Point Of View Research Articles

Is ageing undesirable? An ethical analysis

The technical possibilities of biomedicine open up the opportunity to intervene in ageing itself with the aim of mitigating, reducing or eliminating it. However, before undertaking these changes or rejecting...

Aquatic Angiosperms of India

Some of the salient features pertaining to the taxonomy of a few interesting aquatic angiosperms and their distribution, variability of fruits and seeds, their economic importance, floral biology, anatomy, embryology and cytology are presented here. The varied and diverse pattern of distribution of some Indian aquatic taxa is described with examples. Certain unique embryological features noticed in some aquatic plants are pointed out. Though the data on the cytplogy of Indian aquatic angiosperms is raher meagre, it is evident that from the evolutionary point of view, polyploidy has played an important role in the differentiation of races, varieties and species. The nomenclature of Nymphoides Hill and Necharmndra Planch., is discussed. Finally, the ample scope present for further work for a better understanding of these plants is emphasised.

The primeness of noncommutative polynomials on prime rings

We study the primeness of noncommutative polynomials on prime rings. Let [Formula: see text] be a prime ring with extended centroid [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] a right ideal of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] a noncommutative polynomial over [Formula: see text], which is not a polynomial identity (PI) for [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]. Then [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text] if and only if one of the following holds: (i) [Formula: see text]; (ii) [Formula: see text] for some idempotent [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] such that either [Formula: see text] is a PI for [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] is central-valued on [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. We then apply the result to higher commutators of right ideals. Some results of the paper are also studied from the view of point of the notion of [Formula: see text]-primeness of rings.

Review on development prospect of operation scheduling strategies for flexible interconnected distribution network in renewable energy-penetrated power system

As the renewable energy integrates in the power system, the interactions between source, load, and storage equipment in the distribution network become frequent. The original distribution network could not meet the growing demand of the power grid. The use of controlled power electronic devices for flexible interconnection transformation of the distribution network could help improve the controllability, reliability, and safety of the power system and promote the consumption of distributed power sources. It is an important means of evolving towards future intelligent distribution networks. Typical devices for flexible interconnection are discussed of the operating characteristics. In addition, the core technologies of flexible interconnected distribution network system are introduced from the view of point of dispatching. Finally, to achieve a wider application of flexible interconnected distribution networks, the development trend is prospected.

Troska kardynała Karola Wojtyły o godne uczczenie jubileuszu św. Stanisława (1972-1979)

“Polish Christian tradition linked two bishops and martyrs - witnesses, so to speak, of our Christening and Confirmation. From the point of view of the history of redemption - a spiritual process progressing through the history of a nation - it is still verytelling. And it does not cease to be telling, just like in the life of each of us the dates of Christening and Confirmation do not cease to be telling, though we drift further and further apart from them with the passing away of the days of our life. We constantly realise that the dates of Christening and Confirmation were decisive for the coming of Christ into our life. That is why we come back to them. This is the reason why we will soon have to come back to the date 1079, remembering not only the day of the martyr’s death, but the whole seven years of the pastoral work of bishop Stanislaus (1072-1079) in Cracow. (...) If the meaning of St. Stanislaus in the history of redemption on our soil may be understood by analogy with developing of faith which takes place in man as well as in a given community or society, then the most adequate way of referring to the great personage after nine centuries would be working on such enrichment and deepening of faith as is required by our times.” In this way in 1970 Cracow Metropolitan, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, justified the necessity of solemn celebrations in honour of St. Stanislaus and showed their ecclesiastical and pastoral character. In the history of the Cracow diocese there has never been a celebration more carefully prepared than the one in worship of St. Stanislaus. No other celebration has been so deeply set in the theological, historical and pastoral context. It is not easy to find other events whose general outline would be so meticulously thought over. Preparations started two years prior to the main ceremonies, thus allowing many initiatives which enabled not only experiencing the jubilee year in a proper way, but most of all, a spiritual revitalisation of the faithful. Reading the addresses and sermons of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła we come across many trains of thoughts of St. Stanislaus. The patron saint was always present in the addresses of the Metropolitan. For the future generations it is important that owing to the initiatives of the Cardinal the cult of St. Stanislaus was revitalised.

