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Due to the ongoing political instability and economic disruptions in the environments where firms operate, the shift towards regional value chains is redefining global supply chains. Driven by economic policies in regions such as the EU and North America that aim to enhance autonomy and resilience, factors influencing supply chain location decisions have become increasingly important for both business leaders and policymakers. In this context, our paper integrates international business, economic geography, and the global value chain framework to investigate the efficiency-seeking, knowledge-seeking, and supplier-seeking factors that influence home-shoring strategies within manufacturing activities. Our work specifically focuses on identifying which of these factors underpin three key manufacturing home-shoring strategies. Utilising unique primary sub-national-level data and a multinomial logit model, our work examines these strategies across three regions: Veneto (Italy), England (UK), and California (US). Our findings highlight the importance of efficiency-seeking factors as central pull drivers of manufacturing home-shoring strategies. For policymakers, this study underscores the need for a nuanced and regionally tailored approach, as local supplier dynamics and the availability of supportive public policies impact the success of full manufacturing home-shoring strategies across different locations.

Coinciding with athlete mothers’ stories gaining media visibility, sport media researchers are studying media discourses to learn more about socially constructed motherhood and sport. The present study extends media research on elite athlete mothers, by using feminist narrative inquiry to interrogate discrimination meanings in sport. North American sport media stories were collected on Canadian athletes’ (i.e., boxer Mandy Bujold, basketball player Kim Gaucher) journeys to the 2020 Tokyo Games after being discriminated against due to their motherhood status. Thematic narrative analysis of 103 stories identified three narrative motifs (i.e., recurring concepts) in stories linked to discrimination meanings: last shots, forced to choose, and more than us. The first two motifs are discussed in relation to a motherhood penalty narrative linked to sexism and discrimination. The more than us motif is discussed in relation to the resolution to compete for both athletes, linked to maternal activism and social change. All three motifs exposed and challenged maternal discrimination in sport, using ‘feminist consciousness’ linked to a neoliberal feminist status quo. These findings show the pedagogical potential of media stories for athlete maternity rights awareness and structural change, while highlighting a need for intersectional feminist reform regarding athlete parents and post-pandemic recovery.

Errors during cell division lead to aneuploidy, which is associated with genomic instability and cell transformation. In response to aneuploidy, cells activate the tumour suppressor p53 to elicit a surveillance mechanism that halts proliferation and promotes senescence. The molecular sensors that trigger this checkpoint are unclear. Here, using a tunable system of chromosome mis-segregation, we show that mitotic errors trigger nuclear deformation, nuclear softening, and lamin and heterochromatin alterations, leading to rapid p53/p21 activation upon mitotic exit in response to changes in nuclear mechanics. We identify mTORC2 and ATR as nuclear deformation sensors upstream of p53/p21 activation. While triggering mitotic arrest, the chromosome mis-segregation-induced alterations of nuclear envelope mechanics provide a fitness advantage for aneuploid cells by promoting nuclear deformation resilience and enhancing pro-invasive capabilities. Collectively, this work identifies a nuclear mechanical checkpoint triggered by altered chromatin organization that probably plays a critical role in cellular transformation and cancer progression.

The article discusses various technological advancements in different sectors, including AI and data, apps, buildings and real estate, computing and chips, crypto and web3, current events, e-commerce and retail, education, enterprise, food and agriculture, health, international, and marketing and advertising. It also explores developments in media, entertainment, and social platforms, as well as the metaverse, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The advancements mentioned range from AI automation in customer service to bioprinted tissue for diabetes treatment. The article also highlights innovations in areas such as urban planning, data-driven governance, personal data protection, land mine detection, cancer treatment, EV batteries, 3D printing, window washing, videoconferencing, and portable laptops. It mentions specific companies and their contributions to these advancements. [Extracted from the article]

This study aimed to investigate the association between impulsivity, craving and risky sexual behaviour in Brazilian substance users. Substance-use disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), now features ‘craving’ as an essential criterion. Moreover, the intensity of craving and emotional dysregulation are factors considered pivotal to addressing risky sexual behaviour. Similarly, adverse childhood experiences, trauma, impulsivity and mental health conditions are considered to correlate to risky sexual behaviour. Research to date has focused on adolescent or student populations. A cross-sectional study design was utilised. The 135 participants were receiving treatment for substance-use disorder; the instruments used included the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), Sexual and Risk behaviour scale and the Behaviour Scale Crack Craving Questionnaire (CCQ-B) scale. Data was inputted into SPSS and analysed using the Pearson chi-squared test. The results included statistically significant correlations between craving and risky sexual behaviour, exposure to violence and risky sexual behaviour and perceptions of sexual addiction/ compulsion as being more of a problem than substance use. No statistical significance was found between socio-economic demographic data and risky sexual behaviour, or the primary substance and risky-sexual-behaviour. The limitations of the study were the small sample size, only male participants and language barriers. Implications for practice centre around synergising mental and physical health promotion via more proactive educational campaigns and accessible, equitable interventions. The study investigated the association between impulsivity, craving and risky sexual behaviour in Brazilian substance users receiving treatment. There were statistically significant correlations between craving and risky-sexual-behaviour, exposure to violence and risky sexual behaviour and a perception that sexual addiction/ compulsion is more of a problem than substance use.

