Search

The mass of data generated from people’s mobility in smart cities is constantly increasing, thus making a new business for large companies. These data are often used for mobility prediction in order to improve services or even systems such as the development of location-based services, personalized recommendation systems, and mobile communication systems. In this paper, we identify the mobility prediction issues and challenges serving as guideline for researchers and developers in mobility prediction. To this end, we first identify the key concepts and classifications related to mobility prediction. We then, focus on challenges in mobility prediction from a deep literature study. These classifications and challenges are for serving further understanding, development and enhancement of the mobility prediction vision.

The industrial and academic interest of the research on mobile service recommendation systems based on a wide range of potential applications has significantly increased, owing to the rapid progress of mobile technologies. These systems aim to recommend the right product, service or information to the right mobile users at anytime and anywhere. In smart cities, recommending such services becomes more interesting but also more challenging due to the wide range of information that can be obtained on the user and his surrounding. This quantity and variety of information create problems in terms of processing as well as the problem of choosing the right information to use to offer services. We consider that to provide personalized mobile services in a smart city and know which information is relevant for the recommendation process, identifying and understanding the context of the mobile user is the key.This paper aims to address the issue of recommending personalized mobile services in smart cities by considering two steps: defining the context of the mobile user and designing an architecture of a system that can collect and process context data. Firstly, we propose an UML-based context model to show the contextual parameters to consider in recommending mobile services in a smart city. The model is based on three main classes from which others are divided: the user, his device and the environment. Secondly, we describe a general architecture based on the proposed context model for the collection and processing of context data.

A central assumption of neuroscience is that long-term memories are represented by the same brain areas that encode sensory stimuli1. Neurons in inferotemporal (IT) cortex represent the sensory percept of visual objects using a distributed axis code2-4. Whether and how the same IT neural population represents the long-term memory of visual objects remains unclear. Here we examined how familiar faces are encoded in the IT anterior medial face patch (AM), perirhinal face patch (PR) and temporal pole face patch (TP). In AM and PR we observed that the encoding axis for familiar faces is rotated relative to that for unfamiliar faces at long latency; in TP this memory-related rotation was much weaker. Contrary to previous claims, the relative response magnitude to familiar versus unfamiliar faces was not a stable indicator of familiarity in any patch5-11. The mechanism underlying the memory-related axis change is likely intrinsic to IT cortex, because inactivation of PR did not affect axis change dynamics in AM. Overall, our results suggest that memories of familiar faces are represented in AM and perirhinal cortex by a distinct long-latency code, explaining how the same cell population can encode both the percept and memory of faces.

The purpose of this study was to examine Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers' perceptions of feedback from supervisors. All CTE teachers in North Dakota were surveyed during early 2023. A series of one-way ANOVAs and t-tests were run to compare the differences in teachers' perceptions based upon reported professional characteristics. The results of the study indicate that, even though CTE is different from other content areas, CTE teachers still prefer pedagogical feedback over content-specific feedback. Unless, however, the supervising principal was a former CTE teacher, then the feedback related to their lived experience seemed to be valued by the teachers. It is recommended that supervisors work to understand the unique expectations and responsibilities held by CTE teachers compared to other teachers.

Targeted intracellular delivery via receptor-mediated endocytosis requires the delivered cargo to escape the endosome to prevent lysosomal degradation. This can in principle be achieved by membrane lysis tightly restricted to endosomal membranes upon internalization to avoid general membrane insertion and lysis. Here, we describe the design of small monomeric proteins with buried histidine containing pH-responsive hydrogen bond networks and membrane permeating amphipathic helices. Of the 30 designs that were experimentally tested, all expressed in Escherichia coli, 13 were monomeric with the expected secondary structure, and 4 designs disrupted artificial liposomes in a pH-dependent manner. Mutational analysis showed that the buried histidine hydrogen bond networks mediate pH-responsiveness and control lysis of model membranes within a very narrow range of pH (6.0-5.5) with almost no lysis occurring at neutral pH. These tightly controlled lytic monomers could help mediate endosomal escape in designed targeted delivery platforms.

While teachers' trust in principals is the most commonly studied trust relationship between and among school stakeholders, left largely unexplored is trust between leaders within a school system. Findings presented answer the question: What are indicators of superintendent trustworthiness as experienced and perceived by elementary school principals? Four broad themes were found to capture superintendent characteristics relating to trustworthiness: (1) the nature and strength of a superintendent's support; (2) the extent to and ways in which a superintendent engenders a sense of autonomy in a principal's school-level leadership; (3) a superintendent's presence in the work of the principal and the principal's school; and (4) a superintendent's openness. Principals' perspectives of the role of superintendent trustworthiness in their school leadership is explored.

