We study an optimal control problem governed by diffusion-reaction equations in a periodic porous medium (bounded domain). Our control problem is equivalent to a convex minimization problem. We take a $L^2$-cost functional and pose controls on the mobile species present in the pore part of the domain. One of the main aims here is to characterize a given control to be an optimal control for the microscopic problem. We obtain the existence of solution of the control problem and analyse a relation between optimal control and its adjoint state. Then, we do the homogenization of the optimal control problem (diffusion-reaction model with cost functional) by a formal asymptotic analysis and then via rigorous two-scale convergence and periodic unfolding method.

AbstractIn an interview, Kazuo Ishiguro highlights the central issue of his novels: failure of individuals not taking a stand against the tide of the times and instead go with the flow, or zeitgeist, which recurs in contemporary times as well. As an interdisciplinary approach, this article situates An Artist of the Floating World and The Remains of the Day in the Post-2014 Indian “godi” (lapdog) media, particularly in English-language prime time “debates”. Swati Chaturvedi’s question, ‘has the free press failed in its first and only covenant, of holding power to account’, and, if so, how far, shall be explored. Parallels, for instance, between the protagonists, who betray their set ideals and the way anchors of prime time debates in India tend to do the same; and the debates between democracy and fascism in the three timeframes, this paper analyses the way most prominent individuals, instead of looking at significant issues objectively, however, grow into, play complicit roles and justify or rationalise what they do, did or are doing in the name of free speech, leading them to act not merely as propagators of majoritarianism and ‘fake news’ but ‘gatekeepers’ of information as well, three monsters that plague our democratic values.Keywords : Democracy, fascism, “Godi” media, interdisciplinary, majoritarianism, zeitgeist

To compute the solution of FDEs, we create a fractional polynomial spline in this paper; the spline interpolation with fractional polynomial coefficients must be constructed using the Caputo fractional derivative. Error bounds were studied and a stability analysis was completed for the given spline function. Four examples were used to consider the numerical explanation for the provided method. The research suggests that the fractional spline function, which interpolates data, is useful and accurate in solving unique problems.

Aims: We compared the prognostic utility of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) and elective neck dissection (END) in patients with early (T1–2) oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and clinically N0 necks. Methods: We searched the PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases up to March 2022. The hazard ratios (HRs), Kaplan–Meier curves, p-values, and survival outcomes were extracted, along with all study characteristics. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Results: Twelve studies involving 10,583 patients were finally included. We found no significant differences in overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.1226; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9263; 1.3604), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR = 1.0797; 95% CI: 0.8765; 1.3300) or disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR = 0.8652; 95% CI: 0.6531; 1.1462) between the two groups. Heterogeneity was not detected in pooled OS, DFS, and DSS analyses (all I2 < 50). In subgroup analyses by follow-up period (3, 5, and 10 years), SNB and END had similar prognostic value. Conclusions: We found no significant difference in OS, DFS, or DSS between patients with early OSCC and clinical N0 necks evaluated via SNB and END, suggesting that SNB might be a valuable alternative to END for the management of early stage clinically node-negative OSCC.

Key Points 1. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS cancer referral guidance recommended a move from face-to-face clinics to telephone appointment. In this study, we reviewed the safety of telephone clinic for urgent 2-week wait cancer referrals. 2. In the 7 months study period during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1062 urgent 2-week wait cancer referrals were received in our regional head and neck specialist unit, reflecting a 7.3% decline compared to pre-pandemic data. 3. At 6-months follow-up, 98 (9.2%) patients received a new diagnosis of malignancy. 95 of them received their diagnoses promptly after their initial telephone clinic, whereas 3 patients received a delayed diagnosis. 4. There is a late diagnosis rate of 0.28% but we discussed in our cases that late diagnosis does not inevitably lead to worse clinical outcome or harm. 5. Telephone clinics will likely remain in some capacity after the pandemic, while telephone clinics are pragmatic means to maintain patient flow during the pandemic, they could result in risk of late diagnosis.

Introduction:Since emerging in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has progressed rapidly into a pandemic [1].COVID-19 is characterized by fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, pneumonia, and other respiratory tract symptoms,[2–4] and in many cases progresses to death. As of April 15, 2020, there have been 1914916 confirmed cases and 123010 deaths reported worldwide.5 Most cases were initially confined to Hubei province in China, but there has since been substantial spread not only elsewhere in China but worldwide. A rapid and robust response by the global scientific community has described many important aspects of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and natural history,[6–8] but key questions remain.

