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

Blast charge initiation procedures have a significant impact on both mining safety and production rates. In this study, the inventory benefit of an electric initiation system was investigated to assess its influence on both fragmentation and blast-induced damages. The Wipfrag software's was used to examine the size distribution and productivity of 12 small-scale blasts initiated by both non-electric and electric detonators. All blast rounds was initiated with plain type of electric and NONEL detonators. The average burden, spacing, stemming length, and charge weight were, respectively, 0.85 m, 1.10 m, 0.66m, and 1.1kg. The results showed that the mesh through which 80% of the blast fragments will pass for the electric blast is smaller than the mesh through which the material products from the NONEL blast will pass. The results also demonstrate that the generated blast-induced ground vibration (PPV) from all blast rounds for electric blast varies from 0.4–1.2 mm/s and 80–105dB, while that for non-electric blast ranges from 0.05–0.2mm/s and 72–95dB. As a result, the electric blast initiation technique was found to produce good fragmentation, with a higher percentage of optimum fragment sizes on spec than non-electrically initiated blasts.

We develop the theory of Heyting locally small spaces, including Stone-like dualities such as a new version of Esakia duality and a system of concrete isomorphisms and equivalences. In such a way, we continue building tame topology, realising Grothendieck's ideas. We use up-spectral spaces and define the standard up-spectralification of a Kolmogorov locally small space. This research gives more understanding of locally definable spaces over structures with topologies.

F-type ATP synthases play a key role in oxidative and photophosphorylation processes producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for most biochemical reactions in living organisms. In contrast to the mitochondrial FOF1-ATP synthases those of chloroplasts are known to be mostly monomers with approx. 15% fraction of oligomers interacting presumably non-specifically in a thylakoid membrane. To shed light to the nature of this difference we studied interactions of the chloroplast ATP synthases using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) method. Here, we report evidence of I-shaped dimerization of solubilized FOF1-ATP synthases from spinach chloroplasts at different salinity. The structural data were obtained by SAXS and showed dimerization in response to changes in ionic strength. The best model describing SAXS data was two ATP-synthases connected through F1/F1’ parts, presumably via their δ-subunits, forming dimers with the “I” shape. Such I-shaped dimers might possibly connect the neighboring lamellae in thylakoid stacks assuming that the FOF1 monomers comprising such dimers are embedded in different thylakoid membranes. If this type of dimerization exists in nature, it might be one of the pathways of inhibition of chloroplast FOF1-ATP synthase for preventing of ATP hydrolysis in dark, when salinity in plant chloroplasts is rising. Together with a redox switch inserted into a γ-subunit of chloroplast FOF1 and lateral oligomerization, an I-shaped dimerization might comprise a subtle regulatory process of ATP synthesis and stabilize the structure of thylakoid stacks in chloroplasts.

Traceability is the ability to determine the path of a product from purchase to consumption to determine when and where it originated. This paper aimed to determine the factors that influence fishers’ decision-making to participate in tuna traceability program, it also explores the determinants of fish catch for small-scale fishers and the feasibility of implementing tuna traceability in the Davao Gulf, Philippines. The result of the interview showed that the significant factors that highly affected the decision-making of fishers in implementating tuna traceability program: boat capacity, fishing hours and communication of fishers (P≤0.05). Household size, years in community, fishing hours, volume of fish sold, and the fishers' communication in the fishing ground (P≤0.05) were other factors that determined the daily catch of the fishers. The results of this study showed that fishers from the Davao Gulf were willing to be part of traceability program that would sustain and increase the value of their fish catch. Moreover, communication was shown to be critically needed in such programs adjusting it for the fish catch to remain fresh or of good quality. Our study will help in deterring and mitigating illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU) through fish catch traceability.

The glycosaminoglycan, heparan sulphate (HS), orchestrates many developmental processes. Yet its biological role has not yet fully been elucidated. Small molecule chemical inhibitors can be used to perturb HS function and these compounds pro-vide cheap alternatives to genetic manipulation methods. However, existing chemical inhibition methods for HS also interfere with chondroitin sulphate (CS), complicating data interpretation of HS function. Herein, a simple method for the selective inhibition of HS biosynthesis is described. Using endogenous metabolic sugar pathways, Ac4GalNAz produces UDP-GlcNAz, which can target HS synthesis. Cell treatment with Ac4GalNAz resulted in defective chain elongation of the polymer and decreased HS expression. Conversely, no adverse effect on CS production was observed. The inhibition was transient and dose-dependent, affording rescue of HS expression after removal of the unnatural azido sugar. The utility of inhibition is demonstrated in cell culture and in whole or-ganisms, demonstrating that this small molecule can be used as a tool for HS inhibition in biological systems.

Small boat fishers are often the lifeblood of remote coastal communities in Iceland, contributing to employment, jobs and economic prosperity. This study conducts exploratory but highly practical research into the efficiency of onboard catch handling practices by Icelandic small boat fishers using fish handling tools called automatic jigging machines. Using applied research methods, this study researches whether standardisation of operations could be applied to make catch handling practices on small boats more time and resource efficient, leading to reduced waste, a consistently higher quality product, and potential increases in economic efficiency and sustainability. Thematic analysis, value stream mapping, flow analysis and Kaizen ideology were adopted to identify gaps and continuous improvement opportunities to standardise processes, leading to exemplary performance. Eight core recommendations are identified, seven of which are classed as straight-forward, ‘do now’ measures according to a Kaizen Priority Matrix. These include human and technological interventions in the areas of safety, organisational arrangements, hygiene, fish handling and bleeding, and cooling. Questionnaire responses reveal four main themes of importance to the sub-sector: changes in recent decades; the importance of small boat fishers; education and improvement; and the particularities of the sub-industry. The latter include the perception of a ‘race against time’ to land the catch, an issue that sometimes contributes to sub-optimal catch handling practices. Although this study has decidedly practical connotations for small boat fishers, its outcomes are also likely to be of interest to academics, particularly those focused on the organisational management of natural resources and general applications of the project management methodology and applied research methods as a means of solving practical problems in everyday life.

In the past few decades, the tourism sector has emerged as a significant economic activity in island nations, particularly in tropical regions. However, most of the tropical islands face similar constraints. National and international tourists visit the SIDS including A & N Islands and contribute to the GDP to significant share. The Covid-19 outbreaks in SIDs including A & N islands shows that number of people infected were less as compared to metros or big cities. However, tourism activities completely stopped due to lockdown resulting in decreasing tourist’s arrival, declined GDP and per capita income of SIDs to greater extent. The information gathered from various sources, mass media and net analysed and interpreted in this chapter. Due to Covid-19 tourist’s arrival declined which has serious consequences on the livelihood of islander. Our analysis revealed A&N Islands deficit in energy available at from different sources by 18.26%. However, they are surplus in protein. The burden of high expenditure coupled with poor infrastructure makes them more vulnerable in the circumstance of pandemic outbreaks. This outbreak has created the question of survival due to loss of jobs, halted economic activates, psychological, health unrest and livelihood threats among the depending people of these Island nations. Therefore, government interventions and subsidized package is very much essential to revive the tourism industry.

Land degradation is a critical issue globally putting our future generations at risk. The decrease in farm productivity over the years is evidence of land degradation severity in Nepal. Among the many strategies in place, agroforestry, which is an integrated tree-based farming, is widely recommended to address this productivity issue. This paper thoroughly examines what influences the choice of agroforestry adoption by farmers and what discourages the adoption. For this, a total of 288 households were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. Two agroforestry practices were compared with conventional agriculture with the help of the Multinomial Logistic Regression (MNL) model. The likelihood of adoption was found to be influenced by gender; the male-headed households were more likely to adopt the tree-based farming practice. Having a source of off-farm income was positively associated with the adoption decision of farmers. Area of farmland was found being the major constraint to agroforestry adoption for smallholder farmers. Some other variables that affected positively included livestock herd size, provision of extension service, home-to- forest distance, farmers’ group membership and awareness of farmers about environmental benefits of agroforestry. Irrigation was another adoption constraint that the study area farmers were faced with. The households with means of transport and with larger family (household) size were found to be reluctant towards agroforestry adoption. A collective farming practice could be a strategy to engage the smallholder farmers in agroforestry.

Membranes based on sulfonated synditoactic polystyrene were thoroughly characterized by contrast variation SANS over a wide Q-range in dry and hydrated states. The film samples were prepared by solid-state sulfonation that allowed a uniform sulfonation of only the amorphous phase while preserving the crystallinity of the membrane. The samples were loaded with different guest molecules in either the amorphous (fullerenes) or the crystalline (toluene) regions, in order to vary the neutron contrast or to reproduce the conditions enabling an increased resistance of the membranes to chemical decomposition. The use of uni-axially deformed film samples and contrast variation with different H2O/D2O mixtures allowed for the identification and characterization of different structural levels with sizes between nm and μm, which form and evolve in the membrane morphology in dry and hydrated states and produce scattering features on different detection sectors and at different detection distances after the sample, depending on their size and orientation.

Background: Plasma metabolites are associated with cognitive and physical function in the elderly. Because cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and neurodegeneration are common causes of cognitive and physical function decline, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the associations of six plasma metabolites (two plasma phosphatidylcholines [PCs]: PC aa C36:5 and PC aa 36:6 and four sphingomyelins [SMs]: SM C26:0, SM [OH] C22:1, SM [OH] C22:2, SM [OH] C24:1) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of cerebral SVD and neurodegeneration in older adults. Methods: This study included 238 older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study at the fifth exam. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the association of each metabolite (log-transformed) in separate models with MRI measures except lacunar infarcts, for which binary logistic regression was used. Results: Higher concentrations of plasma PC aa C36:5 had adverse associations with MRI features of cerebral SVD (odds ratio of 1.69 [95% confidence interval: 1.01, 2.83] with lacunar infarct, and beta of 0.16 log [cm³] [0.02, 0.30] with log [White Matter Hyperintensities (WMH) volume]) while higher concentrations of 3 plasma SM (OH)s were associated with higher total brain volume (beta of 12.0 cm³ [5.5, 18.6], 11.8 cm³ [5.0, 18.6], and 7.3 cm³ [1.2, 13.5] for SM [OH] C22:1, SM [OH] C22:2, and SM [OH] C24:1, respectively). Conclusions: This study identified associations between certain plasma metabolites and brain MRI measures of SVD and neurodegeneration in older adults, particularly higher SM (OH) concentrations with higher total brain volume.

The aim of this study is to provide the scientists with a straightforward correlation that can be applied for predicting the Fanning friction factor and consequently the pressure drop during blood flow in small caliber vessels. Due to the small diameter of the conduit, the Reynolds numbers are low and thus the flow is laminar. The study has been conducted using CFD simulations validated with relevant experimental data acquired using an appropriate experimental set-up. The experiments concern pressure drop measurement during the flow of a blood analogue that follows the Casson model, i.e. an aqueous glycerol solution that contains a small amount of xanthan gum and exhibits similar behavior to blood, in a smooth, stainless steel microtube (L=5.6cm and D=400 μm). The interpretation of the resulting numerical data led to the proposal of a simplified model that incorporates the effect of the flow rate, the hematocrit value (35-55%) and the vessel diameter (300-1800 μm) and predicts with better than ±10% the Fanning friction factor and consequently the pressure drop during laminar blood flow in small caliber vessels.

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are the leading cause of skin cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Effective strategies are needed to control NMSC occurrence and progression. Non-toxic, plant-derived extracts have been shown to exert multiple anti-cancer effects. Graviola (Annona muricata), a tropical fruit-bearing plant, has been used in traditional medicine against multiple human diseases including cancer. The current study investigated the effects of graviola leaf and stem extract (GLSE) and its solvent-extracted fractions on two human NMSC cell lines, UW-BCC1 and A431. GLSE was found to: i) dose-dependently suppress UW-BCC1 and A431 cell growth, motility, wound closure, and clonogenicity; ii) induce G₀/G₁ cell cycle arrest by downregulating cyclin/cdk factors while upregulating cdk inhibitors, and (iv) induce apoptosis as evidenced by cleavage of caspases-3, -8 and PARP. Further, GLSE suppressed levels of activated hedgehog (Hh) pathway components Smo, Gli 1/2, and Shh while inducing SuFu. GLSE also decreased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax while decreasing the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. We determined that these activities were concentrated in an acetogenin/alkaloid-rich dichloromethane subfraction of GLSE. Our data identify graviola extracts and their constituents as promising sources for new chemopreventive and therapeutic agent(s) to be further developed for the control of NMSCs

A multimodal detection system with complementary capabilities for efficient detection was developed for impurity detection. The system consisted of a visible light camera, a multispectral camera, image correction and registration algorithms. It can obtain spectral feature and color feature at the same time, and has higher spatial resolution than a single spectral camera. This system was applied to detect impurities in Pu ’er tea to verify its high efficiency. The spectral and color features of each pixel in the images of Pu ’er tea were obtained by this system and used for pixel classification. The experimental results show that the accuracy of Support Vector Machine (SVM) model based on combined features is 93%, which is 7% higher than that based on only spectral features. By applying median filtering algorithm and contour detection algorithm to the label matrix extracted from pixel-classified images, 8 impurities except hair were detected successfully. Moreover, taking advantage of the high resolution of visible light camera, small impurities can be clearly imaged. By comparing the segmented color image with the pixel-classified image, small impurities such as hair could be detected successfully. Finally, it is proved that the system can obtain multiple images to allow a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of the detected items, and has excellent ability to detect small impurities.

