Spatial Requirement Research Articles

A novel numerical simulation approach for cryogenic CO2 frosting in binary mixture gas by integrating desublimation and gas-solid phase equilibrium models

Cryogenic CO2 separation from natural gas is a promising technology due to its environmental benefits and smaller spatial requirement. Nonetheless, the dynamics of CO2 desublimation and subsequent frost layer formation under cryogenic conditions for natural gas pre-treatment remain largely unexplored. Addressing this gap, this paper presents a novel numerical simulation approach by integrating desublimation phase change model and vapor-solid phase equilibrium model to investigate CO2 frost layer formation on the cold wall, revealing that both the cold wall temperature and the initial CO2 concentration significantly influence the thickness of the CO2 frost layer. Moreover, the study finds that the density of frost layer intensifies over time, with the highest density observed near the cold surface. Furthermore, increasing the cold wall temperature and the flow rate not only increases the average density of the CO2 frost layer but also affects the outlet CO2 concentration. To adhere to specific outlet CO2 concentration targets and desublimation duration, it is critical to adjust the cold wall temperature and the inlet flow velocity dynamically. Therefore, cryogenic CO2 removal methods, by reducing the spatial requirements of CO2 pre-treatment units, offer a practical and efficient solution for small-scale natural gas liquefaction plants. This approach not only facilitates operational efficiency but also contributes to the broader effort of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with environmental sustainability objectives.

Constitutive internalisation of EP2 differentially regulates G protein signalling.

The prostanoid G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) EP2 is widely expressed and implicated in endometriosis, osteoporosis, obesity, pre-term labour and cancer. Internalisation and intracellular trafficking are critical for shaping GPCR activity, yet little is known regarding the spatial programming of EP2 signalling and whether this can be exploited pharmacologically. Using three EP2-selective ligands that favour activation of different EP2 pathways, we show that EP2 undergoes limited agonist-driven internalisation but is constitutively internalised via dynamin-dependent, β-arrestin-independent pathways. EP2 was constitutively trafficked to early and very early endosomes (VEE), which was not altered by ligand activation. APPL1, a key adaptor and regulatory protein of the VEE, did not impact EP2 agonist-mediated cAMP. Internalisation was required for ~70% of the acute butaprost- and AH13205-mediated cAMP signalling, yet PGN9856i, a Gαs-biased agonist, was less dependent on receptor internalisation for its cAMP signalling, particularly in human term pregnant myometrial cells that endogenously express EP2. Inhibition of EP2 internalisation partially reduced calcium signalling activated by butaprost or AH13205 and had no effect on PGE2 secretion. This indicates an agonist-dependent differential spatial requirement for Gαs and Gαq/11 signalling and a role for plasma membrane-initiated Gαq/11-Ca2+-mediated PGE2 secretion. These findings reveal a key role for EP2 constitutive internalisation in its signalling and potential spatial bias in mediating its downstream functions. This, in turn, could highlight important considerations for future selective targeting of EP2 signalling pathways.

Synthesis and characterization of (Pb1−x Sr x )MnBO4: a structural and spectroscopic study

Abstract The presence of ns 2 stereo-chemical active lone electron pairs (LEPs) causes asymmetric atomic environments around a given p-block cation, leading to change the crystal chemistry of a respective system. Here we report a series of mullite-type compounds to understand at what extend Sr2+ replaces the stereochemical active Pb2+ cation in (Pb1−x Sr x )MnBO4. Each member of the solid solution has been synthesized by conventional solid-state method. The polycrystalline samples are characterized using X-ray powder diffraction followed by Rietveld refinement. Substitution of Pb2+ with Sr2+ leads to contraction of the a lattice parameter with slight elongation in the b and c direction. For a difference of 1 pm of the ionic radius between Sr2+ and Pb2+, the cell volume contracts about 4 % between the end members as the spatial requirement of the LEP activity in the MBO4 2− channels significantly decreases. Within the solid solution, two distinct Pb/Sr–O2 bond distances significantly differ, which gradually decreases with increasing strontium content leading to a more symmetric coordination around strontium. The calculated BVS of Pb2+/Sr2+ exhibits a linear correlation with the Wang–Liebau eccentricity parameter, indicating to an increased bonding ability cation. The vibrational properties are characterized by both Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, complementing the XPRD results. Electronic band gaps of selected (Pb1−x Sr x )MnBO4 samples were obtained from diffuse reflectance spectroscopy data. Additionally, the Sr containing samples show higher thermal stability than the Pb containing counterparts.

