Fabric material was coated with Viruferrin™ and tested for its inactivating properties against the pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza A viruses. A statistically significant (p<0.0001) decrease in the number of infectious virus particles exposed to Viruferrin-treated fabric when compared with the cotton control for both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viruses was observed. For both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A, Viruferrin-treated fabrics experienced a > 99% virus reduction without saliva after five minutes of contact when compared to the positive control at time point 0. Furthermore, the reusability of the Viruferrin treated fabric was demonstrated by stability for up to 10 washes. The level of anti-viral (SARS-CoV-2) activity remained constant from 5 to 10 washes and demonstrated a significant difference (p<0.0001) from the unwashed untreated material. Applications for this treated fabric are far-reaching, and as a biological face covering offers not only a unique 2-way protection but also is unlikely to cause onward touch transmission.

The expansion of Open World Video Games (OWVGs) has seen the emergence of multiple new fictional worlds. This type of video game is characterized by total immersion in a world built for the players entertainment. What videogames developers want when players enter an OWVG is that they could feel like if they were open a door to an entirely new world and leave the real world behind. These virtual worlds manifest as a complement, an alternative, or the successor to the physical universe, and in some way continue the philosophical tradition of possible worlds begun by Leibniz. Accustomed to ‘surviving’ in hostile environments, millions of people continued to improve their skills in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while locked in their homes. Once the pandemic seems to start to be left behind, the paper analyzes the virtual worlds created by the video games and the relations between the pandemic and these fictional worlds.

Vitamin D has important anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial properties and plays a central role in host immune response. Due to the crucial role of the kidneys in the metabolism of vitamin D, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), are prone to vitamin D deficiency. The resultant reduction in the production of calcitriol, the activated form of vitamin D in patients with CKD is responsible for exacerbating the existing renal impairment and periodontal inflammation. Recent evidence suggests a bidirectional, causal relationship between periodontitis and renal functional status. Both conditions have shared pathophysiologic mechanisms including oxidative stress, increases in the systemic inflammatory burden and impaired host response. This review explores the association between vitamin D, CKD and periodontitis. The review summarises the current evidence base for the classical and non-classical vitamin D metabolic pathways, the biological mechanisms linking vitamin D deficiency, CKD and periodontitis, as well as the bidirectional relationship between the two chronic inflammatory conditions. Finally, the paper explores the impact of vitamin D deficiency on CKD, periodontitis, and related co-morbidities.

Reliable methods to confirm the diagnosis of COVID-19 are essential to the successful management and containment of the virus. Current diagnostic options are limited in type, supply, and reliability. This article explores the controversial unreliability of existing diagnostic methods and maintains that more reliable diagnostic methods, combinations, and sequencing are necessary to effectively assist in reducing the occurrence of discharge of the patient on false negative test results. This reduction would in effect reduce transmission of the disease.

Children’s right to participation in child protection decision-making is supported by moral imperatives and international conventions. The fragmented implementation of this right reflects an already-conflicted discursive terrain that attempts to incorporate both children’s agency and their need for protection. This article uses two key theoretical lenses to further examine this terrain: child welfare inequalities and cultural capital. These theories draw attention to how social inequities and cultural capital relating to culture and class affect how participation plays out. An unintended consequence of constructing children within a traditional liberal account of rights, within neoliberal and ‘child focussed’ policy paradigms, is the reduction of an acknowledgment of the culturally contested nature of an individualistic construction of children, excising children from their social backgrounds and promoting the notion of a ‘universal child’. With a particular focus on class, culture and professional paradigms, I argue that the ways children’s views are elicited, the content of those views and how they are interpreted, become subject to a set of professional assumptions that tend to take little cognisance of the social backround of children, including norms relating to class, ethinicity and the oppressive structural relations relating to those two factors. This process is shored up with concepts such as attachment theory, the ‘adultification’ of children of colour, the diminishing of Indigenous concepts of children and childhood, and the pre-eminence of the ‘concerted cultivation’ middle class parenting style. The child’s cultural worldview and manner of expressing it may clash with professional cultures that emphasise an ability for verbal expression, independence, and entitlement when negotiating preferences with representatives of powerful social institutions such as child protection systems. Many children may not comply with this expectation due to both cultural and class socialisation processes, and the histories of the oppressive functions of child protection systems. The unspoken power of child protection organisations that must engage in constant translation of children’s cultural capital to ensure participation, may instead better serve children’s participation aims by devolving authority to affected communities. Communities reflecting children’s own, may be better able to offer recognition to children and enable their participation more effectively.

What would compel a composer to set the same poem twice? Ludwig van Beethoven first set the text of Christoph Tiedge’s “An Die Hoffnung” (to Hope) between 1804 and 1805, and would later set the poem again, using even more of the text in 1815. While seeking context clues from what is known of his biography is crucial, another avenue of study lies within the pieces themselves. Through the study of key characteristics during Beethoven’s lifetime in addition to what biographical information we know, we can infer Beethoven’s intentions with each setting of the text and how this reflects his changing relationship to the text of “An Die Hoffnung”.

Emily Howard Jennings Stowe is acclaimed as Canada’s first female school principal, physician to practice medicine, and a founding Canadian suffragette. Yet, relatively little has been investi-gated regarding the life-changing events permitting her to pioneer in these chosen fields. To reveal relationships among the life-changing events in Emily Stowe’s life, a unique narrative research process is engaged to take Stowe’s story and develop it into a particular point of view based on responses to questions posed regarding her life, ranging from those most objective and specific to those that are subjective and more general. This is accomplished by following a prescribed order of question-asking: when, where, who, what, how, and why. The aim is to facilitate a comparison and interpretation of the connections regarding twenty-two of her life-changing events. Four dis-tinct aspects of her life are noted: personal, teacher, physician, and suffragette. It is found that much of Stowe’s success originated from her family’s Establishment connections, her studious intellectual ability, and her decision to obtain her medical education in the United States. There were notable periods in her life that might have ended her career. However, the aforementioned protective features of her status permitted the successful withstanding of these difficulties.

Smart manufacturing encompasses a category of manufacturing that employs computer-integrated capabilities and technologies to enhance supply chain optimization, production efficiency, and recyclability. Yet limited studies have been conducted to optimize these prospects from the perspective of low resource countries where such innovative studies have not been adequately explored. This paper aims to examine the implications of smart manufacturing practices (Smart Procurement, Smart Supply Chain, Smart Production Planning and Control, Automation and Industrial Robot, and Supply Chain Configuration) on pro-environmental behaviour and develop a baseline moderated mediation model to explain the relationship between smart manufacturing and pro-environmental behaviour with a role of green dynamic capability, and environmental orientation. This study is anchored on quantitative research approach, deductive reasoning, and explanatory design. Cross – sectional survey data have been obtained from 382 manufacturing companies in Ghana. Our hypotheses have been tested using Structural Equation Modelling and SMART-PLS version 3.8.9. The study has revealed that smart manufacturing practices significantly and positively relate to pro-environmental behaviour. Moreover, green dynamic capability and environmental orientation moderate the relationship between smart manufacturing and pro-environmental behaviour. The implications of the study include the emergence of a baseline model to guide policymakers, practitioners, and academicians to explain the relationship between smart manufacturing and sustainable manufacturing in the context of developing countries. Again, the social implication of the study includes the realisation of decent job and economic growth, responsible consumption and production as well as actions taken to combat climate change.

Aaron Copland’s only full-length opera, The Tender Land has had a difficult production history. Critics of the 1954 New York City Opera Premiere bemoaned the atypical storyline, the music declared too dry, and the singing too sparse. The opera’s failure to dazzle initial audiences is likely because it was originally written for television. Copland was commissioned to write this opera for television in 1952, but was rejected by NBC in 1953, with no official explanation given as to why. The New York City Opera premiere, therefore, was not an accurate representation of Aaron Copland's vision. The opera eventually did find receptive audiences, each success marked by a smaller, more intimate venue, not unlike the intimacy afforded on a sound stage. Perhaps most notable of these was the touring 1993 University of Minnesota production that performed in barns and farmhouses throughout the Midwest. Through this tour, the opera reached a rural community mirrored in the story, providing much more opportunity for the audience to connect to the characters. However, the question remains what caused NBC to initially reject the opera. This paper exposes the likely political obstacles that prevented Copland’s opera from premiering in its intended medium, and the subsequent consequences of displacing The Tender Land from its television premiere.

Background: Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is characterized by inflamed lesions that appear in apocrine rich flexural areas. Although studies have reported clinical and epidemiological data from western countries, data from the Middle East are scarce. The aim of this study is to characterize the differences in the clinical characteristics of patients with HS of Arab and Jewish ancestry and to review the clinical characteristics, the course of the disease, the comorbidities and the response to treatment. Methods: This is a retrospective study. We collected clinical and demographic data from patient files at the Rambam Healthcare Campus dermatology clinic – a tertiary hospital located at the north of Israel. between 2015-2018. Our results were compared to those of a previously published Israeli control group registered in clalit health services. Results: Of the 164 patients with HS, 96 (58.5%) were men and 68 (41.5%) were women. The average age at diagnosis was 27.5 years and the latency between the onset and diagnosis of the disease was 4 years. we found a higher adjusted prevalence of HS in Arab patients (56%) than in their Jewish counterparts (44%). Gender, smoking and obesity, as well as axilla and buttock lesions, were risk factors for severe HS, with no differences between ethnicities. No differences were documented in comorbidities and in response to Adalimumab, with a high overall response rate of 83%. Conclusions: Our findings revealed differences between Arab and Jewish patients with HS in terms of incidence and gender predominance, while no differences were documented in comorbidities and response to Adalimumab.

A critical discussion on the computation of the dispersion diagram in periodic one-dimensional guiding structures is carried out. In particular, an analysis is presented of the pros and cons of combined methods that make use of full-wave simulations done with commercial software packages with further analytical post-processing based on simplifications brought by an equivalent circuit model of the structure. Some of the most common methods reported in the literature are reviewed and their advantanges and limitations highlighted. Our discussion is complemented with several selected numerical examples in order to discuss the most relevant aspects that a potential user of these methods should be aware of. Special attention is paid to the relevant role played by the high-order coupling between the two halves of a symmetric unit cell of the periodic structure.

With rising rates of human obesity, the study aimed to determine the relationship between maternal diet-induced obesity and offspring morphometrics and behaviour in mice. Pregnant and lactating female mice fed a diet high in fat and sugar (HFHS) commonly consumed by human populations showed decreased food, calorie, and protein intake but increased adiposity at the expense of lean mass. The pre-weaning body weight of HFHS offspring was reduced for the first postnatal week but not thereafter with HFHS female offspring having higher body weights by weaning, due to continuing higher fractional growth rates. Post-weaning, there were minor differences in offspring food and protein intake. Maternal diet, however, affected fractional growth rate and total body fat content of male but not female HFHS offspring. Maternal diet did not affect offspring locomotor activity or social behaviour in either sex. Both male and female HFHS offspring displayed reduced anxiety-related behaviours with sex differences in particular aspects of the elevated plus maze task. In the novel object recognition task, performance was impaired in male but not female HFHS offspring. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that maternal obesity alters the growth, adiposity, and behaviour of male and female offspring, with sex-specific differences.

Creating intelligent systems capable of recognizing emotions is a difficult task, especially when looking at emotions in animals. This paper describes the process of designing a “proof of concept” system to recognize emotions in horses. This system is formed by two elements, a detector and a model. The detector is a fast region-based convolutional neural network that detects horses in an image. The model is a convolutional neural network that predicts the emotions of those horses. These two elements were trained with multiple images of horses until they achieved high accuracy in their tasks. 400 images of horses were collected and labeled to train both the detector and the model while 80 were used to validate the system. Once the two components were validated, they were combined into a testable system that would detect equine emotions based on established behavioral ethograms indicating emotional affect through head, neck, ear, muzzle and eye position. The system showed an accuracy of between 69% and 74% on the validation set, demonstrating that it is possible to predict emotions in animals using autonomous intelligent systems. Such a system has multiple applications including further studies in the growing field of animal emotions as well as in the veterinary field to determine the physical welfare of horses or other livestock.