In this paper, four probability functions are compared with the purpose of establishing a methodology to improve the accuracy of the estimated wind energy in a desert city in northwestern Mexico. For the statistical modeling, 3 time series of wind speed data were used, corresponding to the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, recorded with a sonic anemometer at a sampling frequency of 10 Hz. From these, the analysis is performed with different stationarity periods (5, 30, 60, and 600 seconds). The estimation of the parameters characterizing the probability density functions was performed using different methods; the statistical models were evaluated by the coefficient of determination and the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient, while their accuracy by the measured quadratic error, the mean square error, the mean absolute error, and the mean absolute percentage error. It was found that Weibull with the energy pattern factor method and Gamma using the method of moments were the probability density functions that best describe the statistical behavior of the wind speed and, therefore, better estimate the energy generated, so it is concluded that the proposed methodology will allow having greater confidence, both in the estimation of the wind speed and in the small wind energy available for its use.

A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the prevalence of chlamydiosis in small ruminants. The study included 133 publications that reported the presence of Chlamydia abortus in 109 and 74 studies in sheep and goats from 45 countries. The prevalence of chlamydiosis was estimated at global, regional, and national levels using meta-analyses of proportions. Meta-regression and cumulative meta-analyses were also performed. Globally, the prevalence of chlamydiosis in sheep and goats was estimated at 20.1% (95% CI: 17.8-22.4) and 14.4% (11.6-17.4), respectively. For sheep, chlamydiosis prevalence was heterogeneous at regional and national levels. South Asia had the highest prevalence (30.6%) and East Asia and Pacific the lowest (14.0%). Nationally, chlamydiosis was more prevalent in Romania, Hungary, and Germany (range 53.3-87.0%) compared to Costa Rica, Australia, and Zimbabwe (4.7-5.2%). Among goats, chlamydiosis prevalence was similar across regions (10.4-19.7%), but varied significantly among countries, 0.0% in Romania and Australia and 91.7% in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In both species, sample size, number of diagnostic techniques, and latitude were significant covariates. Prevalence varied widely in the first decades of publications before stabilizing. Our study found a high prevalence of chlamydiosis in small ruminants, with the pathogen being distributed globally but heterogeneously across countries.

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), strongly sustained by the European Community as a viable way to fasten low carbon transition, slowly develop in Italy for regulatory . This study delves into the framework of RECs and explores the perspective of the specifically small and medium industries in the Lombardy region of Italy through a survey. Our findings reveal that while SMEs exhibit interest in RECs, there is a notable gap in knowledge and engagement. We argue that the active involvement of Public Administration Bodies (PABs) is crucial in disseminating information about RECs and highlighting their benefits. The survey results, elaborated through a non-parametric test (Mann-Whitney U test) indicate that PABs play a pivotal role in influencing SMEs' perceptions and willingness to participate in RECs. The data suggest that more direct and effective communication strategies by PABs could significantly enhance SMEs' understanding and involvement in RECs. This research underscores the need for targeted and strategic efforts by PABs to foster a more informed and proactive approach among SMEs towards renewable energy initiatives. Such endeavors could be instrumental in accelerating the adoption of RECs, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient energy future.

We study electrohydrodynamic (EHD) linear (in)stability of microfluidic channel flows, i.e. the stability of interface between two-shearing viscous (perfect) dielectrics exposed to an electric field in large aspect ratio microchannels. We then apply our results to particular microfluidic systems known as electroosmotic (EO) pumps. Our results are detailed analytical expressions for the growth rate of two-dimensional EHD modes in Couette-Poiseuille flows in the limit of small Reynolds number ($R$); the expansions to both zeroth- and first-order-$R$ are considered. The growth rates are complicated functions of viscosity-, height-, density- and dielectric-constant ratio, as well as of wavenumbers and voltages, and to our knowledge have not been presented before in literature. To make the results more useful, e.g., for voltage-control EO pump operations, we also derive equations for the impending voltages of the neutral stability curves that divide stable from unstable regions in voltage-wavenumber stability diagrams. The voltage equations and the stability diagrams are given for all wavenumbers. We finally outline the flow regimes in which our first-order-$R$ voltage corrections could potentially be experimentally measured. Our work gives the insight into the coupling mechanism between electric field and shear flow in parallel-planes channel flows, correcting an erroneous attempt from literature. Our general analysis enables us also to refine the renowned instability mechanism due to viscosity stratification, i.e., the case of pure shear instability, when the first-order-$R$ voltage correction equals zero.

Wool quality and yield are important economic traits of livestock. In this study, the skin tissues of the upper scapula of Super Merino sheep (SM) and Small-Tailed Han sheep (STH) during the growing period were studied. Differentially expressed (DE) long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNA) were identified via histopathological observation and high-throughput RNA sequencing. Gene ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were used to analyze differentially expressed genes. Reverse transcription quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to verify nine selected DE lncRNAs and five DE mRNAs. Significant differences were found in the expression levels of LOC114113396 (KRTAP15-1), CRABP1, KRT10, KRTAP1-3, KRTAP4.3, KRT2, FGF1, IGF-1, and KIT in SM and STH skin tissues. These results indicate that these mRNAs may play an important role in the growth and development of hair follicles and the regulation of hair fiber traits. Differentially expressed lncRNA target genes and mRNAs were mainly enriched in biological processes and pathways related to skin development and fiber traits, which is consistent with previous studies. LncRNA MSTRG.9225.1, MSTRG.124320.1, MSTRG.96951.1, MSTRG.91685.1, MSTRG.122229.1, MSTRG.89255.1, MSTRG.98769.1, and MSTRG.84658.1 may indirectly participate in the growth and development of sheep hair follicles and the regulation of hair fiber diameter by regulating the expression of their respective target genes. These candidate lncRNAs and mRNAs may provide a basis for the study of sheep hair follicle growth and development and hair fiber traits.

Detecting rotational objects in remote sensing imagery is a significant challenge. These images typically encompass a broad field of view, featuring diverse and intricate backgrounds, with ground objects of various sizes densely scattered. As a result, identifying objects of interest within these images is a daunting task. While the integration of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Transformer networks leads to some advancements in rotational object detection, there is still room for improvement, particularly in enhancing the extraction and utilization of information related to smaller objects. To address this, our paper presents a multi-scale feature fusion module and a global feature context aggregation module. Initially, we fuse original, shallow, and deep features to reduce the loss of shallow feature information, thereby improving the detection performance of small objects in complex backgrounds. Subsequently, we compute the correlation of contextual information within feature maps to extract valuable insights. We name the newly proposed model the "Multiscale Feature Context Aggregation Module" (MFCA). We evaluate our proposed methodology on three challenging remote sensing datasets: DIOR-R, HRSC, and MAR20. Comprehensive experimental results show that our approach surpasses baseline models by 2.07\% mAP, 1.02\% mAP, and 1.98\% mAP on the DIOR-R, HRSC2016, and MAR20 datasets, respectively.

Mercury emissions from small-scale coal-fired boilers are still a serious environmental problem in Poland and the Czech Republic. The publication presents the results of mercury emission tests conducted using five different small-scale coal-fired boilers and five different coal fuels. The research was carried out under laboratory conditions, but also using residential users' heating devices. They covered a wide range of operational parameters, both energy and emission. It was shown that more than 94% of the mercury contained in coal fuel undergoing combustion is emitted into the atmosphere with the volatile products of combustion (including dust), and the amount of emissions is strongly dependent on the original mercury content of the fuel. One solution to the problem of mercury emissions from small-scale coal-fired boilers may be to replace traditional coal with low-emission carbon fuels. The paper shows that mercury emissions from burning such fuels are many times lower than from burning coal. The widespread use of low-emission carbon fuels in individual heating systems in Poland and the Czech Republic would reduce mercury emissions to the atmosphere by up to 90% compared to the current level of emissions generated by individual heating systems in these countries.

The images captured by UAVs during inspection often contain numerous small targets related to transmission lines, which are critical and vulnerable elements for ensuring the safe operation of these lines. However, due to various factors such as the small size of the targets, low resolution, complex background, and potential line aggregation, achieving accurate and real-time detection becomes challenging. To address these issues, this paper proposes a detection algorithm called P2-ECA-EIOU-YOLOv5 (P2E-YOLOv5). Firstly, in order to address the challenges posed by the complex background and environmental interference that impact small targets, an ECA attention module is integrated into the network. This module effectively enhances the network's focus on small targets while concurrently mitigating the influence of environmental interference. Secondly, considering the characteristics of small target size and low resolution, a new high-resolution detection head is introduced, which is more sensitive to small targets. Lastly, the network utilizes the EIOU-Loss as the regression Loss function to improve the positioning accuracy of small targets, as they tend to aggregate. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed P2E-YOLOv5 detection algorithm achieves an accuracy P of 96.0% and an average accuracy (mAP) of 97.0% for small target detection in transmission lines.

Infrared detection plays an important role in the military, aerospace, and other fields, which has the advantages of all-weather, high stealth, and strong anti-interference. However, infrared dim small target detection suffers from complex backgrounds, low signal-to-noise ratio, blurred targets with small area percentages, and other challenges. In this paper, we proposed a multiscale YOLOv5-AFAM algorithm to realize high-accuracy and real-time detection. Aiming at the problem of target intra-class feature difference and inter-class feature similarity, the Adaptive Fusion Attention Module - AFAM was proposed to generate feature maps that are calculated to weigh the features in the network and make the network focus on small targets. This paper proposed a multiscale fusion structure to solve the problem of small and variable detection scales in infrared vehicle targets. In addition, the downsampling layer is improved by combining Maxpool and convolutional downsampling to reduce the number of model parameters and retain the texture information. For multiple scenarios, we constructed an infrared dim and small vehicle target detection dataset, ISVD. The multiscale YOLOv5-AFAM was conducted on the ISVD dataset, compared to YOLOv7, mAP@0.5 achieves a small improvement while the parameters are only 17.98% of it. By contrast with the YOLOv5s model, mAP@0.5 was improved by 4.3% with a 6.6% reduction in the parameters. Experiments results demonstrate that the multiscale YOLOv5-AFAM has a higher detection accuracy and detection speed on infrared dim and small vehicles.

We describe the behavior of mixtures of stearic acid (SA) and its hydroxylated counterpart 12-hydroxystearic acid (12-HSA) in aqueous mixtures at room temperature, as function of the 12-HSA/(fatty acid) mole ratio R. The morphologies of the self-assembled aggregates are obtained by a multi-structural approach that combines confocal and cryo-TEM microscopies with Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) and Wide-Angle X-Rays Scattering (WAXS) measurements, coupled with rheology measurements. Fatty acids are solubilized by an excess of ethanolamine counterions, so that their heads are negatively charged. The behavior is driven by the competition between mixing entropy and enthalpic effects. A clear trend towards partitioning between the two types of fatty acids is observed, presumably driven by the favorable formation of a H-bond network between hydroxyl OH function on the 12th carbon. For all R, the self-assembled structures are locally lamellar, with bilayers composed of crystallized and strongly interdigitated fatty acids. At high R, multi-lamellar tubes are formed, similarly as for pure aqueous solutions of 12-HSA. The doping by a low amount of SA molecules only slightly modify the dimensions of the tubes (radius and length), and slightly decreases the bilayers rigidity. The solutions have a gel-like behavior originating from entanglements between tubes and show a yield stress. At intermediate R, a partial local partitioning occurs between the two types of fatty acids. The tubes coexist in solution with helical ribbons. The two structures possibly merge to form very long snaky objects with straight and curved parts. The rigidity of the bilayers and the rheological behavior of the solutions are very similar to those of the high R case. At low R, local partitioning also occurs, and the architecture of the self-assemblies associates the two morphologies of the pure fatty acids systems, respectively 2-D planar bilayers for SA and the tubes describe above for the 12-HSA molecules: they are facetted objects with planar domains enriched in SA molecules, capped with curved domains enriched in 12-HSA molecules. The rigidity of the bilayers is strongly increased, as well their storage modulus, compared to systems with larger R. The solutions remain however viscous fluids in this regime of low R.

