The usefulness of GRACE and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE/FO) data products for ocean studies remains limited in a few areas, where large earthquake-driven mass signals from the 2011 Japan earthquake and three major earthquakes in the Andaman-Sumatra area (in 2004, 2007, and 2012) obscure the vastly smaller signals of interest related to ocean dynamics. Furthermore, these signals can not be simply removed from the the GRACE/FO products via a model during post-processing, due to the large noise they introduce in the estimation of the GRACE/FO products. Here, we create a multi-earthquake model from GRACE/GRACE-Follow On data, estimating the mass changes as seen in the Center for Space Research (CSR) mascons due to the four major earthquakes mentioned. An iterative principal component analysis was used to compute piecewise linear approximations of the signals in these regions, which describe the co-seismic bias changes during the known month of each earthquake as well as post-seismic trends in local mass after/between quakes. This model is then applied as part of the estimation background field during a new iteration of CSR mascon processing designed for oceanic use, using tightened regularization to reduce noise in the near-earthquake regions. By removing the CSR-derived earthquake model and reducing month-to-month variability via the new regularization, this the resulting mascon series is more suitable for oceanic studies near Japan and Andaman Bay.

Satellite surface temperatures of São Paulo show heat islands and coolness islands due to urban form. Some planned neighborhoods have street trees, green areas, appropriate urban drainage to prevent flooding in floodplain areas, and adequate thermal comfort and ventilation conditions for urban health and human well-being. Others neighborhoods that originated irregularly within the urban grid or on the city’s outskirts suffer from extreme weather problems, such as urban heat islands and localized rainfall that cause flooding and landslides. This work investigates urban heat at the pedestrian scale in different urban forms in Paraisópolis-Morumbi region. Methods: a) Study area selection; c) Field climate data (air temperature and humidity), every 10 min (08/25/2024 to 09/14/2024); d)Quantify heat and thermal comfort by the PET (Physiological Equivalent Temperature) and UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index); e)Analysis of current and future scenarios. The maximum air temperature difference between Morumbi (area 1) and Paraisópolis (area 3) was 7.8º C in 2023 and 11,77 ºC in 2024. The difference between Favela is 12.5ºC in PET and 10ºC in UTCI. The maximum relative humidity values showed similar values, around 79%, but the minimum values differed by 14.4%. Although data collection was conducted in the winter, heat conditions can worsen during the rainy season, when temperatures in PET and UTCI can exceed 45 ºC in conditions of extreme thermal stress. The computer simulations presented the current and future scenarios in which temperatures can be cooled with the implementation of a park in the Antonico Valley (area 3).

In recent years, with the development of the open-source community, various open-source donation platforms have emerged. These platforms effectively alleviate the financial pressures faced by open-source projects through diversified funding sources and flexible donation methods. As one of the most representative open-source donation platforms, Opencollective has garnered widespread attention from both the open-source community and academia. Although Opencollective claims to provide more funding opportunities for open-source projects, the extent to which it effectively addresses the financial challenges faced by these projects remains unclear. While there have been studies on the effectiveness of traditional donation models, research on the effectiveness of emerging donation platforms such as Opencollective is still limited. Given that a large number of open-source projects are urgently seeking donations, understanding the effectiveness of donations through Opencollective is crucial for these projects. To address this gap, we have made an early step in this direction. This paper conducts a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of donations through the Opencollective, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis and identifies the following key findings: (1) Opencollective attracts a diverse group of participants, including individual donors, sponsors, contributors, and project managers, with individual donors constituting the largest group. Most donations are concentrated in the range of $5 to $10, indicating that the platform largely relies on small but frequent donations from individuals. (2) Only about 26.61% of open-source projects receive donations through Opencollective, with approximately 64.38% of these projects receiving a total donation amount of less than $50,000. The likelihood of receiving donations increases with project scale, maturity and the number of stars. Among projects that have received donations, larger projects with stronger social media promotion, greater attention and more issues are more likely to receive additional donations. (3) The positive impact of donations on project development and spend activities is significant only in the short term, with no notable long-term effects. In contrast, donations do not have a significant short-term impact on community engagement. Although the long-term effect is slightly positive, it is not statistically significant. (4) The main shortcomings of Opencollective include insufficient project management and collaboration features, inadequate user experience and interface design, high transaction fees, and a lack of transparency in fund allocation and usage. Our findings provide significant theoretical support and practical recommendations for the effectiveness of emerging donation platforms and the sustainable development of open-source projects.

