A document by Claudia Schmied. Click on the document to view its contents.

THIS IS NOT AN ABSTRACT This is not a traditional manuscript and is a result of my thoughts on wildlife research since NKV decided to start Wildlife Biology to replace the national journals 30 years ago. I am not sure that this is a format suitable for Wildlife Biology but it would be interesting to know what you think. Best wishes, Tomas Willebrand

Perched high up in a Eucalyptus tree, swaying from side to side, lies a sleepy koala unaware of the means spent each year trying to obtain accurate baseline information about its presence. We have thrown all we could at it, from wildlife surveys to night spotting, bioacoustics, detection dogs, and drones equipped with thermal cameras. Yet, whilst critical to its conservation and management efforts, finding a koala remains an ambitious, time-consuming, and costly endeavour often producing insufficient results. However, little did we know that traces of koalas’ presence and that of its predators along with other native, domesticated, and invasive species, float in the air and can be detected using metagenomics. This study and despite high levels of co-sampled non-target DNA (e.g. humans and domesticated animals) confirms that koalas, species belonging to the wallaby and possum family and threats such as domestic dogs (a major predator contributing to koala population declines) can successfully be detected by sampling airborne particles. Together, it demonstrates the potential of airborne eDNA for the detection of terrestrial wildlife under natural conditions and presents achievable optimisation steps to increase its field applicability and validity.

Context: In this study, we embrace information by presenting important concepts of abstract information field theory, probabilities, and probabilistic dimensions, in the view of functors of actions theories and other abstract theories. Methodology: The methods used are the presentation of a collection of manifold-metric pairs, probabilistic notions, simple topology, and Einstein-Boltzman equations and the combination of this collection. Results: These combinations result to different flavours of an expanding sub-manifold and metric systems describing simpler dynamics of space around massive objects. Furthermore, we derive the equation of motion of a simplified gravity model in a probabilistic expanding Universe. We further introduce the notions of probabilistic actions and concepts of novel categories of abstract field-particles, such as the probablons and informatons. Conclusion: We conclude that the derived equations are the first steps towards a concrete description of a probabilistic gravity, and a probabilistic expanding Universe descriptions.

In this document we describe the novel concept of generalisation of tensor. We expand the concepts expressed in previous studies by considering the generalisation of the tensor concept. We introduce the generalised index of a tensor, an index describing several types of indices of a tensor. Furthermore, we describe the connection between category theory and tensor calculus. In particular, we explore the concepts of functor tensor, or functorial tensor, tensor with categories as elements. This work opens new avenues to mathematical analysis, tensor analysis, tensor theory, and category theory.

In this document, we review the basics of category theory and functors calculus, and we implement some novel concepts. In particular, we review the concepts of category, functors, and natural transformations. Furthermore we introduce the novel concept of func- tors of functors. We illustrate these concepts with diagrams to ameliorate the expression of these ideas. We conclude that these concepts open new avenues and are advancing category.

Alzheimer's Disease is an ailment that is linked with the degeneration of the brain cells and this illness is the main cause of dementia. Metabolic stress affects the activity of the brain in AD via FOXO signaling. The occurrence of AD will significantly surge as the world's population will age along with lifestyle changes perceived in current decades giving the impression of main contributors to such augmented prevalence. Similarly, metabolic disorders of current adulthood, such as obesity, liver, stroke, and diabetes mellitus, have been observed as the risk-causing factors of AD. FOXO transcription factors are preserved molecules that play an important part in assorted biological progressions, precisely in aging as well as metabolism. Here, we capitulate the signaling pathways along with the cellular functions of FOXO proteins. We have also summarized the intricate role of FOXO in AD, with a focus on metabolic stress, and discussed the prospect of transcriptional alterations with respect to FOXO as a molecular link between AD and metabolic disorders.

