Functional Division Research Articles

Medial Amygdalar Tau Is Associated With Mood Symptoms in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

BackgroundWhile the amygdala receives early tau deposition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and is involved in social and emotional processing, the relationship between amygdalar tau and early neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD is unknown. We sought to determine whether focal tau binding in the amygdala and abnormal amygdalar connectivity were detectable in a preclinical AD cohort and identify relationships between these and self-reported mood symptoms. MethodsWe examined 598 individuals (347 amyloid positive [58% female], 251 amyloid negative [62% female] subset in tau positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging cohorts) from the A4 (Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic AD) Study. In the tau positron emission tomography cohort, we used amygdalar segmentations to examine representative nuclei from 3 functional divisions of the amygdala. We analyzed between-group differences in division-specific tau binding in the amygdala in preclinical AD. We conducted seed-based functional connectivity analyses from each division in the functional magnetic resonance imaging cohort. Finally, we conducted exploratory post hoc correlation analyses between neuroimaging biomarkers of interest and anxiety and depression scores. ResultsAmyloid-positive individuals demonstrated increased tau binding in the medial and lateral amygdala, and tau binding in these regions was associated with mood symptoms. Across amygdalar divisions, amyloid-positive individuals had relatively higher regional connectivity from the amygdala to other temporal regions, the insula, and the orbitofrontal cortex, but medial amygdala to retrosplenial cortex connectivity was lower. Medial amygdala to retrosplenial connectivity was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms, as was retrosplenial tau. ConclusionsOur findings suggest that preclinical tau deposition in the amygdala and associated changes in functional connectivity may be related to early mood symptoms in AD.

ОРГАНИ ДЕРЖАВНОЇ ВЛАДИ ЯК СУБ’ЄКТИ ВІЙСЬКОВО-ТЕХНІЧНОГО СПІВРОБІТНИЦТВА

The article analyzes the issues of competence of public authorities as subjects of legal relations in the field of military-technical cooperation. Based on the functional division of state power, the structure of state authorities in the field of military-technical cooperation is considered. It is stated that the only legislative body in Ukraine is the Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The relevant government bodies, primarily the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, represent the executive branch of government. Based on the functional approach, the author proposes a three-tier system of central executive bodies in the field of military-technical cooperation, which includes: Level I – the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; Level II – ministries of Ukraine (Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Strategic Industries, Ministry of Finance); Level III – state services, state inspections, state agencies, independent regulators and bodies with special status (State Export Control Service, State Space Agency). It was noted that an advisory body should be established with the competence to deal with military-technical cooperation, namely: The Interagency Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation and Export Control Policy, which is an advisory body to the President of Ukraine. Key words: military-technical cooperation, international cooperation, subjects of legal relations, public authorities, military-industrial complex.

Unveiling the deformation micro-mechanism for mechanical anisotropy of a CoCrFeNi medium entropy alloy

The equiatomic Cr-Co-Fe-Ni medium-entropy alloy has the face-centered cubic structure. Single crystals of this alloy were tested by in-situ micropillar compression along different loading axes under scanning electron microscope. The transmission electron microscopy characterization and molecular dynamics simulation were incorporated for quantitative analysis of the effects of different crystal orientations on the deformation mechanisms. The <001>-oriented pillar not only exhibited extensive deformation-induced nano twinning, but also has been identified for the first time to undergo the FCCHCP phase transformation at room temperature. The strain localization tendency of <011>-oriented samples was confirmed through uniaxial tests to interpret the significant serration on stress-strain curves. The prominent strain hardening of <111>-oriented pillars was attributed to intense intersection between slip planes as evidenced by the extra density of Lomer-Cottrell locks. Such a high hardening rate has caused subsequent kinking of pillars. Functional division of different regions of kink band was conducted based on Orowan model. In principle, multi-principal element alloys can theoretically be designed and developed to combine a variety of excellent properties, which is an important class of candidate structural materials for advanced engineering systems. These findings provide promising guidance for understanding the mechanical anisotropy and application of these alloys.

