Theory of the Thermal Response Testing (TRT) is a well-known part of sizing process of the geothermal exchange system. Multiple parameters influence accuracy of effective ground thermal conductivity measurement; like testing time, variable power, climate interferences, groundwater effect etc. To improve accuracy of the TRT we introduced procedure to additionally analyze falloff temperature decline after power test. Method is based on a premise of analogy between TRT and petroleum well testing, since origin of both procedures lies in diffusivity equation with solutions for heat conduction or pressure analysis during radial flow. Applying pressure build-up test interpretation technique to the borehole heat exchanger testing, greater accuracy could be achieved since ground conductivity could be obtained from this period. Analysis was conducted on coaxial exchanger with five different power steps, and with both direct and reverse flow regime. Each test was set with 96hr of a classical TRT, followed by 96hr of temperature decline, making it almost 2000 hours of cumulative borehole testing. Results showed that ground conductivity value could vary as much as 25% depending on test time, seasonal period and power fluctuations while thermal conductivity obtained from a falloff period gives more stable values with only 10% value variation.

Packaged water consumption has grown rapidly in urban areas of many low and middle income countries, but particularly in Ghana. However, the sources of water used by this growing packaged water industry and its implications for water resource management and transport-related environmental impacts have not been described. This study aimed to assess the spatial distribution of regulated packaged water production in Ghana, both in relation to demand and for natural mineral water, to hydrogeological characteristics. 764 addresses for premises licenced to produce packaged water from 2009-2015 were mapped and compared to regional sachet water consumption and beverage import/export data examined. We find evidence to suggest packaged water is transported shorter distances in Ghana than in developed countries. For natural mineral waters, producers should be able to address the most widespread water quality hazards (including high salinity, iron and nitrates) in aquifers used for production through reverse osmosis treatment. The study suggests there is scope to integrate beverage product and groundwater regulatory databases to support groundwater management.

A difficult open problem that has never been fully resolved in the literature to date is the behaviour of the (TDCDP) third approximation. As a giant step towards modern control theory, this cutting-edge paper will advance control theory and other relevant inter-disciplinary subjects. Because control theory is important in industry and engineering, this study will be especially beneficial to anyone working in these disciplines who wish to understand more about recent advances in control theory settings. In contrast, the wealth of applications of Fokker Planck Kolmogorov (FPK) equations numerous disciplines As a result, the study instantly gains more taste and credibility. At the end of the paper, there are several challenging open problems, some concluding remarks, and recommendations for further investigation.

Neuronal timing is critical for many brain functions such as perception and learning. At the level of the chemical synapse, the synaptic delay is determined by the presynaptic release probability (Pr) and the waveform of the presynaptic action potential (AP). Depolarization-induced analogue-digital facilitation (d-ADF) is a form of context-dependent synaptic facilitation that is induced by constant depolarization of the presynaptic neuron and is mediated by voltage inactivation of presynaptic Kv1 channels. Whether synaptic delay is modulated during d-ADF remains unclear. We show here that despite Pr is elevated during d-ADF at L5-L5 synapses, the synaptic delay is surprisingly unchanged, suggesting that both Pr- and AP-dependent changes in synaptic delay compensate for each other. We conclude that in contrast with other short- or long-term modulation of presynaptic release, timing is not affected during d-ADF because of the opposite interaction of Pr- and AP-dependent modulations of synaptic delay.

An exposition is undertaken to reveal the significant impact of the time-dependent root parameter, on the stability of Pointwise Stationary Fluid Flow Approximation (PSFFA) model of the non-stationary queueing system. This opens new grounds to stability analysis of non-stationary queueing systems. Potential PSFFA applications of IoT are highlighted.

Drought stress imposes substantial constraints on the growth and production of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), a globally important cereal crop that is essential for food security. To mitigate these adverse effects, researchers are intensifying their efforts to comprehend how different genotypes respond to drought stress, aiding in the development of sustainable breeding and management strategies. This review summarized past and recent research on genotype-dependent responses of wheat to drought stress, encompassing morphological, physiological, biochemical, molecular, genetic, and epigenetic reactions in plants. Screening of drought-affected features at early developmental stages can provide valuable insights into the adult growth stages that are closely linked to plant productivity. The review underscores the importance of identifying key traits associated with drought resistance, and the potential of leveraging wheat diversity to select cultivars with desirable agronomic characteristics. It also highlights recent advancements in investigating Bulgarian wheat genotypes with varying levels of drought tolerance, specifically in detecting essential features contributing to drought tolerance. Cultivating drought-resistant wheat genotypes and understanding stress stability determinants could markedly contribute to enhancing wheat production and ensuring stable yields under changing climate conditions.

The dynamic response of a Bell-and-Bloom magnetometer to a parallel (to the bias field) time-dependent field is modelled beyond the commonly assumed quasi-static regime. The results unveil features that are related to the parametric nature of the considered system. It is shown that a for low-amplitude time-dependent field different operating conditions are possible and that, beside the commonly reported low-pass-filter behaviour, a band-pass response emerges. Moreover, we numerically show that for larger field amplitude the system, due to its parametric nature, has a kind of ``non-linear'' response.

Natural gas hydrate has gained significant attention in recent years. To safely and sustainably exploit the natural gas from gas hydrate-bearing sediments, it is crucial to understand the long-term mechanical characteristics of the hydrate reservoir. In this study, the influence of hydrate and fine particles on the strain rate dependence of hydrate-bearing sediments under plane strain conditions has been studied. The experimental results show that the strain rate dependency of the mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments is positively correlated with hydrate saturation instead of the morphology of hydrate in sediments. The residual strength of hydrate-bearing sediments is primarily controlled by the hydrate saturation and is independent of the strain rate. Changes in hydrate saturation, and fines content, can affect the relationship between the strain rate and shear band angle. Finally, the local volumetric expansion effect of hydrate-bearing sediments without fines content is more significant and shows a strong strain rate dependence characteristic. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the long-term mechanical characteristics of hydrate reservoirs. These insights can contribute to the development of a constitutive model of hydrate-bearing sediments with time-dependence in the future, and which is meaningful to the exploitation of natural gas hydrate.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the deadliest cancers. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the most common chemotherapy used for GBM patients. Recently, combination chemotherapy strategies have more effective antitumor effects and focus on slowing down the development of chemotherapy resistance. A combination of TMZ and cholesterol lowering medications (statins) is currently under investigation in in vivo and clinical trials. In our current investigation, we have used a triple combination therapy of TMZ, Simvastatin (Simva), and Acetylshikonin (ASH) and investigated its apoptotic mechanism in GBM cell lines (U87 and U251). We used viability, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), caspase-3/-7, acridine orange (AO) and immunoblotting autophagy assays. Our results showed that TMZ/Simva/ASH combination therapy significantly induced more apoptosis compared to TMZ, Simva, ASH, and TMZ/Simva treatments in GBM cells. Apoptosis via TMZ/Simva/ASH treatment induced mitochondrial damage (increase of ROS, decrease of MMP) and induced caspase-3/7 activation in both GBM cell lines. Compared to all single treatments and the TMZ/Simva treatment, TMZ/Simva/ASH significantly increased positive acidic vacuole organelles. We further confirmed that the increase of AVOs during the TMZ/Simva/ASH treatment was due to partial inhibition of autophagy flux (accumulation of LC3β-II and decrease in p62 degradation) in GBM cells. Our investigation also showed that TMZ/Simva/ASH-induced cell death was depended on autophagy flux as further inhibition of autophagy flux increased TMZ/Simva/ASH-induced cell death in GBM cells. Finally, our results showed that TMZ/Simva/ASH treatment potentially depends on an increase of Bax expression in GBM cells. Our current investigation might open new avenues for more effective treatment of GBM but further investigations are required for better identification of the mechanisms.

Human metapneumovirus is one of major causes of common cold among children, especially infants. Its key enzyme is RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase, which performs both replication and transcription, including capping and cap methylation. The goal of the work is to find possible inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase across the active compounds of Rosaceae plants. The candidates were selected by molecular docking to cap-transferring domain of RNA-polymerase (PDB ID: 4UCZ) in Autodock VINA. Among all the substances tested by docking, ellagic acid derivatives showed the most promising results (affinity values below -10 kcal/mol). Hence, they could be treated as possible candidate drugs against metapneumoviral infection after experimental examination. The main advantage of using these substances should be their low toxicity, which is quite uncommon for selective RNA polymerase inhibitors used in clinical practice. Occurrence of ellagic acid derivatives among the plants from Rosaceae family like raspberry could explain their effect during common cold.

The lateral pressure generated by liquefied soil on pile is a critical parameter in the analysis of soil-pile interaction in liquefaction-susceptible sites. Previous studies have shown that liquefied sand behaves like a non-Newton fluid, and its effect on piles has rate-dependent properties. In this study, a simplified pseudo-static method for liquefiable soil-pile interaction analysis is proposed by treating the liquefied soil as a thixotropic fluid, which considers the rate-dependent behavior. The viscous shear force generated by the relative movement between the viscous fluid (whose viscosity coefficient varies with excess pore pressure and shear strain rate) and the pile was assumed to be the lateral load on the pile. The results from the simplified analysis show that the distribution of bending moment is in good agreement with experiments data. Besides, the effects of various parameters, including relative density, thickness ratio of non-liquefiable layer to liquefiable layer, and frequency of input ground motion, on the pile-soil rate-dependent interaction were discussed in detail.

In this paper, we address the energy eigenvalues of two-dimensional Dirac oscillator perturbed by dynamical noncommutative space. We derived the relativistic Hamiltonian of Dirac oscillator in dynamical noncommutative space ($\tau$-space), in which the space-space Heisenberg–like commutation relations and noncommutative parameter are position-dependent. Then used this Hamiltonian to calculate the first-order correction to the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, based on the second quantization and using the perturbation theory. It is shown that the energy shift depends on the dynamical noncommutative parameter $\tau$. Knowing that with a set of two-dimensional Bopp-shift transformation, we mapped the noncommutative problem to the standard commutative one.

Objective: To investigate the protein expression levels of cyclin‑dependent kinase subunit 2 (CKS2) and cluster of differentiation (CD) 47 in gastric cancer (GC) and their clinical significances. Methods: A total of 126 GC patients who underwent radical resection were selected as study subjects. Additionally, 32 patients with benign gastric tumor, 42 patients with low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIEN), and 49 patients with high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIEN) who underwent surgery were selected as the control groups. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of CKS2 and CD47 in surgical specimens. We statistically analyzed the clinical significance of the expression of the two factors. Results: (1) The positivity rates for CKS2 in benign gastric tumor tissue, LGIEN tissue, HGIEN tissue, and GC tissue gradually increased, i.e., 6.3% (2/32), 30.9% (13/42), 38.8% (19/49), and 60.3% (76/126), respectively, and the positivity rates for CD47 were 18.8% (6/32), 38.1% (16/42), 46.9% (23/49), and 65.9% (83/126), respectively. (2) High expression of CKS2 and CD47 were associated with tumor diameter, Lauren classification, number of lymph node metastases, and TNM stage. In addition, the immunohistochemical scores for CKS2 and CD47 were positively correlated (r=0.625, P=0.000). (3) The median follow-up time of 126 patients was 46.5 months, and the overall survival rate was 40.5% (51/126). Survival analysis showed that compared with that in the CKS2 (-) group, the overall survival rate for patients in the CKS2 (+) group was significantly worse (25.0% vs 64.0%, 2=15.67, P=0.000) and that compared with the CD47 (-) group, the CD47 (+) group had significantly worse overall survival (30.1% vs 60.5%, 2=15.67, P=0.000). (4) The overall survival rates of CKS2(+)CD47(+) group, CKS2(+)CD47(-) group, CKS2(-)CD47(+) group, and CKS2 (-)CD47 (-) group were 20.0%(13/65), 58.3%(7/12), 57.1%(8/14), 65.7% (23/35), respectively, the prognosis of patients in CKS2(+)CD47(+) group was significantly poor. Conclusion: High expression levels of CKS2 and CD47 were closely related to the occurrence of GC and can be used as independent risk factors to assess the prognosis of patients.