Prevailing 16S rRNA gene-amplicon methods for characterizing the bacterial microbiome are economical, but result in coarse taxonomic classifications, are subject to primer and 16S copy number biases, and do not allow for direct estimation of microbiome functional potential. While deep shotgun metagenomic sequencing can overcome many of these limitations, it is prohibitively expensive for large sample sets. We evaluated the ability of shallow shotgun metagenomic sequencing to characterize taxonomic and functional patterns in the fecal microbiome of a model population of feral horses (Sable Island, Canada). Since 2007, this unmanaged population has been the subject of an individual-based, long-term ecological study. Using deep shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we determined the sequencing depth required to accurately characterize the horse microbiome. In comparing conventional versus high-throughput shotgun metagenomic library preparation techniques, we validate the use of more cost-effective lab methods. Finally, we characterize similarities between 16S amplicon and shallow shotgun characterization of the microbiome, and demonstrate that the latter recapitulates biological patterns first described in a published amplicon dataset. Unlike amplicon data, we demonstrate how shallow shotgun metagenomic data also provided useful insights about microbiome functional potential which support previously hypothesized diet effects in this study system.

An estimated 8.7 million eukaryotic species exist on our planet. However, recent tools for taxonomic classification of eukaryotes only dispose of 734 reference genomes. As most Eukaryotic genomes are yet to be sequenced, the mechanisms underlying their contribution to different ecosystem processes remain untapped. Although approaches to recover Prokaryotic genomes have become common in genome biology, few studies have tackled the recovery of Eukaryotic genomes from metagenomes. This study assessed the reconstruction of Eukaryotic genomes using 215 metagenomes from diverse environments using the EukRep pipeline. We obtained 447 eukaryotic bins from 15 classes (e.g., Saccharomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Mamiellophyceae) and 16 orders (e.g., Mamiellales, Saccharomycetales, and Hypocreales). More than 73% of the obtained eukaryotic bins were recovered from samples whose biomes were classified as host-associated, aquatic and anthropogenic terrestrial. However, only 93 bins showed taxonomic classification to (9 unique) genera and 17 bins to (6 unique) species. A total of 193 bins contained completeness and contamination measures. Average completeness and contamination were 44.64% (σ=27.41%) and 3.97% (σ=6.53%), respectively. Micromonas commoda was the most frequent taxa found while Saccharomyces cerevisiae presented the highest completeness, possibly resulting from a more significant number of reference genomes. However, mapping eukaryotic bins to the chromosomes of the reference genomes suggests that completeness measures should consider both single-copy genes and chromosome coverage. Recovering eukaryotic genomes will benefit significantly from long-read sequencing, intron removal after assembly, and improved reference genomes databases.

Aim: To understand the impact of influenza/RSV co-infection on clinical disease severity among COVID-19 patients. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of publications comparing the clinical severity between the co-infection group (i.e., influenza/RSV with SARS-CoV-2) and mono-infection group (i.e., SARS-CoV-2), using the following four outcomes: need or use of supplemental oxygen, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation and deaths. We summarized the results by clinical outcome and conducted random-effect meta-analyses, where applicable. Results: Twelve studies reporting a total of 7862 COVID-19 patients were included in the review. Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection was found to be associated with a higher risk of ICU admission (5 studies, OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.64-2.68) and mechanical ventilation (5 studies, OR: 2.31, 95% CI: 1.10-4.85). No significant association was found between influenza co-infection and need/use of supplemental oxygen or deaths among COVID-19 patients (4 studies, OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.37-2.95; 11 studies, OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 0.65-3.08, respectively). For RSV co-infection, data were only sufficient to allow for analyses for the outcome of deaths, and no significant association was found between RSV co-infection and deaths among COVID-19 patients (3 studies, OR: 5.27, 95% CI: 0.58-47.87). Conclusions: Existing evidence suggests that co-infection with influenza might be associated with a 2-fold increase in the risk for ICU admission and for mechanical ventilation among COVID-19 patients whereas evidence is limited on the role of RSV co-infection. Co-infection with influenza does not increase the risk of death in COVID-19 patients.

