Most smallscale farmers still use the traditional way of agricultural crop farming, and relay mostly use of chemical fertilizers (CF). Recently CF have become expensive and could in some way have a negative impact on soil quality after long term application. However, co-application of biogas slurry (BGS) with CF could help reduce farming costs while improving dry matter yields, grain yields, primary macronutrient uptake of (Nitrogen) N, (Phosphorus) P, (Potasium) K, (Calcium) Ca and (Magnesium) Mg and soil concentration of pH, (organic carbon) OC, N, P, K, Ca and Mg after crop harvest. The study was a field experiment conducted in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 growing seasons. The field experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The treatments were based on percentages of recommended N rates of 120 kg N ha-1 for maize production. The BGS/CF treatments were (i) 0/0, (ii) 0/120, (iii) 24/96, (iv) 48/72, (v) 72/48, (vi) 96/24, (vii) 120/0 kg N ha-1. The spreading of the combination of BGS/CF treatments was performed by hand and incorporated into the top soil (0-10 cm) in each experimental plots. BGS/CF (48/72) treatment resulted into higher dry matter yield in 2016-2017, which was higher than all other treatment combinations, while in the 2017-2018 season, treatment of (0/120) resulted into higher dry matter than all other treatment combinations. The 48/72 and 0/120 treatments resulted into similar grain yield in 2016-2017 season which were higher than all other treatments. Treatments of 48/72, 72/48 and 120/0 had higher N, P, K, Ca and Mg uptake than 0/0, 0/120, 24/96 and 96/24 treatments in both seasons. Soil pH, total N, K, and Mg were high from the treatment of (120/0) than all other treatments in 2016-2017 while in the 2017-2018 season, treatment of (48/72) had higher OC, P and K after maize harvest. The findings of his study show that co-application of BGS/CF at 48/72 and 72/48 have maize yield benefits compared to the two resources, BGS/CF (120/0) and BGS/CF (0/120), applied separately in soil especially in the arid and semi-arid regions.

Canopy characteristics are crucial for accurately and safely determining the pesticide quantity and volume of water used for spray applications in vineyards. The inevitably high degree of intra-plot variability makes it difficult to develop a global solution for the optimal volume application rate. Here, the design procedure of, and the results obtained from, a variable rate application (VRA) sprayer are presented. Prescription maps were generated after detailed canopy characterization, using a multispectral camera embedded on an unmanned aerial vehicle, throughout the entire growing season in Torrelavit (Barcelona) in four vineyard plots of Chardonnay (2.35 ha), Merlot (2.97 ha), and Cabernet Sauvignonn (4.67 ha). The maps were obtained by merging multispectral images with information provided by DOSAVIÑA®, a decision support system, to determine the optimal volume rate. They were then uploaded to the VRA prototype, obtaining actual variable application maps after the application processes were complete. The prototype had an adequate spray distribution quality and exhibited similar results in terms of biological efficacy on powdery mildew compared to conventional (and constant) application volumes. The VRA results demonstrated an accurate and reasonable pesticide distribution, with potential for reduced disease damage even in cases with reduced amounts of plant protection products and water.

(1) In recent ten years, with the fast development of digital and engineering manufacturing technology, additive manufacturing has already been more and more widely used in the field of dentistry, from the first personalized surgical guides to the latest personalized restoration crowns and root implants. (2) Especially, the bioprinting of teeth and tissue is of great potential to realize organ regeneration and finally improve the life quality. (3) In this review paper, we firstly presented the workflow of additive manufacturing technology. Then we summarized main applications and recent research progresses of additive manufacturing in dentistry. (4) Lastly, we sketched out some challenges and future directions of additive manufacturing technology in dentistry.

On estimation scales ranging from 0.1 nm to 100 nm, the nanoscale is part of the capacitance components of the physical-synthetic and natural environment. Dimensionality, morphology, structure, uniformity, and agglomeration are all used to classify nanoparticles. Its functionality and effect on the environment and species are influenced by its shape and morphology. The priority research is to determine the effects of nanoparticles on any biological entity that is necessary when designing nanotechnology-based biotechnological and biomedical products. Bacteria have a remarkable ability to reduce metal ions, making them one of the most promising candidates for nanoparticle biosynthesis. Nanoparticles have been researched in the biomedical field for antimicrobial, biosensor, diagnostic imaging, and drug delivery applications. These natural technologies appear to be capable of producing stable nanoparticles with well-defined dimensions, morphologies, and compositions by optimizing reaction conditions and selecting the best bacteria. This work includes a list of the most commonly used microorganisms and associated Nanoparticles, as well as a discussion of current biotechnology and biomedical developments.

Ocean big data is the scientific practice of using big data technology in the marine field. Data from satellites, manned spacecraft, space stations, airship, unmanned aerial vehicles, shore-based radar and observation stations, exploration platforms, buoys, underwater gliders, submersibles, and submarine observation networks are seamlessly combined into the ocean’s big data. Increasing numbers of scholars have tried to fully analyze the ocean’s big data. To explore the key research technology knowledge graphs related to ocean big data, articles between 1990 and 2020 were collected from the “Web of Science”. By comparing bibliometric software and using the visualization software Cite-Space, the pivotal literature related to ocean big data, as well as countries, institutions, categories, and keywords, were visualized and recognized. Journal co-citation analysis networks can help determine the national distribution of core journals. Co-citation analysis networks for documents show authors who are influential at key technical levels. Key co-occurrence analysis network keywords can determine research hot spots and research frontiers. The three supporting elements of marine big data research are shown in the co-citation network. These elements are author, institution, and country. By examining the co-occurrence of keywords, the key technology research directions for future marine big data were determined.

Leishmania parasites present astonishing adaptative abilities that represent a matter of life or death within disparate environments during the heteroxenous parasite life cycle. From an evolutionary perspective, organisms develop methods of overcoming such challenges. Strategies that extend beyond the genetic diversity have been discussed and include variability between parasite cells during the infections of their hosts. The occurrence of Leishmania subpopulation fluctuations with variable structural genomic contents demonstrates that a single strain might shelter the variability required to overcome inconsistent environments. Such intrastrain variability provides parasites with an extraordinary ability to adapt and thus survive and propagate. However, different perspectives on this evolution have been proposed. Strains or species living in the same environment can cooperate but also compete. These interactions might increase the replication rate of some parasites but cause the loss of more aggressive competitors for others. Adaptive responses to intra- and interspecific competition can evolve as a fixed strategy (replication is adapted to the average genetic complexity of infections) or an optional strategy (replication varies according to the genetic complexity of the current infection). This review highlights the complexity of interspecies and intrastrain interactions among Leishmania parasites as well as the different factors that influence this interplay.

Agroecology, defined as the ecological science of food production is also as practical approach to design food production systems based on local concerted solutions that aim to promote synergy among the diversity of human and non human food systems elements. These two facets makes agroecology a good candidate for participatory research. Information technology should help using this information for the production of structured scientific knowledge. In this respect, there is a need for information technology that is adaptive to encompass the diversity of within and between systems and that provide benefit to farmers that feed it with data. We present MiCampoApp, a webapp that aims to join participatory research and certification in agroecology, with two roles, the farmer and the administrator. The idea to join participatory research for decision support with certification for market differentiation in single system is that much of the certification data harbors information for scientific research, and this incentivize data collection for the interest of the farmer and the community. The administrator create a model for data collection in order to solve a research question of interest for a communities or to produce traceability information to feed participatory guarantee system in a community. The farmer collects information using simple icons and produces traceability pages for research or certification purposes.

The continued application of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in indoor residual spraying has posed significant threat to human health in Northern part of South Africa, despite its ban. In this study, we investigated the occurrence and spatial distribution of DDTs and its metabolites in surface soil (30 samples) collected in and around the spray homesteads; demarcated into three concentric zones A, B, C in Tshilamusi Vhembe district, South Africa. DDTs were the most abundant of all the OCPs chemicals found in soil samples. The concentrations of DDT range from 12.19 to 65.69 µg/kg, with the highest occurring at zone A which is the zone of application. DDTs and all its metabolites considered in this study were found in appreciable concentrations in soil of Zones B and C, far from spray sites. The results showed a strong correlation between distance and concentration levels of DDTs and its metabolites. However, there is a need for proper monitoring of OCPs chemicals in other environmental matrices as well as relevant agencies enforcing strict adherence to regulations on consumption of OCPs.

Extremophilic bacteria are important groups of extremophilic organisms that have been studied during the last years. They are considered as a source of enzymes due to great diversity and can survive under extreme conditions. Many enzymes produced by these microorganisms are of great importance and have found applications in several industries. Due to their activity and stability under extreme conditions, these enzymes offer new alternatives for current biotechnological and industrial applications. They have a wide range of potential uses and have been a nuclear subject of many different investigations. To date, some of the enzymes produced by extremophilic bacteria are currently being assessed thier industrials applications. Despite, benefits that present these enzymes, their potentials remain largely unexplored. These enzymes pose new opportunities for new line of research, and biotechnological applications. This review provides a summary on diversity and biotechnological and industrial applications of some enzymes produced by extremophilic bacteria.

Web-Based GIS is a platform that deals with the representation, management and storage of locational information for real-time online retrieval, viewing and manipulations. Web-based GIS incorporate all the functions of information systems: gathering, storing, retrieving, visualizing and dissemination of spatial information on the Internet. In modern-day GIS serve as vital means to not only geo-referenced locational information that are been retrieved but also the development in web-based technologies as well as there involvements in decision making processes. In recent time the increased used of GIS on the Internet have totally transformed and made three distinct changes across our GIS environment. These are: (i) how are GIS data being accessed (ii) what are modes of its transmission and (iii) what available GIS functionalities are within the environment for analysis. This paper examines the applications and technologies associated with web-based GIS architectures with an emphasis on the internet GIS based structure and case studies of GIS Web-based applications in MapInfo, Microsoft Silverlight Technology and the ArcGIS Server using ArcGIS JavaScript API.

New setting is introduced to study types of coloring numbers, degree of vertices, degree of hyperedges, co-degree of vertices, co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic degree of vertices, neutrosophic degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic co-degree of vertices, neutrosophic co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic number of vertices, neutrosophic number of hyperedges in neutrosophic hypergraphs. Different types of procedures including neutrosophic (r, n)−regular hypergraphs and neutrosophic complete r−partite hypergraphs are proposed in this way, some results are obtained. General classes of neutrosophic hypergraphs are used to obtain chromatic number, the representatives of the colors, degree of vertices, degree of hyperedges, co-degree of vertices, co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic degree of vertices, neutrosophic degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic co-degree of vertices, neutrosophic co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic number of vertices, neutrosophic number of hyperedges in neutrosophic hypergraphs. Using colors to assign to the vertices of neutrosophic hypergraphs and characterizing representatives of the colors are applied in neutrosophic (r, n)−regular hypergraphs and neutrosophic complete r−partite hypergraphs. Some questions and problems are posed concerning ways to do further studies on this topic. Using different ways of study on neutrosophic hypergraphs to get new results about number, degree and co-degree in the way that some number, degree and co-degree get understandable perspective. Neutrosophic (r, n)−regular hypergraphs and neutrosophic complete r−partite hypergraphs are studied to investigate about the notions, coloring, the representatives of the colors, degree of vertices, degree of hyperedges, co-degree of vertices, co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic degree of vertices, neutrosophic degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic co-degree of vertices, neutrosophic co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic number of vertices, neutrosophic number of hyperedges in neutrosophic (r, n)−regular hypergraphs and neutrosophic complete r−partite hypergraphs. In this way, sets of representatives of colors, degree of vertices, degree of hyperedges, co-degree of vertices, co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic degree of vertices, neutrosophic degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic co-degree of vertices, neutrosophic co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic number of vertices, neutrosophic number of hyperedges have key points to get new results but in some cases, there are usages of sets and numbers instead of optimal ones. Simultaneously, notions chromatic number, the representatives of the colors, degree of vertices, degree of hyperedges, co-degree of vertices, co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic degree of vertices, neutrosophic degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic co-degree of vertices, neutrosophic co-degree of hyperedges, neutrosophic number of vertices, neutrosophic number of hyperedges are applied into neutrosophic hypergraphs, especially, neutrosophic (r, n)−regular hypergraphs and neutrosophic complete r−partite hypergraphs to get sensible results about their structures. Basic familiarities with neutrosophic hypergraphs theory and hypergraph theory are proposed for this article.

