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Multi-axial real-time hybrid simulation (maRTHS) uses multiple hydraulic actuators to apply loads and deform experimental substructures, enacting both translational and rotational motion. This allows for an increased level of realism in seismic testing. However, this also demands the implementation of multiple-input, multiple-output control strategies with complex nonlinear behaviors. To realize true real-time hybrid simulation at the necessary sub- millisecond timescales, computational platforms will need to support these complexities at scale, while still providing deadline assurance. This paper presents initial work towards supporting (and is influenced by the need for) envisioned larger-scale future experiments based on the current maRTHS benchmark: it discusses aspects of hardware, operating system kernels, runtime middleware, and scheduling theory that may be leveraged or developed to meet those goals. This work aims to create new concurrency platforms capable of managing task scheduling and adaptive event handling for computationally intensive numerical simulation and control models like those for the maRTHS benchmark problem. These should support real-time behavior at millisecond timescales, even for large complex structures with thousands of degrees of freedom. Temporal guarantees should be maintained across behavioral and computational mode changes, e.g., linear to nonlinear control. Pursuant to this goal, preliminary scalability analysis is conducted towards designing future maRTHS experiments. The results demonstrate that the increased capabilities of modern hardware architectures are able to handle larger finite element models compared to prior work, while imposing the same latency constraints. However, the results also illustrate a subtle challenge: with larger numbers of CPU cores, thread coordination incurs more overhead. These results provide insight into the computational requirements to support envisioned future experiments that will take the maRTHS benchmark problem to nine stories and beyond in scale. In particular, this paper (1) re-evaluates scalability of prior work on current platform hardware, and (2) assesses the resource demands of a basic smaller scale model from which to gauge the projected scalability of the new maRTHS benchmark as ever larger and more complex models are integrated within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Bethesda System for reporting thyroid cytopathology established in 2009 was updated for the first time in 2017. Since its introduction very few studies have been done on the utility of recently introduced "The 2017 Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology" (TBSRTC II) and estimation of risk of malignancy in various categories. Material and methods: This was a prospective study done on thyroid lesions in which lesions were evaluated cytologically and classified according to TBSRTC II. Histopathological correlation was done, wherever possible. ROM was calculated for each Bethesda category in both ways as per TBSRTC II i.e. with NIFTP and excluding NIFTP from the malignant category. Results: Using 2017 TBSRTC, 190 cases of thyroid FNACs were classified into 6 diagnostic categories. Cytohistological correlation was available in 60 cases. ROM was calculated which changed only in category III and V as only these two categories showed one case each of NIFTP. However there was an overestimation of ROM in category II and III as there are selection biases and not all thyroid nodules underwent surgical resections. Conclusion: To conclude, the risk of malignancy calculated in two ways in the recent 2017 Bethesda system may have higher clinical relevance as those lesions with high ROM are defined for surgical excision. Thus we recommend that "The 2017 Bethesda system for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology" should be implemented uniformly in our country as it provides a homogenous and standardised terminology resulting in better management of patients with thyroid nodular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invertebrates lack the immune machinery underlying vertebrate-like acquired immunity. However, in many insects past infection by the same pathogen can 'prime' the immune response, resulting in improved survival upon reinfection. Here, we investigated the mechanistic basis and epidemiological consequences of innate immune priming in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster when infected with the gram-negative bacterial pathogen Providencia rettgeri. We find that priming in response to P. rettgeri infection is long-lasting and sexually dimorphic response. We further explore the epidemiological consequences of immune priming and find it has the potential to curtail pathogen transmission by reducing pathogen shedding and spread. The enhanced survival of individuals previously exposed to a non-lethal bacterial inoculum coincided with a transient decrease in bacterial loads, and we provide strong evidence that the effect of priming requires the IMD-responsive antimicrobial-peptide Diptericin-B in the fat body. Further, we show that while Diptericin B is the main effector of bacterial clearance, it is not sufficient for immune priming, which requires regulation of IMD by peptidoglycan recognition proteins. This work underscores the plasticity and complexity of invertebrate responses to infection, providing novel experimental evidence for the effects of innate immune priming on population-level epidemiological outcomes. Author summary: When we are vaccinated, our immune response is able to respond quickly if we are ever exposed to the same pathogen in the future. Unlike humans, the immune systems of invertebrates, such as insects, are not capable of the same type of specific immune memory. However, much work has shown that insects previously exposed to an inactivated pathogen will fare better if they are re-infected–a phenomenon broadly called "immune priming". How insects are able to do this is an exciting focus of current research. We investigated immune priming in the fruit fly, a powerful model system for infection and immunity. We found that exposure to an inactivated form of the bacterial fly pathogen Providencia rettgeri resulted in flies surviving a subsequent live infection. This effect lasted several days, was stronger in male flies, and was seen in different fly genetic backgrounds. We uncovered that priming requires a specific immune response in the fly fat-body (the equivalent to a fly 'liver') that produces an antimicrobial protein called Diptericin. We also found that primed flies were able to keep pathogen growth lower, and that this reduced their ability to spread the infection to other flies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States may allow vehicles to exceed US federal weight limits off the interstate system, but state-specific load rating vehicles are developed to ensure that bridges can carry such vehicles safely. However, if the load effects of state rating vehicles are not similar to those of the vehicles operating in the state, the load factors required for the safety of some bridges may be too large for others, resulting in unnecessary remediation that may include retrofitting, posting, or even closure. In this study, a quantifiable measure of load rating efficiency is used to analyze the load effects of rating and operating vehicles on a wide range of bridges. Using this measure of efficiency, a novel heuristic approach is used to identify nearly optimal rating loads that envelope the load effects of state operating vehicles, potentially reducing the need for remedial action. To illustrate, the approach is used to develop new rating loads proposed for the state of Indiana. This approach may be combined with further analyses to assess the potential economic impact of new rating vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gummies belong to a confectionery category characterized by a hydrocolloid, acting as a stabilizer, forming a network to retain a high-moisture sugar syrup, and hydrocolloids play a key role in shaping the visual appeal, flavour release, and texture of the gel network. This study investigates the