Perturbing Factors Research Articles

Spectral characterization of the impact of modifiers and different prepare temperatures on snow lotus medicinal residue-biochar and dissolved organic matter

This study involved the production of 20 biochar samples derived from secondary medicinal residues of Snow Lotus Oral Liquid, processed within the temperature range of 200–600 °C. Additionally, four medicinal residues, including dissolved organic matter (DOM), from 24 samples obtained using the shaking method, served as the primary source material. The investigation focused on two key factors: the modifier and preparation temperature. These factors were examined to elucidate the spectral characteristics and chemical properties of the pharmaceutical residues, biochar, and DOM. To analyze the alterations in the spectral attributes of biochar and medicinal residues, we employed near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) in conjunction with Fourier-infrared one-dimensional and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy. These findings revealed that modifiers enhanced the aromaticity of biochar, and the influence of preparation temperature on biochar was diminished. This observation indicates the stability of the aromatic functional group structure. Comparative analysis indicated that Na2CO3 had a more pronounced structural effect on biochar, which is consistent with its adsorption properties. Furthermore, we utilized the fluorescence indices from UV–visible spectroscopy and excitation-emission-matrix spectra with the PARAFAC model to elucidate the characteristics of the fluorescence components in the DOM released from the samples. The results demonstrated that the DOM released from biochar primarily originated externally. Aromaticity reduction and increased decay will enhance the ability of the biochar to bind pollutants. Those results confirmed the link between the substantial increase in the adsorption performance of the high-temperature modified charcoal in the previous study and the structural changes in the biochar. We investigated the structural changes of biochar and derivative DOM in the presence of two perturbing factors, modifier and preparation temperature. Suitable modifiers were selected. Preparation for the study of adsorption properties of snow lotus medicinal residues.

Vitamin B12 Ameliorates Pesticide-Induced Sociability Impairment in Zebrafish (Danio rerio): A Prospective Controlled Intervention Study

Constant exposure to a variety of environmental factors has become increasingly problematic. A variety of illnesses are initiated or aided by the presence of certain perturbing factors. In the case of autism spectrum disorder, the environmental component plays an important part in determining the overall picture. Moreover, the lack of therapies to relieve existing symptoms complicates the fight against this condition. As a result, animal models have been used to make biomedical research easier and more suited for disease investigations. The current study used zebrafish as an animal model to mimic a real-life scenario: acute exposure to an increased dose of pesticides, followed by prospective intervention-based therapy with vitamin B12 (vit. B12). It is known that vit. B12 is involved in brain function nerve tissue, and red blood cell formation. Aside from this, the role of vit. B12 in the redox processes is recognized for its help against free radicals. To investigate the effect of vit. B12, fish were divided into four different groups and exposed to a pesticide mixture (600 μg L−1 fipronil + 600 μg L−1 pyriproxyfen) and 0.24 μg L−1 vit. B12 for 14 days. The impact of the compounds was assessed daily with EthoVision XT 11.5 software for behavioral observations, especially for sociability, quantified by the social interaction test. In addition, at the end of the study, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured. The results showed significant improvements in locomotor activity parameters and a positive influence of the vitamin on sociability. Regarding the state of oxidative stress, high activity was found for SOD and GPx in the case of vit. B12, while fish exposed to the mixture of pesticides and vit. B12 had a lower level of MDA. In conclusion, the study provides new data about the effect of vit. B12 in zebrafish, highlighting the potential use of vitamin supplementation to maintain and support the function of the organism.

