Households and businesses are generating unprecedented levels of electrical and electronic wastes (e-waste), fueled by modernisation and rapid obsolescence. While the challenges imposed by e-waste are similar everywhere in the world, disparities in progress to deal with it exists; with developing nations such as South Africa lagging. The increase in e-waste generation increases the need to formulate strategies to manage it. This paper presents an overview of e-waste management on a global and South African scenarios with a specific case for Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) waste management practices in South Africa. CRTs present the biggest problem for recyclers and policy makers because they contain hazardous elements such as lead and antimony. Common disposal practices have been either landfilling or incineration. The research into the South African practices with regards to CRT waste management showed that there is still more to be done to effectively manage this waste stream. This is despite clear waste regulatory frameworks in the country. However, recent developments have placed e-waste as a priority waste stream, which should lead to intensified efforts in dealing with it. Overall, these efforts should aim to maximise diversion from landfilling and to create value-addition opportunities, leading to social and environmental benefits.

Long COVID is the collective term used to describe the persistence of symptoms in individuals who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Some people who have healed from COVID-19 continue to experience new or persistent symptoms that last for weeks or months. While Long COVID is becoming more widely recognized, its fundamental causes and effective therapies remain largely unclear. This study aims to explore the potential of phytochemical medications as a cutting-edge therapeutic strategy for treating Long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which play a critical role in cell signaling, were the focus of this study. GPCRs are known to be involved in immunological and inflammatory responses and are considered potential targets for Long COVID therapy. The GPCRs examined included chemokine receptors, serotonin receptors, adrenergic receptors, and histamine receptors. The docking results demonstrated high binding affinity between phytochemical drug structures and these receptors for most drug-receptor combinations.The study consists of three main parts. First, data on receptors and drugs were retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and PubChem, respectively. The receptors selected are those predicted to be linked to Long COVID. The structure of the drugs was converted from SDF to PDB format using OpenBabel from ChemInfo. Docking studies were performed to assess the binding affinity between the drugs (ligands) and their respective receptors (binding sites) using iGemDock v2.1.In conclusion, the findings of this study could have significant implications for the development of alternative therapies for Long COVID.

Dried blood spot (DBS) testing on confetti is one of the most common methods used to collect and extract DNA from field samples for molecular epidemiology of malaria studies. Here, we investigated whether ethanol or other solutions used to clean scissors are a source of sample contamination. DBS were prepared from 3 drops of blood from two Plasmodium falciparum cultures spotted on confetti, and 3 solutions (water, ethanol and DNase) were used to clean scissors between spots during DNA extraction. For each cleaning solution, two blank confetti were used as negative controls. Samples were analyzed by PCR-based genotyping of merozoite surface proteins 1 & 2 (msp-1 and msp-2), and P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (Pfcrt). A total of 15 samples were analyzed. Based on msp-1 and msp-2 amplification, P. falciparum was detected on blank confetti when scissors were washed with ethanol. Based on Pfcrt amplification, DNA of P. falciparum was detected on blank confetti when scissors were cleaned with ethanol or water. No P. falciparum genes were detected on blank confetti when scissors were cleaned with DNase. Scissors cleaned with DNase prevented cross-contamination between samples during processing of dried blood spots, whereas ethanol (which is commonly used) fails to avert cross-contamination.

Ploidy is a significant type of genetic variation, describing the number of chromosome sets per cell. Ploidy evolves in natural populations, clinical populations, and lab experiments, particularly in fungi. Despite a long history of theoretical work on this topic, predicting how ploidy will evolve has proven difficult, as it is often unclear why one ploidy state outperforms another. Here, we review what is known about contemporary ploidy evolution in diverse fungal species through the lens of population genetics. As with typical genetic variants, ploidy evolution depends on the rate that new ploidy states arise by mutation, natural selection on alternative ploidy states, and random genetic drift. However, ploidy variation also has unique impacts on evolution, with the potential to alter chromosomal stability, the rate and patterns of point mutation, and the nature of selection on all loci in the genome. We discuss how ploidy evolution depends on these general and unique factors and highlight areas where additional experimental evidence is required to comprehensively explain the ploidy transitions observed in the field and the lab.

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.

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a monocotyledonous herbaceous vine plant grown in the tropics and subtropics. It is a multi-species plant with varied intra- and interspecific ploidy levels. Of the 600 species, 11 are cultivated staple supporting the livelihood of over 300 million people. The paucity of information on ploidy and the genomic constitution is a significant challenge to the crop’s genetic improvement through crossbreeding. The objective of this study was to investigate the ploidy levels of 236 accessions across six cultivated and two wild species using chromosome counting, flow cytometry and genotyping-based ploidy determination methods. Results obtained from chromosome counting and genotyping-based ploidy determination were in agreement. In majority of the accessions, chromosome counting and flow cytometry were congruent, allowing future rapid screening of ploidy levels using flow cytometry. Among cultivated accessions, 168 (71%) were diploid, 50 (21%) were triploid, and 12 (5%) were tetraploid. Two wild species included in the study were diploids. Resolution of ploidy level in yams offers opportunities for implementing successful breeding programmes through intra- and inter-specific hybridization.

We conducted a study to determine if antenatally collected maternal urine cotinine (a me- 13 tabolite of nicotine) measurements can be used to assess the neonatal impact of nicotine exposure 14 during pregnancy. This was a prospective longitudinal cohort of mother-infant dyads. Only term 15 singleton pregnancies were included. The primary outcome measure was the correlation between 16 maternal urine cotinine and infant birth weight. We analysed data from 238 mother-neonates' dy- 17 ads. Urine cotinine was detected in 50.4 % (120/238) women from the whole cohort, but only 16% 18 (38/238) self-reported as smokers (chi-square 39.7, p<0.0001), and these women had significantly 19 smaller babies (p=0.010). There was a significant negative correlation between maternal urine co- 20 tinine and birth weight (Spearman's coefficient = -0.0226, p=0.013). Female babies born to women 21 with nicotine in the urine were significantly smaller (p= 0.001). The number of women exposed to 22 nicotine during late pregnancy (measured in urine) was markedly higher than self-reported and 23 National smoking percentages, suggesting an urgent need for improvement of medical record re- 24 porting on smoking habits to better assess neonatal outcomes.

Diesel, gas oil, whole crudes, and bitumen samples were subjected to sulfoxidation, and then subjected to hydroxide attack in the presence of ethylene or propylene glycol. The resultant oils were analyzed by XRF for total sulfur and XANES spectroscopy for sulfur speciation at each stage. The combination of these analyses gave the total amount of sulfur as organic sulfide, sulfoxide, and sulfone at each stage of treatment so as to determine the effectiveness of the desulfonylation for sulfur compounds of different oxidation states.

Long gone was the time when tumors were thought to be insular masses of cells, residing independently at specific sites in an organ. Now, researchers gradually realize that tumors interact with the extracellular matrix (ECM), blood vessels, connective tissues and immune cells in their environment, which is now known as the tumor microenvironment (TME). It is found that the interactions between tumors and their surrounding promote tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. The dynamics and diversity of TME cause the tumors to be heterogeneous and thus pose a challenge for cancer diagnosis, drug design and therapy. As TME is significant in enhancing tumor progression, it is vital to identify the different components in the TME. This review explores how different factors in the TME supply tumors with the required growth factors and signaling molecules to proliferate, invade and metastasis. We also examine the development of TME-targeted nanotheranostics over the recent years for cancer therapy, diagnosis and anticancer drug delivery system. This review further discusses the limitations and future perspective of nanoparticle based theranostics when used in combination with current imaging modalities like Optical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Imaging (PET and SPECT).

Abstract. This paper proposes a Second Order Terminal Sliding Mode (2TSM) approach to the trajectory tracking of Differential Drive Mobile Robot (DDMR). Within this cascaded control scheme, the 2TSM dynamic controller, at the inner most loop, tracks the robot’s velocity quantities; while a kinematic controller, at the outer most loop, regulates the robot’s positions. In this manner, chattering is greatly attenuated and finite time convergence is guaranteed by the second order TSM manifold which involves higher order derivatives of the state variables, resulting in inherently robust as well as fast and better tracking precision. The simulation results demonstrate the merit of the proposed control methods.

The multiphase motors due to their reliability find new areas of application in the industry and transportation. Developing of any system with multiphase motors at first requires elaborate model of the system, define control mode and controllers. The model of control system for the six-phase drive is based on its conventional d-q mathematical model and indirect field-oriented control. Simulink model of six-phase drive with indirect field-oriented control and simulated with two types PID and PID fuzzy controllers. The simulation results, reflecting step response and provided speed reference law as well as load application at constant speed, are presented and analyzed. Fuzzy controller with 49 rules is considered and applied. Six-phase electric drive with field-oriented control at well-tuned PID controller has good step response specifications: settling time 0.13 s at starting without load, step response has no overshoot, small about 1 % short time decrease of speed at load of 5 Nm application. The system employing PID fuzzy controller shows slightly better results in response to torque application: the decrease in speed 1 % is eliminated in shorter time. Simulation results indicate the robustness of both systems with six-phase drive to disturbance and provide high quality transient specifications at determined reference speed.

WHO reported an estimated 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 malaria deaths in 85 countries in 2022. A total of 94% of malaria deaths occurred in Africa, 80 % of which were children under 5. In other words, one child dies every minute from malaria. The RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine, that uses the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) to target sporozoite infection of the liver, achieved modest efficacy. The Malaria Vaccine Implementation Program (MVIP), coordinated by the WHO and completed at the end of 2023, found that immunization reduced mortality by only 13%. To further reduce malaria death, development of a more effective malaria vaccine is a high priority. Three major malaria vaccine targets being considered are the level of sporozoite liver infection, merozoite red blood cell (RBC) infection, and mosquito midgut infection. These targets involve specific ligand-receptor interactions. However, current malaria vaccine candidates that target two major parasite population bottlenecks, liver infection and mosquito midgut infection, do not focus on such parasite ligands. Here we evaluate the potential of newly identified parasite ligands as novel malaria vaccine antigens.

This paper investigates the potential of different fermentation feedstocks towards succinic acid production. Three alternative flowsheets were constructed and modelled in SuperPro Designer™, utilizing different fermentation substrates: crude glycerol (a by-product of the biodiesel industry), a commercial 95% glucose syrup and pure glycerol. Techno-economic analysis of the modelled plants showed that all three potential investments can be economically profitable, with the crude glycerol case as the most promising one. The succinic acid production cost for the crude glycerol scenario is estimated at 3.59 $/kg, while a thorough study of the capacity effect to the economics showed that it could drop as low as $2.6 $/kg. Parametric analysis and optimization performed on a flowsheet level, indicated opportunities for lowering the production cost down to 3 $/kg, a value that could pave the framework for a further potential decrease in the selling price of the product.

Watermelon fruits of different ploidy exhibit significant variations in texture. In order to investigate the primary factors influencing texture differences, this study was conducted to investigate the differences in fruit texture development using homozygous autogamous diploid (2X)lines and their autotriploid (3X) and autotetraploid (4X) lines 'Yixuan'. The research encompassed fruit development, flesh texture profile analysis (TPA), flesh cell wall polysaccharide content, and flesh cell microstructure analysis, specifically in 2X, 3X, and 4X watermelon fruits.The results showed that as watermelon fruits matured, several characteristics exhibited an ascending trend, including fruit weight, TSS (total soluble solids) content, rind hardness, flesh cell size, and cell wall polysaccharide contents such as crude fiber, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and protopectin. Conversely, the flesh texture parameters and soluble pectin content of the flesh cell wall gradually declined. Notably, significant differences in fruit flesh texture and flesh cell structure were observed among fruits of different ploidy at the 32d. Specifically, 2X fruits displayed considerably lower rind hardness, reduced flesh texture (Hardness, Fracturability, Chewiness, Gumminess), and cell density compared to 3X and 4X fruits. Additionally, 2X fruits exhibited larger cell sizes than 3X and 4X fruits. However, no significant differences were observed in the content of flesh cell wall polysaccharide contents across various ploidy levels.These findings suggested that the variation in texture among watermelon fruits of different ploidy can be attributed to the size and arrangement of flesh cells. Importantly, this research provided a foundation for further exploration of the intrinsic regulatory factors and molecular mechanisms contributing to texture variation in polyploid watermelon fruits.

