Background: The characteristics and incidence of patients with tricuspid valve (TV) prolapse after leadless pacemaker implantation are unknown. Methods and Results: We retrospectively identified 35 of 85 patients with sufficient echocardiographic TV imaging before and after Micra transcatheter pacing system (Micra TPS) implantation. The post-procedure incidence of TV prolapse was 8.6%, and the cause of prolapse was chordae tendineae rupture. Patients with TV prolapse had significantly longer procedure times and more deployments than patients without TV prolapse. Conclusions: TV prolapse after Micra TPS implantation is not a rare complication and is accompanied by frequent deployments and prolonged procedure times.

Introduction: Several therapeutic options are usually discussed for otosclerosis management. Patients seek medical advice from an ENT specialist but are also increasingly using the internet for medical issues. This study intends to assess readability and quality of websites with information on otosclerosis. Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectionnal study performed in a tertiary care center. The results of the first 2 pages of a Google search with the keyword “otosclerosis” were reviewed by two independent investigators. Readability was assessed with the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and Gunning Fog Index. For quality and reliability assessment, the 16-items DISCERN instrument was used. Spearman’s coefficient was used for correlations, and multivariate analyses of variance were used to assess differences. Inter-rater agreement was evaluated with concordance correlation coefficient. Results: 18 websites were included. Two websites (11.0%) were authored by academic institutions, 5/18 (28%) by government agencies, 6/18 (33%) by professional organizations and 5/18 (28%) were medical information websites. The mean DISCERN score of the 18 websites was 40.2±8.4/80 (range, 23.5–54), corresponding to “fair” quality. The mean FRES score was 43.27 ± 10.6, and the the mean FKGL was 11.43±2.30, corresponding to “difficult to read”. The mean Gunning Fog index was 12.90±2.19 (range 9.81- 18.20), corresponding to a “college freshman” level. Conclusions: This study shows that internet information on otosclerosis has an overall low readability, while the quality is heterogeneous and varies from “poor” to “good”. Efforts should be made to improve the readability of otosclerosis websites.

Objective: Hybrid cardiovascular mock circuits (HMC), designed for dynamic testing of Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD), offer physiologic accuracy by sequestering model complexity in silico and ease of construction by reducing number of model elements in vitro. Despite superior response time and precision, pneumatic actuation is avoided in HMCs due to nonlinear dynamics and noise. We tested the hypothesis that a HMC consisting of a variable elastance-driven numerical circuit coupled to a pneumo-hydraulic physical circuit can be controlled without linearizing system dynamics. Methods: Reference left ventricular and aortic pressures generated in silico were tracked, respectively, in in vitro preload and afterload reservoirs by controlling non-linear pneumatic dynamics using the Lyapunov stability criterion. A centrifugal pump, the speed (i.e. flow) of which was adjusted using PID control, was interposed between the reservoirs and mimicked the VAD under evaluation. The flow of a recirculating gear pump was controlled by the backstepping method to equalize reservoir fluid volumes by rejecting pressure and flow disturbances. Sensor noise was reduced with discrete-time Kalman filtering. Results: Our results showed that normal, failing and assisted cardiovascular physiologies were numerically simulated and tracked at physical VAD terminals with high accuracy. Reservoir volumes remained stable at various combinations of heart rate, pressure, and VAD flow. Conclusion: The HMC described here offers a stable performance testing platform for VAD prototypes. Significance : This is the first proof that hybrid systems using pneumatic actuation at hydraulic interfaces can optimally be regulated with nonlinear controllers to achieve precise reference tracking and robust disturbance rejection.

Cataracts are considered the underlying cause of blindness globally. When the average age of the earth’s population is on the rise, cataract-induced blindness and visual dysfunction will increase dramatically. (1) Currently, the only viable treatment for cataracts is surgery, including removing the opaque lens and replacing it with an artificial one which has a huge impact on improving the patient’s quality of life. Undoubtedly, cataracts have far-reaching repercussions for countries in terms of social and economic burdens, for example, the increasing rate of automobile accidents due to reduced visual acuity. (2) Nonetheless, due to the lack of facilities, ophthalmologists, and funds, surgery is not a choice in developing countries. (3) It should be noted that posterior capsular opacification is a common complication of cataracts, and sometimes, a second intervention is necessary. (4)This research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation to find medications that restore full transparency of the lens.

