Elevated serum uric acid (sUA) is associated with risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here, we examined the prognostic significance of sUA and exercise capacity in 411 Japanese adults (age, ≥65; mean, 81 years) hospitalized for worsening CVD. Mean sUA was significantly higher in the 23% of patients on an sUA-lowering agent than in those not. When the patients were stratified by sUA into three groups (7.0 mg/dL), the high sUA group had significantly worse peak VO2 and composite endpoint (rehospitalization due to worsening CVD and all-cause mortality) compared with low and moderate sUA groups (P < 0.001). When the patients were stratified by sUA into five groups (sUA 10.0 mg/dL), the incidence of the composite endpoint was significantly higher in the highest sUA group compared with that in the reference group, but only in women. Univariate Cox regression analysis, but not a multivariate analysis, indicated that sUA was significantly associated with the composite endpoint. Although sUA and exercise capacity may have some degree of prognostic significance in older patients with CVD, this significance may differ between men and women.

The Dubai Digital Government launched its recent guidelines, which call for artificial intelligence systems to be subject to legal accountability. This study discusses the extent to which autonomous robots can be granted legal personality in UAE law and the consistency of this approach with the provisions of Islamic jurisprudence. This research paper answered two main questions: First, the extent to which these guidelines are considered the beginning of work on granting legal personality to AI systems in the UAE. Second, what form of legal personality can be given to autonomous robots in UAE law to be consistent with the provisions of Islamic jurisprudence as a primary source of legislation in the country? The research concluded the impossibility of considering autonomous robots as a "thing" and classifying them within the concept of "persons." It also concluded that it is possible to give them legal personality according to two legislative solutions: granting them partial or incomplete performance eligibility like minors.

Aiming at the limitations of single-functionality, limited applicability, and complex designs prevalent in current metasurfaces, we propose a terahertz multifunctional and multiband tunable metasurface utilizing a VO2-metal hybrid structure. This metasurface structure comprises a top VO2-metal resonance layer, a middle polyimide dielectric layer, and a gold film reflective layer at the bottom. This metasurface exhibits multifunctionality, operating independently of polarization and incident angle. The varying conductivity states of the VO2 layers, enable the metasurface to achieve various terahertz functionalities, including single-band absorption, broadband THz absorption, and multiband perfect polarization conversion for linear (LP) and circularly polarized (CP) incident waves. Finally, we believe that the functional adaptability of the proposed metasurface expands the repertoire of options available for future terahertz device designs.

Depth-sensing technology has led to broad applications of inexpensive depth cameras that can capture human motion and scenes in 3D space. Background subtraction algorithms can be improved by fusing color and depth cues, thereby allowing many issues encountered in classical color segmentation to be solved. In this paper, we propose a new fusion method that combines depth and color information for foreground segmentation based on an advanced color-based algorithm. First, a background model and a depth model are developed. Then, based on these models, we propose a new updating strategy that can eliminate ghosting and black shadows almost completely. Extensive experiments have been performed to compare the proposed algorithm with other, conventional RGB-D algorithms. The experimental results suggest that our method extracts foregrounds with higher effectiveness and efficiency.

"Public legal information from all countries and international institutions is part of the common heritage of humanity. Maximizing access to this information promotes justice and the rule of law". In accordance with the aforementioned declaration on Free Access to Law by Legal information institutes of the world, a plethora of legal information is available through the Internet, while the provision of legal information has never before been easier. Given that law is accessed by a much wider group of people, the majority of whom are not legally trained or qualified, diversification techniques, should be employed in the context of legal information retrieval, as to increase user satisfaction. We address diversification of results in legal search by adopting several state of the art methods from the web search, network analysis and text summarization domains. We provide an exhaustive evaluation of the methods, using a standard data set from the Common Law domain that we subjectively annotated with relevance judgments for this purpose. Our results i) reveal that users receive broader insights across the results they get from a legal information retrieval system, ii) demonstrate that web search diversification techniques outperform other approaches (e.g., summarization-based, graph-based methods) in the context of legal diversification and iii) offer balance boundaries between reinforcing relevant documents or sampling the information space around the legal query.

This study aimed to elucidate the similarities and differences between amyloid-forming corpora amylacea (CA) in the prostate and lung, examine the nature of CAs in cystic tumors of the atrioventricular node (CTAVN), and clarify the distinctions between amyloid-forming CA and spheroid-type amyloid deposition. We conducted proteomics analyses using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with laser microdissection and immunohistochemistry to validate the characteristics of CAs in the lung and prostate. Our findings revealed that CAs in these organs primarily consist of common proteins (β2-microglobulin and lysozyme) and locally produced proteins. Moreover, we observed a discrepancy between the histopathological and proteomic analysis results in CTAVN-associated CAs. In addition, while the histopathological appearance of amyloid-forming CAs and spheroid-type amyloid deposits were nearly identical, the latter deposition lacked β2-microglobulin and lysozyme, and exhibited evident destruction of surrounding tissue. A literature review further supported these findings. These results suggest that amyloid-forming CAs in the lung and prostate are formed through a shared mechanism, serving as waste containers (wasteosomes) and/or storage for excess proteins (functional amyloids). In contrast, we hypothesize that while amyloid-forming CA and spheroid-type amyloid deposits are formed, in part, through common mechanisms, the latter are pathological.

This interdisciplinary investigation of the human remains of Balduin Helm, one of the most important abbots of Fürstenfeld monastery, provides novel information on that historic individual. This is particularly interesting since Balduin, during early 18th century, was involved in the renovation of this large Bavarian monastery. Metastatic prostate cancer was found as evidenced by multiple mixed osteolytic-osteoblastic bone lesions in all available vertebral bodies, fragments of both hemipelvises and isolated metastases in skull bones. Distribution, radio- and histomorphology, and especially the immunohistochemical detection of prostate-specific antigen in those metastases, definitively confirm this diagnosis. Further investigation, especially by stable isotope analysis, showed a balanced high-level diet with considerable contribution from animal protein and significant freshwater fish. These additional findings suggest a significant radiocarbon reservoir effect as an explanation for a “too old” radiocarbon dating. Finally, the obviously high-level protein diet may have contributed to the tumorigenesis which caused the death of the abbot at an advanced age.

In this paper, a method is developed for presenting a novel virtual torque sensor based on precise model and position measurements avoids the need of traditional strain gauges and amplifiers. More specifically, the harmonic drive compliance model and the Gaussian process regression (GPR) technique are used together to achieve virtual torque sensor measurement. While the harmonic drive compliance model provides the analytic part, the Gaussian process regression method is used to reconstruct the unmolded part based on motor-side and link-side joint angles as well as motor current. After an automatic offline calibration, the method allows for a lean online implementation. The virtual torque sensor measurement is compared with measurements of a commercial torque sensor, and the results have attested the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Aiming at effectively generating safe and reliable motion paths for quadruped robots, a hierar-chical path planning approach driven by dynamic 3D point cloud is proposed in this article. The developed path planning model is essentially constituted of two layers: global path planning layer and local path planning layer. At the global path planning layer, a new method is proposed for calculating terrain potential field based on point cloud height segmentation. Variable step size is employed to improve the path smoothness. At the local path planning layer, a real-time prediction method for potential collision area and a strategy for temporary target point selection is developed. Quadruped robot experiments were carried out in an outdoor complex environment. The experi-mental results verified that, for global path planning, the smoothness of the path is improved and the complexity of the passing ground is reduced. The effective step size is increased by a maxi-mum of 13.4 times, and the number of iterations is decreased by up to 1/6, compared with the traditional fixed step size planning algorithm. For local path planning, the path length is short-ened by 20%, more efficient dynamic obstacle avoidance and more stable velocity planning are achieved by using the improved dynamic window approach (DWA).

Background: Alfalfa, the most economically important forage legume worldwide, features modest genetic progress due to long selection cycles and large extent of non-additive genetic variance associated with its autotetraploid genome. Methods: To improve the efficiency of genomic selection in alfalfa, we explored the effects of genome parametrization (as autotetraploid and diploid dosage, plus allele ratios) and SNP marker subsetting (all available SNPs; only genic regions; only non-genic regions) on genomic regressions, together with various levels of filtering on reading depth and missing rates. We used Genotyping by Sequencing-generated data and focused on traits of different genetic complexity, i.e., dry biomass yield in moisture-favorable (FE) and drought stress (SE) environments, leaf size, and onset of flowering, assessed on 143 genotyped plants from a genetically-broad European reference population and their phenotyped half-sib progenies. Results: On average, allele ratio improved the predictive ability compared with other genome parametrizations (+7.9% vs. tetraploid dosage, +12.6% vs. diploid dosage), SNP subsetting offered an advantage compared with any tested subsettings (+3.7% vs. genic regions, +7.6% vs. non-genic regions). However, when focusing on specific traits, different combinations of genome parametrization and subsetting reached better performances. We also released Legpipe2, a SNP calling pipeline tailored for reduced representation (GBS, RAD) medium-sized genotyping experiments.

The European Union's recent decision to renew the authorization for the use of glyphosate until 15 December 2033 stimulates the scientific discussion all around the world regarding its toxicity or otherwise for humans. Glyphosate is a chemical used by millions of tons in the last 50 years worldwide to drying weeds in cultivated fields, greenhouses, roadsides. Concern has been raised in many quarters about the possible presence in the food chain and the consequent adverse effects on health: both aspects that argue in favor of toxicity and those that instead may indicate limited toxicity of glyphosate are here discussed. The great debate that has been generated requires further investigations and field measurements to understand its fate once dispersed in the environment and its concentration in the food chain. Hence the need for validated analytical methods that are available to analysts in the field. In the present review, methods for the analytical determination of glyphosate and its main metabolite, AMPA, are discussed, with a specific focus on chromatographic techniques applied to cereal products. The experimental procedures are explained in any detail, including cleanup, derivatization, and instrumental conditions to give the laboratories involved enough information to proceed with the implementation of this line of analysis. The prevalent chromatographic methods used are LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/SIM, and GC-MS/MS but sufficient indications are also given to those laboratories that wish to use the simpler HPLC-FLD, HPLC-UV, GC-NPD or GC-FPD techniques for screening purposes. Concentrations from literature measured in wheat, corn, barley, rye, oats, soybean, and cereal-based foods are reported together with the regulatory status in various parts of the world and the accumulation mechanism. As for the accumulation in cereals, available data show that glyphosate tends to accumulate more in wholemeal flours than in refined ones, that its concentration in the product strictly depends on the treatment period (the closer it is to the time of harvesting, the higher the concentration) and that in cold climates the herbicide tends to persist in the soil for a long time.

Background: Suicide is a major health problem. The aim of this study was a comparative study of the causes and methods of completed suicide referred to legal Medicine Organization in Bushehr Province during the years 2006- 2015. Methods: This consideration has been done as a retrospective cross-sectional study; the data were collected by the check list. After coordination to the medico legal 343 cases of completed suicide lead to death over a ten year period from 2006 to 2015 were extracted and the data were analyses by SPSS software. Results: The rate of completed suicide was 2.43 and 1.12 suicides per 100,000 people in male and female, respectively. The mean age were 29.25 and 27.61 years in male and female, respectively p>0.05. A higher completed suicide rate was found among single people. The most common ways of a suicide among people who live in Bushehr were hanging out 184(53.6%), self-Immolation 83(24.2%) and firearms 37(10.8%). Motive of suicide was psychological disorders, Physical disease, Conflict with family and substance abuse. 43(12.5%) people smoking and 22(6.4%) people were both smoking and opioid. During the ten year period of studied, throughout the all years that frequency of hanging out has been higher than others. Conclusion: Due to the high incidence of completed suicide in young people and unmarried individuals also hanging out in male and self-burning in females are prevalent. So determination of preventive measures appears to be necessary. Social factors such as psychological disorders and family conflicts have a noticeable role from .Bushehr people.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge for the whole world and it had major secondary effects on humans and environmental health. The viral infection induced, in many situations, secondary bacterial infections, especially enteric infections by destabilizing the balance of the gastrointestinal microbiota. The large-scale use of antibiotics and biocides both for curative and preventive purposes has determined an increase in bacterial resistance and at the same time the possibility of pathogenic microorganisms’ multiplication and their dissemination to natural environments. Wastewater is the main vector of faecal microorganisms that favour their dissemination into natural aquatic ecosystems. The present paper aimed to analyze the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the microbiological quality of wastewater from sewage treatment plants in Romania and its impact on receiving rivers. In order to highlight different and important areas of Romania, 3 cities from the east, center and west were selected for a microbiological evaluation of their WWTPs influent and effluent between ante-Covid-19 and Covid-19 pandemic peak period, when the Covid-19 pandemic had a direct impact on WWTPs microbial composition. Our study showed a higher contamination with fecal bacteria linked to a higher Covid-19 incidence. The increased usage of pharmaceutical compounds, at their turn, increased the number of resistant bacteria reaching the environment via WWTP effluents.

