(1) Background: This study aimed to explore how prolonged mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic affected appearance anxiety; (2) Methods: It implemented a quantitative–qualitative mixed-research approach based on a convenience sample of young people in Taiwan; (3) Results: A total of 1,118 participants completed the online questionnaire. A total of 49 participants reached the 55-point threshold of Appearance Anxiety Scale. Higher score of appearance anxiety was correlated to higher state anxiety statistically (r = 0.4, p < 0.001). Ten participants were interviewed and qualitative content analysis revealed 5 main themes and 16 subthemes. Three of the main themes were related to the positive effects of wearing masks for pandemic prevention and reducing appearance anxiety: “Wearing masks indicates compliance with the epidemic prevention requirement,” “Wearing masks functions as protection against lack of confidence in appearance,” and “Wearing masks helps mitigate the fear of being judged by others.” The remaining two “Wearing masks shifts attention from appearance to figure” and “Prolonged mask wearing exacerbates the anxiety about taking it off” were related to the impacts of long-term mask use; (4) Conclusions: results enhance understanding of negative emotional experiences and anxiety related to physical appearance.

Present study on land use land cover analysis and taluka wise combination of cropped area, carried out in Beed district of Maharashtra state in India and studied 11 talukas of the district. Secondary data on land use land cover and area in various crops has been collected, compiled and analyzed from various secondary sources. Simple descriptive statistics used to examine the agricultural land use land cover and J.C. Weaver’s crop combination technique was used for taluka wise analysis of crop combinations and on the basis of highest to smallest area engaged in particular crop, crops have been ranked. The study showed that, in the district as a whole, percentage of uncultivated land other than fallow was about 46 percent as compare to net sown area is only 35 percent in total geographical area (1063855ha) of Beed district. The study further revealed that about 42 percent area engaged in food crops and about 58 percent area occupied by nonfood crops, which includes cereals (25%), cotton (19%), pulses (13%), oilseed (12%), sugarcane (5%) and fruits and vegetables (3%). Results of Weaver’s crop combination technique showed that the Wadwani taluka demarcated as most diversified taluka by means of maximum number (sixteen) of crops combinations with the lowest variance value (14) found in the present investigation. Further, the study revealed that the high crop diversity found in Dharur taluka with eighteen crop combinations and the taluka has given first rank amongst others. To derive the crop diversity ranking, taluka wise maximum to minimum number of crop combinations derived in different talukas and given ranks accordingly. The study concluded that, agricultural land use analysis is essential for solving and optimizing the land use problem, maintaining socio-ecological balance, best utilization of scarce resources. The authors enlightened that the rational use of agricultural land has important for food security and biodiversity which increase the productivity and profitability of the agriculture sector and it indicates the decision making ability of farmers in study area.

In the current Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, wearing a face mask was mandatory and is still desired during school lessons. There are no controlled studies in children to date indicating an effect on cognitive performance wearing face masks. In a randomized controlled trial, we analysed the influence of face masks on cognitive performance of pupils during regular school lessons. Pupils (n=133, 5th to 7th grade) were randomized by alternating allocation into control (with masks, n=65) and intervention groups (without mask, n=68). After two school lessons with (control) and without (intervention) face masks in class all pupils performed digital tests for cognitive performance regarding attention and executive functions (Switch, CORSI block tapping, 2-back and flanker task). Overall, there were no significant differences in cognitive performance between both groups, masks vs. no masks. Wearing face masks has no significant influence on attention and executive functions of pupils and can still be recommended during school lessons.

This article is about a framework for determining the degree of realism of any given 1 passenger ride motion discomfort measurement formula. After providing some context and reviewing 2 evidence of deficiency in currently popular ride motion discomfort measurement formulas, the article 3 outlines the research program that needs to be carried out in order to establish such a framework. 4 The research begins with gathering recordings of uncomfortable ride motion episodes encountered in 5 a chosen type of passenger transport service. It then has test subjects compare the episodes via a ride 6 motion simulator and adjust their amplitudes pair wise until they cause equal discomfort. It explains 7 how to take the pair wise amplitude adjustments and determine amplitude adjustments that bring all 8 of the motion episode recordings to a common level of discomfort so that they form a normalized set. 9 Then, the lower the scatter of the scores assigned by any given discomfort measurement formula to 10 the members of that set, the more realistic that formula will be for the chosen service.

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) [1]. COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death in the United States[2]. Health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients or at high risk of being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus benefit from a face shield to protect against aerosol droplets that could hit the face and minimize the chance of inadvertently touching the face with contaminated hands, and air filtration to filter out aerosolized SARS-CoV-2. Adapting commercially available full-faced snorkel masks has been proposed as an alternative to narrow the gap in PPE [3]. Here we explore a full-faced snorkel mask with commercially available particulate filters.

Background: The COVID-19 transmission has been established to occur through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing. Health agencies have strongly recommended the use of facemask as a precaution from cross-transmission. Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of facemask use among visitors to the hospital. This study also investigated the demographic factors contributing to unacceptable facemask practice. Setting: This prospective observational study was done among hospital visitors to a district specialist hospital during COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Methods: Individuals entering through dedicated entry point were observed for the type, category and practice of wearing personal protective equipment. Inclusion criteria for this study were any individual's ≥ 2 years old entering the treatment facility from selected entry points. Patients were categorized into two groups of acceptable and unacceptable facemask practice. The Pearson chi-square was used to test for differences in investigated variables in the univariate setting and Binary Logistic regression model was used in the multivariate setting. Main Outcome Measure: Prevalence, acceptance practice and odds ratio of unacceptance of facemask use. Results: Among 1652 individuals included in the final analysis, 1574 (96.9%) was observed wearing facemask with 1269 (72.0%) of individuals worn medical-grade facemask. However, among them, only 1397 (88.8%) individuals' facemask practice was acceptable while the reaming 177 (11.2) individuals were perceived with unacceptable facemask practice. Male individuals, Malay ethnic and high risk age group are 1.47 times (Odds Ratio: OR=1.47; 95% CI, 1.06-2.06; p=.023), 2.18 times (OR=2.18; 95% CI, 1.55-3.08; p<.001) and 1.99 times (OR=2.18; 95% CI, 1.42 - 2.77; p<.001) more likely to exhibit unacceptable facemask practice respectively. Conclusion: Extensive use of facemasks coupled with environmental hygiene measures is a public health strategy which can help to mitigate the COVID-19 epidemic impact. However, a targeted comprehensive strategy to improve compliance to proper facemask practice among the high-risk population is needed to achieve maximal protective benefit.

The cooling of server components has been continuously developed over the past few years in order to meet the increasing cooling requirements of server component manufacturers such as for the processor chips. The growth in performance and power density increases the cooling demand. These requirements directly influence the energy consumption and performance of the hardware. To gain a better understanding of the historical evolution and possible future technology development paths in the field of data center cooling, a patent analysis method was used. The focus is on previous and current development priorities and possible research gaps within the server and computer room levels. The European patent database was selected as data source. To determine relevant patents, the search terms for various cooling technologies were developed iteratively. After the patent extraction for the period 2000 - 2023 (earliest priority year), the search results were classified and analysed. Most of the patents deal with air or liquid cooling. In the area of liquid cooling, the focus was on direct liquid cooling, followed by total liquid cooling. Since 2015 a technological shift from air to liquid cooling can be identified on the level of patent activities. In this context, the patent groups with focus on “constructional details for different types of electric apparatus” and “electrical digital data processing” have the largest share of patents. In addition, the technology focus of the TOP 10 patent applicants was in the field of liquid cooling. In conclusion from the patent analysis, it can be derived that liquid cooling will continue to gain in importance in the future and could also be combined with other approaches in the form of hybrid cooling. However air cooling may still be relevant, even if the main cooling load is handled by liquid-based approaches. At the same time, the optimisation potential for air cooling seems to have been largely exploited in comparison to liquid cooling, as can be seen from the falling number of the patent applications.

In the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the use of surgical masks has become the new normal. The use of these devices in exercise and medical situations has been advocated with the purpose of reducing contagions, but some concerns exist regarding its safety. We performed maximal treadmill stress tests in 12 healthy young subjects, with and without surgical mask use, and measured exercise capacity, oxygen saturation (rest, peak exercise and post-exercise) and electrocardiographic changes. Exercise capacity and Oxygen saturation levels decreased in peak exercise vs rest in a statistically significant manner when mask was used. ECG changes, although not significant, were present in 3 subjects when mask was used and disappeared when the test was made unmasked. We conclude that masked exercise has the potential to cause decreased exercise load and oxygen saturation and potentially cause diagnostic errors in medical exams.

Objective: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the accuracy of resin-based fixed dental restorations, namely veneers, single crowns, and four-unit fixed partial dental prosthesis (FPDs) using two different 3D printers and polymer-based materials. Materials and Methods: A standard maxillary polyurethane jaw model containing prepared teeth was scanned using an intraoral scanner. The generated STL data were used to design the restorations virtually using CAD software. Two 3D printers were utilized for the provisional digital light processing and stereolithography for the castable resin patterns. Each printer produced 10 specimens of each type of restoration, for a total of 80 restorations. The 3d-printed restorations were then 3D scanned using the same intraoral scanner and evaluated for external and internal dimensional accuracy in terms of trueness and precision. A one-way ANOVA and Two-sample T-Test were implemented to compute the precision (variability between groups) and trueness (with the designed CAD model). A level of statistical significance of p-Value

Our hypothesis that controlled ozone applications interfere into the redox balance of the biological organism (first published in 1998 with a preclinical trial on protecting the liver from CCl4 intoxication), has been verified over the last 2 decades in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced mitochondrial pathologies, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, aging processes, diabetes-2 and in prevention of intoxications. Low-dose ozone acts as a redox bioregulator: The restoration of the disturbed redox balance is comprehensible in a number of preclinical and clinical studies by a remarkable increase of the antioxidant repair markers, here mainly shown as glutathione increase and a reduction in oxidative stress markers, mainly malondialdehyde. The mechanism of action is shown, relevant data are displayed, evaluated and comprehensively discussed: The repair side of the equilibrium increases by 21% up to 140% compared to the non-ozone treated groups and depending on the indication; the stress markers are simultaneously reduced, the redox system regains its balance.

Salmonella Typhimurium is a typical Gram-Negative bacterium associated with food-borne illness threatening public health. This pathogen is reported to have caused millions of infections and thousands of hospitalizations yearly in the United States alone. Salmonella Typhimurium has a sophisticated array of virulent factors, including its flagella, which contributes significantly to its pathogenicity. Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, has attracted the interest of many researchers recently because of its antimicrobial properties. With the growing interest in exploring CBD’s antimicrobial properties, we, in this study, have delved into unravelling how prolonged exposure of Salmonella Typhimurium to CBD influences the expression of the flgA gene. We hypothesized that the exposure of Salmonella Typhimurium to CBD may result in flgA upregulation, causing the bacteria to withstand various stresses and potentially enhance its survival rates and pathogenicity. We have employed several assays, such as mRNA expression, motility assays, pH induction assays, nutrient starvation interventions, and biofilm analysis, to explore the influence of CBD on the pathophysiology of Salmonella Typhimurium. Our findings reveal that CBD-resistant strains exhibit enhanced resilience to extreme pH levels and motility and survive poorly under nutrient starvation, with more robust biofilm formation compared to the susceptible strains. The results contribute to the broader comprehension of CBD resistance mechanisms in bacteria. This work provides insight into the potential therapeutic interventions for controlling CBD-resistant bacterial infections. This study also underscores the essence of exploring novel alternative antimicrobial agents to tackle the ever-persistence of bacterial antibiotic resistance.

Background: The laryngeal mask airway Vision Mask (LMA VM) is a supraglottic airway device (SAD) with vision guidance system. The ideal head and neck position for direct laryngoscopy is known, but the ideal position for placing a LMA is not. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the optimal position for placement of a video laryngeal mask airway. Methods: This was a prospective observational, transversal and analytical study of 72 consecutive patients. In the same patient, laryngeal vision was first assessed with the head and neck in the sniffing position and then with the head in the neutral position. Procedures were filmed and performed by the same investigator. Assessment of the laryngeal view was performed using two classifications: modified Cormack-Lehane classification and Brimacombe classification. Device placement was considered adequate when the Cormack-Lehane rating was scored from 1 to 2 and the Brimacombe rating was from 2 to 4. Results: 72 patients were included in this study. In the assessment of the glottis using the Cormack Lehane classification for fiberoptic view, laryngeal visibility was adequate in 64 (88.89%) patients in the neutral position and in 65 (90,28%) patients in the sniffing position (p>0,05). In the fiberoptic view of the glottis, assessed using the Brimacombe classification, laryngeal visibility was adequate in 68 (93%) patients in the neutral position and in 69 (95%) patients in the sniffing position, (p>0,05). There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of success between the sniffing position (70 patients, 97.22% success rate) and the neutral position (67 patients, 93.06% success rate) during the first insertion attempt. Two patients required a second attempt in the sniffing position, while five patients required a second attempt in the neutral position. Conclusion: An adequate sniffing position did not result in a better glottic view than neutral position, and the number and type of additional maneuvers were equal in both positions.

