Previous camera self-calibration methods have exhibited certain notable shortcomings. On one hand, they either exclusively emphasized scene cues or solely focused on vehicle-related cues, resulting in a lack of adaptability to diverse scenarios and a limited number of effective features. Furthermore, these methods either solely utilized geometric features within traffic scenes or exclusively extracted semantic information, failing to comprehensively consider both aspects. This limited the comprehensive feature extraction from scenes, ultimately leading to a decrease in calibration accuracy. Additionally, conventional vanishing point-based self-calibration methods often required the design of additional edge-background models and manual parameter tuning, thereby increasing operational complexity and the potential for errors. Given these observed limitations, and in order to address these challenges, we propose an innovative roadside camera self-calibration model based on the Transformer architecture. This model possesses a unique capability to simultaneously learn scene features and vehicle features within traffic scenarios while considering both geometric and semantic information. Through this approach, our model can overcome the constraints of prior methods, enhancing calibration accuracy and robustness while reducing operational complexity and the potential for errors. Our method outperforms existing approaches on both real-world dataset scenarios and publicly available datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.

The need for a relatively quick solution to the problem of providing highways with roadside service facilities necessitates the development of a series of appropriate standard projects. To increase the efficiency of these series, it is advisable to carry out the interconnection of space-planning solutions based on a particular module. Taking into account the variety of planning and landscape characteristics of the sites for the placement of objects of the mainline service, it seems advisable to choose as a module not a square or rectangular, but a triangular configuration, which allows in most cases to harmoniously block the modules. The proposed roof module in the form of a "regular" triangle facing the tetrahedron has a structural basis in the form of a single-tier rod spatial plate. The principal space-planning solutions of all four dozen objects from the approved nomenclature of the mainline service performed in the process of analyzing the possibilities show the real possibility of solving the development tasks on the basis of this system. The use of the proposed modular system makes it possible to successfully solve a number of tasks to reduce the harmful impact on the environment and effectively use renewable energy sources.

Harnessing Quantum Energy States for Unprecedented Computing Capabilities In this proposal, we advocate for the use of energy states as fundamental units of quantum computer programming. Each unit of programming is conceptualized as an energy state, manifested as an essence-unit. An essence-unit, defined as the minimal form encapsulating complete uniqueness or specificity, serves as the cornerstone of this paradigm. This approach enables the recording of various forms of matter on quantum computers in essence-units, portraying their energy states. The recording of energy states is achieved through the creation of four distinct coherent potentials, facilitated by quantum dots or crystals. Crucially, these energy states embodied in essence-units resist subdivision. The study explores the intricate relationship among similarity, fractals, and uniqueness in quantum dot operations, revealing their profound implications for information transfer efficiency. Normalized entropy characterizes charge localized in quantum dot impurities in systems that have distortions. Through the utilization of N-level recording and entropy-fractal dimension equivalence, the paper elucidates the potential of quantum dots in reducing transmission time and modeling complex systems. The proposed methodology signifies a paradigm shift in quantum computing, presenting unparalleled possibilities for tackling hitherto insurmountable challenges.

There are several challenges on how to attain energy efficiency while maintaining balance among factors affecting energy consumption such as power rating and temperature setpoints of cooling units, room temperature and humidity, and indoor air quality (IAQ). A real-time energy and IAQ monitoring system were installed in an educational building to profile the operational power consumption of inverter-based air condition unit (ACU) installed in each room. Polynomial curve and neural fitting regression analysis were applied to the real-time power consumption, indoor temperature and humidity, and carbon dioxide (CO2) level data. The derived models were able to provide the stabilizing indoor thermal and air conditions of the room to reach steady state ACU power consumption. These collected data and calculated parameters can be used to define rules in automating control of cooling appliances for an efficient energy utilization. The regression approaches, using real-time data, have determined the influence of indoor heat conditions and carbon dioxide levels on ACU power consumption. These parameters were utilized to establish consistent values for temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels under stable settings of inverter-based air conditioning units.

Natural systems of units $\{U_i\}$ need to be overhauled to include the dimensionless coupling constants $\{\upalpha_{U_i}\}$ of the natural forces. Otherwise, they cannot quantify all forces in a unified manner. Thus, each force must furnish a system with at least one dimensional and one dimensionless constant. We revisit three natural systems of units (atomic, cosmological, and Planck). The Planck system is easier to rectify, and we do so in this work. The atomic system discounts $\{ G, \upalpha_G \}$, thus it cannot account for gravitation. The cosmological system discounts $\{ \slashed{h}, \upalpha_\slashed{h} \}$, thus it cannot account for quantum physics. Here, the symbols have their usual meanings; in particular, $\upalpha_G$ is the gravitational coupling constant and $\upalpha_\slashed{h}$ is the fine-structure constant. The speed of light $c$ and the impedance of free space $Z_0$ are resistive properties of the vacuum, thus they must be present in all systems of units. The upgraded Planck system $${\rm UPS} \,:=\,\{ c, Z_0, G, \upalpha_G, \slashed{h}, \upalpha_\slashed{h}, \,\dots\,\!\},$$ describes all physical scales in the universe---it is nature's system of units. As such, it reveals a number of properties, most of which have been encountered previously in seemingly disjoint parts of physics, and some of which have been designated as mere coincidences. Based on the UPS results, that relate (sub)atomic scales to the Planck scale and the fine-structure constant to the Higgs field, we can state with confidence that no observed/measured physical properties are coincidental in this universe.

We have developed a cosmological model by allowing the speed of light c, gravitational constant G and cosmological constant Λ in the Einstein filed equation to vary in time, and solved them for Robertson-Walker metric. Assuming the universe is flat and matter dominant at present, we obtain a simple model that can fit the supernovae 1a data with a single parameter almost as well as the standard ΛCDM model with two parameters, and has the predictive capability superior to the latter. The model, together with the null results for the variation of G from the analysis of lunar laser ranging data determines that at the current time G and c both increase as dG/dt = 5.4GH0 and dc/dt = 1.8cH0 with H0 as the Hubble constant, and Λ decreases as dΛ/dt = -1.2ΛH0. This variation of G and c is all what is needed to account for the Pioneer anomaly, the anomalous secular increase of the Moon eccentricity, and the anomalous secular increase of the astronomical unit. We also show that the Planck’s constant ħ increases as dħ/dt = 1.8ħH0 and the ratio D of any Hubble unit to the corresponding Planck units increases as dD/dt = 1.5DH0. We have shown that it is essential to consider the variation of all the physical constants that may be involved directly or indirectly in a measurement rather than only the one whose variation is being considered.

OBJETIVES: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of collapse of the health system created great difficulties. We will demonstrate that Intermediate Respiratory Care Units (IRCU) provide adequate management of patients with non-invasive respiratory support, which is particularly important in patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. METHODS: A prospective observational study of patients with COVID-19 admitted to the ICU of a tertiary hospital. Sociodemographic data, comorbidities, pharmacological, respiratory support, laboratory and blood gas variables were collected. The overall cost of the unit was subsequently analyzed. RESULTS: 991 patients were admitted, 56 to the IRCU (of the 81 a critical care unit). Mean age was 65 years (SD 12.8), Barthel Index 75 (SD 8.3), Charlson 3.1 (SD 2.2), HTN 27%, COPD 89% and obesity 24%. Significant relationship (p <0.05) with higher mortality of the following: fever greater than or equal to 39oC [OR 5.6; 95% CI (1.2-2.7); p = 0.020], protocolized pharmacological treatment [OR 0.3; 95% CI (0.1-0.9); p = 0.023] and IOI [OR 3.7; 95% CI (1.1-12.3); p = 0.025]. NIMV showed less of a negative impact [OR 1.8; 95% CI (0.4-8.4); p = 0.423] than IOI. The total cost of the IRCUs amounted to €66,233. The cost per day of stay in the IRCU was €164 per patient. The total cost avoided was €214,865. CONCLUSION: The pandemic has highlighted the importance of IRCUs in facilitating the management of a high patient volume. The treatment carried out in IRCUs is effective and efficient, reducing both admissions to and stays in the ICU.

System level diagnosis is an abstraction of high level and, thus, its practical implementation to particular cases of complex systems is the task which requires additional investigations, both theoretical and modeling. Mostly, diagnosis at system level intends to identify only permanently faulty units. In the paper, we consider the case when both permanently and intermittently faulty units can occur in the system. Identification of intermittently faulty units has some specifics which we have considered in this paper. We also suggest the method which allows distinguishing among different types of intermittent faults. Diagnosis procedure was suggested for each type of intermittent faults.

Virus taxonomy uses a Linnaean-like subsumption hierarchy to classify viruses into taxonomic units at species and higher rank levels. Virus species are considered monophyletic groups of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) often delimited by phylogenetic analysis of aligned genomic or metagenomic sequences. Taxonomic units are assumed independent organizational, functional and evolutionary units that follow a ‘natural’ historical rationale. Here, I use phylogenomic and other arguments to show that viruses are not self-standing genetically-driven biological systems. Instead, they are crucial components of holobionts, units of biological organization that dynamically integrate the genetics, epigenetic, physiological and functional properties of their co-evolving members. Remarkably, phylogenomic analyses show viruses share protein domain and loop structures with cells throughout history via massive processes of reticulate evolution, helping spread evolutionary innovations across a wider taxonomic spectrum. Thus, viruses are not merely MGEs or microbes. Instead, their genomes and proteomes conduct cellularly integrated processes akin to those cataloged by the GO Consortium. This prompts the generation of compositional hierarchies that replace the ‘is-a-kind-of’ by a ‘is-a-part-of’ logic to better describe the mereology of integrated cellular and viral makeup. My analysis demands a new paradigm that integrates virus taxonomy into a modern evolutionarily centered taxonomy of organisms.

Background: Runners have high incidence of repetitive load injuries, and habitual runners often use smartwatches with embedded IMU sensors to track their performance and training. If accelerometer information from such IMUs can provide information about individual tissue loads, then running watches may be used to prevent injuries. Methods: We investigate a combined physics-based simulation and data-based method. 285 running trials from 76 real runners are subjected to physics-based simulation to recover forces in the Achilles tendon and patella ligament, and the collected data are used to train and test a data-based model using elastic net and gradient boosting methods. Results: Correlations up to 0.95 and 0.71 for the patella ligament and Achilles tendon forces, respectively, are obtained, but no single best predictive algorithm can be identified. Conclusions: Prediction of tissues loads based on body-mounted IMUs appears promising but requires further investigation before deployment as a general option for users of running watches to reduce running-related injuries.

The natural units of measure lauded by Max Planck more than 100 years ago are rarely used today. But many physical constants, including Planck's constant, the gravitational constant, the speed of light, vacuum permittivity, and vacuum permeability, consist of natural units in their unit dimensions. The natural units are present in all formulas containing these constants. The defining characteristic of the natural units is an alignment of unit values at the Planck scale. This alignment gives a computational basis of proportionality from which the correlated properties and dynamics of elementary particles, including wavelength, period, mass, momentum, and energy, manifest in equal or inversely proportional ratios of the Planck scale. These correlations explain many of the defining equations of quantum mechanics, classical gravity, and electromagnetism.

Joints between walls are very important for structural analysis of each masonry building at the global and local level. This issue was often neglected in case of traditional joints and relatively squat walls. Nowadays the issue of wall joints is becoming particularly important due to the continuous strive for simplifying structures, introducing new technologies and materials. Eurocode 6 and other standards (USA, Canadian, Chinese, and Japanese) recommend inspecting joints between walls, but no detail procedures have been specified. This paper presents our own tests on joints between walls made of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) masonry units. Tests included reference models composed of two wall panels joined perpendicularly with a masonry bond (6 models), traditional steel and modified connectors (12 models). A shape and size of test models and structure of a test stand were determined on the basis of the analysis of the current knowledge, pilot studies and numerical analyses of FEM. The analysis referred to the morphology and failure mechanism of models. Load-displacement relationships for different types of joints were compared and obtained results were referred to results for reference models. A mechanism of cracking and failure was found to vary, and clear differences in behaviour and load capacity of each type of joints were observed. Individual working phases of joints were determined and defined, and the empirical approach was suggested to determine forces and displacement of wall joints.

Radiological imaging is essential for acute patient management in Intensive Care Units (ICUs); however, it introduces the risk of exposure to ionizing radiation. This review synthesizes research on radiation exposure in intensive care unit (ICU) settings, highlighting its rise during the COVID-19 pandemic and repetitive imaging. Our analysis extends to radiation safety thresholds, revealing that some ICU patients exceed annual occupational limits, emphasizing the need to balance diagnostic utility against potential long-term risks, such as cancer. Prospective studies have demonstrated an increase in the median Cumulative Effective Dose (CED) in patients with trauma over time, prompting calls for improved awareness and monitoring. Moreover, innovative dose-reduction strategies and optimized protocols, especially in neuro-ICU units, promise to mitigate these risks. This review highlights the essential but risky role of radiological imaging in critical care. It advocates rigorous radiation management protocols to safeguard patient health, while ensuring the continuity of high-quality medical care.