The availability of current land cover and land use (LCLU) information for monitoring the status of land resources has considerable value in ensuring sustainable land use planning. Similarly, the need to provide updated information on the extent of LCLU change in West Africa has become apparent, given the increasing demand for land resources driven by the rapid population growth in the sub-region. SERVIR West Africa, a regional consortium jointly supported by USAID and NASA to foster the use of geospatial and earth observation data and science for decision-making on critical environmental and food security challenges, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is building technical capacity in the sub-region to develop and implement harmonized regional land cover classification system for LULC change monitoring in West Africa, based on the Land Cover Meta Language (LCML-ISO 19144-2). This article focuses on the process, potential opportunities, outputs of this collaboration, exemplary use cases, and recommendations for the next steps.

As Li-ion batteries use is spreading, incidents in large energy storage systems (stationary storage containers, …) or in large-scale cell and battery storages (warehouse, recyclers, …), often leading to fire, are occurring on regular basis. Water remains one of the most efficient fire extinguishing agents for tackling those battery incidents and large quantities are usually necessary. Since bat-teries contains various potentially harmful components (metals and their oxides or salts, sol-vents…) and that thermal runway induced battery incidents are accompanied with complex and potentially multistage fume emissions (containing both gas and particles) the potential impact of fire run-off water on the environment should be considered and assessed carefully. The tests presented in this paper focus on the analysis of the composition of run-off waters used to spray NMC Li-ion modules under thermal runaway. It highlights that waters used for fire-fighting are susceptible to contain many metals, including Ni, Mn, Co, Li and Al mixed with other carbonaceous species (soot, tarballs) and sometimes undecomposed solvents used in the elec-trolyte. Extra-polation of pollutant concentrations compared with PNEC values showed that, for large scale incidents, run-off water could be potentially hazardous to the environment.

In this paper, we introduce a specialized, fully automated experimental arrangement designed for assessing the effectiveness of augmented and virtual reality technologies in healthcare setting and explore its design principles focusing on depth sensor characterization. The main goal of this project is to establish a robust benchtop platform for the quantitative evaluation of extended reality technologies in a controlled environment, emphasizing the practical assessment of augmented reality head-mounted devices. We outline a design concept and considerations for an experimental configuration aimed at creating a realistic testing environment. This apparatus comprises an observation platform mounted on a three-degree-of-freedom motorized system and a test phantom stage. Focusing on real-case scenarios, we utilized a range of sensors, including readily available range-sensing cameras and commercial augmented reality headsets, such as the Intel RealSense L515 LiDAR camera, mounted on the motion control system. The setup enabled automated data collection and facilitates controlled assessments and validation of various facets of augmented reality technologies, including object, hand, and head tracking, as well as static and dynamic image registration. This paper describes the system architecture, the process of automated data collection, and presents several evaluation studies conducted with this setup, providing insights into the quality and temporal noise associated with static or moving objects or observers in augmented reality applications.

Moso bamboo is famous for fast growing and biomass accumulation, as well as high annual output for timber and bamboo shoots. These high outputs require high nutrient inputs to maintain and improve stand productivity. Soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are important micronutrients for plant growth and productivity. Due to high variability of soils, analysing spatial patterns of soil N, P and K stocks is necessary for scientific nutrient management in Moso bamboo forests. In this study, soils were sampled from 138 locations across Yong’an City and ordinary kriging was applied for spatial interpolation of soil N, P and K stocks. Soil N stock showed a strong spatial dependence while soil N and P stocks presented a moderate spatial dependence, indicating soil N was mainly controlled by intrinsic factors while soil N and P stocks were controlled by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Different spatial patterns were observed for soil N, P and K stocks across the whole study area, indicating that fertilizations with different ratios of N:P:K should be applied for different sites to maintain and improve stand productivity. The total soil N, P and K stocks within 0-60 cm were 0.624, 0.020 and 0.583 Tg, respectively.

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 March 2013, a novel avian influenza A H7N9 virus was emerged in China, which cause rapidly progressive pneumonia and with a high fatality rate. Serologic studies to evaluate neutralizing antibodies of infected patients and birds are invaluable tools for immunogenicity research of H7N9 and epidemiological investigation. Conventional neutralization assays are laborious and time-consuming which also hampered by biosafety requirement. In this study, We construct and produce pseudovirus bearing the full-length hemagglutinin (HA) of H7N9 virus in the Env-defective, luciferase-expressing HIV-1 backbone. The production of lentiviral pseudovirus was analysed by HA gene specific real-time reverse-transcription PCR, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Western Blot assay to prove the nucleic acid replication, the morphology of virus, and the expression of HA protein in pseudovirus. After that pseudovirus based inhibition assay was established to detect neutralizing antibodies of a panel of serum samples. Our results demonstrated that H7N9 pseudovirus which had single-cycle infection was generated. By comparing the neutralization antibody titers, pseudovirus based neutralization test could be recognized as an alternative of conventional microneutralization (MN). Hence, we conclude that it is possible to use pseudovirus inhibition assay to screen sera samples, as well as evaluate vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies against H7N9 virus.

In Germany, the phloem sucking planthopper Pentastiridius leporinus (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) currently represents the epidemiological driver for the spread of the syndrome “Basses Richesses” in sugar beet, which results in a reduced sugar content and an economic loss for the farmers. This disease is associated with the γ-proteobacterium ‘Candidatus Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus’ and the Stolbur phytoplasma ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’. Recently, P. leporinus was found in potato fields in Germany associated with Stolbur-like symptoms in this crop. In this study, we confirmed that the vector completes its lifecycle on sugar beet as well as on potato when reared under controlled conditions. Transmission experiments with adults of this vector combined with molecular analyses showed for the first time that both pathogens are transmitted by this vector to potato. For an accurate assessment of the Ca. P. solani and Ca. A. phytopathogenicus titers in the vector and host plants, gBlocks derived from the hsp20- and 16S rRNA gene were employed, respectively. For Ca. P. solani the limit of detection was determined in potato and sugar beet material. The results of this study will further research on the epidemiology of the syndrome “Basses Richesses” and “Stolbur” diseases and the response of host plants and vector insects to both pathogens.

Objectives: To assess the short-term impact of a single global stretching session on plantar pressures and lumbar range of motion (RoM) over one week in sedentary university students. Design: A randomised controlled trial with two parallel groups. Participants: Sixty-four university students were randomly assigned to a stretching group or control group. The stretching group received a single session of global stretching and the control group remained seated for the same length of time as the stretching session. Main outcome measures: Lumbar RoM and plantar pressures were assessed before, immediately after, 48 hours after, and 7 days after intervention. Results: Group-by-time interaction was significant for lumbar lateral flexion (p = 0.044), right maximal pressure (p = 0.003), left maximal pressure (p = 0.008), right mean pressure (p = 0.025), left mean pressure (p = 0.002), and maximal pressure minus mean pressure in right foot (p = 0.007). The model with plantar pressures showed a significant difference for group-by-time interaction (p = 0.010).Conclusion: Global stretching seems to counteract the ill-effects of prolonged sitting up to seven days with respect to plantar pressure in standing without improving lumbar ROM

Theoretical studies on the generation of nondiffracting and nondispersive light pulses and their experimental implementation are one of the renowned problems within electromagnetics. Current technologies enable creation of short-duration pulses of a few cycles with high power and fluency. An application of these techniques to the field of nondiffracting and nondispersive pulses requires a proper mathematical description of highly focused vector pulses. In this work, we study vector optical bullets in a dielectric medium with different polarization structures: linear, azimuthal, and radial. We report the differences caused by the vector model compared to the scalar model. We analyze effects caused by superluminal, subluminal, or even negative group velocity on properties of vector optical bullets inside a dielectric material.

Recent studies have demonstrated a relationship between poor vitamin D status and respiratory infections and diarrhea among young children. Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) and diarrhea are among the two most important causes of death in under-5 children. In this analysis, we examine the extent to which vitamin-D deficiency (<10 ng/ml) predicts these outcomes using data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of daily folic acid and/ or vitamin B12 supplementation for six months in 6 to 30 months old children conducted in Delhi, India. Of the 960 subjects who had vitamin-D concentrations measured, 331(34.5%) were vitamin-D deficient. We found, after controlling for relevant potential confounders (age, sex, breastfeeding status, wasting, stunting, underweight, anemia status at base line and season), the risk of ALRI was significantly higher among vitamin-D deficient (OR 1.26; 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.55) compared to vitamin-D-replete children in the six months follow-up period. Vitamin-D status was not significantly associated with episodes of diarrhea and clinical pneumonia. The extent of causal relationship of vitamin-D status and ALRI needs to be explored in further studies.

In recent years, cerium dioxide (CeO2) has attracted considerable attention owing to its remarkable performance in various applications, including photocatalysis, fuel cells, and catalysis. This study explores the effect of nickel (Ni) doping on the structural, thermal, and chemical properties of CeO2 nanorods, particularly focusing on oxygen vacancy-related phenomena. Utilizing X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), alterations in crystal structure and peak shifts were observed, indicating successful Ni doping and the formation of Ni2O3 at higher doping levels, likely due to non-equilibrium reactions. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed changes in oxygen release mechanisms, with increasing Ni doping resulting in the release of lattice oxygen at lower temperatures. Raman spectroscopy corroborated these findings by identifying characteristic peaks associated with oxygen vacancies, facilitating the assessment of Ni doping levels. Overall, this study underscores the substantial impact of Ni doping on CeO2 nanorods, shedding light on tailored catalytic applications through modulation of oxygen vacancies while preserving the nanorod morphology.

This article presents a combined route and path planning strategy to guide Skid-Steer Mobile Robots (SSMRs) in scheduled harvest tasks within expansive crop rows with complex terrain conditions. The proposed strategy integrates: i) a global planning algorithm based on the Traveling Salesman Problem under the Capacitated Vehicle Routing approach and Optimization Routing (OR-tools from Google) to prioritize harvesting positions by minimum path length, unexplored harvest points, and vehicle payload capacity, and ii) a local planning strategy using Informed Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (IRRT*) to coordinate scheduled harvesting points while avoiding low-traction terrain obstacles. The global approach generates an ordered queue of harvesting locations, maximizing the crop yield in a workspace map. In the second stage, the IRRT* planner avoids potential obstacles, including farm layout and slippery terrain. The path planning scheme incorporates a traversability model and a motion model of SSMRs to meet kinematic constraints. Experimental results in a generic fruit orchard demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. In particular, the IRRT* algorithm outperformed RRT and RRT* with 96.1% and 97.6% smoother paths, respectively. The IRRT* also showed improved navigation efficiency, avoiding obstacles and slippage zones, making it suitable for precision agriculture.

