: Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are becoming an increasingly severe global problem due to their widespread distribution and complex impact on living organisms. Apart from their environmental impact, the effects of MNPs on living organisms have also continued to attract attention. The harmful impact of MNPs has been extensively documented in marine invertebrates and larger marine vertebrates like fish. However, the research on the toxicity of these particles on mammals is still limited, and their possible effects on humans are poorly understood. Considering that MNPs are commonly found in food or food packaging, humans are primarily exposed to them through ingestion. It would be valuable to investigate the potential harmful effects of these particles on gut health. This review focuses on recent research exploring the toxicological impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on the gut, as observed in human cell lines and mammalian models. Available data from various studies indicate that the accumulation of MNPs in mammalian models and human cells may result in adverse consequences, in terms of epithelial toxicity, immune toxicity, and disruption of gut microbiota. The paper also discusses the current research limitations and prospects in this field, aiming to provide a scientific basis and reference for further studies on the toxic mechanisms of micro- and nanoplastics.

This paper is dedicated to examining dynamic dark energy models in the context of observational constraints and their implications for the universe's future. By integrating theoretical models with various observational data, we aim to provide a comprehensive view of how dynamic dark energy influences cosmic evolution and the universe's fate. This study tests these models against the latest observational evidence, including the Cosmic Microwave Background, supernovae, and large-scale structure surveys, to refine our understanding of the universe's accelerating expansion and the mysterious nature of dark energy.

In this preliminary investigation, a concise molecular docking study using the Pyrx program screened thousands of compounds against the active site of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. The Virtual Screening library was employed to assess binding energetics scores, focusing on identifying candidates with high Vina Scores. Eight compounds, including Tetrophan, Imatinib, Amentoflavone, Alprazolam, Bilobetin, Bafetinib, Nilotinib, and Ginketin, emerged as promising candidates with significant binding energies.Recognizing compounds that strongly bind to HIV-1 reverse transcriptase holds potential for antiretroviral drug development in the fight against HIV infection. Subsequently, the study evaluated the toxicity properties of these candidates using pKCSM. Amentoflavone, a natural biflavonoid found in Ginkgo biloba and Nilotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, demonstrated lower overall toxicity profiles compared to other candidates. Further toxicity analysis using Pro-Tox-II revealed Amentoflavone's higher predictive LD50, lower toxicity class, and reduced probabilities of hepatotoxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and moderate immunotoxicity compared to Nilotinib. While Nilotinib, a pharmaceutical drug, exhibited higher probabilities of adverse effects in these categories. In summary, Amentoflavone and Nilotinib present as promising candidates with lower toxicity concerns. Amentoflavone, as a natural substance, showcases a more favorable toxicity profile than Nilotinib, offering valuable insights for potential therapeutic applications.

A typical halogen-free flame-retardant (HFFR) formulation for electric cables may contain polymers, various additives, and fire-retardant fillers. In this study, composites are prepared by mixing natural magnesium hydroxide (n-MDH) with linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and a few types of ethylene-octene copolymers (C₈-POE). Depending on the content of LLDPE and C₈-POE, we obtained composites with different crystallinity that affected the final mechanical properties. The nucleation effect of the n-MDH and the variations in crystallinity caused by the blending of C₈-POE/LLDPE/n-MDH were investigated. In the C₈-POE/LLDPE blend, we found a decrease in the crystallization temperature of LLPDE compared to pure LLDPE and an increase in the crystallization temperature of C₈-POE compared to pure C₈-POE. On the contrary, the addition of n-MDH led to an increase in the crystallization temperature of LLDPE. As expected, the increase in the crystallinity of the polyolefin matrix of composites led to higher elastic modulus, higher tensile strength, and lower elongation at break. Overall, these results show how to obtain the required mechanical features for halogen-free flame-retardant compounds for electric cable applications depending on the quantities of the two miscible components in the final blend.

Over the past three decades, the region has undergone significant changes that have transformed the social, economic and political landscape. The traces of these changes are particularly visible in the post-socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. These processes have sometimes fragmented, sometimes reshaped, and sometimes transcended borders, reshaping the region. The focus of this study is on the 'geography' of companies, i.e. the concentration of companies with more than 10 employees in the region in the 15 countries selected, according to various criteria. The countries covered by the study are Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The data of the active economic operators (over 300 thousand) of the countries included in the study were analyzed by turnover and size. The spatial distribution of enterprises at the NUTS3 level presents a far more diverse picture than what is typically observed in economic indicators such as GDP. Additionally, the disparities in this particular distribution are not as pronounced or distinct as those of general economic indicators.

Background and Objectives: Botulinum toxin injections are commonly used for the treatment of spasticity. However, injection procedures are associated with pain and procedural anxiety. While pharmacological approaches are commonly used to reduce these, inno-vative technology might be considered as a potential non-pharmacological alternative. Given this context, immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown effectiveness in the man-agement of procedural pain[1]. Our retrospective pilot study aimed to assess the potential added value of virtual reality in the management of pain and anxiety during intra-muscular injections of botulinum toxin. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one adult patients receiving botulinum toxin injections were included. A numerical rating scale was used to assess pain and anxiety during the injection procedure. The patient reported the pain experienced during previous injections without VR before injection and the pain expe-rienced in the current procedure with VR after the end of the procedure. Level of satis-faction of VR experience, if they agreed to reuse VR for the subsequent toxin botulinum injection, and if they would recommend VR to other patients were assessed. Results: The use of virtual reality showed a decrease of 1.8 pain-related points compared to without technology. No significant improvement in the level of anxiety was reported. Patients were very satisfied by their VR experience (7.9 out of 10) and would agree to reuse VR in their next injection procedure (88%) and to recommend the use of VR in other patients (100%). Conclusion: VR was useful for managing procedural pain related to botulinum toxin injection in adults, with a high level of satisfaction reported by the patient. VR should be considered as a valuable alternative to pharmacological approach to manage procedural pain during Botulinum toxin injection in adults.

Background: To examine the effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on central corneal thickness (CCT) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) followed for 12 months. Methods: Participants were patients with OSA and an indication for CPAP who were enrolled after diagnosis and graded according to the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) determined in an overnight polysomnography. Each subject underwent a full ophthalmologic examination including ultrasound pachymetry (USP) with an SP3000 USP (Tomey Inc) at the time points just before CPAP onset, and after 3 and 12 months of CPAP treatment. Results: The study sample comprised 40 eyes of 20 patients. Adherence to CPAP was adequate (5.23 ± 1.77 h/night). After receiving 12 months of CPAP, positive correlation was observed between hours of CPAP use and CCT (r = 0.382, p = 0.015). Intermittent hypoxemia pre-CPAP or hypoxia severity pre-CPAP were also positively correlated with the CCT recorded after 12 months of CPAP (r = 0.394, p = 0.012; r = 0.324, p = 0.041). Significant correlations were, however, not observed after only 3 months of CPAP treatment. In addition, compared to measurements at 3 months, intraocular pressure was higher after 12 months of treatment. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that 12 months of correct adherence to CPAP are needed to detect significant CCT thickening, and that the greater the pre-CPAP hypoxemia, the greater the capacity for an increase in CCT to be produced in response to 12 months of this therapy.

A key goal of modern neuroscience involves understanding how connections in the brain form and function. Such a knowledge is essential to better inform how defects in the exquisitely complex steps of nervous system growth underlie neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. In the last 40 years, studies of the nervous system in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster enabled the discovery of a wealth of molecular and genetic mechanisms that drive the development of these synaptic connections – specialized cell-to-cell connections that are the essential substrate for information flow and processing in the nervous system. The major driver of knowledge focused on studies at the neuromuscular junction due to its ease of examination. Analogous studies in the central nervous system lagged behind due to a lack of genetic accessibility of specific central neuron classes, appropriate synaptic labels compatible with cell-type specific access, and high resolution, quantitative imaging strategies. However, understanding how synapses in central circuits form remains a prerequisite to understanding brain development. In the last decade, a host of new tools and techniques made possible the extension of genetic studies of synapse organization into central circuits and greatly enhanced our understanding of central synapse formation, organization, and maturation. In this review, we consider the current state-of-the-field, focusing on two major elements. We first discuss the tools, technologies, and strategies developed to visualize and quantify synapses in vivo in genetically identifiable neurons of the Drosophila CNS. Second, we explore in depth how these tools enabled a clearer understanding of synaptic development and organization in different circuits of the fly brain and discovered novel molecular mechanisms that underlie synapse formation. These studies establish multiple brain regions in the fly as powerful in vivo genetic models that offer novel insights into synaptogenic regulators and mechanisms of neural development.

Glycine is an important neurotransmitter in vertebrates, performing both excitatory and inhibitory actions. Synaptic levels of glycine are tightly controlled by the action of two glycine transporters, GlyT1 and GlyT2, located on the surface of glial cells and glycinergic or glutamatergic neurons, respectively. Glycinergic neurotransmission in invertebrates has so far only been investigated in a very limited number of species, and, although it was suggested that its functions are to some extent conserved with vertebrates, the evolution of glycinergic neurotransmission remains very poorly understood. Here, by combining phylogenetic and gene expression analyses, we characterized the glycine transporter complement of amphioxus, an important invertebrate model for studying the evolution of chordates. We show that amphioxus possesses three glycine transporter genes, two of which (GlyT2.1 and GlyT2.2) are closely related to GlyT2 of vertebrates, while the other (GlyT) is a member of an ancestral clade of deuterostome glycine transporters. While expression of GlyT2.2 is predominantly non-neural, GlyT and GlyT2.1 are widely expressed in the amphioxus nervous system and are characterized by differential expression in neurons and glia, respectively. However, in vertebrates, glycinergic neurons express GlyT2 and glia GlyT1, suggesting that the evolution of the chordate glycinergic system was accompanied by complex genetic remodeling leading to the paralog-specific inversion of gene expression. Albeit this genetic divergence between amphioxus and vertebrates, we found strong evidence for a general conservation of the role of glycinergic neurotransmission during larval swimming, allowing us to hypothesize that the neural networks controlling the rhythmic movement of chordate bodies are homologous.

Various means (the arithmetic mean, the geometric mean, the harmonic mean, the power means) are often used as central tendency statistics. A new statistic of such type is offered for a sample from a distribution on the positive semi-axis, the gamma-weighted geometric mean. This statistic is a certain weighted geometric mean with adaptive weights.

Statistical significance measures the reliability of a result obtained from a random experiment. We investigate the number of repetitions needed for a statistical result to have a certain significance. In the first step, we consider binomially distributed variables in the example of medication testing with fixed placebo efficacy, asking how many experiments are needed in order to achieve a significance of 95 %. In the next step, we take the probability distribution of the placebo efficacy into account, which to the best of our knowledge has not been done so far. Depending on the specifics, we show that in order to obtain identical significance, it may be necessary to perform twice as many experiments than in a setting where the placebo distribution is neglected. We proceed by considering more general probability distributions and close with comments on some erroneous assumptions on probability distributions which lead, for instance, to a trivial explanation of the fat tail.

Soils harbor diverse bacteria, and these bacteria play important roles in soil nutrition cycling and carbon storage. Numerous investigations of soil microbiota had been performed, and the core microbiota in different soil or vegetation soil types had been described. However, the complexity of soil environments and relatively limited information of many geographic areas had attracted great attention on comprehensive exploration of soil microbes in enormous types of soil. To reveal the core soil microbiota in Huabei plain, soil samples from metropolis and countryside regions in the Huabei plain were investigated using high-throughput sequencing strategy. The results showed that the most dominant bacteria are Proteobacteria (38.34%), Actinobacteria (20.56%), and Acidobacteria (15.18%). At the genus-level, the most abundant known genera are Gaiella (3.66%), Sphingomonas (3.6%), Acidobacteria Gp6 (2.1%), and Arthrobacter (2%). Moreover, several dominant operational taxanomy units (OTU), such as OTU_3 and OTU_17, were identified to be associated with the soil environment. Microbial distributions of the metropolis samples were different from the countryside samples, which may reflect the environments in the countryside were more diverse than in the metropolis. Microbial diversity and evenness were higher in the metropolis than in the countryside, which might due to the fact that human activity increased the microbial diversity in the metropolis. The soil core microbiota of the Huabei plain were complex, and microbial distributions in the Huabei plain might be mainly affected by the human activity and environmental factors, not by the distance. Our data highlights the soil core microbiota in Huabei Plain, and provides insights for future soil microbiota distribution studies in central China.

Windup, a progressive increase in spinal response to repetitive stimulations of nociceptive peripheral fibres, is a useful model to study central sensitization to pain. Windup is expressed by neurons in of both dorsal and ventral horn of the spinal cord. In juvenile rats, it has been demonstrated both in vivo and in vitro that windup depends on calcium-dependent intrinsic properties and their modulation by synaptic components. However, the involvement of these two components in the adult remain controversial. In the present study, by means of electromyographic and extracellular recordings, we show that windup in adult, in vivo, depends on a synaptic balance between excitatory NMDA receptors and inhibitory glycinergic receptors. We also demonstrate the involvement of L-type calcium channels in both the dorsal and ventral horn of the spinal cord. These results indicate that windup in adults is similar to juveniles rats and that windup properties are the same regardless spinal network, i.e. sensory or motor.

Instagram is a popular social media platform among youth, with over a billion active users worldwide. The platform allows users to share photos, videos, and stories and connect with friends and followers. Instagram has become a significant part of youth culture, with many young people spending a considerable amount of time on the app. According to Enterprise (2012:02), Instagram is a community shared among one member with other members from all over the world. This study examines the impact of Instagram on the physical and mental well-being of Indian youth. With the rapid proliferation of social media platforms in India, Instagram has emerged as a prominent influence on the lives and perceptions of young individuals. Studies have shown that using Instagram among youth can have positive and negative effects. On the positive side, Instagram can be a way for young people to express themselves, connect with others, and discover new interests. However, excessive use of the platform can also lead to negative outcomes, such as social comparison, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Instagram addiction among youth is a growing concern. Some young people may feel compelled to check their accounts frequently and may experience negative emotions if they are unable to do so. In extreme cases, excessive use of the platform can interfere with daily activities and relationships, leading to a negative impact on mental health. Parents and educators can play a role in helping young people manage their Instagram use. This can include setting limits on screen time, encouraging healthy online habits, and promoting offline activities and social interaction. Additionally, mental health professionals can offer support to young people who are struggling with addiction or other negative effects of Instagram use. This study explores the prevalence of Instagram dependency among Indian youth.

