Reference For Comparison Research Articles

Patterns of milking unit kick-off as a proxy for habituation to milking in primiparous cows

The onset of lactation and the subsequent habituation to the milking routine is a stressful period, particularly for primiparous (PRI) cows. The objective of this study was to describe the dynamics of milking unit kick-off (KO) behavior in PRI cows during the first 3 mo of lactation, considering multiparous (MUL) cows as a reference for comparison. In addition, the potential associations between KO and milk yield and mastitis presentation were investigated. A total of 869 cows (PRI = 199; MUL = 670) on a dairy farm in northern CO were included in the analysis. Cows calving between August and November 2020 were enrolled from 3 DIM until 90 DIM. Participants were milked 3×/day in a 60-unit rotary parlor and data from each milking session were downloaded from parlor management software. Milking unit kick-off was used as a proxy for habituation to the milking procedure. Kick-off events were reported by the milking system and defined as an abrupt interruption in the milk flow during the milking process. Cow KO events were recorded for each milking session. Subsequently, occurrence of KO was analyzed by grouping the 3 consecutive milking sessions in each day and categorized as yes or no, indicating whether or not an individual kicked at least once in a given day. Data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA and logistic regression, including parity category, calving season, occurrence of dystocia, and their potential interactions in the models. Least squares means for daily proportions of KO were calculated considering the number of cows with KO events per day in the PRI and MUL categories. Subsequently, odds ratios for the occurrence of KO in PRI versus MUL were calculated at multiple periods of time. When KO was analyzed by DIM, proportions of KO were greater in PRI than in MUL during the whole monitoring period. In PRI, proportions of KO increased from 0.10/d to 0.20/d between 3 DIM and 15 DIM, to start decreasing around 30 DIM and remaining above MUL up to 90 DIM. On the contrary, in MUL cows, proportions of KO remained close to 0.05/d during the 90-d period. Overall, the odds of KO were greater for PRI versus MUL cows (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 2.07 [1.58–2.73]). No differences in milk yield were established among KO categories, while the percentage of cows affected with mastitis was greater in cows grouped in the quartile with more frequent KO events. We concluded that the relationship between days in milk and the proportion of PRI cows displaying KO was not linear, but rather KO increased during the first 2 wk postpartum before decreasing after the first month of lactation. First-parity cows had greater levels of KO than MUL cows, which is most likely associated with the process of habituation to milking during their first lactation.

An evaluation of basal metabolic rate among healthy individuals — a cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe main source of daily energy requirement in Asian societies is basal metabolic rate (BMR). Even though the reason for this fluctuation is debatable, prior research have shown that BMR is highly varied in individuals. All studies concur that variation in fat-free mass (FFM) is important, although the effects of fat mass (FM), age, sex, and the hormones leptin, triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) are still unknown.ObjectiveThe main objectives of the study are as follows:• To evaluate the basal metabolic rate among healthy individuals• To identify the risk factors on basal metabolic rate among healthy individualsMethodologyIn total, 50 individuals were consecutively enrolled in the study during the entrepreneurship studio on 29th June 2022 held at Garden City University (GCU). The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 50 years, both males and females, students and professors of GCU, and healthy individuals. The exclusion criteria were subjects who had overt metabolic and/or endocrine diseases (e.g., diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypertension, amenorrhea) and those taking any drug known to influence energy metabolism. The convenient samples of 50 subjects were taken from this study.Outcome measuresBasal metabolic rate (BMR) and body mass index (BMI).ResultsThe demographic data, height, weight, BMI, and BMR were recorded. The mean and standard deviation of age are 25.81 ± 8.71 and 23.95 ± 6.67 of males and females, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of height are 1.68 ± 0.68 and 1.63 ± 0.07, respectively. The mean and standard deviation for weight are 63.8 ± 11.49 and 54.86 ± 10.43, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of BMI are males and females which are 22.3 ± 3.22 and 20.47 ± 3.62, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of BMR are males and females which are 1552.41 ± 127.3 and 1327.7 ± 147.9.ConclusionThe energy used up while lying still at rest and being awake during the nocturnal postabsorptive state is known as the basal metabolic rate (BMR). The values can be used as a reference for comparison with the normative values, and cardiorespiratory endurance training can be included in the rehabilitation program.

