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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.

Abstract Background Unintended pregnancy (UIP) and substance use disorder (SUD) share underlying root causes with similar potential impacts for women and their offspring in pregnancy, birth and beyond. Furthermore, use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) increases the risk of UIP. Objectives To assess the available evidence on impact of UIP on health, social and economic outcomes, in women who use AOD. Search Strategy The review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology for Scoping Reviews and PRISMA reporting guidelines. The search was conducted across multiple electronic databases, including Scopus and Medline, and limited to studies published between January 2000 to June 2023. Selection Criteria Studies reporting on interactions between AOD use and UIP, and subsequent pregnancy, birth, infant, childhood, social or economic outcomes. All patterns and types of AOD use, except isolated use of tobacco, were included. Studies were available in English and conducted in high income countries. Data Collection and Analysis Selected articles were reviewed, and data collected by 2 independent reviewers using a standardised data extraction sheet. Findings were summarised and reported descriptively. Main Results A total of 2383 titles and abstracts were screened, 97 full texts were reviewed, and three studies were selected for inclusion in the scoping review. There was heterogeneity in types and patterns of AOD use, differences in study design and tools to assess pregnancy intention, and each focused on disparate outcomes. No study assessed or reported on birth outcomes. Conclusion There is a paucity of data examining the intersection between AOD use and UIP and further research is needed. Funding The University of Sydney Albert S. McKern Scholarship; Australian National Health and Medical research Council fellowship (APP1197940) and Financial Markets Foundation for Children.

Background: Animal models play a crucial role in medicine and biology, but they can’t fully replace human models for studying human biology, disease mechanisms, and drug efficacy. Human organoids offer an opportunity to investigate human diseases and complement animal models. However, research on human organoids lacks comprehensive characterizations. Objective: Identify and describe publications exploring and applying organoids. Methods: Thorough analysis of articles from the past two decades retrieved from Web of Science core collection database. Examined publication year, authors, institutions, countries, references, and keywords. Reviewed top 100 highly cited articles using CiteSpace. Results: Found 6817 original articles on organoids, with a remarkable surge over the past decade (nearly 70-fold increase since 2009). Collaboration among the United States, China, Germany, Netherlands, England, and Japan was prominent. Key figures advancing this field include Clevers Hans, Van Der Laan, Jason R. Spence, and Sato Toshiro. Top articles covered basic research (39%), stem cell development, interactions; biobanking (9%) for organoid cultivation; precision medicine (15%) in cell therapy, drug development; disease modeling (37%) involving pathogen analysis, genetic variant screening. Challenges: high costs, technological barriers, lack of standardized protocols, precise immune system establishment, limited quality clinical trials. Overcoming these requires collaborative efforts, evaluation guidelines. Conclusions: Organoid research focuses on basic research, disease modeling, precision medicine, and biobanking. Prioritizing cost reduction, technology sharing, international standards, and high-quality clinical trials is crucial.

Microbial communities are gaining ground in biotechnology, as they offer many advantages over single-organism monocultures. To make microbial communities competitive as a biotechnological platform, it is essential that we develop strategies to engineering and optimizing their functionality. To this end, most efforts have focused on genetic manipulations. An alternative and also very promising strategy is to optimize the function of microbial communities by rationally engineering their environment and culture conditions. A major challenge is that the combinatorial space of environmental factors is enormous. Furthermore, environmental factors such as temperature, pH, nutrient composition, etc., generally combine their effects in complex, non-additive ways. In this piece, we overview the origins and consequences of these “interactions” between environmental factors, and discuss how they have been built into statistical models of microbial community function to identify optimal environmental conditions. We also overview alternative “top-down” approaches, such as genetic algorithms, to finding combinations of environmental factors that optimize the function of microbial consortia. By providing a brief summary of the state of this field, we hope to stimulate the development of novel methodologies to rationally manipulate and optimize microbial communities through their environment.

