Metabolomics has been increasingly utilized in studying host response to infections and under-standing the progression of multi-system disorders such as COVID-19. The analysis of metabo-lites in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection provides a snapshot of the endogenous host metabo-lism and its role in shaping the interaction with SARS-CoV-2. The current study investigated the metabolic signatures of mortality and severity in COVID-19 patients using a targeted metabo-lomics approach. Blood plasma concentrations were quantified through LC-MS using MxP Quant 500 kit. We utilized Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to investigate the correlation between various metabolic markers and patient outcomes. A comparison of survival rates between individuals with high levels of various metabolites and those with low levels showed statistically significant differences in survival outcomes. We further used four metabolic markers to develop a COVID-19 mortality risk model through the application of multiple machine learning methods. These metabolic predictors can be further validated as potential biomarkers to identify patients at risk of poor outcomes. Finally, integrating machine learning models in metabolome analysis of COVID-19 patients can improve our understanding of disease mortality by providing insight into the relationship between metabolites and survival probability, which can lead to the development of potential therapeutics and clinical risk models.

A dual-channel switch attenuator chip working at 9kHz to 6GHz was designed using 0.15um GaAs process. The chip consists of a straight-through channel and an attenuation channel.The straight-through channel includes a SPDT switch and two parallel PIN diodes, while the attenuation channel is composed of switch-integrated attenuation networks attenuating 40dB, 10dB, and 5dB respectively.In the design process, parallel PIN diodes were used in the straight-through channel to increase the isolation between ports. The attenuation network utilizes pHMTE, a switching transistor with a 0.15um GaAs substrate material, to control the attenuation. After simulation and optimization, the final measured results achieved the following specifications: the insertion loss of the single-pole double-throw switch in the straight-through channel was less than 0.8dB, the insertion loss after paralleling the two PIN diodes was less than 2.7dB, the insertion loss of the attenuation channel in the reference state was less than 0.7dB, the isolation was greater than 30dB, and the attenuation accuracy was lower than ±5 percent. Considering the installation space, the chip packaging dimensions were prioritized to be 10mm x 10mm in length and width, with an adjustable thickness range of 1.6mm to 3mm. The final determined chip package size is 10mm x 10mm x 2mm.

Ciphertext Policy Attribute Based Encryption (CPABE) emerged as a trusted solution to enforce access control in an untrusted cloud environment. CPABE allows data owners to implement one-to-many encryptions by defining an access policy. The data user’s secret key must comply with the access policy’s requirements before the key can successfully decrypt the ciphertext. However, efficient revocation of access rights in CPABE schemes has multiple challenges, particularly for lightweight devices. Thus, extensive research to enforce and govern access control is absolute need. The present study reviews the bilinear pairing cryptography-based revocable CPABE schemes. The methodologies used in the existing CPABE schemes to revoke users at the system and attribute levels have been focused on in the current study. The module proposed in Proxy-based and Collusion-Resistant Multi-Authority Revocable CPABE (PCMR-CPABE) efficiently addresses the revocation issue. The present paper extends the study on PCMR-CPABE and presents a performance analysis of the module. The presented analysis has compared the computational cost of the existing cutting-edge schemes with the PCMR-CPABE module. The study has proved that the proposed module is computationally inexpensive.

Nanofiller-doped polymer electrolyte-based electrochemical devices are now emerged as a novel material for electrochemical devices. This paper reports a solid polymer electrolyte film doped with a new nanofiller synthesized by the solution casting technique. Electrical, Optical, and photoelectrochemical characterization are presented in detail. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows with the dispersion of nanofillers conductivity increases attains maxima and decreases. The maximum conductivity was at 0.05 wt% nanofiller concentration of 3.25 x 10 -5 S/cm. The calculated ionic transference value was 0.92 which shows the domency of the system as ionic. The linear sweep voltammetry confirms a high electrochemical stability window (ESW) of 4.01V. Sandwitched electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLC) has been developed using carbon-based electrodes and sandwitched nanofiller dispersed polymer electrolyte, showing a high specific capacitance value of ~ 200 F/g.

