Alfalfa is an important forage crop around the world. LncRNAs are considered to be a class of functional biomacromolecules, while little is known about lncRNAs in alfalfa. In this study, RNAs from different tissues of alfalfa were sequenced and anlyzed with full-length transcriptome sequencing technology, yielding the full-length transcripts dataset of alfalfa. Based on sequencing and public RNA-seq data, lncRNAs of alfalfa were predicted genome-wide by CPC2 and PLEK. The results showed most lncRNAs shared low sequence conservation with those in other plant species, part of which seems originate from plastid genome. We also identified 88563 lncRNAs, approximately 99.8% of total lncRNAs, with possibility of coding small ORFs using two prediction tools. Our research generated the biggest sequence set of alfalfa lncRNAs, and revealed some plastid originated lncRNAs with high sequence conservation.

ccurate recording of growth indicators for aquaculture species at different stages is essential for evaluating aquaculture production effectiveness and the rationality of feed formulations. Due to their convenience and non-invasiveness, weight, length, and condition factor are commonly used to assess the growth of aquaculture species . However, fish growth indicators, can vary significantly with age structure and feed components(nutrition), and relying on a single indicator may lead to misjudgments . In this study we investigated the growth indicators of gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio var. CAS V) at different growth stages (juvenile and adult) and different feed formulations. Meanwhile, fish weight-length relationship () was used to assess the growth indicators. The results showed that the weight-length relationship of gibel carp varied significantly with age and feed formulations. Additionally, the condition factor calculated depended on the weight-length relationship was more consistent with weight/length changes than measured. Weight analysis indicated that both weight, length, height, back thickness, and carcass ration had higher weights in analyzing fish growth. Therefore, during aquaculture production, fish growth evaluating requires considering diverse indicators such as weight, length,body height, back thickness, carcass ration,as well as condition factor to avoid misjudging the actual growth situation. Meanwhile, the use of the condition factor should consider the sufficient amount of data and whether the assumptions (such as being in a isometric growth period) are met.

Objectives: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in hostile neck has been associated with adverse outcomes. We aimed to determine the association of infrarenal aortic neck angle and length and establish an optimal cutoff value to predict intraoperative neck complications and post-operative outcomes. Methods: This was a retrospective review of intact infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with severe neck angulation (> 60 degrees) who underwent EVAR from October 2010 to October 2018. Demographic data, aneurysm morphology, and operative details were collected. The ratio of neck angle and length was calculated the optimal cutoff value of the aortic neck angle-length index. Patients were classified into two groups using latent profile analysis. Intraoperative neck complications, adjunct neck procedures, and early and late outcomes were compared. Results: 115 patients were included. Group 1(G1), aortic neck angle-length index ≤ 4.8, had 95 patients and Group 2 (G2), aortic neck angle-length index > 4.8, had 20 patients. Demographic data and aneurysm morphology were not significantly different between groups except for neck length (P < 0.001). G2 had more intra-operative neck complications than G1 (21.1% vs 55%, P = 0.005). Adjunctive neck procedures were more common in G2 (18.9% vs 60%, P < 0.001). Thirty-day mortality rate was not statistically different. G1 patients had a 5-year proximal neck re-intervention free rate comparable to G2 patients (93.7%G1 vs 87.5%G2, P = 0.785). The 5-year overall survival rate was not statistically different (59.9%G1 vs 69.2%G2, P = 0.891). Conclusions: Patients with aortic neck angle-length index > 4.8 are at greater risk of intraoperative neck complications and adjunctive neck procedures than patients with an aortic neck angle-length index ≤ 4.8. The 5-year proximal neck re-intervention free rate and the 5-year survival rate were not statistically different. The aortic neck angle-length index is a reliable predictor of intra-operative neck complications during EVAR in AAA with severe neck angulation.

Machine learning methods have been a standard approach to select features that are associated with an outcome and build a prediction model when the number of candidate features is large. LASSO has been one of the most popular approaches to this end. LASSO approach selects features with large regression estimates, rather than based on statistical significance, associating the outcome, by imposing L1-norm penalty to overcome the high dimensionality of the candidate features. As a result, LASSO may select insignificant features while possibly missing significant ones. Furthermore, from our experience, LASSO has been found to select too many features. By selecting features that are not associated with the outcome, we may have to spend more cost to collect and manage them in the future use of a fitted prediction model. Using the combination of L1- and L2-norm penalties, elastic net (EN) tends to select more features than LASSO. The overly selected features that are not associated with the outcome act like white noise, so that the fitted prediction model loses the prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose to use the standard regression methods (without any penalizing approach) with stepwise variable selection procedure to overcome these issues. Unlike LASSO and EN, this method selects features based on statistical significance. Through extensive simulations, we show that this maximum likelihood estimation based method selects very small number of features while maintaining a high prediction power, while LASSO and EN make a large number of false selections to result in loss of prediction accuracy. Contrary to LASSO and EN, the regression methods combined with a stepwise variable selection method is a standard statistical method, so that any biostatistician can use it to analyze high dimensional data even without advanced bioinformatics knowledge.

The UHPC grouted bellow is an innovative technology for connecting assembled buildings, where the anchorage performance of the rebar and UHPC filled in bellows plays a critical role in determining the overall connection effectiveness. To ascertain a dependable anchorage length and establish a bond-slip relationship between the rebar and UHPC within the bellow, we conducted tests on 8 groups of 16 specimens of metal corrugated pipes filled with UHPC and rebar under tension. The tests considered varying parameters such as the aperture ratio D/d and anchorage length L. By analyzing the failure modes, load versus deflection curves, and steel strain data, we gained valuable insights into the influence of the aperture ratio and anchorage length on the anchorage performance. Furthermore, we calculated the experimental curve of the bond-slip relationship between the rebar and the UHPC interface grouted in the bellows and derived a bond-slip model through fitting. These findings serve as a crucial foundation for the force analysis of assembled structures connected using UHPC grouted bellows.

In recent times, the soft robotics field is gaining numerous research focus owing to its high level of manipulation capabilities unlike traditional rigid robots, which gives room for an increasing use in other areas. However, compared to traditional rigid gripper robots, being capable of controlling/obtaining overall body stiffness when required is yet to be further explored since soft gripper robots have inherently less rigid properties. unlike previous designs with very complex variable stiffness systems, this paper demonstrates a soft gripper design with minimum system complexity while being capable of varying the stiffness of a continuum soft robotic actuator and proves to have potential applications in gripping objects of various shapes, weights &amp; sizes. The soft gripper actuator comprises two separate mechanisms; the pneumatic mechanism for bending control and the mechanical structure for stiffness variation by pulling tendons using stepper motors which compresses the actuator, thereby changing the overall stiffness. The pneumatic mechanism was first fabricated and then embedded into another silicon layer during which it was as well merged with the mechanical structure for stiffness control. By first pneumatically actuating the actuator which causes bending and then pulling the tendons, we found out that the actuator stiffness value can be increased up to 145 % its initial value, and the gripper can grasp &amp; lift a weight of up to 2.075 kg.

In metal continuous casting process is important to estimate the temperature evolution of casted section along machine from meniscus (point in which liquid metal is poured) to cutting machine where product is cut at commercial length. Particularly in the case of large sections, a convenient approximated model to achieve this goal with a feasible computational effort, is the so called travelling slice: the transversal section of casted product is subjected to different thermal boundary conditions (e.g. thermal flux, radiation, convection) that are found during the movement at constant speed from meniscus to the end of machine. In the case of an axisymmetric section, a comparison with the exact solution can be easily achieved. The article will show pros and cons of both, namely the far lower computational cost of travelling slice model without losing precision. Results confirm the validity of the travelling slice approach also at low casting speed and huge dimensions.

The object of this paper is the analysis of isotropic rectangular thin plates supported (simply supported or clamped) along two opposite edges whereby the other edges have arbitrary support conditions; the plates are subjected to external bending moments, concentrated or distributed, and perpendicular to the supported edges. The standard approach to this problem is to replace the bending moment with a couple of forces infinitely close and to use the known expressions of efforts and deformations for the plate subjected to concentrated forces; the results are then related to the first derivatives of those efforts and deformations with respect to the position of application of the load. In this study, the external bending moment was expanded into a Fourier series, leading to a distributed external bending moment, and the boundary conditions and continuity equations were applied. Various types of rectangular plates were analyzed, as well as plates of infinite length whose results were identical to those in the literature. In addition, results for cantilever plates of infinite length were presented.

In the Formula Student Racing Car, the anti-deformation ability of the frame will affect the four-wheel positioning parameters of the racing car, and then affect the handling and stability performance of the racing car. The quality of the frame directly determines the power and economy of the racing car, so the performance of the frame is very important to the performance of the race. In order to improve the performance of the frame and reduce the total weight of the frame, the research on the lightweight design of the frame is particularly important. In this paper, based on the variable density method, the global topology optimization of the frame is carried out to obtain the distribution of the frame material, realize the efficient use of the material, and improve the torsional stiffness of the frame. Based on the adjoint variable method, the sensitivity analysis of the frame is carried out. According to the sensitivity analysis results, the size of the frame is optimized. The total mass of the frame is reduced by 12.8 %, and the performance of the maximum displacement and maximum stress is improved. The lightweight design of the frame is realized as a whole.

With a view to sustainable development and circular economy, this work focused on the possibility to valorize a secondary waste stream of recycled carbon fiber (rCF) to produce a 3D printing usable material with PA6,6 polymer matrix. The reinforcing fibers implemented in the present research are the result of a double recovery action: starting with pyrolysis from which long fibers are obtained, used to produce non-woven fabrics and, subsequently, fiber agglomerate wastes obtained from this last process are ground in a ball mill. The effect of a different amount of reinforcement at 5% and 10% by weight on the mechanical properties of 3D printed thermoplastic composites was investigated. Although the recycled fraction was successfully integrated in the production of filaments for 3D printing and therefore in the production of specimens via Fused Deposition Modeling technique, the results showed that fibers did not improve the mechanical properties as expected, due to an unsuitable average size distribution and the presence of a predominant dusty fraction ascribed to the non-optimized ball milling process. PA6,6 + 10 wt.% rCF composites exhibited a tensile strength of 59.53 MPa and a tensile modulus of 2.24 GPa, which correspond to an improvement in mechanical behavior of 21 5 % and 5 21 % compared to the neat PA6,6 specimens, respectively. The printed composite specimens loaded with the lowest content of rCF provided the greatest improvement in strength (+ 9% over the neat sample). Then, a prediction of the “optimum” critical length of carbon fibers was proposed that could be used for future optimizations of the recycled fiber processing.

Recently, SMR (Small Modular Reactor) is expected to be able to operate flexibly in conjunction with a high renewable energy penetration grid as a result of improved safety and easy power control compared to large nuclear power plants. SMRs such as South Korea’s System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor (SMART) are designed to use canned motors (CMs) for their reactor coolant pumps (RCPs) to enhance safety. The CMs passively enhance the reactor’s safety by preventing leakage of radioactive reactor coolant. However, with motor sizes designed to be as small as possible, and the increased air gap of CMs between stator and rotor, starting torque may be insufficiently small compared to that of similar sized induction motors (IMs). Thusly, CMs may require variable frequency drives (VFDs) to start. This paper compares the torque characteristics of CMs with those of IMs for SMART’s RCPs. ETAP is then used to perform motor starting analysis for CMs started with and without VFDs. The results are presented and analyzed to find out if the VFDs deal with the CM starting torque issue.

In order to solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by a large number of discarded hickory husks in Lin'an, and to make them a clean energy source that can be recycled, in this paper,using crushed hickory husks as raw material, single factor test was carried out on a hydraulic plunger forming machine with different moisture content and length-diameter ratio of forming sleeve.The change of axial pressure and radial force in the forming sleeve is measured by the sensor, and the microstructure of the biomass moulding fuel briquette was observed by stereomicroscope. The results showed that the hickory husks could be compressed and formed at room temperature. When the moisture content of the hickory husks is 14% and the length-diameter ratio of the forming sleeve is 4.5, the forming quality is the best, and the relaxation density of the formed briquette is up to 0.98g /cm3. When the moisture` content is the same, the forming pressure increases with the increase of the length-diameter ratio of the forming sleeve. When the length-diameter ratio of molding sleeve is the same, the molding pressure increases first and then decreases with the increase of water content.