We explore 3D printing modules for self-assembling spacecraft and robots – structure, actuators, electrics. Self-assembly has long been viewed as a highly desirable capability for autonomous construction of large space structures. We review self-assembly in space which focusses on the self-assembly of modules that demonstrate the range of applications. However, self-assembly may be synergised with 3D printing to offer an automated capability from raw material to modules for assembling new spacecraft or habitats. One application of 3D printing is using space debris on-orbit as an in-situ resource - defunct spacecraft may be salvaged as raw material for in-situ construction on demand. The common features of all self-assembling modules are that the modules constitute a structure housing a computer-controlled actuator internally and a reversible latching mechanism externally. We have demonstrated a 3D printed DC electric motor in which the only components that were not 3D printed are the wire coils. We have married our 3D printed motor prototype as an actuated joint between two 3D printed trigon-type panels developed as part of a trigon self-assembling system concept. The trigon concept underlies a modular approach to self-assembling and self-deploying structures. The 3D printed motorised panel system demonstrates that the motor aspect and structural aspects of robotic self-assembling machines are amenable to 3D printing. This has implications for self-assembling systems into modular satellites as a solution to space debris.

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide, and its two major types, esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) present a severe global public health problem with an increasing incidence and mortality. Established risk factors include smoking, alcohol consumption, and dietary habits, but recent research highlights the substantial role of oral microbiota in EC pathogenesis. This review explores the intricate relationship between microbiome and esophageal carcinogenesis, focusing on eight significant mechanisms: chronic inflammation, microbial dysbiosis, production of carcinogenic metabolites, direct interaction with epithelial cells, epigenetic modifications, interaction with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), metabolic changes, and angiogenesis. Certain harmful bacteria, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, are specifically implicated in sustaining irritation and tumor progression through pathways including NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome. Additionally, the review explores how microbial byproducts, including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), contribute to DNA harm and disease advancement. Furthermore, the impact of reflux on microbiota composition and its role in esophageal carcinogenesis is evaluated. By combining epidemiological data with mechanistic understanding, this review underscores the potential to target microbiota-immune system interplay for novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies to prevent and treat esophageal cancer.

In the proposed article, the issues of increasing the synchronizing ability of the system of coordinated rotation of asynchronous motors are considered. Based on the T-shaped equivalent circuit, electromechanical relationships were obtained with changes in the value of the total rotor resistance and the supply voltage of individual motors. An algorithm for calculating the torques, stator and rotor currents of the motors of the system has been compiled. Based on the calculations obtained, the mechanical characteristics of the system asynchronous motors are constructed for various values of total resistance, supply voltages and rotor positions. The obtained data and graphs confirm the adequacy of the theory obtained in an analytical way. Functional and structural diagrams in small scales have been compiled, which allow simulating transient operation modes of multi-motor asynchronous electric drives in the Matlab application package. Multi-motor asynchronous electric drives with adjustable supply voltages, as well as with preliminary synchronization and synchronous braking, have been developed. Compilation of a program for the stability of a nonlinear system of a multi-motor asynchronous electric drive (MAEDs) with a thyristor voltage converter (TVC) in Matlab. Also, the modes of soft start, load shedding and surge on the motor shaft are simulated, confirming the stability of the system.

The generation of forensic DNA profiles consisting of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is now being facilitated by wider adoption of next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods in casework laboratories. At the same time, and in part because of this advance, there is an intense focus on the generation of SNP profiles from evidentiary specimens for so-called forensic or investigative genetic genealogy (FGG or IGG) applications. However, FGG methods are constrained by the algorithms for genealogical database searches, which were designed for use with single-source profiles, and the fact that many forensic samples are mixtures. To enable the use of two-person mixtures for FGG, we developed a workflow, MixDeR, for the deconvolution of mixed SNP profiles. MixDeR, a flexible and easy to use R package and Shiny app, processes ForenSeq Kintelligence® (QIAGEN, Inc.) SNP genotyping results and directs deconvolution of the profiles in EuroForMix (EFM). MixDeR then filters the EFM outputs to produce inferred single-source genotypes in reports formatted for use with GEDmatch® PRO. An optional MixDeR output includes metrics that assist with testing and validation of the workflow. As the Shiny app provides a graphical user interface and the software is designed to be run offline, MixDeR should be suitable for use by any laboratory developing FGG capabilities, no matter their bioinformatic resources or expertise.

The Einstein’s Boxes paradox was developed by Einstein, de Broglie, Heisenberg, and others to demonstrate the incompleteness of the Copenhagen Formulation of quantum mechanics. I explain the paradox using the Copenhagen Formulation. I then show how a Time-Symmetric Formulation of quantum mechanics resolves the paradox in the way envisioned by Einstein and de Broglie. Finally, I describe an experiment that can distinguish between these two formulations.

Calcretes are indurated terrestrial carbonates that are widespread in arid and semi-arid settings and serve as important archives of present and past environments. Here we use geochemical tools to explore the nature and origin of calcretes documented from tropical Niue Island in the Southwest Pacific. The study recognizes two types of calcretes that differ in their mineral assemblage, microfabrics, elemental chemistry and carbon and oxygen isotopes. The calcretes common in the paleo-lagoon soils consist of 90% low-Mg calcite and ~10% highly weathered Mg-Al silicates. These pedogenic calcretes formed in the soil profiles within the vadose zone and bear the following distinctions: (i) Fe/Al ratio of 0.75, identical to the ratio in soils (Fe/Al=0.76 ±0.5), substantiates the link between the calcretes and soils; (ii) presence of rhizoliths, root voids, micritic nodules and clasts are consistent with a pedogenic calcrete fabric, and (iii) 13C and 18O depletions of -10.6‰ and -5.3‰, respectively, are compatible with carbon sources from microbial and roots respiration, and formation in oxygen isotope equilibrium with vadose waters. Unlike the pedogenic calcrete, a rare calcrete from the coastal terrace contains an exceptionally rare hydrotalcite mineral (65%) coated by microbial films. We contend that the hydrotalcite-rich calcrete was deposited through interaction of dolomite with seawater, similar to the method of producing hydrotalcite in the laboratory. 13C and 18O enrichments of 0.8 to 1.7‰ and -1.0 to -1.6‰, respectively, are in agreement with (i) mixed carbon sources consisting of microbial CO2 degassing, seawater HCO3 and dolomite dissolution, and (ii) oxygen isotope equilibration with a seawater-derived fluid.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is essential for nutrient cycling and soil carbon (C) accumu-lation, both of which are heavily influenced by the quality and quantity of plant litter. Since SOM dynamics in relation to plant diversity are poorly understood we investigated the effects of willow variety and mixture, and site on the soil C stocks, SOM chemical composition and ther-mal stability. Using pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry we analysed the top 10 cm of soil from two 7-year-old experimental sites in Germany and Sweden, with monocultures and mixtures of two willow varieties (Salix spp.) belonging to different species. Overall, site had the strongest effect on SOM quality. Results showed significant variability across sites for willow identity and mixture effects on C accumulation and SOM chemistry. In the German site (Ros-tock), yearly soil C accumulation was higher (p < 0.05) for variety ‘Loden’ (1.0 Mg C ha-1 year-1) compared to ‘Tora’ (0.5 Mg C ha-1 year-1), whilst in the Swedish site (Uppsala), both varieties ex-hibited similar soil C accumulation rates of around 0.6 Mg C ha-1 year-1. Willow variety identity significantly affected SOM quality at both sites, while mixing had minor effects. Our findings emphasize the significance of site-specific context and variety or species identity in shaping soil C accumulation in willow plantations.

A comprehensive design framework is proposed for optimizing sparse MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) arrays to enhance multi-target detection. The framework emphasizes efficient utilization of antenna resources, including strategies for minimizing inter-element mutual coupling and exploring alternative grid-based sparse array (GSA) configurations by efficiently separating interacting elements. Alternative strategies are explored to enhance angular beamforming metrics, including beamwidth (BW), peak-to-sidelobe ratio (PSLR), and grating lobe limited field of view. Additionally, a set of performance metrics is introduced to evaluate virtual aperture effectiveness and beamwidth loss factors. The study employs the desirability function and explores optimization strategies for the partial sharing of antenna elements in multi-mode radar applications. A novel machine learning initialization approach is introduced for rapid convergence. Observations include the potential for peak-to-sidelobe ratio (PSLR) reduction in dense arrays and insights into GSA feasibility and performance compared to uniform arrays. The study validates the efficacy of the proposed framework through simulated and measured results. The study underscores the importance of effective sparse array processing in multi-target scenarios and highlights the advantages of the proposed design framework, offering clarity on sparse array efficiency and applicability in processing hardware providing clarity on its advantages over uniform and nonuniform arrays.

Estimation and planning play a vital role in the construction of an autonomous navigation framework. However, these problems are often considered separately, while planning gives robot a free-collision path towards the desired goal, estimation algorithm presents the executed trajectory in the sense that it has to be closed to the ground truth path as much as possible. Recently, a unified probabilistic framework, which supports solving these problems simultaneously, dubbed STEAP has been proposed. Nevertheless, its current version is only designated for an omni wheels robot, which allows robot to move and turn in vertical direction. Differential drive robot, on the other hand, though limited to move along only one direction, has been used in various situations due to its flexibility and lower cost in hardware designing. Thus, in this extension, our aim is to control a differential drive robot via STEAP. Moreover, in a more complicated environment such as labyrinth or maze, the original STEAP sometimes fails to find a path. Indeed, this problem is mainly caused by the poor initialization and the non-linearity in optimizer constraints. In our implementation, instead of dealing with these constraints, we employ a global planner algorithm such as Dijkstra or RRT to treat STEAP as an effective local planner module that focus on following the global path. Consequently, the experimental results show that the extended STEAP not only able to navigate a differential drive robot but also in a more complicated and unstructured environment.

In this paper, we integrate the Finite Element Method (FEM) with orthogonal polynomial approximation in high-dimensional spaces to innovatively model the Moon’s surface gravity anomaly. Our aim is to approximate solutions to Laplace’s classical differential equations of gravity, employing classical Chebyshev polynomials as basis functions. Using classical Chebyshev polynomials as basis functions, the least-squares approximation was used to approximate discrete samples of the approximation function. These test functions provide an understanding of errors in approximation and corresponding errors due to differentiation and integration. These test functions provide an understanding of errors in approximation and corresponding errors due to differentiation and integration. The first application of this project is to substitute the globally-valid classical spherical harmonic series of approximations with locally-valid series of orthogonal polynomial approximations (i.e. using the FEM approach). With an error tolerance set at 10−9ms−2, we use this method to adapt the gravity model radially upwards from the lunar surface. The results showcase a need for a higher degree of approximation on and near the lunar surface, with the necessity decreasing as the radius increases. Notably, this method achieves a computational speedup of five orders of magnitude when applying the method to radial adaptation. More intrinsically, our second application involves using the methodology as an effective tool in solving boundary value problems. Specifically, we implement this approach to solve classical differential equations involved with high precision, long-term orbit propagation. This application provides a four-order of magnitude speedup in computational time while maintaining an error within the 10−10ms−2 error range for various orbit propagation tests. Alongside the advancements in orthogonal approximation theory, the FEM enables revolutionary speedups in orbit propagation without compromising accuracy.

Fucoidans, known for their diverse biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antitumor, and immune-stimulatory effects, have recently gained attention for their potential benefits in exercise endurance, muscle mass, and anti-fatigue. However, the mechanisms by which fucoidans enhance exercise performance are still unclear. To investigate these effects, we administered 400 mg/kg/day of fucoidan extract derived from Undaria pinnatifida to sixty-four C57BL/6J mice over ten weeks. We evaluated changes in running activity, mitochondrial-related gene expression in skeletal muscle, and alterations in the intestinal microbiome. Our results showed that fucoidan supplementation significantly increased daily running distance and muscle mass by 25.5% and 10.4%, respectively, in mice on a standard chow diet, and with more modest effects observed in those on a high-fat diet (HFD). Additionally, fucoidan supplementation led to a significant increase in beneficial gut bacteria, including Bacteroides/Prevotella, Akkermansia muciniphila, and Lactobacillus, along with a notable reduction in the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, indicating improved gut microbiome health. Mechanistically, fucoidan supplementation upregulated the mRNA expression of key genes related to mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative capacity, such as COX4, MYH1, PGC-1α, PPAR-γ, and IGF1, in both standard chow and HFD-fed mice. Our findings suggest that fucoidan supplementation enhances exercise performance, improves muscle function, and positively modulates the gut microbiome in mice, regardless of diet. These effects may be attributed to fucoidans' potential prebiotic role, promoting the abundance of beneficial gut bacteria and contributing to enhanced exercise performance, increased muscle strength, and improved recovery.