Tree Species Diversity Mapping—Success Stories and Possible Ways Forward

The special issue “Tree species diversity mapping” presents research focused on the remote assessment of tree species diversity, using different sensor modalities and platforms. The special issue thereby recognizes that the continued loss of biodiversity poses a great challenge to humanity. Precise and regularly updated baseline information is urgently needed, which is difficult, using field inventories, especially on a large scale. On such scales, remote sensing methods excel. The work presented in the special issue demonstrates the great potential of Earth Observation (EO) for addressing knowledge gaps, as EO provides rich (spectral) information at high revisit frequencies and spatial resolutions. Many tree species can be distinguished well using optical data, in particular, when simultaneously leveraging both the spectral and temporal dimensions. A combination with other sensor modalities can further improve performance. EO approaches are, however, limited by the availability of high-quality reference information. This complicates the task as the collection of field data is labor and time-consuming. To mitigate this limiting factor, resources should be better shared amongst the community. The reliance on in situ data also highlights the need to focus research on the extraction of more permanent (i.e., species-inherent) properties. In this respect, we identify and discuss some inherent limitations of current approaches regarding tree species discrimination. To this end, we offer a more fundamental view on tree species classification based on physical principles. To provide both a summary of the special issue and some stimulating thoughts about possible future research directions, we structured the present communication into four parts. We first introduce the need for biodiversity information, followed by a summary of all 19 articles published within the special issue. The articles are ordered by the number of species investigated. Next, we provide a short summary of the main outputs. To stimulate further research and discussion within the scientific community, we conclude this communication by offering a more fundamental view on tree species classification based on EO data and its biophysical foundations. In particular, we purport that species can possibly be more robustly identified if we classify/identify them in the biophysical feature space and not in the spectral-temporal feature space. This involves the creation and inversion of so-called physically-based radiative transfer models (RTM), which take hyper/multispectral observations together with their observation geometry (as well as other priors), and project these into biophysical variables such as chlorophyll content and LAI etc. The perceived advantage of such an approach is that the generalizability (and scalability) of EO based classifications will increase, as the temporal trajectory of species in the biophysical parameter space is probably more robust compared to the sole analysis of spectral data, which—amongst other perturbing factors—also depend on site/time specific illumination geometry.

Assessment of five SMAP soil moisture products using ISMN ground-based measurements over varied environmental conditions

Since the launch of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission in 2015, several advanced global surface soil moisture (SM) products derived from different retrieval schemes have been released. However, the factors contributing to the performance differences of these SMAP products have not been fully investigated. This study tries to fill the gap by assessing and intercomparing five SMAP products, namely, the single channel algorithm V/H-pol (SCA-V/H), dual channel algorithm (DCA), multi-temporal dual channel algorithm (MT-DCA) and the new SMAP-INRAE-BORDEAUX (SMAP-IB), using the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) ground measurements worldwide during 2016–2020. After reviewing the retrieval algorithms, the impact of five potential perturbing factors on the skills of all products is reported; these factors including mean surface soil temperature (MSST), surface roughness (log(SR)), vegetation density (characterized by vegetation optical depth (VOD)), mean surface soil wetness (MSSM) and soil organic matter (SOM). Results shows that the SMAP-IB product has the highest overall R value of 0.75 with ISMN ground SM, and the smallest unbiased root mean square difference (ubRMSD) values same as SCA-V and DCA (∼0.058 m3/m3). The performance of all five products in terms of R and ubRMSD rapidly degrades over the regions with high VOD, rough surface and low MSST. In contradiction with the fact that product performance degrades with increasing roughness, the ubRMSD of all five products increases with decreasing log(SR) on a relatively smooth surface (log(SR) < 6) with larger growth rates for SMAP-IB, SCA-H and MT-DCA. Regarding characterizing the temporal variations of in situ SM anomalies (Ranom), Ranom increases as the ground becomes wet for all products within a certain range (MSSM < 0.3 m3/m3). In particular, SMAP-IB and MT-DCA present higher Ranom values than the other three products under wet soil surfaces (MSSM > 0.3 m3/m3). The two metrics R and Ranom decrease significantly with increasing SOM for SMAP-IB compared to the other products, and SMAP-IB obtains the lowest values for both metrics when SOM > 20%. These findings are expected to provide useful information for appropriate product selection and improvement.

