In this paper, we investigate a new $q$-analogue of the higher order degenerate Changhee polynomials and numbers, which are called the Witt-type formula for the $q$-analogue of degenerate Changhee polynomials of order $r$. We can derive some new interesting identities related to the degenerate $(h,q)$-Changhee polynomials and numbers.

Increasingly, firms are expected to implement ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) mandates to appeal to the global market. However, this requires overcoming practical challenges and capitalizing on emerging opportunities. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the ESG practices of leading Korean global firms. The study selects five firms for case studies representing industries such as electronics, automotive, steelmaking, and chemicals. It examines ESG reports, performance indicators, and corporate disclosures of these firms. The analysis reveals the adoption of industry-specific ESG strategies, highlighting how these firms tailor their approaches to address unique industry challenges while aligning with global sustainability trends. Key findings include a strong emphasis on innovative solutions to ESG challenges, the integration of ESG into core business operations, and a balanced approach to economic, social, and environmental responsibilities. This study contributes to a broader understanding of how ESG practices are implemented in various industrial contexts, particularly in the dynamic and evolving landscape of Korean global businesses. It offers valuable insights and benchmarks for global companies, underlining the importance of contextualized and industry-specific ESG strategies in achieving sustainable and ethical business practices

Vessel co-option correlates with resistance against anti-angiogenic agents and chemotherapy in colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRCLM). We previously identified higher intensity of neutrophils in the tumour microenvironment of vessel co-opting CRCLM lesions compared to their angiogenic counterparts. Herein, we demonstrated that over 50% of the neutrophils in vessel co-opting lesions are expressing pro-apoptotic markers including cleaved caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1). Our previous publications suggested upregulation of transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ1) in the microenvironment of vessel co-option CRCLM. Therefore, we examined the effect of TGFβ1 on the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and PARP-1 in neutrophils in vitro. Significantly, we noticed the upregulation of pro-apoptotic markers upon exposure to TGFβ1. This finding might pave the way to determine the role of neutrophils in developing vessel co-option in CRCLM in the future.

In this paper, we investigate a new $q$-analogue of the higher order degenerate Changhee polynomials and numbers, which are called the Witt-type formula for the $q$-analogue of degenerate Changhee polynomials of order $r$. We can derive some new interesting identities related to the degenerate $(h,q)$-Changhee polynomials and numbers.

We have investigated the antiferromagnetic phase transition in the frustrated and multiferroic hexagonal manganites $h$-(Y$_{0.98}$ Eu$_{0.02}$)MnO$_3$ (YEMO) and $h$-YMnO$_3$ (YMO). Elastic neutron scattering has been used to study in detail the phase transition in YMO and YEMO in zero pressure and in YMO at a hydrostatic pressure of 1.5~GPa. In zero pressure, we find the critical temperature $T_{\rm N} = 72.11(5)$~K and 71.3(1)~K and the critical exponent $\beta = 0.206(3)$ and 0.22(2), for YEMO and YMO, respectively. This is in agreement with earlier work by Roessli {\em et al.}. In applied hydrostatic pressure of 1.5~GPa, the ordering temperature increases to $T_{\rm N} = 75.2(5)$~K, in agreement with earlier reports, while $\beta$ is unchanged. Inelastic neutron scattering was used to determine the anisotropy spin wave gap at the phase transition, expected from spin wave theory to close with a critical exponent $\beta'$ identical to the one of the order parameter, $\beta' = \beta$. Our results indicate that the gap in YEMO indeed closes at $T_{\rm N}=72.4(3)$~K with $\beta' = 0.24(2)$, while the in-pressure gap in YMO closes at 75.2(5)~K with an exponent of $\beta' =0.19(3)$. In addition, the low-temperature anisotropy gap was found to have a slightly higher absolute value under pressure. The consistent values obtained for $\beta$ in the two systems support the likelihood of a new universality class for triangular, frustrated antiferromagnets.

Although first described in the final decade of the 19th century, the axis responsible for atrioventricular conduction has long been the source of multiple controversies. Some of these continue to reverberate. When first described by His, for example, many doubted the existence of the bundle we now name in his honour, while Kent suggested that multiple pathways crossed the atrioventricular junctions in the normal heart. It was Tawara who clarified the situation, although many of his key definitions have not universally been accepted. In key studies in the third decade of the 20th century, Mahaim then suggested the presence of ubiquitous connections that provided "paraspecific" pathways for atrioventricular conduction. In this review, we show the validity of these original investigations, based on our own experience with a large number of datasets from human hearts prepared by serial histological sectioning. Using our own reconstructions, we show how the atrioventricular conduction axis can be placed back within the heart. We emphasise that newly emerging techniques will be key in providing the resolution to map cellular detail to the gross evidence provided by the serial sections

Increased soluble endoglin (sENG) were observed in human brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs), and overexpression of sENG with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A induced dysplastic vessel formation in mouse brain. However, the underlying mechanism of sENG-induced vascular malformations is not clear. While evidence suggests the role of sENG as a pro-inflammatory modulator, increased microglial accumulation and inflammations were observed in bAVMs. Therefore, we hypothesized that microglia mediate sENG-induced inflammation and endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction in bAVMs. In this study, we confirmed that sENG with VEGF-A overexpression induced dysplastic vessel formation. Remarkably, there were increased microglial activation around dysplastic vessels with expression of NLRP3, inflammasome marker. We found that sENG increased the gene expression of VEGF-A, pro-inflammatory cytokines/inflammasome mediators (TNF-α, IL-6, NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1, and IL-1β), and proteolytic enzyme (MMP-9) in BV2 microglia. The conditioned media from sENG-treated BV2 (BV2-sENG-CM) significantly increased angiogenic factors (Notch-1 and TGFβ) and pERK1/2 in ECs while it decreased IL-17RD, an anti-angiogenic mediator. Finally, the BV2-sENG-CM significantly increased EC migration and tube formation. Together, our study demonstrates that sENG provokes microglia to release angiogenic/inflammatory responses which may be involved in EC dysfunction. Our study suggests the contribution of microglia in the pathology of sENG-associated vascular malformations.

Over the past decades, overweight and obesity has become a global epidemic and the leading threat for death. To prevent the serious risk, an overweight or obese individual must apply a long-term weight-management strategy to control food intake and physical activities, which is however, not easy. Recently, with the advances of information technology, more and more people can use wearable devices and smartphones to obtain physical activity information, while they can also access various health-related information from Internet online social networks (OSNs). Nevertheless, there is a lack of an integrated approach that can combine these two methods in an efficient way. In this paper, we address this issue and propose a novel mobile-social framework for health recognition and recommendation, namely, H-Rec². The main ideas of H-Rec² include (1) to recognize the individual's health status using smartphone as a general platform, and (2) to recommend physical activity and food intake based on personal health information, life science principles, and health-related information obtained from OSNs. To demonstrate the potentials of the H-Rec² framework, we develop a prototype that consists of four important components: (1) an activity recognition module that senses physical activity using accelerometer, (2) a health status modeling module that applies a novel algorithm to generate personalized health status index, (3) a restaurant information collection module that collects relevant information from OSN, and (4) a restaurant recommendation module that provides personalized and context-aware recommendation. To evaluate the prototype, we conduct both objective and subjective experiments, which confirm the performance and effectiveness of the proposed system.

In this paper, we introduce two discrete degenerate random variables, namely the degenerate binomial and degenerate Poisson random variables. We deduce the expectations of the degenerate binomial random variables. We compute the generating function of the moments of the degenerate Poisson random variables, which leads us to define the new type degenerate Bell polynomials, and hence obtain explicit expressions for the moments of those random variables in terms of such polynomials. We also get the variances of the degenerate Poisson random variables. Finally, we illustrate two examples of the degenerate Poisson random variables.

Health literacy describes skills and competencies that enable people to gain access to, understand and apply health information to positively influence their own health and the health of those in the social environment. In an increasingly media saturated and digitized world, these skill sets are necessary for accessing and navigating sources of health information and tools, such as television, the Internet, and mobile apps. The concepts of Media Health Literacy (MHL) and eHealth Literacy (eHL) describe the specific competencies such tasks require. This article introduces the two concepts, and then reviews findings on the associations of MHL and eHL with several contextual variables in the social environment such as socio-demographics, social support, and system complexity, as a structural variable. As eHL and MHL are crucial for empowering people to actively engage in their own health, a growing body of literature reports of the potential and the effectiveness of intervention initiatives to positively influence these competencies. From an ethical standpoint, equity is emphasized, stressing the importance of accessible media environments for all - including those at risk of exclusion from (digital) media sources. Alignment of micro and macro contextual spheres will ultimately facilitate both non-digital and digital media to effectively support and promote public health.

Preventing malnutrition and dehydration in older care home residents is complex, with both conditions remaining prevalent, despite numerous guidelines spanning several decades. This policy-mapping scoping review used snowballing search methods to locate publicly-available policies, reports and best practice guidelines relating to hydration and nutrition in UK residential care homes, to describe the existing knowledge base and pinpoint gaps in practice, interpretation and further investigation. Findings were synthesised narratively to identify solutions. Strategies for improvements to nutritional and hydration care include: development of age and population-specific nutrient and fluid intake guidelines; statutory regulation, contractual obligations for commissioners, appropriate menu-planning, implementation and auditing of care, acknowledgment of residents’ eating and drinking experiences, effective screening, monitoring and treatment and staff training. The considerable body of existing knowledge is failing to influence practice, relating to translational issues of implementing knowledge into care at the point of delivery, and this is where future research and actions should focus.

Access to reliable, clean, modern cooking enhances life chances. One option is photovoltaic cooking systems. Accurate solar data is needed to ascertain to what extent these can satisfy the needs of local people. This paper investigates how to choose the most accurate satellite derived solar irradiance database for use in Africa. This is necessary because there is a general shortage of ground measurements for Africa. The solar data is needed to model the output of solar cooking systems, for instance, a solar panel, battery and electric pressure cooker. Four easily accessible satellite databases are validated against ground measurements using a range of statistical tests. Results demonstrate the impact of the mathematical measure used and the phenomenon of balancing errors. Fitting of the satellite model to appropriate climate zone and/or nearby measurements improves accuracy, as does higher spatial and temporal resolution of input parameters. That said, all the four databases reviewed were found to be suitable for simulating PV yield in East Africa.

This study explores the application of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (® LBMS), particularly its Effort component, to analyze the biomechanical dynamics of the golf swing. Focusing on the initiation of the downswing, this paper investigates how the instantaneous screw axis (ISA) with rotational and linear motions contributes to subsequent movements, such as the hip turn. We propose that the physical forces generated by the golf club, characterized by mass moment inertia, extend beyond the body's boundaries, such as through the hand grip. A skilled golfer’s ability to 'allow' these forces to influence body dynamics without opposing them is analyzed through the lens of LBMS's Free Flow Effort, suggesting an indulgent and expansive use of movement energy.

In applied mathematics, statistics, operation research, physics, and engineering mathematics, confluent representations of hypergeometric functions in one and two variables are known to exist, and their occurrence in a variety of applications is also well recognised. In this article, we intend to present a new derivation of the extended Watson summation theorem for the Kim et al. given series 4F3. We assessed four attractive integrals involving generalized hypergeometric function as an application. With a few particular cases, this note will come to an end. In the results given above, symmetry appears on its own.

