The main focus of the in vitro toxicity assessment methods is on the viability of the cells, which is usually based on metabolism changes. Yet, when exposed to toxic substances, the cell triggers multiple signals in response. With this in mind, we have developed a promising cell-based toxicity method that observes various cell responses when exposed to toxic substances (either death, division or remaining viable). Based on the collective cell response, we observed and predicted the dynamics of the cell population to determine the toxicity of the toxicant. The method was tested with two different conformations: In the first conformation, we exposed a monoculture model of blood macrophages to UV light, hydrogen peroxide, nutrient deprivation, tetrabromobisphenol A, fatty acids and 5-fluorouracil. In the second, we exposed a coculture liver model consisting of hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells, Kupffer cells and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells to rifampicin, ibuprofen and 5-fluorouracil. The method showed good accuracy compared to established toxicity assessment methods. In addition, this approach provided more representative information on the toxic effects of the compounds as it considers the different cellular responses induced by toxic agents.

This paper introduces a systematic approach to the design of Direct Current-to-Digital Converter (DCDC) specifically engineered to overcome the limitations of traditional current measurement methodologies in System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. The proposed DCDC addresses critical challenges such as high power consumption, large area requirements, and the need for intermediate analog signals. By incorporating a current mirror in a cascode topology and managing the current across multiple binary-sized branches with the Successive Approximation Register (SAR) logic, the design achieves precise current measurement. A simple comparator, coupled with an isolation circuit, ensures accurate and reliable sensing. Fabricated using the TSMC 180 nm process, the DCDC achieves 8-bit precision without the need for nonlinearity calibration, showcasing remarkable energy efficiency with an energy per conversion of 1.52 pJ, power consumption of 117 µW, and a compact area of 0.016 mm². This innovative approach not only reduces power consumption and area, but also provides a scalable and efficient solution for next-generation semiconductor technologies. The ability to conduct online measurements during both standard operations and in-field conditions significantly enhances the performance and reliability of SoCs, making this DCDC a promising advancement in the field.

Abstract Introduction: In the last thirty years, brain neuromodulation techniques have been used as an alternative to pharmacological treatment of neurological disorders. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to bradykinesia, rest tremor, postural changes, and non-motor symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, pain, and cognitive decline that compromises executive functions (EFs), responsible for the orderly execution of behaviors and tasks of daily life and intentional and directed actions. To this date, a few studies with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have shown beneficial effects in PD patients concerning specific motor and non-motor symptoms, targeting the motor cortex and/or prefrontal regions. Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of left prefrontal tDCS across a broad spectrum of motor and non-motor symptoms of PD using established validated scales. Method: Single-blind randomized clinical trial with 18 volunteers with PD, aged between 45 and 80 years (66.1 ± 9.65), who met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Participants were submitted to assessments of motor and non-motor functions employing psychometric scales and tests to evaluate EFs and were randomly divided into two groups: control (sham stimulation) and experimental (active stimulation). All participants were involved in three separate tDCS sessions. The anode was positioned over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode over the right supraorbital region, with a direct current intensity of 2mA, lasting 20 minutes. At the end of the three sessions, all participants were reassessed. Results: Significant effects of tDCS on non-motor functions were observed for cognition (verbal fluency of actions, clock copy test, appointment by visual confrontation, and verbal memory with immediate free recall) and subjective assessment of sleep quality (overall restlessness and discomfort in the arms and legs at night, leg and arm cramps at night and distressing dreams). There was also an improvement in the rate of errors and successes for congruent and incongruent stimuli of the Stroop Test. The beneficial effects on motor function were decreased rigidity, improved gait, and greater agility in the finger-tapping test. Conclusion: Three tDCS sessions showed positive results for participants with PD, producing significant improvements in various motor and non-motor functions, including sleep quality, cognition, and EFs. Additionally, the present results indicate that tDCS neuromodulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region is feasible, safe, and provides significant objective benefits for PD patients.

Background: In Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) the injected current gets distributed across the brain areas. The motive is to stimulate the target region-of-interest (ROI), while minimizing the current in non-target ROIs. For this purpose, determining the appropriate current-dose for an individual is difficult. Aim: To introduce Dose-Target-Determination-Index (DTDI) to quantify the focality of tDCS and examine the dose-focality relationship in three different populations. Method: Here, we extended our previous toolbox i-SATA to the MNI reference space. After a tDCS montage is simulated for a current-dose, the i-SATA(MNI) computes the average (over voxels) current density for every region in the brain. DTDI is the ratio of average current density at target ROI to the ROI with maximum value (peak region). Ideally target ROI should be the peak region, so DTDI shall range from 0 to 1. Higher the value, the better the dose. We estimated the variation of DTDI within and across individuals using T1-weighted brain images of 45 males and females distributed equally across three age groups- (a) Young adults (20 ≥ x ˂ 40 years), (b) Mid adults (40 ≥ x ˂ 60 years), and (c) Older adults (60 ≥ x ˂ 80 years). DTDI’s were evaluated for the frontal montage with electrodes at F3 and right supra-orbital for three current doses 1mA, 2mA, and 3mA with the target ROI at left middle frontal gyrus. Result: As the dose is incremented, DTDI may show (a) increase, (b) decrease, and (c) no change across the individuals. The focality decreases with age and the decline is stronger in males. Higher current dose at older age can enhance the focality of stimulation. Conclusion: DTDI provides information on which tDCS current dose will optimize the focality of stimulation. DTDI recommended dose should be prioritised based on the age (> 40 years) and sex (especially males) of an individual. The toolbox i-SATA(MNI) is freely available.

The integrated DC-DC converter is appropriate for use in many domains, namely, display, cellular, and portable applications. This paper presents an integrated monolithic voltage-mode DC-DC boost converter with a low-power control circuit. The driver circuit requires an integrated converter to power up a digital logic circuit and converts the unregulated DC input to the controlled DC output at the desired voltage level. It is the integration of both power switches and control circuitry within the same CMOS technology to buck down and boost voltages using a switch mode regulator. In order to increase power efficiency in the DC-DC boost converter that provides low-power operation with a small chip size, a low-voltage operation is applied to the unique circuit characteristic. The operational transconductance amplifier(OTA), comparator, and oscillator in the control circuit are designed with the supply voltage of 3.3V and the operating frequency of 5.5 MHz. A compensator is used to create a pole that has sufficient phase margin for high stability. The DC- DC boost converter is measured in both experiment and simulation. Testing of the proposed circuit on the 0.35μm CMOS process shows that the output transient time of the amplifier can be controlled within of 7μsec and the output voltage is accurately controlled with a ripple ratio of 3%.

Low-resource languages often face the problem of insufficient data, which leads to poor quality in machine translation. One approach to address this issue is data augmentation. Data augmentation involves creating new data by transforming existing data through methods such as flipping, cropping, rotating, and adding noise. Traditionally, pseudo-parallel corpora are generated by randomly replacing words in low-resource language machine translation. However, this method can introduce ambiguity as the same word may have different meanings in different contexts. This study proposes a new approach for low-resource language machine translation, which involves generating pseudo-parallel corpora by replacing phrases. The performance of this approach is compared with other data augmentation methods, and it is observed that combining it with other data augmentation methods further improves performance. To enhance the robustness of the model, R-Drop regularization is also used. R-Drop is an effective method for improving the quality of machine translation. The proposed method was tested on Chinese-Kazakh (Latin script) translation tasks, resulting in performance improvements of 4.99 and 7.7 for Chinese-to-Kazakh and Kazakh-to-Chinese translations, respectively.

A space charge density wireless measurement system based on the idea of distributed measurement is proposed for collecting and monitoring the space charge density in an ultra-high-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) environment. The proposed system architecture is composed of a number of wireless nodes connected with space charge density sensors and a base station. The space charge density sensor based on atmospheric ion counter method is elaborated and developed, and the ARM microprocessor and Zigbee radio frequency module are applied. The wireless network communication quality and the relationship between energy consumption and transmission distance in the complicated electromagnetic environment is tested. Based on the experimental results, the proposed measurement system demonstrates that it can adapt to the complex electromagnetic environment under the UHVDC transmission lines and can accurately measure the space charge density.

Day by day, the share of renewable energy-based power plants such as offshore wind farms and photovoltaic power plants, in the present-day power systems is escalating. Nevertheless, most of these power-producing facilities have been located quite far away from the load centers. At this stage, HVDC power systems provide satisfactory options due to qualities such as reduced line losses, substantial controllability, and environmental advantages. Nevertheless, unique converter designs are required to combine asynchronous HVDC networks with each other and with already existing high voltage alternating current (HVAC) networks. In this study, based on the above special cases, a unique DC-DC modular multilevel converter (MMC) architecture is presented that provides an excellent solution for both integrating modern asynchronous HVDC networks and integrating these modern HVDC power systems with existing asynchronous HVAC power systems. The mathematical analysis of the recommended DC-DC MMC design has been examined in detail and the power transfer between two asynchronous power grids has been realized in a simulation environment. Efficient bilateral power transmission has been made achievable by the control system. The recommended DC-DC MMC topology has shown to be a highly successful approach, in the interconnection of HVDC power systems, according to the simulation results.

In this work, a highly efficient, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) based near infrared (NIR) heterojunction photodetector is fabricated on a Si substrate using a cost-effective and simple drop casting method. A non-stoichiometric and inhomogeneous MoS2 layer with a S/Mo ratio of 2.02 is detected using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscope analysis. Raman shifts are noticed at 382.42 cm-1 and 407.97 cm-1, validating MoS2 thin film growth with a direct bandgap of 2.01 eV. The fabricated n-MoS2/p-Si photodetector is illuminated with a 785 nm laser at different intensities, and demonstrate the ability of the photodetector to work in both regions, the forward biased and reverse biased from above 1.5 V and less than -1.0 V. The highest responsivity, R is calculated to be 0.52 A/W while the detectivity D* is 4.08 x 10^10 Jones for an incident light intensity of 9.57 mW/cm2. The minimum rise and fall times are calculated as 1.77 ms and 1.31 ms for an incident laser power of 9.57 mW/cm^2 and 6.99 mW/cm^2 respectively at a direct current bias voltage of 10 V. The demonstrated results are promising for the low-cost fabrication of a thin MoS2 film for photonics and optoelectronic device applications.

Pistachio and cashew contain allergenic proteins, which causes them to be removed from the diet of allergic people. Former evidences have demonstrated that food processing (thermal and non-thermal) can produce structural and/or conformational changes in proteins by altering their allergenic capacity. In this study, the influence of Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) on the pistachio and cashew allergenic capacity has been studied. Western blot was carried out using IgG anti-11S and anti-2S and IgE antibodies from sera of patients sensitized to pistachio and cashew. DIC processing causes changes in the electrophoretic pattern, reducing the number and intensity of protein bands, as the pressure and temperature treatment increment what results in a remarkable decrease of detection of potentially allergenic proteins. The harshest conditions of DIC (7bar, 120s) markedly reduce the immunodetection of allergenic proteins, not only by using IgG (anti 11S and anti 2S) but also when IgE sera from sensitized patients were used for Western blots. Such immunodetection is more affected in pistachio than in cashew nuts, but it not completely removed. Therefore, cashew proteins are possibly more resistant than pistachio proteins. According these findings, Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) can be considered a suitable technique in order to obtain hypoallergenic tree nuts flour to be used in food industry.

Pakistan is an important country located in South Asia and ranks the world's sixth most populous country. It has diverse landscapes with their own specific vegetation. The country specific vegetative diversity has a great ecological and economic impact on the conservation of local fauna. It has huge potential for sustainable beekeeping industry if properly exploited. Beekeeping in Pakistan is mainly focused in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central and north regions of Punjab provinces but nowadays it is growing rapidly across the country. Honey produced in Pakistan enjoys good repute in the Middle East due to its unique taste and quality. Pakistan exports around 4000 tons of the honey with the worth of about $ 23.00 million to Arab countries every year.

Lyme disease is a highly prevalent tick-borne infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes in North America and Eurasia. Diagnosis of the early disease remains difficult with the currently approved serological tests in the absence of noticeable tick bite or erythema migrans due to presentation of non-specific symptoms and the absence of antibodies early in infection. Furthermore, it is difficult to distinguish persistence of disease and reinfection in the endemic regions. If not treated early, infection spreads throughout the body and affects most organs with disease manifestations including arthritis, musculoskeletal pain, neuroborreliosis and acrodermatitis chronicum atrophicans. Although most patients recover after antibiotic treatment, ~10-12% of show recurrence of symptoms known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). Various causes of PTLDS are not well-defined; however, the spirochete persisters, antigenic debris, dysregulation of immunological response in individuals or a combination of these factors are proposed to result in continuation of Lyme disease manifestations. Based on these considerations, this review highlights currently employed treatment approaches with antimicrobials and vaccines being tried for prevention of B. burgdorferi infection. We also summarize combinatorial approaches that could be employed to alleviate symptoms to improve the quality of life of the individuals suffering from long Lyme disease.

