It is widely recognized that multi-year drought can induce changes in catchment hydrological behaviors. However, at present, our understanding about multi-year, drought-induced changes in catchment hydrological behaviors and its driving factors at the process level is still very limited. This study proposed a new approach using a data assimilation technique with a process-based hydrological model to detect multi-year drought-induced changes in catchment hydrological behaviors and to identify driving factors for the changes in an unimpaired Australian catchment (Wee Jasper) which experienced prolonged drought from 1997 to 2009. Modelling experiments demonstrated that the multi-year drought caused a significant change in the catchment rainfall-runoff relationship, indicated by significant step changes in the estimated time-variant hydrological parameters SC (indicating catchment active water storage capacity) and C (reflecting catchment evapotranspiration dynamics), whose average values increased 23.4% and 10.2%, respectively, due to drought. The change in the rainfall-runoff relationship identified by the data assimilation method is consistent with that arrived at by a statistical examination. The proposed method provides insights about the drivers of the changes in the rainfall-runoff relationship at the processes level. Declining groundwater and deep soil moisture depleted by persistent evapotranspiration of deep-rooted woody vegetation during drought are the main driving factors for the catchment behaviors change in the Wee Jasper catchment. The new method proposed in this study was found to be an effective technique for detecting both the change of hydrological behaviors induced by prolonged drought and its driving factors at the process level.

Introduction: Lung cancer is the most important cause of cancer related deaths across the world. The aim of the study is to find key genes and enriched pathways associated with lung cancer using bioinformatics and statistical techniques, hence providing potential targets for the identification and treatment of the cancer. Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) data of 54674 genes based on stage, tumor and status of the lung cancer was taken from 66 patients of African American (AAs) origin. 2392 DEGs were found based on stage, 13502 DEGs were found based on tumor, 2927 DEGs were found based on status having p value (p<0.05). Results: Total 33 common DEGs were found from stage, tumor and status of lung cancer patients. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis is performed and 49 significant pathways were obtained, out of which 10 pathways were found that were exclusively involved in lung cancer development. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis found 69 nodes and 324 edges and identified 10 hub genes based on their highest degrees. Additionally, module analysis of PPI found that ‘Viral carcinogenesis’, ‘pathways in cancer’, ‘notch signaling pathway’, ‘AMPK signaling pathways’ had close association with lung cancer. Conclusion: it is seen that these identified DEGs do not directly participate in growth of lung cancer but regulate other genes which play important role in growth of lung cancer. The key genes and enriched pathways identified can thus help in better identification and prediction of lung cancer.

Social life and isolation pose a complex suite of challenges to organisms prompting significant changes in neural state. However, plasticity in how brains respond to social challenges remains largely unexplored. The fire ants Solenopsis invicta provide an ideal scenario for examining this. Fire ant queens may found colonies individually or in groups of up to 30 queens. Here, we artificially manipulated availability of nesting sites to test how the brain responds to social vs. solitary colony founding at two key timepoints, and to group size. The difference between group and single founding queens involves only 1 gene when behaviour is still plastic and queens can switch from one modality to another, while hundreds of genes are involved once behaviours are more canalized. Furthermore, we show that large groups lead to greater changes in gene expression than small groups, perhaps due to higher cognitive demands of a more complex social environment.

Antheraea proylei J, is an economically important silkworm of North Eastern region of India reared for the production of the tasar silk. The silkworm is often exposed to various microbial diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. The disease causes significant damage to larvae and elicit pupal mortality, thus posing a serious threat to the linked economic activities. The gut microbiome of silkworms play an important role, in nutrient acquisition and immunity. In this study, we have reported molecular characterization and histopathological assessment of gut associated bacteria of healthy and diseased tasar silkworms. As compared to healthy silkworms, diseased infected silk glands shows loss of turbidity, secretory layer not distinguishable to tunica propria and lumen distorted. Both secretory and absorptive cells were found to be hypertrophied. Body fat becomes vacuolated and soft when compared to the healthy silkworms. Bacterial profile of healthy and diseased silkworm respectively was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis. Bacillus toyonensis and Bacillus thuringiensis were commonly found in healthy larvae whereas Bacillus aryabhattai and Bacillus megaterium were found in diseased larvae. The family Bacillus of phylum Firmicutes was dominant in both healthy and diseased silkworms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study A. proylei midgut microbiota from a biodiversity hotspot in North Eastern India. The present study might be helpful in disease prognosis and further comprehensive analysis on midgut microflora may lead towards the development of effective strategies for management of these economic silkworms.

