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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease characterized by a wide spectrum of severity, resulting from the inheritance of a mutant allele of the gene for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). The aim of the study was to present a CFTR mutation analysis among the Albanian population and to identify rare variants.

Determining the key elements of interconnected infrastructure and complex systems is paramount to ensure system functionality and integrity. This work quantifies the dominance of the networks' nodes in their respective neighborhoods, introducing a centrality metric, DomiRank, that integrates local and global topological information via a tunable parameter. We present an analytical formula and an efficient parallelizable algorithm for DomiRank centrality, making it applicable to massive networks. From the networks' structure and function perspective, nodes with high values of DomiRank highlight fragile neighborhoods whose integrity and functionality are highly dependent on those dominant nodes. Underscoring this relation between dominance and fragility, we show that DomiRank systematically outperforms other centrality metrics in generating targeted attacks that effectively compromise network structure and disrupt its functionality for synthetic and real-world topologies. Moreover, we show that DomiRank-based attacks inflict more enduring damage in the network, hindering its ability to rebound and, thus, impairing system resilience. DomiRank centrality capitalizes on the competition mechanism embedded in its definition to expose the fragility of networks, paving the way to design strategies to mitigate vulnerability and enhance the resilience of critical infrastructures.

Selective conversion of biomass into targeted molecules like polyols, especially, from cellulosic compounds, is being widely investigated as a sustainable process to produce biodiesel and bio-additives. The known process involves two steps, namely hydrolysis and hydrogenation. Thus, it requires two different catalytic materials or bifunctional catalysts. In this context, the present work reports a new catalytic approach based on the use of tandem catalysts, consisting of the combination of an acid solid catalyst (active for hydrolysis) and a supported metal catalyst (active for hydrogenation). Two different functionalized activated carbons and the resin Amberlyst 15 have been tested as solid acid catalysts, and Ru nanoparticles supported on the original activated carbon (SA) are the metal catalyst part of the tandem. All the tested tandem catalysts exhibited higher activity than the supported Ru catalyst did. The highest cellulose conversion and selectivity to sorbitol (70% and 86%, respectively) have been obtained over a novel tandem catalyst, which resulted from a physical mixture between a sulfuric acid modified SA carbon (SASu) and Ru loaded SA (Ru/SA), leading to a tandem catalyst (Ru/SA+SASu). This novel-designed tandem catalyst is reusable. Based on tandem catalysts with a solid-solid system combination, the adopted novel-designed catalytic approach is cost-efficient and sustainable, and can be considered promising for the green production of high-added-value chemicals.

The objective of this study is to determine the larvicidal activity of essential oils (EOs) extracted from three plants of the genus Artemisia against the mosquito Culex pipiens (C. pipiens) using in vitro and in silico studies. A total number of 20 third- and fourth-instar larvae were exposed to various concentrations of the three plants. The LC50 and LC90 values of the tested Artemisia EOs were determined using Probit analysis. In addition, the sensitivity of C. pipiens to these EOs was determined and compared against a standard insecticide, temephos, under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, in silico assessments were carried out on the major constituents to help understand and explain the acquired in vivo results. Gas chromatography analysis identified the major compounds as d-limonene and β-pinene for Artemisia flahaultii, camphor and borneol for Artemisia. aragonensis, and artemisia ketone and caryophyllene for Artemisia annua. A. flahaultii oil showed the highest efficacy against C. pipiens larvae, followed by A. annua oil with average larvicidal activity. In contrast, A. aragonensis EO, composed of a high percentage of monoterpenes, was the least active. Docking simulation indicated that several studied ligands had promising binding scores within the receptor’s binding site compared to the reference insecticide temephos. The obtained results allow us to conclude that A. flahaultii, a species endemic to Morocco, is an excellent means of controlling C. pipiens.

Visible-light-driven photocatalysis using layered materials has garnered increasing attention regarding the degradation of organic dyes. Herein, transition-metal dichalcogenides MoS2 and WS2 prepared by chemical vapor deposition as well as their intermixing are evaluated for photodegradation (PD) of methylene blue under solar simulator irradiation. Our findings revealed that WS2 exhibited the highest PD efficiency of 67.6% and achieved an impressive PD rate constant of 6.1 × 10−3 min−1. Conversely, MoS2 displayed a somewhat lower PD performance of 43.5% but demonstrated remarkable stability. The intriguing result of this study relies on the synergetic effect observed when both MoS2 and WS2 are combined in a ratio of 20% of MoS2 and 80% of WS2. This precise blend resulted in an optimized PD efficiency and exceptional stability reaching 97% upon several cycles. This finding underscores the advantageous outcomes of intermixing WS2 and MoS2, shedding light on the development of an efficient and enduring photocatalyst for visible-light-driven photodegradation of methylene blue.

