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This paper explores the role of material design as a form of institutional power within contemporary school settings. Drawing on concepts of "coercive design" and "hostile architecture" from design studies, the paper examines three "innovative" designs for classroom chairs -- relatively mundane but integral elements of the regulation and disciplining of school space. It is argued that the design intentions of these material objects reveal a number of constrained, conservative intentions to maintain the traditional ordered notion of the classroom as a place where students stay in their seats and engage in work. Tellingly, however, this corporeal manipulation and moderation is now couched in claims around desirable physiological and cognitive conditions for learning -- with students' bodies seen as objects to arrange and constrain in ways deemed conducive for learning. The paper problematises this de-socialised view of classrooms, alongside the underpinning sense of design solutionism and (mis)appropriation of "learning science" by product designers to justify their products' capacities to somehow cause learning to take place.

An editorial is presented on the interactions between the cortex and hippocampus during learning and memory. Topics include new insights into hippocampal contributions to memory-related behaviors, the role of cortical regions in aversive memory processing, and theoretical perspectives on cortico-hippocampal interactions.

Takeda and Yano (Electron J Probab 28:1–35, 2023) determined the limit of Lévy processes conditioned to avoid zero via various random clocks in terms of Doob's h -transform, where the limit processes may differ according to the choice of random clocks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate sample path behaviors of the limit processes in long time and in short time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct use of the likelihood function typically produces severely biased estimates when the dimension of the parameter vector is large relative to the effective sample size. With linearly separable data generated from a logistic regression model, the loglikelihood function asymptotes and the maximum likelihood estimator does not exist. We show that an exact analysis for each regression coefficient produces half-infinite confidence sets for some parameters when the data are separable. Such conclusions are not vacuous, but an honest portrayal of the limitations of the data. Finite confidence sets are only achievable when additional, perhaps implicit, assumptions are made. Under a notional double-asymptotic regime in which the dimension of the logistic coefficient vector increases with the sample size, the present paper considers the implications of enforcing a natural constraint on the vector of logistic transformed probabilities. We derive a relationship between the logistic coefficients and a notional parameter obtained as a probability limit of an ordinary least-squares estimator. The latter exists even when the data are separable. Consistency is ascertained under weak conditions on the design matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) requires an "activation" process to optimize its function to a consistent level. This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of the fundamental principles, activation techniques, and characterization methods involved in the activation process. Initially, existing literature is reviewed to identify activation mechanisms, with a focus on modifying the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) morphology. This includes adjusting factors like catalyst layer porosity, catalyst activity, shape, size, and chain orientation of polymers. Various activation methods are then analyzed, including pre-activation by steam, plasma, acid, or compression. Conditions such as dynamic operation, high pressure/temperature, and supersaturation are found to enhance activation kinetics. For automotive PEMFC stacks, meeting producer-specified rated beginning-of-life (BOL) performance is crucial prior to integration into vehicles. This discussion covers progress in reducing conditioning times, often to 4 h or less, without the need for additional inert gases. It examines techniques for creating oxidizing and reducing conditions through approaches such as cathode starvation, cyclic voltammetry, short circuiting, or switching reactants. The paper also discusses the limitations of traditional activation characterization methods, emphasizing the need for enhanced reproducibility through modern electrochemical characterization, postmortem analysis, and the examination of cell output species. • "Conditioning," is particularly important in the automotive industry. • This review covers progress in reducing conditioning times. • Different approaches are used for creating oxidizing and reducing conditions. • To ensure uniform activation across the cell surface, different methods are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim to establish clean and sustainable sludge treatment, green conditioning using natural flocculants has recently gained a growing