Identifying air pollutant sources and quantifying related emissions provides crucial information towards improving global air quality and public health. Emission inventories commonly used for oil and gas (OG) activities inadequately represent nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, with notable discrepancies identified in the past. Satellite remote sensing provides a unique vantage point to map and quantify several key multi-pollutant species on a routine basis across the global scale. Here, we quantify annual NOx emissions from 44 major OG basins distributed globally, utilizing TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) observations with the divergence flux method. In addition, we use the spaceborne Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) natural gas flaring detections to further constrain satellite-derived NOx emissions. The divergence flux method, which addresses 3D topography corrections and chemical loss of NOx while accounting for wind-induced flux smearing, provides a robust approach for estimating NOx emissions. Our findings reveal a substantial level of NOx emissions from individual OG facilities and major production clusters as well as flaring activity, which serve as valuable data for assessing emission inventories. Subsequently, we conducted a comparative analysis between our TROPOMI-derived NOx emissions and those obtained from the existing EDGARv6.1 and CAMS-GLOB-ANT_v5.3 global emission inventories. This evaluation underscored a noteworthy disparity, with existing inventories significantly reporting lower emissions from the OG sector relative to TROPOMIderived data. Specifically, EDGAR exhibited a substantially lower estimate of onshore emissions by 61%, and CAMS displayed an even pronounced lower estimate by 78%, compared to TROPOMI-derived data from this study. For offshore emissions, EDGAR showed a similar pattern, albeit to a lesser extent, with a 26% underestimation, while CAMS showed a considerable underestimation of 92%. These findings hold significance for enhancing global NO2 emission inventories, particularly from OG fields, and therefore address gaps in current bottom-up inventories. Additionally, our approach yields detailed spatial emission maps, enhancing granularity in depicting NOx distribution. We further explore the variations in the correlation between NOx emissions with OG production volumes and CH4 concentrations across the different OG basins in North America, shedding light on their emissions characteristics and providing insights into the observed co-locations of methane and NOx emissions from oil and gas activity. 

Seyed Shahmy1,2*, 3Sirimali Fernando, 4Sirimal Abeyratne, 2Ajith De Alwis

The risks of climate change to children have been widely discussed, but the risks of overpopulation have not been similarly scrutinised. Projections of the health and mortality rates of infants and children have largely ignored overpopulation; for example, the United Nation's projections of infant mortality to 2100 disregard the influences of rapidly increasing populations in low-and middle-income countries and a deteriorating climate. In this paper, we first summarise the evidence that a large and growing human population will increase child mortality, and compromise health and wellbeing this century. Population growth increases the pace and magnitude of climate change because the degree of climate disruption is a product of per-capita consumption and total population size. Population growth also increases overcrowding, which in turn increases local and global air pollution, disease transmission, and resource scarcity, all of which have disproportionate effects on children compared to adults. To gain insight into the potential risks that children will face this century, we analysed the United Nation's Medium and High population projections for this century to show that between 9.91 billion and 14.49 billion children will be born from 2022 to 2100, and that most (> 60%) will be born in sub-Saharan Africa and Central/South Asia (6.19 billion and 9.10 billion, 62.5% and 61.4% of all births, Medium and High projections, respectively), where malnutrition is already high and capacity lowest to increase crop yields accordingly. We then identify areas where future child mortality can be expected to be higher than current predictions. We show that the lowest-income nations with the highest population growth have the fewest resources to protect increasing numbers of children from the deteriorating climate and the risks of overcrowding. We emphasise the urgent need for appropriate, quality, free, non-coercive, familyplanning services to be universally available to allow men and women the opportunity to choose the size of their family. In summary, we provide the first evaluation of the evidence that overpopulation is already adversely affecting children and the evidence that there will be increasingly serious consequences for children if population growth continues at its current pace.