Product attribute extraction is an growing field in e- commerce business, with several applications including product ranking, product recommendation, future assortment planning and improving online shopping customer experiences. Under- standing the customer needs is critical part of online business, specifically fashion products. Retailers uses assortment planning to determine the mix of products to offer in each store and channel, stay responsive to market dynamics and to manage inventory and catalogs. The goal is to offer the right styles, in the right sizes and colors, through the right channels. When shoppers find products that meet their needs and desires, they are more likely to return for future purchases, fostering customer loyalty. Product attributes are a key factor in assortment planning. In this paper we present PAE, a product attribute extraction algorithm for future trend reports consisting text and images in PDF format. Most existing methods focus on attribute extraction from titles or product descriptions or utilize visual information from existing product images. Compared to the prior works, our work focuses on attribute extraction from PDF files where upcoming fashion trends are explained. This work proposes a more comprehensive framework that fully utilizes the different modalities for attribute extraction and help retailers to plan the assortment in advance. Our contributions are three-fold: (a) We develop PAE, an efficient framework to extract attributes from unstructured data (text and images); (b) We provide catalog matching methodology based on BERT representations to discover the existing attributes using upcoming attribute values; (c) We conduct extensive experiments with several baselines and show that PAE is an effective, flexible and on par or superior (avg 92.5% F1-Score) framework to existing state-of-the-art for attribute value extraction task.

Strong-aroma Baijiu is a traditional Chinese spirit distilled from grains that undergo solid-state fermentation. At the end of each fermentation cycle, a significant quantity of Huangshui accumulates at the bottom of the fermentation pit, constituting one of the primary by-products in the brewing process of strong-flavor liquor. In this report, the chemical component analysis of Huangshui obtained from a strong-flavor liquor factory revealed a diverse array of organic acids, alcohols, esters, starch, reducing sugars, amino acids, and other compounds present in Huangshui. Additionally, two specialized solid-state fermentation models were developed to investigate the formation process of Huangshui. Our findings demonstrate a positive correlation between the yield of Huangshui and the initial moisture content of fermented grains. It is concluded that Huangshui is the percolate produced during the solid-state brewing process of strong-flavor liquor, with its water content originating from the initial moisture of fermented grains.

Background/Objectives: Although the role of F-18 FDG PET/CT imaging is well established in oncology, its diagnostic value in routine monitoring for recurrent colorectal cancer (CRC) is still controversial. The aim was to evaluate the diagnostic value of FDG PET/CT in detecting recurrent CRC in correlation with CEA, CA 19-9 levels, and conventional imaging modalities (CIM). Methods: Between 2009 and 2023, we retrospectively studied 134 CRC patients referred for FDG PET/CT imaging on the suspicion of recurrence based on elevated CEA and/or CA 19-9, and/or equivocal radiological findings. According to the Institutional Tumor Board CRC protocol, after initial treatment which was dependent on TNM stage (neoadjuvant therapy, primary resection or adjuvant treatment), patients underwent a standard 5-year surveillance including CEA and CA 19-9 measurements, CIM, and colonoscopy every 6 months. The statistics including univariate and multivariable analyses were conducted using the IBM SPSS 20.0 statistical software. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Recurrent CRC was confirmed in 54/134 (40.3%) patients with elevated tumor markers. FDG PET/CT shows high diagnostic performance in detecting recurrent CRC with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of 94.4%, 82.5%, 78.5%, 95.7%, and 87.3%, respectively. The CEA shows a high sensitivity of 98.1%, but both low specificity and accuracy of 15% and 48.5%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, for CA 19-9 and CIM for the correct diagnosis in CRC patients were: 44.4%, 67.5%, 58.2%, and 51.9%, 98.8%, 79.9%, respectively. The AUC for FDG PET/CT, elevated CEA levels, CIM, and elevated CA 19-9 levels was 0.885 (95% CI: 0.824-0.946; p<0.001), 0.844 (95% CI: 0.772-0.916; p<0.001), 0.753 (95% CI: 0.612-0.844; p<0.001); and 0.547 (95% CI: 0.442-0.652; p=0.358). Univariate analysis shows that both FDG PET/CT- and CIM-positive results were highly associated with CRC recurrence (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively), while gender, mucinous tumor type, presence of initial lymph node metastasis (N+), and presence of initial distant metastasis (M+) have no significance (p=0.211, p=0.158, p=0.583, and p=0.201, respectively). Our multivariate analysis shows that independent predictors for CRC recurrence are: positive FDG PET/CT scans (p<0.001), positive CIM results (p=0.001) and elevated CA19-9 levels (p=0.023). Although CA 19-9 was not detected as a statistically significant predictor in the univariate analysis (p=0.358), in a multivariate analysis it was recognized as a significant predicting factor in detecting CRC recurrence (p=0.023). Conclusions: FDG PET/CT shows a high diagnostic efficacy in CRC recurrence detection, in correlation with CEA levels, CA 19-9 levels, and CIM. This imaging modality should be routinely integrated into the postoperative follow-op in patients with elevated tumor markers.

A recent study revealed a persistent presence of the PP-Spike recombinant protein in 50% of individuals who received ModRNA injections, contrasting with unvaccinated controls, whether SARSCoV-2 infected or not, up to 187 days post-injection. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of PP-Spike recombinant protein-induced hyperimmune/inflammatory reactions and thrombotic vasculitis as mechanisms to elucidate the serious side effects, long-term organ complications, and excess deaths observed after administering Covid ModRNA products. These results underscore the urgent need for a comprehensive reassessment of the risk-benefit profile of ModRNA injections, including an immediate halt in their use for any person, and a renewed emphasis on understanding and addressing their long-term effects on human health

Aim: the main aim of this study is to compare the onset of effectiveness of mental nerve block with lingual infiltration and inferior alveolar nerve block on patients visiting dental hospital for extraction of mandibular anterior teeth. Materials and methods: The study was set in a clinical setting. This was a randomized controlled double-blind cross study, where 25 subjects received two treatments at an interval of at least 1 week in a within a dental hospital.Inferior alveolar nerve block and lingual nerve block injection is given with 2mL lignocaine 2% with 1:2,00,000 epinephrine was administered for the right side. Mental nerve block along with lingual infiltration of the corresponding tooth was given with 2mL lignocaine 2% with 1:2,00,000 epinephrine was administered on the left side.Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used in this study, which consists of a scale with range of 0-10 pain severity on which 0 indicated absence of pain and 10 the worst pain possible. The patients were asked to give scores corresponding to his/her pain, after IANB, mental nerve block and lingual infiltration and these scores were recorde.Results: From the results we can see that patients gave scores between 3-4, stating that they had moderate pain during extraction after administration of IANB (54%) (graph 2) and VAS scores of 0-1 were given by patients, which is suggestive of no pain during extraction after administration of Mental nerve block and lingual nerve infiltration (62%)Conclusion: Within the limits of the study we can conclude that mental nerve block along with lingual infiltration is an effective way to completely and quickly anaesthetise the central incisor to the 1st premolar region.

Flavin-dependent monooxygenases (FMOs) have made substantial influence as catalysts for monooxygenation reactions, impacting diverse field such as drug metabolism, environmental studies, and natural product synthesis. Their application in biocatalysis boasts several advantages over conventional chemical catalysis, such as heightened selectivity, safety, sustainability, and eco-friendliness. In the realm of biomedicine, FMOs are pivotal in antibiotic research, modulating natural products, antimicrobial agents, and pathways involved in drug synthesis. They're also underscored as potential pharmaceutical targets, pivotal in disease progression and viable for therapeutic intervention. Additionally, FMOs play a substantial role in environmental science, especially in pesticide processing and plant vitality. Their involvement in biosynthesizing compounds like polyethers, tropolones, and ω-hydroxy fatty acids, with remarkable regio- and stereoselectivity, renders them indispensable in drug discovery and development. As our comprehension of FMOs' catalytic mechanisms and structures advances, coupled with cutting-edge biotechnologies like computational design and directed evolution, FMOs are poised to occupy an increasingly significant role in both scientific exploration and industrial applications.

Hund's rule of maximum multiplicity is a powerful empirical tool for determining the electron population of electronic shells. It was recently discovered that it is also the rule of minimum Shannon entropy. This study extends these findings to the Aufbau rule and discusses them from the perspective of emergent dimensionality, providing a monotonically increasing entropy function. We observed that some elements that violate the Aufbau rule have the same entropies in the actual and Aufbau electron configurations. On the other hand, lower entropies of all actual elements' configurations are associated with higher or equal numbers of unpaired electrons in these configurations compared to the Aufbau configurations. The only exception to this rule is palladium.

The visual span refers to the number of letters readers can identify in a single fixation without using linguistic skills. Proponents of the visual span hypothesis postulate an influence of early visual processing on reading speed. Given the slowness of reading Arabic texts, the present work aims to study the development of the visual span and its effects on reading speed in the Arabic-speaking context. Thirty-four subjects participated in the study. The trigram task and the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm were used to estimate visual span size and reading speed. In line with our initial assumptions, the results showed a significant effect of grade level on reading speed (F(2,31) = 30.93, p<0.001), visual span size (F(2,31) = 20.57, p<0.001). In good alignment with previous work, our results show that visual span size could explain around 40% of the reading speed variability. Interestingly, our analyses revealed a narrowing of visual span size in our Arabic sample. The results of study 2, suggest that the poor performance in the trigram task is due to poor visual attention capacities in our Arabic readers

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

Suppose for n∈ ℕ, set A⊆ℝⁿ and function f∶A→ℝⁿ. If set A, using the Hausdorff outer measure, is measurable in the sense of Carathèodory; we want to find an extension of the expected value, w.r.t the Hausdorff measure, that's unique, finite and "natural" (defined on §2.3 & §2.4) for all f in a prevalent subset of ℝᴬ. The issue is current extensions of the expected value are finite for all functions in only a shy subset of ℝᴬ. The reason this issue wasn't resolved is mathematicians have not thought of the problem, focusing on application rather than generalization. Despite the lack of potential use, we'll attempt to solve the problem by defining a choice function---this shall choose a unique set of equivalent sequences of sets (Fₖ***) , where the set-theoretic limit of Fₖ*** is the graph of f; the measure Hʰ is the ℎ-Hausdorff measure, such for each k∈ℕ, 0 < Hʰ(Fₖ***) < +∞; and (fₖ*) is a sequence of functions where {(x,fₖ*(x))∶x∈ dom(Fₖ***)}=Fₖ***. Thus, the extended expected value of or E**[f,Fₖ***] is: ∀(ε>0)∃(N∈ℕ)∀(k∈N)(k≥N⇒1/Hʰ(dom(Fₖ***))∫dom(Fₖ*** )fₖ* dHʰ - E**[f,Fₖ***]<ε ) which should be unique, finite, and "natural" (defined on §2.3 & §2.4) for all f in a prevalent subset of ℝᴬ. Note we guessed the choice function using computer programming but we don’t use mathematical proofs due to the lack of expertise in the subject matter. Despite this, the biggest use of this research is the extension of the expected value is finite for "almost all" functions: this is easier to use in application when finding the "average" of functions covering an infinite expanse of space.

Cucurbitacin phytonematicides consistently suppress population densities of plant nematodes, but have no effect against bacteria, fungi and insects. This study investigates the mechanism through which cucurbitacin phytonematicides consistently exert nematicidal properties on nematodes. Post 72-h exposure of second-stage juveniles (J2) of Meloidogyne enterolobii to geometric concentration of Nemafric-BL phytonematicide, J2 total proteins were measured using TruspecCHNS Macro. Total proteins versus phytonematicide exhibited a negative quadratic relation (R² = 0.97), with the minimum total proteins achieved at x = 4.9% phytonematicide. Beyond the minimum, total proteins increased gradually, depicting the existence of both isoprenylation (breakdown) and farnesylation (biosynthesis) of total proteins. In conclusion, cucurbitacins and nematode cuticles are both chemically structured, which provides the mechanism through which the test chemicals consistently decrease population densities of plant nematodes.

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.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how global research cooperation patterns in the secondary battery industry have changed over recent years and to identify the evolution in the focus of research. To this end, network analysis was performed using the nationality information of the authors of a 10-year multinational joint research paper related to lithium-ion batteries. Furthermore, keyword analysis and topic modeling were performed using the abstract data from the study. The results of this study confirm that some countries that are not well-known in the field, such as Australia, Spain, and France, showed high centrality, compared with the level of cooperation scale. Additionally, six research topics were identified. According to a comparison over the first half of the decade, no difference was observed in the appearance of keywords indicating high energy density and conductivity with lithium, a key mineral. Keyword distribution was high for topics like battery charging and discharging in the first half of the decade, and for next-generation battery materials, such as solid electrolytes, lithium metal anodes, and lithium-sulfur batteries in the second. These results provide insights into the establishment of R&D cooperation strategies by countries and pre-planning by companies in the battery industry.

