Connexin 43 (Cx43) forms gap junctions that mediate the direct intercellular diffusion of ions and small molecules between adjacent cells. Cx43 displays both pro- and anti-tumorigenic properties, but the mechanisms underlying these characteristics are not fully understood. Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are long and thin membrane projections that connect cells, facilitating the exchange of not only small molecules, but also larger proteins, organelles, bacteria, and viruses. Typically, TNTs exhibit increased formation under conditions of cellular stress and are more prominent in cancer cells, where they are generally thought to be pro-metastatic and to provide growth and survival advantages. Cx43 has been described in TNTs, where it is thought to regulate small molecule diffusion through gap junctions. Here, we developed a high-fidelity CRISPR/Cas9 system to knockout (KO) Cx43. We found that loss of Cx43 expression was associated with significantly reduced TNT length and number in breast cancer cell lines. Notably, secreted factors present in conditioned medium stimulated TNTs more potently when derived from Cx43-expressing cells than from KO cells. Moreover, TNT formation was significantly induced by inhibition of several key cancer signaling pathways that both regulate Cx43 and are regulated by Cx43, including RhoA kinase (ROCK), protein kinase A (PKA), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and p38. Intriguingly, drug-induced stimulation of TNTs was more potent in Cx43 KO cells than in wild-type cells. In conclusion, this work describes a novel non-canonical role for Cx43 in regulating TNTs, identifies key cancer signaling pathways that regulate TNTs in this setting, and provides mechanistic insight into a pro-tumorigenic role of Cx43 in cancer.

Despite a global push in the development and implementation of widespread alternative energy use, significant disparities exist across given nation-states. These disparities reflect both technical and economic factors, as well as the social, political, and ecological gaps between how communities see energy development and national/global policy goals. Known as the “local-national gap,” many nations struggle with fostering meaningful conversations about the role of alternative energy technologies within communities. Mitigation of this problem first requires understanding the distribution of existing alternative energy technologies at the local level of policymaking. Using the State of Georgia, U.S.A. as a case study, we present a model for analyzing how existing adoption trends enable/limit conversation at the scale of local governance (i.e., county governments). Leveraging existing work on the Gini Coefficient as a metric for measuring energy inequity, we argue these tools can be applied to analyze where gaps exist in ongoing solar adoption trends. As we demonstrate, communities that adopt solar tend to be concentrated in a few counties, indicating existing conversations are limited to a circumscribed set of social networks. This information and the model we demonstrate can enable focused qualitative analyses of existing solar trends, not only amongst high-adoption areas but within communities where little to no adoption has occurred.

In China's mountainous coastal terrain, the storm badly damaged low-rise buildings. At present, it is not clear how the relative position of buildings and mountains affects the surface of a low-rise building’s fluctuating coefficient. The study compared these results with the wind pressure distribution without the surrounding environment. The primary objective of this study is to examine the fluctuating coefficient variation rule based on the spacing between hillsides and buildings under 0° wind angle. Additionally, the study analyzes the fluctuating wind pressure coefficient across wind angles between 0°~90°. The distribution of wind pressure in different common hillside landforms was examined through a wind tunnel experiment, which also compared with the distribution in an open environment. The study examined the fluctuating coefficient as the distance between the building and the hillside changed, specifically for wind blowing at a 0° angle. Next, an analysis is conducted on the changing pattern of the fluctuating coefficient for low-rise buildings ranging from a wind angle of 0° to 90°. Simultaneously, the investigation examined the power spectrum and wind pressure’s probability distribution, while considering the proximity of the building to an adjacent hill. The findings indicated that the changing wind pressure factor on the surface of the structure differed based on the relative location of the hillside and the building. The roof's wind pressure coefficient fluctuated and gradually increased until it reached its peak, unaffected by the surroundings. The low-frequency energy decreased in windward eaves, while the high-frequency energy progressively rose as the distance between the hillside and the building increased. The wind pressure on the leeward side exhibited Gaussian characteristics in its probability distribution.