Covalent Organic Frameworks as a Versatile Platform for Iron‐Catalyzed sp3 C−H Activation and Cross‐Coupling via Decarboxylative Oxidation

AbstractThis work demonstrates the oxidative cross‐coupling of cinnamic acids with toluene using FeCl3 immobilized on a covalent organic framework (COF) pore wall, resulting in the synthesis of 1,3‐arylpropene derivatives. This iron‐based heterogeneous catalytic system affords the desired products in moderate yields ranging from 51 % to 65 %. Investigations using COFs with varying pore sizes indicate that larger pores facilitate the reaction, suggesting a spatial requirement for this transformation within the catalyst. The correlation between pore size and reaction efficiency provides insights into developing tailored catalysts to match the spatial requirements of the transformation. This version emphasizes the novelty of the study and the synthesis of 1,3‐arylpropene derivatives. It also clarifies that the iron‐based heterogeneous catalytic system is responsible for the reaction. Additionally, it provides a more detailed explanation of the findings regarding pore size and spatial requirements.

Optical lens optimization design and tolerance analysis for a depth camera

This paper describes a depth camera lens design composed of eight glass lenses, where the field of view is 100°, the focal length is 1.88 mm, and the F/# is 2. The lens design requires the lens to be fixed and the object distance to be fixed at −745.964 mm. The depth of focus ranges from −0.0047 mm to 0.0096 mm and can be obtained by selecting a spatial frequency of 60 lp/mm for the Through-focus MTF optimization design. The object distance ranges from negative infinity (-∞) to −250 mm (for the depth of field), the MTF is greater than 0.73 at 60 lp/mm, the lateral color difference is less than 1.58 μm, the optical distortion is less than 1%, and the relative illumination is greater than 64%. When conducting tolerance analysis, we select a spatial frequency requirement of tolerance MTF>0.3. At an object distance of −745.964 mm, the lens resolution can reach 80 lp/mm. The object distance is -∞, and the lens resolution is above 59 lp/mm. The object distance is −250 mm, and the lens resolution can reach over 43 lp/mm. In this work, the depth camera lens is designed to have an object distance shooting range of −6 m to −0.25 m. When the object distance is −6 m, the object depth resolution is 61 mm; while at the object distance of −0.25 m, the object depth resolution is 0.1045 mm.

Organocatalytic Enantioselective Nucleophilic Addition of Indole Imine 5-Methides.

Despite the enormous developments in the asymmetric transformations of indole imine methides (IIMs), the remote asymmetric induction involving IIMs remains challenging due to the spatial interaction requirement between the substrate and catalyst. Herein we report the first catalytic asymmetric nucleophilic addition to indole imine 5-methide (5-IIM), the only topological isomer of IIMs whose asymmetric addition remains unknown. Despite the challenging remote stereocontrol, high efficiency and respectable enantioselectivity were achieved to provide access to a range of enantioenriched indole-containing triaryl alkanes.

Precise Short-Term Small-Area Sunshine Forecasting for Optimal Seedbed Scheduling in Plant Factories

Photosynthesis is one of the key issues for vertical cultivation in plant factories, and efficient natural sunlight utilization requires predicting the light falling on each seedbed in a real-time manner. However, public weather services neither provide sunshine data nor meet spatial resolution requirement. Facing these short-term and small-area weather forecasting challenges, we propose a cross-scale approach to infer seedbed-sized areas of sunshine from the city-level public weather services, and then design a seedbed rotation scheduling system for optimal natural sunlight utilization. First, an end-edge-cloud coordinated computing architecture was employed to concurrently aggregate the multi-scale data from weather satellites to sunshine sensors in the plant factory. Second, the small area of sunshine deterministically depends on the meteorological data given a fixed environment, and this correlation was described by a hybrid mapping model, which combined the long short-term memory (LSTM) and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) algorithms to form the LSTM-GBDT hybrid prediction algorithm (LGHPA). By training the LGHPA with historical local sensory sunshine and the city-scale meteorological data, the hourly sunshine on a seedbed can be predicted from the public weather forecasting service. Finally, a dynamic seedbed scheduling scheme was constructed to provide uniform solar energy absorption according to the one-hour-ahead radiation estimation. Experiment results show that the hourly sunshine prediction error was less than 18.44% over a seasonal period and the deviation for different solar absorption by seedbeds with rotation capability is less than 7.1%. Consequently, it was demonstrated that the application of short-term, small-area sunshine forecasting improved the performance of seedbed rotation for uniformly absorbed solar radiation. The proposed method verifies the feasibility of precisely predicting small-area sunshine down to the seedbed scale by leveraging a model-based approach and a cloud-edge-end merged cybernetic computing paradigm.