Ultra-short 230 fs laser pulses of 515 nm wavelength were tightly focused into 700 nm focal spots and utilised in opening ~ 0.4 − 1 μm holes in alumina Al2O3 etch masks with 20-50 nm thickness. Such dielectric masks simplify fabrication of photonic crystal (PhC) light trapping patterns for the above-Lambertian performance of high efficiency solar cells. Conditions of laser ablation of transparent etch masks and effects sub-surface Si modifications were revealed by plasma etch- ing, numerical modeling, and minority carrier lifetime measurements. Mask-less patterning of Si is proposed using fs-laser direct writing for dry plasma etch of Si.

Background Patients with severe dysphagia are usually fed using a nasogastric tube (NGT). Many patients who receive long-term NGT feeding are unable to obtain sufficient nutrients orally immediately after NGT removal. Thus, a transitional period involving oral diet training is required to transition from NGT feeding to exclusive oral feeding. We aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of oral diet training in indwelling NGT patients with prolonged dysphagia. Methods A total of 175 patients who were fed using an NGT for more than 4 weeks were enrolled. Their swallowing function was evaluated by a videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS). During the VFSS, patients received thick and thin barium while the NGT was insulted. Then, the patients underwent a VFSS without an NGT thirty minutes after NGT removal. If a patient had no aspiration with NGT inserted during the VFSS, oral diet training combined with NGT feeding was recommended. Results Of the 49 indwelling NGT patients who were recommended to receive oral diet training, 39 (79.6%) transitioned to exclusive oral feeding. A transition period of 2-8 weeks was required for them to achieve full oral feeding. Patients who were eligible for oral feeding trials showed no significant aspiration during the VFSS with an NGT inserted and had sufficient cough function. Patients who required prolonged NGT feeding and who could not complete oral trials showed significant aspiration during the VFSS when an NGT was inserted. Conclusion This study demonstrated that oral diet training combined with NGT feeding was safe in patients with prolonged dysphagia who had sufficient cough function and no aspiration during VFSS. We suggest that if the patient is a proper candidate for NGT removal, direct oral feeding training with an NGT inserted could be a useful therapeutic strategy during the transitional period from long-term NGT feeding to successful oral feeding.

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected certain demographics in England, exacerbating existing health disparities. Effective therapeutics are a critical line of defence against COVID-19, particularly for patients at elevated risk for severe disease. Surveillance systems were established to monitor usage of COVID-19 therapeutics in hospital and community settings and inform stewardship. Three antiviral therapies: nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid®), remdesivir (Veklury®), and molnupiravir (Lagevrio®); and two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (nMAbs): sotrovimab (Xevudy®) and casirivimab with imdevimab (Ronapreve®); were in use in England between July 2020 to April 2023. This paper aims to illuminate trends in the utilisation of COVID-19 therapeutics treatment in both hospital and community settings, stratified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in England. Chapter 3 of the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) report 2022 to 2023 also discusses the epidemiological surveillance of these five directly-acting antiviral COVID-19 therapeutics use in England between 2022 to 2023.

Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) is a rare and potentially life-threatening systemic drug reaction with skin involvement. We present the unusual case of DRESS in a 16-year-old male that was treated with TMP-SMX for acne and was initially misdiagnosed with Steven Johnson Syndrome. Our case serves as an example to healthcare providers treating adverse drug reactions to having a high clinical suspicion for DRESS as delay in diagnosis and treatment can result in disseminated disease and higher patient mortality risk.

In this paper, we proposed the fusion of two projection based face recognition algorithms: local binary Patterns in DCT domain and singular value decomposition (SVD) characterized by its simplicity and efficiently. Standard databases ORL are used to test the experimental results which prove that proposed system achieves more accurate face recognition as compared to individual method.

The spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global challenge. Close and continuous surveillance for quick detection of AMR can be difficult, especially in remote places. This narrative review focuses on the contributions of pharmacovigilance (PV) as an auxiliary tool for identifying and monitoring the ineffectiveness of, resistance to, and inappropriate use of antibiotics (ABs). The terms “drug ineffective,” “therapeutic failure,” “drug resistance,” “pathogen resistance,” and “multidrug resistance” were found in PV databases and dictionnaires, and denote ineffectiveness. These terms cover a range of problems that should be better investigated because they are useful in warning about possible causes of AMR. “Medication errors,” especially those related to dose and indication, are highlighted in the literature, suggesting inappropriate use of ABs. Hence, the included studies show that the terms of interest related to AMR are not only present but frequent in PV surveillance programs. This review illustrates the feasibility of using PV as a complementary tool for antimicrobial stewardship activities, especially in scenarios where other resources are scarce.

Climate simulations in West Africa have been attributed with large uncertainties. Global climate projections are not consistent with changes in observations at the regional or local level of the Niger basin, making management of hydrological projects in the basin uncertain. This study evaluates the potential of using the quantile mapping bias correction to improve the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) outputs for use in hydrology impact studies. Rainfall and temperature projections from 8 CMIP5 Global Climate Models (GCM) were bias corrected using the quantile mapping approach. Impacts of climate change was evaluated with bias corrected rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The IHACRES hydrological model was adapted to the Niger basin and used to simulate impacts of climate change on discharge under present and future conditions. Bias correction significantly improved the accuracy of rainfall and temperature simulations compared to observations. Nash coefficient (NSE) for monthly rainfall comparisons of 8 GCMs to the observed was improved by bias correction from 0.69 to 0.84. The standard deviations among the 8 GCM rainfall data were significantly reduced from 0.13 to 0.03. Increasing rainfall, temperature, PET and river discharge were projected for all GCMs used in this study under the RCP8.5 scenario. These results will help improving projections and contribute to the development of sustainable climate change adaptation strategies.

Abstract: The pursuit of youth and attractiveness is a fundamental desire in contemporary society. For many individuals, the appearance of visible signs of aging, such as skin laxity, gravitational changes in facial and neck soft tissues, and loss of harmonious proportions, can be psychologically distressing. The choice of effective methods for addressing these changes depends on their specific characteristics, the patient's anatomical features, and the type of facial aging. The introduction of 3D imaging to determine the hyoid bone level, the volume of soft tissue structures in the cervico-mental area, ptosis of subplatysmal structures, and the volume of submandibular glands, in addition to ultrasound study of the submental projection at the preoperative stage, are key for taking the best decision regarding preoperative planning. This case report aims to illustrate how modern imaging techniques are a fundamental part of the preoperative assessment of the mid and lower third of the face to ensure the most favorable aesthetic outcomes for each patient. Key message: To attain harmonious results in surgical correction of age-related facial and neck changes, it is crucial to consider the patient's anatomical features and the extent of age-related alterations. A comprehensive facial analysis, taking into account the type of facial aging and employing a CT scan and ultrasound examination of the soft tissues in the chin region, facilitates the development of an individualized plan tailored to achieve the patient's desired outcome.

An adequate representation of the water infiltration process in the soil allows improving the efficiency in application and the uniformity in surface irrigation. The Green and Ampt model has shown a good representation of the process, and researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) determined the values of their parameters for soils of that country, which are shown in tables or through functional relationships and this information is used as reference in several parts of the world, although there is no certainty that they are representative of the soils in Mexico. In this study, the parameters of the Green & Ampt equation were determined and evaluated in some soils of agricultural importance in Mexico. The parameters were obtained in four ways: one of them applied a methodology adapted from Brooks and Corey to quantify the wetting front capillary pressure head and used an permeameter under constant hydraulic head to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity, and the other three consisted in taking them from three studies reported by the USDA. The values of the parameters suggested in Mexico drastically underestimated the results with relative errors (RE) in a range of -49.0 to -94.0% and the most representative were those obtained with the methodology proposed in this research with RE of -15.0 to 6.0%.

The need for solvating and encapsulating hydro-sensitive molecules drives noticeable trends in the applications of cyclodextrins in pharmaceutical industry, food, polymer, materials, and agricultural science. Among them, β-cyclodextrin is one of the most used for the entrapment of phenolic acid compounds to mask the bitterness of wheat bran. In this regard, there is still a need for a good predictive model that assesses β-cyclodextrin bitterness masking capabilities for various phenolic compounds. This study uses a dataset of 20 phenolic acids docked to the β-cyclodextrin cavity to generate three different binding constants. The data from docking study were combined with topological, topographical and quantum-chemical features from the ligands in a machine learning-based structure-activity relationship study. Three different models for each binding constant were computed using a combination of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) approaches. The developed ML/QSAR models showed a very good performance, with high predictive ability and correlation coefficients of 0.969 and 0.984, for training and test sets, respectively. The models revealed several factors responsible for a binding with cyclodextrin, showing positive contributions toward the binding affinity values, including such features as presence of six-membered rings in the molecule, branching, electronegativity values, and polar surface area.

This study presents PlanteSaine, a novel mobile application powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) models explicitly designed for maize, tomato, and onion farmers in Burkina Faso. Agriculture in Burkina Faso, like many developing nations, faces substantial challenges from plant pests and diseases, posing threats to both food security and economic stability. PlanteSaine addresses these challenges by offering a comprehensive solution that provides farmers with real-time identification of pests and diseases. Farmers capture images of affected plants with their smartphones, and PlanteSaine's AI system analyzes these images to provide accurate diagnoses. The application's offline functionality ensures accessibility even in remote areas with limited internet connectivity, while its messaging feature facilitates communication with agricultural authorities for guidance and support. Additionally, PlanteSaine includes an emergency alert mechanism to notify farmers about pest and disease outbreaks, enhancing their preparedness to deal with these threats. An AI-driven framework, featuring an image feature extraction phase with EfficientNetB3 and an artificial neural network (ANN) classifier, was developed and integrated into PlanteSaine. The evaluation of PlanteSaine demonstrates its superior performance compared to baseline models, showcasing its effectiveness in accurately detecting diseases and pests across maize, tomato, and onion crops. Overall, this study highlights the potential of PlanteSaine to revolutionize agricultural technology in Burkina Faso and beyond. Leveraging AI and mobile computing, PlanteSaine provides farmers with accessible and reliable pest and disease management tools, ultimately contributing to sustainable farming practices and enhancing food security. The success of PlanteSaine underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in addressing pressing challenges in global agriculture

Identification and segmentation of rock particles is very important in geology, mining, engineering construction, and environmental monitoring. Traditional methods for recognizing the rock particle characteristics are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and limited by the geographical scope of the sampling sites, which makes it more difficult to represent the spatial distribution of the rock particles accurately. Recent advancements in deep learning techniques offer promising solutions to automate this process. This study aims at utilizing state-of-the-art (SOTA) Mask R-CNN deep learning algorithm from the Detectron2 framework, to capture global features of rocks that will enable the recognition of rock particles more efficiently, just from having the rock images. These images are subject to image processing techniques such as a Gaussian filter, to denoise and smoothen the image, and an Illumination Adaptive Transformer (IAT) framework, to adjust the lighting exposure; all of which add to improve the quality of the image dataset. Afterward, the Mask R-CNN and Detectron2 models are utilized in training the images using transfer learning. Experimental results from evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithms showcase the effectiveness of the approach, thereby highlighting its potential to revolutionize rock particle segmentation across various domains.

The rhythmical nature of the cardiovascular system constantly generates dynamic mechanical forces. At the center of this system is the heart which must detect these changes and adjust its performance accordingly. Mechano-electric feedback provides a rapid mechanism for detecting even subtle changes in the mechanical environment and transducing these signals into electrical responses which can adjust a variety of cardiac parameters such as heart rate and contractility. However, pathological conditions can disrupt this intricate mechanosensory system and manifest as potentially life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. Mechanosensitive ion channels are thought to be the main proponents of mechano-electric feedback as they provide a rapid response to mechanical stimulation and can directly affect cardiac electrical activity. Here we demonstrate that the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 is expressed in zebrafish cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, chemically prolonging Piezo1 activation in zebrafish results in cardiac arrhythmias indicating that this ion channel plays an important role in mechano-electric feedback. This also raises the possibility that Piezo1 gain of function mutations could be linked to heritable cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation in humans.

This study proposes a method for image matching between infrared(IR)-RGB images using a deep learning network to estimate the deformation field. We propose a deformation field generator (DFG) that estimates the deformation field of the transformation matrix to match each pixel or IR image to the RGB image. DFG is a network that receives IR and RGB images as input; the output size is two channels and has the sample resolution as the input image. By warping the IR image through a grid-sampler that warps the image according to the value of the deformation field, we can obtain a warped IR image that matches the RGB image. Additionally, to check whether the warped IR image matched the RGB image, the masking images detecting the segmentation of objects were photographed in two images. Without directly comparing IR and RGB images, we proposed mask loss that warps the IR mask image through the deformation field and grid sampler and then compares the warped IR mask image with the RGB mask image. Mask loss solves the spatial similarity comparison problem with multi-modality images, such as IR and RGB images, by comparing the mask image with the same modality image as the mask image.

