Low Occupancy Research Articles

Crystal structure of methylene blue citrate

Abstract The structure of the salt-type methylene blue citrate hydrate, [MB]+[H3Cit]– × 0.18H2O (where [MB]+ represents the methylene blue cation and [H3Cit]– the anion of the mono-deprotonated citric acid), has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The [MB]+ cation is planar and stacked in an antiparallel fashion, exhibiting π–π stacking associations at an interplane distance of 3.746(6) Å. The [MB]+ cation forms short contacts of the C–H⋯O type with the citrate anion through methyl groups of the NMe2 substituents. Water molecules are distributed in the voids between stacks of the [MB]+ cations with very low site occupancies (total 0.18) and do not form hydrogen bonds with the citrate anion, but feature hydrogen bonds between the water molecules. In order to visualize the intermolecular interactions in the crystal structure of the title compound, a Hirshfeld surface analysis was carried out.

Security-Aware CAN-FD Message Packing in Intelligent Automotive Cyber–Physical Systems

Controller area network with flexible data-rate (CAN-FD) has received great attention in automotive cyber–physical systems (ACPSs) due to its high bandwidth and long payload. However, CAN-FD adopts a broadcast message transmission mechanism and lacks security protection, making it extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks. CAN-FD message packing (packing signals into messages) with low bandwidth occupancy (utilization) under security constraints is the prerequisite for running intelligent applications in ACPS. In this work, we implement a two-stage CAN-FD message packing solution to reduce bandwidth utilization and improve signal acceptance rate under security constraints. The first stage solves the message packing problem of minimizing bus bandwidth utilization under security constraints. The second stage aims at improving the signal acceptance rate by repacking signals. Experimental results show that the first stage reduces average bus bandwidth utilization by 135% compared with the unpacking solution, and the second stage improves the average signal acceptance rate by 5% than existing advanced methods.

Estimating the Impact of Influenza Vaccination on Acute and ICU Hospital Bed Usage in an Influenza Season under Endemic COVID-19 in the US.

In 2021-2022, influenza vaccine coverage in the US dropped below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Cocirculation of COVID-19 and influenza could place a substantial burden on hospital utilization in future seasons, particularly given the reduced exposure to influenza during the pandemic. We used a dynamic susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model to simulate influenza transmission with varying influenza vaccine coverage against a background of COVID-19 circulation, in order to estimate acute and ICU hospital bed occupancy for both diseases. We evaluated two vaccine scenarios: egg-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIVe) for all age groups or cell-based QIV (QIVc) for 0.5-64 year-olds with adjuvanted QIV (aQIV) for ≥65 year-olds. ICU bed availability was more limiting than general hospital bed availability, with a vaccine coverage of ≥70% required to avoid negatively impacting ICU bed availability in a high-incidence influenza season. The timing of disease peaks was a key factor together with vaccine coverage, with a difference of ≥50 days needed between peak influenza and COVID-19 bed usage together with 65% influenza vaccine coverage to avoid negative impacts. QIVc + aQIV resulted in lower bed occupancy which, while not substantial, may be critical in very high hospital resource usage situations. In a situation with co-circulating influenza and COVID-19, proactive vaccination planning could help to avert overwhelming healthcare systems in upcoming influenza seasons.

Gender differences in the association between adverse events in childhood or adolescence and the risk of premature mortality

To examine, by gender, the relationship between adverse events in childhood or adolescence and the increased risk of early mortality (before 80 years). The study sample included 941 participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging who died between 2007 and 2018. Data on socioeconomic status, infectious diseases, and parental stress in childhood or adolescence were collected at baseline (2006). Logistic regression models were adjusted by socioeconomic, behavioral and clinical variables. Having lived with only one parent (OR 3.79; p = 0.01), overprotection from the father (OR 1.12; p = 0.04) and having had an infectious disease in childhood or adolescence (OR 2.05; p = 0.01) were risk factors for mortality before the age of 80 in men. In women, overprotection from the father (OR 1.22; p < 0.01) was the only risk factor for mortality before the age of 80, whereas a low occupation of the head of the family (OR 0.58; p = 0.04) and greater care from the mother in childhood or adolescence (OR 0.86; p = 0.03) were protective factors. Independently of one’s current characteristics, having worse socioeconomic status and health in childhood or adolescence increased the risk of early mortality in men. Parental overprotection increased the risk of early mortality in both sexes, whereas maternal care favored longevity in women.