Remote Photoplethysmography (rPPG) has emerged as a non-intrusive and promising physiological sensing capability in HCI research, gradually extending its applications in health-monitoring and clinical care contexts. With advanced machine learning models, recent datasets collected in real-world conditions have gradually enhanced the performance of rPPG methods in recovering heart-rate and heart-rate variability metrics. However, the signal quality of reference ground-truth PPG data in existing datasets is by and large neglected, while poor quality references negatively influence models. Here, this work introduces a new imaging blood volume pulse (iBVP) dataset of synchronized RGB and thermal infrared videos with PPG ground-truth signals from the ear and its high resolution signal quality labels, for the first time. Participants perform rhythmic breathing, head-movement, and stress-inducing tasks, which help reflect real-world variations in psycho-physiological states. This work conducts dense (per sample) signal quality assessment to discard noisy segments of ground-truth and corresponding video frames. We further present a novel end-to-end machine learning framework, iBVPNet that features an efficient and effective spatio-temporal feature aggregation for reliable estimation of BVP signals. Finally, this work examines the feasibility of extracting BVP signals from thermal video frames, which is underexplored. The iBVP dataset and source codes are publicly available for research use.

Polymer adhesives have emerged as a promising dielectric passivation layer in hybrid bonding for 3D integration while they raise misalignment problems during curing. In this work, the synergistic effect of oxygen plasma surface activation and wetting is utilized to achieve bonding between completed cured polyimides. The optimized process achieves a void-less bonding with a maximum shear strength of 35.3 MPa at a low temperature of 250 °C in merely 2 min, significantly shortening the bonding period and decreasing thermal stress. It is found that the plasma activation generated hydrophilic groups on the polyimide surface, and the wetting process further introduced more -OH groups and water molecular on the activated polyimide surface. The synergistic process of plasma activation and wetting facilitate bridging polyimide interfaces to achieve bonding, providing an alternative path for adhesive bonding in 3D integration.

Herein, we present the design technique of a resonant rectifier for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting. We propose two diode equivalents to reduce the voltage drop in the rectifier operation, a minuscule-drop-diode equivalent (MDDE) and a low-drop-diode equivalent (LDDE). The diode equivalents are embedded in resonant rectifier integrated circuits (ICs), which use symmetric bias-flip to reduce the power wasted for charging and discharging the internal capacitance of a PE transducer. The self-startup function is supported by synchronously generating control pulses for the bias-flip from the PE transducer. Two resonant rectifier ICs, using both MDDE and LDDE, are fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process and their performances are characterized under external and self-power conditions. Under the external-power condition, the rectifier using LDDE delivers an output power POUT of 564 μW and a rectifier output voltage VRECT of 3.36 V with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 90.1%. Under self-power conditions, the rectifier using MDDE delivers a POUT of 288 μW and a VRECT of 2.4 V with a corresponding PCE of 74.6%. The result shows that the power extraction capability of the proposed rectifier is 5.9 and 3.0 times higher than that of a conventional full-bridge rectifier.

ADHD, a neurodevelopmental condition, is distinguished by a triad of symptoms including inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. It is frequently accompanied by comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and learning disabilities. As a result, clinicians often face challenges in accurately diagnosing ADHD and differentiating it from other conditions. As a prospective remedy for ADHD, scientists have investigated Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive technique of stimulating the brain. It involves applying low-intensity electrical currents to specific regions of the brain to modulate neural activity. This review paper aims to provide an overview of the comorbidities associated with ADHD and the differential diagnosis of the condition. It also explores the potential of tDCS as a treatment option for ADHD, including its mechanisms of action and efficacy in improving ADHD symptoms. The comorbidities discussed in this review include anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and substance use disorders. These comorbidities are frequently seen in individuals with ADHD and can complicate the diagnosis and treatment of the condition. The paper also highlights the importance of considering comorbidities when assessing ADHD, as well as the potential impact of these conditions on treatment outcomes. The differential diagnosis section of the paper explores conditions that can present with symptoms similar to ADHD, such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and learning disabilities. It emphasizes the need for a thorough assessment and differential diagnosis to identify ADHD and differentiate it from other conditions accurately. The final section of the paper discusses the potential of tDCS as a treatment option for ADHD. It examines the mechanisms of action of tDCS and its efficacy in improving ADHD symptoms, including attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. It also explores the potential for tDCS to improve comorbid conditions associated with ADHD. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive overview of comorbidities and differential diagnoses in ADHD and the potential of tDCS as a treatment option. The paper highlights the importance of a thorough assessment and personalized treatment plan for individuals with ADHD, particularly those with comorbidities.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique that delivers low levels of a constant current via scalp electrodes to specifically targeted areas of the brain. The effects of tDCS on whole-body exercise performance has been of interest in recent literature. The purpose of the current investigation was to investigate if tDCS, administered via Halo Sport, influences time trial performance in trained cyclists, and if changes in exercise performance are associated with prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation and/or muscle oxygenation (SmO2). Methods: Twelve recreationally trained cyclists volunteered to participate in two 10-kilometer time trials following 20 minutes of tDCS or a sham condition. Results: T-tests showed there was no significant difference in performance (time to completion) or physiological measures (BLa-, HR, SmO2, PFC oxygenation) between the Halo and sham conditions. Conclusions: These results indicate that the application of tDCS via Halo Sport does not induce changes in exercise performance or related physiological parameters during a 10-kilometer cycling time trial.

The widespread adoption of IoT networks has revolutionized modern life thanks to their diverse range of applications. With their increased usage, the need to transfer data securely has never been more vital. Often IoT devices are battery-driven and possess limited processing and storage capabilities. In response to those limitations, there has been a shift towards the implementation of resource-efficient and lighter protocols. This research aims to evaluate how lightweight key establishment through Object Security for Constrained RESTful Environments (OSCORE) and Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman Over COSE (EDHOC) can enhance cybersecurity in IoT networks where resources are limited. The study aims to explore different key management approaches and the effects of certificates on security, efficiency, and power consumption. The research methodology consists of the practical implementation of the protocols in a physical system where factors such as the impact of hardware acceleration on computational overhead and overall power consumption will be assessed. Furthermore, the study will verify the cost of resources and overall efficiency, evaluating them against real-world scenarios. The expected contributions of this study are insights into the tradeoffs between security, power consumption, and efficiency in resource-limited IoT environments.

This study builds on our previous Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that assessed the applications and performance of zk-SNARK, zk-STARK, and Bulletproof Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Proof (NIZKP) protocols. To address identified research gaps, we designed and implemented a benchmark comparing these three protocols using a dynamic MiMC hash application. We evaluated performance across four general-purpose programming libraries and two programming languages. Our results show that zk-SNARK produced the smallest proofs, while zk-STARK generated the largest. In terms of proof generation and verification times, zk-STARK was the fastest, and Bulletproof the slowest. Interestingly, zk-SNARK proofs verified marginally faster than zk-STARK, contrary to other findings. These insights enhance our understanding of the functionality, security, and performance of NIZKP protocols, providing valuable guidance for selecting the most suitable protocol for specific applications.

Based on the Flashing Ratchet Potential (FRP) and Electro-Spectroscopy detection techniques, a new detection method was experimentally examined. This method allows the detection of sub-micro particles in the human exhaled air such as viral particles and other biological agents. The detection signal created by this method is carried out by electron current buildup forming an Electric Current-Spectrum (ECS) distinguishing the contents of the exhaled air samples. The detection method was developed based on FRP and a beam of free charges passing through the electrodes of the FRP. The ECS is characterized by low-energy free charges interacting with the medium through which they pass, where numerous free charges are scattered (delayed) as a result of these interactions. The resulting ECS is characterized by FRP's capacity to drift back the delayed free charges to their original starting positions. By comparing the ECS of two exhale air samples, this new technology can be utilized to identify the presence of viral and microorganisms’ particles. The time-escalating ECS difference quickly indicates the presence of such particles. Moreover, the FRP's optimal operating settings was experimentally defined, in addition to the experimental evaluation of its functionality to confirm the FRP's promising sensing capabilities, which were statistically examined several times to ensure the reproducibility of the results.

Due to environmental concerns, natural refrigerants and their use in refrigeration and air conditioning systems are receiving more attention from manufacturers, end users and the scientific community. The study of heat transfer and pressure drop is essential for accurate design and more energy efficient cycles using natural refrigerants. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the latest outcomes related to heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for ammonia, propane, isobutane and propylene and to investigate the current state of the art in terms of operating conditions. Available data on the existing correlations of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop for natural refrigerants have been collected through a systematic search. Whenever possible, validity intervals are given for each correlation and the error is quantified. It is the intention of the authors that this could be a valuable support for researchers and an aid to design, with particular reference to heat pumps. A procedure based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was adopted, and the Scopus database was used to query the relevant literature. A total of 135 publications qualified for inclusion in the survey; 34 articles report experimental investigations for not usual geometric conditions. Of the 101 selected papers related to usual geometric conditions, N = 50 deal only with HTC, N = 16 deal only with pressure drop and the remainder (N = 35) analyse both HTC and pressure drop. Among the 85 HTC papers (N = 53) deal with the evaporating condition, N = 30 with condensation and only N = 2 with the heat transfer correlations under both conditions. Most of the 101 articles concern propane and isobutane. The high temperatures are less widely investigated.

In this study, in order to determine the effect of matrices shape on percolation threshold values, computer simulations were performed using the Monte Carlo method for a 200x200 square-shaped matrix and rectangular matrices containing the same number of nodes as the square matrix. Based on the simulations, the average values of percolation thresholds and standard deviations for current flow along and across the matrices were determined. It was determined that for a square-shaped matrix, the average values of percolation thresholds in both directions of current flow were the same. Extending the rectangular matrix while reducing its height causes the average value of the percolation threshold in the direction of current flow along the matrix to increase from 0.592740 to 0.759847, while in the transverse direction it decreases from 0.592664 to 0.403614. The values of the classical asymmetry coefficients of the probability distributions of percolation thresholds for both directions of current flow were determined. Histograms of the probability distributions of percolation threshold values for square-shaped matrix and rectangular matrices were made and compared with normal distributions. It was found that the occurrence of two percolation thresholds in rectangular layers should be considered when analyzing electrical conductivity measurements of nanocomposite thin films.

Brushless Synchronous Machines (BSM) are replacing conventional synchronous machines with static excitation in generation facilities due to the absence of sparking and lower maintenance. However, this excitation system makes challenging measuring electric parameters in the rotor. This fact highly difficult the detection of ground faults, which are the most common type of electrical fault in electric machines. In this paper, a ground fault detection method for BSM is proposed. It is based on an inductive AC/DC rotating current sensor installed in the shaft. In case of a ground fault in the rotating parts of the BSM, a fault current will flow through the rotor’s sensor, inducing voltage in its stator. Analyzing the frequency components of the induced voltage the detection of a ground fault in the rotating elements is possible. The ground faults detection method proposed covers the whole rotor and discern between DC and AC sides. To corroborate the detection method, experimental tests have been performed using a prototype of this sensor connected to laboratory synchronous machines achieving satisfactory results.

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has opened up exciting possibilities for new applications. One such novel application is the modernization of maritime communications. Effective maritime communication is vital for ensuring the safety of crew members, vessels, and cargo. The maritime industry is responsible for the transportation of a significant portion of global trade, and as such, the efficient and secure transfer of information is essential to maintain the flow of goods and services. With the increasing complexity of maritime operations, technological advancements such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and the Internet of Ships (IoS) have been introduced to enhance communication and operational efficiency. However, these technologies also bring new challenges in terms of security and network management. Compromised IT systems, with escalated privileges, can potentially enable easy and ready access to operational technology (OT) systems and networks with the same privileges, with an increased risk of zero-day attacks. In this paper, we first provide a review of the current state and modalities of maritime communications. We then review the current adoption of Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) and Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) in the maritime industry and evaluate their impact, as IoT enablers, on the future of maritime industry operations, safety, and security.

Three low band gap copolymers based on isoindigo acceptor units were designed and successfully synthesized by direct arylation polycondensation method. Two of them were benzodithiophene(BDT)-isoindigo copolymers (PBDTI-OD and PBDTI-DT) with 2-octlydodecyl(OD) and 2-decyltetradecyl (DT) substituted isoindigo units, respectively. Thiophene donor and DT-substituted isoindigo acceptor units were copolymerized to synthesize PTI-DT. The copolymers have broad absorption range that extends to over 760 nm with a band gap ~ .5 eV. The photophysical property studies showed the BDT based copolymers have non-polar ground states. Their emission exhibited the population of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state in polar solvents and tightly bound excitonic state in non-polar solvents due to self-aggregation. On the contrary, the emission from the thiophene based copolymers was only from the tightly bound excitonic state. The thermal decomposition temperature of the copolymers was above 380 oC. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the three copolymers showed a halo due pi-pi stacking. A second sharper peak was observed in the BDT-based copolymer with longer side chain on the isoindigo unit (PBDTI-DT) and the thiophene based copolymers with PTI-DT exhibiting a better structural order.

