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The very low frequency (VLF) communication system is characterized by a limited transmit bandwidth. Due to the low operating frequency, the dimensions of VLF antennas are significantly smaller than the corresponding wavelength. Therefore, VLF antennas are considered electrically small antennas (ESAs) with high Q values and narrow bandwidth. To achieve broadband VLF communication, synchronous tuning technology is commonly employed. In this study, we focus on analyzing the performance of the switching device in the synchronous tuning system using coupled inductors and IGBT as core components. By considering the equivalent circuit of the controlled source associated with coupled inductors, we propose an adaptive input impedance optimization algorithm based on the variable capacitor (hereinafter referred to as VC-ADIO) to address issues arising from coupling coefficient variations and internal parameters within IGBTs that affect primary loop input impedance. The radiated power of the VLF antenna is improved effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Describe the emotional support animal (ESA) experience of college students detailing the process of obtaining an ESA, as well as the benefits and obstacles. Participants: Nine students who had an ESA at college provided preliminary information while an additional four offered insights into their COVID experience with their ESA. Archived records from the Accessibility Resource Center added detail on the ESA process. Methods: This mixed-method study included qualitative interviews (9 students prior to COVID and 4 during COVID) as well as a quantitative analysis of archived data. Thematic analysis was used to extract themes from the interviews. Archived data were analyzed for frequency of select topics. Results: Four positive themes (presence of animal, empowerment, symptom alleviation, and social catalyst) and three negative themes (housing accommodations, lack of ESA education on campus, and social consequences) were extracted from initial interview responses. Analysis of COVID interviews also revealed positive and negative themes with many similar to the pre-COVID responses but also included unique themes reflective of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Archived data revealed a substantial increase in the number of ESAs on campus, a wide range of species, and an array of complaints such as safety concerns, ESA behavior, ESA cleanliness, and ESA in unauthorized areas. Conclusions: Overall, the college ESA experience appears beneficial, facilitating the adjustment to college for students with mental health concerns. However, there are drawbacks. Knowledge of obstacles and concerns will help ease the ESA process for all constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The breakthrough in erythropoietin-stimulating agents in the 1990s improved the prognosis and treatment of complications in chronic kidney disease patients and renal anemia. Discovery of the novel molecular mechanisms for hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) transcription factor under hypoxic conditions has led to the development of oral drugs, HIF-Prolyl Hydroxylase inhibitors (HIF-PHIs), that constantly activate erythropoietin by inhibiting prolyl hydroxylase. HIF-PHIs have gained rapid approval in Asian countries, including Japan, with six distinct types entering clinical application. This article provides a comprehensive review of the latest literature, with a particular focus on the effectiveness and safety of vadadustat. A phase 3, randomized, open-label, clinical trial (PRO2TECT) demonstrated that vadadustat had the prespecified non-inferiority for hematologic efficacy as compared with darbepoetin alfa in non-dialysis-dependent patients not previously treated with ESA. However, vadadustat did not show non-inferiority in major adverse cardiovascular events in the non-US/non-Europe patients. It may partly because of imbalances of the baseline eGFR level in those countries. In dialysis-dependent patients, a phase 3 clinical trial (INNO2VATE) showed vadadustat was non-inferior to darbepoetin alfa in cardiovascular safety and maintenance of hemoglobin levels. Adverse events including cancer, retinopathy, thrombosis, and vascular calcification should be evaluated in future clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dicle University Journal of Engineering / Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Dergisi is the property of Dicle Universitesi 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.)

