We present a pragmatic analysis of the different meanings assigned to the term "local realism'' in the context of the empirical violations of Bell-type inequalities since its inception in the late 1970s. We point out that most of them are inconsistent and arise from a deeply ingrained prejudice that originated in the celebrated 1935 paper by Einstein-Podolski-Rosen. We highlight the correct connotation that arises once we discard unnecessary metaphysics.

A large number of physicists now admit that quantum mechanics is a non-local theory. EPR argument and the many experiences (including recent “loop-hole free” tests) showing the violation of Bell’s inequalities seem to have confirmed convincingly that quantum mechanics cannot be local. Nevertheless, this conclusion can only be drawn inside a standard realist framework assuming an ontic interpretation of the wave function and viewing the collapse of the wave function as a real change of the physical state of the system. We show that this standpoint is not mandatory and that if the collapse is no more considered as an actual physical change, it is possible to recover locality.

Microwave technology has a potential application in the extraction of zinc from sulphide ores, knowledge of the dielectric properties of these ores plays a major role in the microwave design and simulation for any process. The dielectric properties of zinc sulfide concentrate for two different apparent densities—1.54 and 1.63 g/cm³—have been measured by using the resonance cavity perturbation technique at 915 and 2450 MHz during the roasting process for the temperature ranging from room temperature to 850 °C. The variations of dielectric constant, the dielectric loss factor, the dielectric loss tangent and the penetration depth with the temperature, frequency and apparent density have been investigated numerically. The results indicate that the dielectric constant increases as the temperature increases and temperature has a pivotal effect on the dielectric constant, while the dielectric loss factor has a complicated change and all of the temperature, frequency and apparent density have a significant impact to dielectric loss factor. Zinc sulfide concentrate is high loss material from 450 to 800 °C on the basis of theoretical analyses of dielectric loss tangent and penetration depth, its ability of absorbing microwave energy would be enhanced by increasing the apparent density as well. The experimental results also have proved that zinc sulfide concentrate is easy to be heated by microwave energy from 450 to 800 °C. In addition, the experimental date of dielectric constant and loss factor can be fitted perfectly by Boltzmann model and Gauss model, respectively.

The study investigated the application of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) as a tool for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in a city in Northern Italy from October 2021 to May 2023. Starting from a widely applied deterministic model, this study proposed a variation to take into account population characteristics and virus biodegradation in the sewer network. The model calculated virus loads and corresponding COVID-19 cases over time in different areas of the city and was validated with healthcare data while considering viral mutations, vaccinations, and testing variability. The correlation between the predicted and reported cases was high across the three waves that occurred in the considered period, demonstrating the model’s capacity to predict relevant fluctuations in the number of cases. Population characteristics did not substantially influence the predicted and reported infection rates. Conversely, biodegradation significantly reduced the virus load reaching the wastewater treatment plant, resulting in a 30% reduction in the total virus load produced in the study area. This approach can be applied for comparing virus load values across cities with varying population demographics and sewer network structures, enhancing the comparability of WBE data for effective surveillance and intervention strategies.

Predetermined physical properties cannot manifest at the same time if they are mutually exclusive. As part of a single system, they become observable at different times, in sequence. In this case, pairwise detections in a narrow window of coincidence allow for maximal Bell violations (S=4 for the CHSH protocol), without room for doubt about the local nature of the process. This shows that a deeper description of physical reality is possible, as suggested by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen. Though, a more inclusive definition of Realism is required, in order to account for Bohr’s Contextuality.

During choriogenesis in insects, chorion (eggshell) is formed by surrounding follicular epithelial cells in ovarioles. However, the regulatory endocrine factor(s) activating choriogenesis and the chemical components on eggshell deserve further exploration. In two representative Coleopterans, a Coccinellid Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata and a Chrysomelid Leptinotarsa decemlineata, genes encoding the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) receptor heterodimer, ecdysone receptor (EcR) and ultraspiracle (USP), and two chitin biosynthesis enzymes UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) and chitin synthase (ChS1), were highly expressed in ovaries of the young females. RNA interference (RNAi)-aided knockdown of either HvEcR or Hvusp in H. vigintioctopunctata inhibited oviposition, suppressed the expression of HvChS1, and lessened the positive signal of Calcofluor staining on the chorions, which suggests the reduction of a chitin-like substance (CLS) deposited on eggshells. Similarly, RNAi of LdEcR or Ldusp in L. decemlineata constrained oviposition, decreased the expression of LdUAP1 and LdChS1, and declined CLS contents in the resultant ovaries. Knockdown of LdUAP1 or LdChS1 caused similar defective phenotypes, i.e., reduced oviposition and CLS contents in the L. decemlineata ovaries. These results, for the first time, indicate that 20E signaling activates choriogenesis in two Coleopteran species. Moreover, our findings propose the deposition of a CLS on the chorions.

Telerehabilitation is an appealing service delivery option for optimising recovering. Internationally, the equity of telerehabilitation services for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds has been questioned. Using a 31-item survey, our study explored the access, readiness, and willingness of 260 patients to use allied health telerehabilitation services for adults receiving interventions from a large tertiary health service located in Sydney, Australia. Overall, 72% patients reported having access to technology, 38% met our readiness criteria, and 53% reported willingness to engage in telerehabilitation. There were no difference in access, readiness and willingness to engage in telerehabilitation between patients from CALD and non-CALD backgrounds. Age was the only factor that influenced access, readiness and willingness to engage in telerehabilitation. Past experience of telerehabilitation was related to willingness, but not access or readiness. Findings highlight the importance of ensuring positive patient experiences to promote ongoing willingness to use telerehabilitation. Efforts are needed to improve patients’ digital health literacy, especially patients from older age groups, to ensure equitable access to telerehabilitation services.

Soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEAs) and enzymatic stoichiometry (ES) can provide a crucial indication of changes in soil ecosystem's nutrient availability and the microbial resource limitations. However, the changing characteristics of soil EEAs and ES at different stages of the native succession process and their key drivers are unclear. In order to investigate the soil EEAs, ES and driving factors of soil under vegetation at different succession stages, we adopted the "spatio-temporal substitution" method to collect the surface soil of bryophyte community, herbaceous community, shrub community and tree community in the new volcanic lava platform of Wudalianchi Volcanic Nature Reserve. We measured seven soil EEA, including carbon(C)-acquiring enzyme (β-1,4-glucosidase (BG)), N-acquiring enzymes (β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (NAG) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP)) and phosphorus (P)-acquiring enzyme (acid phosphatase (AP)) activities. The length and angle of vectors defined by ratios of enzyme activities (BG/(NAG + LAP) vs. BG/AP) were used to indicate relative microbial investments in C- (length), and N- and P- (angle) acquiring enzymes. Our results showed that the contents of TC, TN, TP, MBC, DOC and NO3-N in shrub community soil were significantly higher than those in bryophyte, herb and tree communities, and increased by 441%, 246%, 137%, 5570%, 12% and 484%, respectively. The highest soil EEA of C-, N- and P-acquiring were found in shrub community, and the soil EEAs/MBC of C-, N- and P-acquiring were the highest in bryophyte community. Enzyme C:N, C:P and N:P ratios increased progressively in the order of bryophyte, herb and shrub community, but the enzyme C:N, C:P and N:P ratios of tree community were both far less than shrub community. Vector lengths increased progressively in the order of bryophyte (1.16), herb (1.27), tree (1.29) and shrub (1.40), and Vector angles decreased progressively in the order of bryophyte (49.15°), herb (45.65°), Tree (45.31°) and shurb (44.54°), suggested that as succession progresses, soil microbial nutrients transforms from P limitation (angle＞45°) to N limitation (angle＜45°). Redundancy analysis showed that TC, TN, EC and C:N were important drivers of variation in soil EEAs and ES in vegetation at different succession stages. Our findings highlight that the primary succession process cause nutrient limitation transformation. Soil ES might be a sensitive indicator mediated by soil microorganisms to the relative resource limitation at different stages of the primary succession process.

Critical realism emerged from the philosophical writings of Roy Bhaskar, and has evolved into a philosophy of social science research using the model of “dialectical critical realism” (DCR) which begins with the researcher’s assumptions that the structures being researched have a real, ontological grounding which is independent of the researcher. This approach has proved fruitful in British and European social science research, but has had less influence in North America. We outline DCR’s four level model for understanding society and its changing social structures through “the pulse of freedom”. DCR has been used by Marxists, Muslims, Catholics and secular scholars who engage fruitfully in morphogenic dialogues leading to a critical realist understanding of society and social research, which transcends positivist and social constructionist models. Examples of DCR’s application in the fields of childhood research, child abuse, education, and research on organisations are outlined to illustrate the working of this new research paradigm. We are enthusiastic in our advocacy of DCR as a model of qualitative research, and for constructing models of positive social change, and are particularly impressed by the substantive and theoretical expositions of DCR by Priscilla Anderson, Matthew Wilkinson and Margaret Archer, whose work we document and review.

The Active Distribution Networks (ADNs) are Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) systems with coupled dynamics which cause interactions among the control loops of the Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). This undesired effect lead to performance degradation in the voltage control. To mitigate the effects of these unavoidable coupling, the present paper proposes a systematic design procedure based on the analysis of the interaction's sources. In details, each DER is equipped with a double loop PI to control the active and reactive powers output by the Voltage Source Converter (VSC) which connects the DER to the network's node. Furthermore, to guarantee Ancillary Services (ASs), the two loops are coupled by a simple mechanism of cooperation of the active power to voltage regulation realized by a filtered droop law. To achieve voltage regulation with reduced loop interactions, the PI parameters and the filter's pulse are designed according to a two sequential steps procedure based on the (Internal Model Control) IMC technique. Simulation studies are finally presented to demonstrate that the proposed design method achieves both reduction of the loop interaction and robust voltage control in presence of model parameter uncertainty in the MIMO model.

Introduction: The repertoire of microRNAs (miRNAs) in thyroid carcinomas starts to be elucidated. Among differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC), papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common. The assessment of miRNAs expression may contribute to refine the pre-surgical diagnosis, in order to obtain a personalized and more effective treatment of patients. Aims: This study aims to evaluated 1) miRNAs expression in a series of DTC, and the association with the presence of selected genetic mutations, in order to improve diagnosis and predict biologic behavior of DTC/PTC. 2) the reliability of molecular tests in Ultrasound-guided Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (US-FNAC) for a more precise preoperative diagnosis. Material and methods: This series includes 176 samples (98 cytology samples and 78 formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues) obtained from 106 patients submitted to surgery, being 13 benign lesions (controls) and 93 DTCs (cases). The microRNA expression was assessed for miR-146b, miR-221, miR-222, and miR-15a by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and the results were analyzed using the 2- ΔΔCT method, using miR16 as an endogenous control. The discriminative ability of miRNAs expression regarding PTC diagnosis was evaluated using the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC). The association of miRNAs expression, clinicopatological features and genetic alterations (BRAF, RAS and TERTp) was evaluated in PTCs. Results/Discussion: All the analyzed miRNAs showed a tendency to be over expressed in DTCs/PTCs when compared with benign lesions, both in cytology and histology samples. In cytology, miRNAs expression levels were higher in malignant than in benign tumors. In histology, corresponding discriminative abilities regarding PTC diagnosis were: miR-146b (AUC0.94, 95%CI 0.87-1), miR-221 (AUC0.79, 95%CI 0.68-0.9), miR-222 (AUC0.76, 95%CI 0.63-0.89) and miR-15a (AUC0.85, 95%CI 0.74-0.97). miR-146b showed 89% sensitivity (se) and 87% specificity (sp); mi-R221 se=68.4, sp=90; miR222 se=73, sp=70, and mi-R15a se=72, sp=80. MicroRNAs were associated with aggressive clinicopathological features and tumor progression in PTCs (p < 0.05), particularly for miR-222. Our data reveals a significant association between higher expression levels of miR-146b, miR-221 and miR-222, with the presence of BRAF mutation (p<0.001), and miR-146b (p=0.016) and miR-221 (p=0.010) with the presence of RAS mutation, suggesting an interplay of these mutations with miRNAs expression. Although this study has a relatively small sample size, over expression of miRNAs in cytology may contribute to a more precise preoperative diagnosis. The miRNAs showed a good discriminative ability in PTC diagnosis. The association between the miRNAs expression profile and genetic alterations results could be useful for an accurate diagnosis of DTCs/PTCs in FNAC.