Plastic bronchitis (PB) is a rare condition characterized by the formation and expectoration of cohesive endobronchial casts that mimic the shape of local airways. It is often associated with cardiothoracic surgeries and various respiratory diseases, but pediatric cases without congenital heart disease remain poorly understood. This case series reports ten pediatric patients with non-cardiac PB, successfully managed through flexible bronchoscopy. The cohort included children aged 2-12 years, with a gender distribution of 50% boys and 50% girls. Underlying conditions included asthma, allergic histories, and primary ciliary dyskinesia. Infectious causes, including Influenza A and adenovirus, were identified in three cases. Bronchial casts were extracted with flexible bronchoscopy, using a suction channel, and one patient required a repeat bronchoscopy after the installation of dornase alfa for adherent casts. Histopathological examination revealed eosinophilic casts in the majority of patients. Treatment involved inhaled corticosteroids, with some patients receiving systemic steroids. No recurrences of PB were observed during follow-up, and all patients showed resolution of symptoms. This case series highlights the successful management of non-cardiac PB in children, emphasizing the role of bronchoscopy and tailored therapies. Further research is needed to explore optimal treatment strategies and the underlying pathophysiology of PB.

Dsungaripterids are a clade of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous. Highly unusual, their affinities have proven problematic as some studies favour them as derived members of Germanodactylidae while others recover them as azhdarchoids, either at the base of the clade or nested deeper alongside Thalassodromidae. Here, following examples of recent re-evaluations of phylogenetic signals, I examine each individual character understood as evidence towards either result of dsungaripteroid phylogenetic placement. The overall results seem to lean towards an interpretation as derived germanodactylids, but several similarities with juvenile tapejarids may provide a scenario for azhdarchoid dsungaripterids.

Leaf gas exchange and evaporation are governed by the water vapor pressure gradient and resistances, including stomatal and boundary layers. Wind speed plays a critical role in modifying these processes, yet the effects of natural wind variability on photosynthesis and stomatal behavior remain understudied. We used a variable boundary layer method to simulate natural wind variability and compared its effects with constant high wind conditions, commonly employed in gas exchange research. Our results showed that angiosperms were highly sensitive to changes in wind. Grapevines benefitted from increased wind, with photosynthesis improving by 14% and stomatal conductance increasing by 20% under high wind. Wheat displayed extreme sensitivity, with stomatal conductance increasing by 15% as wind intensified and decreasing similarly as it weakened, driven by mechanical interactions between guard and epidermal cells. In banana, stomatal conductance under constant high wind was 36% lower than under variable wind. In contrast, gymnosperms and ferns exhibited minimal responses, maintaining stable gas exchange due to structural adaptations like sunken stomata and limited guard-epidermal cell interactions. These findings emphasize the need to incorporate realistic wind dynamics in gas exchange studies. Ignoring wind variability can lead to inaccurate measurements, especially in sensitive angiosperms, and misinterpretation of their physiological performance.

Soccer fans often prefer watching summaries of football games due to the significant time commitment required to view an entire match. Traditional manual methods for analyzing and extracting exciting clips are tedious and time consuming. Therefore, automate the process of video analysis and summarization is crucial. This paper presents a novel approach for automated soccer video summarization by classifying soccer events: card, corner, foul, and freekick. We implemented an empirical analysis of a hybrid Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) architecture. The proposed CNN-GRU model achieved an outstanding accuracy of 99.3% and a validation accuracy of 95.18%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in automated the extraction of important soccer events, offering significant improvements in efficiency and accuracy over traditional methods. This work has broad applications in sports video analysis and accurate generation of game highlights.