The hide, larder and carpet beetles (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) are a family of mainly scavenger beetles, with numerous species such as the khapra beetle , the black carpet beetle and the hide beetle, being widely recognised as serious economic pests of stored products and museum collections. In this study we examined and sequenced mitochondrial genomes of 477 dermestid specimens, representing all subfamilies and 90% of tribes and subtribes. Our study provides the most comprehensive, taxonomically verified and vouchered resource of mitochondrial reference sequences and occurrence records of pests and their relatives, enabling eDNA surveys, metabarcoding and molecular species identification. It also reconstructs the phylogeny of Dermestidae based on molecular and morphological data for the first time, thereby providing robust phylogenetic hypotheses for a stable classification system from family to genus-level. Accordingly, a revised classification of Dermestidae with formal nomenclatural changes is proposed, recognising six subfamilies: Orphilinae, Trinodinae, Trogoparvinae subfam. nov. (type genus Trogoparvus Háva, 2001), Dermestinae, Attageninae and Megatominae. Attageninae is strongly supported and includes the monogeneric Adelaidiini and polygenic Attagenini. Former subgenera of Attagenus Latreille are elevated to generic level. The largest clade, Megatominae, is confirmed as monophyletic and is divided into three tribes. Megatomini is divided into three subtribes: Megatomina, Orphinina subtribe nov. and Trogodermina. Within the economically important lineage Trogodermina, Trogoderma is delimited to contain Holarctic species including the Khapra beetle T. granarium, while a Southern Hemisphere clade is here recognised as Eurhopalus Solier in Gay. A revised classification of the extant genera of Dermestidae is also provided.

The α-Klotho is an anti-aging protein that when overexpressed extends the life span in humans and mice. It has an anti-inflammatory and protective action on renal cells by inhibiting NF-κB activation and production of inflammatory cytokines in response to TNF-α. Furthermore, studies have shown the neuroprotective effect of α- α-Klotho against neuroinflammation on different conditions, such as aging, animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, and ischemic brain injury. This work aimed to evaluate the effects of α- α-Klotho protein on primary glial cell culture against the proinflammatory challenge with LPS and how this could interfere in neuronal health. Cortical mixed glial cells and purified astrocytes were pretreated with α- α-Klotho and stimulated with LPS followed by TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ levels and NF-κB activity analysis. Conditioned medium from cortical mixed glia culture treated with LPS (glia conditioned medium (GCM) was used to induce neuronal death of primary cortical neuronal culture and evaluate if GCM-KL (GCM-KL: medium from glia culture pretreated with α- α-Klotho followed by LPS stimulation) can reverse this effect. LPS treatment in glial cells induced an increase in proinflammatory mediators such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ, and activation of astrocyte NF-κB. GCM treated-cortical neuronal culture induced a concentration-dependent neuronal death. Pretreatment with α-Klotho decreased TNF-α and IL-6 production, revert NF-κB activation and blocked neuronal death induced by GCM. These data suggest an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effect of α-Klotho protein in the CNS. This work demonstrated the therapeutic potential of α-Klotho in pathological processes which envolve a neuroinflammatory component.

Ecological and geomorphic theory assume longitudinal connectivity; we test whether these concepts apply in a naturally disconnected stream network with mainstem lakes and coarse glacial legacy sediment. We determined downstream hydraulic geometry relationships for channel width and inventoried riparian vegetation in each new process-domain (rapids, slow-flowing, lakes) along a continuous ~10 km segment in two catchments in northern Sweden. Hydraulic geometry relationships for width were very weak, indicating that although channel width does increase in the downstream direction, there is very large local variation in width, within and among process domains. Riparian vegetation richness did not increase markedly downstream as expected in a connected stream network, and there are very weak relationships between riparian vegetation composition similarity among reaches and distance between reaches, indicating that hydrochory plays a minor role plays in metacommunity organization. Formerly continentally-glaciated catchments are thus highly fragmented and local factors steer geomorphic form and biotic organization.

Community dynamics are governed by two opposed processes: species sorting, which produces deterministic dynamics leading to an equilibrium state, and ecological drift, which produces stochastic dynamics. Despite a great deal of theoretical and observational work aiming to demonstrate the predominance of one or the other of these processes, experimental work remains rare. Here we present the results of a basic community dynamics experiment using floating aquatic plants, designed to measure the relative contributions of species sorting and ecological drift to community change over about a dozen generations. We found that species sorting became overwhelmingly dominant as the experiment progressed, and directed communities towards a stable equilibrium state maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection. The dynamics of any particular species depended on how far its initial frequency was from its equilibrium frequency, however, and consequently the balance of sorting and drift varied among species.