In recent years, the photophysical properties of crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have become increasingly relevant for their potential application in light-emitting devices, photovoltaics, nonlinear optics and sensing. The availability of high-quality experimental data for such systems makes them ideally suited for a validation of quantum mechanical simulations, aiming at an in-depth atomistic understanding of photophysical phenomena. Here we present a computational DFT study of the absorption and emission characteristics of a Zn-based surface-anchored metal-organic framework (Zn-SURMOF-2) containing anthracenedibenzoic acid (ADB) as linker. Combining band-structure and cluster-based simulations on ADB chromophores in various conformations and aggregation states, we are able to provide a detailed explanation of the experimentally observed photophysical properties of Zn-ADB SURMOF-2: The unexpected (weak) red-shift of the absorption maxima upon incorporating ADB chromophores into SURMOF-2 can be explained by a combination of excitonic coupling effects with conformational changes of the chromophores already in their ground state. As far as the unusually large red-shift of the emission of Zn-ADB SURMOF-2 is concerned, based on our simulations, we attribute it to a modification of the exciton coupling compared to conventional H-aggregates, which results from a relative slip of the centers of neighboring chromophores upon incorporation in Zn-ADB SURMOF-2.

Abstract: Dispersal strategies of a species can affect its invasion success. Investigation into the dispersal strategies of invasive species in relation to different factors helps our understanding of the invasion mechanisms and provides knowledge for population management and invasion evaluation. Tetranychus ludeni Zacher (Acari: Tetranychidae) is an invasive species, which is native to Europe but now cosmopolitan. Here, we examined the effects of age and density on dispersal in mated females. Our results show that older females with more eggs were more likely to disperse and moved longer distances than younger ones with fewer eggs. Older females spread most of their eggs out of the natal habitats and over longer distances, which reduced competition and increased offspring fitness. Females significantly increased dispersal probability and distance with the increase of population density to avoid crowding. The synchronization of dispersal and reproduction, along with the positive density-dependent dispersal strategy, may facilitate habitat colonization and invasion speed of T. ludeni.

In this paper, in order to reduce the energy consumption and delay of data transmission, the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and edge caching technologies are jointly considered. As for the cache-assisted vehicular NOMA-MEC networks, a problem of minimizing the energy consumed by vehicles (mobile devices, MDs) is formulated under the latency and resource constraints, which jointly optimizes the computing resource allocation, subchannel selection, device association, offloading and caching decisions. To solve the formulated problem, we develop an effective joint computation offloading and task caching algorithm based on the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) algorithm. Such a TD3-based offloading (TD3O) algorithm includes a designed action transformation (AT) algorithm used for transforming continuous action space into a discrete one. In addition, to solve the formulated problem in a non-iterative manner, an effective heuristic algorithm (HA) is also designed. As for the designed algorithms, we provide some detailed analyses of computation complexity and convergence, and give some meaningful insights through simulation. Simulation results show that the TD3O algorithm may achieve lower local energy consumption than several benchmark algorithms, and HA may achieve a lower one than the completely offloading algorithm and local execution algorithm.

Dye-containing effluent generated in textile industries is polluting and complex wastewater. It should be managed adequately before the final destination. The up-flow anaerobic blanket (UASB) reactor application is an eco-friendly and cost-competitive treatment. The present study briefly reviews the UASB application for dye wastewater valorization. Bioenergy and clean water production potential during dye-containing wastewater treatment are emphasized to promote resource recovery in textile industries. Efficiencies of color and chemical oxygen demand of 50–97% and 60–90% are reported in bench-scale UASB studies. A biogas yield of 0.36–36.04 L d-1 in UASB, which treats dye-containing effluents, is documented. Bioenergy production and water reuse allow environmental and economic benefits. However, data on full-scale UASB treating dye wastewater are missing. Besides, studies on combined systems integrating membrane processes, such as ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, and pretreatment of wastewater and sludge for improvements in biogas production might realize the complete potential for resource recovery of UASB technology.

Oil agents produced from degreasing treatment of synthetic fibers are typical pollutants in printing and dyeing wastewater, which may cause large-scale environmental pollution without proper treatment. How to purify oily dye wastewater with low cost is a key problem at present. In this study, the biochar microspheres with oil removal ability were prepared deriving from waste bamboo chips using hydrothermal method. The structure of biochar microsphere was regulated by the activation and modification processes. The biochar microspheres were characterized and their adsorption behaviors for oily dye wastewater were explored. The results showed that the adsorption efficiency of biochar microspheres for oily dye wastewater (DTY) was improved significantly after the secondary pyrolysis and lauric acid grafting reaction. The maximum COD removal quantity of biochar microspheres for DTY was 889 mg/g with removal rate of 86.06% in 30 min. Besides, the kinetics showed that the chemisorption was the main adsorption manner. The application of biochar microspheres can decrease the costs of oily wastewater treatment and avoid environmental pollution.

In Ghana, rice remains a critical crop, representing 15% of the country's GDP. However, production has been hindered by limited water access, degraded soil, pests and diseases, and ineffective pesticide use. These issues have impeded industry growth while adversely affecting the environment and impairing socioeconomic development. To combat these challenges, it is necessary to implement sustainable production strategies that emphasize environmental protection, resource management, and socioeconomic progress. This study evaluates sustainable rice production in Ghana, taking into account its consequences on the environment, socioeconomic growth, and food security. It pinpoints gaps and offers advice for stakeholders, policymakers, and scholars to transition to sustainability. The study illuminates the increasing significance of rice in Ghana and its role in food security, illustrating increased output due to widened land rather than higher yields. It underscores the necessity of fulfilling surging demand while implementing environmentally friendly practices. The paper scrutinizes the difficulties encountered by the rice sector, such as restricted water supplies and soil degradation, along with the adverse impacts of pests, diseases and inefficient pesticide utilization. Sustainable methods are imperative for Ghana's agribusiness, environmental protection, and socioeconomic progress. By embracing green techniques, prioritizing resource management, and investing in research, Ghana can surmount production issues. This review provides invaluable insight and suggestions for policymakers, academicians, and stakeholders alike to ensure sustainable rice production for current and future generations.

To effectively estimate airport terminal area capacity and assess the maximum throughput the sector can achieve when the capacity is given, this research proposes an approach to assess the terminal area capacity from the viewpoint of service provision resources. Terminal area capacity is optimized based on the equilibrium of air traffic service resource supply and demand. The supply-demand nexus is examined in consideration of terminal area route structure, traffic flow characteristics, and safety regulations. A flight service probability matrix and a terminal area demand and supply service time model are constructed to quantify resource expenditure at varied capacity levels. A optimization model is then developed to apportion maximal capacity under resource limitations. Model computation and computation results demonstrate the deviation between estimated and amended capacities is under 0.3 flight sorties per hour. The outcomes are congruent with historical statistics, thereby validating the accuracy and reliability of the model proposed in this study. Given capacity parameters, the model can deduce the maximal aircraft quantity served concurrently in terminal areas during peak periods. These revelations indicate the submitted model furnishes theoretical foundation and reference for terminal area sector partition and traffic alerting.

Evaluating the performance of water indices and mapping the spatial distribution of water-related ecosystems are important for monitoring surface water resources. This is particularly the case for Ethiopia since there is limited information available on water resources development over time despite its relevance for the people and ecosystems. To address this problem, this paper evaluates the performance of seven water indices for country-scale surface water detection based on high spatial and multi-temporal resolution Sentinel-2 data, processed using the Google Earth Engine cloud computing system. Results show that the water index (WI) and automatic water extraction index with shadow (AWEIsh) are the most accurate ones to extract surface water. Comparisons are based on qualitative visual inspections and quantitative accuracy indicators. For the latter, WI and AWEIsh obtained kappa coefficients of 0.96 and 0.95, respectively, and an overall accuracy of 0.98 each. Both indices accounted for similar spatial coverages of surface waters with 82,650 km2 (WI) and 86,530 km2 (AWEIsh) for the whole of Ethiopia.

Disruptive selection arises when extreme phenotypes have a fitness advantage compared to more intermediate phenotypes. Theory and evidence suggest that intraspecific resource competition is a key driver of disruptive selection. However, while competition can be indirect (exploitative) or direct (interference), the role of interference competition in disruptive selection has not been tested, and most models of disruptive selection assume exploitative competition. We experimentally investigated whether the type of competition affects the outcome of competitive interactions using a system where disruptive selection is common: Mexican spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata). Spea tadpoles develop into alternative resource-use phenotypes: carnivores, which consume fairy shrimp and other tadpoles, and omnivores, which feed on algae and detritus. Tadpoles intermediate in phenotype have low fitness when competition is intense, as they are outcompeted by the specialized tadpoles. Our experiments revealed that the presence of carnivores significantly decreased foraging behavior in intermediate tadpoles, and that intermediate tadpoles had significantly lower growth rates in interference competition treatments with carnivores but not with omnivores. Interference competition may therefore be important in driving disruptive selection. As carnivore tadpoles are also cannibalistic, the ‘fear’ effect may have a greater impact on intermediate tadpoles than exploitative competition alone, similarly to non-consumptive effects in predator-prey or intraguild relationships.

River flow prediction is a pivotal task in the field of water resource management during the era of rapid climate change. The highly dynamic and evolving nature of the climatic variables e.g., precipitation has a significant impact on the temporal distribution of the river discharge in recent days making the discharge forecasting even more complicated for diversified water-related issues e.g., flood prediction and irrigation planning. To predict the discharge, various physics-based numerical models are used using numerous hydrologic parameters. Extensive lab-based investigation and calibration are required to reduce the uncertainty involved in those parameters. However, in the age of data-driven predictions, several deep learning algorithms showed satisfactory performance in dealing with sequential data. In this research, Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) neural network regression model is trained using over 80 years of daily data to forecast the discharge time series up to 3 days ahead of time. The performance of the model is found satisfactory through the comparison of the predicted data with the observed data, visualization of the distribution of the errors and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) value of 0.09. Higher performance is achieved through the increase in the number of epochs and hyper parameter tuning. This model can be transferred to other locations with proper feature engineering and optimization to perform univariate predictive analysis and potentially be used to perform real-time river discharge prediction.

The concept of green energy is now at the forefront of development discourse, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 11, and 12 all aimed at promoting green energy consumption to combat the three planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Similarly, issues regarding Africa’s natural resource curse have caused a stir in the growth and development literature for some time now and there is no sign that it will die out. This study, the first of its kind, simultaneously assesses the impact of green energy consumption and Africa’s natural resources rents on economic growth by applying the Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) estimator and the dynamic panel models of the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Mean Group (MG) estimators on data from 1990 to 2020 for 24 selected African countries. The results show that green energy consumption has a short-run growth-limiting effect and a long-run growth-enhancing effect in Africa. The study also found evidence of the natural resource curse phenomenon in Africa. The study, therefore, calls for the advancement and usage of green energy for both domestic and industrial production in Africa. The study further calls for a revamp in the global tax policy to curb illicit financial activities and strengthening institutional quality for transparency and accountability in the entire value chain of natural resource management in Africa.

In the context of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, an important aspect that was affected and changed was the way people communicate. Communication efficiency can be improved by using modern technologies, for example: mobile devices, digital audio and video platforms, text platforms, social media and more. For further economic success, digital skills are needed not only for executives, but also for managers, in order to be able to lead teams and avoid situations of stress and tension in the virtual environment. This scientific paper includes a primary research of how the pandemic affected the communication at the workplace. For this a qualitative analysis was first performed, in which the interview was used as a working tool. Next, on the basis of a questionnaire, a hypothesis was formulated and validated afterwards through multiple linear regression. This research highlighted the particularly important role of communication and, in this context, the role of the remote team leader. In order to keep the team motivated and interested in the virtual environment, the manager must use modern tools to motivate, support and express his appreciation when the team, respectively the members of his team, achieve their goals successfully.

Background: With new challenges to the health system, many new competencies within the scope of teaching public health need to be addressed in medical schools’ curricula such as disaster risk management and health system science. The aims of this study were to identify the needs of public health competencies for medical doctors in Thailand and to assess the level of integration for technical collaboration in teaching public health. Method: A total of 17 out of 21 Thai medical schools participated in the national survey. Qualitative inquiries applied focus group interviews of community representatives from ten sample villages and in-depth interviews of representatives from stakeholder organizations particularly employers. The list of public health competencies framework recommended by WHO-SEARO was applied. Quantitative analysis applied descriptive analysis using STATA 15 and qualitative findings were validated by interrelating the meaning of themes from Word Clouds created in NVivo12. Data integration applied a mixed-method Quan-qual approach. Results: 17 medical schools returned the questionnaires (80.95 % yield). The most common regionally-defined public health competencies (in over 70% of schools) were shown to be: Biostatistics, Community Medicine, Epidemiology, Family Medicine, Medical Ethics and Professional Laws, Preventive Medicine, Health Promotion, Holistic Care, and Research. The curriculum in only one medical school lacked Health Economics, whilst Disaster Management was lacking in two other schools. Discipline-based subjects were found to be more prevalent than interdisciplinary competencies. A variety of methods were being applied for teaching public health. The majority of the schools applied lecture as the main teaching method and multiple-choice questions as the main assessment method. Thai communities expect the doctors to get in touch with the community more often, lead the primary health care team through training the health professionals and community health volunteers, and educate the community for better health. Conclusion: Human resource is the main challenge in addressing interdisciplinary competencies. It is necessary to establish a collaborating mechanism among the big and small medical schools and the faculties of public health to improve the teaching of public health to undergraduate students in medical schools. There is also a need to strengthen the health system science and leadership so that future MDs can lead health service delivery according to the needs of their employers such as the Ministry of Public Health and the Rural Doctors Association. The findings of this study may help to identify a national framework of public health core competencies for medical schools and create a common platform for interdisciplinary collaborations.

