ALBERT

Description: This study was to investigate the effects of UPro as a new nutritive fortifier on high-quality egg production from the perspective of egg properties, intestinal histomorphology, and oviduct function of laying hens. Four hundred thirty-two Hy-Line Brown laying hens aged 56 weeks were allocated to four groups. Layers were given a basal diet or supplemented with different levels of small peptides (0.2, 0.4, and 0.8%) to replace soybean meal. After 1-week adaptation period, the feeding trial was conducted for 12 weeks. The results showed that UPro addition significantly decreased (P 〈 0.05) the hardness, stickiness, and chewiness of albumen of layers on weeks 12. A linear elevation (P 〈 0.05) in the albumen height, Haugh unit (HU), and crude protein content of albumen of layers were noted on week 12 along with dietary UPro addition increasing, and the villus height (VH) and villus height-to-crypt depth radio (VCR) of jejunum also linearly increasing (P 〈 0.05). In addition, there were linear elevations (P 〈 0.05) in the relative mRNA expression of Sec23 homolog A (Sec23A) and protein-O-mannosyltransferase1 (POMT1) in layers as dietary UPro addition increased. In conclusion, dietary UPro addition could improve intestinal health, increase the absorption of nutrients, and improve egg quality of laying hens. The possible mechanism underlying UPro improving the quality and processing characteristics of albumen is up-regulating Sec23A and POMT1 expression of magnum. These findings will promote the application of UPro as a new nutritional additive in the production of high-quality eggs.

Description: Milk polar lipids provide choline, ethanolamine, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are needed for the growth and plasticity of the tissues in a suckling child. They may also inhibit cholesterol absorption by interacting with cholesterol during micelle formation. They may also have beneficial luminal, mucosal, and metabolic effects in both the neonate and the adult. The milk fat globule membrane contains large proportions of sphingomyelin (SM), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and some phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylinositol (PI), and glycosphingolipids. Large-scale technical procedures are available for the enrichment of milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) in milk replacement formulations and food additives. Pancreatic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and mucosal phospholipase B digest glycero-phospholipids in the adult. In the neonate, where these enzymes may be poorly expressed, pancreatic lipase-related protein 2 probably has a more important role. Mucosal alkaline SM-ase and ceramidase catalyze the digestion of SM in both the neonate and the adult. In the mucosa, the sphingosine is converted into sphingosine-1-phosphate, which is both an intermediate in the conversion to palmitic acid and a signaling molecule. This reaction sequence also generates ethanolamine. Here, we summarize the pathways by which digestion and absorption may be linked to the biological effects of milk polar lipids. In addition to the inhibition of cholesterol absorption and the generation of lipid signals in the gut, the utilization of absorbed choline and ethanolamine for mucosal and hepatic phospholipid synthesis and the acylation of absorbed lyso-PC with polyunsaturated fatty acids to chylomicron and mucosal phospholipids are important.

Description: In this study, we demonstrated generation and transmission of 114 Gbaud and 126 Gbaud faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) discrete Fourier transform-spread (DFT-spread) quadrature phase shift keying orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (QPSK-OFDM) with 88-Gsa/s sampling rate digital-to-analog converters (DACs) experimentally. It is the first time to realize 400G FTN DFT-spread QPSK-OFDM signal per optical carrier for metro and regional applications, which will be a solution for network operators to address the issue of increasing bandwidth derived from the rapid popularization of mobile Internet and the wide application of IoT (Internet of Things technology). Delay-and-add filter (DAF) is adopted to realize frequency shaping at the transmitter to keep higher portions of energy of signal at low frequencies, which makes the OFDM much more robust to strong filtering effect. After pre-equalization, bit error rate (BER) performance of 114 GBaud and 126 GBaud FTN DFT-spread QPSK-OFDM has been significantly improved, and maximum-likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) shows a better effect than binary decoding in the aspect of against the inter symbol interference (ISI) introduced by spectrum compression. The effective bit rate of dual polarization 126 Gbaud FTN DFT-spread QPSK-OFDM which is generated with 88 GSa/s sampling rate is 410.08 Gb/s, to the exclusion of all overhead including TSs, cyclic prefix (CP), and 20% forward error correction (FEC) coding. We successfully transmit 8 × 400 Gbit/s FTN DFT-spread QPSK-OFDM signal generated from 88 Gsa/s sampling rate DAC over 420 km single mode fiber (SMF) with the BER under 2.4 × 10−2.

Description: The impact of heat-absorbing viscoelastic nanofluidic flow along with a convectively heated porous Riga plate with Cattaneo-Christov double flux was analytically investigated. The Buongiorno model nanofluid was implemented with the diversity of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. Making use of the transformations; the PDE systems are altered into an ODE system. We use the homotopy analysis method to solve these systems analytically. The reaction of the apposite parameters on fluid velocity, fluid temperature, nanoparticle volume fraction skin friction coefficients (SFC), local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number are shown with vividly explicit details. It is found that the fluid velocities reflect a declining nature for the development of viscoelastic and porosity parameters. The liquid heat becomes rich when escalating the radiation parameter. In addition, the nanoparticle volume fraction displays a declining nature towards the higher amount of thermophoresis parameter, whereas the inverse trend was obtained for the Brownian motion parameter. We also found that the fluid temperature is increased in viscoelastic nanofluid compared to the viscous nanofluid. When we change the fluid nature from heat absorption to heat generation, the liquid temperature also rises. In addition, the fluid heat is suppressed when we change the flow medium from a stationary plate to a Riga plate for heat absorption/generation cases.

Description: The cascades prediction aims to predict the possible information diffusion path in the future based on cascades of the social network. Recently, the existing researches based on deep learning have achieved remarkable results, which indicates the great potential to support cascade prediction task. However, most prior arts only considered either cascade features or user relationship network to predict cascade, which leads to the performance limitation because of the lack of unified modeling for the potential relationship between them. To that end, in this paper, we propose a recurrent neural network model with graph attention mechanism, which constructs a seq2seq framework to learn the spatial-temporal cascade features. Specifically, for user spatial feature, we learn potential relationship among users based on social network through graph attention network. Then, for temporal feature, a recurrent neural network is built to learn their structural context in several different time intervals based on timestamp with a time-decay attention. Finally, we predict the next user with the latest cascade representation which obtained by above method. Experimental results on two real-world datasets show that our model achieves better performance than the baselines on the both evaluation metrics of HITS and mean average precision.

Description: Increasing demand on water resources, reduced land water availability, and concerns over food security have spurred the evolution of many innovative and complex food production. An aquaponic system is a productive, innovative, and sustainable fish and vegetable production system that is revolutionizing agriculture in the face of drought, soil fertility losses, and climate change. Aquaponics, as an advanced aquaculture-agriculture system, is expected to improve food security in developing countries. However, as an emerging technology, there is very limited information on the system in Africa. Questions about the ecological and socio-economic sustainability of aquaponics are answered in this comprehensive review. This review considers aquaponics projects in Africa, categorizes the technology by evidences of their effectiveness, fish and plant yields, and juxtaposes the technology within best-use practices to make recommendations that will inform evidence-based policymaking. It also maps the present spatial adoption of the technology in sub-Saharan Africa and highlights the system's contribution to improving food security on the continent. Egypt and South Africa are countries where aquaponics is emerging and being adopted at faster rates and contributing to food security. In West Africa, significantly lower net-discounted benefit-cost ratios were realized when aquaponics systems were constructed using imported materials compared to using locally available materials. Despite aquaponics systems generally having higher start-up costs currently, its potential to be economically viable when undertaken with local materials is very high.

Description: Flows with chemical reactions in porous media are fundamental phenomena encountered in many natural, industrial, and scientific areas. For such flows, most existing studies use continuum assumptions and focus on volume-averaged properties on macroscopic scales. Considering the complex porous structures and fluid–solid interactions in realistic situations, this study develops a sophisticated lattice Boltzmann (LB) model for simulating reactive flows in porous media on the pore scale. In the present model, separate LB equations are built for multicomponent flows and chemical species evolutions, source terms are derived for heat and mass transfer, boundary schemes are formulated for surface reaction, and correction terms are introduced for temperature-dependent density. Thus, the present LB model offers a capability to capture pore-scale information of compressible/incompressible fluid motions, homogeneous reaction between miscible fluids, and heterogeneous reaction at the fluid–solid interface in porous media. Different scenarios of density fingering with homogeneous reaction are investigated, with effects of viscosity contrast being clarified. Furthermore, by introducing thermal flows, the solid coke combustion is modeled in porous media. During coke combustion, fluid viscosity is affected by heat and mass transfer, which results in unstable combustion fronts.

Description: Omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids (FA) play an essential role in human physiology and health. As a result, a variety of n-3 FA-fortified functional foods have become commercially available for human consumption. These fortified functional foods are created through various processes; however, nutri-priming, a potentially promising fortification approach, has not been utilized to develop plant-based n-3 fortified foods. We sought to determine whether nutri-priming is a viable option to enrich seeds and sprouts with n-3 FA. Additionally, we assessed whether n-3 FA nutri-priming would inhibit germination of the primed seeds. To address these goals, we nutri-primed brown flax in three priming solutions, control [0% fish oil (FO)], 10% FO and a 20% FO solution, and determined the FA content and profile of seeds and sprouts and germination percentage of primed seeds. n-3 FA nutri-priming with FO altered the FA profile in seeds and sprouts, with increases in the absolute content of 20:5 n-3, 22:6 n-3, 22:5 n3, 18:4 n-3, and 20:4 n-6. However, n-3 FA nutri-priming did not increase the absolute content of 18:2 n-6, 18:3 n-3, total saturated FA, total monounsaturated FA, total polyunsaturated FA, total n-6 FA, or total n-3 FA. Our results also showed that n-3 nutri-priming decreased the germination percentage of primed seeds, with 10 and 20% FO priming solution reducing germination by 4.3 and 6.2%, respectively. Collectively, n-3 nutri-priming modified the n-3 FA profile in flax; however, the process does not increase the total n-3 FA content and inhibits germination of primed seeds. Further research utilizing different seed types, oil types, and oil concentrations needs to be conducted to fully determine if n-3 nutri-priming is a commercially viable approach for n-3 fortification of seeds and sprouts.

Description: Pozol is an acidic, refreshing, and non-alcoholic traditional Mayan beverage made with nixtamalized corn dough that is fermented spontaneously. The extensive analysis of the microbiology, biochemistry and metaproteomics of pozol allowed the construction of a comprehensive image of the fermentation system. The main changes in both the substrate and the microbiota occurred in the first 9 h of fermentation. The increase in microorganisms correlated with the drop in pH and with the decrease in the contents of carbohydrates, lipids, and nitrogen, which shows that this stage has the highest metabolic activity. Bacterial proteins were mainly represented by those of lactic acid bacteria, and among them, the proteins from genus Streptococcus was overwhelmingly the most abundant. Yeast proteins were present in all the analyzed samples, while proteins from filamentous fungi increased up to 48 h. The metaproteomic approach allowed us to identify several previously unknown enzyme complexes in the system. Additionally, enzymes for hydrolysis of starch, hemicellulose and cellulose were found, indicating that all these substrates can be used as a carbon source by the microbiota. Finally, enzymes related to the production of essential intermediates involved in the synthesis of organic acids, acetoin, butanediol, fatty acids and amino acids important for the generation of compounds that contribute to the sensorial quality of pozol, were found.

Description: This study was performed to determine the antifungal activity of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl) leaf extract (LLE) against the citrus postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum (P. digitatum). The LLE exhibited an antifungal activity against P. digitatum, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.625 mg/ml and a minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of 1.25 mg/ml. Significant inhibitory effects of LLE on mycelial growth and spore germination of P. digitatum were seen in a dose-dependent manner. Simultaneously, to investigate possible antifungal mechanisms by LLE, we analyzed their influence on morphological changes, cell membrane permeability, cell wall and cell membrane integrity, and adenosine phosphates (ATP, ADP, and AMP) levels. Alterations, such as sunken surface and malformation, occurred in the LLE-treated P. digitatum spores. Furthermore, intracellular inclusion content decreased after LLE treatment, indicating an increase in cell membrane permeability. Besides, the LLE treatment induced a significant decline in the level of adenosine monophosphate (AMP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) with a noticeable addition of extracellular ATP, ADP, and AMP during the entire treatment period. Overall, the results manifested that the antifungal activity of LLE against P. digitatum can be attributed to the derangement of cell membrane permeability and disordered energy metabolism. This is the first report on the mechanism of antifungal activity of LLE and could be useful in the development of targeted fungicides from natural origin.