Functional articular cartilage regeneration remains an unmet medical challenge, increasing the interest for innovative biomaterial-based tissue engineering (TE) strategies. Hydrogels, 3D macromolecular networks with hydrophilic groups, present articular cartilage-like features such as high water content and load-bearing capacity. In this study, 3D porous polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels were fabricated combining the gas foaming technique and an UV-based crosslinking strategy. The 3D porous PEGDA hydrogels were characterized in terms of their physical, structural and mechanical properties. Our results showed that the size of the hydrogels pores can be modulated by varying the initiator concentration. In vitro cytotoxicity tests showed that 3D porous PEGDA hydrogels presented high biocompatibility both with human chondrocytes and osteoblast-like cells. Importantly, the 3D porous PEGDA hydrogels supported the viability and chondrogenic differentiation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hBM-MSCs)-based spheroids as demonstrated by the positive staining of typical cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) (glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)) and upregulation of chondrogenesis marker genes. Overall, the produced 3D porous PEGDA hydrogels presented cartilage-like mechanical properties and supported MSC-spheroid chondrogenesis, highlighting their potential as suitable scaffolds for cartilage TE or disease modelling strategies.

In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimated that there were 68,928 mustangs living on United States public lands in 10 western states. The agency uses Appropriate Management Levels to determine the number of mustangs who need to be removed from the land. Once removed and processed, mustangs are sent to adoptions or sales events or retained in short-or long-term holding facilities. Adoptions and sales are the leading avenues for rehoming mustangs; however, the number of horses the BLM can place fluctuates annually and never approaches the greater number removed from the range. To explore opportunities for increasing the number of mustang adoptions, we conducted in-depth interviews with 23 horse trainers located on the U.S. East Coast, asking about participants’ training programs, relationships with horses, perceptions of mustangs, and challenges that mustangs face in the dressage and eventing industries. Participants had varying experiences with mustangs; however, all were willing to work with a mustang in some capacity. Participants voiced the need for more satellite adoption locations on the East Coast to decrease barriers to acquiring a mustang, notably cost and time, and for expanding existing training programs to include eventing and dressage.

Wavelength selective switches (WSSs) are essential elements for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, as they offer cost-effective, high port-count and flexible spectral channel switching. This work proposes a new hybrid WSS architecture that leverages the beam shaping and steering features of uniform silicon nitride (SiN) based end-fire optical phased arrays (OPAs). By introducing beamforming to a WSS system, the spectral channels on the liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) panel can be tailored and arranged properly, depending on the optical configuration, using the beam control capabilities of OPAs. Combining 3D-FDTD and ray tracing simulations, the study shows that by reducing the input beam dimensions with proper sizing of the OPAs, the WSS design with the null-steering OPAs layout and 4×No switch size features increased spectral resolution. This extensive beamforming study on the steering-enabled layout reveals the acquirement of an even higher input channel number, achieving up to the 8×No WSS scheme with flexible channel routing on the LCoS panel. Such implementation of beamsteerers can unlock an extra degree of freedom for the switching capabilities of hybrid WSS devices. The results show great promise for the introduction of OPAs in WSS systems and provide valuable insight for the design of future wireless communication links and WDM systems.

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

Wildfires have always been a part of the history of Mediterranean forests. However, forest regeneration after a wildfire is not certain. It depends on many factors, some of which may be influenced by land management activities. Failure of regeneration will cause a regime shift in the ecosystem, reducing the provision of ecosystem services and ultimately leading to desertification. How can we increase Mediterranean forests’ resilience to fire? To answer this question, we did a literature review, investigating chains of processes that allow forests to regenerate (which we label “regeneration mechanisms”), and assessed the impact of selected management practices documented in the WOCAT database on the regeneration mechanisms. We identified three distinct regeneration mechanisms that enable Mediterranean forests to recover, as well as the time frame before and after a fire in which they are at work, and factors that can hinder or support resilience. The three regeneration mechanisms enabling a forest to regenerate after a fire consist of regeneration (1) from a seed bank; (2) from resprouting individuals; and (3) from unburned plants that escaped the fire. Management practices were grouped into four categories: (1) fuel breaks, (2) fuel management, (3) afforestation, and (4) mulching. We assessed how and under what conditions land management modifies the ecosystem’s resilience. The results show that land management influences resilience by interacting with resilience mechanisms before and after the fire, and not just by modifying the fire regime. Our analysis demonstrates a need for adaptive – i.e. context- and time-specific – management strategies.

By introducing environmental mediator, for avoiding randomness in selecting indicators and subjectivity in deciding interaction path coefficients to reveal interaction mechanism among forest industry, ecology and environmental capacity, structural Pressure–State–Impact–Response (PSIR) and quantitative Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are utilized with data on thirty–one provinces of China. We can find that: (i) forest industry has a negative influence on ecology, whereas ecology has a positive influence on industry; (ii) the destructive influence that industry has on ecology is much greater than the positive effect ecology has on industry; and (iii) environmental capacity plays a partial mediating role between industry and ecology. According to these results we can conclude that: (i) forest industry and ecology are not in a symbiotic relationship and have not reached a level of ecological security; (ii) the interaction between industry and ecology is in a period of transition from antagonistic to beneficial; and (iii) industry dominates ecology. However, we prospect the following advice: (i) methods of forest industry should be changed; (ii) new modes of industrial integration and circular economy should be developed; and (iii) the ability of the environment to sustain itself should be enhanced. The level of forest ecological security to discuss the symbiotic mechanism of industry and ecology will propose to be measured in future.

This study reports on the development of bio-based hydrophobic coatings for packaging papers through deposition of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) particles in combination with nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and plant wax. In a first approach, PHB particles in micrometer range (PHB-MP) were prepared through a phase-separation technique providing internally nanosized structures. The particles were transferred as a coating by dip-coating filter papers in the particle suspension, followed by sizing with a carnauba wax solution. This approach allowed partial to almost full surface coverage of PHB-MP over the paper surface resulting in static water contact angles of 105° to 122° and 129° to 144° after additional wax coating. In a second approach, PHB particles with submicron sizes (PHB-SP) were synthesized by an oil-in-emulsion (o/w) solvent evaporation method, and mixed in aqueous suspensions with 0 to 7 wt% NFC. After dip-coating filter papers in PHB-SP/NFC suspensions and sizing with a carnauba wax solution, static water contact angles of 112° to 152° were obtained. The intrinsic properties of the particles were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopy, indicating higher crystallinity for PHB-SP than PHB-MP. The chemical interactions between the more amorphous PHB-MP particles and paper fibers were identified as an esterification reaction, while the morphology of the NFC fibrillar network was playing a key role as binding agent in the retention of more crystalline PHB-SP at the paper surface, hence contributing to higher hydrophobicity.

Background: This study aimed to identify the association between occupational stress and depression-well-being by proposing a comprehensive and flexible job burden-capital model with its corresponding hypotheses. Methods: For this research, 1618 valid samples were gathered from the electronic manufacturing service industry in Hunan Province, China; self-rated questionnaires were administered to participants for data collection after obtaining their written consent. The proposed model was fitted and tested through structural equation model analysis. Results: Single-factor correlation analysis results indicated that coefficients between all items and dimensions had statistical significance. The final model demonstrated satisfactory global goodness of fit (CMIN/DF=5.37, AGFI=0.915, NNFI=0.945, IFI=0.952, RMSEA=0.052). Both the measurement and structural models showed acceptable path loadings. Job burden and capital were directly associated with depression and well-being or indirectly related to them through personality. Multi-group structural equation model analyses indicated general applicability of the proposed model to basic features of such a population. Gender, marriage and education led to differences in the relation between occupational stress and health outcomes. Conclusions: The job burden-capital model of occupational stress-depression and well-being was found to be more systematic and comprehensive than previous models.

Plant cells' ability to withstand abiotic stress is strongly linked to modifications in their mechanical characteristics. Nevertheless, the lack of a workable method for consistently tracking plant cell mechanical properties severely restricts our comprehension of the mechanical alterations in plant cells under stress. With Polyethylene Glycol (PEG6000), we created a drought-like environment, and we used the Double Resonator Piezoelectric Cytometry (DRPC) method to dynamically and non-invasively track changes in the stress (ΔS) created and viscoelasticity (storage modulus G' and loss modulus G") of protoplasts and suspension cells of rice during drought stress. The findings demonstrate that, rice suspension cells and protoplasts react mechanically differently to 5%–15% PEG6000 stress, implying distinct resistance mechanisms. However, neither of them can withstand 25% PEG6000 stress, they respond mechanically similarly to 25% PEG6000 stress. The results of DRPC are further corroborated by the morphological alterations of rice cells and protoplasts observed under an optical microscope. To sum up, the DRPC technique functions as a precise cellular mechanical sensor and offers novel research tools for the evaluation of plant cell adversity and differentiating between the mechanical reactions of cells and protoplasts under abiotic stress.

Despite the efforts made to stop the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, it still remains one of the leading causes of death from an infectious disease. Previous work in the group uncovered a new family of amides which showed promising activities against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A closer look at the literature showed that these compounds are structurally related to the DNB family of DprE1 inhibitors, so, we decided to study a wide range of substituted amides and determine their activity, focusing on unexplored structures related to the dinitrobenzamides (DNB) found in the literature. To synthesize our library of compounds we started from 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid to form the nitroaromatic core that is characteristic of the DNB’s, to which we then added linear or cyclic amine moieties. Additionally, the impact of terminal aromatic moieties was also assessed for some derivatives, via an ether, ester, or amide bond. In order to obtain the desired derivatives, multiple synthetic approaches were used, mainly focused on nucleophilic addition/elimination reactions, SN2 reactions and Mitsunobu reactions. The activity was impacted mainly by two structural features, the addition of an aromatic moiety as a terminal group and the type of the linker. The most interesting compounds exhibited activities comparable to isoniazid and DNB1. Computational studies were also performed aimed at understanding their possible interactions with DprE1. The most active compounds are a good starting point for further development, and we plan to study an extended family of compounds based in those structures.

The cooperation between humans and robots is becoming increasingly important in our society. Consequently, there is a growing interest in the development of models that can enhance the interaction between humans and robots. A key challenge in the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) field is to provide robots with cognitive and affective capabilities, developing architectures that let them establish empathetic relationships with users. Several models have been proposed in recent years to solve this open-challenge. This work provides a survey of the most relevant attempts/works. In details, it offers an overview of the architectures present in literature focusing on three specific aspects of HRI: the development of adaptive behavioural models, the design of cognitive architectures, and the ability to establish empathy with the user. The research was conducted within two databases: Scopus and Web of Science. Accurate exclusion criteria were applied to screen the 1007 articles found (at the end 30 articles were selected). For each work, an evaluation of the model is made. Pros and cons of each work are detailed by analysing the aspects that can be improved so that an enjoyable interaction between robots and users can be established.

The design complexity of the new generation of civil aero-engines results in higher demands on engines’ components, higher component temperature, higher heat generation, and, finally, critical thermal management issues. This paper will propose a methodological approach to create physics-based models for heat loads developed by sources as well as a systematic sensitivity analysis to identify the effects of design parameters on the thermal behaviour of civil aero-engines. The ranges and levels of heat loads generated by heat sources (e.g., accessory gearbox, bearing, pumps, etc.) and heat absorption capacity of heat sinks (e.g., engine fuel, oil, and air) are discussed systematically. The practical research challenges for thermal management system design and development for the new and next generation of turbofan engines will then be addressed through a sensitivity analysis of the heat load values as well as the heat sinks flow rates. The potential solutions for thermal performance enhancements of propulsion systems will be proposed and discussed accordingly.

Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs), one of the most promising biosurfactants (BS), are glycolipids produced by yeasts or fungi, with great environmental performance and a high compatibility with the human body. MELs besides working as typical surfactants, can form diverse structures when in the critical aggregation concentration (CAC), reducing the surface tension of water and other solutions, and being stable over a wide range of conditions. Among others, MELs present anti-microbial, antitumor, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, skin and hair repair capacity, which opens possibilities for their use in applications from cosmetics and pharmaceutics to bio-remediation and agriculture. However, their market share is still low when compared to other glycolipids, due to their less developed production process and higher production cost. This re-view gathers information on the potential applications of MELs mentioned on the literature since 1993. Furthermore, it is also explored the current strategies being developed to enhance the market presence of MELs, in parallel with the ones developed for rhamnolipids and sophorolipids.