Title page

In this paper, the non-fragile sliding mode control (SMC) problem is discussed for discrete-time T-S fuzzy singular systems (TSFSSs) by employing a previewable approach. Firstly, an augmented system incorporating the tracking error and preview information is formulated based on lengthes of preview information. Secondly, a fuzzy non-fragile sliding mode surface (SMS) is established for augmented error system based on both additive and multiplicative perturbations, and the sufficient conditions for sliding mode dynamics to be H ∞ admissibility are derived by designing suitable Lyapunov functionals. Then, a non-fragile preview SMC law is determined to ensure that the reachability condition is met. Finally, the example is offered to demonstrate that the given preview SMC law can substantially improve the tracking performance of the original output.

The incentive mechanism in federated learning is a critical area for research. Establishing a fair system to incentivise data owners to share useful data is required to encourage all data owners to actively contribute their data for model training. An effective incentive system allows all participants to efficiently train models continuously, leading to improved accuracy of the final trained federated model. This paper introduces a novel algorithm for optimising the incentive mechanism. First, clients with high-quality data are able to participate in training based on their reputation value. Next, to improve the effectiveness of local training and address the issue of performance disparity among clients, the client entrusts the high-performance fog node with the training of local data by auctioning local training assignments to it. Finally, malicious clients are eliminated from the local gradient by the global gradient aggregation algorithm. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm performs more effectively than existing algorithms.

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a chronic granulomatous disease affecting the skin and mucous membranes. It is caused by an obligate intracellular protozoan of the genus Leishmania, transmitted through the bite of a female sandfly of the genus Phlebotomus or Lutzomyia. The host immune response plays a crucial role in the development of the clinical form of the disease. An imbalance favoring Th1 and Th17 responses promotes localized cutaneous or mucosal forms, whereas a Th2 response is associated with generalized forms, such as disseminated or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis. Currently, medical treatment remains based on pentavalent antimonial compounds, which induce host toxicity, underscoring the need to explore new therapeutic options.

This study uses a mathematical model based on the temporally relaxed theory of Fick’s law to describe the one-dimensional (1D) non-Fickian transport of solutes in a layered heterogeneous porous medium. The methodology introduces two relaxation times to accurately consider solute particle collisions and attachment, resulting in the development of new advection-dispersion equations (ADEs) for each layer. In this scenario, it is assumed that each layer of the porous medium is initially contaminated by a background source. Additionally, we are taking into account a time-dependent input source located at the origin of the domain. The semi-analytical solution of the proposed model is obtained using Laplace Transform Techniques and a numerical inversion of the transformation. All graphic plots are obtained using MATLAB software. The results show that the temporally relaxed theory can reproduce the solutes transport behaviour described by the existing two-stage models, 1D equilibrium models in homogeneous and layered media. Additionally, relaxation times significantly affect the spatial distribution of solute concentration in layered media and the remediation time. This innovative approach provides a deeper insight into solute transport in layered media and its impact on groundwater contamination. It can serve as a preliminary tool for future researchers studying decaying solute migration such as radionuclides in groundwater and their impact on water quality.