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.

The paper focuses on the application of a multilevel, integrative and territorial approach to the protection of cultural heritage through planning instruments in Serbia. It points out the problems of the sectoral approach and discusses international recommendations that can be integrated into the planning methodology. The case study is the area of Djerdap National Park, which has an already established international and national importance. The research suggests that the cultural heritage in the area, with the exception of the Roman limes, is still recognized at the level of individual localities. The study emphasizes the importance of aligning all levels of governance to safeguard the whole spatial entity rather than focusing solely on its particular areas. The interna-tional and national importance of the planning area contributes to the strengthening of awareness of heritage and its institutional protection. However, the vitality of the area, which is key to its sustainable development, comes from the local level. Planning documents contribute to the inte-gration of local values and local communities into development programs and projects.

Surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) is one of the most versatile technique to modify the surface properties of material. Recent developed metal free SI-ATRP makes such technique more widely applicable. Herein photo-induced metal-free SI-ATRP of methacrylates, such as methyl methacrylate, N-isopropanyl acrylamide, and N,N- dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, on the surface of SBA-15 was reported to fabricate organic-inorganic hybrid materials. SBA-15 based polymeric composite with adjustable graft ratio was obtained. The structure evolution during the SI-ATRP modification of SBA-15 was monitored and verified by FT-IR, XPS, TGA, BET, and TEM. The obtained polymeric composite showed enhanced adsorption ability for the model compound toluene in aqueous. This procedure provides a low cost, ready availability, and facile modification way to synthesize the polymeric composites without the contamination of metal.

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a carcinogenic toxin, mainly contaminates cow milk and poses significant challenges to the dairy industry and, thereby, public health in most tropical countries, including Ethiopia. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and level of AFM1 in raw cow milk collected from Specialized Dairy Farms and Milk Vendors in three Urban Centers: Chiro town, Dire Dawa, and Harar cities in Eastern Ethiopia. 180 milk samples were collected from two major Milk Sources: Specialized Dairy Farms (N=90) and Milk Vendors (N=90) using a simple random sampling technique. AFM1 was analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography. The study revealed that, 63.9% (115/810) prevalence and 0.179±0.48µg/L mean of AFM1 level in milk, which 39.13% and 26.08% exceed the tolerable limits of EU and FDA respectively. A 40.0% prevalence and 0.344±0.72µg/L average of AFM1 in the milk from Dire Dawa city was significantly higher than the samples from other Urban Centers. However, 30.43% and 29.57% prevalence as well as 0.055±±0.13µg/L and 0.140±0.33µg/L average of AFM1 in milk from Chiro town and Harar city, respectively were not significant. Furthermore, milk samples from Dairy Farms revealed a higher prevalence (57.39%) and level (0.252±0.64µg/L) of AFM1 than Milk Vendors, with a prevalence of 42.61% and an average of 0.107±0.21µg/L. Therefore, this study concludes that substantial milk samples were contaminated by AFM1 and urges the need to enhance farmers' awareness on mitigation.

The study addresses the urgent environmental issue of climate change, focusing specifically on the role of local food, which is produced and consumed locally, helps reduce carbon emissions by eliminating the need for long-distance transportation. Through quantitative analysis, this study elucidates the potential benefits in environmental impact achieved through the consumption of local food: the significant reduction in carbon emissions. Specifically, the consumption of local food is found to yield an annual decrease of 2,421,296 tCO2 emissions, representing 2.5% of South Korea’s total greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. This reduction further translates into an estimated economic value of USD 54.23 million (KRW 70.5 billion). This study underscores the potential of local food consumption as a tangible strategy to overcome environmental problems. Moreover, its academic contribution lies in its comprehensive analysis of the economic and empirical impacts of local food consumption on environment. Moving forward, we propose policies such as supporting local food distribution networks, providing public education on local food, fostering the local food industry, and providing incentives to revitalize local food consumption.

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.

Local polynomial smoother (LPS) is a weighted local least-squares nonparametric method. It provides a local Taylor series fit of the data at any location and can be directly used in a differential equation to provide a numerical scheme. In this article, we introduce this new nonparametric idea based on local polynomial smoother, for acquiring the numerical solution of the Bagley-Torvik fractional-order differential equations. Furthermore, this paper will present a numerical comparison with some methods, such as legendre operational matrix and pseudo-spectral method. The efficiency and accuracy of the LPS method are demonstrated by two numerical examples.

Local food has continued to become more popular in both the home and as featured ingredients in all segments of food service. Numerous studies have explored the motivating factors for consumer purchasing motivators. However, no known study has explored if there is a correlation between ego and intent to buy local foods. This study adopted a modified version of the Theory of Trying and surveyed a sample of 237 food service buying agents in South Carolina to examine their perceptions of buying local. Results suggest that ego is a predictor of trying to purchase local foods for restaurants. It was also found that the modified model is an acceptable model for predicting buyer intent. These findings support the majority of the studies looking at ego-centric behaviors with green purchases and could potentially help local food suppliers to better market their products to foodservice establishments. This study could also act as the foundation for future studies to explore the full extent of ego’s motivational effect on purchasing intentions in the food service industry.

National heatwave plans are aimed at reducing the avoidable human health consequences due to heatwaves, by providing warnings to and improving communication between relevant stakeholders. The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions of key stakeholders within plans in Belgium and the Netherlands on their responsibilities, the partnerships, and the effectiveness of the local implementation in Brussels and Amsterdam. Key informant interviews were held with stakeholders that had an important role in development of the heatwave plan in these countries, or its implementation in Brussels or Amsterdam. Care organisations, including hospitals and elderly care organisations, had a lack of familiarity with the national heatwave plan in both cities, and prioritised heat the lowest. Some groups of individuals, specifically socially isolated individuals, are not sufficiently addressed by the current national heatwave plans and most local plans. Stakeholders reported that responsibilities were not clearly described and that the national plan does not describe tasks on a local level. We recommend to urgently increase awareness on the impact of heat on health among care organisations. More emphasis needs to be given to the variety of heat risk groups. Stakeholders should be involved in the development of updates of the plans.

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

Fowlpox virus (FPV) has been used as a vector for many years. To date, surprisingly, very little data exist on the persistence of fowlpox vaccines in chicken tissues, or what kind of immune cells respond to the vaccination at the site of inoculation. Although both humoral and cellular mediated immunity (CMI) play a part in overall immunity against FPV, little is known regarding the cell-mediated immune responses to FPV infection. The main aim of this paper was to measure persistence of the recombinant fowlpox vaccine in the skin tissues following vaccination. The results showed that the recombinant FPVs do not persist for long, and are cleared by 6 days post-vaccination (dpv). The response of immune cells (macrophages, B cells, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) that infiltrating the site of vaccination was estimated.

The Upper Hunter Valley is a major coal mining area in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Due to the ongoing increase of mining activities, PM10 (air-borne particle with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres) pollution has become a major air quality concern in local communities. The early part of this study identified two air quality subregions in the valley. This paper aims to provide a holistic summarisation of the relationships between elevated PM10 pollution in two subregions and the local- and synoptic-scale meteorological conditions for spring and summer, when PM10 pollution is relatively high. A catalogue of twelve synoptic types and a set of six local meteorological patterns have been quantitatively derived and linked to each other using the self-organising map (SOM) technique. The complex meteorology-air pollution relationships have been visualised/interpretated on the SOM planes for two representative locations. It was found that the influence of local meteorological patterns differed significantly for mean PM10 levels vs the occurrence of elevated pollution events and between air quality subregions. In contrast, synoptic types showed generally similar relationships with mean vs elevated PM10 pollution in the valley. Two local meteorological patterns, the hot-dry-northwesterly wind conditions and the hot-dry-calm conditions, were found most PM10 pollution conducive in the valley when combined with a set of synoptic counterparts. These synoptic types are featured with the influence of eastward migrating continental high pressure system and westerly troughs, or a ridge extending northwest towards coastal northern NSW or southern Queensland from the Tasman Sea. The method and results can be used in air quality research for other locations of NSW, or similar regions elsewhere.

Crossbreeding in dairy cattle with exotic breeds continues to be an appealing practice to the dairy farmers of Bangladesh. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of crossbreeding on both the physical attributes and milk quality traits of crossbred cattle in Bangladesh. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of crossbreeding Bangladeshi local cattle with the exotic Holstein breed on their body characteristics and milk quality. To achieve the goal, data pertaining to body traits and milk samples were gathered from a total of 981 cows from 19 dairy farms located in the northwestern region of Bangladesh. A trained evaluator measured body condition score (BCS), udder score, locomotion score, and body conformation traits. Milk yield information was acquired from official records, while milk composition details were determined through milk analysis. The average measurements for body traits were as follows: wither height (WH) at 138 cm, body length (BL) at 155 cm, and heart girth (HG) at 203 cm. Notably, crossbred cows (Holstein x Local cattle) exhibited greater values for WH, BL, HG, BCS, and udder score than their Bangladeshi local counterparts. Furthermore, the average daily milk yield of sampled cows was recorded at 8.7 kg, with fat and protein contents of 3.78% and 3.67%, respectively. It is worth noting that crossbred cows produced a higher volume of milk compared to Bangladeshi local cattle. However, milk from crossbred cows displayed lower fat and protein content, although their somatic cell score (SCS) remained similar. Additionally, milk from crossbred cows exhibited a longer coagulation time when compared to that of Bangladeshi local cattle. A more comprehensive assessment of the crossbreeding scheme, particularly in comparison to Holstein, would necessitate further research, including an examination of its impact on cheese yield traits, health, fertility, and longevity.

The result of the multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers from different areas of knowledge to validate a solar radiation model is presented. The MAPsol is a 3D local-scale adaptive solar radiation model that allows to estimate direct, diffuse and reflected irradiance for clear sky conditions. The model includes the adaptation of the mesh to complex orography and albedo, and considers the shadows cast by the terrain and buildings. The surface mesh generation is based on surface refinement, smoothing and parameterisation techniques and allows the generation of high quality adapted meshes with a reasonable number of elements. Another key aspect of the paper is the generation of a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). This high-resolution DEM is constructed from LiDAR data and its resolution if two times more accurate than the publicly available DEMs. The validation process uses direct and global solar irradiance data obtained from pyranometers at the University of Salamanca located in an urban area affected by systematic shading from nearby buildings. This work provides an efficient protocol for studying solar resources, with particular emphasis on areas of complex orography and dense buildings where shadows can potentially make solar energy production facilities less efficient.