Small hydro-power systems seem to be the best solution for energy generation through the use of pump as turbine (PAT) due to its low cost and lesser environmental hazards associated with it. Recently, PAT applications are gaining global attention in energy generation but its operation is not fully understood. The performance and flow behavior is affected by several operational conditions. This study seeks to investigate the effects of rotational speed on flow behavior and performance of a PAT. Rotational speed is an important physical parameter that affects the operation of a PAT. A selected centrifugal pump model of four blades and splitters was used for the study. Numerical simulations were carried out using k-ε turbulence model to solve the three-dimensional (3D) equations in both pump and PAT modes. The outcomes were then validated using experimental results in the pump mode to obtain overview flow physiognomies. The results predicted that the efficiency increases as the rotational speed increases in the pump mode whereas in turbine mode, higher rotational speed cannot convert hydraulic energy into mechanical energy. Thus, a rotational speed of 1500 rpm performed the highest efficiency of 69.8% at QBEP among the other rotational speeds selected. Moreover, the head performance in the turbine mode increases as the flow rate increases. This research provides useful information which will help improve PAT performance as well as selecting PAT for small hydro-power site.

Small rodents and insectivores are potential reservoirs of many pathogens transmissible to humans such as bacteria, parasites and viruses responsible for epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in West Africa. Few studies on small mammal species in the Kolikoro and Sikasso regions are available, hence the interest in investigating the different species of small rodents and insectivores, and their role in the transmission of pathogens to humans. The study aims to identify commensal small mammal species circulating in Faladjè and Bougouni areas, and likely to represent major risks of epidemic disease emergence. Sessions of trapping were carried out in December 2016 in Faladjè and Bougouni with wire mesh traps type “Besançon tous services” (BTS) baited with peanut butter and/or onion. All animals captured were identified morphologically. Out of 123 small rodents and insectivores captured in 674 trap nights, 75 (60.97%) were from Faladjè and 48 (39.02%) from Bougouni, Of these, six species of small rodents belong to the family Muridae (Mastomys erythroleucus, Mastomys natalensis, Rattus rattus, Praomys daltoni, Gerbilliscus gambianus, Taterillus gracilis) and two species of insectivores associated with the genus Crocidura spp. belong to the family Soricidae and Erinaceidae (Crocidura cf olivieri and Atelerix cf albiventris) respectively. There is low specific diversity within these two stands, but the variation in relative abundance is significant (binomial test, p = 0.018 ˂ 0.05) between the Faladjè and Bougouni stands of small mammals. Mastomys erythroleucus was the most dominant species (57.33%, 43/75) in the Faladjè settlement and R. rattus dominated (37.5%,18/48) that of Bougouni. These two species of small mammals are potentially involved in the transmission of bacteria, parasites and pathogenic viruses to humans.

The ever-growing repertoire of genomic techniques continues to expand our understanding of true diversity and richness of prokaryotic genomes. Riboproteogenomics laid the foundation for dynamic studies of previously overlooked genomic elements. Most strikingly, bacterial genomes were revealed to harbour robust repertoires of small open reading frames (sORFs) encoding a diverse and broadly expressed range of small proteins, or sORF-encoded polypeptides (SEPs). In recent years, continuous efforts led to great improvements in annotation and characterization of such proteins, yet many challenges remain to fully understand the pervasive nature of small proteins and their impact on bacterial biology. In this work we review recent developments in the dynamic field of bacterial genome reannotation, catalogue important biological roles carried out by small proteins and identify challenges obstructing the way to full understanding of these elusive proteins.

Resolving small molecule mixtures by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been of great interest for a long time for its precision, reproducibility and efficiency. However, spectral analyses for such mixtures are often highly challenging due to overlapping resonance lines and limited chemical shift windows. The existing experimental and theoretical methods to produce shift NMR spectra in dealing with the problem have limited applicability owing to sensitivity issues, inconsistency and / or requirement of prior knowledge. Recently, we have resolved the problem by decoupling multiplet structures in NMR spectra by the wavelet packet transform (WPT) technique. In this work, we developed a scheme for deploying the method in generating highly resolved WPT NMR spectra and predicting the composition of the corresponding molecular mixtures from their 1H NMR spectra in an automated fashion. The four-step spectral analysis scheme consists of calculating WPT spectrum, peak matching with a WPT shift NMR library, followed by two optimization steps in producing the predicted molecular composition of a mixture. The robustness of the method was tested on an augmented dataset of 1000 molecular mixtures, each containing 3 to 7 molecules. The method successfully predicted the constituent molecules with a median true positive rate of 1.0 against the varying compositions, while a median false positive rate of 0.04 was obtained. The approach can be scaled easily for much larger datasets.

Mechanical recycling of solid plastic wastes on a small-scale level can be accomplished with the correct approaches. Thermoplastics are mostly considered for mechanical recycling because of their physical properties and ease of reprocessing. This paper reviews the mechanical reprocessing techniques of selected thermoplastics (polyethylene terephthalate and polyolefins) since they constitute a significant proportion of plastics used commercially. Furthermore, necessary considerations for effective operation of small-scale plants, including energy requirements of machinery and optimisation in order to improve efficiency and product quality, are discussed. A clearer understanding and addressing of the process-related challenges will lead to successful establishment and management of small-scale mechanical recycling facilities to benefit communities. Efficient small-scale mechanical reprocessing establishments have become essential in reducing the environmental impacts of solid plastic wastes and for energy conservation.

We describe the design and fabrication of an industrial injection moulding system which can be mounted and used on the NCD-SWEET Small-angle X-Ray Scattering Beamline at ALBA. We show how highly useful time-resolved data can be obtained using this system. We are able to evaluate the fraction of material in the mould cavity and identify the first material to solidify and how this varies with the injection tem-perature. The design follows current industrial practice and provides opportunities to collect time-resolved data at several points within the mould cavity so we can build up a 4D perspective of the morphology and its temporal development. The quantitative data obtained will prove invaluable for the optimisation of the next generation of in-jection moulding techniques. This preliminary work used results from the injection moulding of a general purpose isotactic polypropylene.

In northern Thailand, the problem of small particulate matter happens every year, with the pri-mary source being agricultural weed burning and wildfire. The tourism industry is strongly impacted and has been the spotlight for the past few years. Thus, the study aims to investigate the effect of small particulate matter on tourism and related SMEs in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The data was collected from 286 entrepreneurs in the tourism and related SMEs sectors. The data was analyzed using data mining and association rule techniques. The study revealed that small particulate matter has a considerable impact on customer factors, especially the number of customers has decreased. Operational factors and prod-uct/service factors are also affected by the dust in the form of adjustments to keep the business running and the protection of the health of employees and customers. Certainly, financial factors are affected by the small particulate matter situation, both lower revenues and higher costs.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs, which function as regulators of gene expression and contribute in numerous physiological processes. However, little is known referring to miRNAs function in insect chemosensation. In the current study, nine small RNA libraries were constructed and sequenced from the antennae of nymphs, adult males and females of Apolygus lucorum. In total, 399 miRNAs were identified including 275 known and 124 novel miRNAs. Known miRNAs were classified into 71 families, amongst which, 23 families were insect-specific. Expression profile analysis showed that miR-7-5p_1 was the most abundant miRNAs in the antennae of A. lucorum. Altogether, 69708 target genes related to biogenesis, membrane and binding activities were predicted for 399 miRNAs. Particularly, 15 miRNAs were found to target 16 olfactory genes. These miRNAs could be involved in regulation of olfactory-associated genes ex-pression. Comparing the antennae of nymphs, adult males and females, 94 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed. The expression levels of some differentially expressed miRNAs measured by qPCR were consistent with sequencing results. This study provides a global miRNAs transcriptome in the antennae of A. lucorum and valuable information for further investigation on miRNA-mRNA interactions, especially the functions of miRNAs in regulating chemosensation.

HIV-1 Tat protein interacts with TAR RNA and recruits CDK9/cyclin T1 and other host factors to induce HIV-1 transcription. Thus Tat-TAR RNA interaction, which is unique for HIV-1, represents an attractive target for anti-HIV-1 therapeutics. To target Tat-TAR RNA interaction, we used a crystal structure of TAR RNA with acetylpromazine bound to the bulge of TAR RNA, to dock compounds from Enamine database containing 1.6 million individual compounds. Docking identified 173 compounds that were analyzed for the inhibition of HIV-1 infection. Top ten inhibitory compounds with IC50 ≤ 6 µM were selected and the three least toxic compounds, T6780107 (IC50=2.97 μM), T0516-4834 (IC50=0.2 μM) and T5628834 (IC50=3.46 μM), were further tested for HIV-1 transcription inhibition. Only T0516-4834 compound showed selective inhibition of Tat-induced HIV-1 transcription, whereas T6780107 compound inhibited equally basal and Tat-induced transcription and T5628834 compound only inhibited basal HIV-1 transcription. The T0516-4834 compound also showed strongest inhibition of HIV-1 gag RNA expression and p24 production in CEM T cells infected with HIV-1 IIIB. Of the three compounds, only the T0516-4834 compound disrupted Tat-TAR RNA interaction indicating that it might target TAR RNA. Also, of the three tested compounds, T5628834 but not T6780107 or T0516-4834 disrupted Tat-CDK9/cyclin T1 interaction. Taken together, our study identified novel compound T0516-4834 that disrupted Tat-TAR RNA interaction and inhibited Tat-induced transcription and HIV-1 infection suggesting that this compound might serve as a new lead for anti-HIV-1 therapeutics.

Higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS) has a poor prognosis in the absence of efficient therapy. The evaluation of new therapies in animal models of HR-MDS is hampered by the absence of accurate in vivo biomarkers of the disease. In this study we compared [18F]Fluoro-desoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (FDG-PET) and [18F]Fluoro-thymidine (FLT)-PET imaging for disease follow-up in a triple transgenic MMTVtTA/TetoBCL-2/MRP8NRASD12 mouse model of HR-MDS. Normal control FVB/N mice (G1,n=9) and HR-MDS mice (G2,n=12) underwent both FDG- and FLT-PET procedures at 2-day intervals, on a dedicated small animal device. Blood cell counting, BCL-2 and Mac-1hi/Gr-1lo expression measurements in blood were performed before each PET procedure. Visually, PET images of G2 mice demonstrated homogeneous FDG uptake in the whole skeleton similar to that observed in G1 mice, and abnormal FLT hot spots in bone marrow not observed in G1 mice. The intensity of FLT hot spots in bone marrow was higher in 3-months old G2 mice than in 2-months old G2 mice, concordant with a higher percentage of cells expressing Mac-1hi/Gr-1lo and lower platelets counts. We conclude that FLT-PET/CT imaging is a more valuable surrogate non-invasive quantitative marker of HR-MDS bone marrow involvement than FDG-PET/CT in our mouse model of HR-MDS.

In an insightful article published in Nature human behavior on November 2020, the effectiveness of 46 “non-pharmaceutical interventions” (NPI) regarding Covid-19 pandemic have been compared¹. One of these 46 categories, the one which is ranked as the most effective measure, is named “small gatherings cancelation”. In the discussion section of that article, the authors introduce a list of what they probably assume to be representative examples of this category, namely, “closures of shops”, “closure of restaurants,” “mandatory home–working”, “gathering of 50 people or less” and so on. The name that the authors have given to this category could give rise to confusions and misunderstandings. We used corpus analysis to show that “small gathering” is commonly used to denote a planned or spontaneous “event”, and consequently does not convey what the authors intend this term to cover as its most representative instances i.e., Simultaneous presence of people (crowd) in shops or offices. Furthermore, taking a top-down approach, we focused on the information which was provided in reference material like CDC and WHO documents. The analysis showed that “small gatherings” is encoded in those sources to denote “events” and “small gatherings cancelation” is used to denote cancelling preplanned events. In conclusion, neither unspecialized language nor official/institutional discourse uses “small gathering” the way that the authors of the aforementioned article use it i.e., to refer to simultaneous presence of people (crowd) in shops or offices. Therefore, when language users come across this phrase, if they do not read the entire article, the only semantic frame that is evoked in their mind would be that of a festive or social “event” rather than of crowded shops or offices; this misunderstanding is cognitively justified and consequently changing this terminology is recommended.