The observation of place cells has suggested that the hippocampus plays a special role in encoding spatial information. However, place cell responses are modulated by several nonspatial variables and reported to be rather unstable. Here, we propose a memory model of the hippocampus that provides an interpretation of place cells consistent with these observations. We hypothesize that the hippocampus is a memory device that takes advantage of the correlations between sensory experiences to generate compressed representations of the episodes that are stored in memory. A simple neural network model that can efficiently compress information naturally produces place cells that are similar to those observed in experiments. It predicts that the activity of these cells is variable and that the fluctuations of the place fields encode information about the recent history of sensory experiences. Place cells may simply be a consequence of a memory compression process implemented in the hippocampus.

Introduction Invasive aspergillosis (IA), most often caused by the ubiquitous inhaled mold Aspergillus fumigatus, is an opportunistic fungal infection that exploits numeric or functional neutrophil defects (1-3). IA affects over [...], We describe a previously unappreciated role for Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) in fungal immune surveillance against aspergillosis, an unforeseen complication of BTK inhibitors (BTKi) used for treating B cell lymphoid malignancies. We studied BTK-dependent fungal responses in neutrophils from diverse populations, including healthy donors, patients who were treated with BTKi, and X-linked agammaglobulinemia patients. Upon fungal exposure, BTK was activated in human neutrophils in a TLR2-, Dectin-1-, and Fc[gamma]R-dependent manner, triggering the oxidative burst. BTK inhibition selectively impeded neutrophil-mediated damage to Aspergillus hyphae, primary granule release, and the fungus-induced oxidative burst by abrogating NADPH oxidase subunit [p40.sup.phox] and GTPase RAC2 activation. Moreover, neutrophil-specific Btk deletion in mice enhanced aspergillosis susceptibility by impairing neutrophil function, not recruitment or lifespan. Conversely, GM-CSF partially mitigated these deficits by enhancing [p47.sup.phox] activation. Our findings underline the crucial role of BTK signaling in neutrophils for antifungal immunity and provide a rationale for GM-CSF use to offset these deficits in patients who are susceptible.

We report the first global, time-dependent simulation of the Mars upper atmospheric responses to a realistic solar flare event, an X8.2 eruption on 10 September 2017. The Mars Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model runs with realistically specified flare irradiance, giving results in reasonably good agreement with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft measurements. It is found that the ionized and neutral regimes of the upper atmosphere are significantly disturbed by the flare but react differently. The ionospheric electron density enhancement is concentrated below ~110-km altitude due to enhanced solar X-rays, closely following the time evolution of the flare. The neutral atmospheric perturbation increases with altitude and is important above ~150-km altitude, in association with atmospheric upwelling driven by solar extreme ultraviolet heating. It takes ~2.5 hr past the flare peak to reach the maximum disturbance and then additional ~10 hr to generally settle down to preflare levels.

Background/Objectives: Gastric cancer (GC) incidence remains high worldwide, and the survival rate is poor. GC develops from atrophic gastritis (AG), associated with Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection, passing through intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia steps. Since Hp eradication does not exclude GC development, further investigations are needed. New data suggest the possible role of unexplored gastric microbiota beyond Hp in the progression from AG to GC. Aimed to develop a score that could be used in clinical practice to stratify GC progression risk, here was investigate gastric microbiota in AG Hp-negative patients with or without high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or GC. Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing upper endoscopy within an endoscopic follow-up for AG were considered. The antrum and corpus biopsies were used to assess the microbiota composition along the disease progression by sequencing the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Statistical differences between HGD/GC and AG patients were included in a multivariate analysis. Results: HGD/GC patients had a higher percentage of Bacillus in the antrum and a low abundance of Rhizobiales, Weeksellaceae and Veillonella in the corpus. These data were used to calculate a multiparametric score (Resident Gastric Microbiota Dysbiosis Test, RGM-DT) to predict the risk of progression toward HGD/GC. The performance of RGM-DT in discriminating patients with HGD/GC showed a specificity of 88.9%. Conclusions: The microbiome-based risk prediction model for GC could clarify the role of gastric microbiota as a cancer risk biomarker to be used in clinical practice. The proposed test might be used to personalize follow-up program thanks to a better cancer risk stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NMDA-type glutamate receptors (NMDAR) trigger superoxide production by neuronal NADPH oxidase-2 (NOX2), which if sustained leads to cell death. This process involves Ca2+ influx through NMDAR channels. By contrast, comparable Ca2+ influx by other routes does not induce NOX2 activation or cell death. This contrast has been attributed to site-specific effects of Ca2+ flux through NMDAR. Here we show instead that it stems from non-ionotropic signaling by NMDAR GluN2B subunits. To evaluate non-ionotropic effects, mouse cortical neurons were treated with NMDA together with 7-chlorokynurenate, L-689,560, or MK-801, which block Ca2+ influx through NMDAR channels but not NMDA binding. NMDA-induced superoxide formation was prevented by the channel blockers, restored by concurrent Ca2+ influx through ionomycin or voltage-gated calcium channels, and not induced by the Ca2+ influx in the absence of NMDAR ligand binding. Neurons expressing either GluN2B subunits or chimeric GluN2A/GluN2B C-terminus subunits exhibited NMDA-induced superoxide production, whereas neurons expressing chimeric GluN2B/GluN2A C-terminus subunits did not. Neuronal NOX2 activation requires phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and NMDA binding to NMDAR increased PI3K association with NMDA GluN2B subunits independent of Ca2+ influx. These findings identify a non-ionotropic signaling pathway that links NMDAR to NOX2 activation through the C-terminus domain of GluN2B.

