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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.

1. Over the last four decades coral disease research has continued to provide reports of disease states, the occurrence and severity of disease outbreaks, and associated disease signs however nomenclature and protocols for microscopic disease descriptions have yet to be implemented. Histopathology using systematic protocols is a gold standard for the microscopic assessment of diseases in veterinary and medical research. Increasing disease outbreaks on coral reefs as human impacts intensify highlights the need to also establish standardised diagnostic terminology and methodology for coral disease research. 2. Here we apply a systematic approach to collating, reviewing, and evaluating histopathological methods used to study white diseases in hard coral taxa and map research effort in this field spanning study design, sample processing and analysis in the 33 publications identified between 1984 and 2022. 3. We find that studies to-date have not uniformly detailed methodologies, and terminology associated with histopathological reporting and disease description is inconsistent between studies. Combined these limitations reduce study repeatability, limiting the uptake of histopathology in coral disease research and the capacity for researchers to compare disease reports. 4. A primary outcome of this study is revision of the most widely used terminology applied to coral tissue and development of recommendations for standardised reporting procedures with the aim of increasing accessibility and uptake of histopathology in addition to allowing for ongoing comparative analysis through living systematic reviews for the coral disease field.

This paper proposes a fault-tolerant control strategy for the air path system of a turbocharged diesel engine, considering the simultaneous presence of matched and mismatched external disturbances, additive and loss of effectiveness fault modes in the EGR and VGT subsystems. Firstly, a disturbance observer based on H ∞ theory is designed for estimating additive faults and external disturbances, and the upper bound of observation error is obtained. Based on the observation information, an integral sliding mode surface is designed, and the effectiveness of the sliding mode surface is analyzed. For the loss of effectiveness faults in the actuators, a novel adaptive update sliding mode controller is designed. The proposed control algorithm can get the fault information of the system and achieve fault-tolerant control of through controller reconstruction. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through simulations and comparative analysis.

A document by Ahmed Gamal Sayed. Click on the document to view its contents.

Background and Objectives: Initially developed as immunosuppressive agents, mTOR inhibitors are currently used widely in the management of vascular malformations and tumors. The incidence of infectious complications in the vascular anomalies (VA) population is not well defined. The goal of this systematic review was to better define the types and severity of reported infectious complications in patients with VAs treated with mTOR inhibition. Methods: This was a systematic review conducted following PRISMA guidelines evaluating all research articles focused on infectious complications in patients with VAs treated with sirolimus or everolimus. Thirty articles including 1181 total patients and 315 infections (in 290 unique patients) were ultimately included. Results: The majority of infections were viral upper respiratory (n=137, 54%), followed by pneumonia (n=52, 20%), and cutaneous infections (n=20, 8%). There were 6 total infection-related fatalities, which all occurred in patients younger than 2 years. Only 1 case of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) was reported. This was in an infant with KHE who was also treated with steroids and did not receive PJP prophylaxis. Almost 1/3 (n=95, 32%) of infectious complications were graded 3 to 4 according to CTCAE criteria. Details of patient age, subtype of VA, and timing of infection were lacking from many reports. Conclusions: Most infectious complications reported in patients with VA on mTOR inhibitors were viral respiratory infections and non-severe. Bacteremia, infectious fatalities, and PJP are exceedingly rare. Future studies are needed to clarify the spectrum of infectious risks in VA patients and to provide guidance for infection prevention.

While the survival of children with cancer has improved over time, infection remains a major morbidity and mortality risk. We conducted a systematic literature review to determine the unmet needs in diagnosing infection in immunocompromised children with cancer. The comprehensive search strategy followed the guidelines established by the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 statement and spanned multiple bibliographic databases and other public sources from January 1, 2012–June 23, 2022. From 5,188 records, 34 unique pediatric-focused studies met inclusion criteria. This review highlights the lack of published data on infectious disease testing in pediatric oncology patients and the need for well-designed clinical impact and cost-effectiveness studies of both existing and novel diagnostic platforms. Such studies are necessary to optimize diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship, leading to improvement in patient outcomes.

