Early social adversity modulates the relation between attention biases and socioemotional behaviour in juvenile macaques

Affect-biased attention may play a fundamental role in early socioemotional development, but factors influencing its emergence and associations with typical versus pathological outcomes remain unclear. Here, we adopted a nonhuman primate model of early social adversity (ESA) to: (1) establish whether juvenile, pre-adolescent macaques demonstrate attention biases to both threatening and reward-related dynamic facial gestures; (2) examine the effects of early social experience on such biases; and (3) investigate how this relation may be linked to socioemotional behaviour. Two groups of juvenile macaques (ESA exposed and non-ESA exposed) were presented with pairs of dynamic facial gestures comprising two conditions: neutral-threat and neutral-lipsmacking. Attention biases to threat and lipsmacking were calculated as the proportion of gaze to the affective versus neutral gesture. Measures of anxiety and social engagement were also acquired from videos of the subjects in their everyday social environment. Results revealed that while both groups demonstrated an attention bias towards threatening facial gestures, a greater bias linked to anxiety was demonstrated by the ESA group only. Only the non-ESA group demonstrated a significant attention bias towards lipsmacking, and the degree of this positive bias was related to duration and frequency of social engagement in this group. These findings offer important insights into the effects of early social experience on affect-biased attention and related socioemotional behaviour in nonhuman primates, and demonstrate the utility of this model for future investigations into the neural and learning mechanisms underlying this relationship across development

Seed germination and seedling establishment in pistacia atlantica desf. and pistacia lentiscus l. under drought

The rehabilitation of degraded Mediterranean areas requires reintroduction of key-stone woody species. However, seed germination and seedling establishment for native species are poor. Germination behavior of Pistacia atlantica Desf. and Pistacia lentiscus L. in response to temperature (15, 20, 25 and 30°C), salinity (0, 10, 25 and 50 mM NaCl) and scarification (seeds with/without pulp) were analyzed. The response of seedling establishment to water deficit was related to soil moisture at 100 and 50% of the field capacity. Scarification facilitated germination while salinity should not exceed 50 mM NaCl and temperature must be between 20 and 25°C for P. lentiscus and 25°C for P. atlantica. In P. atlantica, seedling establishment was susceptible to water deficit and it showed high-water requirement

A Field Range Bound for General Single-Field Inflation

We explore the consequences of a detection of primordial tensor fluctuations for general single-field models of inflation. Using the effective theory of inflation, we propose a generalization of the Lyth bound. Our bound applies to all single-field models with two-derivative kinetic terms for the scalar fluctuations and is always stronger than the corresponding bound for slow-roll models. This shows that non-trivial dynamics can't evade the Lyth bound. We also present a weaker, but completely universal bound that holds whenever the Null Energy Condition (NEC) is satisfied at horizon crossing.Comment: 16 page

Effect of H2O2 pretreatment on the response of two seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Sw.) cultivars (Salam and Seaspray) to cold stress

Seashore paspalum is a warm season grass that requires few maintenance inputs. Expanded use of seashore paspalum could play a key role in making recreational sites more sustainable and environmentally. However, one key barrier to widespread Seashore paspalum use is a relative lack of winter hardiness. Under severe stress conditions, the antioxidant capacity may not be sufficient to minimize the harmful effect of oxidative injury. The search for signal molecules that mediate the stress tolerance is an important step in better understanding how plants acclimate to the adverse environment. This study aims to screen the responses of two Paspalum vaginatum cultivars (Salam and Seaspray) to local weather conditions and to study how to enhance its cold tolerance by a foliar pretreatment by hydrogen peroxide at low concentrations of 10 mM under controlled conditions. The current study provides evidence that exogenous H2O2 decreases the endogenous content of H2O2 in the first three days of exposure to cold stress in pretreated ‘Seaspray’ plants. in comparison to their control and pretreated ‘Salam’ which was in concomitant with malondialdehyde (MDA) changes. Indicating that pretreatment with 10 mM H2O2 could improve the tolerance of seashore paspalum to cold stress, especially cultivar Seaspray which showed better response to cold stress compared to ‘Salam’. Exogenous H2O2 could constitute a signaling molecule that significantly increases POD relative density, and decreases MDA and H2O2 content