Keywords: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Long Non-Coding RNAs (lncRNAs), Molecular Pathogenesis, Inflammation, Lung Cancer, Diagnostic Biomarkers

The object of study in the article is the auxiliary variable-frequency electric drive onboard of an AC electric locomotive, and more precisely, the structure and parameters of the control system of the active corrector of power factor (ACPF), which is part of the electric drive, as a unit that ensures electromagnetic compatibility of the electric drive with other equipment on board the electric locomotive and catenary and its energy efficiency. The topic of the article's research is the substantiation of the structure of the ACPF control system, the choice of types (transfer functions) of controllers and the calculation of their parameters. The research method chosen was the calculation of the transfer functions of the controllers of the cascaded loops control system, followed by computer simulation using the OrCAD software. The results of simulating a cascaded two loops control system of an ACPF with different types of controllers are presented and analytically compared. It is concluded that it is advisable to use a cascaded two loops control system, containing a voltage control loop and a current control loop. The best results show the simulation when using an aperiodic current controller (A-controller) and a proportional-integral voltage controller (PI-controller). The data obtained serve as the basis for further improvement of the operation of the ACPF by enhancing and optimizing the settings, structure and algorithms of the control system, which, with the selected hardware of power converter unit, will allow the ACPF to perform its functions with a high degree of reliability in an entire range of disturbing and control influences.

Insecurity, corruption, and rising unemployment have resulted in a mass exodus of young adult Afghans seeking asylum in western nations. This has depleted Afghanistan of generations of young people which are critical to rebuild the country. This study aimed to examine the characteristics of young adult Afghans with no immediate intentions of seeking international asylum; that is, individuals who intend to stay in Afghanistan. In a cross-sectional study conducted in Kabul, we surveyed 232 young adults between 18 and 35 years of age. Surveys included measures assessing standard socio-demographic and -economic factors, as well as health and psychological factors. Univariate logistic regression analyses suggest that participants with an intent to stay in Afghanistan are more likely to be financially stable, possess higher health-related quality of life, lower psychological distress, and higher levels of hope and optimism, as well as higher resilience. When controlling for all other variables in the model, only hope, optimism, and higher resilience remained as significant correlates of intending to stay. Our findings suggest that young people who intend to stay in their country look forward to a better future, which provides strong evidence for the need to strengthen the social contract by fostering resilience, hope and optimism in war-affected communities, in order to prevent a generation of talented young people from seeking asylum in western nations.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-induced climate change, particularly occurring since the mid-20th century has been considerably affecting short-term weather conditions, such as increasing weather variability, and incidence of extreme weather-related events. Milk production is sensitive to such changes. In this study, we use spatial panel econometric models, Spatial Error Model (SEM) and Spatial Durbin Model (SDM), with a panel dataset at the state-level varying over seasons, to estimate the relationship between weather indicators and milk productivity, in an effort to reduce the bias of omitted climatic variables that can be time-varying and spatially correlated and cannot be directly captured by conventional panel data models. We find an inverse U-shaped effect of summer heat stress on milk production per cow (MPC), indicating that milk production reacts positively to a low-level increase in summer heat stress, and then MPC declines as heat stress continues increasing beyond a threshold value of 72. Additionally, fall precipitation exhibits an inverse U-shaped effect on MPC, showing that milk yield increases at a decreasing rate until fall precipitation rises to 14 inches and then over that threshold milk yield declines at an increasing rate. We also find that, relative to conventional panel data models, spatial panel econometric models could improve prediction performance by leading to smaller in-sample and out-sample root mean squared errors. Our study contributes to the literature by exploring the feasibility of promising spatial panel models and resulting in estimating weather influences on milk productivity with high model predicting performance.

In a meta-analysis, we examined the behavioral portfolio of invasive brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) and native green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) in urban and non-urban environments. We hypothesized that invasive anoles should display more agonistic and bold signals (head bobbing, dewlap extensions and pushups) than their native range counterparts, and their native competitors. We found that in urban settings, anoles of both species signaled more with dewlap extensions than with head-bobs. The brown anoles displayed significantly higher in non-urban habitats and their native range compared to urban habitats and invasive ranges. The outcome of our analysis suggests that brown anoles have plastic behavioral portfolios, whereas the green anole have relatively balanced preferences for head-bobbing irrespective of the habitat in which the populations were collected. We attribute the success of the brown anole invasion to the flexible strategy in face of higher mate competition, higher predation risks, and less resource competition in the urban environments and invasive ranges. Lastly, we observed publication biases. More studies are conducted with urban and invasive brown anoles and specifically in manipulative mesocosm experimental settings - transplanting populations from native field settings. We show this altered the display rates across all studied signals.

In this study, GC–IMS was used to analyze the volatile component and flavor profiles of Crassostrea gigas individuals of different ploidy and gender. Principal component analysis was used to explore overall differences in flavor profiles and a total of 54 volatile compounds were identified. The total volatile flavor contents in edible parts of tetraploid oysters were significantly higher than in diploid and triploid oysters. The concentrations of ethyl (E)-2-butenoate and 1-penten-3-ol were significantly higher of triploid oysters than in diploid and tetraploid oysters. In addition, the volatile compounds propanoic acid, ethyl propanoate, 1-butanol, butanal, and 2-ethyl furan were significantly higher in females than in males. The volatile compounds p-methyl anisole, 3-octanone, 3-octanone, and (E)-2-heptenal were present in higher levels in male than in female oysters. Overall, different ploidy and gender of oysters were being presented with different sensory characteristics, providing new insights for understanding the flavor characteristics of oysters.

Hydrogen is increasingly recognized as a crucial element in the shift toward sustainable energy systems due to its high energy density and minimal environmental impact. Biomass, a renewable material derived from plants and animals, presents a promising feedstock for hydrogen production, offering both environmental and economic benefits. This paper examines diverse biomass resources for hydrogen production, including agricultural and forest residues, dedicated energy crops, and organic waste. It reviews key technologies for converting biomass to hydrogen, categorized into thermochemical, biochemical, and hybrid processes. Thermochemical methods like gasification and pyrolysis are discussed for their ability to handle varied feedstocks and produce high-purity hydrogen. Biochemical processes, such as anaerobic digestion and dark fermentation, are analyzed for their efficiency and lower operational costs. Hybrid approaches, which integrate multiple technologies, are explored for their potential to enhance system performance. Industrial applications of biomass-derived hydrogen are highlighted, including its use in transportation, power generation, the chemical industry, and heating. Future perspectives emphasize the need for advanced catalysts, process integration, sustainable feedstock sourcing, and supportive policies to drive commercial viability. The paper concludes by highlighting biomass’s significant promise in advancing sustainable energy systems and achieving global energy security and environmental goals.

Drive tourism (DT) have become an attractive way of tourist destination for an increasing number of visitors along driving routes. This flow of visitors has made sustainability a major issue that is, the way by which tourism development ensure economic benefits for local communities and preserves local identity, along the route, without compromising the environmental resources. Many studies focused the topic of DT, mainly the analysis of a particular angle, either be economic sustainability, e.g., advantages of the ones related to economic and environment sustainability [e.g., 2,4,5,10], such as the impact of tourists along the route environment. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the social consequences of DT in the local entrepreneurial environment and ensuing over enhancing of their cultural representativeness in terms of authenticity. Our aim is to summon these points of view and achieve, through a systematic literature review, a clear and integrative picture of the driving tourism impacts in terms of sustainability along the routes throughout local communities. A systematic literature review was performed using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology. This systematic literature review sought to consolidate knowledge on the subject. In order to illustrate the link between major categories and their corresponding trends, authors used VOSviewer scientific software. The gathering of existing knowledge around the three components of sustainability highlighted the importance of community involvement and collaboration among DT stakeholders to ensure a trade-off between the protection and promotion of DT routes. Opportunities for future studies are suggested.

This research proposed in this paper focuses on gathering evidence from devices with Windows 10 operating systems in order to discover and collect artifacts left by cloud storage applications that suggest their use even after the deletion of the Google client application. We show where and what type of data remnants can be found using our analysis which can be used as evidence in a digital forensic investigations.

This study explores the intricate dynamics of customer-centric supply chains and the pivotal role of marketing innovations in enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction. Employing a qualitative research methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in supply chain management across various industries, providing rich insights into the practices and perceptions related to customer-centric strategies. The findings highlight the centrality of understanding and anticipating customer needs, which necessitates a cultural shift within organizations to prioritize customer satisfaction at all levels. Digital marketing tools, data analytics, e-commerce platforms, and social media emerged as critical enablers of these customer-centric supply chains, facilitating real-time insights, direct customer engagement, and personalized experiences. The integration of these technologies has led to more accurate demand forecasting, optimized inventory levels, and enhanced agility and responsiveness in operations. Furthermore, the study underscores the importance of collaboration and partnership within the supply chain network, emphasizing joint initiatives and strong relationships with stakeholders as key drivers of improved resource utilization and service levels. Sustainability, entrepreneurship, and emotional intelligence also play significant roles in shaping effective customer-centric supply chains. Sustainable practices meet growing consumer demands for environmental and social responsibility, while an entrepreneurial mindset fosters continuous innovation and competitiveness. Emotional intelligence among leaders and employees enhances trust, conflict resolution, and collaboration, contributing to a positive organizational culture and superior customer satisfaction. Overall, this study provides comprehensive insights and actionable recommendations for businesses seeking to navigate the complexities of customer-centric supply chain management and leverage marketing innovations to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Epidemiological studies point cholesterol as a possible key factor for both prostate cancer incidence and progression. So, it could represent a targetable metabolite as the most aggressive tumors also appear to be sensitive to therapies designed to decrease hypercholesterolemia, such as statins. However, whether and how cholesterol, through its dietary uptake and its metabolism, could be important for early tumorigenesis, remains unknown. Oncogene clonal induction in Drosophila melanogaster accessory gland allows to reproduce tumorigenesis from initiation to early progression, where tumour cells undergo basal extrusion to form extra-epithelial tumors. Here we show that these tumors accumulate lipids, and especially esterified cholesterol, as in human late carcinogenesis. Interestingly, high cholesterol diet displays limited effect on accessory gland tumorigenesis. On the contrary, cell-specific downregulation of cholesterol uptake, intracellular transport or metabolic response, impairs the formation of such tumors. Furthermore, in this context, high cholesterol diet suppresses this impairment. Taken together, these results reveal that during early tumorigenesis, tumour cells strongly increase their uptake and use of dietary cholesterol to specifically promote the step of basal extrusion. Interestingly, expression data from primary prostate cancer tissues indicate an early signature of redirection from cholesterol de novo synthesis to uptake. Altogether, these results suggest by which mechanism reduction of dietary cholesterol could lower the risk and slow down the progression of prostate cancer.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) predominantly occurs as a late-onset form (LOAD), involving neurodegeneration and cognitive decline with progressive memory loss. Over time, risk factors and aging promote accumulation of well-known AD hallmarks in oxidative stress, amyloid-beta and tau protein pathology, as well as inflammation. Homeostatic glial functions regulate and suppress these AD hallmarks; however, other glial states involve increased pro-inflammatory cytokine release and further hallmark accumulation. Different stresses can additionally induce cellular senescence, or an irreversible differentiation process resulting in decreased supportive functions and increased, pro-inflammatory cytokine release. While these pathophysiological underpinnings all contribute to LOAD, they require temporal and mechanistic integration. This Perspective proposes that traditional AD hallmarks induce glial senescence in LOAD, where sufficient senescent glia exacerbate ongoing AD pathology and primarily drive LOAD into clinical, cognitive decline. We first explore age-related increases in pro-inflammatory glial activity, and then discuss emerging evidence linking oxidative stress, neurons containing tau pathology, and amyloid-beta to microglia, oligodendrocyte progenitor, and astrocyte senescence. Our evidence-based model mainly predicts that senescent astrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitors together pressure microglia to phagocytose neurons containing tau pathology, where resulting senescent microglia create neuritic plaques and induce paracrine senescence transitioning into and progressing clinical, dementia presentation. This predictive model accounts for why medications used to treat LOAD fail, as previous treatments have not reduced senescent glial burden. It is also coherent with the predominant hypotheses surrounding LOAD involving the amyloid cascade, tau, glia and inflammation, creates testable hypotheses about LOAD, and increases rationale in testing senolytics as targeted treatments for LOAD arrest and reversal.