This study is focused on the anisotropic fatigue crack growth (FCG) behaviour of an aluminium AA7050-T7451 plate. L-T and S-T orientations were studied in M(T) samples with W=50 mm, in mode I loading, with R-ratio of +0.05. A numerical approach was used, assuming that crack tip plastic strain is the crack driving force. A purely kinematic elastic-plastic model was calibrated using experimental data from low cycle fatigue tests of smooth specimens in L and S orientations. The predicted FCG rates agree well with experimental trends in the Paris’ regime, suggesting that cyclic plastic deformation is the main damage mechanism. The numerical model was used to estimate the stress ratio effect for both orientations, which was found to be linked with crack closure variations. However, the closure free predicted trends for both microstructural orientations at R=0.05 are not overlapped, suggesting an effect of microstructure not linked to crack closure.

The paper addresses the non-cooperative game leader-synchronization problem with time-delays and gain perturbations. In the non-cooperative game, a stochastic communication protocol (SCP) is implemented to prevent the data collisions among agents. Coping with time-delays, SCP and gain perturbation simultaneously makes it extremely hard to get the accurate payoff value. Then, we resort to an explicit upper bound of payoff value as an alternative optimization objective. By using the linear matrix inequality (LMI)-constrained method, the leader-synchronization strategies form the J ̵̄ -Nash Equilibrium ( J ̵̄ -NE) solution of non-cooperative game. Sufficient conditions are established in the infinite-horizon with hope to guarantee the stability behavior. Finally, a simulation example is used to illustrate the validity of the proposed methodology.

Background and Purpose: The Bazhen decoction is one of the most extensively used Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions for anti-aging. However, due to the complicity of the components, the pharmacological mechanism of Bazhen decoction is still limited. Experimental approach: We applied RNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis to get the full view of the signaling pathways regulated by Bazhen decoction in the wild type cell background. By using the progeroid cells derived from Werner syndrome mice, we applied Western blot, Immunofluorescence, flow cytometry and telomere FISH to verify the transcriptome data. Key Results: The transcriptome profile revealed that Bazhen decoction might systematically regulate multiple anti-aging pathways, including stem cell regulation, protein homeostasis, cardiovascular function, neuronal function, anti-inflammation, anti-DNA damage induced stress, DNA helicase activity and telomere lengthening. We found that multiple DNA helicases and telomere regulating proteins were up-regulated by Bazhen decoction, which promoted the resolving of G-quadruplex (G4) structure, and facilitated DNA replication and telomere elongation. These improvements also endowed the cellular resistance to DNA damages induced by replication stress. Together these data suggest that Bazhen decoction facilitate G4 resolving and telomere maintenance, which might contribute to the longevity sustaining properties revealed by transcriptome profile. Conclusions & Implications: Our data revealed a new strategy for recovering the pharmacological signature pathways for TCM, which could help the clinical precision medicine of TCM. By applying transcriptome in TCM-treated normal cell, we tried out a systematic analysis for dissecting the molecular mechanism of complicated TCM prescription in the normal genetic background.

The increasing growth of agro-industrial activity resulting in excessive amounts of agri-waste has led to the accumulation of a large quantity of lignocellulosic residues all over the world, in particular, deforestation initiatives for the removal of invasive trees in South Africa. These lignocellulosic residues are rich in energy resources consisting of a mixture of natural polymers based on lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. The use of lignolytic fungi such as mushrooms in solid-state fermentation could sufficiently degrade the indigestible lignocellulosic components and add medicinal and nutritional value to otherwise unusable, high-energy waste material. The digestive type of animal for which the potential feed is developed must be identified and considered before deciding on the bioconversion method and process, since the outcomes for obtaining potentially high-quality feeds for non-ruminant and ruminant animals are different. The current study presents the data of the bioconversion of lignocellulosic substrate using solid-state fermentation with the edible and medicinal mushrooms, Ganoderma lucidum, Pleurotus ostreatus, and a possible new species, to increase digestibility and nutritional value to be applied as ruminant animal feed. The solid-state fermentation process was optimised and the resulting product analysed for the degradation of the lignocellulosic components. Results indicated that the solid-state fermentation duration and mushroom species were key components in achieving significant degradation. Data obtained after 18 weeks of degradation indicated a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the acid detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin and neutral detergent fibre fractions of the biomass, with up to 20% reduction in indigestible components. This increase in digestibility could contribute to to increased energy availability for ruminant animals.

