Final Stage Research Articles

Don't say it's over: The perceived epidemic stage and COVID preventive behaviour.

Little is known about the perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic's dynamic and its effect on self-protective behaviour. Using survey data from 1343 university students we explored how the perceived temporal distance to the COVID pandemic peak associates with risk perception and the adherence of preventive behaviours. Results show that individuals differ in their perception of the pandemic stage despite being in the same environment. The belief that the COVID peak is in the past was associated with less perceived risk and decreased self-protection. A high COVID-19 media involvement and trust in the authorities were associated with higher perceived risk and preventive behaviour implementation. Overall, the perception that the pandemic wave is in its final stages could be an independent predictor of more risky behaviour. Thus, the communication of the pandemic dynamic should be provided by policy makers with caution to avoid the possibility of discounting the risk.

Influence of phytobiotics dose on feed conversion in broiler chickens

The inclusion of Chaga decoction in the compound feed for broiler chickens in the amount of 20 mg, 40 and 60 mg/kg of live weight of the broilers during the entire period of its rearing had a different influence on the digestibility and use of nutrients in the diet. The results of the physiological experiment at the age of 3 weeks of broilers showed that a small dosage of the phytobiotic compared with the control group stimulated an increase in the digestibility of crude protein in the feed by 4.05 abs.%, crude fat by 1.92 abs.%, crude fiber by 1.21 abs.%. With the increase in the dosage of the phytobiotic in the broiler compound feed, the increase in the digestibility of crude fi ber by 2.01–2.12 abs.% was noted. Nitrogen digestibility in poultry with a low rate of Chaga decoction introduction exceeded the control group by 0.16 g, and other experimental groups by 0.13–0.14 g. As a result, the average daily nitrogen deposition in the body of broiler chickens in the group with a low rate of phytobiotic introduction was 2.53 g or 16.1 % higher than in broilers in the control group and 2.3–3.2 % higher than in other experimental groups. At the fi nal stage of broiler chicken rearing, the digestibility of crude protein in the diet of broiler chickens of the 1st experimental group with a low dosage of phytobiotic was higher than in the control group by 3.17 abs.%, crude fat by 4.15 abs.%, crude fi ber by 2.60 abs.%, and nitrogen-free extractive substances by 0.17 abs.%. In broilers of other experimental groups this diff erence was less expressed. A decrease in nitrogen losses with undigested substances in the droppings of broilers of the 1st experimental group increased its deposition by 5.7 %, in other experimental groups only by 0.9–2.1 %. Analysis of the dynamics of live weight of broiler chickens during the rearing period showed that the 1st experimental group with the low dosage of Chaga decoction in the diet increased the absolute gain in live weight in comparison with the control group by 5.0 %, with the 2nd experimental group by 3.4 % and with the 3rd experimental group by 1.4 %, and feed costs accordingly by groups decreased by 4.7 %, 3.2 and 1.5 %.

Extensive Colitis and Smoking Are Associated With Postoperative Complications Within 30 Days of Ileal Pouch-Anal Anastomosis.

Our understanding of outcomes after proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis (UC) is largely based on analyses of selected populations. We created a state-level registry to evaluate the epidemiology of IPAA surgery and pouch-related outcomes across the major healthcare systems performing these surgeries in our state. We created a retrospective cohort of all patients undergoing restorative proctocolectomy with IPAA for UC at 1 of 4 centers between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020. The primary outcomes of this study were the rate of complications and all-cause readmissions within the first 30 days of the final stage of IPAA surgery. During the study period, 177 patients underwent IPAA surgery with 66 (37%) experiencing a complication within 30 days. After adjusting for the number of stages in IPAA surgery, patients with extensive UC (odds ratio, 3.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.39-9.33) and current or former smokers (odds ratio, 2.98; 95% confidence interval, 1.38-6.45) were more likely to experience a complication. Among all patients, 57 (32%) required readmission within 30 days. The most common reasons for readmission were ileus/small bowel obstruction (22%), peripouch abscess (19%), and dehydration (16%). In this first state-level examination of the epidemiology of IPAA for UC, we demonstrated that the complication rate after IPAA for UC was 37%, with one-third of patients being readmitted within 30 days. Extensive disease at the time of colectomy appears to be an indicator of more severe disease and may portend a worse prognosis after IPAA.