After the end of colonial rule in 1997, the Hong Kong education system has been experiencing a policy reform on Senior Secondary Education (NSS) Curriculum commenced in September 2009 aiming to educate students as globalized Hong Kong citizens for the Western. Although previous scholars argued that it is hard to differentiate between domestic values and the Western values in account of curriculum development (Sewpaul, 2007), this study demonstrates an analysis using the dichotomy to investigate how local curriculum, especially in the post-colonial areas, embrace both the Western values and domestic values. Using content analysis on the NSS curriculum guides, this article evaluates the influence of the Western values and Chinese values in the NSS curriculum through investigating: (1) how the Western values and Chinese values was incorporated into the curriculum throughout its development (2) why some values are more significantly highlighted in the curriculum guide. Findings include that more Chinese values are involved in the curriculum documents. This may be because of the upholding of domestic values as a post-colonial city. The Western values which are academically related are greatly incorporated into the local curriculum.

The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has raised concerns surrounding immunological protection against the virus, particularly for people with inborn errors of immunity (IEI). While COVID-19 vaccination induces robust antibody, memory B-cell, and T-cell responses in healthy individuals, how well vaccination protects people with IEI against infection and severe disease remains unclear – especially in the context of new viral variants and vaccine formulations – leading to anxiety, ongoing self-isolation, and repeated vaccination with limited evidence of increased efficacy. Whilst most people with IEI generate some level of cellular and/or humoral immunity to COVID-19 vaccination, the level of protection and durability of the response are unclear. Alongside vaccination, antibody-based therapeutics are aimed at limiting infection and severe disease in this cohort. Immunoglobulin replacement therapy (IgRT) provides passive immunity in antibody-deficient individuals. However, to successfully prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, a sufficient number of neutralizing antibodies must be present in product. While antibodies against circulating variants are eventually present in IgRT products (both from natural infection and vaccination of the donors), evidence of their capacity to recognize new variants is limited. Furthermore, while antibody-based pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis can be effective, they are susceptible to decreased efficacy in the context of variant evolution. This review provides an in-depth overview of current knowledge about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy in IEIs, the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody products, and knowledge and technological advances required for continued protection of people with IEI.

Opera and oratorio overtures exist in an indeterminate state between purely symphonic and dramatic music. While they can be and often are extracted for symphonic programs, they are ultimately tied to the story to which they grant the audience a preview of the story and music yet to come. Those that are easily extracted are so independent due to their structure, one well known to the symphony: the sonata form. In studying overtures from the 19^th century, however, one can trace a decline of the sonata form overture for one that is more subservient to the dramatic story soon to follow it. In this paper, three representatives of the early, mid and late period of the highlight this steady shift away from sonata form. Using Hepokoski and Darcy’s Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata, I will categorize these overtures into one of the five sonata types listed therein. The increasing number of deformations as one moves through the overtures chronologically will illustrate the deliberate decline of use of the sonata form for the overture in favor of a clearer reflection of the upcoming story.

Rhodovulum spp. are anoxygenic photosynthetic purple bacteria with versatile metabolisms, including the ability to obtain electrons from minerals in their environment to drive photosynthesis, a relatively novel process called phototrophic extracellular electron uptake (pEEU). Recently, our group isolated 15 strains of R. sulfidophilum to observe this metabolism in marine phototrophs. Our group previously observed carbon dioxide fixation coupled to phototrophic iron oxidation (photoferrotrophy) and pEEU in AB26 and identified a novel di-heme c¬-type cytochrome EeuP important for pEEU but not photoferrotrophy. Taxonomic re-evaluation based on 16S and pufM phylogenetic analyses led us to re-classify two isolates, AB26 and AB19, as Rhodovulum visakhapatnamense. The AB26 genome consists of 4,380,746 base-pairs, including two plasmids, and encodes 4,296 predicted protein-coding genes. AB26 contains 22 histidine kinases, 20 response regulators, and dedicates ~16% of its genome to transport. Transcriptomic data under aerobic, photoheterotrophy, photoautotrophy, and pEEU reveals how gene expression varies between metabolisms. Lastly, we use transcriptomic data for a comparative genomic analysis of potential pEEU-relevant genes between all 15 isolates. With these data we identify potential pEEU capable phototrophs within these isolates, and likely molecular mechanisms of pEEU.

This study delves into the dynamics of relational energy (RE) within organizational context, examining some of its antecedents and decedents. Specifically, it investigates the influence of psychological capital (PsyCap) and humor on RE, and subsequently, the latter’s impact on job performance (JB) mediated by job engagement (JE). A research model based on structural equation modelling carried out with 481 employees in private service industries demonstrates several key relationships. It reveals that both PsyCap and affiliative humor positively affect RE, while aggressive humor exerts a negative influence. Furthermore, RE shows positive association with JE and JP, with JE serving as a mediator. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to present an integrated model encompassing this exact combination of influencers and consequences of RE as well as to be investigated within Western Balkans cultural context. Therefore, it represents a novel approach. Additionally, the research addresses crucial questions regarding the existence and strategic significance of RE within organizational interactions. The findings offer valuable insights for organizations seeking to enhance employee engagement, performance, and wellbeing – even during health crises such as COVID-19 – by fostering RE. The study advances the understanding of RE in organizational settings and provides a foundation for future research in this domain.

Evolutionary convergence provides natural opportunities to investigate how, when, and why novel traits evolve. Many convergent traits are complex, highlighting the importance of explicitly considering convergence at different levels of biological organization, or ‘multi‐level convergent evolution’. To investigate multi‐level convergent evolution, we propose a holistic and hierarchical framework that emphasizes breaking down traits into several functional modules. We begin by identifying long‐standing questions on the origins of complexity and the diverse evolutionary processes underlying phenotypic convergence to discuss how they can be addressed by examining convergent systems. We argue that bioluminescence, a complex trait that evolved dozens of times through either novel mechanisms or conserved toolkits, is particularly well suited for these studies. We present an updated estimate of at least 94 independent origins of bioluminescence across the tree of life, which we calculated by reviewing and summarizing all estimates of independent origins. Then, we use our framework to review the biology, chemistry, and evolution of bioluminescence, and for each biological level identify questions that arise from our systematic review. We focus on luminous organisms that use the shared luciferin substrates coelenterazine or vargulin to produce light because these organisms convergently evolved bioluminescent proteins that use the same luciferins to produce bioluminescence. Evolutionary convergence does not necessarily extend across biological levels, as exemplified by cases of conservation and disparity in biological functions, organs, cells, and molecules associated with bioluminescence systems. Investigating differences across bioluminescent organisms will address fundamental questions on predictability and contingency in convergent evolution. Lastly, we highlight unexplored areas of bioluminescence research and advances in sequencing and chemical techniques useful for developing bioluminescence as a model system for studying multi‐level convergent evolution.

Around the World, the number of compound databases of natural products in the public domain is rising. This is in line with the increasing synergistic combination of natural product research and chemoinformatics. Towards this global endeavor, countries in Latin America are assembling, curating, and analyzing the contents and diversity of natural products available in their geographical regions. In this manuscript we collect and analyze the efforts that countries in Latin America have made so far to build natural product databases. We further encourage the scientific community in particular in Latin America, to continue their efforts to building quality natural product databases and, whenever possible, to make them publicly accessible. It is proposed that all compound collections could be assembled into a unified resource called LANaPD: Latin America Natural Products Database. Opportunities and challenges to build, distribute, and maintain LANaPD are also discussed

Natural products (NPs) are a rich source of structurally novel molecules, and the chemical space they encompass is far from being fully explored. Over history, NPs have represented a significant source of bioactive molecules and have served as a source of inspiration for developing many drugs on the market. On the other hand, computer-aided drug design (CADD) has contributed to drug discovery research, mitigating costs and time. In this sense, compound databases represent a fundamental element for the CADD. This work reviews the progress toward developing compound databases of natural origin, particularly databases developed in Latin America, and their practical applications in the drug discovery area. We also survey the computational methods, emphasizing chemoinformatic approaches to profile natural product databases.

Given the increased provision of international exchange programmes in higher education, this paper examines students’ perceptions of their learning process in one Erasmus+ programme in Food Innovation and Product Design. Using evaluation model of international exchange programme and triple helix model as the analytical framework, students’ testimonials from 2015–2021 were analysed using a critical discourse analysis. EU and non-EU students had similar perceptions of learning outcomes related to knowledge of the food innovation industry, but non-EU students had a stronger sense of awareness of both the international context and multicultural interaction.

Heartland virus (HRTV) is an emerging tick-borne bandavirus that is capable of causing severe disease characterized by acute thrombocytopenia and lymphopenia. The virus is endemic to the eastern United States, and is carried by the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum). Since its discovery in 2009, at least 60 human infections have been recorded across this area, with an overall 5-10\% estimated mortality rate. All infections reported thus far have occurred following a known tick bite or exposure to tick-infested areas, but the possibility of nosocomial transmission has not been ruled out. Despite relatively high rates of seroprevalence among certain wildlife species such as white-tailed deer, the reservoir species for HRTV remains unknown, as the virus has never been isolated from any mammalian wildlife species. Furthermore, how the virus is transmitted to its vector species in nature remains unknown, though laboratory studies have confirmed both horizontal and vertical transmission of HRTV in A. americanum. In addition, the recent 2017 introduction of the Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) to the US has raised concerns about possible spillover of HRTV into a new tick species that has been confirmed to be a competent vector for HRTV in the laboratory. Thus, an increased awareness of its clinical presentation is needed, and further research is urgently required to establish the natural transmission cycle and develop new countermeasures for this novel zoonotic pathogen

This paper advances privacy theory through examination of online shaming, focusing in particular on persecution by internet mobs. While shaming is nothing new, the technology used for modern shaming is new and evolving, making it a revealing lens through which to analyze points of analytical friction within and between traditional conceptions of privacy. To that end, this paper first explores the narrative and structure of online shaming, identifying broad categories of shaming of vigilantism, bullying, bigotry and gossiping, which are then used throughout the paper to evaluate different angles to the privacy problems raised. Second, this paper examines shaming through three dominant debates concerning privacy - privacy’s link with dignity, the right to privacy in public places and the social dimension of privacy. Certain themes emerged from this analysis. A common feature of online shaming is public humiliation. A challenge is to differentiate between a humbling (rightly knocking someone down a peg for a social transgression) and a humiliation that is an affront to dignity (wrongly knocking someone down a peg). In addition, the privacy concern of shamed individuals is not necessarily about intrusion on seclusion or revelation of embarrassing information, but rather about the disruption in their ability to continue to participate in online spaces free from attack. The privacy interest therefore becomes more about enabling participation in social spaces, enabling connections and relationships to form, and about enabling identity-making. Public humiliation through shaming can disrupt all of these inviting closer scrutiny concerning how law can be used as an enabling rather than secluding tool.

The present research is embedded in the professional development and research line and in the needs of secondary education and first-year university teachers. We focussed on evidencing the importance of teachers’ professional training to include some specific adaptation and skills in intercultural dialogue and understanding -often called Intercultural Competence- because of its direct impact on the sustainable development of human beings, groups, and ecosystems. We investigated the role played by each of the main competencies linked to the following intercultural dimensions: Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology, and Inclusive Education. We used an integrated methodology and a cross-study of data, performed after the obtention of a three-cornered evaluation of results collected in focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. We were able to show the impact of intercultural dialogue and understanding in the education for a sustainable development pattern. This is fundamental to set up a new ecology of forms, knowledge, attitudes, and educational meanings, further used to update teachers and students’ training in sustainable ecology and cultural diversity. Progress made in these complementary competencies -Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology- were appraised by teachers participating in the present study; the latter showing an increased interest and demand for the intercultural competence, after increasing their proficiency in the other complementary competencies.

Flavonoids are widely recognized as natural polydrugs, given their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, sedative and antineoplastic activities. Recently, different studies have shown that flavonoid have the potential to inhibit BET bromodomains. Previous reports suggest that flavonoids are putative inhibitors of the ZA channel due to their orientation and interactions with P86, V87, L92, L94 and N140. Herein, a comprehensive characterization of the binding mode of the biflavonoid amentoflavone and fisetin is discussed. To this end, both compounds were docked with BRD4 using four docking programs. Results were post-processed with protein-ligand interaction fingerprints. To gain further insights into the binding mode of the two natural products, docking results were further analyzed with molecular dynamics. Results showed that amentoflavone makes numerous contacts in the ZA channel, as previously described for flavonoids and kinase inhibitors. It was also found that amentoflavone can potentially make contacts with non-canonical residues for BET inhibition. Most of these contacts were not observed with fisetin. Based on these results, amentoflavone was tested for BRD4 inhibition, showing activity in the micromolar range. This work may serve as basis for scaffold optimization and further characterization of flavonoids as BET inhibitors.

