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Nick K. Jones1,2*, Lucy Rivett1,2*, Chris Workman3, Mark Ferris3, Ashley Shaw1, Cambridge COVID-19 Collaboration1,4, Paul J. Lehner1,4, Rob Howes5, Giles Wright3, Nicholas J. Matheson1,4,6¶, Michael P. Weekes1,7¶1 Cambridge University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK2 Clinical Microbiology & Public Health Laboratory, Public Health England, Cambridge, UK3 Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK4 Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK5 Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre and AstraZeneca, Anne Mclaren Building, Cambridge, UK6 NHS Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, UK7 Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK*Joint first authorship¶Joint last authorshipCorrespondence: mpw1001@cam.ac.ukThe UK has initiated mass COVID-19 immunisation, with healthcare workers (HCWs) given early priority because of the potential for workplace exposure and risk of onward transmission to patients. The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has recommended maximising the number of people vaccinated with first doses at the expense of early booster vaccinations, based on single dose efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 disease.1-3At the time of writing, three COVID-19 vaccines have been granted emergency use authorisation in the UK, including the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). A vital outstanding question is whether this vaccine prevents or promotes asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than symptomatic COVID-19 disease, because sub-clinical infection following vaccination could continue to drive transmission. This is especially important because many UK HCWs have received this vaccine, and nosocomial COVID-19 infection has been a persistent problem.Through the implementation of a 24 h-turnaround PCR-based comprehensive HCW screening programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT), we previously demonstrated the frequent presence of pauci- and asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs during the UK’s first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.4 Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and cycle threshold (Ct) values in the asymptomatic arm of our programme, which now offers weekly screening to all staff.Vaccination of HCWs at CUHNFT began on 8th December 2020, with mass vaccination from 8th January 2021. Here, we analyse data from the two weeks spanning 18thto 31st January 2021, during which: (a) the prevalence of COVID-19 amongst HCWs remained approximately constant; and (b) we screened comparable numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs. Over this period, 4,408 (week 1) and 4,411 (week 2) PCR tests were performed from individuals reporting well to work. We stratified HCWs <12 days or > 12 days post-vaccination because this was the point at which protection against symptomatic infection began to appear in phase III clinical trial.226/3,252 (0·80%) tests from unvaccinated HCWs were positive (Ct<36), compared to 13/3,535 (0·37%) from HCWs <12 days post-vaccination and 4/1,989 (0·20%) tests from HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination (p=0·023 and p=0·004, respectively; Fisher’s exact test, Figure). This suggests a four-fold decrease in the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination, compared to unvaccinated HCWs, with an intermediate effect amongst HCWs <12 days post-vaccination.A marked reduction in infections was also seen when analyses were repeated with: (a) inclusion of HCWs testing positive through both the symptomatic and asymptomatic arms of the programme (56/3,282 (1·71%) unvaccinated vs 8/1,997 (0·40%) ≥12 days post-vaccination, 4·3-fold reduction, p=0·00001); (b) inclusion of PCR tests which were positive at the limit of detection (Ct>36, 42/3,268 (1·29%) vs 15/2,000 (0·75%), 1·7-fold reduction, p=0·075); and (c) extension of the period of analysis to include six weeks from December 28th to February 7th 2021 (113/14,083 (0·80%) vs 5/4,872 (0·10%), 7·8-fold reduction, p=1x10-9). In addition, the median Ct value of positive tests showed a non-significant trend towards increase between unvaccinated HCWs and HCWs > 12 days post-vaccination (23·3 to 30·3, Figure), suggesting that samples from vaccinated individuals had lower viral loads.We therefore provide real-world evidence for a high level of protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection after a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, at a time of predominant transmission of the UK COVID-19 variant of concern 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7), and amongst a population with a relatively low frequency of prior infection (7.2% antibody positive).5This work was funded by a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellowship to MPW (108070/Z/15/Z), a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship to PJL (210688/Z/18/Z), and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/P008801/1) and NHSBT workpackage (WPA15-02) to NJM. Funding was also received from Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. We also acknowledge contributions from all staff at CUHNFT Occupational Health and Wellbeing and the Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre.