Preparation and implementation of the “Greater Albania” project: historical and geopolitical aspects (1944-1980s)

The Kosovo issue is currently “settled” by the actual functioning of the Republic of Kosovo and by providing it with all the attributes of statehood during the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations (completeness of territory, border, customs, army, independent telecommunications and electricity system, international telephone number, etc.). When studying the Kosovo problem, it is logical to raise the question: why and how it was resolved in this particular way, what were the internal and external factors that ensured the stunning success of the separatist Pristina, which achieved an unprecedented permission for the Albanians, bypassing international and domestic law, for another national self-determination in the form creation of a second state? Often, when talking about the Kosovo confl ict, the hot phase of which occurred in 1998–1999, the main focus is on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and their Western and non-Western patrons. However, no paramilitary unit that is relatively small in number, extremely weak in military training, and has a sabotage and punitive nature, even with external support, is capable of achieving a goal of this level in such a short period of time. It would take decades to prepare for its implementation — and they were at the disposal of Albanian tribal leaders and socially signifi cant fi gures who managed to ensure their interests in this way (the issue was not caring for the Albanian people, only gaining infl uence and extracting specifi c material benefi ts). Albanian organizations of the interwar period (Kosovo Committee, 1918–1925) and the leaders of the bandits, who psychologically and emotionally consolidated the practice of terror against the Serbs of Kosmet, laid a “strong foundation”. However, post-war Albanian emigration played a key role in the Kosovo confl ict of the 1990s. Moreover, Albanian emigration is also not a random phenomenon; it has a consistent development and direct historical continuity from Albanian organizations since the end of the 19th century. The article analyzes the Albanian nationalist organizations created in Kosovo and Metohija at the fi nal stage of the Second World War, as well as the political organizations of the Albanian emigration of the post-war period, identifying the continuity of ideology and practice that laid a solid foundation and created the conditions for the emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army and political movements that ensured the creation of the Republic of Kosovo.

Recent Advances on PKM2 Inhibitors and Activators in Cancer Applications.

Metabolic reprogramming of cells, from the normal mode of glucose metabolism named glycolysis, is a pivotal characteristic of impending cancerous cells. Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), an important enzyme that catalyzes the final rate-limiting stage during glycolysis, is highly expressed in numerous types of tumors and aids in development of favorable conditions for the survival of tumor cells. Increasing evidence has suggested that PKM2 is one of promising targets for innovative drug discovery, especially for the developments of antitumor therapeutics. Herein, we systematically summarize the recent advancement on PKM2 modulators including inhibitors and activators in cancer applications. We also discussed the classifications of pyruvate kinases in mammals and the biological functions of PKM2 in this review. We do hope that this review would provide a comprehensive understanding of the current research on PKM2 modulators, which may benefit the development of more potent PKM2-related drug candidates to treat PKM2-associated diseases including cancers in future.

HYBRID VASCULAR APPROACH REDUCES THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT STAY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONICALLY THREATENING LIMB ISCHEMIA AND MULTILEVEL ATHEROSCLEROTIC LESIONS

