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Measuring blood pressure (BP) and investigating arterial hemodynamics are essential in understanding cardiovascular disease and assessing cardiovascular risk. Several methods are used to measure BP in the doctor’s office, at home, or over 24 h under ambulatory conditions. Similarly, several noninvasive methods have been introduced for assessing arterial structure and function; these methods differ for the large arteries, the small ones, and the capillaries. Consequently, when studying arterial hemodynamics, the clinician is faced with a multitude of assessment methods whose technical details, advantages, and limitations are sometimes unclear. Moreover, the conditions and procedures for their optimal implementation, and/or the reference normality values for the parameters they yield are not always taken into sufficient consideration. Therefore, a practice guideline summarizing the main methods and their use in clinical practice is needed. This expert group position paper was developed by an international group of scientists after a two-day meeting during which each of the most used methods and techniques for blood pressure measurement and arterial function and structure evaluation were presented and discussed, focusing on their advantages, limitations, indications, normal values, and their pragmatic clinical application.

Purpose Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a rare aggressive lymphoma predominantly affecting young female patients. Large-scale genomic investigations and genetic markers for risk stratification are lacking. Patients and Methods To elucidate the full spectrum of genomic alterations, samples from 340 patients with previously untreated PMBCL were investigated by whole-genome (n = 20), whole-exome (n = 78), and targeted (n = 308) sequencing. Statistically significant prognostic variables were identified using a multivariable Cox regression model and confirmed by L1/L2 regularized regressions. Results Whole-genome sequencing revealed a commonly disrupted p53 pathway with nonredundant somatic structural variations (SVs) in TP53-related genes (TP63, TP73, and WWOX) and identified novel SVs facilitating immune evasion (DOCK8 and CD83). Integration of mutation and copy-number data expanded the repertoire of known PMBCL alterations (eg, ARID1A, P2RY8, and PLXNC1) with a previously unrecognized role for epigenetic/chromatin modifiers. Multivariable analysis identified six genetic lesions with significant prognostic impact. CD58 mutations (31%) showed the strongest association with worse PFS (hazard ratio [HR], 2.52 [95% CI, 1.50 to 4.21]; P < .001) and overall survival (HR, 2.33 [95% CI, 1.14 to 4.76]; P = .02). IPI high-risk patients with mutated CD58 demonstrated a particularly poor prognosis, with 5-year PFS and OS rates of 41% and 58%, respectively. The adverse prognostic significance of the CD58 mutation status was predominantly observed in patients treated with nonintensified regimens, indicating that dose intensification may, to some extent, mitigate the impact of this high-risk marker. By contrast, DUSP2-mutated patients (24%) displayed durable responses (PFS: HR, 0.2 [95% CI, 0.07 to 0.55]; P = .002) and prolonged OS (HR, 0.11 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.78]; P = .028). Upon CHOP-like treatment, these patients had very favorable outcome, with 5-year PFS

SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Recent evidence suggests that an exaggerated blood pressure (BP) response to standing (ERTS) is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, both in young and old individuals. In addition, ERTS has been shown to be an independent predictor of masked hypertension. In the vast majority of studies reporting on the prognostic value of orthostatic hypertension (OHT), the definition was based only on systolic office BP measurements. This consensus statement provides recommendations on the assessment and management of individuals with ERTS and/or OHT. ERTS is defined as an orthostatic increase in SBP at least 20 mmHg and OHT as an ERTS with standing SBP at least 140 mmHg. This statement recommends a standardized methodology to assess ERTS, by considering body and arm position, and the number and timing of BP measurements. ERTS/OHT should be confirmed in a second visit, to account for its limited reproducibility. The second assessment should evaluate BP changes from the supine to the standing posture. Ambulatory BP monitoring is recommended in most individuals with ERTS/OHT, especially if they have high-normal seated office BP. Implementation of lifestyle changes and close follow-up are recommended in individuals with ERTS/OHT and normotensive seated office BP. Whether antihypertensive treatment should be administered in the latter is unknown. Hypertensive patients with ERTS/OHT should be managed as any other hypertensive patient. Standardized standing BP measurement should be implemented in future epidemiological and interventional studies.

Incretin-based therapy is an antidiabetic and antiobesity approach mimicking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) with additional end-organ protection. This review solely focuses on randomized, controlled mechanistic human studies, investigating the renal effects of GLP-1. There is no consensus about the localization of GLP-1 receptors (GLP-1Rs) in human kidneys. Rodent and primate data suggest GLP-1R distribution in smooth muscle cells in the preglomerular vasculature. Native GLP-1 and GLP-1R agonists elicit renal effects. Independently of renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate, GLP-1 has a natriuretic effect but only during volume expansion. This is associated with high renal extraction of GLP-1, suppression of angiotensin II, and increased medullary as well as cortical perfusion. These observations may potentially indicate that impaired GLP-1 sensing could establish a connection between salt sensitivity and insulin resistance. It is concluded that a functional GLP-1 kidney axis exists in humans, which may play a role in renoprotection., Incretin-based therapy is an antidiabetic and antiobesity approach mimicking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) with additional end-organ protection. This review solely focuses on randomized, controlled mechanistic human studies, investigating the renal effects of GLP-1. There is no consensus about the localization of GLP-1 receptors (GLP-1Rs) in human kidneys. Rodent and primate data suggest GLP-1R distribution in smooth muscle cells in the preglomerular vasculature. Native GLP-1 and GLP-1R agonists elicit renal effects. Independently of renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate, GLP-1 has a natriuretic effect but only during volume expansion. This is associated with high renal extraction of GLP-1, suppression of angiotensin II, and increased medullary as well as cortical perfusion. These observations may potentially indicate that impaired GLP-1 sensing could establish a connection between salt sensitivity and insulin resistance. It is concluded that a functional GLP-1 kidney axis exists in humans, which may play a role in renoprotection.