Scene flow tracks the three-dimensional (3D) motion of each point in adjacent point clouds. It provides fundamental 3D motion perception for autonomous driving and server robot. Although the Red Green Blue Depth (RGBD) camera or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) capture discrete 3D points in space, the objects and motions usually are continuous in the macro world. That is, the objects keep themselves consistent as they flow from the current frame to the next frame. Based on this insight, the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) is utilized to self-learn 3D scene flow with no need for ground truth. The fake point cloud of the second frame is synthesized from the predicted scene flow and the point cloud of the first frame. The adversarial training of the generator and discriminator is realized through synthesizing indistinguishable fake point cloud and discriminating the real point cloud and the synthesized fake point cloud. The experiments on Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute (KITTI) scene flow dataset show that our method realizes promising results without ground truth. Just as human, the proposed method can identify the similar local structures of two adjacent frames even without knowing the ground truth scene flow. Then, the local correspondence can be correctly estimated, and further the scene flow is correctly estimated.   Corresponding author(s) Email: wanghesheng@sjtu.edu.cn

Leukocyte differential test is a widely performed clinical procedure for screening infectious diseases. Existing hematology analyzers require labor-intensive work and a panel of expensive reagents. Here we report an artificial-intelligence enabled reagent-free imaging hematology analyzer (AIRFIHA) modality that can accurately classify subpopulations of leukocytes with minimal sample preparation. AIRFIHA is realized through training a two-step residual neural network using label-free images of isolated leukocytes acquired from a custom-built quantitative phase microscope. By leveraging the rich information contained in quantitative phase images, we not only achieved high accuracy in differentiating B and T lymphocytes, but also classified CD4 and CD8 cells, therefore outperforming the classification accuracy of most current hematology analyzers. We validated the performance of AIRFIHA in a randomly selected test set and cross-validated it across all blood donors. Owing to its easy operation, low cost, and accurate discerning capability of complex leukocyte subpopulations, we envision AIRFIHA is clinically translatable and can also be deployed in resource-limited settings, e.g., during pandemic situations for the rapid screening of infectious diseases.  Corresponding author(s) Email:    rjzhou@cuhk.edu.hk,  rishikesh.pandey@uconn.edu