Energy-Based Assessment of Liquefaction Behavior of a Non-Plastic Silt Based on Cyclic Triaxial Tests

Earthquakes cause cyclic shear deformations in soil and build-up of excessive pore water pressure as a result of undrained loading, accompanied with rearrangement of soil particles and degradation in stiffness of the soil due to decrease in effective stresses. During loading, the onset of soil liquefaction is defined as a stress state in which the excess pore water pressure is equalized to the total stress. From this point of view, assessment of the pore water pressure development pattern under cyclic loading has been one of the most salient research topics in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. In this study, results of a series of cyclic triaxial tests on non-plastic silt specimens consolidated under 100 kPa effective isotropic consolidation pressure were used to question the modelling ability of pore pressure development models previously proposed for sands. Tests were performed on specimens of 6 different initial relative densities (Dr) ranging between 30-80% and 10 different cyclic stress ratios (CSR). The key parameters of pore water pressure development and shear deformation in the energy-based model used are relative density, cyclic stress ratio and number of cycles. The results revealed that, these energy-based models have a strong potential in evaluation of pore water pressure development pattern of non-plastic silts. Test results also show that the increase in relative density and decrease in CSR causes a ladderlike behavior among pore water pressure and cyclic shear strain, which is relevantly rendered by energy-based models.

Testing analytical methods to derive the cosmic-ray ionisation rate in cold regions via synthetic observations

Context. Cosmic rays (CRs) heavily impact the chemistry and physics of cold and dense star-forming regions. However, the characterisation of their ionisation rate continues to pose a challenge from the observational point of view. Aims. In the past, a few analytical formulas have been proposed to infer the cosmic-ray ionisation rate, ζ2, from molecular line observations. These have been derived from the chemical kinetics of the involved species, but they have not yet been validated using synthetic data processed with a standard observative pipeline. In this work, we aim to bridge this gap. Methods. We performed a radiative transfer on a set of three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of prestellar cores, exploring different initial ζ2, evolutionary stages, types of radiative transfer (for instance assuming local-thermodynamic-equilibrium conditions), and telescope responses. We then computed the column densities of the involved tracers to determine ζ2, employing a recently proposed method based on the detection of H2D+. We compared this approach with a previous method, based on more common tracers. Both approaches are commonly used. Results. Our results confirm that the equation based on the detection of H2D+ accurately retrieves the actual ζ2 within a factor of two to three in the physical conditions explored in our tests. Since we have also explored a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer, this work indirectly offers insights into the excitation temperatures of common transitions at moderate volume densities (n ≈ 105 cm−3). We also performed a few tests using a previous methodology that is independent of H2D+, which overestimates the actual ζ2 by at least two orders of magnitude. We considered a new derivation of this method, however, we found that it still leads to high over-estimations. Conclusions. The method based on H2D+ is further validated in this work and demonstrates a reliable method for estimating ζ2 in cold and dense gas. On the contrary, the former analytical equation, as already pointed out by its authors, has no global domain of application. Thus, we find that it ought to be employed with caution.

Heterogeneity of mesenchymal cells in human amniotic membrane at term.

There is increasing interest in understanding the tissue biology of human amniotic membrane (hAM) given its applications in medicine. One cellular component is mesenchymal cells, which can be extracted, cultured and differentiated "in vitro" into various cell types. These studies show that there is heterogeneity among mesenchymal cells. The aim of this work is to study the membrane in situ to determine whether this cellular heterogeneity exists. The hAMs were obtained from caesarean deliveries at term and analyzed by histological techniques. Types I-III mesenchymal cells and Hofbauer were distinguished by light microscopy. Histochemically, mesenchymal cell types showed successively increasing positivity to: PAS, vimentin, fibronectin, and Concanavalin-A; VGEF, TGF-β2, PDGF-C, FGF-2. By the semiquantitative point of view, the percentage of Type II cells was 60%, significantly higher than the other types. With transmission electron microscopy, an intermediate cell type between II-III was observed. Strong vesiculation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) with exocytosis was observed. In addition, an accumulation of a similar material to the extracellular matrix in the RER caused its dilation especially in type IIITEM cells. Some of this material acquired a globular structure. These structures were also found free in the extracellular matrix. In conclusion, the mesenchymal cells of the fibroblastic layer of the hAMs studied are heterogeneous, with some undifferentiated and others with a probably senescent fibroblastic phenotype with accumulation in their RER of fibronectin. These results may be of interest to extract mesenchymal cells from hAMs for use in regenerative medicine and to better understand the mechanisms of fetal membrane rupture.

