The ABCDEFG Protocol provides an evolving tool for imposing structure on the flow of Covid infection information obtained from community testing, collective policy and individual compliance. ABCDEFG Protocol could not assume soundness, invariance, symmetry and completeness of the available information and relied on signaling game theory to design solutions that could evolve with the variable narratives, theories, individual utilities and pathogen variants. Thus, ABCDEFG Protocol suggests a novel and a very flexible pool-testing and badging protocol in the context of controlling contagious epidemics and tackling the far-reaching associated challenges, including understanding and evaluating individual and collective risks of returning prior infected individuals to normal society and other economic and social arrangements and interventions to protect against disease. AbCDEFG Proto uses both control theoretic and game theoretic mathematical models that may be centralized (an optimizing policy maker mandates behavior based on estimated models) or decentralized (a strategizing individual selects their behavior based on available asymmetric information). ABCDEFG protocol demonstrates how society can continue to carry out plausible economic activities in addition to controlling the prevalence of a contagious disease by keeping the number of infected people below a desired limit without compromising an individuals' privacy despite the presence of deception and selfishness among people, and limitations of available resources. Different types of badges would come with different restrictions. Badges would be reissued periodically by third-party testing centers via suitably frequent pool testing of samples of the participants. The size of the pools, frequency of tests, and allowable activities for people with a given type of badge would depend on the available resources, the prevalence of the disease, and the efficacy of the equipment used in the tests.

We provide a detailed presentation of the functional renormalisation group (FRG) approach to weakly-interacting Bose-Bose mixtures, including a complete discussion on the RG equations. To test this approach, we examine thermodynamic properties of balanced three-dimensional Bose-Bose gases at zero and finite temperatures and find a good agreement with related works. We also study ground-state energies of repulsive Bose polarons by examining mixtures in the limit of infinite population imbalance. Finally, we discuss future applications of the FRG to novel problems in Bose-Bose mixtures and related systems.

The dynamical processes of living systems are characterized by the cooperative interaction of many units. This claim enables us to portray the embryo-fetal development of the central and peripheral nervous systems in terms of assemblies of building blocks. We describe how the structure and arrangement of nervous fibers is - at least partially - dictated by biophysical and topological constraints. The far-flung field of soft-matter polymers/nematic colloids sheds new light on the neurulation in mammalian embryos, suggesting an intriguing testable hypothesis: the development of the central and peripheral nervous systems might be correlated with the occurrence of local thermal changes in embryo-fetal tissues. Further, we show a correlation between the fullerene-like arrangement of the cortical microcolumns and the Frank-Kasper phases of artificial quasicrystals assemblies. The last, but not the least, we explain how and why the multisynaptic ascending nervous fibers connecting the peripheral receptors to the neocortical areas can be viewed as the real counterpart of mathematical tools such as knot theory and braid groups. Their group structure and generator operations point towards a novel approach to long-standing questions concerning human sensation and perception, leading to the suggestion that the very arrangement and intermingling of the peripheral nervous fibers contributes to the cortical brain activity. In touch with the old claims of D’Arcy Thompson, we conclude that the arrangement and the pattern make the function in a variety of biological instances, leading to countless testable hypotheses.

The study describes in this paper uses direct evidence from processes applied for the developing economy of Indonesia, as it defines the trajectory for its future energy policy and energy research agenda. The paper makes explicit the process undertaken by key stakeholders in assessing and determining the suitability, feasibility and dynamics of the renewable energy sector. Barriers and enablers that key in selecting the most suitable renewable energy sources for developing economies for the renewable energy development have been identified from extensive analyses of research documents alongside qualitative data from the focus group discussions (FGD). The selected FGD participants encompass the collective views that cut across the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental aspects of renewable energy development in Indonesia. The information gained from the FGD gives insights to the outlook and challenges that are central to energy transition within the country, alongside the perceptions of renewable energy development from the influential stakeholders contributing to the process. It is notable that the biggest barriers to transition are centred on planning and implementation aspects, as it is also evident that many in the community do not adhere to the same vision.

To improve water injection effect, microemulsions (MEs) were used to wet coal seam compared with water and sodium dodecyl sulfate solution (SDS). Wetting effects were characterized by contact angle, X-ray diffraction, Fourier infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the microemulsion has better spreadability on coal surface and has stronger wettability for coals of different ranks and different particle sizes than traditional wetting agents. The W/O type microemulsion is more affinity to coal than the O/W type and the bicontinuous type.Oxygen and hydrogen contents contributed to wetting. Different wetting agents have the greatest impact on the oxygen-containing functional group absorption zone of coal, but have little impact on the change of clay mineral composition.As the content of quartz increased, the content of montmorillonite was decreased, and the hydrophilicity of coal was increased. This research proposes new ideas for solving coal dust problems and reducing coal mine disasters.

By using a systems biological perspective and available literature on human social interaction, grouping, and cohesiveness, a new coherent model is proposed that integrates existing social integration and neurobiological research into a theoretical neurobiological framework of personality and social interaction. This model allows for the coherent analysis of complex social systems and interactions within them, and proposes a framework for estimating group cohesiveness and evaluating group structures in order to build and organize optimized social groups. This „Neurobiological-Associative“ model proposes two primary feedback loops, with environmental conditioning (learning) being sorted into an associative model that modulates interaction with the social environment, and which impacts the second feedback loop involving the individuals' neurobiological capacity. In this paper, the concept of neurobiological capacity is developed and based upon contemporary research on intelligence, personality, and social behavior with a focus on the oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine systems. The basis of social exclusion and group structure is thus, expressed in the very most simple terms, neurobiological compatibility and risk assessment modulated by an internal associative model.

In the coming years, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) will submit its proposal on the ‘Anthropocene’ as a new geological epoch to the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) for approval. If approved, the proposal will be send to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) for ratification. If the proposal is approved and ratified, the ‘Anthropocene’ will be formalised and the Holocene Series/Epoch will be officially terminated. Currently, the ‘Anthropocene’ is a broadly used term and concept in a wide range of scientific and non-scientific situations and, for many, the official acceptance of this term is only a matter of time. However, the AWG proposal, in its present state, seems to not fully meet the ICS requirements for a new geological epoch. This paper asks what could happen if the current ‘Anthropocene’ proposal is not formalised by the ICS/IUGS. The possible stratigraphic alternatives are evaluated on the basis of the more recent literature and the personal opinions of distinguished AWG and ICS members. The eventual impact on environmental sciences and on non-scientific sectors, where the ‘Anthropocene’ seems already firmly rooted and de facto accepted as a new geological epoch, are also discussed.

An immiscible blend of poly(hydroxy ether of bisphenol-A) (phenoxy) and poly(1,4-butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with phase separation was observed in as-blended samples. However, compatibilization of the phenoxy/PBT blends can be promoted through chemical exchange reactions of phenoxy with PBT upon annealing. In contrast to the as-blended samples, the annealed phenoxy/PBT blends had a homogeneous phase with a single T_g that could be enhanced by annealing at 260°C. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy demonstrated that phase homogenization could be promoted by annealing of the phenoxy/PBT blend, where alcoholytic exchange occurred between the dangling hydroxyl group in phenoxy and the carbonyl group in PBT in the heated blends. The alcoholysis reaction changes the aromatic linkages to aliphatic linkages in carbonyl groups, which initially led to the formation of a graft copolymer of phenoxy and PBT with an aliphatic/aliphatic carbonyl link. The progressive alcoholysis reaction resulted in the transformation of the initial homopolymers into block copolymers and finally into random copolymers, which promoted phase compatibilization in blends of phenoxy with PBT. Due to the fact that the amount of copolymers increased upon annealing, crystallization of PBT was inhibited by alcoholytic exchange in the blends.

A numerical application of linear-molecule symmetry properties, described by the D_∞h point group, is formulated in terms of lower-order symmetry groups D_nh with finite n. Character tables and irreducible representation transformation matrices are presented for D_nh groups with arbitrary n-values. These groups are subsequently used in the construction of symmetry-adapted ro-vibrational basis functions for solving the Schrödinger equations of linear molecules as part of the variational nuclear motion program TROVE. The TROVE symmetrisation procedure is based on a set of "reduced" vibrational eigenvalue problems with simplified Hamiltonians. The solutions of these eigenvalue problems have now been extended to include the classification of basis-set functions using ℓ, the eigenvalue (in units of ℏ) of the vibrational angular momentum operator ${\widehat{L}}_z$ . This facilitates the symmetry adaptation of the basis set functions in terms of the irreducible representations of D_nh. ¹²C₂H₂ is used as an example of a linear molecule of D_∞h point group symmetry to illustrate the symmetrisation procedure.

We explore the relationship between the exact renormalization group (RG) equation and quantum mechanics. The central idea is to rewrite the exact Wilsonian RG equation as a Schrödinger-type equation, opening avenues for analysis. By introducing a functional transformation, the RG equation takes on a form analogous to a quantum mechanical Schrödinger equation. The study investigates solutions to this equation and draws parallels with quantum mechanics, paving the way for understanding the infrared behavior of quantum field theories. Furthermore, we extends its insights to a one-dimensional toy model, providing illustrative examples. The discussion encompasses the implications of these findings in multiple dimensions and quantum field theory, with a brief exploration of their relevance in the context of inflationary cosmology.

A Pt(II) complex featuring chelating tridentate bis-aryloxide tetrahydropyrimidinium based N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) was synthesized and characterized by using different techniques. The electrochemical properties of the complex were investigated by cyclic voltammetry as well as differential pulse voltammetry, which revealed two reversible one-electron oxidation processes. The chemical generation and isolation of one-electron-oxidized species were performed oxidizing the initial complex by means of AgBF4. The combined UV-Vis/NIR- and EPR-spectroscopy studies supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest the formation of Pt(II)-phenoxyl radical complex. The latter open-shell derivative was structurally characterized by means of X-ray diffraction analysis. Finally, the neutral platinum complex was tested as a mediator in the process of electrocatalytic oxidation of 2-(methylamino)ethanol (MEA).

The aim of the article is to verify differences in the perception of selected factors of sustainability among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central Europe. The subjects of analysis are factors such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), business risk sources (market, financial, personnel, and operational), reputation and social media, national support, social changes, and crisis events in business. The questionnaire was completed by 1,090 SMEs from the business environments of Visegrad Group countries. Statistical hypotheses were verified using Z-scores for two population properties. The most negatively perceived factors among owners and managers in the SME segment are national support and legislative changes. The most positively perceived factor is reputation and social media. The country of doing business is a significant factor. The perception of crisis events in business is most negative among Czech SMEs. More than 80% of Hungarian SMEs perceive their companies as sustainable. In comparison with Slovak and Polish SMEs, Hungarian perceptions are more positive in the context of sustainability. The country of doing business is the strongest factor in evaluating CSR indicators. The positive perception of CSR in Czech SMEs (43.9%) is lower than in other countries.

This paper investigates the relationship between public debt and economic growth in the context of a panel kink regression with latent group structures. The proposed model allows us to explore the heterogeneous threshold effects of public debt on economic growth based on unknown group patterns. We propose a least squares estimator and demonstrate the consistency of estimating group structures. The finite sample performance of the proposed estimator is evaluated by simulations. Our findings reveal that the nonlinear relationship between public debt and economic growth is characterized by a heterogeneous threshold level, which varies among different groups, and highlight that the mixed results found in previous studies may stem from the assumption of a homogeneous threshold effect.