The study describes the traditional traditions of the Toraja land community which explains that Passura' carvings in the Toraja ethnic community are known as a philosophy of life and ancestral heritage which plays an important role in depicting social norms and conveying philosophical messages. The four basic Toraja carvings from more than 150 types of carvings, called Garonto Passura', such as Pa' Barre Allo, Pa' Tedong, Pa'manuk Londong, and Pa' Sussu, have special meanings involving important symbols. Garonto Passura' reflects values such as prosperity, hard work, justice, knowledge, nobility and unity of Toraja society. Each carving has a specific meaning, imbued with the values of Toraja life such as honesty, hard work, cooperation and unity. Tongkonan carvings, especially Pa' Tedong, Pa'manuk Londong, Pa' Barre Allo, and Pa' Sussu, not only reflect high artistic aesthetic values, but are also an important forum for conveying cultural messages, norms and values. which strengthens the work ethic of the Torajan people as a whole, enabling them to maintain traditions and apply ancestral values in everyday life. The work ethic of the Toraja people, reflected in Tongkonan carvings, teaches the importance of honesty, determination, hard work, cooperation and unity as the keys to prosperity and success in life.

The Moroccan olive oil industries generate a substantial amount of olive mill wastewater (OMW), causing a significant environmental issue. Consequently, its valorization represents a sustainable agroecological solution to the environmental problems caused by this uncontrolled discharge. In this context, the use of OMW as an organic biofertilizer in agriculture has been suggested as an alternative to restore soil fertility and improve agricultural production. To comprehensively understand its impact, our study focused on the local cultivar (Vicia faba L.), investigating the consequences of daily applications of OMW at varying doses (5%, 10%, 20%, 30%). In our experimental design, NaCl solutions, mimicking the electrical conductivity of OMW, were used to pinpoint potential phytotoxic agents within the wastewater. The results revealed that a high dose of OMW had significant effects on morphological, physiological, and biochemical parameters. Additionally, phytotoxicity depended on both OMW concentration and the growth stage of (Vicia faba L.), causing growth delays, germination inhibition, and the accumulation of proline and soluble sugars. These findings underscore the complexity of using OMW in agriculture and highlight the critical importance of precise control over application rates for the success of this approach. While reusing OMW presents a viable and practical solution, a nuanced understanding of its impact on specific crops and a meticulous approach to dosage management are imperative to realize its potential benefits and mitigate any potential risks to crop productivity.

A favourable organizational climate is vital for the effective functioning of organizations, as it promotes the exchange of knowledge and information in the team, develops the competencies of employees, motivates them to manage the organization, predicting that they will express themselves and respond to problems in the working environment and beyond. Organizational silence is a term used to denote the phenomenon of collective behavior of employees when they do not want to discuss their thoughts, feelings and organizational problems, express their suggestions during meetings, hide information about potential difficulties or challenges, etc. Organizational silence can lead to “suppression of the collective voice”, limited communication from the bottom up, a decrease in the level of corporate involvement of employees, the effectiveness of organizational changes, the emergence of explicit or latent organizational conflicts, deformations in the organizational culture and inhibition of decision-making dynamics. The article, based on the example of the University of Setif2, Algeria, examines how the teachers of this university evaluate the organizational climate in their team, whether they feel the presence of the problem of organizational silence and at what level, whether there is a relationship between the corporate environment and organizational silence, and to what extent they influence each other. On one, what factors of the organizational climate can affect the reduction of organizational silence. The basis of the study was a survey of 50 teachers from various departments of the university in 2021: a simple random sample, the questionnaire contains 39 items, and a Likert scale was used for assessing the responses; the Cronbach's alpha scale has been utilized to determine the scales' reliability. SPSS version 26 software was used for data analysis, frequency analysis, simple regression, multiple regression, descriptive statistics, and stepwise multiple regression. The results showed a moderate relationship between organizational climate and organizational silence (the partial correlation coefficient of organizational climate is 0.708). In addition, it has been proven that the organisational environment influences organizational silence, not vice versa. Leadership turned out to be the most significant of the investigated determinants of the organizational climate (leadership, organizational structure, working conditions, participation in decision-making, and communication), which allows for reducing organizational silence. The leader's behaviour plays a vital role in mitigating the negative consequences of organizational silence, can strengthen employees' trust, and strengthen their sense of identification or attachment to their organizations. Communication has the most significant influence, and organizational structure has the most minor influence of all the determinants of organizational climate. The article studied two types of organizational silence: submissive silence and defensive silence, and the first was more significant from teachers' perceptions than the second. The results of this study can be helpful in the management of universities and other educational institutions to adapt the current organizational structure, create conditions for direct dialogue between management and employees, help more active agents of positive change, increase the overall level of decision-making efficiency, create more opportunities for teachers to take on themselves more responsible, improve working conditions in universities, etc.