Description: Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) is an effective tool for the extraction of natural antioxidants. Thus, differentially roasted Arabica-coffee beans known as light (LC), medium (MC), and dark coffee (DC) were prepared and extracted under the influence of UAE. Following that, they were examined specifically on theirs physicochemical and biological characteristics: nutritional values, pH, °Brix, antioxidant activities, polyphenol content, caffeine, and chlorogenic-acid levels. Various parameters, such as extraction temperatures (20, 40, and 80°C) and extraction time periods (5, 10, and 20 min), were examined. DC extract was less acidic than those on MC and LC extracts. LC showed higher moisture content than the MC and DC (1.56, 1.3, and 0.92%, respectively). MC displayed the highest polyphenol content and potent antioxidant activity. Caffeine and chlorogenic acid contents trend to decrease during roasting. The maximum caffeine level was found in MC at 80°C for 5 min (27.65 mg/g extract). The highest chlorogenic acid content was in LC at 80°C for 10 min (16.67 mg/g extract). The caffeine and chlorogenic acid contents were related to the polyphenol content and depended on the roasting and extraction conditions. These results suggest that the UAE at various temperature and extraction time period may alter the physicochemical and biological characteristics of different coffee roasts.

Description: Increased global production of animal-based protein results in high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other adverse consequences for human and planetary health. Recently, commercial insect rearing has been claimed a more sustainable source of animal protein. However, this system also leaves residues called frass, which—depending on the insect diet—is rich in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), and could thus be used as fertilizer in agriculture. The impact of this kind of fertilizer on soil GHG emissions is yet unknown. Therefore, we investigated the effect of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) frass derived from a carbohydrate (Carb-) or a protein (Prot-) based diet applied at two different application rates to an arable soil on C and N fluxes and microbial properties in a 40-day incubation experiment. CO2, N2O, NO, N2, CH4, water extractable organic C (WEOC), and inorganic N were continuously measured quantitatively. At the end of the incubation, microbial biomass (MB), stoichiometry, community composition, and abundance of functional genes were assessed. Along with a strong increase in WEOC and CO2, Carb-frass caused strong initial N2O emissions associated with high N and C availability. In contrast, Prot-frass showed lower CO2 emissions and N2O release, although soil nitrate levels were higher. At the end of incubation, MB was significantly increased, which was more pronounced following Carb-frass as compared to Prot-frass application, and at higher amendment rates. Fungal abundance increased most from both frass types with an even stronger response at higher application rates, whereas bacterial abundance rose following Carb-frass as compared to Prot-application. Abundance of functional genes related to ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea were enhanced by high frass application but did not clearly differ between frass types. C use efficiency of microorganisms, as revealed by the metabolic quotient, was most strongly reduced in the high Prot-frass application rate. Overall, insect diet influenced available C and N in frass and thus affected mineralization dynamics, GHG emissions, and microbial growth. Overall, emissions were very high undermining the potential environmental benefit of insect based protein production and calling for more detailed analyses before frass is widely applied in agriculture.

Description: From the observed datasets, we should be able to produce curve surfaces that have the same characteristics as the original datasets. For instance, if the given data are positive, then the resulting curve or surface must be positive on entire given intervals, i.e., everywhere. In this study, a new partial blended rational bi-quartic spline with C1 continuity is constructed through the partially blended scheme. This rational spline is defined on four corners of the rectangular meshes. The sufficient condition for the positivity of rational bi-quartic spline is derived on four boundary curve networks. There are eight free parameters that can be used for shape modification. The first-order partial derivatives are estimated by using numerical techniques. We also show that the proposed scheme is local quadratic reproducing such that it can exactly reproduce the quadratic surface. We test the proposed scheme to interpolate various types of positive surface data. Based on statistical indicators such as the root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2), we found that the proposed scheme is on par with some established schemes. In fact, it requires less CPU times (in seconds) to generate the interpolating surface on rectangular meshes. Furthermore, by combining the statistical indicators’ result and graphically visualizing the test functions, the proposed method has the capability to reconstruct very comparable smoothing interpolating positive surfaces compared to some existing schemes. This finding is significant in producing a better interpolating surface for computer graphics applications since the proposed scheme has a smaller error compared with existing schemes.

Description: We study theoretically the properties of local heat originated from energy exchange between electrons passing through a quantum dot (QD) coupled to a phonon bath. The dot is sandwiched between two normal metal leads and also side-coupled to Majorana bound states (MBSs) formed at opposite ends of a topological superconductor nanowire. We find that in addition to the negative differential of heat generation (NDHG) in the Coulomb blockade regime, another NDHG emerges near the leads’ Fermi level due to the dot-MBS coupling. This dual NDHG effect is robust against the variation of intradot Coulomb interaction strength, and disappears if the QD is coupled to regular Fermions. Direct hybridization between the MBSs reduces their impacts on the electronic transport processes, and eliminates the dual NDHG effect. Our results show that the dual NDHG effect is quite efficient for inferring the existence of MBSs, and may remedy some limitations of the detection schemes relying on tunneling spectroscopy technique.

Description: Novel human coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious respiratory disease, has affected more than 50 million people around the world up to November 2020, thereby becoming the fifth documented pandemic since the Spanish flu in 1918. SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in China and evolved for 4 months within the country before becoming a global threat. There is currently no drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for which efficacy on the virus has been proved. Therefore, the only strategy against this virus is to apply measures that are capable of reducing its spread, such as isolation and quarantine, social distancing, community-wide containment, and strict enforcement of hygiene. Quarantine has proved to be effective in combating the spread of the virus; however, it has inevitably led to a radical change in the lives of people. Studies have been conducted in Italy and some European countries to highlight the role that quarantine has played in determining the lifestyle changes both in eating habits and physical activity and their possible correlation with increase in weight. The selection criteria involved answering a questionnaire that included information on the weight status and at least one of the other two aspects: changes in eating habits and/or physical activity during the quarantine period. The results obtained indicate, in general, that the negative effect of quarantine was on eating habits and physical activity. This was based on the observation that there has been an increase in food consumption and a reduction in physical activity with a consequent increase in weight.

Description: We numerically calculate the quasinormal frequencies of the Klein-Gordon and Dirac fields propagating in a two-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter black hole of the dilaton gravity theory. For the Klein-Gordon field we use the Horowitz-Hubeny method and the asymptotic iteration method for second order differential equations. For the Dirac field we first exploit the Horowitz-Hubeny method. As a second method, instead of using the asymptotic iteration method for second order differential equations, we propose to take as a basis its formulation for coupled systems of first order differential equations. For the two fields we find that the results that produce the two numerical methods are consistent. Furthermore for both fields we obtain that their quasinormal modes are stable and we compare their quasinormal frequencies to analyze whether their spectra are isospectral. Finally we discuss the main results.

Description: In this review, we report on recent progress in the generation and application of multichromatic polarization-tailored pulse sequences for the coherent control of multiphoton ionization (MPI) dynamics and present unpublished experimental results that complement our previous findings. Specifically, we utilize single-color, bichromatic, and trichromatic polarization-controlled pulse sequences generated by spectral amplitude, phase and polarization modulation of a carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable white light supercontinuum for MPI. The analysis of the number of ionization pathways and the number of distinct final free electron states shows that both increase significantly, but scale differently with the number of absorbed photons and the number of pulses in the sequence. In our experiments, ultrafast polarization shaping is combined with high-resolution photoelectron tomography to generate, control, and reconstruct three-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions from atomic and molecular MPI. We discuss the use of polarization-controlled single-color and bichromatic pulse sequences in perturbative and non-perturbative coherent control of coupled electron-nuclear dynamics in molecules, atomic spin-orbit wave packet dynamics and the directional photoemission from atoms and chiral molecules. We compare the coherent control of CEP-insensitive intraband multipath interference in the MPI with a fixed number of photons with CEP-sensitive interband multipath interference in the ionization with a different number of photons. The generation and control of free electron vortices with even-numbered rotational symmetry by MPI with single-color pulse sequences is contrasted with the bichromatic control of CEP-sensitive electron vortices with odd-numbered rotational symmetry. To illustrate the potential of multichromatic pulse sequences for coherent control, we present a trichromatic scheme for shaper-based quantum state holography.

Description: Objective: At present, the association of body mass index (BMI) with the prognosis of liver cirrhosis is controversial. Our retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of BMI on the outcome of liver cirrhosis.Methods: In the first part, long-term death was evaluated in 436 patients with cirrhosis and without malignancy from our prospectively established single-center database. In the second part, in-hospital death was evaluated in 379 patients with cirrhosis and with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (AGIB) from our retrospective multicenter study. BMI was calculated and categorized as underweight (BMI

Description: Managed and wild bee populations contribute over $15 billion in pollination services to US agriculture, yet both are declining or becoming increasingly vulnerable to parasites and disease. The loss of healthy and diverse forage is a key driver in bee declines, so incentivizing land managers to adopt diversified bee-friendly management practices such as forage plantings and reduced pesticide use can directly increase food security, pollinator health, and farmer adaptive capacity. To better understand what might incentivize growers to adopt bee-friendly practices, we conducted a survey of California almond growers, whose orchards are entirely dependent on bee pollination and draw nearly 88% of US bee colonies each February to pollinate almond bloom. We asked 329 respondents across all major almond growing regions of CA about their adoption rate and incentives for planting cover crops, pollinator habitat, and practicing the recommended and legally required bee-friendly best management practices, as well as their interest in bee-friendly certification programs. Using a model selection framework, we evaluated which geographic, social, operational, and pollination-service related factors were predictive of bee-friendly practice adoption. We found that no single factor was a statistically significant predictor of adoption across all models, suggesting there is no silver bullet determining bee-friendly practice adoption. However, we discovered that region and concerns about future pollination services consistently emerged as important factors related to all the practices we investigated, except the adoption of legally required BMPs. These findings suggest that a regionally flexible pollinator conservation strategy focused on supporting honey bee colonies might have the highest likelihood of grower participation and adoption.

Description: Edible insects are proposed as a nutritious and environmentally sustainable alternative source to animal proteins, due to their numerous advantages in terms of reduced ecological impact and high nutritional value. However, the novelty for edible insects relies on the content of bioactive ingredients potentially able to induce a functional effect in the body. The present review summarizes the main findings on the antioxidant properties of edible insects available in the literature. A total of 30 studies involving animals, cell cultures, or in vitro experimental studies evaluating the antioxidant effect of edible insects are presented in this work. When the antioxidant activity was investigated, using a wide variety of in vitro tests and in cellular models, positive results were shown. Dietary supplementation with edible insects was also able to counteract dietary oxidative stress in animal models, restoring the balance of antioxidant enzymes and reducing the formation of oxidation damage markers. On the basis of the reviewed evidences, edible insects might represent a source of novel redox ingredients at low ecological impact able to modulate oxidative stress. However, due to the fact that majority of these evidences have been obtained in vitro and in cellular and animal models, dietary intervention trials are needed to assess the efficacy of edible insect consumption to modulate redox status in humans.

Description: Infants hospitalized for critical illnesses are at a high risk of undernutrition because of increased nutrient requirements (due to increased metabolism) and decreased nutrient intake (due to disease-related problems such as anorexia or feeding difficulties). This can result in a slowing down of their normal growth, referred to as “growth faltering.” Appropriate nutritional management of these infants is extremely important to avoid long-term adverse outcomes. Administration of energy- and nutrient-dense formula (ENDF; 100 kcal energy and 2.6 g protein per 100 mL, with added micronutrients) can be an effective means of increasing the nutrient and energy intake of these children. Despite the high prevalence of undernutrition and growth faltering among pediatric patients in India, there is a paucity of literature on the use of ENDF in Indian infants. Herein, we report the successful use of ENDF for the nutritional management of two infants hospitalized for growth faltering because of severe upper airway obstruction. The aim of nutritional management was to achieve satisfactory weight gain, which can lead to spontaneous resolution of upper airway obstruction. ENDF was initially administered to provide 50–100 kcal/kg/day, and the dose was gradually increased to 160–185 kcal/kg/day. Both infants tolerated the formula well and showed satisfactory weight gain. These cases clearly demonstrate that early administration of ENDF is an effective means of increasing nutrient and energy intake of critically ill infants, thereby facilitating catchup growth, without any notable adverse effects.