The focus of this article is the evaluation of the quality and the degree of community engagement in an expert-based, public-health communicative intervention for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). In 2023 the Canadian Alcohol Use Disorder Society collaborated with a grass-roots community health group, a regional health authority, and an academic participatory researcher to organize a working group to mount a social-marketing campaign to increase community support for AUD medical treatment in family-practice settings in a rural community in British Columbia. The partnership working group conducted a series of activities in the school system, the town council, and the community. This article covers the formative evaluation and the summative evaluation of the working group's effectiveness. The formative evaluation ("lessons learned" and "recommendations") consists of consensus evaluations of the quality of each activity using a variety of data sources. The formative evaluation followed improvement science methods and used consensus meetings to provide and reflect on formal and informal feedback. Formative results reflect the consensus of the participants in the working group and they record the reactions in the community. The summative evaluation measures evidence of community engagement found in transcribed text from meeting minutes. The summative evaluation used theory-based frameworks and text data visualization to assess the engagement dynamics of the working group. The summative evaluation helps to put the formative evaluation into perspective as communicative action. The summative evaluation validates the formative evaluation by revealing the communicative dynamics of engagement which resulted in the community’s increased capacity to understand and support Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment options. The working group and the entire intervention was seen by the participants and the public as a success and capable of replication. In a small community, it instilled new understandings and attitudes, bringing an emerging awareness of medication as an optional health mitigation strategy for Alcohol Use Disorder. Our study furthers this overall assessment by using theoretical constructs and analysis of communicative records to trace engagement characteristics of interest to researchers, societies, and community groups contemplating similar interventions in the future. The study also validates the effectiveness of communicative analysis as a measure of social-marketing for expert-based public health interventions.

To explore the relevant factors that affect the efficacy of consciousness-regaining therapy (CRT)for prolonged disorder of consciousness(pDOC),a retrospective analysis was conducted on the case data of 114 patients with pDOC admitted to department of functional neurosurgery of Tianjin Huanhu Hospital from January 2019 to January 2022. Basic information on the cases,data on pDOC disease assessment, consciousness-regaining therapy methods, and efficacy evaluation were collected. A total of 114 patients were grouped and compared based on the efficacy at the end of treatment. Among them, there were 61 cases in the ineffective group and 53 cases in the effective group. There was no statistically significant difference (P&gt;0.05) between the two groups in terms of gender, age, etiology, acute cerebral herniation, emergency craniotomy surgery, emergency decompressive craniectomy, time from onset to start of consciousness-regaining therapy , and duration of consciousness-regaining therapy(P&gt;0.05). However, there were statistically significant differences (P&lt;0.05) in terms of secondary hydrocephalus, , consciousness-regaining therapy methods, CRS-R grading before treatment, and GOSE score at 6 months after treatment. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the type of therapy (OR=0.169, 95% CI: 0.057-0.508) was a related factor affecting the efficacy of consciousness-regaining therapy (P&lt;0.05).Compared with non-invasive therapy, personalized awakening therapy using various invasive consciousness-regaining therapy methods can help improve the efficacy of therapy for pDOC.

In the past two decades, several floods have affected people and their properties in Burkina Faso, with the unprecedented flooding occurring in Ouagadougou in September 2009. So far, most studies have focused on Ouagadougou and surrounding localities and have paid little attention to other flood-prone regions in Burkina Faso. Specifically, there is a data and knowledge gap about the flood risk in the Haut-Bassins region, which in turn hampers the development of mitigation strategies and risk reduction measures in communities. This study demonstrates how data collected at the household level can be used to understand flood risk and its components at the village level in this data-scarce region. Using an indicator-based method, we analyze both flood risk and flood risk perception at the village level. Moreover, we determine the factors influencing flood risk perception at the household level using an ordered logit model. We find that 12 out of the 14 villages considered, experience high levels of flood risk. The management of runoff from the nearest urban areas and poorly designed civil engineering infrastructures, such as roads, were highlighted by the households as significant factors that increase their vulnerability. Hence, dependencies in space and between urban and rural areas may play a substantial role in modifying risk. The perceived flood risk consistently exceeds the estimated flood risk, with an insignificant positive correlation between both risk indices. Regression results indicate that flood risk perception is mainly influenced by informational and behavioral factors of the households. The findings of this study can provide valuable information to municipal and regional authorities involved in disaster risk management in the study area. Moreover, the method is transferable to other data-scarce regions

Neuro-rehabilitation services are essential in reducing post-stroke impairments, enhancing independence, and improving recovery in hospital and post-discharge. However these services are therapist-dependent and resource intensive. Patients’ disengagement and boredom in stroke units are common which adversely affect functional and psychological outcomes. Novel techniques such as use of iPads™ are increasingly researched to overcome such challenges. The aim of this review is to determine the feasibility, effectiveness, acceptability, and barriers to the use of iPads™ in stroke neuro-rehabilitation. Four databases and manual literature search were used to identify published studies using the terms “iPad”, “Stroke”, and “neuro-rehabilitation”. Studies were included in accordance with the review selection criteria. A total of 16 articles were included in the review. The majority of the studies focused on iPads use in speech and language therapy. Although of small scale, the studies highlighted that iPads are feasible, have the potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes, and can improve patient’s social isolation. Patients’ stroke severity and financial limitations are some of the barriers highlighted in this review. This review presents preliminary data supportive for the use of iPad technology in stroke neuro-rehabilitation. However, further research is needed to determine impact on rehabilitation goals acquisition, clinical efficacy, and cost-efficiency.

Auto checkout has received more and more attention in recent years and this system automatically generates a shopping bill by identifying the picture of the products purchased by the customers. However, the system is challenged by the domain adaptation problem, where each image of the training set contains only one commodity, whereas the test set is a collection of multiple commodities. The existing solution to this problem is to resynthesize the training images to enhance the training set. Then the composite images are rendered using CycleGAN to make the image distribution of the training set and the test set more similar. However, we find that the detection boxes given by the ground truth of the common dataset contain a large part of the background area, the area will affect the training process as noise. To solve this problem, we propose a mask data priming method. Specifically, we redo the large scale Retail Product Checkout (RPC) dataset and add segmentation annotation information to each item in the training set image based on the original dataset using pixel-level annotation. Secondly, a new network structure is proposed in which we train the network using joint learning of detectors and counters, and fine-tune the detection network by filtering out suitable images from the test set. Experiments on the RPC dataset have shown that our method yields better results. we used an approach that reached 81.87% compared to 56.68% for the baseline approach which demonstrates that pixel-level information helps to improve the detection results of the network.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, mask-wearing has become a widespread phenomenon. Even after the pandemic, people continue to maintain the habit of wearing masks in their daily lives. While existing research has explored how mask-wearing can influence wearers’ behavior in everyday life, its effects in the workplace have received less attention. Drawing on self-perception theory, this study examined the positive effect of mask-wearing in the workplace on wearers’ voice behavior via psychological safety. An online experiment (N = 291) using a within-subject manipulation of wearing masks supported our hypotheses. This study uncovered the psychological and behavioral consequences of mask-wearing beyond its benefits in people’s health conditions and everyday life.

Our work is regarding the analysis of land use changes, in the light of “saving soil” against the expansion due to unearned plus value of land: The loss of natural and agricultural surface in front of the expanding urban environment is a critical aspect of unsustainability of urban development, especially in the way it was carried out in the past decades. The measure of the physical transition of land use and characters from a more natural condition of land surface to a new artificial one, joint with a parallel analysis of the increase of land value due to such change is nowadays a major land-policy tool. The interplay of urban economics regulation with planning, reveals new key issues in urban governance and environmental preservation. In this paper it will be shown some experiment about the impact assessment of soil take, related with the seek of valorization of property inside the planning process. Our paper reports as well about the experimental activity carried out inside the MITO Lab of the Polytechnic of Bari, where reports about property values and environmental values have been produced, specially looking at the reality of the Apulia, a southern Italian Region, that is rich of farmlands and coastlines, often invaded by constructions with a severe loss of nature, landscape and ecosystems services.

Many individuals are wearing face masks improperly at ‘half mask’ and potentially breathing out microbes that can contaminate the air as well as anything below the nose. This note provides the first report that bacteria and fungi breathed out during nasal air exhalation are able to be cultured after landing on blood agar plates. The CFU’s are higher after both 10 breaths and extremely significant for 20 breaths compared to the control plates exposed to the air. Implications of this finding are that going ‘nose commando’ may be able to continue the spread of respiratory diseases such as COVID-19.

Because Canadian Nitrogen (N) fertilizer use has more than doubled since 1990 (1.2 to 2.9 MtN by 2021), a better understanding of this trend is needed. A comprehensive set of Recommended N Rates (RNR) that agreed with fertilizer sales data from 1996 and 2001 was compared with the Fertilizer Use Survey (FUS). The FUS was conducted from 2014 to 2021, with 2017 being the most representative year for these data. Using non-parametric statistics, confidence intervals were derived from the histograms used to present the FUS data. N application rates from the RNR for Canola, Spring and Duram wheat, and Oats in the west were all below their respective FUS confidence intervals, whereas N application rates for Grain corn showed almost no difference in N use between the RNR and FUS. Crop-specific N application rates interpolated from the RNR and FUS were integrated over their respective crop areas and plotted against national fertilizer sales records from 1990 to 2021. The rapid increase in N use between 2001 and 2017 (0.89 MtN), 90% of it (0.80 MtN) in Western Canada, was primarily due to increased application rates per crop, rather than crop area changes. The FUS-RNR interpolations were a good approximation of N sales records and could improve farm GHG emissions modelling. The economically important crops in Western Canada should be the main focus for N-related GHG reduction measures, but production losses need to be avoided.

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 virus has rapidly spread worldwide, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic and advocate for the widespread use of face masks to mitigate transmission. In this review, we delve into the potential impact of prolonged face mask use on temporomandibular joint (TMJ) health, an area that has garnered limited attention amidst COVID-19 research. Research has revealed that improper mask fit, and constant readjustment can lead to TMJ abnormalities. Similarly, there is a demonstrated correlation between continuous mask usage and increased incidence of headaches, temporomandibular pain, and diminished quality of life. Many studies have highlighted discomfort in the preauricular area, headaches, TMJ noises, headache, jaw pain, and muscle fatigue, as well as dermatological disorders that have been attributed to prolonged mask wear and its impact on TMJ. Our study catalyzes future research endeavors, urging a deeper exploration of the implications of long-term mask wear, not only in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic but also among occupational groups regularly exposed to extended mask use. By unraveling the complexities of TMJ health in the face of evolving preventive measures, we aim to enhance our understanding and safeguard the well-being of mask-wearers worldwide.

Research has been growing on object detection using semi-supervised methods in past few years. We examine the intersection of these two areas for floor-plan objects to promote the research objective of detecting more accurate objects with less labelled data. The floor-plan objects include different furniture items with multiple types of the same class, and this high inter-class similarity impacts the performance of prior methods. In this paper, we present Mask R-CNN based semi-supervised approach that provides pixel-to-pixel alignment to generate individual annotation masks for each class to mine the inter-class similarity. The semi-supervised approach has a student-teacher network that pulls information from the teacher network and feeds it to the student network. The teacher network uses unlabeled data to form pseudo-boxes, and the student network uses both unlabeled data with the pseudo boxes and labelled data as ground truth for training. It learns representations of furniture items by combining labelled and unlabeled data. On the Mask R-CNN detector with ResNet-101 backbone network, the proposed approach achieves mAP of 98.8%, 99.7%, and 99.8% with only 1%, 5% and 10% labelled data, respectively. Our experiment affirms the efficiency of the proposed approach as it outperforms the fully supervised counterpart using only 10% of the labels.

This study describes the development of an automated bag valve mask (BVM) compression system, which, during acute shortages and supply chain disruptions can serve as a temporary emergency ventilator. The resuscitation system is based on the Arduino controller with a real-time operating system installed on a largely RepRap 3-D printable parametric component-based structure. The cost of the system is under $170, which makes it affordable for replication by makers around the world. The device provides a controlled breathing mode with tidal volumes from 100 to 800 milliliters, breathing rates from 5 to 40 breaths/minute, and inspiratory-to-expiratory ratio from 1:1 to 1:4. The system is designed for reliability and scalability of measurement circuits through the use of the serial peripheral interface and has the ability to connect additional hardware due to the object-oriented algorithmic approach. Experimental results demonstrate repeatability and accuracy exceeding human capabilities in BVM-based manual ventilation. Future work is necessary to further develop and test the system to make it acceptable for deployment outside of emergencies in clinical environments, however, the nature of the design is such that desired features are relatively easy to add with the test using protocols and parametric design files provided.

