This study aimed to increase the energy independence of buildings by utilizing solar energy to produce renewable energy. The subject of this study was a shading structure installed in an outdoor space to provide solar energy. Solar panels were applied to the shaded structures to generate energy actively. The solar panels were designed to be moved according to the optimal tilt angle each month to produce the optimal renewable energy. The architectural design of the shading structure and the energy simulation of the solar panels were conducted using a parametric design. The results of the energy simulation showed the generation of 31,570 kWh· year−1 of renewable energy. This amount of energy is 10% higher than that produced by fixed solar panels. Thus, the moving solar panel system developed in this study not only increases the energy independence of buildings, but also has the advantage of higher renewable energy production compared with fixed solar panels. Additionally, various types of shading structures can be designed depending on the combination of solar panel modules; in particular, moving solar panels have the potential to facilitate ecofriendly designs when applied to the exterior of buildings.

The promotion of active travel is deemed a crucial component of the transition to sustainable urban mobility. Several barriers hinder its policy implementation and uptake. Some evidence suggests that capacity building could be a useful tool for deepening sustainability efforts. However, a clear framework for understanding the dimensions of capacity building for active travel is lacking. Most research and findings use cases within a Global North context, constricting implications and transferability to the Global South, especially to African cities. This study responds to the dearth of scholarly work exploring Global South cases and fills a knowledge gap regarding capacity building in the case of active travel. Through a literature review, this study examines the dimensions of capacity building that are necessary to improve active travel in selected African countries. We focus on multilevel trans-portation governance, with highlights from five (5) African cities. Our findings suggest that the literature and policies on transport in Africa have key dimensions for capacity building for active travel but lack the introduction of key instruments and strategic pathways to meet these requirements for improved sustainable mobility. We propose a thematic guiding framework under three (3) levels of governance for integrating capacity building for active travel policies and implementation at institutional, individual, and environmental levels.

Temperature increases mediated through climate change threaten the survival of species. It is of foremost importance to engage citizens and future generations in understanding the mechanisms through which temperatures imposes its affect. For educators though this is not straight forward as tools for examined the impact of temperature over the lifetime of an animal are prohibitively expensive. At the same time environmental educators need guidance on the appropriate study systems to use with a balance between the species having an obvious response and ensuring the outcomes are ethical and sustainable. In our study, we created and tested a cost-effective experiment meant to be used for environmental education purposes. More specifically, we tested the sensitivity of the Painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui to temperature variations using a homemade incubator. We describe the design of this experiment and report findings on survival rate, morphological variations, pupation time, and wingspan of adults across a range of biologically relevant temperatures. The information provided give educators options for testing a variety of hypotheses with regards to the impacts of temperature using an affordable and flexible set-up. Furthermore, the findings can be used by students to develop an understanding of the ramifications of the butterflies responses in an ecological context.

Equipping autonomous agents for dynamic interaction and navigation is a significant challenge in intelligent transportation systems. This study aims to address this by implementing a brain-inspired model for decision-making in autonomous vehicles. We employ active inference, a Bayesian approach that models decision-making processes similar to the human brain, focusing on the agent's preferences and the principle of free energy. This approach is combined with imitation learning to enhance the vehicle's ability to adapt to new observations and make human-like decisions. The research involved developing a multi-modal self-awareness architecture for autonomous driving systems and testing this model in driving scenarios, including abnormal observations. The results demonstrated the model's effectiveness in enabling the vehicle to make safe decisions, particularly in unobserved or dynamic environments. The study concludes that the integration of active inference with imitation learning significantly improves the performance of autonomous vehicles, offering a promising direction for future developments in intelligent transportation systems.

Carvacrol is well-documented for its antibacterial and antioxidant effects. However, its high volatility has directed researchers towards nanoencapsulation technology according to bioeconomy and sustainability trends. This study examined and compared carvacrol microemulsion (MC), carvacrol microemulsion busted with chitosan (MMC) and carvacrol nanoemulsions as active coatings on extending minced pork meat shelf-life at 4±1 oC for 9 days, focusing on microbiological, physiochemical, and sensory characteristics. The research involved pre-characterizing droplet sizes, evaluating antioxidant, and determining antibacterial efficacy. The results demonstrated that NC with a 21 nm droplet size exhibited the highest antioxidant and antibacterial activity. All coatings succeed to extend the preservation of fresh minced pork meat in comparison to free carvacrol sample (FC). NC coating showed the highest extension of minced pork meat preservation and maintained meat freshness for 9 days, with a lower TBARs of 0.736 mg MDA/Kg, and effectively reduced mesophilic, lactic acid, and psychrotrophic bacterial counts more significantly 1.2, 2, and 1.3 log respectively as compared to FC. Sensory assessments confirmed the acceptability of NC and MCC coatings. Overall, the carvacrol based nanoemulsion can be considered as novel antioxidant and antimicrobial active coating due to its demonstrated higher efficacy in all the examined tests performed.

Electrowetting – induced detachment of droplets from solid surfaces is important for numerous applications in the fields of heat transfer and fluid mechanics. The forced oscillations of droplets on solid surfaces and their ability to detach are studied. In this study the process is efficiently simulated by implementing a powerful methodology developed by our team. Our results agree with experiments, showing that optimal detachment, in terms of actuation energy, is achieved when the application of voltage is synchronized with the spreading time of the droplet. Under these conditions, the droplet oscillates with a period close to that of a mirrored Rayleigh droplet. The relation between the droplet’s oscillation period and its physical properties is examined. During voltage-droplet synchronization, the droplet’s ability to detach depends mostly on its contact angle, its viscosity, and the applied voltage. An energy analysis is also conducted, revealing how energy is supplied to the droplet by electrowetting-induced detachment.

In the food sector, packaging is one of the important steps that ensures the safe, unspoiled, min-imum cost of storing, transporting and delivering the food that goes into production to the con-sumer. Food spoilage caused by foodborne pathogens and microorganisms is a serious problem in the food chain, reducing the shelf life of foods. Therefore, consumers' demands for more natural, disposable, biodegradable and recyclable antibacterial food packaging materials have considera-bly increased. This review covers a comprehensive current literature review of antibacterial food packaging, which includes with titles antibacterial agents, organic acids and other compounds, enzymes, bacteriocins, natural extracts, essential oils, application of encapsulation and antimi-crobial packaging. Research findings on antimicrobial food packaging used to extend the shelf life of foods were collected from online databases such as PubMed/MedLine, Wiley Online Li-brary, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. In this review, the activities of different bio-materials and compounds used to extend the shelf life of foods were compared

Remote sensing methods have the potential to improve lake water quality monitoring and deci-sion-making in water management. This reviews introduces novel findings in the field of opti-cally active water quality parameters using remote sensing. It summarizes existing retrieval methods (analytical, semi-analytical, empirical, semi-empirical, and artificial intelli-gence/machine learning (AI/ML)), examines measurement methods used to determine concen-tration of specific water quality parameters, summarizes satellite systems that enable temporal data for understanding the state of the lake with focus on water quality parameters, and pro-poses enhancements for future research of lake water quality using remote sensing. As part of this review, eight optically active biological and physical water quality parameters were ana-lyzed, including chlorophyll-α (chl-α), transparency (Secchi disk depth (SDD)), colored dis-solved organic matters (CDOM), turbidity (TUR), electrical conductivity (EC), surface salinity (SS), total suspended matter (TSM), and water temperature (WT). The research proposes a shift from point-based data representation to a more reliable raster representation and encourages optimizing grid selection for in situ measurements by combining hydrodynamic model with re-mote sensing methods. This review presents a comprehensive summary of the bands, band combinations, and band equations per sensor for eight optically active water quality parameters as listed in Tables A1-A8. The review’s findings indicate that use of remotely sensed data is an effective method for estimating water quality parameters in lakes, with a significant increase in global utilization. The review highlights potential solutions and limitations to the challenges of remote sensing water quality determination in lakes.

Food saving and further valorization is of major interest in our days. Worldwide, scientists intensify their efforts to increase shelf life of products due to the global danger of coming food crisis. Even though many chemicals could achieve such target, the circular economy spirit and the global trend against the greenhouse effects impose the turn of research activities using environmentally friendly biomass materials, biowastes, and biodegradable materials. In this study, the promising biopolymer chitosan incorporated with the promising biodegradable polymer poly-vinyl-alcohol to produce a biopolymeric matrix. This biodegradable biopolymer was further mixed homogeneously with 15% thymol/nano-zeolite nanohybrid material and the final developed film was extremely improved compared to the relevant of chitosan/poly-vinyl-alcohol film. Mechanical properties were increased significantly i.e., 34% for Young Modulus and 46,5% for ultimate tensile strength, while the antioxidant activity increased by 53,4%. The antibacterial activity increased by 134% for Ecoli, 87,5% for Saureus, 32% for Lmonocytogenes, and 9% for Senterica. The water-vapor diffusion coefficient and the oxygen permeability coefficient decreased down to -51% and -74% respectively, and thus the water-vapor and oxygen barrier increased. In-vivo experiments on strawberries show an extension of 233% for shelf-life duration which resulted from the modified atmosphere by the control-released thymol.

Due to the accelerated development of the offshore method of oil production in recent decades, especially in the Arctic region, the risks of crude oil pollution of the waters of the World Ocean are inevitably increasing. These oil spills during the exploitation of shelf deposits, transportation of oil from production sites and other anthropogenic impacts have a devastating impact on the marine biosphere, economy and life of coastal regions. For operative monitoring of water surface and fixation of oil spills it is necessary to use modern, effective and reliable methods, remote monitoring tools. One of such methods is radar. This article deals with increasing the efficiency of the radar method of water surface monitoring by means of constructive modification of the radar antenna array and changing the shape of the radio signal. As a result of the literature review, theoretical analysis of radar and conducted mathematical modeling it is substantiated the increase of radar monitoring efficiency by using phased active antenna array and construction of the cosecant-squared pattern diagram of the radio signal.

A cloud of relativistic material particles is considered, for which the distortions of length and time caused by the presence of the Lorentz factor an order of magnitude greater than curvature of space-time by gravity. The gravitational mass of the cloud is found in the region where its size is insignificant. It is established that the coefficient of dependence of the cloud mass on the total rest mass of its particles includes a complete elliptic integral of the 2nd kind.

Culture exploits the acquisition of meaningful content by crafting regimes of shared attention, determining what is relevant, valuable, and salient. Culture changes the field of relevant social affordances worthy of being acted upon in a context-sensitive manner. When relevant affordances are highly weighted, their attentional capture and their salience increase the probability of them being enacted due to the associated expectation for minimizing prediction error. This process is known as active inference. In the digital era, individuals need to infer the action-related attributes of digital cues, here characterized as digital affordances. The digital affordances of digital social platforms are of particular interest here. Digital social affordances are defined as online possibilities of social interactions. By their own nature, these are salient because they are related to social interactions and relevant social cues. However, the problem of digital social platforms is that they are not equivalent to situated social interactions because their structure is built, mediated, and defined by third-parties with diverse interests. The third-parties behind the digital social platforms are using the same mechanism exploited by culture to manipulate the shared patterns of attention. Moreover, digital social platforms are deliberately designed to be hyper-stimulating, making digital social affordances highly rewarding and increasingly salient. This appropriation, for economic purposes, is an issue of great importance, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic brought deep global changes, pushing societies to an online digital way of life. Here, we examined different types of digital social affordances under an active inference view, placing them into two categories, those for self-identity formation, and those for belief-updating. This paper aims to analyze digital social affordances in light of the prediction error dynamics they might elicit to their users. Although each of the analyzed digital social affordances allows different epistemic and instrumental digital actions, they all share the characteristic of having an "easy" and a fast expected rate of error reduction. Here, we aim to provide a new hypothesis about how the design behind digital social affordances is built on our natural attractiveness to minimize prediction error and the resulting positive embodied feelings when doing so. Finally, it is suggested that because digital social affordances are becoming highly weighted in the field of affordances, this might be putting at risk our context-sensitive grip on a rich, dynamic and varied field of relevant affordances.