Tam Hunt [1], Jonathan SchoolerUniversity of California Santa Barbara Synchronization, harmonization, vibrations, or simply resonance in its most general sense seems to have an integral relationship with consciousness itself. One of the possible “neural correlates of consciousness” in mammalian brains is a combination of gamma, beta and theta synchrony. More broadly, we see similar kinds of resonance patterns in living and non-living structures of many types. What clues can resonance provide about the nature of consciousness more generally? This paper provides an overview of resonating structures in the fields of neuroscience, biology and physics and attempts to coalesce these data into a solution to what we see as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem, which is generally known as the “combination problem” or the “binding problem.” The combination problem asks: how do micro-conscious entities combine into a higher-level macro-consciousness? The proposed solution in the context of mammalian consciousness suggests that a shared resonance is what allows different parts of the brain to achieve a phase transition in the speed and bandwidth of information flows between the constituent parts. This phase transition allows for richer varieties of consciousness to arise, with the character and content of that consciousness in each moment determined by the particular set of constituent neurons. We also offer more general insights into the ontology of consciousness and suggest that consciousness manifests as a relatively smooth continuum of increasing richness in all physical processes, distinguishing our view from emergentist materialism. We refer to this approach as a (general) resonance theory of consciousness and offer some responses to Chalmers’ questions about the different kinds of “combination problem.”  At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat: the sound of cycles in sync…. [T]hese feats of synchrony occur spontaneously, almost as if nature has an eerie yearning for order. Steven Strogatz, Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos in the Universe, Nature and Daily Life (2003) If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.Nikola Tesla (1942) I.               Introduction Is there an “easy part” and a “hard part” to the Hard Problem of consciousness? In this paper, we suggest that there is. The harder part is arriving at a philosophical position with respect to the relationship of matter and mind. This paper is about the “easy part” of the Hard Problem but we address the “hard part” briefly in this introduction.  We have both arrived, after much deliberation, at the position of panpsychism or panexperientialism (all matter has at least some associated mind/experience and vice versa). This is the view that all things and processes have both mental and physical aspects. Matter and mind are two sides of the same coin.  Panpsychism is one of many possible approaches that addresses the “hard part” of the Hard Problem. We adopt this position for all the reasons various authors have listed (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1997, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017). This first step is particularly powerful if we adopt the Whiteheadian version of panpsychism (Whitehead 1929).  Reaching a position on this fundamental question of how mind relates to matter must be based on a “weight of plausibility” approach, rather than on definitive evidence, because establishing definitive evidence with respect to the presence of mind/experience is difficult. We must generally rely on examining various “behavioral correlates of consciousness” in judging whether entities other than ourselves are conscious – even with respect to other humans—since the only consciousness we can know with certainty is our own. Positing that matter and mind are two sides of the same coin explains the problem of consciousness insofar as it avoids the problems of emergence because under this approach consciousness doesn’t emerge. Consciousness is, rather, always present, at some level, even in the simplest of processes, but it “complexifies” as matter complexifies, and vice versa. Consciousness starts very simple and becomes more complex and rich under the right conditions, which in our proposed framework rely on resonance mechanisms. Matter and mind are two sides of the coin. Neither is primary; they are coequal.  We acknowledge the challenges of adopting this perspective, but encourage readers to consider the many compelling reasons to consider it that are reviewed elsewhere (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1998, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017, Schooler, Schooler, & Hunt, 2011; Schooler, 2015).  Taking a position on the overarching ontology is the first step in addressing the Hard Problem. But this leads to the related questions: at what level of organization does consciousness reside in any particular process? Is a rock conscious? A chair? An ant? A bacterium? Or are only the smaller constituents, such as atoms or molecules, of these entities conscious? And if there is some degree of consciousness even in atoms and molecules, as panpsychism suggests (albeit of a very rudimentary nature, an important point to remember), how do these micro-conscious entities combine into the higher-level and obvious consciousness we witness in entities like humans and other mammals?  This set of questions is known as the “combination problem,” another now-classic problem in the philosophy of mind, and is what we describe here as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem. Our characterization of this part of the problem as “easy”[2] is, of course, more than a little tongue in cheek. The authors have discussed frequently with each other what part of the Hard Problem should be labeled the easier part and which the harder part. Regardless of the labels we choose, however, this paper focuses on our suggested solution to the combination problem.  Various solutions to the combination problem have been proposed but none have gained widespread acceptance. This paper further elaborates a proposed solution to the combination problem that we first described in Hunt 2011 and Schooler, Hunt, and Schooler 2011. The proposed solution rests on the idea of resonance, a shared vibratory frequency, which can also be called synchrony or field coherence. We will generally use resonance and “sync,” short for synchrony, interchangeably in this paper. We describe the approach as a general resonance theory of consciousness or just “general resonance theory” (GRT). GRT is a field theory of consciousness wherein the various specific fields associated with matter and energy are the seat of conscious awareness.  A summary of our approach appears in Appendix 1.  All things in our universe are constantly in motion, in process. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, resonating, at specific frequencies. So all things are actually processes. Resonance is a specific type of motion, characterized by synchronized oscillation between two states.  An interesting phenomenon occurs when different vibrating processes come into proximity: they will often start vibrating together at the same frequency. They “sync up,” sometimes in ways that can seem mysterious, and allow for richer and faster information and energy flows (Figure 1 offers a schematic). Examining this phenomenon leads to potentially deep insights about the nature of consciousness in both the human/mammalian context but also at a deeper ontological level.

Cannabis sativa is an extraordinarily versatile species. Hemp and its cousin marijuana, both C. sativa, have been used for millennia as a source of fibre, oil and for medicinal, spiritual and recreational purposes. Because the consumption of Cannabis can have psychoactive effects, the plant has been widely banned throughout the last century. In the past decade, evidence of its medicinal properties did lead to the relaxation of legislation in many countries around the world. Consequently, the genetics and development of Cannabis as well as Cannabis-derived products are the subject of renewed attention.Here, we review the biology of C. sativa, including recent insights from taxonomy, morphology and genomics, with an emphasis on the genetics of cannabinoid synthesis. Because the female Cannabis flower is of special interest as the site of cannabinoid synthesis, we explore flower development, flowering time well as the species’ unique sex determination system in detail. Furthermore, we outline the tremendous medicinal, engineering, and environmental opportunities that Cannabis bears. Together, the picture emerges that our understanding of Cannabis biology currently progresses at an unusual speed. A future challenge will be to preserve the multi-purpose nature of Cannabis, and to harness its medicinal properties and sustainability advantages simultaneously.