Decision Support Methodology Based on Evaluation of Customer Experience and Telecommunications Operator Efficiency Indicators

The article considers the methodology for dynamic analysis of the cognitive model for assessing customer experience in the context of communication providers. The relevance of the study is due to the need for telecom operators to have a decision support system that allows analyzing dependence of customer experience on the efficiency of the company's operating environment, as well as emulating customer experience management scenarios in the context of the main sales and service processes. The objective of the study is to formalize the methodology of dynamic analysis of the model for assessing the integral customer experience that is based on fuzzy cognitive maps of the hierarchical structure. In particular, the mechanics of changing target factors (i.e., customer experience indicators) when perturbing control factors (i.e., operational performance indicators that affect customer experience) are investigated.

A Two-Step Damage Diagnostic Approach Based on Static Strain Energy and Model-Updating via the Equilibrium Optimizer

Despite the great achievements accomplished so far in the field of damage detection, the need for a more comprehensive damage detection approach that effectively functions despite several real-world obstacles still exists. Among different methods suggested so far, model-updating holds the most appeal; however, its accuracy and efficiency are seriously challenged when the problem size grows as it fails to solve the problem with an increase in the number of variables. In this paper, a two-step approach is suggested that reduces the problem size in model updating-based damage detection methods by identifying potentially damaged elements using a static strain-based damage identification index over the first step. Therefore, only a few unknown variables will be introduced to the next step, which involves an iterative model-updating process that includes a novel damage-sensitive objective function to determine damage severities in the located elements of the previous step. In this stage, a meta-heuristic optimizer, the Equilibrium Optimizer, is utilized to detect the unknown variables, i.e., damage values. This optimization algorithm is used given that it has not been applied to damage detection problems before. The method is also tested on a number of numerical examples to be validated and the effects of external factors such as measurement noise can be taken into account. Apart from that, a comparative study is also carried out to compare the efficacy of the present work with previous references. Interestingly, the method is capable of detecting damaged elements with great speed and accuracy, and the quality of the results has not been seriously affected in the presence of perturbing factors. Moreover, information from even a limited number of first modes has been enough to solve the problem, which means that the approach does not require all vibration modes. Finally, an experimental verification study is also carried out to demonstrate the capability of the method in detecting damaged elements in real structures. It is shown that the method can detect the damaged element successfully, which is indicative of the practicality of the suggested technique in real-world applications.

СУТНІСТЬ СВІТОВИХ ФІНАНСОВИХ КРИЗ ТА МОЖЛИВОСТІ ЇХ ПОПЕРЕДЖЕНН

The historical development of the world economy has been affected by such phenomena as the global financial crisis. They have evolved and transformed along with the development of the world economy, integration and globalization. The constant dynamic development of international economic relations leads to an increase in the speed of spread and increase the difficulty of overcoming the effects of financial crises. They cross the borders of national economies and become global, occur more often and have more and more devastating consequences. Further financial globalization contributes to the spread of periods of global financial instability, which necessitates their constant monitoring, systematic study and analysis. Timely detection of pre-crisis factors and the formation of effective preventive tools will reduce the negative effects of global financial crises. The identification of global financial crises also takes into account perturbing factors and their consequences. Among the disturbing factors are the main: monetary, political, economic and technological. The perturbing factors of the global financial crises are related to various areas of international relations and must reach a certain level. Monetary and financial factors of the disturbance include instability of the banking system, growing share of doubtful loans, hyperinflation, overvaluation, rising government deficit and debt, large balance of payments deficit, dollarization of the economy, increasing the number of derivatives in stock markets. The main consequences of this group of factors are: declining exports, falling real estate and stock prices, a sharp drop in lending, falling GDP, speculative boom. Examples of political factors are globalization and political processes, corruption processes, political errors in government policy, changes in regulations, and so on. Economic factors include: rapid growth in demand for real estate and irrational business expectations, which causes cross-sectoral capital inflows and the expansion of high-risk banking operations. Technological factors are innovative technologies, products and innovative management methods. As a result of this group of factors, profitability in certain industries increases, which, in turn, leads to intersectoral capital inflows, then there is a speculative boom and new risks. The boom is being replaced by panic and the turmoil of the global financial market. With a speculative boom, speculative financing spreads (liabilities are greater than the inflow of funds), households and businesses increase loans and cannot repay them. Products and assets of firms begin to sell out quickly, there is a market recovery. Due to the large supply of assets, their prices are falling.