A Comparison of Reduplication Between Patani Malay (Southern Thailand) and Indonesian

This research is entitled "Comparison of Indonesian Language Reduplication and Patani Malay (South Thailand)". The research problem is whether there are similarities and differences in the form of reduplication of Indonesian and Patani Malay words. The collected data will be described, analyzed and interpreted in detail in order to obtain a correct picture of the similarities and differences between Indonesian and Patani Malay reduplications. The research method used is descriptive method which is used to record and describe the reduplication of Indonesian words with Patani Malay. If language data is used without comparison with previous data and this method is used to check reduplication at a glance, then it is refined by selecting and grouping according to the form of reduplication used as a reference in comparison. The conclusion in this study is that in the form of reduplication, Indonesian and Patani Malay have similarities and differences, the differences come from phonemics and pronunciation. The similarities and differences of each form are: 1. Basic reword 2. Reword based on meaning and takes the form 3. Rewords are based on phoneme forms.

Potentiality of Charcoal as a Dendrochronological and Paleoclimatic Archive: Case Study of Archaeological Charcoal from Southeastern Altai, Russia

Archaeological charcoal from ancient nomad iron-smelting furnaces collected in the highland southeastern Russian Altai has great potential as a material for tree ring analysis. Dendrochronological dating was applied to 355 viable samples (>80% of the 448 collected ones), prepared using a new protocol. Individual tree ring series of 155 (~43%) samples were used to construct nine floating chronologies from 76 to 290 rings long. The archaeological and radiocarbon data on charcoal that fueled the hearths of the Kosh-Agach type bracket the floating tree ring chronologies between the second and tenth centuries AD. The results demonstrate that long tree ring “steppe” chronologies can be obtained for intermontane basins in the arid zone of Southern Siberia, using the analysis of charcoal samples. A strong climate signal imprinted in the annual growth of trees allowed for crossdating samples with relatively few rings. The revealed common climate signal for larches from different locations indicates similar paleoclimate conditions of their growth despite the strong modern southeastward aridization trend in the region, which was not so pronounced ca. 1.5 ka ago. The further matching of these chronologies to the calendar timeline will provide reference for the precise comparison of climatic conditions in the floors of intermontane basins and in the flanking mountains.

A bilateral comparison between LNHB and PTB to determine the activity concentration of the same 125I solution

A bilateral comparison to determine the activity concentration of the same 125I solution was organized. As electron-capture radionuclide with a rather high atomic number, 125I must be regarded as difficult to measure. The situation is partly exacerbated by the fact that some established standardization methods, like photon-photon coincidence counting, can no longer be applied due to the unavailability of appropriate equipment and expertise.One aim of this work is to compare modern liquid scintillation counting methods for the standardization of 125I. Both participating metrology institutes have used their custom-built triple-to-double-coincidence ratio (TDCR) counters and the determined activity concentrations are in excellent agreement even though the ways to analyze the data and to compute counting efficiencies were widely independent. The results also agree with the outcome of 4π-γ counting that was carried out at LNHB.In both laboratories, the measurements were complemented by measurements with several secondary standardization methods which even allow to establish a link to the CCRI(II)–K2.I-125(2) comparison started in 2004. A good agreement between the TDCR results and the key comparison reference value of the 2004/2005 comparison was obtained.

Right agent, wrong level of hedonism: How high (vs low) hedonic values in AI-performed tasks lead to decreased perceptions of humanlikeness, warmth, and less consumer support

Reasons of reactions towards artificial intelligence (AI) performing hedonic tasks invites attention. This research argues that the reference of comparison to assess AI's suitability for the task shifts from machine schema to human schema as the hedonic value of the task increases, leading to the decrease in perceived humanlikeness, perceived warmth, and support for the AI, subsequently. Four studies, including a big data study on GitHub and three experiments, have shown that people are less supportive of AI and its creators when AI performs highly (vs low) hedonic tasks. This effect is mediated by the perceived humanlikeness of AI, since it affects AI's perceived warmth in a way that decreasing perceived humanlikeness when AI is assigned to the tasks with high (vs low) hedonic values decreases the perceived warmth of the AI. Decreased perceived warmth, in turn, lowers people's support for the AI and its creators. This serial mediation mechanism remains robust when AI's baseline humanlikeness increases, when the hedonic value of AI's method of performing the task, rather than the task itself is manipulated, and when the perceived competence and fairness are tested as alternative paths in parallel.

