Maximally similar sets (MSS) are sets of elements that share a neighborhood in a high-dimensional space defined by symmetric, reflexive similarity relation. Each element of the universe is employed as the kernel of a neighborhood of a given size (number of members), and elements are added to the neighborhood in order of similarity to the current members of the set until the desired neighborhood size is achieved. The set of neighborhoods is then reduced to the set of unique maximally similar sets by eliminating all sets that are permutations of an existing set. Subsequently, the within-MSS variability of attributes associated with the elements is compared to random sets of the same size to estimate the probability of obtaining variability as low as observed. Individual attributes can be compared for effect size by the ratio of within-MSS variability to random set variability, correcting for statistical power as necessary. The analyses performed identify constraints, as opposed to determinants, in the triangular distribution of pair-wise element similarity. In the example given here, the variability in spring temperature, summer temperature, and growing degree days of forest vegetation samples shows the greatest constraint on forest composition of a large set of candidate environmental variables

We present a modification of the logistic model of epidemics that takes into account the possibility that an epidemic can develop from multiple physically-distinct hot spots with a range of starting times. This produces an improved understanding of the time evolution of the COVID-19 epidemic taking place in the United States in the spring of 2020.

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) use human-animal interactions to positive effect in various contexts including cancer care. This systematic literature review is the first part of a two-part paper series focusing on the research methods and quantitative results of AAI studies in oncology. We find methodological consistency in the use of canines as therapy animals, in the types of high-risk patients excluded from studies, and in the infection precautions taken with therapy animals throughout cancer wards. The investigated patient endpoints are not significantly affected by AAI, with the exceptions of improvements in oxygen consumption, quality of life, depression, mood, and satisfaction with therapy. The AAI field in oncology has progressed significantly since its inception and has great potential to positively impact future patient outcomes. To advance the field, AAI research in oncology should consistently improve the methodological design of studies, report data more completely, and focus on the therapy animal’s well-being.

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are a unique class of complementary medical treatments that can improve a patient’s quality of life, both physically and psychologically. Part I of this two-paper systematic literature review series focused on the study methods and quantitative results of researchers in this field. We continue this in-depth review here in Part II by discussing the common theories associated with AAI in the context of cancer. Of all the factors at work in human-animal interactions, researchers explicitly cite compatible animal personality, physical touch, physical movement, distraction/entertainment, and increased human interaction as the mechanisms responsible for the positive clinical outcomes observed in AAI. In various combinations, these mechanisms group under broader theoretical frameworks that attempt to fully explain the AAI context as it relates to cancer care. The social support hypothesis and the conception of a human-animal bond are the most referenced overarching frameworks. The cognitive activation theory of stress, the science of unitary human beings, and the self-object hypothesis are also referenced. We briefly consider other relevant theories commonly noted in the human-animal interactions literature that have the potential to clarify aspects of cancer-related AAI. We also discuss the neurobiological transduction mechanisms needed to connect theoretical frameworks and their mechanisms directly to the observed clinical outcomes. To advance the field, researchers should consider overarching theories with testable hypotheses when designing studies, and use consistent terminology when reporting results. This review lays a foundation for progress towards a unified theoretical framework and for effective treatment of the whole cancer patient.

Individual susceptibility to pulmonary oxygen toxicity (PO2tox) is highly variable and currently lacks a reliable biomarker for predicting pulmonary hyperoxic stress. As nitric oxide (NO) is involved in many respiratory system processes and functions, we aimed to determine if expired nitric oxide (FENO) levels can provide an indication of PO2tox susceptibility in humans. Eight U.S. Navy trained divers volunteered as subjects. The hyperoxic exposures consisted of six- and eight-hour hyperbaric chamber dives conducted on consecutive days in which subjects breathed 100% oxygen at 202.65 kPa. Subjects’ individual variability in pulmonary function and FENO was measured twice daily over five days and compared with their post-dive values to assess susceptibility to PO2tox. Only subjects who showed no decrements in pulmonary function following the six-hour exposure conducted the eight-hour dive. FENO decreased by 55% immediately following the six-hour oxygen exposure (n=8, p<0.0001) and by 63% following the eight-hour exposure (n=4, p<0.0001). Four subjects showed significant decreases in pulmonary function immediately following the six-hour exposure. These subjects had the lowest baseline FENO and the lowest post-dive FENO and had clinical symptoms of PO2tox. Individuals with low FENO were the first to develop PO2tox symptoms and deficits in pulmonary function from the hyperoxic exposures. These data suggest that endogenous levels of NO in the lung may protect against the development of PO2tox.

Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) consists of short hooked steel fibres randomly distributed and oriented within the cementitious matrix. The contribution of fibre in bridging cracks to provide the stress transfer required relies upon the orientation of the fibre in the concrete. Bridging fibre aligned with a crack are less effective than those inclined to it. Therefore, understanding the pull-out behaviour of misaligned fibre is a key factor to quantify and optimize the design of SFRC in the structural applications. In the laboratory a single oriented fibre embedded in a solid cylinder of concrete is subjected to a pull-out test where the axis of a tensile force is aligned with the axis of the cylinder. Based upon the observed behaviour this paper presents a new analytical bounding approach to capture the pull-out response of misaligned hooked-end steel fibre embedded in a concrete matrix. The analysis is based upon a transversely isotropic condition assumed for the plasticity that occurs in the cold drawn fibre. The model accounts for the influence of fibre diameter and the combined strengths of the steel and concrete. The model predictions have also been compared with other experimental results published in the literature. The results showed that the model can predict pull-out loads reasonably for different fibre orientations between bounds of failure derived from the strengths of the two constituents. A critical orientation is observed at maximum strength. Therein, an understanding of the pull-out behaviour of misaligned, hooked-end fibres is necessary to optimize the strength of concrete from this method of reinforcement.

The allosteric SERCA (Sarcoplasmic/Endoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+-ATPase) activator CDN1163 has been recently added to the group of pharmacological tools for probing SERCA function. We chose to investigate the effects of the compound on T lymphocyte Ca2+ stores, using the well-described Jurkat T lymphocyte as a reliable cell system for Ca2+ signaling pathways. Our study identified the lowest concentrations of the SERCA inhibitors thapsigargin (TG) and 2,5-di-(tert butyl)-1,4-benzohydroquinone (tBHQ) capable of releasing Ca2+, permitting the differentiation of the TG-sensitive SERCA 2b Ca2+ store from the tBHQ-sensitive SERCA 3 Ca2+ store. We proceeded to test the effects of CDN1163 on Ca2+ stores, examining specific actions on the SERCA 2b and SERCA 3 Ca2+ pools using our low dose SERCA blocker regimen. In contrast to previous work, we find CDN1163 exerts complex time-sensitive and SERCA isoform-specific actions on Ca2+ stores. Surprisingly, short-term exposure (0-30 minutes) to CDN1163 perturbs T cell Ca2+ stores by suppressing Ca2+ uptake with diminished Ca2+ release from the SERCA 2b-controlled store. Concomitantly, we find evidence for a SERCA-activating effect of CDN1163 on the SERCA 3 regulated store, given the observation of increased Ca2+ release inducible by low dose tBHQ. Intriguingly, longer-term (&gt;12 hours) CDN1163 exposure reversed this pattern, with increased Ca2+ release from SERCA 2b-regulated pools, yet decreased Ca2+ release responses from tBHQ-sensitive SERCA 3 pool. Our results reveal differential effects of CDN1163 on Ca2+ stores regulated by distinct SERCA isoforms, prompting the need for careful interpretation of the compound’s effects, particularly in cells expressing multiple SERCA isoforms.

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

In this study, we focus on the effects of fuel bed representation and fire heat and smoke distribution in a coupled fire-atmosphere simulation platform for two landscape-scale fires: the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2021 Caldor Fire. The fuel bed representation in the coupled fire-atmosphere simulation platform WRF-Fire currently includes only surface fuels. Thus, we enhance the model by adding canopy fuel characteristics and heat release, for which a method to calculate the heat generated from canopy fuel consumption is developed and implemented in WRF-Fire. Furthermore, the current WRF-Fire heat and smoke distribution in the atmosphere is replaced with a heat-conserving Truncated Gaussian (TG) function and its effects are evaluated. The simulated fire perimeters of case studies are validated against semi-continuous, high-resolution fire perimeters derived from NEXRAD radar observations. Furthermore, simulated plumes of the two fire cases are compared to NEXRAD radar reflectivity observations followed by buoyancy analysis using simulated temperature and vertical velocity fields. The results show that while the improved fuel bed and the TG heat release scheme have small effects on the simulated fire perimeters of the wind-driven Camp Fire, they affect the propagation direction of the plume-driven Caldor Fire, leading to better-matching fire perimeters with the observations. However, the improved fuel bed representation together with the TG heat smoke release scheme leads to more realistic plume structure in comparison to the observations in both fires. The buoyancy analysis also depicts more realistic fire-induced temperature anomalies and atmospheric circulation when the fuel bed is improved.

It is widely, but not universally, believed that the lipids of the plasma membrane are not uniformly distributed, but that "rafts'' of sphingolipids and cholesterol float in a "sea'' of unsaturated lipids. The physical origin of such heterogeneities is often attributed to a phase coexistence between the two different domains. We argue that this explanation is untenable for several reasons. Further we note that the results of recent experiments are inconsistent with this picture. However they are quite consistent with an alternate explanation, namely that the plasma membrane is an emulsion of the two kinds of regions. To show this, we briefly review a simplified version of this theory and its phase diagram. We also explicate the dependence of the predicted domain size on four physical parameters. Among them are the spontaneous curvature of the membrane and its bending modulus and surface tension. Taking values of the latter two from experiment, we obtain domain sizes for several different cell types that vary from 58 to 88 nm.

We aimed to estimate for the first time the burden of fungal infections in Uruguay. Data on population characteristics and underlying conditions were extracted from the National Statistics Institute, the World Bank, national registries and published articles. When no data existed, risk populations were used to estimate frequencies extrapolating from the literature. Population structure: total 3,444,006; 73% adults; 35% women younger than 50 years. Size of populations at risk: HIV infected 12,000; acute myeloid leukemia 126; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation 30; solid organ transplants 134; COPD 272,006 (19.7% of older than 40); asthma in adults 223,431 (prevalence 9%); cystic fibrosis in adults 48; tuberculosis 613 (incidence 26.2%), lung cancer 1,400 (ASR incidence 27.4). Annual incidence estimations per 100,000: 22.4 invasive aspergillosis, 16.4 candidaemia, 3.7 Candida peritonitis, 1.62 Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, 0.75 cryptococcosis, severe asthma with fungal sensitisation 217, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis 165, recurrent Candida vaginitis 6,323, oral candidiasis 74.5 and oesophageal candidiasis 25.7. Although some under and overestimations could have been made, we expect that at least 127,525 people suffer from serious fungal infections each year. Sporothrichosis, histoplasmosis, paracoccidioidomycosis and dermatophytosis are known to be frequent but no data are available to make accurate estimations. Given the magnitude of the burden of fungal infections in Uruguay, efforts should be made to improve surveillance, strengthen laboratory diagnosis and warrant access to first line antifungals.

Fabrics comprised of porous fibers could provide effective passive protection against chemical and biological (CB) threats whilst maintaining high air permeability (breathability). Here, we fabricate hierarchically porous fibers consisting of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) and activated-carbon (AC) prepared through two fiber spinning techniques in combination with ice-templating – namely cryogenic solution blow spinning (Cryo-SBS) and cryogenic wet-spinning (Cryo-WS). The Cryo-WS RSF fibers had exceptionally small macropores (as low as 0.1 µm) and high specific surface areas (SSAs) of up to 79 m2 g-1. The incorporation of AC could further increase the SSA to 210 m2 g-1 (25 wt. % loading) whilst also increasing adsorption capacity for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes severe inflammation and airway pathology in children and the elderly by infecting the epithelial cells of the upper and lower respiratory tract. RSV replication is sensed by intracellular pattern recognition receptors upstream of the IRF and NF-B transcription factors. These proteins coordinate an innate inflammatory response via Bromodomain containing protein 4 (BRD4), a protein that functions as a scaffold for unknown transcriptional regulators. To better understand the pleiotropic regulatory function of BRD4, we examine the BRD4 interactome and identify how RSV infection dynamically alters it. To accomplish these goals, we leverage native immunoprecipitation and Parallel Accumulation – Serial Fragmentation (PASEF) mass spectrometry to examine BRD4 complexes isolated from human alveolar epithelial cells in the absence or presence of RSV infection. In addition, we explore the role of BRD4’s acetyl-lysine binding bromodomains in mediating these interactions by using a highly selective competitive bromodomain inhibitor. We identify 101 proteins that are significantly enriched in the BRD4 complex and are responsive to both RSV-infection and BRD4 inhibition. These proteins are highly enriched in transcription factors and transcriptional coactivators. Among them, we identify members of the AP1 transcription factor complex, a complex important in innate signaling and cell stress responses. We independently confirm the BRD4/AP1 interaction in primary human small airway epithelial cells. We conclude that BRD4 recruits multiple transcription factors during RSV infection in a manner dependent on acetyl-lysine binding domain interactions. This data suggests that BRD4 recruits transcription factors to target its RNA processing complex to regulate gene expression in innate immunity and inflammation.

