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The elongational flow behavior of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate), and polycarbonate, temperatures from 70 to 290 °C and pressures up to 70 MPa, is examined with the Yahsi-Dinc-Tav (YDT) model and its particular case known as the Cross model. The viscosity data employed in the range of 3-405 s-1 elongational rates were acquired from the literature at ambient and elevated pressures. The predictions and the fitting results of the proposed YDT model with the same measurement data are compared with the Cross model. The average absolute deviations of the viscosities predicted by the YDT model range from 0.54% to 9.44% at ambient and 1.95% to 6.28% at high pressures. Additionally, the linear formulations derived from the YDT model are employed to relate the viscosity with temperature and hole fraction ("thermooccupancy" function) at zero level of elongational rate and constant elongational rate along with constant elongational stress. The effects of the four viscosity parameters (such as transmission and activation energy coefficients in these equations) on the elongational viscosity are analyzed in detail and some conclusions on the structural differences for the polymers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon carbide (SiC) power mosfets are promising alternatives to Si devices in high-voltage, high-frequency, and high-temperature applications. The rapid and widespread deployment of SiC devices raises long-term reliability concerns, particularly for mission and safety critical systems due to limited field data and potential uncertainties. Therefore, it is essential to investigate progressive degradations and parameter shifts in SiC devices to develop system integrated degradation monitoring tools for self-monitoring converters, which can recognize failure precursors at the earliest stage and prevent catastrophic failures. This paper presents a comprehensive long-term reliability analysis of commercially available SiC mosfets under high temperature operation and high temperature swing, degradation related key precursors, and possible causes behind them. For this purpose, discrete SiC devices are power cycled and all datasheet parameters are recorded at certain intervals with the aid of the curve tracer. Variation of electrical parameters throughout the tests is presented in order to assess their correlation with the aging/degradation state of the switch. Among them, gate oxide charge trapping related threshold voltage drift and corresponding on state resistance variation has been observed for all samples. For some samples, bond wire heel cracking is found to be the root cause of sudden on state resistance and body diode voltage increases. The discussions regarding aging precursors are supported by failure analysis obtained through the decapsulation of failed devices. Finally, the findings are evaluated in order to define the suitability of electrical parameters as an aging precursor parameter under the light of practical implementation related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multilayers of poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)s with varying side chains were constructed. • Surface properties of films were affected by the chemical nature of PAOX side chain. • Multilayers released different amount of Ciprofloxacin at acidic pH and 37 °C. • Surface properties were correlated with biological properties of the films. Multilayers of poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)s (PAOX) with varying side chains were constructed through layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly using Tannic Acid (TA). Surface morphology, stability, wettability and stimuli-responsive drug release properties of the films were correlated with antiadhesive and antibacterial properties of the multilayers. Thickness, roughness, wettability and stability of multilayers were affected by the chemical nature of PAOX side chain, phase behaviour of PAOX and the binding strength between the layers. PAOX-multilayers released remarkably different amounts of Ciprofloxacin (CIP) especially at acidic pH and 37 °C. Antibacterial activity of the films against S. aureus was in good agreement with the amounts of CIP released from multilayers. Despite the differences in the released CIP amount, PAOX-multilayers showed similar antibacterial activity against E. coli under all conditions. Multilayers with greater wettability exhibited greater resistance against Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) adsorption and were more effective to reduce adherence of E. coli. None of the PAOX-films exhibited antiadhesiveness against S. aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The aim was to investigate the amounts of saliva and serum asprosin in order to determine whether it is related to obesity and whether salivary glands synthesize asprosin or not. Methods. A total of 116 underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese (class I, class II, and class III) volunteers participated in the study. Saliva and blood samples were collected simultaneously from the participants. The amounts of asprosin in saliva, salivary gland tissue supernatants, and bloods were determined by ELISA, whereas asprosin synthesis sites of salivary gland tissues were determined immunohistochemically. Results. The amount of asprosin from the lowest to the highest was in the order as follows: underweight, normal weight (control), overweight, and obese classes I and III. The lowest level of asprosin was detected in underweight individuals. It was also found that the interlobular striated ducts and the interlobular ducts of the submandibular and parotid salivary glands produce asprosin. According to these data, the asprosin level is related with obesity as the amount increases in accordance with increasing body mass index (BMI). On the other hand, there is also a relationship between the underweight and asprosin because the amount decreases with BMI decrease. Conclusions. Asprosin, a new adipokine, may be a novel indicator of adipose tissue mass. Therefore, we anticipate that antiasprosin preparations may be an alternative in the treatment of obesity in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propagation of a seismic rupture on a fault introduces spatial variations in the seismic wave field surrounding the fault. This directivity effect results in larger shaking amplitudes in the rupture propagation direction. Its seismic radiation pattern also causes amplitude variations between the strike-normal and strike-parallel components of horizontal ground motion. We investigated the landslide response to these effects during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (Mw 7.1) in central Kyushu (Japan). Although the distribution of some 1500 earthquake-triggered landslides as a function of rupture distance is consistent with the observed Arias intensity, the landslides were more concentrated to the northeast of the southwest–northeast striking rupture. We examined several landslide susceptibility factors: hillslope inclination, the median amplification factor (MAF) of ground shaking, lithology, land cover, and topographic wetness. None of these factors sufficiently explains the landslide distribution or orientation (aspect), although the landslide head scarps have an elevated hillslope inclination and MAF. We propose a new physics-based ground-motion model (GMM) that accounts for the seismic rupture effects, and we demonstrate that the low-frequency seismic radiation pattern is consistent with the overall landslide distribution. Its spatial pattern is influenced by the rupture directivity effect, whereas landslide aspect is influenced by amplitude variations between the fault-normal and fault-parallel motion at frequencies <2 Hz. This azimuth dependence implies that comparable landslide concentrations can occur at different distances from the rupture. This quantitative link between the prevalent landslide aspect and the low-frequency seismic radiation pattern can improve coseismic landslide hazard assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prophylactic use of double J (DJ) stents in recipients is highly accepted in renal transplantation. In this study, the association between the frequency of urologic complications (UC) and urinary tract infections (UTI), and the early or late removal of DJ stents was investigated.Material and Methods: A total of 116 live-donor renal transplant patients were included in the study during a 4-year period, with a mean follow-up of 29.2 ±15.3 months. In all, DJ stents were used. All patients were clinically monitored for graft function by assessment of the complete blood count, renal biochemistry, urine analysis and blood drug level according to our follow-up protocol.Results: The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the time of their stent removal: group I (n = 44), removal within the first 14 days; and group II (n = 72), removal after 14 days. No urinary leaks were detected in either of the groups. Three patients suffered from anastomotic stricture (group I, n = 1; group II, n = 2). The rates of UTI were similar in groups I and II (13.6% vs. 16.6%, respectively, p = 0.79). The rate of UTI in women was found to be 3.8 times higher than in men.Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrated that DJ stent removal within 14 days did not reduce the risk of UTI when compared to stent removal after 14 days. Similar effects on complication rates for ureteral stenting for these 2 removal periods were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Comparing gene expression profiles using gene expression datasets of different types of tumors is frequently used to identify molecular mechanisms of cancer. This study aimed to find shared and type specific gene expression profiles of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). Material and methods: Gene expression microarrays for HCC and B-CLL and RNA-sequencing expression data for liver HCC and lymphoid neoplasm diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBC) were analyzed and differentially expressed probe sets or genes for each cancer type were detected. Probe sets and genes that were shared or specifically expressed in both cancer types were identified. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) terms for Biological Process (BP) annotations were performed. Results: According to our analysis shared upregulated genes were mainly annotated in cell cycle processes. Some of the genes that changed only in HCC were annotated in cell cycle and metabolic processes, and some of the genes, altered only in B-CLL, were annotated in immune response and hemopoiesis. Conclusion: These results contribute to cancer research that aim to find the conserved gene expression profiles in different cancer types and widen the knowledge of HCC and B-CLL specific mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper presents computational analysis of the inverse Stefan type free boundary problem, where information on the boundary heat flux is missing and must be found along with the temperature and the free boundary. We pursue optimal control framework introduced in Abdulla (2013, 2016), where boundary heat flux and free boundary are components of the control vector, and optimality criteria consist of the minimization of the quadratic declinations from the available measurements of the temperature distribution at the final moment, phase transition temperature on the free boundary, and the final position of the free boundary. We develop gradient descent algorithm based on Fréchet differentiability in Hilbert–Besov spaces complemented with preconditioning or increase of regularity of the Fréchet gradient through implementation of the Riesz representation theorem. Three model examples with various levels of complexity are considered. Extensive comparative analysis through implementation of preconditioning and Tikhonov regularization, calibration of preconditioning and regularization parameters, effect of noisy data, comparison of simultaneous identification of control parameters vs. nested optimization is pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive study on degradation monitoring of silicon carbide mosfets and proposes an early warning method to detect aging. The proposed plug-in tool can be integrated to smart gate drivers or directly to power converters. During the accelerated aging tests (power cycling within safe operating area), several electrical parameters are monitored to find out critical signatures and precursors of failure. Among those, gate leakage current is identified as the most practical precursor, which exhibits consistent changes in all aged devices and is relatively easy to monitor. Due to its simple scheme and low cost, it can potentially be embedded into commercial gate drivers featuring improved reliability options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, power conversion in automotive industry depends heavily on the reliable operation of insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). Condition monitoring of IGBTs and reporting imminent faults to driver dashboard are critical for avoiding any fatal accidents. In this study, first, a comprehensive comparison is carried out between on-state collector–emitter drop ($V_{ce,on}$) with gate threshold voltage (Vth), as two reliable aging precursors. In order to enrich current understanding of IGBT aging prognosis, accelerated aging methods are applied under a wide variety of thermal stresses. Aging mechanisms and physical phenomena responsible for variation in both $V_{ce,on}$ and Vth have been methodically investigated. These explanations are also supported by detailed failure analysis. Based on the extensive result sets for tested samples from different manufacturers with different structural types, it is found that $V_{ce,on}$ show different trends at different stress levels, whereas under the same test conditions Vth provides more consistent and robust state-of-health information. Finally, an example experiment has been performed in which continuous $V_{ce,on}$ measurements coupled with Vth information has been used to provide more insight about the device aging as well as faults in an automobile's sub-systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of vancomycin-resistant and Enterococcus faecium strains isolated from urine samples of dogs. A total of 22 Enterococcus sp. samples were isolated and identified from 100 urine samples collected by cystocentesis from dogs of both sexes. The identification with species specific primers for multiplex PCR revealed that all 22 isolates (100%) belonged to E. faecium. Vancomycin resistance was found in 10 (45%) samples of E. faecium strains with PCR study by vanA and vanB primers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to identify the fatal pulmonary hemorrhage- (FPH-) related risk factors in stage 3B/C squamous-cell lung carcinoma (SqCLC) patients treated with definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (C-CRT). Medical records of 505 stage 3B/C SqCLC patients who underwent 66 Gy radiotherapy plus 1-3 cycles of concurrent chemotherapy with available pretreatment thoracic computerized tomography scans were retrospectively analyzed. Primary end-point was the identification of FPH-related risk factors. Examined factors included the basal patient and tumor characteristics with specific emphasis on the tumor cavitation (TC) status, tumor size (TS) and cavitation size (CS), tumor volume and cavitation volume (TV and CV), relative cavitation size (RCS = CS/TS), and relative cavitation volume (RCV=CV/TV). FPH emerged in 13 (2.6%) patients, with 12 (92.3%) of them being diagnosed ≤12 months of C-CRT. All FPHs were diagnosed in patients with TC (N=60): group-specific FPH incidence: 21.6%. TC (P<0.001) was the unique independent factor associated with higher FPH risk in multivariate analysis. Further analysis limited to TC patients exhibited the RCV>0.14 (37.5% versus 11.1% for RCV≤0.14; P<0.001), major RCS group [31.0% versus 19.0% for minor versus 0% for minimum RCS; P=0.008), and baseline hemoptysis (26.3% versus 13.6% for no hemoptysis; P=0.009) as the independent risk factors for higher FPH incidence. FPH was an infrequent (2.6%) complication of C-CRT in stage 3B/C SqCLC patients, but its incidence increased to 37.5% in patients presenting with TC and RCV>0.14. Diagnosis of >90% FPHs ≤12 months of C-CRT stresses the importance of close and careful follow-up of high-risk patients after C-CRT for multidisciplinary discussion of possible invasive preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The allosteric activation of the intrinsically disordered enzyme Staphylococcus aureus sortase A is initiated via binding of a Ca2+ ion. Although Ca2+ binding was shown to initiate structural changes inducing disorder-to-order transitions, the details of the allosteric activation mechanism remain elusive. We performed long-term molecular dynamics simulations of sortase A without (3 simulations of 1.6 μs) and with bound Ca2+ (simulations of 1.6 μs, 1.8 μs, and 2.5 μs). Our results show that Ca2+ binding causes not only ordering of the disordered β6/β7 loop of the protein, but also modulates hinge motions in the dynamic β7/β8 loop, which is important for the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Cation binding triggers signal transmission from the Ca2+ binding site to the dynamic β7/β8 loop via the repetitive folding/unfolding of short helical stretches of the disordered β6/β7 loop. These correlated structural rearrangements lead to several distinct conformational states of the binding groove, which show optimal binding features for the sorting signal motif and feature binding energies up to 20 kcal/mol more favorable than observed for the sortase A without Ca2+. The presented results indicate a highly correlated, conformational selection-based activation mechanism of the enzyme triggered by cation binding. They also demonstrate the