Mars' dayside ionosphere is maintained primarily by ionization from solar ultraviolet photons and subsequent chemical reactions, with small contributions from other mechanisms such as impact ionization and charge exchange. In December 2023, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission observed the impact of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) on Mars' ionosphere, including strongly enhanced fluxes of suprathermal electrons. We show that this enhancement in suprathermal electron fluxes increased ion production from electron impact, so that dayside electron impact ionization rates exceeded photoionization rates during the ICME. This change in ion production mechanisms led to unusually high densities of the minor ions C+ ${\mathrm{C}}^{+}$ and O++ ${\mathrm{O}}^{++}$. Space weather events are known to increase ion escape rates, so changes in ion composition during space weather events have important implications for atmospheric evolution. We show that scaling nominal loss rates to account for space weather may underestimate carbon loss from Mars' atmosphere. Plain Language Summary: Dayside planetary ionospheres are primarily produced through interactions between atmospheric neutral gases and sunlight. Impact by energetic particles, especially electrons, typically only contributes a small amount of plasma. We observed unusually high densities of the minor ions C+ ${\mathrm{C}}^{+}$ and O++ ${\mathrm{O}}^{++}$ in Mars' ionosphere during a space weather event in December 2023, when a large bubble of magnetized plasma launched from the Sun impacted the planet. This plasma bubble compressed the Mars magnetosheath, pushing suprathermal electrons to lower altitudes, where they impacted the atmosphere and significantly increased plasma production through impact ionization. Changes in the production mechanisms of the ionosphere during space weather events lead to changes in its density and composition. This is important because space weather events are known to increase the amount of atmospheric gas escaping from a planet, which can have important implications for how the atmosphere evolves over millions of years. Key Points: Unexpected increases in C+ and rarely detected O++ densities were observed during the December 2023 space weather event at MarsThese ions were produced by electron impact ionization from the intense electron fluxes associated with the space weather eventElectron impact ionization exceeded photoionization during the event, which temporarily altered the composition of ions escaping Mars [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor indoor air quality poses significant health risks. This study addresses the gap in knowledge regarding the prevalence of indoor air pollutants in remote and rural First Nation communities in north-central British Columbia, Canada. Dust samples from 75 homes were collected and analysed for house dust mites, pet allergens, mould antigens, and bacterial endotoxins. Indoor air quality parameters, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, temperature, and humidity, were measured. A detailed questionnaire on household characteristics and potential pollutant sources was administered. Homes exhibited exposure to multiple pollutants, with wood stove smoke identified as a primary source. Felis domesticus (cat allergen) and Canis familiaris (dog allergen) were prevalent, with detectable levels in 64% and 60% of homes, respectively. Bacterial endotoxins were present in all households. One-third of homes exceeded recommended thresholds for 3 or more pollutants. This study provides critical insights into the prevalence and magnitude of indoor air pollutants, contributing to a broader initiative to characterise respiratory health in First Nations communities. While many homes in First Nations communities had acceptable air quality, one-third of homes exceeded thresholds for 3 or more pollutants. The results can guide ongoing community efforts to address housing concerns and advocate for increased federal funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Libyan Journal of Medicine is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cross‐presentation by MHCI is optimally efficient in type 1 dendritic cells (DC) due to their high capacity for antigen processing. However, through specific pathways, other DCs, such as type 2 DCs and inflammatory DCs (iDCs) can also cross‐present antigens. FcγR‐mediated uptake by type 2 DC and iDC subsets mediates antibody‐dependent cross‐presentation and activation of CD8+ T cell responses. Here, an important role for the p84 regulatory subunit of PI3Kγ in mediating efficient cross‐presentation of exogenous antigens in otherwise inefficient cross‐presenting cells, such as type 2 DCs and GM‐CSF‐derived iDCs is identified. FcγR‐mediated cross‐presentation is shown in type 2 and iDCs depend on the enzymatic activity of the p84/p110γ complex of PI3Kγ, which controls the activity of the NADPH oxidase NOX2 and ROS production in murine spleen type 2 DCs and GM‐CSF‐derived iDCs. In contrast, p84/p110γ is largely dispensable for cross‐presentation by type 1 DCs. These findings suggest that PI3Kγ‐targeted therapies, currently considered for oncological practice, may interfere with the ability of type 2 DCs and iDCs to cross‐present antigens contained in immune complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]