The increasing demand for water resources in urban areas, such as Bangladesh, due to population growth is a significant concern. One potential solution under consideration is the use of air conditioning (AC) condensate water. A study conducted at the European University of Bangladesh (EUB) focused on assessing the quality and quantity of AC condensate water from various systems. The results indicate that the collected water generally adhered to the quality standards established for drinking and household use in Bangladesh. Parameters such as pH (averaging 6.8), turbidity (1.08 NTU), total dissolved solids (TDS) (averaging 219 mg/L), iron content (0 mg/L), alkalinity (averaging 41.67 mg/L), arsenic (0 mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (averaging 3.67 mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) (averaging 1.33 mg/L), chloride content (averaging 30.77 mg/L), and other factors were evaluated. Moreover, the AC units at EUB, varying in cooling capacity (1 ton, 2 tons, and 4 tons), produced substantial monthly volumes of 96, 177, and 354 liters of condensate water, respectively. This underscores the potential of AC condensate water as a valuable resource for addressing urban water scarcity. As a result, there is a pressing need for local decision-makers and policymakers to establish well-defined guidelines for the effective utilization of AC condensate water to mitigate water scarcity issues in urban areas.

One of the most crucial and economically beneficial tasks for energy customer is peak load curtailment. On account of the fast response of renewable energy resources (RERs) such as photovoltaic (PV) units and battery energy storage system (BESS), this task is closer to be efficiently implemented. Depends on the customer peak load demand and energy characteristics, the feasibility of this strategy may warry. When adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is exploited for forecasting, it can provide many benefits to address the above-mentioned issues and facilitate its easy implementation, with short calculating time and re-trainability. This paper introduces a data driven forecasting method based on fuzzy logic for optimized peak load reduction. First, the amount of energy generated by PV is forecasted using ANFIS which conducts output trend, and then, the BESS capacity is calculated according to the forecasted results. The trend of the load power is then decomposed in Cartesian plane into two parts, left and right from load peak, searching for BESS capacity equal. Network switching sequence over consumption is provided by a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) with respect to BESS capacity and PV energy output. Finally, to prove the effectiveness of the proposed ANFIS-based peak shaving method, offline digital time-domain simulations have been performed on a real-life practical test micro grid system in MATLAB/Simulink environment and the results have been experimentally verified by testing on a practical micro grid system with real-life data obtained from smart meter and also, compared with several previously-reported methods.

Stara Planina is known for numerous occurrences and deposits of uranium and associated radionuclides. It is also famous for its geodiversity. The geologic framework is highly complex. The mountain is situated between the latitudes of 43° and 44° N and the longitudes from 22°16′ to 23°00′ E. Uranium exploration and radioactivity testing on Stara Planina began back in 1948. Uranium has also been mined in the zone of Kalna, within the Janja granite intrusive. The naturally-radioactive geologic units of Stara Planina are presented in detail in the paper.

The global energy landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, and the potential of LNG as a major energy source is a topic of intense debate. In order to meet the growing demand for sustainable energy supply, it is crucial to maximize the efficiency and environmental friendliness of the LNG supply chain. This research aims to leverage computational modeling and optimization techniques to enhance the production units involved in LNG production. By harnessing the power of advanced algorithms and simulations, we can identify and implement innovative strategies that minimize energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance the overall sustainability of LNG. Through this study, we seek to uncover novel approaches to address the challenges faced by the LNG industry, including improving operational efficiency, optimizing liquefaction processes, and enhancing the utilization of natural resources. By integrating cutting-edge computational tools and considering environmental factors, we aspire to pave the way for a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future powered by LNG. By exploring the immense potential of computational modeling and optimization, we strive to contribute to the ongoing efforts in advancing energy sustainability and shaping the future of LNG as a crucial global energy source."In this paper, our focus is on simulating and optimizing the process of converting natural gas to LNG. Our goal is to achieve the minimum energy consumption per ton of LNG produced. Through our research, we have identified that utilizing a three-stage exchanger is the most effective approach for minimizing energy consumption in an LNG industrial production unit. Moreover, we have discovered that the outlet pressure from the compressor and the type of refrigerant in the cooling system play significant roles in determining the rate of energy conservation. By carefully considering these factors and optimizing their settings, we can further enhance the overall energy efficiency of the LNG production process. Our research aims to provide valuable insights and guidance to industry professionals and decision-makers in the LNG sector. By implementing the findings of this study, we can contribute to the sustainable development and utilization of LNG as a cleaner and more environmentally energy source. Friendly It's great to see the optimized parameters for the refrigerants and pressure settings in the liquefaction and subcooling cycles. With the mass fraction of 0.89 for methane and 0.14 for ethane in the liquefaction cycle, and 0.59 for methane and 0.3 for nitrogen in the composition for achieving energy efficiency in the LNG production subcooling cycle, The optimized outlet pressure of 650 kPa for the compressors in the liquefaction cycle and 1800 kPa for the subcooling cycle furtherr ccontribute to minimizing energy consumption. Based on your findings, the amount of consumed energy at 14.81 kW per ton of produced LNG highlights the success of the optimization efforts. Reducing the energy consumption per ton of LNG produced is a significant accomplishment towards achieving energy sustainability and environmental friendliness in the LNG industry. These results demonstrate the importance of computational modeling and optimization in identifying the best parameters for eenhancing energy efficiency in LNG production. By implementing these optimized settings, we can work towards a more sustainable future with reduced energy consumption and lower environmental impact

A series of derivatives, involving two dithienylethene (DTE), groups, connected by several molecular linkers (bis(ethylene-1,2-dithiolato)Ni- (NiBDT), naphthalene, quasilinear oligothiophene chains) are investigated with the aid of computational quantum chemistry methods. This involves the computation of the second- and third-order nonlinear optical properties, i.e. molecular hyperpolarizabilities of the designed/selected derivatives. These properties can be efficiently controlled by DTE switches, in connection with light of appropriate frequency. We found that NiBDT, as a linker, is associated with a greater contrast, in comparison to naphthalene, between the first and second hyperpolarizabilities of the “open-open” and the “closed-closed” isomers. This is explained by invoking the low lying excited states of NiBDT. It has been found that the second hyperpolarizability can be used as an index, which follows the structural changes induced by photochromism. The two-photon absorption, which is related to the imaginary part of second hyperpolarizability, has also been investigated for the S0S1 transition. Furthermore, the intramolecular excited-state energy transfer (EET) is studied as well as the overlap between the absorption and emission spectra of the donor and acceptor groups of the molecules. The electronic coupling, VDA, between the donor and acceptor fragments, as well as the emission spectrum of the donor and the absorption spectrum of the acceptor have been computed, assuming a Förster type transfer mechanism. EET is a critical factor governing the photochromism. Two methods were used to compute VDA, one based on linear response and one based on the distributed multipole analysis (DMA); both techniques give very similar results for the dominating Coulomb contribution. For NiBDT as the linker a low VDA value has been computed. We found that VDA is affected by the molecular geometry. Our results clearly show that the linker strongly influences the communication between the open-closed DTE groups and thus, photochromism. The present computations show that full photochromism is attained in derivatives where two DTE groups are linked by a tetrathiophene chain, in agreement with experiment. The sensitivity of molecular linear and nonlinear optical properties upon photochromism can assist with the identification of the molecular isomers.

Data science is facing the following major challenges: (1) developing scalable cross-disciplinary capabilities, (2) dealing with the increasing data volumes and their inherent complexity, (3) building tools that help to build trust, (4) creating mechanisms to efficiently operate in the domain of scientific assertions, (5) turning data into actionable knowledge units and (6) promoting data interoperability. As a way to overcome these challenges, we further develop the proposals by early Internet pioneers for Digital Objects as encapsulations of data and metadata made accessible by persistent identifiers. In the past decade, this concept was revisited by various groups within the Research Data Alliance and put in the context of the FAIR Guiding Principles for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data. The basic components of a FAIR Digital Object (FDO) as a self-contained, typed, machine-actionable data package are explained. A survey of use cases has indicated the growing interest of research communities in FDO solutions. We conclude that the FDO concept has the potential to act as the interoperable federative core of a hyperinfrastructure initiative such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The battery energy storage systems (BESS) are most promising solution for increasing efficiency and flexibility of distribution networks (DNs) with significant penetration level of photovoltaic (PV) systems. There are various issues related to the optimal operation of DNs with integrated PV sys-tems and BESS that need to be addressed to maximize DN performance. This paper deals with the day-ahead optimal active-reactive power dispatching in unbalanced DNs with integrated sin-gle-phase PV generation and BESSs. The objectives are the minimization of cost for electricity, en-ergy losses in the DN and voltage unbalance at three-phase load buses by optimal managing of active and reactive power flows. To solve this highly constrained nonlinear optimization problem, a hybrid particle swarm optimization with sigmoid-based acceleration coefficients (PSOS) and cha-otic gravitational search algorithm (CGSA), called PSOS-CGSA algorithm, is proposed. A scenario based approach encompassing the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method with the simultaneous backward reduction algorithm is used for the probabilistic assessment of the uncertainty of PV generation and power of loads. The effectiveness of the proposed procedure is evaluated through the series test cases in a modified IEEE 13-bus feeder.

The reflectance $R$ of monolayer graphene for the normal incidence of electromagnetic radiation is known to be remarkably defined only by $\pi$ and the fine-structure constant $\alpha$. It is shown in this paper that the reflectance (or the sum of transmittance and absorptance) of monolayer graphene, expressed as a quadratic equation with respect to the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ must unsurprisingly introduce the 2$^\text{nd}$ fine-structure constant $\alpha_2$, as the 2$^\text{nd}$ root of this equation, as well as two $\pi$-like constants for a convex and a saddle surface. It turns out that this 2$^\text{nd}$ fine-structure constant is negative, and the sum of its reciprocal with the reciprocal of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ is independent of the reflectance value $R$ and remarkably equals $-\pi$. Particular algebraic definition of the fine-structure constant $\alpha^{-1} = 4\pi^3 + \pi^2 + \pi \approx 137.036$, containing the free $\pi$ term and agreeing with the physical definition of this dimensionless constant to the 5$^\text{th}$ significant digit, when introduced to this sum, yields $\alpha_2^{-1} = -4\pi^3 - \pi^2 - 2\pi \approx -140.178$. Assuming universal validity of the physical definition of $\alpha$, $\alpha_2$ defines the negative speed of light in vacuum $c_n$. The average of this speed $c_n$ and the speed of light in vacuum $c$ is in the range of the Fermi velocity ($10^6$ m/s). Furthermore, the 2$^\text{nd}$ negative fine-structure constant $\alpha_2$ alone introduces the imaginary set of base Planck units.

Due to limitation of natural sand from rivers and seas, artificial sand production from large stones or rocks is being increased. However, this sand manufacturing process is dangerous and causes several social problems such as high level of unwanted vibrations or noises. This study investigates vibration characteristics of sand and screen units in artificial sand production plant whose actuating operation is multiple with several different exciting frequencies. As a first step, vibration levels are measured at the sand and screen unit positions using accelerometers in time and frequency domains. The measurement is carried out at two different conditions: activating sand unit only and operating entire facilities such as stone crusher. Vibration signals acquired from several locations of the sand and screen units of the plant are collected and analyzed from waveforms and spectrums of the signals. It is identified that the vibration acceleration level of the screen unit is higher than that of the sand unit. In addition, it is found from the acceleration signals measured at plant office and shipping control center those places are far away from the plant location that the beating phenomenon is occurred by close driving frequencies for several sand units. In this work, the vibration caused from the beating is significantly reduced by adjusting the driving frequencies for the sand units so that they are sufficiently scattered to avoid the beating.

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are opportunistic pathogens that cause illness primarily in the elderly, in the immunocompromised or in patients with underlying lung disease. Mycobacterium chimaera is a NTM species belonging to the M. avium Complex (MAC) group of species. Since 2013, a global outbreak of M. chimaera infection related to heater-cooler units (HCU) used in cardio-thoracic surgery has been identified. This outbreak was caused by a single strain of M. chimaera. In order to estimate the prevalence of this outbreak strain in Israel, we sampled M. chimaera from several HCU machines in Israel, as well as from patients, sequenced their genomes and compared them to the outbreak strain. The presence of mixed mycobacteria species in the samples complicated the analysis of obtained sequences. By applying a metagenomic binning strategy, we were able to obtain genomes of single strains from the mixed samples, and characterized them. M. chimaera strains were compared to each other and to previously reported genomes from other countries. The strain causing the outbreak related to the HCU machines was identified in several such machines in Israel but not in any of the clinical samples.

Slope failures pose a substantial threat to mining activity due to their destructive potential and high probability of occurrence on steep slopes close to limit equilibrium conditions, often found both in open pits and in waste and tailing disposal facilities. The development of slope monitoring and modeling programs usually entails the exploitation of in situ and remote sensing data together with the application of numerical modeling, and it plays an important role in the definition of prevention and mitigation measures aimed at minimizing the impact of slope failures in mining areas. Here we present a new methodology combining satellite radar interferometry and 2D finite element modeling for slope stability analysis at a regional scale, applied within slope unit polygons. We studied a former mining area in southeast Spain, and the method proved useful in detecting and characterizing a considerably large number of unstable slopes. Out of 1,959 slope units used for the spatial analysis of the radar interferometry data, 43 were unstable, with varying values of safety factor and landslide size. Out of the 43 active slope units, 21 exhibited line of sight velocities greater than the maximum error obtained through the validation analysis (2.5 cm/year). Eventually, this work discusses the possibility of using the results of the proposed approach to devise a proxy for landslide hazard. The proposed methodology can help to provide non-expert final users with intelligible, clear and easily comparable information to analyze slope instabilities in different settings, not limited to mining areas.