Research on Sustainable Usage of Straw in China

Agricultural waste refers to the by-products or residue of agricultural activities, which mainly consists of roots, stems, and leaves, which are left over after processing crops or harvesting (Li et al., 2021). Straw is one of the main agricultural residues produced from cereals during the harvesting process. Cereal waste has led to significant agricultural waste issues, which presents great challenges in terms of sustainable development in China. This study focuses on the sustainable use of straw waste in China. Some researchers pointed out that the 3R approach is recognized as a successful model used to analyze the circular economy and sustainable social development. The sustainable barriers framework is regarded as a reasonable framework for analyzing the obstacles to sustainable behaviors in society. The combination framework will be used in conjunction with the 3R approach in this research to evaluate the issue and demonstrate the obstacles in China's agricultural industry more intuitively and effectively. This study will also analyze the reasons for the unsustainable use of straw in Chinese society from three perspectives: social, economic, and policy, and analyze how the sustainable use of straw in China can be achieved, including media communication, modification of production lines, and division of government function, according to the 3Rs and sustainable barrier framework.

Prospects for Sustainable Corporate Governance in Russia Based on Integrated Communications

The article presents the author’s understanding of the terms “corporate governance”, “corporate management” and “communication management” in the context of the concept of sustainable development, the ESG agenda and sustainable corporate governance, as well as their relationship. The role of the stakeholder approach in bringing together the content of the concepts of “corporate governance” and “integrated communications” is shown. Some features of communications management in Russia, including in the context of ESG, are examined in detail. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that many Russian companies and organizations are extremely slow to implement the principles and methods of integrated communications and sustainable corporate governance, although they determine the effectiveness of theiractivities. The subject of the study is the system of sustainable corporate governance as part of the implementation of ESG principles in Russia. The purpose of the article is to show Russian stakeholders the role of integrated communications in the development of sustainable corporate governance and ESG policies using research methods such as analysis of scientific papers on the research topic, comparison, generalization, systemic and logical analysis. The scientific novelty of the publication is justified by the author’s interpretation of the variants of understanding the terms, for example, the authors of the article consider the organizational and/or functional division of communications into internal and external to be unproductive. In addition, in order to modernize the methodology for rating and auditing companies and organizations for compliance of their activities with ESG principles, the authors propose to increase the number of management criteria of block “G”, using metrics for assessing the effectiveness of integrated communications management, taken from the “corporate management” and “communications” systems management». The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of its use in the development of integrated communications systems within the framework of sustainable corporate governance, as well as in the course of modernizing the methodology for rating and auditing ESG policies in Russian companies and organizations. A further direction of research may be related to the development of criteria and indicators of the quality of integrated communications systems and sustainable corporate governance, as well as consideration of the characteristics of Russian communications practices in the business environment.

Medial amygdalar tau is associated with anxiety symptoms in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

While the amygdala receives early tau deposition in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is involved in social and emotional processing, the relationship between amygdalar tau and early neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD is unknown. We sought to determine whether focal tau binding in the amygdala and abnormal amygdalar connectivity were detectable in a preclinical AD cohort and identify relationships between these and self-reported mood symptoms. We examined n=598 individuals (n=347 amyloid-positive (58% female), n=251 amyloid-negative (62% female); subset into tau PET and fMRI cohorts) from the A4 Study. In our tau PET cohort, we used amygdalar segmentations to examine representative nuclei from three functional divisions of the amygdala. We analyzed between-group differences in division-specific tau binding in the amygdala in preclinical AD. We conducted seed-based functional connectivity analyses from each division in the fMRI cohort. Finally, we conducted exploratory post-hoc correlation analyses between neuroimaging biomarkers of interest and anxiety and depression scores. Amyloid-positive individuals demonstrated increased tau binding in medial and lateral amygdala (F(4,442)=14.61, p=0.00045; F(4,442)=5.83, p=0.024, respectively). Across amygdalar divisions, amyloid-positive individuals had relatively increased regional connectivity from amygdala to other temporal regions, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. There was an interaction by amyloid group between tau binding in the medial and lateral amygdala and anxiety. Medial amygdala to retrosplenial connectivity negatively correlated with anxiety symptoms (rs=-0.103, p=0.015). Our findings suggest that preclinical tau deposition in the amygdala may result in meaningful changes in functional connectivity which may predispose patients to mood symptoms.