COVID-19 is the most severe health crisis of the 21st century. COVID-19 presents a threat to almost all countries world-wide. The restriction of human mobility is one of the strategies used to control the transmission of COVID-19. However, it has yet to be determined how effective this restriction is in controlling the rise in COVID-19 cases, particularly in major capital cities such as Jakarta, Indonesia. Using Facebook's mobility data, our study explores the impact of restricting human mobility on COVID-19 case control in Jakarta. Our main contribution is showing how the restriction of human mobility data can give important information about how COVID-19 spreads in different places. We proposed modifying a global regression model into a local regression model by accounting for the spatial and temporal interdependence of COVID-19 transmission across space and time. We applied Bayesian hierarchical Poisson spatiotemporal models with spatially varying regression coefficients. We estimated the regression parameters using an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation. We found that the local regression model with spatially varying regression coefficients outperforms the global regression model based on DIC, WAIC, MPL, and R2 criteria for model selection. In Jakarta's 44 districts, the impact of human mobility varies significantly. The impacts of human mobility on the log relative risk of COVID-19 range from –4.445 to 2.353. The prevention strategy involving the restriction of human mobility may be beneficial in some districts but ineffective in others. Therefore, a cost-effective strategy had to be adopted.

In this study, we address the formidable challenge of solving large-scale Max-Cut problems (MCP). We introduce a rapid computational procedure utilizing a hybrid 1-flip/r-flip local search heuristic. This innovative strategy significantly reduces the computational time required for MCP problems while consistently generating solutions of exceptional quality. The paper presents substantial computational insights, showcasing the effectiveness of our approach on very-large-scale Max-Cut instances with varying densities. Our proposed heuristic is rigorously evaluated by comparing its performance against a quantum annealing solver, leveraging a multi-start Tabu Search framework. The results underscore the potency of this unique combination as an efficient and effective solution for large-scale QUBO problems. Notably, our hybrid heuristic consistently delivers high-quality solutions within the stringent CPU time limits of 600 seconds, demonstrating its efficacy across Max-Cut instances ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 variables. This research contributes to advancing the state-of-the-art in large-scale QUBO problem-solving, offering a powerful and time-efficient approach with broad applicability.

Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank) to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic). Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

Quantum mechanics is often described as irreducibly non-local. A tacit element of this picture is the assumption that one and the same sub-ensemble of quanta is post-selected in every measurement combination of a Bell test. Yet, this expectation was recently shown to be formally inconsistent with quantum theory (Cetto et al., 2020) and even to be experimentally falsifiable (Mardari 2021). The need to make sense of this development motivated a rigorous conceptual analysis of quantum non-locality, especially as it relates to the basic principles of quantum mechanics. The simple conclusion is that quantum theory and quantum non-locality are fundamentally incompatible. This is not a loophole around the predictions of quantum mechanics, but rather an insight into the essential conditions that make them accurate.

In this paper, we relate Poisson’s summation formula to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. They both express Fourier dualities within the space of tempered distributions and these dualities are furthermore the inverses of one another. While Poisson’s summation formula expresses a duality between discretization and periodization, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle expresses a duality between regularization and localization. We define regularization and localization on generalized functions and show that the Fourier transform of regular functions are local functions and, vice versa, the Fourier transform of local functions are regular functions.

Being able to express broad families of equivariant or invariant attributed graph functions is a popular measuring stick of whether graph neural networks should be employed in practical applications. However, it is equally important to learn deep local minima of losses (i.e., with much smaller loss values than other minima), even when architectures cannot express global minima. In this work we introduce the architectural property of attracting GNN optimization trajectories to local minima as a means of achieving smaller losses. We take first steps in satisfying this property for losses defined over attributed undirected unweighted graphs with a novel architecture, called Universal Local Attractor (ULA). The latter refines each dimension of end-to-end trained node feature embeddings based on graph structure to track the optimization trajectories of losses satisfying some mild conditions. The refined dimensions are then linearly pooled to create predictions. We experiment on 10 tasks, from node classification to clique detection, on which ULA is comparable with or significantly outperforms popular alternatives of similar or greater theoretical expressive power.

Endoscopic medical images can suffer from uneven illumination, low contrast, and lack of texture information due to the use of point directional light sources and the presence of narrow tissue structures, posing diagnostic difficulties for physicians. In this paper, a deep learning-based su-pervised illumination enhancement network is designed for low-light endoscopic images, aiming to improve both global illumination and local details. Initially, a global illumination enhancement module is formulated utilizing a higher-order curve function to improve global illumination. Sec-ondly, a local feature extraction module incorporating dual attention is designed to capture local detailed features. Considering the significance of color fidelity in biomedical scenarios, the designed loss function prioritizes introducing color loss to alleviate image color distortion. Compared with seven state-of-the-art enhancement algorithms on Endo4IE endoscopic datasets, experimental re-sults show that the proposed method can better enhance low-light endoscopic images and avoid image color distortion. It provides an efficient method to enhance images captured by endoscopes which can effectively assist clinical diagnosis and treatment.

In this paper, our goal is to establish the relationship between solutions of local sharp vector variational type inequality and sharp efficient solutions of vector optimization problems, also Minty local sharp vector variational type inequality and sharp efficient solutions of vector optimization problems, under generalized approximate $\eta$-convexity conditions for locally Lipschitzian functions

Rabies persists as a longstanding issue in Zambia, despite being preventable. The current control measures, including dog vaccination, population control, and movement restriction, guided by ‘The Control of Dogs Act Chapter 247 of the Laws of Zambia’, have not yielded the desired impact in many areas of the country including Manyinga and Mwansabombwe districts. These two districts continue to report low dog vaccination rates, unrestricted dog movements, and escalating cases of animal and human rabies, along with dog bites. Aligned with global aspirations to achieve zero human rabies cases by 2030, this study scrutinizes the determinants and obstacles hampering the execution of rabies control initiatives in Manyinga and Mwansabombwe. Spanning approximately 11 months, this cross-sectional study gathered pre- and post-vaccination data from 301 households in Manyinga and 100 households in Mwansabombwe. Questionnaires probed knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to rabies prevention and control. A transect survey, key informant interviews, and assessment of rabies vaccination and dog bite records complemented the data collection. Findings revealed that 88% of respondents from both districts possessed knowledge about rabies, confirming affected species and transmission. Moreover, 76.8% in Manyinga and 88.6% in Mwansabombwe were acquainted with rabies prevention and control methods. Concerning dog owners, 89% were aware of rabies, 66% understood its prevention and control, and the majority identified bites as the primary mode of transmission. Vaccination coverage stood at 64% in Manyinga and 21% in Mwansabombwe. Notably, education and occupation exhibited a positive significant association with rabies knowledge. In terms of dog bite cases, Manyinga recorded 538 dog bite cases from 2017 to June 2022 while Mwansabombwe recorded 81 dog bite and 23 jackal bite cases from 2021 to June 2022. The study underscores critical knowledge gaps in rural areas and emphasizes the imperative for enhanced public education and awareness programs, improved rabies surveillance, free mass vaccination campaigns, and community engagement to augment vaccination coverage and knowledge about rabies.

This article aims to highlight the intricate interplay between psychological knowledge and local wisdom. Ethiopia is a diverse and multicultural country, with a rich diversity of languages, cultures, and traditions. Ethiopian local stories, proverbs, and poems have long served as vessels of wisdom, offering valuable life lessons and insights into human behavior. This article seeks to uncover the local wisdom through psychological lenses by demonstrating the psychological richness embedded within Ethiopian local stories, proverbs, and poems. Thus, valuable insights can be found by drawing connections between these traditional forms of wisdom and contemporary psychological theories. Moreover, researchers can foster a more inclusive and culturally sensitive approach to understanding and addressing psychological issues by bridging the gap between academic knowledge and local wisdom. This symbiotic relationship has the potential to expand the boundaries of psychological knowledge and encourage innovative ideas and principles, ultimately enriching both domains.

A statistical simulation is presented which reproduces the correlation obtained from EPR coincidence experiments without non-local connectivity. In addition to the spin polarization, we identify spin coherence as an attribute, and complementary to polarization, which is anti-symmetric and generates the helicity. This changes the point particle spin to a structured one with two orthogonal magnetic moments of spin $\frac{1}{2}$ each. They couple in free flight to form a spin 1, a boson. Upon encountering a filter, the boson decouples into its two independent spins axes of $\frac{1}{2}$, with one aligning with the filter and the other randomizing. The process of decoupling from a free-flight boson to a measured fermion is responsible for the quantum correlation which results in the observed violation of Bell's Inequalities. The only variable in this work is the angle that orients a spin on the Bloch sphere, first identified in the 1920's. The new features introduced here result from changing the spin symmetry from SU(2) to the quaternion group, $Q_8$.

We utilized all Spanish marriage records available at the municipality level from 2005-2007 to model spatial variations in intermarriage. We constructed a spatial regime zero inflated Poisson model and grouped-data probit model, with spatially lagged regressors, to predict the absolute and relative presence of intermarriage between Spaniards and migrants based on structural characteristics of the local marriage markets and their neighboring areas (i.e., relative group size, homogeneity of national origins, and sex ratio indicators). Our models do not assume collapsibility of the marriage market. Instead, they incorporate the local dimension of the marriage market and examine the association between intermarriage and structural variables at the spatial local level. The model also investigates intermarriage variation by size of place. The local characteristics of the marriage markets are robust indicators of both the absolute and relative importance of intermarriage, but their impact varies by size of municipality. The relative size of the migrant community positively impacts intermarriage. The homogeneity of the origins of migrants is negatively related to it. The impact of sex ratios in the migrant and native communities on intermarriage is not uniform across all municipalities and is not always related to more intermarriage.

A novel sunscreen containing Acacia catechu, remarkable local herb, was investigated for efficacy and standardized in this research. The developed sunscreens were evaluated Sun Protection Factor (SPF), stability, skin allergy or irritation and the satisfaction. The highest SPF of A. catechu sunscreen with synthetic sunscreen agents was 30.344. While, the highest SPF of the A. catechu sunscreen without synthetic sunscreen agents was 24.381. The stability testing with the different conditions was found that the sunscreen products in the usual storage, had been stabilized even without preservative. For irritation testing, there was no skin allergy and irritation from 20 volunteers. Besides, results of the satisfaction evaluation for texture, consistency, sensory and odor after using the sunscreens, were high for all of the evaluation aspects. Obviously, the results in this research revealed that A. catechu was applicable for being a great candidate in a sunscreen product. Additionally, A. catechu sunscreen could prevent the adverse effects of UV radiation and artificial preservatives due to the UV absorption properties and antimicrobial properties of A. catechu.

CNN-based off-the-shelf features have shown themselves as a good baseline for trademark retrieval. However, in recent years, the computer vision area was transitioning from CNNs to a new architecture – Vision Transformer. In this paper, we investigate the performance of off-the-shelf features extracted with vision transformers and explore the effects of pre, post-processing, and pre-training on big datasets. We propose a method of joint usage of global and local features, which leverages the best aspects of both approaches. Experimental results on METU Trademark Dataset show that off-the-shelf features extracted with ViT-based models outperform off-the-shelf features from CNN-based models. The proposed method achieves the mAP value of 31.23, surpassing previous state-of-the-art results. We assume that the proposed approach for the trademark similarity evaluation will allow one to improve the protection of such data with the help of artificial intelligence methods. Moreover, this approach will allow one to identify cases of unfair use of such data and form an evidence base for litigation.

