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In this present work, the potential of metallic parts, locally reinforced with a continuous glass fibre reinforced thermoset material, pre-impregnated with an epoxy matrix (prepreg), was evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), single-lap shear tests and 3-point bending tests of a metal-composite hybrid hat profile. This technology is evaluated regarding an automotive use case, the DSC experiments in combination with moulding trials have proven curing times below 30 s for a moulding temperature of 180°C. A bonding strength of 13.5 MPa was characterized for a co-cured fibre-reinforced plastic (frp) onto a metallic joining partner. By additionally introducing an epoxy glue film as a bonding agent, which is co-cured together with the frp, the bonding strength can be increased significantly up to 25.4 MPa at the expense of the curing time. The mechanical tests on the hybrid hat profile have shown an increase of energy absorption compared with non-reinforced hat profiles. Here, also an additional glue film extends the performance regarding a co-cured plastic reinforcement without glue film. The influence of the storage conditions of the uncured prepreg materials on the mechanical performance was evaluated by a simulated physical ageing at elevated temperatures, followed by a mechanical characterization of the bonding strength and part performance. Also the effect of different testing temperatures and testing velocities on the capability of the metal-composite hybrid part is illustrated.

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By applying the Gibbs equation to the bulk binding isotherms and surface composition of the air–water (A–W) interface in polyelectrolyte–surfactant (PE–S) systems, we show that their surface behavior can be explained semiquantitatively in terms of four concentration regions, which we label as A, B, C, and D. In the lowest-concentration range A, there are no bound PE–S complexes in the bulk but there may be adsorption of PE–S complexes at the surface. When significant adsorption occurs in this region, the surface tension (ST) drops with increasing concentration like a simple surfactant solution. Region B extends from the onset of bulk PE–S binding to the end of cooperative binding, in which the slow variation of surfactant activity with cooperative binding means that the ST changes relatively little, although adsorption may be significant. This leads to an approximate plateau, which may be at high or low ST. Region C starts where the binding in the bulk complex loses its cooperativity leading to a rapid change of surfactant activity with the total concentration. This, combined with significant adsorption, often leads to a sharp drop in ST. Region D is where precipitation and redissolution of the bulk PE–S complex occur. ST peaks may arise in region D because of loss of the solution complex that matches the value of the preferred surface stoichiometry, which seems to have a well-defined value for each system. The analysis is applied to the experimental systems, sodium polystyrene sulfonate–alkyltrimethylammonium bromides and poly(diallyldimethyl chloride)–sodium alkyl sulfates, with and without the added electrolyte, and includes data from bulk binding isotherms, phase diagrams, aggregation behavior, and direct measurements of the surface excess and stoichiometry of the surface. The successful fits of the Gibbs equation to the data confirm that the surfaces in these systems are largely equilibrated.

Background While obesity is linked with brain atrophy and dementia incidence, associations with regional adiposity are uncertain. Our goal was to determine whether cerebral gray matter volume is related to neck circumference (NC), a measure of regional adiposity having unique relationships with metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease. Methods Magnetic resonance imaging and NC were cross-sectionally assessed from 2011 to 2014 in a population-based sample of 2916 men and women in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. Results For men, NC was inversely associated with total and regional gray matter in the frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes after adjusting for age and intracranial brain volume. Associations were especially strong in the presence of diabetes. With further adjustment for indices of body composition and other characteristics, total and frontal gray matter in diabetic men were lowered by 6.1 mL (95% confidence interval: 2.5-9.7, P=0.004) and 2.9 mL (95% confidence interval: 1.0-4.9, P=0.017), respectively, per SD increase in NC (2.3 cm). For men without diabetes, and in all women, associations were less apparent. Conclusions In men with diabetes, NC was inversely associated with cerebral gray matter volume. The link between neck anthropometry and brain aging in diabetic men warrants further consideration.

Background Complete heart block (CHB) is a frequent cause for acute admission in older patients with significant cardiac conduction disease. Common presenting symptoms are syncope and dyspnoea. Some patients may exhibit clinical and radiological signs of left ventricular (LV) decompensation, despite preserved LV ejection fraction on transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and absent pre-existing LV dysfunction. Case summary In this clinical report, we present a case of CHB associated with transient but severe elevation in pulmonary artery systolic pressure, measured as the equivalent right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP = 99 mmHg) by TTE in the absence of right ventricular outflow tract obstruction, that subsequently ‘normalized’ after implantation of a permanent pacemaker. After searching our echocardiogram database, we did find other cases with similar findings. Discussion There is limited literature describing transient acute elevation in estimated pulmonary pressures in the setting of new CHB that is subsequently reversed by permanent pacing. The true prevalence and mechanism of transient estimated pulmonary pressure as a result of CHB remains unknown. Based on our limited assessment, we postulate that the acute elevation in estimated pulmonary pressures is predominantly related to a compensatory augmentation of RV stroke volume and is caused by the underlying bradycardia and need to maintain forward cardiac output. This phenomenon may require further investigation and validation in future studies.