Substrate Induced Movement of the Metal Cofactor between Active and Resting State.

Regulation of enzyme activity is vital for living organisms. In metalloenzymes, far-reaching rearrangements of the protein scaffold are generally required to tune the metal cofactor's properties by allosteric regulation. Here structural analysis of hydroxyketoacid aldolase from Sphingomonas wittichii RW1 (SwHKA) revealed a dynamic movement of the metal cofactor between two coordination spheres without protein scaffold rearrangements. In its resting state configuration (M2+ R ), the metal constitutes an integral part of the dimer interface within the overall hexameric assembly, but sterical constraints do not allow for substrate binding. Conversely, a second coordination sphere constitutes the catalytically active state (M2+ A ) at 2.4 Å distance. Bidentate coordination of a ketoacid substrate to M2+ A affords the overall lowest energy complex, which drives the transition from M2+ R to M2+ A . While not described earlier, this type of regulation may be widespread and largely overlooked due to low occupancy of some of its states in protein crystal structures.

Substrate Induced Movement of the Metal Cofactor between Active and Resting State

AbstractRegulation of enzyme activity is vital for living organisms. In metalloenzymes, far‐reaching rearrangements of the protein scaffold are generally required to tune the metal cofactor's properties by allosteric regulation. Here structural analysis of hydroxyketoacid aldolase from Sphingomonas wittichii RW1 (SwHKA) revealed a dynamic movement of the metal cofactor between two coordination spheres without protein scaffold rearrangements. In its resting state configuration (M2+R), the metal constitutes an integral part of the dimer interface within the overall hexameric assembly, but sterical constraints do not allow for substrate binding. Conversely, a second coordination sphere constitutes the catalytically active state (M2+A) at 2.4 Å distance. Bidentate coordination of a ketoacid substrate to M2+A affords the overall lowest energy complex, which drives the transition from M2+R to M2+A. While not described earlier, this type of regulation may be widespread and largely overlooked due to low occupancy of some of its states in protein crystal structures.

المرشحات المتداخلة: تقنية بيئية منخفضة التكلفة لمعالجة المياه العادمة اللامركزية وإعادة استخدامها