Uncertainty Characterization of Ground‐Based, Satellite, and Reanalysis Snow Depth Products Using Extended Triple Collocation

AbstractThe optimal use of hemispheric‐scale snow depth (SD) products for various hydrometeorological applications requires a comprehensive assessment of their quality. Most previous validation studies of SD products adopted in situ observations as the ground truth, which may cause representativeness errors due to spatial scale mismatch between point‐based ground SD measurements and grid‐based SD products. The extended triple collocation (ETC) technique is a powerful tool to estimate the uncertainty of three independent data sets without assuming any one data source is an error‐free “truth” reference. This study first used the ETC to assess the uncertainty of three types of hemispheric‐scale SD products, including the ground‐based analysis Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC), the satellite‐based Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and the model‐based Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) SD products. Furthermore, the uncertainties of each SD product were analyzed using ETC metrics, that is, the correlation coefficient (R) and error standard deviations (STDs), with respect to several environmental and perturbing factors. Overall, the CMC outperforms the AMSR2 and GLDAS, with a higher R and a smaller STD. Considering multiple environmental and perturbing factors, the poorest performance of the three SD products is mainly found in densely vegetated regions, and they are strongly related to the forest cover fraction and surface roughness. Despite the above factors, the best performance for all three SD products is found over temperate climate regions. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the ETC approach to quantify the uncertainty of SD products particularly in remote regions with sparse in situ measurements.

Application of the method of structural-parametric identification to determine the mathematical model of a multidimensional object with distributed parameters and delay

Drying is one of the most responsible and energy-intensive post-harvest grain processing operations. The constant rise in heat prices has led to the search for new designs of grain dryers, or improvements to existing ones. Studies of well-known scientists such as Romankov, Rezchikov, Rashkovskaya have proven the potential effectiveness of using a fluidized bed for drying grain. The degree to which this drying efficiency approaches the potential is determined by how much the change in the actual humidity of the material during drying approaches the theoretical drying curve at the same resource consumption and the same initial state of the material to be dried. Taking into account the provisions of the theory of optimal control indicates that max-imizing the accuracy of stabilization of a given value of the height of the fluidized bed should be achieved by developing an optimal multidimensional stabilization system of the specified height. The basis for solving the first of these is the study of the design of a fluidized bed grain dryer. The decomposition of the grain dryer allows to present it in the form of a set of multidi-mensional objects with pure delay. The size of this set is determined by the number of cascades, and the dynamic characteristics of its elements depend on the distance of the cascade to the gate Δ. Automation of control and management of processes of processing and storage of grain opens wide opportunities for increase of efficiency of use, increase of productivity of current lines, further reduction of labor costs and improvement of quality of processing of grain. If today most of the known dryers have their own mathematical model, this fluidized bed dryer is new, incompletely studied and therefore needs its own mathematical description in order to develop a system of automatic control of its parameters. Therefore, this paper shows the practical application of the technique of identification of signals "input-output" of the dryer for the dispersed material of the cascade type. According to the spectral and mutual spectral densities of the signals, using the technology of structural-parametric identification, a matrix of transfer functions of the dryer was found, which is a multidimensional dynamic object with distributed parameters with delay, which is affected by various perturbing factors.