This article introduces a novel payload structure, which has been experimentally proven to have smaller impact force while the carried internal electronics remains intact. The study describes in details how materials and geometric structures were chosen based on information analysis. It is clarified how possible geometric structures and materials can be chosen to yield optimal efficiency. Finite element method simulations were carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of several geometric structures, which has led to the dodecahedron form. For the frame, Polylactic Acid were chosen as an optimal material. A low air pressure test for parts of the structure, and also the whole structure were carried out with successful results. Drop tests, with force measuring sensors and high speed videos, were carried out for measuring and comparing the maximal impact force of classical payloads and the novel one. Laboratory and real life tests demonstrated that the developed new structure is safer and it is applicable.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the most serious extra-articular complications of rheu-matoid arthritis (RA), which increases the mortality of RA. Because the pathogenesis of RA-ILD remains poorly understood, appropriate therapeutic strategies and biomarkers have not yet been identified. Thus, the goal of this review was to summarize and analyze the reported data on the etiology and pathogenesis of RA-ILD. The incidence of RA-ILD increases with age, and is also generally higher in men than in women and in patients with specific genetic variations and eth-nicity. Lifestyle factors associated with an increased risk of RA-ILD include smoking and exposure to pollutants. The presence of an anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody, high RA disease activity, and rheumatoid factor positivity also increase the risk of RA-ILD. We also explored the roles of biological processes (e.g., fibroblast–myofibroblast transition, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and immunological processes), signaling pathways (e.g., JAK/STAT and PI3K/Akt), and the his-topathology of RA involved in RA-ILD pathogenesis based on published preclinical and clinical models of RA-ILD in animal and human studies.

Most traditional theories of intelligence have little to do with the question of whether people with high intelligence can successfully address real world problems. A high IQ is correlated with many important outcomes (e.g., academic prominence, reduced crime), but it does not protect against cognitive biases, partisan thinking, reactance, confirmation bias, and even falling for discredited beliefs such as alchemy, cold fusion, and astrology. There are several newer theories that directly address the question about solving real-world problems. Prominent among them is Sternberg’s adaptive intelligence with “adaptation to the environment” as the central premise, a construct that does not exist on standardized IQ tests (e.g., Sternberg, 2019). Similarly, Stanovich and West (2014) argue that standardized tests of intelligence are not measures of rational thought—the sort of skill/ability that would be needed to address complex real-world problems. Halpern and Butler (2020) advocate for critical thinking as a better model of intelligence for addressing real-world problems than those that are based on psychometric properties of general intelligence. Yes, intelligence (i.e., critical thinking) can be enhanced and used for solving a real-world problem like Covid-19, which we use as an example of contemporary problems that need a new approach. Critical thinking may be an antidote for the chaos of the modern world.

This study explores the application of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (® LBMS), particularly its Effort component, to analyze the biomechanical dynamics of the golf swing. Focusing on the initiation of the downswing, this paper investigates how the instantaneous screw axis (ISA) with rotational and linear motions contributes to subsequent movements, such as the hip turn. We propose that the physical forces generated by the golf club, characterized by mass moment inertia, extend beyond the body's boundaries, such as through the hand grip. A skilled golfer’s ability to 'allow' these forces to influence body dynamics without opposing them is analyzed through the lens of LBMS's Free Flow Effort, suggesting an indulgent and expansive use of movement energy.

In this paper, inspired by recent articles of G. Anatriello and G. Vincenzi (see \cite{Ana}), and G. Cerda-Morales (see \cite{Cer1,Cer2}), we will introduce the third-order $\overline{h}$-Jacobsthal and third-order $\overline{h}$-Jacobsthal--Lucas sequences and their associated quaternions. The new results that we have obtained extend most of those obtained in \cite{Cer2}.

Autogenous demineralized dentin matrix (ADDM), derived from human extracted tooth, is commonly used as a bone-graft substitute to reconstruct alveolar defects when placing dental implants. The purpose of this retrospective study is to examine efficacy of ADDM in terms of surgical complications and marginal bone resorption by analyzing the medical records and radiographs of patients who received ADDM graft from 2008 to 2011 in our institute. Occurrence of complications, marginal bone loss around implants were investigated with regard to the type of defect, location of bone grafting, and types of bone graft techniques. ADDM-based bone grafting was performed on 221 sites in 82 patients and 208 implants were placed afterwards: The percentage of complications after bone grafting was 15.84%, and the implant survival rate was 95.19%. All complications were resolved with conventional treatment except for the 10 cases of osseointegration failure. The average marginal bone loss was 0.31 mm at the last examination after the average follow-up period of 7.2 years. Within the limitation of this study, the results of long-term follow-up are consistent with the short-term results of relevant studies. ADDM can produce promising clinical outcomes when used for alveolar ridge augmentation around implants.

Filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus spp. are opportunistic pathogens, which cause highly invasive infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Control of such fungal pathogens is increasingly problematic due to the small number of effective drugs available for treatment. Moreover, the increased incidence of fungal resistance to antifungal agents makes this problem a global human health issue. The cell wall integrity system of fungi is the target of antimycotic drugs echinocandins, such as caspofungin (CAS). However, echinocandins cannot completely inhibit the growth of filamentous fungal pathogens, which results in survival/escape of fungi during treatment. Chemosensitization was developed as an alternative intervention strategy, where co-application of CAS with the intervention catalyst octyl gallate (OG; chemosensitizer) greatly enhanced CAS efficacy, thus achieved ≥ 99.9% elimination of filamentous fungi in vitro. Based on hypersensitive responses of Aspergillus antioxidant mutants to OG, it is hypothesized that, besides destabilizing cell wall integrity, the redox-active characteristic of OG may further debilitate fungal antioxidant system.

Physical symptoms are defined as symptoms for which adequate examination does not reveal a sufficient underlying root cause, e.g., pain and fatigue. The extant literature of the neurobiological underpinnings of physical symptoms has been largely inconsistent and primarily consists of (clinical) case-control studies with relatively small samples sizes. Therefore, we studied the association of brain morphology with physical symptoms in pre-adolescents from two independent and population-based cohorts. This study included 2,683 individuals from the Generation R Study (51% girls, 10.1 ± 0.6 years old) and 10,567 pre-adolescents from the ABCD Study (48% girls, 9.9 ± 0.6 years old). High- resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was collected using 3-Tesla MRI systems. Physical symptoms were evaluated using the somatic complaints syndrome scale from the parent-reported school-age version of the Child Behavior Checklist. Linear regression models were fitted for global brain metrics (i.e., cortical and subcortical grey matter volume and total white matter volume) as well as surface-based vertex-wise measures (surface area and cortical thickness). Analyses were initially conducted separately in each cohort and later meta-analysed. No associations were observed in either cohort separately. In the combined vertex-wise meta-analysis of both cohorts; the right hemisphere surface area, most notably the rostral middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex, were related to physical symptoms after correcting for multiple comparisons (cluster area = 1,882 mm2). The present study, which is the most representative and well-powered to date, suggests that surface area, but not other measures of brain morphology, are modestly related to physical symptoms in pre- adolescents. While these effects are subtle, future longitudinal research is warranted to elucidate whether such associations indicate a cause or a consequence of the physical symptoms.

The treatment of the bulky Rind-based dibromosilanes, (Rind)2SiBr2 (2) [Rind = 1,1,7,7-tetra-R1-3,3,5,5-tetra-R2-s-hydrindacen-4-yl: EMind (a: R1 = Et, R2 = Me) and Eind (b: R1 = R2 = Et)], with two equivalents of tBuLi in Et2O at low temperatures resulted in the formation of blue solutions derived from the diarylsilylenes, (Rind)2Si: (3). Upon warming the solutions above −20 °C, the blue color gradually faded, accompanying the decomposition of 3 and yielding the cyclic hydrosilanes (4) via intramolecular C−H bond insertion at the Si(II) center. The molecular structures of the bulky Eind-based 3b and 4b were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. Thus, at −20 °C, blue crystals were formed (Crystal-A), which were identified as mixed crystals of 3b and 4b. Additionally, colorless crystals of 4b as a singular component were isolated (Crystal-B), whose structure was also determined by an X-ray diffraction analysis. Although the isolation of 3 was difficult due to their thermally-labile nature, their structural characteristics and electronic properties were discussed based on the experimental findings complemented by computational results. We also examined the hydrolysis of 3b to afford the silanol, (Eind)2SiH(OH) (5b).

The human landscape transforming activity contributes to the global change of vegetation in different forms. Hunting is one of the most ancient human landscape-shaping activities. Feeders for hunting are particularly disruptive to vegetation. In the present study, we conducted a vegetation survey in these highly disturbed places. We are investigating the vegetation dynamics over several years in in the turkey oak–sessile oak zone, in two areas with different moisture and shade conditions (forest and clearing). One important background factor is changes in precipitation and temperature. The novelty of our present study lies in the fact that the observation takes place with continuous disturbance, where the human influence is very large. Our results confirm that the weed infestation be detectable at bait sites over a long period, and the interannual changes were typical in every year, according to the fact that in August, more weed species are usually present with a greater cover at the bait sites. The main meteorological factors played a role in the degree of weed infestation in each year. There was a higher proportion of vegetation regeneration in wetter years, while dry periods do not favor successional processes. With the drying of the climate, the disturbed areas are constantly losing their natural value, but wetter weather is not an automatic solution either. A more precise understanding of vulnerable systems and careful planning of treatment interventions is necessary.

Agroforestry is increasingly being recognized as a holistic food production system that can have numerous significant environmental, economic, and social benefits. This growing recognition is paralleled in the U.S. by the budding interest in regenerative agriculture and motivation to certify regenerative practices. Current efforts to develop a regenerative agriculture certification offer an opportunity to consider agroforestry’s role in furthering regenerative goals. To understand this opportunity, we first examine how agroforestry practices can advance regenerative agriculture’s five core environmental concerns: soil fertility and health, water quality, biodiversity, ecosystem health, and carbon sequestration. Next, we review a subset of certification programs, standards, guidelines, and associated scientific literature to understand existing efforts to standardize agroforestry. We determine that development of an agroforestry standard alongside current efforts to certify regenerative agriculture offers an opportunity to leverage common goals and strengths of each. Additionally, we determine that there is a lack of standards with measurable criteria available for agroforestry, particularly in temperate locations. Lastly, we propose a framework and general, measurable criteria for an agroforestry standard that could potentially be implemented as a standalone standard or built into existing agriculture, forestry, or resource conservation certification programs.

As argued by ‘Declaration of Concrete Environment (2010)’ of Korea and ‘Declaration of Asian Concrete Environment (2011)’ of six Asian countries, concrete as a single material has lately shown extremely large impact on environmental issues such as climate change. Assessment of environmental impact from concrete material and production has considerable importance. Concrete is a major material used in the construction industry that emits a large amount of substances with environmental impacts during its life cycle. Accordingly, technologies for the reduction in and assessment of the environmental impact of concrete from the perspective of Life Cycle Assessment must be developed. At present, the studies in relation to greenhouse gas emission from concrete are being carried out globally as a countermeasure against climate change. In this study, a sustainable concrete mix design algorithm was designed using correlation analyses, and its carbon emission and cost reduction performances were assessed. Using correlation analyses, the concrete strength, w/b and s/a ratios, and CO₂ emissions were identified as major variables of concrete mix design that influenced other variables. Also, this study aims to evaluate the CO₂ emission reduction performance of the algorithm-deduced sustainable concrete mix design, and therefore, the CO₂ emissions of the sustainable concrete mix design are compared with those of the actual concrete mix design applied to the construction of the office building A in South Korea.