Background: Equine Coital Exanthema (ECE) is an endemic herpesvirus disease primarily affecting the external genitalia and impairing mating functions in horses. Its extremely contagious nature, latency, and subclinical features can result in outbreaks and significant economic losses. The primary transmission pathway of the disease is through mating activities; therefore, robust biosecurity measures are crucial in breeding facilities. Objectives: This study aims to determine the clinical prevalence of ECE among horses in a covering station in Türkiye from 2021 to 2024. It also aims to assess the efficacy of routine PCR implementation within ECE’s control strategies. Study design: A cross-sectional study design has been employed. Methods: Genital swab samples were collected from clinically suspected horses, which were tested for EHV-3 using real-time PCR. Animal records, clinical examination data, and PCR test results were obtained from horses at the covering station between 2021 and 2024. Results: During the 4 years (2021-2024), 9231 mating activities were carried out, and a total of 228 clinically suspected horses were tested for EHV-3 using real-time PCR. Among these 228 horses, 6 horses (2.6%) were confirmed positive for EHV-3. Main limitations: The primary weakness of this study is the failure to detect subclinical instances with PCR. Conclusions: The molecular diagnosis of ECE was reported for the first time in Türkiye. Clinical ECE instances infrequently transpired over the four-year period at the covering station. No epidemic transpired during this interval. PCR testing plays a crucial role in disease control when implemented with suitable management methods. Additional global epidemiological investigations on ECE are required.

Dietary variation among individuals and cohorts can have a major impact on how populations adapt to environmental variation. Although variation in diet between cohorts and across habitats has been well studied in many taxa that feed on few or easily observed food items, the same is not true for most birds, especially smaller generalist passerines whose feeding habits are predominantly cryptic. For these and similar species, DNA metabarcoding can be used to good effect but remains underutilised. Here we used DNA metabarcoding with next-generation sequencing to assess spatio-temporal dietary variation among age and sex cohorts of the great tit Parus major, a model species in avian ecology. We identified animal prey throughout the year, and plants in winter, across different habitat fragments, achieving sample completeness of >90% for most analyses. There was considerable variation in dietary richness and composition among seasons and years, and diet composition varied between coniferous and mixed-deciduous habitats. Invertebrate prey were more species rich in mixed-deciduous habitats than in coniferous, primarily in winter, but when plants were also included there were no differences between habitat types in species richness. “Rare” species dominated the diet accounting for 30% of prey items across all samples. In winter, first year birds consumed more invertebrate species than adults. Beech (Fagus) was also almost twice as prevalent in the diets of first years (96% vs 52% in adults). Most differences between ages and sexes seemed driven primarily by differences in rare species, which we speculate is caused by divergent foraging modes and microhabitat use. We discuss the likely mechanisms for the patterns observed, all of which suggest considerable spatio-temporal variation in diet among cohorts. Our results also highlight that understanding the role of food in driving phenological phenomena requires consideration of dietary variation over space, time and between consumers.

Modular arithmetic is a fundamental operation in cryptography, particularly in public-key cryptography algorithms like RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography. It involves multiplying two numbers and taking the remainder when divided by a modulus value. Hardware implementation of modular multiplication involves designing a digital circuit that performs the multiplication operation followed by modular reduction. The hardware implementation looks more complex due to the design complexity and resource utilization. To reduce the complexity several optimization approaches were published in which the focus is on either area or time. In large modular exponentiation operations, which are common in asymmetric key cryptography algorithms like RSA, the Montgomery modular arithmetic (MMA) technique is used to perform modular multiplication efficiently. This method minimizes the number of modular multiplications needed by breaking down the modular reduction step into several quicker and easier operations. Several implementation methods of the Montgomery algorithm were presented in the past focusing on area and time optimization. In this work, a novel parity-based Finite State Machine (FSM) approach for implementing the MMA algorithm is presented. The implementation of the proposed work is done in FPGA Zynq-7000. The performance analysis was carried out for the standard bit size of 8, 256, 512 as stated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the proposed approach shows a greater reduction in computation delay time and area utilization.