The presented study is concerned with a new multi-step method to synthesize PtCo/C materials based on composite CoxOy/C that combines the advantages of different liquid-phase synthesis methods. Based on the results of studying the materials at each stage of synthesis with the TG, XRD, TEM, SEI, TXRF, CV and LSV methods, a detailed overview of the sequential changes in catalyst composition and structure at each stage of the synthesis is presented. The PtCo/C catalyst synthesized with the multi-step method is characterized by a uniform distribution of bimetallic nanoparticles of about 3 nm in size over the surface of the support, which result in its high ESA and ORR activity. The activity study for the synthesized PtCo/C catalyst in an MEA showed better current–voltage characteristics and a higher maximum specific power compared with an MEA based on a commercial Pt/C catalyst. Therefore, the results of the presented study demonstrate high prospects for the developed approach to the multi-step synthesis of PtM/C catalysts, which may enhance the characteristics of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pneumonia is a chest disease that occurs as a result of inflammation of the lung tissue. Although pneumonia can occur at any age, it is quite dangerous in people under the age of two and over the age of sixty-five. According to World Health Organization data, approximately 7% of all deaths in the world are due to pneumonia. Early diagnosis and treatment of the disease is an important factor in reducing mortality rates due to the disease. In the study, an effective convolutional neural network (ESA) model was proposed for pneumonia detection from three-dimensional (3D) chest x-ray images. The proposed model is designed using transfer learning approach with pre-trained ResNet. The performance of the model has now been increased by skipping block connections and some layers in the deep learning architecture. An open access dataset consisting of 5617 X-Ray images, labeled pneumonia and normal, was used in the analysis. The performance of the proposed method is compared with three different models. The first model is a simple ESA model. The second model is an ESA model in which some blocks are removed from the proposed model. The third model represents a widely used pre-trained network known as ResNet-18. According to the analysis, the accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, precision and F-1 score values of the proposed method are 98.42%, respectively; 97.52%; 99.35%; It was obtained as 97.47% and 98.90%. When the results obtained from the analyzes are examined, it is revealed that the proposed method is successful in detecting pneumonia from chest X-ray images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of estimated soil moisture data obtained from the GLDAS, ESA and SMAP sensor databases with the observed data of the Silakhor Agricultural Meteorological Station to investigate the spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture in Lorestan province. The data used in this research include the soil moisture data of the Silakhor station, GLDAS database, ESA center and SMAP sensor products during a six-year period (2016-2021). Estimated soil moisture data were evaluated against observed data using R2, RMSE and MAD statistics. The results showed that the SMAP satellite is associated with underestimation and the GLDAS model and the ESA satellite are associated with overestimation of soil moisture. However, in general, the estimated soil moisture values of the three mentioned sources have good accuracy. The value of the correlation coefficient between observed soil moisture data with soil moisture data obtained from SMAP and ESA satellites and GLDAS model was obtained as 0.62, 0.59 and 0.72 respectively, and in the combined case (SMAP, ESA and GLDAS) the value of correlation coefficient was increased to 0.77, therefore, it is suggested to use combine data to use soil moisture estimation.

The present study aims to examine the potential of optical satellite data and spectral indices to assess surface changes induced by permafrost melting. Surface changes related to permafrost melting on Livingston Island, Antarctica, were examined using optical satellite data from Sentinel-2 sensors of the European Space Agency (ESA). The study area coincides with previous field studies by electrical resistivity tomographic profiles made to establish and visualize the presence of permafrost. Utilizing the advantages of remote sensing methods and calculation of optical indices, it was tracked whether and to what extent there was a surface change and melting of the permafrost in the study area. The observation period encompasses the astral summer seasons from 2016 to 2023. The results show that the combination of different optical indices gives a better understanding of changes in the terrain. The combined use of the Normalized Difference Glacier Index (NDGI), Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI), Normalized Difference Snow and Ice Index (NDSII), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Moisture Stress Index (MSI) indicates for a pronounced trend of melting of the active layer of the permafrost periglacial area of research in March 2016 and 2017, and from January to mid of March 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Mustansiriyah Journal for Pharmaceutical Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