In this letter, we present for the first time a method to estimate the bistatic Doppler frequency of a target with clock asynchronous and mobile Integrated Sensing And Communication (ISAC) devices. Existing approaches have separately tackled the presence of phase offsets due to clock asynchrony or the additional Doppler shift due to device movement. However, in real ISAC scenarios, these two sources of phase nuisance are concurrently present, making the estimation of the target’s Doppler frequency particularly challenging. Our method solves the problem using the sole wireless signal at the receiver, exploiting the invariance of phase offsets across multipath components and the bistatic geometry in an original way. The proposed method is validated via simulation, exploring the impact of different system parameters. Numerical results show that our approach is a viable way of estimating Doppler frequency in bistatic asynchronous ISAC scenarios with mobile devices.

To describe patients with anal fissure (AF) and their management in primary care. Retrospective study using the Italian Longitudinal Patient Database on 18 + years old subjects with AF records during ‘July 2016–June 2021’ (selection period). Index Date (ID) was the first AF record during selection period. Sub-cohorts were defined by presence/absence of prescriptions on ID of the combination of topical nifedipine 0.3% and lidocaine 1.5% (NIF/LID). Patients’ information on the 12-month period before (baseline) and after (follow-up) ID was analyzed. Subjects with AF were 8632: 14.0% had NIF/LID on ID. Mean age was 52 (± 17.2) years, there were more women in ‘ < 50 years’ group, and more men in ‘50–70’ one. Prevalences of pregnancy and immunodepression were around 5%; most common comorbidities were hypertension (29.6%) and heart disease (13.1%), while constipation and diarrhea were < 5%. Healthcare resources utilization (HRUs) increased during follow-up, but still few patients were prescribed NIF/LID (2.8%), other treatments for AF (10.3%), or proctological visits (7.7%). NIF/LID patients were younger (< 40 years people: 30.7% versus 23.9%; pvalue < 0.0001), and more likely to have constipation (4.3% versus 2.5%; pvalue < 0.001); patients without NIF/LID showed slightly higher prevalences of hypertension (30.0% versus 27.1%; pvalue: 0.039) and depression (4.0% versus**2.5%; pvalue: 0.009), and a little higher overall HRUs. Results show that general practitioners are used to manage AF. However, there is still a gap between guidelines’ recommendations and actual management. Educational campaigns on common anal problems in primary care might help further improving AF management and optimizing HRUs.

SharkNinja has evolved into a leading manufacturer of domestic appliances, offering innovative and affordable products like the Ninja Slushi frozen-drink maker. The company's success is attributed to its quality control measures and user creativity, leading to viral products. Simbe Robotics addresses inventory inefficiencies in the retail industry with its Tally robot, providing real-time data on product audits to improve inventory management and pricing decisions for retailers and brands. The Tally robot has been deployed in various industries globally, resulting in significant improvements in online order fulfillment time and stock accuracy. [Extracted from the article]

Integrated Sensing And Communication (ISAC) has been identified as a pillar usage scenario for the impending 6G era. Bi-static sensing, a major type of sensing in ISAC, is promising to expedite ISAC in the near future, as it requires minimal changes to the existing network infrastructure. However, a critical challenge for bi-static sensing is clock asynchronism due to the use of different clocks at far-separated transmitters and receivers. This causes the received signal to be affected by time-varying random phase offsets, severely degrading, or even failing, direct sensing. Hence, to effectively enable ISAC, considerable research has been directed toward addressing the clock asynchronism issue in bi-static sensing. This paper provides an overview of the issue and existing techniques developed in an ISAC background. Based on the review and comparison, we also draw insights into the future research directions and open problems, aiming to nurture the maturation of bi-static sensing in ISAC.