Ultra-thin, p-type conducting Nickel oxide (NiOx) thin films, obtained by room-temperature sputter deposition under an optimum ratio of Argon and Oxygen, is shown to yield a large, nearly temperature-independent, positive shift in the threshold voltage of GaN/AlGaN depletion-mode high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The resulting metal-oxide-semiconductor-HEMTs (MOSHEMTs) exhibit a low subthreshold swing of 62 mV/dec, with a low specific ON resistance of 0.37 mOhm.cm2 , a large drain-current ON-OFF ratio of ~ 108, a saturation output current of 333.11 mA/mm at a gate voltage of -0.5 V and a maximum transconductance of 135 mS/mm, whereas the gate-leakage current-density (~  10 microA /cm2) is among the lowest reported so far. The large band-gap (4 eV), yielding large valence (-1.8 eV) and conduction band (1.7 eV) offsets at the NiOx-AlGaN interface, is responsible for the suppression of gate leakage, while the small thickness of the film allows enhanced gate-control of the MOSHEMT channel. These performance metrics are highly encouraging for realization of enhancement-mode GaN/AlGaN MOSHEMTs, with a recessed gate structure.

Objective: To analyse prescribing trends for oral and transdermal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in Wales from 1996 to 2023, including predictors of discontinuation within one year of initiation. Design: Observational study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Setting: Primary and secondary care data from Wales, encompassing 86% of the population. Population: Annual HRT prescription rates from 1996 to 2023 were assessed for all women in Wales. Predictors of HRT discontinuation within one year were assessed in women aged 40–65 (n = 103,114), excluding those with oophorectomy, hysterectomy, or premature menopause. Methods: HRT prescription rates were normalised per 1000 people and categorised by HRT type, age groups, and deprivation quintiles. Predictors of discontinuation were assessed using zero-inflated negative binomial regression. Main Outcome Measures: Annual HRT prescription rates and predictors of discontinuation, including age, deprivation, time period, and HRT type. Results: From 1996 to 2023, 189,593 women were prescribed oral or transdermal HRT in Wales. Transdermal prescriptions rose exponentially post-2021, while oral prescriptions declined post-2002. Discontinuation rates followed a curvilinear trend: increasing at ages 40–43 and mid-50s onwards and decreasing in mid-40s to early 50s. Oral formats were linked to decreased discontinuation, while transdermals showed increased discontinuation. Deprivation reduced HRT prescriptions overall. Prescriptions post-2000 predicted increased discontinuation, with highest rates seen post-2021. Conclusions: Disparities in HRT prescribing patterns reflect GP and patient perceptions of safety. Women in mid-40s to early 50s, often at a natural menopause stage, adhered better, particularly to oral tablets, suggesting administration route and symptom relief influence adherence. Socioeconomic deprivation remains a barrier to HRT access. Time trends highlight the influence of widely publicised studies and media on uptake, albeit adherence has continually declined since 2001. Additional research is needed to tackle socioeconomic inequalities and assess strategies for achieving cost-effective and efficient HRT prescribing practices.

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Title Page Title- Recurrent Pandoraea pnomenusa Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections in an Immunosuppressed Child: A Rising Threat Mohanaraj Ramachandran, Akshantha Sangannavar, Divya Channegowda, Jily Joy, Dhirjanand Kumar, Prasad Narayanan, Harish Pathalingappa, Aparna Gangoli, Namita Ravikumar Authors Mohanaraj Ramachandran, Pediatric oncology, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, mohan.dr1511@gmail.com, 9971063473 Akshantha Sangannavar, Microbiology, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, akshatha.sng@gmail.com, 9591366352 Divya Channegowda, Microbiology, Neuberg Anand reference laboratory, Bengaluru- 560034, India, drdivya_c@neubergdiagnostics.com,8217345897 Jily Joy, Infection control nurse , Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India,jilyjoy.j@gmail.com, 8867226669 Dhirjanand Kumar, Central venous access, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, dhirjanand10122001@gmail.com, 6203306947 Prasad Narayanan, Medical oncology, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, prasad.narayanan@cytecare.com, 8884122456 Harish Pathalingappa, Medical oncology, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, harish.p@cytecare.com, 9871282588 Aparna Gangoli, Pathology, Cytecare hospital, Bengaluru- 560064, India, aparna.gangoli@cytecare.com, 9886707106 Namita Ravikumar, Pediatric Intensive care, MS Ramaiah Hospital, Bengaluru- 560054, India, namitu.ravi@gmail.com,8826582654

Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are linked through the reciprocal exchange of materials and organisms. Aquatic-to-terrestrial subsidies are relatively low quantity in most terrestrial ecosystems, but they can provide high contents of limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production. However, they also may carry significant contaminant loads, particularly in anthropogenically-impacted watersheds. Global change processes, including land use change, climate change, and biodiversity declines, are altering the quantity and quality of aquatic subsidies, potentially shifting the balance of costs and benefits of aquatic subsidies for terrestrial consumers. Many global change processes interact and impact both the bright and dark sides of aquatic subsidies simultaneously, highlighting the need for future integrative research that bridges ecosystem as well as disciplinary boundaries. We identify key research priorities, including increased quantification of the spatiotemporal variability in aquatic subsidies across a range of ecosystems, greater understanding of the landscape-scale extent of aquatic subsidy impact, and deeper exploration of the relative costs and benefits of aquatic subsidies for consumers.

The removal of dams, weirs or barriers to river flow, is frequently a contentious issue. This is because of the competing demands of flood protection and the ecological, social, economic and cultural health of the river. Many of the barriers are old or obsolete and there is an international drive to create ‘free-flowing rivers’ with no or fewer barriers, thereby increasing longitudinal connectivity. This has been most noticeable in North America and continental Europe, and less apparent in the UK. We explore the issues around weir removal with a case study of a lowland southern English river, the River Rother, West Sussex, in a predominantly agricultural catchment where weirs have been constructed for a variety of purposes over the last ~1000 years. The river is dominated by inputs of sand-sized sediment with very low organic matter content that is frequently stored upstream of structures. The multiplicity of stakeholders and the strong interests of the fishing and farming communities render decision-making about structure removal or modification to improve fish passage difficult. There is also the demand for potable water abstraction by the local water company which would be affected by dam removal and the potential release of the fine (mostly < 2mm dia.) sediments stored immediately upstream of the weirs. This paper subsequently explores selected issues around weir removal under the requirement of the European Water Framework Directive to achieve Good Ecological Status and explores guidance on best practice; including the decision which weirs to remove and in which order.

This paper introduces a novel image stylization method with the wireframe structure. Firstly, we divide the input image into multiple square cells of uniform size. The position of the highest and lowest points within each cell is determined and recorded by modeling the relationship between the cell height and grayscale values. Secondly, for each row of cells in the image, the highest and lowest points are sequentially connected with the highest and lower points of adjacent cells, respectively, forming an irregular wireframe envelope structure. Finally, black is filled within the envelope, producing a stylized grayscale image characterized by pronounced grayscale variations. Moreover, this method can be extended to color image stylization through color selection and filling techniques. Experimental results across various images demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of this approach. The method is simple, efficient, and capable of producing high-quality results automatically in a short time. It offers a fresh perspective on image stylization and has potential applications in areas such as 3D printing, illustration design, and blind creation.