Recently, many authors have been interested to introduce fuzzy implications over t-norms and t-conorms. In this paper, we introduce (S,N) and residuum fuzzy implication for Dubois t-norm and Hamacher's t-norm. Also, new concepts so-called (T,N) and residual fuzzy co-implication in dual Heyting Algebra are investigated. Some examples as well as application are discussed as well.

Adequate public spaces and urban green areas are key criteria for urban development and infrastructure implementation of healthy cities. Latterly, there has been an increasing number of research methods using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor, quantify, and control the state of these spaces with an aim towards pioneering research in Urban Studies. However, in informal areas, open-data access tends to lack adequate and updated information, making it difficult to use AI methods. Hence, we propose a methodology for restricted open data collection and preparation for future use in machine learning or spatial data science models for similar areas. To that extent, we examine two peripheral and low-income neighborhoods in Quito, Ecuador, La Bota and Toctiuco, to analyze their public spaces, urban green areas, points of interest, and road networks, and how they address healthy cities criteria. We develop an original methodological approach that combines an index of proximity, accessibility, quantity, and quality of these spaces with geospatial and network analysis techniques. Results indicate that the connectivity and structure of these spaces are centralized and nodal, representing exclusion and segregation. This work provides insights on potential healthy spaces, and information to urban planners and policymakers in decision-making for healthy urban infrastructure.

Nonmedical prescription stimulant use (NPSU) is an ongoing public health crisis in the United States. There exists, however, a dearth of research investigating specific childhood risk factors that may contribute to this illicit use. Adverse childhood experi-ences (ACEs) may be a significant risk factor to address in the prevention and treatment of NPSU, as research has provided evi-dence for increased substance use, potentially including prescription stimulant misuse, among individuals who have experienced trauma. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to gather and synthesize research articles specifically examining the relationship between nonmedical prescription stimulant use in adults and the experience of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Four studies met all inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The results demonstrated that nonmedical use of prescription stimulants in adults is significantly associated with ACEs, with a higher numerical count of ACEs associated with a greater likelihood of nonmedical prescription stimulant use. Gaps in the literature were identified, specifically noting a lack of information available regarding the relationship between ACEs and NPSU within gender- and racially-diverse populations. The findings have implications for informing interventions related to ACEs and the misuse of prescription stimulant medication in adults.

Hyperspectral images are an important tool to assess ecosystem biodiversity both on terrestrial and benthic habitats. To obtain more precise analysis of biodiversity indicators that agree with indicators obtained using field data, analysis of spectral diversity calculated from images have to be validated with field based diversity estimates. The plant species richness is one of the most important indicators of biodiversity. This indicator can be measured in hyperspectral images considering the Spectral Variation Hypothesis (SVH) which states that the spectral heterogeneity is related to spatial heterogeneity and thus to species richness. The goal of this research is to capture spectral heterogeneity from hyperspectral images for a terrestrial neo tropical forest site using Vector Quantization (VQ) method and then use the result for prediction of plant species richness. The results are compared with that of Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC). The validation of the process index is done calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient between the Shannon entropy from actual field data and the Shannon entropy computed in the images. Terrestrial dry forest and marine coastal hyperspectral images with different resolutions have been used for spectral diversity feature validation.

In mammals, the oviduct (or the Fallopian tube in humans) can be divided into the infundibulum (responsible for oocyte pick-up), ampulla (site of fertilization), isthmus (where preimplantation embryos develop), and uterotubal junction (where embryos transit to the uterus). The oviductal fluid, as well as extracellular vesicles produced from the oviductal epithelial cells, referred to as oEVs, have been shown to improve the fertilization process, prevent polyspermy, and aid in embryo development. oEVs contain molecular cargos (such as miRNAs, mRNAs, proteins, and lipids) that can be delivered and fuse to recipient cells. oEVs produced from the ampulla appear to be functionally distinct from those produced from the isthmus. In multiple species including mice, cats, dogs, pigs, and cows, oEVs can be incorporated into the oocytes, sperm, and embryos. In this review, we show the positive impact of oEVs on gamete function as well as blastocyst development and how they may improve embryo quality in in vitro conditions in an assisted reproductive technology setting for rodents, domestic animals, farm animals, and humans.

Robots in space are necessarily extremely light and lack structural stiffness resulting in natural frequencies of resonance so low as to reside inside the attitude controller’s bandwidth. A variety of input trajectories can be used to drive a controller’s attempt to ameliorate the control-structural interactions where feedback is provided by low-quality, noisy sensors. Traditionally, step functions are used as the ideal input trajectory. However, step functions are not ideal in many applications, as they are discontinuous. Alternative input trajectories are explored in this manuscript and applied to an example system that includes a flexible appendage attached to a rigid main body. The main body is controlled by a reaction wheel. The equations of motion of the flexible appendage, rigid body, and reaction wheel are derived. A feedback controller is developed to account for the rigid body modes. Additional filters are added to compensate for the system’s flexible modes. Sinusoidal trajectories are autonomously generated to feed the controller. Whiplash compensation is additionally implemented for comparison. The control method without random errors with the smallest error is the sinusoidal trajectory method, which showed a 97.39% improvement when compared to the baseline response when step trajectories were commanded, while the sinusoidal method was inferior to traditional step trajectories when sensor noise and random errors were present.

Multiple entities use unmanned underwater drones for various functions, but how can they navigate underwater at such depths without a pilot? It is essential to understand how different unmanned underwater drones, such as remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, function with underwater sensing technology. As each unmanned underwater drone has its function, the combination or chief use of the sensors is equally essential to recognize. Different underwater drone designs can be more cost-effective when a human is not on board as it can lead to a smaller, streamlined design in which oxygen and pressure control need not be a factor. Without considering oxygen limitations, these underwater drones can remain submerged for extended periods. These underwater vehicles operate autonomously or in conditions that may leave the individuals controlling the trajectory relying upon these sensors. It is also necessary to review how these sensors work, how they are implemented, and how they can help the public. This review was performed to address these research questions and provide an overview of sensors employed by unmanned underwater vehicles.

Chaotic systems are systems whose results are sensitive to the initial conditions. Chaotic systems generally have nonlinearities that can be difficult to model. One example of a chaotic system with nonlinearities is the Lorenz system. The Lorenz system can be used to model weather, wind disturbances, and electronic circuit design, among other applications. In this manuscript, the Lorenz system is modeled and various control methods are applied in an effort to dictate the system’s state and rate trajectories. The combination of the linear feedback and nonlinear feedforward controllers can show over an 80% improvement in state trajectory errors when compared to the baseline run. However, the improved state trajectory performance comes at a cost of as much as 1800% error in the rate trajectories.

This article sets out to deconstruct and challenge the psychologised and pathologising approach that has come to dominate child protection practice in Aotearoa-New Zealand and comparable societies in neoliberal times. Within a risk and protection focused paradigm circumstances and behaviours associated with material deprivation are construed as indicators of heightened danger and harm as opposed to a means of better understanding family life. In this way, although poverty may be classified as an issue that is worthy of attention in the realm of broader economic and social policy, structural inequality is rendered largely irrelevant to the practice of statutory child protection. This article sets out to trouble this construction. It will be argued that understandings of how the effects of material inequality are played out in the lives of children and their families are critical to the development of more effective child protection social work. This ‘life-world’ is generally populated by young women parenting in poverty. Poverty exacerbates the everyday struggle of parenting - it shames and dis-empowers; reducing confidence and perceptions of competence (Gupta, 2015). A paradigm shift is needed. Child protection policy and practice needs to re-engage with the every-day struggles that accompany the lives of socially marginalised families in increasingly stratified late capitalist society. The future of social work in child protection depends on it.

Psychiatry needs operational definitions to appreciate differences seen in idiosyncratic, psychotic thinking, and shared subcultural beliefs or ideologies. Carl Wernicke first described overvalued idea in 1906. The concept has been applied to describe it as a motive in mass shootings and terrorism. We review the concept of overvalued idea and extreme overvalued belief as a basis for making the distinction between delusions and non-delusions.

This study examined the tourism spatial distribution of nine cities in the Fujian province and assessed the impacts of COVID-19. The modified gravity model found that it was widely dispersed, with uneven and relatively independent tourism development in different cities. The social network analysis showed that tourism connections across cities were significantly reduced after the pandemic. The impacts of brand awareness and transport accessibility on spatial networks were positive in pre-pandemic but became negative during the pandemic. In contrast, tourist volume had negative impacts on spatial networks in pre-pandemic but had positive ones during the pandemic. Tourism resources and market performance had significantly positive impacts in the post-pandemic era. These findings provide advice on tourism recovery and destination management in coping with future critical events. It also contributes to the theoretical gravity framework in tourism and the research scope of the social networks analysis at the city level.

In recent years, antimicrobial resistance in many human pathogens has become a serious health concern. Since infections with resistant pathogens cannot be treated with traditional antimicro-bial drugs, new strategies are necessary to fight bacterial infections. Hybrid nano-systems may provide a solution to this problem, by combining multiple mechanisms for killing bacteria to synergistically increase the effectiveness of the antimicrobial treatment. In this review, we high-light recent advances in the development of hybrid nano-systems for the treatment of bacterial infections. We discuss the use of hybrid nano-systems for combinational therapy, focusing on various triggering mechanisms for drug release and the development of biomimetic nanomateri-als. We also examine inherently antimicrobial nano-systems and their uses in preventing infec-tions due to wounds and medical implants. This review summarizes recent advances and pro-vides insight into the future development of antimicrobial treatments using hybrid nanomateri-als.

(R)-(+)-3,5-Dinitro-N-(1-phenylethyl)benzothioamide 1 is a potential chiral solvating agent (CSA) for the spectral resolution of enantiomers by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The single enantiomer of 1 was synthesized from commercially (R)-(+)-a-methylbenzylamine 2 in two-steps with 85% yield.

There exists a great potential for application in soil mechanics with the use of mechanistic models such as the finite element model, and other non-local models, such as the peridynamic model, since the soil mass can be modelled as a group of particles that interact with each other. In this work, we determine the bearing capacity of deep foundations where stresses are transmitted to deep deposits, which generally present better characteristics in terms of compressibility and shear strength. One of the main elements are driven piles, which must be previously designed, made and tested before their final use. In this work, a comparison with different methods is presented. The finite element method and the peridynamic model are used. Because the effect of consolidation was not taken into account, in these examples, the assumption is made that the structures are cemented in inert soil. Likewise, it is assumed that the water table has no influence on the simulations. Failure envelopes were observed where bonds between particles present high gradients of deformation and fracture. Bearing capacities were estimated and compared with those obtained from the Terzaghi and Meyerhof methods.

The wave energy converter (WEC) technology constantly develops new designs and models. To encourage its development within the energy sector, research is required to improve current designs and create durable and effective devices. However, it is also crucial to investigate the suitability of a WEC to a site-specific sea condition as this can impact its optimal power absorption and constructability. This study evaluates and compares the efficiency of a heaving buoy with varied geometries in one of the most energetic places along the Mexican coast. A statistical analysis of the wave climate on the coast of Ensenada during the last 42 years is performed to define the conditions to which the device is subjected. The location of the WEC in shallow waters is chosen using a computational model which solves the modified mild slope equation in its elliptic shape. The heaving buoy floater is studied using three distinct geometries: a semi-sphere, a cylinder, and a proposed rounded semi-rectangle. The hydrodynamic response of the three geometries is then analysed in the frequency and time domain using ANSYS AQWA. The hydrodynamic study involves the assessment of the floating body dynamics, exerted forces, the power absorbed as well as the suitability of the proposed power take-off (PTO) system. Findings reveal that the proposed geometry absorbs the most energy, with an annual power of 135.11 MW, and that the transmission PTO design is appropriate for this type of technology.

In this paper we study a bilinear optimal control problem related to a 2D parabolic-elliptic chemo-repulsion system consider a nonlinear chemical signal production term. We prove the existence of global optimal solutions with bilinear control, and applying a result on the existence of Lagrange multipliers in Banach spaces, we derive an optimality system for a local optimal solution.