Perforated marginal ulcer following Whipple procedure: A case reportAbstractMarginal ulcers are rare complications of pancreatoduodenectomy. Patient can present with varying symptoms such as epigastric discomfort, pain, dysphagia, or can land in emergency with complications like bleeding and perforation.IntroductionWhipple procedures are performed for variety of benign and malignant lesions affecting the pancreatic head, duodenum, and distal bile duct.1 Marginal ulcer, one of the rare long term complications of pancreatoduodenectomy, are ulcerations that occur at or around the gastrointestinal anastomosis.2 Their associated morbidity and mortality have been infrequently described in literature.3 Here we present a case of a gentleman with a 6 year old history of Whipple procedure who presented in emergency department with acute onset abdominal pain and was later diagnosed with perforated marginal ulcer.Case presentationA 64-year-old retired soldier who underwent the Whipple procedure six years ago for carcinoma head of pancreas, adenocarcinoma (well-differentiated adenocarcinoma) presented to emergency department with complaints of severe abdominal pain for a one day on the day of presentation. The pain was acute in onset, continuous, non-radiating, and increasing in severity, which used to be aggravated after ingestion of food and movement. He had three episodes of vomiting since morning on the day of presentation. On his past history, he underwent the Whipple procedure six years ago and has received complete six cycles of chemotherapy after surgery. He was under irregular follow-ups for past two years. The patient had no other comorbid illnesses.On his arrival to the emergency department, his pulse rate was 130beats per minute, regular; oxygen saturation 85 % on room air; blood pressure 110/70 mm Hg, body temperature 38.7 ◦C, and respiratory rate(RR) 22 breaths/min. On his physical examination, his abdomen was distended with diffuse tenderness. There was diffuse guarding and rigidity all over the abdomen. Bowel sounds were absent. Digital rectal examination revealed a normal sphincter tone with a collapsed rectum and absent fecal stain on the gloved finger. He was immediately administered crystalloids and supplemental oxygen at 4 L/min. Nasogastric tube decompression and Foley catheterization were done. His laboratory parameters showed leukocytosis with raised amylase. Liver function test revealed total bilirubin 1.80 mg/dL, conjugated bilirubin 0.8 mg/dL and alkaline phosphatase 712U/L. On radiological examination, supine abdominal X-ray showed prominent dilated small bowel loops and free gas under right hemi diaphragm pointing towards hollow viscous perforation (Fig. 1). Ultrasonography of the abdomen and pelvis was unremarkable with minimal free fluid in the pelvis.After an initial fluid resuscitation, an emergency laparotomy was done. Intraoperatively, The findings were 300 ml of bilious fluid in the peritoneal cavity and dense adhesion between the small bowel loops and previous surgical scar. Adhesions were meticulously released and gastrojejunostomy site perforation was there, which was around 1 cm Fig.1. A thorough peritoneal lavage was done and the gastrojejunostomy site perforation was closed with a well-vascularized omental patch after a biopsy from the ulcer edge. He received Meropenem IV 1 g and Vancomycin IV 500 mg twice daily along with low molecular weight Heparin 60 mg twice daily the following day. His condition gradually improved and was discharged on 10th post operative day.

Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) with severe below-the-ankle (BTA) lesions is often difficult to revascularize with endovascular treatment (EVT) and surgical treatment. We present a case of successful limb salvage using percutaneous deep venous arterialization (pDVA) in a patient with CLTI whose BTA lesion reconstruction failed. A 57-year-old man with diabetes mellitus

Type I hypersensitivity, also known as classical allergy, is mediated via allergen-specific IgE antibodies bound to type I FcR (FcεRI) on the surface of mast cells and basophils upon cross-linking by allergens. This IgE-mediated cellular activation may be blocked by allergen-specific IgG through multiple mechanisms, including direct neutralization of the allergen or engagement of the inhibitory receptor FcγRIIb which blocks IgE signal transduction. In addition, co-engagement of FceRI and FcγRIIb by IgE-IgG-allergen immune-complexes causes down-regulation of receptor bound IgE, resulting in desensitization of the cells. Both, activation of FceRI by allergen-specific IgE and engagement of FcγRIIb by allergen-specific IgG are driven by allergen-binding. Here we delineate the distinct roles of antibody affinity versus avidity in driving these processes and discuss the role of IgG subclasses in inhibiting basophil and mast cell activation.