Background: Recent years have seen chaos in the neonatology use of antibiotics with diverse opinions and recommendations in international guidelines and societies. This has created great uncertainty in which cases to use, for how long, and which tests apply to make these decisions. We conducted a retrospective cohort study about the use of antibiotics in the EpicLatino neonatal units and a Latin American network database, after noting these variations in the 2019 report. Methods: For the year 2019 using the EpicLatino database, we included cases (only first admission) ≤32 weeks gestational age at birth, excluding one unit that did not accept to participate. The number of cases and days receiving antibiotics were recorded as well as the progression for each unit. Inappropriate use of antibiotics was defined as greater than 3 days in patients with negative cultures (blood/CSF cultures) excluding: major malformations, urinary tract infections, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and cases with suspected chorioamnionitis in the mother (the latter two only during the course of diagnosis of NEC or chorioamnionitis). This study was approved by the EpicLatino board of directors and by the participating units. Results: A total of 6,543 days of antibiotics were observed, 49.5% of cases had at least one positive blood/CSF culture. A total of595 days of antibiotics without justification were found in 72 courses in 61 cases; 14/72(19.4%) had no diagnosis of infection in the database, 7/72(9.7%) did not document any culture throughout their stay, and 37/72(51,4%) obtained only one blood/CSF culture during their entire stay. Most diagnosis were clinical sepsis and in 24/58(41%) curses, a diagnosis of pneumonia with a poor positive culture correlation was found. Furthermore, 74% of the units didn´t use pneumonia as a justification to use antibiotics. Other diagnosis found: Conjunctivitis, NEC 1A and rotavirus NEC. Conclusions: Although the method of reviewing the use of antibiotics in a database has a number of limitations, especially the cause that motivated the use of antibiotics and other tools used for diagnosis of infections, the notable differences between units is striking. Although it is difficult to make recommendations to all units, it is important to control infections in some units and in others to reduce the excessive use of antibiotics, especially with diagnosis of pneumonia in neonates and negative blood/CSF cultures.

This article examines the impact of some system parameters on an industrial system composed of two dissimilar parallel units with one repairman. The active unit may fail due to essential factors like aging or deteriorating, or exterior phenomena such as Poisson shocks that occur at various time periods. Whenever the value of a shock is larger than the specified threshold of the active unit, the active unit will fail. The article assumes that the repairman has the right to take any of two decisions at the beginning of the system operation: either a takes a vacation if the two units work in a normal way, or stay in the system to monitor the system until the first system failure. In case of having a failure in any of the two units during the absence of the repairman, the failing unit will have to wait until the repairman is called back to work. We suppose that the value of every shock is assumed to be i.i.d. with some known distribution. The length of the repairman’s vacation, repair time, and recall time are arbitrary distributions. Various reliability measures have been calculated by the supplementary variable technique and the Markov’s vector process theory. At last, numerical computation and graphical analysis have been given for a particular case to validate the derived indices.

Keeping the bus voltage within acceptable limits depends on dispatching reactive power. Power quality improves as a result of creating an effective power flow system, which also helps to reduce power loss. Therefore, Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) studies aim at designing appropriate system configurations to enable a reliable operation of power systems. Establishment of such a configuration is handled through control variables in power systems. On the other hand, installing Distributed Generation Unit (DGU) into a power system can have an important effect on power quality and power loss minimization. In this paper, Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO method is applied to ORPD problem for the first time, to find optimal placement of newly installed DGUs at the power system. Active power loss and voltage minimization have been minimized by optimizing the control variables while keeping them within their upper and lower bounds, and by finding the optimal placement of a newly installed DGU in power system. On the basis of IEEE 30 bus and IEEE 118 bus systems, performance of the suggested approach is investigated. A comparison is also performed among the proposed method and some other methods. Test results demonstrate that the resulting configuration contributes to growing the rate of renewable integration to a power system. The results also indicate that the suggested optimization approach applied to ORPD problem has improved power system performance in terms of both on power loss and voltage deviation. The promising results highlight the potential of the GWO algorithm to facilitate the integration of renewable power sources, and its role in promoting sustainable energy solutions.

New innovative green concepts in electrified vertical take-off and landing vehicles currently emerge as a revolution to urban mobility going into the third dimension (vertically). The high population density of cities makes the market share highly attractive while posing an extraordinary challenge for community acceptance due to the increasing and possibly noisier commuter traffic. In addition to passenger transport, package deliveries to customers by drones may enter the market. The new challenges associated with this increasing transportation need in urban, rural and populated areas pose challenges for established companies and startups to deliver low-noise emission products. The article's objective is to revisit the benefits and drawbacks of an affordable acoustic measurement campaign focused on early prototyping. In the very early phase of product development, often considerably limited resources are available. With this in mind, the article discusses the sound power results using the enveloping surface method in a typically available low-reflection room with a reflecting floor according to DIN EN ISO 3744:2011-02. The method is applied to a subsonic electric ducted fan (EDF) unit of a 1:2 scaled electrified vertical take-off and landing vehicle. The results show that considerable information at low costs can be gained for the early prototyping stage, despite this easy-to-use, easy-to-realize, and not fine-tuned measurement setup. Furthermore, the limitations and improvements to a possible experimental setup are presented to discuss a potentially more ideal measurement environment. Measurements at discrete operating points and transient measurements across the total operating range were conducted to provide complete information on the EDF's acoustic behavior. The rotor-self noise and the rotor-stator interaction were identified as primary tonal sound sources, along with the highest broadband noise sources located on the rotor. Based on engineering experience, a first acoustic improvement treatment is also quantified with a sound power level reduction of 4dB(A). In conclusion, the presented method is a beneficial first measurement campaign to quantify the acoustic properties of an electric ducted fan unit at minimal resources in a reasonable time of several weeks when starting from scratch.

The aim was to evaluate levels of compassion fatigue in nursing professionals working in complex care units of a Brazilian university hospital. A cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study was carried out with nursing workers from complex care units of a University Hospital. Data were collected in the second half of 2019, in the pre-pandemic period of COVID-19, using the Brazilian version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQoL-BR). A total of 146 individuals partici-pated, including 41 (28.1%) nurses, 92 (63.0%) nursing technicians and 13 (8.9%) nursing assis-tants. It was observed that 26.1% presented high level of compassion satisfaction. For 17.5% there was level of burnout and 49.7%, medium level of burnout; and 22.0% with high and 46.1% with medium level of secondary traumatic stress. Twenty-eight (19.2%) professionals had compassion fatigue, of which 16 (57.1%) were nursing technicians. There is a high percentage of professionals with medium and high rates of burnout and secondary traumatic stress, a fact that is reinforced by the presence of compassion fatigue in almost one fifth of the studied individuals. These results highlights how much the health of these workers can be affected by living with traumatic patient experiences.

The use of antibiotics in neonatal units worldwide varies significantly. We included data from 2015-2022 from the EpicLatino database, which comprises a network of 32 units in Latin America and the Caribbean with gestational age at birth (GA) of ≤ 32 weeks. A questionnaire was sent to the EpicLatino units, to correlate practice with outcomes. Negative binomial regression with standard errors and confidence intervals computed for incidence-rate ratios (IRRs) was used for comparative statistics on antibiotic days per 1000 patient-days between units. All units that responded had 1-6 differences with the reference unit (Unit 2) with the best results, but there was no clear association with the IRR. Each EpicLatino unit should review its statistics to explore possibilities for reducing antibiotic usage.

We propose that the short−term memory (STM), when processing a sentence, uses two uncorrelated processing units in series. The clues for conjecturing this model emerge from studying many novels of the Italian and English Literatures. This simple model, referring to the surface of language, seems to describe mathematically the input-output characteristics of a complex mental process involved in a reading/writing a sentence. We show that there are no significant mathematical/statistical differences between the two literary corpora by considering deep-language variables and linguistic communication channels, therefore, the surface mathematical structure of alphabetical languages is very deeply rooted in human mind, independently of the language used. The first processing unit is linked to the number of words between two contiguous interpunctions, variable Ip, approximately ranging in Miller’s 7±2 range; the second unit is linked to the number of Ip’s contained in a sentence, variable MF, ranging approximately from 1 to 6. The overall capacity required to process fully of a sentence ranges from 8.3 to 61.23 words, values that can be converted into time by assuming a reading speed, giving the range 2.64~19.54 seconds for fast-reading and 5.3~30.1 seconds for average reader. Since a sentence conveys meaning, the surface features we have found might be the starting point to arrive at an Information Theory that includes meaning.

We ascertain the in vitro Benznidazole (BZN) and Nifurtimox (NFX) susceptibility pattern of epimastigotes, trypomastigotes, and amastigotes of 21 T. cruzi strains, from patients, reservoir and triatomine bugs of various geographic origin. Using this panel of isolates, we compute the Epidemiological cut off value (CO_wt). Then, the frequency of the susceptible phenotype (Wild type) towards BZN and nifurtimox (NFX) within this set of strains belonging to 3 discrete typing units (DTUs), TcI, TcII, and TcV was deduced. We have observed that the susceptibility status of individual T. cruzi isolates toward BZN and NFX is related to the genetic background and to underlying factors probably related to the individual life trait history of each strain. Analyzing drug susceptibility in this conceptual framework would offers the possibility to evidence a link between isolates expressing a low susceptibility level (not wild-type) as define by the CO_wt value and none-curative treatment. It will also permit to tract drug-resistant parasites in T. cruzi population.

This study addresses the challenge of objectively quantifying the value of specific views, known to provide psychological and physical benefits, from city center apartments. Unlike subjective evaluations, objective measurement is hindered by limited research and methodology. The research focuses on quantifying visibility by projecting rays from measurement points and determining whether they intersect with unobstructed views, such as the sky and natural elements. Two metrics are proposed to evaluate visibility: the number of view rays and the ratio of view rays to windows. The study analyzed 17 types of residential units in 12 complexes in northern Seoul, South Korea, with the aim of isolating the effect of views on housing prices from other factors. Correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationship between view and housing prices. The results indicated that valuations based on average visibility are more favorable than those based on maximum visibility. The amount of visibility showed a stronger correlation with apartment prices than the number of floors, suggesting the need to measure views across the entire space. The study's methodology can be applied to analyze views in different buildings and urban areas.

Load Frequency Control (LFC) is essential to ensure the stability and performance of power systems. In this study, a novel optimization algorithm, the Sea Horse Optimizer (SHO) algorithm, was proposed for optimizing controller parameters in LFC problems of power system. The proposed SHO algorithm was tested on a two-area power system with photovoltaic system and reheat thermal units, under three different scenarios: a 10% load change in both area, large load disturbances, and varying solar radiation. The proposed algorithm optimizes the gain parameters of PI/PID controllers using performance metrics such as Integral of Absolute value of the Error (IAE), Integral of Square Error (ISE), Integral of Time multiplied by Square Error (ITSE), and Integral of Time multiplied by Absolute Error (ITAE). The study compared the performance of the SHO-optimized controller with other reported optimization algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Firefly Algorithm (FA), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), and Modified Whale Optimization Algorithm (MWOA). The study also evaluated the accuracy and effectiveness of the controllers using performance metrics such as Settling Time, Overshoot (M+), and Undershoot (M-). The results show that the SHO-tuned controller significantly reduces overshoot, undershoot, and settling time of the system oscillations compared to other algorithms. The study provides valuable insights into the optimization of LFC controllers and presents a significant contribution to the literature with its novel algorithm. The proposed SHO algorithm can be considered an effective alternative solution method for LFC in power systems.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the transfer of local government public ser-vices to the virtual world. Remote handling of matters in government offices has be-come the norm rather than the exception. The 2016 EU directive on public sector web-sites and mobile applications and the 2019 European Digital Accessibility Act made it mandatory that these services be provided electronically and accessible to people with disabilities. The purpose of the study conducted by the authors was to determine whether the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the implementation of European solutions in the Polish legal order and whether this implementation resulted in the actual adap-tation of digital activities of local government units (LGUs) to the needs of people with disabilities. The research was conducted in Q4 2022 in two trial formats: 1. In the form of a survey (about 250 LGUs), which covered compliance with for-mal requirements, the level of readiness of the officials to create digitally accessible documents and content, and organizational readiness of the offices. 2. In the form of an analysis of the source code of the websites of 66 Polish cities with county rights - due to the availability of results of the same sample from 2015. The completed research showed that the LGUs in Poland: 1. met the formal and organizational requirements for digital accessibility, 2. did not make the necessary efforts to prepare employees to create digitally ac-cessible documents and content, 3. the surveyed websites had inferior source code in terms of meeting the WCAG standard in 2022 than in 2015. It seems reasonable to conclude that the Covid-19 pandemic had a formal, rather than real, impact on the digital accessibility of services provided by Polish LGUs.