This review article aims to delve into several aspects of sweetpotatoes and their leaves, including their nutritional composition, health benefits, culinary uses, and potential future implications as a superfood. It suggests an in-depth exploration of sweet potatoes' history, status, and prospects, highlighting their significance and potential economic value. Sweetpotatoes, often referred to as a powerhouse of nutrients, have gained popularity recently due to their remarkable nutritional composition and versatile culinary uses. This starchy root vegetable comes from the Convolvulaceae family and is consumed worldwide, playing a significant role in diverse cultures and cuisines. Besides their vibrant colors ranging from orange to purple, sweetpotatoes offer many health benefits, making them an essential addition to a well-balanced diet. Its extraordinary nutritional profile and numerous health benefits make it a superfood. Incorporating it into the diet can improve digestion, strengthen immunity, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. With their versatility in the kitchen, there is no deficiency of charming and healthy recipes to explore. So, make room for sweet potatoes on your plate and unlock their vast potential to enhance your overall health and well-being. Overall, the future of sweetpotatoes looks bright as research and innovation aim to improve their nutritional value, adapt them to changing climate conditions, develop new varieties and products, and promote sustainable production practices. These developments can contribute to food security, economic growth, and healthier diets. Future research should focus on nutritional composition, health benefits, sustainable farming practices, cultivar development, and industrial applications to ensure sustainable and efficient production. By prioritizing research in these areas, we can enhance the utilization of sweet potatoes in various fields and secure their future for the next century.

The reasons for the circular sense of human color perception generated by two sorts of color opponent neurons and three cone types are not well understood. Here we use geometrical analysis to examine the hypothesis that opponency, the recursive nature of color perception, and trichromacy arise as the most efficient ways of distinguishing spectrally different points on a plane using a minimum of color classes and receptor types.

The transportation sector is seeing an increased adoption rate of electric vehicles (EV), which comprise battery electric vehicles (BEV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). This mode of transportation is likely to displace automobiles powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) in the nearest future, as indicated by the current trend. Each of the key EC components is home to a variety of technologies that are either currently in use or will be in the near future. Electric vehicles have the potential to have a significant impact on a variety of fields, including the economy, the energy infrastructure, and the natural environment. As a result of the production of carbon dioxide gas from the combustion of fossil fuels, transportation is the sector that is responsible for the second-highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Electric vehicles, often known as EVs, are getting a lot of attention as a potentially game-changing solution to this issue. It is possible for electric vehicles to produce fewer emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) than conventional automobiles due to the fact that an electric motor serves as the vehicle's propeller rather than an internal combustion engine. EVs have the potential to become zero-emission vehicles if they are paired with renewable energy sources. This document presents an overview of the numerous types of EV drive circuits, covering their design as well as the benefits and drawbacks associated with each type. The current state of battery technology, particularly that pertaining to the batteries utilized in electronic vehicles, is discussed in this paper. This article also discusses electric motor efficiency, power density, fault tolerance, dependability, cost, and the best electric motor for EVs. Then, a thorough study of future EV implementation's obstacles and prospects is done. Charging times and battery performance are examples of technological challenges, but government regulation of EVs continues to be a substantial non-technical hurdle.

Improving the operational reliability of nuclear power plants, combined heat and power plants (CHP), as well as oil and gas pipelines is a priority task in the development of a variable-speed drive for lock valves used at these facilities. The paper analyzes technical requirements for such devices; the motor has been selected, its electrical equilibrium and moment equations have been obtained; recommendations for the selection of the kinematic drive scheme have been formulated. Based on the theoretical data obtained, a prototype has been developed, manufactured and tested.

A solution of general relativity is presented that describes an Alcubierre propulsion system in which it is possible to travel at superluminal speed while reducing the energy, by an arbitrary value.

A comprehensive modeling framework for the thermoforming of polymer matrix woven laminate composite was developed. Two numerical indicators, the slip path length and traction magnitude, have been identified to be positively correlated to matrix smearing and wrinkling defects. The material model has been calibrated with picture-frame experimental results, and the prediction accuracy for intra-ply shear and thickness distribution were examined with measurements on the physically formed parts. Finally, a parametric study was conducted to determine the relationship between various process parameters and the quality of the formed part. For the trapezoidal part, orienting the laminate at 45-degrees to the mold axis reduces the likelihood of matrix smear and wrinkling defects. Although this laminate orientation yielded a greater spatial variation of part thickness, the thickness deviation is lower than that for the 0-degree orientation case. Higher forming rates were found to result in more defects due to increased slip path lengths and traction magnitudes. Optimal forming speeds should balance rapid shaping within the operating temperature window while avoiding tear. It was discovered that shallower molds benefit from faster ramp rates, while deeper molds require slower rates to manage extensive shearing, stretching, and bending. Faster forming rates lead to smaller thickness increases at high intra-ply shear regions, indicating a shift from intra-ply shear to out-of-plane bending due to the visco-plastic effect of the molten laminate, and can negatively impact part quality. Lastly, it was shown that a well-conceived strategy using darts could improve the part quality by reducing the magnitude of the defect indicators.

Centromeres are among the fastest evolving genomic regions in a diverse array of organisms. The evolutionary process driving this rapid evolution has not been unambiguously established. Here I integrate diverse information to motivate a model in which centromeres evolve rapidly because of their intrinsic molecular phenotype: they tightly bind centromeric proteins throughout the cell cycle. DNA-bound proteins have been shown to cause stalling and collapse of DNA replication forks in many genomic regions, including centromeres. Collapsed replication forks generate one-sided double strand breaks (DSBs) that are repaired by the Break-Induced Repair (BIR) pathway. Here I show why this repair is expected to generate tandem repeat structure and three key features at centromeres: i) increased nucleotide substitution mutation rates, ii) out-of- register re-initiation of replication that leads to indels spanning one or more repeat units, and iii) elevated rates of large and small transpositions within centromeres and between genomic regions. These phenotypes lead to: i) a rapid rate of nucleotide substitutions within a clade of centromeric sequences, ii) continual turnover of monomers within centromeres that fosters molecular-drift and molecular-drive, and iii) recurrent quantum leaps in centromere sequence due to the formation of mosaic monomers and new sequences transposed into non-homologous centromeres. These features are plausibly the major reason centromeres evolve so rapidly. I also speculate on how the DNA sequence of centromeres might perpetually coevolve with the protein sequence of histone CENH3 –the major epigenetic mark of centromeres.

The improvement of energy efficiency of hydraulic systems remains to be an essential challenge for the industry, and the demand for more sustainable solutions is increasing. A main focus in this endeavor is the ability to eliminate or strongly reduce the use of throttle control valves which have been the preferred control element in industrial hydraulic systems for decades. Components have been subject to continuous evolution, and current industrial grade hydraulic pumps and motors are both efficient and reliable. Even though few percentages of energy efficiency can still be achieved, the main achievements in terms of efficiency is associated with novel system designs rather than further development of components. An area subject to increasing attention is the field of variable-speed displacement control, allowing to avoid the main control valve throttle losses. Systems using this technology are, however, mainly developed as standalone drive systems, necessitating maximum force, speed and power installed in each axis, with limited hydraulic power distribution capability as compared to valve controlled systems. An emerging field addressing this challenge is so-called electro-hydraulic variable-speed drive networks which allow to completely eliminate the use of control valves and enables power sharing both electrically and hydraulically, potentially reducing the necessary installed power in many cases. The idea of such a technology was first proposed in 2022, and so far developments reported in literature have mainly been of theoretical nature. This article presents the first ever experimental results for a dual cylinder electro-hydraulic variable-speed drive network prototype. The prototype has been developed for an industrial application, but has initially been implemented in a laboratory testbench. Extensive data acquisition has been conducted while subject to the associated industrial motion cycle, under different load conditions. The data is further used in combination with models to predict the total efficiency of the drive network prototype under higher loads than what could be achieved in the laboratory, suggesting a total efficiency from the electric supply to the cylinder pistons of 68 %. Re-configuring the prototype to a known standalone drive system structure implies comparable efficiencies. Finally, the drive network is theoretically compared to a valve drive solution, generally suggesting the prototype drive network to provide efficiency improvements of at least 40 % in comparison.

The valve controlled cylinder drive system is the most common type among hydraulic applications. The nonlinear behaviour in such system is inevitable when the valve spool around its null position [1] , Leaney [2] utilised component linking method to investigate the nonlinearities in a Moog valve controlled asymmetric cylinder drive system by simulation in Fortran, in which a generalised concept is introduced and validated by comparing to the experimental results. An factor is proposed in the generalised concepts to describe the asymmetric cylinder state, which is a constant when the cylinder in extending or retracting, but numerically calculated when the valve spool in the underlap region [2]. This paper utilises the component linking method to simulate the Moog valve controlled asymmetric cylinder drive system in Matlab Simulink, and proposed an analytical solution for factor when the valve spool in the underlap region.

(1) Background: There is insufficient empirical evidence on the correlates of health care utilization of irregular migrants currently living in Turkey. The aim of this study was to identify individual level determinants associated with health service and medication use. (2) Methods: 155 Afghans completed surveys assessing service utilization including encounters with primary care physicians and outpatient specialists in addition to the use of prescription and nonprescription medicines. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to examine associations between service use and a range of predisposing, enabling, and perceived need factors. (3) Results: Health services utilization was lowest for outpatient specialists (20%) and highest for nonprescription medications (37%). Female gender and higher income predicted encounters with primary care physicians. Income, and other enabling factors such as family presence in Turkey predicted encounters with outpatient specialists. Perceived illness-related need factors had little to no influence on use of services; however, asylum difficulties increased the likelihood for encounters with primary care physicians, outpatient services, and the use of prescription medications. 4) Conclusion: This study suggests that health services use among Afghan migrants in Turkey is low considering the extent of their perceived illness-related needs, which may be further exacerbated by the precarious conditions in which they live.

This study introduces a low-cost solution provided by a specialized source measure unit (SMU), offering an alternative to conventional source meter units. Through precise IV curve measurements for graphene-channel FETs, the SMU demonstrates its capability in accurately characterizing these devices with minimal noise and high accuracy. This cost-effective solution presents a promising avenue for researchers and developers seeking reliable tools for sensor development and characterization, providing valuable insights into the behavior of graphene-channel FETs and the effect of surface illumination without the need for expensive equipment. Additionally, the SMU was validated with known passive and active components, along with probe station integration for microscale connection, ensuring its effectiveness in capturing accurate measurements. The SMU’s focus on collecting IV curves, coupled with its ability to identify device defects, such as Schottky junctions, contributes to its utility in quality testing for semiconductor devices. Its low-cost nature makes it accessible for various research endeavors, enabling efficient data collection and analysis for graphene-based sensor applications.

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

This exploration delves into the intricacies of decision-making in business management. It covers decision-making models, influencing factors, real-world case studies, and strategies for effectiveness. Emphasizing the role of data-driven approaches, the exploration highlights the transformative impact of effective decisions on organizational success. Challenges and pitfalls are addressed, providing insights for overcoming obstacles. The importance of mastering decision-making is underlined as a strategic advantage in the competitive landscape of business management. In summary, this exploration offers a nuanced understanding, empowering leaders to make informed choices that shape organizational destinies.

This paper investigates the periodic and quasi-periodic orbits in the symmetric collinear four-body problem through a variational approach. In Section 3, we analyze the conditions under which homographic solutions minimize the action functional. We demonstrate that these solutions for four equal masses arranged in a linear configuration are indeed the minimizers of the action functional and compute the minimum value of the action functional for these solutions. Additionally, we employ numerical experiments using Poincaré sections to explore the existence and stability of periodic and quasi-periodic solutions within this dynamical system. Our results provide a deeper understanding of the variational principles in celestial mechanics and reveal complex dynamical behaviors that are crucial for further studies in multi-body problems. The findings have significant implications for theoretical research and practical applications in astrodynamics and space mission planning.

Renewable jet fuel (RJF) production has been recognized as a promising approach for reducing the aviation sector's carbon footprint. Over the last decade, commercial production of RJF has piqued the interest of airlines and governments around the world. However, RJF production can be challenging due to its dispersed supply resources. Furthermore, the production of RJF is more costly compared to producing conventional jet fuel. In this study, using a mixed integer linear program (MILP), we design an RJF supply chain network in which we obtain an optimized configuration of the supply chain and determine operational decisions required to meet RJF demand at airports. To accelerate commercialization of RJF production, we considered four different monetary incentive programs, which could cover the supply chain’s costs. This study is validated by employing the model to design an RJF supply chain in the Midwestern US. Results from this study are promising as they show the supply chain can achieve commercialization with partial financial coverage from the incentive programs. Based on the findings of this study, policymakers can devise policies to commercialize RJF production and accelerate its adoption by industry.