potential substitution of gelatin in gummies with plant-based hydrocolloids like agar-agar and guar gum. It is also aimed at optimizing the level of functional ingredients like curcumin and piperine in standardized gummies through incorporation of turmeric and black pepper, respectively. These plant-based gelling agents mimic gelatin's chewable, firm, and elastic texture, catering to broader consumption and suitability for versatile use. Consumer interest in healthier diets has spurred the transition towards plant-based functional foods, leading to the replacement of gelatin gummies with plant-based alternatives. Agar-agar significantly influences gummy texture by contributing to firmness, elasticity, and stable gel formation, imparting essential strength and consistency. Guar gum, recognized as a plant-based hydrocolloid, enhances gummy texture, consistency, and moisture retention through thickening and stabilization. While agar-agar and guar gum individually fell short in achieving the desired textural attributes in the gummies, their combined use (1% agar-agar and 5.5% guar gum) yielded optimal chewiness (1,455.12 ± 1.75 N), gumminess (2251.11 ± 2.14 N), and high overall acceptability (8.96), resembling gelatin-based gummies. The optimized formulation included 40% sugar, 2% citric acid, 2% turmeric, and 0.6% black pepper. The developed vegan gummies contained 56.9 ± 0.09 mg/100 g total phenols, 37.27 ± 1.4 % antioxidant capacity, 0.054 ± 0.0012 % curcumin, and 0.02 ± 0.008 % piperine. Consequently, the combined use of agar-agar and guar gum emerged as stable and effective gelling agents, offering an alternative to gelatin for creating turmeric and black pepper-infused gummies with desirable texture and functional attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune responses benefit organismal fitness by clearing parasites but also exact costs associated with immunopathology and energetic investment. Hosts manage these costs by tightly regulating the induction of immune signaling to curtail excessive responses and restore homeostasis. Despite the theoretical importance of turning off the immune response to mitigate these costs, experimentally connecting variation in the negative regulation of immune responses to organismal fitness remains a frontier in evolutionary immunology. In this study, we used a dose-response approach to manipulate the RNAi-mediated knockdown efficiency of cactus (IκBα), a central regulator of Toll pathway signal transduction in flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum). By titrating cactus activity across four distinct levels, we derived the shape of the relationship between immune response investment and traits associated with host fitness, including infection susceptibility, lifespan, fecundity, body mass, and gut homeostasis. Cactus knock-down increased the overall magnitude of inducible immune responses and delayed their resolution in a dsRNA dose-dependent manner, promoting survival and resistance following bacterial infection. However, these benefits were counterbalanced by dsRNA dose-dependent costs to lifespan, fecundity, body mass, and gut integrity. Our results allowed us to move beyond the qualitative identification of a trade-off between immune investment and fitness to actually derive its functional form. This approach paves the way to quantitatively compare the evolution and impact of distinct regulatory elements on life-history trade-offs and fitness, filling a crucial gap in our conceptual and theoretical models of immune signaling network evolution and the maintenance of natural variation in immune systems. Author summary: The immune system provides defense against infection but demands substantial energy and can inadvertently harm the host. To limit these costly side effects, hosts use regulatory proteins that dampen immune responses after they respond to infection. Despite the importance of these regulating proteins, we do not understand how their variation influences infection defense and the broader effects on an organism's health, reproduction, and fitness. We used a novel approach to vary the expression of the regulatory protein cactus, thereby adjusting the magnitude of Toll pathway activation in the red flour beetle. We found that while increasing the intensity of immune pathway activation enhances immune output and survival to bacterial infection, it comes at a disproportionally severe cost to female egg production, gut health, body mass, and lifespan. This reveals that even small variations in negative regulation and immune pathway activation can have disproportionate health and reproductive consequences, helping us better understand how immune systems evolved and the diversity of rules governing their regulation in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Host‐associated microbiota play a fundamental role in the training and induction of different forms of immunity, including inducible as well as constitutive components. However, direct experiments analysing the relative importance of microbiota on diverse forms of evolved immune functions are missing. We addressed this gap by using experimentally evolved lines of Tribolium castaneum that either produced inducible immune memory‐like responses (immune priming) or constitutively expressed basal resistance (without priming), as divergent counterstrategies against Bacillus thuringiensis infection. We altered the microbial communities present in the diet (i.e. wheat flour) of these evolved lines using UV irradiation and estimated the impact on the beetle's ability to mount a priming response versus basal resistance. Populations that had evolved immune priming lost the ability to mount a priming response upon alteration of diet microbiota. Microbiota manipulation also caused a drastic reduction in their reproductive output and post‐infection longevity. In contrast, in pathogen‐resistant beetles, microbiota manipulation did not affect post‐infection survival or reproduction. The divergent evolution of immune responses across beetle lines was thus associated with divergent reliance on the microbiome. Whether the latter is a direct outcome of differential pathogen exposure during selection or reflects evolved immune functions remains unclear. We hope that our results will motivate further experiments to understand the mechanistic basis of these complex evolutionary associations between microbiota, host immune strategies and fitness outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration of moisture and oxygen into packages during storage lead to deteriorative reactions such as nonenzymatic browning (NEB), stickiness, caking, and oxidation. Actual shelf-life testing of milk-millet powders is tedious and time-consuming as they have long storage stability. The aim of this study was to predict the shelf-life of spray-dried milk-millet powders based on deteriorative reactions due to moisture and oxygen uptake, and evaluate whether the prediction models could be applied as an alternative to accelerated or normal shelf-life testing. Fresh cow milk was standardized, concentrated to 22% total solids (TS), blended with millet wort of 22% TS in 1:1 ratio, and dried into powder using a lab-scale co-current type spray dryer. The predicted shelf-life of milk-malted foxtail millet powder based on stickiness and NEB caused by moisture gain was 17 and 30 days in high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 41 and 58 days in EVOH laminate (LDPE/EVOH/LDPE), and 96 and 134 days in polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) laminate (PET/Al foil/PET/LDPE) pouches, respectively. The corresponding shelf-life of milk-barnyard millet powder based on stickiness and NEB was 18 and 30 days, 66 and 96 days, and 90 and 102 days, in HDPE, EVOH laminate, and PET laminate, respectively. Similarly, the predicted oxygen limiting shelf-life based on thiobarbituric acid reactive substances was found to be 40, 75, and 86 days for milk-foxtail millet powder and 32, 72, and 93 days for milk-barnyard millet powder in HDPE, EVOH laminate, and PET laminate, respectively. The rate of deteriorative reactions was the lowest in PET laminate pouches because of its excellent barrier properties over that of HDPE and EVOH even at