In this paper we present textural and compositional data for columbite group minerals (CGM) and associated Nb-Ta-Sn oxides from lithium-beryllium-tantalum pegmatite deposits of the Kolmozero-Voronja belt, NW Russia, with the aim of deciphering the above mentioned features for minerals from deposits with different mineral signatures and lithium ore grade. Minerals from four deposits, including two of world-class (Kolmozero and Polmostundra), are examined. It is shown that the main controlling factors are the diversity and rate of magmatic fractionation, hydrothermal overprint and mineral paragenesis followed from the specific geochemical signature of the different pegmatite deposits. CGM from Kolmozero include several mineral species (columbite-(Fe), columbite-(Mn), tantalite-(Fe), tantalite-(Mn)) showing large compositional variations, mainly controlled by Nb-Ta fractionation (Ta/(Ta+Nb) = 0.16-0.70; Mn/(Mn + Fe) = 0.45-0.63). Textural patterns are extremely various (oscillatory, homogeneous, patchy, spongy, somewhere with over-growing Ta-rich rims) and indicate the involvement of numerous magmatic and hydrothermal processes. The Polmostundra CGM are represented by columbite-(Fe) with Ta/(Ta+Nb) ranging from 0.05 to 0.39 with homogeneous, mottled, oscillatory, patchy and irregular reverse textures. The Okhmylk CGM are irregular normal, patchy and homogeneous columbite-(Fe) and columbite-(Mn) with Ta/(Ta+Nb) = 0.09-0.24 and Mn/(Mn + Fe) = 0.29-0.92, indicating the suppressed magmatic fractionation and iron drop due to precipitation of Fe minerals. Columbite-(Fe) and columbite-(Mn) from the Be-Ta Shongui deposit are less evolved with Ta/(Ta+Nb) = 0.07-0.23 and Mn/(Mn + Fe) = 0.31-0.55. The minerals are characterized by progressive normal, oscillatory, homogeneous and ir-regular reverse patterns. Associated pyrochlore minerals occur both as early magmatic (Kolmozero) and late hydrothermal (Polmostundra, Okhmylk). Cassiterite is found only in the Okhmylk dykes and is apparently of hydrothermal origin. CGM from Li pegmatites have impurities of Ti (0.01-0.05 apfu) and W (up to 0.02 apfu), whereas CGM from Be pegmatites contains elevated Ti (up to 0.09 apfu). The mineral systems analysis presented here is relevant for exploration.

Scavenging of atmospheric trace gases has been recognized as one of the lifestyle-defining capabilities of microorganisms in terrestrial polar ecosystems. Several metagenome-assembled genomes of as-yet-uncultivated methanotrophic bacteria, which consume atmospheric CH4 in these ecosystems, have been retrieved in cultivation-independent studies. In this study, we isolated and characterized a representative of these methanotrophs, strain D3K7, from a subarctic soil of Northern Russia. Strain D3K7 grows on methane and methanol in a wide range of temperatures, between 5 and 30°C. Weak growth was also observed on acetate. The presence of acetate in the culture medium stimulated growth at low CH4 concentrations (~100 p.p.m.v.). The finished genome sequence of strain D3K7 is 4.15 Mb in size and contains about 3700 protein-encoding genes. According to the result of phylogenomic analysis, this bacterium forms a common clade with metagenome-assembled genomes obtained from the active layer of a permafrost thaw gradient in Stordalen Mire, Abisco, Sweeden, and the mineral cryosol at Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic. This clade occupies a phylogenetic position in between characterized Methylocapsa methanotrophs and representatives of the as-yet-uncultivated Upland Soil Cluster Alpha (USCα). As shown by the global distribution analysis, D3K7-like methanotrophs colonize mostly northern terrestrial ecosystems, such as polar deserts, subarctic soils, permafrost environments, but also occur in boreal peatlands or high-latitude habitats.

Introduction: Determination of radiological bone age (BA) is a diagnostic method that consists of estimating chronological age (CA) from the bone maturation of children. Although environmental and hormonal factors can interfere with bone ossification, the process is essentially dependent on ancestral inheritance. These ethnic backgrounds are not usually considered, which can lead to biased interpretations and inadequate decision-making by pediatricians or forensic experts. The objective of this study was to determine the precision and accuracy of these radiological procedures among different ethnic groups. Methods: A qualitative systematic review carried out following MOOSE statement and previously registered in the International Prospective Registry of Systematic Reviews PROSPERO (CRD42023449512). Search was performed in MEDLINE (PubMed) (n=561), Cochrane Library (n=261), CINAHL (n=103), Web of Science (WOS) (n=181) and public institutional repositories (n=37) from inception to 31st December 2022 using Mesh as “Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures”, “Diagnostic imaging”, “Radiography”, “Age Determination by Skeleton” and free terms combining with booleans “AND” and “OR”. PEDro scale, and Risk of Bias in non-randomized Studies of Exposure (ROBINS-E) were used to assess methodological quality and risk of bias of included studies respectively. Results: 51 articles (n=19,531) were included according to the inclusion criteria previously established. There was a good to moderate methodological quality and a high to very high risk of bias. Skeletal methods for determining BA were precised in terms of intra-observer and inter-observer reliability in all ethnic groups. Regarding to accuracy of Skeletal methods in Caucasians and Hispanic children, GPA was accurate at all ages, but in youths, TW3 RUS could be a consistent alternative. In Asian and Arab, GPA and TW3 overestimated BA in adolescents near adulthood. In African youths, GPA overestimated BA while TW3 was more accurate in estimating CA. Dental and Cervical radiographic methods are equally precise but lesser accurate than Skeletal BA determination. Conclusion: Skeletal radiographic methods GPA and TW3 are both precise for BA determination among all ethnical groups, but their accuracy in estimating CA can be altered by racial bias.

The role of geodata technologies in humanitarian action is arguably indispensable in determining when, where and who needs aid before, during and after a disaster. However, despite the advantages of using geodata technologies in humanitarianism (i.e., fast and efficient aid distribution), several ethical challenges arise including privacy. The focus has been on individual privacy, however, in this article we focus on group privacy whose debates has recently gained attention. We approach privacy through the lens of informational harms that undermine autonomy of groups and control of knowledge over them. Using demographically identifiable information (DII) as a definition for groups, we first assess how these are derived from geodata types used in humanitarian DRRM. Secondly, we discuss four informational harm threat models: (i) biases from missing/underrepresented categories, (ii) the mosaic effect – unintentional sensitive knowledge discovery from combining disparate datasets, (iii) misuse of data (whether it is shared or not); and (iv) cost-benefit analysis (cost of protection vs. risk of misuse). Lastly, borrowing from triage in emergency medicine, we propose a geodata triage as a possible method for practitioners to identify, prioritize, and mitigate these four group privacy harms.

Alberta Cancer Exercise (ACE) is an exercise oncology program that transitioned from in-person to online delivery during COVID-19. The purpose of this work was to understand participants’ experiences in both delivery modes. Specifically, survivors' exercise facilitators and barriers, delivery mode preference, and experience with program elements targeting behaviour change were gathered. A retrospective cohort design using explanatory sequential mixed methods was used. 57 participants completed a survey, and 19 subsequent, optional interviews were conducted. Most participants indicated preferring in-person programs (58%), followed by online (32%), and no preference (10%). There were significantly fewer barriers (i.e., commute time) (p<0.01), but also fewer facilitators (i.e., social support) (p<0.01), to exercising online. Four themes were generated from the qualitative data surrounding participant experiences in both delivery modes. Key differences in barriers and facilitators highlighted a more convenient experience online relative to a more socially supportive environment in-person. For future work that includes solely online, focusing on building social support and a sense of community will be critical to optimizing program benefits. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, results of this research will remain relevant as we aim to increase the reach of online exercise oncology programming to more underserved populations of individuals living with cancer.

We derive the stabiliser group of the four-vector, also known as Wigner’s little group, in case of massless particle states, as the maximal solvable subgroup of the proper orthochronous Lorentz group of dimension four, known as the Borel subgroup. In the absence of mass, particle states are disentangled into left and right handed chiral states, governed by the maximal solvable subgroups sol2± of order two. Induced Lorentz transformations are constructed and applied to general representations of particle states. Finally, it is argued how the spin-flip contribution is closely related to the occurrence of nonphysical spin operators.

In light of Liu \emph{at el.}'s original works, this paper revisits the solution of Burgers's nonlinear equation $u_t=a(u_x)^2+bu_{xx} $. The study found two exact and explicit solutions for groups $G_4$ and $G_6$, as well as a general solution. A numerical simulation is carried out. In the appendix a Maple code is provided

In the field of 18F-chemistry for the development of radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography (PET), various labeling strategies by the use of prosthetic groups have been im-plemented, including chemoselective 18F-labeling of biomolecules. Among those, chemoselec-tive 18F-fluoroglycosylation methods focus on the sweetening of pharmaceutical radiochemistry by offering a highly valuable tool for the synthesis of 18F-glycoconjugates with suitable in vivo properties for PET imaging studies. A previous review covered the various 18F-fluoroglycosylation methods that have been developed and applied as of 2014 [Maschauer and Prante, BioMed. Res. Int. 2014, 214748]. This paper is an updated review, providing the recent progress in 18F-fluoroglycosylation reactions and the preclinical application of 18F-glycoconjugates, including small molecules, peptides, and high-molecular-weight proteins.

The emergence of multi-drug resistant E. coli is an important matter of increasing considerable concern to global public health. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, antibiotic resistance pattern, phylogroups and genetic variation of E. coli isolates from raw milk, vegetable salad and ground meat samples. Methods: Culture-based techniques, Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility testing, PCR and RAPD assays were used to determine the incidence rate, antimicrobial resistance pattern, phylogenetic groups and genetic diversity of the E. coli isolates. Results: E. coli isolates were highly resistant to amoxicillin (79.16%), trime-thoprim-sulfamethoxazole (70.83%), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (62.50%), tetracycline (54.16%), chloramphenicol (54.16%), nitrofurantoin (54.16%), ampicillin (45.83%), streptomycin (45.83%), and kanamycin (33.33%); and completely susceptible to norfloxacin and azithromycin. 70.83% of the isolates were multi-drug resistant. Most E. coli isolates (46%) belonged to phylogroup A. RAPD with UBC245 primer categorized the isolates into 11 clusters. A high level of genetic di-versity was found among the isolates; however, 33.3% of the isolates were grouped in a major cluster (R5). Conclusions: Antibiotic resistance patterns are randomly distributed among the ge-netic clusters. Novel, practical, efficient food safety control and surveillance systems of multi-drug resistant foodborne pathogens are required to control the foodborne pathogen contamina-tion.

Discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS are prevalent. A Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS report (2019) indicated that more than 50% of the people surveyed in one of the studies spanning 26 countries expressed unfavorable attitudes towards HIV-positive people. The objective of this study was to assess the attitudes of senior Education Studies students at a university in Spain towards people with HIV/AIDS so as to propose specific educational interventions. The study employed a quantitative methodological approach; a questionnaire with a 14-item attitude score served as the analytical instrument. The study sample comprised 613 students from the School of Education at the University of Huelva, Spain. The results showed that more than 50% of the School’s senior students had discriminatory attitudes towards HIV-positive people, some of whom were fellow classmates. This study proposes several formative approaches to reducing the stigma suffered by HIV-positive people, while also improving senior students’ skills and capabilities in the field of health promotion.

We consider a four-dimensional Riemannian manifold M with an additional structure S, whose fourth power is minus identity. In a local coordinate system the components of the metric g and the structure S form skew-circulant matrices. Both structures S and g are compatible, such that an isometry is induced in every tangent space of M. By a special identity for the curvature tensor, generated by the Riemannian connection of g, we determine classes of Einstein and almost Einstein manifolds. For such manifolds we obtain propositions for the sectional curvatures of some characteristic 2-planes in a tangent space of M. We consider a Hermitian manifold associated with the studied manifold and find conditions for g, under which it is a K\"{a}hler manifold. We construct some examples of the considered manifolds on Lie groups.

In this study, the decision-making process management of forest tending in the forestry business is decentralized, and forest tending decision-making activities at different points in time are integrated by decision makers at different geographical locations. The decision-making process was analyzed and optimized from a system perspective. Based on the optimized decision-making process, a forest tending business group decision support system (FTGDSS) was established. We first reviewed and discussed the characteristics and development of the forest tending business and forestry decision support system. Business Process Modeling Notation was used to draw a current state flow chart of the forest tending business, to identify and discover important decision points in the process of tending decision-making. We also analyzed the content and attributes of each decision point, and described the system structure, functional framework, knowledge base structure, and reasoning algorithm of FTGDSS in detail. Finally, FTGDSS was evaluated from the two dimensions of the technology adoption model. FTGDSS integrates different levels of time-space decision-making activities, historical tending data, business plans, decision-makers' management tendencies into the decision-making process and automatically extracts decision-making data from the forest business process management enterprise resource planning system (Smartforest) that improves the ease of use of the decision support system (DSS). It also improves the quality of forest tending decisions, and enables the DSS to better support multi-target management strategies.