The research reported on this paper was aimed at improving the overall efficiency of a PDO certified artisanal cheese production process. Being a PDO certified foodstuff by the EU, it is considered to have properties and qualities determined by the geographical environment in which is made, with its production taking place in a specific and determined geographical location, in this case the Serra da Estrela region. In that sense, the authors conducted a mapping according to a systemic perspective of the processes involved in the context of manufacturing and distribution of certified Serra da Estrela cheese. Numerous methods were used throughout the process, such as a systemic design analysis, and techniques derived from ethnographic methods, which led to the collection of data in the field and consequently provided the immersion of the researcher in genuine work situations. Critical points were identified and emphasized in the systemic map with the purpose of encouraging initiatives to address and overcome the gaps and inefficiencies detected. The systemic design analysis triggered the development of design work. Observations following an ethnographic approach identified ergonomic risks in cheese making during the process of cutting excess chips, fostering the emergence of musculoskeletal disorders at the wrist. A tool that fits best to the task at hand was developed. A prototype of the new tool enabled collecting feedback from use in the work context, in order to inform product development. The domains of agricultural production and microbiology, considering the specific microorganisms developed trough the ripening process of the cheese, turned out to be aspects of high importance for the issue under focus, contributing to a broader understanding of the ripening process and its risks, simultaneously improving the efficiency and success of cheese production. If it were not for the systemic analysis, which served as a link between the boundaries of distinct domains such as the risk of microorganism contamination, ergonomics, energy efficiency, legislation and regulation policies, transportation challenges and economic viability, approached throughout the research. Simultaneously creating bridges between them, the various problems might not have been detected in the first place, as they are usually addressed in specialized disciplines, predetermined by the restrictions of each specific area of knowledge. As a consequence of the development of this research, which was based on an analysis that sought to establish possible connections between various disciplines and tried to constantly maintain a holistic perspective, making new connections and observing the issues from a new angle, apart from the already established methodologies. All this allowed to lay out the seeds for the development of a plan to tackle the critical points identified by the systemic analysis reported in this paper.

To better understand the shape memory materials and self-healing materials, a new series of liquid-crystalline shape memory polyurethane (LC-SMPU) composites, named SMPU-OOBAm, were successfully prepared by incorporating 4-octyldecyloxybenzoic acid (OOBA) into the PEG-based SMPU. The effect of OOBA on the structure, morphology and properties has been carefully investigated. The results demonstrate that SMPU-OOBAm have liquid crystalline properties, triple-shape memory properties and self-healing properties. The incorporated OOBA promotes the crystallizability of both soft and hard segments of SMPU, and the crystallization rate of the hard segment of SMPU decreases when the OOBA-content increases. Additionally, the SMPU-OOBAm forms a two-phase separated structure (SMPU phase and OOBA phase), and it shows two-step modulus changes upon heating. Therefore, the SMPU-OOBAm shows triple-shape memory behavior, and the shape recovery ratio decreases with an increase in the OOBA content. Finally, SMPU-OOBAm shows self-healing properties. The new mechanism can be ascribed to the heating-induced “bleeding” of OOBA in the liquid crystalline state and the subsequent re-crystallization upon cooling. This successful combination of liquid crystalline properties, triple-shape memory properties and self-healing properties make the SMPU-OOBAm composites with many promise applications in smart optical devices, smart electronic devices and smart sensors.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between membrane material and development of membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) using membranes with different pore sizes and hydrophilicities. Batch filtration tests were performed using submerged single hollow fiber membrane ultrafiltration (UF) modules with different polymeric membrane materials including cellulose acetate (CA), polyethersulfone (PES), and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with activated sludge taken from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The three UF hollow fiber membranes were prepared by a non-solvent-induced phase separation method and had similar water permeabilities and pore sizes. The results revealed that transmembrane pressure (TMP) increased more sharply for the hydrophobic PVDF membrane than for the hydrophilic CA membrane in batch filtration tests, even when membranes with similar permeabilities and pore sizes were used. PVDF hollow fiber membranes with smaller pores had greater fouling propensity than those with larger pores. In contrast, CA hollow fiber membranes showed good mitigation of membrane fouling regardless of pore size. The results obtained in this study suggest that the surface hydrophilicity and pore size of UF membranes clearly affect the fouling properties in MBR operation when using activated sludge.

Since it was proposed, the Robot Operating System (ROS) has fostered solutions for various problems in robotics in the form of ROS packages. One of these problems is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), a problem solved by computing the robot pose and a map of its environment of operation at the same time. The increasingly availability of robot kits ready to be programmed and also of RGB-D sensors often pose the question of which SLAM package should be used given the application requirements. When the SLAM subsystem must deliver estimates for robot navigation, as is the case of applications involving autonomous navigation, this question is even more relevant. This work introduces an experimental analysis of GMapping and RTAB-Map, two ROS compatible SLAM packages, regarding their SLAM accuracy, quality of produced maps and use of produced maps in navigation tasks. Our analysis aims ground robots equipped with RGB-D sensors for indoor environments and is supported by experiments conducted on datasets from simulation, benchmarks and from our own robot.

The attitude dynamics and orbit dynamics of large rigid space structures are coupled with each other under gravity gradient, which may affect the stability of the large rigid space structures. In this paper, the gravity gradient stability of a large rigid space structure is studied under both small and large disturbances. Based on the rigid body dynamics and orbit dynamics, an accurate dynamic model without any linearization of the large rigid space structure is established via the natural coordinate formulation (NCF), which is able to describe the large overall motions of the structures. By using the generalized-α algorithm, the gravity gradient stability of the large rigid space structure is simulated and analyzed via various examples, including the influence of large disturbance angles, the positions at the stabilization and unstabilization regions. Finally, the relationship between spinning stability and gravity gradient stability is also investigated via a large spinning space structure.

Background: People with Down syndrome (DS) have a trisomy of chromosome 21 and marked deficits in verbal memory but relatively preserved visuospatial perception. Verbal memories are related to semantic knowledge. Little is known about the organization of semantic knowledge in people with DS, which was the aim of this study. Aims: The extent of false memory in people with DS was examined. Possible differences in the number of false memories induced by nominal and verbal themes were examined. Methods and Procedures: In the study phase, ten word lists with semantically related associates were presented. In the recognition phase, participants made judgments on whether each word had been represented previously as semantically related lures, old words, and semantically unrelated new words. Outcomes and Results: Differences in the processing of nominal and verbal theme-related lures were observed among people with DS. When processing nominal theme-related lures, people with DS showed delayed false positives. When processing verbal theme-related lures, people with DS showed no differences compared to controls. Similar patterns have been observed in people with DS when processing nominal theme-related associates and verbal theme-related associates. People with DS have delayed recognition of associates. When processing unrelated words, they showed significantly higher false positives than controls for both nominal and verbal eliciting themes. Further analyses of the themes revealed differences in false positives across syntactic categories among groups. Conclusions and Implications: People with DS showed a delayed recognition of associates and deviance in recognizing unrelated words in the nominal and verbal theme categories. People with DS were delayed in terms of nouns, but deviated with verbs in associated and unrelated words. Additionally, people with DS showed distinct patterns in processing five nominal lures and three verbal lures, suggesting that they formed false memories differently based on distinct syntactic categories. Thus, it was concluded that people with DS develop a deviant semantic structure. Category-based interventions for people with DS should be implemented in order to improve their semantic knowledge through lexical connections.

Recognition, decoding and tracking of vortex patterns is of increasing importance in many fields reaching from astronomical observation of distant galaxies to turbulence phenomena in liquids or gases. Currently, coherent light beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM) are of particular interest for optical communication, metrology, micro-machining or particle manipulation. One common task is to identify characteristic spiral patterns in pixelated intensity maps at real-world signal-to-noise ratios. Recently, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was applied to the quantitative analysis of spiral interference patterns of OAM beams. Our study considers this approach in more detail. It is demonstrated that specific information can be extracted by combining conformal mapping by polar transform with determining one- or two-dimensional angular frequency spectra either in spatially fixed or scanning mode. Results of proof-of-principle experiments are presented.

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) technology enables continuous behavior monitoring, particularly valuable in healthcare. This study investigates the viability of using an ear-worn motion sensor for classifying daily activities, including lying, sitting/standing, walking, ascending stairs, descending stairs, and running. Fifty healthy participants (between 20 and 47 years old) engaged in these activities while under monitoring. Various machine learning algorithms, ranging from interpretable shallow models to state-of-the-art deep learning approaches designed for HAR, were employed for classification. Results demonstrate the ear sensor's efficacy, with deep learning models achieving 98% accuracy rate of classification. The obtained classification models are agnostic regarding which ear the sensor is worn and robust against moderate variations in sensor orientation (e.g., due to differences in auricle anatomy), meaning no initial calibration of the sensor orientation is required. The study underscores the ear's efficacy as a suitable site for monitoring human daily activity and suggests its potential for combining HAR with in-ear vital signs monitoring. This approach offers a practical method for comprehensive health monitoring by integrating sensors in a single anatomical location. This integration facilitates individualized health assessments, with potential applications in tele-monitoring, personalized health insights, and optimizing athletic training regimes.

This article presents an innovative approach to the design of a safe adaptive backstepping control system. Tailored specifically for underactuated marine robots, the system utilizes simple sensors for enhanced practicality and efficiency. Given their operation in diverse oceanic environments fraught with various sources of uncertainties, ensuring the system's safe and robust behavior holds paramount importance in the control literature. To address this concern, this paper introduces a control strategy designed to ensure robustness at both the kinematic and dynamic levels. By emphasizing the compensation for the system uncertainties, the design integrates a straightforward fuzzy system structure. To further ensure the system's safety, a funnel surface is defined, followed by the design of a suitable nonlinear sliding surface as a function of the funnel and tracking error. Specifically leveraging the Lyapunov function, the study formally establishes the Semi-globally Practically Finite-time Stability of the closed-loop system, validated through simulations conducted on underactuated marine robots.

Keywords: pelvic ultrasound, follicle number per ovary, FNPO, ovarian volume, PCOM, upper normal limits, referral population

The mechanisms underlying the establishment of asymmetric structures during development remain elusive. The wing of Drosophila is asymmetric along the Anterior-Posterior (AP) axis, despite that its growth signals that drive its growth are presumably symmetric. Here, we investigated the contribution of cell recruitment, a process that drives wing fate differentiation in Drosophila, to the asymmetric shape and pattern of the adult wing. Genetic impairment of cell recruitment results in a significant reduction in adult wing asymmetry, primarily affecting the region between longitudinal vein 5 and the wing margin (L5-M). Morphometric analysis reveals that the lack of cell recruitment results in a more symmetric wing with respect to the AP, suggesting a contribution of cell recruitment to the establishment of asymmetry in the adult wing. A close examination of the expression of the wing selector gene vestigial (vg) in wing disc does not support this hypothesis. However, the circularity of the Vg pattern significantly increase in recruitment-impaired wing disc, suggesting that while the decrease of the L5-M region in the adult wing may not be attributed to cell recruitment, it could contribute to the overall asymmetry of the adult wing. We conclude that cell recruitment, a widespread mechanism that participates in growth and patterning of several developing systems, could drive, at least partially, the asymmetric shape of the Drosophila wing.