interest. In this study, a variety of plant materials, namely Moringa (Moringa oleifera) seeds, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seeds, Potato (Solanum tuberosum) peels, Aloe (Aloe vera) leaves, Cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) cladodes, and Phragmites (Phragmites australis) stems, were evaluated for their potential bioflocculant activity in conditioning sewage sludge. They were thoroughly characterized to determine their active flocculating compounds. Sludge dewaterability was evaluated by assessing various sludge parameters, including specific resistance to filtration (SRF), dryness of filtration cake (DC), and total suspended solid removal (TSS) from sludge filtrate. The collected results from various physicochemical characterizations of plant materials suggest that the main flocculating agents are carbohydrates in Cactus and Fenugreek and proteins in Moringa, Potato, and Phragmites. Additionally, all tested plant-based flocculants demonstrated effective dewatering performance. Interestingly, compared to the chemical flocculant polyaluminum chloride, Moringa and Cactus showed superior conditioning effects, yielding the lowest SRF values and the highest DC. As a result, the use of these natural flocculants improved sewage sludge filterability, leading to a significant removal of total suspended solids from the filtrate. The conditioning properties of Moringa and Cactus can be attributed to their high protein and sugar content, which facilitates the effective separation of bound water from solids through charge neutralization and bridging mechanisms. Thus, green conditioning using plant-based flocculants, particularly Moringa and Cactus materials, presents a promising and eco-friendly approach to enhance sewage sludge dewatering for safer disposal and valorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Autosomal recessive osteopetrosis (ARO) is a rare genetic disease, characterized by increased bone density due to defective osteoclast function. Most of the cases are due to TCIRG1 gene mutation, leading to severe bone phenotype and death in the first years of life. The standard therapy is the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), but its success is limited by several constraints. Conversely, gene therapy (GT) could minimize the immune-mediated complications of allogeneic HSCT and offer a prompt treatment to these patients. Methods: The Tcirgl-defective oc/oc mouse model displays a short lifespan and high bone density, closely mirroring the human condition. In this work, we exploited the oc/oc neonate mice to optimize the critical steps for a successful therapy. Results: First, we showed that lentiviral vector GT can revert the osteopetrotic bone phenotype, allowing long-term survival and reducing extramedullary haematopoiesis. Then, we demonstrated that plerixafor-induced mobilization can further increase the high number of HSPCs circulating in peripheral blood, facilitating the collection of adequate numbers of cells for therapeutic purposes. Finally, pre-transplant non-genotoxic conditioning allowed the stable engraftment of HSPCs, albeit at lower level than conventional total body irradiation, and led to long-term survival and correction of bone phenotype, in the absence of acute toxicity. Conclusion: These results will pave the way to the implementation of an effective GT protocol, reducing the transplant-related complication risks in the very young and severely affected ARO patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can signs of intentional behavior be traced in an insect larva, traditionally thought to be driven only by mere reflexes? We trained Tenebrio molitor coleoptera larvae in a uniform Y-maze to prefer one target branch to get access to food, observing their ability to learn and retain access to the reward-associated side for up to 24 h. During reward devaluation, the reward food (experimental group) and a different food (control group) were paired with an aversive stimulus in a new environment. When tested again in the Y-maze, mealworms of the experimental group significantly reduced their visits to the target branch, whereas mealworms of the control group did not. Importantly, we found that the larvae did not have to experience the unpleasant consequences directly in the target branch to halt their behavior, as the exposure to the aversive taste occurred in a separate unfamiliar context. This is evidence that the mealworms formed a mental representation of action-consequence relationships, demonstrating flexible control of their actions to achieve desired outcomes at an early stage of their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honey bees are crucial to human survival in their role as generalist pollinators. However, humans also impact honey bees through the use of agricultural chemicals, typically aimed at increasing crop yield. Pesticide exposure to honey bees has been associated with a decrease in colony growth and fewer queens being born. However, the safety of pesticides is derived from acute feeding studies that focus on mortality. Pesticides are now ubiquitous in the environment and honey bees are