Objectives: Echocardiographic assessment of Left ventricular systolic function is traditionally being performed by estimation of fractional shortening and Ejection fraction. Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is a promising tool for assessment of myocardial function. The aim of this study is to evaluate the global longitudinal strain (GLS) using 2D-STE in healthy neonates to establish normal reference ranges. Method: it is a retrospective study through an analysis of transthoracic echocardiogram of normal healthy neonates. We enrolled all neonates in our institution from 1 st January 2021 to 28 th February 2021. 2-D STE was used to assess left ventricular global longitudinal strain from the apical views. Results: 185 neonates were enrolled. Mean value for left ventricle GLS (%) was -19.9 ± 1.2, GLS-derived ejection fraction (%) was 60.0 ± 2.7; while the left ventricle ejection fraction by biplane Simpson’s method (%) was 61.0 ± 3. There is a good positive correlation between the Left Ventricle EF by biplane Simpson’s method and EF by 2-D STE, which was statistically significant ( r = 0.294,  n = 102,  p=0.003). Apical 4-chamber longitudinal strain and strain derived EF is significantly correlated with GLS and bi-plan EF respectively. Conclusion: 2-STE is feasible technique for analyzing newborn myocardial systolic function. The normal range of GLS in neonates is not much different than reported for the pediatric. There is a good positive correlation between the Left Ventricle EF by 2-D STE and EF by biplane method.

Yolk sac tumor, also known as endodermal sinus tumor, is a malignant germ cell tumor that usually affects children aged >3 years. It is commonly observed in the gonadal sites but is extremely rare in the mandibular regions. This study describes the anesthesia process for spontaneous ventilation bronchoscope

Anung Ahadi Pradana1Department of Gerontology Nursing, STIKes Mitra Keluarga-IndonesiaEmail: ahadianung@gmail.comAbstractThe increase in the elderly population in Indonesia and the aging process that occurs in the elderly group can bring negative consequences in the form of negative stigma. The negative stigma of aging is a perception that is internalized and becomes the basis for interactions in society and is known to cause discrimination, increase dependence on family and decrease productivity of the elderly in social life. This paper aims to examine the effects of the negative stigma of aging on the lives of the elderly in society. The search method used by the author is a narrative study of several scientific articles obtained in 2016-2021 from several databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCO, and CINAHL. The article search was conducted using several keywords such as “ageism”, “older adults”, “elderly”, “negative stigma”, and “aging process”. Articles were selected based on inclusion criteria which included: 1) articles written in both Indonesian and English, 2) articles were original research, 3) the population/sample in the articles were the elderly group, and 4) articles explained the negative stigma experienced by the elderly. The negative stigma of aging that is internalized in society can cause a decrease in the productivity of the elderly group in carrying out existing activities, other things that can occur include discrimination, social isolation, declining health conditions, increasing dependence of the elderly on relatives, the emergence of anti-aging movements and economic burden that must be borne by the community. Negative stigma that occurs can be prevented through the active role of all community members in 3 ways, namely: strengthening elderly-friendly policies, providing education related to the aging process for the community, and increasing inter-generational contact activities in the community. The lack of research on the negative stigma of aging in Indonesia can be an entry point for further research in revealing the image of stigma in community, public perceptions and understanding, and the effects of other evidence-based interventions that can affect the occurrence of negative stigma of aging in Indonesia.Keywords: Elderly, Aging process, Negative stigma, Narrative study

The arms race between humans and pathogens drives the evolution of the human genome. Here, based on the HPO (Human Phenotype Ontology) annotation, we focused on human genes related to recurrent infections of virus, (RVI), bacterial (RBI) and recurrent fungal infections (RFI) to understand positive selection on pathogen-responsive genes. Interestingly, cross-species positive selection analyses revealed that the proportion of unique genes under positive selection was higher for RVI (78.57%) than for RFI (57.14%) and RBI (58.68%). Based on results of the branch-site test, we further focused on the amino acid site Val129 of IRF9, which has a significant signal of positive selection based on multiple evidence. Interestingly, this novel and derived amino acid (V) has been rapidly fixed before the “out-of-Africa” event ~500,000 years ago from the ancestral state S, which is conserved among 88.5% of mammalian lineages. Phosphorylation analysis revealed that the conserved ancestral S may serve as the phosphorylation site of IRF9. Further analyses suggested that the rapid dephosphorylation of IRF9 via the change of S to V may have conferred potential molecular adaptations by boosting and extending the immune activity of IRF9. This study provides an interesting mode in which strong positive Darwinian selection drives the rapid fixation of a hominin specific amino acid leading to molecular adaptation for immune response.