Agriculture is an industry that heavily relies on the environment. The increasing frequency of ex-treme disasters attributable to climate change has adversely affected agricultural land and dis-rupted the stability of the supply of agricultural products. Therefore, we implemented a research program focused on current strategies for adapting to agricultural meteorological disasters. The primary goal was to actively promote disaster prevention information and techniques through information platforms and applications and to provide refined forecasting and an early warning system to enhance preparedness for and recovery from agricultural disasters. This initiative can transform passive mitigation into dynamic action by disseminating crucial information to farmers. We integrated meteorological data and crop characteristics to develop disaster prevention strate-gies for the predisaster, during-disaster, and postdisaster stages to empower farmers to implement autonomous disaster prevention, ensuring their profitability and minimizing the impact of disas-ters. This paper presents an agricultural disaster prevention system involving cross-disciplinary collaboration to establish an early warning system for crop disasters. However, the effectiveness of the early warning system relies on the availability of complete meteorological and crop infor-mation, necessitating high-density agricultural meteorological stations, refined weather forecast services, historical crop damage data, and ongoing research and development on disaster preven-tion technology. In the system, a diversified social media interface is used to provide local farmers with weather forecast information. When impending disasters are identified, the platform acti-vates disaster prevention measures to reduce agricultural losses. This article paper introduces Taiwan’s agricultural disaster prevention system as a complete disaster prevention strategy.

In Brazil, Brazilian borreliosis (BB), characterized molecularly, exhibits symptoms akin to Lyme disease (LD) but presents unique epidemiological, clinical, and morphological features. This study explores the incidence, diagnostic challenges, and awareness initiatives regarding this disease in Brazil. Employing a narrative review methodology, data were sourced from Pubmed, Ebsco, Google Scholar, and Web of Science without temporal constraints. Results reveal diagnostic complexities in Brazil due to the low sensitivity of conventional tests and the use of North American B. burgdorferi antigens. Despite challenges, epidemiological studies indicate an upswing in cases in humans and animals. Therefore, there is an urgent need to define new biomarkers, molecular strategies, or new antigenic targets to advance the development of vaccines and diagnostics. Early and accurate pathogen identification is crucial for active surveillance to comprehend and manage this zoonosis.

This study was designed for the first time to improve phenolic yield and antioxidant activity of ultrasonic-assisted extraction from Acer truncatum leaves (ATL) using response surface methodology, and phenolic composition in ATL extracted under the optimized condition were characterized by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. Solvent and extraction time were selected based on preliminary experiments, and a four-factors-three-levels central composite design was conducted to optimize solvent concentration (X₁), material-to-liquid ratio (X₂), ultrasonic temperature (X₃) and power (X₄) for an optimal total phenol yield (Y₁) and DPPH• antioxidant activity (Y₂). The results showed that the optimal combination was ethanol: water (v:v) 66.21%, material-to-liquid ratio 1:15.31 g/mL, ultrasonic temperature 60 °C, power 267.30 W, and time 30 min with three extractions, giving a maximal total phenol yield of 7593.62 mg gallic acid equivalent /100 g d.w. and a maximal DPPH• antioxidant activity of 74241.61 μmol Trolox equivalent/100 g d.w.. Furthermore, 22 phenolics were first identified in ATL extract obtained under the optimized conditions, indicating that gallates, gallotannins, quercetin, myricetin and chlorogenic acid derivatives were the main phenolic composition in ATL. What’s more, a gallotannins pathway existing in ATL from gallic acid to penta-O-galloyl-glucoside was interpreted. All these results provided practical information aiming at full utilization of phenolics in ATL, together with fundamental knowledge for further research.

Present paper is dealing with the adaptive static balancing of robot or other mechatronic arms that are moving in vertical plane and whose static loads are variable, by using counterweights and springs. Some simple passive and approximate solutions are proposed and an example is shown. The active and exact solutions by using adaptive real time control in the case of unknown variation of static loads are simulated on VIPRO platform developed at Institute of Solid Mechanics of Romanian Academy.

In this study the effects of three different main preparatory tillage operations [ploughing at 0.4 m (P40) and 0.20 m (P20) depth and minimum tillage at 0.20 m depth (MT) each of them carried out at two different soil water contents (WC) [low, 58% (LH) and high, 80% (HH) of field capacity] were investigated. The results obtained in this research show high values of soil strength in term of Penetration resistance (CI) and shear strength (SS) particularly in deeper soil layers at lower water content. Fossil-fuel energy requirements both for P40 LH and P20 LH were 25 and 35% higher with respect to the HH treatments and tractor slip were very high (P40 LH = 32.4%) with respect to the P40 HH treatment (16%). Therefore soil water content had significantly influenced tractor performance during soil ploughing, particularly at 0.40 m depth while MT was not influenced at all. A significant correlation between grain yield and soil penetration resistance was found highlighting how soil strength may be good indicator of its productivity. Obtained results during these field tests allowed considering MT and P20 treatments more suitable for this type of soil in climate change scenarios.

The p53 tumor suppressor protein shows antiviral activity. The replication of viruses is also antagonized by interferons (IFNs) – cytokines, which control immunity genes by the STAT transcription factors. The best studied interferons belong to type I (e.g. IFNα) and type II (IFNγ) groups. IFNα and IFNγ both induce activating phosphorylation of STAT1 on Tyr701. Previously, we noticed that p53 activates SOCS1, which is a negative regulator of STAT1 phosphorylation. Thus, we hypothesized that p53 by activating SOCS1 expression reduces phosphorylation of STAT1 and attenuates activation of genes stimulated either by IFNα or IFNγ. To test this hypothesis, we exposed p53-proficient and p53-deficient cells to strong p53 activators, and either to IFNα or IFNγ. Subsequently, we estimated the phosphorylation status of STAT1 and the expression of genes regulated by either of these cytokines. Strong activation of p53 reduced the phosphorylation of STAT1 on Tyr701, however surprisingly it did not lead to reduced expression of most tested interferon-stimulated genes. On contrary, p53 and IFNγ synergized in the activation of CASP1, IFIT1 and IFIT3 genes. We conclude that the interactions between p53 and interferon-activated pathways are more complicated than initially expected, but the apparent cooperation between p53 and IFNγ deserves further studies.

This study provides a detailed investigation into the pathways through which microplastics from urban sources are transported to marine ecosystems, their distribution across different environments, and their impacts on marine life. Utilizing a combination of water and sediment sampling across urban, riverine, and marine environments, the research quantitatively assesses the concentration and types of microplastics present, and evaluates the ecological consequences of their accumulation in marine ecosystems. The findings reveal a significant concentration of microplastics in all examined environments, with the highest levels detected in urban areas, closely linked to industrial activities and inadequate waste management practices. The study documents a variety of microplastic polymers, with polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) being the most prevalent. A substantial impact on marine organisms was observed, including evidence of microplastic ingestion across a wide range of species and indications of stress and physical damage to coral reefs. Seasonal variations indicate that microplastic concentrations peak during periods of high rainfall, suggesting urban runoff as a critical pathway for microplastic transport. The study concludes with recommendations for improving waste management practices, enhancing public awareness and engagement in plastic recycling efforts, and implementing policies aimed at reducing the production and use of single-use plastics. This research underscores the urgent need for coordinated actions to mitigate the pervasive issue of microplastic pollution, highlighting the role of urban management and policy interventions in safeguarding marine ecosystems.

This study investigates the impacts of climate change policies on businesses across various sectors, aiming to understand how these regulations affect operational, financial, and strategic aspects of business management. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, data was collected from 500 businesses through surveys and interviews, encompassing a wide range of industries, sizes, and geographic locations. The findings reveal a complex landscape where 30% of businesses report positive impacts, primarily in the renewable energy and technology sectors, citing increased demand for green products and improvements in energy efficiency. Conversely, 45% of businesses, especially from manufacturing and agriculture, experience negative impacts, including increased operational costs and regulatory compliance challenges. Notwithstanding, a significant majority of businesses are committed to enhancing their sustainability practices, viewing climate change policies as an opportunity for innovation and long-term growth. The study highlights the nuanced effects of climate change policies, emphasizing the need for sector-specific support measures to alleviate financial and operational burdens on negatively impacted businesses. Moreover, it points to a broader shift towards sustainability within the business community, suggesting that climate policies, despite their varied impacts, are driving significant changes in business strategies towards environmental stewardship.

One of the major concerns in structural health management (SHM) is the early detection of a growing crack. Using this, future damage due to crack propagation can be mitigated or eliminated by implementing proper repair and maintenance. Acoustic Emission (AE) is a non-destructive testing (NDT) method with potential applications for locating and monitoring fatigue cracks. The research presented in this paper focuses on SHM using AE. A novel AE signal analysis approach was proposed in order to detect crack initiation and assess small crack lengths. Experimental investigation indicated that initiation of a crack could be identified through the statistical analysis of the resulting features of the AE signals. A probabilistic AE-based model for small fatigue crack sizing was developed and the uncertainties of the model were estimated. In addition, a probabilistic model validation approach was implemented to confirm accurate estimation of the results. The outcome of this research can be used to evaluate the integrity of structures under fatigue loading. The proposed approach can also be applied as an approach to manage health and assess prognosis of structures.

Fires constitute a significant threat due to the pollutants emitted and the destruction they cause. People who take part in fire-fighting operations must be equipped with appropriate tools, including special clothing that will allow them to work and guarantee safety. One of the threats are compounds from the PAH group, which are characterized by high toxicity and carcinogenicity. Therefore, it is important that the materials used constitute a barrier to contamination. Various materials from which individual elements of special firefighter's clothing are made were tested. Additionally, the importance of height on the possibility of sorption of PAH compounds on a given type of material was analyzed. Based on the results obtained, it was found that the type of material and the zone in which the clothing items are used are important in the sorption processes of pollutants. Data in this area may be important for taking further actions regarding the modification of materials used in special fire brigade clothing and in their cleaning processes.

The affinity constant, also known as the equilibrium constant, binding constant, equilibrium association constant, or the reciprocal value, the equilibrium dissociation constant (K_d), can be considered as one of the most important characteristics for any antibody-antigen pair. Many methods based on different technologies have been proposed and used to determine this value. However, since a very large number of publications and commercial datasheets do not include this information, significant obstacles in performing such measurements seem to exist. In other cases where such data are reported, the results have often proved to be unreliable. This situation may indicate that most of the technologies available today require a high level of expertise that does not seem to be available in many laboratories. In this paper, we present a simple approach based on standard immunoassay technology that is easy and quick to perform. It relies on the effect that the molar IC₅₀ approaches the K_d value in the case of infinitely small concentrations of the reagent concentrations. A two-dimensional dilution of the reagents leads to an asymptotic convergence to K_d. The approach has some similarity to the well-known checkerboard titration used for the optimization of immunoassays. A well-known antibody against the FLAG peptide, clone M2, was used as a model system and the results were compared with other methods. This approach could be used in any case where a competitive assay is available or can be developed. The determination of an affinity constant should belong to the crucial parameters in any quality control of antibody-related products and assays and should be mandatory in papers using immunochemical protocols.

As one of the typical deposits in Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou Pb-Zn metallogenic province, the Daliangzi Pb-Zn deposit has a close genetic relation with the structural system of “black/fracture zone” formed under the action of NWW-approx. EW strike-slip structures in the metallogenic province, but the mechanism of rock and ore-controlling action of the structural system remains unclear. Based on detailed analysis of tectonite-mineralized alteration lithofacies of R1 “black/fracture zone”, the tectonite-mineralized alteration lithofacies zones can be divided into 4 types in succession outward from the Pb-Zn mineralization center, i.e., ① brecciated and stockwork-like Pb-Zn mineralization-complex breccia facies zone, ② stockwork-like Pb-Zn mineralization-simple breccia and cataclasite facies zone, ③ veined pyrite-sulfide-dolomitic cataclasite facies zone, and ④ fine-veined calcite-black carbonized dolomite facies zone; Cl- and SO42--rich high-temperature oxidizing ore-bearing fluid mixes with reducing fluid in Zone ① while migration and precipitation occur in Zone ④. With the evolution of ore-forming fluid, the homogenization temperature decreases from Zone ① to Zone ④, the salinity increases from Zone ① to Zone ② and then decreases to Zones ③ and ④, and the fluid density has little change on the whole; the contents of Zn, Pb, Cu, Ga, Ge, Cd, Ag, and other metallogenic elements, the Zn/Pb ratio, and the CaO/MgO mole ratio decrease gradually from Zone ① to Zone ④; and REE fractionation, calcilization, silicification, and pyritization enhance gradually from Zone ① to Zone ④. This series of changes are the product of diapirism (cryptoexplosion) of strike-slip structures and “black/fracture zone”, among which the second-order structures (F5, F100, and other faults) derived from NWW-approx. EW striking dextral shear-tension faults F1 and F15 control the brecciated and stockwork-like Pb-Zn mineralized complex breccia facies zones and the stockwork-like Pb-Zn mineralized simple breccia and cataclasite facies zones. Therefore, this paper establishes the zoning mode of tectonite-mineralized alteration lithofacies of “black/fracture zone” and proposes that Zones ① and ② are important prospecting criteria. conclusions.

