Individual Positions Research Articles

Challenges to extracting spatial information about double P dopants in Si from STM images

The design and implementation of dopant-based silicon nanoscale devices rely heavily on knowing precisely the locations of phosphorous dopants in their host crystal. One potential solution combines scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging with atomistic tight-binding simulations to reverse-engineer dopant coordinates. This work shows that such an approach may not be straightforwardly extended to double-dopant systems. We find that the ground (quasi-molecular) state of a pair of coupled phosphorous dopants often cannot be fully explained by the linear combination of single-dopant ground states. Although the contributions from excited single-dopant states are relatively small, they can lead to ambiguity in determining individual dopant positions from a multi-dopant STM image. To overcome that, we exploit knowledge about dopant-pair wave functions and propose a simple yet effective scheme for finding double-dopant positions based on STM images.

Multiple factors shape social contacts in dairy cows

Cattle develop preferential relationships with other individuals in the herd. These social interactions between individuals have a significant impact on both animal welfare and production. Given the relevance of social behaviour in dairy cattle, scientific studies have focused on understanding social interactions among cattle. These may also be influenced by individual area preferences, particularly when animals are housed in confined spaces. Therefore, investigating the relationship between individual area preferences and social interactions is essential for understanding social behaviour in dairy cattle. Real-time location systems provide the opportunity to monitor individual area preferences and social contacts at the same time. This study aims to assess the impact of dairy cows' area preferences on their daily social contacts and to determine the potential implications of overlooking individual area preferences in social behaviour studies. The individual position of the lactating cows was automatically collected once per second for two months on a Swedish commercial farm housing dairy cows inside a free-stall barn. The location data of 243 lactating cows was used to construct the social networks and to estimate the similarity of the area utilisation distributions between these individuals. The effect of utilisation distribution similarity in social networks was investigated by applying separable temporal exponential random graph mixed models. The role of different cow characteristics in the similarity of the utilisation distributions was assessed through a linear mixed model. Our analyses stressed the importance of similarity of area preference, parity, kindergarten effect, and filial relatedness in shaping daily social contacts in dairy cattle. The kindergarten effect refers to the effect on cow behaviour of being grouped together in the early stages of their lives. Similarity of area preference was influenced by the kindergarten effect and relatedness by pedigree, which favoured interactions between these individuals. The described approach allowed to disassociate the area preference from the social contacts between cows, providing more accurate results of the importance of the cow’s characteristics on their social behaviour.

Combining Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to Elicit Hand Movements and a Mechanical Orthosis to Passively Maintain Wrist and Fingers Position in Individuals With Tetraplegia: A Feasibility Test

Combining Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to Elicit Hand Movements and a Mechanical Orthosis to Passively Maintain Wrist and Fingers Position in Individuals With Tetraplegia: A Feasibility Test

Where in the tissues of Danio rerio is more H2O2 produced during acute hypoxia?

The lack of oxygen (O2) causes changes in the cell functioning. Modeling hypoxic conditions in vitro is challenging given that different cell types exhibit different sensitivities to tissue O2 levels. We present an effective in vivo platform for assessing various tissue and organ parameters in Danio rerio larvae under acute hypoxic conditions. Our system allows simultaneous positioning of multiple individuals within a chamber where O2 level in the water can be precisely and promptly regulated, all while conducting microscopy. We applied this approach in combination with a genetically encoded pH-biosensor SypHer3s and a highly H2O2-sensitive Hyper7 biosensor. Hypoxia causes H2O2 production in areas of brain, heart and skeletal muscles, exclusively in the mitochondrial matrix; it is noteworthy that H2O2 does not penetrate into the cytosol and is neutralized in the matrix upon reoxygenation. Hypoxia causes pronounced tissue acidosis, expressed by a decrease in pH by 0.4-0.6 units everywhere. Using imaging photoplethysmography, we measured in D.rerio fry real-time heart rate decrease under conditions of hypoxia and subsequent reoxygenation. Our observations in this experimental system lead to the hypothesis that mitochondria are the only source of H2O2 in cells of D.rerio under hypoxia.

The European Union, immigration and the Left–Right divide: Explaining voting preferences for Western European radical right parties

In the past two decades, radical right parties gained ground, becoming relevant political actors in several European countries. This article presents an intriguing study on their voting preferences in Western Europe. It analyses whether and to what extent the effect of the distance between individual and party positions on the European Union, immigration and the Left–Right positioning has changed over time (between 2009 and 2019). This is examined by combining data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey and the European Election Studies. The results suggest that the distance between Left–Right self-positioning and party position has become more important in explaining voting for radical right parties over time.