Automated software bots infiltrate online surveys and corrupt data integrity, not to mention waste researcher time and budgets. Although resources exist to help keep bots out and identify bots when they do evade survey barriers, bot attacks may be a persistent problem for online surveys for a long time to come. Bots are evolving -- even as survey designers try ever more sophisticated methods to fend them off and weed their answers out. Vigilance needs to be high and the bot generators should not be under-estimated. We recount here some bot features we encountered after our own survey was attacked that helped to identify them, and that have not been detailed elsewhere. We also discuss reasons why commonly recommended strategies for how to keep bots out may not be feasible for many scientific researchers.

We report on the occurrence of natural Magnesium Alumina Silicate Hydrate (M-(A)-S-H) cement at Feragen and Leka in eastern and western Trøndelag Norway, respectively. Both occurrences are located in the sub-arctic climate zone and form in glacial till and moraine material deposited on ultramafic rock during the Weichselian glaciation. Weathering of serpentinized peridotite dissolve brucite and result in a relative high pH alkaline fluid that subsequently reacts with the felsic minerals of the till (quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar) to form a cement consisting of an amorphous material or a mixture of nanocrystalline Mg-rich phyllosilicates, including illite. The presence of plagioclase in the till results in the enrichment of alumina in the cement, i.e., forms M-A-S-H instead of the M-S-H cement. Dissolution of quartz results in numerous etch-pits and negative quartz crystals filled with M-A-S-H cement. Where the quartz dissolution is faster that the cement precipitation, a honeycomb-like texture is formed. Compositionally the cemented till (tillite) contains more MgO and has a higher loss of ignition than the till, suggesting that the cement is formed by a MgO fluid that previously reacted with the peridotite. The M-(A)-S-H cemented till represent a new type of duricrust, coined magsilcrete. The study of natural Mg-cement provides information on peridotites as a Mg-source for Mg-cement and as a feedstock for CO2 sequestration.

The mechanistic pathway of TEMPO/I₂-mediated oxidative cyclization of N,N-diaryl amino alcohols 1 is investigated in this study. Based on our direct empirical experiments, three key intermediates (the aminium radical cation 3, the α-aminoalkyl radical 4, and the iminium 5), four kind reactive species (radical TEMPO, cationic TEMPO, TEMPO-I and iodo radical) and three kind pathways (1. SET/PCET mechanism, 2. HAT/1,6-H transfer mechanism, 3. Ionic mechanism) were assumed. Under the assumption, nine free energy diagrams are acquired through DFT calculation. From the comparison of the solution phase free energy, some possibility can be excluded and then the chosen plausible mechanisms are concretized with the more stable intermediate 7.

In this paper a full state feedback control of a double inverted pendulum on a cart (DIPC) are designed and compared. Modeling is based on Euler-Lagrange equations derived by specifying a Lagrangian, difference between kinetic and potential energy of the DIPC system. A full state feedback control with H infinity and H 2 is addressed. Two approaches are tested: open loop impulse response and a double inverted pendulum on a cart with full state feedback H infinity and H 2 controllers. Simulations reveal superior performance of the double inverted pendulum on a cart with full state feedback H infinity controller.

This report is a narrative of a certified nurse working on a long-term rehabilitation ward for patients with dementia in Japan during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time visitation restrictions had been implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 causing psychological distress for patients and their families which nurses had to cope with . The nurse was interviewed twice September–October 2020. The recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Three themes were identified relating to changes in care in response to the pandemic which nurses had to adapt to: the risk of collapse of family members’ roles, anxiety caused by patients forgetting family members and family memories and increased disorientation. During the pandemic, nursing care needs to adapt, ensuring that family attachments and ties continue and minimizing the disruption caused by the pandemic, while ensuring that everyone remains Covid-safe.

A lead zirconate titanate [PZT;Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃] layer embedded infrared (IR) detector decorated with wavelength-selective plasmonic crystals has been investigated for high-performance non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) spectroscopy. A plasmonic IR detector with an enhanced IR absorption band has been designed based on numerical simulations, fabricated by conventional microfabrication techniques, and characterized with a broadly tunable quantum cascade laser. The enhanced responsivity of the plasmonic IR detector at specific wavelength band has improved the performance of NDIR spectroscopy and pushed the limit of detection (LOD) by an order of magnitude. In this paper, a 13 fold enhancement in the LOD of a methane gas sensing using NDIR spectroscopy is demonstrated with the plasmonic IR detector.

To obtain an accurate and reproducible experimental results in microbial fuel cell (MFC), it is important to know ‘anode maturation biofilm’ to produce a stable and maximum performance. For this purpose, four single chamber MFCs were tested in this study. The linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) polarization tests illustrated that maximum power densities of three MFCs became stable after 9 weeks. Although there were variations afterwards, such variations were negligible. Average maximum power densities from the 9th to the 17th week were 2,990 mW/m2 (MFC-4), 2,983 mW/m2 (MFC-2), 2,368 mW/m2 (MFC-3) and 837 mW/m2 (MFC-1). Polarization resistance shows that MFC-1 had much larger anode resistance (36.6-85.4 Ω) than the other MFCs (1.7-11.6 Ω). Anodic cyclic voltammetry (CV) shows that current production increased over time and MFC-1 had much smaller current production (24.4 mA) than the other MFCs (31.0-34.9 mA) at 17th week. The increased current production indicates anode biofilm became more mature over time, but overall cell performance did not increased accordingly. Possibly due to the bad inoculation, MFC-1 showed the lowest performance. However, its performance was restored to the initial performance and anode resistance was reduced by 47% at 17th week. This study shows that the optimum anode maturation time is 9 weeks and that bioanode performance is a key factor for MFC performance. This study also shows than LSV polarization and CV tests are accurate and non-destructive measurement methods for diagnosing anode performance.

Using the h-index to assess individual researchers is not only unethical and unfair but also inaccurate and misleading. This index fails to offer a reliable measure of a researcher's impact based on their citation scores. Beyond statistical and conceptual considerations, authorship practices, especially in the case of multi-authored publications, give rise to significant problems that often go unnoticed. While some modifications of the h-index have been proposed to mitigate these weaknesses, the fundamental deficiencies persist. Most of these flaws have been effectively addressed by the c-score, a composite citation index. The c-score excludes self-citations, normalizes the number of citations by considering the number of authors in each paper, and takes into account first, single, and last authorship. This approach provides a more realistic measure of the impact of each individual researcher based on raw citations.

Short-range Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes operating at 2.4 GHz need to provide ubiquitous wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with energy-efficient, wide-range output power (POUT) and fully integrated on a single chip for wireless body area networks (WBANs) and wireless personal area networks (WPANs) using low-power Bluetooth (BLE) and Zigbee standards. The proposed fully integrated transmitter (TX) utilizes a digitally controllable current-mode class-D (CMCD) power amplifier (PA) with a second harmonic distortion (HD2) suppression to reduce VCO pulling in an integrated system while meeting harmonic limit regulations. The CMCD PA is divided into 7-bit slices that can be reconfigured between differential and single-ended topologies. Duty cycle distortion compensation is performed for HD2 suppression, and an HD2 rejection filter and a modified C-L-C low-pass filter (LPF) reduce HD2 further. Implemented in a 28 nm CMOS process, the TX achieves a wide POUT range of from 12.1 to -31 dBm and provides a maximum efficiency of 39.8% while consuming 41.1 mW at 12.1 dBm POUT. The calibrated HD2 level is -82.2 dBc at 9.93 dBm POUT, resulting in a transmitter figure of merit (TX_FoM) of -97.52 dB. Higher order harmonic levels remain below -41.2 dBm even at 12.1 dBm POUT, meeting regulatory requirements.

In this data deposit, I describe a dataset that is the result of content mining 167,318 published articles for statistical test results. As a result of this content mining, 688,112 results from 50,845 articles were extracted. In order to provide a comprehensive set of data, the statistical results are supplemented with metadata from the article they originate from. The dataset is provided in a comma separated file (CSV) in long-format. For each of the 688,112 results, 20 variables are included, of which seven are article metadata and 13 pertain to the individual statistical results (e.g., reported and recalculated p-value). A five-pronged approach was taken to generate the dataset: (i) collect journal lists, (ii) spider journal pages for articles, (iii) download articles, (iv) add article metadata, and (v) mine articles for statistical results.

The quiet-time solar wind electrons feature non-thermal characteristics when viewed from the perspective of their velocity distribution functions. They typically have an appearance of being composed of a denser thermal “core” population plus a tenuous energetic “halo” population. At first, such a feature was empirically fitted with the Kappa velocity space distribution function, but ever since the ground-breaking work by Tsallis, the space physics community has embraced the potential implication of the Kappa distribution as reflecting the non-extensive nature of the space plasma. From the viewpoint of microscopic plasma theory, the formation of non-thermal electron velocity distribution function can be interpreted in terms of the plasma being in a state of turbulent quasi equilibrium. Such a finding brings forth the possible existence of a profound inter-relationship between the non-extensive statistical state and the turbulent quasi-equilibrium state. The present paper further develops the idea of solar wind electrons being in the turbulent equilibrium, but unlike the previous model, which involves the electrostatic turbulence near the plasma oscillation frequency (i.e., Langmuir turbulence), the present paper considers the impact of transverse electromagnetic turbulence, particularly, the turbulence in the whistler-mode frequency range. It is found that the coupling of spontaneously-emitted thermal fluctuations and the background turbulence leads to the formation of non-thermal electron velocity distribution function of the type observed in the solar wind during quiet times. This demonstrates that the whistler-range turbulence represents an alternative mechanism for producing the Kappa-like non-thermal distribution, especially close to the Sun and in the near-Earth space environment.

In this paper, we propose an imagined speech-based brain wave pattern recognition using deep learning. Multiple features were extracted concurrently from eight-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. To obtain classifiable EEG data with fewer number of sensors, we placed the EEG sensors on carefully selected spots on the scalp. To decrease the dimensions and complexity of the EEG dataset and to avoid overfitting during the deep learning algorithm, we utilized the wavelet scattering transformation. A low-cost 8-channel EEG headset was used with MATLAB 2023a to acquire the EEG data. The Long-Short Term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM-RNN) was used to decode the identified EEG signals into four audio commands: Up, Down, Left, and Right. Wavelet scattering transformation was applied to extract the most stable features by passing the EEG dataset through a series of filtration processes. Filtration has been implemented for each individual command in the EEG datasets. The proposed imagined speech-based brain wave pattern recognition approach achieved a 92.50% overall classification accuracy. This accuracy is promising for designing a trustworthy imagined speech-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) future real-time systems. For better evaluation of the classification performance, other metrics were considered, and we obtained 92.74%, 92.50% and 92.62% for precision, recall, and F1-score, respectively.

Alzheimer's is a disease for which there is no cure. Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) early facilitates family planning and cost control. The purpose of this study is to predict the presence of AD using socio-demographic, clinical, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. Early detection of AD enables family planning and may reduce costs by delaying long-term care. Accurate, non-imagery methods also reduce patient costs. The Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS-1) cross-sectional MRI data were analyzed. A gradient boosted machine (GBM) predicted the presence of AD as a function of gender, age, education, socioeconomic status (SES), and Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). A Residual Network with 50 layers (ResNet-50) predicted CDR presence and severity from MRI's (multi-class classification). The GBM achieved a mean 91.3% prediction accuracy (10-fold stratified cross validation) for dichotomous CDR using socio-demographic and MMSE variables. MMSE was the most important feature. ResNet-50 using image generation techniques based on an 80% training set resulted in 98.99% three class prediction accuracy on 4,139 images (20% validation set) at Epoch 133 and nearly perfect multi-class predication accuracy on the training set (99.34%). Machine Learning methods classify AD with high accuracy. GBM models may help provide initial detection based on non-imagery analysis, while ResNet-50 network models might help identify AD patients automatically prior to provider review.