In the last years, more and more studies highlight the advantages of complementing traditional master classes with additional activities that improve students´ learning experience. This combination of teaching techniques is specially advised in the field of structural engineering, where intuition of the structural response it is of vital importance to understand the studied concepts. This paper deals with the introduction of a new (and more encouraging) educational tool to introduce intuitively students in the dynamic response of structures excited with an educational shaking table. Most of the educational structural health monitoring systems use sensors to determine the dynamic response of the structure. The proposed tool is based on a radically different approach, as it is based on low-cost image-recognition techniques. In fact, it only requires the use an amateur camera, a black background and a computer. In this study, the effects of both the camera location and the image quality are also evaluated. Finally, to validate the applicability of the proposed methodology, the dynamic response of small-scale buildings with different typologies is analyzed. In addition, a series of surveys were conducted in order to evaluate the activity based on student´s satisfaction and the actual acquisition and strengthening of knowledge.

Small Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their special nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly in respect of their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a perceived need for research into the limitations of adaptation on SIDS, focusing on the many restrictions which are unique to them. The main research question raised by this study was that how and to what extent the challenges by human activities (e.g., agriculture and tourism) posed to coastlines of SIDS could be addressed. This paper identified and described the adaptation limits they have, by using a review of the literature and an analysis of case studies from a sample of five SIDS in the Caribbean and Pacific regions (Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Tonga). The findings of this research showed that an adaptable SIDS is characterised by awareness of various values, appreciation and understanding of a diversity of impacts and vulnerabilities, and acceptance of certain losses through change. The implications of this paper are two-fold. It explains why island nations continue to suffer from the impacts of CC, and suggest some of the means via which adequate policies may support SIDS in their efforts to cope with the threats associated with a changing climate. This study concluded that, despite the technological and ecological limits (hard limits) affecting natural systems, adaptation to CC is not only limited by such complex forces, but also by societal factors (soft limits) that could potentially be overcome by more adequate adaptation strategies.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a leading cause of severe diseases in immunocompromised individuals, including AIDS and transplanted patients, and in congenitally infected newborns. The utility of available drugs is limited by poor bioavailability, toxicity, and emergence of resistant strains. Therefore, it is crucial to identify new targets of therapeutic intervention. Among the latter, viral protein-protein interactions are becoming increasingly attractive. Since dimerization of HCMV DNA polymerase processivity factor ppUL44 plays an essential role in the viral life cycle being required for oriLyt-dependent DNA replication, we performed an in silico screening and selected 18 small molecules (SMs) potentially interfering with ppUL44 homodimerization. Antiviral assays using recombinant HCMV TB40-UL83-YFP in the presence of the selected SMs led to the identification of four active compounds. The most active one, B3, also efficiently inhibited AD169 in plaque reduction assays and impaired replication of an AD169-GFP reporter virus and its ganciclovir-resistant counterpart to a similar extent. As assessed by Western blotting experiments, treatment of infected cells with B3 specifically reduced viral gene expression starting from 48 h post infection, consistent with activity on viral DNA synthesis. Therefore, inhibition of ppUL44 dimerization could represent a new class of HCMV inhibitors, complementary to those targeting the DNA polymerase catalytic subunit or the viral terminase complex.

Drug design is used for different applications of bioinformatics tools analyze DNA, genome, and sequence target region of a small organic molecule in order to understand the molecules of disease. Bioinformatics tools are identified a newly wide research field and minimize future risks through web servers and data mining. Clinical sample test performed with the bioinformatics tools as the biomedical detective. A particular structure and configuration of protein obliging in Drug design concluded Bioinformatics. This review bioinformatics tools and webserver will discuss functions of small organic molecules according to clinical pharmacology.

After globalization, South Korea’s retail landscape has been saturated with large-scale, corporate type retails. However, recently new commercial districts composed of small retail units are returning and bringing about a change. This study sought to take note of this phenomenon and identify its features and meanings from the perspective of urban ecology. A density-distribution analysis was conducted to investigate how they were forms, and an analysis of traces on the Internet and an analysis on the types of businesses were done to identify sociocultural characteristics. Results showed that they had similar type of locations and growth patterns, that they harmoniously congregated in a form of smaller-individual stores, and that their use of similar names for their stores had an impact of branding their entire districts. It was also noted that a shared culture through social networking services served as a growth boost for their unfavorable location. The spontaneous formation of such commercial districts can be an outcome of an urban ecological process geared toward blank niches burgeoning in the current retail structure of Korea. The causes and conditions found in the cases reveal meaningful policy implications for cities facing the same urban crisis diversity.

Since the 1970s, land subsidence has been developing rapidly in the Beijing Plain, the systematic study of its evolution mechanism is of great significance to the sustainable development of the regional economy. First, based on ENVISAT ASAT and RADARSAT2 data, the land subsidence data in Beijing Plain were obtained using permanent interferometer technology. Second, based on the GIS platform and using fishing net tools, vector data of ground settlement with different resolutions were obtained. Through a series of tests, a scale of 960 metres was selected as the research unit, and the subsidence rate of the grid was obtained from 2004 to 2015. Finally, based on the Mann-Kendall mutation test method, a trend analysis of land subsidence changes in various grids was carried out. The results showed that single-year mutation mainly distributed in the middle and lower parts of the Yongding River alluvial fan and the Chaobai River alluvial fan, mainly occurring in 2015, 2005 and 2013, respectively. The upper and middle alluvial fan of the Chaobai River, the vicinity of the emergency water source and the edge velocity of the groundwater funnel have undergone several sudden changes. Combined with hydrogeology, basic geological conditions and the impact of the South-to-North Water transfer project, we analysed the causes of the mutations in the grid. The research results can provide a basis for the study and prevention of land subsidence in this area and help to further explore the trend characteristics of land subsidence in this area.

Filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus spp. are opportunistic pathogens, which cause highly invasive infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Control of such fungal pathogens is increasingly problematic due to the small number of effective drugs available for treatment. Moreover, the increased incidence of fungal resistance to antifungal agents makes this problem a global human health issue. The cell wall integrity system of fungi is the target of antimycotic drugs echinocandins, such as caspofungin (CAS). However, echinocandins cannot completely inhibit the growth of filamentous fungal pathogens, which results in survival/escape of fungi during treatment. Chemosensitization was developed as an alternative intervention strategy, where co-application of CAS with the intervention catalyst octyl gallate (OG; chemosensitizer) greatly enhanced CAS efficacy, thus achieved ≥ 99.9% elimination of filamentous fungi in vitro. Based on hypersensitive responses of Aspergillus antioxidant mutants to OG, it is hypothesized that, besides destabilizing cell wall integrity, the redox-active characteristic of OG may further debilitate fungal antioxidant system.

In this paper, the spatial distribution of stony desertification characteristics and its influencing factors in Karst areas in different sampling scales are studied using a grid sampling method based on geographic information system (GIS) technology and geo-statistics, with the rock bareness rate obtained through sampling with 150m × 150m grids in the Houzhai River Basin being taken as the original data and five grid scales (300m × 300m, 450m × 450m, 600m × 600m, 750m × 750m, and 900m × 900m) as the subsample sets. The results show that the rock bareness rate does not vary much from one sampling scale to another while average values of the five sub-samples all fluctuate around the average value of the entire set. As the sampling scale is expanding, the maximum value and the average value of rock bareness rate are decreasing gradually, with a gradual increase in the coefficient of variability. In the scale of 150m × 150m, the areas of minor stony desertification, medium stony desertification, and major stony desertification in the Houzhai River Basin are 7.81 km2, 4.50 km2, and 1.87 km2, respectively. The spatial variability of stony desertification on small scales is influenced by many factors, and that on medium scales is jointly influenced by gradient, rock contents, and rock bareness rate. On large scales, the spatial variability of stony desertification is mainly influenced by soil thickness and rock bareness rate.

In small-scale hydropower scheme, the most important component is electro-mechanical equipment. Since cost contribution of this component is high because hydrokinetic projects require negligible civil works. Turbine and alternator contribute major fraction of the hydrokinetic projects. Thus, there is a requirement to estimates the electromechanical equipment cost for the hydrokinetic hydropower scheme. The present paper investigates design parameters of the hydrokinetic turbines and intends to develop cost correlation which depends on most critical parameters of hydropower sites such as velocity and power capacity. In this present work, three zero head turbines are considered including straight blade Darrieus, two Stage Savonius, and Gorlov Helical. The size and cost of major components have been calculated based on material, manufacturing, research and design, and assembly costs. Based on cost and site parameters, cost correlation has been developed. The obtained cost has been validated with available zero head turbines in the market and installed projects. A techno-economic analysis has been carried out to select economical hydrokinetic turbine for river and canal application.

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.

One of the major concerns in structural health management (SHM) is the early detection of a growing crack. Using this, future damage due to crack propagation can be mitigated or eliminated by implementing proper repair and maintenance. Acoustic Emission (AE) is a non-destructive testing (NDT) method with potential applications for locating and monitoring fatigue cracks. The research presented in this paper focuses on SHM using AE. A novel AE signal analysis approach was proposed in order to detect crack initiation and assess small crack lengths. Experimental investigation indicated that initiation of a crack could be identified through the statistical analysis of the resulting features of the AE signals. A probabilistic AE-based model for small fatigue crack sizing was developed and the uncertainties of the model were estimated. In addition, a probabilistic model validation approach was implemented to confirm accurate estimation of the results. The outcome of this research can be used to evaluate the integrity of structures under fatigue loading. The proposed approach can also be applied as an approach to manage health and assess prognosis of structures.

For the treatment of cancer and other diseases, therapeutic targeting of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is an attractive approach. RNA-based therapeutics have been extensively researched over the past decade, with antisense oligonucleotides and small interfering RNAs being the most commonly used. Some of these have even gained FDA approval. However, the results of trials have been mixed, with some studies reporting strong effects while others have shown limited effectiveness or toxicity. Alternative treatments, such as antimiRNAs, are currently in clinical trials. There is growing interest in the use of lncRNA-based therapies. This Perspective discusses the main challenges of ncRNA therapeutics, including specificity, delivery and tolerability. It also highlights emerging approaches that aim to improve their success.

Non-compliant (NC) structures are often encountered in building construction in developing countries. This is a condition whereby erected buildings do not follow regulatory standards, especially in the provision of reinforcements. Therefore, under an earthquake load, the structures do not have sufficient resistance against such load. The structural elements of the building, which often have NC conditions, are the beam-column joints because they do not contain adequate shear reinforcements due to installation difficulty. This study aims to determine the structural performance of the reinforced concrete (RC) frame, which has a reinforcement deficiency in the beam-column joints. Numerical simulation was conducted on the Kakaletsis structure model by modifying the reinforcement details at the joints to represent the NC conditions. The non-linear modeling and analysis of the structural model were carried out using ATENA software. The analysis showed that the reduction in shear reinforcements in the NC model joint caused a decrease in load-carrying capacity by about 26.04%. A shift was also observed in the collapse pattern, i.e., from the beam to the end of the column, causing global failure and reducing the undamaged but increasing more severely damaged condition. This showed that the NC structure, due to the non-conformance of reinforcement, significantly reduced the structure's performance.

An exhaustive list of thirteen instances of reports confirming experimentally the relativistic Doppler relation, are examined. For those involving longitudinal Doppler, the non-relativistic relation is seen to be confirmed, within the reported experimental accuracies, to the same degree as the standard relativistic relation. Higher values of the speed of the emitter would be required to examine further the claimed confirmations. For those reports involving saturation spectroscopy, there is much confusion over the appropriate Doppler relation to be used, together with some serious analytical flaws. For the two cases that involve transverse Doppler, there are seen to be either serious faults in the theoretical part, or intrusion from the first order effect. Therefore, the reported conclusions - that the results for the experiments confirm the relativistic SR relation - cannot be justified by any of the experimental works.

