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An integrated approach based on the use of data mining methods is proposed in order to improve the efficiency of the analysis of photon counting histograms during study of the molecular composition of a substance by fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy. The principal component method is used to test the hypothesis about cluster separability of the multidimensional experimental data. The reason for compression of the data cloud to characteristic nonlinearity, or so-called arcuate (arc-shaped) cloud, in the space of the first two principal components is investigated. Examples of simulated data sets of molecular systems with various brightness and concentration characteristics are considered. Interpretation and subsequent quantitative analysis of the data are complicated by nonlinear effects. It was established that the arcuate nature of the data cloud is a consequence of the presence of significant variation in one or more physical parameters and results and, in particular, from significant increase in the spread of the brightness or concentration parameters of the molecules. If only one type of molecule is being studied these parameters can provide additional indicators for assessing the quality of the experiments and can also be used for characterizing the system in the case of a mixture of various types of molecules. It was proposed to use normalization of local weighted smoothing of the scattering diagram to eliminate nonlinear effects in the space of the principal components.

Bioleaching of metal sulfides is performed by diverse microorganisms. The dissolution of metal sulfides occurs via two chemical pathways, either the thiosulfate or the polysulfide pathway. These are determined by the metal sulfides’ mineralogy and their acid solubility. The microbial cell enables metal sulfide dissolution via oxidation of iron(II) ions and inorganic sulfur compounds. Thereby, the metal sulfide attacking agents iron(III) ions and protons are generated. Cells are active either in a planktonic state or attached to the mineral surface, forming biofilms. This review, as an update of the previous one (Vera et al., 2013a), summarizes some recent discoveries relevant to bioleaching microorganisms, contributing to a better understanding of their lifestyle. These comprise phylogeny, chemical pathways, surface science, biochemistry of iron and sulfur metabolism, anaerobic metabolism, cell–cell communication, molecular biology, and biofilm lifestyle. Recent advances from genetic engineering applied to bioleaching microorganisms will allow in the future to better understand important aspects of their physiology, as well as to open new possibilities for synthetic biology applications of leaching microbial consortia.Key points•Leaching of metal sulfides is strongly enhanced by microorganisms•Biofilm formation and extracellular polymer production influences bioleaching•Cell interactions in mixed bioleaching cultures are key for process optimization

This review provides an update to the last mini-review with the same title pertaining to recent developments in bioleaching and biooxidation published in 2013 (Brierley and Brierley). In the intervening almost 10 years, microbial processes for sulfide minerals have seen increased acceptance and ongoing but also declining commercial application in copper, gold, nickel and cobalt production. These processes have been applied to heap and tank leaching, nowadays termed biomining, but increasing concerns about the social acceptance of mining has also seen the re-emergence of in situ leaching and quest for broader applicability beyond uranium and copper. Besides metal sulfide oxidation, mineral dissolution via reductive microbial activities has seen experimental application to laterite minerals. And as resources decline or costs for their exploitation rise, mine waste rock and tailings have become more attractive to consider as easily accessible resources. As an advantage, they have already been removed from the ground and in some cases contain ore grades exceeding that of those currently being mined. These factors promote concepts of circular economy and efficient use and valorization of waste materials.Key points• Bioleaching of copper sulfide ore deposits is producing less copper today• Biooxidation of refractory gold ores is producing more gold than in the past• Available data suggest bioleaching and biooxidation processes reduce carbon emissions

To remedy the lack of precision attached to the concept of coherence, a plethora of probabilistic measures has been developed. To broaden the perspective, we do not focus on the differences between these quantitative but the differences between qualitative approaches to coherence by comparing three probabilistic definitions for the relation denoted by ‘coheres with’. To reveal the different logics underlying these relations, we introduce a considerable number of formal properties and examine whether the given coherence relations possess them. Among these properties are not only the classics reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity, but also a variety of features that concern propositions containing negation, conjunction and disjunction, as well as features that concern inconsistency, entailment and equivalence.