Spatially resolved dual-comb sensing with a single electro-optic modulator

We demonstrate spatially resolved sensing by a novel approach that combines an infrared camera and a simplified dual-comb illumination arrangement. Specifically, our scheme employs a continuous-wave laser and only one electro-optic modulator to simultaneously create a pair of mutually coherent optical frequency combs, each one with a slightly different line spacing. The system operates by measuring this dual-comb spectrum from a sequence of acquired images, in order to recover the spectral response of every spatial point of a sample. Thanks to its excellent stability, our approach ensures integration times well in excess of 10 s. The result is an utterly simple multi-spectral imager, capable of resolving up to 127 independent comb lines (spectral channels) across 16 k individual spatial positions, with a digitization sampling rate close to 1 kHz. As a proof of concept, we measure spatial variations of the refractive index of a low-reflectivity etalon undergoing a heating process. This sensing unit has a great potential to work as a field-deployable system for the determination of the spatial distribution of external perturbations such as temperature or strain. We comprehensively discuss the current advantages and limitations of our sensing approach, as well as its further developments.

Spatial Distribution and Hierarchical Behaviour of Cattle Using a Virtual Fence System.

Interest in virtual fencing has increased due to its flexibility for agriculture and rewilding. However, systems like Nofence© require large financial investments, and the need for individual collars complicates large-scale use. If cattle herds maintain cohesive groups around leading individuals, fewer collars could be used, thereby enhancing cost efficiency. This study investigates the pattern in spatial distribution in a herd of 17 Angus cows on Fanø in Denmark with GPS locations, using a Nofence© system. The aim of this paper is to determine how individuals position themselves in a herd, spatially, and identify a pattern in ranks. The method used in this study examines the distances between an individual to the rest of the herdmates using nearest neighbour and descriptive statistics. Contrary to expectations, this study did not reveal a distinct pattern in herd distribution. While some tendencies in spatial distribution patterns were observed, only a low concordance could be found (W=0.15,p<0.001), indicating great variability in the cattle's ranks. A cumulative curve of the ranks estimated over the entire periods, however, allowed a rough estimation of the hierarchy and allowed identification of the highest-ranked cows, making the use of a cumulative curve a possible solution to finding the high-ranked cows. This research underscores the complexity of cattle social structures and highlights the need for extended observation periods and alternative methodologies to enhance the cost-effectiveness and scalability of virtual fencing in agricultural and rewilding contexts.

Między schematem a prawami człowieka - prawnomedyczne zagrożenia praw osób interpłciowych i europejskie modele ich ochrony, w kontraście do realiów krajowej opieki medycznej - część 2: Europejskie rozwiązania prawne chroniące osoby interpłciowe w odniesieniu do krajowego systemu ochrony praw pacjenta

This text represents second part of the analysis, regarding situation of an intersexual patient, especially a minor, in terms of protection against discrimination and exposure to IGM (Intersexual Genital Mutilation) procedures. Author presents a selection of European legislature regarding the abovementioned issue, comparing them to Polish system ofguarantees, securing patients’ rights in the healthcare system. Analysing position of an intersexual individual, both in terms of a requirement of assigning ones gender at birth, as well as general provisions regarding matter of an informed consent and fair process of decision making, in regard to an underage patient and their treatment, this paper presents set of legal solutions, which upon comparison and study of mechanisms related to protectingaforementioned group from IGM-related treatment across Europe, could be implemented in polish legal system in order to address the discussed matter.

A Gaze into the Eyebrow Standards of Asian Versus Caucasian Women.

Eyebrow position affects perceived facial expression and youthfulness, and its modification is a key component of facial rejuvenation. This investigation aimed to assess the preferred vertical eyebrow position, apex location, and eyebrow shape in Caucasian and Asian individuals and to analyze gaze patterns during aesthetic judgment using eye-tracking technology. The study included 76 Asian and Caucasian volunteers with no medical background. Eye movements were captured with a Tobii Pro Nano eye-tracker. Participants viewed AI-generated images of Caucasian and Asian females with varied eyebrow positions (ratios 1:1.3 to 1:2.5), shapes (angles 8° to 20°), and apex positions. Aesthetic preferences were rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Eye-tracking metrics and aesthetic ratings were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and bivariate correlations. Both genders across ethnicities preferred a moderate eyebrow position ratio of 1:1.6. For eyebrow shapes, a 12° angle received the highest ratings, while extremes were less favored, indicating a preference for moderately curved eyebrows. The most appealing apex position was above the lateral canthus for Asians, and halfway between the lateral limbus and lateral canthus for Caucasians. Eye-tracking revealed longer fixations on unattractive features, suggesting more complex cognitive processing, while attractive features were processed more efficiently. The study revealed that aesthetic preferences for eyebrow features are influenced by both ethnic background and gender, with a general preference toward moderately curved eyebrows and subtle variations in preferred positions. These findings suggest a need for culturally sensitive approaches in facial aesthetic procedures and highlight the potential of eye-tracking technology to enhance surgical planning. Surgeons are advised to adopt a conservative, patient-centered approach when modifying eyebrow features, considering individual and cultural aesthetics to maximize patient satisfaction. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Exploring global context and position-aware representation for group activity recognition