importance of the dynamics of intrinsically disordered regions for allosteric regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper presents results from a series of numerical modeling tests conducted with the objective of developing a computational framework for studying rock burst events. A commercially available distinct element code with its explicit time-stepping scheme is adopted for modeling the initial quasi-static and the subsequent dynamic response of rock burst in compression and shear. Ground reaction curves are introduced to discuss criteria for stability of a failure through stress analyses. Energy balance equations are analyzed for assessing the rock burst intensity by estimating radiated seismic energy once conditions of instability emerge. Two methods are discussed for estimating radiated seismic energy: tracking of the energy conversion during failure; recording the kinetic energy that is damped by mechanical damping schemes. Modeling approach and methodologies for studying compressive-type rock burst are developed and calibrated against available analytical solutions with respect to radiated seismic energy and excavation convergence. Factors participating in the intensity of rock burst in compression are examined by modeling a rectangular tabular excavation supported by a single pillar with ductile, semi-brittle, and brittle failure responses under different compressive loading. A shear-type rock burst along a strike-slip fault model is simulated and modeling approach is calibrated by checking the resulting slip distribution, radiated seismic energy, and seismic moment against analytical solutions. Factors contributing to the occurrence and intensity of shear-type rock burst are explored by simulating different slip scenarios under different loading conditions. With presented analyses, this paper provides a computational framework calibrated for studying rock burst events and, as a reference for treatment of more complex cases, shows how Young's modulus of the rock, failure stress drop, rock brittleness, and slip-weakening behaviors of faults govern the rock burst occurrence and intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barrel and pulsed power supply modules are two crucial parts of an electromagnetic launcher (EML), in terms of overall efficiency. One of the most important features of the barrel side is the armature geometry. In this paper, the shape of the armature of an EML with 10-MJ current pulse generator, 1000-kA peak current, and 4.5-ms excitation time is optimized by using independent variables to define the exact geometry of the armature. The main goal is to maximize the muzzle kinetic energy of the projectile with 300-g mass including pressure and contact current constraints. Finite-element method (FEM) is used to calculate the muzzle kinetic energy of the EML for different armature geometries. Genetic algorithm is used as the optimization method. Since the contact resistance between the armature and the rail affects the distribution of contact current density, contact resistance is also modeled in FEM. It is observed that armature shape optimization study increases the muzzle kinetic energy to 596 kJ and the muzzle velocity to 1993 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Drug often binds to more than one targets defined as polypharmacology, one application of which is drug repurposing also referred as drug repositioning or therapeutic switching. The traditional drug discovery and development is a high-priced and tedious process, thus making drug repurposing a popular alternate strategy. We proposed an integrative method based on similarity scheme that predicts approved and novel Drug targets with new disease associations. We combined PPI, biological pathways, binding site structural similarities and disease-disease similarity measures. The results showed 94% Accuracy with 0.93 Recall and 0.94 Precision measure in predicting the approved and novel targets surpassing the existing methods. All these parameters help in elucidating the unknown associations between drug and diseases for finding the new uses for old drugs. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Building a computational model to propose a drug repurposing strategy that predicts approved and novel drug disease associations. • We combined PPI, biological pathways, binding site structural similarities and disease-disease similarity measures together. • Features like binding site structural similarity was analyzed in particular. • The model showed 94% Accuracy with 0.93 Recall and 0.94 Precision measure in predicting the approved and novel targets surpassing the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the hyaluronidase, collagenase and elastase inhibitory effects, which play important role for wound healing, together with the antibacterial, antioxidant and homeostatic activities of tragacanth gum (TG) and locust bean gum (LBG). The antimicrobial activities were tested against four bacteria and the antioxidant activities were estimated by the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) radical scavenging and ß-carotene bleaching assays. Homeostatic effect was evaluated with the Prothrombin Time (PT) and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (aPTT) test parameters. The wound healing potentials were determined with the inhibition of hyaluronidase, collagenase and elastase enzymes. The TG showed antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853 and Escherichia coli ATCC25922. The results showed that TG and LBG possessed antioxidant properties including DPPH scavenging (21.0% and 17.6%, respectively) and H2O2 radical scavenging (59.4% and 79.0%, respectively) activities. The polysaccharides displayed significantly reducing PT and aPTT results. Between the two tested polysaccharides LBG showed significant hyaluronidase and collagenase inhibition activity at 10 mg/mL concentration. These findings show that these natural polysaccharides can be used to support of wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recursive algorithm is proposed to accurately extract the electromagnetic parameters of isotropic/bianisotropic metamaterial (MM) slabs of inhomogeneous structures. The algorithm is based on the recursive calculations of measured/ simulated forward and backward scattering (S-) parameters from previously extracted wave impedances and refractive indices of each homogeneous layer (except the analyzed intermediate layer) by a suitable retrieval method. There are two main advantages of our proposed method over existing extraction algorithms. First, it could retrieve the electromagnetic parameters of both isotropic and bianisotropic MM slabs. Second, it is applicable for electromagnetic parameter extraction of inhomogeneous structures. For validation of our method and assessing its accuracy over existing extraction methods, we used the simulation results of various inhomogeneous structures constructed by different isotropic/bianisotropic MM slabs (split-ring-resonator (SRR), SRR-wire, omega, and omega-wire). For completeness, the effects of noise present in S-parameters and iterative error (by increasing the value of iteration numbers) are examined to test the robustness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In developing countries where water supply pressure is low, or frequent water outages and electricity shortages happen, domestic end‐users are forced to install water pump‐storage systems, consisting of water pumps and ground‐level and rooftop tanks to satisfy their daily water demands. This contributes to increasing electrical energy consumption, particularly during peak electricity demand hours. This study presents a simple, practical, computational, and cost‐effective shifting water level control algorithm to manage water‐energy nexus, by reducing pump‐storage system electric energy consumption during peak hours. The proposed algorithm requires a simple modification to the existing water level control scheme, by installing an additional float switch in the rooftop water tank below the currently available float switch that is usually adjusted to trigger the pump when the level in the tank drops by 5‐10% from the maximum level. Based on the simulation results, the algorithm preserves the domestic end‐users’ comfortable daily water demand and reduces water pump energy consumption during peak hours by 90%. During off‐peak hours, the control algorithm triggers the pump to refill the rooftop tank based on the upper float switch when water level drops by 5%, while during peak hours, the pump is triggered only when the water drops by 30%. The performance of the algorithm is found to be comparable to the performance of the model predictive control (MPC) approach developed for the same purpose, but MPC needs a high computation capacity and a complex analog feedback level sensor. The algorithm succeeds in reducing and shifting pump energy consumption under various possible operation scenarios and water demand disturbances. A mathematical