constantly exposed. Studies utilizing long-term exposure better represent the lifetime experience of a typical honey bee. Here we measured changes in associative learning following 1 week of exposure to one of two sub-lethal, field-relevant doses of imidacloprid. While neither concentration of pesticide altered mortality relative to control, learning acquisition decreased in the high compared to control groups. These data demonstrate that chronic exposure to field-relevant doses of imidacloprid impact the ability for honey bees to form memories. The foraging success of honey bees relies on remembering the location of the hive and potential forage locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simulation of geological facies in an unobservable volume is essential in various geoscience applications. Given the complexity of the problem, deep generative learning is a promising approach to overcome the limitations of traditional geostatistical simulation models, in particular their lack of physical realism. This research aims to investigate the application of generative adversarial networks and deep variational inference for conditionally simulating channelized reservoir in underground volumes. In this paper, we review the generative deep learning approaches, in particular the adversarial ones and the stabilization techniques that aim to facilitate their training. We also study the problem of conditioning deep learning models to observations through a variational Bayes approach, comparing a conditional neural network model to a Gaussian mixture model. The proposed approach is tested on 2D and 3D simulations generated by the stochastic process-based model Flumy. Morphological metrics are utilized to compare our proposed method with earlier iterations of generative adversarial networks. The results indicate that by utilizing recent stabilization techniques, generative adversarial networks can efficiently sample complex target data distributions. • Centralizing different theoretical results on GANs in a principled approach. • Presenting a stable architecture combining recent stabilization methods. • Comparing a new method for conditioning geological GANs to a method of the literature. • Demonstrating results on meandering channelized reservoirs simulated with the Flumy model in 3d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding food habits and nutritional knowledge in youth athletes could contribute to optimal recovery and improving performance in basketball. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the relationships between physical fitness, with food habits and nutritional knowledge in basketballers. Twenty-three healthy youth players to the same elite basketball academy participated in this study. Basketballers performed a basketball fitness test battery including jumping tests [countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ)]; 5, 10 and 20 m-linear sprints; change of direction (COD) tests [Lane Agility Drill test and 505 test], and repeated change-of-direction (RCOD) sprint and completed a Turconi questionnaire based on eating habits and nutritional knowledge. While no significant (p>0.05) correlations were found between physical fitness attributes and total score obtained in sections C and H in dietary questionnaire, significant correlations (r=0.606-0.971; large - nearly perfect; p<0.001 - 0.003) were found among jumping, COD, RCOD and LSST tests. These findings suggest that physical performance of youth basketball players is not influenced by their level of dietary behaviors and nutritional knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is diagnosed when food avoidance leads to clinically significant nutritional, weight/growth, or psychosocial impairment. As many as 81.5% of children and adolescents diagnosed with ARFID have a history of a medical condition associated with pain, fatigue, or malaise. ARFID is diagnosed and treatment begins after the medical condition is resolved but food avoidance remains. Effective treatment involves repeated exposure to eating food and related stimuli aimed at creating inhibitory learning to counteract learned fears and aversions. Treatment usually involves positive reinforcement of food approach behavior and escape extinction/response prevention to eliminate food avoidant behavior. To shed light on the neural mechanisms that may maintain ARFID and to identify candidate pharmacological treatments for adjuncts to behavioral interventions, this paper systematically reviews research on drug treatments that successfully reduce conditioned taste aversions (CTA) in animal models by disrupting reconsolidation or promoting extinction. The mechanism of action of these treatments, brain areas involved, and whether these CTA findings have been used to understand human eating behavior are assessed. Collectively, the results provide insight into possible neural mechanisms associated with resuming oral intake following CTA akin to the therapeutic goals of ARFID treatment and suggest that CTA animal models hold promise to facilitate the development of interventions to prevent feeding problems. The findings also reveal the need to investigate CTA