Keywords: Forest management; sustainability; FSC; PEFC; research; market share

Insect outbreaks are major drivers of natural disturbances in forest ecosystems. Outbreaks can have both direct and indirect effects on the composition of soil arthropod communities, through canopy opening, nutrient addition and predator-prey interactions. In this study, we aim to understand the effects of forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria; FTC) outbreaks on ant communities in both temperate and boreal forests in Canada. Using pitfall traps and Berlese funnels, we compared the ant communities as well as the surrounding arthropod communities between control and outbreak sites in boreal andboreal and temperate forests (in Québec, Canada). Using the Sørensen dissimilarity index, we determined the alpha and beta diversity of the ant community. Other arthropods collected in the traps were counted to evaluate the richness and abundance of potential prey for the ants and other potential predators of the FTC. We used an indicator species analysis to examine the species associated with sites defoliated by the outbreak. In the boreal forest, we found that FTC outbreaks caused decreases in species richness and increases in the evenness of ant communities in defoliated sites. In the boreal forest sites, species composition varied significantly between control and outbreak sites. This pattern was driven by the presence of other predators. We also saw no changes in beta diversity in the boreal forest but did see a significant decrease in the temperate forest between the outbreak sites and the control sites. A similar, but weaker pattern was observed in the temperate forest. Ant species in the boreal forest tended to exhibit a more marked preference for either control or previously defoliated sites than species in the temperate forest. Our study showed that disturbances like insect outbreaks can drive changes in the ant community. While we saw small effects of outbreaks, manipulation experiments using resource addition could help us validate the mechanisms behind these relationships.

Zebrafish have been found to be the premier model organism in biological and biomedical research, specifically offering many advantages in developmental biology and genetics. This unique aquatic species has been found to have the capacity to regenerate their spinal cord after injury. However, the complete molecular and cellular mechanisms behind glial bridge formation in the central and peripheral nervous systems upon glial cell injury remains unclear. This review paper focuses on the molecular mechanisms and cellular processes that underlie spinal cord regeneration in four initial phases: proliferation and initial migration; migration and differentiation; glial bridge formation; and remodeling. We propose that within these four phases the cellular mechanisms that underlie spinal cord regeneration each express a terminating signal that aborts one step of the process and initiates the next. Specifically, future studies would be devoted to investigate transmitting signals in the spinal cord injury micro-environment in hope to contribute to the understanding of underlying cellular mechanisms by connecting each process of spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish.

Application of toxic antibacterial agents is considered necessary to control prevalent fresh water microorganisms in evaporative cooling water systems, but these agents can adversely affect the environment and human health. Alternatively, natural antibacterial water chemistry has been applied in industrial cooling water systems for over 10 years with excellent results. The tower water chemistry method concentrates natural salts in highly-softened water to produce elevated pH and dissolved solids, with low calcium and magnesium. This practice conserves water while generating only a small volume of non-toxic natural salt concentrate for cost efficient separation and disposal if required. This review presents a novel perspective of natural antimicrobial chemistry for inhibiting parasitic microbiome functional relationships within the bio-triad of Legionella outbreaks, "Trojan Protozoans" and biofilms. The review further examines practical application and function of polyvalent metal ions in the inhibition of biofilms. Reducing global dependence on toxic antibacterial agents discharged to the environment is an emerging concern due to their impact on the natural microbiome, plants, animals and humans. Discharge of antibacterial agents also contributes to development of pathogen resistance. Use of natural antibacterial chemistry can play a key role in managing the cooling water environment in a more ecologically sustainable manner.

Plastics play a pivotal role in the principles of a circular economy, where their effective recycling post-utilization, leading to economic value generation and minimal environmental harm, is crucial for achieving sustainable management. Extensive research has delved into the incorporation of waste plastics in concrete, showcasing promising outcomes with a myriad of advantages..The escalating volume of plastic waste is becoming a pressing issue, contributing to environmental pollution, particularly in densely populated cities and towns in Nigeria such as Delta, Aba, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Enugu, Benue, and Ogun. These urban centers experience high consumption of goods packaged or sealed in plastic materials. Tourist destinations are also affected as large quantities of plastic waste are improperly disposed of or incinerated, resulting in environmental contamination and air pollution. Efforts to address this growing concern are crucial to safeguarding the environment and public health in these regions.Therefore, it is imperative to find effective ways to utilize these waste plastics. By cleaning low-density polyethylene bags and combining them with sand at specific proportions, high-strength bricks can be produced. These bricks not only exhibit thermal and sound insulation properties but also help in pollution control and cost reduction in construction projects. This innovative approach not only addresses the issue of accumulating plastic waste, a non-biodegradable pollutant, but also offers a sustainable solution to manage plastic waste while contributing to the construction industry's efficiency and environmental protection., By incorporating waste plastic and nylon into brick production, we not only reduce the amount of sand extracted from our natural resources like rivers and seas but also utilize the surplus plastic waste that is currently discarded. This research focuses on creating eco-friendly bricks by incorporating molten plastic, nylon, and plastic bottles in varying percentages (0 to 15% by weight) along with 5kg of fly ash. The experimental results from this study will shed light on the feasibility and benefits of using these materials in brick manufacturing, highlighting the potential of sustainable construction practices that minimize environmental impact and resource depletion, The experimental process involved utilizing cement and sand to complete the brick composition, with curing conducted underwater for 29 days followed by baking at temperatures between 100°C to 120°C for 2 hours. The resulting eco-friendly bricks exhibited key characteristics such as being lightweight, porous, having low thermal conductivity, and displaying appreciable mechanical strength. Interestingly, the compressive strengths of these bricks, post the addition of waste plastic and nylon, were found to be comparable to that of conventional bricks. Additionally, these eco-friendly bricks showcased reduced water absorption capacity compared to regular bricks, offering a promising alternative for sustainable and efficient construction practices.The eco-friendly bricks made from A, B, C, and D using 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% plastic/nylon waste showed comprehensive strengths of 19.5 ,19.46, 20.3, and 21.1 respectively, with corresponding water absorption percentages of 0.34, 0.25, 0.22, 0.20, and 0.085. The efflorescence values were lower than those of normal bricks. These bricks are likely to enhance energy efficiency in buildings and provide economic value to manufacturers, thereby promoting a sustainable ecosystem for plastic waste management with the involvement of all stakeholders.

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins has been found ubiquitously in eukaryotic cells, critical in the controlling of many biological processes through forming a temporary condensed phase with different bimolecular components. TDP-43 is recruited to stress granules in cells and is the main component of TDP-43 granules and proteinaceous amyloid inclusions in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). TDP-43 low complexity domain (LCD) is able to demix in solution forming the protein condensed droplets. The molecular interactions regulating its LLPS were investigated at the protein fusion equilibrium stage, where the droplets stopped growing. We found the molecules in the droplet were still liquid-like but with enhanced intermolecular helix-helix interaction in the LCD. The protein would start to aggregate after about 200 minutes of lag time and aggregate slower than at the condition when the protein does not phase separate or the molecules have a reduced intermolecular helical interaction. A structural transition intermediate towards protein aggregation was also discovered involving a decrease of the intermolecular helix-helix interaction and a reduction in the helicity. Therefore, LLPS and the intermolecular helical interaction could help maintain the stability of TDP-43 LCD.

The wind industry is looking for ways to accurately predict the reliability and availability of newly installed wind turbines. Failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) is a technique utilized for determining the critical subsystems of wind turbines. There are several studies which applied FMECA for wind turbines in the literature, but no studies so far have considered different weather conditions or climatic regions. Furthermore, various design types of wind turbines have been analyzed applying FMECA but no study so far has applied FMECA to compare the reliability of geared and direct-drive wind turbines. We propose to fill these gaps by using Koppen-Geiger climatic regions and two different turbine models of direct-drive and geared-drive concepts. A case study is applied on German wind farms utilizing the WMEP database which contains wind turbine failure data from 1989 to 2008. This proposed methodology increases the accuracy of reliability and availability predictions and compares different wind turbine design types and eliminates underestimation of impacts of different weather conditions.

This narrative review explores the utilization of psychedelic states in therapeutic contexts, deliberately shifting the focus from psychedelic substances back to the experiential phenomena they induce, in alignment with the original meaning of the term "mind-manifesting." The review provides an overview of various psychedelic substances used in modern therapeutic settings and ritualistic indigenous contexts, as well as non-pharmacological methods that can arguably induce psychedelic states, including breathwork, meditation, and sensory deprivation. While the occurrence of mystical experiences in psychedelic states seems to be the strongest predictor of positive outcomes, the literature of the field yields several other psychological processes, such as awe, perspective shifts, insight, emotional breakthrough, acceptance, re-experiencing of memories, and certain aspects of challenging experiences, that are significantly associated with positive change. We additionally discuss in detail mystical experience related changes in metaphysical as well as self-related beliefs and their respective contributions to observed outcomes. We conclude that a purely medical and neurobiological perspective on psychological health is reductive and should not overshadow the significance of phenomenological experiences in understanding and treating psychological issues that manifest in subjective realities of human individuals.

This qualitative research investigates how supply chain innovations drive marketing differentiation in consumer goods companies. In a competitive global marketplace, firms are increasingly leveraging advanced supply chain management (SCM) practices to enhance operational efficiency and create distinctive market positions. The study explores five key supply chain innovations—digitalization, sustainability practices, predictive analytics, agile supply chain models, and collaborative partnerships—and their impact on marketing differentiation strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 executives and managers from leading consumer goods companies, analyzing themes related to innovation adoption, challenges, and outcomes. Findings indicate that digital technologies such as IoT, AI, and blockchain are pivotal in improving supply chain visibility, optimizing inventory management, and enabling real-time decision-making, thereby supporting personalized customer experiences and agile responses to market dynamics. Sustainability practices, including sustainable sourcing and green logistics, emerge as critical drivers of brand reputation and consumer trust, aligning with growing consumer preferences for eco-friendly products. Predictive analytics facilitate better demand forecasting and pricing strategies, while agile supply chain models enhance flexibility and responsiveness in delivering products faster to market. Despite benefits, challenges include integrating innovations with legacy systems, managing resistance to change, and addressing data security concerns. Strategies for overcoming these barriers include leadership commitment, cross-functional collaboration, talent development, and strategic partnerships. By embracing these strategies and innovations, consumer goods companies can strengthen their competitive positioning, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

There has been growing interest in using permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) for pumping applications to improve energy efficiency. One promising approach for powering these motors in variable speed applications is using modular multilevel cascaded converters based on a Triple-Star Bridge Cell (M3C) due to their inherent fault tolerance capability. However, M3C converters require a more complex control system than simpler converters. For instance, A basic M3C control system for power transmission requires seventeen (17) PI controllers, whose adjustment depends on the M3C’s dynamical model parameters’ value knowledge needing extensive and time-consuming testing to obtain them. To solve this control system issue, we propose an adaptive M3C control system for variable speed drives powering multiple PMSM-driven centrifugal pumps that reduces the number of controllers to six (6). Furthermore, the proposal does not require knowledge of the converter, motor, or load parameters, making it more practical and versatile. The proposal introduces an ad-hoc hybrid passivity-based model reference adaptive controller in cascade with a passivity-based control. It has been validated through theoretical stability proof and comparative simulation results with a basic control system under normal and fault operations. As a result, the proposal effectively follows the required rotor speed while enhancing performance by decreasing the current consumption and recovering from a 10% input phase imbalance, a cell short circuit, and an open cell.

ABSTRACT"In the realm of the industrial complex, a pressing concern lies in optimizing resource utilization and enhancing energy efficiency. This critical issue finds strong support from a variety of government programs, strategies, and regulatory documents. To effectively tackle this challenge and revolutionize petrochemical production, it is imperative to establish and develop innovative mechanisms. One such mechanism involves harnessing the power of automation and advanced Industry 4.0 technologies to streamline production processes. By doing so, we can unlock the full potential of these systems, driving operational efficiency, conserving valuable reserves, and propelling innovation within the petrochemical industry."The article delves into an in-depth analysis of the prominent trends in the application of the "Industry 4.0" concept within the petrochemical industry. It sheds light on the various factors that impact the efficiency of organizing production systems. Additionally, the article identifies the primary avenues that drive the advancement and enhancement of production organization practices. Moreover, the article explores the fundamental tools employed for process improvements and highlights the significance of process automation in petrochemical plants. By examining these key aspects, it aims to provide valuable insights and recommendations for leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies to optimize production processes in the petrochemical industry..The study focuses on examining and evaluating various systems and technologies that contribute to the optimization of production processes within the petrochemical industry. Specifically, it delves into the implementation and benefits of the just-in-time system, the 5S system for workplace rationalization, as well as different information systems including ERP systems and CALS-technologies. By exploring these systems and technologies, the article aims to identify the advantages of automating production processes within the petrochemical complex. This analysis will unveil the potential benefits such as improved efficiency, reduced waste, enhanced productivity, streamlined operations, and increased overall competitiveness. Through this research, we aim to shed light on the value of these automation solutions and their impact on driving the petrochemical industry towards greater success.

