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ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to evaluate the GreenFeed (GF) system and respiration chambers (RC) for daily and intraday measurements of the enteric gaseous exchange, as well as the metabolic heat production, lying behavior, and feed intake (FI) rate of dairy cows at these 2 respective housing conditions (tiestall barn [TSB] vs. RC) during the summer periods. Sixteen multiparous lactating dairy cows were recruited and arranged in a randomized complete block design with a baseline period established for each cow. Cows were given a basal diet (CON) for a baseline period of 7 d and were then fed a 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP)-containing feed for the subsequent 26 d as experimental period. During both the baseline and the last 7 d of treatment period, gaseous exchanges of each animal were measured in the TSB using GF for 8 staggered measurements over 3 d, immediately followed by the measurement in RC for 2 d. Corresponding DMI, milk yield, and behavior parameters (e.g., lying behavior and FI rate) in TSB and RC were recorded. The correlation coefficients of CH4 and H2 using raw data were 0.84 and 0.85, respectively. For all gases, correlation coefficients between GF and RC on individual cow level decreased when the marginal fixed effects (e.g., inhibitor and breed) were corrected by a mixed model. There were no differences in daily CH4 production or intensity between GF and RC (442 vs. 443 g CH4/d or 16.6 vs. 16.2 g CH4 /kg MY). However, greater CH4 yield was measured by GF than RC (19.0 vs. 17.8 g CH4/kg DMI), driven by a lower DMI (23.3 vs. 24.6 kg/d) when cows were housed in TSB sampled by GF compared with cows being housed and sampled in RC. The correlations for CO2 production and O2 consumption were moderate and expected due to the variation associated with the mild heat stress condition during GF measurements in the TSB (temperature-humidity index [THI] 56 vs. 68), as indicated by the reduced lying time (−2.1 h/d). At the intraday level, there was an interaction between techniques and hour-of-day for CH4 production, as indicated by the discrepancies in postprandial CH4 emissions between techniques. In summary, this set of results showed that there were strong positive correlations for CH4 and H2 emissions between GF and RC based on individual cow data. However, such relationship should be interpreted with caution, given the data clustering resulting from the use of inhibitor 3-NOP. On treatment level, these 2 techniques detected similar inhibitor effect on the estimated daily CH4 emissions. The intraday patterns of CH4 and H2 production captured by GF provided a close approximation for those measured by RC. Nevertheless, potential underestimation may occur, especially following fresh feed delivery. For measuring CO2 production and O2 consumption, the GF captured similar intraday variations to those in the RC. However, the estimated daily production and consumption were not directly comparable, which was expected due to the variable thermal conditions during the summer. Further evaluations under the same weather conditions are warranted.

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to determine the potential effect and interaction of 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP; Bovaer, DSM-Firmenich Nutrition Products Ltd.) and whole cottonseed (WCS) on lactational performance and enteric methane (CH4) emission of dairy cows. A total of 16 multiparous cows, including 8 Holstein Friesian (HF) and 8 Brown Swiss (BS; 224 ± 36 DIM, 26 ± 3.7 kg milk yield, mean ± SD), were used in a split-plot design, where the main plot was the breed of cows. Within each subplot, cows were randomly assigned to a treatment sequence in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with 2 × 2 factorial arrangements of treatments with four 24-d periods. The experimental treatments were as follows: (1) control (basal TMR), (2) 3-NOP (60 mg/kg TMR DM), (3) WCS (5% TMR DM), and (4) 3-NOP + WCS. The treatment diets were balanced for ether extract, crude protein, and NDF contents (4%, 16%, and 43% of TMR DM, respectively). The basal diets were fed twice daily at 0800 and 1800 h. Dry matter intake and milk yield were measured daily, and enteric gas emissions were measured (using the GreenFeed System, C-Lock Inc.) during the last 3 d of each 24-d experimental period when animals were housed in tiestalls. There was no difference in DMI on treatment level, whereas