Transcatheter Sinus Venosus ASD Closure. A case series of first ever transcatheter closure of the defect in PakistanDr Muhammad Waleed BabarAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanMail ID: babarov786@gmail.comDr Saima RafiqueAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanKhurram AkhtarAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanMaimoona SaeedAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanAmjad MehmoodAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanAbubakar SadiqAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanAzizullahAFIC/NIHD, Rawalpindi, PakistanKey Clinical Message:This case series highlights three cases of first ever transcatheter sinus venosus closure in Pakistan, giving detailed insight to the procedure performed. It underscores the importance of the fact that transcatheter closure of this defect can easily be achieved, significantly reducing patient’s morbidity as opposed to open heart surgery.Introduction:Sinus venosus atrial septal defect is a congenital anomaly which results from abnormal communication between both the atria and is always associated with partial anomalous pulmonary venous return. This defect is surgically closed using patch closure and relocating the pulmonary veins to the left atrium (LA). Transcatheter closure has been achieved through placement of a covered stent in the SVC1 . In 2013, Abdullah et al 2 described an innovative technique successfully used in 4 patients, where covered balloon-expandable stents were deployed across the superior cava–right atrial junction, replacing the deficient posterior wall and redirecting flow from the RPVs to the left atrium. Subsequently, there have been several case reports and small series 3,4,5 describing the application of this approach. We report first ever transcatheter sinus venosus atrial septal defect closure in the the country. These novel procedures were performed with the assistance of a foreign proctor at the Armed forces institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.Case no 1:Case History and Examination:The first case was a 30 year old male. He presented with left sided chest pain along with exertional dyspnea. He underwent 2D as well as transthoracic echocardiography which showed sinus venosus ASD with the right upper pulmonary veins draining into the SVC-RA junction while the rest of the veins draining normally into the left atrium. His cath data showed a Qp:Qs 1.5:1 and PVR 1.4 wum2 . CT angiography was done which revealed sinus venosus defect with the anomalous venous drainage.(Figure 1)

Afforestation is an effective approach to rehabilitating degraded ecosystems, but its implementation often causes standing forest soil microbial communities to fluctuate. It is unknown how changes deep and forest ages (chronosequence) affect soil microbial diversity and assembly, hindering our ability to understand the sustainability of rehabilitated ecosystems. To address this issue, we focused on acquiring biophysical data from a chronosequence of Robinia pseudoacacia plantations of 10 to 50 years old in the exploration of soil microbial (bacterial and fungal) community dynamics associated with variations in species diversity and assembly. Results showed that soil depth effects bacterial, but not fungal diversity, the bacterial diversity was significantly higher in the topsoil than subsoil, while fungal diversity did not differ between the two soil layers. The composition of both bacterial and fungal communities (at the phylum level) was significantly influenced by soil layer and forest age. The assembly processes of soil bacterial and fungal communities were predominantly driven by deterministic processes (homogeneous selection). However, with the increase of forest age, the βNTI values for bacterial communities significantly decreased in both soil layer, but the βNTI values of fungal communities significantly increased in the topsoil. Soil carbon composition (i.e., particulate organic carbon, easily oxidizable organic carbon) were the main factors regulating the variation of soil bacterial and fungal assembly processes among different forest ages. Network analysis showed that the network structure of bacteria in the subsoil were more complex than in the topsoil, whereas no significant structural differences were observed in the fungal networks between the two soil layers. Additionally, study highlights that soil organic carbon (SOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), easily oxidizable organic carbon (EOC), and total nitrogen (TN) are key factors influencing microbial community composition, co-occurrence network, and assembly processes in different soil layers. Our study demonstrated the importance of soil carbon composition in the assembly of forest soil microbial community. These findings offer valuable insights for future research on deep soil microbial diversity and forest ecosystem succession, particularly in ecologically fragile regions.

To the editor,

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Asthma in children is a global epidemic that causes various medical conditions associated with an increased incidence of premature death. This study aims to examine the trends in asthma incidence, prevalence, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and mortality among children, alongside identifying risk factors associated with asthma-related deaths and DALYs, over the period from 1990 to 2021. METHODS:A cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing data from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2021, encompassing 204 countries and territories. The analysis included children aged 0 to 14 years diagnosed with asthma. Data analysis was performed between October 1, 2024, and December 30, 2024. The primary outcomes included incidence, prevalence, all-cause and cause-specific mortality, DALYs, and the corresponding estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs). These trends were further stratified by region, country, age, sex, and Sociodemographic Index (SDI). RESULTS: Between 1990 and 2005, there was an overall decline in the global incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rates of childhood asthma. However, from 2005 to 2010, these rates experienced an upward trend. Following 2010, the incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life expectancy of childhood asthma resumed a downward trajectory. Throughout the period from 1990 to 2021, both the number of deaths and the mortality rate associated with childhood asthma consistently decreased. Over the past two decades, among the five Socio-Demographic Index (SDI) regions, the high SDI region has generally shown a more pronounced increase in incidence, prevalence, and DALY rates, while concurrently experiencing a greater reduction in mortality rates.