reduction in juvenile and female animals and show that CTA is rarely studied to understand disordered human feeding even though CTA has been observed in humans and parallels many of the characteristics of rodent CTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant co-conditioning of aluminum-based sludge using alternative conditioner (natural biopolymer-magnetite/H2O2) as a Fenton conditioner for improving the sludge dewaterability is investigated in the current study. Firstly, natural biopolymer/magnetite (NBP-M) were prepared in various ratios and the samples labeled as (NBP-M-(1:1); NBP-M-(1:3) and NBP-M-(2:1). Focuses were placed on factors influencing such novel Fenton conditioner. Capillary suction time (CST) was utilized to assess sludge dewaterability. Experiments have exhibited that significant development of alum sludge dewaterability could be attained at minimum reaction time and using low concentrations of the applied catalyst, i.e. natural biopolymer/magnetite and H2O2. It was found that sludge conditioning and dewaterability became better with increasing both reagents concentrations. A Box–Behnken experimental design based on the response surface methodology was investigated to explore the optimum of the influencing variables, i.e. catalyst (NBP-M) concentration, H2O2 loading and pH. The optimized values for NBP-M, H2O2, and pH are 46 and 380 mg/L, respectively at pH 3.0, at which the CST reduction efficiency of 58 ± 3% can be attained, this approved with that predicted by an established polynomial model in the current investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research with adults reveals that performance‐enhancing placebo effects emerge in sports and exercise. However, there is no research on children. Coaches' messages to them could have positive, performance‐improving (placebo) or negative, performance‐impairing (nocebo) effects. This experiment examined the former by ascribing fictive performance‐enhancing properties to an ingredient of the Tic Tac mint to 12 children (aged 12.67 ± SD = 1.83 years), all elite kayakers. Another kayaker was an actor who helped enhance the credibility of the information. The children completed 2‐min kayak ergometer sprints in counterbalanced control and placebo conditions. The measures included heart rate (HR), feeling state, perceived arousal, and expected‐ and perceived‐ performances. Pre‐sprint and maximal HR during the sprint and distance completed in 2 minutes were statistically significantly higher (p < 0.005) in the placebo than in the control condition without being affected by order effects. While the expected performance in the placebo session was higher (p = 0.008), perceived performances did not differ statistically between the conditions. This study reveals a sport performance‐related objective, but not subjective, placebo effect in children after a short kayak sprint. The findings have practical implications for performance‐related messages children receive from their coaches and others and show how their altered beliefs can influence their performance. Highlights: This study is the first to examine placebo effects in elite child athletes.A placebo effect occurred on child kayakers' 2‐min sprint performance.In this study, objective but not subjective placebo effects emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To simultaneously solve problems in an eco-friendly manner, introducing a waste residual as a sustainable conditioner to aid alum sludge dewatering is suggested as a cradle-to-cradle form of waste management. In this regard, the superiority of deep dewatering alum sludge with a powdered wood chip composite residual as a novel conditioner was explored, whereby traditional conventional conditioners, i.e., polyelectrolytes and lime, were substituted with powdered wood chips. Initially, Fe3O4 was prepared at the nanoscale using a simple co-precipitation route. Next, wooden waste was chemically and thermally treated to attain cellulosic fine powder. Subsequently, the resultant wood powder and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were mixed at 50 wt % to attain a wood powder augmented with iron, and this conditioner was labeled nano-iron-cellulose (nIC-Conditioner). This material (nIC-Conditioner) was mixed with hydrogen peroxide to represent a dual oxidation and skeleton builder conditioning substance. Characterization of the resultant conditioner was carried out using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) transmittance spectrum analysis. The feasibility of the experimental results revealed that the moisture content in the sludge cake was lower after conditioning, and the capillary suction time (CST) was reduced to 78% compared to that of raw alum sludge after 5 min of dewatering time. Moreover, the optimal system parameters, including nIC-Conditioner and H2O2 concentrations, as well as the working pH, were optimized, and optimal values were recorded at 1 g/L and 200 mg/L for nIC-Conditioner and H2O2, respectively, with a pH of 6.5. Additionally, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses of the sludge prior to and after conditioning were conducted to verify the change in