The name PNP was introduced by Eisenberg and Chen because it has important physical meaning beyond being the first letters of Poisson-Nernst-Planck. PNP also means Positive-Negative-Positive, the signs of majority current carriers in different regions of a PNP bipolar transistor. PNP transistors are two diodes in series PN + NP that rectify by changing the shape of the electric field. Transistors can function as quite different types of nonlinear devices by changing the shape of the electric field. Those realities motivated Eisenberg and Chen to introduce the name PNP in 1993.The pun “PNP = Poisson-Nernst-Planck = Positive-Negative-Positive” has physical content. It suggests that Poisson-Nernst-Planck systems like open ionic channels cannot be assumed to have constant electric fields. Indeed, the equations of electrodynamics make it more or less impossible that a channel have a constant electric field, if there is permanent charge nearby. The electric field must be studied and computed because its change of shape is unavoidable for charged channels, and the shape of the electric field is likely to be important in the function of biological systems, as it is in semiconductor systems.

In the wake of COVID-19, there is an urgent need for a diverse public health work force to address problems presented or exacerbated by the global pandemic. Educational programs that create our work force both train and shape the makeup of access through graduate applications. The Graduate Record Exam has a number of standing issues, with additional barriers created by the pandemic. We trace the GRE waiver movement over several years, focusing on the gradual adoption in CEPH accredited programs and the rapid expansion of temporary waivers as a response to testing access. Going forward, we need to consider gaps in waivers during the pandemic and how this data can be used to shape our future use of the GRE.

Background: Since circa 1980, a model of neocortical interactions, Statistical Mechanics of Neocortical Interactions (SMNI) has been successful in calculating many experimental phenomena, including fits to electroencephalographic (EEG) data in attention tasks, using an importance-sampling code Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA). The SMNI model is developed in the context of classical path-integrals, which affords intuitive insights as well as direct numerical benefits, e.g., using the effective Action as a a cost/objective function for parameter fits to data. Objective: Previous authors have fit affective EEG data to neural-network models. This project seeks to use models based on physics and biology to fit this same data. Previous work showed improvements in fits to EEG for attention states; this project extends these methods to affective states. Method: Path integrals are used in both classical and quantum contexts. Classical path integrals are used to define a cost/objective function to fit data, and quantum path integrals are used to derive a closed-form analytic expression for Ca-ion waves in the presence of a magnetic vector potential which is generated by highly synchronous neuronal firings which give rise to EEG. ASA is used to fit EEG data. Results: The mathematical-physics and computer parts of the study are successful, in that cost/objective functions used to fit EEG data using these models are consistent with previous work published by other authors. However, since the SMNI model includes these quantum effects, this is another reason to continue examining these issues. The results here are consistent, not better, than previous work using neural-network models, albeit only one parameter was used here, instead of multiple filters and kernels used previously on such data. Conclusion: Although these quantum effects are highly speculative, explicit calculations have shown them to be consistent with experimental data, at least to date. The current supercomputer project extends this model to affective/emotion data. Results from several authors using neural-network approaches at individual electrode sites show some predictive capabilities; the results given here are consistent with these other results. However, since the SMNI model includes these quantum effects, this is another reason to continue examining these issues.

Of course, now we know that quantum mechanics has been a fundamental structure of our world since our universe came into being. However, it has been only a century since the experimental and theoretical discovery of quantum mechanics and its extensions into many implications and applications. In particular, there are implications across many disciplines that most likely will affect education, health, security, etc. Examples are given of the need for starting education as early as possible in schools, the use of nano-robots to deliver drugs targeted to specific molecular sites, to developing new cryptographic systems to safeguard our privacy.

Regional mechanics of the heart is vital in the development of accurate computational models for the pursuit of relevant therapies. Challenges related to heart dysfunctioning are the most important sources of mortality in the world. For example, myocardial infarction (MI) is the foremost killer in sub-Saharan African countries. Mechanical characterisation plays an important role in achieving accurate material behaviour. Material behaviour and constitutive modelling are essential for accurate development of computational models. In most cases previously, the mechanical properties of the heart myocardium were assumed to be homogeneous. The main objective of this paper is to determine the mechanical material properties of healthy porcine myocardium in three regions, namely left ventricle (LV), mid-wall/interventricular septum (MDW) and right ventricle (RV). The biomechanical properties of the pig heart RV, LV and MDW were characterised using biaxial testing. The biaxial tests show the pig heart myocardium behaves non-linearly, heterogeneously and anisotropically. In this study, it was shown that RV, LV and MDW may exhibit slightly different mechanical properties. Data presented here may be helpful in regional tissue mechanics, especially for the understanding of various heart diseases and development of new therapies.

Motivation by the definition of the type 2 poly-Bernoulli polynomials introduced by Kim-Kim [9], in the present paper, we consider a new class of new generating function for the Fubini polynomials, called the type 2 poly-Fubini polynomials by means of the polyexponential function. Then, we derive some useful relations and properties. We show that the type 2 poly-Fubini polynomials equal a linear combination of the classical of the Fubini polynomials and Stirling numbers of the first kind. In a special case, we give a relation between the type 2 poly-Fubini polynomials and Bernoulli polynomials of order r. Moreover, inspired by the definition of the unipoly-Bernoulli polynomials introduced by Kim-Kim [9]. We introduce the type 2 unipoly-Fubini polynomials by means of unipoly function and give multifarious properties including derivative and integral properties. Furthermore, we provide a correlation between the unipoly-Fubini polynomials and the classical Fubini polynomials.

In this paper, we construct the degenerate poly-Fubini polynomials, called the type 2 degenerate poly-Fubini polynomials, by using the modified degenerate polyexponential function and derive several properties on the degenerate poly-Fubini polynomials and numbers. In the last section, we introduce type 2 degenerate unipoly- Fubini polynomials attached to an arithmetic function, by using the modified degenerate polyexponential function and investigate some identities for those polynomials. Furthermore, we give some new explicit expressions and identities of degenerate unipoly polynomials related to special numbers and polynomials.

Historically, 2020 will be remembered as the year of COVID-19 pandemic, that limited people move and their social habits. This virus, becomes the first daily tracked public health burden that leads to more than 1,2 million deaths in the World by the end of October 2020, and until now no countries' best control strategies are cited as the example of long term success.Since March 2^nd, 2020, date of the first SARS-COV-2 detected case in Morocco; many decisions were adopted as COVID-19 control strategies. If the first period of COVID-19 noticed a few numbers of cases and deaths, the second half from July is marked with an exponential increase of the number of cases and a spread in almost all provinces with more intensive care needs and more deaths. The policy analysis approach was followed as a method to define the pitfalls themes and to compare with the updated available international information any significant similarities or divergences. Thus, this report has the aim to present an overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic was dealt in Morocco during these 200 days, by highlighting some discrepancies with corrective advice provided in the first version of the manuscript to be confronted by a Moroccan health policymaker’s community, then to notice the decisions adopted during another one month by the MoH to get better future control results against COVID-19.Unfortunately, despite the MoH decision to increase the diagnostic facilities for molecular tests, the overall number of laboratory tests do not go further than 21000 tests per day. The actual insidious transmission is a dangerous blind threat that dissipates the collaborating efforts, due to this limited number of confirmation and follows up tests.Accurate, standardised and up to ten times per day tests of molecular biology represented by RT-qPCR, to interpret results following the time progress of cycle quantification values is the primary action to be done to enhance the overall control strategy.

Recent years have seen a proliferation of platform-based “shared mobility services” (SMS) such as car-, bike-, and e-scootersharing in many cities in Germany and around the world. At the same time, these services have become the subject of intense debates: Are they replacing private car travel, thus contributing to sustainable mobility in cities? Or are they drawing users away from public transit and cycling while obstructing public space? From the perspective of sustainable mobility politics it seems far from clear which role these new services could play in transitioning to a less car-centric mobility system. While a number of potential effects and ensuing governance issues of shared mobility services (e.g. regarding questions of equitable access, data governance, the role of public versus private actors) have already been studied this article explores the role of shared mobility services (SMS) in triggering system dynamics and feedback loops in the context of sustainability transitions. The article connects questions regarding the sustainability effects of “shared mobility services” with the role of “push” measures to reduce private car traffic in cities. Using a theoretical framework from socio-technical transitions research and from the sociology of technology it describes the recent growth of shared mobility services in Berlin as an example of the upscaling dynamics of socio-technical niche innovations. Drawing on a series of workshops with mobility service providers and representatives of public authorities it analyses the potential for conflict as well as for coalition building between service providers and public authorities. Based on the theoretical concept of the role of feedback loops and windows of opportunity for transitions it shows how the market growth of shared mobility services added momentum to an already ongoing political debate over the legitimate use of public space in Berlin. Against this backdrop the article shows how growing numbers of car-, bike-, and e-scootersharing vehicles could open up windows of opportunity for re-distributing space away from private cars. The article concludes that supporting and regulating SMS will be key to steering their growth into the direction of sustainability.

A growing body of evidence indicates that aging of the brain is strictly related to the decline of energy metabolism. In particular, in older adults, the neuronal metabolism of glucose declines steadily resulting in a growing deficit of ATP production. The decline is evoked by deficient NAD recovery in the salvage pathway and subsequent impairment of the Krebs cycle. NAD deficit impairs also the activity of NAD-dependent enzymes. All these open vicious circles of neurodegeneration and neuronal death. Some brain structures are particularly prone to aging and neurodegeneration. These are pathological foci of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. This review article summarizes the impacts and mutual relationships between metabolic processes both on neuronal and brain levels. It also provides directions on how to reduce the risk of neurodegeneration and protect the elderly against neurodegenerative diseases.

Conditional heteroskedastic financial time series are commonly modelled by (G)ARCH processes. ARCH(1) and GARCH were recently established in C[0,1] and L^2[0,1]. This article provides sufficient conditions for the existence of strictly stationary solutions, weak dependence and finite moments of (G)ARCH processes for any order in C[0,1] and L^p[0,1]. It deduces explicit asymptotic upper bounds of estimation errors for the shift term, the complete (G)ARCH operators and the projections of ARCH operators on finite-dimensional subspaces. The operator estimaton is based on Yule-Walker equations, and estimating the GARCH operators also involves a result estimating operators in invertible linear processes being valid beyond the scope of (G)ARCH. Moreover, our results regarding (G)ARCH can be transferred to functional AR(MA).

Unanticipated errors in scientific research data can be attributed to the unwarranted assumption of uniformity in the polystyrene surface that is ubiquitously used in tissue culture flasks and dishes. We have shown that when adherent cells are subjected to fluid shear force, equivalent to rinsing the culture with a balanced salt solution, cells on some areas of the polystyrene surface will immediately rupture while still adherent on the surface. This heterogeneity on the polystyrene surface can cause unexpected variability in experimental results and in replicating experiments among labs. In this paper a novel quantitative method is described to measure the degree of heterogeneity on the polystyrene surface of tissue culture flasks. The results show significant variation among several brands of tissue culture flasks as well as large variability within the production lot of a manufacturer. The assay method involves loading the cells with a fluorescent marker that is released upon membrane rupture. Cell membrane rupture also causes the loss of marker proteins used in Westernblots. This novel assay method can be used to monitor the batch consistency and the manufacturing process of flasks and dishes. It may also be used to test new biomaterials.