In a polymorphic species, stable differences in resource use are expected among ecotypes, and homogeneity in resource use is predicted within an ecotype. Yet, using a broad resource spectrum has been identified as a strategy for fishes living in unproductive northern environments, where food is patchily distributed and ephemeral. We investigated whether individual specialization of trophic resources occurred within the generalist piscivore ecotype of lake trout from Great Bear Lake, Canada, reflective of a form of diversity. Four distinct dietary patterns of resource use within the lake trout ecotype were detected from fatty acid composition, with some variation linked to spatial patterns within Great Bear Lake. Feeding habits of different groups within the ecotype were not associated with detectable morphological or genetic differentiation, suggesting that behavioral plasticity caused the trophic differences. A low level of genetic differentiation was detected between exceptionally large-sized individuals and other individuals. Investigating a geologically young system that displays high levels of intraspecific diversity and focusing on individual variation in diet suggested that individual trophic specialization can occur within an ecotype. The characterization of niche use among individuals, as done in this study, is necessary to understand the role that individual variation can play at the beginning of differentiation processes.

INTRODUCTION Bone presents continuous remodeling and a generous regenerative capacity compared to other tissues. Lifelong bone remodeling is responsible for skeletal development, responses to mechanical stimuli, and maintaining mineral homeostasis. Intrinsic regeneration capacity guarantees bone integrity as an injury repair process. Moderate-sized bone defects repair without the need for a graft. However, complex clinical conditions are requiring a considerable amount of bone, in which natural bone regeneration capacity is not sufficient to establish functional tissue recovery. In the case of significant bone defects created by trauma, infection, skeletal disorders, or in the treatment of tumor excision, the regeneration process becomes compromised [1].Strategies may be necessary to guide or accelerate the process, increasing bone quantity or quality [2]. There is intense research in bone bioengineering, seeking to overcome the limitations observed in non-healing defects and alternative methods to autologous bone grafts, in order to produce bone substitutes with the same properties of this gold standard [3]. Osteoconduction is the process of perivascular tissue, precursor, and osteoprogenitor cell ingrowth, from the bony bed into implanted frameworks. Osteoinduction is the induction of undifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells into osteoprogenitor cells, also at ectopic sites [4]. The combination of three-dimensional biocompatible frameworks with cells and growth factors may stimulate osteogenesis and osteoinduction, enhance the osteogenic capacity of transplanted and endogenous cells and thus, ensure better healing [5].Calvarial “non-healing” defects are useful in the preclinical study of bone repair to analyze strategies of tissue engineering in intramembranous bone formation. Some advantages of this defect are the orthotopic non-load bearing site, its reproducibility, mechanical stability, and the limited baseline healing plateau, above which the effect of cell/scaffold implant on osteogenesis is noticeable [6-9]. The application of membranes is indicated for Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR), to isolate the bone defect from other tissues, and for bone reconstruction [10]. Commercially available collagen membranes are widely used in in vivo studies, associated with ceramic implant material [11], demineralized bone matrix [3], growth factors [12], and cells [13]. The membranes covering bone defects in calvaria provided stability for ceramic tricalcium phosphate (TCP) inserted into the defect, resulting in higher bone amount and better mechanical properties [11]. The association of ceramic and membrane with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been demonstrated to favor earlier bone deposition [13]. Calvarial “non-healing” defects are effective in the preclinical study of bone repair to analyze strategies of tissue engineering in intramembranous bone formation. Some advantages of this defect is the orthotopic non-load bearing site, its reproducibility, mechanical stability, and the limited baseline healing plateau, above which the effect of cell/scaffold implant on osteogenesis is noticeable [6-10].Commercially available collagen membranes are widely used in in vivo studies, associated with ceramic implant material [11], demineralized bone matrix [3], growth factors [12] and cells [13]. The membranes covering bone defects in calvaria provided stability for TCP inserted into the defect, resulting in higher bone amount and better mechanical properties [11]. The association of ceramic and membrane