Our objective was to evaluate whether pregnancy is prolonged by use of a proteomics-based maternal serum screening test followed by treatment interventions. This is a secondary analysis of the PREVENT-PTB randomized trial comparing screening with the PreTRM test versus no screening. The primary trial analysis found no significant between-group difference in preterm birth rate. Rather than considering a dichotomous outcome (preterm vs term), we treated gestational age at birth as a continuous variable using survival analysis. We also evaluated between-group difference in NICU length of stay and duration of respiratory support. Results indicated that pregnancy was significantly prolonged in subjects screened with PreTRM test compared to controls (adjusted hazard ratio 0.53, 95% confidence interval 0.36-0.78, P &lt;0.01). Newborns of screened subjects had significantly shorter NICU stay but no significant decrease in duration of respiratory support. In the PreTRM screen-positive group, interventions that were associated with pregnancy prolongation included care management and low-dose aspirin but not 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate. We concluded that screening with the PreTRM test followed by interventions for screen-positive pregnancies can prolong pregnancy and reduce NICU-LOS.

This paper focuses on a joint model to analyse longitudinal proportion and survival data. After transforming the longitudinal proportional data by a logit function, we adopt a partially linear mixed-effect model for it, in which nonlinear function of time is fitted via using B-splines technique and a centered Dirichlet Process Mixture Model (CDPMM) is specified for a general distribution of random effects. The survival data is assumed to a Cox proportional hazard model, the sharing random effects joint model is developed for the two types of data. Combining the Gibbs sampler and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, we propose a Bayesian Lasso (BLasso) method to simultaneously estimate unknown parameters and select important covariates. Simulation studies are conducted to investigate the finite sample performance of the proposed methods. An example from the MA.5 research experiment is used to illustrate the proposed methodologies.

Hospital readmission and length of stay prediction provide info to manage hospitals’ bed capacity and the number of required staff, especially during pandemics. We present a hybrid deep model called Genetic Algorithm-Optimized Convolutional Neural Network (GAOCNN) with a unique preprocessing method to predict hospital readmission and the length of stay in patients having various conditions. GAOCNN uses one-dimensional convolutional layers to predict hospital readmission and length of stay. The parameters of the layers are optimized using a genetic algorithm. To show the performance of the proposed model in patients with various conditions, we evaluate the model under three healthcare datasets; the Diabetes 130-US hospitals dataset, the COVID-19 dataset, and the MIMIC-III dataset. The diabetes 130-US hospitals dataset has information on both readmission and the length of stay, while COVID-19 and MIMIC-III datasets just include information on the length of stay. Experimental results show that the proposed model’s accuracy for hospital readmission is 97.2% for diabetic patients. Also, the accuracy of the length of stay prediction is 89%, 99.4%, and 94.1% for diabetic, COVID-19, and ICU patients, respectively. These results confirm the superiority of the proposed model compared to existing methods. Our findings offer a platform for managing healthcare funds and resources for patients with various diseases.

This paper presents a comparison of two methods to represent variable blade inertia in two codes for aero-servo-elastic simulations of wind turbines: the nonlinear aeroelastic multi-body model HAWC2 and the nonlinear geometrically exact beam model BeamDyn for OpenFAST. The main goal is to enable these tools to simulate the dynamic behavior of a wind turbine with variable blade inertia. However, in order to simulate the structural response of wind turbines with variable blade inertias, the source code of load simulation tools need to be modified. This is due to the fact that, currently, state-of-the-art load simulation tools for wind turbines are unable to simulate variable rotor blade inertias. The validity of the modified codes is proven based on a simple beam model. The validation shows very good agreement between the modified codes of HAWC2, BeamDyn and an analytical calculation. The add-on of variable blade inertias is applied to reduce the mechanical loads of a 5 megawatt reference wind turbine with an integrated hydraulic-pneumatic flywheel in its rotor blades.

Leaf photosynthetic pigments play a crucial role in evaluating nutritional elements and physiological states. In facility agriculture, it is vital to obtain rapidly and accurately the pigment content and distribution of leaves to ensure precise water and fertilizer management. In our research, we utilized chlorophyll a (Chla), chlorophyll b (Chlb), chlorophyll (Chll), and carotenoid (Caro) as indicators to study the variations in leaf position of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. Under 10 nitrogen concentration applications, a total of 2610 leaves (435 samples) were collected using visible-near infrared hyperspectral imaging (VNIR-HSI). In this study, a "coarse-fine" screening strategy was proposed by using competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and iteratively retained informative variable (IRIV) algorithm to extract characteristic wavelengths. Finally, simultaneous and quantitative models were established using partial least squares regression (PLSR). The CARS-IRIV-PLSR was used to create models to achieve a better prediction effect. The coefficient determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), and ratio performance deviation (RPD) were predicted to be 0.8240, 1.43, 2.38 for Chla, 0.8391, 0.53, 2.49 for Chlb, 0.7899, 2.24, 2.18 for Chll, and 0.7577, 0.27, 2.03 for Caro, respectively. The combination of these models with the pseudo-color image allowed for a visual inversion of the content and distribution of pigment. These findings have important implications for guiding pigment distribution, nutrient diagnosis, and fertilization decisions in plant growth management.

Background: This study investigated the incidence, characteristics and functional outcomes associated with unplanned Acute Care Unit Readmissions (ACUR) during inpatient traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation in an Asian cohort. Methods: Retrospective review of electronic medical records from single rehabilitation unit was conducted from 1 Jan 2012 to 31 Dec 2014. Inclusion criteria were first TBI, aged &gt;18 years, admitted &lt; 6 months of TBI. ACUR were characterized into either of neurological, medical or neurosurgical subtypes. The main outcome measure was discharge Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Secondary outcomes included rehabilitation length of stay (RLOS). Results: Of 121 eligible TBI records, the incidence of ACUR was 14% (n=17), comprising neurologic (76.5%) and medical (23.5%) subtypes, occurring at median of 13 days (IQR 6, 28.5) after rehabilitation admission. Patients without ACUR had significantly higher admission mean (SD) FIM score compared to those with ACUR (FIM ACUR-negative 63.4 (21.1) vs FIM ACUR-positive 50.53(25.4), P =0.026). Significantly lower discharge FIM was noted in those with ACUR compared to those without. (FIM ACUR-positive 65.8(31.4) vs FIM ACUR-negative 85.4 (21.1), P = 0.023) Furthermore, a significant near-doubling of RLOS was noted in ACUR patients compared to non-ACUR counterparts [ACUR-positive median 55 days (IQR 34.50, 87.50) vs ACUR-negative median 28 days (IQR 16.25, 40.00), P = 0.002]. Conclusion: This study highlights the significant negative functional impact and lengthening of rehabilitation duration of ACUR on inpatient rehabilitation outcome for TBI.

We present a theoretical modeling of a cylindrical tunable liquid crystal lens based on the modulation of the anchoring energy. This latter can be easily obtained by means of photoaligning techniques. The liquid crystal cell we propose exhibits strong anchoring at the top substrate and an anchoring energy with parabolic profile at the bottom substrate. The model describes the dependence of the focal length on the applied voltage and presents a theoretical study of lens aberrations. The results obtained are of general relevance and can be used to optimize the performances of every kind of liquid crystal lens with parabolic profile.

Noise model selection criteria has a significant impact on identifying the stochastic noise proper-ties of any GNSS daily coordinate time series. The low-frequency random walk noise existing in these time series could lead to overestimation of the tectonic rate, so it is of great significance to accurately detect the random walk component. This study focuses on noise model estimation cri-terion (BIC_tp) derived from the AIC and the BIC by introducing 2π factors. It is more sensitive to abnormal steps (random jumps). Using observation data from 72 GNSS stations from 1992 to 2022 and simulated data, four combined noise models are used to explore the impacts of time se-ries lengths (ranging from2 to 24 years) and data loss (between 2% and 30%) on noise models and velocity estimation. The results show that as the time length increased, the selected optimal noise model, and the estimated uncertainty of the tectonic trend with different data gap, gradually con-verge. When the time length is short (less than 8 years), it could lead to the FNRWWN, FNWN, and PLWN models being mistakenly estimated as GGMWN models, thereby affecting the accura-cy of determining the station velocity parameters. When the time length is 12 years, the RW noise component is more probably detected, As the time length increases, the impact of RW on velocity uncertainty is weakened. Finally, we conclude that for a time series with a minimum time length of 12 years, both the selection of the optimal stochastic noise model and the estimation of the ve-locity parameters are reliable.

High-dimensional measurement error data are becoming more prevalent across various fields. Research on measurement error regression models has gained increasing attention due to the risk of drawing inaccurate conclusions if measurement errors are ignored. When the dimension p is larger than the sample size n, it is challenging to develop statistical inference methods for high-dimensional measurement error regression models due to the existence of bias, nonconvexity of objective function, high computational cost and many other difficulties. Over the past few years, some works have overcome the aforementioned difficulties and proposed several statistical inference methods. This paper mainly reviews the current development on estimation, hypothesis testing and variable screening methods for high-dimensional measurement error regression models and shows the theoretical results of these methods with some directions worthy of exploring for future research.

Being able to complete the production of the product project on time is the prerequisite to win more tasks, many enterprises have begun to study intelligent scheduling algorithms to achieve dynamic control of the total project duration. However, the production operation time of products is highly volatile, and it is impossible to predict the possible operation time of future products. In the actual production environment, we often encounter extreme situations such as mixed production lines, multiple varieties, variable batches, etc. A dynamic optimization CPM model in the ERP/MES system with the attention mechanism (EMA-DCPM) will collect, extract and predict the operation time through artificial intelligence technology, and it can accurately predict the exact operation time of a batch of products that have not yet been produced. Through experiments, our algorithm can realize the production scheduling and get more than 200% better precision than former algorithms and realize dynamic optimization of complex projects.

Aiming at the problem that soft robots are challenging to take into account both flexibility and bearing capacity, Using the software Pneu-Net driver as the deformation mode, magnetorheological fluid material phase transformation to achieve variable stiffness, A pneumatic modular soft joint structure with dynamically adjustable deformation and stiffness in all directions is proposed. In this paper, mathematical models of deformation and variable stiffness are established. The correspondence between gas pressure and deformation and applied current and joint stiffness is obtained. The finite element analysis method was used to simulate the deformation characteristics and variable stiffness characteristics of modular joints based on the Yeoh model. Finally, the theoretical and simulation results are verified by deformation and variable stiffness tests. It is proved that the modular joint has good rigid-flexible coupling characteristics.

The TGACG motif-binding factor1 (TGA1) transcription factor, a significant protein in the bZIP transcription factor family, exhibits a myriad of functions, contributes to numerous biological events, and holds substantial application potential. In this study, our analysis revealed a diverse range of photoregulatory and hormone regulatory elements within the MtTGA1 promoter region. The expression profile of MtTGA1 indicated its highest expression in the root, with its regulation influenced by SA, ABA, BR, and GA. Under salt stress conditions, transgenic plants demonstrated significantly longer root lengths and heightened activities of antioxidant enzymes such as ascorbic acid catalase (APX), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in their roots and leaves compared to control plants. Simultaneously, the levels of endogenous hormones ABA and BR escalated in transgenic plants, with a marked change in the morphology of their leaf cells. Transcriptome analysis identified a total of 193 differentially expressed genes, implicating a wide array of biological processes. Furthermore, we found that MtTGA1 is able to interact with Medicago truncatula SPX domain containing protein 1 (SPX1). In conclusion, the MtTGA1 transcription factor plays a crucial role in enhancing salt tolerance, which provides new insights for improving plant survival under salt stress conditions.