Wideband millimeter-wave communication systems can be extended to provide radar-like sensing capabilities on top of data communication, in a cost-effective manner. However, the development of joint communication and sensing technology is hindered by practical challenges, such as occlusions to the line-of-sight path and clock asynchrony between devices. The latter introduces time-varying timing and frequency offsets that prevent the estimation of sensing parameters and, in turn, the use of standard signal processing solutions. Existing approaches cannot be applied to commonly used phased-array receivers, as they build on stringent assumptions about the multipath environment, and are computationally complex. We present JUMP, the first system enabling practical bistatic and asynchronous joint communication and sensing, while achieving accurate target tracking and micro-Doppler extraction in realistic conditions. Our system compensates for the timing offset by exploiting the channel correlation across subsequent packets. Further, it tracks multipath reflections and eliminates frequency offsets by observing the phase of a dynamically-selected static reference path. JUMP has been implemented on a 60 GHz experimental platform, performing extensive evaluations of human motion sensing, including non-line-of-sight scenarios. In our results, JUMP attains comparable tracking performance to a full-duplex monostatic system and similar micro-Doppler quality with respect to a phase-locked bistatic receiver.

Abstract:As sport organizations leverage social media as a critical component of marketing strategy, tools for exploring the large volume of sport consumer social media conversations are vital. This scholarship demonstrates the value of unsupervised latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) as a tool for exploring consumers' digital conversations. Specifically, unsupervised LDA was applied to derive latent topics among Women's National Basketball Association-related Twitter conversation over the course of the 2020 season. Quantitative (cv and umass scores) and qualitative (two expert reviews) approaches were utilized to delineate topic configurations. Marginal topic distance established topic importance. Results from 118,518 tweets revealed 18 conversation topics spanning two overarching themes: social justice issues and on-court performance. The range and depth of the results highlight the importance of the unsupervised topic modeling method (without semi-supervised predetermined topic leads) for considering holistic rather than subsampled or snapshot datasets. This empirical investigation extends the conversation surrounding natural language processing to sport management research and practice, delivers a foundation for unsupervised LDA application to sport consumer conversation, and explores social media conversations during a critical moment for the WNBA.

The purpose of this study was to examine the crisis of systemic sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and misconduct in the NWSL within the frameworks of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and image-repair theory (IRT). Specifically, this research engaged with three data sources (1) the Yates Report which details team by team allegations, (2) team statements in response to the allegations being made public, and (3) social media interactions in response to all statements. Based on the Yates Report, the Portland Thorns, Chicago Red Stars, and Racing Louisville (as well as the NWSL and USSF) were placed firmly within the preventable crisis cluster, which is marked by organization misconduct and management misdeeds. In terms of SCCT strategies, commonly used approaches were ingratiationand apology. In terms of image repair, commonly used approaches were corrective action, bolstering, and mortification, with corrective actionbeing the most frequently utilized strategy across all statements. Within the preventable cluster, the two statements that received the highest interaction rates and like ratios were those that employed scapegoating, shifting blame, and corrective action. The implications of these findings as well as the utility of SCCT and IRT within the crisis communication landscape are discussed.

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major complication of, and leading cause of mortality in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Its severity, age at onset, and rate of progression display wide variability, whose molecular bases have been scarcely elucidated. Potential DCM-modifying factors include glucocorticoid (GC) and cardiological treatments, DMDmutation type and location, and variants in other genes.Methods and Results: We retrospectively collected 3138 echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), shortening fraction (SF), and end-diastolic volume (EDV) from 819 DMD participants, 541 from an Italian multicentric cohort and 278 from the Cooperative International Neuromuscular Group Duchenne Natural History Study (CINRG-DNHS). Using generalized estimating equation (GEE) models, we estimated the yearly rate of decrease of EF (–0.80%) and SF (–0.41%), while EDV increase was not significantly associated with age. Utilizing a multivariate generalized estimating equation (GEE) model we observed that mutations preserving the expression of the C-terminal Dp71 isoform of dystrophin were correlated with decreased EDV (–11.01?mL/m2, p?=?0.03) while for dp116 were correlated with decreased EF (–4.14%, p?=?<0.001). The rs10880 genotype in the LTBP4gene, previously shown to prolong ambulation, was also associated with increased EF and decreased EDV (+3.29%, p?=?0.002, and –10.62?mL/m2, p?=?0.008) with a recessive model.Conclusions: We quantitatively describe the progression of systolic dysfunction progression in DMD, confirm the effect of distal dystrophin isoform expression on the dystrophin-deficient heart, and identify a strong effect of LTBP4genotype of DCM in DMD.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major complication of, and leading cause of mortality in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Its severity, age at onset, and rate of progression display wide variability, whose molecular bases have been scarcely elucidated. Potential DCM-modifying factors include glucocorticoid (GC) and cardiological treatments, DMDmutation type and location, and variants in other genes. We retrospectively collected 3138 echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), shortening fraction (SF), and end-diastolic volume (EDV) from 819 DMD participants, 541 from an Italian multicentric cohort and 278 from the Cooperative International Neuromuscular Group Duchenne Natural History Study (CINRG-DNHS). Using generalized estimating equation (GEE) models, we estimated the yearly rate of decrease of EF (–0.80%) and SF (–0.41%), while EDV increase was not significantly associated with age. Utilizing a multivariate generalized estimating equation (GEE) model we observed that mutations preserving the expression of the C-terminal Dp71 isoform of dystrophin were correlated with decreased EDV (–11.01 mL/m2, p = 0.03) while for dp116 were correlated with decreased EF (–4.14%, p = <0.001). The rs10880 genotype in the LTBP4gene, previously shown to prolong ambulation, was also associated with increased EF and decreased EDV (+3.29%, p = 0.002, and –10.62 mL/m2, p = 0.008) with a recessive model. We quantitatively describe the progression of systolic dysfunction progression in DMD, confirm the effect of distal dystrophin isoform expression on the dystrophin-deficient heart, and identify a strong effect of LTBP4genotype of DCM in DMD.