Crisis environments, which are becoming systemic, pose significant challenges to smart government strategies. The paper aims to contribute to academic debate by proposing an analytical framework for examining the institutional capacities of smart government systems in addressing local crises. The paper focuses on the recent approach of robust governance and highlights a set of variables that promote effective smart government: contingency planning capacity, analytical capacity, organizational management capacity, and collaborative capacity. The study presents an analytical model for evaluating the robustness and effectiveness of local smart government systems in crises. One of the significant findings of this study has been the identification of critical indicators that inform institutional capacities of smart government systems. By analyzing these indicators, the proposed analytical framework provides a comprehensive approach to assess the preparedness of smart government systems in dealing with crises. Moreover, it can be used to benchmark the performance of local smart government systems in similar contexts and identify best practices for improving crisis management.

Here we present a fast and highly scalable community structure preserving network module detection that recursively integrates graph sparsification and clustering. Our algorithm, called SparseClust, participated in the most recent DREAM community challenge on disease module identification, an open competition to comprehensively assess module identification methods across a wide range of biological networks.

We present a first formal analysis of specific and complete local integration. Complete local integration was previously proposed as a criterion for detecting entities or wholes in distributed dynamical systems. Such entities in turn were conceived to form the basis of a theory of emergence of agents within dynamical systems. Here, we give a more thorough account of the underlying formal measures. The main contribution is the disintegration theorem which reveals a special role of completely locally integrated patterns (what we call ι-entities) within the trajectories they occur in. Apart from proving this theorem we introduce the disintegration hierarchy and its refinement-free version as a way to structure the patterns in a trajectory. Furthermore we construct the least upper bound and provide a candidate for the greatest lower bound of specific local integration. Finally, we calculate the i-entities in small example systems as a first sanity check and find that ι-entities largely fulfil simple expectations.

The problem of fluid dynamics can be greatly simplified if, for every point in space, the strain-rate tensor is diagonalized. This tensor is introduced into the Navier-Stokes equations via material law and divergence of the stress tensor. This article shows that local SO(3)xU(1) gauge fields can be used to locally diagonalize the diffusion components of the strain-rate tensor. The gauge fields resulting from the connection can be interpreted as convection components of the flow, they show properties of quasiparticles and can be interpreted as elementary vortices. Thus, the proposed approach not only offers new insights for the solution and situative simplification of the Navier-Stokes equations, it also uncovers hidden symmetries within the flow convection, allowing - depending on boundary conditions - further interpretation.

This short paper reveals a simple methodology to create local-correlation models suitable for the closed-form pricing of multi-asset financial derivatives. The multivariate models are built to ensure two conditions, first, marginals follow desirable processes, e.g. we choose the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), popular for stock prices. Second, the payoff of the derivative should follow a desired one dimensional process. These conditions lead to a specific choice of the dependence structure, in the form of a local-correlation model. Two popular multi-asset options are entertained, a spread option and a basket option.

Inspired by the reflective and deliberative control mechanisms used in cognitive architectures such as SOAR and Sigma, we propose an alternative decision mechanism driven by architectural appraisals allowing robots to overcome impasses. The presented work builds on and improves on our previous work on a generally applicable decision mechanism with roots in the Standard Model of the Mind and the Generalized Cognitive Hour-glass Model. The proposed decision mechanism provides automatic context-dependent switching between exploration-oriented, goal-oriented, and backtracking behavior, allowing a robot to overcome impasses. A simulation study of two applications utilizing the proposed decision mechanism is presented demonstrating the applicability of the proposed decision mechanism.

With the prevalence of smartphones, the scope of mobile applications has been significantly broadened in the past few years including almost every aspect of our daily life. Among the applications, message dissemination services play a significant role. Traditionally, users send messages to the servers, which forward them according to friend lists. This client-server architecture is efficient with the support of infrastructures, however, it restricts the application scope and may hinder the wide deployment of location-based mobile applications. This paper proposes a novel communication model called passive broadcast for local message dissemination. In this new model, each node does not maintain a connection state and data delivery is initialized by a receiver via a ’scan’ operation. The representative carriers of passive broadcast include Bluetooth and WiFi-Direct, both of which define a mandatory ‘peer discovery’ function. Passive broadcast features negligible cost for establishing and maintaining direct links and is extremely suitable for short message dissemination in proximity. Furthermore, we study the operation management in the proposed communication model with complete protocols and in-depth analysis for optimization. We prototyped our solution on commercial phones and evaluated it with extensive experiments and simulation.

This paper presents a novel CNN-based architecture, referred to as Q-Net, to learn local feature descriptors that are useful for matching image patches from two different spectral bands. Given correctly matched and non-matching cross-spectral image pairs, a quadruplet network is trained to map input image patches to a common Euclidean space, regardless of the input spectral band. Our approach is inspired by the recent success of triplet networks in the visible spectrum, but adapted for cross-spectral scenarios, where for each matching pair there are always two possible non-matching patches; one for each spectrum. Experimental evaluations on a public cross-spectral VIS-NIR dataset shows that the proposed approach improves the state-of-the-art. Moreover, the proposed technique can also be used in mono-spectral settings, obtaining a similar performance to triplet network descriptors, but requiring less training data.

Land degradation monitoring and assessment in the Sahel zone has relied substantially on temporal trends of remote sensing-based vegetation indices, which are proxies for the bioproductivity of the land. However, prior studies have shown that negative or positive trends in bioproductivity are not necessarily associated with degradation or improvement of land condition. In this short communication, while acknowledging the contributions of remote sensing-based indices and global-scale datasets to dismantling an outdated desertification narrative, we argue that local land users have much to contribute to our understanding of land degradation, and particularly to ensuring that scientific assessments of degradation capture variables relevant to them. We used the participatory photo elicitation method in three sites in the Senegalese Ferlo in order to elicit local pastoralists’ perspectives on land degradation and identify the indicators that they use to characterize pasture quality, while empowering them to lead the discussion. The discussion revealed indicators far beyond bioproductivity, including livestock performance as well as composition and quality of the herbaceous and woody vegetative cover, invasive species, soil quality and water availability. We found that the pastoralists’ knowledge and interest in the issue could potentially be harnessed more systematically, and at larger scales, in order to build a spatially explicit field-based knowledge base of land degradation complementary to remote sensing-based maps of trends in bioproductivity. Such a dataset could serve as a standalone product or as a reference dataset for development and validation of remote sensing-based indicators.

This article investigates how the “constructivist turn” in public policy and international political economy informs the interaction of global ideas and local practice in water governance. We use the implementation of ideas associated with Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Lower Mekong river basin. This article provides some explanation of the attitudes in the villages in Cambodia due to the Sesan 2 Dam, which would see the relocation of thousands of people, damage fisheries, and inflict high coping costs on villagers. Based on 24 in-depth interviews with villagers, commune heads and local community leaders, we find diverse narratives which transcend the “pro or anti” dam narrative. We find four narrative types - myths, stories, noise and informed opinion, which relate to each other in degrees of social meaning and ideational force. Of these, the first two are more likely to be useful in terms of mobilization and policy-making. This typology provides a framework for analysis of social change in the studied villages and other context of policy translation. We should state that these four types are not separate from each other but are linked along two axis which together conscribe the four types of narratives outlined.

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the awareness of local residents regarding healthcare projects and to suggest some ideas for the revision of local ones. Methods: To delve into the opinions of local residents, the author of this study created a questionnaire composed of eight questions on the general characteristics of the respondents, eight questions on satisfaction with health centers, 16 questions on the awareness of healthcare projects, and 22 questions on local healthcare. The survey was conducted for 409 residents who visited public centers in Gimcheon from 15 March to 14 April 2021. Results: Data analysis revealed the following: The proportion of local residents who use health centers was 39.1%, and those users visit health centers, on average, 3.92 times a year. Among healthcare projects, the project known by the highest proportion of people was vaccinations (84.5%), which was also the project that was most used (38.1%). Among healthcare projects needed in the with-COVID-19 age, respondents awarded the highest score to vaccinations (4.15 points on a five-point Likert scale) and the second highest score to infectious disease management (4.12). Conclusions: For healthcare projects, central and local governments should focus on activating vaccinations, solving the problem of medical accessibility through untact remote treatment and establishing national infectious disease-specializing hospitals and local infectious disease management based on such national hospitals.

Best practices in global health training prioritize leadership and engagement from investigators from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), along with more conscientious community consultation and research that benefits local participants and autochthonous communities. However, well into the 20th century, international research and clinical care were rife with paternalism, extractive practices, and racist ideation, with race presumed to explain both vulnerability or protection from various diseases despite scientific evidence for more precise mechanisms for infectious disease. We highlight experiences in global research on health and illness among indigenous populations in LMICs, seeking to clarify what is both scientifically essential and ethically desirable in research with human subjects; we apply a critical view towards race and racism as historically distorting elements that must be acknowledged and overcome.

The choice of holiday destinations is highly depended on climate considerations. Nowadays, since the effects of climate crisis are being increasingly felt, the need of accurate weather and climate services for hotels is crucial. Such a service could be beneficial for both the future planning of tourists’ activities and destinations and for hotel managers as it could help in decision making about the planning and expansion of the touristic season, due to a prediction of higher temperatures for a longer time span, thus causing increased revenue for companies in the local touristic sector. The aim of this work is to calculate predictions on climatic variables using statistical techniques as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a specific area of interest utilising data from in situ meteorological station, and produce valuable and reliable localised predictions with the most cost-effective method possible. This investigation will answer the question of the most suitable prediction method for time series data from a single meteorological station that is deployed in a specific location. As a result, an accurate representation of the microclimate in a specific are is achieved. To achieve this high accuracy in situ measurements and prediction techniques are used. As prediction techniques, Seasonal Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), AI techniques like the Long-Short-Term-Memory (LSTM) Neural Network and hybrid combinations of the two are used. Variables of interest are divided in the easier to predict temperature and humidity that are more periodic and less chaotic, and the wind speed as an example of a more stochastic variable with no known seasonality and patterns. Our results show that the examined Hybrid methodology performs the best at temperature and wind speed forecasts, closely followed by the SARIMA whereas LSTM perform better overall at the humidity forecast, even after the correction of the Hybrid to the SARIMA model.

It is shown how the secondary structure of proteins, musical forms and verses of poems are approximately ruled by universal laws relying on graph coverings. In this direction, one explores the group structure of a variant of the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein and the group structure of apolipoprotein-H, passing from the primary code with amino acids to the secondary structures organizing the foldings. Then one look at the musical forms employed in the classical and contemporary periods. Finally, one investigates in much detail the group structure of a small poem in prose by Charles Baudelaire and that of the Bateau Ivre by Arthur Rimbaud.

The mass composition of Particulate Matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is dominated by ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) which is a secondary pollutant. The goal of this research was the investigation of the relationship between emissions, meteorology and PM2.5 concentrations in Fresno for the winter season. It was found that the location of sites near emission sources such as freeways compared with residential sites strongly affected measured PM2.5 concentrations. It was found that although long-term trends showed declines in both emissions and PM2.5 concentrations there was substantial variability between the years in the PM2.5/emissions relationship. Much of the yearly variation in the relationship between emissions and PM2.5 concentrations can be attributed to yearly variations in weather, such as atmospheric stability, precipitation frequency and average wind speed. There are moderate correlations between PM2.5 concentrations and temperature differences between nearby surface stations at varying elevations which explains some of the daily and seasonal variation in PM2.5. Occurrence of precipitation was related to low PM¬2.5 although the higher wind speeds and lower atmospheric stability associated with precipitation likely explain some of the low PM2.5 as well as washout of PM.