Quantum chemistry must evolve if it wants to fully leverage the benefits of the internet age, where the world wide web offers a vast tapestry of tools that enable users to communicate and interact with complex data at the speed and convenience of a button press. The Open Chemistry project has developed an open source framework that offers an end-to-end solution for producing, sharing, and visualizing quantum chemical data interactively on the web using an array of modern tools and approaches. These tools build on some of the best open source community projects such as Jupyter for interactive online notebooks, coupled with 3D accelerated visualization, state-of-the-art computational chemistry codes including NWChem and Psi4 and emerging machine learning and data mining tools such as ChemML and ANI. They offer flexible formats to import and export data, along with approaches to compare computational and experimental data.

This paper responds to one by Graham Martin and colleagues, who offered a critique of my previous publications on masks for the lay public in the Covid-19 pandemic. I address their charges that my co-authors and I had misapplied the precautionary principle; drawn conclusions that were not supported by empirical research; and failed to take account of potential harms. But before that, I remind Martin et al that the evidence on mask wearing goes beyond the contested trials and observational studies they place centre stage. I set out some key findings from basic science, epidemiology, mathematical modelling, case studies and natural experiments, and use this rich and diverse body of evidence as the backdrop for my rebuttal of their narrowly-framed objections. I challenge my critics’ apparent assumption that a particular kind of systematic review should be valorised over narrative and real-world evidence, since stories are crucial to both our scientific understanding and our moral imagination. I conclude by thanking my academic adversaries for the intellectual sparring match, but exhort them to remember our professional accountability to a society in crisis. It is time to lay straw men to rest and engage, scientifically and morally, with the dreadful tragedy that is unfolding across the world.

This Supporting information includes interactive plots, videos, and data captured while performing evaluation and validation experiments for our paper. 

The construct of wellbeing has been criticised as a neoliberal construction of western individualism that ignores wider systemic issues including increasing burden of chronic disease, widening inequality, concerns over environmental degradation and anthropogenic climate change. While these criticisms overlook recent developments, there remains a need for biopsychosocial models that extend theoretical grounding beyond individual wellbeing, incorporating overlapping contextual issues relating to community and environment. Our first GENIAL model \cite{Kemp_2017} provided a more expansive view of pathways to longevity in the context of individual health and wellbeing, emphasising bidirectional links to positive social ties and the impact of sociocultural factors. In this paper, we build on these ideas and propose GENIAL 2.0, focusing on intersecting individual-community-environmental contributions to health and wellbeing, and laying an evidence-based, theoretical framework on which future research and innovative therapeutic innovations could be based. We suggest that our transdisciplinary model of wellbeing - focusing on individual, community and environmental contributions to personal wellbeing - will help to move the research field forward. In reconceptualising wellbeing, GENIAL 2.0 bridges the gap between psychological science and population health health systems, and presents opportunities for enhancing the health and wellbeing of people living with chronic conditions. Implications for future generations including the very survival of our species are discussed.  

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield across global regions is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control and pollination services in adjacent crops using a global dataset of 529 sites. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimize floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.

Researchers' ability to accurately screen fossil and subfossil specimens for preservation of DNA and protein sequences remains limited. Thermal exposure and geologic age are usable proxies for sequence preservation on a broad scale but are of nominal use for specimens of similar depositional environments. Cell and tissue biomolecular histology is thus proposed as a novel proxy for determining sequence preservation potential of ancient specimens with improved accuracy. Biomolecular histology as a proxy is hypothesized to elucidate why fossils/subfossils of some depositional environments preserve sequences while others do not and to facilitate selection of ancient specimens for use in molecular studies.

IntroductionConsistent with World Health Organization (WHO) advice [1], UK Infection Protection Control guidance recommends that healthcare workers (HCWs) caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should use fluid resistant surgical masks type IIR (FRSMs) as respiratory protective equipment (RPE), unless aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken or are likely, when a filtering face piece 3 (FFP3) respirator should be used [2]. In a recent update, an FFP3 respirator is recommended if “an unacceptable risk of transmission remains following rigorous application of the hierarchy of control” [3]. Conversely, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19 should use an N95 or higher level respirator [4]. WHO guidance suggests that a respirator, such as FFP3, may be used for HCWs in the absence of AGPs if availability or cost is not an issue [1].A recent systematic review undertaken for PHE concluded that: “patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection who are breathing, talking or coughing generate both respiratory droplets and aerosols, but FRSM (and where required, eye protection) are considered to provide adequate staff protection” [5]. Nevertheless, FFP3 respirators are more effective in preventing aerosol transmission than FRSMs, and observational data suggests that they may improve protection for HCWs [6]. It has therefore been suggested that respirators should be considered as a means of affording the best available protection [7], and some organisations have decided to provide FFP3 (or equivalent) respirators to HCWs caring for COVID-19 patients, despite a lack of mandate from local or national guidelines [8].Data from the HCW testing programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT) during the first wave of the UK severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic indicated a higher incidence of infection amongst HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19, compared with those who did not [9]. Subsequent studies have confirmed this observation [10, 11]. This disparity persisted at CUHNFT in December 2020, despite control measures consistent with PHE guidance and audits indicating good compliance. The CUHNFT infection control committee therefore implemented a change of RPE for staff on “red” (COVID-19) wards from FRSMs to FFP3 respirators. In this study, we analyse the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs before and after this transition.