Based on the institutional theory and resource-based theory and the "institution-strategy-performance" research paradigm, this research explores the mechanism of institutional support on the innovation performance of new ventures, focusing on the mediating role of entrepreneurs and the moderating role of innovative resource acquisition. An empirical analysis based on 278 survey samples shows that: ① (formal/informal) institutional support positively affects the innovation performance of new ventures; ② entrepreneurial orientation plays an intermediary role between institutional support and innovation performance of new ventures; ③ innovation resource acquisition not only positively regulates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and innovation performance of new ventures, but also enhances the mediation of entrepreneurial orientation between institutional support and innovation performance. The conclusion shows that institutional support plays an important role in the innovation practice of new ventures, and can provide guidance for the innovation management practices of new ventures.

Zoos are increasingly putting in place formalized animal welfare assessment programs to allow monitoring of welfare over time, as well as to aid in resource prioritization. These programs tend to rely on assessment tools that incorporate resource-based and observational animal- focused measures since it is rarely feasible to obtain measures of physiology in zoo-housed animals. A range of assessment tools are available which commonly have a basis in the Five Domains framework. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to bring together recent studies examining welfare assessment methods in zoo animals. A summary of these methods is provided with advantages and limitations of the approach es presented. We then highlight practical considerations with respect to implementation of these tools into practice, for example scoring schemes, weighting of criteria, and innate animal factors for consideration. It is concluded that would be value in standardizing guidelines for development of welfare assessment tools since zoo accreditation bodies rarely prescribe these. There is also a need to develop taxon or species- specific assessment tools to inform welfare management.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) purport to report holistically on progress towards sustainability and do so using more than 231 discrete indicators with a primary objective to achieve a balance between the environment, social and economic aspects of development. The research question underpinning the analyses presented in this paper is: are the indicators in the SDGs sufficient and fit-for-purpose to assess the trajectory of natural resources towards sustainability? We extracted the SDG indicators that monitor the state of natural resources, or alternately support policy or governance for their protection, and determined if these are adequate to provide the essential data on natural resources to achieve the aims of the SDGs. The indicators are clustered into four natural resource categories; land, water (both marine and freshwater), air and biodiversity. Indicators for monitoring land resources show that the most comprehensive land resource indicator, for degraded land, is not fully implemented and that missing from land monitoring is an evaluation of vegetation health outside of forests and mountains, the condition of soils, and most importantly the overall health of terrestrial ecosystems. Indicators for monitoring water resources have substantial gaps, unable to properly monitor water quality, water stress, many aspects of marine resources and most significantly, the health of fresh and salt water ecosystems. Indicators for monitoring of air have recently become more comprehensive, but linkage to IPCC results would benefit both programmes. Monitoring of biodiversity is perhaps the greatest weakness of the SDG Agenda, having no comprehensive assessment even though narrow aspects are monitored. Again, deliberate linkages to other global biodiversity programmes (e.g. CBD and the Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework; IPBES; Living Planet, etc.) are recommended on condition that data can be defined at a country level. While the SDG list of indicators in support of natural resource is moderately comprehensive, it lacks holistic monitoring in relation to evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity to the extent that these missing but vital measures of sustainability threaten the entire SDG Agenda. In addition, an emerging issue is that even where there are appropriate indicators, the amount of country-level data remains inadequate to fully evaluate sustainability. This signals the delicate balance between the extent and complexity of the SDG Agenda and uptake at a country level

Organ transplantation centers set criteria for candidate qualification, which has led to disparate healthcare resource allocation practices affecting those with a substance use history. These individuals are denied organ transplants by committees and healthcare providers who assign them lower priority status. The lower priority argument claims that healthcare resources should not be provided equally to individuals failing to share responsibility for not doing enough in addressing the diseases associated with substance use. The purpose of this work is to explore the interrelatedness between the ethics of a merit-based system of moral responsibility and lower priority setting involved in healthcare resource allocation pertaining to those with substance use histories. An integral approach to the argument against the lower prioritists with a focus on the relationship between different organ allocation practices affecting substance users and the justification for resource allocation practices in healthcare and transplant committees. Lower priority setting is challenged, and an argument offered in which substance users are assigned higher priority when relying on “doing enough” in a merit-based system of moral responsibility. It is determined that one cannot substantiate assigning a lower priority status since a lack of success in rehab does not imply a lack of effort. Additionally, neither to confirmatory behavior, nor to non-conforming behavior may freedom be justifiably ascribed in a merit-based system of responsibility because freedom to choose can neither be established a priori, nor a posteriori with respect to meritorious behavior.

The optimization of the production process of metal mines has been traditionally driven only by economic benefits while ignoring resource efficiency. However, it has become increasingly aware of the importance of resource efficiency since mineral resource reserves continue to decrease while the demand continues to grow. To better utilize the mineral resources for sustainable development, this paper proposes a multi-objective optimization model of the production process of metal mines considering both economic benefits and resource efficiency. Specifically, the goals of the proposed model are to maximize the profit and resource utilization rate. Then, the fast and elitist Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to optimize the multi-objective optimization model. The proposed model has been applied to the optimization of the production process of a stage in the Huogeqi Copper Mine. The optimization results provide a set of Pareto-optimal solutions that can meet varying needs of decision makers. Moreover, compared with those of the current production indicators, the profit and resource utilization rate of some points in the optimization results can increase respectively by 2.99% and 2.64%. Additionally, the effects of the decision variables (geological cut-off grade, minimum industrial grade and loss ratio) on objective functions (profit and resource utilization rate) were discussed using variance analysis. The sensitivities of the Pareto-optimal solutions to the unit copper concentrate price were studied. The results show that the Pareto-optimal solutions at higher profits (with lower resource utilization rates) are more sensitive to the unit copper concentrate prices than those obtained in regions with lower profits.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SDGs, are high on the agenda for most countries of the world. In its publication of the SDGs, the UN has provided the goals and target descriptions that, if implemented at a country level, would lead towards a sustainable future. The IAEG (InterAgency Expert Group of the SDGs) was tasked with disseminating indicators and methods to countries that can be used to gather data describing the global progress towards sustainability. However 2030 Agenda leaves it to countries to adopt the targets with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. At present, guidance on how to go about this is scant, but it is clear that the responsibility is with countries to implement and that it is actions at a country level that will determine the success of the SDGs. SDG reporting by countries takes on two forms 1) global reporting using prescribed indicator methods and data; 2) National Voluntary Reviews where a country reports on its own progress in more detail but is also able to present data that are more appropriate for the country. For the latter, countries need to be able to adapt the global indicators to fit national priorities and context, thus the global description of an indicator could be reduced to describe only what is relevant to the country. Countries may also, for the National Voluntary Review, use indicators that are unique to the country but nevertheless contribute to measurement of progress towards the global SDG target. Importantly, for those indicators that relate to the security of natural resources security (e.g. water) indicators, there are no prescribed numerical targets/standards or benchmarks. Rather countries will need to set their own benchmarks or standards against which performance can be evaluated. This paper presents a procedure that would enable a country to describe national targets with associated benchmarks that are appropriate for the country. The procedure focusses on those SDG targets that are natural resource-security focussed e.g. extent of water-related ecosystems (6.6), desertification (15.3) etc., because the selection of indicator methods and benchmarks is based on the location of natural resources, their use and present state and how they fit into national strategies.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) severing as the relay is an effective technology method to extend the coverage. It can also alleviate the congestion and increase the throughput, especially applied in UAV networks. However, since the energy of UAVs is limited and the resources in UAV networks are scarce, how to optimize the network delay performance under these constraints should be well investigated. Besides, the relationship among different resources, e.g. power and bandwidth, is coupled which makes the optimization more complex. This article investigates the problem of joint power and bandwidth allocation in UAV backhaul networks, which considers both the delay performance and the resource utilization efficiency. Considering the heterogeneous locations characteristics of different UAVs, we formulate the optimization problem as a Stackelberg game. The relay UAV acts as the leader and extended UAVs act as followers. Their utility functions take both the delay durance and the resource consumption into account. To capture the competitive relationship among followers, the sub-game is proved to be an exact potential game and exists Nash equilibriums (NE). The Stackelberg Equilibrium (SE) is proved afterwards. We utilize a hierarchical learning algorithm (HLA) to find out the best resource allocation strategies, which also reduces the computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The world is progressing towards a more advanced society where end-consumers have access to local renewable-based generation and advanced forms of information and technology. Hence, it is in a current state of transition between the traditional approach to power generation and distribution, where end-consumers of electricity have typically been inactive in their involvement with energy markets and a new approach that integrates their active participation. This new approach includes the use of distributed energy resources (DER) such as renewable-based generations and demand response (DR), which are being rapidly adopted by end-consumers, where incentives are strong. This paper presents the role of DR aggregator to effectively integrate DER technologies as a new source of energy capacity, into the electricity networks using information communication technology and industry knowledge. This framework based on DR aggregators will facilitate renewable energy integration and customer engagement in electricity market efficiently. To this aim, advantages and disadvantages of DR aggregators are discussed in this paper from political, economic, social and technological (PEST) point of views. Based on this analysis, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis for a typical DR aggregator is presented.

Urbanization and industrialization processes in Mongolia have been significant and rapid for the last half-century. During this period, changes in political and economic systems, growth in the population, and the occasional harsh climate conditions were subject to fluctuations in the natural resource usage. The total Ecological Footprint (EF) in Mongolia has increased from 6.8 million global hectares (gha) in 1961 to 14.6 million gha in 2012. However, Biocapacity (BC) has decreased from 50.6 million gha in 1961 to 39.0 million gha in 2012. The study shows that grazing land Footprint and carbon uptake land Footprint are the two major contributors of the recent intensified use of biological resources. To ensure stable economic development and sustainable use of natural resources, environmental planning is required to consider both the population’s pressure on the environment and the ecosystem’s regeneration capacity, simultaneously. We have proposed a few possible strategies for sustainable utilization of grazing land Footprint and carbon Footprint. For grazing land Footprint, efficient management of both herding practice and number of animals should be considered. In case of carbon Footprint, it is estimated that with the improved combustion efficiencies of coal-based power plants and the maximum use of renewable energy, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Mongolia can be reduced up to 30% compared to the base line business as usual case in 2030.

The move towards a new Circular Economy (CE) economic model has been advocated and supported in Portugal, however, there is limited research on this topic. To address this gap, a quantitative research based on an online survey was carried out among 99 Portuguese organizations, encompassing a wide range of sectors and sizes. The results show that CE is regarded as a strategic and relevant issue for profitability and value creation. Furthermore, the perception that it requires the adoption of new business models in addition to the classical “reduce, reuse, and recycle” approach is growing. Moreover, based on the hypotheses raised, results suggest that the level of CE adoption is positively impacted by the status of the EMS (Environmental Management System) certification and the willingness to improve the environmental performance and achieve a sustainable business model. However, CE activities are still relatively modest and a friendlier context (fiscal, legal, organizational, etc.) and the stronger support from supply chain agents and consumers are required. Future research should focus on how to design and shape the transition from a linear to a CE economy, and to ascertain if the positive attitude towards CE is materialized in changing the way business is done.

The physical and economic sustainability of using Built Environment Wind Turbine (BEWT) systems depends on the wind resource potential of the candidate site. Therefore, it is crucial to carry out a wind resource assessment prior to deployment of the BEWT. The assessment results can be used as a referral tool for predicting the performance and lifespan of the BEWT in the given built environment. To date, there is limited research output on BEWTs in South Africa with available literature showing a bias towards utility-scale or conventional ground based wind energy systems. This study aimed to assess wind power generation potential of BEWT systems in Fort Beaufort using the Weibull distribution function. The results show that Fort Beaufort wind patterns can be classified as fairly good and that BEWTs can best be deployed at 15m for a fairer power output as roof height wind speeds require BEWT of very low cut-in speed of at most1.2ms⁻¹.