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) rely on various avionics systems that are safety-critical and mission-critical. A major requirement of international safety standards is to perform rigorous system-level testing of avionics software systems. The current industrial practice is to manually create test scenarios, manually/automatically execute these scenarios using simulators, and manually evaluate outcomes. The test scenarios typically consist of setting certain flight or environment conditions and testing the system under test in these settings. The state-of-the-art approaches for this purpose also require manual test scenario development and evaluation. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to automate the system-level testing of the UAS. The proposed approach (AITester) utilizes model-based testing and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to automatically generate, execute, and evaluate various test scenarios. The test scenarios are generated on the fly, i.e., during test execution based on the environmental context at runtime. The approach is supported by a toolset. We empirically evaluate the proposed approach on two core components of UAS, an autopilot system of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and cockpit display systems (CDS) of the ground control station (GCS). The results show that the AITester effectively generates test scenarios causing deviations from the expected behavior of the UAV autopilot and reveals potential flaws in the GCS-CDS.

Quantum computers have the potential to outperform classical computers for some complex computational problems. However, current quantum computers (e.g., from IBM and Google) have inherent noise that results in errors in the outputs of quantum software executing on the quantum computers, affecting the reliability of quantum software development. The industry is increasingly interested in machine learning (ML)--based error mitigation techniques, given their scalability and practicality. However, existing ML-based techniques have limitations, such as only targeting specific noise types or specific quantum circuits. This paper proposes a practical ML-based approach, called Q-LEAR, with a novel feature set, to mitigate noise errors in quantum software outputs. We evaluated Q-LEAR on eight quantum computers and their corresponding noisy simulators, all from IBM, and compared Q-LEAR with a state-of-the-art ML-based approach taken as baseline. Results show that, compared to the baseline, Q-LEAR achieved a 25% average improvement in error mitigation on both real quantum computers and simulators. We also discuss the implications and practicality of Q-LEAR, which, we believe, is valuable for practitioners.

Objective:To develop scientific consensus recommendations for the optimal design and functions of different types of blood pressure (BP) measuring devices used in clinical practice for the detection, management, and long-term follow-up of hypertension.Methods:A scientific consensus meeting was performed by the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Working Group on BP Monitoring and Cardiovascular Variability and STRIDE BP (Science and Technology for Regional Innovation and Development in Europe) during the 2022 Scientific Meeting of the ESH in Athens, Greece. Manufacturers were also invited to provide their feedback on BP device design and development. Thirty-one international experts in clinical hypertension and BP monitoring contributed to the development of consensus recommendations on the optimal design of BP devices.Statement:International consensus was reached on the requirements for the design and features of five types of BP monitors, including office (or clinic) BP monitors, ambulatory BP monitors, home BP monitors, home BP telemonitors, and kiosk BP monitors for public spaces. For each device type "essential" requirements (must have), and "optional" ones (may have) are presented, as well as additional comments on the optimal device design and features.Conclusions:These consensus recommendations aim at providing manufacturers of BP devices with the requirements that are considered mandatory, or optional, by clinical experts involved in the detection and management of hypertension. They are also directed to administrative healthcare personnel involved in the provision and purchase of BP devices so that they can recommend the most appropriate ones.

Blood pressure is not a static parameter, but rather undergoes continuous fluctuations over time, as a result of the interaction between environmental and behavioural factors on one side and intrinsic cardiovascular regulatory mechanisms on the other side. Increased blood pressure variability (BPV) may indicate an impaired cardiovascular regulation and may represent a cardiovascular risk factor itself, having been associated with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, stroke, coronary artery disease, heart failure, end-stage renal disease, and dementia incidence. Nonetheless, BPV was considered only a research issue in previous hypertension management guidelines, because the available evidence on its clinical relevance presents several gaps and is based on heterogeneous studies with limited standardization of methods for BPV assessment.The aim of this position paper, with contributions from members of the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Blood Pressure Monitoring and Cardiovascular Variability and from a number of international experts, is to summarize the available evidence in the field of BPV assessment methodology and clinical applications and to provide practical indications on how to measure and interpret BPV in research and clinical settings based on currently available data. Pending issues and clinical and methodological recommendations supported by available evidence are also reported. The information provided by this paper should contribute to a better standardization of future studies on BPV, but should also provide clinicians with some indications on how BPV can be managed based on currently available data.

Parounak Zelveian,1 Jirar Topouchian,2 Zoya Hakobyan,1 Jennifer Asmar,3 Heghine Gharibyan,1 Roland Asmar4 1Preventive Cardiology Dept, Institute of Cardiology Named After Levon Hovhannisyan, Yerevan, Armenia; 2Diagnosis & Therapeutic Center, Hôtel Dieu Hospital, Paris, France; 3Gynecology-Obstetric Dept, Foch Hospital, Suresnes, France; 4Foundation-Medical Research Institutes (F-MRI)®, Geneva, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Roland Asmar, Foundation-Medical Research Institutes (F-MRI) ®, Place St Gervais 1, Geneva, Switzerland, Tel +33640142239, Email ra@cmcv.orgBackground: Electronic devices for blood pressure (BP) measurements require independent clinical validation as recommended by various authorities/societies, both in general and special populations such as pregnancy.Objective: To assess the accuracy of the Withings BPM Connect device in pregnancy and pre-eclampsia according to the Universal Standard Validation Protocol.Methods: The Withings BPM Connect device measures BP at the brachial level using the oscillometric method. The study was performed according to the so-called “modified AAMI/ESH/ISO (ISO 81060-2:2018) protocol” or the “Universal Standard Protocol”. The validation study included 45 pregnant women in the second and third gestational trimester: 15 with pre-eclampsia, 15 with gestational hypertension and 15 normotensives. Differences between mercury sphygmomanometer BP measurements (reference) and device BP values (test) and their standard deviation (SD) were calculated.Results: The mean differences between the mercury standard and device BP values in pregnancy (n = 45) were − 0.5 ± 5.7 mmHg for systolic BP (SBP) and − 0.8 ± 3.8 mmHg for diastolic BP (DBP). In the preeclamptic patients (n = 15), the mean differences were 0.14 ± 5.5 mmHg for SBP and 0.39 ± 3.7 mmHg for DBP. These results fulfilled the protocol requirements (< 5 ± 8 mmHg).Conclusion: The Withings BPM Connect fulfills the validation protocol criteria in pregnancy