Synthetic cathinones, derived from cathinone found in the plant Catha edulis, represent the second-largest and most frequently seized group of new psychoactive substances. They are considered as β-keto analogs of amphetamine, sharing pharmacological effects with amphetamine and cocaine. This review describes the neurotoxic properties of synthetic cathinones, encompassing their capacity to induce neuroinflammation, dysregulate neurotransmitter systems, and alter in monoamine transporters and receptors. Additionally, it discusses the rewarding and abuse potential of synthetic cathinones drawing from findings obtained through various preclinical animal models, contextualized with other classical psychostimulants. The review also offers an overview of current abuse trends of synthetic cathinones on the illicit drug market, specifying the aspects covered, and underscores the risks they pose to public health.

Classical antibacterial drugs were designed to target specific bacterial properties distinct from host human cells to maximize potency and selectivity. These designs were quite effective as they could be easily derivatized to bear next generation drugs. However, the rapid mutation of bacteria and their associated acquired drug resistance have led to the rise of highly pathogenic superbug bacterial strains for which treatment with first line drugs is no match. More than ever, there is a dire need for antibacterial drug design that goes beyond conventional standards. Taking inspiration by the body’s innate immune response to employ its own supply of labile copper ions in a toxic attack against pathogenic bacteria, which have a very low Cu tolerance, this review article examines the feasibility of Cu-centric strategies for antibacterial preventative and therapeutic applications. Promising results are shown for the use of Cu-containing materials in the hospital setting to minimize patient bacterial infections. Studies directed at disrupting bacterial Cu regulatory pathways elucidate new drug targets that can enable toxic increase of Cu levels and perturb bacterial dependence on iron. Likewise, Cu intracellular chelation/prochelation strategies effectively induce bacterial Cu toxicity. Cu-based small molecules and nanoparticles demonstrate the importance of the Cu ions in their mechanism and display potential synergism with classical drugs.

'Cv 'Doña María' table grape is a high-quality table grape variety included in the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) of the European Union "The bagged grape of the Vinalopó." The PDO stipulates that grape clusters must be protected with paper bags from inclement weather and insects, which helps enhance the final grape quality. However, 'Doña María' is a variety prone to high shattering in the late stages of ripening on the vine and during postharvest. Inorganic calcium treatments are one of the most commonly used tools to reduce this disorder, but the translocation of this mineral from veraison onward has been questioned. In this study, five applications were performed, from veraison to harvest, using sorbitol-chelated calcium (0.7 % + 1.0 %), Ca(NO3)2 (Ca) at 0.7% and sorbitol at 1%. It was observed that bagged grapes (not wetted with the solutions) only increased the concentration of total and bound calcium when treated with Sorbitol-Ca. This resulted in reduced berry drop during cultivation and postharvest and improved fruit firmness. Additionally, it reduced grape metabolism indicators such as respiration rate, weight loss, malic acid degradation, prevented abscisic acid (ABA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation, and favored the accumulation of secondary metabolites such as total polyphenols, increased antioxidant activity, and sugar content. The application of sorbitol-chelated calcium is an effective and safe tool that enhances fruit quality and prevents losses due to shattering during postharvest.

Background: Objectives. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of direct current stimulation (DCS) applied at the transcranial, suboccipital and spinal level on experimental sensory modalities and pain outcome measures in healthy subjects. The hypothesis of this study was that systematic analysis of the efficacy of DCS on modulating evoked thermal and mechanical pain modalities and mechanisms such as endogenous pain modulation in healthy individuals would reveal sensitive outcome measures help develop this technique for the control of chronic pain. Materials and Methods. Database searches were conducted up to December 2019 for randomized controlled trials that performed sham-controlled DCS of experimental sensory modalities and pain outcomes following transcranial, suboccipital and spinal locations in healthy participants. Standardized mean differences with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for sensory modalities, including random-effect metanalysis. Results: Thirty-one studies were included for analysis (647 participants). A significant decrease in pain intensity for active vs sham transcranial stimulation was identified for pain intensity (n=158; SMD=0.79; 95% CI=0.56 to 1.02), a significant increase in heat pain threshold (n=222; SMD=1.16; 95% CI=0.95 to 1.37), and a significant increase in cold pain threshold (n = 155; SMD = 0.77, 95% CI 0.53 to 1.01). No significant modulation of pressure pain threshold was identified with DCS and only a limited number of studies focused on experimental pain modulation following neuromodulation at the suboccipital or spinal level. Conclusions: These results show significant transcranial DCS neuromodulation of pain intensity and on thermal pain modalities. Future studies should focus on endogenous pain and sensory modality modulation with sham-controlled DCS applied at transcranial, suboccipital and spinal locations.

Oracles have been suggested as a vital piece of infrastructure necessary to allow blockchain-based smart contracts to reach their full potential by interacting with real-world data. This paper begins by providing an approachable entry point to the oracle problem and the current landscape of existing solutions. From there, we provide an overview of published research to narrow down unexplored research directions and derive questions for interviews. Finally, the results of 15 unstructured expert interviews are presented and discussed. The focus here is the industry landscape of oracle projects, opportunities for innovation, and challenges needing to be overcome.

Barium monofluoride (BaF) is a polar molecule of interest to measurements of the electron electric dipole moment [1, 2]. For this purpose efforts are under way to investigate this molecule embedded within cryogenic matrices, e.g., in solid Ne [3]. For a theoretical understanding of the electronic structure of such an embedded molecule the need arises for efficient methods which are accurate, but also can handle a number of atoms which surround the molecule. The calculation for gas-phase BaF can be reduced to involve only outer electrons by representing the inner core of Ba with a pseudopotential [4] while carrying out a non-relativistic calculation with an appropriate basis set [5]. In this work we demonstrate to which extent this can be achieved using coupled-cluster methods to deal with electron correlation. As a test case the SrF(X 2Σ+ → B 2Σ+) transition is investigated and excellent accuracy is obtained with the EOM-CC3 method. For the BaF(X 2Σ+ → A′ 2∆, X 2Σ+ → A 2Π, X 2Σ+ → B 2Σ+) transitions various coupled-cluster approaches are compared with very good agreement for EOM-CC3 with experimentally derived spectroscopic parameters except for the excitation to the A′ 2∆ state for which the excitation energy is overestimated by 200 cm−1.

Responding to changing value creation processes in the sheet metal working sec-tor, where the complexity and interchangeability of products challenge traditional dif-ferentiation strategies, this empirical analysis explores integrating service-oriented and data-driven business models as new paths to ensure competitiveness, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aims to capture the current state and challenges associated with the implementation of these business models in this sector. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with SMEs in the industry. The findings indicate that service-oriented and data-driven business models are not yet widely adopted and that manufacturing companies re-quire support in their implementation. Fields of action were identified for the industry. These are "Creating awareness and understanding", "Recognizing added value", "In-creasing company maturity" and "Understanding the change process". Cooperation between science and industry is essential in tackling these fields of action to ensure the successful integration of such business models in manufacturing companies. This pa-per identifies challenges in the fields of action that companies must address through a structured approach promoting awareness, recognizing value, improving organiza-tional maturity, and understanding the change process to successfully implement ser-vice-oriented and data-driven business models.

In this paper we totally discard the traditional trial-and-error algorithms of choosing acceptable shape parameter c in the multiquadrics $-\sqrt{c^{2}+\|x\|^{2}}$ when dealing with differential equations. Instead, we choose c directly by the MN-curve theory and hence avoid the time-consuming steps of solving a linear system required by each trial of the c value in the traditional methods. The quality of the c value thus obtained is supported by the newly born choice theory of the shape parameter. Experiments show that the approximation error of the approximate solution to the differential equation is very close to the best approximation error among all possible choices of c.

Abstract: Understanding the reliability and sensitivity of jump testing is essential to determine the neuromuscular progress of athletes and make informed decisions. This study aimed to assess the reliability and sensitivity of countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ) tests metrics in female volleyball players. Sixteen semi-professional female volleyball players participated in the study. Intrasession and intersession reliability of CMJ and DJ metrics were evaluated using a randomized cross-over design. Dual force platform was used to collect data, and several dependent variables were calculated using forward dynamics. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), coefficients of variation (CV) and minimum difference (MD) were calculated. The third attempt presented the highest values for both test, and changes in jump strategy in DJ. CMJ is consistent across sessions, while DJ also shows intersession differences (p<0.05) in 11 out of 15 variables. Most CMJ variables exhibit excellent reliability while DJ variables have lower reliability and higher variability. Concentric and eccentric impulses for DJ showed excellent reliability. Most CMJ variables showed excellent reliability and variability, DJ had lower reliability, higher variability, and lower sensitivity. These findings provide valuable information when assessing athletes' performance and highlight the reliability, sensitivity, and variability in jump performance for CMJ and DJ tests.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is acknowledged for its non-invasive modulation of neuronal activity in psychiatric disorders. However, its application in insomnia research yields varied outcomes depending on different tDCS types and patient conditions. Our primary objective is to elucidate its efficiency and uncover the underlying mechanisms in insomnia treatment. We hypothesized that anodal prefrontal cortex stimulation activates glutaminergic projections from the infralimbic cortex (IL) to ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO) to promote sleep. After administering 0.06 mA of electrical currents for 8 minutes, our results indicate significant non-rapid eye movement (NREM) enhancement in naïve mice within the initial 3 hours post-stimulation, persisting up to 16-24 hours. In the insomnia group, tDCS enhanced NREM sleep bout numbers during acute stress response and improved NREM and REM sleep duration in subsequent acute insomnia. Sleep quality, assessed through NREM delta powers, remains unaffected. Interference of the IL-VLPO pathway, utilizing designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) with the cre-DIO system, partially blocked tDCS's sleep improvement in stress-induced insomnia. This study elucidated that the activation of the IL-VLPO pathway mediates tDCS's effect on stress-induced insomnia. These findings support the understanding of tDCS effects on sleep disturbances, providing valuable insights for future research and clinical applications in sleep therapy.

Objective: Cerebrovascular accidents are the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of disability worldwide. We hypothesized that cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) of the dentate nuclei and the lower-limb representations in the cerebellum can improve standing balance functional reach in chronic (> 6 months’ post-stroke) stroke survivors. Materials and Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) based subject-specific electric field was computed across 10 stroke survivors and one healthy MRI template to find an optimal bipolar bilateral ctDCS montage to target dentate nuclei and lower-limb representations (lobules VII-IX). Then, in a repeated-measure crossover study on 5 stroke survivors, we compared 15minutes of 2mA ctDCS based on the effects on successful functional reach(%) during standing balance task. Three-way ANOVA investigated the factors of interest– brain regions, montages, stroke participants, and their interactions.Results: “One-size-fits-all” ctDCS montage for the clinical study was found to be bipolar PO9h – PO10h for dentate nuclei and bipolar Exx7–Exx8 for lobules VII-IX with contalesional anode. Bipolar PO9h–PO10h ctDCS performed significantly (alpha=0.05) better in facilitating successful functional reach (%) when compared to bipolar Exx7–Exx8 ctDCS. Furthermore, a linear relationship between successful functional reach (%) and electric field strength was found where bipolar PO9h–PO10h montage resulted in a significantly (alpha=0.05) higher electric field strength when compared to bipolar Exx7–Exx8 montage for the same 2mA current. Conclusion: We presented a rational neuroimaging based approach to optimize deep ctDCS of the dentate nuclei and lower limb representations in the cerebellum for post-stroke balance rehabilitation.

ChatGPT, a freely-accessible AI language model designed to generate human-like text responses to users, has been utilized in several areas, such as healthcare industry, to facilitate interactive dissemination of information. Academic advising has been an important factor in promoting success among university students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Unfortunately, however, student advising has been marred with problems, with the availability and accessibility of advisors being among the hurdles. The current study explores how ChatGPT might serve to make academic advising more accessible, efficient, and even effective. Researchers compiled a list of questions frequently asked by current and prospective students in a teacher education Bachelor’s degree program in the United States. Then, the questions were typed into the free version of ChatGPT and the answers generated were evaluated for their content and delivery. ChatGPT generated surprisingly high-quality answers, written in an authoritative yet supportive tone, and it was particularly adept at addressing general career-related questions comprehensively, such as career outlook. We argue that ChatGPT may complement, but not replace, human academic advisors and it may very well promote educational equity through empowering students from a wide range of backgrounds with the means to access effective advising.

