Jeffersonmaclean7965

Eco-restoration initiative work in the high altitude Dayara pastureland (3501 m) from the Indian Himalayan Region has been considered to be one of the successful field demonstration against both natural and anthropogenic degradation. The present study therefore attempts to assess the implications of entire eco-restoration model as practiced by Department of Forest, Government of Uttarakhand in 2019. Its assessment was done by calculating restoration success index by way of considering three categories, viz., direct management measure (M), environmental desirability (E) and socio-economic feasibility (SE) considering 22 individual variables. 'M' comprised both biotic and abiotic pressures. click here Grazing and tourism were biotic, while abiotic pressure was considered mainly soil erosion in alpine area due to topographic fragility. Above ground vegetation profile and below ground soil nutrient profile (N, P, K, pH and water holding capacity) were analyzed in 'E' component. In the last but not least, 'SE' was analyzed torse/mule and 18 sheep/goat, already controlled), 318 local CU (30 horse/mule and 187 sheep/goat) were calculated and recommended to be controlled. Tourists' carrying capacity of 274 tourists per day and manual removal of Rumex nepalensis at the shepherd camping site were found to be worth to apply in the area. Use of biodegradable but locally sourced material and engaging local villagers in this endeavor were also found to be in harmony with SDG Goal 1 (no poverty). Therefore, the restoration and its evaluation model could have its future prospects to prove as a successful restoration practice. This restoration practice could not only be worth in high altitude degraded alpine pastures of the Indian Himalayan Region but also to other mountain alpine and sub-alpine ecosystems.Worldwide, knee osteoarthritis (KOA) accounts for 2.2% of total years lived with disability. There is a low correlation between joint tissue damage and pain intensity. Periarticular structures may be involved and cannot be identified in X-rays. To describe the main ultrasonography (USG) changes in symptomatic patients with primary KOA; to correlate the number of USG findings with KOA severity assessed by Kellgren and Lawrence (K&L) radiological scores, with pain intensity measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and with functioning scores assessed with the Timed up and go test (TUG) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) questionnaire. 100 patients with primary symptomatic KOA were assessed with X-ray and USG. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were evaluated in a systematic manner. The most frequent findings were joint effusion, pes anserinus bursitis, quadriceps tendon enthesopathy, popliteal cyst, iliotibial band tendinitis and patellar tendinitis. Pearson's correlation analysis demonstrated a significant moderate positive association between VAS scores and the number of USG findings (r = 0.36; p  less then  0.0001). The number of USG findings was different between K&L grades I and III (p = 0.041), I and IV (p  less then  0.001), and II and IV (p = 0.001, analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction). There was significant association between number of USG findings and TUG (r = 0.18; p = 0.014) and WOMAC scores for pain (r = 0.16; p  less then  0.029) and physical function domains (r = 0.16; p  less then  0.028). The most frequent USG finding was joint effusion. Periarticular structures should be explored as potential sources of pain and disability.Two types of highly stable 0.1% graphene oxide-based aqueous nanofluids were synthesised and investigated. The first nanofluid (GO) was prepared under the influence of ultrasonic irradiation without surfactant. The second nanofluid was treated with tetra ethyl ammonium hydroxide to reduce the graphene oxide to form reduced graphene oxide (RGO) during ultrasonic irradiation. The GO and RGO powders were characterised by various techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman. Also UV-visible absorption spectroscopy was carried out and band gap energies were determined. Optical band gap energies for indirect transitions ranged from 3.4 to 4.4 eV and for direct transitions they ranged between 2.2 and 3.7 eV. Thermal conductivity measurements of the GO-based aqueous nanofluid revealed an enhancement of 9.5% at 40 °C compared to pure water, while the RGO-based aqueous nanofluid at 40 °C had a value 9.23% lower than pure water. Furthermore, the photothermal response of the RGO-based aqueous nanofluid had a temperature increase of 13.5 °C, (enhancement of 60.2%) compared to pure water, the GO-based aqueous nanofluid only displayed a temperature rise of 10.9 °C, (enhancement of 46.6%) after 20 min exposure to a solar irradiance of 1000 W m-2. Both nanofluid types displayed good long-term stability, with the GO-based aqueous nanofluid having a zeta potential of 30.3 mV and the RGO-based aqueous nanofluid having a value of 47.6 mV after 6 months. The good dispersion stability and photothermal performance makes both nanofluid types very promising working fluids for low-temperature direct absorption solar collectors.We examined whether heterosexual individuals' self-reported sexual orientation could be influenced experimentally by manipulating their knowledge of the nature of sexual orientation. In Study 1 (180 university students, 66% female) participants read summaries describing evidence for sexual orientation existing on a continuum versus discrete categories or a control manipulation, and in Study 2 (460 participants in a nationally representative Qualtrics panel, 50% female) additionally read summaries describing sexual orientation as fluid versus stable across the life-course. After reading summaries, participants answered various questions about their sexual orientation. In Study 1, political moderates and progressives (but not conservatives) who read the continuous manipulation subsequently reported being less exclusively heterosexual, and regardless of political alignment, participants