Search Results (36)

The eastern North Pacific Ocean coastline (from the Salish Sea to the western Aleutian Islands) is highly glaciated with relic sediment deposits scattered throughout a highly contoured and variable bathymetry. Oceanographic conditions feature strong currents and tidal exchange. Sand wave fields are prominent features within these glaciated shorelines and provide critical habitat to sand lance (Ammodytes spp.). Despite an awareness of the importance of these benthic habitats, attributes related to their structure and characteristics remain undocumented. We explored the micro-bathymetric morphology of a subtidal sand wave field known to be a consistent habitat for sand lance. We calculated geomorphic attributes of the bedform habitat, analyzed sediment composition, and measured oceanographic properties of the associated water column. This feature has a streamlined teardrop form, tapered in the direction of the predominant tidal current. Consistent flow paths along the long axis contribute to well-defined and maintained bedform morphology and margin. Distinct patterns in amplitude and period of sand waves were documented. Strong tidal exchange has resulted in well-sorted medium-to-coarse-grained sediments with coarser sediments, including gravel and cobble, within wave troughs. Extensive mixing related to tidal currents results in a highly oxygenated water column, even to depths of 80 m. Our analysis provides unique insights into the physical characteristics that define high-quality habitat for these fish. Further work is needed to identify, enumerate, and map the presence and relative quality of these benthic habitats and to characterize the oceanographic properties that maintain these benthic habitats over time. Full article

The present study aimed to develop biodegradable films formulated with pectin/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and cinnamon essential oil, investigating the effects of CP treatment time on the properties of the films. The developed films were used as packaging to evaluate the shelf life of chicken meat. Biodegradable films were produced from a film-forming solution containing pectin/CMC, glycerol (30%), and cinnamon essential oil (2%). All formulations included the essential oil, and the control group corresponded to the film that was not subjected to CP treatment. The CP treatments were applied at 22.5 L/min, 20 kV, and 80 kHz for 10, 20, and 30 min. The results showed that increasing CP treatment time led to a progressive reduction in apparent viscosity, indicating improved homogeneity of the polymer system. Hydrophobicity increased with treatment time, as shown by a higher contact angle (from 51.15° to 62.38°), resulting in lower water solubility. Mechanical properties were also enhanced, with tensile strength rising from 3.29 MPa to 6.74 MPa after 30 min of CP. Biodegradability improved with treatment time, reaching 99.51% mass loss after 15 days for the longest exposure. Films produced from the solution treated for 30 min (FCP30) were most effective in extending the shelf life of chicken breast fillets, reducing lipid oxidation (TBARS: 61.9%), peroxide content (58.7%), and microbial spoilage (TVB-N: 59.2%) compared to the untreated film. Overall, the results highlight the importance of CP treatment time as a key factor in enhancing film performance, supporting its application in sustainable active packaging. Full article

Spray drying (SD) is widely used for fruit powder production, but hygroscopic compounds can affect flowability and cause stickiness. This study evaluated rice protein and rice starch as encapsulating agents during SD of blueberry pulp (BPP and BPS, respectively), combined with ozone aeration (BPP-O3 and BPS-O3), focusing on physical, morphological, structural, and bioactive properties, as well as 56-day stability. The process yield was 55.26% (BPP) and 52.5% (BPS) (p < 0.05). All microparticles had low moisture (<5.03%) and water activity (<0.21%). BPP had higher phenolic (308.60 mg GAE/100 g) and anthocyanin content (85.26 mg/100 g), while BPS had more flavonoids (33.84 mg CE/100 g). Ozone treatment increased solubility (89.10–91.27%) and reduced hygroscopicity (9.25–10.06%). Morphological analysis revealed that BPP produced smaller, uniform particles (11.70 µm), whereas BPS generated larger (16.67 µm) and more agglomerated particles. Ozone improved sphericity, reduced agglomeration, and enhanced flow properties. FT-IR analysis indicated no new functional groups but a reduction in absorbance bands. Ozone also enhanced the stability of bioactive compounds, reducing anthocyanin and flavonoid degradation over 56 days. Overall, BPP-O3 is a promising approach for producing functional powders with enhanced stability and physical properties, suitable for food applications. Full article