Syftet med studien är att undersöka, ur ett lärarperspektiv, vilka metoder som lärare tillämpar för främjandet av begreppsförståelse och stödjandet för elever med språklig sårbarhet i NO. För att uppfylla detta syfte formulerades två forskningsfrågor; Vilka arbetsmetoder lärare använder för att främja begreppsförståelse och hur lärare anpassar sin undervisning för att stödja elever med språklig sårbarhet. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien grundade sig på det sociokulturella perspektivet och synen på differentierat lärande. Studien genomfördes med kvantitativa och kvalitativa ansatser genom en enkätundersökning och semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet indikerade att lärarna som medverkade i undersökningen använde varierande arbetsmetoder för att främja begreppsförståelse. Dessa metoder involverar praktiska aktiviteter, utomhusdidaktik, fältstudier och experiment samt diskussioner, vilka grundar sig på socialt samspel. Dessutom indikerar studien att lärare anpassar undervisningen för elever med språklig sårbarhet genom att skapa balans mellan utmaning och stöd i form av nivåanpassade uppgifter och samarbete med specialpedagoger., The purpose of this study is to examine, from a teacher's perspective, the methods teachers employ to promote conceptual understanding and provide support for pupils with linguistic vulnerability in natural sciences. To fulfill this purpose, two research questions were formulated; What teaching methods teachers use to promote conceptual understanding, and how teachers adapt their instruction to support pupils with linguistic vulnerability. The theoretical framework for the study was based on the sociocultural perspective and the view of differentiated learning. The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative approaches through a survey and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the teachers that have participated in the study use various teaching methods to promote conceptual understanding. These methods involve hands-on activities, outdoor teaching, field studies, and experiments, as well as discussions based on social interaction. Furthermore, the result indicates that teachers adapt instruction for pupils with linguistic vulnerability by creating a balance between challenge and support through leveled tasks and collaboration with special educators.

One entrepreneurship-related subject that has produced a lot of research is the investigation of entrepreneurial intention (EI). This study aims to investigate the impact of students' work experience across the four categories (SN, ES, ATE, and EE). The methodology employed in this study is quantitative, using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The participants were assigned to multidisciplinary workgroups comprising six to eight individuals with backgrounds in management and engineering. There were five-course iterations between the 2021–2022 academic years. There were 250 students registered for this course. This research supports the belief that instruction in entrepreneurship can improve one's abilities in this area, even if it does not necessarily result in immediate action. This study highlights the importance of entrepreneurial education in increasing entrepreneurial intention among students. Additionally, students' belief in their abilities to become entrepreneurs, based on factors such as technical skills, social skills, and risk-taking abilities, is not affected by prior work experience. The study recognises that students' career experience is essential in understanding the significance of entrepreneurial education in fostering entrepreneurial intention.

The study explain the phenomena of Culture of silence in an organization and how it effect the organization and Employees’ Performance. For the current study researcher conducted seven interviews, the analysis of interviews suggest that there is no culture of organizational silence in the University of Gavle, they have a smooth communication flow within organization and their employer appreciated the ideas of employees, there is e friendly atmosphere between employee and boss and satisfaction level of employees is higher towards organization and it is shown in the theoretical framework that organizational silence is greatly associated with organizational performance as well as employee performance because organizational silence effect communication flow which stops important information within organization which can be very useful for organization and employees performance.

Robust evidence suggests that motivation increases both cognitive effort and memory encoding. Despite growing recognition that emotion regulation may be a motivated process, motivational effects on the cognitive mechanisms underlying emotion regulation and subsequent memory for encountered stimuli remain largely uncharacterized. We manipulated extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to down-regulate negative affect in an emotion regulation paradigm including emotional and neutral stimuli. Participants were trained in two regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and distraction) and reported trial-by-trial strategy use. Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were associated with decreased negative affect and a shift in regulation strategy use. Specifically, use of reappraisal (a cognitively effortful strategy) increased with motivation. 24- hour recognition memory for presented stimuli was modulated by both emotional content and motivation condition. These findings suggest that interacting motivational and cognitive processes during emotion regulation can adaptively shape subsequent memory for the encountered stimuli, with implications for both cognitive and clinical science.