the adverse accelerated storage conditions. The simulation model was adequate and reliable in predicting the shelf-life of milk-millet powders in packaging materials with wide range of barrier properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physical and flow properties of milk blended barnyard and foxtail millet powders were evaluated at different moisture contents. Particle-size distribution and span decreased considerably as moisture increased. The d0.5 increased from 24.769 to 38.642 μm in milk-barnyard millet powder and from 27.942 to 41.063 μm in milk-foxtail millet powder as moisture increased from 3 to 9%. The dynamic flow and shear tests revealed the hygroscopic nature of both millet powders, wherein moisture and particle size were found to influence flowability. The basic flow energy and shear tests proved that both millet powders would flow easily at 9% moisture content than at 3% due to agglomeration and reduction in contact surface area of the particles and the magnitude of their interactions. Compressibility and wall friction tests also corroborated the fact that milk-millet powders were relatively more cohesive at 3% moisture, manifesting difficulties in flow. Between milk-foxtail millet and milk-barnyard millet powders, the former had better flowability due to its larger particle size and narrower span than the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-hop data transmission in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is mostly affected by vehicle's mobility, intermittent connection, insufficient bandwidth, and multichannel switching. Geographic routing technique in cognitive vehicular ad hoc network (CR-VANET) resolves bandwidth scarcity and connectivity issues simultaneously. The proposed QoS aware stochastic relaxation approach (QASRA) is a geographic routing protocol that additionally performs network exploration under inappropriate connectivity and exploits the already existing valid solutions while discovering routes in urban CR-VANET. The candidate forwarders are prioritized depending upon their closeness from destination, relative velocity from sender, and their street efficiency in terms of connectivity and delay. Transmission is done over minimally occupied cognitive or service channels. Different sets of experiments were performed to evaluate the effect of growing vehicular density, primary users (PUs) and CBR connection pairs in an urban scenario. The simulation on NS-2.24 platform demonstrates that at higher velocities, that are in between 20 and 60 km/hr, the average packet delivery ratio (PDR) is 60% when the density of vehicles were altered, 63.6% when PU's count is changed and 69% when number of CBR connection pair is varied. The average end-to-end delay is 1.03 s when the density of vehicles is altered, 0.734 when PU's count is changed and, 0.756 when number of CBR connection pair is varied. The average PU's success ratio is 68.4% when density of vehicles were changed, 61.4% when PU's count is changed and, 64.4% when the number of CBR connection pairs is varied. The analysis done through simulation demonstrates that a successful delivery of both secondary and primary users is achieved in minimum time when compared with other traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is designed to enable efficient and authentic node/infrastructure communication. The primary role of VANETs is to distribute time-sensitive safety messages (sm) regularly, which causes packet congestion and broadcast failure due to the network's limited spectrum. For efficient and reliable delivery, the proposed paper uses a spatial hybrid division multiple access (SDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) over the control channel interval and hence termed a spatially distributed multichannel MAC (SDM-MAC) protocol. The frequency reuse approach is used to transfer data while efficiently utilising bandwidth, and throughput is considerably enhanced with carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) and with the help of TDMA. Moreover, an adaptive algorithm is proposed for an intelligent channel frame structure using this protocol to manage the highly dynamic scenario. The Markov chain defines the protocol, and the network simulator (NS2) analyses several performance metrics. Comparing the response with two existing MAC protocols, the proposed protocol reduces average latency compared to current MAC methods and improves the packet delivery ratio and throughput by an average of 26% and 28%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular communication is gaining huge attention among researchers and industrialists due to its enormous capability in traffic management and infotainment solutions. IEEE 802.11p standard is established to achieve the objectives of vehicular communication by providing vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Precise channel estimation is challenging in vehicular scenario, which impacts the robust execution of the vehicular communication. In the previous work for spectral temporal averaging (STA) channel estimation, fixed values of averaging parameters (α and β) have been chosen with acceptable loss. To resolve this issue, a curve fitting based optimisation technique has been implemented in this work. Curve fitting determines the suitable value of the parameters from the set of given values for respective channel conditions. The simulation results demonstrate that the propounded method is more superior to the earlier channel estimation schemes where fixed values of averaging parameters have been chosen in each channel scenarios. This is due to the curve fitting optimisation, which enhances the dependency of α and β values on packet error rate (PER) equation and eventually on the channel conditions. The proposed method is examined deeply in multiple scenarios with different sets of parameters to test the strength and robustness of the suggested work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary theory predicts a late-life decline in the force of natural selection, possibly leading to late-life deregulations of the immune system. A potential outcome of such deregulations is the inability to produce specific immunity against target pathogens. We tested this possibility by infecting multiple Drosophila melanogaster lines (with bacterial pathogens) across age groups, where either individual or different combinations of Imd- and Toll-inducible antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were deleted using CRISPR gene editing. We show a high degree of non-redundancy and pathogen-specificity of AMPs in young flies: in some cases, even a single AMP could confer complete resistance. However, ageing led to drastic reductions in such specificity to target pathogens, warranting the action of multiple AMPs across Imd and Toll pathways. Moreover, use of diverse AMPs either lacked survival benefits or even accompanied survival costs post-infection. These features were also sexually dimorphic: females required a larger repertoire of AMPs than males but extracted equivalent survival benefits. Finally, age-specific expansion of the AMP-repertoire was accompanied with ageing-induced downregulation of negative-regulators of the Imd pathway and damage to renal function post-infection, as features of poorly regulated immunity. Overall, we could highlight the potentially non-adaptive role of ageing in producing less-specific AMP responses, across sexes and pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face training was suspended considering social-distancing norms. The training needs of the healthcare workers (HCWs) were being met by the online mode. Initially, the use of the online mode was limited but was eventually popularized with increased use. This would have led to a change in the perception toward the online mode. However, the use of online learning has financial and temporal obstacles. With this objective, a study was conducted among the HCWs to assess the perception, satisfaction, and preference associated with the modes of learning. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2021 among the HCWs. An online link to the survey was circulated among the HCWs who attended online or/and offline training. The questionnaire had 38 questions assessing the sociodemographic details, perception, satisfaction level, and preferences of the participants. Univariable and multivariate logistic regression were performed using SPSS v-22. Results: A total of 1,113 responses were received with the mean age of 33.17 ± 8.13 years and approximately 63% of the participants were females. Approximately 54% perceived the online mode of learning as a better mode of learning. Also, 67% preferred and 80.5% recommended the online mode whereas mean satisfaction was found to be more for the offline mode as compared to the online mode. Interpretation and Conclusions: The study concludes that the online mode of learning is the most preferred and recommended mode among the HCWs, whereas there is more dissatisfaction with respect to the online mode. The study also emphasizes that the instructors need to improve the practical knowledge of the learners by integrating technical modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insect gut is frequently exposed to pathogenic threats and must not only clear these potential infections, but also tolerate relatively high microbe loads. In contrast to the mechanisms that eliminate pathogens, we currently know less about the mechanisms of disease tolerance. We investigated how well-described mechanisms that prevent, signal, control or repair damage during infection contribute to the phenotype of disease tolerance. We established enteric infections with the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas entomophila in transgenic lines of Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies affecting dcy (a major component of the peritrophic matrix), upd3 (a cytokine-like molecule), irc (a negative regulator of reactive oxygen species) and egfr1 (epithelial growth factor receptor). Flies lacking dcy experienced the highest mortality, while loss of function of either irc or upd3 reduced tolerance in both sexes. The disruption of egfr1 resulted in a severe loss in tolerance in male flies but had no substantial effect on the ability of female flies to tolerate P. entomophila infection, despite carrying greater microbe loads than males. Together, our findings provide evidence for the role of damage limitation mechanisms in disease tolerance and highlight how sexual dimorphism in these mechanisms could generate sex differences in infection outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Conventional media viz. underground and underwater based wireless sensor networks witness many applications such as habitat, mining, pipeline monitoring, etc. In this paper, the concept of a 3-Dimensional (3D) multi-layer transceiver coil structure is proposed. The performance is analyzed in terms of power received and the maximum achievable communication range. The effect of three N-Conv media, viz. seawater, freshwater, and dry soil is investigated for each transceiver coil configuration. Additionally, a 3D multi-layer coil-based Magnetic Induction waveguide structure is incorporated to improve the communication range, which enhances the straight-line communication coverage. Delaunay triangulation and centroid methods are used for optimal relay coil placement. Besides, the 3D-waveguides are deployed in a tree-based topology which provides broad-view communication coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network is the network of tiny size of sensor nodes. These sensor nodes have sensing capability and transmit the sensed information to sink node. If the energy of sensor nodes is not utilised properly, it results in performance degradation of the network. Sleep scheduling approach and cooperative communication techniques can be employed to enhance the network performance. Cooperative communication follows the relay-based transmission. The nodes turn its radio sleep and awake in sleep scheduling approaches. This paper considers the merits of both techniques and proposes the sleep scheduling-based cooperative data transmission approach for WSN. In this approach, optimal number of virtual cluster heads are calculated by the sink node according to the number of nodes and area of interest. The real cluster head is decided based on the distance and energy of the sensor nodes from the virtual cluster head. The node is paired with each other and follows the sleep scheduling approach. Further, the energy-efficient relay selection and data transmission according to cooperative technique improves the network performance. The simulation analysis shows that the proposed routing protocol outperforms the related existing routing protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancements and increase in the transportation system in the current scenario, making transports intelligent is an important aspect for enhancing the safety, security and related commercial applications. Vehicular ad-hoc network has been evolved for the implementation of intelligent transportation systems. Vehicular scenario comprising of multipath fading, interference, dispersion and mobility distort the communication among the vehicles and between vehicles and surroundings. This work implements adaptive modulation and coding technique in the existing vehicular communication transmission process. Simulations were carried out for different transmission schemes with different code rate over several wireless channels for varying signal-to-noise ratio for performance evaluation. The results of this simulation testify that the proposed technique serves better than fixed transmission scheme in terms of bit error rate and spectral efficiency. Adaptive modulation together with turbo coding shows an approximate gain of 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio relative to fixed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nursing fraternity are at an increased risk of acquiring hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections mainly attributable to occupational risk and close contact with the patients while treatment. However, unawareness and negligence about the severity, mode of transmission and preventive measures about the disease can further predispose the nursing fraternity to a higher risk of infection. To overcome these lacunae in knowledge, a training program named Project PRAKASH was initiated for in-service nurses across the country. The objective of the program was to impart up-to-date knowledge to the nursing professionals in the management of viral hepatitis and to assess the effectiveness of the training program through pre-post-knowledge assessment survey. Methodology: One-day training program titled 'Hepatitis Induction Program' was conducted for a period of 2 years (2018-2020) among nursing professionals. It was accompanied by administration of 54-item knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire with four sections: demographic details, knowledge (30 items), attitude (11 items) and practice (13 items), followed by post-knowledge assessment. An Impact Assessment Survey (IAS) was also administered to assess the change in attitude and practice among 10% of the attendees, at least 6 months post training. Result: A total of 32 one-day training programmes were organised which witnessed the training of 5,253 nursing professionals from 292 institutions across 12 states. A data of 4,474 participants were included in the final analysis: improvement in the knowledge score was significant (P-value < 0.001) with mean knowledge score of 19.3 ± 4.4 in pre-test and 25.7 ± 3.9 in the post-test. Conclusion: The one-day training resulted in improvement of knowledge and significant changes in the attitude and practices of the nursing professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial metabolites produced by the gut microbiome, e.g. short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), have been found to influence lung physiology and injury responses. However, how lung immune activity is regulated by SCFA is unknown. We examined fresh human lung tissue and observed the presence of SCFA with interindividual variability. In vitro, SCFA were capable of modifying the metabolic programming in LPS-exposed alveolar macrophages (AM). We hypothesized that lung immune tone could be defined by baseline detection of