In this paper, a modular wire-actuated robotic arm was designed to improve the safety and adaptability of service robots during human-robot interaction. To raise the stiffness adjustment range of the robotic arm, a symmetric variable-stiffness unit was designed based on flexure, which had compact and simple structure, and lowly nonlinear stiffness-force relationship. In this paper, we focused on the research of the symmetric 1-DOF joint module. Based on the kinematics and stiffness analysis, the pose of the joint module could be adjusted by controlling the length of the wires, and the stiffness of the joint module could be adjusted by controlling the tension of the wires. Because of the actuation redundancy, the pose and stiffness of the joint module could be controlled synchronously. Furthermore, a directly method was proposed for the stiffness-oriented wire tension distribution problem of the 1-DOF joint module. A simulation was carried out to verify the proposed method.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between clinical outcomes and lateral thrust before and after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) using inertial measurement sensor units. Eleven knees were evaluated with gait analysis. The varus angular velocity was used to evaluate lateral thrust. The femoro-tibial angle (FTA) and hip-knee-ankle angle (HKA) were used to evaluate lower limb alignment, and Oxford Knee Score (OKS) and Japanese Orthopaedic Association Score (JOA) were used to evaluate clinical outcomes. The mean pre-UKA peak varus velocity was 37.1 ± 9.8°/sec, and that of post-UKA was 28.8 ± 9.1°/sec (p=0.00003). Assuming the definition of lateral thrust is when varus angular velocity is more than 28.1°/sec, 81.8% of patients had lateral thrust preoperatively, but this decreased to 55.6% postoperatively. Both OKS and JOA improved after surgery. In addition, HKA was -7.9° preoperatively and -5.8° postoperatively (p=0.024), and FTA was 181.4° preoperatively and 178.4° postoperatively (p=0.012). There was a positive correlation between postoperative JOA and FTA, indicating that changes in postoperative alignment affected clinical outcomes. This study quantitatively evaluated the disappearance of lateral thrust by UKA, and it found that the stability can be achieved by UKA for unstable knees with lateral thrust.

Integrating systems acquired from third parties and legacies has become of great necessity in companies. This is mainly due to the need to exchange information between entities, such as banks, suppliers, customers, allies, etc. Therefore, it is essential to guarantee the integrity of the data and keep the integration up to date with the changes that can occur. Furthermore, reducing the transaction risk and avoiding losing information is necessary. Implementing this complex task involving technological and business challenges requires appropriate architecture implementation. This article presents an architecture named Dynamic Canonical Data Model through agnostic messages. The contribution involves treating the low link in integrating software units, also called the integration of loosely coupled software units. In particular, it focuses on internal data and external data integration. The proposal reduces their integration, maintenance time, and cost, maximizing their scalability and promoting reuse. To illustrate their components, a case study undertaken at the Mexican Logistics Company Paquetexpress is presented. The company has evaluated different enterprise application integration systems over 26 years to achieve a standardized integration. The article describes an architecture designed and implemented for this delivery company in a real-world case. The implementation’s source code was registered in the National Registry of Copyrights of Mexico.

Background/Objectives: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common emergency presentation in Australia, with the choice of admitting specialty unit often influenced by pneumonia severity and comorbidities. However, it remains unclear whether there are between-specialty differences in patient characteristics and outcomes. We sought to address this issue by investigating the characteristics and outcomes of CAP patients admitted to General Medicine (GM) versus Respiratory units.Methods: This retrospective observational study utilised data from the two largest metropolitan hospitals in South Australia, encompassing all non-COVID-19-related CAP admissions throughout 2021 to 2023. Hospital length of stay (LOS), in-patient and 30-day mortality, and 30-day readmission rates were assessed by propensity-score-matching (PSM) with using 14 variables.Results: Of the 3,004 cases of non-COVID-19 CAP admitted across the two hospitals during the study period, 2,673 (71.8%) were admitted under GM units and 331 (9.1%) under Respiratory units. GM patients were, on average, a decade older, presented with a significantly higher burden of comorbidities, exhibited a greater prevalence of frailty and had higher pneumonia severity compared to those admitted under a Respiratory unit, (P

The success rate of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is influenced by various factors, including stone density, which is determined through computed tomography scans in Hounsfield Units (HU). Materials and method: This retrospective single-center study was conducted in King Fahad hospital. Sixty-seven adult patients with renal and ureteric stones were selected randomly and enrolled in the study. Their age ranged from 20 to 69 years. The patients were examined with non-contrast enhancement (NCCT) to assess the HU of stones, consequently, treated with ESWL. Results: of the 67 patients, 37.3% of the stones were completely fragmented, while 62.7% were partially fragmented. HU, location of the stone, a multiplicity of the stone, and patient age were significant factors contributing to stone fragility (p-values&lt; 0.05). The HU has a positive significant linear correlation with serum calcium (r= .28, p-value=.036), while serum acid has a negative correlation (r=-.55, p-value= &lt; .001). Thus, the probability of calcium-containing stones formation increased with increased HU. In contrast, uric acid stone formation is likely to develop with decreasing HU with serum uric acid. Renal stones in patients with diabetes mellitus and hypertension were not completely fragmented compared to those without clinical history. Conclusion: Mean HU, location of the stone, laterality, status of stone, and the number of ESWL sessions were the most significant factors affecting stone fragility. CT attenuation values can predict the composition of stones from serum calcium and uric acid examinations. Hypertension and Diabetes mellitus are risk factors for renal stone fragmentation.

Background: Falls risk assessment tools are used in hospital inpatient settings to identify pa-tients at increased risk of falls (which may be related to muscle loss/sarcopenia) to guide and target interventions for falls prevention. In 2022, Western Health, Melbourne, Australia, intro-duced a new falls risk assessment tool, the Western Health St. Thomas’ Risk Assessment Tool (WH-STRATIFY), a modified version of The Northern Hospital’s risk tool (TNH-STRATIFY), which replaced the Peninsula Health Risk Screening Tool (PH-FRAT). Aims: To determine the predictive accuracy of three falls risk assessment tools (PH-FRAT, TNH-STRATIFY and WH-STRATIFY) on admission to Geriatric Evaluation Management (GEM) units. Method: A retrospective observational study was conducted on four GEM units. Data was col-lected on 54 consecutive patients who fell during admission and 62 randomly sampled patients who did not fall between December 2020 and June 2021. Participants were scored against three falls risk assessment tools. The event rate Youden (Youden IndexER) indices were calculated and compared using default and optimal cut points to determine which tool was most accurate for predicting falls. Results: Using default cut points to compare falls assessment tools, TNH-STRATIFY had the highest predictive accuracy (Youden IndexER = 0.20, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.07, 0.34). The PH-FRAT (Youden IndexER = 0.01 and 95% CI = -0.04, 0.05) and WH-STRATIFY (Youden IndexER = 0.00 and 95% CI = -0.04, 0.03) were statistically equivalent and not predictive of falls compared to TNH-STRATIFY. When calculated optimal cut points were applied, predictive accuracy im-proved for PH-FRAT (Cut point 17, Youden IndexER = 0.14 and 95% CI = 0.01, 0.29) and WH-STRATIFY (Cut point 7, Youden IndexER = 0.18 and 95% CI = 0.00, 0.35). Overall, all tools had low predictive accuracy for falls. Conclusion: TNH-STRATIFY had the highest predictive accuracy for falls. The predictive accu-racy of WH-STRATIFY improved and was significant when the calculated optimal cut point was applied. The optimal cut points of falls risk assessment tools should be determined and validated in different clinical settings to optimise local predictive accuracy, enabling targeted falls risk mitigation strategies and resource allocation.

Nasal high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (nHFOV) has emerged as an effective initial and rescue noninvasive respiratory support mode for preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Multiple noninvasive respiratory support modes are currently available in Romania, but little is known about nHFOV use in Romanian neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). We aimed to identify the usage extent and clinical application of nHFOV in Romania. A structured web-based questionnaire was designed to find the rate of nHFOV use and knowledge of this new method of noninvasive respiratory support in Romanian level III NICUs. The questionnaire was addressed to the leaders of all level III Romanian NICUs. Using multiple-choice, open-ended, and yes/no questions, we collected information on the NICU’s size, noninvasive respiratory support modes used, nHFOV use, indications, settings, nasal interfaces, secondary effects, and equipment used. Descriptive statistics and comparisons were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0. A total of 21/23 (91.3%) leaders from level III NICUs (median [IQR] number of beds of 10 [10-17.5]) responded to the survey. The most frequently used noninvasive ventilation modes were CPAP mode on mechanical ventilators (76.2%), followed by NIPPV (76.2%), heated, humidified high flow nasal cannula (HHHFNC) (61.9%), and nHFOV (11/21 units; 52.4%); 5/11 units reported frequent nHFOV use (in 2 or more newborns/month) in both term and preterm infants. The main indications reported for nHFOV use were CPAP failure (90.9%), hypercapnia (81.8%), and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (72.7%). 10/11 units reported setting a mean airway pressure (MAP) equal to the CPAP level plus 1-2 cmH₂O on rescue nHFOV after CPAP failure. Both dedicated equipment (45.5%) and hybrid ventilators (63.6%) were used for nHFOV delivery, with face/nasal masks and short binasal prongs being the most commonly used nasal interfaces (90.9% and 72.7%, respectively). Air leaks at the interface level (90.9%), thick secretions (81.8%), and airway obstruction (63.6%) were the most frequently mentioned adverse effects of nHFOV; none of the units mentioned pneumothorax as an adverse effect. Only 3 of the NICUs had a written protocol for nHFOV use. Initial, minimum, and maximum amplitude and initial and minimum MAP settings used were significantly higher with hybrid ventilators as compared to dedicated equipment (p<0.05). Most units not yet using nHFOV cited lack of equipment, experience, training, or insufficient information and evidence for the clinical use and outcome of nHFOV use in neonates as the main reasons for not implementing this noninvasive respiratory mode. Our survey showed that nHFOV is already used in more than half of the Romanian level III NICUs to support term and preterm infants with respiratory distress despite a lack of consensus regarding indications and settings during nHFOV. A need for training for nHFOV use was identified, and efforts are needed at the national level to develop courses and training sessions, including using simulation workshops, to offer more information on optimal nHFOV use in clinical practice.

The calculation of the global shear capacity of steel-concrete composite downstand cellular beams with precast hollow-core units is important as it affects the span to depth ratios and the amount of material used, hence affects the embodied CO2 calculation when designers are deciding on the floor grids. This paper presents a reliable tool that can be used by designers to alter and optimise grip options during the preliminary design stages, without the need to run onerous calculations. The global shear capacity prediction formula is developed using five machine learning models. First, a finite element model database is developed. The influence of the opening diameter, web opening spacing, tee-section height, concrete topping thickness, the interaction degree, and the number of shear studs above the web opening are investigated. Reliability analysis is conducted to assess the design method and propose new partial safety factors. The Catboost Regressor algorithm presented better accuracy compared to the other algorithms. An equation to predict the shear capacity of composite cellular beams with hollow-core units is proposed by Gene Expression Programming. In general, the partial safety factor for resistance, according to the reliability analysis, varied between 1.25 and 1.26.

The primary objective of this research was to assess the energy consumption of the gas treatment units at Bonny NLNG Refinery, the first Gas Refinery in Rivers State, Nigeria, while utilizing semi-lean amine. To achieve this goal, a simulation of the units was conducted using the advanced software package Aspen Hysys (V.8.3). The simulation was designed to accurately represent the dynamic behavior of the refinery's gas treatment units, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of their energy usage. The research aimed to quantify the energy consumption of the gas treatment units and identify opportunities for energy optimization. By utilizing semi-lean amine, which is known to improve energy efficiency, the study sought to evaluate the potential energy savings that could be achieved in the refinery's operations. The simulation model incorporated the specific design and operational parameters of the gas treatment units at Bonny NLNG Refinery, including the gas flow rate, lean amine concentration, absorber pressure, stripping temperature, amine circulation rate, and acid gas removal efficiency. By considering these parameters, the simulation accurately represented the dynamic behavior of the gas treatment units, enabling a detailed analysis of their energy consumption. Through the simulation, various scenarios and operational conditions were evaluated to determine the optimal set of parameters that minimized energy consumption. The research also examined the trade-offs between energy consumption, acid gas removal efficiency, and other performance indicators, such as amine circulation rate and regeneration efficiency. The findings of this research have significant implications for the energy efficiency and sustainability of gas treatment operations at Bonny NLNG Refinery. By identifying opportunities for energy optimization and providing recommendations for the utilization of semi-lean amine, the study contributes to the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly gas treatment processes. Overall, this research combines advanced simulation techniques with a comprehensive analysis of energy consumption to provide valuable insights into the energy efficiency of gas treatment units at Bonny NLNG Refinery, enabling informed decision-making and potential improvements in energy utilization. By utilizing the percentage-based unit simulation approach, a detailed examination of the energy consumption patterns was obtained. This analysis provides valuable insights into the operational efficiency and determination of potential energy-saving opportunities within the gas treatment units. This study specifically focuses on the integration of an absorption column split stream (stream flow) and a flash unit as a potential means to reduce the energy consumption of gas treatment devices. The integration of these units aims to optimize the overall energy efficiency of the gas treatment process by recovering and utilizing waste heat and reducing energy losses. The absorption column split stream allows for the diversion of a portion of the gas stream to a flash unit before entering the absorber. The flash unit operates at a lower pressure, which facilitates the release of entrained hydrocarbons and reduces the overall energy requirements for gas treatment. By separating and recovering the hydrocarbons in the flash unit, energy losses associated with their absorption and subsequent regeneration are minimized. Through the simulation, the study analyzes the energy consumption patterns of the gas treatment units with and without the integration of the absorption column split stream and flash unit. Comparative assessments are conducted to evaluate the energy savings and overall operational efficiency achieved through this integration. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights into the potential energy-saving opportunities offered by the integration of the absorption column split stream and flash unit in gas treatment devices. It will help refine the design and operation of gas treatment units, enabling more energy-efficient processes in the gas refining industry. By optimizing energy consumption in gas treatment units, the study contributes to the industry's goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving sustainability. The integration of the absorption column split stream and flash unit offers a promising approach to enhance energy efficiency, reduce operational costs, and minimize environmental impact. Overall, this research underscores the importance of exploring innovative solutions, such as the integration of different process units, to achieve energy savings in gas treatment operations. Through a comprehensive analysis of energy consumption patterns, this study aims to provide practical recommendations for optimizing energy efficiency in gas treatment units, fostering a more sustainable and efficient gas refining industry.The research specifically explores the impact of integrating the absorption column split stream and flash unit when dealing with sour gas streams containing carbon dioxide concentrations of less than mole ℅, while utilizing MDEA fluid as the solvent. Through comprehensive analysis and simulation using advanced software tools, the study demonstrates that by incorporating the absorption column split stream and flash unit, a significant reduction in device energy consumption of up to 10% can be achieved. The integration of the absorption column split stream and flash unit offers promising opportunities to enhance the energy efficiency of gas treatment devices. By diverting a portion of the gas stream to the flash unit, the separation of hydrocarbons and the subsequent release of entrained hydrocarbons at lower pressure significantly reduce the overall energy requirements for gas treatment. The comprehensive analysis and simulation conducted in the research provide concrete evidence of the energy-saving potential of this integration. By quantifying the energy consumption patterns and comparing scenarios with and without integration, the study establishes the effectiveness of the approach and its impact on operational efficiency. The findings of the research highlight the importance of considering the specific gas composition and utilizing appropriate solvents, such as MDEA, for optimizing energy efficiency. The integration of the absorption column split stream and flash unit not only reduces energy consumption but also offers the potential for cost savings and environmental benefits. Overall, the research demonstrates that by incorporating the absorption column split stream