Identifying group movement patterns of crowds and understanding group behaviors is valuable for urban planners, especially when the groups are special such as tourist groups. In this paper, we present a framework to discover tourist groups and investigate the tourist behaviors using mobile phone call detail records (CDRs). Unlike GPS data, CDRs are relatively poor in spatial resolution with low sampling rates, which makes it a big challenge to identify group members from thousands of tourists. Moreover, since touristic trips are not on a regular basis, no historical data of the specific group can be used to reduce the uncertainty of trajectories. To address such challenges, we propose a method called group movement pattern mining based on similarity (GMPMS) to discover tourist groups. To avoid large amounts of trajectory similarity measurements, snapshots of the trajectories are firstly generated to extract candidate groups containing co-occurring tourists. Then, considering that different groups may follow the same itineraries, additional traveling behavioral features are defined to identify the group members. Finally, with Hainan province as an example, we provide a number of interesting insights of travel behaviors of group tours as well as individual tours, which will be helpful for tourism planning and management.

A variable annuity is a popular life insurance product that comes with financial guarantees. Using Monte Carlo simulation to value a large variable annuity portfolio is extremely time-consuming. Metamodeling approaches have been proposed in the literature to speed up the valuation process. In metamodeling, a metamodel is first fitted to a small number of variable annuity contracts and then used to predict the values of all other contracts. However, metamodels that have been investigated in the literature are sophisticated predictive models. In this paper, we investigate the use of linear regression models with interaction effects for the valuation of large variable annuity portfolios. Our numerical results show that linear regression models with interactions are able to produce accurate predictions and can be useful additions to the toolbox of metamodels that insurance companies can use to speed up the valuation of large VA portfolios.

The application of a commonly used computer algorithm based on the group-additivity method for the calculation of the liquid viscosity coefficient at 292.15K and the activity coefficient at infinite dilution in water at 298.15K of organic molecules is presented. The method is based on the complete breakdown of the molecules into their constituting atoms, further subdividing them by their immediate neighbourhood. A fast Gauss-Seidel fitting method using experimental data from literature is applied for the calculation of the atom groups’ contributions. Plausibility tests have been carried out on each of the calculations using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure which confirms the excellent predictive quality of the method. The goodness of fit (Q²) and the standard deviation (σ) of the cross-validation calculations for the viscosity coefficient, expressed as log(η), was 0.9728 and 0.11, respectively, for 413 test molecules, and for the activity coefficient log(γ)^∞ the corresponding values were 0.9736 and 0.31, respectively, for 621 test compounds. The present approach has proven its versatility in that it enabled at once the evaluation of the liquid viscosity of normal organic compounds as well as of ionic liquids.

Current knowledge of the RNA world indicates two different genetic codes being present throughout the living world. In contrast to non-coding RNAs that are built of repetitive nucleotide syntax, the sequences that serve as templates for proteins share – as main characteristics – a non-repetitive syntax. The differences in their syntax structure is coherent with the difference of the functions they represent. Whereas non-coding RNAs build groups that serve as regulatory tools in nearly all genetic processes, the coding sections represent the evolutionarily successful function of the genetic information storage medium. The DNA genomes themselves are rather inactive, whereas the non-coding RNA domain is highly active, even as non-random genetic innovation operators. This indicates that repetitive syntax is the essential pre-requisite for RNA interactions to install variable RNA-group-identities, whereas the non-repetitive syntax serves as a stable conservation tool for successful selection processes out of RNA-groups cooperation and competition. The interaction opportunities of RNA loops with repetitive syntax are higher than with non-repetitive ones. Interestingly, these two genetic codes resemble the function of all natural languages, i.e., (a) everyday language use for organization and coordination of biotic group behavior, and (b) artificial (instrumental) language use for conservation of blueprints for complex protein-body constructions.

In this paper we describe and exploit a geometric framework for Gibbs probability densities and the associated concepts in statistical mechanics, which unifies several earlier works on the subject, including Souriau's symplectic model of statistical mechanics, its polysymplectic extension, Koszul model, and approaches developed in quantum information geometry. We emphasize the role of equivariance with respect to Lie group actions and the role of several concepts from geometric mechanics, such as momentum maps, Casimir functions, coadjoint orbits, and Lie-Poisson brackets with cocycles, as unifying structures appearing in various applications of this framework to information geometry and machine learning. For instance, we discuss the expression of the Fisher metric in presence of equivariance and we exploit the property of the entropy of the Souriau model as a Casimir function to apply a geometric model for energy preserving entropy production. We illustrate this framework with several examples including multivariate Gaussian probability densities, and the Bogoliubov-Kubo-Mori metric as a quantum version of the Fisher metric for quantum information on coadjoint orbits. We exploit this geometric setting and Lie group equivariance to present symplectic and multisymplectic variational Lie group integration schemes for some of the equations associated to Souriau symplectic and polysymplectic models, such as the Lie-Poisson equation with cocycle.

To examine the effect of synchronous dance movements on social bonding and perceived closeness between generations, 168 young (20-45 years) and older (65-90 years) participants were randomly assigned to six dyad conditions. These included dancing synchronously or asynchronously with an in-age-group or an out-age-group unfamiliar partner for 11 minutes. Participants completed social bonding and groups’ closeness questionnaires. To assess variation across individuals’ and dyads’ measurements, a generalized estimating equations modeling analysis was conducted. In line with the first two hypotheses, synchronized dance increased social bonding, and young adults showed enhanced perception of closeness between generations. Hypothesis 3 that synchronous dance with out-age-group members would foster greater perceived closeness compared to in-age-group members was not confirmed. Surprisingly, results indicated that asynchronous movements with the in-age-group led to a higher degree of closeness between generations than asynchronous movements with the out-age-group. The study offers new directions for practitioners in welfare, nursing, and therapy fields, particularly for engaging young adults in intergenerational dance interventions.

Indian tobacco farm laborers are primarily women and children working for very low wages. The aim of this study was to explore occupational and reproductive health challenges faced by women tobacco farm labors in Mysore District, India. We conducted interview and six focus group discussions among 41 women tobacco farm laborers. Codes and themes were generated based on deductive and inductive approaches using the socio-ecological model. Participants reported symptoms of green tobacco sickness including headaches, back pain, gastric problems, weakness, and allergies during menstruation, pre-natal, and post-natal periods. Participants had poor awareness about the health effects of tobacco farming and there were gender inequalities in wages and use of personal protective equipment. Participants received support from family and commu-nity health workers during their pregnancy and post-natal period. Women reported wanting ma-ternity benefits from the tobacco board, monetary support, and nutritional supplements. There is a need for health education about the environmental dangers of tobacco among farm laborers, and more supportive policies for women farmworkers during pregnancy and post-natal periods.

In the recent years, tubular nanostructures have been related with immense advances in various fields of science and technology. Considerable research efforts have been centered on the theoretical prediction and manufacturing of non-carbon nanotubes (NTs), which meet modern requirements for the developing of novel devices and systems. In this context, diatomic inorganic nanotubes formed by atoms of elements from the 13th group of the periodic table (B, Al, Ga, In, Tl) and nitrogen (N), have received much research attention. In the present work, the elastic properties of single-walled boron nitride, aluminium nitride, gallium nitride, indium nitride and thallium nitride nanotubes were numerically evaluated using the nanoscale continuum modelling approach (also called molecular structural mechanics). The elastic properties (rigidities, surface Young´s and shear moduli, and Poisson´s ratio) of nitride nanotubes are discussed with respect to the bond length of the corresponding diatomic hexagonal lattice. The results obtained contribute to a better understanding of the mechanical response of nitride compound-based nanotubes, covering a broad range from the well-studied boron nitride NTs to the hypothetical thallium nitride NTs.

Using structured light to drive colloidal motors, due to its advantages of remote manipulation, energy tunability, programmability, and controllability of spatiotemporal distribution, has been attracting much attention in the fields of targeted drug delivery, environmental control, chemical agent detection, and smart device design. Here, we focus on studying the group control of colloidal made from a photo-responsive organic polymer molecule NO-COP (N,O-Covalent organic polymer). These colloidal motors mainly respond to the light intensity patterns. We chose a digital micromirror device (DMD) to modulate the structured light field shining on the sample, by considering its merit of fast refreshing speed, good programmability, and high-power threshold. It is found that under ultraviolet or green light modulation, such colloidal motors exhibit various group behaviors including group diffusion, group patterning, and group migration. The qualitative interpretation is also provided for these observations.

RNA transcripts play a crucial role as witnesses of gene expression health. Identifying disruptive short sequences in RNA transcription and regulation is essential for potentially treating diseases. Let’s delve into the mathematical intricacies of these sequences. We’ve previously devised a mathematical approach for defining a “healthy” sequence (10.14218/GE.2023.00079). This sequence is characterized by having at most four distinct nucleotides (denoted as nt≤4). It serves as the generator of a group denoted as fp. The desired properties of this sequence are as follows: fp should be close to a free group of rank nt−1, it must be aperiodic, fp should not have isolated singularities within its SL2(C) character variety (specifically within the corresponding Groebner basis). Now, let’s explore the concept of singularities. There are cubic surfaces associated with the character variety of a four-punctured sphere denoted as S24. When we encounter these singularities, we find ourselves dealing with some algebraic solutions of a dynamical second-order differential (and transcendental) equation known as the Painlevé VI equation (10.3390/dynamics4010001). In certain cases, S24 degenerates, in the sense that two punctures collapse, resulting in a “wild” dynamics governed by the Painlevé equations of an index lower than VI. In our paper, we provide examples of these fascinating mathematical structures within the context of miRNAs. Specifically, we find a clear relationship between decorated character varieties of Painlevé equations and the character variety calculated from the seed of oncomirs. These findings should find applications in cancer research.

Assessment of the environmental impact of organic chemicals has become an important subject in chemical science. Efficient quantitative descriptors of their impact are their partition coefficients logPow, logKoa and logKaw. We present a group-additivity method that has proven its versatility for the reliable prediction of many other molecular descriptors for the calculation of the first two partition coefficients and indirectly of the third with high dependability. Based on the experimental logPow data of 3332 molecules and the experimental logKoa data of 1900 molecules at 298.15K the respective partition coefficients have been calculated with cross-validated standard deviations of only 0.42 and 0.48 log units and a goodness of fit Q^2 of 0.9599 and 0.9717, respectively, in a range of ca. 17 log units for both descriptors. The third partition coefficient logKaw has been derived from the calculated values of the former two descriptors and compared with the experimentally determined logKaw values of 1937 molecules, yielding a standard deviation of 0.67 log units and a correlation coefficient R^2 of 0.9467. This approach enabled the quick calculation of 29462 logPow, 27069 logKoa and 26220 logKaw values for the more than 37100 molecules of ChemBrain's database available to the public.

Metal complexes of mesoionic carbenes (MICs) of the triazolylidene-type and their derivatives have gained increasing attention in the fields of electrocatalysis and photochemistry. The redox-activity of these metal complexes is critical for their applications in both the aforementioned fields. Easy accessibility and modular synthesis open a wide field for the design of ligands, such as bidentate ligands. The combination of a MIC with a pyridyl unit in a bidentate ligand setup increases the π-acceptor properties of the ligands while retaining their strong σ-donor properties. The analogy with the well-established 2,2'-bipyridine ligand allows conclusions to be drawn about the influence of the mesoionic carbene (MIC) moiety in tetracarbonyl group 6 complexes in cyclic voltammetry and (spectro-)electrochemistry (SEC). However, the effects of the different connectivity in pyridyl-MIC ligands remains underexplored. Based on our previous studies, we present here a thorough investigation of the influence of the two different pyridyl-MIC constitutional isomers on the electrochemical and the UV-vis-NIR/IR/EPR spectroelectrochemical properties of group 6 carbonyl complexes. Moreover, the presented complexes were investigated for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 using two different working electrodes, providing a fundamental understanding of the influence of the electrode material in the precatalytic activation.