We introduce a new class of Vertex Operator Algebras Y+ and their duals, which generalize the standard W-algebras WN of type sl(N). These algebras can be defined in terms of junctions of boundary conditions and interfaces in the GL-twisted N = 4 Super Yang Mills gauge theory. The aim of these technical calculations is to find the relation of these ortho-symplectic Y-algebras to truncations of even W\infinity.

The Ptarmigan and Tom mesothermal gold deposits are located 10 km to the northeast of the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories in northern Canada. Both gold deposits comprise a series of en echelon veins that are hosted within upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies ~2630 Ma (peak) rocks. Supracrustal units across the craton are intruded by the ca. 2610–2605-Ma granodiorite, tonalite, monzodiorite, quartz diorite, and affiliated rocks of the Concession Suite. Hydrothermal apatite is a common accessory mineral in both mineralized and non-mineralized quartz veins in the metasedimentary host rocks that constitute the Ptarmigan and Tom deposits. This study characterizes and compares turbidite-hosted hydrothermal apatite from the Ptarmigan and Tom deposits, non-mineralized veins adjacent to the ore body, and magmatic apatite from proximal LCT-pegmatites. Using electron probe microanalyses (EPMA), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), micro-XRF, and cathodoluminescence (CL), the major, minor, and trace element abundances have been quantified and mapped. In addition to utilizing this data to determine if the chemistry of apatite can be used to constrain the source of hydrothermal fluids, the apparent age of the apatite is also evaluated utilizing in situ U-Pb dating. The distribution and abundance of major, minor, and trace elements from in situ recovered apatite were studied to characterize the nature of mineralizing fluids. Most apatite from mineralized and non-mineralized veins show different Mn, Sr, and Pb contents, as well as chondrite-normalized rare-earth element (REE) and Y abundance patterns. REEs display five unique chondrite-normalized patterns: (1) negative sloped pattern with slight negative Eu anomaly, (2) a flat pattern with a positive Eu anomaly, (3) a positive slope with a negative Eu anomaly, (iv) light rare earth element (LREE) depleted pattern with positive Eu anomaly, and (v) bell-shaped pattern with a negative Eu anomaly. The REE patterns reflect both the source of the auriferous hydrothermal fluids and, perhaps, co-precipitating mineral phases. Apatite from the Ptarmigan vein occurs with both: (1) a flat pattern with a positive Eu anomaly and (2) bell-shaped pattern with a negative Eu anomaly. The bell-shaped and flat patterns typify orogenic gold deposits. Vein-hosted apatite commonly displays compositional zoning with a characteristic yellow cathodoluminescence (CL) emission spectra with darker cores and brighter rims. The cores have lower REE, whereas the rims are notably higher in REE. It is thought that the darker cores in CL images reflect a transition from an early low REE hydrothermal fluid to one enriched in REE. The hydrothermal apatite age of 2585 ± 15 Ma is consistent with the intrusions of the 2605 and 2590 Ma two-mica granites of the Prosperous Suite and associated LCT pegmatites.

The ability to self-direct a research program determines graduate degree completion. Yet, research on incompletion of graduate physics programs assume students’ present level of self-direction adequate and neglects to recognize a lack of self-directed learning as key. One theoretical mathematical physicist focused on changing this challenge of physics graduate education by promoting self-directed learning through the type research flow that has been found to bring the greatest satisfaction to researchers with respect to their insights. This he provided through his space, time, open mindedness and theoretical contributions with his students and in collaboration with his colleagues. A self-directed learner himself, David J. Rowe developed methods of mentoring for encouraging physics graduate students to recognize symmetry as valuable in identifying solutions to problems quickly—helping these students take the lead in finding insightful resolutions to complex, multidimensional, mathematical physics uncertainties. How Rowe set about supporting self-directed learning in his graduate physics education interactions will be examined with the use of narrative research to interpret the texts and conversations with the author he made available. His techniques will be presented and recommendations made regarding how Rowe’s work in this regard can be modeled to improve self-direction in STEM graduate education.

To improve efficacy and safety of sunscreen emulsions, UV‐filter skin permeation could be kept as low as possible by reducing UV‐filter content or changing emulsion composition. In this work, different lipid phase ratio (12, 14 and 16% w/w) were assessed for their ability to affect the technological and sensory properties of O/W emulsions in which bemotrizinol (BMTZ), a broad spectrum sunscreen agent, was incorporated free or loaded into nanostructured lipid nanocarriers (NLC) to reduce its release from the vehicle and, hence, its skin permeation. The following technological properties were evaluated in vitro by suitable methodologies: spreadability, viscosity, pH, occlusion factor, BMTZ release, sun protection factor (SPF). Sensory attributes were assessed by trained panelists in three different phases: before/during pick‐up, rub‐in, after application. Raising the lipid phase ratio led to an increase of viscosity and to a corresponding drop of spreadability while the incorporation of BMTZ‐loaded NLC determined a decrease of occlusion factor and an increase of SPF. No BMTZ release was observed from all emulsions. Sensory attributes were mainly affected by lipid phase ratio. These results suggest that lipid phase ratio and BMTZ incorporation into NLC could contribute to determine technological and sensory properties of O/W emulsions.

The Ni-Co-Cr-W-Mo system is critical for the design of nickel-based super-alloys. This system stabilizes different topologically close packed (TCP) phases in many of the commercially super-alloys with high W and Mo contents. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermodynamic calculations are applied to investigate the thermodynamics of the precipitates in two different W content Ni-Co-Cr-W-Mo super-alloys. Computational thermodynamics verified experimental observation of the f u phase formation as a function of temperature and alloy chemistry, but the kinetics for the precipitation of M6C phase do not agree with the experimental findings. The major precipitates of alloy 1 at temperatures 700 and 750 °C during long time exposure are M23C6, γ′ phase, and MC, and alloy 2 are M23C6, γ′ phase, MC, M6C and u phase. The W addition is found to promote the precipitation of M6C and u phase during exposure. The M6C has higher W and lower Ni content than that of u phase, meanwhile, M6C is an unstable phase would transform into M12C after 5000 h exposure at 750 °C. A great quantity of needle-like u phases precipitated after exposure at 750 °C for 5000h, which have no effect on the impact property of alloy 2.

Objective: To estimate for the first time the burden of serious fungal infections in Romania; Methods: Data derived from the World Health Organization (WHO), National Institute of Statistics, Romanian public health agencies and non-profit health organizations and published annual reports on local epidemiology were used in the present study. When no data was available, specific at-risk populations were used to calculate frequencies of serious fungal diseases, using previously published epidemiological parameters. All data refer to the year 2016; 3) Results: The estimated number of serious fungal infections in Romanian population was 435,930 in 2016. Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis accounts for up to 80% of total cases (more than 350,000 women annually). Concerning the HIV related infections, among 14349 infected persons, Pneumocystis pneumonia occurred in about 10% of late presenters (30 cases in 2016), while cryptococcal meningitis is rarely diagnosed (less than 20 cases). Annually, the total number of oesophageal candidiasis and oral thrush cases in HIV-positive patients may be as high as 1229 and 3066, respectively. In immunocompromised and cancer patient population, the annual incidence of candidaemia is 295, and at least 158 invasive aspergillosis cases and 4 mucormycosis cases occur yearly. With 4,966 critical care beds and approximately 200,000 abdominal surgeries performed, the estimated annual incidence of candidaemia and Candida peritonitis is 689 and 344, respectively. The annual incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis is still high in Romania (12,747 cases). Thus, the prevalence of post-TB chronic pulmonary aspergillosis is estimated to be 8.98/100,000 (1768 cases). The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma in adults is 6% and 6.5%, respectively. Therefore, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis prevalence is estimated at 29,387 and severe asthma with fungal sensitisation at 38,731 cases annually. 4) Conclusions: Not being on the list of reportable diseases, the number of patients presenting with severe mycoses in Romania can only be roughly estimated. Based on local reports and prevalence estimation, we consider that at least 2.2% of Romanians suffer a serious form of fungal disease.

Aim: Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza H1N1 virus are common organisms associated with human infections. These infections could play a significant role in immune regulation. The study was performed to analyse the genome sequences of these organisms with human genome and study its functional significance. Methods: The study was performed to analyse the overlapping of genome sequences in Streptococcus pneumoniae and Influenza (H1N1) virus against human genome sequences by BLASTn sequence analysis. The alignments are studied against the corresponding genes for their functional significance with DAVID and NDEx software.Results: Several hits or overlapping nucleotide segments were identified. Between streptococcus and homo sapiens 287 overlaps were identified, and among influenza and homo sapiens 124 hits were identified. A wide range of functional significance of these genes were identified, and the results are presented in this study. The results show insights into functional pathways and biological activities associated with the respective vaccinations or infections by these microorganisms. Conclusion: The common organisms like Streptococcus pneumoniae and Influenza H1N1 virus actively interact with the immune system and result in a wide range of immune regulations.

In an outstanding article published in 2008, Suzuki obtained a nice generalization of the Banach contraction principle from which derived a characterization of metric completeness. Although Suzuki’s theorem has been successfully generalized and extended in several directions and contexts, we here show by means of a simple example that the problem of achieving, in an obvious way, its full extension to the framework of w-distances does not have an emphatic response. Motivated by this fact we introduce the concept of presymmetric w-distance on metric spaces, we give some properties and examples of this new structure and show that it provides a reasonable setting to obtain a real and hardly forced w-distance generalization of Suzuki’s theorem. This is realized in our main result, which is a fixed point theorem that involves presymmetric w-distances and certain contractions of Suzuki-type. We also discuss the relationship between our main result and the well-known w-distance full generalization of the Banach contraction principle, due to Suzuki and Takahashi. Connected to this approach we prove another fixed point result that compare with our main result through some examples. Finally, we state a characterization of metric completeness by using our fixed point results.

Computational fluid dynamics is used to study the impact of the support structure of a tidal turbine on performance and the downstream wake characteristics. A high-fidelity computational model of a dual rotor, contra-rotating tidal turbine in a large channel domain is presented, with turbulence modelled using large eddy simulation. Actuator lines represent the turbine blades, permitting the analysis of transient flow features and turbine diagnostics. The following four cases are considered: the flow in an unexploited, empty channel; flow in a channel containing the rotors; flow in a channel containing the support structure; and flow in a channel with both rotors and support structure. The results indicate that the support structure contributes significantly to the behaviour of the turbine and to turbulence levels downstream, even when the rotors are upstream. This implies that inclusion of the turbine structure, or some parametrisation thereof, is a prerequisite for the realistic prediction of turbine performance and reliability, particularly for array layouts where wake effects become significant.

AgW materials exhibit excellent properties and are widely used as contact materials in low- and medium-voltage switches. In this study, a pre-sintering and infiltration method was employed to pre-sinter W powder with Cu, Ni, and (Cu+Ni) addition in the low temperature range of 950–1050 °C. The low-temperature sintering behaviours of W skeletons with different additives were investigated. Subsequently, AgW70, AgW75, AgW80, and AgW85 materials were prepared through infiltration at 1050 °C. The microstructure morphology and physical properties of high-W contact materials were investigated using a metallographic microscope and scanning electron microscope. The mechanism of low-temperature sintering-infiltration of high-W contact materials was elucidated. The results indicated that pure W and 1% Cu-added W skeletons experience minimal linear shrinkage within the temperature range of 950–1050 °C. The linear shrinkage curves of W skeletons with different additives coincided under the conditions of 950–1000 °C/90 min. At 1050 °C, after sintering for 150 min, the particle boundaries in the W skeleton were fully spheroidised, with a dihedral angle of 120°. At 1050 °C and after 150 min of infiltration, cross-sectional micrographs of the AgW material revealed the presence of irregular Ni layers, where Ni spatially enveloped/encapsulated Ag. With an increase in the W content, the electrical conductivity and relative density of AgW(70–85) materials decreased, whereas the hardness of the materials increased.