When undertaking wind assessment around buildings using large eddy simulation (LES), the implementation of the integral length scale at the inlet for inflow generation is controversial, as real atmospheric length scales require huge computational domains. While length scales significantly influence inflow generation in the domain, their effect on the downstream flow field has not yet, been investigated. In this paper, we validate the effectiveness and accuracy of implementing a reduced turbulence integral length scale for inflow generation in LES results at the rooftop of low-rise buildings and develop a technique to estimate the real local length scales using simulation results. We measure the wind locally and calculate the turbulence length scales from the energy spectrum of the wind data and simulation data. According to these results, there is an excellent agreement between the length scale from simulation and measurement when they are scaled with their corresponding freestream/inlet value. These results indicate that a reduced integral length scale can be safely used for LES to provide a reliable prediction of the energy spectrum as well as the length scales around complex geometries. The simulation results were confidently employed to obtain the best location for a wind turbine installation on low-rise buildings.

This paper presented a two-dimensional, well-balanced hydrodynamic and sediment transport model based on the solutions of variable density shallow water equations (VDSWEs) for sediment-laden flows, and the Exner equation for bed changes. Those equations are solved in a coupled way by the first-order Godunov-type finite volume method. The Harten-Lax-van Leer-Contact (HLLC) Riemann solver is extended to find the local Riemann fluxes in order to maintain the exact balance between the momentum term and the bed slope term. The advantage of a well-balanced scheme over an unbalanced scheme is demonstrated by the synthetic standing contact-discontinuity test case. Then, the model is employed to simulate two laboratory experiments. At last, a field case, the 1996 Lake Ha! Ha! flood event (Canada), is simulated. Results of cross sectional geometries and profiles of longitudinal thalweg agree well with measurements. The accuracy and simplicity of the numerical model, together with the robust implementation, make the model a good candidate for practical engineering applications.

Caseinolytic peptidase P (CLPP) plays a central role in mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR) by promoting the breakdown of misfolded proteins and setting in motion a cascade of reactions to re-establish protein homeostasis. Global germline deletion of Clpp in mice results in female infertility and accelerated follicular depletion. Telomeres, on the other hand, are tandem repeats of 5’-TTAGGG-3’ sequences found at the ends of the chromosomes. Telomeres are essential for maintaining chromosome stability during somatic cell division and their shortening is associated with cellular senescence and aging. In this study, we asked whether the infertility and ovarian aging phenotype caused by global germline deletion of Clpp is associated with somatic aging, and tested telomere length in tissues of young and aging mice. We found that impaired mtUPR caused by the lack of CLPP is associated with accelerated telomere shortening in both oocytes and somatic cells of aging mice. In addition, expression of several genes that maintain telomere integrity were decreased, and double strand DNA breaks were increased in telomeric regions. Our results highlight how impaired mtUPR can affect telomere integrity and demonstrate a link between loss of mitochondrial protein hemostasis, infertility, and somatic aging.

Variable Angle Tow (VAT) laminates offer a promising alternative to classical straight fiber composites in terms of design and performance. However, analyzing these structures can be more complex due to the introduction of new design variables. Carrera's Unified Formulation (CUF) has been successful in previous works for buckling, vibrational, and stress analysis of VAT plates. Typically, one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) CUF models are used, with a linear law describing the fiber orientation variation in the main plane of the structure. The objective of this article is to expand the CUF 2D plate finite elements family to perform free vibration analysis of composite laminated plate structures with curvilinear fibers. The primary contribution is the application of Reissner's Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT) to a CUF finite element model. The Principle of Virtual Displacements (PVD) and RMVT are both used as variational statements for the study of monolayer and multilayer VAT plates dynamic behavior. The proposed approach is compared to Abaqus three-dimensional (3D) reference solutions, classical theories and literature results to investigate the effectiveness of the developed models. Results demonstrate that mixed theories provide the best approximation of the reference solution in all cases.

The length of stay (LOS) in the hospital emergency department (ED) is a crucial key performance indicator that is used to track and manage the performance of the ED as a whole. Our study had two objectives. Firstly, we aimed to evaluate the association between LOS and the most common primary ICD-10 diagnoses. To achieve this, we examined LOS in groups with specific (internal, surgical, neurological, and traumatic diseases) and non-specific diagnoses in adult ED visits at a tertiary referral hospital between 2017 and 2019 (134,675 visits in total). Our secondary objective was to measure LOS by age, day of the week, time of day, and season. The mean LOS was 254 minutes and was the shortest in the traumatic group (160 minutes), while in other groups it was significantly longer: neurological by 185 minutes, internal medicine by 158 minutes, surgical by 36 minutes, and non-specific by 24 minutes. In conclusion, non-specific diagnoses accounted for 21% of all ICD-10 primary diagnoses. In this group of patients, the percentage of hospitalizations was the highest. Other significant determinants of LOS were the patients’ age, the day of the week, the time of arrival, and repeated visits.

The fixed stroke fatigue test can not simulate the real load condition of the landing gear, and the variable stroke fatigue test has increasingly become the mainstream. A modular test device for fatigue test for aircraft landing gears was designed, the automatic control of the buffer stroke was realized with ectopic displacement control technology effectively, the horizontal loading cylinder could follow the wheel axis actively with the displacement active control technology, follow-up loading along the vertical direction was realized through constructing a polar coordinate system and making the load line automatic alignment, a split-type dummy wheel was designed to improve the loading accuracy, a booster cylinder was designed to realize the control loading of high pressure combined with the hydraulic control system. The test shows that the technical scheme meets the design requirements, and the fatigue test was completed successfully. The device for landing gear variable stroke fatigue testing can be applied to other landing gear static / fatigue tests.

Our previous studies showed pure blue (B) spectra from LEDs can promote shade avoidance responses (SARs). However, it is unknown whether SARs vary among different peak wavelengths (λpeak) of B or how they compare with other photomorphologically-important wavebands, such as ultraviolet-A and far-red. To answer these questions, mustard (Brassica juncea, ‘Ruby Streaks’) and arugula (Brassica eruca, ‘Rocket’) seedlings, grown to the cotyledon unfolding stage under the following narrowband spectrum treatments: UVA (λpeak = 385 nm), B1 (λpeak = 404 nm), B2 (λpeak = 440 nm), B3 (λpeak = 455 nm), and FR (λpeak = 730 nm). Both red (R, λpeak = 660 nm) and dark (D) were used as control treatments. The spectrum treatments were provided at 50 μmol m−2 s−1 on a continuous basis. There were no differences among the B treatments except for reduced mustard fresh weight (FWt) in B3. Compared with R, the B treatments promoted hypocotyl elongation, reduced cotyledon size, and increased petiole length in arugula and B1 increased petiole length in mustard. Compared with the B treatments, UVA inhibited hypocotyl and petiole elongation, similar to or greater than R in both species. Compared with the other LED treatments, seedlings grown under FR generally had the lowest hypocotyl and petiole elongation and the smallest cotyledons. Compared to the LED treatments, D substantially promoted hypocotyl elongation and reduced cotyledon size, except compared to FR in arugula. Among the spectrum treatments, the three B treatments had the greatest SAR promotion effects in both species. Despite having the lowest phytochrome activity, FR inhibited SARs normally associated with high FR environments. Legacy parameters used to estimate SAR-promoting effects of spectrum treatments may not be appropriate for characterizing narrowband spectra from LEDs – new approaches must be developed.

Ningxiang pig is renowned breed for its exceptional meat quality, but it possesses suboptimal carcass traits. To elucidate the genetic architecture of meat quality and carcass traits in Ningxiang pigs, we assessed heritability and executed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) concerning carcass length, backfat thickness, meat color parameters (L.LD, a.LD, b.LD), and pH at two postmortem intervals (45 minutes and 24 hours) within a Ningxiang pig population. Heritability estimates ranged from moderate to high (0.30 ~ 0.80) for carcass traits and from low to high (0.11 ~ 0.48) for meat quality traits. We identified 21 significant SNPs, the majority of which were situated within previously documented QTL regions. Furthermore, the HMGA1 gene emerged as a pleiotropic gene correlated with carcass length and backfat thickness. The ADGRF1, FKBP5, and PRIM2 genes were associated with carcass length, while the NIPBL gene was linked to backfat thickness. These genes hold potential for use in selective breeding programs targeting carcass traits in Ningxiang pigs.

Nickelate superconductors, R1-xAxNiO2 (where R is a rare earth metal and A = Sr, Ca), experimentally discovered in 2019 exhibit many unexplained mysteries as the existence of a superconducting state with Tc (up to 18 K) in thin films and its absence in bulk materials. Another unexplained mystery of nickelates is their temperature-dependent upper critical field, Bc2T, which can be nicely fitted to two-dimensional (2D) models; however the deduced film thickness, dsc,GL, exceeds the physical film thickness, dsc, by a manifold. To address the latter, it should be noted that 2D models assume that dsc is less than the in-plane and out-of-plane ground state coherence lengths, dsc&lt;ξab0 and dsc&lt;ξc0, respectively, and, in addition, that the inequality ξc0&lt;ξab0 satisfies. Analysis of the reported experimental Bc2T data showed that at least one of these conditions does not satisfy for R1-xAxNiO2 films. This implies that nickelate films are not 2D superconductors, even despite though that the superconducting state is observed only in thin films. Based on this, here we proposed analytical three dimensional (3D) model for global data fit of in-plane and out-of-plane Bc2T in nickelates. The model is based on a heuristic expression for temperature dependent coherence length anisotropy: γξT=γξ01-1a×TTc, where a&gt;1 is a unitless free-fitting parameter. The proposed expression for γξT, perhaps, has a much broader application because it has been successfully applied to bulk pnictide and chalcogenide superconductors.

Abstract The value of the mass of the particles is one more mystery that current theories cannot predict, so they have to be determined experimentally. In this paper we will see how the quantization of 4D space gives rise to the quantization of mass and, in turn, the quantization of mass implies that space-time is discrete.

L\'evy walks represent important modeling tools for variety of real life processes. Their natural scaling limits are known to be described by the so-called material fractional derivatives. So far these scaling limits were derived for spatially homogeneous walks, where Fourier and Laplace transforms represent natural tools of analysis. Here we derive the corresponding limiting equations in the case of position depending times and velocities of walks, where Fourier transforms cannot be effectively applied. In fact, we derive three different limits (specified by the way the process is stopped at an attempt to cross the boundary), leading to three different multi-dimensional versions of Caputo-Dzherbashian derivatives, which correspond to different boundary conditions for the generators of the related Feller semigroups and processes. Some other extensions and generalisations are analysed.

This research proposes a roof-mounted auxiliary power supply (APS) system for 600VDC low-floor light rail vehicle (LRV). The proposed APS system consists of five parallel-connected dc-ac inverter modules (modules 1-5). The inverter modules 1 and 2 are three-phase dc-ac inverters for compressor motors of the cooling system, and the inverter modules 3 and 4 are three-phase dc-ac inverters for air pump motors of the braking system. The inverter module 5 is single-phase dc-ac inverter for 220VAC power supply for onboard electric loads. Simulations and experiments were carried out under variable load torque and output frequency for modules 1 – 4; and under full and no resistive loads for the inverter module 5. The measured total input current and total input power of the proposed APS system under full load condition are 118.76A and 71.25kW. Essentially, the proposed APS system is operationally applicable to the 600VDC low-floor RLV. Besides, the novelty of this research lies in the use of five parallel-connected inverter modules, unlike in the conventional APS systems which require three-phase output transformer or isolated dc-dc converter. Specifically, the proposed APS system requires neither three-phase output transformer nor isolated dc-dc converter.

This article provides an overview of multi-fidelity modeling trends. Fidelity in modeling refers to the level of detail and accuracy provided by a predictive model or simulation. Generally, models with higher fidelity deliver more precise results but demand greater computational resources. Multi-fidelity models integrate high-fidelity and low-fidelity models to obtain fast yet accurate predictions. Their growing popularity is due to their ability to approximate high-fidelity models with high accuracy and low computational cost. This work classifies publications in multi-fidelity modeling based on various factors, including application, surrogate selection, fidelity difference, fidelity combination method, field of application, and year of publication. The study also examines the techniques used to combine fidelities, focusing on multi-fidelity surrogate models. To accurately evaluate the advantages of utilizing multi-fidelity models, it is necessary to report the achieved time savings. This paper includes guidelines for authors to present their multi-fidelity-related savings in a standard, succinct, yet thorough way to guide future users. According to a select group of publications that provided sufficient information, multi-fidelity models achieved savings of up to 90% while maintaining the desired level of accuracy. However, the savings achieved through multi-fidelity models depend highly on the problem.