The wild silkmoth genus Samia Hübner, 1819 (Saturniidae) contains a number of economically important species in industrial silk production. However, the interspecific relationships within the genus remain unclear. We sequence the mitogenomes of Samia watsoni Oberthür, 1914 and Samia wangi Naumann & Peigler, 2001. Both mitogenomes are annotated and found to be cyclized, with 37 genes (13 PCGs, 2 rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes). Using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, we analyze these mitogenomes together with a further 68 downloaded from GenBank (65 Bombycoidea and 5 Lasiocampidae as the outgroup) to investigate both the phylogenetic relationships both within the genus and those among the three families of the ‘SBS’ group: Bombycidae, Saturniidae and Sphingidae. The results show that within Samia, S. ricini is closely related to S. canningi, and not S. cynthia of which it has been considered a subspecies. Although arguments have been proposed to treat S. ricini and S. canningi as conspecific, we choose to accept the morphological arguments and continue to treat them as two separate species. Samia watsoni is corroborated as the sister group of all other Samia species, but nevertheless should be included within Samia rather than being placed in its own monobasic genus. Our analysis recovers the following relationship among the three families of the ‘SBS’ group: (Saturniidae + (Bombycidae + Sphingidae)). This agrees with previous studies based on analysis of mitogenomes but continues to contradict the results derived from phylogenomic analysis of nuclear genomes.

Katsurao Village, one of the affected municipalities after the Fukushima nuclear accident, faced problems associated with care for older people, necessitating the need to examine the measures to deal with these issues in the affected areas.

In this short communication, I analyze cases of failed predictions for protein-protein complexes with Alphafold2, and show that they either point to erroneous annotations in the PDB or correct binding site regions.

Tuberculous aortitis is difficult to diagnose, but early treatment may limit the progression of tuberculosis aortitis, which may cause aortic stenosis or pseudoaneurysm formation if untreated. We provided antituberculous therapy on suspicion of tuberculous aortitis, despite the lack of definitive diagnosis, and obtained a favorable outcome.

Being rare, rhinosporidiosis is a chronic granulomatous disease that is characterized by polypoidal lesions of the mucous membrane and is caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi. The disease commonly affects the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx, conjunctiva and palate and its very rare in our geographical location.

Knuckle pads are benign papules, nodules, or plaques overlying joints and typically manifest at the proximal interphalangeal joints. They may be confused with other dermatologic or rheumatologic diseases. Treatment options for primary knuckle pads are limited and acquired knuckle pads typically improve with withdrawal of the offending insult.

Background Protecting the skin barrier in early infancy may prevent atopic dermatitis (AD). We investigated if daily emollient use from birth to 2 months reduced AD incidence in high risk infants at 12 months. Methods This was a single-center, two-armed, investigator-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial (NCT03871998). Term infants identified as high risk for AD (parental history of AD, asthma or allergic rhinitis) were recruited within 4 days of birth and randomised 1:1 to either twice-daily emollient application for the first 8 weeks of life (intervention group), using an emollient specifically formulated for very dry, AD-prone skin, or to standard routine skin care (control group). The primary outcome was cumulative AD incidence at 12 months. AD <6 months was diagnosed based on clinical presence of AD. The UK Working Party Diagnostic Criteria were applied when diagnosing AD between 6 and 12 months. Results 321 infants were randomised (161 intervention and 160 control), with 61 withdrawals (41 intervention, 20 control). The cumulative incidence of AD at 12 months was 32.8% in the intervention group vs. 46.4% in the control group, p = 0.036 [Relative risk (95%CI): 0.707 (0.516, 0.965)]. One infant in the intervention group was withdrawn from the study following development of a rash that had a potential relationship with the emollient. There was no significant difference in the incidence of skin infections between the intervention and control groups during the intervention period (5.0% vs. 5.7%, P>0.05). Conclusions This study has demonstrated that early initiation of daily specialized emollient use until 2 months reduces the incidence of AD in the first year of life in high-risk infants.