Stroke is a global leading cause of death and disability. Knowledge of related guidelines is crucial for Emergency Department (ED) staff, influencing early diagnosis and timely treatment. We investigated Greek-Cypriot ED healthcare professionals' (nurses and physicians) knowledge in recognizing and managing stroke. A descriptive cross-sectional study spanned November 2019 to April 2020, encompassing four private and seven public EDs in the Republic of Cyprus. The data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire developed by the research team, consisting of 37 questions. Eight questions focused on sociodemographic and employment characteristics, 28 assessed knowledge in stroke recognition and management (each item was equally weighted without deliberate prioritization), and one question addressed self-assessment of knowledge in stroke care. 255 nurses [Response Rate (RR): 74.1%] and 26 physicians (RR: 47.3%) completed the questionnaire. The average correct response rate was 12.9 out of 28 statements (SD: 4.2), with nurses and physicians scoring 12.6 (SD: 4.1) and 15.7 (SD: 4), respectively. Work experience significantly influenced stroke knowledge, with all groups demonstrating superiority over those with less than one year of experience. Participants with previous training scored an average of 1.45 additional correct answers while educational attainment did not significantly influence stroke knowledge. Investigating stroke knowledge among Emergency Department nurses and physicians in the Republic of Cyprus revealed significant deficits. The study stresses targeted interventions, including, education, yearly examinations, workshops with hands-on training, and repeated training, to address these gaps and enhance the overall stroke care capabilities of the healthcare professionals.

Astronauts in space are subject to a continuous bombardment of ionizing radiation. The Earth's magnetic field and the ISS shield some biologically damaging particles traveling through. Still, travel beyond low-Earth orbit and extravehicular activities are exceedingly more dangerous and there is a concern for the acute and late-occurring adverse health effects befalling astronauts. So, it is vital to consider the current tools and models used to describe and study the organic consequences of ionizing radiation exposure. It is equally important to see where these models may improve. This article reviews the historical development and current state of knowledge of radiation effects impacting astronauts in orbit. We explain the space radiation environment, cellular microenvironment, and how these may be incorporated in radiobiological models to aid in our understanding of the influence space travel may have on astronaut health. The topics discussed in this paper include a review of DNA damage and repair mechanisms and the numerical models that aim to explain the biological effects resulting from ionizing radiation damage. Historically, radiobiological models focused on how radiation damages nuclear DNA, built upon the hypotheses of Crowther and Lea in the 1940s and 1960s, and neglected other sub-cellular targets outside of nuclear DNA.

Abstract: This review addresses the complexities of type 1 diabetes (T1D)and its associated complications, with a par-ticular focus on diabetic retinopathy (DR). This review outlines the progression from non-proliferative to proliferative diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema, highlighting the role of dysglycemia in the pathogenesis of these conditions. A significant portion of the review is devoted to technological advances in diabetes management, particu-larly the use of Hybrid Closed Loop systems (HCLS) and to the potential of open-source HCLS systems, which could be easily adapted to different patiens’needs using big data analytics and machine learning. Personalized HCLS algorithms that integrate factors such as patient lifestyle, dietary habits, and hormonal variations are highlighted as critical to reducing the incidence of diabetes-related complications and improving patient outcomes.

This article aims to determine the different factors that are associated with anxiety symptoms among Filipino farmers in Central Luzon. Eligible participants were screened for anxiety symptoms using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), while the Data Collection Tool for Factors Associated with Anxiety Symptoms (DCFAAS) was constructed and validated to determine the exposure of these factors. Among the 113 eligible farmers, only 19 (16.8%) experienced anxiety symptoms, with excessive worrying (39.8%) being the most frequent anxiety symptom. The mental health of Filipino farmers was significantly affected by the presence of physical illness (OR = 10.70 [1.367, 83.773]) and having relatives affecting work completion (OR = 6.45 [1.346, 30.896]). Therefore, policies must be focused on tackling these issues to address the mental health issues faced by farmers. The low prevalence of anxiety symptoms may stem from existing perceptions and barriers encountered in confiding psychological issues, and the Filipino’s religiosity and resiliency. Keywords: Farmers, Agriculture, Central Luzon, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, GAD-7

The Sidi Bou Othmane (SBO) pegmatite district is in the Central Jebilet massif, Occidental Meseta domain, Morocco. The SBO district is hosted essentially in a volcano-sedimentary series composed of the Late-Devonian Sarhlef shales. Pegmatite bodies crop out as dykes, which are oriented from N-S to E-W and are generally variably deformed with ductile and/or brittle structures with ante, syn- or post kinematic criteria. Petrographic observations of pegmatite dykes show that feldspars (i.e., albite, microcline) are the most abundant mineral phases, followed by quartz, micas, with tourmaline and accessory mineral as garnet, and zircon and secondary minerals as clinochlore, sericite, and illite. The geochemical study indicates that, according to the major pegmatite elements dykes of SBO have mainly a S-type granitic composition and are peraluminous granite with calc-alkalic affinity. The study of trace elements pointed out that SBO pegmatite formed under post-orogenic syn-collision context during the Variscan orogeny, by the partial melting of argilliferous sediment and can be ascribed to the muscovite-bearing pegmatite; moreover, they have a good potential on ceramic and contain minerals, such as feldspar, recently assessed as Critical raw materials by European Union.

Deforestation brings vast and detrimental impact on the environment, economy, and social aspects of community. Thus, it is important to assess and analyze deforestation to inform the decision maker that oversees issued policy and development strategies. The present study aims to characterize deforestation in Central Kalimantan between 2006 - 2020. Utilized land cover map issued by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, we analyzed the change in natural forest cover using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) to find the rate the trend, location, and land cover replacement of deforestation in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The research found that during the period Central Kalimantan lost 1.5 million ha of natural forest with the rate of deforestation 117,000 ha/year. In general, the deforestation shown decrease trend and fluctuated during the period. Deforestation majority takes place at secondary swamp and dry forest that are located at south part of the island. Most of deforestation resulted shrubs, plantations, and agriculture land. The finding of this research could be used as a base to determine the target location for rehabilitation strategy and approach to prevent further deforestation.

Background: Although triptorelin acetate (TA) is generally considered a safe medication, severe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to triptorelin have occurred. In this study, we present the largest retrospective analysis of ADRs related to TA during the treatment of pediatric central precocious puberty. Methods: We describe a total of 38 suspected cases of TA-induced ADRs reported to the pharma-covigilance center of Shenzhen Children’s Hospital from September 2015 to December 2022. Causality assessment was carried out using the validated Kramer’s algorithm. The severity of ADRs was evaluated using the Modified Hartwig and Siegel Scale. Results: The most common ADRs attributed to TA were damage to the cutaneous tissues (29.3%) and reactions affecting the systemic and digestive systems (20.7%). The majority (61.1%) of ADRs occurred within 2 hours of administration. Among the 12 patients with severe ADRs, the three most frequent symptoms were anaphylactic reactions, hip synovitis, and arthralgia. Additional-ly, six patients experienced ADRs due to a change in the manufacturing process. Conclusion: The majority of ADRs observed in pediatric cases were type I anaphylactic reactions, which are rare but life-threatening. It is advisable to perform skin prick tests and intradermal tests when switching pharmaceutical manufacturers.

This paper intends to delve deeply into the current understanding of the ways in which the transition from a central-based economy to an economy relying on free competition, has led to changes in the big urban centres, bringing about a change in the relationships with the suburban areas. The authors take into account the high population density, the lack of space and the elevated price of terrains inside the big cities, hence urban functions migrate beyond the administrative boundaries, thus favouring the process of suburbanization. Within this context, commercial forces are shifted, migrating from the centre to the urban peripheries, or even outside them. This research is based on a comprehensive process of participative investigation (2012-2022) in Bucharest, Ro-mania’s capital city. The research relies on field investigation, statistical and quantitative analyses and bibliographical sources. The conclusions rely primarily on the idea that political changes cannot be separated from economic, cultural and environmental ones, highlighting globalizing flows and the development of big cities. Industrial activities, strongly developed within a central-based economy, have significantly declined, partly compensated for by the development of the tertiary sector and of commercial services, in particular, leading to a functional reconversion of the urban peripheries and of suburban areas. The conclusions suggest that it is very important to be highly careful towards the dilemmas and provocations ensuing from uncontrolled urban growth, therefore several measures of urban planning should be taken with a view to achieving a better co-operation between urban stakeholders and those from the metropolitan areas so as to attain some common objectives in infrastructure in order to reach an integrated regional development.

In recent years, how to combine intelligent prospecting algorithms such as random forest with a large number of geological and mineral data for quantitative prediction of exploration geochemistry has become an important topic of concern to quantitatively improve the accuracy of target delineation. The ore-forming geological conditions in the central Kunlun area of Xinjiang are great and have good prospecting prospects. However, due to the exhaustion of shallow deposits and the lag of geological prospecting work in the past ten years, there has been no expected breakthrough in the search for large and super-large metal deposits for many years. There has been a serious shortage of reserve resources. The use of new theories, new methods and new technologies for mineral resources investigation and evaluation has become an urgent need in the current prospecting work. In view of this, based on the existing spatial database of geological and mineral resources in the central Kunlun of Xinjiang, combined with the geological characteristics, genesis and metallogenic regularity of the area, this paper carried out a series of studies on gold polymetallic minerals with the help of geographic information system and data science programming software platform. The researchers integrated geological and regional geochemical data, and constructed a random forest metallogenic discriminant model based on two different sampling methods (integrated random undersampling and selection of training samples) to predict the mineralization of gold polymetallic minerals in the central Kunlun area of Xinjiang and delineate the metallogenic target area. The quantitative prediction of gold polymetallic mineral resources in the central Kunlun area of Xinjiang by two random forest models is compared and discussed: the known ore spots, fault structures and geochemical information are extracted, and the known gold polymetallic ore spots and geochemical data are used to form a training set and a prediction set to construct a machine learning random forest model. The results of prediction evaluation and metallogenic prospect division show that for different sampling methods, the performance evaluation parameters of the training process show that the prediction accuracy of the selected training samples is higher, and the selected training samples are more reliable because they can fully learn the complex information of the original data. In the metallogenic prospect prediction and metallogenic potential division, the random forest model of selecting training samples has more reference value and further exploration research significance in the production problem considering the actual exploration cost because of its small area of high potential prediction area and high proportion of ore bearing per unit area. At the same time, this study innovatively improves the prediction accuracy, reduces the exploration risk, and expands the prospecting idea of machine learning algorithm in mathematical geology in the central Kunlun area of Xinjiang. The delineated metallogenic potential area has positive guiding significance for the actual gold polymetallic prospecting work in this area.

Based on multi-source remote sensing data, scenario analysis, and model simulation, the Pareto optimal solutions for water supply, water purification (N retention), and carbon storage and sequestration services under different scenarios were sought by adjusting its land use structure. The results showed that. In Scenario 1(S1), the water supply service needs to increase by 86.820 to 11.211 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 11,400 to 11,700 tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service need to decrease by 2.070 to 2.487 billion tons. In Scenario 2(S2), the water supply service needs to increase by 8.243–10.666 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 11,300–1.10 million tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service needs to decrease by 2.033 to 2.466 billion tons. In Scenario 3 (S3), the water supply service needs to increase by 7.832–11.437 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 1.16–10,800 tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service needs to decrease by 19.220 to 2.380 billion tons. After land use optimisation and adjustment, the S3 ecological land structure is complete and consistent with the vision of ecological protection and urban development in the study area, which is the optimal scenario. After optimising the S3 ecosystem service supply pattern, the water supply, water purification (N retention), and carbon storage and sequestration services could connect the western and eastern ecosystem service supply areas, balance the overall ecosystem service supply pattern of the study area and meet the demand for ecosystem services. The results can guide regional land planning and ecosystem service management optimisation.

Abstract: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is well known to often improve with non-supine positioning as opposed to su¬pine positioning. Emerging research supports a role for sleep position management in patients with central sleep apnea (CSA) as well. We report a case of de novo Complex Sleep apnea Syndrome (CompSAS) in a 78-year-old female, who presented after a car accident due to unclear syncope. Diagnostic polysomnography (PSG) showed a moderate OSA. A CompSAS developed under Automatic positive airway pressure (APAP), while download data of 4 years showed a good adherence. No significant benefit was reported under Adaptive Servo Ventilation (ASV) and BiPAP-ST, while a reduction of CSA in non-supine position was noticed. Oxygen and sleep positional therapy (SPT) were considered resulting in a significant improvement of CSA and sleep quality. Further research on the prevalence of positional CSA is needed.

This article aims to systematically review the available evidence concerning the relationship between basal metabolism (BM), body composition (BC), and physical activity (PA) with central obesity. The search strategy was carried out using Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SciELO following the PRISMA guidelines. The STROBE checklist and the Jadad scale for quality assessment were also used. A total of 1382 studies were initially identified being 25 publications eligible for systematic data extraction. Individual studies showed that adults with waist circumference (WC) above 88 cm in women and above 102 in men had a higher risk of metabolic alterations related to high absolute energy expenditure and less maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max). Participants with central obesity presented a high percentage of body fat (BF%) between 30.6% and 41.6%. Most of the PA intervention studies reported reductions in WC between 1.3 and 5.8 cm. In conclusion, there is a direct relationship between the components of BM with central obesity and a direct association between central obesity and BF%. PA is a protective factor that needs to be promoted to reduce WC and control central obesity as a public health problem. PROSPERO ID registration: CRD42021232917.

L-asparaginase (ASNase) is an aminohydrolase currently used in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Enzyme immobilization is an exciting option for both applications, allowing a more straightforward recovery and increased stability. High surface area and customizable porosity make carbon xerogels (CXs) promising materials for ASNase immobilization. This work describes the influence of contact time, pH, and ASNase concentration on the immobilization yield (IY) and relative recovered activity (RRA) using Central Composite Design methodology. The most promising results were obtained using CX with an average pore size of 4 nm (CX-4), reaching IY and RRA of 100%. At the optimal conditions, the ASNase-CXs biocomposite was characterized and evaluated in terms of kinetic properties and operational, thermal and pH stabilities. The immobilized ASNase onto CX-4 retained 71% of its original activity after six continuous reaction cycles, showed a good thermal stability at 37 °C (RRA of 91% after 90 min) and was able to adapt to both acidic and alkaline environments. Finally, the results indicated a 3.9-fold increase in the immobilized ASNase affinity for the substrate, confirming the potential of CXs as a support for ASNase and as a cost-effective tool for subsequent use in the therapeutic and food sectors.