Influence of the hot water mass flow rate on heating of radiant floors of green buildings

The objective of the research is to improve space heating of green buildings by examining experimentally the influence of the heating medium mass flow rate on thermal performance. A green building was built in Cairo, Egypt, that consists of two similar rooms: one is the heated room and the other is a reference for comparison. A photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) collector is used to heat up water in a storage tank, and the hot water in the tank is circulated in the radiant floor of the examined green building. The hot water mass flow rate was varied between 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s. It was found that decreasing the water mass flow rate improves the heating of the radiant floor. The percentage improvement in floor temperature due to heating over the reference room, reaches about 17% and 6% at mass flow rates of 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s, respectively. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) was used to solve the equations for the heat transfer process between the heating water and the floor. It was found that decreasing the mass flow rate increases the residence time of the heating water in the radiant floor, consequently, increases the heat energy transfer and the floor temperature. Increasing the heating fluid mass flow rate in green buildings could have a negative effect on the heat transfer, such that the appropriate heating fluid mass flow rate should be calculated based on the green building massive material as well as the operating conditions, for example, ambient temperature and wind speed.

Anthrone method combined with adsorption of interferents as a new approach towards reliable quantification of total carbohydrate content in pyrolysis bio-oils

Carbohydrates are a group of compounds abundantly present in pyrolysis bio-oils. Their quantitative analysis however presents many challenges such as possible co-elution with other oxygenates when liquid chromatographic methods are used. For a cheaper and faster analysis, spectrophotometric methods are a convenient alternative. Most of the absorption spectrometry-based methods stem from the reaction scheme, where the carbohydrates are converted into furfural or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) derivatives and simultaneously react with colorizing agents such as phenol or anthrone. Alternatively, the produced compounds can be determined in the UV region without the addition of colorizing agent. An obvious problem arises when these furanic compounds are already present in the mixture, which is the case with most biomass-based pyrolysis bio-oils. In this study, we quantified the responses of 26 potential interferents that are expected to be present in the water-soluble fraction of bio-oils as well as 13 different carbohydrates. To mitigate the interferences, we used styrene-divinylbenzene polymeric resin adsorbents to separate the less polar interferents from the aqueous bio-oil extract and naturally formed bio-oil aqueous phases. A derivatization-GC-MS method was used as a reference for comparison of the results. We found that the adsorption step is crucial for acquiring more precise and accurate results. The anthrone method was the least susceptible to interferences and simultaneously produced results that were the closest to the reference GC-MS method. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences between the optimized anthrone method and the reference GC-MS method.

Evaluation of snow depth from multiple observation-based, reanalysis, and regional climate model datasets over a low-altitude Central European region

This study evaluates snow depth (SD) from several data sources: a combined satellite-based and in situ snow water equivalent product from the Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS), a dataset constructed from temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity using a snow model (CARPATCLIM), two state-of-the-art reanalyses by ECMWF (ERA5 and ERA5-Land), and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate simulations at grid spacings of 50 km and 10 km. SD observations from weather stations are used as a reference for the pointwise comparison. The study area covers the Pannonian Basin region (part of Central and Eastern Europe). Results are presented for the 2006–2010 and 1985–2010 periods. All datasets adequately reproduce the average day-to-day variation of SD but with different error magnitudes. The ERA5 reanalysis and the CGLS product represent SD remarkably well, with correlation coefficients above 0.9 and mean errors close to zero. On the other hand, ERA5-Land and CARPATCLIM overestimate daily mean SD by 2–3 cm for some stations and display lower correlations (0.7–0.9) during the 26-year time span. The WRF simulations significantly overestimate SD in the melting period (February–March). Reduction of the grid spacing from 50 to 10 km does not improve the results. The excessive snow cover might negatively impact land–atmosphere interactions in the model and lead to biases like temperature underestimation found in previous regional climate model evaluation studies. The results indicate that even in regions where snow is not a major climatic factor, SD errors can be substantial and should be considered in model evaluation and adaptation. Over the Carpathian Mountain ranges, SD from the different data sources diverges to the extent that the sign of the monthly mean model bias changes depending on the choice of the reference dataset.