This paper provides an open dataset of measured energy use, solar energy production, and building air leakage data from a 328 m² (3,531 ft²) all-electric, zero energy commercial building in Virginia, USA. Over two years of energy use data were collected at 1-hour intervals using circuit-level energy monitors. Over six years of solar energy production data were measured at 1-hour intervals by 56 microinverters. The building air leakage data was measured post-construction per ASTM-E779 Standard Test Method for Determining Air Leakage Rate by Fan Pressurization and the United States Army Corps (USACE) Building Enclosure Testing procedure; both pressurization and depressurization results are provided. The architectural and engineering (AE) documents are provided to aid researchers and practitioners in reliable modelling of building performance. The paper describes the data collection methods, cleaning, and convergence with weather data. This dataset can be employed to predict, benchmark, and calibrate operational outcomes in zero energy commercial buildings.

Previous research has shown that propolis has immunomodulatory activity. Extracts from two UK propolis samples were assessed for their anti-inflammatory activities by investigating their ability to alter the production of the cytokines tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6 and IL-10 from mouse bone marrow derived macrophages co-stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The propolis extracts suppressed secretion of IL-1β and IL-6 with less effect on TNFα. In addition, propolis reduced the levels of nitric oxide formed by LPS-stimulated macrophages. Metabolomic profiling was carried out by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) on a ZIC-pHILIC column. LPS increased the levels of intermediates involved in nitric oxide biosynthesis; propolis lowered many of these. Also, LPS produced an increase in itaconate and citrate and propolis treatment increased itaconate still further while greatly reducing citrate levels. Moreover, LPS treatment increased levels of GSH and intermediates in its biosynthesis while propolis treatment boosted these still further. In addition, propolis treatment greatly increased levels of UDP-sugar conjugates. Overall, the results showed that propolis extracts exert an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines and by metabolic reprogramming of LPS activity in macrophages.

Cohesion in the refractory metals Cr, Mo, and W is phenomenologically described in this work via a n-body energy functional with a set of physically motivated parameters that were optimized to reproduce selected experimental properties characteristic of perfect and defective crystals. The functional contains four terms accounting for the hard-core repulsion, the Thomas-Fermi kinetic energy repulsion and for contributions to the binding energy of s and d valence electrons. Lattice dynamics, molecular statics, and molecular dynamics calculations show that this model describes satisfactorily thermodynamic properties of the studied metals whereas, unlike other empirical approaches from the literature, predictions of phonon dispersion relations and of surface and point defect energetics reveal in fair good agreement with experiments. These results suggest that the present model is well adapted to large-scale simulations and whenever total energy calculations of thermodynamic properties are unfeasible

The main focus of this paper is to propose a comprehensive framework for the cognitive meas-urement and modelling of the built environment. This will involve exploring and measuring neural mechanisms. The aim is to create a foundation for further studies in this field that are consistent and rigorous. Additionally, this framework will facilitate collaboration with cognitive neuroscientists by establishing a shared conceptual basis. The goal of this research is to develop a human-centric approach for urban design that is scientific and measurable, producing a set of urban design guidelines that incorporate cognitive measurement and modelling. By doing so, the broader intention is to design urban spaces that prioritize human needs and well-being, mak-ing them more liveable.

Inflorescence architecture underpins sexual reproduction in wild Musa species and productivity in edible banana cultivars. In a functional analysis we identified the apical inflorescence and lateral ‘cushion’ meristems and the change in flower type as the three primary components of inflorescence architecture. Five genotypes of two clone-sets of edible plantains (Musa AAB), were grown for four generations along an elevation gradient (1100 m to 2200 m, 16°C to 24°C) straddling the equator in the humid highlands of East Africa. The data consisted of peduncle length at harvest, fruit per hand (Fh) and hands per bunch (Hb). The activity of the apical inflorescence meristem drives peduncle length and lateral ‘cushion’ meristems determine fruit per hand. However, Hb is determined by a change in flower type – from fruit-forming to non-fruit forming. Site temperature affected Hb more than Fh, while development of the genet (rhizome) changed the allocation of resources between Hb and Fh, independently of the effect of site temperature. Clone-sets differed in their response to genet development. Cooler temperatures reduced the number of fruit-forming flowers in an inflorescence and changed the balance away from female towards male flowers. In banana breeding schemes, manipulating inflorescence components independently raises options for producing genotypes better suited to markets, environments, and cultural practices.

With ongoing colony losses driven in part by the Varroa mite and the associated exacerbation of virus load, there is an urgent need to protect honey bees (Apis mellifera) from fatal levels of virus infection and from nontarget effects of insecticides used in agricultural settings. A continuously replicating cell line derived from the honey bee would provide a valuable tool for study of molecular mechanisms of virus – host interaction, for screening of antiviral agents for potential use within the hive, and for assessment of the risk of current and candidate insecticides to the honey bee. However, the establishment of a continuously replicating, honey bee cell line has proved challenging. Here we provide an overview of attempts to establish primary and continuously replicating hymenopteran cell lines, methods (including recent results) for establishing honey bee cell lines, challenges associated with the presence of latent viruses (especially Deformed wing virus), in established cell lines and methods to establish virus-free cell lines. We also describe the potential use of honey bee cell lines in conjunction with infectious clones of honey bee viruses for examination of fundamental virology.

Semisolid casting can provide excellent castings, but the nature of the pore-forming mechanisms has not been properly clarified. In the current communication, it was suggested that hydrogen precipitated during slurry making might have a decisive role in the formation of both gas and shrinkage porosity. Intensive stirring at the end of the slurry making process may act as a degassing step. Without the intense stirring, structures of primary slurry particles form around the hydrogen pores, strongly affecting pore formation and feeding during the intensification stage.

In this work the influence of the structure forming agent on the composition, morphology and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of Fe-N-C catalysts was investigated. As structure forming agent (SFA), dicyandiamide (DCDA) (nitrogen source) or oxalic acid (oxygen source) or mixtures thereof were used. For characterization, cyclic voltammetry and rotating disc electrode (RDE) experiments were performed in 0.1 M H2SO4. In addition to this, N2 sorption measurements and Raman spectroscopy were performed for the structural characterization. The role of metal, nitrogen and carbon sources within the synthesis of Fe-N-C catalysts has been pointed out before. Here, we show that the optimum in terms of ORR activity is achieved if both N- and O-containing SFAs are used in almost similar fractions. All catalysts display a redox couple, whereat its position depends on the fractions of SFAs. The SFA has also a strong impact on the morphology: Catalysts that were prepared with a larger fraction of N-containing SFA revealed a higher order in graphitization, indicated by bands in the 2nd order range of the Raman spectra. Nevertheless, the optimum in terms of ORR activity is obtained for the catalyst with highest D/G band ratio. Therefore, the results indicate that the presence of an additional oxygen-containing SFA is beneficial within the preparation.

Density Functional Theory (DFT) full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method with the Modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) approximation is used to perform spin polarised calculations of the transition metal perovskites MoScO₃ and WScO₃. Both depict half metallic behaviour with semiconducting and metallic in the minority and majority spins respectively. MoScO₃ and WScO₃ have indirect R− Γ band gaps in the minority spin channels of 3.61 and 3.82eV respectively. Moreover, they both show substantial magnetic moments of 2.99μ_B. In addition, we calculate the dielectric function, optical conductivity and the optical constants, namely, the refractive index, the reflectivity, the extinction and absorption coefficients.

We study the changes in quantum Fisher information (QFI) values for one quantum system consisting of a superposition of W and GHZ states. In a recent work [6], QFI values of this mentioned system studied. In this work, we extend this problem for the changes of QFI values in some noisy channels. We show the change in QFI depending on noise parameters. We report interesting results for different type of decoherence channels.

Quantum gravity theories rely on a minimal measurable length for their formulations, which clashes with the classical formulation of the uncertainty principle and with Lorentz invariance from general relativity. These incompatibilities led to the development of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) from string theories and its various modifications. GUP and covariant formulations of the uncertainty principle are discussed, together with implications for space-time quantization.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of clinically important pathogens is a major threat to global health security. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the urgent need to develop alternative treatments to address the growing list of priority pathogens. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) rank among the various suggested options with proven activity and a high potential to be developed into effective agents. Many AMPs are naturally produced by living organisms and protect the host against pathogens as a part of their innate immunity. Various mechanisms associated with their antimicrobial actions include cell membrane disruption, cell wall weakening, protein synthesis inhibition, and interference in nucleic acid dynamics that can induce apoptosis and necrosis. Acinetobacter baumannii is considered a critical pathogen, and severe clinical problems have appeared with isolates resistant to current antibiotic treatments and conventional control procedures such as UV light, disinfectants, and drying. Here, we review the natural AMPs representing the primary candidates for new anti-A. baumannii drugs in a post-antibiotic era and present the use of computational tools to develop the next generation of AMPs with greater microbicidal activity and reduced toxicity.

Fungal keratitis (FK) is an invasive infection of the cornea primarily associated with Aspergillus and Fusarium species. FK is treated empirically with a limited selection of topical antifungals with varying levels of success. Though clinical infections are typically characterized by a dense network of mature mycelium, traditional models used to test antifungal susceptibility of FK isolates exclusively evaluate susceptibility in fungal cultures derived from asexual spores known as conidia. The purpose of this study was to characterize differences in fungal response when topical antifungal treatment is initiated at progressive phases of fungal development. We compared efficacy of voriconazole and luliconazole against in vitro cultures of A. flavus and F. keratoplasticum at 0, 24, and 48 h of fungal development. A porcine cadaver corneal model was used to compare antifungal efficacy of voriconazole and luliconazole in ex vivo tissue cultures of A. flavus and F. keratoplasticum at 0, 24, and 48 h of fungal development. Our results demonstrate phase-dependent susceptibility of both A. flavus and F. keratoplasticum to both azoles in vitro as well as ex vivo. We conclude that traditional antifungal susceptibility testing with conidial suspensions does not correlate with fungal susceptibility in cultures of a more advanced developmental phase. A revised method of antifungal susceptibility testing that evaluates hyphal susceptibility may better predict fungal response in the clinical setting where treatment is often delayed until days after the initial insult.

Certain Trichoderma isolates provide biofertilizer, biocontrol, and other plant-beneficial activities while inhabiting the soil or internal plant issues; and their use in agricultural systems could contribute to sustainable food production. It is thought that this colonization of soil and internal plant tissues is fundamental for biocontrol and biofertilizer applications. Our collective analyses of prior surveys, where the tef1 sequence was almost exclusively used to identify Trichoderma species, showed that isolates from the Harzianum Complex Clade, the T. asperellum/T. asperelloides group, T. virens, T. hamatum, and T. atroviride were prevalent in soil and/or as endophytes. Population structure and genetic diversity of these species were investigated, and new lineages with geo-graphic significance within T. atroviride, T. asperellum, T. hamatum, and T. virens populations were found. The nearest relatives of some species were also revealed. Choosing isolates from among more than 500 known Trichoderma species for use in non-targeted evaluation screens for biocontrol or biofertilizer applications is time-consuming and expensive. Preferentially selecting species from T. atroviride, T. asperellum/T. asperelloides, T. hamatum, species from the T. harzianum Complex Clade, T. virens, and possibly nearest relatives, may speed the identification of candidates for commercialization due to the demonstrated ability of these species to successfully inhabit the soil and endorhizosphere. To our knowledge, this is the first report where dominant soil- and en-dophyte-inhabiting Trichoderma species were identified from past survey data and population structure and genetic diversity analyses conducted.

Reducing under-five mortality is a key indicator of a country's overall development, yet in Angola, understanding the factors contributing to hospital deaths in this vulnerable demographic remains incomplete despite improvements in healthcare infrastructure and public health policies. With one of the highest under-five mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, Angola grapples with significant challenges, including malaria, malnutrition, pneumonia, neonatal conditions, and intestinal infectious diseases, as leading causes of death among children. This study aimed to identify factors associated with these hospital deaths in children aged 28 days to five years admitted to DBPH in Luanda between May 2022 and June 2023. Utilizing a hospital-based case-control design, a total of 1020 children were studied, with 340 cases of hospital deaths. Notably, distal and intermediate determinants emerged as primary predictors of hospital mortality, revealing significant associations with maternal education status, maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy, short hospital stays (≤24h), poor nutritional status, short interbirth intervals, maternal age ≤19 years, and maternal age ≥35 years. These findings underscore the preventable nature of most under-five hospital deaths and emphasize the urgent need to address social inequities and enhance the quality of primary healthcare services to effectively mitigate child mortality.

In this paper, we introduce a new generalization of the r-Stirling numbers of the second kind based on the q-numbers via an exponential generating function. We investigate their some properties and derive several relations among q-Bernoulli numbers and polynomials, and newly de…ned (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind. We also obtain q-Bernstein polynomials as a linear combination of (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind and q-Bernoulli polynomials in w.