Physics-informed neural networks are a promising method to yield surrogate models of flow fields. We present a metamodeling technique for variable geometries based on physics-informed neural networks. The method was applied to the DU99W350 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 1×10⁵. The model predicted the Reynolds-averaged velocity and pressure field around the airfoil for arbitrary angles of attack between 10.0° and 17.5°. The model was trained with data from CFD simulations for a limited set of angles of attack. Additionally, satisfaction of the a priori known boundary conditions as well as the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were trained. A sensitivity analysis concerning the Reynolds number, the amount and distribution of training data, and the turbulence model was conducted showing the superiority of the pseudo-Reynolds stress method and the demand of labeled training data in the domain. The trained network was capable of predicting the developing flow separation on the suction surface and exhibited excellent agreement with CFD results even in the proximity to the wall for interpolations as well as extrapolations from the labeled data set.

pump as turbine (PAT); computational fluid dynamics; variable rotational nominal speed; OpenFoam.

The correlations of seismic noise, recorded during 1997-2022 at 229 stations around the world are investigated. The property of waveforms, known as the Donoho-Johnston threshold, is analyzed, which separates the absolute values of the orthogonal wavelet coefficients into "small" and "large". Network of 50 reference points is considered. For each reference point, a time series with a time step of 1 day is calculated as the median of the values of the DJ index from the 5 nearest stations. For each reference point, the correlations between the values of the DJ index at other reference points are calculated in a sliding time window of 365 days. Average values of the DJ index decrease, which is interpreted as indicators of global seismic hazard increasing. The maximum distances between reference points with strong correlations show an explosive increase after 2011. Bursts in the mean coherences between the length of day (LOD) and the values of the DJ index at the reference points precede the release of seismic energy with a delay of about 530 days. High amplitude of the DJ index response to LOD for the times 2020-2022 was identified, which may forecast a strong earthquake in the second half of 2023.

Variable-DOF (or kinematotropic) mechanisms are a class of reconfigurable mechanisms. The number of variable-DOF multi-loop planar mechanisms proposed so far is very limited. This paper proposes a novel 8-link variable-DOF planar mechanism with five motion modes. Firstly, a description of the 8-link variable-DOF planar mechanism is presented. Reconfiguration analysis of the 8-link mechanism is then carried out using an elimination and algebraic geometry hybrid approach. The analysis shows that the 8-link mechanism has one 2-DOF motion mode and four 1-DOF motion modes and can switch among three motion modes at four transition configurations and between two motion modes at the remaining four transition configurations. Geometric characteristics of the mechanism in different motion modes are also revealed. Unlike the variable-DOF planar mechanisms found in literature, the proposed 8-link mechanism has two inactive joints in one of its 1-DOF motion modes, and both 4R kinematic sub-chains of the mechanism must appear as parallelograms in a pair or anti-parallelograms in a pair in the same motion mode. As a by-product, a method for factoring trigonometric functions in two angles is proposed.

We work within a Winterberg framework where space, i.e., the vacuum, consists of a two component superfluid/super-solid made up of a vast assembly (sea) of positive and negative mass Planck particles, called planckions. These material particles interact indirectly, and have very strong restoring forces keeping them a finite distance apart from each other within their respective species. Because of their mass compensating effect, the vacuum appears massless, charge-less, without pressure, net energy density or entropy. In addition, we consider two variable models, where, , is Newton’s constant, and, , increases with an increase in cosmological time. We argue that there are at least two competing models for the quantum vacuum within such a framework. The first follows a strict extension of Winterberg’s model. This leads to nonsensible results, if increases, going back in cosmological time, as the length scale inherent in such a model will not scale properly. The second model introduces a different length scale, which does scale properly, but keeps the mass of the Planck particle as, the Planck mass. Moreover we establish a connection between ordinary matter, dark matter, and dark energy, where all three mass densities within the Friedman equation must be interpreted as residual vacuum energies, which only surface, once aggregate matter has formed, at relatively low temperatures. The symmetry of the vacuum will be shown to be broken, because of the different scaling laws, beginning with the formation of elementary particles. Much like waves on an ocean where positive and negative planckion mass densities effectively cancel each other out and form a zero vacuum energy density/ zero vacuum pressure surface, these positive mass densities are very small perturbations (anomalies) about the mean. This greatly alleviates, i.e., minimizes the cosmological constant problem, a long standing problem associated with the vacuum.

Long-span steel structure trusses are widely used in factory buildings, but with the growth of service time and the increase of dynamic load fatigue, a considerable part of the long-span truss with dynamic load appears serious transverse cracks at the bottom of the middle span and oblique deformation of the abdomen in the operation process. The U-shaped cracks at the bottom and belly, as well as the mid-span down deflection of the main truss, reduced the functional function of the factory building truss structure, and had to limit the original crane load, which affected the normal safety and durability of the structure. Therefore, the application principle of the variable axial force cable system in the long-span factory building truss structure and 3D3S software modeling [1] were used. Analyzing and studying the reinforcement method of large-span powerhouse truss can provide practical experience for subsequent similar projects. In view of the above phenomenon, the large-span powerhouse trusses of Hongcheng Powerhouse 1 and No.2 located in Tonglu, Zhejiang Province are used as the research object, and the variable axial force cable method is proposed to strengthen and lift the load. Considering the span of large-span powerhouse truss, the cable system with 22m controlling force of 400kN is proposed to be selected for powerhouse 1, and the cable system with variable axial force of 24m is proposed to be selected for Powerhouse 2. The force model of large-span truss is established by using the finite element method commonly used to analyze the force of truss. Under two working conditions, The influence of reinforcement effect is analyzed and compared from three aspects: stiffness, bearing capacity and stability. And the phenomenon of uneven stress distribution is analyzed. The stress distribution characteristics of each node are understood by simulating the most disadvantageous node plates with the greatest internal force before and after reinforcement.

Our research is in the tangent space of a point on a 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold. Besides the positive definite metric, the manifold is endowed with a tensor structure of type (1,1), whose fourth power is minus the identity. Both structures are compatible and they define an indefinite metric on the manifold. With the help of the indefinite metric we determine a circle in different 2-planes in the tangent space on the manifold, we also calculate the length and area of the circle. On a smooth closed curve such as a circle, we define a vector force field. Further, we obtain the circulation done by the vector force field along the curve, as well as the flux of the curl of this vector force field across the curve. Finally, we find a relation between these two values, which is an analogue of the well known Green’s formula in the Euclidean space.

We present a new interpretation of the Higgs field as a composite particle made up of a positive, with, a negative mass Planck particle. According to the Winterberg hypothesis, space, i.e., the vacuum, consists of both positive and negative physical massive particles, which he called planckions, interacting through strong superfluid forces. In our composite model for the Higgs boson, there is an intrinsic length scale associated with the vacuum, different from the one introduced by Winterberg, where, when the vacuum is in a perfectly balanced state, the number density of positive Planck particles equals the number density of negative Planck particles. Due to the mass compensating effect, the vacuum thus appears massless, charge-less, without pressure, energy density, or entropy. However, a situation can arise where there is an effective mass density imbalance due to the two species of Planck particle not matching in terms of populations, within their respective excited energy states. This does not require the physical addition or removal of either positive or negative Planck particles, within a given region of space, as originally thought. Ordinary matter, dark matter, and dark energy can thus be given a new interpretation as residual vacuum energies within the context of a greater vacuum, where the populations of the positive and negative energy states exactly balance. In the present epoch, it is estimated that the dark energy number density imbalance amounts to, , per cubic meter, when cosmic distance scales in excess of, , are considered. Compared to a strictly balanced vacuum, where we estimate that the positive, and the negative Planck number density, is of the order, particles per cubic meter, the above is a very small perturbation. This slight imbalance, we argue, would dramatically alleviate, if not altogether eliminate, the long standing cosmological constant problem.

Healthcare professionals and resource planners can use healthcare delivery process mining to ensure the optimal utilisation of scarce healthcare resources when developing policies. Within hospitals, patients' Length of Stay (LOS) and volume of admitted patients, in terms of number and characteristics (age, gender, and social deter-minants), are significant factors determining daily resource requirements. In this study, we used Coxian phase-type Distribution (C-PHD) based Phase-Type Survival (PTS) trees for analysing how covariates such as admission date, gender, age, district, and admissions source influence the admission rate and LOS distribution. PTS trees. This study used a two-year data set (2011-2012) of patients admitted to the Emergency Department at Mater Dei Hospital to generate models and an independent one-year data set (2013) of patients admitted to the Emergency Department at Mater Dei Hospital to evaluate. The PTS tree effectively clusters patients based on their LOS, considering the prognostic significance of different covariates related to patients' characteristics. Charac-terising these covariates provided meaningful results about LOS. Similarly, the PTS tree was used to effectively cluster patients based on the admission rate, considering the prognostic significance of these covariates.

Background: Evidence suggests that children and young people (CYP) who present to the emergency department (ED) for mental health (MH) difficulties may have extended lengths of stay (LOS); however, there is a paucity of research in Australia regarding the factors associated with extended LOS. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with extended LOS for paediatric MH-related presentations to the EDs in South Western Sydney (SWS), a multicultural community in Australia. Methods: We analysed electronic medical records (eMR) of 7,409 MH-related ED encounters of CYP aged 0 up to 18 years from all six public hospitals in SWS from January 2016 to April 2022. Extended LOS was defined as encounters of more than 4 hours. We assessed factors associated with extended LOS using a multilevel logistic regression model, accounting for hospital-level clustering. Results: Approximately 57.6% of all ED presentations for paediatric MH involved extended LOS. ED presentations by adolescents (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.23, 95% CI 1.20-4.17 for 12-14 years and AOR 2.69, 95% CI 1.44-5.00 for 15-17 years), and patients with a preferred language other than English (AOR 1.47, 95% CI 1.15-1.89) had increased odds of extended LOS compared to their counterparts. Deliberate self-harm related presentations, the most commonly presented MH condition, had higher odds of extended LOS than other MH-related presentations (AOR 1.77, 95% CI 1.59-1.98). Patients with MH presentations that required urgent evaluation (triage levels 1-2) had higher odds of extended LOS (AOR 1.38, 95% CI 1.15-1.65) compared to triage level 3, whereas those with triage levels 4-5 had lower odds (AOR 0.66, 95% CI 0.58-0.74). Further, patients with MH-related presentations that came by ambulance (compared to other mode of presentations) and presentations that happened at night and late at night (compared to early morning and daytime presentations). The odds of extended LOS were considerably lower during the COVID-19 period compared to the pre-COVID-19 period (AOR 0.74, 95% CI 0.67-0.82). Additionally, extended paediatric LOS for MH issues in the ED showed notable hospital-level heterogeneity. Conclusion: A large proportion of extended LOS in ED and sociodemographic disparities reflect inequality in access to paediatric MH care. Our findings highlight the need for equitable distribution of resources directed towards at-risk CYP to improve MH outcomes and reduce health system burden.

This paper presents additional results of the generalized bathtub model for urban networks, including a simpler derivation and exact solutions for uniformly distributed trip lengths. It is shown that in steady state this trip-based model is equivalent to the more parsimonious accumulation-based model, and that the trip-length distribution has merely a transient effect on traffic dynamics, which converge to the same point in the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD). To understand the statistical properties of the system, a queueing approximation method is proposed to compute the network accumulation variance. It is found that (i) the accumulation variance is much larger than predicted by traditional queueing models, due to the nonlinear dynamics imposed by the MFD, (ii) the trip-length distribution has no effect on the accumulation variance, indicating that the proposed formula for the variance might be universal, (iii) the system exhibits critical behavior near the capacity state where the variance diverges to infinity. This indicates that the tools from critical phenomena and phase transitions might be useful to understand congestion in cities.