Evaluation of nine major satellite soil moisture products in a typical subtropical monsoon region with complex land surface characteristics

Assessing accuracies of satellite soil moisture (SM) products in areas with strong anthropogenic activities, abundant precipitation, and dense vegetation is important but limited. In this study, performances of nine satellite SM products, including the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI), and the ascending and descending products of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), Chinese Fengyun-3B (FY3B), Chinese Fengyun-3C (FY3C), and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), were evaluated against in-situ SM in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2015 to 2018. Results showed that the ESA CCI outperformed other products, with averaged correlation coefficient (R) of 0.522, correlation coefficient for SM anomalies (Rano) of 0.419, and unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE) of 0.040 m3 m−3, followed by the SMAP_A and SMAP_D. Overestimation was observed in the AMSR2 products (Bias >0.081 m3 m−3), while underestimation was found in the FY3B and FY3C products (Bias < −0.104 m3 m−3). Moreover, R values decreased with the increase in water area percentage (WAP), land cover heterogeneity (GSI), fractional vegetation cover (FVC), and precipitation (PRE). Threshold values were observed at 3% for the WAP, 0.05 for the FVC, and 900 mm yr−1 for the PRE, below which sharp declines of accuracy were observed. The WAP, GSI, and FVC were divided into five sub-classes with their values increasing with the sub-class level (I to V). Correlations coefficients between these perturbing factors and R (correlation between satellite and in-situ SM) increased as sub-class levels increased. Under sub-classes I, II, and III, these three factors had limited influences on accuracies of satellite SM products. However, under sub-classes IV and V, significant impacts of these three perturbing factors were observed. Moreover, when sub-classes of the PRE increased from I to V, correlations between Bias and PRE decreased first and then increased. These findings can help to determine suitable satellite SM products in the YRD and similar areas.

Confirmation of 24 h 50 min Lunar Periodicity, Apparently Inexplicable by Classical Factors, in Precession of Allais Pendulum

During 36 days the motion of two pendulums, which were restarted every hour, was continuously recorded. 869 “runs” were thus made, providing each time the precession during the run, as well as other parameters of the motion. Spectral analysis of precession and ellipticity revealed a lunar component of 24 h 50 min, which can only result from an astral action, through mechanisms yet to be discovered. Indeed, an analysis was carried out of the influence of all classical perturbing factors: direct or indirect action of classical gravity, temperature, Earth’s magnetic field, etc.… None of them can explain this component, given its amplitude and phase. Its amplitude excludes also an explanation by general relativity. This is consistent with a major result that Allais claimed to have obtained during each one of the six continuous one-month-long experiments he carried out from 1954 to 1960. The numerous and very precise data provided by an automatic alidade give additional information to those gathered by Allais. All that confirms all the scientific interest that there would be to resume long-duration pendulum observations on a much more important scale: continuous observations for at least 2 years, and if possible more.

Mathematical description of a hybrid quadrocopter for the purpose of computer simulation of controlled motion

The problem of constructing the most complete mathematical model of the movement of a hybrid-type quadcopter, which, in addition to electric motors, is also equipped with an internal combustion engine, is considered. The relevance of this development is due to the desire to create a control system for a quadcopter of relatively new design, and the feasibility of development is due to the desire to use integrated design, improving the design of the device and elements of navigation and control. The developed mathematical model of the motion of the center of mass of the quadcopter and around the center of mass includes control variables and takes into account the gyroscopic moments from the rotors of the engines - carriers of kinetic moments. This model can be used in the process of designing and debugging control algorithms for such aircraft. The main method of modeling is the numerical integration of the system of differential equations. The given modeling complex will allow to carry out researches on influence of perturbing factors and imperfection of elements of a control system; test and improve management laws; to modernize the design of the quadcopter to increase the efficiency of operation. The advantage of the model is its validity, openness, versatility, as it is easy to adapt to any other design of the quadcopter.

A Calibration/Disaggregation Coupling Scheme for Retrieving Soil Moisture at High Spatio-Temporal Resolution: Synergy between SMAP Passive Microwave, MODIS/Landsat Optical/Thermal and Sentinel-1 Radar Data.

