This paper reports from the study dealing with the preliminary investigations, concerning forecasting of electric power consumption of some industries from Ahmednagar city. The investigations ...regarding the potential energy consumption are mainly directed to three energy-related aspects or drives, namely: (i) energy policy, (ii) production of green and non-green products, and (iii) production of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and non-FMCG products. The here proposed methodology is implemented in three phases. The first, initial phase concerns the preparation of the questionnaire that clearly addresses the effects of the aforementioned drives on various industries. The issues mentioned in the questionnaire are closely related to the industries from Ahmednagar city. In the second phase, the prepared questionnaire was distributed to the industries of Ahmednagar city. In the questionnaire, all the questions are made mandatory and subsequently, the industrial authorities are demanded to fill up the precise information as much as possible. The responses from the concerned industries related to power management are then subject to analysis. The analysis is done with the focus on correlation coefficients. Thereby, determining the correlation between different factors helps to arrive a conclusion regarding the dependencies of various factors in the potential power consumption of industries in Ahmednagar city. Keywords: energy policy, industry, green and non-green products, FMCG and non-FMCG products, correlation analysis
Physiological and behavioural reactions of cattle to handling procedures in a commercial abattoir (electrical prodding actions and duration of the animals׳ stay in the stunning box) were evaluated ...and set in relation to sex, breed type, and carcass weight. A total of 192 cattle comprised of 45 bulls, 61 steers, and 86 heifers from different breed types (30 dairy breed, 70 beef breed, and 92 crossbreds) were observed from lairage to slaughter during one day. The frequency of electrical proddings and the waiting time in the stunning box was recorded for each individual. As a measure of a behavioural stress response, the number of vocalising animals was recorded. Exsanguination blood serum samples were analysed for cortisol, glucose, and lactate concentrations. Forty-nine animals received no electrical prods; 117 animals were prodded one to three times, and 24 animals received between 4 and 9 prods. Thirteen per cent of all animals were recorded as vocalisers. There was a trend (P=0.07) that heifers vocalised more than bulls and steers. Mean levels per ml of blood were 77.2ng cortisol (SE=68.8), 5.7μmol glucose (SE=1.3), and 6.7μmol lactate (SE=3.3). Cortisol concentrations were lower in bulls than in steers and in heifers (P<0.01), and concentrations above 90ng/ml were measured in 21.3% of the steers and 27.8% of the heifers, but not in the bulls. Lactate and glucose concentrations were not influenced by sex. Breed type had no influence on any of the stress-indicating traits. Prodding categories were not related with concentrations of the blood variables and the number of vocalising animals. A longer stay in the stunning box led to increased cortisol concentrations (P<0.05), but had no influence on lactate and glucose concentrations or on the number of vocalising animals. In conclusion, stress levels were relatively high in the present case, but it was not possible to relate the stress indicators unequivocally to the potential factors of influence investigated.
This study aimed to evaluate if patients under biologics have a lower risk of psoriasis flares after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination than other psoriatic patients. Of 322 recently ...vaccinated patients admitted for psoriasis at the Dermatological Psoriasis Unit during January and February 2022, 316 (98%) had no psoriasis flares after COVID-19 vaccination (79% under biologic treatment, 21% not biologically treated) and 6 (2%) presented psoriasis flares after COVID-19 vaccination (33.3% under biologic treatment, 66.6% not biologically treated). Overall, psoriasis patients under biologic treatment, developed fewer psoriasis flares after COVID-19 vaccination (33.3%), than patients not under biologic treatment (66.6%) (p=0.0207; Fisher's exact test).
Defensive burying refers to the typical rodent behavior of displacing bedding material with vigorous treading-like movements of their forepaws and shoveling movements of their heads directed towards ...a variety of noxious stimuli that pose a near and immediate threat, such as a wall-mounted electrified shock-prod. Since its introduction 25 years ago by Pinel and Treit J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 92 (1978) 708, defensive (shock-prod) burying has been the focus of a considerable amount of research effort delineating the methodology/ethology, psychopharmacology and neurobiology of this robust and species-specific active avoidance or coping response. The present review gives a summary of this research with special reference to the behavioral (face and construct) and pharmacological (predictive) validity of the shock-prod burying test as an animal model for human anxiety. Emphasis is also placed on some recent modifications of the paradigm that may increase its utility and reliability as to individual differences in expressed emotional coping responses and sensitivity to pharmacological treatments. Overall, the behavioral and physiological responses displayed in the shock-prod paradigm are expressions of normal and functionally adaptive coping patterns and the extremes of either active (i.e., burying) or passive (i.e., freezing) forms of responding in this test cannot simply be regarded as inappropriate, maladaptive or pathological. For this reason, the shock-prod paradigm is not an animal model for anxiety disorder or for any other psychiatric disease, but instead possesses a high degree of face and construct validity for normal and functionally adaptive human fear and anxious apprehension. However, the apparent good pharmacological validation (predictive validity) of this test reinforces the view that normal and pathological anxiety involves, at least partly, common neurobiological substrates. Therefore, this paradigm is not only suitable for screening potential anxiolytic properties of new drugs, but seems to be especially valuable for unraveling the neural circuitry and neurochemical mechanisms underlying the generation of active and passive coping responses as different expressions of anxiety.