Background: Shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is observed in multiple age-related diseases, which are also associated with vitamin D deficiency (i.e., osteosarcopenia, neurocognitive disorders, cancer, osteoarthritis, etc.), which suggests a close association. In this study, we examined the relationship between vitamin D levels and LTL in older participants of the UK Biobank. Methods: Data were collected from the UK Biobank. Participants aged 60 and older (n=148,321) were included. Baseline LTL was measured using a multiplex qPCR technique and expressed as the ratio of the telomere amplification product (T) to that of a single-copy gene (S) (T/S ratio). Se-rum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) was stratified by z score and linked to LTL in a linear regression model adjusting for covariates. Results: Compared to the medium level, a low (in the range of 16.6 nmol/L, 29.7 nmol/L) or extremely low (≤ 16.6 nmol/L) level of serum 25OHD was associated with shorter LTL: 0.018 SD (standardized β= -0.018, 95% CI -0.033 to -0.003, P=0.022) and 0.048 SD (standardized β= -0.048, 95% CI -0.083 to -0.014, P=0.006), respectively. Additionally, the high serum 25OHD groups (> 95.9 nmol/L) had 0.038 SD (standardized β= -0.038, 95% CI -0.072 to -0.004, P=0.030) shorter mean LTL than the group with medium 25OHD levels. The associations above were adjusted for multiple variables. Conclusion: In this population-based study, we identified an inverted U-shape relationship between LTL and vitamin D status. Whether high or low vitamin D-associated shorter LTL is mechanistically related to age-related conditions remains to be elucidated.

Studying Active Transportation (AT) is widespread in America and Europe's research and stud-ies that include Latent variables (LV) are growing to identify exact results of finding what to do to increase the utility of AT. LVs help us to have more accurate research. LVs are defined as psy-chological factors like feeling safe while you ride at night and thus they are not subjective and hard to understand but very important to increase the utility of using AT modes. In this study, most of the previous studies about bicycling have been reviewed. In this research, different var-iables including subjective and LVs are conducted for maximizing the use of bicycle utility and introduced to have better sight for future researchers to deal with modeling AT mode choice. Results represent the importance of having 'will' for using a bicycle, especially in difficult situa-tions and cultural barriers that affect the cycling of women.

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the use of control charts as a feedback process monitoring technique. Particularly, CUSUM schemes have been proven to be efficient for monitoring processes where the magnitude of the sustained mean shifts is small or moderate. However, because of the constant control limits, the detection ability of CUSUM schemes becomes slow at the initial set-up of the process. The fast initial response FIR feature has often been used to enhance it at the process startup. Meanwhile, the dynamism of real-life problems has always encouraged a more sensitive CUSUM scheme capable of detecting process shifts more rapidly. In this paper, an improved CUSUM scheme for monitoring process mean is proposed. This scheme will be substantial for monitoring processes whose observations are obtained at a distant time interval for example hourly, daily or weekly and where the sustained shifts are assumed to be small or moderate. To demonstrate the practical applications of the proposed scheme, we present its real-life application using datasets from a bottling company and petroleum refinery laboratory.

The paper aims to study the workflow of the detection center of stealthy attacks on industrial installations that generate increase in energy consumption while avoiding triggering fault detection and damaging the installation. Such long-lasting attacks on industrial facilities make production more expensive and less competitive. We present the concept of the remote detection system of cyberattacks directed at maliciously changing the controlled variable in an industrial process air conditioning system. The monitored signals are gathered at the PLC-controlled installation and sent to the remote detection system, where the discrepancies of signals are analyzed based on the Control Performance Assessment indices. The results of performed tests prove the legitimacy of the adopted approach.

The turbulent Poiseuille flow between two parallel plates is one of the simplest possible physical situations, and it has been studied intensively. In this paper, we propose a modified Prandtl-van Driest mixing length that satisfies both boundary conditions and wall damping effects. With our new formulations, we numerically solve the problem and, moreover, propose an approximate analytical solution of mean velocity. As applications of our solution, an approximate analytical friction coefficient of turbulent Poiseuille flow is proposed.

Oncological patients need the proper doses of medications to facilitate their recovery. The two basic approaches used in dosing Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs) are fixed-dose combination and variable dosing. In Fixed-Dose Combination Drugs (FDCs), two or more active components are combined in a single formulation at a predetermined dose. Variable dosage, which has long been the industry standard, is the polar opposite of this approach. The body changes over time; the Body Surface Area (BSA) in square meters is often used as a Measure (m2). This study uses a systematic review. Most mAbs used in oncology are predominantly given as cytotoxic anticancer drugs using body-size-based (variable) regimens. Despite the benefits of fixed-dose, variable dosing has become the industry standard, despite being criticized for ineffectiveness. While variable dosing has some advantages, the prevalent view is that continuous dosing has significant advantages based on the balance of probabilities. After assessing each alternative, including its benefits and drawbacks, history of use, and suitability in the current context, fixed dosing emerges as a viable option.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques are widely used to identify pure substances and probe protein dynamics. Edible oil is a complex mixture composed of hydrocarbons, which have a wide range of molecular size distribution. In this research, low field NMR (LF-NMR) relaxation characteristic data of various sample oils were analyzed. We also suggest a new method for prediction size of edible oil molecules using LF-NMR relaxation time distributions. According to the relative molecular mass, carbon chain length, transverse relaxation time of different sample oils, combined with oil viscosity and other factors, the relationship between carbon chain length and transverse relaxation time rate was analyzed. Various oils and fats in the mixed fluid are displayed, reflecting the composition information of different oils. To study the correlation between the rotation correlation time and molecular information of oil molecules. The molecular composition of the resulting fluid determines its properties, such as viscosity and phase behavior. The results show that low-field NMR can obtain information on the composition, macromolecular aggregation, and molecular dynamics of complex fluids. Measurements of grease in the free fluid state show that the relaxation time can reflect the intrinsic properties of the fluid. It is shown that the composition characteristics and states of complex fluids can be measured by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance.

: Seasonal influenza (a.k.a flu) is responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality across the globe. The three recognized pathogens that cause epidemics during the winter season are influenza A, B and C. The influenza virus is particularly dangerous due to its mutability. Vaccines are an effective tool in preventing seasonal influenza, and their formulas are updated yearly according to WHO recommendations. However, in order to facilitate decision-making in the planning of the intervention, policymakers need information on the projected costs and quantities related to introducing the influenza vaccine, in order to help governments obtain an optimal allocation of the vaccine each year. In this paper, an approach based on a Controlled Elitism Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (CENSGA) model is introduced to optimize the allocation of influenza vaccination. A bi-objective model is formulated to control the infection volume, and reduce the unit cost of the vaccination campaign. An SIR (Susceptible–Infected–Recovered) model is employed for representing a potential epidemic. The model constraints are based on the epidemiological model, time management, and vaccine quantity. A two-phase optimization process is proposed: guardian control followed by contingent controls. The proposed approach is an evolutionary metaheuristic multi-objective optimization algorithm with a local search procedure based on a hash table. Moreover, in order to optimize the scheduling of a set of policies over a predetermined time to form a complete campaign, an extended CENSGA is introduced with a variable-length chromosome (VLC) along with mutation and crossover operations. To validate the applicability of the proposed CENSGA, it is compared with the classical Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). The results are analyzed using graphical and statistical comparisons in terms of cardinality, convergence, distribution and spread quality metrics, illustrating that the proposed CENSGA is effective and useful for determining the optimal vaccination allocation campaigns.

The absolute time and relative time are defined in terms of the 4-D Euclidean space. Our universe is the 3-D x₁x₂x₃ quantized photon space which follows the absolute time simultaneity when the universe moves along the absolute time axis of ct. The length expansion of Dx = gDx₀ is derived under the condition of the absolute time (ct) simultaneity. From the similarity between this length expansion of Dx = gDx₀ and the energy increasing of E = gE₀, it is assumed that the energy is proportional to the particle size of Dx. The extension of this assumption to the 4-D Euclidean space gives the new definition that the particle energy (E) is the 4-D volume. Then, the particle mass energy is defined as E= mc² = cDtDV = gE₀. The masses of the elementary particles are originated from the 4-D warped volume of the photon space because the particle is the warped photon space with the velocity of v < c. Therefore, the Higgs boson concept in the standard model (SM) is not needed in the present 3-D quantized space model (TQSM). The scalar boson with the spin of zero, photon with the spin of 1 and graviton with the spin of 2 are the two-boson states. Therefore, the observed Higgs boson is reinterpreted as the two-boson state of the scalar boson with the spin of zero. The cosmic muon observation and twin paradox are explained by using the absolute time and relative time. The relative time is the observed time in the twin paradox and cosmic muon observation. In the twin paradox, a person who travels the long distance is more aged than a person on the earth in terms of the relative time ages because of the space and time conversion effect (STCE effect) of the moving space distance (x). But twins are in the same ages in terms of the absolute time without STCE effect. The fast-moving cosmic muon has the expanded half-life from the time expansion of the relative time. Also, the quantum entanglement and Pauli exclusion principle are explained. The quantum base of the photon space line connects two entangled particles. Two particles and quantum base system is fluctuated along the absolute time axis by the time clicking when one particle is measured. Another particle is instantly selected by the time clicking. This is called as the quantum entanglement. The photons which are the flat photon space with the constant speed of c along the space axis and absolute time axis have the 4-D photon velocity of c_eff = 2^0.5 c. Total 10-D Euclidean space including three 3-D quantized spaces and one absolute time axis is required for the electric charges (EC), lepton charges (CC) and color charges (CC) of the elementary particles. The 3-D photon space is very stiff along the absolute time (ct) axis and very soft along the space axes. The Coulomb force through the photons (2EM waves) of the space fluctuations is much stronger than the Gravitational force through the gravitons (G waves) of the time fluctuations between two electrons.

Background and objectives: The impact of prenatal exposure to polycyclicaromatic 17 hydrocarbons (PAHs) on birth outcomes as weight, length, head circumference, placenta 18 weight, and Apgar. Materials and Methods: Two cohorts of children born in the years 2013 and 19 2014 in Karvina (Northern Moravia, N=144) and Ceske Budejovice (Southern Bohemia, 20 N=198), were studied for the relationship between the prenatal exposure to PAHs and growth 21 parameters up to two years of age. PAHs exposure was evaluated according to the concentration 22 of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) in polluted air and monohydroxylated PAH metabolites (OH-PAHs) 23 in urine of newborns as well as their mothers. Data of growth parameters were obtained from 24 pediatric questionnaires up to 24 months. 25 Results: Concentrations of B[a]P were significantly higher in Karvina (p<0.001). OH-26 PAH metabolites were significantly higher in the mothers´ as well as in the newborns´ urine in 27 Karvina. The length was shorter in newborns in Karvina at birth (p<0.001), but this difference 28 was straightened out during next 3 to 24 months. Birth weight at the delivery did not differ 29 between newborns in Karvina and Ceske Budejovice. Newborns in both locations significantly 30 decreased their weight gain between birth and 3 months after delivery. OH-PAHs metabolites 31 in mother’s or newborn’s urine did not affect birth weight. Top 25% values of concentrations 32 of 2-OH-FLUO, 1-OH-NAP, 2-OH-NAP, 1-OH-PHEN, 2-OH-PHEN, 3-OH-PHEN, 4-OH-33 PHEN, and the sum of all-OH-PAHs higher than median in the newborns´ urine decreased their 34 length. 2-OH-PHEN top 25% of concentrations in the newborns´ urine decreased their head 35 circumference, 2-OH-FLUO, 1-OH-NAP, 2-OH-NAP, 1-OH-PHEN, 2-OH-PHEN, 3-OH-36 PHEN, 4-OH-PHEN, 9-OH-PHEN, 1-OH-PYR, and all-OH-PAHs decreased placenta weight; 37 2-OH-FLUO, 1-OH-NAP, 2-OH-NAP, 1-OH-PHEN, 2-OH-PHEN, 3-OH-PHEN, 4-OH-38 PHEN, and all-OH-PAHs decreased Apgar 5´. Conclusions: We observed that higher 39 concentration of PAHs determined as OH-PAHs metabolites in newborns´ urine decreased their 40 length, head circumference, placenta weight, and Apgar 5´, but did not affect birth weight.

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.

