In this work, the rheological behavior of three crude oils, with low, middle and high wax content, in the absence/presence of polymeric and aromatic flow improvers was investigated. The rheological data cover the temperature range of 0 to 60 °C to include the wax appearance temperature (WAT). The results indicated that EVA copolymer has remarkable performance in change of flow behavior from non-Newtonian to Newtonian even at temperatures below WAT. Moreover, the addition of small quantities of asphaltene solvents such as toluene can improve viscosity of crude oil with high wax content. In addition to experimental and analytical modeling investigations, this work attempted to model measured shear stress and viscosity of waxy crude oils using tree-based machine learning methods and consider wax content and additives concentration as input parameters of models. Amongst all implemented techniques, Extra Trees model performed as a potential predictor in waxy oils rheology studies.

In the discussion about wage inequality, principles of fairness and need for incentives are juxtaposed as opposing motivations for wage inequality acceptance. While previous literature focused on ideal inequality, in one correlational and one preregistered experimental study (Ntotal = 473) we tested the hypothesis of a threshold of inequality acceptance. Participants were asked to indicate what a CEO should earn, ideally (i.e., ideal pay gap) and at maximum (i.e., highest acceptable pay gap), given the wage of a worker. Results showed that individuals generally indicated higher values for highest acceptable than for ideal pay gaps. In conclusion, these studies pave the way for new research on the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of attitudes towards economic inequalities.

Frequency-domain fatigue damage prediction based on spectral moments provides a framework in which anticipated life calculated over an entire structure subject to vibratory random loading (typically in the high cycle fatigue regime) can be rapidly obtained. However, the basis of the methods of spectral fatigue assume stationary, Gaussian, zero-mean, narrow-band (single dominant frequency) input, without the presence of overloads (stresses that exceed the initial yield stress), a significant set of restrictions. Given the importance of overloads in determining fatigue lifeI, we propose a novel “bilinear” formulation of spectral fatigue equations, that separates damage due to small and large strain amplitudes, is developed that matches or significantly outperforms existing stress-based HCF approaches (including for multiaxial elastoplastic loading) while avoiding non-conservative predictions suffered by an existing strain-based implicit formulation when the power spectral density include excursions into plastic loading due to the presence of overloads. Comparisons with synthetic and experimental data sets demonstrate the efficacy of the approach in a variety of different loading conditions.

Hydropower generation has been proposed by utilizing the difference in the water levels between the Mediterranean Sea and the level of accumulated saltwater in the Qattara Depression. The target of this paper is to represent the study of the accumulated saltwater effect in the Qattara Depression on the Nile Delta drainage and the underneath groundwater reservoir. The main objectives of the research study are to: a) determine the expected evaporation from the accumulated saline water in the depression, b) study the hydrogeological conditions of the Qattara Depression by identifying the flow direction between the Nile Delta and the depression, after filling the depression, and C) study the effect of lagoon accumulated saline water on the Nile Delta fertility and the underneath groundwater layers. The study methodology has been performed utilizing the recent tools of analysis that were not available for the previous studies such as; efficient numerical models, geographic information system (GIS), and Digital Elevation Models (DEM). The effect of salinity on evaporation, from the lagoon, was considered. A number of twenty one boreholes, with average depth of 3900 m, were employed to construct the geological stratification. Hydraulic conductivity values and groundwater levels have been collected from the available boreholes and deep exploratory wells drilled by the oil companies. Mass balance of the lagoon salinity was performed, every separate year for a total period of 50 years. Density dependent model (SEAWAT) via MODFLOW has been employed for a duration of 50 years. The simulation was performed every separate year. It was repeated for different water filling levels (50 m and 60 m below mean sea level). Several well fields are assumed between the filled lagoon and the Nile Delta. The wells screen was assumed in the Moghra, the Limestone, or the deep Sandstone Formations. The results have revealed that the saline lagoon does not affect the Nile Delta drainage. The lagoon accumulated salinity does not reach the Nile Delta. The effect of salinity on the underneath sandstone reservoir is minor due to its upper confining shale layer.

