The essential role of hippocampo-cortical connections in temporal coordination of spindles and ripples

The predominant activity of slow wave sleep is cortical slow oscillations (SOs), thalamic spindles and hippocampal sharp wave ripples. While the precise temporal nesting of these rhythms was shown to be essential for memory consolidation, the coordination mechanism is poorly understood. Here we develop a minimal hippocampo-cortico-thalamic network that can explain the mechanism underlying the SO-spindle-ripple coupling indicating of the succession of regional neuronal interactions. Further we verify the model predictions experimentally in naturally sleeping rodents showing our simple model provides a quantitative match to several experimental observations including the nesting of ripples in the spindle troughs and larger duration but lower amplitude of the ripples co-occurring with spindles or SOs compared to the isolated ripples. The model also predicts that the coupling of ripples to SOs and spindles monotonically enhances by increasing the strength of hippocampo-cortical connections while it is stronger at intermediate values of the cortico-hippocampal projections

Modeling the compaction characteristics of fine-grained soils blended with tire-derived aggregates

This study aims at modeling the compaction characteristics of fine-grained soils blended with sand-sized (0.075–4.75 mm) recycled tire-derived aggregates (TDAs). Model development and calibration were performed using a large and diverse database of 100 soil–TDA compaction tests (with the TDA-to-soil dry mass ratio ≤ 30%) assembled from the literature. Following a comprehensive statistical analysis, it is demonstrated that the optimum moisture content (OMC) and maximum dry unit weight (MDUW) for soil–TDA blends (across different soil types, TDA particle sizes and compaction energy levels) can be expressed as universal power functions of the OMC and MDUW of the unamended soil, along with the soil to soil–TDA specific gravity ratio. Employing the Bland– Altman analysis, the 95% upper and lower (water content) agreement limits between the predicted and measured OMC values were, respectively, obtained as +1.09% and −1.23%, both of which can be considered negligible for practical applications. For the MDUW predictions, these limits were calculated as +0.67 and −0.71 kN/m3, which (like the OMC) can be deemed acceptable for prediction purposes. Having established the OMC and MDUW of the unamended fine-grained soil, the em-pirical models proposed in this study offer a practical procedure towards predicting the compaction characteristics of the soil–TDA blends without the hurdles of performing separate laboratory compaction tests, and thus can be employed in practice for preliminary design assessments and/or soil– TDA optimization studies. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Antiinflammatory and Antinociceptive of Hydro Alcoholic Tanacetum balsamita L. Extract

The use of herbs to treat disease is accompanied with the history of human life. This research is aimed to study the anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of hydroalcoholic extract of aerial parts of "Tanacetum balsamita balsamita". In the experimental studies 144 male mice are used. In the inflammatory test, animals were divided into six groups: Control, positive control (receiving Dexamethason at dose of 15mg/kg), and four experimental groups receiving Tanacetum balsamita balsamita hydroalcoholic extract at doses of 25, 50, 100 and 200mg/kg. Xylene was used to induce inflammation. Formalin was used to study the nociceptive effects. Animals were divided into six groups: control group, positive control group (receiving morphine) and four experimental groups receiving Tanacetum balsamita balsamita (Tb.) hydroalcoholic extract at doses of 25, 50, 100 and 200mg/kg. I.p. injection of drugs or normal saline was performed 30 minutes before test. The data were analyzed by using one way Variance analysis and Tukey post-test. Aerial parts of Tanacetum balsamita balsamita hydroalcoholic extract decreased significantly inflammatory at dose of 200mg/kg (P<0/001) and caused a significant decrease and alleviated the nociception in both first and second phases at doses of 200mg/kg (p<0/001) and 100mg/kg (P<0/05). Tanacetum balsamita balsamita extract has the anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects which seems to be related with flavonoids especially Quercetin

An objective framework for determination of the air-entry value from the soil–water characteristic curve

The air-entry value (AEV) suction, marking the transition between saturated and unsaturated soil mechanics, is arguably the most important parameter interpreted from the soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC); its accurate determination being essential for the prediction of unsaturated soil properties. The AEV is commonly obtained by a subjective and time-consuming graphical construction. This micro-article proposes an objective framework, developed based on a practical mathematical translation technique, for the AEV determination. Explicit equations for the AEV are derived based on eleven well-established SWCC fitting functions, covering a wide range of functional complexities. In addition to its objective nature (providing unique interpretations of the AEV), the proposed framework complements numerical implementations of unsaturated soil constitutive models. © 2021 The Author(s