Total edentulism is the loss of all teeth for any cause by a multifactorial process that involves biological and patient-related factors. Studies on edentulism and risk factors in Mexico are limited, and the epidemiological surveillance data is scarce and controversial since official governmental reports are not statistically representative of the country. We estimate the distribution for edentulism according to sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables in adults from a low-income state in 2003 and its progress in Mexico. We analyzed data from the National Performance Evaluation Survey in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the annual reports of the Epidemiological Surveillance System of Oral Pathologies in 2009-2019 using X². Oaxacan patients older than 75 y.o (17.9%, p<0.05), those with lower schooling (11.2%), and diabetes (14.5%) presented the highest percentage of edentulism. We do not observe differences in edentulism between sex or residence (p>0.05). From 2009 to 2019, country data reports the lowest rate of edentulism in adults over 20 y.o (0.32%; 95% CI 0.18%-0.48%) and the most affected population over 79 y.o. (7.29%; 95% CI 5.2%-9.30%). As it is a cumulative phenomenon, it is necessary to establish better surveillance, prevention, and treatment programs to improve the oral health of older thus reducing edentulism.

Extracellular enzymes catalyze biogeochemical reactions in soil, cycling carbon and nutrients in agricultural systems. Enzymes respond quickly to soil management, including organic amendment inputs, such as biochar, a charcoal-like solid byproduct of bioenergy production. In a previous agricultural field trial, a pine biochar amendment caused an approximately 40% decrease in the enzyme activities of β-glucosidase (BG) and phosphatase (PHOS). The large surface area of the pine biochar has the potential to sorb nutrients and other organic molecules. To test if sorption caused decreased enzyme activity, we used a laboratory assay to quantify the activity of two sorbed enzymes: BG and acid PHOS, involved in the cycling of carbon and phosphorous. The enzymes were incubated with three solid phases: (1) the high surface area pine biochar, (2) the agricultural soil, and (3) a low surface area grass biochar, for an additional comparison. We quantified the sorbed enzymes at pH 6, 7, and 8, using a Bradford protein assay, and measured the immobilized enzyme activities via high-throughput fluorometric analysis. After sorption onto pine biochar, detectable BG and PHOS activity levels dropped by over 95% relative to the soil, supporting direct sorption as one mechanism that reduces enzyme activity in biochar amended soil. This laboratory assay demonstrated that sorption could account for the lack of priming of native soil organic matter and changes in soil phosphorous cycling after pine biochar addition.

Influenza A (IAV) is a major human respiratory pathogen, causing illness, hospitalizations, and mortality annually worldwide. IAV is also a zoonotic pathogen with a multitude of hosts, allowing for interspecies transmission, reassortment events, and the emergence of novel pandemics, as was seen in 2009 with the emergence of a swine origin H1N1 (pdmH1N1) virus into humans, causing the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. While the 2009 pandemic was considered to have high morbidity and low mortality, studies have linked the pdmH1N1 virus and its gene segments to increased disease in humans and animal models. Genetic components of the pdmH1N1 virus currently circulate in the swine population, reassorting with endemic swine viruses that co-circulate and occasionally spillover into humans. This is evidenced by the regular detection of variant swine IAVs in humans associated with state fairs and other intersections of humans and swine. Defining genetic changes that support species adaptation, virulence, and cross-species transmission, as well as mutations that enhance or attenuate these features will improve our understanding of influenza biology, aid in surveillance and virus risk assessment, and guide the establishment of counter measures for emerging viruses. Here, we review current understanding of determinants of specific IAV phenotypes, focusing on the fitness, transmission, and virulence determinants that have been identified in swine IAVs and/or in relation to the 2009 pdmH1N1 virus.

This article presents a forecast model that uses a hybrid architecture of recurrent neural networks (RNN) with surface neural networks (ANN), based on historical records of exported active energy (EAE) and weather data. Two types of models were developed: the first type includes six models that use EAE records and weather variables as inputs, while the second type includes eight models that use only weather variables. Different metrics were applied to assess the performance of these models, and the best model of each type was selected. Finally, a comparison of the performance between the selected models of both types is presented, and they are validated with real data provided by a solar plant, achieving acceptable levels of accuracy. The selected model of the first type has an RMSE of 0.19, MSE of 0.03, MAE of 0.09, a correlation coefficient of 0.96, and a determination coefficient of 0.93. The other selected model of the second type showed lower precision in the metrics (RMSE = 0.24, MSE = 0.06, MAE = 0.10, Corr. Coef. = 0.95, and Det. Coef. = 0.90). Both models demonstrated good performance and acceptable accuracy in forecasting the weekly photovoltaic energy production of the solar plant.

Our research proposes two different training and modelling approaches of Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) with specialized news feeds specific to the Spanish market: in-context example prompts and fine-tuned GPT models. Our findings indicate that integrating GPT insights into electricity price trend forecasting can result in more precise predictions and a deeper understanding of market dynamics. Through our research, we aim to provide insights to understand the capabilities of GPT solutions, and how those can be used to enhance prediction accuracy, ultimately supporting informed decision-making for stakeholders across the Spanish electricity market and companies whose margins heavily depend on electricity costs and price volatility.

Phylogenomic analyses have revolutionized the study of biodiversity, but they have revealed that estimated tree topologies can depend, at least in part, on the subset of the genome that is analyzed. For example, estimates of trees for avian orders differ if protein coding or non-coding data are analyzed. The bird tree is a good study system because the historical signal for relationships among orders is very weak, which should permit subtle non-historical signals to be identified, while monophyly of orders is strongly corroborated, allowing identification of strong non-historical signals. Hydrophobic amino acids in mitochondrially-encoded proteins, which are expected to be found in transmembrane helices, have been hypothesized to be associated with non-historical signals. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the evolution of transmembrane helices and extramembrane segments of mitochondrial proteins from 420 bird species, sampled from most avian orders. We estimated amino acids exchangeabilities for both structural environments and assessed the performance of phylogenetic analysis using each data type. We compared those relative exchangeabilities with values calculated using a substitution dataset for transmembrane helices from a variety of sampled set of nuclear- and mitochondrially-encoded proteins, allowing us to compare the bird-specific mitochondrial models with a general model of transmembrane protein evolution. To complement our amino acid analyses, we examined the impact of protein structure on patterns of nucleotide evolution. Models of transmembrane and extramembrane sequence evolution for amino acids and nucleotides exhibited striking differences, but there was no evidence for strong topological data type effects. However, incorporating protein structure into analyses of mitochondrially-encoded proteins improved model fit. Thus, we believe that considering protein structure will improve analyses of mitogenomic data, both in birds and in other taxa.

In this work we discuss the insights from activity landscape, docking and molecular dynamics towards the understanding of the structure-activity relationships of dual inhibitors of major epigenetic targets: lysine metiltransferase (G9a) and DNA metiltranferase 1 (DNMT1). The study was based on a novel data set of 50 published compounds with reported experimental activity for both targets. The activity landscape analysis revealed the presence of activity cliffs, e.g., pairs of compounds with high structure similarity but large activity difference. Activity cliffs were further rationalized at the molecular level by means of molecular docking and dynamics simulations that led to the identification of interactions with key residues involved in the dual activity or selectivity with the epigenetic targets.

Retiring coal power plants can reduce air pollution and health damages. However, the spatial distribution of those impacts remains unclear due to complex power system adjustments and pollution chemistry and transport. Focusing on coal retirements in Pennsylvania (PA), we analyze six counterfactual scenarios for 2019 that differ in retirement targets (e.g., reducing 50% of coal-based installed capacity vs. generation) and priorities (e.g., closing plants with higher cost, closer to Environmental Justice Areas, or with higher CO₂ emissions). Using a power system model of the PJM Interconnection, we find that coal retirements in PA shift power generation across PA and the Rest of PJM region leading to scenario-varying changes in the plant-level release of several air pollutants. Due to air pollution chemistry and transport and socio-demographics, these changes in turn give rise to a reduction of 10 to 182 PM_2.5-attributable deaths in PJM across the six scenarios, with most reductions occurring in PA. Scenarios that reduce more coal power generation yield greater aggregate health benefits due to air quality improvements in PA and adjacent downwind regions. In addition, vulnerable populations—in both PA and Rest of PJM—benefit most in scenarios that prioritize plant closures in PA near Environmental Justice Areas. These results demonstrate the importance of considering cross-regional linkages and socio-demographics in designing equitable retirement strategies.

If the world’s countries seriously tackle the climate targets agreed in Paris, their citizens are likely to experience substantial changes in production, consumption and employment. We present a long-run post-Keynesian model for studying the potential implications of a major transition on macroeconomic stability and employment. It is a demand-led model in which firms have considerable but not absolute freedom to administer prices, while household consumption exhibits inertia. Firms continually seek input-saving technological improvements that, in the aggregate, tie technological progress to firms' cost structure. Together with firm pricing strategies and wage setting, the productivities of different inputs determine the functional income distribution. Saving and investment, and production and purchase of consumption goods, are undertaken by different economic actors, driven by income and capacity utilization, with the possibility that productive capacity exceeds, or falls short of, effective demand. The model produces business cycles and long waves driven by technological change. We present results for a “downshifting” scenario in which households voluntarily withdraw labor and discuss the implications of downshifting for stability, growth, and employment. We contrast the downshifting scenario with ones in which households reduce consumption without withdrawing from the labor pool.

COVID-19 is frequently associated with a coagulopathy with severe consequences. The mechanisms leading to a pro-coagulant state in these patients is multifactorial, including tissue destruction and inflammatory mechanisms. Based on the analysis of publicly available interactomes, we propose that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes a deficiency in C1 esterase inhibitor (C1-INH), a pathogen-specific mechanism that may help explain the pro-coagulant state in COVID-19 patients.

In this paper, we compare the performance between systems of ordinary and (Caputo) fractional differential equations depicting the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) models of diseases. In order to understand the origins of both approaches as mean-field approximations of integer and fractional stochastic processes, we introduce the fractional differential equations as approximations of some type of fractional nonlinear birth--death processes. Then, we examine validity of the two approaches against empirical courses of epidemics; we fit both of them to case counts of three measles epidemics that occurred during the pre-vaccination era in three different locations. While FDEs appear more flexible in fitting empirical data, our ODEs offered better fits to two out of three data sets. Important differences in transient dynamics between these modeling approaches are discussed.

This document serves as supplemental information to Shapero et al. (2023), which is itself a comment on Nowell et al. (2022). Environmental Health Perspective’s publishing standards for article comments have strict word counts and do not allow the addition of new primary data analyses; therefore, this document provides an additional level of detail and supporting analyses that serve as an important backup to and expansion of Shapero et al. (2023) and that also respond to some comments within the author’s reply to our comments (Holmes and Nowell, 2023). Nowell et al. (2022) evaluated potential PM_2.5 community impacts from sugarcane harvesting. However, their analysis is flawed by erroneous assumptions and misapplied technical approaches, as discussed in Shapero et al. (2023) and as detailed in this supplemental information document. Additionally, the authors ended their analysis with 2018 data, but later data shows no marginal increase in PM_2.5 during sugarcane harvest following 2019 even using the authors’ approach (Holmes and Nowell, 2023). Therefore, the authors’ evaluations have no relevance to current conditions. Nonetheless, even their evaluation and conclusions regarding PM_2.5 concentrations purportedly attributable to sugarcane harvesting prior to 2019 are unsupported and technically unsound as detailed below.

Primates are traditionally considered to have a poor sense of smell. However, olfaction is important for non-human primates as demonstrated by conspicuous scent-marking behaviours in lemurs. We studied two family groups (N=4) of crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus) housed at Colchester and Twycross zoos (UK) by combining behavioural observations and chemical analyses of scent-marks. We recorded observations of olfactory behaviours for 201 h using instantaneous scan sampling. We investigated the volatile compounds of ano-genital odour secretions using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Males scent-marked most frequently, displaying ano-genital marking for allomarking, head marking for countermarking and wrist marking in specific areas of the enclosure. Females displayed ano-genital marking predominantly on feeding devices. We detected a total of 38 volatile components in all male ano-genital scent-marks and 26 in all female samples of ano-genital odour secretions, including a series of esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, terpenes, volatile fatty acids and hydrocarbons that have been identified in odour profiles of other primates. In conclusion, we found sexual dimorphism in crowned lemurs. Male head and wrist marking behaviours might play defensive territorial functions, while ano-genital marking would be related to socio-sexual communication as chemical mate-guarding. Female ano-genital marking might be involved in resource defense.

Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is a candidate for screening programs, since its prognosis is excellent when diagnosed in an early disease stage. Targeted screening of those at high risk for developing CM, a cost-effective alternative to population-wide screening, requires valid procedures to identify the high-risk group. Self-assessment of the number of nevi has been suggested as a component of such procedures, but its validity has not yet been established. We analyzed the level of agreement between self-assessments and expert assessments of the number of melanocytic nevi in the area between the wrist and the shoulder of both arms based on 4548 study subjects in whom mutually blinded double counting of nevi was performed. Nevus counting followed the IARC protocol. Study subjects received written instructions, photographs, a mirror, and a “nevometer” to support self-assessment of nevi larger than 2 mm. Nevus counts were categorized based on the quintiles of the distribution into five levels defining a nevus score. Cohen’s weighted kappa-coefficient was estimated to measure the level of agreement. In the total sample, agreement between self-assessments and expert-assessments was moderate (raw agreement: 50.29%, weighted κ=0.596). Self-assessed nevus counts were higher than those determined by experts (mean differ-ence: 3.33 nevi). The level of agreement was independent of sociodemographic and cutaneous factors; however, participants’ eye color had a significant impact on the level of agreement. Our findings show that even with comprehensive guidance, only a moderate level of agreement between self-assessed and expert-assessed nevus counts can be achieved. Self-assessed nevus information does not appear to be reliable enough to be used in individual risk assessment to target screening activities.

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

Modern imaging strategies are paramount to studying living systems such as cells, bacteria, and fungi and their response to pathogens, toxicants, and nanomaterials as modulated by exposure and environmental factors. The need to understand the processes and mechanisms of damage, healing and cell survivability of living systems continues to motivate the development of alternative imaging strategies. Of particular interest is the use of label-free techniques that minimize interference of biological processes by foreign marking substances and reduce intense light exposure and potential photo-toxicity effects. This review focus on the potential synergic capabilities of atomic force microscopy (AFM) as a well-developed and robust imaging strategy with demonstrated applications to unravel intimate details in biomedical applications, with the label-free, fast, and enduring Holotomographic Microscopy (HT) strategy. We first review the operating principles that form the basis for the complementary details provided by these techniques regarding the surface and internal information provided by HT and AFM is essential and complimentary for the development of several biomedical areas studying the interaction mechanisms of nanomaterials with living organisms. First, AFM can provide superb resolution on surface morphology and biomechanical characterization. Second, the quantitative phase capabilities of HT enable superb modeling and quantification of the volume, surface area, protein content, and mass density of the main components of cells and microorganisms, including morphology of cells in microbiological systems. These capabilities result from directly quantifying refractive index changes without requiring fluorescent markers or chemicals. As such, HT is ideally suited for long-term monitoring of living organisms in conditions close to their natural settings. We present a case-based review of the principal uses of both techniques and their essential contributions to nanomedicine and nanotoxicology, emphasizing cancer and infectious disease control. The synergic impact of the sequential use of these complementary strategies provides a clear drive for adopting these techniques as interdependent fundamental tools.

Despite great strides in the development of contraceptive technologies, the United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world. Many investigators have aimed to examine the relationship between religion and the sexual health behaviors of college students to determine how social factors may influence the use of contraception amongst college students. Thus, we aimed to examine the differences in current contraceptive method and age of first contraceptive usage among sexually active female college students with different religious affiliations and strengths of religiosity. It was hypothesized that there would be no difference in current contraceptive methods among different religious affiliations and strengths of religions, and that there would be a difference in age of first contraceptive usage among different religious affiliations and strengths of religiosity. Two-hundred twenty-four college aged females completed a 20-question survey about sexual health and religious practices. Chi-squared tests were implemented to determine if the frequencies of responses across religious affiliations and strengths of religiosity. Significant differences in the frequency of responses for age of first contraceptive usage were observed across different strengths of religiosity (p=0.016) and for the self-perceived impact of religion on sexual health across different religious affiliations (p=0.033) and strengths of religiosity (p=0.005). All other differences were found not to be statistically significant. It was determined that increased strengths of religiosity resulted in delayed onset of contraceptive us-age and that both different religious affiliations and greater strengths of religiosity lead to different self-perceived impacts of religion on sexual health.

Health care in Canada is managed by provinces/territories. We investigated regional differences in survival among Canadians diagnosed with central nervous system (CNS) tumours. We identified 50,670 patients diagnosed with a first-ever primary CNS tumour between 2008 and 2017 with follow-up until December 31, 2017. We selected the four highest incidence histologies and used proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for five regions (British Columbia, Prairie provinces, Ontario, Atlantic provinces and the Territories), adjusting for sex, tumour behaviour and patient age. Ontario had the best survival profile for all histologies investigated. The Atlantic provinces had the highest HR for glioblastoma (HR=1.26, 95% CI:1.18-1.35) and malignant glioma not otherwise specified (NOS) (Overall: HR=1.87, 95% CI:1.43-2.43; Pediatric population: HR=2.86, 95% CI:1.28-6.39). For meningioma, the Territories had the highest HR (HR=2.44, 95% CI:1.09-5.45) followed by the Prairie provinces (HR=1.52, 95% CI:1.38-1.67). For malignant unclassified tumours, the highest HRs were in British Columbia (HR=1.45, 95% CI:1.22-1.71) and the Atlantic provinces (HR=1.40, 95% CI:1.13-1.74). There are regional differences in the survival of CNS patients at the population level for all four specific histological types of CNS tumours investigated. Factors contributing to these observed regional survival differences are unknown and warrant further investigation.

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow at a rapid pace, becoming integrated into the daily operations of individuals and organisations. IoT systems automate crucial services within daily life that users may rely on, which makes the assurance of security towards entities such as devices and information even more significant. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of papers that model cyber risk management processes within the context of IoT, and provide recommendations for further work. Using 39 collected papers, we studied IoT cyber risk management frameworks against four research questions that delve into cyber risk management concepts and human-orientated vulnerabilities. The importance of this work being human-driven is to better understand how individuals can affect risk and the ways that humans can be impacted by attacks within different IoT domains. Through the analysis, we identified open areas for future research and ideas that researchers should consider.

LSUs (RESPONSE TO LOW SULFUR) are plant-specific proteins of unknown function that were initially identified during transcriptomic studies of the sulfur deficiency response in Arabidopsis. Recent functional studies have shown that LSUs are important hubs of protein interaction networks with potential roles in plant stress responses. In particular, LSU proteins have been reported to interact with members of the brassinosteroid, jasmonate signaling, and ethylene biosynthetic pathways, suggesting that LSUs may be involved in response to plant stress through modulation of phytohormones. Furthermore, in silico analysis of the promoter regions of LSU genes in Arabidopsis has revealed the presence of cis-regulatory elements that are potentially responsive to phytohormones such as ABA, auxin, and jasmonic acid, suggesting crosstalk between LSU proteins and phytohormones. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about the LSU gene family in plants and its potential role in phytohormone responses.

Over recent years, nanocarriers have played an ever-increasing role in clinical and biomedical applications owing to their unique physicochemical properties and surface functionalities. Lately, much effort has been directed towards the development of smart, stimuli-responsive nanocarriers that are capable of releasing their cargos in response to specific stimulus. These intelligent-responsive nanocarriers can be further surface-functionalized so as to achieve active tumor targeting in a sequential manner, which can be simply modulated by the stimuli. By applying this methodological approach, these intelligent-responsive nanocarriers can be directed to different target-specific organs, tissues or cells, and exhibit on-demand controlled drug release that may enhance therapeutic effectiveness and reduce systemic toxicity. Light, an external stimulus, is one of the most promising triggers for use in nanomedicine to stimulate on-demand drug release from nanocarriers. Light-triggered drug release can be achieved by light irradiation at different wavelengths, either in UV, visible or even NIR region, depending on the photophysical properties of the photo-responsive molecule embedded in the nanocarrier system, the structural characteristics and material composition of the nanocarrier system. In this review, we highlighted the emerging functional role of light in nanocarriers, with emphasis on light-responsive liposomes and dual-targeted stimuli-responsive liposomes. Moreover, we provided the up-to-date phototriggered targeting strategies and mechanisms of light-triggered drug release from liposomes and NIR-responsive nanocarriers. Lastly, we addressed the current challenges, advances, and future perspectives for the deployment of light-responsive liposomes in targeted drug delivery and therapy.

Sheep (Ovis aries) provide a vital source of protein and fibre to human populations. In coming decades, as the pressures associated with rapidly changing climates increase, breeding sheep sustainably as well as producing enough protein to feed a growing human population will pose a considerable challenge for sheep production across the globe. High quality reference genomes and other genomic resources can help to meet these challenges by: 1) informing breeding programmes by adding a priori information about the genome, 2) providing tools such as pangenomes for characterising and conserving genetic diversity, and 3) improving our understanding of fundamental biology using the power of genomic information to link cell, tissue and whole animal scale knowledge. In this review we describe recent advances in the genomic resources available for sheep, discuss how these might help to meet future challenges for sheep production, and provide some insight into what the future might hold.

Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has significant negative effects on health and behavior in childhood including depression, failure to thrive, neurocognitive impairment, and behavioral issues. It is strongly associated with an increased risk for chronic adult disease such as obesity and diabetes, accelerated atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction. Accumulating evidence suggests that adult-onset non-communicable diseases may originate from early life through a process by which an insult applied at a critical developmental window causes long-term effects on the structure or function of an organism. Recently, much attention has been paid to the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of adult disease susceptibility. Epigenetic mechanisms that influence adaptive variability include histone modifications, non-coding RNAs, and DNA methylation. This review will highlight what is currently known about the phenotypic associations of epigenetic modifications in pediatric OSA and will emphasize the importance of epigenetic changes as both modulators of chronic disease and potential therapeutic targets.

More people are surviving longer with cancer. Whilst this can be partially attributed to advances in early detection of cancers, there is little doubt that the improvement in survival statistics is also due to the expansion in the spectrum of treatments available for efficacious treatment. Transformative amongst those are immunotherapies, which have proven effective agents for treating immunogenic forms of cancer, though immunologically “cold” tumour types remain refractive. Oncolytic viruses, such as those based on adenovirus have great potential as anti-cancer agents and have seen a resurgence of interest in recent years. Amongst their many advantages is their ability to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) of infected tumour cells, thus providing the alluring potential to synergize with immunotherapies by turning immunologically “cold” tumours “hot”. Additionally, enhanced immune mediated cell killing can be promoted through the local overexpression of immunological transgenes, encoded from within the engineered viral genome. To achieve this full potential requires the development of refined, tumour selective “precision virotherapies” that are extensively engineered to prevent off-target up take via native routes of infection, and targeted to infect and replicate uniquely within malignantly transformed cells. Here, we review the latest advances towards this holy grail within the adenoviral field.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus that originated in Africa but emerged in Latin America in 2015. In this region, other flaviviruses such as Dengue (DENV), West Nile, and Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) also circulate, allowing for possible antigenic cross-reactivity to impact viral infections and immune responses. Studies have found antibody mediated enhancement between DENV and ZIKV, but the impact of YFV antibodies on ZIKV infection has not been fully explored. ZIKV infections cause congenital syndromes, such as microcephaly, necessitating further research into ZIKV vertical transmission through the placental barrier. Recent advancements in biomedical engineering have generated co-culture methods that allow for in vitro recapitulation of the maternal: fetal interface. This study utilized a transwell assay, which is a co-culture model utilizing human placental syncytiotrophoblasts, fetal umbilical cells, and a differentiating embryoid body to replicate the maternal: fetal axis. To determine if cross reactive YFV vaccine antibodies impact the pathogenesis of ZIKV across the maternal fetal axis, maternal syncytiotrophoblasts were inoculated with ZIKV or ZIKV incubated with YFV vaccine anti-sera, and viral load was measured 72 hours post inoculation. Here we report that BeWo and HUVEC cells are permissive to ZIKV and that the impact of YFV post-vaccination antibodies on ZIKV replication is cell line dependent. Embryoid bodies are also permissive to ZIKV and the presence of YFV antibodies collected 1 to 6 months post vaccination enhances ZIKV infection. Our data show that each of the cell lines and EBs have a unique response to ZIKV complexed with post-vaccination serum suggesting there may be cell-specific mechanisms that impact congenital ZIKV infections. Since ZIKV infections can cause severe congenital syndromes, it is crucial to understand any potential enhancement or protection offered from cross-reactive, post-vaccination antibodies.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus that originated in Africa but emerged in Latin America in 2015. In this region, other flaviviruses such as Dengue (DENV), West Nile, and Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) also circulate, allowing for possible antigenic cross-reactivity to impact viral infections and immune responses. Studies have found antibody mediated enhancement between DENV and ZIKV, but the impact of YFV antibodies on ZIKV infection has not been fully explored. ZIKV infections cause congenital syndromes, such as microcephaly, necessitating further research into ZIKV vertical transmission through the placental barrier. Recent advancements in biomedical engineering have generated co-culture methods that allow for in vitro recapitulation of the maternal: fetal interface. This study utilized a transwell assay, which is a co-culture model utilizing human placental syncytiotrophoblasts, fetal umbilical cells, and a differentiating embryoid body to replicate the maternal: fetal axis. To determine if cross reactive YFV vaccine antibodies impact the pathogenesis of ZIKV across the maternal fetal axis, maternal syncytiotrophoblasts were inoculated with ZIKV or ZIKV incubated with YFV vaccine anti-sera, and viral load was measured 72 hours post inoculation. The data show that the impact of YFV on ZIKV replication is cell line dependent. In differentiating embryoids, the presence of YFV antibodies enhanced ZIKV infection. Since viral pathogenesis, and the impact of antigenic cross-reactive antibodies, is cell line specific at the maternal-fetal axis, this suggests there may be discreet mechanisms that impact congenital ZIKV infections.

