In this letter we investigate if SARS-CoV-2 RNA is involved in the increased ageing of alveolar cells. Our in silico study is explorative. With the results we are able to outline experiments with AEC2 repair of bleomycin damaged alveolar cells. If AEC2 repair capability is diminished by spike RNA then perhaps this result provides a first step on a route to treat immortal lung cancer cells.

We consider the financial planning problem of a retiree wishing to enter a retirement village at a future uncertain date. The date of entry is determined by the retiree's utility and bequest maximisation problem within the context of uncertain future health states. In addition, the retiree must choose optimal consumption, investment, bequest and purchase of insurance products prior to her full annuitisation on entry to the retirement village. A hyperbolic absolute risk-aversion (HARA) utility function is used to allow necessary consumption for basic living and medical costs. The retirement village will typically require an initial deposit upon entry. This threshold wealth requirement leads to exercising the replication of an American put option at the uncertain stopping time. From our numerical results, active insurance and annuity markets are shown to be a critical aspect in retirement planning.

Microencapsulation of polyherbal formulation (PHF) extract was carried out by freeze drying method, by employing gum arabic (GA), gelatin (GE), and maltodextrin (MD) with their designated different combinations as encapsulating wall materials. Antioxidant components (i.e total phenolic contents (TPC),Total flavonoids contents (TFC), and total condensed contents (TCT)), antioxidant activity (i.e. DPPH, β-carotene & ABTS⁺ assays), moisture contents, water activity (aw), solubility, hygroscopicity, glass transition temperature (T_g), particle size, morphology, in vitro alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition and bioavailability ratios of the powders were investigated. Amongst all encapsulated products, T_B (5% GA and 5% MD) and T_C (10% GA) has proven to be the best treatments with respect to the highest preservation of antioxidant components and their antioxidant potential by DPPH and β-carotene assays and noteworthy for an ABTS⁺ assays, in addition, the aforesaid treatments also demonstrated lower moisture content, aw, particle size and higher solubility, hygroscopicity and glass transition temperature (T_g). All freeze dried samples showed irregular (asymmetrical) microcrystalline structures. Furthermore, T_B and T_C also illustrated the highest in vitro anti-diabetic potential due to great potency for inhibiting alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase activities. In the perspective of bioavailability, T_A, T_B and T_C demonstrated the excellent bioavailability ratios (%).Futhermore, the phytochemo-profiling of ethanolic extract of PHF was also revealed to find out the bioactive compounds.

Currently there is little doubt left on the symbiogenetic nature of eukaryotes - genomes of archaeon and bacterium participated in shaping a genome of last eukaryotic common ancestor in equal albeit asymmetric manner, while a merger event itself indicated the advent of a new domain of life. The “symbiogenetic” framework of interaction of two partners is proposed, outlining similar steps essential for three major advents: the origin of life, the origin of complex life and the origin of humans. Given the immense importance of proper energy source for the evolution of life it seems plausible that for any principal increase in complexity, a partnership with a novel energy donor is required. Moreover, a “language” elaborated in the course of communication of partners might have been a prerequisite for a subsequent increase in complexity. Transitions, which led to RNA-protein world, eukaryotes and human brain, resulted in advent of complex languages via communication onsets between two entities in close partnership. Accordingly this further facilitated formation of first cells, multicellular organisms and human society.

Blended learning, the integration of online and face-to-face instruction, has garnered attention in education. This paper aims to explore challenges in blended learning faced by students, teachers, and parents and propose mitigating strategies. The study employed qualitative research methods and involved 30 participants from St. Michael's College. Findings revealed primary challenges, including technical difficulties, time management, lack of interaction, and varying digital literacy levels. These challenges influenced engagement, communication, and student achievement. The study utilized a theoretical framework encompassing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Social Presence Theory, and Activity Theory. Strategies recommended comprise providing technical support, promoting communication and collaboration, offering professional development, and leveraging learning analytics. The study contributes to the existing literature by identifying specific challenges and proposing practical recommendations for enhancing blended learning effectiveness. Limitations include a small sample size and context-specific findings. Future research should investigate these challenges in broader settings and examine the long-term effects of the recommended strategies. Addressing blended learning challenges can empower educators, administrators, and policymakers to create supportive and effective learning environments for all stakeholders involved.

Phenotype variation is produced through a complex of interactions between genotype and environment. Phenotype, genotype, and environment are addresses the relationship between architecture and identity. The term genotype biology and phenotype have been adopted into architecture in the late twentieth century. Genotypes are abstract relational models that govern the arrangement of space, and the principle of organizing space and phenotypes is the real realization of genotypes in the physical environment. The genotype is a reflection that is not only about the spatial organization but also the nature of social and cultural patterns. Then this study purpose to an understanding of the connectedness variant phenotype from a genotype and environment. The repetition pattern being stable structure in variation phenotype uses as a database to finding an identity in architecture. The method used in this research was Levi Strauss's structuralism and multi-layer of a biological system. This research samples traditional Malay houses in West Borneo, Indonesia. These houses have a unique site and existing environment. The houses can be found mainly along the river. The results found from the phenotype, genotype, and environment have value and meaning as a traditional Malay house rule in West Borneo which was always handed down from generation to generation.

Polymer flooding is one of the most successful chemical EOR methods, and is primarily implemented to accelerate oil production by sweep improvement. However, other benefits have extended the utility of polymers. During the last decade, it has been evaluated for an increasing number of fields, both offshore and onshore. This is a consequence of improved polymer properties, which extends the use to HTHS (high temperature high salinity) conditions and of improved understanding of flow mechanisms such as for heavy oil mobilization. A key issue in understanding polymer performance is to control and predict in-situ porous medium rheology. The first part of this paper reviews recent developments in understanding polymer flow in porous medium. Especially, polymer in-situ rheology and injectivity is discussed. The second part of this paper reports polymer flow experiments using the most applied polymer for EOR processes, HPAM (partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide). The experiments address high rate near-wellbore behavior (radial flow) as well as reservoir rate steady state flow (linear flow) and discuss differences observed in terms of flow conditions. In addition, impact of oil on polymer rheology was investigated, and compared to single-phase polymer flow in Bentheimer sandstone rock material. Presence of oil leads to a reduction in apparent viscosity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) play an important role in many fields, including medical education, practice, and research. Many medical educators started using ChatGPT at the end of 2022 for many purposes. The aim of this article was to explore the potential uses, benefits and risks of using ChatGPT in integrated pharmacotherapy of infectious disease module education. This study was an experimental study with content analysis of the potential applications of the ChatGPT model for integrated pharmacotherapy of infectious diseases module education was performed. The findings of this study shows that there are many potential uses, benefits and risks associated with the use ChatGPT. In conclusion, medical and health sciences educators can use ChatGPT as a guide in many aspects related to the integrated pharmacotherapy of infectious disease curriculum development, syllabus design, lecture notes preparation and exam preparation with caution.

Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) is an edible perennial grass-like plant that has long been recognized for its health benefits as it is rich in fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and natural sugars. It can be eaten raw, roasted or made into a refreshing milk which is very nutritive and healthy for consumption. There were several efforts to mass-produce the locally prepared tiger nut milk in our locality, but the fact that it has a shorter shelf-life, brings about a hindrance. The main objective of the present study is to unveil the cause for the easily spoilage of tiger nut milk and device ways to promote its production using different treatments. Tiger nut milk products were prepared using different methods; water soaked tiger nut milk (WSTM), toasted tiger nut milk (TTM), methanol soaked tiger nut milk (MSTM), and the pasteurised tiger nut milk (PTM). Each of these milk proucts prepared was divided into two portions; the first portion is treated with an antibiotic preservative, Nisin and the second portion was left untreated. The two portions were further divided into two; one stored at refrigerating temperature and the other at room temperature, making four different treatments per mixture and a total of 16 samples. These samples were subjected to proximate analysis; protein, fat, moisture, ash and carbohydrate. The chemical composition of the samples was significantly (P < 0.05) affected by processing treatment. All the samples had high moisture content, and a considerable amount of fat. The preservative treated samples that received pasteurized treatment were found to stay more than a week with fair quality. Findings from the study shows that the chemical characteristics of the various milk products were significantly affected by the different processing treatments.

With Internet of Things (IoT) gaining presence throughout different industries a lot of new technologies have been introduced to support this undertaking. Implications on one such technology, wireless systems allowed for the use of different communication methods to achieve the goal of transferring data reliably, with more cost efficiency and over longer distances. Anywhere from a single house with only a few IoT devices such as a smart light bulb or a smart thermostat connected to the network, all the way to a complex system that can control power grids throughout countries, IoT has been becoming a necessity in everyday lives. This paper presents an overview of the devices, systems and wireless technologies used in different IoT architectures (Healthcare, Vehicular Networks, Mining, Learning, Energy, Smart Cities, Behaviors and Decision Making), their upbringings and challenges to this date and some foreseen in the future.

The importance of predicting the exposure to environmental hazards is highlighted by issues like global climate change, public health problems caused by environment stresses, and property damages and depreciations. Several approaches have been used to assess potential exposure and achieve optimal results under various conditions, for example, for different scales, groups of people, or certain points in time. Micro-simulation tools are becoming increasingly important in human exposure assessment, where each person is simulated individually and continuously. This paper describes an agent-based model (ABM) framework that can dynamically simulate human exposure levels, along with their daily activities, in urban areas that are characterized by environmental stresses such as air pollution and heat stress. Within the framework, decision making processes can be included for each individual based on rule-based behavior to achieve goals under changing environmental conditions. The ideas described in this paper are implemented in a free and open source NetLogo platform. A simplified modeling scenario of the ABM framework in Hamburg, Germany, further demonstrates its utility in various urban environments and individual activity patterns, and portability to other models, programs and frameworks. The prototype model can potentially be extended to support environmental incidence management by exploring the daily routines of different groups of citizens and compare the effectiveness of different strategies. Further research is needed to fully develop an operational version of the model.

Brine-dependent recovery process has seen much global research efforts in the past two decades because of their benefits over other oil recovery methods. The process involves the tweaking of the ionic composition and strength of the injected water to improve oil production. In recent years, several studies ranging from laboratory coreflood experiments by many researchers to field trials by several companies admit to the potential of recovering additional oil in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Sandstone and carbonate rocks are composed of completely different minerals, with varying degree of complexity and heterogeneity, but wettability alteration has been widely considered as the consequence rather than the cause of brine-dependent recovery. However, there is no consensus on the cause as several mechanisms have been proposed to relate the wettability changes to the improved recovery. This review paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art development in published research and various efforts of the industry. This review outlines an overview of laboratory and field observations, descriptions of underlying mechanisms and their validity, the complexity of the oil-brine-rock interactions, modelling works, and comparison between sandstone and carbonate rocks. The provided information is intended to provide the reader with up-to-date information, point to relevant studies for those who are new and those implementing either laboratory- or field-scale projects to speed up the process of further investigations in this research area. Overall, the outcome of this review would potentially be of immense benefit to the oil industry.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bioactivity and cell response of a well-characterized Nurse´s A-phase (7CaO•P2O5•2SiO2) ceramic and his effect compared to a control (tissue culture polystyrene-TCPS) on the adhesion, viability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of ahMSCs in vitro. Cell proliferation (Alamar Blue Assay), Alizarin Red-S (AR-s) staining, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, osteocalcin (OCN) and collagen I (Col I) were evaluated. Also, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images were acquired in order to visualise the cells and the topography of the material. The proliferation of cells growing in a direct contact with the material was slower at early stages of the study because of the new environmental conditions. However, the entire surface was colonized after 28 days of culture in growth medium (GM). Osteoblastic differentiation markers were significantly enhanced in cells growing on Nurse´s A phase ceramic and cultured with osteogenic medium (OM), probably due to the role of silica to stimulate the differentiation of ahMSCs. Moreover, calcium nodules were formed under the influence of ceramic material. Therefore, it is predicted that Nurse´s A-phase ceramic would present high biocompatibility and osteoinductive properties being a good candidate to be used as a biomaterial for bone tissue engineering.