This paper explores the context and position information in the scene for group activity understanding. Firstly, previous group activity recognition methods strive to reason on individual features without considering the information in the scene. Besides correlations among actors, we argue that integrating the scene context simultaneously can afford us more useful and supplementary cues. Therefore, we propose a new network, termed Contextual Transformer Network (CTN), to incorporate global contextual information into individual representations. In addition, the position of individuals also plays a vital role in group activity understanding. Unlike previous methods that explore correlations among individuals semantically, we propose Clustered Position Embedding (CPE) to integrate the spatial structure of actors and produce position-aware representations. Experimental results on two widely used datasets for sports video and social activity (i.e., Volleyball and Collective Activity datasets) show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. Especially, when using ResNet-18 as the backbone, our method achieves 93.6/93.9% MCA/MPCA on the Volleyball dataset and 95.4/96.3% MCA/MPCA on the Collective Activity dataset.

THE COMBAT ENGAGEMENT (COMBAT EPISODE) LIFE CYCLE INTERACTIVE THREE-DIMENSIONAL VISUALIZATION CRITERIA AND INDICATORS SELECTION

The russo-Ukrainian war is generally characterized as an artillery war, since the main burden in it is the massive use of artillery. However, this war is distinguished from others by the use of various tactics, some of that repeat the tactics of the past, only at a higher technical level, and the newest tactics that have appeared thanks to the advent of modern weapons and military equipment, the which principles are based on the latest technical achievements. The specified circumstances require a careful and more detailed consideration (research) of these tactical techniques on such issues as the reasons for their occurrence, the number of participants, the course of the battle (combat episode), its result, analysis and development, practical recommendations that can be combined into a single concept of the life cycle, eliminate identified shortcomings or provide recommendations for improving individual positions in this matter. For this purpose, it is advisable to reproduce and reconstruct the life cycle of the combat engagement or combat episode that occurred. One of the means of reproducing the life cycle of a combat engagement (combat episode) is interactive three-dimensional visualization. Therefore, in order to create an interactive three-dimensional visualization model (animation) of the life cycle of a combat engagement or a combat episode, that would correspond as close as possible to real events, it is desirable to determine the criteria and indicators that characterize these events. The interactive three-dimensional visualization of the life cycle of a combat engagement or combat episode criterion can be the completeness and reliability of information, and the indicators - dynamism, evaluation of the effectiveness of combat operations and characteristics of the space (locality) in which the combat engagement (combat episode) took place.

Dismantle the monster: teachers, parents, and others position themselves figuratively vis-à-vis the Israeli education system in times of crisis

ABSTRACT This article explores the characteristics of naturalistic digital forum conversations, focusing on the Israeli education system in times of crisis. The existing professional literature suggests that (1) There have been numerous attempts to change this system, but they have not been successful; (2) Discourse analysts have often used micro and macrolevels of analysis to explore professional life and the construction of individual or group positioning in digital discourse; (3) Figurative language (e.g. metaphors, similes and metonymies) often organises the essence of the text. This article shows that the naturalistic digital forum enabled the study’s participants (teachers, parents, and others who care about education) to vent their feelings and thoughts, as well as to use organising figurative language to highlight how the teachers positioned themselves and how they were positioned by the parents. Finally, the article underscores the need to bring about a radical change in the Israeli education system.

Planar array sparse distribution based on T-2GWO algorithm

Abstract This paper introduces an approach termed T-2GWO (Tent chaos-dual channel Grey Wolf Optimization) algorithm designed for achieving sparse distribution within constrained position ranges for planar arrays. The initial population is generated by using the Tent Chaos algorithm, modeling individual coordinate positions within the population as a two-channel matrix. Subsequently, the Grey Wolf Algorithm is employed for optimization purposes. The algorithm has verified its effectiveness under the assumption of uniform excitation and can obtain the minimum peak side lobe level, reaching peak side lobe levels of -25.78 dB and - 26.15 dB in the azimuth and pitch directions. Compared with the genetic algorithm, the reduction is 3.53 dB and 10.32 dB respectively. At the same time, better main beam radiation can be obtained.