Description: Insulin resistance in obesity coincides with abnormalities in lipid profile and lipoprotein subclass distribution and size even before abnormalities in glucose homeostasis manifest. We aimed to assess this relationship in the absence of obesity. Insulin sensitivity (3-h intravenous glucose tolerance test and minimal modeling) and lipoprotein particle concentrations and sizes (proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) were evaluated in 15 insulin-resistant and 15 insulin-sensitive lean Asians of Chinese descent with normal glucose tolerance, matched on age, sex, and body mass index. Despite a ~50% lower insulin sensitivity index (Si) in insulin-resistant than in insulin-sensitive subjects, which was accompanied by significantly greater acute insulin response to glucose (AIRg) and fasting insulin concentration but not different fasting glucose concentration, there were no significant differences between groups in the blood lipid profile (p ≥ 0.44) or the lipoprotein subclass concentrations (p ≥ 0.30) and particle sizes (p ≥ 0.43). We conclude that, contrary to observations in subjects with obesity, insulin resistance is not accompanied by unfavorable changes in the plasma lipid profile and lipoprotein particle concentrations and sizes in lean Asians with normal glucose tolerance. Therefore, insulin resistance at the level of glucose metabolism is mechanistically or temporally dissociated from lipid and lipoprotein metabolism.Trial Registration:clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03264001.

Description: Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are generated in the lower atmosphere by various weather phenomena. They propagate upward, carry energy and momentum to higher altitudes, and appreciably influence the general circulation upon depositing them in the middle and upper atmosphere. We use a three-dimensional first-principle general circulation model (GCM) with implemented nonlinear whole atmosphere GW parameterization to study the global climatology of wave activity and produced effects at altitudes up to the upper thermosphere. The numerical experiments were guided by the GW momentum fluxes and temperature variances as measured in 2010 by the SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) instrument onboard NASA’s TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics Dynamics) satellite. This includes the latitudinal dependence and magnitude of GW activity in the lower stratosphere for the boreal summer season. The modeling results were compared to the SABER temperature and total absolute momentum flux and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) data in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Simulations suggest that, in order to reproduce the observed circulation and wave activity in the middle atmosphere, GW fluxes that are smaller than observed fluxes have to be used at the source level in the lower atmosphere. This is because observations contain a broader spectrum of GWs, while parameterizations capture only a portion relevant to the middle and upper atmosphere dynamics. Accounting for the latitudinal variations of the source appreciably improves simulations.

Description: Large-scale disturbances such as ice storms may increase in frequency and intensity as climate changes. While disturbances are a natural component of forest ecosystems, climatically driven alteration to historical patterns may impart fundamental change to ecosystem function. At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH, experimental ice storms of varying severity were applied to replicate plots of mature northern hardwoods to quantify their effects on forested ecosystems. We assessed ice storm treatment effects on insectivorous foliage-gleaning birds and evaluated insectivore predation on model caterpillars in the understory vegetation. These birds are charismatic, of conservation concern, and are major predators of caterpillars. In turn, lepidopterans are the dominant herbivores in temperate forests and are integral to ecosystem function. We predicted that avian abundance would increase due to additional structural heterogeneity caused by ice treatments, with a concomitant increase in caterpillar predation. Point counts were used to measure insectivorous bird activity in the ice storm experiment plots and additional control plots before and after treatments. We deployed and retrieved plasticine model caterpillars and estimated predation from characteristic marks to these surrogates. Abundance of foliage-gleaning birds was higher in the ice storm plots and birds responded to treatments as a single diffuse disturbance rather than on an individual plot level. All species except one were observed both before and after the ice treatments. Surprisingly, predation on caterpillar models was unaffected by ice storm treatments but rather was a function of caterpillar density. The increase in avian abundance in the ice storm treatment plots corroborates other studies of bird responses to relatively small-scale disturbances in forests and the limited change in species composition was expected given the plot size. We conclude that ice storms may provide beneficial changes for foliage-gleaning birds in the growing season following the disturbance.

Description: We previously discovered that gut microbiota can serve as universal microbial biomarkers for diagnosis, disease activity assessment, and predicting the response to infliximab treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Much still remains unknown about the relationship between alterations in gut microbiota and IBD affected bowel region, in particular in the case of ulcerative colitis (UC) and colonic Crohn's disease (cCD) without endoscopic and biopsy data. In the current study gut microbiota from a population in China was found to be distinct from that of the Western world [Human Microbiome Project (HMP) data]. Furthermore, both gut microbiota greatly differed from microbiota of other anatomical locations (oral, skin, airway, and vagina), with higher alpha-diversity (Chinese gut 〉 HMP gut 〉 oral microbiome 〉 airway microbiome 〉 skin microbiome 〉 vaginal microbiome), and marked differences in microbiome composition. In patients with IBD in China, UC was characterized by the presence of Gardnerella, while cCD was characterized by the presence of Fusobacterium. Moreover, gut microbiota, such as Gardnerella and Fusobacterium, may be potential biomarkers for identifying UC from cCD. Together, this study revealed crucial differences in microbial communities across anatomical locations, and demonstrated that there was an important association between IBD affected bowel region and gut microbiota.

Description: The thermodynamic properties of the parabolic-well fluid are considered. The intermolecular interaction potential of this model, which belongs to the class of the so-called van Hove potentials, shares with the square-well and the triangular well potentials the inclusion of a hard-core and an attractive well of relatively short range. The analytic second virial coefficient for this fluid is computed explicitly and an equation of state is derived with the aid of the second-order thermodynamic perturbation theory in the macroscopic compressibility approximation and taking the hard-sphere fluid as the reference system. For this latter, the fully analytical expression of the radial distribution function, consistent with the Carnahan-Starling equation of state as derived within the rational function approximation method, is employed. The results for the reduced pressure of the parabolic-well fluid as a function of the packing fraction and two values of the range of the parabolic-well potential at different temperatures are compared with Monte Carlo and Event‐driven molecular dynamics simulation data. Estimates of the values of the critical temperature are also provided.

Description: Humans are participating in the sixth mass extinction, and for the first time in 200,000 years, our species may be on the brink of extinction. We are facing the greatest challenges we have ever encountered, namely how to nourish eight billion people in the face of changing climates ecologically, diminish disparity between the haves and the have-nots economically, and ease xenophobia, fear, and hatred socially? Historically, our tribal nature served us well, but the costs of tribalism are now far too great for one people inhabiting one tiny orb. If we hope to survive, we must mend the divides that isolate us from one another and the communities we inhabit. While not doing so could be our undoing, doing so could transform our collective consciousness into one that respects, nourishes, and embraces our interdependence with life on Earth. At a basic level, we can cultivate life by using nature as a model for how to produce and consume food; by decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy to grow, process, and transport food; and by transcending persistent battles over one-size-fits-all plant- or animal-based diets. If we learn to do so in ways that nourish life, we may awaken individually and collectively to the wisdom of the Maori proverb Ko au te whenua. Ko te whenua Ko au: I am the land. The land is me. In this paper, we use “scapes” —foodscapes, landscapes, heartscapes, and thoughtscapes—as unifying themes to discuss our linkages with communities. We begin by considering how palates link animals with foodscapes. Next, we address how palates link foodscapes with landscapes. We then consider how, through our reverence for life, heartscapes link palates with foodscapes and landscapes. We conclude with transformations of thoughtscapes needed to appreciate life on Earth as a community to which we belong, rather than as a commodity that belongs to us.

Description: Malnutrition among children of school-going age is a challenge of serious concern in developing countries especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Many programs focus on mothers and under-5-year-old children, leaving the school going age unattended. It has been shown that school meals can reduce school absenteeism, improve concentration in class and reduce early dropouts. In Tanzania, successful home-grown school feeding programs are localized in few areas but have not been scaled-out. The objective of this study was to analyze the policy and organizational environment which enables or promotes home-grown school feeding approaches. The study consisted of a systematic review, key informant interviews and focus group discussions in Arumeru and Babati Districts, Tanzania. In total, 21 key informant interviews with 27 participants and 27 focus group discussions with 217 participants were conducted. The results show that Tanzania lacks a clear policy on school feeding; there are no guidelines for school meal quality, participation in school feeding programs is not mandatory, leading to many students being left out and going hungry. Students in private schools tend to be better off than those in public schools in terms of provision and quality of school meals. We recommend that policies and practices are developed based on positive experiences of home-grown school feeding programs implemented in Tanzania by the World Food Programme and Project Concern International and emphasize that these policies need to be developed in a multi-sectoral manner. A conceptual framework for improving home-grown school feeding in public schools in Tanzania highlights four critical components: leadership and public awareness; operational modalities; contributions from parents; and meal diversity and nutrition. The home-grown school feeding model provides mechanisms to improve diversity of meals and their nutritional value, increase participation of communities and inclusion of students. Parents will still be responsible for the largest part of food supplies, but the model also requires participation of multiple stakeholders, and provision of natural resources such as land and water by the local government for production of nutritious food for young students. Minimum levels of social protection are recommended to ensure that no student is denied school meals.

Description: While commission reports and nutritional guidelines raise concerns about the effects of consuming red meat on human health, the impacts of how livestock are raised and finished on consumer health are generally ignored. Meat and milk, irrespective of rearing practices, provide many essential nutrients including bioavailable protein, zinc, iron, selenium, calcium, and/or B12. Emerging data indicate that when livestock are eating a diverse array of plants on pasture, additional health-promoting phytonutrients—terpenoids, phenols, carotenoids, and anti-oxidants—become concentrated in their meat and milk. Several phytochemicals found in grass-fed meat and milk are in quantities comparable to those found in plant foods known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and cardioprotective effects. As meat and milk are often not considered as sources of phytochemicals, their presence has remained largely underappreciated in discussions of nutritional differences between feedlot-fed (grain-fed) and pasture-finished (grass-fed) meat and dairy, which have predominantly centered around the ω-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. Grazing livestock on plant-species diverse pastures concentrates a wider variety and higher amounts of phytochemicals in meat and milk compared to grazing monoculture pastures, while phytochemicals are further reduced or absent in meat and milk of grain-fed animals. The co-evolution of plants and herbivores has led to plants/crops being more productive when grazed in accordance with agroecological principles. The increased phytochemical richness of productive vegetation has potential to improve the health of animals and upscale these nutrients to also benefit human health. Several studies have found increased anti-oxidant activity in meat and milk of grass-fed vs. grain-fed animals. Only a handful of studies have investigated the effects of grass-fed meat and dairy consumption on human health and show potential for anti-inflammatory effects and improved lipoprotein profiles. However, current knowledge does not allow for direct linking of livestock production practices to human health. Future research should systematically assess linkages between the phytochemical richness of livestock diets, the nutrient density of animal foods, and subsequent effects on human metabolic health. This is important given current societal concerns about red meat consumption and human health. Addressing this research gap will require greater collaborative efforts from the fields of agriculture and medicine.

Description: Organic farming systems are gaining popularity as agronomically and environmentally sound soil management strategies with potential to enhance soil microbial diversity and fertility, environmental quality and sustainable crop production. This work aimed at understanding the effect of organic and conventional farming on the diversity of soybean nodulating bradyrhizobia species. Field trapping of indigenous soybean Bradyrhizobium was done by planting promiscuous soybeans varieties SB16 and SC squire as well as non-promiscuous Gazelle in three organic and three conventional farms in Tharaka-Nithi County of Kenya. After 45 days of growth, 108 nodule isolates were obtained from the soybean nodules and placed into 13 groups based on their morphological characteristics. Genetic diversity was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting 16S rDNA gene using universal primers P5-R and P3-F and sequencing was carried out using the same primer. High morphological and genetic diversity of the nodule isolates was observed in organic farms as opposed to conventional farms. There was little or no genetic differentiation between the nodule isolates from the different farms with the highest molecular variation (91.12%) being partitioned within populations as opposed to among populations (8.88%). All the isolates were identified as bradyrhizobia with close evolutionary ties with Bradyrhizobium japonicum and Bradyrhizobium yuanminense. Organic farming systems favor the proliferation of bradyrhizobia species and therefore a suitable environmentally friendly alternative for enhancing soybean production.

Description: We report the crystal structure and superconducting properties of new V5+2xNb35−xMo35−xIr10Pt15 high-entropy alloys (HEAs) for x in the range of 0 ≤x≤ 10. These HEAs are found to crystallize in a cubic A15-type structure and have a weakly coupled, fully gapped superconducting state. A maximum Tc of 5.18 K and zero-temperature upper critical field Bc2(0) of 6.4 T are observed at x = 0, and both quantities decrease monotonically with the increase of V content x. In addition, Tc shows an increase with increasing valence electron concentration from 6.4 to 6.5, which is compared with other A15-type HEA and binary superconductors.