Elementary school curricular standards in the United States emphasize mathematics and literacy, while social studies and science are often left behind. Integrating science instruction with either mathematics or literacy is a strategy some teachers use to teach skills and concepts in both disciplines. Understanding science at a young age is reliant on grasping vocabulary that is new to the learner. Integrating visual imagery into reading instruction improves students’ comprehension, enhances retrieval, and increases retention. The media-based reading enhancement of text through spatial computing has begun to show promise for the integration of science vocabulary and reading comprehension, especially for low-proficiency readers. This paper provides a literary rationale for technology-enhanced intervention, provides examples of a study conducted to test the efficacy of such an intervention, presents the implications of the study’s findings, and discusses future avenues for how spatial computing might be used in science and literacy instruction in the future. Full article

Despite its importance to everyday functioning, reasoning is underexplored in developmental dyslexia. The current study investigated verbal deductive reasoning on the Wason selection task, not previously used in dyslexia research despite its well-established pedigree. Reasoning rule was manipulated, with the conditional rules varying in the logical values presented. The word frequency and imageability of the word terms was also manipulated. Twenty-six adults with dyslexia and 31 adults without dyslexia completed Wason selection task problems. No group difference in reasoning accuracy or completion time was found. However, the participants were most accurate when reasoning with the rule type “If p, then not q” and least accurate with the rule type “If p then q”. More trials were also answered correctly when the word terms were highly imageable but of average word frequency. These findings are in line with the general reasoning literature. Dyslexia status did not interact with either rule type or word term type. The study expands upon previous research by testing verbal deductive reasoning in dyslexia, highlighting the role of imageability in facilitating reasoning performance for all, regardless of the presence or absence of dyslexia. Implications for the design of educational materials are considered. Full article

Cryptococcus is a genus of fungal pathogens that can infect and cause disease in a range of host species and is particularly prominent in koalas (Phascolarctos cinerus). Like other host species, koalas display a range of outcomes upon exposure to environmental Cryptococcus, from external nasal colonization to asymptomatic invasive infection and, in rare cases, severe clinical disease resulting in death. Host factors contributing to these varied outcomes are poorly understood. Due to their close relationship with eucalypt trees (a key environmental niche for Cryptococcus gattii) and suspected continual exposure to the pathogen, koalas provide a unique opportunity to examine host susceptibility in natural infections. Caspase recruitment domain-containing protein 9 (CARD9) is a key intracellular signaling protein in the fungal innate immune response. Humans with mutations in CARD9 succumb to several different severe and chronic fungal infections. This study is the first to sequence and explore CARD9 variation in multiple koalas using Sanger sequencing. Four CARD9 exons were successfully sequenced in 22 koalas from a New South Wales, Australia population. We found minimal variation between koalas across all four exons, an observation that was also made when CARD9 sequences were compared between koalas and six other species, including humans and mice. Ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were identified in this study and explored in the context of cryptococcal exposure outcomes. While we did not find any significant association with variation in cryptococcal outcomes, we found a high degree of conservation between species at several SNP loci that requires further investigation. The findings from this study lay the groundwork for further investigations of CARD9 and Cryptococcus both in koalas and other species, and highlight several considerations for future studies. Full article

The expansion of copper mining on the hyper-arid pacific slope of Southern Peru has precipitated growing concern for scarce water resources in the region. Located in the headwaters of the Torata river, in the department of Moquegua, the Cuajone mine, owned by Southern Copper, provides a unique opportunity in a little-studied region to examine the relative impact of the landscape-scale mining on water resources in the region. Principal component and cluster analyses of the water chemistry data from 16 sites, collected over three seasons during 2017 and 2018, show distinct statistical groupings indicating that, above the settlement of Torata, water geochemistry is a function of chemical weathering processes acting upon underlying geological units, and confirming that the Cuajone mine does not significantly affect water quality in the Torata river. Impact mitigation strategies that firstly divert channel flow around the mine and secondly divert mine waste to the Toquepala river and tailings dam at Quebrada Honda remove the direct effects on the water quality in the Torata river for the foreseeable future. In the study area, our results further suggest that water quality has been more significantly impacted by urban effluents and agricultural runoff than the Cuajone mine. The increase in total dissolved solids in the waters of the lower catchment reflects the cumulative addition of dissolved ions through chemical weathering of the underlying geological units, supplemented by rapid recharge of surface waters contaminated by residues associated with agricultural and urban runoff through the porous alluvial aquifer. Concentrations in some of the major ions exceeded internationally recommended maxima for agricultural use, especially in the coastal region. Occasionally, arsenic and manganese contamination also reached unsafe levels for domestic consumption. In the lower catchment, below the Cuajone mine, data and multivariate analyses point to urban effluents and agricultural runoff rather than weathering of exposed rock units, natural or otherwise, as the main cause of contamination. Full article

