Heavy metal-induced cellular and organismal toxicity have become a major health concern in biomedical science. Indiscriminate use of heavy metals in different sectors, such as, industrial-, ...agricultural-, healthcare-, cosmetics-, and domestic-sectors has contaminated environment matrices and poses a severe health concern. Xenobiotics mediated effect is a ubiquitous cellular response. Oxidative stress is one such prime cellular response, which is the result of an imbalance in the redox system. Further, oxidative stress is associated with macromolecular damages and activation of several cell survival and cell death pathways. Epidemiological as well as laboratory data suggest that oxidative stress-induced cellular response following heavy metal exposure is linked with an increased risk of neoplasm, neurological disorders, diabetes, infertility, developmental disorders, renal failure, and cardiovascular disease. During the recent past, a relation among heavy metal exposure, oxidative stress, and signaling pathways have been explored to understand the heavy metal-induced toxicity. Heavy metal-induced oxidative stress and its connection with different signaling pathways are complicated; therefore, the systemic summary is essential. Herein, an effort has been made to decipher the interplay among heavy metals/metalloids (Arsenic, Chromium, Cadmium, and Lead) exposures, oxidative stress, and signal transduction, which are essential to mount the cellular and organismal response. The signaling pathways involved in this interplay include NF-κB, NRF2, JAK-STAT, JNK, FOXO, and HIF.
•Redox homeostasis is a key to healthy/normal cellular function.•Chromium, cadmium arsenic, and lead toxicity are mediated by oxidative stress.•Heavy metal-ROS-signal transduction leads to the risk of developing diseases.•NF-κB, NRF2, JAK-STAT, JNK and FOXO are the key partner of heavy metal-induced ROS.
•Web requests made by users of web applications are manipulated by hackers to gain control of web servers.•Moreover, detecting web attacks has been increasingly important in the distribution of ...information over the last few decades.•Also, several existing techniques had been performed on detecting vulnerable web attacks using machine learning and deep learning techniques.•However, there is a lack in achieving attack detection ratio owing to the utilization of supervised and semi-supervised learning approaches.•Thus to overcome the aforementioned issues, this research proposes a hybrid unsupervised detection model a deep learning-based anomaly-based web attack detection.
Web requests made by users of web applications are manipulated by hackers to gain control of web servers. Moreover, detecting web attacks has been increasingly important in the distribution of information over the last few decades. Also, several existing techniques had been performed on detecting vulnerable web attacks using machine learning and deep learning techniques. However, there is a lack in achieving attack detection ratio owing to the utilization of supervised and semi-supervised learning approaches. Thus to overcome the aforementioned issues, this research proposes a hybrid unsupervised detection model a deep learning-based anomaly-based web attack detection. Whereas, the encoded outputs of De-Noising Autoencoder (DAE), as well as Stacked Autoencoder (SAE), are integrated and given to the Generative adversarial network (GAN) as input to improve the feature representation ability to detect the web attacks. Consequently, for classifying the type of attacks, a novel DBM-Bi LSTM-based classification model has been introduced. Which incorporates DBM for binary classification and Bi-LSTM for multi-class classification to classify the various attacks. Finally, the performance of the classifier in terms of recall, precision, F1-Score, and accuracy are evaluated and compared. The proposed method achieved high accuracy of 98%.
We estimate the pure effect of ageing on total health and aged care expenditure in Australia in the next 20 years.
We use a simple demographic projection model for the number of people in older age ...groups along with a needs based estimate of changes in the public and private cost of care per person in each group adjusted for expected changes in morbidity.
A pure ageing model of expenditure growth predicts an increase in health expenditure per elderly person from $7439 in 2015 to $9594 in 2035 and an increase in total expenditure from $166 billion to $320 billion (an average annual growth of 3.33%). If people live longer without additional morbidity, then total health expenditure only grows at an average annual rate of 0.48%. If only some of those additional years are in good health, then the average year on year growth is 1.87%.
Ageing will have a direct effect on the growth of health spending but is likely to be dwarfed by other demand and supply factors. A focus on greater efficiency in health production and finance is likely to be more effective in delivering high quality care than trying to restrain the demand for health and aged care among the elderly.
Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient, and P deficiency limits plant productivity. Recent work showed that P deficiency affects electron transport to photosystem I (PSI), but the underlying ...mechanisms are unknown. Here, we present a comprehensive biological model describing how P deficiency disrupts the photosynthetic machinery and the electron transport chain through a series of sequential events in barley (Hordeum vulgare). P deficiency reduces the orthophosphate concentration in the chloroplast stroma to levels that inhibit ATP synthase activity. Consequently, protons accumulate in the thylakoids and cause lumen acidification, which inhibits linear electron flow. Limited plastoquinol oxidation retards electron transport to the cytochrome b₆f complex, yet the electron transfer rate of PSI is increased under steady-state growth light and is limited under high-light conditions. Under P deficiency, the enhanced electron flow through PSI increases the levels of NADPH, whereas ATP production remains restricted and, hence, reduces CO₂ fixation. In parallel, lumen acidification activates the energy-dependent quenching component of the nonphotochemical quenching mechanism and prevents the overexcitation of photosystem II and damage to the leaf tissue. Consequently, plants can be severely affected by P deficiency for weeks without displaying any visual leaf symptoms. All of the processes in the photosynthetic machinery influenced by P deficiency appear to be fully reversible and can be restored in less than 60 min after resupply of orthophosphate to the leaf tissue.
ABSTRACT Experimental investigations were conducted to analyze the effect of Reynolds numbers on turbulent flow properties in a nonuniform sand bed channel. Steady flow simulations were performed ...over the nonuniform sand bed channel, considering five Reynolds numbers within the range of 36500–53886. This article endeavors to delineate the influence of Reynolds number on turbulent flow properties through meticulous laboratory studies. Observations revealed that higher Reynolds numbers corresponded to increased longitudinal velocity. As the Reynolds number increases by 10 to 47%, various turbulent flow properties exhibit distinct trends. Specifically, the longitudinal velocity, longitudinal turbulent intensity, vertical turbulent intensity, turbulent kinetic energy, Reynolds shear stress, and Taylor scale show increases ranging from 5 to 30%, 15 to 25%, 15 to 20%, 25 to 60%, 20 to 40%, and 35 to 45%, respectively. Taylor scale analysis indicated higher magnitudes associated with higher Reynolds numbers. In-depth examinations of turbulent anisotropy, third-order moments of velocity fluctuations, kurtosis, turbulent kinetic energy production, and dissipation provided additional insights into flow behavior across different Reynolds numbers. This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of flow dynamics in nonuniform sand bed channels under varying Reynolds number conditions, bridging the gap between laboratory studies and real-world scenarios.
One of the key arguments given to oppose the "sin taxes" is that they are regressive in nature and place disproportionately higher cost on the poor thereby reducing their net wealth. The response to ...a reduction in net wealth attributed to tax can potentially have significant effects through an increase in alcohol purchase by heavy drinkers reinforcing or even offsetting the direct price or substitution effect of these taxes in reducing alcohol consumption. Comparatively little is known empirically about the net wealth effect associated with changes in alcohol tax policy, and this study aims to help fill this gap in the literature. In this study we aim to estimate how the wealth effects of introducing a minimum unit price (MUP) of A$2.00 per standard drink vary over the distribution (quantiles) of alcohol consumers. The data used in this study is a longitudinal panel of 1,395 households' daily alcohol purchases (scanner data) recorded over a full year. Our analysis involves (i) quantile regression to estimate income elasticity over the distribution of consumption, and (ii) using these elasticities to estimate the potential wealth effects of a hypothetical change in alcohol prices from introducing an MUP policy. We control for consumer demographic characteristics, alcohol product prices and prices of close substitutes, and quarterly seasonal effects. We find that the estimated wealth effect from increasing the price of alcohol under a MUP policy is not significant at any point over the distribution of alcohol consumers. The policy increases per capita tax impact by less than A$5.00 per week for light/moderate consumers (50th-80th quantile) and decreases their daily per capita alcohol consumption by less than 0.02 standard drinks. Wealth effects attributable to an MUP policy are likely to be negligible. Substitution effects of the policy dominate the wealth effects in generating key health related outcomes such as reductions in alcohol consumption.