Chronic limb-threatening ischemia represents the fi nal stage of atherosclerosis and is often associated with signifi cantcardiovascular morbidity leading to high mortality. The hybrid approach combines surgical and endovascular techniques toachieve maximal revascularization of multilevel atherosclerotic lesions in the lower limb, with a shorter procedure time and less trauma compared to the classical method. It is also expected to reduce the length of hospital stay.The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between the hybrid approach and the length of stay in the intensive careunit (ICU) compared to the classical vascular surgical approach in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia, multilevel atherosclerosis and high anesthesiological risk. Another endpoint is to compare the total ventilation time in the two groups.Material and methods. The study compares ICU length of stay and total mechanical ventilation time between two groups –a prospective group (n=48) of patients treated with hybrid revascularization and a control group (n=50) treated with classicalvascular revascularization. Patients included had multi- level atherosclerotic lesions (aorta- iliac, femur- popliteal and outfl ow) and chronic limb-threatening ischemia (Fontaine Grade III and IV). A database was created with subsequent statistical analysis using «SPSS» software. Tests used: Chi-square, p-value, frequencies. The chi-squared test was considered valid if the test statistic is chi-squared distributed under the null hypothesis, specifi cally Pearson’s chi-squared test. If the null hypothesis that there are no diff erences between classes in the population is true, the test statistic calculated from the observations follows a χ2 frequency distribution. If the p-value is greater than alpha, then we have not rejectedthe null hypothesis and assume that there is no signifi cant diff erence between the two samples. We set the signifi cance level at 0.05. The study protocol was approved by the Commission on Biomedical Ethics of the Bukovinian State Medical University (minutes of the Commission meeting No 4 from the 19.12.2023 year). The theme of the complex research work «Development, justifi cation and implementation of new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of some acute surgical diseases, prediction of their course and prevention of complications (state registration number: 0121U110501, terms of execution: 01.2021-12.0225).Results. ICU length of stay and total ventilation time were analyzed in the two groups. Both ICU and total ventilation timeswere shorter with statistical signifi cance in the hybrid approach group. Therefore, the use of hybrid revascularization contributes to an accelerated stabilization of the patient’s condition. Therefore, the use of the hybrid vascular approach contributes to an accelerated stabilization of the patient’s condition. This reduces the duration of treatment, the cost of treatment. So, hybrid vascular approach is a promising way to treat limb ischemia. This approach needs further implementation in practice. The novelty added by the manuscript to the already published scientifi c literature: Hybrid revascularization itself represents a relatively new type of treatment for patients with multilevel atherosclerotic lesions. The analysis of the length of stay in the intensive care unit of patients undergoing hybrid revascularization compared to classic surgical revascularization adds to the current literature.Conclusions. ICU length of stay for patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia and multilevel atherosclerosis, as wellas total mechanical ventilation time, is shorter with statistical signifi cance when hybrid revascularization is used compared with traditional vascular surgery.

Effects of processing parameters on the leakage current of silicone rubber insulator

Silicone rubber (SiR) is known for its exceptional electrical insulation properties. The performance of SiR could be affected by many factors, including processing parameters, particularly mixing speed and time. While these parameters are crucial for ensuring the homogeneity of blended polymeric materials, their electrical impact remains relatively unexplored. This research investigates the effect of varying processing parameters on SiR samples during rapid aging under the incline plane tracking (IPT) test. The study unfolds in three phases, with the final IPT stage revealing the significant influence of different mixing speeds and times on the recorded leakage current (LC) values for each sample. Sample 2, subjected to 70 rpm mixing speed and 10 minutes of mixing time, exhibited great resistance to tracking and erosion. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was conducted on the samples before and after the IPT test to further analyze the impact of the varying processing parameters. Once again, sample 2 displayed notable resilience, demonstrating lower reductions in absorbance values for key functional groups. In conclusion, the specific processing parameters of 70 rpm and 10 minutes have been shown to positively influence the performance of SiR, enhancing their resistance to tracking and erosion during rapid aging.