Many people with enduring mental health difficulties (EMHD) have reduced social connections and subsequent experiences of isolation and loneliness. This paper outlines the development and trial of a manualised social-identity-based group therapy intervention to increase social connection and develop social skills to build connections outside of healthcare settings. This intervention was developed in line with the quality intervention development (6SQuID) methodology. The paper describes initial data from a feasibility study (which was ceased prematurely due to COVID-19 restrictions). Semi-structured outcome interviews were conducted with the participants and analysed using thematic analysis. Uptake, retention and acceptability of participants was high. Four primary themes were identified across the dataset: Therapeutic Process, Social Identity, Generic Components of Group Therapy and Impact of COVID-19. Participants experienced positive changes in their social behaviour, mood and avoidance. Some were unsure of the concept of social identity while reporting positive changes. A theoretically coherent manualised treatment was developed and tested on a small scale. This study supports social identity-based CBT groups as a potentially effective way of increasing social connection in those with EMHD. Social identity theory supported participants to positively integrate an area of potential social threat into their self-concept and may offer a positive addition to current psychological interventions

The study of photonic crystals has emerged as an attractive area of research in nanoscience in the last years. In this work we study the properties of a two-dimensional photonic crystal composed of dielectric rods. The unit cell of the system is composed of six rods organized on the sites of a C6 triangular lattice. We induce a topological phase by introducing an angular perturbation ϕ in the pristine system. The topology of the system is then determined by using the so-called k.p perturbed model. Our results show that the system presents a topological and a trivial phases, depending on the sign of the angular perturbation ϕ. The topological character of the system is probed by evaluating the electromagnetic energy density and analyzing its distribution in the real space, in particular on the maximal Wyckoff points. We also find two edge modes at the interface between the trivial and topological photonic crystals, which present a pseudospin topological behavior. By applying the Bulk-Edge correspondence, we study the pseudospin edge modes and conclude that they are robust against defects, disorder and reflection. Moreover, the localization of the edge modes leads to the confinement of light and the interface behaves as a waveguide for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Finally, we show that the two edge modes present energy flux propagating in opposite directions, which is the photonic analogue of the quantum spin Hall effect.

When 2−1/Q<p≤2, we establish the C^{0,1} and C^{1,α}-regularities of weak solutions to quasi-linear p-Laplacian type non-homogeneous equations in the Heisenberg group.

I present an experimental paradigm to explore the interpersonal dynamics generating a collective mind. I hypothesized that collective organization is based on dual interpersonal modes: (1) symmetrical and (2) anti‑symmetrical. I specified the geometric topology of these modes by detecting the spatiotemporal patterns that embed cooperative agents in a three‑dimensional matrix. I found that the symmetrical mode is executed automatically and without guidance. Conversely, the anti‑symmetrical mode required explicit direction and recruited attention for execution. I demonstrate that self‑other mirror‑symmetry stabilized group dynamics, enabled fast and efficient symmetrical imitation that optimized information transmission, whereas anti‑symmetrical imitation was comparatively slow, inefficient, and unstable. I determined that the anti‑symmetrical mode spontaneously transitioned to the symmetrical mode under perturbations. Crucially, this renormalization mechanism never transitioned from symmetrical to anti‑symmetrical. These self-organizing dynamics speak to interpersonal symmetry‑breaking. In the present work, spontaneous group choice mandated that agents synchronize cooperative cycles in symmetrical space under internal or external perturbations. I provide examples to illustrate that this self-regulating pullback attractor manifests in invertebrates and vertebrates alike. I conclude by suggesting that inter‑agent symmetry provides the social stability manifold through which attention-driven interactions enable intrapersonal and interpersonal change.

A construction for the systems of natural and real numbers is presented in Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Thoery, that allows for simple proofs of the properties of these systems, and practical and mathematical applications. A practical application is discussed, in the form of a Simple and Linear Fast Adder (Patent Pending). Applications to finite group theory and analysis are also presented. A method is illustrated for finding the automorphisms of any finite group $G$, which consists of defining a canonical block form for finite groups. Examples are given, to illustrate the procedure for finding all groups of $n$ elements along with their automorphisms. The canonical block form of the symmetry group $\Delta_4$ is provided along with its automorphisms. The construction of natural numbers is naturally generalized to provide a simple and sound construction of the continuum with order and addition properties, and where a real number is an infinite set of natural numbers. A basic outline of analysis is proposed with a fast derivative algorithm. Under this representation, a countable sequence of real numbers is represented by a single real number. Furthermore, an infinite $\infty\times\infty$ real-valued matrix is represented with a single real number. A real function is represented by a set of real numbers, and a countable sequence of real functions is also represented by a set of real numbers. In general, mathematical objects can be represented using the smallest possible data type and these representations are calculable. In the last section, mathematical objects of all types are well assigned to tree structures in a proposed type hierarchy.

The manipulation of participant allocation in randomized controlled trials to achieve equal groups sizes may introduce allocation bias potentially leading to larger treatment effect estimates. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of nursing trials that have precisely equal group sizes and examine if there was an association with trial outcome. Data were extracted from a sample of 148 randomized controlled trials published in nursing science journals in 2017. One hundred trials (68%) had precisely equal group sizes. Respectively, a positive outcome was reported in 70% and 58% of trials with equal/unequal groups. Trials from Asia were more likely to have equal group sizes than those from the rest of the world. Most trials reported a sample size calculation (n=105, 71%). In a third of trials (n=36, 34%), the number of participants recruited precisely matched the requirement of the sample size calculation; this was significantly more common in studies with equal group sizes. The high number of nursing trials with equal groups may suggest nurses con-ducting clinical trials are manipulating participant allocation to ensure equal group size increasing the risk of bias.

A new kind of quantum gates, higher braiding gates, as matrix solutions of the polyadic braid equations (different from the generalized Yang-Baxter equations) is introduced. Such gates lead to another special multiqubit entanglement which can speed up key distribution and accelerate algorithms. Ternary braiding gates acting on three qubit states are studied in details. We also consider exotic noninvertible gates which can be related with qubit loss, and define partial identities (which can be orthogonal), partial unitarity, and partially bounded operators (which can be noninvertible). We define two classes of matrices, star and circle ones, such that the magic matrices (connected with the Cartan decomposition) belong to the star class. The general algebraic structure of the introduced classes is described in terms of semigroups, ternary and $5$-ary groups and modules. The higher braid group and its representation by the higher braid operators are given. Finally, we show, that for each multiqubit state there exist higher braiding gates which are not entangling, and the concrete conditions to be non-entangling are given for the obtained binary and ternary gates.

The present study was conducted the status of sea bass from Kokko and Kyuntone of The Gulf of Motttama Wetland (GoMW) area in Thanatpin Township in Bago Region Myanmar from September 2019 to August 2020. Fifty specimens were monthly collected, measured and weighed. Invoices of sea bass were collected for the depot and fish sellers by monthly. In Kokko, mean value of standard length and body weight were highest in March (32.70±1.58, 660.7±112.23). The mean value of standard length was peak in January (31.39±7.16) but peak of body weight was in March (963.24±280.86) in Kyuntone villages. The lowest mean value of standard length and body weight were found in June at both study areas. According to the invoice data revealed that monthly catch weight of sea bass is most abundance in October (829.92) kg in Kokko, (339.12) kg in Kyuntone. Based on price of relations to size group, small size C &lt; 300g (41%) was mostly abundance in Kokko and in Kyuntone small size C &lt; 300g (35%) was second abundance. Specimens were not landed in April and May. In June, young specimens were very rarely seen in both study sites. The important roles of wetland fishes, the economic valuation of GOMW in Myanmar and samples of fishing gear and value chain of sea bass in Myanmar was expressed in this study.

Fractals and multifractals are well-known trademarks of nonlinear dynamics and classical chaos. The goal of this work is to tentatively uncover the unforeseen path from multifractals and selfsimilarity to the framework of effective field theory (EFT). An intriguing finding is that the partition function of multifractal geometry includes a signature analogous to that of gravitational interaction. Our results also suggest that multifractal geometry may offer insights into the non-renormalizable interactions presumed to develop beyond the Standard Model scale.

The deterioration and destruction of the environment is becoming more and more considerable and greater efforts are needed to stop it. To accomplish this feat, all members of society must identify with environmental problems, with collective environmental action being one of the most relevant means of doing so. From this perspective, the analysis of the psychosocial factors that lead to participation in environmental collective action emerges as a priority objective in the research agenda. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the role of "environmental identity" as conceptualized by Clayton, as a central axis for explaining environmental collective action. The inclusion of the latter in the theoretical framework of the SIMCA model gives rise to the model that we have called EIMECA. Two studies were conducted, and the results reveal that environmental identity, a variety of negative affects, as well as group efficacy accompanied by hope for a simultaneous additive effect, are critical when it comes to predicting environmental collective action.

The paper presents an assessment of the growth dynamics of the modal fir plantations in the Lower Angara region. At present, a vast area of fir forests in the Lower Angara region is characterised by a significant decrease in sustainability due to periodic forest fires, insect pests outbreaks and diseases, which lead to their natural degradation and death. However, the intensity of coniferous stand growth in certain forest site characteristics persists in the long term. Therefore, creating regression models of forest growth and development involving the identification of site conditions is very important both from a practical point of view and for environmental monitoring. The materials of the mass inventory of 3491 stands served as the initial data for studying the processes of fir plantations natural growth. The Hoerl Model function is suitable for the best approximation of stand growth since it is characterised by high levelling factor (from 0.970 to 0.987) and a small standard error (not exceeding 7%). As a result of the research, there have been constructed sketches of the growth rate tables for the modal Siberian fir stands of the third bonitet class of the forb and mossy groups of forest types.

The growing number of the accessed energy-efficient frequency conversion air conditioners is likely to generate a large number of harmonics on the power grid. The following shortage in the reactive power of peak load may trigger voltage collapse. Hence, this conflicts with people’s expectations for a cozy environment. Concerning the problems mentioned above, an active management scheme is put forward to balance the electricity use and the normal operation of air conditioning systems. To be specific, schemes to suppress the low voltage ride through (LVRT) and harmonic are designed firstly. Then to deaden the adverse effects caused by nonlinear group load running on the grid, and to prevent the unexpected accidents engendered from grid malfunction, the dynamic sensing information obtained by an online monitor is analyzed, which can be seen as an actively supervise mechanism. The combined application of active and passive filtering technology is studied as well. Thirdly, the new energy storage is accessed reliably to cope with peak-cutting or grid breaking emergencies, and the fuzzy control algorithm is researched. Finally, system feasibility is verified by functional modules co-operation simulation, and active management target is achieved under scientific and reasonable state-of-charge (SOC) management strategy.

Water-soluble and cytocompatible polymers were investigated to enhance a transporting efficiency of biomolecules into cells in vitro. The polymers composed of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) unit, a hydrophobic monomer unit, and a cationic monomer unit bearing an amino group were synthesized for complexation with model biomolecules, siRNA. The cationic MPC polymer was shown to interact with both siRNA and the cell membrane and was successively transported siRNA into cells. When introducing 20 − 50 mol% hydrophobic units into the cationic MPC polymer, transport of siRNA into cells. The MPC units (10 − 20 mol%) in the cationic MPC polymer were able to impart cytocompatibility, while maintaining interaction with siRNA and the cell membrane. The level of gene suppression of the siRNA/MPC polymer complex was evaluated in vitro and it was as the same level as that of a conventional siRNA transfection reagent, whereas its cytotoxicity was significantly lower. We concluded that these cytocompatible MPC polymers may be promising complexation reagent for introducing biomolecules into cells, with the potential to contribute to future fields of biotechnology, such as in vitro evaluation of gene functionality, and the production of engineered cells with biological functions.

COVID-19 appeared as an infectious disease of global health emergency and the highest public health concern of 21st century for this world due to its high-speed of spread across the globe. The disease started as one single case to a cluster of cases in Wuhan, China (Dec 2019) and within few months with its continuous upsurge of cases spreading globally which has created enormous threat and tension across the global Public health care field. Most significantly to share the fact that, this disease caused high level of Risk Group mortality, high morbidity, health care services burden, panic anxiety, mental trauma and tension, social and economic insecurity, which also collectively surfaced by diverse range of social reaction and political pressure across the world. Also with the appearance of new and unknown pathogenesis of the disease has created the most and significant attention and concern for the scientific community and political leaders as well. The disease also varies much with its pattern of virus, sign, symptoms, characteristics including its epidemiological and public health response (like prevention strategy, diagnoses, case management, treatment pattern) across the countries. However, this variance is comparatively less rather even more in commonality while it comes to basic public health prevention interventions like frequent hand washing, wearing face mask, maintaining social/physical distancing (2 - 6 meter in between), individual isolation and community quarantine for suspected exposure and lockdown in community areas where cases are identified. These are with the most commonly practiced public health interventions to deal with this disease in majority of the epicenters across countries. Also with the progress of the disease with its diverse categorical appearance of sign symptoms which are uniquely portraying this disease is more of a kind of COVID-19 syndrome than as COVID-19. Moreover, various factors including socio economic status, health status, population dynamics, health system and infrastructure, health behavioral pattern, nutrition and food habit and access to information and knowledge made this viral disease one of the historically counted on expensive disease of the modern world to fight for. Specially to mention here, the case fatality rate distinctively vary with the population dynamics and the health system infrastructure and ability factors which have already created clear evidence as explained in this paper how these factors are uniquely distinguished and different from country to country. Apart from the contextual differences, the various kind of ongoing preventive measures (like prevention, diagnosis and treatment) learnt every day from the emerging characteristics and pattern of this viral disease which are most commonly practiced across countries with a variance. According to the Public health prevention practice and interventions, the total world is connected and learning from each other’s public health experiences to fight for the virus. However, the world communities are eagerly waiting to see the result and outcome of the ongoing therapeutics and vaccine trial initiated in several countries, the people of the world are quite optimistic and hopeful that, global scientific community will be able to invent some miraculous and magic solution in upcoming months which ultimately will free the world from this most terrifying COVID-19 pandemic of 21st century.