الملخص صُمّم نظام المرشحات المتداخلة بوصفه مرشحاً حيوياً قائماً على قدرات التربة الفيزيوكيميائية والأحيائية لمعالجة ملوثات المياه العادمة، ويتميز من باقي الأنظمة الطبيعية المماثلة بحاجات أقل إلى الطاقة والمساحة والصيانة، وإمكانية إعادة استعمال المياه المعالجة في الموقع نفسه. يتكون النظام من طبقتين متباينتين من حيث المواد المستخدمة والمسامية: طبقات خليط التربة والطبقات النفاذة، المرصوصة في شكل يشبه اللبنات؛ حيث مكّن هذا التصميم البارع من تقليص احتمالية انسداد النظام، وزيادة قدرته على تلقّي أحجام كبرى من المياه العادمة، مع ازدواجية الظروف الهوائية واللاهوائية داخله؛ الشيء الذي أكسبه قدرات معالجة متقدمة لمختلف الملوثات بمختلف أنواع المياه العادمة اللامركزية. يهدف هذا البحث إلى التعريف بنظام المرشحات المتداخلة بوصفه تقنية بيئية صاعدة، حيث يلخص مبدأ عمله، وأدوار المواد المكونة له، وآليات معالجة مختلف الملوثات. ويستعرض نتائج بعض الاستخدامات الموفقة لهذا النظام عبر عدد من دول العالم، ونتائج دراسة التكلفة المنجزة التي أكدت انخفاض تكلفة بنائه، والتي لا تتعدى 80 دولاراً أمريكياً لمعالجة متر مكعب من المياه العادمة في اليوم لمدة 20 سنة متواصلة من الاستخدام. وأخيراً، يُظهر البحث، بناء على مقارنات بأنظمة مماثلة، مكامن القوة التي تجعل من هذا النظام بديلاً مستقبلياً ومستداماً للدول النامية كدول أفريقيا. Multi-soil layering (MSL) is a wastewater treatment technology based on the advanced physico-chemical and biological abilities of soil to remediate decentralized wastewater pollutants. The MSL system is characterized by low space occupation, reduced maintenance, energetic needs, and offers the opportunity to the on-site reuse compared to similar natural wastewater treatment technologies. MSL is constructed through the succession of heterogeneous layers: soil mixture layers (SMLs) and permeable layers (PLs) in a brick-like configuration. This ingenious design enabled the system to sustain high hydraulic loads and minimized clogging risks with the coexistence of aero/anaerobic condition and to acquire advanced purifying capabilities for several decentralized wastewater types. This work aims to introduce MSL as an emerging Eco-technology, summarizes the operating principle, function of used materials, and removal mechanisms through the system. Moreover, this paper displays some successful applications across different countries and confirms the low-cost character of the system through an economical analysis that sets the construction cost in less than 80 US$ to treat 1m3/day during 20 consecutive years of operation. Finally, this study enumerates the MSL strengths in comparison to conventional technologies as a future sustainable alternative for developing nations such as the African countries.

Status and prospects of TPC module and prototype at high luminosity Z physics on CEPC

The Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC) has been proposed as a Higgs and high luminosity [Formula: see text] factory for the last few years in China. To achieve the high precision physical goals at CEPC, the high resolution ([Formula: see text]) tracker for the particle track reconstruction and particle identification are demanded. Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is one of the main concept proposal of the central tracker detector in very large 3D volume, it has an excellent performance on the moment measurement, [Formula: see text] measurement and the spatial resolution. The simulation results were given when the TPC detector will operate at the high luminosity [Formula: see text] pole at the future [Formula: see text] circular collider. The pixelated readout TPC is a potential option to replace the traditional pad readout with the low gain, low occupancy, and outstanding pattern recognition. In the last several years, a TPC module, the readout electronics and prototype for the specific requirements have been developed at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP). TPC module will could suppress the ions in chamber continuously running in the different gains (2000–5000) under T2K mixture gases. A TPC prototype with [Formula: see text] active area G detector module integrated the narrow 266[Formula: see text]nm UV laser tracks along the drift length of 500[Formula: see text]mm, and the low power consumption ([Formula: see text]) Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) chip including analog to digital converter (ADC) function has been developed too. The update results of the spatial resolution has been obtained after some experimental studies have been done by the TPC prototype.

Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Kejadian BBLR di RSKD IA Pertiwi Makassar Tahun 2022

Low birth weight (LBW) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a birth weight of less than 2,500 grams. LBW continues to be a significant public health issue globally and is associated with a range of short-term and long-term consequences. Overall, it is estimated that 15% to 20% of all births worldwide are low birth weight, representing more than 20 million births per year (WHO, 2014). The research aims to identify factors influencing the occurrence of LBW. This study adopts a simple observational design with a cross-sectional approach, a method that seeks to find factors related to independent variables (age, education, occupation, parity, pregnancy interval, gestational age) with the dependent variable of Low Birth Weight (LBW). The research findings at RSKD Mother and Child Pertiwi Makassar from 2022, reveal that, through the Chi-Square test, there are five variables that have no relationship with the occurrence of Low Birth Weight (LBW), namely age, education, occupation, parity, and pregnancy interval. There is only one variable, gestational age, that is associated with LBW. The study also highlights the characteristics of mothers delivering LBW babies at RSKD Mother and Child Pertiwi Makassar. Most of them are under the age of 20, accounting for 26 individuals (63.6%). The majority have basic education, with 26 individuals (50.0%), and the most common occupation is unemployed mothers, comprising 46 individuals (48.4%). Multiparous mothers are the highest in number, with 41 individuals (47.7%), and the majority have a pregnancy interval of less than 3 years, amounting to 28 individuals (54.8%). The gestational age is predominantly less than 37 weeks, with 31 individuals (100.0%). The study suggests the importance of recommending regular prenatal check-ups, a minimum of six times during pregnancy, for all normal or at-risk pregnant mothers.

Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection: a case-control study in college students after vaccination

Abstract Background Within the SARS-CoV-2 screening campaign offered through RT-PCR test by Sapienza University of Rome, we conducted a case-control study to identify the risk factors for the acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 infection among university students. Methods Positive students identified through the SARS-CoV-2 screening campaign (September 2021 - February 2022) were enrolled as cases and matched to two randomly selected students who tested negative on the same day. The interview questionnaire consisted of 39 questions investigating exposure to modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 in the two weeks before testing. A multivariable conditional logistic regression model was constructed to identify predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% CI were calculated. Results Out of 8.730 tests for SARS-CoV-2, 173 students tested positive (2.0%), of which 122 were included in the case-control study (response rate: 70.5%). Most students were female (73.2%), with a mean age of 23.3 years (SD ± 3.6), vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 (97.8%) and enrolled in non-health faculty (56.8%). At the multivariable analysis, significant positive associations were found with having had contact with a person who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (aOR: 3.04, 95% CI: 1.59-5.82) or having been to a disco/nightclub (aOR: 5.37, 95% CI: 2.00-14.38). Instead, being vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (aOR: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.01-0.93), having a valid EU COVID digital certificate (aOR: 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01-0.30) and attending lectures in-person (aOR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70) were negatively predictors. No association was found for sex, age, health faculty students, use of public transportation, attendance at restaurants or gyms. Conclusions The results highlight how anti-COVID-19 vaccinations and the reasons for students to obtain an EU COVID digital certificate may prevent students from getting infected. In addition, university environment seems to be safe for students. Key messages • Promoting SARS-CoV-2 vaccination adherence in the college-age population is crucial to limiting the SARS-CoV-2 spread. • Attending in-person educational activities in regulated settings (e.g., low occupancy, mask use) may not be a risk factor for COVID-19 infection.

Where Land and Water Meet: Making Amphibian Breeding Sites Attractive for Amphibians

The protection of wetlands is a cornerstone in the conservation of pond-breeding amphibians. Because protected wetlands are rarely natural areas, but are often man-made, at least in Europe, it is important that they are well managed to fulfill their intended function. Appropriate management requires knowledge of the ecology of the species, particularly habitat requirements. Here, we combine species monitoring data and habitat mapping data in an analysis where our goal was to describe the factors that determine the occupancy of amphibian species in federally protected amphibian breeding sites. As expected, every species had its own habitat requirements, often a combination of both a terrestrial and aquatic habitat (i.e., landscape complementation). In most species, occupancy was strongly positively affected with the amount of aquatic habitat, but predicted occupancy probabilities were low because the amount of aquatic habitat was low in most sites. The area or proportion of ruderal vegetation also had positive effects on multiple species, while other types of terrestrial habitat (e.g., meadows) led to low occupancy probabilities. The total area of the protected breeding sites was never included in a final model and connectivity was important only for one species (Triturus cristatus). The latter finding implies that the quality of the landscape between breeding sizes is more important than distance per se, while the former implies that the area of some specific habitats within breeding sites is crucial for high occupancies. Thus, increasing the amount of aquatic habitats and likewise terrestrial habitats within protected areas would make them more likely to achieve their conservation objectives. Our study is an example of how the joint analysis of monitoring data and habitat data (based on mapping in the field) can lead to evidence-based suggestions on how to improve conservation practice.