In the rapidly expanding domain of multimodal data, the field of emotion analysis has advanced through the sophisticated integration of diverse informational modalities. This study introduces the CIME model: Contextual Interaction-Based Multimodal Emotion Analysis with Enhanced Semantic Information. This innovative spatiotemporal interaction network model utilizes enhanced semantic information to elevate the accuracy and robustness of emotion analysis across both semantic and contextual dimensions. The model incorporates attention mechanisms and graph convolutional networks to enrich textual semantic comprehension through a cross-attention-based semantic interaction module and to delineate the contextual relationships among speakers via a graph convolution-based spatial interaction module. These enhancements enable the model to effectively mine the latent associations within multimodal emotional data. Through extensive evaluations on public datasets such as IEMOCAP and MOSEI, the proposed CIME model demonstrates superior performance in multimodal emotion classification tasks compared to existing methods. Further, modality ablation studies and comparative analysis of various fusion strategies affirm the model’s effectiveness and adaptability, providing new insights and methodologies for advancing the field of multimodal emotion analysis. Code supporting this study is available at https://github.com/gcp666/CIME.

Sexual dimorphism is intriguing because it suggests that males and females differ in phenotypic optima for traits and that sex-specific trait values can evolve despite a shared genome. Differences in sexual dimorphism across populations or species suggest that the nature of sexual selection and/or genetic constraints differs among species. Here, we measured sexual dimorphism in 20 species of North American killifish (Fundulidae) in size and shape of dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. We observed profound sexual dimorphism in anal and dorsal fin size and shape across all species, suggesting a common direction of selection. Sexual dimorphism was also present in caudal fin size and shape but was much lower in magnitude, with several species not differing from a null expectation of zero. There was little evidence for a phylogenetic signal in the levels of sexual dimorphism in dorsal and anal fin traits. We also found a strong phylogenetic correlation between sexual dimorphism in anal and dorsal fin shape but no phylogenetic correlation between fin area, base length, or ray length across different fins. Our results indicate that there is pronounced sexual dimorphism in anal and dorsal fin size and shape across fundulids. Similar patterns of sexual dimorphism in anal and dorsal fin properties have been documented in other groups, including gars, bichirs, graylings, minnows, and many species in the Atherinomorpha, suggesting that this pattern may be common across Actinopterygii.

Introduction:Mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa (MAIVF) is a fibrous tissue among the aortic valve noncoronary cusp, the adjacent left coronary cusp, and the anterior mitral leaflet (1). The pericardium roofs it and is inferiorly enclosed with the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) (2). This area has been shown to be comparatively avascular. Accordingly, the injuries from infection/trauma lead to various abnormalities, including pseudoaneurysms and abscesses (3). When a dehiscence happens in this region, a sac is formed among the aortic and mitral valves. A pseudoaneurysm of the mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa (P-MAIVF) can be generated by the communication of the sac and LVOT (4). P-MAIVF can be rarely seen; however, mortality is possible. P-MAIVF causes are improper endocarditis, aortic valve surgery, congenital reasons, and blunt chest injuries (5). Among these causes, blunt chest trauma is extremely rare. Here, we have, for the first time, reported late complications of a case of blunt chest wall trauma-induced P-MAIVF.Case History/examination:A 32-year-old man was referred to our clinic following a chest wall injury due to a motorcycle accident because of to-and-fro heart murmurs that prompted more cardiovascular evaluations. He was asymptomatic, and physical examinations were normal except for the mentioned murmur.

A document by Rishita Verma. Click on the document to view its contents.