the WCS treatment increased ECM yield and milk fat yield. No interaction of 3-NOP and WCS occurred for any of the enteric gas emission parameters, but 3-NOP decreased CH4 production (g/d), CH4 yield (g/kg DMI), and CH4 intensity (g/kg ECM) by 13%, 14%, and 13%, respectively. Further, an unexpected interaction of breed by 3-NOP was observed for different enteric CH4 emission metrics: HF cows had a greater CH4 mitigation effect compared with BS cows for CH4 production (g/d; 18% vs. 8%), CH4 intensity (g/kg milk yield; 19% vs. 3%), and CH4 intensity (g/kg ECM; 19% vs. 4%). Hydrogen production was increased by 2.85-fold in HF and 1.53-fold in BS cows receiving 3-NOP. Further, a 3-NOP × time interaction occurred for both breeds. In BS cows, 3-NOP tended to reduce CH4 production by 18% at approximately 4 h after morning feeding, but no effect was observed at other time points. In HF cows, the greatest mitigation effect of 3-NOP (29.6%) was observed immediately after morning feeding, and it persisted at around 23% to 26% for 10 h until the second feed provision, and 3 h thereafter, in the evening. In conclusion, supplementing 3-NOP at 60 mg/kg DM to a high-fiber diet resulted in 18% to 19% reduction in enteric CH4 emission in Swiss HF cows. The lower response to 3-NOP by BS cows was unexpected and has not been observed in other studies. These results should be interpreted with caution due to the low number of cows per breed. Finally, supplementing WCS at 5% of DM improved ECM and milk fat yield but did not enhance the CH4 inhibition effect of 3-NOP of dairy cows.

Purpose: Analysis of autofluorescence holds promise for brain tumor delineation and diagnosis. Therefore, we investigated the potential of a commercial confocal laser scanning endomicroscopy (CLE) system for clinical imaging of brain tumors., Methods: A clinical CLE system with fiber probe and 488 nm laser excitation was used to acquire images of tissue autofluorescence. Fresh samples were obtained from routine surgeries (glioblastoma n = 6, meningioma n = 6, brain metastases n = 10, pituitary adenoma n = 2, non-tumor from surgery for the treatment of pharmacoresistant epilepsy n = 2). Additionally, in situ intraoperative label-free CLE was performed in three cases. The autofluorescence images were visually inspected for feature identification and quantification. For reference, tissue cryosections were prepared and further analyzed by label-free multiphoton microscopy and HE histology., Results: Label-free CLE enabled the acquisition of autofluorescence images for all cases. Autofluorescent structures were assigned to the cytoplasmic compartment of cells, elastin fibers, psammoma bodies and blood vessels by comparison to references. Sparse punctuated autofluorescence was identified in most images across all cases, while dense punctuated autofluorescence was most frequent in glioblastomas. Autofluorescent cells were observed in higher abundancies in images of non-tumor samples. Diffuse autofluorescence, fibers and round fluorescent structures were predominantly found in tumor tissues., Conclusion: Label-free CLE imaging through an approved clinical device was able to visualize the characteristic autofluorescence patterns of human brain tumors and non-tumor brain tissue ex vivo and in situ. Therefore, this approach offers the possibility to obtain intraoperative diagnostic information before resection, importantly independent of any kind of marker or label., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) has gained considerable momentum due to its non-volatility and energy efficiency. Material and device scientists have been proposing novel material stacks that can mimic the "ideal memristor" which can deliver performance, energy efficiency, reliability and accuracy. However, designing RRAM-based systems is challenging. Engineering a new material stack, designing a device, and experimenting takes significant time for material and device researchers. Furthermore, the acceptability of the device is ultimately decided at the system level. We see a gap here where there is a need for facilitating material and device researchers with a "push button" modeling framework that allows to evaluate the efficacy of the device at system level during early device design stages. Speed, accuracy, and adaptability are the fundamental requirements of this modelling framework. In this paper, we propose a digital twin (DT)-like modeling framework that automatically creates RRAM device models from device measurement