Statistical data extracted from national databases demonstrate a continuous growth in the incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the ineffectiveness of current policies and strategies based on individual risk factors to reduce them, as well as their mortality and costs. Some innovative programs, telemedicine and government interest in the prevention of CKD, did not facilitate timely access to care, continuing the increased demand for dialysis and transplants, high morbidity and long-term disability. In contrast, new forms of kidney disease of unknown etiology affected populations in developing countries and underrepresented minorities, who face socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages. With this background, we analyze in the existing literature the effects of social determinants in CKD, concluding that it is necessary to strengthen current kidney health strategies, designing in a transdisciplinary way, a model that considers demographic characteristics integrated into individual risk factors and risk factors population, incorporating the population health perspective in public health policies to improve results in kidney health care, since CKD continues to be an important and growing contributor to chronic diseases.

Purpose To analyse diagnostic and therapeutic impact of molecular imaging TNM (miTNM) stage obtained with 18F-DCFPyL versus 18F-Fluorocholine in head to head comparison in biochemical recurrence (BCR) prostate cancer (PCa). Material and methods Patients with BCR PCa after radical treatment with previous 18F-Fluorocholine-PET/CT (negative or oligometastatic disease) were derived to 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT. Patients were classified attending to: grade group, EAU classification, PSA, PSA doubling time (PSAdt) and PSA velocity (PSAvel). The overall detection rate (DR) and miTNM stage according to PROMISE criteria were assessed for both radiotracers and also correlation (Kappa). The influence of PSA and kinetics on both PET/CT (DR and miTNM) and predictive value of unfavourable kinetics on miTNM were determined. Cut-off PSA, PSAdt and PSAvel values able to predict PET/CT results were determined. Change in miTNM and treatment derived of 18F-DCFPyL information with respect to 18F-Fluorocholine was also evaluated. Results We studied 138 patients. 18F-DCFPyL showed a higher DR than 18F-Fluorocholine (64.5% vs 33.3%). 18F-DCFPyL and 18F-Fluorocholine detected T in 33.3% versus 19.6%, N in 27.5% versus 13.8%, M in 30.4% versus 8.7%. Both tracers DR showed significant associations with PSA and PSAvel. Significant association was only found between miTNM and PSA on 18F-Fluorocholine-PET/CT (p=0.033). For 18F-Fluorocholine and 18F-DCFPyL PET/CT a PSAdt cut-off of 4.09 and 5.59 months, respectively, were able to predict M stage. 18F-DCFPyL changed therapeutic management in 40/138 patients. Conclusion 18F-DCFPyL provides a higher DR and superior miTNM staging than 18F-Fluorocholine in restaging BCR, especially with high PSA and unfavourable PSA kinetics, showing a fair agreement to 18F-Fluorocholine.

Although the water absorption feature (WAF) at 970 nm is not very well-defined, it may be used alongside other indices to estimate the canopy water content. The individual performance of a number of existing vegetation water content (VWC) indices against the WAF is assessed using linear regression model. We developed a new Combined Vegetation Water Index (CVWI) by merging indices to boost the weak absorption feature. CVWI showed a promise in assessing the vegetation water status derived from the 970 nm absorption wavelength. CVWI was able to differentiate two groups of dataset when regressed against the absorption feature. CVWI could be seen as an easy and robust method for vegetation water content studies using hyperspectral field data.

This literature review aims to assess the extent and depth of existing angel investment literature, particularly focusing on the city of Florianópolis. Through an examination of available literature, the report seeks to elucidate the mechanisms and practices employed in angel investing within the Florianópolis ecosystem. This comprehensive analysis involves synthesizing scientific literature and incorporating insights from authoritative sources in the field. Key findings highlight the imperative for further research and exploration in this domain and the potential for increased angel investment within the studied ecosystem.

Genetic testing has expanded out of the research laboratory into medical practice and the direct-to-consumer market, and rapid analysis of the resulting genotype data can now have significant impact. We present a method for summarizing personal genotypes as ‘genotype fingerprints’ that meet these needs. Genotype fingerprints can be derived from any single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based assay, and remain comparable as chip designs evolve to higher marker densities. We demonstrate that they support distinguishing types of relationships among closely related individuals and closely related individuals from individuals from the same background population, as well as high-throughput identification of identical genotypes, individuals in known background populations, and de novo separation of subpopulations within a large cohort through extremely rapid comparisons. While fingerprints do not preserve anonymity, they provide a useful degree of privacy by summarizing a genotype in a way that prevents reconstruction of individual marker states. Genotype fingerprints are therefore well-suited as a format for public aggregation of genetic information to support ancestry and relatedness determination without revealing personal health risk status.

In this paper we give approximations to the Mittag-Leffler functions in terms of elementary functions using different methods. This allowed us to establish a practical method we called integerization principle. This principle states that many fractional nonlinear oscillators may be solved by means of the solution to some integer-order Duffing oscillator equation. The accuracy of the obtained results is illsutrated in concrete examples. Formulas for estimating the errors in the approximations are also provided.

In this paper we use the additive thermodynamic formalism to obtain new bounds of the Hausdorff and box-counting dimension of certain non conformal hyperbolic repellers defined by piecewise smooth expanding maps on a $d$-dimensional smooth manifold $M$.

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) or familial cavernomatosis is a rare, autosomal dominant, inherited disease characterized by the presence of vascular malformations consisting of blood vessels with an abnormal structure in the form of clusters. Based on the altered gene (CCM1/Krit1, CCM2, CCM3) and its origin (spontaneous or familial), different types of this dis-ease can be found. In this work we have isolated and cultivated primary endothelial cells (ECs) from peripheral blood of a type 1 CCM patient. Differential functional and gene expression pro-file of these cells were analyzed and compared to primary ECs from a healthy donor. The muta-tion of the familial index case consisted of a heterozygous point mutation in the position +1 splicing consensus between exons 15 and 16, causing failure in RNA processing and in the final protein. Furthermore, gene expression analysis by quantitative PCR revealed a decreased ex-pression of genes involved in intercellular junction formation, angiogenesis, and vascular ho-meostasis. Cell biology analysis showed that CCM1 ECs were impaired in angiogenesis and cell migration. Taken together, the results obtained suggest that the alterations found in CCM1 ECs are already present in the heterozygous condition, suffering from vascular impairment and someway predisposed to vascular damage.

We report the characterization of phenotype, genotype, and functional parameters such as CD4+ T cell, viral load, HIV-1 genotype, class I HLA genotype, CCR5 polymorphism, and IFN-γ producing cells from a cohort of 37 people living with HIV-1 (PLWH) (viremic controllers, were compared those on antiretroviral therapy (ART) from two sites in São Paulo, Brazil. Half the PLWH (51.4%) were classified as viremic controllers (Controller group - CG), compared to 48.6% were on ART. As expected, controllers showed baseline higher levels of CD4+ T cells and nadir compared to those under ART, confirming the ability of HIV-1 controllers to preserve these cells even in the absence of ART. IFN-γ-producing cells showed greater magnitude to the HIV peptides Gag in controllers (p<0.03). Our results demonstrated that HLA protective alleles are associated with strong production of IFN-γ to Gag, Nef and RT epitopes in people living with HIV controllers.

The Smart Angel connected medical device allows ambulatory surgery patients to monitor their health by taking their own blood pressure and oxygen levels and by answering a health questionnaire from home. This preventive device must necessarily be "usable" by patients with different profiles. The objective of this article is, therefore, to better understand the links between certain characteristics of potential patients and usability. We conducted an experimental study involving thirty-six participants, investigating the effects of four patient characteristics (i.e. age, education, technophilia and health literacy) on usability measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The results show a moderate correlation between age, health literacy and usability. However, there is a weak correlation between technophilia and usability and no relationship between the level of education and usability. This study provides theoretical insights into the effects of user characteristics by means of personas in usability (ISO 9241-11).

Molecules sourced from marine environments hold immense promise for the development of novel therapeutic drugs, owing to their distinctive chemical compositions and valuable medicinal attributes. Notably, Talarolide A and Talaropeptides A-D have gained recent attention as potential candidates for pharmaceutical applications. This study aims to explore the chemical reactivity of Talarolide A and Talaropeptides A-D through the application of molecular modeling and computational chemistry techniques, specifically employing Conceptual Density Functional Theory (CDFT). By investigating their chemical behaviors, the study seeks to contribute to the understanding of the potential pharmacological uses of these marine-derived compounds. The investigation involves the utilization of molecular modeling and computational chemistry tools, with a specific focus on Conceptual DFT. These techniques are applied to examine the chemical reactivity of Talarolide A and Talaropeptides A-D, shedding light on their potential for interacting with various biological targets. The research reveals insights into the chemical reactivity of Talarolide A and Talaropeptides A-D, uncovering active reaction sites and potential biological targets. Talarolide A demonstrates robust anti-inflammatory properties and antitumor activity against diverse cancer cell lines, while Talaropeptide A displays antimicrobial efficacy against both bacteria and fungi. The study underscores the significance of comprehending the chemical reactivity of natural marine products for advancing pharmaceutical development. By employing computational tools such as Conceptual DFT, this research uncovers crucial information about the active sites and potential targets of Talarolide A and Talaropeptides A-D. The findings contribute to the broader understanding of marine-derived peptides and their prospects as pharmaceutical agents, though further investigations are necessary to fully elucidate their pharmacological attributes.

The severity of forest fires derived from remote sensing data for research and management has become increasingly widespread in the last decade, where these data typically quantify the pre- and post-fire spectral change between satellite images on multi-spectral sensors. However, there is an active discussion about which of the main indices (dNBR, RdNBR or RBR) is the most adequate to estimate the severity of the fire, as well about the adjustment model used in the classification of severity levels. This study proposes and evaluates a new technique for mapping severity as an alternative to regression models, based on the use of the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) automatic learning algorithm, from GeoCBI field data and spectral indices dNBR, RdNBR and RBR applied to Landsat TM, ETM+ Images, for two fires in central Spain. We compare the severity discrimination capability on dNBR, RdNBR and RBR, through a spectral separability index (M) and then evaluated the concordance of these metrics with field data based on GeoCBI measurements. Specifically, we evaluated the correspondence (R²) between each metric and the continuous measurement of fire severity (GeoCBI) and the general precision of the regression and MLE models, for the four categorized levels of severity (Unburned, Low, Moderate, and High). The results show that the RBR has more spectral separability (average between two fires M = 2.00) that the dNBR (M = 1.82) and the RdNBR (M=1.80), additionally the GeoCBI has a better adjustment with the RBR of (R² = 0.73), than the RdNBR (R² = 0.72), and dNBR (R² = 0.71). Finally, the overall classification accuracy achieved with the MLE (Kappa = 0.65) has a better result than regression models (Kappa = 0.58) and higher accuracy of individual classes.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by a broad array of clinical signs. In this study, we aimed to use intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG), called intacglobin, as a monotherapy to manage SLE in three patients. Laboratory investigations for SLE diagnosis were performed, including the detection of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and SLE confirmation by detecting high titers of anti-dsDNA antibodies. C3 and C4 serum levels were assessed, as well as the determination of immunoglobulins. The SLEDAI score was measured to determine whether a significant degree of disease activity existed and as a prognostic value. The evaluation of any chest infection was performed by chest-X-ray. The patients were treated with five–ten g/day of IVIG for six consecutive days, followed by five–ten g/month. Immunological evaluation demonstrated that patients presented with a flare of SLE with high titers of ANA and anti-dsDNA antibodies, low C3 and C4, and elevated immunoglobulin levels. The SLEDAI score falls from 10 to below 3, and chest infections in some patients are cleared up. The postulated mechanisms of action of IVIG demonstrated that it could be used as an immunosuppressor, immunomodulator, and antimicrobial agent in patients with SLE.