BACKGROUND: General Aviation (GA) pilots who encounter hazardous weather inflight have a high probability of incurring fatal accidents. To mitigate this problem, previous research investigated pilot decision making and the effects of new technology. Limited investigations have examined usability and interpretability of observation and forecast weather products available to pilots. Therefore, this study examined the interpretability of weather observation and forecast reports that GA pilots use for preflight weather planning and the impact of pilot certification level on the interpretability of these displays.METHOD: There were 204 GA pilots (Mean age = 22.50 yr; Median flight hours = 131.0) who completed a 90-item multiple choice Aviation Weather Product Test. The questions portrayed static weather displays available on the NOAA/National Weather Service Aviation Weather Center website. The questions were designed to have high cognitive fidelity in comparison with preflight weather planning tasks.RESULTS: The results revealed overall low mean interpretability scores (Mean percent correct= 59.29%, SD = 16.01%). The scores for observation products and product attributes were lower for student pilots than experienced pilots. Forecast product scores for student and private pilots did not differ, however, student pilot scores were significantly lower than instrument rated private and commercial pilots.DISCUSSION: The low interpretability scores indicate that GA pilots misinterpret weather information provided by most weather observation and forecast products. Possible contributing factors to the low product interpretation scores include poor usability and a lack of training. Future research should measure the usability of weather displays designed for pilots.Blickensderfer BL, Guinn TA, Lanicci JM, Ortiz Y, King JM, Thomas RL, DeFilippis N. Interpretability of aviation weather information displays for general aviation. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(4):318–325.

Background: Previous studies of nurses' critical thinking skills that included demographic characteristics as determinants have been inconclusive. This study explored demographic determinants of critical thinking skills among nurses from public hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. Method: This cross-sectional study included 549 nurses recruited via multistage cluster sampling. Nurses completed the demographic questionnaire and Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT). Results: The majority of respondents failed to demonstrate critical thinking skills with a mean overall HSRT score of 13.8 ( SD = 3.4). Educational qualifications ( p = .003) and clinical specialties ( p = .022) were significantly related to nurses' critical thinking skills. Years of clinical experience, age, and job ranking were not significant Conclusion: The findings indicate a need to address the present curriculum in nursing education and to reinforce critical thinking skills in the nursing workforce. Future research on how nurses in Malaysia acquire critical thinking skills is needed. [ J Contin Educ Nurs . 2020;51(3):109–117.]

Low molecular weight (MW) peptides are an attractive choice for bench scale coagulation tests. In this study, water soluble seed proteins from Moringa oleifera were fractionated, characterised and screened for coagulant activity. Seed proteins were extracted from defatted M. oleifera using distilled water, followed by adjustment to pH 7 and sequential ammonium sulphate precipitation. Positive coagulant activity was observed for 40 wt% fraction that was found to contain a mixture of 6 peptides according to sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing conditions. Dominant peptides had molecular weights of ∼32, ∼14 and ∼10 kDa, respectively. At a total protein concentration of 0.79 ± 0.03 mg/mL, 40 wt% fraction reduced turbidity by 93%. Our findings suggest the 40 wt% fraction to be the most promising protein fraction for water treatment applications.

Kepler Concordia, a new scientific and musical instrument enabling players to explore the solar system and other data within immersive extended-reality (XR) platforms, is being designed by a divers...

Loss of conventional NPK fertilizer in low fertility soils not only reduces profit and pollutes ground and surface water but also causes indirect land-use change. Addition of pure biochar to low fertility soil generally improves crop yield and mitigates climate change but requires added value to be viable. This study aims to establish whether industrially produced oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) biochar impregnated with NH4NO3 and KH2PO4 can release nutrients similar to commercially available slow release fertilizer (Agroblen). Impregnation was carried out via soaking for 21 h with a fertilizer-to-OPKS biochar ratio of 25:75 (w/w) followed by oven-drying until constant weight. Distilled water was added to the leaching column containing quartz sand and the impregnated OPKS biochar, soaked for 1 h before collecting the leachate for spectrophotometric analysis. Agroblen was used as positive and OPKS biochar as negative control. Leaching experiments showed that impregnated OPKS biochar had the greatest nutrient release (NO3− was 52.9%, 77.4% for NH3 and 55.2% for PO4) followed by positive and negative control. The carbon sequestration potential of OPKS biochar was estimated to be 0.398 tonnes CO2 per tonne biomass making it a suitable candidate for climate change mitigation and carbon credit trading further research into the impregnation of NP fertilizer on OPKS biochar with suitable coatings is required to improve its nutrient release.