Astragalus bone is one of the most important fossil records as it can reconstruct the prehistoric life. Respectively, this study aims to model the body mass, habitat preference, and population density of prehistoric bovid Duboisia santeng (Dubois 1891) in eastern Java island in the early Pleistocene. The astragali from 9 specimens were used to estimate the body mass and population density. Likewise regression models are used to analyze the relationship between astragalus lateral length, width, and body mass compared to the astragalus of extant Bovid species. The result revealed the body mass average was 60.3 kg (95%CI: 58.9-61.7) and this indicates the D. santeng belongs to large herbivores. While the population density was estimated at about 5.39 individuals per km2 (95% CI: 3.18-7.6).

Background and Objectives: Chondroitin sulfate ABC endolyase (condoliase) was launched as a new drug for chemonucleolysis in 2018. There are few Few studies assessed regarding its clinical outcomes, and many important factors matters still remain unclear. The purpose of this This study aimed is to clarify clarify the preoperative conditionsfactors for in which condoliase could beis highly effective. Materials and Methods: Of the 47 patients who received condoliase, 34 patients were enrolled in this study. The mean age of the patients was 33 years. The average disease duration since the onset of the disease was 8.6 months. We evaluated the patients’patient’s low back and leg painpains using a numericalNumerical rating scale (NRS) score at two time points (before therapy and 3 months after therapyadministration). We divided the patients into two groups ([good group [(G]:): NRS score improvement ≥ 50%, poor group (P): NRS score improvement < 50%]. The parameters evaluatedSurvey items were age, disease disease duration, body mass index (BMI), and the presence or absence of positive or negative straight leg raising (SLR) test results. In additionMoreover, the loss of disc height loss and participation of preoperative radiological findings were also evaluated. Results: In terms of low back and leg pain, the G group were in 9/34 (26.5%) and 21/34 (61.8%) patients, respectively. Patients’. Patient’s age (low back pain G/P, 21.0/36.5 years)), was significantly loweryounger in the G group of low back pain (p = 0.001). High intensity change inof the protruded nucleus pulposus (NP) and the spinal canal occupancy by theof NP ≥ 40% were significantly highhighly observed in those withthe leg pain in the G groups (14/21,: p = 0.04; and 13/21,: p = 0.03, respectively). Conclusions: The efficacy of improvement inof leg pain was significantlyhighly correlated with high intensity change and size of the protruded NP. Condoliase was not significantly effective forto low back pain, but could might be expected have anthe effect onto younger patients.

In this review we summarize the recent development in understanding the role of PIP2 in cellular function and signaling. We first discuss the effect of PIP2 on actin binding proteins addressing the mechanism of the actin cytoskeletal dynamics such as polymerization or depolymerization of the filamentous network or the coupling to membrane to generate forces. Next, we outline the role of PIP2 in membrane dynamics. We summarized how the membrane organization depends upon PIP2 in the presence of ions or transmembrane proteins that are sensitive to membrane curvature. We discuss how clathrin coated pits interact with adaptor proteins during the endocytosis process, which is facilitated by PIP2. Finally, we discuss the role of PIP2 in cell signaling and diseases.

We present a thermodynamic approach in modeling the evolution of the universe based on a theory that space consists of energy quanta, the spaceons. From wave-particle duality, they can be treated as an ideal gas. The model is similar to the Big Bang but without Inflation. It provides an insight into the nature of dark energy and dark matter, and an explanation for the accelerated expansion of the universe. The universe started from an atomic size volume of spaceons at very high temperature and pressure. Upon expansion and cooling, phase transitions occurred resulting in the formation of fundamental particles, and matter. These nucleate and grow into stars, galaxies, and clusters due to the action of gravity. From the cooling curve of the universe we constructed a thermodynamic phase diagram of cosmic composition, from which we obtained the correlation between dark energy and the energy of space. Using Friedmann’s equations, our model fits well the WMAP data on cosmic composition with an equation of state parameter, w= -0.7. The dominance of dark energy started at 7.25 x 10⁹ years, in good agreement with BOSS measurements. The expansion of space is attributed to a scalar quantum space field. Dark Matter is identified as a plasma form of matter similar to that which existed during the photon epoch, prior to recombination. The thermodynamics of expansion of the universe was adiabatic and decelerating during the first 7 billion years after the Big Bang; it accelerated thereafter. A negative pressure for Dark Energy is required to sustain the latter. This is consistent with the theory of General Relativity and the law of conservation of energy. We propose a mechanism for the acceleration as due to consolidation of matter forming Dark Energy Stars (DES) and other compact objects. The resulting reduction in gravitational potential energy feeds back energy for the expansion. Space will continue to expand and dark energy will undergo phase transition to a Bose-Einstein condensate, a superfluid form of matter. Self-gravitation can cause a bounce and start a new Big Bang. We show how the interplay of gravitational and space forces leads to a cyclic, maybe eternal, universe.

The purpose of this study was to develop a mathematical model for non-contacting face seals to analyze how their performance is affected by thermoelastic phenomena. The model was used to solve thermal conductivity and thermoelasticity problems. The primary goal was to calculate the values of thermal deformations of the sealing rings in a non-contacting face seal with a flexibly mounted rotor (FMR) for a turbomachine. The model assumes conversion of mechanical energy into heat in the fluid film. The heat flux generated in the fluid film is transferred first to the sealing rings and then to the fluid surrounding them. An asymmetric distribution of temperature within the sealing rings leads to the occurrence of thermal stresses and, consequently, a change in the rings geometry. The model is solved analytically. The distributions of temperature fields for the sealing rings in the cross-sections are calculated using the Fourier-Bessel series as a superficial function of two variables (r,z). The thermoelasticity problems described by the Navier equations are solved by applying the Boussinesq harmonic functions and Goodier’s thermoelastic displacement potential function. The proposed method involves solving various theoretical and practical problems of thermoelasticity in FMR-type non-contacting face seals. The calculated thermal deformations of the sealing rings are used to determine the most important seal performance parameters such as the leakage rate and power loss.

In a recent paper [1], I argued against backward in time effects used by several authors to explain delayed choice experiments. I gave an explanation showing that there is no physical influence propagating from the present to the past and modifying the state of the system at a time previous to the measurement. However, though the solution is straightforward in the case of delayed choice experiments involving only one particle, it is subtler in the case of experiments involving two entangled particles because they give rise to EPR-like situations. Considering that a measurement is not an actual change of the physical state of a system and is relative to the observer allows to understand that there is neither backward in time effects nor instantaneous collapse of the second system when the first one is measured, as is often postulated. This allows also to get rid of any non-locality [2]. In this paper, I want to go further into the consequences of this way of considering the measurement, that I have called Convivial Solipsism, and show that even if, in the usual sense, there is no physical effect of the present or of the future on the past, we must nevertheless consider that the observer’s past is sometimes not entirely determined and that it becomes determined only when certain measurements are done latter. This apparent contradiction disappears if one understand that each observer builds, through her own measurements, her own world (that I call the phenomenal world in Convivial Solipsism) which is different from what we are used to consider as the common world shared by everybody.

Sickle cell disease is characterized by stiff, “sickled” red blood cells that have difficulty moving through the bloodstream and do not efficiently carry oxygen. It is an inherited disease with severely limited treatment options, and is caused by a point mutation. Its prevalence in black and brown communities makes the already limited treatment options even less accessible. Base editing and prime editing are two relatively recent discoveries in the field of genome editing and were developed after the groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR Cas9 system. While not fully tested, they hold a lot of promise in providing alternative treatment options for sickle cell disease. Both editing systems are able to install individual point mutations in the beta globin gene, which is where the sickle cell mutation occurs, and can thus cure sickle cell disease (in theory). In this paper we outline the mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 systems and base and prime editing, and provide insight into how to apply them to treat SCD. Further investigation should be done on specific editing systems and designs to use to ensure optimal treatment of SCD.

We review extrapolation methods for calculation of critical points and indices from the perturbative expansions by means of Pad\'{e}-based techniques and their various post-Pad\'{e} extensions by means of root and factor approximants. Factor approximants are applied to finding critical points. Roots are employed within the context of finding critical index. Additive self-similar approximants are discussed and $DLog$ additive recursive approximants are introduced as their generalization. They are applied to the problem of interpolation.

Standard Model is well-performing under the three-generation, but in the wake of more physics, fourth-generation leptons and quarks are introduced. In this paper, We will be reviewing various constraints surrounding quarks and leptons of 4th Generation and tried to show the importance of quarks to understand the baryogenesis. We talked about, reviewed existing parameters and set the updated lower limits of t’ and b’ by analysis. And predicted an updated version of lower mass bounds quarks and leptons. It is also reviewed that fourth generation leptons are primarily not possible because of disintegration of Higgs Boson and an interpretation has been setup. And in final, we talked about the Unified Standard Model.

This two-part series describes how to test hypotheses on molecular mechanisms that underlie biological phenomena, using preclinical drug testing as a simplified example. While pursuing drug testing in preclinical research, it is important for students to understand the limitations of descriptive as well as mechanistic studies. The former does not identify any causal links between two or more variables; it identifies the presence or absence of correlations. The latter has caveats presented in Parts I and II of this series. Part II also describes how to test for a causal link between drug-induced activation of biological targets and therapeutic outcomes. Here, the mechanism of action of the drug is identified with pharmacological or genetic approaches that modify the expression/activity of the drug targets. Without interference with the proposed mechanism of action, a causal link between activation (or inhibition) of the target P and the therapeutic outcomes of drug D cannot be established. Using pharmacological agonists and antagonists, gene knockout and overexpression, or protein knockdown tools, designing a full-factorial three-way ANOVA forces the investigator to include the appropriate control groups, mitigating the risk of false positive or false negative conclusions. Upon completion of this series, the educator and student will have some of the tools in hand to design mechanistic studies and interpret various experimental outcomes, with knowledge of strengths and limitations of preclinical research.

Many discoveries in the biological sciences have emerged from observational studies, but student researchers also need to learn how to design experiments that distinguish correlation from causation. For example, identifying the physiological mechanism of action of drugs with therapeutic potential requires the establishment of causal links. Only by specifically interfering with the purported mechanisms of action of a drug can the researcher determine how the drug “causes” its physiological effects. Typically, pharmacological or genetic approaches are employed to modify the expression and/or activity of the biological drug target or downstream pathways, to test if the salutary properties of the drug are thereby abolished. However, experimental techniques have caveats that tend to be underappreciated, particularly for the newer methods. In this two-part series, the caveats and strengths of mechanistic preclinical research are described, using the intuitive example of pharmaceutical drug testing in experimental models of human diseases. This series is not intended to tackle the perpetual clash between the frequentist approach to statistics and other schools of thought. Rather, Part I focuses on technical practicalities and common pitfalls of cellular and animal models designed for drug testing, and Part II describes in simple terms how to leverage a full-factorial three-way ANOVA, to test for causality in the link between drug-induced activation (or inhibition) of a biological target and therapeutic outcomes. Upon completion of this series, the student is expected to appreciate the strengths as well as limitations of mechanistic research and to avoid some of its pitfalls.