with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells has been demonstrated to favor earlier bone deposition [13].Tissues that are mainly available in maternity hospitals, and often discarded, can be a reliable source of allogenous cells and collagenous matrix for bone tissue engineering applications. Importantly, umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to stimulate vascularization and bone formation in vivo [14, 15]. In addition, amniotic membranes are known to be a source of stem cells and collagenous scaffold [16, 17]. Mesenchymal stem cells from amniotic membranes can stimulate osteogenic and angiogenic differentiation of various cell sources, including, adipose-derived stem cells [18]. Moreover, amniotic membranes present great potential in clinical application [19], tissue engineering [17], and the removal of the epithelial cell layer minimizes the risks of adverse immunological responses [20, 21].Amniotic membrane association with stem cells from bone marrow [22] and adipose tissue [23, 24] demonstrated that Decellularized Human Amniotic Membrane (DAM) is an excellent cell-carrier in tissue regeneration applications. Bone and periodontal tissue engineering studies have demonstrated that DAM can provide a preferential environment for osteogenic differentiation of dental apical papilla cells, increase the expression of osteogenic marker genes, and deposition of mineralized matrix in vitro [25]. Periodontal ligament stem cells transfer onto DAM [26], and ASCs cultured on DAM [27] have been shown to stimulate periodontal regeneration in vivo . Interestingly, double-layered cell transfer technique on DAM allowed transplantation of periodontal ligaments stem cells and osteoblasts, and enhanced bone formation in calvaria when compared to single-cell type transplantation [28]. The application of amniotic membrane in calvarial defects has been found to promote more significant bone regeneration compared to defect without graft, but less than the association with ceramic material (HA) and osteoinductive factor Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) [29]. Interestingly, DAM associated with ASCs were also used successfully in a calvarial defect in rabbits [24].Studies using multipotent ASCs, since their first reports [30, 31] have demonstrated their potential as a significant source of adult stem cells in regenerative medicine. Some significant advantages of ASCs in bone engineering compared to Bone Marrow Stem Cells are the facility in harvesting, higher cellular yield, and proliferation capacity [32]. The application of the patient autologous cells from fat, transferred in order to enrich and accelerate the bone regeneration process was reported, in cranioplasties associated with TCP [33], in maxillary defect associated with titanium, TCP, BMP [34], and graft [35].Earlier studies investigating calvarial defects without cell expansion from the adipose tissue have used various materials, including fragmented adipose tissue [36, 37], Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) associated with polylactide (PLA), demineralized bone matrix (DBM) [38], and hypertrophic cartilage [39]. After isolation, ASCs were investigated as perivascular cells associated with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)/ hydroxyapatite (HA) composites [9, 40], stem cells associated with PLGA [41], stem cells associated with PLGA/HA composites [40, 42-48], stem cells associated with Whitlockite [49], with acellular collagen dermal matrix [50], with HA/TCP bioceramics and hydrogel [51], silicate bioceramic [52], and duck-beak bioceramic [53].Investigations on ASCs participation in calvarial bone defect repair have reported the occurrence of significant cell migration to the lesion site after intravenous cell administration [42], and paracrine effect of ASCs on in vitro and in vivo osteoblastic cell differentiation [47]. There was a significantly higher stimulation in cell association of immediately prepared defects, compared to cell graft with established bone defects [46]. There is considerable evidence indicating that ASCs cells may contribute to periodontal regeneration [54]. Our results demonstrated enhanced in vivobone regeneration by undifferentiated adipose-derived stromal cells loaded onto a decellularized human amniotic membrane.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be derived from several human and animal sources. According to this systematic review, the immortalization of these cells, by viral or gene transfer techniques (plasmid) and non-viral methods, are useful to ensure the reproducibility of the experiments and the prospect of using these cells in clinical studies. The resultant immortalized MSCs cells must undergo through different validation assays in order to prove their safety and phenotypic and genotypic stability; these assays include flow cytometry for specific MSC markers, trilineage differentiation, RT-PCR and qRT-PCR expression analysis for pluripotency genes, karyotype and telomere length and in vivo tumorigenicity assays.