The famous Toms effect (1948) consists of a substantial increase of the critical Reynolds number when a small amount of soluble polymer is introduced into water. The most noticeable influence of polymer additives is manifested in the boundary layer near solid surfaces. The goal of the present paper is a group analysis of the boundary layer equations in two mathematical models of the flow of aqueous polymer solutions: the second grade fluid (Rivlin and Ericksen, 1955) and the model derived by Pavlovskii (1971). The equations of the unsteady two-dimensional boundary layer in the Pavlovskii and Rivlin-Ericksen models are analyzed for the first time here. These equations have no definite type so that finding their exact solutions is very important in order to understand the mathematical nature of the above mentioned models. The problem of group classification with respect to the arbitrary function of the longitudinal coordinate and time present in the equations, which sets the pressure gradient of the external flow, arises. All functions for which an extension of the admitted Lie group occurs are found. The task includes the ratio of two characteristic length scales. One of them is the Prandtl scale, and another is defined as the square root of the normalized coefficient of relaxation viscosity (Frolovskaya and Pukhnachev, 2018) and does not depend on the characteristics of the motion. The paper contains a number of exact solutions in the Pavlovskii model including a solution describing the flow near a critical point. Among the solutions of the new model of the boundary layer, a special place is taken by the solution of the stationary problem of flow around a rectilinear plate. Within the framework of the Prandtl theory of the boundary layer, such a solution was constructed by Blasius (1908). As is well-known, this solution has a non-removable defect: the transverse velocity near the edge of the plate increases without bound. The introduction of a relaxation term into the model makes it possible to eliminate this singularity.

Deep learning has achieved lots of successes in many fields, but when trainable sample are extremely limited, deep learning often under or overfitting to few samples. Meta-learning was proposed to solve difficulties in few-shot learning and fast adaptive areas. Meta-learner learns to remember some common knowledge by training on large scale tasks sampled from a certain data distribution to equip generalization when facing unseen new tasks. Due to the limitation of samples, most approaches only use shallow neural network to avoid overfitting and reduce the difficulty of training process, that causes the waste of many extra information when adapting to unseen tasks. Euclidean space-based gradient descent also make meta-learner's update inaccurate. These issues cause many meta-learning model hard to extract feature from samples and update network parameters. In this paper, we propose a novel method by using multi-stage joint training approach to post the bottleneck during adapting process. To accelerate adapt procedure, we also constraint network to Stiefel manifold, thus meta-learner could perform more stable gradient descent in limited steps. Experiment on mini-ImageNet shows that our method reaches better accuracy under 5-way 1-shot and 5-way 5-shot conditions.

We study almost hypercomplex structure with Hermitian-Norden metrics on 4-dimensional Lie groups considered as smooth manifolds. All the basic classes of a classification of 4-dimensional indecomposable real Lie algebras depending on one parameter are investigated. There are studied some geometrical characteristics of the respective almost hypercomplex manifolds with Hermitian-Norden metrics.

We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of trauma-focused group psychotherapy in adolescents who experienced traumatic events in Korea. Participants were assigned and recruited from two sites in Korea. Children in Disaster: Evaluation and Recovery (CIDER) V1.0 is a trauma-focused group psychotherapy approach consisting of psychoeducation, normalization, stabilization, and techniques of managing the traumatic memory. The CIDER intervention consists of eight 50-minute-long sessions. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated using the Korean version of the Children’s Response to Traumatic Events Scale-Revised (K-CRTES-R), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State Anxiety Inventory for Children (SAIC), and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedQL). Data were analyzed by Wilcoxon signed-rank test. We recruited 22 traumatized adolescents (mean age 16 years; SD 1.43; range 13–18 years old; 71.4% boys) in this pilot study. The K-CRTES-R scores were significantly improved (Z = −2.85, p < 0.01). The BDI demonstrated the effectiveness of the therapy (Z = −2.35, p < 0.05). The assessment of the PedQL supported the effect of CIDER (Z = −3.08, p < 0.01). However, there was no statistically significant differences in the SAIC scores (Z = −1.90, p > 0.05). The results show that there is preliminary evidence that CIDER intervention reduces post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms and improves quality of life. Our findings indicate that CIDER is feasible for treating adolescents exposed to traumatic events. Larger controlled trials are needed to establish the efficacy of this trauma-focused group psychotherapy and examine its impact on post-traumatic stress disorder.

The wave packet consisting of two harmonic plane waves with the same frequencies, but with different wave vectors is considered. The dispersion relation of a packet is structurally similar to the dispersion relation of a relativistic particle with a nonzero rest mass. The possibility of controlling the group velocity of a quasi-monochromatic wave packet by varying the angle between the wave vectors of its constituent waves is discussed.

BACKGROUND G6PD deficiency is an inherited an X-linked recessive condition leading to insufficient levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, thus causing hemolytic anaemia under certain conditions. METHODS Our study is explorative for cases admitted to Jordan University Hospital. The studied parameters include demographics, clinical manifestations, biochemical markers including Hb level, WBC count, liver enzymes, and blood grouping. RESULTS Most of the patients were admitted to the emergency unit (53.13%). Individuals who were Rh-positive represented 57.81%, while patients of AB blood group accounted for 75%. The mean values were 4.81 years (age), 29.06 hours (time-to-hospital admission), 38.10 degree Celsius (temperature), 6.11 gm/dl (Hb), 13242.19 (WBC count), 343.20 U/L (S. ALP), and 50.98 IU/L (S. ALT). There was no significant difference between males and females or between favism-induced versus drug-induced hemolytic episodes. AB and Rh positive blood groups are of protective effect in relation to liver enzymes. Patients who were admitted to the hospital within 24 hours from having clinical manifestations had a better prognosis. CONCLUSION This study is the first inferential research on G6PD deficiency from the Middle East to explore cases from one of the largest healthcare centres in Jordan. The role of blood grouping should be investigated prospectively.

Bioconvective flows have attracted attention in recent years due to actual and potential applications. In this paper, we consider a steady and laminar convective MHD flow of a nanofluid with heat, mass and microorganism transfer with a heat source/sink present. In addition, we assume there exists a first order chemical reaction. The governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are reduced to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using the scaling group transformation and the associated boundary value problem is then solved. The influences of selected governing parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, nanoparticle concentration, density of motile microorganisms, skin friction, heat transfer, mass transfer, and motile microorganism density rates are computed and discussed

Behavior of supported alloyed and de-alloyed platinum-copper catalysts, which contained 14% - 27% wt. of Pt, was studied in the reactions of methanol electrooxidation (MOR) and oxygen electroreduction (ORR) in 0.1 M HClO4 solutions. Alloyed PtCux/C catalysts were prepared by a multistage sequential deposition of copper and platinum onto a Vulcan XC72 dispersed carbon support. De-alloyed PtCux-y/C catalysts were prepared by PtCux/C materials pretreatment in acid solutions. The effects of the catalysts initial composition and the acid treatment condition on their composition, structure, and catalytic activity in MOR and ORR were studied. Functional characteristics of platinum-copper catalysts were compared with those of commercial Pt/C catalysts when tested, both in an electrochemical cell and in H2/Air membrane-electrode assembly (MEA). It was shown that the acid pretreatment of platinum-copper catalysts practically does not have negative effect on their catalytic activity, but it reduces the amount of copper passing into the solution during the subsequent electrochemical study. The activity of platinum-copper catalysts in the MOR and the current-voltage characteristics of the H2/Air PEMFC MEAs measured in the process of their life tests were much higher than those of the Pt/C catalysts.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) are rare tumors accounting for only 1-2% of all pancreatic tumors. pNENs are pathologically heterogeneous and are categorized into three groups (neuroendocrine tumor: NET G1, NET G2 and neuroendocrine carcinoma: NEC) on the basis of Ki-67 proliferation index and mitotic count according to the 2010 WHO classification of gastroenteropancreatic NENs. NEC in this classification includes both histologically well-differentiated and poorly differentiated subtypes, and modification of the WHO 2010 classification is under discussion based on genetic and clinical data. Genomic analysis has revealed NETs G1/G2 have genetic alterations in chromatin remodeling genes such as MEN1, DAXX and ATRX, whereas NECs have an inactivation of TP53 and RB1, and these data suggest that different treatment approaches would be required for NET G1/G2 and NEC. While there are promising molecular targeted drugs, such as everolimus or sunitinib, for advanced NET G1/G2, treatment stratification based on appropriate predictive and prognostic biomarkers is becoming an important issue. The clinical outcome of NEC is still dismal, and a more detailed understanding of the genetic backround together with preclinical studies to develop new agents, including those already under investigation for SCLC, will be needed to improve the prognosis.

When the epipelic algae group growing on the concrete inclined side wall, which is typical of urban rivers and open diversion channels, enters the water flow, it will seriously affect the func-tion of the rivers or the channels. It is urgent to predict the transport capacity of epipelic algae group with water flow. However, the current research on the transport of pollutants is mostly based on mathematical models, and the study of the transport of flake epipelic algae group is extremely rare. A generalized hydrodynamic experimental model of a flume with sidewall epi-pelic algae group was established. Through a series of hydraulic experiments, the physical movement form and transport capacity of the suspended epipelic algae group on the side wall of the channel were studied qualitatively and quantitatively by taking the thickness, sheet size and flow rate of the epipelic algae group as the influencing factors. The key influencing factors of the suspension of epipelic algae are clarified, so as to quantitatively analyze the critical conditions of its suspension. Through flow scheduling, the probability of epipelic algae gathering some-where is increased. It provides a theoretical basis for realizing the long-distance migration of epipelic algae and optimizing the mathematical model.

Understanding the dynamics of teamwork and communication among healthcare professionals is crucial in the face of evolving healthcare challenges. This study assessed relational coordination among healthcare professionals in the South Tyrolean healthcare system in Italy, focusing on communication and teamwork dynamics in a cross-sectional survey. Using the validated Relational Coordination Survey (RCS) instrument and 525 completed online responses, the questionnaire aimed to understand the implications of different levels of relational coordination ratings by general practitioners, hospital physicians, nurses, and administrative personnel (response rate 26%). The demographics of the participants revealed a predominance of female professionals (64%), with an average age of 50 and 18 years of service. The resulting RCS scores varied significantly across professional groups, with nurses reporting the highest within-group scores, indicating moderate coordination, and administrators reporting the lowest scores, reflecting areas of weak coordination. Between-group relational coordination was generally perceived as weak across professional groups, with the least weakness observed between general practitioners and nurses. German or Italian language and health district affiliation emerged as significant factors influencing relational coordination ratings, highlighting the need for differentiated understanding and strategies in multilingual and diverse regional settings. Assessments of interdisciplinary feedback and referral practices highlight the variation in teamwork and communication weaknesses and underscore the need for targeted interventions to improve relational coordination. This study provides insights into the complexity of relational dynamics in health care settings. It suggests that improving relational coordination through tailored strategies could significantly improve team effectiveness, quality of patient care, and overall system efficiency.

Digital-Radio-Frequency-Memory (DRFM) has emerged as an advanced technique to achieve diverse jamming signals, due to its capability of intercepting waveforms within a short time. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radars can transmit agile orthogonal waveform sets for different pulses to combat the DRFM-based jamming, where any two groups of waveform sets are also orthogonal. In order to design multiple groups of orthogonal waveform sets at the same time, this article formulates a group orthogonal waveforms optimal design model, whose objec-tive function is the weighted sum of the intra- and inter-group orthogonal performances metrics. To solve this optimization problem, this article proposes a group orthogonal waveforms design algorithm. Based on a primal-dual type method and proper relaxations, the proposed algorithm transforms the original problem into a series of simple sub-problems. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has the ability to balance the intra- and inter-group orthogonal performances by adjusting the weighting factors, which is not available using other state-of-the-art orthogonal waveform design algorithms.