Introduction: The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of diabetes-related factors on the dental disease outcomes of diabetes patients in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Materials and Methods: Dental data were collected from 80 type-2-diabetic individuals. A dental risk score was calculated based on the frequency of dental outcomes observed and categorized as low risk (≤3 dental outcomes) and high risk (>3 dental outcomes). Results: In this cohort of men and women with type 2 diabetes, there was a high frequency of periodontal related outcomes, including missing teeth (70%), gingival recessions (40%), tooth mobility (41%), and bleeding (20%). Thirty-nine (39%) of participants had high dental risk, while forty-nine (61%) had low risk. Conclusions: After controlling for age, participants with higher capillary blood glucose levels had 3-fold greater odds of a high dental risk score (OR = 2.93, 95%CI = 1.13, 7.61). We found that poor glycemic control indicated by elevated capillary blood glucose was associated with increased dental risk. Full article

Prior research has shown that the home learning environment (HLE) is critical in the development of spatial skills and that various parental beliefs influence the HLE. However, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of different parental beliefs on the spatial HLE remains lacking, leaving unanswered questions about which specific parental beliefs are most influential and whether inducing a growth mindset can enhance the spatial HLE. To address these gaps, we conducted an online study with parents of 3- to 5-year-olds. We found that parents’ growth mindset about their children’s ability strongly predicted the spatial HLE after controlling for parents’ motivational beliefs about their children, beliefs about their own ability, children’s age, children’s gender, and family SES. Further, reading an article about growth mindset led parents to choose more challenging spatial learning activities for their children. These findings highlight the critical role of parents’ growth mindset in the spatial HLE. Crucially, these findings demonstrate that general growth mindset messages without specific suggestions for parental practices can influence parental behavior intentions. Further, these effects were also observed in the control domain of literacy, underscoring the broad relevance of the growth mindset in the HLE. Full article

Australia’s building energy use accounts for a significant portion of the country’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings consume energy for a variety of purposes, including space heating, cooling, lighting, and powering electronics. Smart and sustainable building management practices allow buildings to be managed and operated more efficiently and sustainably. This study investigated the energy consumption and building management performance of a university building in Sydney, Australia. The experiment was performed by monitoring occupant comfort and building performance feedback with a push-pull mobile phone application and portable sensor technologies. The results showed that several factors influenced the occupants’ environmental comfort level, including temperature, lighting, noise, air quality, air movement, and relative humidity. Nevertheless, the ambient office temperature has a significantly higher impact on occupants’ comfort level. Results also showed that the local temperature experienced and preferred by individual occupants may vary, even under identical thermal conditions. The outcomes also confirmed strong correlations between the comfort and concentration levels (r(231) = 0.61, p = 0) and between the comfort and productivity levels (r(231) = 0.62, p = 0). Temporal analysis also revealed lower comfort levels between 13h00 and 16h00 and higher comfort levels between 10h00 and 12h00 and 17h00 and 19h00. The findings of this research indicated that ≤4% of total annual building energy consumption costs may be saved by more effectively and efficiently managing office thermostat control. More accurate and zone-based energy analysis could also reveal higher energy savings through smart occupant feedback-oriented thermostat and lighting control in commercial and office buildings. Full article

Polymeric foams, embedded with nano-scale conductive particles, have previously been shown to display quasi-piezoelectric (QPE) properties; i.e., they produce a voltage in response to rapid deformation. This behavior has been utilized to sense impact and vibration in foam components, such as in sports padding and vibration-isolating pads. However, a detailed characterization of the sensing behavior has not been undertaken. Furthermore, the potential for sensing quasi-static deformation in the same material has not been explored. This paper provides new insights into these self-sensing foams by characterizing voltage response vs frequency of deformation. The correlation between temperature and voltage response is also quantified. Furthermore, a new sensing functionality is observed, in the form of a piezoresistive response to quasi-static deformation. The piezoresistive characteristics are quantified for both in-plane and through-thickness resistance configurations. The new functionality greatly enhances the potential applications for the foam, for example, as insoles that can characterize ground reaction force and pressure during dynamic and/or quasi-static circumstances, or as seat cushioning that can sense pressure and impact. Full article

Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) fusion is mediated by glycoprotein-41, a protein that has not been widely exploited as a drug target. Small molecules directed at the gp41 ectodomain have proved to be poorly drug-like, having moderate efficacy, high hydrophobicity and/or high molecular weight. We recently investigated conversion of a fairly potent hydrophobic inhibitor into a covalent binder, by modifying it to react with a lysine residue on the protein. We demonstrated a 10-fold improvement in antiviral efficacy. Here, we continue this study, utilizing instead molecules with better inherent drug-like properties. Molecules possessing low to no antiviral activity as equilibrium binders were converted into µM inhibitors upon addition of an electrophilic warhead in the form of a sulfotetrafluorophenyl (STP) activated ester. We confirmed specificity for gp41 and for entry. The small size of the inhibitors described here offers an opportunity to expand their reach into neighboring pockets while retaining drug-likeness. STP esterification of equilibrium binders is a promising avenue to explore for inhibiting HIV-1 entry. Many gp41 targeting molecules studied over the years possess carboxylic acid groups which can be easily converted into the corresponding STP ester. It may be worth the effort to evaluate a library of such inhibitors as a way forward to small molecule inhibition of fusion of HIV and possibly other enveloped viruses. Full article

The composition, sizes and shapes of particles in the clouds of Venus have previously been studied with a variety of in situ and remote sensor measurements. A number of major questions remain unresolved, however, motivating the development of an exploratory mission that will drop a small probe, instrumented with a single-particle autofluorescence nephelometer (AFN), into Venus’s atmosphere. The AFN is specifically designed to address uncertainties associated with the asphericity and complex refractive indices of cloud particles. The AFN projects a collimated, focused, linearly polarized, 440 nm wavelength laser beam through a window of the capsule into the airstream and measures the polarized components of some of the light that is scattered by individual particles that pass through the laser beam. The AFN also measures fluorescence from those particles that contain material that fluoresce when excited at a wavelength of 440 nm and emit at 470–520 nm. Fluorescence is expected from some organic molecules if present in the particles. AFN measurements during probe passage through the Venus clouds are intended to provide constraints on particle number concentration, size, shape, and composition. Hypothesized organics, if present in Venus aerosols, may be detected by the AFN as a precursor to precise identification via future missions. The AFN has been chosen as the primary science instrument for the upcoming Rocket Lab mission to Venus, to search for organic molecules in the cloud particles and constrain the particle composition. Full article

Thirty conventional and twenty-four organic dairy farms were divided into equal numbers within system groups: high-pasture, standard-pasture, and low-pasture groups. Milk samples were collected monthly for 12 consecutive months. Milk from high-pasture organic farms contained less fat and protein than standard- and low-pasture organic farms, but more lactose than low-pasture organic farms. Grazing, concentrate feed intake and the contribution of non-Holstein breeds were the key drivers for these changes. Milk Ca and P concentrations were lower in standard-pasture conventional farms than the other conventional groups. Milk from low-pasture organic farms contained less Ca than high- and standard-pasture organic farms, while high-pasture organic farms produced milk with the highest Sn concentration. Differences in mineral concentrations were driven by the contribution of non-Holstein breeds, feeding practices, and grazing activity; but due to their relatively low numerical differences between groups, the subsequent impact on consumers’ dietary mineral intakes would be minor. Full article

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international, world-class experiment aimed at exploring fundamental questions about the universe that are at the forefront of astrophysics and particle physics research. DUNE will study questions pertaining to the preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of supernovae, the subtleties of neutrino interaction physics, and a number of beyond the Standard Model topics accessible in a powerful neutrino beam. A critical component of the DUNE physics program involves the study of changes in a powerful beam of neutrinos, i.e., neutrino oscillations, as the neutrinos propagate a long distance. The experiment consists of a near detector, sited close to the source of the beam, and a far detector, sited along the beam at a large distance. This document, the DUNE Near Detector Conceptual Design Report (CDR), describes the design of the DUNE near detector and the science program that drives the design and technology choices. The goals and requirements underlying the design, along with projected performance are given. It serves as a starting point for a more detailed design that will be described in future documents. Full article