A modular approach to the construction of electric machines, drive systems, power supply systems is a new direction of modern technology development. Especially, the modular approach is promising for electric vehicles due to such positive aspects as increased efficiency, fault tolerance, overall reliability, safety, enhanced control capabilities, etc. In this work, the modular approach is comprehensively applied to an EV powertrain system, which includes a dual three-phase (DTP) BLDC motor with two machine modules of an asymmetric configuration, two battery modules and a supercapacitor module (SCM). The proposed H–H configuration of modular EV powertrain system includes four voltage source inverters that combine the power modules with the open ends of the windings (OEW) of the module machine armature, and provide control of their operation. Based on the developed mode system of the OEW machine module operation for EV traction and braking, a general control algorithm for the proposed configuration of the modular EV powertrain system has been developed. It combines the control of the operating modes with the functions of maintaining the required SOC level of the SCM and equalizing the SOCs of the two battery modules. The conducted simulation and experimental studies confirmed the workability and effectiveness of the proposed solutions.

In this paper, the design and analysis of coupled tank water level control system is done using robust control theory. The main aim of this work is to improve level controlling mechanisms in industries and household areas. In this paper, H ∞ and μ –synthesis controllers are designed to improve the level control system. The coupled tank water level control system is designed using the proposed controller’s comparison and tested for tracking a reference level signals (step, sine wave and random) and simulation results have been analyzed successfully. Finally the comparative simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed coupled tank water level control system with H ∞ controller for improving the tracking mechanism performance of the system.

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.

Hospitals are perpetually challenged by the dual requirements of concurrently improving the quality of healthcare and maintaining financial solvency. Both issues are among the top concerns for hospital executives across the United States, yet some have questioned if the efforts to enhance quality are financially sustainable. led us to examine if improving quality in the hospital setting impacts revenue. Using multivariate regression, we assessed if numerous quality measures were associated with our targeted measure of hospital profitability: the net patient revenue per adjusted discharge. The independent variables included the HCAHPS Summary Star Rating, Hospital Compare Overall Rating, All-Cause hospital-wide Readmission Rate, Total Performance Score, Clinical Outcomes Domain Score, Safety Domain Score, Person and Community Engagement Domain Score, and the Efficiency and Cost Reduction Score. Our results indicated that improving quality was significantly associated with improved net patient revenue per adjusted discharge for seven of the eight of these quality measures at the hospital level. It is clear that failing to address quality and patient safety issues is costly for US hospitals, thus we believe our findings support the premise that increased attention to the quality of care delivered as well as patients’ perceptions of care may allow hospitals to accentuate profitability and advance a hospital’s financial position.

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

Detecting and monitoring changes in soil salinity through remote sensing provides an opportunity for field assessment in regions where on-site measurements are limited. This investigation, carried out in Siwa Oasis, Egypt, aimed to assess the efficacy of several soil salinity indices derived from Landsat 5 and 7 satellite images. To achieve this, 56 on-site ground measurements were utilized for evaluation purposes. The study aimed to improve the correlation between EC and index values and explore the relationship between salinity and changes in land cover. Eleven spectral indices were calculated for nine scenes captured in different months from August to December. The first approach involved stacking the data to identify the index with the strongest correlation with ground EC values, without the need for complex analysis or EC value ranging. In the second approach, the ground EC measurements were classified into seven different salinity categories, and the correlation coefficient was calculated between each index and each salinity category. The third approach analyzed the data temporally, considering different salinity levels. Lastly, a spatial correlation analysis was conducted between EC and index values in the fourth scenario. The initial approach revealed a weak correlation due to substantial variation in EC values. However, the SI index demonstrated the highest correlation coefficient of 0.38. In the second scenario, the S2 index exhibited the highest correlation of 0.96 for moderate salinity samples. The third scenario showed that the S1 index achieved the highest correlation value of 0.99 for moderately saline areas. In the fourth scenario, the SI index exhibited the strongest correlation among all four ponds with correlation coefficients of 0.23, 0.23, 0.18, and 0.61. Notably, the correlations observed in the second and third scenarios demonstrated higher correlation coefficients compared to both the first and fourth scenarios. The study highlighted significant variations in EC levels related to land cover types and pond elevation. Additionally, remote sensing methods detected a 48% increase in total vegetated area over 17 years, showing the potential of remote sensing techniques in salinity monitoring for expanding agriculture and improving land management.

A new method for wide-area urban roof assessment of suitability for solar photovoltaics is introduced and validated. Knowledge of roof geometry and physical features is essential for evaluation of the impact of multiple rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system installations on local electricity networks. This paper begins by reviewing and testing a range of existing techniques for identifying roof characteristics. It was found that no current method is capable of delivering accurate results with publicly available input data. Hence a different approach is developed, based on slope and aspect using LIDAR data, building footprint data, GIS tools and aerial photographs. It assesses each roof’s suitability for PV installation. That is, its properties should allow the installation of at least a minimum size photovoltaic system. In this way the minimum potential solar yield for region or city may be obtained. The accuracy of the new method is then established, by ground-truthing against a database of 886 household systems. This is the largest validation of a rooftop assessment method to date. The method is flexible with few prior assumptions. It is based on separate consideration of buildings and can therefore generate data for various PV scenarios and future analyses.

Inert gas asphyxiation is a rarely observed form of suffocation in which the decedent breathes in an inert chemical, such as helium or nitrogen, in the absence of oxygen. The ultimate cause of death is not a result of the chemical itself, but rather from the oxygen starvation as the inert gas displaces vital oxygen. In this case report, a 66-year-old Caucasian female with a history of gastroparesis, degenerative disc disease, and chronic pain was found deceased with a plastic bag secured around her head. Plastic tubing terminated inside the bag and connected to a nearby canister of nitrogen gas. This case study discusses the challenges in determining inert gas asphyxiation as the cause of death in a postmortem setting and emphasizes the importance of understanding the decedent’s history and context of the environment in which they were found.

It is important to be familiar with the presentation of Turner syndrome and to understand the common causes of death associated with the disease. Using the autopsy case as an example, this case report will outline the classic presentation of Turner syndrome, go over its physiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis and explain the cause of death in this particular case while also highlighting other common causes of death/risk factors within Turner syndrome. Differential diagnosis and mimicking disease processes will also be discussed. This report will also highlight the molecular tests used for the diagnosis of Turner syndrome, discuss developments using in situ hybridization, and discuss why this method is best for the determination of Turner syndrome over conventional karyotyping.

Background:Peripheral neuropathy (PN) can result in either partial or complete loss of distal sensation resulting in an increased fall risk. Walkasins^® uses a shoe insert to detect the magnitude and direction of sway and sends signals to a leg unit that provides sensory balance cues. The objective of this case report is to describe the long-term influence of the Walkasins^® lower limb sensory neuroprosthesis on balance and gait for an individual with diabetic PN.Case Description:A fifty-one-year-old male with a 3-year history of PN and a 10-year history of type II diabetes mellitus was fitted with Walkasins^® and utilized the shoe inserts 8-10 hours/day for more than 1 year. Although, vibration and tactile thresholds were severely impaired at his 1^st metatarsophalangeal joint and the lateral malleolus bilaterally he could perceive tactile stimuli from the Walkasins^® above the ankles.Outcomes:Following Walkasins^® use, his Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) scores improved from 33% to 80%. His mean Vestibular Activities of Daily Living (VADL) scores decreased from 3.54 to 1. His Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) scores increased from 13/30 to 28/30 and his miniBESTest scores improved from 15/28 to 26/28. Gait speed increased from 0.23 m/sec to 1.5 m/sec. The patient described a decrease in pain and cramping throughout his lower extremities and an increase in function.Discussion:Gait and balance improved with the use of the Walkasins^® and participation in the Neuro Wellness Program. This improvement suggests that the use of sensory substitution devices, such as the Walkasins^®, may replace sensory deficits related to gait and balance dysfunction experienced by patients with PN. Further research is needed to determine if other patients will have a similar response and what the necessary threshold of sensory function is to benefit from use of the Walkasins^®.

This study delves into the critical domain of public procurement, specifically focusing on Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations within the context of South Korea. The aim of this research is to empirically scrutinize the factors influencing the impact index of SPP, with a particular emphasis on services related to labor standards. The investigation spans three years, from January 1, 2019, to July 31, 2021, encompassing state agency orders and post-implementation legal changes. Leveraging the comprehensive Korea On-line E-Procurement Sys-tem(KONEPS) platform, we meticulously collected data, ultimately culminating in 21,573 services meeting our criteria, from which 250 cases underwent an in-depth analysis. The study sheds light on the influence of social responsibility evaluation cri-teria on overall procurement scores, while also uncovering the moderating effects of various factors. The outcomes of this study offer valuable insights into the impact index of social responsibility evaluation criteria within South Korea's public procurement landscape. Factors including procurement year, classification, service period, and estimated price were identified as significant influencers. Moreover, the number and location of evalu-ation criteria items, inclusion of sincerity elements, and the evaluating agency were deemed pivotal determinants of the influence index. These findings hold profound implications for policymakers, procurement practitioners, and researchers and provide a roadmap for optimizing the utilization of social responsibility evaluation criteria to advance responsible and sustainable procurement practices. Future research avenues include conducting further study of additional moderat-ing variables, expanding datasets to encompass a broader spectrum of procurement contexts, and evaluating the long-term repercussions of social responsibility evaluation on procurement outcomes. These endeavors promise to further refine and advance public procurement practices in South Korea and beyond.

.With the increasing use of carbon fiber reinforced plastics in various area, carbon fiber composites based on prepregs have attracted attention in industries and academia research. However, prepreg manufacturing processes are costly, and the strength of structures varies depending on the orientation and defects (pores and delamination). For non-contact evaluation of internal defects, we proposed lock-in infrared thermography to investigate orientation angles after a compression test. We also conducted a drop-weight impact test to study the behaviour of the composites after impact according the fibers orientation for composite fabricated using unidirectional carbon fiber prepregs. Using CAI tests, we determined the residual compressive strength and confirmed the damage modes using a thermal camera. The results of the drop weight impact tests show that the specimen laminated at 0° suffered the largest damage because of susceptibility of the resin to impact. In contrast, the specimens oriented in of 0°/90° and +45°/–45° directions transferred more than 90% of the impact energy back to the impactor because of the lamination of fibers in the orthogonal directions. Furthermore, the specimens that underwent complete damage in the impact tests were subjected to the lock-in method and showed internal delamination and cut fibers. With the finite elements analysis, the damage of each ply could be observed. Moreover, the temperature differences in the residual compression tests were not significant.

Current global commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases encourage national targets for renewable generation. Due to its small land mass, offshore wind could help Bahrain to fulfill its obligations. However, no scoping study has yet been carried out. The methodology presented here addresses this research need. It employs Analytical Hierarchy Process and pairwise comparison methods in a Geographical Information Systems environment. Publicly available land use, infrastructure and transport data are used to exclude areas unsuitable for development due to physical and safety constraints. Meteorological and oceanic opportunities are ranked, then competing uses are analyzed to deliver optimal sites for wind farms. The potential annual wind energy yield is calculated by dividing the sum of optimal areas by a suitable turbine footprint, to deliver maximum turbine number. Ten favourable wind farm areas were identified in Bahrain’s territorial waters, representing about 4% of the total maritime area, and capable of supplying 2.68 TWh/yr of wind energy or almost 10% of the Kingdom’s annual electricity consumption. Detailed maps of potential sites for offshore wind construction are provided in the paper, giving an initial plan for installation in these locations.