RATIONALE Boron isotopes are a powerful tool for pH reconstruction in marine carbonates and as tracer for fluid-mineral interaction in geochemistry. Micro-analytical approaches based on laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) often suffer from effects induced by the sample matrix. In this study, we investigated matrix-independent analyses of B isotopic ratios and applied this technique to cold-water corals. METHODS We employed a customized 193 nm femtosecond laser ablation system (Solstice, Spectra-Physics) coupled to a MC-ICP-MS (Nu Plasma II, Nu Instruments) equipped with electron multipliers for in situ measurements of B isotope ratios (11B/10B) at the micron-scale. We analyzed various reference materials of silicate and carbonate matrices using non-matrix match calibration without employing any correction mode. This approach was then applied to investigates defined increments in coral samples from a Chilean fjord. RESULTS We obtained accurate B isotope ratios with a precision of ± 0.9‰ (2 SD) for various reference materials including silicate glasses (GOR132-G, StHs6/80-G, ATHO-G, and NIST SRM 612), clay (IAEA-B-8) and carbonate (JCp-1) using the silicate glass NIST SRM 610 as calibration standard, which shows that neither laser-induced nor ICP-related matrix effects are detectable. The application to cold-water corals (Desmophyllum dianthus) reveal little intra-skeleton variations in δ11B with average values between 23.27 and 26.09‰. CONCLUSIONS Our instrumental set-up provides accurate and precise B isotopic ratios independently of the sample matrix at the micron-scale. This approach opens a wide field of application in geochemistry, including pH reconstruction in biogenic carbonates and deciphering processes related to fluid-mineral interaction.

Rationale. Femtoamp and picoamp electrospray ionization characteristics of a non-polar solvent were explored. The direct ESI-MS analysis of chloroform extract solution enabled rapid analysis of perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFS) analytes in drinking water. Methods. Neat chloroform solvent and extracts were directly used in a typical wire-in ESI setup using micrometer emitter tips. Ionization currents were measured with femtoamp sensitivity while ramping the spray voltage from 0 to -5000 V. Methanol was used to illustrate the characteristics of spraying chloroform. The effect of spray voltage and inlet temperature was studied. A liquid-liquid extraction workflow was developed to analyze PFOS in drinking water using an ion trap mass spectrometer. Results. The ionization onset of chloroform solution was 41 ± 17 fA at 300 V. The ionization current gradually increased with voltage while remaining below 100 pA when using voltage up to -5000 V. PFOS ion signal was significantly enhanced to improve the detection limit to 25 ppt in chloroform. Coupled with a liquid-liquid extraction workflow, detection limits of 0.38-5.1 ppt, and a quantitation range of 5-400 ppt were achieved for perfluorinated sulfonic compounds in 1 mL drinking water samples. Conclusions. Femtoamp and picoamp modes expand the solvent compatibility range of electrospray ionization and can enable quantitative analysis in ppt concentrations.

Roots are the "hidden half" of the plants, which play an essential role in plant development by drawing water and nutrients from the soil and providing anchorage to the plants. Global warming alters soil properties that limit root development and produces drought-like conditions that reduce water and nutrient uptake by the plant roots, ultimately affecting plant growth. It is, therefore, necessary to study Root System Architecture (RSA) traits and breed plants with better root architecture capable of resisting these conditions. RSA comprises various root traits including total root length, root angle, number of lateral roots, and many other traits. Due to the challenges in phenotyping these traits, the research on RSA is lacking behind. In this project, we are studying RSA traits in 500 late-maturity soybean accessions based on germinating the seeds on germination papers, transferring them to blue blotting papers, and imaging the roots 21 days after transfer. Image analysis for the root traits will be carried out using RootNav2.0 software. These phenotypic data and SNPs selected from Illumina Infinium SoySNP50K iselect SNP Beadchip will be used to perform Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) using Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool (GAPIT) package in R to identify genomic loci associated with each trait. The results from this study will help in discovery of new QTLS or genes that play a key role in root system architecture and help in breeding novel cultivars that are resistance to changing climate.