Max Born's statistical interpretation made probabilities play a major role in quantum theory. Here we show that these quantum probabilities and the classical probabilities have very different origins. While the lat- ter always result from an assumed probability measure, the first include transition probabilities with a purely algebraic origin. Moreover, the gen- eral definition of transition probability introduced here comprises not only the well-known quantum mechanical transition probabilities between pure states or wave functions, but further novel cases. A transition probability that differs from 0 and 1 manifests the typical quantum indeterminacy in a similar way as Heisenberg's and others' un- certainty relations and, furthermore, rules out deterministic states in the same way as the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem. However, the transition probability defined here achieves a lot more beyond that: it demonstrates that the algebraic structure of the Hilbert space quantum logic dictates the precise values of certain probabilities and it provides an unexpected access to these quantum probabilities that does not rely on states or wave functions.

Hasselmann and coauthors proposed the discrete interaction approximation (DIA) as the best tool replacing the nonlinear evolution term in a numerical wind-wave model. Much later, Polnikov and Farina radically improved the original DIA by means of location all the interacting four wave vectors, used in the DIA configuration, exactly at the nodes of the numerical frequency-angular grid. This provides nearly two-times enhancing the speed of numerical calculation for the nonlinear evolution term in a wind-wave model. For this reason, the proposed version of the DIA was called as the fast DIA (FDIA). In this paper we demonstrate all details of the FDIA concept for several frequency-angular numerical grids of high resolution, with the aim of active implementation the FDIA in modern versions of world-wide used wind-wave models.

late in December 2019 2019-nCoV was identified as the pathogen responsible for an outbreak of severe respiratory distress in Wuhan, China. The virus was detected in multiple countries during January, but it is believed widespread community transmission began late in February or early March. Since March the virus has caused over 100k confirmed deaths in the US, with some states more severely impacted, notably NY and NJ. Here I examine excess mortality at the national and state level from January through July 2020. I find that the increase in excess mortality began in late February, suggesting the pathogen was circulating undetected earlier than assumed. The timing and intensity of the increase in excess mortality varied across states, with two patterns emerging: an early, sharp increase reaching a peak during April-May, best exemplified by NY and NJ, and a shallower, sustained increase, reaching a peak in late July, observed mostly in the southern regions of the US.

The companion paper (Rice 2020) found that the centromeric repeats of the Western European house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) have unusual structure: i) despite moderate pairwise sequence divergence (average = 5.9%), no monomer sequence was common and many hundreds of monomer sequences were observed, ii) local sequence divergence among neighboring monomers was nearly as high as genome-wide divergence, and iii) matching sequences were rare between side-by-side monomers. Here I integrate information from many published studies to formulate a hypothesis for the evolution of this structure. Non-matching sequences of neighboring centromeric monomers is hypothesized to be selectively favored in the context of molecular drive because it reduces the rate of monomer deletion during repair of double strand breaks (DSBs) via the Single Strand Annealing (SSA) pathway. The foundation for the hypothesis is the observation that centromeres of most populations of M. m. domestics reside close to the telomere, i.e., all their chromosomes are telocentrics. This proximity influences repair of centromeric DSBs because it places at least part of the centromere within the Telomere-Affected Repair Region (TARR; a location with increased concentrations of the shelterin-complex proteins that bind telomeres, especially TRF2). Shelterin proteins increase the level of 5’→3’ end resection at DSBs and thereby: i) decrease the frequency of repair via the c- NHEJ pathway, and ii) increase the frequency of homology-directed repair (HD-repair) –including the SSA repair pathway. It is hypothesized that certain ‘trigger’ events (e.g., sub-telomeric deletions) occur in local populations that increase the influence of TARR on the centromere. This increase elevates the occurrence of SSA repair of centromeric DSBs to a level that causes centromeres to begin to gradually shrink. Chronic shrinkage leads to coevolution between centromere size and karyotype number. Once centromeres shrink to a size below a critical minimum (that causes substantially reduced kinetochore size), fusions between non- homologous telocentrics with undersized centromeres produces metacentrics with an expanded centromere size (and a corresponding ‘quantum-jump’ in kinetochore size). These metacentrics: i) accumulate to fixation because they are favored by centromere drive, and ii) are released from the influence of TARR and thereby gradually recover larger centromere size. Fission of metacentrics with enlarged centromeres can next plausibly regenerate pairs of telocentrics with sufficiently large centromeres (which recruit normal-sized kinetochores) to be favored by centromere drive and accumulate to fixation. This fixation completes a cycle of coevolution within genomes that oscillate between two extremes: i) high karyotype number (2N = 40; all telocentrics) with larger centromeres, and ii) low karyotype number (2N << 40; mainly metacentrics) with initially small centromeres that gradually increase in size.

Parallel lives is a model which provides an interpretation of quantum theory that is both local and realistic. This model assumes that all quantum fields are composed of point beings called ”lives”. Lives interact locally and have a memory of their previous interactions. The reduction of the state vector is not included in this model: lives can be divided into different worlds. This feature resembles many worlds interpretation. However in the parallel lives model, the division of lives into different worlds takes place locally. The parallel lives model is expected to be compatible with special relativity, as the lives propagate at a speed that does not exceed the speed of light and interact locally. On the other hand, it is open to paradoxes based on counterfactual propositions, as it provides a realistic interpretation of quantum theory. In this paper, we confront the parallel lives model with the paradox proposed by Hardy. We show that the parallel lives model cannot overcome the dilemma in Hardy’s paradox. We discuss implications of this confrontation on special theory of relativity, and speculate a solution that we believe, fits the spirit of the parallel lives model.

Susceptible, infective, recovered, and hospitalized/isolated individuals are placed on the cells of a nxn square lattice, where each cell is occupied by a single individual or is vacant. At discrete time units (typically one day each) all susceptibles and infectives execute a random movement and when a coincidence of the two types occurs the susceptible is converted to infective status according to some probability. Infectives are labelled by the number of days since originally infected. At each time increment the age label of the infectives is increased by one unit. When the label reaches a number like 15 or 20 days the susceptibles recover with some probability or become isolated/hospitalized. Upon reaching some age the latter types either recover or die. Probabilities for the movements and conversions from one status to another are implemented by random numbergeneration. Simulations were carried out to investigate the effect of several probability and age parameters, the size of population (proportional to nxn) and density (related to fraction of occupied cells), and the size of the movements. Mid-term gradual conversion of susceptibles to isolated was explored as intervention policy.

Though the share of the world population living in extreme poverty declined to 10 percent in 2015, from 16 percent in 2010 and 36 percent in 1990, data shows that the world is not on track in achieving the target of less than 3 percent of people living in extreme poverty by 2030. Hence the study sought to investigate the influence of AI on poverty reduction. Using content analysis one of the unobtrusive research techniques, the study found out that, the availability of relevant data is making AI be able to deliver value to humanity and AI has a strong influence on poverty in areas of relevant data collection through poverty maps, its ability to revolutionize agriculture, education, and the financial sector through digital financial inclusion. The study also discovered that many countries especially developing nations are not collecting as much data to identify the number of poor people and the regions where these people are located. However, the existence of AI is assisting to change this, or instance the study discovered that the research team at Stanford University is using satellite images to provide an alternative to map poverty, to identify the regions where poverty is more concentrated. Also, various robotics and AI programs such as Google and Stanford University’s Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence Lab, are coming forth with AI programs in agriculture which are doing a lot to improve farming, through the identification of diseases, prediction of crop yields, and location of areas prone to a scarcity among several other notable signs of progress in education. Therefore, the study recommends that governments, development institutions and other organizations that are striving to fight poverty to invest more in AI as well as adopting and scaling up its use as it presents benefits in the quest to ensure that poverty is reduced.

The migration routes have facilitated the distribution of mammals from south east Asian mainland to the Sundaland including Java island in the early Pleistocene. One of species that has migrated through that route is antelope-like bovid Duboisia santeng. In the present study, the potential distribution areas and the suitable habitats of D. santeng have been projected and modeled. The modeled habitat was a forest river basin sizing 302.91 Ha in the central of Java island. The model has classified and reconstructed the habitat suitability ranged from low to high back to Pleistocene. The surrounding areas of forest were mostly classified as medium and low related to the limited tree covers. Most suitable habitats were identified in the middle of forest river basin where the tree covers were presented

This paper discusses recent developments in creep, over a wide range of temperature, that mqy change our understanding of creep. The five-power law creep exponent (3.5 to 7) has never been explained in fundamental terms. The best the scientific community has done is to develop a natural three power-law creep equation that falls short of rationalizing the higher stress exponents that are typically five. This inability has persisted for many decades. Computational work examining the stress-dependence of the climb rate of edge dislocations we may rationalize the phenomenological creep equations. Harper-Dorn creep, “discovered” over 60 years ago has been immersed in controversy. Some investigators have insisted that a stress exponent of one is reasonable. Others believe that the observation of a stress exponent of one is a consequence of dislocation network frustration. Others believe the stress exponent is artificial due to the inclusion of restoration mechanisms such as dynamic recrystallization or grain growth that is not of any consequence in the five power-law regime. Also, the experiments in the Harper-Dorn regime, which accumulate strain very slowly (sometimes over a year) may not have attained a true steady state. New theories suggest that absence or presence of Harper-Dorn may be a consequence of the initial dislocation density. Novel experimental work suggests that power-law breakdown may be a consequence of a supersaturation of vacancies which increase self-diffusion.

Life evolved in an euxinic world with subsequent oxic 'invasion' leading to two parallel but interconnected biospheres, hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) exemplify these worlds respectively. Their concentration gradients have informational value in meromictic lakes. Similarly, it is posited, there exists a whole body chemocline in humans in which the two molecules form an inversely coupled oxic/sulphidic oscillator (OSO). The OSO is hormetic and characterised by a range of amplitudes and frequencies in health. Deviations from its baseline profile heralds the onset of SIRS before the appearance of clinical signs. Loss of oscillator status and transition to a steady state causes widespread intercellular and inter-organ communication failure presaging multi-organ dysfunction. The salient clinico-pathophysiological features of SIRS of any aetiology are emergent phenomena related to the OSO profile. Extent of recovery of organ function will mirror the recovery of the OSO profile thereby providing a tool to predict outcomes in SIRS.

It is shown that the Lambda component in the cosmological Lambda-CDM model can be conceived as vacuum energy, consisting of gravitational particles subject to Heisenberg’s energy-time uncertainty. These particles can be modelled as elementary polarisable Dirac-type dipoles (“darks”) in a fluidal space at thermodynamic equilibrium, with spins that are subject to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Around the baryonic kernels, uniformly distributed in the universe, the spins are polarized, thereby invoking an increase of the effective gravitational strength of the kernels. It explains the dark matter effect to the extent that the numerical value of Milgrom’s acceleration constant can be assessed by theory. Non-polarized vacuum particles beyond the baryonic kernels compose the dark energy. The result is a quantum mechanical interpretation of gravity in terms of quantitatively established shares in baryonic matter, dark matter and dark energy, which correspond with the values of the Lambda-CDM model..