Injury to the optic nerve, termed, traumatic optic neuropathy (TON) is a known comorbidity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is now known to cause chronic and progressive retinal thinning up to 35 years after injury. Although animal models of TBI have described the presence of optic nerve degeneration and research exploring acute mechanisms is underway, few studies in humans or animals have examined chronic TON pathophysiology outside the retina. We used a closed-head weight-drop model of TBI/TON in 6-week-old male C57BL/6 mice. Mice were euthanized 7-, 14-, 30-, 90-, and 150-days post injury (DPI) to assess histological changes in the visual system of the brain spanning a total of 12 regions. We show chronic elevation of FluoroJade-C, indicative of neurodegeneration, throughout the time course. Intriguingly, FJ-C staining revealed a bimodal distribution of mice indicating the possibility of subpopulations that may be more or less sus-ceptible to injury outcomes. Additionally, we show that microglia and astrocytes react to optic nerve damage in both temporally and regionally different ways. Despite these differences, as-trogliosis and microglial changes were alleviated between 14-30 DPI in all regions examined, perhaps indicating a potential critical period for intervention/recovery that may determine chronic outcomes.

Clinical training in medical schools in Spain is performed by rotations in university hospitals. During these internships, students are expected to acquire and master basic procedural skills. However, the assessment tools available rarely check whether these skills are completely acquired by the students. We have used an e-portfolio to determine the optimal number of times the students need to repeat a procedure to be able to perform it independently. The results were compared with the actual performance during the internships. An e-portfolio collected qualitative information about the internships. Quantitative information was also requested about the number of times each clinical skill was performed. Later, a survey asked these students and their teachers the optimal number of times each skill should be repeated before it could be considered fully acquired. The questionnaire was answered by 98.6% of the students and 70.3% of their teachers. Out of the 21 clinical skills and procedures selected, both students and their tutors agreed in a similar optimal value in 16 of them; only in five of them, teachers thought that students needed a greater number of times than that selected by the students. When these optimal values were compared with the actual values recorded in the portfolio during the internships, it was found that about half of the clinical skills were carried out less frequently than expected, thus providing an important feedback about the internships. Quantitative information collected in portfolios reveals a moderate mismatch between students and tutors perceptions of their training needs.

Background: Disability and caste are two different forms of oppression, however Dalits and people with disabilities commonly face similar types of marginalities. Dalit women with disabilities may experience double discrimination because of the intersectionality of disability and caste. This study examines whether the disability and caste identity of women together affects and compounds the utilization of maternal healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire among a total of 354 Dalit and non-Dalit women, with and without a disability aged between 15 – 49 years. Maternal healthcare service utilization was assessed by Ante-Natal Care (ANC), health facility (HF) delivery, and Post-Natal Care (PNC) during the last pregnancy. Logistic regression was performed to detect the predictors of service utilization and identify whether disability and caste were associated with service utilization. First, disability and caste were fitted separately in models. Secondly, the intersectionality of disability and caste was tested by the inclusion of disability*caste interaction term. Finally, the confounding effect of socio-demographic factors was investigated. Results: Out of surveyed women, 73% had 4+ ANC visits, 65% had HF delivery and 29% had a PNC visit during their last pregnancy. Women with a disability had lower odds of HF delivery (OR 0.50, CI 0.30 – 0.84) and PNC (OR 0.47, CI 0.25 – 0.88) than women without a disability. Adjustment for women’s age and household wealth explained associations in HF delivery by women with disabilities. There was no association between caste and service utilization. Disability overrode caste and there was no other evidence of effect modification by women’s caste status in the utilization. However, a weak interaction effect in the utilization of ANC services was found in the caste group by their education (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.05 – 0.74). Conclusions: Disabled women – whether Dalit or non-Dalit - had lower rates of utilizing all maternal healthcare services than non-disabled women. However, Dalit women with disabilities were more likely to receive PNC than non-Dalit women with disabilities. Increasing equity in maternal healthcare service utilization requires that traditional approaches to service development and program intervention to be re-examined and more nuanced interventions considered to ensure improved access and outcome among all vulnerable groups.

In Secondary Education, the focus of History teaching must be on the development of global citizenship. The present research was a study contextualized in the Fiesta de la Historia Youth Congress in Seville (Spain). A documentary analysis with a descriptive and interpretive design was made of 63 projects of inquiry that pupils carried out. The main objectives were to assess the incidence of the proposal in terms of participation, and to determine whether the pupils' projects followed a logic of inquiry about socially relevant problems which favours the construction of global citizenship. The results point to a low incidence of schools participating in this initiative. The projects of inquiry analysed present for the most part themes related to the historical and social heritage of the locality. The proposals are approached as problems of a specific discipline, and are worked on through a method based on a pseudoscientific research process. The findings indicate the need to continue implementing initiatives based on school inquiry that allow the teaching of History to be articulated around relevant social problems, with the objective being to develop citizenship skills.

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between the type of conization, the volume and dimensions of the cone, with the persistence/recurrence of CIN 2-3, presence of affected margins and post-cone HR-HPV positivity. Methods: 227 women treated with LLETZ and histologically confirmed CIN2-3 were evaluated between 1996 and 2006 and followed up until June 2016. Age, type of resection according to IFCPC 2011, volume, cone dimensions, margins were studied. of resection, post-cone high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) status and viral load. Determinants of HR-HPV positivity were estimated using unconditional logistic regression and time to recurrence was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Results: Persistent/recurrent CIN2-3 was found in 12 cases (5.2%), type 1 conization was performed in 81 patients, with 5 recurrences (6.1%), type 2 in 101 patients, with 6 recurrences (5 .9%) and type 3 resection in 45 women, with 1 recurrence (2.2%). Volume and dimensions were not associated with recurrence. The Log-Rank Test did not show a significant difference between the 3 treatments (p= 0.18). The free margins in type 1 were 37%, in type 2 resection 61% and in type 3 71% (p=0.001). Resection type 1 had 15% HR-HPV post positive cone, type 2 reached 16% and type 3 had 9%, this difference being non-significant (p=0.58). The incidence of recurrence at 36 months in type 1 resection was 0.08%, in type 2 treatment it was 0.04% and in type 3 resection it was 0.0%. Conclusions : Type 3 resection had a higher proportion of free margins and lower post-cone HR-HPV positivity, with a lower incidence of persistence/recurrence.

This study aimed to analyze the responsiveness of the 5STS test among stroke patients and to estimate the MCIDs for different severity levels of community ambulation and stages of recovery. The 5STS and comparator instruments [gait speed and Functional Ambulatory Category (FAC)] were evaluated at baseline. These measures were repeated at 4 (Stage 1) and 8 weeks (Stage 2), together with the Global Rating of Change (GROC). The MCIDs were calculated with two anchor-based methods using the GROC as the external criterion. Responsiveness to change for the 5STS was estimated analyzing the correlation with changes in the two comparator instruments and their capacity to discriminate improvement. For the 5STS test, while the MCIDs of the limited community ambulators were similar in the two stages (around 3 s), those of the household ambulators decreased from 1.9 s to 0.72 s. Spearman's rho coefficients showed an acceptable correlation between changes in 5STS and changes for both the FAC and gait speed changes in both stages of recovery. Our study revealed that the 5STS is responsive to functional changes in patients with stroke and that their degree of severity and stage of recovery influence the MCID values of the 5STS.

This paper aims to provoke fundamental thinking and action around the value and importance of socially-equitable development to the economic advancement, resilience, and prosperity of communities, as we contend with the 21^st Century grand challenge of the changing climate and disasters. As local communities and the global community have experienced an increased frequency, intensity and duration of natural and man-made disasters over the past several decades, opportunities have also grown to identify and reap the benefits of socially-equitable economic development. Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, we discuss the critical importance of socially-equitable economic development to the resilience and sustainability of communities and the infrastructure that supports them. To this end, we: (1) examine what constitutes socially-equitable economic development at different spatial scales of community; (2) explore whether socially-equitable development can occur at different scales of community; (3) explicate the importance of formally considering the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes for socially-equitable development; (4) explain why the pursuit of equal distribution of the benefits and burdens of development is a necessary but not sufficient endeavor for socially-equitable economic development; (5) analyze the relationships between socially-equitable development, and resilient and sustainable infrastructure and communities; (6) explain why socially-equitable development should be a key component of infrastructure and community resilience strategies in the 21^st Century; and, (7) explain why socially-equitable development can ultimately be viewed as a long-term strategy for prosperity.

This work presents an alternative to harnessing wind energy with an Electromagnetic Frequency Regulator (EFR) coupled to a hydrostatic transmission and associated with a horizontal axis wind turbine, a bidirectional frequency inverter and a secondary energy source, in a hybridized system. The hydrostatic transmision is composed by a fixed displacement axial piston pump and a variable displacement, swash plate, axial piston motor. Feedback linearization was used as a technique to control the motor geometric displacement, and a prediction algorithm for the steady state rotations of the armature and the electromagnetic field has been developed. A 5\,kW project was simulated on a Scilab platform, with combinations of constant or variable load, and constant or variable wind speed. The results indicated that the system was able to supply the generator load, adapting to fluctuations in wind speed. The possibility of storing wind energy through the inverter has also been proven. The system can accumulate energy in batteries during the fastest wind regimes, to use it when the turbine power is lower than the load.

Recent advancements in machine learning have ushered in innovative techniques for augmenting datasets, particularly through contrastive learning in the computer vision domain. This study pioneers the application of contrastive learning for sentiment analysis, introducing a novel approach termed EmoConLearn. By fine-tuning contrastive learning embeddings, EmoConLearn significantly surpasses BERT-based embeddings in sentiment analysis accuracy, as evidenced by our evaluations on the DynaSent dataset. This research further delves into the efficacy of EmoConLearn across various domain-specific datasets, highlighting its versatility. Additionally, we investigate upsampling strategies to mitigate class imbalance, further enhancing EmoConLearn's performance in sentiment analysis benchmarks.

The role of Black Carbon (BC) as a contributor to glacial retreat is of particular interest to the scientific community and decision makers, due to its impact on snow albedo and glacier melt. In this study, a thermal-optical instrument (LAHM) was used to measure effective Black Carbon (eBC) in a series of surface snow samples collected from the Vallunaraju glacier, Cordillera Blanca, between April 2019 and May 2020. The time series obtained indicates a marked seasonal variability of eBC with maximum concentrations during the dry season and dramatic decrease during the wet season. The concentrations detected ranged between a minimum of 3.73 ng/g and 4.23 ng/g during the wet season and a maximum of 214.13 ng/g and 181.60 ng/g during the dry season, in the accumulation and ablation zone. Using SNICAR model, the reduction of albedo was estimated at 6.36% and 6.60% during the dry season and 0.68% and 0.95% during the wet season, which represents an average radiative forcing of 4.52 ± 1.84 W/m2 and 4.69 ± 1.59 W/m2 in the accumulation zone, and 0.49 ± 0.27 W/m2 and 0.68 ± 0.43 W/m2 in the ablation zone. The melting of snow due to the eBC translates into 80.18 ± 37.30 kg/m2 and 83.16 ± 32.75 kg/m2 during the dry season, and 7.91 ± 4.29 kg/m2 and 10.85 ± 6.62 kg/m2 during the wet season, in the accumulation and ablation zones, respectively. Finally, the HYSPLIT trajectory assessment shows that aerosols predominate in the Amazon rainforest, especially when forest fires are most abundant according to VIIRS images.