Resin coating in implants rehabilitation cannot always be aesthetic, durable and comfortable for the patient mainly due to the limited dimensions of the final structure. Intraoral welding technique and computer-aided designed prosthetic shells may be a solution. This in vitro study evaluates the capacity of load and the weakest point of implant-supported provisional prosthesis using welded titanium framework. Twelve samples were produced to simulate an implant supported fixed prosthetic bridge. Two implants (Ankylos; Dentsply Sirona Implants; Germany) were inserted inside blocks of nanoceramic material produced with a stereolithographic 3D printer. A polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) resin shell was performed with CAD/CAM and relined on welded framework. Six samples were produced with the same procedure reducing resin thickness. The samples were subjected to fatigue test (6,500,000 cycles) using ElectroForce 3310 fatigue machine (t1); subsequently a mechanical compression test using a universal Shimadzu AGS-X 10 machine (t2). The samples were analyzed with a photographic and radiographic documentation at t0, t1and t2. The samples survived mechanical fatigue test without evidence of failure. The radiographic and photographic evaluation revealed the fracture of resin coating after the mechanical compression test. The samples with minimal resin thickness fractured first. Adequate assessment of the resin thickness is mandatory to improve the longevity of these rehabilitations. CAD-CAM digital prosthetic design allows us to optimize the thicknesses and the prosthetic shapes, allowing us to obtain good degrees of resistance even in the presence of reduced prosthetic spaces.

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar sensors are emerging as valid alternatives to cameras for the pervasive contactless monitoring of people in indoor spaces. However, commercial mmWave radars feature a limited range (up to 6–8 m) and are subject to occlusion, which may constitute a significant drawback in large, crowded rooms characterized by a challenging multipath environment. Thus, covering large indoor spaces requires multiple radars with known relative position and orientation and algorithms to combine their outputs. In this work, we present ORACLE, an autonomous system that: 1) integrates automatic relative position and orientation estimation from multiple radar devices by exploiting the trajectories of people moving freely in the radars’ common fields of view and 2) fuses the tracking information from multiple radars to obtain a unified tracking among all sensors. Our implementation and experimental evaluation of ORACLE results in median errors of 0.12 m and 0.03° for radar location and orientation estimates, respectively. Fused tracking improves the mean target tracking accuracy by 27% and the mean tracking error is 23 cm in the most challenging case of three moving targets. Finally, ORACLE does not show significant performance reduction when the fusion rate is reduced to up to 1/5 of the frame rate of the single radar sensors, thus being amenable to a lightweight implementation on a resource-constrained fusion center (FC).

The reconstruction of micro-Doppler signatures of human movements is a key enabler for fine-grained activity recognition wireless sensing. In Joint Communication and Sensing (JCS) systems, unlike in dedicated radar sensing systems, a suitable trade-off between sensing accuracy and communication overhead has to be attained. It follows that the micro-Doppler has to be reconstructed from incomplete windows of channel estimates obtained from communication packets. Existing approaches exploit compressed sensing, but produce very poor reconstructions when only a few channel measurements are available, which is often the case with real communication patterns. In addition, the large number of iterations they need to converge hinders their use in real-time systems. In this work, we propose and validate STAR, a neural network that reconstructs micro-Doppler sequences of human movement even from highly incomplete channel measurements. STAR is based upon a new architectural design that combines a single unrolled iterative hard-thresholding layer with an attention mechanism, used at its output. This results in an interpretable and lightweight architecture that reaps the benefits of both model-based and data driven solutions. STAR is evaluated on a public JCS dataset of 60 GHz channel measurements of human activity traces. Experimental results show that it substantially outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in terms of the reconstructed micro-Doppler quality. Remarkably, STAR enables human activity recognition with satisfactory accuracy even with 90% of missing channel measurements, for which existing techniques fail.

