-water cooler on physic-chemical parameters of drinking water. Analysis revealed that samples remained colorless, with the passage of time odor of water changed to a clayey odor; Turbidity increased with the passage of time and temperature decreased; the pH value of water increased initially and crossed the allowable limit but with time it was observed that pH of water decreased came under the limit; the concentration of EC, Cl, Ca, Total Hardness and TDS decreased for first 12 hours, but increased with increase in storage time. The value of Magnesium increased as storage time increased. Overall, it was disclosed that a Clay-water cooler has a positive impact on the quality of drinking water particularly if water is stored in a clay-water cooler for a time not longer than 8 hours.

The primary goal of Theory of Everything (ToE) is to unify General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, establishing a theoretical framework that explains all natural phenomena and fundamental laws of the universe. The rapid development of artificial intelligence in the 21st century presents new opportunities for the establishment of TOE. Research has revealed that the observer and the agent, as key concepts in physics and intelligence science respectively, share intrinsic consistency. Using this as a breakthrough point, we first proposed Standard Agent Model, which, from the perspective of information processing, establishes a unified structure for agents. This model posits that any agent possesses five essential capabilities: input, output, storage, creation, and control of these four capabilities.By setting the values of these five essential capabilities in Standard Agent Model to either zero or infinity, we identify two extreme states of agents: Absolute Zero Agent (α Point) and Omniscient and Omnipotent Agent (Ω Point). Based on the evolution of agents towards these two extreme states, we derive two driving forces for agent evolution: α Gravity and Ω Gravity. These elements collectively form General Model of Agent Evolution.Building on the first two models, we further derive Intelligent Universe Evolution Model, proposing that Universe, as an agent, evolves dynamically between α Point and Ω Point under the influence of α Field and Ω Field. These three models together constitute "Theory of Universal Intelligent Evolution," abbreviated as Ω Theory. According to Ω Theory, we demonstrate that the observer in physics and a wide range of research objects can be unified within the framework of Standard Agent Model. Additionally, we argue that the four fundamental forces have the potential to be unified into α Gravity and Ω Gravity.Within the framework of Ω Theory, through theoretical analysis and experimental validation, it has been demonstrated that the differences between classical mechanics, relativity, and quantum mechanics stem from the varying intelligence levels assigned to observers. Furthermore, it has been discovered that the differences in intelligent characteristics between the theoretical Universe proposed by these three major physical theories and Universe in which humanity currently resides are the root cause of the varying precision and limitations of these theories.

Numerous Epidemiologic studies have used remote sensing to quantify the contribution of greenness, air pollution, and wildfire smoke to asthma and other respiration outcomes. This is the first review paper to evaluate the influence of remote sensing exposures to specific outcome severity and risk factors in different ecologic settings. Literature searches utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar identified 61 unique studies published between 2009-2023, with 198 specific outcomes. Respiration specific outcomes were lower in greenness, and higher in air pollution, and in wildfire ecologic settings. Aerosol optical depth (AOD)-PM2.5 readings and specific outcomes were higher in economically developing than in economically developed countries. Prospective studies found prenatal and infant exposure to higher ambient AOD-PM2.5 concentration level readings contributed to higher childhood asthma incidence. Lung function was higher in greenness, and lower in the other two ecologic settings. Age, environment, gender, other, and total risk factors showed significant differences between health outcomes and ecologic settings. Published studies utilized physiologic mechanisms of immune, inflammation, and oxidative stress to describe obtained results. Individual and total physiologic mechanisms differed between ecologic settings. Study results were used to develop a descriptive physiologic asthma model and then use it to propose updated population-based asthma intervention program guidelines.

Lyme disease is a highly prevalent tick-borne infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes in North America and Eurasia. Diagnosis of the early disease remains difficult with the currently approved serological tests in the absence of noticeable tick bite or erythema migrans due to presentation of non-specific symptoms and the absence of antibodies early in infection. Furthermore, it is difficult to distinguish persistence of disease and reinfection in the endemic regions. If not treated early, infection spreads throughout the body and affects most organs with disease manifestations including arthritis, musculoskeletal pain, neuroborreliosis and acrodermatitis chronicum atrophicans. Although most patients recover after antibiotic treatment, ~10-12% of show recurrence of symptoms known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). Various causes of PTLDS are not well-defined; however, the spirochete persisters, antigenic debris, dysregulation of immunological response in individuals or a combination of these factors are proposed to result in continuation of Lyme disease manifestations. Based on these considerations, this review highlights currently employed treatment approaches with antimicrobials and vaccines being tried for prevention of B. burgdorferi infection. We also summarize combinatorial approaches that could be employed to alleviate symptoms to improve the quality of life of the individuals suffering from long Lyme disease.

The advancement of urban scholarship and the effective addressing of urban environment challenges necessitate the adoption of sophisticated analytical methods. Urban scholars and policymakers need advanced analytical methods to tackle issues like gentrification, housing affordability, and urban sprawl. Predictive models are crucial in the realm of urban sciences, and hyperparameter tuning methods can significantly improve their accuracy and efficiency. Our study compares three such methods — Optuna, Random Search, and Grid Search — using a housing transaction dataset. We find that Optuna is not only 5.58 to 70.50 times faster than the other two methods when applied to Random Forest and Gradient Boosting Machine algorithms, but also achieves lower error values in key evaluation metrics on the test set, such as mean absolute error, mean squared error, mean absolute percentage error and root mean squared error.

Natural risks encompass a range of disasters and dangers, requiring comprehensive management through assessments, anticipations, and advanced alert systems. Our specific focus is on landslides in challenging terrains. The evaluation of landslide risks employs sophisticated multicriteria models, such as the weighted sum approach, integrating qualitative parameters. Despite the challenges of the rugged terrain in Northern Algeria, it paradoxically hosts a dense population attracted by valuable hydro-agricultural resources. Our research is dedicated to studying landslide risks in these areas, particularly in the Mila region, with the aim of constructing a statistical model integrating considerations of both danger and vulnerability. This complex process identifies threats and their determining factors, including geomorphology and socio-economic conditions. The result is a valuable tool for effective risk management, strengthening safety and resilience against natural disasters. By understanding the intricate interplay of geological, environmental, and social elements, our research can contribute to the development of targeted interventions, fostering a more resilient community in the face of natural adversities.

The continuous expansion of urban areas has significantly increased the coverage of impervious paved surfaces, leading to heightened heat absorption and the formation of urban heat islands (UHIs). This research centres on environmental footprint accounting and management to address the escalating UHI risks in the City of Salisbury, Adelaide, South Australia. To comprehend the extent of land use change over time, the study employs the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in conjunction with Landsat satellite maps. The satellite maps were also analysed for the historical land surface temperatures, exploring the correlation between land use change and land surface temperatures. This approach allows for exploring the correlation between land use transformations and UHI intensity. The research cross-referenced the satellite data with meteorological station records for verification, which led to identifying possible factors associated with the temperature change in the city. Furthermore, the research extends its scope by analysing aerial photography images of the city, enabling a comprehensive investigation of land cover contribution to UHI effects.

The main purpose of this study is the determination of the optimal data acquisition and processing parameters of electric and seismic tomographic techniques, for the investigation of complex geological environments. Two different study areas, in central-east Peloponnese and SW Attica were selected, where a detailed geological mapping and surface geophysical survey were carried out. The applied geophysical survey included the application of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and seismic refraction tomography (SRT). The geoelectrical measurements were acquired with different arrays and electrode configurations. Moreover, various types of seismic sources were used at seventeen shot locations along the seismic arrays. For the processing of geoelectrical data, clustered datasets were created increasing the depth of investigation and the discriminatory capability. The seismic data processing included: (a) creation of synthetic models and seismic records to determine the effectiveness and capabilities of the technique, (b) spectral analysis of the seismic records to determine the optimal seismic source type and (c) inversion of the field data to create representative subsurface velocity models. The results of the two techniques successfully delineated the complex subsurface structure that characterizes these two geological environments. The application of the ERT combined with the SRT, are the two dominant, high-resolution techniques for the elucidation of complex subsurface structures.