Plasmonic nanocomposites have the ability to enhance light-matter interaction due to the 1 plasmonic effects leading to promising potential applications. In this paper, we theoretically study the 2 group index of the silver nanoparticle-gold nanoparticle-quantum dot plasmonic hybrid system in 3 the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum using the density matrix approach. The quantum 4 dot is considered to be a three-level atomic system of a lambda configuration, interacting with strong 5 control and weak probe fields. We find that the plasmonic hybrid system exhibits at near resonance a 6 strong switching between slow and fast light, which can be controlled by the inclination angle of the 7 gold nanoparticle and the size of the metals nanoparticles, in addition to the strength and detuning 8 of the control field. Thus, the silver nanoparticle-gold nanoparticle-quantum dot could potentially be 9 used in optoelectronic devices.10

This work is devoted to the construction and study of commutative gates for a two-qubit quantum system. Using four-dimensional algebra developed by the Kazakh mathematician Abenov M.M. all groups of commutative gates have been constructed, and among all states of a two-qubit quantum system, unitary states with which a specific gate is connected have been identified. An explicit type of gate is described that transfers a quantum system from one unitary state to another unitary state. The proposed approach opens up new possibilities for the design of quantum algorithms not only for two-qubit quantum systems, but also for $n$-qubit quantum systems.

In recent years, change in behaviour towards the environment has gained prominence as a policy tool to influence positive environmental value. Simultaneously, the role played by social identity in promoting pro-environmental action is gaining recognition. Within this work, the intersection between collective group identity and environmental behaviour has received very little attention. Group norms are considered a strong predictor of pro-environmental behaviour, yet the influence of social identity and collective action on environmental action has not been adequately investigated in a multi-ethnic setting. Within this context, this study examines the affective component of social identity influence on pro-environmental action. More succinctly, this study demonstrates how outgroups and in-groups’ relations and broader socio-cultural structures, values, interest, and norms impact environmental and sustainability transitions behaviours. Through interviews with participants across the four dominant social groups in South Africa, this study provides compelling evidence that country wide expressions of social identity and in-group dynamics shapes the individual behaviour regarding environmental and sustainability concerns and further strengthen the individual’s perspective for social environmental transformation. This study advances the need for a social-identity centred approach to foster pro-environmental and sustainability outcomes.

Background: There is a lack of literature specifically examining the workplace bullying of apprentices and trainees in traditional, male-dominated sectors such as the Australian building and construction industry. Using social identity theory (SIT), the aim of this study was to gather the attitudes, thoughts, and feelings of construction industry leaders to better understand how social identification (i.e., group membership) impacts bullying on targets and perpetrators, and the willingness to report bullying for targets and bystanders. Method: One-on-one, semi-structured interviews using a purposive sample of eight leaders from construction and blue-collar industries. Qualitative data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four overarching themes were identified: difficulties for apprentices transitioning into industry, the need for continued improvement to industry culture, reluctance to report bullying, and rethinking apprenticeships to empower. Each theme provides insight into the psychosocial phenomenon of the bullying of trade apprentices and suggests that an apprentices’ level of social identification with work groups shapes how bullying is identified, interpreted, and prevented. Conclusion: Findings from this study will be important for tailoring evidence-based interventions, human resource policies and initiatives for education and awareness training. Themes also highlight systemic inadequacies impacting apprentices’ mental health and skill development, with implications for the future sustainability of apprenticeship training agreements.

With the global outbreak of COVID-19, the panic buying incidents triggered by the variants of the Omicron strain have severely affected the normal social order. This paper considers the complex interest game and interactive relationship among multiple subjects in the mass panic buying event caused by rumors and constructs a three-party evolution game model of local government, rumor-monger, and public. Based on the theory of evolution game, the evolutionary process of the strategy selection of game subjects is studied, and the strategy selection of the three-game subjects under different scenarios is compared and analyzed. Taking the example of the montmorillonite powder panic buying caused by the XBB virus strain rumor in China, the evolutionary game model constructed in this study is simulated and analyzed. The study shows that: the evolution process of the mass panic buying event is characterized by six stages: the initial stage E1(0,0,0); the outbreak stage E3(0,1,0);the spread stage E7(0,1,1);the climax stage E8(1,1,1);the relief stage E5(1,1,0);and the recovery stage E4(1,0,0); there are four stable points in the evolutionary game of the three game subjects, namely (no intervention, no rumor, no panic buying), (no intervention, rumor, no panic buying), (intervention, no rumor, no panic buying), and (intervention, rumor, no panic buying), and the strategy of government intervention will be adjusted according to the strategy selection of the public and the rumor-monger; under the mechanism of reward and punishment of the higher-level government, increasing the punishment and reward intensity of the higher-level government will promote the local government to intervene in the rumor-mongering event faster, but increasing the reward intensity has a more significant impact on the intervention behavior of the local government than punishment, and increasing punishment intensity has a more significant impact on the non-rumor-mongering behavior of the rumor-monger than reward; the parameters of social risk-bearing cost, risk transmission coefficient, rumor-mongering income and cost, and public drug purchase cost have different degrees of influence on the evolutionary behavior of game subjects. This study provides new ideas for effectively responding to mass panic buying events in the context of public emergencies.

The recently discovered Jingmenvirus group includes viruses with a segmented genome, RNA of a positive polarity, and several proteins with distant homology to the proteins of the members of the genus Flavivirus. Some Jingmenvirus group members, namely Alongshan virus (ALSV) and Jingmen tick virus, are reported to be tick-borne human pathogens, causing a wide variety of symptoms. ALSV is widely distributed in Eurasia, yet there is no reliable assay for its detection. Here, we describe a qPCR system for the detection of ALSV. Our data show that this system can detect as low as 10⁴ copies of ALSV in the probe. It shows no amplification with common tick-borne viruses circulating in Eurasia, Yanggou tick virus—another member of the Jingmenvirus group—or some known members of the genus Flavivirus. The qPCR system was tested have no non-specific signal for Ixodes ricinus, I. persulcatus, Dermacentor reticulatus, D. marginatus, Haemaphysalis concinna, and H. japonica ticks. Overall, the qPCR system described here can be used for reliable and quantitative ALSV detection.

Given a square matrix $A$, we are able to construct numerous equalities that involve reasonable mixed operations of $A$ and its conjugate transpose $A^{\ast}$, Moore--Penrose inverse $A^{\dag}$, and group inverse $A^{\#}$. Such kind of equalities can be generally represented in the equation form $f(A, \, A^{\ast}, A^{\dag}, A^{\#}) =0$. In this article, the author constructs a series of simple or complicated matrix equalities, as well as matrix rank equalities involving the mixed operations of the four matrices. As applications, we give a sequence of necessary and sufficient conditions for a square matrix to be range-Hermitian.

It is a classic topic in algebras to construct and verify equalities that are composed of various algebraic operations of elements and their inverses or generalized inverses. In this note, the author constructs a matrix equality $(AB)^{\dag} = B^{\ast}(A^{\ast}ABB^{\ast})^{\#}A^{\ast}$ (called a mixed reverse-order law), where $A$ and $B$ are two matrices of appropriate sizes, $(\cdot)^{\ast}$, $(\cdot)^{\dag}$, and $(\cdot)^{\#}$ denote the conjugate transpose, the Moore--Penrose inverse, and the group inverse of a matrix, respectively, and shows that the mixed reverse-order law always holds. A list of variation forms of this matrix equality are also given, and necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for them to hold. Especially, we show a remarkable fact that the two reverse-order laws $(AB)^{\dag} = B^{\dag}A^{\dag}$ and $(A^{\ast}ABB^{\ast})^{\#} = (BB^{\ast})^{\#}(A^{\ast}A)^{\#}$ are equivalent.

The Lokpaukwu Uru Quarry was examined geologically, geophysically, and core-wise. The location is between 5056.149'N and 5056.193'N and 7028.312'E and 7028.356'E. The study location may include the Asu River Group and the Eze-Aku Formation. This area has five rock units. In the eastern research region, siltstone forms a "CAP" on the shale. Shale underlies half of the study area. The west has calcareous sandstone. The eastern part of the area is dolerite, the main rock that spans siltstone and shale. The region's geological matter contains iron. Two geological sections were analysed and interpreted to identify the five rock units and their outcrops in the study area. electroresistivity in geophysical research Schlumberger found that the western, northwesterly, and central sections of the research region had a thick sedimentary sequence, whereas the eastern half has an igneous body, the project's main component. Sandstone, siltstone, and shale follow the high-resistivity rock in this location. The rock unit in the region was found in eleven core samples from the east half of the study area. Nine rock-unit core samples were found near Obichioke. The Lokpaukwu area's core data shows the rocks' positions, kinds, minerals, and strengths. Geologic mapping shows that a major fault separates the viable Uru end from the unviable Obichioke lot. Recrystallization dominates the fault track (alcitic matter). Thus, prior to quarrying igneous (basic) units, comparable investigations are advised.

In a continuation and extension of an earlier publication, the calculation of the refractivity and polarizability of organic molecules at standard conditions is presented, applying a commonly applicable computer algorithm based on an atom-group additivity method, where the molecules are broken down into their constituting atoms, these again being further characterized by their immediate neighbor atoms. The calculation of their group contributions, carried out by means of a fast Gauss–Seidel fitting calculus, used the experimental data of 5988 molecules from literature. An immediate subsequent ten-fold cross-validation test confirmed the extraordinary accuracy of the prediction of the molar refractivity, indicated by a correlation coefficient R^2 and a cross-validated analog Q^2 of 0.9997, a standard deviation σ of 0.38, a cross-validated analog S of 0.41, and a mean absolute deviation of 0.76%. The high reliability of the predictions has been exemplified with three classes of molecules: ionic liquids, silicon- and boron-containing compounds. The corresponding molecular polarizabilities have been calculated indirectly from the refractivity using the inverse Lorentz-Lorenz relation. In addition, it could be shown that there is a close relationship between the "true" volume and the refractivity of a molecule, revealing an excellent correlation coefficient R^2 of 0.9645 and a mean absolute deviation of 7.53%.

Despite of over 20 years of community directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI), a high prevalence of onchocerciasis and onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy were observed in rural villages in Mahenge, Tanzania. Therefore, we assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice about onchocerciasis in four rural villages in the Mahenge area. This was a qualitative study conducted between June and July 2019. Eleven focus group discussions were organized with persons with epilepsy and their caretakers, community resource persons, and community drug distributors (CDDs), and two in-depth interviews with district programme coordinators of neglected tropical diseases (NTD). Most participants were aware about symptoms of onchocerciasis using local terminologies such as “ukurutu/rough dry skin” and “kuwashwa/itching”. A small proportion of people did not take ivermectin during CDTI for fear of adverse reactions such as itching and swelling. Some men believed that ivermectin may decrease libido. Challenges for high CDTI coverage included, long walking distance by CDDs to deliver drugs to households, persons being away for farming, low awareness of the disease and limited supervision by the NTD coordinators. In conclusion, ivermectin uptake in Mahenge should be optimised by continuous advocacy about the importance of taking ivermectin to prevent onchocerciasis-associated morbidity and by improving supervision during CDTI.

Mitochondria play key roles in cellular energy metabolism in eukaryotes. Mitochondria of most organisms contain their own genome and specific transcription and translation machineries. The expression of angiosperm mtDNA involves extensive RNA-processing steps, such as RNA trimming, editing, and the splicing of numerous group II-type introns. Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are key players of plant organelle gene expression and RNA metabolism. In the present analysis, we reveal the function of the MITOCHONDRIAL SPLICING FACTOR 2 gene (MISF2, AT3G22670) and show that it encodes a mitochondria-localized PPR protein that is crucial for early embryo-development in Arabidopsis. Molecular characterization of embryo-rescued misf2 plantlets indicates that the splicing of nad2 intron 1 and thus respiratory complex I biogenesis are strongly compromised. Moreover, the molecular function seems conserved between MISF2 protein in Arabidopsis and its orthologous gene (EMP10) in maize, suggesting that the ancestor of MISF2/EMP10 was recruited to function in nad2 processing before the monocot-dicot divergence, ~200 million years ago. These data provide new insights into the function of nuclear-encoded factors in mitochondrial gene expression and respiratory chain biogenesis during plant embryo development.