Soil moisture (SM) data are required at high spatio-temporal resolution—typically the crop field scale every 3–6 days—for agricultural and hydrological purposes. To provide such high-resolution SM data, many remote sensing methods have been developed from passive microwave, active microwave and thermal data. Despite the pros and cons of each technique in terms of spatio-temporal resolution and their sensitivity to perturbing factors such as vegetation cover, soil roughness and meteorological conditions, there is currently no synergistic approach that takes advantage of all relevant (passive, active microwave and thermal) remote sensing data. In this context, the objective of the paper is to develop a new algorithm that combines SMAP L-band passive microwave, MODIS/Landsat optical/thermal and Sentinel-1 C-band radar data to provide SM data at the field scale at the observation frequency of Sentinel-1. In practice, it is a three-step procedure in which: (1) the 36 km resolution SMAP SM data are disaggregated at 100 m resolution using MODIS/Landsat optical/thermal data on clear sky days, (2) the 100 m resolution disaggregated SM data set is used to calibrate a radar-based SM retrieval model and (3) the so-calibrated radar model is run at field scale on each Sentinel-1 overpass. The calibration approach also uses a vegetation descriptor as ancillary data that is derived either from optical (Sentinel-2) or radar (Sentinel-1) data. Two radar models (an empirical linear regression model and a non-linear semi-empirical formulation derived from the water cloud model) are tested using three vegetation descriptors (NDVI, polarization ratio (PR) and radar coherence (CO)) separately. Both models are applied over three experimental irrigated and rainfed wheat crop sites in central Morocco. The field-scale temporal correlation between predicted and in situ SM is in the range of 0.66–0.81 depending on the retrieval configuration. Based on this data set, the linear radar model using PR as a vegetation descriptor offers a relatively good compromise between precision and robustness all throughout the agricultural season with only three parameters to set. The proposed synergistical approach combining multi-resolution/multi-sensor SM-relevant data offers the advantage of not requiring in situ measurements for calibration.

Matrix effect in tumor lysates – Does it affect your cytokine ELISA and multiplex analyses?

Quantification of cytokines in cancerous tissue is important for understanding basic tumor biology and for deciphering anti-cancer mechanisms in drug development. Cytokine measurements on protein-level are often done by immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISAs) and multiplex assays. However, immunoassays are prone to interference due to the presence of perturbing factors. The sum of these factors is known as the matrix effect, which results in a deviation of the measured cytokine concentration from the actual concentration. In this study, we demonstrated that matrix effects are present in tumor lysates from 11 different syngeneic murine tumors and that it can greatly affect cytokine measurements in ELISAs and multiplex assays. Dilution of tumor lysates and careful selection of lysis buffer components may decrease matrix effects. However, matrix effects are still present, and care should be taken when analyzing cytokine measurements of tumor lysates.

Оцінка впливу похибок БІНС, яка побудована на MEMS-компонентах, на точність виведення ракети-носія надлегкого класу