Background: We aimed to create a model of radiological and pathological criteria able to predict the upgrade rate of low-grade ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) to invasive carcinoma, in patients undergoing vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB) and subsequent surgical excision. Methods: 3100 VABBs were retrospectively reviewed among which we reported 295 low-grade DCIS who subsequently underwent surgery. The association between patients’ features and the upgrade rate to invasive breast cancer (IBC) was evaluated by univariate analysis. Finally, we developed a predictive multivariable model based on the features which were significantly associated with the univariate analysis outcome. Results: the upgrade rate to invasive carcinoma was 10.8 %. At univariate analysis, the risk of upgrade was significantly lower in the absence of post- biopsy residual lesion (p<0.001), age > 50 (p=0.029), and in presence of low-grade DCIS only in specimens with microcalcifications (p=0.002). According to the final multivariable model, the predicted probability of diagnostic underestimation for a patient with all the three favourable features selected at univariate analysis was 1% (95% CI: 0.3%-4%). Conclusions: An easy to use predictive model of radiological and pathological criteria is able to identify patients with low-grade carcinoma in situ with low risk of upstaging to infiltrating carcinomas.

The Amoebic Self Theory is a concept of the social psychology, which postulates that humans have a psychological boundary. As the authors of the concept propose [1], the function of the boundary is to allow psychological separation of one from the others. In this study, we examined how sen-sitivity to violation of the boundary, measured by an amoebic self scale, is connected with differ-ent types of procrastination sensu lato, measured by seven procrastination subscales. Only two of the seven procrastination aspects, i.e. the preference for pressure and outcome satisfaction, were negatively and significantly related to the spatial-symbolic domain of the amoebic self scale. The other purpose of this research was to examine the connection between the students’ grade point average (GPA) and scores obtained in the procrastination subscales. Only the non-adaptive aspect of procrastination predicted significantly the GPA. That is an important detail, because pointing out the gap between one’s self-opinion and the real, non dependent of the opinion, academic achievement. All these findings were considered in the academic context and consequences of these results were discussed.

Ethnopharmacology experts face several challenges when identifying and retrieving documents and resources related to their scientific focus. The volume of sources that need to be monitored, the variety of formats utilized, the different quality of language use across sources, present some of what we call “big data” challenges in the analysis of this data. This study aims to understand if and how experts can be supported effectively through intelligent tools in the task of ethnopharmacological literature research. To this end, we utilize a real case study of ethnopharmacology research, aimed at the Southern Balkans and Coastal zone of Asia Minor. Thus, we propose a methodology for more efficient research in ethnopharmacology. Our work follows an “Expert-Apprentice” paradigm in an automatic URL extraction process, through crawling, where the apprentice is a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm, utilizing a combination of Active Learning (AL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL), and the Expert is the human researcher. ML-powered research improved 3.1 times the effectiveness and 5.14 times the efficiency of the domain expert, fetching a total number of 420 relevant ethnopharmacological documents in only 7 hours versus an estimated 36-hour human-expert effort. Therefore, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to support the researcher can boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the identification and retrieval of appropriate documents.

The aim was to examine the sociodemographic predictors associated with changes in movement behaviours (physical activity, screen time and sleep) among toddlers and pre-schoolers during the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Chile. Caregivers of 1- to 5-year-old children completed an online survey between March 30th and April 27th, 2020. Information about the child's movement behaviours before (retrospectively) and during the pandemic, as well as family characteristics were reported. In total, 3,157 participants provided complete data (mean children age: 3.1±1.38 years). During early stages of the pandemic, time spent in physical activity decreased, recreational screen time and sleep duration increased, and sleep quality declined. Toddlers and pre-schoolers with space to play at home and living in rural areas experienced an attenuated impact of the pandemic restrictions on their physical activity levels, screen time, and sleep quality. Older children, those whose caregivers had a higher educational level, and children living in apartments had greater changes, mainly a decrease in total physical activity and increase in screen time. This study has shown the significant impact of the pandemic restrictions on movement behaviours in toddlers and pre-schoolers in Chile.

Mass timber products, together with careful forestry management, could help decarbonize the construction industry. These products must be long-lasting, to safely store atmospheric carbon for decades or centuries, and multi-functional, to displace materials and equipment that are emissions-intensive. This paper shows how to optimize mass timber panels as heat-exchangers, suggesting how to eliminate insulation while simplifying HVAC systems. Test panels measured the heat-exchange in steady and transient conditions, when the ventilation was driven by a fan or by thermal buoyancy. The total heatexchange was predicted accurately by theory in all cases. Further investigation is needed to understand the possible heat-recovery effects at the exterior surface.

The evolution in semiconducting devices has introduced flexible control on a system but it has also penetrated harmonics in the grid, which results in extra electrical stress and load. Limiting the presence of harmonics in the grid and low power factor maintained by consumers has become of utmost priority to the power system analyst. Hence, the need for Active Filter emerges. Here, a real-time simulation, in dSPACE- Targetlink, of shunt harmonics active filter is propounded. The possible basic control strategy used in the simulation is ”Instantaneous Power Theory”. Control logic of two features of Active Filter viz., Global Harmonics Elimination, and Reactive Power Compensation are produced in the paper. The results obtained in ”Software In Loop Mode” of dSPACE are discussed and verified in detail. The richness of the code generated by the dSPACE- Target link can be reasoned by observing the results which are well aligned with the industrial standards regarding the harmonics.

What is the function of cognition? On one influential account, cognition evolved to co-ordinate behaviour with environmental change or complexity (Godfrey-Smith 1996). Liberal interpretations of this view ascribe cognition to an extraordinarily broad set of biological systems – even bacteria, which modulate their activity in response to salient external cues, would seem to qualify as cognitive agents. However, equating cognition with adaptive flexibility per se glosses over important distinctions in the way biological organisms deal with environmental complexity. Drawing on contemporary advances in theoretical biology and computational neuroscience, we cash these distinctions out in terms of different kinds of generative models, and the representational and uncertainty-resolving capacities they afford. This analysis leads us to propose a formal criterion for delineating cognition from other, more pervasive forms of adaptive plasticity. On this view, biological cognition is rooted in a particular kind of functional organisation; namely, that which enables the agent to detach from the present and engage in counterfactual (active) inference.

The present paper deals with the retrofitting of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, subjected to in-plane shear and out of-plane loading when struck by an earthquake. After an introductive comparison between some of the latest punctual and continuous active retrofitting methods, the authors focused on the two most effective active continuous techniques, the CAM system and the Φ system, which also improve the box-type behavior of buildings. These two retrofitting systems allow us to increase both the static and dynamic load-bearing capacity of masonry buildings. Nevertheless, information on how they actually modify the stress field in static conditions is lacking and sometimes questionable, in the literature. Therefore, we performed a static analysis in the plane of Mohr/Coulomb, with the dual intent to clarify which of the two is preferable under static conditions and whether the models currently used to design the retrofitting systems are fully adequate.

Virtual Histology- Intravascular Ultrasound (VH-IVUS) image is an available method for visualizing plaque component to detect thin cap fibroatheroma. Nevertheless, this imaging modality has considerable limitations to extract the plaque component features and identifying the TCFA plaque. The aim of this paper is to improve the identification of TCFA using fusion of IVUS and VH-IVUS images. In order to generate the automatic technique for reducing the human interaction, a new method namely Active Contour based Plaque Border Detection (ACPB) is proposed. In order to perform the pixel wise classification, hybrid of K-means algorithm with Particle Swarm Optimization and Plaque based Minimum Euclidean Distance (KMPSO-PMED) method is presented to classify the plaque region as well. Moreover, to obtain more significant information of imaging modalities, fusion of two different images consisting of VH-IVUS and IVUS is performed. Therefore, geometric features are extracted from the plaque region and combine with IVUS features. Furthermore, different group of plaque features are divided by means of the histopathological studies. SVM classifiers is applied to detect the TCFA and non-TCFA plaques. The proposed method is applied on 566 in-vivo IVUS and their matching VH-IVUS images obtained from 9 patients. The best result of SVM illustrates the accuracy rates of 99.41% for classification of TCFA plaque. The results prove that the highest accuracy is achieved by integrated features of IVUS and VH-IVUS images.

The active layer thickness (ALT) is affected by local soil material and surface vegetation coverage in Tibetan plateau permafrost region. The human activities and engineering construction along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH) destroyed the surface vegetation coverage, which have seriously influenced the ALT and heat exchange balance. Meanwhile, the changes of the detailed internal structure in the active layer will affect the stability of engineering infrastructure. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to detect the ALT in the permafrost region. However, researches on the detailed structure of the active layer and spatial variation information of ALT are rare, the main reason given for this is that the lack of advanced imaging techniques to enhance the GPR images. In this paper, the researchers focus on solving this problem by applying the reverse time migration (RTM) method to GPR field data acquired in the Beiluhe region. Analyses of the results led to conclusions as follows: a) The RTM algorithm is proved to be accurate for imaging the characteristics of the active layer through the dielectric constant model obtained by common midpoint and GPR data velocity analysis. b) The result of RTM profiles show the loose structure and graben-like fine internal structure. Combining with drill data and soil materials information, the researchers deduce the graben-like structure might be coarse gravel layer, which may be related to subgrade settlements in some local area. c) The 2D contour maps not only show the spatial variation feature of ALT at two sides of the highway, but also can compensate the defect of the research for single 2D survey line. The ALT is about 0.6~0.8 m in most areas, and about 0.8~0.9 m near the highway at west side of the QTH on the 2D contour maps. From the RTM interpretation profile, the closer to the plash, the deeper thawed active layer. The detailed internal structure of the active layer and 2D contour maps of ALT have great significance for the study of fine internal structure and the characteristic of ALT spatial variation in the Tibetan plateau under the background of climatic change.

Marine renewable energy is emerging as one of the fast-growing industry in the last decades, as modern society pushes for technologies that can convert energy contained from winds, waves, tides and stream flows. The implementation of renewable energy technologies impose high demands on both structural and environmental engineering, as the energy converters have to work under extreme conditions where parameters such as sea-bottom configuration, water transparency and depth, sea-states and prevailing winds are harsh. Constant monitoring of the marine environment is crucial in order to keep this sector reliable. Active acoustics is becoming a standard tool to collect multi-dimensional data from physical, geological and biological properties of the marine environment. The Div. of Electricity of Uppsala University have been developing an environmental monitoring platform based on sonar (Sound Navigation And Raging) systems. This platform aims to monitor the installation, operation and decommissioning of marine renewable energy converters. The focus will be given the observations of behaviours of marine animals in vicinity of energy converters but also structural inspection and monitoring of MRETs. This paper describes how this multifunctional environmental monitoring platform come to existence from the design to the deployment phase.

Oscillons, fundamental to various physical domains, are examined in-depth in this paper. From Josephson junctions in superconducting circuits to classical and quantum field theories, oscillators reveal profound insights into diverse phenomena. The study primarily focuses on oscillons, distinctive field configurations with enduring localization, establishing intriguing connections with well-known models like the Sine-Gordon breather. Surprising parallels in the weak coupling limit illuminate the rich dynamics of oscillators. A semi-classical quantization method, discretizing the field into spatially homogeneous regions, exposes stability angles, providing insights into the quantum nature of oscillons. The application of this quantization framework to specific cases, including the Sine-Gordon breather, showcases its versatility. The results offer a comprehensive perspective on the quantization of oscillons, unraveling the intricate interplay between classical and quantum dynamics. In conclusion, this paper provides a profound exploration of quantum oscillators, unveiling novel connections and presenting a rigorous quantization framework. The gained insights contribute significantly to the broader understanding of oscillatory systems and their pivotal role in diverse physical phenomena.

It remains unclear in the literature what is the cause of the so-called alkali-carbonate reaction (ACR) damage to concrete yet, a consensus is reached when considering dedolimitization as non-expansive. However, expansion and cracks as distress features are often attributed to alkali-silica reaction (ASR) when evidence of a reactive mineral is found in the aggregate. Evidently, different types of aggregates may produce different types and degrees of damage. Therefore, this work aims to assess the damage to concrete generated and propagated by the so-called ACR susceptible reactive Kingston coarse aggregate through mechanical testing (i.e., direct shear test), microscopy (the damage rating index – DRI), and other techniques. Distinct induced expansion levels (i.e., 0%, 0.05%, 0.12%, and 0.20%) were selected to compare the distress caused by ACR to concrete affected by ASR. Result show that the behaviour of ACR, namely as captured through the DRI, is inconsistent with that of ASR thus attesting to ACR being a distinct distress mechanism.