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is a periodic maintenance strategy, which has great results for devices in extending their life, increasing productivity, and most importantly, help avoid unexpected breakdowns and their costly consequence. A preventive maintenance scheduling (PMS) is determining the time for carrying out PM, and it represents a sensitive issue in terms of impact on production if the time for the PM process is not optimally distributed. In this study, hybrid heuristic methods were used to solve the PMS problem, as genetic algorithm and Tabu research were adopted. The optimal solution was reached in a short time compared to previous studies in which optimal methods were used, integer programming and nonlinear integer programming. Also, sensitivity analysis was applied to measure the robustness and strength of the method used, where an optimal solution was obtained for all experiments and in record time. This method can be used for power plants in privet or public sectors, to generate an optimal PMS, to save money, and to avoid water or electricity cuts.

We propose a neural-network-based watermarking method that introduces the quantized activation function that approximates the quantization of JPEG compression. Many neural-network-based watermarking methods have been proposed. Conventional methods have acquired robustness against various attacks by introducing an attack simulation layer between the embedding network and the extraction network. The quantization process of JPEG compression was replaced by the noise addition process in the attack layer of the conventional methods. In this paper, we propose a quantized activation function that can simulate the JPEG quantization standard as it is in order to improve the robustness against the JPEG compression. Our quantized activation function consists of several hyperbolic tangent functions and is applied as an activation function for neural networks. Our network was introduced in the attack layer of ReDMark proposed by Ahmadi et al. to compare it with their method. That is, the embedding and extraction networks had the same structure. We compared the usual JPEG compressed images and the images applying the quantized activation function. The results showed that a network with quantized activation functions can approximate JPEG compression with high accuracy. We also compared the bit error rate (BER) of estimated watermarks generated by our network with those generated by ReDMark. We found that our network was able to produce estimated watermarks with lower BERs than those of ReDMark. Therefore, our network outperformed the conventional method with respect to image quality and BER.

In this work we present some driving strategies for a type of omnidirectional mobile robot, the offset-differential robot. This system presents omnidirectionality while using any type of standard wheels, allowing for applications in all terrain. The work is based on the full kinematic and dynamic analysis of the robot, including the passive elements, to explain some unexpected behaviors that appear during its motion. The stable and unstable behaviors are characterized and some driving strategies are stated in order to achieve the desired performance regarding precise positioning and speed.

In recent decades, many attempts have been made to automate the entire welding process, how-ever, there remain many non-automated welding operations that present a constant hazard to workers. This article presents an automated welding solution with collaborative robots, with this contribution, we intend to help companies in this sector increase productivity, improve quality, effectively reduce costs, and improve working conditions.

Background: Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is an indispensable tool in metabolic engineering. The simplest variant of MFA relies on an overdetermined stoichiometric model of the cell’s metabolism under the pseudo-steady state assumption, to evaluate the intracellular flux distribution. Despite its long history, the issue of model error in the overdetermined MFA, particularly misspecifications of the stoichiometric matrix, has not received much attention. Method: We evaluated the performance of statistical tests from linear least square regressions, namely Ramsey RESET test, F-test and Lagrange multiplier test, in detecting model misspecifications in the overdetermined MFA, particularly missing reactions. We further proposed an iterative procedure using the F-test to correct such an issue. Result: Using Chinese hamster ovary and random metabolic networks, we demonstrated that: (1) a statistically significant regression does not guarantee high accuracy of the flux estimates, (2) the removal of a reaction with a low flux magnitude can cause disproportionately large biases in the flux estimates, (3) the F-test could efficiently detect missing reactions, and (4) the proposed iterative procedure could robustly resolve the omission of reactions. Conclusion: Our work demonstrated that statistical analysis and tests could be used to systematically assess, detect and resolve model misspecifications in the overdetermined MFA.

The maintenance of traditional agricultural practices in protected small islands is closely linked to the preservation of the land, the protection of natural resources, and the conservation of local traditions. For this purpose, the Tuscan Archipelago National Park promoted the census of ancient horticultural varieties preserved by some farmers on the island of Elba. The survey revealed a deep-rooted historical, cultural, social, and economic link between this germplasm and the island’s territory. A scientific characterization of the landrace under ethnobotanical, morphological, and genetic aspects was carried out. Among these local varieties, two landraces of the Brassica species and three landraces of the Phaseolus species were identified and analyzed in this study. To ascertain their distinguishability and uniqueness, similar varieties were also identified based on morpho-physiological characteristics or territorial proximity and compared with the Elban landraces. Morpho-phenological data were collected, and molecular analyses were carried out using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. Ten different SSR loci were considered for the Phaseolus species and nine for the Brassica species. The Tuscan Archipelago landraces showed a high level of internal variability but were clearly distinct from each other and from the analyzed varieties, as shown by AMOVA (Analysis of Molecular Variance). Their distinctness was further highlighted by the UPGMA dendrogram obtained from the genetic distance matrix. The same results were confirmed by Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA). This study confirms the peculiarity of the Elban landraces, their biodiversity is a heritage to be safeguarded, which can also be used in future breeding programs. These ancient Elban landraces were allocated to local farmers (most were young farmers) to protect them from extinction and to promote more resilient varieties cultivation compared to commercial hybrids widely spread in the area. Local farmhouses also play a strategic role in safeguarding the germplasm and dissemination of sustainable agricultural practices. There is high demand for ancient Elban landraces, this has led to the development of a new local economy balanced between agricultural tradition and innovation.

The per capita availability of freshwater resources on a global scale is gradually decreasing due to population growth, rapid urbanization, industrialization, and modern lifestyles. In this situation, wastewater management becomes a major concern. Conventional treatment processes used to treat wastewater discharges are not adequate for the advanced removal of pollutants, especially refractory organic pollutants, which are mainly organic compounds that are not easily biodegradable in the environment. The use of photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) for tertiary wastewater treatment has attracted much interest in recent periods, and various configurations have been investigated. The performance of a PMR using an iron doped titanium photo catalyst and Polysulfone-based polymeric membrane for municipal wastewater treatment was evaluated under natural and simulated solar light. Obtained results proved that solar driven PMRs can remove organic loading (COD) with high efficiencies and may represent a suitable alternative for the tertiary treatment step of municipal wastewater.

A U.S. government health agency conducted epidemiological studies to evaluate whether exposures to drinking water contaminated with volatile organic compounds at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were associated with increased health risks to children and adults. These health studies required knowledge of contaminant concentrations in drinking water—at monthly intervals—delivered to family housing, barracks, and other facilities within the study area. Because concentration data were limited or unavailable during much of the period of contamination (1950s–1985), the historical reconstruction process was used to quantify estimates of monthly mean contaminant-specific concentrations. This paper integrates many efforts, reports, and papers into a synthesis of the overall approach to, and results from, a drinking-water historical reconstruction study. Results show that at the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant (WTP) reconstructed (simulated) tetrachloroethylene (PCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 183 micrograms per liter (ug/L) compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 215 ug/L and exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 ug/L during the period November 1957–February 1987. At the Hadnot Point WTP, reconstructed trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 783 ug/L compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 1,400 ug/L during the period August 1953–December 1984. The Hadnot Point WTP also provided contaminated drinking water to the Holcomb Boulevard housing area continuously prior to June 1972, when the Holcomb Boulevard WTP came on line (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 32 ug/L) and intermittently during the period June 1972–February 1985 (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 66 ug/L). Applying the historical reconstruction process to quantify contaminant-specific monthly drinking-water concentrations is advantageous for epidemiological studies when compared to using the classical exposed versus unexposed approach.

With the development of Internet, big data and artificial intelligence technology, personal information protection has become the focus of social attention. The legal boundary of data protection has become increasingly prominent, involving the collection, storage, use, transmission and disclosure of personal information. This paper aims to explore the legal boundary of data protection, analyze the legal basis, legal principles and legal provisions of personal information protection, and put forward corresponding legal suggestions, in order to provide reference for the improvement of China's data protection legal system.

Various designs of spherical robots using barycenter offset mechanisms were previously reported. This kind of robots offers advantages such as turning in placeor moving in any direction at any time. Yet, the approaches resulting in a balanced robot, which could roll with reduced energy costs once accelerated, are scarce. We introduce anovel robot of this type. The feasibility of the approach is verified on a cylindrical robot. This paper presents an open-source, remotely controlled, robotic cylinder. The robot uses a specifically designed mechanism to displace a mass in its center, which causes the cylinder to roll forwards or backwards. The movement characteristics of the cylinder, as well as the mathematical and physical limitations of the mechanism were studied. An intuitive user interface allows the robot to be controlled through WiFi. This robot was manufactured only with readily available and inexpensive materials, which would make it a suitable platform for education, typically in the fields of physics and engineering.

The necessity for precise and current data concerning the dynamics of land cover change in Indonesia is crucial for efforts to reduce natural vegetation cover due to agricultural expansion. The functionality of monitoring systems that incorporate Terra-MODIS is currently compromised by the limited availability of data for the immediate future. This study seeks to assess the potential of VIIRS satellite imagery in developing an early warning system for monitoring vegetation cover change in Indonesia. The Normalized Differential Open Area Index (NDOAI) computed from the 8-day’ VIIRS data was employed to detect changes in vegetation cover based on pixel-by-pixel subtraction in the NDOAI data time series. Evaluating the pixel-level accuracy of change detection is complicated due to the fact that we evaluate a change map at a coarser resolution than the Landsat-based reference map. The results revealed that increasing the threshold percentage is associated with improved accuracy. In change detection, there is often a trade-off between accuracy and sensitivity. A threshold that is too low may result in false positives, while a threshold that is too high may lead to missed changes. This study demonstrates that when a threshold value of less than 20% is applied, Landsat can identify vegetation cover changes at an earlier stage. Conversely, when a threshold value greater than 20% is employed, VIIRS will detect the change 4.5 days earlier than Landsat. Additionally, VIIRS is capable of detecting changes 25.4 days and 54.8 days faster than Landsat, respectively, when using thresholds of 40% and 75%.

Optical backbone networks constitute the fundamental infrastructure employed today by network operators to deliver services to users. As network capacity is a key factor influencing optical network performance, it is important to understand how topological and physical properties impact its behavior and to have the capability to estimate its value. In this context, we propose here a method to evaluate the network capacity that relies on the optical reach to account for physical layer aspects, in conjunction with constrained routing techniques for traffic routing. As this type of routing can lead to traffic blocking, particularly due to the limitation on the number of wavelengths per fiber, we also propose a fiber assignment algorithm designed to deal with this problem. We apply this method to a set of randomly generated networks using a modified Waxman model, and for a network with 60 nodes, in a scenario without blocking, we obtain capacities of about 2.5 Pbit/s for a symbol rate of 64 Gbaud and about 5 Pbit/s for a symbol rate of 128 Gbaud. Remarkably, this duplication in the total network capacity is achieved by an increase in the total fiber length of only about 51%.

Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), also known as Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, is a rare and inherited vascular disorder, characterized by the development of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) in various organs and telangiectasia (small AVM) in the mucocutaneous. The majority of HHT patients have haploinsufficiency of genes involved in the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) signaling pathway, including endoglin (ENG), activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK1, also known as ACVRL1), or SMAD4. Active angiogenesis is also required for telangiectasia and AVM development. Anti-angiogenic strategies have been tested in patients and animal models extensively. However, the exact mechanisms for telangiectasia and AVM development remain unclear. In this review, we discuss recent advances in identifying disease mechanisms, and potential therapeutic targets.