With increasing power and speed of laser welding, in-process monitoring has become even more crucial to ensure process stability and weld quality. Due to its low cost and installation flexibility, acoustic process monitoring is a promising method and has demonstrated its effectiveness. Since its feasibility has been the focus of existing studies, the temporal resolution of acoustic emissions (AE) has not yet been addressed despite its utmost importance for realizing real-time systems. Aiming to provide a benchmark for further development, this study investigates the relationship between duration and informativeness of AE signals during high power (3.5kW) and high speed (12m/min) laser beam butt welding. Specifically, the informativeness of AE signals is evaluated based on the accuracy of detecting and quantifying joint gaps for various time windows of signals, yielding numerical comparison. The obtained results show that signals can be shortened up to a certain point without sacrificing their informativeness, encouraging to optimize the signal duration. Our results also suggest that large gaps (> 0.3mm) induce unique signal characteristics in AE, which are clearly identifiable from 1 ms signal segments, equivalent to 0.2mm weld seam.

An efficient design method is proposed for a compact common-mode rejection (CMR) filter utilizing dumbbell-shaped defected ground (DS-DG) structures and gap-coupled stub (GCS) resonators. A CMR filter for differential lines helps to improve the signal integrity of high-speed digital signals on printed circuit boards. The proposed CMR filter design is based on the equivalent circuit models, while the previous designs depended heavily on the DS-DG structure optimization using the EM simulations. The proposed CMR filter effectively reject the common-mode components with minimally affecting the differential signals. To prove the simplified design approach, a 5th-order Chebyshev band-stop filter has been designed with three DS-DG structures and two GCS resonators. From the simulated and measured results, it is found that the proposed CMR filter provides ~90% fractional frequency bandwidth with more than 20 dB of common-mode rejection ratio and less than 0.6 dB of insertion loss of the differential signal.

We profiled the transcriptomes of primary mouse cortical astrocytes cultured alone or co-cultured with immortalized precursor oligodendrocytes. The experimental set-up (insert systems) prevented formation of gap junction channels but allowed free exchange of the two culture media. The study complements our previously published reports that the genomic fabrics of major functional pathways in oligodendrocytes are substantially remodeled by the proximity of non-touching astrocytes. Here, we present new analysis indicating that the transcriptomic landscape of astrocytes likewise changes significantly in the proximity of non-touching oligodendrocytes. The research was stimulated by the reported transcriptomic similarity between the brains of Cx43KO and Cx32KO mice, both substantially different from that of the Cx36KO mice. Since the three connexins are expressed in different cell types (Cx43 in astrocytes, Cx32 in oligodendrocytes and Cx36 in neurons), altogether these findings support the idea of a “panglial transcriptomic syncytium” in the mouse brain. Going further, our results suggest that integration in a heterocellular tissue modulates not only the expression profile but also the expression control and networking of the genes in each cell phenotype.

: The cyber-physical gap (CPG) is the difference between the 'real' state of the world and the way the system perceives it. This discrepancy often stems from the limitations of sensing and data collection technologies and capabilities, and is an inevitable issue in any cyber-physical system (CPS). Ignoring or misrepresenting such limitations during system modeling, specification, design, and analysis can potentially result in systemic misconceptions, disrupted functionality and performance, system failure, severe damage, and potential detrimental impacts on the system and its environment. We propose CPG-Aware Modeling & Engineering (CPGAME), a conceptual model-based approach for capturing, explaining, and mitigating the CPG, on top of and in sync with the conventional system model, and as an inherent systems engineering activity. This approach enhances the systems engineer’s ability to cope with CPGs, mitigate them by design, and prevent erroneous decisions, actions, and hazardous implications. CPGAME is a generic, conceptual approach, specified and demonstrated with Object Process Methodology (OPM). OPM is a holistic conceptual modeling paradigm for multidisciplinary, complex, dynamic systems, which is also ISO-19450. We analyze the 1979 Three Miles Island 2 nuclear accident as a prime example of the disastrous consequences of unmitigated CPGs in complex systems.