Background: Health management is gaining importance as a business resource to enhance employee well-being. The rise of remote work during COVID-19 impacted lifestyle habits. This study explores the impact of tele-exercise intervention on remote workers' lifestyle habits, aiming to improve health and productivity. Methods: This study divided into remote (G1) and face-to-face (G2) groups. Over three months, G1 followed a 30-minute weekly exercise program. Measurements and questionnaires were collected at three time points covering areas like presenteeism, weight, sleep, stress, job satisfaction, and happiness. Data underwent Two-way repeated measures ANOVA, Autocorrelation, Correlation Analysis, and Correspondence Analysis to assess differences and relationships between G1 and G2. Results: ANOVA showed that a significant difference was observed in Daily Stress (DS) between G1 and G2, with G1 exhibiting higher DS. Autocorrelation Analyses showed for G1 that strong relationships each of BMI, Presenteeism (PST), Daily Stress (DS), Stress Relief (SR), Sleep Quality (SQ), Purpose of Work (PW), and Satisfaction of Life (SL) in the time frame. Correlation Analysis showed for G1 that the pairs of PRS and SQ, and DS and SL had strong positive relationships, and the pairs of BMI and PRS, and BMI and SQ had strong negative relationships. Autocorrelation Analyses showed for G2 that strong relationships each of SR, Stress due to Remote Work (SRW), ST, SQ, and PW in the time frame. Correspondence Analysis showed that that G1 was encompassed in a job and life satisfaction area, and G2 was encompassed in a sleep and stress for weight control area.

Consuming fish sustainably means consuming less and better, considering environmental, social, and economic impacts. This demands more knowledge to make informed decisions. In this study, the main goal was to understand how sustainability education can be used as a tool to raise awareness and promote new habits regarding the sustainable consumption of fish in 4th-grade students at primary school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face and online learning methodologies were used in two different groups of students to understand whether the teaching method impacted learning. A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was applied, with a pre-test/post-test design, combined with focus group sessions. Between the pre and post-tests three learning modules were performed. The results showed that the students were unaware of many aspects related to fish sustainable consumption, but the developed activities significantly increased their knowledge of the subject and impacted students to change their consumption behaviours. It was also found that the construction of knowledge by the students after the activities was achieved either by face-to-face or online learning. Interviews from focus group sessions showed that students got to know new fish species, learned about the concept of minimum landing size and closure season and that fish are labelled like other types of food.

Human Face and facial parts are the most significant parts as it reveals a person’s true identity. It plays an important role in various biometric applications like crowd analysis, human tracking, photography, cosmetic surgery, etc. There are many techniques are available to detect a facial image. Among them, skin detection is the most popular one. The aim of this paper is to detect first the person's identity from facial image and finally check any spot present the the detected person. The first step is to detect the maximum skin region based on a combination method of RGB and HSV color space model. Next it is to verify the skin areas of human through machine learning approach. The Aggregated Channel Features (ACF) detector is used to identify the different facial parts like eye pairs, nose, and mouth. Bootstrap aggregation decision tree classifier is applied to classify the person’s identity based on Histogram Oriented Gradient (HOG) features value. The experimental results show that the proposed method gives the average 97% accuracy.

Although, promotion of urbanization culture in recent decades has made inevitable development of cities in the world, however, the development can be guided in a direction that leave, to the extent possible, minimum socioeconomic and environmental impacts. For this, it is required to first forecast auto-spreading orientation of cities and suburbs in rural areas over time and then avoid shapeless growth of cities. This paper is an attempt to develop a dynamic hybrid model based on logistic regression (LR), Markov chain (MC), and cellular automata (CA) for prediction of future urban sprawl in fast-growing cities. The model was developed using 12 widely-used urban development criteria, whose significant coefficient was determined by logistic regression, and validated by relative operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The validated model was run in Guilan, a tourist province in northern Iran with a very high rate of urban development. For this, changes in the area of urban land use were detected over the period of 1989 to 2013 and then, future sprawl of the province was forecasted by the years 2025 and 2037. The analysis results revealed that the area of urban land use was increased by more than 1.7 % from 36012.5 ha in 1989 to 59754.8 ha in 2013, and the area of Caspian Hyrcanian forestland was reduced by 31628 ha. The results also predicted an alarming increase in the rate of urban development in the province by the years 2025 and 2037, during which urban land use is predicted to develop 0.9 % and 1.38 %, respectively. The development pattern is expected to be uneven and scattered, without following any particular direction. The development will occur close to the existing or newly-formed urban basements as well as around major roads and commercial areas. This development, if not controlled, will lead to the loss of 13863 ha of Hyrcanian forests and if the trend continues, 21013 ha of Hyrcanian forests and 20208 ha of Barren/open lands are expected to be destroyed by the year 2037. In general, the proposed model is an efficient tool for the support of urban planning decisions and facilitates the process of sustainable development of cities by providing decision-makers with an overview on future development of cities where the growth rate is very fast.

With the rapid growth of the global mask market, consumers have put forward higher requirements for the functionality and ingredients of mask products. Conventional facial masks generally use ordinary non-woven fabrics as the mask base fabric, are frequently used with essence and contain preservatives. At the same time, they are susceptible to the influence of the external environment and are easily oxidized, which will cause the mask to deteriorate and skin allergic reactions. In addition, conventional facial masks exhibit poor skin fit, limited breathability, inadequate absorption of nutrient solutions, and easy to drip. The nanofiber mask prepared by electrospinning technology has a high specific surface area and high porosity, which enabling improved nutrient absorption by the skin, superior skin fit, and exceptional breathability. Nanofiber facial mask products can effectively solve consumer pain points and promote the high-end development of facial mask products. Therefore, this research combines needleless electrospinning technology to develop a novel solid-state, preservative-free, and quick-dissolving nanofiber facial mask that can be prepared on a large scale. Based on needleless electrospinning technology, this research deeply explores the process parameters and influencing mechanisms of quick-dissolving nanofiber facial masks, ultimately achieving the consistent production of nanofiber facial masks with optimal morphology. Comprehensive and evaluation of the structure and performance of nanofiber facial masks from micro and macro perspectives. The experimental results show that the mask morphology is optimal under the process conditions of using a spinning liquid of 20% collagen peptide solution, a spinning voltage of 30kV, a collection distance of 19cm, and a liquid supply speed of 130ml/h.

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) waste poses a significant environmental challenge due to its non-biodegradable nature and the vast quantities generated annually. However, conventional recycling methods are energy-intensive and often yield low-quality products. Herein, HDPE waste is upcycled into anti-aging superhydrophobic thin films suitable for outdoor applications. A two-layer spin-casting method combined with heating-induced crosslinking is utilized to produce an exceptionally rough superhydrophobic surface, featuring a root mean square (RMS) roughness of 50 nm, an average crest height of 222 nm, an average trough depth of –264 nm, and a contact angle (CA) of 148°. To assess durability, weathering tests were conducted, revealing the films' susceptibility to degradation under harsh conditions. The films' resistance to environmental factors is improved by incorporating a UV absorber, maintaining their hydrophobic properties and mechanical strength. Our research demonstrates a sustainable method for upcycling waste into high-performance, weather-resistant superhydrophobic films.

Nowadays, fostered by technological progress and contextual circumstances such as economic crisis and pandemic restrictions, remote education is living a growing deployment. However, this growth generated widespread doubts about the actual effectiveness of remote/online compared to face-to-face education. The present study aimed at comparing face-to-face and remote education through a multimodal neurophysiological approach. It involved forty students at a driving school, during a real classroom, experiencing both the modalities. Wearable devices to measure brain, ocular, heart and sweating activities were employed in order to analyse the students’ neurophysiological signals to obtain insights about their cognitive dimension. In particular, four parameters were considered, the Eye Blink Rate, the Heart Rate and its Variability and the Skin Conductance Level. Also, the students filled a questionnaire at the end to obtain an explicit measure of their learning performance. Data analysis showed a higher cognitive activity, in terms of attention and mental engagement, in presence with respect to remote modality. On the other hand, students by remote felt more stressed, in particular during the first part of the lesson. Analysis of questionnaires demonstrated worst performance by remote, thus suggesting a common “disengaging” behaviour when attending remote courses, thus undermining their effectiveness. In conclusion, neuroscientific tools could help to obtain insights about mental concerns, often «blind», such as attentional decreasing and stress increasing, as well as their dynamics during the lesson itself, so allowing to define proper countermeasures to emerging issues when introducing new practices into daily life.

With the increase of intelligent voice phishing and the increasing reliance on open banking systems, there has been a rise in cases where individuals' personal information has been exposed, resulting in significant financial losses for the victims. Non-face-to-face transactions in the financial sector face challenges such as customer identification, ensuring transaction integrity, and preventing transaction rejection. Blockchain-based distributed ledgers have been proposed as a solution, but their adoption is limited due to the difficulty of managing private keys and the burden of gas fees management. This paper proposes a non-face-to-face P2P real-time token payment system that minimizes the risk of key loss by storing private keys in a keystore file and database through a server-based key management module. The proposed system simplifies token creation and management through a server-based token management module and implements an automatic gas charging function for smooth token transactions. Transaction integrity and non-repudiation are ensured through a transaction confirmation module that uses transaction IDs without exposing personal information. Furthermore, advanced security measures such as blocking foreign IP access and DDoS defense are implemented to securely protect user data. The proposed system aims to provide a convenient, secure, and accessible online payment solution to the public by implementing a self-authentication function using a web application that is not limited to smart phones or application platforms.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, most university courses have been offered on online platforms. A sudden shift from face-to-face classroom learning to online formats could influence the learning effectiveness of classes. This study aims to investigate differences in the learning effectiveness of online and face-to-face lecture courses. It also explores factors that impact the effectiveness of online instruction. These factors include interactions among learners, interactions between learners and the instructor, the quality of online platforms, learners’ ability to use devices and follow instructions, and learners’ situational challenges. The study participants were 261 university students at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok, Thailand. All participants were enrolled in at least one lecture course, such as history, humans and the environment, the environment and development, or general philosophy, during the 2019 academic year. A questionnaire was distributed to participants after they completed these courses in May 2020. Paired simple t-test analyses were used to compare the effectiveness of online and face-to-face classes, and a multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors that impact the learning effectiveness of online classes. The results show that online classes are less effective than face-to-face courses. The multiple regression analysis also revealed that the effectiveness of online learning was significantly impacted by learners’ ability to interact with classmates during class, their ability to interact with instructors after the class, the quality of online platforms, and disturbances or distractions in learners’ environments.

Reciprocal Personal/Public Protection (RPPP) featured with source control is introduced, Mask Discriminating Mouth and Nose (MDMN) is employed to serve the purpose, which includes polymer based mouth cover with optional nose cover. The new knowledge that mouth is a primary, active and dominant source of the virus has been well established, which is the base of MDMN. Source classification and related source control tools are discussed, mouth cover is recommended as the tool prioritized to use. Liquid droplets is identified as a hard issue related to mask, liquid droplets, mask fitting, comfort and facial recognition constitute real challenges of mask in addition to efficiency, All of these have been addressed with MDMN. Comparisons between MDMN and masks/face covering are taken on four aspects: efficiency and efficacy, tolerance and comfort, cost and waste, and civil rights and public interest. Mouth cover is recommended to replace the face covering and act as both a personal tool and a public utensil, mouth cover with nose cover can provide better protection than N95 etc. RPPP with MDMN, could be an alternative for lockdown, a parallel strategy to vaccine, and a collectively living way during the pandemic era. MDMN, featured with high efficiency protection, high degree comfort, easy wearing, tight-fitting, easy facial recognition & communication, reusability, cost-effective, environment friendly and scale manufacturing more readily and widely etc., is a simple and sustainable solution, which is essential for ordinary people to keep wearing it properly for protection.

Space exploration is an arduous journey, with future explorations extending in duration, increasing the risk for common space-related health issues such as bone density loss due to microgravity, impaired gut microbiota, cardiovascular ailments, and exposure to cosmic radiation. These ailments can be addressed using medicinal plants. Enhancing their efficacy entails employing gene editing to target specific secondary metabolite pathways associated with therapeutic properties. Moreover, gene editing can combine multiple medicinal properties from various plants, culminating in a singular 'superplant' with enhanced therapeutic benefits. This review discusses the current usage of medicinal plants in promoting human health during space travel, the application of gene editing technology in modifying medicinal plants and presents a vision for the utilization of gene-edited medicinal plants in space to mitigate the risk of various space-related health issues.