Water resources management is fundamental for rural communities in drylands. Water Harvesting Technologies (WHT) intercept and store the excess rainfall (surface runoff) in soils for increased plant available water and agricultural productivity. The so-called ‘Marab’ WHT was initially developed by Middle Eastern agro-pastoralists that reside or commute in semi-arid and arid rangelands. The Marab WHT is a macro-catchment measure consisting of earth dams and stone spillways along the contours of a lowland depression or floodplain. Dependent on the local context (i.e. climate, soil, management, etc.) the established Marabs show highly-variable effectiveness. This study aims at filling the knowledge gap on the WHT’s performance in changing environments by simulating its hydro-agrological effects for different soils and climatic conditions using the AquaCrop model. A case study performed for a Jordanian Marab over three seasons (2019-2022) confirms its huge improvement potential for barley production. Through Marab-farming, barley production reached 8.37 t ha -1 on average, versus highly variable 0.34 t ha -1 without the WHT. The simulation-based assessment of soil textures identified that silty soils have the largest potential for producing up to 9.25 t ha -1 barley, compared to 6.60 t ha -1 produced in clay soils. Assessing different climate scenarios, a slight increase in daily average temperatures (+ 0.5°C) led to a considerable production decline of 4-8%, while a significant reduction of precipitation (-20%) decreased biomass production by a similar rate (4-10%). This underlines the robustness of the ‘Marab’ WHT to rainfall amount variation. However, simulations also highlight the sensitivity of timing and frequency of flood events: removing the last and the first flood event reduced biomass production by approximately 50% and 80% respectively, while the barley fails to develop if both events were suppressed.

Owing to the emergence of energy storage and electric vehicles, the desire for safe high-energy-density energy storage devices has increased research interest in anode-free lithium metal batteries (AFLMBs). Unlike general LMBs, in which excess Li exists to compensate for the irreversible loss of Li, only the current collector is employed as an anode and paired with a lithiated cathode in the fabrication of AFLMBs. Owing to their unique cell configuration, AFLMBs have attractive characteristics, including the highest energy density, safety, and cost-effectiveness. However, developing AFLMBs with extended cyclability remains an issue for practical applications because the high reactivity of Li with limited inventory causes severely low Coulombic efficiency, poor cyclability, and dendrite growth. To address these issues, tremendous effort has been devoted to stabilize Li-metal anodes for AFLMBs. In this review, we highlight the importance and challenges of AFLMBs. Then, we thoroughly review diverse strategies, such as modifying current collectors, the formation of robust interfaces by engineering advanced electrolytes, and operation protocols. Finally, a future perspective on the strategy is provided to insight into the basis of future research. We hope that this review provides a comprehensive understanding by reviewing previous research and arousing more interest in this field.

In this study, the protective effects of β-glucan against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) induced liver injury, toxicity, and changes in AFP, ANA, and anti-dsDNA are explored. 40 mice were allocated evenly and randomly into 4 groups: Group1, the control group; Group2, the β-glucan group; Group3, the EAC group; and Group4, the EAC+β-glucan group. The most recent findings showed that EAC caused liver damage and elevated levels of serum ALT, AST, ALP, AFP, and anti-dsDNA. The levels of serum total proteins and albumin, however, significantly decreased as compared to the control. β-glucan treatment of EAC improved liver function and structure against EAC. This suggests that β-glucan may be useful in the prevention and management of liver toxicity.

Models of the response of mangrove forests and saltmarshes to sea-level rise are needed to inform coastal decision making. Zero-dimensional models that simulate evolution of a point are foundational for developing spatially explicit landscape models projecting coastal wetland extents under future sea-level rise scenarios. However, both zero-dimensional and spatially explicit landscape models have suffered from insufficient calibration and inadequate validation. In this study, a zero-dimensional model framework was parameterised using real data from four sub-sites exhibiting varying rates of mineral and organic matter addition and autocompaction. The model was calibrated to correspond to tidal parameters at each sub-site and validation was undertaken across three timescales to assess model efficacy. Short-term validation encompassed the period over which measurements of surface elevation gain were determined using a network of surface elevation tables (~20 years); medium-term validation encompassed the period when higher resolution colour aerial photography was available (~35 years); and long-term validation focussed on the period of landscape evolution occurring since the mid-Holocene. The model performed well at the medium to long-term scale and was within the range of variability arising from surface elevation table measurements. This study demonstrates the critical need for site-specific data, a crucial component that is undervalued, often insufficiently resourced to generate useful data, and commonly addressed by extrapolating parameters generated from elsewhere. Validation has provided the necessary confidence for further model development at the landscape scale that will account for processes operating both vertically and laterally, such as shoreline erosion and tidal creek extension.