This research paper aims to explicate the complex issue of the Riemann's Hypothesis and ultimately presents its elementary proof. The method implements one of the binomial coefficients, to demonstrate the maximal prime gaps bound. Maximal prime gaps bound constitutes a comprehensive improvement over the Bertrand's result, and becomes one of the key elements of the theory. Subsequently, implementing the theory of the primorial function and its error bounds, an improved version of the Gauss' offset logarithmic integral is developed. This integral serves as a Supremum bound of the prime counting function Pi(n). Due to its very high precision, it permits to verify the relationship between the prime counting function Pi(n) and the offset logarithmic integral of Carl Gauss. The collective mathematical theory, via the Niels F. Helge von Koch equation, enables to prove the RIemann's Hypothesis conclusively.

Abstract Introduction: Visual perceptual skills are essential for independent participation in self-care tasks, educational, work and leisure time activities. The effect of HIV on the visual perceptual skills is not well understood among children in low resource settings like Zimbabwe. Methods: A cross sectional comparative study was done with 30 children living with HIV and 30 children living without HIV residing in Harare urban area. The TVPS-3 was used to assess their visual perceptual skills. SPSS version 22, STATISTICA 13 and Microsoft 2016 were used for data analysis. Results: Both groups of children had mean percentile ranks below 50 on their TVPS-3 scores. Children without HIV generally performed better than those with HIV but the difference was not statistically significant in most cases. Through univariate analysis, only performance on Spatial Relations significantly differed between the two groups. Both groups had lowest scores in Basic visual perceptual skills. Age and school grade were the independent predictors of the children’s performances in the study. Conclusion: There is need for Occupational therapy services in public primary schools and in the pediatric Opportunistic Infections clinics in hospitals to be part of the health team which caters for children with visual perceptual challenges.

In the context of the increasing migration into Germany that has taken place in recent years and German efforts to establish an inclusive school system, which enables learners from different religious, ethnic, language and social backgrounds with and without disabilities to participate, religious education has become a key topic for interdisciplinary discourse between theology, philosophy, and pedagogy in German schools. The following questions are of special interest: How can we manage diversity in inclusive classroom settings in general, and specifically: how can we do so with regard to worldview diversity? Does worldview diversity in schools exist, and if so, how can we recognize it in its plurality and complexity? How can we acknowledge different worldviews in the context of a changing inclusive school system? In this article, we would like to present the theoretical foundation, the research setting and the first findings of our ongoing pilot studies of worldview education at an inclusive German school. The experiments are part of a larger project context that is also described. The case study presented in this article, in which innovative language and machine learning technology was used for data analysis, illustrates the potential of inclusive methods and didactic concepts such as Universal Design for Learning [1], Learning in the Presence of the Other [2,3] and Reflexive Inclusion [4] for inclusive worldview education in the context of a religiously pluralized and secularized society.

Current theories of autoimmunity are diverse, sometimes contradictory, and suffer from incompleteness. Although substantial evidence exists that adaptive and innate immunity, sex, genetic predisposition, and the microbiome all play essential roles in autoimmune disease etiologies and pathogenesis, and that antigen processing is altered during disease induction, no existing theory integrates all of these factors through a single, coherent mechanism. In an attempt to focus the field on the need to elucidate such an integrative mechanism, I propose one possibility here that, if nothing else, helps to identify the nature of the problems that need to be addressed. My theory is that autoimmune diseases are induced by normal immunological responses to unique pairs of complementary antigens, at least one of which is a molecular mimic of a host target. Each antigen in the complementary pair induces a complementary immune response (T or B cell); although each immune response is idiotypic in origin, the antigenic complementarity results in what appears to be an idiotype-anti-idiotype relationship between the responses. Additionally, because of the antigenic complementarity, each immune response mimics one of antigens, abrogating the distinction between self and non-self. If at least one of the antigens mimics a host antigen, then the resulting immunological civil war spreads to a host tissue. Complementary antigens also alter antigen processing so that antigens that would normally be proteolytically digested are presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) to T and B cell receptors inducing a cross-reactive immune response. The resulting civil war is supported by the innate immune system due to the complementarity of the initiating antigens.. Complementary antigens stimulate synergistic toll-like receptors (TLR) and/or nucleotide-binding oligomerization receptors (NOD) resulting in up-regulation of cytokine production and further stimulation of the adaptive immune response. Because the immune responses (e.g., antibodies) mimic the initiating antigens, this synergistic activation of innate immunity becomes chronic. Additionally, TLR and NOD function are highly sensitive to sex hormones, some becoming up-regulated and some down-regulated in the presence of either testosterone or estrogens. This sensitivity explains how sex modifies susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. Genetic mutations in TLR, NOD and MHC further alter antigen presentation and the degree to which antigens stimulate an immune response explaining how genetics also modifies susceptibility. Finally, sex hormones also alter the host microbiome, which in turn modulates autoimmune disease risk by shaping the immunological nature of self and by mediating susceptibility to microbial infection. Moreover, it appears that the microbiome camouflages itself from the immune system by mimicking the host antigenic repertoire; the mimicry between the antigens of the microbiome and the host results in selective attacks on microbiome constituents concomitant with any autoimmune attack on host tissues. This antigenic complementarity theory thereby integrates all major elements known to affect, or be affected by, autoimmune diseases and provides a set of testable implications.

The impact that new technologies have on all aspects of our lives, work, and businesses is significant and growing over time. Blockchain and artificial intelligence, among other innovative technologies, are having a profound effect on practically all business functions, including most human resources (HR) tasks. The HR sector is currently facing a variety of challenges as HR departments invest many hours in vetting candidates' applications and authenticating records to decrease the chances of imperfect recruiting. Nowadays, more technologically based processes are utilised for talent search, selection and management, as well as for accumulating, retaining, and integrating new talents into a company. These HR practices are far more effective compared to traditional methods but can also be more expensive if the transactional costs are considered. This paper consists of two parts. Following an introduction, the first part discusses the trust and confidentiality that can be attained, while the second part examines security, fraud prevention and the productivity gained from using blockchain technology in HR activities. Finally, there is a concluding section, discussing the implications of blockchain technology for firms who choose to employ it.

In this paper, we introduce a new generalization of the r-Stirling numbers of the second kind based on the q-numbers via an exponential generating function. We investigate their some properties and derive several relations among q-Bernoulli numbers and polynomials, and newly de…ned (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind. We also obtain q-Bernstein polynomials as a linear combination of (q, r, w)-Stirling numbers of the second kind and q-Bernoulli polynomials in w.

In the paper, the authors establish two identities to express the generating function of the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind and its higher order derivatives in terms of the generating function and its derivatives each other, deduce an explicit formula and an identities for the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, derive the inverse of an integer, unit, and lower triangular matrix, present several identities of the Catalan numbers, and give some remarks on the closely related results including connections of the Catalan numbers respectively with the Chebyshev polynomials, the central Delannoy numbers, and the Fibonacci polynomials.

Woody vegetation in farmland acts as a carbon sink and provides ecosystem services for local people, but no macro-scale assessments of the impact of management and climate on woody cover exists for drylands. Here we make use of very high spatial resolution satellite imagery to derive wall-to-wall woody cover patterns in tropical West African drylands. In arid and semi-arid Sahel, areas of more people are associated with more trees: mean woody cover is greater in farmlands (12%) than in savannas (6%), and likewise it is higher close to villages than further away. In sub-humid savannas of West Africa, woody cover is generally above 20% and decreases with increasing population density, but remains around 15% in farmlands, independent of rainfall. In the region as a whole, rainfall, terrain and soil are the most important (80%) determinants of woody cover, while management factors play a smaller (20%) role. We conclude that agricultural expansion cannot generally be claimed to cause woody cover losses, and that observations in Sahel contradict simplistic ideas of a high negative correlation between population density and woody cover.

In the paper, by virtue of a Lévy–Khintchine representation and an alternative integral representation for the weighted geometric mean, the authors establish a Lévy–Khintchine representation and an alternative integral representation for the Toader–Qi mean. Moreover, the authors also collect an probabilistic interpretation and applications in engineering of the Toader–Qi mean.

The present study aimed to analyze novel mechanisms underlying Nrf2-mediated anti-apoptosis in periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) in the periodontitis oxidative microenvironment. We created an oxidative stress model with H2O2-treated PDLSCs. Herein, we used real-time PCR, western blotting, TUNEL staining, fluorogenic assay and transfer genetics to confirm the degree of oxidative stress and apoptosis as well as the Nrf2 function. Surprisingly, we demonstrated that with up-regulated ROS and MDA levels, the effect of oxidative stress was obvious under H2O2 treatment. Anti-oxidative molecules were changed after the H2O2 exposure, whereby the anti-oxidative signaling of Nrf2 was activated with the increase of its downstream effectors, HO-1, NQO1 and γ-GCS. Additionally, the apoptosis levels gradually increased with oxidative stress and changes in the caspase-9, caspase-3, Bax and c-Fos levels, but not with caspase-8 and down-regulated Bcl-2. The enhanced antioxidant effect could not resist the occurrence of apoptosis. Furthermore, Nrf2 overexpression effectively improved the anti-oxidative levels and increased cell proliferation. At the same time, overexpression effectively restrained TUNEL staining and decreased the molecular levels of caspase-9, caspase-3, et al, but not that of caspase-8. By contrast, silencing the expression Nrf2 levels had the opposite effect. Collectively, Nrf2 alleviates PDLSCs via its effects on anti-oxidative and anti-intrinsic apoptosis by the activation of anti-oxidative enzymes.

With the evolution of computing technology in many application like human robot interaction, human computer interaction and health-care system, 3D human body models and their dynamic motions has gained popularity. Human performance accompanies human body shapes and their relative motions. Research on human activity recognition is structured around how the complex movement of a human body is identified and analyzed. Vision based action recognition from video is such kind of tasks where actions are inferred by observing the complete set of action sequence performed by human. Many techniques have been revised over the recent decades in order to develop a robust as well as effective framework for action recognition. In this survey, we summarize recent advances in human action recognition, namely the machine learning approach, deep learning approach and evaluation of these approaches.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is at the crossroads. It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACA in order to make rational decisions about the ongoing healthcare reform, but existing research into its effect on health insurance status in the United States is insufficient and descriptive. Using data from the National Health Interview Surveys from 2009 to 2015, this study examines changes in health insurance status and its determinants before the ACA in 2009, during its partial implementation in 2010–2013, and after its full implementation in 2014 and 2015. The results of trend analysis indicate a significant increase in national health insurance rate from 82.2% in 2009 to 89.4% in 2015. Logistic regression analyses confirm the similar impact of age, gender, race, marital status, nativity, citizenship, education, and poverty on health insurance status before and after the ACA. Despite similar effects across years, controlling for other variables, youth aged 26 or below, the foreign-born, Asians, and other races had a greater probability of gaining health insurance after the ACA than before the ACA; however, the odds of obtaining health insurance for Hispanics and the impoverished rose slightly during the partial implementation of the ACA but somewhat declined after the full implementation of the ACA starting in 2014. These findings should be taken into account by the U.S. government in deciding the fate of the ACA.

The human virome is an area of increasing interest with relation to human health and disease. It has been demonstrated to alter in concert with the bacterial microbiome in early life and was also found to be different in patients with certain diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. However, all virome analyses are hampered by a lack of annotated representative database sequences, often referred to as the ‘viral dark matter’. Here we provide the first description of the gut DNA virome in elderly individuals (>65 years old) as well as the description of novel bacteriophages not present in current reference databases. Diversity analysis comparing elderly persons from different residence locations (community living vs long term care facilities) did not reveal any difference in their virome diversity profiles despite the reported differences at the bacteriome level. An abundance of Microviridae of the subfamily Gokushovirinae were present in the faeces of elderly individuals. Several novel members of the order Caudovirales were also characterized and annotated. Assignment of host bacteria to detected viral genomes was attempted using a combination of CRISPR spacers, tRNA genes and a probabilistic approach. Further characterization of the viral dark matter is necessary for developing tools and expanding databases to study the human virome. This study focused on the virome of an aging human cohort with the goal of illuminating part of the viral dark matter.