Green Investment as A Guarantee to Protect the Indigenous People’s Rights

Investment opportunities are opened as widely as possible to achieve community welfare, including land use mechanisms. However, this endangers the existence of Indigenous People's rights. Indigenous People have limited access to their lives and livelihoods through land use. Therefore, measures are needed to ensure the protection of Indigenous People's rights in line with investment implementation. This research aimed to identify and analyze the concept of green investment and the implementation of green investment as an effort to ensure the protection of the rights of Indigenous People. This research was normative juridical research with a statutory approach and concept approach. The data used was secondary data obtained from a literature study. The results showed that green investment focuses on how environmental balance is maintained amidst the implementation of investments. The concept of green investment in the land sector was realized by the division of land functions, the use of land in line with regional spatial plans, and the application of environmental insight in land use. In addition, the application of green investment could be a method to protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure the sustainability of economic growth.

A Study on Effectiveness of Human Relations in Conflict Management in a Manufacturing Industry, Ambattur

Conflict is an unavoidable aspect of any workplace, stemming from various factors like communication, teamwork, and work-life balance. While a certain degree of conflict can foster growth within organizations, an excess of it can detrimentally affect employee morale, productivity, and overall organizational performance. The steps of conflict management include analysing the dispute, figuring out how dense it is, developing suitable intervention strategies by evaluating the intensity of the conflict in relation to its impacts, and keeping an eye on the result. Every aspect of social existence involves conflict. Due to its association with resource scarcity, function division, power dynamics, and role differentiation, it is an inevitable aspect of life. In interpersonal, collective, or organisational relationships, it is a social occurrence. A Comprehensivestudy the effectiveness of human relations in conflict management in a manufacturing industry. The current study’s investigation of the objectives is based on descriptive analysis with primary data. The primary data wasgathered using a well-structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling is used for sample survey. The sample size of this study is confined to 300employees. Data have been analysed using the statistical tool–One way anova and Correlation. Every organisation has a variety of conflict management strategies or mechanisms. These are a part of the organisational structure and are actively used by administrators to shape the direction and evolution of a conflict. Such a system’s efficacy or success may be evaluated.

Key issues in Japan's public health centers to prepare for future pandemics: a text mining study using a topic model.

In Japan, over 450 public health centers played a central role in the operation of the local public health system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to identify key issues for improving the system for public health centers for future pandemics. We conducted a cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire. The respondents were first line workers in public health centers or local governments during the pandemic. We solicited open-ended responses concerning improvements needed for future pandemics. Issues were identified from these descriptions using morphological analysis and a topic model with KHcoder3.0. The number of topics was estimated using Perplexity as a measure, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation for meaning identification. We received open-ended responses from 784 (48.6%) of the 1,612 survey respondents, which included 111 physicians, 330 nurses, and 172 administrative staff. Morphological analysis processed these descriptions into 36,632 words. The topic model summarized them into eight issues: 1) establishment of a crisis management system, 2) division of functions among public health centers, prefectures, and medical institutions, 3) clear role distribution in public health center staff, 4) training of specialists, 5) information sharing system (information about infectious diseases and government policies), 6) response to excessive workload (support from other local governments, cooperation within public health centers, and outsourcing), 7) streamlining operations, and 8) balance with regular duties. This study identified key issues that need to be addressed to prepare Japan's public health centers for future pandemics. These findings are vital for discussions aimed at strengthening the public health system based on experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Direct comparison of Hoxb8-driven reporter distribution in the brains of four transgenic mouse lines: towards a spinofugal projection atlas.