model is developed for the domestic water pump‐storage system using Matlab/Simscape to cope with the complexity of solving nonlinear fluid flow equations and measure the data required to develop the control algorithm. The performance of the algorithm is tested based on a real case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examines the environmental impact of renewable and nuclear energy R&D expenditures. • Focuses on Germany using three environmental indicators from 1974 to 2018. • Nuclear energy-related R&D expenditures are not effective on the environment. • Renewable energy-related R&D expenditures reduce CO 2 emissions. • The EKC hypothesis is valid, whereas the LCC hypothesis is not. This study analyzes the effect of renewable energy research & development (RRD) and nuclear energy research & development (NRD) expenditures on environmental quality by considering Germany's goal of achieving carbon neutrality until 2045. Hence, the study uses various environmental indicators (carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, ecological footprint-EF, and load capacity factor-LCF) to investigate the effects of RRD and NRD on the environmental quality controlling also a gross domestic product (GDP) and test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and recently proposed load capacity curve (LCC) hypotheses. Also, the study includes yearly data from 1974 to 2018, uses fractional frequency Fourier autoregressive distributive lag (FADL) based FMOLS approach as the main model, and applies FADL based DOLS approach and Fourier wavelet causality test for the robustness. The empirical results reveal that (i) the explanatory variables have a cointegration link with CO 2 emissions and EF; (ii) the EKC hypothesis is valid for Germany, while the LCC hypothesis is invalid; (iii) RRD expenditures are effective only in reducing CO 2 emissions; (iv) RRD and NRD expenditures have no significant effect on the EF. Considering the results, German policymakers could utilize RRD more effectively and efficiently to improve environmental quality and reduce the EF. In this way, Germany could achieve its carbon neutrality goal until the middle of the century by benefiting from RRD facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effects of military expenditures (MEX) on environmental pollution, as well as the moderating role of factors such as financial development and technological progress for 15 NATO member countries under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Using the CS-ARDL estimator, the study analyzes the effects of MEX, income, energy consumption, financial development, and technical progress on carbon emissions spanning the period from 1991 to 2018. Additionally, interaction terms are employed to regularize the moderating effects of financial development and technical advancement. The results show that income, energy consumption, and MEX all contribute to a rise in emissions. It is also found that the financial sector does not eradicate the detrimental ramifications of MEX on the environment, but that technological progress has a moderating effect. A 1% increase in the interaction of technological progress with the military sector reduces environmental degradation by 0.36, but a 1% augment in the interaction of the financial sector with the military sector increases carbon emissions by 0.41%. For this reason, it is imperative to evaluate and revise the financing of MEX of NATO countries from an environmental perspective for sustainable development. Furthermore, as long-run income elasticity in NATO countries is lower than the short-run one, the EKC hypothesis is valid. Based on the overall findings, the study suggests that NATO allies should incorporate the benefits of income growth and technological development into their environmental policies to offset the negative effects of MEX. [Display omitted] • Employs second-generation panel data approaches for NATO countries. • Examines the moderating role of technological progress and financial development. • NATO countries damage the environment with their military expenditures. • Technological progress has an environmental moderating role in the military sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In our approach, three primary energy absorption mechanisms are considered; in-plane tensile deformation energy, shear plugging energy and friction energy. • Since the impact is a short time duration and dynamic physical event, in order to simplify the analysis, an equation that defines the impact duration is presented. • In our approach, energy absorption due to friction is calculated with poisson effect. Composite behaviour under ballistic impact is a challenging engineering problem due to its nonlinear nature, besides the ballistic impact itself is a dynamic and complex phenomenon. This study presents a novel analytical formulation for the speed reduction of impacts of bullet-type projectiles based on in-plane tensile failure energy absorption, including a new approach representing the energy absorption due to friction. Since for low-velocity impacts, energy absorption mechanisms are drastically different from high-velocity impacts, limitation algorithms are developed to accommodate for low-velocity impact cases. The developed formulations are applied to real and virtual ballistic impact test cases to predict the residual velocities. A satisfying correlation between results is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The IP and OOP seismic performance of bed-joint reinforced AAC infills were evaluated through full-scale tests. • The IP drift limit of 0.005 given in several seismic codes results in major OOP performance degradation. • The use of bed-joint reinforcement significantly enhanced the OOP performance of infills. • The specimens with bed-joint reinforcement exhibited smaller residual crack widths after the IP tests. The infill walls made of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC), which is a lightweight, fire resistant and energy efficient material, provide effective insulation solutions for building types of structures and becoming more and more popular in earthquake prone regions. Although the number of experimental tests examining the seismic response of clay brick infills is extensive, the amount of prior research on infill walls built of AAC blocks is rather limited. Past research revealed that the use of bed-joint reinforcement is one of the promising solutions to improve the global seismic response of masonry walls by enhancing strength and displacement capacity. In this study, the out-of-plane (OOP) seismic performance of AAC infill walls with flat-truss and innovative cord-type bed-joint reinforcement is experimentally evaluated. Also, consideration is given to the prior in-plane (IP) damage, which was found to degrade the seismic performance of infills in OOP direction. For this purpose, three IP and four OOP, in total, seven experimental tests were performed on four full-scale AAC infill wall specimens. The test parameters were selected in such a way as to make it possible to parametrically compare the OOP performance of AAC infills with flat-truss and cord-type bed-joint reinforcements with unreinforced AAC infill walls, together with the effect of prior IP damage on the OOP response of unreinforced AAC infill walls. It was found that the use of innovative cord-type bed-joint reinforcement improved the OOP strength to a similar extent to what was obtained from the truss-type reinforced specimen. In terms of ultimate displacement and energy dissipation capacity enhancement, the specimen with cord-type reinforcement performed better. In addition, the damages formed due to IP cyclic displacement reversals up to 0.005 drift ratio, which is defined as the drift limit for buildings with brittle infill walls in certain design codes, resulted in a significant reduction in the OOP strength and stiffness properties of AAC infills. The theoretical OOP strength calculations were found to provide unconservative strength values for the IP-damaged specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serotonin influences many aspects of animal behavior. But how serotonin acts on its diverse receptors across the brain to modulate global activity and behavior is unknown. Here, we examine how serotonin release in C. elegans alters brain-wide activity to induce foraging behaviors, like slow locomotion and increased feeding. Comprehensive genetic analyses identify three core serotonin receptors (MOD-1, SER-4, and LGC-50) that induce slow locomotion upon serotonin release and others (SER-1, SER-5, and SER-7) that interact with them to modulate this behavior. SER-4 induces behavioral responses to sudden increases in serotonin release, whereas MOD-1 induces responses to persistent release. Whole-brain imaging reveals widespread serotonin-associated brain dynamics, spanning many behavioral networks. We map all sites of serotonin receptor expression in the connectome, which, together with synaptic connectivity, helps