In studies of dynamic stability and power quality, it is necessary to know the mechanical parameters that determine the transient response of a wind turbine. The exact value of these parameters is not as decisive as the power curve can be, but an estimate that is far from reality can distort or even invalidate the simulation results. Despite its importance, this information, especially the inertia, but also the stiffness and damping constant of the drive-train, is hardly available for the turbine model under investigation. In this work, the different bibliographical sources that provide values of blade inertia in kg·m2 will be reviewed, and above all, those that provide a distribution of masses along the span of the blade. With this, different reliable relations will be obtained that allow calculating the inertia of the turbine rotor, based on the mass and length of the blade. When the center of gravity is also available, a very correlated expression is provided to obtain the inertia. The even rarer references to the stiffness and damping constant of the drive-train will also be reviewed.

Off-road vehicles and transportation are vital for agricultural economics, yet the transition to green energies is challenging. To make this application easier, a tool that enables the testing of heavy-duty off-road vehicles in various scenarios was created. Based on the methods of the World Harmonized Transient Cycle, a new Hybrid Operational Cycle that reflects the features of agricultural work was created and applied in a graphical model simulation. This was a newly developed methodology. The cycle and the model were based on gathered research data. A numerical model of a medium-power tractor with an internal combustion engine and a series-hybrid setup was created, and simulations were performed in Matlab and AVL Cruise. The research compared both diesel and hybrid vehicles in terms of their power production, fuel consumption, and efficiency in fieldwork and transportation scenarios. The research showed that a series-hybrid transmission can achieve an efficiency similar to that of tractors with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), but with the use of an electric powertrain, there is still an opportunity to exploit energy regeneration in transportation and under low-load conditions. The designed model also may be used for the development of control algorithms for hybrid drives and the improvement of the efficiency thereof.

Iberian holm oak meadows are savannah-like ecosystems that result from traditional silvo pastoral practices. However, such traditional uses are declining, driving changes in the typical tree – open grassland structure of these systems. Yet, there are no studies integrating the whole ecosystem — including the arboreal and the herbaceous layer — as drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG: CO2, CH4 and N2O) dynamics. Here we aim at integrating the influence of tree canopies and interactions among plant functional types (PFT: grasses, forbs, and legumes) of the herbaceous layer as GHG exchange drivers. For that purpose, we performed chamber based GHG surveys in plots dominated by representative canopy types of Iberian holm oak meadows, including Quercus species and Pinus pinea stands, the last a common tree plantation replacing traditional stands; and unravelled GHG drivers through a diversity interaction model approach. Our results show that the tree – open grassland structure especially drove CO2 and N2O fluxes, with higher emissions under the canopy than in the open grassland. Emissions under P. pinea canopies being higher than those under Quercus species. In addition, the inclusion of diversity and compositional terms of the herbaceous layer improve the explained variability, legumes enhancing CO2 uptake and N2O emissions. Changes in the tree cover and tree species composition, in combination with changes in the structure and composition of the herbaceous layer, will imply deep changes in the GHG exchange of Iberian holm oak meadows. These results may provide some guidelines to perform better management strategies of this vast but vulnerable ecosystem.

Epigenetic changes are a hallmark of short- and long-term transcriptional regulation, and hence instrumental in the control of cellular identity and plasticity. Epigenetic mechanisms leading to changes in chromatin structure, accessibility for recruitment of transcriptional complexes, and interaction of enhancers and promoters all contribute to acute and chronic adaptations of cells, tissues and organs to internal and external perturbations. Similarly, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) is activated by stimuli that alter the cellular energetic demand, and subsequently controls complex transcriptional networks responsible for cellular plasticity. It thus is of no surprise that PGC-1α is under the control of epigenetic mechanisms, and constitutes a mediator of epigenetic changes in various tissues and contexts. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the link between epigenetics and PGC-1α in health and disease.

In this paper, by evaluating extreme value of the qth-power current, a torque sharing function (TSF) family for reducing the torque ripples in the switched reluctance motor (SRM) is proposed. The optimization criteria of the TSF has two secondary objectives, including the maximization of the torque-speed range and the minimization of copper loss. The evaluation indices in terms of the peak phase current, the rms phase current, and the torque ripple factor are compared between the proposed TSF family and four conventional TSFs including linear, sinusoidal, exponential, and cubic TSFs. An optimization objective function that combines the maximum absolute value of the rate-of-change of the flux linkage (MAV-RCFL) and the qth-power of current is proposed and a weighting factor is used to balance the influence of the two optimization objectives. An optimal TSF can be easily obtained by solving the optimization problem from the TSF family. The proposed TSF is validated by using simulations and experiments with a three-phase 6/4 SRM with 7.5 kW, 3000 rpm, and 270 V DC-link voltage. The dynamic simulation model is implemented in Matlab/Simulink. The results demonstrate the validity and superiority of the proposed control method; the optimal TSF provides better torque-speed performance, and a better reduction in copper loss and torque ripples at high speed compared to the conventional TSFs obviously.

This study evaluates the use of remote sensing to improve real-time adaptive management of grasslands. By quantifying grassland biomass through changes in sward height from pre- and post-grazing events using unmanned aerial systems (UAS), we derived accurate biomass estimates. Additionally, we aimed to enhance the biomass estimation with spectral data from Sentinel-2 imagery, which is often hindered by cloud contamination, by combining it with a random forest algorithm. The calibration of UAS biomass using field measurements from sward height changes through 3D photogrammetry produced strong regression metrics (R2= 0.75, RMSE= 1240 kg DM/ha and MAE=980 kg DM/ha). Integrating this UAS-derived data with Sentinel-2 imagery, the satellite based biomass model (R2= 0.56, RMSE=2140 kg DM/ha and MAE=1585 kg DM/ha) compared to using the Sentinel-2 random forest-enabled model alone (R2= 0.56, RMSE=2140 kg DM/ha and MAE=1585 kg DM/ha). This study emphasise the importance of timely and accurate biomass estimation for adaptive gazing management at the field level, highlighting the balance between utilising advanced remote sensing technologies and addressing operational complexities. By optimising the integration of UAS and satellite data, we aim to enhance grassland utilisation, ecosystem functions, nutrient cycling, and sustainability in land use.

In recent years, exterior-rotor brushless DC motors have become increasingly popular in robotics applications due to their compact shape and high torque density. However, these motors were originally used for continuous operation in drones. For applications such as exoskeletons, prostheses, or legged robots, short bursts of high power are often required. Unfortunately, vendors do not typically provide data on the motors' performance under these conditions. This paper presents experimental data on the torque-speed relationship, efficiency, and thermal responses of one of the most widely used outrunner-type brushless motors across its full operating range, including high-power, short-duration operation. The results of this study can inform the selection and design of actuators for a range of robotics applications, particularly those that require high power output for brief periods of time.

In the context of rapid urbanization, the spatiotemporal patterns of socio-economic exposed to high seismic hazard in large cities lacks quantitative assessment, thus, it is difficult to understand the evolution of earthquake catastrophe risk there. In this paper, exposure change rate, and absolute and relatively exposure indices were proposed to quantitatively study the changes of spatiotemporal exposure to high seismic hazard in urban areas of large cities (i.e., permanent residents in urban areas more than 1 million) in Chinese mainland, using a set of multi-temporal population, GDP, and built-up datasets and a seismic hazard zoning map. The results show that, 64 out of 78 large cities are entirely or partially located in high seismically hazardous zones. Although the urban areas of large cities in high seismically hazardous zones (HSHUAs) cover only 1.73% (167177 km²) of mainland China, their share of population, GDP, and built-up land amounted to 18.14%, 30.24% and 24.55%, respectively, in 2015. Unprecedented urbanization has led to a dramatic exposure growth in HSHUAs between 1990 and 2015. The population, GDP, and built-up land in HSHUAs increased by 110 million people (with an average annual growth rate of 2.37%), 273.71 trillion USD(average annual growth rate of 11.15%), and 10593 km2 (average annual growth rate of 2.02%), respectively. HSHUAs experienced much faster population and GDP growth than the whole country, while relatively slower growth in built-up land. Exposure growth in HSHUAs also was varied for different types of large cities. Megacities had a higher proportion of increased GDP and population in HSHUAs, induced by industry and population agglomeration. Whereas, Type II large cities had a higher proportion of increased built-up land in HSHUAs, driven mainly by urban sprawl. Our analysis indicates that, for large cities under rapid urbanization, it is an urgent need to strengthen resilient urban planning, renewal and construction.

In this paper, an extendable fuzzy robust speed controller suitable for induction motor drive system was proposed. Firstly, the two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) robust control technology with feedforward control and disturbance elimination method was adopted. Upon parameter variation and load disturbance, the motor drive system could utilize a robust controller to generate compensation signals and reduce the impact on controlling performance of the motor drive system. The magnitude of the compensation signal was adjusted via the weighting factor. However, should a fixed weighting factor be adopted, system instability might be generated easily when time delay and saturation of control force occur. Based on the above, the smart method of extendable fuzzy theory (EFT) was adopted in this paper to adjust adequate weighting factors, where the controlling performance of the induction motor drive system could be improved accordingly. The method divided the speed difference between motor speed command and actual speed of the induction motor, and the variation rate for such speed difference into 20 regional categories. The correlation degree between the speed difference of actual feedback, variation rate for speed difference and each regional category was then calculated, where more suitable weighting factor was selected. Therefore, the proposed extendable fuzzy robust 2DOF controller with variable weighting factor designed will allow better performance for response in speed tracking and load regulation. Lastly, the simulation software Matlab/Simulink was applied to simulate the utilization of the controlling method proposed for the induction motor drive system. For both the response in speed tracking and load regulation, the simulation results proved that the extendable fuzzy robust speed controller proposed provided better controlling performance than the conventional robust controller.

This article postulates that, in principle, it is possible (1) to develop linkages between the extractive sector and other economic sectors; (2) for such linkages to contribute to economic diversification; and (3) for economic diversification to potentially drive positive economic transformation. We argue that achieving this three-stepped pathway is impossible without also achieving some level of political and social transformation. Empirically, many resource-rich countries have failed to develop linkages. Or, if they have, the linkages built remain limited to the development of supply chains serving the extractive sector, contributing little to economic diversification. In this article, we refer to limited linkages and dependence on exporting unprocessed minerals as the centripetal force of the extractive sector. This implies that capital investments and economic activities are concentrated around the extractive sector. We propose an alternative theoretical model that strives to foster the centrifugal force of the extractive sector – a term we use to capture the three-stepped pathway. This model is underpinned by multiple factors and their interactions, which are within the purview of the complex state and market relationship (posing as a challenge) and the role of minerals in the global transformation towards a clean energy system (posing as an opportunity).

In crank presses, an important role is played by the presence of actuators with dwell, in which, with continuous movement of the input links, the output working link remains stationary at some part of the work. The use of a high-class structural group (fourth class) expands the functionality of the crank press, including it can ensure the link dwell of the working link on a given section of movement during the required period of time. As a result of the conducted research, four variants of actuators of the crank knee press were designed. Due to the rational choice of the positions of racks and crosshead guide, the best layout of the dimensions of the press mechanism has been achieved, changing the coordinates of the racks accordingly allows to design a mechanism with upper or lower dwells of the working links. When synthesizing (selecting) parameters such as: l_2 and h, it is possible to obtain a height of different duration. All this is shown on the basis of a numerical experiment based on kinematic analysis. In addition, the complex structure of the mechanism makes it possible to ensure the exact link dwell, which cannot be achieved due to the well-known knee presses based on the second-class mechanism [21].

This study presents structural analysis and optimization for the lightweight design of a buoyant rotor-type permanent magnet (BRPM) generator, which was first presented in Bang (2010), and compares its structural performances to a conventional generator with a spoke arm-type rotor and stator. The main benefit of a BRPM is that it can be realized as a bearing-less drive system, free from the mechanical failure of rotor bearings, by using a buoyant rotor. Also, the deformation of a generator by blade vibration can be effectively suppressed using joint couplings between the blades and the rotor. For the design optimization, the objective is set as the mass of the rotor and the stator, and the maximum deformation of the airgap clearance between the rotor and the stator by external forces is constrained below 10% of the gap width. The commercial software Optistruct is used for the analysis and optimization. In this investigation, the analysis and optimization are conducted for a 10 MW wind turbine generator. However, the proposed methods can be extended to larger generator designs without requiring considerable modification. The mass of the opti-mized 10MW BRPM generator is 160.7 tons (19.3 tons for the rotor and 141.4 tons for the stator) while that of an optimized conventional spoke arm-type generator is obtained as 325.6 tons.

Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) infections are the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI). Despite effective antibiotics for Ct, undetected infections or delayed treatment can lead to infertility, ectopic pregnancies, and chronic pelvic pain. Besides humans, chlamydia poses similar health challenges in animals such as C. suis (Cs) in pigs. Based on the similarities between humans and pigs as well as their chlamydia species, we use pigs as a large biomedical animal model for chlamydia research. In this study, we use the pig model to develop a vaccine candidate against Ct. The vaccine candidate consists of TriAdj-adjuvanted chlamydial protease-like activity factor (CPAF) protein. We tested two weekly administration options – twice intranasal (IN) followed by twice intramuscular (IM), or twice IM followed by twice IN. We assessed the humoral immune response not only in serum by CPAF-specific IgG including antibody avidity determination but also in cervical and rectal swabs by CPAF-specific IgG and IgA ELISAs. The systemic T-cell response was analyzed upon in vitro CPAF-restimulation via IFN-γ and IL-17 ELISpots as well as intracellular cytokine staining flow cytometry. Our data demonstrate that while the IN/IM vaccination mainly led to non-significant systemic immune responses, the vaccine candidate is highly immunogenic if administered IM/IN. This vaccination strategy induced high serum anti-CPAF IgG levels with strong avidity as well as high IgA and IgG levels in vaginal and rectal swabs and in uterine horn flushes. In addition, this vaccination strategy prompted a pronounced cellular immune response: Besides inducing IL-17 production, the vaccine candidate induced a strong IFN-γ response by CD4 T cells. In the IM/IN vaccinated pigs, these cells also significantly downregulated their CCR7 expression – a sign for differentiation into peripheral tissue homing effector/ memory cells. Conclusively, this study demonstrates strong immunogenicity of the IM/IN administered TriAdj-adjuvanted Ct CPAF vaccine candidate. Future studies will test vaccine efficacy of this promising Ct vaccine candidate. In addition, this project demonstrates suitability of the Cs pre-exposed outbred pig model for Ct vaccine development. Thereby, we aim to open the bottleneck of large animal models to facilitate the progression of Ct vaccine candidates into clinical trials.

Ecosystem physical structure, defined by the quantity and spatial distribution of biomass, influences a range of ecosystem functions. Remote sensing tools permit the non-destructive characterization of canopy and root features, potentially providing opportunities to link above- and belowground structure at fine spatial resolution in functionally meaningful ways. To test this possibility, we employed ground-based portable canopy lidar (PCL) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) along co-located transects in forested sites spanning multiple stages of ecosystem development and, consequently, of structural complexity. We examined canopy and root structural data for coherence at multiple spatial scales ≤ 10 m within each site using wavelet analysis. Forest sites varied substantially in vertical canopy and root structure, with leaf area index and root mass more evenly distributed by height and depth, respectively, as forests aged. In all sites, above- and belowground structure, characterized as mean maximum canopy height and root mass, exhibited significant coherence at a scale of 3.5-4 meters, and results suggest that the scale of coherence may increase with stand age. Our findings demonstrate that canopy and root structure are linked at characteristic spatial scales, which provides the basis to optimize scales of observation. Our study highlights the potential, and limitations, for fusing lidar and radar technologies to quantitatively couple above- and belowground ecosystem structure.

Ultrasonic imaging & NDE applications can greatly improve their signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) by driving each transducer (composing piezoelectric arrays) with a spike giving pulsed power of k-Watts, repetitively at a PRF = 5000 spikes/s, by using a HV capacitive-discharge generator. However very-high levels, of pulsed intensities (3-10 A) and voltages (300-700 V) must be considered for a rigorous spike modeling. Even though the consumed "average" power will be small, the intensity through each transducer achieves several amperes, so the pulsed powers delivered by each HV generator can attain levels higher than in CW high-power ultrasonic applications: e.g., up to 5 kW / spike. This is concluded here from a transient modeling of the loaded generator. Then, unforeseen phenomena rise: intense brief pulses of driving power & emitted force in transducers, and non-linearities in driver semiconductors, because their characteristic curves only include linear ranges. But fortunately, piezoelectric devices working in this intense regime do not show serious heating problems, because the average power remains being moderate. Intensity, power and voltage, driving a broadband transducer from a HV capacitive pulser, are calculated to drastically improve (in ≅ 40 dB) the ultrasonic net dynamic range available, with emitted forces ≅ 250 Newtons pp and E/R received pulses of 70 V pp.

Excitation-inhibition imbalance of GABAergic interneurons is predisposed to develop chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). We have previously shown that virtually every neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-positive cell is a GABAergic inhibitory interneuron in the denate gyrus. The present study was designed to quantify the number of nNOS-containing hilar interneurons using stereology in pilocapine- and kainic acid (KA)-exposed transgenic adult mice that expressed GFP under the nNOS promoter. In addition, we studied the properties of miniature excitatory postsynaptic current (mEPSC) and paired-pulse response ratio (PPR) of evoked EPSC in nNOS interneurons using whole cell recording techniques. Results showed that there were fewer nNOS-immunoreactive interneurons of chronically epileptic animals. Importantly, patch-clamp recordings revealed reduction in mEPSC frequency, indicating diminished global excitatory input. In contrast, PPR of evoked EPSC following the granule cell layer stimulation was increased in epileptic animals suggesting reduced neurotransmitter release from granule cell input. In summary, we propose that impaired excitatory drive onto hippocampal nNOS interneurons may be implicated in the development of refractory epilepsy.

With the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, information technology has played a critical role in healthcare. A broad spectrum of information technology tools and applications played an essential role to create awareness of the COVID19 vaccination drive and its health benefits. We use the COVID-19 Global Beliefs, Behaviors, and Norms Survey for analysis of prevalence and factors associated with vaccination drives among men and women aged 20-80 years in 60 countries worldwide. Our analysis of the global survey offers a unique perspective about the role of information technology associated with vaccination drives involving social norms and human behavior among 437,236 respondents. The international survey was organized using a pre-registered randomized experiment demonstrating the role of technology in reaching out to people based in diverse communities and evaluating their beliefs, behavior, and social norms. The study shows that vaccine acceptance can vary due to descriptive norms. Our analysis shows 65.06% of people all over the globe are willing to get vaccinated and a large proportion of the population thinks that the COVID19 pandemic is a viable threat to the community and preventive measures need to be taken including vaccination drives.

Background: Donor shortage limits the utilization of heart transplantation making it available for only a fraction of the patients on the transplant wait list. Continuous flow left ventricular assist devices have therefore risen in importance as a standard of care for end-stage heart failure. Short, mid and long-term survival rates as well as quality of life are now being studied with newer and more sophisticated machines. This study attempts to assess the impact of several commonly associated risk factors on long-term survival of LVAD recipients. Methods The TriNetX dataset comprises de-identified patient information across healthcare organizations. The study assesses the impact of demographics, infections, comorbidities, types of cardiomyopathies, arrhythmias, and end-organ dysfunction on long-term LVAD survival. The Log-rank test was used to assess post-implant survival effects, while Cox regression was used in univariate analysis to obtain Hazard Ratio (HR). Patients with unknown lab results were removed before the univariate analysis and K-M survival curves were generated. Samples with missing values or data errors (e.g., implantation is after recorded death) were excluded. All analyses were conducted using the Python programming language and the lifelines library. This study is IRB-exempt Results This study identified common risk factors that significantly impact survival such as CMV, hepatitis A exposure, atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia, ischemic cardiomyopathy, renal dysfunction, diabetes, COPD, mitral valve disease, and hypertension. Conclusions This is the first report of a detailed long-term survival assessment of several risk factors that impact the LVAD population.

The digital economy (DE) has become a major force driving the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures (ISOU), and research on the driving mechanism has yet to be verified. To this end, the driving influence of DE on the ISOU is targeted, and the role played by economic resilience (ER) and innovation is explored. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, the driving influence of the DE on the ISOU is analyzed using a two-way fixed-effects model. The empirical study finds that the DE presents a positive driving effect on both industrial structure advancement and rationalization, and the driving effect is still significant after the addition of control variables and the robust-type test with one period of lag; the DE presents regional differences in ISOU, with the driving effect of the DE on industrial structure advancement in the eastern region having a more significant performance than that of the central and western regions, and the driving influence on the rationalization of industrial structure in the eastern and western regions exceeds that in the central region; the impact of DE on the ISOU has a mediating role through innovation, ER has a moderating role in the process, and innovation as a partial mediator also has a threshold effect, and finally countermeasure suggestions are put forward.

This review examines additive manufacturing for refractory tungsten (W) and its alloys. It emphasizes the primary challenges and determining factors involved in additive manufacturing pure W, W alloys, and composites. Our focus in this regard extends to both process and alloying strategies designed to address critical issues such as densification, micro-cracking, and mechanical properties in tungsten-based components produced through additive techniques. Throughout the review, we organize existing knowledge and insights into convenient tables, serving as valuable resources for researchers embarking on a deeper exploration of these topics.

Culex quinquefasciatus is an important target for vector control because of its ability to transmit pathogens that cause disease. Most populations are resistant to pyrethroids and often to organophosphates, the two most common classes of active ingredients used by public health agencies. A knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation, resulting in a change from a leucine to phenylalanine in the voltage gated sodium channel, is one mechanism contributing to the pyrethroid resistant phenotype. Enzymatic resistance has also been shown to play a very important role. Recent studies have shown strong resistance in populations even when kdr is relatively low which indicates factors other than kdr may be larger contributors to resistance. In this study, we examined on a statewide scale (over 70 populations), the strength of the correlation between resistance in the CDC bottle bioassay and the kdr genotypes and allele frequencies. Spearman correlation analysis showed only moderate (-0.51) and weak (-0.29) correlation between the kdr genotype and permethrin and deltamethrin respectively. The frequency of the kdr allele was an even weaker correlate. These results indicate, in contrast to Aedes aegypti, assessing kdr in populations of Culex quinquefasciatus is not a good surrogate for phenotypic resistance testing.

Under high-frequency operating conditions, the high-speed solenoid valve (HSV) experiences energy loss and heat generation, which significantly impact its operational lifetime. Reducing the energy loss of HSV without compromising its opening response characteristics poses a significant challenge. To address this issue, a finite element simulation model of HSV coupled with a current feedback model is constructed to investigate the synergistic effects of dynamic response and energy loss. Predictive models for the opening response time, HSV driving energy, and Joule energy using Back Propagation neural network (BPNN) are established. Furthermore, a multi-objective optimization study on the current driving strategy using Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) is conducted. After optimization, although there was a 6.24% increase in the opening response time, both HSV drive energy and Joule energy were significantly reduced by 15.67% and 22.49%, respectively. The proposed multi-objective optimization method for HSV driving strategy holds great significance in improving its working durability.

The paper presents the measured values of tensile forces acting on transmission idlers in the upper and lower run of a conveyor belt placed on a laboratory machine designed at the Department of Machine and Industrial Design, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava). The tensile forces detected by two strain gauge load cells and recorded using DEWESoft software were used to calculate the friction coefficient which acts on the surface of the driving drum casing and the conveyor belt. The friction coefficient at the slip point, or during the slippage of the conveyor belt on the rubber or steel casing of the driving drum was determined for two states of the surfaces which are in contact. Experimental measurements on a laboratory machine determined four values of friction coefficients, for two types of drum surfaces and for two states of contact surfaces, which were compared with the recommended standard values. The measured values reached higher values in comparison with the values given by the CSN standards. The highest deviation of 273.3% is achieved using a steel wet surface, and the lowest deviation of 106.3% is achieved when using a rubber dry lining for the driving drum casing. On the presented laboratory machine, it is possible to measure tensile forces for different speeds of movement, different belt angles on the driving drum, various types of belt surfaces, different types of drum casing linings and different sizes of tension forces for the endless loop of the conveyor belt. For these characteristics of the conveyor belt, the magnitude of the friction coefficient, acting between the belt and the drum surfaces, can be determined.

NPM interaction with tumor suppressor p53 is a part of a complex interaction network and considerably affects cellular stress response. An impact of characteristic AML-associated NPM mutations on interaction with p53 has not been investigated yet, although consequences of NPMmut-induced p53 export to the cytoplasm are important for understanding of leukemogenic potential of these mutations. We investigated p53-NPM interaction in live HEK-293T cells by FLIM-FRET and in cell lysates by immunoprecipitation. Results were confirmed in leukemia cell lines. eGFP lifetime-photoconversion was used to follow redistribution dynamics of NPMmut and p53 in Selinexor-treated cells. We confirmed the p53-NPMwt interaction in intact cells and newly documented that this interaction is not compromised by the NPM mutation causing displacement of p53 to the cytoplasm. Importantly, the interaction was not abolished for non-oligomerizing NPM variants with truncated oligomerization domain, suggesting that oligomerization is not essential for interaction of NPM forms with p53. Inhibition of the nuclear exporter XPO1 by Selinexor caused expected nuclear relocalization of both NPMmut and p53. However, significantly different return rates of these proteins indicate nontrivial mechanism of p53 and NPMmut cellular trafficking. We suggest that the altered p53 regulation in cells expressing NPMmut offers a new target for AML therapy.