Modern power systems are characterized by fast dynamics, due to the massive presence of power electronics-based converters. In this scenario, the present article proposes an approach for measuring synchrophasor, frequency, and rate of change in frequency (ROCOF) that allows to effectively cope with abrupt transients. The method is based on Taylor-Fourier models, which typically consider an observation interval centered on the reporting instant. In this article, the Taylor expansion is performed on asymmetric windows, which look either at the left or at the right of the measurement instant. A reconstruction algorithm enables a seamless blend between left and right estimates that, while preserving accuracy during steady-state or slowly varying conditions, leads to an exemplary behavior in amplitude and phase step tests, also in the presence of wideband noise. In particular, an M-class compliant estimator is designed to highlight the potentialities of the proposed approach. Zero synchrophasor, frequency, and ROCOF response times are obtained, since steady-state accuracy limits are never exceeded in the presence of step variations. From a different point of view, the proposed technique does not return invalid estimates, thus it is capable of also tracking abrupt transitions.

This article explores the insights of the Italian Marxist philosopher Domenico Losurdo on Stalin, with a focus on his controversial work: Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend. Losurdo sheds light on the metamorphosis of Stalin’s image from a revered leader into a “human monster” and challenges the equation of Stalin with Hitler (the “twin monsters theory”). He advocates for a balanced perspective that refutes the veneration–demonisation dichotomy and offers original criticism on various facets of the “black legend”: Stalin’s alleged self-cult of personality; the common juxtaposition of Soviet Gulags with Nazi camps; and accusations of genocide against Ukrainians (known as the Holodomor) and antisemitism. The article also highlights Losurdo’s methodology, consisting of a comprehensive comparative approach that calls into question the liberal tradition to reveal parallels between its darker aspects and Nazism. Losurdo demonstrates how the twin monsters theory eventually serves to bolster liberalism’s claim of moral superiority. Moreover, his work extends beyond Stalin to provide a wider assessment and criticism of most of the contemporary historiography’s themes and approaches, revealing how history is often manipulated for political reasons.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the temporal trend of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants who survived to at least 36 weeks’ post-menstrual age (PMA) and BPD or death at 36 weeks’ PMA, and to analyse variables associated with both outcomes.DesignRetrospective cohort with data retrieved from an ongoing national registry.Setting19 Brazilian university public hospitals.PatientsInfants born between 2010 and 2019 with 23–31 weeks and birth weight 400–1499 g.Main outcome measuresTemporal trend was evaluated by Prais-Winsten model and variables associated with BPD in survivors or BPD or death were analysed by logistic regression.ResultsOf the 11 128 included infants, BPD in survivors occurred in 22%, being constant over time (annual per cent change (APC): −0.80%; 95% CI: −2.59%; 1.03%) and BPD or death in 45%, decreasing over time (APC: −1.05%; 95% CI: −1.67%; −0.43%). Being male, small for gestational age, presenting with respiratory distress syndrome, air leaks, needing longer duration of mechanical ventilation, presenting with treated patent ductus arteriosus and late-onset sepsis were associated with an increase in the chance of BPD. For the outcome BPD or death, maternal bleeding, multiple gestation, 5-minute Apgar <7, late-onset sepsis, necrotising enterocolitis and intraventricular haemorrhage were added to the variables reported above as increasing the chance of the outcome.ConclusionThe frequency of BPD in survivors was constant and BPD or death decreased by 1.05% at each study year. These results show some improvement in perinatal care in Brazilian units which resulted in a reduction of BPD or death, but further improvements are still needed to reduce BPD in survivors.

Abstract:The purpose of this study was to analyze how three universities utilized image repair to address crises involving their athletic departments. Specifically, this study analyzed how the University of Missouri–Columbia, Baylor University, and the University of Louisville employed Facebook to engage in image repair. Additionally, this study examined users’ responses to these image-repair strategies via the theoretical framework of framing. A deductive thematic analysis was employed to examine image-repair strategies, while an inductive thematic analysis was employed to examine users’ comments. The data analysis revealed that the most frequently employed strategies across all three universities were bolstering, stonewalling, and corrective action. The employment of similar image-repair strategies by all three universities suggests that despite the varying level of institutional crisis, universities mostly rely on bolstering and diversionary techniques to disrupt the media noise surrounding the crisis faced by their athletic departments, while employing corrective action minimally in the hopes of making maximum impact. Additionally, this study highlights the ability of audiences to utilize social media to generate narratives via bottom-up framing. Findings suggest that these narratives often shift due to the timing of image-repair efforts and the severity of the institution’s crisis.