Stress, Depression, Anxiety and Willingness to Seek Help of Healthcare Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and objective: Although the serious stage of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, the consequences are not only socio-economic but also affect the mental health of many people, in which healthcare workers tolerate the fiercest and longest-lasting consequences compared to other social groups in the community. This study aims to explore the status of healthcare workers' mental health and evaluate their capacity to effectively manage mental health issues in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, it explores the relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS) scale and seeking help from healthcare workers.Methods: The study was conducted from April 2022 to August 2022, using an online survey of 638 healthcare workers working at two frontline hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was undertaken at two hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City (i.e., Cho Ray Hospital and the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital), facilitated through the social work departments of these hospitals.Results: The result shows that the majority of medical staff faces various mental health problems from mild to severe, with different degrees of severity, depending on the individual's psychological characteristics, gender, education level, and work position. The study also revealed a correlation between help-seeking attitudes and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. It shows that only a minority of healthcare workers have the attitude demonstrated a willingness to seek help and request assistance from psychologists when experiencing mental health issues.Conclusion: Policymakers should prioritize regular awareness campaigns during the initial phases of a pandemic to enhance motivation, knowledge, and preventative measures among healthcare workers. This approach can help identify mental health issues early and reduce the stigma of seeking support. Encouraging group psychotherapy and addressing cultural barriers in the medical field can increase trust in therapists and psychiatrists, improving overall mental well-being.

Partial RNA design.

RNA design is a key technique to achieve new functionality in fields like synthetic biology or biotechnology. Computational tools could help to find such RNA sequences but they are often limited in their formulation of the search space. In this work, we propose partial RNA design, a novel RNA design paradigm that addresses the limitations of current RNA design formulations. Partial RNA design describes the problem of designing RNAs from arbitrary RNA sequences and structure motifs with multiple design goals. By separating the design space from the objectives, our formulation enables the design of RNAs with variable lengths and desired properties, while still allowing precise control over sequence and structure constraints at individual positions. Based on this formulation, we introduce a new algorithm, libLEARNA, capable of efficiently solving different constraint RNA design tasks. A comprehensive analysis of various problems, including a realistic riboswitch design task, reveals the outstanding performance of libLEARNA and its robustness. libLEARNA is open-source and publicly available at: https://github.com/automl/learna_tools.

An exploration of student MFL teachers’ emerging perceptions of decolonising the MFL curriculum

How we teach Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) is currently being questioned in light of growing awareness of coloniality within the secondary curriculum and racial inequalities. Within this context, this research set out to explore the emerging perceptions of five student MFL teachers around decolonising the MFL curriculum during their second teaching placement at one university. Results indicated that whilst student MFL teachers have a theoretical understanding of decolonising the curriculum and are able to address the Eurocentrentric white narrative of individual lessons, which included the representation of their learners, they felt unable to move away from standalone lessons. Furthermore, individual positionality relating to decolonisation was for the most part absent. Greater support in terms of professional development and collaboration was identified for the future.

The effect of formation swimming on tailbeat and breathing frequencies in killer whales

In many aquatic taxa, formation traveling can reduce the energetic expenditure of locomotion by exploiting the vorticity trails shed by neighbors or through drafting. Cetaceans, especially odontocetes, often swim in groups; nevertheless, the possibility that whales gain energetic benefits from swimming in formation remains poorly studied, apart from mother-calf pairs. Between June and September in 2019 and 2021, we recorded aerial videos of Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the Salish Sea (USA) travelling in groups. We estimated whale tailbeat and breathing frequencies as proxies of the relative energetic costs of swimming, and tested the effect of swimming speed, relative positioning (e.g., leaders, whales in the middle of groups, or followers), sex and estimated size on these observed proxies. Our results reveal a complex relationship between physical characteristics, relative positioning, and energetic proxies. Intervals between respiration lasted longer in large-sized trailing individuals, but the overall breathing frequency was similar for all whales regardless of their position. The tailbeat frequency was mainly associated to whale sex, size, and swimming speed; in addition, tailbeat frequency showed a decreasing trend as the number of individuals in the formation increased. We found moderate evidence that position-based energetic effects may be present in the formation swimming of killer whales, and it is likely that additional factors such as social ties and hierarchies, play a key role in determining individual positioning in travelling groups.SignificanceSwimming in formation has been extensively studied in fish and other aquatic animals and has been documented to provide energetic advantages. Our understanding of the potential energetic benefits of wild cetacean formation swimming has been constrained by the difficulties of studying the movement of whale groups from traditional observation platforms. In recent years, non-invasive observations of cetaceans using unoccupied aerial systems have significantly improved the observation of these species in the wild, providing an exciting opportunity to better understand their behaviors and habits. Our results show a tendency for formation swimming to affect two energetic proxies (tailbeat frequency and the duration of underwater intervals between surfacing events). The results of this study set the stage for further research to identify the multiple determinants affecting killer whale formation swimming which go beyond purely energetic advantages, e.g. social relationships.