data. Furthermore, the model incorporates the peripheral circuit to ensure accurate energy and performance evaluations. We demonstrate the DT generation and DT usage for multiple RRAM technologies and applications and illustrate the achieved performance of our GPU implementation. We conclude with the application of our modeling approach to measurement data from two distinct fabricated devices, validating its effectiveness in a neural network processing an Electrocardiogram (ECG) dataset and incorporating Fault Aware Training (FAT)., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The btuB riboswitch is a regulatory RNA sequence controlling gene expression of the outer membrane B 12 transport protein BtuB by specifically binding coenzyme B 12 (AdoCbl) as its natural ligand. The B 12 sensing riboswitch class is known to accept various B 12 derivatives, leading to a division into two riboswitch subclasses, dependent on the size of the apical ligand. Here we focus on the role of side chains b and e on affinity and proper recognition, i. e. correct structural switch of the btuB RNA, which belongs to the AdoCbl-binding class I. Chemical modification of these side chains disturbs crucial hydrogen bonds and/or electrostatic interactions with the RNA, its effect on both affinity and switching being monitored by in-line probing. Chemical modifications at sidechain b of vitamin B 12 show larger effects indicating crucial B 12 -RNA interactions. When introducing the same modification to AdoCbl the influence of any side-chain modification tested is reduced. This renders the impact of the adenosyl-ligand for B 12 -btuB riboswitch recognition clearly beyond the known role in affinity., (© 2024 The Authors. Chemistry - A European Journal published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Patients with complex congenital heart disease frequently undergo a life-long ambulatory therapy with the need for repeated hospital interventions. To optimize this manifold interplay, we designed and implemented a tele-medical service, the Congenital Cardiology Cloud (CCC). This study aims to analyse the requirements for its implementation through the comprehensive assessment of design, installation and impact on patient´s care., Methods: CCC's development comprised the analysis of historically raised admission and discharge management and the definition of technical and organizational requirements. Elaboration of procedural flow charts, description of data formats and technical processes as well as distribution of patient structure formed part of this process., Results: Analysis of existing workflows uncovered a need for the rebuilding of admission and discharge process and decision making for further treatment. The CCC reduces conference-meetings in general and repetitive meetings up to less than a third. Real-time dispatch of discharge documents guarantees an instantaneous access to patient-related data. Comparative analyses show a more complex patient group to be involved in tele-medical services., Conclusions: The CCC enables the sharing of complex clinical information by overcoming sectoral barriers and improves mutual patient advice. Implementation of a tele-medical network requires willingness, perseverance and professional engagement. Future application analysis and possible introduction of refinancing concepts will show its long-term feasibility., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and fluid shear stress (FSS) mediate complementary functions in vascular homeostasis and disease development. It remains to be shown whether altered chromatin accessibility downstream of BMP and FSS offers a crosstalk level to explain changes in SMAD-dependent transcription. Here, we employed ATAC-seq to analyze arterial endothelial cells stimulated with BMP9 and/or FSS. We found that BMP9-sensitive regions harbor non-palindromic GC-rich SMAD-binding elements (GGCTCC) and 69.7% of these regions become BMP-insensitive in the presence of FSS. While GATA and KLF transcription factor (TF) motifs are unique to BMP9- and FSS-sensitive regions, respectively, SOX motifs are common to both. Finally, we show that both SOX(13/18) and GATA(2/3/6) family members are directly upregulated by SMAD1/5. These findings highlight the mechano-dependency of SMAD-signaling by a sequential mechanism of first elevated pioneer TF expression, allowing subsequent chromatin opening to eventually providing accessibility to novel SMAD binding sites., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (© 2023.)