Diet-related diseases impact populations across the globe. While intertemporal preferences—a fundamental preference for the distribution of benefits across time—have been used to explain low-quality food choices, recent literature proposes another cause: inattention to future implications (or opportunity costs) of the options faced. Food choices tend to become habitual to conserve cognitive resources, rather than carefully modeling future health impacts. Both low discount rates for future benefits and attention to future health impacts predict healthier decisions. While intertemporal preferences are stable, attention may provide an opportunity to intervene in the decision process to promote healthier decisions. In this study, we test the impact of a simple message that highlights health during food choice on the healthiness of foods chosen and on health consideration and intertemporal preferences. Our results show that actively considering health outcomes and lower discount rates lead to healthier food choices. We find that messaging increases the consideration of health outcomes during food choice but does not affect intertemporal preferences, suggesting that simple prompts may be an effective way to promote decisions balancing short and long-term benefits by drawing attention to overlooked opportunity costs of choices.

Exoskeletons designed to assist patients with activities of daily living are becoming increasingly popular, but still are subject to research. In order to gather requirements for the design of such systems, long-term gait observation of the patients over the course of multiple days in an environment of daily living are required. In this paper a wearable all-in-one data acquisition system for collecting and storing biomechanical data in everyday life is proposed. The system is designed to be cost efficient and easy to use, using off-the-shelf components and a cloud server system for centralized data storage. The measurement accuracy of the system was verified, by measuring the angle of the human knee joint at walking speeds between 3 and 12 km/h in reference to an optical motion analysis system. The acquired data was uploaded to a cloud database via a smartphone application. Verification results showed that the proposed toolchain works as desired. The system reached an RMSE from 2.9° to 8°, which is below most of the comparable system. The system provides a powerful, scalable platform for collecting and processing biomechanical data, which can help to automize the generation of an extensive database for human kinematics.

In recent years, many cities throughout the world are facing the impact of last-mile logistics and the resulting rise in urban traffic and pollution: effects on the environment have been curbed by these dynamics. Urban traffic has a considerable impact in terms of noise emissions, road safety and air pollution: hence, both public and private parties shall undertake innovative solutions for reducing the negative effects of last-mile logistics and improving their operational effectiveness. This study aims to provide a systematic literature review on environmentally sustainable last-mile logistics. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) exploring and analysing the existing literature on last-mile logistics, with a focus on various types of sustainable measures implemented by companies, governments (mainly local) and supra-national institutions; (2) clustering existing studies into five categories (i.e., agents’ preference and choices, shared logistics, stakeholders, studies on vehicles, and policy and decisions) clarifying the implications of the public economics analysis; (3) identifying the gaps and limitations of the existing literature and proposing potential issues for future research insights. The review of the literature reveals that the majority of recent studies have been based on engineering and urban planning approaches. Costs and benefits of last-mile logistics are researched with a public economics focus, gathering details from the different papers, starting from the business studies to the technology-oriented ones. This study aims at detecting the different topics and policies discussed in the literature and suggests how to incorporate them in creating new measures and policies or revamping current ones. Although the initial corpus was 583, only 108 papers were ultimately chosen for the review, since public economics studies were not thoroughly explored: following the results of this work, the topic has significant scope for further study.

Over the past few decades, synthetic polymer production has increased, and the production of plastics has surpassed all other man-made materials due to their versatility. Moreover, packaging plastic makes up around 40% of global plastic production. However, the excessive usage of synthetic packaging materials has led to severe environmental and health-related issues. Therefore, biobased packages are considered alternatives to substitute synthetic packaging on the market. Furthermore, the choice of packing material in the food industry is a perplexing process as it depends on various factors, such as the type of food product, its sustainability, and environmental conditions. Interestingly, due to proven gas barrier properties and biological activity, polysaccharide-based bioplastics show the potential to expand the trends in food packaging, including edible films and intelligent and active food packaging. This review discusses the structure, properties and recent developments in polysaccharide-based bioplastics as food packaging materials.

When analyzing user geospatial information through deep learning methods, it is typically necessary to annotate existing geospatial data. Currently, manual annotation methods are commonly employed, suffering from issues related to low efficiency and accuracy. This design is based on the TensorFlow deep learning framework and first realizes the BiLSTM+CRF+AGG deep learning model. Among the models, AGG is the aggregation layer, which is introduced to solve the problem of solid particle size equilibrium. Secondly, based on the characteristics of original data and professional data, an automatic labeling algorithm is proposed. The algorithm first preprocesses the acquired original data set and professional data set, The most valuable unlabeled data set which can make the training model converge quickly is selected from the original data set as the target data set. Sort the target data set based on preset rules and set annotation parameters for the sorted target data set. Based on the set annotation parameters, the corpus is synthesized and used as the annotation result. Thirdly, based on the active learning strategy, a manual annotation auxiliary scheme is proposed, and an Excel generation module that is convenient for manual annotation correction is designed and developed to further improve the efficiency and quality of annotation through iterative processing. The combination of the BiLSTM+CRF+AGG deep learning model and high-quality annotation can accurately identify non-standard, incomplete, or even incorrect geographical information entities. This annotation method has found successful practical application within the context of the research project and has been granted an invention patent.

The windowpane oyster Placuna placenta, lives in brackish coastal waters and has long been economically important to the Philippines because of its durable and translucent shell, which is used as a glass substitute and material for making windowpanes and handicrafts. There has been considerable degradation of the windowpane oyster fishery in past decades. Moreover, there are waste and under-exploited by-products such as the meat, which though nutritious and edible, currently has a very low value; its use being confined to dishes consumed by families in the fishing community. Historically there are instances of excellent practice in terms of regulating the windowpane oyster fishery, while in recent times there have been local initiatives to restore this and to develop high value food products from the meat. These initiatives have, however, never been followed through at a provincial or national level. Research on other molluscs and marine organisms highlights that these also contain high value pharmaceutical products. This review compiles evidence to establish the groundwork for an essential and comprehensive multidisciplinary research program centred around the windowpane oyster, which would ensure a high value for all parts of the oyster, including those currently discarded. By fostering a sustainable and circular economy within this fishery sector and its associated industry, its economic value would be amplified. This is particularly important for oyster harvesters in the Philippines, who often find themselves at the economic ladder's lower rungs. By integrating the principles of a circular economy, this initiative would not only aim to uplift the economic prospects of these harvesters but in doing so would drive the restoration of the windowpane oyster to its former range.

Recently, there is a growing need for sensors that can operate autonomously, without the need for an external power source. This is especially important in applications where conventional power sources, such as batteries, are impractical or difficult to replace. Self-powered sensors have emerged as a promising solution to this challenge, offering a range of benefits such as low cost, high stability, and environmental friendliness. One of the most promising self-powered sensor technologies is L-S TENG, which stands for the liquid-solid triboelectric nanogenerator. This technology works by harnessing the mechanical energy generated by external stimuli such as pressure, touch, or vibration, and converting it into electrical energy that can be used to power sensors and other electronic devices. Therefore, self-powered based on L-S TENG, which provides numerous benefits such as rapidly responding, portability, cost-effectiveness, and miniaturization, is critical for increasing living standards and optimizing industrial processes. In this review paper, the working principle with three basic modes has been briefly introduced firstly. After that, affecting parameters to L-S TENG are reviewed based on the properties of the liquid and solid phases. With different working principles, L-S TENG has designed a lot of structure that works as a self-powered sensor for pressure/force change, liquid flow motion, concentration, and chemical detection or biochemical sensing. Moreover, the continuous output signal of TENG plays an important role in a real-time sensor that is vital to the growth of the Internet of Things.

The worldwide population is undergoing a fundamental change in its age structure, which challenges the health and social services system. The need to migrate towards a more person-centered and coordinated model of care that supports the optimization of abilities and capacities for older people has to be matched. In this sense, eHealth technologies can play a fundamental role. In this paper, through a questionnaire-based data collection on 30 primary (older people) and 32 secondary (informal caregivers) end-users, we share the sustainable way to develop a product optimizing the user experience and ensuring adoption. Both older adults and caregivers consider the use of smartphone and smartwatch to be very important, but also the use of digital devices for healthcare can be helpful. Seniors care about self-monitoring of health parameters using wearable devices, regardless of their health status, and would like to be included in the process of making good health decisions, because they need to feel in control of their healthcare process. Digital solutions in health and care can support the wellbeing of older adults in many areas of their daily lives at home and in their communities, but only if such innovation is designed around the natural voice of the intended target.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been considered a promising therapeutic approach to cardiovascular disease. This study intends to compare the effect of BMSCs through a standard active cardiac support device (ASD) and intravenous injection on global myocardial injury induced by isoproterenol. BMSCs were cultured in vitro, and the transplanted cells were labeled with a fluorescent dye CM-Dil. Isoproterenol (ISO) was injected into the rats; two weeks later, the labeled cells were transplanted into ISO-induced heart-injury rats through the tail vein or ASD device for five days. The rats were sacrificed on the first day, the third day, and the fifth day after transplantation to observe the distribution of cells in the myocardium by fluorescence microscopy. The hemodynamic indexes of the left ventricle were measured before sacrificing. H&E staining and Masson’s trichrome staining were used to evaluate the cardiac histopathology. In the ASD groups, after three days of transplantation, there were many BMSCs on the epicardial surface, and after five days of transplantation, BMSCs were widely distributed in the ventricular muscle. But in the intravenous injection group, there were no labeled-BMSCs distributed. In the ASD+BMSCs-three days treated group and ASD+BMSCs -five days-treated group, left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), the maximum rate of left ventricular pressure rise (+dP/dt), the maximum rate of left ventricular pressure decline (-dP/dt) increased compared with model group and intravenous injection group (P<0.05). By giving BMSCs through ASD device, cells can rapidly and widely distribute in the myocardium and significantly improve heart function.

The influence of the type and amount of oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and/or phosphorus (P) heteroatoms on the surface of carbon nanotube (CNT) on stability and catalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) was investigated in alkaline media. It is shown that the functionalization of CNT leads to the growth of the electrochemically active surface and to an increase in the activity in ORR. At the same time, a decrease in stability is observed after the functionalization of CNT under accelerated corrosion testing in an alkaline media. These results are most significant on CNT after functionalization in HNO3 due to the formation of a large number of structural defects. However, the subsequent doping by N and / or P atoms provides a further activity increase and enhances the corrosion stability of CNT. Thus, as shown by the studies of characteristic parameters (SEAS, E1/2, corrosion stability), CNT doped with N and NP are a promising catalytic system that can be recommended for use as fuel cell cathodes. An important condition for effective doping is the synthesis of carboxyl and carbonyl oxygen containing group on the surface of CNT.

Reliable estimates of poplar plantations area are not available at the French national scale due to the unsuitability and low update rate of existing forest databases for this short-rotation species. While supervised classification methods have been shown to be highly accurate in mapping forest cover from remotely sensed images, their performance depends to a great extent on the labelled samples used to build the models. In addition to their high acquisition cost, such samples are often scarce and not fully representative of the variability in class distributions. Consequently, when classification models are applied to large areas with high intra-class variance, they generally yield poor accuracies. In this paper, we propose the use of active learning (AL) to efficiently adapt a classifier trained on a source image to spatially distinct target images with minimal labelling effort and without sacrificing classification performance. The adaptation consists in actively adding to the initial local model, new relevant training samples from other areas, in a cascade that iteratively improves the generalisation capabilities of the classifier, leading to a global model tailored to different areas. This active selection relies on uncertainty sampling to directly focus on the most informative pixels for which the algorithm is the least certain of their class labels. Experiments conducted on Sentinel-2 time series showed that when the same number of training samples was used, active learning outperformed passive learning (random sampling) by up to 5% of overall accuracy and up to 12% of class F-score. In addition, and depending on the class considered, the random sampling required up to 50% more samples to achieve the same performance of an active learning-based model. Moreover, the results demonstrate the suitability of the derived global model to accurately map poplar plantations among other tree species with overall accuracy values up to 14% higher than those obtained with local models. The proposed approach paves the way for national-scale mapping in an operational context.

It is well known that the event of hepatitis B virus reactivation can occur among patients undergoing treatment for hematological malignancies. In this paper we will present the available data regarding the risk of hepatitis B virus reactivation in this special population of immunosuppressed patients and explore the relevance of an accurate prevention and management of this condition. A computerized literature search was performed using appropriate terms arrangement, including English-written literature only or additional relevant articles. The evaluation of hepatitis B reactivation risk is a multidimensional process, which includes conducting an accurate clinical and physical history, considering the virological categories, the knowledge of the medication chosen to treat these hematological malignancies and the induced grade of immunosuppression. Adopting adequate preventive strategies and surveillance according to the current international recommendations is crucial to prevent HBVr and its dire clinical consequences (hepatitis, liver failure, interruption of lifesaving anti-neoplastic treatments). Universal HBV screening of patients scheduled to undergo treatment for hematological malignancies should be the chosen policy, and clinicians should be aware of the inherent risk of viral reactivation among the different virological categories and the classes of immunosuppressive drugs.