Context: In Colombia, the digital procedures carried out by a citizen must comply with a series of regulations and requirements. Problem: As a result, the implementation of these procedures can be very cumbersome and time-consuming. Proposal: Instead of using traditional development approaches, our proposal consists of (1) modeling the processes using BPMN - Business Process Modeling and Notation, (2) automatically generating the user interfaces so that they comply with the presentation and usability requirements established by Colombian regulations, and (3) managing the execution of the processes using a BPMS - Business Process Management System engine. Methodology: We followed the Design Science Research to develop a solution following the feedback of users and developers. Implementation: We performed an implementation using Camunda BPMS, Angular and .NET. Lessons Learned: The Camunda engine and its API met the requirements for modeling, implementing and controlling the digital procedures; however, special attention must be done to data definition (names, rules, type, etc.) and the process model design itself. Former can generate data quality problems and latter can produce unnecesary complex business process models. Conclusions: We note an acceleration in the digitization of the procedure used, because the flow of activities rested easily in the BPM engine and we were able to focus on developing the interface generator (complying the government requirements).

Numerous detrimental consequences follow traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in youngsters. According to research, TBIs are more expected to cause cognitive deficits, behavioural issues, poor academic performance, and a loss in adaptive behaviour, especially in progenies who have agonized more serious injuries. This study observed at early children with difficult slight to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) respond to treatment for their behavioural issues and social skill deficiencies. The current study watched varying levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) affected Neuropsychological Functioning (NF) in kids who had suffered TBI. The data gathered during a prospective observational study of children were subjected to a secondary cross-sectional analysis. This gives details on the age-specific range of neuropsychological outcomes for families who have ached TBI and more accurately defines the NF of kids in both age groups who are categorized as having positive results. Accordingly, the study considers that pre-injury cognitive and behavioural problems can exacerbate post-injury outcomes. This study reveals that near is a confident correlation between emotional suffering and behavioural problem, parental burden and injury severity, Psychological Distress (PD) and injury severity, and behavioural problems and injury severity. This research also showed that the family environment would affect damage severity in a way that would increase the effects of TBI on children’s social functioning. Therefore, understanding the nature of persistent behavioural issues will be beneficial for clinicians who provide post-injury rehabilitation services and generate TBI intervention strategies.

Objective: To evaluate resting-state functional network connectivity (FNC) alterations in patients with occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) using an independent component analysis (ICA). Method: 79 mild NIHL patients (MP), 32 relatively severe NIHL patients (RSP), and 84 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited. All subjects were tested using the Mini-mental State Examination scale test (MMSE) and scanned by T1WI3DFSPGR, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) sequence and analyzed by the ICA. All patients were tested using the tinnitus handicap inventory scale (THI) and the Hamilton Anxiety scale test (HAMA). Result: Using the ICA, 7 resting-state networks (RSNs) were identified, and FNCs were compared among the three groups. Compared with the HC, the MP showed increased FNC within the executive control network (ECN) and enhanced FNC within the default mode network (DMN) and the visual network (VN). Compared with the HC, the RSP showed decreased FNC within the ECN and auditory network (AUN), DMN and VN. No significant changes in FNC were found in the MP compared with the RSP. Furthermore, the correlation analysis between the noise exposure time and hearing loss level and the exposure time and HAMA scores were both negative, and there were no significant correlation between the FNC correlation coefficient of the abnormal RSNs and the hearing level, noise exposure time, and HAMA. Conclusion: These findings indicate that different degrees of NIHL involve different alterations in RSNs connectivity, and may reveal the neural mechanisms related to emotion-related features and functional abnormalities following long-term NIHL.