We introduce a novel key exchange protocol based on non-commutative matrix multiplication defined in $\mathbb{F}_p^{n \times n}$. The security of our method does not rely on computational problems as integer factorization or discrete logarithm whose difficulty is conjectured. We show that the public, secret and channel keys become indistinguishable to the eavesdropper under matrix multiplication. Remarkably, for achieving a 512-bit security level, the public key is 1024 bits and the private key is 768 bits, making them the smallest keys among post-quantum key exchange algorithms. Also, we discuss how to achieve key authentication, interdomain certification and Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). Therefore, Lizama's algorithm becomes a promising candidate to establish shared keys and secret communication between (IoT) devices in the quantum era.

We introduce a novel key exchange protocol based on non-commutative matrix multiplication defined in $\mathbb{Z}_p^{n \times n}$. The security of our method does not rely on computational problems as integer factorization or discrete logarithm whose difficulty is conjectured. We claim that the unique eavesdropper's opportunity to get the secret/private key is by means of an exhaustive search which is equivalent to the unsorted database search problem. Furthermore, we show that the secret/private keys become indistinguishable to the eavesdropper. Remarkably, to achieve a 512-bit security level, the keys (public/private) are of the same size when matrix multiplication is done over a reduced 8-bit size modulo. Also, we discuss how to achieve key certification and Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). Therefore, Lizama's algorithm becomes a promising candidate to establish shared keys and secret communication between (IoT) devices in the quantum era.

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) comprise a heterogeneous group of rare malignancies mainly originated from hormones secreting cells, which are widespread in human tissues. The identification of mutations in ATRX/DAXX genes in sporadic NENs, as well as the high burden of mutations scattered throughout MEN-1 gene in both sporadic and inherited syndromes, provided new insights into the molecular biology of tumour development. Other molecular mechanisms, such as the NOTCH signaling pathway, have shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of NENs. NOTCH receptors are expressed on neuroendocrine cells and generally, act as tumour suppressor proteins, but in some contexts can function as oncogenes. The biological heterogeneity of NENs suggests that to fully understand the roles and the potential therapeutic implications of gene mutations and NOTCH signaling in NENs, a comprehensive analysis of genetic alterations, NOTCH expression patterns and their potential roles across all NEN subtypes is required.

This article develops duality principles and numerical results for a large class of non-convex variational models. The main results are based on fundamental tools of convex analysis, duality theory and calculus of variations. More specifically the approach is established for a class of non-convex functionals similar as those found in some models in phase transition. Finally, in the last section we present a concerning numerical example and the respective software.

Let $\mathbb{K}$ be a non-Archimedean (complete) valued field satisfying \begin{align*} \left|\sum_{j=1}^{n}\lambda_j^2\right|=\max_{1\leq j \leq n}|\lambda_j|^2, \quad \forall \lambda_j \in \mathbb{K}, 1\leq j \leq n, \forall n \in \mathbb{N}. \end{align*} For $d\in \mathbb{N}$, let $\mathbb{K}^d$ be the standard $d$-dimensional non-Archimedean Hilbert space. Let $m \in \mathbb{N}$ and $\text{Sym}^m(\mathbb{K}^d)$ be the non-Archimedean Hilbert space of symmetric m-tensors. We prove the following result. If $\{\tau_j\}_{j=1}^n$ is a collection in $\mathbb{K}^d$ satisfying $\langle \tau_j, \tau_j\rangle =1$ for all $1\leq j \leq n$ and the operator $\text{Sym}^m(\mathbb{K}^d)\ni x \mapsto \sum_{j=1}^n\langle x, \tau_j^{\otimes m}\rangle \tau_j^{\otimes m} \in \text{Sym}^m(\mathbb{K}^d)$ is diagonalizable, then \begin{align}\label{WELCHNONABSTRACT} \max_{1\leq j,k \leq n, j \neq k}\{|n|, |\langle \tau_j, \tau_k\rangle|^{2m} \}\geq \frac{|n|^2}{\left|{d+m-1 \choose m}\right| }. \end{align} We call Inequality (\ref{WELCHNONABSTRACT}) as the non-Archimedean version of Welch bounds obtained by Welch [\textit{IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 1974}]. We formulate non-Archimedean Zauner conjecture.

Nonionizing millimeter-waves (MMW) interact with cells in a variety of ways. Here the inhibited cell division effect was investigated using 85-105 GHz MMW irradiation within the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) non-thermal 20 mW/cm2 safety standards. Irradiation using a power density of about 1.0 mW/cm2 , SAR over 5-6 hours on 50 cells/μl samples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae model organism resulted in 62% growth rate reduction compared to the control (sham). The effect was specific for 85-105 GHz range, and was energy and cell density dependent. Irradiation of wild type and Δrad52 (DNA damage repair gene) deleted cells presented no differences of colony growth profiles indicating non-thermal MMW treatment does not cause permanent genetic alterations. Dose versus response relations studied using a standard horn antenna (~1.0 mW/cm2) and compared to that of a compact waveguide (17.17 mW/cm2) for increased power delivery resulted in complete termination of cell division via non-thermal processes supported by temperature rise measurements. We have shown that non-thermal MMW radiation has potential for future use in treatment of yeast related diseases and other targeted biomedical outcomes.

Outcome of redo-mitral valve replacement in the small mitral annulus with the use of the chimney technology is not well documented. From 2019 to 2020, 77 consecutive patients underwent redo-mitral valve replacement with the use of the chimney technology because of a small mitral annulus. To evaluate heart structural integrity and clinical outcomes, postoperative clinical data and echocardiograms were examined. Mean age was 56.7 ± 15.98 years. All patients underwent mitral valve surgery of which 62 were mitral valve replacements, 7 mitral valve repairs, and 8 double valve replacements. Preoperative Mitral valve mean gradient was 18.07 ± 9.40 mmHg. Postoperative mitral prosthesis size 28.51 ± 1.22 mm. The median increment of mitral size enlargement was 4 (0, 6) valve sizes. Mean mitral gradient coming out of the operating room was 10.34 ± 2.12 mmHg and at follow-up echocardiogram performed at 3 years after the procedure was 10.36 ± 1.70 mmHg. One-year survival was 93.3%, while 4-year survival was 89.3% with no reoperation. Use of the chimney technology in small mitral valve re-mitral valve replacement results in larger valve sizes. Moreover, the mean gradients over the mitral valve are acceptable intraoperatively and over time.

Proposed study aims to investigate the digital transformation of Greek small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on their digital maturity and the strategic and organizational factors contributing to digital transformation. The research issue of digital transformation is attracting considerable interest among academics and business practicians since COVID-19 accelerated the procedure of implementing Industry’s 4.0 principles all over global economies. Quantitative research on 147 Greek SMEs revealed most important issues on how these businesses implement digital transformation, factors accelerating or decelerating the process, barriers and expected outcomes. Research enlights how SMEs face the transition to digital business and reveals the factors that can facilitate the whole process. Results can be valuable for stakeholders enabled to digital transformation process from both business and academic point of view, while there exist aspects that can contribute to policy makers / motivation developers in state’s level as well.

Targeted radionuclide therapy is become increasingly prominent as a nuclear medicine subspe-cialty. For many decades, treatment with radionuclides has been mainly restricted to the use of iodine-131 in thyroid disorders. Currently, radiopharmaceuticals, consisting of a radionuclide coupled to a vector that binds to a desired biological target with high specificity, are being de-veloped. The objective is to be as selective as possible at the tumor level, while limiting the dose received at the healthy tissue level. In recent years, a better understanding of molecular mecha-nisms of cancer, as well as the appearance of innovative targeting agents (antibodies, peptides, small molecules) and the availability of new radioisotopes, have enabled considerable advances in the field of vectorized internal radiotherapy with a better therapeutic efficacy, radiation safety and personalized treatments. For instance, targeting the tumor microenvironment, instead of the cancer cells, now appears as particularly attractive. Several radiopharmaceuticals for therapeutic targeting have shown clinical value in severals types of tumors and have been or will soon be approved and authorized for clinical use.

Small modular reactors (SMR) (<300 MW) offer a potentially attractive nuclear energy option for the middle-east region (MER). Currently, the MER uses a significant amount of fossil fuel to process heat applications such as water desalination and in petroleum refineries and chemical plants, besides generating electricity. SMR technologies represent an opportunity to meet future energy demand in the MER. This paper discusses issues related to the future development and use of SMR technology in nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems for application in the middle east. SMRs have also been examined as part of a resilient hybrid energy system that combines nuclear energy with renewable energy and traditional fossil energy to produce chemicals, fuels, and electricity. This paper presents the results of a techno-economic analysis of a Nuclear-Renewable-Conventional Hybrid Energy System. The paper concludes that SMR technology will be an essential feature of future hybrid energy systems for the MER.

Low charge density nanometric ions were recently shown to bind strongly to neutral hydrated matter in aqueous solution. This phenomenon, called (super-)chaotropic effect, arises from the partial dehydration of both, the nano-ion and the solute, leading to a high gain in enthalpy. Here, we investigate the chaotropic effect of the polyoxometalate α-PW12O403- on the triblock copolymer P84: (EO)19(PO)43(EO)19 with (EO)19 the polyethoxylated and (PO)43 the polypropoxylated chains. The combination of phase diagrams, spectroscopic (nuclear magnetic resonance) and scattering (small angle neutron/X-ray scattering) techniques reveals that (i) below the micellization temperature of P84, PW12O403- exclusively binds to the propylene oxide moiety of P84 unimers and (ii) above the micellization temperature, PW12O403- mostly adsorbs on the ethylene oxide micellar corona. The preferential binding of the PW12O403- to the PPO chain over the PEO chains suggests that the binding is driven by the chaotropic effect and reinforced by the hydrophobic effect. At higher temperatures, the copolymer micellization leads to the displacement of PW12O403- from the PPO chain to the PEO chains. This study deepens the understanding of the subtle interplay between the chaotropic and hydrophobic effects in complex salt-organic matter solutions.

Recently, there has been renewed interest in the performance, functionality, and sustainability of traditional small-scale storage interventions (check dams, farm bunds and tanks) used across India for the improvement of local water security. The Central Groundwater Board of India is en-couraging the construction of such interventions for the alleviation of water scarcity. It is of critical importance to understand the hydrological effect of these interventions at basin scales to maximise their effectiveness. The quantification of small-scale interventions in hydrological modelling is often neglected, especially in large-scale modelling exercises. A bespoke version of the GWAVA model was developed to assess the impact of interventions on the water balance of the Cauvery Basin and two smaller sub-catchments. Model results demonstrate that farm bunds appear to have a negligible effect on the estimated average annual simulated streamflow at the outlets of the two sub-catchments and the basin whereas tanks and check dams have a more significant effect. In-terventions generally were found to increase evaporation losses across the catchment. The model adaption used in this study provides a step-change in the conceptualisation and quantification of the consequences of small-scale storage interventions in large- or basin-scale hydrological models.

Water quality retrieval for small urban waterbodies by remote sensing get used to be difficult due to coarse spatial resolution of the remote sensing imagery. The recently launched Sentinel-2 produces imagery with a spatial resolution of 10 m. It provides an opportunity to solve the problem of retrieving water quality for small waterbodies. Additionally, many water management issues also require fine resolution of imagery, e.g. illegal discharge to an urban waterbody. Since illegal discharges are an important issue for urban water management, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorous (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) were chosen as the target parameters for water quality retrieval in this study. COD, TP and TN, however, are non-optically active parameters. There were limited studies in the past to retrieve these parameters in comparison with optically active parameters, e.g. Chlorophyll-A etc. This study compared three machine learning models, namely Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Neural Networks (NN), to investigate the opportunity to retrieve the above non-optically active parameters. Results showed that R² of TP, TN, and COD by NN, RF and SVR were 0.94, 0.88, and 0.86, respectively. The performances of water quality retrieval for these non-optically active parameters were significantly improved by the optimized machine learning models. These models hence solved the problem to use remote sensing data to retrieve these non-optically active water quality parameters and provided a new monitoring strategy for small waterbodies. Water quality mapping obtained by Sentinel-2 imagery provided a full spatial coverage of the water quality characterization for the entire water surface. Compared with water samples collecting and testing, it greatly reduced labor cost, reagents cost, and waste treatment cost. It also may help identify illegal discharges to urban waterbodies. The method developed in this research provides a new practical and efficient water quality monitoring strategy in managing water with consideration of environmental sustainability.