sludge molecules due to this conditioning technique. The results of this study confirm the sustainability of an alum sludge and waste management facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the leading cause of cardiovascular death and remains the most common cause of heart failure. Reopening of the occluded artery, i.e., reperfusion, is the only way to save the myocardium. However, the expected benefits of reducing infarct size are disappointing due to the reperfusion paradox, which also induces specific cell death. These ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) lesions can account for up to 50% of final infarct size, a major determinant for both mortality and the risk of heart failure (morbidity). In this review, we provide a detailed description of the cell death and inflammation mechanisms as features of I/R injury and cardioprotective strategies such as ischemic postconditioning as well as their underlying mechanisms. Due to their biological properties, the use of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) has been considered a potential therapeutic approach in AMI. Despite promising results and evidence of safety in preclinical studies using MSCs, the effects reported in clinical trials are not conclusive and even inconsistent. These discrepancies were attributed to many parameters such as donor age, in vitro culture, and storage time as well as injection time window after AMI, which alter MSC therapeutic properties. In the context of AMI, future directions will be to generate MSCs with enhanced properties to limit cell death in myocardial tissue and thereby reduce infarct size and improve the healing phase to increase postinfarct myocardial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misophonia is a disorder of decreased tolerance to specific sounds, often produced by humans but not always, which can trigger intense emotional reactions (anger, disgust etc.). This relatively prevalent disorder can cause a reduction in the quality of life. The causes of misophonia are still unclear. In this article, we develop a hypothesis suggesting that misophonia can be caused by a failure in the organization of the perceived world. The perceived world is the result of both the structure of human thought and the many conditioning factors that punctuate human life, particularly social conditioning. It is made up of abstract symbols that map the world and help humans to orient himself in a potentially dangerous environment. In this context, the role of social rules acquired throughout life is considerable. Table manners, for example, are a set of deeply regulated and controlled behaviors (it's considered impolite to eat with the mouth open and to make noise while eating), which contribute to shape the way the perceived world is organized. So it's not surprising to find sounds from the mouth (chewing etc.) among the most common misophonic sound triggers. Politeness can be seen as an act of obedience to moral rules or courtesy, which is a prerequisite for peaceful social relations. Beyond this example, we also argue that any sound can become a misophonic trigger as long as it is not integrated into the perceived ordered and harmonious world, because it is considered an "anomaly," i.e., a disorder, an immorality or a vulgarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are used to recognize highly specific antigens ("mugshots") to target immune effectors ("policemen") against cancer cells. Whereas this new immunotherapy has already set novel standards in the treatment of some specific types of blood cancer, it has not yet been successful with most blood (and solid) cancers for different reasons. In this work, the authors investigated the possibility of using a specific antigen called CD45 as target for CAR therapies. CD45 stands out by being present on all blood cells and therefore represents a promising target in any type of blood cancer. However, immune cells themselves also harbor CD45 at their cell surface, which is expected to lead to either inactivity of the CAR or self-killing of immune cells. To avoid these problems the Hamburg group used a trick—they applied the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors and thus produced CD45-knockout (CD45ko) immune-effector cells. Even though CD45 had been supposed to be important for the functionality of immune-effector cells, the authors observed excellent survival, proliferation and killing activities of their CD45ko CAR cells, independent of the targeted cancer-cell population. Their results thus provide initial proof-of-concept for the potential usefulness of CD45ko/CD45-CAR immune cells to target blood cancer. Background: CAR-T cell therapy has shown impressive results and is now part of standard-of-care treatment of B-lineage malignancies, whereas the treatment of myeloid diseases has been limited by the lack of suitable targets. CD45 is expressed on almost all types of blood cells including myeloid leukemia cells, but not on non-hematopoietic tissue, making it a potential target for CAR-directed therapy. Because of its high expression on T and NK cells, fratricide is expected to hinder CD45CAR-mediated therapy. Due