Soren: Adaptive MapReduce for Programmable

Abstract. InrecentyearstheMapReduceprogrammingmodelhasbeen widely used for developing parallel data-intensive applications. As a result of its popularity, there exist many implementations of the MapReduce model on different parallel architectures including on massively parallel programmable GPUs. A basic challenge in implementing a MapReduceruntimesystem is thewide diversityof applications developed based onthemodel.Thatmeans afixedimplementationoftheMapReduceruntime system may become suboptimal for some classes of applications. In this paper, we propose an adaptive framework for MapReduce on GPUs which is capable of monitoring key characteristics of applications and dynamically executing them efficiently in one of the three variations of the MapReduce engine it implements. Our preliminary results show that our adaptive method can significantly improve performance for many MapReduce applications (including a 11x performance speedup in one case) compared to a state-of-the-art MapReduce implementation on GPUs.

Effect of pH on Green Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide Using Lemon Extract and Application of Fe3O4/RGO nanocomposites for the removal of Pb (II) from aqueous solution

Here, graphene oxide was synthesized and reduced by lemon extract (source of vitamin C) in an aqueous solution under different pH (3 and 10). The lemon extract was prepared using a solvent-free method. The proposed mechanisms for the reduction of GO may be due to the nucleophilic attack of oxygen anion of ascorbic acid to the epoxy or hydroxyl groups of GO sheets. Based on Raman spectra, with increasing the solution pH, the repair of the graphitic sp2 domain of the RGOs decreased. Reduced graphene oxide was successfully used to synthesize Fe3O4/RGO nanocomposite and remove Pb ions from aqueous media. The obtained Fe3O4/RGO nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and BET analysis. Based on these characterization techniques, reduced graphene oxide is distinguishably coated by Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The effect of different parameters: contact time (1-60 min), initial lead concentration (25-200 mg/L), adsorbent dosage (0.01-0.07 g), and the solution’s initial pH (1-8) on the removal of lead ions was studied using batch-scale tests. The maximum lead ion removal was achieved up to 90 % for Pb ions, respectively at optimum operating conditions viz. pH 5, Pb initial concentration 100 mg/L, Fe3O4/RGO dose 0.05 g, and contact time 30 min. Obtained results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of Fe3O4/RGO for lead ion was 107.52 mg/g within 60 min of contact time. The adsorption behavior can be well described with the Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second-order models, indicating that the adsorption process was a monolayer and chemisorption adsorption

Job burnout among employees in food and beverage industry in Klang Valley

The aim of this research is to assess an individual’s experience of burnout in the food and beverage industry in Klang Valley. It is undeniable that the hospitality industry is one of the stressful industry by taking into consideration the nature of work that require employees to be present at all times entertaining customers and fulfilling all their needs. High degree of mental, physical and psychological pressure is among the most common conditions in food and beverage industry that may result in occupational burnout. Therefore, based on LR, this research will study the correlation between variables such as excessive workload, long working hours and role conflict with job burnout in food and beverage industry. A structured questionnaire was developed and administered to the employees using non-probability sampling method. 69 targeted respondents have been identified as the sample for the research. These targeted individuals currently holding either full-time or part-time employment and vary between operational and managerial level. It was found that 100 percent of employees in food and beverage industry in Klang Valley experienced high levels of burnout in the dimensions of depersonalization, 90.9 percent score in the dimension of personal accomplishment meanwhile only 13.6 percent score in the dimensions of emotional exhaustion. The findings from this research may contribute to others, especially higher up management to prepare intervention programs that aim to reduce the employee’s experience on burnout. As the current research approach manages to reveal some valuable insights, it is more remarkable if the research enhances with qualitative approach to the use of semi-structured interviews in determining the causes and effect of the phenomenon. Further follow-up study should be conducted in order to identify thorough state of burnout compared to the current findings. Food and beverage industry, workload, working hours, role conflict, burnou