Blockchain-based currencies or cryptocurrencies have become a global phenomenon known to most people as a disruptive technology, and a new investment vehicle. However, due to their decentralized nature, regulating these markets has presented regulators with difficulties in finding a balance between nurturing innovation, and protecting consumers. The growing concerns about illicit activity have forced regulators to seek new ways of detecting, analyzing, and ultimately policing public blockchain transactions. Extensive research on machine learning, and transaction graph analysis algorithms has been done to track suspicious behaviour. However, having a macro view of a public ledger is equally important before pursuing a more fine-grained analysis. Benford’s law, the law of first digit, has been extensively used as a tool to discover accountant frauds (many other use cases exist). The basic motivation that drove our research presented in this paper was to test he applicability of the well established method to a new domain, in this case the identification of anomalous behavior using Benford’s law conformity test to the cryptocurrency domain. The research focused on transaction values in all major cryptocurrencies. A suitable time-period was identified that was long enough to sport sufficiently large number of observations for Benford’s law conformity tests and was also situated long enough in the past so that the anomalies were identified and well documented. The results show that most of the cryptocurrencies that did not conform to Benford’s law had well documented anomalous incidents, the first digits of aggregated transaction values of all well known cryptocurrency projects were conforming to Benford’s law. Thus the proposed method is applicable to the new domain.

Water mist fire suppression technology has attracted an increasing interest from the field of fire protection services such as fire safety for buildings, ships, spacecraft, libraries and museums due to its non-toxic and high efficiency in the suppression of a wide variety of fires. To support the technological development of water mist fire suppression system and its application areas, this review introduces the concept of water mist system and discusses its suppression mechanisms in comparison with other fire protection systems. The recent application areas of water mist system are surveyed for class A fires involving combustible solid materials such as wood, paper and textiles; class B fires involving flammable liquids such as petrol, oils, lubricants, paints and waxes; class C fires involving flammable gasses such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas; fires involving electrical (class E) equipment such as computers and information technology facilities; and the class F fires involving flammable cooking oils and fats. Finally, the paper concludes the review by identifying the current research trends, and providing the future direction for water mist technology and applications.

This paper proposed a new evaluation model based on analytic hierarchy process to quantitatively evaluate the capability of multi-satellite cooperative remote sensing observation. The analytic hierarchical process model is a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis of systematic decision analysis method. According to the objective of the remote sensing cooperative observation mission, we decompose the complex problem into several levels and a number of factors, compare and calculate various factors in pairs, and obtain the combination weights of different schemes. The model can be used to evaluate the observation capability of resource satellites. Taking the optical remote sensing satellites such as China’s resource satellite series and GF-4 as examples, this paper verifies and evaluates the model for three typical tasks: point target observation, regional target observation and moving target continuous observation. The results show that the model can provide quantitative reference and model support for comprehensive evaluation of the collaborative observation capability of remote sensing satellites.

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) are natural occurring mineral clay nanotubes that have excellent potential application in different fields. However, HNTs are affected by size, surface electron and hydrogen bond formation on the surface which lead to weak affinity and reunion at certain extent. It is very significant to modify the HNTs’ surface to expand its applications. In this review, the structural characteristics, performance and the related applications of surface modification HNTs are reviewed and summarized. We focus on the surface modify methods of HNTs, the effect of surface modification on materials and related applications in various regions. In addition, future prospects and the meaning of surface modification were also be discussed in HNTs studies. This review provided a reference for the application of HNTs modifications in new nanomaterials fields.

Background: Depressive symptoms often occurred during the adolescence period. This situation affected their psychological well-being, which is an important element for a positive youth development. Thus, there is an urgent need to prevent such mental health problems and promote psychological health outcomes among adolescents. Mobile health has been created as a platform to promote mental health to adolescents to ensure ongoing safety and effectiveness. Despite the positive evidence to support the mobile health, tailored mobile health to promote mental health and prevent psychological symptoms among adolescents in Thailand is lacking.This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of delivering digital technology intervention prototype called “MU-My-Mind Mobile Application (MU-My-mind App)” among Thai adolescents and evaluate the efficacy of this application in improving psychological health outcomes. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental research was conducted in secondary school students in Thailand. A convenience sample was recruited and participants were asked to download the MU-My-Mind App on their smart phone. Health outcomes were also evaluated by self-administered questions and focus group interview at baseline and post-intervention. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and pair t-test. Qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis. Results: Thirty students completed the MU-My-Mind application. Quantitative data suggested significant improvements on mindfulness, psychological well-being, depression, anxiety and stress. Qualitative data derived into six themes: a) overall feedback of the program, b) learning to manage stress and challenges, c) elevating relaxation responses and calmness, d) heightened mindfulness and concentration, e) increased awareness and management of emotions, and f) altering perspectives and managing thoughts. Overall, data suggested the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Conclusion: The “MU My Mind Mobile Application” prototype was demonstrated feasible and well acceptable among Thai adolescents to promote their psychological health outcome. However, there are some limitation and suggestion emerged during this pilot testing. Future research should be explored in a larger sample size with comparison control group and over a longer duration with a range of diverse samples to ensure the efficacy of this application.

Background: In order to achieve the best possible hearing and understanding with a cochlear implant (CI), regular hearing speech therapy treatment is necessary after implantation. This treatment should also be accessible to the growing proportion of hearing-impaired people with a migration background. This requires an alternative to therapy in the therapist's native language. The aim of this study was to evaluate six multilingual conversation applications with regard to their usefulness for therapy. Material and Methods: The six most commonly used applications were reviewed in terms of accuracy of content and grammatical translation, as well as pronunciation for English, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, and Russian by native speakers. The number of available languages, availability, cost, and additional features were also analyzed. The accuracy of the content and grammatical translation as well as the pronunciation were statistically evaluated, and the differences were highlighted. The results of the different applications were compared with the performance of a native speaker. Results: All applications tested differed significantly from the native speaker level, with Google Translator showing the closest approximation to the native speaker level. All apps offer translations for multiple languages and, with exceptions, are available in both app stores. Furthermore, all apps have additional therapist-facilitating features. Conclusion: Multilingual conversation apps can make speech therapy in a foreign language much easier when used with patients. An adaptation of the software to the specific requirements of a hearing speech therapy is necessary to achieve a linguistic level that corresponds to the native language of the therapist and to enable an easy use in the therapy.

Low soil nitrogen status of savanna soils in Nigeria contributes to the persistent Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. infestation that limits maize production. The application of nitrogen fertilizer to Striga-resistant hybrids may reduce Striga infection and increase grain yields. This study assessed the performance of maize hybrids at low (30 kg ha-1) and high (120 kg ha-1) nitrogen application under natural infestation with Striga at Kafin Madaki and Tudun Wada in 2014 and 2015. Results showed that the application of nitrogen at 120 kg ha-1 reduced number of Striga plants by 59% compared to application at 30 kg N ha-1 in Kafin Madaki and by 21% in Tudun Wada. Compared to 30 kg N ha-1, the 120 kg N ha-1 rate also reduced Striga damage rating by 22% in Kafin Madaki and by 33% in Tudun Wada across the hybrids. Hybrids 8338-1 (5.3) and OBASUPER 1 (4.3) were the only entries with Striga damage rating greater than 4.5 (SDR > 4.5) when averaged across the nitrogen levels at both locations. Grain yield was 86 and 98% higher in Kafin Madaki and Tudun Wada, respectively when N was applied at 120 kg N ha-1 than at 30 kg N ha-1. The hybrids M1124-3 and M1227-14 produced grain yields that were significantly higher than those of the other hybrids in all locations. The hybrid 8338-1 produced the lowest grain yield across locations. Our results showed that, the application of 120 kg N ha-1 to Striga resistant maize hybrids will reduce Striga infection and increase grain yield.

It is since long known, that SAW devices, resonators as well as delay lines, can be used as passive wireless sensors for physical quantities like temperature and pressure as well as gas sensors or ID-Tags. The sensors are robust, work passively without battery, can be applied at high temperatures and provide a high resolution. Nevertheless, if the devices should be readout wirelessly in an industrial environment, several constraints have to be taken into account, especially when more than one quantity or device needs to be measured at the same time. The paper addresses the challenges that have to be tackled when establishing multi-sensor-wireless-readout for industrial applications. Major issues here are the legal ISM-band regulations, as well as sampling time and costs, which impose severe restrictions to any system design. We describe several design approaches and their constraints. We have successfully designed sensors based on reflective delay lines that allow the parallel readout of four independent temperature sensors in the 2.45 GHz ISM-band. These devices have been fabricated, positively tested and demonstrate the applicability of SAW sensors for industrial applications.

Rare diseases are characterized by a wide diversity of signs and symptoms and vary not only from disease to disease, but also from person to person, and living with a disease leads patients to peculiar experiences and treatments, without limits of time and space, as they extend to various environments and relationships of their lives. The objective of this study is the theoretical interaction between Value Co-creation (VC) and the Stakeholder Theory (ST) with the Shared Decision Making (SDM) health care theory. It is configured as a multiparadigmatic proposal by enabling the analysis of multiple perspectives of different stakeholders in health care. Thus, Co-created Decision Making (CDM) emerges in a logic dominated by service, with emphasis on intangible aspects and the interactivity of the relationships. It goes beyond the clinical office and the doctor-patient relationships, as studied in SDM, extending to all environments and interactions that add value to the patient's treatment. It was concluded that the essence of this new theory proposed here is neither in patient-centered care nor in patient self-care, but in co-created relationships with and between stakeholders in both directions, including non-health care environments that are important to the patient, such as relationships with friends, family, other patients with the same disease, social media, public policies, and the practice of pleasurable activities.

Recently, many authors have been interested to introduce fuzzy implications over t-norms and t-conorms. In this paper, we introduce (S,N) and residuum fuzzy implication for Dubois t-norm and Hamacher's t-norm. Also, new concepts so-called (T,N) and residual fuzzy co-implication in dual Heyting Algebra are investigated. Some examples as well as application are discussed as well.

Recently, the amount of waste generated has been rapidly increasing, there have been difficulties disposing of waste in Korea. As a solution to this, treating waste using a cement kiln has suggested, but the environmental and economic effects have not been specifically studied. In this study, the effects of alternative resources, and reducing the social costs(Installation and Operation) associated with waste treatment facilities were analyzed. Through a co-processing method, a reduction of approximately 53kg of CO2 can be realized during the production of one ton of cement, and cost savings of about 3,815 milion USD. Another effect is an extension of the expiration date for landfills by 7.55 years.

New setting is introduced to study quasi-degree and quasi-co-degree arising from co-neighborhood. quasi-degree and quasi-co-degree is about a vertex which are applied into the setting of neutrosophic graphs. . The structure of set is studied and general results are obtained. Also, some classes of neutrosophic graphs namely path-neutrosophic graphs, cycle-neutrosophic graphs, complete-neutrosophic graphs and star-neutrosophic graphs, complete-bipartite-neutrosophic graphs and complete-multipartite-neutrosophic graphs are investigated in the terms of a vertex which is called either quasi-degree or quasi-co-degree. Neutrosophic number is reused in this way. It’s applied to use the type of neutrosophic number in the way that, three values of a vertex are used and they’ve same share to construct this number to compare with other vertices. Summation of three values of vertex makes one number and applying it to a comparison. This approach facilitates identifying vertices which form quasi-degree and quasi-co-degree. Quasi-degree is a value of a vertex which is maximum amid all values of vertices which are neighbors to a fixed vertex. Quasi-co-degree is a value of an edge which is maximum amid all values of edges which are neighbors to a fixed vertex but corresponded vertex is representative for this notion. Using different values which are related to a vertex inspire us to focus on edge and vertices which are corresponded to a fixed vertex. The notion of neighborhood is used to collect either vertices are titled neighbors or edges are incident to fixed vertex. In both settings, some classes of well-known neutrosophic graphs are studied. Some clarifications for each result and each definitions are provided. Using fixed vertex has key role to have these notions in the form of vertex or edge. The value of an edge has eligibility to call quasi-co-degree but the value of a vertex has eligibility to call quasi-degree. Some results get more frameworks and perspective about these definitions. The way in that, two vertices have connection together, open the way to define neighborhood and co-neighborhood. The maximum values in neighborhood and co-neighborhood introduces quasi-degree and quasi-co-degree, respectively. New name is chosen from degree. Since amid all vertices with different degrees, one vertex is chosen. In other words, one vertex is fixed and its degree turns out quasi-degree where two degrees could be assigned to a vertex. Degree of edges and degree of vertices. The number of edges which are incident to the vertex and the number of vertices which are neighbors to the vertex. Degree and co-degree are the notions which are transformed to use in quasi-style. Two neutrosophic values introduce two neutrosophic vertices separately in each settings. These notions are applied into neutrosophic graphs as individuals but not family of them as drawbacks for these notions. Finding special neutrosophic graphs which are well-known, is an open way to purse this study. Some problems are proposed to pursue this study. Basic familiarities with graph theory and neutrosophic graph theory are proposed for this article.