Purpose:The purpose of this literature review is to guide speech-language pathologists (SLPs) on how to increase effective collaboration with interpreters and translators in order to enhance communication with clients and significant others from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.Method:A review of definitions of interpretation and translations and practical guidance on certifications and collaborative practices within a health literacy framework approach is described. Strategies to build effective and ethical SLP–interpreter/translator working relationships are reviewed.Results:Findings emphasize the importance of interprofessional collaboration between SLPs and interpreters/translators. When working with professional interpreters/translators, SLPs application of a brief–intervention–debrief framework, use of plain language, and knowledge of local and national training and practice requirements, are identified as mechanisms to enhance effective and ethical collaboration.Conclusion:Effective collaboration with interpretation and translation services should be a key component of clinical practice to ensure that health information is clearly understood by clients and families.

Real-time monitoring of distribution grids is essential to handle the complex operation of modern electric systems. One of the main challenges for the deployment of reliable monitoring solutions at the distribution level is the scarcity of measurement instrumentation in the field. Despite the proposal of some approaches to deal with the underdetermined system caused by the low number of meters, existing solutions are not yet able to guarantee a level of simplicity and trustworthiness similar to the one of conventional weighted least squares (WLS) estimators adopted in transmission systems. This article aims at filling this gap by presenting a WLS-based estimator able to work with only very few meters, in scenarios typically considered as unobservable, and without the need to employ pseudo measurements. The proposed method relies on the use of allocation factors and requires only minor modifications with respect to the conventional WLS, thus offering the benefits associated with the use of a well-known and mature state estimation formulation. Simulations performed on an unbalanced IEEE test grid highlight the performance and advantages of the proposed estimator, proving its suitability for the monitoring of poorly instrumented distribution grids.

Abstract:The current study examined, via critical race theory, team statements issued by the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB teams in response to George Floyd's death at the hands of a White police officer. Out of 136 teams, 133 issued statements via Twitter, which were collected and assessed in a codebook. Analyses to consider the impact of league and post timing on statement quality indicated that the NHL teams had statistically significantly lower-quality statements compared to the teams in the other four leagues. There were no significant differences in statement quality among the NBA, WNBA, NFL, and MLB. There were no differences in statement quality conditional upon time of statement posting. A further textual analysis was conducted to understand the language present in team statements. The textual analysis revealed similar language among the leagues, with few noticeable differences. The overall findings reveal that organizations within the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB have done little to challenge the status quo of systemic racism and violence in North America, serving as performative outrage instead of committing to real change.

Wide area monitoring, protection and control (WAMPAC) systems have emerged as a critical technology to improve the reliability, resilience, and stability of modern power grids. They are based on phasor measurement unit (PMU) technology and synchronized monitoring on a wide area. Since these systems are required to make rapid decisions and control actions on the grid, they are characterized by stringent time constraints. For this reason, the latency of WAMPAC systems needs to be appropriately assessed. Following this necessity, this article presents the design and implementation of a measurement platform that allows latency characterization of different types of WAMPAC systems in several operating conditions. The proposed WAMPAC Characterizer has been metrologically characterized through a WAMPAC Emulator and then used to measure the latency of a WAMPAC system based on an open-source platform frequently used by transmission system operators (TSOs) for the implementation of their PMU-based wide area systems.

In this study, Chavan et al. investigated novel regulators of nuclear architecture in Drosophilacells and show that the heterochromatin-associated transcription factor Stonewall anchors chromatin to the nuclear periphery and is associated with transcriptional repression. Their findings provide new insights into the mechanism by which Stwl acts in germline stem cell maintenance and ovary homeostasis.

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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and congestive heart failure often coexist due to their shared risk factors leading to potential worse outcome, particularly cerebrovascular events. The aims of this study were to calculate the rates of ischemic and severe bleeding events in ischemic stroke patients having both AF and reduced ejection fraction (rEF) (⩽40%), compared to ischemic stroke patients with AF but without rEF.Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis that drew data from prospective studies. The primary outcome was the composite of either ischemic (stroke or systemic embolism), or hemorrhagic events (symptomatic intracranial bleeding and severe extracranial bleeding).Results: The cohort for this analysis comprised 3477 patients with ischemic stroke and AF, of which, 643 (18.3%) had also rEF. After a mean follow-up of 7.5 ± 9.1 months, 375 (10.8%) patients had 382 recorded outcome events, for an annual rate of 18.0%. While the number of primary outcome events in patients with rEF was 86 (13.4%), compared to 289 (10.2%) for the patients without rEF; on multivariable analysis rEF was not associated with the primary outcome (OR 1.25; 95% CI 0.84–1.88). At the end of follow-up, 321 (49.9%) patients with rEF were deceased or disabled (mRS ⩾3), compared with 1145 (40.4%) of those without rEF; on multivariable analysis, rEF was correlated with mortality or disability (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.03–1.77).Conclusions: In patients with ischemic stroke and AF, the presence of rEF was not associated with the composite outcome of ischemic or hemorrhagic events over short-term follow-up but was associated with increased mortality or disability.

