Search

The paper discusses potential hazards at hydrogen refueling stations for transportation vehicles: cars and trucks. The main hazard analyzed here is an uncontrolled gas release due to a failure in one of the structures in the station: storage tanks of different pressure levels or a dispenser. This may lead to a hydrogen cloud occurring near the source of the release or at a given distance. The range of the cloud was analyzed in connection to the amount of the released gas and the wind velocity. The results of the calculations were compared for chosen structures in the station. Then potential fires and explosions were investigated. The hazard zones were calculated with respect to heat fluxes generated in the fires and the overpressure generated in explosions. The maximum ranges of these zones vary from about 14 to 30 m and from about 9 to 14 m for a fires and an explosions of hydrogen, respectively. Finally, human death probabilities are presented as functions of the distance from the sources of the uncontrolled hydrogen releases. These are shown for different amounts and pressures of the released gas. In addition, the risk of human death is determined along with the area, where it reaches the highest value in the whole station. The risk of human death in this area is 1.63 × 10−5 [1/year]. The area is approximately 8 square meters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Humanized mice transplanted with CD34+ hematopoietic cells (HPCs) are broadly used to study human immune responses and infections in vivo and for testing therapies pre-clinically. However, until now, it was not clear whether interactions between the mouse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) and/or the human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) were necessary for human T-cell development and immune reactivity. Methods: We evaluated the long-term (20-week) human hematopoiesis and human T-cell development in NOD Scid Gamma (NSG) mice lacking the expression of MHC class I and II (NSG-DKO). Triplicate experiments were performed with HPCs obtained from three donors, and humanization was confirmed in the reference strain NOD Rag Gamma (NRG). Further, we tested whether humanized NSG-DKO mice would respond to a lentiviral vector (LV) systemic delivery of HLA-A*02:01, HLA-DRB1*04:01, human GM-CSF/IFN-α, and the human cytomegalovirus gB antigen. Results: Human immune reconstitution was detectable in peripheral blood from 8 to 20 weeks after the transplantation of NSG-DKO. Human single positive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells were detectable in lymphatic tissues (thymus, bone marrow, and spleen). LV delivery harnessed the detection of lymphocyte subsets in bone marrow (αβ and γδ T-cells and NK cells) and the expression of HLA-DR. Furthermore, RNA sequencing showed that LV delivery increased the expression of different human reactome pathways, such as defense responses to other organisms and viruses. Conclusions: Human T-cell development and reactivity are independent of the expression of murine MHCs in humanized mice. Therefore, humanized NSG-DKO is a promising new model for studying human immune responses, as it abrogates the xenograft mouse MHC interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coke oven gas (COG), as a by-product of the coking process and a mixture with a high hydrogen content, is an important potential component of the sustainable economy of the coking industry. Ongoing studies and analyses are looking at many opportunities for the utilization of coke oven gas, including for the production of hydrogen, methanol or other chemicals. However, it is important not to forget that all processes for the utilization of this gas may pose a potential hazard to humans and the environment. This is due to the physicochemical properties of COG and the content of flammable gases such as hydrogen, methane or carbon monoxide in its composition. Potential hazardous events are also related to the content of toxic substances in the composition of coke oven gas. The publication focuses on the occurrence of a fire or explosion as a result of the uncontrolled release of purified coke oven gas from the installation. The potential hazard zones associated with the occurrence of these phenomena are presented concerning different levels of hydrogen concentration in coke oven gas and the influence of selected factors on the range of these zones. Zones related to human deaths due to fire of coke oven gas reached a maximum range of about 130 m from the site of the failure, depending on the gas composition, level of damage and parameters of the installation. Zones related to human deaths due to the explosion of the coke oven gas did not occur. The zone related to the injury of humans as a result of the COG explosion reached a maximum range of about 12 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Athenaeum: Polskie Studia Politologiczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Security Studies Nicolaus Copernicus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Przegląd