The necessary conditions for the optimal control of partially observed, fully coupled forward-backward mean-field stochastic differential equations driven by Teugels martingales are discussed in this paper. In this context, we make the assumption that the forward diffusion coefficient and the martingale coefficient are independent of the control variable, and the control domain may not necessarily be convex. For this class of optimal control problems, we derive the stochastic maximum principle based on the classical method of spike variations and the filtering techniques. The adjoint processes that are related to the variational equations are determined by the solutions of proposed forward-backward stochastic differential equations in finite-dimensional spaces. Further, the Hamiltonian function is used to obtain the maximum principle for the optimality of the given control system. Our results are then applied to the mean-field type problem of linear quadratic stochastic optimization.

Introduction: Acute bronchiolitis (AB) is a common reason for admission to the pediatric emergency department (ED). Evidence has shown that most interventions do not change the natural course of the disease. Methodology: The aim of this study was to evaluate the economic impact of the non-compliance with the AB Portuguese national clinical guideline (CG). A retrospective study of pediatric emergency episodes (EP) of a Portuguese hospital that had a diagnosis of AB during 2019 was conducted. Results: The sample included 344 EP. Non-compliance with the national CG occurred in 71,8% of the episodes, mostly due to unjustified treatment. Following GC in the studied ED for one year would have resulted in an estimated overall 76,6% cost reduction, with a reduction in mean direct costs (MDC) per patient of 14,93 \euro, corresponding to a medium saving of 3,89 \euro for each patient and a reduction of 11,03 \euro for the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS). Analyzing the unjustified MDC, of these 2,97 \euro were related to DT and treatment in the ED and the remaining 11,96 \euro were related to outpatient therapy. MDC imputed to the patient for outpatient treatment represented only 3,31 \euro, in this sense most of MDC is paid by the NHS. Conclusions: Compliance with GC would allow the reduction of total estimated costs by about 76.6%, representing a waste of resources, without compromising the quality of care provided. Most of the cost associated with non-compliance with the CG is justified by outpatient therapy, 67% of which was paid by the NHS.

A 24-year-old man presented with fever, throat pain, and diffuse myalgia. Examination revealed an ulcerated right tonsil, twice the size of the contralateral one, which showed no signs of inflammation. No trismus or abscess were observed, and airway obstruction was ruled out with fiberendoscopy. Blood tests showed an elevated white blood

The analysis of the law of drought propagation under climate change is of great significance for drought early warning and reducing social and economic losses. In spite of large spatiotemporal variability in drought propagation, the propagation probability and threshold from meteorological to hydrological droughts were not examined at seasonal and regional scales over the Luanhe River basin. To estimate the propagation probability and threshold of the Luanhe River basin, the meteorological and hydrological variables were obtained at a grid resolution of 0.25◦ Lat × 0.25◦ Lon in this study. Based on the GAMLSS framework, the stationary model and the non-stationary model were constructed to capture the characteristics of seasonal droughts without considering climate change and considering climate change. Then the Copula model was constructed, and the drought propagation probability and the threshold under stationary and non-stationary conditions were calculated. The results show that, under the combined influence of AMO, temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, the propagation probabilities became larger and the propagation thresholds became higher, especially in spring and winter in the upstream and midstream regions. The increase in temperature and the decrease in relative humidity may be the key factors contributing to the occurrence of hydrological drought in the basin.

Genetic studies of Domesticated-Weed-Wild Complexes (DWWC) have typically focused on one-way introgression of crop alleles into wild or weedy populations, with little consideration of the entire natural ecosystem. In Sri Lanka, DWWC is diverse, comprising six evolutionarily discrete groups in the genus Oryza. Using 33 neutral simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci, we characterized six Oryza groups to understand the genetic background and evolution of DWWC components. Our analysis found that Oryza groups have large population sizes and high inter-group long-term gene flows. Asymmetric gene flows were found between wild and weedy rice groups, but the rare alleles shared among DWWC components provide additional evidence for extensive and enduring exchange, highlighting the dynamic nature of this complex genetic admixture among different Oryza lineages. We found high genetic diversity at the population and species levels due to mixed DWWC components over the generations. Weedy rice types exhibit genetic incorporation through admixture from both crop and wild species, highlighting the multi-way genetic transfer in the evolution of weedy rice types. Our findings support the idea that the DWWC is an integrated complex in the Sri Lankan rice ecosystem and that its weedy rice has multiple origins, including de-domestication via feralization of cultivated rice, inter-varietal hybridization among distinct cultivated rice types, adaptation, and invasion of rice cultivation areas by wild Oryza species, and hybridization events between crop and wild rice populations. Abandoned rice domesticates can also evolve into weedy forms with less intimate human relationships and contaminate the rice ecosystem.

