Why don't zombies like hibiscus tea? A multi-subject approach to photosynthesis through the use of Gratzel cells

Traditionally, photosynthesis has been seen as the domain of biology, with some input from chemistry when dealing with chromatography, while, apart from a passing reference to the colour of leaves, physics has tended to steer clear of the process that provides the lifeblood of human existence. This article outlines how a recent technological advance can be used as a teaching resource in all three branches of science

Grain size and organic carbon controls polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), mercury (Hg) and toxicity of surface sediments in the River Conwy Estuary, Wales, UK

The Conwy estuary was evaluated for sediment quality. Microtox bioassay revealed 38 of 39 sites were non-toxic. Hg ranged from 0.001 to 0.153 μg kg−1, mean 0.026 mg kg−1, Σ16 PAH from 18 to 1578 μg kg−1, mean 269 μg kg−1, Σ22 PAH, 18 to 1871 μg kg−1 mean to 312 μg kg−1, two sites had high perylene relative to ΣPAH. Σ22PAH correlated positively with TOC, clay and silt (R2 0.89, 0.92, 0.90) and negatively with sand. Multivariate statistics, delineated four spatial (site) and five variable (measurements) clusters. Spatial clustering relates to sediment grain size, in response to hydrodynamic processes in estuary; fine (clay to silt) sized sediments exhibit the highest Hg and PAH content, because these components partitioned into the fine fraction. Comparison to national and international environmental standards suggests Hg and PAH content of Conwy sediments are unlikely to harm ecology or transfer up into the human food chain

AlphaKnot: server to analyze entanglement in structures predicted by AlphaFold methods

AlphaKnot is a server that measures entanglement in AlphaFold-solved protein models while considering pLDDT confidence values. AlphaKnot has two main functions: (i) providing researchers with a webserver for analyzing knotting in their own AlphaFold predictions and (ii) providing a database of knotting in AlphaFold predictions from the 21 proteomes for which models have been published prior to 2022. The knotting is defined in a probabilistic fashion. The knotting complexity of proteins is presented in the form of a matrix diagram which shows users the knot type for the entire polypeptide chain and for each of its subchains. The dominant knot types as well as the computed locations of the knot cores (i.e. minimal portions of protein backbones that form a given knot type) are shown for each protein structure. Based mainly on the pLDDT confidence values, entanglements are classified as Knots, Unsure, and Artifacts. The database portion of the server can be used, for example, to examine protein geometry and entanglement-function correlations, as a reference set for protein modeling, and for facilitating evolutional studies. The AlphaKnot server can be found at https://alphaknot.cent.uw.edu.pl/

Neurochemical Aftermath of Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

IMPORTANCE: Evidence is accumulating that repeated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) incidents can lead to persistent, long-term debilitating symptoms and in some cases a progressive neurodegenerative condition referred to as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. However, to our knowledge, there are no objective tools to examine to which degree persistent symptoms after mTBI are caused by neuronal injury. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether persistent symptoms after mTBI are associated with brain injury as evaluated by cerebrospinal fluid biochemical markers for axonal damage and other aspects of central nervous system injury. DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PARTICIPANTS: A multicenter cross-sectional study involving professional Swedish ice hockey players who have had repeated mTBI, had postconcussion symptoms for more than 3 months, and fulfilled the criteria for postconcussion syndrome (PCS) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) matched with neurologically healthy control individuals. The participants were enrolled between January 2014 and February 2016. The players were also assessed with Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire and magnetic resonance imaging. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Neurofilament light protein, total tau, glial fibrillary acidic protein, amyloid β, phosphorylated tau, and neurogranin concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid. RESULTS: A total of 31 participants (16 men with PCS; median age, 31 years; range, 22-53 years; and 15 control individuals [11 men and 4 women]; median age, 25 years; range, 21-35 years) were assessed. Of 16 players with PCS, 9 had PCS symptoms for more than 1 year, while the remaining 7 returned to play within a year. Neurofilament light proteins were significantly increased in players with PCS for more than 1 year (median, 410 pg/mL; range, 230-1440 pg/mL) compared with players whose PCS resolved within 1 year (median, 210 pg/mL; range, 140-460 pg/mL) as well as control individuals (median 238 pg/mL, range 128-526 pg/mL; P = .04 and P = .02, respectively). Furthermore, neurofilament light protein concentrations correlated with Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire scores and lifetime concussion events (ρ = 0.58, P = .02 and ρ = 0.52, P = .04, respectively). Overall, players with PCS had significantly lower cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-β levels compared with control individuals (median, 1094 pg/mL; range, 845-1305 pg/mL; P = .05). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Increased cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament light proteins and reduced amyloid β were observed in patients with PCS, suggestive of axonal white matter injury and amyloid deposition. Measurement of these biomarkers may be an objective tool to assess the degree of central nervous system injury in individuals with PCS and to distinguish individuals who are at risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy

Sustainable Phosphorus Loadings from Effective and Cost-Effective Phosphorus Management Around the Baltic Sea

Nutrient over-enrichment of the Baltic Sea, accompanied by intensified algal blooms and decreasing water clarity, has aroused widespread concern in the surrounding countries during the last four decades. This work has used a well-tested dynamic mass-balance model to investigate which decrease in total phosphorus loading would be required to meet the environmental goal to restore the trophic state in the Baltic Sea to pre-1960s levels. Furthermore, the extent to which various abatement options may decrease the phosphorus loading in a cost-effective manner has been studied. Upgrading urban sewage treatment in the catchment could, alone or in combination with banning phosphates in detergents, be sufficient to meet the set environmental goal, at an estimated annual basin-wide cost of 0.21–0.43 billion euro. Such a plan would potentially decrease the total phosphorus loading to the Baltic Sea with 6,650–10,200 tonnes per year

Beyond Modes: Building a Secure Record Protocol from a Cryptographic Sponge Permutation

Abstract. BLINKER is a light-weight cryptographic suite and record protocol built from a single permutation. Its design is based on the Sponge construction used by the SHA-3 algorithm KECCAK. We examine the SpongeWrap authen-ticated encryption mode and expand its padding mechanism to offer explicit do-main separation and enhanced security for our specific requirements: shared se-cret half-duplex keying, encryption, and a MAC-and-continue mode. We motivate these enhancements by showing that unlike legacy protocols, the resulting record protocol is secure against a two-channel synchronization attack while also having a significantly smaller implementation footprint. The design facilitates security proofs directly from a single cryptographic primitive (a single security assump-tion) rather than via idealization of multitude of algorithms, paddings and modes of operation. The protocol is also uniquely suitable for an autonomous or semi-autonomous hardware implementation of protocols where the secrets never leave the module, making it attractive for smart card and HSM designs

A study of the Scrum Master’s role

Scrum is an increasingly common approach to software development adopted by organizations around the world. However, as organizations transition from traditional plan-driven development to agile development with Scrum, the question arises as to which Scrum role (Product Owner, Scrum Master, or Scrum Team Member) corresponds to a Project Manager, or conversely which Scrum role should the Project Managers adopt? In an attempt to answer this question, we adopted a mixed-method research approach comprising a systematic literature review and embedded case study of a commercial software development team. Our research has identified activities that comprise the Scrum Master role, and which additional roles are actually performed by Scrum Masters in practice. We found nine activities that are performed by Scrum Masters. In addition, we found that Scrum Masters also perform other roles, most importantly as Project Managers. This latter situation results in tension and conflict of interest that could have a negative impact on the performance of the team as a whole. These results point to the need to re-assess the role of Project Managers in organizations that adopt Scrum as a development approach. We hypothesize that it might be better for Project Managers to become Product Owners, as aspects of this latter role are more consistent with the traditional responsibilities of a Project Manager

Rhythmanalysing marathon running: ‘A drama of rhythms’

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. This paper draws on Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis to investigate the multiple rhythms of the Berlin Marathon, exemplifying and expanding understandings about the rhythms of places and mobilities. First, we discuss how isorhythmic order is imposed on the city and event by race organizers. Secondly, we show that a marathon depends upon the preparatory training or ‘dressage’ performed by the thousands who have made themselves ‘race-ready’. Thirdly, we explore the changing individual and collective rhythms that continuously emerge according to contingencies and stages of the race to compose an unfolding drama of rhythms that includes both arrhythmic and eurhythmic experiences

What an Agile Leader Does: The Group Dynamics Perspective

When large industrial organizations change to (or start with) an agile approach to operations, managers and some employees are supposed to be “agile leaders” often without being given a clear definition of what that comprises when building agile teams. An inductive thematic analysis was used to investigate what 15 appointed leaders actually do and perceive as challenges regarding group dynamics working with an agile approach. Team maturity, Team design, and Culture and mindset were all categories of challenges related to group dynamics that the practitioners face and manage in their work-life that are not explicitly mentioned in the more process-focused agile transformation frameworks. The results suggest that leader mitigation of these three aspects of group dynamics is essential to the success of an agile transformation