It is well known that the primary solar wind energy dissipation mechanism in the Earth’s upper atmosphere is Joule heating. Two of the most commonly used physics-based Global Circulation Models (GCM) of the Earth’s upper atmosphere are the Global Ionosphere/ Thermosphere Model (GITM) and the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM). At the same time, a number of empirical formulations have been derived to provide estimates of Joule heating rates based on indices of solar and geomagnetic activity. In this paper, a comparison of the evolution of the globally-integrated Joule heating rates between the two GCMs and various empirical formulations is performed during the solar storm of 17 March 2015. It is found that all empirical formulations on average underestimate Joule heating rates compared to both GITM and TIE-GCM, whereas TIE-GCM calculates lower heating rates compared to GITM. It is also found that Joule heating is primarily correlated with the auroral electrojet in GITM, whereas Joule heating in TIE-GCM is correlated better with the Dst index and with prolonged southward turnings of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field component, Bz. By calculating the heating rates separately in the northern and southern hemispheres it is found that in GITM higher Joule heating rates are observed in the northern hemisphere, whereas in TIE-GCM higher Joule heating rates are observed in the southern hemisphere. The differences and similarities between the two global circulation models and the various empirical models are outlined and discussed.

Background: To investigate the distribution of bacterial pathogens of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in hospitalized elderly patients during the COVID-19 epidemic and to explore the influence of COVID-19 on the distribution of bacterial pathogens, in order to provide guidance for clinical diagnosis. Methods: Specimens of sputum from elderly LRTIs patients at Fuding Hospital of China were collected from October 2022 to January 2023. Cultures and identification were done, and RT-PCR was employed to detect SARS-Cov-2 nucleic acid. Results: A total of 195 isolates were characterized in 163 sputum samples of consecutive hospitalized elderly patients, of which 11.3% were Gram-positive bacteria and 88.7% Gram-negative. The top of frequently isolated pathogens were Klebsiella pneumonia (30.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.0%), Acinetobacter baumannii (12.8%), Stenotrophomonas maltophili, (7.7%), Escherichia coli (7.2%). According to the results of novel coronavirus nucleic acid detection, the 163 patients were divided into COVID-19 group and non-COVID control (CNT) group. The comparison of bacterial distribution between the groups revealed that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was lower in the COVID-19 than in the CNT group, while Acinetobacter baumannii was higher in the COVID-19 group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The major bacteria identified in sputum culture of hospitalized elderly patients were Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, the distribution of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Acinetobacter baumannii between the COVID-19 and CNT groups was found to be significantly different (P< 0.05), while there were no significant differences in the distribution of other bacteria.

Introduction Influenza viruses, due to rapid evolution, lead to great variability. There are 18 highly variable hemagglutinins (H1 to H18) and 11 distinct NAs (N1 to N11) for type A.Influenza type B has no subtypes due to fixed on small antigenic variabilities.Due to rapid evolution and diversification, it is essential to understand genomic epidemiology to detect emerging strains and track their transmission. Methods Samples of the strain were cultivated in the MDCK cell lines for the preparation of neat virus. viral genome after extraction from the neat virus was sent to the National Institute of Infectious Disease, Japan for whole genome sequencing in 2016. The sequences were submitted to GISAID. The H1N1 virus genomes(n=18), from this study, were investigated against the reference genome A/California/07/2009 (GenBank: CY121680). Similarly, the Influenza type B virus genomes(n=27) were investigated against reference genome B/Brisbane/60/2008 (GenBank: KX058884) and B/Wisconsin/01/2010 (GenBank: JN993010). The mutational analyses were performed using Nextclade. The mutations present in the sequences were,subsequently, investigated. Finally, the phylogenetic analysis was done using the Nextclade and CLUSTAL Omega. Out of the 18 HA genome segments, of H1N1, all (n=12) except 6 isolates were of clade 6B, while the rest were of clade 6B.1.For Influenza Type B, out of the 27 HA genome segments, all of the genomes were of clade V1A when compared to B/Brisbane/60/2008. Similarly, when compared to reference genome B/Wisconsin/01/2010 (GenBank: JN993010), all (n=22) except 5 isolates were of clade Y3, while the rest were of clade Y2