Escherichia Coli ( E. coli) is one of the most prevalent bacteria in the gut and plays an important role in the formation of the intestinal microbiome. In this study, Escherichia phage Ioannina, a novel member of Caudoviricetes, with high lytic activity against E. coli ATCC 25922, was isolated from hospital wastewater. Escherichia phage Ioannina was highly resistant to a broad range of temperatures and alkaline pH, but was sensitive to acidic pH. Whole genome sequencing of the phage, revealed that Escherichia phage Ioannina is a novel phage within the Dhillonvirus genus. Its genome is a 45,270 bp double-stranded DNA molecule that encodes 64 putative open reading frames (ORFs). The phylogenetic analysis of open reading frames, which diversified Escherichia phage Ioannina from other dhillonviruses, indicated that ORF31 (a putative tail fiber protein) presented higher similarity to representatives of other phage families. ORF31 was significantly more related to similar ORFs belonging to the Kuravirus and Tunavirus ( Drexlerviridae) genera, indicating a possible recombination event.

Neglecting process quality and product quality in software increases development and maintenance costs. Numerous models have been proposed to assess and grade product quality. However, current models mostly require collecting data about the software throughout the process, rely on questionnaires that generate subjective judgments, and include sets of metrics with sharp thresholds. There is an important need to quickly evaluate software that has completed or is about to complete the development phase prior to acceptance testing, and there is a need for a model that produces practical and objective results adapted to the limited data available. In this paper, we review and compare existing software quality assessment models in the literature and industry and propose a new fuzzy logic inference model inspired by them, where only the software code can be used as input. Comparative measurements show that the proposed model provides more stable and realistic results than the Software Improvement Group (SIG) maintainability model, which is one of the modern and practical methods adopted.

This paper explores the relationship between the reliance on different information sources and infodemic exposure in the early phases of the pandemic. The aim is to identify the sources that create less infodemic. We analyze high-quality secondary data from two studies using a 10-country sample: the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, and South Korea. Study 1 analyzes infodemic exposure through an analysis of 3,723,920 COVID-19 tweets. Likewise, study 2 analyzes reliance on COVID-19 information sources by surveying 10,000 respondents. This research provides perspectives and implications for the infodemic debunking to the government departments, public health organizations, and media industries by analyzing the correlations between these two studies. We found that people who rely on national government information sources about COVID-19 tend to be less exposed to the infodemic. Findings also suggest a correlation between the countries with higher COVID-19 confirmed cases and people’s reliance on the national government information sources. We found that people from countries with more unverified bots tweeting about COVID-19 tend to rely less on family and friends and social media as sources. Evidence also suggests that the most trusted spokespeople are scientists and health professionals rather than politicians. Finally, we observed 70% of the sample´s countries slightly reduced their risk of exposure to the infodemic within 12 months of the pandemic’s start.

Background and Objectives: The retroauricular hairline approach is increasingly being used for submandibular gland resections because of the excellent cosmetic results. A meta-analysis of studies compared the retroauricular hairline and conventional approaches for submandibular gland excision. Methods: A meta-analysis of studies identified from the PubMed, Embase, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed. Postoperative nerve damage (temporary earlobe numbness and other signs of nerve damage), surgical durations, wound lengths, intraoperative bleeding volumes, postoperative drainage, and lengths of hospital stay were compared. Results: The retroauricular hairline approach led to greater risk of temporary earlobe numbness (OR: 7.28; 95% CI: 1.57–33.87; P = 0.01), but this resolved during the follow-up. There was no significant difference in the risk of other nerve injuries between the two approaches. The retroauricular hairline group had significantly longer operative times and wound lengths compared to the conventional resection group. There were no significant differences between the two approaches in intraoperative bleeding volumes, postoperative drainage, and lengths of hospital stay. Conclusions: The retroauricular hairline approach is a safe and efficient alternative to the conventional approach. It provides better cosmetic results and does not increase the risk of long-term neurological complications.

Background and aims: This study aimed to identify studies that provide comprehensive information on the biological-molecular changes of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) from January 1, 2000, to the end of November 2021. Methods: Two researchers independently searched electronic databases using keywords and Boolean operators. Inclusion criteria included studies published in English, peer-reviewed, and with appropriate information on IBC’s biological-molecular changes. Exclusion criteria were studies not in English, those without sufficient information on molecular and biological processes related to cancer, or those including other cancers. Results: From an initial selection of 1639 studies, 11 were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results highlight the importance of rigorous search strategies in identifying relevant studies in the field of cancer research. Conclusions: Understanding the unique traits of inflammatory breast cancer is crucial in determining its aggressive nature. Differential diagnosis of IBC from other types of breast cancer is necessary as genetic and molecular alterations in IBC are also present in non-IBC breast cancer, despite potential differences in treatment.