Successful implementation of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) requires appropriate action as informed by reference points in an ecosystem context. Thresholds in the response of ecological ...indicators to system drivers have been suggested as reference points for EBFM, though the management performance of these indicators and possible values for their reference points have not been widely evaluated. We used Management Strategy Evaluation to test the performance of control rules that used ecological indicators to adjust the advice from single-species stock assessments, using the Georges Bank finfish fishery as a case study. We compare the performance of control rules that used ecological indicators to that of single-species F sub(MSY) control rules when the system dynamics were governed by the same multispecies population model. Control rules that used indicator-based reference points were able to perform better against catch and biodiversity objectives than when harvests were based on single-species advice alone. Indicators and values for reference points associated with good performance varied depending on the management objective. We quantified tradeoffs between total catch, biodiversity, and interannual variability in catch, noting that it was possible in some instances to achieve higher than average biodiversity while maintaining high catches using indicator-based control rules. While improved performance was noted using ecological indicators, outcomes were variable, and the gains in performance obtained may be similar to alternative methods of implementing precaution in single-species fishery control rules.
INTRODUCTIONBoth hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have been comorbid illnesses with increasing morbidity and mortality. The present study was conducted to present ...real-life experiences about treatment of HCV and CKD with a fixed-dose combination of paritaprevir 150 mg/day, ritonavir 100 mg/day as a booster, ombitasvir 25 mg/day, and dasabuvir 250 mg twice/day, the PROD regimen.
PATIENTS AND METHODSThis was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study. Seventy-five patients with both HCV and CKD were treated with a PROD-based regimen with or without ribavirin. Fifty-three of 75 patients were on maintenance hemodialysis program. Seven patients had compensated liver cirrhosis. The patients with genotype 1a or compensated liver cirrhosis were treated with the PROD regimen and ribavirin in a dose of 200 mg every other day for 12 weeks. The patients with genotype 1b were treated with PROD for 12 weeks. The patients with genotype 4 were treated with a combination of paritaprevir, ritonavir, ombitasvir, and ribavirin 200 mg every other day.
RESULTSAll patients except one were HCV-RNA negative (98.6%) at the end of treatment. One patient had decompensated after the fourth day of therapy. She stopped the treatment, and she was exitus after 2 months. Two patients died of reasons not related to the drugs 2 months after negativity of HCV-RNA. Sustained viral rate 12 weeks after treatment was found in 96% of the patients.
CONCLUSIONThe PROD regimen was very effective and safe for treatment in patients with HCV and CKD who were in stages 4 and 5.
This paper investigates the output reachability and output regulation control design of Boolean control networks（BCNs） by using the semi-tensor product method, and presents a number of new ...results.First, the concept of output reachability is proposed for BCNs, and some necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the verification of output reachability. Second, based on the output reachability of BCNs and the attractor set of the reference Boolean network, an effective method is proposed for the control design of the output regulation problem. The study of an illustrative example shows the effectiveness of the obtained new results.
Continuous or frequent ingestion of fried foods containing cytotoxic/mutagenic/genotoxic lipid oxidation products (LOPs) may present significant human health risks; such toxins are generated in ...thermally stressed polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-rich culinary frying oils (CFOs) during standard frying practices. Since monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids (MUFAs and SFAs, respectively) are much less susceptible to peroxidation than PUFAs, in this study CFOs of differential unsaturated fatty acid contents were exposed to laboratory-simulated shallow-frying episodes (LSSFEs). Firstly, we present a case study exploring the time-dependent generation of aldehydic LOPs in CFO products undergoing LSSFEs, which was then used to evaluate the relative potential health risks posed by them, and also to provide suitable recommendations concerning their safety when used for frying purposes. Sunflower, rapeseed, extra-virgin olive and coconut oils underwent LSSFEs at 180 °C: Samples were collected at 0–90 min time-points (n = 6 replicates per oil). Aldehydes therein were determined by high-resolution 1H NMR analysis at 400 and 600 MHz operating frequencies. For one of the first times, CFO LOP analysis was also performed on a non-stationary 60 MHz benchtop NMR spectrometer. 1H NMR analysis confirmed the thermally promoted, time-dependent production of a wide range of aldehydic LOPs in CFOs. As expected, the highest levels of these toxins were produced in PUFA-rich sunflower oil, with lower concentrations formed in MUFA-rich canola and extra-virgin olive oils; in view of its very high SFA content, only very low levels of selected aldehyde classes were generated in coconut oil during LSSFEs. Secondly, 1H NMR results acquired are discussed with regard to the suitability and validity of alternative, albeit routinely employed, spectrophotometric methods for evaluating the peroxidation status of CFOs and lipid-containing foods. Thirdly, an updated mini-review of the toxicological properties of and intake limits for LOPs, and deleterious health effects posed by their ingestion, is provided. In conclusion, exposure of PUFA-rich CFOs to high-temperature frying practices generates very high concentrations of aldehydic LOP toxins from thermally promoted, O2-powered, recycling peroxidation processes; these toxins penetrate into and hence are ‘carried’ by fried foods available for human consumption. Such toxins have the capacity to contribute towards the development and progression of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) if cumulatively ingested by humans.
Producers and users (prod-users) volunteer, contribute and use geospatial information (GI) for a variety of mapping, documentary and other applications. The paper outlines some legal perspectives of ...crowd-sourced information by addressing general problems of the legal rights and obligations of volunteers and users. The volunteered geographic information (VGI) model is discussed within the meaning of Web 2.0 and understanding the risks of legal liability and responsibilities. Part of this understanding is an application of the role of the quality of VGI when contrasted with the OpenStreetMap experience. Ownership issues and the legal responsibilities of prod-users are discussed together with the special case of Good Samaritans. Proposed governance structures that could be developed across various countries that have engaged with VGI and prod-users are then suggested. It is concluded that current legal structures may no longer be appropriate to accommodate legal and regulatory mechanisms that may be helpful for governments, industry and prod-users.
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