Representation of time-varying and time-invariant EMR data and its application in modeling outcome prediction for heart failure patients

ObjectiveTo represent a patient record with both time-invariant and time-varying features as a single vector using an end-to-end deep learning model, and further to predict the kidney failure (KF) status and mortality of heart failure (HF) patients. Materials and methodsThe time-invariant EMR data included demographic information and comorbidities, and the time-varying EMR data were lab tests. We used a Transformer encoder module to represent the time-invariant data, and refined a long short-term memory (LSTM) with a Transformer encoder attached to the top to represent the time-varying data, taking the original measured values and their corresponding embedding vectors, masking vectors, and two types of time intervals as inputs. The proposed representations of patients with time-invariant and time-varying data were used to predict KF status (949 out of 5268 HF patients diagnosed with KF) and mortality (463 in-hospital deaths) for HF patients. Comparative experiments were conducted between the proposed model and some representative machine learning models. Ablation experiments were also performed around the time-varying data representation, including replacing the refined LSTM with the standard LSTM, GRU-D and T-LSTM, respectively, and removing the Transformer encoder and the time-varying data representation module, respectively. The visualization of the attention weights of the time-invariant and time-varying features was used to clinically interpret the predictive performance. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC), and the F1-score to evaluate the predictive performance of the models. ResultsThe proposed model achieved superior performance, with average AUROCs, AUPRCs and F1-scores of 0.960, 0.610 and 0.759 for KF prediction and 0.937, 0.353 and 0.537 for mortality prediction, respectively. Predictive performance improved with the addition of time-varying data from longer time periods. The proposed model outperformed the comparison and ablation references in both prediction tasks. ConclusionsBoth time-invariant and time-varying EMR data of patients could be efficiently represented by the proposed unified deep learning model, which shows higher performance in clinical prediction tasks. The way to use time-varying data in the current study is hopeful to be used in other kinds of time-varying data and other clinical tasks.

The impact of personally relevant consumption contexts during product evaluations in virtual reality

Using immersive technology to restore relevant context in consumer sensory testing facilitates evaluations reflective of real-world experiences, enabling data collection with improved discriminability and reliability. Prior research has applied the same contextual environment to all participants without accounting for varying individual consumption habits. This study investigated how personal relevance (usage frequency) of the consumption environment influenced perception and acceptance. Sixty-two consumers evaluated four granola bars on overall liking, attribute intensity, and appropriateness of attribute level via Just-About-Right (JAR) questions under two 360° virtual environments individually selected as each subject’s most and least frequently used scenarios. To assess repeatability, subjects replicated the test three weeks later. Across participants, results indicated the products were rated similarly between environments. However, an individual’s responses were more reliable when made in the more relevant consumption scenario as demonstrated by higher correlation coefficients obtained between replicates. Additionally, penalty analyses revealed products tended to be penalized more for being not-JAR in the more relevant environment. Participants reported higher presence in the less relevant environment (p < 0.001) whose 360° videos tended to be livelier. Nonetheless, subject engagement was equally high in both environments (p > 0.05). These findings demonstrate that providing a personally relevant scenario for consumer testing generated more repeatable data to obtain reliable consumer insights. Differences in liking penalty between environments suggests evaluating products in a more familiar setting may allow consumers to draw more stable references for comparisons based on past experiences, resulting in a more severe decrease in acceptance when products fall below expectations.