The scale of China's floating population is very large, and it is a key group that needs attention in promoting the equalization of basic public services. This study explores the impact and mechanism of adjusting the urban household registration threshold on the acquisition of citizenship status by the "rural-urban" floating population, with the household registration threshold as the link. It was found that the threshold for household registration has an impact on the willingness of rural urban migrant population to settle down from two aspects. On the one hand, a high threshold for household registration implies the unaffordability of obtaining citizenship status for the "rural-urban" migrant population, which has a significant crowding out effect on their willingness to settle down. Moreover, the high skilled "rural-urban" migrant population without housing is more sensitive to the high threshold for household registration. On the other hand, from the perspective of urban scale, the increase in the threshold for household registration has had a crowding out effect on the floating population for Type I large cities, mega cities, and super large cities. The increase in the threshold for settling in mega cities has the strongest crowding out effect on the floating population, which means that as the urban population expands, the welfare benefits enjoyed by the floating population in these cities will decrease, leading them to be more inclined to leave these cities and seek development opportunities in other cities. This study effectively answers how the threshold for household registration affects the willingness of rural urban migrant population to settle, providing mathematical support for urban development.

In an increasingly complex world there is a real, urgent need for methodologies to enable engineers to model complex sociotechnical systems, as these now seem to describe the majority of systems in use today. This is of course exacerbated by the increasing involvement and augmentation with “black box” AI contributions. Hollnagel produced a methodology, (FRAM) which did allow the analyst in-sights into these systems’ behaviour, but the model-based system engineering applications demand numbers and a quantitative ap-proach. In the last 10 years, this original approach developed to model systems as sets of interactive, interdependent “functions”, (abstracted from agent or component details), has been further developed to the point where it can take the basic data and structures from the current component focussed system engineering “models”, and can pull it all together into dynamic models, (as opposed to static, fixed System Theoretic Process Accimaps), from which analysts can discern how they really work in practice, and predict the emergent behaviours characteristic of complex systems. This paper describes how the FRAM methodology has now been extended to provide these extra, essential attributes. It also describes its implementation using an open-source software, freely available for use and verification on the GitHub site.

With the rising awareness of environmental issues, concerns about pollution and global warming have gained importance, and electricity generation costs continue to increase. As a result, research on energy recovery using thermoelectric modules has attracted attention in recent years. Given the lack of significant breakthroughs in thermoelectric materials, improving the structure of thermoelectric modules has become a key direction for enhancing efficiency. Common thermoelectric module types include flat plate (Flat Plate TEG), annular (Annular TEG), flexible (Flexibility TEG), segmented, and cascaded designs. Factors influencing thermoelectric performance include the number, shape, height, contact area of thermoelectric elements, temperature difference, copper plate length, contact resistance, and the geometric arrangement of the elements. This study is based on the commercially available TGM1-127-1.0-0.8 thermoelectric module. By simulating the output performance of both flat plate and annular thermoelectric module structures under identical conditions—such as total volume of thermoelectric material, shape, and height of the thermoelectric legs, the total contact area with the heat source, temperature differential, and total volume of the connecting copper plate—we observed that the number of thermoelectric elements not only determines the open-circuit voltage but also influences the output power. The trend of output power remains consistent under varying temperature differences, regardless of changes in the load resistance.

Background: Handheld cameras may increase access to teleretinal diabetic retinopathy screenings (TDRS), as they are more economical and nimbler than traditional desktop cameras. However, their use in safety-net clinical settings is less understood. Methods: The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health collaborated with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) to pilot the use of handheld cameras in DHS’s TDRS program. This study assessed screening metrics and interviewed TDRS coordinators and photographers about their experiences using these cameras. Results: Handheld cameras are harder to operate and performed less optimally on key screening metrics (e.g., image quality) compared to desktop cameras. However, this challenge appeared to be linked to the selected model, rather than to all handheld cameras. The adoption of handheld cameras in DHS was aided by their integration into an existing agency infrastructure that already supports the use of desktop cameras; these operational supports include an established workflow, a data platform, and experienced photographers. Conclusions: The use of handheld cameras for TDRS is a promising practice for assuring equitable access to screenings. Handheld cameras are portable, smaller in size, and lower in cost than desktop cameras. Future projects should invest in and assess the performance of higher-quality models of these cameras, especially their use in safety-net clinical settings.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic effects involved on pepper fruit post-harvest water loss, and correlated to morphology traits. Fruits of eight landraces of C. baccatum, and their 28 hybrids, were evaluated in a randomized complete block design. Analysis of variance, diallel analysis, phenotypic and genotypic correlation were performed to compare fruit water loss (WL), width (FW), length (FL), total soluble solids (TSS), dry matter content (DMC), pericarp thickness (PT), cuticle thickness (CT), and exocarp thickness (ET). WL varied from 14 to 68% during storage. Non-additive effects played more important role than additive, including CT, EP and TSS. Effective strategies to reduce WL should be achieved by repeated backcrosses followed by selection in segregating populations (SP). Therefore, the selection of hybrids should follow high specific combining ability traits. Selecting fruits with higher CT and lower TSS values are indirectly selecting fruits with lower WL. Varieties with low WL can be breed using landraces 04 and 58 as parents or by the hybrid 04 x 44 in open lines in SP. Brazilian C. baccatum landraces are a source of genetic variability, and the SP emerging from crossing lines with reduced WL should develop new ways for conventional breeding.

The study of the pathogenesis of febrile seizures and their consequences frequently necessitates gene expression analysis. The primary methodology employed for such analysis is reverse transcription with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). To guarantee the accuracy of data obtained by RT-qPCR, it is crucial to utilize stably expressed reference genes. The objective of this study was to identify the most suitable reference genes for use in the analysis of mRNA production in various brain regions of rats following prolonged neonatal febrile seizures. The expression stability of eight housekeeping genes was evaluated using the online tool RefFinder in the dorsal and ventral hippocampal regions and in the temporal and medial prefrontal cortex of the brain. The Ppia gene exhibited the greatest stability of expression. Conversely, the genes with the least stable expression level are Actb and Ywhaz; thus, it is not recommended to use them for normalization in a febrile seizure model. Additionally, the majority of housekeeping genes demonstrate age-related, region-specific fluctuations. Therefore, it is crucial to employ the appropriate housekeeping genes for each brain structure under investigation when examining the expression dynamics of genes of interest in a febrile seizure model.

This study offers an analysis of existing research on sustainability and its link to accounting and management control in the port sector. The existing studies do not provide a comprehensive discussion of management accounting and control tools in this context, despite recognizing the relevance of the issue. The Scoping Review was used as a methodological basis, with reference to the framework of Arksey and O’Malley [1], with the aim of mapping the literature on the role of ac-counting and management control, as well as their relationship with the Triple Bottom Line associated with the various levels of sustainability in this sector. The results point to a diversity of tools used essentially in developed countries, where the interest in efficiency, sustainability and strategic alignment stands out.