Mankind faces a coronavirus pandemic originating from a seafood market in Wuhan, China since December 2019. The pathogen was named novel coronavirus (n-CoV) and bats are the identified key reservoir. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly spread over China across the globe, turned into a pandemic with exponentially increasing numbers of cases and significant mortality rate. China reacted with lockdowns and strict control measurements to prevent spreading the virus. The treatment of severe cases was hampered by lack of specific vaccines. Vaccine-development and production is a painstaking process and can only be enforced by international cooperation. Different supportive treatment options surfaced due to combinations of antiviral agents with antibiotic drugs. Elderly, male, immune-suppressed patients with co-morbidities showed a high mortality rate. Health literacy, strong immune system, adequate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and healthy life style choices can support fast recovery. Antibiotic resistance needs to be addressed by development of new generation antimicrobials against nosocomial infections in preparation for future outbreaks. Plant-biosynthesis of nanomaterials and antiseptics may help in prevention and recovery rate. Prevalence of COVID-19 maybe inversely related to BCG vaccination, endemicity of malaria, humidy and temperature but directly with latitude. Recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 should be followed strictly.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has been an important source of income for communities in the Madre de Dios River Basin in Peru for hundreds of years. However, in recent decades, the scale of ASGM activities in the region has increased dramatically, and exposures to a variety of occupational and environmental hazards related to ASGM, including mercury, are becoming more widespread. The aims of our study were to: (1) examine patterns in the total hair mercury level of human participants in several communities in the region and compare these results to the 2.2 µg/g total hair mercury level equivalent to the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee of Food Additives (JECFA)’s Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI); and (2), to measure the mercury levels of paco (Piaractus brachypomus) fish raised in local aquaculture ponds, in order to compare these levels to the EPA Fish Tissue Residue Criterion of 0.3 µg Hg/g fish (wet weight). We collected hair samples from 80 participants in four communities (one control and three where ASGM activities occurred) in the region, and collected 111 samples from fish raised in 24 local aquaculture farms. We then analyzed the samples for total mercury. Total mercury levels in hair were statistically significantly higher in the mining communities than in the control community, and increased with increasing distance away from the Madre de Dios headwaters (as the crow flies), did not differ by sex, and frequently exceeded the reference level. Regression analyses indicated that higher hair mercury levels were associated with residence in ASGM communities. The analysis of paco fish samples found no samples that exceeded the EPA tissue residue criterion. Collectively, these results align with other recent studies showing that ASGM activities are associated with elevated human mercury exposure. The fish farmed through the relatively new process of aquaculture in ASGM areas appeared to have little potential to contribute to human mercury exposure. More research is needed on human health risks associated with ASGM to discern occupational, residential, and nutritional exposure, especially through tracking temporal changes in mercury levels as fish ponds age, and assessing levels in different farmed fish species. Additionally, research is needed to definitively determine that elevated mercury levels in humans and fish result from the elemental mercury from mining, rather than from a different source, such as the mercury released from soil erosion during deforestation events from mining or other activities.

The study investigates the determinants of mobile Internet banking adoption among Gen-Y in Malaysia. Align the issue of the study and research objectives, and the study underpinned Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the main guideline or a blueprint to analyze the research model. The study applied survey research design and analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) under the PLS-SEM technique with SmartPLS 2.0. A total of 358 mobile internet banking users in Malaysia were random proportional selected as respondents and analyzed. Results from the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, facilitating condition, and personal innovativeness in IT have significantly influenced the attitude of mobile internet banking adoption in Malaysia. Additionally, perceived ease of use and facilitating conditions found to have a significant influence on the perceived usefulness of Mobile Internet Banking. Lastly, facilitating conditions and personal innovativeness in IT are significantly influence the perceived ease of use of mobile internet banking among Gen-Y in Malaysia

Oxidative stress negatively affects folliculogenesis and embryo development. However, a reliable and biologically accurate indicator of oxidative stress does not yet exist. On these bases, the aim of this study was to assess -and compare- blood and follicular fluid (FF) redox status in 45 infertile subjects (and 45 age-matched controls) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to establish its connection with the outcome of IVF. Blood and FF were obtained at the time of egg retrieval and immediately analyzed. Firstly, ROS production in blood leukocytes and in granulosa cells was assessed. Oxidative stress markers in blood and in granulosa cells resulted significantly (p<0.001) increased in infertile patients compared to controls. Then, a redox index was obtained in plasma and in FF of patients and controls. The main findings emerging from our study in infertile women are: i) blood oxidative stress reflects FF oxidative stress as demonstrated by the significant correlation between blood redox markers and FF redox markers; ii) a significant correlation between oxidative stress parameters and the considered IVF outcomes is present. We suggest the strict monitoring of the redox parameters for the improvement of assisted reproductive techniques success rate and infertility management.

Modularity is arguably one of the most influential theses guiding research on brain and cognitive function since phrenology. This paper considers the following question: is modularity entailed by recent Bayesian models of brain and cognitive function, especially the predictive processing framework? It starts by considering three of the most well-articulated arguments for the view that modularity and predictive processing work well together. It argues that all three kinds of arguments for modularity come up short, albeit for different reasons. The analysis in this paper, although formulated in the context of predictive processing, speaks to broader issues with how to understand the relationship between functional segregation and integration and the reciprocal architecture of the predictive brain. These conclusions have implications for how to study brain and cognitive function. Specifically, when cognitive neuroscience works within an acyclic Markov decision scheme, adopted by most Bayesian models of brain and cognitive function, it may very well be methodologically misguided. This speaks to an increasing tendency within the cognitive neurosciences to emphasise recurrent and reciprocal neuronal processing captured within newly emerging dynamical causal modelling frameworks. The conclusions also suggest that functional integration is an organising principle of brain and cognitive function.

This study assesses Human Thermal Comfort in two selected areas: a Green Infrastructure (GI) area represented by a garden and a high-rise building area, in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, Australia. Three-dimensional microclimatic modelling software, ENVI-met version 4 was used to simulate the microclimate. The indices of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) and Universal Temperature Climate Index (UTCI) were used to quantify the level of thermal comfort in the research areas. The simulation results showed that at midday, the difference in temperature between the garden area and the high-rise building area was approximately 1°C. Increasing temperatures at midday led to a change in the level of thermal comfort for both the areas, even though it was not significant. In general, the thermal perception in the GI area was slightly ‘cooler’ than in the high-rise building area. The results of the study indicated the important role of GI in improving the thermal comfort in urban areas.

Smart grid software interconnects multiple Engineering disciplines (power systems, communication, software and hardware technology, instrumentation, big data, etc.). The software architecture is an evolving concept in smart grid systems in which systematic architecture development is a challenging process. The architecture has to realize the complex legacy power grid systems and cope up with current Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The distributed generation in smart grid environment expects the software architecture to be distributed and to enable local control. Smart grid architecture should also be modular, flexible and adaptable to technology upgrades. In this paper, the authors have made a comprehensive review on architecture for smart grids. An in depth analysis of layered and agent based architectures is presented and compared under various domains.

The present work aims to demonstrate that colloidal dispersions of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles stabilized with dextran macromolecules placed in an alternating magnetic field can not only produce heat, but also that these particles could be used in vivo for local and non-invasive deposition of a thermal dose sufficient to trigger thermo-induced gene expression. Iron oxide nanoparticles were first characterized in vitro on a bio-inspired setup, and then they were assayed in vivo using a transgenic mouse strain expressing the luciferase reporter gene under transcriptional control of a thermosensitive promoter. Iron oxide nanoparticles dispersions were applied topically on the mouse skin or injected sub-cutaneously with Matrigel™ to generate so called pseudo tumors. Temperature was monitored continuously with a feedback loop to control the power of the magnetic field generator and to avoid overheating. Thermo-induced luciferase expression was followed by bioluminescence imaging 6 hours after heating. We showed that dextran-coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles dispersions were able to induce in vivo mild hyperthermia compatible with thermo-induced gene expression in surrounding tissues and without impairing cell viability. These data open new therapeutic perspectives for using mild magnetic hyperthermia as non-invasive modulation of tumor microenvironment by local thermo-induced gene expression or drug release.

This research integrates systemic and participatory techniques to model the Russian Federation construction innovation system. Understanding this complex construction innovation system, and determining the best levers for enhancing it, requires the dynamic modelling of a number of factors such as flows of resources and activities, policies, uncertainty and time. To build the foundations for such a dynamic model, the employed study method utilised an integrated stakeholder-based participatory approach coupled with structural analysis (MICMAC - Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement Cross-Impact Matrix). This method identified the key factors of the Russian Federation construction innovation system, their causal relationship (i.e. influence/dependence map) and ultimately a causal loop diagram. The generated model reveals pathways to improving construction innovation in the Russian Federation, and underpins the future development of an operationalised systems dynamic model.

Human footprint is having a unique set of ridges unmatched by any other human being, and therefore it can be used in different identity documents for example birth certificate, Indian biometric identification system AADHAR card, driving license, PAN card, and passport. There are many instances of the crime scene where an accused must walk around and left the footwear impressions as well as barefoot prints and therefore it is very crucial to recovering the footprints to identify the criminals. Footprint-based biometric is a considerably newer technique for personal identification. Fingerprints, retina, iris and face recognition are the methods most useful for attendance record of the person. This time world is facing the problem of global terrorism. It is challenging to identify the terrorist because they are living as regular as the citizens do. Their soft target includes the industries of special interests such as defense, silicon and nanotechnology chip manufacturing units, pharmacy sectors. They pretend themselves as religious persons, so temples and other holy places, even in markets is in their targets. These are the places where one can obtain their footprints easily. The gait itself is sufficient to predict the behaviour of the suspects. The present research is driven to identify the usefulness of footprint and gait as an alternative to personal identification.

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is closely associated with tumor progression and metastasis. However, the relevance and role of VCAM-1 in lung cancer have not been clearly elucidated. In this study, we found that VCAM-1 was highly overexpressed in lung cancer tissue compared with that of normal lung, and high VCAM-1 expression correlated with poor survival of lung cancer patients. VCAM-1 knockdown reduced invasion in A549 human lung cancer cells, and competitive blocking experiments targeting the Ig-like domain 6 of VCAM-1 (VCAM-1-D6) demonstrated that the VCAM-1-D6 domain was critical for VCAM-1-mediated A549 cell invasion. Next, we developed a human monoclonal antibody specific to human and mouse VCAM-1-D6 (VCAM-1-D6 huMab), which was isolated from a human synthetic antibody library using phage display technology. Finally, we showed that VCAM-1-D6 huMab had a nanomolar affinity for VCAM-1-D6 and that it potently suppressed invasion in A549 and NCI-H1299 lung cancer cell lines. Taken together, these results suggest that VCAM-1-D6 is a novel therapeutic target in VCAM-1-mediated lung cancer invasion and that our newly developed VCAM-1-D6 huMab will be a useful tool for inhibiting VCAM-1-expressing lung cancer cell invasion.

Background: In the current era of globalization, the Indonesian government's problem today is the weakening of nationalism and patriotism among the millennial generation. The large number of foreign cultures that have entered Indonesia has caused a sense of nationalism and patriotism. In addition, Indonesia is also facing the problem of spreading the Covid-19 virus. During the pandemic, various policies set by the government received protests from some circles because they felt their freedom was restricted. Therefore, the awareness of millennial generation nationalism is needed, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic like today. This research aims to make millennials aware of nationalism sense, which mainly to prevent the spread of Covid-19. This research is used to answer the questions of what the problems that arise due to the waning of the spirit of nationalism during the pandemic are? and what efforts should be made to maintain the spirit of nationalism? Methods: This research is a qualitative study using the literature review method. The articles used are research published in 2019 to 2021 in Google Scholar, with keywords that match the topic of millennial generation nationalism in the Covid-19 pandemic. Results and Discussion: The results of the study found that the spirit of Indonesian nationalism during the Covid-19 pandemic was decreasing. The decline in the sense of nationalism is due to several government policies that impact the psychology of society and the Indonesian economy. As a result, society, particularly the millennial generation, must play a role in breaking the chain of the Covid-19 virus's propagation by following the government's health standards. Conclusion: The government and society need to work together to understand nationalism in the millennial generation, especially in dealing with problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this, various efforts need to be made to foster the spirit of nationalism and overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. So that later, it can produce a generation that upholds the value of nationalism in everyday life.

The value of landscape, as part of collective heritage, can be acquired by GIS due to the multilayer approach of the spatial configuration. Proficiency in geospatial technologies in order to collect, process, analyze, interpret, visualize and communicate geographic information is being increased by undergraduate and graduate students, but in particular by those who are training to become geography teachers at secondary education. This training can be carried out through personalized learning and distance learning methodology. Personalized GIS education aims to integrate students and enhance their understanding of landscape. Some teaching experiences are shown whereby opportunities offered by WebGIS will be described, through quantitative tools and techniques that will allow this modality of learning and improve its effectiveness. Results of this research show that students, through geospatial technologies, learn landscape as a diversity of elements but also the complexity of physical and human factors involved. Several conclusions will be highlighted: i) the contribution of geospatial training to education for sustainable development; ii) spatial analysis as a mean of skills acquisition about measures for landscape conservation; iii) expanding and applying acquired knowledge to other geographic spaces and different landscapes.