Electromagnetic sensors have been used for inspecting small surface defects of metals. Based on the eddy-current thin-skin regime, a revised algorithm is proposed for a triple-coil drive-pickup eddy-current sensor scanning over long surface crack slots (10 mm) with different rotary angles. The method is validated by the voltage measurement of the designed EC sensor scanning over a benchmark (ferromagnetic) steel with surface defects of different depths and rotary angles. With an additional sensing coil for the designed EC sensor, the defect angle (or orientation) can be measured without spatially and coaxially rotating the excitation coil. By referring to the voltage change (due to the defect) diagram (voltage sum versus voltage different) of two sensing pairs, the rotary angle of the surface crack is retrieved with a maximum residual deviation of 3.5 %.

The purpose of this work is to present an adaptive sliding mode luenberger state observer with improved disturbance rejection capability and better tracking performance under dynamic conditions. The sliding hyperplane is altered by incorporating the estimated disturbance torque with the stator currents. Also, the effects of parameter detuning on the speed convergence is observed and compared with the conventional disturbance rejection mechanism. The entire drive system is first built in simulink environment. Then, the simulink model is integrated with RT-Lab blocksets and implemented in a relatively new real-time environment using OP4500 real-time simulator. Real-time simulation and testing platforms have succeeded offline simulation and testing tools due to their reduced development time. The real-time results validate the improvement in the proposed state observer and also correspond to the performance of the actual physical model.

Based upon Maxwell's equations, it has long been established that oscillating electromagnetic (EM) fields incident upon a metal surface decay exponentially inside the conductor, leading to a virtual EM vacuum at sufficient depths. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilizes radiofrequency (r.f.) EM fields to produce images. Here we present the first visualization of a virtual EM vacuum inside a bulk metal strip by MRI, amongst several novel findings. We uncover unexpected MRI intensity patterns arising from two orthogonal pairs of faces of a metal strip, and derive formulae for their intensity ratios, revealing differing effective elemental volumes (voxels) underneath these faces. Further, we furnish chemical shift imaging (CSI) results that discriminate different faces (surfaces) of a metal block according to their distinct nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts, which holds much promise for monitoring surface chemical reactions noninvasively. Bulk metals are ubiquitous, and MRI is a premier noninvasive diagnostic tool. Combining the two, the emerging field of bulk metal MRI can be expected to grow in importance. The fundamental nature of results presented here may impact bulk metal MRI and CSI across many fields.

Embryonic development proceeds through a series of differentiation events. The mosaic version of this process (binary cell divisions) can be analyzed by comparing early development of Ciona intestinalis and Caenorhabditis elegans. To do this, we reorganize lineage trees into differentiation trees using the graph theory ordering of relative cell volume. Lineage and differentiation trees provide us with means to classify each cell using binary codes. Extracting data characterizing lineage tree position, cell volume, and nucleus position for each cell during early embryogenesis, we conduct several statistical analyses, both within and between taxa. We compare both cell volume distributions and cell volume across developmental time within and between single species and assess differences between lineage tree and differentiation tree orderings. This enhances our understanding of the differentiation events in a model of pure mosaic embryogenesis and its relationship to evolutionary conservation. We also contribute several new techniques for assessing both differences between lineage trees and differentiation trees, and differences between differentiation trees of different species. The results suggest that at the level of differentiation trees, there are broad similarities between distantly related mosaic embryos that might be essential to understanding evolutionary change and phylogeny reconstruction. Differentiation trees may therefore provide a basis for an Evo-Devo Postmodern Synthesis.

The mass of a direct-drive generator is often defined by the requirements for structural stiffness to meet the magnetic stiffness between the rotor and stator surfaces. This paper analyses this magnetic stiffness and estimates the structural stiffness of direct-drive generators for different modes of deflection. The magnetic stiffness modelling is based on an analytical model of the airgap closing forces. The final models are verified using Finite Element analysis and carried out for both permanent magnet and wound rotor generators. It shows that wound rotor machines have higher stiffness requirements than permanent magnet machines. The structural stiffness of the generator rotor and stator are evaluated for different modes by applying spatially-varying forces and finding the associated deflections. Structural stiffnesses for the rotor, stator and bearing are then combined. Finally, the magnetic and structural stiffnesses are combined and a stiffness margin can be found. For the airgap not to close, this combined stiffness must be greater than 0. This method is applied to a relatively stiff and a relatively compliant set of generator structures in a case study in order to find the optimum and more sustainable configuration.

The article presents a method of generating Key Performance Indicators related to electric motor energy efficiency on the basis of Big Data gathered and processed in frequency converter. The authors proved that using the proposed solution it is possible to specify the relation between the control mode of an electric drive and the control quality-energy consumption ratio in the start-up phase as well as in the steady operation with various mechanical loads. The tests were carried out on a stand equipped with two electric motors (one driving, the other used to apply the load by adjusting the parameters of the built-in brake). The measurements were made in two load cases, for motor control modes available in industrially applied frequency converters (scalar V/f, vector Voltage Flux Control without encoder, vector Voltage Flux Control with encoder, vector Current Flux Control and Vector Current Flux Control with torque control). During the experiments values of current intensities (active and output), the actual frequency value, IxT utilization factor, relative torque and the current rotational speed were measured and processed. Based on the data the level of the energy efficiency was determined for various control modes.

Prescribed fire is increasingly utilized for conservation and restoration goals, yet there is limited empirical evidence supporting its effectiveness in reducing wildfire-induced damages to valued resources of significant worth—whether natural, cultural, or economic. This study evaluates the efficacy of prescribed fire in reducing wildfire severity to LANDFIRE-defined vegetation classes and valued resources impacted by the 2017 West Mims event. Wildfire severity, measured using the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) index, was highly heterogeneous both within and between vegetation classes; however, profound differences between treated and untreated areas were evident. The beneficial effects of prescribed fire were most pronounced within ca. two-years post-treatment but remained evident beyond three-years relative to untreated areas. For example, actively managed areas that were treated with prescribed fire just one month prior to the West Mims event exhibited an 88% reduction in mean wildfire severity relative to unmanaged areas. When post-treatment duration reached 38 months, mean wildfire severity remained 17% lower than untreated areas. Findings from this study reveal significant reductions in both average and peak wildfire severities in areas treated with frequent fire, supporting burn rotations of one to two years to balance fuel reduction and ecological conservation.

In this paper, a small wind power generator is proposed with a new straight shape stator and rotor. The advantages of the proposed structure are introduced through a comparison between the basic and the proposed models. By comparing the pole slot combination of the proposed generator, the combination with optimal cogging torque characteristics was selected. The electromagnetic characteristics of proposed shape are analyzed for design variables using a finite element analysis (FEA) of ANSYS Maxwell. The final model of the proposed structure is designed by considering cogging torque and the generator electromagnetic characteristics. The electromagnetic and structural simulations of the final model are performed to satisfy the required performance of generator and mechanical safety. To verify the FEA results of the final model, a prototype is manufactured, experimented, and compared with the FEA results.

White adipose tissue (WAT) represents an endocrinologically and immunologically active tissue that’s primary role is energy storage and homeostasis. Breast WAT is involved in the secretion of hormones and proinflammatory molecules that are associated with breast cancer development and progression. The role of adiposity and systemic inflammation in immune responses and resistance to anti-cancer treatment in breast cancer (BC) patients is still not clear. This review aims to evaluate the emerging evidence on the crosstalk between adiposity and the immune-tumour microenvironment in BC, its progression and treatment resistance. Adiposity, and by extension subclinical inflammation, are associated with metabolic dysfunction and changes in the immune-tumour microenvironment in BC. In oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast tumours, it is proposed that these changes are mediated via a paracrine interaction between macrophages and preadipocytes leading to elevated aromatase expression and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and adipokines in the breast tissue in patients who are obese or overweight. In HER2+ breast tumours, WAT inflammation has been shown to be associated with resistance to trastuzumab mediated via MAPK or PI3K pathways. Furthermore, adipose tissue in patients with obesity is associated with upregulation of immune checkpoints on T-cells that is partially mediated via immunomodulatory effects of leptin and has been paradoxically associated with improved responses to immunotherapy in several cancers. In conclusion, evidence suggests that body composition and metabolic status are associated with patient outcomes. To optimise patient stratification and personalisation of treatment, prospective studies are required to evaluate the role of body composition and metabolic parameters in metabolic immune reprogramming with and without immunotherapy in patients with BC.

Kawasaki disease is a febrile illness characterised by systemic inflammation of small- and medium-sized blood vessels which commonly occurs in young children. Although self-limiting, there is a risk of developing coronary artery lesions as disease progresses with delay in diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of KD continues to remain a clinical dilemma. Thus, this article not only summarises the key research gaps associated to KD, but also evaluates the possibility of using circulating endothelial injury biomarkers such as, circulating endothelial cells, endothelial microparticles and vascular endothelial cell-free DNA, as diagnostic and prognostic tool of KD: a “liquid biopsy” approach. The challenges of translating liquid biopsies to use in KD, and the opportunities for improvement in its diagnosis and management that such translation may provide are discussed. The use of endothelial damage markers, which are easily obtained via blood collection, as diagnostics is promising and we hope this will be translated to clinical applications in the near future.

The study presents an efficient computational investigation on the behaviour of the direct-drive system integrated into the offshore 5MW NREL wind turbine model under demanding aerodynamic loading conditions with the aim of optimising and developing more sustainable key structural components. The research was based on computational simulation packages to verify the use of real-world wind data, the loading conditions on the blade structures through aero-elastic simulation studies, as well as analyse the behaviour of the drive system. Through the application of validated aerodynamic loading conditions, resulting normal forces on the blades structure were obtained and applied to a dedicated simplified model that was also previously validated, to estimate the transferred loads into the powertrain. The adopted methodology allowed for the identification of shaft misalignment induced air-gap eccentricity. The impact of shaft deflections on resulting magnetomotive force was considered by making use of the Maxwell stress distribution expression. By taking into account the resulting loading cases on the generator structure, as well as the inherent typical loads generated by the electrical machine, a procedure including structural parametric and topology optimisation was developed and performed, achieving a rotor mass reduction between 8.5 and 9.6% if compared with the original model.

The option of decarbonizing urban freight transport using Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) seems promising.However, there is currently a strong debate whether Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) might be the bettersolution. The question arises as to how a fleet of FCEV influences the operating cost, the Greenhouse Gas(GHG) emissions and primary energy demand in comparison to BEVs and to Internal Combustion EngineVehicle (ICEV). To investigate this, we simulate the urban food retailing as a representative share of urbanfreight transport using a multi-agent transport simulation software. Synthetic routes as well as fleet size andcomposition are determined by solving a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). We compute the operating costsusing a total cost of ownership (Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)) analysis and the use phase emissions as wellas primary energy demand using the Well To Wheel (WTW) approach. While a change to BEV results in 17 -23% higher costs compared to ICEV, using FCEVs leads to 22 - 57% higher costs. Assuming today’s electricitymix, we show a GHG emission reduction of 25% compared to the ICEV base case when using BEV. Currenthydrogen production leads to a GHG reduction of 33% when using FCEV which however cannot be scaled tolarger fleets. Using current electricity in electrolysis will increase GHG emission by 60% compared to the basecase. Assuming 100% renewable electricity for charging and hydrogen production, the reduction from FCEVsrises to 73% and from BEV to 92%. The primary energy requirement for BEV is in all cases lower and forhigher compared to the base case. We conclude that while FCEV have a slightly higher GHG savings potentialwith current hydrogen, BEV are the favored technology for urban freight transport from an economic andecological point of view, considering the increasing shares of renewable energies in the grid mix.

Availability and continuous operation under critical conditions are very important in electric machine drive systems. However, such systems, are suffering from several type of failures that affect the electric machine or the associated voltage source inverter. Therefore, fault diagnosis and fault tolerance are highly required. This paper presents a new robust deep learning-based approach to diagnosis multiple open-circuit fault in three phase two level voltage source inverter for induction motor drive applications. The proposed approach uses fault diagnosis variables obtained from sigmoid transformation of the motor stator currents. The open-circuit fault diagnosis variables are then introduced to a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory algorithm to detect the faulty switch(es). Several simulation and experimental results are presented to show the proposed fault diagnosis algorithm effectiveness and robustness.