Surface damage on honeycomb aircraft panels is often measured manually, and is therefore subject to variation based on inspection personnel. Eddy current testing (ECT) is sensitive to variations in probe-to-specimen spacing, or lift-off, and is thus promising for high resolution profiling of surface damage on aluminum panels. Lower frequency testing also allows inspection through the face sheet, an advantage over optical 3D scanning methods. This paper presents results from the ECT inspection of surface damage on an approximately flat aluminum honeycomb aircraft panel, and compares the measurements to those taken using optical 3D scanning technology. An ECT C-Scan of the dented panel surface was obtained by attaching the probe to a robotic scanning apparatus. Data was taken simultaneously at four frequencies of 25, 100, 400 and 1,600 kHz. A reference surface was then defined that approximated the original, undamaged panel surface, which also compensated for the effects of specimen tilt and thermal drift within the ECT instrument. Data was converted to lift-off using height calibration curves developed for each probe frequency. A damage region of 22,550 mm² area with dents ranging in depth from 0.13-1.01 mm was analyzed. The method was accurate at 1,600 kHz to within 0.05 mm (2s) when compared with 231 measurements taken via optical 3D scanning. Testing at 25 kHz revealed a 3.2 mm cell size within the honeycomb core, which was confirmed via destructive evaluation. As a result, ECT demonstrates potential for implementation as a method for rapid in-field aircraft panel surface damage assessment.

This study aimed to learn disturbance information to effectively control multiple small unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for marine research purposes at sea. The learned disturbance information was used to investigate the control of multiple USV swarms based on the leading–following formation technique. Numerous studies have already been conducted on swarm control using drones in the air; however, there has been a paucity of studies on swarm control in the sea. Contrary to swarm control in aviation, the fluid density of the sea is high, and the environment is constantly changing; thus, a robot system would be significantly affected by disturbances. This ultimately influences the maintenance of swarm formations and the accomplishment of missions [1,2]. Therefore, it is difficult to control numerous moving objects while maintaining a formation at sea by using the existing aerial drone swarm control technology. To solve this problem, we learned a long short-term memory (LSTM) model with time-series marine environmental data to predict maritime disturbances. Thereafter, the model was applied to a mission-based position control algorithm of each USV constituting the swarm to design a marine unmanned floating vessel swarm control system that can be applied to various marine environments. Specifically, to effectively control numerous small USVs for marine research purposes, ocean currents are learned using the LSTM algorithm, and the predicted ocean currents are used to generate a swarm USV control system for USV formations. In this study, a control system model of several small USVs equipped with two rear thrusters and a front lateral thruster was designed. The LSTM algorithm was learned using the previous ocean current data, and the velocity of the following ocean currents was predicted. The predictions were then used as a system disturbance to determine the thrust of the controller. To measure ocean currents in the sea when each USV moves, the velocity, azimuth, and position (latitude, longitude) data from the GPS mounted on the USV were used to measure the velocity and direction of the hull's movement. Further, the flow rate was measured using a flow rate sensor on a small USV. The USV movement and position were controlled using an artificial neural network-PID (ANN-PID) controller. This study entailed a comparative analysis of the designed USV model results and those generated by the simulator, including the behavior control rule of the USV swarm and the path of the actual USV swarm at sea. It was verified that the effectiveness of the USV mathematical model and behavior control rules. By comparing the movement path of the swarm USV with and without the disturbance learning algorithm and ANN-PID control algorithm applied to the designed simulator, the position error and maintenance performance of the swarm formation were analyzed, and the application results were compared.

Polypyrrole (PPy)-capped caped silver nanowire (Ag NW) nanomaterials (core–shell rod-shaped Ag NW@PPy) were synthesized suing a one–port suspension polymerization technique. The thickness of PPy layer on the 50-nm-thickness/15-μm-length Ag NW was effectively controlled to 10, 40, 50, and 60 nm. Thin films cast from one-dimensional conductive Ag NW@PPy formed a three-dimensional (3-D) conductive porous network structure and provided excellent electrochemical performance. The 3-D Ag NW@PPy network can significantly reduce the internal resistance of the electrode and maintain structural stability. As a result, a high specific capacitance of 625 F/g at a scan rate of 1 mV/s was obtained from the 3-D porous Ag NW@PPy composite film. The cycling performance over a long period exceeding 10,000 cycles was also evaluated. We expect that our core–shell-structured Ag NW@PPy composites and their 3-D porous structure network films can be applied as electrochemical materials for the design and manufacture of supercapacitors and other energy storage devices.

This paper aims to unify q-derivative/q-integral and h-derivative/h-integral in a single definition, this will be called q−h-derivative/q−h-integral. These notions are further extended on finite interval [a,b] in the form of left and right q−h-derivatives and q−h-integrals. Some inequalities are studied for q−h-integrals which are directly connected with well known results. In diverse fields of science and engineering the theory based on q-derivatives/q-integrals and h-derivatives/h-integrals can be unified by using the concept of q−h-derivative/q−h-integral.

In this study, we define new classes of convexity called of h-Godunova-Levin and h-Godunova-Levin preinvexity, through which some new inequalities of Hermite-Hadamard type were established. These new classes are the generalisation of several known convexity including the s-convex, P-function, Godunova-Levin. Further, the properties of h-Godunova-Levin function were also discussed. Meanwhile, the applications of h-Godunova-Levin Preinvex function are given

In this work, several inequalities of Popoviciu type for h-MN-convex functions are proved, where M and N are denote to Arithmetic, Geometric and Harmonic means and h is a non-negative superadditive or subadditive function.

Renewable resources gain increasing interest as source for environmentally benign biomaterials, such as drug encapsulation/release compounds, and scaffolds for tissue engineering in regenerative medicine. Being the second largest naturally abundant polymer, the interest in lignin valorization for biomedical utilization is rapidly growing. Depending on resource and isolation procedure, lignin shows specific antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Today, efforts in research and industry are directed toward lignin utilization as renewable macromolecular building block for the preparation of polymeric drug encapsulation and scaffold materials. Within the last five years, remarkable progress has been made in isolation, functionalization and modification of lignin and lignin-derived compounds. However, literature so far mainly focuses lignin-derived fuels, lubricants and resins. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current state of the art and to highlight the most important results in the field of lignin-based materials for potential use in biomedicine (reported in 2014–2018). Special focus is drawn on lignin-derived nanomaterials for drug encapsulation and release as well as lignin hybrid materials used as scaffolds for guided bone regeneration in stem cell-based therapies.

The objective of this study is to investigate the aquatic-toxic effects of glyoxal-containing cellulose ether with four different glyoxal concentrations (0, 1.4, 2.3 and 6.3%) in response to global chemical regulations, e.g., European Union Classification, Labeling and Packaging (EU CLP). Tests of the aquatic-toxic effects of glyoxal-containing cellulose ether on 11 freeze-dried microbial strains, Microcystis aeruginosa, Daphnia magna and zebrafish embryos were designed as an initial stage for toxicity screening, and were performed with the standardized toxicity test guidelines. Glyoxal-containing cellulose ether showed no significant toxic effects in the toxicity tests for the 11 freeze-dried microbial strains, Daphnia magna and zebrafish embryos. Alternatively, 6.3% glyoxal-containing cellulose ether led to more than a 60% reduction of Microcystis aeruginosa growth after 7 days of exposure. Approximately 10% developmental abnormalities (e.g., bent spine) in zebrafish embryos were also observed in the group exposed to 6.3% glyoxal-containing cellulose ether after 6 days of exposure. These results imply that <6.3% glyoxal-containing cellulose ether results in non-toxic effects on the acute toxicity of aquatic organisms. However, ≥6.3% glyoxal-containing cellulose ether may affect the health of aquatic organisms with long-term exposure. In order to better evaluate the eco-safety of cellulosic products contained in glyoxal, further studies regarding the toxic effects of glyoxal-containing cellulose ether with long-term exposure are required. The results from this study allow us to evaluate the auatic-toxic effects of glyoxal-containing cellulosic products, under EU chemical regulations, on the health of aquatic organisms.

Cell-culture meat is a novel concept to replace traditional meat produced from animals, and to satisfy rising food demands due to the world population growth. It is still a young field and requires to solve technical issues including cell sources and types, efficient culture for large scale production, taste and texture for customer satisfaction. The current review summarized traditional beef meat production and evaluation methods for customer satisfaction. In particular, serum biomarkers for beef meat evaluation are discussed, which can be applicated for cell-culture meat production.

Coxsackievirus A6 (CV-A6) has emerged as the predominant causative agent of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in young children. Since the declaration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic, the incidence of infectious diseases, including HFMD, has decreased markedly. When social mitigation was relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, re-emergence of HFMD was observed in Gwangju, South Korea, and seasonal characteristics of the disease appeared to have changed. To investigate the molecular characteristics of enterovirus (EV) associated with HFMD during 2022, 277 specimens were collected. Children aged under 5 years accounted for the majority of affected individuals. EV detection and genotyping were performed using real-time RT-PCR and nested RT-PCR followed by sequence analysis. EV detection rate was found to be 82.3%, and the main genotype identified was CV-A6. Sixteen CV-A6 samples were selected for whole genome sequencing. According to phylogenetic analysis, all CV-A6 strains from this study belonged to the sub-genotype D3 clade based on VP1 sequences. Analysis of 3D polymerase phylogeny showed that only the recombinant RF-A group was identified. In conclusion, circulating EV types should be continuously monitored to understand pathogen emergence and evolution during the post-pandemic era.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, and despite advances in treatment, survival rates are still low; therefore, the development of novel drugs is imperative. Acetylcorynoline (ACN) is derived from Corydalis ambigua. The effect of ACN on colon cancer is still unknown. Therefore, we investigated its potential effects. Our data showed that ACN inhibited cell viability and proliferation. Moreover, ACN induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by inhibiting cell growth. In the present study, we hypothesized that ACN regulates c-Myc through CNOT2 or MID1IP1. ACN reduced the protein expression of oncogenic genes, decreased c-Myc half-life, and rapidly inhibited the serum stimulation response. Moreover, knockdown of CNOT2 and MID1IP1 with ACN increased apoptosis and further reduced the expression of oncogenes. In addition, ACN exhibited a synergistic effect with low-dose of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and doxorubicin (Dox). Collectively, our data demonstrates that ACN inhibited c-Myc expression through CNOT2 and MID1IP1 and induced apoptosis. These findings indicate the potential of ACN as a therapeutic agent against colon cancer.

Cardiac fibrosis is a severe outcome of Chagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. Clinical evidence revealed a correlation between fibrosis levels with impaired cardiac performance in CD patients. Therefore, we sought to analyze the effect of inhibitors of TGF- (pirfenidone), p38-MAPK (losmapimod) and c-Jun (SP600125) on the modulation of collagen deposition in cardiac fibroblasts (CF) and in vivo models of T. cruzi chronic infection. Sirius Red/Fast green dye was used to quantify both collagen expression and total protein amount, assessing cytotoxicity. The compounds were also used to treat C57/Bl6 mice chronically infected with T. cruzi, Brazil strain. We identified an anti-fibrotic effect in vitro for pirfenidone (TGF-β inhibitor, IC50 114.3 μM), losmapimod (p38 inhibitor, IC50 17.6 μM) and SP600125 (c-Jun inhibitor, IC50 3.9 μM). This effect is independent of CF proliferation since these compounds do not affect T. cruzi-induced host cell multiplication as measured by BrdU incorporation. Assays of chronic infection of mice with T. cruzi have shown a reduction in heart collagen by pirfenidone. These results propose a novel approach to fibrosis therapy in CD, with the prospect of repurposing pirfenidone to prevent the onset of ECM accumulation in the heart of the patients.