Local binary pattern is one of the visual descriptors and can be used as a powerful feature extractor for texture classification. In this paper, a novel representation for face recognition is proposed, called it Bilateral Line Local Binary Patterns (BL-LBP). This scheme is an extension of Line Local Binary Patterns descriptors in the statistical learning subspace. The present bilateral descriptors are fused with an ensemble learning of calibrated SVM models. The performance of this scheme is evaluated using 5 standard face databases. It is found that it is robust against illumination variation, diverse facial expressions and head pose variations and its recognition accuracy reaches 98 percent, running on a mobile device with a processing speed of 63 ms per face. Results suggest that our proposed method can be very useful for the vision systems that have limited resources where the computational cost is critical.

In this paper, a local meshless method (LMM) based on radial basis functions (RBFs) is utilized for the numerical solution of various types of PDEs, due to the flexibility with respect to geometry and high order of convergence rate. In case of global meshless methods, the two major deficiencies are the computational cost and the optimum value of shape parameter. Therefore, research is currently focus towards localized radial basis function approximations, as the local meshless method is proposed here. The local meshless procedures is used for spatial discretization whereas for temporal discretization different time integrators are employed. The proposed local meshless method is testified in terms of efficiency, accuracy and ease of implementation using regular and irregular domains.

Background: Music evokes positive emotions and reduces stress and anxiety. Operating Room (OR) staff face various challenges which can lead to high levels of stress. The aim of the study is to assess whether listening to music during intraoperative phases improves the work environment by reducing anxiety and stress in the entire surgical team. Methods. A prospective observational study was conducted from February to September 2023, involving medical personnel, nursing staff, and nursing students. They were divided into two groups: Group 1 with music during surgical procedures, and Group 2 without music. Participants were administered two validated instruments: the Zung Anxiety Self-Assessment Scale (SAS) to measure anxiety, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to assess emotions generating stress. Additional items were included for demographics, job satisfaction, and the organization method. Results. Music did not impact anxiety but increased positive emotions while reducing negative ones. Music had an ancillary effect, highlighting the need for significant organizational interventions aimed at increasing operator satisfaction, including voluntary rather than mandatory assignments for nursing staff. Conclusions. Music appears to reduce stress in the intraoperative team when supported by a positive work environment in which assigned operators have chosen to work in the OR.

Food systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyzes the refinement of workshop participants’ mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two workshops with small-scale farmers in Zambia. Analysis of workshop data and post-workshop interviews shows that participatory system dynamics is well adaptable to support an audience-specific learning-by-doing approach. The use of pictures, objects and water glasses in combination with the basic aspects of causal loop diagramming makes for a well-balanced toolbox. Participants acquire understanding that is also relevant beyond systems thinking in that is offers a range of practical insights such as a critical evaluation of common food security strategies.

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) production is a complex operation that requires finding a good combination and a suitable dosage of each of its constituents. Several formulation methods have been developed to meet the workability requirements of SCC. In this paper, the relationships between the fresh properties of SCC based on local metakaolin (MK) and the spreading of its mortar was investigated. The results showed the existence of good correlations between the spreading of the mortar and the fresh state properties of the related SCC and that the MK substitution rate did not affect these correlations. The choice of the mortar flow rate should target appropriate fresh properties of the SCC and a viscosity enhancing agent (VEA) could be used if the mix is too fluid and present an instability.

With the increasing utilization of intelligent mobile devices for online inspection of electrical equipment in smart grids, the limited computing power and storage capacity of these devices pose challenges for deploying large algorithm models and it’s hard to obtain a substantial number of images of electrical equipment in public. In this paper, we propose a novel distillation method that compresses the knowledge of teacher networks into a compact few-shot classification network, employing a global and local knowledge distillation strategy. Central to our method is exploiting the global and local relationship between the features exacted by the backbone of the teacher network and student network. We compare our method with recent state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods on three public datasets and achieve superior performance. Additionally, we contribute a new dataset, namely EEI-100, which is specifically designed for classification of electrical equipment. We validate our method on this dataset and demonstrate its exceptional prediction accuracy of 94.12% when utilizing only 5-shot images.

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of the sacred groves and natural sites for tourism in local communities in Nigeria. Three communities in Inyi town were chosen as case studies: Umuome, Enugwu-Inyi, and Alum, using a purposive sampling technique. An ethnographic data collection method was adopted, using in-depth interviews and direct observation. Grove locations were located and mapped using a geographic information system (GIS) throughout the research area. The secondary data was obtained from scholarly journals. The findings showed that the sacred groves and natural sites had exceptional value for cultural and eco-tourism. There are not many works that have studied the tourism dimension of the sacred groves in the study domain. The implication of the study is that tourism aids in the preservation of the sites' integrity. The research helps the government and policymakers to adopt a policy that promotes tourism in the sacred groves. This research is important to researchers at the universities and research institutions that are seeking to carry out a related research. Conclusively, utilizing the area for tourism is a superior conservation alternative.

Monsoon winds drive upwelling along the eastern coast of India during the south-west (SW) monsoons. These winds also provide alongshore windstress (AWS) resulting in positive cross-shore Ekman transport (ET) from late May to the end of September. While instances of high ET and sea surface temperature (SST) based upwelling index (UI_SST) were observed along different parts of the coast, UI_SST was weaker in the northern section in the earlier part of monsoon. This was even in the presence of maximum AWS and ET during the 10 years analysis period spanning January-2009 to December-2018. Additionally, negative sea surface height anomalies (SSHAs), typically associated with coastal upwelling, were observed only along the southern-most coast. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis revealed two coherent modes of SSHA variation. The first principal component (PC) showed a SSHA signature coincident spatio-temporally with the first downwelling Kelvin wave, closely associated with the equatorial zonal winds that drive coastal Kelvin waves. The third PC with a coastal SSHA pattern similar to the second upwelling Kelvin wave was associated with offshore ET along the northern part of the Indian east coast. Time series of the two PCs exhibited suppression of coastal upwelling by downwelling Kelvin waves during May-July along the northeastern coast of India. Local AWS driven ET was the primary driver of coastal upwelling with the weakening of the remotely forced Kelvin waves in August. A coherent mode consisting of negative coastal SSHA signature was excited in response to local AWS driven ET during the upwelling period. This study examined the spatio-temporal variability of SW monsoon coastal upwelling along the east coast of India and illustrated the role of equatorial windstress forced first downwelling Kelvin wave in suppressing upwelling in the northern part of the coast during early SW monsoon season.

In the context of multiple repurposing of rural spaces, tourism represents a path for development, with the potential to revitalize these areas. The conservation and restoration of heritage, and its promotion through tourism, can become an opportunity for local development, in which a range of stakeholders fulfil different roles in the carrying out of the processes involved. The aim of the study was to analyse the process and results of channelling heritagisation through tourism in Mértola (Baixo Alentejo, Portugal). A series of interviews with the chief stakeholders in the process was conducted, from which the contexts and conceptualisations of development were determined. On the basis of secondary data (statistics), an analysis of the impacts of the process of heritagisation and the development of tourism was undertaken. The objectives of this study consisted in determining: a) the importance of the process of heritagisation in Mértola; b) the viability of the project, given the cost and lack of comprehensive conservation, in creating a unified whole; d) the performance of, and power relationships between, the various stakeholders; e) the limited participation of locals due to disaffection with the project; f) the correlation between heritage, rural tourism and local development.

One of the challenges in Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is to reduce the semantic gaps between low-level features and high-level semantic concepts. In CBIR, the images are represented in the feature space and the performance of CBIR depends on the type of selected feature representation. Late fusion also known as visual words integration is applied to enhance the performance of image retrieval. The recent advances in image retrieval diverted the focus of research towards the use of binary descriptors as they are reported computationally efficient. In this paper, we aim to investigate the late fusion of Fast Retina Keypoint (FREAK) and Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). The late fusion of binary and local descriptor is selected because among binary descriptors, FREAK has shown good results in classification-based problems while SIFT is robust to translation, scaling, rotation and small distortions. The late fusion of FREAK and SIFT integrates the performance of both feature descriptors for an effective image retrieval. Experimental results and comparisons show that the proposed late fusion enhances the performances of image retrieval.

Bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, also known as superbugs,pose a huge threat to the human population. This is because these developed resistance to antibiotics. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that fights bacteria by either killing it or preventing it from growing. Although antibiotics make the once deadly now easily treatable, they can become ineffective as bacteria develop resistance to the antibiotic, causing diseases to become potentially fatal once more. Thus, scientists are rushing to find solutions in this arms race against evolving bacteria by either evolving current antibiotics or discovering new stands to fight evolving bacteria. In order to discover whether bacteria can develop resistance to household antibiotics, a controlled experiment was conducted. This was done by growing bacteria on agar plates with antibiotic ointments applied (in dilution series) to see if antibiotic resistance could build. Theorizing that by lowering the concentration of over the counter antibiotics, resistant bacteria would be selected and my bacterial population would evolve antibiotic resistance.In conclusion of the experiment antibiotic resistance did appear as a trait, but the level of it was inconsistent across the different bacteria populations.

Steroid hormone production by adrenal cortex, gonads and placenta (so called glandular steroidogenesis) is responsible for the endocrine control of the body’s homeostasis and organized by a feedback regulatory mechanism based on the hypothalamus-pituitary-steroidogenic gland axis. On the other hand, recently discovered extraglandular steroidogenesis occurring locally in different tissues is rather linked to paracrine or autocrine signaling and it is independent of the control by the hypothalamus and pituitary. Bone cells, such as bone-forming osteoblast, osteoblast-derived osteocytes and bone-resorbing osteoclasts respond to steroid hormones produced by both glandular and extraglandular steroidogenesis. Recently, new techniques to identify steroid hormones as well as synthetic steroids and steroidogenesis inhibitors have been introduced, which greatly empowered steroid hormone research. Based on recent literature and new advances in the field, here we review the local role of steroid hormones in regulating bone homeostasis and skeletal lesion formation. The novel idea of extraglandular steroidogenesis occurring within the skeletal system raises the possibility of the development of new therapies for the treatment of bone diseases.

Clinching is a manufacturing method of mechanical joining two or more materials without the use of heat or additional components. This process relies on high plastic deformation to create a secure bond. Clinching technology is widely used for joining various grades and thickness of materials. Especially in the automotive industry, clinching is an alternative to spot resistance welding. However, the load-bearing capacity of clinched joints is comparatively lower when compared to resistance spot welded joints. This research aimed to enhance the load-carrying capacity of clinched joints. Experimental tests were conducted on clinched joints with locally modified microstructures to optimize their placement within the joint. The microstructure distribution in the clinched joint region was analysed using light and scanning electron microscopy, as well as microhardness measurements. Two material grades, micro-alloyed steels HX420LAD+Z and dual-phase ferritic-martensitic steels HCT600X+Z, were tested. Each grade underwent five groups of ten samples, subject to identical experimental conditions of local heating by resistance spot welding (RSW) and clinching. The application of RSW to the clinched joint area resulted in increase of load-bearing capacity for both joined types of materials.

