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The article explores the metabolic rates of non-avian dinosaurs, crocodiles, and birds during embryonic development by calculating the activation energy of their metabolic reactions. The study uses conservation of energy principles and the Boltzmann factor to determine how metabolism changes with temperature. Results show that birds had the highest metabolism in the egg, with Troodon dinosaurs having the highest metabolism among the three dinosaur species studied. The findings suggest a link between metabolic rate and incubation temperature, with implications for sex determination in crocodilians. [Extracted from the article]

To be a stakeholder/validator/token holder is not so difficult in the Proof of Stake (POS)-based blockchain networks; that is why the number of validators is large in these networks. These validators play an essential part in the block creation process in the PoS-based blockchain network. Due to the large validators, the block creation time and communication message broadcasting overhead get increased in the network. Many consensus algorithms use different techniques to reduce the number of validators, such as Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithms, which select the set of delegators via stake transactions for the block creation process. In this paper, we propose S&SEM, a secure and speed-up election process to select the 'z' number of validators/delegators. The presented election process is based on a traditional voting style with multiple numbers of rounds. The presented election mechanism reduces the possibility of malicious activity in the voting process by introducing a special vote message and a round that checks duplicate votes. We did horizontal scaling in the network to speed up the election process. We designed an improved incentive mechanism for the fairness of the election process. The designed reward and penalty procedure controls the nodes' behaviors in the network. We simulate the S&SEM, and the result shows that the presented election process is faster and more secure to select delegators than the existing process used by DPOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has a poor survival rate for both pediatric and adult patients due to its frequent relapse. To elucidate the bioenergetic principle underlying AML relapse, we investigated the transcriptional regulation of mitochondrial–nuclear dual genomes responsible for metabolic plasticity in treatment-resistant blasts. Both the gain and loss of function results demonstrated that NFκB2, a noncanonical transcription factor (TF) of the NFκB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells) family, can control the expression of TFAM (mitochondrial transcription factor A), which is known to be essential for metabolic biogenesis. Furthermore, genetic tracking and promoter assays revealed that NFκB2 is in the mitochondria and can bind the specific "TTGGGGGGTG" region of the regulatory D-loop domain to activate the light-strand promoter (LSP) and heavy-strand promoter 1 (HSP1), promoters of the mitochondrial genome. Based on our discovery of NFκB2′s novel function of regulating mitochondrial–nuclear dual genomes, we explored a novel triplet therapy including inhibitors of NFκB2, tyrosine kinase, and mitochondrial ATP synthase that effectively eliminated primary AML blasts with mutations of the FMS-related receptor tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) and displayed minimum toxicity to control cells ex vivo. As such, effective treatments for AML must include strong inhibitory actions on the dual genomes mediating metabolic plasticity to improve leukemia prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of clade 2.3.4.4b H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in North America that started in 2021 has increased interest in applying vaccination as a strategy to help control and prevent the disease in poultry. Two commercially available vaccines based on the recombinant herpes virus of turkeys (rHVT) vector were tested against a recent North American clade 2.3.4.4b H5 HPAI virus isolate: A/turkey/Indiana/22-003707-003/2022 H5N1 in specific pathogen free white leghorn (WL) chickens and commercial broiler chickens. One rHVT-H5 vaccine encodes a hemagglutinin (HA) gene designed by the computationally optimized broadly reactive antigen method (COBRA-HVT vaccine). The other encodes an HA gene of a clade 2.2 virus (2.2-HVT vaccine). There was 100% survival of both chicken types COBRA-HVT vaccinated groups and in the 2.2-HVT vaccinated groups there was 94.8% and 90% survival of the WL and broilers respectively. Compared to the 2.2-HVT vaccinated groups, WL in the COBRA-HVT vaccinated group shed significantly lower mean viral titers by the cloacal route and broilers shed significantly lower titers by the oropharyngeal route than broilers. Virus titers detected in oral and cloacal swabs were otherwise similar among both vaccine groups and chicken types. To assess antibody-based tests to identify birds that have been infected after vaccination (DIVA-VI), sera collected after the challenge were tested with enzyme-linked lectin assay-neuraminidase inhibition (ELLA-NI) for N1 neuraminidase antibody detection and by commercial ELISA for detection of antibodies to the NP protein. As early as 7 days post challenge (DPC) 100% of the chickens were positive by ELLA-NI. ELISA was less sensitive with a maximum of 75% positive at 10DPC in broilers vaccinated with 2.2-HVT. Both vaccines provided protection from challenge to both types of chickens and ELLA-NI was sensitive at identifying antibodies to the challenge virus therefore should be evaluated further for DIVA-VI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancements in low‐dimensional functional device technology heavily rely on the discovery of suitable materials which have interesting physical properties as well as can be exfoliated down to the 2D limit. Exfoliable high‐mobility magnets are one such class of materials that, not due to lack of effort, has been limited to only a handful of options. So far, most of the attention has been focused on the van der Waals (vdW) systems. However, even within the non‐vdW, layered materials, it is possible to find all these desirable features. Using chemical reasoning, it is found that NdSb2 is an ideal example. Even with a relatively small interlayer distance, this material can be exfoliated down to few layers. NdSb2 has an antiferromagnetic ground state with a quasi 2D spin arrangement. The bulk crystals show a very large, non‐saturating magnetoresistance along with highly anisotropic electronic transport properties. It is confirmed that this anisotropy originates from the 2D Fermi pockets which also imply a rather quasi 2D confinement of the charge carrier density. Both electron and hole‐type carriers show very high mobilities. The possible non‐collinear spin arrangement also results in an anomalous Hall effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the application of Newton's law of cooling to the earliest horse species, Sifrhippus sandrae, during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. It explores how the size of Sifrhippus changed in response to environmental temperature fluctuations, highlighting the correlation between body size and ambient temperature in various species. The study uses Newton's law of cooling to evaluate heat loss per unit body mass of Sifrhippus in warm and cool environments, showing that the cooling power per unit mass remained consistent across different temperatures. The research suggests that the size of Sifrhippus was influenced by environmental temperature, with alternative explanations such as food availability being less likely. [Extracted from the article]

Advancements in low‐dimensional functional device technology heavily rely on the discovery of suitable materials which have interesting physical properties as well as can be exfoliated down to the 2D limit. Exfoliable high‐mobility magnets are one such class of materials that, not due to lack of effort, has been limited to only a handful of options. So far, most of the attention has been focused on the van der Waals (vdW) systems. However, even within the non‐vdW, layered materials, it is possible to find all these desirable features. Using chemical reasoning, it is found that NdSb2 is an ideal example. Even with a relatively small interlayer distance, this material can be exfoliated down to few layers. NdSb2 has an antiferromagnetic ground state with a quasi 2D spin arrangement. The bulk crystals show a very large, non‐saturating magnetoresistance along with highly anisotropic electronic transport properties. It is confirmed that this anisotropy originates from the 2D Fermi pockets which also imply a rather quasi 2D confinement of the charge carrier density. Both electron and hole‐type carriers show very high mobilities. The possible non‐collinear spin arrangement also results in an anomalous Hall effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]