Zooplankton and ichthyoplankton community assessments depend on species diagnostics, yet morphological identifications are time consuming, require taxonomic expertise, and are hampered by lack of diagnostic characters –particularly for larval stages. Metabarcoding can identify multiple species in communities from short DNA sequences in comparison to reference databases. To evaluate species resolution across phylogenetic groups and food webs of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton, we compare five metabarcode mitochondrial (mt)DNA markers from gene regions of (a)cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, (b) cytochrome b, (c) 16S ribosomal RNA, and (d) 12S ribosomal RNA for DNA extracted from net tows in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean’s Salish Sea across seven sites and two seasons. Species resolved by metabarcoding are compared to invertebrate morphological identifications and biomass estimates. Results indicate that species resolution for different zooplankton and ichthyoplankton taxa can markedly vary among gene regions and markers, and in comparison to morphological identifications. Thus, researchers seeking “universal” metabarcoding should take caution that several markers and gene regions likely will be needed; all will miss some taxa and yield incomplete overlap. Species resolution requires careful attention to taxon marker selection and coverage in reference sequence repositories. In summary, combined multi-marker metabarcode and morphological approaches improve broadscale zooplankton diagnostics.

The Cobb angle is critical in assessing adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the error in selecting the cranial and caudal limit vertebrae on AIS digital X-rays of experienced and novice observers and its correlation with the error in measuring the Cobb angle and determining the length of the scoliotic curves. Using the TraumaMeter v.873 software, eight raters (four experienced and four novices) independently evaluated 68 scoliotic curves on 42 AIS X-rays across three sessions one month apart according to Hopkins’ criteria of absolute reliability. Two spine specialist experts using the Cobb method established the gold standard measurements. The percentage of error in the selection of the cranial vertebrae (the most-tilted vertebra above the apex) is higher than in the caudal vertebrae (the most-tilted vertebrae below the apex) (44.7%, CI95% 41.05-48.3 compared to 35%, CI95% 29.7-40.4). The error in the choice of the most tilted vertebrae, in number of vertebrae per scoliotic curve, was MBE (mean bias error) =0.45, CI95% 0.38-0.52 in the cranial and MBE=0.35, CI% 0.69-0.91 in the caudal. The percentage of errors in the choice of boundary vertebrae is lower for the experienced than for the novices, both in cranial and caudal. The experienced chose at least one boundary vertebrae incorrectly in 52% of the meas-urements and the novices in 65.1%. The error in the Cobb angle did not depend on the number of boundary vertebrae chosen incorrectly (r=0.198, p=0.111). Of the 50% of Cobb angle measurements closest to the actual value, 55.4% (454) were obtained by incorrectly selecting at least one boundary vertebra. There was a positive correlation (r=0.673, p=0.000) between the error in selecting the boundary vertebrae and the error in determining the length of the scoliotic curves. The error in quantifying the length of scoliotic curves was MBE=0.43, CI95% 0.35-0.51 vertebrae per curve. We can conclude that errors in selecting boundary vertebrae are common among experienced and novice observers, with a greater frequency of error in the cranial vertebrae. There is no correlation between the error in selecting the boundary vertebrae and the error in measuring the Cobb angle. Contrary to the consensus, the accuracy of determining the length of the scoliotic curve is limited by the Cobb method’s reliance on the correct selection of boundary vertebrae. Inappropriate choice of boundary vertebrae leads to an estimated error in determining the length of the scoliotic curves of 0.805 vertebrae for each boundary vertebra chosen incorrectly.

We explored how dietary behaviors (sucrose, fructose, sodium, and potassium consumption) and endured psychological stress in young adult males and females impact the vascular aging index (VAI) and CVD risk by mid-life. Data were obtained from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, an ongoing longitudinal study. Included participants (n=2,656) had un-dergone carotid artery ultrasound at year 20 allowing VAIs to be calculated. Demographics, di-etary data and depression scores were obtained at baseline and year 20. Regression analyses were used to assess the predictors of VAI. Cox regression analyses were conducted to assess the risk of CVD, stroke and all-cause mortality. Predictors of vascular aging were found to be sex-specific. In females, CES-D scores at baseline were positively associated with VAI (B-weight=0.063, p=0.015). In males, sodium intake at year 20 positively predicted VAI (B-weight=0.145, p=0.003) and potassium intake inversely predicted VAI (B-weight=-0.160, p<0.001). BMI significantly predicted CVD, stroke, and death. Fructose consumption at year 20 was a significant predictor of CVD risk while having high blood pressure at baseline was signif-icantly associated with stroke risk. Our findings support the promotion of nutrient- specific be-havior changes to prevent vascular aging in early adulthood and CVD risk in mid-life.

On the 9th March 2020, the first patient with COVID-19 was admitted to ICU in the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Wales. We prospectively recorded the rate of ICU admissions of 52 patients with COVID-19 over 60 days, focusing on the epidemiology of ethnicity and deprivation. Patients were 65% (34 of 52) male and had a median (IQR) age of 55 (48-62) years. Prevalent comorbidities included obesity (52%); diabetes (33%), and asthma (23%). COVID-19 hospital and ICU inpatient numbers peaked on days 23 and 39, respectively – a lag of 16 days. The ICU mortality rate was 33% (17 of 52). Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics (BAME) population represented 35% of ICU COVID-19 admissions (18 of 52) and 35% of deaths (6 of 17). Within the BAME group, 72% (13 of 18) were found to reside in geographical areas representing the 20% most deprived in Wales, versus 27% of Caucasians (9 of 33). Less than 5% of the population within the hospital catchment area are of BAME descent, yet they represent a disproportionately high proportion of patients with ICU admission and mortality suffering from COVID-19. The interplay between ethnicity and deprivation, which is complex, may be a factor in our findings. This in turn could be related to an increased prevalence of co-morbidities; higher community exposure; or genetic polymorphisms.

Supplements in fish nutrition can help alleviate pressure on the wild stock; however, there is limited information on the benefits of rooibos tea extract in aquafeed. This study aimed to determine the effect of rooibos tea extract inclusion in the commercial diet on the growth performance of larval fish. Fish were reared on three diets: a commercial diet with 30% fermented or green rooibos extract and a commercial tilapia diet (control). Fish (initial weight of 0.54 ± 0.008 g and length of 2.22 ± 0.01 cm) were randomly distributed into recirculating aquaculture systems in triplicates at 100 fish per tank. Fish was hand-fed thrice daily for eight weeks at 2% body weight. After that, samples were withdrawn to measure growth parameters. Fish-fed fermented, and green tea extracts exhibited a significantly (p ˂ 0.05) higher weight gain than the controls. The feed conversion ratio was higher in the control group, fermented (1.50 ± 0.25 cm) and green tea (1.41 ± 0.07 cm). Similarly, the control group exhibited the highest condition factor (K=13.14 ± 4.87). The two treatment groups were comparable (p &gt;0.05) in growth performance. Overall, the evidence indicates that adding rooibos tea extracts to the basal diet can improve fish growth.

Background: The Hengduan Mountains are one of the most species–rich mountainous areas in the world. The origin and evolution of such a remarkable biodiversity are likely to be associated with geological or climatic dynamics, as well as taxon-specific biotic processes (e.g., hybridization, polyploidization, etc.). Here, we investigate the mechanisms fostering the diversification of the endemic Himalopsyche martynovi complex, a poorly known group of aquatic insects. Methods: We used multiple allelic datasets generated from 691 AHE loci to reconstruct species and RaxML phylogenetic trees. We selected the most reliable phylogenetic tree to perform network and gene flow analyses. Results: Phylogenetic reconstructions and network analysis identified three clades, including H. epikur, H. martynovi sensu stricto and H. cf. martynovi. Himalopsyche martynovi sensu stricto and H. cf. martynovi present an intermediate morphology between H. epikur and H. viteceki, the closest known relative to the H. martynovi–complex. The gene flow analysis revealed extensive gene flow among these lineages. Conclusion: Our results suggest that H. viteceki and H. epikur are likely to have contributed to the evolution of H. martynovi sensu stricto and H. cf. martynovi via gene flow, and thus, our study provides insights in the diversification process of a lesser–known ecological group, and hints at the potential role of gene flow in the emergence of biological novelty in the Hengduan Mountains.

The protein TRPM8, a non-selective, calcium (Ca2+) permeable ion channel is implicated in several pathological conditions, including neuropathic pain states. In our previous research endeavors, we have identified β–lactam derivatives with high hydrophobic character that exhibit potent and selective TRPM8 antagonist activity. This work describes the synthesis of novel derivatives featuring C-terminal amides and diversely substituted N’-terminal monobenzyl groups, in an attempt to increase the total polar surface area (TPSA) in this family of compounds. The primary goal was to assess the influence of these substituents on the inhibition of menthol-induced cellular Ca2+ entry, thereby establishing critical structure-activity relationships. While the substitution of the tert-butyl ester by isobutyl amide moieties improved the antagonist activity, none of the N’-monobencyl derivatives, regardless of the substituent on the phenyl ring, achieved the activity of the model dibenzyl compound. The antagonist potency of the most effective compounds was subsequently verified using Patch-Clamp electrophysiology experiments. Furthermore, we evaluated the selectivity of one of these compounds against other members of the TRP ion channel family and some receptors connected to peripheral pain pathways. This compound demonstrated specificity for TRPM8 channels. To better comprehend the potential mode of interaction, we conducted docking experiments to uncover plausible binding sites on the functionally active tetrameric protein, which come upon four main poses by the pore zone, differents from those described for other known antagonists. Finally, in vivo experiments, involving a couple of selected compounds, revealed significant antinociceptive activity within a mice model of cold allodynia induced by oxaliplatin.

The effect of sonication on the molecular characteristics of poliacrylic acid (Carbopol® Ultrez 10) and its rheological behavior in aqueous dispersions and microgels containing 0.25 wt. % of the polymer was analyzed in this work by rheometry, weight-average molecular weight (Mw) measurements via static light scattering (SLS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and confocal microscopy. For this, the precursor dispersion and the microgels were sonicated in a commercial ultrasound bath at constant power and different times. We observed a softening of the microgel microstructure consisting of a systematic decrease in its shear modulus, yield stress and viscosity with increasing sonication time, while their overall Herschel-Bulkley (H-B) behavior was preserved. SLS measurements evidenced a reduction of Mw of polyacrylic acid with sonication time. Separately, FTIR measurements indicate that sonication produces scission in the C-C links of the Carbopol® backbone, which results in chains with the same chemistry but lower molecular weight. Finally, confocal microscopy measurements revealed a concomitant diminution of the size of the microsponge domains with sonication time, which is reflected in a softer microstructure resulting from reduction of the molecular weight of polyacrylic acid. The present results indicate that both the microstructure and the rheological behavior of Carbopol® microgels, in particular, and complex fluids in general, may be manipulated or tailored by high-power ultrasonication.

Agronomic traits such as biomass yield and abiotic stress tolerance are genetically complex and challenging to improve by conventional breeding strategies. Genomic selection (GS) is an alternative approach in which genome-wide markers are used to determine the genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV) of individuals in a population. In alfalfa, previous results indicated that low to moderate prediction accuracy values (<70%) were obtained in complex traits such as yield and abiotic stress resistance. There is a need to increase the prediction value in order to employ GS in breeding programs. In this paper we reviewed different statistic models and their applications in polyploid crops including alfalfa. Specifically, we used empirical data affiliated with alfalfa yield under salt stress to investigate approaches which use DNA marker importance values derived from machine learning models, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of marker-trait association scores based on different GWASpoly models, in weighted GBLUP analyses. This approach increased prediction accuracies from 50% to more than 80% for alfalfa yield under salt stress. This is the first report in alfalfa to use variable importance and GWAS-assisted approaches to increase the prediction accuracy of GS, thus helping to select superior alfalfa lines based on their GEBVs.

Recent evidence has highlighted the critical role of memory cells in maintaining lifelong food allergies, thereby identifying these cells as therapeutic targets. IgG⁺ memory B cells replenish pools of IgE-secreting cells upon allergen exposure, which contract thereafter due to the short lifespan of tightly regulated IgE-expressing cells. Advances in the detection and highly dimensional analysis of allergen-specific B and T cells from allergic patients have provided insight on their phenotype and function. The newly identified Th2A and Tfh13 populations represent a leap in our understanding of allergen-specific T cell phenotypes, though how these populations contribute to IgE memory responses remains poorly understood. Within, we discuss the mechanisms by which memory B and T cells are activated, integrating knowledge from human systems and fundamental research. We then focus on memory reactivation; specifically, on the pathways of secondary IgE responses. Throughout, we identify areas of future research which will help identify immunotargets for a transformative therapy for food allergy.