Elektrotechniczny is the property of Przeglad Elektrotechniczny and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: It has been shown that the course of COVID-19 infection in the under-18 population was in many cases sparsely symptomatic. In contrast, the impact of the pandemic on the psychological state is quite different. The risk of psychopathological symptoms in children and adolescents increased and the course of already present psychiatric disorders has often been exacerbated. Objectives: Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of psychological and physical violence among children and adolescents and its change during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to investigate various factors that might affect violence. Methods: In this survey study, 782 responses were included, with 480 collected during the second and 302 during the fourth wave of COVID-19. In this cross-sectional study, an anonymous questionnaire was used to collect demographic data, medical history, mental state, psychopathological symptoms, as well as the presence of psychological, physical violence, and suicidal self-harm behaviors before (retrospectively) and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the under-18 population of the Lodz Voivodship. The survey was prepared using Google Forms. Results: A decrease in the prevalence of physical violence during both waves of the pandemic has been observed (6.39% vs. 3.45%; p < 0.001), with only a similar trend present for psychological violence 16.75% vs. 14.71%; p = 0.081). No difference between physical and psychological violence was present in different pandemic waves, type of flat or house individuals lived in, availability of one’s room, number of people living in the house, number of siblings, and type of school classes (p > 0.050). Older children (>15 years old) were more likely to be victims of psychological violence before and during the pandemic (both p < 0.001). A statistically significant model was obtained for psychological violence before (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.011) and during the pandemic (p = 0.007, R2 = 0.032). Risk factors for psychological violence before the pandemic included male gender (B = 0.531, p = 0.009, OR = 1.700), older age (B = 0.869, p = 0.001, OR = 2.385), and smaller city size (B = −0.187, p = 0.004, OR = 0.829), while for psychological violence during the pandemic, the risk factors were only male gender (B = 0.482, p = 0.022, OR = 1.620) and older age (B = 0.555, p = 0.046, OR = 1.742). No statistically significant models were created for physical violence (p > 0.050). Conclusions: The observed decrease in physical violence during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that in the studied group, home environment was not the main source of physical violence. Yet, we did not find any predicting factors for this form of violence. Violence, both physical and psychological, is a dangerous phenomenon in the under-18 population both in the pre-pandemic period and in crisis situations such as the pandemic.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners strongly advocates evidence-based intestinal strongyle control in horses. It recommends targeted treatment of all heavy egg shedders (>500 eggs per gram (EPG) of feces), while the low shedders (0–200 EPG) are left untreated. As 50–75% of adult horses in a herd are low shedders, preventing them from unnecessary anthelmintic exposure is critical for tackling resistance. There are various fecal egg count (FEC) techniques with many modifications and variations in use, but none is identified as a gold standard. The hypothesis of the study was that the diagnostic performance of 12 commonly used quantitation methodologies (three techniques with four variants) differs. In this regard, method comparison studies were performed using polystyrene beads as proxy for intestinal strongyle eggs. Mini-FLOTAC-based variants had the lowest coefficient of variation (CV%) in bead recovery, whereas McMaster variants had the highest. All four variants of Mini-FLOTAC and the NaNO3 1.33 specific gravity variant of modified Wisconsin followed a linear fit with R2 > 0.95. In contrast, the bead standard replicates for modified McMaster variants dispersed from the regression curve, causing a lower R2. The Mini-FLOTAC method seems less influenced by the choice of floatation solution and has better repeatability parameters and linearity for bead standard recovery. For FEC tests with high R2 (>0.95) but that underestimated the true bead count, a correction factor (CF) was determined to estimate the true count. Finally, the validity of CF was analyzed for 5 tests with R2 > 0.95 to accurately quantify intestinal strongyle eggs from 40 different horses. Overall, this study identified FEC methodologies with the highest diagnostic performance. The limitations in standardizing routine FEC tests are highlighted, and the importance of equalization of FEC results is emphasized for promoting uniformity in the implementation of parasite control guidelines.