Introduction: Ischaemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are at high risk of stroke recurrence despite oral anticoagulation therapy. Patients with cardiovascular comorbidities may take both antiplatelet and oral anticoagulation therapy (OAC/AP). Our study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of OAC/AP therapy as secondary prevention in people with AF and ischaemic stroke.Patients and methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of pooled individual data from multicenter prospective cohort studies and compared outcomes in the OAC/AP cohort and patients on DOAC/VKA anticoagulation alone (OAC cohort). Primary outcome was a composite of ischaemic stroke, systemic embolism, intracranial bleeding, and major extracranial bleeding, while secondary outcomes were ischaemic and haemorrhagic events considered separately. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent predictors for outcome events. To compare the risk of outcome events between the two cohorts, the relation between the survival function and the set of explanatory variables were calculated by Cox proportional hazard models and the results were reported as adjusted hazard ratios (HR). Finally another analysis was performed to compare the overall risk of outcome events in both OAC/AP and OAC cohorts after propensity score matching (PSM).Results: During a mean follow-up time of 7.5 ± 9.1 months (median follow-up time 3.5 months, interquartile range ±3), 2284 stroke patients were on oral anticoagulants and 215 were on combined therapy. The multivariable model demonstrated that the composite outcome is associated with age (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.04 for each year increase) and concomitant antiplatelet therapy (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.48–3.27), the ischaemic outcome with congestive heart failure (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.02–2.36) and concomitant antiplatelet therapy (OR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.19–3.13) and the haemorrhagic outcome with age (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.06 for each year increase), alcoholism (OR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.06–4.39) and concomitant antiplatelet therapy (OR: 2.22, 95% CI: 1.23–4.02). Cox regression demonstrated a higher rate of the composite outcome (hazard ratio of 1.93 [95% CI, 1.35–2.76]), ischaemic events (HR: 2.05 [95% CI: 1.45–2.87]) and bleeding outcomes (HR: 1.90 [95% CI, 1.06–3.40]) in OAC/AP cohort. After PSM analysis, the composite outcome remained more frequent in people treated with OAC + AP (RR: 1.70 [95% CI, 1.05–2.74]).Discussion: Secondary prevention with combination of oral anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy after ischaemic stroke was associated with worse outcomes in our cohort.Conclusion: Further research is needed to improve secondary prevention by investigating the mechanisms of recurrent ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Sleep quality and its association with cognition has been widely studied in some neurodegenerative diseases, but less is known about this association in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In adult SMA (n?=?21) patients and age-matched controls (n?=?23), we assessed subjectively measured sleep quality and daytime somnolence. Cognition was assessed with a multi-domain neuropsychological battery. Further, we investigated the association between clinical functional scores and sleep questionnaire scores. Among SMA patients, better motor and limb function was associated with better subjective sleep quality (p’s

Background: The performance of upper limb 2.0 (PUL) is widely used to assess upper limb function in DMD patients. The aim of the study was to assess 24 month PUL changes in a large cohort of DMD patients and to establish whether domains changes occur more frequently in specific functional subgroups.Methods: The PUL was performed in 311 patients who had at least one pair of assessments at 24 months, for a total of 808 paired assessments. Ambulant patients were subdivided according to the ability to walk: >350, 250–350, =250 meters. Non ambulant patients were subdivided according to the time since they lost ambulation: <1, 1-2, 2–5 or >5 years.Results: At 12 months, the mean PUL 2.0 change on all the paired assessments was –1.30 (–1.51––1.05) for the total score, –0.5 (–0.66––0.39) for the shoulder domain, –0.6 (–0.74––0.5) for the elbow domain and –0.1 (–0.20––0.06) for the distal domain. At 24 months, the mean PUL 2.0 change on all the paired assessments was –2.9 (–3.29––2.60) for the total score, –1.30 (–1.47––1.09) for the shoulder domain, –1.30 (–1.45––1.11) for the elbow domain and –0.4 (–1.48––1.29) for the distal domain. Changes at 12 and 24 months were statistically significant between subgroups with different functional abilities for the total score and each domain (p?