Riboswitches are structural elements of mRNA involved in the regulation of gene expression by responding to specific cellular metabolites. To fulfil their regulatory function, riboswitches prefold into an active state, the so-called binding competent form, that guarantees metabolite binding and allows a consecutive refolding of the RNA. Here, we describe the folding pathway to the binding competent form as well as the ligand free structure of the moaA riboswitch of E. coli. This RNA proposedly responds to the molybdenum cofactor (Moco), a highly oxygen-sensitive metabolite, essential in the carbon and sulfur cycles of eukaryotes. K + - and Mg 2+ -dependent footprinting assays and spectroscopic investigations show a high degree of structure formation of this RNA already at very low ion-concentrations. Mg 2+ facilitates additionally a general compaction of the riboswitch towards its proposed active structure. We show that this fold agrees with the earlier suggested secondary structure which included also a long-range tetraloop/tetraloop-receptor like interaction. Metal ion cleavage assays revealed specific Mg 2+ -binding pockets within the moaA riboswitch. These Mg 2+ binding pockets are good indicators for the potential Moco binding site, since in riboswitches, Mg 2+ was shown to be necessary to bind phosphate-carrying metabolites. The importance of the phosphate and of other functional groups of Moco is highlighted by binding assays with tetrahydrobiopterin, the reduced and oxygen-sensitive core moiety of Moco. We demonstrate that the general molecular shape of pterin by its own is insufficient for the recognition by the riboswitch., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics depend on soil properties derived from the geoclimatic conditions under which soils develop and are in many cases modified by land conversion. However, SOC stabilization and the responses of SOC to land use change are not well constrained in deeply weathered tropical soils, which are dominated by less reactive minerals than those in temperate regions. Along a gradient of geochemically distinct soil parent materials, we investigated differences in SOC stocks and SOC (Δ 14 C) turnover time across soil profile depth between montane tropical forest and cropland situated on flat, non-erosive plateau landforms. We show that SOC stocks and soil Δ 14 C patterns do not differ significantly with land use, but that differences in SOC can be explained by the physicochemical properties of soils. More specifically, labile organo-mineral associations in combination with exchangeable base cations were identified as the dominating controls over soil C stocks and turnover. We argue that due to their long weathering history, the investigated tropical soils do not provide enough reactive minerals for the stabilization of C input in either high input (tropical forest) or low-input (cropland) systems. Since these soils exceeded their maximum potential for the mineral related stabilization of SOC, potential positive effects of reforestation on tropical SOC storage are most likely limited to minor differences in topsoil without major impacts on subsoil C stocks. Hence, in deeply weathered soils, increasing C inputs may lead to the accumulation of a larger readily available SOC pool, but does not contribute to long-term SOC stabilization., (© 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

In the cattle industry, in vivo or in vitro embryo production combined with genotyping and cryopreservation technologies allows the selection and conservation of embryos carrying genes for desirable traits. This study aimed to assess the efficiency of a vitrification method suitable for in-straw warming of biopsied in vivo derived (IVD) bovine embryos. Three experiments were carried out using two methodologies: the Cryotop®, the gold standard vitrification and 3-step warming methodology, or the VitTrans, a vitrification/in-straw 1-step warming method that enables direct embryo transfer to the uterus. In experiment 1, intact and biopsied in vitro produced (IVP) day 7 expanded blastocysts were vitrified using the Cryotop® and warmed in 1- or 3-steps. No differences in survival rates were recorded at 24 h after warming for intact or biopsied IVP blastocysts irrespective of the warming procedure. In experiment 2, the effect of the time from trophectoderm (TE) biopsy to vitrification/in-straw warming on post-warming survival rate was assessed. No significant differences in survival were observed when blastocysts were vitrified/in-straw warmed immediately after biopsy or after 3 h in culture when compared to intact blastocysts. In experiment 3, IVD embryos were vitrified 3 h after biopsy using the Cryotop® or the VitTrans method and pregnancy rates were assessed at day 60 after transfer. Fresh, biopsied embryos served as control. Similar pregnancy rates were observed when IVD biopsied embryos were transferred fresh or vitrified/warmed by the Cryotop® or VitTrans method. No significant effect of the embryo quality or developmental stage was detected on the percentage of pregnant recipients when IVD biopsied embryos were transferred fresh or after vitrification. While fresh female IVD embryos produced significantly higher pregnancy rates than male embryos, there were no differences in pregnancy rates when male or female vitrified/warmed embryos were transferred. About 81% from the biopsies analyzed successfully determined the embryo sex, confirming that DNA was there, and it was efficiently amplified. To conclude, our findings indicate that both vitrification methodologies produced similar post-warming