predict which neurons show serotonin-associated activity. These results reveal how serotonin acts at defined sites across a connectome to modulate brain-wide activity and behavior. [Display omitted] • Extra-synaptic serotonin modulates foraging via six serotonin receptors • Receptors mediate behavioral responses to serotonin with different in vivo kinetics • Serotonin receptor expression patterns are mapped to the C. elegans connectome • Brain-wide recordings with neuronal ID reveal serotonin-associated brain dynamics Comprehensive genetic analysis of serotonin receptors and brain-wide imaging in freely moving C. elegans provide a global view of how serotonin acts on specific receptors at defined sites in a connectome to modulate brain-wide activity and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This study evaluates energy consumption options in France using dynamic ARDL. • Explores the impact of changes in disaggregated energy consumption on CO 2 emissions. • The results show that nuclear energy can be a real option for France against gas supply cuts. • The KRLS approach validates the robustness of the dynamic ARDL simulations outcomes. The study explores the influences of potential changes in energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, focusing on disaggregated energy consumption sources. In this manner, the study considers France as the leading nuclear energy-consuming country in Europe, includes yearly data between 1970 and 2021, and performs the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DYNARDL) model. In addition, the Kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) is used for robustness check. The results reveal that (i) cointegration exists between the disaggregated energy consumption indicators and CO 2 emissions; (ii) nuclear, natural gas, oil, and coal energy have a statistically significant effect on CO 2 emissions, while renewable energy is not statistically significant; (iii) nuclear power has a decreasing effect on CO 2 emissions; (iv) positive (i.e., increasing) shocks to nuclear reduce CO 2 emissions, even if they are 300 % in the case of counterfactual shocks; (v) any positive (i.e., increasing) shocks to coal have a drastically increasing effect on CO 2 emissions, even if they are 25 % in the case of counterfactual shocks; (vi) the KRLS approach confirms the robustness of the results. Thus, this study suggests that France should continue to rely on nuclear power for electricity generation and that French policymakers should reduce electricity exports to European Union countries to provide an alternative against the Russian natural gas shock by preventing a reduction in energy supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, environmental concerns are at the forefront of countries' considerations, along with economic priorities. In this context, countries face the challenge of developing and directing their investments in clean energy technologies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly affordable and clean energy. Does the development and diffusion of clean energy technologies contribute to improving environmental quality? This study addresses this question by examining the effects of clean energy technologies on sustainable environmental quality as expressed by the load capacity factor (LCF). In this context, the study explores the United States (US), as the largest economy and one of the leading countries investing in clean energy, considering the role of human capital, urbanization, and economic growth. To this end, this paper applies the novel augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to annual data from 1974 to 2018. The long-term empirical results show that (i) Clean energy technologies have no effect on the LCF; (iii) human capital supports environmental quality; (iv) urbanization has an adverse effect on environmental quality; (v) increasing economic growth worsens environmental quality. Overall, the empirical results suggest that while clean energy technologies should support sustainable environmental quality, this is unfortunately not the case in the US. Therefore, the US policymakers need to take improvement actions to ensure that clean energy technologies contribute to sustainable environmental quality and that the community reaps the environmental benefits of human capital. [Display omitted] • Applies the Augmented ARDL approach with smooth structural shifts. • Tests the impact of clean energy technologies on environmental quality. • Clean energy technologies do not affect the environmental quality. • Income and urbanization reduce the load capacity factor. • Human capital improves environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many multiple sclerosis (MS)-associated common risk variants as well as candidate low-frequency and rare variants have been identified; however, approximately half of MS heritability remains unexplained. We studied seven multiplex MS families, six of which with parental consanguinity, to identify genetic factors that increase MS risk. Candidate genomic regions were identified through linkage analysis and homozygosity mapping, and fully penetrant, rare, and low-frequency variants were detected by exome sequencing. Weighted sum score and polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses were conducted in MS families (24 affected, 17 unaffected), 23 sporadic MS cases, 63 individuals in 19 non-MS control families, and 1272 independent, ancestry-matched controls. We found that familial MS cases had a significantly higher common risk variation burden compared with population controls and control families. Sporadic MS cases tended to have a higher PRS compared with familial MS cases, suggesting the presence of a higher rare risk variation burden in the families. In line with this, score distributions among affected and unaffected family members within individual families showed that known susceptibility alleles can explain disease development in some high-risk multiplex families, while in others, additional genetic contributors increase MS risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retractile organ is a term generally used for testis. It refers to the displacement of the organ over time in a specific route along the inguinal canal. The condition that we encounter in our case is similar. Hence, we define this event as a retractile bladder. The inguinal canal becomes a flabby pouch because of the weakening of its walls. The bladder moves within the inguinal canal without strangulation. The purpose of our paper draws attention to this situation. Herein, we present a case of an 84-year-old patient with a left inguinal retractile bladder hernia accompanied by computed tomography and ultrasonography findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thalium selenide (TlSe), which has a lattice with tetragonal symmetry, is a member of the A3B6 semiconductor group. The structure of TlSe is defined as chains where atoms inside are bonded with an ionic-covalent bond. TlSe thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation under a high vacuum on glass substrates. The structure of TlSe thin films is amorphous with a tetragonal structure. The AC conductivity measurements were operated via the measurements of capacitance and dielectric dissipation (tanδ) at room temperature. AC conductivity values change between 10−11 and 10−6 S/cm at the low-frequency side with decreasing thickness. Two different conduction regions were observed with increasing frequency. The region observed at the low-frequency side can be attributed to the motion of a chain-like part of the lattice, while the region observed at the high-frequency side can be attributed to side groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it was aimed to prepare a series of PVdF-co-HFP based electrolytes with different LiClO4 loadings and to investigate their chemical and electrical properties in detail. For this purpose, PVdF-co-HFP based electrolytes with different LiClO4 loadings (1-20 weight %) were prepared using solution casting method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric (TGA) -differential thermal and dielectric spectroscopy analysis of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 were performed to characterize their structural, thermal, and dielectric properties, respectively. XRD results showed that the diffraction peaks of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 electrolytes broadened and decreased with LiClO4. TGA patterns exhibited that PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 electrolytes with 20 wt % of LiClO4 had the lowest thermal stability and it degraded above 473 K, which is highly applicable for solid polymer electrolytes. Dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and conductivities were calculated by measuring capacitance and dielectric loss factor of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 in the range from 10 mHz to 20 MHz frequencies at room temperature. In consequence, conductivities