Children requiring long-term ventilation (LTV) via tracheostomy often require enteral tube feeding. We sought to investigate what proportion of these children underwent gastrostomy insertion to inform decision making at time of tracheostomy formation.A retrospective review of all children commenced on LTV via a tracheostomy at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital over a 9-year period (2012-2020). Data are presented as median [IQR].Forty-one LTV patients had tracheostomy insertion with an average age of 167 days [101-604]. Reasons for tracheostomy insertion were upper airway obstruction (18), central neurological condition (7), neuromuscular condition (12) and lower respiratory tract disease (4). Twenty-two patients were born preterm and chronic lung disease of prematurity was a contributory factor in their requirement for LTV. Eight children had gastrostomies inserted prior to tracheostomy formation. A further 22 children had a gastrostomy inserted at an average of 139 days [99-227] following tracheostomy. Four children remained on nasogastric feed and the rest were fed orally. Seventy-three percentage of LTV children with tracheostomy were gastrostomy fed. Neither indication for LTV nor prematurity predicted whether a child was gastrostomy fed.The large majority of children requiring LTV are tube fed and gastrostomy insertion should be considered at time of formation of tracheostomy.

Changing technology, and the pervasive demand created by a greater need in the population for access to mental health interventions, has led to the development of technologies that are shifting the traditional way in which therapy is provided. This study investigated the efficacy of a behavioral couples therapy program conducted via videoconferencing, as compared to face-to-face. There were 60 participants, in couples, ranging in age from 21 to 69 years old. Couples had been in a relationship for between 1 to 49 years. The 30 couples were randomly allocated to the face-to-face or videoconferencing group. They all took part in Couple CARE—a couples behavioral education program which promotes self-change in order to increase relationship satisfaction. The six session manualized intervention was offered in an identical manner to all clients, in each condition. Data analysis was based on several questionnaires completed by each couple at pre, post and 3-months follow-up. Results showed that therapeutic alliance ratings did not differ between groups, but increased significantly over time for both groups. Additionally, the results indicated improvements in relationship satisfaction, mental health, and all other outcome scores over time, which did not differ based on condition. This study uniquely contributes to the literature exploring the use of technology to provide therapy. Specifically, the study provides evidence for couples therapy via videoconferencing as a viable alternative to face-to-face interventions, especially for those couples who may not have access to the treatment they require. It is anticipated that the results of this study will contribute to the field of online therapy, and add to fostering confidence in agencies to allow expansion of services conducted via videoconferencing.

Dalam ekosistem music underground Manado, komunitas Moshpit sebagai salah satu komunitas yang berada ditengah-tengah ekosistem music underground Manado adalah sebuah label music dan juga kiblat music manado. Sebagai sebuah media bagi para anggota Moshpit selaku kelompok pegiat seni memiliki tujuan melakukan produksi dan promosi music hasil karya band anggota Moshpit. Dalam masa pandemic seperti saat ini pembatasan jumlah massa sedang dibatasi karena itu ekosistem music yang bertumpu pada panggung music pun sedang dibatasi dalam mengurangi angka korban covid. Komunitas Moshpit juga memerlukan wadah untuk menyebarluaskan hasil karya band mereka dalam masa pandemic seperti sekarang Moshpit mencoba menggunakan platform media sosial yaitu Instagram sebagai salah satu cara berinteraksi dengan penikmat music underground dan masyarakat awam di Manado dengan cara penyiaran live streaming melalui akun Instagram milik komunitas yaitu @moshpitmdo. Dalam hal ini peneliti ingin meneliti cara-cara apa saja yang dilakukan komunitas Moshpit Manado sebagai wadah atau media dalam lingkup komunikasi massa menerapkan penyiaran live streaming dengan menggunakan indikator-indikator pada teori strategi penyiaran yaitu strategi kesesuaian, strategi pembentukan kesesuaian, strategi pengontrol arus pendengar, Strategi penyimpanan sumber program dan strategi daya tarik massa dan apa saja hal-hal yang didapatkan dalam penggunaan teori strategi penyiaran ini. Dengan mengguunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dan dengan mengolah data secara observasi dan juga wawancar kepada informan peneliti mendapatkan bahwa teori strategi penyiaran menjadi acuan dalam mengoperasikan penyiaran live streaming music Sattelite Sound. Kata Kunci: Strategi Penyiaran, Live Streaming Music, Instagram