Students studying dentistry and nursing experience anxiety daily, which affects both their general well-being and academic achievement. Anxiety is exacerbated by several circumstances, such as stressors in one's personal life, clinical environment exposure, and academic expectations. To effectively regulate anxiety and support students' achievement, treatments that take these elements into account must be designed. In this study, 271 students from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece's departments of dentistry and nursing were polled. Being the following resources, participants filled out an electronic questionnaire that was uploaded to Google Forms and assessed their levels of stress, anxiety, depression, resilience, hope, and spiritual well-being: a) the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), b) the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-12), c) the Adult Hope Scale (AHS), d) the Resilience Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ8), and e) the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Additionally, demographic data was gathered, such as gender, educational attainment, family income, and country of origin. Statistical analyses were performed to investigate the relationships between the variables, including hierarchical multiple linear regression and t-tests. The sample consisted of 271 students from the Department of Nursing (n=126, 46.5%) and Dentistry (n=145, 53.5%), with 68.60% of them being female, 80.10% being undergraduate students, and 48.30% being from Athens, the country's capital. Comparatively speaking, 74.50 percent of nursing students were female, while 62.80% of dental students were. Compared to dental students (2.10%), nurses (40.50%) participated in postgraduate studies at a higher rate. Compared to dental students (44.80%), nursing students reported a household income of just 13.90%, which is much less than €35,000. Anxiety was reported by 51.30% of participants overall, with dental students reporting higher anxiety than nursing students. Higher family wealth was associated with reduced stress levels, while female undergraduate students reported higher levels of anxiety than their male counterparts. Hope was a strong predictor of resilience, but stress and worry had a negative correlation. Promoting students' well-being and academic success requires effective stress-reduction and resilience-building techniques aimed to not only improve student performance but also support future healthcare professionals' personal sustainability and holistic growth.

The aim of this paper is to establish a valid procedure for better understanding all the phenomena associated with the high-speed machining of Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) composites. Both rectangular and circular specimens were machined at high speeds (up to 50 m/min) in order to understand what occurred for all values of fiber orientation angles during machining operations. An innovative testing methodology was proposed and studied to investigate the phenomenon of burr formation and thus understand how to avoid it during machining operations. To this end, the forces arising during the machining process and the roughness of the resulting surface, were carefully studied and correlated with the cutting angle. Additionally, the cutting surface and chip morphology formed during cutting tests were examined using a high-speed camera. Close correlations are found between the variations of the cutting forces' signals and the trends of the roughness and the morphology of the machined surface.

This study investigates user behavior in urban green spaces (UGS) in downtown Shanghai prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. UGS are essential public infrastructure, contributing to urban sustainability, quality of life, and social cohesion. Although widely studied, there remains a gap in urban studies and environmental behavior research regarding UGS use from the perspective of space appropriation. This study addresses this by analyzing user demographics, frequency, and spatial activity patterns to assess how different forms of space use can be evaluated across varying levels of appropriation. Using a mixed-methods design, non-participant observation and behavior mapping were conducted across three comprehensive parks in Shanghai, divided into nine observation zones. Data were analyzed using the Pandas library in Python 3.6, descriptive statistics, and qualitative coding. Findings revealed sixty distinct activity types, predominance of elderly male users, absence of teenagers, and activity peaks in the early morning and late after-noon. Structured patterns of engagement suggest a soft to moderate level of appropriation. This research underscores the effectiveness of observational methods, validates appropriation as an analytical category, and emphasizes the importance of structured classification systems for improving understanding of UGS use and its societal role.

The article reviews selected solar systems that utilize solar energy for cooling production. Particular attention is given to research on individual components of these systems, aimed at improving their efficiency and performance. The article focuses on the analysis of literature concerning the design of thermal storage units, with an emphasis on the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a research tool. Conclusions from scientists’ research regarding the impact of tank shape, thermal insulation, flow parameters, and the use of stratification partitions on heat storage efficiency have been presented. The literature review indicates that thermal storage units play a key role in the efficiency of solar systems, and thermal stratification within them can significantly improve their performance.

This work presents a novel compact CMOS potentiostat designed circuit for electrochemical cell. The proposed topology functions as a circuit interface, controlling the polarization of voltage signals at the sensor electrodes and facilitating current measurement during the oxidation-reduction process of a analyzed solution. The potentiostat, designed for CMOS technology, comprises a two-stage amplifier, two current mirror blocks coupled to this amplifier, and a CMOS push-pull output stage. It employs the electrochemical method of cyclic voltammetry, operating within voltage range of ±0.8 V and scan rates of 10mV/s, 25mV/s, 100mV/s and 250 mV/s. The circuit is capable of reading currents ranging from 10 µA to 500 µA. Experimental results were obtained using a potassium ferrocyanide (K3(FeCN)6) redox solution with concentrations of 10, 15 and 20 mmol/L, and their corresponding voltammograms were evaluated. The experimental results from a discrete circuit demonstrate that the proposed potentiostat topology produces outcomes consistent with those of classical topologies presented in the literature and industrial equipment.

During HVDC earth return operation systems, a high magnitude current will be injected into soil through earth electrode, the potential on the surface would change widely and produce unfavorable effects on the AC systems around. This paper presents an effective finite element method (FEM) coupling electric field with thermal field to evaluate the electrical field induced by the injected DC current. Firstly, owe to the characteristic of FEM, this method can consider arbitrary soil and earth electrode structure. Secondly, by setting the electrical and thermal parameters of soil as a function of temperature at the same time, the dynamic coupling process of electric field and thermal field is simulated accurately. Thirdly, to deal with the singular point in FEM subdivision and the huge computation in traditional three-dimensional FEM, the FEM coupling 2-D earth electrode with 3-D soil based on "shell" theory is introduced. Finally, based on the suggested method, the effect of abnormal resistance region (ARR) near DC earth electrode on electric field distribution is analyzed.

Background: Amidst escalating climate change concerns, sustainable practices in healthcare logistics are critical. This study evaluates the ecological impact and efficiency of medical sample transportation using drones, combustion cars, and electric cars across diverse terrains and weather in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Methods: We conducted a comparative analysis of CO2 emissions, transport distances, and delivery times for each transportation modality. Data collection involved multiple runs under various conditions, with CO2 emissions measured using onboard systems, and transport efficiency assessed via GPS tracking and time monitoring. Results: Combustion cars exhibited the highest average CO2 emissions at 159.5 grams per kilometer (g/km). Electric cars emitted significantly less, averaging 3.43 g/km, which is 2.15% of combustion car emissions. Drones were the most environmentally friendly, with an average emission of 0.09 g/km, representing 0.07% of combustion car emissions and 2.6% of electric car emissions. Drones also showed substantial transport efficiency, covering 17% shorter distances on flat terrain and 24% shorter in mountainous areas, with time savings ranging from 13% to 80%. Conclusion: This study highlights the potential of drone technology to revolutionize healthcare logistics by reducing environmental impact and optimizing operational efficiency. Integrating drones can significantly lower the carbon footprint, improve sample integrity, and enhance patient care, promoting a greener, more resilient healthcare system.