Description: We investigate here the magnetic properties of a large-scale magnetic flux rope related to a coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the Sun on September 12, 2014 and produced a well-defined flux rope in interplanetary space on September 14–15, 2014. We apply a fully data-driven and time-dependent magnetofrictional method (TMFM) using Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) magnetograms as the lower boundary condition. The simulation self-consistently produces a coherent flux rope and its ejection from the simulation domain. This paper describes the identification of the flux rope from the simulation data and defining its key parameters (e.g., twist and magnetic flux). We define the axial magnetic flux of the flux rope and the magnetic field time series from at the apex and at different distances from the apex of the flux rope. Our analysis shows that TMFM yields axial magnetic flux values that are in agreement with several observational proxies. The extracted magnetic field time series do not match well with in-situ components in direct comparison presumably due to interplanetary evolution and northward propagation of the CME. The study emphasizes also that magnetic field time-series are strongly dependent on how the flux rope is intercepted which presents a challenge for space weather forecasting.

Description: The Mpemba effect refers to systems whose thermal relaxation time is a non-monotonic function of the initial temperature. Thus, a system that is initially hot cools to a bath temperature more quickly than the same system, initially warm. In the special case where the system dynamics can be described by a double-well potential with metastable and stable states, dynamics occurs in two stages: a fast relaxation to local equilibrium followed by a slow equilibration of populations in each coarse-grained state. We have recently observed the Mpemba effect experimentally in such a setting, for a colloidal particle immersed in water. Here, we show that this metastable Mpemba effect arises from a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the maximum amount of work that can be extracted from the local-equilibrium state at the end of Stage 1.

Description: Theory and observations of Langmuir waves and turbulence induced in the auroral ionosphere by electron beams of magnetospheric-origin are reviewed. The theoretical discussions include a brief description of the electrostatic dispersion relation, excitation of Langmuir waves by electron beams, and the stability of beam distributions. The theory of Langmuir turbulence—including the parametric decay instability and wave collapse—is also briefly discussed. The main focus of the review, however, is on the observations of Langmuir waves and turbulence in the ionosphere by in-situ and ground-based sensors. A summary of five decades of in-situ wave and particle observations is presented and combined with a collection of more recent results from ground-based instruments. The ground-based observations include signatures of Langmuir turbulence in the form of coherent echoes in incoherent scatter radar measurements; signatures of electron beams in the form of auroral morphologies recorded by high-speed, high-resolution optical imagers; and electromagnetic emissions received on the ground at high latitudes. Uniting the various observations obtained by the vastly different sensors is shown to provide further insight into the micro-scale processes that occur in the ionosphere. Also discussed in this review is the potential of the ground-based sensors to provide a broader spatial and temporal context for single-point in-situ measurements of such processes.

Description: Agriculture is both highly sensitive to climate change and a major global emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). With growing international pressure to curb global emissions through the 2015 Paris Agreement and mounting climate change-related losses in agriculture, countries are in need of an increasingly robust agricultural policy framework. This paper takes an in-depth look at the agricultural sector in Viet Nam, contributing to a better understanding of the main bottlenecks in implementing the Paris Agreement, evaluating the relevance and impact of selected barriers for the implementation of current climate policies and their implications for nationally determined contribution (NDC) design. To address these questions, an exploratory mixed method approach was employed: (i) identifying and mapping key policies, (ii) reviewing global literature sources on barriers, (iii) conducting stakeholder interviews (n = 25), and (iv) follow-up quantitative surveys (n = 16). The interviews revealed numerous barriers within Viet Nam's institutional setting that acted to impede the creation and implementation of climate policy. As seen in other countries, insufficient inter-ministry collaboration and information sharing restricted the overall success of climate policy, with poor representation of non-lead ministries in drafting and inadequate channels for bottom-up engagement also considered major constraints. These coupled with gaps in financing make for fragmented policies that often lack clear implementation guidelines, particularly at a local level. The NDC process presents an opportunity for Viet Nam to coordinate their cross-sector climate response around a single international agreement, facilitating greater inter-ministry information and data sharing, while utilizing the technical and financial support provided through international partners to build capacity in this vital area.

Description: In an emergency evacuation, people almost always come in close proximity as they quickly leave a built environment under a potential threat. With COVID19, this situation presents yet another challenge: that of getting unintentionally exposed to an infected individual. To assess the epidemiological consequences of an emergency evacuation, we expanded a popular pedestrian dynamic model to enable social distancing during a normal exit and analyze the effect of possible transmission through respiratory droplets and aerosol. Computer simulations point to a troubling outcome, whereby the benefits of a quick exit could be outweighed by the risk of infection.

Description: Molecular simulations such as Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) have gained increasing importance in the explanation of various physicochemical and biochemical phenomena in soft matter and help elucidate processes that often cannot be understood by experimental techniques alone. While there is a large number of computational studies and developments in MD, MC simulations are less widely used, but they offer a powerful alternative approach to explore the potential energy surface of complex systems in a way that is not feasible for atomistic MD, which still remains fundamentally constrained by the femtosecond timestep, limiting investigations of many essential processes. This paper provides a review of the current developments of a MC based code, SIMONA, which is an efficient and versatile tool to perform large-scale conformational sampling of different kinds of (macro)molecules. We provide an overview of the approach, and an application to soft-matter problems, such as protocols for protein and polymer folding, physical vapor deposition of functional organic molecules and complex oligomer modeling. SIMONA offers solutions to different levels of programming expertise (basic, expert and developer level) through the usage of a designed Graphical Interface pre-processor, a convenient coding environment using XML and the development of new algorithms using Python/C++. We believe that the development of versatile codes which can be used in different fields, along with related protocols and data analysis, paves the way for wider use of MC methods. SIMONA is available for download under http://int.kit.edu/nanosim/simona.

Description: Pull-in instability was an important phenomenon in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In the past, MEMS were usually assumed to work in an ideal environment. But in the real circumstances, MEMS often work in dust-filled air, which is equivalent to working in porous media, that's mean fractal space. In this paper, we studied MEMS in fractal space and established the corresponding model. At the same time, we can control the occurrence time and stable time of pull-in by adjusting the value of the fractal index, and obtain a stable pull-in phenomenon.

Description: In the past years, there has been steady growth in work relating to improve resource efficiency through waste minimization and bioenergy recovery to mitigate climate change. Agro-food industries produce large amounts of bio-waste, challenging innovative energetic valorization strategies in the framework of circular economy principles. Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology is an interesting route to stabilize organic matter and produce biogas as a renewable energy source. This study involves continuous co-digestion of pig slurry (PS), cereal and exhausted coffee wastes (CECW) performed in a continuously stirred tank reactor, with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 16 days under at mesophilic conditions (36.9 ± 0.3°C). The experimental trials, were designed to include different cereal and exhausted coffee liquor (CECL) shares in the feeding mixture, corresponding to different PS to CECL ratios (PS:CECL), respectively: 100:0 (T0), 90:10 (T1), 80:20 (T2), and 70:30 (T3), in terms of percentage of inlet feeding rate (v:v). The results obtained for the feeding rate (70:30) yield to the highest specific methane production (SMP = 341 ml.gVS−1) led to a 3.5-fold improvement in comparison with the reference scenario. The synergetic effect between the microbial consortia of PS and the high carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) of CECL explain the improvements achieved. The maximum soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) reduction (84.0%) due to the high content and soluble chemical oxygen demand to total chemical oxygen demand ratio (SCOD/TCOD) corroborate the results achieved. The digester stability, evaluated by specific energetic loading rate, was below the limit (0.4 d−1). Results from ANOVA showed a significant effect of CECL on the resulting GPR and SMP values. Additionally, Tukey's “Honest Significant Difference” method, confirmed statistically significant differences between the trials T3-T0, T3-T1, T3-T2, and T2-T0. Thus, co-digestion of PS and of CECL seems to be a promising approach for bioenergy recovery and promoting biowastes circularity.

Description: Introduction: The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the changes in dietary behavior among the Croatian adult population during the COVID-19 outbreak and to explore the impact of confinement on cooking habits.Methods: The study was based on results from COVIDiet_Int cross-sectional study—a part of COVIDiet project (NCT04449731). A self-administered online questionnaire was used to assess the frequency of food consumption, eating habits, and sociodemographic information. A total number of 4,281 participants (80.5% females and 19.4% males) completed the questionnaire.Results: The Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) score before the confinement was 5.02 ± 1.97, while during the confinement, the MEDAS score increased to 5.85 ± 2.04. Participants who had higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) during the confinement were mostly females (88.8%), aged between 20 and 50 years, with the highest level of education (66.3%) and normal BMI (70.6%). The majority of participants maintained their dietary behavior as it was before COVID-19 confinement, while 36.9% decreased their physical activity. Participants with higher MEDAS score were more eager to increase their physical activity. Additionally, higher median values of MEDAS score were noted for participants with body mass index values below 24.9 kg/m2 (6.0 vs. 5.0 for participants with BMI above 25 kg/m2). Participants in all residence places increased their cooking frequency during the confinement (53.8%), which was associated with an increase in vegetables, legumes, as well as fish and seafood consumption.Conclusions: According to our findings, Croatian adults exhibited medium adherence to the MedDiet during the COVID-19 confinement. The results suggest that cooking frequency could be positively associated with overall dietary quality, which is of utmost importance in these demanding times.

Description: The study of the use of nanotechnology for drug delivery has been extensive. Nanomedical approaches for therapeutics; drug delivery in particular is superior to conventional methods in that it allows for controlled targeted delivery and release, higher stability, extended circulation time, minimal side-effects, and improved pharmacokinetic clearance (of the drug) form the body, to name a few. The magnitude of COVID-19, the current ongoing pandemic has been severe; it has caused widespread the loss of human life. In individuals with severe COVID-19, immune dysregulation and a rampant state of hyperinflammation is observed. This kind of an immunopathological response is detrimental and results in rapid disease progression, development of secondary infections, sepsis and can be fatal. Several studies have pin-pointed the reason for this immune dysregulation; deviations in the signaling pathways involved in the mediation and control of immune responses. In severe COVID-19 patients, many signaling cascades including JAK/STAT, NF-κB, MAPK/ERK, TGF beta, VEGF, and Notch signaling were found to be either upregulated or inactivated. Targeting these aberrant signaling pathways in conjunction with antiviral therapy will effectuate mitigation of the hyperinflammation, hypercytokinemia, and promote faster recovery. The science of the use of nanocarriers as delivery agents to modulate these signaling pathways is not new; it has already been explored for other inflammatory diseases and in particular, cancer therapy. Numerous studies have evaluated the efficacy and potential of nanomedical approaches to modulate these signaling pathways and have been met with positive results. A treatment regime, that includes nanotherapeutics and antiviral therapies will prove effective and holds great promise for the successful treatment of COVID-19. In this article, we review different nanomedical approaches already studied for targeting aberrant signaling pathways, the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2, immunopathology and the dysregulated signaling pathways observed in severe COVID-19 and the current treatment methods in use for targeting signaling cascades in COVID-19. We then conclude by suggesting that the use of nanomedical drug delivery systems for targeting signaling pathways can be extended to effectively target the aberrant signaling pathways in COVID-19 for best treatment results.

Description: This paper introduces a novel linked structure-content representation of federal statutory law in the United States and analyzes and quantifies its structure using tools and concepts drawn from network analysis and complexity studies. The organizational component of our representation is based on the explicit hierarchical organization within the United States Code (USC) as well an embedded cross-reference citation network. We couple this structure with a layer of content-based similarity derived from the application of a “topic model” to the USC. The resulting representation is the first that explicitly models the USC as a “multinetwork” or “multilayered network” incorporating hierarchical structure, cross-references, and content. We report several novel descriptive statistics of this multinetwork. These include the results of this first application of the machine learning technique of topic modeling to the USC as well as multiple measures articulating the relationships between the organizational and content network layers. We find a high degree of assortativity of “titles” (the highest level hierarchy within the USC) with related topics. We also present a link prediction task and show that machine learning techniques are able to recover information about structure from content. Success in this prediction task has a natural interpretation as indicating a form of mutual information. We connect the relational findings between organization and content to a measure of “ease of search” in this large hyperlinked document that has implications for the ways in which the structure of the USC supports (or doesn’t support) broad useful access to the law. The measures developed in this paper have the potential to enable comparative work in the study of statutory networks that ranges across time and geography.

Description: Nuclear reaction rates are one of the most important ingredients in describing how stars evolve. The study of the nuclear reactions involved in different astrophysical sites is thus mandatory to address most questions in nuclear astrophysics. Direct measurements of the cross-sections at stellar energies are very challenging–if at all possible. This is essentially due to the very low cross-sections of the reactions of interest (especially when it involves charged particles), and/or to the radioactive nature of many key nuclei. In order to overcome these difficulties, various indirect methods such as the transfer reaction method at energies above or near the Coulomb barrier are used to measure the spectroscopic properties of the involved compound nucleus that are needed to calculate cross-sections or reaction rates of astrophysical interest. In this review, the basic features of the transfer reaction method and the theoretical concept behind are first discussed, then the method is illustrated with recent performed experimental studies of key reactions in nuclear astrophysics.