Blood perfusion quantification is important vital parameters in different diagnostic procedure, using infrared thermography imaging; it is reliable to use this technique as non-contact, non-invasive blood flow measurement method. Therefore, we developed a measurement protocol for blood flow over the arm's anterior surface. By using the superficial brachial and radial veins to be monitored under the impact of cold-excitation of (2 °C to 5 °C), the blood perfusion signal was detected using thermal imager of long-wave infrared spectral range (LWIR, 7μm - 14 μm). The simulation of Penne's bioheat transfer equation was performed to be compared with results obtained from the infrared thermography. Furthermore, the proposed blood flow monitoring using external adjusting of the excitation temperature, by using (cold-compress, or cold air-stream) applied to the region under testing. The signal detected resembles to the hemodynamic pulse of the superficial veins, in the definition of systolic and diastolic phases of the cardiac cycle. Moreover, statistical analysis applied to the BFIRT signals from 24 subjects to estimate the skin's mean temperature after recovery from the thermal excitation.

Cocrystallizaiton could improve most physicochemical properties of specific active pharmaceutical ingredients, which has great potential in pharmaceutical development. In this study, the cocrystal of nitrofurantoin and 4-aminobenzoic acid was prepared with solid-state (solvent-free or green-chemistry) grinding approach, and the above cocrystal has been characterized by Raman and terahertz vibrational spectroscopic techniques. Spectral results show that the vibrational modes of the cocrystal within the whole spectral region are different from those of the corresponding parent materials. The dynamic process of such pharmaceutical cocrystal formation has also been monitored directly with Raman spectra. These results offer us unique means for characterizing the cocrystal conformation from molecule-level and also provide us rich information about the reaction dynamic of cocrystal formation within pharmaceutical fields.

Background: In the functional data analysis (FDA), the hybrid or mixed data are scalar and functional datasets. The semi-functional partial linear regression model (SFPLR) is one of the first semiparametric models for the scalar response with hybrid covariates. Various extensions of this model are explored and summarized. Methods: Two first research articles, including “semi-functional partial linear regression model”, and “Partial functional linear regression” have more than 300 citations in Google Scholar. Finally, only 106 articles remained according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria such as 1) including the published articles in the ISI journals and excluding 2) non-English and 3) preprints, slides, and conference papers. We use the PRISMA standard for systematic review. Results: The articles are categorized into the following main topics: estimation procedures, confidence regions, time series, and panel data, Bayesian, spatial, robust, testing, quantile regression, varying Coefficient Models, Variable Selection, Single-index model, Measurement error, Multiple Functions, Missing values, Rank Method and Others. There are different applications and datasets such as the Tecator dataset, air quality, electricity consumption, and Neuroimaging, among others. Conclusions: SFPLR is one of the most famous regression modeling methods for hybrid data that has a lot of extensions among other models.

This paper deals with a non-standard finite difference scheme defined on a quasi-uniform mesh for approximate solutions of the Magneto-Hydro Dynamics (MHD) boundary layer flow of an incompressible fluid past a flat plate for a wide range of the magnetic parameter. We show how to improve the obtained numerical results via a mesh refinement and a Richardson extrapolation. The obtained numerical results are favourably compared with those available in the literature.

Currently, the number of approved veterinary medicines are limited, and human medications are used off-label. These approved human medications are of too high potencies for a cat or a small dog breed. Therefore, there is a dire demand for smaller doses of veterinary medicines. This study aims to investigate the use of three semi-solid extrusion 3D printers in a pharmacy or animal clinic setting for extemporaneous manufacturing of prednisolone containing orodispersible films for veterinary use. Orodispersible films with adequate content uniformity and acceptance values defined by the European Pharmacopoeia was produced with one of the studied printers, namely, the Allevi 2 bioprinter. Smooth and flexible films, with high mechanical strength, neutral pH, and low moisture content were produced with high correlation between prepared design and obtained drug amount, indicating that the Allevi 2 printer could successfully be used to extemporaneously manufacture personalized doses for animals at the point-of-care.

Abstract: The objective of these studies was to determine the dependence of the distribution of the microwave field into a grain layer and the efficiency of energy transfer from the magnetron into the grain layer, via a waveguide, on the moisture content. The subject of the research was a semicircular waveguide with slot radiators that supply a microwave field to the grain surrounding the waveguide. The change in the directional diagram of the microwave field in the longitudinal direction of the waveguide was studied using CST Microwave Studio 2019 software. It was found that the change in the moisture content of the processed grain leads to a significant change in both the radiation and total efficiency values of the waveguide. For instance, the radiation efficiency of the waveguide decreases by 15.1% (from 68.729 dB to 58.294 dB) when the moisture content of the processed grain increases from 14% to 26%. The total radiation efficiency also decreases (from 11.27 dB to 21.7 dB). In this case, not only the value of the radiation efficiency but also the shape of its dependence on the magnetron radiation frequency change. Data were obtained on the change in the Q-factor for resonators in which grain layers are processed, depending on the variation in grain moisture content.

This study considers the values of the credit payments that are made at random values for both payment size and number. The simultaneous existence of the two random variables increases the total value of the volatility of the payment process. The dependence for the simultaneous influence of the two random variables is derived by applying conditional probabilistic formulations. Formal relations apply to animal husbandry credit payments. The credit policy was analyzed for the cases of regular payments and with a stochastic number of payments. A recommendation for the upper level of credit payments is proposed based on a model predictive approach using historical payment data. A credit management algorithm is derived, in which decision-making for credit payments is formally derived and numerically discussed. The application of derived quantitative relations is empirically applied to real data on animal husbandry. The recommendations from the dependencies obtained allow a reduction in the mean values of credit payments, which correspond to a reduction in the credits used for business management, without a change in business policy.

This paper aims to understand better how attitudes towards the environment could influence preferences and willingness to pay for the development of sustainable tourism products on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. A hybrid choice model is estimated to analyse how different latent constructs related to environmental concerns affect individuals’ preferences for a set of sustainable tourism activities. The data used in the analysis is obtained from a discrete choice experiment where different scenarios with nature-based tourism packages are created. A set of measurement indicators allowed us to gain insight into the underlying latent structure regarding the individuals’ attitudes towards the environment. The analysis consists of integrating these attitudes into a choice model, focusing on a market segment primarily comprised of potential customers who are young residents and non-residents. Results reveal significant heterogeneity in preferences and willingness to pay for the various activities under study when attitudinal latent factors are incorporated into the model. Our findings provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners promoting sustainable tourism products.

Essential oils have demonstrated antiviral activity, but their toxicity can hinder their use as therapeutic agents. Recently, some essential oil components have been used within safe levels of acceptable daily intake limits without causing toxicity. The "ImmunoDefender," a novel antiviral compound made from a well-known mixture of essential oils, is considered highly effective in treating SARS-CoV-2 infections. The components and doses were chosen based on existing information about their structure and toxicity. Blocking the Main Protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 with high affinity and capacity is critical for inhibiting the virus's pathogenesis and transmission. In-silico studies were conducted to examine the molecular interactions between the main essential oil components in "ImmunoDefender" and SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. The screening results showed that six key components of ImmunoDefender formed stable complexes with Mpro via its active catalytic site with binding energies ranging from -8.75 to -10.30 kcal/mol, respectively for Cinnamtannin B1, Cinnamtannin B2, Pavetannin C1, Syzyginin B, Procyanidin C1, and Tenuifolin. Furthermore, three essential oil bioactive inhibitors, Cinnamtannin B1, Cinnamtannin B2, and Pavetannin C, have a significant ability to bind to the allosteric site of the main protease with binding energies of -11.12, -10.74, and -10.79 kcal/mol, These results suggest that these essential oil bioactive compounds may play a role in preventing the attachment of the translated polyprotein to Mpro, inhibiting the virus's pathogenesis and transmission. These components also had drug-like characteristics similar to approved and effective drugs, suggesting further pre-clinical and clinical studies are needed to confirm the generated in-silico outcomes.

A new low-pass filter (LPF) circuit with independent adjustment of various, incl. digitally controlled, pole frequency resistors, pole quality factor and transmission coefficient. The proposed low-pass filter is based on the use of the properties of a multi-differential operational amplifier that performs the functions of a signal adder. The peculiarity of the filter is that it has three inputs, with respect to which different transmission coefficients are implemented, incl. inverting (-1) and non-inverting (+1). To check these properties of a low-pass filter in the Micro-Cap environment, computer simulation of a specific circuit was performed on a multi-differential operational amplifier AD 8130. Mathematical expressions are given for the main parameters of the proposed low-pass filter, which allow parametric synthesis of elements of a specific circuit under given restrictions on the used element base.

A new circuit of a low-pass filter (LPF) is considered, which is switched on at the input of analog-to-digital converters to limit the spectrum of input signals. The peculiarity of the proposed low-pass filter is the independent adjustment of the pole frequency, the quality factor of the pole and the transmission coefficient by different resistors. Computer simulation performed in the Micro-Cap environment confirms these properties of the LPF. The basic mathematical expressions are obtained, which make it possible to carry out the parametric synthesis of the LPF circuit. It is shown that the sensitivity of the LPF transmission coefficient to changes in the parameters of the frequency-setting elements of the circuit is close to zero and depends only on the ratio of the resistances of the two resistors in the feedback circuit.

Pandemic scenario has significantly changed several factors of life, including teaching, and learning at university. The development of suitable teaching materials to support university studies is mandatory to overcome distance learning difficulties and improve traditional teaching methodologies. This work explains a novel method for the preparation of teaching materials for medical sciences, but also plausible for other learning fields. An encephalon was extracted and prepared by using this methodology for teaching purposes. More than 200 students evaluated several factors of the material prepared this way, indicating a better understanding (up to 80%) of theoretical contents related to this human section, together with a high usability and good physical appearance

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the suitability of recent US Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) approved and marketed oral liquid, powder, or granule products for children in North America, to identify the next group of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) that have high potential for development as commercially available FDA-approved finished liquid dosage forms , and to propose lists of compounded nonsterile preparations (CNSPs) that should developed as commercially available FDA-approved finished liquid dosage forms as well as those that pharmacists should continue to compound extemporaneously. Through this identification and categorization process, the pharmaceutical industry, government, and the professions are encouraged to continue to work together to improve the likelihood that patients will receive high quality standardized extemporaneous CNSPs and US-FDA-approved products.

Background: Although rarely indicated, antibiotics are commonly used for acute diarrhoea in China. We conducted a randomized, double blind exploratory clinical trial of loperamide, berberine and turmeric for treatment of acute diarrhoea. Methods: Adults with acute uncomplicated diarrhoea were randomized to 4 groups: (A) loperamide; (B) loperamide and berberine; (C) loperamide and turmeric; (D) loperamide, berberine and turmeric. All participants were given rescue ciprofloxacin for use after 48 hours if symptoms worsened or were unimproved. Primary endpoints were feasibility and ciprofloxacin use during the 2 week follow-up period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted following recruitment. Results: Only 21.5% (278/1295) of patients screened were deemed eligible, and 49% (136/278) of these consented and entered into the final analysis. Most participants had mild symptoms, because most patients with moderate or severe symptoms wanted to be given antibiotics. Follow-up was good (94% at 2 weeks). Only two participants used rescue antibiotics compared to 65% of acute diarrhoea patients in the hospital during the recruitment period. The median symptom duration was: 14 hours in group B (IQR 10-22), 16 hours in group D (IQR 10-22), 18 hours in group A (IQR 10-33), 20 hours in group C (IQR 16-54). Re-consultation rates were low. There were no serious treatment-related adverse events. Most interviewed participants said the treatment was effective. Conclusion: Although recruitment was challenging because of widespread expectations for antibiotics, patients with mild diarrhoea accepted to try an alternative. This therapy requires further evaluation in a fully powered, randomised controlled trial among a broader sample.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and other social and environmental problems pose grave risks. Progress so far has been incremental and insufficient, and as a result scientists, global policy experts, and the general public increasingly conclude that bold change is required across all sectors of society. At least two kinds of bold change are conceivable: reform of existing societal systems (e.g., financial, economic, legal, and governance systems), including their institutions, policies, rules, and priorities; and transformation, understood as the de novo development of and migration to new, improved systems. This paper is the second in a series of three that together propose a novel science-driven research and development program aimed at societal transformation. Moreover, the series advances a conceptual framework and formal mechanics by which societal transformation might be approached. Two of the underlying hypotheses are that new societal systems can be developed in a science-driven process to be fit for purpose, and system fitness can be compared across designs. Societies are viewed as superorganisms, and systems are viewed as a societal cognitive architecture. The first paper in the series provides definitions, aims, hypotheses, and a worldview. This paper discusses motivations, the role of science in societal transformation, a theory of change, and fitness metrics. The proposed R&amp;D program and theory of change are sound, viable, and affordable. The local-global-viral strategy invites the global science community to play a unique co-leadership role with local communities in the development, testing, and monitoring of new societal systems. Systems are implemented via a novel civic club model, where participation is voluntary. Clubs grow and replicate based on merit and aided by club networks, whose systems are also viewed as societal cognitive architectures. Benefits of the program and strategy are discussed.