Fang Wen,1,&ast; Shantong Jiang,1– 4,&ast; Ping Yuan,1– 5,&ast; Jinbo Liu,1– 4 Xiu Bai,1 Hongwei Zhao,1– 4,6,7 Xin Chen,1– 4,7 Yan-Bing Gong,5 Roland Asmar,8 Hongyu Wang1– 4,6,7 1Department of Vascular Medicine, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Vascular Health Research Center of Peking University Health Science Center (VHRC-PKUHSC), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Beijing Shijingshan District Key Clinical Specialty of Vascular Medicine, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Heart and Vascular Health Research Center of Peking University Clinical Research Institute (HVHRC-PUCRI), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Scientific Research, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 6State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling, (Peking University), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 7Heart and Vascular Health Research Center of Chengdu Medical College (HVHRC-CMC), Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 8Foundation-Medical Research Institutes, Beirut, Lebanon&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongyu Wang, Department of Vascular Medicine, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, 100144, People’s Republic of China, Email dr.hongyuwang@foxmail.comAbstract: Cardiovascular disease(CVD) has become a major disease burden affecting people’s health in China. Blood vessels are very important for human health and are the “sentinel” for the development of many cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The key to effectively preventing fatal, disabling heart, brain and peripheral vascular events lies in controlling traditional and non-traditional risk factors for vascular health from the source, and early assessment and intervention of early vascular lesions. Since 2004, China government promoted the early detection technology of vascular lesions and vascular medicine, and proposed the Bei

Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) ± hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is the only potentially curative treatment that can improve the survival prognosis for patients with peritoneal metastasis (PM) of colorectal origin. The main independent prognostic factors are extent of disease, as measured by the Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI), and completion of CRS (CC-0 or R1). Despite thorough preoperative work-up for selection of surgical candidates, 20%-25 % of CRS procedures are stopped after exploration during laparotomy. These patients undergo "open-and-close" procedures associated with a risk of complications and without any benefit. The aim of this study was to identify preoperative predictors of non-resectability and/or non-completion of CRS in patients with colorectal PMs who were candidates for surgery., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Although complete cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with or without hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) offers a good prognosis in patients with peritoneal metastasis of ovarian cancer (PMOC), recurrences are quite common. These recurrences can be intra-abdominal or systemic in nature. Our objective was to study and illustrate the global recurrence pattern in patients operated for PMOC, shedding light on a previously overlooked lymphatic basin at the level of the epigastric artery, the deep epigastric lymph nodes (DELN) basin., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Complete cytoreductive surgery (CRS), remain the gold standard in the treatment of peritoneal metastases of ovarian cancer (PMOC). Given the increasing rate of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with high PCI, prior abdominal surgeries, inflammation and fibrotic changes, the benefit of removing any "peritoneal scar-like tissues" (PST) during CRS, hasn't been thoroughly investigated. Our objective in this retrospective cohort was to identify the proportion of malignant cells positivity in PST of patients with PMOC, undergoing curative-intent CRS ± HIPEC., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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Different histological growth patterns (HGP) describing the tumor-to-liver interface have been described in colorectal liver metastases and have been associated with a strong prognostic value. However, HGP of peritoneal metastases (PM) of colorectal cancer (CRC) have not yet been described. Our objective was to determine whether distinct HGP can be identified in PMCRC and to evaluate their potential prognostic value in these patients., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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Peritoneal metastases of ovarian cancer (PMOC) are common at initial presentation. Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) of curative intent has been proven to be efficient in increasing the overall survival (OS) and the disease-free survival (DFS) of these patients. Nevertheless, CRS is associated with high postoperative morbidity, which makes patient selection a major concern. Appropriate prognostic factors that can predict patient outcomes after surgery are still lacking. Preoperative biomarkers and their ratios have been shown to be predictive of patient prognosis for various solid tumors. We aimed to study their correlation with the prognosis of patients undergoing CRS for PMOC., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

From the end of the year 2008 to 2021, Israel committed four wars in the Gaza Strip. These wars were known as Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Operation Pillar of Cloud in 2012, Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021. The destructive impacts on vital facilities in Gaza, including schools, universities, mosques, hospitals, and United Nations Relief centers, as well as the killings of thousands of innocent civilians by Israeli forces, are visible evidence of a serious violation of the principle of distinction, a basic principle provided under the international humanitarian law conferring protection upon the civilians during armed conflicts. The accession of Palestine to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on crimes. This paper aims to analyze the position of individual criminal responsibility committed during the above-mentioned wars, regulated under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and other relevant international conventions. In analyzing the data from primary and secondary sources, this paper applied doctrinal legal research and qualitative approaches. This paper concludes that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court associated the individual criminal responsibility for war crimes by systematically determining the extent of participation, namely: (1) commission; (2) ordering/instigating; (3) assistance; and (4) contribution to a war crime as a group crime. Thus, Israeli military leaders ought to be held liable for the commission of war crimes in accordance with Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The pretexts of the Israeli occupation to be exempt from criminal responsibility should be rejected according to the state of legitimate defense.

The EnVision and VERITAS missions to Venus will fly with X and Ka band telecommunications channels which can be used to conduct radio occultation studies of Venus' atmosphere. While link attenuation measurements during prior S and X band occultation experiments have been used to determine vertical profiles of H$_2$SO$_4$ vapor abundance, the addition of the Ka band channel introduces greater sensitivity to the abundances of H$_2$SO$_4$ aerosols and SO$_2$ gas, permitting retrieval of their vertical profiles from dual band measurements. Such measurements would be valuable in the assessment of chemical and dynamical processes governing short and long-term variability in Venus' atmosphere. This paper considers the sensitivity of the X/Ka band radio attenuation measurement to these atmospheric constituents, as well as uncertainties and regularization approaches for conducting retrievals of these atmospheric sulfur species from future occultation experiments. We introduce methods for seeding maximum likelihood estimation retrievals using shape models and simple atmospheric transport constraints. From simulated retrievals, we obtain mean errors of the order of 0.5 ppm, 20 ppm, and 10 mg/m$^3$ for H$_2$SO$_4$ vapor, SO$_2$, and H$_2$SO$_4$ aerosol abundances, respectively, for simultaneous retrieval., Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, accepted to PSJ