Background: Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy (TIC) is caused by prolonged tachycardia leading to left ventricular dilatation and systolic dysfunction with heart failure. Although TIC is more common in adult, it is rare in early infant. Methods: Clinical testing was performed as part of medical evaluation and management. Next gene se-quencing (NGS) was performed for a patient with TIC. Literature review about TIC was con-ducted. Results: The case was a 5-month-old infant referred the hospital due to symptoms with heart failure at least lasting two months. Heart rate was 200 beats per minute, left ventricular ejection fraction fell below 14%, and electrocardiograms showed atrial flutter, suggesting TIC. After cardiover-sion, there was no recurrence of atrial flutter, and cardiac function was improved at 98 days after tachycardia arrest. There were no pathogenic variants identified according to NGS. Literature review identified 8 early infantile cases with TIC reported. However, there were no previous re-ports such as our case with longer duration of TIC. Conclusions: Improvement of cardiac function depends on the duration of TIC. TIC should be considered in all patients with a dilated cardiomyopathy of uncertain origin and who have tachycardias such as atrial flutter.

The exponential growth of the agricultural industry in the Amazon region has brought about notable economic advancements. However, this growth has substantially cost the region’s ecosystems, manifesting in increased deforestation and biodiversity degradation within the Amazon forest. This article is dedicated to assessing the eco-efficiency of agricultural production in Amazon biome municipalities. It places particular emphasis on identifying critical determinants through the utilization of the classic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model for efficiency computation, super-efficiency models for distinctive characterization, bootstrap computational techniques for robust resampling, and the Malmquist index for calculating annual eco-efficiency indices of each Decision-Making Unit (DMU). An exploration of the correlation between efficiency and meteorological attributes of the municipalities is conducted. The findings of this study reveal several significant points: 1) Eco-efficient municipalities within the Amazon Biome can serve as benchmarks for other DMUs striving to attain optimal input-output levels. 2) Most municipalities in the Amazon Biome operate closely to the productive frontier due to the prevalent technology employed in their agricultural activities. 2) The nature of the technological frontier’s return suggests that small and large DMUs possess eco-efficiency potential. 4) The current dataset does not yield conclusive evidence regarding a direct correlation between the variables. Leveraging this information, strategic pathways can be formulated to drive economic development in tandem with the sustainability of Amazon Biome municipalities. These strategies promise to foster social, economic, and environmental benefits for the populace while providing valuable insights to inform future research within this thematic domain.

We report the case of a 44-year-old woman who suffered gastric perforation after receiving bag-valve-mask (BVM) ventilation in the setting of alcohol intoxication. She had a markedly distended abdomen and cold, dusky lower extremities upon arrival to the emergency department. Imaging revealed a large volume intraabdominal accumulation of air with compression of the aorta. Needle decompression relieved symptoms of lower extremity arterial insufficiency. However, the patient quickly decompensated and subsequent exploratory laparotomy confirmed gastric rupture. A subtotal gastrectomy was performed but the patient ultimately passed on post-operative day two due to multi-organ dysfunction. Although BVM ventilation is commonplace in both the hospital and field, there is a lack of awareness of the serious complications of abdominal air accumulation due to their rareness in the adult population. Checking for abdominal distention during resuscitation ought to be routine in all patients. Signs of arterial insufficiency accompanying abdominal distention, once confirmed by diagnostic imaging that shows extensive pneumoperitoneum, are indicators of having reached a life-threatening level of air accumulation, calling for immediate needle decompression and exploratory laparotomy.

When in doubt, asking a peer can be very helpful. Students learn a lot of social strategies from peers. However, stated preference studies [Newman, 1993] have found that for elementary school students with math questions they prefer to ask the teacher. In this paper, we study revealed preferences instead of stated preferences. We analyze the behavior of fourth-grade students seeking face-to-face assistance while working on an online math platform. Students start by working independently on the platform before the teacher selects two or three tutors from among those who have answered 10 questions correctly. Each student is then able to choose between the teacher or one of these tutors when requesting assistance. We study the students’ preferences over 3 years, involving 88 fourth-grade classes, 2,700 students, 1,209 sessions with classmate tutors, and a total of 16,485 requests for help when there was an option to choose between a teacher or a classmate. We found that students prefer asking classmates for help 3 times more than asking their teachers when given the choice. Furthermore, this gap increases from the first to the second semester. We also found that students prefer to request help from classmates of the same sex and of higher academic performance. In this sense, students from the two highest tertiles sought help from classmates in the same two tertiles, and students from the medium tertile prefer to seek help from students of the highest tertile. However, students in the two lowest tertiles do not prefer asking for help from students from the top tertile more than from their own tertiles.

"Finding fresh water in the ocean of data." is a challenge that all deep learning domains struggle with, especially in the area of hyperspectral image analysis. As hyperspectral remote sensing technology advances by leaps and bounds, there are increasing amounts of hyperspectral images(HSIs) can be available. Whereas in fact, these unlabeled HSIs are powerless to be used as material to driven a supervised learning task due to the extremely expensive labeling costs and some unknown regions. Although learning-based methods have achieved remarkable performance due to their superior ability to represent features, at the cost, these methods are complex, inflexible and tough to carry out transfer learning. In this paper, we propose the "Instructional Mask AutoEncoder"(IMAE), which is a simple and powerful self-supervised learner for HSI classification that uses a transformer-based mask autoencoder to extract the general features of HSIs through a self-reconstructing agent task. Moreover, we utilize the metric learning to perform an instructor which can direct the model focus on the human interested region of the input so that we can alleviate the defects of transformer-based model such as local attention distraction, lack of inductive bias and tremendous training data requirement. In downstream forward propagation, instead of global average pooling, we employ a learnable aggregation to put the tokens into fullplay. The obtained results illustrate that our method effectively accelerates the convergence rate and promotes the performance in downstream task.

Face recognition is one of the most active research fields of computer vision and pattern recognition, with many practical and commercial applications including identification, access control, forensics, and human-computer interactions. However, identifying a face in a crowd raises serious questions about individual freedoms and poses ethical issues. Significant methods, algorithms, approaches, and databases have been proposed over recent years to study constrained and unconstrained face recognition. 2D approaches reached some degree of maturity and reported very high rates of recognition. This performance is achieved in controlled environments where the acquisition parameters are controlled, such as lighting, angle of view, and distance between the camera-subject. However, if the ambient conditions (e.g., lighting) or the facial appearance (e.g., pose or facial expression) change, this performance will degrade dramatically. 3D approaches were proposed as an alternative solution to the problems mentioned above. The advantage of 3D data lies in its invariance to pose and lighting conditions, which has enhanced recognition systems efficiency. 3D data, however, is somewhat sensitive to changes in facial expressions. This review presents the history of face recognition technology, the current state-of-the-art methodologies, and future directions. We specifically concentrate on the most recent databases, 2D and 3D face recognition methods. Besides, we pay particular attention to deep learning approach as it presents the actuality in this field. Open issues are examined and potential directions for research in facial recognition are proposed in order to provide the reader with a point of reference for topics that deserve consideration.

Pure silver as well as silver compounds have been used as antiseptics for centuries. Nowadays, the most frequently applied form of silver is a nanoparticle form. Several studies demonstrate the ability of silver nanoparticles and silver salts to accumulate in the brain of laboratory ani-mals as well as the ability of silver nanoparticles to influence behavioral and cognitive functions of laboratory mammals. For the first time, the influence of a silver salt, in particular, silver citrate on the change dynamics of behavioral and cognitive functions of laboratory mice at the daily oral exposure during 30, 60, 120 and 180 days is investigated in the present research. We observed the anxiety increase after 30 days of the exposure as well as the ability of mice to adapt to the prolonged oral exposure of silver citrate manifested in the anxiety decrease, increase of locomotor activity and the tendency of long-term contextual memory improvement. Increase of locomotor activity and memory improvement might be associated with the sensitivity increase and regarded as compensatory mechanism to anxiety increase. The observed phenomenon is classified as a hormetic effect. A comparison with the analogous study implemented polyvi-nylpyrrolidone coated silver nanoparticles is carried out. It was concluded that the nanoform is more neurotoxic.

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of exogenous proline on growth, biochemical responses, and plant recovery of drought-stressed oilseed rape plants after renewed irrigation. The experiment was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions. After 21 days of cultivation, 3-4 leaf stage seedlings were sprayed with proline (1 mM), then subjected to prolonged drought stress for 8 days to achieve a severe water deficit, then irrigation was resumed and recovery was assessed after 4 days. The results show that exogenous application of proline reduced drought-induced growth inhibition of seedlings while maintaining relative water content (RWC) and growth parameters closer to those of irrigated plants. Proline had a positive effect on chlorophyll accumulation and membrane permeability while decreasing ethylene, H2O2, and MDA levels. Moreover, after 4 days of recovery, the H2O2 content of the proline-treated plants was significantly lower (2-fold) and the MDA content was close to that of continuously irrigated plants. Thus, all these biochemical reactions influenced plant survival: after drought + proline treatment, the number of surviving plants was 2 times higher than that of drought-treated plants. The findings show that exogenous proline has antioxidant, osmotic, and growth-promoting properties that improve the drought tolerance of winter oilseed rape plants and is, therefore, beneficial for drought adaptation in oilseed rape.

Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal disorder that is caused by a missing or structurally ab-normal second sex chromosome. Subjects with TS are at an increased risk of developing intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight, short stature, congenital heart diseases, infertility, obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular diseases (stroke and myocardial infarction). The underlying pathogenetic mechanism of TS is unknown. The assumption that X chromosome-linked gene haploinsufficiency is associated with the TS phenotype is questioned since such genes have not been identified. Thus, other pathogenic mechanisms have been suggested to explain this phenotype. Morphogenesis encompasses a series of events that includes cell division, the production of migratory precursors and their progeny, differentiation, programmed cell death, and integration into organs and systems. The precise control of the growth and differentiation of cells is essential for normal development. The cell cycle frequency and the number of proliferating cells are essential in cell growth. 45,X cells have a failure to proliferate at a normal rate, leading to a decreased cell number in a given tissue during organogenesis. A convergence of data indicates an association between a prolonged cell cycle and the phenotypical features in Turner syndrome. This review aims to examine old and new findings concerning the relationship between a prolonged cell cycle and TS phenotype. These studies reveal a diversity of phenotypic features in TS that could be explained by reduced cell proliferation. The implications of this hypothesis for our understanding of the TS phenotype and its pathogenesis are discussed. It is not surprising that 45,X monosomy leads to cellular growth pathway dysregulation with profound deleterious effects on both embryonic and later stages of development. The prolonged cell cycle could represent the beginning of the pathogenesis of TS, leading to a series of phenotypic consequences in embryonic/fetal, neonatal, pediatric, adolescence, and adulthood life.

A clinical simulation web-based program, known as FIRST2ACT (Feedback Incorporating Review and Simulation Techniques to Act on Clinical Trends) is designed to increase the efficacy of cli-nicians’ actions in the recognition and immediate response to a patient’s deterioration. This study, which was nested in a larger mixed method project, used ten focus groups (n=65) of graduate, enrolled, registered nurses, Associate Nurse Unit Managers, and general manag-ers/educators/coordinators from four different institutions to investigate whether nurses felt their practice was influenced by participating in either a face-to-face or web-based simulation educa-tional programme about patient deterioration. Results indicate individuals who were less ‘tech-savvy’ appreciated the flexibility of web-based learning, which increased their confidence. Face-to-face students appreciated self-reflection through performance evaluation. While face-to-face simulations were unable to completely duplicate symptoms, they did show nurses' adaptability. Both interventions enhanced clinical practice by improving documentation and re-plies while also boosting confidence and competence. Web learners initially experienced tech-related anxiety, which gradually subsided, demonstrating healthcare professionals' resilience to new learning approaches. Overall, the study highlighted the advantages and challenges of web-based and face-to-face education in clinical practice, emphasising the importance of adapta-bility and reflective learning for healthcare professionals. Further exploration of specific topics is required to improve practice, encourage knowledge sharing among colleagues, and improve early detection of patient deterioration.

Severe cancer pain significantly diminishes patients' quality of life, leading to increased reliance on caregivers. Although opioid analgesics are effective, they may induce opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OIBD) with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and constipation. While controlled-release oxycodone is a viable option, its prolonged use can lead to opi-oid-induced constipation (OIC). Addressing this, a relative novel formulation - a fixed 2:1 ratio of oxycodone and naloxone in prolonged release - aims to provide analgesia while alleviating OIC. This review critically assesses the evidence on the efficacy, safety, and patient experience of ox-ycodone/naloxone prolonged release in managing severe cancer pain, emphasizing the necessity for a targeted approach in this patient population.