Potential of co-digestion mixing thickened secondary sludge (TS) from extended aeration wastewater treatment plant and locally available substrates (whey, grease and septage) has been studied using three steps. The first step was a batch test to determine biological methane potential (BMP) of different mixtures of the three co-substrates with TS. The second step has been carried out with lab-scale reactors (20 L) simulating anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactors fed by three mixtures of co-substrates determined according to previous step results. Modelling using ADM1 as a mechanistic model was applied in the third step to help understanding the co-digestion process. According to BMP step, septage used as co-substrate has a negative effect on performance and addition of 10 to 30% grease or 10% whey would lead to a higher production of biogas and with an increase of the methane content. The results from the reactor showed less evi-dence of the positive effects observed with the BMP assay. Protein and lipid fractions of particu-late biodegradable COD are important variables for digester stability and methane production as predicted by modelling. Results of simulations with ADM1 model adapted to co-digestion confirmed that this model is a powerful tool to optimize the process of biogas production.

There is compelling evidence that the nuclear receptor TRβ, a member of the thyroid hormone receptor (TR) family, is a tumor suppressor in thyroid, breast and other solid tumors. Cell-based and animal studies reveal that the liganded TRβ induces apoptosis, reduces an aggressive phenotype, decreases stem cell populations, and slows tumor growth through modulation of a complex interplay of transcriptional networks. TRβ-driven tumor suppressive transcriptomic signatures include repression of known drivers of proliferation such as PI3K/Akt pathway and activation of novel signaling (JAK1/STAT1) and metabolic reprogramming in both thyroid and breast cancers. The presence of TRβ is also correlated with a positive prognosis and response to therapeutics in BRCA+ and triple-negative breast cancers respectively. Ligand activation of TRβ enhances sensitivity to chemotherapeutics. TRβ co-regulators and bromodomain-containing chromatin remodeling proteins are emergent therapeutic targets. This review considers TRβ as a potential biomolecular diagnostic and therapeutic target.

The sense of uncertainty and fragility due to the effects and magnitude of global challenges we are facing (from pandemic circumstances to climate change impacts) requires – much more than in the past – the capacity to generate a visionary and forefront design approach in the young gen-erations aiming at stimulating their reaction attitude rather than providing consolidated tools from past conditions that no longer exist or will rapidly evolve. Within this general framework, we have investigated the effectiveness and impacts of experienced-based methods of learning and innovative educational tools in architecture aimed at shaping expertise in which the environ-mental dimension and the climate-change challenge dialogues with the context's complexity in terms of socio-cultural dynamics, real potentialities and constrains, addressing their transdisci-plinary trajectories. The paper analyses 5 international pioneering teaching experiences that provide the opportunity to understand the outcomes of collaborative and experiential learning processes in which the educational activities leverage a dialogue between diverse communities (academia-citizens-policymakers-practitioners). The study outcomes show that shifting the pedagogical paradigm towards in-field-experience-based models can improve the awareness of future practitioners for climate implications of architectural design, implement their analysis and project skills while triggering processes of knowledge transfer and co-production at community level, and allow them to better address the societal and cultural issues involved within decision making.

The purpose of this study is to explore conceptual approaches in co-production studies and to examine current research trends of the study. The conceptual paper includes research articles related to co-production in public administration field. By thoroughly scrutinizing 32 research works of co-production, this study highlights major loopholes in the field of the study. The contributions of the study are: (1) identifying two common characteristics of co-production, (2) categorising three types of co-producing by end-users, and (3) finding that goals and success of co-production are more beneficial for service providers though its initial approach is citizen-centric approach. We suggest that future studies should be (1) to focus on reasons for co-production failures or success, (2) to discover further hindrances for co-production in service production, (3) to examine influencing factors on service providers as well as institutional impacts on co-production process, and (4) to include practical assessment in co-production study.

Elevated antimony concentrations in aqueous environments from anthropogenic sources is becoming of global concern, here iron oxides are known to strongly adsorb aqueous antimony species with different oxidation states, but the effect of silica on the removal characteristics is not well understood despite being a common component in the environment. In this study, ferrihydrite was synthesized at various Si/Fe molar ratios to investigate its adsorption and co-precipitation behaviors with aqueous antimony anionic species, Sb(III) and Sb(V). The XRD analyses of the precipitates showed two broad diffraction features at approximately 35° and 62° 2θ, which are characteristic of 2-line ferrihydrite, no significant shifts in peak positions in the ferrihydrite regardless of the Si/Fe ratios. The infrared spectra showed a sharp band at ~990 cm⁻¹, corresponding to asymmetric stretching vibrations of Si-O-Fe bonds which increased in intensity with increasing Si/Fe molar ratios. Further, the surface charge on the precipitates became more negative with increasing Si/Fe molar ratios. The adsorption experiments indicated that Sb(V) was preferentially adsorbed at acidic conditions and decreased dramatically with increasing pH while the adsorption rate of Sb(III) ions was independent of pH, however, the presence of silica suppressed the adsorption of both Sb(III) and Sb(V) ions. The results showed that Sb(III) and Sb(V) ions were significantly inhibited by co-precipitation with ferrihydrite even in the presence of silica by isomorphous substitution in the ferrihydrite crystal structure.

Background: Previously, our laboratory has provided evidence that pre-administration of the antioxidant, lipoic acid covalently bonded to various naturally occurring antioxidants, enhanced neuroprotective capacity compared to the administration of lipoic acid on its own. The naturally occurring compound scopoletin, a coumarin derivative, has been shown in various in vitro studies to have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanism of actions. To date, the effect of scopoletin on neuronal cell death in an in vivo model of ischemia or ischemia-reperfusion has not been investigated. Therefore, the present investigation was designed to determine if scopoletin on its own, or a co-drug consisting of lipoic acid and scopoletin covalent bond, named UPEI-400, would be capable of demonstrating a similar neuroprotective efficacy. Methods: Using a rodent model of stroke in male rats (anesthetized with Inactin®; 100 mg/kg, iv), the middle cerebral artery was permanently occluded for 6 hours (pMCAO), or in separate animals, occluded for 30 min followed by 5.5 hrs of reperfusion (ischemia/reperfusion; I/R). Results: Pre-administration of either scopoletin or UPEI-400 significantly decreased infarct volume in the I/R model (p<0.05), but not in the pMCAO model of stroke. However, UPEI-400 was ~1000 times more potent as compared to scopoletin on its own. The optimal dose of UPEI-400 was then injected during the occlusion and at several time points during reperfusion and significant neuroprotection was observed for up to 150 mins following the start of reperfusion (p<0.05). Conclusion: The data suggest that synthetic combination of scopoletin with lipoic acid (UPEI-400) is a more effective neuroprotectant that either compound on their own. Also, since UPEI-400 was only effective in a model of I/R, it is possible that it may act to enhance neuronal antioxidant capacity and/or upregulate anti-inflammatory pathways to prevent the neuronal cell death.

Poly(vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) named further PVBA was investigated as protective coating for copper corrosion in 0.9 % NaCl solution using electrochemical measurements such as, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization associated with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The PVBA coating on the copper surface (Cu-PVBA) was modeled in methanol containing PVBA. Its inhibitory properties against corrosion was comparatively discussed with those of the copper sample treated in methanol without polymer (Cu-Me) and of untreated sample (standard copper). A protective performance of PVBA coating of 80 % was computed from electrochemical measurements, for copper corrosion in NaCl solution. Also, AFM images designed a specific surface morphology of coated surface with PVBA, clearly highlighting a polymer film adsorbed on the copper surface, which presents certain deterioration after corrosion, but metal surface was not significantly affected compared to those of untreated samples or treated in methanol, in the absence of PVBA.

Pulmonary thromboembolism is a very common cardiovascular disease, with a still high mortality rate. Despite the clear guidelines, this disease still represents a great challenge both in diagnosis and treatment. Heterogeneous clinical picture, often without pathognomonic signs and symptoms, represents a huge differential diagnostic problem even for experienced doctors. The decision on the therapeutic regimen also represents a major dilemma in the group of patients who are hemodynamically stable at initial presentation and have signs of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction proven by echocardiography and positive biomarker values (pulmonary embolism of intermediate-high risk). Studies have shown conflicting results about the benefit of using fibrinolytic therapy in this group of patients until hemodynamic decompensation, due to the risk of major bleeding. The latest recommendations give preference to new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) compared to vitamin K antagonists (VKA), except for certain categories of patients (patients with antiphospholipid syndrome, mechanical valves, pregnancy). When using oral anticoagulant therapy, special attention should be paid to drug-drug interactions, which can lead to many complications, even to the death of the patient. Special population groups such as pregnant women, obese patients, patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and cancer represent a great therapeutic challenge in the application of anticoagulant therapy. In these patients, not only the effectiveness of the drugs must be taken into account, but great attention must be paid to their safety and possible side effects, which is why a multidisciplinary approach is emphasized in order to provide the best therapeutic option.

Diagnosis of Awake Bruxism (AB) is problematic due to the inability to use continuous recordings during daytime activities. Recently, a new semi-instrumental approach was suggested, viz., an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), with the use of a smartphone application. With the application subjects are requested to report, at least 12 times per day, the status of their masticatory muscle activity (relaxed muscles, jaw bracing without tooth contact, teeth contact, teeth clenching or teeth grinding). The aim of the present study was to compare the EMA to the assessment of AB as defined by a single point self-report. The most frequent condition recorded by the EMA was relaxed muscles (ca. 60%) and the least frequent one - Teeth grinding (0.6 %). The relaxed muscle condition also showed the lowest coefficient of variance over a 7day period of report. Additionally, only the relaxed muscles and the Jaw bracing conditions presented an acceptable ability to discriminate between AB positive and AB negative subjects, as defined by single point self-report questions. The combination between self-report and EMA may have a potential to promote our ability to diagnose AB. We suggest to re-consider the conditions of Teeth contact and Teeth grinding while using EMA to evaluate AB.

Paper-based microfluidic analysis devices (μPADs) have attracted attention as a cost-effective platform for point-of-care testing (POCT), food safety, and environmental monitoring. Recently, three-dimensional (3D)-μPADs have been developed to improve the performance of μPADs. For accurate diagnosis of diseases, however, 3D-μPADs need to be developed to simultaneously detect multiple biomarkers. Here, we report a 3D-μPADs platform for the detection of multiple biomarkers that can be analyzed and diagnosed with a smartphone. The 3D-μPADs were fabricated using a 3D digital light processing printer and consisted of a sample reservoir (300 µL) connected to 24 detection zones (of 4 mm in diameter) through 8 microchannels (of 2 mm in width). With the smartphone application, eight different biomarkers related to various diseases were detectable in concentrations ranging from normal to abnormal conditions: glucose (0–20 mmol/L), cholesterol (0–10 mmol/L), albumin (0–7 g/dL), alkaline phosphatase (0–800 U/L), creatinine (0–500 µmol/L), aspartate aminotransferase (0–800 U/L), alanine aminotransferase (0–1000 U/L), and urea nitrogen (0–7.2 mmol/L). These results suggest that 3D-µPADs can be used as a POCT platform for simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers.

Indonesia is among the countries developing the concept of smart city. The national government envisions Indonesia 2030 which shall implement the smart city towards sustainable development. Many regions in Indonesia have already implemented the concept of smart city, but still on the level of smart government and smart technology, lacking on the smart citizen component of a smart city. This paper aims to analyze the citizens behavior of using technology on Sleman smart citizen 2021 through the lapor sleman mobile application. This research uses mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approaches in examining the data. The authors distributed 100 questionares and conducted interviews to the government which is department of communication and information, Sleman and the several community that ever use the lapor sleman application. The result of the study reveals the following: firstly, performance expectancy, social influence, and behavioral intention are three independent variables which affect the users’ behavior. Secondly, the behavioral intention has the biggest significant effect on users’ behavior. Thirdly, the citizen behavior of using technology has affect the making a smart citizen. Therefore, using technology in term of lapor sleman mobile application can make the citizens as active participants in public life, in terms of social cooperation, freedom of expression and flexibility. However, there are still many problems in the use of lapor sleman mobile application such as the limited access to only android smartphones, lack of technical know-how, and people’s reluctance to use the lapor sleman mobile application.

This paper proposes a position control method for low cost EGR valve system in automotive application. Generally, position control system using in automotive application has many restrictions such as cost and space, the mechanical structure of actuator implies high friction and large difference between static friction and coulomb friction. This large friction difference occurs the vibrated position control result when the controller uses conventional linear controller such as P, PI. In this paper, low cost position control method which can apply under the condition of high difference friction mechanical system. Proposed method is verified by comparing conventional control result of experiments.