Permanent magnet brushless DC motor (BLDCM) is usually controlled by six step commutation method, and flux-weakening method is used to make the motor run higher above the base speed. For now, it is considered that the weak magneto-electric angle range is 0-pi/3, and that of deep weakening is pi/3-pi/2. In the field- weakening control, the forward shift of commutation point will form inverter circulating current in the three-phase bridge of inverter and the stator winding of the motor. In this paper, the principle of inverter circulating current formed by inverter is analyzed. Through magnetic potential analysis and Simulink simulation, it is concluded that flux-weakening control will generate inverter circulating current in the inverter and motor stator winding. The inverter circulating current affects the magnetic potential of motor, and magnetic potential will move to the rotating direction of motor rotor. When the forward shift angle of inverter commutation point is 0-pi/6 electrical angle, the movement amplitude of current circulating current of inverter is less than pi/6, which plays the role of weakening magnetic field and driving effect; when the forward moving angle is pi/6-pi/3, the movement amplitude of inverter circulating current exceeds pi/6, which plays the role of magnetic weakening and braking. When the braking effect occurs, the reverse torque will appear, resulting in the decrease of motor torque and efficiency. Therefore, the range of weak magneto-electric angle should be between 0-pi/6.

Bioethanol has been considered as an excellent alternative to fossil fuels since it importantly contributes to the reduced consumption of the crude oil and to the alleviation of environmental pollution [1]. Up to now, the baker yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most common eukaryotic microorganism used in ethanol production. The inability of S. cerevisiae to grow on pentoses, however, hinders its effective growth on plant biomass hydrolysates, which contain large amounts of C5 and C12 sugars. The industrial-scale bioprocessing requires high temperature bioreactors, diverse carbon sources, and the high titer production of volatile compounds [2]. These criteria indicate that the search for alternative microbes possessing useful traits that meet the required standards of bioethanol production is necessary. Compared to other yeasts, Kluyveromyces marxianus has several advantages over the others, e.g. it could grow on a broad spectrum of substrates (C5, C6 and C12 sugars) [3], tolerate to high temperature, toxin [4,5] and a wide range of pH values [6], and produce volatile short-chain ester [2]. K. marxianus also shows a high ethanol production rate at high temperature and is a Crabtree-negative species [7]. These attributes make K. marxianus a promise as an industrial host for the biosynthesis of biofuels and other valuable chemicals.

Greek roots: "phos" (φῶς) - means "light" and "dynamis" (δύναμις) - means "force" or "power". Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an innovative treatment method based on the ability of photosensitizers to produce reactive oxygen species after exposure to light of a specific wavelength range, either in the visible or near infrared range. This process results in damage to pathological cells, such as cancer cells, while minimizing the impact on healthy tissues. PDT is a promising direction in the treatment of many diseases, with particular emphasis on the fight against cancer and other diseases asso-ciated with excessive cell growth. The power of light contributed to the creation of phototherapy, whose history dates back to ancient times. It was then noticed that some substances exposed to the sun have a negative effect on the body, while others have a therapeutic effect. This work provides a detailed review of photodynamic therapy, from its origins to the present day. It is surprising how a seemingly simple beam of light can have such a powerful healing effect, which is used not only in dermatology, but also in oncology, surgery, microbiology, virology, and even dentistry. However, despite promising re-sults, photodynamic therapy still faces many challenges. The availability of this thera-py is limited due to the small number of centers offering this type of treatment and the high costs, which may be unaffordable for many patients. Moreover, photodynamic therapy requires further research and improvement.

Purpose: Dysarthria, a neurological injury of the motor component of the speech circuitry, is of common consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Palilalia is a speech disorder characterized by involuntary repetition of words, phrases, or sentences. Based on the evidence supporting the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in some speech and language disorders, we hypothesized that using tDCS would enhances the effectiveness of speech therapy in a client with chronic dysarthria following TBI. Method: We applied the constructs of the “Be Clear” protocol, a relatively new approach in speech therapy in dysarthria, together with tDCS on a chronic subject who affected by dysarthria and palilalia after TBI. Since there was no research on the use of tDCS in such cases, regions of interest (ROIs) were identified based on deviant brain electrophysiological patterns in speech tasks and resting state compared with normal expected patterns using the Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG) analysis. Results: Measures of perceptual assessments of intelligibility, an important index in the assessment of dysarthria, ​​were superior to the primary protocol results immediately and 4 months after intervention. We did not find any factor other than the use of tDCS to justify this superiority. The percentage of repeated words, an index in palilalia assessment, had a remarkable improvement immediately after intervention but fell somewhat after 4 months. We justified this case with subcortical origins of palilalia. Conclusion: Our present case-based findings suggested that applying tDCS together with speech therapy may improve intelligibility in similar case profiles as compared to traditional speech therapy. To reconfirm the effectiveness of the above approach in cases with dysarthria following TBI, more investigation need to be pursued.

A novel plasma source of pulsed electrolyte cathode atmospheric pressure discharge (pulsed-ECAD) driven by an alternating current (AC) power supply coupled with a high voltage diode was generated, and the discharge was generated in the open-to-air atmosphere between a metal electrode and a small-sized flowing liquid cathode. The spatial distribution of plasma temperatures (excitation, vibrational and rotational) of the pulsed-ECAD were investigated. The electron excitation temperature of H T_exc(H), vibrational temperature of N₂ T_vib(N₂), and rotational temperature of OH T_rot(OH) were measured as 4900±36-6800±108 K, 4600±86-5800±100 K and 1050±20-1140±10 K, respectively. Meanwhile, the temperature characteristics of dc solution cathode glow discharge (dc-SCGD) were also studied for comparison with pulsed-ECAD. The effects of operating parameters, including discharge voltage and discharge frequency, on the plasma temperatures were investigated. The electron number density determined in the discharge system and dc-SCGD were within the range (3.8–18.9) ×10¹⁴ cm^-3 and 2.6×10¹⁴-17.2×10¹⁴ cm^-3, respectively.

Apraxia of speech is a persistent speech motor disorder that affects speech intelligibility. Studies on speech motor disorders with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) have been mostly directed to post-stroke aphasia. Only a few tDCS studies have focused on apraxia of speech or childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), and no study has investigated individuals with CAS and people with trisomy 21 (T21, Down Syndrome). This study examined the effects of tDCS combined with a motor learning task in developmental apraxia of speech co-existing with T21 (ReBEC RBR-5435x9). The accuracy of speech sound production of nonsense words (NSWs) during Rapid Syllable Transition Training (ReST) under 10 sessions of anodal tDCS (1.5 mA, 25 cm) over the Broca’s area with cathode over the contralateral region was compared to 10 sessions of sham-tDCS and 4 control sessions in a 20-year-old male individual with T21 presenting moderate-severe childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The accuracy for NSWs production progressively improved (gain 40%) under tDCS only (sham-tDCS and control sessions showed <20% gain). A decrease in speech severity from moderate-severe to mild-moderate indicated transfer effects in speech production. The speech accuracy under tDCS was correlated with Wernicke’s area activation (P3 current source density), which in turn, was correlated with the activation of the left supramarginal gyrus and the Sylvian Parietal Temporal Junction. Repetitive bihemispheric tDCS paired with ReST may have facilitated the speech sound acquisition in a young adult with T21 and CAS, possibly by recruiting brain regions required for the phonological working memory.

Introduction: The transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising technique for brain modulation after cerebrovascular accident (CVA). This treatment modality has been previously studied in the recovery of patients. The aim of this review is to analyze the evidence in the ap-plication of tDCS in the recovery of gait disturbance in stroke patients. Methods: This review was conducted according to the recommendations of the PRISMA statement. Three different elec-tronic databases were searched for relevant results: PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane. We included reviews and meta-analyses that only considered randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that inves-tigated the effects of transcranial direct electrical stimulation, in combination or not with other physiotherapy treatment, on gait recovery. Results: Thirteen studies with a total of 195 RCTs were included. Data on population, outcome measures, protocols and outcomes were extracted. The Amstar-2 scale and the GRADE system of certainty of evidence were used. Only one study re-ceived high certainty of evidence, 5 received low certainty of evidence and 7 received critically low certainty of evidence. Conclusions: Although the tDCS produces positive changes in gait recovery in spatio-temporal parameters, mobility, endurance, strength and motor function, there is insuf-ficient evidence to recommend this treatment.

Regeneration of lost tail is of great importance to lizards. Anolis carolinensis, a green lizard, is capable of regenerating its tail efficiently after autotomy. Hence, it is considered as a model organism in regeneration study. A. carolinensis shed its tail in order to distract the predator’s attention and thus makes a way to escape. Restoring of the amputated tail takes several days and the mechanism is currently clearly understood. Although save its life, tail regeneration is associated with the impairment of several vital functions in Anoles. In addition, various differences have been observed between original and regenerated tail in terms of mechanism and structure. To date, very little work has been conducted on tail autotomy and regeneration at molecular and genetic level. The genes responsible for regeneration in anoles are identified recently. These genes are evolutionarily conserved through all tetrapod vertebrates. They are, however, in a state of ‘switched-off’ in other vertebrates including humans. Consequently, a throughout study of these so called ‘switched-off’ genes may provide a way of restoring lost organs in human, and thus could revolutionize the modern medical science.

Development and implementation of safe natural alternatives to synthetic pesticides are urgent needs that will provide ecological solutions for control of plant diseases, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, pests, and weeds, to ensure economic stability of the farmers and food security as well as protection of the environment and human health. Unambiguously, production of botanical pesticides will allow sustainable and efficient use of natural resources and finally decrease the use of chemical inputs and burden. This is underlined by the strict regulations on pesticide residues in agricultural products and harmonized with the Farm to Fork strategy aimed to reduce pesticide use by 55%, by 2030. Recognizing the urgent need for natural pesticides development, this work is an overview of the current research on the valorization of Mediterranean plants as potential source of biopesticides. More specifically, the extraction methods, the chemical composition, the biopesticidal activity, the commonly used assays for evaluating the antimicrobial, the pesticidal, the repellant and the herbicidal activity of plant extracts as well as toxicological and safety aspects of biopesticides formulation are discussed in detail. Finally, the aspects that have not yet been investigated or are under- investigated and future perspectives are highlighted.

Heat exchangers play a vital role in numerous sectors like power generation and automotive manufacturing. Enhancing the energy efficiency of these exchangers stands as a significant hurdle. Utilizing nanofluids emerges as an optimal solution to augment heat transfer rates, leveraging their superior thermal conductivity while addressing economic constraints linked with traditional heat exchanger technologies. The motivation for this study is to consider the comprehensive synergistic features of MWCNTs, SiO₂, and hybrid MWCNTs–SiO₂ EG-based nanofluids in plate heat exchangers. This was achieved by simulating a plate heat exchanger using CFD (Fluent and Gambit softwares) considering the comparison of two SiO₂, MWCNTs, and their hybrid forms at different mass concentrations. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method was employed to model turbulent flows, and the nanoparticles were compared in both single-phase and two-phase states, with their properties derived from experimental studies. Moreover, Nusselt number, convective heat transfer coefficient, and pressure drop variations were computed at different Reynolds numbers. The findings indicated an increase in the Nusselt number with the incorporation of the hybrid nanofluid, achieving a maximum enhancement of 11.19% in comparison to EG at a Reynolds number of 240 and a concentration of 0.86 wt.%. Noticeably, the pressure drop remained negligible at lower Reynolds numbers, exhibiting marginal variations up to 0.3% at higher Reynolds numbers. At a concentration of 0.86 wt.% and a Reynolds number of 480, the introduction of MWCNTs, hybrid, and SiO₂ nano-additives resulted in respective increases in the heat transfer coefficient by 21.02%, 10.76%, and 2.16% and corresponding alterations in pressure drop of 0.11%, 0.04%, and 0.02%.

Small peptides (SPs), ranging from 5 to 100 amino acids, play integral roles in plants due to their diverse functions. Despite their low abundance and small molecular weight, SPs intricately regulate critical aspects of plant life, including cell division, growth, differentiation, flowering, fruiting, maturation, and stress responses. As vital mediators of intercellular signaling, SPs have garnered significant attention in plant biology research. This comprehensive review delves into SPs' structure, classification, and identification, providing a detailed understanding of their significance. Additionally, we summarize recent findings on the biological functions and signaling pathways of prominent SPs that regulate plant growth and development. The review also offers a forward-looking perspective on future research directions in peptide signaling pathways.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are a promising form of immunotherapy that has significantly changed the therapeutic landscape for many advanced cancers. They have shown unique clinical benefit against a broad range of tumour types and a strong overall impact on survival in studied patient populations. However, there are still many limitations holding back this immunotherapy from reaching its full potential as a possible curative option for advanced cancer patients. A great deal of research is being undertaken in the hope of driving advancements in this area, building a better understanding of the mechanisms behind immune checkpoint inhibition and ultimately developing more effective, safer, and wider-reaching agents. Taking into account the current literature on this topic, this review aims to explore in depth the basis of the use of ICIs in the treatment of advanced cancers, evaluate its efficacy and safety, consider its current limitations, and finally reflect on what the future holds for this very promising form of cancer immunotherapy.