Socioeconomic conditions and social attitudes are known to represent epidemiological determinants. Credible knowledge on socioeconomic driving factors of the COVID-19 epidemic is still incomplete. Based on a linear random effects regression, a predictive model is derived to estimate COVID-19 incidence in German rural districts from local socioeconomic factors and popularity of political parties in terms of their share of vote. Thereby, time series provided by Germany's public health institute (Robert Koch Institute) of weekly notified 7-day incidences per 100,000 inhabitants per district from the outset of the epidemic in 2020 up to December 1, 2021, have been used to construct the dependent variable. Local socioeconomic conditions including share of votes, retrieved from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, have been used as potential risk factors. Popularity of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) bears a considerable risk of increasing COVID-19 incidence both in terms of predicting the maximum incidences during three epidemic periods (alternatively, cumulative incidences over the periods are used to quantify the dependent variable) and in a time-continuous sense. Thus, districts with high AfD popularity rank on top in the time-average regarding COVID-19 incidence. The impact of the popularity of the Free Democrats (FDP) is markedly intermittent in the course of time showing two pronounced peaks in incidence but also occasional drops. A moderate risk emanates from popularities of the Green Party (GRÜNE) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) compared to the other parties with lowest risk level. Socioeconomic parameters like \emph{per capita} income, proportions of protection seekers and social benefit claimants, and educational level have negligible impact. To the contrary, incidence significantly increases with population density. In order to effectively combat the COVID-19 epidemic, public health policymakers are well advised to account for social attitudes and behavioural patterns reflected in local popularities of political parties, which are conceived as proper surrogates for these attitudes. Whilst causal relations between social attitudes and the presence of parties remain obscure, the political landscape in terms of share of votes constitutes at least viable predictive "markers" relevant for public health policy making.

Scale invariance is expected in empty Universe models, while the presence of matter tends to suppress it. As shown recently, scale invariance is certainly absent in cosmological models with densities equal to or above the critical value ρ_c = 3(H₀)²/(8πG). For models with densities below ρc, the possibility of limited effects remains open. If present, scale invariance would be a global cosmological property. Some traces could be observable locally. For the Earth-Moon two-body system, the predicted additional lunar recession would be increased by 0.92 cm/yr, while the tidal interaction would also be slightly increased. The Earth-Moon distance is the most systematically measured distance in the Solar System, thanks to the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment active since 1970. The observed lunar recession from LLR amounts to 3.83 (±0.009) cm/yr; implying a tidal change of the length-of-the-day (LOD) by 2.395 ms/cy. However, the observed change of the LOD since the Babylonian Antiquity is only 1.78 ms/cy, a result supported by paleontological data, and implying a lunar recession of 2.85 cm/yr. The significant difference of (3.83-2.85) cm/yr = 0.98 cm/yr, already pointed out by several authors over the last two decades, corresponds well to the predictions of the scale-invariant theory, which is also supported by several other astrophysical tests.

Epidemiological data indicate that 5.8% of cancer deaths world-wide are attributable to alcohol consumption. The risk of cancer is higher in tissues in closest contact on ingestion of alcohol, such as the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus. The risk of these cancers is increased even in people who have only one alcoholic drink per day. However, since ethanol is not mutagenic and the carcinogenic metabolite of ethanol (acetaldehyde) is mostly produced in the liver, it is not clear why alcohol use preferentially exerts a local carcinogenic effect. It is well known that ethanol causes cell death at the concentrations present in alcoholic beverages; however, this effect has been overlooked probably because dead cells cannot give rise to cancer. Here I discuss that the cytotoxic effect of ethanol on the cells lining the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus activates the division of the stem cells located in deeper layers of the mucosa to replace the dead cells. Every time stem cells divide, they become exposed to unavoidable errors associated with cell division (e.g., mutations arising during DNA replication and chromosomal alterations occurring during mitosis) and also become highly vulnerable to the genotoxic activity of endogenous and exogenous DNA-damaging agents (e.g., reactive oxygen species, acetaldehyde and tobacco carcinogens). Alcohol consumption probably increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus by promoting the accumulation of cell divisions in the stem cells that maintain these tissues in homeostasis. Because the cytotoxic activity of ethanol is concentration-dependent, the risk of these cancers will not only increase with increasing amounts of ethanol, but also with increasing concentrations; an ounce of whisky is probably more carcinogenic when taken undiluted than when taken mixed with non-alcoholic beverages. The local cytotoxic effect of ethanol can also explain the known synergistic effect of alcohol and tobacco use on the risk of these cancers. Understanding the mechanisms of carcinogenicity of alcohol is important to reinforce the epidemiological evidence and to raise public awareness of the strong link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

This article analyzes local level normative regulations aimed at directly or indirectly conserving the urban landscape in rural areas. Using a discursive analysis methodology on regulatory documents being enforced in a series of localities assigned to a tourism promotion program, evidence suggests that promotional activity retroactively influences the phraseology of these municipal regulations. The results obtained point to the existence of perpetuating historicist approaches within the current regulations, which appear to largely derive from the search for success in the tourism market and the resulting benefits to the local economy.

We studied the magnetostriction coefficients, λs, Curie temperature, Tc, and their dependence on annealing conditions in Fe47Ni27Si11B13C2 and Co67Fe3,9Ni1,5B11,5Si14,5Mo1,6 amorphous glass-coated microwires with rather different character of hysteresis loops. A positive λs≈20x10-6is observed in as-prepared Fe47Ni27Si11B13C2, while low and negative λs ≈-0.3x10-6 is ob-tained for Co67Fe3,9Ni1,5B11,5Si14,5Mo1,6 microwire. Annealing affects the magnetostriction coeffi-cients and Curie temperatures, Tc, of both Fe47Ni27Si11B13C2 and Co67Fe3,9Ni1,5B11,5Si14,5Mo1,6 glass-coated microwires in a similar way. Observed dependencies of hysteresis loops, λs and Tc on annealing conditions are discussed in terms of superposition of internal stresses relaxation and structural relaxation of studied microwires. We observed linear λs dependence on applied stress, σ, in both studied microwires. A decrease with applied stress is observed for Co-rich mi-crowires with negative magnetostriction coefficient. In contrast, a linear increase of the magne-tostriction coefficient with applied stress is observed for Fe-Ni- rich microwires with positive magnetostriction coefficient. Observed results are discussed in terms of influence of internal stresses and short range atomic rearrangements induced by annealing on hysteresis loops, magnetostriction coefficients and Curie temperatures of studied microwires.

Repeated fires cause peatlands to degrade. Fire management has been carried out, but fires continue to occur, especially during the dry season. Through social capital that applies in the community based on the local wisdom of the Banjar people in environmental management, it is hoped that peatland fires can be overcome in this area. This research aims to analyze the social capital of the Banjar people in mitigating land fires based on local wisdom and the environment. The sample in this study was 250 people who live in an area prone to fires on peatlands in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. There are three variables in this study, namely Trust (T), Network (N) and Norm (N). There are 33 Likert scale questions (1-4, strongly agree-strongly disagree). We also conducted interviews with 20 members of the Fire Care Community (MPA) to obtain information about the social capital of the Banjar community in mitigating land fires. The analysis used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study results show norms have the greatest influence on disaster mitigation of peatland fires compared to trust and social networks. Norms in the community in the form of values from peatlands, rules, norms and sanctions regulate the community more to deal with the problem of peatland fires than trust and social networks

With growing global concern of food and water insecurity, an efficient method to monitor irrigation projects is essential, especially in the developing world, where irrigation performance is often suboptimal. In Nepal, the irrigated area has not been objectively recorded, although their assessment has substantial implications on national policy, project’s annual budgets, and donor fund-ing. Here we present the application of Landsat images to measure irrigated areas in Nepal for the past 17 years to contribute to the assessment of the irrigation performance. Landsat 5 TM (2006-2011) and Landsat 8 OLI (2013-2022) images were used to develop a machine-learning model which classifies irrigated and non-irrigated areas in study areas. The random forest classification achieved overall accuracy of 82.2% and kappa statistics of 0.72. For the class of irrigation areas, the producer’s accuracy and the consumer’s accuracy were 79% and 96%, respectively. Our regionally trained machine-learning model outperforms the existing global cropland map, highlighting the need of such models for local irrigation project evaluations. We assess irrigation project performance and its drivers by combining long-term changes in satellite-derived irrigated area with local data related to irrigation performance, such as annual budget, irrigation service fee, crop yield, precipitation, and main canal discharge.

South rear-edge populations of widely distributed temperate and boreal tree species such as birches (Betula pubescens and B. pendula) are considered particularly vulnerable to climate warming, and at the same time they constitute genetic reservoirs of drought-adapted ecotypes. Here, we compared radial growth patterns and responses to climate, river or dam flows and a drought index of rear-edge (southernmost) populations (Toledo Mountains, central-southern Spain) with populations located in northern Spain of B. pubescens and B. pendula. Then, we per-formed a comparative analysis across Europe of B. pendula populations. The main climatic con-straint of birch growth was high summer water deficit, although the effect of local hydrological conditions was particularly important in rear-edge populations. We found declining growth trends in rear-edge stands since the early 21st century, related to decreasing water availability and increasing aridity. Our results also suggested distinct growth patterns and climate-growth associations of B. pendula across Europe that show how populations further south and in warmer locations were more sensitive to the drought. In conclusion, drought-induced growth decline can be exacerbated by local human land uses leading to reduced river inflow, thus endangering birch populations at their southern distribution limit. Protection of endangered rear-edge birch populations requires adequate management of local water resources.

The local and global order in dense packings of linear, semi-flexible polymers of tangent hard spheres are studied by employing extensive Monte Carlo simulations at increasing volume fractions. Chain stiffness is controlled by a tunable harmonic potential for the bending angle whose intensity dictates the rigidity of the polymer backbone as a function of the bending constant and equilibrium angle. The studied angles range from acute to obtuse ones, reaching the limit of rod-like polymers. We analyze how packing density and chain stiffness affect the ability of chains to self-organize at the local and global levels. The former corresponds to crystallinity as quantified by the Characteristic Crystallographic Element (CCE) norm descriptor, while the latter is computed through the scalar orientational order parameter. In all cases, we identify the critical volume fraction for the phase transition and gauge the established crystal morphologies, developing a complete phase diagram as a function of packing density and equilibrium bending angle. A plethora of structures is obtained, ranging from random hexagonal closed packed morphologies of mixed character and almost perfect face centered cubic (FCC) and hexagonal close-packed (HCP) crystals at the level of monomers, to nematic mesophases, with prolate and oblate mesogens at the level of chains. For rod-like chains, hysteresis is observed between the establishment of long-range nematic order and crystallization, while for right-angle chains both transitions are synchronized. A comparison is also provided against the analogous packings of monomeric and fully flexible chains of hard spheres.

E-petitioning is a useful object of study for observing the potential emergence of a new relationship to politics and new forms of political participation. Access to a dataset of hundreds of thousands of users of an electronic petitioning platform, provides the opportunity to overcome a certain number of limitations that are associated with traditional methods of studying political participation, since it allows us to focus on the reality of the signatories’ behaviour rather than on their declarations. We follow the traces left by the petitioners on this site to better understand the process of dissemination of an online petition, and its linked with offline activities. Our examination of the three most signed petitions in the ‘environment’ category, combining an analysis of their petitioning dynamics and an analysis of the comments attached to them, allows us to show: firstly, that there is an interwoven relationship between the local anchoring of the mobilisation and the processes of dissemination by which petitions extend from local signatories to signatories who are geographically more distant; and secondly, that it is not accurate to imagine that just anyone can sign any petition, since petitioning dynamics proceed from one person to the next, whether these dynamics start from a pre-existing local anchorage on the ground, or act through a platform effect which is dependent on the attractiveness of the petition in question.