Reciprocal Personal/Public Protection (RPPP) featured with source control is introduced, Mask Discriminating Mouth and Nose (MDMN) is employed to serve the purpose, which includes polymer based mouth cover with optional nose cover. The new knowledge that mouth is a primary, active and dominant source of the virus has been well established, which is the base of MDMN. Source classification and related source control tools are discussed, mouth cover is recommended as the tool prioritized to use. Liquid droplets is identified as a hard issue related to mask, liquid droplets, mask fitting, comfort and facial recognition constitute real challenges of mask in addition to efficiency, All of these have been addressed with MDMN. Comparisons between MDMN and masks/face covering are taken on four aspects: efficiency and efficacy, tolerance and comfort, cost and waste, and civil rights and public interest. Mouth cover is recommended to replace the face covering and act as both a personal tool and a public utensil, mouth cover with nose cover can provide better protection than N95 etc. RPPP with MDMN, could be an alternative for lockdown, a parallel strategy to vaccine, and a collectively living way during the pandemic era. MDMN, featured with high efficiency protection, high degree comfort, easy wearing, tight-fitting, easy facial recognition & communication, reusability, cost-effective, environment friendly and scale manufacturing more readily and widely etc., is a simple and sustainable solution, which is essential for ordinary people to keep wearing it properly for protection.

Planck’s constant and the gravitational constant are comprised of more fundamental quantities of length, mass, and time. Reformulating traditional equations in terms of these fundamental units offers a more granular view of the physical transformations encoded in the equations of physics. The composite structure of h and G conceals a simple model in which maximum unit potentials are reduced by dimensionless proportionality operators. Natural symmetries correlate the three unit dimensions, yielding predictable quantities of physical dynamics. Insights are organized into a New Foundations Model of physics that reformulates traditional constants and equations in elementary form. The New Foundations Model offers a common language for describing quantum mechanical, gravitational, and electromagnetic phenomena.

To activate gene expression, the initiation of transcription is a highly regulated process involving the interaction of proteins and DNA nucleotides at the promoter site, which consists of a small number of base pairs. As it involves interactions at the atomic scale, it is challenging to determine the mechanism of binding responsible for the great specificity between the amino acid residuals comprising the transcription binding protein and the DNA nucleotides comprising the promoter. Here, a new approach to characterize the transcription initiation process is developed and verified from analysis of comparative pharmacological efficacy data and elemental modeling. The newly developed description of a mechanism for transcription initiation involves the direct binding of small molecule ligands of approximately twenty carbon atoms, which are both structurally symmetric to DNA nucleotides, and also chemically complementary in its functional groups for interaction with the oxygen element at the carbon two position of thymine and with the phosphodiester chain. The results indicate that the activating ligands are transported to the DNA nucleotide promoter site by protein transcription factors, which serve as delivery vectors, for transfer of the ligand to the DNA nucleotide pairs. The ligands examined in this study include the steroid hormones, synthetic steroid molecules, derivatives of vitamin D, and prostaglandins, particularly PGJ2 and 15d-PGJ2. The transcription factors evaluated include glucocorticoid receptors, VDR, PPAR, and TBP. Through the developments, it is shown that because of the chemically complementary binding of the ligand to DNA nucleotide pairs, the resultant intermolecular complex produces three hydrogen bonds for the A-T and T-A configurations, which matches that of G-C and C-G. The orientation of the nucleotide base pairs is also seen to adjust as an inversion of the nominal position of the nucleobases to a dimer configuration presented via TBP transcription factor. The developments comprise a new approach to characterizing the initiation of the transcription process comprising the direct binding and interaction of ligands with DNA nucleotides as verified through comparative analysis of pharmacological activity and through perfect structural correspondence between the steroid hormone class as ligands with Watson-Crick DNA nucleotide pairings.

The Strawberry Line is a linear Local Nature Reserve extending along a dismantled railway corridor in North Somerset, England. The Reserve is cherished as a recreational resource by local communities and I am very fortunate to live beside it. During the COVID-19 lockdown of spring 2020, I decided to make use of my permissible daily exercise to record the distribution of breeding birds along my particular ‘patch’ of the Strawberry Line - the Vale of Winscombe section in the Mendip Hills. In describing the Reserve’s birdlife, I hope that I can provide an added layer of interest for locals and visitors, which might help in these difficult times deliver an enhanced dose of ‘Nature’s Fix’ and perhaps also shine a light towards a greater appreciation and connection with the natural world.

After a Century it is time to turn the page on understanding of lactate metabolism and appreciate that lactate shuttling as an important component of intermediary metabolism in vivo. Cell-Cell and intracellular Lactate Shuttles fulfill purposes of energy substrate production and distribution as well as cell signaling under fully aerobic conditions. Recognition of lactate shuttling came first in studies of physical exercise where roles of driver and recipient cells and tissues were obvious. Moreover, the presence of lactate shuttling as part of postprandial glucose disposal has been recognized. Mitochondrial respiration creates the physiological sink for lactate disposal in vivo. Repeated lactate exposure from regular exercise results in adaptive processes such as mitochondrial biogenesis and other healthful circulatory and neurological characteristic such as improved physical work capacity, metabolic flexibility and cognition. The importance of lactate and lactate shuttling in healthful living is further emphasized when lactate signaling and shuttling are dysregulated as occur in illness and injury. Like a Phoenix, lactate rises again in importance in 21^st Century Biology.

The growth of solid particles during liquid phase sintering was modeled by the Cellular Automata method. The binary phase diagram and Fickian approach for the diffusion process were applied to simulate the chemical composition variation in liquid and solid phases during sintering. The Oswald-Ripening effect was considered during the dissolution of the solid phase in the liquid phase. It is used to define the probability of solid-phase dissolution by the liquid phase and develop the model to simulate the alloy with solid solubility. So, the microstructure could be modeled in the liquid phase sintering process.

We discuss methods for calculation of critical indices and amplitudes from the perturbative expansions. Several important examples of the Stokes flow through 2D and 3D channels are brought up. Power series for the permeability derived for small values of amplitude are employed to calculation of various critical exponents in the regime of large amplitudes. Special nonlinear approximations valid for arbitrary values of the wave amplitude are derived from the expansions. The technique developed for critical phenomena is applied then for relaxation phenomena. The concept of time-translation invariance is discussed, its spontaneous violation and restoration considered. Emerging probabilistic patterns correspond to a local breakdown of time-translation invariance. Their evolution leads to the timetranslation symmetry complete (or partial) restoration. We estimate typical time extent, amplitude and direction for such restorative process. The new technique is based on explicit introduction of origin in time. After some transformations we come to the exponential and generalized, exponential-type solution with explicit finite time scale, which was only implicit in initial parametrization with polynomial approximation. The concept of crash as a relaxation phenomenon, consisting of time-translation invariance breaking and restoration, is put forward. COVID-19 related mini-crash in the time series for Shanghai Composite is discussed as an illustration.

The black hole information paradox is one of the most puzzling paradoxes in physics. Black holes trap everything that falls into them, while their mass may leak away through purely thermal Hawking radiation. When a black hole vanishes, all the information locked inside, if any, is just lost, thus challenging the principles of quantum mechanics. However, some information does have a way to escape from inside the black hole, that is, through gravitational waves. Here, a concise extension of this notion is introduced. When a black hole swallows something, whether it is a smaller black hole or an atom, the system emits gravitational waves carrying the information about the “food”. Although most of the signals are too weak to be detected, the information encoded within them will persist in the universe. This speculation provides an explanation for a large part, if not all, of the supposed “information loss” in black holes, and thus reconciles the predictions of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Occasionally, officials of the world’s regulatory agencies embark upon attempts at bringing previously unregulated physical systems under regulation by them. Each such attempt raises an epistemological issue. At issue is whether enough information about the outcomes of the events of the future, given the outcomes of the events of the present, will be in the hands of a would-be regulator for this regulator to regulate effectually. If present, this information is provided by runs of a model of the physical system that is slated for regulation. Ideally, this model makes an argument that draws its conclusion from the evidence presented to it. If so, this argument is of the form of a predictive inference. However, the process by which an argument draws its conclusion from the evidence may go awry. This happens, for example, when the axiom of probability theory called unit measure is falsified by a conclusion that is drawn from the evidence by this argument.A method is derived from first principles for determination of whether unit measure is satisfied or falsified by an argument made by a model, given that this argument may attach unusual meanings to statistical terms. This method is used in a study of whether unit measure is satisfied or falsified by the arguments that are made by a pair of models. Both models are in active use by regulatory agencies around the world. Under neither argument do runs of the model provide an official of a regulatory agency with the information gain aka mutual information that he or she would need to regulate effectually. Under both arguments, attachment of unusual meanings to statistical terms creates the illusion that such an official can and does regulate effectually.

A dynamic view is conjectured for not only the universe but also the underlying theories in contrast to the convectional pursuance of single unification theory. As the 4 -d spacetime evolves dimension by dimension via the spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism, supersymmetric mirror models consistently emerge one by one at different energy scales and scenarios involving different sets of particle species and interactions. Starting from random Planck fluctuations, the time dimension and its arrow are born in the time inflation process as the gravitational strength is weakened under a 1-d model of a “timeron” scalar field. The “ timeron” decay then starts the hot big bang and generates Majorana fermions and U(1) gauge bosons in 2-d spacetime. The next spontaneous symmetry breaking results in two space inflaton fields leading to a double space inflation process and emergence of two decoupled sectors of ordinary and mirror particles. In fully extended 4-d spacetime, the supersymmetric standard model with mirror matter before the electroweak phase transition and the subsequent pseudo-supersymmetric model due to staged quark condensation as previously proposed are justified. A set of principles are postulated under t his new framework. In particular, new understanding of the evolving supersymmetry and Z2 or generalized mirror symmetry is presented.

In this article the reduction of a $n$-dimensional space to a $k$-dimensional space is considered as a reduction of $N^n$ states to $N^k$ states, where $N$ stands for the number of single-particle states per unit of spatial length. It turns out, this space reduction could be understood as another definition of inflation. It is shown that the introduction of the non-associativity of the algebra of physical fields in a homogeneous space leads to a nonlinear equation, the solutions of which can be considered as two-stage inflation. Using the example of reduction $T\times R^7$ to $T\times R^3$, it is shown that there is a continuous cross-linking of the Friedmann and inflationary stages of algebraic inflation at times $10^{-15}$ with the number of baryons $10^{80}$ in the Universe. In this paper, we construct a new gravitational constant based on a nonassociative octonion algebra.

In this article the reduction of a $n$-dimensional space to a $k$-dimensional space is considered as a reduction of $N^n$ states to $N^k$ states, where $N$ stands for the number of single-particle states per unit of spatial length. It turns out, this space reduction could be understood as another definition of inflation. It is shown that the introduction of the non-associativity of the algebra of physical fields in a homogeneous space leads to a nonlinear equation, the solutions of which can be considered as two-stage inflation. Using the example of reduction $T\times R^7$ to $T\times R^3$, it is shown that there is a continuous cross-linking of the Friedmann and inflationary stages of algebraic inflation at times $10^{-15}$ with the number of baryons $10^{80}$ in the Universe. In this paper, we construct a new gravitational constant based on a nonassociative octonion algebra.