Introduction: Overuse of antibiotics has been increasing in recent years and is currently the most prescribed drug in the paediatric age. It is estimated that 72% of patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are treated with antibiotics. One of the effects observed with their use is the alteration of the microbiota, which is associated with metabolic disorders including obesity. In this study, the aim was to determine in newborn rats, whether most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Mexican NICUs have a differential effect on weight gain, development of adiposity, and modification of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Methods: This is an experimental study in newborn rats, comparing Ampicillin/Meropenem (Access/Watch groups) 100 mg/g every 12 h /10 mg/g every 12 h (each of these two antibiotics was adjusted to the required dosages based on weight); Cefotaxime 200 mg/g every 24 h; (Watch group) and Amikacin 15 mg/g every 24 h (Access group) versus Saline Solution as Control. Each antibiotic was intraperitoneal administered daily for 5 days in males (to avoid gender differences) to 14 newborn rats in each group. A comparison of anthropometric and biochemical parameters registered on day 28 was made using ANOVA analysis. Differences were considered if p < 0.05.Results: Amikacin was the antibiotic with the greatest effect on anthropometric measurements and LDL-cholesterol; as well as Cefotaxime on Glucose and triglycerides, while Meropenem plus Ampicillin showed the weakest effect on measured parameters. Conclusion: The administration of antibiotics in the neonatal stage has repercussions on the body composition of adult rats, as well as on lipids and carbohydrates serum levels. Future studies might evaluate the toxicity of antibiotics on the immature neonatal organs.

Intensive care nurses are highly prone to occupational stress and burnout, affecting their physical and mental health. The occurrence of the pandemic and related events increased nurses’ workload and exacerbated stress and burnout. We conducted a prospective longitudinal mixed-methods study with a cohort of nurses working in a medical ICU (COVID unit; n = 14) and cardiovascular ICU (non-COVID unit; n = 5). Each participant was followed for six 12-hour shifts. Validated questionnaires measured occupational stress and burnout prevalence. Wrist-worn wearable technologies recorded physiological indices of stress. Participants elaborated on the contributors to stress via post-study questionnaire. Data were analyzed using statistical and qualitative methods. Participants who cared for COVID patients at the COVID unit were 3.71 times more likely to experience stress (p &lt; .001) in comparison to non-COVID unit participants. No differences in stress levels were found when the same participants worked with COVID and non-COVID patients at different shifts at the COVID unit. The cohorts expressed similar contributors to stress including communication tasks, patient acuity, clinical procedures, admission processes, proning, labs, and assisting coworkers. Nurses in COVID units, irrespective of whether they care for a COVID patient, may experience high occupational stress and burnout.

Visual Patient Avatar ICU is an innovative approach to patient monitoring enhancing the user's situation awareness in intensive care settings. It dynamically displays the patient's current vital signs through changes in color, shape and animation. The technology can also indicate patient-inserted devices, such as arterial lines, central lines and urinary catheters, along with their insertion locations. We conducted an international, multi-center study using a sequential qualitative-quantitative design to evaluate users' perception of Visual Patient Avatar ICU among physicians and nurses. Twenty-five nurses and twenty-five physicians from the ICU participated in the structured interviews. Forty of them completed the online survey. Overall, ICU professionals expressed a positive outlook on Visual Patient Avatar ICU. They described Visual Patient Avatar ICU as a simple and intuitive tool that improved information retention and facilitated problem identification. However, a subset of participants expressed concerns about potential information overload and a sense of incompleteness due to missing exact numerical values. These findings provide valuable insights into user perceptions of Visual Patient Avatar ICU and encourage further technology development before clinical implementation.

The national-scale evaluation and modelling of the impact of agricultural management and cli-mate change on soils, crop growth, and the environment require soil information at a spatial res-olution addressing individual agricultural fields. This manuscript presents a data science ap-proach which agglomerates the soil parameter space into a limited number of functional soil pro-cess units (SPUs) which may be used to run agricultural process models. In fact, two unsupervised classification methods were developed to generate a multivariate 3D data product consisting of SPUs, each being defined by a multivariate parameter distribution along the depth profile from 0 to 100 cm. The two methods account for differences in variable types and distributions and in-volve genetic algorithm optimization to identify those SPUs with the lowest internal variability and maximum inter-unit difference with regards to both, their soil characteristics and landscape setting. The high potential of the methods was demonstrated by applying them to the agricultural German soil landscape. The resulting data product consists of twenty SPUs. It has a 100 m raster resolution in the 2D mapping space, and its resolution along the depth profile is 1 cm. It includes the soil properties texture, stone content, bulk density, hydromorphic properties, total organic carbon content, and pH.

The development of organ-on-chip and biological scaffolds is currently requiring simpler methods to microstructure biocompatible materials in three dimensions, fabricate structural and functional elements in biomaterials or modify the physicochemical properties of desired substrates. Aiming at addressing this need, a low-power CD-DVD-Blu-ray laser pickup head was mounted on a programmable three-axis micro-displacement system in order to modify the surface of polymeric materials in a local fashion. Thanks to a specially-designed method using a strongly absorbing additive coating the materials of interest, it has been possible to establish and precisely control processes useful in microtechnology for biomedical applications. The system was upgraded with blu-ray laser for additive manufacturing and ablation on a single platform. In this work, we present the application of these fabrication techniques to the development of biomimetic cellular culture platforms thanks to the simple integration of several features typically achieved with traditional, less cost-effective microtechnology methods in one step or through replica-molding. Our straightforward approach indeed enables great control of local laser microablation or polymerization for true on-demand biomimetic micropatterned designs in transparent polymers and hydrogels and is allowing integration of microfluidics, microelectronics, surface microstructuring and transfer of superficial protein micropatterns on a variety of biocompatible materials.

The functionalization of copolyfluorenes containing dicyanophenanthrene units by closo-decaborate anion is described. Target copolyfluorenes were analyzed using UV-vis, luminescence, NMR and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The effect of complexation with the closo-decaborate anion on the photophysical properties was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The PL data indicate an efficient charge transfer from fluorene to the dicyanophenanthrene units coordinated to closo-decaborate. The coordination of closo-decaborate clusters to the nitrile groups of copolyfluorenes provides an important route to new materials for sensors and light-emitting devices while at the same time serving as a platform for further study of the nature of boron clusters.

Semi-destructive and non-destructive techniques are not commonly used for masonry as they are complex and difficult to perform. This paper describes validation of the following methods: semi-destructive and non-destructive, ultrasonic technique for autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC). The research subject was the compressive strength of AAC test elements with declared various density classes of: 400, 500, 600 and 700 (kg/m3) and various moisture levels. Empirical data including the shape and size of specimens, were established from tests on 494 cylindrical and cuboid specimens, and standard cube specimens 100×100×100 mm using the general relationship for standard concrete (Neville’s curve). The effect of moisture on AAC was taken into account while determining the strength fBw for 127 standard specimens tested at different levels of water content (w = 100%, 67%, 33% 23% and 10%). Defined empirical relations can be used to correct the compressive strength of dry specimens. For 91 specimens 100×100×100 mm, the P-wave velocity cp was tested with the transmission method using using the ultrasonic pulse velocity method with exponential transducers. The curve (fBw – cp) for determining the compressive strength of AAC elements with any moisture level (fBw) was established.

Rotational jumps are crucial techniques in sports competitions. Estimating ground reaction forces (GRFs), one of the components constituting jumps, through a biomechanical model-based approach enables analysis even in environments where force plates or machine learning training data cannot be utilized. In this study, rotational jump movements involving twists on land were measured using inertial measurement units (IMUs) and estimated GRFs and body loads using a 3D forward dynamics model. Our estimation method, based on forward dynamics and optimization calculations, generated and optimized body movements using cost functions defined by motion measurements and internal body loads. To reduce the influence of the dynamic acceleration in the optimization calculation, the 3D orientation using sensor fusion composed of acceleration and angular velocity data obtained from IMUs and an extended Kalman filter was estimated. As a result, by generating movements based on the cost function, it was possible to calculate biomechanically valid GRFs while following the measured movements even if not all joints are covered by IMUs. This estimation method allows for 3D motion analysis independent of measurement conditions or training data.

Background: Children suffering from COVID-19 constitute about 10% of the entire population infected with the virus. In most of them, we observe asymptomatic or mild course; however, about 1% of affected children require a stay in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) due to the severe life-threatening course. The risk of respiratory failure, as in adults, is associated with the coexistence of concomitant diseases. The aim of our study was to analyze patients admitted to PICUs due to severe course of SARS-CoV-19 infection. Methods: A retrospective multi-center study, the analysis covered all children with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, who were admitted to PICUs, in the period from November 2020 to August 2021. We studied epidemiological and laboratory parameters, and the endpoint – survival or death. Results: The study analyzed 45 patients (0.075% of all children hospitalized in Poland due to COVID-19 at that time). Mortality calculated in the entire study group was 40% (n=18). Statistically significant differences between the compared groups (survived and died) concerned the parameters of the respiratory system, Lung Injury Score and Pediatric Sequential Organ Failure Assessment . A significant correlation between disease severity and the patient's prognosis was shown by the liver function parameter AST (p=0.028). Analyzing patients requiring mechanical ventilation and assuming survival as the primary outcome, a significantly higher oxygen index on the first day of hospitalization, lower pSOFA scores and lower AST levels (p: 0.007; 0.043; 0.020; 0.005; 0.039, respectively) were found. Conclusions: As in adults, children with comorbidities are most frequently at risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. Increasing symptoms of respiratory failure, the need for mechanical ventilation and persistently high values of aspartate aminotransferase are indicators of poor prognosis.

Natural systems of units $\{U_i\}$ need to be overhauled to include the dimensionless coupling constants $\{\upalpha_{U_i}\}$ of the natural forces. Otherwise, they cannot quantify all forces of nature in a unified manner. Thus, each force must furnish a system of units with at least one dimensional and one dimensionless constant. We revisit three natural systems of units (atomic, cosmological, and Planck). The Planck system is easier to rectify, and we do so in this work. The atomic system discounts $\{ G, \upalpha_G \}$, thus it cannot account for gravitation. The cosmological system discounts $\{ \slashed{h}, \upalpha_\slashed{h} \}$, thus it cannot account for quantum physics. Here, the symbols have their usual meanings; in particular, $\upalpha_G$ is the gravitational coupling constant and $\upalpha_\slashed{h}$ is Dirac's fine-structure constant. The speed of light $c$ and the impedance of free space $Z_0$ are resistive properties imposed by the vacuum itself, thus they must be present in all systems of units. The upgraded Planck system with fundamental units $${\rm UPS} \,:=\,\{ c, Z_0, G, \upalpha_G, \slashed{h}, \upalpha_\slashed{h}, \,\dots\,\!\},$$ describes all physical scales in the universe---it is nature's system of units. As such, it reveals a number of properties, most of which have been encountered previously in seemingly disjoint parts of physics, and some of which have been designated as mere coincidences. Based on the UPS results, that relate (sub)atomic scales to the Planck scale and the fine-structure constant to the Higgs field, we can state with confidence that no observed/measured physical properties are coincidental in this universe. Furthermore, we derive from first principles Koide's $K=2/3$ enigmatic constant and additional analogous quark and vector boson constants. These are formal mathematical proofs that justify a posteriori the use of geometric means in deriving the quark/boson mass ladder. This ladder allows us to also calculate the Higgs couplings to the vector bosons and the Weinberg angle in terms of only $K$.