The main objective of this chapter is to present an overview of the different areas of key technologies that will be needed to fly the technically most challenging of the representative missions identified in chapter 4 (the Pillar 2 Horizon 2061 report). It starts with a description of the future scientific instruments which will address the key questions of Horizon 2061 described in chapter 3 (the Pillar 1 Horizon 2061 report) and the new technologies that the next generations of space instruments will require (section 2). From there, the chapter follows the line of logical development and implementation of a planetary mission: section 3 describes some of the novel mission architectures that will be needed and how they will articulate interplanetary spacecraft and science platforms; section 4 summarizes the system-level technologies needed: power, propulsion, navigation, communication, advanced autonomy on board planetary spacecraft; section 5 describes the diversity of specialized science platforms that will be needed to survive, operate and return scientific data from the extreme environments that future missions will target; section 6 describes the new technology developments that will be needed for long-duration missions and semi-permanent settlements; finally, section 7 attempts to anticipate on the disruptive technologies that should emerge and progressively prevail in the decades to come to meet the long-term needs of future planetary missions., Comment: 100 pages, 23 figures, Horizon 2061 is a science-driven, foresight exercise, for future scientific investigations

Zoya Hakobyan,1 Parounak Zelveian,1 Jirar Topouchian,2 Lusine Hazarapetyan,1,3 Roland Asmar4 1Institute of Cardiology After Levon Hovhannisyan, Yerevan, Armenia; 2Diagnosis and Therapeutic Center, Hôtel Dieu Hospital, Paris, France; 3Yerevan State Medical University After Mkhitar Heratsi, Yerevan, Armenia; 4Foundation-Medical Research Institutes (F-MRI), Geneva, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Roland Asmar, Foundation-Medical Research Institutes, Place St Gervais 1, Geneva, Switzerland, Tel +33640142239, Email ra@cmcv.orgBackground: Most of the scientific societies recommend assessing the accuracy of electronic devices for blood pressure (BP) measurements using established validation protocol.Objective: To determine the accuracy of the BP measurements using the Withings BPM Core device in the general population according to the “Universal Standard (ISO 81060-2:2018/AMD 1:2020)”.Methods: The Withings BPM Core is an oscillometric device measuring BP at the brachial level. The study was performed according to the “Universal Standard (ISO 81060-2:2018/AMD 1:2020) protocol” using the same-arm sequential BP measurement method. Subjects (n ≥ 85) fulfilling the age, gender, BP, and cuff distribution criteria of the protocol were included. Analysis was performed as required by the Universal protocol using Criterion 1 – differences between observers’ mercury sphygmomanometer reference measurements and test device BP values (test versus reference) and their standard deviation (SD); and Criterion 2 – The SD of the mean BP differences between the test device and reference BP per subject.Results: Eighty-six subjects were selected, 85 of whom were included. The mean BP differences between the simultaneous two observers’ measurements were − 0.2 ± 2.1 mmHg for systolic BP (SBP) and 0.3 ± 2.1 mmHg for diastolic BP (DBP). For validation criterion 1, the mean difference ± SD between the reference and device BP values was − 0.6 ± 4.8 mmHg for SBP and 0.1 ± 3.7 mmH

Robots that can effectively understand human intentions from actions are crucial for successful human-robot collaboration. In this work, we address the challenge of a robot navigating towards an unknown goal while also accounting for a human's preference for a particular path in the presence of obstacles. This problem is particularly challenging when both the goal and path preference are unknown a priori. To overcome this challenge, we propose a method for encoding and inferring path preference online using a partitioning of the space into polytopes. Our approach enables joint inference over the goal and path preference using a stochastic observation model for the human. We evaluate our method on an unknown-goal navigation problem with sparse human interventions, and find that it outperforms baseline approaches as the human's inputs become increasingly sparse. We find that the time required to update the robot's belief does not increase with the complexity of the environment, which makes our method suitable for online applications.

Genome-wide analyses have been used to characterize the genetic landscapes of many cancers. One of the most frequent classes of genes found to be mutated in cancer is the epigenetic regulators, providing a link between genetic alterations and epigenetic changes in cancer. In addition, multiple studies have reported aberrant DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation patterns as well as histone modifications in cancer. The recognition of the mutuality between genetic and epigenetic aberrations in cancer and the reversible features of epigenetic changes provide a rationale for combining epigenetic therapy with conventional chemotherapy and form basis for the development of novel and targeted treatment modalities. In this chapter, we review aberrant DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation patterns in cancer and mutations in epigenetic regulators involved in DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation and discuss the effect of these aberrations on tumorigenesis.

Photometric calibration is essential to many computer vision applications. One of its key benefits is enhancing the performance of Visual SLAM, especially when it depends on a direct method for tracking, such as the standard KLT algorithm. Another advantage could be in retrieving the sensor irradiance values from measured intensities, as a pre-processing step for some vision algorithms, such as shape-from-shading. Current photometric calibration systems rely on a joint optimization problem and encounter an ambiguity in the estimates, which can only be resolved using ground truth information. We propose a novel method that solves for photometric parameters using a sequential estimation approach. Our proposed method achieves high accuracy in estimating all parameters; furthermore, the formulations are linear and convex, which makes the solution fast and suitable for online applications. Experiments on a Visual Odometry system validate the proposed method and demonstrate its advantages.