The research presents the inter-comparison of atmospheric variables measured by 9 automatic meteorological stations. This set of data was compared with the measurements of other meteorological stations in order to standardize the values that must be adjusted when taken to different areas. The data of a set of a total of 9 GMX500, which measures conventional meteorological variables, and 10 WS100 sensors, which measures precipitation parameters. The automatic stations were set up at the Huancayo Observatory (Geophysical Institute of Peru) for a period of 5 months. The data set of GMX500 were evaluated comparing with the average of the 9 sensors and the WS100 was compared with a optical disdrometer Parsivel2. The temperature, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, rainfall rate, and drop size distribution was evaluated. A pair of GMX500 sensors presented high data dispersion, it was found found that the errors came from a bad configuration; once this problem was solved, good agreement was archived, with low RMSE and high correlation. I was found that the WS100 sensors overestimate the precipitation with a percent bias close to 100% and the differences increase with the greater intensity of rain. The DSD retrieved by WS100 have unrealistic behavior with higher concentrations in diameters of 1 mm and 5 mm, in addition to a flattened curve.

In this research, the accessibility in the footpath-level walkability condition of old core cities of India has been assessed, considering Central Kolkata, India as a case. Post-2015, after the implementation of Goal Number 11 of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (i.e. Sustainable Cities and Communities), the significance of universal mobility has globally manifolded in the walkability sector. This research has been done in theoretical, ideological, and methodological patterns using Architectural Planning Research for promoting Universal Mobility in old Indian cities. The variables (categorical) used in this research are related to pedestrian infrastructure. The categorical variables are: 1) Building Typology of Stretch, 2) Footpath Dimensions, 3) Temporary Encroachment, 4) Permanent Encroachment, 5) Bus Stop, 6) Metro Rail Entrance, 7) Railings, 8) Storm Water Drains, 9) Public Toilet, 10) Trash Bins, 11) Street Lights, 12) Flooring, 13) Manholes, 14) Kerb, 15) Pedestrian Crossing, 16) Street Furniture, 17) Safety and Security, and 18) Additional Inclusive Features like signage. This research shows that the footpath stretches in Central Kolkata, India are inadequate in terms of ideal accessibility. In addition to this, the result of this research portrays complexities in the adaptability of accessible walkability-related considerations; thereby suggesting a new accessibility audit format for old core Indian cities for achieving Universal Mobility standards in the future. The authors also propose quantitative methods to conduct future research in the same domain.

Detailed mapping and structural observations on the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU) of Iraklia island integrated by detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb ages elucidate the Mesozoic pre-subduction evolution and the Cenozoic orogenic events. Field data reveal that the Iraklia tectonostratigraphy includes a heterogeneous Lower Schist Unit juxtaposed against a Variegated Marble Unit and an overlying Upper Schist Unit. The contact is an extensional ductile-to-brittle-ductile, top-to-N shear zone, associated with the Oligo-Miocene exhumation. The DZ spectrum of the Lower Schist Unit characterized by Gondwanan/peri-Gondwanan provenance signatures points to Late Triassic maximum depositional ages (MDAs). A quartz-rich schist layer yielded Precambrian DZ ages exclusively, considered part of the pre-Variscan metasedimentary Cycladic Basement, equivalent to those observed on Ios island. A significant change occurred during the deposition of the Upper Schist Unit, revealing Late Cretaceous MDAs and a high amount of Late Paleozoic DZ ages, attesting to more internal Pelagonian source areas. The imprint of Paleotethyan vs. Neotethyan geodynamic events is revealed in the DZ U-Pb ages record. The Triassic DZ input demonstrates eroded volcanic material related to the final Paleotethys closure and the Pindos/CBU rift basin opening. Late Cretaceous metamorphic/magmatic zircons and ~48-56 Ma zircon rims constrain the onset of subduction and high-pressure metamorphism.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative autoimmune disease characterized by aberrant infiltration of immune cells into the central nervous system (CNS) and by the loss of myelin. Sclerotic lesions and various inhibitory factors hamper remyelination processes within the CNS. MS patients typically experience gradual cognitive and physical disabilities as the disease progresses. The etiology of MS is still unclear and emerging evidence suggests that microbiome composition could play a much more significant role in disease pathogenesis than was initially thought. Initially believed to be isolated to the gut microenvironment, we now know that the microbiome plays a much broader role in various tissues and is essential in the development of the immune system. Here, we present some of the unexpected roles that the microbiome plays in MS and discuss approaches for the development of next-generation treatment strategies.

In this research, users’ perception towards Universal Mobility in old core cities of India has been critically analyzed. Despite Universal Design guidelines from the United Nations and Union Government of India, old cities in India are seldom having Universal Mobility, in effect endangering the lifestyle of senior citizens and differently-abled people. The core of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in Kolkata, India has been considered as a case example for this research. This research has considered three types of data sets for analysis. First, the authors interviewed 310 respondents from the Indian design fraternity, with the objective of understanding their opinion on the concept of Universal Design. In the next investigative study of 125 respondents from different wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the purpose was to comprehend people’s perception about walkability and mobility in an old Indian city. In the last visual survey of a stretch in Central Kolkata, the focus was identifying the hindrance in Universal Mobility in an old city core of Indian origin. Significant dissatisfaction was found in walkability amongst all user groups; which is linked to poor infrastructural conditions. Furthermore, accessing public transportation is difficult due to improper waiting facilities. However, the design fraternity in India suggests the need of separate accessibility guidelines for old and new cities in India. The design fraternity also recommends a customized rating system for accessing Universal Design. The result of this study indicates a need of recognizing the difficulty in imparting Universal Mobility in old core cities in India. This information can be used for preparing an Access Audit Checklist through Architectural Planning, which is the first step in proposing a framework for Universal Mobility in old core cities in India.

The study of hydrothermal travertines contributes to the understanding of the interaction between physico-chemical processes and the role played by microbial mats and biofilms in influencing carbonate precipitation. Three active travertine sites were investigated in Central Italy to identify the types of carbonate precipitates and the associated microbial mats at varying physico-chemical parameters. Carbonate precipitated fabrics at the decimetre- to millimetre-scale and microbial mats vary with decreasing water temperature: a) at high temperature (55-44°C) calcite or aragonite crystals precipitate on microbial mats of sulphide oxidizing, sulphate reducing and anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria forming filamentous streamer fabrics, b) at intermediate temperature (44-40°C), rafts, coated gas bubbles and dendrites are associated with Spirulina cyanobacteria and other filamentous and rod-shaped cyanobacteria, c) low temperature (34-33°C) laminated crusts and oncoids in a terraced slope system are associated with diverse Oscillatoriales and Nostocales filamentous cyanobacteria, sparse Spirulina and diatoms. At the microscale, carbonate precipitates are similar in the three sites consisting of prismatic calcite (40-100 µm long, 20-40 µm wide) or acicular aragonite crystals organized in radial spherulites, overlying or embedded within biofilm EPS (Extracellular Polymeric Substances). Microsparite and sparite crystal size decreases with decreasing temperature and clotted peloidal micrite dominates at temperatures &lt; 40°C, also encrusting filamentous microbes. Carbonates are associated with gypsum and Ca-phosphate crystals; EPS elemental composition is enriched in Si, Al, Mg, Ca, P, S and authigenic aluminium-silicates form aggregates on EPS. This study confirms that microbial communities in hydrothermal travertine settings vary as a function of temperature. Carbonate precipitate types at the microscale do not vary considerably, despite different microbial communities suggesting that travertine precipitation, driven by CO2 degassing, is influenced by biofilm EPS acting as template for crystal nucleation (EPS-mediated mineralization) and affecting the fabric types, independently from specific microbial metabolism.

The brain, rather than being homogeneous, displays an almost infinite topological genus, because is punctured with a very high number of topological vortexes, i.e., .e., nesting, non-concentric brain signal cycles resulting from inhibitory neurons devoid of excitatory oscillations. Starting from this observation, we show that the occurrence of topological vortexes is constrained by random walks taking place during self-organized brain activity. We introduce a visual model, based on the Pascal’s triangle and linear and nonlinear arithmetic octahedrons, that describes three-dimensional random walks of excitatory spike activity propagating throughout the brain tissue. In case of nonlinear 3D paths, the trajectories in brains crossed by spiking oscillations can be depicted as the operation of filling the numbers of the octahedrons in the form of “islands of numbers”: this leads to excitatory neuronal assemblies, spaced out by empty area of inhibitory neuronal assemblies. These procedures allow us to describe the topology of a brain of infinite genus, to assess inhibitory neurons in terms of Betti numbers, and to highlight how non-linear random walks cause spike diffusion in neural tissues when tiny groups of excitatory neurons start to fire.

The central limit theorem (CLT) and its generalization to stable distributions have been widely described in literature. However, many variations of the theorem have been defined and often their applicability in practical situations is not straightforward. In particular, the applicability of the CLT is essential for a derivation of heterogeneous ensemble of Brownian particles (HEBP). Here, we analyze the role of the CLT within the HEBP approach in more detail and derive the conditions under which the existing theorems are valid.

Speleothem oxygen isotope records from the Caribbean, Central, and North America reveal climatic controls that include orbital variation, deglacial forcing related to ocean circulation and ice sheet retreat, and the influence of local and remote sea surface temperature variations. Here, we review these records and the global climate teleconnections they suggest following the recent publication of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database. We find that low-latitude records generally reflect changes in precipitation, whereas higher latitude records are sensitive to temperature and moisture source variability. Tropical records suggest precipitation variability is forced by orbital precession and North Atlantic Ocean circulation driven changes in atmospheric convection on long timescales, and tropical sea surface temperature variations on short timescales. On millennial timescales, precipitation seasonality in southwestern North America is related to North Atlantic climate variability. Great Basin speleothem records are closely linked with changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. Although speleothems have revealed these critical global climate teleconnections, the paucity of continuous records precludes our ability to investigate climate drivers from the whole of Central and North America for the Pleistocene through modern. This underscores the need to improve spatial and temporal coverage of speleothem records across this climatically variable region.

LULC changes are major environmental challenges in many parts of the world which are adversely affecting ecosystem services. This study was aimed to analyze LULC changes in the ecological landscape of Ethiopia CRV areas from 1985 to 2015. Satellite images were accessed and pre-processing and classification is done. Major LULC types were detected and change analysis was executed. Nine LULC changes were successfully evaluated. The classification result revealed that in 1985, 44.34% of the land was covered with small scale farming followed by mixed cultivated/acacia (21.89%), open woodland (11.96%), and water bodies (9.77%). Whereas for the same study year open grazing land, forest, degraded savannah and settlements accounted the smallest proportion. Though the area varied among land use classes, the trend of share occupied by the LULC types in the study area remained the same in 1995 and 2015. Increase in small and large scale farming, settlements and mixed cultivation/acacia while a decrease in water bodies, forest, and open woodlands is noted. About 86.11% of the land showed major changes in land use/cover. Lastly, DPSIR framework analysis was done and integrated land use and development planning and policy reform are suggested for sustainable land use planning and management.

Several long-term monitoring of aerosol datasets from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board Terra/Aqua, Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) are used to derive the dust aerosol optical depth (DOD) in Central Asia based on the Angstrom exponent parameter and/or the particle shape. All sensors agree very well on the interannual variability of DOD. The seasonal analysis of DOD and dust occurrences identified the largest dust loading and the most frequent dust occurrence in the spring and summer, respectively. No significant trend is found during the research period in terms of both DOD and the dust occurrence. Further analysis of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) aerosol products on a case-by-case basis in most dust months of 2007 suggested that the vertical structure is varying in terms of the extension and the dust loading from one event to another, although dust particles of most episodes have similar physical characteristics (the particle shape and size). Our analysis on the vertical structure of dust plumes, the layer-integrated color ratio and depolarization ratio indicates a varied climate effect (e.g., the direct radiative impact) by mineral dust, dependent on the event being observed in Central Asia.

The tumor microenvironment is known to have increased levels of cytokines and metabolites, such as glutamate, due to their release from the surrounding cells. A normal cell around the tumor that responds to the inflammatory environment is likely to be subsequently altered. We will discuss how these abnormalities will support tumor survival via the actions of gap junctions (GJs) and hemichannels (HCs) which are composed of hexamer of connexin 43 (Cx43) protein. In particular, we will discuss how GJ intercellular communication (GJIC) in glioma cells, the primary brain tumor, is a regulatory factor and its attenuation leads to tumor invasion. In contrast, the astrocytes, which are normal cells around the glioma, are "hijacked" by tumor cells, either by receiving the transmission of malignant substances from the cancer cells via GJIC, or perhaps via astrocytic HC activity through the paracrine signaling which enable the delivery of these substances to the distal astrocytes. This astrocytic signaling would promote tumor expansion in the brain. In addition, brain metastasis from peripheral tissues has also been known to be facilitated by GJs formed between cerebral vascular endothelial cells and cancer cells. Astrocytes and microglia are generally thought to eliminate cancer cells at the blood brain barrier. In contrast, some reports suggest they facilitate tumor progression as tumor cells take advantage of the normal functions of astrocytes that support the survival of the neurons by exchanging nutrients and metabolites. In summary, GJIC is essential for the normal physiological function of growth and allowing the diffusion of physiological substances. Therefore, whether GJIC is cancer promoting or suppressing may be dependent by what permeates through GJs, when it is active, and to which cells. The nature of GJs, which has been ambiguous in brain tumor progression, will need to be re-visited and understood together with new findings on Cx proteins and HC activities.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and substance use disorder (SUD) are of immense medical and social concerns. Although significant progress on neuronal involvement in mood and reward circuitries has been achieved, only relatively recently the role of glia in these disorders have attracted attention. Detail understanding of the glial function in these devastating diseases could offer novel interventions. Here, following a brief review of circuitries involved in mood regulation and reward perception, specific contribution of the neurotrophic factors, neuroinflammation and gut microbiota to these diseases are highlighted. In this context, the role of specific glial cells (e.g., microglia, astroglia, oligodendrocytes and synantocytes) on phenotypic manifestation of MDD or SUD are emphasized. In addition, potential use of this knowledge in developing novel therapeutics is touched upon.