In the present research, groups of nanolayered structures and nanohybrids based on organic green dyes and inorganic species are designated to act as fillers for PVA for inducing new optical sites and increasing its thermal stability through producing polymeric nanocomposites. In this trend, different percentages of Naphthol green B were intercalated as pillars inside the Zn-Al nanolayered structures to form green organic-inorganic nanohybrids. The two-dimensional green nanohybrids were identified by X-ray diffraction, TEM and SEM. According to the thermal analyses, the nanohybrid, which has the highest amount of green dyes, was used for modifying the PVA through two series. In the first series, three nanocomposites were prepared depending on the green nanohybrid as prepared. In the second series, the yellow nanohybrid, which was produced from the green nanohybrid by thermal treatment, was used to produce another three nanocomposites. The optical properties revealed that the polymeric nanocomposites depending on green nanohybrids became optical-active in UV and visible regions because the energy band gap decreased to be 2.2 eV. In addition, the energy band gap of the nanocomposites depended on yellow nanohybrids was 2.5 eV. The thermal analyses indicated that the polymeric nanocomposites are thermally more stable than that of the original PVA. Finally, the dual functionality of organic-inorganic nanohybrids that produced from the confinement of organic dyes and the thermal stability of inorganic species converted the non-optical PVA to optical-active polymer in a wide range with high thermal stability

In this study, Silicon Carbide (SiC) nano-particle based serigraphic printing inks were formulated to fabricate highly sensitive and wide temperature range SiC printed thermistors. Initially, commercial silver ink was screen printed to fabricate inter-digitated electrodes (IDE’s) onto flexible Kapton® substrate via screen printing. Thermistor inks with different weight ratios of SiC nano- particles dispersed in polyimide resin matrix were fabricated. The SiC-polyimide temperature sensing inks were screen printed atop the IDE structures to form fully printed thermistors and encapsulated with a adhesive backed polyimide film for humidity inhibition. The high temperature tolerance of the Kapton® allowed the the sensors to be tested over a wide temperature range form 25◦C to 170◦C. The printed SiC thermistors exhibit excellent repeatability and stability over 15 hours of continuous operation. Optimal device performance was achieved with 30 wt.% SiC-polyimide ink. We report highly sensitive devices with a temperature coefficient of Resistance (TCR) of -0.556 %/◦C, a thermal coefficient of 502 K (β-index) and an activation energy of 0.08 eV which are comparable with printed thermistors previous reported. Further, the thermistor demonstrates an accuracy of ±1.35◦C which is well within the range offered by commercially available high sensitivity thermistors. SiC thermistors exhibit a small 6.5% drift due to changes in relative humidity between 10-90 %RH and a 4.2 % drift in baseline resistance after 100 cycles of aggressive bend testing at a 40°angle. The use of commercially available low cost materials, simplicity of design and fabrication techniques coupled with the chemical inertness of the Kapton® substrate and SiC nanoparticles paves the way to use all-printed SiC thermistors towards a wide range of applications where temperature monitoring is vital for optimal system performance.

This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using airborne acoustic emission in laser beam butt welding for the development of an automated classification system based on neural networks. The focus was on monitoring the formation of joint gaps during the welding process. To simulate various sizes of butt joint gaps, controlled welding experiments were conducted, and the emitted acoustic signals were captured using audible to ultrasonic microphones. To implement an automated monitoring system, a method based on short-time Fourier transformation was developed to extract audio features, and a convolutional neural network architecture with data augmentation was utilized. The results demonstrated that this non-destructive and non-invasive approach was highly effective in detecting joint gap formations, achieving an accuracy of 98%. Furthermore, the system exhibited promising potential for low latency monitoring of the welding process. The classification accuracy for various gap sizes reached up to 90%, providing valuable insights for characterizing and categorizing joint gaps accurately. Additionally, increasing the quantity of training data with quality annotations could potentially improve the classifier model's performance further. This suggests that there is room for future enhancements in the study.