The object of the article is the movement of an ultra-light class liquid-propellant launch vehicle in near-earth space. The subject of the research is the accuracy of launching a spacecraft by a launch vehicle. The article studies the effect of errors in the instruments of a strap-down inertial navigation system built with the use of MEMS sensors on the accuracy of launching a spacecraft into low-earth orbits with an altitude of up to 450 km for two modes of operation: with and without a satellite navigation system. Tasks: to identify the determining disturbing factors, to determine the influence of instrument errors on the trajectory tube, to determine the influence of instrument errors on the insertion accuracy, to perform a comparative analysis of the accuracy characteristics obtained for two modes of operation of the navigation system. Methods used analysis, synthesis, analogy, comparison, factor analysis, statistical modeling, statistical processing of modeling results. Results: a set of defining disturbing factors was revealed, the dependencies of the trajectory tubes on the altitude of the target orbit and flight time were obtained, the dependencies of the limiting deviations of the parameters of the spacecraft's orbit at the time of separation from the launch vehicle on the altitude of the target orbit were obtained. Conclusions. 1. It is shown that the determining perturbing factors are the zero drift of the gyroscope from launch to launch and the zero random drift of the gyroscope. 2. It was determined that the value of the trajectory tube monotonically expands on time and the height of the target orbit. Maximum deviations of the current position and absolute speed in the mode without using a satellite navigation system do not exceed 115 km and 140 m/s. For the mode using a satellite navigation system, these values do not exceed 140 m and 1.5 m/s. 3. It was revealed that the maximum deviations of the parameters of the spacecraft's orbit in the mode with the use of a satellite navigation system do not exceed 27 km in height, 1.8o in inclination, 4.5x10-4 in eccentricity, and 2.7o for the longitude of the ascending node. For the mode with a satellite navigation system - in height - 2.6 km, in inclination and longitude of the ascending node - 0.0003о, in eccentricity - 3.5x10-4. 4. Generally, the use of a satellite navigation system narrows the trajectory tube by twice, and the accuracy increases to four times, depending on the orbital parameters.

Aircraft maintenance system simulation mathematical model construction

The development of the aviation transport system is characterized by sophistication of interacting objects, the multi-criteria nature of the tasks to be solved and difficulties in making management decisions. For example, modern medium haul aircraft are fitted with up to 25,000 sensors to monitor the performance capabilities of functional systems components. Numerous ground-based instrumental methods and means of diagnosing the technical condition are used. This requires the development of methods and algorithms for determining and monitoring the criteria of limiting state of the monitored components and functional systems of aeronautical equipment. In this regard, analytical models of predictive estimate for the technical condition of aeronautical equipment, determination of aircraft maintenance modes and provision of spare parts and materials become essential. The paper proposes a scheme of the aircraft fleet maintenance system modeling algorithm and deducing the mathematical model of the optimal number of aircraft states in order to exclude secondary and subjective factors. The method of statistical modeling based on Markov processes with discrete states and continuous time is the basis of the proposed analytical model. The proposed method is reduced to the synthesis of some modeling algorithm of the investigated process that simulates the complex system components behavior and interaction as well as random perturbing factors. A distinctive feature of the presented algorithm is determination of the predominant estimated dependences of transition probabilities and intensities taking into account the requirements of the modern regulatory framework in terms of reliability of equipment and diagnosing the technical condition. The analysis of the predominant estimated dependencies study results in the conditions of operation of the aircraft maintenance system confirmed a high degree of correlation of the time duration effect on the particular states in order to diagnose the technical condition depending on the diagnostic concept. The proposed simulation model can be used for the aircraft technical condition predictive estimate, aircraft gas turbine engines and functional systems.

Multiple inducers of endothelial NOS (eNOS) dysfunction in sickle cell disease.

A characteristic aspect of the robust, systemic inflammatory state in sickle cell disease is dysfunction of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). We identify 10 aberrant endothelial cell inputs, present in the specific sickle context, that are known to have the ability to cause eNOS dysfunction. These are: endothelial arginase depletion, asymmetric dimethylarginine, complement activation, endothelial glycocalyx degradation, free fatty acids, inflammatory mediators, microparticles, oxidized low density lipoproteins, reactive oxygen species, and Toll‐like receptor 4 signaling ligands. The effect of true eNOS dysfunction on clinical testing using flow‐mediated dilation can be simulated by two known examples of endothelial dysfunction mimicry (hemoglobin consumption of NO; and oxidation of smooth muscle cell soluble guanylate cyclase). This lends ambiguity to interpretation of such clinical testing. The presence of these multiple perturbing factors argues that a therapeutic approach targeting only a single injurious endothelial input (or either example of mimicry) would not be sufficiently efficacious. This would seem to argue for identifying therapeutics that directly protect eNOS function or application of multiple therapeutic approaches.