The Android-based IoT platform just like the existing Android provides an environment that makes it easy to utilize Google's infrastructure services including development tools and APIs through which it helps to control the sensors of IoT devices. Applications running on the Android-based IoT platform are often UI free and are used without the user’s consent to registered permissions. It is difficult to respond to the misuse of permissions as well as to check them when they are registered indiscriminately while updating applications. This paper analyzes the versions of before and after an application the update running on the Android-based IoT platform and the collected permission lists. It aims to identify the same permissions before and after the update, and deleted and newly added permissions after the update were identified, and thereby respond to security threats that can arise from the permissions that is not needed for IoT devices to perform certain functions.

Background: The efficacy of sunscreen is evaluated by SPF values, which are quantitatively determined in laboratories on the backs of human subjects according to a standardized procedure. However, SPF cannot be directly translated to sunburn protection under real-life situations because actual efficacy depends on various factors related to human behaviors and environmental conditions. This study clinically evaluated the efficacy of two sunscreen sprays (SPF 30 and SPF 70) under natural sunlight exposure on healthy subjects at the beach. Methods: Twenty subjects were divided into two cells for the two sunscreen sprays (SPF 70 and SPF 30) in a single-center, actual usage test. The primary endpoint of the study was sunburn protection on the dorsal arms and the secondary endpoint was protection on the face and neck. Subjects stayed at the beach for 4 h after application of the sunscreens with normal beach activities. Subjects’ behavior at the beach, the amounts of sunscreen applied and reapplied, and environmental conditions were all recorded. Results: There was no significant sunburn for a majority of the subjects in either cell. However, neither sunscreen completely blocked the sunburn, especially for the face/neck area. We found that the SPF 70 sunscreen was more effective than the SPF 30 sunscreen. Conclusion: Modern sunscreen sprays, applied liberally, are effective in providing sunburn protection for the body in a beach setting.

New setting is introduced to study co-neighborhood, neutrosophic t-neighborhood, neutrosophic quasi-vertex set, neutrosophic quasi-order, neutrosophic neighborhood, neutrosophic co-t-neighborhood, neutrosophic quasi-edge set, neutrosophic quasi-size, Neutrosophic number, neutrosophic co-neighborhood, co-neutrosophic number, quasi-number and quasi-co-number. Some classes of neutrosophic graphs are investigated.

Introduction: Increasing cannabis legalization raises concerns that tobacco use, frequently used with cannabis, will also increase. This study investigated the association between legal status of cannabis in place of residence and prevalence of cannabis and tobacco co-use, simultaneous use, and mixing by comparing the prevalence among adults in Canada (prior to cannabis legalization) vs. adults in US states that had legalized recreational cannabis vs. US states that had not as of September 2018. Methods: Data were drawn from the 2018 International Cannabis Policy Study, conducted with respondents aged 16-65 in Canada and the US recruited from non-probability consumer panels. Differences in the prevalence of co-use, simultaneous use, and mixing between tobacco and different cannabis products were examined using logistic regression models by legal status of place of residence among past 12-month cannabis consumers (N=6744). Results: Co-use and simultaneous use in the past 12 months were most common among respondents in US legal states. Among cannabis consumers, co-use and simultaneous use were less common in US legal states, while mixing was less frequent in US states with both legal and illegal cannabis compared to Canada. Use of edibles was associated with lower odds of all three outcomes, while smoking dried herb or hash was associated with higher odds. Conclusions: The proportion of cannabis consumers who used tobacco was lower in legal jurisdictions despite higher prevalence of cannabis use. Edible use was inversely associated with co-use suggesting that edible use does not appear to be associated with increased tobacco use.

As a typical form of value co-creation, crowdsourcing has been increasingly applied by firms to generate business value. By engaging a crowd, a platform, and other stakeholders, a crowdsourcer can foster the co-creation of a portfolio of value for diverse stakeholders. In analyzing the value co-creation in crowdsourcing, we propose a framework by combining the theories and frameworks in value co-creation and crowdsourcing. The framework examines the key stakeholders, joint purpose, engaged value co-creation processes, contributions, bidirectional relationships of the engagement, and perceived value, exhibiting a holistic view of the value co-creation in a crowdsourcing project. Results of the analysis reveal the business performance of the crowdsourcing project and identify areas of improvement regarding business sustainability. This is a major theoretical contribution of this study. The research design applied a case study approach to empirically investigate a crowdsourcing project. Both the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This pot-based study investigated the influence of co-composted wood-derived biochar on lettuce growth performance under salinity and drought stress conditions. Biochar of two particle sizes; > 2 mm and < 1 mm were co-composted with the mixture (1:1 ratio of dry weight) of cow and poultry manures. Co-composted biochars were applied at 5% and 7% rates in soil. Control treatments included the amendment of mixture of biochar with manure in soil. Pots were subjected to slight drought (48-55% water filled pore space (WFPS) of soil) and non-drought conditions (60% WFPS) and under 0 and 1.3 dS m-1 salinity. Results revealed that plants growth performance was significantly better under treatments of co-composted biochar and no salt stress conditions, than when mixture of biochar and manure was applied to soil as non-composted fertilizer. Under no stress condition, small particle-sized co-composted biochar increased root biomass by 786.2% than the large particle-sized co-composted biochar at same application rate. As compared to large-sized co-composted biochar, small sized co-composted biochar at high application rates increased root biomass by 167 – 245% but not leaf biomass under both stress conditions. Small particle-sized co-composted biochar amendment also increased the phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) of lettuce leaves than large particle-sized co-composted biochar under no stress condition. The amendment of small-sized co-composted biochar also increased significantly the concentration of Olsen phosphorus in soil than the amendment of large-particle-sized co-composted biochar. In conclusion, amendment of small particle-sized co-composted biochar has the potential of attenuating salinity and drought stress in lettuce and promoting P cycling in soil.

Applications in high-performance computing (HPC) may not use all available computational resources, leaving some of them underutilized. By co-scheduling, i.e. running more than one application on the same computational node, it is possible to improve resource utilization and overall throughput. Some applications may have conflicting requirements on resources and co-scheduling may cause performance degradation, so it is important to take it into account in scheduling decisions. In this paper, we formalized co-scheduling problem and proposed multiple scheduling strategies to solve it: an optimal strategy, an online strategy and heuristic strategies. These strategies vary in terms of the optimality of the solution they produce and a priori information about the system they require. We showed theoretically that the online strategy provides schedules with a competitive ratio that has a constant upper limit. This allowed us to solve the co-scheduling problem using heuristic strategies that approximate this online strategy. Numerical simulations showed how heuristic strategies compare to the optimal strategy for different input systems. We proposed a method for measuring input parameters of the model in practice and evaluated this method on HPC benchmark applications. We showed high accuracy of measurement method, which allows to apply proposed scheduling strategies in scheduler implementation.

The social distancing as a response to COVID 19 pandemic has led to the exceptional reductions of daily routine people activities and vehicle uses mainly in city. This same situation was also experienced by several busy, large, and populous cities in Southeast Asia (SA) countries. Correspondingly, this study aimed to test the hypothesis that the social distancing implementation period has increased the air quality in the term of carbon monoxide (CO) emission reduction as drawn from Jakarta city as an example of the one of populated cities in SA region. The CO was measured in parts per billions (ppb) and monitored on the daily basis employing remote sensor platform. The monitor periods were started from January, February, March, and April 2020 with 10 measurement days for each month. The social distancing was implemented from mid of March to the recent April. The CO measurement data were statistically tested to justify the significant effects of social distancing on the CO levels. Based on the CO data analysis, the order of CO mean by months is February > January > March > April. The CO levels for January, February, March, and April were 87.46 ppb (95%CI: 83.54-91.37), 88.20 ppb (95%CI: 81.65-94.74), 86.38 (95%CI: 81.06-91.69), and 78.68 (95%CI: 74.03-83.32) respectively. This study also find significant difference (p<0.05) of CO levels especially in April when social distancing has been implemented. Hence, these findings illustrate the potential air pollutant reduction gained from implementing social distancing as can be seen in April.

Degussa P25 is a benchmark form of TiO₂ used worldwide in photocatalysis studies. Currently no such benchmark exists for co-catalysts, which are essential for many photocatalytic reactions. Here, we present the preparation of Pt nanocluster co-catalysts on TiO₂ using an unmodified commercial source and equipment that is commonly available. Transmission electron microscopy reveals that the procedure produces TiO₂ decorated with Pt atom and nanoclusters (1-5 atoms). Optical reflectance and X-ray diffraction measurements show that the procedure does not affect the TiO₂ polymorph or UV-Vis absorbance. Gas phase photocatalytic splitting of heavy water (D₂O) shows that the Pt nanocluster decorated TiO₂ outperforms Pt nanoparticle (produced by photodeposition) decorated TiO₂ in D₂ production. Pt nanoclusters, produced directly from a commercial source, with high co-catalyst activity are prime candidates to be used in benchmark photocatalytic reactions.

In order to understand the effect of Pb-CuI co-doping on the thermoelectric performance of Bi₂Te₃, n-type Bi₂Te₃ co-doped with x at% CuI and 1/2x at% Pb (x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, and 0.10) were prepared via high temperature solid state reaction and consolidated using spark plasma sintering. Electron and thermal transport properties, i.e., electrical conductivity, carrier concentration, Hall mobility, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity, of CuI-Pb co-doped Bi₂Te₃ were measured in the temperature range from 300 K to 523 K and compared to corresponding x% of CuI-doped Bi₂Te₃ and undoped Bi₂Te₃. The addition of a small amount of Pb significantly decreased the carrier concentration, which could be attributed to the holes from Pb atoms, thus the CuI-Pb co-doped samples show a lower electrical conductivity and a higher Seebeck coefficient compared to CuI-doped samples with similar x values. The incorporation of Pb into CuI-doped Bi₂Te₃ rarely changed the power factor because of the trade-off relationship between the electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient. The total thermal conductivity(κ_tot) of co-doped samples (κ_tot ~1.4 W/m∙K at 300 K) is slightly lower than that of 1% CuI-doped Bi₂Te₃ (κ_tot~1.5 W/m∙K at 300 K) and undoped Bi₂Te₃ (κ_tot ~1.6 W/m∙K at 300 K) due to the alloy scattering. The 1% CuI-Pb co-doped Bi₂Te₃ sample shows the highest ZT value of 0.96 at 370 K. All data on electrical and thermal transport properties suggest that the thermoelectric properties of Bi₂Te₃ and its operating temperature can be controlled by co-doping.

A huge number of applications available for Android-based smartphone devices have emerged over the past years. Due to which a huge number of malicious applications has been growing explosively. Many approaches have been proposed to ensure the security and quality of application in the markets. Usually, Machine Learning approaches are utilized in the classification process of malicious application detection. Calculating accurate results of characterizing applications behaviors, or other features, has a direct effect on the results with Machine Learning calculations. Android applications emerge so quickly. The behavior of current applications has gotten progressively malicious. The extraction of malware-infected features from applications is thus become a difficult task. According to our knowledge, a ton of features have been extricated in existing work however no survey has overviewed the features built for identifying malicious applications efficiently. In this paper, we will in general give an extensive review of such sort of work that identifies feature applications by describing various practices of uses with various kinds of features. In this survey we have discussed the following dimensions: extraction and selection of feature methods if any, methods of detection and evaluation performed. In light of our review, we notice the issues of investigating malware-affected features from applications, give the scientific categorization and demonstrate the future headings.

Deep learning has shown remarkable results in every field, especially in the biomedical field, due to its ability to exploit large-scale datasets. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is a widely used deep learning approach to solve medical imaging problems. Over the past few years, many studies have focused on CNN-based techniques for brain tumor diagnosis. There are, however, still some critical challenges that CNNs face towards clinic application. This study presents a comprehensive review of current literature that involves CNN architectures for brain tumor classification. We compare the key achievements in the performance evaluation metrics of the applied classification algorithms. In addition, this review assesses the clinical effectiveness of the included studies to elaborate on the limitations and directions of this area for future work. No review focusing on the clinical effectiveness of previous works in this field has been published. We believe that this study has the potential to elevate the application of CNN-based deep learning methods in clinical practice and also can be a quick reference for biomedical researchers who are interested in this field.

Tropical cyclones devastate large areas, take numerous lives and damage extensive property in Bangladesh. Research on landfalling tropical cyclones affecting Bangladesh has primarily focused on events occurring since AD1960 with limited work examining earlier historical records. We rectify this gap by developing a new tornado catalogue that include present and past records of tornados across Bangladesh maximizing use of available sources. Within this new tornado database, 119 records were captured starting from 1838 till 2020 causing 8,735 deaths and 97,868 injuries leaving more than 1,02,776 people affected in total. Moreover, using this new tornado data, we developed an end-to-end system that allows a user to explore and analyze the full range of tornado data on multiple scenarios. The user of this new system can select a date range or search a particular location, and then, all the tornado information along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based insights within that selected scope would be dynamically presented in a range of devices including iOS, Android, and Windows. Using a set of interactive maps, charts, graphs, and visualizations the user would have a comprehensive understanding of the historical records of Tornados, Cyclones and associated landfalls with detailed data distributions and statistics.