There are dermatoses that can emerge at the site of healed herpes zoster. Giant Cell Lichenoid dermatitis (GCLD) is a variant of skin graft-versus-host disease that can appear in patients post-transplant. Herein, we present a case of GCLD manifested withib healed varicella zoster site.

Adaptation to changing environments often requires meaningful phenotypic modifications to match the current conditions. However, obtaining information about the surroundings during an organism’s own lifetime may only permit accommodating relatively late developmental modifications. Therefore, it may be advantageous to rely on inter-generational or trans-generational cues that provide information about the environment as early as possible to allow development along an optimal trajectory. Transfer of information or resources across generations, known as parental effects, is well documented in animals and plants but not in other eukaryotes, such as fungi. Understanding parental effects and their evolutionary consequences in fungi is of vital importance as they perform crucial ecosystem functions. In this study, we investigated whether parental effects are present in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, how long do they last, are the effects adaptive, and what is their mechanism. We performed a fully factorial match / mismatch experiment for a good and poor quality environment, in which we measured mycelium size of strains that experienced either a matched or mismatched environment in their previous generation. We found a strong silver spoon effect in initial mycelium growth, which lasted for one generation, and increased fitness during competition experiments. By using deletion mutants that lacked key genes in epigenetic processes, we show that epigenetic mechanisms are not involved in this effect. Instead, we show that spore glycogen content, glucose availability and a radical transcription shift in spores are the main mechanisms behind this parental effect.

Data on the three dimensional shape of organismal morphology is becoming increasingly availability, and forms part of a new revolution in high-throughput phenomics that promises to help understand ecological and evolutionary processes that influence phenotypes at unprecedented scales. However, in order to meet the potential of this revolution we need new data analysis tools to deal with the complexity and heterogeneity of large-scale phenotypic data such as 3D shapes. In this study we explore the potential of generative Artificial Intelligence to help organise and extract meaning from complex 3D data. Specifically, we train a deep representational learning method known as DeepSDF on a dataset of 3D scans of the bills of 2,020 bird species. The model is designed to learn a continuous vector representation of 3D shapes, along with a 'decoder' function, that allows the transformation from this vector space to the original 3d morphological space. We find that approach successfully learns coherent representations: particular directions in latent space are associated with discernible morphological meaning (such as elongation, flattening, etc.). More importantly, learned latent vectors have ecological meaning as shown by their ability to predict the trophic niche of the bird each bill belongs to with a high degree of accuracy. Unlike existing 3D morphometric techniques, this method has very little requirements for human supervised tasks such as landmark placement, increasing it accessibility to labs with fewer labour resources. It has fewer strong assumptions than alternative dimension reduction techniques such as PCA. The computational requirements for training the model, while substantial, is still within the reasonable reach of most researchers, with a ~2000 shape model taking just over 2 days to train on only a single current generation consumer-level GPU. Once trained, 3D morphology predictions can be made from latent vectors very computationally cheaply.

Cysteamine is an aminothiol endogenously synthetized by human cells during the degradation of coenzyme A. Since the 1950s, this substance has been used in radiation protection, immunomodulation, and is the sole FDA-approved oral agent for the treatment of cystinosis. Many in vitro and in vivo studies recommend cysteamine as an effective anti-carcinogenic agent. In this article, we will review the preventive and therapeutic effects of cysteamine for 3 types of cancers: carcinomas, sarcomas and melanomas. Cysteamine has been shown to be effective in vitro and in vivo for the treatment of different cancer types generally leading to the significant reduction of lesions and/or the increase of survival time. Cysteamine has been shown to enhance the anti-melanoma effect of doxorubicin in vivo and cysteamine derivatives have shown anti-melanoma efficacy in animal models. Although the mechanisms of action are not fully understood, possible explanations on the pathophysiology of cell suppression by cysteamine are given : (i) free radical scavenging (ii) alteration of the tumor cell proliferation by affecting nucleic acid and protein synthesis or inhibition of DNA synthesis (iii) hormone regulation.