КОНЦЕПЦИИ КАНАЛИЗИРОВАННОСТИ И ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОЙ АССИМИЛЯЦИИ В БИОЛОГИИ РАЗВИТИЯ. СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ПОДХОДЫ И ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

The two related parts of the Conrad Waddington’s proposal, the concepts of canalization and genetic assimilation, formalized yet in the 1940s continue to arouse great interest among professionals, representing one of the most impressive examples of the transdisciplinary development of ideas. Individual development of any organism proceeds in the context of permanent and unavoidable changes in the factors of the external environment and internal perturbations of molecular and physiological processes. Considering that in any population organisms differ genetically, the implementation of the genetic program must therefore be relatively resistant to genetic variability. According to Waddington, individual development is canalized, i.e. occurs within a certain canal of environmental conditions that limits the variability in the developmental trajectory. However, strong environmental changes and considerable internal perturbations are able to “throw” some trajectories outside the walls of this canal. As a result, aberrant phenotypes may emerge, with some of them being able to get involved in subsequent selection. If the conditions that systematically lead to such an aberrant development persist, the features of these phenotypes can be fixed genetically by selection after a few generations. In other words, selection leads to the emergence of phenotype variants, most genetically suitable to the current circumstances, in which developmental trajectories are altered appropriately. Populations of organisms with altered trajectories and different genotypes continue to exist even when the impact of perturbing factors ceases. Waddington called the mechanism underlying the “same phenotype but different genotypes” evolutionary scenario genetic assimilation. Recent outcomes of evolutionary systems biology have provided a quantitative basis for Waddington’s classical concepts on the robustness of individual development and genetic assimilation. It has become possible to further develop these concepts in the light of new experimental results and theoretical ideas. Particular progress has been achieved in analyzing the molecular machinery of canalization. This paper aims to discuss the results obtained in this area of systems biology by computer modeling in comparison with experimental data.

Ecosystem restoration is risky … but we can change that

The forthcoming UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration brings the challenge of massively increasing restoration efforts to halt and reverse environmental degradation. This challenge must move beyond a focus on the size and number of projects to a focus on how those projects are designed and implemented. Approaches based on restoring the fundamental ecological processes that lead to self-sustaining ecosystems are essential.

Ionized Gas in the NGC 3077 Galaxy

The nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 3077 is known for its peculiar morphology, which includes numerous dust lanes and emission-line regions. The interstellar medium in this galaxy is subject to several perturbing factors. These are primarily the central starburst and tidal structures in the M 81 group. We present a comprehensive study of the state of ionization, kinematics, and chemical composition of ionized gas in NGC 3077, including both star-forming regions and diffuse ionized gas (DIG) at the periphery. We study gas motions in the H$\alpha$ line via high-resolution ($R\approx15\,000$) 3D spectroscopy with the scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer installed into SCORPIO-2 instrument attached to the 6-m telescope of the SAO RAS. Images in the main optical emission lines were acquired with MaNGaL photometer with a tunable filter at the 2.5-m telescope of the Caucasian Mountain Observatory of SAI MSU. We also used SCORPIO-2 to perform long-slit spectroscopy of the galaxy with a resolution of $R\approx1\,000$. Our estimate of the gas metallicity, $Z=0.6Z_\odot$, is significantly lower than the earlier determination, but agrees with the "luminosity--metallicity" dependence. Spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams of the emission-line ratios do not show correlations between the gas ionization state and its velocity dispersion, and this is most likely due to strong ionization by young stars, whereas the contribution of shocks to the excitation of emission lines is less important. We also studied the locations of multicomponent H$\alpha$ profiles and provide arguments suggesting that they are mostly associated with individual kinematic components along the line of sight and not with expanding shells as it was believed earlier. We also observe there a combination of wind outflow from star-forming regions and accretion from interstellar gas clouds in the M 81 group.