of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 increased significantly with frequency for low loading of LiClO4 while they only slightly changed with higher LiClO4 addition. On the other hand, dielectric constant values of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 films decreased with frequency whereas they rose with LiClO4 addition. The dielectric studies showed an increase in dielectric constant and dielectric loss with decreasing frequency. This result was attributed to high contribution of charge accumulation at the electrode-electrolyte interface. The electrolyte showed the maximum conductivity of 8 × 10−2 S/cm at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the preparation of hydrophobic and crosslinked poly- (vinyl alcohol)/silica organic-inorganic hybrid nanofibers via the sol-gel electrospinning method is reported. Silica was produced through the acetic acid catalyzed reaction of a silica precursor consisting of dimethyldimethoxysilane (DMDMOS), methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS), tridecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyltriethoxysilane (FAS1313; Dynasylan® F 8261) and phenyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS; Dynasylan® 9165) in a 2-propanol-water mixture. Hybrid nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning the silica precursor and an aqueous PVA solution. Chemical, structural, thermal and surface analyses were conducted by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM/EDX) and water contact angle (WCA) methods, respectively. The obtained hybrid nanofibers were insoluble in aqueous solution. SEM images displayed that highly crosslinked and porous structures were obtained and the average fiber diameters of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/silica nanocomposites were around 70 nm. A nanofiber surface with a water contact angle of 130° was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the short- and long-run dynamic relationship between per capita GDP, per capita carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, financial development, per capita total renewable energy consumption, hydropower consumption, alternative energy consumption and urbanization was investigated by using ARDL bounds testing approach, Gregory-Hansen and Hatemi-J cointegration tests for Turkey during 1974–2014. The results of three cointegration test indicated that there was a long-run relationship between these variables. The coefficients obtained from the ARDL, fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) estimators showed that economic growth, financial development, and urbanization increase environmental degradation, while total renewable energy consumption, hydropower consumption, and alternative energy consumption had no effect on CO 2 emissions. The findings showed that economic growth caused the greatest increases in CO 2 emissions, followed by urbanization and financial development. However, renewable energy consumption was not at a desirable level to reduce CO 2 emissions. The study also support environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, which establishes an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO 2 emissions. The turning points of per capita GDP obtained from long-run regressions were found to be around 13523–14077 US Dollars, outside the sample period. The overall results indicated that Turkey has not reached the level of per capita GDP that can reduce environmental pollution and renewable energy consumption is not a solution to reduce CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, esterification of propionic acid with ethanol over a tungstophosphoric acid catalyst was conducted in a batch reactor and in a pervaporation membrane reactor (MR). The performance of the esterification was determined in terms of the propionic acid conversion. Effects of the reaction temperature within the range of 50 °C–70 °C, the initial molar ratio of reactants (1:1, 2:1, 3:1), and the catalyst concentration (10–20 g cat/kg reactant) on the propionic acid conversion were investigated. A poly(vinyl alcohol) membrane was prepared and used to remove the water from the reaction media simultaneously. Conversion results of the batch reactor (BR) and the MR were compared. Results showed that the conversion of the reaction was improved by using MR. As the highest conversion of 80.7% was obtained in the BR, 92.9% of acid conversion was achieved in the MR at 70 °C when the alcohol:acid molar ratio was 3:1. The conversion of the propionic acid-ethanol esterification was enhanced between the values from 15% to 27% by using MR. Activation energy of the reaction carried out in the MR was found as 39.6 kJ/mol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One common problem in visualizing real-life networks, including biological pathways, is the large size of these networks. Often times, users find themselves facing slow, non-scaling operations due to network size, if not a “hairball” network, hindering effective analysis. One extremely useful method for reducing complexity of large networks is the use of hierarchical clustering and nesting, and applying expand-collapse operations on demand during analysis. Another such method is hiding currently unnecessary details, to later gradually reveal on demand. Major challenges when applying complexity reduction operations on large networks include efficiency and maintaining the user’s mental map of the drawing. Results: We developed specialized incremental layout methods for preserving a user’s mental map while managing complexity of large networks through expand-collapse and hide-show operations. We also developed open-source JavaScript libraries as plug-ins to the web based graph visualization library named Cytsocape.js to implement these methods as complexity management operations. Through efficient specialized algorithms provided by these extensions, one can collapse or hide desired parts of a network, yielding potentially much smaller networks, making them more suitable for interactive visual analysis. Conclusion: This work fills an important gap by making efficient implementations of some already known complexity management techniques freely available to tool developers through a couple of open source, customizable software libraries, and by introducing some heuristics which can be applied upon such complexity management techniques to ensure preserving mental map of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of obstructive lung disease characterized by long-term poor airflow. Tobacco smoking is the most common cause of COPD. In this study, we aimed to assess the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and inflammation markers on smokers and non-smoking individuals. Methods: Our study was a case-control study and 175 individuals who want to give up smoking constituted the case group. As a control group, 175 individuals who never smoked. Results: The mean age of 350 participants was 35.83±13.11 years. Educational status of the non-smokers was significantly higher than that of the smoking group (P<.001). When smoking and non-smoking groups were compared in terms of VEGF and interleukin-6 (IL-6), it was found that these values were statistically higher in smokers than non-smokers (P<.001). The levels of IL-10 were found to be higher in non-smokers than in smokers (P<.001). Although a moderate positive correlation was found between VEGF and IL-6 levels (r=.486, P<.001), there was a weak negative correlation between VEGF and IL-10 (r=-.210, P<.001). A weak negative correlation was found between IL-6 and IL-10 (r=-.185, P<.001). Conclusions: In our study, IL-6 inflammatory marker and VEGF levels were found to be high and IL-10 anti-inflammatory marker was discovered to be low in smokers. For this reason, raising awareness in the society about the harms of smoking and encouraging people to give it up have become more challenging to counteract the inflammatory effects of smoking in human body and to prevent many smokingrelated diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Photosystem II (PSII), the Mn 4 CaO 5 -cluster of the active site advances through five sequential oxidation states (S 0 to S 4 ) before water is oxidized and O 2 is generated. Here, we have studied the transition between the low spin (LS) and high spin (HS) configurations of S 2 using EPR spectroscopy, quantum chemical calculations using Density Functional Theory (DFT), and time-resolved UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. The EPR experiments show that the equilibrium between S 2 LS and S 2 HS is pH dependent, with a p K a  ≈ 8.3 ( n  ≈ 4) for the native Mn 4 CaO 5 and p K a  ≈ 7.5 ( n  ≈ 1) for Mn 4 SrO 5 . The DFT results suggest that exchanging Ca with Sr modifies the electronic structure of several titratable groups within the active site, including groups that are not direct ligands to Ca/Sr, e . g ., W1/W2, Asp61, His332 and His337. This is consistent with the complex modification of the p K a upon the Ca/Sr exchange. EPR