Social distancing policies put in place during COVID-19 epidemic in addition to helping to limit the spread of the disease also contributed to improving urban air quality. Here we show a decrease in air pollutant concentration as a consequence of mobility reduction in São Paulo during the containment measure which began on 22^nd March 2020. When comparing to foregoing weeks to equivalent periods of 2019, the concentration of most air pollutants sharply decreased in the first days of mobility restriction, to then increase again after government officials downplayed the threat of the disease. This trend is also followed by a decrease in hospital admissions by SARS-influenza. Therefore, despite the great economic and social unrest caused by the pandemic, this unique situation shows that large-scale mobility reduction policy had a significant impact on air quality, benefiting, directly and indirectly, the public health system.

Social distancing, washing hands and good hygiene are essential and currently the most potent methods available to curb down the unprecedented speed by which the new coronavirus is spreading across the globe. Even under lockdown, which is necessary to significantly reduce the number of people that get infected by an ill person, are there additional measures that each of us can embrace to even further reduce the risk of infection and the severity of the COVID-19 disease? Given the lack of licensed drugs that target SARS-CoV-2 specifically, we have to look into additional non-specific defense mechanisms that animals and humans evolved to protect themselves from pathogen invasions. The goal of this article is to describe how various of our non-specific defense mechanisms work, which actually precede the inflammatory response, and to discuss whether we can exploit the unique features of the coronavirus envelope and the self-cleaning machinery of the human respiratory tract to strengthen our self-defense. The challenge is to actively interfere with supportive measures during the short time window between getting exposed and before an inflammatory response gets initiated.

Aims: In late December 2019, early reports predicted the onset of a potential Coronavirus outbreak in china, given the estimate of a reproduction number for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Because of high ability of transmission and widespread prevalence, the mortality of COVID-19 infection is growing fast worldwide. Absent of an anti-COVID-19 has put scientists on the urge to repurpose already approved therapeutics or to find new active compounds against coronavirus. Here in this study, a set of computational approaches were performed in order to repurpose antivirals for dual inhibition of the frontier proteases involved in virus replication, papain-like protease (PLpro; corresponding to nsp3) and a main protease (Mpro), 3C‑like protease (3CLpro; corresponding to nsp5). Materials and Methods: In this regard, a rational virtual screening procedure including exhaustive docking techniques was performed for a database of 160 antiviral agents over 3CLpro and PLpro active sites of SARS-CoV-2. The compounds binding energies and interaction modes over 3CLpro and PLpro active sites were analyzed and ranked with the aid of free Gibbs binding energy. The most potent compounds, based on our filtering process, are then proposed as dual inhibitors of SARSC-CoV-2 proteases. Key findings: Accordingly, seven antiviral agents including two FDA approved (Nelfinavir, Valaganciclovir) and five investigational compounds (Merimepodib, Inarigivir, Remdesivir, Taribavirine and TAS106-106) are proposed as potential dual inhibitors of the enzymes necessary for RNA replication in which Remdesivir as well as Inagrivir have the highest binding affinity for both of the active sites. Significance: The mentioned drug proposed to inhibit both PLpro and 3CLpro enzymes with the aim of finding dual inhibitors of SARSC-CoV-2 proteases.

: Nanotechnology options to road surface maintenance offers several advantages compared to traditionally used materials. The small particle sizer of hydrophobic Nano-Silane modified Nano-Polymers (NSNP) enables these nanotechnology products to deeply penetrate existing road surfaces, sealing micro-cracks and render surfacings to be water-resistant for extended periods of time. In comparison, traditionally used products contain minimum partial sizes of about 1 – 5 microns, that provide a superficial protection that wears off in a relatively short period of time. These traditional products are often associated with vehicle contamination while drying and requires the re-instatement of road markings. None of these disadvantages are associated with applicable NSNP technologies that are quick drying, with no vehicle contamination risks and is equivalent to a “clear-seal” requiring no reinstatement of road markings. In a similar vein, pot-hole repairs can be done using applicable, easy to use, pre-packed and treated pot-hole repair kits that are water-repellent and quick-drying at a fraction of the costs of conventional cold-mix products. Resurfacing using NME binder slurries can be done labour-intensively on a pre-treated NSNP surfacing, restoring cracked surfacing and providing a water-resistant long-lasting protective layer without the removal of existing cracked areas. The implementation of nanotechnology solutions for road surface maintenance operations is directly associated with ease of use, labour-intensive operations, prevention of considerable deterioration in riding quality due to removal and manual re-instatement of cracked surfaces, time and cost savings and a reduction in the risk of water damage to the sub-structure. TRANSLATE with x English ArabicHebrewPolish BulgarianHindiPortuguese CatalanHmong DawRomanian Chinese SimplifiedHungarianRussian Chinese TraditionalIndonesianSlovak CzechItalianSlovenian DanishJapaneseSpanish DutchKlingonSwedish EnglishKoreanThai EstonianLatvianTurkish FinnishLithuanianUkrainian FrenchMalayUrdu GermanMalteseVietnamese GreekNorwegianWelsh Haitian CreolePersian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back TRANSLATE with x English ArabicHebrewPolish BulgarianHindiPortuguese CatalanHmong DawRomanian Chinese SimplifiedHungarianRussian Chinese TraditionalIndonesianSlovak CzechItalianSlovenian DanishJapaneseSpanish DutchKlingonSwedish EnglishKoreanThai EstonianLatvianTurkish FinnishLithuanianUkrainian FrenchMalayUrdu GermanMalteseVietnamese GreekNorwegianWelsh Haitian CreolePersian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back

In most industrialized countries, screening programs for cervical cancer have shifted from cytology (Pap smear or ThinPrep) alone on clinician-obtained samples to the addition of screening for human papillomavirus (HPV), its main causative agent. For HPV testing, self-sampling instead of clinician-sampling has proven to be equally accurate, in particular for assays that use nucleic acid amplification techniques. In addition, HPV testing of self-collected samples in combination with a follow-up Pap smear in case of a positive result is more effective in detecting precancerous lesions than a Pap smear alone. Self-sampling for HPV testing has already been adopted by some countries, while others have started trials to evaluate its incorporation into national cervical cancer screening programs. Self-sampling may result in more individuals willing to participate in cervical cancer screening, because it removes many of the barriers that prevent women, especially those in low socioeconomic and minority populations, from participating in regular screening programs. Several studies have shown that the majority of women who have been underscreened but who tested HPV-positive in a self-obtained sample, will visit a clinic for follow-up diagnosis and management. Additionally, a self-collected sample can also be used for vaginal microbiome analysis, which can provide additional information about HPV infection persistence as well as vaginal health in general.

Metalloproteinases are zinc-dependent endopeptidases that function as primary effectors of tissue remodelling, cell-signalling, and many other roles. Their regulation is ferociously complex, and is exquisitely sensitive to their molecular milieu, making in vivo studies challenging. Phenanthroline (PhN) is an inexpensive, broad-spectrum inhibitor of metalloproteinases that functions by chelating the catalytic zinc ion, however its use in vivo has been limited due to suspected off-target effects. PhN is very similar in structure to phenanthrene (Phe), a well-studied poly aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) known to cause toxicity in aquatic animals by activating the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). We show that zebrafish are more sensitive to PhN than Phe, and that PhN causes a superset of the effects caused by Phe. Morpholino knock-down of the AhR rescues the effects of PhN that are shared with Phe, suggesting these are due to PAH toxicity. The effects of PhN that are not shared with Phe (specifically disruption of neural crest development and angiogenesis) involve processes known to depend on metalloproteinase activity. Furthermore these PhN-specific effects are not rescued by AhR knock-down, suggesting that these are bona fide effects of metalloproteinase inhibition, and that PhN can be used as a broad spectrum metalloproteinase inhibitor for studies with zebrafish in vivo.

By using Modified simple equation method, we study the Cahn Allen equation which arises in many scientific applications such as mathematical biology, quantum mechanics and plasma physics. As a result, the existence of solitary wave solutions of the Cahn Allen equation is obtained. Exact explicit solutions interms of hyperbolic solutions of the associated Cahn Allen equation are characterized with some free parameters. Finally, the variety of structure and graphical representation make the dynamics of the equations visible and provides the mathematical foundation in mathematical biology, quantum mechanics and plasma physics.

As our understanding of the thalamocortical system deepens, the questions we face become more complex. Their investigation requires the adoption of novel experimental approaches complemented with increasingly sophisticated computational modeling. In this review, we take stock of current data and knowledge about the circuitry of the somatosensory thalamocortical loop in rodents, discussing common principles across modalities and species whenever appropriate. We review the different levels of organization, including the cells, synapses, neuroanatomy, and network connectivity. We provide a complete overview of this system that should be accessible for newcomers to this field while nevertheless being comprehensive enough to serve as a reference for seasoned neuroscientists and computational modelers studying the thalamocortical system. We further highlight key gaps in data and knowledge that constitute pressing targets for future experimental work. Filling these gaps would provide invaluable information for systematically unveiling how this system supports behavioral and cognitive processes.

After reviewing foundational literature by Snyder, I will demonstrate how hope theory has been used in psychological interventions and psychiatry, how hope influences learning and medical outcomes, and how hope can be applied to difficult life circumstances. Using this literature review, hope theory will be interrogated. I will argue that hope theory has developed its way through the years to garner many strengths, however a few weaknesses do exist and will be described. I will conclude with recommendations for using hope theory in practice, including the medical field, psychological interventions and counseling, and student development.

Warren Weaver, writing about the function that science should have in mankind’s developing future, ideas and ideals, proposed to classify scientific problems into ‘problems of simplicity’, ‘problems of disorganised complexity’, and ‘problems of organised complexity’ — the huge complementary class to which all biological, human, and social problems belong. Problems of simplicity have few components and variables and have been extensively addressed in the last 400 years. Problems of disorganised complexity have a huge number of individually erratic components and variables, but possess collective regularities that can be analysed by resourcing to stochastic methods. Yet, problems of organised complexity do not yield easily to classical or statistical treatment since interrelations among phenomenon elements change during its evolution alongside commonly used state variables, affecting behaviour and outcome. Moreover, organisation, the focal point in this complementary class, is still an elusive concept despite the gigantic efforts undertaken since a century ago to tame it. This paper addresses the description, representation and study of phenomena in the ‘problems of organised complexity’ class. Grounded on relational mathematical constructs, a theoretical framework providing operational definitions and schemes for formally modelling organisations and interaction of organisations is introduced. This framework extends the general systems’ concept and provides a novel perspective for addressing organised complexity phenomena as a collection of interacting organisations.

Video quality assessment (VQA) plays an important role in video applications for quality evaluation and resource allocation. It aims to evaluate the video quality consistent with the human perception. In this letter, a hierarchical gradient similarity based VQA metric is proposed inspired by the structure of the primate visual cortex, in which visual information is processed through sequential visual areas. These areas are modeled with the corresponding measures to evaluate the overall perceptual quality. Experimental results on the LIVE database show that the proposed VQA metric significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art VQA metrics.

Human visual system (HVM) can quickly localize the most salient object in scenes, which has been widely applied on natural image segmentation [15]-[19]. In ultrasound (US) breast images, compared with background areas, tumor is more salient because of its higher contrast. In this paper, we develop a novel automatic localization method based on HVM for automatic segmentation of ultrasound (US) breast tumors. First, the input image is smoothed by convolution with a linearly separable Gaussian filter and then subsampled into a 9-layer Gaussian pyramid. Then intensity, blackness ratio, and superpixel contrast features are combined to compute saliency map, in which Winner Take All algorithm is used to localize the most salient region, presenting with a circle on the localized target. Finally the circle is taken as the initial contour of CV level set to finish the extraction of breast tumor. The localization method has been tested on 400 US beast images, among which 378 images have higher saliency than background areas and succeed in localization, with high accuracy 92.00%. The HVM localization method can be used to localize the tumors, combined with this method, CV level set can achieve the fully automatic segmentation of US breast tumors. By combing intensity, blackness ratio and superpixel contrast features, the proposed localization method can successfully avoid the interference caused by background areas with low echo and high intensity. Moreover, multi-object localization of US breast images can be considered in future employment.