This study assesses the development of professional skills in university students using serious games (SG), from a sustainability perspective. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set by the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Universities are strategic agents in the transformation process towards sustainability. This way, they should be committed to promoting such sustainable values in the students through curricular sustainability, implementing active methodologies and SG for that purpose. Transversal skills are essential for the development of future graduates. The objective of this study was to assess which professional skills should be developed through the SG called The Island, to improve the degree of student satisfaction with the incorporation of a sustainable curriculum. The data were obtained using a questionnaire, and then analysed using linear regression models, with their inference estimated through the goodness of fit and ANOVA. The first results indicated that the implementation of the SG promoted a strengthening of the students' sustainable curriculum through the development of those skills. It was concluded that the key to success in education for sustainable development is improving the development of strategic thinking, collaborative thinking, and self-awareness, in addition to encouraging systemic, critical, and problem-solving thinking.

As there exist no repulsive forces in strong interaction, in a hypothetical approach, strong interaction can be assumed to be equivalent to a large gravitational coupling. Based on this concept, strong coupling constant can be defined as a ratio of the electromagnetic force and the gravitational force associated with proton, neutron, up quark and down quark. With respect to the product of strong coupling constant and fine structure ratio, we review our recently proposed two semi empirical relations and coefficients 0.00189 and 0.00642 connected with nuclear stability and binding energy. We wish to emphasize that- by classifying nucleons as ‘free nucleons’ and ‘active nucleons’, nuclear binding energy can be fitted with a new class of ‘three term’ formula having one unique energy coefficient. Based on the geometry and quantum nature, currently believed harmonic oscillator and spin orbit magic numbers can be considered as the lower and upper “mass limits” of quark clusters.

In this paper, precise examination of multi-port antennas with large mutual coupling between the ports is studied. For this purpose, some vital parameters such as active reflection coefficients and realised gain are emphasized. The main motivation of this research is the ignorance of this issue in several recently published papers. Hence, corrections and criticisms to some recently reported results are presented. At first, a microstrip patch consisting of two inverted U-slots is re-examined, which has been proposed in a recently published paper for wideband applications. However, the authors did not present satisfactory results to indicate the performance of the proposed structure. In reverse, some important parameters such as the antenna gain appear to be incorrectly reported. In this paper, the characteristics of the antenna are compared with a simple 50 Ω microstrip line excited by two probes, indicating no significant differences. In the remainder of this paper, some corrections are provided on two examples of wide-beam circularly polarised multi-fed antennas for satellite applications. The first example is the multi-fed spiral antennas with folded arms, which have been proposed as the widebeam antennas at 435 MHz. It is indicated that the antenna height should be increased for better performance. The second example is the quadrifilar square helical antennas with folded arms, which have been proposed as the widebeam antennas for 435 MHz with minor responses at 145 MHz. Some corrections are presented on the previously reported minor responses at 145 MHz.

Low-cost RGB-D cameras are increasingly used in several research fields including human-machine interaction, safety, robotics, biomedical engineering and even Reverse Engineering applications. Among the plethora of commercial devices, the Intel RealSense cameras proved to be among the best suitable devices, providing a good compromise between cost, ease of use, compactness and precision. Released on the market in January 2018, the new Intel model RealSense D415 has a wide acquisition range (i.e. ~160-10000 mm) and a narrow field of view to capture objects in rapid motion. Given the unexplored potential of this new device, especially when used as a 3D scanner, the present work aims to characterize and to provide metrological considerations on the RealSense D415. In particular, tests are carried out to assess the device performances in the near range (i.e. 100-1000 mm). Characterization is performed by integrating the guidelines of the existing standard (i.e. the German VDI/VDE 2634 part 2 normative) with a number of literature-based strategies. Performance analysis is finally compared against latest close-range sensors, thus providing a useful guidance for researchers and practitioners aiming to use RGB-D cameras in Reverse Engineering applications.

The relationship of the animal with its environment has been of longstanding interest in philosophy and science. Here I provide a brief introduction to concepts that place an emphasis on mutualism as the basis of organism - environment interaction, in contrast to the long standing view that the environment exerts an instrumental role in shaping the organism. Two influential theories have been von Uexküll’s theory of umwelt and Gibson’s theory of affordances. The former envisioned the animal as immersed in its surroundings (umwelt) to form a functional unit. In a similar manner, the latter theory describes a unity between 1) environmental information that provides the animal with opportunities for action (affordances) and 2) the ability of the animal to perceive and engage with those affordances. These views have influenced more recent ecological models of the organism as the functional unit of biology and have also influenced models of immune function. In ecological models, agency is seen as the ability of the organism to predict and control its engagement with the environment in order to maintain its integrity. The predominant contemporary model of neural function in which perception and action are understood to operate through Bayes-like active inference complements the concept of agency as proposed by the mutualism models. However, it is suggested that rather than a constant mutualism, encounters between organism and environment range over a dynamic spectrum from dualism to mutualism. It is also suggested that along this spectrum, agency emerges when the balance of instrumentality shifts from the environment to the organism, and that the balance of this relationship can further progress towards a felicitous mutualism. Meaning emerges between environmental information and an agent as opportunity for action. Implications for opportunities to foster agency in animals within our care is noted.

This article shortly introduces Gaussian processes as a new approach for modelling time series in the field of blazar physics. In the second part of the paper, recent results from an application of GP modelling to the multi-wavelength light curves of the blazar PKS 1502+106 are discussed.

The high radio frequency polarization imaging of non-thermal emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a direct way to probe the magnetic field strength and structure in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and is crucial in testing the jet-launching scenario. To explore the the magnetic field configuration at the base of jets in blazars, we took advantage of the full polarization capabilities of the GMVA (Global Millimeter VLBI Array). With an angular resolution of ~50 micro-arcseconds at 86 GHz, one could reach scales down to ~900 Schwarzschild radii (for a 10^9 solar mass black hole). We present here the preliminary results of our study on the blazar BL Lac. Our results imply that on sub-mas scales the core and central jet of BL Lac is significantly polarized with two distinct regions of polarized intensity. We also noted a great morphological similarity between the 7mm/3mm VLBI images at very similar angular resolution.

The main issue in this work is to study limit functions necessary for the reliability assessment of the structural steel with the use of the relative entropy apparatus. This would be done using a few different mathematical theories relevant to this relative entropy, namely those proposed by Bhattacharyya, Kullback-Leibler, Jeffreys, and Hellinger. Probabilistic analysis in the presence of uncertainty in material characteristics would be delivered using three different numerical strategies – Monte-Carlo simulation, stochastic perturbation method as well as the semi-analytical approach. All these methods are based on the Weighted Least Squares Method approximations of the structural response functions versus the given uncertainty source and they would allow efficient determination of the first two probabilistic moments of the structural responses including stresses, displacements, and strains. The entire computational implementation would be delivered using the Finite Element Method system ABAQUS and computer algebra program MAPLE, where relative entropies, as well as polynomial response functions, would be determined. This study would demonstrate that the relative entropies may be efficiently used in reliability assessment close to the widely engaged First Order Reliability Method (FORM).

The present article describes a one-pot and cascade mode process using biocompatible/biodegradable reagents, for directly and simply obtaining surfactant compositions of mixtures of D-mannuronic acid and L-guluronic acid directly from oligoalginates or semi-refined alginates (mixtures of alginate, cellulose, hemicellulose, laminaran and fucan). Simple treatments of partial purification of the reaction crudes (elimination of the salts and/or the residual fatty alcohols) or isolation of the surfactant compositions result in derived compounds and in compositions having performance levels appropriate to applications in detergency. In addition, the challenging extension of this cascading one-pot synthesis technology to crude milled brown seaweeds was successfully carried out to provide promising surface-active compositions made up of alkyl uronate and alkyl glycoside monosaccharides.

A theoretical account of development in mesocortical anatomy is derived from the free energy principle, operating in a neural field with both Hebbian and anti-Hebbian neural plasticity. An elementary structural unit is proposed, in which synaptic connections at mesoscale are arranged in paired patterns with mirror symmetry. Exchanges of synaptic flux in each pattern form coupled spatial eigenmodes, and the line of mirror reflection between the paired patterns operates as a Markov blanket, so that prediction errors in exchanges between the pairs are minimized. The theoretical analysis is then compared to the outcomes from a biological model of cortical neurodevelopment, in which neuron precursors are selected by apoptosis for cell body and synaptic connections maximizing synchrony and also minimizing axonal length. It is shown that this model results in patterns of connection with the anticipated mirror symmetries, at micro-, meso- and inter-arial scales, among lateral connections, and in cortical depth, explaining the spatial organization and functional significance of neuron response preferences, and compatible with features of both columnar and noncolumnar cortex. Multi-way interactions of mirrored representations provide a preliminary anatomically realistic model of cortical information processing.

Active front-end (AFE) rectifiers have been becoming widely employed in power systems to achieve unity power factor and harmonic mitigations. The typical modeling approaches applied for AFE rectifiers in the literature mostly relied on two baselines named the detailed model and the time average model. The former approach deals with the switching element model (SEM) leads to significant harmonics in currents with distorted waveforms. The latter approach uses the average-value model (AVM) to overcome the currents’ harmonics as well as provide fast responses. However, even the AVM baseline has contained problems during the starting stage (lack of control signals) and over the dead-time periods which causes serious issues in the implementation process. This paper presents an improved dynamic AVM for AFE rectifiers by precisely considering the issues mentioned above along with the practical starting procedure and desirable initialization. The studied AFE rectifier is developed using the voltage-oriented control (VOC) technique based on the different modeling methodologies including SEM, Conventional AVM, and the proposed AVM. The performance of all models is analyzed and compared using simulation results with MATLAB/Simulink R2023a Function blocks for all the algorithm parts and SimScape elements for the electrical circuit model. The simulation results illustrate that the performance of the proposed AVM approach can closely resemble the behavior of the SEM baseline with low harmonic distortion.

The MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) Florian Goebel telescopes are a system of two Cherenkov telescopes located on the Canary island of La Palma (Spain), at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, and operating in stereo mode since 2009. Their low energy threshold (reaching 15 GeV) allows the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) in the very-high-energy gamma ray range with an impressive sensitivity up to the redshift limit of the existing IACT systems. MAGIC has collected many discoveries and comprehensive studies of different kinds of galaxies and their AGNs, also in a multi-wavelength context, expanding the knowledge of our Universe. Here we report the highlights which have been achieved by the MAGIC collaboration since the beginning of the operations.

The availability of sufficient amounts of form I of benzocaine has led to the investigation of its phase relationships with the other two existing forms II and III using adiabatic calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, and high-pressure differential thermal analysis. The latter two forms were known to have an enantiotropic phase relationship with form III stable at low-temperature and high-pressure, while form II is stable at room temperature. Using adiabatic calorimetry data, it can be concluded, that form I is the stable low-temperature, high-pressure form, which also happens to be stable at room temperature; however, form II, due to its persistence at room temperature, is still the most convenient polymorph to use in formulations. Form III presents a case of overall monotropy and does not possess any stability domain in the pressure-temperature phase diagram. Heat capacity data for benzocaine have been obtained by adiabatic calorimetry from 11 K up to 369 K above its melting point, which can be used to compare to results from in-silico crystal structure prediction.

Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV) which has an inward tilting angle turns with the lateral force due to large camber angle, so it is necessary to consider the lateral movement of the tire vertical load axis during turning. Although the steering torque mechanism are very different from those of automobiles, there are not many examples which studied the steering torque mechanism of PMV. In this paper, based on the effects of six components force acting on the tires, a method for setting the steering axis specifications is derived, including the geometrical minimization of steering moment disturbance due to the vertical load reaction force during turning. Although, automobile tires have a significant ground camber angle when traveling on rutted roads, they do not have it on slant roads because the vehicle body tilts along the road surface. On the other hand, in PMV, the vehicle body always keeps upright when traveling both on slanted roads and on rutted roads. Therefore, the tires have ground camber angles on both types of road surface. We study the straight running ability under such road surface disturbances based on the geometrical minimization of steering moment disturbance due to the vertical load reaction force during turning. This straight running ability can be a remarkable strong point of PMV with an inward tilt mechanism.

The European pear is a climacteric fruit species characterized by high storability. 'Conference', a pear cultivar very popular on the market, can be stored in a CA room without major losses for half a year. However, for ‘Conference’ storage to be successful, the fruit must be harvested fully developed even before it enters the climatic maturation phase. Harvested too early or too late, pears will taste bad, have physiological disorders and will be poorly storable. Among the various methods used to determine the optimal harvest date, the degree-days method, which relies of the sum of active temperatures, seems to be relatively accurate and easy to apply. During 11 years of study, ‘Conference’ pears were harvested on 4 dates (every 4-5 days) chosen based on measurements and observations, and then, after a six-month storage period, the optimum harvest date was determined. During the growing season, temperature was measured using an automatic weather station to calculate the sum of active temperatures from full bloom to the optimal harvest date. Measurements made after storage were analysed and the sum of active temperatures needed for the proper development of ‘Conference’ pear was calculated to be 2469 degree days. The calculations are very accurate because the dispersion calculated using the standard deviation was only 20 °. The base temperature with the smallest error was 0 °. On the basis of the study results, this method can be recommended as useful for determining the optimal harvest date.

This research work describes an architecture for building a system that guide a user from a forecast generated by a machine learning model through a sequence of decision-making steps. The system is demonstrated in manufacturing demand forecasting use case and can be extended to other domains. In addition, the system provides means for knowledge acquisition by gathering data from users. Finally, it implements an active learning component and compares multiple strategies to recommend media news to the user. Such media news aims to provide additional context to demand forecasts and enhance judgment on decision-making.

The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have great potential to produce homoexopolysaccharides (HoPS), have been the subject of extensive research efforts, given their health benefits and physicochemical properties. The HoPS functional properties are determined by structural characteristics of varied molecular weights, types of glycosidic linkages, degrees of branching and chemical composition. The dextransucrases (DSases) are responsible of the synthesis of a kind of HoPS (dextran polymers), which are among the first biopolymers produced at industrial scale with applications in medicine and biotechnology. The concept of glycodiversification opens additional applications for DSases. In that sense the design and characterization of new DSases is of prime importance. Previously, we described the isolation and characterization of a novel extracellular dextransucrase (DSR-F) encoding gene. In this study, from DSR-F, we design a novel chimeric dextransucrase DSR-F-∆SP-∆GBD-CBM2a, where DSR-F-∆SP-∆GBD is fused to the carbohydrate-binding module (CBM2a) of the β-1-4 exoglucanase/xylanase Cex (Xyn10A) of Cellulomonas fimi ATCC 484. This dextransucrase variant is active and without alteration in its specificity. The DSR-F-∆SP-∆GBD-CBM2a is purified by cellulose affinity chromatography for the very first time. Our results indicate that new hybrids and chimeric DSases with novel binding capacity to cellulose can be designed to obtain glyco-biocatalysts from renewable lignocellulosic materials.

This paper discusses the tectonics of the St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) in the Equato-rial Atlantic Ocean, based on the joint-system geometry which show a North-South shorten-ing/transpressional uplift tectonism, is active leading to exhumation of the sub-oceanic mantle. These islets are the summits of a sigmoidal submarine ridge formed by mantle ultramafic rocks. The ridge is crossed by the principal transform deformation zone of the northern transform fault of the St. Paul Multifault System. The South flank ridge exposes serpentinized mantle perido-tites, while the North flank exposes strongly deformed/fractured ultramylonites, recording duc-tile and brittle deformation at lithospheric conditions. The SPSPA show multiple joint systems cutting mylonitic foliation of the exposed rocks, forming three main families: high-angle paral-lel joints of tectonic origin, serpentinization-related joints with random direction and load-release low-angle parallel joints. The tectonic joints show an average direction of N31°E and N28°W, forming a conjugate system with a N1ºW compression axes, coherent with a trans-pressive stress field. Accordingly, the earthquakes focal mechanism close to the islets also shows N-S compression. The previously reported active uplift with an average rate of 1.5 mm/year and the directions of the joint system here reported agreeing with a present-day active N-S compres-sive field at a high angle with the direction of the transform fault.

The emotional dimension in education has become increasingly important in recent decades. Enhancing the emotional dimension of prospective teachers in science subjects is higher education stuff responsibility. The implementation of active methodologies could modify the traditional student-teacher roles that are encouraged by the educational policies implemented in the Bologna Process. The principal aim of this work is to describe a Project Based Learning methodology and to introduce it as potential resource for the emotional and cognitive improvement of 19 prospective primary teachers enrolled in a scientific subject. This is a qualitative study with a transversal sustainability approach in the context of a research line focused on Higher Education for Sustainable Development. A questionnaire was designed and filled by the students at two different times, before and after implementation of the activity. The initial feedback from students was surprisingly enthusiastic by the fact that they were working with rockets, despite of this is not a common emotion in the science field. The results show the emotional improvement of prospective teachers after the implementation. It is concluded that a correct science education is necessary during the training of teachers taking into account their emotional dimension and the social repercussion due to the future transmission.

Background: A large majority of primary school pupils fail to achieve 30-minutes in-school moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The aim of this study was to investigate MVPA accumulation and subject frequency during academic lesson segments and the broader segmented school day. Methods: 122 children (42.6% boys; 9.9±0.3yrs) from six primary schools in North East England, wore uniaxial accelerometers for eight consecutive days. Subject frequency was assessed by teacher diaries. Multilevel models (children nested within schools) examined significant predictors of MVPA across each school-day segment (lesson one, break, lesson two, lunch, lesson three). Results: Pupils averaged 18.33±8.34 minutes of in-school MVPA and 90.2% failed to achieve the in-school 30-minute MVPA threshold. Across all school-day segments, MVPA accumulation was typically influenced at the individual level. Lesson one and two - dominated by Math and English - were less active than lesson three. Break and lunch were the most active segments. Conclusion: This study breaks new ground, revealing MVPA accumulation and subject frequency varies greatly during different academic lessons. Morning lessons were dominated by the inactive delivery of Math and English, whereas afternoon lessons involved a greater array of subject delivery that resulted in marginally higher levels of MVPA.

The World Health Organization’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling is a user-friendly web-based tool to assess health impacts of active travel. HEAT, developed over 10 years ago, has been used by researchers, planners and policymakers alike in appraisals of walking and cycling policies of both national and more local scales. HEAT has undergone regular upgrades adopting the latest scientific evidence. This article presents the most recent upgrades of the tool. Health impacts of walking and/or cycling in a specified population are quantified in terms of premature deaths avoided (or caused). In addition to the calculation of benefits from physical activity, HEAT was recently expanded to include assessments of the burden associated with air pollution exposure and crash risks while walking or cycling. Further, impacts on carbon emissions from mode shift to active travel modes can now be assessed. Monetization of impacts using Value of Statistical Life and Social Costs of Carbon now uses country-specific values. As active travel inherently results in often substantial health benefits as well as not always negligible risks, assessments of active travel behaviour or policies are incomplete without considering health implications. The recent developments of HEAT make it easier than ever to obtain ballpark estimates of health impacts and carbon emissions related to walking and cycling.

As is well known, the main contribution of the FRP strips to the strength of load-bearing walls is an improvement in the in-plane strength. This paper deals with the possibility of applying the FRP strips in way to modify the strengthening mechanism of the FRP reinforcing system, from an in-plane to an out-of-plane strengthening mechanism. In order to achieve this goal, a second reinforcement system – derived from the CAM system (Active Confinement of Masonry) – provides connections between the FRP strips placed on the opposite sides of the wall. This new strengthening technique – called the straps/strips technique – establishes a stiffness constraint that forces the opposing FRP strips to behave like two flanges of an FRP I-beam embedded in the wall. Consequently, the use of FRP strips also improves the flexural strength of the wall. The present paper briefly summarizes the results obtained in previous works with the straps/strips technique and proposes an improvement of this strengthening technique, based on some weak-points emerged in the early experimentations. The paper also shows the results of a further experimental test, performed with the improved straps/strips technique. Finally, the similarity between FRP strips with transversal connection and concrete wythes of a sandwich panel with flexible connectors leads to interpret the behavior of the ideal I-beam in terms of composite action established between the FRP strips. This paves the way for analytical modeling of the straps/strips technique.

Age-in-place can reduce the progress of dementia syndrome and improve the quality of life of the sufferers and their families. This work proposes an innovative information home support system to be established at the houses of people suffering from dementia. The main innovation of the system are its transparent character that overcomes the need for training of the sufferer, as well as the exploitation of a well-known technique for dementia, namely music therapy. It addresses the need of people suffering from dementia as well as their familiars to be recognized by them and have better interaction and collaboration. The system offers a ubiquitous recognition system, just by using smart devices like smart-phones or smart-wristbands. When a familiar person is detected in the house, then a sound file is reproduced on smart speakers placed in the house, in order to trigger the memory, based on the principles of music therapy. The system reproduced the appropriate time at 100% of the cases and the benefits of music therapy are evident daily. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first system of its kind ever reported in the literature.

The growing attention for plug-in electric vehicles, and the associated high-performance demands, have initiated a development trend towards highly efficient and compact on-board battery chargers. These isolated ac-dc converters are most commonly realized using two conversion stages, combining a non-isolated power factor correction (PFC) rectifier with an isolated dc-dc converter. This, however, involves two loss stages and a relatively high component count, limiting the achievable efficiency and power density and resulting in high costs. In this paper a single-stage converter approach is analyzed to realize a single-phase ac-dc converter, combining all functionalities into one conversion stage and thus enabling a cost-effective efficiency and power density increase. The converter topology consists of a quasi-lossless synchronous rectifier followed by an isolated dual active bridge (DAB) dc-dc converter, putting a small filter capacitor in between. To show the performance potential of this bidirectional, isolated ac-dc converter, a comprehensive design procedure and multi-objective optimization with respect to efficiency and power density is presented, using detailed loss and volume models. The models and procedures are verified by a 3.7 kW hardware demonstrator, interfacing a 400 V dc-bus with the single-phase 230 V, 50 Hz utility grid. Measurement results indicate a state-of-the-art efficiency of 96.1% and power density of 2.2 kW/dm³, confirming the competitiveness of the investigated single-stage DAB ac-dc converter.

A radical, albeit pragmatic protocol for experimental access to putative String/M-theoretic, Einstein Unified Field Mechanical (UFM) additional dimensionality (XD) of the brane-bouquet bulk is presented. If successful, results demonstrate the existence dimensionality beyond the metric of observed physical reality provided by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and Cosmology. Quantum Mechanics (QM), as well-known is incomplete and further, should no longer be considered the basement of reality; meaning, Locality and Unitarity – the fundaments of quantum theory are an insufficient basis for extending the representation of reality. A seminal model of Tight Bound States (TBS) below the lowest Bohr orbit in the hydrogen atom, proposed by Vigier, is extended to a Kaluza-Klein-like (KK) cyclical tier of XD hyperspherical cavities defined within a manifold of uncertainty (MOU) of finite radius up to the semi-quantum limit, predicting, within its domain, new spectral lines in Hydrogen. The proposed protocol for this process, with phase modifications, provides efficacy of large-scale additional dimensionality (LSXD) of the brane bulk; XD-LSXD incursion duality accesses nonlocal Einsteinian UFM phenomena, leading to myriad new classes of technological innovation.

To support the integration of renewable energy sources and preserve grid stability, this study examines several approaches for controlling the temperature of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in modern energy settings. Specifically, the usage of BESS in Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) is the focus of this study. The effectiveness, safety features, dependability, affordability, and suitability for VPP applications of these systems are examined. Among the various hybrid cooling alternatives, two particularly promising combinations emerge. Firstly, the integration of heat pipes and phase change materials leverages their ability to conduct heat efficiently away from heat sources with minimal temperature differences, making them excellent for rapid heat transfer. Secondly, an approach employing heat pipes and liquid passive cooling a combination that capitalizes on the efficient heat transfer capabilities of heat pipes and the consistent cooling offered by liquid passive systems. The study underscores the importance of improving BESS performance and sustainability within VPPs by providing useful recommendations for choosing the best thermal management system depending on climate conditions and geographic location.