Description: Food texture plays an important role in food acceptance by young children, especially during the complementary feeding period. The factors driving infant acceptance of a variety of food textures are not well-known. This study summarizes maternal reports of children's ability to eat foods of different textures (here: acceptance) and associated factors. Mothers of 4- to 36-month-old children (n = 2,999) answered an online survey listing 188 food-texture combinations representing three texture levels: purees (T1), soft small pieces (T2), hard/large pieces, and double textures (T3). For each offered combination, they reported whether it was spat out or eaten with or without difficulty by the child. A global food texture acceptance score (TextAcc) was calculated for each child as an indicator of their ability to eat the offered textured foods. The results were computed by age class from 4–5 to 30–36 months. The ability to eat foods without difficulty increased with age and was ranked as follows: T1〉 T2 〉 T3 at all ages. TextAcc was positively associated with exposure to T2 (in the age classes between 6 and 18 months old) and T3 (6–29 months) and negatively associated with exposure to T1 (9–36 months). Children's developmental characteristics, as well as maternal feeding practices and feelings with regard to the introduction of solids, were associated with texture acceptance either directly or indirectly by modulating exposure. Children's ability to eat with their fingers, gagging frequency, and to a lesser extent, dentition as well as maternal feelings with regard to the introduction of solids were the major factors associated with acceptance. This survey provides a detailed description of the development of food texture acceptance over the complementary feeding period, confirms the importance of exposure to a variety of textures and identifies a number of additional person-related associated factors.

Description: Indigenous food (IF) systems, derived from natural ecosystems are perceived to be sustainable and nutritionally adequate. Mundas, an indigenous tribal community in Jharkhand India, are surrounded by rich agroforestry resources, yet display high levels of malnutrition. Our study explored the food environment of Munda community, different IFs they accessed, levels of utilization of IFs in routine diets, their nutritional attributes and factors influencing IF consumption. A cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted in nine villages of Murhu and Torpa blocks in Khunti district, Jharkhand. Using focus group discussions and key informant interviews, we did free-listing of IFs known to the community. This was followed by enumerating preferred and little used/historically consumed IFs, along with reasons. Qualitative enquiries were recorded and transcribed verbatim; data were coded and analyzed using thematic framework approach. The listed IFs were identified through common names and photographs, and verified by ethnobotanist in the team. The nutritive values of identified IFs were searched in literature or nutritional analysis of specific plant based foods were undertaken in an accredited laboratory. The community demonstrated traditional ecological knowledge of several IFs (n = 194), which are accessed from wild, cultivated and built food environments. Taxonomic classification was available for 80% (n = 156) IFs, out of which 60 foods had nutritive values in secondary literature and 42 foods were analyzed in laboratory. Many IFs were rich in micronutrients like calcium, iron, folate, vitamin A and C. Among the listed IFs, only 45% were commonly consumed, while rest were little used/historically consumed. Factors like desirable taste, satiety, perceived nutrition benefits, adaptability to climate variability, traditional practice of food preservation and their cultural importance promoted IF consumption. However, local climatic impacts on agroforestry systems, easy access to foods bought from markets or distributed under government food security schemes, and promotion of hybrid seeds by local agricultural organizations, emerged as potential barriers. Thus, reinforcement of traditional ecological knowledge and informal food literacy, along with promotion of climate resilient attributes of IFs, can contribute to sustainable food systems in Munda community.

Description: Zinc is a crucial micronutrient for maintaining body immune system and metabolism function. However, insufficient intake from diet may lead to zinc deficiency and impair normal body function. In addition, conventional zinc salts supplementation has the disadvantage of low bioavailability since the zinc ions may be easily chelated by dietary fiber or phytate commonly found in diets rich in plants, and form precipitates that cannot be absorbed. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to prepare pumpkin seed derived peptides and to evaluate the effect of structure and surface properties on the zinc binding behavior of the pumpkin seed protein hydrolysate (PSPH), as well as their gastrointestinal stability. Briefly, different PSPHs were prepared using enzymatic hydrolysis method with bromelain, papain, flavourzyme, alcalase, and pepsin. The particle size, zeta potential, surface hydrophobicity, degree of hydrolysis, ATR-FTIR spectra, and zinc binding capacity were determined. The representative samples were chosen to characterize the binding energy and surface morphology of PSPH-Zn. At last, the in vitro gastrointestinal stability of PSPH and PSPH-Zn were evaluated. Our results showed that peptides hydrolyzed by papain had the largest average molecular weight, smallest particle size, highest hydrophobicity, and the greatest zinc binding capacity. Zinc showed better gastrointestinal stability in PSPHs chelates than in its salt. Meanwhile, PSPH-Zn with higher zinc binding capacity showed better stability. The result of this study indicated pumpkin seed hydrolyzed by papain may be used as a potential source for zinc fortification. The findings in this study may provide important implications for developing plant-based zinc chelating peptides.

Description: After the launch of STEREO twin spacecraft, and most recently of Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, the next mission that will explore Sun-Earth interactions and how the Sun modulates the Heliosphere will be the “Lagrange” mission, which will consist of two satellites placed in orbit around L1 and L5 Sun-Earth Lagrangian points. Despite the significant novelties that will be provided by such a double vantage point, there will be also missing information, that are briefly discussed here. For future heliospheric missions, an alternative advantageous approach that has not been considered so far would be to place two twin spacecraft not in L1 and L5, but in L4 and L5 Lagrangian points. If these two spacecraft will be equipped with in situ instruments, and also remote sensing instruments measuring not only photospheric but also coronal magnetic fields, significant advancing will be possible. In particular, data provided by such a twin mission will allow to follow the evolution of magnetic fields from inside the Sun (with stereoscopic helioseismology), to its surface (with classical photospheric magnetometers), and its atmosphere (with spectro-polarimeters); this will provide a tremendous improvement in our physical understanding of solar activity. Moreover, the L4-L5 twin satellites will take different interesting configurations, such as relative quadrature, and quasi-quadrature with the Earth, providing a baseline for monitoring the Sun-to-Earth propagation of solar disturbances.

Description: Export-oriented seafood trade faltered during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, alternative seafood networks (ASNs) that distribute seafood through local and direct marketing channels were identified as a “bright spot.” In this paper, we draw on multiple lines of quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that ASNs experienced a temporary pandemic “bump” in both the United States and Canada in the wake of supply chain disruptions and government mandated social protections. We use a systemic resilience framework to analyze the factors that enabled ASNs to be resilient during the pandemic as well as challenges. The contrast between ASNs and the broader seafood system during COVID-19 raises important questions about the role that local and regional food systems may play during crises and highlights the need for functional diversity in supply chains.

Description: Using the SDSS spectroscopy, we have carried out fine optical spectral classification for activity types for 710 AGN candidates. These objects come from a larger sample of some 2,500 candidate AGN using pre-selection by various samples; bright objects of the Catalog of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei, AGN candidates among X-ray sources, optically variable radio sources, IRAS extragalactic objects, etc. A number of papers have been published with the results of this spectral classification. More than 800 QSOs have been identified and classified, including 710 QSOs, Seyferts and Composites. The fine classification shows that many QSOs show the same features as Seyferts, i.e., subtypes between S1 and S2 (S1.2, S1.5, S1.8 and S1.9). We have introduced subtypes for the QSOs: QSO1.2, QSO1.5, QSO1.8, QSO1.9, though the last subtype does not appear in SDSS wavelength range due to mostly highly redshifted Hα (the main line for identification of the 1.9 subtype). Thus, independent of the luminosity (which serves as a separator between QSOs and Seyferts), AGN show the same features. We also have classified many objects as Composites, spectra having composite characteristics between Sy and LINERs, Sy and HII or LINERs and HII; in some cases all three characteristics appear together resulting as Sy/LINER/HII subtype. The QSOs subtypes together with Seyfert ones allow to follow AGN properties along larger redshift range expanding our knowledge on the evolution of AGN to more distant Universe represented by QSOs.

Description: Background: Previous animal and clinical studies have reported beneficial effects of garlic preparations on carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT). However, no epidemiological study has yet investigated the association between dietary raw garlic consumption and cIMT in the general population. The objective of this study was investigating the association between dietary raw garlic consumption and thickened cIMT in Chinese adults.Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Tianjin Chronic Low-grade Systemic Inflammation and Health Cohort Study. A total of 4,329 general adults from 2015 to 2017 were included in this study. Frequency of consumption of raw garlic was summarized as four categories for analysis: 〈 1 time/week, 1 time/week, 2-3 times/week, ≥4 times/week with a validated food frequency questionnaire. The thickened cIMT was defined as common carotid artery IMT ≥ 1.0 mm or a carotid bifurcation IMT ≥ 1.2 mm by ultrasonography. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between frequency of raw garlic consumption and thickened cIMT.Results: The prevalence of thickened cIMT is 22.9% among these participants. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) associated with the different frequencies were 1.00 (reference) for 〈 1 time/week, 0.74 (0.59, 0.94) for 1 time/week, 0.71 (0.55, 0.92) for 2–3 times/week, and 0.94 (0.71, 1.25) for ≥ 4 times/week.Conclusions: Light-to-moderate raw garlic consumption was inversely associated with thickened cIMT, whereas greater raw garlic consumption (i.e., ≥4 times/week) was not associated with thickened cIMT. Future longitudinal studies should be conducted to test these findings.

Description: A fast and automatically controlled frequency-tunable radiofrequency (rf) system is installed in an rf plasma thruster consisting of a stepped-diameter insulator source tube wound by a single-turn loop antenna and a solenoid providing a magnetic nozzle, and immersed in vacuum. The frequency and the output power are controlled so as to minimize the reflection coefficient and to maintain the net power corresponding to the forward minus reflected powers at a constant level. The reproducibility of the impedance matching and the stability of the net rf power are assessed, showing the fast impedance matching within about 10 msec and the long and stable delivery of the rf power to the thruster. When increasing the rf power up to 500 W, discontinuous changes in the source plasma density, the imparted thrust, and the signal intensity of the ion beam downstream of the thruster are observed, indicating effects of the discharge mode on the thruster performance and the ion energy distribution.

Description: We demonstrate a new memristive device (IL-Memristor), in which an ionic liquid (IL) serve as a material to control the volatility of the resistance. ILs are ultra-low vapor pressure liquids consisting of cations and anions at room temperature, and their introduction into solid-state processes can provide new avenues in electronic device fabrication. Because the device resistance change in IL-Memristor is governed by a Cu filament formation/rupture in IL, we considered that the Cu filament stability affects the data retention characteristics. Therefore, we controlled the data retention time by clarifying the corrosion mechanism and performing the IL material design based on the results. It was found out that the corrosion of Cu filaments in the IL was ruled by the comproportionation reaction, and that the data retention characteristics of the devices varied depending on the valence of Cu ions added to the IL. Actually, IL-Memristors involving Cu(II) and Cu(I) show volatile and non-volatile nature with respect to the programmed resistance value, respectively. Our results showed that data volatility can be controlled through the metal ion species added to the IL. The present work indicates that IL-memristor is suitable for unique applications such as artificial neuron with tunable fading characteristics that is applicable to phenomena with a wide range of timescale.

Description: Mirror modes in collisionless high-temperature plasmas represent macroscopic high-temperature quasi-superconductors with bouncing electrons in discrete-particle resonance with thermal ion-sound noise contributing to the ion-mode growth beyond quasilinear stability. In the semi-classical Ginzburg-Landau approximation the conditions for phase transition are reviewed. The quasi-superconducting state is of second kind causing a magnetically perforated plasma texture. Focussing on the interaction of mirror bubbles we apply semi-classical Josephson conditions and show that a mirror perforated plasma emits weak electromagnetic radiation which in the magnetosheath should be in the sub-millimeter, respectively, infrared range. This effect might be of astrophysical importance.

Description: Foodscapes are commonly embedded in spiritual landscapes, making the spiritual dimension of local and indigenous food systems an important element of food sovereignty. However, this dimension is often overlooked in food systems research and policy making. Based on ethnobiological fieldwork conducted in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of far western Nepal, we show how religious festivals and rituals reenact the covenant between people and the land through the numinous intercession of Hindu gods and landscape deities. To demonstrate this, we present the local calendar of the agricultural and ritual year based on data collected through household surveys and participation in festivals and agricultural activities. The complex fabric of the local agri-food system is revealed as articulated in the warp and weft of interwoven agricultural and spiritual cycles. These cycles contribute to respectful and sustainable landscape management practices by shaping the relationship people have with the land. In the annual women's festival of Gaura, the fertility and well-being of people and land is affirmed through the offering of locally produced pulses and grains. Furthermore, local gastronomic identity is enriched by the incentive to cultivate heirloom varieties of crops that are prescribed in rituals performed during Gaura and other major festivals. We conclude that spiritual practices should be considered key elements of biocultural diversity, and recommend that they receive more attention in the implementation of sustainable development that aims to embody the principles of food sovereignty.