Sleep quality and its association with cognition has been widely studied in some neurodegenerative diseases, but less is known about this association in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In adult SMA (n = 21) patients and age-matched controls (n = 23), we assessed subjectively measured sleep quality and daytime somnolence. Cognition was assessed with a multi-domain neuropsychological battery. Further, we investigated the association between clinical functional scores and sleep questionnaire scores. Among SMA patients, better motor and limb function was associated with better subjective sleep quality (p’s< 0.05). Clinicians should consider sleep quality in patient care and future studies are needed to better understand these relationships.

The performance of upper limb 2.0 (PUL) is widely used to assess upper limb function in DMD patients. The aim of the study was to assess 24 month PUL changes in a large cohort of DMD patients and to establish whether domains changes occur more frequently in specific functional subgroups. The PUL was performed in 311 patients who had at least one pair of assessments at 24 months, for a total of 808 paired assessments. Ambulant patients were subdivided according to the ability to walk: >350, 250–350, ≤250 meters. Non ambulant patients were subdivided according to the time since they lost ambulation: <1, 1-2, 2–5 or >5 years. At 12 months, the mean PUL 2.0 change on all the paired assessments was –1.30 (–1.51––1.05) for the total score, –0.5 (–0.66––0.39) for the shoulder domain, –0.6 (–0.74––0.5) for the elbow domain and –0.1 (–0.20––0.06) for the distal domain. At 24 months, the mean PUL 2.0 change on all the paired assessments was –2.9 (–3.29––2.60) for the total score, –1.30 (–1.47––1.09) for the shoulder domain, –1.30 (–1.45––1.11) for the elbow domain and –0.4 (–1.48––1.29) for the distal domain. Changes at 12 and 24 months were statistically significant between subgroups with different functional abilities for the total score and each domain (p < 0.001). There were different patterns of changes among the functional subgroups in the individual domains. The time of transition, including the year before and after loss of ambulation, show the peak of negative changes in PUL total scores that reflect not only loss of shoulder but also of elbow activities. These results suggest that patterns of changes should be considered at the time of designing clinical trials.

The multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a severe clinical entity affecting the coagulative system; although thromboembolic events (TEs) are not common, most patients receive anticoagulation.We retrospectively assessed patients below 18 years admitted with MIS-C at Meyer Children’s Hospital (Florence, Italy). Data on baseline clinical and laboratory presentation, treatment, and outcome, including differences between patients with and without thrombotic prophylaxis, were analyzed.Thirty-two children 1 to 15 years were included. Seventeen patients (53.1%) required intensive care admission, 2 (8.7%) had obesity, 7 (30.4%) a central venous catheter, and 14 (43.8%) an impaired cardiac function. Twelve patients (37.5%) received prophylactic anticoagulation: they had more frequent cardiac involvement (91.7 vs. 50%, P=0.02) and higher ferritin levels (median 1240 vs. 501.5 ng/mL, P<0.001). No differences were found in median d-dimers between the 2 groups. Twenty-one patients (65.6%) had d-dimers >5×upper limit of normal but the indication for anticoagulation was not driven by d-dimers. No patient had hemorrhagic events and only 1 patient (3.1%) had a superficial thrombotic event (under thromboprophylaxis).Our series and the available literature data on MIS-C and thromboembolic events suggest that TEs are a rare complication of MIS-C that is frequently associated with high d-dimer values. However, also in MIS-C, the well-established risk factors of pediatric TEs (ie, older age, central venous catheter, obesity, and cancer) should guide thromboembolic risk assessment.

This article discusses the emergence of robots that are designed to perform tasks that are dirty, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable for humans. Companies like Gecko Robotics, Nearthlab, Stratom, and Doodle Labs are developing robots that can inspect missile silos, check wind turbines, service aircraft, and provide communication for drones. These robots often have non-humanoid body parts and are able to go where humans cannot or would not want to go. The incorporation of mobility and the ability to gather and process data has made robots a valuable tool in various industries. [Extracted from the article]

A significant portion of human cancers utilize a recombination-based pathway, alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), to extend telomeres. To gain further insights into this pathway, we developed a high-throughput imaging-based screen named TAILS (telomeric ALT in situlocalization screen) to identify genes that either promote or inhibit ALT activity. Screening over 1,000 genes implicated in DNA transactions, TAILS reveals both well-established and putative ALT modulators. Here, we present the validation of factors that promote ALT, such as the nucleosome-remodeling factor CHD4 and the chromatin reader SGF29, as well as factors that suppress ALT, including the RNA helicases DExD-box helicase 39A/B (DDX39A/B), the replication factor TIMELESS, and components of the chromatin assembly factor CAF1. Our data indicate that defects in histone deposition significantly contribute to ALT-associated phenotypes. Based on these findings, we demonstrate that pharmacological treatments can be employed to either exacerbate or suppress ALT-associated phenotypes.