It's a method to achieve energy savings in single-phase active power greater than that obtained with the "Fan Law" in electric machines applied to ventilation. Quantitative analysis methods were based on electrotechnical techniques, practiced with the corresponding laboratory equipment on the working materials (three prototypes of electric machines). The results obtained from experimentation on the test bench were recorded in tables that collect data of formulas, values, and physical units. The discussion provides a comprehensive comparative study, mainly between power (watts), active energy consumption (kWh), and rotational speed (revolutions per minute). The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) with the coupling of an RL circuit design does mechanical work at its maximum speed of 3000 (RPM) with only 6.3 (Watts), which is equivalent to 25.2% of the active power required by the single-phase induction asynchronous motor (or shaded pole motor), which required 25 (Watts) to rotate at 1690 (RPM). This translates to 75% lower active power with a 44% superiority in speed, resulting in a 75% savings in single-phase active energy (measured in kWh). The same occurs when comparing it to the universal AC motor (with brushes and wound rotor) to maintain a speed of 3000 (RPM); since it consumes 64.8 (Watts), which is 90.3% more single-phase active energy than that required to achieve the same rotational speed as the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The study was conducted on all motors with the same impeller blade diameter and under identical air temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions.

Nowadays, bioeconomy and nanotechnology trends push food packaging sector in the re-placement of food additives by biobased antioxidant/antibacterial compounds and their inclusion in nanocarriers to control their release. Herein by following this trend, a rich in thymol-(TO) activated carbon (AC) nanostructure (TO@AC) was prepared and physiochemically characterized with various technics. This TO@AC nanostructure as well as pure AC were extruded with low density polyethylene (LDPE) to develop novel active packaging LDPE/TO@AC and LDPE/AC films. X-ray diffractometry, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy measuraments shown high dispersity and capability of both AC and TO@AC in LDPE matrix which was resulted in enhanced tensile and water/oxygen barrier properties of obtained LDPE/AC and LDPE/TO@AC films. LDPE/TO@AC films shown higher elongation at break values and water/oxygen barrier than LDPE/AC films and significant antioxidant activity. TO release kinetics studies shown that by increasing TO@AC content the total TO amount released increased and the constant release rate decreased. Pork fillets wrapped with the optimum active film containing 15 wt.% TO@AC and succeed to prevent lipid oxidation and heme iron loss during storage. Estimation of microbial population of pork fillets shown that this active film could ex-tend the microbiological shelf-life of pork fillets by 2 days

Place-based education (PBE) and active learning are effective strategies for geoscience education. However, traditional PBE via field trips requires significant resources, time, physical abilities, and expertise of teachers. We provide an alternative PBE experience by showing how different kinds of geoscience videos can be spatially organized into one digital interactive virtual environment. Here, we present the Google Earth Geoscience Video Library (GEGVL) which uses Google Earth and location specific videos about Earth events to create a virtual PBE experience. Using Google Earth, GEGVL organizes place-based videos by locations and links pertinent non-place-based videos and allows users to roam the globe in search of geoscientific videos that are pertinent to them or their students. Currently GEGVL contains 150 videos organized into ten different geoscience disciplines: Plate Tectonics, Minerals, Structural Geology, Metamorphism, Magmatism, Hydrology, Environmental Science, Sedimentology, Paleontology, and Paleomagnetism. Despite stability challenges with Google Earth integration, results of user surveys among lower division undergraduates show that the design logic of GEGVL is promising virtual PBE organizer for interesting students in and helping them learn about Earth sciences.

Films prepared from poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) copolymers produced by Aneurinibacillus sp. H1 using an automatic film applicator were homogeneous and had a defined thickness, which allowed a detailed study of physicochemical properties. Their properties were compared with a poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) homopolymer film prepared by the same procedure, which proved to be significantly more crystalline by DSC and XRD. Structural differences between samples had a major impact on their properties. With increasing 4-hydroxybutyrate content, the ductility and release rate of the model hydrophilic active ingredient increased significantly. Other observed properties, such as the release of the hydrophobic active substance, the contact angle with water and ethylene glycol, or the surface morphology and roughness, were also affected by the composition. The identified properties predetermine these copolymers for wide use in areas such as biomedicine or smart biodegradable packaging for food or cosmetics. The big advantage is the possibility of fine-tuning properties simply by changing the fermentation conditions.

Forest fires are part of a set of natural disasters that have always affected regions of the world typically characterized by a tropical climate with long periods of drought. However, due to climate change in recent years, other regions of our planet have also been affected by this phenomenon, never seen before. One of them is certainly the Italian peninsula, and especially the regions of southern Italy. For this reason, the scientific community, as well as remote sensing one, is highly concerned in developing reliable techniques to provide useful support to the competent authorities. In particular, three specific tasks have been carried out in this work: (i) fire risk prevention, (ii) active fire detection, and (iii) post-fire area assessment. To accomplish these analyses, the capability of a set of spectral indices, derived from spaceborne remote sensing (RS) data, is assessed to monitor the forest fires. The spectral indices are obtained from Sentinel-2 multispectral images of the European Space Agency (ESA), which are free of charge and openly accessible. Moreover, the twin Sentinel-2 sensors allow to overcome some restrictions on time delivery and observation repeat time. The performance of the proposed analyses were assessed experimentally to monitor the forest fires occurred in two specific study areas during the summer of 2017: the volcano Vesuvius, near Naples, and the Lattari mountains, near Sorrento (both in Campania, Italy).

The persistent issue of bacterial and fungal colonization of artificial implantable materials and decreasing efficacy of conventional systemic antibiotics used to treat implant-associated infections has led to the development of a wide range of antifouling and antibacterial strategies. This article reviews one such strategy where inherently biologically active renewable resources, i.e. secondary plant metabolites (SPMs) and their naturally occurring combinations (i.e. essential oils) are used for surface functionalization and synthesis of polymer thin films. With a distinct mode of antibacterial activity, broad spectrum of action and diversity of available chemistries, secondary plant metabolites present an attractive alternative to conventional antibiotics. However, their conversion from liquid to solid phase without significant loss of activity is not trivial. Using select examples, this article shows how plasma techniques provide a sufficiently flexible and chemically reactive environment to enable the synthesis of biologically-active polymer-coatings from volatile renewable resources.

Wireless communication has proliferated due to the colossal augmentation of smart phones, mobile phones, tablets and laptops etc. Multimedia applications such as live videos, audios, still images, animated graphics and live communications all requires accompaniments of quality of service (QoS) as well as reliable end-to-end transfer of data. Information about the availability of resources in channel is must in order to improve the QoS. QoS can be determined in terms of capacity of channel, available bandwidth (ABW), and bulk transfer capacity (BTC). Bandwidth availability is a key check for improving the QoS in a network. The performance of a multimedia application is directly affected by the bandwidth availability. One of the most important QoS characteristic is ABW at a wireless route and it can be demarcated as least unused capacity of links instituting a network route. Since now there have been many bandwidth estimation techniques are available in the literature to increase the network performance. Bandwidth estimation techniques have been arranged into three leading classifications: i) Active probing bandwidth estimation techniques, ii) Passive bandwidth estimation technique and iii) Model based bandwidth estimation techniques. Each of these techniques are briefly discussed in this paper.

This investigation introduces an efficient method for assessing the reliability of semi-rigid steel frame connections in existing buildings, explicitly targeting the Top Angle and Seat Pad (TA-SP) semi-rigid connection commonly used in Australian cities' high-rise buildings. The moment capacity of these connections was examined through parameter power model testing, meticulously considering the bending, shear, and prying forces actions to determine the weakest elements in the connection system. A plastic hinge model was applied to ensure computational efficiency and accuracy in assessing the connections' ultimate strength. Comparatively, the finite element (F.E) method M−θ curves were introduced to scrutinise the nonlinear behaviour of the connection, providing validation for the predicted analytical approach. Further emphasis was placed on identifying the reliability of the weakest elements in the connection system, employing the First-Order and Second-Order Reliability Methods models to estimate their reliability index. The correlation between the model's failure probability and a percentile error was also explored, utilising Monte Carlo simulation reference for refined validation. Novel formulas and methodologies were introduced to compute the locked-chain-series system reliability, which accounts for the inherent material and geometric variability. The findings highlight the critical significance of the weakest element in determining the overall reliability of the existing TA-SP connection.

Complex modeling has received significant attention in recent years and is increasingly used to explain the statistical phenomenon with increasing and decreasing fluctuations such as the similarity or difference of spike protein charge patterns of coronaviruses. Different from the existing covariance or correlation coefficient methods in traditional integer dimension construction, this study proposes a simplified novel fractional dimension derivation with the exact Excel tool algorithm. It involves the fractional center moment extension to covariance, which ends up a complex covariance coefficient that is better than the Pearson correlation coefficient, in the sense that the nonlinearity relationship can be further depicted. The spike protein sequences of coronaviruses were obtained from the GenBank and GISAID database, including the coronaviruses from pangolin, bat, canine, swine (three variants), feline, tiger, SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (including the strains of Wuhan, Beijing, New York, German, and UK variant B.1.1.7) were used as the representative examples in this study. By examining the values above and below the average/mean based on the positive and negative charge patterns of the amino acid residues of the spike proteins from coronaviruses, the proposed algorithm provides deep insights into the nonlinear evolving trends of spike proteins for understanding the viral evolution and identifying the protein characteristics associated with viral fatality. The calculation results demonstrate that the complex covariance coefficient analyzed by this algorithm is capable of distinguishing the subtle nonlinear differences in the spike protein charge patterns with reference to Wuhan strain SARS-CoV-2 for which the Pearson correlation coefficient may overlook. Our analysis reveals the unique convergent (positive correlative) to divergent (negative correlative) domain center positions of each virus. The convergent or conserved region may be critical to the viral stability or viability; while the divergent region is highly variable between coronaviruses suggesting high frequency of mutations in this region. The analyses show that the conserved center region of SARS-CoV-1 spike protein is located at amino acid residues 900, but shifted to the amino acid residues 700 in MERS spike protein, and then to amino acid residues 600 in SARS-COV-2 spike protein, indicating the evolvement of the coronaviruses. Interestingly, the conserved center region of the spike protein in SARS-COV-2 variant B.1.1.7 shifted back to amino acid residues 700, suggesting this variant is more virulent than the original SARS-COV-2 strain. Another important characteristic our study reveals is that the distance between the divergent mean and the maximal divergent point in each of the viruses (MERS>SARS-CoV-1>SARS-CoV-2) is proportional to viral fatality rate. This algorithm may help to understand and analyze the evolving trends and critical characteristics of SARS-COV-2 variants, other coronaviral proteins and viruses.

The global issues of overweight and sedentary lifestyles demand comprehensive responses from health systems, yet health education still needs to be more cohesive and less sporadic. This study focuses on primary school children as a specific target for instilling healthy habits, employing ac-tive learning strategies to address healthy diet and physical activity. Through Problem-Based Learning projects, the study engaged fourth-grade primary students in acquiring healthy habits. The study was carried out over four consecutive years at a school with two lines, allowing the employment of an opportunity sample and evaluating intervention and control groups by com-paring their corresponding scores. Control groups integrated a total of 54 students, while the in-tervention group included a total of 159 students. A pre-test and post-test questionnaire were used for data collection. Evaluation differential scores revealed statistically significant higher scores in the intervention groups: 3.62 points in control groups and 6,94 in intervention groups, particu-larly in attitudinal competences. These strategies not only facilitated the development of crucial skills such as information search, synthesis, representation, analysis, decision-making, teamwork, and intrapersonal awareness but also significantly broadened the knowledge acquired in aspects related to healthy habits. This approach proved effective in helping children comprehend the im-portance of healthy choices and encouraged integrating such habits into their daily lives.