The accuracy of cosmic ray observation by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory Wide Field-of-view Cherenkov/fluorescence Telescope Array (LHAASO-WFCTA) is influenced by variations in aerosols in the atmosphere. The solar photometer (CE318-T) is extensively utilized within the Aerosol Robotic Network as a highly precise and reliable instrument for aerosol measurements. With this CE318-T 23, 254 sets of valid data samples in 394 days from October 2020 to October 2022 at the LHAASO site were obtained. Data analysis revealed that the baseline Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and A˚ngstro¨m Exponent (AE) at 440-870 nm (AE440−870nm) of the aerosols were calculated to be 0.03 and 1.07, respectively, suggesting that the LHAASO site is among the most pristine regions on Earth. The seasonality of the mean AOD are the order of spring > summer > autumn = winter. The monthly average maximum of AOD440nm occurred in April (0.11 ± 0.05) and the minimum was in December (0.03 ± 0.01). The monthly average of AE440−870nm exhibited slight variations. The seasonal characterization of aerosol types indicated that clean continental background aerosol predominated in autumn and winter, which is the optimal period for the absolute calibration of the WFCTA. Additionally, the diurnal daytime variations of AOD and AE across the four seasons are presented. Our analysis also indicates that the potential origins of aerosol over the LHAASO in four seasons were different and the atmospheric aerosols with higher AOD probably originate mainly from Northern Myanmar and Northeast India region. These results provide a baseline for comparison to the future on-site measurement of extinction coefficient profile and aerosol phase function by LHAASO-WFCTA, also enrich the valuable materials on aerosol observation in the Hengduan Mountains and Tibetan Plateau.

Lung cancer treatment has long been a major field of study in research due to the com-plexity and variability of cancer. Because drug resistance is a major hurdle for lung cancer treat-ment, in this article, we will review the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) used for the treatment of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and the EGFR mutations that cause resistance to them. Then, we will discuss the applications of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) genome ed-iting in medical treatment. The proposed treatment is specifically for NSCLC patients who have acquired resistance to EGFR TKIs due to mutations to EGFR such as T790M and C797S and would make these TKIs become effective once again. Currently, there is no treatment targeting C797S on the market, but fourth-generation EGFR-TKIs are currently in trial [1,2]. (Figure 1) This proposal will review the potential steps and options available as well as some challenges that may complicate the process.

Nowadays the dynamism induced by the constant change of strategic decisions on the markets produces an extra difficulty in the management of an organization. The strategic decisions made by managers can become obsolete in a short period of time. One of the major difficulties in managing a commercial organization is to predict, with some precision degree, the impact some strategic decisions have on the financial results. Business Intelligence (BI) is an area widely used to help managers to make strategic decisions. But the methods used, behind the scenes, to achieve the conclusions are kept secret by BI company-based services. Modelling the environment can be a good option to study the impact of an action, provided by a strategic decision, in a real environment. A good model should give an approximate result of an action applied to a previous state of the environment. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are proven to be excellent in modeling environments with some level of data noise. The same strategic action can have different results in different organizations. A tool that allows an evaluation of a strategic action applied to an environment should have a major importance in the management scope. Modeling the environment should save time and money for the organization to improve the performance of the strategic plan. If one evaluates the state of the environment after a strategic action being applied, it can be possible to mitigate the risk of failure of the strategic plan. As we will be able to verify, it is possible to use ANNs to model strategic environments that should allow the prediction of sales and operating results by the used strategies with some precision, although the level of success will be directly related with the user’s necessity.

This study explores the complexities of sport manager selection, investigating the impact of affirmative action, recruitment strategies, organizational culture, diversity initiatives in board selection, and career advancement insights from coaches' perspectives. To conduct this investigation, a purposive sampling technique was employed, selecting 65 prominent sports managers and coaches from Romania. Participants, aged between 35 to 58 years old, boasted an average of 10 to 20 years of sports experience and were chosen based on specific criteria, including academic qualifications. Data collection occurred over an extended period, spanning from fall 2022 to spring 2024, through semi-structured interviews with sport managers and coaches. The findings unveiled persistent challenges in effectively implementing affirmative action measures, as sport managers grapple with balancing the promotion of deserving candidates while maintaining continuity in board culture. Achieving meaningful diversity necessitates nuanced approaches that consider both candidate quality and cultural compatibility. Moreover, the study sheds light on coaches' perspectives when considering executive council positions, highlighting various pathways to career advancement. Recruitment practices prioritized informal methods, emphasizing board cohesion. Despite the recognized importance of diversity, challenges persist in selecting candidates solely based on demographic representation. The study provides valuable insights into promoting diversity and inclusivity within sports organizations' executive councils. Future research directions may include exploring longitudinal trends and delving into the qualitative experiences of underrepresented groups, with the aim of advancing understanding and promoting equity within sports organizations.

Aim: This study aims to analyze the structure and impact of research collaborations in colonoscopy from 2000 to 2023 by examining co-authorship networks. The goal is to understand the evolution of these networks, identify key contributors, and assess how collaborative relationships influence the field. Method: I conducted a comprehensive network analysis of co-authorship patterns using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. The analysis included 41,213 articles related to colonoscopy published between 2000 and 2023. Using Python (Version 3.10.5) and PyCharm (Software Version 2022.1.3), we evaluated the networks through macro-level indicators (network density, clustering coefficient, number of components, average distance) and micro-level indicators (degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality).Result: The analysis revealed a network with increasing but still fragmented collaboration over the years. The network density showed low proportions of realized connections relative to potential ones, with a high clustering coefficient indicating tight-knit groups when collaborations occurred. The number of components remained high, reflecting a fragmented structure. Prominent researchers such as Hassan, Cesare (Italy) and Dekker, Evelien (Netherlands) consistently emerged as central figures across different periods, demonstrating significant roles in facilitating connections between various research clusters.Conclusion: The study highlights a growing but fragmented collaborative landscape in colonoscopy research. Key researchers have played central roles in connecting different parts of the network, yet there remains substantial room for further integration. Strengthening collaborations across isolated groups could enhance the cohesiveness and impact of research in this field.

Establishment of protected areas (PAs) is one of the key global conservation strategies that currently cover approximately 15% of the earth’s land surface. Globally, PA networks are designed to curb the growing anthropogenic pressures in areas with high biological diversity. Despite the importance of PAs in conserving the vanishing biodiversity and unique habitats, many of them are in critical condition due to poor governance thus functioning below the expected level. Moreover, in many developing countries, the PA coverage is below the global standard. Recognizing their contemporary role in conservation, governments have recently agreed to expand the global PA coverage to 17% by the year 2020 (Aichi target 11). This book with eight chapters from different regions of the world provides an overview of the PAs governance, institutional mechanisms, conservation benefits, limitations and challenges associated with their respective policy discourse, integrated management, and functional attributes. Protected areas expect to to play an important role in the long rn in conservation and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems particularly in countries where population pressure and habitat loss are high. Regular intervention, political commitment, and effective governance are essential for the sustainability of PAs across the world. Here, we also attempted to shed some light on future development clues for the sustainable management and monitoring of PAs worldwide.

Plant‒fungal associations often drive plant invasion success by increasing host growth, disease resistance, and tolerance to environmental stress. In this study, to determine whether the numerically dominant foliar endophyte Colletotrichum can directly enhance the resistance of the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora to disease and environmental stressors, we planted sterile A. adenophora seedlings, inoculated them with three endophytic fungal strains of Colletotrichum with distinct genetic backgrounds and compared their role in the resistance of A. adenophora to the pathogenicity of three foliar pathogens from the Didymellaceae family, as well as to abiotic stress, including drought and nutrient stress. We observed that the foliar endophyte Colletotrichum reduced photosynthesis-related physiological indicators, increased resistance-related indicators, and decreased the biomass of A. adenophora in the absence of pathogen attack, drought and nutrient stress. However, some endophytic Colletotrichum strains exhibit positive effects on resistance to certain foliar pathogen attacks, and some endophytes increase the biomass of A. adenophora under drought or nutrient stress. Our results revealed that there are certain positive effects of foliar Colletotrichum endophytes on A. adenophora in response to biotic and abiotic stresses, which may be beneficial for its invasion.