Monsoon winds drive upwelling along the eastern coast of India during the south-west (SW) monsoons. These winds also provide alongshore windstress (AWS) resulting in positive cross-shore Ekman transport (ET) from March to the end of September. While instances of high ET and sea surface temperature based upwelling index (UI_SST) were observed along two parts of the coast: between Kashinagara and Kakinada in the north, and between Kavali and Point Calimere in the south. The UI_SST illustrated a much poorer agreement with local ET in the northern section, where the onset of UI_SST preceded the rise of ET and the subsidence of UI_SST signals occurred during a period of rising ET. Additionally, negative sea surface height anomalies (SSHAs), typically associated with coastal upwelling, were also missing through most of the upwelling period. A complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analysis revealed two coherent modes of SSHA variation. The first mode showed a SSHA signature spatio-temporally coincident with the first upwelling and downwelling Kelvin waves closely associated with the equatorial zonal winds that drive them. The second CEOF mode, with a coastal SSHA pattern similar to the SSHA signatures of coastal upwelling, was associated with local offshore ET along the Indian east coast. The CEOF analysis exhibited the triggering of coastal upwelling in April and its suppression from June by coastally trapped Kelvin waves along the northeastern coast of India, while local AWS driven ET was the primary driver of coastal upwelling along the southeastern coast. The second CEOF mode also exhibited a coherent negative coastal SSHA signature excited by local AWS driven ET during the upwelling period. This study examined the spatio-temporal variability of premonsoon and SW monsoon coastal upwelling along the western Bay of Bengal and its relation to remotely forced coastal Kelvin waves.

Due to slow progression and susceptibility to radical forms of treatment low-grade PC is associ-ated with high overall survival (OS). With the clinical progression of PC the therapy is getting more complex. The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) makes PC a difficult target for most immunotherapeutics. Its general immune resistance is established by i.e. immune evasion through Treg cells, synthesis of immunosuppressive mediators, and defective expression of surface neoantigens. The success of sipuleucel-T in clinical trials initiated several other clinical studies that specifically target the immune escape of the tumor and eliminate the immunosuppres-sive properties of TME. In the settings of PC treatment, this can be commonly achieved with radi-ation therapy (RT). Also, focal therapies usually applied for localized PC, such as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy, cryotherapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT), or irreversible electroporation (IRE) were shown to boost anti-cancer response. Nevertheless, the present guide-lines restrict their application to localized and low-grade PC. This review explains how RT and focal therapies enhance the immune response. We also provide data supporting the combination of RT and focal treatments with immune therapies.

Debris-flows are recurrent events on mountain- and hill- slopes, and they have been the object of numerous field investigations and sampling, however most of this work reposes on imagery and outcrop analysis, in such a way that there are still only a handful of studies investigating the internal architecture of these events’ deposits. In the present contribution, we aims at underneath the internal structure of a portion of a debris-flow deposit that was accessible in the aftermath of the 2018 heavy-rainfall debris-flows in Hiroshima Japan. Using a Ramac Pro-Ex GPR with 500 MHz and 800 MHz antenna, a set of longitudinal and transversal transects was used to characterize the deposit. The results demonstrated that a set of subhorizontal layers have filled the valley, and interacting with local terrace edges, these layers have piled up and overcome the obstacle. Across the valleys, a set of trough suggest the presence of channels that were also filled during the event. Finally, in the channel post-event, a set of radargram “cross-bedded units” shows that the final deposition in the channel was of a more dilute flow, typical of a Newtonian flow. This set of units was not to be found at the surface of the post-event pseudo-surface, suggesting that the flow ended as a debris-flow on this surface, and that it is only when the flow dug the final channel that the nature of the flow returned from debris-flow to Newtonian flow.

Abstract: Due to their rapid evolution and their impact on health care, be-ta-lactamases, protein degrading beta-lactam antibiotics, are used as generic model of protein evolution. Therefore, we investigated the mutation effects in two distant beta-lactamases TEM-1 and CTX-M-15. Interestingly we found a site with a complex pattern of genetic interactions. Mutation G251W in TEM-1 is in-activating the protein’s function just as the reciprocal mutation W251G in CTXM-15. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that mutation G has been entrenched in TEM-1 background: while rarely observed throughout the phylogeny it is es-sential in TEM-1. Using a rescue experiment in TEM-1 G251W mutant, we could identify sites that alleviates the deviation from G to W. While few of these muta-tions could potentially involve local interactions, most of them were found on distant residues in the 3D structure. Many well-known mutations having an impact on protein stability, such as M182T, were recovered. Our results there-fore suggest that entrenchment of an amino acid may rely on diffuse interactions among multiple sites with a major impact on protein stability.

Many models with structures of matter associated with a structure of extra spatial dimensions have been proposed in recent decades. On employing a further generalisation from the local 4-dimensional spacetime form to a general form for proper time, we describe how matter fields resembling the Standard Model of particle physics can be accommodated far more directly than with a higher-dimensional spacetime theory. The successful identification of key features of visible matter in this non-spatial sector of extra dimensions in turn motivates seeking a candidate for dark matter residing in the original extra spatial dimension sector, and provides a close guide for the explicit form this invisible matter might take. We describe how such Standard Model and dark matter sectors in different extra-dimensional branches of generalised proper time are gravitationally connected through their common root in the local 4-dimensional spacetime and consider further possible mutual interactions and implications in comparison with existing dark matter models. A yet further possible branch of generalised proper time can be connected with dark energy models, hence in principle accounting for all three major components of cosmological structure within this framework.

Fiber optic sensors cannot measure damage; for getting information about damage from strain measurements, additional strategies are needed, and several alternatives have been proposed. This paper discuss two independent concepts: the first one is based on detecting the new strains appearing around a damage spot; the structure does not need to be under loads; the technique is very robust, damage detectability is high, but it requires sensors to be located very close to the damage, so it is a local technique. The second approach offers a wider coverage of the structure, it is based on identifying the changes caused by the damage on the strains field in the whole structure for similar external loads. Damage location does not need to be known a priori, detectability is dependent upon the sensors network density, damage size and the external loads. Examples of application to real structures are given.

This paper presents novel feature descriptors and classification algorithms for automated scoring of HER2 in Whole Slide Images (WSI) of breast cancer histology slides. Since a large amount of processing is involved in analyzing WSI images, the primary design goal has been to keep the computational complexity to the minimum possible level and to use simple, yet robust feature descriptors that can provide accurate classification of the slides. We propose two types of feature descriptors that encode important information about staining patterns and the percentage of staining present in ImmunoHistoChemistry (IHC) stained slides. The first descriptor is called a characteristic curve which is a smooth non-increasing curve that represents the variation of percentage of staining with saturation levels. The second new descriptor introduced in this paper is an LBP feature curve which is also a non-increasing smooth curve that represents the local texture of the staining patterns. Both descriptors show excellent interclass variance and intraclass correlation, and are suitable for the design of automatic HER2 classification algorithms. This paper gives the detailed theoretical aspects of the feature descriptors and also provides experimental results and comparative analysis.

Bovine tuberculosis surveillance in Northern Ireland includes Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA) to determine the Mycobacterium bovis genetic type present in both cattle, and the predominant wildlife host, the European badger (Meles meles). These data are informative for investigating clusters of infection and understanding the scale at which interspecific transmission may occur. We utilised a comprehensive dataset of routinely sampled isolates from infected cattle and from badgers killed in road-traffic accidents to investigate the spatial co-location of MLVA types in, and between, the badger and cattle populations. Furthermore, we investigate the hypothesis that the farming enterprise type might explain some variation in this relationship. MLVA types were spatially co-localised in cattle and RTA badger hosts, indicative of a shared epidemic. Dairy herds were more likely to have at least one MLVA type in common with nearby RTA badgers, compared to non-dairy herd types. Marginally more MLVA spatial clustering was observed in non-dairy herds, which may be a consequence relatively more between-herd movements. For the cattle population, local transmission mechanisms such as infection from contiguous herds, infectious wildlife and short-range between-herd cattle movements appear primarily to drive the epidemic: there appears to be a more limited role for long-range movements. Animal management practices are likely the driving force behind this observation, as beef rearing is associated with elevated numbers of animal movements compared to dairy herds.

Current progress in the prediction of mechanical behavior of solids requires understanding of spatiotemporal complexity of plastic flow caused by self-organization of crystal defects. It may be particularly important in hexagonal materials because of their strong anisotropy and combination of different mechanisms of plasticity, such as dislocation glide and twinning. These materials often display complex behavior even on the macroscopic scale of deformation curves, e.g., a peculiar three-stage elastoplastic transition, the origin of which is a matter of debates. The present work is devoted to a multiscale study of plastic flow in α-Ti, based on simultaneous recording of deformation curves, 1D local strain field, and acoustic emission (AE). It is found that the average AE activity also reveals three-stage behavior, but in a qualitatively different way depending on the crystallographic orientation of the sample axis. On the finer scale, the statistical analysis of AE events and local strain rates testifies to an avalanche-like character of dislocation processes, reflected in power-law probability distribution functions. The results are discussed from the viewpoint of collective dislocation dynamics and are confronted to predictions of a recent micromechanical model of Ti strain hardening.

Communication and effective interactions are inevitable necessities in every organizational setting. In this era of information and communication technology, where limitations and difficulties in proper communication and interactions between different entities of various organizations have been reduced maximally, the government, stakeholders, and citizens of the different nations should also utilize these available tools in a way to improve the maximum performance in governance through interactions and e-participation between the citizens, stakeholders, and the government parastatals. This research focuses on examining the available and most preferred applications or platforms which encourage the best level of communication and interaction through E-participation among the citizens, stakeholders, and government from the local government lev-el taking Nigeria as a case study

The present study evaluates the bioremediation potential of indigenous bacterial species isolated from dye-contaminated soil samples from small dyeing outlet located in Ilorin. The water pollution index was estimated based on the physicochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentrations of the raw (Day 0) and treated textile wastewater such as pH, biochemical oxygen demand-5, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids and total dissolved solid with mean values of 8.85±0.45 mg/L, 1200±21.3 mg/L, 2440±31.3 mg/L, 1660±17.2 mg/L and 2650±28.1 mg/L respectively, similarly, Lead was the most abundant heavy metal detected in the sample while Cadmium concentration was the lowest with the mean values of 3.52±0.00 mg/L and 2.18±0.00 mg/L respectively. The bacterial strain with highest dye decolorization capacity was screened and identified as Bacillus licheniformis ZUL012.The isolate was consequently used for the bioremediation of the wastewater over a period of 10 days. The results showed an incredible reduction in the physiochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentrations of the textile wastewater in the following ranges (8.85-6.55), (1200-300) mg/L, (2440-518) mg/L, (1660-666) mg/L and (2650-920) mg/L with the highest removal efficiency of 75 %, 78 %, 60%, 65%, recorded for biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solid, total dissolved solid, respectively while that of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel were 80 %, 60 %, 67 %, 72 % reduction, respectively. Laccase and Azoreductase activities tend to decrease as the pH gradually moved towards acidic condition during the bioremediation process. Toxicity of the treated effluent was assessed using Maize and Bean seed germination test. Conclusively, these research findings can serve as a framework for the outlet design of wastewater treatment plant for local textile outlets.

The nonlocality of entangled quantum mechanical systems is incompatible with the standard interpretation of special relativity as a single 4D Minkowskian metric spacetime. The difficulty is that the definition of a spacetime interval between any pair of events precludes any form of nonlocal interaction, even the relatively benign non-signaling correlations. By an application of the relativity principle, and the use of the space ←→ time symmetry of the Lorentz boost I propose here a reinterpretation of special relativistic spacetime. This new ontology consists of a set of coexisting 3+1D spaces (‘framespaces’), each containing unique content in the form of a complex density. These spaces are related by the Lorentz boost, and coupled pairwise in a manner dictated by the Lorentz transformation. The inter-space coupling acting on the spacetime content gives rise to a nonlocal wave phenomenon, which is identified as quantum wave mechanics. The interspace coupling strength is then inversely proportional to Planck’s constant. The coexistence of multiple spaces is interpreted as momentum superposition, implying that momentum is the fundamental physical basis of quantum superposition. This new spacetime interpretation of quantum mechanics has many consequences, including explanations of quantum non-locality, the spacetime role of Planck’s constant, quantum measurement as a symmetry-breaking process and the redundancy of description of gauge theory.