lung intracellular IL-1b. Therefore, we interrogated naïve mouse lungs with intact gut microbiota for IL-1b mRNA expression and localized its presence within alveolar spaces, specifically within AM subsets. We established that metabolically active gut microbiota, which produce SCFA, can transmit LPS and SCFA to the lung and thereby could create primed lung immunometabolic tone. To understand how murine lung cells sensed and upregulated IL-1b in response to gut microbiome-derived factors, we determined that, in vitro, AM and alveolar type II (AT2) cells expressed SCFA receptors, free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2), free fatty acid receptor 3 (FFAR3), and IL-1b but with distinct expression patterns and different responses to LPS. Finally, we observed that IL-1b, FFAR2, and FFAR3 were expressed in isolated human AM and AT2 cells ex vivo, but in fresh human lung sections in situ, only AM expressed IL-1b at rest and after LPS challenge. Together, this translational study using mouse and human lung tissue and cells point to an important role for the gut microbiome and their SCFA in establishing and regulating lung immune tone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive transmission strategies for cognitive radio sensor network provide flexibility to the nodes based on data packets. In this paper, an optimum transmission distance is formulated by considering the energy consumption in the inter-cluster and intra-cluster data forwarding. The nodes are arranged in the clustered form and the size of cluster is adaptable with respect to the number of packets in the cluster. Furthermore, due to cognitive capability of sensor node, it is possible to calculate the residual time of unused licensed channels by taking into consideration the primary users activity. The proposed routing protocol uses the concept of optimal transmission distance and cognitive technique for data forwarding and the objective of the routing protocol is to forward the data packets through energy efficient paths. The comparison with other state-of-the-art algorithm validates that the proposed routing protocol improves the network performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is capable of offering a diverse set of services, and thus gains lot of attention from both academic and industrial communities. In VANET, the communicating links are prone to break easily; therefore, more attention is required to find reliable routes at a faster rate. In this context, information about connectivity and delay are valuable asset to establish and maintain a robust communication. In the proposed work, an Adaptive Intersection Selection Mechanism using Ant Colony Optimization (AISM), the problem of discovering a promising route subject to multiple Quality-of-service (QoS) constraint is emphasized. In previously reported literature, the best searched route cannot guarantee successful data packet transmission, even when it fulfills the QoS constrains at the time of discovery. To overcome this gap, AISM follows two simple strategies: Firstly, it exploits prediction-based mechanism for real time road evaluation; secondly, the route is formed between two consecutive intersections, instead of a long route between the network nodes. The connectivity and delay information obtained from small control packets called forward and backward ants are used to prioritize the candidate routes. Furthermore, by means of extensive simulation, outcomes in urban settings show that AISM outperforms the existing protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio, average delay and hop count. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elastic-to-plastic transition during the deformation of a dislocation-free nanoscale volume is accompanied by displacement bursts associated with dislocation nucleation. The dislocations that nucleate during the so-called "pop-in" burst take the form of prismatic dislocation loops (PDLs) and exhibit characteristic burst-like emission and plastic recovery. Here, we report the in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation of the initial plasticity ensued by burst-like emission of PDLs on nanoindentation of dislocation-free Au nanowires. The in-situ TEM nanoindentation showed that the nucleation and subsequent cross slip of shear loop(s) are the rate-limiting steps. As the indentation size increases, the cross slip of shear loop becomes favored, resulting in a transition from PDLs to open half-loops to helical dislocations. In the present case of nanoindentation of dislocation-free volumes, the PDLs glide out of the indentation stress field while spreading the plastic zone, as opposed to the underlying assumption of the Nix-Gao model. Prismatic dislocation loops (PDLs) form during the elastic-to-plastic transition of a dislocation-free volume under nanoindentation. Here the authors observe the initial plasticity and burst-like emission of PDLs in Au nanowires by in-situ transmission electron microscopy, elucidating fundamental aspects of the formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many insects, individuals primed with low doses of pathogens early in life have higher survival after exposure to the same pathogen later in life. Yet, our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological history of priming of immune response in natural insect populations is limited. Previous work demonstrated population‐, sex‐ and stage‐specific variation in the survival benefit of priming response in flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) infected with their natural pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis. However, the evolutionary forces responsible for this natural variation remained unclear.In the present work, we tested whether the strength of the priming response (measured as the survival benefit after priming and subsequent infection, relative to unprimed controls) was associated with multiple fitness parameters and immune components across 10 flour beetle populations collected from different locations in India.Our results suggest two major selective pressures that may explain the observed inter‐population variation in priming: (a) Basal pathogen susceptibility – populations that were more susceptible to infection produced a stronger priming response, and (b) Short‐term early reproductive success – populations where primed females produced more offspring early in life (measured over 2 days) had lower survival benefit (measured over 120 days), suggesting a potential trade‐off between early reproduction and priming response. However, the negative association between survival and reproduction is limited to priming and infection in adults, but not in larvae. While other components of beetle fitness (starvation resistance and larval development) and immune function (haemolymph antibacterial activity and antimicrobial quinone secretion) also varied widely across populations, none of them was correlated with the variation in priming responses across populations.Our work is the first systematic empirical demonstration of multiple selective pressures that may govern the evolution of immune priming in the wild. We hope that this motivates further experiments to establish the role of pathogen‐imposed selection and fitness costs in the evolution of priming in natural insect populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular safety messaging is warranted mostly in turbulent traffic situations in which even cluster based MAC protocols are beset by problems of cluster rupture, which leads to non-availability of channels to vehicles even when channels are idle. To solve this, motion parameters based cluster medium access (MPMAC) protocol is presented in this paper. The vehicles organize themselves into headless clusters without any messaging. The members of a cluster are not spatially bunched and may belong to different lanes. Each cluster has channels earmarked with the flexibility of utilizing idle channels belonging to other clusters. Safety messages are accorded higher priority with one channel dedicated exclusively for these messages. To enhance channel utilization and avoid the hidden station problem, the RSU monitors the channels and periodically advertises the channel usage map. The MPMAC protocol increases the system's throughput by enhancing channel utilization and facilitates the availability of channels during traffic conditions like phantom jams, lane changing and congestion. The delivery of safety messages to intended vehicles is ensured make provisions for flexible and prioritized channel access in addition to an earmarked channel. Simulation results show that the proposed MPMAC protocol is able to provide sufficient channels for dissemination of safety and other messages with enhanced throughput, fair access, and increased channel utilization while minimizing cluster formation overheads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the M2M devices communicate and share data with each other within a group or cluster without any direct human intervention, it is called inter-M2M communications. For this purpose, there is a critical need of an energy efficient scalable medium access control (MAC) protocol to facilitate a large number of M2M devices to access the channel. To accomplish this task, contention or reservation-based MAC protocols can be used, but with numerous M2M devices, adaptability, scalability, and energy efficiency become bottlenecks. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel hybrid-MAC protocol, which primarily consists of a contention interval (CI), and a data transmission interval (DTI). During CI, all the active M2M devices contend for the channel access. After contention, the successful devices win time-slots in DTI. The M2M devices are enabled with multiple beam antenna array MAC (MBAA-MAC) protocol, and share data with each other within each time-slot during DTI. Simulation results show considerable per time-slot throughput and energy consumption improvement as compared to IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol enabled M2M devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain the poor informativeness of earnings in dual-class firms by examining the quality of earnings and the information environment. Design/methodology/approach: The earnings informativeness, earnings quality and information environment of dual-class firms are compared with a matched sample of single-class firms. The authors have performed the returns-earnings association tests, examine the quality of earnings by using proxies for discretionary accruals, and examine the information environment by employing four empirical constructs: the analyst forecast dispersion, absolute forecast errors, Amihud's (2002) illiquidity measure, and the bid-ask spread. Findings: The results show that the quality of earnings is better while the quality of the information environment is worse in dual-class firms compared to single-class firms. Overall, the results suggest that an inferior information environment is a plausible explanation for the low informativeness of dual-class firms' earnings. Research limitations/implications: The results provide empirical support for Dechow et al. (2010) that the use of the earnings-returns association measure to draw conclusions about the quality of earnings is not appropriate in the presence of a poor information environment. Originality/value: This is the first study to empirically show that low earnings informativeness in dual-class firms can be explained by the inferior quality of the information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some firms choose to be 'born global' and become early internationalizing firms (EIFs) while others choose to be 'born-again global' and develop into late internationalizing firms (LIFs)? What are the main factors impacting a firm's decision on the timing of global diversification? Based on the theories of diversification, this study examines the role of peer influence and desire for growth on the timing of a firm's globalization decision. We further study the idiosyncratic risk and the adoption of technological innovation hypotheses on global diversification. Our results document that innovation efficiency strongly enhances EIFs' propensity to global diversification. On the other hand, peer pressure and idiosyncratic risk level significantly influence EIFs not to globalize. In contrast, LIFs are positively influenced by their industry peers, showing how young and mature companies respond to the market competition in a different manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are used in nonconventional media such as underground and underwater environment for applications concerning sensing, intrusion detection, monitoring, and exploration. Traditional techniques of communication like electromagnetic are not suitable for nonconventional media, mainly because of high path loss and thus being impractical. In underwater environment, the majority of the research work is based on acoustic communication. However, it faces many challenges like dynamic channel behavior, low data rate, and high propagation delay. Magnetic induction (MI)-based communication is a recently explored technique for nonconventional media applications. This communication method exhibits several promising characteristics such as predictable and constant channel behavior, negligible propagation delay, sufficiently large communication range with high data rate, and stealth underwater operations. In this paper, four possible compensation circuits and multilayer coil structure are suggested for better design of MI transceiver. Herein, the amount of power received by the receiver circuit mainly depends on the structure of the coil used in the transceiver and the type of media through which the signal propagates. Multilayer coil structure is preferred for the proposed design since it performs better than its single-layer counterpart. A novel energy model for MI-based communication link in nonconventional media is proposed. This model describes energy dissipation in the transceiver circuit for MI communication. An analytical model of optimal clustering is also performed with different positions of base station to elaborate the application of the proposed energy model. Performance analysis is also carried out in dry sand, freshwater, and seawater conditions of nonconventional media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive radio sensor network (CRSN) is a combination of two different prominent technologies named as wireless sensor network (WSN) and CR network (CRN). There are different related issues of two different technologies such as energy and hardware for WSN and dynamic spectrum for CRN. CRSN constitutes the research challenges in designing efficient communication protocol in resource constraints network. So, energy‐balanced transmission is necessary to prolong the lifetime of WSNs. It ensures uniform average energy consumption among all the nodes. Data gathering approach in traditional sensor network suffers uncontrolled interference in the unlicenced spectrums as these spectrums are gradually getting crowded. CRSN network can provide a solution to spectrum scarcity in unlicenced channels. This study proposes a load aware energy balancing approach to maximise the network lifetime. It also proposes a dynamic channel sensing and accessing algorithm to optimise the energy consumption when the quality of unlicenced spectrum deteriorates. Once the event gets detected, the proposed routing protocol's objective is to transmit the data through energy‐efficient path from source to destination. Its performance is evaluated through extensive simulations. Simulation results demonstrate a significant improvement over closely related works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive radio sensor network (CRSN) is a combination of two different prominent technologies named as wireless sensor network (WSN) and CR network (CRN). There are different related issues of two different technologies such as energy and hardware for WSN and dynamic spectrum for CRN. CRSN constitutes the research challenges in designing efficient communication protocol in resource constraints network. So, energy-balanced transmission is necessary to prolong the lifetime of WSNs. It ensures uniform average energy consumption among all the nodes. Data gathering approach in traditional sensor network suffers uncontrolled interference in the unlicenced