Gas flaring is a disposal process widely used in the oil extraction and processing industry. It consists in the burning of unwanted gas at the tip of a stack and due to its thermal characteristic and the thermal emission it is possible to observe and to quantify it from space. Spaceborne observations allows us to collect information across regions and hence to provide a base for estimation of emissions on global scale. We have successfully adapted the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Nightfire algorithm for the detection and characterisation of persistent hot spots, including gas flares, to the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) observations on-board the Sentinel- satellites. A hot event at temperatures typical of a gas flare will produce a local maximum in the night-time readings of the shortwave and mid-infrared (SWIR and MIR) channels of SLSTR. The SWIR band centered at 1.61 mmis closest to the expected spectral radiancemaximumand serves as the primary detection band. The hot source is characterised in terms of temperature and area by fitting the sum of two Planck curves, one for the hot source and another for the background, to the radiances from all the available SWIR, MIR and thermal infra-red channels of SLSTR. The flaring radiative power is calculated from the gas flare temperature and area. Our algorithm differs from the original VIIRS Nightfire algorithm in three key aspects: (1) It uses a granule-based contextual thresholding to detect hot pixels, being independent of the number of hot sources present and their intensity. (2) It analyses entire clusters of hot source detections instead of individual pixels. This is arguably a more comprehensive use of the available information. (3) The co-registration errors between hot source clusters in the different spectral bands are calculated and corrected. This also contributes to the SLSTR instrument validation. Cross-comparisons of the new gas flare characterisation with temporally close observations by the higher resolution German FireBIRD TET-1 small satellite and with the Nightfire product based on VIIRS on-board the Suomi-NPP satellite show general agreement for an individual flaring site in Siberia and for several flaring regions around the world. Small systematic differences to VIIRS Nightfire are nevertheless apparent. Based on the hot spot characterisation, gas flares can be identified and flared gas volumes and pollutant emissions can be calculated with previously published methods.

High-resolution forecasting of vegetation type shifts may prove essential for anticipating and mitigating the impacts of future climate change on bird populations. Here, we used the US Forest Service Ecological Response Unit (ERU) classification to develop and assess vegetation-based breeding habitat profiles for eight owl species occurring in foothills and mountains of the southwestern US. Shifts in mapped habitat were forecast using an ecosystem vulnerability model based on the pre-1990 climate envelopes of ERUs and the A1B moderate IPCC emission scenario of future climate. For five of the eight owl species, regional breeding habitat extent was projected to decline by at least 60% by 2090. Three species, the boreal owl (Aegolius funereus; at the trailing edge of its distribution), flammulated owl (Psiloscops flammeolus), and northern pygmy-owl (Glaucidium gnoma) were projected to experience the steepest habitat-loss rates, or 85%, 85%, and 76%, respectively. Projected vegetation shifts overlaid with well-documented flammulated owl breeding populations showed complete or near complete loss of habitat by 2090 in areas of montane forest currently supporting dense aggregations of owl territories. Generalist or lower-elevation owl species were predicted to be less impacted, while for the whiskered screech-owl (Megascops trichopsis), the contraction of current habitat was nearly offset by a projected northward expansion. In general, the results of this study suggest high exposure to climate change impacts for upper-elevation forest owls of semi-arid southwestern North America. Long distance migration and low natal philopatry may prove important to some montane owl populations for adapting to regional loss of habitat.

Breaking up prolonged sitting by short bouts of light physical activities including standing and walking has been shown to be beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). This paper presents the development of an android mobile app to deliver a just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) to reduce sedentary time in people with T2D. A total of six design workshops were conducted with seven experts to identify design requirements, a behavioural framework, and required contextual adaptations for the development of a bespoke mobile app (iMOVE). Moreover, a focus group was conducted among people with T2D as potential end-users (N=10) to ascertain their perceptions of the app. Feedback from the focus group was used in subsequent iterations of the iMOVE app. Data were analysed using an inductive qualitative thematic analysis. Based on workshops, key features of iMOVE were developed, including simplicity (e.g., navigation, login), colours and font sizes, push notifications, messaging algorithms and a triggering system for breaking up sitting time and moving more. Based on the user testing results, a goal setting tab was added, font sizes were made larger, the brightness of colours was reduced, and a colour indicator was used to indicate device connectivity with an activity tracker. A user-centric app was developed to support people with T2D to transition from sedentary to active lifestyles.

Solving environmental odor issues can be confounded by many analytical, technological, and socioeconomic factors. Considerable know-how and technologies can fail to properly identify odorants responsible for the downwind nuisance odor and mitigate it for the affected citizenry. We propose enabling solutions to environmental odor issues by utilizing troubleshooting techniques developed for the food, beverage, and consumer products industries. We showed that the downwind odorant impact-priority ranking process can be definable and relatively simple. The initial challenge is the prioritization of environmental odor character from the perspective of the impacted citizenry downwind. In this research, we aim at summarizing three natural models of the rolling unmasking effect (RUE) and discuss them more systematically in the context of the proposed downwind environmental odor prioritization approach. Regardless of the size and reach of an odor source, a simplification of odor character and composition typically develops with downwind dilution. The extreme odor simplification-upon-dilution was demonstrated for two plant varieties, prairie verbena and Virginia pepperweed. Their downwind odor frontal boundaries were dominated by single, character-defining odorants; p-cresol-dominated ‘barnyard’ odor, and benzyl mercaptan-dominated ‘burnt match’ odor, respectively. The P.T. porcupine downwind odor frontal boundary was dominated by two potent, character-defining odorants: (1) ‘onion’/‘body odor’ odorant #1 and (2) ‘onion’/‘grilled’ odorant #2. In contrast with their downwind boundary simplicities, each odor source presented considerable compositional complexity and composite character difference near the source. The proposed RUE approach’s ultimate significance is the illustration of naturally occurring phenomena that explain why some environmental odors and their sources can be challenging to identify and mitigate using the analytical only approach (focused on compound identities and concentrations). These approaches rarely move beyond comprehensive lists of compounds being emitted by the source.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative and progressive disease that impacts the nerve cells in the brain and varies from person to person. The exact cause of PD is still unknown, and the diagnosis of PD does not include a specific objective test with certainty. Although deep learning has made great progress in medical neuroimaging analysis, these methods are very susceptible to biases present in neuroimaging datasets. An innovative decorrelated deep learning technique is introduced to mitigate class bias and scanner bias while simultaneously focusing on finding distinguishing characteristics in resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data, which assist in recognizing the PD with good accuracy. The decorrelation function reduces the non-linear correlation between features and bias in order to learn bias-invariant features. The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) dataset, referred to as a single scanner imbalanced dataset in this study used to validate our method. The imbalanced dataset problem affects the performance of the deep learning framework by overfitting to the majority class. To resolve this problem, we propose a new Decorrelated Convolutional Neural Networks (DcCNN) framework by applying decorrelation-based optimization to Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN). An analysis of evaluation metrics comparisons shows that integrating the decorrelation function boosts the performance of PD recognition by removing class bias. Specifically, our DcCNN model performs significantly better than existing traditional approaches to tackle the imbalance problem. Finally, the same framework can be extended to create scanner invariant features without significantly impacting the performance of a model. The obtained dataset is a multi-scanner dataset which leads to scanner bias due to the differences in acquisition protocols and scanners. The multi-scanner dataset is a combination of two datasets, namely PPMI and FTLDNI - frontotemporal lobar degeneration neuroimaging initiative (NIFD) dataset. The results of t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) and scanner classification accuracy of our proposed Feature Extraction-DcCNN (FE-DcCNN) model validated the effective removal of scanner bias. Our method achieves an average accuracy of 77.80% on a multi-scanner dataset for differentiating PD from healthy control, which is superior to the DcCNN model trained on a single scanner imbalanced dataset.

Air pollution is a leading cause of death in the United States, and is associated with adverse health outcomes, including increased vulnerability to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The AirBeam2 was used to measure particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller (PM2.5), to investigate differences between indoor and ambient levels at seven private homes in New York during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Measurements taken in 2020 winter, spring and fall and in fall 2022 showed that 90% of the time, indoor PM2.5 levels exceeded outdoor levels both during and after the COVID-19 lockdown, p = 0.03, and exceeded safety levels. Higher indoor PM2.5 levels attributed to little or no ventilation from cooking and smoke in the kitchen and basements, were significantly greater in fall than in winter. Higher ambient PM2.5 levels were attributed to vehicular traffic at a street-facing sampling site. PM2.5 sources identified in this study may help in devising control strategies to improve indoor air quality (IAQ), and consequently alleviate respiratory health effects. These findings may be used as a basis for in-house modifications including natural ventilation and use of air purifiers to reduce exposures, mitigate future risks, and prevent potential harm to vulnerable residents.

Tungsten and its alloys are considered as a key component in high temperature environment. Self-passivating W-Si-xY alloys with different Y contents made from the powders milled for different times were prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). Their microstructures and oxidation resistance were investigated. It is found that the oxidation resistance of the alloys with low Y contents (0Y and 2Y) made from 20 h-milled powders is worse than that of the alloys made from 4 h-milled powders. It is because the protective WO3/SiO2 composite layer is discontinuous. While the alloys with high Y contents (4Y and 6Y) made from 4 h and 20 h-milled powders show good oxidation resistance. Even, the thickness of the oxide layer of the alloys with 4Y and 6Y made from 20 h-milled powders after oxidation at 1000 ℃ for 2 h is 84.0 μm and 70.7 μm, less than that made from 4 h-milled powders. This is due to the size and distribution of W5Si3, Y2Si2O7 aggregates and W-Y-O melt. The synergistic effects of Y contents and milling time on the microstructures and oxidation resistance of the alloys are revealed.

The increasing detection of infections of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, in non-endemic regions beyond Latin America has risen to be a major public health issue. With an impact in the millions of people, current treatments rely on antiquated drugs that produce severe side effects and are considered nearly ineffective for the chronic phase. The minimal progress in the development of new drugs highlights the need for advances in basic research on crucial biochemical pathways in T. cruzi to identify new targets. Here, we report on the T. cruzi presenilin-like transmembrane aspartyl enzyme, a protease of the aspartic class in a unique phylogenetic subgroup with T. vivax separate from protozoans. Computational analyses suggests it contains 9 transmembrane domains and an active site with the characteristic PALP motif of the A22 family. Multiple linear B-cell epitopes were identified by SPOT synthesis analysis with Chagasic patient sera. Two were chosen to generate rabbit antisera, whose signal was primarily localized to the flagellar pocket, intracellular vesicles and endoplasmic reticulum in parasites by whole cell immunofluorescence. The results suggest that the parasitic presenilin-like enzyme could have a role in the secretory pathway and serve as a biomarker for infections.

Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) is a very useful concept for analyzing situations that require phase sensitivity. It become a popular topic especially in Quantum Metrology domain. In this work, we study the changes in quantum Fisher information (QFI) values for one relative arbitrary phased quantum system consisting of a superposition of N Qubits W and GHZ states. In a recent work [7], QFI values of this mentioned system for N qubits were studied. In this work, we extend this problem for the changes of QFI values in some noisy channels for the studied system. We show the changes in QFI depending on noise parameters. We report interesting results for different type of decoherence channels. We show the general case results for this problem.

Vancomycin is one of the ‘last-line’ classes of antibiotics used in the treatment of life-threatening infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Even though vancomycin was discovered in 1950s it was widely used after 1980s for the treatment of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococci as prevalence of such strains were increased. However, currently it is evident that vancomycin resistant Staphylococcusaureusandvancomycin-resistant Enterococci have been developed as a result of various reasons including use of avaparcin, which is an analog of vancomycin, as feed additive in livestock. In present day context, more attention should be paid on prevention of emergence of resistance for the antibiotics in order to keep antibiotics effective. In order to prevent emergence of resistance, proper guidance for the responsible use of antimicrobials is indispensable. Therefore, almost all stakeholders who use antibiotics should have in depth understanding on the antibiotic they use. As such, it is imperative to be aware of the important aspects of vancomycin. In the present review, efforts have been made to discussthe pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, indications, emergence of resistance, control of resistance, adverse effects and alternative therapy for vancomycin.

Stream chemistry effectively integrates watershed ecosystem processes on both spatial and temporal scales. Streams of coastal areas integrate a more homogeneous, flat topography wherein there can be interactions between the stream and the body of water into which it drains, especially where tidal fluxes occur. The present study assessed water quality of Thompson Bayou, which comes to the campus of the University of West Florida in a wetland after flowing through 4 km of commercial and private property with associated impacts on water quality. Sampling was carried out for one year at eight discrete sites along Thompson Bayou from the UWF campus to the Escambia River. We used a portable field meter to measure temperature, pH, dissolved O2 (DO), and specific conductivity (SC). Except for temperature, all variables exhibited a spatial pattern of significant variation with distance, with consistent increases in DO and SC as the stream approached the river. These variables also exhibited a temporal pattern of significant seasonal variation, including—and especially—temperature. Data suggest that spatial and temporal patterns of water quality of Thompson Bayou are determined by (1) processing of water by the wetland, (2) interactions of the stream channel with upland forest stands, and (3) the tidal hydrology of the Escambia River.