Use of local anesthesia at the time of ring castration and tail docking can improve lamb welfare. However, few local anesthetics are registered for sheep, and data on their duration of effect is limited. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of procaine (P), lidocaine (L) and bupivacaine (B) in terms of observed alleviation of behavioral responses to castration and/or tail docking in 10-min blocks in the first 60 min post treatment. In each study, comparisons were made between two groups of lambs castrated and/or tail docked with rubber rings and either receiving the agent using the NUMNUTS® instrument (N) or receiving no anesthetic agent (RR). Acute pain behavior was lower in NL (n = 28) than RRL (n = 15) males in the first 10 min post procedure (P < 0.05); lower in NB (n = 16) than RRB (n = 16) males in periods 10-20 min (0.05 < P < 0.01), 20-30 min (P < 0.05) and 40-50 min (0.05 < P < 0.01); lower in NB (n = 16) than RRB (n = 16) females between 20 and 40 min post-procedure (0.05 < P < 0.01); lower in NP (n = 8) than RRP (n = 7) males in period 10-20 min (0.05 < P < 0.01), and lower in NP (n = 9) than RRP (n = 9) females in periods 0-10 min (0.05 < P < 0.01), and 10-40 min (P < 0.05). Analgesic benefits were modest, and the effects of procaine appear to last longer than lidocaine, while bupivacaine is slower to take effect than either procaine or lidocaine but may provide longer lasting analgesia. The duration of action of local anesthetics is short in sheep, and detailed behavioral evaluations are required in the first hour post procedure to establish efficacy.

Aerated concrete, which is manufactured from binding material, sand, foaming agent and water, is currently being utilized in the construction industry because of its lightweight and durability. The binding material, cement, along with other materials used in the concrete produces huge carbon footprints during its fabrication. The utilization of natural aggregates name as coarse aggregates depletes the natural resources of the country. Therefore, huge amounts of agricultural wastes have led scholars to investigate the effectiveness of replacing conventional materials used in concrete with agricultural wastes. In the current study, rice husk ash (RHA) was used as supplementary cementing material, thereby reducing the amount of cement used in aerated concrete (AC) mixture will reduce carbon footprints. The experimental and numerical analysis were conducted to investigate structural behavior of reinforced RAC- B beams subjected to flexural load. Parametric study on structural performance of RAC- B beam under flexure were conducted using finite element analysis (FEA). From the experiment and FEA. Results from the parametric study showed that RAC-10%RHA-B with higher depth structurally performed better compared to RAC-B under flexure with greater load carrying capacity, lesser maximum deflection, and less cracks developing in the tension area.

Tack is one of the most important factors affecting the operability of prepregs, but it is still very difficult to obtain the change of prepreg tack with time at different temperatures. In this paper, a newly designed T-peel device is used to test the tack decay rate of prepregs at different temperatures. The obtained decay rate deviates less than 8.9% from the manufacturer's data. The maximum deviation of the ratio of tack decay speeds calculated by the Arrhenius equation from the experiments is not higher than -9.7%. It is proved that the present method can obtain the decay rate of tack of prepregs at different temperatures. This method is also applicable to the other two types of prepregs. The article proposes the handling life unit, an operational life measurement unit for prepregs, and establishes that the relationship between tack and remaining shelf life reduces prepreg management costs.

Extruded polystyrene (XPS) is frequently used in the construction of many different structures. It is therefore necessary to appropriately characterize its mechanical properties to ensure the safety of said structures. Among the available characterization tests, static bending tests are simple and easy to perform; owing to these characteristics, they should be performed more frequently than other tests. However, in static bending tests on XPS, there are several challenges owing to the high flexibility of XPS, and the chosen testing method and sample configuration affect the accuracy of characterization. In this study, three bending properties (Young’s modulus, proportional limit stress, and bending strength) of samples cut from an XPS panel were determined using three-point bending (TPB), four-point bending (FPB), and compression bending (CB) tests with varying sample span/depth ratios, and statistical analyses were performed to determine the relevance of the tests. The experimental results suggest that the TPB and CB tests were more feasible than the FPB test when the span/depth ratio was appropriately determined. However, clear differences were observed in the sample bending properties determined in these tests. In light of these findings, further studies should be conducted to elucidate these differences.

In Åhlberg (2021, 2022b), I presented evidence for 57 health-promoting substances that all green vascular WEPs contain. I continued searching for health-promoting substances in the plant cells' basic structures and processes. While reading research reports of five invasive species, I found eight more health-promoting substances all green vascular wild edible plants have. This article adds eight new substances to the earlier 57, bringing the total to 65. This is a novel finding for which I provide research evidence. I present the latest research on five invasive wild edible plants (WEPs) species. Each contains at least the same 65 health-promoting substances and a varying number of species-specific health-promoting substances. Each WEP has 1) shared health-promoting substances that all green vascular plants have and 2) species-specific health-promoting substances. I also present how many of these substances prevent Alzheimer’s disease, according to experimental research.

Weather-related risks in aviation are one of the main causes of accidents worldwide. This article aims to analyze aviation risks resulting from adverse weather conditions, using the case study of the Pucallpa accident that occurred on August 23, 2005, in eastern Peru. In this analysis, we have determined the relationship between meteorological information and aviation risks, presented a matrix of risks associated with the most predominant meteorological variables at Pucallpa airport, and drawn up three maps of meteorological risks indicating the month of the year in which their incidence is most relevant. Finally, we conclude that it is essential to emphasize the importance of considering the prevailing weather conditions at Pucallpa airport to help mitigate the potential risks that may occur during different phases of the flight.

Mortality due to suicide is amongst the largest public health concerns across the world today and in Bharat (India). There have been concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to worsening mental health outcomes across the world, and in Bharat. Furthermore, long COVID has been proposed to be a major consequence of COVID-19, which can also worsen mental health outcomes. Therefore, our objective in this study was to analyse trends in suicide mortality across Bharat, and to compare these trends to changes prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; as well, we aimed to analyse if long COVID had any role in these changes. It was found that, at a national level, the average annual increase of the suicide rate between 2019 and 2022 was 0.7 per 100,000 people (6.41% increase)., There was also an average annual rise in suicide rates across 27 states/union territories (out of the 33 that were analysed). States/UTs with the highest annual increases since the start of the COVID-19, despite a decrease from 2018 to 2019, were Tamil Nadu (increase by 2.7; 15.17% increase), and Telangana (increase by 1.9; 9.22% increase), Multi-linear regression had shown that the annual suicide rate changes were not associated with COVID-19 deaths per 10,000 people (standardized beta coefficient = 0.077; p = 0.605) but were associated with COVID cases per 100 people (standardized beta coefficient = 0.578; p<0.001). It has been shown that suicide mortality has worsened, and long COVID may have a potential role in this in Bharat.

The analysis of the key factors which prevent or contribute to the promotion and development of the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in order to meet the sustainability goals represents an important issue which worth being investigated, especially in the situation in which entering in bilateral relations inside this contract has a powerful meaning in achieving new climate targets, developing and improving the use of green energy, and promoting a sustainable green economy. The main goal of this research is to identify and analyze the main factors which help or pre-vent the promotion and development of a PPA, in order to meet the sustainability goals by promoting a green economy. For this research survey based on comparative analysis, questionnaires and interviews with energy experts, Spearman’s correlation matrix and IBM SPSS Statistics for Window are also used. The results suggest that although there are positive interest and an open attitude towards the PPA from both sides (sellers and buyers), but there is still place for improvement, the lack of knowledge or the insufficient measures taken so far being two of the reasons way until now in Romania we do not have a developed PPA market and the level of knowledge regarding this type of mechanism is quite low.