Robust optimization and power management of a triple junction photovoltaic electric vehicle with battery storage

This paper highlights a robust optimization and power management algorithm that supervises the energy transfer flow to meet the photovoltaic (PV) electric vehicle demand, even when the traction system is in motion. The power stage of the studied system consists of a triple-junction PV generator as the main energy source, a lithium-ion battery as an auxiliary energy source, and an electric vehicle. The input-output signal adaptation is made by using a stage of energy conversion. A bidirectional DC-DC buck-boost connects the battery to the DC-link. Two unidirectional boost converters interface between the PV generator and the DC link. One is controlled with a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm to reach the maximum power points. The other is used to control the voltage across the DC-link. The converters are connected to the electric vehicle via a three-phase inverter via the same DC-link. By considering the nonlinear behavior of these elements, dynamic models are developed. A robust nonlinear MPPT algorithm has been developed owing to the nonlinear dynamics of the PV generator, metrological condition variations, and load changes. The high performance of the MPPT algorithm is effectively highlighted over a comparative study with two classical P & O and the fuzzy logic MPPT algorithms. A nonlinear control based on the Lyapunov function has been developed to simultaneously regulate the DC-link voltage and control battery charging and discharging operations. An energy management rule-based strategy is presented to effectively supervise the power flow. The conceived system, energy management, and control algorithms are implemented and verified in the Matlab/Simulink environment. Obtained results are presented and discussed under different operating conditions.Web of Science2216art. no. 612

Successful treatment of fusarium solani ecthyma gangrenosum in a patient affected by leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 with granulocytes transfusions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ecthyma gangrenosum (EG) manifests as a skin lesion affecting patients suffering extreme neutropenia and is commonly associated with <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa </it>in immunocompromised patients. Leukocyte adhesion deficiency I (LAD I) which count among primary immunodeficiency syndromes of the innate immunity, is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized in its severe phenotype by a complete defect in CD18 expression on neutrophils, delayed cord separation, chronic skin ulcers mainly due to recurrent bacterial and fungal infections, leucocytosis with high numbers of circulating neutrophils and an accumulation of abnormally low number of neutrophils at sites of infection.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>We report at our knowledge the first case of a child affected by LAD-1, who experienced during her disease course a multi-bacterial and fungal EG lesion caused by <it>fusarium solani</it>. Despite targeted antibiotics and anti-fungi therapy, the lesion extended for as long as 18 months and only massive granulocytes pockets transfusions in association with G-CSF had the capacity to cure this lesion.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We propose that granulocytes pockets transfusions will be beneficial to heal EG especially in severely immunocompromised patients.</p

Holonomy of the Ising model form factors

We study the Ising model two-point diagonal correlation function $C(N,N)$ by presenting an exponential and form factor expansion in an integral representation which differs from the known expansion of Wu, McCoy, Tracy and Barouch. We extend this expansion, weighting, by powers of a variable $\lambda$, the $j$-particle contributions, $f^{(j)}_{N,N}$. The corresponding $\lambda$ extension of the two-point diagonal correlation function, $C(N,N; \lambda)$, is shown, for arbitrary $\lambda$, to be a solution of the sigma form of the Painlev{\'e} VI equation introduced by Jimbo and Miwa. Linear differential equations for the form factors $f^{(j)}_{N,N}$ are obtained and shown to have both a ``Russian doll'' nesting, and a decomposition of the differential operators as a direct sum of operators equivalent to symmetric powers of the differential operator of the elliptic integral $E$. Each $f^{(j)}_{N,N}$ is expressed polynomially in terms of the elliptic integrals $E$ and $K$. The scaling limit of these differential operators breaks the direct sum structure but not the ``Russian doll'' structure. The previous $\lambda$-extensions, $C(N,N; \lambda)$ are, for singled-out values $\lambda= \cos(\pi m/n)$ ($m, n$ integers), also solutions of linear differential equations. These solutions of Painlev\'e VI are actually algebraic functions, being associated with modular curves.Comment: 39 page