Hox genes govern rostro-caudal identity along the developing spinal cord, which has a well-defined division of function between dorsal (sensory) and ventral (motor) halves. Here we exploit developmental Hoxb8 expression, normally restricted to the dorsal cord below the obex, to genetically label spinal cord-to-brain ("spinofugal") axons. We crossed two targeted (knock-in) and two non-targeted recombinase-expressing lines (Hoxb8-IRES-Cre and Hoxb8-T2AFlpO; Hoxb8-Cre and Hoxb8-FlpO, respectively) with appropriate tdtomato-expressing reporter strains. Serial sectioning, confocal and superresolution microscopy, as well as light-sheet imaging was used to reveal robust labeling of ascending axons and their terminals in expected and unexpected regions. This strategy provides unprecedented anatomical detail of ascending spinal tracts anterior to the brainstem, and reveals a previously undescribed decussating tract in the ventral hypothalamus (the spinofugal hypothalamic decussating tract, or shxt). The absence of Hoxb8-suppressing elements led to multiple instances of ectopic reporter expression in Hoxb8-Cre mice (retinal ganglion and vomeronasal axons, anterior thalamic nuclei and their projections to the anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices and subiculum, and a population of astrocytes at the cephalic flexure) and Hoxb8-FlpO mice (Cajal-Retzius cells of the dentate gyrus, and mesenchymal cells of the choroid plexus). While targeted transgenic lines were similar in terms of known spinofugal projections, Hoxb8-IRES-Cre reporters had an additional projection to the core of the facial motor nucleus, and more abundant Hoxb8-lineage microglia scattered throughout the brain than Hoxb8-T2A-FlpO (or any other) mice, suggesting dysregulated Hoxb8-driven reporter expression in one or both lines. This work complements structural and connectivity atlases of the mouse central nervous system, and provides a platform upon which their reactions to injury or disease can be studied. Ectopic Hoxb8-driven recombinase expression may also be a useful tool to study structure and function of other cell populations in non-targeted lines.

Kinematics-Based Design Method and Experimental Validation of Internal Meshing Screw for High-Viscosity Fluid Mixing

The challenge of mixing high-viscosity materials is a common issue encountered in the manufacturing process of food materials. The advantages of the internal meshing screw mixer have led to its adoption in various manufacturing processes, but it has yet to be implemented in the food industry. The paper presents a design method for an internal meshing screw mixer based on kinematic principles. The mixer features a helical chamber created by alternating volumes formed by the stator and rotor, establishing an extension-dominated environment for mixing high-viscosity fluids. A kinematic model based on the internal cycloid principle was established, providing trajectories and equations for key points on the rotor, simulating both its rotation and revolution processes, and revealing the velocity variations at different points on the rotor. Based on the kinematic analysis results, a stator and rotor design method was developed according to relevant functional divisions. To achieve the desired motion effects, transmission and support devices were designed, and the relationship between the transmission device and the internal cycloid surface of the fixed rotor was established. The mixer’s application and mixing effectiveness in the food industry were validated using corn syrup and flour. Experimental results showed that the extensional mixer described in the paper effectively mixed high-viscosity fluids while also efficiently blending fine powders. Slurry viscosity was tested with a rheometer at different speeds with an eccentric rotor mixer. Results showed that viscosity decreased with increasing shear rate, with a more pronounced decrease at higher shear rates. The apparent viscosity trend remained consistent at different speeds, although variations were observed at lower shear rates, especially concerning speed. The non-Newtonian fluid index exhibited minimal variations at different speeds, while the consistency coefficient showed significant fluctuations. The mixing uniformity index of the slurry was used to evaluate the mixing uniformity and dispersion uniformity of this extensional mixer. At different rotational speeds, the density of the slurry changes little. The uniformity index of mixing decreases gradually with the increase of rotational speed, reaching its maximum at 15 r/min. The overall trend of the uniformity index decreases with increasing rotational speed, indicating a decrease in density uniformity. A peak appears at 45 r/min, possibly due to the maximum values of elongation rate and shear rate at this speed. As the rotational speed increases, the residence time of the material in the mixer decreases, which may be the main reason for the decrease in mixing uniformity. These findings provide valuable insights into the design and utilization of extension-dominated screw mixers within the food industry, laying a solid foundation for future research and practical applications in this field.