This case study assessed marketing arrangements used by small scale farmers in the Lake Basin and Lower Eastern bean corridors of Kenya to determine which markets work for rural producers and what changes are needed to produce and supply sufficient quantities for trade. Using exploratory research, data was collected through focus group discussions with six farmer groups representing a total of 1255 bean farmers and key informant interviews with extension staff. The results indicated that 94% of the farmers produced beans before identifying buyers with only 6% participating in group marketing. Though spot-market transactions with brokers and traders provided ready cash for the farmers, formal buyers were perceived to be more reliable but difficult to find and, operated stringent requirements which were a barrier to entry. A theory of change to integrate smallholders into formal markets to sustainably produce and supply sufficient volumes for trade should entail a transformation agenda at four levels of the value chain: intensification of production through pure stand models with greater use of certified high yielding varieties; stable price guarantees; a market-driven research and extension service and; an enabling political, policy and business environment in the bean value chain. Further research is needed to pilot these changes in a case control study.

Groundwater is an important resource for many countries and its scarcity is a major concern in small territories, especially in the islands where the constant extraction is creating a high risk of public calamity. This issue has been increasing because of the anthropogenic activities and the climate change and it has called the attention of scientists and stakeholders in order to assess the sustainability of the water management system, and therefore, to establish strategies for a more sustainable water use. San Andres island was taking as case study and a description of the water balance was carried out in order to understand the management system. Then, a water system sustainability assessment was performed with indicators such as water security, water quality, drinking water, sanitation, infrastructure, climate robustness, biodiversity, attractiveness, and governance, according to the City Blueprint Methodology. The result for the 24 evaluated indicators was a score of 3.2, whose interpretation is “an unsustainable water management”. The qualitative assessment was the base to propose water security, water quality, and governance strategies to improve the water management in the island. The assessment and its discussions are relevant for the water management in small islands across the world whose economy is based on the tourism and whose water security is at a high risk.

ABSTRACT This study focused for socio-economic benefit of Western shoreline of Lake Ziway ecosystem. The data collected from two woredas they are Adami Tulu Jidu Kombolch (ATJK) and Dugda woreda of fishermen and small scale irrigation users. Lake Ziway great importance food and water for both groups of respondents and additionally sources of raw material, energy, cultivation, organic fertilizers, genetic and medicinal plants. Lake Ziway also has a major economic benefit for both groups of respondents. The sampled fishermen cached mean amount of 2,524Kg per year with minimum and maximum amount of fish 504Kg and 16,800Kg per year respectively and with this fish catching they got average income of 51,398 Birr ($2,570) per year with range of 7,200 Birr ($360) and 288,000 Birr ($14,400) per year. As like of fishermen small scale irrigation also got economic benefit with their production of cereal crops, fruits and vegetables. They produce in average 13.47Quintal of cereal crop and 69.56Quintal of fruits and vegetables per year and they got average income of 7,727 Birr ($386) and with range of 13,714 Birr ($686) per year respectively. this incurred that wetland ecosystem has a lot of socio-economic benefit for the people live near by specially for developing countries like Ethiopia they are more dependent on natural ecosystem like of Lake Ziway. Because of its high importance, we have to protect and conserve and use sustainably of Lake Ziway and similar wetland ecosystems. Key Words: Wetland ecosystem service; Lake Ziway; Socioeconomic benefit; Fishermen; Small scale irrigation users

Non-isocyanate polyurethane synthesis by non-Sn catalysis is an essential challenge toward green polyurethane synthesis. Bismuth compounds are attractive candidates due to their low cost, low toxicity, and availability to urethane chemistry. We applied various Bi catalysts to the self-polycondensation of a bishydroxyurethane monomer and found BiCl3 to be an excellent catalyst through optimization. The catalytic activity and price of BiCl3 are comparable to those of Bu2SnO, while its toxicity is significantly low. BiCl3 is, therefore, a promising alternative to Sn-based catalysts in non-isocyanate polyurethane synthesis.

Wine is a processed beverage that offers high nutritional and health benefits. It is produced from grape must, which undergoes fermentation by yeasts (and sometimes lactic acid bacteria) to create a product that is highly appreciated by consumers worldwide. However, if only one type of yeast, specifically Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were used in the fermentation process, the resulting wine would lack aroma and flavor and may be rejected by consumers. To produce wine with a desirable taste and aroma, non-Saccharomyces yeasts are necessary. These yeasts contribute volatile aromatic compounds that significantly impact the wine’s final taste. They promote the release of primary aromatic compounds through a sequential hydrolysis mechanism involving several glycosidases unique to these yeasts. This review will discuss the unique characteristics of these yeasts (Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Pichia kluyveri, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Hanseniaspora vineae, Lachancea thermotolerans, Candida stellata, and others) and their impact on wine fermentations and co-fermentations. Their existence and the metabolites they produce enhance the complexity of wine flavor, resulting in a more enjoyable drinking experience.

Post-quantum public cryptosystems introduced so far do not define an scalable public key infrastructure for the quantum era. We demonstrate here a public certification system based in Lizama’s non-invertible Key Exchange Protocol which can be used to implement a public key infrastructure (PKI), secure, scalable, interoperable and efficient. We show functionality of certificates across different certification domains. Finally, we discuss that non-invertible certificates can exhibit Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS).

It is well established in literature that the public debt and economic growth bear positive and non-linear relationship. However, in recent literature, evidence of no causal relationship is found when accounted for endogeneity in case of advanced economies (Panizza & Presbitero, 2014). Chudik, Mohaddes, Pesaran, & Raissi, (2017) analyse the data on forty countries and find no evidence of universally applicable threshold effect in the relationship between debt and growth. These advancements in the debt-growth literature provides the motivation to re-explore the relationship between public debt and economic growth under non-linearity and endogeneity in context of developing economies of South Asia including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka for the period 1980-2014. There exists a significant, positive but nonlinear relationship between the public debt and economic growth for the selected set of developing countries when accounted for endogeneity and non-linearity. The negative association between the public debt and economic growth for SAARC region is found when the debt level is higher than 61% of GDP which is quite lower than developed economies (90% of GDP). Individual threshold levels for debt-to-GDP ratio divulge that Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India need to control their public borrowings as their current debt levels are higher and/or around the respective threshold levels.

Infrared small target detection (ISTD) plays a crucial role in both civilian and military applications. The detection of small targets against dense cluttered backgrounds remains a challenging task, requiring the collaboration of false alarm source elimination and target detection. Existing approaches primarily focus on modeling targets while often neglecting false alarm sources. To address this limitation, we propose a Target and False Alarm Collaborative Detection Network to leverage the information provided by false alarm sources and the background. Firstly, we introduce a False Alarm Source Estimation Block (FEB) that estimates potential interferences present in the background by extracting features on multiple scales and employing stepwise upsampling for feature fusion. Subsequently, we propose a framework that employs multiple FEBs to eliminate false alarm sources across multiple scales. Finally, a Target Segmentation Block (TSB) is introduced to accurately segment the targets to produce the final detection result. Experiments on public datasets demonstrate that, compared to other methods, our model achieves high accuracy in segmenting targets while being able to extract false alarm sources which can be used for further studies.

Small island developing states (SIDS) traditionally face a set of challenges like the narrow economic structure, environmental issues, and dependence on a few ranges of economic activities forcing them to open the economy to the exterior. Therefore, their development model, like in Cape Verde depends on migration, remittances, dependence on aid, tourism, and state employment. The current research offers an insight about the nature of Cape Verde’s economy as a SIDS and the degree to which its economy depends on tourism and government services, both of which are supported through aid programs. Understanding Cape Verde’s development model is important to clarify the challenges the country faces, and its development needs to gather a long-term resilience and to understand if it is changing from a MIRAB (Migrations, Remittances, Aid and Bureaucracy) model into another one.

Ship detection in large-scene offshore synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is crucial in civil and military fields, such as maritime management and wartime reconnaissance. However, the problems of low detection rates, high false alarm rates, and high missed detection rates of offshore ship targets in large-scene SAR images are due to the occlusion of objects or mutual occlusion among targets, especially for small ship targets. To solve this problem, this study proposes a target detection model (TAC_CSAC_Net) that incorporates a multi-attention mechanism for detecting marine vessels in large-scene SAR images. Experiments were conducted on two public datasets, the SAR-Ship-Dataset and high-resolution SAR image dataset (HRSID), with multi-scene and multi-size, and the results showed that the proposed TAC_CSAC_Net model achieves good performance for both small and occluded target detection. Experiments were conducted on a real large-scene dataset, LS-SSDD, to obtain the detection results of subgraphs of the same scene. Quantitative comparisons were made with classical and recently developed deep learning models, and the experiments demonstrated that the proposed model outperformed other models for large-scene SAR image target detection.

Postprandial hyperlipidemia showing postprandial increase in serum triglyceride (TG) is atherogenic and associated with the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). To diagnose postprandial hyperlipidemia, the oral fat loading test (OFLT) should be performed, however, this test is very time-consuming and is difficult to perform. Ele-vated serum TG levels reflect an increase in TG-rich lipoproteins (TRL) such chylomi-crons (CM), very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) and their remnants (CM remnant [CMR] and VLDL remnant [VLDLR]). Understanding of elevation in CMR and/or VLDLR can lead us to understand the existence of postprandial hyperlipidemia. The measurements of apo B48 which is a constituent of CM and CMR, non-fasting TG which includes TG content in all lipoproteins including CM and CMR, non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (non-HDL-C) which includes TRL and low-density lipoprotein, and remnant cholesterol, are useful to suspect the existence of postprandial hyperlipidemia. Postprandial hyperlipidemia is observed in patients with familial type III hyperlipoproteinemia, familial combined hyperlipidemia, chronic kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Postprandial hyperlipidemia is closely related to postprandial hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance may be an in-ducing and enhancing factor for both postprandial hyperlipidemia and postprandial hyperglycemia. Remnant lipoproteins and metabolic disorders associated with post-prandial hyperlipidemia have various atherogenic properties such as induction of in-flammation and endothelial dysfunction. A healthy diet, calorie restriction, weight loss and exercise, positively impact postprandial hyperlipidemia. Anti-hyperlipidemic drugs such pemafibrate, bezafibrate, ezetimibe and eicosapentaenoic acid have shown to improve postprandial hyperlipidemia. Anti-diabetic drugs including metformin, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, pioglitazone, dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors and glu-cagon like peptide 1 analogues, have shown to ameliorate postprandial hyperlipidemia. Although sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors have not been proven to reduce postprandial hyperlipidemia, they reduced fasting apo B48 and remnant lipoprotein cholesterol. In conclusion, it is important to appropriately understand the existence of postprandial hyperlipidemia and to connect it to optimal treatments.

Change detection with heterogeneous remote sensing images (Hete-CD) plays an important role in practical applications, especially when homogenous remote sensing images are unavailable. However, bitemporal heterogeneous remote sensing images (HRSIs) cannot compare directly to measure change magnitude, and many deep learning methods require large amounts of samples to train the module. Moreover, labeling many samples for land cover change detection with HRSIs is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, acquiring satisfactory performance of Hete-CD remains a challenge for deep learning networks with very small training samples. In this study, we promote a novel deep-learning framework for Hete-CD to obtain satisfactory performance while the initial samples are very small. We initially design a multiscale network with select kernel-attention module to focus on capturing different change targets with various sizes and shapes. Then, a simple yet effective non-parametric sample-enhanced algorithm based on the Pearson correlation coeffi-cient is promoted to explore potential samples around each initial sample. Finally, the proposed network and sample-enhanced algorithm are fused into one iterative framework to improve the change detection performance with very small samples. Experimental results conducted on four pairs of actual HRSIs indicated that the proposed framework can achieve competitive accuracies with very small samples for initialization when compared with some state-of-the-art methods. For example, the improvement is approximately 3.38% and 1.99% when compared with the selected traditional methods and deep learning methods, respectively.

Infrared dim and small target detection is a key technology of various detection tasks. However, due to the lack of shape, texture, and other information, it is a challenging task to detect dim and small targets. Recently, since many traditional algorithms ingore global information of infrared images, they generate some false alarms in complicated environments. To address this problem, in this paper, a coarse-to-fine deep learning-based method is proposed to detect dim and small targets. Firstly, a coarse-to-fine detection framework integrating deep learning and background prediction is applied for detecting targets. The framework contains of coarse detection module and fine detection module. In coarse detection stage, Region Proposal Network (RPN) is employed to generate masks in target candidate regions. Then, for further optimize the result, inpainting is utilized to predict the background by the global semnantic of images. In this paper, inpainting algorithm with a mask aware dynamic filtering module is incorporated into the fine detection stage to estimate background in candidate target areas. Finally, compared with existing algorithms, the experimental results indicate that the proposed framework have effective detection capability and robustness for complex surroundings.