Important-Data-Based DoS Attack Mechanism and Resilient H∞ Filter Design for Networked T-S Fuzzy Systems.

This article is concerned with the security problems for networked Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems with asynchronous premise constraints. The primary objective of this article is twofold. First, a novel important-data-based (IDB) denial-of-service (DoS) attack mechanism is proposed from the perspective of the adversary for the first time to reinforce the destructive effect of the DoS attacks. Different from most existing DoS attack models, the proposed attack mechanism can utilize the information of packets, evaluate the importance degree of packets, and only attack the most "important" ones. As such, a larger system performance degradation can be expected. Second, corresponding to the proposed IDB DoS mechanism, a resilient H∞ fuzzy filter is designed from the defender's point of view to alleviate the negative effect of the attack. Furthermore, since the defender does not know the attack parameter, an algorithm is designed to estimate it. In a word, a unified attack-defense framework is developed in this article for networked T-S fuzzy systems with asynchronous premise constraints. With the help of the Lyapunov functional method, sufficient conditions are successfully established to compute the desired filtering gains and ensure the H∞ performance of the filtering error system. Finally, two examples are exploited to demonstrate the destructiveness of the proposed IDB DoS attack and the usefulness of the developed resilient H∞ filter.

An ontology of 3D environment where a simulated manipulation task takes place (ENVON)

Thanks to the advent of robotics in shopfloor and warehouse environments, control rooms need to seamlessly exchange information regarding the dynamically changing 3D environment to facilitate tasks and path planning for the robots. Adding to the complexity, this type of environment is heterogeneous as it includes both free space and various types of rigid bodies (equipment, materials, humans etc.). At the same time, 3D environment-related information is also required by the virtual applications (e.g., VR techniques) for the behavioral study of CAD-based product models or simulation of CNC operations. In past research, information models for such heterogeneous 3D environments are often built without ensuring connection among different levels of abstractions required for different applications. For addressing such multiple points of view and modelling requirements for 3D objects and environments, this paper proposes an ontology model that integrates the contextual, topologic, and geometric information of both the rigid bodies and the free space. The ontology provides an evolvable knowledge model that can support simulated task-related information in general. This ontology aims to greatly improve interoperability as a path planning system (e.g., robot) and will be able to deal with different applications by simply updating the contextual semantics related to some targeted application while keeping the geometric and topological models intact by leveraging the semantic link among the models.

Improving Clinical Trials of Antioxidants in Alzheimer's Disease.

Maintaining diversity in drug development in research into Alzheimer's disease (AD) is necessary to avoid over-reliance on targeting AD neuropathology. Treatments that reduce or prevent the generation of oxidative stress, frequently cited for its causal role in the aging process and AD, could be useful in at-risk populations or diagnosed AD patients. However, in this review, it is argued that clinical research into antioxidants in AD could provide more useful feedback as to the therapeutic value of the oxidative stress theory of AD. Improving comparability between randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is vital from a waste-reduction and priority-setting point of view for AD clinical research. For as well as attempting to improve meaningful outcomes for patients, RCTs of antioxidants in AD should strive to maximize the extraction of clinically useful information and actionable feedback from trial outcomes. Solutions to maximize information flow from RCTs of antioxidants in AD are offered here in the form of checklist questions to improve ongoing and future trials centered around the following dimensions: adhesion to reporting guidelines like CONSORT, biomarker enrichment, simple tests of treatment, and innovative trial design.

Improved ant colony optimization algorithms for multi-objective investment decision model based on intelligent fuzzy clustering algorithm

With the continuous changes and development of financial markets, it has brought many difficulties to investment decision-making. For the multi-objective investment decision-making problem, the improved Ant colony optimization algorithms was used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the multi-objective investment decision-making. Therefore, based on intelligent Fuzzy clustering algorithm and Ant colony optimization algorithms, this paper studied a new multi-objective investment decision model, and proved the advantages of this method through comparative analysis of experiments. The experimental results showed that the improved Ant colony optimization algorithms has significantly reduced the system’s construction costs, operating costs and financial costs, all of which were controlled below 41%. Compared with the traditional Ant colony optimization algorithms, this method had lower values in policy risk, technical risk and market risk, and can effectively control risks. Meanwhile, the environmental, economic, and social benefits of this method were all above 58%, and the average absolute return rate and success rate in this experiment were 21.5450% and 69.4083%, respectively. Therefore, from the above point of view, the multi-objective investment decision model based on intelligent Fuzzy clustering algorithm and the improved Ant colony optimization algorithms can effectively help decision-makers to find the best investment decision-making scheme, and can improve the accuracy and stability of decision-making. This research can provide reference significance for other matters in the field of investment decision-making.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest, first steps to know and follow in Mexico to have cardioprotected territories. A point of view of a group of experts.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest, first steps to know and follow in Mexico to have cardioprotected territories. A point of view of a group of experts.

Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of Mandatory Immunization Discourse for School Attendance in Indonesia

Mandating complete vaccination for school attendance is still in the discourse for the future policy in Indonesia. Like any other policy, this discourse needs to be given an open space to be looked in a critical point view of ethic. This article critically examines the ethical dimensions surrounding the discourse of implementing mandatory immunization for school attendance in Indonesia, employing a multi-faceted ethical analysis. A case study utilizing moral reasoning through the lenses of utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, and principlism was employed. From a utilitarian standpoint, mandatory vaccination is ethically justifiable, emphasizing its potential to yield substantial health benefits for society, reduce healthcare spending, and contribute to economic growth. The straightforward nature of this intervention, unlike other complex public health measures, makes it an appealing strategy for increasing vaccination coverage. However, Kantian, non-maleficence, and autonomy perspectives introduces ethical complexities, as mandatory immunization may be perceived as infringing upon individual beliefs and personal choice. The article advocates for open and honest discussions, understanding religious perspectives, and fostering trust in governmental decision-making to address these concerns. Virtue ethics are explored to underscore the importance of cultivating social responsibility in the success of public health measures. It further emphasizes the need for a just implementation of the policy, treating the specific needs of regions. In conclusion, the article posits that while the benefits of mandatory immunization are substantial, ethical considerations demand a delicate balance between promoting public health goals and respecting individual freedom. It suggests that achieving immunization targets necessitates a comprehensive approach, including respecting individual choices, building trust, widespread education on vaccine benefits and risks, and ensuring sustainable financing and vaccine procurement across all segments of Indonesia.

The multiple trajectories of the allergic march.

The allergic march comprises the sequential appearance of a series of allergic comorbidities. However, variability in the onset and progression of allergic diseases generates a heterogeneous scenario that does not follow a linear and single trajectory. Almost half of the pediatric population presents at least 1 allergy symptom. However, only 4%-6% present multimorbidity, with several allergic diseases co-occurring. It has recently been shown that although they share etiological mechanisms and risk factors, allergic diseases arise independently. In most cases, progression is not consecutive, or at least not the same in all patients. TH2- mediated inflammation, epithelial barrier dysfunction, and genetic predisposition play a fundamental role in the etiology of allergic diseases, on which the interaction with the exposome acts decisively. Therefore, studying diseases from an omics point of view is essential when attempting to describe the various trajectories of allergic progression and to propose effective interventions to prevent multimorbidity. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of the current perception of the allergic march, including clinical observations, omics data, risk factors, and measures aimed at modifying its course or even preventing its onset.

A Mobile App for Comprehensive Symptom Management in People With Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Usability Study.

There is an increasing need for highly accessible health management platforms for comprehensive symptoms of Parkinson disease. Mobile apps encompassing nonmotor symptoms have been rarely developed since these symptoms are often subjective and difficult to reflect what individuals actually experience. The study developed an app for comprehensive symptom management and evaluated its usability and feasibility. A single-group repeated measurement experimental design was used. Twenty-two participants used the app for 6 weeks. Monitoring of nonmotor symptoms, games to address motor symptoms, and medication management were incorporated in the app. Quantitative outcomes were self-assessed through an online questionnaire, and one-on-one telephone interviews were conducted to understand the user's point of view. The successful experience of self-monitoring had improved participants' self-efficacy ( Z = -3.634, P < .001) and medication adherence ( Z = -3.371, P = .001). Facilitators included a simple-to-use interface, entertaining content, and medication helps. Barriers included simple forgetfulness and digital literacy, including unfamiliarity with mobile phone manipulation itself. The study suggested insight into the app use related to acceptability of mobile technology. The preliminary effects on self-efficacy and medication adherence will guide future nursing interventions using mobile health. Our approach will contribute to improving the continuum of care for Parkinson disease by promoting self-monitoring of symptoms.