to its important roles in effector cell activation, signal transduction and cytotoxicity, CD45 knockout aimed at preventing fratricide in T and NK cells has been expected to lead to considerable functional impairment. Methods: CD45 knockout was established on T and NK cell lines using CRISPR/Cas9-RNPs and electroporation, and the successful protocol was transferred to primary T cells. A combined protocol was developed enabling CD45 knockout and retroviral transduction with a third-generation CAR targeting CD45 or CD19. The functionality of CD45ko effector cells, CD45ko/CD45CAR-T and CD45ko/CD19CAR-T cells was studied using proliferation as well as short- and long-term cytotoxicity assays. Results: As expected, the introduction of a CD45-CAR into T cells resulted in potent fratricide that can be avoided by CD45 knockout. Unexpectedly, the latter had no negative impact on T- and NK-cell proliferation in vitro. Moreover, CD45ko/CD45CAR-T cells showed potent cytotoxicity against CD45-expressing AML and lymphoma cell lines in short-term and long-term co-culture assays. A pronounced cytotoxicity of CD45ko/CD45CAR-T cells was maintained even after four weeks of culture. In a further setup, we confirmed the conserved functionality of CD45ko cells using a CD19-CAR. Again, the proliferation and cytotoxicity of CD45ko/CD19CAR-T cells showed no differences from those of their CD45-positive counterparts in vitro. Conclusions: We report the efficient production of highly and durably active CD45ko/CAR-T cells. CD45 knockout did not impair the functionality of CAR-T cells in vitro, irrespective of the target antigen. If their activity can be confirmed in vivo, CD45ko/CD45CAR-T cells might, for example, be useful as part of conditioning regimens prior to stem cell transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. This study compared the recovery response of physical performance and cognitive function between high volume, low intensity (HV) and high intensity, low volume (HI) resistance training in resistance trained men. Methods. Eight recreationally resistance trained men (27.8 ± 1.6 y; 85.5 ± 11.2 kg; 178.4 ± 8.3 cm), with at least one-year of resistance training experience (6.4 ± 3.9 y) participated in this cross-over design study. Participants were randomly assigned to either HV (6-sets of 15-20 repetitions at 60% of the participant's one-repetition maximum (1RM), 1-min rest between sets) or HI (6-sets of 3-5 repetitions at 90% 1RM, 3-min rest between sets). Following a one-week recovery period, participants reported back to the laboratory and performed the other training session. Cognitive function (SCAT5), physical performance (isometric mid-thigh pull), and reactive agility measures were assessed at baseline, immediately-post (IP) and at 30- (30P) and 60-minutes post-exercise. Results. Parametric analysis revealed no differences in peak force (p = 0.423), and the rate of force development at 200 ms (p = 0.827) and 250 ms (p = 0.797) between HI and HV. However, magnitude-based inference (MBI) analysis indicated that peak force was possibly decreased at 30P following HI and that reactive agility was likely negatively impacted at IP following HV. Friedman analysis indicated a significant decline (p = 0.035) in delayed memory during HV at IP and 30P. Conclusions. Results of this study indicate that participants engaging in HV resistance training are more susceptible to experiencing performance declines in reaction time and cognitive function than HI training. These findings shed light on differences in physical and cognitive function recovery from HI and HV training programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of Morus alba L. in traditional oriental medicine and cuisine has resulted in numerous studies on its health-promoting effects. However, if the process is not monitored by the manufacturers, the processing of the leaves alters the obtained health-promoting properties and results in different health qualities in the final composition of dietary supplements. This article aims to analyze changes (using the HPLC/DAD method) in the proposed conditioned mulberry leaves in terms of key compounds (phenolic acids and flavonols) responsible for antioxidant activity after being digested in in vitro conditions. The analyzed material was leaves of white mulberry (Morus alba L.) cv. Żółwińska wielkolistna, conditioned (1–4 h) and non-conditioned. The conditioning process of mulberry proposed here, e.g., for industry production, resulted in variable transformations of polyphenols during in vitro digestion. For many polyphenols, especially those shown in the highest amounts, significant correlations were found between their content and conditioning, as well as the stage of digestion. In the case of mulberry infusions, the amounts of individual polyphenols were several times lower than in the preparations, which was due to the degree of dilution. Their amounts tended to decrease in the course of digestion. Taking this into account, it seems justified to continue research on the in vivo bioavailability of bioactive components from conditioned Morus alba L. leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]