Telecoupling, interactions between social-ecological systems across large, often global, distances, drives negative impacts from the forest-based carbon market. Yet, these negative impacts have been underreported; and therefore, likely vastly underestimated. We identify how these unintended negative impacts may occur and provide recommendations for the forest-based carbon market to better account for externalities by prioritising positive social impact, expanding comprehensive ecological outcomes and improving transparency of investments. We call for a carbon market that is designed to account for its global interconnectedness.

The development of plant-based meat analogues has become a significant challenge for the food industry in recent years due to the increasing demand for sustainable and healthier proteins in the context of a global protein transition. Plant-based meat analogues imitate the visual, textural, and chemical properties of traditional meat products and are required to closely resemble meat to appeal to consumers. In addition, consumers demand natural, clean-label, and nutritional and healthy products. To address these challenges, the food industry must develop highly healthy, nutritious, and E-number-free meat analogue products. Understanding the functionality of each ingredient and its role in the food matrix is crucial to being a key player in the innovation of the meat analogues market. This review provides updated information on the primary ingredients utilized for the development of plant-based burger meat alternatives and their functionality. The key components of meat analogue burgers are outlined, including plant proteins, binding agents, fats and oils, flavorings, colorings, preservatives, fortificants, and clean-label considerations.

The hard open problem of finding the lower bound for the Fokker Planck Kolmogorov’s time-dependent controller parameter probability density function is addressed for the first time in literature in this work. This revolutionary exposition will put control theory and other related inter-disciplinary fields to a higher level towards contemporary control theory. Notably, based on the influential role of control theory in both engineering and industry, this paper will be of great value to all engineering and industry professionals who seek to know more about advanced trends within control theory settings. On the other remit of the spectrum, Fokker Planck Kolmogorov(FPK) equations are of high importance to physicists as well as mathematicians, based on their multiple applicability to multi-interdisciplinary fields of human knowledge, and beyond. So, this by default adds more taste and credibility to this study. Concluding thoughts are included at the end of the work along with a difficult outstanding problem and the direction of future work.

This work is the first in literature to tackle the difficult open problem of determining the upper bound and threshold theorem for the TDCDP (time-dependent controller parameter) of the (Fokker Planck Kolmogorov) probability density function. This revolutionary exposition will put control theory and other related inter-disciplinary fields to a higher level towards contemporary control theory. Notably, based on the influential role of control theory in both engineering and industry, this paper will be of great value to all engineering and industry professionals who seek to know more about advanced trends within control theory settings. On the other remit of the spectrum, Fokker Planck Kolmogorov(FPK) equations are of high importance to physicists as well as mathematicians, based on their multiple applicability to information theory, graph theory, data science, finance, economics, and beyond. So, this by default adds more taste and credibility to this study. This leads by nature to introducing a different flavor to this ground-breaking research by highlighting the impact of Fokker Planck Kolmogorov(FPK) to revolutionize crypocurrency,which have received its name because it uses encryption to verify transactions, a new debatable digital payment system that doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions. It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments. The paper ends with closing remarks combined with some challenging open problems and the next phase of research.

This study aimed to evaluate the discrepancies between genetic and visual coat color assignment in the Sarcidano Horse and to elucidate potential reasons. Individual DNA from 90 Sarcidano Horses was used for genetic assignment of coat color to explore the correspondence with individual forms containing phenotypical traits. The MC1R exon 1 and ASIP exon 3 have been genotyped and sequenced to obtain a picture of the coat color distribution in this breed. Surprisingly, once we compared the genetic results with the individual forms reporting the phenotypic data for each subject, a certain degree of non-correspondence between the phenotypic and genetic data in relation to coat color emerged. From the genetic analysis, Chestnuts (n = 58) resulted the most common Sarcidano Horse (n = 58), followed by a quite large number of Blacks (n = 28) and a very small number of Bays (n = 4), whereas phenotypic distribution resulted in 38 Chestnuts, 40 Bays, only 2 Blacks, and 10 Grays (without the possibility of recognizing the true color they carried). Chestnut resulted a very representative coat color, while many horses that visually identified as Bays were genetically Blacks. This discrepancy, that could be due to a variety of individual and external factors, including age, time of year, living situation and dietary condition, suggesting the importance of accurate coat color identification to ensure adequate features registration and reliable prediction of offspring’s coat color.

Background: Thyroid nodules are common, affecting nearly 65% of the general population. While they are widespread, it's crucial to recognize that the majority of these nodules are not cancerous and can be effectively managed through careful monitoring. Thyroid ultrasound is commonly used to evaluate thyroid nodules owing to its low cost, wide availability and technical ease of application. In sonography, it's crucial to assess characteristics and vascular flow. Yet, conventional color and power Doppler ultrasound may not always effectively capture small vessels and low velocities due to their limitations. Superior Microvascular Imaging can display the blood flow of small vessels and low-velocity blood flow, which is difficult to visualize with conventional Doppler ultrasound. Meanwhile other thyroid scans, that utilize either [99mTc] pertechnetate or (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose, can categorize nodules as hyperactive ('hot'), exhibiting normal activity ('warm'), or having reduced/no activity ('cold'). Thus, the main goal of screening and tracking thyroid nodules is to improve the management of potentially worrisome thyroid malignancies. Methodology: The study was conducted within the structural framework of a network meta-analysis, with the index tests being - SMI, Radionuclide Scanning and Color Doppler, and the general link between them being the reference gold standard. The data collection involved searching for all pertinent literature using PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Library databases. The essential data was extracted following the application of specific inclusion and exclusion criteria.This meta-analysis included 7 RCTs with 1,152 patients for Radionuclide Scanning, 10 RCTs with 1,847 patients for SMI and 8 RCTs with 4,480 patients for Color Doppler. They were analyzed using the QualSyst tool and the risk of bias was evaluated by using QUADAS-2 analysis.The statistical software packages MetaDiSc 1.4, RevMan (Review Manager, version 5.3), SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 20) and Excel in Stata 14 were used to perform the statistical analyses. Result: According to the findings, the sensitivity for Radionuclide Scanning is calculated as 0.79 (range: 0.76 to 0.81) and specificity as 0.55 (range: 0.50 to 0.60) with a 95% confidence interval. The overall diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) for Radionuclide Scanning Is 10.54.Additionally, with a 95% confidence interval, SMI exhibits a sensitivity of 0.82 (with a range of 0.79 to 0.84) and a specificity of 0.86 (with a range of 0.84 to 0.88), while the overall DOR is approximately 25.73. Color Doppler demonstrates a calculated sensitivity of 0.71 (ranging from 0.69 to 0.74) and specificity of 0.81 (ranging from 0.79 to 0.83) with a 95% confidence interval, while its DOR is 13.48.Conclusion: As evidenced by this meta-analysis, blood flow dependent imaging techniques are superior in their abilities to be used as diagnostic tests, especially in conjunction with their use in detecting thyroid nodules. This study offers a starting point for delving deeper into the utilization of Radionuclide Imaging, Superior Microvascular Imaging and Color Doppler in diagnosing thyroid nodules in a clinical setting. Key Words: - Thyroid Nodule, Radionuclide Scanning, Superior Microvascular Imaging, Color Doppler Diagnosis, Sensitivity, Specificity, Diagnostic imaging

In recent years, marine natural products have become one of the most important resources of novel lead compounds for critical diseases associated with age. Spirulina, a dietary supplement made from blue-green algae (cyanobacteria: scientific name Arthrospira platensis), is particularly rich in phycocyanin, a phycobiliprotein, which accounts for up to 20% of this cyanobacterium’s dry weight and is considered responsible for its anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Although the anti-aging activity of phycocyanin has been investigated, how exactly this compound works against aging remains elusive. Aim of our research is to use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to investigate the anti-aging properties of phycocyanin from A. platensis. Our results show that phycocyanin has a powerful anti-aging effect, greatly extending the chronological life span of yeast cells in a dose-dependent way, being the effect pronounced also when cells were grown in SD medium under calorie restriction conditions (0.2% glucose). Both ROS and accumulation of dead cells were followed by staining chronologically aged cells with dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR123) and propidium iodide (PI). Interestingly, we found that most of the aged phycocyanin treated cells, which were unable to form colonies, were actually ROS+/PI–. Finally, we show that the moment in which phycocyanin is added to the culture does not substantially influence its effectiveness in counteracting chronological aging.

The application of distributed fiber optic strain and temperature measurement can be utilized to address a multitude of measurement tasks across a diverse range of fields, particularly in the context of structural health monitoring in the domains of building construction, civil engineering, and special foundation engineering. However, a comprehensive understanding of the influences on the measurement method and the sensors is essential to prevent misinterpretations or measurement deviations. In this context, this study investigated the effects of moisture exposure, including various salt solutions and a high pH value, on a distributed strain measurement using Rayleigh backscattering. Three fiber optic sensors with different coating materials and one uncoated fiber were exposed to five different solutions for 24 hours. The study revealed significant discrepancies in deformation between the three coating types depending on the surrounding solution. Furthermore, in contrast to the prevailing literature, which predominantly describes swelling effects, a negative deformation was observed in a magnesium chloride solution. The findings of this study indicate that corresponding effects can impact the precision of measurement, potentially leading to misinterpretations. Conversely, these effects could be used to conduct large-scale monitoring of chemical components using distributed fiber optic sensing.

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.

Air pollution has recently gained much attention from the general population. Despite pollution control being an issue in both urban and rural regions, most of the available research has concentrated on urban districts. Hence, investigations into how urban-rural transition affects PM2.5 are warranted within the framework of urban-rural integration. Using the Yellow River Basin as a case study, this study employed the entropy method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to uncover the extent of urban-rural transformation. It then used the spatial autocorrelation method to investigate the spatiotemporal features of PM2.5 and the spatial econometric model to investigate the mechanisms that influence the relationship between urban-rural transformation and PM2.5. The results are as follows: (1) Over time, there was a discernible upward tendency in the change in urban-rural areas. The development has progressed from asymmetrical north-east and south-west elevations to a more balanced pattern of north-east, middle-east, and west-west elevations. (2) The PM2.5 concentration increased steadily, then fluctuated, and finally decreased. Notably, the general pattern has not changed much, and it is high in the east and low in the west. (3) Different subsystems of the urban-rural transformation have different impacts on air pollution at different stages. The influence of industrial transformation (IT) on PM2.5 showed an inverted “N-shaped” curve of negative-positive-negative changes, and the industrial structure played a leading role in the spatiotemporal evolution of PM2.5. Currently, an inverted "U-shaped" curve forms the left side of the impact of population transition (PT) on PM2.5. Land development (LT) has a "U-shaped" curve for its effect on PM2.5. This research provides a new perspective on the topic of PM2.5 and its connection to urban-rural integration, which is crucial to understanding the dynamics of this shift. To achieve its goal of high-quality development, it supports regional initiatives to reduce PM2.5 emissions in the Yellow River Basin. Moreover, it can provide a reference for decision-makers in the world’s densely populated areas that suffer from serious air pollution.

Einstein was skeptical of part of quantum mechanics, and he believed that Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle did not reflected the full depth of reality. He famously stated, ”God does not play dice with the universe.” However, since quantum mechanics has passed so many experimental tests, most physicists today assume that Einstein was wrong. Nevertheless, we will demonstrate that Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle must be modified to unify gravity with quantum mechanics. This modification leads to the Certainty-Uncertainty principle where the certainty part is strongly linked to gravity. This means Einstein likely was right in his intuition also on this point. The key is to understand that the de Broglie wavelength is not the actual wavelength of matter but merely a derivative of the true matter wavelength, namely the Compton wavelength. Furthermore, one must understand that the gravitational constant, first introduced in 1873, is simply a composite constant needed to rectify the in- complete definition of kilogram mass introduced into Newtonian gravity in 1873.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is an intellectual developmental disorder characterized, inter alia, by deficits in short-term processing of neural information such as sensory processing and working memory. The primary cause of FXS is the loss of fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein (FMRP), which is profoundly involved in synaptic function and plasticity. Short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) may play important roles in functions that are affected by FXS. Recent evidence points to a crucial involvement of presynaptic calcium sensor synaptotagmin-7 in STSP. However, how the loss of FMRP affects STSP and synaptotagmin-7 have been insufficiently studied. Further-more, males and females are affected differently by FXS, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. The aim of the present study is to investigate possible changes in STSP and the expres-sion of synaptotagmin-7 along the hippocampus of adult males and females in the Fmr1 knock-out (KO) rat model of FXS. We found that paired-pulse ratio and frequency facilita-tion/depression, two forms of STSP, as well as the expression of synaptotagmin-7, are normal in adult KO males, but paired-pulse ratio is increased in the ventral hippocampus of KO females. Furthermore, we found no gender-related but robust region-dependent difference in STSP. AM-PA receptors are similarly expressed in the two hippocampal segments of the two genotypes and in both genders. Also, basal excitatory synaptic transmission is higher in males compared with females. Interestingly, we found more than twofold higher levels of synaptotagmin-7, not syn-aptotagmin-1, in the dorsal compared with the ventral hippocampus in males of both genotypes and in wild type females. These results point to the susceptibility of the female ventral hippo-campus to FMRP loss. Importantly, the different levels of synaptotagmin-7 that parallel the higher score of synaptic facilitation in the dorsal vs ventral hippocampus suggest that synapto-tagmin-7 may play a pivotal role in defining the striking difference in STSP along the long axis of the hippocampus.