An effective method for obtaining large amounts of metal nanoparticles encapsulated by carbon layers through upcycling from floating-catalyst aerosol chemical vapor deposited carbon nanotubes is demonstrated. Nanoparticles with diameters of less than 20 µm are selectively extracted from the synthesized carbon assortments through sonication, centrifugation, and filtration. The particles show an aggregation behavior owing to the π–π interaction between the graphitic carbon shells surrounding the iron carbides. By controlling the degree of the aggregation and arrangement, the light scattering by the gap-surface plasmon effect in perovskite solar cells is maximized. Application of the nanoparticles to the devices increased the power conversion efficiency from 19.71% to 21.15%. The short-circuit current density (JSC) trend over the particle aggregation time accounts for the plasmonic effect. The devices show high stability analogue to the control devices, confirming that no metal-ion migration took place thanks to the encapsulation.

Divergence in the face of high dispersal capabilities is a documented but poorly understood phenomenon. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) has a large geographic dispersal capability and should theoretically be able to maintain genetic homogeneity across its dispersal range. However, following analysis of the genomic variation of white-tailed eagles, from both historical and contemporary samples, clear signatures of ancient biogeographic substructure across Europe and the North-East Atlantic is observed. The greatest genomic differentiation was observed between island (Greenland and Iceland) and mainland (Denmark, Norway and Estonia) populations. The two island populations share a common ancestry from a single mainland population, distinct from the other sampled mainland populations, and despite the potential for high connectivity between Iceland and Greenland they are well separated from each other and are characterized by inbreeding and little variation. Temporal differences also highlight a pattern of regional populations persisting despite the potential for admixture. All sampled populations generally showed a decline in effective population size over time, which may have been shaped by four historical events: I) isolation of refugia during the last glacial period 110-115,000 years ago, II) population divergence following the colonization of the deglaciated areas ~10,000 years ago, III) human population expansion, which led to the settlement in Iceland ~1,100 years ago, and IV) human persecution and exposure to toxic pollutants during the last two centuries.

For the aim of determining the wind speed characteristics and wind power density, the performance of five numerical approaches to identify the shape (k) and scale (c) parameters of the Weibull distribution function is assessed in this work. The chosen methods are the empirical Justus method (EMJ), the maximum likelihood method (ML), the energy pattern factor method (EPF), the moment method (MOM), and L-moment estimation method (L-MOM). In order to calculate the mean wind speed, wind speed standard deviation, and wind power density for Al-Hodeidah in West Yemen, the best suitable method must be determined. Daily mean wind speeds collected from January to December 2014 are used in this study. The findings show that using various parameter estimating techniques alters the precision of the values derived for mean wind speed, mean wind power density and their standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. For this site, all of the methods: EMJ, EPF, ML, MOM, and L-MOM present a very good accuracy for predicting mean wind speed on both daily and monthly basis. For forecasting standard deviation of wind speed, the EMJ method performs the best one on both daily and monthly scales. The ML method is recommended for assessing the wind energy potential since it presents better performance in terms of forecasting the daily and monthly average power density at the study site. All methods showed a notable error with relative percent error (RPE) larger than 10% at the study site for the skewness and kurtosis of both wind speed and power density except the EPM method is sufficient for predicting the kurtosis of power with relative percent errors (RPE) smaller than 3%. For the standard deviation of power density analyses, all of the methods show remarkable errors with relative percent errors (RPE) greater than 11%.