Saudi Arabian cities have experienced a rapid expansion of their urban areas - particularly their city centers - over the last four decades. This has resulted to an increase in vehicular usage, which has adversely affected the daily walking experience of the residents. Walkability has several positive effects on people's health as well as the environment in cities. In addition to being a means of transportation, it also helps people create a sense of place, enhancing their image ability to be easily understood as a legible urban structure, and deepen their emotional bond with the city. Using the medium-sized Saudi Arabian city of Onaizah as a case study, this study looks into the feasibility of creating urban walking corridors to encourage users to walk more. According to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which emphasizes the value of sustainable urban development and raising quality of life for residents, the study addresses walkability as a generator to maintain and improve the urban scene of the city center. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to analyze the data and generate the urban corridors in the city center. The results showed the possibility of improving walking in Onaizah through three urban corridors to the city center, measuring 1,401 meters, 1,283 meters, and 1,507 meters, respectively. These corridors represent urban, commercial and heritage corridors, giving an opportunity for planners and decision makers to challenge prioritize pedestrian connectivity and enhance the physical environment, leading to sustainable urban development. This research paper used various criteria analysis methods to provide a comprehensive assessment of various factors to conclude these urban corridors; for example, assessments of land use, transportation and environmental considerations. The study aligns with Saudi Arabia's vision 2030 by promoting walking and enhancing the city's overall walkability while offering Onaizah society by creating and suggesting urban corridors to the city center a sustainable and livable urban environment.

The construction industry is a resource and energy intensive industry and thus, has been criti-cized due to rising environmental concerns. As a result of that it has gained heightened interest in the concept of Circular Economy (CE) over the last decade to its ability to promote the slowing, reducing, and closing production and consumption cycles of materials and products used in the construction practices. Digital technologies hold potential to enhance the construction industry's ability to integrate the concept of CE in its practices. However, a clear understanding of digital technology (DT) related barriers that hinder practical implementation of CE, appears to be lacking within the sector. In light of this, this study aims to identify the barriers to adopting DTs to im-plement CE practices in the construction industry. To achieve this aim, a systematic literature review was conducted by reviewing twenty-three (23) relevant papers published until January 2024 in Scopus database. The VOS viewer software was used to perform a co-occurrence analysis of keywords to identify new and popular study areas in the field and content analysis was used to analyse the major barriers to adapt DTs to implement CE in the construction industry. The study identified thirty-four (34) barriers to use DTs to implement CE and these were categorized into nine areas such as: infrastructure, organizational, regulatory, standardization, investment, nature of the construction industry, technological, stakeholder and data related barriers. These findings will be beneficial for construction practitioners and policy makers to adopt DTs to integrate CE practices in the construction industry.

Due to the vast conformational space proteins can adopt, accurate and efficient prediction of protein structure remains still a challenging task, coupled with the intricacies of interatomic interactions and the limitations of current computational models in effectively navigating this complex molecular landscape. Additionally, the lack of comprehensive experimental data for all protein structures further exacerbates the difficulty in reliable machine learning-based prediction of the three-dimensional conformations of the proteios building block of life. Geometrically, Cartesian coordinate system (CCS, X, Y and Z) and spherical coordinate system (SCS, ρ, θ and φ) are two interconvertible coordinate systems, and are like two sides of one coin. Since the beginning of Protein Data Bank (PDB) in 1971, CCS has been the default approach to specify atomic positions with X, Y and Z in PDB. In this manuscript, therefore, I present a novel method for the reversible spherical geometric conversion of protein backbone structure coordinate matrices to three independent vectors: ρ, θ and φ. This reversible conversion facilitates lossless extraction of essential structural features from protein backbone structural data, enabling the development of advanced novel algorithms for protein structure prediction in future. In short, this inter-atomic SCS approach offers a comprehensive yet efficient means of representing protein backbone geometry, leveraging spherical coordinates to capture spatial relationships in a compact and intuitive inter-atomic manner, and to provide a robust framework for reversible feature extraction for the ongoing efforts in advancing the field of protein structure prediction, the holy grail of computational structural biology.

Hang-ju was one of five officinal varieties of Flos chrysanthemum for its edible and potable usage. Besides Flos Chrysanthemum (FL), there were also Bud Chrysanthemum (BC) and Fetal Chrysanthemum (FC) at the early and late stage of buds, respectively, in the consumption market of Hang-ju with higher prices. Whether the quality and efficiency of BC and FC was superior to FL or merely consumption misunderstandings? Three commercial products of Hongxinju, a representive cultivar of Hang-ju were studied with a GC-MS based metabolomics approach, complemented with morphology, contents of moisture and protein and the anti-oxidant activity, to reveal the metabolic alterations of violate components in Hongxinju in different flowering stage and at different processing periods. It revealed that most of the violate components were increased from fresh FC to FL, and the low-boiling fractions, inflammatory methyl arachidonate and air-polluting component of ethylbenzene were declined while the representative components with pungent flavor and cool nature of a-curcumene and (Z,Z,Z)-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid, vision improving carotenol of rhodopin and high-boiling fractions were elevated after processed in final FL compared with that in BC and/or FC. Though the content of protein and anti-oxidative capacity of final BC and FC were nearly equal to those of FL, in comprehensive consideration of the representative components related with the efficiency in heat cooling and vision improving, as well as the representative components related with inflammation and air-pollution, final FL was recommended other than BC and FC in the practice of medicine with the yield and quality integrated into account.

Wildfires have always been a part of the history of Mediterranean forests. However, forest regeneration after a wildfire is not certain. It depends on many factors, some of which may be influenced by land management activities. Failure of regeneration will cause a regime shift in the ecosystem, reducing the provision of ecosystem services and ultimately leading to desertification. How can we increase Mediterranean forests’ resilience to fire? To answer this question, we did a literature review, investigating chains of processes that allow forests to regenerate (which we label “regeneration mechanisms”), and assessed the impact of selected management practices documented in the WOCAT database on the regeneration mechanisms. We identified three distinct regeneration mechanisms that enable Mediterranean forests to recover, as well as the time frame before and after a fire in which they are at work, and factors that can hinder or support resilience. The three regeneration mechanisms enabling a forest to regenerate after a fire consist of regeneration (1) from a seed bank; (2) from resprouting individuals; and (3) from unburned plants that escaped the fire. Management practices were grouped into four categories: (1) fuel breaks, (2) fuel management, (3) afforestation, and (4) mulching. We assessed how and under what conditions land management modifies the ecosystem’s resilience. The results show that land management influences resilience by interacting with resilience mechanisms before and after the fire, and not just by modifying the fire regime. Our analysis demonstrates a need for adaptive – i.e. context- and time-specific – management strategies.

Pure orbital blowout fractures occur within the confines of the internal orbital wall. Restoration of orbital form and volume is paramount to prevent functional and esthetic impairment. The anatomical peculiarity of the orbit has encouraged surgeons to develop implants with customized features to restore its architecture. This has resulted in worldwide clinical demand for patient-specific implants (PSIs) designed to fit precisely in the patient's unique anatomy. Fused filament fabrication (FFF) three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has enabled the fabrication of implant-grade polymers such as Polyetheretherketone (PEEK), paving the way for a more sophisticated generation of biomaterials. This study evaluates the FFF 3D printed PEEK orbital mesh customized implants with a metric considering the relevant design, biomechanical, and morphological parameters. The performance of the implants is studied as a function of varying thicknesses and porous design constructs through a finite element (FE) based computational model and a decision matrix based statistical approach. The maximum stress values achieved in our results predict the high durability of the implants, and the maximum deformation values were under one-tenth of a millimeter (mm) domain in all the implant profile configurations. The circular patterned implant (0.9 mm) had the best performance score. The study demonstrates that compounding multi-design computational analysis with 3D printing can be beneficial for the optimal restoration of the orbital floor.