PECULIARITIES OF THE COURSE OF PREGNANCY AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF GENITAL INFECTIONS

The article provides an analysis of literature data on the course of pregnancy in the presence of genital infections. To date, there are no clear criteria for the diagnosis of intrauterine infection, and the relationships between the infection of the fetus during pregnancy with various types of microorganisms have not been clarifi ed. Congenital infection is one of the most important medical and social problems of modern obstetrics and perinatology. Clinical manifestations depend on the type and virulence of the causative agent, the course of the infectious process in the mother (acute, latent, stage of remission or exacerbation), massiveness of insemination, ways of infection penetration into the body of the pregnant woman, immunological reactivity of the woman, gestation period at infection. In the case of an infectious disease of the mother, during pregnancy, the embryo and fetus are aff ected not only by pathogens, but also by toxic substances that are formed when the mother’s metabolism is disturbed, hyperthermia and hypoxia of tissues, which are observed during an exacerbation. The period of gestation plays an important, and sometimes leading, role in the development of the disease. With the infl uence of infection, in the fetal period, intrauterine infection and death of the fetus, miscarriage, fetoplacental insu ffi ciency are also possible. Under these conditions, the formation of a complex of pathological changes in the fetus is possible, which can be the direct cause of its ante- and postnatal death. When the fetus is infected before delivery, the manifestations of intrauterine infection depend on the stage of the disease. If at the time of delivery the disease is in the initial phase, then the infection manifests itself within the fi rst 3 days after birth. If childbirth takes place at the fi nal stage of the disease, disadaptation syndrome is more often observed in the early neonatal period, later, chronicity of the process and persistent latent infection are possible. Childbirth is a critical period, during which the development of an infectious process in the fetus can be caused even by the opportunistic microfl ora of the vagina, which is not clinically evident in the mother.

Terrestrial carbon dynamics and economic valuation of ecosystem service for land use management in the Mediterranean region

Land use change is a significant cause of land degradation, resulting in the removal of carbon and its transfer to the hydrosphere or atmosphere, which can have a detrimental impact on essential ecosystem functions and services. In contrast, rural landscapes offer both ecological and economic benefits to people due to their carbon storage properties. This benefit is often evaluated within the framework of Ecosystem Services (ES). The rural landscapes offer unique structures and ecosystem services. The aim of this study is to provide an economic quantification of carbon storage and sequestration in rural landscapes as an ecosystem service and to introduce carbon-based rural landscape management. The study enables the integration of carbon-based strategies and policies by generating quantitative outputs for landscape plans that have not yet been included in the spatial planning hierarchy. The Upper Seyhan Basin (USB), located on the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkiye, was modelled using spatiotemporal and economic valuation approaches to assess terrestrial carbon storage and sequestration in this context. The study modelled and mapped the four main terrestrial carbon storage components in the rural landscape: (i) above-ground biomass, (ii) below-ground biomass, (iii) Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), and (iv) dead organic matter carbon. The future land cover of 2055 was modelled using the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP)-Markov Chain (MC) algorithm based on the “Business-As-Usual” (BAU) scenario to determine future carbon sequestration. The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) was estimated for Turkiye using the Regional Integrated Model of Climate and Economy (RICE) to economically model carbon services. In the final stage of the study, modelling outputs, including carbon storage pools/sinks, projected land cover dynamics, and SCC components, were used within the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to map the carbon dynamics of the rural landscape at the regional level. This paper demonstrates the role of geospatial modelling and proposes a new planning and design logic that considers carbon-based inputs and global climate change in an appropriate format for land management by bridging the interface between earth sciences and spatial planning. The study results indicate that, the rural landscape in the study area provided an ecosystem service of 70,266 TgC carbon in 2014 with a storage value of USD 222,853,170. For the 2014–2025 projection, an estimated 1.042 TgC of carbon sequestration was valued at USD 6,234,137. The 2014–2055 projection estimated 3.185 TgC of carbon sequestration valued at USD 58,745,265.

Automatic extraction of non-bifurcated lunar lineaments from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) monochromatic images based on a Markov chain method

ABSTRACT Lineaments play a critical role in the study of lunar geological evolution. However, lineaments still need to be extracted manually which constrains lunar research. To fill this gap, a Markov chain-based methodology is introduced for automatically extracting vector-based non-bifurcated lineaments from images. The extracted lineaments are formed by successive nodes and line segments, where nodes denote pixel positions and line segments represented connecting lines between nodes. A modified U-net with residual shortcut connections and dilated convolutions is proposed based on the elongated shapes of lineaments to evaluate the probability of nodes belonging to lineaments. Four connection shape features are proposed to describe the connection shapes of nodes and a Gaussian Mixture Model is used to evaluate the probability of line segments belonging to the lineaments based on the proposed features. In the final stage, the lineament probabilities of both nodes and line segments to extract lineaments are considered in the Markov chain. Our method has experimented on a dataset containing 220 samples and 10-fold cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance. Both qualitative and quantitative results indicated that our method can effectively extract non-bifurcated lunar lineaments with arbitrary bending. The method sheds useful light on automatic lineament extraction.