Generating grammatically and semantically correct captions in video captioning is a challenging task. The captions generated from the existing methods are either word-by-word that do not align with grammatical structure or miss key information from the input videos. To address these issues, we introduce a novel global-local fusion network, with a Global-Local Fusion Block (GLFB) that encodes and fuses features from different parts of speech (POS) components with visual-spatial features. We use novel combinations of different POS components - 'determinant + subject', 'auxiliary verb', 'verb', and 'determinant + object' for supervision of the POS blocks - Det + Subject, Aux Verb, Verb, and Det + Object respectively. The novel global-local fusion network together with POS blocks helps align the visual features with language description to generate grammatically and semantically correct captions. Extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments on benchmark MSVD and MSRVTT datasets demonstrate that the proposed approach generates more grammatically and semantically correct captions compared to the existing methods, achieving the new state-of-the-art. Ablations on the POS blocks and the GLFB demonstrate the impact of the contributions on the proposed method.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major population disease. In diabetes as well as hypertension, kidney disease is one of the most serious complications. Recent research has demonstrated that chronic hypoxia is a key actor in the pathogenesis of CKD. In this review, we focus on how functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques can shed light on pathogenetic mechanisms and monitor new treatments aimed at preventing or ameliorating the disease. Multiparametric MRI techniques can measure changes in renal artery flow, tissue perfusion, and oxygenation repetitively over short time periods, enabling high time resolution. Furthermore, renal fibrosis can be quantified noninvasively by MRI diffusion tensor imaging, and techniques are upcoming to measure renal oxygen consumption. These techniques are all radiation and contrast-free. We briefly present data, demonstrating that fMRI techniques can play a major role in future research in CKD, and possibly also in daily clinical practice.

Background GLP‐1 (glucagon‐like peptide‐1) receptor agonists exert beneficial long‐term effects on cardiovascular and renal outcomes. In humans, the natriuretic effect of GLP‐1 depends on GLP‐1 receptor interaction, is accompanied by suppression of angiotensin II, and is independent of changes in renal plasma flow. In rodents, angiotensin II constricts vasa recta and lowers medullary perfusion. The current randomized, controlled, crossover study was designed to test the hypothesis that GLP‐1 increases renal medullary perfusion in healthy humans. Methods and Results Healthy male participants (n=10, aged 27±4 years) ingested a fixed sodium intake for 4 days and were examined twice during a 1‐hour infusion of either GLP‐1 (1.5 pmol/kg per minute) or placebo together with infusion of 0.9% NaCl (750 mL/h). Interleaved measurements of renal arterial blood flow, oxygenation (R2*), and perfusion were acquired in the renal cortex and medulla during infusions, using magnetic resonance imaging. GLP‐1 infusion increased medullary perfusion (32±7%, P<0.001) and cortical perfusion (13±4%, P<0.001) compared with placebo. Here, NaCl infusion decreased medullary perfusion (−5±2%, P=0.007), whereas cortical perfusion remained unchanged. R2* values increased by 3±2% (P=0.025) in the medulla and 4±1% (P=0.008) in the cortex during placebo, indicative of decreased oxygenation, but remained unchanged during GLP‐1. Blood flow in the renal artery was not altered significantly by either intervention. Conclusions GLP‐1 increases predominantly medullary but also cortical perfusion in the healthy human kidney and maintains renal oxygenation during NaCl loading. In perspective, suppression of angiotensin II by GLP‐1 may account for the increase in regional perfusion., BACKGROUND: GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists exert beneficial long-term effects on cardiovascular and renal outcomes. In humans, the natriuretic effect of GLP-1 depends on GLP-1 receptor interaction, is accompanied by suppression of angiotensin II, and is independent of changes in renal plasma flow. In rodents, angiotensin II constricts vasa recta and low-ers medullary perfusion. The current randomized, controlled, crossover study was designed to test the hypothesis that GLP-1 increases renal medullary perfusion in healthy humans. METHODS AND RESULTS: Healthy male participants (n=10, aged 27±4 years) ingested a fixed sodium intake for 4 days and were examined twice during a 1-hour infusion of either GLP-1 (1.5 pmol/kg per minute) or placebo together with infusion of 0.9% NaCl (750 mL/h). Interleaved measurements of renal arterial blood flow, oxygenation (R2 *), and perfusion were acquired in the renal cortex and medulla during infusions, using magnetic resonance imaging. GLP-1 infusion increased medullary perfusion (32±7%, P<0.001) and cortical perfusion (13±4%, P<0.001) compared with placebo. Here, NaCl infusion decreased medullary perfusion (−5±2%, P=0.007), whereas cortical perfusion remained unchanged. R2 * values increased by 3±2% (P=0.025) in the medulla and 4±1% (P=0.008) in the cortex during placebo, indicative of decreased oxygenation, but remained unchanged during GLP-1. Blood flow in the renal artery was not altered significantly by either intervention. CONCLUSIONS: GLP-1 increases predominantly medullary but also cortical perfusion in the healthy human kidney and maintains renal oxygenation during NaCl loading. In perspective, suppression of angiotensin II by GLP-1 may account for the increase in regional perfusion.