In last two decades, metallic particles of nano-sizes (~10 -9m) are tested profoundly in volumetric absorption solar collectors (VASC) due to their excellent optical properties and broadband absorption in entire solar spectrum. However, availability, ease to synthesise, toxicity, and non-biodegradable nature of these nanofluids are some of the challenges that still needs attention of scientific community for future commercialisation of this technology. Further, based on literature review, very limited studies are available for understanding the performance of integrated energy storage VASC system using nanofluids. Considering all these issues, a hybrid nanofluid of gold nanoparticles in Azadirachta Indica leaves extract has been synthesised by chemical route. The prepared hybrid nanofluid has shown good absorption in 400-700nm wavelength range and hence high photo-thermal conversion efficiency for VASC. Further, commercial available paraffin wax is used as phase change material (PCM) in thermal energy storage (TES) and further integrated with VASC to analyse thermal performance of system even after sunshine hours. The real-time experiments were conducted using different working fluids and at three mass flow rates i.e. 0.5 lpm, 1 lpm and 2 lpm, respectively during mild winter days under tropical climate of India. The study revealed a photo-thermal efficiency enhancement of about 17.1% when hybrid heat transfer fluid was used in VASC system with TES as compared to base fluid water without TES. Further, a maximum zero loss efficiency of 83.8% was estimated at optimal mass flow rate of 2 lpm for TES integrated VASC system.

Phase change heat storage can solve some new energy intermittent and waste heat recovery problems, but heat storage is needed to act as this energy hub. Since the direct contact heat accumulator has the advantages of simple structure, large heat transfer area, and small heat transfer resistance, it is a good choice for improving energy storage rate. Although a great deal of research has been done on phase change materials and heat accumulators over the years, a systematic review of direct-contact heat accumulators is lacking. This paper reviews the related research on direct contact heat storage, aiming to summarize the research work on direct contact phase change heat storage systems. Various phase change materials (PCMs) for direct contact systems are analyzed, and the study of PCM melting crystallization behavior, heat transfer coefficients and system performance in direct contact systems is summarized, as well as the improvement methods for direct contact vessels and PCMs. It provides a useful reference for future research on direct-contact heat storage systems.

Parameters uncertainty in the model of power electronic converters e.g., cascaded grid connected multilevel inverters with LCL coupling can lead to the stability and robustness issues of closed-loop systems in a real system. Hence, closed-loop stabilization of the power electronic converters in a wide range of changes is a challenging task. Also, it can result in the spoiling of THD value in a grid-connected inverter beyond the acceptable and standard ranges. To cope with these issues, in this paper, an adaptive nonlinear controller is developed based on the Lyapunov stability criteria for a multilevel shunt active filter with three cascaded H-bridges. Despite the complex model of the mentioned system, it is shown that the designed adaptive controller can improve the performance of the closed-loop system by estimating the uncertain values of inductors in the LCL coupling network. The stability and robustness of the controller are proved using the Lyapunov stability criteria in the whole operational range of the system. The simulation results show that the proposed controller is stable and robust in a wide range of load current changes. Moreover, to stabilize the DC link voltages of the grid-connected inverter, a novel approach based on the mean minimum value of DC-link voltage errors is used which has led to the robust and fast stabilization of these voltages. It should be noted that all simulations have been performed by using the EMTDC/PSCAD toolbox. Finally, a small-scale prototype has been implemented for experimental verification of the system.

Wild pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.) is one of the most important medicinal wild fruit crop and it is highly pollinated by wild insect pollinators. So, study analyze various pollinating insects of Punica granatum L. by using molecular method and a total of 24 species of flower visitors were collected from Punica granatum from different areas of Himachal Pradesh. Using mtDNA marker, the cytochrome oxidase subunit sequence I (COI), about 17 pollinator insect species were characterized and identified on the basis of COI sequence. BLAST analysis showed the 98 to 100% similarity with the existing genebank sequences. Nucleotide composition revealed the average AT content was significantly higher by 72.56% than the GC content of 27.47%. Phylogenetic analysis of 17 different species of insect pollinators of Punica granatum revealed the close phylogenetic relation between hymenopteran insect species in one clade, whereas another clade showing relationship between Lepidoptera, Coleopteran and Diptera. The study conclude that molecular identification using species identification markers in the mitochondrial region of COI play a critical role in study of genetic diversity, genetic relatedness and phylogenetic analysis at species level and find more strategies to conserve these pollinators for further research.