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disorder caused by pathogenic variants (PV) in at least 22 genes, which cooperate in the FA/BRCA pathway to maintain genome stability. PV in FANCA, FANCC, and FANCG account for most cases (~90%). This study evaluated the chromosomal, molecular, and phenotypic findings of a novel founder FANCG PV, identified in three patients with FA from the Mixe community of Oaxaca, Mexico. All patients presented chromosomal instability and a homozygous PV, FANCG: c.511-3_511-2delCA, identified by next-generation sequencing analysis. Bioinformatics predictions suggest that this deletion disrupts a splice acceptor site promoting the exon 5 skipping. Analysis of Cytoscan 750K arrays for haplotyping and global ancestry supported the Mexican origin and founder effect of the variant, reaffirming the high frequency of founder PV in FANCG. The degree of bone marrow failure and physical findings (described through the acronyms VACTERL-H and PHENOS) were used to depict the phenotype of the patients. Despite having a similar frequency of chromosomal aberrations and genetic constitution, the phenotype showed a wide spectrum of severity. The identification of a founder PV could help for a systematic and accurate genetic screening of patients with FA suspicion in this population.

In this paper, we propose a robust video understanding model for activity recognition by learning the actor’s pair-wise correlations and relational reasoning, exploiting spatial and temporal information. In order to measure the similarity between the pair appearances and construct an actor relations map, the Zero Mean Normalized Cross-Correlation (ZNCC) and the Zero Mean Sum of Absolute Differences(ZSAD) is proposed to allow the Graph Convolution Network (GCN) to learn how to distinguish group actions. We recommend that MNASNet be used as the backbone to retrieve features. Experiments show a 38.50% and 23.7% reduction in training time in the 2-stage training process along with a 1.52% improvement in accuracy against traditional methods.

Large blocks and boulders of banded iron formation and massive hematite up to 40 x 27 x 6 m and in excess of 10,000 metric tonnes were detached from outcrop of the Wilgie Mia Formation during the ca 2.20 Ga marine transgression at the base of the Paleoproterozoic Windplain Group, and deposited in a broad band on the wave-cut surface 900 to 1200 m to the east. At the same time sand and shingle was scoured from the sea floor, leaving remnants only on the western side of the Wilgie Mia Formation and on the eastern sides of the boulders. Evidence suggesting that the blocks were detached and transported and the sea floor scoured by a tsunami bore with a height of at least 40 m is provided by (1) the deposition of the blocks indicates transportation by a unidirectional sub-horizontal force, whereas the smaller boulders are randomly oriented (2) 900 -1200m separating the BIF outcrop and the blocks (3) the absence of the basal conglomerate between the blocks (4) the blocks and boulders rest directly on the wave-cut surface of deeply weathered amphibolites (5) the blocks and boulders are surrounded and overlain by fine-grained sandstone of the Windplain Group.

Studies of discrete pride in the workplace are both few and on the rise. We examined what has, to date, been yet unstudied: the impact that a leader’s expressions of authentic and hubristic pride can have on the followers at that moment, and on their feelings about their task, leader, and group. Students working in groups building Lego structures rated their perceived leader regarding expressions of pride, both authentic and hubristic. Students who perceived the leader as expressing more authentic pride rated the task, group (satisfaction and cohesion), and leader more positively; while the reverse was generally true for perceptions of expressions of hubristic pride. We found these effects both at the individual level, and at the group level. We also predicted and found moderation for the type of task worked on, creative or detailed. Implications abound for leader emotional labor and emotion management.

The universal Debye – Mayer – Kelly hybrid model was proposed for the description of the heat capacity from 0 K to the melting points of substance within the experimental uncertainty for the first time. To describe the heat capacity, the in-house software on the base of commercial one DELPHI-7 was used with a 95% confidence level. To demonstrate the perfect suitability of this model, a thermodynamic analysis of the heat capacities of the fourth group elements, and some compounds of the A^IIIB^V and A^IIB^VI phases was carried out. It produced good agreement within the experimental uncertainty. There is no a similar model description in literature.The Similarity Method is a convenient and effective tool for critical analysis of the heat capacities of isostructural phases, which was used as an example for diamond-like compounds. Phases with the same sum of the atomic numbers of elements (Z), such as diamond and B_0.5 N_{0.5 (cub)} (Z = 6); pure silicon (Si) and Al_0.5 P_0.5 (Z=14); pure germanium (Ge) and Ga_0.5 As_0.5 (Z = 32)); pure grey tin (alpha-Sn) and In_0.5 Sb_0.5, and Cd_0.5 Te_0.5 (Z = 50) have the same heat capacity experimental values in the solid state. The proposed models can be used to both different binary and multicomponent phases. It helps to standardize the physicochemical constants.

Patient group engagement is increasingly used to inform the design, conduct, and dissemination of clinical trials and other medical research activities. However, the priorities of industry sponsors and patient groups differ, and there is currently no framework to help these groups identify mutually beneficial engagement activities. Methods: We conducted 28 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with representatives from research sponsor organizations (n=14) and patient groups (n=14) to determine: 1) how representatives define benefits and investments of patient group engagement in medical product development and, 2) to refine a list of 31 predefined patient group engagement activities. Results: Patient group and sponsor representatives described similar benefits: engagement activities can enhance the quality and efficiency of clinical trials by improving patient recruitment and retention, reduce costs, and help trials meet expectations of regulators and payers. All representatives indicated that investments include both dedicated staff time and expertise, and financial resources. Factors to consider when evaluating benefits and investments were also identified as were suggestions for clarifying the list of engagement activities. Discussion: Using these findings, we refined the 31 engagement activities to 24 unique activities across the medical product development lifecycle. We also developed a web-based prioritization tool (https://prioritizationtool.ctti-clinicaltrials.org/) to help clinical research sponsors and patient groups identify high priority engagement activities. Use of this tools can help sponsors and patient groups identify the engagement activities that they believe will provide the most benefit for the least investment and may lead to more meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships in medical product development.

Pyrochlore group minerals are the main raw phases in granitic rocks of the Katugin complex-ore deposit that stores Nb, Ta, Y, REE, U, Th, Zr, and cryolite. They are of three main generations: primary magmatic (I), early postmagmatic (II), and supergene (III) pyrochlores. The primary magmatic phase (generation I) is fluornatropyrochlore with high concentrations of Na2O (to 10.5 wt.%), F (to 5.4 wt.%) and REE2O3 (to 17.1 wt.%) but low CaO (0.6-4.3 wt.%), UO2 (to 2.6 wt.%), ThO2 (to 1.8 wt.%), and PbO (to 1.4 wt.%). Pyrochlore of this type is very rare in nature and limited to a few occurrences, such as rare-metal deposits of Nechalacho in syenite and nepheline syenite (Canada) and Mariupol in nepheline syenite (Ukraine). It may have crystallized synchronously with or slightly later than melanocratic minerals (aegirine, biotite, and arfvedsonite) at the late magmatic stage when Fe from the melt became bound making impossible the formation of columbite. Second generation pyrochlore formed at the early postmagmatic stage of the Katugin deposit. It differs from that of first generation in lower Na2O concentrations (2.8 wt.%), relatively low F (4 wt.%), and les occupancy of the A and Y sites at similar contents of other components. Generation III pyrochlore is a product of supergene alteration processes. It is compositionally heterogeneous and contains K, Ba, Pb, Fe, and significant Si concentrations but low Na and F. Its compositions mostly fall within the filed of hydro- and kenopyrochlore.

The performance evaluation of the Internet of Things (IoT) based supply chain is challenging due to the involvement of multiple decision makers, the multi-dimensional nature of the evaluation process, and the existence of uncertainty and imprecision in the decision making process. To ensure effective decisions are made, this paper presents a fuzzy multicriteria analysis model for evaluating the performance of IoT based supply chain. The inherent uncertainty and imprecision of the performance evaluation process is adequately handled by using intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. A new algorithm is developed for determining the overall performance index for each alternative across all criteria. The development of the fuzzy multicriteria group decision making model provides organizations with the ability to effectively evaluate the performance of their IoT based supply chains for improving their competitiveness. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the model for dealing with real world IoT-based performance evaluation problems.

Efficient member revocation and strong security against attacks are prominent requirements in group signature schemes. Among the revocation approaches Verifier-local revocation is the most flexible and efficient method since it requires to inform only the verifiers regarding the revoked members. The verifier-local revocation technique uses a token system to manage members’ status. However, the existing group signature schemes with verifier-local revocability rely on weaker security. On the other hand, existing static group signature schemes rely on a stronger security notion called, full-anonymity. Achieving the full-anonymity for group signature schemes with verifier-local revocation is a quite challenging task. This paper aims to obtain stronger security for the lattice-based group signature schemes with verifier-local revocability, which is closer to the full-anonymity. Moreover, this paper delivers a new key-generation method which outputs revocation tokens without deriving from the users’ signing keys. By applying the tracing algorithm given in group signature schemes for static groups, this paper also outputs an efficient tracing mechanism. Thus, we deliver a new group signature scheme with verifier-local revocation that satisfies a stronger security from lattices.

Gonorrhea is a major global public health problem with emergence of multiple drug-resistant strains with no effective vaccine. This retrospective cohort study aimed to estimate the effectiveness of the New Zealand meningococcal B vaccine against gonorrhea associated hospitalization. The cohort consisted of individuals born 1984-1999 residing in New Zealand, therefore eligible for meningococcal B vaccination during 2004-2008. Administrative datasets of demographics, customs, hospitalization, education, income tax and immunization, were linked using the national Integrated Data Infrastructure. The primary outcome was hospitalization with a primary diagnosis of gonorrhea. Cox’s proportional hazards models were applied with a Firth correction for rare outcomes to generate estimates of hazard ratios. Vaccine effectiveness estimates were calculated as 1-Hazard Ratio expressed as percent. There were 1,143,897 eligible cohort members, with 135 missing information on gender, 16,245 missing ethnicity and/or 197,502 missing deprivation hence 935,496 were included in the analysis. After adjustment for gender, ethnicity and deprivation, vaccine effectiveness (MeNZB™) against hospitalization caused by gonorrhea was estimated to be 24% (95% CI 1-42%). In conclusion, vaccination with MeNZB™ significantly reduced the rate of hospitalization from gonorrhea. This supports prior research indicating possible cross protection of this vaccine against gonorrhea acquisition and disease in the outpatient setting.

Landing is one of the most dangerous tasks in all the operations on the aircraft carrier, and the landing safety is very important to the pilot and the flight deck operation. The problem of landing path selection is studied in this paper as there several candidates corresponding to different situations. A fuzzy path selection strategy is proposed to solve the problem considering the fuzziness of environmental information and human judgment, and the goal is to provide the pilot with more reasonable decision. The strategy is based on Fuzzy Multi-attribute Group Decision Making (FMAGDM), which has been widely used in industry. Firstly, the background of the path selection problem is given. Then the essential elements of the problem are abstracted to build the conceptual model. A group decision-making method is applied to denote the preference of each decision maker for each alternative route, and the optimal landing path under the current environment is determined taking into account the knowledge and the weight of both decision makers. Experimental studies under different setups, i.e., different environments, are carried out. The results demonstrate that the proposed path selection strategy is validated in different environments, and the optimal landing paths corresponding to different environments can be determined.

The creation of the National Muslims Women’s Advisory Group (NMWAG) in 2008 by Britain’s New Labour Government was part of a strategy which sought to engage different levels of Muslim communities beneath an overarching focus on reducing ‘Islamic extremism’. To do so however, Government acknowledged that it would need to support Muslim women to overcome some of the constraints it believed were placed on Muslim women in contemporary Britain. Deeming theology and religious interpretation to be one of those constraints, Government saw the need to empower Muslim women to ‘influence and challenge’ religious and theological discourses as a priority. This article therefore offers a case study on a project that was commissioned by Government that sought to empower Muslim women to ‘influence and challenge’ theological interpretations in collaboration with the NMWAG. Having gained unprecedented access to the NMWAG, its activities and engagement with Government, this article presents previously unpublished findings from that project to focus on two key themes: Muslim women, their identity and position; and theology, leadership and the participation of women. Having explored these in detail, this article concludes by critically reflecting on the way in which Government engaged and interacted with Muslim women, the role and relative success of the NMWAG and, most importantly, the extent to which the NMWAG was able to ‘influence and challenge’ interpretations of Islamic theology.