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Genotyping-in-Thousands by sequencing emerged as a promising tool for genetic monitoring. For the past 25 years, genetic monitoring of Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus) has been conducted annually by surveying variation at microsatellite loci. Here we developed a GT-seq panel to maintain the analytical and inferential continuity of the long-term genetic monitoring program for this species. We identified 2,983 microhaplotypes in 373 individuals using nextRAD-seq from archived samples spanning 20 years using a conspecific reference genome. This dataset provided estimates of genetic diversity and temporal genetic structure across the time-series. These results were used as a baseline to test subsets of loci that effectively tracked those changes. A panel including 250 loci with higher FST and 250 loci selected randomly offered the highest power and was used for GT-seq optimization. A sex-linked marker from another study was also included for sex assignment. The optimized GT-seq panel included 284 loci. Comparisons of genotypes from those loci obtained for the same samples with nextRAD-seq and GT-seq revealed high genotype accuracy (98.3%). Estimates of genetic diversity and patterns of temporal genetic structure were similar between datasets and accuracy of sex assignment was 100%. We discuss the utility of using a conspecific genome for both loci identification and primer design in the face of reduced genetic diversity, and the importance of temporal metrics representative of ongoing genetic monitoring. The strategy used here, effectively preserved the long-term genetic monitoring while transitioning to a more efficient and cost-effective marker system.

An ecosystem engineer is an organism that creates or modifies habitats for other species. Numerous research has reported that the abundance of species in the physical structures created by ecosystem engineers—referred to as engineered habitats—is higher than in other typical habitats—referred to as non-engineered habitats—suggesting the importance of the roles ecosystem engineers play in the population demography of species utilizing engineered habitats (i.e., utilizing species). However, it remains largely unknown whether engineered habitats, in comparison to non-engineered habitats, are more suitable for the survival and growth of the utilizing species. In this study, we addressed this issue by assessing the suitability of wallow, created by Japanese sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis), as an alternative larval habitat for Rana pirica frogs and Hynobius retardatus salamanders that oviposit their eggs in the deer wallows. We compared the early life history performance (i.e., from egg to mid-larval stage) of the two amphibian species in the deer wallows and in non-engineered natural ponds. Our survey revealed that R. pirica frogs survived better in wallows than in ponds, while H. retardatus salamanders survived better in ponds than in wallows. Additionally, R. pirica frogs had a smaller size at metamorphosis and a longer time until metamorphosis in wallows than in ponds. The species-specificity (i.e., survival of frogs vs. survival of salamanders) and the trait-specificity (i.e., survival vs. growth of frogs) in the suitability of deer wallows represent the complexity of the effects of ecosystem engineers on the utilizing species. For example, the contrasting suitability of deer wallows for the survival of the two amphibian species suggests that sika deer may have distinctive effects on the population demography of the two species by creating wallows that function as refuges and ecological traps for R. pirica frogs and H. retardatus salamanders, respectively.

Background and objectives To investigate the efficacy of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence-guided laparoscopic hepatectomy for the treatment of secondary malignant liver tumors. Method Data from patients with secondary malignant liver tumors who underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy were retrospectively collected. The patients were divided into a fluorescence group (those who underwent ICG fluorescence-guided hepatectomy) and a conventional group (those who underwent hepatectomy without ICG fluorescence guidance). Surgical time, tumor clearance rate, and postoperative complications were compared between the two groups. Result Laparoscopic hepatectomy was successfully performed in all the enrolled patients. Compared to the conventional group, the fluorescence group experienced shorter surgical time (234.23 ± 74.14 vs. 291.18 ± 104.34 min), less blood loss (123.08 ± 67.75 vs. 197.06 ± 163.43), lower ALT level (420.06 ± 360.69 vs. 254.50 ± 162.29 IU/L) on the 1st or 2nd postoperative days, and wider tumor margin (all P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in the postoperative complication rate (11/26 vs. 9/17), tumor clearance rate (92.31% vs. 88.24%), or postoperative 3-month recurrence rate (2/26 vs. 1/17) between the two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusion ICG fluorescence-guided laparoscopic hepatectomy can shorten the surgical time, reduce intraoperative blood loss, and reduce the incidence of postoperative liver dysfunction in the treatment of secondary malignant liver tumors. It can also improve the tumor clearance rate and is safe and feasible for perioperative implementation.