One of the stated goals of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms has been to provide a fairer distribution of payments across and within Member States, but little progress has been accomplished, with about 20% of farmers receiving 80% of the total amount of Direct Payments. The structural factors that underlie this inequity, notably the preponderance of specific types of farming systems, are investigated in this research. A logit model was developed using Agricultural Census data at the Commune level, using the evolution of the percentage of farmers receiving Direct Payments in Portugal as the dependent variable. The findings reveal that the local importance of arable crops (cereals) and cattle farming systems, as well as the existence of larger farms and younger farmers, all contributed to farmers' increasing access to DP between 2009 and 2019. In traditional Mediterranean farming systems, however, access to DP has been restricted to a smaller proportion of farmers. However, there appears to have been some redistribution in the previous two CAP programming cycles, from bigger to smaller farmers, older to younger farmers, and from olives, cereals, and cattle to other types of production, notably vineyards.

Phagosomal escape and intracellular survival, often accompanied by Small Colony Variants (SCVs) formation, are typical features of infections caused by S. aureus. The survival in macro-phages favours S. aureus dissemination and complicates treatment. RAW 264.7 murine macro-phages infected with S. aureus USA300 and treated with erythromycin and 20mM carnosine, alone and in combination, were used as experimental model. SCVs were isolated from all treat-ment conditions, but only those undergoing the pressure of combined erythromycin and carnosine for 48 hours were stable for at least six passages on blood agar. Nucleic acid extraction was car-ried out for S. aureus USA300 wild-type and stable SCVs. Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) was performed using Illumina DNA Prep and Illumina MiSeq, and quantitative reverse transcription PCR was performed. WGS analysis did not yield mutations pointing to differences between S. au-reus USA300 and stable SCVs, therefore the focus was shifted to evaluating gene expression vari-ations. Genes such as zur, mntR, uhpt, fur, sdrE were shown to be significantly up-regulated in SCVs compared to S. aureus USA300 wild-type, suggesting a global change that allows adapta-tion to intracellular persistence, including protection from inflammatory response and evasion of the immune system.

There is a growing consensus that to effectively adapt to climate change, cities need user-friendly tools and reliable high-resolution biophysical and socio-economic data for analysis, mapping, modeling, and visualization. This study examines availability of various types of information used in climate adaptation plans of 40 municipalities with population less than 300,000 people in the United and in France, probing into the choice and usage of relevant information by small municipalities. We argue that non-climatic spatial data, such as population demographic and socio-economic patterns, urban infrastructure, and environmental data must be integrated with climate tools and datasets to inform effective vulnerability assessment and equitable climate adaptation planning goals. Climate adaptation plans frequently fail to address the existing structural inequalities and environmental injustices in urban infrastructure and land use. Adaptation methodological approaches should be reassessed in the context of much needed societal transformation. Lessons learned from our studies offer valuable insights for potential development of the national and state-level climate adaptation information services for cities.

Primary hyperoxalurias (PHs) are a group of inherited alterations of the hepatic glyoxylate metabolism. PHs classification based on gene mutations parallel a variety of enzymatic defects, and all involve the harmful accumulation of calcium oxalate crystals that produce systemic damage. These geographically widespread rare diseases have a deep impact in the life quality of the patients. Until recently, treatments were limited to palliative measures and kidney/liver transplants in the most severe forms. Efforts made to develop pharmacological treatments succeeded with the biotechnological agent lumasiran, a siRNA product against glycolate oxidase, which has become the first effective therapy to treat PH1. However, small molecule drugs have classically been preferred since they benefit from experience and have better pharmacological properties. The development of small molecule inhibitors designed against key enzymes of glyoxylate metabolism is on the focus of research. Enzyme inhibitors are successful and widely used in several diseases and their pharmacokinetic advantages are well known. In PHs, effective enzymatic targets have been determined and characterized for drug design and interesting inhibitory activities have been achieved both in vitro and in vivo. This review describes the most recent advances towards the development of small molecule enzyme inhibitors in the treatment of PHs, introducing the multi-target approach as a more effective and safe therapeutic option.

UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 6 presents difficulties for small island developing states such as the Kingdom of Tonga, which relies on rainwater and groundwater lenses for freshwater supply. Planning and managing water resources to supply demands in dispersed small islands under variable climate and frequent extreme events is challenging. Tensions between water planning using top-down versus bottom-up processes have long been recognized. Tonga’s overarching national planning instrument is the Tonga Strategic Development Framework, 2015-2025 (TSDFII). This identifies desired national outcomes and is used to direct and resource Ministries and address international and regional commitments. Water supply was a low priority in the three-month consultations that led to TSDFII. Community Development Plans (CDPs), developed by rural villages throughout Tonga’s five Island Groups over nine years, involved participation from 80% of each village population who ranked local priorities. Analysis of priorities in 117 available village CDPs reveals improvements to village water supply was the highest overall priority in all five Island Groups and ranked within the top three priorities by 76% of all villages, with women, youth and men returning figures of 83%, 66% and 80% respectively. The mismatch between top-down and bottom-up priorities appears to result from an urban/rural divide.

COVID-19 is now a major global health crisis, can lead to severe food crisis unless proper measures are not taken. Though a number of scientific studies have addressed the possible impacts of COVID-19 in Bangladesh on variety of issues, problems and food crises associated with aquatic resources and communities are missing. Therefore, this study aimed at bridging the gap in the existing situation and challenges of COVID-19 by linking its impact on aquatic food sector and small-scale fisheries with dependent population. The study was conducted based on secondary data analysis and primary fieldwork. Secondary data focused on COVID-19 overview and number of confirmed, recovered and death cases in Bangladesh; at the same time its connection with small-scale fisheries, aquatic food production, demand and supply was analyzed. Community perceptions were elicited to present how the changes felt and how they affected aquatic food system and small-scale fisheries and found devastating impact. Sudden illness, reduced income, complication to start production and input collection, labor crisis, transportation abstraction, complexity in food supply, weak value chain, low consumer demand, rising commodity prices, creditor’s pressure were identified as the primary affecting drivers. Dependent people felt the measures taken by the Government should be based on protecting the health and food security, although it could be detrimental to economic growth in the short term. The study provides insight into policies adopted by the policy makers to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on aquatic food sector and small-scale fisheries.

Here we evaluate the chemistry of mineral soil solutions collected by suction lysimeters in a small mountain catchment that was affected by acidification-related spruce die-back. The aim was to obtain new insights into spatial patterns of nutrient partitioning during acidification recovery. This was achieved by comparing nutrient concentrations in soil solutions, collected along a V-shaped valley, with those in runoff. Five nests of suction lysimeters were installed in the 33-ha UDL catchment at different topographic positions (hilltops, slopes and valley). Following a 1-year equilibration, monthly samples of soil solutions were collected over a 2-year period. In the vicinity of each lysimeter nest, soil pits were excavated for a study of soil chemistry. Soil solutions were analyzed for SO42-, NO3-, DOC, NH4+, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and total dissolved Al concentrations, DOC and pH. For a P release estimation, ammonium oxalate extraction of soil samples was performed. Comparison of soil water data from this study with other European studies indicated that major environmentally relevant chemical species at UDL had concentrations similar to median concentrations across numerous previously acidified sites. CEC (≤ 58 meq kg-1) and BS (≤ 13 %), however, were significantly lower at UDL than at other European sites, documenting incomplete recovery from acidification. Spatial trends and seasonality in soil water chemistry support belowground inputs from mineral-stabilized legacy pollutants and soil nutrients. Seasonal variability of soil water sulfate and nitrate was significant. High nitrate in soil solutions during summer originated during the preceding dormant season, and high sulfate concentrations observed during the winter originating from recycled organic S during the summer. Higher concentrations of SO42-, NO3-, and base cations in runoff than in soil solutions may be explained by lateral surficial runoff leaching pollutants and nutrients from very shallow soil horizons. Nearly 30 years after peak acidification, solutions in mineral subsoil at UDL exhibited similar concentrations of SO42-, Ca2+ and Mg2+ as median values at the Pan-European International Co-operative Program (ICP) Forest sites, yet NO3- concentrations were an order of magnitude higher than the ICP sites. Calcium applied on soil surface by liming 32 to 11 years ago affected runoff more than soil solutions, suggesting contribution of both shallow soil water and groundwater to runoff.

We establish a new Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality characterized by radial symmetry and involving potentials exhibiting pure power polynomial behaviour. As an application of our result, we investigate the existence of extremals for this inequality, which also correspond to stationary solutions for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with inhomogeneous nonlinearity, competing with Hs-subcritical nonlinearities, either of local or non-local nature.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is the most severe manifestation of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), has been recognized as a major hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) catalyst. However, the molecular mechanism of NAFLD-NASH-HCC sequence remains unclear and a specific and effective treatment for NASH has not yet been established. The progress in this field depends on the availability of reliable preclinical models which show the steady progress to NASH, liver cirrhosis, and HCC. However, most of NASH mouse models that have been described to date develop NASH generally for more than 24 weeks and there is an uncertainty of HCC development. To overcome such shortcomings of experimental NASH studies, we established a novel NASH-HCC mouse model with very high reproducibility, generality, and convenience. We treated male C57BL/6J mice with a newly developed choline-deficient and methionine-restricted high-fat diet (CDMRHFD) for 60 weeks. Treatment of CDMRHFD for 3 weeks revealed marked steatosis, lobular inflammation, and fibrosis, histologically diagnosed as NASH. Liver cirrhosis was observed in all mice with 36-week treatment. Liver nodule emerged at 12 weeks of the treatment, and diameter >2 mm liver tumors developed in all mice at 24 weeks of the treatment. In conclusion, our rapidly progressive and highly reproducible NASH-liver cirrhosis-HCC model is helpful for preclinical development and research on the pathogenesis of human NAFLD-NASH-HCC. Our mouse model would be useful for the development of novel chemistry for NASH-HCC-targeted therapies or HCC prevention strategies.

The increasing use of energy resources recovered from the subsurface environments and the resulting carbon imbalance in the environment has motivated the need to develop thermodynamically downhill pathways to convert and store CO₂ as water insoluble calcium or magnesium carbonates. While previous studies extensively explored aqueous routes to produce calcium and magnesium carbonates from CO₂, there has been a limited scientific understanding of the phase evolution and textural changes during the direct gas-solid conversion routes to produce calcium carbonate from calcium hydroxide, which is one of the abundant constituents of alkaline industrial residues. With increasing interest in developing integrated pathways for capturing, converting and storing CO₂ from dilute flue gases, understanding the compositions of the product phases as they evolve is essential for evaluating the efficacy of a given processing route. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the phase evolution and the corresponding textural changes as calcium hydroxide is converted to calcium carbonate under the continuous flow of CO₂ at an ambient pressure of 1 atm and on heating continuously from 30 °C to 500 °C using in-operando wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and ultra-small angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) measurements.

This article develops a duality principle and a related convex dual formulation suitable for a large class of models in physics and engineering. The results are based on standard tools of functional analysis, calculus of variations and duality theory. In particular, we develop applications to a model in non-linear elasticity.

The connection of two phenomena - non-conservative friction forces and dissipation-induced instability can lead to many interesting engineering problems. The paper studies general material-dependent damping influence on dynamical instability of disc brake systems leading to brake squeal. The effect of general damping is demonstrated on a minimal and complex model of a disc brake. A complex system including material-dependent damping is defined in the commercial finite element software. The finite element model validated by experimental data on the brake-disc test bench is used to compute the influence of a pad and a disc damping variations on system stability by complex eigenvalue analysis. Analyzes show a significant sensitivity of the experimentally verified unstable mode of the system to the ratio of the damping between the disc and the friction material components.

Near-fault ground motions can cause severe damage to civil structures, including bridges. Safety assessment of these structures for near fault ground motion is usually performed through Non-Linear Dynamic Analyses, while faster methods are often used. IMPAb (Incremental Modal Pushover Analysis for Bridges) permits to investigate the seismic response of a bridge by considering the effects of higher modes, which are often relevant for bridges. In this work, IMPAb is applied to a bridge case study considering near-fault pulse-like ground motion records. The records were analyzed and selected from the European Strong Motion Database and the pulse parameters were evaluated. In the paper results from standard pushover procedures and IMPAb are compared with nonlinear Response-History Analysis (NRHA), considering also the vertical component of the motion, as benchmark solutions and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Results from the case study demonstrate that the vertical seismic action has a minor influence on the structural response of the bridge. Therefore IMPAb, which can be applied considering vertical motion, remains very effective conserving the original formulation of the procedure, and can be considered a well performing procedure also for near-fault events.