Congestion Control for Cross-Datacenter Networks

Geographically distributed applications hosted on cloud are becoming prevalent. They run on <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cross-datacenter network</i> that consists of multiple data center networks (DCNs) connected by a wide area network (WAN). Such a cross-DC network poses significant challenges in transport design because the DCN and WAN segments have vastly distinct characteristics ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">e.g.</i> , buffer depths, RTTs). In this paper, we find that existing DCN or WAN transport reacting to ECN or delay alone do not (and cannot be extended to) work well for such an environment. The key reason is that neither of the signals, by itself only, can simultaneously capture the location and degree of congestion, mainly due to the discrepancies between DCN and WAN. Motivated by this, we present the design and implementation of GEMINI that strategically integrates both ECN and delay signals for cross-DC congestion control. To achieve low latency, GEMINI bounds the inter-DC latency with delay signal and prevents the intra-DC packet loss with ECN. To maintain high throughput, GEMINI modulates the window dynamics and maintains low buffer occupancy utilizing both congestion signals. GEMINI is implemented in Linux kernel and evaluated by extensive testbed experiments. Results show that GEMINI achieves up to 53%, 31%, 76% and 2% reduction of small flow average completion times, and up to 34%, 39%, 9% and 58% reduction of large flow average completion times compared to TCP Cubic, DCTCP, BBR and TCP Vegas.

Machine Learning Empowered Spectrum Sensing Under a Sub-Sampling Framework

Compressive sensing (CS) is a technique frequently adopted in wireless communications. By utilizing CS, a receiver could sense the state of channels with sub-Nyquist analog to digital converters when signals are sparse. Traditional CS methods struggle with non-sparse signals due to their intrinsic sparsity assumption. Therefore, we propose using deep learning (DL) to solve the vector support recovery problem with channels’ high occupancy. The simulation results show that the proposed CS framework powered by DL can perform better than a traditional CS analytical benchmark, both in high and low channel occupation regions. We also observe that the ML can work under a lower sampling rate than traditional CS methods. To process data sampled with high channel numbers, a divide and conquer tactic is implemented.

A New Double-Layer Decentralized Consistency Algorithm for the Multi-Satellite Autonomous Mission Allocation Based on a Block-Chain.

The traditional on-board centralized-distributed mission negotiation architecture has poor security and reliability. It can easily give rise to the collapse of the whole system when the master node is attacked by malicious nodes. To address this issue, the decentralized consistency algorithms commonly used in the internet world are referred to in this paper. Firstly, four typical consistency algorithms suitable for the Internet and which are named RAFT, PBFT, RIPPLE and DPOS are selected and modified for a multi-satellite autonomous mission negotiation. Additionally, based on the above modified consistency algorithms, a new double-layer decentralized consistency algorithm named DDPOS is proposed. It is well known that the above four common consistency algorithms cannot have both a low resource occupation and high security. The DDPOS algorithm can integrate the advantages of four common consistency algorithms due to its freedom of choice attribute, which can enable satellite clusters to flexibly adopt different appropriate consistency algorithms and the number of decentralized network layers. The DDPOS algorithm not only greatly improves the security and reliability of the whole satellite cluster, but also effectively reduces the computing and communication resources occupation of the satellite cluster. Without the presence of a malicious node attack, the resource occupation of the DDPOS algorithm is almost the same as that of the RAFT algorithm. However, in the case of a malicious node attack, compared with the RAFT algorithm, the total computation and total bandwidth occupation of the DDPOS algorithm have decreased by 67% and 75%, respectively. Moreover, it is surprising that although the DDPOS algorithm is more complex, its code size is only about 8% more than the RAFT algorithm. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of the DDPOS algorithm in the on-board practical application are analyzed and verified via simulation experiments.