Background: To understand the characteristics and outcomes of acute heart failure (AHF) in children with solid tumors during the treatment process, share treatment experiences, and provide management strategies for monitoring, treatment, and prevention. Methods: Five representative cases of children with solid tumors were selected to summarize the clinical features and treatment effects during the occurrence of AHF. The possible triggers and time points for the onset of AHF were analyzed, along with treatment responses and influencing factors. Results: All five cases of children with solid tumors exhibited symptoms of AHF after chemotherapy, with heart functions staging from class II to class IV. Most cases occurred during the bone marrow suppression period with a noticeable increase in heart rate. All children received oral anti-heart failure treatment and nutritional myocardial therapy. Two children with heart function class II returned to normal after oral medication; three children with heart function class IV received intravenous vasoactive agents followed by regular reinforcement in the later stage. The heart function improved in all three cases (heart function class IV), with one case returning to normal, one case with slow recovery in noncompaction cardiomyopathy gradually approaching normalcy, and one case with only mild improvement in heart function despite concurrent renal dysfunction. Conclusions: Children with solid tumors are susceptible to AHF during the bone marrow suppression period, and an increased heart rate serves as an early warning signal. Active anti-heart failure treatment is effective. Renal dysfunction emerging as a significant factor influencing poor recovery of heart function.

IntroductionNearly 40% of pediatric CNS tumors are low-grade gliomas (LGGs), a subgroup of heterogeneous, slow-growing tumors.(1) In fact, pediatric intramedullary spinal cord LGGs are very rare.(2) Recently, tumor diagnosis and prognostic evaluation, as well as therapeutic management, have been addressed by molecular profiling, which become significant for optimal patient management.(3–7) Moreover, there is recent attention on the neurotrophic tropomyosin receptor kinase (NTRK) gene alterations, NTRK is a family of genes (NTRK-1, NTRK-2, and NTRK-3) encoding for the tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK-A, TRK-B, and TRK-C).(8) NTRK gene plays a role in the growth, differentiation, and survival of neurons. (9,10)NTRK fusions have been known to be involved in many adolescent and pediatric cancers.(11) However, NTRK-2 fusion is majorly involved in pediatric patients.(12) It should be noted that only less than 1% of tumors are thought to contain NTRK fusion (13,14) and 0.55 to 2% of gliomas/neuroepithelial tumors contain NTRK.(13–18) Despite the rarity of our present case, the literature highlighted the potential clinical benefits of using targeted therapy (e.g., Larotrectinib) in tumors containing NTRK fusion.(19,20) Larotrectinib (LOXO-101) is a highly selective inhibitor of TRKA, TRKB, and TRKC administered orally.(21) Though, the efficacy of Larotrectinib has not been sufficiently defined yet.In this study, we report a case of pediatric intramedullary spinal cord low-grade gliomas with NTKA fusion, a long (fourteen-month) follow-up. Our patient provided a consent form and agreed to the publication of this report.

Background and Purpose: Asthma is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), allergic inflammation, and airway remodeling. Although recent studies showed that asthma pathophysiology involves P2X purinoceptor 4 (P2X4) activation, a potential link with chronic asthma remains to be explored. We investigated the effect of a novel P2X4 receptor antagonist BR11595 on allergen-induced airway responses in a guinea pig model of chronic asthma. Experimental Approach: Sensitized guinea pigs were exposed to saline or ovalbumin (OVA) once weekly via aerosolization for 12 weeks. BR11595 (10 mg·kg⁻¹) was injected intraperitoneally 5 times per week, for 4 different regimens: all 12 weeks, first 6 weeks, last 6 weeks, or last week only. Airway responsiveness to histamine was assessed 24h before and 6h after OVA exposure in week 1, 6 and 12. Lung tissue Inflammation and remodeling were determined 24h after the last OVA exposure. Key Results: OVA induced AHR at week 1, 6 and 12 compared to saline-challenged animals. The AHR was less pronounced in week 12 compared to week 1. BR11595 significantly reduced OVA-induced AHR in week 6 in guinea pigs treated with BR11595 for 6 weeks. AHR in week 12 was reduced after BR11595 treatment in week 12 only, next to OVA-induced eosinophilia and Goblet cell hyperplasia, indicating an acute role of P2X4 receptors on chronic inflammation. Conclusion and Implications: The P2X4-receptor antagonist BR11595 acutely inhibits AHR, eosinophilia, and Goblet cell hyperplasia after 12 weeks, indicating its potential as a therapeutic target for acute intervention of chronic asthma attacks or exacerbations.