Introduction: Parameters used for neonatal mortality calculation vary among publications. Mortality in < 33 weeks gestational age at birth display global variations across different healthcare units. Objective: This study aims to explore trends in neonatal mortality among infants born preterm in the different units in Latin America and the Caribbean utilizing the EpicLatino Network Database in comparison to Canadian Neonatal Network (CNN) 2022. Materials and Methods: This study focused on an eight-year period, with a particular attention to mortality rates during the pre-pandemic (2015-2019) and pandemic/post pandemic (2020-2022) periods. Survival rates from CNN 2022 were included in the comparison analysis. Logistic regression analysis was confined to the 2020-2022 period. Adjustments were made for factors including gestational age, small for gestational age (SGA), Snape II score, inborn/outborn status, and center. As major malformations could account for mortality differences among units. The incidence of major congenital malformations, as defined by CNN, was compared among deceased patients. Results: A total of 15,454 records from 2015-2019 and 10,711 records from 2020-2022 were scrutinized. Overall, there were no significant differences in mortality rates between the two time periods (p=0.22). Moreover, the originating unit during the 2020-2022 period significantly influenced all statistical computations. Conclusions: Survival rates among infants < 26 weeks of gestation in Latin America and the Caribbean are on an upward trajectory, with the healthcare unit playing a pivotal role in this outcome within the EpicLatino database. Major malformations do not seem to be a significant contributing factor. These findings underscore the imperative of implementing quality improvement initiatives to elevate neonatal care standards in Latin America and the Caribbean.

All humans will experience the process of birth, old age, illness, and death. However, when faced with life-sustaining decisions, the families of patients are often faced with medical decisions as surrogates. In recent years, the families of patients have started to value the importance of the right to palliative care, although this often requires lengthy discussions. Therefore, this study explored the predictability of factors that affect the feeling experienced by patients’ families when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. This study used a cross-sectional study and interviewed 90 family members using a structural questionnaire. The study hypotheses were tested using a t-test, one-way analysis of variance, product–moment correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis. Attribute variables of family members, such as gender and whether they live with the patient, are predictors that affect the family member’s feeling experience when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. The emotional support from medical professionals to family members helps the family member to express their negative feelings on signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent; more informational support information provided to family members by medical professionals can alleviate negative feelings felt by family members when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. This study identified that family members’ knowledge about Do-Not-Resuscitate acquired from medical professionals is relatively low. It is suggested that critical care units regularly conduct training on hospice palliative care, implement standard care procedures of hospice palliative care at critical care units, and provide detailed medical information about advanced decisions to family members so as to reduce their emotional stress. This will ensure that intensive care units can also achieve the goal of critically ill hospice palliative care.

This study proposes a novel flexible bus dispatching system where a fleet of fully automated modular bus units, together with conventional buses, serves the passenger demand. These modular bus units can either operate individually or combined (forming larger modular buses with a higher passenger capacity). This provides enormous flexibility to manage the service frequencies and vehicle allocation, reducing thereby the operating cost and improving passenger mobility. We develop an optimization model used to determine the optimal composition of bus units and the optimal service frequency at which the buses (both conventional and modular) are dispatched across each bus line. We explicitly account for the dynamics of traffic congestion and complex interactions between the modes at the network level based on the recently proposed three-dimensional macroscopic fundamental diagram (3D-MFD). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of the 3D-MFD and modular bus units for the frequency setting problem in the domain of bus operations. Numerical results show the improvements in the total system cost made by adapting the number of combined modular bus units and their dispatched frequencies to the evolution of both, the car and the passenger demand. A comparison with the commonly used approach that considers only the bus system (neglecting the complex multimodal interactions and congestion propagation) reveals the value of the proposed modeling framework.

The present exploratory study tested the hypothesis that computerized cognitive training (CCT) in home telemonitoring may beneficially affect eyes-closed resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms in Parkinson's disease patients with cognitive deficits (PDCD). A Eurasian database provided clinical-demographic-rsEEG datasets in 40 PDCD patients, 29 PD patients without cognitive deficits (PDNCD), 40 Alzheimer’s disease patients with cognitive deficits (ADCD), and 40 cognitively normal older adults (Healthy). Sixteen of the 40 PDCD patients completed a cross-over unsupervised CCT program of simple, serious video games (versus a sham program) consisting of 14 daily sessions of approximately 20 minutes each in the patients' homes. Compared to the Healthy, PDNCD, and ADCD groups, the PDCD group was characterized by greater diffuse rsEEG delta (about 2-4 Hz) and theta (about 4-7 Hz) source activity. The PDCD patients who underwent the CCT program showed an improvement in video game performance and a reduction in these delta-theta source activities after this program compared to the control condition. In conclusion, these results suggest that the 2-week CCT program in home telemonitoring may mitigate the abnormal “slowing” of rsEEG rhythms in PDCD patients, possibly enhancing the regulation of brain arousal and quiet vigilance.

Nickel nitrate diammine, Ni(NH₃)₂(NO₃)₂, can be synthesised from the thermal decomposition of the nickel nitrate hexammine, Ni[(NH₃)₆](NO₃)₂. The hexammine decomposes in 2 distinct steps; the first releases 4 equivalents of ammonia while the second involves the release of NO_x, N₂ and H₂O to yield NiO. The intermediate diammine compound can be isolated following the first deammoniation step or synthesised as a single phase from the hexammine under vacuum. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXD) experiments have allowed the structure of Ni(NH₃)₂(NO₃)₂ to be solved for the first time. The compound crystallises in orthorhombic space group Pca2₁ (a = 11.0628 (5) Å, b = 6.0454 (3) Å, c = 9.3526 (4) Å; Z = 4) and contains 11 non-hydrogen atoms in the asymmetric unit. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy demonstrates that the bonding in the ammine is consistent with the structure determined by PXD.

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

Glycosidic linkage analysis was conducted on the unfractionated polysaccharides in the alcohol-insoluble residues (AIRs) prepared from six red seaweeds (Gracilariopsis sp., Prionitis sp., Mastocarpus papillatus, Callophyllis sp., Mazzaella splendens, and Palmaria palmata) using GC-MS/FID analysis of partially methylated alditol acetates (PMAAs). The cell walls of P. palmata primarily contained mixed-linkage xylans and small amounts of sulfated galactans and cellulose. In contrast, the unfractionated polysaccharides of the other five species were rich in galactans displaying diverse 3,6-anhydro-galactose and galactose linkages with varied sulfation patterns. Different levels of cellulose were also observed. This glycosidic linkage method offers advantages for cellulose analysis over traditional monosaccharide analysis that is known for underrepresenting glucose in crystalline cellulose. Relative linkage compositions calculated from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements showed that anhydro sugar linkages generated more response in the latter detection method. This improved linkage workflow presents a useful tool for studying polysaccharide structural variations across red seaweed species. Furthermore, for the first time, relative linkage compositions from GC-MS and GC-FID measurements, along with normalized FID and total ion current (TIC) chromatograms without peak assignments, were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) as a proof-of-concept demonstration of the technique's potential to differentiate various red seaweed species.

Background: Educating college students about the importance of good sleep habits could lead to the adoption of healthier sleep routines, including sufficient sleep duration and sleep quality. The current pre-post study examines the impact of completing a sleep education program called “Sleep 101” on (1) sleep hygiene practices, (2) sleep quality, and (3) weekday and weekend sleep behaviors among college students. “Sleep 101” is an interactive online course developed to educate college students about the importance of sleep by addressing basic sleep physiology, the impact of sleep on mood, academic and physical performance, the interactions between sleep and various substances, and common sleep disorders. Methods: 338 college students were recruited from a midsized public university in the US and invited to participate in “Sleep 101”, of which 25 participants completed the baseline and post-intervention questionnaire. The Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) was utilized to evaluate sleep hygiene practices, while standard questions were employed to assess weekday and weekend sleep behaviors and overall sleep quality. Results: Those who completed the study demonstrated a significant increase in weekday sleep duration and were less likely to engage in negative prior bedtime activities. In addition, 40% of those who completed baseline and post-intervention assessments noticed improvements in their sleep quality. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a brief online program is beneficial in improving sleep behaviors among college and could be a scalable approach to addressing current sleep issues and preventing future sleep problems in college students.

The profile of secondary metabolites occurring in apple cuticular layer is not only characteristic for particular apple cultivar, but also dynamically reflects various external factors in growing environment. In this study, the possibility to authenticate apple samples based on analysis of their cuticular layer extracts was investigated. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) was employed for obtaining metabolomic fingerprints. In total, 274 authentic apple samples, four cultivars harvested within the seasons 2020 to 2022 in the Czech Republic and Poland were analysed. The generated complex data processed by univariate and multivariate statistical methods enabled to build classification models for discrimination of apple cultivars as well as their geographical origin. The models showed very good performance in differentiation of Czech and Polish samples for three of four cultivars: ‘Gala’, ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Idared’, moreover, the validity of the models was verified over harvest seasons. The diagnostic markers, besides metabolites of triterpene biosynthetic pathway, mainly represented wax esters. ‘Jonagold’, which is known to be susceptible to mutations, was the only cultivar for which the unambiguous classification of geographical origin was not possible.

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

Apis mellifera, especially weak ones, are highly vulnerable to Carpoglyphus lactis mites, which can rapidly infest and consume stored pollen, leading to weakened colonies and potentially colony collapse. This study aimed to ascertain and investigate the prevalence of this mite in honeybee colonies across 9 provinces in the Republic of Korea (ROK). A total of 615 honeybee colonies were collected, from 66 apiaries during the spring and 58 apiaries during the summer of 2023. A 1,242 bp segment of the the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction method. The detection levels of C. lactis in the honeybees were compared between winter and summer. Based on the COI sequence analysis, the nucleotide sequence similarity of C. lactis mites isolated in the ROK with those from China (NC048990.1) was found to be 99.5%, and with those from the United Kingdom (KY922482.1) was 99.3%. This study is the first report of C. lactis in Korean apiaries. The findings in this study demonstrate a significantly higher detection rate in winter, which is 4.1 times greater than that in summer (p &lt; 0.001). Furthermore, the results underscore the usefulness of molecular diagnostic techniques for detecting C. lactis mites.

COX II containing a dual core CuA active site is one of the three core subunits of mitochondrial Cco, which plays a significant role in the physiological process. In this report, the full-length cDNA of COXⅡ gene was cloned from Sitophilus zeamais, which had an ORF of 684 bp encoding 227 amino acids residues. The predicted COXⅡ protein had a molecular mass of 26.2 kDa with pI value of 6.37, and multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sitophilus zeamais COXⅡ had high sequence identity 78.51% with the COXⅡ of other insect species, especially similarity to sitophilus oryzae. This gene was subcloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a, and induced by IPTG in E.coli Transetta (DE3) expression system. Finally the COXⅡ with 6-His tag was purified using affinity chromatography with Ni²⁺-NTA agarose. WB showed the recombinant COXⅡ was about 44 kD, and the concentration of fusion protein was 50μg/mL. UV-spectrophotometer and infrared spectrometer analysis showed that recombinant COXⅡ could catalyze the oxidation of substrate Cytc, and influenced by AITC. It was found that AITC could form a hydrophobic region with COXⅡ protein via molecular docking, besides, a sulfur atom of AITC structure could form a length of 2.9 Å hydrogen bond with Leu-31. These results will provide valuable information for elucidating the role of COXⅡ in Sitophilus zeamais responses to AITC, meanwhile, it will helpful to carry out a point mutation in AITC binding sites for the future research.

The properties of the annual, semiannual and triennial oscillations (AO, SAO and TO) in the middle atmosphere have been investigated using the TIMED/SABER temperature data. The Lomb-Scargle and wavelet spectra were used to determine the dominant oscillations in the background temperature field. The AO is prominent at the mid-latitudes. The AO amplitudes present an asymmetry between the two Hemispheres, being larger in the mesosphere than in the stratosphere. The SAO dominates the tropical regions, with three amplitude maxima at altitudes of 45, 75, and 85 km. The SAOs in the upper mesosphere (75 km) are out of phase with those in the mesopause (85 km) in the tropical regions, which can generate an enhancement of 11 K at each equinox, contributing to the lower mesospheric inversion layer. The TO is significant in the tropical region, with amplitude being maximum at 35, 45 and 85 km. Result shows that there may be potential interaction by the TO with SAO at 85km at the equator. The relation between ENSO and TO has also been discussed. The ENSO signal may modulate the amplitude of the TO, mainly in the lower stratosphere. The real origin of the TO may lie in the wave-mean-flow interaction.

This research paper presents an enhanced economic load dispatch (ELD) approach using the Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO) algorithm for 10 thermal units, examining the impact of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) in different charging scenarios. The TLBO algorithm is utilized to optimize the ELD problem, considering the complexities associated with thermal units. The integration of PEVs in the load dispatch optimization is investigated, and different charging profiles and probability distributions are defined for PEVs in various scenarios, including overall charging profile, off-peak charging, peak charging, and stochastic charging. These tables allow for the modeling and analysis of PEV charging behavior and power requirements within the power system. By incorporating PEVs, additional controllable resources are introduced, enabling more effective load management and grid stability. The comparative analysis showcases the advantages of the TLBO-based ELD model with PEVs, demonstrating the potential of coordinated dispatch strategies leveraging PEV storage and controllability. This paper emphasizes the importance of integrating PEVs into the load dispatch optimization process, utilizing the TLBO algorithm, to achieve economic and reliable power system operation while considering different PEV charging scenarios.