The vast majority of antibodies generated against a virus will be non-neutralising1. However, this does not denote an absence of protective capacity. Yet, within the field there is typically a large focus on antibodies capable of directly blocking infection (neutralising antibodies, nAbs) of either specific viral strains or multiple viral strains (broadly-neutralising antibodies, bnAbs). More recently, a focus on non-neutralising antibodies (nnAbs), or neutralisation-independent effects of nAbs, has emerged. These can have additive effects on protection or in some cases, be a major correlate of protection. As their name suggests, nnAbs do not directly neutralise infection but instead, through their Fc domains, may mediate interaction with other immune effectors to induce clearance of viral particles or virally infected cells. nnAbs may also interrupt viral replication within infected cells. Developing technologies of antibody modification and functionalisation may lead to innovative biologics that harness the activities of nnAbs for antiviral prophylaxis and therapeutics. In this review, we discuss specific examples of nnAb actions in viral infections where they have known importance. We also discuss the potential detrimental effects of such responses. Finally, we explore new technologies for nnAb functionalisation to increase efficacy or introduce favourable characteristics for their therapeutic applications.

This article deals with a finite-source stock-dependent stochastic inventory system with heterogeneous servers and retrial facility. The system can store up to S number of items, and the lifetime of each item follows an exponential distribution. The primary customers arrive in a finite waiting hall from a finite source and get service from the multi-channel (c-heterogeneous servers). The customer’s arrival rate depends on the present stock level. Those customers who arrive while the waiting hall is full enter into the finite orbit. Also, customers in the waiting hall can become impatient and enter the orbit. The (s,Q) ordering policy is adopted for the replenishment of stocks. In the steady state, the joint probability distribution of a number of items in the inventory, busy servers, customers in the waiting hall, and orbit is computed. The comparative numerical analysis of heterogeneous and homogeneous servers on the expected total cost, the average number of customers in the waiting hall and orbit, the fraction of successful retrial rate, and the average impatient customer rate are also carried out.

Replication stress (RS) is a characteristic state of cancer cells as they tend to exchange precision of replication for fast proliferation and increased genomic instability. To overcome the consequences of improper replication control malignant cells frequently inactivate parts of their DNA damage response (DDR) pathways (the ATM-CHK2-p53 pathway), while relying on other pathways which help to maintain replication fork stability (ATR-CHK1). This creates a dependency on the remaining DDR pathways, vulnerability to further destabilization of replication and synthetic lethality of DDR inhibitors with common oncogenic alterations such as mutations of TP53, RB1, ATM, amplifications of MYC, CCNE1 and others. The response to RS is normally limited by coordination of cell cycle, transcription and replication. Inhibition of WEE1 and PKMYT1 kinases, which prevent unscheduled mitosis entry, leads to fragility of under-replicated sites. Recent evi-dence also shows that inhibition of Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), such as CDK4/6, CDK2, CDK8/19 and CDK12/13 can contribute to RS through disruption of DNA repair and replication control. Here, we review the main causes of RS in cancers as well as main therapeutic targets – ATR, CHK1, PARP and their inhibitors.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials show advantages as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate over traditional noble metals, such as chemically inert flat surface and uniform SERS signals. However, due to the low density of free electrons of 2D materials, the enhancement mechanism is mainly restricted to chemical enhancement instead of electromagnetic enhancement, resulting a relatively low enhancement factor. In this work, we reported a sensitive 2D SERS substrate based on chemical vapor deposited MoN nanosheets with electromagnetic enhanced mechanism. The maximum enhancement factor can be 3×105 with a limit of detected concentration of 4×10-8 M, which is comparable to those noble metal SERS substrates without hot spots. The MoN nanosheets show strong surface plasmon resonance in the visible range as evidenced by the UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and first principle calculation. The MoN nanosheets SERS substrates exhibit excellent Raman signal uniformity within the nanosheets. Meanwhile, Distinct thickness dependent sensitivity was observed in the MoN nanosheets, higher sensitivity can be achieved by decreasing the thickness of the nanosheets. Furthermore, the MoN nanosheets SERS substrate also show high thermal stability, which can be annealed in air for more than 300℃ and maintain its SERS activity. The high stability of MoN nanosheets allows it to be reused for 20 cycles without obvious signal decay. The high sensitivity, stability, reusability and Raman signal uniformity, makes MoN nanosheets an ideal 2D SERS substrate for practical applications.

Creep is a fundamental property naturally exists in some types of rock, which is significant for the long-term stability of roadways during the mining process. In this paper, the long-term strength of coal and rock were obtained via laboratory experiments, and a Cvisc elasto-viscoplastic model was adopted and introduced in FLAC3D, based on the 3101 transport roadway in Hongqinghe Coal Mine, to investigate the influence of creep on the stability of deep-high stress roadway. The test results show that the long-term strength of 3-1 coal and sandy mudstone, respectively, is 18.65 MPa, 39.95 MPa. The plastic zone, the deformation, and the damage of roadway surrounding rock behave an obvious increase after being excavated for 720d as the creep model was chosen. The plastic zone failure with models shear-p (1090.7 m3), shear-n (381.7 m3), tension-n (98.4 m3), and tension-p (30.8 m3), the damage value has an obvious increment of increased 21.2% (0.053), the deformation increases in the order is two-sidewalls (1978 mm), roof (907 mm), floor (101 mm). The creep of the roadway can be divided into three stages: the accelerating stage, the decaying stage, and the stable stage. The creep speed of each stage is greatly affected by the presence or absence of anchor spray support: the creep speed of the bare roadway roof, roadway side, and floor stability, respectively, is 1.01, 1.02, and 0.12 mm/d; After anchor spray support, the creep velocity, correspondingly, decreased to 0.69, 0.37, and 0.12 mm/d, and the amount of surrounding rock damage decreased from 0.302 to 0.243. This indicates that the anchor spray support can significantly reduce the creep effect of the roadway. The Cvisc creep model was verified reliable and can provide guidance for deep high-stress coal roadway support.

Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) by natural killer (NK) lymphocytes eliminates cells infected with viruses. Antiviral ADCC requires three components: 1) antibody; 2) effector lymphocytes with the Fc-IgG receptor CD16A; and 3) viral proteins in infected cell membranes. Fc-afucosylated antibodies bind with greater affinity to CD16A than fucosylated antibodies; individuals’ variation in afucosylation contributes to differences in ADCC. Current assays for afucosylated antibodies involve expensive methods. We report an improved bioassay for antibodies that support ADCC which encompasses afucosylation. This assay utilizes externalization of CD107a by NK-92-CD16A cells after antibody recognition. We used anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, GA101 WT or glycoengineered (GE), 10% or ~50% afucosylated, and CD20-positive Raji target cells. CD107a increased detection 7-fold compared to flow cytometry to detect Raji-bound antibodies. WT and GE antibody effective concentrations (EC50s) for CD107a externalization differed by 20-fold, with afucosylated GA101-GE more detectable. The EC50s for CD107a-externalization vs. 51Cr cell death were similar for NK-92 CD16A and blood NK cells. Notably, the %CD107a-positive cells negatively correlated with dead Raji cells and was nearly undetectable at high NK:Raji ratios required for cytotoxicity. This bioassay is very sensitive and adaptable to assess anti-viral antibodies but unsuitable as a surrogate assay to monitor cell death after ADCC.

Potential dependent special relativity and Gauss's law for the electric field have been used for gravity by assuming vacuum energy to be generated when the energy is a minimum useful expression for vacuum energy has been found. This expression shows that elementary particles are generated by gravity vacuum filling their hollow balls; using Schrödinger equation for spherically symmetric particles vacuum energy is quantized. Treating mass as vibrating spheres thus solving Schrödinger, coordinate harmonic oscillator energy relation has been found.

Regression models are mostly used in all fields of sciences for modelling the relationship between a dependent variable and independent variable(s). The least square method is often used to estimate the parameters in a linear model because it is the best linear unbiased estimator. These estimates can only be reliable if the assumption of normality is satisfied. In some cases the dependent variable might be bimodal and shows a non-linear relationship with the independent variable(s). In this case, a non-linear model should be used. In non-linear model, the standard errors are often obtained by linearizing the nonlinear function around the parameter, assuming central limit theorem. After the linearization, the least square parameter estimates are obtained. It should be noted that the error of the non-linear model is different from that of the transformed linear model. Thus, there is a need to transform back to the original non-linear model. In this note, a novel non-linear function was developed into a non-linear regression model, called Normal-Power model. The least square method was used to estimate the parameter of the transformed model. Its usefulness in regression model was demonstrated using real data of Nigeria Economy-Tourism model.

Dengue fever is a viral mosquito-borne infection, a major international public health concern. With 2.5 billion people at risk of acquiring the infection around the world, disease severity is influenced by the immunological status of the individual, seronegative or seropositive, prior to natural infection. Caused by four antigenically related but distinct serotypes, DENV-1 to DENV-4, infection by one serotype confers life-long immunity to that serotype and a period of temporary cross-immunity (TCI) to other serotypes. The clinical response on exposure to a second serotype is complex with the so-called Antibody-Dependent enhancement (ADE) process, a disease augmentation phenomenon when pre-existing antibodies to previous dengue infection do not neutralize but rather enhance the new infection, used to explain the etiology of severe disease. In this paper, we present a minimalistic mathematical model framework developed to describe qualitatively the dengue immunological response mediated by antibodies. Three models are analyzed and compared: i) primary dengue infection, ii) secondary dengue infection with the same (homologous) dengue virus and iii) secondary dengue infection with a different (heterologous) dengue virus. We explore the features of viral replication, antibody production, and infection clearance over time. The model is developed based on body cells and free virus interactions resulting in infected cells activating antibody production. Our mathematical results are qualitatively similar to the ones described in the empiric immunology literature, providing insights on the immunopathogenesis of severe disease. Results presented here are of use for future research directions to evaluate the impact of dengue vaccines.

Background: Clinical cases reports with snake accidents show that venom bite induces increased oxidative stress including several markers of lipid peroxidation and other oxidative stress marker in plasma. Methods: The main findings of this work were performed with BthTx-II on paw edema of animals treated with the toxin and biochemical measurement of COX-2, PGE2, MDA and the effects of peroxiredoxin inhibitors on edema and myotoxicity were also evaluated. Results: The results show that edema and myotoxocity induced by PLA2 (BthTx-II) induces a strong mobilization of arachidonic acid and an increase in cellular oxidative stress as measured by increased malondialdehydo (MDA) concentration and protein carbonylation. Thus, these findings establish the strong link between oxidative stress, arachidonic acid mobilization and that these events may explain the presence of oxidative stress markers in snake-bitten patients. Experiments performed with animals previously treated with commercially purchased inhibitors showed enzymes such as thioredoxin (TXN), thioredoxin reductase (TXNRD) and other glutathione (GSH)-related antioxidant defenses could play an essential role controlling and defining the end of edema on the late phase of PLA2 BthTx-II-induced process. Conclusion. This study showed that thioate-dependent antioxidant enzymes play an important role in resolving the edema induced by BthTx-II.

FeIFeI Fe2(S2C3H6)(CO)6(µ-CO) (1a-CO) and its FeIFeII cationic species (2a+-CO) are the simplest model of the CO-inhibited [FeFe] hydrogenase active site, which is known to undergo CO photolysis within a temperature- dependent process whose products and mechanism are still a matter of debate. Using Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) computations, the ground state and low-lying excited state potential energy surfaces (PESs) of 1a-CO and 2a+-CO have been explored aimed at elucidating the dynamics of the CO photolysis yielding Fe2(S2C3H6)(CO)6 (1a) and Fe2(S2C3H6)(CO)6+ (2a+), two simple models of the catalytic site of the enzyme. Two main results came out from these investigations. First, a-CO and 2a+-CO are both bound with respect to any CO dissociation with lowest free energy barriers around 10 kcal mol-1, suggesting that at least 2a+-CO might be synthetized. Second, focusing on the cationic form, we found at least two clear excited state channels along the PESs of 2a+-CO that are unbound with respect to equatorial CO dissociation.

Real-time evolution of the electron densities under excitations in La₂CuO₄ was calculated by the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The author found, for the first time, under excitations, the electron cloud of Cu²⁺ changes obviously and the characteristic frequencies are 83 meV and 36 meV, respectively, for two different modes. The results are unexpected and close to that of lattice vibrations. The results show that the electron cloud of Cu²⁺ (just like the lattice) can be the electron-pairing medium in high temperature copper oxide superconductors.

Prompt removal of misfolded membrane proteins and misassembled membrane protein complexes is essential for membrane homeostasis. However, the elimination of these toxic proteins from the hydrophobic membrane environment has high energetic barriers. Transmembrane FtsH is the only known ATP-dependent protease responsible for this task, unlike other well-studied soluble ATP-dependent proteases. The mechanisms by which FtsH recognizes, unfolds, translocates, and proteolyzes its substrates remain unclear. Here, we report the crystal structures of the Thermotoga maritima FtsH periplasmic domain (PD) in an associative trimeric state at a 1.5-1.95 Å resolution. We also describe the pH-dependent oligomerization states of the isolated PD using dynamic light scattering. These observations help us understand how FtsH recognizes membrane-anchored misfolded proteins.