In arid and semi-arid regions, grassland vegetation is the most important element in maintaining the basic functions of ecosystems. Plateau in northwestern China is an important hotspot area for the research of grassland ecosystems in the global arid areas, and is facing the dual effects of high -intensity grazing activities and significant climate change. Study the trend of changes in vegetation under the double influence of grassland vegetation is of great significance to environmental management and biodiversity protection in the region. However, the current impact of climate change and human grazing activities on vegetation lacks substantial evidence, and its impact mechanism is currently unclear. We conducted vegetation surveys and analyzed the dual pressure of plant diversity index under the dual pressure of grazing intensity and climate factors to reveal the mechanism of interaction impact on the intensity impact. The results showed that the vegetation was more sensitive to the rainfall during the rainy season, and under the pressure of low grazing, the stability of vegetation should change the stability of precipitation in the rainy season. In addition, precipitation in the rainy season is a more important climatic factors affecting the diversity of vegetation in drought and semi -arid areas. In the warm and dry climate mode, vegetation is more sensitive to grazing interference and more vulnerable to vegetation; in the cold and humid climate mode, the stability (or elastic) of vegetation should be higher. The results of the research provide direct evidence for the interaction between grazing and climate on the interaction of vegetation diversity and stability, and provide a scientific basis for the grazing management and vegetation protection in the arid area.

We report a case of a four-year-old female child who presented with a massive pancreatic pseudocyst. Pseudocysts >10 cm are at an increased risk of rupture, hence require surgical intervention. Percutaneous external drainage via pig tail catheter was followed by Cysto-gastrostomy due to continuous high output. Post-operative period was uneventful.

Noise and light levels during hospitalizations can disrupt sleep and circadian health, resulting in worse health outcomes. This study describes patterns of noise and light in an inpatient room of children undergoing stem cell transplants. Objective meters tracked noise and light levels every minute for 6 months. Median overnight sound was 55dB (equivalent to conversational speech), which exceeded recommendations. There were 3.4 loud noises (>80dB) per night on average. Children spent 62% of the 24-hour cycle in non-optimal lighting, with daytime light dimmer than recommended 98% of the time. These data suggest improvements for hospital environment in pediatric cancer patients.

In the context of new engineering, the cultivation of scientific and technological talents should fully consider new technical qualities such as service to the country, innovation and progress, formation of environmental awareness, and formation of international vision. With the rapid development and progress of socialist market economy, the scope of application of scientific and technological revolution has been gradually expanded. The application of mechanical engineering is getting wider and wider. Under the background of new engineering education, in mechanical engineering, many linear programming models can be transformed into standard models using some mathematical methods, which can be used to solve them. In mechanical engineering, there exist not only linear optimization problems with continuous variables, but also linear optimization problems with all or some variables as a set of deterministic values. Linear optimization problems in mechanical engineering often manifest themselves as mixed discrete optimization due to constraints of standardization, serialization, standardization, design, assembly and verification, and objective requirements. This thesis introduces the KarmarKar improvement algorithm and extends the application of the KarmarKar improvement algorithm in mechanical engineering with the example of hybrid linear optimization in mechanical engineering.

Innovation mainly includes knowledge innovation and technology innovation. In the current study, information innovation is an attribute of thesis data and technological innovation is based on proprietary data. Industrial robots have a high level of capability and high density technology. Therefore, knowledge and technological innovation are very active in this field. The development of manufacturing industry in China is facing labor shortage. An effective way to solve this problem is to innovate, renew and modernize the manufacturing industry. Since the reform and opening up, China’s manufacturing industry has made significant progress in industrial production in terms of machinery, standardization, automation, and information technology, but at the cost of cheap labor, a huge consumer market, and national policy orientation. At the same time, compared with western industrialized countries such as Japan, Germany and the United States, China’s manufacturing industry as a whole is not “strong”, which is mainly reflected in the fact that the development of nuclear technology has not yet begun and manufacturing enterprises do not have the ability of independent innovation. Therefore, this paper is an in-depth study of the mechanical design method and joint simulation analysis of industrial robots based on trajectory planning algorithm and kinematics.