The thermal surface properties of graphenes and carbon materials are of crucial importance in chemistry of materials, chemical engineering, and many industrial processes. (1) Background: The determination of these surface properties is carried out using inverse gas chromatography at infinite dilution which leads to the retention volume of organic solvents adsorbed on solid surfaces. This experimental and fundamental parameter actually reflects the surface thermodynamic interactions between injected probes and solid substrates. (2) Methods: The London dispersion equation and the Hamieh thermal model were used to quantify the London dispersive and polar surface energy of graphenes and carbon fibers as well their Lewis acid-base constants by introducing the coupling amphoteric constant of materials. (3) Results: The London dispersive and polar acid-base surface energies, the free energy of adsorption, the polar enthalpy and entropy, and the Lewis acid-base constants of graphenes and carbon materials were determined. (4) Conclusions: it was showed that graphene exhibited the highest values of London dispersive surface energy, polar surface energy, and Lewis’s acid-base constants. These highest characteristics of graphene justify its great potentiality and uses in many industrial applications.

Most of the phase change materials (PCMs) have been limited to use as functional additions or sealed in containers, and extra auxiliary equipment or supporting matrix is needed. The emergence of 3D printing technique has dramatically advanced the developments of materials and simplified production processes. This study focuses on a novel strategy to model thermal energy storage crystalline gels with three-dimensional architecture directly from liquid resin without supporting materials through light-induced polymerization 3D printing technique. A mask-projection stereolithography printer was used to measure the 3D printing test, and the printable characters of crystalline thermal energy storage P(SA-DMAA) gels with different molar ratios were evaluated. For the P(SA-DMMA) gels with small fraction of SA, the 3D fabrication was realized with higher printing precision both on mili- and micro-meter scales. As a comparison of 3D printed samples, P(SA-DMAA) gels made by other two methods, post-UV curing treatment after 3D printing and UV curing using conventional mold, were prepared. The 3D printed P(SA-DMAA) gels shown high crystallinity. Post–UV curing treatment was beneficial to full curing of 3D printed gels, but did not lead to the further improvement of crystal structure to get higher crystallinity. The P(SA-DMAA) crystalline gel having the highest energy storage enthalpy that reached 69.6 J·g⁻¹ was developed. Its good thermoregulation property in the temperature range from 25 to 40 °C was proved. The P(SA-DMAA) gels are feasible for practical applications as one kind of 3D printing material with thermal energy storage and thermoregulation functionality.

Mpox (monkeypox) is a zoonotic disease that has been endemic in African countries for decades, with a recent outbreak in several countries around the world. A 39-year-old male with HIV-HBV coinfection and poor adherence to antiretroviral treatment, who was severely immunocompromised and had a concurrent diagnosis of Mpox infection, presented to our hospital with disseminated dermatosis (over 350 lesions), perianal ulcers, odynophagia, oral intolerance, diarrhea, and soft-tissue bacterial superinfection of the lower extremities. Laboratory results were consistent with HBV infection, with an absolute CD4 cell count of 40 cells/uL and a positive PCR result for Mpox. An abdominopelvic CT scan showed evidence of severe proctitis and perineal soft-tissue infection. After 65 days of Mpox PCR, new lesions in the vesicular stage continued to appear, eventually developing hemodynamic instability and sepsis, resulting in a fatal outcome. Our case highlights the importance of intentionally looking for risk factors such as HIV/HBV coinfection and evaluating immune status (CD4 cell count) in patients with severe Mpox infection because it could be related to higher mortality.

Face verification for unrestricted faces in the wild is a challenging task. This paper proposes a method based on two deep convolutional neural networks(CNN) for face verification. In this work, we explore to use identification signal to supervise one CNN and the combination of semi-verification and identification to train the other one. In order to estimate semi-verification loss at a low computation cost, a circle, which is composed of all faces, is used for selecting face pairs from pairwise samples. In the process of face normalization, we propose to use different landmarks of faces to solve the problems caused by poses. And the final face representation is formed by the concatenating feature of each deep CNN after PCA reduction. What's more, each feature is a combination of multi-scale representations through making use of auxiliary classifiers. For the final verification, we only adopt the face representation of one region and one resolution of a face jointing Joint Bayesian classifier. Experiments show that our method can extract effective face representation with a small training dataset and our algorithm achieves 99.71% verification accuracy on LFW dataset.

Lactoperoxidase (LP) is an important enzyme of the salivary and mammary glands. It has been proven to increase the shelf life of raw milk by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, especially Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas spp. The aim of this work was to verify the use of LP to extend the shelf life of meat products. In vitro experiments showed inhibitory effects against selected bacteria (Listeria innocua (ATCC 33090), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (CP054440.1), and Pseudomonas fluorescens (ATCC 13525) due to prolongation of the lag phase of growth curves. A lower increase in viable counts (P &lt; 0.05) was also found by testing the pork cubes surface treated with LP solution (5%) + L. innocua and stored for 7 days at 15 °C. LP has also been studied at concentrations of 0.25 and 0.50% in meat products (pork ham and pâté) during refrigerated storage (4 °C for 28 days). Lower viable counts were observed throughout the storage experiment, especially for 0.50% LP (P &lt; 0.05). Meat products containing LP also showed lower levels of oxidation (MAD) (P &lt; 0.05). According to these results, LP could extend the shelf life of a wider range of products.

Febrile seizures in early childhood can lead to developmental disorders in the CNS. However, the specific mechanisms behind the impact of febrile seizures on the developing brain are not well-understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we employed a hyperthermic model of febrile seizures in 10-day-old rats and tracked their development over two months. Our objective was to determine the degree to which the properties of the hippocampal glutamatergic system are modified. We analyzed whether pyramidal glutamatergic neurons in the hippocampus die after febrile seizures. Our findings indicate that there is a reduction in the number of neurons in various regions of the hippocampus in the first two days after seizures. The CA1 field showed the greatest susceptibility, and the reduction in the number of neurons in post-FS rats in this area appeared to be long-lasting. Electrophysiological studies indicate that febrile seizures cause a reduction in glutamatergic transmission, leading to decreased local field potential am-plitude. This impairment could be attributable to diminished glutamate release probability as evidenced by decreases in frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents and increases in pair-pulse ratio of synaptic responses. We also found higher threshold current causing hindlimb extension in the maximal electroshock seizure threshold test of rats 2 months after febrile seizures compared to control animals. Our research suggests that febrile seizures can impair glutamatergic transmission, which may protect against future seizures.

Despite numerous studies on cancer treatment, cancer remains a challenging disease to cure, even after decades of research. In recent years, cancer vaccine has emerged as a promising approach for cancer treatment, offering few unexpected side effects compared to existing therapies. How-ever, cancer vaccine faces obstacles to commercialization due to its low efficacy. Particularly, the Toll-like receptor (TLR) adjuvant system, specifically the TLR 7/8 agonist, has shown potential for activating Th1 immunity, which stimulates both innate and adaptive immune responses through T cells. In this study, we developed ProLNG-S, a cholesterol-conjugated form of resiquimod (R848), to enhance immune efficacy by stimulating the immune system and reducing toxicity. ProLNG-S was formulated as ProLNG-001, a positively charged liposome, and co-administered with oval-bumin (OVA) protein in the B16-OVA model. ProLNG-001 effectively targeted secondary lym-phoid organs, resulting in a robust systemic anti-tumor immune response and tumor-specific T cell activation. Consequently, ProLNG-001 demonstrated potential for preventing tumor progression and improving survival compared to AS01 by enhancing anti-tumor immunity.

This work introduces a novel facial image capture system that utilizes computer vision technology and artificial intelligence for real-time detecting, tracking, and capturing of human faces. The objective of this study is to address the challenges posed by poor-quality facial images in biometric authentication, especially in passport photo acquisition and recognition. By combining face-aware capture technology with AES encryption for secure image storage, we present a completely open-source hardware solution that consists of a Jetson processor, a 16MP autofocus RGB camera, a custom enclosure, and a touch sensor LCD for user interaction. Pilot data collection demonstrates the system's ability to capture high-quality images, achieving a 98.98% accuracy in storing images of acceptable quality. The integration of AES encryption ensures data security, making the proposed system suitable for real-time applications in other domains beyond identity verification in passport applications, such as security systems, video conferencing, etc

Face swapping is an intriguing and intricate task in the field of computer vision. Currently, most mainstream face swapping methods employ face recognition models to extract identity features and inject them into the generation process. Nonetheless, such methods often struggle to effectively transfer identity information, result in generated results failing to achieve a high identity similarity with the source face. Furthermore, if we can accurately disentangle identity information, we can achieve controllable face swapping, thereby providing more choices to users. In pursuit of this goal, we propose a new face swapping framework (ControlFace) based on the disentanglement of identity information. We disentangle the structure and texture of the source face, encoding and characterizing them in the form of feature embeddings separately. According to the semantic level of each feature representation, we inject them into the corresponding feature mapper and fuse them adequately in the latent space of StyleGAN. Owing to such disentanglement of structure and texture, we are able to controllablely transfer parts of the identity features. Extensive experiments and comparisons with state-of-the-art face swapping methods demonstrate the superiority of our face swapping framework in terms of transferring identity information, producing high-quality face images and controllable face swapping.

While the desire to uncover the neural correlates of consciousness has taken numerous directions, self-face recognition has been a constant in attempts to isolate aspects of self-awareness. The neuroimaging revolution of the 1990’s bought about systematic attempts to isolate the underlying neural basis self-face recognition. These studies, including some of the first fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies, revealed a right hemisphere bias for self-face recognition in a diverse set of regions including the insula, the Dorsal Frontal Lobe, the Temporal Parietal Junction and Medial Temporal Cortex. Confirmation of these data (which are correlational) was provided by TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) and patients in which direct inhibition or ablation of right hemisphere regions leads to a disruption or absence of self-face recognition. These data are consistent with a number of theories including a right hemisphere dominance for self-awareness and/or a right hemisphere specialization for identifying significant social relationships including to oneself.

Cancer treatment is a significant focus in medicine owing to the increasing global incidence. Patients with advanced cancers that do not respond to conventional therapies have limited options and an unfavorable prognosis. Consequently, researchers are investigating complementary approaches to conventional treatments. One such approach is alkalization therapy, which aims to neutralize the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) by increasing its pH level. The acidic TME promotes inflammation, tumor progression, and drug resistance. Alkalization therapy has been demonstrated to be effective for various cancers. In addition, natural products, such as triterpenoids, parthenolides, fulvic acid, Taxus yunnanensis, and apple pectin have the potential to alleviate symptoms, maintain physical fitness, and improve treatment outcomes of cancer patients through their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. In this review, we focus on the effects of alkalization therapy and natural products on cancer. Furthermore, we present a case series of advanced cancer patients who received alkalization therapy and natural products alongside standard treatments, resulting in long-term survival. We posit that alkalization therapy together with the supplementation of natural products may confer benefits to cancer patients by mitigating the side effects of chemotherapy and complementing standard treatments. However, further research is warranted to validate these clinical findings.

Although mask-wearing is now widespread, knowledge of how to quantify or improve its performance remains surprisingly limited and largely based on empirical evidence. The objective of this study was to visualize the expiratory airflows from facemasks and evaluate aerosol transmission between two persons. Different visualization methods were explored, including the Schlieren optical system, laser/LED-particle imaging system, thermal camera, and vapor-SarGel system. The leakage flows and escaped aerosols were quantified using a hotwire anemometer and a particle counter, respectively. The results show that mask-wearing reduces the exhaled flow velocity from 2~4 m/s (with no facemask) to around 0.1 m/s, thus decreasing droplet transmission speeds. Cloth, surgical, and KN95 masks showed varying leakage flows at the nose top, sides, and chin. The leakage rate also differed between inhalation and exhalation. The neck gaiter has low filtration efficiency and high leakage fractions, providing low protection efficiency. There was considerable deposition in the mouth-nose area, as well as the neck, chin, and jaw, which heightened the risk of self-inoculation through spontaneous face-touching. A face shield plus surgical mask greatly reduced droplets on the head, neck, and face, indicating that double face coverings can be highly effective when a single mask is insufficient. The vapor-SarGel system provided a practical approach to study interpersonal transmission under varying close contact scenarios or with different face coverings.

This article discusses the comparison between digital and traditional face-to-face coaching within the scope of shadow education institutions. While analyzing the differences and similarities between the two educational models, both their advantages and disadvantages are thoroughly discussed. In this context, interviews were conducted with students and teachers who receive education in both face-to-face and digital coaching, and the positive and negative aspects of both institutions, suitable and unsuitable courses, the future situation, and the effects on students' academic achievements were revealed. According to the results obtained from the research, it is noteworthy that students who do not receive education in digital coaching have prejudices against digitalization. Additionally, no significant difference was found between the academic achievements of students receiving education in digital coaching and those receiving education in face-to-face coaching.