Sulforaphene (SFE), a major isothiocyanate in radish seeds, is a close chemical relative of sulforaphane (SFA) isolated from broccoli seeds and florets. The anti-proliferative mechanisms of SFA against cancer cells have been well investigated, but little is known about the potential anti-proliferative effects of SFE. In this study, we showed that SFE purified from radish seeds inhibited the growth of six cancer cell lines (A549, CHO, HeLa, Hepa1c1c7, HT-29, and LnCaP), with relative half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values ranging from 1.37 to 3.31 g/mL. Among the six cancer cell lines evaluated, SFE showed the greatest growth inhibition against A549 lung cancer cells. In A549 cells, SFE induced apoptosis via changes in the levels of poly (adenosine diphosphate ribose) polymerase and caspase-3, -8, and -9. Our results indicate that SFE from radish seeds may have significant anti-proliferative potency against a broad range of human cancer cells via induction of apoptosis.

Detection of human movement requires lightweight, flexible systems to detect mechanical parameters (like strain and pressure) not interfering with user activity, and that he/she can wear comfortably. In this work we address such multifaceted challenge with the development of smart garments for lower limb motion detection, like a textile kneepad and anklet in which soft sensors and readout electronics are embedded for detecting movement of the specific joint. Stretchable capacitive sensors with a three-electrode configuration are built combining conductive textiles and elastomeric layers, and distributed at knee and ankle. They show an excellent behavior in the ~30% strain range, hence the correlation between their responses and the optically tracked Euler angles is allowed for basic lower limb movements. Bending during knee flexion/extension is detected, and it is discriminated from any external contact by implementing in real time a low computational algorithm. The smart anklet is designed to address joint motion detection in and off the sagittal plane. In this work, ankle dorsi/plantar flexion, adduction/abduction, and rotation are retrieved. Both smart garments show a high accuracy in movement detection, with a RMSE less than 4° in the worst case.

While the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein is defined as the primary severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor, the viral serine molecule might be mobilized by the host's transmembrane protease serine subtype 2 (TMPRSS2) enzyme from the viral spike (S) protein and hijack the host’s N-acetyl-D-galactosamine (GalNAc) metabolism. The resulting hybrid, serologically A-like/Tn (T-nouvelle) structure potentially acts as a host–pathogen functional molecular bridge. In humans, this intermediate structure will hypothetically be replaced by ABO(H) blood group-specific, mucin-type structures, in the case of infection hybrid epitopes, implicating the phenotypically glycosidic accommodation of plasma proteins. The virus may, by mimicking the synthetic pathways of the ABO(H) blood groups, bind to the cell surfaces of the blood group O(H) by formation of a hybrid H-type antigen as the potential precursor of hybrid non-O blood groups, which does not affect the highly anti-glycan aggressive anti-A and anti-B isoagglutinin activities, exerted by the germline-encoded nonimmune immunoglobulin M (IgM). In the non-O blood groups, which have developed from the H-type antigen, these IgM activities are downregulated by phenotypic glycosylation, while adaptive immunoglobulins might arise in response to the hybrid A and B blood group structures, bonds between autologous carbohydrates and foreign peptides, suggesting the exertion of autoreactivity. The non-O blood groups thus become a preferred target for the virus, whereas blood group O(H) individuals, lacking the A/B phenotype-determining enzymes and binding the virus alone by hybrid H-type antigen formation, have the least molecular contact with the virus and maintain the critical anti-A and anti-B isoagglutinin activities, exerted by the ancestral IgM, which is considered the humoral spearhead of innate immunity.

In the paper, the authors present an explicit form for a family of inhomogeneous linear ordinary differential equations, find a more significant expression for all derivatives of a function related to the solution to the family of inhomogeneous linear ordinary differential equations in terms of the Lerch transcendent, establish an explicit formula for computing all derivatives of the solution to the family of inhomogeneous linear ordinary differential equations, acquire the absolute monotonicity, complete monotonicity, the Bernstein function property of several functions related to the solution to the family of inhomogeneous linear ordinary differential equations, discover a diagonal recurrence relation of the Stirling numbers of the first kind, and derive an inequality for bounding the logarithmic function.

In the last decade, unprecedented progress in the development of neural networks influenced dozens of different industries, among which are signal processing for the electroencephalography process (EEG). Electroencephalography, even though it appeared in the first half of the 20th century, to this day didn’t change the physical principles of operation. But the signal processing technique due to the use of neural networks progressed significantly in this area. Evidence for this can serve that for the past 5 years more than 1000 publications on the topic of using machine learning have been published in popular libraries. Many different models of neural networks complicate the process of understanding the real situation in this area. In this manuscript, we provided the most comprehensive overview of research where were used neural networks for EEG signal processing.

Additive manufacturing (AM) provides customization of the microstructure and mechanical properties of components. Selective laser melting (SLM) is the commonly used technique for processing high strength Aluminum alloys. Selection of SLM process parameters could control the microstructure of fabricated parts and their mechanical properties. However, process parameter limits and defects inside the as-built parts present obstacles to customized part production. This study is the second part of a comprehensive work that investigates the influence of SLM process parameters on the quality of as-built Al6061 and AlSi10Mg parts. The microstructure of both materials was characterized for different parts processed over a wide range of SLM process parameters. The optimized SLM parameters were investigated to eliminate the internal microstructure defects. Mechanical properties of the parts were illustrated by regression models generated with design of experiment (DOE) analysis. The results reported in this study were compared to previous studies, illustrating how the process parameters and powder characteristics could affect the quality of produced parts.

This paper proposes an Integrated Fire Management (IFM) framework that can be used to support communities and resource managers in finding effective and efficient approaches to prevent damaging fires, as well as maintain desirable fire regimes in Kenya. Designing and implementing an IFM approach in Kenya calls for a systematic understanding of the various uses of fire and the underlying perceptions and traditional ecological knowledge of the local people. The here proposed IFM framework allows an evaluation of the risks posed by fires, while balancing them with their beneficial ecological and economic effects, and thus developing effective fire management approaches. A case study of the proposed IFM framework was conducted in Gathiuru Forest that is part of the larger Mt. Kenya Forest Ecosystem. Focus group discussions were held with key resource persons, primary and secondary data on socio-economic activities were studied, fire and weather records were analyzed and the current fire management plans were consulted. Questionnaires were used to assess how the IFM is implemented in the Gathiuru Forest Station. The results show that the proposed IFM framework is scalable and can be applied in places with fire-dependent ecosystems as well as in places with fire-sensitive ecosystems in Kenya. The effectiveness is dependent on the active participation, formulation and implementation of the IFM activities by the main stakeholder groups (Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and the Community Forest Associations (CFA)). The proposed IFM framework helps in implementing cost-effective approaches to prevent damaging fires and maintain desirable fire regimes in Kenya.

The Italian Peninsula, a natural pier across the Mediterranean Sea, witnessed intricate population events since the very beginning of human occupation in Europe. In the last few years, an increasing number of modern and ancient genomes from the area has been published by the international research community. This genomic perspective started unveiling the relevance of Italy to understand the post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) re-peopling of Europe, the earlier phase of the Neolithic westward migrations, and its linking role between Eastern and Western Mediterranean areas after the Iron Age. However many open questions are still waiting for more data to be addressed in full. With this review, we summarize the current knowledge emerging from the available ancient Italian individuals and, by re-analysing them all at once, we try to shed light on the avenues future research in the area should cover. In particular, open questions concern i) the fate of pre-Villabruna Europeans and to what extent their genomic components were absorbed by the post-LGM hunter-gatherers; ii) the role of Sicily and Sardinia before LGM; iii) to what degree the documented genetic structure within the Early Neolithic settlers can be described as two separate migrations; iv) what are the population events behind the marked presence of an Iranian Neolithic-like component in Bronze Age and Iron Age Italian and Southern European samples.

In the paper, by virtue of techniques in combinatorial analysis, the authors simplify two families of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in terms of the Stirling numbers of the first kind.

Panel data of our interest consist of a moderate number of panels, while the panels contain a small number of observations. An estimator of common breaks in panel means without a boundary issue for this kind of scenario is proposed. In particular, the novel estimator is able to detect a common break point even when the change happens immediately after the first time point or just before the last observation period. Another advantage of the elaborated change point estimator is that it results in the last observation in situations with no structural breaks. The consistency of the change point estimator in panel data is established. The results are illustrated through a simulation study. As a by-product of the developed estimation technique, a theoretical utilization for correlation structure estimation, hypothesis testing, and bootstrapping in panel data is demonstrated. A practical application to non-life insurance is presented as well.

Cropland area per capita and pressure index on cropland is the important parameters measuring the social vulnerability and sustainability in the perspective of food security in a certain region in China during the historical periods. This study reconstructs the spatial distribution change of cropland area per labor/household and pressure index on cropland during the 17th-20th century by the methods of historical documents, regression analysis, pressure index model and GIS. Then it analyzed the impacting process of climate change and sustainability of cropland use during the different periods. It draws conclusions: (i) the spatial difference of labor/household density was obvious which had the same pattern as cropland distribution during the same periods, which is higher density in three agricultural areas. (ii) Cropland area per capita was relatively higher during the 17th-18th century, which were above 0.4 ha/person in majority counties and distributed homogenously. Till the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, cropland area per capita in large amount of regions decreased below 0.2 ha/person embodying the increase of social vulnerability and unsustainability at that time. (iii) Pressure index on cropland also showed the similar spatial pattern as cropland area per capita which presented lower threshold than nowadays. During the 17th-18th century there was no pressure on cropland. While, in the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century, two high value centers of pressure index on cropland appeared in Middle Shandong and the Jiaodong region, pressure on sustainable cropland use increased obviously and a food crisis is probably created. (iv) Higher sustainable extent of cropland use corresponds to cold period, and lower sustainable extent of cropland use corresponds to warm period in Shandong over the past 300 years. The turning point of 1680s from dry to wet attributes to the decrease of sustainable extent of cropland use in Shandong not very distinctively. More and more pressure on sustainability of cropland use finally since the beginning of 20th century would intensify the social conflict and increase the probability of social revolts.

Cordyceps sinensis is one rare medicinal fungus produced in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Its quality and price varies hugely with different habitat, and its numerous substitutes have sprung up in functional food markets. This paper aims to discriminate the geographic origin of wild C. sinensis and its substitutes via the element analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The δ¹³C values of major fatty acids in the lipids of Cordyceps sinensis are characterized unanimously by the variation relation C_18:0 ﹤ C_18:2 ≈ C_16:0 ﹤ C_18:1; while their fluctuation intervals are notably different between those of neutral and polar lipids. The comparative analysis of the δ¹³C ratios of major fatty acids in lipids of Cordyceps sinensis suggests that the δ¹³C patterns may be sensitive potential indicators to discriminate its geographical origin. The δ¹³C values of individual major fatty acids of lipids from the cultivated stromata of Cordyceps militaris (SCM), the fermented mycelia of Hirsurella sinensis (FMH) and Paecilomyces epiali (FMP) range from −31.2‰ to −29.7‰, −16.9‰ to −14.3‰, and −26.5‰ to −23.9‰, respectively. Their δ¹³C pattern of individual major fatty acids may be used as a potential indicator to discriminate the products of natural C. sinensis and its substitutes.

With the development of higher voltage power grid, the high and low voltage parallel loops are emerging, which lead to energy losses, even threaten the security and stability of power system. The multi-infeed HVDC configurations widely appearing in AC/DC interconnected power system make this situation even worse. Aimed at energy saving and system security, a decision optimization method for power grid operating condition with high and low voltage parallel loops is proposed in this paper. Firstly, considering hub substation distribution and power grid structure, parallel loop opening schemes are generated with GN algorithm. Then, candidate opening schemes are preliminarily selected from all these generated schemes based on a filtering index. Finally, with the influence on power system security, stability and operation economy in consideration, an evaluation model for candidate opening schemes is founded based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP). And a fuzzy evaluation algorithm is used to find the optimal scheme. Simulation results of New England 39-bus system and an actual power system validate the effectiveness and superiority of this proposed method.

REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) aims to achieve its purpose by working across multiple sectors and involving multi-level actors in reducing deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries. By contrast, the European Union (EU) Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and its Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) focus on forestry and functions at bilateral state level. The FLEGT Action Plan specifically aims to tackle illegal logging, legalise timber production and trade improve forest governance in countries exporting tropical timber to the EU. Since illegal logging is just one driver of deforestation and forest degeneration, and legalisation of logging does not necessarily reduce deforestation and forest degradation, the two instruments differ in scale and scope. However, by addressing the causes of deforestation and forest degradation and their underlying governance issues, the EU FLEGT and REDD+ share many functional linkages at higher levels of forest policy and forest governance. The contribution and participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) and other actors is imperative to both processes. Our study is based on a survey of key actors (national and international) in REDD+ and FLEGT VPA processes in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Our analysis was guided by the theoretical perspectives of the policy arrangement approach and examination of two specific dimensions of this approach, namely resources and rules of the game. This paper argues that participation of CSOs in both processes is crucial as it facilitates and nurtures the very much needed cooperation between other national and international actors. The paper also argues that participation of CSOs feeds valuable information and knowledge into REDD+ and FLEGT VPA processes, thus contributing to increased legitimacy, justice and transparency.

This study investigated the presence of human Norovirus (HuNoV) by genotype in 1,486 groundwater samples, collected from 843 groundwater wells suspected of contamination during 2007-2016, in Republic of Korea. We identified and genotyped 186 HuNoV sequences in 178 HuNoV-positive samples using the RIVM-NoroNet norovirus genotyping tool (NGT) and phylogenetic tree analysis based on RIVM-NoroNet reference sequences. HuNoV GII was more prevalent than GI. The major genotypes detected were HuNoV GII.4 (43.0%), GII.22 (15.6%), GI.5 (10.2%) and GI.1 (8.6%); 14 genotypes accounted for < 5.0%. Increasing HuNoV GII.17 has displayed a worldwide trend, including in Europe and Asia since 2010, and it was the dominant HuNoV genotype during 2013-2014 in Korea. However, HuNoV GII.4 was the major genotype detected in groundwater in Korea in 2015-2016, and it is becoming increasingly prevalent similar to HuNoV GII.17.

The material derivative is important in continuum physics. This Letter shows that the expression $\frac{d }{dt}=\frac{\partial }{\partial t}+(\bm v\cdot \bm \nabla)$, used in most literature and textbooks, is incorrect. The correct expression $ \frac{d (:)}{dt}=\frac{\partial }{\partial t}(:)+\bm v\cdot [\bm \nabla (:)]$ is formulated. The solution existence condition of Navier-Stokes equation has been proposed from its form-solution, the conclusion is that "\emph{The Navier-Stokes equation has a solution if and only if the determinant of flow velocity gradient is not zero, namely $\det (\bm \nabla \bm v)\neq 0$.}"

Almond is worldwide consumed and renowned as a valuable healthy food. In spite of this, it is also a potent source of allergenic proteins able to trigger several mild to life-threatening immunoreactions. Food processing proved to alter biochemical characteristics of proteins, thus affecting the respective allergenicity. In this paper we investigated the effect of autoclaving, preceded or not by a hydration step, on the biochemical and immunological properties of almond proteins. Any variation in the stability and immunoreactivity of almond proteins extracted from the treated materials, were evaluated by total protein quantification, ELISA assay and protein profiling by electrophoresis-based separation (SDS-PAGE). The autoclaving alone was found to weakly affect almond proteins stability, despite what observed for the combination of hydration and autoclaving, which resulted in a loss of approximately 70% of total protein content compared to untreated sample, and in a final negligible immunoreactivity, as well. The final SDS-PAGE protein pattern recorded for almonds hydrated and autoclaved disclosed significant changes. In addition, the same samples were further submitted to in vitro simulated gastro-duodenal (GI) digestion to evaluate potential changes induced by these processing on allergens digestibility. Digestion products were identified by HPLC-HRMS/MS analysis followed by software-based data mining, and complementary information were provided by analyzing the proteolytic fragments lower that 6 kDa in size. The autoclave based treatment was found not to alter the allergens digestibility, whereas an increased susceptibility to proteolytic action of digestive enzymes was observed in almonds subjected to the combination of prehydration and autoclaving. Finally, the residual immunoreactivity of the GI resistant peptides was investigated in-silico by bioinformatic tools, confirming that by following both approaches, no epitopes survived the almond digestion, thus demonstrating the potential effectiveness of these treatments to reduce almond allergenicity.

Hybrid inorganic-polymer nanocomposites can be employed in diverse applications due to the potential combination of desired properties from both the organic and inorganic components. The use of novel bottom-up in situ synthesis methods for the fabrication of these nanocomposites is advantageous compared to top-down ex situ mixing methods, as it offers increased control over the structure and properties of the material. In this review, the focus will be on the application of the sol-gel process for the synthesis of inorganic oxide nanoparticles in epoxy and polysiloxane matrices. The effect of the synthesis conditions and the reactants used on the inorganic structures formed, the interactions between the polymer chains and the inorganic nanoparticles, and the resulting properties of the nanocomposites are appraised from several studies over the last two decades. Lastly, alternative in situ techniques and the applications of various polymer-inorganic oxide nanocomposites are briefly discussed.

Metabolic enzymes are often targeted for drug development programs of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and its complications. Many secondary metabolites isolated from natural products have shown therapeutic action against these enzymes. However, some commercially available synthetic drugs have shown unfriendly impacts with various side effects. Thus, this research has focused on a comprehensive study of secondary metabolites showing better inhibitory activities towards metabolic enzymes such as α-amylase, α-glucosidase, aldose reductase, and lipase. Further receptor-based virtual screening was performed against the various secondary metabolites database designed in-silico. Using Gold combined with subsequent post-docking analyses, the score was obtained as methyl xestospongic ester (Gold score 65.83), 2,″4″-O-diacetylquercitrin (Gold score 65.15), kaempferol-3-O-neohesperidoside (Gold score 53.37) and isosalvianolic acid C methyl ester (Gold score 53.44) for lipase, aldol reductase, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase, respectively. Besides, vitexin and isovitexin for α-amylase; N-trans-Caffeoyl-tyramin for α-glucosidase; purpurolide F and schaftoside for lipase; acteoside and orientin for aldose reductase could be potential drugs for respective enzymes based on in-silico analyses, supported by experimental IC₅₀ values reported. They could bind to the competitive sites of the various targets of metabolic enzymes, and finally, toxicity analysis using ProTox-II was also performed.

Carukia barnesi (Cb), Malo kingi (Mk) and Chironex fleckeri (Cf) are dangerous Australian box jellyfish species that provoke distinct and not well understood envenomation syndromes. Specifically, Cb and Mk are small, rare and able to induce a systemic syndrome of generalised muscle pain and catecholamine excess termed “Irukandji syndrome”; Cf has been widely regarded as one of the most venomous organisms in the animal kingdom causing severe sting site pain combined with potentially lethal cardiotoxicity. Building on past studies of major chirodropid and carybdeid species venoms, this study compared the utility of various cubozoan specific antibody reagents to better define the relationships between venom proteins from both exemplar Irukandji species (Cb and Mk) and the archetype C. fleckeri box jellyfish. With the aid of commercial ovine derived Cf-specific antivenom, mouse antibodies reactive to Cb and Mk and rabbit antibodies specific to two Cf toxins (CfTX-1 and 2), as well as human sera, the cross-reactivity of jellyfish species-specific polyclonal antibodies against these three cubozoan venoms was investigated. Immunoblot assays revealed distinc levels of immune recognition across the three species, indicating that Mk specific reagents may bind both Irukandji and Cf venoms. Irukandji venom appears to be antigenic with the exception of a few proteins in the range of 43/46 kDa maybe homologous to CfTX-1 and 2. The implications of such antibody binding for future antivenom development require further investigation.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisaged under Agenda 2030 are a set of seventeen goals which envisage a holistic approach towards attaining certain targets keeping humankind and the planet at center. There are total 169 targets spread across seventeen goals covering wide ranging issues and challenges the world is facing in the twenty-first century. And they are to be achieved by 2030. Concerted efforts of all the stakeholders ranging from indigenous communities, common citizens, scientists, policy makers, world leaders are needed to achieve all the goals and targets Of the seventeen goals, at least seven goals are of interest to the ethnobotanists and are associated with traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. Therefore to achieve those set of goals, a thorough understanding is required to disentangle the intricacies involving traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, indigenous people as traditional knowledge holders and their future role. Understanding relationships between traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and indigenous communities, seeking cooperation from and establishing partnerships with them would help us design policies to achieve intended outcomes of SDGs. In this paper, particular attention is attracted towards the potential role of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge in achieving select sustainable development goals and targets.

Flavonoids, compounds present in many dietary supplements, affect growth of different bacterial species when tested as purified or synthetic substances. Here, we asked if soy isoflavone extracts, commonly used in many products sold as anti-menopausal dietary supplements, influence bacterial growth similarly to synthetic isoflavone, genistein. Four commercially available products were tested in amounts corresponding to genistein concentrations causing inhibition of growth of Vibrio harveyi (a model bacterium sensitive to this isoflavone) and Escherichia coli (a model bacterium resistant to genistein). Differential effects of various extracts on V. harveyi and E. coli growth, from stimulation, through no changes, to inhibition, were observed. Moreover, contrary to genistein, tested extracts caused a decrease (to different extends) in viability of human dermal fibroblasts. These results indicate that effects of various soy isoflavone extracts on bacterial growth and viability of human cells are different, despite similar declared composition of the commercially available products.

Background: Access to rehabilitation is crucial for the realization of the right to health and a proper concern of global health. Yet, reliable information to guide rehabilitation service planning is unavailable in many countries in part due to the lack of appropriate indicators. To ensure universal health coverage and meet the central imperative of “leaving no one behind” countries must be able to assess key aspects of rehabilitation policy and provision and monitor how they have discharged their human rights responsibilities towards those most disadvantaged, including people with disability. This article describes the process of developing an expert guided indicator framework to assess governments’ efforts and progress in strengthening rehabilitation in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Methods: A systems methodology - concept mapping - was used to capture, aggregate and confirm the knowledge of diverse stakeholders on measures thought to be useful for monitoring the implementation of the Convention with respect to health related rehabilitation. 56 individuals generated a list of 107 indicators through online brainstorming which were subsequently sorted by 37 experts from the original panel into non overlapping categories. 41 participants rated the indicators for importance and feasibility. Multivariate statistical techniques where used to explore patterns and themes in the data and create the indicators’ organizing framework which was verified and interpreted by participants. Results: A concept map of 11 clusters of indicators emerged from the analysis grouped into three broader themes: Governance and Leadership (3 clusters); Service Delivery, Financing and Oversight (6 clusters); and Human Resources (2 clusters). The RESYST was comprehensive and well aligned with the Convention. On average, there was a moderately positive correlation between importance and feasibility of the indicators (r=.58) with experts prioritizing the indicators contained in the clusters of the Governance and Leadership domain. Two of the most important indicators arose from the Service Delivery, Financing and Oversight domain and reflect the need to monitor unmet needs and barriers in access to rehabilitation. In total, 59 indicators achieved above average score for importance and comprised the two–tiered priority set of indicators. Conclusion: Concept mapping was successful in generating a shared model that enables a system’s view of the most critical legal, policy and programmatic factors that must be addressed when assessing country efforts to reform, upscale and improve rehabilitation services. The RESYST provides a data driven basis for the development of standardized data collection tools to facilitate comparative analysis of rehabilitation systems.

In this work, we present some results related with the issue of the Loop Quantum Black Holes (LQBH) thermodynamics by the use of the tunneling radiation formalism. The information loss paradox is also discussed in this context, where we have considered the influence of back reaction effects.

This study revisits the Reynolds-averaged Navier--Stokes equations (RANS) and finds that the existing literature is erroneous regarding the primary unknowns and the number of independent unknowns in the RANS. The literature claims that the Reynolds stress tensor has six independent unknowns, but in fact the six unknowns can be reduced to three that are functions of the three velocity fluctuation components, because the Reynolds stress tensor is simply an integration of a second-order dyadic tensor of flow velocity fluctuations rather than a general symmetric tensor. This difficult situation is resolved by returning to the time of Reynolds in 1895 and revisiting Reynolds' averaging formulation of turbulence. The study of turbulence modeling could focus on the velocity fluctuations instead of on the Reynolds stress. An advantage of modeling the velocity fluctuations is, from both physical and experimental perspectives, that the velocity fluctuation components are observable whereas the Reynolds stress tensor is not.