Frequent relocation is a common experience for many families, but its effects on children's cognitive and emotional development are not fully understood. This theoretical review investigates the dual effects of frequent relocation on children's cognitive and emotional outcomes while proposing a new conceptual model that elucidates the intricate relationship between mobility and various developmental trajectories. Frequent relocations can disrupt children's cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, leading to difficulties in academic achievement. Emotionally, frequent moves may hinder emotional regulation and attachment formation, contributing to increased anxiety, depression, and social isolation. However, some studies suggest potential positive outcomes, such as enhanced adaptability, problem-solving skills, and resilience. By examining the neurodevelopmental mechanisms involved, this paper highlights the importance of stability for optimal cognitive and emotional growth while also recognizing the resilience that some children may develop in response to frequent changes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, emphasizing the need for supportive environments, mental health resources, and community programs that cater to the unique needs of mobile children. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to further investigate the nuanced effects of relocation and to identify strategies for fostering resilience in children facing frequent moves.

Background. Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a life-threatening complication of sickle cell disease (SCD). Most often ACS occurs during progression of painful vasoocclusive crisis (VOC) in vulnerable patients. Study objective was to describe early risk factors for ACS progression focusing on patients’ assessment in pediatric Emergency Department. Methods. In this retrospective case-control study (years 2016 to 2022), patients with SCD who presented VOC progressing to ACS were compared to patients who presented uncomplicated VOC. Medical history, clinical and laboratory data were collected for both groups. Statistical correlations and logistic regression model were established. Results. A total of thirty-one children with ACS (median age at inclusion 2 years [ 0 – 3.9], 32% females, 55 ACS) were matched with the same number of children with uncomplicated VOC (median age at inclusion 3 years [ 0 – 5.2], 32% females, 55 VOC). ACS occurrence was positively correlated with diffuse (multifocal) pain, decreased nutritional status (Body Mass Index (BMI), weight/expected weight for age ratio, weight /expected weight for height ratio), hydroxyurea treatment, red cell distribution width (RCDW) and C-Reactive protein (CRP) plasma concentration, and negatively correlated with SC phenotype, A-Rhesus positive blood group, and lower limbs pain (p<0.05). Logistic regression model defined two early risk factors for ACS occurrence: decreased BMI (in percentiles for age and gender) and elevated CRP (p<0.05). Conclusions. Undernutrition in children with SCD is involved in ACS pathophysiology and should be prevented. Early systemic inflammation during an acute painful crisis (VOC) is predictive for ACS occurrence.

Accurate simulation models are essential for excavator stability control, particularly when addressing complex interactions across subsystems such as the engine and hydraulic system. The Simulink-based model used in this research incorporates a complete excavator system, including engine, hydraulic, and mechanical dynamics, requiring precise parameter estimation (PE) to handle nonlinear behaviors and unmeasurable parameters like friction coefficients and initial pressures. Traditional PE methods often struggle with these challenges, leading to inaccuracies in dynamic modeling. To address this, a novel hybrid PE framework is introduced, integrating machine learning (ML) techniques such as random forest (RF) and gradient boosting (GB) with optimization methods like gradient descent (GD) and nonlinear least squares (NLS). This framework bridges physicsbased simulations and real-time IoT-acquired data, enabling accurate estimation and correction of parameters. Validated using CAN bus-compatible data, the framework achieves exceptional metrics, including an RMSE of 0.3921, an MAE of 0.0557, an R 2 of 0.9999, and a SMAPE of 0.84%, setting a new standard in the field. The hybrid model surpasses traditional approaches by aligning simulated outputs with real-world dynamics, offering scalability across varying conditions and demonstrating significant potential for real-time predictive maintenance, operational optimization, and integration with digital twin technologies.