Zymomonas mobilis is an emerging chassis for being engineered to produce bulk products due to its glycolysis through the Entner-Doudoroff pathway with less ATP produced for lower biomass accumulation and higher yields with targeted products. When self-flocculated, the bacterial cells are more productive and tolerant to stresses for high product titers, but this morphology needs to be controlled properly to avoid internal mass transfer limitation associated with strong flocculation. Herewith we explored the regulation of cyclic diguanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) on self-flocculation of the bacterial cells through cellulose biosynthesis. While ZMO1365 and ZMO0919 with GGDEF domains for diguanylate cyclase activities catalyze c-di-GMP biosynthesis, ZMO1487 with an EAL domain for phosphodiesterase activities catalyzes c-di-GMP degradation, but ZMO1055 and ZMO0401 contain the dual domains with phosphodiesterase activities predominated. Since c-di-GMP is synthesized from GTP, the intracellular accumulation of this signal molecule through deactivating the activity of phosphodiesterase is preferred for activating cellulose biosynthesis to flocculate the bacterial cells, since such a strategy exerts less perturbance on intracellular processes regulated by GTP. These discoveries are significant not only for engineering unicellular Z. mobilis strains with the self-flocculating morphology to boost production, but also for understanding mechanism underlying c-di-GMP biosynthesis and degradation in the bacterium.

The practice of documenting pharmacists’ interventions (PIs) has been endorsed by many hospital pharmacists’ societies and organizations worldwide. Current systems for recording PIs have been developed to generate data on better patient and healthcare outcomes, but harmonization and transferability are apparently minimal. The present work aims to provide a descriptive and comprehensive overview of the currently utilized PIs documentation and classification (D/C) tools contributing to increased evidence systematization. A systematic literature search was conducted in PUBMED, Scopus, Web of Science and CINAHL. Studies from 2008, after the release of the Basel Statements, were included if interventions were made by the hospital or clinical pharmacists in a global hospital setting. Publications quality assessment was accomplished using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). A total of 26 studies were included. Three studies did not refer to the D/C method, 10 used an in-house developed D/C method, seven used externally developed D/C tools and six studies described method validation or translation. Evidence confirmed that most of the D/C systems are designed in-house, but external development and validation of PI systems to be used in hospital practice is gradually increasing. Reports on validated PIs D/C tools that are being used in hospital clinical practice are limited, including countries with advanced hospital pharmacy practice. Unmet needs and gaps in practice were identified. Further research should be conducted to understand why using validated D/C methods is not a disseminated practice, knowing patients’ and organizational advantages.

We describe methods and software resources for a bioimpedance measurement technique, “trans-radial electrical bioimpedance velocimetry” that allows for the non-invasive monitoring of relative cardiac contractility and stroke volume, proxies of sympathetic cardiac tone. In addition to describing the general recording methodology, which requires impedance measurements of the forearm, we provide open source Jupyter based software (operable on most computers) for deriving cardiac contractility from the impedance measurements. We demonstrate the ability of this bioimpedance measurement for tracking event related contractility in a maximal grip force production task. Critically, the results demonstrate both a reactive increase in cardiosympathetic drive with force production as well as a learned increase in drive prior to grip onset, consistent with allostatic autonomic regulation. The method and software should be of broad utility for investigations of event related cardio-sympathetic regulation in psychophysical studies.

The current strategy for biodiversity conservation is doomed. Based on a study of evidence-based summaries known as environmental impact assessment reports produced over the past 44 years, we suggest that biodiversity loss has not been halted because of a failure to accurately identify and assess the ecological effects of the drivers of change linked to land use planning. This failure is due to the poor representativeness of biological diversity in the practices of planners and the inadequate involvement of the ecologist community. Researchers in ecology could play a key role in improving the environmental considerations in project designs by focusing on preventive assessments instead of curative solutions.

Human activities have increased the intensity and frequency of natural stressors and created novel stressors, altering host-pathogen interactions, and changing the risk of emerging infectious diseases. Despite the ubiquity of such anthropogenic impacts, predicting the directionality of outcomes has proven challenging. Here, we conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the primary mechanisms through which stressors affect host-pathogen interactions and to evaluate the impacts stress has on host fitness (survival and fecundity) and pathogen infectivity (prevalence and intensity). We assessed 893 effect sizes from 71 host species (representing seven taxonomic groups) and 78 parasite taxa from 98 studies. We found that infected and uninfected hosts had similar sensitivity to stressors and that responses varied according to stressor type. Specifically, limited resources compromised host fecundity and decreased pathogen intensity, while abiotic environmental stressors (e.g., temperature and salinity) decreased host survivorship and increased pathogen intensity, and pollution increased mortality but decreased pathogen prevalence. We then used our meta-analysis results to develop Susceptible-Infected theoretical models to illustrate scenarios where infection rates are expected to increase or decrease in response to resource limitation or environmental stress gradients. Our results carry implications for conservation and disease emergence and reveal areas for future work.