Scale drop disease virus (SDDV), a double-stranded DNA virus in the family Iridoviridae, has been reported widely in southeast Asian countries as a causative agent of scale drop syndrome (SDS) in Asian seabass. SDS have resulted in high mortality and significant economic losses to the aquaculture industry. This study demonstrated the use of metagenomic methods to investigate bacterial and viral communities present in infected fish tissues and recovering a complete genome of the causative agent named SDDV TH7_2019. Characterization of the TH7_2019 genome revealed a genome size of 131 kb with 134 putative ORFs encoding viral proteins potentially associated with host apoptosis manipulation. A comparative genome analysis showed a high degree of amino acid identity across SDDV strains, with variations in number of repeat sequences and mutations within core genes. Phylogenetic analyses indicate a close relationship among SDDV genomes. This research enhances our understanding of the genetic diversity and evolutionary relationship of SDDV, contributing valuable insights for further development of effective control strategies of SDDV.

Globally, over the past several months millions of persons contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulting in significant mortality. Health care systems are negatively impacted including the care of individuals with cancers and other chronic diseases such as chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. There are various probable pathogenic mechanisms that have been presented to account for liver injury in COVID-19 patients such as hepatotoxicity cause by therapeutic drugs, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection of the bile duct cells and hepatocytes, hypoxia and systemic inflammatory response. Liver biochemistry tests such as AST, ALT, GGT and ALP are deranged in COVID-19 patients with liver injury. Hepatocellular damage results in the elevation of serum AST and ALT levels in early onset disease while a cholestatic pattern that develops as the disease progress causes higher levels of ALP, GGT, direct and total bilirubin. These liver biochemistry tests are prognostic markers of disease severity and should be carefully monitored in COVID-19 patients. We conducted a systematic review of abnormal liver biochemistry tests in COVID-19 and the possible pathogenesis involved. Significant findings regarding the severity, hepatocellular pattern, incidence and related clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients are highlighted.

In the last two decades, the discovery of various pathways involved in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have led to the development of biologically-driven targeted therapies. Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs), angiogenic growth factors, von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene mutations and oncogenic miRNAs play essential roles in the pathogenesis and drug resistance of clear cell renal cell carcinoma. These insights have led to the development of VEGF inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors and immunotherapeutic agents which have significantly improved outcomes of patients with advanced RCC. HIF inhibitors will be a valuable asset in the growing therapeutic armamentarium of RCC. Various histone deacetylase (HDAC)inhibitors, including selenium and agents such as PT2385 and PT2977, are being explored in various clinical trials as potential HIF inhibitors to ameliorate the outcomes of RCC patients. In this article, we will review the current treatment options and highlight the potential role of selenium in the modulation of drug resistance biomarkers expressed in ccRCC tumors.

After decades of studies, the pathogenesis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) remains unclear and there still lackseffective treatment strategies for core symptoms. Our recent work, combined with others’ research in a diversity ofmodels and clinical trials, suggested a concise, but potentially rational theory that can illustrate the key of the pathogenesis and treatment of ASD from the aspect of damage control.

Chromosome analysis (CA) and chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) have been successfully used to diagnose genetic disorders. However, many conditions remain undiagnosed due to limitations in resolution (CA) and detection of only unbalanced events (CMA). Optical genome mapping (OGM) has the potential to address these limitations by capturing both structural variants (SVs) resulting in copy number changes and balanced rearrangements with high resolution. In this study, we investigated OGM’s concordance using 87 SVs previously identified by CA, CMA, or Southern blot. Overall, OGM was 98% concordant with only three discordant cases: (1) uncalled translocation with one breakpoint in a centromere; (2) uncalled duplication with breakpoints in the pseudoautosomal region 1; and (3) uncalled mosaic triplication originating from a marker chromosome. OGM provided diagnosis for three previously unsolved cases: (1) disruption of the SON gene due to a balanced reciprocal translocation; (2) disruption of NBEA gene due to an inverted insertion; (3) disruption of the TSC2 gene due to a mosaic deletion. We show that OGM is a valid method for detection of many types of SVs in a single assay and is highly concordant with legacy cytogenomic methods; however, it has limited SV detection capabilities in centromeric and pseudoautosomal regions.

Stroke often results in impaired gait, which can limit community ambulation and the quality of life. Recent works have shown the feasibility of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) as an adjuvant treatment to facilitate gait rehabilitation. Since the cerebellum plays an essential role in balance and movement coordination, which is crucial for independent overground ambulation, so, we investigated the effects of cerebellar tDCS (ctDCS) on the post-stroke overground gait performance in chronic stroke survivors. Fourteen chronic post-stroke male subjects were recruited based on convenience sampling at the collaborating hospitals where ten subjects finally participated in the ctDCS study. We evaluated the effects of two ctDCS montages with 2mA direct current, a) optimized configuration for dentate stimulation with 3.14cm² disc anode at PO10h (10/5 EEG system) and 3.14cm² disc cathode at PO9h (10/5 EEG system), and b) optimized configuration for leg lobules VII-IX stimulation with 3.14cm² disc anode at Exx8 (electrodes defined by ROAST) and 3.14cm² disc cathode at Exx7. We found ctDCS to be acceptable by all the exposed subjects. The ctDCS intervention had an effect on the 'Normalised Step length Affected side' (p=0.1) and 'Gait Stability Ratio' (p=0.0569), which was found using Wilcoxon signed-rank test at 10% significance level. Also, ctDCS montage specific effect was found using a two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test at a 5% significance level for 'Step Time Affected Leg' (p=0.0257) and '%Stance Time Unaffected Leg' (p=0.0376). Moreover, the changes in the quantitative gait parameters across both the montages were found to be correlated to the mean electric field strength in the lobules based on partial least squares regression analysis (R² statistic = 0.6574) where the mean electric field strength at the cerebellar lobules, Vermis VIIIb, Ipsilesional IX, Vermis IX, Ipsilesional X, had the most loading. In conclusion, our feasibility study indicated the potential of a single session of ctDCS to contribute to the immediate improvement in the balance and gait performance in terms of gait-related indices and clinical gait measures.

Nanomaterials have shown significant promise for enhancing the performance of composite materials and increasing their functionality for various industrial applications. This review explores the unique properties of nanomaterials, particularly carbon-based nanomaterials, and provides key findings in utilizing them to enhance composite performance. It highlights specific nano-based composite materials and their significant potential in advancing the field of nanocomposites. Challenges associated with nanocomposite production and utilization are also discussed, along with possible solutions to address them. Finally, the study provides recommendations for continued research and innovation in nanocomposites to fully unlock the benefits of these advanced materials for broader future applications.

The Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) on the Core GPM satellite provides spaceborne 3-dimensional observations of the precipitation field and surface rainfall rate with quasi global coverage. The present study evaluates the behavior of liquid precipitation intensity, radar reflectivity factor (ZKu and ZKa) and Drop Size Distribution (DSD) parameters (weighted mean diameter Dm and intercept parameter Nw) of the GPM DPR derived products version 07 from 2014 to 2023. Observations from seven Parsivel disdrometers located in different topographic zones in the Western Mediterranean are taken as ground reference. Four matching techniques between satellite estimates and ground level observations were tested, and best results were found for the so-called optimal comparison approach. Overall, GPM DPR products capture well the variability of the observed DSD at different rainfall intensities. However, overestimation of the mean Dm and underestimation of the mean Nw are observed, being much more sensitive to errors in drop diameters larger than 1.5 mm. Moreover, lowest errors were found for radar reflectivity factor and Dm, and highest for Nw and rainfall rate. In addition, the GPM DPR convective and stratiform classification was tested and it was found a substantial overestimation of stratiform cases compared to disdrometer observations.

This study investigates the collapse of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) as a risk factor for medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), hypothesizing that overuse of extrinsic foot muscles to prevent MLA collapse can lead to disability. Twenty healthy adults (39 feet) with a foot posture index score below 6 and no recent lower extremity orthopedic history participated. Ultrasonog-raphy measured foot muscle cross-sectional areas, while three-dimensional motion analysis us-ing VICON assessed foot kinematics during gait, focusing on navicular height at initial contact (ICNH) and dynamic navicular drop (DND) during the stance phase. Hierarchical cluster analy-sis based on ICNH and DND compared muscle cross-sectional areas between clusters using ANOVA or Kruskal–Wallis test. The analysis indicated that ICNH was lower in clusters 1 and 3 than in cluster 2, and DND was smaller in clusters 1 and 2 than in cluster 3. Although there was no significant difference in muscle cross-sectional area between the clusters, the flexor hallucis longus tended to be thicker in cluster 1 than in cluster 3 (p = 0.051). The findings suggest that the flexor hallucis longus may help prevent MLA compression during loading, indicating that over-use of extrinsic foot muscles may contribute to MTSS development.

Porous α-Al2O3 ceramics is a highly demanded material for multitude applications such as filters, substrates, biomedicine materials, etc. Despite the availability of the raw materials, a challenge of their technology is in a high energy budget caused by the sintering above 1500 °C. For a cold sintering processing (CSP) of ceramics, the lowering of α-Al2O3 sintering temperature is one of the most urgent challenges at the background of its rapid development. The current paper for the first time demonstrates the solution of the mentioned problem by the CSP of α-alumina ceramics in a presence of pure water as a transient liquid. The manufactured materials were examined by XRD analysis; the evolution of their microstructures during the CSP was revealed by SEM, and the porosity evaluated by the Archimedes method. The ceramics with an open porosity up to 36 % was produced at 380-450 °C, 220 MPa in 30 min. An increase in the pressure was found to impede α-Al2O3 formation from γ-AlOOH. The development of the microstructure was discussed within the frameworks of the dissolution-precipitation model and the homogenous nucleation. The results of the SEM study pointed to the coalescence of γ-AlOOH grains during the CSP.

Cell viability refers to the proportion of living, healthy cells within a given population. This information is crucial in any cell-based research, especially in toxicology. Over the past century, numerous methods for assessing cell viability have been developed. These methods can be categorized into five main types: non-invasive cell structure damage, invasive cell structure damage, cell growth, cellular metabolism, and cell membrane potential. Each method operates on different principles and has its own advantages and disadvantages, making it essential for researchers to choose the method that best fits their experimental design. Despite the variety of cell viability methods available, most rely on indirect measurements of cell viability, which may compromise their accuracy. In this sense, there is insufficient information regarding their accuracy, highlighting the need for researchers to investigate the accuracy of both existing and future methods.

To clarify the risk factors for aggravation of esophagogastric varices (EGV) after hepatitis C virus (HCV) eradication with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy, we enrolled 167 consecutive patients with HCV-related compensated cirrhosis who achieved a sustained virological response (SVR) after DAA therapy. During a median of 69 months, EGV was aggravated in 42 (25%) patients despite SVR. The cumulative 1, 3, 5, and 10-year aggravated EGV rates were 7%, 23%, 25%, and 27%, respectively. Multivariate analysis identified platelet count <11.0×10⁴/μL, LSM ≥18.0 kPa, total bile acid ≥33.0 μmol/L, and diameter of left gastric vein (LGV) ≥5.0 mm at HCV eradication as independent risk factors for EGV aggravation post-SVR. In groups that meet all of these risks, the cumulative EGV aggravation rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 27%, 87%, and 91%, respectively. However, none of the patients who had only one or none of the risk factors experienced EGV aggravation. Platelet count, LSM, total bile acid, and diameter of LGV at HCV eradication were associated with aggravated EGV post-SVR. EGV tends to worsen as two or more of these risk factors increase.

Very heavy stratiform precipitation (> 200 mm/per day) occurred in the Hokitika region on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand on 18 June 2015, under north-westerlies with small CAPE (< 25 J/kg). Analyses of model simulations and observations showed that this heavy rainfall was due to cold front lifting enhanced by orographic lifting over the Southern Alps. At 1.5 km grid-length, the model terrain underestimated the average height of the 103 tallest mountains over the South Island by ~ 800 m. This leads to weaker orographic lifting and mountain blocking, and a faster-moving and stronger cold front in the Hokitika region. As a result, large errors in the heavy rainfall prediction occur. By increasing either the resolved or the sub-grid mountain heights, the simulated rainfall errors were largely reduced through stronger orographic lifting and mountain blocking, and a better simulation of the cold front movement and strength. All the experiments have the same “flow-over” regime with mountain waves and/or wave breaking (Fm ranges 0.61 – 1.21). However, the rainfall amount and distribution on the windward side of mountains altered significantly. Our new findings were that the Southern Alps can have significant indirect effects on heavy rainfall by altering the speed and strength of the cold front, in addition to the well-known direct dynamical effects (i.e., orographic lifting and mountain blocking). A combination of these direct and indirect effects makes the heavy rainfall simulation sensitive to mountain heights even under the same “flow-over” regime.