The morbidity and mortality caused by invasive fungal infections is increasing across the globe due to developments in transplant surgery, the use of immunosuppressive agents, and the emergence of drug-resistant fungal strains, which has led to a challenge in terms of treatment due to the limitations of three classes of drugs. Hence, it is imperative to establish effective strategies to identify and design new antifungal drugs. Drug repurposing is an effective way of expanding the application of existing drugs. In the last years, various existing drugs have been shown to be useful in the prevention and treatment of the invasive fungi. In this review, we summarize the currently used antifungal agents. In addition, the most up to date information on the effectiveness of existing drugs with antifungal activity is discussed. Moreover, the antifungal mechanisms of existing drugs are highlighted. These data will provide valuable knowledge to stimulate further investigation and clinical application in this field.

This work presents the dynamics of forest clearing in the Brazilian Amazon during the period 2006–2019 in which includes the approval of the new Brazilian Forest Code in 2012. The study was carried out in the Brazilian Amazon, Pará State and in the municipality of Novo Progresso (Pará State). The analysis was based on deforestation and fire hotspot datasets issued by the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), produced based on optical and thermal sensors onboard different satellites. Deforestation data was also used to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the slash-and-burn practices. The work showed a good correlation between the occurrence of fires in the newly deforested area in the municipality of Novo Progresso and the slash-and-burn practices. The same trend was also observed in the Pará State, suggesting a common practice along the deforestation arch. The study indicated positive coefficients of determination of 0.72 and 0.66 between deforestation and fire occurrences for the municipality of Novo Progresso and Pará State, respectively. The increased number of fire occurrences in the primary forest suggests possible ecosystem degradation. Deforestation reported for 2019 surpassed 10,000 km2, a significant intensification comparatively higher than the previous ten years which was on an average of 6,760 km2. The steady increase of deforestation in the Amazon after 2012 has been a worldwide concern because of the forest loss itself as well as the massive GHG emitted in the Brazilian Amazon (295 million tons of net CO2 equivalent in the year 2019). Better correlation of deforestation and fires occurrences reported from satellite images confirmed the slash-and-burn practice and the secondary effect of deforestation, which degrades primary forest surrounding the deforested areas.

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) has caused severe damage to the world. With the support of classic evolutionary theories and population genetics principles, many studies on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 have revealed encouraging results but meanwhile are still under debate. We are concerned with the validity of applying classic evolutionary theories and formula to the evolution of RNA viruses. We have raised several factors like the RNA replication feature and the RNA modification systems of the hosts, which might jeopardize the validity of the application of classic methods to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 data.

This paper presents a system based on pedestrian dead reckoning for localization of networked mobile users, which relies only on sensors embedded in the devices and device- to-device connectivity. The user trajectory is reconstructed by measuring step by step the user displacements. Though step length can be estimated rather accurately, heading evaluation is extremely problematic in indoor environments. Magnetometer is typically used, however measurements are strongly perturbed. To improve the location accuracy, this paper proposes a cooperative system to estimate the direction of motion based on a machine learning approach for perturbation detection and filtering, combined with a consensus algorithm for performance augmentation by cooperative data fusion at multiple device. A first algorithm filters out perturbed magnetometer measurements based on a-priori information on the Earth's magnetic field. A second algorithm aggregates groups of users walking in the same direction, while a third one combines the measurements of the aggregated users in a distributed way to extract a more accurate heading estimate. Extensive indoor experiments show that the heading error is highly reduced by the proposed approach thus leading to noticeable enhancements in localization performance.

With the recent developments in augmented reality (AR) technologies comes an increased interest in the use of smart glasses for hands-on training. Whether this interest is turned into market success or not depends at the least on whether the interaction with smart AR glasses satisfies users, an aspect of AR use that so far has received little attention. With this contribution, we seek to change this. The objective of the article, therefore, is to investigate user satisfaction in AR applied to three cases of practical use. User satisfaction of AR can be broken down into satisfaction with the interaction and satisfaction with the delivery device. A total of 142 participants from three different industrial sectors contributed to this study, namely, aeronautics, medicine, and astronautics. In our analysis, we investigated the influence of different factors, such as age, gender, level of education, level of Internet knowledge, and the roles of the participants in the different sectors. Even though users were not familiar with the smart glasses, results show that general computer knowledge has a positive effect on user satisfaction. Further analysis using two-factor interactions shows that there is no significant interaction between the different factors and user satisfaction. The results of the study affirm that the questionnaires developed for user satisfaction of smart glasses and the AR application performed well, but leave room for improvement.

The increased availability of high resolution remote sensor data for precision agriculture 1 applications permits users to aquire deeper and more relevant knowledge about crops states that lead 2 inevitably to better decisions. The algorithm libraries being developed and evolved around these 3 applications rely on multi-spectral or hyper-spectral data acquired by using manned or unmanned 4 platforms. The current state of the art makes thorough use of vegetational indicies to guide the 5 operational management of agricultural land plots. One of the most challenging sub-problems is 6 to correctly identify and separate crop from soil. Thresholding techniques based on Normalized 7 Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or other such similar metrics have the advantage of being simple, 8 easy to read transformations of the data packed with useful information. Obvious difficulties arise 9 when crop/tree and soil have similar spectral responses as in case of grass filled areas in vineyards. 10 In this case grass and canopy are close in terms of NDVI values and thresholding techniques will 11 generally fail. Radiometric approaches could be integrated or replaced by a geometric approach that 12 is based on terrain data like Digital Surface Models (DSMs). These models are one of the ouputs 13 of orthorectification engines usually present in data acquired by using unmanned platforms. In 14 this paper we present two approaches based on DSM that are able to segment crop/tree from soil 15 while over gradient terrain. The DSM data are processed through a two dimensional data slicing or 16 reduction technique. Each slice is separately processed as a one dimensional time series to derive the 17 terrain and tree structures separately, here interpreted as object probability densities. In particular 18 the first approach is a Cartesian grid rasterization (CARSCAN) of the terrain and the second is its 19 immediate generalisation or radial grid rasterization of the DSM model (FANSCAN). The FANSCAN 20 recovers information from the original image at greater frequencies on the Fourier plane. These 21 approaches enable the identification of crop/tree from soil in case of slopes or hilly terrain without 22 any constraint on the displacement / direction of plant/tree row. The proposed algorithm uses pure 23 DSM information even if it is possible to fuse its output with other classifiers.

Age-related alterations in the gut microbiome composition and its impacts on the host’s health have been well described; however, detailed analyses of the gut microbial structure defining ecological microbe-microbe interactions is limited. One of the ways to determine these interactions is by understanding microbial co-occurrence patterns. We previously showed promising abilities of Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1 on the aging gut microbiome and immune system. However, the potential of the DDS-1 strain to modulate microbial co-occurrence patterns is unknown. Hence, we aimed to investigate the ability of L. acidophilus DDS-1 to modulate the fecal, mucosal and cecal-related microbial co-occurrence networks in young and aging C57BL/6J mice. Our Kendall’s tau correlation measures of co-occurrence revealed age-related changes in the gut microbiome, which were characterized by reduced number of nodes and associations across sample types when compared to younger mice. After four-week supplementation, L. acidophilus DDS-1 differentially modulated the overall microbial community structure in fecal and mucosal samples as compared to cecal samples. Beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Akkermansia acted as connectors in aging networks in response to L. acidophilus DDS-1 supplementation. Our findings provided the first evidence of the DDS-1-induced gut microbial ecological interactions revealing the complex structure of microbial ecosystems with age.

Plastid gene expression involves many post-transcriptional maturation steps resulting in a complex transcriptome composed of multiple isoforms. Although short read RNA-seq has considerably improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling these processes, it is unable to sequence full-length transcripts. This information is however crucial when it comes to understand the interplay between the various steps of plastid gene expression. Here, the study of the Arabidopsis leaf plastid transcriptome using Nanopore sequencing showed that many splicing and editing events were not independent but co-occurring. For a given transcript, maturation events also appeared to be chronologically ordered with splicing happening after most sites are edited.

Hormones must be balanced and dynamically controlled for the Female Reproductive Tract (FRT) to function correctly during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and delivery. Gamete selection and successful transfer to the uterus, where it implants and pregnancy occurs, is supported by the mucosal epithelial lining of the FRT ovaries, uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, and vagina. Successful implantation and placentation in humans and other animals rely on complex interactions between the embryo and a receptive female reproductive system. The FRT's recent breakthroughs in three-dimensional (3D) organoid systems now provide critical experimental models that match the organ's physiological, functional, and anatomical characteristics in vitro. This article summarizes the current state of the art on organoids generated from various parts of the FRT. The current analysis examines recent developments in the creation of organoid models of reproductive organs, as well as their future directions.

Antibiotic inefficacy in treating bacterial infections is largely studied in the context of developing resistance mechanisms. However, little attention has been paid to combined diseases mechanisms, interspecies pathogenesis and the resulting impact on antimicrobial treatment. This review will consider the co-infections of Salmonella and Schistosoma mansoni. It summarises the protective mechanisms that the pathophysiology of the two infections confer, which leads to an antibiotic protection phenomenon. This review will elucidate the functional characteristics of the gut microbiota in the context of these co-infections, the pathogenicity of these infections in infected mice, and the efficacy of the antibiotics used in treatment of these co-infections over time. Salmonella-Schistosoma interactions and the mechanism for antibiotic protection are not well established. However, antimicrobial drug inefficacy is an existing phenomenon in these co-infections. The treatment of schistosomiasis to ensure the efficacy of antibiotic therapy for bacterial infections should be considered in co-infected patients.

Some emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants raise concerns due to their altered biological properties. For both B.1.1.7 and B.1351 variants, named as variants of concern (VOC), increased transmissibility was reported, whereas B.1.351 was more resistant to multiple monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), as well as convalescent and vaccination sera. To test this hypothesis, we examined the proportion of VOC over time across different geographic areas where the two VOC, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, co-circulate. Our comparative analysis was based on the number of SARS-CoV-2 sequences on GISAID database. We report that B.1.1.7 dominates over B.1.351 in geographic areas where both variants co-circulate and the B.1.1.7 was the first variant introduced in the population. The only areas where B.1.351 was detected at higher proportion were South Africa and Mayotte in Africa, where this strain was associated with increased community transmission before the detection of B.1.1.7. The dominance of B.1.1.7 over B.1.351 could be important since B.1.351 was more resistant to certain mAbs, as well as heterologous convalescent and vaccination sera, thus suggesting that it may be transmitted more effectively in people with pre-existing immunity to other VOC. This scenario would lessen the effectiveness of vaccine and urge the need to update them with new strains.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) can regulate several aspects of gene expression, being associated with complex phenotypes in humans and livestock species. In taurine beef cattle, recent evidence points to the involvement of lncRNA in feed efficiency (FE), a proxy for increased productivity and sustainability. Here, we hypothesized specific regulatory roles of lncRNA in FE of indicine cattle. Using RNA-Seq data from liver, muscle, hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal gland from Nellore bulls with divergent FE, we submitted new transcripts to a series of filters to confidently predict lncRNA. Then, we identified lncRNA that were differentially expressed (DE) and/or key regulators of FE. Finally, we explored lncRNA genomic location and interactions with miRNA and mRNA to infer potential function. We were able to identify 126 relevant lncRNA for FE in Bos indicus, some with high homology to previously identified lncRNA in Bos taurus and some possible specific regulators of FE in indicine cattle. Moreover, lncRNA identified here were linked to previously described mechanisms related to FE in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and are expected to help elucidate this complex phenotype. This study contributes to expanding the catalogue of lncRNA, particularly in indicine cattle, and identifies candidates for further studies in animal selection and management.

Background: On late December 2019, a viral pneumonia known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was originated from China and spread very rapidly in the world. Therefore, COVID-19 became a global concern and health problem. Methods: We presented four patients in this study. They were selected from patients who presented with pneumonia symptoms and were suspicious for COVID-19 and referred to the intended centers for COVID-19 diagnosis and management of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in the south of Iran. Two nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal throat swab samples were collected from each patient and tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection by real-time reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR), and also samples were sent for influenza viruses and all the respiratory panel. Results: In the present report, four patients were diagnosed in the starting days of COVID-19 disease in our center in south of Iran with co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus. Conclusions: This co-infection of COVID-19 and influenza highlights the importance of considering SARS-CoV-2 PCR assay regardless of other positive findings for other pathogens in the primary test during the epidemic.