In the speed control system of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) without a speed sensor, the speed under the traditional PI control suffers from poor tracking performance and step response overshoot. This paper proposes a Compound Variable Structure PI (CVSPI) controller to improve the system control performance. It can choose whether to include an integral term according to the size of the system deviation to speed up the response. It also introduces a Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) speed observer in the controller to estimate the speed and adaptively adjust the size of the anti-integration saturation gain to improve the dynamic response following performance and immunity of the system. A feed-forward link is added for a given input differential to achieve an accurate answer to time-varying inputs. As the linear compensation matrix of the conventional MRAS is a unit matrix, the speed can only be accurately observed in a specific speed range. In this paper, a new linear compensation matrix is designed, and a new speed adaptive law is derived, allowing the improved MRAS to measure speed over a wide range accurately. Simulation results validate the excellent control performance of the CVSPI and the accuracy of the enhanced MRAS over a wide speed range.

Background: Multi-drug resistance organisms (MDRO) often cause increased morbidity, mortality, and length of stays (LOS). However, there is uncertainty whether the infection of MDRO increase the morbidity, mortality, and ICU-LOS. Objective: This study performed to determine the prevalence of MDRO in ICU, site of infection and the association of MDRO or site of infection with mortality. Secondary outcome was determined by ascertaining the association of MDRO or site of infection with (ICU-LOS). Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed with adult sepsis patients in ICU. Univariate and multivariate (MVA) logistic regression with cox regression modeling were performed to compute the association of MDRO on ICU-mortality. MVA modelling was performed for ICU-LOS predictors. Results: Out of 228 patients, the isolated MDRO was 97 (42.5%) of which 78% were gram-negative bacteria. The mortality rate among those with MDRO was 85 (37.3%). The hospital acquired infection (HAI) was significantly predictor for ICU-LOS in univariate linear regression (R² = 0.034, P=0.005). In MVA linear regression, both Enterococcus faecalis infection and acinetobacter baumannii (AC) -MDRO were predictors for ICU-LOS with (R² = 0.478, P<0.05). In the univariate cox regression, only the infection with AC- MDRO was a risk factor for ICU-mortality with [ HR =1.802 (95% CI: 1.2 – 2.706; P = 0.005)]. Conclusions: Identifying risk factors for MDRO highlight the appropriate administration of empirical antibiotics and effectively control of source of infection which would reduce mortality and ICU-LOS. The usage of broad- spectrum antibiotics should be limited for those having substantial risk factors to acquire MDRO.

Evolutionary, sequence and structural analyses of tRNA variable (V) loops provides a new understanding. Type I tRNA V loops have a primordial length of 5 nt, and type II tRNA V loops have a primordial length of 14 nt. Sequence-based alignments of type I and type II V loops gave deceptive results. Type II V loops are characterized by the trajectory of the V arm, the size and sequence of the loop and the first and last V loop nucleotides and their known contacts. Depending on the V arm trajectory, type II V stems and loops can be interaction sites for aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. So, type II V arms for tRNALeu, tRNASer and tRNATyr (found in Bacteria) were coevolved and selected to distinguish determinants to support cognate tRNA charging. The alignment of type I and type II V loops was adjusted based on tRNA evolution. Results are consistent with Archaea being an older and simpler life form than Bacteria. TRNAome sequences were derived from radiation of an ordered tRNAPri (Pri for primordial) sequence comprised of known RNA repeats and inverted repeats. V loop and tRNA sequences, therefore, convey a history of the primary successful pathway in the origin of life.

In the speed control system of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) without a speed sensor, the speed under the traditional PI control suffers from poor tracking performance and step response overshoot. This paper proposes a Compound Variable Structure PI (CVSPI) controller to improve the system control performance. It can choose whether to include an integral term according to the size of the system deviation to speed up the response. It also introduces a Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) speed observer in the controller to estimate the speed and adaptively adjust the size of the anti-integration saturation gain to improve the dynamic response following performance and immunity of the system. A feed-forward link is added for a given input differential to achieve an accurate answer to time-varying inputs. As the linear compensation matrix of the conventional MRAS is a unit matrix, the speed can only be accurately observed in a specific speed range. In this paper, a new linear compensation matrix is designed, and a new speed adaptive law is derived, allowing the improved MRAS to measure speed over a wide range accurately. Simulation results validate the excellent control performance of the CVSPI and the accuracy of the enhanced MRAS over a wide speed range.

Law of conservation of energy is the most well-established law of modern physics. But, inflationary cosmological model which assumes the universe to be created from a point of singularity has not been able to identify the source of energy for creation of this universe. As per uncertainty principle, a quantum vacuum fluctuation can at most create energy of ~10^-8 kg in a Planck time of ~5.4 ×10^-44 s whereas total positive energy due to matter/vacuum existing in the universe is more than ~10⁵⁴ kg. To solve this problem, we have recently published a new cosmological model (Biswaranjan Dikshit, Canadian Journal of Physics, 100, 218-225, [2022]) in which we have mathematically proved that the total energy of the universe can be zero right from the beginning of the universe to till date due to negative gravitational potential energy and thus law of conservation of energy can be satisfied during creation of the universe from nothing. In this article, starting from a simple argument, we explain why net energy of the universe can be zero only in our model, not in standard cosmological model. An interesting fact pointed out in this paper is that the factor ~10⁶² by which radius of universe has increased from its starting value of ~10^-36 m to present value of ~10²⁶ m is same as the factor by which positive energy has increased from Planck energy ~10^-8 kg to present value ~10⁵⁴ kg. This is in agreement with our new model that predicts the positive energy of universe to be proportional to the radius of universe. We also bring out to the notice that zero energy universe is possible only if smallest possible length in nature is, l_min=l_p(π/2)^1/2 = 2.0×10^-35 m. Minimum possible length is important in theory of quantum gravity and string theory.

Surface water availability is a fundamental environmental variable to implement effective climate adaptation and mitigation plans, as expressed by scientific, financial and political stakeholders. Recently published requirements urge the need for homogenised access to long historical records at a global scale, together with the standardised characterisation of the accuracy of observations. While satellite altimeters offer world coverage measurements, existing initiatives and online platforms provide derived water level data. However, these are sparse, particularly in complex topographies. This study introduces a new methodology in two steps 1) teroVIR, a virtual station extractor for a more comprehensive global and automatic monitoring of water bodies, and 2) teroWAT, a multi-mission, interoperable water level processor, for handling all terrain types. L2 and L1 altimetry products are used, with state-of-the-art retracker algorithms in the methodology. The work presents a benchmark between teroVIR and current platforms in West Africa, Kazakhastan and the Arctic: teroVIR shows an unprecedented increase from 55% to 99% in spatial coverage.A large-scale validation of teroWAT results in an average of unbiased root mean square error ubRMSE of 0.638 m on average for 36 locations in West Africa. Traditional metrics (ubRMSE, median, absolute deviation, Pearson coefficient) disclose significantly better values for teroWAT when compared with existing platforms, of the order of 8 cm and 5% improved respectively in error and correlation. teroWAT shows unprecedented excellent results in the Arctic, using a L1 products based algorithm instead of L2 one, reducing the error of almost 4 m on average. To further compare teroWAT with existing methods, a new scoring option, teroSCO, is presented, measuring the quality of the validation of time series transversally and objectively across different strategies. Finally, teroVIR and teroWAT are implemented as platform-agnostic modules and used by flood forecasting and river discharge methods as relevant examples. A review of various applications for miscellaneous end-users is given, tackling the educational challenge raised by the community.

In this paper, the functional variable method is used to establish solitary wave solutions and periodic wave solutions of the loaded quadratic non-linear Klein-Gordon equation, the loaded cubic non-linear Klein-Gordon equation and the loaded coupled non-linear Klein-Gordon equation. All solutions of these equations have been examined and three dimensional graphics of the obtained solutions have been drawn by using the Matlab software. The main advantage of the proposed functional variable method over other methods is that it provides more new exact traveling wave solutions along with additional free parameters. The graphical representations of the soliton solutions and the periodic wave solutions by using distinct values of random parameter are demonstrated to better understand their physical features. The exact solutions have its great importance to reveal the internal mechanism of the physical phenomena.

On a bleak therapeutic landscape unchanged since the 1980’s, IVF with egg donation still stand as the lone medical answer to diminished reserve and premature ovarian insufficiency. Intraovarian platelet-rich plasma (PRP) crossed the horizon in 2016 as hopeful answer to these intertwined problems. The once remote mirage of platelet cytokine effects on gene regulation or telomere stabilization is now in sharper focus, and current work is clarifying how PRP corrects oxidative stress, rectifies tissue hypoxia, downregulates apoptosis, and enhances cellular metabolism. Not yet ready for routine use, this investigational treatment does offer one point of general agreement: How intraovarian PRP results should be classified—Patients are either responders or non-responders. From this, it is intriguing that no published PRP protocol has reported a supranormal ovarian rebound or hyperstimulation effect. This could be explained by baseline age-related ovarian conditions prevalent among poor responders, but since dysregulated or malignant transformations are also absent in other tissue contexts following autologous PRP treatment, the contribution of some platelet product which intrinsically delimits regenerative action cannot be discounted. Here we summarize results with recent experimental and clinical platelet research, framing those most likely to help advance reproductive endocrinology practice.

Photoplethysmography is a widely used technique to noninvasively assess heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. This technique has a large potential for further applications, for example in the field of physiological and mental health monitoring. However, advanced applications of photoplethysmography have been hampered by the lack of accurate and reliable methods to analyze the characteristics of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the photoplethysmogram. Methods of nonlinear time series analysis may be used to estimate the dynamical characteristics of the photoplethysmogram but they are highly influenced by the length of the time series, which is often limited in practical photoplethysmography applications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the error in the estimation of the dynamical characteristics of the photoplethysmogram associated to the limited length of the time series. The dynamical properties were evaluated using recurrence quantification analysis, and the estimation error was computed as a function of the length of the time series. Results demonstrated that properties such as de-terminism and entropy can be estimated with an error lower than 1% even for short photople-thysmogram recordings. Additionally, the lower limit for the time series length to estimate the average prediction time was computed.

A century-old scientific conundrum is solved in this paper. The Prandtl mixing length modelled plane boundary turbulent flow is described by: $\frac{du^+}{d{y^+} }+\kappa^2{y^+} ^2\left( \frac{du^+}{d{y^+} }\right)^2=1$, together with boundary condition $ {y^+} =0:\, u^+=0$. Only an approximate solution to this nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) has been sought so far, however, the exact solution to this ODE has not been obtained. By introducing a transformation, $2\kappa y^+=\sinh \xi$, I successfully find the exact solution of the ODE as follows: $u^+=\frac{1}{\kappa}\ln(2\kappa {y^+} +\sqrt{1+4\kappa^2{y^+} ^2})-\frac{2{y^+} }{1+\sqrt{1+4\kappa^2{y^+} ^2}}$.

In this work, the hypothesis that the universe is made up of 4-dimensional spheres of space, whose diameter is the Planck length, allows us to calculate most of the constants used in current physical theories. Calculated constants include: elementary charge, fine structure constant, electron mass, Planck constant, gravitational constant, electrical constant, Boltzmann constant, mass and charge of up and down quarks, muon mass, and Higgs boson. All of these depend on the speed of light and the Planck length, which shows that all the constants are related and not due to chance.

Export participation and restricted access to external formal credit are two factors attracting meticulous attention from researchers and policymakers, especially in developing countries. Exploring the interactive relationship of these factors in both the static and dynamic models is the purpose of this study. The study uses data sets from small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam for the period 2009 - 2015. The instrumental variable approach is implemented to deal with the endogenous variable problem in the model. The results show an effect of credit constraint on the firms’ exporting status, and continuous exports are likely to reduce the limit of credit constraint.

Recently, fasting has been spotlighted from a healthcare perspective. However, the de-tailed biological mechanisms and significance by which the effects of fasting confer health benefits are not yet clear. Due to certain advantages of zebrafish, as a vertebrate model widely utilized in biological studies, we used mRNA-sequencing and bioinformatics analysis to examine comprehensive gene expression changes in skeletal muscle tissues during fasting-refeeding. Our results produced a novel set of nutrition-related genes under a fasting-refeeding protocol. We found five dramatically upregulated genes in each fasting (for 24 hours) and refeeding (after 3 hours), exhibiting a rapid response to the provided conditional changes. The assessment of the gene length revealed, the gene set whose expression was elevated only after 3 hours of refeeding had a shorter length, suggesting that nutrition-related gene function is associated with gene length. Taken together, our results from bioinformatics analyses provide new insights into biological mechanisms induced by fasting-refeeding conditions within zebrafish skeletal muscle.