In this review we examine the evidence regarding self-determination theory within the school physical education context. We applied a multilevel structural equation modeling approach to meta-analyze data from a systematic review that identified 265 relevant studies. In line with theory, autonomous motivation was positively correlated with adaptive outcomes and negatively correlated with maladaptive outcomes. Introjected regulation was modestly correlated with both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. External regulation and amotivation both showed negative relationships with adaptive outcomes, and positive relationship with maladaptive outcomes. Also supporting SDT, autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfactions were strongly correlated with autonomous student motivation, and less strongly, but still positively, correlated with introjected regulation. Weak negative correlations were found between autonomy, competence, and relatedness and external regulation. Amotivation had moderate negative correlations with needs satisfaction. Findings further revealed that teachers more greatly impact classroom experiences of autonomy and competence, whereas relatedness in physical education is associated with both peer and teacher influences.

Development activity in Poland is regulated by many legal provisions, but one of the most important acts for the implementation of developers’ projects is the Act of March 27, 2003 on spatial planning and development. The Act includes, among others, procedures for the preparation and scope of local spatial development plans. One of the parameters significant from the point of view of housing development which these plans define is the minimum and maximum intensity of development and the percentage of biologically active space that should be preserved on a property covered by the investment project. The article adopts two research goals. Firstly, it is an attempt to verify, using examples of selected developers, whether they, as profit-oriented entities, decide to develop the property as much as possible or to keep more undeveloped space, which is a more desirable phenomenon from the environmental point of view. Secondly, an attempt will be made to determine how developers in Poland create a biologically active surface in their projects. Based on desk research, it was found that, among the discussed cases, there is no evident tendency to maximize the permissible built-up areas and the created biologically active areas are sparse and not diversified.

In this paper, a class of nonconvex nondifferentiable generalized minimax fractional programming problems is considered. Sufficient optimality conditions for the considered nondifferentiable generalized minimax fractional programming problem are established under the concept of (Φ, ρ)-invexity. Further, two types of dual models are formulated and various duality theorems relating to the primal minimax fractional programming problem and dual problems are established. The results established in the paper generalize and extend several known results in the literature to a wider class of nondifferentiable minimax fractional programming problems. To the best of our knowledge, these results have not been established till now.

The common γ chain family of cytokines and their receptors play fundamental roles in the immune system. Evolutionary studies of γ chain cytokines have elegantly illustrated how the immune system adapts to ever-changing environmental conditions. Indeed, these studies have revealed the uniqueness of cytokine evolution, which exhibits strong positive selection pressure needed to adapt to rapidly evolving threats whilst still conserving their receptor binding capabilities. In this review, we summarise the evolutionary mechanisms that gave rise to the characteristically diverse family of γ chain cytokines. We also speculate on the benefits of studying cytokine evolution, which may provide alternative ways to design novel cytokine therapeutic strategies. Additionally, we discuss current evolutionary models that elucidate the emergence of distinct cytokines (IL-4 and IL-13) and cytokine receptors (IL-2Rα and IL-15Rα). Finally, we address and reflect on the difficulties associated with evolutionary studies of rapidly evolving genes and describe a variety of computational methods that have revealed numerous aspects of cytokine evolution.

Objective Evidence on how individual characteristics and distancing policies during the first wave of COVID-19 together influenced health behaviours is scarce. The objective of this study is to fill in this gap by studying how the propensity to engage in protective behaviours in Europe was shaped by the interplay of individual characteristics and national policies.Design Data on individual behaviour in 27 countries came from the ‘Corona Survey’ module of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, collected in summer 2020. As outcomes, we considered avoidant behaviours (never leaving home, reducing frequency of walks and reducing frequency of social meetings) and preventive behaviour (wearing a face mask). Among relevant policies, we considered stay-at-home restrictions, mask wearing policies and gathering restrictions. Individual characteristics comprised gender, health risk of COVID-19 (older age and poor health) and activity (employment and providing help to other households).Participants Nationally representative samples of older adults (50 years and over), n=51 540 respondents (58% of women).Results Active people (employed and helping other households) were more likely to wear face masks but less likely to use avoidant behaviours. People at health risk (older people and those in poor health) were more likely to use all types of protective behaviours. Protective behaviours were also more frequent among women than among men. Longer duration of distancing polices correlated with more frequent protective behaviours. Distancing policies reduced social differences in the rate of protective behaviours only in case of social meetings and mask wearing.Conclusions Protective behaviours responded to distancing policies, but our results suggest that people used them voluntarily, especially if they were at health risk.