The interaction of human immunodeficiency virus with human cells is responsible for all stages of the viral life cycle, from the infection of CD4+ cells to reverse transcription, integration, and the assembly of new viral particles. To date, a large amount of OMICs data as well as information from functional genomics screenings regarding the HIV-1-host interaction has been accumulated in the literature and in public databases. We processed databases containing HIV-host interactions and found 2910 HIV-1-human protein-protein interactions, mostly related to viral group M subtype B, 137 interactions between human and HIV-1 coding and non-coding RNAs, essential for viral lifecycle and cell defense mechanisms, 232 transcriptomics, 27 proteomics, and 34 epigenomics HIV-related experiments. Numerous studies regarding network-based analysis of corresponding OMICs data have been published in recent years. We overview various types of molecular networks, which can be created using OMICs data, including HIV-human protein-protein interaction networks, co-expression networks, gene regulatory and signaling networks, and approaches for the analysis of their topology and dynamics. The network-based analysis can be used to determine the critical pathways and key proteins involved in the HIV life cycle, cellular and immune responses to infection, viral escape from host defense mechanisms, and mechanisms mediating different susceptibility of humans to infection. The proteins and pathways identified in these studies may represent a basis for developing new anti-HIV therapeutic strategies such as new small-molecule drugs preventing infection of CD4+ cells and viral replication, effective vaccines, "shock and kill" and "block and lock" approaches to cure latent infection.

Technological innovation has led to the development of increasingly efficient and complex industrial plants. To manage this complexity, it is necessary to define an integrated vision of the socio-technological system that includes: technological, human and organizational component. Petrochemicals can be considered one of the most complex socio-technical systems that deserve special attention to high risk management, especially during the emergency conditions. Traditional safety management models only consider static systems, while new resilience engineering models evaluate the performance variability developed between different actions. One of the recent development methods is the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) that identifies the pairs between the functions. FRAM unfortunately is a qualitative model, this research integrates this model with the Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs) and with the Bayesian approach to identify the performance variability of the system. The analysis aims to develop a system that improves safety analysis. The proposed model is applied in a case study of an emergency in a petrochemical company.

Background: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii in aquatic environments and fish microbiota by integrating culture-dependent methods, 16S metagenomics, and antibiotic resistance profiling. Methods: A total of 83 A. baumannii isolates were recovered using culture-dependent methods from intra-hospital infections (IHI), wastewater (WW) and surface water (SW) samples from two southern Romanian cities in august 2022. The antibiotic susceptibility was screened using disc diffusion, microdilution, PCR and Whole Genome Sequencing assays. Results: The highest microbial load in the analyzed samples was found in Glina, Bucharest for both WW and SW samples across all investigated phenotypes. For Bucharest isolates, the resistance levels corresponded to fluoroquinolones &gt; aminoglycosides &gt; β-lactam antibiotics. In contrast, A. baumannii from upstream SW samples in Targoviste showed the highest resistance to aminoglycosides. The blaOXA-23 gene was frequently detected in IHI, WW, and SW isolates in Bucharest but was absent in Targoviste. Molecular phylogeny revealed presence of ST10 in Târgoviște isolates and ST2 in Bucharest isolates, while other minor STs were not specifically correlated with a sampling point. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, significant differences in microbial populations between the two locations was identified. The low abundance of Alphaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria in both locations suggests environmental pressures or contamination events. Conclusions: These findings indicate significant fecal contamination and potential public health risks, emphasizing the need for improved water quality monitoring and management.

This paper is concerned about the novel exact solitons to the truncated M-fractional (1+1)-dimensional non-linear generalized Bretherton model with arbitrary constants . This model is used to explain the resonant nonlinear interaction between the waves in different phenomenon, including fluid dynamics, plasma physics, ocean waves, and many others. A series of exact solitons, including bright, dark, periodic, singular, singular-bright, singular-dark, and other solitons are obtained by applying the extended sinh-Gordon equation expansion (EShGEE), and the modified (G′/G2)-expansion tech- niques. A novel definition of Fractional derivative provides the solutions distinct from the present solutions. Mathematica software is used to obtain, and verify the solutions. The solutions are shown through 2-D, 3-D, and density plots. The stability process is performed to verify that the solutions are exact and accurate. The modulation instability is used to determine the steady-state stable results to the corresponding equation.

The discovery of more bioactive compounds for non-invasive administration has been the goal of research groups focused on pharmacotherapy. Phytonutrients have always been attractive for researchers because they are a significant source of bioactive phytochemicals, but it is challenging to determine which components show high biomedical activity. However, based on the chemical structure of these active compounds, their physicochemical properties can be calculated to predict the probability of gastrointestinal (GI) absorption after oral administration. Indeed, different researchers have proposed several rules (e.g., Lipinski's, Veber's, Ghose's, and Muegge's rules) to attain these predictions for synthetic compounds. Most phytochemicals do not fully comply with these rules even though they show high bioactivity and high GI absorption experimentally. Here, we provide a detailed methodology using web-based platforms to determine the physicochemical properties of five phytochemicals in the phytonutrients ginger, echinacea, and tobacco. Furthermore, we analyzed the calculated data and established a protocol based on the combination and integration of these rules, plus other extended parameter ranges, to reliably predict the GI absorption of natural compounds. The presented data and methodology can be beneficial for evaluating bioactive natural compounds as potential drug candidates and predicting their oral bioavailability in patients.

Methylmercury (MeHg) intoxication is a global health concern. Although MeHg neurotoxicity is well-recognized, less is known about MeHg's effects on metabolism. In this study, we evaluated MeHg intoxication (20mg/L in drinking water for 20 days) effects on liver and epididymal white fat (EWF) in young ApoE knockout (ko) and wild-type mice. The former is well-known to show spontaneous dyslipidemia. Hg levels in hair, liver, and EWF were measured to assess the degree of MeHg exposure. We also evaluated body weight gain, plasma triglycerides, total cholesterol levels, and liver injury by assessing steatosis score, AST, ALT, SOD, and TBAR levels. To evaluate EWF, we analyzed mean wet weight and adipocyte diameter, plasma leptin levels and metabolomics. Hg levels were markedly higher among intoxicated mice. ApoE ko mice showed higher Hg in the hair but lower levels in the liver and EWF than wild-type controls. Among wild-type mice, MeHg compromised weight gain and increased liver TBAR levels compared to non-challenged controls. Among non-intoxicated mice, ApoE deficiency significantly increased triglyceride, total cholesterol, and liver transaminases with reduced EWF wet weight, hepatic SOD, and plasma leptin levels. MeHg accumulation together with ApoE deficiency elevated total cholesterol, triglycerides, hepatic transaminases, and TBARS. We found distinct EWF metabolite activity in different scenarios of ApoE deficiency and MeHg intoxication, highlighting increased cardiovascular risk especially when both challenges occur. Further studies are required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms involved in these effects and the target nutritional interventions in most need to ameliorate them.

Dehydration of hydrogen gas is one of the important steps in many industrial purposes thus, drying systems have been developed with high-efficiency and relative effect. In this article, the basic principles and design of a three-bed TSA (Temperature Swing Adsorption) dryer for dehydration operation of hydrogen gas drying are described in detail. The text commences with an in-depth explanation of the basic principles behind TSA technology such as adsorption and desorption mechanisms, thermodynamic considerations and material selection for adsorbents. This paper also deals with the detailed design of a three-bed TSA dryer, explaining about various fabricating details that influences both performance and total operability. The third part focuses the operational phase, and especially in cycle time, regeneration strategy and efficiency of energy. Advanced optimisation techniques are employed to lower energy consumption, increase throughput capacity and improve overall system. This detailed study will be of great help for engineers and investigators working on TSA systems design and optimization to dehydrate hydrogen gas, contributing towards the betterment in this important field dealing with industrial gas processing.