Abstract Time-domain solutions of Maxwell’s equations in homogeneous and isotropic media are paramount to studying transient or broadband phenomena. However, analytical solutions are generally unavailable for practical applications, while numerical solutions are computationally intensive and require significant memory. Semi-analytical solutions (e.g., series expansion), such as those provided by the current theoretical framework of the multipole expansion, can be discouraging for practical case studies. This paper shows how sophisticated mathematical tools standard in modern physics can be leveraged to find semi-analytical solutions for arbitrary localized time-varying current distributions thanks to the novel time-domain Cartesian multipole expansion. We present the theory, apply it to a concrete application involving the imaging of an intricate current distribution, verify our results with an existing analytical approach, and compare the proposed method to a finite-difference time-domain numerical simulation. Thanks to the concept of current “pixels” introduced in this paper, we derive time-domain semi-analytical solutions of Maxwell’s equations for arbitrary planar geometries.

In this article, we propose an optimized version of the Hard Decision Decoder based on Hash and Syndrome Decoding (HSDec) decoder, named Reduced Memory Space of HSDec (RMS-HSDec), which uses less memory space. In this article, we aim to reduce the spatial complexity of the HSDec decoding algorithm while preserving its error correction capabilities. Our methodology involves allocating only the essential memory space for correctable error patterns and optimizing the hashing mechanism to effectively handle potential collisions. While maintaining the integrity of error correction, this new method guarantees memory reduction rates of over 96 % for the BCH(63, 39, 9) code and over 84 % for the QR(47, 24, 11) code compared to HSDec. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of RMS-HSDec on various BCH and QR codes over AWGN and Rayleigh channels. The results demonstrated significant memory reduction rates and coding gains ranging from 0.8 dB to 2.8 dB over the AWGN channel and from 14 dB to 32 dB over the Rayleigh channel, confirming the robustness of the algorithm under different channel conditions. Comparative analyses showed that RMS-HSDec maintains competitive performance with existing decoders while offering effective error correction. These findings confirm the robustness of the RMS-HSDec algorithm under different channel conditions. Overall, the proposed decoder proves to be an effective solution, optimizing memory usage without compromising error correction capabilities, making it ideal for high-density data applications and environments with limited memory resources.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la trayectoria de dos mestizos neogranadinos que llegaron a ocupar el cargo de encomendero en la provincia de Tunja en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI, con el fin de conocer mejor el perfil de la élite social mestiza neogranadina y comprender las modalidades de acceso de esa categoría social a la encomienda, a partir del estudio de una documentación proveniente del AGN de Bogotá. Este trabajo pretende centrarse en los aspectos pragmáticos y concretos que permitían a un mestizo convertirse en encomendero, más allá de las cuestiones jurídicas. Así, se podrá dar más visibilidad a esa categoría social poco conocida y mostrar cómo algunos de ellos lograron ocupar posiciones de poder.

Abstract Determining the key elements of interconnected infrastructure and complex systems is paramount to ensure system functionality and integrity. This work quantifies the dominance of the networks’ nodes in their respective neighborhoods, introducing a centrality metric, DomiRank, that integrates local and global topological information via a tunable parameter. We present an analytical formula and an efficient parallelizable algorithm for DomiRank centrality, making it applicable to massive networks. From the networks’ structure and function perspective, nodes with high values of DomiRank highlight fragile neighborhoods whose integrity and functionality are highly dependent on those dominant nodes. Underscoring this relation between dominance and fragility, we show that DomiRank systematically outperforms other centrality metrics in generating targeted attacks that effectively compromise network structure and disrupt its functionality for synthetic and real-world topologies. Moreover, we show that DomiRank-based attacks inflict more enduring damage in the network, hindering its ability to rebound and, thus, impairing system resilience. DomiRank centrality capitalizes on the competition mechanism embedded in its definition to expose the fragility of networks, paving the way to design strategies to mitigate vulnerability and enhance the resilience of critical infrastructures.

This paper is devoted to the study of the well-posedness of a singular nonlinear fractional pseudo-hyperbolic system with frictional damping terms. The fractional derivative is described in Caputo sense. The equations are supplemented by classical and nonlocal boundary conditions. Upon some a priori estimates and density arguments, we establish the existence and uniqueness of the strongly generalized solution for the associated linear fractional system in some Sobolev fractional spaces. On the basis of the obtained results for the linear fractional system, we apply an iterative process in order to establish the well-posedness of the nonlinear fractional system. This mathematical model of pseudo-hyperbolic systems arises mainly in the theory of longitudinal and lateral vibrations of elastic bars (beams), and in some special case it is propounded in unsteady helical flows between two infinite coaxial circular cylinders for some specific boundary conditions.