Abstract
Experiments were performed to examine the variations in flow turbulence with respect to sand and gravel bed channel. The 3D instantaneous velocity of water is measured by acoustic doppler ...velocimeter (ADV) at the test section, which will provide an important data related to the flow turbulence. The parameters of turbulence measured that the vertical profiles of longitudinal velocity in flows with a sand bed channel at the vicinity of the bed surface are higher by 2–6% than flow subjected to gravel bed channel, while away from the boundary surface, it decreases by 5–10%. The variations of Reynolds shear stress increase by 35–50% with gravel bed channel, indicating higher exchange of flow energy towards the boundary and vice versa. The higher value is obtained for shear velocities by 58.5% and the von Karman's constant with gravel bed channel. The gravel bed channel influenced the turbulence intensities with higher magnitude in the streamwise and vertical direction. The present study also analysed the flow anisotropy, correlations coefficient and turbulence diffusivity and compared the results. The outcomes of the current work are beneficial for civil and hydraulic engineers, since the data of turbulence will advance the management of bed materials present in the river.
Spur dikes are river training structures that have been extensively used worldwide for towards enhancing flood control and the stability of embankments and riverbanks. However, scour around spur ...dikes can be a major problem affecting their stability and hydraulic performance. The precise computation of temporal scour depth at spur dikes is very important for the design of economical and safe spur dikes. This study focuses on experimentally assessing the temporal variation of scour depth around a vertical wall spur dike and identifying the parameters, which mostly influence spur dike performance for a channel bed surface comprised of sand-gravel mixtures. In the current study, the authors did physical experiments in a flume based study to obtain new data, aimed at deriving a new predictive model for spur dike scour and comparing its performance to others found in the literature. It was found that the dimensionless temporal scour depth variation increases with an increase in (i) the threshold velocity ratio, (ii) the densimetric Froude number of the bed surface sediment mixture, (iii) the flow shallowness (defined as the ratio of the approach flow depth, y, to the spur dike’s transverse length, l), and (iv) the flow depth-particle size ratio. It is also concluded that the temporal scour depth variation in the sediment mixture is influenced by the non-uniformity of sediment and decreases with an increase in the non-uniformity of the sediment mixture. A new mathematical model is derived for the estimation of temporal scour depths in sand-gravel sediment mixtures. The proposed equation has been calibrated and validated with the experimental data, demonstrating a good predictive capacity for the estimation of temporal scour depth evolution.
Abstract
This research aims to investigate the near-bed turbulent flow characteristics in a meandering channel with both mobile bed and immobile bed conditions. Experiments were performed in a ...prismatic rectangular meandering channel with a non-uniform sand bed of size d50 = 0.523mm. The three-dimensional instantaneous fluid velocity was collected using the Acoustic Doppler velocimeter which will provide important results related to the flow turbulence such as mean flow velocity, turbulence intensity, Reynolds shear stress, turbulent kinetic energy, skewness, kurtosis and turbulent anisotropy. The secondary current flow and the exchange of momentum in the form of turbulence kinetic energy, Reynolds shear stress and turbulent intensity at the inner layer of the flow are identified more in a mobile bed condition as compared to an immobile condition, which causes sediment transport. For the inner layer of the flow, turbulence intensity and turbulent kinetic energy are decreased in magnitude and gradually increase in the outer layer of flow for both the bed conditions. Higher turbulence anisotropy is noticed in the mobile bed condition than in the immobile bed condition, which shows more nonuniformities near the bed level for the mobile bed condition. This study may help in understanding the effect of sediment transport due to a turbulent flow structure in a sinuous alluvial channel.
We present a comprehensive systematic framework for optimizing adiabaticity in photonic lanterns. The framework considers the effects of both the cross-sectional and longitudinal device parameters on ...adiabaticity. Photonic lanterns are adiabatic photonic devices and are therefore known to have large device lengths. A Shortcuts-to-adiabaticity (STA) protocol is employed to optimize the adiabatic taper profile in all-fibre photonic lanterns. The method tailors adiabatic propagation of light in the system by appropriately correcting the local slope of the taper profile. A quantifiable measure of adiabaticity is established, based on the adiabaticity criterion. This measure relates inversely to the device length and is a useful parameter in taper optimization. We apply the protocol to reported photonic lantern devices to obtain optimal adiabatic taper profiles having shorter device lengths. The optimized taper profile refers to that taper profile which corresponds to the minimum local inter-modal coupling at every point along the quasi-adiabatic transition for a given device length. While optimizing the adiabatic transition by minimizing inter-modal coupling is the basic aim of this work, length optimization is an extremely useful by-product. This procedure can be used to either reduce the device length or to reduce the mode-coupling losses or both. This study analyses reported three and six-core mode selective photonic lanterns as examples. We also discuss ways to make the optimum profiles practically realizable.
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