The rapid proliferation of information in the digital era underscores the importance of accurate historical representation and interpretation. While artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in various fields, its potential for historical fact-checking and gap-filling remains largely untapped. This study evaluates the performance of three large language models (LLMs)—GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and Google- BARD—in the context of predicting and verifying historical events based on given data. A novel metric, "Distance to Reality" (DTR), is introduced to assess the models' outputs against established historical facts. The results reveal a substantial potential for AI in historical studies, with GPT-4 demonstrating superior performance. This paper underscores the need for further research into AI's role in enriching our understanding of the past and bridging historical knowledge gaps.

This study describes all the properties of high T_c cuprates by introducing rotating holes that are created by angular momentum conservations on a 2D CuO₂ surface, and which have a different mass from that of a normal hole because of the magnetic field energy induced by the rotation. This new particle called a macroscopic Boson describes the doping dependences of pseudo-gap temperature and the transition temperature at which an anomaly metal phase appears and describes the origin of the pseudo-gap. Furthermore, this study introduces a new model to handle many-body interactions, which results in a new statistic equation. This statistic equation describing many-body interactions accurately explains why high T_c cuprates have significantly high critical temperatures. Moreover a partition function of macroscopic Bosons describes all the properties of anomaly metal phase, which sufficiently agree with experiments, using the result from our previous study [1] that analytically describes the doping dependence of T_c. By introducing a macroscopic Boson and the new statistical model for many-body interactions, this study uncovered the mystery of high T_c cuprates, which have been a challenge for many researchers. An important point is that, in this study, pure analytical calculations are consistently conducted, which agree with experimental data well (i.e., they do not use numerical calculations or fitting methods but use many actual physical constants).

In general, a superconductor has zero resistance, although it requires significant refrigeration or high pressures with high manufacturing costs, which prevents it into practical applications. In other words, solving these issues implies main superconducting researches. To solve these problems, this paper describes a new type of superconductivity, which is independent for temperatures and which operates without pressures. The principles of the presented system are as follows:First a voltage source, a current source and a load are connected in series. Then, the voltage of the voltage source is adjusted to balance the voltage of the load. Under this condition, the balance of the two voltages provides a zero voltage between the taps of the current source and the generated current from the voltage source becomes zero because of the internal infinite resistance of the current source. As a result, the electric powers generated by the two sources are zero, and therefore, the load cannot generate Joule heating because of energy conservation. However, the current from the current source (not the voltage source) is not zero; therefore, we can predict that the resistance of the load must be zero. As a theory, we derived a new electric field and transient attractive force, which result in a very short coherence of an electron pair because there is not the Coulomb repulsive force due to the existence of the above transient attractive force. Note that both the forces are derived by the Poisson equation, which implies that they cannot be compatible. Therefore, the pair combination energy from spins becomes extremely strong, which is not destroyed by the normal heat energy. Moreover, every center-of-mass motion of electron pair results in the Bose-Einstein condensation and the macroscopic wave function, which produces the London equation (i.e., the Meissner effect). Moreover, by introducing the equivalent circuit, this paper conducted numerical calculations. As a result, we could derive numerically zero resistance and responses for additional static magnetic fields as a discharged current, which implies the Meissner effect. Note that this paper has prepared Appendix section, which provides a guide to reproduce actual experiments and preliminary experimental results. These results in the Appendix indicate the zero resistances and Meissner effects.