Purpose The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has almost stopped all elective surgical treatment throughout the world. As operating room (OR) capacities are reduced everywhere to ensure availability of intensive care capacities, especially low-complex surgical procedures are often postponed. These include totally implantable central-venous access ports which are important for the oncologic treatment of cancer patients. Methods In our study, we investigated the potential of an outpatient surgical centre (OSC) in terms of workflow effectiveness compared to the central operating room complex (COR) of a university hospital using low-complex surgical procedures as an example. Data of 524 consecutive patients who received a Port-a-cath procedure (422 implantations (80.5%) and 102 explantations (19.5%)) in our department between February 2019 and February 2020 were evaluated. Results A total of 277 patients were operated in outpatient surgical centre (OSC), and 247 patients received the procedure in the central OR (COR) complex. Grade II and III complications according to the Clavien–Dindo classification occurred in 5.2% (OSC) and 7.3% (COR) of patients. Incision-to-suture time was significantly quicker in the OSC group (36 vs. 42 min., p p Conclusion In order to ensure effective OR utilization especially in times of the corona pandemic, the use of smaller decentralized OR units, e.g., outpatient surgical centres, for performing low-complex surgical cases is beneficial. Our study revealed shorter total OR and preparation-to-incision times.

Biohydrometallurgy recovers metals based on bioprocess engineering. This includes bioleaching, whereby metals are extracted by microbially catalyzed dissolution of ores in a strong acidic environment. These are favorable conditions for applied electroanalysis and electrochemical engineering. Applicable for process control and improvement are either controlled or spontaneous electrochemistry. These are performed by electrolysis techniques and the establishment of galvanic interactions.

Coherence is a property of propositions hanging together or dovetailing with each other. About two decades ago, formal epistemologists started to engage in the project of explicating the seemingly elusive concept of coherence by means of probability theory. Since then, a plethora of coherence measures have been discussed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a general framework for coherence measures that encompasses the different frameworks of deviation measures, overlap measures and mutual support measures of coherence. Above that we show that some of the new measures that can be obtained outperform existing coherence measures in important respects.

Background Recent studies have significantly expanded our knowledge of viral diversity and functions in the environment. Exploring the ecological relationships between viruses, hosts, and the environment is a crucial first step towards a deeper understanding of the complex and dynamic interplays among them. Results Here, we obtained extensive 16S rRNA gene amplicon, metagenomics sequencing, and geochemical datasets from different depths of two highly stratified sulfidic mine tailings cores with steep geochemical gradients especially pH, and explored how variations in viral community composition and functions were coupled to the co-existing prokaryotic assemblages and the varying environmental conditions. Our data showed that many viruses in the mine tailings represented novel genera, based on gene-sharing networks. Siphoviridae, Podoviridae, and Myoviridae dominated the classified viruses in the surface tailings and deeper layers. Both viral richness and normalized coverage increased with depth in the tailings cores and were significantly correlated with geochemical properties, for example, pH. Viral richness was also coupled to prokaryotic richness (Pearson’s r = 0.65, P = 0.032). The enrichment of prophages in the surface mine tailings suggested a preference of lysogenic viral lifestyle in more acidic conditions. Community-wide comparative analyses clearly showed that viruses in the surface tailings encoded genes mostly with unknown functions while viruses in the deeper layers contained genes mainly annotated as conventional functions related to metabolism and structure. Notably, significantly abundant assimilatory sulfate reduction genes were identified from the deeper tailings layers and they were widespread in viruses predicted to infect diverse bacterial phyla. Conclusions Overall, our results revealed a depth-related distribution of viral populations in the extreme and heterogeneous tailings system. The viruses may interact with diverse hosts and dynamic environmental conditions and likely play a role in the functioning of microbial community and modulate sulfur cycles in situ.