Anionic H-bonds improve the disorganization of starch in metal chloride hydrate-natural deep eutectic solvents

In this study, several kinds of metal chloride hydrates were added into NADESs (natural deep eutectic solvents) and a series of three constituent-NADESs (3c-NADESs) were successfully developed. The results suggested that the addition of metal chloride hydrates can significantly enhance the solubility of starch, such as, the solubility in MgCl2-CGly-1 is 90.12 ± 3.49 g/100 g, which is 65 times higher than C-Gly (choline chloride-glycerol) (1.38 ± 0.65 g/100 g). The density functional calculation (DFT) suggested that a lower chloride occupancy of 3c-NADESs can provide more chloride ions used for the formation of hydrogen-bonding interaction with starch. Moreover, the molecular dynamic (MD) study demonstrates that Cl− may play a key role as “chisel” during the dissolution of starch, which can efficiently destroy the intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds (HO⋯O) of starch, allowed the penetration of other components and prevent the recovery crystal of starch.

Measuring Well-Being of Migrant Gig Workers: Exampled as Hangzhou City in China.

The consistent innovations and applications of information technology drive the vigorous development of the gig economy, and generate gig workers such as food delivery workers and couriers, and make a great contribution to stabilizing employment and increasing income. Gig workers, mostly made up of migrants, and suffer from job and status difficulties. Research on the well-being of migrant gig workers can reveal the practical problems and provide suggestions for narrowing the wealth gap to promote social fairness and justice. Taking Hangzhou city in China as an example, this paper explores the well-being of food delivery workers, couriers, and online car-hailing drivers as representatives of migrant gig workers. Firstly, the relevant data are acquired through the questionnaire. Secondly, the characteristics of this group are analyzed through descriptive analysis, namely: most of them are migrant workers aged between 20 and 39 with low occupation satisfaction due to insufficient social security coverage and limited well-being, despite relatively high income. Based on the analysis of differences in demographic variables and structural equation modeling, the factors affecting the well-being of migrant gig workers are studied, which mainly are occupation satisfaction, social interaction, and social security. The results show that occupation satisfaction is positively affected by family characteristics, social interaction, and social security. In addition, family characteristics and social security positively impact social interaction, but the former has no significant effect on well-being. Finally, this paper enriches the research on the well-being of specific migrant gig workers and gives policy suggestions for enhancing the well-being of migrant gig workers in Hangzhou city from the perspective of optimizing the mechanism, pilot construction, and platform provision.

Landscape‐scale range filling and dispersal limitation of woody plants

AbstractAimThe extent to which species fill their predicted current ranges and the underlying process of dispersal limitation have implications for species' abilities to track climate change. Range filling is intimately related to spatial scale, yet range filling estimates at high resolutions are largely lacking. In this study, we aim to estimate range filling and dispersal limitation at a high resolution for woody plants with different dispersal systems and habitat affinities.LocationSweden.TaxonAll genera of woody plants (trees and shrubs).MethodsWe estimated landscape‐scale range filling for 64 species. Two main dispersal systems, vertebrate dispersal and abiotic dispersal, occurred among these species. Range filling was estimated as the realized range divided by the potential range, that is, the occupied proportion of a species' modelled range, at a 1 km2 resolution. We estimated potential ranges using species distribution models and realized ranges from presence records. To increase the likelihood that absences represented true absences the estimations were restricted to areas with high sampling effort. We tested the effects of dispersal system on range filling, controlling for species' habitat affinities.ResultsVertebrate‐dispersed woody species had significantly lower landscape‐scale range filling than species with abiotic dispersal. Range filling was also linked to habitat affinity. Species associated with intermediate levels of light and moisture had the highest range filling estimates.Main conclusionsLandscape‐scale range filling of woody species is linked to their dispersal traits. When controlling for habitat affinity, our result suggests that dispersal limitation partly explains the lower occupancy in suitable habitat found for vertebrate‐dispersed plants. Given that vertebrate‐dispersed species fail to reach suitable habitats at this scale, they are less likely to track changes in climate than woody plants with abiotic dispersal.

M6A RNA Methylation-Based Epitranscriptomic Modifications in Plasticity-Related Genes via miR-124-C/EBPα-FTO-Transcriptional Axis in the Hippocampus of Learned Helplessness Rats.