Nuclear forensic analysis is necessary discipline for the enforcements of the United States foreign policies of nuclear deterrence and non-proliferation. As the global situation continues to evolve, further refinement of the methods used by this discipline is necessary to ensure swift and accurate source attribution of nuclear materials. Surrogate nuclear material serves as a valuable tool for testing and improving analytical procedures and operational procedures, particularly regarding post-detonation nuclear forensic analysis. Over the past decade, several groups have developed several techniques designed to produce surrogate nuclear explosion debris. Due to challenges regarding loss of analytes and contamination caused by high temperature processing approaches, there has been a focus on using sol-gel manufacturing techniques to produce this material due to its inherent advantage of low temperature synthesis. However, a considerable amount of research is necessary to improve this process so that it can effectively support the mission of the nuclear forensics community. This work seeks to increase the understanding of how different processes occurring within sol-gel glass at various stages influence the retention of both stable and radioactive dopants. It will achieve this by focusing on the following efforts:1) Demonstrate the capability of sol-gel glass to encapsulate and retain radionuclides at low temperatures. The limitations of this will also be investigated as a function of annealing temperature, 2) Investigate the effect of different catalysts have on the initial capture and retention of fission products., 3) Characterize how the incorporation of metal nitrate salts affects the macro and micro-structure of the glass using FT-IR and SEM-EDX analysis, 4) Examine how changes in ionic size and charge influence the effect the dopant has on the structure of the glass.

In this study, we aim at using a smartphone to calculate relevant falling risk features from the norm of signals collected during a semi-supervised walking test. We test whether these features are able to differentiate elderly fallers from non-fallers. The objective is to check whether a smartphone and semi-supervised test can give insights on falling risk.

Eimeria tenella is an obligate intracellular parasite that causes avian coccidiosis. As for other apicomplexan parasites, such as Toxoplasma gondii, cell invasion and intracellular development rely on apical organelles content discharge, named micronemes and rhoptries. Some ROP kinases (ROPK) are key virulence factors in T. gondii. To date, among the 28 ropk encoded by E. tenella, only two were confirmed to be expressed at the sporozoite stage by proteomic analysis. We have previously shown that EtROP1 is implicated in the inhibition of the host cell apoptosis by interacting with the cellular p53. Here, we functionally characterized the second ROP kinase expressed at the sporozoite stage in E. tenella. EtROP2 is an active kinase that phosphorylates cell substrates of approximately 50 kDa. Its overexpression leads to the shortening of the prepatent period and to the early development of first generation schizonts. Conduction of RNA sequencing analysis and RT-qPCR on the host cell, allowed us to identified the MAPK pathway and the transcription factor cFos to be upregulated by EtROP2. We also showed by immunofluorescence assay that the active kinase EtROP2 is implicated in the p38 MAPK pathway activation. We established here, that EtROP2 activates the p38 MAPK pathway through a direct or indirect phosphorylation, leading to the overexpression of the master transcription factor cFos known to be implicated in E. tenella development.

Aim/Purpose: When Data Science students use a Cloud environment such as AWS or Azure, they are not able to have direct hands-on experience with the under-lying hardware components. When students create virtual machines in the Cloud, they specify memory size, CPUs, disk space, etc. However, they cannot reach out and touch the underlying hardware directly since it resides in the Cloud. Background: The ability to purchase commodity servers (e.g., $3,000 per Dell server) to create a cluster of multiple machines is cost prohibitive for most faculty and students because it can cost upwards of $30,000 for 10 machines. This cost does not include the other hardware components that are required for the cluster, such as cooling equipment, cables, rack, etc. Methodology: The research methodology leveraged for this research was to build a prototype to evaluate the costs of using inexpensive hardware and software ($1628.82) in comparison to a more expensive cluster of commodity servers ($30,000). Contribution: There is very little research literature about using this approach of using Raspberry Pi servers as an inexpensive replacement for commodity servers. Findings: This paper demonstrates that Raspberry Pi 4b servers (with 8 gig of RAM) can be leveraged to build a cluster of low cost servers to run both Linux Ubuntu 20 and MongoDB Sharding (distributed processing). Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners will appreciate this paper because it is a tutorial that describes assembling the cluster components and then installing MongoDB Shar-ding (distributed processing) on a cluster of 9 Rpi 4b servers. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers will appreciate this paper because it provides a new inexpensive alternative to using a Cloud environment or an expensive cluster of commodity servers to research distributed processing. Impact on Society: Students and faculty now have an inexpensive option of creating a personalized cluster of servers to experiment with distributed processing. Future Research: Future Research can include testing this cluster with other distributed processing tools, such as the Hadoop ecosystem or NoSQL Databases (e.g. such as Cassandra)