Interaction of Technology and Space in an Interactive Museum

bstract: This Project aims to put focus on the technological boom in today’s museums. There is a shift of visitors visiting in the Museums from traditional one to Interactive one as they feel much connected with the exhibits and their overall journey. Interactive Museums are replacing the old type of museums by incorporating not only sight but hear and touch also which makes one’s journey exciting and engaging. Due to the change in user’s need, Technology is becoming dominant and advance in almost every sector amongst which Museum is one part of it and becoming technological advance day by day. The research is based on the Interaction of Technology and Space in an Interactive Museum. Through the literature studies it is found out what are the upcoming latest technologies and that are already being used in Museums outside India as this sector in India is still behind if we compare with other countries but our country is also adapting technology very fast in the Institutional sector, Technologies like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Projection Mapping, Binaural technology, Holograms, Robotics, Other Interactive exhibits like Laser Maze, Illusion of Museums. With the above mentioned Technologies I have concluded the spatial requirement of each technology and its type in the Museum Sector.

AI-driven designed protein epigenomics.

The biological revolutions of computationally designed proteins, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and the CRISPR-Cas9 system finally enables modifications that can spur deep understanding of spatial requirement of epigenetic information. This commentary describes the utility of a computationally designed protein, EED Binder (EB), when fused to dCas9 (EBdCas9) for identifying critical sites of PRC2 dependent histone H3K27me3 marks in the chromatin. By using EBdCas9 and gRNA, PRC2 function can be inhibited at specific loci, resulting in precise reduction of EZH2 and H3K27me3 marks, and in some (but not all) locations, activation of the gene and functional outcomes (such as regulation of cell cycle or trophoblast transdifferentiation). Interestingly, a functional TATA box located more than 500bp upstream of a TBX18 TSS was found to be repressed by PRC2, supporting the theory that epigenetic regulators control the repression of transcriptional elements on the promoter region. The EBdCas9 technology may provide a useful tool for controlling gene regulation through epigenomic control.

Structural and Spatial Minimal Requirement Efficacy of Emergency Shelters for Different Emergencies

Natural and human-induced disasters have become more frequent in recent years, and this has increased the need for effective, high-quality, quick, easy-to-assemble, and affordable emergency housing solutions. The purpose of this study is to create a knowledge base for researchers and developers working in the structural and structural-related fields to favour the development of relevant and most appropriate assistance for emergency housing that could meet the anticipated future rising demands. The focus of the research is emergency shelters for the Global South, an area of research sparsely addressed within the structural-related field. The emergency sheltering process has so many variabilities in its duration and unfolding that many agencies suggest relying on the resilience of those in need. This can have dramatic human repercussions and eventually further burden natural resources. To reach its goal, the paper shifts the attention to information from field actors and global agencies and employs a multiple case studies approach, conducted through a grounded theory methodology. The process has allowed identification of a list of structural-related issues faced by users, acting as codes in the grounded theory methodology, the associated challenges for authorities in addressing them, acting as categories, and some ideal solutions, derived from the theoretical coding. The research concludes that the challenges of the sheltering process shall be read through sustainability housing indicators and that the constraints of the former may be stimuli to the application of innovative and more inclusive procedures within the latter. The study fosters a new theoretical approach in post-disaster housing, which encourages more interdisciplinary collaborations and empirical investigations that will potentially enhance post-disaster housing sustainability and facilitate the development of emergency shelter construction schemes.