Recent evidence indicate that event-related potentials (ERPs) as measured on the electroencephalogram (EEG) are more closely related to transdiagnostic, dimensional measures of psychopathology (TDP) than to diagnostic categories. Given this, a comprehensive examination of correlations between well-studied ERPs and measures of TDP is called for. In this study, we recruited 50 patients with emotional disorders undergoing 14 weeks of transdiagnostic group psychotherapy as well as 37 healthy comparison subjects (HC) matched in age and sex. HCs were assessed once and patients three times throughout treatment (N = 172 datasets) with a battery of well-studied ERPs and psychopathology measures consistent with the TDP framework The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). ERPs were quantified using robust single-trial analysis (RSTA) methods and TDP correlations with linear regression models as implemented in the EEGLAB toolbox LIMO EEG. We found correlations at several levels of the HiTOP hierarchy. Among these, a reduced P3b as well as a reduced error-related negativity correlated strongly with worse symptomatology across the Internalizing spectrum. Conversely, increases in the correct-related negativity correlated with symptoms loading unto the Distress subfactor in the HiTOP. Increases in mismatch negativity were primarily related to maladaptive personality traits at the lowest levels of the HiTOP hierarchy. Our study highlights the advantages of RSTA methods and of using validated TDP constructs within a consistent framework such as the HiTOP. Future studies could utilize machine learning methods to predict TDP from a set of ERP features at the subject level.

The rise and fall of the internal temperature of power transformer will cause the moisture to change its distribution and aggregation position, and the local high moisture content will seriously affect the electrical strength of oil-paper insulation. Therefore, it is necessary to study the adsorption and desorption of moisture in cellulose insulation at different temperatures. In this paper, three oil-cellulose mixed systems (OCS) of 105 atoms with different moisture contents were established by molecular dynamics method, and temperature rise and temperature drop simulations were conducted respectively. The changes of the water molecule number (NW) in the interface domain and oil domain were obtained. By analyzing the solvent accessible surface area (SASA) and the microscopic scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of cellulose insulation, the effect of temperature changes and the deterioration of cellulose molecules on the moisture adsorption and desorption in cellulose insulation were studied. The results show that after the high-temperature system is reversely cooled, water molecules in the oil domain will migrate rapidly to the cellulose domain, while the irreversible deterioration of cellulose after high temperature leads to the weakening of its adsorption capacity. As a result, a large amount of water is retained at the interface. For the simulation of temperature rise, the higher the temperature is, the more water molecules accumulate in the oil domain and interface domain, and the stronger the desorption effect of cellulose on moisture. Notably, NW in the interface domain is not a simple increment trend, but an oscillatory increase and decrease trend that decreases first and then increases. The higher the temperature is, the more obvious the trend is. The research results have important theoretical value for the real-time monitoring of moisture in oil-immersed power equipment and the evaluation of its insulation performance

With the diversification of electricity price structures, an increasing number of power utilities have incorporated demand charges into their tariff structures. Individual households equipped with photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage systems can adapt to this trend by adopting appropriate energy management strategies. Due to the high uncertainty in photovoltaic and load generation for household users, it is often challenging for them to make the most advantageous choice among the diverse electricity tariffs. This paper proposes a rolling prediction method based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks for monthly peak power demand, taking into account historical peak power and applying corrective measures within the same month. Additionally, a profit evaluation method for electricity tariff schemes considering forecast uncertainties is presented. The predictive capabilities of load and PV power are characterized using kernel density estimation, and a large number of scenarios are generated using Monte Carlo simulation. A probabilistic economic evaluation is conducted for different tariff schemes, enabling the optimal selection of electricity tariffs. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, analysis is performed using household data from Arizona, and the results demonstrate that the proposed methods can reduce electricity expenses and help households choose the correct electricity tariff scheme.

Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) oligomers, characteristic symptom of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), have been identified as the most neurotoxic species and significant contributors to neurodegeneration in AD. However, due to their transient and heterogeneous nature, the high-resolution structures and exact pathogenic processes of Aβ oligomers are currently unknown. Using light-controlled molecular tweezers (LMTs), we describe a method for precisely capturing specific Aβ oligomers produced from synthetic Aβ and AD animal models. Light irradiation can activate LMTs, which are composed of two Aβ-targeting pentapeptides (KLVFF) motifs and a rigid azobenzene (azo) derivative, to form a tweezer-like cis configuration that preferentially binds to specifc oligomers matching the space of the tweezers via multivalent interactions of KLVFF motifs with the oligomers. Surprisingly, cis-LMTs can immobilize the captured oligomers in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) in vivo under light irradiation. The LMTs may serve as spatiotemporally controllable molecular tools to extract specific native oligomers for the structure and function studies via their reversible photoisomerization, which would improve the understanding of the toxic mechanisms of Aβ oligomers and development of oligomer-targeted diagnosis and therapy.

Fluorescent-magneto nanoemitters have gained considerable attention for their applications in mechanical controlling-assisted optical signaling. However, the incompatibility between magnetic and fluorescent components often leads to functional limitations in traditional magneto@fluorescence nanostructure. Herein, we introduce a new compact-discrete spatial arrangement on a “fluorescence@magneto” core–shell nanostructure consisting of a close-packed aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen) core and a discrete magnetic shell. This structural design effectively eliminates the optical and magnetic interferences between the dual components by facilitating AIEgens loading in core region and reducing the magnetic feeding amount through effective exposure of the magnetic units. Thereby, the resulting magneto-AIEgen nanoparticle (MANP) demonstrates “win-win” performances: (i) high fluorescent intensity contributed by AIEgens stacking-enhanced photoluminescence and reduced photons loss from the meager magnetic shell; (ii) marked magnetic activity due to magneto extraposition-minimized magnetic shielding. Accordingly, the dual functions-retained MANP provides a proof of concept for construction of an immunochromatographic sensing platform, where it enables bright fluorescent labeling after magnetically enriching and separating procalcitonin and lipoarabinomannan in clinical human serum and urine, respectively, for the clinical diagnosis of bacterial infections-caused inflammation and tuberculosis. This study not only inspires the rational design of magnetic-fluorescent nanoemitter, but also highlights promising potential in magneto-assisted point-of-care test and biomedicine applications.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in research on Ceratozamia cycads, which has resulted in a significant increase in our understanding of their diversity. However, species complexes that have been tackled through integrative methodologies have exhibited a bias towards morphology over genealogy. Thus, there arises the necessity to reevaluate the Ceratozamia mexicana species complex using phylogeographic tools. For this purpose, we have employed the integrative taxonomic protocol Schlick-Steiner et al. (2010) put forth. This protocol delineates species as testable hypotheses, incorporating lines of evidence within a reproducible and falsifiable framework. The evaluated data encompassed (i) phylogenetic and molecular variance analyses, (ii) multivariate morphometric analyses, and (iii) analysis of climatic niches. Out of the 196 individuals from 13 studied populations, seven monophyletic groups were recovered. These groups were substantiated by multivariate morphometric analysis, revealing significant differences, and were further validated by niche divergence. These results underscore a ‘whole agreement’ across the three disciplines, thus providing robust support for acknowledging the species as distinct lineages. The species delimited by these lineages, encompassing phylogenetic, morphological, and environmental factors, correspond to C. brevifrons, C. delucana, C. decumbens, C. mexicana, C. moretti, C. tenuis, and a novel cryptic species, sister to the latter. Finally, this genealogical characterization will offer utility in the future for uncovering the genetic identity of the holotype of the type species within the Ceratozamia genus.

Objective: Acute bronchiolitis, primarily caused by Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is the most common cause of hospitalization in young children. Despite international guidelines supporting clinical diagnosis, laboratory evaluations are often conducted with limited validity. We aim to evaluate the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) levels at admission and disease severity in children hospitalized due to RSV bronchiolitis. Study design: This single center retrospective cohort study included children (0-24 months old) who were hospitalized due to RSV bronchiolitis (January 2018 – March 2022) with CRP levels taken upon admission. Clinical data and severity parameters were extracted using MD-clone platform and the clinical research unit at SUMC. Results: 1,874 children (mean age of 6.7 months, 59% males) with a median CRP level of 1.92mg/dL were included. Children with elevated CRP (>1.92mg/dL) were significantly older (5.1 vs. 3.8 months, p<0.001), had higher rates of pneumonia (9.4% vs. 4.3%, p<0.001 ), urinary tract infection (UTI), (2.2% vs. 0.2%, p<0.001), acute otitis media (AOM), (1.7% vs 0.2%, p<0.001), admissions to pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) (7.4% vs 3.7%, p<0.001), antibiotic treatment (49.8% vs 37.2%, p<0.001) and longer hospitalizations (3.83 vs 3.31 days, p=0.001). Multivariable analysis predicted increased risk for UTI, PICU admission, pneumonia, and longer hospitalization (relative risk of 11.6, 2.25, 1.98, 1.44, respectively, p<0.001)). CRP thresholds of 3.51, 1.9, and 2.81 mg/dL for PICU admission, UTI, and pneumonia, were calculated using Youden’s index with AUC of 0.72, 0.62, and 0.61, respectively. Conclusions: Elevated CRP levels at admission are associated with increased disease severity and higher complication rates in children hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis.

In this paper, we consider a third order singular differential operator L w + μ w = - w ′′′ + q ( x ) w + μ w in space L 2 ( R ) originally defined on the set C 0 ∞ ( R ) , where C 0 ∞ ( R ) is the set of infinitely differentiable compactly supported functions, μ≥0. Regarding the coefficient q ( x ) , we assume that it is a continuous function in R ( - ∞ , ∞ ) and can be a growing function at infinity. The operator L allows closure in the space L 2 ( R ) and the closure also be denoted by L. In the paper, under certain restrictions on q ( x ) , in addition to the above condition, the existence of the resolvent of the operator L and the existence of the estimate ‖ - w ′′′ ‖ L 2 ( R ) + ‖ q ( x ) w ‖ L 2 ( R ) ≤ c ( ‖ L w ‖ L 2 ( R ) + ‖ w ‖ L 2 ( R ) ) (0.1) have been proved, where c>0 is a constant. Example. Let q ( x ) = e 100 | x | , then the estimate (0.1) holds. The compactness of the resolvent is proved and two-sided estimates for singular numbers ( s-numbers) are obtained. Here we note that the estimates of singular numbers ( s-numbers) show the rate of approximation of the resolvent of the operator L by linear finite-dimensional operators. In the present paper, apparently for the first time, the nuclearity of the resolvent of the third-order differential operator and completeness of its root vectors are proved in the case of an unbounded domain with a greatly growing coefficient q ( x ) at infinity.

Background: Pre-eclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy which, left untreated, can cause significant foeto-maternal morbidity. Accordingly, the National Institution for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that high-risk women be prescribed daily prophylaxis with 75-150mg aspirin from twelve weeks’ gestation until delivery. NICE stratifies risk using eleven maternal risk factors; however, no secondary research has been published evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of this algorithm. Objectives: Quantify the sensitivity and specificity of the NICE risk‑stratification algorithm in predicting pre‑eclampsia in pregnant women ≥16 years. Search Strategy: PubMed, Cochrane Library and SCOPUS. PROSPERO Registration: CRD42023437261. Selection Criteria: Papers with a CBEM Level of Evidence ≤4, published 2010‑2023. Data Collection and Analysis: 20 eligible studies consisting of 892,061 pregnancies were analysed. Logit-transformed sensitivities and specificities were modelled as bivariate distributions with random effects. Main Results: Maximum likelihood estimates for the NICE algorithm’s sensitivity and specificity were 44.7% (95% CI 32.3 – 57.8) and 88.0% (95% CI 87.4-88.7), respectively. There was significant heterogeneity between the studies in this analysis (χ 2(17) = 85.05 (p<.0001), I 2=99.8%) and, consequently, a low degree of certainty in these estimates. Conclusions: The NICE risk‑stratification algorithm performs remarkably poorly when used to predict pre‑eclampsia in any of three gestational categories. Clinicians should advise women that around 1 in 5 high-risk patients and 1 in 25 low-risk patients go on to develop pre‑eclampsia. However, future studies will likely alter these values and the confidence therein. Funding: None Key Words: Pre-eclampsia, High-risk Pregnancy, Sensitivity and Specificity, Predictive Value of Tests, Clinical Decision Rules.

Recently, cognitive-based sentiment analysis has drawn a lot of attention because it focuses on automatically identifying user behaviours like personality characteristics from online social media text. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested model for eight key personality traits (Introversion-Extroversion, Intuition-Sensing, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving), we present a hybrid Deep Learning-based model made up of Convolutional Neural Networks with Long Short-Term Memory. On the basis of audio and video recordings of human faces, we provide a model for the identification of personality traits. A web-based platform is created to gather the dataset, allowing users to record voice and video using a microphone and webcam, respectively. The dataset contains videos and audio clips of people of various ages and genders. Applying the proposed CNN+LSTM model on the considered dataset we could achieve an accuracy of 87.07%.

Voice Liveness Detection (VLD) has become one of the hot research topics in the Internet of Things era. Conventional VLD methods are centralized solutions that are trained on abundant data collected from local clients and stored on the server, however, they have the risk of causing data islands and privacy leakage. To address this problem, we propose a novel word-level VLD framework based on asynchronous federated learning (FL) with pop noise, named FL-VLD. Structurally, FL-VLD takes the preprocessed voice for local model training and constructs a global model by only transmitting the learned weights after differential privacy with FL’s central server in an asynchronous manner. In addition, the local network of the framework incorporates the residual network and the spatial grouping enhancement module to optimize the complexity and accuracy of the global model. With the advantage of FL’s distributed structure, FL-VLD solves the data island problem in VLD scenario without threatening users’ privacy. Experimental results on the popular POCO dataset show that our proposal is clearly superior to the traditional centralized methods as well as overperforming other federated schemes in terms of fairness, stability, accuracy, and lightweightness. Further, for attacks involving far-field replay, synthesis, and conversion, FL-VLD has high generalisation capabilities. Finally, the ablation study attests to its efficacy.

We discuss the links between political governance systems and ecological research, education and environmental policy, focusing on the ongoing radical changes to the judicial systems in Israel. This judicial revision has already restricted academic freedom and environmental laws, and has impacted regulatory actions. We are concerned about future defunding of ecological research and nature conservation programs, reduced cross-border ecological collaboration, restrictions of academic teaching of ecology and evolution, a brain drain of ecologists, weakening enforcement of environmental laws, and increased power to polluting corporates. Israel's unique biodiversity, already threatened by its rapidly growing population and high development pressures, make these concerns all the more pressing. We believe that weakening judicial oversight of government actions in other countries is generating similar threats at a global scale.

Spontaneous Spinal Cord Herniation with Post-operative paraplegia- A case report with 10-year follow-upAbstract:Background: Spinal cord herniation is an uncommon diagnosis in the field of spine surgery. The usual presentation of spontaneous spinal cord herniation is in the form of progressive Brown-Sequard syndrome. We describe a case of a 37-year-old male with progressive back pain and sensory deficits due to spinal cord herniation and a post-operative complication associated with reduction of the hernia.Case description: A 37-year-old male presented with insidious onset upper back pain and altered sensations of pain and temperature over the right half of the body below the nipple 2 months before the examination. The patient did not have motor weakness of lower limbs, abnormal/ involuntary movements, or loss of control over the bowel and bladder. MRI of the thoracic spine showed an anterolateral defect(left) at the level of the T2-T3 vertebra. A posterior approach was chosen and the cord with roots was reduced into the dura. The defect was covered by a dural graft (Lyodura) and the wound was closed with a drain insitu. On the 3rd post-operative day, patient developed paraplegia. Patient was treated by exploration and decompression of the hematoma that compressed spinal cord. The deficits were completely recovered at one-month follow-up.Conclusion: Patients with spinal cord herniation and neurologic deficits when treated timely with reduction of the hernia, have good outcomes. The drain should be removed only when the treating team is satisfied regarding the lack of ongoing hemorrhage. The recovery was maintained till the last follow-up at 10 years.Key words: spontaneous spinal cord herniation, spinal cord defect, paraplegia, Brown-Sequard syndrome

Bacillus subtilis is a plant growth promoting bacterium that acts as a microbial fertilizer and biocontrol agent, providing benefits such as boosting crop productivity and improving nutrient content. It is able to produce secondary metabolites and endospores simultaneously, enhancing its ability to survive in unfavorable conditions and eliminate competing microorganisms. Optimizing cultivation methods for the production of B. subtilis MSCL 897 spores on an industrial scale requires a suitable medium, typically made from food industry by-products, and maintaining optimal temperature and pH levels to achieve high vegetative cell and spore densities with maximum productivity and yield. In this study, we demonstrate successful pilot-scale (100 L bioreactor) production of a biocontrol agent B. subtilis with good spore yields (1.5 x 10 9 spores/mL) and a high degree of sporulation (>80%) using a low-cost cultivation media, which showed excellent antifungal activity (1.6-2.3 cm) against several phytopathogenic fungi. An improved methodology for inoculum preparation was investigated to ensure an optimal seed culture state prior to inoculation, promoting process batch-to-batch repeatability. Increasing the molasses concentration in the medium and operating the process in fed-batch mode with additional molasses feed, did not improve the overall spore yield, hence, process operation in batch mode with 10 g/L molasses is preferred. Results also showed that the product quality was not significantly impacted for up to 12 months of storage at room temperature.

Objective: To assess the association between chronotype and depressive symptoms in an infertile population undergoing assisted reproductive technology. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University Reproductive Medicine Center in Hefei, China. Population: 1022 infertile patients who sought assisted reproductive technology at the Center between August and October 2022, were assessed for inclusion in this study. Methods: On the day of ovulation injection, we collected socio-demographics by inviting infertile patients to complete questionnaires and assessed the subjects’ chronotypes through the Morning and Evening Questionnaire-5 Items (MEQ-5). Main Outcome Measures: Depressive symptoms, assessed with validated Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and expressed as PHQ-9 scores. Results: Overall, 9%, 68%, and 22% of participants were categorized as evening, neutral, and morning chronotypes, respectively. There were significant differences between chronotype on levels of depressive symptoms, subjects with morning chronotype (odds ratios = 0.32, 95% confidence intervals: 0.18-0.57) and neutral chronotype (odds ratios = 0.47, 95% confidence intervals: 0.28-0.77) had lower odds of depressive status, compared to those with evening chronotype, but no partner effect of chronotype was found ( p >0.05, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that morning and neutral chronotypes may be significantly associated with a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms. In addition, the effect of earlier chronotypes in men on depressive symptoms in women warrants relevant clinical attention when considering treatment.

Small, fragmented or isolated populations are at risk of population decline due to fitness costs associated with inbreeding and genetic drift. The King Island scrubtit Acanthornis magna greeniana is a critically endangered endemic subspecies of the nominate Tasmanian scrubtit A. m. magna, with an estimated population of <100 individuals persisting in three patches of swamp forest. The Tasmanian scrubtit is widespread in wet forests on mainland Tasmania. We sequenced the scrubtit genome using PacBio HiFi and undertook a population genomics study of the King Island and Tasmanian scrubtit using a double-digest restriction site-associated DNA (ddRAD) dataset of 5,239 SNP loci. The genome was 1.48 Gb long, comprising 1,518 contigs with an N50 of 7.715 Mb. King Island scrubtits formed one of four overall genetic clusters, but separated into three distinct subpopulations when analysed separately. Pairwise FST values were greater among the King Island scrubtit subpopulations than among most Tasmanian scrubtit subpopulations. Genetic diversity was lower and inbreeding coefficients were higher in the King Island scrubtit than all except one of the Tasmanian scrubtit subpopulations. We observed crown baldness in 8/15 King Island scrubtits, but 0/55 Tasmanian scrubtits. Six loci were significantly associated with baldness, including one within the DOCK11 gene which is linked to early feather development. Contemporary gene flow between King Island scrubtit subpopulations is unlikely, with further field monitoring required to quantify the fitness consequences of its small effective size, low genetic diversity and high inbreeding. Evidence-based conservation actions can then be implemented before the taxon goes extinct.