Identification Design of the Emblem Pattern on the Official Robes of the Central Plains Dynasty — Taking the Ming Dynasty As an Example

These Identity design has been an important subject of human concern since ancient times. In ancient feudal society, the same group of people formed a pyramid structure. Taking the Qing Empire as an example, the emperor's robe is yellow with a dragon emblem embroidered on it, symbolizing the emperor's majesty, while the official robes are divided into bird patterns and animal patterns, forming a strict hierarchy. In addition to the level identification between the same groups, the power information and other information of different groups can also be clearly distinguished from each other. For example, the Japanese family crest shows the family information to which the individual belongs, while the European family crest is more of a multi-level presentation, which may include family, class, status and other information. In addition, both of them have a long history and culture and a well-structured and systematic emblem pattern. When later generations studied the totem emblem patterns in other regions, they invariably used the two as a reference for comparison. What are these coats of arms and coats of arms used as a basis for judging status and class? This is the goal of this study, and it is hoped that the final findings will serve as a reference for other researchers.

Multi-sensor InSAR time series fusion for long-term land subsidence monitoring

ABSTRACT Satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is widely used for topographic, geological and natural resource investigations. However, most of the existing InSAR studies of ground deformation are based on relatively short periods and single sensors. This paper introduces a new multi-sensor InSAR time series data fusion method for time-overlapping and time-interval datasets, to address cases when partial overlaps and/or temporal gaps exist. A new Power Exponential Knothe Model (PEKM) fits and fuses overlaps in the deformation curves, while a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network predicts and fuses any temporal gaps in the series. Taking the city of Wuhan (China) as experiment area, COSMO-SkyMed (2011–2015), TerraSAR-X (2015–2019) and Sentinel-1 (2019–2021) SAR datasets were fused to map long-term surface deformation over the last decade. An independent 2011–2020 InSAR time series analysis based on 230 COSMO-SkyMed scenes was also used as reference for comparison. The correlation coefficient between the results of the fusion algorithm and the reference data is 0.87 in the time overlapping region and 0.97 in the time-interval dataset. The correlation coefficient of the overall results is 0.78, which fully demonstrates that the algorithm proposed in our paper achieves a similar trend as the reference deformation curve. The experimental results are consistent with existing studies of surface deformation at Wuhan, demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed new fusion method to provide robust time series for the analysis of long-term land subsidence mechanisms.

MpoxRadar: a worldwide MPXV genomic surveillance dashboard.

The mpox virus (MPXV) is mutating at an exceptional rate for a DNA virus and its global spread is concerning, making genomic surveillance a necessity. With MpoxRadar, we provide an interactive dashboard to track virus variants on mutation level worldwide. MpoxRadar allows users to select among different genomes as reference for comparison. The occurrence of mutation profiles based on the selected reference is indicated on an interactive world map that shows the respective geographic sampling site in customizable time ranges to easily follow the frequency or trend of defined mutations. Furthermore, the user can filter for specific mutations, genes, countries, genome types, and sequencing protocols and download the filtered data directly from MpoxRadar. On the server, we automatically download all MPXV genomes and metadata from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on a daily basis, align them to the different reference genomes, generate mutation profiles, which are stored and linked to the available metainformation in a database. This makes MpoxRadar a practical tool for the genomic survaillance of MPXV, supporting users with limited computational resources. MpoxRadar is open-source and freely accessible at https://MpoxRadar.net.

Identification Design of the Emblem Pattern on the Official Robes of the Central Plains Dynasty — Taking the Ming Dynasty as an Example

These Identity design has been an important subject of human concern since ancient times. In ancient feudal society, the same group of people formed a pyramid structure. Taking the Qing Empire as an example, the emperor's robe is yellow with a dragon emblem embroidered on it, symbolizing the emperor's majesty, while the official robes are divided into bird patterns and animal patterns, forming a strict hierarchy. In addition to the level identification between the same groups, the power information and other information of different groups can also be clearly distinguished from each other. For example, the Japanese family crest shows the family information to which the individual belongs, while the European family crest is more of a multi-level presentation, which may include family, class, status and other information. In addition, both of them have a long history and culture and a well-structured and systematic emblem pattern. When later generations studied the totem emblem patterns in other regions, they invariably used the two as a reference for comparison. What are these coats of arms and coats of arms used as a basis for judging status and class? This is the goal of this study, and it is hoped that the final findings will serve as a reference for other researchers.