The signs and symptoms of Long COVID can be explained by a shortage of blood in the body and a resulting deficient blood flow through nearly all organs. This shortage arose during the acute phase of COVID19 by an increased breakdown of haematocytes, to which the liver responds by reducing the production of albumin, in order to prevent a too large decrease in haematocrit.In order to ensure the perfusion of organs that are directly necessary for survival, the body takes the emergency measure of diverting blood from other organs and tissues. The perfusion of the blood-producing organs is also affected by this distribution measure, which hinders the smooth recovery of the total blood volume. The body is stuck in this vicious circle: a shortage of circulating blood hinders the recovery of blood production. This explains the long duration of Long COVID. My proposed treatment of Long COVID focuses on the recovery of the correct volume of blood in the body of the right composition by the intravenous administration of donor blood products, starting with albumin concentrate. A trial treatment can be performed in any hospital without much additional preparations, and has a lower associated risk for the patient than analysing the total blood. A diagnosis ex juvantibus, by therapeutic response, is therefore preferable. I suspect that most Long COVID patients will exhibit a high serum ferritin level as a result of internal haemolysis, and haematocrit and albumin values at the high and low extremes of the reference range because the liver can not keep up with the recovery of the red bone marrow.

Undoubtedly, there is a potential impact of large language models like ChatGPT in revolutionizing information retrieval and knowledge discovery, particularly in the context of the vast amount of electronic material available. On another strong note, the current work offers a first time ever mathematical approach to accurately fine tune perplexity AI, which sets a giant step ahead towards accurate next generations AI. Having started this world leading discovery, the upper and lower bounds of perplexity AI, namely , , respectively, are obtained for the first-time ever. Concluding remarks combined with emerging open problems and next research phase are provided.

Intestinal parasitic infections pose a significant public health challenge in Northern Nigeria, with prevalence rates ranging from 20% to 70%. Traditional diagnostic methods, primarily microscopic examination of stool samples, face limitations such as low sensitivity and high costs. This research addresses these challenges by proposing an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based platform for the identification and counting of intestinal parasites. A total of 651 samples were collected from the 7 Northern State of Nigeria along with questionnaire collecting data on demographic, socio-economic, hygiene habits and environmental factors. Leveraging the You Only Look Once (YOLO) V8 model, trained on a dataset of 360 pre-processed and 467 annotated images, the AI model demonstrated promising performance metrics. Information-Theory-Based approaches including (CIFE, CMIM, DISR and ICAP) were used on various machine learning models (Naïve Bayes, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and Decision Tree) to analyse the risk factors associated with the parasitic disease. The precision-recall curve, average precision, mean average precision, and F1 score indicated reliable detection and classification across various parasite classes. The accuracy (97%) and AUC (99%) scores shows that CIFE with Random Forest has the best performance indicating the significant risk factors associated with the parasitic diseases. The model exhibited a well-balanced trade-off between precision and recall, showcasing its potential as a cost-effective and accessible tool for improving the diagnosis and treatment of intestinal parasitic infections in resource-limited settings.

This research challenges the traditional perspective on consumer behavior, which focuses on external factors shaping the sequential stages of decision-making. Instead, it proposes a paradigm shift by treating the decision-making process itself as an independent variable, exploring its impact on various outcomes like purchasing behavior, brand loyalty, and post-purchase satisfaction. This novel approach offers deeper insights into the intricacies of consumer behavior, particularly in the digital age. By uncovering the reciprocal relationships between the decision-making process and other variables, the research provides a more nuanced understanding of how consumers navigate today's complex landscape. It further delves into how variations in the decision-making process across diverse consumer groups influence various outcomes, recognizing the unique characteristics and needs of different demographics. The research also acknowledges the interplay of psychological, social, and contextual factors that shape both the decision-making process and its downstream effects, offering a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted influences on consumer behavior. Ultimately, by studying the decision-making process as an independent variable, this research aims to equip businesses and researchers with valuable insights, enabling them to better navigate the ever-evolving world of consumer behavior.

This article describes a novel electrochemical on-chip biosensor that utilizes anti-PSA antibody (Ab) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to enhance the sensing and detection capability of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood. The AgNPs are prepared, characterized, and applied onto a silicon photonic on-chip biosensing receptor platform designed to enhance the accurate detection of PSA. The AgNPs were synthesized by a chemical reduction method using silver nitrate (AgNO₃) as the precursor. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and light microscopy were among the methods used in the characterization and analysis of the AgNPs. Each stage of the immunosensor fabrication was characterized using cyclic voltammetry. The proposed immunosensor was applied in the detection of PSA, a prostate cancer biomarker, with a high sensitivity and a limit of detection of 0.17 ng/mL over a linear concentration range of 2.5 to 11.0 ng/mL. The immunosensor displayed good stability and was selective in the presence of interfering species like immunoglobulin (Ig) in human serum, ascorbic acid (AA), and diclofenac (Dic). The detectivity and sensitivity are significantly higher than previous reports on similar or related technologies.

Recently, Mulroney,et.al., demonstrated that Pfizer’s ModRNA Covid vaccine, but not AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, produce aberrant foreign proteins in vivo due to reading frame shift in ribosomes. This phenomenon could elucidate the notable surge in autoimmune diseases following the administration of ModRNA vaccines compared to Influenza vaccines between 2020 and 2023, as found in the VAERS database. These findings bear significant implications for the future application of mRNA technology, emphasizing the necessity of modifying the design of the mRNA sequence to mitigate these defects. Remarkably, Mulroney and collaborators achieved a reduction in frame shift proteins by introducing additional edits to the mRNA sequences. This adjustment is pivotal for rectifying the flawed design of the ModRNA employed by Pfizer. In light of these findings, many advocate for the immediate recall and further investigation of these products. The notion of a "future mRNA-based therapy" should be postponed indefinitely.

Remediation of IT issues encoded into domain-specific or user-defined alerts occurring in cloud environments and customer ecosystems in a vast majority of cases suffers from accurate recommendations which could be timely supplied for recovery of performance degradations. That, of course, is hard to realize through furnishing those abnormality definitions with an appropriate expert knowledge which varies from one environment to another. At the same time, in a large proportion of support cases, the reported problems under Global Support Services (GSS) or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) treatment ultimately go down to the product teams making them waste costly development hours on investigating self-monitoring metrics of our solutions. Therefore, the mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) rates of problems/alerts are significantly impacted from lack of a systematic approach towards adopting AI Ops. That would imply building, maintaining, and continuously improving/annotating a data store of insights that ML models are trained and generalized across the whole customer base and corporate cloud services. Our ongoing study is in line with such a vision and validates an approach that learns the alert resolution patterns in such a global setting and explains them using interpretable AI methodologies. The knowledge store of causative rules is then applied in predicting potential sources of the application degradation reflected in an active alert instance. In this communication, we share our experiences with a prototype solution and up to date analysis demonstrating how root conditions are discovered with a high accuracy for a specific type of problem. It is validated against the historical data of resolutions performed by heavy manual development efforts. We also offer a Dempster-Shafer theory-based rule verification framework for experts as a what-if analysis tool to test their hypotheses about underlying environment.

Vision impairment may delay responses to hazards when driving. In a proof-of-concept driving simulator study, we evaluated a hazard warning device designed for vision impaired drivers. Three groups participated: 11 persons with central vision loss (CVL; median age 60 years), 12 with homonymous field loss (HFL; 52 years) and 11 with normal vision (NV; 60 years). CVL is characterised by impaired visual acuity and contrast sensitivity while HFL is a loss of vision in the same half of the visual field (blind side) in both eyes. Participants completed drives with and without the device which gave a directional vibro-tactile warning for an approaching pedestrian hazard when collision risk exceeded a pre-defined threshold. Warnings significantly (p< 0.001) reduced brake response times for CVL (∆= 0.54s) and HFL (∆= 0.30s), but not NV participants. For HFL participants, the reduction was greater (p = 0.02) for hazards on the blind (∆= 0.57s) than seeing side (∆= 0.10s). The warnings significantly reduced collision rates for CVL participants from 11 to 0% (all hazards) and for HFL participants from 30 to 1.7% (blind side hazards). Thus, hazard warnings may be beneficial in improving safety of vision impaired drivers; further research is warranted.

In the digital era, enhancing the heritage resources of a tourist route means describing and networking them to promote their visibility and attractiveness. Prior studies mainly assess mountainous region’s natural resources through multi-indicator descriptive evaluation. This study aims to develop a comprehensive measurement of indicator’s value while assessing the tourism development potential of mountainous rural area. It concerns the main tourist route of the UNESCO M'Goun Geopark, located in the central High Atlas of Morocco. It also involves analyzing the criteria for choosing this destination by segmenting tourists' consumption experiences. Statistical analysis of the collected data reveals five dimensions of destination choice and four visitor groups. This article proposes to discuss findings and their applicability in terms of tourism destination management and decision-making, which can help local governments to rationally allocate tourism resources and land use.

The Badenian/Sarmatian boundary in the Central Paratethyan basins is characterized by a change from open marine conditions during the late Badenian to the assumed brackish conditions during the early Sarmatian. Foraminiferal and palynological results of the Badenian/Sarmatian boundary interval in the Babczyn 2 borehole (SE Poland) showed that the studied interval accumulated under variable, unstable sedimentary conditions. The Badenian/Sarmatian boundary as correlated with a sudden extinction of stenohaline foraminifera is interpreted as due to the shallowing of the basin. The lack of foraminifera and palynomorphs just above the Badenian/Sarmatian boundary can reflect short-term anoxia. The composition of euryhaline assemblages characteristic for the lower Sarmatian part of the studied succession indicates marine to hypersaline conditions.

Considering future tasks in soil health, resources management and environmental protection, farmers are challenged to develop sustainable strategies for managing soil and land resources. In this study, the long-term sustainability of two fertilization strategies, - current, with synthetic fertilizers (SYN) vs conservative, with organic sources of nitrogen (organic amendments plus green manure with a legume - CONS) - was assessed in a processing tomato/durum wheat rotation. The EPIC model was used, validated with field data then run to simulate the management for 30 years under 3 current and future climates. Yield, soil organic carbon (SOC) stock change, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), water use efficiency (WUE) and nitrate leaching were considered as sustainability indicators. Under all the future climate scenarios, tomato yield increased in CONS, remaining almost stable in SYN. Wheat yield increased both in CONS and SYN, but the average yield in CONS was considerably lower than in SYN. NUE and nitrate leaching followed the same trend, both decreasing in CONS, while WUE was higher in CONS compared to SYN. The effect of CONS on SOC was always positive. Thus, the alternative N fertilization strategy proposed can be a favorable option for maintaining soil health and a sustainable crop production.

In Africa, vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are still a major public health issue especially in cities that gather an increasing human population. Market gardening practices, for example, can favor the transmission of urban malaria, while insufficient water supply and waste management favor the circulation of arboviroses related to Aedes mosquitoes. Urban planning is a major challenge to mitigate vector risks. As a planning strategy, greening is a concept that is increasingly considered as a major element impacting the well-being of inhabitants, but also for the restoration of biodiversity in cities. Nevertheless, the impact of urban green spaces on vector risk remains poorly investigated, as they may serve as refuge for vectors. This is why the diversity of mosquitoes in terms of species and larval habitat, through larval prospections in environmental water collections and human landing catches, is studied here at an intra-urban interface area between a forest and an urban ecosystem in order to assess the vector risk generated by preserving a forest patch in the heart of Libreville, capital of Gabon, central Africa. Out of 104 water containers explored, 94 (90.4%) were artificial, mainly comprising gutters, used tires, and plastic bottles, while 10 (9.6%) were natural, comprising a puddle, streams, and tree holes. The majority of the water collections recovered (73.1%) were found outside of the forested area, natural and artificial ones considered together. A total of 770 mosquitoes belonging to 14 species were collected from water collections. The mosquito community was largely dominated by anthropophilic species like Aedes albopictus (33.5%), Culex quinquefasciatus (30.4%), and Lutzia tigripes (16.5%). The Shannon index of diversity showed that mosquitoes were almost twice less diversified inside the forest (0.7) than outside (1.3). However, both communities were quite similar in terms of common species and relative abundance (Morisita-Horn index = 0.7). Regarding Human landing catches, Aedes albopictus (86.1%) was the most aggressive species, putting people at risk of Aedes-borne viruses. This study uncovered the importance of considering urban forested ecosystems as potential drivers of disease emergence and spread in urban areas, as they might locally boost urban mosquito densities due to poor environmental practices, mainly maintained by humans through poor environmental practices. In Gabon, this study should contribute to guide targeted vector control strategies, especially regarding the implementation of policies for a better environmental management and vector surveillance in urbanized areas.

Accurate knowledge of the rain amount is an crucial driver in several hydro-meteorological applications. This is especially true in complex orography territories, which are typically impervious, thus leaving ungauged most of the mountain areas. Thanks to their spatial and temporal coverage, weather radars can potentially overcome such an issue. However, weather radar, if not accurately processed, can suffer from several limitations (e.g., beam blocking, altitude of the observation, path attenuation, indirectness of the measurement) that can hamper the reliability of the rain estimates performed. In this study, a comparison between rain gauge and weather radar retrievals is performed in the target area of the Abruzzo region in Italy, which is characterized by a heterogeneous orography ranging from the sea side to Apennine ridge. Consequently, the Abruzzo region has an inhomogeneous distribution of the rain gauges, with station density decreasing with the altitude reaching up to approximately 1500 m a.s.l. Notwithstanding, pluviometric inflow spatial distribution shows a sub-regional dependency as a function of four climatic and altimetric factors: coastal, hilly, mountain, and inner plain areas (i.e., Marsica). Such areas are used in this analysis to characterize the radar retrieval vs. rain gauge amounts in each of those zones. Compared to previous studies on the topic, the analysis presented an attention to the importance of an accurate selection of the climatic and altimetric sub-regional areas where undertake the radar vs. rain gauge comparison. This aspect is not only of great importance to correct biases in radar retrievals in a more selective way, but it also paves the way for more accurate hydro-meteorological applications (e.g., hydrological model initialization, quantify the aquifers recharge etc.) which, in general, require the accurate knowledge of rain amounts upstream of a basin. To fill the gap caused by the uneven rain gauge distribution, Ordinary Kriging has been applied on a regional scale to obtain 2D maps of rainfall data, which are cumulated on a monthly and yearly base. Weather radar data from the Italian mosaic are considered as well, in terms of rain rate retrievals and cumulations performed on the same time frame used for rain gauges. The period considered for the analysis is two continuous years: 2017 and 2018. The output of the elaborations are raster maps for both radar and interpolated rain gauges, where every pixel contains a rainfall quantity. Although the results show a general underestimation in the weather radar data especially in mountain and Marsica areas, even though within the 95% confidence interval of the OK estimation. Our analysis highlights that the average bias between radar and rain gauges, in terms of precipitation amounts, is a function of altitude and is almost constant in each of the selected areas. This achievement suggests that after a proper selection of homogeneous target areas, the radar retrievals can be corrected using the denser network of rain gauges typically distributed at lower altitudes and extend such correction at higher altitudes without loss of generality.