Analytical tools are needed to identify and quantify artificial short- and long-term discharge fluctuations, which can disrupt the natural processes of a river. To measure the properties of discharge magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and flow change, such tools typically use a subset of metrics selected from over 170 descriptive statistical indices. Many metrics are based on multi-day mean or median discharges with associated variance or use a single value to describe the entire dataset. However, these source indices do not quantify the temporal configuration of streamflow, an additional hydrologic property that is often overlooked. To address this situation, a non-index approach to quantify all streamflow properties has now been developed using analysis methods based on the lag (1) temporal autocorrelation signature of the streamflow. The discharge (Q), discharge change (dQ/dt), and rate of discharge change (d 2Q/dt 2), along with sequential summations, are presented in novel infographics. A dam release river impact case study for the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona, is included to demonstrate this innovative way of analyzing streamflow datasets. The result is a set of new tools which yield detailed information about the hydrologic regime, are highly customizable, and can either be used as a stand-alone analysis or be integrated into other existing data analysis techniques. The end result is a better understanding of the hydrologic regime, more focused research, and more effective management planning.

Interactions of humans with the environment are strongly related to land use and land cover changes and the available ecosystem services. In last decades, these changes have led to a degradation of ecosystem services, including water regulation and flood control. In Alpine areas of Austria, land cover changes have increased flood risk since the mid of the 19 th century. In this paper, we assess the influence of these long-term land use changes on the landscape’s ability to retain water using the qualitative Water Retention Index (WRI). The changes are thereby evaluated using the historical (1826-1859) and present (2016) land cover situation, which is to our knowledge the first high-resolution and regional application of the WRI. The results show that the water retention potential mimics the mountainous characteristic and features. Except for areas strongly dominated by settlement areas, the highest retention potentials are found in valley floors and the lowest values are depicted along the Alpine main complex. In low-lying areas, the retention decreased by over 10 %. It was found that this decrease can be mostly attributed to settlement expansion. Above 1250 m land use transformations led to slightly increasing water retention values owing to the transformation of wasteland or glaciers to stagnant waters and to the expansion of forest and grassland in high elevations. This examination allows for a holistic and spatially distributed LULCC impact assessment on the landscape’s water regulation capacities and offers valuable high-resolution information for future land use planning and sustainable land development.

Sri Lanka is affected by extreme precipitation events every year, which cause floods, landslides and tremendous economic losses. In this study, we use the ERA5 reanalysis dataset to understand their association with 30 weather patterns, which were originally derived to represent the variability of the Indian climate during January–December 1979–2016. We find that weather patterns that are most common during the northeast monsoon (December–February) and second intermonsoon (October–November) seasons produce the highest number of extreme precipitation events. Furthermore, extreme precipitation events occurring during these two seasons are more persistent than those during the southwest monsoon (May–September) and first intermonsoon (March–April) seasons. We analyse the modulation of extreme precipitation events by the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and find that their frequency is enhanced (suppressed) in phases 1–4 (5–8) for most weather patterns.

NASA InSight mission revealed that Mars is seismically active today and identified a region with high activity called Cerberus Fossae. Since then, the origin of marsquakes has been an important question in Mars seismology. On 2022/05/04, InSight seismometer detected the largest marsquake during the mission, named S1222a. The source was estimated to be outside the Cerberus Fossae and it would be important to constrain the source parameters of this remarkable event. In this study, we estimate the source parameters of S1222a through spectral analyses. Since we found that seismic spectra of S1222a are heavily contaminated, we performed Empirical Green’s Function analyses. We found that the corner frequencies are 0.34-0.54 Hz for the P wave and 0.17-0.24 Hz for the S wave. These values are slightly higher than those of seismic events at Cerberus Fossae, which implies a faster rupture at the source and different origin for S1222a.

We assess the predictability of immersion-mode ice nucleating particles (INPs) at a remote marine site in the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) using aerosol simulations from a global climate model as inputs to the immersion-mode INP parameterizations. While the model- simulated INP concentrations are lower by one to three orders of magnitudes compared to the measurements, we achieve aerosol-INP closure at ENA using the observed aerosol properties. We demonstrate a novel INP error decomposition approach to quantify the portion of total INP error from different error components. We conclude that inaccuracies in aerosols (surface area and composition) are the dominant cause of the model INP discrepancy at ENA. We recommend that, for future aerosol-INP closure studies, along with the measurements for total INP concentrations, campaigns should also collect co-located aerosol size-resolved composition measurements (in the INP-relevant size range) to better distinguish and quantify the error sources.