also showed that NH 3 addition reversed the effect of high pH, NH 3 -S 2 LS being present at all pH values studied. Absorption spectroscopy indicates that NH 3 is no longer bound in the S 3 Tyr Z state, consistent with EPR data showing minor or no NH 3 -induced modification of S 3 and S 0 . In both Ca-PSII and Sr-PSII, S 2 HS was capable of advancing to S 3 at low temperature (198 K). This is an experimental demonstration that the S 2 LS is formed first and advances to S 3 via the S 2 HS state without detectable intermediates. We discuss the nature of the changes occurring in the S 2 LS to S 2 HS transition which allow the S 2 HS to S 3 transition to occur below 200 K. This work also provides a protocol for generating S 3 in concentrated samples without the need for saturating flashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a lab-scale anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (AnSBR) was used for the acidification of a pharmaceutical wastewater sourced from etodolac chemical synthesis tanks. The effects of the organic loading rate (OLR), and etodolac and sulfate concentrations on the acidification rate and microbial community in AnSBR were investigated at 35 °C with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 37 h, a pH of 5, and OLRs up to 5.2 kgCOD/m 3 ·day. The AnSBR accomplished a 60% acidification ratio and 50–60% etodolac removal at OLRs up to 2.6 kgCOD/m 3 ·day. However, at OLR = 3.9 kgCOD/m 3 ·day, acidification was not achieved due to sulfite inhibition; pre-ozonation was applied to overcome this sulfite inhibition. Although etodolac and COD removals were improved, the wastewater was not successfully acidified. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses revealed that acidification was inhibited by the dominance of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) over acidification bacteria in the AnSBR. However, increasing the OLR to 5.2 kgCOD/m 3 ·day led to toxicity stress in the SRB due to increased sulfite concentrations. Sulfate load fundamentally affected acidification process and microbial community composition. The presence of etodolac with concentration up to 56 mg/L did not have a significant effect on VFA production and the microbial community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer (BC) has a high mortality rate and metastatic BC is almost incurable despite hormonal therapy and chemotherapy. The second and third lines of chemotherapies usually yield transient responses and the median survival is generally as low as 18-24 months. Autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have been extensively investigated in this setting. The presence of immune mediated anti-tumor effects referred to as graft-versus-tumor (GvT) effects after allogeneic HSCT among patients with solid tumors have been clearly defined. The advantages of allogeneic HSCT over autologous HSCT for metastatic BC are i) cancer-free graft and ii) immune-mediated GvT effects mediated by human leukocyte antigen compatible donor T-cells. In conclusion, a GvT effect does exist against metastatic BC and play a key role in tumor response. This review aims to describe the background, rationale, and clinical results of allogeneic HSCT as a potential alternative treatment in metastatic BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a novel miniature-size resonant moving-magnet linear actuator designs to be used in miniature linear compressor applications. The miniature linear actuator has a slotless stator and a tubular topology. It utilizes moving magnets in which the magnets are lined up in the Halbach array structure. Finite-element and analytical analyses of the actuator are performed to determine the flux density and thrust force. Experimental thrust force behavior at the resonant frequency is determined. It is shown that the finite-element method simulation, analytical, and experimental results agree with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic inflammatory disease of the skin involving the infundibular terminal follicles in the areas of the body containing apocrine glands. The pathology leads to purulent drainage and pain, abscesses, hypertrophic scars, and sinus formation in the affected areas. Treatment options for the disease include retinoid, antibiotics, antiandrogens, immunosuppressive agents, laser therapy/phototherapy, and surgery. This study aimed to assess the results of surgical treatment in patients who could not be treated medically. Materials and Methods: This study reviewed twenty patients who did not heal with medical treatment in the last 5 years. Results: Defect reconstructions were performed using grafts on eight patients, flaps on five patients, and primary closure on seven patients. One patient had a long-term recurrence. Conclusion: In the researchers' experience with different reconstruction methods and the wide excision of the disease, clinically satisfactory results can be achieved in cases that do not heal with medical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A microwave method relying on uncalibrated scattering (S-) parameters is proposed to measure the complex permittivity ($\varepsilon _r$) of thin dielectric samples. It has the following two main advantages. First, it takes into account effect of the sample holder, used for holding the sample, especially important for thin sample electromagnetic property characterization. Second, it does not require any specific information about the location of the sample (and its holder) inside its measurement cell for $\varepsilon _r$ extraction. For validation of our method, we applied a commercial three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation program—CST Microwave Studio—and the Lorentz dispersion model. Uncalibrated (as well as calibrated) S-parameter measurements were conducted to measure $\varepsilon _r$ of a 0.7 mm thick polyethylene sample (the sample holder was a 5.18 mm thick PVC sample) by our method and other similar methods in the literature. From the comparison, we observed that while the accuracy of tested methods significantly changed with inaccurate knowledge of the sample position inside its cell, the accuracy of our method did not much alter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Facial expressions of laboratory mice provide important information for pain assessment to explore the effect of drugs being developed for medical purposes. For automatic pain assessment, a mouse face tracker is needed to extract the face regions in videos recorded in pain experiments. However, since the body and face of mice are the same colour and mice move fast, tracking their face is a challenging task. In recent years, with their ability to learn from data, deep learning provides effective solutions for a wide variety of problems. In particular, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are very successful in computer vision tasks. In this study, a CNN based tracker network called MFTN is proposed for mouse face tracking. CNNs are good at extracting hierarchical features from the training dataset. High-level features contain semantic features and low-level features have high spatial resolution. In the proposed MFTN architecture, target information is extracted from a combination of low- and high-level features by a sub-network, namely the Feature Adaptation Network (FAN), to achieve a robust and accurate tracker. Among the MFTN versions, the MFTN/c tracker achieved an accuracy of 0.8, robustness of 0.67, and a throughput of 213 fps on a workstation with GPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was performed to control the antioxidant activity, mutagenicity and antimutagenic effect of Mentha longifolia (L.) ssp. longifolia essential oil (EO), which is considered as a possible ingredient when producing healthy food. The antiradical activity was established using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical) and ß-carotene/linoleic acid bleaching assays. The total phenolic content in the EO was evaluated by Folin Ciocalteau method (FCR). Ames Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity assay was applied to detect possible mutagenic and antimutagenic behavior. Our observations reveal that the IC50 value for DPPH radicals was 5.27 ± 0.13 mg/mL. The total antioxidant efficiency increased with an increase in the concentration of the EO, and IC50 value 11.7 ± 0.21 mg/mL. The total of phenolics was 186 ± 8.9 mg/g gallic acid equivalent/EO. Also, any concentrations of the EO used did not show mutagenic action but exhibited strong antimutagenic effects at 10.0-4.0 µg/plate concentrations. This research proposes that because of the antioxidant and antimutagenic characteristics, the EO is very advantageous and significant to the company's manufacturing food additives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting the electrical steel sheets to form the shape of the stator and the rotor affects the magnetic properties of the sheets. The increase of the magnetic losses as well as the drop of the