Spatial and temporal requirement of Mlp60A isoforms during muscle development and function in Drosophila melanogaster

Many myofibrillar proteins undergo isoform switching in a spatio-temporal manner during muscle development. The biological significance of the variants of several of these myofibrillar proteins remains elusive. One such myofibrillar protein, the Muscle LIM Protein (MLP), is a vital component of the Z-discs. In this paper, we show that one of the Drosophila MLP encoding genes, Mlp60A, gives rise to two isoforms: a short (279 bp, 10 kDa) and a long (1461 bp, 54 kDa) one. The short isoform is expressed throughout development, but the long isoform is adult-specific, being the dominant of the two isoforms in the indirect flight muscles (IFMs). A concomitant, muscle-specific knockdown of both isoforms leads to partial developmental lethality, with most of the surviving flies being flight defective. A global loss of both isoforms in a Mlp60A-null background also leads to developmental lethality, with muscle defects in the individuals that survive to the third instar larval stage. This lethality could be rescued partially by a muscle-specific overexpression of the short isoform. Genetic perturbation of only the long isoform, through a P-element insertion in the long isoform-specific coding sequence, leads to defective flight, in around 90% of the flies. This phenotype was completely rescued when the P-element insertion was precisely excised from the locus. Hence, our data show that the two Mlp60A isoforms are functionally specialized: the short isoform being essential for normal embryonic muscle development and the long isoform being necessary for normal adult flight muscle function.

A Link between Blood Flow and the Inflammatory Networks That Govern Hematopoietic Stem Cell Specification

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are multipotent, self-renewing cells that maintain the blood-forming system throughout the life of all individuals. The unique properties of these cells make HSPC transplantation an effective therapy for treatment of many blood disorders. The advent of induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) led to great optimism in the field as a potentially limitless source of immunologically-matched, clinical-grade hematopoietic cells. Despite success in producing in vitro hematopoietic progenitors and cells that are capable of limited in vivo reconstitution, there are no robust, reproducible protocols that can generate long-term reconstituting HSPCs. Having a more complete understanding of the signals and molecular pathways required to develop HSPCs in their native environment will move the field forward, leading to more robust protocols and the development of novel HSPC-based therapeutics. Years of investigation have revealed that HSPCs require multiple molecular inputs for proper specification, including activity of the Notch, Wnt, FGF, and BMP signaling pathways. In addition, we have reported inflammatory signaling (Tnfa and NF-kB) as a novel group of HSPC fate modulators. However, the spatial temporal requirement of NF-kB activity has been enigmatic due to: (1) lack of tools that faithfully report the dynamic activation of NF-kB; (2) difficulty on assessing NF-kB dynamics in vivo in a mammalian system during embryonic development due to artifactual inflammatory conditions triggered by invasive techniques required for in utero experimentation. Addressing this knowledge gap will be critical for optimizing in vitro protocols for the generation of patient-specific HSPCs. To date, all existing zebrafish NF-kB reporter lines fail to report dynamic cellular activation of NF-kB in real time due to the long half-life of their fluorescent reporter proteins. To overcome this limitation, we have generated a novel NF-kB reporter zebrafish line driving a destabilized version of eGFP (D2eGFP) containing a PEST domain. This modified eGFP has a short half-life of two hours, enabling us to pinpoint the precise developmental window these signals are required. Time-lapse confocal imaging, in conjunction with flow cytometry, of double transgenic kdrl:mCherry, NF-kB:D2eGFP embryos revealed that NF-kB was activated in vivo within the hemogenic endothelium (HE) just prior to the establishment of circulation (18-24 hpf) and was deactivated soon after its initiation (26 hpf). When this window of NF-kB activity was disrupted by inhibiting the translocation of the NF-kB p65 subunit to the nucleus using Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), HSPCs failed to specify. qPCR analysis from FACS-isolated HE with activated NF-kB kdrl:mCherry+ ,NF-kB:D2eGFP+ and the surrounding endothelium kdrl:mCherry+ ,NF-kB:D2eGFP- showed a significant enrichment of the early HSPC markers gfi1 and runx1 in the NF-kB+ endothelial population at 22 hpf. In addition, mRNAseq of kdrl:mCherry+ HE of NF-kB+ showed hematopoietic GO terms enriched, demonstrating that NF-kB is a contributing activator of the endothelial to hematopoietic transition. Blood flow is a well-known conserved regulator of HSPC formation. To investigate the correlation between NF-kB deactivation and circulation, blood flow was inhibited by morpholino knockdown of tnnt2a in Tg(kdrl:mCherry, NF-kB:D2eGFP) embryos and assessed by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry for NF-kB activity. In the absence of circulation, NF-kB displayed sustained activity throughout the HE. To determine if this prolonged NF-kB activity was contributing to the loss of HSPCs observed in tnnt2a morphants, we blocked NF-kB at the developmental time circulation would normally occur using CAPE and observed a significant rescue of HSPC numbers. These data provide evidence of a link between the extrinsic biomechanical forces of blood flow and the intrinsic molecular regulation of the inflammatory networks that govern HSPC specification. Altogether, our NF-kB reporter line provides one of the earliest markers that can be utilized to isolate HE in vivo. These data pinpoint the early NF-kB requirement to form HSPCs and could be applied in vitro to improve current protocols of hematopoietic differentiation from human PSCs.