1. Fine roots play a pivotal role in terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycling. However, our knowledge on drivers of fine-root biomass (FRB) and productivity (FRP) focus on functional traits, biodiversity and abiotic factors, while less attention on allometric constraints, an indispensable driver of organism carbon partitioning. 2. We measured FRB (FRP) for 24 plots using 216 soil cores (ingrowth cores) from four forest types (birch, oak, larch and pine) on a warm-temperate mountain of north China, and investigated leaf, stem and fine-root functional traits, stand factors, diversity and soil fertility. We tested the allometric relationships among FRB, FRP, aboveground (leaf) biomass and functional traits, and examined how allometry, size-dependent growth strategies, the mass-ratio and complementary effects affected FRB and FRP directly and indirectly. 3. There is stable allometric relationship between FRP and FRB at both the soil-core and plot levels, and the former supported the predicted exponent for leaves (=1) of the metabolic scaling theory. Contrary to common observations, plot-scale FRB and FRP showed negative (or non-significant) relationships with aboveground (leaves) biomass. Instead, higher aboveground biomass led to more conservative growth strategies, which led to lower FRB, and thus lower FRP due to allometric constraints. Root traits (mass-ratio effect) showed the strongest direct effect on FRB, while diversity (complementary effect) and soil fertility revealed weak effects. FRP was strongly driven by allometry (FRB) and soil nitrogen, while functional traits and diversity affected FRP via FRB instead of directly. 4. Our results do not conflict with the positive correlations of FRB (FRP) with aboveground (leaf) biomass reported by large-scale studies, but together suggest changes of growth strategies with tree size vs. climate, which may affect aboveground-root relationship simultaneously. Thus, we suggest to carefully test allometric relationships to better understand how biodiversity, traits and stand factors affect fine-root dynamics.

α-Olefins as aliphatic terminal alkenes could be obtained easily from numerous contemporary synthetic reactions as well as petrochemical industry, and also found in natural products. Compared to the alkenes attaching the directing groups or activating group, the catalytic asymmetric reaction of unactivated terminal alkenes presents great challenges due to the weak electron effect and small steric hindrance effect. This review mainly summerizes the latest progress of the asymmetric reaction of unactivated terminal olefins since 2016.

The use of simulators is essential for developing control algorithms for prototype trains. Simulators allow for sufficient testing of algorithms before testing on real trains, saving time and money. Recently, researchers have been trying to apply algorithms that require many iterations, such as reinforcement learning, to automatic train operation. For such a large number of iterations, it is important to have a simulator with fast execution time so that more trials can be performed. However, when high-speed simulation is implemented, errors that do not occur in real-time simulation occur, especially the positioning error, and this paper describes the cause of such errors and describes the configuration and interface method of the simulator to reduce the error. The suitability of the proposed algorithm is verified by comparing simulation results with actual train tests and existing simulators.

Onychomycoses are diseases of fungal origin that affect the nail plate and have high rates of relapse and resistance to conventional antifungals. In addition to the impact on patient health, skin infections by fungi influence socioeconomic aspects, which, together with the resistance of the isolates, favor the development of strategies for obtaining new compounds with antifungal potential and of less expensive formulations. Hence, here we evaluated the therapeutic properties of cinnamaldehyde (CNM) alone and in combination with conventional antifungals against yeast isolated from infected nails. In addition, we tested the therapeutic effect of CNM on Tenebrio molitor larvae infected by Candida. Antifungal activity was analyzed using the broth microdilution assay and the fractional combination index (FIC) between CNM and antifungals by the checkerboard test. Anti-adhesion and antibiofilm activities were evaluated by colony-forming units counting method. CNM’s antimicrobial activity revealed MIC values ranged from 19.5 to 156 µg / mL and significantly reduced Candida’s adherence ability, biofilm formation and preformed biofilms. At sub-inhibitory concentration CNM was also capable of reducing Candida hyphae formation. CNM interacted synergistically with itraconazole (ITL) against C. parapsilosis and indifferent against Kodamaea ohmeri. Candida-infected larvae treated with CNM had a higher survival rate than those treated with ICL or fluconazole showing their high therapeutic potential. This study showed CNM’s antifungal and antivirulent activities and suggests the use of the compound, alone or in combination with antimycotics, as an alternative in the preparation of antifungal formulations.