A Staudinger reaction on solid phase between an electronodeficit organic azide such as sulfonyl azide, and the phosphite triester formed upon phosphoramidite coupling is a convenient method for chemical modification of oligonucleotides at the internucleotidic phosphate position. In this work, 4-carboxybenzenesulfonyl azide either with a free carboxy group or in the form of an activated ester such as pentafluorophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, or pentafluorobenzyl ester were used to introduce a carboxylic acid function to the terminal or internal internucleotidic phosphate of an oligonucleotide via Staudinger reaction. A subsequent treatment with excess primary alkyl amine followed by usual work-up, after prior activation with a suitable peptide coupling agent such as HBTU/HOBt in the case of a free carboxyl, afforded amide-linked oligonucleotide conjugates in good yields including multiple conjugations of up to the exhaustive modification at each phosphate position for a weakly activated pentafluorobenzyl ester, whereas more strongly activated and, thus, more reactive aryl esters provided only single conjugations at the 5′-end. The conjugates synthesized include those with di- and polyamines that introduce a positively charged side-chain to potentially assist intracellular delivery of the oligonucleotide.

This paper presents a numerical study on the vertical (axial) and lateral (flexure) behavior of CFST (Concrete-Filled Steel Tube) columns with active hoop prestress; this transverse prestressing effect is achieved by bolting together two steel half-tubes. This study refers to new construction only (i.e., no retrofit). 12 prototype CFST column specimens (segments) are analyzed. These specimens differ in the prestressing force (3 levels) and in the gravity loading ratio (4 levels); they are selected to represent typical ground columns of mid-rise buildings. The structural behavior of these column specimens is simulated with a nonlinear model implemented in Abaqus; the concrete and steel behavior are described with a damage-plasticity and a plasticity model, respectively. Finally, the interface concrete-steel interaction is represented by a hard (compression-only) surface-to-surface contact model. The calculations involve three consecutive loading steps: (i) transverse prestress, (ii) axial force, and (iii) lateral loading (shear force and bending moment). The structural behavior of the CFST columns is deeply examined and discussed; the results show that their axial-flexural capacity is adequate. Noticeably, it is concluded that the overall benefits of prestressing the columns are only modest. Preliminary studies on the aforementioned mid-rise buildings equipped with the CFST columns show that their gravity and wind capacities are largely enough; conversely, their seismic capacity is sufficient for moderate seismic ground motions only.

Bioactive fractions were isolated from the leaves extract of Kalanchoe pinnata and subjected to scrutiny for their prospective anti-obesity properties. An array of in vitro phytochemical, antioxidant, and enzyme inhibition assays were executed, which dis-cerned fractions F1 and F2 as the most effective fractions. These fractions were sub-sequently studied through in vivo experiments, affirming that F2 as the most potent fraction. Further characterization of F2 was conducted via HPTLC MS-MSn tech-niques. The outcomes demonstrated that F2 produced a notable anti-obesity effect in obese mice, reducing their body weight and lipid metrics, and leading to advanta-geous changes in their organs. An analytical examination of F2 revealed the existence of four principal compounds, which were subsequently subjected to in silco molecular docking and dynamic analysis, confirming their aptitude for binding to selected pro-teins. These findings imply that the utilization of Kalanchoe pinnata leaves could pro-vide a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of obesity.

This article describes the transition of an undirected active network, used for numerical and logical analysis, and made up of communicating operators and nodes, and being self-extensible, into a network of semantic structures, and the extensions necessary to handle language. The network, called Active Structure, was infused with knowledge in the form of tens of thousands of definitions taken from a human-readable dictionary. Where the dictionary fell short, from circularity, lack of a hierarchical form for its senses and sub senses, or inadequate detail around verbs, the entries were extensively curated. The result is a machine which has access to every meaning of every word in its vocabulary, and needs to manage the right meaning for every use of a word, a task that our unconscious minds now handle. To demonstrate that such a network can aspire to human-level tasks, we have begun loading an Anti-Money Laundering Act so that the machine can devise and test strategies against money launderers. There is a higher goal being aimed at, the breaking of the Four Pieces Limit. That is, the network is not intended to save money on human cognitive labor, but to raise an absurdly low limit on it.

According to the Cosmological Principle the Universe is isotropic and no preferred direction would be seen by an observer that might be stationary with respect to the expanding cosmic fluid. However, because of observer’s partaking in the solar system peculiar motion, there would appear in some of the observed properties of the Cosmos a dipole anisotropy, which could in turn be exploited to determine the peculiar motion of the solar system. The dipole anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) has given a peculiar velocity vector 370 km s−1 along l=264∘,b=48∘. However, some other dipoles, for instance, from the number counts, sky brightness or redshift distributions in large samples of distant Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), have yielded values of the peculiar velocity many times larger than that from the CMBR, though surprisingly, in all cases the directions agreed with the CMBR dipole. Here we determine our peculiar motion from a sample of 0.28 million AGNs, selected from the Mid Infra Red Active Galactic Nuclei (MIRAGN) sample comprising more than a million sources. From this, we find a peculiar velocity, which is more than four times the CMBR value, although the direction seems to be within ∼2σ of the CMBR dipole. A genuine value of the solar peculiar velocity should be the same irrespective of the data or the technique employed to estimate it. Therefore, such discordant dipole amplitudes, might mean that the explanation for these dipoles, including that of the CMBR, might in fact be something else. But, the observed fact that the direction in all cases, is the same, though obtained from completely independent surveys using different instruments and techniques, by different sets of people employing different computing routines, might nonetheless indicate that these dipoles are not merely due to some systematics, otherwise why would they all be pointing along the same direction. It might instead suggest a preferred direction in the Universe, implying a genuine anisotropy, which would violate the Cosmological Principle, the core of the modern cosmology.

The search for periodic signals from blazars has become an actively pursued field of research in recent years. This is because periodic signals bring us information about the processes occurring near the innermost regions of blazars, which are mostly inaccessible to our direct view. Such signals provide insights into some of the extreme conditions that take place in the vicinity of supermassive black holes that lead to the launch of the relativistic jets. In addition, studies of characteristic timescales in blazar light curves shed light on some of the challenging issues in blazar physics that includes disk-jet connection, strong gravity near fast rotating supermassive black holes and release of gravitational waves from binary supermassive black hole systems. However, a number of issues associated with the search for quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in blazars e.g., red-noise dominance, modest significance of the detection, periodic modulation lasting for only a couple of cycles and their transient nature, make it difficult to estimate the true significance of the detection. Consequently, it also becomes difficult to make meaningful inferences about the nature of the on-going processes. In this proceedings, results of study focused on searching for QPOs in a number of blazar multi-frequency light curves are summarized. The time series analyses of long term observations of the blazars revealed the presence of year-timescale QPOs in the sources including OJ 287 (optical), Mrk 501 (gamma-ray), J1043+2408 (radio) and PKS 0219 -164 (radio). As likely explanations, we discuss a number of scenarios including binary supermassive black hole systems, Lense–Thirring precession, and jet precession.

Covariant integral quantization with rotational symmetry SO(3) is established for the quantum motion on this group manifold, or, alternatively, for Gabor signal analysis on this group. We revisit the action of the related (non-unitary) Weyl-Gabor operator on the Hilbert space of square integrable functions on SO(3) and disclose a set of various properties. By selecting weight functions on the corresponding discrete-continuous phase space, one derives related coherent states and Wigner transform.

The aim of this work is to broaden the theory of computation by making use of fuzzy sets and multisets, which are generalization of ordinary sets. We study fuzzy multiset finite automata (FMFA), which are characterized by the incorporation of vagueness when it comes to the choice of the next state and multiple occurrences of the same input symbol. The resulting automaton is a genaralization of both classical automata and fuzzy automata. We discuss the algebraic characteristics of FMFA sub-automata—separatedness, strongly connectedness, cyclic, directable, and triangular FMFA in terms of equivalence classes induced by an equivalence relation defined on state set of FMFA. Intrestingly, for a given FMFA, a new FMFA can be constructed that is a homomorphic image of the original FMFA. We define different posets structures that can be associated with a given FMFA and show that some of them are upper semilattices and discuss the inter-relationship of a given poset, a finite upper semilattice (FUSL), a FMFA and a posets/FUSL associated with a given FMFA. Finally, we introduce the concept of decomposition of a FMFA in two different ways and characterize the strongly connected, triangular and directable FMFA.

Semi-supervised consensus clustering is a promising strategy to compensate for the subjectivity of clustering and its sensitivity to design factors, with various techniques being recently proposed to integrate domain knowledge and multiple clustering partitions. In this article we present a new approach that makes double use of domain knowledge, namely to build the initial partitions as well as to combine them. In particular, we show how to model and integrate must-link and cannot-link constraints into the objective function of a generic consensus clustering (??) framework that maximizes the similarity between the consensus partition and the input partitions, which have, in turn, been enriched with the same constraints. In addition, borrowing from the theory of functional dependencies, the integrated framework exploits the notions of deductive closure and minimal cover to take full advantage of the logical implication between constraints. Using standard UCI benchmarks, we found that the resulting algorithm, termed ??? (double-Constrained Consensus Clustering), was more effective than plain ?? at combining base constrained partitions. We then argue that ??? is especially well-suited to profiling counterfeit e-commerce websites, because constraints can be acquired by leveraging specific domain features, and demonstrate its potential for detecting affiliate marketing programs. Taken together, our experiments suggest that ??? makes the process of clustering more robust and able to withstand changes in clustering algorithms, datasets, and features, with a remarkable improvement of average performance.

The main aims of this study were (1) to identify and compare the major biologically active compounds in the metabolome of ligulate and tubular flowers of two C. officinalis cultivars, ‘Golden Sea’ (GS) and ‘Paradise Garden’ (PG), and (2) to investigate the effect of different proportions of ligulate and tubular flowers in the inflorescences on their metabolome. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection and a Q Exactive Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometer were used to analyse the flower metabolome. Analysis of the metabolomics data revealed that polar lipids showed the most significant differences between flowers. Tubular flowers of PG and GS cultivars contained higher levels of 31 and 34 out of 36 lipids, respectively. Furthermore, tubular flowers of both cultivars contained significantly higher levels of phenolamides and caffeoylquinic acids, but lower levels of triterpenoids. To compare the metabolite content of the two C. officinalis cultivars, we analysed the data for their inflorescences. The study showed that GS inflorescences contained significantly higher levels of phenolic compounds and lipids than PG inflorescences. This GS advantage was due to two factors: firstly, the higher content of these metabolites in tubular flowers and, secondly, the higher proportion of tubular flowers in GS inflorescences.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by oral ingestion of gluten, with certain gluten residues resistant to digestive tract enzymes. Within the duodenum, the remaining peptides incite immunogenic responses, including the generation of autoantibodies and inflammation, leading to irreversible damage. Our previous exploration unveiled a glutenase called Bga1903 derived from the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia gladioli. The cleavage pattern of Bga1903 indicated its moderate ability to mitigate the toxicity of pro-immunogenic peptides. The crystal structure of Bga1903, along with the identification of subsites within its active site, was determined. To improve its substrate specificity toward prevalent motifs like QPQ within gluten peptides, the active site of Bga1903 underwent site-directed mutagenesis according to structural insights and enzymatic kinetics. Among the double-site mutants, E380Q/S387L exhibits an approximately 38-fold increase in its specificity constant toward the QPQ sequence, favoring glutamines at the P1 and P3 positions compared to the wild type. Not only does the heightened specificity of E380Q/S387L improve the hydrolytic activity against pro-immunogenic peptides, but also holds this version of the enzyme as a promising candidate as an oral therapy enzyme for celiac disease.

Sous-vide is a process in which food is vacuum-sealed and prepared in a water bath, heated to a precise temperature, and circulated in a sous-vide machine. This cooking technique is increasingly common in homes and catering establishments due to its simplicity and affordability. However, manufacturers' and chefs' recommendations for low-temperature and long-term sous-vide cooking in media raise food safety concerns, particularly when preparing beef tenderloin. In this study, Salmonella enterica was found to be inactivated by heat and sage essential oil (EO) in beef tenderloin from musculus psoas major that had undergone sous-vide processing. To determine whether heat treatment was likely to increase the sous-vide efficiency, S. enterica and sage EO were mixed. After being vacuum-packed and injected with S. enterica, the samples were cooked sous-vide for the prescribed time at 50, 55, 60, or 65 °C. On days 1, 3, and 6, the amounts of S. enterica, total bacteria, and coliform bacteria were measured in both groups of sous vide beef tenderloin. Mass spectrometry was used to identify bacterial strains on various days and categories. Each day that was measured, the test group exposed to a temperature of 50 °C for 5 minutes had a higher number of all microbiota. The most isolated microorganisms from the control and treated groups were Pseudomonas fragi, and in the treated group also S. enterica. It has been shown that adding sage essence oil (EO) in combination with the sous-vide gastronomic method leads to the stabilization and safety of beef tenderloin.