Beyond PRNU: Learning Robust Device-Specific Fingerprint for Source Camera Identification.

Source-camera identification tools assist image forensics investigators to associate an image with a camera. The Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) noise pattern caused by sensor imperfections has been proven to be an effective way to identify the source camera. However, the PRNU is susceptible to camera settings, scene details, image processing operations (e.g., simple low-pass filtering or JPEG compression), and counter-forensic attacks. A forensic investigator unaware of malicious counter-forensic attacks or incidental image manipulation is at risk of being misled. The spatial synchronization requirement during the matching of two PRNUs also represents a major limitation of the PRNU. To address the PRNU’s fragility issue, in recent years, deep learning-based data-driven approaches have been developed to identify source-camera models. However, the source information learned by existing deep learning models is not able to distinguish individual cameras of the same model. In light of the vulnerabilities of the PRNU fingerprint and data-driven techniques, in this paper, we bring to light the existence of a new robust data-driven device-specific fingerprint in digital images that is capable of identifying individual cameras of the same model in practical forensic scenarios. We discover that the new device fingerprint is location-independent, stochastic, and globally available, which resolves the spatial synchronization issue. Unlike the PRNU, which resides in the high-frequency band, the new device fingerprint is extracted from the low- and mid-frequency bands, which resolves the fragility issue that the PRNU is unable to contend with. Our experiments on various datasets also demonstrate that the new fingerprint is highly resilient to image manipulations such as rotation, gamma correction, and aggressive JPEG compression.

Impact of home-based online classes on residential buildings’ use of space during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures in Saudi Arabia

PurposeThe recent COVID-19 pandemic compelled people to spend most of their time at home to avoid spreading the virus, signifying staying away from offices, schools and marketplaces and where many people congregate. This situation put enormous pressure on residential buildings, which functioned as alternative spaces to schools and offices. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of home-based online classes because of the COVID-19 outbreak on residential buildings in Saudi Arabia.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected population-representative survey data from 324 eligible respondents using an online questionnaire and conducts descriptive and Spearman's correlation analysis using the SPSS 28.0 program.FindingsThis study found that the use of space during COVID-19, home-based learning space comfort and home-based online learning perception affected home-based online space requirements during the school lockdowns. Higher school levels, learning space comfort levels, types of education and number of school-aged children in a house were correlated with various types of discomfort experienced during home-based online learning. Lastly, the parents' preference for their children to continue online studies was correlated with the adverse effects of online learning and the possible advantages of online learning.Originality/valueLack of studies about the impact of home-based online classes on residential space requirement and use resulted in insufficient investigation and documentation of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on home-based learning environments. This research contributes to the literature on the factors affecting spatial requirement during emergencies and how significant this relationship is.