Therapeutic vaccine studies should be designed to elicit durable, high magnitude, and efficacious T cell responses, all of which can be impacted by the choice of vaccination schedule. Here, we compare different prime-boost intervals (PBI) in a human papillomavirus (HPV) model using HPV16E6E7 Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicon particle (VRP) vaccination to address the optimal boosting schedule, quality of immune response, and overall in vivo efficacy. Six different vaccine regimens were tested with each group receiving booster vaccinations at different time intervals. Analysis of T-cell responses demonstrated a significant HPV16 E7 specific CD8+T cell response with minimally a one-week PBI between antigen re-exposure. Significant E7-specific in vivo cytotoxicity was also observed with longer PBIs. Additionally, longer PBIs led to an enhanced memory recall response to tumor challenge, which correlated with differential expansion of T cell memory subsets. Our findings imply that when using alphavirus vector platforms as a vaccination strategy, a one-week PBI is sufficient to induce high magnitude effector T cells with potent anti-tumor activity. However, longer PBIs lead to enhanced long-term protective anti-tumor immunity. These findings have implications for therapeutic vaccine clinical trials in which shorter intervals of prime-boost regimens may lead to suboptimal durable immune responses.

Diagnosis of kidney diseases has recently become more comprehensive and accurate by using new renal markers. Despite the fact that creatinine and cystatin c have been sufficient in determining kidney function, they did not indicate the exact site of the damage and they were often insufficient in predicting the course of the disease. Aim of the study was to evaluate the potential correlations and differences in levels of six factors related to kidney function and injury: kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), ncalbindin (CALB), glutathione S-transferase Pi (GST-Pi), calbindin and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), between renal patients with diabetic nephropathy (DM), congenital defects (CD) of the kidney and glomerulonephritis (GN). Study involved 75 patients: 49 with diabetic nephropathy, 12 with congenital defects and 14 with glomerulonephritis. Levels of renalase was measured using immunoenzymatic tests. Levels of other markers: calbindin, glutathione-S-transferase (GST-pi), interleukin-18 (IL-18), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), were analyzed using Kidney Toxicity-1 Panel and BioPlex system, designed for analyses in urine and optimized by us for serum.From all analyzed markers, only levels of KIM-1 differed significantly between any subgroups, and that was for CD and DM. Renalase correlated significantly negatively with creatinine and positively with all other markers, apart from MCP-1. Obtained results indicate, that serum renalase, KIM-1, calbindin and GST-pi are related to kidney function, with KIM-1 being the most exact, while MCP-1 levels are unrelated to creatinine and glucose levels, does not differ between patients with diabetic nephropathy and other subgroups, and therefore seem to be independent of diabetes. Also, serum-optimized Kidney Toxicity Panel 1 kit for determination of selected markers gave results similar to previous ones and therefore the method can be valuable in determination of analyzed factors.

In this study, we propose an efficient field-free line (FFL) generator for mechanically driven FFL-magnetic particle imaging (MPI) applications. The novel FFL generator comprises pairs of Halbach arrays and bar magnets. The proposed design generates high-gradient FFLs with low-mass permanent magnets, realizing fine spatial resolutions in MPI. We investigate the generated magnetic field using simulations and experiments. Our results show that the FFL generator yields a high gradient of 4.76 T/m at a cylindrical field of view of 30 mm diameter and a 70 mm open bore. A spatial resolution of less than 3.5 mm was obtained in the mechanically driven FFL-MPI.

We present the design, fabrication, and response of a polymer-based Laterally Amplified Chemo-Mechanical (LACM) humidity sensor based on mechanical leveraging and parametric amplification. The device consists of a sense cantilever asymmetrically patterned with a polymer and flanked by two stationary electrodes on the sides. When exposed to a humidity change, the polymer swells after absorbing the analyte and causes the central cantilever to bend laterally towards one side, causing a change in the measured capacitance. The device features an intrinsic gain due to parametric amplification resulting in an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). 11-fold magnification in sensor response was observed via voltage biasing of the side electrodes without the use of conventional electronic amplifiers. The sensor showed a repeatable and recoverable capacitance change of 11% when exposed to a change in relative humidity from 25-85%. The dynamic characterization of the device also revealed a response time ~1s and demonstrated a competitive response with respect to a commercially available reference chip.

On the H-type group G⊂Rm×Rn, we study the existence of solutions for the Brezis-Nirenberg problem

Most Acinetobacter baumannii strains are naturally competent. Although some information is available about factors that enhance or reduce the frequency of transformation of this bacterium, the regulatory elements and mechanisms are barely understood. In this article, we describe studies on the role of H-NS in the regulation of expression of genes related to natural competency and the ability to uptake foreign DNA. The expression levels of the natural transformation-related genes pilA, pilT, pilQ, comEA, comEC, comF, and drpA were significantly increased in a Δhns derivative of Acinetobacter baumannii A118. Complementation of the mutant with a recombinant plasmid harboring hns restored expression levels of six of these genes (pilT remained expressed at high levels) to those of the wild-type strain. The transformation frequency of the A. baumannii A118 Δhns strain was significantly higher than that of the wild-type. Similar, albeit not identical, effects occurred when hns was deleted from the hypervirulent A. baumannii AB5075 strain. Reduction of gene expression in a few cases was not as pronounced as to reach wild-type levels, and expression of comEA was enhanced further. In conclusion, the expression of all seven transformation-related genes was enhanced after deleting hns in A. baumannii A118 and AB5075, and these modifications are accompanied by an increase in the cells’ transformability. The results demonstrate a role of H-NS in A. baumannii’s natural competence.

Introduction: The trophoblast derived angiogenic factors are considered to play an important role in the pathophysiology of various complications of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to establish relationship between concentrations of soluble Human Leukocyte Antigen-G (sHLA-G) in maternal serum and amniotic fluid at 16-22 weeks of gestation and the sonographic measurements of the fetal and placental growth. Materials and methods: sHLA-G in serum and amniotic fluid, as well as fetal biometric data and placental volume and perfusion indices were determined in 41 uncomplicated singleton pregnancies. Results: The sHLA-G levels were unchanged both in amniotic fluid and in serum during mid-pregnancy. The sHLA-G level in serum correlated positively with amniotic sHLA-G level (β=0.63, p<0.01). Significant correlation was found between serum sHLA-G level and abdominal measurement (β=0.41, p<0.05) and estimated fetal weight (β=0.41, p<0.05). The amniotic sHLA-G level and placental perfusion (VI: β = -0.34, p<0.01 and VFI: β = -0.44, p<0.01, respectively) were negatively interrelated. A low amniotic sHLA-G level was significantly associated with nuchal translucency (r = -0.102, p<0.05). Conclusions: sHLA-G assayed in amniotic fluid might be a potential indicator for placental function, whereas the sHLA-G level in serum can be a prognostic modality for feto-placental insufficiency.

Histone demethylases, enzymes responsible for removing methyl groups from histone proteins, have emerged as critical players in regulating gene expression and chromatin dynamics, thereby influencing various cellular processes. LSD2 and LSD1 have attracted considerable interest among these demethylases because of their associations with cancer. However, while LSD1 has received significant attention, LSD2 has not been recognized to the same extent. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive comparison between LSD2 and LSD1, with a focus on exploring LSD2's implications. While both share structural similarities, LSD2 possesses unique features. Functionally, LSD2 shows diverse roles, particularly in cancer, with tissue-dependent roles. Additionally, LSD2 extends beyond histone demethylation, impacting DNA methylation and DNA damage repair pathways. This study underscores the distinct roles of LSD2, providing insights into their contributions to cancer and other cellular processes.

Philippines as an archipelago and tropical country, which is situated near the Pacific ocean, faces uncertain rainfall intensities. This makes environmental, agricultural and economic systems affected by precipitation difficult to manage. Time series analysis of Philippine rainfall pattern has been previously done, but there is no study investigating its probability distribution. Modeling the Philippine rainfall using probability distributions is essential, especially in managing risks and designing insurance products. Here, daily and cumulative rainfall data (January 1961 - August 2016) from 28 PAGASA weather stations are fitted to probability distributions. Moreover, the fitted distributions are examined for invariance under subsets of the rainfall data set. We observe that the Gamma distribution is a suitable fit for the daily up to the ten-day cumulative rainfall data. Our results can be used in agriculture, especially in forecasting claims in weather index-based insurance.

Background: Using the COM-B model as a framework, an EU-wide survey aimed to ascertain multidisciplinary healthcare workers’ (HCWs) knowledge, attitudes and behaviours on antibiotics, antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. The UK findings are presented. Methods: A 43-item questionnaire was developed through a two-round modified Delphi consensus process. The UK target quota was 1,315 respondents. Results: 2,404 participants responded. The highest proportion were nursing and midwifery professionals (42%), pharmacists (23%) and medical doctors (18%). HCWs correctly answered that antibiotics are not effective against viruses (97%), they have associated side effects (97%), unnecessary use makes antibiotics ineffective (97%) and healthy people can carry antibiotic resistant bacteria (90%). However, fewer than 80% correctly answered that using antibiotics increases a patient’s risk of antimicrobial resistant infection or that resistant bacteria can spread from person to person. Whilst the majority of HCWs (81%) agreed there is a connection between their antibiotic prescribing behaviour and the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, only 64% felt that they have a key role in controlling antibiotic resistance. The top three barriers to providing advice or resources were lack of resources (19%), insufficient time (11%) and the patient being uninterested in the information (7%). Approximately 35% of UK respondents who were prescribers prescribed an antibiotic at least once in the last week due to fear of patient deterioration or complications. Conclusion: These findings highlight that a multifaceted approach to tackling the barriers to prudent antibiotic use in the UK is required and provides evidence for guiding targeted policy, intervention development and future research. Education and training should focus on patient communication, information on spreading resistant bacteria and increased risk for individuals.

Reactions in water between the Cu2(µ-EGTA) chelate (EGTA = ethylene-bis(oxyethyleneimino)tetraacetate(4-) ion) and 2,6-diaminopurine (Hdap) in molar ratios 1:1 and 1:2 yield only blue crystals of the ternary compound [Cu4(μ-EGTA)2(μ-H(N3)dap)2(H2O)2]·7H2O (1) that has been studied by single crystal X-ray diffractometry, various physical methods (thermal stability, spectral and magnetic properties), as well as DFT theoretical calculations. In the crystal, uncoordinated water is disordered. The tetranuclear complex molecule also has some irrelevant disorder in an EGTA-ethylene moiety. In the complex molecule, both bridging organic molecules act as binucleating ligands. There are two distorted five- (type 4+1) and two six- (type 4+1+1) Cu(II) centres. Each half EGTA acts as a tripodal tetradentate Cu(II) chelator, with mer-NO2+O(ether, distal) conformation. Hdap exhibits the tautomer H(N3)dap, with the dissociable H-atom on its less basic N-heterocyclic atom. These features favour the efficient cooperation between Cu-N7 or Cu-N9 bonds with appropriate O-EGTA atoms, as N6-H···O or N3-H···O interligand interactions respectively. Bridging role of both organics determines the tetranuclear dimensionality of the complex in 1. In this crystal, such molecules associate in zig-zag chains, built by alternating ,-interactions between the five- or six-atom rings of Hdap ligands of adjacent molecules. DFT theoretical calculations (using two different theoretical models and characterized by the quantum theory of “atoms in molecules”) reveal the importance of these ,-interactions between Hdap ligands, as well as that corresponding to the referred hydrogen bonds in the contributed tetranuclear molecule.