Inclusive and sustainable development has become an important part of China's sustainable development agenda, the self-recovery and stability of China's economy cannot be achieved without the macro-governance of the government. Figuring out the internal logic of digital finance and economic resilience is an important part of effective government governance. Based on the panel data of 193 counties in five provinces in northwest China from 2014 to 2021, the paper tested digital finance and county-level economic resilience by using two-way fixed-effect model, intermediary-effect model and threshold-effect model, to test whether financial development promotes government governance in underdeveloped regions. The results prove that digital inclusive finance significantly enhances the resilience of county economies by improving capital allocation efficiency, stimulating entrepreneurship and employment, and reducing pollution emissions. In addition, there are dual threshold effects between capital allocation efficiency and employment vitality, in which capital allocation efficiency has a gradually increasing threshold effect, and entrepreneurship and employment vitality have a fluctuating increasing threshold effect. Therefore, "Digital inclusive finance" in underdeveloped regions is an indispensable part of financial globalization；promoting the healthy development of digital finance is the basis and premise for providing a good financial environment for government management; deepening the reform in the financial field and promoting the green and sustainable development of finance are the future trend and direction of efforts.

Keywords: conservation; cultural pluralism; environmental regulation; community-based natural resource management; Indigenous law

This paper performs a comprehensive analysis of the wind energy potential of onshore regions in Greece with emphasis on quantifying the volume risk and the spatial covariance structure. Optimization techniques are employed to derive efficient wind capacity allocation plans (also known as generation portfolios) incorporating different yield aspirations. The generation profile of minimum variance and other optimal portfolios along the efficient frontier are subject to rigorous evaluation using a fusion of descriptive and statistical methods. In particular, principal component analysis is employed to estimate factor models and investigate the spatiotemporal properties of wind power generation, providing valuable insights into the persistence of volume risk. The overarching goal of the study is to employ a set of statistical and mathematical programming tools guiding investors, aggregators and policy makers in their selection of wind energy generating assets. The findings of this research challenge the effectiveness of current policies and industry practices, offering a new perspective on wind energy harvesting with a focus on the management of volume risk.

Marked changes in temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) content, and nutrient content typically occur in marine thermoclines, which are key factors that affect the corrosion of metals. Offshore platforms have required marine metals to be exposed to deep-sea environments and have thus increased their penetration into the marine thermocline. This study investigates the galvanic corrosion of E690 steel in a marine thermocline using a simulated marine thermocline (SMT). Specifically, the corrosion of E690 steel was analyzed using the wire beam electrode (WBE) technique, linear polarization (LP), corrosion morphology, and weight loss measurement. Results indicated that the SMT had a stable multilayer structure, and the variations of temperature, DO, pH and nutrient concentration in the SMT were similar to those in the natural marine thermocline. Galvanic corrosion occurred after the intrusion of E690 steel into the marine thermocline. The driver of galvanic corrosion was the of E690 steel at various depths of the marine thermocline. The Ecorr of E690 steel was influenced by the temperature, pH and DO of seawater, and the order was DO >> T > pH. The continuous reduction of Ecorr with depth contributed to the large-scale galvanic corrosion, and the oscillation variation of Ecorr with depth was the reason for small-scale galvanic corrosion. The primary anodic regions of galvanic corrosion were located in the area with the fastest temperature variation in the thermocline. The proportion of galvanic corrosion in the average corrosion rate could increase up to approximately 80% in the stable anodic region. There were many deep corrosion pits in the long-term and stable anodic region of galvanic corrosion.

Along with the economic growth, the companies must contribute to social progress and promote environmental sustainability in equal harmony. Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) strategies make it possible to attain the economic, social and environmental goals of a firm. In this regard, a survey method is discussed using the literature review and online questionnaire to identify the main factors/indicators during the SHRM evaluation of manufacturing firms in India. Uncertainty is commonly occurred in the assessment of SHRM factors. As a generalized version of fuzzy sets, single-valued neutrosophic set (SVNS) has been demonstrated as a valuable tool to illustrate the indeterminate, inconsistent and uncertain data of realistic decision-making problems. Considering the idea of SVNSs, this study develops a hybrid multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) approach for assessing the SHRM of manufacturing firms under uncertainty settings. For this purpose, an SVN-alternative ranking order method accounting for two-step normalization (AROMAN) is proposed based on VIFI-score function-based decision experts’ (DEs’) weighting tool and integrated criteria weight-determining model to solve the MCGDM problems with fully unknown DEs and criteria weights. In this regard, we develop new SVN-distance measure to compute the degree of difference between SVNSs. Some examples are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of developed measure over the existing ones. In addition, new criteria weight-determination model is presented with the integration of objective weights through IVIF-distance measure-based model and subjective weights through ranking comparison (RANCOM) tool on SVNSs. The proposed ranking method is applied to an empirical study of SHRM assessment for manufacturing firms in India, which shows its applicability and feasibility. In this study, the evaluation criteria are characterized into social, environmental and economic aspects with DE’s opinions. Comparative and sensitivity analyses are made to show the strength and steadiness of presented approach. This study provides an innovative MCGDM analysis framework, which makes a significant contribution to the SHRM assessment problem under indeterminate, inconsistent and uncertain setting.

Purpose, This research aimed to examine the effect of green logistics (GL) and green human resource management (GHRM) on the performance of environmentally friendly manufacturing industries oriented towards sustainable development of organizations (SDO) through the role of sustainable production (SP) as a mediating variable. Methodology, A quantitative approach was employed through a standardized questionnaire to obtain data from 110 manufacturing industries in Indonesia that implemented environmentally friendly practices. Advanced statistical techniques, such as Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and data analysis using Smart PLS (Partial Least Square) version 4 were utilized to analyze the collected data. Findings, The results showed that the model supported the statistical significance of all seven hypotheses and confirmed the direct and mediating effects of GL, GHRM, and SP on SDO. Practical implications, This research added critical insights into the theory and practice of GL and GHRM to realize SDO through the role of SP as a mediator in environmentally friendly manufacturing industries. Originality, This research contributd to the existing literature by adding to the effect of SP mediation on the relationship of GL and GHRM on SDO. There was no previous research that discussed the important role of SP mediation in influencing the relationship between GL and GHRM on SDO.

Environmental regulation has dual effects on water resource utilization performance through various channels such as the "three red lines" and the "Porter hypothesis". Based on the detailed analysis of the impact path of environmental regulation on water resource utilization performance, the two-step system GMM method was adopted to test the dual effects of environmental regulation on water resource utilization performance by using panel data of 30 provinces and cities from 2004 to 2020. The results show that: (1) Environmental regulation has a significant direct impact on water resource utilization performance, and is currently in the stage of positive relationship of an inverted u-shaped relationship. (2) Environmental regulation has a significant indirect impact on water resource utilization Environmental regulation has dual effects on water resource utilization performance through various channels such as the "three-red lines" and the "Porter hypothesis". In accordance with a detailed examination of the influence path of environmental regulation on the performance of water resource utilization, the double effects of environmental regulation on water resource utilization performance were examined using panel statistics from 30 provinces and cities from 2004 to 2020 using the two-step system GMM approach. The results demonstrate that: (1) Environmental regulation has a direct effect on water resource utilization performance which is currently in the stage of the positive relationship of an inverted u-shaped relationship. (2) The influence of environmental regulation on water resource utilization performance through government intervention and industrial structure adjustment is indirect, among which government intervention can significantly improve water resource utilization performance, while the growth of the tertiary industry as a percentage can lower water resource utilization performance. (3) Both direct and indirect impacts indicate that enhancing the efficiency of the use of water resources is sustainable, and the water resource utilization performance of the preceding period had a major positive impact over the present phase. Therefore, the paper sets out a few policy suggestions, such as choosing reasonable environmental regulation tools, actively guiding the market-oriented reform with constraints, and upgrading the industrial structure in a green way.

Heritage conservation area designation is often resisted by communities due to concerns with overly strict regulations for property alterations and negative impacts on property values. This paper addresses these concerns by examining Freemans Bay and Onehunga – two Special Character Areas (SCAs) in Auckland, New Zealand. A property value analysis was used to assess the impact of SCA designation on property values and an online questionnaire survey gathered information on homeowners’ experiences and levels of satisfaction with living in an SCA. The results indicate that designated SCA properties have higher average values than non-designated properties and homeowners are overwhelmingly satisfied with living in a SCA. The main benefits are a sense of community and having certainty around the look and feel of their neighbourhood into the future. The main issue identified by respondents is the requirement for Resource Consent. The majority of people who had gone through the process found it to be a negative experience because of the high cost in terms of time and money. A historic urban landscape approach to the development of management plans and design guidelines is recommended to improve the implementation of the Special Character Areas in Auckland and beyond.

Based on the Organizational Support Theory, this study examines the relationship between human resource management practices and service performance of sharing workers by demonstrating the mediation role of work engagement. We tested this theoretical model using an in-person interview questionnaire survey of 318 downwind drivers. Results showed that: (1) the main effect of human resource management practices of sharing workers on service performance was significant; (2) work engagement played a prominent mediation role between human resource management practices and service performance of sharing workers; (3) the mediation role of employee vigor between the platform incentives and the performance of employee services was significant; (4) employee dedication had an obvious and indirectly positive mediating effect between sharing workers' dimensions of human resource management practice and their service performance; (5) employee absorption on the mediation role between the various dimensions of the sharing human resources management practices (platform support, platform incentives and platform constraints) and employee service performance was significant. This study has important value for the study on human resource management practices in the context of sharing economy, and provides practical enlightenment for employee management of the sharing economy platform.

Extreme environmental variations (EV), as a phenomenon deriving from climate change (CC), led to an exacerbated uncertainty on water availability and increased the likelihood of conflicts regarding water-dependent activities such as agriculture. In this paper, we investigate the role of conflict resolution mechanisms -one of Ostrom’s acclaimed Design Principles (DPs)- when social-ecological systems (SESs) are exposed to physical external disturbances. The theoretical propositions predict that SESs with conflict-resolution-mechanisms will perform better than those without them. We tested this proposition through a framed-field-experiment that mimicked an irrigation system. In this asymmetric setting, farmers were exposed to two (2) dilemmas: (i) how much to invest in the communal irrigation system’s (CIS) maintenance and (ii) how much water to extract. The setting added a layer of complexity: water availability did not only depend on the investment but also on the environmental variability. Our findings largely confirmed the theoretical proposition: groups with stronger institutional robustness are able to cope with EV better than those with weaker robustness. However, we also found that some groups, despite lacking conflict-resolution-mechanisms, were also able to address EV. We explored potential explanatory variables to these unexpected results. We found that subjects’ and groups’ attributes might address uncertainty and avert conflict. Thus, SESs’ capacity to respond to external disturbances, such as EV, might not only be a question of DPs. Instead, it might also be strongly related to group members' attributes and group dynamics. Our results pave the way for further research, hinting that some groups might be better equipped for mitigation measures, while others might be better equipped for adaptation measures.

Efficient alternatives in energy production and consumption are constantly investigated by increasingly strict policies. In this way, the pollutant emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect reduce and sustainability of the electricity sector increase. With more than a third of the world's energy consumption, buildings have great potential to contribute these sustainability goals. Additionally, with growing incentives in the Distributed Generation (DG) and Electric Vehicle (EV) industry, it is believed that Smart Buildings (SBs) can be a key in the field of residential energy sustainability in the future. In this work, an energy management system in SBs are developed to reduce the power demanded of a residential building. In order to balance the demand and power provided by the grid, microgrids such as Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), EVs and Photovoltaic Generation panels (PV) are used. Here, a Mixed Binary Linear Programming formulation (MBLP) is proposed to optimize the charge and discharge scheduling of EVs and also BESS. In order to show the efficiency of the model, a case study involving three scenarios and an economic analysis is considered. The results point a 65% reduction in peak load consumption supplied by grid and a 28.4% reduction in electricity consumption costs.