Opposing activities of Notch and Wnt signaling regulate mucosal barrier homeostasis and differentiation of intestinal epithelial cells. Specifically, Wnt activity is essential for differentiation of secretory cells including Wnt3-producing Paneth cells, whereas Notch signaling strongly promotes generation of absorptive cells. Loss of caspase-8 in intestinal epithelium (casp8∆int) is associated with fulminant epithelial necroptosis, severe Paneth cell death, secondary intestinal inflammation, and an increase in Notch activity. Here, we found that pharmacological Notch inhibition with dibenzazepine (DBZ) is able to essentially rescue the loss of Paneth cells, deescalate the inflammatory phenotype, and reduce intestinal permeability in casp8∆int mice. The secretory cell metaplasia in DBZ-treated casp8∆int animals is proliferative, indicating for Notch activities partially insensitive to gamma-secretase inhibition in a casp8∆int background. Our data suggest that casp8 acts in the intestinal Notch network.

Z. Nehari developed a general technique for obtaining inequalities for conformal maps and domain functions from contour integrals and the Dirichlet principle. Given a harmonic function with singularity on a domain $R$, it associates a monotonic functional of subdomains $D \subseteq R$. In the case that $R$ is conformally equivalent to a disk, we extend Nehari's method by associating a functional to any quadratic differential on $R$ with specified singularities. Nehari's method corresponds to the special case that the quadratic differential is of the form $(\partial q)^2$ for a singular harmonic function $q$ on $R$. Besides being more general, our formulation is conformally invariant, and has a particularly elegant equality statement. As an application we give a one-parameter family of monotonic, conformally invariant functionals which correspond to growth theorems for bounded univalent functions. These generalize and interpolate the Pick growth theorems, which appear in a conformally invariant form equivalent to a two-point distortion theorem of W. Ma and D. Minda., Comment: 31 pages

Met vroegsignalering van schulden vallen belangrijke resultaten te behalen. Maar gemeenten ondervinden hindernissen bij het opzetten van vroegsignalering. Het project ‘Landelijke Uitrol vroegsignalering schulden’ ondersteunt gemeenten bij het ontwikkelen van een effectieve aanpak. Het doel is dat vroegsignalering gemeengoed wordt in het hele land.

Let Σ be a Riemann surface of genus g bordered by n curves homeomorphic to the circle S1. Consider quasiconformal maps f: Σ→Σ1 such that the restriction to each boundary curve is a Weil-Petersson class quasisymmetry. We show that any such f is homotopic to a quasiconformal map whose Beltrami differential is L 2 with respect to the hyperbolic metric on Σ. The homotopy H(t, •): Σ → Σ1 is independent of t on the boundary curves; that is, H(t, p) = f(p) for all p ∈ ∂Σ.

Het doel van het VN Verdrag voor de Rechten van Mensen met een Beperking is een inclusieve samenleving. Geen fysieke, wettelijke en sociale barrieres meer voor mensen met een beperking. Wordt het een wereld van verschil? ‘Ja, uiteindelijk wel’, zeggen (ervarings)deskundigen.

We define a notion of conformal invariance associated with nested domains, suitable for characterizing higher-order information about mapping functions. We give an exposition of our results which yield an infinite-dimensional family of conformal invariants for nested hyperbolic simply-connected domains. Each invariant is specified by a quadratic differential which is admissible for the outer domain, and is strictly negative unless the inner domain is the outer domain minus trajectories of the quadratic differential. These invariants are furthermore monotonic. Using the aforementioned invariants, we show that one can obtain various classical estimates for bounded univalent functions, and in many cases extend them, by choosing particular quadratic differentials. We also explain the principles behind these results and their context within the literature.

Let $$\Gamma $$ be a bounded Jordan curve with complementary components $$\Omega ^{\pm }$$ . We show that the jump decomposition is an isomorphism if and only if $$\Gamma $$ is a quasicircle. We also show that the Bergman space of $$L^{2}$$ harmonic one-forms on $$\Omega ^{+}$$ is isomorphic to the direct sum of the holomorphic Bergman spaces on $$\Omega ^{+}$$ and $$\Omega ^{-}$$ if and only if $$\Gamma $$ is a quasicircle. This allows us to derive various relations between a reflection of harmonic functions in quasicircles and the jump decomposition on the one hand, and the Grunsky operator, Faber series and kernel functions of Schiffer on the other hand. It also leads to new interpretations of the Grunsky and Schiffer operators. We show throughout that the most general setting for these relations is quasidisks.