Reciprocal-FDK reconstruction for x-ray diffraction computed tomography

Objective. X-ray diffraction (XRD) technology uses x-ray small-angle scattering signal for material analysis, which is highly sensitive to material inter-molecular structure. To meet the high spatial resolution requirement in applications such as medical imaging, XRD computed tomography (XRDCT) has been proposed to provide XRD intensity with improved spatial resolution from point-wise XRD scan. In XRDCT, 2D spatial tomography corresponds to a 3D reconstruction problem with the third dimension being the XRD spectrum dimension, i.e. the momentum transfer dimension. Current works in the field have studied reconstruction methods for either angular-dispersive XRDCT or energy-dispersive XRDCT for small samples. The approximations used are only suitable for regions near the XRDCT iso-center. A new XRDCT reconstruction method is needed for more general imaging applications. Approach. We derive a new FDK-type reconstruction method (Reciprocal-FDK) for XRDCT without limitation on object size. By introducing a set of reciprocal variables, the XRDCT model is transformed into a classical cone-parallel CT model, which is an extension of a circular-trajectory cone-beam CT model, after which the FDK method is applied for XRDCT reconstruction. Main results. Both analytical simulation and Monte Carlo simulation experiments are conducted to validate the XRDCT reconstruction method. The results show that when compared to existing analytical reconstruction methods, there are improvements in the proposed Reciprocal-FDK method with regard to relative structure reconstruction and XRD pattern peak reconstruction. Since cone-parallel CT does not satisfy the data completeness condition, cone-angle effect affects the reconstruction accuracy of XRDCT. The property of cone-angle effect in XRDCT is also analyzed with ablation studies. Significance. We propose a general analytical reconstruction method for XRDCT without constraint on object size. Reciprocal-FDK provides a complete derivation and theoretical support for XRDCT reconstruction by analogy to the well-studied cone-parallel CT model. In addition, the intrinsic problem with the XRDCT data model and the corresponding reconstruction error are discussed for the first time.

Out-of-Time-Ordered Crystals and Fragmentation.

Is a spontaneous perpetual reversal of the arrow of time possible? The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) is a standard measure of irreversibility, quantum scrambling, and the arrow of time. The question may be thus formulated more precisely and conveniently: can spatially ordered perpetual OTOC oscillations exist in many-body systems? Here we give a rigorous lower bound on the amplitude of OTOC oscillations in terms of a strictly local dynamical algebra allowing for identification of systems that are out-of-time-ordered (OTO) crystals. While OTOC oscillations are possible for few-body systems, due to the spatial order requirement OTO crystals cannot be achieved by effective single or few body dynamics, e.g., a pendulum or a condensate. Rather they signal perpetual motion of quantum scrambling. It is likewise shown that if a Hamiltonian satisfies this novel algebra, it has an exponentially large number of local invariant subspaces, i.e., Hilbert space fragmentation. Crucially, the algebra, and hence the OTO crystal, are stable to local unitary and dissipative perturbations. A Creutz ladder is shown to be an OTO crystal, which thus perpetually reverses its arrow of time.

Cold and Thermal Neutron Single Grating Dark-Field Imaging Extended to an Inverse Pattern Regime

Neutron dark-field imaging is a powerful tool for the spatially resolved characterization of microstructural features of materials and components. Recently, a novel achromatic technique based on a single absorption grating for the concurrent measurement of attenuation, dark-field and differential phase contrast was introduced. However, the range of measurable length scales of the technique in quantitative dark-field measurements appeared limited to some 10–100 nanometers, due to the relatively high spatial resolution requirement to detect the projected beam modulation. Here, we show how using grating–detector distances beyond the resolution limit for a given collimation produces a sequence of inverse and regular projection patterns and, thus, leads to a significant extension of the range of accessible length scales probed by dark-field imaging. In addition, we show that this concept can also be applied to 2D grating structures, which will enable concurrent three-fold directional dark-field measurements at a wide range of length scales. The approach is demonstrated with measurements on an electrical steel sheet sample, which confirm the validity of combining the results from the regular and inverse grating patterns.

Is There a Spatial Equity In The Public Distribution System? Comparison of Spatial-Temporal Pattern of Staple Consumption from the PDS to Staple Production

The paper compares the consumption of staple grains from various sources at the household level to the production of staples to examine whether the PDS is consumed in the regions that show a deficit production of staple grains. It is observed that the PDS has fulfilled the spatial equity requirement for most parts of India, especially in the drought year of 2009. Results show that the PDS is important for non-food producing households and regions that do not produce staple grains. However, there is a scope for spatial equity in the PDS, as there are areas with a low consumption from the PDS despite a low consumption of own production of staple grains. This inequity is visible in the regions that traditionally consumed coarse grains and were discontinued from the PDS. The study notes that the demand for fine staples from the PDS relates to the regional nature of traditionally consumed foodgrains.