reported less certainty about their sexual orientation, relative to controls. In Study 2, after exposure to fluid or continuous manipulations heterosexual participants were up to five times more likely than controls to rate themselves as non-exclusively heterosexual. Additionally, those in the continuous condition reported less certainty about their sexual orientation and were more willing to engage in future same-sex sexual experiences, than those in the control condition. These results suggest that non-traditional theories of sexual orientation can lead heterosexuals to embrace less exclusive heterosexual orientations.The way infants learn language is a highly complex adaptive behavior. This behavior chiefly relies on the ability to extract information from the speech they hear and combine it with information from the external environment. Most theories assume that this ability critically hinges on the recognition of at least some syntactic structure. Here, we show that child-directed speech allows for semantic inference without relying on explicit structural information. We simulate the process of semantic inference with machine learning applied to large text collections of two different types of speech, child-directed speech versus adult-directed speech. Taking the core meaning of causality as a test case, we find that in child-directed speech causal meaning can be successfully inferred from simple co-occurrences of neighboring words. By contrast, semantic inference in adult-directed speech fundamentally requires additional access to syntactic structure. These results suggest that child-directed speech is ideally shaped for a learner who has not yet mastered syntactic structure.In a companion paper by Cohen-Adad et al. we introduce the spine generic quantitative MRI protocol that provides valuable metrics for assessing spinal cord macrostructural and microstructural integrity. This protocol was used to acquire a single subject dataset across 19 centers and a multi-subject dataset across 42 centers (for a total of 260 participants), spanning the three main MRI manufacturers GE, Philips and Siemens. Both datasets are publicly available via git-annex. Data were analysed using the Spinal Cord Toolbox to produce normative values as well as inter/intra-site and inter/intra-manufacturer statistics. Reproducibility for the spine generic protocol was high across sites and manufacturers, with an average inter-site coefficient of variation of less than 5% for all the metrics. Full documentation and results can be found at https//spine-generic.rtfd.io/ . The datasets and analysis pipeline will help pave the way towards accessible and reproducible quantitative MRI in the spinal cord.Simultaneously enhancing strength and ductility of metals and alloys has been a tremendous challenge. Here, we investigate a CoCuFeNiPd high-entropy alloy (HEA), using a combination of Monte Carlo method, molecular dynamic simulation, and density-functional theory calculation. Our results show that this HEA is energetically favorable to undergo short-range ordering (SRO), and the SRO leads to a pseudo-composite microstructure, which surprisingly enhances both the ultimate strength and ductility. The SRO-induced composite microstructure consists of three categories of clusters face-center-cubic-preferred (FCCP) clusters, indifferent clusters, and body-center-cubic-preferred (BCCP) clusters, with the indifferent clusters playing the role of the matrix, the FCCP clusters serving as hard fillers to enhance the strength, while the BCCP clusters acting as soft fillers to increase the ductility. Our work highlights the importance of SRO in influencing the mechanical properties of HEAs and presents a fascinating route for designing HEAs to achieve superior mechanical properties.Influenza during pregnancy can affect the health of offspring in later life, among which neurocognitive disorders are among the best described. Here, we investigate whether maternal influenza infection has adverse effects on immune responses in offspring. We establish a two-hit mouse model to study the effect of maternal influenza A virus infection (first hit) on vulnerability of offspring to heterologous infections (second hit) in later life. Offspring born to influenza A virus infected mothers are stunted in growth and more vulnerable to heterologous infections (influenza B virus and MRSA) than those born to PBS- or poly(IC)-treated mothers. Enhanced vulnerability to infection in neonates is associated with reduced haematopoetic development and immune responses. In particular, alveolar macrophages of offspring exposed to maternal influenza have reduced capacity to clear second hit pathogens. This impaired pathogen clearance is partially reversed by adoptive transfer of alveolar macrophages from healthy offspring born to uninfected dams. These findings suggest that maternal influenza infection may impair immune ontogeny and increase susceptibility to early life infections of offspring.COVID-19 vaccines were developed with an unprecedented pace since the beginning of the pandemic. Several of them have reached market authorization and mass production, leading to their global application on a large scale. This enormous progress was achieved with fundamentally different vaccine technologies used in parallel. mRNA, adenoviral vector as well as inactivated whole-virus vaccines are now in widespread use, and a subunit vaccine is in a final stage of authorization. They all rely on the native viral spike protein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 for inducing potently neutralizing antibodies, but the presentation of this key antigen to the immune system differs substantially between the different categories of vaccines. In this article, we review the relevance of structural modifications of S in different vaccines and the different modes of antigen expression after vaccination with genetic adenovirus-vector and mRNA vaccines. Distinguishing characteristics and unknown features are highlighted in the context of protective antibody responses and reactogenicity of vaccines.