This paper is focused on typical rural settlements in the Stara Planina Mountain area in Serbia. They are distinguished by their authenticity, identity and character, and they have still not been destroyed by inappropriate development as is the case in some other mountain areas in Serbia, where the effects of urbanization, globalization and homogenization are obvious. Consequently, there is a need to prevent these effects in mountain areas where there is a threat of disbalance between development and the inherited natural and cultural values. The paper starts from several important concepts that relate contemporary approaches to cultural heritage preservation, place morphology and planning future development. The concept definitions from recent documents from related fields are used. These concepts are then applied to the area of Stara Planina Mountain and its rural settlements. The necessity for an integrative approach to planning this area with significant natural and anthropogenic potential is pointed out, including its integration into international programs of sustainable development.

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

Promoting green development has become an important way to optimize the ecological and economic structure and promote sustainable development. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important economic corridor in China, and it remains to be examined whether the implementation of environmental regulations has enhanced the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities. This paper calculates the green total factor productivity of 107 cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the super-efficient SBM model and the GML index with Chinese city panel data from 2007-2019 and measures the intensity of environmental regulations through textual analysis. The bidirectional fixed-effects model constructed in this paper suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP, which is confirmed by a series of robustness tests. Green technology innovation and advanced industrial structure play a mechanism role in this. In regions with lower levels of green technology and industrial structure, the inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity is more significant. In addition, the phenomenon of GTFP rising and then falling because of environmental regulation is more obvious in cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and outside the urban agglomerations. Therefore, when formulating environmental regulation policies, it is necessary to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and harmonize the environment and economic development of the entire Yangtze River Basin.

The wetlands in northeastern Bangladesh are home to some of the most prolific and valuable ecosystems on the planet, offering a wide range of benefits to both the local and wider communities. A limited number of research on this topic have been carried out in various wetlands in coastal hilsa, but none have been located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh. Thus, the goal of this study was to better understand the most commercially relevant species (anadromous hilsa) in northeastern Bangladesh as well as to assess the wetland ecosystem services more thoroughly with the contribution of their fish genetic resources. In addition to laboratory studies, fieldwork was done in the fishing settlements along the Surma River, Hakaluki Haor, and Tanguar Haor. The study classified 77 fish species into 21 subcategories of ecosystem services, of which 56% were not threatened, 17% were vulnerable, and 10% were highly endangered. The species Hilsa was found to be the most economically significant, accounting for 1% of the GDP overall. The study determined if the hilsa stock of the examined wetlands maintains a single or several subpopulations in comparison to other parts of the country when they migrate from saline water to northeastern Bangladesh (freshwater). But when compared to other groups, the FST score was between 0.000 to 0.017, indicating that the populations are identical and that there is genetic material sharing between them. Additionally, these statistics imply that the Sylhet haor and adjacent river systems contain a single stock of Hilsa fish. Nevertheless, a number of stresses and risks, including overexploitation, illicit and destructive fishing, siltation, and natural disasters like flash floods, have been linked to changes in the supply of hilsa and other ecosystem services. This study also emphasizes the necessity of policy attention and research to address the concerns.

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

To conduct high-precision and high-resolution numerical simulation of complex flow structures in turbomachinery, a high-order finite volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for the large eddy simulation (LES) is improved and embedded into the three-dimensional viscous unsteady CFD solver NUAA-Turbo. Firstly, the spectral characteristics and unsteady convergence of the improved WENO scheme are studied. Compared with the classical WENO scheme, the improved WENO scheme has better dissipation and dispersion characteristics and faster convergence speed. Then, the coefficient CW of the Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity (WALE) model is calibrated by decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (DHIT) test case. Finally, the scheme is applied to conduct high-precision LES calculations of turbulent boundary layer flow, supersonic compression corner flow, and low-pressure turbine cascade separation flow. The numerical simulation results show that this WENO scheme has excellent shock wave capture ability and turbulence resolution and can capture more flow field details with less mesh size, greatly reducing the computational cost and laying a foundation for large-scale engineering application of LES.

To secure logic circuits against the illegal copying the insertion of the so-called key bit inputs using XOR/XNOR gates has been proposed in . The inserted gates modify (lock) the behavior of the original circuit and only the correct choice of the secret key bits guarantees the equivalent behaviour of the locked circuit to the original circuit. To break this kind of security, i.e. to find the secret key bits, there was a SAT solver based attack proposed in . The aim of this work is to experimentally verify this attack on several locked circuits with various number of primary inputs and outputs and with various number of gates. Except for the random placement of the key gates we evaluate also the positioning with chaining elimination. The obtained and presented results show that we were able to unlock 10 of 11 circuits within few minutes on a common PC.

Intermetallic compounds are increasingly being expected to utilize in tribological environments, but to date the works are hindered by insufficient ductility at low and medium temperature. This paper presents a novel multiphase intermetallic alloy with the chemical composition of Mo-40Ni-13Si (at.%). Microstructure characterization reveals that a certain amount of ductile Mo phases formed during the solidification process of ternary Mo-Ni-Si alloy melt, which is undoubtedly beneficial to the ductility improvement of intermetallic alloy. Tribological properties of the designed alloy, including wear resistance, friction coefficient and metallic tribological compatibility, were evaluated under dry sliding wear test conditions at room temperature. Results suggested that the multiphase alloy possesses an excellent property for room-temperature wear applications, which is attributed to the unique microstructural features and thereby good combination in hardness and ductility. The corresponding wear mechanism is also reported by observing the worn surface, subsurface and wear debris of alloy, which to be found is soft abrasive wear.

With the integrated development of the Internet, wireless sensor technology, cloud computing, and mobile Internet, there has been a lot of attention given to research about and applications of the Internet of Things. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is one of the important information technologies in the Internet of Things; it integrates multi-technology to detect and gather information in a network environment by mutual cooperation, using a variety of methods to process and analyze data, implement awareness, and perform tests. This paper mainly researches the localization algorithm of sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network. Firstly, a multi-granularity region partition is proposed to divide the location region. In the range-based method, the RSSI (Received Signal Strength indicator, RSSI) is used to estimate distance. The optimal RSSI value is computed by the Gaussian fitting method. Furthermore, a Voronoi diagram is characterized by the use of dividing region. Rach anchor node is regarded as the center of each region; the whole position region is divided into several regions and the sub-region of neighboring nodes is combined into triangles while the unknown node is locked in the ultimate area. Secondly, the multi-granularity regional division and Lagrange multiplier method are used to calculate the final coordinates. Because nodes are influenced by many factors in the practical application, two kinds of positioning methods are designed: the unknown node is in the positioning unit or not. When the unknown node is on the side of the positioning unit, we use the method of vector similarity. Moreover, we use the centroid algorithm to calculate the ultimate coordinates of unknown node. When the unknown node is not on the side of the positioning unit, we establish a Lagrange equation containing the constraint condition to calculate the first coordinates. Furthermore, we use the Taylor expansion formula to correct the coordinates of the unknown node. In addition, this localization method has been validated by establishing the real environment.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of brain activity. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology formed by the EEG signal has become one of the hotspots at present. How to extract the feature signal of EEG is the most basic research of BCI technology. In this paper, A new method of recognizing fatigue, conscious, concentrated state of human brain is proposed by the combination of discrete wavelet transform and the neural network based on EEG signal. First of all, the law signal is preprocessed by the wavelet denoising method because the law EEG signal contains a large number of high frequency noise, which is decomposed into multi-layer high frequency signal and low frequency signal. thus, δ wave, θ wave, α wave, β wave are obtained by the wavelet transform. And then, frequency band energy of the different wave is regards as the feature signal of EEG. In the experiment, the feature signal is classified by radial basic function (RBF) and annealed chaotic competitive learning network (ACCLN). RBF and ACCLN networks are trained with 500 sets of sample data and are tested by 100 sets of samples in different mental states. The experimental results show that the average accuracy of RBF network under three conditions are 88.75%, 88.25%, 88.5%, respectively, and the correct rate of ACCLN network is 97%, 98%, 98%, respectively.

Early discharge after childbirth has led to a rise in neonatal readmission, becoming a major concern in recent decades. Our research aimed to identify the risk factors and incidence of neonatal readmission, as well as explore preventive measures. Our study at the Clinical Hospital of Pediatrics in Ploiești, Romania included 108 neonates admitted during the neonatal period. This accounted for 2.06% of all admissions (5226). The most prevalent cases were malnutrition (25%), fever (20.3%) and bronchiolitis (17.5%). Diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis were also observed (14.8%), along with acute rhinoconjunctivitis (9.2%) and late onset sepsis (3.7%). No deaths were recorded. The most significant characteristics identified were number of children (p&lt;0.001) and age at maternity discharge (p&lt;0.001). By following the prevention rules, malnutrition, feeding errors, and infections can be avoided. This includes practicing proper hand hygiene for both mothers and medical staff, as well as educating and demonstrating to mothers the benefits of breastfeeding. In addition, all newborns discharged from the maternity ward should benefit from follow-up at 7-10 days of life. Our results confirm the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team and endorse promoting breastfeeding. Implementing quality control measures and regularly evaluating the surveillance program will help improve its effectiveness.

Wearable technology has been proposed as a potential tool to change the way of human life, such as the smart bracelet and the Google Glass. In the wearable technology, the inertial sensor has great significance in tracking the object movements. The paper focused on detecting the movements of user’s finger based on the inertial sensor to give the control signals. Firstly, the attitude matrix, which represented the transformation relation of carrier coordinate system and the navigation coordinate system, was obtained. Secondly, the attitude matrix was expressed based on the quaternions. Thirdly, the finger gesture was processed by the attitude matrix to get the attitude angle. Finally, the robot was controlled by attitude angle to make the moving action. The experimental results showed the detection of the finger movement is effective.

Two interesting compounds such as quaternary ammonium lignin(QAL) and 2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) were synthesized as ionic liquids(QP-ILs) for the extraction of metal ions. The extraction behavior of Co(II) and Ni(II) from chloride solution was compared between QP-ILs and P507. The results showed that the extraction rates of Co(II) and Ni(II) in the two solutions varied with the extraction conditions, but QP-ILs has stronger extractability for cobalt than P507, while Ni is on the contrary. Under the same conditions, the Co/Ni separation performance(βCo/Ni) in QP-ILs is superior to that in p507. At pH4.0, 55℃, concentration of 20%, extraction time of 10 minutes, the βCo/Ni of QP-ILs reached to 2703, while that of P507 was only 164. In conclusion, QP-ILs was more efficient than P507 for separating Co from mixed solutions.

Brain aging causes a wide variety of changes at molecular and cellular levels, leading to the decline of cognitive functions and increased vulnerability to neurodegenerative disorders. The research aimed at understanding the aging of the brain has made much progress in recent decades. Technological innovations such as single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), proteomic analyses, and spatial transcriptomic analyses have facilitated the research on the dynamic changes occurring within neurons, glia, and other cells along with their impacts on intercellular communication during aging. In this review, we introduce recent trends of how neurons and glia change during aging and discuss the impact of the brain microenvironment such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB).

In this paper, we study the semilinear pseudo-parabolic equations $\displaystyle u_{t} - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u - \triangle_{\mathbb{B}}u_{t} = \left|u\right|^{p-1}u$ on a manifold with conical singularity, where $\triangle _{\mathbb{B}}$ is Fuchsian type Laplace operator investigated with totally characteristic degeneracy on the boundary $x_{1} = 0$. Firstly, we discuss the invariant sets and the vacuum isolating behavior of solutions with the help of a family of potential wells. Then, we derive a threshold result of existence and nonexistence of global weak solution: for the low initial energy $J(u_{0})<d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) >0$ or $\displaystyle\Vert \nabla_{\mathbb{B}}u_{0}\Vert_{L_{2}^{\frac{n}{2}}(\mathbb{B})} = 0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$; for the critical initial energy $J(u_{0}) = d$, the solution is global in time with $I(u_{0}) \geq0$ and blows up in finite time with $I(u_{0}) < 0$. The decay estimate of the energy functional for the global solution and the estimates of the lifespan of local solution are also given.

Multimodal remote sensing data classification can enhance the model’s ability to distinguish land features through multimodal data fusion. In this context, how to help models understand the relationship between multimodal data and target tasks is the focus of researchers. Inspired by human feedback learning mechanisms, causal reasoning mechanisms, and knowledge induction mechanisms, this paper integrates causal learning, reinforcement learning, and meta learning into a unified remote sensing data classification framework and proposed the causal meta-reinforcement learning (CMRL). First, based on feedback learning mechanisms, we have overcome the limitations of traditional implicit optimization of fusion features and customized a reinforcement learning environment for multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks. Through feedback interactive learning between agents and the environment, we help them understand the complex relationships between multimodal data and labels, thereby achieving full mining of multimodal complementary information. Second, based on the causal inference mechanism we designed causal distribution prediction action, classification reward, and causal intervention reward, capturing pure causal factors in multimodal data and cutting off false statistical associations between non-causal factors and class labels. Finally, based on the knowledge induction mechanism, we designed a bi-layer optimization mechanism based on meta-learning. By constructing a meta training task and meta validation task simulation model in the generalization scenario of unseen data, we helped the model induce cross-task shared knowledge, thereby improving its generalization ability for unseen multimodal data. The experimental results on multiple sets of multimodal datasets show that the proposed method achieved state-of-the-art performance in multimodal remote sensing data classification tasks.