Neuroplastin genetically interacts with Cadherin 23 and the encoded isoform Np55 is sufficient for cochlear hair cell function and hearing.

Mammalian hearing involves the mechanoelectrical transduction (MET) of sound-induced fluid waves in the cochlea. Essential to this process are the specialised sensory cochlear cells, the inner (IHCs) and outer hair cells (OHCs). While genetic hearing loss is highly heterogeneous, understanding the requirement of each gene will lead to a better understanding of the molecular basis of hearing and also to therapeutic opportunities for deafness. The Neuroplastin (Nptn) gene, which encodes two protein isoforms Np55 and Np65, is required for hearing, and homozygous loss-of-function mutations that affect both isoforms lead to profound deafness in mice. Here we have utilised several distinct mouse models to elaborate upon the spatial, temporal, and functional requirement of Nptn for hearing. While we demonstrate that both Np55 and Np65 are present in cochlear cells, characterisation of a Np65-specific mouse knockout shows normal hearing thresholds indicating that Np65 is functionally redundant for hearing. In contrast, we find that Nptn-knockout mice have significantly reduced maximal MET currents and MET channel open probabilities in mature OHCs, with both OHCs and IHCs also failing to develop fully mature basolateral currents. Furthermore, comparing the hearing thresholds and IHC synapse structure of Nptn-knockout mice with those of mice that lack Nptn only in IHCs and OHCs shows that the majority of the auditory deficit is explained by hair cell dysfunction, with abnormal afferent synapses contributing only a small proportion of the hearing loss. Finally, we show that continued expression of Neuroplastin in OHCs of adult mice is required for membrane localisation of Plasma Membrane Ca2+ ATPase 2 (PMCA2), which is essential for hearing function. Moreover, Nptn haploinsufficiency phenocopies Atp2b2 (encodes PMCA2) mutations, with heterozygous Nptn-knockout mice exhibiting hearing loss through genetic interaction with the Cdh23ahl allele. Together, our findings provide further insight to the functional requirement of Neuroplastin for mammalian hearing.

An interval multi-objective fuzzy-interval credibility-constrained nonlinear programming model for balancing agricultural and ecological water management

This study presents an interval multi-objective fuzzy-interval credibility-constrained nonlinear programming (IMFICNP) model combined with spatial water requirement of ecological vegetation (SEWR) estimation for solving the problem of allocation of agricultural and ecological water in irrigation districts under uncertainties. Through techniques of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS), the ecological vegetation is subdivided into three types including forest land, grassland and shrubland and the water requirement of ecological vegetation is extended from site-specific sample to spatial decision-making unit (DMU), which provides a set of spatial data for input parameters of constraints. The IMFICNP model can be formulated through combination of interval parameter programming, multi-objective programming and fuzzy-interval credibility-constrained programming, which can handle the conflicts of multiple objectives under uncertainties such as single uncertainty (interval and fuzzy parameters) and dual-uncertainties (fuzzy-interval sets), and finally generate optimal water allocation schemes for crop and ecological vegetation under different credibility levels. The interval quadratic crop water production functions (IQCWPFs) are introduced to express the nonlinear relationships between crop yield and irrigation amount. Then, this model is applied to a case study of Huangyang Irrigation District (HID) in Shiyang River Basin to demonstrate its applicability. The results indicate that a higher credibility level is accompanied by less amount of water allocation and lower system benefit. The amount of water allocation at the DMU is dominated by planting area of crops and ecological vegetation, but there are few exceptions that optimal solutions are determined by the economic value. In addition, SEWR enables to reflect spatial heterogeneity of the DMU at a larger scale. IMFICNP model can coordinate conflicts among multiple objectives and it can tackle the violation of system constraints with fuzzy-interval sets. Therefore, these results can effectively balance the agricultural and ecological water management in irrigation districts, and provide valuable basis for the sustainable development of arid and semi-arid areas.