Technological advances in the last decades have led to the realization of the concept of a smart environment. A significant part of this development is decentralized ledger technology and its variant, a blockchain. The blockchain database is immutable, open to all stakeholders, secure by architecture and robust. Applying a blockchain in water supply sanitary control creates opportunities for optimization, higher quality of service, cost reduction, better sanitary standards and public control. Physical, chemical, and biological water supply contamination is a great source of public health hazards. Implementation of a blockchain for water supply IoT, from the source point to the consumption point, enables effective response to changing environments, possible cross-contamination, stormwater management or disaster and emergency action. The chapter encompasses all fundamental elements and principles of water collection, distribution and consumption, with a focus on the health hazards and sanitary requirements for potable water. The chapter listed the main contaminants, methods of their registration and elimination, and requirements for drinking water in accordance with WHO, EU Drinking Water Directive and EPA standards. Blockchain technology solutions are described for smart water supply, including smart supply management, smart contracts, tokenization, smart compliance systems, and, most importantly, effective utilization of distributed ledger technologies for sanitary monitoring of water sources, water treatment, and water distribution systems.

A critical challenge underpinning the adoption of Additive Manufacture (AM) as a technology is the postprocessing of manufactured components. For Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) this can involve the removal of powder from the interior of the component, often by vibrating the component to fluidise the powder to encourage drainage. In this paper we develop and validate a computational model of the flow of metal powder suitable for predicting powder removal from such AM components. The model is a continuum Eulerian multiphase model of the powder including models for the granular temperature; the effect of vibration can be included through appropriate wall boundaries for this granular temperature. We validate the individual sub-models appropriate for AM metal powders by comparison with in-house and literature experimental results, and then apply the full model to a more complex geometry typical of an AM Heat Exchanger. The model is shown to provide valuable and accurate results at a fraction of the computational cost of a particle-based model.

Binder jet printed components typically have low overall density in the green state and high shrinkage and deformation after heat treatment. It has previously been demonstrated that, by including nanoparticles of the same material in the binder, these properties can be improved as the nanoparticles can fill the interstices and pore throats between the bed particles. The beneficial effects from using these additive binder particles can be improved by maximising the binder particle size, enabling the space within the powder bed to be filled with a higher packing efficiency. The selection of maximum particle size for a binder requires detailed knowledge of the pores and pore throats between the powder bed particles. In this paper, a raindrop model is developed to determine the critical radius at which binder particles can pass between pores and penetrate the bed. The model is validated against helium pycnometry measurements and binder particle drop tests. It is found that the critical radius can be predicted, with acceptable accuracy, using a linear function of the mean and standard deviation of the particle radii. Percolation theory concepts have been employed in order to generalise the results for powder beds that have different mean particle sizes and size distributions. The results of this work can be employed to inform the selection of particle sizes required for binder formulations, to optimise density and reduce shrinkage in printed binder jet components.

Microsamples (collections usually less than 50 µL) have been introduced in pre-clinical, clinical, and research settings to overcome obstacles in sampling via traditional venipuncture. However, venipuncture remains the sampling gold standard for metabolic phenotyping of blood. This pre-sents several challenges in metabolic phenotyping workflows: accessibility for individuals in ru-ral and remote underserved areas (due to the need for trained personnel), the unamenable nature to frequent sampling protocols in longitudinal research (for its invasive nature), and sample col-lection difficulty in the young and elderly. Furthermore, venous sample stability may be compro-mised when temperate conditions necessary for cold-chain transport are beyond control. Alter-natively, research utilising microsamples extends phenotyping possibilities to inborn errors of metabolism, therapeutic drug monitoring, nutrition, as well as sport and anti-doping. Although the application of microsamples in metabolic phenotyping exists, it is still in its infancy, with whole blood being overwhelmingly the primary biofluid collected through the collection method of dried blood spots. Research into metabolic phenotyping of microsamples is limited; however, with advances in commercially available microsampling devices, common barriers such as volumetric inaccuracies and the ‘haematocrit effect’ in dried blood spot microsampling can be overcome. In this review, we provide an overview of the common uses and workflows for mi-crosampling in metabolic phenotyping research. We discuss the advancements in technologies, highlighting key considerations and remaining knowledge gaps for employment of microsamples in metabolic phenotyping research. Supporting the translation of research from the ‘bench to the community’.

Philips Visual Patient Avatar represents an alternative method of patient monitoring that, according to computer-based simulation studies, enhances diagnostic accuracy, confidence and reduces workload. After its clinical integration, we assessed pediatric anesthesia providers' perspectives on this technology. This is a single-center qualitative study, conducted at the University Hospital Zurich using in-depth individual interviews. We aimed to identify the advantages and limitations of Visual Patient Avatar in pediatric anesthesia and to assess children and parents' reactions from caregivers' perspective. Thematic analysis was used to identify the dominant themes. Fourteen members of the institution's pediatric anesthesia team were interviewed. The most prevalent themes were: children's positive reactions towards the Visual Patient Avatar (92.9%) and enhanced speed in problem identification (71.4%). Additionally, 50% of participants reported finding the Visual Patient Avatar useful for diverting children's attention during anesthesia induction, and 50% suggested that its vital sign thresholds should be adaptable for different age groups. The study revealed that the Visual Patient Avatar was recognized as a valuable tool in pediatric anesthesia, enabling prompt identification of underlying issues and receiving positive feedback from both children and parents. The most commonly voiced wish for improvement in the study was the ability to customize the Visual Patient Avatar's thresholds for different age groups.

Background & Aims: Reports of a rise in childhood cancer incidence in Australia and globally prompted the investigation of cancer incidence and survival in South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory (NT) over a 28-year period, with emphasis on Indigenous peoples. Methods: This cross-sectional analysis of two prospective longitudinal databases, the SA and NT Cancer Registries (1990-2017), included all reported cases of childhood cancers. Poisson regression provided estimates of incidence rate ratios and survival was modelled using Cox proportional hazard models for children aged 0.05). With reference to the 1990-1999 era, overall survival improved in subsequent eras in SA (2000-2009: HR 0.53 [0.38-0.73]; 2010-2017: 0.44 [0.28-0.68]); however, remained unchanged in the NT (2000-2009: 0.78 [0.40-1.51]; 2010-2017: 0.50 [0.24-1.05]). In the NT, overall survival of Indigenous patients was significantly lower compared with the non-Indigenous cohort (3.42 [1.92-6.10]). While the survival of Indigenous children with cancer significantly improved in the last two eras (p0.05). Conclusions: The incidence of childhood cancers has remained unchanged over 28-years in SA and the NT. Encouragingly, improved survival rates over time were observed in SA and amongst Indigenous children of the NT. Nevertheless, survival rates in Indigenous children remain lower than non-Indigenous children.

Proposed fundamental laws of biology and a model of health and disease underscore the importance of the lymphatic system. The lymphatics are responsible for two of the laws of biology and the fulcrum of health and disease balancing proliferation with regeneration through the immune system. It is responsible for protection from the environment and repair of senile and damaged tissue. Life is constantly bombarded by forces that increase entropy. Lymphatics provide negative entropy to maintain health. Lymphatics help maintain cellular homeostasis removing products of metabolism. Using these principles, the role of lymphatics is investigated in salt sensitivity hypertension, cardiorenal system, the new pillar of heart failure and kidney disease - Sodium-Glucose Transport Protein 2 (SGLT2) Inhibitors, and brain diseases. The realization of organ lymphatics in maintenance of health and disease opens the avenue to new therapeutics. This is the unrealized potential of lymphatic study.

Plant probiotic bacteria are being increasingly used to maximize productivity and quality of field crops. Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6) is a plant root colonizer with probiotic activities that produces metabolites such as phenazines functional in plant protection. This work reports responses of PcO6 to a non-ionic, triblock copolymer surfactant, Pluronic F68. This Pluronic exhibits membrane “healing” activity and improves cryopreservation recovery in eukaryotic cells. The product is FDA approved and is applied as an adjuvant in formulations used in agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology. Growth of PcO6 on Luria broth at 25°C was unhindered by 0.1 and 1.0 g/L F68, reduced at 10 g/L, with more inhibition at 100 g/L F68; micelle formation could account for inhibited growth at higher doses. Phenazine production was not changed by F68, whereas an F68 dose-dependent, surfactant-induced spread of bacterial colonization on 0.5% agar was observed. Exposure of cells to fluorescently labelled F68 resulted in intense fluorescence, stable to washing, showing a direct association of the Pluronic with the bacterium. However, neither protection nor harm was found for PcO6 cells undergoing repetitive freeze (-20 °C)/thaw cycles with 0.1% or 1% F68. These findings suggest F68 could be compatible for use in agricultural formulations with little effect on probiotics such as PcO6.

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) are increasing in prevalence and severity globally and locally in the Great Lakes region. CyanoHABs have the potential to produce serious adverse human health effects due to the production of cyanotoxins from cyanobacteria. Common routes of exposure include recreational exposure (swimming, skiing, and boating), ingestion, and aerosolization of contaminated water sources. Cyanotoxins have been shown to adversely affect several major organ systems contributing to hepatotoxicity, gastrointestinal distress, and pulmonary inflammation. We present three pediatric case-reports that coincided with CyanoHABs exposure with a focus on presentation of illness, diagnostic work-up, and treatment of CyanoHAB-related illnesses. Potential cyanotoxin exposure occurred while swimming in the Maumee River and Maumee State Park in Northwest OH during the Summer months which coincide with peak CyanoHAB activity. Primary symptoms included generalized macular rash, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe respiratory distress. Significant labs included leukocytosis and elevated C-reactive protein. All patients ultimately recovered with supportive care. Symptoms following potential cyanotoxin exposure coincide with multiple disease states representing an urgent need to develop specific diagnostic tests of exposure.

Visual Patient technology is a situation awareness–oriented visualization technology that translates numerical and waveform patient monitoring data into a new user-centered visual language. Vital sign values are converted into colors, shapes, and rhythmic movements—a language humans can easily perceive and interpret—on a patient avatar model in real time. In this review, we summarize the current state of the research on the Visual Patient, including the technology, its history, and its scientific context. We also provide a summary of our primary research and a brief overview of research work on similar user-centered visualizations in medicine. In several computer-based studies under various experimental conditions, Visual Patient transferred more information per unit time, increased perceived diagnostic certainty, and lowered perceived workload. Eye tracking showed the technology worked because of the way it synthesizes and transforms vital sign information into new and logical forms corresponding to the real phenomena. The technology could be particularly useful for improving situation awareness in settings with high cognitive demand or when users must make quick decisions. This comprehensive review of Visual Patient research is the foundation for an evaluation of the technology in clinical applications, starting with a high-fidelity simulation study in early 2020.

Quasi-solid composited electrolytes were produced by LiFSI initiated polymerized poly-(Dioxolane) (PDOL) with garnet-LLZO (Li7La2Zr3O12) nanofibers and used in lithium-metal batteries. Linear sweep voltammetry shows that the initial oxidation voltage of 4.6 V for Gel-10% (G10, 10% wt. LLZO in PDOL) vs Li/Li+. EIS test of stainless steel// stainless steel symmetric cells for Gel-1% (G1), Gel-5% (G5) and Gel-10% (G10) show ion conductivity (5*10-5 S/cm). Li/G10/Li symmetric cells have stable stripping-plating cycling performance over 1300 hours continuously with the current density of 0.1 mA/cm2 at 25 oC, indicating a good interface contact and stable lithium-ion transport pathway through the composite electrolytes. LFP/G10/Li batteries have stable charge-discharge plateau, low polarization voltage of 0.07-volt, energy efficiency of 95% and coulombic efficiency of ~99% at current density of 26.3 mA/g at 25 oC for over 100 cycles.

A proportion of osteoarthritis (OA) patients are unsatisfied with post-operative outcomes following total joint replacement surgery (TJR), with insufficient pain relief or poor functional improvement. Predicting those will have poor outcomes would be beneficial for patients and clinicians. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between baseline anthropometric data and the concentration of pre-operative serum and peri-operative synovial fluid (SF) cytokines with 7-month post-operative outcomes in a cohort of knee and hip OA patients. 160 OA patients were recruited who were scheduled for TJR. The concentration of 24 cytokines were measured in blood and SF by multiplex assay. EQ5Dindex health status was assessed pre-operatively and at 7-months post-operatively. 13% of patients were identified as non-responders based on EQ5Dindex. Compared to responders, non-responders were of higher BMI, had greater waist and hip circumference and had higher levels of SF leptin but lower levels of SF Resistin (p&lt;0.05). Linear regression analysis found a significant relationship between pre-operative body weight and post-operative response (ΔEQ5Dindex; r=0.222, p=0.049). The combination of body weight with SF amphiregulin and SF IL-6 provided an improved predictive model of post-operative response (r=0.470, p=0.035).