Global optimization is widely adopted nowadays in a variety of practical and scientific problems. In this context, a group of techniques that is widely used is that of evolutionary techniques. A relatively new evolutionary technique in this direction is that of Giant Armadillo Optimization, which is based on the hunting strategy of giant armadillos. In this paper, a number of modifications to this technique are proposed, such as the periodic application of a local minimization method as well as the use of modern termination techniques based on statistical observations. The proposed modifications have been tested on a wide - series test functions, available from the relevant literature and it was compared against other evolutionary methods.

The results of experimental studies of ohmic conductivity degradation in the ensembles of nanostructured anatase bridges under long-term effect of direct current are presented. Stochastic sets of interelectrode partially conducting bridges consisting of close-packed anatase nanoparticles were formed by the seeding particles from drying aqueous suspensions on the surfaces of silica substrates with interdigital platinum electrodes. Multiple-run experiments at room temperature have shown that ohmic conductivity degradation in these systems is irreversible. It is presumably due to accumulated capture of conduction electrons by deep traps in anatase nanoparticles. The scaling analysis of voltage drops across the samples at the final stage of degradation gives a critical exponent for ohmic conductivity as 1.597. This value satisfactorily agrees with the reported model data for percolation systems. At an early stage of degradation, the spectral density of conduction current fluctuations wihin the frequency range of 0.01 Hz - 1 Hz decreases approximately as , while near the percolation threshold the decrease trend changes to . This transition is interpreted in terms of an increasing contribution of blockages and subsequent avalanche-like breakdowns of part of the local conduction channels in the bridges into electron transport near the percolation threshold.

The vibration feature of weak gear fault is often covered in strong background noise, which makes it necessary to establish weak feature enhancement methods. Among the enhancement methods, stochastic resonance (SR) has the unique advantage of transferring noise energy to weak signals and has a great application prospection in weak signal extraction. But the traditional SR potential model cannot form a richer potential structure and may lead to system instability when the noise is too great. To overcome these shortcomings, the article presents a periodic potential underdamping stochastic resonance (PPUSR) method after investigating the potential function and system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, system parameters are further optimized by using ant colony algorithm. Through simulation and gear experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified. We concluded that compared with the traditional underdamped stochastic resonance (TUSR) method, the PPUSR method had a higher recognition degree and better frequency response capability.

Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is a genetic disorder characterized by the development and progression of multiple renal cysts, leading to progressive renal function decline. To date, the only approved treatment for this condition is able to slow down the loss of annual renal function, without stopping the disease progression. Furthermore, this therapy is approved only for patients with rapid disease progression and its compliance is problematic because of the impact of this drug on quality of life. The recent literature suggests that cystic cells are subject to metabolic dysregulation in the glucose pathway (Warburg Effect). This finding paved the way for new lines of research targeting potential therapeutic interventions for ADPKD. In particular, this review highlights the latest studies on the use of ketosis, through ketogenic dietary interventions (daily calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, time-restricted feeding, and ketogenic diets), as a potential strategy for patients with ADPKD, and the possible involvement of microbiota in the ketogenic interventions’ effect.

This work presents a new algorithm to resolve the problem of distribution network reconfiguration using the Tabu Search metaheuristic and voltage drop. The proposed method presents a different way to obtain the initial solution using the voltage drop, as well as a new way to generate a neighborhood of candidate solutions, based on randomness and the voltage drop, to perform a smooth and steady descent execution of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm has the main objective to reduce the active power losses in distribution networks, but it also achieves an refinement in the voltage profile. The proposed method was tested in two distribution systems, the 33-Bus and 94-Bus systems, commonly found and tested in the literature. The results of the tests show that the proposed method presents a low computational cost, achieves good solutions, and is better than the other methods found in the literature.

The present study evaluates the response to betahistine in patients who presented vestibular drops attacks in the context of Ménière's disease (MD) and the factors that can predict an unfavorable response to it. A total of 43 patients were analyzed, out of which 33 were diagnosed with MD. It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection. Data as regards age, accompanying symptoms, etiological diagnosis and response to MD treatment were collected. A statistical analysis was carried out, and we found that the disease evolution time and specific alterations in the vestibulospinal and oculomotor physical examination present an unfavorable response to betahistine, as opposed to the use of intratympanic gentamicin, with which symptomatic control is achieved in 100% of the cases.

A smartphone plummeted from a stratospheric height of 36 km (~119,000 feet), providing a complete record of its rapid descent and abrupt deceleration when it hit the ground. The smartphone was configured to collect internal sensor data at high rates. We discuss the state-of-the-art of smartphone environmental and sensing capabilities at the closing of year 2020 and present a flexible mobile sensor data model. The associated open-source application programing interface (API) and python software development kit (SDK) used in this work is transportable to any hardware platform and operating system.

As the number of end-of-life vehicles continues to grow, the field of separation technology for broken copper and aluminium parts of end-of-life vehicles has emerged as a significant area of research. As a key technology for the separation of non-magnetic non-ferrous metals, such as copper and aluminium, eddy current separation can achieve efficient separation of non-magnetic non-ferrous metals according to their differing conductivity and density. Nevertheless, further research is required in the separation of large-scale broken copper and aluminium parts of end-of-life vehicles. This paper presents a novel magnetic roller model comprising circumferential and axial periodic arrangements of permanent magnets. A single permanent magnet was constructed as an equivalent current model, and the magnetic scalar potential equations were solved using simulation tools. This allowed the distribution of the magnetic field outside the magnetic roller to be studied. The results demonstrate that the novel permanent magnet array magnetic roller can enhance the magnetic field intensity and action distance of the external magnetic field, which is more conducive to the separation of large-scale broken copper and aluminium parts of scrap cars. The findings of this research provide a theoretical foundation for the separation of scrap car broken copper and aluminium parts.

In the field of railroad safety, effective detection of surface cracks is critical, necessitating reliable, high-speed non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. This study introduces a hybrid Eddy Current Testing (ECT) probe, specifically engineered for railroad inspection, to address the common issue of ’lift-off noise’ due to varying distances between the probe and test material. Unlike traditional ECT methods, this probe integrates transmit and differential receiver coils, aiming to enhance detection sensitivity and minimize lift-off impact. The study optimizes ECT probes employing different driver coils, emphasizing three main objectives: a) quantitatively evaluating each probe using signal- to-noise ratio (SNR) and outlining a real-time data processing algorithm based on SNR methodology; b) exploring the frequency range proximal to the electrical resonance of the receiver coil; c) examining sensitivity variations across varying lift-off distances. The experimental outcomes indicate that the newly designed probe with figure 8-shape driver coil significantly improves sensitivity in detecting surface cracks on railroads. It achieves an impressive SNR exceeding 100 for defects with minimal dimensions of 1 mm in width and depth. Simulation results closely align with experimental findings, validating the investigation of optimal operational frequency and lift-off distance for selected probe performance, determined to be 0.3 MHz and 0.5 mm, respectively. The realization of this project would lead to notable advancements in enhancing railroad safety by improving crack detection efficiency.

China’s greenhouse industry has thousands of years of development history, although the development of modern greenhouses has come late. After decades of development of China, its greenhouse industry is in the forefront of the world. China’s greenhouse industry is experiencing rapid development, transformation and upgrading. China ranks first in the world in terms of greenhouse area, used mainly for vegetable cultivation and plays an important role in the utilization of agricultural resources and food production. In 2023, the cumulative area of new greenhouses nationwide was 1835.87 million ha. In this paper we present the latest developments in the greenhouse sector. More specifically, we present a greenhouse market development overview, the greenhouse production, the greenhouse industry, and technology development. Current problems are underpinned, development opportunities and prospects are analyzed, and measures and specific proposals are detailed for the technological development of the greenhouse sector both for increasing product quantity and quality.

Air pollution has become one of the biggest problems throughout the world. Smog has a severe effect on the pulmonary and circulatory systems, which causes a significant number of deaths globally. Therefore, the remediation of air pollutants to maintain ecosystem processes and functions and to improve human health is a crucial problem confronting mankind today. This review aims to discuss the health effects of smog on humans. This review will also focus on the bioremediation of air pollution (smog) using bacteria, fungi, phytoremediation, nanotechnology, and phylloremediation (using plants and microbes). Phyllo-remediation is the most effective technology for removing air pollution naturally. The future perspective presents a great need to produce an ecosystem where microbes, plants, and nanoparticles synergistically control smog. In addition, further advancements would be needed to modify the genetic makeup of microbes and plants. Biotechnological approaches like CRISPR-Cas9 can be applied to the editing and cutting specific genes responsible for the bioremediation of VOCs, NOx, SOx, and harmful hydrocarbons. The extracted genes can then be expressed in biologically modified microorganisms and plants for enhanced bioremediation of smog.

In this work, non-ordered and ordered CeO2-based catalysts are proposed for the CO2 conversion to dimethyl carbonate (DMC). Particularly, a non-ordered mesoporous CeO2, consisting of small nanoparticles of about 8 nm, is compared with two highly porous (635-722 m2/g) ordered CeO2@SBA-15 nanocomposites obtained by two different impregnation strategies (a two-solvent impregnation (TS) and a self-combustion (SC) method), with a final CeO2 loading of 10 wt%. The Rietveld analyses on XRD data combined with TEM imaging evidence the influence of the impregnation strategy on the dispersion of the active phase: nanoparticles of 8 nm for the TS composite vs. 3 nm for the SC composite. The catalytic results show comparable activity for the mesoporous ceria and the CeO2@SBA-15_SC nanocomposite, while a lower DMC yield was found for the CeO2@SBA-15_TS nanocomposite. This finding is presumably ascribed to a partial obstruction of the pores by the CeO2 nanoparticles in the case of the TS composite, which leads to a reduced accessibility of the active phase. On the other hand, in the case of the SC composite, where the CeO2 particle size is much lower than the pore size, there is an improved accessibility of the active phase to the molecules of the reactants.

This work presents a novel compact CMOS potentiostat designed circuit for electrochemical cell. The proposed topology functions as a circuit interface, controlling the polarization of voltage signals at the sensor electrodes and facilitating current measurement during the oxidation-reduction process of a analyzed solution. The potentiostat, designed for CMOS technology, comprises a two-stage amplifier, two current mirror blocks coupled to this amplifier, and a CMOS push-pull output stage. It employs the electrochemical method of cyclic voltammetry, operating within voltage range of ±0.8 V and scan rates of 10mV/s, 25mV/s, 100mV/s and 250 mV/s. The circuit is capable of reading currents ranging from 10 µA to 500 µA. Experimental results were obtained using a potassium ferrocyanide (K3(FeCN)6) redox solution with concentrations of 10, 15 and 20 mmol/L, and their corresponding voltammograms were evaluated. The experimental results from a discrete circuit demonstrate that the proposed potentiostat topology produces outcomes consistent with those of classical topologies presented in the literature and industrial equipment.

In the field of quality control, the critical challenge of analyzing microdefects in steel filament holds significant importance. This is particularly vital as steel filaments serve as reinforced fibers in the use and applications within various component manufacturing industries. This paper addresses the crucial requirement of identifying and investigating microdefects on steel filaments. Eddy current signals are used for the identification of microdefects, and an in-depth investigation is conducted. The core objective is to establish the relationship between the depth of defects and the signals detected through the eddy current sensing principle. The threshold of eddy current instrument was set at 10%, corresponding to a created depth of 20 µm, to identify defective specimens. A total of 30 defective samples were analyzed, and the phase angles between the experimental and theoretical results were compared. The depths of defects ranged from 20 to 60 µm, with one sample having a depth exceeding 75 µm. The calculated threshold of 10.18% closely aligns with the set threshold of 10%, with a difference of only 1.77%. The resulting root mean square error (RMSE) was found to be 10.53 degrees, equivalent to 3.49 µm for the difference in depth and phase between measured results and estimated results. This underscores the methodology's accuracy and its applicability across diverse manufacturing industries.

The rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, has revolutionized natural language processing, enabling these models to generate coherent and contextually relevant text. These capabilities hold significant potential for various applications, particularly in the medical field. LLMs can assist healthcare professionals by providing accurate information, supporting diagnostic processes, and enhancing medical education. However, the implementation of LLMs in clinical settings faces several barriers, including technical limitations, ethical concerns, regulatory constraints, and practical challenges. Ensuring accuracy, reliability, and interpretability is crucial, along with addressing biases, ensuring data privacy, and establishing ethical guidelines. Future research should focus on improving training techniques, developing explainable AI methods, and creating efficient, resource-saving models. Expanding applications through domain-specific models and multi-modal integration can further unlock the potential of LLMs. By addressing these challenges and prioritizing responsible development, LLM technology can be safely and effectively integrated into various domains, driving innovation and improving outcomes. This paper explores the current state of LLM technology, its medical applications, barriers to implementation, and directions for future research and development

Smart electronic devices and telemedicine are widely used in humans' daily lives. This provides remote treatment of patients using information and communications technology. New telemedicine technologies, such as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), make it easier for medical and computing devices to communicate regularly and effectively. Critical motivations for adapting the IoMT are reduced cost, increased quality of life, and timely medical intervention. IoMT is significant because it enables continuous, real-time patient monitoring during routine everyday activities using a variety of wearables and sensors. With big data, the IoMT technology makes excellent use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support disease detection and health condition prediction, alerting patients and healthcare providers. Many research studies have been conducted to explore various aspects of IoMT and its applications in the real world. However, it is challenging to comprehend all the techniques and solutions proposed by the research community. Therefore, this survey sheds light on some crucial aspects of IoMT technologies and explores the potential research gaps and directions the research community could tackle. The survey examines and discusses the characteristics of IoMT standards, protocols, and types. It then delves into the layers of IoMT and distinguishes them into Fog and edge. The studies published under each type were explored, and the limitations of these works were highlighted. The research gaps and directions on IoMT approaches and technologies were also highlighted. With such findings and research directions, further research endeavors could be carried out to address the issues and existing limitations in the IoMT.

Extracellular electron transfer (EET) is key to the success of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Clostridium sp. often occurs in MFC anode communities, but its ability to perform EET remains controversial. We have employed Clostridium pasteurianum DSM 525 as biocatalyst in a glycerol-fed MFC, designated MFC_DSM. We have also followed the EET of this biocatalyst in the presence of a mediator, namely soluble neutral red (NR), soluble methyl viologen (MV), neutral red film (FNR), or methyl viologen film (FMV). MFC_DSM provided power and current densities (j) of 0.39 mW.cm^-2 and 2.47 mA.cm^-2, respectively, which evidenced that the biocatalyst performs direct electron transfer (DET). Introducing 150.0 µM NR or MV into the MFC_DSM improved the current density by 7.0- and 3.7-fold (17.05 and 8.45 mA.cm^-2), respectively. After 20 cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles, the presence of FNR in the MFC_DSM anodic chamber provided almost twofold higher current density (30.76 µA.cm^-2) compared the presence of NR in the MFC_DSM. Introducing MV or FMV into the MFC_DSM anodic chamber gave practically the same current density after 10 CV cycles. The MFC_DSM anodic electrode might interact with FMV weakly than with FNR, so FNR is more promising to enhance C. pasteurianum DSM 525 EET within MFC_DSM.

Infill well location optimization poses significant challenges due to its complexity and time-consuming nature. Currently, determining the scope of infill wells relies heavily on field engineers' experience, often using single indices such as remaining oil saturation or abundance of remaining oil reserves to evaluate the potential of remaining oil. However, this approach lacks effectiveness in guiding the precise tapping of remaining oil in ultra-high water cut reservoirs. To address this, our study comprehensively considers factors influencing the recoverable potential of remaining oil in such reservoirs. We characterize differences in reservoir heterogeneity, the scale of recoverable remaining oil reserves, water flooding conditions, and oil-water flow capacity to construct a quantitative evaluation index system for the recoverable potential of remaining oil. Recognizing the varying degrees of influence of different indices on the recoverable potential of remaining oil, we determine the objective weight of each evaluation index by combining an accelerated genetic algorithm with the projection pursuit model. This approach enables the construction of a recoverable potential index for remaining oil and forms a quantitative evaluation method for the recoverable potential of remaining oil in ultra-high water cut reservoirs. Subsequently, we establish a mathematical model for infill well location optimization, integrating and optimizing infill well location coordinates, well length, well inclination angle, and azimuth angle. Using the main layer sand body of an oilfield in Bohai as a case study, we conducted evaluations of remaining oil potential and infill well location optimization. Results demonstrate that the assessment of remaining oil potential comprehensively characterizes the influence of reservoir physical properties and oil-water diversion capacity on remaining oil potential across different regional positions. This evaluation can effectively guide the determination of infill well location ranges based on the evaluation results. Furthermore, further optimization of infill well locations can effectively enhance reservoir development outcomes.

Abstract: High step-up voltage gain nonisolated DC-DC converter have attracted much attention in photovoltaic, fuel cells and other renewable energy system applications. In this paper, by combining input current ripple-free boost cell with coupled-inductor voltage-doubler cell, an input current ripple-free high voltage gain nonisolated converter is proposed. In addition, passive lossless clamp circuit is adopted to recycle the leakage inductor energy and to reduce the voltage spike across the power switch. By utilizing voltage-doubler cell consisting of diode and capacitor, the voltage stress of switch is further reduced and the resonance between the leakage inductor and the stray capacitor of the output diode is eliminated. A low switch-on-resistance low-voltage-rated MOSFET can therefore be employed to reduce the conduction loss and cost. The reverse recovery loss of output diode is reduced, and the efficiency of converter can be improved. Furthermore, the proposed converter can achieve nearly zero input current-ripple and make the design of electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter easy. Steady state analysis and operation mode of the converter is performed. Finally, experimental results are presented to verify the analysis results of the proposed converter.

Although Eulerian approaches are standard in computational acoustics, they are less effective for certain classes of problems like bubble acoustics and combustion noise. A different approach for solving acoustic problems is to compute with individual particles following particle motion. In this paper, a Lagrangian approach to model sound propagation in moving fluid is presented and implemented numerically, using three meshfree methods to solve the Lagrangian acoustic perturbation equations (LAPE) in the time domain. The LAPE split the fluid dynamic equations into a set of hydrodynamic equations for the motion of fluid particles and perturbation equations for the acoustic quantities corresponding to each fluid particle. Then, three meshfree methods, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, the corrective smoothed particle (CSP) method, and the generalized finite difference (GFD) method, are introduced to solve the LAPE and the linearized LAPE (LLAPE). The SPH and CSP methods are widely used meshfree methods, while the GFD method based on the Taylor series expansion can be easily extended to higher orders. Applications to modeling sound propagation in steady or unsteady fluids in motion are outlined, treating a number of different cases in one and two space dimensions. A comparison of the LAPE and the LLAPE using the three meshfree methods is also presented. The Lagrangian approach shows good agreement with exact solutions. The comparison indicates that the CSP and GFD method exhibit convergence in cases with different background flow. The GFD method is more accurate, while the CSP method can handle higher Courant numbers.

Among natural disasters, earthquakes have a considerable impact and are among the ten deadliest, with an extreme impact on the healthcare sector. This study aimed to analyze best practices in nursing care for earthquake victims. An in-depth analysis was carried out by using a scoping review, a method used in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR recommendations to identify best nursing practice in these circumstances based on searches of eight databases: MEDLINE via PubMed; Cochrane Library; Embase; VHL; PDQ-Evidence; Scopus; ProQuest; Google Scholar. Twenty-one studies were selected. The nursing practices identified were grouped into two distinct dimensions, each subdivided into four subcategories: (i) care practices: a) immediate care, b) intermediate care, psychosocial care and d) ethical care; (ii) care management and coordination practices, which cover (a) care coordination, (b) victim care network organization, (c) teamwork and (d) training. By analyzing these nursing practices during care and relief operations for earthquake victims, this study identified the various actions carried out, the nursing skills to be developed and the reinforcement of these advanced practices through the systematization of nurses’ skills, in order to promote victims’ rehabilitation, minimize their suffering and improving their quality of life during and after an earthquake.

Pressure drop and flow pattern of oil-water flows were investigated in a 19 mm ID clear polyvinyl chloride pipe consisting of U-bend with radius of curvature of 100 mm. The range for oil and water superficial velocities tested were and respectively. Measurements were carried out under different flow conditions in a test section that consisted of four different parts: upstream of the bend, at the bend and at two redeveloping flow locations after the bend. The result indicated that the bend had limited influence on downstream flow patterns. However, the shear forces imposed by the bend caused some shift flow pattern transition and bubble characteristics in the redeveloping flow section after the bend relative to develop flow before the bend. Generally, pressure gradient at all the test sections increased with both oil fraction and water superficial velocity and there was a sharp change of pressure gradient profile during phase inversion. The transition point where phase inversion occurred was always within the range of . Pressure losses differed at the various test sections and the difference was strongly linked to the superficial velocity of the phases and the flow pattern. At high mixture velocity, pressure losses at the redeveloping section after the bend were higher than that at the bend and that for fully developed flows. At low mixture velocity, pressure losses at the bend are higher than in the straight sections. Pressure drop generally decreased with level of flow development downstream of the bend.

Automatic and blind parameter estimation based on the inherent features of wireless signals is a major research area due to the fact that these techniques lead to the simplification of receivers, especially in terms of coarse synchronization, more importantly reduce down the signaling load at the control channels. Thus, in the literature many techniques are proposed to estimate a vast set of parameters including modulation types and orders, data and chip rates, phase and frequency offsets and so on. In this paper, a cyclostationary feature detection based method is proposed to estimate the carrier numbers and carrier spacing of carrier-aggregated direct sequence spread spectrum cellular signals blindly. The particular chip rate of the signal is also estimated through the process jointly. In the paper, after the proposed method is formulated, the measurement setup which is developed to collect the data for the validation of the proposed method is introduced. The measurement results are post-processed for performance analysis purposes. To that end, the method is investigated in terms of SNR values, different channel conditions, and measurement durations. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed method is compared with that of energy detection. Measurement results indicate superior performance of the proposed method under significant wireless channel impairments and in low-SNR regions.

Background and Aims: Sustained virologic response (SVR) lead to the decrease of portal hypertension, the regression of fibrosis, the improvement of the hepatic synthesis of procoagulant and anticoagulant factors. We aimed to assess the influence of SVR on coagulation parameters in HCV cirrhotic patients treated with DAAs. Methods: We performed a prospective study in the Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Iasi, Romania, between January 2022 and February 2024. We included patients diagnosed with compensated and decompensated HCV-related liver cirrhosis, treated with direct antivirals (PrOD ± RBV or SOF/LED ± RBV) for 12/24 weeks. Blood samples for biochemical, immunological and coagulation tests were collected at baseline, EOT and SVR12/24. Results: We analyzed a group of 52 patients with HCV-related liver cirrhosis, predominantly female (68.0%), the degree of severity of cirrhosis placed the patients mainly in Child-Pugh classes B (40%) and C (36%). All patients achieved SVR. The MELD score decrease at EOT (13.48 ± 4.273; p =0.001), and SVR (9.88 ± 2.774; p = 0.000), compared to baseline (14.92 ± 4.707). Fibroscan values decreased at SVR (17.596 ± 3.7276; p = 0.000) compared to baseline (26.068 ± 7.0954). For all common coagulation parameters (platelets, INR, PT, fibrinogen, aPTT) there was a trend towards improvement during treatment, changes that were statistically significant for the majority of patients. Factor II low at baseline (75.40 ± 7.506), increases at EOT (87.40 ± 9.587), and later at SVR (99.12 ± 11.695; p = 0.000). FVIII values increased at baseline (175.52 ± 16.414) decrease at EOT (151.48 ± 13.703) and SVR (143.40 ± 13.937). FvW values decreased during treatment (146.84 ± 9.428 – baseline, 141.32 ± 9.690; p =0.000 – EOT, 126.68 ± 17.960 – SVR). In regards to the anticoagulant factors (PC, PS, ATIII), a significant improvement was brought on by SVR. Advanced stages of liver disease showed the most diminished FII activity, while at baseline and in Child-Pugh C patients we recorded the highest values of FVIII and FvW. Conclusions: Our study proved that the “reset” of the coagulopathy might be due to the improving of the liver function due to viral eradication secondary to AAD therapy.

Three-phase motors are commonly adopted in several industrial contexts and their failures can result in costly downtime causing undesired service outages; this way, motor diagnostics is an issue that assumes great importance. To prevent their failures and timely face the considered service outages, a non-invasive method to identify electrical and mechanical faults in three-phase asynchronous electric motors is proposed in the paper. In particular, a measurement strategy along with a machine learning algorithm based on Artificial Neural Network is exploited to properly classify failures. In particular, digitized current samples of each motor phase are first processed by means of FFT and PSD in order to estimate the associated spectrum. Suitable features (in terms of frequency and amplitude of the spectral components) are then singled out to either train or feed a neural network acting as a classifier. The method is preliminary validated on a set of 28 electric motors, and its performance is compared with common state-of-art machine learning techniques. The obtained results show that the proposed methodology is able to reach accuracy levels greater than 98\% in identifying anomalous conditions of three-phase asynchronous motors.