The study was conducted in north wollo, south wollo and orimiya zone, in Eastern Amhara with an aim to assess the resource potential of Acacia seyal in the selected sites. The data from the selected sites were collected using point center quarter method. A total of 90 quadrates from nine study areas with plot size 50m*50m, (22.5ha) were systematically located along each transect, 100 m apart, and was spatially captured with the aid of GPS. At every sampling point, four quadrants (90 degrees) were created, using the transect line and a line perpendicular to it. Species composition Acacia seyal structure and its regeneration status, at points along transects were taken to analyze diversity and target species structure of the sites. The highest and least density of Acacia seyal ha^-1 were attained by Mehale mecharie (148) and Alene sefer (52). The highest shannon weiner diversity and species richness was observed in Alene sefer(Kemessie). Acacia seyal structure in all study sites showed an inverted J shape except lastie gerdao (Gubalafeto). Therefore, Acacia seyal deserves immediate conservation and appropriate management measures in order to get sustainable product and services from the species. Based on the results, awareness creation on the values and management of Acacia seyal, study on the management options of Acacia seyal for firewood, fuel wood, charcoal production and also investigation of gum production techniques of Acacia seyal for the sustainable use of the resource are recommended.

In this article, management control has been studied from the perspective of intention towards sustainable development of companies. The main idea focuses on the analysis of relations between sustainable management control and the system of performance appraisal using as a reference the resource-based theory. These relations have been assessed both theoretically by reviewing literature in the field, and empirically based on data collected in a questionnaire from top management, as well as data from Annual Reports from the main segment of Bucharest Stock Exchange. The authors have shown that financial performance has a significant influence on management control, and the return on capital employed is one of the most recommended indicators. The sustainable nature attributed to management control is the result of institutional theory evolution, provisions of Directive 2014/95/EU and Guide of Global Management Accounting Principles (2015) using stewardship. Consequently, profits are not the main element any more in the assessment of financial „health” of a company. To ensure the sustainable success, sustainable balanced scorecard is one of real measures for managing financial and non-financial performance.

We consider a Cauchy problem for differential equations in a Hilbert space $X$. The problem is stated in a time interval $I$, which can be finite or infinite. Weuse a fixed point argument for history-dependent operators to prove the unique solvability of the problem. Then, we state and prove convergence criteria for both a general fixed point problem and thecorresponding Cauchy problem. These criteria provide necessary and sufficient conditions on a sequence $\{u_n\}$ which guarantee its convergence to the solution of the corresponding problem, in the space of both continuous and continuously differentiable functions. We then specify our results in the study of a particular differential equation governed by two nonlinear operators. Finally, we provide an application in viscoelasticity and give a mechanical interpretation of the corresponding convergence result.

From the first isolation of the cystovirus bacteriophage Φ6 from Pseudomonas syringae 50 years ago, we have progressed to a better understanding of the structure and transformations of the many parts of the virion. The three-layered virion encapsulating the tripartite double stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome, breaches the cell envelope on infection, generates its own transcripts, and coopts the bacterial machinery to produce its proteins. The generation of new virions starts with a procapsid with a contracted shape, followed by packaging single stranded RNA segments with concurrent expansion of the capsid, and finally replication to reconstitute the dsRNA genome. The outer two layers are then added, and the fully formed virions released by cell lysis. Most of the procapsid structure composed of the proteins P1, P2, P4 and P7 is now known, as well as its transformations to the mature, packaged nucleocapsid. The outer two layers are less well studied. One additional study investigated the binding of the host protein YajQ to the infecting nucleocapsid, where it enhances the transcription of the large RNA segment that codes for the capsid proteins. Finally, we relate the structural aspects of bacteriophage Φ6 top those of other dsRNA viruses, noting the similarities and differences.

The integrated stress response is a signaling network comprised of four branches, each of which senses different cellular stressors, converging on the phosphorylation of eIF2α to depress global translation and initiate recovery. One of these branches is composed of GCN2, which senses cellular amino acid insufficiency and participates in the maintenance of amino acid homeostasis. Previous studies have shown that GCN2 is a viable cancer target when amino acid stress is provoked by inhibiting an additional target. In this light, we screened a combination of drugs to identify biologically active compounds which synergize with the GCN2 inhibitor TAP20. First, a panel of 25 compounds was assayed in six cancer cell lines for drug sensitivity. Each compound was then combined with TAP20 at concentrations below their IC50, and the impact on cell growth was assessed. Selected strongly synergistic combinations were further characterised using synergy analyses and matrix-dependent invasion assays. Inhibitors of proteostasis, of the MEK-ERK pathway and pan-CDK inhibitors flavopiridol and seliciclib were found to potently synergize with TAP20 in two of the tested cell lines. Among their common CDK targets is CDK7, which was selectively targeted with THZ-1 and found to synergize with TAP20. Finally, these combinations were found to be partially synergistic when assessed using matrix-dependent invasion assays. However, we found that TAP20 alone was sufficient to restrict invasion at concentrations well below its growth-inhibitory IC50. We conclude that GCN2 can be targeted for treating cancers by polytherapy or even monotherapy.

Two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), trastuzumab and pertuzumab, were clinically approved. We previously developed a highly sensitive and specific anti-HER2 mAb, H2Mab-139 (mouse IgG1, kappa). In this study, we produced a defucosylated IgG2a version of anti‑HER2 mAb (H2Mab-139-mG2a-f) to enhance ADCC-mediated antitumor activity. H2Mab-139-mG2a-f exhibits a high binding affinity in flow cytometry with the dissociation constant (KD) determined to be 3.9 × 10‑9 M and 7.7 × 10‑9 M against HER2‑overexpressed Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-K1 (CHO/HER2) and HER2-positive BT-474 cells, respectively. Moreover, we showed that H2Mab-139-mG2a-f exerted ADCC and complement-dependent cytotoxicity against CHO/HER2 and BT-474 cells in vitro and exhibited potent antitumor activities in the xenograft models. These results indicated that H2Mab-139-mG2a-f exerts antitumor effects against HER2-positive human breast cancers and could be useful for an antibody treatment regimen for HER2-positive human cancers.

This paper discusses a passive control issue for Nonlinear Time-Varying (NTV) systems subject to stability and attenuation performance. Based on the modeling approaches of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model and the Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) model, a Parameter-Dependent Polynomial Fuzzy (PDPF) model is constructed to represent the NTV systems. According to Parallel Distributed Compensation (PDC) concept, a parameter-dependent polynomial fuzzy controller is built to achieve robust stability and passivity of PDPF model. Furthermore, the passive theory is applied to achieve the performance constraining the disturbance effect on the PDPF systems. To develop the stability criteria, by introducing a parameter-dependent polynomial Lyapunov function, one can derive some stability conditions which belong to the term of Sum-Of-Squares (SOS) form. Based on the Lyapunov function, two stability criteria are proposed to design the corresponding PDPF controller such that the NTV system is robustly stable and passive. Finally, a numerical example is applied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed stability criterion.

To understand the evolution of the human norovirus GII.P6-GII.6 and GII.P7-GII.6 strains, we analyzed both the RdRp region and VP1 gene in globally collected strains using authentic bioinformatics technologies. A common ancestor of the P6- and P7-type RdRp region emerged approximately 50 years ago and a common ancestor of the P6- and P7-type VP1 gene emerged approximately 110 years ago. Subsequently, the RdRp region and VP1 gene evolved. Moreover, the evolutionary rates were significantly faster for the P6-type RdRp region and VP1 gene than the P7-type RdRp region and VP1 genes. Large genetic divergence was observed in the P7-type RdRp region and VP1 gene compared with the P6-type RdRp region and VP1 gene. The phylodynamics of the RdRp region and VP1 gene fluctuated after the year 2000. Positive selection sites in VP1 proteins were located in the antigenicity-related protruding 2 domain, and these sites overlapped with conformational epitopes. These results suggest that the GII.6 VP1 gene and VP1 proteins evolved uniquely due to recombination between the P6- and P7-type RdRp regions in the HuNoV GII.P6-GII.6 and GII.P7-GII.6 virus strains.

Calcium/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2) regulates bone remodeling through its effects on osteoblasts and osteoclasts. However, its role in osteocytes, the most abundant bone cell type, and the master regulator of bone remodeling, remains unknown. Here we report that the conditional deletion of CaMKK2 from osteocytes using Dentine matrix protein 1 (Dmp1)-8kb-Cre mice led to enhanced bone mass only in female mice owing to a suppression of osteoclasts. Conditioned media isolated from female CaMKK2-deficient osteocytes inhibited osteoclast formation and function in in vitro assays, indicating a role for osteocyte-secreted factors. Proteomics analysis revealed significantly higher levels of extracellular calpastatin, a specific inhibitor of calcium-dependent cysteine proteases calpains, in female CaMKK2 null osteocyte conditioned media, compared to media from female control osteocytes. Further, exogenously added non-cell permeable recombinant calpastatin domain I elicited a marked, dose-dependent inhibition of female wild-type osteoclasts and depletion of calpastatin from female CaMKK2-deficient osteocyte conditioned media reversed the inhibition of matrix resorption by osteoclasts. Our findings reveal a novel role for extracellular calpastatin in regulating female osteoclast function and unravel a novel CaMKK2-mediated paracrine mechanism of osteoclast regulation by female osteocytes.

The resistance of cancer cell subpopulations, including cancer stem cell (CSC) populations, to apoptosis-inducing chemotherapeutic agents is a key barrier to improved outcomes for cancer patients. The cationic amphiphilic drug hexamethylene amiloride (HMA) has been previously demonstrated to efficiently kill bulk breast cancer cells independent of tumor subtype or species, but acts poorly toward non-transformed cells derived from multiple tissues. Here we demonstrate that HMA is similarly cytotoxic toward breast CSC-related subpopulations that are resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic agents, but poorly cytotoxic toward normal mammary stem cells. HMA inhibits the sphere-forming capacity of FACS-sorted human and mouse mammary CSC-related cells in vitro, specifically kills tumor but not normal mammary organoids ex vivo, and inhibits metastatic outgrowth in vivo, consistent with CSC suppression. Moreover, HMA inhibits viability and sphere formation by lung, colon, pancreatic, brain, liver, prostate and bladder tumor cell lines, suggesting that its effects may be applicable to multiple malignancies. Mechanistically, HMA elicits the permeabilization of the limiting lysosomal membrane, a hallmark feature of the lysosome-dependent cell death pathway. Our observations expose a key vulnerability intrinsic to cancer stem cells, and point to novel strategies for the exploitation of cationic amphiphilic drugs in cancer treatment.

Neurological complications of infection by the mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) include Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuritis. GBS was first associated with recent ZIKV epidemics caused by the emergence of ZIKV Asian lineage in South Pacific. Here, we hypothesize that ZIKV-associated GBS relates to a molecular mimicry between viral envelope E (E) protein and neural proteins involved in GBS. Analysis of ZIKV epidemic strains showed that glycan loop (GL) region of the E protein includes an IVNDT motif which is conserved in voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel subunit alpha-1C (Cav1.2) and Heat Shock 70 kDa protein 12A (HSP70 12A). Both VSCC-alpha 1C and HSP70 12A belong to protein families which have been associated with neurological autoimmune diseases in central nervous system. The purpose of our in silico analysis is to point out that IVNDT motif of ZIKV E-GL region should be taken in consideration for the development of safe and effective anti-Zika vaccines by precluding the possibility of adverse neurologic events including autoimmune diseases such as GBS.

We propose an iterative scheme for feature-based positioning using a new weighted dissimilarity measure with the goal of reducing the impact of large errors among the measured or modeled features. The weights are computed from the location-dependent standard deviations of the features and stored as part of the reference fingerprint map (RFM). Spatial filtering and kernel smoothing of the kinematically collected raw data allow efficiently estimating the standard deviations during RFM generation. In the positioning stage, the weights control the contribution of each feature to the dissimilarity measure, which in turn quantifies the difference between the set of online measured features and the fingerprints stored in the RFM. Features with little variability contribute more to the estimated position than features with high variability. Iterations are necessary because the variability depends on the location, and the location is initially unknown when estimating the position. Using real WiFi signal strength data from extended test measurements with ground truth in an office building, we show that the standard deviations of these features vary considerably within the region of interest and are neither simple functions of the signal strength nor of the distances from the corresponding access points. This is the motivation to include the empirical standard deviations in the RFM. We then analyze the deviations of the estimated positions with and without the location-dependent weighting. In the present example the maximum radial positioning error from ground truth are reduced by 40% comparing to kNN without the weighted dissimilarity measure.

This work presents a novel approach to construct surrogate models of parametric Differential Algebraic Equations based on a tensor representation of the solutions. The procedure consists in building simultaneously, for every output of the reference model, an approximation given in tensor-train format. A parsimonious exploration of the parameter space coupled with a compact data representation allows to alleviate the curse of dimensionality. The approach is thus appropriate when many parameters with large domains of variation are involved. The numerical results obtained for a nonlinear elasto-viscoplastic constitutive law show that the constructed surrogate model is sufficiently accurate to enable parametric studies such as the calibration of material coefficients.