Heterotopic ossification (HO) is most dramatically manifested in the rare and severely debilitating disease, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), in which heterotopic bone progressively accumulates in skeletal muscles and associated soft tissues. The great majority of FOP cases are caused by a single amino acid substitution in the type 1 bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor ACVR1, a mutation that imparts responsiveness to activin A. Although it is well-established that biological sex is a critical variable in a range of physiological and disease processes, the impact of sex on HO in animal models of FOP has not been explored. We show that female FOP mice exhibit both significantly greater and more variable HO responses after muscle injury. Additionally, the incidence of spontaneous HO was significantly greater in female mice. This sex dimorphism is not dependent on gonadally-derived sex hormones, and reciprocal cell transplantations indicate that apparent differences in osteogenic activity are intrinsic to the sex of the transplanted cells. By circumventing the absolute requirement for activin A using an agonist of mutant ACVR1, we show that the female-specific response to muscle injury or BMP2 implantation is dependent on activin A. These data identify sex as a critical variable in basic and preclinical studies of FOP.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, largely due to metastasis and drug resistant recurrences. Fifteen percent of ovarian tumors carry mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2, rendering them vulnerable to treatment with PARP inhibitors such as olaparib. Recent studies have shown that TGFβ can induce “BRCAness” in BRCA wild-type cancer cells. Given that TGFβ is a known driver of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), and the con-nection between EMT and metastatic spread in EOC and other cancers, we asked if TGFβ and EMT alter susceptibility of EOC to PARP inhibition. Epithelial EOC cells were transiently treated with soluble TGFβ and their clonogenic potential, expression and function of EMT and DNA repair genes, and response to PARP inhibitors compared with untreated controls. A second epithelial cell line was compared to its mesenchymal derivative for EMT and DNA repair gene expression and drug responses. We found that TGFβ and EMT resulted in downregulation of genes responsible for homologous recombination (HR) and sensitized cells to olaparib. HR efficiency was reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, mesenchymal cells displayed sensitivity to olaparib, cis-platin, and the DNA-PK inhibitor Nu-7441. Therefore, treatment of disseminated, mesenchymal tumors may represent an opportunity to expand clinical utility of PARP inhibitors and similar agents.

Background: The incidence of spinal metastatic disease has risen with improved cancer survivorship. Separation surgery, the current standard surgical treatment, does not fully address spinal deformity. Advances in operative management warrant reevaluating maximal tumor resection and anterior column reconstruction with corpectomy. Methods: An IRB-approved retrospective single-center review of 63 patients was performed. Demographics, tumor characteristics, clinical and radiographic data, treatments, and neurological and survival outcomes were analyzed. Results: The mean age at presentation was 63.5 ± 9.6 years (range, 37-84 years) and 28 patients (44.4%) were female. Functional outcomes, measured by KPS, RAND-36 survey scores and Oswestry Disability Index all improved postoperatively (pre- vs postop: 70 to 80 (p=0.0056), 26.5 to 46.4 (p=0.0081), and 28.9 to 16.9 (p=0.0613), respectively). Spinal alignment also improved, with Cobb angle measurements showing a reduction in spinal kyphosis from -5 to 0 (p=0.021). Nine patients (14.5%) had non-fatal postoperative complications. The median OS for this cohort was 14.4 months (range, 0.6-145.0 months) with median follow-up time of 15.5 months. Conclusion: In oligometastatic spinal disease patients with good functional status, corpectomy for decompression of neural elements, deformity correction, and spinal stabilization is associated with improvements in pain and functional outcomes without overwhelming morbidity.

This study aims to identify modern bureaucratic government phenomenon expressed in W.H. Auden’s poem “The Unknown Citizen” (UC). This phenomenon will be revealed through the use of figures of speech, symbols and imagery in the poem. This poem is chosen as the object of the study since phenomenon happened in the poem represents people’s life and government practice in the modern era. Government, in the poem, seems to be very dominant. Its bureaucratic apparatus is powerful. Through its sophisticated technology, the bureau of statistics is able to detect the citizen’s identity. But, ironically, it could have not identified UC’s name as he lived in the world. He, then, was honored by the state by being erected the marble monument. The poem is analyzed by applying phenomenological criticism. The analysis finds that the representation of modern government is expressed through symbols emphasized by dramatic irony and supported by the use of internal sensation imagery. UC is the allegory of the average person with his bravery he sacrifices for the country. The state ought to give him an honor. In this poem Auden, actually, wants to write a parody for establishing monuments in some countries to honor the struggles of their soldiers who died in the World War I. Those monuments are really tombs since the function of a monument is a state’s thanksgiving for their sacrifice.

Postpartum depression (PPD) has serious effects on maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of postpartum depression in mothers of under-twos in military barracks in Lagos. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a modified version of the General Help-Seeking questionnaire (GHSQ) were administered to 316 mothers of under-twos in 3 of 12 military barracks in Lagos, Nigeria to determine PPD and major depressive events (MDE). Risk of PPD was established at EPDS scores of >12. Good help-seeking practices were ascribed to scores of 20 or more on the GHSQ. Risk of PPD was found in 15.5% of respondents, and good help-seeking in 3.8% and 11.4% for personal/emotional and harming self/baby respectively. Bivariate analysis using Chi square showed statistically significant positive associations between lower scores for EPDS and higher educational levels of respondents, perception of partner support and being in lower wealth quintiles (p<0.05). Use of the EPDS was accepted among mothers of children aged under two years. Opportunities to educate pregnant women and new mothers about PPD using existing social networks, perinatal and infant screening programmes in the barracks can be leveraged upon to improve mental health delivery as part of maternity care.

Natural host defensins, also sometimes termed antimicrobial peptides, are evolutionarily conserved. They have been studied as antimicrobials, but some pharmaceutical properties, undesirable for clinical use, led to the development of synthetic molecules with constructed peptide arrangements and/or peptides not found in nature. The leading development currently is synthetic small molecule nonpeptide mimetics, whose physical properties capture the characteristics of the natural molecules, and share their biological attributes. We studied brilacidin, an arylamide of this type, for its activity in vitro against fungi (40 clinical isolates, 20 species) that the World Health Organization has highlighted as problem human pathogens. We find antifungal activity at low concentrations for many pathogens, which indicates further screening for activity, particularly in vivo, is justified to evaluate this compound, and other mimetics, as attractive leads for development of effective antifungal agents.

For 80 years high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been a significant area for medical research. It is a non-invasive procedure which causes cell death in a highly localised area at a defined distance from the transducer. Since 2000, the clinical indications have broadened considerable as the technology has improved. This review looks back at the history of HIFU and the current clinical indications.

Breadfruit [Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg] is recognized as a tropical fruit tree crop with great potential to contribute to food and nutrition security in the Caribbean and other tropical regions. However, the genetic diversity and identification of germplasm in the Caribbean and elsewhere is not well understood and documented. This hampers the effective conservation and use of the genetic resources of the tree crop for commercial activities. This study assessed the genetic identity, diversity, ancestry, and phylogeny of breadfruit germplasm existing in Caribbean and recently introduced accessions using 117 SNPs from 10 SSR amplicon sequences. The results showed that there was high genetic diversity in the breadfruit germplasm in the Caribbean, as well as the newly introduced breadfruit accessions based on nucleotide diversity (π_T) and nucleotide polymorphism (θ_W). Furthermore, based on these measures of genetic diversity, there were no significant differences between existing Caribbean breadfruit accessions and newly introduced breadfruit accessions which are known to be highly diverse. Ancestry and phylogeny analysis corroborated the genetic relatedness of these two groups with accessions of these groups being present in both main germplasm clusters. This suggests that the existing Caribbean breadfruit germplasm harbors a higher level of genetic diversity than expected.

This work investigates the utility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Model (NWM) for water management operations by assessing the total inflow into a select number of reservoirs across the Central and Western U.S. Total inflow is generally an unmeasured quantity, though critically important for anticipating both floods and shortages in supply over a short-term (hourly) to sub-seasonal (monthly) time horizon. The NWM offers such information at over 5,000 reservoirs across the U.S., however, its skill at representing inflow processes is largely unknown. The goal of this work is to understand the drivers for both well performing and poor performing NWM inflows such that managers can get a sense of the capability of NWM to capture natural hydrologic processes and in some cases, the effects of upstream management. We analyzed the inflows for a subset of Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) reservoirs within the NWM over the long-term simulations (retrospectively, seven years) and for short, medium and long-range operational forecast cycles over a one-year period. We utilize ancillary reservoir characteristics (e.g. physical and operational) to explain variation in inflow performance across the selected reservoirs. In general, we find that NWM inflows in snow-driven basins outperform those in rain-driven, and that assimilated basin area, upstream management, and calibrated basin area all influence the NWM’s ability to reproduce daily reservoir inflows. The final outcome of this work proposes a framework for how the NWM reservoir inflows can be useful for reservoir management, linking reservoir purposes with the forecast cycles and retrospective simulations.

In this work, we introduce the class of h-MN-convex functions by generalizing the concept of MN-convexity and combining it with h-convexity. Namely, let M : [0, 1] → [a, b] be a Mean function given by M (t) = M (t; a, b); where by M (t; a, b) we mean one of the following functions: A_t (a, b) := (1 − t) a + tb, G_t (a, b) = a^1−tb^t and H_t (a, b) := $\frac{ab}{ta+\left(1-t\right)b}=\frac{1}{A_t\left(\frac{1}{a},\frac{1}{b}\right)}$ with the property that M (0; a, b) = a and M (1; a, b) = b. Let I, J be two intervals subset of (0, ∞) such that (0, 1) ⊆ J and [a, b] ⊆ I. Consider a non-negative function h : J → (0, ∞), a function f : I → (0, ∞) is said to be h-MN-convex (concave) if the inequality f (M (t; x, y)) ≤ (≥) N (h(t); f (x), f (y)), holds for all x, y ∈ I and t ∈ [0, 1]. In this way, nine classes of h-MN-convex functions are established, and therefore some analytic properties for each class of functions are explored and investigated. Characterizations of each type are given. Various Jensen’s type inequalities and their converses are proved.

We reduplicate the Book “Dark Energy” by M. Li, X-D. Li, and Y. Wang, given zero-point energy calculation with an unexpected “length’ added to the ‘width’ of a graviton wave just prior to specifying the creation of ‘gravitons’, using the Rosen and Israelit model of a nonsingular universe. In doing so we are in addition to obtaining a wavelength 10^30 times greater than Planck’s length so we can calculate DE, may be able to with the help of the Rosen and Israelit model have a first approximation as to the arrow of time, and a universe with massive gravity. We have left the particulars of the nonsingular starting point undefined but state that the Rosen and Israelit model postulates initial temperatures of 10^-180 Kelvin and also a value of about Planck temperature, at 10^-3 centimeters radii value which may satisfy initial conditions asked by t’Hooft for describing an arrow of time. A key assumption is that the DE is formed at 10^-3 cm, after an expansion of 10^30 times in radii, from the Planck length radius nonsingular starting point. The given starting point for DE in this set of assumptions is where there is a change in the cosmic acceleration, to a zero value, according to Rosen and Israel, with time t = 1.31 times 10^-42 seconds. Which may be where we may specify a potential magnitude, V, which has ties into inflaton physics. The particulars of the model from Rosen and Israelit allow a solution to be found, without discussion of where that nonsingular starting point came from, a point the author found in need of drastic remedies and fixes.

Efforts to enhance carbon storage in forest ecosystems through policy and management decisions rely on accurate forest biomass assessments. However, most forest inventories consider tree mortality the only form of aboveground biomass loss, overlooking other important factors, such as wood decay in living trees. In this study, using linear mixed-effects models, we delve into the sustainability of mature and over-mature deciduous forests in Latvia by conducting a comprehensive analysis of stem rot severity, identifying species for which the impact of stem rot on their carbon stock reduction was most significant. The analysis focused on determining the proportion of discolored wood, decomposed wood, and hollow spaces within the stems of 190 living deciduous trees commonly found in hemiboreal forests. The study reveals a greater extent of stem rot and more extensive decay in Populus tremula trees than in Betula spp., Alnus glutinosa, and Alnus incana. It emphasizes the influence of tree species, age, and diameter at breast height on stem rot proportions. The stump rot area significantly predicts the amount of decomposed and discolored wood within the stem. The study provides valuable insights for sustainable forestry practices and highlights challenges in estimating stem rot severity, emphasizing the need for comprehensive diagnostic methods.