The RMA11 water quality model, which has been previously calibrated and validated, was coupled with the RMA10 3D hydrodynamic model to evaluate sanitation scenarios in Buenaventura Bay. The bay receives direct discharge of untreated wastewater from 500,000 people through 695 outlets along the coast. Five different effluent reduction scenarios were proposed and compared based on fecal coliform concentration as an indicator. The areas where values exceed the standard for primary contact were also used to evaluate the scenarios. The model results indicate poor water quality in the bay and how that the situation will become even more severe if immediate action is not taken. The proposed reduction in discharges in stages will have temporarily more severe effects than the current situation, but these will end when the treatment plant becomes operational. However, even with the plant in operation, complete sanitation of the bay cannot be achieved, and further measures must be considered.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) play a pivotal role in health, wellbeing, and inflammatory diseases in humans. Lack of omega-3 consumption is associated with diseases. Specialized Pro-resolving Mediators (SPM) are produced from Omega-3-PUFAs and accelerate resolution of inflammation. They are classified as resolvins, maresins, protectins, and lipoxins. SPMs actions in resolution consist in limiting neutrophilic infiltration, promote the clearance of apoptotic cell and cellular debris, enhancing efferocytosis and phagocytosis, counter regulate the production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as chemokines and cytokines, and promote pro-resolving macrophage phenotype. We identified temporal plasma and serum increases of SPMs after 6 g of oral supplementation of SPM-enriched emulsion in ten healthy subjects. We also described temporal increases of omega-3, as well as pharmacokinetics fundamentals in plasma and serum using LC-MS/MS lipid profiling. These results provide evidence of temporal increases of SPMs that together support the idea that given oral supplementation is a good source of essential bioactive SPMs.

Information has been and will be a vital element for a person or department groups in an organization. That is why there are technologies that help us to give them the proper management of data; Business Intelligence is responsible for bringing technological solutions that correctly and effectively manage the entire volume of necessary and important information for companies. Among the solutions offered by Business Intelligence are Data Warehouses, Data Mining, among other business technologies that working together achieve the objectives proposed by an organization. It is important to highlight that these business technologies have been present since the 50's and have been evolving through time, improving processes, infrastructure, methodologies and implementing new technologies, which have helped to correct past mistakes based on information management for companies. There are questions about Business Intelligence. Could it be that in the not-too-distant future it will be used as an essential standard or norm in any organization for data management, since it provides many benefits and avoids failures at the time of classifying information. On the other hand, Cloud storage has been the best alternative to safeguard information and not depend on physical storage media, which are not 100% secure and are exposed to partial or total loss of information, by presenting hardware failures or security failures due to mishandling that can be given to such information.

The development of autonomous vehicles is becoming increasingly popular and gathering real world data is considered a valuable task. Many datasets have been published recently in the autonomous vehicle sector, with synthetic datasets gaining particular interest due to availability and cost. For a real implementation and correct evaluation of vehicles at higher levels of autonomy it is also necessary to consider human interaction, which is precisely something that lacks in existing datasets. In this article the UPCT dataset is presented, a public dataset containing high quality, multimodal data obtained using state of the art sensors and equipment installed onboard the UPCT’s CICar autonomous vehicle. The dataset includes data from a variety of perception sensors including 3D LiDAR, cameras, IMU, GPS, encoders, as well as driver biometric data and driver behaviour questionnaires. In addition to the dataset, the software developed for data synchronisation and processing has been made available. The quality of the dataset was validated using an end-to-end neural network model with multiple inputs to obtain speed and steering wheel angle and obtained very promising results.

The initial dilution generated by the final disposal of untreated wastewater through a submarine outfall in Santa Marta was examined with a near-field dilution model. Northward and eastward seawater velocity, salinity, and temperature profiles from a 3D hydrodynamic model were used to provide the oceanic conditions to calculate the dilution. At the wastewater discharge site, the upwelling phenomenon occurs two times a year, the major from December to March and the minor in July, eliminating the stratification condition of seawater. The results of the dilution model showed that in these periods the plume reaches the water surface achieving dilutions greater than 100. In addition, the external wave effect on the initial dilution of submarine outfall discharge in Santa Marta was determined. Surface waves increase dilution during the dry period of the year when trade winds increase the surge and start the upwelling phenomenon. The Dilution with/without waves factor is up to 1.90 for the center of the plume on the water column.

In this study, we analyzed sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolates of the Delta variant in Mexico, which completely replaced other previously circulating variants in the country due to its transmission advantage. Among Delta sublineages detected, 81.5 % were classified as AY.20, AY.26, and AY.100. According to publicly available data, these sublineages only reached a world prevalence of less than 1%, suggesting a possible Mexican origin. The signature mutations of these sublineages are described, and phylogenetic analyses and haplotype networks were used to track their spread across the country. Other frequently detected sublineages include AY.3, AY.62, AY.103, and AY.113. Over time, the principal sublineages showed different geographical distributions, with AY.20 predominant in Central Mexico, AY.26 in the North, and AY.100 in the Northwest and South/Southeast. This work describes the circulation, from May to November 2021, of the primary sublineages of the Delta variants associated to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico and reinforces the importance of SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance for timely identification of emerging variants that may impact public health.

War dominated the royal policies in late Medieval Europe, yet recent historiography has shifted focus to the conflict resolution strategies employed by nonsovereign powers. This essay delves into the escalation of confrontations at sea, distinguishing between legal acts of privateering and criminal acts of piracy. It further compares the conflict mitigation policies of the town ports of Northern Iberia and the duchy of Brittany, highlighting the role of an international arbitration court, the Guild of the Contractation. The analysis concludes that attempts to diminish maritime violence through shortlived bilateral peace agreements were largely unsuccessful, with the more stringent policies of monarchical states taking precedence. Despite this, trade and maritime transport remained crucial for the inhabitants of both regions, who endeavored to surmount the perils of the sea by fostering networks of trust, bolstered by shared institutions for risk management. Nevertheless, these efforts were ultimately eclipsed by the royal policies aimed at extending state jurisdiction over the seas, through the criminalization of certain sea activities, thereby reinforcing the state's control over maritime commerce. The essay underscores the complex interplay between local interests and royal ambitions, illustrating how the latter often subsumed the former in the quest for greater control over maritime resources and trade routes.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic idiopathic autoimmune disease affecting various organs. Patients with SLE also present numerous neuropsychiatric manifestations. These neuro-psychiatric manifestations are referred to as neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). Neuropsychiatric involvement in patients with SLE was first mentioned by Kaposi more than 100 years ago and is a generic term that refers to neurological and psychiatric symp-toms resulting directly from or as a complication of SLE. NPSLE affects both the CNS and PNS and can manifest as various symptoms, such as cognitive dysfunction, organic brain syndromes, delirium, seizures, headache, and psychosis. NPSLE was previously referred to as ‘lupus cerebri-tis’ or lupus sclerosis. However, these terms are no longer recommended because there is no de-finitive pathological cause for the neuropsychiatric manifestations of SLE.[2]

In this study was found that these cancers were attributable to risk factors such as cigarette smoking, second-hand smoke, alcohol intake, excess body weight, diet, and six cancer-associated infections. Several databases were reviewed including PUBMED, Google scholar, and Web of Science. The facts suggest that a number of individuals present risk factors for cancer, which can be modifiable.

The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education area require the application of new active methodologies in the classroom that place the student at the center of his or her learning process. In the present work we analyze the application of a Service-Learning methodology in the context of a Final Degree Dissertation (FDD) in the degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Extremadura (Spain). The project deals with an isolated Kichwa community in Ecuador and involves the development of alternative science education materials for the capacitation of in-service science teachers. This paper evaluates how an FDD carried out according to self-learning (SL) principles can help in the acquisition of so-called soft skills and how these can be focused in the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) knowledge and achievement. To this end, a qualitative study of the experience and a deep evaluation, followed by a final reflection, were carried out. According to the preliminary results, we can conclude that Higher Education should include SDGs in its teaching praxis and could do this successfully using the SL methodology.

Stellatolides are natural compounds that have shown promising biological activities, including antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, making them potential candidates for drug development. Chemical Reactivity Theory (CRT) is a branch of chemistry that explains and predicts the behavior of chemical reactions based on the electronic structure of molecules. Conceptual Density Functional Theory (CDFT) and Computational Peptidology (CP) are computational approaches used to study the behavior of atoms, molecules, and peptides. In this study, we present the results of our investigation of the chemical reactivity and ADMET properties of Stellatolides A-H using a novel computational approach called Conceptual DFT-based Computational Peptidology (CDFT-CP). Our study uses CDFT and CP to predict the reactivity and stability of molecules and to understand the behavior of peptides at the molecular level. We also predict the ADMET properties of the Stellatolides A-H to provide insight into their effectiveness, potential side effects, and optimal dosage and route of administration. This study sheds light on the potential of Stellatolides A-H as promising candidates for drug development and highlights the potential of CDFT-CP for the study of other natural compounds and peptides.

Aim: This study aimed to carrying out a prospective survey on socio-demographics and lifestyle factors among a population of Caribbean immigrants living in the US. Materials and Methods: The data were processed and analysed using the SPSS software and Excel. Crosstabulations were done. The Chi-square test was use to evaluate different hypotheses in this study. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05.Results: Gender was found statistically significant difference with the country of birth of the Caribbean immigrants (p=0.038), and in the cleanness of their neighbourhoods (p=0.045). There were differences in occupations between males and females (p=0.001). Males were less unemployed than females (p=0.011). Gender also showed statistically significant difference in how easy the immigrants balanced their work and personal life (p=0.044). Age groups depicted differences in the physical health of the immigrants (p=0.001). The use of alcohol and tobacco was not an important risk factor among participants (p=0.529).Conclusions: These facts suggest that socio-demographics among a population of Caribbean immigrants were significantly different among genders. However the use of tobacco and alcohol showed not significant differences among the immigrants.

This study aimed to determine shifts in microbial populations regarding richness and diversity from daily use of a popular over-the-counter nasal spray. In addition, the finding of nasal commensal bacterial species that overlap with the oral microbiome may prove to be potential probiotics for the “gateway microbiomes.” Nasal swab samples were obtained before and after using the most popular over-the-counter (OTC) nasal spray in 10 participants aged 18–48 years. All participants were healthy volunteers with no significant medical histories. The participants were randomly assigned a number by randomizing software and consisted of five men and five women. The sampling consisted of placing a nasal swab atraumatically into the nasal cavity, which is similar to the sampling performed for COVID-19 testing, with only very slight discomfort, if any. The samples were preserved and sent to Northwestern University Sequencing Center for whole-genome deep sequencing. After 21 days of OTC nasal spray use twice daily, the participants returned for further nasal microbiome sampling. The microbial analysis included all bacteria, archaea, viruses, molds, and yeasts via deep sequencing for species analysis. The Northwestern University Sequencing Center utilized artificial intelligence analysis to determine shifts in species and strains following nasal spray use that resulted in changes in diversity and richness.

: Aim: The aim in this study was to conduct a prospective survey regarding the sociodemographics and lifestyle risk factors for cancer of a population of Caribbean immigrants living in the U.S. Materials and Methods: The data were processed and analysed using SPSS software 27 and Excel. Crosstabulations were performed. The chi-square test was used to evaluate different hypotheses. Statistical significance was defined as p &lt; 0.05. Results: Statistically significant differences in the country of birth of the Caribbean immigrants were found for sex (p = 0.038) and the cleanness of their neighbourhoods (p = 0.045). We found differences in occupations between men and women (p = 0.001). Men were less unemployed than women (p = 0.011). Sex also showed statistically significant differences in how easily the immigrants balanced their work and personal life (p = 0.044). Age groups depicted differences in the physical health of the immigrants (p = 0.001). The use of alcohol and tobacco was not an important risk factor among participants (p = 0.529). Conclusions: These findings suggest that the sociodemographics risk factors for cancer among a population of Caribbean immigrants were significantly different between the sexes. However, the use of tobacco and alcohol showed insignificant differences among the immigrants.