Osteoarthritis (OA) , known as an inflammatory disease, affects the quality of life of countless people all around the world. In this ex vivo study, the anti-inflammatory effects of alcoholic extract S. lavandulifolia Vahl were investigated. Anti-inflammatory effects S. lavandulifolia Vahl. was evaluated based on measuring the levels of mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory genes including TNF-α , iL-1β , COX-2, and iNOS in bovine fibroblast-like synoviocytes and the levels of NO and PGE2 in Human THP-1 cells. Cells were treated with 100 ng/ml LPS in both the absence and presence of Alcoholic Extract S. lavandulifolia Vahl (AESL) (7.5µg/ml) that had no cytotoxic effects, as measured with MTT and trypan blue assays. Results showed that S. lavandulifolia Vahl. downregulated TNF-α (41.24%), iL-1β (47.12%), COX-2 (44.92%), and iNOS (45.34%) expression in BFLS, downregulated TNF-α (56.8%), iL-6 (58.04%) and iL-18 (52.59%) in THP-1 activated cells and this suppression was paralleled by a significant reduction in PGE2 (52.12%) and NO (51.06%) in cellular supernatant of THP-1. For the first time, our results suggested that S. lavandulifolia Vahl exerts has anti-inflammatory effects through the suppression of TNF-α, IL-1β, COX-2, and iNOS in bovine fibroblast synoviocytes along with the reduction in NO and PGE2 production in THP-1 cells.

The occurrence of random mutations can increase the diversity of the genome and promote the evolutionary process of organisms. High efficiency mutagenesis techniques significantly accelerate the evolutionary process. In this work, we describe a targeted in vivo mutagenesis system to significantly increase mutation frequency and generate mutations across all four nucleotides. We constructed different DNA-modifying enzyme-PmCDA1-T7 RNA polymerase fusion proteins, achieved targeted mutagenesis by flanking the target gene with T7 promoters, and tuned the mutation spectra by introducing different DNA-modifying enzymes. With the mutagenesis fusion proteins, the mutation frequency of the target gene could reach 5.13x10-3, and the proportion of non-C→T mutations is 10~11-fold higher than the cytidine-based evolutionary tools. We also demonstrated that our mutagenesis tools could be used to evolve the essential enzyme in the β-carotene biosynthesis process and generate mutations with different types.

In order to meet the growing demand for productivity and cost effectiveness, the manufacturing setup needs to run the operation with minimal failures, yielding higher availability. This makes it challenging for the manufacturing companies to run their operations economically ensuring the availability and reliability by adopting a full proof maintenance management system. Though reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is adopted across industries to improve availability and reliability, there is still a lot of scope for improvement. To monitor machinery performance parameters and health conditions on a real-time basis, digitalization is required in the field of maintenance management systems. Industry 4.0 can be used as a tool in RCM, which will strengthen the maintenance management system. It will help to fetch enormous data and perform subsequent analysis for improved availability and reliability. A smart RCM model is proposed in this paper for implementation in the maintenance management system to make it more effective. It describes how manufacturing and other industries can benefit from deploying Industry 4.0, which comprises IOT (the Internet of Things), CPS (the Cyber Physical System), cloud computing, and cognitive computing, converting conventional RCM (reliability-centered maintenance) into smart RCM.

Compressed sensing (CS) techniques have enabled efficient acquisition and recovery of sparse high-dimensional data via succinct low-dimensional projections, which usually consist of an encoder and a decoder. Unlike conventional CS techniques with the encoding-decoding architecture, the uncertainty autoencoder (UAE) can sample from the learned input data distribution without an explicit likelihood function, hence avoids potential uninformative latent representations. However, existing works on UAE mainly focus on the encoders and maximize the lower bound of the mutual information between input and measurements, rather than the decoders, which brings the shortcoming that the two may not cope well. In this letter, we propose a novel training scheme for UAE that blurs the measurements to learn the encoder and decoder simultaneously. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves the reconstruction performances when applied to UAE.

Blockchain technology is a promising technology that attracts popularity among researchers. However, it was first introduced with digital currencies in particular Bitcoin, but nowadays it is also known as one of the most frequently used techniques for securing networks. This systematic review research identifies studies that use blockchain for their security challenges. In addition, different fields in blockchain usage, blockchain categorization type, consensus mechanism, smart contract usage, and integration with other software-based algorithm is also investigated. Our results maintain that the internet of things (IoT) is the main field that blockchain is used to provide security.