spectrums as these spectrums are gradually getting crowded. CRSN network can provide a solution to spectrum scarcity in unlicenced channels. This study proposes a load aware energy balancing approach to maximise the network lifetime. It also proposes a dynamic channel sensing and accessing algorithm to optimise the energy consumption when the quality of unlicenced spectrum deteriorates. Once the event gets detected, the proposed routing protocol's objective is to transmit the data through energy-efficient path from source to destination. Its performance is evaluated through extensive simulations. Simulation results demonstrate a significant improvement over closely related works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are important dietary and microbiome metabolites that can have roles in gut immunity as well as further afield. We previously observed that gut microbiome alteration via antibiotics led to attenuated lung inflammatory responses. The rationale for this study was to identify gut microbiome factors that regulate lung immune homeostasis. We first investigated key factors within mouse colonic lumen filtrates (CLF) which could elicit direct inflammatory effects in vitro. We identified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and SCFAs as key CLF ingredients whose levels and inflammatory capacity changed after antibiotic exposure in mice. Specifically, the SCFA propionate appeared to be a key regulator of LPS responses in vitro. Elevated propionate: acetate ratios, as seen in CLF after antibiotic exposure, strongly blunted inflammatory responses in vitro. In vivo , exposure of lungs to high dose propionate, to mimic how prior antibiotic exposure changed SCFA levels, resulted in diminished immune containment of Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia. Finally, we discovered an enrichment of propionate-producing gut bacteria in mice with reduced lung inflammation following lung ischemia reperfusion injury in vivo. Overall, our data show that propionate levels can distinctly modulate lung immune responses in vitro and in vivo and that gut microbiome increased production of propionate is associated with reduced lung inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Around 5,00,000 women are affected by cervical cancer and nearly half of them end up losing the battle of life with this deadly disease. So, there is an urgent need for the synthesis and development of new, small, synthetic molecules to tackle this challenge. Schiff's bases are derivatives of azomethine group (-CH=N-) and are highly reactive. Here a series of novel Schiff's bases were synthesized by single step process of condensing substituted 2-amino benzothiazole with different benzaldehydes. Objectives: To design, synthesize novel Schiff's bases of 2-amino benzothiazole and evaluate its anti-oxidant as well as anti-cancer activity. Methods: A total of 18 compounds were synthesized by single step process of condensing substituted 2-amino benzothiazole with different substituted benzaldehydes. These were characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, and Mass spectroscopy. The synthesized compounds were tested in-vitro for both antioxidant and antiproliferative activity. In-silico docking studies were performed on the crystal structure of the complex of caspase-3 with a nicotinic acid aldehyde inhibitor with PDB IDs 1RE1, 1RHM and 3DEH to study the interaction of the compounds with the receptor. Results: Majority of the derivatives displayed moderate to significant antiproliferative activity on HeLa cell line. Interestingly, the compound SP16 showed excellent activity with an IC50 value of 2.517µg/ml in comparison to the reference compound Cisplatin (17.2µg/ml). Compound SP7 and SP 15 showed favourable in silico interactions. Conclusion: A series of 18 novel Schiff's bases of 2-amino benzothiazoles compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their biological activities. The compound SP16 showed excellent activity with an IC50 value of 2.517µg/ml in comparison to the reference compound Cisplatin and Compound SP7 and SP 15 showed favourable in silico interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the differences between leveraged and unleveraged Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), particularly for liquidity and volatility characteristics. The impact of leverage on intraday liquidity (spread and depth) is analysed in two periods - one of normal volatility and the other of abnormal/high volatility. There is a significant difference in spread and depth of leveraged and unleveraged ETFs in periods of both normal volatility and high volatility; however, this difference is more pronounced in higher volatility periods. In high volatility periods, liquidity typically diminishes in all ETFs, and this is even more so for the leveraged ETFs. When leveraged ETFs are segregated into multiples based on their power to replicate the underlying benchmark (i.e. multiples of −3, −2, −1, 2, 3), the difference in spreads between normal and high volatility periods is typically larger. The double-leveraged ETF has the most significant difference between the positive and negative counter parts. However, the relationship in the progression of the multiples does not change linearly to correspond with the level of volatility. This may be due to the nonlinear relation between volume and volatility. We shed light on the magnification effect of financial leverage on microstructure of the ETFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exterior acoustic problems occur in a wide range of applications, making the finite element analysis of such problems a common practice in the engineering community. Various methods for truncating infinite exterior domains have been developed, including absorbing boundary conditions, infinite elements, and more recently, perfectly matched layers (PML). PML are gaining popularity due to their generality, ease of implementation, and effectiveness as an absorbing boundary condition. PML formulations have been developed in Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical geometries, but not ellipsoidal. In addition, the parallel solution of PML formulations with iterative solvers for the solution of the Helmholtz equation, and how this compares with more traditional strategies such as infinite elements, has not been adequately investigated. In this paper, we present a parallel, ellipsoidal PML formulation for acoustic Helmholtz problems. To faciliate the meshing process, the ellipsoidal PML layer is generated with an on-the-fly mesh extrusion. Though the complex stretching is defined along ellipsoidal contours, we modify the Jacobian to include an additional mapping back to Cartesian coordinates in the weak formulation of the finite element equations. This allows the equations to be solved in Cartesian coordinates, which is more compatible with existing finite element software, but without the necessity of dealing with corners in the PML formulation. Herein we also compare the conditioning and performance of the PML Helmholtz problem with infinite element approach that is based on high order basis functions. On a set of representative exterior acoustic examples, we show that high order infinite element basis functions lead to an increasing number of Helmholtz solver iterations, whereas for PML the number of iterations remains constant for the same level of accuracy. This provides an additional advantage of PML over the infinite element approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use our survey of finance professors from universities across the USA to investigate whether men and women react differently to prior gains and losses. We find that after incurring a loss, a large fraction of men continue to invest in stocks, but a majority of women tend to avoid investing in stocks. Even though prior losses increase the expectation of unfavorable market conditions, we find that women are more likely than men to expect unfavorable market conditions irrespective of whether they have made a gain or a loss in their prior stock market investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In animals, skewed sex ratios can affect individual fitness via sexual (e.g., intersexual conflict or intrasexual mate competition) or nonsexual (e.g., sex-specific resource competition) interactions. Because most analyses of sex ratio focus on sexual interactions, the relative importance of sexual versus nonsexual mechanisms remains unclear. We tested bothmechanisms in the flour beetle Triboliumcastaneum, where male-biased sex ratios increase female fitness relative to unbiased or female-biased groups. Although flour beetles show both sexual and nonsexual (resource) competition, we found that sexual interactions did not explain female fitness. Instead, female fecundity was dramatically reduced even after a brief exposure to flour conditioned by other females. Earlier studies suggested that secreted toxins might mediate density-dependent population growth in flour beetles. We identified ethyl benzoquinone and methyl benzoquinone (quinones) as components of adult stink glands that regulate female fecundity. In female-biased groups (i.e., at high female density), females upregulated quinones and suppressed each other's reproduction. In male-biased groups, low female density and associated low quinone levels maximized fecundity. Thus, females appear to use quinones as weapons for female-specific, density-dependent interference competition. Our results underscore the importance of nonsexual interference competition that may often underlie the fitness consequences of skewed sex ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering, especially in vehicular safety applications is an important part of intelligent transportation systems. In this paper, an adaptive mobility and range based clustering (AMRBC) based MAC protocol is proposed. The protocol aims to maintain a stable clustering and hence a communication range to maintain high stability of network. Secondly, AMRBC limits the cluster size to a level at which all the cluster members can exchange their beacons within control channel interval. AMRBC prioritizes safety messages over infotainment messages by granting immediate channel access to safety messages over infotainment messages thereby significantly reducing safety message delay. Moreover, the proposed MAC protocol fairly distributes wireless channels among vehicles and ensures that all the vehicles exchange their beacons within finite interval of time. Analytical modelling along with simulation based performance analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol in terms of average cluster head time, safety message delay, throughput, reliability and packet delivery ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under strong pathogen pressure, insects often evolve resistance to infection. Many insects are also protected via immune memory (immune priming), whereby sublethal exposure to a pathogen enhances survival after secondary infection. Theory predicts that immune memory should evolve when the pathogen is highly virulent, or when pathogen exposure is relatively rare. However, there are no empirical tests of these hypotheses, and the adaptive benefits of immune memory relative to direct resistance against a pathogen are poorly understood. To determine the selective pressures and ecological conditions that shape immune evolution, we imposed strong pathogen selection on flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) populations, infecting them with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for 11 generations. Populations injected first with heat-killed and then live Bt evolved high basal resistance against multiple Bt strains. By contrast, populations injected only with a high dose of live Bt evolved a less effective but strain-specific priming response. Control populations injected with heat-killed Bt did not evolve priming; and in the ancestor, priming was effective only against a low Bt dose. Intriguingly, one replicate population first evolved priming and subsequently evolved basal resistance, suggesting the potential for dynamic evolution of different immune strategies. Our work is the first report showing that pathogens can select for rapid modulation of insect priming ability, allowing hosts to evolve divergent immune strategies (generalized resistance versus specific immune memory) with potentially distinct mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sterile lung injury is an important clinical problem that complicates the course of severely ill patients. Interruption of blood flow, namely ischemia-reperfusion (IR), initiates a sterile inflammatory response in the lung that is believed to be maladaptive. The rationale for this study was to elucidate the molecular basis for lung IR inflammation and whether it is maladaptive or beneficial. Using a mouse model of lung IR, we demonstrate that sequential blocking of inflammasomes [specifically, NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3)], inflammatory caspases, and interleukin (IL)-1β, all resulted in an attenuated inflammatory response. IL-1β production appeared to predominantly originate in conjunction with alveolar type 2 epithelial cells. Lung IR injury recruited unactivated or dormant neutrophils producing less reactive oxygen species thereby challenging the notion that recruited neutrophils are terminally activated. However, lung IR inflammation was able to limit or reduce the bacterial burden from subsequent experimentally induced pneumonia. Notably, inflammasome-deficient mice were unable to alter this bacterial burden following IR. Thus, we conclude that the NLRP3 inflammasome, through IL-1β production, regulates lung IR inflammation, which includes recruitment of dormant neutrophils. The sterile IR inflammatory response appears to serve an important function in inducing resistance to subsequent bacterial pneumonia and may constitute a critical part of early host responses to infection in trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-scale problems are often solved by decomposing the problem domain into multiple subdomains, solving them independently using different levels of spatial and temporal refinement, and coupling the subdomain solutions back to obtain the global solution. Most commonly, finite elements are used for spatial discretization, and finite difference time stepping is used for time integration. Given a finite element mesh for the global problem domain, the number of possible decompositions into subdomains and the possible choices for associated time steps is exponentially large, and the computational costs associated with different decompositions can vary by orders of magnitude. The problem of finding an optimal decomposition and the associated time discretization that minimizes computational costs while maintaining accuracy is nontrivial. Existing mesh partitioning tools, such as METIS, overlook the constraints posed by multi-scale methods and lead to suboptimal partitions with a high performance penalty. We present a multi-level mesh partitioning approach that exploits domain-specific knowledge of multi-scale methods to produce nearly optimal mesh partitions and associated time steps automatically. Results show that for multi-scale problems, our approach produces decompositions that outperform those produced by state-of-the-art partitioners like METIS and even those that are manually constructed by domain experts. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-matching interfaces occur in large computational models of complicated structures when different discretizations are used in different regions of the problem domain. Presence of non-matching interfaces, for instance, between two or more finite element meshes of different refinement, or between a meshfree region and a finite element region, can lead to erroneous results. In this work, a variationally consistent coupling method is developed to ensure that such patch tests are passed for any choice of numerical integration over the interface. This is achieved by constructing an integration constraint over the non-matching interface and by modifying the approximation basis functions for the adjacent discretizations in a way that guarantees passing the patch test. Numerical examples are presented to verify the formulation and study the performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]