The proliferation of radio frequency devices in today's society, especially in smart homes, Internet of Things devices, and smartphones, underscores the urgent need for robust identification methods to strengthen cybersecurity. This paper delves into the field of radio frequency fingerprinting to propose a Bluetooth device identification method based on the application of the Jensen-Shannon divergence to the statistical distribution of noise in Bluetooth signals. A detailed case study is performed to investigate the Bluetooth radio frequency noise recorded at 5 Gsps from different devices is investigated to define a statistical radio frequency fingerprint for each Bluetooth device. A noise model is used to extract a unique, universal, persistent, recoverable, and robust statistical radio frequency fingerprint that identifies each Bluetooth device. Then, using the Jensen-Shannon divergence, different noise signals provided by each Bluetooth device are compared with the statistical radio frequency fingerprint of all devices and a membership resolution is declared. The study shows that the proposed method can discriminate between devices of the same brand and model, achieving an identification effectiveness of 99.5 \%. By leveraging the statistical radio frequency fingerprint of Bluetooth devices, this research not only contributes to the advancement of the field of implicit device authentication systems based on wireless communication but also provides valuable insights into the practical implementation of radio frequency identification techniques that could be useful in forensic processes.

Periodontal disease is one of the most common conditions affecting dogs worldwide and is reported to be particularly prevalent in racing greyhounds. A range of potential risk factors have been hypothesised. Previous research has suggested, regular tooth brushing can reduce both calculus and gingivitis, but the frequency required is unclear. Here, we report a controlled blinded in-situ in which kennel staff brushed 160 racing greyhounds’ teeth (living at six kennel establishments), either weekly, daily or never over two-month period. All visible teeth were scored for calculus and gingivitis, using previously validated scales. We calculated average scores for each of three teeth groups and overall averaging the teeth groups. Changes were compared to baseline. After two months, the total calculus scores (controlling for baseline) were significantly different in the three treatemnet groups, (F(2,129) = 10.76, p&lt;0.001) with both weekly and daily brushing resulting in significant reductions. Gingivitis was also significantly different (F(2,128) = 4.57, p=0.012), but in this case, only daily brushing resulted in a significant reduction. Although dogs in different kennels varied significantly in their levels of both calculus (F(5,129) =8.64, p&lt;0.001), and gingivitis (F(5,128)=3.51 p=0.005), the intervention was generally similarly effective in all establishments. Teeth groups varied and incisors were not significantly affected by treatment. Since trainers implementing the routine, reported minimal time commitment and positive experiences, we suggest that daily brushing is recommended for racing greyhounds, and that demonstrations should include attention to all teeth groups including incisors. Similar trials need to be conducted with retired greyhounds since these have been shown to present particularly high levels of periodontal disease.

Most neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracerebral hemorrhage are associated with inflammation. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a pleiotropic pro-inflammatory cytokine that regulates cerebral infarction in stroke pathology, and its action is influenced by the bioavailability of its membrane-bound receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, and microglial activation. During the initial onset of these diseases, the soluble variant of the cytokine presents with prolonged and excessive activation of TNFR1, resulting in cell death and long-term neurological impairments. Therapeutic interventions for neurodegenerative diseases have targeted TNF to limit the onset of neuroinflammation. First-generation therapeutics have been demonstrated to inhibit membrane-bound TNF to TNFR2 receptor binding, resulting in severe side effects such as infections and cancer. As such, second-generation drugs, including XPro1595, have been developed to selectively inhibit soluble TNF and impede the effects of TNFR1 while still allowing for TNFR2 activation. Early results in murine TBI models demonstrate reduced glial reactivity by 50%, reduced dendritic degeneration by 30%, increased plasticity by 15%, and improved functional outcomes by 20% post-TBI. This scoping review of TNF receptors in various neurodegenerative diseases seeks to evaluate current and future therapeutic strategies as well as highlight potential strategies to eliminate confounding variables present in the current literature.

A two-factor account has been proposed as an explanatory model for the formation and maintenance of delusions. The first factor refers to a neurocognitive process leading to a significant change in subjective experience; the second factor has been regarded as a failure in hypothesis evaluation characterized as an impairment of metacognitive ability. This study was focused on the assessment of metacognition in patients with schizophrenia. The aims of the study were to measure the overconfidence in metacognitive judgments through the prediction of word list recall; and to analyze the correlation between basic neurocognition: memory and executive function and metacognition through a metamemory test and the severity of psychotic symptoms. Method: 51 participants with diagnosis the of Schizophrenia were evaluated. The PANNS was used to assess the severity of psychiatric symptoms and the subtest of Metamemory included in the BANFE Battery was used to evaluate overconfidence and underestimations errors, intrusion and perseverative response, and total volume of recall. Results. The strongest correlation are observed between overconfidence errors and the positive factor of the PANSS (r= 0.774, p

This paper presents the mathematical modeling for designing a 10[kW] DC-AC inverter system from 48 [V] DC to 120 V ACrms, considering its non-linear operation, allowing to obtain a detailed simulation to assess the proposed fuzzy PI control (with anti-windup action) and its optimal operation. The performance assessment of the converter was carried out with the discrete treatment of the voltage and current signals using spectral analysis, filtering considerations, and evaluation of limit cycle technique to determine the system's stability. The main results showed that THD at the filter output (transformer and capacitor) was around 0.0322% and 0.0632% at nominal load in open loop and closed loop, respectively. The inverter system presented more sensitivity in the current signal with a ripple at 120 [Hz] of 2.02% and at 5000 [Hz] of 10.62% (at nominal load). However, when the system operates in a closed loop, the current ripple at 120 [Hz] is 2.38% and at 5000 [Hz] is 10.62%.

Historically, the evaluation and assessment of the clinical response to treatment for canine back pain is subjective and relies on owner and clinician assessment of pain. This study evaluated the use of sequential infrared thermal images as a measure of the response of canine patients with back pain to a prescribed series of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) treatments. Qualifying participants had histories of pain and dysfunction associated with spinal osteoarthritis or intervertebral disk disease, or of non-specific uni- or bilateral back pain along the paravertebral epaxial muscles. Each patient was initially thermally imaged prior to PBMT treatment and then received multiple PBMT treatments delivered to the appropriate spinal area on days 1, 2, 3, and 4. Participants were reimaged on day 7. Thermal images provided an objective measure of superficial temperature changes over the area of PBMT treatment of each patient after the PBMT regimen. The temperature correlated with statistically significant changes in Colorado State University Canine Chronic Pain Scale scoring (CPS) and owner assessment using the Canine Brief Pain Inventory (CBPI), which includes a Pain Severity Score (PSS) and Pain Interference Score (PIS). The correlation of objective thermal imaging data with more subjective outcome measures suggests thermal imaging may be a valuable additional tool in monitoring therapy outcome.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus that causes febrile illness punctuated by severe polyarthralgia. After the emergence of CHIKV in the Western Hemisphere, multiple reports of congenital infections were published that documented neurological complications, cardiac defects, respiratory distress, and miscarriage. The Western Hemisphere is endemic to several alphaviruses and whether antigenic cross-reactivity can impact the course of infection has not been explored. Recent advances in biomedical engineering have produced cell co-culture models that replicate the cellular interface at the maternal fetal axis. We employed a trans-well assay to determine if cross-reactive antibodies affected the movement and replication of CHIKV across placental cells and into an embryoid body. The data show that antibodies to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) significantly reduced CHIKV viral load in embryoid bodies. The data highlight that viral pathogenesis can be cell-specific and that exploiting antigenic cross-reactivity could be an avenue for reducing the impact of congenital CHIKV infections.

In the United States (US), tianeptine is sold as a dietary supplement under the trade name Tianaa™. Tianeptine is a synthetic drug prescribed by physicians as an antidepressant in parts of Europe, Asia and South America. The drug is not permitted for use by physicians in the US, be-cause it is a μ-opioid receptor agonist with a propensity for severe addiction. As incidence of Tianaa™ related opioid addiction across the southern US escalate, the current study aimed to quantify tianeptine in over the counter Tianaa™ White, Red, and Green products. The results of this investigation measured tianeptine levels between 3.1 to 10.9 mg per 531 mg capsules. Tianaa™ White capsules consistently contained the least tianeptine, while Green had the most. Close inspection of Tianaa™ products showed that capsule mass varied by as much as 16% from label claim, and the amount of tianeptine per capsule varied by as much as 35 % from the aver-age measured amount for each product. Tianaa™ Red contains kava leaf extract, which led to the identification of four kavapyrone components by mass spectrometry. The data presented pro-vide insight into tianeptine quantity and capsule mass variation for Tianaa™ supplements sold to customers naive to the risk of addiction.

Practicing preventive etiquettes such as hand washing, hand disinfection, wearing a face mask, practicing physical distancing, disinfection of surfaces and objects can help curb the transmission of COVID-19 at the workplace. This paper focuses on interventions and behaviors required to curb the spread of COVID-19 at workplaces. We undertook a detailed multi-disciplinary literature search on the following topics: hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, physical distancing, quarantine and isolation, disinfection of objects and surfaces, behavior change, and health crisis communication. We identified interventions that are effective for preventing the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) at workplaces. These findings present very useful non-clinical interventions for preventing COVID-19 in the work environment.

: Despite the elevated heat flow known in the Western part of the South Slave Region (Northwest Territories, Canada), a continuous and equilibrium geothermal gradient was never measured in boreholes below the communities where geothermal energy could be developed. This paper aims to predict the geothermal gradient and assess the Earth’s natural heat flow below the communities of Fort Providence, Kakisa, Hay River, and Enterprise. Temperatures from drill-stem test and bottom well logs were corrected for drilling disturbance and paleoclimates. Thermal conductivity and heat generation rate of the geological formations were determined from the literature and with new laboratory measurements. 1D models were developed to evaluate subsurface temperature through the sedimentary formations, based on a thermostratigraphic assessment. Results indicate a geothermal gradient varying from 44.1 ± 10.6 °C km-1 to 59.1 ± 14.9 °C km-1 and heat flow varying from 105.5 mW m-2 to 160.2 mW m-2 below the communities. These estimates are in agreement with the equilibrium geothermal gradients measured in the Cameron Hills, south of the four communities, and used to verify our predictions. Hay River appears to be the most promising community with the highest geothermal gradient estimated to be 59.1 ± 14.9 °C km-1.

Flavonoids comprise a large group of structurally diverse polyphenolic compounds of plant origin and are abundantly found in human diet such as fruits, vegetables, grains, tea, dairy products, red wine and so on. Major classes of flavonoids include flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavanols, anthocyanidins, isoflavones, and chalcones. Owing to their potential health benefits and medicinal significance, flavonoids are now considered as an indispensable component in a variety of medicinal, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmetic preparations. However, flavonoids play a significant role in preventing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which could be mainly due to their antioxidant, antiatherogenic, and antithrombotic effects. Epidemiological and in vitro/in vivo evidences of antioxidant effects support the cardioprotective function of dietary flavonoids. Further, the inhibition of LDL oxidation and platelet aggregation following regular consumption of food containing flavonoids and moderate consumption of red wine might protect against atherosclerosis and thrombosis. A study suggests that daily intake of 100 mg of flavonoids through diet may reduce the risk of developing morbidity and mortality due to coronary heart disease (CHD) by approximately 10%. This review summarizes dietary flavonoids with their sources and potential health implications in CVDs including various redox-active cardioprotective (molecular) mechanisms with antioxidant effects. Pharmacokinetic (oral bioavailability, drug metabolism), toxicological and therapeutic aspects of dietary flavonoids are also addressed herein with future directions for the discovery and development of useful drug candidates/ therapeutic molecules.

Cellular automata are mathematical models that represent systems with complex behavior through simple interactions between their individual elements. These models can be used to study unconventional computational systems and complexity. One notable aspect of cellular automata is their ability to create structures known as gliders, which move in a regular pattern to represent the manipulation of information. This paper introduces the modification of mean-field theory applied to cellular automata, using random perturbations based on the system’s evolution rule. The original aspect of this approach is that the perturbation factor is tailored to the nature of the rule, altering the behavior of the mean-field polynomials. By combining the properties of both the original and perturbed polynomials, it is possible to detect when a cellular automaton is more likely to generate gliders without having to run evolutions of the system.This methodology is a useful approach to finding more examples of cellular automata that exhibit complex behavior. We start by examining elementary cellular automata, then move on to examples of automata that can generate gliders with more states. To illustrate the results of this methodology, we provide evolution examples of the detected automata.