A detailed review of the scientific literature was undertaken to examine the most recent developments in plasma processing in the field of medicine. The first part of the review includes a detailed breakdown of the different types of coatings that can be applied onto medical devices using plasma, with a specific focus on antimicrobial surfaces. The developments during 2023 in plasma deposited biocompatible, drug delivery and adhesive coatings are described and specific applications in additive manufacturing are highlighted. The use of plasma and plasma activated liquids as standalone therapeutics continues to evolve and pertinent advances in this field are described. In addition, the combination of plasma medicine with conventional pharmaceutical interventions was reviewed and key emerging trends were highlighted, including the use of plasma to enhance drug delivery directly into tissue. The potential synergies between plasma medicine and chemotherapeutics for oncology and infection treatment is a growing area and recent advancements are noted. Finally, the use of plasma to control excess antibiotics and to intentionally degrade such materials in waste streams is described.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study aimed to test the efficacy of a newly-developed symptom self-management program on health outcomes among inpatients post-AMI. A pilot randomised, controlled trial was utilised. A convenience sample of 90 was recruited from a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Adult inpatients with post-AMI were randomly assigned to the three groups: IManage-HSet, IManage-FF or control group. Sample size was computed using power analysis. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires and physiological instruments. Data analyses included univariate statistics, analysis of variance and repeated measure analysis of variance. Ninety participants were recruited with 30 in each group. Participants in the IManage-HSet and IManage-FF group had significantly greater relaxation (ηp2 = 0.11), lower objective stress (ηp2 =0.14), and greater knowledge (ηp2 = 0.62) than those of the control group. The two intervention groups had lower subjective stress (ηp2 = 0.04), depression (ηp2 = 0.01), and anxiety (ηp2 = 0.03) than the control but such differences did not achieve statistical significance. Furthermore, most participants reported that they were satisfied with the programs and they provided positive comments on the contents, educational materials and relaxation practice. This pilot study supports the potential benefits and feasibility of the IManage-VR and IManage-FF interventions on stress, perceived relaxation, knowledge and patient satisfaction. Contents of the symptom management interventions could be added into current cardiac rehabilitation programs. Future RCTs with multi-centered sites and larger sample size are required to further test the intervention. This study was prospectively registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial on the 5th August 2014 with registration number ISRCTN61027816.

SOC stock (SOCS) changes caused by land use changes are still unclear, and understanding this response is essential for many environmental policies and land management practices. In this study, we investigated the temporal-spatial and vertical distribution characteristics of SOCS on the Western Sichuan Plateau (WSP) using the sparrow search algorithm-random forest regression (SSA-RFR) models with excellent model applicability and accuracy. The temporal-spatial varia-tions in the SOCS were modeled using 1080 soil samples and a set of nine environmental covariates. We analyzed the effect of land use changes on the SOCS on the WSP. The total SOCS increased by 18.03 Tg C from 1990 to 2020. The results of this study confirmed that the SOCS in the study area has increased significantly since 2010, with an increase of 27.88 Tg C compared to the total SOCS in 2010. We found that the spatial distribution of the SOCS increased from southeast to northwest, and the vertical distribution of the SOCS in the study area decreased with increasing soil depth. Forest and grassland are the main sources of SOCS, the total SOCS in the forest and grassland accounted for 37.53 and 59.39% of the total SOC pool in 2020, respectively. Expansion of the wetlands, forest, and grassland areas could increase SOCS in the study area.

High Education Institutions (HEI) play a key role in fostering sustainability since students will be future active society members. By providing them with the knowledge, skills, and mindset needed to address environmental challenges, they can contribute to increase sustainability in a long-term approach. With the effects of climate change strongly affecting water availability across planet, it is increasingly relevant to understand if higher education students are aware of this situation, to develop adequate measures to promote sustainable behaviors regarding water uses. This study aimed to assess students’ perceptions regarding water efficiency through a questionnaire submitted in 7 HEI in Portugal. Students recognized the importance of water with older students, women and science students demonstrating a greater awareness. Inspite of this 27% students do not know what the average water consumption in Portugal is and only 18% accurately reported the consumption range in Portugal. There is also a lack of knowledge (&gt;50% students) if common water efficiency measures are applied in their HEI. The main information sources identified by the students were “social communication” and “internet/social media”, revealing that water efficiency knowledge transfer in high education can be improved.

Silica fly ash, Certyd aggregate, and an alkaline solution were used to produce lightweight geo-polymer concretes. The compressive strength, water absorption, bulk density and SEM photos showing the structure of the obtained composite were carried out. Tests conducted on the specifi-cation of lightweight geopolymer concretes have revealed significant chemical interactions between the ash aggregate and the geopolymer mortar, particularly when the coarse aggregate surface has been pre-treated with an alkaline solution. Statistical analysis of the experimental data, which in-vestigated the influence of three key variables on compressive strength, water absorption, and bulk density of Lightweight Geopolymer Concrete (LBG), identified the following factors as having the most substantial impact: the quantity of alkali used, the curing temperature, and the concentration of alkali in the mixture. The optimal test series exhibited a commendable compressive strength of 20.14 megapascals (MPa), accompanied by a water absorption rate of 14.72% and a bulk density of 1486.6 kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m³). These findings underscore the importance of alkali con-tent, curing temperature, and alkali concentration in tailoring the properties of lightweight geo-polymer concrete to meet specific performance requirements.

Water scarcity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, poses a significant challenge to crop production, with drought being a prevalent factor limiting grain production globally. Enhancing agricultural water use efficiency is crucial for managing water resources effectively in these areas. Water resource management involves planning, developing, distributing, and optimizing the use of water resources. Water use efficiency management is also essential for crop growth in arid regions. Various agronomic and irrigation strategies can improve crop water use efficiency and drought tolerance. The primary goal of these strategies is to maximize irrigation efficiencies by applying the precise amount of water needed to restore soil moisture to the desired level. These sustainable practices not only reduce the cost of water and labor for farmers through reduced irrigation but also optimize the use of soil moisture storage. This review paper explores practical techniques to improve water use efficiency, highlighting the role of nutrients in enhancing water use efficiency in crop plants.

Potentially, such an approach would significantly increase the effectiveness of therapy for a number of infectious and other diseases, reduce the dosage of antibiotics, shorten the duration of treatment, and reduce the risk of developing resistance. Moreover, the use of a polymer carrier with covalently bound organic molecules of different structures avoids problems with different (suboptimal) solubility and bio-distribution, which would be almost inevitable when using the same compounds separately. It would be very difficult to find antibiotic/adjuvant pairs that simultaneously achieve optimal concentrations in the same target cells. In our case, terpenoids and alkylbenzenes used as adjuvants are practically insoluble as individual compounds and their unacceptable pharmacological properties would not allow them to be used as efflux pump inhibitors.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignant tumor of the liver and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Liver transplantation (LT) is the best therapy for most patients with non-metastatic HCC. In recent years, the management of patients with HCC has changed considerably, thanks to the improvement of molecular biology knowledge and the introduction of immunotherapy. To date, systemic therapy is authorized in the Western world only in patients with advanced HCC. However, this therapy could lead not only to stabilize the tumour disease or improve survival but could display excellent response and lead to downstaging of the tumor that finally permits liver transplantation. There are increasing reports of patients that have performed liver transplantation after pretreatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, due to the intrinsic mechanism of ICIs to stimulate the immune response against tumors, they could also cause graft rejection. This review aims to evaluate the readiness and outcomes of liver transplantation in patients with advanced HCC who have previously undergone treatment with ICIs. It seeks to identify the challenges, risks, and benefits associated with this conversion therapy. The integration of ICIs into the treatment paradigm for advanced HCC necessitates a nuanced approach to liver transplantation. While early evidence supports the feasibility of LT following ICI therapy, there is an urgent need for standardized guidelines and more extensive longitudinal studies to optimize patient selection, timing, and post-transplant management.

The study investigated the usage of open data in public organizations, focusing on the motives, preferences, and governance ideals that determine their quality. The study shed light on how open data platforms are created and improved, as well as their influence on government operations. The primary goal was to understand the motivations behind the usage of open data, evaluate gov-ernance ideals, and examine institutions' efforts to standardize data formats. Hierarchical regres-sion analysis divides variables into core reasons and different preferences, demonstrating a need for "diversification" in order to use open data effectively. Efficiency, accountability, community impact, knowledge, and high-quality service delivery are all emphasized in governance value analysis. The institution's dedication to standardizing open data formats is evidenced by legislative measures and the integration of many technologies. The findings illustrate the institution's dual strategy of em-ploying traditional techniques and new technologies for effective data management. The report suggests increasing data openness and standardization, investing in ongoing training, upgrading alerting and awareness systems, and adopting specific regulations for open data use. Monitoring and feedback techniques are critical for adjusting and refining open data services to satisfy de-velopment needs. This study adds to the scientific knowledge of open data use by highlighting important motives, preferences, and governance ideals. The offered guidelines provide practical insights for public organizations looking to improve their open data platforms by promoting openness, efficiency, and community participation.

Mangrove ecosystems are one of the most productive on our planet but have declined globally by 30-50%. Many species rely on mangrove habitat and thus their conversion to aquaculture farms has led to a noticeable loss in commodities such as wild fish stocks. This study aimed to assess 1) the influence of the presence of aquaculture and 2) restoration projects on the ecosystems ability to provide resources. We collected data on mangrove vegetation (i.e., biomass, richness and abundance), soil nutrients (i.e. organic carbon, aluminium and nitrogen), crab abundance and fishing pressure in six sites. We set up 15 plots in each site and collected data between May and July 2023. Via generalised linear mixed models we found that the abundance and richness of crabs was significantly higher in aquaculture plots than in no aquaculture plots. Aquaculture plots had higher topsoil aluminium, topsoil and subsoil Nitrogen, and had lower topsoil Carbon than non-aquaculture sites. Restored sites had less Nitrogen in the topsoil than unmanaged sites. Biomass did not change between aquaculture, restored and unmanaged plots. We found a negative correlation between crab abundance and richness and mangrove DBH, suggesting that the species of crabs present preferred areas with propagules for feeding (e.g., Grapsidae crabs). The content of nitrogen in the subsoil was positively correlated with mangrove richness, diversity and height, suggesting the importance of nitrogen availability for mangrove growth. The content of aluminium in the subsoil was negatively correlated with the content of organic carbon both in topsoil and subsoil, suggesting the detrimental effect of aluminium on the carbon cycle. Fishing practices were observed in all sites during the data collection period. Even if most of the vegetation parameters were not significantly affected by presence of aquaculture or management for restoration, it is clear that important variables such as aluminium carbon, and nitrogen content in the soil and crab assemblages were highly variable.

Visualization of volumetric data holds great importance, particularly in medical and biomedical applications. Various imaging techniques, such as FMRI and 3D microscopy, are employed to generate volumetric data, used in medical practice, research, and teaching. Commonly utilized tools like 3D Slicer, Fiji, and MATLAB ® aid in rendering and analyzing 3D images. However, these tools may lack comprehensive rendering functionality and face challenges in handling computational demands as data sizes grow. To address these limitations, this work introduces a GPU-supported renderer with a MATLAB ® interface. This solution gives the user flexible control over rendering parameters and optimizes data transfer through a memory management system. By leveraging the computational power of NVIDIA GPUs, the renderer enables complex and high-quality renderings, enhancing speed and efficiency. It therefore facilitates the analysis and visualization of volumetric data within an integrated environment, namely MATLAB ®, streamlining their workflows. This advancement provides valuable opportunities for researchers and medical professionals to explore and comprehend volumetric data effectively.

Urbanization-induced land use transition results in a decline in ecosystem services, which has implications for regional ecological security. In order to explore the relationship between ecosystem services and land use transition, this paper utilizes the InVEST model, geographically weighted regression model to examine the impact of land use transition on ecosystem services in the Dongting Lake area (DLA). The results showed that (1) During the period 2000-2020, the intensity and motivation of land-use transition showed obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity with the variation of urbanization development. (2) Habitat quality and Carbon sequestrations showed a downward trend. In contrast, food supply followed an upward trend; soil conservation and water yield services initially increased and dropped later. The overall spatial changes in habitat quality and Carbon sequestration appear to be insignificant. Food supply shows significant differences in the plains compared to other areas; while soil conservation and water yield service shows significant changes in places other than the DLA. (3) From 2000 to 2020, land use transition dynamics, population density, GDP density, night lighting and transition intensity had mainly negative effects on ecosystem services. Only the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) showed a positive effect on ecosystem services. The results of the research will provide valuable references for the development and implementation of spatial ecological restoration planning and land use policies in the national territory.

This paper presents the development and implementation of a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera interfaced with a Jetson processor hosting Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, designed to address the challenges of traditional biometric capture for first-time passport photos of young children. The system enhances the accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability of facial biometric capture by recognizing and accommodating the dynamic and diverse behaviors of children. Utilizing AI, the system detects faces and analyzes facial features using 68 landmark points, ensuring high-quality images that meet ISO standards. These technical specifications, implementation process, and performance evaluations of the developed system are provided in this paper, demonstrating the potential of the proposed AI Face-Capture to advance biometric identification and verification for young children.