Today, more than 70 million tons of lignin are produced by the pulp and paper industry every year. However, the utilization of lignin as a source for chemical synthesis is still limited due to the complex and heterogeneous lignin structure. The purpose of this study was a selective photodegradation of industrially available kraft lignin in order to obtain appropriate fragments and building block chemicals for further utilization, e.g. polymerization. Thus, kraft lignin obtained from soft wood black liquor by acidification was dissolved in sodium hydroxide and irradiated at a wavelength of 254 nm with and without the presence of titanium dioxide in various concentrations. Analyses of the irradiated products via SEC showed decreasing molar masses and decreasing polydispersity indices over time. At the end of the irradiation period the lignin was depolymerised to form fragments as small as the lignin monomers. TOC analyses showed minimal mineralisation due to the depolymerisation process.

In this study, a basic study was performed to analyze the seasonal temperature status of a research room in the Global Environment Research Building where ceiling-embedded indoor units are installed to study the room temperature status of the building as well as to improve its thermal environment. In addition, a direction for improvement of the indoor thermal environment in the winter was proposed through a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation and was proven by an additional experiment. Through the results of this study, it appeared that if the ceiling-embedded indoor unit was installed in the small indoor space without considering the thermal vulnerability of its perimeter boundary, the air temperature of the upper part was greatly different from that of the bottom part in the winter. Hence, in this study, as a means to improve it, convectors were installed to minimize the effect of the external thermal environment and angle-controllable air flowing fans were installed to mitigate the stratification distribution. With such result, it was intended to present the essential data for improvement of the thermal environment as well as conservation of heating energy in the winter for buildings by reviewing the use of the ceiling-embedded indoor unit in the future.

Infections contribute to carcinogenesis through inflammation-related mechanisms. It is well established that H. pylori infection is an etiological factor in gastric carcinogenesis. However, the mechanism through which H. pylori infection contributes to the development of gastric cancer has not been fully elucidated. H. pylori-associated chronic inflammation is linked to genomic instability via reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). In this article, we summarize the current knowledge of H. pylori-induced double strand breaks (DSBs). Further, we will provide mechanistic insight into how processing of oxidative DNA damage via base excision repair (BER) leads to double strand breaks (DSBs). We review the recent progress how H. pylori infection triggers NF-kB /iNOS versus NF-kB/nucleotide excision repair (NER) axis mediated DSBs to drive genomic instability. Taken together, this review discusses current findings related to DSBs and their implications for the mechanisms of DSB repair.

In this paper we obtain some inequalities of Hermite-Hadamard type for composite convex functions. Applications for AG, AH-h-convex functions, GA, GG, GH-h-convex functions and HA, HG, HH-h-convex function are given.

In this paper, a continuous power management for a decentralized DC microgrid (DCMG) is proposed to achieve voltage regulation and power balance even under system uncertainty and voltage sensor failure. The DCMG system achieves a continuous power management through only the primary controller to reduce the computational burden of each power agent. To enhance the reliability and resilience of the DCMG system under voltage sensor failure, a DC bus voltage (DCV) sensor fault detection algorithm is proposed. In this algorithm, the DCV sensor failure is detected by comparing the measured DCV with the estimated DCV. When the power agent identifies the DCV sensor failure, it changes the operation properly according to the proposed control mode decision algorithm to maintain the stability of the DCMG system. When uncertain conditions such as the power variation of the distributed generations, sudden grid disconnection, DCV sensor failure, electricity price change, and critical battery status occur, the DCMG system is changed to transitional operation modes. These transitional operation modes are employed to transmit the power agent information to other agents without digital communication links (DCLs) and to accomplish power sharing even under such uncertain conditions. In the transitional operation modes of the DCMG system, the DCV levels are temporarily shifted to an appropriate level, enabling each power agent to detect the uncertainty conditions, and subsequently to determine its operation modes based on the DCV levels. Simulation and experimental results under different test conditions confirm the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

The tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancer (CRC) is heterogenous; thus, it is likely that multiple immune-related and inflammatory markers are simultaneously expressed in the tumor. The aim of this study was to identify immune-related and inflammatory markers expressed in freshly frozen CRC tissues and to investigate whether they are related to the clinicopathological features and prognosis of CRC. Seventy patients with CRC who underwent curative surgical resection between December 2014 and January 2017 were included in this study. Tissue samples were obtained from tumor and non-tumor areas in the patients’ colons. The concentrations of immune-related markers (APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF, LAG-3, PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4) and inflammatory markers (CHIT, MMP-3, osteocalcin, pentraxin-3, sTNF-R1, and sTNF-R2) in the samples were measured using the Bio-plex Multiplex Immunoassay system. The concentrations of APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF, and MMP-3 in the samples were significantly high; thus, we conducted analyses based on the cutoff values for these three markers. The high APRIL/TNFSH13 expression group showed a significantly higher rate of metastatic lesions than the low expression group, whereas the high MMP-3 expression group had higher CEA levels, more lymph node metastases, and more advanced disease stages than the low expression group. The five-year disease-free survival of the high MMP-3 expression group was significantly shorter than that of the low expression group (65.1% vs. 90.2%, p=0.033). This study provides evidence that the APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF, and MMP-3 pathway is overexpressed CRC tissues and is associated with unfavorable clinicopathological features and poor prognosis in CRC patients. These markers could serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for CRC.

In this study, we evaluated the antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella Typhimurium in fried fish paste using floating electrode-dielectric barrier discharge (FE-DBD) plasma (1.1 kV, 43 kHz, N2 1.5 m/s, 1-60 min). In addition, quality evaluation (pH, VBN) of fried fish paste was conducted after FE-DBD plasma treatment. When FE-DBD plasma was treated for 1, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 min, S. aureus decreased by 0.16-1.13 log10 CFU/g, and S. Typhimurium decreased 0.25-1.13 log10 CFU/g. Both decreased &gt; log10 CFU/g at 60 min. The D-value was 58.92 and R2 was 0.97 for S. aureus using first-order kinetics, and the D-value was 43.60 and R2 was 0.97 for S. Typhimurium using the Weibull model. There was no significant difference in pH after FE-DBD plasma treatment (p &gt; 0.05). However, volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) significantly decreased as the treatment time increased (p &lt; 0.05), and it was the lowest at 60 min to 3.46. Therefore, FE-DBD plasma treatment could be considered as a technology for preserving the quality of processed foods.

Fine dust causes various disorders, including cardiovascular, neurological, renal, reproductive, motor, systemic, respiratory, and cancerous diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to study functional materials to prevent these problems. In this study we used various methods, including quantitative PCR, flow cytometry, ELISA, and Alizarin O staining, to study the beneficial effects of erucic acid against fine dust. Erucic acid and erucic acid-induced exosomes (EIE) strongly suppress the attenuation of osteocytic differentiation and inflammation induced by fine dust. Erucic acid effectively suppresses inflammation in fibroblasts exposed to fine dust. Notably, despite exposure to fine dust, EIE promoted osteocytic differentiation in adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) and osteogenesis in macrophages, in addition to phagocytosis. Dramatic upregulation of RunX2 and BMP7 by EIE indicates that it is a strong activator of osteocytic differentiation in ASC and protects them from the effects of fine dust. Moreover, EIE induces immune activity and acts as an osteogenic trigger for macrophages. Therefore, this study suggests the potential use of erucic acid and erucic acid-induced exosomes (EIE) as biomaterials to prevent environment-borne diseases.

In this study, the degradable superhydrophobic Mg/P/Z/F/H (magnesi-um/poly(-caprolactone)/zinc oxide/1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PFDTES)/ heating process) composite materials were prepared through one-step method for enhancing the corrosion resistance of AZ91D magnesium alloys. Electrochemical measurements showed that Mg/P/Z/F/H materials significantly improved the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys in 3.5 wt.% NaCl. The self-cleaning, adhesion and stability tests suggested that Mg/P/Z/F/H composite materials had well self-cleaning properties, good adhesion strength and stability in wet atmosphere.

Diabetes and diabetes-induced micro and macrovascular complications are major causes of healthcare problems. The extracellular vesicles are produced by all cells from all organisms. They are shown to have properties of the producer cells and also reflect the host physiology and pathology. Since the EVs represent the cellular state they are excellent biomarkers. In this review, we will focus on the EVs produced by the Neuro Vascular Unit cells of the eye as well as the extraocular cells in the onset and progression of diabetic retinopathy. A brief account of the use of these nanovesicles in personalised medicine is also given.

The aim of this study was to analyze whether the respiratory variation in ECG standard lead II R-wave amplitude (ΔRDII) could be used to assess intravascular volume status following inferior vena cava (IVC) clamping. This clamping causes an acute decrease in cardiac output during liver transplantation (LT). We retrospectively compared ΔRDII and related variables before and after IVC clamping in 34 recipients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were used to derive a cutoff value of ΔRDII for predicting pulse pressure variation (PPV). After IVC clamping, cardiac output significantly decreased while ΔRDII significantly increased (P = 0.002). The cutoff value of ΔRDII for predicting a PPV >13% was 16.9% (AUC: 0.685) with a sensitivity of 57.9% and specificity of 77.6% (95% confidence interval 0.561 – 0.793, P = 0.015). Frequency analysis of ECG also significantly increased in the respiratory frequency band (P = 0.016). Although significant changes in ΔRDII during vena cava clamping were found at norepinephrine doses < 0.1 μg/kg/min (P = 0.014), such changes were not significant at norepinephrine doses > 0.1 μg/kg/minP = 0.093). ΔRDII could be a noninvasive dynamic parameter in LT recipients presenting with hemodynamic fluctuation. Based on our data, we recommended cautious interpretation of ΔRDII may be requisite according to vasopressor administration status.

The antiradical and antimicrobial activity of lignin and lignin-based films are both of great interest for applications such as food packaging additives. The polyphenol structure of lignin in addition to the presence of O-containing functional groups is potentially responsible for these activities. This study used DPPH assays to discuss the antiradical activity of HPMC/lignin and HPMC/lignin/chitosan films. The scavenging activity (SA) of both binary (HPMC/lignin) and ternary (HPMC/lignin/chitosan) systems was affected by the percentage of the added lignin: the 5% addition showed the highest activity and the 30% addition had the lowest. Both, scavenging activity and antimicrobial activity are depending on the biomass source showing the following trend: organosolv of softwood > Kraft of softwood > organosolv of grass. Testing the antimicrobial activities of lignins and lignin-containing films showed high antimicrobial activities against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria at 35 °C and at low temperatures (0-7 °C). Purification of kraft lignin has a negative effect on the antimicrobial activity while storage has positive effect. The lignin release in the produced films affected the activity positively and the chitosan addition enhances the activity even more for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Testing the films against spoilage bacteria that grow at low temperatures revealed the activity of the 30% addition on HPMC/L1 film against both B. thermosphacta and P. fluorescens while L5 was active only against B. thermosphacta. In HPMC/lignin/chitosan films the 5% addition exhibited activity against both B. thermosphacta and P. fluorescens.