The construction of molecular robotic-like objects that imitate living things is an important challenge for current chemists. Such molecular devices are expected to perform their duties robustly to carry out mechanical motion, process information, and make independent decisions. Dissipative self-organization plays an essential role in meeting these purposes. To produce a micro-robot that can perform the above tasks autonomously as a single entity, a function generator is required. Although many elegant review articles featuring chemical devices that mimic biological mechanical functions have been published recently, the dissipative structure, which is the minimum requirement, has not been sufficiently discussed. This article aims to show clearly that dissipative self-organization is a phenomenon involving autonomy, robustness, mechanical functions, and energy transformation. Moreover, the author details the recent experimental results of an autonomous light-driven molecular device that achieves all of these features. In addition, a chemical model of cell-amplification is also discussed to focus on the generation of hierarchical movement by dissipative self-organization. By reviewing this research, it may be perceived that mainstream approaches to synthetic chemistry have not always been appropriate. In summary, the author proposes that the integration of catalytic functions is a key issue for the creation of autonomous microarchitecture.

The science‐policy interface in climate change adaptation became better managed over the past decades. However, the scientists and other knowledge producers, as well as policy makers still need to take bolder steps to more effectively engage with others to apply science and shape up policies. This paper aims to provide practical recommendations, intended to promote conversations between science and policy sectors to address climate change issues. Here, I used two different approaches to synthesize experiences and identify recommendations: a literature review and a case study. The paper stress main findings: (1) The linear communication model is still commonly involved in the science - policy dialogue and proved to be useful to increase the relevance of science and data products to decision makers. (2) When a gap between knowledge producer and knowledge user or decision maker exists, the need for a third party to specialize in bridging the gap become essential. (3) Indigenous people and knowledge must be involved in adaptation policy making based on legitimation local and traditional knowledge, designing the consultation process to broadly engage local and indigenous people, facilitating meaningful dialogues between traditional knowledge and science, and developing initiatives to strengthen skills and capacity of indigenous communities.

We formulate the statistics of the discrete multicomponent fragmentation event using a methodology borrowed from statistical mechanics. We generate the ensemble of all feasible distributions that can be formed when a single integer multicomponent mass is broken into fixed number of fragments and calculate the combinatorial multiplicity of all distributions in the set. We define random fragmentation by the condition that the probability of distribution be proportional to its multiplicity and obtain the partition function and the mean distribution in closed form. We then introduce a functional that biases the probability of distribution to produce in a systematic manner fragment distributions that deviate to any arbitrary degree from the random case. We corroborate the results of the theory by Monte Carlo simulation and demonstrate examples in which components in sieve cuts of the fragment distribution undergo preferential mixing or segregation relative to the parent particle.

Identifying and assessing risk is one of the most important processes in managing complex systems and requires careful consideration. The need for an effective, efficient approach to risk management is considerably more important for defense projects based on systems of systems (SoS), because they are exposed to risk already in early stages of development. This paper uses advanced data science tools to present the complexity of the risk factors relevant to defense systems, and proposes a methodology for identifying, analyzing and monitoring the risks that they face. Findings from an in-depth analysis of 46 classified defense projects based on SoS shows a need to focus on three main risks faced by defense projects: uncertainty, the lack of clearly defined goals, and managing a system under constrained conditions. The paper also presents some recommendations for minimizing risk factors in SoS for defense projects.

This tutorial is organized into three major sections—viruses, vaccines and the race for a Covid-19 vaccine. The goal is to provide enough background on viruses, history of vaccines, and the science of vaccinology founded on the principles of immunity. The hope is that this will enable us to understand the challenges, methods and prospects for developing a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Many important viruses such as smallpox, HIV, HCV and SARS-CoV-2 which is responsible for causing the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) are presented in detail, which is then followed by a description of different vaccine development methods and strategies. The tutorial then discusses different candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and provides specific details of many of the prospective vaccines on the leader-board which are undergoing clinical trials. The tutorial concludes with a realistic projection for a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 based on the historical scientific record.

This paper revisits a classic problem in physics - Hertz elastic dynamics of two colliding elastic spheres. This study obtains impact period in terms of hypergeometric function and successfully combines Deresiewicz's three segmental solutions into one single solution. Our numerical investigation confirms that Deresiewicz's inversion is a good approximation. As an essential part of this study, a general Maple code is provided.

A solution for the Prandtl-Blasius equation is essential to all kinds of boundary layer problems. This paper revisits this classic problem and presents a general Maple code as its numerical solution. The solutions were obtained from the Maple code, using the Runge-Kutta method. The study also considers convergence radius expanding and an approximate analytic solution is proposed by curve fitting. Similarly, the study resolves some boundary layer related problems and provide relevant Maple codes for these.

Metal 3D printing technology is a promising manufacturing method. The quality of the printed product can pass for mechanical application, if the anisotropy of the microstructure, imperfections, deformation, and residual stress of the printed sample could be lower than the appropriate level or if they are fully illuminated. Thermal stress is one of the significant reasons for deformation in the 3D printed samples. Thermal stresses are the direct consequence of the local temperature gradient. In this research, the effect of the temperature printer’s chamber (from room temperature to 900 C) was studied on thermal stress and subsequent total deformation in the printed sample. The printed sample is a six-layers-printed walk, which could be considered as a building block of other complex shapes and give us inside about deformation. The computational results show a meaningful reduction in thermal stress and deformation at the higher temperature of the printer’s chamber. The lower final deformation of the printed sample is an important subject, especially for samples with complex shapes.

In this paper, using the discrete time model, we consider the average age of all files for a cached-files-updating system where a server generates N files and transmits them to a local cache. In order that the cached files are fresh, in each time slot the server updates files with certain probabilities. The age of one file or its age of information (AoI) is defined as the time the file stays in cache since it was last time sent to cache. Assume that each file in cache has corresponding request popularity. In this paper, we obtain the distribution function of the popularity-weighted average age over all files, which gives a complete description of this average age. For the random age of single file, both the mean and its distribution have been derived before by establishing a simple Markov chain. Using the same idea, we show that an N dimensional stochastic process can be constituted to characterize the changes of N file ages simultaneously. By solving the steady-state of the resulting process, we obtain the explicit expression of stationary probability for an arbitrary state-vector. Then, the distribution function of the popularity-weighted average age can be derived by mergering a proper set of stationary probabilities. For the possible applications, the distribution function can be utilized to calculate the probability that the average age violates certain statistical guarantee.

Human infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, called COVID-19, is a new pandemic with devastating effects worldwide. Science seeks the rational and systematic explanation of phenomena. In pandemics, decisions on prevention and treatment of people should be consistently taken, supported by scientific knowledge and ethical principles to produce more good than harm. At first, prospective observational studies to systematically collect patient data, correlating protective or therapeutic interventions with outcomes to assess effectiveness and safety, should be prioritized as the most appropriate type of study. The proposed protocol in this article aims to provide doctors with information on the reduction of harm in early COVID-19 patients by applying individualized interventionist or expectant therapeutic strategies, respecting the autonomy and preferences of physicians and patients in clinical decision-making. The evaluation of the clinical status, besides laboratory confirmation of COVID-19, comprises an individualized symptom score for each patient, a global self-perception scale of the severity of the disease, a clinical progression scale developed by the WHO for clinical studies in COVID-19 and, at the first consultation, doctors´ overall impression on the clinical prognosis. The analysis of anonymized data should preferably use descriptive and inferential statistical resources. The case report form is available for free use in the protocol, along with examples of patient informed consent forms for the prescription of off-label medications and authorization to use the data. Their results may be useful to indicate interventions that are candidates for efficacy trials, in randomized controlled trials, with a higher chance of success. It respects the autonomy and preferences of doctors and patients to decide the best options for treatment in uncertain situations. It also allows the gathering of useful information for future more rigorous clinical trials, trying to link science, ethics, and personal clinical experience.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of animal therapy in alleviation of anxiety in pre-school children.Method: The study was carried out as a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design and control group. The study population consisted of 33 anxious 5-7years old children (participated in a welfare anxiety screening plan held by Counseling Center, Tehran-Iran) between 2018 and 2019. The participants took part in the study voluntarily.The subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (10 in each group). The experimental group was exposed to 8 sessions of animal therapy. The research instrument was Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale (Parent Form) and the data were analyzed on SPSS 21 software.Results: The results showed that animal therapy had a significant effect on general anxiety score after adjusting for post-test scores (f= 32.49 and p= 0.001) with the effect equal to 0.70. In addition, the effect of animal therapy on anxiety of separation (f= 5.63, p= 0.03), generalized anxiety disorder (f= 8.56, p= 0.01), social phobia (f= 14.58, p= 0.002) and specific anxiety (f= 11.63, p= 0.005) was significant with effects equal to 0.30, 0.40, 0.53, and 0.47, respectively. The results also showed that the effect of animal therapy on obsession was not significant (p>0.05).Conclusion: Therefore, it can be concluded that Animal therapy is effective in alleviating anxiety in children.

ZnS-CdS composite nano-powder doped with (0.01 mol %) Cobalt has been collected by a co-precipitation process at 300 K. The sample is characterized by structural, combined spectroscopic methods and magnetic studies. The prepared samples were belonging to cubic structure no impurity phases were observed. Doping of cobalt increase the neighborhood strain assessment and a decreases lattice constants decides from x-ray diffraction data. The crystallite size is 10.42nm. From UV-absorption and EPR studies revealed that the energy band gap of Co2+ doped ZnS-CdS composite nanopowder and extension of sp-d exchange interactions and common d-d transitions. The variation in the energy bandgap varies as a function of cobalt concentration is due to structural modification. Photoluminescence spectrum reveals the defect-related emissions and shows the formation of luminescence. FT-IR spectrum confirmed the feature vibrational manner of Zn, Cd, O–H and sulfide ions are in the host lattice. The doping-induced magnetic properties are studied by vibrating sample magnetometer which matches with the theoretical values besides ferromagnetic nature. Magnetic studies confirm the ferromagnetic nature of the material. Surface morphology and chemical homogeneity studies were carried out by using SEM with EDAX. Transmission electron microscope recommends the crystalline nature of nanoparticles, with average particle size is of the order of 20-100nm.

Abstract The global concern about the leather industries is increasing as the leather industries grow bigger each year. These industries face a very challenging task with an increase in stringent pollution control regulation enforced by various bodies due to environmental concern and human risks. The chromium salts are the most widely used chemical for the tanning process in leather industries, about 35% of chromium used for the tanning process remain as metal and discharge to wastewater stream. The removal and recovery of this quantity of wasted chromium are necessary for environmental pollution control and economic reason. This paper sheds light on the chromium recovery and reuse system of Chromium salts in tanning wastewater by using NaOH as an effective chemical precipitation method to regenerate chromium solution, adapted chrome recovery plant, and evaluated the system technically and economically.