Across two cross-sectional samples (N-total = 612), we examined how people’s ideological orientations related to their attributions about the causes of homelessness, and how these attributions relate to policy preferences. In both studies, we assessed eight ideological orientations, four domains of attributions about homelessness, and three domains of policy attitudes. In Study 1, we measured attributions using self-report scales, whereas in Study 2 we measured qualitative answers that were coded using a large language model (ChatGPT 4o). Across both studies, stronger right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and protestant work ethic (PWE) related to endorsing more internal-controllable attributions for homelessness, and stronger conservatism related to less endorsement of external-controllable attributions. Lower endorsement of external-controllable attributions related to less support for economic policies to address homelessness in society. Theoretical and practical applications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations and future directions.

The digitization and accurate recognition of handwritten historical documents remain crucial for preserving cultural heritage and making historical archives accessible to researchers and the public. Despite significant advances in deep learning, current Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) systems struggle with the inherent complexity of historical documents, including diverse writing styles, degraded text quality, and computational efficiency requirements across multiple languages and time periods. This paper introduces HTR-JAND (HTR-JAND: Handwritten Text Recognition with Joint Attention Network and Knowledge Distillation), an efficient HTR framework that combines advanced feature extraction with knowledge distillation. Our architecture incorporates three key components: (1) a CNN architecture integrating FullGatedConv2d layers with Squeeze-and-Excitation blocks for adaptive feature extraction, (2) a Combined Attention mechanism fusing Multi-Head Self-Attention with Proxima Attention for robust sequence modeling, and (3) a Knowledge Distillation framework enabling efficient model compression while preserving accuracy through curriculum-based training. The HTR-JAND framework implements a multi-stage training approach combining curriculum learning, synthetic data generation, and multi-task learning for cross-dataset knowledge transfer. We enhance recognition accuracy through context-aware T5 post-processing, particularly effective for historical documents. Comprehensive evaluations demonstrate HTR-JAND's effectiveness, achieving state-of-theart Character Error Rates (CER) of 1.23%, 1.02%, and 2.02% on IAM, RIMES, and Bentham datasets respectively. Our Student model achieves a 48% parameter reduction (0.75M versus 1.5M parameters) while maintaining competitive performance through efficient knowledge transfer. Source code and pre-trained models are available at Github.

Handwritten document recognition (HDR) is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of computer vision, due to the various writing styles and complex layouts inherent in handwritten texts. Traditionally, this problem has been approached as two separate tasks, handwritten text recognition and layout analysis, and struggled to integrate the two processes effectively. This paper introduces HAND (Hierarchical Attention Network for Multi-Scale Document), a novel end-to-end and segmentation-free architecture for simultaneous text recognition and layout analysis tasks. Our model's key components include an advanced convolutional encoder integrating Gated Depth-wise Separable and Octave Convolutions for robust feature extraction, a Multi-Scale Adaptive Processing (MSAP) framework that dynamically adjusts to document complexity and a hierarchical attention decoder with memoryaugmented and sparse attention mechanisms. These components enable our model to scale effectively from single-line to triple-column pages while maintaining computational efficiency. Additionally, HAND adopts curriculum learning across five complexity levels. To improve the recognition accuracy of complex ancient manuscripts, we fine-tune and integrate a Domain-Adaptive Pre-trained mT5 model for postprocessing refinement. Extensive evaluations on the READ 2016 dataset demonstrate the superior performance of HAND, achieving up to 59. 8% reduction in CER for line-level recognition and 31. 2% for page-level recognition compared to stateof-the-art methods. The model also maintains a compact size of 5.60M parameters while establishing new benchmarks in both text recognition and layout analysis. Source code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/MHHamdan/HAND.