magnetic permeability can impact on the design of electrical devices. This paper investigates this deterioration effect on the optimal design of the stator of a high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor. The deterioration due to punching is phenomenologically analyzed based on measurement of strips of steel sheets with various widths on an enlarged Epstein frame. The losses are computed with a Bertotti model whose coefficients depend on the width of the sheets. The optimization of a synchronous machine is then carried out with this magnetic losses model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy, also known as Jeune syndrome, is included in a group of syndromic skeletal ciliopathies associated with mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in the formation or function of motile cilia. Herein, we report a 6‐mo‐old male admitted to hospital with recurrent lung infections, thoracic dystrophy, and respiratory distress that was diagnosed as Jeune syndrome; DYNC2H1 mutation was detected via genetic analysis and ciliary dysfunction was noted via high‐speed video microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital elevation models (DEMs), which can occur in the form of digital surface models (DSMs) or digital terrain models (DTMs), are widely used as important geospatial information sources for various remote sensing applications, including the precise orthorectification of high-resolution satellite images, 3D spatial analyses, multi-criteria decision support systems and deformation monitoring. The accuracy of DEMs has direct impacts on specific calculations and process chains; therefore, it is important to select the most appropriate DEM by considering the aim, accuracy requirement and scale of each study. In this research, DSMs obtained from a variety of satellite sensors were compared to analyze their accuracy and performance. For this purpose, freely available Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) 30 m, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 30 m and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) 30 m resolution DSM data were obtained. Additionally, 3 m and 1 m resolution DSMs were produced from tri-stereo images from the SPOT 6 and Pleiades high-resolution (PHR) 1A satellites, respectively. Elevation reference data provided by the General Command of Mapping, the national mapping agency of Turkey--produced from 30 cm spatial resolution stereo aerial photos, with a 5 m grid spacing and ±3 m or better overall vertical accuracy at the 90% confidence interval (CI)--were used to perform accuracy assessments. Gross errors and water surfaces were removed from the reference DSM. The relative accuracies of the different DSMs were tested using a different number of checkpoints determined by different methods. In the first method, 25 checkpoints were selected from bare lands to evaluate the accuracies of the DSMs on terrain surfaces. In the second method, 1000 randomly selected checkpoints were used to evaluate the method's accuracies for the whole study area. In addition to the control point approach, vertical cross-sections were extracted from the DSMs to evaluate the accuracies related to land cover. The PHR and SPOT DSMs had the highest accuracies of all of the testing methods, followed by the ALOS DSM, which had very promising results. Comparatively, the SRTM and ASTER DSMs had the worst accuracies. Additionally, the PHR and SPOT DSMs captured man-made objects and above-terrain structures, which indicated the need for post-processing to attain better representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify the axial behavior characteristics of FRP (fiber reinforced polymer) confined circular HPFRCC (high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite) members under compression. The test program comprised of 24 circular specimens with an average compressive strength of 102.7 MPa, including 21 carbon FRP (CFRP) confined (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 layers) and three unconfined specimens. Transverse confinement generated by external FRP sheets resulted with a remarkable enhancement in axial strength and deformability, which is extremely important to resist seismic actions. The higher was the thickness of FRP confinement, the larger was the ultimate strain (εcu) and peak compressive strength (f'cc) of externally confined HPFRCC. When compared to FRP confined conventional concrete, different axial and lateral deformation characteristics were seen in FRP jacketed HPFRCC members. Higher strength and steel fiber presence in HPFRCC limited the lateral deformations which resulted with reduced strain efficiency with respect to conventional concrete. After presenting the experimental work, performance and accuracy of several available models proposed for predicting the axial behavior of FRP jacketed concrete were evaluated in a comparative manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we devise a position-invariant method for unique and accurate complex permittivity ( \varepsilon r ) determination of low-loss samples from transmission and shorted-reflection scattering (S-) parameter measurements while mitigating the effect around Fabry–Perot frequencies. For this goal, we derived a metric function in terms of propagation factor $T$ only and utilized a branch-index-independent expression for unique \varepsilon r by eliminating multiple solutions problem. We measured S-parameters of two low-loss samples with substantial thickness, which both introduced a Fabry–Perot effect in the frequency range, and the measurements were conducted to validate our method and compare its accuracy with the accuracy of similar methods in the literature. We also performed an uncertainty analysis to evaluate and improve the accuracy of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A self-calibrating transmission-reflection method for extraction of electromagnetic properties of materials from waveguide measurements is proposed. It relies on three measurement steps (thru, empty line, and the same line loaded at any position by the sample) to extract electromagnetic properties. When compared with other nonresonant transmission-reflection methods, it has the following features: 1) it does not require application of any calibration method; 2) it does not need any knowledge of the position of the sample within its cell (position invariant); 3) it determines constitutive parameters of the sample; 4) it is noniterative; and 5) it does not involve any sign ambiguity in determination of constitutive parameters. The method was validated and its accuracy was compared with the accuracy of other methods from measured uncalibrated and calibrated scattering parameters of the polyethylene sample with different lengths (3.85 and 7.70 mm). We also applied our method for extraction of electromagnetic properties of a synthesized magnetic sample from its simulated scattering parameters by using the CST Microwave Studio. Following measurements, simulations, and validation, repeatability and uncertainty analyses were performed to access and improve the accuracy of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may affect the pharmacodynamics of centrally acting drugs. Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (ppTMS) is a safe and noninvasive measure of cortical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated cortical inhibition. Huperzine A (HupA) is a naturally occurring acetylcholinesterase inhibitor with newly discovered potent GABA-mediated antiepileptic capacity, which is reliably detected by ppTMS. To test whether TBI alters cerebral HupA pharmacodynamics, we exposed rats to fluid percussion injury (FPI) and tested whether ppTMS metrics of cortical inhibition differ in magnitude and temporal pattern in injured rats. Anesthetized adult rats were exposed to FPI or sham injury. Ninety minutes post-TBI, rats were injected with HupA or saline (0.6 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). TBI resulted in reduced cortical inhibition 90 min after the injury ( N = 18) compared to sham ( N = 13) controls ( p = 0.03). HupA enhanced cortical inhibition after both sham injury ( N = 6; p = 0.002) and TBI ( N = 6; p = 0.02). The median time to maximum HupA inhibition in sham and TBI groups were 46.4 and 76.5 min, respectively ( p = 0.03). This was consistent with a quadratic trend comparison that projects HupA-mediated cortical inhibition to last longer in injured rats ( p = 0.007). We show that 1) cortical GABA-mediated inhibition, as measured by ppTMS, decreases acutely post-TBI, 2) HupA restores lost post-TBI GABA-mediated inhibition, and 3) HupA-mediated enhancement of cortical inhibition is delayed post-TBI. The plausible reasons of the latter include 1) low HupA volume of distribution rendering HupA confined in the intravascular compartment, therefore vulnerable to reduced post-TBI cerebral perfusion, and 2) GABAR dysfunction and increased AChE activity post-TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]