Description: Monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene and xylene are thought to play an important role as precursors to the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their methylated counterparts in a range of astrophysical environments. Benzene has been detected in two carbon rich objects and models have predicted that it could also be present in the interstellar medium (ISM). It has hence been speculated that small aromatic molecules are present in molecular clouds in the ISM, although they have not been detected to date. If they are present in the ISM, they are likely to exist in water-ice dominated icy mantles on the surface of dust grains.We present a laboratory study of benzene, toluene and two xylene isomers (ortho- and para-xylene) in the presence of water ice on a carbonaceous model dust grain surface (highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, HOPG). Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) shows how the desorption of the molecules is affected by the presence of water ice. The importance of these data for astrophysical situations is demonstrated by the use of TPD-derived kinetic parameters to generate a simple model of desorption in dense molecular clouds on an astrophysical timescale. Since benzene, toluene and xylene have not been detected in water-dominated icy mantles to date, desorption has been simulated in a range of different water-containing environments to show the different behaviour expected depending on ice composition. The simulations demonstrate how future observations of aromatic molecules in dense molecular clouds at known temperatures could reveal which environments the molecules are in. Data from these experiments are also used to predict the behaviour of other, larger, aromatic molecules such as PAHs. Reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is also used to record the infrared spectra of the small molecules in different water ice configurations. These spectra can be used to aid identification of these icy aromatics in future observations, such as those that will be possible with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In all cases, spectra of mixed ices consisting of the aromatic molecule and amorphous water ice show evidence of interactions between the water ice and the aromatic species.

Description: Folding, kinking, curling and vortical optical forms are distinctive features of most bright auroral displays. These forms are symptomatic of non-linear forcing of the plasma above auroral arcs resulting from the intensification of electrical currents and Alfvén waves along high-latitude geomagnetic field-lines during periods of disturbed space weather. Electrons accelerated to energies sufficient to carry these currents impact the atmosphere and drive visible emission with spatial structure and dynamics that replicate the morphology and time evolution of the plasma region where the acceleration occurs. Movies of active auroral displays, particularly when combined with conjugate in-situ fields and plasma measurements, therefore capture the physics of a driven, non-linearly evolving space plasma system. Here a perspective emphasizing the utility of combining in-situ measurements through the auroral acceleration region with high time and spatial resolution auroral imaging for the study of space plasma turbulence is presented. It is demonstrated how this special capacity reveals the operation of a cascade of vortical flows and currents through the auroral acceleration region regulated by the physics of Alfvén waves similar to that thought to operate in the Solar wind.

Description: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and trans fatty acids (TFAs) may have an impact on offspring weight development. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis according to PRISMA guidelines to evaluate whether levels of these fatty acids during pregnancy influenced offspring weight development. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with DHA and/or EPA supplementation or cohort studies, which examined levels of DHA, EPA, or TFAs in maternal or neonatal blood samples and recorded offspring weight, were included. Overall, 27 RCTs and 14 observational studies were identified. The results showed that DHA and/or EPA supplementation doses 〉650 mg/day resulted in slightly higher birth weight (MD 87.5 g, 95% CI 52.3–122.6, n = 3,831) and combined BMI and BMI z score at 5–10 years (SMD 0.11, 95% CI 0.04–0.18, n = 3,220). These results were rated as moderate quality. Results from the observational studies were generally inconsistent. High TFA levels during pregnancy seemed to be associated with lower birth weight. Finally, this review and meta-analysis supports a relationship between high maternal or neonatal DHA and/or EPA levels and higher offspring birth weight and weight in childhood. More high-quality long-term studies are still needed.

Description: The possible influence of MHD turbulence on the energy distributions of ions in the Earth's plasma sheet was studied using data taken by the THEMIS satellites. Turbulence levels were traced using eddy diffusion coefficients (D), of which we measured one for each Geocentric Solar Magnetospheric (GSM) coordinates every 12 min. Ion fluxes between 1.75 and 210.5 keV during the same time windows that correspond to mainly suprathermal populations were fitted to Kappa distribution functions, which approximate a Maxwellian distribution when the κ-index (κ) is large. We found that the distribution of the eddy diffusion coefficients is bimodal, independently of both the eddy diffusion component and the plasma beta (β) parameter, which is defined as the ratio between plasma and magnetic pressures. The main peak corresponds to turbulent plasma flows with D 〉 103 km2 s−1. In such cases, the impact of turbulence on the κ index depends on the value of β and also on the direction of the turbulent transport. For eddy diffusion perpendicular to the neutral sheet, the values of κ decrease as Dzz increases for β 〈 2; while for higher values of β, κ increases with Dzz. For the other two directions, the values of κ decrease as D increases. This last tendency is stronger for β ~ 1 but almost null for β ~ 10. The secondary peak in the distribution of D values might represent quasi-laminar flows forming part of very large vortices, correct detection and description of which is beyond the scope of this study.

Description: Background: Ketogenic diets (KDs) that elevate beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) promote weight and fat loss. Exogenous ketones, such as ketone salts (KS), also elevate BHB concentrations with the potential to protect against muscle loss during caloric restriction. Whether augmenting ketosis with KS impacts body composition responses to a well-formulated KD remains unknown.Purpose: To explore the effects of energy-matched, hypocaloric KD feeding (1.0 mM capillary BHB) throughout the study (p 〈 0.001), with higher fasting concentrations observed in KD + KS than KD + PL for the first 2 weeks (p 〈 0.05). There were decreases in body mass, whole body fat and lean mass, mid-thigh muscle cross-sectional area, and both visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues (p 〈 0.001), but no group differences between the two KDs or with the LFD. Urine nitrogen excretion was significantly higher in KD + PL than LFD (p 〈 0.01) and trended higher in KD + PL compared to KD + KS (p = 0.076), whereas the nitrogen excretion during KD + KS was similar to LFD (p 〉 0.05).Conclusion: Energy-matched hypocaloric ketogenic diets favorably affected body composition but were not further impacted by administration of an exogenous BHB-salt that augmented ketosis. The trend for less nitrogen loss with the BHB-salt, if manifested over a longer period of time, may contribute to preserved lean mass.

Description: COVID-19 has brought to center stage the most important health issue of our era, largely ignored by policymakers and the public to date: non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the cause of 71% of deaths per year worldwide. People living with NCDs, and particularly those living with cardiovascular disease (CVD), are at higher risk of severe symptoms and death from COVID-19. As a result, the urgent need for policy measures to protect cardiovascular health is more apparent than ever. One example of “low-hanging fruit” in the prevention of CVD is the elimination of industrially-produced trans fatty acids (iTFA). Their removal from the global food supply could prevent up to 17 million deaths by 2040 and would be the first time an NCD risk factor has been eliminated.

Description: Ganpu tea is a novel type of tea beverage with unique and pleasant flavor that encases Pu-erh tea leaves within an intact mandarin peel. However, to date, no holistic and detail studies on its chemical composition and biological activities have been reported yet. In the present study, by applying UPLC-Q-TOF and UPLC-MS technology, we systematically identified and analyzed 104 water-soluble compounds of Ganpu tea and their variation trend during the sun-drying processing. The results showed that the generation of pigments and gallic acid coincided with a dramatic decrease in catechin content, and a significant increase in alkaloid and flavonoid contents. The conversion of these compounds can contribute to the improvement of sensory attributes of Ganpu tea and maybe indispensable to its unique flavor. Moreover, the mice given orally with high dose of Ganpu tea (0.4 g/kg) showed a significantly reduced immobility duration as compared to that of the negative control group (p 〈 0.01) both in the forced swimming test and tail suspension test. Together, these results indicate that the sun-drying processing was indispensable to the formation of the unique flavor for Ganpu tea. Multiple types of compounds of Ganpu tea may collectively provide the synergistic attributes to its antidepressant-like properties.

Description: Background: Elevated screen time has been associated with addictive behaviors, such as alcohol and sugar intake and smoking. Considering the substantial increase in screen time caused by social isolation policies, this study aimed to analyze the association of increased screen time in different devices during the COVID-19 pandemic with consumption and increased desire of alcohol, smoking, and sweetened foods in adults.Methods: A sample of 1,897 adults with a mean age of 37.9 (13.3) years was assessed by an online survey, being composed by 58% of women. Participants were asked whether screen time in television, cell phone, and computer increased during the pandemic, as well as how much time is spent in each device. Closed questions assessed the frequency of alcohol and sweetened food consumption, smoking, and an increased desire to drink and smoke during the pandemic. Educational level, age, sex, feeling of stress, anxiety, depression, and use of a screen device for physical activity were covariates. Binary logistic regression models considered adjustment for covariates and for mutual habits.Results: Increased television time was associated with increased desire to drink (OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.12; 1.89) and increased sweetened food consumption (OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.18; 1.99), while an increase in computer use was negatively associated with consumption of alcohol (OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.53; 0.86) and sweetened foods (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.62; 0.98). Increased cell phone time was associated with increased sweetened food consumption during the pandemic (OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.18; 2.67). Participants with increased time in the three devices were less likely to consume sweetened foods for ≥5 days per week (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.39; 0.99) but were twice as likely to have sweetened food consumption increased during pandemic (OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.07; 3.88).Conclusion: Increased screen time was differently associated with consumption and desire for alcohol and sweets according to screen devices. Increased time in television and cell phones need to be considered for further investigations of behavioral impairments caused by the pandemic.

Description: The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, cloud computing, and Internet of Things applications expect the emerging memristor devices and their hardware systems to solve massive data calculation with low power consumption and small chip area. This paper provides an overview of memristor device characteristics, models, synapse circuits, and neural network applications, especially for artificial neural networks and spiking neural networks. It also provides research summaries, comparisons, limitations, challenges, and future work opportunities.

Description: Bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanoparticle with general formula Bi1-xNdxFe1-yCoyO3 (x=0, 0.05; y=0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20) were prepared using a two-solvent sol-gel method. Interestingly, most of the samples exhibited a cellular architecture. Bandgap engineering of BFO nanoparticles was achieved by co-doping with Nd and Co. Under illumination with ultraviolet light, the concentration of methylene orange increased. The sample of Bi0.95Nd0.05Fe0.85Co0.15O3 produced a small amount of hydrogen (8.88molg-1 after 1.5;h), but the other samples did not produce detectable levels of hydrogen. In this research, the production of hydrogen occurred under illumination by ultraviolet light, demonstrating the splitting of pure water without the use of a sacrificial reagent. A possible reason for this is that the conduction and valence band edges of BiFeO3 straddle the water redox potential. Consequently, it is possible to realize unassisted water splitting using BFO. The ferromagnetism of all samples increased linearly with the increase of dopant concentration, and the residual magnetization of the Bi0.95Nd0.05Fe0.80Co0.20O3 sample reached to 0.679 emu g−1. Moreover, the magnetic properties of bismuth ferrite and Nd/Co Co-doped bismuth ferrite photocatalyst were also investigated to show the simple separation. These results demonstrate that BFO nanoparticles have potential applications in photocatalytic hydrogen production without the use of a sacrificial reagent.

Description: Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to global health, aggravated by the use of antimicrobials in livestock production. Mitigating the growing economic costs related to antimicrobial use in livestock production requires strong global coordination, and to that end policy makers can leverage global and national food animal trade policies, such as bans and user fees. Evaluation of such policies requires representing the interactions between competing producers in the global meat market, which is usually out of the scope of statistical models. For that, we developed a game-theoretic food system model of global livestock production and trade between 18 countries and aggregate world regions. The model comprises the largest producing and consuming countries, the explicit interconnections between countries, and the use of antimicrobials in food animal production. Our model allows us to provide policy insights beyond standard literature and assess the trade-off between trade, cost of a policy, and antimicrobials-induced productivity. We studied three scenarios: global increased user fees on antimicrobials, a global ban of meat imports from Brazil, and a decrease in China's meat consumption. We found that a user fee that increases the price of antimicrobials by 50% globally leads to a 33% reduction in global antimicrobial use. However, participation of developing and emerging countries in the coordination scheme is jeopardized, since they become less competitive for meat sales compared to developed countries. When meat imports from Brazil are banned globally, importers of Brazil's meat would turn primarily to the U.S. to supplement their demand. Lastly, meeting China's medium-term lower meat consumption target would not affect global antimicrobial use, but could increase China's antimicrobial use by 11%. We highlighted the importance of trade for the outcome of a policy and concluded that global cooperation is required to align the incentives of all countries toward tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Description: The objective of this article is to assess current trends in Latin America with respect to the consumption of ultra-processed foods and non-communicable diseases. This review addresses the rapid growth of the ultra-processed foods market in Latin America which, along with other social and environmental factors, has been shown to be highly influential in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality. Ultra-processed foods represent a health concern for a number of reasons. They are generally calorically dense and high in sodium, sugar, and saturated and trans fats, and low in fiber and protein. Additionally, they may contain additives and neoformed compounds that affect health in ways that have not been adequately researched. Furthermore, the packaging of ultra-processed foods may contain hormone disruptors whose effects on humans are not entirely clear. Associations between ultra-processed foods and cardio-metabolic dysfunction, as well as several plausible mechanisms, will be evaluated.