The paper proposes an alternative approach to improve the performance of image retrieval. In this work, a framework for image retrieval based on machine learning and semantic retrieval is proposed. In the preprocessing phase, the image is segmented objects by using Graph-cut, and the feature vectors of objects presented in the image and their visual relationships are extracted using R-CNN. The feature vectors, visual relationships, and their symbolic labels are stored in KD-Tree data structures which can be used to predict the label of objects and visual relationships later. To facilitate semantic query, the images use the RDF data model and create an ontology for the symbolic labels annotated. For each query image, after extracting their feature vectors, the KD-Tree is used to classify the objects and predict their relationship. After that, a SPARQL query is built to extract a set of similar images. The SPARQL query consists of triple statements describing the objects and their relationship which were previously predicted. The evaluation of the framework with the MS-COCO dataset and Flickr showed that the precision achieved scores of 0.9218 and 0.9370 respectively.

Negative plant-soil feedbacks can be viewed as Janzen-Connell effects and influence plant population dynamics in grasslands. However, even though plant-soil feedbacks are often referred to as a mechanism for Janzen-Connell effects, for grassland species this is based on pot experiments and these effects have rarely been examined in the field. We examined the spatial distribution of a monocarpic perennial Jacobaea vulgaris to infer whether there is a distance- and/or density dependent effect and if the pattern is soil-mediated. Replicated plots were constructed to investigate J. vulgaris populations at two sites. Rosettes and flowering plants were marked, and their coordinates were recorded within each plot. For three plots, plants were tracked repeatedly during a single season to examine temporal distribution patterns. We then examined distance- and density dependent effects with spatial point pattern analysis. We also collected soil underneath flowering plants and 0.5-meter away from each plant. Seed germination, survival and growth of seedlings were traced in these soils with bioassays. Further, we measured biomass of J. vulgaris grown in soil from patches with high densities of J. vulgaris and in soil from outside of these patches. The density of rosettes was generally lower than expected from null models at close distances from flowering plants. The degree of clustering decreased from rosettes to flowering plants indicating density dependent self-thinning. Both the distance-based decay in rosette density and life-stage-dependent spacing became stronger over time in the plots where repeated measures were taken. Seed germination was higher in soil further away than in soil underneath flowering plants. However, seedling mortality and biomass did not differ in soils from different distances, and plants produced similar biomass in soil from pairwise patches. Our study provides spatial-based evidence for Janzen-Connell effects of J. vulgaris, and suggests plant-soil feedbacks play a minor role in mediating Janzen-Connell effects.

Introduction: In this paper we examine the relationship between vaccination against COVID-19 and both the death rate from COVID-19 and the rate of COVID-19 spread. Our goal is determine if vaccination is associated with reduced death and/or spread of disease at the local level. Methods: This analysis was conducted at the county level in the state of Pennsylvania, United States of America, with data that were collected during the first half of 2022 from the state of Pennsylvania’s Covid Dashboard ([COVID-19 Data for Pennsylvania (pa.gov)](https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/pages/cases.aspx) . Result s: Given that, during this time period, the vaccines being used were not geared specifically toward the common variants at that time, we found no statistically significant relationship between disease spread and vaccination rate at the county level. That said, we did find a highly statistically significant relationship between death rate and vaccination rate (p-value = 0.006). Specifically, a 1% increase in vaccination rate was found to correspond to a 0.751% decrease in death rate (95% confidence interval (0.236%, 1.266%)). Conclusions: These results support previous findings from across the world that Covid vaccination is highly efficacious in preventing death from the disease. Even during a time when vaccine design was not optimally matched with the prevailing strains, vaccination was found to reduce death rate. Hence, improving global vaccine availability is vitally important, in order to achieve necessary outcomes.

Multi-port robotic assisted (Da Vinci) laparoscopic myomectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of comparative clinical and fertility outcomes.Elias Tsakos1,2, Emmanouil M. Xydias1,2,3, Apostolos C. Ziogas2,3, Felice Sorrentino4, Luigi Nappia4, Nikolaos Vlachos5, Aggelos Daniilidis61: EmbryoClinic IVF, Thessaloniki, Greece2: Hellenic medical Research Institute (HMRI), Thessaloniki, Greece3: University of Thessaly, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Larissa, Greece4: Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Foggia, Italy5: National and Kapodistrial University of Athens, School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology6: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Medicine, Thessaloniki, GreeceAbstract