outcomes for both intact and biopsied IVP embryos. Besides, vitrification/in-straw warming of biopsied IVD bovine embryos did not affect the viability to originate pregnancy, being a useful option for their direct transfer in field conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Fluid shear stress enhances endothelial SMAD1/5 signaling via the BMP9-bound ALK1 receptor complex supported by the co-receptor Endoglin. While moderate SMAD1/5 activation is required to maintain endothelial quiescence, excessive SMAD1/5 signaling promotes endothelial dysfunction. Increased BMP signaling participates in endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and inflammation culminating in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. While the function of Endoglin has so far been described under picomolar concentrations of BMP9 and short-term shear application, we investigated Endoglin under physiological BMP9 and long-term pathophysiological shear conditions., Results: We report here that knock-down of Endoglin leads to exacerbated SMAD1/5 phosphorylation and atheroprone gene expression profile in HUVECs sheared for 24 h. Making use of the ligand-trap ALK1-Fc, we furthermore show that this increase is dependent on BMP9/10. Mechanistically, we reveal that long-term exposure of ECs to low laminar shear stress leads to enhanced Endoglin expression and endocytosis of Endoglin in Caveolin-1-positive early endosomes. In these endosomes, we could localize the ALK1-Endoglin complex, labeled BMP9 as well as SMAD1, highlighting Caveolin-1 vesicles as a SMAD signaling compartment in cells exposed to low atheroprone laminar shear stress., Conclusions: We identified Endoglin to be essential in preventing excessive activation of SMAD1/5 under physiological flow conditions and Caveolin-1-positive early endosomes as a new flow-regulated signaling compartment for BMP9-ALK1-Endoglin signaling axis in atheroprone flow conditions., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The recent pandemic outbreak proved social distancing effective in helping curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants along with the wearing of masks and hand gloves in hospitals and assisted living environments. Health delivery personnel having undergone training regarding the handling of patients suffering from Corona infection have been stretched. Administering injections involves unavoidable person to person contact. In this circumstance, the spread of bodily fluids and consequently the Coronavirus become eminent, leading to an upsurge of infection rates among nurses and doctors. This makes enforced home office practices and telepresence through humanoid robots a viable alternative. In providing assistance to further reduce contact with patients during vaccinations, a software module has been designed, developed, and implemented on a Pepper robot that estimates the pose of a patient, identifies an injection spot, and raises an arm to deliver the vaccine dose on a bare shoulder. Implementation was done using the QiSDK in an android integrated development environment with a custom Python wrapper. Tests carried out yielded positive results in under 60 s with an 80% success rate, and exposed some ambient lighting discrepancies. These discrepancies can be solved in the near future, paving a new way for humans to get vaccinated.

Only with new sensor concepts in a network, which go far beyond what the current state-of-the-art can offer, can current and future requirements for flexibility, safety, and security be met. The combination of data from many sensors allows a richer representation of the observed phenomenon, e.g., system degradation, which can facilitate analysis and decision-making processes. This work addresses the topic of predictive maintenance by exploiting sensor data fusion and artificial intelligence-based analysis. With a dataset such as vibration and sound from sensors, we focus on studying paradigms that orchestrate the most optimal combination of sensors with deep learning sensor fusion algorithms to enable predictive maintenance. In our experimental setup, we used raw data obtained from two sensors, a microphone, and an accelerometer installed on a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor. The data from each sensor were processed individually and, in a second step, merged to create a solid base for analysis. To diagnose BLDC motor faults, this work proposes to use data-level sensor fusion with deep learning methods such as deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) for their ability to automatically extract relevant information from the input data, the long short-term memory method (LSTM), and convolutional long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM), a combination of the two previous methods. The results show that in our setup, sound signals outperform vibrations when used individually for training. However, without any feature selection/extraction step, the accuracy of the models improves with data fusion and reaches 98.8%, 93.5%, and 73.6% for the DCNN, CNN-LSTM, and LSTM methods, respectively, 98.8% being a performance that, according to our reading, has never been reached in the analysis of the faults of a BLDC motor without first going through the extraction of the characteristics and their fusion by traditional methods. These results show that it is possible to work with raw data from multiple sensors and achieve good results using deep learning methods without spending time and resources on selecting appropriate features to extract and methods to use for feature extraction and data fusion.