Open-vocabulary learning has recently gained prominence as a means to enable image segmentation for arbitrary categories based on textual descriptions. This advancement has extended the applicability of segmentation systems to a broader range of generally purpose scenarios. However, current methods often revolve around specialized architectures and parameters tailored to specific segmentation tasks, resulting in a fragmented landscape of segmentation models. In response to these challenges, we introduce OVAMTSeg, a versatile framework designed for Open-Vocabulary and Multitask Image Segmentation. OVAMTSeg harnesses adaptive prompt learning to empower the model to capture category-sensitive concepts, enhancing its robustness across diverse multi-task and scenario contexts. Text prompts are employed to effectively capture semantic and contextual features of the text, while cross-attention and cross-modal interactions enable the fusion of image and text features. Furthermore, a transformer-based decoder is incorporated for dense prediction. Extensive experimental results underscore the effectiveness of OVAMTSeg, showcasing its state-of-the-art performance and superior generalization capabilities across three segmentation tasks. Notable achievements include a 47.5 mIoU in referring expression segmentation, 51.6 mIoU on Pascal-VOC with four unseen classes, 46.6 mIoU on Pascal-Context in zero-shot segmentation, 65.9 mIoU on Pascal-5i, and 35.7 mIoU on COCO-20i datasets for one-shot segmentation.

Background and Objectives. To examine trends in the links between induced abortion and subsequent mental health problems for U.S. women approaching completed fertility. Materials and Methods. Panel data on a nationally-representative cohort of 3,842 ever-pregnant women assessed at mean ages of 15, 22, 28 and 37 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were examined for pregnancy outcome-related mental health disorders, with extensive adjustment for confounders including sociodemographic dif-ferences, mental health history, and unwanted pregnancies. Outcomes were defined using pub-lished diagnostic criteria or validated index for depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide ideation (affective problems); alcohol abuse, drug abuse, opioid abuse, and cannabis abuse (substance abuse problems); and summary counts of affective problems, substance abuse problems and total disorders. Results were adjusted for abortion under-reporting using cross-wave analysis. Results. The relative risk of mental health disorder with exposure to induced abortion followed an inverted “V” pattern as women aged to midlife, increasing from Wave III (age 22; IRR 1.41) to Wave IV (age 28; IRR 1.67), then dropping sharply by Wave V (age 37; IRR 1.20). The population at-tributable fraction of mental health disorder due to abortion dropped from 18.1% at Wave IV to 8.0% at Wave V. Unlike previous Waves, at Wave V mental health risk was more strongly reduced by exposure to childbirth (IRR 0.70, 95% CI .63, .78, p < .001). Reduced relative metrics at Wave V were not due to reduced prevalence of mental health disorders for ever-aborting women, which increased from Wave IV to Wave V by 1.7%, but increased much more, by 20.5%, for never-aborting women. Conclusion. At midlife approaching completed fertility, differential negative psychological out-comes for ever-aborting U.S. women remained elevated but reduced from younger ages.

Contrasting results have suggested that the prevalence and intensity of post abortion emotional distress (PAD) either diminishes rapidly or persists over time. Few studies have followed women for longer than five years. This study examines retrospective population data on 226 ever aborting U.S. women aged 41-45, at an average of 20 years following the abortion, with extensive measures of PAD. Most post abortive women (55.2%) experienced little or no distress from their abortion(s) and 74.6% were confident it had been the right decision, but 44.8% reported moderate (20.7%) to high (24.1%) distress related to their abortion(s), including 37.7% who reported negative emotions; 31.2% “frequent feelings of loss, grief or sadness;” 24.6% “frequent thoughts, dreams, or flashbacks;” 23.2% for whom thoughts and feelings about their abortion “negatively interfered with life, work, or relationships.” Time since the abortion (mean 20 years, range 0-31 years) was not correlated with PAD (r = -.02, p .71). For the minority of women who experienced it, PAD did not diminish but persisted for decades. An estimated 7.5 million U.S. women currently experience persistent high PAD. Further research to specify risk factors and possible interventions for postabortion distress would be of value for this group of women.

Experimental optimization of analytical methods based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a complex and labor-intensive process associated with uncertainties. Using the theoretical basics of SPME and finite element analysis software for the optimization proved to be an efficient alternative. In this study, an improved finite element analysis-based model for SPME of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by porous coatings was developed mainly focussing on the mass transport in coatings. Benzene and the Carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (Car/PDMS) coating were used as the model VOC and a porous SPME coating, respectively. It has been established that in the coating, volumetric fractions of Carboxen, PDMS, and air are 33, 42 and 24%, respectively. Knudsen diffusion in micropores can slow down a mass transport of analytes in the coating. When PDMS was considered as the solid part of the coating, lower root-mean-square deviation of the modeling results from experimental data was observed. It has been shown that the developed model can be used to model the extraction of VOCs from air and water samples encountered in a typical SPME development method procedure. It was possible to determine system equilibration times and use them to optimize sample volume and Henry’s law constant. The developed model is relatively simple, fast, and can be recommended for optimization of extraction parameters for other analytes and SPME coatings. The diffusivity of analytes in a coating is an important property needed for improved characterization of existing and new SPME polymers and analytical method optimization.

The calculation of the collapse load of spherical domes is addressed using a semi-analytical approach under the hypotheses of small displacements and perfect plasticity. The procedure is based on the numerical approximation of the self-stress that represents the projection of the balance equilibrium null space on a finite dimensional manifold. The so obtained self-equilibrated stress span is superimposed to a finite element linear elastic solution to the prescribed loads yielding to the statically admissible set accordingly to Melan’s theorem. The compatibility of the stress with the constitutive law of the material has been enforced using linearized limit domain in terms of generalized stress, namely axial force and bending moment along the local spherical curvilinear coordinates. The procedure has been tested with reference to numerical and experimental data from the literature confirming the accuracy of the proposed method. The comparison with the literature confirms that the buckling load is much greater than the plastic collapse loads both calculated through the proposed procedure and reported in the quoted literature.

Introduction: Carcinoid heart disease is a rare cause of right-sided valvular dysfunction, an important complication in patients with carcinoid syndrome. Objectives: We aim to present our own experience regarding early myocardial dysfunction in patients with carcinoid syndrome. Methods: 64 patients (35-90 year old, 62,5% female, 37,5% male patients) with carcinoid syndrome were evaluated be-tween October 2017 and June 2021. All patients underwent two-dimensional echocardiography with additional tissue Doppler and speckle-tracking techniques. For all patients there were measured urinary level of 5- hydroxyindolacetic acid, serotonin and NT-proBNP values. Results: The following echocardiographic features: global longitudinal strain of both ventricles, mean systolic velocity of the left ventricle, systolic velocity of the free wall of right ventricle, correlated with high values of specific biomarkers: serotonin, and urinary 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid, and also with the presence of hepatic metastases and poorly differentiated tumors. Discussion: In this study we identified several patients with early myocardial dysfunction due to carcinoid syndrome, representing a predictive model of poor prognosis, requiring further investigations. Conclusion: Echocardiographic assessment based on the measurement of systolic velocities, as well as the global longitudinal strain of both ventricles, together with specific biomarkers may contribute to better recognition of carcinoid heart disease in clinical practice, but this needs validation through further studies enrolling larger number of patients.