In contemporary society, organizations increasingly prioritize ESG (Environment, So-cial, Governance) management to generate social value alongside profit-seeking. This commit-ment to social responsibility plays a positive role for organizational members, contributing to overall organizational growth This study explores the impact of perceptions of ESG management within public sports organizations on organizational civic behavior and proposes strategies for improving management and attachment, with the goal of fostering a more sustainable and so-cially responsible organizational culture. A survey involving 343 employees from govern-ment-affiliated public sports organizations in South Korea was conducted. Structural equation modeling, coupled with dual mediation analysis, unveiled that the perceived performance of ESG management significantly relies on both social value orientation and organizational identifica-tion to drive organizational civic behavior, confirming complete mediation effects. These findings underscore ESG management's ability to foster social value orientation and organizational iden-tification, thereby bolstering organizational civic behavior and significantly shaping the culture and conduct of public sports organizations. This research offers valuable insights for upholding organizational social responsibility and ensuring sustainable development within such organi-zations.

Androgenetic alopecia is a genetic disorder caused by an excessive response to androgens. This alopecia is the most common cause of progressive hair loss in men and causes low self-esteem in patients. In this study we used various methods, including quantitative PCR, flow cytometry, ELISA, and immunocytochemistry, to evaluate the biological effects of germinated hemp seeds extract and exosomes derived from calli of germinated hemp seeds. This research reveals pre-ventive functions of two biomaterials (GE2000: 2000 ug/mL germinated hemp seeds extract; E40: 40 ng/mL exosomes derived from calli of germinated hemp seeds) for androgenetic alopecia through three biochemical categories: genetic modulation in hair follicle dermal papilla stem cells (HFDPSCs), cellular differentiation, and modulation of immune systems. Despite exposure to dihydrotestosterone (DT), two materials upregulated alopecia preventing genes including Wnt, β-catenin, and TCF in HFDPSCs. Conversely, alopecia activating genes (STAT1, 5α-reductase type 1, and IL-15R) were suppressed. Moreover, two materials suppressed alopecia genes (NKG2DL, IL2-Rβ, JAK1, and STAT1) in CD8+ T cells. Notably, E40 was effected more in-tensely in these biochemical categories than those of GE2000. Consequently, E40 and GE2000 ef-fectively prevented DT stress. Additionally, two materials activated mechanisms for hair for-mation through the biological activities of three categories.

Resection of malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area causes functional and morphological defects. To recover from these defects, reconstruction surgery is needed such as a primary closure or a flap. There are advantages and disadvantages to the method of using the primary closure and the flap, and the choice of procedure is entirely up to a surgeon. The purpose of this study is to evaluate availability of primary closure in patients. For 10 years from January 2010 to May 2020, patients who recovered using flaps after removing malignant lesions from the oral cavity and those who closed the lesion using primary closure were investigated. The investigation was conducted by searching the database of the hospital. There were 85 patients who removed malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area, and among them 16 patients closed the soft tissue defects using primary closure. Operation time, histologic types, stages, wound status, and period of hospitalization according to the patients' medical records were investigated retrospectively. Between the staging and the primary closure, statistically significant differences were observed between stage I and stage II patients in 13 patients using the primary closure. (P=0.046). Statistically significant differences were identified between operation time and primary closure, with an average of 4.02 hours (P=0.015). The average period of hospitality for patients who underwent primary closure was 13.4 days, compared to 26.7 days for those who underwent flap surgery. This difference was statistically significant (P=0.0003). This study evaluated the use of primary closure in patients who underwent resection of malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area. Although the majority of patients underwent reconstruction with flaps, our results showed that primary closure can be a viable option for certain patients with early-stage lesions. Therefore, oral and maxillofacial surgeons should carefully consider various evaluation criteria and select appropriate reconstruction methods to optimize functional and aesthetic outcomes for each patient.

Modern Monte-Carlo-based rendering systems still suffer from the computational complexity involved in the generation of noise-free images, making it challenging to synthesize interactive previews. We present a framework suited for rendering such previews of static scenes using a caching technique that builds upon a linkless octree. Our approach allows for memory-efficient storage and constant-time lookup to cache diffuse illumination at multiple hitpoints along the traced paths. Non-diffuse surfaces are dealt with in a hybrid way in order to reconstruct view-dependent illumination while maintaining interactive frame rates. By evaluating the visual fidelity against ground truth sequences and by benchmarking, we show that our approach compares well to low-noise path traced results, but with a greatly reduced computational complexity allowing for interactive frame rates. This way, our caching technique provides a useful tool for global illumination previews and multi-view rendering.

The focus of our study was the changes in the composition of semi-natural dry grasslands in Hungary. Since these valuable habitats were created with the help of humans, their preservation also requires regular treatment. Our mowing experiment aimed to investigate the suppression of the native Calamagrostis epigejos L. Roth. In Hungary, in the Cserhát Mountains, eight permanent plots were mowed twice a year. The vegetation was sampled annually between 2001 and 2011. The effects of mowing were investigated with repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). After 10 years, the C. epigejos cover of the mowed plots decreased significantly, from the initial average of 62.38 to 7.50%. Surprisingly, we also experienced a similar decrease in the control plots. Regular treatment also had a positive effect on the number of species and diversity. Species richness increased continuously in both treatment types, which indicates the combined effect of vegetation succession and treatment. The biomass growth of other Poaceae and Fabaceae species, which are important from a grassland management perspective, was also facilitated by mowing. Our results suggest that long-term in situ experiments and continuous botanical studies are needed to establish a reliable utilization of grasslands.

This paper addresses a mode-dependent state-feedback H∞ control for descriptor hybrid systems, considering both the absence and presence of actuator saturation. Firstly, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the stochastic admissibility criterion with H∞ performance ? of the closed-loop system is proposed. Given the proposed non-convex condition, the author reformulates it into linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Then, to extend the result to the systems with actuator saturation, the actuator saturated control input is expressed as a linear combination of given state-feedback control input and a virtual control input that remains under the saturation level. To verify this expression, the set invariant condition is also suggested by using the singular mode-dependent Lyapunov function candidate. Therefore, the LMI conditions for the existence of the mode-dependent state-feedback H∞ control and the ellipsoidal shape of invariant set are successfully derived. Two numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in optimizing H∞ performance $\gamma$ and identifying the largest invariant set.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the mean transitioning probabilities from a Healthy state to malaria positive uncomplicated state or to malaria positive severe state. It also classifies the various transitioning probabilities of moving through the various states based on some baseline characteristics. Malaria test results for 2019 over a 12-month period were collected from the University of Ghana school clinic. An H-U model for the study was developed and the transition rates from the cross-sectional data are indicated. With two states Healthy (H) and Uncomplicated (U) forming a state space, there were four possible transitions. The results show that the probability of transitioning from a Healthy state to a malaria positive state is 0.03% while the probability that an individual will remain at Healthy state (H) after the test is 99.73%. It was found that if an individual is already positive and has taken medication the probability that its second test came out negative is 6.45% while the chances that it will remain positive but uncomplicated is 93.55%. The study also showed that in the long run, about 95.98% of persons who visited the student clinic with malaria symptoms recorded negative tests for malaria parasite while about 4% recorded positive for malaria. In terms of disaggregation by gender, it was realized that the number of reported negative test results were higher for females (97.08%) than for males (96.13%). However, the infection rate is higher for males (3.87%) than females (2.92%). It is recommended that in as much as the University of Ghana has two health centers (a clinic and hospital), there should be a centralized system to track students’ health so research done would not be biased.

In this paper, modelling designing and simulation of a Ward Leonard layout system is done using robust control theory. In order to increase the performance of the Ward Leonard layout system with H infinity optimal control synthesis and H infinity optimal control synthesis via gamma-iteration controllers are used. The open loop response of the Ward Leonard layout system shows that the system needs to be improved. Comparison of the Ward Leonard layout system with H∞ optimal control synthesis and H infinity optimal control synthesis via gamma-iteration controllers to track a desired step speed input have been done. Finally, the comparative simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed Ward Leonard layout system with H infinity optimal control synthesis controller in improving the percentage overshoot and the settling time.

Papain-like lysosomal cysteine proteases include 11 human cysteine cathepsins which act as endopeptidases and/or exopeptidases. They are involved in numerous physiological and pathological processes. Among them, only cathepsins B, H, C, and X/Z exhibit exopeptidase activity. Their activities are tightly regulated in various ways to prevent potentially hazardous effects on the cell. In this review, we focus on the structural and functional aspects of these four cysteine cathepsins and their role in neurodegeneration and cancer. Neurodegenerative disorders of aging share an endolysosomal dysfunction and accumulation and spread of oligomeric forms of neurotoxic proteins. The accumulation of various protein aggregates activates the microglia, thus inducing the activation and release of cysteine cathepsins and proinflammatory cytokines, leading to neurodegeneration. In cancer, cysteine cathepsins participate in tumor progression and metastasis. Tumor–stromal crosstalk leads to activation of the stroma and overexpression and secretion of proteolytic enzymes, triggering extracellular matrix degradation and the release of soluble factors. Activated stromal cells (i.e., macrophages, fibroblasts, mast cells) secrete additional growth factors, cytokines, and chemokines that are responsible for the regulation of processes leading to tumor progression and metastasis. Therefore, a better understanding of the role of cysteine cathepsins in neurodegeneration and cancer could lead to novel targeted therapeutic approaches.

In this paper, the design and control of a hydraulic system based tire changer machine have been analyzed and simulated using Matlab/Simulink Toolbox successfully. The machine have a displacement input which is a leg pedal displacement in order to push the piston of the pump to fed the motor with a pressured hydraulic fluid to rotate the tire with an angular speed to mount and dismount it. Augmentation based H_∞ and H₂ optimal synthesis controllers have been used to improve the performance of the machine. Comparison of the proposed controllers for tracking a reference input speed have been done using two reference inputs (step and random) signals. Finally the comparative simulation results proved the effectiveness of the proposed tire changer with H synthesis controller in improving the settling time and percentage overshoot.

In this paper, we investigate the recently introduced degenerate Bernstein polynomials and operators and derive some of their properties. Also, we give some properties of the degenerate Euler numbers and polynomials and their connection with the degenerate Euler polynomials.

Many corporations have now revised their value statements to showcase their commitment to sustainable development and green business due to the pressing issues of climate and environmental damage. Despite the importance of value statements that can direct companies to achieve sustainable goals, what kind of values can be perceived as organizational orientations to sustainability remains unknown. This study explores how the general public views the inclusion of sustainable components in value statements from the listed companies in Hong Kong by using Q-sort methodology (n = 30). Analyzing the final sample of 40 value statements extracted from 27 listed companies, we identified three factors related to sustainability, namely, Empowering business process management, Empowering customer-centric excellence, and Empowering sustainable progress. This study provides an additional component to the traditional triple bottom line by suggesting that internal operation of a company is an emerging idea to understand corporate sustainability.

One of the most crucial elements in deeply understanding humans on a psychological level is manifested through facial expressions. The analysis of a human behavior can be informed by their facial expressions, making it essential to employ indicators such as expression (Expr), valence-arousal (VA), and action units (AU). In this paper, we introduce the method proposed in the Challenge of the 6th Workshop and Competition on Affective Behavior Analysis in-the-wild (ABAW) at CVPR 2024. Our proposed method utilizes the multi-modal Aff-wild2 dataset, which is splitted into spatial and audio modalities. For the spatial data, we extract features using a SimMiM model that was pre-trained on a diverse set of facial expression data. For the audio data, we extract features using a WAV2VEC model. To fusion the extracted spatial and audio features, we employed the cascaded cross-attention mechanism of a transformer.