Enterprise architecture approach for project-based organizations modeling, design, and analysis: An ontology-driven tool proposal

Project-based organizations (PBOs) rely on project management as their core business process. These organizations are characterized by their disaggregated structure and diverse authority distribution, leading to complications in synchronizing projects, governance, and functional divisions. In this regard, there is a need of a tool to manage this complexity. This paper introduces a novel approach – the IModel- for modeling, designing and analyzing PBOs, following the Design Science Research Method, that seeks to is creating an artifact that solves a real-world problem in a specific context. This artifact is developed through a conceptual integration between project management (PM) and enterprise architecture (EA) sources based on ontologies. Ontologies are powerful, machine-readable graph-structured models which enables sophisticated models’ reasoning and querying. IModel fuses the organizational domain from the ArchiMate EA language with PM insights from PMBOK 7th edition. The resulting IModel has been submitted to an expert’s judgement to assess its intended purposes as well, its potential to be applied in the real-world to support the PBO.

Spatial functional division in urban agglomerations and carbon emission intensity: New evidence from 19 urban agglomerations in China

Faced with the difficult but urgent task of reducing carbon emission intensity, considering urban agglomeration as a fundamental spatial unit for this purpose has become increasingly important. However, as a long-standing and pivotal phenomenon in the development of urban agglomerations, the potential role of spatial functional division in urban agglomerations in reducing carbon emission intensity has been largely overlooked. To fill this gap, this paper explores the relationship between spatial functional division in urban agglomerations and carbon emission intensity, relying on a dataset of 19 urban agglomerations in China. The main results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between spatial functional division in urban agglomerations and carbon emission intensity. Spatial functional division in urban agglomerations increases carbon emission intensity in the initial stage; once it reaches a turning point, spatial functional division in urban agglomerations can reduce carbon emission intensity. This conclusion remains robust after conducting various robustness checks and addressing endogeneity concerns. This paper identifies productivity enhancement as an underlying mechanism that shapes this relationship. Moreover, the relationship between spatial functional division in urban agglomerations and carbon emission intensity exhibits heterogeneity based on function types and urban types. These findings emphasize that spatial functional division in urban agglomerations plays a unique role in reducing carbon emission intensity, which offers a new strategy for reducing carbon emission intensity from an individual city level to an entire urban agglomeration level.

Micro- and Mesoporous Structural Effects of Beta Zeolites for Volatile Organic Compound Sorption.

To fully exploit pore engineering in the design of more efficient zeolite adsorbents for volatile organic compound (VOC) treatment, the roles of meso- and micropores need to be clarified to provide the theoretical basis and feasible measures. In this work, the three VOC sorption properties of conventional and hierarchical porous beta zeolites were comparatively investigated to study the roles of meso- and micropores. There is a division of functions between micro- and mesopores, with micropores being the main VOC adsorption sites and mesopores greatly enhancing VOC diffusion and adsorbent reusability. On the one hand, micropores should be preserved as much as possible because obtaining mesopores by sacrificing micropores (i.e., alkali treatment) results in 28-60% decreases in adsorption capacities. On the other hand, mesopore introduction is highly desirable, which results in an enhancement of VOC intraparticle diffusion rates by 1.3-2.3 times (at the VOC concentration of 600 ppm) and chlorobenzene adsorption capacity on the 20th cycle increasing from 78% of the initial value to 89 and 93%. The findings may provide valuable information about zeolite-based adsorbents for adsorption removal or recovery of VOCs.