Mobile autonomous robots have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing processes. However, employing large robot fleets in manufacturing requires addressing challenges including collision-free movement in a shared workspace, effective multi-robot collaboration to manipulate and transport large payloads, complex task allocation due to coupled manufacturing processes, and spatial planning for parallel assembly and transportation of nested subassemblies. We propose a full algorithmic stack for large-scale multi-robot assembly planning that addresses these challenges and can synthesize construction plans for complex assemblies with thousands of parts in a matter of minutes. Our approach takes in a CAD-like product specification and automatically plans a full-stack assembly procedure for a group of robots to manufacture the product. We propose an algorithmic stack that comprises: (i) an iterative radial layout optimization procedure to define a global staging layout for the manufacturing facility, (ii) a graph-repair mixed-integer program formulation and a modified greedy task allocation algorithm to optimally allocate robots and robot sub-teams to assembly and transport tasks, (iii) a geometric heuristic and a hill-climbing algorithm to plan collaborative carrying configurations of robot sub-teams, and (iv) a distributed control policy that enables robots to execute the assembly motion plan collision-free. We also present an open-source multi-robot manufacturing simulator implemented in Julia as a resource to the research community, to test our algorithms and to facilitate multi-robot manufacturing research more broadly. Our empirical results demonstrate the scalability and effectiveness of our approach by generating plans to manufacture a LEGO model of a Saturn V launch vehicle with 1845 parts, 306 subassemblies, and 250 robots in under three minutes on a standard laptop computer., Comment: Repository: https://github.com/sisl/ConstructionBots.jl. Under review

In the context of Audio Visual Question Answering (AVQA) tasks, the audio visual modalities could be learnt on three levels: 1) Spatial, 2) Temporal, and 3) Semantic. Existing AVQA methods suffer from two major shortcomings; the audio-visual (AV) information passing through the network isn't aligned on Spatial and Temporal levels; and, inter-modal (audio and visual) Semantic information is often not balanced within a context; this results in poor performance. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end Contextual Multi-modal Alignment (CAD) network that addresses the challenges in AVQA methods by i) introducing a parameter-free stochastic Contextual block that ensures robust audio and visual alignment on the Spatial level; ii) proposing a pre-training technique for dynamic audio and visual alignment on Temporal level in a self-supervised setting, and iii) introducing a cross-attention mechanism to balance audio and visual information on Semantic level. The proposed novel CAD network improves the overall performance over the state-of-the-art methods on average by 9.4% on the MUSIC-AVQA dataset. We also demonstrate that our proposed contributions to AVQA can be added to the existing methods to improve their performance without additional complexity requirements., Comment: Accepted to IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) 2024

Quantum annealers are specialized quantum computers for solving combinatorial optimization problems using special characteristics of quantum computing (QC), such as superposition, entanglement, and quantum tunneling. Theoretically, quantum annealers can outperform classical computers. However, the currently available quantum annealers are small-scale, i.e., they have limited quantum bits (qubits); hence, they currently cannot demonstrate the quantum advantage. Nonetheless, research is warranted to develop novel mechanisms to formulate combinatorial optimization problems for quantum annealing (QA). However, solving combinatorial problems with QA in software engineering remains unexplored. Toward this end, we propose BootQA, the very first effort at solving the test case minimization (TCM) problem with QA. In BootQA, we provide a novel formulation of TCM for QA, followed by devising a mechanism to incorporate bootstrap sampling to QA to optimize the use of qubits. We also implemented our TCM formulation in three other optimization processes: classical simulated annealing (SA), QA without problem decomposition, and QA with an existing D-Wave problem decomposition strategy, and conducted an empirical evaluation with three real-world TCM datasets. Results show that BootQA outperforms QA without problem decomposition and QA with the existing decomposition strategy in terms of effectiveness. Moreover, BootQA's effectiveness is similar to SA. Finally, BootQA has higher efficiency in terms of time when solving large TCM problems than the other three optimization processes.

Quantum Computing (QC) promises computational speedup over classic computing for solving complex problems. However, noise exists in current and near-term quantum computers. Quantum software testing (for gaining confidence in quantum software's correctness) is inevitably impacted by noise, to the extent that it is impossible to know if a test case failed due to noise or real faults. Existing testing techniques test quantum programs without considering noise, i.e., by executing tests on ideal quantum computer simulators. Consequently, they are not directly applicable to testing quantum software on real quantum computers or noisy simulators. To this end, we propose a noise-aware approach (named QOIN) to alleviate the noise effect on test results of quantum programs. QOIN employs machine learning techniques (e.g., transfer learning) to learn the noise effect of a quantum computer and filter it from a quantum program's outputs. Such filtered outputs are then used as the input to perform test case assessments (determining the passing or failing of a test case execution against a test oracle). We evaluated QOIN on IBM's 23 noise models, Google's two available noise models, and Rigetti's Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM), with nine real-world quantum programs and 1000 artificial quantum programs. Results show that QOIN can reduce the noise effect by more than $80\%$ on the majority of noise models. For quantum software testing, we used an existing test oracle and showed that QOIN attained scores of $99\%$, $75\%$, and $86\%$ for precision, recall, and F1-score, respectively, for the test oracle across six real-world programs. For artificial programs, QOIN achieved scores of $93\%$, $79\%$, and $86\%$ for precision, recall, and F1-score. This highlights QOIN's effectiveness in learning noise patterns for noise-aware quantum software testing.

The recent success of hybrid methods in monocular odometry has led to many attempts to generalize the performance gains to hybrid monocular SLAM. However, most attempts fall short in several respects, with the most prominent issue being the need for two different map representations (local and global maps), with each requiring different, computationally expensive, and often redundant processes to maintain. Moreover, these maps tend to drift with respect to each other, resulting in contradicting pose and scene estimates, and leading to catastrophic failure. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that makes use of descriptor sharing to generate a single inverse depth scene representation. This representation can be used locally, queried globally to perform loop closure, and has the ability to re-activate previously observed map points after redundant points are marginalized from the local map, eliminating the need for separate and redundant map maintenance processes. The maps generated by our method exhibit no drift between each other, and can be computed at a fraction of the computational cost and memory footprint required by other monocular SLAM systems. Despite the reduced resource requirements, the proposed approach maintains its robustness and accuracy, delivering performance comparable to state-of-the-art SLAM methods (e.g., LDSO, ORB-SLAM3) on the majority of sequences from well-known datasets like EuRoC, KITTI, and TUM VI. The source code is available at: https://github.com/AUBVRL/fslam_ros_docker.