Introduction: This hospital-based cross-sectional study aimed to assess the compliance of 251 healthcare workers (HCWs) with Infective Prevention and Control (IPC) standard procedures. The study addresses the critical issue of IPC compliance among HCWs, as it plays a pivotal role in reducing the risk of infectious disease transmission within healthcare settings. Methodology: Analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at St. Francis Referral Hospital, involving 251 healthcare workers from different departments including Internal medicine, Surgery, and Emergency. The Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale (CSPS) tool developed by WHO was used. Descriptive and regression analysis was done. A P-value of less than 0.05 indicated statistical significance. Results: Overall average compliance with IPCSPs was 54% whereby only 24.7% (62/251) of healthcare workers had a good compliance. The majority of HCWs (85.3%) reported highest compliance on proper disposal of used sharp items into sharp boxes and low compliance rate (11.6%) was on the disposal of the sharp box, sharp box is only disposed when it is full. Statistical significant were found between IPCSPs and number of years of working experience, level of education, profession, IPC training and IPC meeting attendance. Conclusion: This cross-sectional study has shed light on the critical challenges faced by healthcare workers in complying with IPCSPs. Findings revealed a concerning compliance with IPCSPs which is below the WHO standard and national level standard as well. We therefore recommend enhancement of IPC training program, IPC awareness campaign, and more implementational research for IPCSPs compliance.

Motor adaptations are responsible for recalibrating actions and facilitating the achievement of goals in an ever-changing environment. Once consolidated, the decay of motor adaptation is a process affected by available sensory information during deadaptation. However, the cortical response to task error feedback during the deadaptation phase has received little attention. Here, we explored changes in brain cortical responses due to feedback of task-related error during deadaptation. Twelve healthy volunteers were recruited for the study. Right hand movement and EEG were recorded during repetitive trials of a hand reaching movement. A visuomotor rotation of 30° was introduced to induce motor adaptation. Volunteers participated in two experimental sessions organized in baseline, adaptation, and deadaptation blocks. In the deadaptation block, the visuomotor rotation was removed, and visual feedback was only provided in one session. Performance was quantified using angle end-point error, mean speed, and movement onset time. Non-parametric spatiotemporal cluster-level permutation test was used to analyze the EEG recordings. During deadaptation, participants experienced a greater error reduction when feedback of the cursor was provided. The EEG responses showed larger activity in the left centro-frontal parietal areas during the deadaptation block when participants received feedback, as opposed to when they did not receive feedback. Centrally distributed clusters were found for the adaptation and deadaptation blocks in the absence of visual feedback. The results suggest that visual feedback of the task-related error activates cortical areas related to performance monitoring. Different neural circuits contribute to the deadaptation process depending on the available surrounding information.

We report behavioural findings implying common motion processing for auditory and visual motion. We presented brief translational motion stimuli drifting leftwards or rightwards in the visual or auditory modality at various speeds. Observers made a speed discrimination on each trial, comparing current speed against mean speed (i.e., method of single stimuli). Data were compiled into psychometric functions and means and slopes compared. Slopes between auditory and visual motion were identical, consistent with a common noise source, although mean speed for audition was veridical while visual speeds were significantly underestimated. An inter-trial analysis revealed clear motion priming in both audition and vision (i.e., faster perceived speed after a fast preceding speed, and vice versa – a positive serial dependence). Plotting priming as a function of preceding speed revealed the same slope for each modality. We also tested whether motion priming was modality specific. Whether vision preceded audition, or audition preceded vision, a positive serial bias (i.e., priming) was always observed. We conclude a common process underlies auditory and visual motion, and that this explains the closely matched data in vision and audition, as well as the crossmodal data showing equivalent motion priming regardless of the preceding trial’s modality.