This study aims to determine how the effect of interest rates and changes in the dollar exchange rate (USD) on the stock price. The type of research carried out in this research is quantitative research with the object of research, namely Bank Central Asia (BCA). The data used in this study comes from secondary data, namely from books, the internet, documents, and banking sites. This study indicates that the independent variable, namely the interest rate, has a significant negative effect on the joint-stock price index and the other independent variable, namely the dollar exchange rate (USD), has a significant positive effect on the joint-stock price index. The coefficient test results show that interest rates and exchange rates (USD) simultaneously affect stock prices, namely 67.2% while the remaining 32.8% is influenced by other factors.

UEDVT still remains an underdiagnosed entity due to a significant percentage of patients who remain asymptomatic. The etiology of UEDVT is overwhelmingly attributed to secondary causes including but not limited to central venous access devices and malignancy. Treatment modalities include anticoagulation, catheter directed thrombolysis, percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy or a multimodality approach along with the management of underlying etiology. We describe a case of a female with breast cancer, who came with left UEDVT and CVC malfunction and was successfully treated using the ClotTriever system to maintain continuous intravenous access.

In order to follow the Preventive Chemotherapy for the transmission control as recommended by WHO, Gabon initiated in 2014 the mapping of Schistosomiasis and Soil Transmitted Helminthiasis (STH). Here we report the results of the Northern and Eastern health regions, representing a third of the land area and 12% of its total population. All the 9 departments of the two regions were surveyed and from each, 5 schools were examined with 50 schoolchildren per school. The parasitological examinations were realized using the filtration method for urine and the Kato-Katz technique for stool samples. Overall 2245 schoolchildren (1116 girls and 1129 boys), mean aged 11.28 ± 0.04 years, were examined. Combined schistosomiasis and STH affected 1270 (56.6%) with variation between regions, departments and schools. For schistosomiasis, prevalence were 1.7% across the two regions, with no significant difference (p>0.05) between the Northern (1.5%) and the Eastern (1.9%). Schistosomiasis is mainly caused by Schistosoma haematobium with a prevalence of 1.5%, 1.9% and 1.7%, respectively in the North, East and globally. STH are more common than schistosomiasis, with an overall prevalence of 56.1% significantly different between the Northern (58.1%) and Eastern (53.6%) regions (p = 0.034). Trichuris trichiura is the most abundant infection with a prevalence of 43.7% followed by Ascaris lumbricoides 35.6% and hookworms 1.4%. According to these results, an appropriate mass drug administration strategy is given for the control of each neglected tropical disease group surveyed.

Recent studies have indicated that several anti-hypertensive drugs may delay the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the relationships among AD, hypertension, and oxidative stress remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether treatment with resveratrol reduces reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the brain, thereby reducing cognitive impairment in rats with angiotensin II (Ang-II)-induced early AD. Male WKY rats with Ang-II-induced AD were treated with losartan or resveratrol for 2 weeks. Our results revealed that treatment with resveratrol (10 mg/kg/day) decreased blood pressure, increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus, and decreased ROS production in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) in the Ang-II groups. In addition, inhibition of Tau^T231 phosphorylation in the hippocampus using resveratrol significantly abolished Ang-II-induced expression of Ab precursors, active caspase 3, and glycogen synthase kinase 3b (GSK-3b)^Y216 while increasing Akt^S473 phosphorylation. Notably, resveratrol reversed impairments in hippocampal-dependent contextual memory induced by deleting NADPH oxidase and NOX2. Overall, our results suggest that resveratrol exerts neuroprotective effects against memory impairment and hippocampal damage in a rat model of early stage AD by reducing oxidative stress. These novel findings indicate that resveratrol may represent a pharmacological option for patients with hypertension at a risk of AD during old age.

This paper presents a methodology for the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) to assess the economic implications of designing aging-in-place (AIP) homes at the conceptual stage. With the global increase in the aging population, there is an increased demand for housing solutions tailored to the needs of elderly individuals. Focusing on the importance of the early phase of design, this study aims to improve the process of making efficient decisions by providing a comprehensive assessment of the life cycle costs associated with AIP homes. The study introduces a semi-automated model for the economic evaluation of AIP homes, enabling the estimation of costs throughout the houses’ entire life cycle, from design and construction to operation, maintenance, and eventual renovation or disposal. The said model facilitates the exploration of the long-term economic feasibility of design’s related decisions with an emphasis on the importance of considering the life cycle costs early during the design process to optimize the functionality and economic viability. By investing in accessible and universal design features upfront, the initial costs for modifications can lead to long-term savings by reducing the need for extensive retrofits. The model can easily do comparison between different design alternatives in terms of their lifecycle costs, allowing designers to assess the financial impact of using important features in their design such as wider doorways, accessible bathrooms, and elevators. Overall, this study provides valuable insights for designers and homeowners about the economic aspects of designing AIP homes as a support for efficient decision-making during the early stages of the design process.

In order to solve the problem of large eddy current loss and high temperature rise caused by large amount of permanent magnet, a new type of combined magnetic pole permanent magnet motor is proposed in this paper. The sinusoidal distribution subdomain model of non-uniform air gap rotor is established by using Laplace equation, and the analytical expression of eddy current loss of rotor in uniform air-gap and non-uniform air-gap is derived. The effect of rotor eccentricity on eddy current loss is obtained. According to the characteristics of distributed winding of non-uniform air gap combined pole permanent magnet motor, equivalent treatment is performed to obtain the equivalent thermal conductivity, so as to establish equivalent thermal network model of motor, calculate the temperature value of each component of the motor, and verify the correctness of the thermal network model through the method of magnetothermal bidirectional coupling. Finally, an experimental platform is set up to carry out temperature rise experiments on the two prototypes respectively. Experimental results show that the non-uniform air-gap rotor structure can effectively reduce the rotor eddy current loss and motor temperature rise, and also verify the accuracy of the analytical model calculation results.

Soccer is the leading cause of all sports-related ocular injuries in Europe and Israel and leads to blindness at a disproportionately high rate, especially among children (Thompson et al., 2019). With soccer being the most popular sport in the world, it is surprising the only solution to ocular injuries are sports glasses which can cause direct damage to the eye and impair peripheral vision by 15%, calling for an alternative (Smith & Jones, 2020). This work, based on an imported facial model, focuses on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of building a personalized, low-cost (through optimizing material needed), superior apparatus to conventional sports glasses. The quantitative side examines a modified and model-validated (through a SRS of thirty unique extrapolated points) multivariate linear regression equation, based on horizontal and vertical rotation angles (n=60) trained with residual and computer simulation data, that can accurately extrapolate and quantify ocular impact from all horizontal and vertical rotation angles and a modified Hertzian Contact Stress Equation to determine the thickness of the apparatus using the elasticity modulus, impact force, and geometrical facial and soccer-ball features. The qualitative side examines where firstly, ocular impact is most prevalent, and secondly, where most impact is seen from rotating the ball horizontally and vertically through analysis of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient at the supraorbital, medial canthus, infraorbital, and lateral canthus regions from both regression equations as well as a cost-benefit analysis for comparison with conventional sports glasses. The findings discovered in this work lay the groundwork for future research to build a customized low-cost ocular injury prevention device which can simultaneously ensure complete ocular safety while enhancing athletic performance for over 250,000,000 players (Johnson & Garcia, 2022).

The continuous flowing spacetime forms a spacetime group G, one of its fundamental groups is the Poincare group PO(1,3), and the matter and interaction fields are representations of its intrinsic spacetime group. As a kind of quantized space-time unit, space-time group elements generate both space-time manifolds and matter. Matter and fields are aggregates of the quantum space-time within them and determine their type: the Lorentz group SO(1,3) represents a rotating spacetime corresponding to visible matter and the translation group P^1,3 represents a translational spacetime corresponding to dark matter and dark energy. The aggregation mode of space-time degrees of freedom in matter reveals that charge conjugation symmetry is the inverse symmetry of internal time of charged particles, and the external parity breaking of neutrinos is also due to their internal spatial aggregation mode.

Aim: To evaluate the panmacular subthreshold micropulse laser treatment results among patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) and their correlation with functional and morphological parameters. Material and methods: The examined group included 10 non-treated and 41 treated patients with acute, recurrent, and chronic CSC (13 F, 38 M, mean age 44.11±6.5) and 14 healthy controls (6 F, 8 M, mean age 45±9.3). The BCVA examination, ophthalmoscopy, microp-erimetry, angio-OCT and OCT were performed. The medical history regarding chronic general disorders and known risk factors were recorded. Results: Complete resorption of SRF was obtained in 100% aCSC, 86.66% cCSC, and 63.63% r CSC. BCVA and RetSens significantly improved most of the patients treated in aCSC. The lowest BCVA and RetSens, but the largest pachyvessel and disease duration, were found in rCSC. A strong negative correlation between final BCVA and disease duration was found. No patient demonstrated laser lesions following treatment. Conclusions: The panmacular MPLT therapy leads to long-term enhancement of functional and morphological parameters in all CSC patients. The acute CSC patients showed the most significant improvement. The procedure is safe and could be considered a preferred treatment option for all active CSC cases. Timely treatment is crucial for beneficial outcomes.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of the distance between the apex tip of the upper central tooth (U1A) and the anterior nasal spine (ANS) and the nasal floor (NF) with the vertical cephalometric values using cone-beam computerized tomography (CBCT). A total of 122 patients who applied to Department of Orthodontics between January 2011-June 2019 were included. On the CBCT’s, distances between the U1A and the NF and ANS were measured. Statistical significance was considered as p&lt;0.05. Of 122 individuals 73.8% (n=90) were female and 26.2% (n=32) were male with an mean age of 22,8±3,3 years. A statistically significant moderate positive correlation was found between the NF-U1A mean values and the measurements of N-Me, ANS-Me and ANS-Gn, S-Go, and N-ANS measurements (p &lt;0.01). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the ANS-U1A mean values and Ar-Go-Me, total posterior angles, N-Me, SN/GoGn and Y-axis angle, ANS-Me and ANS-Gn (p &lt;0.01). In this study, we found that the distance of U1A from ANS and NF points was related to orthodontic vertical direction parameters. It was demonstrated that the ANS-U1A and NF-U1A points can serve as reference points for identifying the orthodontic vertical growth pattern on CBCT scans.

Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) is a challenging condition affecting a significant proportion of amputees. In this article we describe the case of a 54-year-old Paralympic athlete with Phantom Limb Syndrome following right leg amputation and widespread sports-related enthesitic pain, who underwent a Whole Body Cryostimulation (WBC) cycle, an emerging treatment known for its rapid pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects. Assessments were conducted before and after a 10-session WBC cycle, including pain and quality of life assessment, and use of medications. A substantial reduction in enthesitic pain, PLP intensity, paresthesia, tingling related to atmospheric events and an improved function and quality of life were reported after the WBC cycle and lasted for two weeks. One month after WBC, the enthesitic pain following sports activity and PLP gradually returned but with lesser intensity. Similarly, the stump's sensitivity to atmospheric changes returned but with lower frequency. Pain at night remained lower than before WBC with significantly improved quality of sleep. This case study suggests that WBC could be a valuable adjuvant treatment for alleviating PLP. Controlled studies are warranted to validate the findings of this case-report and elucidate the mechanisms underlying the positive effects of WBC in this condition.

Background: As the world tends to recover from the crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines have served as one of the most valuable tools of combat and large-scale immunization has helped to tide over the catastrophe. However, several reports of post -vaccination neurological complications around the globe have surfaced up in recent literature. This study was conducted with an aim to describe the spectrum of neurological ailments requiring hospitalization following COVID-19 vaccination.Methods: An ambispective observational study was carried out from March 2021 to February 2022 at a tertiary care institute with 25 patients who satisfied the inclusion criteria of a new onset neurological illness requiring hospitalization within 4 days to 42 days of vaccination. The patients were duly followed upto months after discharge.Results: The median age of the sample was 36 years and the median latency of onset of neurological events was 14 days. Guillain-Barré syndrome was documented in 11 patients; majority were acute motor axonal neuropathy (45.45%) followed by acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (36.36%) and acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy (18.18%). Central nervous system demyelination was reported in 9 patients; two patients had acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, 2 patients were diagnosed with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease, one patient with aquaporin-4 positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder , and the rest were labelled as seronegative central nervous system demyelination. Vascular events were noted in 5 patients comprising of 2 cases each of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and intracerebral hemorrhage and a case of Moyamoya angiopathy. All patients were conservatively managed and had a complete to partial recovery suggestive of a favorable outcome after 3 months. Conclusion: The pathomechanisms of post -vaccination neurological complications is yet to be elucidatedand any causal association attributable to vaccination warrants further research. Compared to the enormity of the vaccinated population, the adverse effects are miniscule to hinder and discourage vaccination.

New antibiotics are unquestionably needed in the fight to the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. So far, antibiotics targeting bacterial central metabolism have been poorly investigated. By determining the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of desmethylphosphinothricin (Glu-γ-PH), an analogue of glutamate with a phosphinic moiety re-placing the γ-carboxyl group, we previously showed its promising antibacterial activity on Escherichia coli. Herein we synthetized and determined the growth inhibition exerted on E. coli by an L-Leu dipeptide derivative of Glu-γ-PH (L-Leu-D,L-Glu-γ-PH). Furthermore, we compared the growth inhibition obtained with this dipeptide with that exerted by the free amino acid, i.e. Glu-γ-PH, and by their phosphonic and non-desmethylated analogues. All tested compounds were more effective when assayed in chemically defined minimal medium. The dipeptide L-Leu-D,L-Glu-γ-PH had a significantly improved antibacterial activity (2 μg/mL), at a concentra-tion between the non-desmethytaled (0.1 μg/mL) and the phosphonic (80 μg/mL) analogues. Also in Bacillus subtilis the dipeptide L-Leu-D,L-Glu-γ-PH displayed an activity comparable to that of the antibiotic amoxicillin. This work highlights the antibacterial relevance of the phosphinic pharmacophore and proposes new avenues to the development of novel antimicrobial drugs containing the phosphinic moiety.