Gracilaria gracilis is a benthic, intertidal red macroalga (Rhodophyta) of the commercially important Gracilaria genus. It's highly valued in scientific research for its ability to produce high-quality agar, a valuable polysaccharide widely utilised in various industries. This review serves as a guide to G. gracilis, encompassing various aspects of its biology, chemical composition, cultivation methods, and the main environmental factors influencing its growth as well as its different uses. The method used involved a descriptive analysis of articles sourced from Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Springer. The results of the review showed that G. gracilis is one of the best candidates for cultivation, giving an excellent resilience to salinity and temperature fluctuations and offering ease of vegetative reproduction, among others traits. It can grow in temperatures ranging from 20 to 30◦C, salinities between 25–35‰ and up to 42‰, depths ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 m, and light intensity of around 70 and 210 μmol photons m−2 s−1. Based on its chemical composition, G gracilis has many potentials as a source of high-value compounds and extracts for various uses in cosmetic, food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries. It is also used as a raw material or nutritious dietary item in the human diet, and can be suggested as a potential novel commercial source of phycobiliproteins.

Cet article explore l’hypothèse selon laquelle le rapport à l’écrit d’un élève peut influencer ses manières à aborder l’écrit dans une langue étrangère. L’étude se déroule en contexte plurilingue algérien et a pour butde mettre la lumière, en particulier sur l’appropriation/ désappropriation scripturale en langue française. Elle adopte une méthode à la fois empirique et qualitative, sur un échantillon réduit, et ouvre des perspectives sociolinguistiques et didactiques à explorer à plus grande échelle sur le lien entre représentations de l’écrit et performances scolaires.

Notre recherche a pour vocation d’étudier les intentions dans lesquelles on pourrait intégrer la culture du brouillon dans le chemin de l’apprentissage de la production d’écrits. Elle s’est effectuée en contexte plurilingue algérien avec des élèves de 4èAM, en vue de les aider dans l’accès à l’écrit en langue étrangère. Elle adopte une méthodologie empirique qualitative et ouvre des perspectives sociodidactiques qui mettent le focus sur les qualités de l’élève (ce qu’il sait faire) plus que ses difficultés (ce qu’il ne sait pas faire) et sur le profit issu des interactions dans la classe.

Context: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 8-week ballistic-strength-training program using a validated specific throwing device (ie, Arm/Shoulder Specific Strength Device), on isokinetic shoulders' rotation muscle-torques and ratios as well as range of motion in team handball players. Design: A repeated-measures experimental design with a randomized controlled trial was used. Methods: Twenty-six high-level competitive male U-19 team handball players were randomly assigned into training (TG, n = 15) and control (n = 11) groups. The TG undertook a twice a week for 8-week periodized throws program with an individually predetermined optimal load. The program incorporated shackled eccentric and concentric exercises using the Arm/Shoulder Specific Strength Device. Peak torques, functional, and conventional ratios for both arms at different angular velocities (60°·s−1, 180°·s−1, and 300°·s−1) were assessed over time and between groups, using an isokinetic dynamometer. Results: A significant improvement for TG (P <.01; d = 1.13 [moderate]; +20.2%) of the concentric peak torques for dominant arm in external rotation was observed at 300°·s−1. Significant (P <.05–.01) increases were also noted for nondominant arm at the 3 studied angular velocities. In addition, 300°·s−1 eccentric peak torques of the dominant arm and nondominant arm have significantly improved for both external and internal rotations (P <.05; d =.99 [moderate] and d = 1.21 [large]; +15.7% and + 17.9%, respectively) with small changes at the other angular assessed velocities. Posttraining, TG's dominant arm showed significant improvements (P <.05–.01) in functional and conventional ratios at all velocities. Notably, significant differences (P <.05–.01) were observed at 60°·s−1 and across all velocities when comparing the TG with the control group. TG showed significant increase for internal rotation and external rotation shoulder range of motions (P <.05; d = 1.22–1.27 [large]), +5.0% and +7.7%, respectively). Conclusions: The specific 8-week throwing training program on the Arm/Shoulder Specific Strength Device showed significant performance improvements in almost all assessed isokinetic concentric and eccentric peak torques as well as internal and external range of motion increase for both arms while ensuring rotator cuff torque ratios and shoulder mobility in team handball real sport-specific condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]