The open communication is an exigent need for future power system where the time delay is unavoidable. In order to secure the stability of the grid, the frequency must remain within its limited range which is achieved through the load frequency control. The load frequency control signals are transmitted through communication networks which induces time delay that could destabilize the power systems. So, in order to guarantee the stability the delay margin should be computed. In this paper, we present a new method for calculating the delay margin in load frequency control systems. The transcendental time delay characteristics equation is transformed to frequency dependant equation. The spectral radius is used to find the frequencies at which the roots crosses the imaginary axis. The crossing frequencies are determined through the sweeping test and the binary iteration algorithm. A one-area load frequency control system is chosen as case study. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been proved through comparing with the most recent published methods. The method shows its merit with less conservativeness and less computations. The PI controller gains are preferable to be chosen large to reduce the damping, however, the delay margin decreases with increasing the PI controller gains.

Initial attempts to develop monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics to resolve influenza infections focused mainly on searching for antibodies with the potential to neutralise the virus in vitro with classical haemagglutination inhibition and micro-neutralisation assays. This led to the identification of many antibodies that bind to the head domain of haemagglutinin (HA) which generally have potent neutralisation capabilities that block viral entry or viral membrane fusion. However, this class of antibodies has a narrow breadth of protection in that they are usually strain specific. This led to the emphasis on stalk targeting antibodies which are able to bind a broad range of viral targets that span across different influenza subtypes. Recently, a third class of antibodies targeting the vestigial esterase (VE) domain have been characterised. In this review, we describe the key features of neutralising VE targeting antibodies and compare them with head and stalk class antibodies.

Many systems in nature and laboratories are far from equilibrium and exhibit significant fluc- tuations, invalidating the key assumptions of small fluctuations and short memory time in or near equilibrium. A full knowledge of Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs), especially time- dependent PDFs, becomes essential in understanding far-from-equilibrium processes. We consider a stochastic logistic model with multiplicative noise, which has gamma distributions as stationary PDFs. We numerically solve the transient relaxation problem, and show that as the strength of the stochastic noise increases the time-dependent PDFs increasingly deviate from gamma distributions. For sufficiently strong noise a transition occurs whereby the PDF never reaches a stationary state, but instead forms a peak that becomes ever more narrowly concentrated at the origin. The addition of an arbitrarily small amount of additive noise regularizes these solutions, and re-establishes the existence of stationary solutions. In addition to diagnostic quantities such as mean value, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis, the transitions between different solutions are analyzed in terms of entropy and information length, the total number of statistically distinguishable states that a system passes through in time.

In this paper, we study the problem of controllability of impulsive neutral evolution integrodifferential equations with state dependent delay in Banach spaces. The main results are completely new and are obtained by using Sadovskii's fixed point theorem, theory of resolvent operators, and an abstract phase space. An example is given to illustrate the theory.

This paper presents a novel framework for Collaborative Learning Networks (CLNs) in classrooms, aiming to optimize resource utilization and enhance educational services. The study addresses the inefficiencies of traditional education models, particularly the underutilization of computational resources and limited access to specialized software. The proposed framework employs a mix of task-based and random allocation strategies to distribute computational tasks within the CLN, considering each device’s capabilities and task requirements. The findings show significant improvement in resource utilization, facilitated by device-to-device collaboration and task sharing, thus enriching students’ learning experiences. This work contributes to optimizing resource utilization in education, advancing the field of CLNs.

Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates from 2014 suggest 64% of the high seas migratory stocks are either overfished or undergoing overfishing. Illegal fishing exacerbates the damage to marine ecosystems, human rights, and food security, and is yet to be included in the recent United Nations (UN) draft agreement to protect high seas biodiversity. We used catch data from the Sea Around Us Project to determine trends in fishing gear use and the catches of countries fishing in the high seas. Using Two-way ANOVA, Principal Coordinates Analysis, and SIMPER Test, we found that Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, and Ecuador had the highest catches in 2004-2014. Each decade, only 1 in 10 countries (10.8%) caught over 500,000 tonnes, leaving the remaining 90% of countries catching less than 500,000 tonnes. Further analysis showed the mean high seas catch per fishery decreased 55% between the 2000s and the 2010s. Purse seine and longline were increasingly used towards the 2010s. Catch from purse seine and longline accounted for 70.5% and 78.4% of total high seas catch in 1950-2014 and 2004-2014, respectively. Discards were unreported throughout 1950-2014, and the reporting levels of landings varied greatly between countries and gears. We call for immediate action and recommend (1) including international, overarching high seas governance to end illegal and unsustainable fishing in the high seas in the UN draft agreement, and (2) using large mobile marine protected areas in high seas fisheries management through the UN draft agreement.

This paper undertakes a comprehensive review to underscore the central role of sustainability in the evaluation and innovation of jet grouting technologies. It meticulously traces the evolution of evaluation methodologies, emphasizing the imperative of sustainable practices throughout history. Traditional evaluation paradigms are examined alongside contemporary trends, with a particular focus on sustainability metrics and visualization techniques. Through an examination of innovative jet grouting technologies, this paper illustrates how sustainability principles have driven advancements aimed at improving the efficiency and environmental impact of jet grouting methods. Central to this review is an assessment of sustainability across multiple dimensions, including method applicability, installation and operational compatibility, and the performance of the resulting jet grouted piles. By emphasizing sustainability considerations, the paper highlights the intrinsic link between environmental integrity and technological innovation in the field of jet grouting. In addition, it discusses analytical evaluation methods designed to proactively address sustainability concerns prior to construction, thereby promoting a more environmentally responsible approach. Finally, this paper presents a pioneering evaluation framework that integrates real-time monitoring and visualization tools, allowing stakeholders to track sustainability milestones throughout the construction process. By emphasizing sustainability as a guiding principle, this review advocates for a paradigm shift toward more ecologically sound and resilient jet grouting practices.

The adaptation stress experienced by overseas dispatched employees has serious implications for their physical and mental health and work performance. This study aimed to investigate the impact of resource-oriented music listening on work stress among overseas dispatched employees. The study recruited 10 participants of different ages and occupations who had worked abroad for at least 3 years. Five sessions of personalized resource-oriented music listening, and interviews were conducted. The Global Assessment of Recent Stress Scale (GARS) and Job Stress Scale (JSS) were used to measure stress before and after the intervention. Results showed that participants' work stress and perceived stress were significantly reduced after the music therapy intervention. The study also found that 'awareness' and 'self-acceptance' were factors that reduced regulatory stress among overseas dispatched employees. This study highlights the potential of resource-oriented music listening as a useful tool to address workplace stress and promote the well-being of expatriate employees.

Abstruct Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) has emerged as an essential strategy for achieving environmental sustainability within organizations. However, there remains a significant gap in understanding its direct impact on sustainable performance. This study seeks to address these gaps by investigating the relationship between GHRM and sustainable performance, with a focus on the mediating role of green innovation and the moderating influence of transformational leadership. A cross-sectional study was conducted among Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to explore the interrelationships between Green HRM, green process and product innovation, sustainability, and the role of sustainable leadership. The study's findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between green HRM practices and sustainability, encompassing environmental, economic, and social aspects. The findings suggest that management support for environmental initiatives is a critical factor in enhancing the effectiveness and spread of green innovations, emphasizing the importance of GHM in the broader context of organizational change and sustainability. In addition, the study underscores the critical role of transformative leadership in fostering sustainable practices, particularly the significant moderator role of responsible leadership in driving sustainable business practices. In summary, this study provides a roadmap for businesses, particularly SMEs, to leverage HGRM as a strategic tool in their pursuit of sustainability.

The vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) when augmented with internet is called internet of vehicles (IoV). In the IoV, vehicles have on board units (OBUs), use communication technologies and customized software to communicate with infrastructure around them. The vehicles can have permanent connectivity and global network awareness based on cloud computing. IoV technologies are still being assessed to ensure that the network is protected from attacks, supports a dynamic vehicular mobility scenarios and meets the low latency communication requirements between the vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure. To meet these strict Quality of Service (QoS) demands, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) play a vital role in IoV ecosystems. An UAV can serve as a mobile roadside unit (mRSU) to transmit data between vehicles, stationery RSUs and other UAVs. The UAVs have better line of sight (LOS) connections which result in better channel states and lower path loss than fixed RSUs. Although the inclusion of UAVs in vehicular networks has improved the system performance by providing better resource management and routing solutions, the traditional optimization techniques with their limitations are often not applicable. Therefore, in recent years, research community is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into UAV based IoV ecosystem to better manage resource allocation, routing and mobility management issues to optimize the overall network performance. In this survey paper we review the existing research done in AI/ML based UAV-IoV networks and communications with focus on resource management and routing from year 2019 to 2023. We have studied different AI techniques, their training attributes and architectures in various research works. The limitations of AI-based approaches in terms of required computational resources, availability of real world data and AI models’ complexity for the UAV-IoV environment are also discussed. Finally, the future directions for UAV-IoV research opportunities that can leverage the full potential of AI are presented.

When disposing of waste metal resources in landfills, environmental issues such as soil contamination may arise. Recycling these resources not only recovers valuable metals but also mitigates environmental pollution. Platinum (Pt), a valuable metal used in fuel cells for its high water production activity, will see increased future demand as a fossil fuel alternative. This study analyzes the environmental and resource reduction effects of recycled Pt, considering the growing emphasis on its recycling for stable supply and demand of Pt. The environmental impact and resource consumption of recycled Pt with primary Pt (from natural mines) were compared and analyzed using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique. Results revealed that resource consumption for primary Pt was 8.25E+01 kg Sb-eq./kg, significantly more than the 5.45E+00 kg Sb-eq./kg for recycled Pt. This represents an environmental reduction effect of approximately 93%. In the case of greenhouse gas emissions, primary Pt emitted 1.35E+04 kg CO2-eq./kg, while recycled Pt emitted 6.94E+02 kg CO2-eq./kg, resulting in an environmental reduction effect of approximately 95%. In conclusion, recycling Pt, compared to primary extraction, offers substantial environmental and resource reduction benefits. This study underscores the significance of recycling and highlights the potential environmental improvements achievable through sustainable practices.

Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and human settlement areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity. In sub-Saharan Africa, policies are implemented without critical consideration e.g., agricultural expansions impair ecosystem services of the several river basins. The current study has studied landuse/cover and associated rate of change for four-time epochs i.e., 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021. This employed remote sensing and GIS techniques for LULC analysis while future projection was modelled using cellular automata and Markov chain. The Kappa coefficient statistics were used to assess the accuracy of final classified image while reference images for accuracy assessment were developed based on ground truthing. Overall change results between 1991 and 2021, showed that major percentage loss in area were experienced by water, forest, woodland and wetland which decreased by 8,222Ha (44.11%), 426,161Ha (35.72%), 399,584Ha (35.01%) and 105,186Ha (34.82%). On the other hand, percentage increase in area during the same period were experienced in cultivated land, built up areas and grasslands which increased by 659,346Ha (205.28%), 11,894Ha (159.93%) and 33,547Ha (98.47%). However, even with the expanding thirsty sectors water discharged out of the catchment is on increment at a rate of 498.6 m3/s/year. For dualistic benefits, agroforest practices are recommended along with participatory law enforcement and capacity building of local communities through their institutions.

Purpose: School-age children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) often experience difficulties in speech-in-noise (SiN) perception, leading to increased listening effort that impacts their well-being and academic performance. This study aimed to investigate the SiN processing challenges faced by Mandarin-speaking children with ASC and its impact on their listening effort. Methods: Participants completed sentence recognition tests in both quiet and noisy conditions, with a steady-state noise masker presented at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio in the noisy condition. We compared recognition accuracy and task-evoked pupil responses from 23 Mandarin-speaking children with ASC to 19 age-matched neurotypical (NT) counterparts to gauge their behavioral performance and listening effort during these auditory tasks. Results: The ASC group demonstrated notably decreased accuracy in noise compared to their NT peers, suggesting poorer SiN perception. Pupillometric data further revealed significantly larger peak dilations in the ASC group than in the NT group under comparable conditions. Importantly, the ASC group's peak dilation in quiet mirrored the NT group's in noise. However, the ASC group exhibited shorter peak latencies and reduced mean dilations than the NT group in similar conditions. Such patterns indicate the ASC group might initially experience a heightened cognitive load but utilize fewer cognitive resources as the task continued, indicating an atypical allocation of cognitive resources and a potential tendency towards relatively superficial and automated auditory processing. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the unique SiN processing challenges children with ASC face, underscoring the importance of a nuanced, individual-centric approach for interventions and support.