This paper delves into the strategic dimensions influencing the adoption of environmental innovations (EIs) in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico City. Employing a mixed-methods approach combining documentary analysis and expert interviews, the study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of integrating EI practices in the context of manufacturing SMEs. Qualitative methodology was chosen to explore experiences, perceptions, and practices related to EI adoption, acknowledging its ability to capture the complexity and richness of data. Through systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with Corporate Social Responsibility experts, causal relationships and key factors influencing EI adoption were identified. The data analysis involved constructing causal maps and applying the Viable System Model to comprehend the interactions and dynamics within the organizational systems.

Urban wind energy has emerged as an attractive source of distributed generation in cities to achieve sustainable development goals. The advance in technologies for the use of urban wind energy has turned this source into an attractive alternative for the decarbonization of cities and the energy transition. The objectives of this work are (1) to identify the potential of wind energy through numerical weather prediction (NWP) data tools and (2) to identify the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. A methodology was developed in two phases and applied to a case study in the Dominican Republic. The first phase consisted of estimating the wind energy potential for the 32 provinces at a height of 10 m using open-access geographic reference systems tools provided by NASA. In the second phase, 28 stakeholders were identified through snowball sampling. The Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Informed (RACI) matrix tool was applied to identify the roles of the 28 institutions addressed at the country level as relevant in the decision-making process for the energy sector. The annual average wind speed and energy potential for each province were determined. It was found 24 provinces have poor potential, below <4.5 m/s. In the northwest and east is where there is the greatest potential, between 4.83 - 6.63 m/s. The population density was established and was observed that the provinces with greater potential are less densely populated. Through 59 interviews 28 institutions were identified and evaluated due to their relevance in decision-making for the implementation of energy projects. The MEM has strongly categorized as “A”, electricity distribution companies as “R”, energy associations and universities as “C”, and educational and justice institutions as “I”.

The residual content of the only carbon source increases at the end of the exponential growth phase when P. putida BS3701 cells are cultured under nitrogen deficiency. Moreover, the mRNA quantity of some genes involved in carbon catabolism decreases. There are no available data on regulators capable of stimulating the target mRNA degradation in pseudomonads under nitrogen deficiency in the literature. We have applied both comparative genomics methods and a number of biomolecular ones to identify new small P. putida BS3701 RNAs. This is due to the fact that the formation of ncRNA-mRNA duplexes, recognized by RNases, is one of the main mechanisms for reducing the number of transcripts in a cell. We have used the following selection criteria: 1) the presence of the interest gene of the NtrC binding site and a sigma54-dependent promoter in the upstream area, 2) the conservative location of the interest gene in the P. putida and P. aeruginosa genomes, 3) increase in the product quantity of the interest gene in a cell under nitrogen deficiency on two different carbon sources (succinate and naphthalene), 4) the product detection of the interest gene in a fraction enriched with small RNAs. The expression of two new small RNAs has increased twice or more times under nitrogen deficiency on both succinate and naphthalene: expression of ng171 and ng379. ng379 contains narK RNA motif.

In recent years, the high-frequency abnormal price fluctuations of small-scale agricultural products have been detrimental to market stability. The traditional method based on statistical data of production factors can no longer accurately predict abnormal price fluctuations. Taking scallions as a case, the paper identifies price influencing factors from massive network information, and analyzes the causes and changing characteristics of price fluctuations from four perspectives: market supply, economic environment and market sentiment, and attention. Initially, the study employs an LDA topic model to extract factors from online sentiment data over the past four years, including market supply and demand, economic conditions, related agricultural prices, and market attention. Subsequently, using the SO-PMI algorithm to expand domain-specific lexicons and employing semantic and sentiment analysis with syntactic parsing, the study aims to improve the accuracy of sentiment quantification in text analysis. Furthermore, cointegration and Granger causality tests validate the significant impact of these factors on scallion price fluctuations, mitigating spurious regression issues. Finally, by employing a TVP-VAR model, the study compares the impulse responses and shock magnitudes of various factors in different time and spatial dimensions. It also delves into the mechanisms of heterogeneous impacts and trends in scallion prices, considering the corresponding socio-economic context and public sentiment events within specific time windows, thereby providing valuable decision-making insights for the healthy development of agricultural markets.

Concatemeric viral DNA is packaged into Bacteriophage P22 procapsids via a headful packaging mechanism mediated by a molecular machine consisting of small (gp3) and large (gp2) terminase subunits. Although a negative stain reconstruction exists for the terminase holoenzyme, it is not clear how this complex binds dodecameric portal protein located at a 5-fold mismatch vertex. Herein, we describe new assemblies for the holoenzyme. Both native mass spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the P22 terminase complex adopts three main assemblies, which include a nonameric S-terminase bound to two L-terminase 1(gp3)9:2(gp2), two nonameric S-terminase bound to five L-terminase 2(gp3)9:5(gp2), and three nonameric S-terminase bound to seven L-terminase 3(gp3)9:7(gp2). Native agarose gel electrophoresis shows that the terminase complex interacts with procapsid with mild crosslinking. These results herein illustrate the P22 terminase complex can adopt a variety of confirmations and assembly states.

Phylogenetic tree analysis is commonly used to understand the evolutionary distance between different species or strains of the same species. This work originally aimed to gain an understanding and visual depiction of the evolutionary distance in 23S rRNA gene of different Helicobacter pylori strains. Using an in-house MATLAB multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis software, the phylogenetic tree constructed for 23S rRNA gene reveals two major lineages with further subdivisions in each cluster. This suggests two major evolutionary forces driving the evolution of the 23S rRNA gene. In comparison, there is relatively short evolutionary distance in the 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic tree of H. pylori, suggesting lack of major evolutionary forces driving mutational changes of the gene. Overall, the data suggests that the large ribosome subunit which houses the 23S rRNA of H. pylori is undergoing significant conformational changes that may be a response to the frequent use of various antibiotics that target the ribosome of H. pylori.

Abstract: Pericyte(s) (Pcs) and resident perivascular macrophages (rPVMΦs) are positioned perfectly in the neurovascular unit (NVU) and perivascular spaces to facilitate metainflammation that results in brain endothelial cell activation and dysfunction and neuroinflammation. Their positions within the NVU allow intimate contact with one another as follows: Brain endothelial cells (BECs) and the Pcs via their shared basement membrane and physical contact peg-socket junctions with N cadherins and gap junctions Cx43; Pcs and rPVMΦs intimate contacts. Additionally, rPVMΦs have intimate contact with the astrocyte endfeet (ACef) that form the outermost membrane of perivascular spaces. Importantly, ACef have intimate contact with BECs that have intimate physical contact with neuronal axons and dendrites to complete NVU coupling. The multiplicity of intimate contacts of NVU cells allow for continuous crosstalk communications to provide brain homeostasis. While each of the cells of the NVU play important roles in the development of enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS), this review focuses on the Pcs and rPVMΦs and discusses each of the intimate contacts and their functional significance in detail with numerous illustrations and transition electron microscopic images to demonstrate their role in the development of EPVS. EPVS are known to be biomarkers for cerebral small vessel disease and impaired glymphatic system waste clearance. Additionally, EPVS associate with mixed dementias of vascular dementia, vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease that results in high economic and psychosocial cost to the global community.

In the vaginal ecosystem there is a symbiotic relationship between the microbiota and the host, particularly Candida spp., which are considered commensals of the vaginal mucosa. During pregnancy there is an increase in hormonal secretion that alters the vaginal microbiota and favors the development of Candida infection. Several studies have shown the increased prevalence of Candida during pregnancy, as well as its association with perinatal complications and current clinical practice guidelines recommend fluconazole as the treatment of choice during pregnancy in case of infection by Candida albicans and non-albicans Candida. However, in the Mexican population, this association has not been studied. So in this study, an intentional search for colonization by Candida spp. in pregnant women who attended the obstetric triage of the Hospital Regional de Alta Especialidad de Ixtapaluca during the period from May to October 2019, and they were followed up until the end of the pregnancy. Data on age, number of pregnancies, gestational age, body mass index, and perinatal outcomes were analyzed. Of 83 patients included in the study, yeasts corre-sponding to C. albicans (12) and C. glabrata (4) were isolated in 16. In the group of patients with Candida, the maternal age range was from 15 to 36 years old, of which 7 were adolescents and 2 with advanced maternal age, with an average of 2 gestations, the range of body mass index was from 19.3 to 42.4, of which 4 were overweight and 7 obese. Perinatal complications were observed in three patients, one presented chorioamnionitis and in two the neonates were small for gestational age. No association was found between colonization by Candida spp. and the number of preg-nancies, gestational age, body mass index or perinatal results. However, it was found that age (adolescence) may be a risk factor for the development of vulvovaginitis during pregnancy.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, coding for the CFTR chloride channel. About 10% of the CFTR gene mutations are "stop" mutations, which generate a Premature Termination Codon (PTC), thus synthesizing a truncated CFTR protein. A way to bypass PTC relies on ribosome readthrough, which is the ribosome’s capacity to skip a PTC, thus generating a full-length protein. “TRIDs” are molecules exerting ribosome readthrough; for some, the mechanism of action is still under debate. We investigate a possible mechanism of action (MOA) by which our recently synthesized TRIDs, namely NV848, NV914, and NV930, could exert their readthrough activity by in silico analysis and in vitro studies. Our results suggest a likely inhibition of FTSJ1, a tryptophan tRNA-specific 2’-O-methyltransferase.

Abstract Kidney transplant recipients, because of a weak immune response due to the assumption of immunosuppressant are exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection. This fact realize the problem on how to treat the severe infection without carrying the risk of acute rejection due to the reduction of the immunosuppressive drugs. The best are the prophylactic measures to be taken before transplantation as vaccination. If the patient is already transplanted, three measures may be undertaken: Vaccination, use of monoclonal antibodies, use of therapeutic antiviral small molecules. Concerning vaccination is still debated which one is the best and how many doses should be given. The surge of new virus variant is the major problem and invites to find new active vaccines. In addition, not all the transplanted patients develop antibodies. The other measure is the use of monoclonal antibodies. They may be used as prophylaxis or in the early stage of the disease. Finally, the antiviral small molecules may be used again as prophylaxis or treatment. Their major drawback are the interference with the immunosuppressive drugs and the fact that some of them cannot be administered to patients with low eGFR.

One of the most important challenges in the Machine and Deep Learning areas today is to build good models using small datasets, because sometimes it is not possible to have large ones. Several techniques have been proposed in the literature to address this challenge. This paper aims at studying the different available Deep Learning techniques and performing a thorough experimentation to analyze which technique or combination thereof improves the performance and effectiveness of the models. A complete comparison with classical Machine Learning techniques was carried out, to contrast the results obtained using both techniques when working with small datasets. Thirteen algorithms were implemented and trained using three different small datasets (MNIST, Fashion MNIST, and CIFAR-10). Each experiment was evaluated using a well-established set of metrics (Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1, and the Matthews correlation coefficient). The experimentation allowed concluding that it is possible to find a technique or combination of them to mitigate a lack of data, but this depends on the nature of the dataset, the amount of data, and the metrics used to evaluate them.

The rural population percentage decreased from 82.7% to 68.9% in 2011, even though there is an increase in the total rural population, which stands at 833.7 million, and the rural population were now more than three times compared to the population seven decades ago. Another observation is the decrease in cultivators percentage from 71.9% to 45.1 %, while agriculture labour increase from 28.1% to 54.9% during the same period. Despite the increase in irrigated land and net area sown, the average holdings' size under the farmers is continuously decreasing, and it requires a study to look into the reasons. The research probes the role of Minimum Support Price (MSP) in supporting farmers and measuring market price above MSP needed to help marginal and small farmers remain above the poverty level. It explains how different market rates above MSP have a different impact on different categories of agriculture landholding. The study works on developing a common model that relates the impact of MSP on different farmers categories. The model can be generalized to all crops and regions and useful in designing policies that focus on uplifting the income of agricultural farmers.