The allocation of funding for higher education typically focuses on competition in neoliberal mechanisms. Surprisingly, much less attention has been paid to considering the effect of fund locations for sustainable development through public goods purposes in neoliberal contexts. This study aims to examine specific funding schemes and determine the influential factors impacting funding for teaching, research, and public goods transformation. Taking Taiwan's Higher Education Sprout Project (HESP) as an example, we explored the effect of policy initiatives on public goods transformation towards sustainable development. The data were collected from the Ministry of Education and Scopus databases. First, a regression analysis was conducted to determine which factors influence the effect of funding allocations in academic institutes. Second, we used logistic regression to detect the effects of the system and the sector. Third, we used partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore the causal effects among the selected impact variables on expected outcomes. Finally, we used the bootstrap method to demonstrate the model’s robustness. Our study found that only diversity was shown in private technology groups receiving less HESP funding. At the same time, it did not widen the differences in the sector and system in the transformation process. Our findings suggest that funding allocations will not affect teaching and research based on sectors and systems. In contrast, this study demonstrates that transforming public goods through special funding can play a critical role in leading sustainable development in higher education.

We give three new authentication schemes without secrecy. The first two on finite fields and Galois rings, using Gray map for this link. The third construction is given on Galois rings. The main achievement in this work is to obtain optimal impersonation and substitution probabilities in the schemes. Additionally, in the first and second scheme, we simplify the source space and bring a better relationship between the size of the message space and the key space than the given in [8]. Finally, we provide a third scheme on Galois rings, which generalizes the scheme over finite fields constructed in [9].

The literature on substance use usually extracts conclusions from data with correlational methods. Our study shows the usefulness of complementing ordered logistic regression (OLR) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to assess factors inducing cannabis consumption in a sample of 1,935 teenagers. OLR showed a significant influence of gender (odd ratio (OR) =0.383, p<0.0001), parental monitoring (OR=0.587, p=0.0201); religiousness (OR=0.476, p=0.006); parental tolerance to substance use (OR=42.01, p<0.0001) and having close peers that consume substances (OR=5.60, p<0.0001). FsQCA has allowed fitting linkages between factors from a complementary perspective. (1) Coverage (cov) and consistency (cons) attained by solutions explaining use (cons=0.808, cov=0.357) are clearly lower than by recipes of non-use (cons=0.952, cov=0.869) (2) The interaction of gender, a tolerant family to use and the attitude toward substances by peers is very consistent to explain cannabis use. (3) The most important recipe explaining resistance to cannabis is simply parental disagreement with substance consumption (cons=0.956, cov=0.861) (4) Factors as gender, religiosity, parental monitoring and age show also a relevant impact on attitude toward cannabis use. However, whereas some of them impact symmetrically on use and non-use this does not follow in factors such as parental monitoring or age.

Iron ore processing involves critical steps that affect the quality of the final product. Determining the diameter of the pellets is the necessary initial step for volume measurement and, ultimately, for porosity and bulk density measurement, crucial characteristics for optimizing the burning process in the blast furnace. Traditional measurement methods using mercury present issues related to operator safety and environmental preservation, while the practices described in ISO 4698 standard require lengthy preparation and execution time. In light of environmental needs, operator safety, and the time consumed in tests, implementing a new method based on digital image processing and convolutional neural networks for measuring the diameter of burnt iron ore pellets is proposed. The methodology involves capturing images of the pellets using a high-resolution camera and utilizing digital image processing and neural networks capable of performing pixel-by-pixel object segmentation in the images, providing precise information about the pellets to calculate their volume automatically. The results were compared with those obtained using traditional methods, evaluating their conformity with the ISO 4698 standard. In conclusion, this study offers a new approach to measuring the volume of burnt iron ore pellets, providing accurate and reliable results in compliance with safety and environmental preservation standards.

This brief communication intends to develop critical thinking on the development at different levels that could be evaluated in the well-being of humans from the local development towards a global scale or planetary point of view. Therefore it was presented and discussed how Artificial Intelligence tools could provide important contributions and influence in the design of critical thinking to develop ideas and insights within Research as well as funding for technology transfer. In this context it should be highlighted that the generation of funding and economy for sustainability that it should be based on critical thinking and analysis of what is need it from the close surrounding towards longer distances as well as in the inversed direction. In this regard, the main axes that support it are based on the importance of entailment of individuals in their close surrounding as well as to longer physical distances and cultural differences. An in this context it should be highlighted the existence of large diversity and varied Multicultural differences. These factors could affect the developments of technology, education; level, and quality of life. Thus the Economical and development indexes could be largely varied and different between them. For this reason it should highlighted the local development within shortened times by interacting to receive or provide materials with aggregated value or non-tangible values. Therefore, it could be accelerated the process of improvement in a targeted field looking for average homogeneous development everywhere. And there, it is where the link-up and transfer strategies of technology and education by creation of varied strategies in communication media. As for example the communication plays an important role to transfer knowledge within the different social status and imagining the development of thinking that later it will be the basis for the next generation of technology. By this manner, it could be coupled different levels of educations degrees by a factor in common related with curiosity and open minds to learn, work, and live together in the context of developments of new smart manners of living where economy and new encrypted currency are involucred and provide by different manners sustainability. In these perspectives the development and education at the University and higher degrees taking into account the transmission of important factors such as; i) entailment , ii) development of knowledge, and iii) transference, is fundamental. Finally, it should be highlighted the particular need of good human relationships, emotional intelligence, and diplomacy to afford from the simplest challenges to the higher ones.

DNA methylation and other epigenetic factors are important in the pathogenesis of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutations occur in most elderly patients with memory loss. MTHFR is critical for production of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM), the principal methyl donor. A common mutation (1364T/T) of the cystathionine-γ-lyase (CTH) gene affects the enzyme that converts cystathionine to cysteine in the trans-sulfuration pathway causing plasma elevation of total homocysteine (tHcy) or hyperhomocysteinemia – a strong and independent risk factor for cognitive loss and AD. Other causes of hyperhomocysteinemia include aging, nutritional factors, and deficiencies of B vitamins. We emphasize the importance of supplementing vitamin B₁₂ (methylcobalamin), vitamin B₉ (folic acid), vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine), and SAM to patients in early stages of LOAD.

(1) Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have been overlooked on the global health agenda and in the priorities of national systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created to ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. This roadmap set out to accelerate work to overcome the global impact of NTDs. Almost a decade has passed since NTDs were re-launched as a global priority. Investment in research and development, as well as the production of scientific literature on NTDs, is expected to have increased significantly. (2) Methods: A bibliometric analysis of the scientific production of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was carried out in relation to 19 endemic NTDs. These data were compared with the scientific production in malaria, tuberculosis and HIV / AIDS. The database available from Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) was used. In addition, the average annual growth percentage was calculated for each disease. (3) Results: In the last decade, the NTDs with the highest number of publications in the world were dengue and leishmaniasis. The United States was the most prolific country in the world in 15 out of 19 NTDs analyzed. In the LAC region, Brazil was the largest contributor for 16 of the 19 NTDs analyzed. Arboviral diseases showed the highest average annual growth. The number of publications for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV /AIDS was considerably higher than for NTDs. The contribution of most LAC countries, especially those considered as LMICs, is inadequate and does not reflect the relevance of NTDs for the public health of the population. (4) Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric analysis to assess the trend of scientific documents on endemic NTDs in LAC. Our results could be used by decision makers both to strengthen investment policies in research and development in NTDs.

Macrophages are essential innate immune cells characterized by a high diversity and plasticity. In vitro, their full dynamic range of activation profiles include the classical pro-inflammatory (M1) and the alternative anti-inflammatory (M2) program. Bistability usually arises in biological systems that contain a positive-feedback loop or a mutually inhibitory, double-negative-feedback loop, which are common regulatory motifs reported for macrophage transitions from one activation state to the other one. This switch-like behavior of macrophage is observed at four different levels. First, a decision-making module in signal transduction includes mutual inhibitory interactions between M1 (STAT1 and NF-KB/p50-p65) and M2 (STAT3 and NF-KB/p50-p50) signaling pathways. Second, a switch-like behavior at the gene expression level includes complex network motifs of transcription factors and miRNAs. Third, those changes impact metabolic gene expression leading to several switches in energy production, NADPH and ROS production, TCA cycle functionality, biosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism. Fourth, metabolic changes are monitored by specialized metabolic sensors coupled to AMPK and mTOR activity to provide stability by maintaining the signals to promote either M1 or M2 activation. The targeting of robust molecular switches has the potential to treat a broad range of widespread diseases such as sepsis, cancer or chronic inflammatory diseases.

Tryptophan is an essential nutrient required to produce niacin (vitamin B3), which is needed for energy metabolism and DNA production. Alterations in tryptophan metabolism could have significant effects on aging and musculoskeletal health. The kynurenine pathway, the main catabolic route of tryptophan, is modulated by inflammatory factors, which are increased in older persons, a process known as inflammaging. Osteoporosis, sarcopenia, osteosarcopenia and frailty have also been linked with chronic increased levels of inflammatory factors. Due to the disruption of the kynurenine pathway by chronic inflammation and/or changes in the gut microbiota, serum levels of toxic kynurenines are increased and have been associated with osteoporosis, sarcopenia and frailty. In contrast, anabolic end products of this pathway, such as picolinic acid, have demonstrated a beneficial effect on bone and muscle. In addition, recent studies have shown that physical activity can modulate this pathway by promoting the secretion of anabolic kynurenines. According to the evidence collected, kynurenines could have a promising role as biomarkers for osteoporosis sarcopenia, osteosarcopenia and frailty in older persons. In addition, some of these metabolites could become important targets for developing new pharmacological treatments for these conditions.

We consider an $N$ fermion system at low temperature $T$ in which we encounter special particle number values $N_m$ exhibiting special traits. These values arise in focusing attention upon the degree of mixture (DM) of the pertinent quantum states. Given the coupling constant of the Hamiltonian, the DMs stay constant for all $N$-values, but experience sudden jumps at the $N_m$. For a quantum state described by the matrix $\rho$, its purity is expressed by $Tr \rho^2$ and then the degree of mixture is given by $1 - Tr \rho^2$, a quantity that coincides with the entropy $S_q$ for $q=2$. Thus, Tsallis entropy of index two faithfully represents the degree of mixing of a state, that is, it measures the extent to which the state departs from maximal purity . Macroscopic manifestations of the degree of mixing can be observed through various physical quantities. Our present study is closely related to properties of many-fermion systemsn that are usually manipulated at zero temperature. Here we wish to study the subject at finite temperature. Gibbs' ensemble is appealed to. Some interesting insights are thereby gained.

This article presents a unique set of voltage and current data from a public building and acquired using a hybrid measurement solution that combines Python and Grafana. The transversal purpose consists of contributing to the community with a vision of the quality of the supply more oriented to the monitoring of the state of the network, providing a more realistic vision, which allows a better understanding, and the adoption of the best decisions to achieve the efficient energy management and thus optimize the operation and maintenance of power systems. The work focuses on higher order statistical estimators that, combined with exploratory data analysis techniques, improve the characterization of the shape of the stress signal. These techniques and data, together with the acquisition and monitoring system, present a unique combination in the line of low-cost measurement solutions. It also incorporates the underlying benefit of the contribution to industrial benchmarking. The paper also includes a computational comparison between Python and LabVIEW to elicit the performance of the measurement solution.

Anticancer regimens for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients include highly genotoxic drugs that have been very successful in killing tumor cells and providing a 90% disease-free survival at five years. However, these treatments do not have a specific cell target, damaging both cancerous and normal cells. Thus, HL survivors have a high risk of developing new primary cancers, both hematologic and solid tumors, that have been related to treatment. Several studies have shown that after-treatment, HL patients and survivors present persistent chromosomal instability, including non-clonal chromosomal aberrations. The frequency and type of chromosomal abnormalities appear to depend on the type of therapy and the cell type examined. For example, MOPP chemotherapy affects hematopoietic and germ stem cells leading to long-term genotoxic effects and azoospermia, while ABVD chemotherapy affects transiently sperm cells, with most of the patients showing recovery of spermatogenesis. Both regimens have long-term effects in somatic cells, presenting non-clonal chromosomal aberrations and genomic chaos in a fraction of non-cancerous cells. This is a source of karyotypic heterogeneity that could eventually generate a more stable population acquiring clonal chromosomal aberrations and leading towards the development of a new cancer.

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the HTT gene, for which no disease modifying therapies are currently available. Much of the recent research has focused on developing therapies to directly lower HTT expression, and while promising, these therapies have presented several challenges regarding administration and efficacy. Another promising therapeutic approach is the modulation of HTT post-translational modifications (PTMs) that are dysregulated in disease and have shown to play a key role in HTT toxicity. Among all PTMs, modulation of HTT phosphorylation has been proposed as an attractive therapeutic option due to the possibility of orally administering specific kinase effectors. One of the kinases described to participate in HTT phosphorylation is Protein Kinase CK2. CK2 has recently emerged as a target for the treatment of several neurological and psychiatric disorders, although its role in HD remains controversial. While pharmacological studies in vitro inhibiting CK2 resulted in reduced HTT phosphorylation and increased toxicity, genetic approaches in mouse models of HD have provided beneficial effects. In this review we discuss potential therapeutic approaches related to the manipulation of HTT-PTMs with special emphasis on the role of CK2 as a therapeutic target in HD.

This study investigates the vertical structure of the dynamical properties of a warm-core ring in the Gulf of Mexico (Loop Current ring) using glider observations. We introduce a new method to correct the glider’s along-track coordinate which is, in general, biased by the unsteady relative movements of the glider and the eddy, yielding large errors on horizontal derivatives. Here, we take advantage of the synopticity of satellite along-track altimetry to apply corrections on the glider’s position, by matching in situ steric height with satellite-measured sea surface height. This relocation method allows to recover the eddy’s azimuthal symmetry, to precisely estimate the rotation axis position, and to compute reliable horizontal derivatives. It is shown to be particularly appropriate to compute the eddy’s cyclo-geostrophic velocity, relative vorticity, and shear strain, which are otherwise out of reach when using the glider’s raw traveled distance as an horizontal coordinate. The Ertel potential vorticity (PV) structure of the warm core ring is studied in details, and we show that the PV anomaly is entirely controlled by vortex stretching. Sign reversal of the PV gradient across the water column suggests that the ring might be baroclinically unstable. The PV gradient is also largely controlled by gradients of the vortex stretching term. We also show that the ring’s total energy partition is strongly skewed, with available potential energy being 3 times larger than kinetic energy. The possible impact of this energy distribution on the Loop Current rings longevity is also discussed.

The ZX Spectrum was a popular 8-bit home computer by Sinclair Research in the 80s. Even though some of these computers may still work, the audio tapes, the TV with an analog tuner and the micro-switch joystick, used with the original ZX Spectrum, nowadays are outdated and hard to find in good working order or replicate. Since many other old closed systems are also very difficult to update to support modern peripherals, there is a necessity to provide a methodology to adapt such systems to support new peripherals while being compatible with existing software. The work proposed in this paper is focused on recreating a ZX Spectrum+/48k computer and interface it with modern peripherals on an FPGA. This is accomplished by adding a co-processor to assist with the control of the new peripherals which would either require to complex architectural changes to the original system and in the end it would perform poorly due to the low performance of the Z80 CPU. This work distances from previous ones on emulating a ZX Spectrum since it focuses on the use of different upgraded peripherals and the use of a NIOS II soft-processor as a co-processor to manage the SD Card accesses. A demonstration of the proposed modernized architecture was made by successfully running a diagnostics ROM and playing original ZX Spectrum games from an SD card for game with a PS/2 keyboard and a pair of joysticks.

Intrinsic disorder accounts for the flexibility of protein loops, molecular building blocks that are largely responsible for the processes and molecular functions of the living world. While loops likely represent early structural forms that served as intermediates in the emergence of protein structural domains, their origin and evolution remains poorly understood. Here, we conduct a phylogenomic survey of disorder in loop prototypes sourced from the ArchDB classification. Tracing prototypes associated with protein fold families along an evolutionary chronology revealed ancient prototypes tended to be more disordered than their derived counterparts, with ordered prototypes developing later in evolution. This highlights the central evolutionary role of disorder and flexibility. While mean disorder increased with time, a minority of ordered prototypes exist that emerged early in evolutionary history, possibly driven by the need to preserve specific molecular functions. We also revealed percolation of evolutionary constraints from higher to lower levels of organization. Percolation resulted in trade-offs between flexibility and rigidity that impacted prototype structure and geometry. Our findings provide a deep evolutionary view of the link between structure, disorder, flexibility and function, as well as insights into the evolutionary role of intrinsic disorder in loops and their contribution to protein structure and function.

The design of more efficient photosensitizers is a matter of great importance in the field of cancer treatment by means of photodynamic therapy. One of the main processes involved in the activation of apoptosis in cancer cells is the oxidative stress on DNA once a photosensitizer is excited by light. As a consequence, it is a matter of great relevance to investigate in detail the binding modes of the chromophore with DNA, and the nature of the electronically excited states that participate in the induction of DNA damage, for example, charge-transfer states. In this work, we investigate the electronic structure of the anthraquinone photosensitizer intercalated into a double-stranded poly(dG-dC) decamer model of DNA. First, the different geometric configurations are analyzed by means of classical molecular dynamics simulations. Then, the excited states for the most relevant poses of anthraquinone inside the binding pocket are computed by an electrostatic-embedding quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics approach, where anthraquinone and one of the nearby guanine residues are described quantum mechanically to take into account intermolecular charge-transfer states. The excited states are characterized as monomer, exciton, excimer and charge-transfer states based on the analysis of the transition density matrix, and each of these contributions to the total density of states and absorption spectrum is discussed in terms of the stacking interactions. These results are relevant as they represent the footing for future studies on the reactivity of anthraquinone derivatives with DNA and give insights on possible geometrical configurations that potentially favor the oxidative stress of DNA.

Objective: To examine the burnout syndrome among the healthcare personnel in Puerto Rico during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Descriptive study that pursues to understand burnout syndrome in the clinical personnel in Puerto Rico. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was sent via email to healthcare professionals around the island. Furthermore, open questions were asked to the participants. Results: The overall burnout level on the clinical personnel was found to be moderate. Nonetheless, in physicians, 12.1% had severe burnout levels compared to a 13.1% score in nurses. Additionally, 92.4% of physicians and 100% of nurses had moderate to severe burnout. In the three subscales, nurses scored high levels in all of them, and physicians were high in Emotional Exhaustion and moderate level in Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment at Work. There were high levels of burnout syndrome of the clinical personnel in Puerto Rico. Conclusion: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 90% of healthcare professionals in Puerto Rico have been working with moderate to severe burnout syndrome, being the nurses the most affected. Key Words: Burnout syndrome, MBI, Clinical personnel, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2

Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite with the ability to infect various warm-blooded vertebrates, including humans, is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis. This infection poses significant risks, leading to severe complications in immunocompromised individuals and potentially affecting the fetus through congenital transmission. A comprehensive understanding of the intricate molecular interactions between T. gondii and its host is pivotal for the development of effective therapeutic strategies. This review emphasizes the crucial role of proteomics in T. gondii research, with a specific focus on host-parasite interactions, post-translational modifications (PTMs), PTM crosstalk, and ongoing efforts in drug discovery. Additionally, we provide an overview of recent advancements in proteomics techniques, encompassing interactome sample preparation methods such as BioID, APEX, and Y2H, as well as various proteomics approaches, including single-cell analysis, DIA, targeted, top-down, and plasma proteomics. Furthermore, we discuss the integration of proteomics with other omics technologies, highlighting its potential in unraveling the intricate mechanisms of T. gondii pathogenesis and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Microalgae are used in various biotechnological processes, such as biofuel production due to their high biomass yields, agriculture as biofertilizers, production of high-value-added products, de-contamination of wastewater, or as biological models for carbon sequestration. The number of these biotechnological applications is increasing, and as such, any advances that contribute to reducing costs and increasing economic profitability can have a significant impact. Nitrogen fixing organisms, often called diazotroph, also have great biotechnological potential, mainly in agri-culture as an alternative to chemical fertilizers. Microbial consortia typically perform more com-plex tasks than monocultures and can execute functions that are challenging or even impossible for individual strains or species. Interestingly, microalgae and diazotrophic organisms are capable to embrace different types of symbiotic associations. Certain corals and lichens exhibit this sym-biotic relationship in nature, which enhances their fitness. However, this relationship can also be artificially created in laboratory conditions with the objective of enhancing some of the biotech-nological processes that each organism carries out independently. As a result, the utilization of microalgae and diazotrophic organisms in consortia is garnering significant interest as a potential alternative for reducing production costs and increasing yields of microalgae biomass, as well as for producing derived products and serving biotechnological purposes. This review makes an effort to examine the associations of microalgae and diazotrophic organisms, with the aim of highlighting the potential of these associations in improving various biotechnological processes.

In the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), education plays a fundamental role. However, traditional methodologies do not favor the enrichment and personal development essential to promote global awareness. The use of active methodologies based on experiences improve the quality of learning. This work describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the acquired knowledge of a didactic proposal for non-formal education as a support for regulated education based on botany content. Firstly, a workshop was held, where young people participated directly in developing field work with a real scientific methodology. Subsequently, a group of students was chosen to be interviewed to obtain a global vision of the learning they obtained. The motivation of the students was quite positive, which allowed us to obtain voluntary participation in the field work and gave the students a participative attitude throughout the development of the workshops. Four months later, this positive attitude remained during their direct involvement in various activities, and the students still remembered the fundamental content discussed. Relating the didactic proposal to its immediate environment was shown to increase interest in learning and value in its own context. The results of this educational experience have been very positive, as knowledge was acquired, and interest in the preservation of the environment and the profession of a researcher was promoted.

Undergraduate learning is a multifaceted concept that many researchers have investigated to promote student engagement, academic performance, etc. Exploring factors promoting learning among undergraduates in FYW programs, which are required for undergraduates might potentially contribute to sustainable, cross-disciplinary undergraduate education. This study used the 10-year longitudinal grade and survey data at San José State University (SJSU) and the data was collected from Academic Years (AYs) 2015 to 2020, and five student surveys constituted the sample size of 18,101 students. In 2016, SJSU changed the remedial writing course to college writing courses. Since then, students need to complete an online module course before placing themselves into a one-semester or two-semester writing course. The previous study showed that students with higher writing comfort and confidence tend to place themselves into a semester-long class. Regression analysis was applied to examine the relationships among factors promoting learning among those students. University admitted students from various diversity and backgrounds, the results of this study suggested that what students chose and persisted in were more important in advancing their academic success rather than prior learning experience or psychological factors before the class.

Acute high altitude illnesses are of great concern for physicians and people traveling to high altitude. High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) can be better understood through the Oxygen Transport Triad which involves the Pneumo-Dynamic Pump (Ventilation), the Hemo-Dynamic Pump (Heart and circulation), and Hemoglobin. The two pumps are the first physiologic response upon initial exposure to hypobaric hypoxia. Hemoglobin is the balancing energy-saving time-evolving equilibrating factor. The increased hemoglobin at high altitude reduces the percentage of dissolved oxygen in the arterial oxygen content with respect to sea level. At high altitude, the acid-base balance must be adequately interpreted using the high altitude Van-Slyke correction factors. Pulse-oximetry measurements during breath-holding at high altitude allow for the evaluation of high altitude diseases. The Tolerance to Hypoxia Formula shows that, paradoxically, the higher the altitude the more tolerance to hypoxia. All organisms adapt physiologically and optimally to a high-altitude environment to survive. Reduction of pulmonary hypertension in HAPE through oxygen administration results in a favorable outcome.

Opossums, native to the Americas, are unique marsupials with over 100 species. The Common Opossum and Virginia Opossum are notable species. They are nocturnal, omnivorous, and adapt to various habitats. Their reproduction involves a short gestation and marsupial pouch development. Despite their ecological benefits like seed dispersal and insect control, their proximity to human habitats exposes them to pathogens, posing public health risks. These include protozoa, helminths, and arthropods that can spread zoonotic parasites and vector-borne diseases. The marsupial immune system, including opossums, is complex, rivaling eutherian mammals. Key immune genes were identified in the grey short-tailed opossum genome. CD1 protein and VpreB surrogate light chain were also found. Marsupials are proposed as ideal models for studying developmental immunology. A West Indian opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) was found and examined. Blood tests revealed abnormalities, including a low white blood cell count and signs of anemia. The results contribute to understanding the species’ health and adaptability in the wild.

Natural rocks are highly heterogeneous due to various geological processes that constantly alter their properties. The accumulation, deposition, and cementation of mineral and organic particles continuously modify the spatial characteristics of rock properties. Property variability or anisotropy is commonly observed in most rock types and influences strength, transport, and thermal conductivity behavior. This unpredictability presents a significant challenge for laboratory testing. Binder-jet additive manufacturing (3D printing) has emerged as a valuable technology for characterizing rock properties in geoscience and engineering. This study proposes a methodology to evaluate the variability and repeatability of mechanical properties of 3D-printed sandstones during binder-jet additive manufacturing. The mechanical properties were analyzed statistically for samples located in various parts of the 3D printer build volume. The results showed that the 3D-printed sandstones exhibited significant variations in their strength and stiffness properties when measured from samples produced within the same build volume during binder-jet additive manufacturing. The Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) varied from 23 to 38 MPa, with an average value of 29 MPa. The Young's modulus, on the other hand, ranged from 1.5 to 4.05 GPa, with an average value of 2.33 GPa. The variability of the mechanical properties, quantified by the standard deviation, decreased when the entire population of 3D-printed sandstones was divided into smaller samples situated at different elevations of the build platform.

This paper uses the numerical results of surveys sent to Huelva’s (Andalusia, Spain) households to determine the degree of knowledge they have about the urban water cycle, needs, values, and attitudes regarding water in an intermediary city with low water stress. In previous research, we achieved three different households’ clusters. The first one grouped households with high knowledge of the integral water cycle and a positive attitude to smart devices at home. The second cluster described households with low knowledge of the integral water cycle and high sensitivity to price. The third one showed average knowledge and predisposition to have a closer relationship with the water company. This paper continues with this research line, applying Classification and Regression Trees (CART) to determine which hierarchy of variables/factors/ independent components obtained from the surveys are the decisive ones to predict the range of household water consumption in Huelva. Positive attitudes towards improved cleaning habits for personal or household purposes are the highest hierarchy component to predict the water consumption range. Second in the hierarchy, the variable Knowledge Global Score about the integral urban water cycle, associated with water literacy, also contributes to predicting the water consumption range. Together with the three clusters obtained previously, these results will allow us to design water demand management strategies (WDM) fit for purpose that enable Huelva’s households to use water more efficiently.

Entrepreneurship has been viewed as an opportunity for economic development and changing economic scenarios in global markets. Women are viewed as a reservoir of entrepreneurial talent, so they can be growth engines in novel markets. Previous studies have considered entrepreneurship as the most effective way towards the economic empowerment of women. Female students engaged in entrepreneurial education have been addressed persistently, while what transforms them in an education process is still unclear. Considering the transforming global economy and its influence on higher education, this study aims to detect female students transforming entrepreneurial competency, mindset, and intention into sustainable entrepreneurship. Using a self-compiled survey, we targeted 752 female students to investigate their entrepreneurial competency, mindset, and intention. SPSS and AMOS were used to transform the data for interpretation. We assumed that the impact of female students’ entrepreneurial competency could be modified by an entrepreneurial mindset and result in entrepreneurial intention. To detect this causal relationship, this study employed reliability, factor, structural equation modeling (SEM), and bootstrap-ping analyses to verify the evidence. The result of the SEM confirms that female students’ entrepreneurial competency will, through their entrepreneurial mindset, impact entrepreneurial intention. With bootstrapping, 5000 samples were collected, and it was demonstrated that the measure constructs were still reliable in the model. This study found that there is a mediation effect between entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial intention. The entrepreneurial mindset plays a crucial role in the transformation process. Without an entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial competency cannot exert a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. The findings can help reinvent related entrepreneurial education in higher education.

The potential yield of annual crops is affected by management practices and water and energy availabilities throughout the crop season. The current work aimed to assess the effects of plant population and soil covering on yield components of maize. Field experiments were carried out during 2014-15 and 2015-16 growing seasons at areas grown with oat straw, voluntary plants and bare soil, considering five different plant populations (40,000, 60,000, 80,000, 100,000 and 120,000 plants ha-1) and three sowing dates (15 Sep., 30 Oct., 15 Dec.) for the hybrid P30F53YH in Ponta Grossa, State of Parana, Brazil. Non-impacts of soil covering or plant population on plant height at the flowering phenological stage were observed. Significant effects of soil covering on crop physiological and yield components responses throughout the 2014-15 season were detected. Influence of plant populations on yield components was evidenced, suggesting that from 80,000 plants ha-1 the P30F53YH hybrid performs a compensatory effect among assessed yield components in such a way as to not compromise productivity insofar as plant population increases up to 120,000 plants ha-1. It was noticed a positive trend of yield components and crop final yield as a function of plant density increments.

The human innate immune response to the pore-forming toxin of Vibrio cholerae VCC, is currently under study. Here, in vitro studies on a human macrophage cell line (THP-1), helped explore the activated pathways involved on the onset the innate immune response towards the cytotoxin. The secreted monomeric 65 KDa form interacts with mature macrophages in pg/ml concentrations, determined by dose response experiments after treatments under 1 h. Non vacuolating concentrations (pg/ml) were applied to the cells; immunoblots revealed activation of MAPKs: early overexpression of p38 and ERK. Cell lysis by release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was not apparent in the first hour, nonetheless it was positive after 24 h. Finally, to discern whether the VCC stimulates transcriptional activators via MAPKs pathway, NF-κB and AP-1 were studied by real time quantitation. Increased expression of p50 (NF-κB), cJun and cFos (AP-1) was observed. Given that NF-κB is the transcription factor initiating inflammation of innate immune response and in turn, AP-1 is responsible for cell surviving response, results from this study lead us to conclude that VCC in vitro treatments, induce a pro-inflammatory and a surviving response, in less than one hour on activated macrophages.

The purpose of this study is to bring out a scientometric analysis of the advances of digital transformation in the global banking sector. For this, a background search of the term "Digital Transformation Banking " has been brought out from the Web of Science (Wos) Database, covering records published between 2002 and 2023. A set of 312 publications was identified, which mainly includes a set of 264 academic articles, 29 articles published without cataloging a specific volume of a journal, 9 articles under review, 5 editorial material documents, 4 conference articles, and 1 document is a book chapter. Nowadays the scientific production is low but showing growing development presenting 123 publications and 7,754 citations for the year 2022. Among the scientific production, 43 publications from the Republic of China (8.8%) and 35 publications from Ukraine (7.8%) stand out. ,2%). It is also worth mentioning that the most relevant authors on this topic are Ricardo Palomo, professor and dean of San Pablo University, and Robert J Kauffman, professor at Singapore Management University in terms of influence. Main institutions in terms of scientific production, mainly: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States and the Russian Academy of Sciences of Russia.

The socioeconomic sectors increasingly rely on prompt and affordable tools to predict climatic conditions. This study uses a decision tree classifier model to identify similar monthly ENSO 3.4 indices from March 2001 to February 2011 through monthly historical ENSO3.4 indices (December 1950 – February 2001). Historical monthly ENSO3.4 indices were used to extract available high-resolution monthly historical precipitation grids (1950-2001) for Mexico and constructed monthly ensembles (March 2001 – February 2011 hindcasts). Formerly, a precipitation categorization of monthly observed and simulated precipitation (2001-2011 hindcasts) was employed. Thereafter, global vector data and spatial map assessments were performed seasonally (winter, spring, summer, and fall). Global KSS and HSS metrics indicated the model approach has skill, especially in the spring and fall. Spatial metrics exposed large areas with hit rates > 0.60 in winter and spring, though in winter and spring (dry seasons), it was due to the precipitation categorization hindcast and observed were within the first classification. Lower hit rates, but still acceptable (> 0.40), were detected in summer and fall (during the rainy season and at the end, respectively) because more precipitation classifications were tested and prone to miss. Spatial Spearman correlations provided specific areas of significant model performances and found that high hit rates during the winter and spring are spurious. Meanwhile, it was also found that during the fall the model approach is reliable in most of Mexico, followed by the spring, and in constraint areas in summer and winter across the country. It also appears that dominant ENSO neutral events followed by balanced ENSO cooling and warming events do not prefer the model skill. Overall, the empirical method shows promise (low-cost human and computational resources if ENSO indices expose certainty in its Lead months to forecast) and has the potential to be used in other developing countries influenced by El Niño phenomena.

An ongoing EU Horizon 2020 Project called BionicVEST is investigating the effect of constant electrical stimulation (ES) of the inferior vestibular nerve in patients with bilateral vestibular dysfunction (BVD)[1]. The evidence is that constant ES results in improved postural stability and gait performance and so the question of central importance is how could constant ES of mainly saccular afferents in these BVD patients cause this improved performance? We suggest that the constant ES is substituting for the absent saccular neural input to the vestibular nuclei and the cerebellum in these BVD patients and indirectly via these structures to other structures which have been of great recent interest in motor control. One target area, the anterior midline cerebellum (the uvula) has recently been targeted as a location for deep brain stimulation in human patients to improve postural stability and gait. There are projections from midline cerebellum to basal ganglia including the striatum, structures involved in the initiation of gait. It may be that the effect of this activation of peripheral saccular afferent neurons is analogous to the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) by electrodes in basal ganglia acting to help alleviate the symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease.

This article introduces simulations of theoretical material with controlled properties for the evaluation of the effect of key parameters, as volumetric fractions, elastic properties of each phase and transition zone on the effective dynamic elastic modulus (Ed). The accuracy level of classical homogenization models was checked regarding the prediction of Ed. Numerical simulations were performed with finite element method (FEM) for evaluations of the natural frequencies and their correlation with Ed, through frequency equations. An acoustic test validated the numerical results and obtained the elastic modulus of concretes and mortars at 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 water-cement ratios (w/c). Hirsch calibrated according to the numerical simulation (x = 0.27) exhibited a realistic behavior for concretes of w/c = 0.3 and 0.5, with 5% error. Nevertheless, for w/c = 0.7, Ed approached Reuss model, similarly to theoretical triphasic materials. Hashin-Shtrikman bounds is not perfectly applied to theoretical biphasic materials under dynamic situations.

This article shows the numerical results and the analysis of households' degree of knowledge in an intermediary city such as Huelva (Andalusia, Spain) about the sustainable use of urban water. It analyzes the needs and values regarding water and the attitudes that households maintain regarding the acceptance of reclaimed water and the use of new technologies to achieve more efficient and sustainable consumption. These results are part of the stages of needfinding and synthesis of Design Thinking methodology, adopted as a framework to improve the efficiency and sustainability of urban water among households in this city. Different statistical analysis techniques of surveys sent to households and the use of clustering are the mathematical tools used to draw conclusions and recommendations that allow the design of a web-based prototype grounded on Product Service Systems methodology, as a tool to improve the engagement of households concerning water and align citizens with the sustainability of their city. Strategies of customization and technological facilitators will be the means to improve the hydrosocial contract among households in Huelva in future later stages of the project.

Water footprint has been widely used to illustrate the consumption of water in many situations; for instance, in products, processes or regions of interest. In this work, we analyzed – using a sensitivity analysis approach – the effect of some variables in the calculation of the water footprint in the viticulture in Brazilian Serra Gaúcha (the major producing region of Brazilian Wine).The classical Penman-Monteith model for evapotransporation was considered, with uncertainties in some parameters (dead mulch covering fraction in the vineyard, maximum temperatures for some months, altitudes and latitudes of the site). The sensitivity analysis was conducted using the SAFE toolbox under Octave framework. The results indicated that the the portion of the water footprint corresponding to the evapotranspiration is more sensitive to the values of mulch covering fraction and the altitude of the site in comparison with the latitude and the maximum temperatures.

Deep learning models are part of the family of artificial neural networks and, as such, it suffers of catastrophic interference when they learn sequentially. In addition, most of these models have a rigid architecture which prevents the incremental learning of new classes. To overcome these drawbacks, in this article we propose the Self-Improving Generative Artificial Neural Network (SIGANN), a type of end-to-end Deep Neural Network system which is able to ease the catastrophic forgetting problem when leaning new classes. In this method, we introduce a novelty detection model to automatically detect samples of new classes, moreover an adversarial auto-encoder is used to produce samples of previous classes. This system consists of three main modules: a classifier module implemented using a Deep Convolutional Neural Network, a generator module based on an adversarial autoencoder; and a novelty detection module, implemented using an OpenMax activation function. Using the EMNIST data set, the model was trained incrementally, starting with a small set of classes. The results of the simulation show that SIGANN is able to retain previous knowledge with a gradual forgetfulness for each learning sequence. Moreover, SIGANN can detect new classes that are hidden in the data and, therefore, proceed with incremental class learning.

The mosaic disease in maize is caused by Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV), a member of the Potyviridae family. The best strategy to cope with viral infections is the use of disease-resistant maize lines. To better understand the resistance response to SCMV, we analyzed differentially expressed genes among a resistant line (CI-RL1), a susceptible line (B73), and the F1 progeny from a cross between both lines using RNA-Seq data. We also analyzed transcript expression pattern clustering to allocate previously reported resistance candidate genes. GO enrichment analysis of biological processes highlighted a strong regulation in ROS detoxification in both the susceptible and resistant lines. The enrichment of cellular components led to the identification of an integral component of the plasma membrane in the RL line. Transcript expression patterns provide evidence of the importance of host translation in virus response, showing the diverse and complex behavior of eIF4E homologs and the presence of eleven eEF1α factors in maize. In addition, we identified two genes putatively implied in long-distance movement: ZmPiezo and ZmPVIP1. Finally, we propose an ABC transporter to be associated with viral resistance.

The influence of the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) post-processing step on structural and phase changes, porosity healing and mechanical strength in a powder metallurgy Ti35Nb2Sn alloy was studied. Powders were pressed at room temperature at 750 MPa, and then sintered at 1,350°C in a vacuum for 3 h. The standard HIP process at 1,200°C and 150 MPa for 3 h was performed to study its effect on a Ti35Nb2Sn powder metallurgy alloy. The influence of the HIP process and cold rate on density, microstructure, the quantity of interstitial elements, mechanical strength and Young's modulus was investigated. HIP post-processing for 2 h at 1,200°C and 150 MPa led to greater porosity reduction and a marked retention of the β phase at room temperature. The slow cooling rate during the HIP process affected phase stability, with a large amount of α”-phase precipitate, which decreased the titanium alloy’s yield strength.

Larus michahellis increased its population throughout the 20th century in its worldwide distribution area. The increase in the Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar has produced changes in the habitats due to the contribution of guano, predation on birds, incidents with workers, and the production of salt. The objective is to analyze the impacts of L. michahellis on the landscape, habitats, waterfowl, salt production, and workers, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of control activities. Censuses of wintering L. michahellis have been carried out between 1990-2021, of nesting aquatic birds between 1994-2021, and nests and eggs of L. michahellis have been eliminated between 2000-2021. The result has been a decrease in pairs of L. michahellis, recovery of waterfowl populations, colonization of others, absence of incidents with workers, and reduction of damage to salt production. However, to reach a definitive solution, measures should be adopted to prevent L. michahellis from accessing the main sources of human food: urban solid waste dumps, aquaculture farms, and fish discards.

Since the mid-20th century, tourism has become a strategic activity for the economy of the Balearic Islands, causing profound social, territorial and environmental transformations. This fact challenges local society, which must be aware of its environment in order to better face the future challenges posed by this economic activity. With this goal, the official curriculum has been analyzed, making it possible to ascertain the approach with which this subject is taught by the administration and what objectives are set. Furthermore, a review was carried out of the contents of geography textbooks in the third year of ESO and the second year of Baccalaureate, which correspond to the educational stages in which tourism aspects appear. The results obtained represent a fundamental strategic diagnosis in order to improve the teaching and learning of this key activity for the Balearic Islands, giving it more importance and adapting its approach to the current times.

Risk attitudes are relevant factors affecting the production and investment decisions at farm level. They are key factors that are related to farmers’ attitudes towards environment and climate change. Several methodological approaches are available to measure the level of stated risk of an economic agent. The Multiple Price List (MPL) method is one of the methods that is gaining relevance. In this study we apply the MPL and relate the risk outcomes with farmers’ characteristics and their perception towards environment and climate change. Data was collected using a face to face survey carried out for a group of 370 agricultural producers of the irrigation district located in northwest of Mexico. Results showed an average risk of about 0.32, locating the agricultural producers of the region in a group with risk aversion, according to the MPL scale. The heterogeneity analysis showed that the socioeconomic factors and the perceptions towards climate change are related to the farmers´ stated risk level. Farmers who are young women with propensity to use public support to invest were shown to be greater risk lovers. Farmers in the region have perceived climate change to a greater extent like floods, hail, diseases and pests, and changing vegetation.

Originally developed as a chemotherapeutic agent, miltefosine (hexadecylphosphocholine) is an inhibitor of phosphatidylcholine synthesis with proven antiparasitic effects. It is the only oral drug approved for the treatment of Leishmaniasis and American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas Disease). Although its precise mechanisms are not yet fully understood, miltefosine exhibits broad-spectrum anti-parasitic effects primarily by disrupting the intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis of the parasites while sparing the human hosts. In addition to its inhibitory effects on phosphatidylcholine synthesis and cytochrome c oxidase, miltefosine has been found to affect the unique giant mitochondria and the acidocalcisomes of parasites. Both of these crucial organelles are involved in Ca2+ regulation. Furthermore, miltefosine has the ability to activate a specific parasite Ca2+ channel that responds to sphingosine, that is different to its L-type VGCC human ortholog. Here, we aimed to provide an overview of recent advancements of the anti-parasitic mechanisms of miltefosine. We also explored its multiple molecular targets and investigated how its pleiotropic effects translate into a rational therapeutic approach for patients afflicted by Leishmaniasis and American Trypanosomiasis. Notably, miltefosine's therapeutic effect extends beyond its impact on the parasite to also affect positively the host's immune system. These findings enhance our understanding on its multi targeted mechanism of action. Overall, this review sheds light on the intricate molecular actions of miltefosine highlighting its potential as a promising therapeutic option against these debilitating parasitic diseases.

Resistance to hormone therapy and disease progression is the major challenge in clinical management of prostate cancer (PC). Drugs currently used in PC therapy initially show a potent antitumor effect. Nevertheless, PC gradually develops resistance, relapses and spreads. Most patients develop, indeed, castrate-resistant PC (CRPC), which is almost incurable. The nerve growth factor (NGF) acts on a variety of non-neuronal cells by activating the NGF tyrosine-kinase receptor, TrkA. NGF signaling is deregulated in PC. In androgen-dependent PC cells, TrkA mediates the proliferative action of NGF through its cross talk with the androgen receptor (AR). Epithelial PC cells, however, acquire the ability to express NGF and TrkA, as the disease progresses, indicating a role for NGF/TrkA axis in PC progression and androgen-resistance. We here report that once activated by NGF, TrkA mediates proliferation, invasiveness and epithelial-mesenchyme transition (EMT) in various CRPC cells. NGF promotes organoid growth in 3D models of CRPC cells, and specific inhibition of TrkA impairs all these responses. Thus TrkA represents a new biomarker to target in CRPC.

In this work we report recent theoretical calculations of a superconducting island in a strong vortex confinement regime. The obtained results reveal the evolution of superconducting condensate as a function of electron mean-free path (l) with the evolution of an applied magnetic field H0. The results of this study provide an insight about the emergent superconducting properties under such conditions, using the Ginzburg-Landau numerical simulations where spatial variation of thickness d on island, omnipresent in these kind of structures grown on Si (111), is taken into account. These results offer a new route to tailor superconducting circuits by using the controlled bombardment, in order to explore the impact on vortex distribution, phase of order parameter, number of vortices, free energy and the first H1 and second critical field H2.

Chagalapoli fruit (Ardisia compressa) is similar to Vaccinium myrtillus (berries) with high-polyphenol content. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical properties of Chagalapoli fruit and to determine the conditions for the preparation of a fermented beverage using Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, evaluating the impact on sensory properties. The fermentation process lasted 4 days at 27 °C, with absence of light and a fixed pH of 3.8. The phenolic contents obtained in samples according to chromatograms were 1.27 mg(EPI)/mL in filtered juice, 1.59 mg(EPI)/mL in filtered fermented beverage, 1.91 mg(EPI)/mL in partially filtered juice and 3.19 mg(EPI)/mL in partially filtered fermented beverage. An affective test was carried out to determine the sensory acceptability of the final product, evaluating the flavor, color and aroma parameters. The fermented beverage with the greatest preference on color and flavor attributes was the partially filtered fermented beverage.

This study investigates novel ferrocene-based electrochemical sensors for metal cation detection through the design, synthesis and characterisation of ferrocene derivatives. Specifically, the re-search determines the redox potentials of ferrocene versus decamethylferrocene to provide in-sight into the redox potential variations between them. The investigation also examines how electrochemical oxidation of the ferrocene moiety can modulate host affinity for transition metals cations via effects such as electrostatic interactions and changes to coordination chemistry. Metal ion coordination to receptors containing functional groups like imine and quinoline is explored to elucidate selectivity mechanisms. These findings advance the fundamental understanding of ferrocene electrochemistry and host-guest interactions, supporting the development of improved cation sensors with optimised recognition properties, sensitivity, and selectivity. Overall, the work lays the necessary groundwork for applications in analytical chemistry and sensor technologies through customised ferrocene-derived materials.

The health emergency caused by Covid 19 highlighted the food dependency of many cities in the world and Cali and the cities of Valle del Cauca were no exception as they depended on food flows from other regions and countries, so these Entities are part of the corporate food system, to which their rulers delegated food security for their inhabitants. In the same territory and for the last nine years, a second-level organization has been consolidating that brings together 14 peasant agroecological markets and that despite strict confinement measures was able to continue supplying food to consumers in the municipalities of influence that have supported this initiative. The foregoing leads to think that said organization can become a platform for an agroecological food system of regional scope, for which the characteristics that said system should have according to a model based on the principles of agroecology were evaluated.

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can greatly benefit from machine learning techniques and Artificial Neural Networks for data mining and vice versa. In the agricultural field, this convergence could result in the development of smart farming systems suitable for use as decision support systems by peasant farmers. This work presents the design of a smart farming system for crop production, which is based on low-cost IoT sensors and popular data storage services and data analytics services on the Cloud. Moreover, a new data mining method exploiting climate data along with crop production data is proposed for the prediction of production volume from heterogeneous data sources. This method was initially validated using traditional machine learning techniques and open historical data of the northeast region of the state of Puebla, Mexico, which were collected from data sources from the National Water Commission and the Agri-food Information Service of the Mexican Government.

Increased volume of untreated and inadequately treated municipal wastewater undermines the circular economy potential of wastewater resources, particularly in low-income region. This present study focused on and evaluated the performance of native microalgae-activated sludge (MAS) growth for tertiary treatment of anaerobically digested wastewater from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) in an outdoor lab-scale photobioreactors (2 L). Seven conditions with distinct inoculum concentrations were operated in batch mode in triplicate for 5-days hydraulic retention time (HRT) at 11.5:12.5 Photo-hours. MAS inoculum concentration influenced treatment outcome. The best performance was observed in MAS concentration 0.10/0.20 g L-1, with cell density count (2.03 x 107 cells mL-1), biomass productivity 0.125 g TSS L-1 d-1 and total phosphorus uptake (85.07%), total nitrogen uptake (66.14%). Logarithmic removal (Log-Re) of bacterial pathogens (water quality indicators) showed Log-Re ((3.4 for total coliforms (1.37E+02 CFU 100 mL-1) and 4.7 for Escherichia coli (0.00E+00 CFU 100 mL-1)). Results revealed optimum remediation performance and nutrients’ recovery potential with appropriate inoculum concentration, in admiration to advancing the science of circular economy.

The market for autonomous vehicles (AV) is expected to experience significant growth over the coming decades and to revolutionize the future of transportation and mobility. The AV is a vehicle that is capable of perceiving its environment and perform driving tasks safely and efficiently with little or no human intervention and is anticipated to eventually replace conventional vehicles. Self-driving vehicles employ various sensors to sense and perceive their surroundings and, also rely on advances in 5G communication technology to achieve this objective. Sensors are fundamental to the perception of surroundings and the development of sensor technologies associated with AVs has advanced at a significant pace in recent years. Despite remarkable advancements, sensors can still fail to operate as required, due to for example, hardware defects, noise and environment conditions. Hence, it is not desirable to rely on a single sensor for any autonomous driving task. The practical approaches shown in recent research is to incorporate multiple, complementary sensors to overcome the shortcomings of individual sensors operating independently. This article reviews the technical performance and capabilities of sensors applicable to autonomous vehicles, mainly focusing on vision cameras, LiDAR and Radar sensors. The review also considers the compatibility of sensors with various software systems enabling the multi-sensor fusion approach for obstacle detection. This review article concludes by highlighting some of the challenges and possible future research directions.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is bringing evolution with remote monitoring, intelligent analytics, and control of industrial processes. A reference architecture provides the general layout information for the flexible integration of IIoT systems; however, as the industrial world is currently in its initial stage of adopting the full-stack development solutions with IIoT, some challenges need to be addressed. To cope with the rising challenges and provide the blueprint guidelines to develop and implement IIoT in real-time, researchers around the globe have proposed IIoT architectures based on different architectural layers and emerging technologies. In this paper, we first review and compare some widely accepted IIoT reference architectures and present a state-of-the-art review of conceptual and experimental IIoT architectures in literature. We highlight scalability, interoperability, security, privacy, reliability, and low latency as the main IIoT architectural requirements and compare how the current architectures address these challenges. We also highlight the role of emerging technologies in current IIoT architectures to address these requirements and present the literature gap for future research work to address the challenges.

The one-to-one structural correspondence between any conjugated hydrocarbon CnHm and the borane BnHm+n is extended here, with the B3LYP/cc-pVDZ model, to pure conjugated carbon systems with the example of buckminsterfullerene C60 with the corresponding icosahedral isoelectronic system closo-borane B60H60, and the fluorine substituted systems B60F30H30 and B60F60 , all with icosahedral Ih symmetry. All systems correspond to energy minima in the potential energy hypersurface, except for B60(F30)in(H30)out . Selected electronic structure methods are used to characterize all systems: molecular electrostatic potentials (MEP), atomic charges, bond orders, and topological properties of the electron density within quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) and electron-localization function (ELF) theory. In the particular case of B60H60 we use the recently developed Hückeloid model to characterize this system. The stability of the energy minimum icosahedral structure B60F60 could have an origin in F···F attractive interactions of the inner fluorine atoms of the cage.

Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is a primary inherited immunodeficiency that could be fatal, usually due to opportunistic infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa if left untreated. Opportunistic infections are the most common presentation of SCID these include viral, fungal, or intracellular bacteria, and infection should prompt immunological investigation. This review aimed to provide a comprehensive approach to the microrganisms associated with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and its management. The authors described SCID as a syndrome and summarized the different microorganisms that affect children and how they are managed.

The purpose of this research has been to provide information about the psychological effects of confinement forced by a prolonged quarantine in a suitable adult sample of 596 Bolivians of both sexes. It was sought to explore the perceptions of the participants about their own emotional state: fears, anxieties, depressions, while they were in isolation to reduce the probability of contagion of COVID 19. Additionally, we were interested in verifying the modulating effects of resilience and self-efficacy on such emotional states. The results indicated, in the same direction of similar studies, significant relationships between high perceived loneliness, high levels of stress and anxiety, with relatively high levels of depression. Likewise, it was clear that stress, perceived loneliness, and anxiety are predictors of depression among those in conditions of forced isolation. Finally, it was found that both resilience and self-efficacy exert a clear moderating effect by attenuating the relationships of perceived loneliness and anxiety, on depression.

Experimental studies of degradation of two ribonucleosides (guanosine and uridine) were carried out by making use of mechanochemistry. Mechanochemical experiments reveal the decomposition of guanosine and uridine promoted by nickel(II) and carbonate ions into guanine and uracil, respectively which were identified by HPLC and 1H NMR spectroscopy (this applied only to uracil). Additionally, DFT methodologies were used to probe the energetic viability of several degradation pathways, including in the presence of the same ions. Three mechanisms were analysed via ribose ring-opening: dry, single molecule water- and metal-assisted, which confirmed the mechanochemical degradation of ribonucleosides, with nucleobase preservation. These results can be applied to interpret the organic content of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial samples after mechanochemical treatment.

In this paper we establish information theoretical bridges between 1) Thermal Heisenberg uncertainties $\Delta x \Delta p$ (at temperature $T$), and 2) LMC structural quantifiers. After having achieved such purpose, we determine to what an extent our bridges can be extended to both the semi classical and classical realms. Also, we find a strict bound relating a special LMC structural quantifier to quantum uncertainties.

Mexico shows a high birth prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) due to thyroid dysgenesis (TD). PAX8 defects underlie only 1% of these cases and NKX2-1 does not seem to be involved. Here, we analyzed other TD-related genes in 128 non-related Mexican patients (females 77.3%; 6 months to 16.6 years) with non-syndromic CH-TD diagnosis established by clinical evaluation, thyroid hormone serum profiling, and scintigraphy (74%) or ultrasonography (26%). We performed Sanger sequencing of FOXE1, NKX2-5, and TSHR and evaluated copy number variations (CNVs) in TSHR, FOXE1, PAX8, and NKX2-1 by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. Odds ratios for TD risk were explored for FOXE1 polyalanine stretches [polyAla-rs71369530] in cases and controls (N=116). Five rare missense changes cataloged as benign (NKX2-5:p.(Ala119Ser)-rs137852684), of unknown significance (FOXE1:p.(Ala335Gly)-rs543372757; TSHR:p.(Asp118Asn)-rs1414102266), and likely pathogenic (FOXE1:p.(Gly124Arg)-rs774035532; TSHR:p.(Trp422Arg)-rs746029360) accounted for 1.5% (N=2/128) of clinically relevant genotypes (supported in part by protein modeling) in CH-TD. No CNVs were identified, nor did polyAla &gt;14 alanines in FOXE1 significantly protect against TD. The present and previously published data collectively show that small clinically relevant germline variants in PAX8, FOXE1, and TSHR are found in only a very small proportion (2.5%) of isolated CH-TD Mexican patients.

The air transport industry has experienced important transformations over the last decades, despite its continuous global trend of growth. After air transport liberalization process, the present market situation depicts a reduced number of large hub & spoke airlines and an important number of so-called low-cost carriers (LCC). One may wonder why airlines that were once thriving and profitable before liberalization have disappeared, some even recently amid an expansion in demand. To answer that question and others related to it, this paper proposes a management model focused on the airline business, putting in relation the main variables defining the business behavior of an airline. The lessons learned from the past, and the solutions gathered from the model related with, will provide a sound basis to address the new challenges for the next years to come, as it is the case of the new environmental regulations focused on the air transport decarbonization.

Although increasing knowledge about biological systems has advanced exponentially in recent decades, it is surprising to realize that the very definition of Life keeps presenting theoretical challenges. Even if several lines of reasoning seek to identify the essence of life phenomenon, most of these thoughts contain fundamental problem in their basic conceptual structure. Most concepts fail to identify necessary and sufficient features to define life. Here, we analyzed the main conceptual framework regarding theoretical aspects supporting life concepts, such as (i) the physical, (ii) the cellular and (iii) the molecular approaches. Based on ontological analysis, we propose that Life should not be positioned under the ontological category of Matter. Yet, life should be better understood under the top-level ontology of “Process”. Exercising an epistemological approach, we propose that the essential characteristic pervading each and every living being is the presence of organic codes. Therefore, we explore theories in biosemiotics in order to propose a clear concept of life as a macrocode composed by multiple inter-related coding layers. Therefore, we suggest a clear distinction between the concept of life and living beings, a distinction that is not evident in theoretical terms. From the proposed concept, we suggest that the evolutionary process is a fundamental characteristic for life’s maintenance but not to its definition. The current proposition opens a fertile field of debate in astrobiology, biosemiotics and robotics.

In studies of dynamic stability and power quality, it is necessary to know the mechanical parameters that determine the transient response of a wind turbine. The exact value of these parameters is not as decisive as the power curve can be, but an estimate that is far from reality can distort or even invalidate the simulation results. Despite its importance, this information, especially the inertia, but also the stiffness and damping constant of the drive-train, is hardly available for the turbine model under investigation. In this work, the different bibliographical sources that provide values of blade inertia in kg·m2 will be reviewed, and above all, those that provide a distribution of masses along the span of the blade. With this, different reliable relations will be obtained that allow calculating the inertia of the turbine rotor, based on the mass and length of the blade. When the center of gravity is also available, a very correlated expression is provided to obtain the inertia. The even rarer references to the stiffness and damping constant of the drive-train will also be reviewed.

One of the most broadly used models for membrane fouling is the Hermia model, which separates this phenomenon into four blocking mechanisms, each with an associated parameter n. These mechanisms are complete blocking (n=2), intermediate blocking (n=1), standard blocking (n=3/2), and cake formation (n=3/2). The original model, which was obtained through experimental data, is given by an Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) dependent on n. At the time, this ODE was only solved for these four values of n, which limits the effectiveness of the model when adjusted to experimental data. This paper aims to not only mathematically prove the original Hermia model but also to broaden the scope of this model for any real number n by using the original ODE, the equations of fluid mechanics, and the properties of single and multivariable calculus. The extended Hermia model (EHM) is given by a power law for any n≠2 and is given by an exponential function at n=2. To better test the model, we have performed the model fitting of the EHM and compared its performance to the original four pore-blocking mechanisms in 6 micro- and ultrafiltration examples. In all examples, the EHM performed consistently better than the four original pore-blocking mechanisms. Changes in the blocking mechanisms concerning transmembrane pressure (TMP), crossflow rate (CFR), crossflow velocity (CFV), membrane composition, and pretreatments are also discussed.