Design and Implementation of Simulation Training System for Ground Maintenance Pannel of a Certain Type of Aircraft

According to the design requirements of ground maintenance pannel simulation training system of a certain type of aircraft, a set of training system with the functions of ground handling practice, aircraft maintenance operation training and PMA interactive operation training is developed. The system design fully considers the requirements of generalization and modularization design. The function division of each module is clear, the signal interface is clear, and one of the modules can be replaced quickly to facilitate the positioning and elimination of failure. It has the dual expansibility of training task and training model, and can continuously add training task package, including procedure training, troubleshooting guidance training, etc., and can adapt to change in aircraft state.

Striatal Functional Hypoconnectivity in Patients With Schizophrenia Suffering From Negative Symptoms, Longitudinal Findings.

Negative symptoms in schizophrenia (SZ), such as apathy and diminished expression, have limited treatments and significantly impact daily life. Our study focuses on the functional division of the striatum: limbic-motivation and reward, associative-cognition, and sensorimotor-sensory and motor processing, aiming to identify potential biomarkers for negative symptoms. This longitudinal, 2-center resting-state-fMRI (rsfMRI) study examines striatal seeds-to-whole-brain functional connectivity. We examined connectivity aberrations in patients with schizophrenia (PwSZ), focusing on stable group differences across 2-time points using intra-class-correlation and associated these with negative symptoms and measures of cognition. Additionally, in PwSZ, we used negative symptoms to predict striatal connectivity aberrations at the baseline and used the striatal aberration to predict symptoms 9 months later. A total of 143 participants (77 PwSZ, 66 controls) from 2 centers (Berlin/Geneva) participated. We found sensorimotor-striatum and associative-striatum hypoconnectivity. We identified 4 stable hypoconnectivity findings over 3 months, revealing striatal-fronto-parietal-cerebellar hypoconnectivity in PwSZ. From those findings, we found hypoconnectivity in the bilateral associative striatum with the bilateral paracingulate-gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex in PwSZ. Additionally, hypoconnectivity between the associative striatum and the superior frontal gyrus was associated with lower cognition scores in PwSZ, and weaker sensorimotor striatum connectivity with the superior parietal lobule correlated negatively with diminished expression and could predict symptom severity 9 months later. Importantly, patterns of weaker sensorimotor striatum and superior parietal lobule connectivity fulfilled the biomarker criteria: clinical significance, reflecting underlying pathophysiology, and stability across time and centers.

Theoretical aspects of strategic development subjects of the air transport industry

The methodological principles of studying systemic, strategic interactions of subjects in the air transport industry in conditions of global challenges are not just considered but emphasized for their crucial role in understanding and navigating the complexities of the industry. Peculiarities of the interaction between airlines and airports are determined, which is related to the specifics of the organizational and management support of this process, which include instability and dynamism of the air transportation market, significant degree of differentiation of air transport services by macro-regions; high level of competition between air carriers and significant market fluctuations; low competition among airports; multivariate combination and comprehensive use of the potential and competences of airlines and airports in the performance of passenger and cargo air transportation. The article substantiates the peculiarities of the interaction of the air transport industry entities related to the specifics of organizational and managerial support of this process. The functions, works, and services performed by the enterprises of the air transport industry in the interaction process and the functional division of the main activities by the responsibility of the performers - airlines and airports - are systematized. A methodical approach to the study of strategic interaction of air transport industry entities in the context of global challenges is proposed, consisting of a logical sequence of the following stages: analysis and evaluation of functional characteristics and competencies of airlines and airports; analysis of environmental factors; assessment of problems and advantages of strategic interaction of airlines and airports; substantiation of strategic principles of interaction between airlines and airports; study of strategic alternatives and decision-making. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it considers the specific features of organizational and managerial support for the interaction of industry players. The most acute problems of the strategic development of the air transport industry of Ukraine and promising areas of interaction between air carriers and airports in the context of global challenges are not just identified but highlighted to keep the audience informed and aware of the current state of the industry. Keywords: air transport industry, air carriers, airports, airlines, strategy, a system of interaction, systemic, strategic interaction, strategic development, global challenges.