Increased data acquisition by uncalibrated, heterogeneous digital sensor systems such as smartphones present new challenges. Binary metrics are proposed for the quantification of cyber-physical signal characteristics and features, and a standardized constant-Q variation of the Gabor atom is developed for use with wavelet transforms. Two different continuous wavelet transform (CWT) reconstruction formulas are presented and tested under different signal to noise ratio (SNR) conditions. A sparse superposition of Nth order Gabor atoms worked well against a synthetic blast transient using the wavelet entropy and an entropy-like parametrization of the SNR as the CWT coefficient-weighting functions. The proposed methods should be well suited for sparse feature extraction and dictionary-based machine learning across multiple sensor modalities.

The CoDRIVE solution builds on R&amp;D in the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). The mainstay of the system is a low-cost GNSS receiver integrated with a MEMS grade IMU powered with CoDRIVE algorithms and high precision data processing software. The solution integrates RFID (radio-frequency identification) localisation information derived from tags installed in the roads around the University of Nottingham. This aids the positioning solution by correcting the long-term drift of inertial navigation technology in the absence of GNSS. The solution is informed of obscuration of GNSS through city models of skyview and elevation masks derived from 360-degree photography. The results show that predictive intelligence of the denial of GNSS and RFID aiding realises significant benefits compared to the inertial only solution. According to the validation, inertial only solutions drift over time, with an overall RMS accuracy over a 300 metres section of GNSS outage of 10 to 20 metres. After deploying the RFID tags on the road, experiments show that the RFID aided algorithm is able to constrain the maximum error to within 3.76 metres, and with 93.9% of points constrained to 2 metres accuracy overall.

Although cofactor regeneration is an established system in biocatalysis, work remains in developing new and alternative cofactor regeneration systems with greater efficiency, ease of use, and higher atom economy. In addition, cofactor regeneration system only works if the cofactor regeneration reaction operates at similar kinetics compared to the biotransformation reaction. This meant that only specific cofactor regeneration system is capable of coupling with particular biotransformation reaction. This then leaves open the field for the development of a plethora of alternative cofactor regeneration systems each capable of coupling with different biotransformation reaction of different kinetics. This short write-up examines the possibility of tapping on the NADH regenerated from a two-step ethylene glycol utilization pathway. Current knowledge suggests that this angle has not been explored; thereby, opening up possibilities for future experimental investigations into the feasibility of coupling ethylene glycol utilization pathway with biotransformation reaction as a coupled cofactor regeneration system.

Derivation of light paths in the Michelson interferometer is based on the hypothesis that the speed of light does not change after reflection by a mirror in motion. The Michelson-Morley experiment predicts a fringe shift of 0.40. The same fringe shift is predicted for a particular Michelson interferometer in which the beam splitter of the interferometer makes an angle of 45° with the direction of light from the source. Light behaves like a wave and also as a particle. Thus, it is reasonable to consider the reflection of light as a mechanical phenomenon. With this hypothesis, the speed of light changes after reflection, and the predicted fringe shift for the particular Michelson interferometer is zero which is in accordance with the result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Apparently, light travels in any inertial frame as if this particular interferometer belongs to a fixed frame. The velocity of light is considered independent of the velocity of its source, which is in accordance with astronomers’ observations of the binary stars, and the experiment performed at CERN, Geneva, in 1964.

Corona Virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus that causes respiratory illnesses with a start of flu like symptoms. This disease is fatal and is spread all over the world. The Scientist are working day and night to find vaccine or a cure. World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 as pandemic [1]. In the view of the pandemic many treatments are being tried on the patients and various treatment modalities are being followed, the traditional medicine has shown a major role to manage this disease. The traditional medicines include the use of herbs, nutrition and spices that are freely available in Asian countries. These are used in day to day life by Asian population [2]. In this paper we have compiled and reviewed the role of various herbs and spices such as Oregano, Ashwagandha, Ginseng, Basil, Sage, Curcumin, Fenugreek, Ginger and Garlic in building immunity and also in curing pathogenic invasions based on evidence based researches. As there is no cure available for COVID-19 till now so supportive therapy is playing a major role for the patients to fight with this pandemic. The AYUSH ministry has also promoted the use of above herbs for a patient suffering from this disease. The corona virus is present in respiratory system as shown by different studies and it has different strains. The guidelines laid by the ICMR and WHO shows that use of herbs, spices and nutrients can be helpful to manage this virus by increasing the immunity in patients. Hence we are not claiming any cures but the herbs and spices used in day to day life are very much effective in management of COVID-19. World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised the use of alternative and traditional medicine in the management of COVID-19 but the herbs should be used in prescribed amounts and overdose of them can be harmful for health [1,3]. Therefore the present article will enlighten the readers about the role of herbs, spices and nutrients in improving the conditions in COVID-19.

This is a report on a dynamic autonomous magnetic interaction which does not depend on polarities resulting in short ranged repulsion involving one or more inertial bodies and a new class of bound state based on this interaction. Both effects are new to the literature, found so far. Experimental results are generalized and reported qualitatively. Working principles of these effects are provided within classical mechanics and found consistent with observations and simulations. The effects are based on the interaction of a rigid and finite inertial body (an object having mass and moment of inertia) endowed with a magnetic moment with a cyclic inhomogeneous magnetic field which does not require to have a local minimum. Such a body having some DoF involved in driven harmonic motion by this interaction can experience a net force in the direction of the weak field regardless of its position and orientation or can find stable equilibrium with the field itself autonomously. The former is called polarity free magnetic repulsion and the latter magnetic bound state. Experiments show that a bound state can be obtained between two free bodies having magnetic dipole moment. Various schemes of trapping bodies having magnetic moments by rotating fields are realized as well as rotating bodies trapped by a static dipole field in presence of gravity. Also, a special case of bound state called bipolar bound state between free dipole bodies is investigated.

This article presents a new method of segmenting images with gray levels. The method is based on determining several thresholds for separation of gray levels. The determination of these thresholds is done using the certainty of the neutrosophic information. The concept of this method can be stated simply: to choose the local maximums for the neutrosophic certainty.

Secondary phenolic metabolites are defined as valuable natural products synthesized by different organisms that are not essential for growth and development. These compounds play an essential role in plant defense mechanisms, and an important role in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, and agricultural industries. Despite the vast chemical diversity of natural compounds, their content in plants is very low, in consequence, it eliminates the possibility of the production of these interesting secondary metabolites from plants. Therefore, microorganisms are widely used as cell factories by industrial biotechnology to the production of different non-native compounds. Among microorganisms commonly used in biotechnological applications, yeasts are prominent host for the diverse secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is often regarded as the better host organism for the heterologous production of phenolics compounds, especially if the expression of different plant genes is necessary.

Kronecker products of matrices have some striking operation properties, one of which is called the mixed-product property $(A \!\otimes\! B)(C \!\otimes\! D) = AC \!\otimes\! BD$. In view of this property, the two-term Kronecker product $A_1 \otimes A_2$ can be rewritten as $A_1 \otimes A_2 = (A_1 \otimes I_{m_2})(I_{m_1} \otimes A_2)$ of dilation forms of $A_1$ and $A_2$, and three-term Kronecker product $A_1 \otimes A_2 \otimes A_3$ can be rewritten as the products $A_1 \otimes A_2 \otimes A_3 = (A_1\otimes I_{m_2} \otimes I_{m_3})(I_{m_1} \otimes A_2 \otimes I_{m_3})(I_{m_1} \otimes I_{m_2} \otimes A_3)$ of the dilation forms of $A_1$, $A_2$, and $A_3$, respectively, where the matrices on the right-hand sides of the two factorizations are commutative. In this note, we approach the commutative Kronecker products on the right-hand sides of the two factorization equalities, and present a variety of new and useful analytical formulas for calculating the ranks, dimensions, orthogonal projectors, and ranges of matrices composed of these Kronecker products.

We present software on total energy calculation by quantum mechanics first principle method with a graphic user interface (GUI). Total energy calculation in this software is based on numerical analysis of time-dependent density functional (the used numerical method is finite difference time domain). QUMEC package has been equipped by common exchange-correlation energy terms with electron spin polarization calculation. With this package, users can calculate the total energy of the free particle, bulk materials, and materials with free surfaces at the atomic scale. The package is tested by several physical subjects, i.e., the surface energy of nano-LiCoO₂ and diffusion constant of lithium atoms in LiNi­_0.5Mn_1.5O₄.

This study to assess the Physical Land Suitability Analysis for Cultivation of Selected Cool Weather Cereal Crops, Misha District, Hadiya Zone, South Central Ethiopia of major cereal crops of barley and teff in Misha district. Each of the criteria was separately reclassified and analyzed for their suitability for supporting barley and teff crops based on the FAO crop requirements specified for them. The major data sources were climatic data, soil, LGP and topographic data as well as key informant interview, questioner observation of crop requirements which have been considered to undertake suitability assessments of the study area. The factor maps like land use /land cover, temperature, rain fall, soil type and altitude were classified based on suitability evaluation methods of FAO and experts’ opinion. At final stage these were reclassified and standardized in GIS software extension tools, which led to the preparation of suitability analysis map of the major crops plant suitability classes. As part of spatial MCDM, AHP pair wise comparison module was used to derive internal and external weights for each individual factors and parameters respectively. Consequently, suitability analysis was done and weighted overlay suitability map was visualized with integration of GIS. The findings show that among total area of land suitability maps for both barley and teff cops were using weighted overlay techniques. The suitability map of teff crop shows that 12,038.22 hectare of the investigated area are highly suitable (S1), 19,646.07 hectare moderately suitable (S2) and 4,501.71 hectare marginally suitable (S3) and 112 hectare not suitable. On the other hand, the suitability map of barley crop shows that 7,898.52 hectare of the investigated area are highly suitable (S1), 22,830.08 hectare moderately suitable (S2), and 5,466.4 hectare marginally suitable (S3) and 103 hectare not suitable for economic reasons (N1). This was done for barley and Teff crops separately. Results of the study revealed that most of the lands in the study area are suitable for the cultivation of the selected crops and other crops. Based on finding, it could be recommended that this work would be used as policy guide for planners; investment could be successful in the District, further suitability research works should be carried out in order to optimize the major crop cultivation and production.

Many individuals are wearing face masks improperly at ‘half mask’ and potentially breathing out microbes that can contaminate the air as well as anything below the nose. This note provides the first report that bacteria and fungi breathed out during nasal air exhalation are able to be cultured after landing on blood agar plates. The CFU’s are higher after both 10 breaths and extremely significant for 20 breaths compared to the control plates exposed to the air. Implications of this finding are that going ‘nose commando’ may be able to continue the spread of respiratory diseases such as COVID-19.

The socio-economic benefits of globalization cannot be overemphasized. However, the global spread of infectious diseases has so followed a parallel course. The recent wave of pandemics with emerging new diseases has shown that no part of the world is immune from the spread of infectious diseases. COVID-19 like previous pandemics has exposed inadequacies of our healthcare systems and global capacity for prevention, early detection, and response in pandemic outbreaks. Given the highly interconnected global economy and the high potential for passim spread of infections, every nation must not only come up with concerted efforts to prevent and better prepare for pandemics, international solidarity and engagements will also be critical to ensure a long-lasting and sustainable solution. We are only as strong as our weakest health system, global support to strengthen all health systems around the world is the most effective way to be pandemic – ready. ‘All for one and one for all’.