Few cases of eosinophilia associated with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) have been reported. This study reported a 16-year-old male patient diagnosed with B-ALL and hypereosinophilia. He was admitted to the emergency department (ED) with urticaria and generalized itching. On initial examination, the skin was wholly erythematous, and urticarial lesions were scattered throughout the body. Peripheral blood smear (PBS) was examined, and eosinophils were seen in different fields. However, blast cells were not seen in the PBS. In bone marrow examination, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-positive and CD20-positive lymphoid blasts were reported along with eosinophilia. In immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, results were within normal limits for the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1), platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRβ) genes expressions. Moreover, no breakpoint cluster region (BCR)/Abelson murine leukemia 1 (ABL1) mRNA transcripts and no Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) V617F mutation were detected. Eventually, the B-ALL diagnosis was confirmed for the patient, and he was started on the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (BFM) chemotherapy regimen. The patient was transferred to another facility and is continuing his treatment there.

Genetic causal correlations between allergic diseases and COVID-19: A systematic two-sample and bidirectional MR studyWord count: 597To the Editor,Allergic diseases (ADs) such as asthma are presumed risk factors for COVID-19 infection with greater severity.1 However, recent observational studies suggest that the assumed correlation remains controversial.2 We aimed to answer the following questions: (1) Are there causal correlations between various ADs and COVID-19 infection/severity? (2) If so, how do they affect each other?We employed a two-sample, bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to systematically explore genetic correlations between ADs and COVID-19 infection/severity.3 The primary MR analyses contained three successive parts. First, we treated each COVID-19 phenotype (18,152 critically ill cases, A2; 44,986 hospitalized cases, B2; 159,840 reported infection cases, C2) as exposure and each AD (broad allergic disease (BAD), asthma, allergic dermatitis (ADE), shrimp allergy (SA) and peach allergy (PA)) as outcome to evaluate whether the COVID-19 outbreak would genetically affect the incidence rates of ADs (Fig. S1A and S1C ). Conversely, we considered each type of AD as an exposure and COVID-19 phenotypes as outcomes to identify genetic risk factors for COVID-19 infection/severity (Fig. S1B and S1C ). Secondly, we employed two available independent GWAS datasets (Asthma2018 and ADE2021) to further validate those significant correlations (Fig. S1D ). Finally, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the significant correlations based on well-known theories of pathogenesis for COVID-19 or ADs (Fig. S1E ). After multiple pre-processing steps, we applied the most suitable MR approach upon different scenarios, and thus a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Details are presented in supporting information (SI ) and Table S1 (TS1) .Our MR results consistently indicated that all COVID-19 phenotypes were causally associated with an increased asthma prevalence (OR>4.21, p <1.30×10-78) (Table 1 ). Validation results from Asthma2018 further confirmed the causal correlation of critically ill with asthma using two different MR methods (both OR=1.05,p <4.19×10-2) (SI-TS2 ). Both critically ill and hospitalized cases were causally associated with a decreased prevalence of ADE (OR<0.93,p <2.65×10-2) (Table 1 ), although it did not obtain further validation. Interestingly, hospitalized cases showed a significant association with an increased rate of PA (OR=2.95, p =3.86×10-2) (Table 1 ).MR analyses found that asthma was a causally protective factor for hospitalized cases (OR=0.9975, p =4.28×10-2;Table 2 ), which was confirmed by another GWAS dataset (Asthma2018) upon adopting multiple MR methods (OR=0.87-0.98,p <5.61×10-3) (SI-TS2 ). Besides, the MR analyses implied that SA was also a risk factor for the COVID-19 infection/severity (OR>1.04,p <6.73×10-3) (Table 2 ).In the investigation of underlying molecular mechanisms, MR analyses indicated that COVID-19 phenotypes, especially severe symptoms, were causally correlated to hematological traits (HT and MCH) and immune-related cell counts (including LYMPH and CD3+ T, CD56+ NK, and CD8+ T cell counts), implying that a cytokine storm induced by COVID-19 infection/severity may cause a substantial damage to host immune response and further induce various ADs (SI-TS3 ).4 In turn, MR analyses for causal effects of ADs on ACE2 protein expression in peripheral blood suggested that asthma was causally correlated with a decreased ACE2 protein expression with two different methods (SI-TS4, both OR=0.9997,p =4.30×10-2), while SA with a marginally increased protein expression (OR>1.01,p <8.90×10-2) (SI-TS4 ). These findings partially explained that ADs such as asthma and SA may have causal effects on COVID-19 infection/severity by affecting ACE2 protein expression, which directly exerts a biological function in peripheral blood tissue.5 Several previous studies also suggested that allergic sensitization in asthma patients was associated with a low ACE2 expression in respiratory tracts.6In conclusion, our MR analyses suggest a bidirectional causal effect between COVID-19 phenotypes and ADs, especially asthma. The underlying molecular mechanisms of the causal effects may be beneficial in developing effective therapeutic strategies for allergic patients with COVID-19 infection and for long-term COVID-19 symptoms physical characteristics should be prioritized.