Research Output on Strategy Formulation and Implementation: Global Picture, Development and Key Bibliometric Indicators

Effective strategic management serves as the bedrock for an organization's vision, goal attainment, and stakeholder expectations. Consequently, the research focus on strategy formulation and implementation has garnered substantial attention in recent decades. This study aims to evaluate bibliometric indicators of research productivity related to strategy formulation and implementation through meticulous bibliometric analysis. The analysis leverages the R Bibliometrix library on scientific publications indexed in the Web of Science database. The dataset comprises 672 publications on strategy formulation and implementation, spanning the years 1971 to 2022. Authored by 1,280 contributors from 69 countries, these publications are dispersed across 374 diverse sources, including journals and books. Impressively, this body of work has garnered a cumulative total of 24,635 citations, averaging 36.66 citations per document. The top-ranking article, "The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation" by Robert M. Grant, stands out with 3,649 citations. Examining global scientific production, the United States emerges as the primary contributor with 154 publications (22.91%), followed by China with 56 (8.33%) and the United Kingdom with 54 (8.03%). The study's findings offer valuable insights for researchers and organizations alike, shedding light on significant research contributions. This comprehensive assessment enables a nuanced understanding of the historical progression and growth within this domain. Additionally, it identifies current focal points of research and highlights areas that warrant attention in future studies

Dark Matter Direct Detection with Non-Maxwellian Velocity Structure

The velocity distribution function of dark matter particles is expected to show significant departures from a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. This can have profound effects on the predicted dark matter - nucleon scattering rates in direct detection experiments, especially for dark matter models in which the scattering is sensitive to the high velocity tail of the distribution, such as inelastic dark matter (iDM) or light (few GeV) dark matter (LDM), and for experiments that require high energy recoil events, such as many directionally sensitive experiments. Here we determine the velocity distribution functions from two of the highest resolution numerical simulations of Galactic dark matter structure (Via Lactea II and GHALO), and study the effects for these scenarios. For directional detection, we find that the observed departures from Maxwell-Boltzmann increase the contrast of the signal and change the typical direction of incoming DM particles. For iDM, the expected signals at direct detection experiments are changed dramatically: the annual modulation can be enhanced by more than a factor two, and the relative rates of DAMA compared to CDMS can change by an order of magnitude, while those compared to CRESST can change by a factor of two. The spectrum of the signal can also change dramatically, with many features arising due to substructure. For LDM the spectral effects are smaller, but changes do arise that improve the compatibility with existing experiments. We find that the phase of the modulation can depend upon energy, which would help discriminate against background should it be found.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures, submitted to JCAP. Tables of g(v_min), the integral of f(v)/v from v_min to infinity, derived from our simulations, are available for download at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mqk/dmdd

Flavourful Production at Hadron Colliders

We ask what new states may lie at or below the TeV scale, with sizable flavour-dependent couplings to light quarks, putting them within reach of hadron colliders via resonant production, or in association with Standard Model states. In particular, we focus on the compatibility of such states with stringent flavour-changing neutral current and electric-dipole moment constraints. We argue that the broadest and most theoretically plausible flavour structure of the new couplings is that they are hierarchical, as are Standard Model Yukawa couplings, although the hierarchical pattern may well be different. We point out that, without the need for any more elaborate or restrictive structure, new scalars with "diquark" couplings to standard quarks are particularly immune to existing constraints, and that such scalars may arise within a variety of theoretical paradigms. In particular, there can be substantial couplings to a pair of light quarks or to one light and one heavy quark. For example, the latter possibility may provide a flavour-safe interpretation of the asymmetry in top quark production observed at the Tevatron. We thereby motivate searches for diquark scalars at the Tevatron and LHC, and argue that their discovery represents one of our best chances for new insight into the Flavour Puzzle of the Standard Model.Comment: 18 pp., 8 figures, references adde