REFINING OF THE HANAVAN HUMAN BODY MODEL FOR KINEMATICS INVESTIGATION OF ATHLETES' MOTION

The development of technique, application of video cameras produced the necessity of a system for analyzing the motion of athletes increasing their successfulness. Requirements against the analyzing software package: - suitability for analyzing simple video records - easy of handling by minimizing the number of necessary key points - possibility of correcting errors caused by input data - suitability for the determining the centre of gravity and moments of inertia of the body segments - ability to describe the effect of sports instruments - suitability of motion simulation. During the last few years the researchers of the Department of Technical Mechanics of Technical University of Budapest developed the above mentioned software package. This paper presents the applied model with special regard to the geometric modelling of the torso. The model is a refined Hanavan model representing the human body by 16 simple geometric solids determined by the spatial coordinates of 20 key points. The torso is determined by three segments (upper torso - chest; middle torso - stomach; lower torso - hip), modelling by elliptic cylinders which may rotate in space relative to each others. The benefit of this model s the low number of the necessary additional data

Sustainability in railways – a review

This paper examines the sustainability of railways. A comprehensive international literature review was conducted on railway vehicles, traction, and railway permanent way. The main goal was to find the factors and parameters that affect railway sustainability the most. CO2 emissions from transportation, mining, raw material production, manufacturing, use, operation and maintenance, and demolition and restoration must be significantly reduced. Naturally, the attention will be on the considerable energy and financial savings. This article's main topics are sustainability, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation, infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and life on land. Building materials come from quarries and gravel pits, but availability is decreasing. Future pavement construction and maintenance require recycling demolition and industrial waste. Engineers must choose materials and technology that extend track lifetimes to ensure reliability, availability, maintainability, safety, sustainability, and economy in permanent railroad ways. Life-cycle costs can be reduced, e.g., by Building Information Modeling. Electric machinery is preferred for construction equipment, materials, and management. Sustainability, like grassed tracks and recyclable plastics, has improved urban life. Sheet metal forming using recycled materials and sustainability shows how important environmental protection is in car and train design. Electric road and rail propulsion are driven by environmental concerns, while supercapacitors and batteries are studied. In conclusion, by preferring rail for freight and passenger transport, both for private and public transport, energy savings and CO2 emissions can be up to 2-10 times higher than for other modes of transport

Intelligent image-based in situ single-cell isolation

Quantifying heterogeneities within cell populations is important for many fields including cancer research and neurobiology; however, techniques to isolate individual cells are limited. Here, we describe a high-throughput, non-disruptive, and cost-effective isolation method that is capable of capturing individually targeted cells using widely available techniques. Using high-resolution microscopy, laser microcapture microscopy, image analysis, and machine learning, our technology enables scalable molecular genetic analysis of single cells, targetable by morphology or location within the sample.Peer reviewe

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Lemuria is not the invention of religious enthusiasts, but rather, actually existed

[Extract]\ud Lemuria is the name given to an imaginary continent once thought to have disappeared beneath the waters of the Indian or the Pacific Ocean. When Lemuria was first proposed it was as a pathway that might explain the presence of similar species, both fossil and living, on the island of Madagascar and in Asia. As such it was created by a particular moment in science, as deep time opened up and Darwin's published theory of evolution changed thinking about what the distribution of similar species could mean. These changes in the understanding of nature produced a requirement to explain connections between species that had similar forms even when they were widely distributed

Stilbenes in the different organs of <em>Vitis vinifera</em> cv. Merlot grafted on Teleki Kober 5BB rootstock

Aim: To determine which of the grapevine organ is the richest in stilbene, like the t-piceid, t-resveratrol and ε-viniferin and would it be useful as by-product of viticulture for processing stilbene concentrate. Methods and results: Nine organs, such as cane, buds, shoot tips, inflorescences, clusters at veraison, matured berry skins, seeds and cluster stems, of Merlot grafted on Teleki Kober 5BB rootstock were collected during a year and its ethanolic extractions were analyzed via HPLC-FLD. Stilbene content of the different organs occurred in a wide range, the lowest was 3.15 mg/kg dry weight (dw) measured in the seeds and the highest 2265 mg/kg dw in the buds. Conclusion: The present research demonstrated that different grapevine organs contain different amount of stilbene in the vineyard. The winter-buds, the roots and the matured cane internodes of Merlot are significantly richer in t-resveratrol and t-ε-viniferin than the green vegetative and generative parts we examined in one growing year. Significance and impact of the study: According to our knowledge there was no stilbenes measuring in several plant organs of a vine cultivar in field study, in vineyard. Our research pointed out the pruned cane could be primary source of stilbene of the health-industry. Beside that grape root is a by-product of grapevine nursery is also rich in stilbene

Rare earth elements plus yttrium (REY) in phosphorites from the Tébessa region (Eastern Algeria): Abundance, geochemical distribution through grain size fractions, and economic significance

Rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) have gained greater attention for being largely used in various high-tech applications and green energies. Recently, supply shortage and high demand on REY led to target secondary resources such as phosphorites. Algerian sedimentary phosphorites, which are located mainly in the Tébessa region, Eastern Saharan Atlas, are relatively enriched in REY according to recent whole-rock analyses. The aim of this study is to explore variation of REY contents and other geochemical features with respect to particle size fractions. In addition, the economic significance of the P-deposits was assessed using new indicators, such as the outlook coefficient of REY composition (Coutl) and the percentage of critical element in total ΣREY (REYdef). Three friable whole-rock samples from two P-deposits (Djebel El Kouif and Kef Essenoun) were sieved and retained fractions (f) of &lt;45 μm, 45–125 μm, 125–250 μm, 250–500 μm and &gt;500 μm were analyzed for their major and REY contents using ICP-MS techniques. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied on centred log-transformation (clr) data, which are adapted to such compositional dataset, as well as Variance Analysis (one-way ANOVA) technique. The results show that the samples yield P2O5 grades ranging from 20 to 36 wt% and total REY contents in selected 15 samples vary in the considered grain size fractions as follows: f&lt;45μm = 325 ppm–719 ppm; f45–125μm = 309 ppm–893 ppm; f125–250μm = 314 ppm–1029 ppm, f250–500μm = 354 ppm–809 ppm, f&gt;500μm = 308 ppm–652 ppm. The one-way ANOVA reveals that there is no significant difference of REY concentrations between the grain size fractions. However, the REY grades strongly based on both the studied deposits and the stratigraphic position of the hosting samples (p-value ≤ 0.01); this is also confirmed by PCA. REY geochemical signatures (normalized REY distribution patterns and Ce, Eu, and Y anomalies) are similar in the grain size fractions from the same hosting samples indicating synchronized evolution of all rock components, where REY distribution is mostly controlled by the depositional environment, irrespective of grain size in the rock. The Coutl coefficient shows values between 1.89 and 6.85 and REYdef varies from 47.44 % to 64.90 %. However, the upper sub-layer of Kef Essenoun phosphorites that yielded the lowest ∑REY contents, shows markedly the highest Coutl (6.61–6.85) and REYdef (64.31–64.90), pointing to more promising source for extracting individual critical REY elements, even in low P-grade phosphorite ores