This study aimed to differentiate human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) from the human umbilical cord in cholinergic-like cells using a natural matrix. The isolation of hMSCs from Wharton's jelly (WJ) was carried out using "explant" and mononuclear cells by density gradient. hMSCs were plated in a natural functional biopolymer matrix for the production of neurospheres. Neural precursor cells were subjected to a standard cholinergic differentiation protocol. Dissociated neurospheres, neural precursor cells, and cholinergic-like cells were characterized by immunocytochemistry. The RT-PCR was performed. hMSCs were CD73+, CD90+, CD105+, CD34- and CD45- and demonstrated the trilineage differentiation. Neurospheres and their isolated cells were nestin-positive, and also expressed NESTIN, MAP2, ßIII-TUBULIN, GFAP genes. Neural precursor cells that were differentiated in cholinergic-like cells expressed ßIII-TUBULIN protein and choline acetyltransferase enzyme. hMSCs on the natural matrix were capable of differentiating hMSC into neurospheres, obtaining neural precursor cells without growth factors or gene transfection before cholinergic differentiation.

Since the WHO defined the diffusion of novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) as pandemic, the global effort has been on finding a cure and preventing transmission. As a consequence, people are going through many psychological problems in adjusting to the current lifestyles and fear of the disease. The link between the psychological effects of quarantine and arrhythmias has been poorly explored. However it is known that sudden catastrophic events i.e. earthquake are associated with an increase in sudden cardiac deaths. Acute stress and anxiety could act as a trigger for ventricular arrhythmias, which are found to have increased significantly after an earthquake. Quarantine induced a chronic stress enforced by alarming news reports in the media. Closure of businesses increased the stress due the expected crisis after the lockdown. Stress activates both the sympathetic nervous system and the axis of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, leading to an increased risk of cardiac events. The aim of the present editorial is to analyze the potential impact of quarantine –induced stress on the development of arrhythmias.

Fe-based metal organic framework (Fe-MOFs) was used as Fenton-like catalyst in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma/Fenton-like technology to treat wastewater, which solved the iron solubility problem. It was known that the valence state of iron will affect the catalytic performance, so the Fe-source precursor of FeSO4∙7H2O was added to regulate the valence state to adjust the catalytic performance to improve the active site. The influences of discharge voltage, catalyst addition amount, H2O2 addition amount and pH on the degradation efficiency of methyl orange (MO) were systematically examined. Through free radical capture experiments, the reaction mechanism of the plasma/Fenton-like catalytic degradation process was deduced mainly as the coordinated oxidation process of hydroxyl radicals, photo-generated electron holes and superoxide radicals. The reusability experiments proved that the catalyst was stable and reusable. The possible degradation pathways were proposed based on the identification of intermediate products generated in the degradation process by LC-MS analyses.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the risk factors and the association of acute kidney injury (AKI) with outcomes, and resource utilization in patients hospitalized due to salicylate intoxication in the United States. Methods: Hospitalized patients with a primary diagnosis of salicylate intoxication from 2003 to 2014 were identified in the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. End-stage kidney disease patients were excluded. The occurrence of AKI was identified using hospital diagnosis code. Clinical characteristics, in-hospital treatment, outcomes and resource utilization were compared between patients with and without AKI. Results: A total of 13,787 eligible hospital admissions were included in the analysis. AKI occurred in 1,279 (9.3%) admissions. Older age, male sex, more recent year of hospitalization, anemia, hypertension, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, volume depletion, sepsis, and ventricular arrhythmia/cardiac arrest were significantly associated with increased risk of AKI, whereas Hispanic race was associated with decreased risk. AKI was significantly associated with increased risk of organ failure, and in-hospital mortality. In addition, the need for ventilation support, blood component transfusion, renal replacement therapy, length of hospital stay, and hospitalization cost were higher in AKI patients. Conclusion: Approximately one tenth of salicylate intoxication patients developed AKI during hospitalization. AKI was associated with higher morbidity, mortality, and resource utilizations.