This paper formulates the performance evaluation of cloud services as a multicriteria group decision making problem, and presents a fuzzy multicriteria group decision making method for evaluating the performance of cloud services. Interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers are used to model the inherent subjectiveness and imprecision of the performance evaluation process. An effective algorithm is developed based on the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method and the Choquet integral operator for adequately solving the performance evaluation problem. An example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed fuzzy multicriteria group decision making method for solving the multicriteria group decision making problem in real world situations.

This report demonstrates the first-time asymmetric synthesis of enantiopure structured triacylglycerols (TAGs) of the ABC type presenting three non-identical fatty acids, two of which unsaturated. The unsaturated fatty acids included the monounsaturated oleic acid (C18:1 n-9) and the polyunsaturated linoleic acid (C18:2 n-6). This was accomplished by a six-step chemoenzymatic approach starting from (R)- and (S)-solketals. The highly regioselective immobilized Candida antarctica lipase (CAL-B) played a crucial role in the regiocontrol of the synthesis. The synthesis also benefited from the use of the p-methoxybenzyl (PMB) ether protective group that enabled incorporation of two different unsaturated fatty acids to the glycerol skeleton. The total of six such TAGs were prepared, four constituting the unsaturated fatty acids in the sn-1 and sn-2 positions with a saturated fatty acid in the remaining sn-3 position of the glycerol backbone. In the two remaining TAGs the different unsaturated fatty acids accommodated the sn-1 and sn-3 end positions with the saturated fatty acid present in the sn-2 position. Enantiopure TAGs are urgently demanded as standards for enantiospecific analysis of intact TAGs in fats and oils.

{This study investigates the coordinated behaviors and the underlying collective intelligence in biological groups, particularly those led by informed leaders. By establishing new convergence criteria based on real biological group experiments, this research introduces the concept of a volitional term and heterogeneous networks, constructing a coupled force Cucker-Smale model with informed leaders. The inclusion of the informed leader aspect distinctively characterizes the dynamics of leaders and followers, enabling a more accurate representation of biological group behavior. The paper then proposes the Flock Leadership Hierarchy Network (FLH), a model reflecting real biological interactions. By employing time slicing and rolling time windows, the study methodically analyses group behavior stages, using volatility and convergence time as metrics to examine the relationship between group consistency and interactions. Comparative experiments show the FLH network's superior performance. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that the FLH network follows a power-law distribution, highlighting the evolutionary intelligence of biological groups. This research offers new perspectives on the evolution of biological groups, contributing to our understanding of both natural and artificial systems, such as animal migration and autonomous drone operations.

This paper provides a first-time ever unification of information theory, semi-group theory with the theory of uncertain reasoning, through functional perspective. Fundamentally, the threshold theorems for the inference functional were devised. Furthermore, numerical experiments are illustrated. The complex proofs in our paper are original results which emphasizes the credibility of the class of Rényi Generalized Entropies as measures of information, and that the field is open to extend an enhanced methodology regarding queuing networks with heavy tails.

We define a spinor-Minkowski metric for SL(4,C). It is not a trivial generalization of the SL(2,C) metric and it involves the Minkowskian one. We define 4x4 version of the Pauli matrices and eight 4-component associated generalized eigenvectors that can be regarded as undotted covariant spinors. The 4-component spinors can be grouped into four categories. Each category transforms in its own way. The outer products of pairwise combinations of 4-component spinors can be associated with 4-vectors. Including the dotted covariant, undotted and dotted contravariant forms totally we have sixteen pairs of spinors. Eight of them live in the conjugate space which has no countepart in SL(2,C).

Macrolide antibiotics, effective antimicrobial agents, are intensively used in human and veterinary medicine as well as in agriculture and therefore are found all over the world as environmental pollutants, harming sensitive eco-community organisms and provoking the selection of resistant forms. A novel azithromycin derivative was synthesized and as a rationally designed hapten conjugate ensured group immunorecognition of 6 major macrolide representatives (105-41%), erythromycin, erythromycin ethylsuccinate, clarithromycin, roxithromycin, azithromycin and dirithromycin in competitive immunoassay based on anti-clarithromycin antibodies. The heterologous hapten-based ELISA format simultaneously contributed to a 5-fold increase in sensitivity (ERY IC50 = 0.04 ng/mL). However, for the detection of trace macrolides in environmental samples, an underexploited in immunoassay field strategy was proposed in the present study to significantly improve the detectability of analytes. Unlike most approaches, it does not require special enhancers/amplifiers or additional concentration/extraction procedures, but only involves a larger volume of test samples. Gradual volume increase of samples (from 0.025 to 10 mL) analyzed in direct competitive ELISA, immunobeads, and immunofiltration assay formats based on the same reagents resulted in a significant improvement (more than 50-fold) in assay sensitivity and detection limit up to 5 and 1 pg/mL, respectively. The suitability of the test for detecting macrolide contamination of natural water was confirmed by recovery of macrolides from spiked blank samples (71.7-141.3%). A series of natural water samples from Lake Onega and its influents near Petrozavodsk were analyzed during a 2022-2023 using both the developed immunoassay and HPLC-MS/MS and revealed no macrolide antibiotic contamination.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector of Bangladesh suffered a lot. To adapt to this uncertain situation, the online teaching-learning method was introduced for the first time in the dental colleges to continue regular classes. This qualitative study explored the in-depth perception among students of this new, affordable, flexible online learning method and to find out the scope of improvement of the delivery method. Two focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted, each including 6-8 participants (N=16, the male: female ratio was 7:9) for gaining an in-depth understanding of the perception of online teaching among the dental students. With the help of the trigger questions, the facilitator and moderators conducted both the FGDs. By analysing the Focus group discussion, four distinct themes were identified. The main themes extracted from the data refer to the difficulties which students faced during participation in online classes (e.g., low attention span, unusual timing of classes, internet accessibility, power cut, boring content, etc.), advantages of online learning (e.g., saves time, able to continue studying during the lockdown, saves money, avoids commuting, being safe during a pandemic situation, one can participate in classes if sick, etc.), disadvantages of online classes (e.g., not feasible for clinical classes and lab works, lack of social interactions, lack of group study, long screen time, lack of after class peer discussion, lack of engagement, etc.), and also scopes of improvements (e.g., technological training for staff, recorded classes, technological orientation for students, more engaging contents, online support, more interactive lessons, short duration of the class, break after 30-45 minutes and also teachers training for online facilitation, etc.). In Bangladesh, the online teaching-learning method is not a regular practice. Most of the institutions were forced to adopt this method on very short notice because of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Online education in a clinical subject like dentistry requires a special training program, online content preparation, and interactive lesson delivery setup which are big challenges for a re-source-constrained medical education setup. The focus group discussion unveiled some key issues which indicated that there are many scopes for improvement in online teaching methods. With the help of the medical education department and through faculty development the online learning sessions can be made attractive as well as beneficiary for the key stakeholders.

A time interval only description necessarily needs its own independent definitions, without one moment time coordinates to it. In this paper derived are time interval only set properties, including commutation relations, addition, multiplication and derivatives. Time interval only set commutation relations, consistent with one moment time set properties, are introduced by defining correspondence relations for these sets. Time development and equilibrium within the time interval description depend on the well-known ‘mean velocity theorem’ and the time interval version of the Legendre transform. In contrast, usually applied is only the traditional vector and one moment time coordinate kinematic approach from Newton’s laws. The main results of this paper are correspondences and time interval only set commutation relations. All other properties are derived from these results, while for the time interval only set, different from the one moment time set the canonical property is not valid. The time interval only description can be applied assuming spherical symmetric star-source radiation propagation, with finite time intervals for realistic measurement events. From time development with (a-)symmetry of time intervals, and from Curie’s principle, change can be described with a set theoretic approach. Time interval only set properties include the time interval only version of Noether charges and structure constants. A time interval only description for wave propagation, including group-velocity, for zero and non-zero mass wave particles, relates to the properties of the time interval only set. A second result in terms of the time interval only description is propagation wave energy equivalence with gravitation energy, derived from time interval only set commutation relations. A time interval approach, however including one moment time description dependence, was introduced in earlier publications of this author. In part 1 investigated are the time interval only set and its properties, a forthcoming part 2 to application of the time interval only description to specific groups of stars as emission sources.

This study reports results of focus groups with school nurses and teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools to explore their perceptions of child and adolescent oral health. Participants included 14 school nurses and 15 teachers (83% Female; 31% Hispanic, 21% White, 21% Asian, 14% African American, and 13% Others). Respondents were recruited from Los Angeles County schools and scheduled by school level for six one-hour focus groups, using Zoom. Audio recordings were transcribed, reviewed, and saved with anonymization of speaker identities. NVivo software was used to facilitate content analysis and identify key themes. The nurses’ rate of “Oral Health Education” comments statistically exceeded that of teachers, while teachers had higher rates for “Parental Involvement” and “Mutual Perception” “Need for Care” was perceived to be more prevalent in immigrants to the United States based on student behaviors and complaints. “Access to Care” was seen as primarily the nurse’s role. Strong relationships between community clinics and schools were viewed by some as integral to students achieving good oral health. The results suggest dimensions and questions important to item development for oral health surveys of children and parents to address screening, management, program assessment, and policy planning.

Building on recent directions in religion-related social and political science, our essay addresses a need for location-specific and religion-specific scientific research that might contribute directly to local and regional interreligious peacemaking. Over the past 11 years, our US-Pakistani research team has conducted research of this kind: a social scientific method for diagnosing the probable near-future behavior of religious stakeholder groups toward other groups. Integrating features of ethnography, linguistics, and semiotics, the method enables researchers to read a range of ethno-linguistic signals that appear uniquely in the discourses of religious groups. Examining the results, we observe, firstly, that our religion and location-specific science identifies features of religious group behavior that are inevident in broader, social scientific studies of religion and conflict; we observe, secondly, that our science integrates constative and performative elements: it seeks facts and it serves a purpose. We conclude that strictly constative, fact-driven sciences may fail to detect certain crucial features of religious stakeholder group behavior.

Background: Little is known about potential confounding factors influencing the humoral response in individuals having received the BNT162b2 vaccine. Methods: Blood samples from 231 subjects were collected before and 14, 28 and 42 days following COVID-19 vaccination with BNT162b2. Anti-Spike Receptor-Binding-Domain protein (anti-Spike/RBD) immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies were measured at each time-point. Impact of age, sex, childbearing age status, hormonal therapy, blood group, body mass index and past-history of SARS-CoV-2 infection were assessed by multivariable analyses. Results and Conclusions: In naïve subjects, the level of anti-Spike/RBD antibodies gradually increased following administration of the first dose to reach the maximal response at day 28 and then plateauing at day 42. In vaccinated subjects with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, the plateau was reached sooner (i.e. at day 14). In the naïve population, age had a significant negative impact on anti-Spike/RBD titers at day 14 and 28 while lower levels were observed for males at day 42, when corrected for other confounding factors. BMI as well as B and AB blood groups had a significant impact in various subgroups on the early response at day 14 but no longer after. No significant confounding factors were highlighted in the previously infected group.

The current study investigated whether a domain-specific intervention targeting maths and executive functions of primary school children with a Roma background would be effective in improving their scholastic performance and executive functioning. In total, 122 students attending Grade 4 of elementary school took part in the project. The study concerned a pretest-intervention-training experimental design with three conditions: the experimental condition, an active and a passive control group. The results suggested that both maths performance and executive functions improved over time, with no significant differences between the three conditions. An additional correlational analysis indicated that pretest performance was not related to posttest performance for the children in the experimental and active control group.

In open, sustainable policymaking, we are expecting to develop the valuable results that will bring us closer to a fairer and more balanced society. One way to involve the public in these processes is to engage them in online e-participation projects. Despite the hopes, empirical analyses show that many e-participation initiatives have failed to deliver expected benefits. Revealing what actually works in examined projects and what requires improvement would allow for better policy planning in the future. In this article, I made an attempt to identify and assess the cognitive processes enabling emergence of collective intelligence (CI) in a singular e-participation project. For this reason, I worked out and tested an evaluation technique, combining the MILCS framework for group cognition and the results of empirical research on CI. A case study method based on semi-structured interviews was selected to evaluate a sample participatory budgeting initiative, Civic Budget of the City of Kraków. Results reveal that most cognitive processes are working satisfactorily, but the real problem is using collective memory, which works only to a very limited extent. A guideline for future policymakers should be to develop a shared memory system, to which all community members should have access.