Climate models reproduce sea surface temperature (SST) variability of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) despite systematic feedback errors. Atmospheric feedback in response to ENSO’s SST anomalies remains biased even in atmosphere-only simulations, but the reason therein is unclear. This study focuses on atmospheric internal processes to reveal ENSO feedback biases common to the atmosphere-ocean coupled historical and atmosphere-only simulations of CMIP6. The net heat flux feedback becomes comparable to observations once the observed SST is prescribed, but the central Pacific zonal wind feedback is yet underestimated albeit a realistic equatorial precipitation-SST relation. The wind feedback bias is attributed to the wind responses to the equatorial precipitation anomalies that seasonally erroneously decline in boreal late winter, common to both the coupled and atmosphere-only simulations. The model’s mean state with peak-reduced and broad deep convective areas is favorable for enhancing the wind-precipitation relation and thus ENSO dynamic feedback.

The complete mitochondrial genomes of two Prophantis species in the tribe Trichaeini (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) were sequenced using high-throughput sequencing technology. They were assembled and annotated: the complete mitogenomes of P. octoguttalis and P. adusta were 15,197 bp and 15,714 bp, respectively, and contain 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and an A + T-rich region. Their arrangement was consistent with the first sequenced mitogenome of Lepidoptera, from Bombyx mori (Bombycidae). The nucleotide composition was obviously AT-biased, and all protein-coding genes, except for the cox1 gene (CGA), used ATN as the start codon. Except for trnS1, which lacked the DHU arm, all tRNA genes could fold into the clover-leaf structure. Phylogenetic trees of Crambidae were reconstructed based on mitogenomic data using Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analysis methods. Results showed that Trichaeini in this study robustly constitute a monophyletic group in Spilomelinae, with the relationships (Trichaeini + Nomophilini) + ((Spilomelini + (Hymeniini + Agroterini)) + Margaroniini). However, the affinities of the six subfamilies Acentropinae, Crambinae, Glaphyriinae, Odontiinae, Schoenobiinae and Scopariinae within the “non-PS Clade” in Crambidae remained doubtful with unstable topologies or low supports.

In the Anopheles genus, various mosquito species are able to transmit Plasmodium parasites responsible for malaria, while others are non-vectors. In an effort to better understand the biology of Anopheles species and to quantify transmission risk in an area, the identification of mosquito species collected on the field is an essential but problematic task. Morphological identification requires expertise, well-preserved specimens and high-quality equipment, and it does not allow any subsequent verification when samples are later used in a destructive treatment. Moreover, it involves physical manipulations that are not compatible with experiments requiring fast sampling and processing of specimens, hence species identification is often based on DNA sequencing of reference genes or region such as the Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Sequencing ITS2 for numerous samples is costly, but the design of species-specific PCR primers is not always possible when local species diversity is high. Here, we introduce a molecular technique of species identification based on precise determination of ITS2 length combined with a simple visual observation, the color of mosquito hindleg tip. DNA extracted from field-collected Anopheles mosquitoes was amplified with universal Anopheles ITS2 primers and analyzed with a capillary electrophoresis device, which precisely determines the size of the fragments. We defined windows of amplicon sizes combined with fifth hind tarsus color, which allow to discriminate the major Anopheles species found in our collections. We validated our parameters via Sanger sequencing of the ITS2 amplicons. This method can be particularly useful in situations with a moderate species diversity, i.e. when the number of local species is too high to define species-specific primers but low enough to avoid individual ITS2 sequencing. This tool will be of interest to evaluate local malaria transmission risk and this approach may further be implemented for other mosquito genera.

The paper describes the method of symbolic evaluation that serves as a useful tool to extend the studies of certain special functions including their properties and capabilities. In the paper, we exploit certain symbolic operators to introduce a new family of special polynomials, which is called the Mittag-Leffler-Gould-Hopper polynomials. We obtain the generating function, series definition and symbolic operational rule for these polynomials. This approach give a wide platform to explore the study of classical and hybrid special polynomials. We establish summation formulae and certain identities for these polynomials. Further, we derive the multiplicative and derivative operators to study the quasi-monomiality property of these polynomials. Some concluding remarks are also given.