Offender Rehabilitation System in Hong Kong: From Traditions to Innovations

Probation in Hong Kong is part of a broader concept – a system for the rehabilitation of offenders and the prevention of reoffending. In this approach, the focus of the probation service is not on the crime itself, but on the unresolved personal and social problems that underlie criminal behavior (lack of employment, housing, drug addiction, etc.). With regard to the rehabilitation of offenders in this administrative region, there are legal regulations that have undergone several stages of improvement, a well-developed organizational system of rehabilitation and a set of proven methods of working with offenders. All this makes the Hong Kong experience interesting from the point of view of the prospects of possible borrowing. The paper considers the legal regulation, the history of formation and development of the system of rehabilitation of offenders in Hong Kong, the influence of the English experience on its formation; highlights the features of the organization of the rehabilitation system, as well as its advantages that contribute to the optimization of work processes. Probation in Hong Kong started with juvenile offenders and later extended to adults. Probation in Hong Kong is now a criminal law institution accompanying alternative sentences to imprisonment. Based on academic research, official publications of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and the Correctional Services Department (CSD) of Hong Kong, and statistical data, the author explores specific measures of support for ex-convicts, social rehabilitation, and the effectiveness of their application. The author identifies the key points of effectiveness of the Hong Kong system of rehabilitation of offenders: well-built hierarchical organizational structure (departmentalization of the service); division of functions between the agencies supervising social welfare and correctional institutions; emphasis on the use of social work methods in the creation of rehabilitation programs; a wide range of rehabilitation programs targeting different groups of offenders; comprehensive nature of rehabilitation, involvement of family and community. In conclusion, the author’s vision of the prospects of using the Hong Kong experience in the Russian realities, coupled with the analysis of the new legislation on probation, is stated.

H∞/Passive Synchronization of Semi-Markov Jump Neural Networks Subject to Hybrid Attacks via an Activation Function Division Approach

H∞/Passive Synchronization of Semi-Markov Jump Neural Networks Subject to Hybrid Attacks via an Activation Function Division Approach

Histone deacetylases regulate organ-specific growth in a horned beetle

BackgroundNutrient availability is among the most widespread means by which environmental variability affects developmental outcomes. Because almost all cells within an individual organism share the same genome, structure-specific growth responses must result from changes in gene regulation. Earlier work suggested that histone deacetylases (HDACs) may serve as epigenetic regulators linking nutritional conditions to trait-specific development. Here we expand on this work by assessing the function of diverse HDACs in the structure-specific growth of both sex-shared and sex-specific traits including evolutionarily novel structures in the horned dung beetle Onthophagus taurus.ResultsWe identified five HDAC members whose downregulation yielded highly variable mortality depending on which HDAC member was targeted. We then show that HDAC1, 3, and 4 operate in both a gene- and trait-specific manner in the regulation of nutrition-responsiveness of appendage size and shape. Specifically, HDAC 1, 3, or 4 knockdown diminished wing size similarly while leg development was differentially affected by RNAi targeting HDAC3 and HDAC4. In addition, depletion of HDAC3 transcript resulted in a more rounded shape of genitalia at the pupal stage and decreased the length of adult aedeagus across all body sizes. Most importantly, we find that HDAC3 and HDAC4 pattern the morphology and regulate the scaling of evolutionarily novel head and thoracic horns as a function of nutritional variation.ConclusionCollectively, our results suggest that both functional overlap and division of labor among HDAC members contribute to morphological diversification of both conventional and recently evolved appendages. More generally, our work raises the possibility that HDAC-mediated scaling relationships and their evolution may underpin morphological diversification within and across insect species broadly.