Conventional cancer clinical trials can be time-consuming and expensive, often yielding results with limited applicability to real-world scenarios and presenting challenges for patient participation. Real-world data (RWD) studies offer a promising solution to address evidence gaps and provide essential information about the effects of cancer treatments in real-world settings. Defining RWD based on its original intent, which is the collection of data at the point of care for clinical purposes, can distinguish it from conventional clinical trial data. RWD can be generated using experimental designs that resemble those used in conventional clinical trials, but with several advantages, such as improved efficiency and a better balance between internal and external validity. RWD can support pharmacovigilance, insights into disease progression, and the development of external control groups. Prospective RWD collection enables evidence generation based on pragmatic clinical trials (PCTs) that support randomized study designs and expand clinical research to the point of care. To ensure the quality of real-world studies, it is crucial to implement auditable data abstraction methods and develop new incentives to capture clinically relevant data electronically at the point of care. The treatment landscape is constantly evolving, with the integration of front-line immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, affecting subsequent treatment lines. Real-world effectiveness and safety in underrepresented populations, such as the elderly, patients with poor performance status (PS), hepatitis, or human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients, are still largely unexplored. Similarly, the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of these innovative agents are important considerations in the real world.

Chronic inflammatory diseases are considered the most significant cause of death worldwide. Current treatments for inflammatory diseases are limited due to the lack of understanding of the biological factors involved in early-stage disease progression. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophic factor directly associated with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases like osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. It has been shown that NGF levels are significantly upregulated at the site of inflammation and play a crucial role in developing a robust inflammatory response. However, little is known about NGF's temporal expression profile during the initial progressive phase of inflammation. This study aimed to determine the temporal expression pattern of NGF in rat skin during Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis (AIA). Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into control and Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) treated groups. Levels of NGF were evaluated following unilateral AIA at different time points and it was found that peripheral inflammation due to AIA significantly upregulated the expression of NGF mRNA and Protein in a biphasic pattern. These results suggest that NGF signaling is crucial for initiating and maintaining peripheral neurogenic inflammation in rats during AIA.

The development of accurate dynamic battery pack models for electric vehicles (EVs) is critical for the ongoing electrification of the global automotive vehicle fleet, since these serve as a key element in the energy performance of an EV powertrain system. The Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM) technique at the cell level is commonly employed for this purpose, combining accuracy and efficiency in the representation of battery operation within the broader powertrain system. In this study, a second-order ECM model of a battery cell is being developed using Modelica, an equation-based modeling language. Parameter lookup tables at multiple levels of state of charge (SoC), extracted from Li-ion battery cells with 4 different commonly used cathode materials, have been utilized. This approach allows for a representation of the battery systems that are used in a wide range of commercial EV applications. To verify the model, an integrated EV model is developed and simulation results of the FTP75 driving cycle have been compared against an equivalent application in MATLAB Simulink. The findings demonstrate a close match between the results obtained from both software across different system points. Specifically, the maximum deviation of SoC is limited to 0.08% and the maximum value of relative voltage deviation is 1.4%. The verified model enables the exploration of multiple possible architecture configurations of EV powertrains with Modelica.

This paper describes different variants of broadband and simple attenuator modules for beamforming applications, based on Radio Frequency Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (RF-MEMS), framed within Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) structures. The modules proposed in the first part of this work differ in their actuation voltage, topology, and desired attenuation level. Fabricated samples of basic 1-bit attenuation modules, characterized by a moderate footprint of 690 x 1960 µm2 and aiming at attenuation levels of -2, -3 and -5 dB in the 24.25-27.5 GHz range, are presented in their variants featuring both low actuation voltages (5-7 V) as well as higher values (~ 45V), the latter ones ensuring larger mechanical restoring force (and robustness against stiction). Beyond the fabrication non-idealities that affected the described samples, the substantial agreement between simulations and measurement outcomes proved that the proposed designs could provide precise attenuation levels up to 40 GHz, ranging up to nearly -3 dB and -5 dB for the series and shunt variants, respectively. Moreover, they could be effective building blocks for future wideband and reconfigurable RF-MEMS attenuators. In fact, in the second part of this work, combinations of the discussed cells and other configurations meant for larger attenuation levels will be investigated.

Induction heating is a fast, reproducible, and efficient heating method used in various manufacturing processes. However, there is no established additive manufacturing (AM) process based on induction heating using wire as feedstock. This study investigates a novel approach to AM based on inductive heating, where a steel wire is melted and droplets are detached periodically using a two-winding induction coil. The process parameters and energy input into the droplets are characterized. The induction generator exhibits sluggish response to the excitation voltage, resulting in a lag in the coil current. The process is captured using a high-speed camera, revealing regular droplet formation and uniform size and shape when operated within an appropriate process window. Larger drops and increased spatter formation occur outside this window. The proposed method allows for the production of droplets with almost spherical shapes. Further analysis and characterization of droplet formation and energy input provide insights into process optimization and overall efficiency.

This paper deals with the analytical modeling and control of rectilinear snake robots. During recent times snake robots have created much interest among researchers. The rectilinear pattern gait is one of the four biological snake locomotion modes. Rectilinear snakes have been widely used in rescue operations especially in rough terrains especially in narrow spaces where human intervention is not easy. Computational analysis of rectilinear motion is done using MATLAB.

Exposure to malachite green (MG) may pose great health risks to humans, thus it is of prime importance to develop fast and robust methods to quantitatively screen the presence malachite green in environment. Herein application of extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI-MS) has been extended to the trace detection of MG within lake water and aquiculture water, due to the intensive use of MG as biocide in fisheries. This method has the advantage of obviating offline liquid-liquid extraction or tedious matrix separation prior to the measurement of malachite green in native aqueous medium. The experimental results indicate that the extrapolated detection limit for MG was ~3.8 ug L-1 (S/N=3) in lake water samples and ~ 0.5 ug L-1 in ultrapure water under optimized experimental conditions. The signal intensity of MG showed good linearity over the concentration range of 10–5000 ug L-1. Measurement of practical water samples fortified with MG at 0.01 and 0.1 mg L-1 gave a good validation of the established calibration curve. The average recoveries of malachite green in lake water and Carassius carassius fish farm effluent water were 114.9% (6.6% RSD) and 85.4% (9.2% RSD), respectively. Overall, the established EESI-MS/MS method has been demonstrated suitable for sensitive and rapid (<2 min per sample) quantitative detection of malachite green in various aqueous media, indicating its potential for online real-time monitoring of real life samples.

Advanced lithography requires highly sensitive photoresists to improve lithographic efficiency, and it is critical yet challenging to develop high-sensitivity photoresists and imaging strategies. Here, we report a novel strategy for ultra-high sensitivity using hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP)-containing fluoropolymer photoresists. The incorporation of HFIP, with its strong electrophilic property and electron-withdrawing effect of the fluorine atoms, significantly increases the acidity of the photoresist after exposure, enabling imaging without conventional photoacid generators (PAGs). The HFIP-containing photoresist has been evaluated by electron beam lithography to achieve a trench of ~40 nm at an extremely low dose of 3 μC/cm2, which shows sensitivity enhancement by ~10 times to the commercial PAGs involved system, revealing its high-sensitivity and high-resolution features. Our results demonstrate a new type of PAGs and a novel approach to higher-performance imaging beyond conventional photoresist performance tuning.

In the drive towards environmental restoration and sustainable energy solutions, effective utilization and management of agricultural crop residues are vital to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste accumulation. Converting biogenic wastes into biofuels and bioproducts has the potential to tackle the energy crisis and contribute to environmental remediation. In this investigation, teff husk, primarily generated in Ethiopia during teff production within the agro-industrial sector, is used as the feedstock for the slow pyrolysis process. In Ethiopia, it is estimated that over 1.75 million tons of teff husk are generated annually, with a significant portion being incinerated in the fields, resulting in substantial environmental pollution. This study focuses on assessing teff husk as a potential material for slow pyrolysis, a crucial stage in biochar production, to tap into its biochar-producing potential. To determine the composition of the biomass, the teff-husk was initially analyzed by thermogravimetry. The significant presence of fixed carbon indicates that teff husk is a viable candidate for pyrolytic conversion into biochar particles. The process of slow pyrolysis took place at three varied temperatures—specifically, at 400, 450, and 500 °C. Process parameters of slow pyrolysis such as reaction time, temperature, and heating rate were enhanced to obtain maximum biochar yields. The highest biochar yield of 43.4 wt% was recorded at optimized reaction time, temperature, and heating rate of 120 min, 400 °C, and 4.2 °C/min, respectively. Furthermore, biochar's physicochemical, SEM-EDX, FTIR, and TGA characterization were performed. The thermal stability and carbon content of biochar were found to rise at higher temperatures. Unlike fuel recovery, the results suggest that teff-husk can be used as a feedstock for biochar production.

Motion related human activity recognition using wearable sensors can potentially enable various useful daily applications. So far, most studies view it as a stand-alone mathematical classification problem without considering the physical nature of human motions. Consequently, they suffer from data dependencies and encounter the dimension disaster problem and the over-fitting issue, and their models are never human-readable. In this study, we start from a deep analysis on natural physical properties of human motions, and then propose a useful feature selection method to quantify each feature's classification contribution capability. On one hand, the "dimension disaster" problem can be avoid to some extent, due to the affined dimension of key features; On the other hand, over-fitting issue can be depressed since the knowledge implied in human motions are nearly invariant, which compensates the possible data inadequacy. The experiment results indicate that the proposed method performs superior to those adopted in related works, such as decision tree, k-NN, SVM, neural networks.

Two new dimacrolide sesquiterpene pyridine alkaloids (DMSPAs), dimacroregelines A (1) and B (2), were isolated from the stems of Tripterygium regelii. The structures of both compounds were characterized by extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analyses, as well as HRESIMS data. Compounds 1 and 2 are two rare DMSPAs possessing unique 2-(3′-carboxybutyl)-3-furanoic acid units forming the second macrocyclic ring, representing the first example of DMSPAs bearing an extra furan ring in their second macrocyclic ring system. Compound 2 showed inhibitory effects on the proliferation of human rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblast cell (MH7A) at a concentration of 20 μM.

A low-cost bio-mass-derived carbon substrate has been employed to synthesize MoS₂@carbon composites through a hydrothermal method. Carbon fibers derived from natural cotton provide a three-dimensional and open framework for the uniform growth of MoS₂ nanosheets, thus constructing hierarchically coaxial architecture. The unique structure could synergistically benefit fast Li-ion and electron transport from the conductive carbon scaffold and porous MoS₂ nanostructures. As a result, the MoS₂@carbon composites, when served as anodes for Li-ion batteries, exhibit a high reversible specific capacity of 820 mAh g^-1, high-rate capability (457 mAh g^-1 at 2 A g^-1), and excellent cycling stability. The superior electrochemical performance makes the MoS₂@carbon composites to be low-cost and promising anode materials for Li-ion batteries.

Finding a good MIMO system model also major issue in Wireless Communication system. It is facing with so many problem, one of the major problem is finding good system model in terms of capacity and transmitting antenna system. In this paper, we analyze the channel capacity of various MIMO system model with some constant SNR level and outage probability. We establish a novel idea for MIMO system models as consider as 2^N- MIMO system model and find-out change in channel capacity when different transmitting antennas with constant SNR and outage probability. The channel capacity ratio CC_R is presented here on the basis of 2^N- MIMO channel capacity model. Number of transmitted antenna presented in MIMO system is increases is well-known however paper shows change in capacity in simple form.

Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type E (PTPRE) is a member of the “classical” protein tyrosine phosphatase subfamily and regulates a variety of cellular processes in a tissue-specific manner by antagonizing the function of protein tyrosine kinases. PTPRE plays a tumorigenic role in different human cancer cells, but its role in retinoblastoma (RB), the most common malignant eye cancer in children, remains to be elucidated. Etoposide resistant RB cell lines and RB patients display significant higher PTPRE expression levels compared to chemosensitive counterparts and the healthy human retina, respectively. PTPRE promotor methylation analyses revealed that PTPRE expression in RB is not regulated via this mechanism. Lentiviral PTPRE knockdown (KD) induced a significant decrease in growth kinetics, cell viability, and anchorage independent growth of etoposide resistant Y79 and WERI RB cells. Caspase-dependent apoptosis rates were significantly increased and a re-sensitization for etoposide could be observed after PTPRE depletion. In vivo chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assays revealed decreased tumor formation capacity as well as reduced tumor size and weight following PTPRE KD. Expression levels of miR631 were significantly downregulated in etoposide resistant RB cells and patients. Transient miR631 overexpression resulted in significantly decreased PTPRE levels and concomitantly decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis levels in etoposide resistant RB cells, impacts mirroring PTPRE KD effects and indicating PTPRE regulation via this miR. Additionally, PTPRE KD led to altered phosphorylation of protein kinase SGK3 and - dependent on the cell line - also AKT and ERK1/2, suggesting potential PTPRE downstream signaling pathways. In summary, these results indicate an oncogenic role of PTPRE in chemoresistant retinoblastoma.

In patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), the choice of surgical strategy for histopathologic assessment is still controversial, particularly in terms of preoperative corticosteroid (CS) therapy. To provide further evidence for clinical decision-making, we retrospectively analyzed data from 148 consecutive patients who underwent surgery at our institution. Although patients treated with corticosteroids preoperatively were significantly more likely to require a second or third biopsy (p=0.049), it was only necessary in less than 10% of the cases with preoperative corticosteroid treatment. The choice of surgical procedure did not affect diagnostic accuracy (p&gt;0.05). Preoperative CSF sampling did not provide additional information but was associated with delayed surgery (p=0.02). Surprisingly, diagnostic accuracy was significantly lower when patients were treated with anticoagulation or dual antiplatelet therapy (p=0.015). In conclusion, preoperative CS therapy can challenge the histological diagnosis of PCNSL. At the same time, our data suggest that preoperative CS treatment only presents a relative contraindication for an early surgical intervention. The standard surgical approach is stereotactic biopsy, but other approaches can be individually considered. If a definitive diagnosis cannot be made after the first surgical intervention, the timing of a repeat biopsy after discontinuation of CS remains a case-by-case decision.

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.

Emotion plays a powerful role in humans’ interaction with robots. In order to express more human-friendly emotions, robots need the capability of contextual appraisal that expresses the emotional relevance of various targets in the spatiotemporal situation. In this paper, an emotional appraisal methodology is proposed in this study to cope with such contexts. Specifically, the Ortony, Clore, and Collins model is abstracted and simplified to approximate an emotional appraisal model in the form of a sentence-based cognitive system. The contextual emotion appraisal is modeled by formulating the emotional relationships among multiple targets and the emotional transition with events and time passing. To verify the proposed robotic system’s feasibility, simulations were conducted for scenarios where it emotional interacts with humans manipulating liked or disliked objects on a table. This experiment demonstrated that the robot's emotion can variously change over time like human by using a proposed formula for emotional valence, which is moderated by emotion appraisal of occurring events.

This work presents the development and implementation of a distributed navigation system based on computer vision. The autonomous system consists of a wheeled mobile robot with an integrated colour camera. The robot navigates through a laboratory scenario where the track and several traffic signals must be detected and recognized by using the images acquired with its on-board camera. The images are sent to a computer server that processes them and calculates the corresponding speeds of the robot using a cascade of trained classifiers. These speeds are sent back to the robot, which acts to carry out the corresponding manoeuvre. The classifier cascade should be trained before experimentation with two sets of positive and negative images. The number of images in these sets should be considered to limit the training stage time and avoid overtraining the system.

Continuous technological progress places significant demands on the materials used in increasingly modern devices. An important parameter is often the long-term thermal resistance of the material. The use of heat-resistant polymer materials worked well in technologically advanced products. An economically justified direction in searching for new materials is the area of polymer nanocomposite materials. It is necessary to appropriately select both the polymer matrix and the nanofillers best able to demonstrate the synergistic effect. A promising area of exploration for such nanocomposites is the use of organosilicon polymers, which results from the unique properties of these polymers related to their structure. This review presents the results of the analysis of the most important literature reports regarding organosilicon polymer nanocomposites with increased thermal resistance. Particular attention was paid to modification methods of silicone nanocomposites focused on the increase of their thermal resistance related to the modification of siloxane molecular structure and by making nanocomposites using inorganic additives, carbon nanomaterials. Attention was also paid to such important issues as the influence of the dispersion of additives in the polymer matrix on the thermal resistance of silicone nanocomposites and the possibility of modifying the polymer matrix and permanently introducing nanofillers thanks to the presence of various reactive groups. The thermal stability mechanism of these nanocomposites was also analysed.

Subnational governments play a key role responding to climate change risks in terms of policy strategies and instruments. This article analyzes how Brazilian municipal and state governments have developed and implemented public policies to mitigate and to adapt to climate change risks. We surveyed all cities’ and states’ climate policies within the country. The methodological approach includes five main points of analysis: 1. mitigation targets and intentions; 2. adaptation actions; 3. stakeholders’ participation; 4. policy implementation; 5. participation in networks related to climate change. Our results suggest that even though subnational climate policies in Brazil are isolated initiatives within the national context, they play an important role responding to climate change risks in different scales and levels. The strongest Brazilian policies with both mitigation and adaptation actions counted on previous mobilization for the climate issue involving different stakeholders from several segments of the society. These governments have also participated in transnational cooperation networks related to climate change.

A time-sequential working, spatially multiplexed autostereoscopic 3D display design consisting of a fast switchable RGB-color filter array is presented. The wavelength-selective filter barrier emits the light from a display over a larger active area than common autostereoscopic barrier displays. An optical modelling of wavelength-selective barriers has been used for instance to calculate the light ray distribution properties of that arrangement. To find well working display designs, automated searches by simulation and computational evaluation has been proceeded. Wavelength-selective filter barrier arrangements exhibit characteristics different from common barrier displays with similar barrier pitch and ascent. In particular, these constructions show strong angular luminance dependency under barrier inclination specified by correspondent slant angle. In time-sequential implementation it is important to avoid that quick eye or eyelid movement lead to visible color artifacts. In the millisecond regime tunable liquid crystal Fabry-Pérot color filters for the colors red, green and blue are presented. They consist of a sub-micrometer thick nematic layer sandwiched between dielectric mirrors and ITO-electrodes. These cells shall switch narrow-banding light of red, green or blue. An array for a glasses-free 3D display has to be equipped with several thousand switchable filter elements having different color apertures. The newly introduced design is usable as a multi user display as well as a single user system with user adaptive control.

Pigmented corn is a gramineae food of great biological, cultural and nutritional importance for many Latin American countries, with more than 250 breeds in the American continent. It confers a large number of health benefits due to its diverse and abundant bioactive compounds. In this narrative review we decided to organize the information on the nutrients, bioactive compounds and phytochemicals present in pigmented corn, as well as their effects on human health. Phenolic compounds and anthocyanins are some of the most studied and representative compounds in these grasses, with a wide range of health properties, mainly the reduction of prooxidant molecules. Carotenoids are a group of molecules belonging to the terpenic compounds, present in a large number of pigmented corn breeds, mainly the yellow ones, whose biological activity incorporates a wide spectrum. Bioactive peptides can be found in abundance in corn, having very diverse biological effects that include analgesic, opioid, antihypertensive, etc. activity. Other compounds with biological activity found in pigmented corn are resistant starches, some fatty acids, phytosterols, policosanols, phospholipids, ferulic acid and phlobaphenes, as well as a great variety of vitamins, elements, and fibers. This review aims to disseminate and integrate the existing knowledge on compounds with biological activity in pigmented corn, in order to promote their research, interest and use by scientists, nutrition professionals, physicians, industries and the general population.

New biomedical technologies are examined in depth and the legal and ethical challenges they pose. Key issues such as gene editing, the application of artificial intelligence in the medical field, and the protection of biological information data are analyzed. At the same time, we also found that technological advances in the development of the enormous potential of biomedicine, but also raises a series of ethical and legal issues. To this end, the paper proposes a series of effective response strategies aimed at providing guidance to policy makers, researchers, and healthcare professionals to ensure the rational and safe application of new technologies. Solutions to these challenges are elaborated. When it comes to gene editing, the article stresses the responsibility of scientists not only to push the boundaries of technology, but also to ensure that edited genes are in the public interest and respect individual rights. To this end, strict regulatory mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that gene editing is carried out only in certain and ethical circumstances. Although AI technology has brought many conveniences to the medical field, it also involves data privacy protection, the transparency of the AI decision-making process, and the impact of AI on traditional medical models. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate corresponding regulations to regulate its application, ensure the fairness and transparency of AI decision-making, and promote its integration and development with traditional medicine. The importance of the protection of biometric data was also emphasized. In biomedical research, a large number of personal biological information data, such as genome and proteome, are often involved. This data should be effectively protected to prevent data leakage and misuse. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen data security measures and establish standards and norms for data sharing and utilization to ensure the rational use and protection of data.

Over the last decade, advances in our understanding about the genetic architecture of complex traits and common diseases, have increased our ability to perform susceptibility genetic testing for diseases in asymptomatic individuals. These technological developments raise complex ethical, legal and social considerations. Here we discuss a series of ethical issues associated with susceptibility genetic testing for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These include, amongst others, informed consent, disclosure of results and unexpected findings, mandatory screening, privacy and confidentiality, and stigma and genetic discrimination. As knowledge of the genetic basis of these diseases continues growing, and as genetic testing becomes more widespread, we anticipate that it will become increasingly important for scientists and clinicians to engage in the conversation about the ethical, social and policy implications of these technologies.

Financial capacity instruments are psychometric tools designed to evaluate individual decisional capacity based on financial decisions. As tests are complex and need special conditions for administration and evaluation, it is difficult to use them in daily geriatric clinics. Our scoping review objective was to evaluate existing financial capacity instruments from the perspective of simplicity and portability. We evaluated one English speaking knowledge database (Medline) using a dedicated MeSH terminology. The review yielded one independent instrument, The Semi-Structured Clinical Interview for Financial Capacity, that can be easy adapted for every-day clinical use. It is simple to understand and perform and do not need trained personnel for administration. It can be finalized in 15 minutes. Initially validated on 261 subjects (with different forms of cognitive impairment), it showed good accuracy and precision mainly in subjects with cognitive impairment. The test is less apt to detect early or fluctuating cognitive impairment. Simplicity, the main advantage of the test, allows gamification fact that increases portability. Familiar images (coins, money) that are used for performing simple tasks does not need complex translation and adaptation. In form of a game, the test is suitable for serial administration, increasing the chance for early capacity reduction detection. Results reflect a physician judgement related to the subjects’ capacity to understand and execute simple financial instructions and not financial proficiency scores. The main limitation of our review is that we investigated only one, English speaking, knowledge database. The scoping strategy generated a financial capacity instrument that can be used in geriatric clinics for early diagnostic of decisional capacity reduction. Further studies are needed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the test in conditions of serial administration and in populations having various financial experience.

Lactoperoxidase system (LPS) effect on quality of raw and pasteurized milk under real conditions along the dairy value chain in Ethiopia was evaluated. A total of 250 milk samples were collected from farmers, collectors, and factories. Experimental samples were LPS-activated of morning and overnight milk. The samples were tested with several chemical and microbiological tests such as total bacterial count (TBC), total coliform count (TCC) and Escherichia coli count (EC). Results indicated that all LPS-activated milk samples had a higher quality than all the control samples. For instance, both the morning and overnight farm milk samples had a mean TBCs of 5.79 log and 6.55 log cfu/ml which is significantly (p