Electrodynamics is usually written using polarization fields to describe changes in distribution of charge as electric fields change. This approach does not specify polarization fields uniquely from electrical measurements. Many polarization fields will produce the same electrodynamic forces and flows because only divergence of polarization enters Maxwell’s first equation, relating charge and electric field. The curl of any function can be added to a polarization field without changing the electric field at all. The divergence of the curl is always zero. To be unique, models must describe the charge distribution and how it varies. I propose a different paradigm to describe field dependent charge, i.e., the phenomenon of polarization. This operational definition of polarization has worked well in biophysics for fifty years, where a field dependent, time dependent polarization provides gating current that makes neurons respond sensitively to voltage. Theoretical estimates of polarization computed with this definition fit experimental data. I propose that operational definition be used to define polarization charge in general. Charge movement needs to be computed from a combination of electrodynamics and mechanics because ‘everything interacts with everything else’. The classical polarization field need not enter into that treatment at all. When nothing is known about polarization, it is necessary to use an approximate representation with a dielectric constant that is a single real positive number. This approximation allows important results in some cases, e.g., design of integrated circuits in silicon semiconductors, but can be seriously misleading in other cases, e.g., ionic solutions.

Seroprevalence studies suggest that the number of PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases is significantly smaller than the true number of infections. I study logintidual seroprevalence data from 7 sites across the US, from early April 2020 to June 27. I show that not only COVID-19 seroprevalence does not seem to increase over time, there is no clear association between the number of cases reported during a period and the change in seroprevalence during the same time. I conclude that as they are, seroprevalence studies can only be used in the qualitative sense and distinguish between populations with no COVID-19 exposure, to those populations where the virus had already started spreading.

Nociceptive threshold (NT) testing is widely used for the study of pain and its alleviation. The end point is a normal behavioural response which may be affected by restraint or unfamiliar surroundings leading to erroneous data. Remotely controlled thermal and mechanical NT testing systems were developed to allow free movement during testing and were evaluated in cats, dogs, sheep, horses and camels. Thermal threshold (TT) testing incorporated a heater and temperature sensor held against the animal’s shaved skin. Mechanical threshold (MT) testing incorporated a pneumatic actuator attached to a limb containing a 1 - 2mm radiused pin pushed against the skin. Both stimuli were driven from battery powered control units attached on the animal’s back, controlled remotely via infra-red radiation from a hand held component. Threshold reading was held automatically and displayed digitally on the unit. The system was failsafe with a safety cutout at a preset temperature or force as appropriate. The animals accepted the equipment and behaved normally in their home environment enabling recording of reproducible TT (38.5 – 49.8°C) and MT (2.7 – 10.1N); precise values depended on species, the individual and the stimulus characteristics. Remote controlled NT threshold testing appears to be a viable refinement for pain research.

This study attempts to classify compound words on the basis of Cognitive Linguistics and compares their usage trends using Computational Linguistics. Using Noam Chomsky’s concept of deep and surface structures of a sentence, Lees treated compound words, not as separate units but as a kind of embedded sentences and hinted for possible presence of deep and surface structures in compound words, which this study tries to investigate. Then on the basis of the Idealized Cognitive Model proposed by Lakoff and Fauconnier, compound words have been classified into transparent, opaque and counterintuitive compound words. Using Google Books Corpus, this study also compares their usage trends. This is done using usage frequency, defined in this work, which is analogous to productivity for affixed words calculated by G.E.Booij. Each class of compound word formed on the basis of ICM is found to have different usage frequency. The possible reasons for this are discussed.

How, if at all, consciousness can be part of the physical universe remains a baffling problem. This article outlines a new, developing philosophical theory of how it could do so, and offers a preliminary mathematical formulation of a physical grounding for key aspects of the theory. Because the philosophical side has radical elements, so does the physical-theory side. The philosophical side is radical, first, in proposing that the productivity or dynamism in the universe that many believe to be responsible for its systematic regularities is actually itself a physical constituent of the universe, along with more familiar entities. Indeed, it proposes that instances of dynamism can themselves take part in physical interactions with other entities, this interaction then being “meta-dynamism” (a type of meta-causation). Secondly, the theory is radical, and unique, in arguing that consciousness is necessarily partly constituted of meta-dynamic auto-sensitivity, in other words it must react via meta-dynamism to its own dynamism, and also in conjecturing that some specific form of this sensitivity is sufficient for and indeed constitutive of consciousness. The article proposes a way for physical laws to be modified to accommodate meta-dynamism, via the radical step of including elements that explicitly refer to dynamism itself. Additionally, laws become, explicitly, temporally non-local in referring directly to quantity values holding at times prior to a given instant of application of the law. The approach therefore implicitly brings in considerations about what information determines states. Because of the temporal non-locality, and also because of the deep connections between dynamism and time-flow, the approach also implicitly connects to the topic of entropy insofar as this is related to time.

Human factors are the things that go wrong in the interactions between a team of people and a system of technology. This is part of a broader transdisciplinary field called engineering psychology, which as the name suggests, draws from both engineering and psychology. Many, if not most, catastrophic accidents involve a socio-technical interaction, i.e. are not solely due to technology failure. Hence, there is a need to consider human factors in the development or deployment of any technical system. This article is about the human factors involved in an aviation accident in New Zealand between a Yak and a cherry picker. The types of human error are identified, and the barrier bowtie method is used to represent them. The analysis gives different insights into the accident compared to the formal accident report, and better represents the human error characteristics.

The solute carrier family 25 (SLC25) participates in the transport of metabolites and cofactors across the membranes of mitochondria, plastids, peroxisomes, and endoplasmic reticulum. By calling for genomic blocks involved in adjacent metabolic reactions, this report introduces gene clusters of the Slc25 subfamily 44, stilbene and chalcone synthases, and subunits of the mitochondrial electron transfer complexes. The Slc25A44 gene was found ubiquitously expressed and transcriptionally co-regulated with energy metabolism genes in human, mouse, and Arabidopsis thaliana. The Slc25A44s also had no homozygous missense mutation and were highly conserved at intra-species level with the majority of polymorphism present in the non-coding regions. When expressed in oocytes, AdSlc25A44 from Arachis duranensis showed transport activity for the common precursors of flavonoids, stilbenoids, and ubiquinone. Accordingly, AdSLC25A44 and its human orthologue HsSLC25A44 elevated the production of para-coumaric, 4-aminobenzoic, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains designed to produce para-coumaric acid via different pathways. Moreover, the engineered SLC25 subfamily specific signature, i.e., AdSLC25A44^LWW206IQF, had a stronger effect on para-coumaric acid secretion than the native variant. Importantly, the aerobic growth-rate of S. cerevisiae was significantly higher when expressing the AdSLC25A44, HsSLC25A44, or AdSLC25A44^LWW206IQF. These results suggest that SLC25A44 is an essential mitochondrion-ER-nucleus zone transporter associated with metabolism of secondary metabolites and energy.

Land suitability analysis is a basic premise for allocating specific land for specific purpose. The objective of this study was to predict the suitable sites for cultivating Moringa oleifera tree in Ethiopia using Spatial Analytic Hierarchy Process. Findings of this study will have paramount significance in supporting decision making in the agroforestry development sector. This study employs Spatial Analytic Hierarchy Process and Geographic Information System to generate valuable information in land allocation for moringa oleifera tree production. Climate, topography, soil type and land use parameters were evaluated for suitability analysis. The results of the study revealed that most of the central part of the country are categorized as moderately suitable for the production of moringa oleifera tree. Areas classified as highly suitable are distributed along the borders of southern and western part of the country. However, some of the central part was classified as not suitable for Moringa oleifera tree production. This paper tried to investigate analysis of spatial data to predict suitable site for moringa tree production at national level. At national level, highly suitable, moderately suitable, and not suitable class covers an area of 308,508.2, 1,628,930.8 and 59891.3 Square Kilometer respectively.

Metal 3D printing technology is a promising manufacturing method, especially in the case of complex shapes. The quality of the printed product is still a challenging issue for mechanical applications. The anisotropy of the microstructure, imperfections, and residual stress are some of the issues that diminish the mechanical properties of the printed sample. The simulation could be used to investigate some technical details, and this research has tried to computationally study the metal 3D printing of austenitic stainless steel to address austenite microstructure and local yield strength. Two computational codes were developed in Visual basics 2015 to simulate the local heating/cooling curve and subsequent austenite microstructure. A stochastic computational code was developed to simulate austenite grain morphology based on calculated thermal history. Then Hall-Pitch equation was used to estimate the yield strength of the printed sample. These codes were used to simulate the effect of temperature of the printer’s chamber on microstructure and subsequent yield strength. The austenite grain topology is more columnar at a lower temperature. The percentage of the equiaxed zone will be increased at a higher chamber’s temperature. Almost a fully equiaxed austenite microstructure will be achieved at 800 C chamber’s temperature, but the last printed layer, which is columnar and can be removed by cutting then. The estimated local austenite grain size and the local yield strength in the equiaxed regions are in the range of 15 to 30 μm and 270 to 330 MPa at 800 C temperature of printer’s chamber, respectively.

The electronic structure and some of its derived properties of Li2CaGeO4 compound have been investigated. The calculations have been performed using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals method and ultra-soft pseudo-potentials . The optimized lattice parameters are found to be ingood accord with experiment. Features such as bulk modulus and its pressure derivative, electronic band structure and density of states are reported. The elastic anisotropy of the crystal is discussed and visualized. Moreover, the optical properties reveal that Li2CaGeO4 compound are suitable candidates for optoelectronic devices in the visible and ultraviolet (UV) regions.

This code provides computational facilities to simulate current versus time during the charging of Li-ion cells at desire constant voltage by considering multiscale physical phenomena. This code only considers a powder of active materials (at microscale or nanoscale) and a small part of electrolyte around it as a half cell. Then it is extended to a complete cell by applying correct boundary conditions. This code is very useful by modifying code parameters to understand the effect of the complex shape of active materials powder (surface area and powder size), kind of electrolyte, and the applied voltages on the charging response of Li-ion cell. As a summary, a microscale approach to the design of Li-ion cells has been provided via this code.

Successful engineering of a microbial host for efficient production of a target product from a given substrate can be viewed as an extensive optimization task. Such a task involves the selection of high activity enzymes as well as their gene expression regulatory control elements (i.e., promoters and ribosome binding sites). Finally, there is also the need to tune expression of multiple genes along a heterologous pathway to relieve constraints from rate-limiting step and help reduce metabolic burden on cells from unnecessary over-expression of high activity enzymes. While the aforementioned tasks could be performed through combinatorial experiments, such an approach incurs significant cost, time and effort, which is a handicap that can be relieved by application of modern machine learning tools. Such tools could attempt to predict high activity enzymes from sequence, but they are currently most usefully applied in classifying strong promoters from weaker ones as well as combinatorial tuning of expression of multiple genes. This perspective reviews the application of machine learning tools to aid metabolic pathway optimization through identifying challenges in metabolic engineering that could be overcome with the help of machine learning tools.