Quantum Advantage of Binary Discrete Modulations for Space Channels

We assume information is discrete-modulated over coherent states of the single-mode electromagnetic field and transmitted over space quantum channels. In this work, we provide a comparison of quantum detection with classical detection for communication using on-off keying (OOK) and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) for illustrative system parameters for LEO, MEO and GEO satellites. To do so, we assume an attenuation-only (pure-loss) channel and compute the Shannon capacities for the following detection methods: classical (shot-noise limited) single-photon and coherent detectors as well as optimal quantum hypothesis-testing (Helstrom) detection. As in classical system engineering design, we also obtain theoretical references for comparison, namely, Shannon capacities and Holevo bounds for the ideal Gaussian optical channel. Our results show the ranges of transmitted power and orbital heights for which either classical or quantum detection is optimal, thus providing useful insights into design guidelines and operations of future space communication systems. We also obtain the remarkable result that the BPSK Holevo bound achieves the ultimate quantum capacity of the considered channel.

An Operational Checklist of the Birds of Northwestern Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley)

This paper provides the fourth edition of the checklist of birds recorded in northwestern Italy (the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions) and covers more than 300 years of ornithological data, including subspecies. This work updates the previous works published in 1981, 2003, and 2009, with the revision of the AERC codes and the addition of special annotations for several species. We also provide some new settings to make the bird checklist a more useful tool for all users, particularly scholars and professionals interested in biodiversity assessment and conservation reports. To this end, (a) new coding concerning population estimates and trends, as well as risk categories (Red List), is introduced; (b) bird lists are structured for analysis at two temporal levels: the General Checklist (GCL), covering the period from 1685 to 2022, and the Operational Checklist (OCL), covering the decade 2010–2019, providing periods of reference for comparison and analysis; and (c) an electronic spreadsheet is provided as part of the online Supplementary Materials to allow for further data analysis by readers, if necessary. The list presently contains 408 species and 444 taxonomic units, which consist of both subspecies and monotypic species. Each of them has been allocated to one of the AERC categories A, B, C, or D, while category E has been excluded. Since the publication of the previous list (2009), 19 species have been added. The avifauna currently breeding in the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions comprises 197 species, with an additional 9 species that were once breeders but are now considered regionally extinct.

Static and dynamic compressive behaviour of 3D printed auxetic lattice reinforced ultra-high performance concrete

This paper presents a systematic experimental study on static and dynamic compressive behaviour of 3D octet, re-entrant honeycomb and triangular lattice reinforced ultra-high performance concrete, i.e., O-UHPC, H-UHPC and T-UHPC as well as steel fibre reinforced UHPC (S-UHPC). Mechanical tests were conducted to investigate the static and dynamic compressive behaviour of UHPC composites including failure pattern, stress-strain curve, dynamic increase factor (DIF), dynamic compressive strain and energy dissipation under various strain rates (i.e., 0, 34.8, 59.7, 86.7, 108.5 and 134.7 s−1). The plain UHPC and S-UHPC were used as references for comparison. Results indicate that H-UHPC has a 14.6–19.4% higher static compressive strength than O-UHPC and T-UHPC. S-UHPC exhibits higher dynamic compressive strength at lower strain rates, while the dynamic strengths of H-UHPC and T-UHPC at higher strain rates reach the highest, i.e., 262.7 MPa and 222.2 MPa, respectively. The highest total energy and post-crack energy at high strain rates take place on H-UHPC. Overall, H-UHPC has comparable static compressive behaviour but better dynamic compressive behaviour at high strain rates in terms of strength, ductility, energy dissipation and DIF, compared with other UHPC specimens, suggesting that re-entrant honeycomb is a better choice for manufacturing UHPC with optimal auxetic 3D lattices.