Fluvial deposits of the Patlanoaya Group in southern Mexico: the stratigraphic record of an Early Mississippian supradetachment basin formed along the margin of Gondwana during the closure of the Rheic Ocean

ABSTRACT The Rheic Ocean closure stratigraphic record in southern Mexico is largely exposed in the Paleozoic Acatlán Complex. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Acatlán Complex is the presence of high-pressure rocks, interpreted as remnants of the Rheic Ocean and the adjacent continental margin of Gondwana, which were subducted and then exhumed to the surface. Despite its importance in reconstructing the dynamics of the westernmost Rheic Ocean closure, the timing and mechanisms of exhumation of these high-pressure rocks remain debated. Some authors have tentatively interpreted the late Paleozoic, fluvial to marine succession of the Patlanoaya Group in southern Mexico as the sedimentary response to the exhumation of high-pressure rocks of the Acatlán Complex. Therefore, these sedimentary rocks may be particularly helpful in understanding the timing and evolution of high-pressure rocks exhumation during the Rheic Ocean closure. In this work, the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the continental deposits of the Patlanoaya Group was reconstructed, integrating sedimentologic, petrographic, and U-Pb detrital geochronological data to test the different scenarios proposed for the exhumation of the Acatlán Complex high-pressure rocks. Our data suggest that the lower Patlanoaya Group was deposited in an Early Mississippian basin with a two-stage evolution: a phase characterized by debris flow deposits derived from small-scale reliefs composed of low-grade metamorphic rocks and a subsequent phase marked by an NNE-trending fluvial system deposits sourced from low-metamorphic grade rocks of a mylonitic zone. Therefore, the lower Patlanoaya Group deposition was controlled by a major NNE-trending mylonitic shear zone associated with the development of a supradetachment basin linked to the progressive exhumation of high-pressure rocks during an Early Mississippian major extensional event. This work highlights the importance of sedimentary deposits in reconstructing the late Paleozoic history of the Acatlán Complex during the Rheic Ocean closure and the final stage of the Pangea assembly.

Path Planning for UAVs Under GPS Permanent Faults

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have various applications in different settings, including e.g., surveillance, packet delivery, emergency response, data collection in the Internet of Things (IoT), and connectivity in cellular networks. However, this technology comes with many risks and challenges such as vulnerabilities to malicious cyber-physical attacks. This paper studies the problem of path planning for UAVs under GPS sensor permanent faults in a cyber-physical system (CPS) perspective. Based on studying and analyzing the CPS architecture of the UAV, the cyber “attacks and threats” are differentiated from attacks on sensors and communication components. An efficient way to address this problem is to introduce a novel approach for UAV’s path planning resilience to GPS permanent faults artificial potential field algorithm (RCA-APF). The proposed algorithm completes the three stages in a coordinated manner. In the first stage, the permanent faults on the GPS sensor of the UAV are detected, and the UAV starts to divert from its initial path planning. In the second stage, we estimated the location of the UAV under GPS permanent fault using Received Signal Strength (RSS) trilateration localization approach. In the final stage of the algorithm, we implemented the path planning of the UAV using an open-source UAV simulator. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate the performance of the algorithm and its effectiveness, resulting in efficient path planning for the UAV.

Consumer Insights to Eco-Design a Hot Sauce: Understanding Household Use for Product Optimization through Focus Groups and a Home-Use-Test Study.