OBJECTIVE While prior retrospective studies have suggested that delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is a predictor of neuropsychological deficits after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), all studies to date have shown a high risk of bias. This study was designed to determine the impact of DCI on the longitudinal neuropsychological outcome after aSAH, and importantly, it includes a baseline examination after aSAH but before DCI onset to reduce the risk of bias. METHODS In a prospective, multicenter study (8 Swiss centers), 112 consecutive alert patients underwent serial neuropsychological assessments (Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA]) before and after the DCI period (first assessment, < 72 hours after aSAH; second, 14 days after aSAH; third, 3 months after aSAH). The authors compared standardized MoCA scores and determined the likelihood for a clinically meaningful decline of ≥ 2 points from baseline in patients with DCI versus those without. RESULTS The authors screened 519 patients, enrolled 128, and obtained complete data in 112 (87.5%; mean [± SD] age 53.9 ± 13.9 years; 66.1% female; 73% World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies [WFNS] grade I, 17% WFNS grade II, 10% WFNS grades III-V), of whom 30 (26.8%) developed DCI. MoCA z-scores were worse in the DCI group at baseline (-2.6 vs -1.4, p = 0.013) and 14 days (-3.4 vs -0.9, p < 0.001), and 3 months (-0.8 vs 0.0, p = 0.037) after aSAH. Patients with DCI were more likely to experience a decline of ≥ 2 points in MoCA score at 14 days after aSAH (adjusted OR [aOR] 3.02, 95% CI 1.07-8.54; p = 0.037), but the likelihood was similar to that in patients without DCI at 3 months after aSAH (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 0.28-8.89; p = 0.606). CONCLUSIONS Aneurysmal SAH patients experiencing DCI have worse neuropsychological function before and until 3 months after the DCI period. DCI itself is responsible for a temporary and clinically meaningful decline in neuropsychological function, but its effect on the MoCA score could not be measured at the time of the 3-month follow-up in patients with low-grade aSAH with little or no impairment of consciousness. Whether these findings can be extrapolated to patients with high-grade aSAH remains unclear. Clinical trial registration no.: NCT03032471 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Bone is a dynamic organ that can adapt its structure to meet the demands of its biochemical and biophysical environment. Osteocytes form a sensory network throughout the tissue and orchestrate tissue adaptation via the release of soluble factors such as a sclerostin. Osteocyte physiology has traditionally been challenging to investigate due to the uniquely mineralized extracellular matrix (ECM) of bone leading to the development of osteocyte cell lines. Importantly, the most widely researched and utilized osteocyte cell line: the MLO-Y4, is limited by its inability to express sclerostin (Sost gene) in typical in-vitro culture. We theorised that culture in an environment closer to the in vivo osteocyte environment could impact on Sost expression. Therefore, this study investigated the role of composition and dimensionality in directing Sost expression in MLO-Y4 cells using collagen-based ECM analogues. A significant outcome of this study is that MLO-Y4 cells, when cultured on a hydroxyapatite (HA)-containing two-dimensional (2D) film analogue, expressed Sost. Moreover, three-dimensional (3D) culture within HA-containing collagen scaffolds significantly enhanced Sost expression, demonstrating the impact of ECM composition and dimensionality on MLO-Y4 behaviour. Importantly, in this bone mimetic ECM environment, Sost expression was found to be comparable to physiological levels. Lastly, MLO-Y4 cells cultured in these novel conditions responded accordingly to fluid flow stimulation with a decrease in expression. This study therefore presents a novel culture system for the MLO-Y4 osteocyte cell line, ensuring the expression of an important osteocyte specific gene, Sost, overcoming a major limitation of this model.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pip-10.1177_17543371221133903 for Shoe wear test machine: What exists versus innovations and promising concepts. A scoping review by Elliot Polomé, Nicolas Théveniau, Cédric Vigier, Raphaël Dumas and Thomas Robert in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology