AbstractThis article presents a comprehensive review of the publication trends and influential authors in biochar research based on an analysis of articles published between 2008 and April 2023 in the Web of Science database. The study reveals a significant increase in the number of publications on biochar over the years, reflecting a growing interest in this field. The analysis of highly cited papers reveals the presence of tight clusters of authors, with notable leaders from Korea and China. These individuals demonstrate strong connections within their research networks. The article further identifies the most prolific authors in biochar research, highlighting their significant number of papers and citations. However, the article raises concerns about these hyperprolific authors who publish an unusually high number of papers and authors with excessively high citation counts. Such practices raise questions about feasibility, quality, and ethical conduct in research. Further investigation is necessary to understand the mechanisms behind hyperprolific authorship and ensure the maintenance of rigorous scientific inquiry and ethical standards. The article demonstrates the hyperbole in biochar research publications that may include citation manipulation and boosting. It pointed to worrisome practices by some hyperprolific authors in pursue of high citations. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of balancing productivity with the integrity and rigor of research to uphold the principles of quality and responsible scientific practice.IntroductionBiochar is a popular topic in the realm of environmental science and sustainable agriculture, with a growing body of scientific publications dedicated to its study. Biochar refers to the carbon-rich material that is produced through the process of pyrolysis, the controlled decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen (Qian et al. 2015). This highly porous substance has gained significant attention due to its potential benefits in enhancing soil health, sequestering carbon, pollutant removal, and mitigating climate change. Over the years, numerous scientific publications have delved into various aspects of biochar, including its production methods, characterization, applications, and the ecological and agronomic impacts it can have. These publications have highlighted its potential role in sustainable land management practices, offering valuable insights to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers (Allohverdi et al. 2015).Biochar has been hailed as a potential game-changer in our efforts to combat climate change, improve soil health, and even address energy needs. Its appeal lies in its multifaceted benefits and applications which have led to considerable hype in both scientific and popular discourse (Kumar et al. 2023).The excitement surrounding biochar is primarily driven by its potential to mitigate climate change. Biochar is essentially a form of charcoal created by pyrolysis, which stabilizes the carbon in the material, turning it into a form that is not easily decomposed. Consequently, biochar can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds or even thousands of years, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it would contribute to global warming (Lehmann et al. 2006).Another aspect of the hype is biochar's promise in the field of agriculture. It has been touted as a panacea for degraded soils, with the ability to improve soil fertility, increase agricultural productivity, and enhance resilience to climate change. Biochar can increase soil water-holding capacity, retain nutrients for plant use, and stimulate beneficial soil microbial activity, which collectively enhance soil health and crop yields (Jha et al. 2010).Biochar's potential role in waste management and as a renewable energy source has also led to considerable excitement. The process of creating biochar can help manage organic waste, turning a problem into a solution. Moreover, the heat generated during the pyrolysis process can be harnessed and used as a renewable energy source, adding to the green appeal of biochar (Liu et al. 2019).Despite the hype, it's important to note that while the potential benefits of biochar are impressive, they are not guaranteed (Baveye 2021). The effects of biochar can vary widely depending on a host of factors, including the type of feedstock used to create it, the temperature at which it's produced, how it's applied, and the specific characteristics of the soil it's added to. The burgeoning hype surrounding biochar has not only caught the attention of the public and policymakers, but has also sparked significant interest within the scientific community. This interest has led to a surge in the publication of research papers exploring various aspects of biochar (Baveye 2021). However, this proliferation of research also underscores the complexity of biochar science, as the results often reveal a nuanced picture of biochar's effects that can depend heavily on specific conditions and applications. Professor Baveye from Paris University called "hyperbole" in discussions around biochar to highlight the exaggerated claims made about its potential benefits (Baveye 2021). These claims are overblown or not sufficiently supported by empirical evidence. While it is true that biochar has shown promise in various applications, the variability in its effects due to factors such as feedstock type, production conditions, and soil characteristics means that it may not always deliver the expected benefits. Moreover, the long-term impacts of biochar application on soil and environmental health are not fully understood, leading to further caution (Baveye 2023). Scepticism or caution is called on the tendency to make broad, generalized claims about its benefits. Recent years have also seen a significant increase in the publication of highly cited scientific papers on biochar, which are often considered indicative of their impact and quality in the academic community. Identification of such influential papers can be achieved through databases tracking citation data, or via lists compiled by institutions like Clarivate Analytics.In a recent analysis of characteristics of highly cited papers in Environmental sciences by the author, the study reveals that a small group of exceptionally prolific authors, who publish between 60 to 100 papers annually, dominate the list of highly cited works (Abduh 2023). The majority of these authors work independently, with notable exceptions being two clusters publishing biochar in Korea and China. Network analysis exposes a collective of scientists with an impressive number of highly cited papers, indicating collaboration in publication and citation.The aim of this study is to analyze and understand the landscape of highly cited researchers and authors in the field of biochar. We seek to identify the most prolific contributors, understand their publishing patterns, and examine the nature and extent of their collaborations. By providing insights into the key influencers shaping biochar research, this study aims to illuminate the current state of this rapidly evolving field, and inform future research directions.MethodsThis study investigated publication pattern and highly cited papers focusing on biochar, published between 2008 and April 2023. To achieve this, the Web of Science database, a comprehensive source of academic and scientific literature developed by Clarivate Analytics, was utilized. The database was queried for all papers published under the topic “biochar" during the specified period.The Web of Science database is a trusted tool for research and citation analysis within the scientific and academic communities, as it allows users to track the impact of research, identify trends in academic publishing, and access literature across a wide range of disciplines.Data from the search results were downloaded and exported to MS Excel for preliminary analysis. Subsequently, VOSviewer 1.6.9, a software tool developed by Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman at Leiden University Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), was used to analyze and visualize authors' networks.VOSviewer specializes in analyzing bibliometric data, such as citation and co-citation data, and can generate a variety of visualizations, including co-citation maps, term maps, and network diagrams. These visualizations enable researchers to understand the relationships among different research topics, authors, and institutions, and identify patterns and trends in scientific literature. VOSviewer is a widely recognized tool in the scientific and academic communities for bibliometric analysis (Qin et al. 2022).Results and DiscussionPublication trendThis study conducted an extensive review of articles published in international English scientific journals on the topic “biochar” listed in the Web of Science database between 2008 and April 2023. The results of the search produce 29,608 papers equating to an average of over 2,700 papers published annually in the past ten years. Out of these, the top 1% or 1,029 papers were identified as highly cited papers by Web of Science. These highly cited papers are distinguished by receiving a significant number of citations relative to other papers published in the same field and year, placing them in the top 1% based on citation count.To further analyze these 1,029 highly cited papers, a text keyword network was constructed using VosViewer. This network provided insights into the prevalent topics discussed within this influential body of literature (Figure 1).Figure 1 indicates the research in biochar can be grouped in 3 categories: the use of biochar for adsorption or removals of pollutants, the second is on biochar application to soil for plant growth and yield, and the third is on the degradation of biochar. A smaller group of topic indicates the subject on methods of digestion.

Migratory birds may either upregulate their immune system during migration as they might encounter novel pathogens or downregulate their immune system as a consequence of trade-offs with the resource costs of migration. Support for the latter comes not least from a study that reports a positive correlation in autumn migrating birds between fuel stores and parameters of innate and acquired immune function, i.e., energy exhausted migrants appear to have lowered immune function. However, to our knowledge, no study has tested whether this pattern exists in spring migrating birds, which may face other trade-offs than autumn migrants. Here, we investigate if in spring there is a relationship between fuel stores and microbial killing ability, a measure of innate immune function, and total immunoglobulin (IgY), a measure of acquired immune function, in four migrating bird species: Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), Dunnocks (Prunella modularis), Song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) and Northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe). We found no correlation between fuel stores and bacterial killing ability or IgY levels in any of the species. However, there was a significant negative correlation between microbial killing ability and Julian date in Song thrushes and Northern wheatears, and between IgY levels and Julian date in Song thrushes. Sex did not affect immune function in any of the species. Our study suggests that the relationship between immune function and fuel stores may be different during spring migration compared to autumn migration. Differences in the speed of migration or pathogen pressure may result in different outcomes of the trade-off between investment in immune function and in migration among the seasons.

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Aortic root abscess formation is one of the most dangerous complications of infective endocarditis. It can occur in both native and prosthetic heart valves. Treatment includes a multidisciplinary team approach focusing on antibiotic coverage and adequate surgical treatment. The surgical repair is extremely challenging in these subset of patients due to fragile tissue and involvement of adjacent cardiac structures. We report a case of aortic root abscess where the preoperative computed tomography and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography imaging described the exact anatomical details and demarcated the extension of the abscess cavity which helped in a successful surgical repair.

In this letter, a novel model for broadband power amplifier (PA) linearization is proposed, namely Attention Mechanism based Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory network (AM-BiLSTM). In order to verify the linearization performance of the AM-BiLSTM model, a 100MHz bandwidth 5G new radio (5G NR) signal is employed to test the sub-6G PA operating at 2.6-GHz. The experimental results show that the adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) of the PA with AM-BiLSTM can be improved by 24dB which is 6-dB better than the generalized memory polynomial (GMP) and 3-dB better than the Chebyshev polynomials LSTM (CP-LSTM) in ref[1]. Therefore, the proposed AM-BiLSTM is very effective for the linearization of broadband PA.

The aim of this study was to clarify the effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) to the left cymba concha on the pain perception using nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR), which is known to be associated with chronic pain, and to investigate whether tVNS-induced suppression of the NWR and parasympathetic activation is correlated. We applied either 3.0 mA, 100 Hz tVNS for 120 s in the left cymba concha (tVNS condition) or the left earlobe (Sham condition) for twenty healthy adults. NWR threshold was measured before (Baseline), immediately after (Post 0), 10 min (Post 10) and 30 min after (Post 30) stimulation. The NWR threshold was obtained from biceps femoris muscle by applying electrical stimulation to the sural nerve. During tVNS, electrocardiograph was recorded, and changes in autonomic nervous activity were analyzed. We found that the NWR thresholds at Post 10 and Post 30 increased compared to baseline in the tVNS group (10 min after: p = 0.048 30 min after: p = 0.037). In addition, increased parasympathetic activity by tVNS correlated with a greater increase in NWR threshold at Post 10 and Post 30 (Post 10: p = 0.01; Post 30: p = 0.005). The present results demonstrate the pain-suppressing effect of tVNS as assessed with NWR threshold and suggest that the degree of parasympathetic activation during tVNS may predict the effect of tVNS after its application.

Adult-onset hypothyroidism impairs normal brain function. Research on animal models of hypothyroidism has revealed critical information on how deficiency of thyroid hormones impacts the electrophysiological and molecular functions of the brain, which lead to the well-known cognitive impairment in untreated hypothyroid patients. Currently, such information can only be obtained from experiments on animal models of hypothyroidism. This review summarizes important research findings that pertain to understanding the clinical cognitive consequences of hypothyroidism.

The genome of Halobacterium strain 63-R2 was recently reported and provides the opportunity to resolve long-standing issues regarding the source of two widely used model strains of Hbt. salinarum, NRC-1 and R1. Strain 63-R2 was isolated in 1934 from a salted buffalo hide (epithet ‘cutirubra’), along with another strain from a salted cowhide (91-R6T, epithet ‘salinaria’, the type strain of Halobacterium salinarum). Both strains belong to the same species according to genome-based taxonomy analysis (TYGS), with chromosome sequences showing 99.64% identity over 1.85 Mb. The chromosome of strain 63-R2 is 99.99% identical to the two laboratory strains NRC-1 and R1, with only 5 indels, excluding the mobilome. The two reported plasmids of strain 63-R2 share their architecture with plasmids of strain R1 (pHcu43/pHS4, 99.89% identity; pHcu235/pHS3, 100.0% identity). We detected and assembled additional plasmids, using PacBio reads deposited at the SRA database, further corroborating that strain differences are minimal. One plasmid, pHcu190 (190,816 bp) corresponds to pHS1 (strain R1) but is even more similar in architecture to pNRC100 (strain NRC-1). Another plasmid, pHcu229, assembled partially and completed in silico (229,124 bp), shares most of its architecture with pHS2 (strain R1). In deviating regions, it corresponds to pNRC200 (strain NRC-1). Further architectural differences between the laboratory strain plasmids are not unique but are present in strain 63-R2, which contains characteristics from both of them. Based on these observations, it is proposed that the early 20th-century isolate 63-R2 is the immediate ancestor of the twin laboratory strains NRC-1 and R1.

Even as the pandemic wanes in public interest, understanding vaccine hesitancy remains critically important. This study examined how attitudes towards science mediate the relationship between COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and prominent psychosocial predictors: political ideology, religiosity, reactance proneness, dogmatism, perceived ostracism, and precarity. We analyzed the structure of people’s attitudes towards science, revealing four factors: belief that science is objective, belief that science and technology are beneficial, trust in science in general, and trust in medical science. With these as mediators in a saturated path analysis, low trust in medical science and lacking belief that science is objective fully mediated the relationships between nearly all predictors and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Political conservativism’s negative association with vaccine hesitancy was partially mediated by the same two factors. Trust in science in general was not a significant mediator once all four facets were included in the model. These findings are discussed with a focus on their implications for understanding attitudes towards science and their complex role in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Cataracts are one of the leading causes of blindness, with estimated 95 million people affected worldwide. A hallmark of cataract development is lens opacification, typically associated not only with aging, but also radiation exposure as encountered by interventional radiologists and astronauts during the long-term space mission. To better understand radiation-induced cataracts, the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework was used to structure and evaluate knowledge across biological levels of organization. AOPs identify a sequence of key events (KEs) connected by key event relationships (KERs) beginning with a molecular initiating event (MIE) to an adverse outcome (AO) of relevance to regulatory decision-making. To construct the cataract AOP, a scoping review methodology was used to filter, screen, and review studies based on the modified Bradford Hill criteria. Eight KEs were moderately supported by empirical evidence across the adjacent (directly-linked) relationships using well-established endpoints. Over half of the evidence collected was informed by biological plausibility. Early KEs of oxidative stress and protein modifications could be the focus of countermeasures. Several identified knowledge gaps and inconsistencies in the AOP can be the basis of future research, most notably directed to experiments at low or moderate doses and dose-rates, relevant to radiation workers and other occupational exposures.

Huiyong Hu1#, Xiaoping Jing2#, Xiuhua Duan3, Leiping Zhou4, Yunfeng Xu1*1 Department of the Ultrasonography, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, school of medicine, Shanghai 200040, China;2 Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, school of medicine, Shanghai 200040, China;3 Department of Radiology, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, school of medicine, Shanghai 200040, China;4 Department of Radiology, International Peace Maternity & Child Health Hospital of China welfare institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, school of medicine, Shanghai 200030, China;# These authors contributed equally to this work.* Corresponding author: Yunfeng Xu, Department of the Ultrasonography, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, school of medicine;Address: 1400 West Beijing Road, Shanghai, China Lane 24 Zip Code 200040;Phone: 18917128478E-mail: xuyunfeng65@163. com (F X).During a prenatal ultrasonography examination late in the second trimester, a fetus was found to have a right diaphragmatic hernia (Figure S1). Multidepartment dynamic monitoring was instituted, and the fetus was later successfully delivered by cesarean section after fetal distress became evident. After intubation, the infant was stabilized and transferred to the Department of Neonatology at our hospital.The enhanced computed tomography of the chest and stomach displayed multiple air-filled intestinal shadows in the right chest cavity, the widest being about 20.0 mm. The right lung, mediastinum, and heart were compressed and displaced, and most of the lung tissue in the right lung was consolidated. Atelectasis is evident in the irregular enhancement shadow at the right upper abdomen, about 43.5 × 32.0 mm in size. The boundary between some sections and the posterior margin of the right lobe of the liver was unclear, but the blood supply (hepatic artery and portal vein branches) was visible (Figure). Blood gases, routine bloodwork, liver and kidney function, and myocardial enzymes were essentially normal.At 40 + 4 weeks, with the infant under total anesthesia, hernia repair was performed. The liver and intestines in the thoracic cavity were brought back into the abdominal cavity; the tissues around the hernia ring in the diaphragm were carefully dissociated; and patch repair and suturing were performed (Figures S2–S4). After the operation, the infant’s vital signs were stable and their condition remained good during follow-up.Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a potentially fatal birth defect[1-3]. In China today, all pregnant women undergo ultrasonography to uncover pregnancy- related conditions[4]. A “green channel” – that is, a multidepartment collaborative for the emergency treatment of perioperative pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary dysplasia, and other complications in newborns with CDH – has been established, helping to assure the best prognosis for those infants.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, pediatric visits due to acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) decreased, but most reports are from hospitalized patients. There is little information on this phenomenon in outpatients, who are the majority in IRABs. We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ALRIs related outpatient visits in the City of Buenos Aires. Methods: Observational study including all outpatient visits of children under 2 years of age to the public health system of the City of Buenos Aires, between Jan 01, 2018 and Dec 31, 2022. We estimated the total number visits and the ALRIs-related visits, and their distribution throughout the study period. Results: A total of 704,426 visits were registered, 7.38% of them due to ALRIs. ALRIs-related visits decreased from the implementation of a national lockdown (2020) and increased again as the restriction measures decreased, particularly the return to full school attendance (2021). In general, the proportion of ALRIs-related vists was significantly higher in the cold months than in the warm ones (9.8% vs. 5.5%; OR: 1.76, 95%CI: 1.73-1.79; p<0.001). This difference was observed before (2018, 2019) and after the pandemic (2022), but not in 2020-2021. The peak of ALRIs-related visits occurred in the cold months in pre-pandemic years (2018-2019), did not appear in 2020, reappeared delayed in 2021 and recovered seasonality in 2022. Conclusion: Outpatient ALRIs-related visits decreased significantly in the city of Buenos Aires during the COVID-19 pandemic and currently seem to have recovered their magnitude and seasonality.

Introduction: This study aimed to determine if a respiratory therapist (RT)-driven high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) protocol could decrease duration of HFNC use, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and hospital length of stay (LOS), and duration of continuous albuterol use in pediatric patients with critical asthma. Methods: This was a quality improvement project performed at a quaternary academic PICU. Patients admitted to the PICU between 2 and 18 years of age with a diagnosis of asthma requiring continuous albuterol and HFNC were included. Implementation of a RT-driven HFNC protocol [Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) 1] occurred in October 2017. Additional interventions included weaning continuous albuterol and HFNC simultaneously (PDSA 2; March 2019), adjusting HFNC wean rate (PDSA 3; July 2020), and a HFNC holiday (PDSA 4; October 2021). HFNC duration was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included LOS data and continuous albuterol duration. Noninvasive ventilation (NIV), invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and 7-day PICU and hospital readmission rates were balancing measures. Results: 410 patients were included. Patient demographics and adjunct therapy use did not differ among the groups. HFNC duration decreased from 26.8 to 18.1 hours, both PICU and hospital LOS were decreased (41 to 31.8 hours, and 86.5 to 68 hours respectively) after PDSA 2. These outcomes remained stable during PDSA 3 and 4. Continuous albuterol duration and NIV use remained stable, while IMV use decreased throughout the study. Conclusions: An RT-driven HFNC protocol led to an improvement in clinical outcomes for pediatric patients with critical asthma without an increase in adverse events.

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This work elucidates the control of integrating non-minimum phase system via series cascade scheme with fractional-order P.I. (Proportional–Integral) plus D (Derivative) controller. The traditional Internal Model Control (IMC) is adopted for inner loop controller design. The feedback D controller is synthesized with the outer loop process model, which shows the work’s universality. The outer loop controller is suggested in the IMC framework after accountability of fractional-filter and inverse response compensator. This combination is revealed to enhance performance without compromising the robustness. The Riemann sheet principle is explored to compute the stability of the suggested controller. The sensitivity analysis has asserted the robustness. More importantly, the optimal value of controller settings is achieved via the Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) algorithm. This TLBO algorithm uses an objective function that minimizes Integral Square Error (ISE). Two illustrative problems are utilized to examine the recommended control structure’s virtue.

Introduction: This study evaluated the physicochemical properties of four calcium silicate sealers after ultrasonic activation (UA), using an epoxy resin sealer as a control material. Methods: Ten groups were created: SP without UA in the control group and UA Sealer Plus (SP/UA); Sealer Plus BC (SPBC); SPBC/UA; Bio C Sealer (BCS); BCS/UA; EndoSequence BC Sealer (EBC); EBC/UA; BioRoot RCS (BR); BR/UA;. Sealer properties were evaluated using a pH meter and a colorimetric spectrophotometer for the measurement of pH and calcium release at 1, 24, 72 and 168 hours. Solubility and setting times were also evaluated, and Raman spectroscopy was used to evaluate structural changes. Data were analyzed statistically, and the level of significance was set at 5%. Results: All bioceramic sealers had higher pH values than SP and SP/AU (P < .05) from 24 hours onwards. BR and BR/AU had the highest pH at all time points. Intragroup analyses revealed that pH was stable in SP and SP/AU at all time points. UA sealers had higher pH values than sealers not activated, but there were no significant differences between them. SP and SP/UA had the lowest calcium release values at all time points (P < .05). Significant differences were found between UA and no activation only for the EBC group at 24 and 72 hours (P < .05). Setting times and solubility of all sealers were not affected by UA (P < .05), but the highest solubility values were found for BCS and BR (P < .05). Raman spectroscopy detected the peaks of UA and not activated sealer samples. Conclusion: UA did not affect the pH of all sealers tested, did not affect calcium release from SP, SPBC and BCS, did not affect setting time and did not change the chemical structure of the sealers tested.

The aim of this study was to develop a clinical SWIR reflectance handpiece to assess the activity of lesions on the occlusal surfaces. The time-resolved reflectivity of ten active and ten arrested occlusal caries lesions on extracted teeth was monitored at 1470 nm using a benchtop system and a modified clinical prototype during forced air drying. The presence of a highly mineralized surface zone measured with microcomputed tomography (microCT) was used to indicate lesion activity. Multiple kinetic parameters were extracted from the acquired SWIR time versus intensity dehydration curves and used to assess lesion activity. Three parameters: delay, %I fin, and rate calculated from the SWIR dehydration curves were significantly different (P < 0.05) between active and arrested lesions. The modified clinical probe was able to completely dehydrate all the active lesion areas in the occlusal pits and fissures in less than 30 seconds.

I was infected with the Covid-19 virus .On the seventh day after sickness , 0.1 ml (log 108 /ml) of live Newcastle (strain I 2 ) vaccine was inoculated through nasal drops .After about 12 hours, unbelievably all the symptoms of Covid-19 were disappeared .

Microgrid systems have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their ability to provide reliable, efficient and sustainable energy to local communities. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are a common type of microgrid that rely on photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight into electrical energy. However, the intermittency of solar power means that energy storage solutions are necessary to ensure a reliable supply of electricity. Two popular energy storage solutions for solar PV microgrids are batteries (Bats) and supercapacitors (SCs). This study aims to compare the performance of three different solar PV-based microgrid systems: solar PV only (SPV), solar PV with battery storage (SPVB), and solar PV with both battery and supercapacitor storage (SPVBS). The analysis using MATLAB/Simulink is based on their technical performance, with an emphasis on energy management. Results from the simulation indicate that integrating a battery storage can enhance the performance of the SPV microgrid system by stabilizing the dc bus voltage, resulting in balancing generation and demand. The SPVBS system can perform better, especially by providing high power and quick response which can result on improving battery lifetime. Overall, our study highlights the importance of energy storage solutions for solar PV microgrids. Adding energy storage device to the solar PV microgrid system can significantly improve its performance and efficiency.

TSP is one of the most famous problems in graph theory, as well as one of the typical NP-hard problems in combinatorial optimization. Its applications range from how to plan the most reasonable and efficient road traffic to how to better set up nodes in the Internet environment to facilitate information flow, among others. Reinforcement learning has been widely regarded as an effective tool for solving combinatorial optimization problems. This paper attempts to solve the TSP problem using different reinforcement learning algorithms and evaluated the performance of three RL algorithms (Q-learning, Sarsa, and Double Q-Learning) under different reward functions, ε-greedy decay strategies, and running times. The results show that the Double Q-Learning algorithm is the best algorithm, as it could produce results closest to the optimal solutions, and by analyzing the results, better reward strategies and epsilon-greedy decay strategies are obtained.

In this paper it is shown that the correct mathematical framework of combined polarization mode dispersion and polarization dependent losses (combined PMD-PDL effects or impairments) in optical fibers is the irreducible spinor representation of the extended Lorentz Group. Combined PMD-PDL effects are shown to be formally identical to Lorentz Transformations acting on spin ½ zero mass particles. Since there are two different irreducible spinor representations of the restricted Lorentz Group, there must also exist two kinds of states of polarizations (SOPs) that are relevant in the description of PMD-PDL effects. The optical process that allows to convert one kind into the other is identified as optical phase conjugation. Optical phase conjugation plays the same role as the time inversion operator in the Lorentz Group representation theory. A practical and extremely important example of utility of these ideas, a technique that significantly reduces the PMD-PDL induced impairments, is presented. This technique allows to cancel the PDL part of the combined PMD-PDL impairments in a very simple and straightforward way.

Background: Acyl-coenzyme A cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) is a membrane-binding enzyme, which localizes in the endoplasmic reticulum. ACAT2 can promote the progression of colon cancer, but its efficacy in lung adenocarcinoma(LUAD) remains uncertain. Method: Analysis of ACAT2 expression was performed using TIMER2.0 database. The GEPIA database was utilized to analyze the correlation between ACAT2 expression and pathological stage of the tumour. The Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to analyze its potential in clinical prognosis. The correlation between expression of ACAT2 and functional status of different tumours was analyzed in the CancerSEA database and displayed as a heatmap. Molecular interaction network analysis performed with the STRING tool. Results: High ACAT2 expression was associated with a poor DFS and OS in LUAD patients. Cox regression analysis indicated that the poor outcomes might be related to tumour stage, nodal stage, distant metastatic stage. ACAT2 was involved in many biological processes including the cell cycle, DNA repair, DNA damage, and proliferation. Enrichment pathway analysis revealed four ACAT2 related genes, ACOX1, EHHADH, OXCT1, DLAT.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems worldwide, requiring many higher education institutions (HEIs) to make immediate shifts towards online course and program delivery. While leaders simultaneously sought innovative solutions, many lacked the infrastructure to make such time-sensitive and resource-intensive changes. With substantive foundation funding, one private university in Africa partnered with one public university in the United States of America (USA) and co-designed and co-implemented an e-Learning initiative to deliver high-quality, inclusive e-Learning. Using a participatory evaluation approach and an evaluation framework that accounts for structural and institutional inequities in education, researchers representing both universities also co-examined this e-Learning initiative’s impacts, including its successes and challenges, using survey instruments, interviews, and focus groups. In this research paper, the authors provide some background to contextualize the research project, present details on the methodology used to conduct the research project and present the results via four key themes: participants’ experiences, successes, challenges, and implications and recommendations. The paper concludes with a discussion on the key findings of the research project and how they impact theory and practice in e-Learning.