Here we report different disorders associated in a single case. TMJ and neck pain, bruxism and tinnitus symptom were reported. After verifying the causes and define effects with high technology tool, therapeutic was conducted with occlusal splint DOOPE®️ and selective wear based on Neuro-Occlusal Rehabilitation getting better in all symptoms.

This case report describes a mandibular ameloblastoma with both BRAF V600E mutation and rare hypercalcemia. The patient without distant metastasis underwent subtotal mandibulectomy using double flaps of fibula and anterolateral thigh. A whole body computed tomography scan taken 69 months after surgery revealed neither recurrence nor metastasis.

Objectives. Although recent evidence suggests that management of viral bronchiolitis requires something other than guidelines-guided therapy, there is a lack of evidence supporting the economic benefits of phenotypic-guided bronchodilator therapy for treating this disease. The aim of the present study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of phenotypic-guided versus guidelines-guided bronchodilator therapy in infants with viral bronchiolitis. Methods: A decision‐analysis model was developed in order to compare the cost-effectiveness of phenotypic-guided versus guidelines-guided bronchodilator therapy in infants with viral bronchiolitis. The effectiveness parameters and costs of the model were obtained from electronic medical records. The main outcome was avoidance of hospital admission after initial care in the ED. Results: Compared to guidelines-guided strategy, treating patients with viral bronchiolitis with the phenotypic-guided bronchodilator therapy strategy was associated with lower total costs (US$250.99 vs US$263.46 average cost per patient) and a higher probability of avoidance of hospital admission (0.7902 vs 0.7638), thus leading to dominance. Results were robust to deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Compared to guidelines-guided strategy, treating infants with viral bronchiolitis using the phenotypic-guided bronchodilator therapy strategy is a more cost-effective strategy, because it involves a lower probability of hospital admission at lower total treatment costs.

In this paper, we consider a one-dimensional porous thermoelastic system with microtemperatures effects and past history term acting only on the porous equation. We show that the system is well-posed in the sens of semigroup and based on the energy method we establish a general decay result for the solutions of the system under an appropriate assumptions on the kernel. Furthermore, our result depends on the stability number that was first considered in [25]. The result of this paper improves some results in the literature.

Restoring river connectivity is a global conservation priority but quantifying river fragmentation has proved difficult due to the paucity of good barrier records, duplicate entries, and other sources of biases. Here we present some tools to help overcome some of these challenges and illustrate their application with case studies drawn across different spatial scales. We begin by proposing a classification of artificial instream barriers that harmonises disparate barrier types into six functional types, and present a binary classification key for ease of use. We then introduce a method for excluding duplicate barrier records that retains most genuine barriers and illustrate its practical use. Sampling bias is a pervasive problem in barrier inventories and we show how to detect and correct for it via bootstrapping of data obtained from standardised field surveys, ad-hoc records provided by citizens, and modelling. Finally, we show how to assess fragmentation when barriers cannot be aligned with the river network, and how to estimate barrier impacts from barrier height and when information on barrier passability or permeability is not known. Collectively, our toolbox will help generate more realistic estimates of river fragmentation and help inform more efficient restoration of river connectivity. 

In this paper, the hydraulic behaviour of different types of surge tanks is modelled and solved using four different types of the Finite Difference Method. Water hammer is one of the most important phenomena in hydraulic systems. Surge tank is one of the most important devices used to reduce damages of this phenomenon. Here, the equations of hydraulic behaviour of simple, orifice and closed surge tank are derived at with or without friction condition in both gradually and suddenly valve closing. The Explicit Euler, Implicit Euler, Predictor-Corrector Euler and forth order Rung-Kutta methods are used to solve these hydraulic equations and the results are presented and compared. Comparison of the results show that the value ranges of fluid level oscillation at with friction condition is smaller than those at without friction condition using all proposed methods at both suddenly and gradually valve closing. Furthermore, for all types of surge tanks' at all different considering conditions, the smallest ranges of fluid level oscillation are obtained when the Implicit Euler is used. In addition, by using Implicit Euler method the fluid level oscillation converges faster than the other methods. Moreover, fluid level oscillations are unsteady for simple and closed surge tank at without friction condition in both gradually and suddenly valve closing using Explicit Euler and Predictor-Corrector Euler. However, other obtained fluid level oscillations are steady.