Positive charges promote the recognition of proteins by the chaperone SlyD from Escherichia coli.

SlyD is a widely-occurring prokaryotic FKBP-family prolyl isomerase with an additional chaperone domain. Often, such as in Escherichia coli, a third domain is found at its C-terminus that binds nickel and provides it for nickel-enzyme biogenesis. SlyD has been found to bind signal peptides of proteins that are translocated by the Tat pathway, a system for the transport of folded proteins across membranes. Using peptide arrays to analyze these signal peptide interactions, we found that SlyD interacted only with positively charged peptides, with a preference for arginines over lysines, and large hydrophobic residues enhanced binding. Especially a twin-arginine motif was recognized, a pair of highly conserved arginines adjacent to a stretch of hydrophobic residues. Using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) with purified SlyD and a signal peptide-containing model Tat substrate, we could show that the wild type twin-arginine signal peptide was bound with higher affinity than an RR>KK mutated variant, confirming that positive charges are recognized by SlyD, with a preference of arginines over lysines. The specific role of negative charges of the chaperone domain surface and of hydrophobic residues in the chaperone active site was further analyzed by ITC of mutated SlyD variants. Our data show that the supposed key hydrophobic residues of the active site are indeed crucial for binding, and that binding is influenced by negative charges on the chaperone domain. Recognition of positive charges is likely achieved by a large negatively charged surface region of the chaperone domain, which is highly conserved although individual positions are variable.

An improved gray wolf optimization algorithm solving to functional optimization and engineering design problems

As a newly proposed optimization algorithm based on the social hierarchy and hunting behavior of gray wolves, grey wolf algorithm (GWO) has gradually become a popular method for solving the optimization problems in various engineering fields. In order to further improve the convergence speed, solution accuracy, and local minima escaping ability of the traditional GWO algorithm, this work proposes a multi-strategy fusion improved gray wolf optimization (IGWO) algorithm. First, the initial population is optimized using the lens imaging reverse learning algorithm for laying the foundation for global search. Second, a nonlinear control parameter convergence strategy based on cosine variation is proposed to coordinate the global exploration and local exploitation ability of the algorithm. Finally, inspired by the tunicate swarm algorithm (TSA) and the particle swarm algorithm (PSO), a nonlinear tuning strategy for the parameters, and a correction based on the individual historical optimal positions and the global optimal positions are added in the position update equations to speed up the convergence of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is assessed using 23 benchmark test problems, 15 CEC2014 test problems, and 2 well-known constraint engineering problems. The results show that the proposed IGWO has a balanced E&P capability in coping with global optimization as analyzed by the Wilcoxon rank sum and Friedman tests, and has a clear advantage over other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Preventing Exertional Heat Stroke in Football: Time for a Paradigm Shift.

Among American sports, football has the highest incidence of exertional heat stroke (EHS), despite decades of prevention strategies. Based on recent reports, 100% of high school and college EHS football fatalities occur during conditioning sessions. Linemen are the at-risk population, constituting 97% of football EHS deaths. Linemen heat up faster and cool down slower than other players. Case series were identified from organized, supervised football at the youth, high school, and collegiate levels and compiled in the National Registry of Catastrophic Sports Injuries. Sources for event occurrence were media reports and newspaper clippings, autopsy reports, certificates of death, school-sponsored investigations, and published medical literature. Articles were identified through PubMed with search terms "football," "exertional heat stroke," and "prevention." Clinical review. Level 5. Football EHS is tied to (1) high-intensity drills and conditioning that is not specific to individual player positions, (2) physical exertion as punishment; (3) failure to modify physical activity for high heat and humidity, (4) failure to recognize early signs and symptoms of EHS, and (5) death when cooling is delayed. To prevent football EHS, (1) all training and conditioning should be position specific; (2) physical activity should be modified per the heat load; (3) understand that some players have a "do-or-die" mentality that supersedes their personal safety; (4) never use physical exertion as punishment; (5) eliminate conditioning tests, serial sprints, and any reckless drills that are inappropriate for linemen; and (6) consider air-conditioned venues for linemen during hot practices. To prevent EHS, train linemen based on game demands. n/a.