Epigenetic pathways are essential in different biological processes and in phenotype-environment interactions in response to different stressors and they can induce phenotypic plasticity. They encompass several processes that are mitotically and, in some cases, meiotically heritable, so they can be transferred to subsequent generations via the germline. Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance (TEI) describes the phenomenon that phenotypic traits, such as changes in fertility, metabolic function, or behavior, induced by environmental factors (e.g., parental care, pathogens, pollutants, climate change), can be transferred to offspring generations via epigenetic mechanisms. Investigations on TEI contribute to deciphering the role of epigenetic mechanisms in adaptation, adversity, and evolution. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the transmission of epigenetic changes between generations, and the downstream chain of events leading to persistent phenotypic changes, remain unclear. Therefore, inter-, (transmission of information between parental and offspring generation via direct exposure) and transgenerational (transmission of information through several generations with disappearance of the triggering factor) consequences of epigenetic modifications remain major issues in the field of modern biology.In this article, we review and describe the major gaps and issues still encountered in the TEI field: the general challenges faced in epigenetic research; deciphering the key epigenetic mechanisms in inheritance processes; identifying the relevant drivers for TEI and implement a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach to study TEI. Finally, we provide suggestions on how to overcome these challenges and ultimately be able to identify the specific contribution of epigenetics in transgenerational inheritance and use the correct tools for environmental science investigation and biomarkers identification.

Recent advances in genomic sequencing technology and computational assembly methods have allowed scientists to improve reference genome assemblies in terms of contiguity and composition. EquCab2, a reference genome for the domestic horse, was released in 2007. Although of equal or better quality compared to other first-generation Sanger assemblies, it had many of the shortcomings common to them. In 2014, the equine genomics research community began a project to improve the reference sequence for the horse, building upon the solid foundation of EquCab2 and incorporating new short-read data, long-read data, and proximity ligation data. Here, we present EquCab3. The count of non-N bases in the incorporated chromosomes is improved from 2.33 Gb in EquCab2 to 2.41 Gb in EquCab3. Contiguity has also been improved nearly 40-fold with a contig N50 of 4.5 Mb and scaffold contiguity enhanced to where all but one of the 32 chromosomes is comprised of a single scaffold.

Abstract Despite good adherence to supervised endurance exercise training (EET), some individuals experience no or little improvement in peripheral insulin sensitivity. The genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are currently not understood. By investigating genome-wide variants associated with baseline and exercise-induced changes (∆) in insulin sensitivity index (Si) in healthy volunteers, we have identified novel candidate genes whose mouse knockouts phenotypes were consistent with a causative effect on Si. An integrative analysis of functional genomic and transcriptomic profiles suggests genetic variants have an aggregate effect on baseline Si and ∆Si, focused around cholinergic signalling, including downstream calcium and chemokine signalling. The identification of calcium regulated MEF2A transcription factor as the most statistically significant candidate driving the transcriptional signature associated to ∆Si further strengthens the relevance of calcium signalling in EET mediated Si response.

Abstract The PPARδ gene codes protein that belongs to the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) family engaged in a variety of biological processes, including carcinogenesis. Specific biological and clinical roles of PPARδ in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is not fully explained. The association of PPARα with miRNA regulators (e.g. miRNA-17) has been documented, suggesting the existence of a functional relationship of all PPARs with epigenetic regulation. The aim of the study was to determine the PPARδ and miR-17 expression profiles in NSCLC and to assess their diagnostic value in lung carcinogenesis. PPARδ and miR-17 expressions was assessed by qPCR in NSCLC tissue samples (n = 26) and corresponding macroscopically unchanged lung tissue samples adjacent to the primary lesions served as control (n = 26). PPARδ and miR-17 expression were significantly lower in NSCLC than in the control (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0178; respectively). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated the diagnostic potential in discriminating NSCLC from the control with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.914 for PPARδ and 0.692 for miR-17. Significant increase in PPARδ expression in the control for current smokers vs. former smokers (p = 0.0200) and increase in miR-17 expression in control tissue adjacent to adenocarcinoma subtype (p = 0.0422) were observed. Overexpression of miR-17 was observed at an early stage of lung carcinogenesis, which may suggest that it acts as a putative oncomiR. PPARδ and miR-17 may be markers differentiating tumour tissue from surgical margin and miR-17 may have diagnostic role in NSCLC histotypes differentiation.