Starting with unitary quantum dynamics, we investigate how to add quantum measurements. Quantum measurements have four essential components: the furcation, the witness production, an alignment projection, and the actual choice decision. The first two components still lie in the domain of unitary quantum dynamics. The decoherence concept explains the third contribution. It can be based on the requirement that witnesses reaching the end of time on the wave function side and the conjugate one have to be identical. In this way, it also stays within the quantum dynamics domain. The surjection hypothesis explains the actual choice decision. It is based on a two boundary interpretation applied to the complete quantum universe. It offers a simple way to reduce these seemingly random projections to purely deterministic unitary quantum dynamics, eliminating the measurement problem.

Reducing GHG emissions is a crucial challenge in urban areas, characterized by high energy consumption and reduced exposure to nature. In this context, the urban green system could play a pivotal role. In the literature, scholars analyzed both the ability of species-specific and layout-specific green infrastructures to increase carbon sequestration and the best location sites of new green infrastructures, to increase the provision of overall ecosystem services. There is a lack of studies helping green urban planners and designers choose where and which green infrastructure to implement, based on vegetation species-specific performance and local carbon emissions of city components. This paper uses tree inventory data from a medium-sized city in central Italy (Perugia) to develop a spatial analysis of the urban parks' performance in carbon sequestration. Then, the method evaluates the carbon emission of a public city building to generate a spatialized balance between buildings’ demand and trees’ supply, to support local decisions about the best locations for new green infrastructures and the choice between species. The paper contributes to GIS-based tools that vary the recommended location sites and species for new green infrastructures based on the demanded ecosystem service.

Companies are increasingly focusing on sustainable business practices. Internal and external stakeholders’ expectations manifest in legal requirements, national and international standards, and market and customer expectations, among other things, must be considered. In addition to profit maximization as the usual target for corporate management, management must consider environmental sustainability aspects such as resource efficiency, greenhouse gas intensity, and a company's emissions behavior. In addition, social aspects relating to the company's employees, the immediate urban environment, the situation in the supply chain, and effects on the market environment must increasingly be considered. Specifically, companies are faced with the chal-lenge of dealing with conflicting objectives regarding the various aspects of sustainability and, if necessary, weighing them up against each other. These trade-offs must be made against the company's socio-economic and ecological environment, corporate strategy, and sustainability goals. This paper provides an overview of current approaches and research gaps on this topic through a literature review. It shows a lack of methods and frameworks to specifically deal with trade-offs and conflicts of goals.

Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are at an increased risk of falls due to associated motor symptoms and impaired postural control. Gait dysfunction, observed soon after diagnosis, leads to disability with disease progression. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in dynamic postural control during self-paced walking and obstacle-crossing between persons with mild to moderate PD and healthy controls. Participants included nine individuals with mild to moderate PD (PD cohort) and nine age- and gender-matched controls (CON cohort). Anatomical marker trajectories and ground reaction forces were collected as participants walked along the pathway. Three successful representative right and left gait cycles were analyzed using Visual3D biomechanical software. Analyses, involving a mixed model ANOVA using R Statistical Software, examined spatiotemporal (ST) gait parameters for strides involving the leading and trailing limbs and dynamic balance variables, including COM - COP inclination angle, and the COP - COM M/L, COP - XCOM M/L, UMAX - XCOM M/L distances, at distinct points from the stance limb related to the leading and trailing legs. There were no differences between CON and PD for all ST gait parameters during obstacle crossing, except for a significantly reduced step length (p = 0.00489) for the PD group related to the trailing limb. However, there were significant main effects of Step and Condition interacting with Step for swing time, stance time, and step length. For both CON and PD groups the COP - COM , COP - XCOM , UMAX - XCOM metrics demonstrated that the COM was medial to the BOS from first double support, generally moving more medially through second double support for the stance limb during motion of the leading and trailing limbs. Event and Event interacting with Condition were significant for the COP - COM and COP - XCOM variables, while UMAX – XCOM was significant only for Event (p < 0.001). The PD group demonstrated significantly larger mean values for COP – COM M/L at first double support (p = 0.00435) and COP - XCOM M/L at second double support (p = 0.0158) for the second step. Our results suggest that the margin of stability may be useful in discerning dynamic postural control adaptations during walking and obstacle negotiation in persons with mild PD.

Background: The most frequent non-pigmented malignancy of the ocular surface is ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN), which has a frequency of 0.03 to 1.9 per 100,000 people per year. It can be diagnosed histologically as anything from mild dysplasia to aggressive squamous cell carcinoma that affects both the conjunctiva and the cornea. The purpose of this study is to determine the distribution of ocular surface squamous neoplasia at a teaching hospital in South Western Uganda.Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed all records of patients with ocular surface squamous neoplasia from the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST)/ Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) pathology laboratory in South Western Uganda, from January 2015- October 2021.Results: Of the 1,133 cases of ocular neoplasia seen during this time, OSSN composed of 26.7% (n=303). OSSN occurred mainly in females (59.1%). The most common OSSN was invasive squamous cell carcinoma (60.4%). The age range was 15-106 years while the mean was 39.99 years. The commonest affected age group was 30-44years (41.3%).Conclusion: The burden of OSSN is high. It primarily affects young adults and is frequently found in women. Squamous cell carcinoma makes up the majority of the disease.

The river Teign in Devon has come under scrutiny for failing to meet Environmental Quality Standards for ecotoxic metals due to past mining operations. A disused mine known as Bridford Barytes mine, has been found to contribute a significant source of Zn, Cd and Pb to the river. Recently, studies have been focused on the remediation of such mine sites using low-cost treatment methods to help reduce metal loads to the river downstream. Red mud is a waste product from the aluminium industry, the utilization of this resource has proven an attractive low-cost treatment method for adsorbing toxic metals. Adsorption kinetics and capacity experiments reveal metal removal efficiencies of up to 70% within the first 2 hours when red mud is applied in pelletized form. Biochar is another effective adsorbent with the potential to remove >90% Zn using agricultural feedstock. Compliance of the Teign has been investigated by analysing dissolved metal concentrations and bioavailable fractions of Zn to assess if levels are of environmental concern. By applying a Real-World Application Model, this study reveals that compressed pellets and agricultural biochar offer an effective, low-cost option to reducing metal concentrations and thus improving the quality of the river Teign.

Field studies were conducted in 2016, 2017, and 2020 in south-central and the Coastal Bend regions of Texas to determine the effects of various biostimulants and soil additives on corn growth and yield. In south-central Texas, the use of pop-up fertilizer (9-30-0 + Zn) either alone or in combination with either 2% N, bifenthrin, or bifenthrin + pyraclostrobin resulted in the greatest corn vigor but a yield response was only noted with pop-up fertilizer alone at 28062 or 46771 ml ha-1 in one year. In the Coastal Bend region, leaf tissue analysis showed that only Fe was affected with the use of any soil additive. Bacillus licheniformis + bacillus megaterium + bacillus pumilus increased Fe leaf tissue content by 20% over the untreated check. Radicoat seed coating at 438 ml ha-1 reduced corn plant stand by 10% and Pseudomonas brassicaceanum reduced corn height when compared with the untreated check; however, no differences in test weight or yield from the untreated check were noted with any soil additive. Little if any impacts of the use of biostimulants or soil amendments were seen in these studies.

The emphasis in the automotive industry towards sustainable mobility has led to a significant interest in hybrid-electric propulsion systems with high energy density batteries. Addressing the needs of this strategy, the battery market is exploring new technologies to improve the safety and lifespan of electric vehicles. To this end, there is a focus on the all-solid-state battery (ASSB) technology for its cycle capabilities. Filling the current void in the literature pertaining to accurate ageing models for ASSBs, in this work, we present an enhanced version of the numerical ageing model, originally developed for liquid electrolyte based batteries, to forecast the development of the solid electrolyte interface layer that is the major cause of battery capacity fading. The model has been tested on prototype batteries and reveals an accuracy of 99%. The capacity fade in ASSBs has been investigated under different conditions, and the enhanced ageing model has been validated using experimental data from these batteries. The findings suggest that there is potential for solid-state batteries to be commercialized, although significant work is needed to match the manufacturing level of lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes.

Heavy metal contamination of drinking water is a public health concern that requires the development of more efficient bioremediation techniques. Absorption technologies, including biosorption, provide opportunities for improvements to increase the diversity of metal ions removed and overall binding capacity. Microorganisms are a key component in wastewater treatment plants and they naturally bind metal ions through surface macromolecules but with limited capacity. The long-term goal of this work is to engineer capsule polymerases to synthesize molecules with novel functionalities. In previously published work, we showed that the Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W (NmW) galactose-sialic acid (Gal—NeuNAc) heteropolysaccharide binds lead effectively, thereby demonstrating the potential for using this capsular polysaccharide in environmental decontamination applications. In this study, computational analysis of the NmW capsule polymerase galactosyltransferase (GT) domain was used to gain insight into how the enzyme could be modified to enable the synthesis N-acetylgalactosamine-sialic acid (GalNAc—NeuNAc) heteropolysaccharide. Various computational approaches, including molecular modeling with I-TASSER and molecular dynamics simulations (MD) with NAMD, were utilized to identify key amino acid residues in the substrate binding pocket of the GT domain that may be key to conferring UDP-GalNAc specificity. Through these combined strategies and using BshA, a UDP-GlcNAc transferase, as a structural template, several NmW active site residues were identified as mutational targets to accommodate the proposed N-acetyl group in UDP-GalNAc. Thus, a rational approach for potentially conferring new properties to bacterial capsular polysaccharides is demonstrated.

Mallios and Zafiris emphasize that adjoint functors or adjunctions are not only "ubiquitous" in category theory but characterize the naturality of their approach to physical geometry. Hence in this paper, the history and theory of adjoint functors is investigated. Where do adjoint functors come from mathematically and how did the concepts develop historically?

Rationale: Examining trends in patient characteristics, processes of care and outcomes, across an epidemic, provides important opportunities for learning. Objectives: To report and explore changes in admission rates, patient characteristics, processes of care and outcomes for all patients with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Methods: Population cohort of 10,287 patients with COVID-19 in the Case Mix Programme national clinical audit from 1 February to 2 July, 2020. Analyses were stratified by time period (pre-peak, peak, post-peak) and geographical region. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate differences in 28-day mortality, adjusting for patient characteristics over time. Main results: Admissions to ICU peaked simultaneously across regions on 1 April, with ongoing admissions peaking ten days later. Compared with pre- and post-peak periods, patients admitted during the peak were slightly younger but had greater respiratory and renal dysfunction. Use of invasive ventilation and renal replacement reduced over time. Twenty-eight-day mortality reduced from 43.5% (95% CI 41.6% to 45.5%) pre-peak to 34.3% (95% CI 32.3% to 36.2%) post-peak; a difference of −8.8% (95% CI: −5.2%, −12.3%) after adjusting for patient characteristics. London experienced the highest admission rate and had higher mortality during the peak period but a greater reduction in post-peak mortality. Conclusion: This study highlights changes in patient characteristics, processes of care and outcomes, during the UK COVID-19 epidemic. After adjusting for the changes in patient characteristics and first 24-hour physiology, there was substantial improvement in 28-day mortality over the course of the epidemic.

We first of all define the arrow of time. Definition of the arrow of time will allow choosing different initial starting points. One of the issues we will also discuss is the interconnection be-tween the arrow of time, entropy and quantum information. Seth Lloyd in his 2001 work made a linkage between entropy, bits, and information via an axiomatic approach involving time in-tervals. Our take is a bit more general. We will discuss as well the t’Hooft’s statement as to in-itial conditions and times arrow, and how different cosmological models may influence initial conditions. Spoilers alert, if a nonsingular start to expansion existed, this would provide the most straightforward way to avoid a datum from classical relativity. That is, that in the actual equations of classical GR, there is no reason to have time asymmetry. Time asymmetry is built into initial conditions and we will detail several candidates. The first half of the paper brings up cosmology models and forming the arrow of time. The second is related to entropy itself and the problem of information. .

A novel technique using a W-band metasurface for the purpose of transmissive fine powder layer sensing is presented. The proposed technique may allow for the detection, identification, and characterization of inhomogeneous ultrafine powder layers which are effectively hundreds of times thinner than the incident wavelengths used to sense them. Such a technique may be useful during personnel screening processes (i.e., at an airport) and in industrial manufacturing environments where early detection and quantization of harmful airborne particulates can be a matter of security or safety. To our knowledge, the requisite science involved in such a novel W-band metasurface sensing technique has not been fully explored.

Interleukin-33 (IL-33), a member of the IL-1 cytokine family has been recently associated with the development of autoimmune diseases, including SLE. IL-33 is an alarmin and a pleiotropic cytokine that affects various types of immune cells via binding to its receptor, ST2. In this study, we determine the impact of intraperitoneal IL-33 treatments in young lupus, NZB/W F1 mice. Mice were treated from the age of 6 to 11 weeks. We then assessed the proteinuria level, renal damage, survival rate, and anti-dsDNA antibodies. The induction of regulatory B (Breg) cells and changes in gene expression were also examined. In comparison to the control group, young NZB/W F1 mice administered with IL-33 had a better survival rate as well as reduced proteinuria level and lupus nephritis. IL-33 treatments significantly induced IgM anti-dsDNA antibody, IL-10 expressing Breg cells, and alternatively induced M2 macrophage gene signatures. These results imply that IL-33 exhibit regulatory roles during lupus onset via the expansion of protective IgM anti-dsDNA as well as regulatory cells such as Bregs and M2 macrophages.

Logical information theory is the quantitative version of the logic of partitions just as logical probability theory is the quantitative version of the dual Boolean logic of subsets. The resulting notion of information is about distinctions, differences, and distinguishability, and is formalized using the distinctions (`dits') of a partition (a pair of points distinguished by the partition). All the definitions of simple, joint, conditional, and mutual entropy of Shannon information theory are derived by a uniform transformation from the corresponding definitions at the logical level. The purpose of this paper is to give the direct generalization to quantum logical information theory that similarly focuses on the pairs of eigenstates distinguished by an observable, i.e., qudits of an observable. The fundamental theorem for quantum logical entropy and measurement establishes a direct quantitative connection between the increase in quantum logical entropy due to a projective measurement and the eigenstates (cohered together in the pure superposition state being measured) that are distinguished by the measurement (decohered in the post-measurement mixed state). Both the classical and quantum versions of logical entropy have simple interpretations as "two-draw" probabilities for distinctions. The conclusion is that quantum logical entropy is the simple and natural notion of information for quantum information theory focusing on the distinguishing of quantum states.

Mangroves offer vital ecological advantages including air and water filtration, coastal and estuarine habitat provision, sediment stabilization, and wave energy absorption. Their intricate root systems play a key role in safeguarding shorelines from tsunamis and erosive storms by dissipating wave energy. Moreover, mangroves shield against boat wakes and wind-waves, bolstering shoreline defense. Wave dissipation is a function of forest width, tree diameter, and forest density. Restoration efforts of juvenile mangroves in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon (IRL) aim to reduce wave energy in areas vulnerable to erosion. Physical model testing of wave dissipation through mangroves is limited due to the complexity in representing the mangrove structure, where prop roots are non-uniform in both diameter and location. Previous studies have quantified wave dissipating effects through use of scaled and parameterized mangrove structures. This study measures the dissipation effects of live mangroves in a wave flume, forced by conditions representative of the IRL. These measurements are used to validate a parameterized dowel model. Error between wave attenuation factors for the live mangrove and dowel system was on average 2.5%. Validation of the modularized dowel system allowed for further parameterized testing to understand forest structure effects, such as sediment stabilization and wave attenuation.

Background: This study assessed the nature of healthcare services offered in the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences health clinic and students' disposition to access the facility. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of students in accessing healthcare services in the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences health clinic.Methods: Used cross-sectional design, a structured questionnaire of a five-point Likert scale as a veritable instrument for collecting the data from 50 student respondents. The questionnaire is made up of four key sections comprising student’s demographic parameters, knowledge, attitude and practice of both students and the clinic staff. Data collected was analyzed in a table of descriptive statistics to determine the total, range, mean and median, which were used to ascertain students’ utilization/accessibility disposition, perception of barriers to accessing healthcare service and overall viability of the clinic.Results: The mean value outcome of knowledge of students falls between 3.1 and 3.9, the mean value for attitude of students falls between 2.5 to 3.4 and 4.0, while the practice of students falls between mean values 2.6 and 3.1. Most of these outcomes represent poor or weak weight factor which requires several levels of intervention.Conclusion: This study highlights the overriding importance of the university healthcare clinic in maintaining a healthy study season among students of David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences and their health-seeking behaviour. This helps to promote health, attract higher intakes and retain them in the institution till graduation.

Background. The Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ) is widely used to measure functional ability in persons with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The instrument was developed with limited involvement from persons with RA, and their perception of the instrument has not been studied in depth. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with RA experience the use of the HAQ in care. Methods. Forty persons with RA were purposefully recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were then analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Results. The participants questioned the relevance of the HAQ but nevertheless experienced that the instrument had a profound effect on their understanding of health and how care is delivered. The analysis resulted in three themes: Problems with individual items, meaning of the summative score, and effects on care and health perceptions. Conclusions. To make the HAQ relevant to persons with RA, it needs to be revised or to include an option to select items most meaningful to the respondent. To ensure relevance, the HAQ update should preferably be co-created by researchers, clinicians and persons with RA.

The new logic of partitions is dual to the usual Boolean logic of subsets (usually presented only in the special case to the logic of propositions) in the sense that partitions and subsets are category-theoretic duals. The new information measure of logical entropy is just the normalized quantitative version of partitions. The new approach to interpreting quantum mechanics (QM) is showing that the mathematics (not the physics) of QM is the Hilbert space version of the mathematics of partitions. Or putting it the other way around, the math of partitions is a skeletal version of the math of QM. The key concepts throughout this progression from logic to information theory to quantum theory are distinctions versus indistinctions, definiteness versus indefiniteness, or distinguishability versus indistinguishability. The distinctions of a partitions are the ordered pairs of elements from the underlying set that are in different blocks of the partition. Logical entropy is defined (initially) as the normalized number of distinctions. The cognate notions of definiteness and distinguishability run through the math of QM, e.g., in the key non-classical notion of superposition (= ontic indefiniteness) and in the Feynman rules for adding amplitudes (indistinguishable alternatives) versus adding probabilities (distinguishable alternatives).

Background: Annual influenza epidemics are a serious public health problem, causing particularly severe morbidity and mortality in high-risk groups. The study aimed to understand Poles' attitudes and beliefs towards influenza vaccinations in the flu season of 2022–2023, analyze preferences and unmet needs regarding influenza vaccinations, and examine the perception and acceptance of the influenza vaccine among individuals at risk of flu complications. Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was carried out on a sample of 1446 respondents. The Google Forms questionnaire was created and disseminated electronically using social media and e-mail. The pre-test was performed at the beginning of the project. Results: The majority of respondents (71%) could identify "high-risk groups" recommended for influenza vaccination. Furthermore, it was observed that individuals aged 21 to 59 demonstrated a higher level of knowledge in this regard compared to those below 20 and above 65 years old, and individuals with higher and medium education levels were much better at identifying risk groups for influenza virus infection. The majority of respondents (52.01%) reported receiving influenza vaccination at some point in the past, with 32.12% receiving it in the 2022–2023 flu season and 41.09% in the 2021–2022 season. The majority of respondents declaring acceptance of the vaccine for the 2022-2023 season were in the high-risk group. Only 17.28% of respondents declared receiving both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the 2022-2023 season, with the vast majority being respondents from the "high-risk group" (p

The authors present a stereotypical case presentation of x-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) and provide a review of the pathophysiology and related pharmacology of this condition, primarily focusing on the FDA-approved medication burosumab. XLH is a renal phosphate wasting disorder caused by loss of function mutations in the PHEX gene (phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases on the X chromosome). Typical biochemical findings include elevated serum levels of bioactive/intact Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (FGF23) which lead to i) low serum phosphate levels, ii) increased fractional excretion of phosphorus, and iii) inappropriately low or normal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-vitD). XLH is the most common form of heritable rickets and short stature in XLH patients is due to chronic hypophosphatemia. Additionally, XLH patients experience joint pain and osteoarthritis from skeletal deformities, fractures, enthesopathy, spinal stenosis, and hearing loss. Historically, treatment for XLH was limited to oral phosphate supplementation, active vitamin D supplementation, and surgical intervention for cases of severe bowed legs. In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approved burosumab for the treatment of XLH and this medication has demonstrated substantial benefit compared with conventional therapy. Burosumab binds circulating intact FGF23 and blocks its biological effects in target tissues, resulting in increased serum inorganic phosphate (Pi) concentrations and increased conversion of inactive vitamin D to active 1,25-vitD.

During a survey in 2015 an impressive assemblage of organisms were found in a hypersaline pond of the Messolonghi saltworks. The salinity ranged between 50 and 180 ppt and the organisms recorded fell in the categories of Cyanobacteria (17 species), Chlorophytes (4 species), Diatoms (23 species), Dinoflagellates (1 species), Protozoa (40 species), Rotifers (8 species), Copepods (1 species), Artemia sp., one nematode and Alternaria sp. (Fungi). Fabrea salina was the most prominent protist in all samples and salinities. This ciliate has the potential to be a live-food candidate for marine fish larvae. Asteromonas gracilis proved a sturdy microalga performing excellently in a broad spectrum of culture salinities ies. Most of the specimens were identified only to the genus level and, based on their morphology, as there are no relevant records in Greece, there is a possibility for some of them to be either new species or strikingly different strains of certain species recorded elsewhere.

Shell nacre from Pinctada species has been extensively researched for managing bone defects. However, there is a gap in the research on using shell nacre as cement with improved physico-chemical properties. To address this, the current study aimed to develop a chemical curable com-posite shell nacre cement (SNC) using shell nacre powder and an organically modified ceramic resin shell nacre containing ladder-structured siloxane methacrylate (SNLSM). Different amounts of shell nacre (24, 48, and 72 weight(wt)%) were added to the SNLSM resin matrix and the effect on the physicochemical properties of the cement was studied. The composite shell nacre cement SNC 72 containing 72 wt% shell nacre exhibited significantly higher mechanical properties (com-pressive strength >100 MPa, flexural strength > 35 MPa) and low linear polymerization shrinkage (0.4%) than other compositions. SNC 72 was radiopaque and the exotherm generated during the curing of the cement was minimal. Direct contact of cured SNC 72 with L929 cells revealed the non-cytotoxic nature of the cement. Overall, the results of the study proved that the composite SNC 72 would be a promising candidate for bone defect management.

The number of engineers who are transitioning into environmental sustainability careers is growing, though a gap still exists between supply and demand. This presents an opportunity for undergraduate engineering students to fulfill the demand as environmental sustainability professionals. This qualitative exploratory study investigated environmental sustainability learning experiences and future career interests in environmental sustainability. The social cognitive theory (SCCT) was utilized as a theoretical lens, exploring undergraduate students’ environmental sustainability interests, related learning experiences and their interest in pursuing a future career in environmental sustainability. Twenty-five undergraduate engineering students in various engineering disciplines were interviewed for this study. Data were analyzed to (1) identify students’ interest in pursuing a career in environmental sustainability, (2) determine if students’ interests have changed since they began their undergraduate studies, and (3) explore how learning experiences have impacted students’ future career choice. The findings posit that exposure to environmental sustainability learning experiences is impactful and plays an important role, impacting students' interests in pursuing careers in sustainability. Results reveal that elements such as personal beliefs and salary considerations inspire career choices. This research contributes to addressing the demand for additional working professionals who are prepared to tackle environmental sustainability issues, highlighting the role of learning experiences in shaping students' career interests.

There are potentially promising mitigation activities for epidemic and pandemic scenarios that are not currently the subject of significant research effort. Large epidemics and pandemics pose risks that are important to mitigate, even if the likelihood of the events is low and uncertain. While some efforts are the subject of extensive funding and consideration, other approaches are neglected. Here, we consider such neglected interventions which could significantly reduce the impact of such an epidemic or large-scale pandemic. These are identified via a narrative literature review of extant literature reviews and overviews of mitigations in epidemic and pandemic situations, followed by consideration of the economic value of information of further study of heretofore neglected interventions and approaches.Based on that analysis, we considered several classes of mitigations, and conducted more exploratory reviews of each. Those discussed include mitigations for (1) reducing transmission, such as personal protective equipment and encouraging improved hygiene, (2) reducing exposure by changing norms and targeted changes for high-risk or critical professions and activities, (3) reducing impact for those infected, and (4) increasing large scale resilience using disaster and infrastructure continuity planning.Some proposed mitigations are found to be of low marginal value. Other mitigations are likely to be valuable, but the concepts or applications are underdeveloped. In those cases, further research, resources, or preparation are valuable for mitigating both routine and extreme disease outbreak events. Still more areas of research are identified as having uncertain value based on specific but resolvable uncertainties. In both of the latter cases, there is no guarantee that mitigations identified as worthy of further consideration will be valuable, but the argument for further research is clear.

In a bid to resolve lingering problems in cosmology, more focus is being tilted towards cosmological models in which physical constants of nature are not necessarily real constants, but varying with cosmic time. In this paper we have study cosmology in nonlinear electrodynamics with the Newton's gravitational constant $G$ not a constant but vary in form of power-law of the scale factor of the universe. The evolution of the scale factor $a (t)$ is studied in this model which depends on nonlinear electrodynamics fine tuning term of $\alpha$. Then we check the stability of the model using the speed of sound.