"Deep fake" technologies are often associated with face-swapping algorithms based on images or videos. Although much research is focused on developing these techniques, there is still room for improvement, especially in human and visual assessment. In this study, we present an innovative approach to the problem of face replacement based on one model while preserving background features. Our model uses the Adaptive Attentional Denormalization method from FaceShifter while integrating identity features from the ArcFace and BiSeNet models to support the attribute extraction process. We used Fast GAN as a generative model to optimize and accelerate the training process on smaller data sets. Our research proves the effectiveness of the proposed approach by combining innovative methods and architectures in one coherent solution.

Currently, face recognition technologies are the most widely used methods for verifying 1an individual’s identity. Nevertheless, it has increased in popularity, raising concerns about face spoofing attacks, in which a photo or video of an authorized person’s face is used to get access to services. Based on a combination of Background Subtraction (BS) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), as well as an ensemble of classifiers, we propose an efficient and more robust face spoof detection algorithm. This algorithm includes a Fully Connected (FC) classifier with a Majority Vote (MV) algorithm, which uses different face spoof attacks (e.g., printed photo and replayed video). By including a majority vote to determine whether the input video is genuine or not, the proposed method significantly enhances the performance of the Face Anti-Spoofing (FAS) system. For evaluation, we considered the MSU MFSD, REPLAY-ATTACK, and CASIA-FASD databases. The obtained results by our proposed approach are better than those obtained by state of the art methods. On the REPLAY-ATTACK database, we were able to attain a Half Total Error Rate (HTER) of 0.62% and an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.58%. It was possible to attain an EER of 0% on both the CASIA-FASD and the MSU FAS databases.

The science around the use of masks by the general public to impede COVID-19 transmission is advancing rapidly. Policymakers need guidance on how masks should be used by the general population to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In this narrative review, we develop an analytical framework to examine mask usage, considering and synthesizing the relevant literature to inform multiple areas: population impact; transmission characteristics; source control; PPE; sociological considerations; and implementation considerations. A primary route of transmission of COVID-19 is via respiratory droplets, and is known to be transmissible from presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. Reducing disease spread requires two things: first, limit contacts of infected individuals via physical distancing and other measures, and second, reduce the transmission probability per contact. The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces the transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected droplets in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high. The decreased transmissibility could substantially reduce the death toll and economic impact while the cost of the intervention is low. Given the current shortages of medical masks we recommend the adoption of public cloth mask wearing, as an effective form of source control, in conjunction with existing hygiene, distancing, and contact tracing strategies. Because many respiratory droplets become smaller due to evaporation, we recommend increasing focus on a previously overlooked aspect of mask usage: mask-wearing by infectious people ("source control") with benefits at the population-level, rather than mask-wearing by susceptible people, such as health-care workers, with focus on individual outcomes. We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of widespread face masks in public, including the use of appropriate regulation.

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

Acacia dealbata Link, named Mimosa in Portugal, is an invasive hardwood species with potential for construction use, but research is limited. The available stock of small-diameter juvenile wood (sjw) logs can help reduce this gap, but tangential cracking at log ends challenges fastener connections. This study evaluated different treatments to control and reduce end-face cracking in sjw logs during air drying, an economical and environmentally friendly procedure. Extreme two-thirds of sixteen Mimosa logs were subjected to two treatments: one with longitudinal kerfs 15 mm deep along the length (2 and 3 kerfs) and the other with a hollow in the centre up to half the length (16 mm and 30 mm diameters). Over 219 days of air drying and compared with the central part, kerfing treatments significantly reduced outer wood tangential cracking (p &lt; 0.001), with the 3-kerf also reducing crack numbers (p &lt; 0.05) but increasing significantly cracks near the pith (p &lt; 0.01). The 30 mm central hollow significantly reduced central perforation cracking (p &lt; 0.05). Results suggest that a combined treatment approach could help mitigate cracking, enhancing the suitability of wild Mimosa logs for construction use.

Measuring the impact of land use regulation on the land market involves identifying and classifying relevant impact factors related to the land market. The objective of this study was to identify land market impact factors in the context of the introduction of land use regulation in Nepal. A desktop review was carried out to identify preliminary set of impact factors, which were reclassified through intuitive analysis based on the degree of thematic closeness. Perspective-based impact factors were identified through the qualitative analysis of primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with the Nepalese land market stakeholders. These independently derived impact factors were compared with the desktop literature review impact factors resulting in fourteen land market impact factors across four dimensions, including transaction cost, valuation, mortgage availability, taxation, and compensation across the economic dimension; lot size, subdivision restrictions, and coordination across the institutional dimension; awareness, expectation and proximity across the social dimension; and risk reduction, quality of residential land, and suitability of zoning classification across the environmental dimension. There was significant overlap and commonality across factors identified from both the literature review and semi-structured interviews. The land market impact factors determined in the study may be adapted and generalized across other countries and could be utilized to better understand the impacts of land policy decisions on urban planning and development. Further research is recommended on the process to operationalize the use of these factors to quantify the impact of land use regulation on different land markets.

Introduction: The Elevation Training Mask 2.0 (ETM) has been introduced as a novel tool to allow for respiratory muscle training and altitude exposure during exercise that can improve performance and hematological markers in elite and well-trained athletes. Thus, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of wearing ETM while training on erythropoietin (EPO), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), peak oxygen consumption (VO2max), lactate, and 1000-m kayaking performance in elite Kayaking girls. Methods: Thirty elite Kayaking girls (14 to 18-year-old) were equally and randomly assigned into mask, no mask, and control groups. The mask and no-mask groups completed 8 weeks of repeated sprint training, while the control group performed their routine kayaking training programs. Pre- and post-training tests included EPO, VEGF, VO2max, lactate, and 1000-m kayaking performance. Results: 1000-m time trial significantly decreased for mask (p < 0.001) and control (p = 0.035) groups, and was significantly lower in mask group than control (p = 0.014) and no mask (p = 0.009) groups. EPO did not show any significant changes for all groups. VEGF was increased significantly for mask (p = 0.04) and no mask (p = 0.014) groups. Lactate was decreased significantly for mask group (p = 0.025). VO2max increased significantly for no mask group (p = 0.021). Conclusion: Wearing the ETM while participating in 8 weeks of repeated sprint training might improve specific blood markers and endurance performance, especially anaerobic pathways. Performing repeated sprint training while wearing ETM has the potential to enhance performance in Kayak racing.

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

The intranasal route of drug administration is characterized by high bioavailability and is considered promising for rapid delivery of drugs with systemic action to the central nervous system, bypassing the blood-brain barrier. This is particularly important for the use of neuroprotective drugs in the treatment of brain tissue damage in infants caused by the effects of intrauterine hypoxia. Creation of new dosage forms for neonatology with the use of software and mathematical technologies in pharmaceutical development allows to create cerebroprotective drugs with controlled pharmaco-technological properties, thus reducing time and resources for necessary research. We developed a formulation of a new nasal gel formulation with Angiolin using Box-Benken experiment design for the therapy of prenatal CNS damage. It was found that the consistency properties of the nasal gel were significantly influenced by the gelling agent and mucoadhesive component - sodium salt of carboxymethylcellulose. We have optimized the composition of nasal gel formulation with Angiolin using the formed models and relationships between the factors. The optimized composition of the obtained nasal gel has satisfactory parameters of thixotropic properties. The developed 1% gel for neuroprotection with Angiolin meets all the requirements for harmlessness and safety to drug forms of this group - low toxicity, absence of local irritant and allergic effect.

This paper aims to build up a preference function to evaluate the public benefits of the type of agricultural farming, biodiversity, water provisions, land use type, ecotourism modes, and a monetary attribute (environmental trust fund and willingness to contribute) associated with an ecosystem service and land use program in a forest park. This study used the choice experiments to build a random utility model, analyze the average preference for the above land use attributes based on the conditional logit and used a latent class model to test the resident’s heterogeneous preferences for land use planning in the forest park. We also estimated the welfare derived from various land use programs. The empirical result had shown that: (1) increasing organic farming area, maintaining the status quo of species biodiversity, increasing the surface water provision, increasing the area of custom flora, increasing the wetland area, and setting up an integrated framework for ecotourism increase the public’s preference for the land use program; (2) we found that farmer and non-farmer haven’t the same land use preferences; (3) the ecotourism development program incorporating biodiversity, organic farming, ethnobotany, and wetland area with integrated ecotourism are more preferred than other land use program scenarios.

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, quality of life, and family functioning in a sample of the general female population, exploring difficulties encountered in managing family and work responsibilities and burden of care when taking care of a loved one. The study was moreover aimed at investigating factors capable of influencing severe depressive symptomatology in the context of socio-demographics, traumatic events, individual vulnerability, and family functioning. Method: During a weekend devoted to Mental Health initiatives (October 8-10, 2021), 211 women were interviewed (47% exposed to the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake). Results: More than 50% of the sample reported a higher complexity in managing their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to their previous routine, with no statistically significant differences between working women and non-workers, although the latter obtained higher scores for depressive symptomatology and poorer quality of life. Compared to non-caregivers, women caregivers (22.3%) in charge of the care of loved ones affected by physical (10.9%) or psychiatric disabilities (11.4%) complained of a poorer quality of life, with those caring for people affected by mental disorders seeming to experience a more significant worsening. Approximately 20% of the total sample reported severe depressive symptomatology. Previous access to mental health services (O.R. 10.923), low level of education (O.R. 5.410) and difficulties in management of their everyday lives during the COVID-19 pandemic (O.R. 3.598) were found to be the main variables predictive of severe depressive psychopathology. Old age, good problem-solving skills and ability to pursue personal goals were identified as protective factors. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the need for support for emotionally vulnerable women with pre-existing mental health conditions, partly reflecting the cumulative effects of traumas.

Developing prolonged antigen delivery systems that mimick the long-term exposure to pathogens appears as a promising, still poorly explored approach to reach durable immunities. In this study, we have used a simple technology by which his-tagged proteins can be assembled, assisted by divalent cations, as supramolecular complexes with progressive complexity, namely protein-only nanoparticles and microparticles. Microparticles produced out of nanoparticles are biomimetics of secretory granules from the mammalian hormonal system. Upon subcutaneous administration, they slowly disintegrate, acting as an endocrine-like secretory system, and rendering the building block nanoparticles progressively bioavailable. The performance of such materials, previously validated for drug delivery in oncology, has been tested here regarding the potential for time-prolonged antigen release. This has been done by taking, as building blocks, a nanostructured version of p30, a main structural immunogen from the African swine fever virus (ASFV). By challenging the system in both mice and pigs, we have observed unusually potent pro-inflammatory activity in porcine macrophages, and long-lasting humoral and cellular responses in vivo, which might overcome the need for an adjuvant. The robustness of both innate and adaptive responses tag, for the first time, these dynamic depot materials as a novel and valuable instrument with transversal applicability in immune stimulation and vaccinology.

Ventilation in prone position (PP) for 12 to 16 hours per day improves survival in ARDS. However, the optimal duration of the intervention is unknown. We performed a prospective observational study to compare the efficacy and safety of a prolonged PP protocol with conventional prone ventilation in COVID-19-associated ARDS. Prone position was undertaken if P/F <150 with FiO2>0.6 and PEEP>10cmH2O. Oxygenation parameters and respiratory mechanics were recorded before the first PP cycle, at the end of PP cycle and 4 hours after supination. We included 63 consecutive intubated patients with mean age 63.5 years. Of them, 37 (58.7%) underwent prolonged prone position (PPP group) and 26 (41.3%) standard prone position (SPP group). Median cycle duration for SPP group was 20 hrs and for PPP group 46 hrs (p<0.001). No significant differences in oxygenation, respiratory mechanics, number of PP cycles and rate of complications were observed between groups. The 28-day survival was 78.4% in the PPP group versus 65.4% in the SPP group (p=0.253). Extending the duration of PP was as safe and efficacious as conventional PP, but did not confer any survival benefit in a cohort of patients with severe ARDS due to COVID-19.

This study aims to comparatively analyse the importance and performance of the health of Korean and Japanese adolescents during the prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Data were collected from 1,341 sampled Korean and Japanese adolescents in September 2021 through online and offline surveys. The collected data were analysed with frequency analysis, reliability testing, t-test, and importance-performance analysis (IPA). The following results were obtained. First, adolescents in the two countries perceive various factors about health as important during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their performance is weak compared to their perceived importance. Second, Korean adolescents had greater perceived importance for all factors of health perception compared to their Japanese counterparts. Third, the difference in performance between Korean and Japanese adolescents was especially evident for ‘hygiene management’, and there were significant differences in performance in ‘disease management’ and ‘physical activity’. Fourth, in quadrant 4 of the IPA matrix, there were similarities and differences in a particular factor of health perception between Korean and Japanese adolescents. Based on these results, we proposed measures to emphasise the importance of health and enhance performance among Korean and Japanese adolescents.