The current research investigates the effect of reinforcing magnesium oxide nanoparticles (n-MgO) on the physico-chemical, mechanical, and cellular activities of our previously developed three-dimensional printed sodium alginate (SA)/silk fibroin (SF)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/nano-hydroxyapatite (HA) composite scaffold with optimized composition containing SA/SF:70:30 (v/v) with 3wt% PVA tri-polymer ratio and 1.5wt% n-HA designated as SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5 proven to be a suitable matrix for bone tissue engineering application. The chemically synthesized n-MgO was incorporated at two different concentrations of 0.5 wt% and 1 wt% into the SA/SF/PVA/n-HA solution and the resulting composite bioinks were used to fabricate 3D printed scaffolds as SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5/n-MgO 0.5 and SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5/n-MgO 1. The scaffolds possess a microfibrous interconnected porous network with desired pore sizes ranging from 384±74µm and 362±57µm. The tensile strength measuring 4.09±1.13 MPa and 5.08±1.14 MPa for SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5/n-MgO 0.5 and SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5/n-MgO 1 was enhanced upon reinforcing n-MgO matching with the mechanical strength of a cancellous bone and suitable for bone tissue regeneration under the load condition. In-vitro cell studies performed with HOS cells have shown the cytocompatible properties of the SA 70/SF 30/PVA 3/n-HA 1.5/n-MgO 1 scaffold. The up-regulation of ALP activity indicated that the scaffold might support superior osteoblast function and differentiation.

Phagocytic cells ingest bacteria and kill them in phagosomes. A variety of molecular mechanisms allow killing and destruction of bacteria in phagosomes, but their complete list and relative importance remain poorly defined. Here we have used D. discoideum amoebae as model phagocytic cells. Our results reveal that PldX, a luminal phospholipase D, plays an important role in the phagosomal destruction of ingested bacteria. Analysis of bacterial destruction in wild-type and pldX KO living cells suggests that PldX participates in the permeabilization of the bacterial membrane. The bacteriolytic activity of D. discoideum extracts was also measured in vitro: extracts from pldX KO cells exhibit significantly less bacteriolytic activity than wild-type cells, confirming the role of PldX in the lysis of bacterial membranes. These results identify luminal phospholipase D as a major player in the permeabilization of bacterial membranes in phagosomes.

Extranodal Gingival Lymphoma Presenting as Tumor Thrombus-Associated Deep Vein Thrombosis: A Unique CaseTajana Juranovic, Kamran Amir S, Stephanie Wright, Ahmed A Khalid

While honey bees play a vital role in global crop production, they face increasing exposure to xenobiotic chemicals during commercial pollination. Multidrug-resistance (MDR)-type ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters provide the first line of defense against xenobiotic chemicals and are upregulated in resistant pest organisms. While previous studies in bees have focused on the role of metabolic enzymes in insect detoxification, the presence and function of ABC transporters across the hive caste system remains largely unexplored. This study investigated the gene expression profiles of 12 ABC transporters known to be involved in chemical detoxification in arthropods across ten honey bee castes and life stages using quantitative real-time PCR. Protein homology to known MDR transporters in humans and Drosophila was inferred from BLAST and through phylogenetic analysis. Seven ABC genes that showed increased gene expression during worker bee development were identified as MDR-like transporters (AmeABCB1, AmeABCB6, AmeABCC1, AmeABCC4a-c, AmeABCG1); and their expression levels were further investigated in reproductive caste members (drone larvae, adult drones, queen ovaries, and queens). Significant variations were observed in defense gene expression among all castes suggesting reduced chemical defense capabilities in queens as evidenced by a dramatically reduced expression of five MDR-like transporter genes in queen bees relative to worker eggs: ABCB1 (4-fold), ABCC1 (2-fold), ABCC4a (2-fold), ABCC4b (3-fold), and ABCC4c (2-fold). Although our findings suggest that drones and queens are more vulnerable to direct xenobiotic exposure compared to workers, further research is required to better understand the different hive members’ responses to chemical threats.