Environmental darkness signal is transferred from the retina to the pineal gland triggering melatonin secretion. Melatonin influences the synthesis and release of the hypothalamic GnRH and the adenohypophyseal gonadotropin hormones and therefore, regulates testicular function in photoperiodic species. Besides the brain, direct actions of melatonin at the testicular level have also been described. Melatonin released from the pineal gland to the circulation is taken up by peripheral tissues including testes. Testicular synthesis of melatonin has also been reported. The two key somatic cell types in the testis, Leydig and Sertoli cells, express melatonergic receptors. Melatonin acts as a local modulator of the endocrine activity in Leydig cells. In Sertoli cells, melatonin influences the oxidation state and the energy metabolism, and consequently may regulate spermatogenesis. Melatonergic receptors were also described in testicular macrophages and mast cells of infertile patients. Whereas melatonin exerts anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory effects on testicular macrophages, it provides protective effects against oxidative stress in testicular mast cells. These data pinpoints melatonin as a key player in the regulation of testicular physiology (i.e. steroidogenesis, spermatogenesis) mostly in seasonal breeders. More importantly, melatonin is also involved in the modulation of testicular inflammatory and oxidant/anti-oxidant states in patients with idiopathic infertility.

The local electrical response in alkaline-doped CuInSe₂ films prepared by single step electrodeposition onto Cu substrates was studied by current sensing atomic force microscopy. The CIS films were prepared from single baths containing the dopant ions (Li, Na, K or Cs) and were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and photocurrent response. Increased crystallinity and surface texturing as the ion size increases was observed as well as enhanced photocurrent response in Cs doped CIS. Li and Na doped films have larger conductivity than the undoped film while the K and Cs doped samples display shorter currents and the current images indicate strong charge accumulation in the K and Cs doped films forming surface capacitors. Corrected CAFM IV curves were adjusted with Shockley equation.

Venous leg ulcers still pose a significant medical problem worldwide. The complexity of the problem determines the need for further interdisciplinary activities that will improve the quality of life of treated patients. The study compared the quality of life of patients with venous leg ulcers who received local hyperbaric oxygen therapy or local ozone therapy procedures as a part of comprehensive treatment. The study included 129 patients (62 men and 57 women) with venous leg ulcers. Group I underwent local hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), group II - local ozone therapy (OZONE). In both groups, the patients' quality of life was assessed before the start of treatment cycle, as well as 10 weeks and 6 months after the completion of the treatment, by using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and the Polish shortened version of the SF-36 scale. After completing the respective therapeutic cycle, both groups showed a statistically significant (p<0.001) improvement the quality of life according to the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and the SF-36 scale. Differences were noted between 1st examination (before treatment) and 2nd examination (10 weeks after treatment), as well as 3 examination (6 months after treatment). In the EQ-5D-5L assessment of anxiety and depression, self-care and activities of daily living 6 months after the end of treatment, better results were found in the group of patients treated with local hyperbaric oxygen therapy (p<0.001). In this group, 6 months after the end of the treatment, a statistically significantly higher result on the EQ-VAS scale was also obtained (73.09±19.8 points vs. 68.03±17.37 points, p=0.043). However, in the SF-36 assessment 6 months after the end of treatment better results - a statistically significantly lower value of the quality of life index - were recorded in the group of patients treated with local ozone therapy (103.13±15.76 points vs. 109.89±15.42 points, p<0.015). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and local ozone therapy procedures have a beneficial effect on improving the quality of life of patients with venous leg ulcers.

Understanding and improving seismic resilience in regions prone to earthquakes is crucial for mitigating the effects of natural disasters. This study zeroes in on Montenegro, a region frequently affected by seismic activity, with the goals of critically evaluating current resilience levels, pinpointing key preparedness gaps, and assessing the efficacy of existing response strategies. Employing qualitative methods, the research involved semi-structured interviews with residents from Montenegro's most vulnerable areas, including Nikšić, Podgorica, Bar, Kotor, Cetinje, Budva, Herceg Novi, and Berane. These participants, selected for their firsthand experiences with significant earthquake impacts, contributed to a deeper understanding through discussions that aligned with a broad conceptual framework, exploring everything from the nuances of citi-zen resilience to local government responses and personal preparedness. The study aimed to gather in-depth views on community resilience during earthquakes, evaluate citizens' knowledge and preparedness for such disasters, and examine local governance strategies for enhancing seismic resilience. It revealed varying resilience levels across communities, with some displaying well-structured strategies while others showed notable deficiencies. The findings underscore the urgent need for community-specific preparedness programs and improvements in both structural and educational frameworks to enhance resilience. This research highlights the necessity of a comprehensive approach that includes detailed risk assessments, tailored preparedness training, and stronger public awareness efforts. Additionally, it emphasizes strengthening local governments' capabilities to enact and sustain effective response measures to ensure ongoing community resilience against future seismic challenges.

Melioidosis is an endemic infectious disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei bacteria, which contaminates soil and water. To better understand the environmental changes that have contributed to melioidosis outbreaks, this study used spatiotemporal analyses to clarify the distribution pattern of melioidosis and the relationship between melioidosis morbidity rate and local environmental indicators (land surface temperature, normalised difference vegetation index, normalised difference water index) and rainfall. A retrospective study was conducted from January 2013 to December 2022, covering data from 219 sub-districts, with each exhibiting varying morbidity rate of melioidosis on a monthly basis. Spatial autocorrelation was determined using local Moran’s I, and the relationship between melioidosis morbidity rate and the environmental indicators was evaluated using geographically weighted Poisson regression. The results revealed clustered spatiotemporal patterns of melioidosis morbidity rate across sub-districts, with hotspots predominantly observed in the northern region. Furthermore, we observed a range of coefficients for the environmental indicators, varying from negative to positive, which provided insights into their relative contributions to melioidosis in each local area and month. These findings highlight the presence of spatial heterogeneity driven by environmental indicators and underscore the importance of public health offices implementing targeted monitoring and surveillance strategies for melioidosis in different locations.

Process safety plays a vital role in the modern process industry. To prevent undesired accidents caused by malfunctions or other disturbances in complex industrial processes, considerable attention has been paid to data-driven fault detection techniques. To explore the underlying manifold structure, manifold learning methods including Laplacian eigenmaps, locally linear embedding, and Hessian eigenmaps have been utilized in data-driven fault detection. However, only the partial local structure information is extracted from the aforementioned methods. In this paper, these typical manifold learning methods are synthesized to find the underlying manifold structure from different angles. A more comprehensive local structure is discovered under a unified framework by constructing an objection optimization function for dimension reduction of the process data. The proposed method takes advantage of different manifold learning methods. Based on the proposed dimension reduction method, a new data-driven fault detection method is developed. Hotelling’s T2 and Q statistics are established for the purpose of fault detection. Experiments on an industrial benchmark Tennessee Eastman process and a real blast furnace ironmaking process are carried out to demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed method.

This article develops duality principles and related convex dual formulations suitable for the local optimization of non-convex primal formulations for a large class of models in physics and engineering. The results are based on standard tools of functional analysis, calculus of variations and duality theory. In particular, we develop applications to a Ginzburg-Landau type equation.

Food demand and food supply have been heavily affected by Covid-19 pandemic. To understand changes in households’ behavior related to the pandemic, we investigate the willingness to pay for local organic apples pre- and during Covid-19. Besides, we assess whether the changes occurred within the family, estimating also separate models for the two members of the couple. Our findings show that respondents show a positive price premium for local organic apples whose consumption helps reducing the environmental costs associated with food production. The median estimated values during the pandemic range from 34% to 250%. Overall, respondents show a positive mean willingness to pay which increase with the pandemic. The socio-economic variables are the most important in explaining the willingness to pay, while the behavioral variables have more heterogeneous results even if the lifestyle and the request for information through the label are important variables. The pandemic tends to narrow the gaps in preferences between members of the couple. In conclusion, the local and organic dimension is embodied in the short chain in which knowledge and trust in the producer are crucial elements in the consumer's choices.

In the present work we revise and extend the Characteristic Crystallographic Element (CCE) norm, an algorithm used to simultaneously detect radial and orientational similarity of computer-generated structures with respect to specific reference crystals and local symmetries. Based on the identification of point group symmetry elements, the CCE descriptor is able to gauge local structure with high precision and finely distinguish between competing morphologies. As test cases we use computer-generated monomeric and polymer systems of spherical particles interacting with the hard-sphere and square-well attractive potentials. We demonstrate that the CCE norm is able to detect and differentiate, between others, among: hexagonal close packed (HCP), face centered cubic (FCC), hexagonal (HEX) and body centered cubic (BCC) crystals as well as non-crystallographic fivefold (FIV) local symmetry in bulk 3-D systems; triangular (TRI), square (SQU) and honeycomb (HON) crystals, as well as pentagonal (PEN) local symmetry in thin films of one-layer thickness (2-D systems). The descriptor is general and can be applied to identify the symmetry elements of any point group for arbitrary atomic or particulate system in two or three dimensions, in the bulk or under confinement.

Metal 3D printing technology is a promising manufacturing method, especially in the case of complex shapes. The quality of the printed product is still a challenging issue for mechanical applications. The anisotropy of the microstructure, imperfections, and residual stress are some of the issues that diminish the mechanical properties of the printed sample. The simulation could be used to investigate some technical details, and this research has tried to computationally study the metal 3D printing of austenitic stainless steel to address austenite microstructure and local yield strength. Two computational codes were developed in Visual basics 2015 to simulate the local heating/cooling curve and subsequent austenite microstructure. A stochastic computational code was developed to simulate austenite grain morphology based on calculated thermal history. Then Hall-Pitch equation was used to estimate the yield strength of the printed sample. These codes were used to simulate the effect of temperature of the printer’s chamber on microstructure and subsequent yield strength. The austenite grain topology is more columnar at a lower temperature. The percentage of the equiaxed zone will be increased at a higher chamber’s temperature. Almost a fully equiaxed austenite microstructure will be achieved at 800 C chamber’s temperature, but the last printed layer, which is columnar and can be removed by cutting then. The estimated local austenite grain size and the local yield strength in the equiaxed regions are in the range of 15 to 30 μm and 270 to 330 MPa at 800 C temperature of printer’s chamber, respectively.

The issue of measurement reliability is certainly undervalued in the local agricultural marketplace organization. Besides, there was nothing identified concerning the extent of cereal commodity trade measurement cost. Hence, this paper aimed to estimate the magnitude of cereals trade quantity measurement cost caused by instrument error and unreliability; mainly by targeting the local marketplace in Ethiopia. The survey was conducted in six different districts’ marketplaces (n = 602) of Oromia region by employing administered structured questionnaires and site mass measurement calibration. The gathered data were analyzed using independent samples t-test, one sample t-test, and analysis of variance. According to the findings, the actual value measurement means of the quantity of most local units of the farmers were greater than small traders. The independent t-test result indicated that the average values of the quantity of the majority of units of measurement between farmers and small traders were varied significantly. Estimated measuring instruments’ error and unreliability associated average measurement cost of one-day market transaction over total cereals marketed amount were higher comparatively for a sack, bowl, and glass units. This study demonstrates that homogeneity in measurement, policy, and institutions that aid cereals trade would have an indispensable role to reduce measurement costs and ensure equitable exchange.