In this study, four experimental treatments were evaluated: (T1) alfalfa hay + concentrate, (50:50%, DM); (T2) alfalfa hay + Leucaena leucocephala + concentrate, (30:20:50%, DM); (T3) alfalfa hay + prickly pear + concentrate, (30:20:50%, DM); and (T4) alfalfa hay + Leucaena leucocephala + prickly pear + concentrate, (30:10:10:50%, DM). NH3-N concentrations in T2 and T4 decreased when replaced alfalfa hay in 20 and 10 %, respectively. Treatments did not affect the concentration of total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) between T3 and T4 (p>0.05); while the concentrations among T1 and T2 were different (P<0.05). T2 showed a reduction of 25.5 % in the methane production when compared to T1(p < 0.05).The lowest concentrations of protozoa were observed in T2 and T4, which contained Leucaena leucocephala (T2) and Leucaena leucocephala + prickly pear (T4) (p<0.05). The highest concentration of total methanogens was recorded in T1 and were different to T2, T3 and T4 (p<0.05). Leucaena leucocephala at a inclusion percentage of 20 % decreased the methane when compared to T1; whereas prickly pear there was not a positive effect the methane production.

Stemming from the Bulgarian case study developed within a European research project (ECHOES, Horizon 2020), the paper discusses the links between: (a) the urgent need to operationalize EU energy transition policy in the housing domain; (b) the complexity of factors influencing the policy implementation in different contexts – geographical, economic, and technical but also social and cultural; and (c) the important role of the urban level in policy implementation. Under the specific spatial planning context of Bulgaria, the local collective energy-related decision-making in the housing field evolves through the interaction – formal (at the municipal level of governance) and informal (individuals, households and homeowners’ associations taking decisions on self-organization and collective action). The authors claim that interdisciplinary context-sensitive research would contribute to a better understanding for the ongoing energy-related decision-making processes at the local level and would enable the development and implementation of effective and efficient policy instruments in support of energy transition in the housing sector in Europe.

Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) diagnosis have become a challenge for primary care physicians in areas where zika virus and/or dengue virus are present. Case definitions for the three arboviral infections are overlapping. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was carried out. A bivariate analysis was made using confirmed CHIKV infection as the outcome. Variables with significant statistical association were included in an agreement consensus. Agreed variables were analyzed in multiple regression model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated to determine a cut-off value and performance. Results: 295 patients with confirmed CHIKV infection were included. A screening tool was made using symmetric arthritis (4 points), fatigue (3 points), rash (2 points) and ankle joint pain (1 point). The ROC curve identified a cut-off value and a score ≥ 5.5 was considered positive to identify CHIKV patients with a sensibility of 64.4% and a specificity of 87.4%, positive predictive value of 85.5%, negative predictive value of 67.7%, area under the curve of 0.72, and an accuracy of 75%. Conclusion: We developed a screening tool for CHIKV diagnosis using only clinical symptoms as well as proposed an algorithm to aid the primary care physician.

Groundwater models serve as support tools to among others: assess water resources, evaluate management strategies, design remediation systems and optimize monitoring networks. Thus, the assimilation of information from observations into models is crucial to improve forecasts and reduce uncertainty of their results. As more information is collected routinely due to the use of automatic sensors, data loggers and real time transmission systems; groundwater modelers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of using sophisticated tools to perform model calibration in combination with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Despite their usefulness, available approaches to perform this kind of analyses still present some challenges such as non-unique solution for the parameter estimation problem, high computational burden and a need of a deep understanding of the theoretical basis for the correct interpretation and use of their results, in particular the ones related to uncertainty analysis. We present a brief derivation of the main equations that serve as basis for this kind of analysis. We demonstrate how to use them to estimate parameters, assess the sensitivity and quantify the uncertainty of the model results using an example inspired by a real world setting. We analyze some of the main pitfalls that can occur when performing such kind of analyses and comment on practical approaches to overcome them. We also demonstrate that including groundwater flow estimations, although helpful in constraining the solution of the inverse problem as shown previously, may be difficult to apply in practice and, in some cases, may not provide enough information to significantly constrain the set of potential solutions.

Direct yaw moment control (DYC) is an effective way to alter the behaviour of electric cars with independent drives. Controlling the torque applied to each wheel can improve the handling performance of a vehicle making it safer andfaster on a race track. The state-of-the-art literature covers the comparison of various controllers (PID, LPV, LQR, SMC, etc.) using ISO manoeuvres. However, more advanced comparison on important characteristics of the controllers performance is missed, such as the robustness of the controllers under changes in the vehicle model, steering behaviour, use of the friction circle and, ultimately, lap time on a track. In this study, we have compared the controllers according to some of the aforementioned parameters on a modelled race car. Interestingly, best lap times are not provided by perfect neutral or close-to-neutral behaviour of the vehicle, but rather by allowing certain deviations from the target yaw rate. In addition, a modified PID controller showed that its performance is comparable to other more complex control techniques such as MPC.

We investigate the physics of a medium-size quantum particle' gases, of the order of hundreds or thousands of fermions/bosons (far below the thermodynamic limit $N \, \rightarrow \, 10^{24}$). Appeal to microcanonical ensemble becomes then unavoidable. The so-called statistical complexity is our protagonist. Interesting facts are uncovered, both for fermions and bosons, yielded by statistical quantifiers.

In the present study, we compare energy transition scenarios from a new set of Integrated Assessment Models, the suite of MEDEAS models, based on a systems dynamic modelling approach, with scenarios from two already well know structurally and conceptually different Integrated Assessment Models, the Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System (TIMES) and the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system (LEAP). The investigation was carried out to cross-compare and benchmark the response of MEDEAS models with TIMES and LEAP in depicting the energy transition in two different countries, Austria and Bulgaria. The preliminary results show a good agreement across all the models in representing scenarios projecting historical trends, while a major discrepancy is detectable when the rate of implementation of renewable energy is forced to increase to achieve energy system decarbonization. The discrepancy is mainly traceable to the differences in the models’ conception and structures rather than in a real mismatch in representing the same scenarios. The present study is put forward as a guideline for validating new modelling approaches that link energy policy decision tools to the global biophysical and socioeconomic constraints.

Agriculture is the main driver of depletion resources worldwide, and its duty is to ensure food security within a rapidly increasing demographic and urbanization, so it is important to transition to sustainable production systems. Vertical crops (VCs) can reduce the pressure on conventional agriculture because they save water and nutrients and increase crop yield. Therefore, this study aimed to validate a proposed predictive model (PM) to simulate water and nutrient uptake in vertical crops under greenhouse conditions. Based on the Penman-Monteith equation, PM estimates transpiration, while nutrient uptake was estimated using the Carmassi-Sonneveld submodel. PM was experimentally evaluated for vertically grown lettuce under Mediterranean greenhouse conditions, during spring 2023. The irrigation technique was a closed-loop fertigation circuit. The experimental consisted of testing two densities (50 and 80 plants·m-2), where each unit of the experiment unit was divided into three heights (low, medium, and upper). It performed ANOVA with a value of p &lt; 0.05 and R2 to assess PM performance. The results suggest a high degree of PM, since R2 ranged from 0.7 to 0.9 for the uptake of water and nutrients. Both densities had a yield between 17-20 times higher than conventional lettuce production and significant savings in water, between 85-88%. In this sense, PM has great potential to intelligently manage VC fertigation, saving water and nutrients, which represents an advance towards reaching SDG 6 and SDG 12, within the 2030 Agenda.

The concept of geostationary VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellites) is based on multibeam coverage with intensive frequency and polarization reuse in addition to the use of larger bandwidths in the feeder links, in order to provide high capacity satellite links at a reduced cost per Gbps in orbit. The dimensioning and design of satellite networks based on VHTS imposes the analysis of multiple trade-offs to achieve an optimal solution in terms of cost, capacity and figure of merit of the user terminal. In this paper, we propose a new method for sizing VHTS satellite networks based on an analytical expression of the forward link CINR (Carrier-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio) that is used to evaluate the trade-off of different combinations of system parameters. The proposed method considers both technical and commercial requirements as inputs including the constraints to achieve the optimum solution in terms of the user G/T, the number of beams and the system cost. The cost model includes both satellite and ground segments. Exemplary results are presented with feeder links using Q/V bands, DVB-S2X and transmission methods based on CCM and VCM (Constant and Variable Coding and Modulation, respectively) in two scenarios with different service areas.

The current article examined stoma self-care and health-related quality of life in patients with drainage enterostomy, describe clinical and sociodemographic variables and analyze the relations between all of them. Trained interviewers collected data using a standardized form that queried sociodemographic and clinical variables, collected from the electronic medical record, in addition to the Specific Self-Care for Ostomized Patients Questionnaire (CAESPO) and Stoma Quality of life (S-QoL) from January 2016 to January 2017. This was a multicenter, cross sectional study conducted in four hospitals of the province of Castellon (Spain) where 120 participants were studied. Significant differences were found in Self Care according to sex (p = .043); married participants show higher score (p < .01); also, significant differences according to work activity were observed (p < .01). Regarding the clinical variables, differences were observed according to the autonomy of care, the presence of complications in the stoma, the use of irrigation and the type of effluent (p < .01). We can highlight the importance of the skills related to self-care by ostomized patients has for a good level of quality of life related to health. In this learning process, the figure of the stoma therapist plays a very important role.

In recent years, numerous approaches have been developed to comprehend the molecular altera-tions underlying thyroid cancer (TC) oncogenesis and explore novel therapeutic strategies for TC. It is now well established that the neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R) is overexpressed in cancer cells and that NK-1R is essential for viability of cancer cells. The binding of substance P (SP) to NK-1R in neoplastic cells plays a pivotal role in cancer progression by promoting neoplastic cell growth, protecting tumour cells from apoptosis, triggering invasion and metastasis through enhanced migration of cancer cells, and stimulating endothelial cell proliferation for tumour angiogenesis. Remarkably, all types of human TC (papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic), as well as met-astatic lesions, exhibit overexpression of SP and NK-1R compared to the normal thyroid gland. TC cells synthesize and release SP, which exerts its multiple functions through autocrine, para-crine, intracrine, and neuroendocrine processes, including the regulation of tumour burden. Con-sequently, the secretion of SP from TC results in increased SP levels in plasma, which are signifi-cantly higher in TC patients compared to controls. Additionally, NK-1R antagonists have demonstrated a dose-dependent antitumour action. They impair cancer cell proliferation on one side and induce apoptosis of tumour cells on the other side. Furthermore, it has been demonstrat-ed that NK-1R antagonists inhibit neoplastic cell migration, thereby impairing both invasiveness and metastatic abilities, as well as angiogenesis. Given the consistent overexpression of NK-1R in all types of TC, targeting this receptor represents a promising therapeutic approach for TC. Therefore, NK-1R antagonists, such as the drug aprepitant, may represent novel drugs for TC treatment.

In patients with heart failure, the evaluation of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function is vital, offering crucial insights into hemodynamic impact and prognostic accuracy. Echocardiography stands as the primary imaging modality for diastolic function assessment, and using it effectively requires a profound understanding of the underlying pathology. This review covers four main topics: first, the fundamental driving forces behind each phase of normal diastolic dynamics, along with the physiological basis of two widely used echocardiographic assessment parameters, E/e' and mitral annulus early diastolic velocity (e'); second, the intricate functional relationship between the left atrium and LV in patients with varying degrees of LV diastolic dysfunction (LVDD); third, the role of stress echocardiography in diagnosing LVDD and the significance of parameter changes in this context; and fourth, the clinical utility of evaluating diastolic function from echocardiography images across diverse cardiovascular care areas.