Poetry and Doctrine

Poetry is one of those things in human language that gives a glimpse into something fundamental about humanity, something not about functional, performance-oriented communication but about the business of creating worlds of recognition. It is, from this point of view, inescapably theological. But thinking about this should also illuminate the sense in which doctrinal statements are ‘poetical’ – not because they are imprecise and non-literal, but because they are constructive of a culture.

A Stepwise Multivariate Granger Causality Method for Constructing Hierarchical Directed Brain Functional Network.

The directed brain functional network construction gives us the new insights into the relationships between brain regions from the causality point of view. The Granger causality analysis is one of the powerful methods to model the directed network. The complex brain network is also hierarchically constructed, which is particularly suited to facilitate segregated functions and the global integration of the segregated functions. Therefore, it is of great interest to explore new approach to model the hierarchical architecture of the directed network. In the present study, we proposed a new approach, namely, stepwise multivariate Granger causality (SMGC), considering both the directed and hierarchical features of brain functional network to explore the stepwise causal relationship in the network. The simulation study demonstrated that the diverse and complex hierarchical organization could be embedded in the apparently simple directed network. The proposed SMGC method could capture the multiple hierarchy of the directed network. When applying to the real functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) datasets, the core triple resting-state networks in human brain showed within-network directed connections in the first-level directed network and rich and diverse between-network pathways in the second-level hierarchical network. The default mode network (DMN) had a prominent role in the resting-state acting as both the causal source and the important relay station. Further exploratory research on the adaption of directed hierarchical network in athletes suggested the enhanced bidirectional communication between the DMN and the central executive network (CEN) and the enhanced directed connections from the salience network (SN) to the CEN in the athlete group. The SMGC approach is capable of capturing the hierarchical architecture of the brain directed functional network, which refreshes the new stepwise causal relationship in the directed network. This might shed light on the potential application for exploring the altered hierarchical organization of brain directed network in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Neural Architecture Search as Multiobjective Optimization Benchmarks: Problem Formulation and Performance Assessment

The ongoing advancements in network architecture design have led to remarkable achievements in deep learning across various challenging computer vision tasks. Meanwhile, the development of neural architecture search (NAS) has provided promising approaches to automating the design of network architectures for lower prediction error. Recently, the emerging application scenarios of deep learning (e.g., autonomous driving) have raised higher demands for network architectures considering multiple design criteria: number of parameters/weights, number of floating-point operations, inference latency, among others. From an optimization point of view, the NAS tasks involving multiple design criteria are intrinsically multiobjective optimization problems; hence, it is reasonable to adopt evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) algorithms for tackling them. Nonetheless, there is still a clear gap confining the related research along this pathway: on the one hand, there is a lack of a general problem formulation of NAS tasks from an optimization point of view; on the other hand, there are challenges in conducting benchmark assessments of EMO algorithms on NAS tasks. To bridge the gap: (i) we formulate NAS tasks into general multi-objective optimization problems and analyze the complex characteristics from an optimization point of view; (ii) we present an end-to-end pipeline, dubbed EvoXBench, to generate benchmark test problems for EMO algorithms to run efficiently -without the requirement of GPUs or Pytorch/Tensorflow; (iii) we instantiate two test suites comprehensively covering two datasets, seven search spaces, and three hardware devices, involving up to eight objectives. Based on the above, we validate the proposed test suites using six representative EMO algorithms and provide some empirical analyses. The code of EvoXBench is available at https://github.com/EMI-Group/EvoXBench.

Voltage Support With PV Inverters in Low-Voltage Distribution Networks: An Overview

Large solar photovoltaic (PV) penetration using inverters in low voltage (LV) distribution networks may pose several challenges, such as reverse power flow and voltage rise situations. These challenges will eventually force grid operators to carry out grid reinforcement to ensure continued safe and reliable operations. However, smart inverters with reactive power control capability enable PV systems to support voltage quality in the distribution network better. This paper gives an overview of the current state-of-the-art control strategies for handling voltage problems through PV inverters and other devices. In addition, the (control) technical issues of PV systems integrated into the LV distribution network are considered from a control point of view. By comparing the control issues of PV integration into the grid, the paper aims to help distribution system operators to expand the volume of PV generation in the distribution system in an efficient and safe manner. Additionally, it will help control engineers and researchers select proper control strategies for PV systems as well as other distributed renewable sources.