Mediterranean Sea are dynamic habitats in which human activities have been conducted for centuries and which feature micro-tidal environments with about 0.40 m of range. For this reason, human settlements are still concentrated along a narrow coastline strip, where any change in the sea level and coastal dynamics may impact anthropic activities. We analyzed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Copernicus Earth Observation data. Aim of this research is to provide estimates and detailed maps (in three coastal plain of Sardinia (Italy) and in the Pontina Plain (southern Latium, Italy) of: i) the past marine trasgression occurred during MIS 5.5 higstand 119 kyrss BP; ii) the coastline regression occurred during the last glacial maximum MIS 2 (21.5 krs cal BP) and iii) the potential marine submersion for 2100 and 2300. The objective of this multidisciplinary study is to provide maps of sea-level rise future scenarios using the IPCC RCP 8.5 2019 [1]projections and glacio-hydro-isostatic movements for the above selected coastal zones, which are the locations of touristic resorts, railways, and heritage sites. We estimated a potential loss of land for the above areas of between about 146 km² (IPCC 2019-RCP8.5 scenario [1]) and 637 km² along a coastline length of about 268 km.

Dust storms originating from Central Australia and western New South Wales frequently cause high particles concentration at many sites across New South Wales, both inland and along the coast. This study focussed on a dust storm event in February 2019 which affect air quality across the state as detected at many ambient monitoring stations in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) air quality monitoring network. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast Model – Chemistry) model is used to study the formation, dispersion and transport of dust across the state of New South Wales (NSW, Australia). Wildfires also happened in northern NSW at the same time of the dust storm in February 2019, and their emissions are taken into account in WRF-Chem model by using Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) as emission input. The model performance is evaluated and is shown to predict fairly accurate the PM2.5 and PM10 concentration as compared to observation. The predicted PM2.5 concentration over New South Wales during 5 days from 11 to 15 February 2019 is then used to estimate the impact of the February 2019 dust storm event on three health endpoints namely mortality, respiratory and cardiac diseases hospitalisation rates. The results show that even though as the daily average of PM2.5 over some parts of the state, especially in western and north western NSW near the centre of the dust storm and wild fires, are very high (over 900 µg/m3), the population exposure is low due to the sparse population. The top five Statistical Area Level 4 regions with the most impact in term of mortality, respiratory diseases hospitalisation and cardiac disease hospitalisation are Far West and Orana, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, New England and North West, Sydney – Inner South West and either Central Coast (mortality) or Sydney – Parramatta (respiratory diseases hospitalisation) or Sydney – Inner West (cardiac diseases hospitalisation). Generally, the health impact is similar in order of magnitude to that caused by biomass burnings events from wildfires or from hazardous reduction burnings (HRBs) near populous centres such as in Sydney in May 2016. One notable difference is the higher respiratory diseases hospitalisation for this dust event (161) compared to fire event (24).

The ultramafic-hosted Kairei vent field, located at 25°19′S, 70°02′E towards the northern end of the segment 1 of the Central Indian Ridge (CIR-S1) in a water depth of ~2450 m. This study aims to investigate the distribution of trace elements among sulfides of differing textures, and discuss the possible factors controlling the trace element distribution in those minerals by using LA-ICP-MS spot analyses as well as line scans. Our results show that there are distinct systematic trace element distributions throughout the different minerals：(1) Pyrite is divided into three types at the Kairei, including early-stage euhedral pyrites (py-I), sub-euhedral pyrites (py-II), and colloform pyrites (py-III). Pyrite is generally enriched in Mo, Au, As, Tl, Mn, and U. py-I have higher contents of Se, Te, Bi, and Ni, py-II are enriched in Au relative to py-I and py-III, but poor in Ni, py-III are enriched in Mo, Pb, and U but are poor in Se, Te, Bi, and Au. Variations in the concentrations of Se, Te, and Bi in pyrite are likely governed by the strong temperature gradient. Ni is generally lower than Co in pyrites, indicates that our samples precipitated at a high-temperature condition, whereas the extreme Co enrichment is likely from a magmatic heat source combined serpentinization reactions underlie the deposits. (2) Chalcopyrite is characterized by high concentrations of Co, Se, Te. The abundant of Se and Te in chalcopyrite cause by the high solubilities of Se and Te incorporated into chalcopyrite lattice at high temperature fluids. The concentration of Sb, As and Au is relatively low in chalcopyrite from the Kairei vent field. (3) Sphalerite from both the Zn-rich chimney is characterized by high concentrations of Sn, Co, Ga, Ge, Ag, Pb, Sb, As, and Cd, but depleted in Se, Te, Bi, Mo, Au, Ni, Tl, Mn, Ba, V, and U in comparison with the other minerals. The high concentration of Cd and Co is likely caused by the substitution of Cd2+ and Co2+ for Zn2+ in sphalerite. A high concentration of Pb accompanied by high Ag concentration in sphalerite indicating the Ag occurs in the microinclusions of Pb-bearing minerals such as galena. Au is generally low in sphalerite and strong correlate with Pb suggesting its presence in the microinclusions of galena. The strong correlation of As with Ge in sphalerite from Kairei suggests that they might precipitate under medium- to low-temperature with moderately reduced conditions. (4) Bornite-digenite is very low in most trace elements, except for Co, Se, and Bi. The high concentration of Se and Bi in all the sulfide minerals was observed in bornite-digenite can be explained by abundant Bi-selenide inclusions. Serpentinization in ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal systems might play an important role on Au enrichment in pyrite with low As contents. Compared with felsic-hosted seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits, sulfide minerals from the ultramafic-hosted deposits show higher concentrations of Se and Te, but lower As, Sb, and Au concentrations attributed to the contribution of magmatic volatile input. Significant Se enrichment in chalcopyrite has been found from mafic-hosted SMSs indicate that the primary factor that controls the Se enrichment is its temperature-controlled mobility in fluids.

Throughout this paper the effects of injuries on athletes are highlighted in different aspects. Exertional compartment syndrome is a specific injury related to athletes that is thoroughly explored in this paper through an analysis of the anatomy, symptoms, diagnosis and treatments of the syndrome. Exertional compartment syndrome is an exercise-induced muscle and nerve condition that causes pain, swelling as well as disability in the affected muscles of the lower leg. This syndrome commonly develops in young athletes involved in sports with excessive running and repetitive impact such as track and field, soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Exertional compartment syndrome is commonly misdiagnosed as other less severe injuries such as shin splints, which is symptomatic of pain along the tibia bone of the lower leg caused by overuse. The misdiagnosis of exertional compartment syndrome allows the syndrome to worsen and intensify resulting in the only effective treatment to be fasciotomy, a surgical procedure to release the pressure within the compartment of the lower leg. There is no definitive protocol developed for patients after fasciotomy is performed. Athletes experiencing similar symptoms after surgery are usually treated for their symptoms rather than the syndrome as a whole, which does not have a high degree of success. The development of a definitive protocol utilizing the techniques of manual therapy, mobility stretching and corrective strength training can improve the adverse effects of exertional compartment syndrome as well as restore functionality to the athlete. Raising awareness of this syndrome in athletics will be effective in treating the athlete early on in order to avoid severe effects and invasive procedures.

The ocean of the planet Earth, which is as thin as a cicada's wings, play a role of catalyst to the evolving of the ancient plates. The ocean and the ancient plates of the planet Earth formed a magic Whirlpool of the Cross “十” shape with double whirl arms. The central core of the Cross “十” shape Ocean-Plate Whirlpool is the Hint Black Hole (HBH) located at the Northwestern Pacific Ocean floor which is decorated with invisible geological age distribution of clam shell. The double whirl arms of ancient plates are distinguished to be left and right at Bering Strait and just formed the ring of fire of the Pacific Ocean.The Cross “十” shape Ocean-Plate Whirlpool of the planet Earth was born at the equatorial area about 66 Ma ago and is rotating anticlockwise and drifting northward by a mini footprint of spiral at s speed of as slow as a snail moves. Obviously, it would come to an end at the North Pole about 100 Ma in the future. So, the lifespan of the Cross “十” shape Ocean-Plate Whirlpool would be about 166 Ma, from birth to death on the planet Earth.What is hidden behind of the evolving of the oceans and the ancient plates is the golden law of geometrical progression of ladder pagoda of attributes evolving of them, which is “1➨2➨4➨2➨1”, including upgrading and downgrading process. It seems to hint that what is happening on the planet Earth, including the top-level species of human race, is actually unique in the Milky Way galaxy in essence.The property roles of expanding and shrinking are existing in the Cross “十” shape Ocean-Plate Whirlpool by face to face and the exchange of property roles took place tens of millions of years ago. And that situation would happen again tens of millions of years in the future. It seems a giant circle of evolving of the exchange of property roles would be drawn by the Cross “十” shape Ocean-Plate Whirlpool in her lifetime.

Due to Motor Neurone Diseases, a large population remains disabled worldwide, negatively impacting their independence and quality of life. This typically involves a weakness in the hand and forearm muscles, making it difficult to perform fine motor tasks such as writing, buttoning a shirt, or gripping objects. This project presents a vision-enabled rehabilitation hand exoskeleton to assist disabled persons in their hand movements. The design goal was to create an accessible tool to help with a simple interface requiring no training. This prototype is built on a commercially available glove where a camera and embedded processor were integrated to help open and close the hand, using air pressure, thus grabbing an object. An accelerometer is also implemented to detect the characteristic hand gesture to release the object when desired. This passive vision-based control differs from active EMG-based designs as it does not require individualized training. Continuing the research will reduce the cost, weight, and power consumption to facilitate mass implementation.

The existence of semantic inaccuracy §2 articles by A. Einstein “On the electrodynamics of moving bodies”, illustrating the principle of the relativity of simultaneity. In a sentence “The observers co-moving with the moving rod would thus find that the two clocks do not run synchronously while the observers in the system at rest would declare them synchronous”, the preposition “not” must be moved and placed before the word “synchronous”, at the end of the sentence. The criterion for synchronism of the clocks on the rod is the time it takes for the beam to travel from clock A to clock B and back, and for observers on the rod it will be the same both when the rod is at rest and when the rod is moving. Otherwise, observers on the rod would have had at their disposal an experiment that would allow them to determine whether the rod is moving or at rest, which contradicts the first postulate of the Special Theory of Relativity. The inaccuracy is found unchanged in modern editions in English and Russian, and can become a source of difficulties when teaching the basics of the Special Theory of Relativity based on primary sources, as well as make it difficult to understand the author’s logic when studying independently. Nobel laureate R. Feynman, having expanded and modified A. Einstein's thought experiment, eliminated the inaccuracy described in the article.

Airborne distributed position and orientation system (ADPOS), which integrates multi-inertia measurement units(IMUs), data-processing computer and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), serves as a key sensor in new higher-resolution airborne remote sensing, such as array SAR, multinode imaging loads and so on. ADPOS can provide multinode high accuracy spatio-temporal reference information to realize multinode motion compensation with the various state estimation methods such as Central Difference Kalman Filtering (CDKF), modifed CDKF. However, these methods focus on noise optimization based on known nonlinear models and its linear minimum variance estimation criterion, which cannot gain better estimation performance for high-dimensional nonlinear systems. For this reason, the variational optimization process based on conjugate gradient algorithm is proposed for the estimation of filtering update step, which is more efficient than linear minimum variance estimation criterion. Therefore, aiming at ADPOS with high-dimensional and nonlinearity, Central Difference Variational Filtering (CDVF) using variational optimization based on conjugate gradient algorithm for mean correction in the filtering update stage is devoted to advancing the estimation accuracy of multinode motion parameters. A real ADPOS flight test has been conducted, the experimental results show that the accuracy of the slave motion parameters has a distinct progress than the up to date CDKF, and the compensation performance is distinct.

Whether and how P2X7 receptor knockout (KO) modulates central post-stroke pain (CPSP) induced by lesions of the ventrobasal complex (VBC) of the thalamus regarding behavioral, molecular, and electrical recording parameters remains unclear. Following the experimental protocols of a rat hemorrhage CPSP model, the VBC of the thalamus of wild-type and P2X7 receptor KO mice was injected with 10 mU/0.2 μl type IV collagenase to produce an animal model of stroke-like thalamic hemorrhage. Behavioral data showed that the CPSP group induced thermal and mechanical pain, while the P2X7 receptor KO group showed reduced thermal and mechanical pain behaviors. Molecular assessments revealed that the CPSP group had lower expression of NeuN and KCC2 and higher expression of GFAP, IBA1, and BDNF. The P2X7 KO group showed lower expression of GFAP, IBA1, and BDNF and higher expression of KCC2 than the CPSP group. The expression of NKCC1, GABAa receptor, and TrkB did not differ significantly between the control, CPSP, and P2X7 receptor KO groups. Muscimol application increased multiunit numbers and [Cl-] influx in the membrane in the CPSP group, while P2X7 receptor KO reduced multiunit activity and [Cl-] outflux. P2X4 receptor expression was significantly decreased in the 100 kb but not the 50 kb site in the P2X7 receptor KO group. Altogether, the P2X7 hypothesis of CPSP was proposed, wherein P2X7 receptor KO changed the CPSP pain behavior, numbers of astrocytes and microglia, CSD amplitude of the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial dorsal thalamus, BDNF and KCC2 expression, [Cl-], and P2X4 activation in 100 kb with P2X7 receptors. The present findings have implications for the clinical treatment of CPSP symptoms.