This article analyzes in detail the influence of Jupiter on the measurement of the gravitational constant. Including a specific estimate of the change in the gravitational constant caused by the change of the earth's orbital position every half month. The influence of Jupiter's perihelion and aphelion on the gravitational constant is also estimated. On this basis, this article analyzes the data with specific time records such as BIPM-01, BIPM-14, JILA-10, UCI-14, HUST-09. The analysis results show that after considering the influence of Jupiter, the experimental results have been significantly improved.

Women serve in diverse roles in the 21st century militaries of the world. They are no longer banned exclusively from combat. The presence of women on the battlefield has raised religious arguments and considerations. What role do religious arguments play in the discussion regarding women’s military service? The current paper examines this question in the context of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF): a conscription-based military that conscripts both men and women, religious and secular, for both combat and non-combat postings. Using the case of the pilot program in the IDF attempting to integrate women in the Israeli tank corps, the paper argues that religious considerations serve the same purpose as functional considerations and can be amplified or lessened, as needed.

We consider rational nonlinear electrodynamics with the Lagrangian ${\cal L} = -{\cal F}/(1+2\beta{\cal F})$ (${\cal F}=(1/4)F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ is the Lorentz-invariant), proposed in \cite{Krug2}, coupled to General Relativity. The effective geometry induced by nonlinear electrodynamics corrections are found. We determine shadow's size of regular non-rotating magnetic black holes and compare them with the shadow size of the super-massive M87* black hole imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration. Assuming that the black hole mass has a pure electromagnetic nature, we obtain the black hole magnetic charge. The size of the shadow obtained is very close to the shadow size of non-regular neutral Schwarzschild black holes. As a result, we can interpret the super-massive M87* black hole as a regular (without singularities) magnetized black hole.

Canine Hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is a devastating cancer affecting blood vessels in numerous sites within the body that is primarily seen in middle to older aged dogs. It is marked by its rapid aggressive metastatic pathology that often results in a lack of apparent symptoms in early stages. In most cases, disease becomes apparent due to hemorrhagic events following the rupture of the malignant vascular cell structures that can capture and pool blood cells, resulting in necrosis of the affected tissues. The poor survival times in affected patients cause a hindrance to the ability to carry out large scale studies, leaving numerous knowledge gaps to be filled in future research. The pathologic similarities between this and human angiosarcoma (HA) provides the potential for translatable research to be carried out that would improve outcomes across species. Here, current knowledge is outlined in order to improve understanding HSA holistically and suggest future direction. Emphasis is placed on the potential to improve veterinary practices in ways that will improve the ability to quickly and accurately diagnose patients in order to establish better client communication and provide clarity in collaborating to create the best informed treatment plan possible.

In this paper, first we use the optical metrics of black-bounce traversable wormholes to calculate the Gaussian curvature. Then we use the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to obtain the weak deflection angle of light from the black-bounce traversable wormholes. Then we investigate the effect of dark matter medium on weak deflection angle using the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. We show how weak deflection angle of wormhole is affected by the bounce parameter $a$. Using the Gauss-bonnet theorem for calculating weak deflection angle shows us that light bending can be thought as a global and topological effect.

Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) are an indispensable tool for controlling training parameters of healthy athletes. They became a source of information about stress heart rhythm disturbances, recognized as unexpected increases in heart rate (HR), which can be life-threatening for athletes. Most HRMs do not recognize the type of arrhythmia, confusing them with artifacts. The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of ECG recording functions by sports HRMs among endurance athletes, coaches, and physicians in comparison with other basic and hypothetical functions. We conducted 3 surveys among endurance athletes (76 runners, 14 cyclists, and 10 triathletes), as well as 10 coaches and 10 sports doctors to obtain information on how important ECG recording is, and what functions of HRMs should be improved to meet their expectations in the future. The respondents were asked questions regarding use and hypothetical functions, as well as preference for HRM type (optical/strap). For athletes, the 4 most important functions were distance traveled, pace, instant heart rate, and information about reaching the oxygen threshold. ECG recording was the 8th and 9th most important for momentary and continuous, respectively. Coaches opined more importance to ECG recording. Doctors placed ECG recording as most important. All participants preferred optical HRMs to strap HRMs. Research on the improvement and implementation of HRM functions shows slightly different preferences of athletes compared to coaches and doctors. Suspected arrhythmia increases the value of the HRM’s ability to record ECGs during training by athletes and coaches. For doctors, this is the most desirable feature in any situation. Considering the expectations of all groups continuous ECG recording during training will significantly improve the safety of athletes.

The aim of this 9th expository article is to conclude a study on domination in two fuzzy models, including t−norm fuzzy graphs and fuzzy graphs. All parts are twofold even if we don’t men- tion, directly. I.e., all results depicts some properties about fuzzy graph and t−norm fuzzy graph.

India’s energy needs are in demand with the increase in energy and other electric uses which is highest among the world. There are sectors which heavily rely on energy generated by fossil fuels but there is also seen a paradigm shift towards renewable energy sources. If India continues to rely on the former then they end up blocking development in energy system meeting uncertainties and face difficulties in supply of fossil fuels. To meet the fast-growing economy, India needs to supply the energy 3-4 times more of what they are supplying now. Government of India has become aware of the situation and has started facilitating polices in action towards a sustainable energy. As of 2019, India’s on grid renewable energy capacity is 85.9 GW. Government is working to establish 500 GW of renewable energy source by 2030.

This study aimed to rank cancers based on the strength of the relationship between the comprehensive mRNA expression levels of the most harmful or protective genes and patient survival. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset that includes the RNA sequencing and c linical data, we investigated not only gene specific prognostic availability, but also comprehensive prognostic availability of prognostic genes filtered by the Cox coefficient values, and ranked cancers using a specially designed prognostic indicator. Usi ng Kaplan Meier plots, we found that cancers vary in the strength of the influence of their prognostic genes, and can be ranked based on this finding. There is a high probability that the treatment developed by using methods that reduce or increase the exp ression levels of biomarkers, for cancers that ranked at the bottom will not be efficient. The results of this study could be used as scientific evidence for the same.

Abstract Mastitis is a common disease of dairy animals. The source of mastitis infection may be regarded as contagious or environmental. A wide range of pathogens including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and the toxins of these pathogens can cause the disease. Mastitis is generally associated with poor hygienic and husbandry practices. The primary reservoir of infection is the mammary gland. The infectious agent enters through the milk canal, interacts with the mammary tissue/cells and multiplies. Most contagious mastitis causing pathogens are spread during milking. Most other species are opportunistic invaders from the cow's environment.

While there are many models of epidemic evolution perhaps the basis for such models finds itself in the lumped behavior expressed through the so-called SIR model (Susceptible, Infectious, Recovered) from which spring many related models. This paper discusses multiple analytic solutions to that equation including those that are available in closed analytic form and those for which at least one final integral has to be done numerically, so-called quasi-analytic solutions. The solutions are intrinsically time-dependent of course. The hope is that such an investigation will lead to a better understanding of when and how models can be of use in studying the dynamical evolution of diseases including, perhaps, the great influenza pandemic of 1918 together with later pandemics and epidemics not excluding the Covid-19 pandemic of the present day.

Many universities and colleges worldwide suspended classroom teaching due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and switched to online teaching. The current cross-sectional study was carried out to analyze the impact of lockdown due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the academic performance of veterinary medical students and researchers. Veterinary medical students and researchers were invited to answer an online google form questionnaire. A total of 1398 participants were from 92 different countries answered the questionnaire with response rate of 94.52%. The data showed that COVID-19 pandemic lockdown affected the academic performance of most participants (96.7%) with varying degrees. The mean evaluation scores for the online education in general was 5.06 ± 2.43 while that for the practical parts was 3.62± 2.56. Although online education provides an opportunity for self-study. The main challenge online education faces in veterinary medical science is how to give practical lessons. Since most of the subjects are practical; therefore, it is not easy to learn it online. Students think that it is difficult to fulfill the veterinary competencies only with online education system. Online education can be improved by making it more interactive, showing medical procedures in real situations, giving concise information, and providing 3D virtual tools to mimic the real situation.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease has wreaked havoc on the world community in terms of every imaginable parameter. The research output on COVID-19 has been nothing short of phenomenal, especially in the medical and biomedical sciences, where the search for a potential vaccine is being conducted in earnest. Much of the advanced research has been distributed in the leading medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), where the latest research is distributed on a daily basis. The purpose of this paper is to provide some perspectives on 44 interesting and highly topical research papers that have been published in JAMA, at the time of writing, within the past two weeks. The diverse topics include public health, general medicine, internal medicine, oncology, paediatrics, geriatrics, and biostatistics.

In this four-month-long study (from April 1, 2020 to August 1, 2020), we have collected, modeled, and analyzed COVID-19 data from the top five most infected counties per top six most infected states in the United States (30 counties total). More specifically, we collected data on each state’s total COVID-19 cases, deaths, tests conducted, and their counties’ population, density, percentage of seniors, number of hospitals, total COVID-19 cases, and total COVID-19 related deaths. In this study, we have models illustrating the growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths per county, growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths per state (which is really the sum of our chosen five counties), and growth of COVID-19 tests conducted per state. In addition, our study also contains models illustrating the statistics of several variables that might have affected a county’s COVID-19 data, which has been mentioned above: population, density, percentage of seniors, and number of hospitals. An interesting finding we have noticed upon modeling the 30 counties’ density and total COVID-19 cases as an xy scatter plot is that there is a considerably strong relationship between the two variables. Los Angeles County (which was an extreme outlier), in particular, supports the idea that a county’s most populous city can greatly affect its entire county’s COVID-19 cases; if the largest city is extremely dense, it appears that the entire county has a greater total COVID-19 case count.

The diversification of life-histories is mediated by cooperation, innovations of biological information, modularity, and heterochrony in developmental processes. These processes are defined, contextualized, and exemplified, studying the evolution of coloniality (i.e. life-history involving modularization of the multicellular individual) in the family of benthic tunicates Styelidae. This study proposes that in these colonial tunicates there is an inter-generational division of labor, where one generation is feeding, a second is developing by morphogenetic processes, and a third is aging by programmed cell death and phagocytosis. The communication system developed in these colonies is mediated, by changes in proportion, location, and gene expression of specialized blood cells. Colonial life-history in animals is related to the reduction of individual size; development of extra-corporeal tissues to interconnect zooids; the inter-generational division of labor; and the reduction of zooid’s individuality. Processes analogous with the widely accepted major evolutionary transitions (METs), suggesting that coloniality could be studied as a MET. The understanding of colonial life-histories could provide information about key mechanisms for life diversification.

In the digital era in which over 4 billion people regularly access the internet, the conventional process of publishing scientific articles in academic journals following peer review is undergoing profound changes. Following physics and mathematics scholars who started to publish their work on the freely accessible arXiv server in the early 1990s, researchers of all disciplines increasingly publish scientific articles in the form of freely accessible and fully citeable preprints before or in parallel to conventional submission to academic journals for peer review. The full transition to open science, I argue in this study, requires to expand the education of students and young researchers to include scholarly communication in the digital era.