This paper discusses mixed H∞and passive sliding mode control problem of uncertain Markovian jump system with one-sided Lipschitz non-linear and mode-dependent time-varying delay. The attractive point consist of the following. Firstly, by designing a suitable observer to estimate the unmeasurable state of the system. Secondly, based on a new mode-dependent Lyapunov- Krasovskii function, sufficient condition is established to ensure the stability of the closed-loop system. Thirdly, designing a suitable controller to guarantees reaches of predefined sliding mode surface. Finally, from the numerical examples, we can testify the effectiveness and less conservativeness of the theoretical method.

In this paper we introduce the notion of fundamental group for soft topological spaces. To do so, we define soft paths, soft loops and the notion of ξ-soft path homotopy, and study some of their basic properties. We also show that the fundamental group of an ε-soft topological group is commutative, and that π₁soft is a functor between the category of soft topological spaces and the category of groups.

This paper presents a novel numerical model, based on the Finite Element (FE) method, for the simulation of a welding process aimed to make a two-passes V-groove butt joint. Specifically, a particular attention has been paid on the prediction of the residual stresses and distortions caused by the welding process. At this purpose, an elasto-plastic temperature dependent material model and the “element birth and death” technique, for the simulation of the weld filler supply over the time, have been considered within this paper. The main advancement with respect to the State of the Art herein proposed concerns the development of a modelling technique able to simulate the plates interaction during the welding operation when an only plate is modelled, taking advantage of the symmetry of the joint; this phenomenon is usually neglected in such type of prediction models because of their complexity. Problems arising in the development of this modelling technique have been widely described and solved herein: transient thermal field generated by the welding process introduces several deformations inside the plates, leading to their interaction, never faced in literature. Moreover, the heat amount is supplied to the finite elements as volumetric generation of the internal energy, allowing overcoming the time-consuming calibration phase needed to use the Goldak’s model, commonly adopted in literature. The proposed FE modelling technique has been established against an experimental test, with regard to the temperatures field and to the joint distortion. Predicted results showed a good agreement with experimental ones. Finally, the residual stresses distribution in the joint has been evaluated.

Abstract. On an initial and boundary value problem for a mixed type equation is considered. A uniqueness theorem for the solvability of this problem is shown and constructed the solution as the sum of Fourier series. The stability of the solution with respect to initial function is proved.

On an initial and boundary value problem for a mixed type equation is considered. A uniqueness theorem for the solvability of this problem is shown and constructed the solution as the sum of Fourier series. The stability of the solution with respect to initial function is proved.

We study a certain nonlocal evolution equation generalising a model introduced to explain colour patterns on a skin of the guppy fish. We prove an existence of stationary solutions using either the bifurcation theory or the Schauder fixed point theorem. We also present numerical studies of this model and show that it exhibits patterns similar to those modelled by well-known reaction-diffusion equations.

In this paper, we investigate the numerical approximation of stochastic convection-reaction-diffusion equations using two explicit exponential integrators. The stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) is driven by additive Wiener process. The approximation in space is done via a combination of the standard finite element method and the Galerkin projection method. Using the linear functional of the noise, we construct two accelerated numerical methods, which achieve higher convergence orders. In particular, we achieve convergence rates approximately $1$ for trace class noise and $\frac{1}{2}$ for space-time white noise. These convergences orders are obtained under less regularities assumptions on the nonlinear drift function than those used in the literature for stochastic reaction-diffusion equations. Numerical experiments to illustrate our theoretical results are provided