Feedback is an essential part of learning in any context. Timely, detailed feedback, whether delivered formally or informally, helps people learn more effectively by providing a clear sense of where they are and what they have to do to improve. In the university context, feedback assists students in developing mastery of their disciplines and more general graduate attributes. It helps them understand what is expected of them and how to reach that standard. Providing high quality feedback is, quite simply, one of the most important things you can do to help your students learn. There are many different ways to conceptualise feedback--the quotes in this guide from staff from a variety of disciplines at the University of Melbourne envision the process of feedback differently, yet all are underpinned by a student-centred conception of learning (that is, the focus is on what the student does and the outcomes they should achieve). The purpose of this guide is to offer advice and suggestions on providing effective feedback as well as examples of assessment systems teaching staff may be able to adopt in their own classes. It also contains a framework for reflecting on and evaluating existing feedback practice. The first section of the guide discusses the nature of feedback with a focus on the two different forms: formative and summative. The second section addresses what makes good feedback and the third section looks at several different examples of assessment and feedback systems that you might find useful to adapt to your own classes. The final section contains a framework for the evaluation of teaching practice with particular emphasis on assessment and feedback opportunities. A sample feedback framework is appended.

The learning media used in schools, such as worksheet, are not optimal yet to help students build their understanding. For this reason, it is necessary to develop learning media so that they can provide opportunities for students to find their own concepts and can be remembered for a long time. This study developed a PISA-oriented problem-based learning (PBL) media. This research was a development research (R&D). This research used the Plomp model which consisted of three stages, namely the preliminary research stage, the prototyping phase, and the assessment phase. At the preliminary research stage, needs analysis, curriculum analysis, concept analysis, student analysis was applied. In the prototype-making phase, a prototype development was applied which had been validated and tested. Whereas in the assessment phase, the developed prototype was tested and assessed for practicality and effectiveness, which was assessed by observation, questionnaires, and student learning outcomes. The validation of learning tools is viewed from the content validity and construct validity. The average value of the PISA-oriented PBL-based student worksheet validation was 3.57 with a very valid category. Based on the student response questionnaire, it was found that the learning media was practical with a percentage of 86.83%. Problem solving problems were given to test the effectiveness of the learning media being developed, and the results were these devices are effective for use. After all stages of development, it was concluded that the media being developed were valid, practical, and effective.

PURPOSE: The natriuretic effect of GLP-1 in humans is independent of changes in renal plasma flow (RPF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) but may involve suppression of angiotensin II (ANG II) and a significant (~45%) renal extraction of GLP-1. The current study was designed to investigate the consequences for the renal extraction and the natriuretic effect of blocking GLP-1 receptors with the specific GLP-1 receptor antagonist, exendin 9-39 (Ex 9-39).METHODS: Under fixed sodium intake for 4 days before each study day, 6 healthy male participants were recruited from our recent study where GLP-1 or vehicle was infused (1). In the present new experiments, participants were examined during a 3-hour infusion of GLP-1 (1.5 pmol/kg/min) together with a 3.5-hour infusion of Ex 9-39 (900 pmol/kg/min). Timed urine collections were conducted throughout the experiments. Renal extraction of GLP-1 as well as RPF and GFR were measured via Fick's principle after catheterization of a renal vein. Arterial plasma renin, ANG II, and aldosterone concentrations were measured.RESULTS: Co-infusion of Ex 9-39 significantly reduced renal extraction of GLP-1 to ~25% compared with GLP-1 infusion alone (~45%). Urinary sodium excretions remained at baseline levels during co-infusion of Ex 9-39 as well as vehicle. By contrast, GLP-1 infusion alone resulted in a 2-fold increase in natriuresis. Ex 9-39 abolished the GLP-1-induced decrease in arterial ANG II concentrations. RPF and GFR remained unchanged during all experiments.CONCLUSIONS: Renal extraction of GLP-1 and its effect on natriuresis are both dependent on GLP-1 receptor activation in healthy humans.

The present paper provides an update of previous recommendations on Home Blood Pressure Monitoring from the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Working Group on Blood Pressure Monitoring and Cardiovascular Variability sequentially published in years 2000, 2008 and 2010. This update has taken into account new evidence in this field, including a recent statement by the American Heart association, as well as technological developments, which have occurred over the past 20 years. The present document has been developed by the same ESH Working Group with inputs from an international team of experts, and has been endorsed by the ESH.

This study aims to produce valid and practical contextual-based mathematics learning tools to improve mathematical problem solving skills of seventh grade students of Junior High School. The development of this learning device uses the development of the Plomp model which consists of three phases, namely the initial investigation phase, the prototype development phase, and the assessment phase. In the first investigation phase, data collection is carried out which aims as a reference in designing learning tools. The prototype development phase aims to develop learning tools to produce valid and practical learning tools through formative evaluation stages, namely self-evaluation, one-on-one evaluation and small group evaluation. The test subjects in this study were seventh grade students and mathematics teachers at Al Ishlah Islamic Junior High School Bukittinggi in the 2021/2022 academic year. The instruments used during the study were observation sheets, interview guidelines, questionnaires and learning device validation sheets. The instruments used in data collection were first validated by the validator. The results of the analysis of the data from the RPP validation sheet and the mathematics module showed that the contextual-based mathematical tools developed were valid in terms of content and constructs. The contextual-based learning tools developed have been practical in terms of implementation and ease of use. This is based on the results of data analysis of observations on the implementation of learning, interviews with students and student response questionnaires