Impaired synaptic plasticity has been linked to dynamic gene regulatory network changes. Recently, gene regulation has been introduced with the emerging concept of unique N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-based reversible transcript methylation. In this study, we tested whether m6A RNA methylation may potentially serve as a link between the stressful insults and altered expression of plasticity-related genes. Expression of plasticity genes Nr3c1, Creb1, Ntrk2; m6A-modifying enzymes Fto, methyltransferase like (Mettl)-3 and 14; DNA methylation enzymes Dnmt1, Dnmt3a; transcription factor C/ebp-α; and miRNA-124-3p were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in the hippocampus of rats that showed susceptibility to develop stress-induced depression (learned helplessness). M6A methylation of plasticity-related genes was determined following m6A mRNA immunoprecipitation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to examine the endogenous binding of C/EBP-α to the Fto promoter. MiR-124-mediated post-transcriptional inhibition of Fto via C/EBPα was determined using an in vitro model. Hippocampus of learned helplessness rats showed downregulation of Nr3c1, Creb1, and Ntrk2 along with enrichment in their m6A methylation. A downregulation in demethylating enzyme Fto and upregulation in methylating enzyme Mettl3 were also noted. The Fto promoter was hypomethylated due to the lower expression of Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a. At the same time, there was a lower occupancy of transcription factor C/EBPα on the Fto promoter. Conversely, C/ebp-α transcript was downregulated via induced miR-124-3p expression. Our study mechanistically linked defective C/EBP-α-FTO-axis, epigenetically influenced by induced expression of miR-124-3p, in modifying m6A enrichment in plasticity-related genes. This could potentially be linked with abnormal neuronal plasticity in depression.

Effects of salinization on the occurrence of a long-lived vertebrate in a desert river

The lower Pecos River located in the southwest USA, is a naturally saline river system that has been significantly altered in relatively recent years. Climate change, coupled with anthropogenic disturbances such as dam construction have led to portions of the river becoming more susceptible to increased salinization and declines in water quality. These alterations have been documented to be detrimental to multiple freshwater communities; however, there is a lack of knowledge on how these alterations influence long-lived species in the river, such as freshwater turtles, where the effects can appear over dramatically different temporal scales. The Rio Grande Cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) is a species of concern known to occur in the Pecos River. To understand the current distribution and habitat requirements for P. gorzugi in the Pecos River, we used a single-season, single-species occupancy modeling framework to estimate occurrence while accounting for the sampling process. Day of year, water surface area, and water visibility had the greatest influence on the ability to detect the species given a sampling unit is occupied. Conductivity (a measure of salinity) had the greatest influence on the occupancy probability for the species, where sites with higher conductivity coincided with lower occupancy probabilities. This study indicates that increased salinization on the lower Pecos River is a cause for concern regarding freshwater turtle populations within the Chihuahuan Desert.

Analyzing the Impact of COVID-19 Control Policies on Campus Occupancy and Mobility via WiFi Sensing

Mobile sensing has played a key role in providing digital solutions to aid with COVID-19 containment policies, primarily to automate contact tracing and social distancing measures. As more and more countries reopen from lockdowns, there remains a pressing need to minimize crowd movements and interactions, particularly in enclosed spaces. Many COVID-19 technology solutions leverage positioning systems, generally using Bluetooth and GPS, and can theoretically be adapted to monitor safety compliance within dedicated environments. However, they may not be the ideal modalities for indoor positioning. This article conjectures that analyzing user occupancy and mobility via deployed WiFi infrastructure can help institutions monitor and maintain safety compliance according to the public health guidelines. Using smartphones as a proxy for user location, our analysis demonstrates how coarse-grained WiFi data can sufficiently reflect the indoor occupancy spectrum when different COVID-19 policies were enacted. Our work analyzes staff and students’ mobility data from three university campuses. Two of these campuses are in Singapore, and the third is in the Northeastern United States. Our results show that online learning, split-team, and other space management policies effectively lower occupancy. However, they do not change the mobility for individuals transitioning between spaces. We demonstrate how this data source can be a practical application for institutional crowd control and discuss the implications of our findings for policymaking.