Contact-based co-culture of fibroblasts and keratinocytes is important to study the structure and functions of the wound bed. Co-culture of these two cell types in direct contact with each other has been challenging, requiring high serum concentrations (up to 10%), feeder systems and a range of supplemental factors. These approaches are not only technically demanding, but also present scientific, cost and ethical limitations associated with high-serum concentrations. We have developed two reduced-serum approaches (1-2%) to support contact-based co-culture of human dermal fibroblasts (HDFa) and human epidermal keratinocytes (HaCaT). The two approaches include (1) Specialized cell culture media for each cell type mixed in a 1:1 ratio (KGM+FGM), and (2) Minimal media supplemented with cell-specific growth factors (MEM+GF). Co-culture could be successfully achieved by co-seeding (two cell types were introduced simultaneously), or in a layered fashion (keratinocytes seeded on top of confluent fibroblasts). With wound scratch assays, the co-cultured platforms could demonstrate cell proliferation, migration and wound closure. The reduced-serum conditions developed are simple, easy to formulate and adopt, and based on commonly-available media components. These contact-based co-culture approaches can be leveraged for wound and skin studies, and tissue bioengineering applications, potentially reducing concerns with high-serum formulations.

Background: The febrile patient from tropical areas, in which emerging arboviruses are endemic, represent a diagnostic challenge and potential co-infections with other pathogens (i.e bacteria or parasites) are usually overlooked. Objectives: We present a case of an elderly woman diagnosed with dengue, chikungunya and Leptospira interrogans co-infection. Study Design: Case report. Results: An 87-year old woman from Colombia complained of upper abdominal pain, arthralgia, myalgia, hyporexia, malaise and intermittent fever accompanied with progressive jaundice. She had a medical history of chronic heart failure (Stage C, NYHA III), without documented cardiac murmurs, right bundle branch block, non-valvular atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and chronic venous disease. Her cardiac and pulmonary status quickly deteriorated after 24 hours of her admission without electrocardiographic changes and she required ventilatory and vasopressor support. In the next hours the patient evolved to pulseless electrical activity and then she died. Dengue IgM, NS1 ELISA, MAT for Leptospira interrogans and RT-PCR for chikungunya, were positive. Discussion: This case illustrates a multiple co-infection in a febrile patient from a tropical area of Latin America that evolved to death.

In this work, we report synthesis of Cu, Pt and Pd doped SnO₂ powders and their comparative CO gas sensing studies. Dopants were incorporated into SnO₂ nanostructures using chemical and impregnation methods by using urea and ammonia as precipitation agents. The synthesized samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The presence of dopants within the SnO₂ nanostructures was evidenced from HR-TEM. Doped powders utilizing chemical methods with urea as precipitation agent presented higher sensitivities compared to the remaining, which is due to the formation of uniform and homogeneous particles resulted from the temperature assisted synthesis. The particle sizes of doped SnO₂ nanostructures were in the range of 40-100 nm. An enhanced sensitivity around 1783 was achieved with Cu doped SnO₂ when compared with two other dopants i.e., Pt (1200) and Pd: SnO₂(502). The high sensitivity of Cu: SnO₂ is due to formation of CuO and its excellent association and dissociation in the presence of CO with adsorbed atmospheric oxygen at sensor operation temperatures resulted in high conductance. Cu: SnO₂ may be an alternative and cost effective sensor for industrial applications.

Good governance in natural resource management (NRM) is one of the most challenging issues in developing countries that often inappropriately embedded in national policies and political agendas. It is, in fact, even more important for countries like Bangladesh with exceptionally high pressure and dependence on its natural resources for sustaining rural livelihoods. Globally, nowadays, good governance is considered as one of the key factor for achieving the goal of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Bangladesh, of late has responded to that global zeal by involving local communities in the management of country’s declining forest and other natural resources. The colonial legacy of the forestry sector of Bangladesh was planned and, managed as interim projects through donors’ prescriptions. Thus, institutions, management processes and conservation outcomes were problematic. The conventional approach adopted by colonial and post-colonial regimes for forest management also proved to be inefficient due to its top-down management system. The absolute dependency on donor support, and their prescription sometimes worsened the situation both ecologically and socially. Global, regional and local trends supported the need for a different dimension in the governance paradigms. The introduction of a pluralistic approach, known as co-management in protected areas (PAs) is an example of an attempt whereby shared governance mechanism are implemented to attain the desired goals of conservation that will also address the livelihoods and aspirations of communities living in and around PAs of the country. However, in designing future forest and PA regimes the concern of the external aid support and attached conditions remain a reality that needs to be addressed. Adequate attention should be given to our vanishing biodiversity, culture and community livelihoods through devising an appropriate governance mechanism recognizing and supporting local rights, access and participation in the environmental management. It is now time to mainstream the adhoc nature of governance according to our national conservation strategy and policy frameworks in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the Bangladesh NRM sector addressing the human and community right of people in the specific context of forest protected areas management.

Despite of being an exceptionally biodiversity rich country, the forest coverage of Bangladesh is declining at an alarming rate. Declaration and management of protected areas in this regard is one of the efforts from government side to tackle the loss of biodiversity. The limited numbers of forest-protected areas (FPA), established to conserve the dwindling forest biodiversity of the country with high pressure on them for timber, non-timber forest products, and fuelwood - makes their management challenging. Moreover, most of the FPAs of the country declared only in the recent decades with very limited infrastructure, manpower and policy support for monitoring and governance. Some people-centred approaches for the management of FPAs and alternative livelihood and income generation subsidies although made available through a few project interventions, their number are still inadequate and performance remains less than satisfactory. This chapter provides a critical review of the FPAs of Bangladesh looking at their role in biodiversity conservation, management challenges, and key lessons from previous management interventions with recommendations for the future. It has been revealed that the FPA system of Bangladesh still poorly represents the diverse forest ecosystems with relatively small forest size and lack of corridors for the movement of wildlife. There are ample opportunities to render co-management of FPAs an effective strategy to minimize the conflicts in FPAs management in the country. It is, however, important to ensure the access of local forest-dependent people to different alternative income generating options that may adequately support their livelihoods.

Raman Spectroscopy has long been anticipated to augment clinical decision making, such as classifying oncological samples. Unfortunately, the complexity of Raman data has thus far inhibited its routine use in clinical settings. Traditional machine learning models have been used to help exploit this information, but recent advances in deep learning have the potential to improve the field. However, there are a number of potential pitfalls with both traditional and deep learning models. We conduct a literature review to ascertain the recent machine learning methods used to classify cancers using Raman spectral data. We find that while deep learning models are popular, and ostensibly outperform traditional learning models, there are many methodological considerations which may be leading to an over-estimation of performance: primarily, small sample sizes which compound upon sub-optimal choices regarding sampling and validation strategies. Amongst several recommendations is a call to collate large benchmark Raman datasets, similar to those that have helped transform digital pathology, which researchers can use to develop and refine deep learning models.

This article discuss the estimation of electrical stresses input that is required to determine lifetime degradation of the HV cables installed within overhead transmission lines (OHTL’s). Abort from lightning effects, these electrical stresses are mainly generated due to repetitive switching operation of the transmission line that produces transient overvoltage (TOV) stress and high frequency stress. The transient overvoltage (TOV) due to switching-off the transmission line at the interface points between the cable and OHTL is estimated using artificial neural network (ANN). PSCAD software is used to build the transmission line model for 749 different case in order to build the required database for ANN training. Two different algorithm input to train ANN with one hidden layer and one output layer using different number of nodes are modeled in MATLAB. The results performance is continuously compared and evaluated till acceptable Regression is achieved to insure the error is less than +/-1.5%. The high frequency due to switching-on the transmission line is also recorded and analyzed. The results show that this new method is efficient, accurate and useful as there is no cable monitoring system is available for each HV cable installed within the transmission line.

Porous tantalum (Ta) is a promising biomaterial and has been applied in orthopedics and dentistry for nearly two decades. The high porosity and interconnected pore structure of porous Ta promise fine bone ingrowth and new bone formation within the inner space, which further guarantee rapid osteointegration and bone-implant stability in long term. Porous Ta has high wettability and surface energy that can facilitate adherence, proliferation and mineralization of osteoblasts. Meanwhile, low elastic modulus and high friction coefficient of porous Ta can effectively avoid stress shield effect, minimize marginal bone loss and ensure primary stability. Accordingly, the satisfactory clinical application of porous Ta based implants or prostheses are mainly derived from its excellent biological and mechanical properties. With the advent of additive manufacturing, personalized porous Ta based implants or prostheses have shown their clinical value in the treatment of individual patient who need specially designed implant or prosthesis. In addition, many modification methods have been introduced to enhance the bioactivity and antibacterial property of porous Ta with promising in vitro and in vivo research results. In any case, choosing suitable patients is of great importance to guarantee surgical success after porous Ta insertion.

Problem solving is one of the most important components of the human cognition that affects for ages the progress of the human society. Mathematical modelling is a special type of problem solving concerning problems related to science or everyday life situations. The present study is a review of the author’s earlier works on problem solving and mathematical modelling from the scope of Education. Its real goal is that it presents in a systematic way and in a few pages only the results of many years research on the subject. This helps the reader to get a comprehensive idea about a very important topic belonging to the core of Mathematics Education, which is very useful to those wanting to study deeper the subject and get directions for further research in the area.

Summary CoV-GLUE is an online web application for the interpretation and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome sequences, with a focus on amino acid sequence variation. It is based on the GLUE data-centric bioinformatics environment and provides a browsable database of amino acid replacements and coding region indels that have been observed in sequences from the pandemic. Users may also analyse their own SARS-CoV-2 sequences by submitting them to the web application to receive an interactive report containing visualisations of phylogenetic classification and highlighting genomic variation of potentially high impact, for example linked to primer mismatches.Availability and implementation Available at http://cov-glue.cvr.gla.ac.uk. Implemented using GLUE, an open source framework for the development of virus sequence data resources. Contact josh.singer@glasgow.ac.uk

Malignant gliomas are heterogeneous neoplasms. Glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) are undifferentiated and self-renewing cells that develop and maintain these tumors. These cells are the main population that resist current therapies. Genomic and epigenomic analyses has identified various molecular subtypes. Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) reduces the number of GSCs through differentiation and induction of apoptosis, thus increasing therapeutic sensitivity. However, the short half-life of BMP4 impedes its clinical application. We have previously reviewed BMP4 signaling in central nervous system development and glioma tumorigenesis and its’ potential as a treatment target in human gliomas. Recent advances in understanding both adult and pediatric malignant gliomas highlight critical roles of BMP4 signaling pathways in the regulation of tumor biology, and indicate its’ potential as a therapeutic molecule. Furthermore, significant progress has been made on synthesizing BMP4 biocompatible delivery materials, which can bind to and markedly extend BMP4 half-life. Here, we review current research associated with BMP4 in brain tumors, especially in pediatric malignant gliomas. We also summarize BMP4 delivery strategies, with a focus on biocompatible BMP4 binding peptide amphiphile nanostructures as promising novel delivery platforms for treatment of these devastating tumors.

Location-Based Services (LBS) have been widely deployed for the connected vehicle (CV) applications such as vehicle navigation,vehicle tracking and location-based augmented reality. The current LBS deployments have limitations in supporting time-critical CV use cases, including vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-people (V2P) safety applications. The paper presents the new LBS framework based on the publish-subscribe communication paradigm, to enable device-to-device (D2D) connections through use of selected application protocols in the application layer of the TCP/IP layered protocol model. Two publish-subscribe application protocols, Distributed Data Service (DDS) real-time publish and subscribe (DDS-RTPS) and Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT), are introduced to support the LBS D2D applications. A number of test scenarios with Mosquitto MQTT and OpenDDS under 4G-mobile broadband (MBB) services are designed to assess the transmit/receive round-trip time (RTT) and packet-loss rate (PLR) with settings of a publisher to multiple subscribers, to simulate the connections to multiple vehicles. The transmission frequency is set for 10 Hz and the message sizes vary from 100 to 2000 Bytes. The PLRs are defined as the percentages of the delayed messages beyond a delay limit. Static test results with OpenDDS show that for the RTT delay beyond the limit of 100 ms, the total PLRs range between 5.25% and 8.76% for the message size of 50 to 2000 Bytes. Vehicle testing results with Mosquitto show that PLRs for the RTT delays between 200 ms and 1000 ms are 0.63%, 3.58% and 5.77%, for connections with 1, 4 and 10 vehicles, respectively. The results demonstrate the potential of the D2D LBS framework for medium-demanding CV safety applications such as V2P and V2I use cases, taking advantages of the 4G-MBB services and 5G extreme mobile broadband (eMBB) services and mobile devices generally available with all road users.