A document by Hoang Viet. Click on the document to view its contents.

This letter proposes a polarization microwave correlation imaging method based on the orthogonal complement space. It utilizes the orthogonal complement space of the HV antenna radiation field to cross-multiply the echo information, enabling simultaneous correlation imaging and instantaneous polarization measurement of the target. Currently, there is a significant research gap in polarization-driven microwave correlation imaging methods, and the existing relevant studies focus on enhancing the randomness of the radiation field using polarized antenna elements, without incorporating polarization information into the imaging process. Through simulation analysis, this method further improves the quality of microwave correlation imaging and its ability to resist interference. Moreover, under low time-frequency products, the peak sidelobe level (PSL) and isolation (I) of this method are approximately 3.5 dB and 12.5 dB higher, respectively, than those of traditional instantaneous polarization measurement (TIPM)methods.

INTRODUCTIONThe concept of cantilevered fixed partial denture (CFPD) was described as early as 1960.1 Subsequently, the innovations in dental materials and adhesive dentistry allowed for the description of full ceramic CFPDs as a sound solution for the replacement of missing anterior teeth in 1997.2 Since this initial description, this therapeutic solution has provided patients with a minimally invasive alternative to three-unit fixed partial dentures (FPD). The indication of CFPD is often disputed in comparison with an implant-based treatment, which in some cases, can present challenges, or even be contraindicated. In this regard, CFPDs benefits from more reproducible esthetics, quicker execution and lower costs.2The question remains, however, whether this method would also be suitable for the replacement of missing teeth in the posterior sector, the main problem being the significant increase in occlusal loads on the premolars and molars.3 Different teams have begun to develop posterior CFPDs and some already have the necessary follow-up to validate this practice.4-8 The material used in these early clinical trials has been zirconia doped with 3%mol yttrium oxide (3Y-TZP), which gives the best mechanical properties at the expense of low aesthetic translucency. Yazigii and Kern recommend a thickness of 0.7mm zirconia of the overlay part and a connector of at least 3mm in vertical section and 3mm in horizontal section to ensure the mechanical resistance of the CFPD’s pontic in the posterior sector.6 This case report describes the realization of a reinforced glass-ceramic CFPD replacing à first premolar, this material opens the possibility of single appointment chairside production, and has superior adhesive and esthetic characteristics compared to zirconia.9-11 Its lower mechanical resistance is however to be taken into consideration,12 but still might be suitable if some prerequisites are met.

Metal-covalent organic frameworks (MCOF) as a bridge between covalent organic framework (COF) and metal organic framework (MOF) possess the characteristics of open metal sites, structure stability, crystallinity, tunability as well as porosity, but still in its infancy. In this work, a covalent organic framework DT-COF with a keto-enamine structure synthesized from the condensation of 3,3’-dihydroxybiphenyl diamine (DHBD) and triformylphloroglucinol (TFP) was coordinated with Cu2+ by a simple post-modification method to a obtain a copper-coordinated metal-covalent organic framework of Cu-DT COF. The isomerization from a keto-enamine structure of DT-COF to a enol-imine structure of Cu-DT COF is induced due to the coordination interaction of Cu2+. The structure change of Cu-DT COF induces the change of the electron distribution in the Cu-DT COF, which greatly promotes the activation and deep Li-storage behavior of the COF skeleton. As anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), Cu-DT COF exhibits greatly improved electrochemical performance, retaining the specific capacities of 760 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles and 505 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at a current density of 0.5 A g−1. The preliminary lithium storage mechanism studies indicate that Cu2+ is also involved in the lithium storage process. A possible mechanism for Cu-DT COF was proposed on the basis of FT-IR, XPS, EPR characterization and electrochemical analysis. This work enlightens a novel strategy to improve the energy storage performance of COF, and promotes the application of COF and MCOF in LIBs.