With the increasing of copper consumption, the in-use stock of copper tends to increase. This paper used the “average use life method” to quantify the amount of copper in-use stock, and calculated the average age of in-use stock. It was indicated that the total in-use stock had an overall smooth trends, and reached its peak in 2007 was about 68.9 Mt (million tons), in addition, in-use stock per capita reached its peak ,234 kg/capita in 2001. The results demonstrated that during the period 1992-2002, the average age of copper in-use stock was continually decreased, but gradually increased since the year 2003. The fixed assets depreciation method used in this paper is applied to analyze depreciated copper in-use stock, and to analyze the relationship with economic indicator (GDP). It is demonstrated that it was inconsistent with the theory of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) before 2000, this might be the demand for copper in the service sector is greater than the reduced strength of alternatives. Finally, scenario analysis of future copper in-use stock and depreciated copper in-use stock per capita in the U.S. were presented. The corresponding average age of the in-use stock will have a slight rise in the next decade.

Automated controlling the harvesting systems can significantly increase the efficiency of the agricultural practices and prevent food wastes. Modeling and improvement of the combine harvester can increase the overall performance. Machine learning methods provide the opportunity of advanced modeling for accurate prediction of the highest performance of the machine. In this study, the modeling of combine harvesting id performed using radial basis function (RBF) and the hybrid machine learning method of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to predict various variables of the combine harvester for the optimal performance. Response surface methodology (RSM) is also used to optimize the models. The comparative study shows that the ANFIS method outperforms the RBF method.

It has been a long time since the world has experienced a pandemic with such a rapid devastating impact as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The causative agent, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is further unusual in that it appears capable of infecting many different mammal species. As a significant proportion of people worldwide are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and may spread the infection unknowingly before symptoms occur or without any symptoms ever occurring, there is a non-negligible risk of humans spreading SARS-CoV-2 to wildlife, in particular mammals. Because of SARS-CoV-2’s evolutionary origins in bats and reports of humans transmitting the virus to pets and zoo animals, regulations for prevention of human-to-animal transmission have so far focused mostly on these animal groups. Here, we summarize recent studies and reports that show that a wide range of distantly related mammals are likely susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and that susceptibility or resistance to the virus is in general not predictable, or only to some extent, by phylogenetic proximity to known susceptible or resistant hosts. In the absence of solid evidence on the SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility/resistance for each of the >5,500 mammal species, we argue that sanitary precautions should be taken when interacting with any mammal species in the wild. Preventing human-to-wildlife SARS-CoV-2 transmission is important for protecting these (sometimes endangered) animals from disease, but also to avoid establishment of novel SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in wild animals. The risk of repeated re-infection of humans from such a wildlife reservoir could severely hamper SARS-CoV-2 control efforts. For wildlife fieldworkers interacting directly or indirectly with mammals, we recommend sanitary precautions such as physical distancing, wearing face masks and gloves, and frequent decontamination, which are very similar to regulations currently imposed to prevent transmission among humans.

Lung cancer is almost the most common cause of cancer death in the world. Clinically, the conventional therapy to eradicate the cancer cells is chemotherapy but a better drug remains required. In this study, the effects of three bufadienolides, kalantuboside B, kalantuboside A and bryotoxin C, isolated from Kalanchoe tubiflora (Harvey) were evaluated and characterized in CL1-5 highly metastatic human lung cancer cells. Contrary to the apoptosis-promoting activity in other cancer cells, these three bufadienolides did not induce apoptosis in CL1-5 cancer cells. Instead, they activated an autophagy pathway, as indicated by the increase of autophagosomes formation. The induction of autophagy by these three bufadienolides was demonstrated to link to down-regulation of p-mTOR as well as up-regulation of LC3-II, ATG5, ATG7, Beclin-1. Moreover, among these three compounds, kalantuboside B in which a monosaccharide is attached at the bufadienolide aglycon, exhibited a better autophagy induction. Our findings revealed an alternative mechanism of drug action by bufadienolides in lung cancer cells and provided evidence for the possibility of treating highly metastatic human lung cancer through an autophagy pathway.

The emergence of novel coronavirus strain 2019 (COVID-19) linked with pneumonia poses a serious threat to public health worldwide. Firstly, the COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. Initially, the major proportion of virus-infected cases (i.e. about 99%) was reported in China and now it is being reported in other counties as well. Humans begin to be infected within their communities and transmittance of the viral epidemic increased rapidly due to lack of understanding of its transmission routes and precautionary measures. The existence of COVID-19 in China threatened the population greatly due to the high incidence of fatal respiratory infections. Current investigations speculated that this virus transferred into a human from viral-infected bats. However, the process of interspecies viral transmission is an important scientific question to be addressed. Due to the continuous increase in the patients infected with COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has included this viral epidemic to the priority list of diseases. Therefore, accelerated research developments are required to control the spread of this outbreak, as it is declared as a public health emergency by WHO especially in the absence of efficacious drugs and vaccines. Our review encompasses the recent status of disease severity in China, a particular replication mechanism of COVID-19 and potential risks and precautionary measures required to avoid contact with this fatal viral infection.

To cope with a projected global population increase from 7.2 bn to 9.6 bn by 2050, many more cities must be built. Although there are great benefits to modern urban living, there also great costs, such as the seemingly unstoppable rise in Type 2 diabetes, obesity, coronary issues and various cancers. The new towns should be designed to contain or constrain the epidemic of those ‘Western Lifestyle Diseases’ that currently plagues today’s cities. But how might this be achieved? It is suggested here that a greater understanding of human evolution combined with the potency of the ‘Palaeolithic genome’ holds the key to our future urban wellbeing. Consequently, a new paradigm is suggested that underpins positive forward thinking on townplanning and city lifestyles to create healthier urban environments. This builds directly on the ‘Evolutionary Determinants of Health’ programme initiated at University College London (UCL). A four-stage model is proposed that integrates and develops both evolutionary-concordant personal and institutional health behaviours with appropriately reconfigured town-planning and building regulations. When integrated, these strands could deliver a healthier urban culture within greened, active townscapes by proactively constraining or eliminating some of the key underlying causes of the so-called ‘Western Lifestyle Diseases’.

Human coronaviruses cause both upper and lower respiratory tract infections in humans. In 2012 a sixth human coronavirus (hCoV) was isolated from a patient presenting with severe respiratory illness. The 60-year-old man died as a result of renal and respiratory failure after admission to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The aetiological agent was eventually identified as a coronavirus and designated Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). MERS-CoV has now been reported in more than 27 countries across the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and Asia. As of July 2017, 2040 MERS-CoV laboratory confirmed cases, resulting in 712 deaths, were reported globally, with a majority of these cases from the Arabian Peninsula. This review summarises the current understanding of MERS-CoV, with special reference to the (i) genome structure, (ii) clinical features, (iii) diagnosis of infection and (iv) treatment and vaccine development.

Sinulariolide, a natural product extracted from cultured-type soft coral Sinularia flexibilis, possesses bioactivity against the movement of several types of cancer cell. However, the molecular pathway of its effects on human bladder cancer remain poorly understood. Using a human bladder cancer cell line as an in vitro model, this study investigated the underlying mechanism of sinulariolide against cell migration/invasion in TSGH-8301 cells. We found that sinulariolide inhibited TSGH-8301 cell migration/invasion, and the effect was concentration-dependent. Furthermore, the protein expressions of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) MMP-2 and MMP-9, as well as urokinase, were significantly decreased after 24-h sinulariolide treatment. Meanwhile, the increased expressions of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 were in parallel with an increased concentration of sinulariolide. Finally, the expressions of several key phosphorylated proteins in the mTOR signaling pathway were also downregulated by sinulariolide treatment. Our results demonstrated that sinulariolide has significant effects against TSGH-8301 cell migration/invasion, and its effects were associated with decreased levels of MMP-2/-9 and urokinase expression, as well as increased TIMP-1/TIMP-2 expression. The inhibitory effects were mediated by reducing phosphorylation proteins of the PI3K, AKT and mTOR signaling pathway. The findings suggested that sinulariolide is a good candidate for advanced investigation with the aim of developing a new drug for the treatment of human bladder cancer.

Beginning in 2012, our understanding of human papillomavirus (HPV) subcellular trafficking has undergone a drastic paradigm shift. Work from multiple laboratories has revealed that HPV has evolved a unique means to deliver its viral genome (vDNA) to the cell nucleus, relying on a myriad of host cell proteins and processes. The major breakthrough finding from these recent endeavors was the realization of L2-dependent utilization of cellular sorting factors for the retrograde transport of vDNA away from degradative endo/lysosomal compartments to the Golgi, prior to mitosis-dependent nuclear accumulation of L2/vDNA. An overview of current models of HPV entry, subcellular trafficking, and the role of L2 during initial infection is provided below, highlighting unresolved questions and gaps in knowledge.

This paper proposes the impact of plug-in electric vehicles integrated into power distribution system based on voltage dependent control. The plug-in electric vehicles was modeled as the static load model in power distribution systems under balanced load condition. The power flow analysis is determined by using the basic parameters of the electrical network. The main point of this study are compare with voltage magnitude profiles, load voltage deviation, and total power losses of the electrical power system. There are investigating the affected from constant power load, constant current load, constant impedance load and plug-in electric vehicles load, respectively. The IEEE 33 bus test system is used to test the proposed method by assigning each load type to a balanced load in steady state and applied the solving methodology based on the bus injection to branch injection matric, branch current to bus voltage matrix, and current injection matrix to solve the power flow problem. The simulation results showed that the plug-in electric vehicles load had the lowest impact compared to other loads. The lowest plug-in values for the electric vehicle loads were 0.062, 119.67 kW and 79.31 kVar for the load voltage deviation, total active power loss and total reactive power loss, respectively. Therefore, this study can be verified that the plug-in electric vehicles load were affected to the lowest of the electrical power system in condition to same sizing and position. So that, in condition to the plug-in electric vehicles load added into the electrical power system with the conventional load type or complex load type could be considered that the affected from the plug-in electric vehicles load in next study.

Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is an important index to evaluate radiation performance and image quality of optical imaging systems under low illumination background. Under the nighttime lighting condition, the illumination of remote sensing objects is low and varies greatly, usually ranging from several lux to tens of thousands of lux. Nighttime light remote sensing imaging requires high sensitivity and large dynamic range of detectors. Luojia 1-01 is the first professional nighttime light remote sensing satellite in the world. In this paper, we took the nighttime light remote sensing camera carried on the satellite as research object, proposed an in-orbit SNR test method based on time series images to overcome the problem of low spatial resolution. We first analyzed the process of luminous flux transmission between objects and satellite and established a radiative transfer model. By combining the parameters of large relative aperture optical system and high sensitivity CMOS device, we established SNR model and specially analyzed the effect of exposure time and quantization bits on SNR. Finally we used the proposed in-orbit test method to calculate SNR of lighting images acquired by satellite. And the measured result is in good agreement with the model predicted data. Under the condition of 10lx illumination, the SNR of typical objects can reach 27.02dB, which is much better than the requirement of 20dB for engineering application.

This paper presents a methodology for determining the sensitivity of the main air flow directions in ventilation subnetworks to changes of aerodynamic resistance and of air density in mine workings. Formulae for determination of the sensitivity of the main subnetwork air flows by establishing the degree of dependency of the air volume stream in a given working on the variations in resistance or air density of other workings of the network have been developed. They have been implemented in the VentGraph mine ventilation network simulator. This software, widely used in Polish collieries provides an extended possibility to predict the process of ventilation, air distribution and, in the case of underground fire, also the spread of combustion gasses. The new method facilitates assessment by mine ventilation services of the stability of ventilation systems in exploitation areas and determine of the sensitivity of the main subnetwork air flow directions to changes of aerodynamic resistance and air density. Recently in some Polish collieries new longwalls are developed in seams located deeper then the bottom of the intake shaft. Such solution is called “exploitation below the level of access” or “sublevel”. The new approach may be applied to such developments to assess the potential of changes of direction and air flow rates. In addition, interpretation of the developed sensitivity indicator is presented. While analyzing air distributions for sublevel exploitation, application of current numerical models for calculations of the distribution results in tangible benefits, such as the evaluation of the safety or risk levels for such exploitation. Application of the VentGraph computer program, and particularly the module POŻAR (fire) with the newly developed options, enables an additional approach to the sensitivity indicator in evaluating air flow safety levels for the risks present during exploitation below the level of the intake shaft. The analyses performed and examples presented enabled useful conclusions in mining practice to be drawn.