The feasibility of using zeolites, synthesized from components found in municipal solid waste fly ash (MSW-FA), as sorbents for the recovery of nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and heavy metals is critically assessed in this review. The inherent drawbacks of utilising a highly contaminated, variable, and relatively Al- and Si-dilute source such as MSW-FA to synthesize zeolites are discussed, and different methods to extract and decontaminate zeolite precursor materials from MSW-FA are considered. Ways to synthesize tailored zeolites and how their properties as well as the operational conditions impact the adsorption of cations such as ammonium and heavy metals are summarized. The use of surface-modified zeolites to adsorb nitrate and phosphate is also reviewed. And subsequently, approaches to utilise directly or recover for reuse the adsorbed compounds are considered, discussing potential challenges and mitigating measures related to leaching of unwanted compounds from the zeolites. Moreover, the possibility to regenerate the adsorption capacity of the zeolites for multiple adsorption cycles is considered. In the final chapter of the review a more general discussion of the main challenges and existing research gaps is provided, giving directions for recommended studies.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize and share the field experiment results of KEPCO's project consortium to create a TSO-DSO-DERA interaction scheme. The field experiment was conducted based on the prequalification algorithm proposed in the previous research from the same consortium and was designed to verify the validity of the algorithm under realistic grid conditions. In addition, during the course of the field experiment, it was found that points that were missed or not given much importance in the existing prequalification algorithm could affect the completeness of the overall system, and then practical improvements were made to improve it. The demonstration results confirm that the proposed algorithm is effective in real-world grid environments and can help DSOs ensure the reliability of the distribution system while supporting DERA's participation in the wholesale market using the proposed prequalification scheme.

Municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI FA) predominantly consists of compounds comprising elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, sodium, and others. Additionally, it encompasses a complex mixture of heavy metals, chlorides, sulfates, organic pollutants, and other constituents. The effective and economically viable treatment of MSWI FA poses a formidable challenge for the current stage of resource cycling. In this research report, we will adopt a novel low-temperature sintering method called "Cold Sintering Process" (CSP) as a means to immobilize heavy metals within the fly ash. By utilizing a Taguchi orthogonal array, we will adjust five control factors in the CSP, including sintering temperature, uniaxial pressure, sintering time, initial water addition, and sodium carbonate dosage. The leaching of cadmium element from the fly ash, as measured by TCLP, will serve as the quality indicator. Through the application of CSP, the MSWI FA will be transformed into structurally stable ceramic blocks, effectively immobilizing the heavy metals within the blocks. The results of the experiments showed that MSWI FA under the conditions of a temperature of 300℃, uniaxial pressure of 312 MPa, sintering time in 60 minutes, 25 wt% water addition, and 9 wt% Na2CO3 addition could effectively reduce the leaching of cadmium by 77.71%, lead by 21.14%, zinc by 42.37%, and chromium by 99.99%, as compared to the original MSWI FA TCLP results.

Address parsing is a crucial task in natural language processing, particularly for Chinese addresses. The complex structure and semantic features of Chinese addresses present challenges due to their inherent ambiguity. Additionally, different task scenarios require varying levels of granularity in address components, further complicating the parsing process. To address these challenges and adapt to low-resource environments, we propose CapICL, a novel Chinese address parsing model based on the In-Context Learning (ICL) framework. CapICL leverages a sequence generator, regular expression matching, BERT semantic similarity computation, and GPT modeling to enhance parsing accuracy by incorporating contextual information. We construct the sequence generator using a small annotated dataset, capturing distribution patterns and boundary features of address types to model address structure and semantics, mitigating interference from unnecessary variations. We introduce the REB-KNN algorithm, which selects similar samples for ICL-based parsing using regular expression matching and BERT semantic similarity computation. The selected samples, raw text, and explanatory text are combined to form prompts, and inputted into the GPT model for prediction and address parsing. Experimental results demonstrate significant achievements of CapICL in low-resource environments, reducing dependency on annotated data and computational resources. Our model's effectiveness, adaptability, and broad application potential are validated, showcasing its positive impact in natural language processing and geographical information systems.

Nutrient recovery technologies have been constantly developed and optimised to address challenges in water and wastewater management, sanitation, and agri-food systems, while promoting sustainable management of resources, and circular phosphorus economy. However, these technologies have been rarely explored beyond laboratory-scale in developing countries where it is mostly needed, such as the Philippines. In this study, a nutrient recovery batch reactor system was installed at a local farm to process raw septage from an onsite sanitation system, septic tank, to recover a high-value fertiliser for local crop production. The batch reactor was used for two processes; acid hydrolysis for pre-treatment of septage and chemical precipitation to recover phosphorus fertiliser (RPF). The recovered fertiliser was then applied to produce eggplants and tomatoes, which are the common crops grown in the farm. Results show that an average of 290 g of recovered RPF was produced for every 100 L of raw septage processed. With hydrolysis, 77% of the phosphate concentration were released as phosphates from the solid component of the raw septage. About 98.5% of phosphates were recovered from the hydrolysed septage. The RPF when applied to the farm’s eggplants and tomatoes have yields comparable to that of the commercial fertilisers. This study was able to demonstrate the potential of a resource-oriented sanitation system that promotes nutrient recycling toward sustainable agriculture that further leads to meeting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Zero Hunger (goal 2), Clean Water and Sanitation (goal 6), Sustainable Cities and Communities (goal 11), and Responsible Consumption and Production (goal 12).

Extensive in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) will be essential to enable long-duration stays on Luna and Mars and reduce reliance on resupply from Earth. Early development of ISRU technologies has focused on standalone capabilities for specific targets related to life support and ascent propellant. An unexplored opportunity remains for greatly expanding the scope of materials that can be supplied by ISRU, and for integrating various technology platforms into a larger system. Recent advances in power-to-X technology aimed at decarbonising the global economy have made it possible to drive key chemical processes using electricity with small-scale, modular reactor. This paper proposes a vision for an integrated system of ISRU processes based on power-to-X technology to produce oxygen, hydrogen, water, methane, polymers, metal alloys, and synthetic fertilisers, using Martian regolith, atmosphere, and ice. A ‘building block’ strategy is adopted to convert raw materials into versatile intermediaries, which can then be combined to form essential products. A wider range of raw materials are available on Mars compared to Luna, suggesting greater opportunity for ISRU deployment to compensate for the greater time and cost requirements for a Mars resupply mission.

The River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) is an essential component of the European Union Water Framework Directive that details an integrated approach required to protect, improve and sustainably manage water resources. RBMP were intended to be produced for the periods 2009-2015, 2016-2021 and 2022-2027. However, after two years of delays in the development processes, the Republic of Ireland produced its first RBMP in 2010. The second RBMP cycle was also implemented in 2018 and is expected to run until the end of 2021 to give way to the third RBMP, whose consultation processes have been ongoing since December 2019. This paper contributes to the forthcoming RBMP by assessing stakeholders’ perspectives on the second RBMP through a desk-based review and by conducting interviews with nine institutions (14 interviewees). The qualitatively analysed interviews reveal a broad spectrum of actors associated with water management and governance in the Republic of Ireland through a three-tier governance structure that has been delivered (with amendment) through the first two RBMPs. Organisations such as the An Fóram Uisce|The Water Forum, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Local Authority Waters, and the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme have responsibilities designated in the RBMPs to deliver improved water quality, integrated catchment management, community engagement and awareness-raising. Trust has also been building up among these organisations and other agencies in the water sector. Despite these responsibilities and progress, the interviews identified communication lapses, ineffective collaboration and coordination among stakeholders and late implementation to be hampering the successful delivery of the second RBMP, in addition to significant pressures acting on water bodies from agricultural activities and urban wastewater treatment. Towards the third RBMP, the paper concludes that optimised water sector finance, enhanced and well-resourced communications, and improved stakeholder collaboration are needed to foster effective and efficient water services delivery and quality. More so, given the cross-cutting impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on water resources and the interconnected relations among the goals, the paper further recommends the integration of the SDGs in the various plans of actions and a co-benefits approach to derive the triple benefits from biodiversity, climate change initiatives and water quality measures.

An effective empirical statistical method is developed to improve the process of mineral resource estimation of seabed polymetallic nodules and is applied to analyse the abundance of seabed polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The newly proposed method is based on three hypotheses as the foundation for a model of “Idealized Nodules”, which was validated by analysing nodule samples collected from the seabed within the Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML) exploration contract. Once validated, the “Idealized Nodule” model was used to deduce a set of empirical formulae for predicting the nodule resources, in terms of Percentage Coverage and Abundance. The formulae were then applied to analysing a total of 188 sets of nodule samples collected across the TOML areas, comprising box-core samples and towed camera images collected by one of the authors and detailed in [4]. The analysis also relies upon detailed box-core sample measurements from other areas reported by [7]. Numerical results for resource prediction were compared with field measurements, and reasonable agreement has been achieved. The new method has the potential to achieve more accurate mineral resource estimation with reduced sample numbers and sizes. They may also have application in improving the efficiency of design and configuration of mining equipment.

Natural capital is the wealth of nations that give them the economic status they represent. Worldwide, vulnerable people depend on natural capital for employment, salaries, wealth, and livelihoods and, in turn, determine the developmental index of the nation to which they belong. The availability of ecological services is crucial for clean water and air, food and fodder, and agricultural development. In this short commentary, we have tried to sum up the ideas and discussions over natural capital's role in ascribing economic status to countries. We have discussed how the prosperity of humans is intertwined with the services ecosystems provide and how poor natural resource management (NRM) has adversely cost human well-being. The paper concludes that to ensure the current and future human well-being, an in-depth understanding of the services ecosystems provide, is essential.

The 2019 Coronavirus pandemic which was initially referred to as 2019-nCoV, was first identified in Wuhan, China. Early response from the Chinese government included quarantine of infected persons, isolation and total lockdown of Wuhan province to prevent further spread. With the spread of the disease across national borders and declaration of the disease as a global pandemic, there has been a robust response by the international community to contain this deadly virus and prevent its further spread worldwide. Africa is not left out of this rampaging pandemic with documented cases in over 40 countries and still rising. Although extensive studies have been carried out on the novel SARS-CoV-2 on its pathogenesis, mode of infection and virulence but much is still unknown. However, potentially infectious samples are received routinely in the medical laboratory for analysis. This technical note reviews good laboratory practice (GLP) and processes across the different specialities of Medical Laboratory practice that should minimize the risk of infection to laboratory staff especially in resource-limited settings.

Exploiting the linguistic knowledge of the source language for neural machine translation (NMT) has recently achieved impressive performance on many large-scale language pairs. However, since the Turkish→English machine translation task is low-resource and the source-side Turkish is morphologically-rich, there are limited resources of bilingual corpora and linguistic information available to further improve the NMT performance. Focusing on the above issues, we propose a multi-source NMT approach that models the word feature in parallel to external linguistic features by using two separate encoders to explicitly incorporate linguistic knowledge into the NMT model. We extend the word embedding layer of the knowledge-based encoder to accommodate for each word’s linguistic annotations in the context. Moreover, we share all parameters across encoders to enhance the representation ability of the NMT model on the source language. Experimental results show that our proposed approach achieves substantial improvements of up to 2.4 and 1.1 BLEU scores in Turkish→English and English→Turkish machine translation tasks, respectively, which points to a promising way to utilize the source-side linguistic knowledge for the low-resource NMT.

Abstract: Purpose – In this article we lay out the change management practices adopted by financial firms in small states within the Eurozone. We determine whether these organisations have the ability to identify triggers for change (Red Flags) and subject them to eight thematic elements to understand whether management practices can continue to exist and support operational environments, even when unexpected circumstances affect their day to day operations and processes. In doing this we examine the extent to which the eight thematic elements from the model designed by Dalli Gonzi, (2019) (The Dali Model) can assist organisations in risk identification and business continuity planning. Design/methodology/approach – A self-administered questionnaire purposely designed for this study was administered to personnel working in internal controls within financial institutions of small Eurozone states. The participants were asked to grade statements using a 5-point Likert scale, ‘1’ being ‘totally disagree’ and ‘5’ being totally agree’ to the statement posed under the thematic elements forming the basis of the Dali Model. Findings – Factor analysis provided support for the eight hypothesised dimensions of the decision-making model: connection, capacity, governance, network, policy, training, process improvement, standards. Originality/value – The study provides a better understanding and support of “best practice” in change management through an understanding and assessment of the eight factors that are the basis of this model. It addresses practical recommendations to ensure application to a wider frame of use.

Data on the seasonally dry tropical forests of Mexico have been examined in the light of statistical mechanics. The results suggest a division into two classes of species. There are drifting populations of a cosmopolitan class capable of existing in most dry forest sites; these have a statistical distribution previously only observed (globally) for populations of alien species. A high proportion of species found only at a single site are endemic and these prefer sites comparatively low in species richness.