Promoting sustainable choices requires making food with proper environmental performance readily available to consumers, but these products must be appealing to ensure market success. The aim of the present study was to investigate the acceptability and perception of an eco-designed product using a home-use-test approach to identify its desired extrinsic features and to better understand how consumers would use the product in a real consumption context. First, three focus groups were conducted to identify the key perceived aspects of the product. A consumer survey was designed with the information gathered from the focus groups, and a home-use-test was then performed (n = 207). Results showed high acceptance of the product, as well as its potential corrections, e.g., to thicken the texture of the sauce. A total of 64% of consumers expressed their willingness to switch from a well-known brand to the new developed product, and this hypothetical shift could lead up to a 58% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with the product use. Understanding consumer expectations at every design stage helps the development of market-viable and sustainable products, and the present research proposes an interesting methodology that can be effectively applied during the final stages of eco-designed food development.

Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with complete mesocolic excision and D3 lymphadenectomy using the open book approach: a video vignette.

According to the concept of total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer, Hohenberger translated this concept to colonic cancer by introducing complete mesocolic excision (CME). The concept of this surgical technique was further elucidated by Benz et al. in the form of an open book approach. This article presents and demonstrates in a video a case of laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with CME and D3 lymphadenectomy using open book approach in the treatment of a T3N1M0 distal ascending colonic adenocarcinoma. The final pathology report confirmed moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma with a maximum tumor size of 55 mm and 0/60 lymph nodes. The mesocolic fascia was intact and R0 was achieved. The final staging was pT3pN0pM0. However, D3 lymphadenectomy is not universally adopted due to concerns of higher morbidity we believe that with adequate training and supervision CME with D3 LDN is feasible and safe to be offered to all right-sided colorectal cancers with curative intent treatment.

Insight into a traditional culinary practice: Late-stage addition of spiny coriander (Eryngium foetidum L.) in Indian cooking system

Spiny coriander (Eryngium foetidum L.) is a food flavouring herb with strong coriander-like odour. The leaves are traditionally used for flavouring the curries, boiled items, soups in Indian subcontinent and added during the final stage of cooking. The current study aimed to validate this traditional culinary knowledge on the addition of spiny coriander leaves and provide a scientific insight into this practice. To pursue the objective, fresh leaves were subjected to simulated open and close-vessel cooking conditions in Clevenger-type apparatus and pressure cooker, respectively. An extensive loss (∼43 %) in volatile flavours occurred after 30 min of open-vessel boiling and similarly for close-vessel process (∼39 %). However, the volatile composition, exclusively dominated by fatty aldehydes, especially trans-2-dodecenal (>70 %) remained practically unaltered throughout this process; rejecting the possibility of considerable transformation or degradation. Thus, boiling process during cooking promoted the loss of aromatic flavours through evaporation and justified the late-stage addition of spiny coriander to preserve its key flavours.

From Chingford to Carsington: impact of soil mechanics on dam construction, 1937–1987

In 1937 the investigation of the failure during construction of Chingford number 2 embankment dam brought the concepts of modern soil mechanics to bear on the construction of British embankment dams. Effective stress theory highlighted the crucial significance of pore-water pressure in understanding embankment stability and it became standard practice to monitor pore pressures during embankment construction using twin-tube hydraulic piezometers. By the 1980s, embankment stability might have seemed assured, with embankment design utilising limit equilibrium stability analyses that incorporated strength parameters of fill and foundation materials determined by laboratory testing. However, in 1984 the upstream slope of Carsington dam suffered a major slip in the final stage of construction. Recently developed advanced finite-element analyses were able to demonstrate that progressive failure was a major factor in the slope instability, but the failure was also a reminder of the continuing need for experience-based judgement in design.

Effects of Aqueous Isotopic Substitution on the Adsorption Dynamics and Dilational Rheology of β-Lactoglobulin Layers at the Water/Air Interface.