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

With the increasing concern of environment, the energy-efficiency scheduling of manufacturing industry is becoming urgent and popular. In turning processes, both spindle speed and processing time can affect the final energy consumption and thus the spindle speed and scheduling scheme need to be optimized simultaneously. Since the turning workshop can be regarded as the flexible flow shop, this paper formulates a mixed integer linear programming model for energy-efficient scheduling of flexible flow shop. Accordingly, a new decoding method is developed by considering of the optimization of spindle speed and scheduling scheme simultaneously, and an estimation of distribution algorithm adopting the new decoding method is proposed to solve large-size problems. The parameters of this algorithm are determined by statistical technique with a simplified practical case. In order to validate the proposed method, a case from practical factories is studied, in which the makespan can be shortened by 25.22%, and the consumed energy can be saved by 5.48%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model and algorithm.

Lignocellulosic biomass, an abundant and renewable resource, serves as a crucial raw material for the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and various value-added products. This paper aims to develop and optimize a mild alkaline treatment of sawdust assisted by ultrasound, along with enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated material. The sonochemical pretreatment with alkali emerged as the optimal approach to enhance the susceptibility of cellulose to subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis, thereby increasing the yield of reducing sugars. A comparative study was performed using various ultrasonic applicators (horn and bath) and conventional assisted alkaline pretreatment. The ultrasonic assisted pretreatment revealed a higher delignification as 68% (horn) and 57% (bath) comparing with conventional pretreatment. Processes were optimized using a statistical analysis based on a 23 factorial design. The ratio between sawdust and alkanine solution (RSL = 0.5–1.5 g/100 mL), US amplitude (A = 20–60%), and working temperature (t = 30–50 °C) were selected as process factors. The optimal operating conditions to maximize the reducing sugar yield (138.15 mg GE /gsubstrate) were found as following: solid/liquid ratio RSL,opt = 1.25 g/100 mL, US amplitude Aopt = 60%, and and pretreatment temperature topt = 50 °C. The overall outcomes clearly confirmed the intensification of delignification by ultrasound assisted alkaline pretreatment

At 12:28 UTC (8:28 PM, local time) on 15 January 2023, a shallow, moderate earthquake with a magnitude (Mw) of 4.7 and a depth of one (1) kilometer shook the northern part of Leyte Island in the central part of the Philippines. The ground shaking was felt at PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) VI, (very strong) equivalent to Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI in areas along the strike of the Leyte segment of the Philippine Fault. Even though this earthquake is classified as moderate in size, significant geologic, structural, and socio-economic impacts were documented. Most of the earthquake impacts that include surface rupture, liquefaction, and mass movements are limited near the epicentral area. The earthquake produced an 8-km-long surface rupture, the first documented rupture generated by a magnitude &lt;6 along the Philippine Fault, and is unusual in other surface rupturing earthquakes worldwide. It injured 18 persons and damaged 434 residential buildings and 26 public infrastructures which amounts to about 500 thousand US dollars. Structural damages were caused by surface rupture and/or poor engineering construction practices. Analysis of the seismic waveform and recorded peak ground acceleration (PGA) suggests that the subsurface geology influenced the ground motion amplification in an area near the epicenter. Based on the hypocenter, focal mechanism solution, aftershock distribution, and actual field observation, the causative fault for this event is the northern end of the Philippine Fault – Leyte segment. Moderate in size, this earthquake emphasizes the need and importance of documenting moderate-sized earthquakes as a tool and guide for medium and long-term earthquake risk assessment and resiliency.

Background: The bacterium Capnocytophaga spp. is a part of the oral microbiome of dogs, which has zoonotic potential. This study aimed to assess factors that influence the prevalence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and Capnocytophaga canimorsus in Wrocaw’s dog population. Methods: Molecular detection (PCR) involved 105 swabs, examining parameters such as oral cavity condition, underlying health issues, recent antibiotics, age, medications, material collection, and dog chews. Results: The study highlighted significant associations between the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi and oral cavity condition, material collection method, and use of dog’s chews. Conclusions: Correlations obtained in this study between the oral health of Wroclaw's dog population and the presence of Capnocytophaga cynodegmi suggest its significance in the oral microbiome of dogs. Limitations, including the small sample size, highlight the need for more research to comprehensively understand additional factors that affect the prevalence of Capnocytophaga spp. in dogs

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

A simple design of an ultrathin six-band polarization-insensitive terahertz perfect metamaterial absorber (PMMA) composed of a metal cross-cave-patch resonator (CCPR) placed over a ground plane was proposed and investigated numerically. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average absorption peaks are up to 95% at six resonance frequencies with high quality-factors (>65). In addition, the absorption properties can be kept stability for both normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves. The physical mechanism behind the observed high level absorption is illustrated by the electric and power loss density distributions. The different absorption mainly originates from the higher order multipolar and multipolar plasmon resonance of the structure, which are sharp different to the most previous studies of the PMMAs. Furthermore, the resonance absorption of the PMMA can be tunable by varying the geometric parameters of the unit cell.

The assortment of low-cost 3D printers for “in-practice” use, e.g., for clear aligner therapies, is ever increasing. To address concerns about the accuracy of orthodontic models produced on such printers when cost efficient modes of 3D printing are employed, this study examined the effect of print model body type and print angulation on accuracy. Six printing-configuration groups were included: 2 model types (solid or hollow shell) combined with 3 print angles (0°, 70°, or 90°) with 10 models/group; all models were printed with 100-µm layer thickness using a digital light processing-based 3-dimensional printer. Eleven selected structures and distances were measured on the printed models with a digital microscope and compared to the same measures on a digitized master model. The clinically-acceptability range was set at ±0.25 mm difference from the master model for single tooth measurements (intra-tooth) and ±0.5 mm for cross-arch measurements (inter-tooth). For individual measurements across all models, 98% fell within clinical acceptability. For mean measurements within each model group, only canine height for the shell-0° model had a mean difference (0.26 mm ± 0.03) outside the clinically acceptable range for intra-tooth measurements. Standard deviations for all intra-tooth measurements were within 0.07 mm. While none of the mean inter-tooth measurements exceeded the acceptability range, the standard deviations were larger (0.04 to 0.30 mm). Accuracy of orthodontic models for clear aligner therapies was not impacted beyond the clinically acceptable range when altering model body type and print angulation to improve efficiency of 3D printing. These findings suggest greater flexibility of the practitioner to alter print settings to address time and cost efficiency in various clinical scenarios and still maintain clinically acceptable model accuracy.

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

Climate change is challenging the agricultural sector worldwide. The pressure exerted by the altered thermal conditions drives the zonal shift for various cultivations. This study presents the multiyear analysis of the Growing Degree Days (GDD) index over the Northern Mediterranean Basin (NMB), focused on the high-value vine cultivation derived from the E-OBS dataset. To handle this extensive environmental dataset, R-language scripts and packages were applied, along with the capabilities of the GIS software. The investigated time period spans from 1969 to 2018, and the performed analysis indicates a broad shift/expansion in areas of GDD exceeding 2000 heat units. The extracted results specify the viticultural areas where the GDD index surpasses the suitable values for vine cultivation, owing to the increase of the thermal stress risk. In addition to mapping areas with GDD ≥ 2000, spatial calculations of the surface of areas meeting this criterion per country in the study area were made. In the northern parts of the NMB, the rise of the GDD index values indicates the establishment of vine plantations in the future.

In this article, we describe a simple procedure for evaluating the sterility of nutrient media using a shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) biosensor. We used the SH-SAW biosensor platform to monitor the time-dependent phase responses of the material for the media that binds to a monolayer of 3-mercaptopropanyl-N-hydroxy succinimide on the biosensor surface. Increases in the phase shift less than 50% of the starting phase shift recorded 180 minutes after the sterilization indicate a successful sterility test of the media. Our devices were then applied to sterility testing using a viable Escherichia coli (E. coli) K-12 solution to confirm our hypothesis. Filtered LB Broth was the negative control, and a 24-hour culture of E. coli was the positive control. Before testing, the cell solution was pelleted, the media decanted and then replaced with a 1x phosphate-buffered saline solution (1x PBS). Since we know that the N-hydroxysuccinimide residues will bind to amine groups, only in cases where microbial species are present will the surface binding increase greater than 50%. We confirmed our hypothesis using SH-SAW biosensors and overnight E. coli cultures. The sensitivity for our 250 MHz quartz SH-SAW sensors was calculated based on the response from the E. coli K-12 solution over the linear dynamic range, which appears to be 2x104 – 2x107 CFU per ml and has a sensitivity of S = 1.655x105 o m2 Kg-1. The limit of detection (LOD) for these sensors was calculated to be approximately 2x10-9 grams (g) which is estimated to be approximately 2,000 Escherichia coli (E. coli) K-12 cells. However, the sensitivity and insertion loss remained approximately unchanged before and after coating the sensor with 3,3'-Dithiobis(succinimidyl) Propionate (DSP).

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

The strong competition in the automotive industry has required manufacturers to implement lean production, both with methods and techniques specific to Industry 4.0. At the same time, universities must provide graduates with specific skills for applying these new production methods and techniques. In this context, a Lean Learning Factory was developed in the Pitesti University Center, which allows students to learn, experiment, and research, in an environment similar to that of enterprises, the new Lean Manufacturing methods and techniques, and Industry 4.0. The research presented in this study had as its objective identifying the minimum number of repetitions necessary to train operators who serve two differently organized workstations, one classic, the other including digital techniques, but on which the same assembly operation is performed. Several indicators were considered in the analysis, such as the number of errors, the number of stops, the effective duration of the work cycle, and the percentage ratio between the standard duration of cyclical activities and the effective duration of the work cycle. The evolution of these indicators was mathematically modelled by regression functions, using the least squares method. The obtained results also highlight the usefulness of applying the DOJO method as a Lean manufacturing-specific learning technique and the efficiency of implementing digital techniques in work organization.

Classifying network flow subsequences in an Industrial IoT gateway is an effective method for identifying Industrial IoT faults. This paper proposes a subsequence classification algorithm SSGBUL-IKNN based on unsupervised learning encoding to address the problem of low classification accuracy. Firstly, we built a network module based on unsupervised learning to encode the flow sequence of the Industrial IoT gateway. In the encoding module, a subsequence calibration algorithm controls the increasing error during the coding process. Then, the specific fault type is obtained through an improved KNN classification algorithm based on the indication distance source from the integrated coding sequences converted by multi-dimensional network flow sequences. The test result on three Industrial IoT datasets of a sewage treatment plant shows that the accuracy of SSGBUL-IKNN in this paper exceeds 92%, significantly higher than the algorithm DTW and TSF. It reaches the classification requirements of Industrial IoT fault diagnosis.

In this paper, we study the global existence and exponential decay for a dynamic contact problem between a Timoshenko beam with second sound and two rigid obstacles, of which the heat flux is given by Cattaneo's law instead of the usual Fourier's law. The main difficulties arise from the irregular boundary terms, from the low regularity of the weak solution and from the weaker dissipative effects of heat conduction induced by Cattaneo's law. By considering related penalized problems, proving some a priori estimates and passing to the limit, we prove the global existence of the solutions. By considering the approximate framework, constructing some new functionals and applying the perturbed energy method, we obtain the exponential decay result for the approximate solution, and then prove the exponential decay rate to the original problem by utilizing the weak lower semicontinuity arguments.

Reducing the hardness of hard water is of great concern nowadays due to some adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Using the method of biomineralization to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions to become carbonate minerals was one of the most important innovations for reducing the hardness of hard water. The present study sought to explore the physical and chemical conditions of carbonates bio-precipitation and the potential use of Bacillus licheniformis SRB2 strain (GenBank: KM884945.1) isolated from sludge sample of Moshui River (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China) in reducing the hardness of hard waters by the induction of carbonate minerals. In this study, B. licheniformis SRB2 strain was identified based on the morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequence homology analysis. The carbonate minerals induced by B. licheniformis bacteria in the liquid culture medium with 3% NaCl and Mg/Ca molar ratio of 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 were investigated. The culture medium was inoculated with the bacterial liquid seed was set as the experimental group and the other culture medium was inoculated with the same volume of distilled water was set as the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray detector, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The bacterial concentrations and pH values of the solution were measured by a spectrophotometer and a pH meter, respectively. The urease secreted by B. licheniformis SRB2 was found to greatly increase the pH values of the liquid medium, which favored the formation of calcium carbonate.As a result, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations decreased greatly due to the biomineralization of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals in the presence of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacterium. There were only few calcium carbonates and no nesquehonite minerals in the control groups. It was also found that the minerals of nesquehonite induced by B. licheniformis SRB2 had a phenomenon of preferred orientation. What was more, even though Mg²⁺ ions inhibited the precipitation of Ca²⁺ ions, but under the action of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacteria, the inhibition effect was significantly declined. The bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals may represent a new method of pretreatment for the hardness reduction of hard water. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineralization in natural environment, and maybe also has a certain application value in the former processing of hard water