Description: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are designed to reinvigorate antitumor immune responses by interrupting inhibitory signaling pathways and promote the immune-mediated elimination of malignant cells. Although ICI therapy has transformed the landscape of cancer treatment, only a subset of patients achieve a complete response. Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a noninvasive, nonionizing, deep penetrating focal therapy that has great potential to improve the efficacy of ICIs in solid tumors. Five FUS modalities have been incorporated with ICIs to explore their antitumor effects in preclinical studies, namely, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) thermal ablation, HIFU hyperthermia, HIFU mechanical ablation, ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD), and sonodynamic therapy (SDT). The enhancement of the antitumor immune responses by these FUS modalities demonstrates the great promise of FUS as a transformative cancer treatment modality to improve ICI therapy. Here, this review summarizes these emerging applications of FUS modalities in combination with ICIs. It discusses each FUS modality, the experimental protocol for each combination strategy, the induced immune effects, and therapeutic outcomes.

Description: The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model was calibrated and validated and used to identify the optimum planting windows for two contrasting maize varieties for three agro-ecologies in the Nigeria savannas. The model was run for 11 planting windows starting from June 1 and repeated every 7 days until 16 August using long-term historical weather data from the 7 selected sites representing three agro-ecological zones (AEZs). The evaluation with the experimental data showed that the model performance was reasonable and accurately predict crop phenology, total dry matter (TDM) and grain yield for both maize varieties. The seasonal planting date analysis showed that optimum planting windows for 2009EVDT and IWDC2SynF2 depend on the variety, agro-ecozones and sites. Planting from June 15 to 28 simulated the highest mean grain yield for both varieties in all the agro-ecologies. In the Southern Guinea savanna (SGS) where the length of growing season is 180–210 days, the best planting window was June 8–July 19 for 2009EVDT and June 8–July 26 for IWDC2SynF2 in Abuja. The planting window that gives attainable yield at Yelwa, is June 15–July 5 for 2009EVDT and June 8–28 for IWDC2SynF2. In the Northern Guinea savannah (NGS) where the length of growing season is 150–180 days, the optimum planting window is June 15–July 19 for both varieties at Zaria and June 8–July 19 for 2009EVDT and June 8–August 2 for IWDC2SynF2 at Sabon Gari. In the Sudan savannah (SS) where the growing season is 90–120 days, planting of 2009EVDT can be delayed up to the third week of July. For the medium-maturing variety, IWDC2SynF2, planting should be done by the first week of July. Though Yelwa is in the SGS, lower yields and narrower sowing windows were simulated for both varieties than for those of the other locations. This is probably due to the poor soil fertility in this location.

Description: The response of the scientific community to the global health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has produced an unprecedented number of manuscripts in a short period of time, the vast majority of which have been shared in the form of preprints posted on online preprint repositories before peer review. This surge in preprint publications has in itself attracted considerable attention, although mostly in the bibliometrics literature. In the present study we apply a mathematical growth model, known as the generalized Richards model, to describe the time evolution of the cumulative number of COVID-19 related preprints. This mathematical approach allows us to infer several important aspects concerning the underlying growth dynamics, such as its current stage and its possible evolution in the near future. We also analyze the rank-frequency distribution of preprints servers, ordered by the number of COVID-19 preprints they host, and find that it follows a power law in the low rank (high frequency) region, with the high rank (low frequency) tail being better described by a q-exponential function. The Zipf-like law in the high frequency regime indicates the presence of a cumulative advantage effect, whereby servers that already have more preprints receive more submissions.

Description: Introduction: The functional role of milk for the developing neonate is an area of great interest, and a significant amount of research has been done. However, a lot of work remains to fully understand the complexities of milk, and the variations imposed through genetics. It has previously been shown that both secretor (Se) and Lewis blood type (Le) status impacts the human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) content of human milk. While some studies have compared the non-HMO milk metabolome of Se+ and Se− women, none have reported on the non-HMO milk metabolome of Se− and Le– mothers.Method and Results: To determine the differences in the non-HMO milk metabolome between Se–Le– mothers and other HMO phenotypes (Se+Le+, Se+Le–, and Se–Le+), 10 milk samples from 10 lactating mothers were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Se or Le HMO phenotypes were assigned based on the presence and absence of 6 HMOs generated by the Se and Le genes. After classification, 58 milk metabolites were compared among the HMO phenotypes. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified clear separation between Se–Le– milk and the other milks. Fold change analysis demonstrated that the Se–Le– milk had major differences in free fatty acids, free amino acids, and metabolites related to energy metabolism.Conclusion: The results of this brief research report suggest that the milk metabolome of mothers with the Se–Le– phenotype differs in its non-HMO metabolite composition from mothers with other HMO phenotypes.

Description: Many late-type stars across the Milky Way exhibit observable pulsations similar to our Sun that open up a window into stellar interiors. The NASA Kepler mission, a space-based photometric telescope, measured the micro-magnitude luminosity fluctuations caused by solar-like oscillations of tens of thousands of stars for almost 10 years. Detailed stellar structure, evolution, and oscillation theoretical work established in the decades before, such as predictions about mode mixing in the interior of red-giant stars, among many others, now had voluminous precision data against which it could be tested. The overwhelming result is the general validation of the theory of stellar oscillations as well as stellar-structure models; however, important gaps in our understanding of interior physics was also revealed by Kepler. For example, interior rotation, convection, and mixing processes are complex phenomena not fully captured by standard models. This review explores some of the important impacts Kepler observations of solar-like oscillations across the cool end of the H-R diagram has had on stellar astrophysics through the use of asteroseismology.

Description: We propose a scheme to realize the storage and retrieval of optical Peregrine solitons in a coherent atomic gas via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We show that optical Peregrine solitons with very small propagation loss, ultraslow motional velocity, and extremely low generation power can be created in the system via EIT. We also show that such solitons can be stored, retrieved, split, and routed with high efficiency and fidelity through the manipulation of control laser fields. The results reported here are useful for the active control of optical Peregrine solitons and promising for applications in optical information processing and transmission.

Description: A Poincaré sphere is a powerful prescription to describe a polarized state of coherent photons, oscillating along certain directions. The polarized state is described by a vector in the sphere, and various passive optical components, such as polarization plates and quartz rotators are able to rotate the vectorial state by changing the phase and the amplitude among two orthogonal basis states. The polarization is originated from spin of photons, and recently, significant attentions have been made for optical Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) as another fundamental degree of freedom for photons. The beam shape of photons with OAM is a vortex with a topological charge at the core, and the state of vortexed photons can be described by a hyper-Poincaré sphere. Here, we propose a compact Poincaré rotator, which controls a vortexed state of photons in a silicon photonic platform, based on Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations. A ring-shaped gear is evanescently coupled to two silicon photonic waveguides, which convert optical momentum to OAM with both left and right vortexed states. By controlling the relative phase and the amplitude of two traveling waves in input ports, we can control the vortexed states in the hyper-Poincaré sphere for photons out of the gear. The impact of the geometrical Pancharatnam-Berry-Guoy's phase and the conservation law of spin and OAM for vortexed photons out of the gear are discussed.

Description: There is a vast amount of evidence that suggests that the geomagnetic tail is like a turbulent wake behind an obstacle. Large-scale vortices in the wake are able to generate turbulent transport that takes place both along the plasma sheet, in the X and Y directions, and across the plasma sheet, in the Z direction. Thus, turbulent fluctuations in all directions should be taken into consideration when analyzing plasma transport in the plasma sheet, and stability of the plasma sheet configurations. In this review, we summarize and discuss the main results of large and middle scale magnetospheric turbulence yielded by data analysis and modeling. We also identify changes in the description of the magnetospheric dynamics connected with the existence of turbulent fluctuations in the tail.

Description: Introduction: Consumers with celiac disease are discouraged from eating fried foods cooked in shared fryers with wheat-containing foods at restaurants based on presumed gluten exposure. The purpose of the present study is to assess gluten levels of fries free of gluten-containing ingredients cooked in shared fryers with wheat.Methods: 20 orders of fries were purchased from 10 different restaurants. Restaurants confirmed that fries and oil were free of gluten-containing ingredients. All restaurants confirmed that their fryers were used to cook wheat-containing foods. Fries were sent to Bia Diagnostics and tested in 1-gram duplicates using the R7001 sandwich R5 ELISA and the R7021 competitive R5 ELISA. A microwave control also was run.Results: The sandwich ELISA found gluten in 9/20 fry orders (7 to 〉 80 ppm). The competitive ELISA found gluten in 3/20 fry orders (14 to 〉 270 ppm). In the microwave control (60-ppm gluten mixture of wheat flour and canola oil), the unheated mixture tested at a mean level of 64 ppm gluten using the sandwich ELISA and 137 ppm gluten using the competitive ELISA. The mixture heated to 190°C tested at a mean level of 55 ppm gluten using the sandwich ELISA and 〈 10 ppm and 16 ppm gluten using the competitive ELISA.Discussion: Based on test results, 25% of fry orders would not be considered gluten-free.Summary: Gluten cross contact may occur when gluten-free foods are cooked in shared fryers with wheat. ELISAs may underperform when analyzing for gluten that has been heated.

Description: The objective of this analysis was to integrate hydrologic, agronomic, and economic methods to evaluate various management strategies by changing crop acreage to better manage the declining resources of the Ogallala aquifer. A non-linear optimization model was used to estimate the optimal water use, crop mix, crop yield, and net returns over a 50 year period under dryland and deficit irrigation scenarios in the Texas High Plains. Results indicated that growers could maintain profitability by switching from fully irrigated center pivots to irrigating ½ and ¼ pivots.

Description: The One Strain Many Compounds approach (OSMAC) is a powerful and comprehensive method that enables the chemo-diversity evaluation of microorganisms. This is achieved by variations of physicochemical cultivation parameters and by providing biotic and abiotic triggers to mimic microorganisms' natural environment in the lab. This approach can reactivate the silent biosynthetic routes of specific metabolites typically not biosynthesized under standard laboratory conditions. In the present study, we combined the OSMAC approach with static headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS), high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMSn), and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-HRMSI) to evaluate the chemoecological significance of an apple root-associated endophytic Streptomyces pulveraceus strain ES16. We employed the OSMAC approach by cultivating the endophyte in six different media conditions and performed temporal studies over 14 days. Analysis of the volatilome revealed that only under stressful conditions associated with sporulation, endophytic S. pulveraceus ES16 produces geosmin, a volatile semiochemical known to attract the soil arthropods Collembola (springtails) specifically. Subsequently, targeted metabolic profiling revealed polycyclic tetramate macrolactams (PTMs) production by the endophyte under stress, which are bioactive against various pathogens. Additionally, the endophyte produced the iron-chelating siderophore, mirubactin, under the same conditions. The structures of the compounds were evaluated using HRMSn and by comparison with literature data. Finally, MALDI-HRMSI revealed the produced compounds' spatial-temporal distribution over 14 days. The compounds were profusely secreted into the medium after production. Our results indicate that endophytic S. pulveraceus ES16 can release the signal molecule geosmin, chemical defense compounds such as the PTMs, as well as the siderophore mirubactin into the host plant apoplast or the soil for ecologically meaningful purposes, which are discussed.

Description: In this paper, we study the effect of dark energy on the extended thermodynamic structure and interacting microstructures of black holes in AdS, through an analysis of thermodynamic geometry. Considering various limiting cases of the novel equation of state obtained in charged rotating black holes with quintessence, and taking enthalpy H as the key potential in the extended phase space, we scrutinize the behavior of the Ruppeiner curvature scalar R in the entropy-pressure (S,P)-plane (or equivalently in the temperature-volume (T,V)-plane). Analysis of R empirically reveals that dark energy parameterized by α, significantly alters the dominant interactions of neutral, charged and slowly rotating black hole microstructures. In the Schwarzschild-AdS case: black holes smaller than a certain size continue to have attractive interactions whereas larger black holes are completely dominated by repulsive interactions which arise to due dark energy. For charged or rotating AdS black holes with quintessence, R can change sign at multiple points depending upon the relation between α and charge q or angular momentum J. In particular, above a threshold value of α, R is never negative at all, suggesting heuristically that the repulsive interactions due to quintessence are long ranged as opposed to the previously known short ranged repulsion in charged AdS black holes. A mean field interaction potential is proposed whose extrema effectively capture the points where the curvature R changes sign.