In the recent concrete industry, high fluidity concrete is being widely used for the pouring of dense reinforced concrete. Normally, in the case of high fluidity concrete, it includes high binder contents, so it is necessary to replace part of the cement through admixtures such as fly ash to procure economic feasibility and durability. This study shows the mechanical properties and field applicability of high fluidity concrete that using mass of fly ash as alternative materials of cement. The high fluidity concrete mixed with 50% fly ash was measured to manufacture concrete that applies low water/binder ratio to measure the mechanical characteristics as compressive strength and elastic modulus. Also, in order to evaluate the field applicability, high fluidity concrete containing high volume fly ash was evaluated that fluidity, compressive strength, heat of hydration and drying shrinkage of concrete.

The way people innovate and create new ideas and bring them to the market is undergoing a fundamental change from closed innovation to open innovation. Why and how do firms perform open innovation? Firms’ open innovation is measured through the levels of firms’ joint patent applications. Next, we analyze network structures and characters of firms’ joint patent applications such as betweenness and degree centrality, structure hole, and closure. From this research, we drew conclusions as follows. First, the structure of collaboration networks has both direct and indirect effects on firms’ innovative performance. Second, in the process of joint patent applications, there is a long tail phenomenon in networks of joint patent applications. Third, the number of patents and International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses together constitute a meaningful measure of the innovation performance of firms.

Financial statement analysis is an analysis that uses analytical procedures to evaluate a company's financial health, risks, performance, and future growth potential. This article aims to find out the application of analysis of financial statements of PT. Astra Internasional, Tbk towards the decision-making of novice investors in the Indonesian capital market. This article is qualitative descriptive with literature studies. The results of this article can be concluded that the analysis of the financial statements of PT. Astra Internasional, Tbk can help novice investors in the Indonesian capital market in making investment decisions.

Gene expression data is key for the functional annotation of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Expression and splicing quantitative trait loci (e/sQTLs) in normal colon tissue, such as those from the University of Barcelona and University of Virginia RNA sequencing project (BarcUVa-Seq) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression project (GTEx), are required to gain biological insight of colon-related diseases risk loci. Moreover, transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) rely on reference gene expression imputation panels in the tissue of interest to nominate susceptibility genes. Also, it is of high interest to study the relationships between genes in a network framework. For facilitating these analyses, we have updated and expanded the scope of the Colon Transcriptome Explorer (CoTrEx) to the version 2.0. This web-based resource provides exhaustive visualization and analysis of transcriptome-wide gene expression profiles of normal colon tissue from BarcUVa-Seq and GTEx. In addition to the integration of new datasets, CoTrEx 2.0 provides additional e/sQTLs sets, as well as gene expression prediction models and regulatory and co-expression networks. It is freely available at https://barcuvaseq.org/cotrex/. Overall, it is of high interest for researchers aiming to investigate the genetic susceptibility to colon-related complex traits and diseases.

Existing implementations of game design patterns have largely been confined to theoretical or research settings. Weaknesses in these implementations have prevented game design patterns from being properly evaluated as an educational and practical development tool. This paper examines these weaknesses, describes a method of developing and applying patterns that overcome the weaknesses, and evaluates use of the method for game design education and practice. Weaknesses in existing pattern implementations are: omission of design problems, presumption of functional completeness at the level of pattern languages, narrow topical focus, and lack of a concise, repeatable method for pattern production. Several features of the proposed method were specifically built to address these weaknesses, namely the pattern template, the process for connecting patterns into a language and assessing the language’s scope, a rubric for assessing pattern confidence and interconnectivity confidence, and pattern-building exercises. This method was applied in a classroom setting. Results, as assessed by the evaluation of student work, suggest that creating patterns/pattern languages is an effective pedagogical approach. De-signs produced using designer-created patterns closely align with existing design theory and are clearly understood by students. The above results may indicate that the path to gaining wider acceptance of pattern theory as a design framework within game design is not to produce a universal pattern language but to facilitate the creation of case-specific languages, by students and professional designers, that use a shared ontology and thus can be combined easily to solve the diverse sets of problems faced by these groups.

Self-assembled structures mostly arises through enzyme-regulated phenomena in nature under persistent conditions. Enzymatic reactions are one of main biological processes in fabrication and construction of supramolecular hydrogel networks required for biomedical applications. The enzymatic processes provide a unique opportunity to integrate hydrogel formation. In most of cases, structure and substrates of hydrogels are adjusted by enzyme catalysis due to the chemo-, regio- and stereo-selectivity of enzymes. Hydrogels processed by using various enzyme schemes showed remarkable characteristics as dynamic frames for cells, bioactive molecules and drugs in biomedical applications. A novel class of enzyme-mediated crosslinking hydrogels mimics the extracellular matrices by displaying unique physicochemical properties and functionalities like water-retention capacity, drug loading ability, biodegradability, biocompatibility, biostability, bioactivity, optoelectronic properties, self-healing ability, shape memory ability. In recent years, many enzymatic systems investigated hydrogel cross-linking. Results of biocompatible hydrogel products show that these mechanisms of crosslinking can fulfill requirements for variety of biomedical applications including tissue engineering, wound healing and drug delivery.

Composite materials are widely used in the dental field in clinics as biomaterials. For example, it has been used as a biomaterial to repair caries and restore masticatory function, and as a cement to adhere the restoration to the tooth substrate. In order to demonstrate its function, dental biomaterials are measured their mechanical strength. From such basic research, we explained the potential of dental biomaterials, especially flexural strength and modulus of elasticity. Mechanical properties of dental biomaterials similar to those of the tooth, thermal stimulation, and aesthetic elements in the oral cavity. In this part, we will introduce the commercialized products of composites suitable for the characteristics and tooth quality, and provide the reader with the characteristics from the flexural characteristics of the composite materials used in clinical dentistry. In clinical performance, it might be advisable to delay polishing when composite biomaterials are used for luting materials, filling materials and core build-up materials since improved the flexural strength and the flexural modulus of elasticity were displayed after 1-day storage. And it is thought that flexural strength or characteristics is a significant important mechanical property of oral biomaterials.

Plant proteins being considered to become the most important protein source of the future, they must be able to replace the animal-derived proteins currently in use as technofunctional food ingredients. This poses challenges because plant proteins are oftentimes storage proteins with a high molecular weight and low water solubility. One promising approach to overcome these limitations is the glycation of plant proteins. The covalent bonding between the proteins and different carbohydrates created via the initial stage of the Maillard reaction can improve the technofunctional characteristics of these proteins without the involvement of potentially toxic chemicals. However, compared to studies with animal-derived proteins, glycation studies on plant proteins are currently still underrepresented in literature. This review provides an overview of the existing studies on the glycation of the major groups of plant proteins with different carbohydrates using different preparation methods. Emphasis is put on the reaction conditions used for glycation as well as the modifications to physicochemical properties and technofunctionality. Different applications of these glycated plant proteins in emulsions, foams, films, and encapsulation systems are introduced. Another focus lies on the reaction chemistry of the Maillard reaction and ways to harness it for controlled glycation and to limit the formation of undesired advanced glycation products. Finally, challenges related to the controlled glycation of plant proteins to improve their properties are discussed.

To keep its business reliable, Google is concerned to ensure quality of apps on the store. One crucial aspect concerning quality is security. Security is achieved through Google Play protect and anti-malware solutions. However, they are not totally efficient since they rely on application features and application execution threads. Google provides additional elements to enable consumers to collectively evaluate applications providing their experiences via reviews or showing their satisfaction through rating. The latter is more informal and hides details of rating whereas the former is textually expressive but requires further processing to understand opinions behind. Literature lacks approaches which mine reviews through sentiment analysis to extract useful information to improve security aspects of provided applications. This work goes in this direction and in a fine-grained way, investigates in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability and authentication (CIAA). While assuming that reviews are reliable and not fake, the proposed approach determines review polarities based on CIAA-related keywords. We rely on the popular classifier Naive Bayes to classify reviews into positive, negative and neutral sentiment. We then provide an aggregation model to fusion different polarities to obtain application global and CIAA reputations. Quantitative experiments have been conducted on 13 applications including e-banking, live messaging and anti-malware apps with a total of 1050 security-related reviews and 7.835.322 functionality-related reviews. Results show that 23% of applications (03 apps) have a reputation greater than 0.5 with an accent on integrity, authentication and availability, while the remaining 77% has a polarity under 0.5. Developers should make lot of efforts in security while developing codes and that more efforts should be made to improve confidentiality reputation. Results also show that applications with good functionality-related reputation generally offer bad security-related reputation. This situation means that even if the number of security reviews is low, it does not mean that security aspect is not a consumer preoccupation. Unlike, developers put much more time to test whether applications works without errors even if they include possible security vulnerabilities. A quantitative comparison against well-known rating systems reveals effectiveness and robustness of CIAA-RepDroid to repute apps in terms of security. CIAA-RepDroid can be associated to existing rating solutions to recommend developers exact CIAA aspects to improve within source codes.

Comments are exploited by product vendors to measure satisfaction of consumers. With the advent of Natural Language Processing (NLP), comments on Google Play can be processed to extract knowledge on applications such as their reputation. Proposals in that direction are either informal or interested merely on functionality. Unlike, this work aims to determine reputation of Android applications in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability and authentication (CIAA). This work proposes a model of assessing app reputation relying on sentiment analysis and text analysis of comments. While assuming that comments are reliable, we collect Google Play applications subject to comments which include security keywords. An in-depth analysis of keywords based on Naive Bayes classification is made to provide polarity of any comment. Based on comment polarity, reputation is evaluated for the whole application. Experiments made on real applications including dozens to billions of comments, reveal that developers lack to make efforts to guarantee CIAA services. A fine-grained analysis shows that not security reputed applications can be reputed in specific CIAA services. Results also show that applications with negative security polarities display in general positive functional polarities. This result suggests that security checking should include careful comment analysis to improve security of applications.

This article presents a self balanced multistage DC-DC step-up converter for photovoltaic applications. Proposed converter topology is designed for unidirectional power transfer and provides a doable solution for photovoltaic applications where voltage is required to be stepped up without magnetic components (Transformer-less and Inductor-less). The output voltage obtained from renewable sources will be low and must be stepped up by using a DC-DC converter for photovoltaic applications. K diodes and K capacitors along with two semiconductor control switch are used in the K-stage proposed converter to obtain an output voltage which is (K+1) times the input voltage. The conspicuous features of proposed topology are i) Magnetic components free (Transformer-less and Inductor-less). ii) Continuous input current iii) Low voltage rating semiconductor devices and capacitors iv) Modularity v) Easy to add a higher number of levels to increase voltage gain vi) Only two control switches with alternating operation and simple control. The proposed converter is compared with recent existing transformer-less and Inductor-less power converter in term of voltage gain, number of devices and cost. The application of proposed circuit is discussed in detail. The proposed converter has been designed with rated power of 60W, input voltage is 24V, output voltage is 100V and switching frequency is 100 kHz. The performance of the converter is verified through experimental and simulation results.

The majority of mitochondrial proteins are encoded by the nuclear genome and must be imported into the mitochondria. There are two main paths for mitochondrial protein import: post-translational and co-translational import. Co-translational import couples the translation and the translocation of the mitochondrial proteins, alleviating the energy cost typically associated with the post-translational import relying on chaperone systems. The mitochondrial co-translational import mechanisms are still unclear with few actors identified but none have been described in mammals yet. We thus profiled the TOM20 proxisome using BioID, assuming that some of identified proteins could be molecular actors of the co-translational import in human cells. The obtained results showed a high enrichment of RNA binding proteins close to the TOM complex. However, for the few selected candidates, we could not demonstrate a role in the mitochondrial co-translational import process. Nonetheless, we were able to demonstrate a new mitochondrial localization for nuclear proteins. Besides, additional analyses revealed a negative correlation between the abundance of mitochondrial proteins and their reported half-life. This experimental approach is thus proposed to potentially characterize mitochondrial co-translational import effectors in human cells and to monitor protein entry inside mitochondria with a potential application in the prediction of mitochondrial protein half-life.

Metchnikovellids (Microsporidia: Metchnikovellida) are poorly studied hyperparasitic micro-sporidia that live in gregarines inhabiting the intestines of marine invertebrates, mostly poly-chaetes. Our recent studies showed that the diversity of the metchnikovellids might be signifi-cantly higher than previously thought, even within a single host. Four species of metchnikovellids were found in the gregarines inhabiting the gut of the polychaete Pygospio elegans from littoral populations of the White and Barents Seas: the eugregarine Polyrhabdina pygospionis is the host for Metchnikovella incurvata and M. spiralis, while the archigregarine Selenidium pygospionis is the host for M. dogieli and M. dobrovolskiji. The most common species in the White Sea is M. in-curvata, while M. dobrovolskiji prevails in the Barents Sea. The gregarines within a single worm could be infected with different metchnikovellid species. However, co-infection of one and the same gregarine with several species of metchnikovellids has never been observed. The difference in prevalence and intensity of metchnikovellid invasion apparently depends on the features of the life cycle and on the development strategies of individual species.