In the realm of computer vision, paddy (Oryza Sativa) plays a pivotal role as a globally consumed staple crop. Its cultivation, harvesting, processing, and storage involve intricate quality control. Numerous factors, including weather conditions and irrigation frequency, influence grain quality. To address this, we present an innovative approach that combines image processing and machine learning (ML). Existing methods for rice grain quality assessment, while valuable, are tailored to rice-specific characteristics, employing complex and costly setups and opaque ML models. Our research overcomes these limitations with a robust ML-based IoT system for paddy grain quality assessment, using affordable sensors, a comprehensive data collection process, and an ML-driven image processing model. Importantly, our approach utilizes interpretable features like Shape, Size, Moisture, and Maturity for paddy grain classification. Rigorous real-world testing confirms its precision, marking it as the first automated system capable of providing a reliable overall quality metric. Our system’s unique feature lies in its transparency, with clear features and fuzzy rules, inspiring confidence and trust. While our experiments primarily feature Indian Subcontinent grain varieties, the system’s adaptability to diverse paddy types is evident, contributing significantly to computer vision.

Vertical axis wind turbine has been conceived as one of the best candidates for converting untapped kinetic energy of turbulent and unsteady airstream into electricity. Intelligible data on detailed analysis of performance of such a useful turbine is still scarcely found in the vast world of scientific literature. The report entitled “Design and performance analysis of Giromill Vertical Axis Wind Turbine” attempts to analyze performance of the VAWT at different tip speed ratios (TSR), for different number of blades, at different velocities and blade pitch angles. The Double Multiple Steam Tube model was used to find the design parameter of the Giromill Vertical Axis Wind Turbine after analyzing the performance curves at different solidity ratios and tip speed ratios. The turbine with radius 1.12m, chord length 0.11m obtained from the DMST model was used for various 2D computational fluid dynamics simulations. The result showed that the DMST model over-estimates the value of coefficient of performance than the 2D CFD analysis. Simulation results shows the dominance of three-bladed turbine, in performance, over four-bladed turbine at different design parameters, by around 4.3% for same inlet wind velocity of 4m/s. Also, the performance of three bladed wind turbine is found to be better for different wind velocity and it increases at suitable negative blade pitch angle.

Moment-based determination of a probability density function (PDF) is widely used in chemical and process engineering applications as they provide an efficient approach to analyze and solve complex systems. In this study, three different approaches are implemented for estimating probability distributions from their moments. These procedures are based on the reconstruction of a distribution knowing only a limited number of moments using Chebyshev polynomials, Hermite polynomials and Lagrange polynomials. To show the applicability of these approaches, various test cases with reduced set of moments are solved with a set of standard distribution families (Normal, Weibull, Log Normal and Bimodal) and with complex distributions (Smoluchowski coagulation equation and population balance equation). The results are compared with their analytical solutions using both small and big variance distributions. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) matrix and the RMSE values of the interpolation procedure using Lagrange polynomials predict a better estimation for all the test cases compared to the other approaches including the standard monomial approach (with higher number of moments) implemented in this study. The K-S test values decreased by 19% compared to the standard monomial procedure and 11% compared to both Chebyshev and Hermite polynomial approaches. Similarly, the RMSE values improved by 85% compared to the standard monomial procedure and 62% compared to both Chebyshev and Hermite polynomial approaches. This indicates that the procedure using Lagrange polynomials is a more reliable reconstruction procedure that calculates the approximate distribution using lesser number of moments N which is desirable.

The problem of determining the elastic bounds of the coupling tensor for anisotropic laminates is addressed in this paper. It is shown how the invariant polar moduli of the coupling tensor interact with those of the extension and bending tensors to define all the conditions to be satisfied by such set of tensors describing the elastic behavior of an anisotropic laminate composed by identical layers. Some peculiar cases, interesting for applications, are also considered.