In light of the critical and emerging global challenge posed by the increasing frequency and severity of heatwaves in recent decades, this study demonstrates a practical and robust workflow that bridges the gap in understanding how the effective integration of remote sensing data with ground-based observations can facilitate a comprehensive assessment of spatiotemporal heatwave patterns and trends in the central region of Thailand. This research transcends traditional methods, utilizing air temperature (Tair) and satellite-derived land surface temperature (LST) data from 1981 to 2019. Results exhibit that an analysis of Tair indicates increasing daytime heatwaves in peri-urban areas, with significant trends in heatwave number (HWN), heatwave frequency (HWF), and heatwave duration (HWD), heatwave amplitude (HWA) rises in urban settings while nighttime heatwaves significantly intensify in rural locales. Notably, LST trends reveal varied patterns, with peri-urban areas showing marked daytime increases in heatwave magnitude (HWM), HWA, and HWF. Correlation analysis (p=0.05) highlights strong daytime associations between Tair and LST in rural (HWN, HWF, HWD, r>0.90) and peri-urban (HWM, HWA, r>0.65) regions. Overall, this study advances approaches to the adaptable measurement and spatial-temporal pattern of heatwave-related risk areas, providing insights for decision-makers to develop sustainable practices and strategies for climate change adaptation.

Consciousness is a special type of interaction between subjects exchanging by lingua quanta (phonemes). A set of lingua quanta composes a thesaurus placed on the edge of chaos. Its library is a memory, modification of which is due to tuning of memristive neural elements scattered in the brain volume. The memristive neural model takes into consideration two types of neurons - excitatory and inhibitory and the current leakage, all at the body temperature, T = 309 K. At such temperatures only heavy ions like hydrogen ions - protons can pass robustly through the water medium of the brain. The robust ion transport is proton water wires supported by the Grotthuss mechanism. Final aims of the ions are the gap junctions (electric synapses) linking nearest neurons. Following these observations, a model of excitable nervous tissue is constructed. Namely, a difference mapping on the basis of sigmoid curves can reproduce chaotic modes of neural activity proved by positive values of the Lyapunov exponent. The edge of chaos is placed near the bifurcation boundary dividing the chaos and the periodic convulsive activity typical at the epileptic discharges. In this region the self-sustained spiral waves occur. An intermittent activity of the competing excitatory and inhibitory neurons is observed on the edge of chaos. The intermittent electrical activity of neural tissues is demonstrated by records both from different literature issues and records made by the author together with DR. A. Dudkin on slices of CA1 field of the hippocampus.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the existence of an artificial magnetic monopole and to introduce new electromagnetic equations by altering an electric field and a magnetic field vectors.As a principle device, a cylindrical condenser is prepared, and a superconducting loop is inserted into it. By this conduction, radial electric fields take a role as the centripetal force and both counterclockwise and clockwise motions are induced. As a result, a stationery wave is formed in which the nodes take a part in creating a monopole as follows.First, employing the Lorentz conservations and because node of the stationary wave has no phases, the momentum k and the vector potential A vanish and instead a magnetic potential appears in order to maintain the Lorentz conservation. This magnetic potential has relationship with an electric potential, and thus consequently, a dependent relationship is obtained between an electric field and a magnetic field vectors. Using this conclusive dependent relationship, we can derive new Maxwell equation assembly which are created by altering the electric field and the magnetic field vectors. In this process, we derive a divergent equation of magnetic fields which is not zero, i.e., the existence of a magnetic monopole. Employing these newly derived Maxwell equation, an electromagnetic wave is derived whose speed is the same as one the existing Maxwell equations provide. As a monopole configuration, this paper discusses the energy gap of the vacuum, which is a result of the Dirac equation and describes a monopole as pairs between two Cooper pairs (i.e. four electrons) whose interaction is a photon. As mentioned, because the total momenta and phases are zero, this paper defines the wave function as the Dirac function and demonstrate the condensation, employing the Bloch’s theorem. Moreover, using the macroscopic basic equations, we retrace the creation of the divergent magnetic field in view of macroscopic phenomenon., which provides results in this paper.In Result section in this paper, we succeeded in demonstrating the distribution of the divergent magnetic field of monopole in terms of both microscopic and macroscopic scales. Furthermore, Discussion section describes properties a magnetic monopole should follow.