The effect of the degree of isotopic substitution of the aqueous medium on the adsorption kinetics and the surface dilational rheological behavior at the water/air interface of the globular protein β-lactoglobulin was investigated. Aqueous solutions with fixed concentrations of 1 μM protein and 10 mM hydrogenous buffer with controlled pH 7 were prepared in H2O, D2O, and an isotopic mixture of 8.1% v/v D2O in H2O (called air contrast matched water, ACMW). Using a bubble shape analysis tensiometer, we obtained various experimental dependencies of the dilational viscoelasticity modulus E as a function of the dynamic surface pressure and of the frequency and amplitude of bubble surface area oscillations, either in the course of adsorption or after having reached a steady state. In general, the results revealed virtually no effect from substituting H2O by ACMW but distinct albeit relatively weak effects for intermediate adsorption times for D2O as the aqueous phase. In the final stage of adsorption, established after around 10 h, the equilibrium adsorption and the dilational rheological behavior of all protein layers under investigation are only very weakly affected by the presence of D2O. The obtained results help to design experimental protocols for protein adsorption studies, for example, by neutron reflectivity.

Experimental investigation of two-phase flow development through two-stage orifices

In this study, the effect of flow development length on two-stage flow orifices at an intermittent flow condition was investigated. Experiments were carried out for two-stage orifices with area ratio of 0.25–0.14 and with 1, 3, and 5D spacing between orifices. Also, experiments were carried out on single-stage orifices of the same area ratios under the same inlet flow conditions. The data suggested that restricting the flow in stages, with the smaller area of the restriction in the final stage, reduced the flow separation, enhance the mixing and improve flow development downstream as the spacing increased. Also, the total pressure drop of the two-stage orifice found to decrease as the spacing decreased especially at low gas superficial velocity. Finally, a new approach to correlate the total pressure drop was proposed and successfully implemented in order to determine the pressure drop multiplier of two-stage orifice with varying spacing.

Illustrated review of Mormon cricket Anabrus simplex (Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae) embryonic development

Mormon crickets Anabrus simplex Haldeman, 1852 are a pest of crops and rangeland in the western United States, but little is known about their development in the egg stage. Mormon crickets have multiple states at which they may diapause and thus affect population growth. Consequently, a series of photographs of Mormon cricket embryonic stages was organized using published research on Old World katydids. Earlier stages were more difficult to distinguish without removing the chorion. However, where possible, features that can be seen through the chorion are indicated with the expectation that these will be useful in characterizing development in living embryos. As with other Orthoptera, the timing of development varied greatly among individuals, but at a minimum, embryos filled approximately half the egg in six weeks, whereas they required 12 weeks from oviposition to reach the final stage before their obligate winter diapause.

Semantic-Consistency-guided Learning on Deep Features for Unsupervised Salient Object Detection

Unsupervised salient object detection is an important task in many real-world scenarios where pixel-wise label information is of scarce availability. Despite its significance, this problem remains rarely explored, with a few works that consider unsupervised salient object detection methods based on the fused graph from the sum fusion of multiple deep feature similarity matrices. However, these methods ignore the interrelation of the low-level feature similarity matrices and the high-level semantic similarity matrice, which degrades the quality of the fused graph. In this article, we propose a semantic-consistency-guided multi-graph fusion learning algorithm for unsupervised saliency detection, where the consistency and inconsistency between multiple low-level feature similarity matrices and the high-level semantic similarity matrice are explored to promote the robustness and quality of the fused graph. In the first stage, a semantic-consistency-guided multi-graph fusion learning method is proposed to exploit consistency and inconsistency of multiple low-level deep features and the high-level semantic feature. The semantic-consistency-guided similarity matrices are computed for preliminary saliency ranking. In the following saliency refinement stage, the semantic-enhanced similarity matrices are built by the cross diffusion to fuse the multiple low-level deep features and the high semantic deep feature. Based on the semantic-enhanced similarity matrices, the refinement saliency maps are calculated in a semantic-enhanced cellular automata manner. Furthermore, the final ensemble stage of the large margin semi-supervised classification views the preliminary ranking results and refinement results as features, adopts the large margin graphs for saliency ensemble. Extensive evaluations over four benchmark datasets show that the proposed unsupervised method performs favorably against the state-of-the-art approaches and is competitive with some supervised deep learning-based methods.