This study examines the spatial impact of FDI on the poverty of 44 African countries. In achieving this, the study uses the Driscoll-Kraay fixed effect instrumental variable regression, instrumental variable generalised method of moments estimator (IV-GMM), and the spatial durbin model. The empirical investigation of this study yielded four significant findings: (1) neighbouring countries’ FDI has a positive and significant impact on the incidence and intensity of host country’s poverty. (2) Improved institutional quality in neighbouring countries has a significant impact on FDI-poverty reduction nexus of the host country. (3) the empirical results lend support for a significant spatial spillover of poverty in the region. (4) the marginal effect results indicate that countries within the region are no longer in isolation or independent, i.e., the level of poverty in a particular country is influenced by its determinants in the neighbouring country. This result is robust to the alternative proximity matrix, which is the inverse distance. Since there is spatial interdependence among African countries, we recommend that African governments through the African Union (AU) should not only champion the institutional reform in the region, but also establish a binding mechanism to ensure reform implementation.

Stage of cancer is a discrete ordinal response that indicates aggressiveness of disease and is often used by physicians to determine the type and intensity of treatment to be administered. For example, the FIGO stage in cervical cancer is based on the size and depth of the tumor as well as the level of spread. It may be of clinical relevance to identify molecular features from high-throughput genomic assays that are associated with stage of cervical cancer, to elucidate pathways related to tumor aggressiveness, identify improved molecular features that may be useful for staging, and identify therapeutic targets. High-throughput RNA-Seq data and corresponding clinical data (including stage) for cervical cancer patients has been made available through The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA). We recently described penalized Bayesian ordinal response models that can be used for variable selection for over-parameterized datasets such as the TCGA-CESC dataset. Herein, we describe our ordinalbayes R package, available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN), which is capable of fitting cumulative logit models when the outcome is ordinal and the number of predictors exceeds the sample size, P>N, such as for TCGA data. We demonstrate use of this package through application to TCGA cervical cancer dataset. Our ordinalbayes package can be used to fit models to high-dimensional dataset and effectively performs variable selection.

Regression models are mostly used in all fields of sciences for modelling the relationship between a dependent variable and independent variable(s). The least square method is often used to estimate the parameters in a linear model because it is the best linear unbiased estimator. These estimates can only be reliable if the assumption of normality is satisfied. In some cases the dependent variable might be bimodal and shows a non-linear relationship with the independent variable(s). In this case, a non-linear model should be used. In non-linear model, the standard errors are often obtained by linearizing the nonlinear function around the parameter, assuming central limit theorem. After the linearization, the least square parameter estimates are obtained. It should be noted that the error of the non-linear model is different from that of the transformed linear model. Thus, there is a need to transform back to the original non-linear model. In this note, a novel non-linear function was developed into a non-linear regression model, called Normal-Power model. The least square method was used to estimate the parameter of the transformed model. Its usefulness in regression model was demonstrated using real data of Nigeria Economy-Tourism model.

For its enthusiasts, the blockchain is an archivist's dream come true: an immutable historical record that is publicly accessible and immune from censorship. Proposals like Juried Protocol Galleries could enable bots to compute the provenance of digital artworks and their appearance in exhibitions and publications. Distributed file systems like IPFS claim to store creative works in a redundant, networked fashion outside the control of any single cloud provider. Projects designed to work with blockchains like Filecoin and Arweave propose a dedicated cryptocurrency as financial incentive to support the cost of governing and sustaining this "permaweb." As dreamy as this picture sounds, many of these promises depend on technologies that have yet to be sufficiently developed or adopted. Rather than forecast the future, we can separate the hype from the reality in the present day by examining a real-life example, namely the 2021 auction of Andy Warhol's digital art with NFTs. This essay will focus less on blockchain's general promise as a preservation medium and more on the particular case of the digital Warhols, which both in form and spirit would seem a perfect application of NFTs to preserve historically important works of digital art. Which promises of the crypto-dream of permanent access to digital heritage ring true for this case study, and which are overblown?

The exact similarity solutions (also called as special exact solutions) of two dimensional laminar boundary layer were obtained by Blasius in 1908, however, no similarity solutions for two dimensional turbulent boundary layers have been reported in the literature. With the help of dimensional analysis and invariance principle, Prandtl mixing length $\ell=\kappa y$ for one dimensional turbulent boundary layer is extended to $\ell(x,y)=\kappa y (1-\frac{y}{\delta})\sqrt{\frac{\nu}{U\delta}} $ for the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, furthermore, with a similarity transformation, we successfully transform the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers partial differential equations into a single ordinary differential equation $f'''+ ff''+\beta(1-f'^2)+\kappa^2[\eta^2(1-\eta)^2f''|f''|]'=0$. As an application, similarity solutions of the two dimensional turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate at zero incidence have been studied in detail. To solve the ordinary differential equation numerically, a complete Maple code is provided.

Planck's constant plays an important role in quantum mechanics but has little physical meaning apart from its contribution to the formulas. Evaluating each of the constant's unit dimensions gives a more granular account of the physical phenomena described by the equations. These formulas show how classical and quantum mechanical equations are related, and they give consistent descriptions of phenomena like momentum and energy in classical and quantum systems.

The exact similarity solutions of two dimensional laminar boundary layer were obtained by Blasius in 1908, however, for two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, no similarity solutions (special exact solutions) have ever been found. In the light of Blasius' pioneer works, we extend Blasius similarity transformation to the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, and successfully transform the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers partial differential equations into a single ordinary differential equation. By author's Maple code, we numerically solve the ordinary differential equation and produce some useful quantities.

The variable-length arbitrary Lagrange-Euler (ALE)-ANCF finite element, which employ nonrational interpolating polynomials, cannot exactly describe the rational cubic Bezier curves such as conic and circular curves. The rational absolute nodal coordinate formulation (RANCF) finite element, whose reference length (undeformed length) is constant, can exactly represent the rational cubic Bezier curves. A new variable-length finite element called the ALE-RANCF finite element, which is capable of accurately describe the rational cubic Bezier curves, is proposed by combining the desirable features of the ALE-ANCF and RANCF finite element. In order to control the reference length of ALE-RANCF element within a suitable range, element segmentation and merging schemes are proposed. It is demonstrated that exact geometry and mechanic is maintained after the ALE-RANCF element is divided into two shorter ones, and compared with the ALE-ANCF elements, there are smaller deviations and oscillations after two ALE-RANCF elements are merged into a longer one. Numerical examples are presented and the feasibility and advantages of the ALE-RANCF finite element are demonstrated.

The aim of the studies was to test the hydraulic pressure losses along the length, local pressure losses, absolute and relative roughness values of the pipeline walls made of modern polymer material. The article presents the results of the experimental studies of hydraulic resistance of pipelines from modern polymer materials, the method of theoretical determination of resistance coefficients in the VALTEC ISO 21003 metal polymer pipeline, the classification and method of determining the values of local hydraulic resistance coefficients of T-Junctions are given, the dependence for determining the Darcy λ hydraulic friction coefficient associated with the value of the equivalent hydraulic roughness coefficient of the inner surface of pipes and the Reynolds number. The experimental data of the hydraulic coefficient of friction Darcy λ was compared with the known theoretical relationships of A.D. Altschul, Colbrooke for smooth pipes, Colbrooke and White, an alternative to the Colbrooke-White, Offengenden equation for low-shear pipes and pipes from polymer materials with Reynolds numbers Re>10^4. Dependence of hydraulic coefficient of friction on relative equivalent roughness of pipeline walls and Reynolds number, specific energy loss per one linear meter on total flow rate in system of hydraulically short pipeline is obtained. The empirical dependence of values of coefficients of local resistance ζ=f(Q2/Q3) from a ratio of the divided expenses of Q2/Q3 of the equal-pass T-Junction α=90 the pipeline to a branch up, on pass in the direct T-Junction and division of streams at various internal pipeline diameters of VALTEC.

Adipor1^tm1Dgen and Mfrp^rd6 mutant mice share similar eye disease characteristics. Previously, studies established a functional relationship of ADIPOR1 and MFRP proteins in maintaining retinal lipidome homeostasis and visual function. However, the independent and/or interactive contribution of both the genes to similar disease phenotypes, including fundus spots, decreased axial length and photoreceptor degeneration has yet to be examined. We performed a gene-interaction study where homozygous Adipor1^tm1Dgen and Mfrp^rd6 mice were bred together and the resulting doubly heterozygous F1 offspring were intercrossed to produce 210 F2 progeny. Four-month-old mice from all nine genotypic combinations obtained in the F2 generation were assessed for white spots by fundus photo documentation, for axial length by caliper measurements, and for photoreceptor degeneration by histology. Two-way factorial ANOVA was performed to study individual as well as gene interaction effects on each phenotype. Here, we report the first observation of reduced axial length in Adipor1^tmlDgen homozygotes. We show that while Adipor1 and Mfrp interact to affect spotting and degeneration, they act independently to control axial length, highlighting the complex functional association between these two genes. Further examination of the molecular basis of this interaction may help in uncovering mechanisms by which these genes perturb ocular homeostasis.

The viscoelastic properties and structure parameters have been investigated for aqueous solutions of wormlike micelles of cationic surfactant erucyl bis(hydroxyethyl) methylammonium chloride with long C22 tail in the presence inorganic salt KCl. The salt content has been varied to estimate linear to branched transition conditions due to screening of the electrostatic interaction in the networks. The local cylindrical structure and low electrostatic repulsion was obtained by SANS data. The drastic power law dependencies of rheological properties on surfactant concentrations were obtained at intermediate salt content. Two power law regions were detected in semi-dilute solutions related to “unbreakable” and “living” micellar chains. The fast contour length growth with surfactant concentration was demonstrated that is in good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects the nervous system. Peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) are potential biomarkers of disability and neurological damage. The present work evaluated LTL and mtDNA-CN in 75 relapsing-remittent MS (RRMS) patients 50 of whom had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 0 to 3 (mild-moderate disability), and 25 had an EDSS of 3.5 to 7 (severe disability). Absolute LTL and absolute mtDNA-CN were measured via real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The LTL and mtDNA-CN were significantly lower in RRMS severe disability than in RRMS mild-moderate disability (3.924 ± 0.124 vs 2.854 ± 0.092, p<00001; 75.14 ± 1.77 vs 68.06 ± 1.608, p<0.00001, respectively). The LTL and mtDNA-CN showed a linear correlation in RRMS with mild-moderate disability (r=0.2986, p=0.0351). In addition, in a binary logistic regression model the LTL can predict severe disability (AUC=0.697, p=0.0031, cutoff ≤ 3.0875 Kb, sensitivity= 73.1%, specificity=62.5%), the prediction is improved by including age to the model (AUC=0.765, <0.0001, sensitivity=78.26%, specificity=81.25%). Aging is closely linked to the development of disability in RRMS and can be evaluated through LTL and mtDNA-CN absolute quantification.

Drought decreases grain yield of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], and understanding the mechanism(s) related to drought tolerance is critical for sustaining sorghum production. Variation in root and shoot traits associated with drought tolerance were analyzed to provide an integrated view of factors that underlie the drought tolerance of sorghum. The plants were grown in the root column up to the five-leaf stage, then exposed to either 0.9 fraction of transpirable soil water (FTSW) or 0.4 FTSW for five days. In another experiment, at the five-leaf stage, stress was imposed for 14 days. Various root and shoot traits associated with drought tolerance were recorded. The seminal root angle of IS13540 was lower (24.4) than IS23143 (42.6). Drought stress increased the maximum root length (40%) and total root length (58%) of IS13540 than its irrigated control. In contrast, the maximum root length and total root length were decreased in IS23143. Similarly, across the lines, drought stress decreased stomatal conductance (37%), transpiration rate (42%), photosynthetic rate (40%), photosystem II quantum yield (20%), photochemical quenching (44%), and total dry matter production (34%) than irrigated control. An increased transpiration rate was observed in IS23143 than IS13540 under irrigated and drought stress. In IS23143, the reduction in photosynthetic rate under drought may be a combination of stomatal and non-stomatal factors. However, in IS13540, the reduction is especially by the stomatal factors. It is evident that IS13540 is a drought-tolerant line, and tolerance is related to a deep prolific root system and reduced tran-spiration rate.

Variable nitrogen(N) rate fertilization based on remote sensing is challenging for cotton production fields, but active crop canopy sensors (ACS) appear as an alternative to make this practical on farm since they can be used at night as well. The crop spatial variability in inherent in crop production in general, and not on-the-go solutions can be used with this type of active sensing technologies. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of two vegetation indices to identify the N requirement variability for cotton plants and to develop prototype algorithms for topdressing nitrogen variable rate on commercial and experimental areas, using the N-sufficiency methodology based on virtual reference. The concept of virtual reference is to use a histogram to characterize the vegetation index of properly fertilized plants without establishing an N-rich plot as a reference strip. The experiment was conducted in strips with four different N rates (0, 45, 90 and 180 kgN ha^-1) during the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 crop seasons in partnership with large cotton producers in Mato Grosso and also in experimental area of Embrapa Agrosilvopastoral. Two algorithms for variable rate nitrogen fertilization for cotton were developed, namely: 1) N recommendation algorithm for cotton in commercial production system: N rate (kg.N ha^-1) = -234.79 ISN² + 49,879 ISN + 195.15; R² = 0.97; and 2) for cotton grown in experimental area: N dose (kgN ha^-1) = -174.73 ISN² - 107.21 ISN + 306.78; R² = 0.94.

We investigate the power of time series analysis based on a variety of information-theoretic approaches from statistics (AIC, BIC) and machine learning (Minimum Message Length) - and we then compare their efficacy with traditional time series model and with hybrids involving deep learning. More specifically, we develop AIC, BIC and Minimum Message Length (MML) ARMA (autoregressive moving average) time series models - with this Bayesian information-theoretic MML ARMA modelling already being new work. We then study deep learning based algorithms in time series forecasting, using Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), and we then combine this with the ARMA modelling to produce a hybrid ARMA-LSTM prediction. Part of the purpose of the use of LSTM is to seek capture any hidden information in the residuals left from the traditional ARMA model. We show that MML not only outperforms earlier statistical approaches to ARMA modelling, but we further show that the hybrid MML ARMA-LSTM models outperform both ARMA models and LSTM models.

This study empirically investigates the effect of productive safety net programme (PSNP) on household food consumption and dietary diversity in Ethiopia. The study applied random effects with instrumental variable to estimate the effect of PSNP membership. The result of the study indicates that though PSNP membership improves household food consumption, it reduces household dietary diversity score. Household food consumption and dietary diversity are also significantly influenced by sex, age, education status of household head, household size, livestock ownership, distance to the nearest market and participation in non-farm activities. The findings of this study suggest that PSNP membership should be reinforced by building household awareness of the benefits of consuming a variety of foods. In addition, PSNP membership should be designed to endow the households to accumulate essential assets, especially livestock.

In many practical applications, it is more convenient to characterize the quality of production processes or service operations throughout the count of nonconformities. In the context of SPC, nonconformities are usually assumed to appear according to the binomial probability model. The conventional way for monitoring nonconformities involves Shewhart-type control procedures based on both constant and time-varying sample sizes. In this article, an EWMA scheme is proposed for monitoring the fraction of nonconforming items with time-varying sample sizes. The proposed control chart is referred to as the EWMAG-B and can be easily adapted to work with a constant sample size by fixing it at a needed value. By means of simulation, it was found out that the EWMAG-B chart outperforms the conventional p control chart in Phase II while detecting changes in the process level is wanted.

An axiomatic theory is proposed that reconciles the existence of an absolute scale for time (Planck time) and special relativity. According to this theory speed of light c becomes a variable which is proposed to be taken as the fifth dimension.

Polyphosphate (polyP) accumulating organisms (PAOs) are the key agent to perform enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activity, and intracellular polyP plays a key role in this process. Potential associations between EBPR performance and the polyP structure have been suggested, but are yet to be extensively investigated, mainly due to the lack of established methods for polyP characterization in the EBPR system. In this study, we explored and demonstrated that single-cell Raman spectroscopy (SCRS) can be employed for characterizing intracellular polyPs of PAOs in complex environmental samples such as EBPR systems. The results, for the first time, revealed distinct distribution patterns of polyP length (as Raman peak position) in PAOs in lab-scale EBPR reactors that were dominated with different PAO types, as well as among different full-scale EBPR systems with varying configurations. Furthermore, SCRS revealed distinctive polyP composition/features among PAO phenotypic sub-groups, which are likely associated with phylogenetic and/or phenotypic diversity in EBPR communities, highlighting the possible resolving power of SCRS at the microdiversity level. To validate the observed polyP length variations via SCRS, we also performed and compared bulk polyP length characteristics in EBPR biomass using conventional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and solution ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (³¹P-NMR) methods. The results are consistent with the SCRS findings and confirmed the variations in the polyP lengths among different EBPR systems. Compared to conventional methods, SCRS exhibited advantages as compared to conventional methods, including the ability to characterize in situ the intracellular polyPs at subcellular resolution in a label-free and non-destructive way, and the capability to capture subtle and detailed biochemical fingerprints of cells for phenotypic classification. SCRS also has recognized limitations in comparison with ³¹P-NMR and PAGE, such as the inability to quantitatively detect the average polyP chain length and its distribution. The results provided initial evidence for the potential of SCRS-enabled polyP characterization as an alternative and complementary microbial community phenotyping method to facilitate the phenotype-function (performance) relationship deduction in EBPR systems.

Modelling errors, robust stabilization/tracking problems under parameter and model uncertainties complicate the control of the flexible underactuated systems. Chattering-free sliding-mode based input-output control law realizes robustness against the structured and unstructured uncertainties in the system dynamics and avoids excitation of unmodeled dynamics. The main purpose is to propose a robust adaptive solution for stabilizing and tracking direct-drive (DD) flexible robot arms under parameter and model uncertainties, as well as external disturbances. A lightweight robot arm subject to external and internal dynamic effects was taken into consideration. The challenges are compensating actuator dynamics with the inverter switching effects and torque ripples, stabilizing the zero dynamics under parameter/model uncertainties and disturbances while precisely track the predefined reference position. The precise control of this kind of system demands an accurate system model and knowledge of all sources that excite unmodeled dynamics. For this purpose, equations of motion for a flexible robot arm were derived and formulated for the large motion via Lagrange’s method. The goals were determined to achieve high-speed, precise position control, and satisfied accuracy by compensating the unwanted torque ripple and friction that degrades performance through an adaptive robust control approach. The actuator dynamics and their effect on the torque output were investigated due to the transmitted torque to the load side. The high-performance goals, precision&robustness issues, and stability concerns were satisfied by using robust-adaptive input-output linearization-based control law combining chattering-free sliding mode control (SMC) while avoiding the excitation of unmodeled dynamics.

We aimed to reveal the disease burden of aphasia after acute ischemic stroke (AIS) at the national level and investigate the impact of aphasia on tertiary care resources and patient outcomes. The local database from the Cluj-Napoca Emergency County Hospital (CNECH), the second largest stroke center in Romania was used to export demographics, baseline clinical and laboratory data, inpatient length of stay (LOS), NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and discharge modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score data for all AIS patients admitted during March 2019. Of 92 patients included in the study, 30 (32.6 %) had aphasia on admission. In a marginally significant unadjusted hierarchical multiple regression model, individuals with aphasia had a LOS of 1.86 days longer than stroke survivors without aphasia. In an adjusted version of the model, the NIHSS score at baseline was a significant predictor for LOS. In addition, the presence of aphasia was associated with a 1.49 increase in the mean mRS score. Aphasia was a marginally significant predictor for increased LOS. Presence of aphasia was more likely to produce a poor functional outcome. Considering an estimated impact of approximately EUR 3 million on direct medical expenditure annually, future policymaking efforts should improve prevention of stroke and improved access to post-stroke aphasia care in Romania.

This work combines compressive sensing and short word-length techniques to achieve localization and target tracking in wireless sensor networks with energy-efficient communication between the network anchors and the fusion center. Gradient descent localization is performed using time-of-arrival (TOA) data which are indicative of the distance between anchors and the target thereby achieving range-based localization. The short word-length techniques considered are delta modulation and sigma-delta modulation. The energy efficiency is due to the reduction of the data volume transmitted from anchors to the fusion center by employing any of the two delta modulation variants with compressive sensing techniques. Delta modulation allows the transmission of one bit per TOA sample. The communication energy efficiency is increased by RⱮ, R≥1, where R is the sample reduction ratio of compressive sensing and Ɱ is the number of bits originally present in a TOA-sample word. It is found that the localization system involving sigma-delta modulation has a superior performance to that using delta-modulation or pure compressive sampling alone, in terms of both energy efficiency and localization error in the presence of TOA measurement noise, owing to the noise shaping property of sigma-delta modulation.

In this paper a new approximate procedure is developed for calculating the inclination angle of the end points of statically determinate beams. The method is based on the topology comparison of simple (hinge-roller combination) supported beam and a resemblant cantilever beam. Assuming that the support reactions of the beam are active forces, the virtual displacements at the points of the reaction forces are calculated. Based on these values the inclination angle is calculated. Several examples are considered and the suggested in this paper, while the procedure is applied for various types of structures and loadings. The results, obtained by the suggested numerical procedure, are compared with analytical ones, and they are in good agreement.

In this research article we solve the problem of synchronization and anti-synchronization of chaotic systems described by discrete and time-delayed variable fractional order differential equations. To guarantee the synchronization and anti-synchronization of these systems, we use the well-known PID control theory and the Lyapunov-Krasovskii stability theory for discrete systems of variable fractional order.We illustrate the results obtained through simulation with examples, in which it can be seen that our results are satisfactory, thus achieving synchronization and anti-synchronization of chaotic systems of variable fractional order with discrete time delay.

The paper interprets a comparison of two mostly used techniques of a field-oriented control for 6-phase electric drives, with their pros and cons, as well as their differences in construction and behaviour. Both of these approaches have been realized. Frequency and step responses analysis have been demonstrated with a 6-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine. Experimental results have been compared with simulations based on a mathematical model.

Keywords: underground engineering; numerical simulation; excavation length effect, major principal stress; displacement; damage initiation; CPU time

In this article, we assume that the beginning of the universe was before the Big Bang. In the beginning, all matter in the universe was combined in an infinitesimal spherical shape. This sphere was compressed to an incomprehensible value for a period, and then exploded and expanded time and space. We are referring to the negative time before the Big Bang. The evolution of the universe before the Big Bang, passing through the moment of the explosion to the end of the universe at the Big Rip, has been studied. In this article, we try to answer the questions; did the universe exist before the Big Bang? What is the origin of the universe and how did it arise? What are the stages of the evolution of the universe until the moment of the Big Rip? What is the length of time for the stages of this development?

Background: Spine shape parameters, such as leg length, kyphotic or lordotic angle, are influenced by low back pain. There is also evidence that the thoracolumbar fascia plays a role in such pa-thologies. This study examined the immediate effects of a myofascial release technique (MFR) on the thoracolumbar fascia and of an osteopathic treatment (OMT) on postural parameters in pa-tients with acute low back pain (aLBP). Methods: This study was a single-blind randomized pla-cebo-controlled trial. Seventy-one subjects (43.8 ± 10.5 years) suffering from aLBP were randomly and blinded assigned to three groups to be treated with MFR, OMT or a placebo intervention. Spinal shape parameters (functional leg length discrepancy (fLLD), kyphotic angle, lordotic an-gle) were measured before and after the intervention using video raster stereography. Results: Within the MFR group, fLLD reduced by 5.2 mm, p < 0.001 and kyphotic angle by 8.2 degrees, p < 0.001. Within the OMT group, fLLD reduced by 4.5 mm, p < 0.001 and kyphotic angle by 8.4 °, p = 0.007. Conclusion: MFR and OMT have an influence on fLLD and the kyphotic angle in aLBP patients. The interventions could have a regulating effect on the impaired neuromotor control of the lumbar muscles.