The development and application of marine current energy are attracting more and more attention around the world. Due to the hardness of its working environment, it is important and difficult to study the fault diagnosis of a marine current generation system. In this paper, an underwater image is chosen as the fault-diagnosing signal, after different sensors are compared. This paper proposes a diagnosis method based on the sparse autoencoder (SA) and softmax regression (SR). The SA is used to extract the features and SR is used to classify them. Images are used to monitor whether the blade is attached by benthos and to determine its corresponding degree of attachment. Compared with other methods, the experiment results show that the proposed method can diagnose the blade attachment with higher accuracy.

Diffusion-controlled cyclic voltammograms at fast scan rates show peak shifts as well as decreases in the peak currents from the predicted diffusion-controlled currents especially when currents are large in low concentration of supporting electrolyte. This has been conventionally recognized as an IR-drop effect by solution resistance on the peaks as well as heterogeneous kinetics. It is also brought about by negatively capacitive currents associated with charge transfer reactions. The reaction product generates dipoles with counterions to yield a capacitance, of which current flows oppositely to that of the double layer capacitance. The three effects are specified here in the oxidation of a ferrocenyl derivative by fast scan voltammetry. The expression for voltammograms complicated with IR-drop is derived analytically, and yields deformed voltammograms. The peak shift is approximately linear with the IR-term, but exhibits a convex variation. Dependence of some parameters on the peaks by the IR-drop is compared with those by the negative capacitance. The latter is more conspicuous than the former under conventional conditions. The two effects cannot be distinguished specifically except for variations of conductance of the solution.

Impact characterization of linear resonant actuator (LRA) is studied experimentally by newly developed drop tester, which can control various experimental uncertainty such as rotational moment, air resistance, secondary impact and so on. The feasibility of this test apparatus was verified by comparison with free fall test. By utilizing a high-speed camera and measuring the vibrational displacement of spring material, the impact behavior was captured and the damping ratio of the system was defined. Based on the above processes, the finite element model was established and the experimental and analytical results were successfully correlated. Finally, the damage of the system from impact loading can be expected by developed model and as a result, this research can improve the impact reliability of LRA.

The paper describes the new method for image compression based on coordinated group signal transformation. The algorithm is a type of difference coding. Coordinated processing significantly simplifies the difference signal conversion scheme using a single group codec for all signals. The described method considers color channels as correlated signals of a multi-channel communication system. The specifics of the processed data required modification of the coordinated group processing algorithm. First, we changed how to calculate the difference signals to prevent data loss. Secondly, the group codec was supplemented with a neural network to improve the quality of reconstructed images. We considered the following types of neural networks: fully connected, recurrent, convolution, and convolution in the Fourier space. Based on the simulation results, it is best to use fully connected neural networks if the goal is to minimize processing delay time. These networks have a response time of 13 ms. On the other hand, if the priority is to improve quality in cases where delays are not critical, then convolution neural networks in the Fourier space should be used. These networks have a response time of 140 ms and are of significant interest.

Strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora is one of the main diseases of strawberry and significantly impacts the yield and quality of strawberry fruit. There are now no effective control techniques available except for fungicide sprays, which may directly impact consumers. Biological control is becoming an alternative method for the control of plant diseases to replace or decrease the application of traditional synthetic chemical fungicides. Trichoderma is widely used as a biological agent for controlling strawberry root rot. In order to provide resources for screening the highly effective biocontrol fungus for controlling strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora, the biocontrol mechanism,the control effects of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 against strawberry root rot and growth-promoting effects on strawberry seedlings were investigated by plate culture, microscopy observation and root drenching methods.The results showed that CMT10 had obvious competitive, antibiotic and hyperparasitism effects on Neopestalotiopsis clavispora CMGF3. The CMT10 could quickly occupy nutritional space, and the inhibition rates of CMT10 against CMGF3 in confrontation culture on 7 d was 65.49%. The inhibition rates of volatile metabolite and fermentation metabolite produced by CMT10 against CMGF3 were 79.67% and 69.84%, respectively. The mycelium of strain CMT10 can act as hyperparasites by making contacting, winding and penetrating hyphae of CMGF3. Pot experiment showed that the biocontrol efficacy of CMT10 on strawberry root rot caused by Neopestalotiopsis clavispora was 63.00%. CMT10 had obvious promotion effect on strawberry growth, the plant height, root length, total fresh weight, root fresh weight, stem fresh weight and root dry weight, with the promotion rates were 20.09%, 22.39%, 87.11%, 101.58%, 79.82% and 72.33%, respectively. Overall, this study showed the ability of Trichoderma asperellum CMT10 to control strawberry root rot and their potential to develop as novel biocontrol agents to replace chemical fungicides for eco-friendly, sustainable agriculture.

The present review focuses on recent clinical trials that analyze the efficacy of intravitreal therapeutic agents for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), such as neuroprotective drugs, and complement inhibitors, also called immunomodulatory or anti-inflammatory. A systematic literature search was performed to identify randomized controlled trials published prior to January 2019. Patients affected by dry AMD treated with intravitreal therapeutic agents were included. The changes in the correct visual acuity and the reduction in geographic atrophy progression were evaluated. Several new drugs have shown some promising results, including those targeting the complement cascade and agents called neuroprotective. The action potential of the two groups of drugs is to block the complement cascade model for immunomodulating agents, and prevent the degeneration and apoptosis of ganglion cells for the neuroprotectors, respectively. To the best of knowledge, and after extensive studies on the matter, there are still many investigations to be carried out on dry AMD in collaboration between researchers. They will have to identify truly effective molecules, understand the practical potential of pluripotent stem cells, and refine gene therapies. Only in-depth clinical trials will be able to allow the most appropriate and personalized treatments for each dry AMD patient.

Embryo’s Implantation is a question that we are not in the position to answer in full details. We know that it depends on embryo’s quality and uterine receptivity. It is possible to access uterine cavity before in vitro fertilisation by a variety of tools, however hysteroscopy is the gold standard in evaluation of uterine cavity and potential pathology. The frequencies of unrecognised uterine pathology revealed by hysteroscopy are 18-50% and 40-43% in patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation or after recurrent implantation failure respectively. Data is inconclusive regarding the role of hysteroscopy on pregnancy outcome after in vitro fertilisation. This review aims to evaluate the validity of office hysteroscopy in subfertile population before or after IVF treatment

The Soil Conservation Service - Curve Number (SCS-CN) method is extensively used to calculate the runoff from rainfall over a large catchment over the world. Slope is an important criterion for runoff but a very few attempts have been made to evaluate the effect of slope on the CN with runoff potential. The objective of this paper is to summarise the historical review on the effects of slope on CN and runoff potential in various regions by the hydrologists. This paper also depicts that how the various researchers proved the importance of consideration of slope for CN and runoff estimation. In addition, paper highlights the key features of research in future like to classify the watersheds on slope based CN, accurate Antecedent Moisture Condition (AMC) and proper initial abstraction in the various regions etc. Considering these parameters an accurate runoff estimation can be predicted and managed properly in the urban watersheds.

Non-toroidal shape primary pass through protection current transformers (CTs) are used to measure high currents. Their design provides them with a big airgap that allow passing several cables per phase though them, which is the main advantage versus toroidal types, as the number of CTs required to measure the whole phase current is drastically reduced. The cables pass through the transformer window can be in several positions. As the isolines of the magnetic field generated by the primary currents are centered in the cables, if these cables are not centered in the transformer window, the magnetic field will be non-uniform along the transformer core. Consequently, local saturations can appear if the cables are not properly disposed causing the malfunction of the CT. In this paper, the performance of a non-toroidal shape protection CT is studied. The research is focused on the cable position influence in possible partial saturations of the CT when it is operating near to its accuracy limit. Depending on the cable position, the ratio of the primary and secondary currents can depart from assigned ratio. The validation of this phenomenon has been carried out via Finite Element Analysis (FEA) showing that partial transformer core saturations appears in areas of the magnetic core close to the cable. Applying FEA, also the admissible accuracy region for cable positioning inside the CT is delimited. Finally, the simulation results are ratified with experimental tests performed in non-toroidal protection CTs varying the primary cables’ positions, which are subjected to currents up to 5 kA, achieving satisfactory results. From this analysis, installation recommendations are given.

The risk classification of barrier lake is the key to conducting emergency treatment in a scientific manner. Such difficulties are faced as short time for risk evaluation, complex evaluation indicators, difficulty in obtaining information quickly and quantifying index weights. Based on this, this paper constructs a quantitative risk classification model for barrier lakes based on D-AHP. On the basis of studies on nearly 100 cases of barrier lakes, an 8-factor evaluation index system and quantitative classification are proposed. The methods of rapid calculation of reservoir capacity curve of barrier lake and intelligent identification of particles on the surface of barrier body were developed, which realized the rapid acquisition of 8-factor evaluation index information in emergency environment. The D-AHP method dealt with inconsistent weight assignment to evaluation factors by experts, which helped achieve weight quantification of 8 factors. The risk assessment on15 barrier lakes such as Tangjiashan barrier lake show that the conclusion drawn with risk classification method proposed in this paper is basically consistent with that of the traditional table-lookup method. However, the table-lookup method ignores cumulative loss’s impacts on the risk level of barrier lakes, and considers the extremely severe loss of barrier lakes as a sufficient condition for the evaluation level to be grade I, and thus a deviation in the evaluation. The risk classification method proposed in this paper is more reasonable and reliable.

Thyroid surgery rates have tripled over the past 3 decades making it one of the most frequently performed procedures within general surgery. They are associated with the possibility of serious postoperative complications having a significant impact on the patient's quality of life. The recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsy and the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve (EBSLN) palsy are, next to hypoparathyroidism and bleeding after operation, one of the most common complications. The introduction of neuromonitoring into thyroid surgery, enabling both confirmation of anatomical integrity and assessment of laryngeal nerve function, was a milestone that has begun a new era in thyroid surgery. The International Neural Monitoring Study Group made standardization of the technique of RLN and EBSLN monitoring during thyroid and parathyroid surgery which increased prevalence of neural monitoring during thyroidectomy. Current status of IONM and benefits of its use have been presented in this publication.

Formation avoidance is one of the critical technologies for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) formations. To this end, a cooperative obstacle avoidance algorithm based on an improved artificial potential field and a consistency protocol is proposed in this paper. A cooperative obstacle avoidance algorithm based on the improved artificial potential field method and consistency protocol is proposed for the local obstacle avoidance problem of AUV formation. Firstly, for the disadvantage that the traditional artificial potential field method is easy to fall into local minima, an auxiliary potential field perpendicular to the AUV moving direction is designed to solve the problem that AUVs are easy to have zero combined force in the potential field and local minima. Secondly, the control law of AUV formation that keeps the speed and position consistent is designed for the problem that the formation will change during the local obstacle avoidance of the formation system. The control conflict problem of the combined algorithm of the artificial potential field law and the consistency protocol is solved by adjusting the desired formation of the consistency protocol through the potential field force. Finally, the bounded energy function demonstrates system convergence's stability. The simulation verification confirmed that the AUV formation could achieve the convergence of the formation state under local obstacle avoidance.

As the penetration of renewable energies increases, their acceptance of the power grid system is becoming an important issue. In the case of South Korea, a 22.9kV transformer is frequently utilized to reduce the power loss of the generated renewable energy transmission, so the power quality at the point of common connection (PCC) is inevitably influenced by the nonlinearity of the transformer and the uncertainty of the inductance and resistance of the transmission line. In this paper, we present a point of common connection voltage-modulated direct power control (PCCVM-DPC) system that enhances power quality at the PCC. First, we present the mathematical dynamics of active and reactive power at the PCC side, which contains the step-up transformer’s nonlinearity, the grid voltage harmonics, and the parameter uncertainties. By analyzing the disturbance terms of the PCCVM-DPC system, we present the disturbance observer (DOB) for the PCCVM-DPC system. To assess the efficacy of our approach, we perform comparative studies of the PCCVM-DPC without DOB and PCCVM-DPC with DOB by constructing the simulation environment based on the commercial step-up transformer and ESS inverter datasheet. We have validated that the active and reactive power control performance of the PCCVM-DPC with DOB outperforms the PCCVM-DPC without DOB from the observation that the current total harmonic distortion reduced by more than 40% compared to the PCCVM-DPC without the DOB.