New generation antibiotics are needed to combat the development of resistance to antimicrobials. One of the most promising new classes of antibiotics is cannabidiol (CBD). It is a non-toxic and low-resistance chemical that can be used to treat bacterial infections. The antibacterial activity of Cannabis sativa L. byproducts, specifically CBD, has been of growing interest in the field of novel therapeutics. As research continues to define and characterize the antibacterial activity that CBD possesses against a wide variety of bacterial species it is important to examine potential interaction between CBD and common therapeutics such as broad-spectrum antibiotics. Here, we show that CBD-antibiotic co-therapy can effectively fight S. typhimurium via membrane integrity disruption. This research serves to examine the potential synergy between CBD and three broad-spectrum antibiotics for potential antibiotic-CBD co-therapy. In this study, we reveal that Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) growth is inhibited at very low dosages of CBD-antibiotic. This interesting finding demonstrates that CBD and CBD-antibiotic co-therapies are viable novel alternatives to combating Salmonella typhimurium.

The emergence of the circular economy, and the evolving paradigms in the treatment and management of wastewater, have opened up an opportunity for co-digestion of organic waste (i.e., food waste) with sewage sludges to enhance resource recovery at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This paper reviewed the potential for anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludges, as well as alternative sustainable food waste handling systems in South Africa. The promotion of the circular economy by the latest national solid waste management strategy and the ongoing efforts for resource recovery by the wastewater sector suggests that anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge is possible in South Africa. Furthermore, an integrated food waste disposer (FWD) system was identified as a sustainable alternative for food waste handling. To formulate a roadmap for future food waste and sewage sludge co-digestion implementation, a multi-disciplinary investigation is required to bridge the literature gap.

Despite knowledge concerning stakeholders and the economic advantages of consultation, collaboration and innovation, analysis of the sustainability implications of the geothermal industry has tended to take a high-level or systemic overview of national performance. This study seeks to begin to fill this gap in the academic and grey literature, investigating the following research question: how do projects in the Icelandic geothermal energy sector create co-benefits with stakeholders and reflect the integration of sustainable energy development (SED)? The focus of its analysis is on identifying who are the stakeholders, what are the sustainability benefits co-created with stakeholders, and when in the project lifecycle do these occur. Based on eleven semi-structured interviews with project managers in Iceland’s geothermal industry, the study identifies a broad array of stakeholders in the sector, including national and municipal governments and public sector institutions, businesses, the public, employees and landowners. The sustainability co-benefits of Iceland’s geothermal power projects are broad and cut cross all six themes of SED and multiple phases of the project lifecycle. Although the sustainability benefits are very apparent, trade-offs are reported between the pursuit of an economically efficient energy system and nature conservation. This relates to unsustainable utilization of the resources and the environmental externalities of power production and consumption. Efforts to mitigate these effects are ongoing and the further pursuit of SED is likely in Iceland given its recognition within the nation’s new energy policy and to meet ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets in the government’s climate action plan. These are issues that are prominent in other nations seeking to decarbonize energy systems through increased utilization of geothermal resources.

Water is essential for all living things however its pain has become serious. Many industrial activities cause its pollution by the release of polluting byproduct. Waste water treatment is hence necessary. In this context, the waste water of the textile industry containing Red Acid 52 was treated by the solid waste of the washed natural phosphate byproduct. Natural phosphate was also studied. The solid materials were first characterized by chemical analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The phosphate materials were after that, tested in the adsorption of the Red Acid 52. The experimental data indicated that the phosphate waste rock allowed the removal of Red Acid 52. Its maximum retention capacity attained 18.4 mg.g-1. Calcinations of materials inhibits the removal capacity found reduced by 60 to 70%. The adsorption kinetics of the Red Acid 52 on the material is well described by the pseudo second order model while the adsorption isotherms are identified by the Langmuir model. Hereafter, the thermodynamic study revealed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic. Keywords: Waste water, Phosphate co-product, Adsorption, Red Acid 52.

In recent years, hetero atom incorporated specially structured metal-free carbon nanomaterials have drawn huge attention among researchers. In comparison to the un-doped carbon nanomaterials, hetero atoms like nitrogen, sulphur, boron, phosphorous etc. incorporated nanomaterials become well-accepted as potential electrocatalysts in water splitting, supercapacitors and dye-sensitized solar cells. This review emphasizes on the mostly popular synthetic strategies utilized in last two decades and their excellent performance in electrocatalytic studies.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are large protein families known to be important in many cellular processes. They are well known for their allosteric activation mechanisms. They are drug targets for several FDA-approved drugs. We have investigated the diversity of the ligand binding site for these class of proteins against their cognate ligands using computational docking, even if their structures are known in the ligand-complexed form. The cognate ligand of some of these receptors dock at allosteric binding site, with better score than the binding at the conservative site. Further, ligands obtained from GLASS database, which consists of experimentally verified GPCR ligands, also show allosteric binding to GPCRs. The allosteric binders show strong affinity to the binding site, though the residues at the binding site are not conserved across GPCR subfamilies.

There is a rising global concern for the ongoing outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 due to its high transmission rate and unavailability of treatment. Through the binding of its spike glycoprotein with angiotensin type 2 (ACE2), SARS-CoV-2 can efficiently get in the cells of patients and start its pandemic cycle. Herein, the biological diversity of SARS-CoV-2 infection was assessed in Babylon province of Iraq by investigating the possible genetic variations of the spike glycoprotein. A specific coding region of 795 bp within the viral spike (S) gene was amplified from 19 patients who suffered from obvious symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sequencing results identified fifteen novel nucleic acid variations with a variety of distributions within the investigated samples. The electropherograms of all the identified variations showed obvious co-infections with at least two different viral strains per sample. Within these co-infections, the majority of samples exhibited three nonsense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)s, p.301Cdel, p.380Ydel, and p.436del, which yielded three truncated SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoproteins of 301, 380, and 436 amino acids length, respectively. The network and phylogenetic analyses indicated that for all viral infections were derived from multi-ancestral origins. Results inferred from the specific clade-based tree entailed that some viral strains were derived from European G-clade sequences. In conclusion, our data demonstrated the absence of any single strain infection among all investigated viral samples in the studied area, which may entail a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 in this country. Through the identified high frequency of truncated spike proteins, we suggest that defective SARS-CoV-2 may depend on helper strains having intact spikes in its infection. Alternatively, another putative ACE2-independent route of viral infection way also suggested. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe the co-infection of multiple strains of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with COVID-19.

We describe the innate and adaptive immune system trajectory in Multi-system inflammatory syndrome of childhood (MIS-C), at acute(within 72 hours of hospitalization), resolution (at clinical improvement) and convalescent phase. In our cohort, in the acute phase, 68% of the children were SARS-CoV-2 seropositive, with hypercytokinenemia (high interleukin(IL)-1beta,IL-6,IL-8,IL-10,IL-17, interferon gamma), procoagulant state, myocardial dysfunction, activated neutrophils and monocytes; differential T and B cell subset lymphopenia; activated chemokine receptor type-7 positive and gamma-delta T cell subsets; antigen presenting cells had reduced HLA-DR expression; and B-cell class-switch responses occurred with illness resolution. MIS-C is an immunopathogenic illness associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections in children.

Introduction The COVID-19 virus was initially reported in Dec 2019 as the causative agent of a pneumonia breakout in Wuhan China. This virus rapidly spread from China to Europe and the East Coast of the United States eventually reaching the South West United States and indigenous tribes in mid -March. Since, then the indigenous tribes have been devasted by the virus which the Governor of New Mexico has likened as an existential threat. Methodology A PubMed search was performed utilizing the words: Navajo Indian, Indigenous Indian, Wuhan Virus, COVID-19, SARs coronavirus, ACE2, S protein, virulence, clinical presentation, epidemiology, genome, treatment, structure, MERs, pathogenesis and/or pathology alone and in combination with other terms. Each paper was evaluated by three content experts for quality, reproducibility, credibility and reputation of the journal Results: Navajo’s and other indigenous peoples may have elevated levels of ACE2 receptors in their lungs and other tissues allowing greater susceptibility to the COVID-19 virus. Increased levels of diabetes and protein nutrition are directly related to increased morbidity and mortality in this group while obesity, COPD, and heart diseas are not. The increased morbidity and mortality is exasperated by an inability to test for COVID-19 Conclusion: The infectivity rate of Navaho’s on the reservation is 22 times higher than the national average with a death rate near 4%. Comorbidites account for some of the increased morbidity and mortality while lack of access to adequate health care unnecessarily magnifies the poor outcome. The threat to indigenous tribes in the Southwest of COVID-19 is dire.

Carbon dioxide has become a global challenge, where the emissions have become more than what could be handled. In this regard, conversion of CO2 to value added chemicals and thus recycling CO2 became a viable option. One of these options is the use of a process in strong development: oxycombustion. However, the gases resulting from this process contain some traces of impurities that can hinder the recovery of CO2 such as NO and CO. This work has therefore focused on the study of the reaction of NO reduction by CO in an oxidizing medium, using catalytic materials based on various supported noble metals. These materials were extensively characterized by a variety of methods including BET surface area measurements, hydrogen chemisorption, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and H2 temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR). The obtained results show that the catalytic behaviour of M/Al2O3 catalysts in CO oxidation and NO reduction with CO in oxidative conditions depends mainly on the nature of the metal. The best result for these both reactions is obtained with Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. The Pt nanoparticles existing in the metallic form (Pt°) showed by TPR could explain the activity.

On the eve of the Brexit process, in the context of a rising Euroscepticism that fuels the modest confidence of European citizens in their national and European institutions, the article assesses the efficiency and effectiveness of the European Parliament within the framework of the ordinary legislative procedure (co-decision). After defining and formulating the main indicators, the paper analyses the micro- and macro-performance of the European Parliament within the decision-making process from a quantitative-qualitative and a qualitative-quantitative perspective, highlighting the relativizing factors and the responsiveness of the European decision-making process to the Europeans’ needs.

ZnO films with Ti atoms incorporated (TZO) in a wide range (0-18 at. %) have been grown by reactive co-sputtering on silicon and glass substrates. The influence of the titanium incorporation in the ZnO matrix on the structural and optical characteristics of the samples has been determined by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that the samples with low Ti content (< 4 at. %) exhibit the wurtzite-like structure, with the Ti+4 ions substitutionally incorporated into the ZnO structure, forming Ti-doped ZnO films. In particular, very low concentration of Ti (<0.9 at. %) leads to a significant increase of the crystallinity of the TZO samples. Higher Ti contents give rise to a progressive amorphization of the wurtzite-like structure so samples with high Ti content (≥18at. %), displays an amorphous structure indicating the XPS analysis a predominance of Ti-O-Zn mixed oxides. The energy gap, obtained from absorption spectrophotometry, increases from 3.2 eV for pure ZnO films to 3.6 eV for those with the highest Ti content. Ti incorporation in the ZnO samples below 0.9 at. % rises both, the blue (380 nm) and green (550 nm) bands of the photoluminescence (PL) emission, thereby indicating a significant improvement of PL efficiency of the samples.

Cu,N-TiO₂ nanotube (Cu,N-TNT) is prepared through a novel magnetron sputtering and anodic oxidation method. Then the morphology, structure and physicochemical property of Cu,N-TNT was analyzed by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX and UV-vis-DR. The results indicate that the evenly doped copper is beneficial to the transformation of the TNT from anatase to rutile and play a key role in the morphology of the Cu,N-TNT. The doped Cu and N in the TNT influence the growth orientation of the TiO₂ crystals, which result in the lattice distortion and wider the interplanar spacing 60s-Cu,N-TNT has less band gap and stronger absorption intensity in visible region than other Cu,N-TNT samples, which make the combination rate of photogenerated electron and photogenerated hole decrease greatly, thus beneficial to its physicochemical property.

Polymer-based piezoelectric biomaterials have already proven their relevance for tissue engineering applications. Further, the morphology of the scaffolds plays also an important role in cell proliferation and differentiation. The present work reports on poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), a biocompatible, biodegradable and piezoelectric biopolymer that has been processed in different morphologies, including films, fibres, microspheres and 3D scaffolds. Further, the corresponding magnetically active PHBV-based composites were also produced. The effect of the morphology on physico-chemical, thermal, magnetic and mechanical properties of pristine and composites samples was evaluated, as well as their cytotoxicity. It was observed that the morphology does not strongly affect the properties of the pristine samples but the introduction of cobalt ferrites induces changes in the degree of crystallinity that could affect the applicability of prepared biomaterials. Young modulus is dependent of the morphology and also increases with the addition of cobalt ferrites. Both, pristine and PHBV/cobalt ferrite composite samples are no cytotoxic, indicating their suitability for tissue engineering applications.