Climate change has been driving long-distance migratory birds to alter their schedules under the threat of being mismatched with their food peak at the breeding grounds. It is important to study the relative contribution of environmental, genetic and ontogenetic components in various spring timing traits in the wild in order to predict the true potential for migratory birds to adapt to the changing environment. We aimed to detect if heritable and ontogenetic components can explain variation in the timing of spring migration and breeding in pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). Geolocator tracks of 44 locally hatched birds deployed during 2016-2019 in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were used to investigate the role of early-life traits in the pre-fledging phase, as well as parental timings, in contributing to individual differences in the timing of spring migration and breeding in adulthood. We found a positive relationship between an individuals’ birth date and spring departure date from Africa in adulthood, but not for breeding arrival or laying date. Variation in spring departure date could not be explained by any other early-life trait in the pre-fledging phase, yet was well explained by the arrival dates of its parents in its birth year. This suggests that under natural conditions, individual differences in spring departure timing have a strong heritable component (in the broad sense), but that environmental conditions experienced along the migratory route and at breeding sites are partially masking this expression in arrival and laying schedules in these early breeding populations. Such environmental masking may reduce heritability in the timing of arrival and laying, thereby slowing down climatic adaptation towards earlier time schedules in pied flycatchers.

Using seismic recordings of event S1222a, we measure dispersion curves of Rayleigh and Love waves, including their first overtones, and invert these for shear velocity (Vs) and radial anisotropic structure of the martian crust. The crustal structure along the topographic dichotomy is characterized by a fairly uniform vertically-polarized shear velocity (Vsv) of 3.17 km/s between ~5-30 km depth, compatible with the previous study by Kim et al. (2022). Radial anisotropy as large as 12 % (Vsh > Vsv) is required in the crust between 5-40 km depth. At greater depths, we observe a large discontinuity near 63 ± 10 km, below which Vsv reaches 4.1 km/s. We interpret this velocity increase as the crust-mantle boundary along the path. Combined gravimetric modeling suggests that the observed average crustal thickness favors the absence of large-scale density differences across the topographic dichotomy.

Objectives: To investigate the use of tracheostoma humidification by people with total laryngectomy (PTL) in the UK and explore influencing factors. Design: National cross-sectional survey and case note review. Setting: 26 UK National Health Service (NHS) centres providing care to PTL. Participants: PTL reviewed by speech and language therapy (SLT) between March and September 2020. Methods: Secondary analysis of data collected during a national multi-centre audit of PTL completed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were collected on type of humidification used by PTL and demographic information. Type of humidification was dichotomised as ‘HME’ (closed-system heat moisture exchanger) or ‘non-HME’ (alternative stoma cover or no stoma cover). Univariable analysis was performed to determine the association with several potential explanatory variables including gender, age, living circumstances, distance from treatment centre, communication method and time elapsed since laryngectomy. A backwards selection procedure was used to determine the final model for multiple regression analysis. Results: Data were obtained from 1216 PTL from 26 centres across the UK; information on type of tracheostoma humidification used was available for 1097 PTL. Most PTL (69%) used an HME. Following multiple regression analysis, time elapsed since laryngectomy (p=<0.001), living circumstances (p=0.002) and communication method (p=<0.001) were statistically significant factors in HME use. Conclusion: In the UK, most PTL follow recommendations to use a closed-system HME, though there is marked variability across centres. HME use is influenced by time elapsed since laryngectomy, living circumstances and communication method.