Harmonized human biomonitoring in European children, teenagers and adults: EU-wide exposure data of 11 chemical substance groups from the HBM4EU Aligned Studies (2014-2021).

As one of the core elements of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) a human biomonitoring (HBM) survey was conducted in 23 countries to generate EU-wide comparable HBM data. This survey has built on existing HBM capacity in Europe by aligning national or regional HBM studies, referred to as the HBM4EU Aligned Studies. The HBM4EU Aligned Studies included a total of 10,795 participants of three age groups: (i) 3,576 children aged 6-12 years, (ii) 3,117 teenagers aged 12-18 years and (iii) 4,102 young adults aged 20-39 years. The participants were recruited between 2014 and 2021 in 11-12 countries per age group, geographically distributed across Europe. Depending on the age group, internal exposure to phthalates and the substitute DINCH, halogenated and organophosphorus flame retardants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), cadmium, bisphenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arsenic species, acrylamide, mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol (total DON)), benzophenones and selected pesticides was assessed by measuring substance specific biomarkers subjected to stringent quality control programs for chemical analysis. For substance groups analyzed in different age groups higher average exposure levels were observed in the youngest age group, i.e., phthalates/DINCH in children versus teenagers, acrylamide and pesticides in children versus adults, benzophenones in teenagers versus adults. Many biomarkers in teenagers and adults varied significantly according to educational attainment, with higher exposure levels of bisphenols, phthalates, benzophenones, PAHs and acrylamide in participants (from households) with lower educational attainment, while teenagers from households with higher educational attainment have higher exposure levels for PFASs and arsenic. In children, a social gradient was only observed for the non-specific pyrethroid metabolite 3-PBA and di-isodecyl phthalate (DiDP), with higher levels in children from households with higher educational attainment. Geographical variations were seen for all exposure biomarkers. For 15 biomarkers, the available health-based HBM guidance values were exceeded with highest exceedance rates for toxicologically relevant arsenic in teenagers (40%), 3-PBA in children (36%), and between 11 and 14% for total DON, Σ (PFOA+PFNA+PFHxS+PFOS), bisphenol S and cadmium. The infrastructure and harmonized approach succeeded in obtaining comparable European wide internal exposure data for a prioritized set of 11 chemical groups. These data serve as a reference for comparison at the global level, provide a baseline to compare the efficacy of the European Commission's chemical strategy for sustainability and will give leverage to national policy makers for the implementation of targeted measures.

Possibilities of investigating ice development of the Kara sea based on CryoSat-2 and SMOS data

Sea ice age is a proxy for thickness, which can be obtained through the use of satellite data. The paper presents the results of comparison of CryoSat-2, SMOS and CryoSat-2 &amp; SMOS fusion data with detailed ice charts (October–April, 2010–2018). The AARI ice charts were chosen as references for comparison because they integrate knowledge and data from various sources, including expert analysis of operational satellite information, in-situ measurements at coastal stations, data on ice conditions from ships of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The division of satellite data elements into classes (stages of development) was performed according to the maximum likelihood classifier. The recognition result for each stage of development was evaluated by means of three criteria, in accordance with the class value of Mode, Median and Mean. The effectiveness of satellite data in determining the Kara Sea ice thickness varies depending on the sea ice stage of development and winter season time. Four stages of development (old ice, thick first-year ice, medium first-year ice, nilas) showed the best recognition results. Although the CryoSat-2 mission was designed primarily to detect climate-dependent variations of the thickness of floating ice, in terms of statistical recognition of the Kara Sea ice stages of development, CryoSat-2 data can also be used to retrieve the thickness of thick first-year ice (January–April) and the thickness of medium first-year ice (January–February). For the remaining stages within the study area, the altimetry method shows a significant uncertainty, which can be resolved for nilas, thin first-year ice and medium first-year ice (March) by using SMOS data and CryoSat-2 &amp; SMOS fusion data. In general, altimetric data, radiometric data and combination thereof can be applied in the complex analysis of all available information to ensure hydrometeorological and navigation support. Also, it is proposed to use the data of the ICESat-2 laser altimeter and to make a general comparison with in-situ measurements.