Community is a veritable ingredient for social change and development in a society. The potentials of individuals and groups in the community are a great source or resource for promoting unity, development and patriotism. The general objective of this study is to examine the influence of diversity in community composition, on the operation of community policing style in Nigeria. The study adopted qualitative research approach to collect and analyze data. In-depth interview is the instrument of data collection while content analysis is the method of data analysis. The study took place in Kwara State, North central Nigeria. Twenty community leaders and youth groups heads were purposefully selected through snowball sampling method. Where this great resource or human capital is adequately galvanized by the leaders and community heads, the community becomes formidable and capable of solving her social problems together. However, these benefits of community are hampered by other socio-cultural and economic variables in its members. Community on its own cannot achieve much until members are mobilized to support and partner with government in any developmental projects.

Affective computing in general and human activity and intention analysis in particular, is a rapidly growing field of research. Head pose and emotion changes, present serious challenges when applied to player’s training and ludology experience in serious games or analysis of customer satisfaction regarding broadcast and web services or monitoring a driver’s attention. Given the increasing prominence and utility of depth sensors, it is now feasible to perform large-scale collection of three-dimensional (3D) data for subsequent analysis. Discriminative random regression forests was selected in order to rapidly and accurately estimate head pose changes in unconstrained environment. In order to complete the secondary process of recognising four universal dominant facial expressions (happiness, anger, sadness and surprise), emotion recognition via facial expressions (ERFE) was adopted. After that, a lightweight data exchange format (JavaScript Object Notation-JSON) is employed, in order to manipulate the data extracted from the two aforementioned settings. Motivated by the need of generating comprehensible visual representations from different sets of data, in this paper we introduce a system capable of monitoring human activity through head pose and emotion changes, utilising an affordable 3D sensing technology (Microsoft Kinect sensor).

Social distancing is a recommended solution by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to minimise the spread of COVID-19 in public places. The majority of governments and national health authorities have set the 2-meter physical distancing as a mandatory safety measure in shopping centres, schools and other covered areas. In this research, we develop a Deep Neural Network-based Model for automated people detection, tracking, and inter-people distances estimation in the crowd, using common CCTV security cameras. The proposed DNN model along with an inverse perspective mapping technique leads to a very accurate people detection and social distancing monitoring in challenging conditions, including people occlusion, partial visibility, and lighting variations. We also provide an online infection risk assessment scheme by statistical analysis of the Spatio-temporal data from the moving trajectories and the rate of social distancing violations. We identify high-risk zones with the highest possibility of virus spread and infection. This may help authorities to redesign the layout of a public place or to take precaution actions to mitigate high-risk zones. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is evaluated on the Oxford Town Centre dataset, with superior performance in terms of accuracy and speed compared to three state-of-the-art methods.

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotes whose taxonomy follows the same rules of a code (the International Botanical Nomenclature Code, IBNC) built for eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms. Hence, names of cyanobacteria follow the same rules and are assigned to biological entities (species) that should correspond to eukaryotic species. The main difficulty in the current situation is that the species concept in eukaryotes is based theoretically mainly on the biological species concept, that is centered on genetic exchange through sexual reproduction or lack of them. However, as shown, this difference is important from a theoretical point of view, but also in eukaryotes, the boundaries between different species are very rarely checked experimentally by direct observation of sexual barriers and hybridization events. The main concept for species delimitation is hence that related to morphology and, more recently and always in relation to morphology, DNA sequences. The introduction of distances obtained from matrixes of aligned sequences in the framework of a barcoding project provides a quantitative interpretation of species delimitation in relation to genetic distance that can be used both in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. However, the introduction of quantitative criteria needs the definition of distance thresholds to identify the boundaries between different species and, for doing that, it is necessary to test the distance thresholds in models of traditionally defined and recognized species. An alternative approach may be the comparison of the molecular distance (quantitative approach) to data about the capability of strains/species to exchange genetic information. Unfortunately data about this last question is still scarce. The adoption of molecular criteria to check species boundaries based on morphological characters has proved particularly challenging in cyanobacteria: a known example is provided. In conclusion, the only possible approach appears to be the association of molecular data to the increase of available data about the cell structure and the variation thereof in different physiological situations, particularly at the ultrastructural level. A further necessity is the check of the typus for a large number of cyanobacteria species, often based on old basionyms. In many of these cases the typus is often a drawing and more rarely a herbarium specimen or a microscope slide. In many cases an epitypification or a neotypification appears to be necessary.

HPV vaccine induces a herd immunity effect in genital warts when a large number of the population is vaccinated. That aspect should be taken into account when devising new vaccine strategies, like vaccination at older ages or male vaccination. Therefore it is important to develop mathematical models with good predictive capacities. We devised a sexual contact network that was calibrated to simulate the Spanish epidemiology of different HPV genotypes. Through this model we simulated the scenario that occurred in Australia in 2007, where 12-13 year-old girls where vaccinated with a three-dose schedule of a vaccine containing genotypes 6 and 11, that protect against genital warts, and also a catch-up program in women up to 26 years of age. Vaccine coverage were 73 % in girls with three doses and with coverage rates decreasing with age until 52 % for 20-26 year-olds. A fast 59 % reduction in the genital warts diagnoses occurred in the model in the first years after the start of the program, similar to what was described in the literature.

In the paper, the authors present unified generalizations for the Bell numbers and polynomials, establish explicit formulas and inversion formulas for these generalizations in terms of the Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds with the help of the Faà di Bruno formula, properties of the Bell polynomials of the second kind, and the inversion theorem connected with the Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds, construct determinantal and product inequalities for these generalizations with aid of properties of the completely monotonic functions, and derive the logarithmic convexity for the sequence of these generalizations.

The introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT), i.e. the interconnection of embedded devices over the Internet, has changed the world we live in from the way we measure, make calls, print information and even the way we get energy in our offices or homes. The convenience of IoT products, like CCTV cameras, IP phones, and oscilloscopes, is overwhelming for end-users. In parallel, however, security issues have emerged and it is essential for infrastructure providers to assess the associated security risks. In this paper, we propose a novel method to detect IoT devices and identify the manufacturer, device model, and the firmware version currently running on the device using the page source from the web user interface. We performed automatic scans of the large-scale network at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to evaluate our approach. Our tools identified 233 IoT devices that fell into eleven distinct device categories and included 49 device models manufactured by 26 vendors from across the world.

The value of QuantiFERON in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and in the monitoring of the response to anti-tuberculosis treatment is unclear. The aims of this study were to evaluate the accuracy of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) test in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and in the monitoring of the response to anti-tuberculosis treatment in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Between January 2013 and December 2015, 128 cases with active PTB and 128 controls with no mycobacterial infection, matched by age (within 3 years) and by the week that they visited Tainan Chest Hospital, were enrolled in the study. Serial testing by QFT-GIT at baseline and after 2 and 6 months of treatment was performed. At these time points, a comparison of the performance of QFT-GIT with that of sputum culture status among study subjects was conducted. Compared to baseline, 116 (87.2%) cases showed a decreased response, whereas 17 (12.8%) showed persistent or stronger interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) responses at 2 months. Their IFN-γ responses declined significantly from baseline to 2 months (median, 6.32 vs. 4.12; P < 0.005). The sensitivity values of the QFT-GIT test for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis at cut-off points of 0.35 IU/ml, 0.20 IU/ml, and 0.10 IU/ml were 74.4%, 78.2%, and 80.5%, respectively. The specificity values at cut-off points of 0.35 IU/ml, 0.20 IU/ml, and 0.10 IU/ml were 66.2%, 63.9%, and 57.1%, respectively. Our results support the QFT-GIT assay as a potential tool for diagnosing tuberculosis and for monitoring the efficacy of anti-tuberculosis treatment.

Praeruptorin A(PA), a naturally existing pyranocumarin, is isolated from the dried root of Peucedanum praeruptorum Dunn. So far the anti-cancer effect and molecular mechanism behind Praeruptorin A action in human cervical cancer HeLa cells remain unknown. In the present study, we find that PA reduces cell proliferation and colony formation of human cervical cancer HeLa cells through inducing cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase. PA-upregulated p21 and p27 proteins are observed, accompanied with inhibition of cyclin D1 and S-phase kinase-associated protein 2(Skp2) proteins expression. PA could significantly inhibit migration and invasion of human HeLa cells. Meanwhile, PA significantly reduces invasive protein expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), and increases protein expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2). PA is observed to possess the capacity in suppressing ERK1/2 activation. PD98059 (ERK specific inhibitor) significantly enhances PA-induced downregulation of MMP-2 expression, and upregulation of TIMP-2 expression. Moreover, we found that PA treatment notably inhibits 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate(TPA)-upregulated ERK1/2 activation, MMP-2 expression, cellular migration and invasion in human HeLa cells. Taken together, these findings are the first to demonstrate the anti-cancer activity of PA, which may act as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of human cervical cancer.

The way in which the human being learns certain complex contents has always been a focus of interest and a challenge for researchers. Given the fact that children's cognitive abilities do not fully develop until a certain age, this topic is particularly important in the young children's learning scope as they do not correctly and easily learn some content of abstract nature, such as contents in math class. This work presents the results of the use of an application called "Mathematics Learning System with Augmented Reality based on Kinect" (SAM-RAK by its acronym in Spanish), which was designed to cover basic topics of mathematics in the Basic General Education level (EGB by its acronym in Span-ish) in Ecuador. The research was carried out under an experimental quantitative approach with 30 children (18 girls and 12 boys), who study in third grade of EGB level, from 2 different educational in-stitutions in Riobamba city. In order to obtain the results that evaluate the developed application, a pre-test and a post-test were applied, which were contrasted with the student’s t-test for paired samples. The statistical evidence suggests that the proposed computer system had a positive effect on children's performance, when it was used as a support tool in the classroom. The system was more effective in low performance children compared to those of high performance. It was also proved that children were motivated and showed positive attitudes when using the proposed System.

The understanding of various health-oriented vital sign data generated from body sensor networks (BSN) and discovery of the association between the generated parameters is an important task that may assist and promote important decision making in healthcare. For example, in a smart home scenario where the occupants’ health status is continuously monitored remotely, it is essential to provide required assistance when an unusual or critical situation is detected in their vital sign data. In this paper, we present an efficient approach to mine the incomplete (partial) periodic patterns obtained from BSN data. In addition, we employ a correlation test on the generated patterns and introduce the productive-associated partial periodic frequent patterns as the set of correlated partial periodical frequent items. The combination of these measures has the advantage of empowering healthcare providers and patients for quality of diagnosis, and also for better treatment and smart care, especially for the elderly people at smart home. We developed an efficient algorithm named PPFP-Growth (Productive Periodic Frequent Pattern growth) to discover all productive associated partial periodic patterns using these measures. PPFP-Growth is efficient, and the productiveness measure removes uncorrelated periodic items. An experimental evaluation on synthetic and real datasets shows the efficiency of the proposed PPFP-Growth algorithm, and can filter a huge number of partial periodic patterns to reveal only the correlated ones.

In the depths of inquiry, where thoughts unfurl like tendrils of smoke, this qualitative study ventures into the enigmatic realms of diaspora, migration, and the elusive brain drain within the tapestry of the Philippines. It is a journey guided by a sturdy theoretical framework, traversing the multifaceted dimensions of society, culture, and psyche. Here, the lens expands beyond the confines of economics, delving into the essence of these phenomena, seeking profound insights that dance beneath the surface. Through meticulous analysis of empirical data, hidden truths emerge, illuminating the intricate dynamics of diaspora, the intricate patterns of migration, and the intricate threads that shape migration decisions. Moreover, it peers into the intricate tapestry of impacts that diaspora and migration have on both sending and receiving societies, casting a beam of understanding upon their social, economic, and cultural implications. The study, in its wisdom, extends its reach to offer valuable policy recommendations, serving as a compass for stakeholders and decision-makers. It emphasizes the pivotal importance of harnessing the vast potential held within diaspora, fostering social integration, and bridging the gaps in knowledge that lie in wait. In its entirety, this research harmonizes with the existing body of knowledge, blending seamlessly with the symphony of understanding, and ignites the path towards evidence-based strategies that pave the way for sustainable development and the well-being of societies near and far.