Description: Long-hole blasting in mines is likely to cause strong vibration of surficial infrastructure, greatly damage the rock mass surrounding goaf near explosion center, and possibly induce blast vibration disasters. In this article, an improved method for multihole blasting seismic wave prediction is proposed to estimate far-field blast vibration. In this method, the fundamental vibration waveforms are firstly measured through the field blast with a single deck at an underground pilot area. The fundamental vibration waveforms are then used to simulate the vibration waveforms for a single-deck case in the production blast by considering the difference of the equivalent distances from the production blast site and the pilot area to the surface measuring point. The vibration waveforms for the single-deck case are linearly superposed to predict the possible vibration waveforms in production blast with multiple long holes and decks according to the designed delay time between decks. Based on these predicted waveforms, the blast vibration can be estimated and the blast design can be optimized to determine a rational delay time in accordance with the vibration limit. The proposed method was applied in pillar recovery of Hongling Polymetallic Mine to optimize the long-hole blast design to manage blast vibration. The rational delay time for the 716 production blast design was recommended as 26 ms. The practice showed that the blast vibration induced by the 716 production blast has been managed, and the predicted and the measured waveforms agree well. It provides an effective method for multihole blast design to control blast vibration.

Description: Isoelectronic substitution is an ideal tuning parameter to alter electronic states and correlations in iron-based superconductors. As this substitution takes place outside the conducting Fe planes, the electronic behaviour is less affected by the impurity scattering experimentally and relevant key electronic parameters can be accessed. In this short review, I present the experimental progress made in understanding the electronic behaviour of the nematic electronic superconductors, FeSe1−xSx. A direct signature of the nematic electronic state is in-plane anisotropic distortion of the Fermi surface triggered by orbital ordering effects and electronic interactions that result in multi-band shifts detected by ARPES. Upon sulphur substitution, the electronic correlations and the Fermi velocities decrease in the tetragonal phase. Quantum oscillations are observed for the whole series in ultra-high magnetic fields and show a complex spectra due to the presence of many small orbits. Effective masses associated to the largest orbit display non-divergent behaviour at the nematic end point (x ∼ 0.175(5)), as opposed to critical spin-fluctuations in other iron pnictides. Magnetotransport behaviour has a strong deviation from the Fermi liquid behaviour and linear T resistivity is detected at low temperatures inside the nematic phase, where scattering from low energy spin-fluctuations are likely to be present. The superconductivity is not enhanced in FeSe1−xSx and there are no divergent electronic correlations at the nematic end point. These manifestations indicate a strong coupling with the lattice in FeSe1−xSx and a pairing mechanism likely promoted by spin fluctuations.

Description: Upper and lower respiratory tract infections are among the most common infections globally, and in the United Kingdom, they account for about half of all oral antibiotics prescribed. Antibiotic overuse and the emergence of “superbugs” that are resistant to their effects is a global problem that is becoming a serious concern. Considering this, the potential role of immunonutrition as a “prehabilitation” in helping to tackle bacterial infections and reduce over-reliance on antibiotic usage is gaining interest. This narrative mini-review summarizes current knowledge on the roles of certain nutrients in helping to modulate immune function, with particular focus on vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation appears to reduce the risk of acute respiratory tract infections and thus could have a valuable role to play in reducing over-reliance on antibiotics. Investment in high-quality trials is needed to further explore this field.

Description: Potential synergy between anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) and Trichoderma spp. in suppression of Rhizoctonia root rot in radish was evaluated. A split-plot design with three replications was used; main plots were Trichoderma harzianum T22, Trichoderma asperellum NT25 and a non-Trichoderma control. Subplots were ASD carbon sources wheat bran, molasses, chicken manure, and mustard greens and two non-amended controls: anaerobic (covered and flooded) and aerobic (not covered or flooded). Carbon sources and Rhizoctonia solani inoculant were mixed with soil, placed in pots, and flooded, followed by drenching Trichoderma spore suspensions and sealing the pots in zip-lock bags. After 3 weeks, bags were removed, soil was aired for 1 week and radish “SSR-RR-27” was seeded. Rhizoctonia root rot severity and incidence were lowest in radish plants grown in ASD-treated soil amended with wheat bran, molasses, or mustard greens across all Trichoderma treatments. Disease severity was lower in radish plants treated with NT25 than with T22 or the non-Trichoderma control across all ASD treatments, and in radish grown in ASD-treated soil amended with wheat bran plus NT25 compared to ASD-wheat bran or NT25 alone. Rhizoctonia solani populations were significantly reduced by ASD treatment regardless of carbon source, while Trichoderma populations were not affected by ASD treatment with the exception of ASD-mustard greens. The interactions of either Trichoderma isolate and ASD with most carbon sources were additive, while T22 with ASD-molasses and NT25 with ASD–wheat bran interactions were synergistic in reducing disease severity. One interaction, T22 with ASD-chicken manure was antagonistic. Enhancement of ASD efficacy in suppressing soilborne diseases such as Rhizoctonia root rot by additional soil amendment with Trichoderma spp. during the process appears to be dependent on both Trichoderma isolate and ASD carbon source.

Description: Wildland research, management, and policy in western democracies have long relied on concepts of equilibrium: succession, sustained yield, stable age or species compositions, fire return intervals, and historical range of variability critically depend on equilibrium assumptions. Not surprisingly, these largely static concepts form the basis for societal expectations, dominant management paradigms, and environmental legislation. Knowledge generation has also assumed high levels of stasis, concentrating on correlational patterns with the expectation that these patterns would be reliably transferrable. Changes in climate, the introduction of large numbers of exotic organisms, and anthropogenic land conversion are leading to unprecedented changes in disturbance regimes and landscape composition. Importantly, these changes are largely non-reversable; once introduced exotic species are seldom eradicated, climates will continue to warm for the foreseeable future, and many types of land conversion cannot be easily undone. Due to their effects on extant infrastructure and expectations for ecosystem services, these changes are, and will be, viewed by western societies as overwhelmingly negative. The continued acceleration of change will generate increasingly novel systems for which the transferability of correlational relationships will prove unreliable. Our abilities to predict system trajectories will therefore necessarily decrease. In this environment, top-down, expert dominated approaches to environmental decision making are unlikely to produce results that meet broader societal expectations. To be successful we need to embrace a more inclusive paradigm of collaborative governance and multiple forms of knowledge for adapting to constant change, including indigenous epistemological systems. By increasing public and stakeholder participation, we can encourage collaborative social learning allowing all parties to more fully understand the complexities and tradeoffs associated with wildland management and the technical limits of models that seek to quantify those tradeoffs. System novelty will necessarily make forecasting more dependent on predictive modeling and will require better models. Data collection should therefore be strongly influenced by model input requirements and validation; research will need to focus on fundamental and causal relationships to a much greater degree than is done currently.

Description: The measurement of rock joint parameters is a hotly debated and difficult problem in rock mechanics. Joints have great influence on the propagation of stress waves in rock mass. Since the multiple reflections of stress waves propagating inside the joints is not considered accurately, the reflection wave shape cannot be obtained by using a discontinuous displacement model to describe the deformation characteristics of joints. A joint is regarded as a rock using the first analysis of the stress wave transmission in the course of a single joint and the propagation law of a reflection wave. For rocks orientated in the same direction with the same type of wave superposition, stress wave parameters can be established through the multiple reflection effect of a single-joint analysis model. Further to this, analysis using an extended single-joint model can estimate a stress wave under the condition of a vertical incidence group parallel strata analysis model. Taking a single macro-joint as an example, a measuring line is arranged in the normal direction of the joint, and two measuring points on both sides of the joint are arranged in a line to record the waveforms of the incident and transmitted waves. According to the established single-joint analysis model, the calculated waveform of the incident side measuring point is calculated by using the measured waveform of the transmission side measuring point, and the measured waveform of the incident side measuring point is compared with the measured waveform of the incident side measuring point, and the joint elastic parameters with the minimum error are obtained by using the principle of least square method. Six tests were carried out through joints with a thickness of 0.04 m. The results show that the primary wave (P-wave) and secondary vertical wave (SV wave) velocity of joints obtained from many tests have good consistency, which indicates that the joint analysis model has good stability, and the test solution of joint elastic parameters based on the model is reliable.

Description: We present a general method for solving the modified Helmholtz equation without shape approximation for an arbitrary periodic charge distribution, whose solution is known as the Yukawa potential or the screened Coulomb potential. The method is an extension of Weinert’s pseudo-charge method [Weinert M, J Math Phys, 1981, 22:2433–2439] for solving the Poisson equation for the same class of charge density distributions. The inherent differences between the Poisson and the modified Helmholtz equation are in their respective radial solutions. These are polynomial functions, for the Poisson equation, and modified spherical Bessel functions, for the modified Helmholtz equation. This leads to a definition of a modified pseudo-charge density and modified multipole moments. We have shown that Weinert’s convergence analysis of an absolutely and uniformly convergent Fourier series of the pseudo-charge density is transferred to the modified pseudo-charge density. We conclude by illustrating the algorithmic changes necessary to turn an available implementation of the Poisson solver into a solver for the modified Helmholtz equation.

Description: We present in detail a set of algorithms for a dynamic pore-network model of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media to carry out fluid displacements in pores. The algorithms are universal for regular and irregular pore networks in two or three dimensions and can be applied to simulate both drainage displacements and steady-state flow. They execute the mixing of incoming fluids at the network nodes, then distribute them to the outgoing links and perform the coalescence of bubbles. Implementing these algorithms in a dynamic pore-network model, we reproduce some of the fundamental results of transient and steady-state two-phase flow in porous media. For drainage displacements, we show that the model can reproduce the flow patterns corresponding to viscous fingering, capillary fingering and stable displacement by varying the capillary number and viscosity ratio. For steady-state flow, we verify non-linear rheological properties and transition to linear Darcy behavior while increasing the flow rate. Finally we verify the relations between seepage velocities of two-phase flow in porous media considering both disordered regular networks and irregular networks reconstructed from real samples.

Description: This study aimed to understand post-agricultural natural forest regeneration in the Southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest and its possible role as a cost-effective, passive approach to forest restoration. The study characterized vegetation structure, floristic composition, and the dynamics of secondary forest chronosequences. Data were collected from 159 plots (10 × 10 m each) across forest remnants in Santa Catarina State, covering forest ages that ranged from 2 to 60 years of regeneration after swidden agriculture. Only areas with no signs of degradation were sampled in order to provide a description of vegetation characteristics that could be used to identify and monitor natural regeneration. A total of 11,455 woody plants were identified and classified into 334 species representing 71 families. As the succession process unfolds, the continuous turnover of species makes forests more diverse and structurally complex. Floristic similarity among forest types is observed during the early stages of succession, but decreases over time. Pioneer species dominate young secondary forests, representing about 40% of the basal area up to 10 years of regeneration. Shade-tolerant species start colonizing the sites at early ages; however, they become more important structural elements only after 30 years of succession. The observed patterns of forest structure and species diversity largely conform to the post-agricultural succession seen in many tropical forests. The high species diversity found in this study highlights the importance of natural regeneration as a strategy to restore ecosystems. Floristic data can be used as a reference for choosing suitable species for active restoration, as well as contributing to the design of integrated restoration strategies. We herein reinforce the potential of natural regeneration as part of large-scale restoration programs, which would be particularly attractive to family farmers by the low cost of supplies and labor.

Description: A novel rugged two-section driving NIR TDLAS scheme was implemented to reduce temperature and pressure sensitivity of methane carbon isotope measurement during oil and natural gas drilling operations. Isotope spectra line groups with same lower energy levels were selected to derive the concentration of 13CH4 and 12CH4. Dynamic pressure linewidth broadening was introduced in the absorbance curve fitting. Various uncontrollable factors such as spectra shift, stretching, and baseline trending were incorporated in the comprehensive multi-peak fitting. The results showed that the sensitivity of isotope ratios to temperature and pressure variation was greatly suppressed. The δ13CH4 uncertainty in the temperature test was 2.8‰ with fitted δ13CH4-T slope of 0.021‰/°C in 25 ± 5°C range. The δ13CH4 uncertainty in the pressure test was 1.4‰ with fitted δ13CH4-P slope of