Object detection on images with high accuracy is an essential issue for many application areas, especially real-time applications. Convolutional neural networks, on the other hand, are deep learning-based methods that have been used in object detection applications in recent years and have achieved high accuracy. However, although classical convolutional neural networks can detect objects on original images with high accuracy, their performance may be insufficient on images where adversarial attacks such as FGSM, PGD, and APGD are applied. To overcome this problem, different models and pre-processes are developed for object detection on attacked images. However, the performance of the models may vary for attacked and non-attacked cases. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether the attack occurred and select the most successful model according to the case. To solve the problem mentioned above, detect whether there is an adversarial attack on the images using convolutional neural networks has been performed in this study. Within the scope of the study, YOLO v5 and Faster R-CNN models were trained for the adversarial attack detection task with and without transfer learning. Experimental results show that the Faster R-CNN model with transfer learning achieved the most successful result among the four models with an f1 score of 0.971. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Erythropoietin (EPO)-deficient anemia occurs in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) are the standard treatment for CKD anemia, but patient responses vary. Hemodialysis patients are often anemic due to hypo erythropoiesis and their chronic inflammatory state. Inadequate dialysis is considered one of the factors that are linked to ESA hypo responsiveness. Dialysis patients may experience many symptoms that lower their quality of life. End stage renal disease (ESRD) symptoms are assessed using Dialysis Symptom Index (DSI). Objective: The current study was designed to measure the association between physical, and emotional symptoms and ESA responsiveness. Also, to determine how dialysis adequacy affects response level. Materials and Methods: The current study included 150 CKD anemic patients in a multicenter dialysis units. patients were examined for the response to Epoetin alfa (Eprex) after 12 weeks in this cross-sectional study. Clinical, demographic, and laboratory data were collected. The erythropoietin resistance index (ERI) evaluated the effect of erythropoietin dosage on hemoglobin levels. Dialysis adequacy (Kt/V) measured the efficacy of dialysis. The severity of symptoms was evaluated using the 30-question Dialysis Symptom Index (DSI). Results: 150 patients in all were enrolled, with a mean age of 51.6 ± 14.9 for the male patients. There was a significant difference in kt/v among study groups, mainly between hypo response and resistance groups (P-value < 0.01). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the DSI mean (P = 0.4). kt/v was positively correlated with the duration of dialysis and parathyroid hormone (PTH) (R = 0.27, P-value < 0.001), (R = 0.19, P-value = 0.01). additionally, The DSI was strongly connected with the age of the patients (R = 0.18, P-value = 0.02). Conclusion: One of the main causes of Eprex resistance in this study was insufficient dialysis. Patients who received longer hemodialysis sessions exhibited higher hemodialysis sufficiency. However, there was no significant association between DSI and degree of response across research groups, and older hemodialysis patients experienced higher dialysis-related symptoms.

ABSTRACTOpen-access gridded climate products have been suggested as a potential source of data for index insurance design and operation in data-limited regions. However, index insurance requires climate data with long historical records, global geographical coverage and fine spatial resolution at the same time, which is nearly impossible to satisfy, especially with open-access data. In this paper, we spatially downscaled gridded climate data (precipitation, temperature, and soil moisture) in coarse spatial resolution with globally available long-term historical records to finer spatial resolution, using satellite-based data and machine learning algorithms. We then investigated the effect of index insurance contracts based on downscaled climate data for hedging spring wheat yield. This study employed county-level spring wheat yield data between 1982 and 2018 from 56 counties overall in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The results showed that in the majority of cases (70%), hedging effectiveness of index insurances increases when climate data is spatially downscaled with a machine learning approach. These improvements are statistically significant [Formula: see text]. Among other climate data, more improvements in hedging effectiveness were observed when the insurance design was based on downscaled temperature and precipitation data. Overall, this study highlights the reasonability and benefits of downscaling climate data for insurance design and operation.

Under § 7 of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA or the Act),'federal agencies must ensure that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are" not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat of such species." 2 For species with low and declining populations, applying this standard is legally and scientifically difficult. 3 The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) faced this problem in its recent biological opinion (BiOp) analyzing impacts to threatened Delta smelt from water project operations in the California Delta. FWS concluded the" species' recent abundance trends strongly suggest it is in the midst of demographic collapse," and most recent surveys to locate smelt have failed to find them.'Nevertheless, FWS approved agency actions that will likely increase extinction risk for Delta smelt.

Over the last 30 years, there have been numerous legal battles over recovery of the grizzly bear. These battles have brought to fore a question central to implementation of the Act, namely is the goal of recovery to merely remediate extinction risk or to affect broader ecosystem recovery. I systematically reviewed court decisions related to the grizzly bear’s recovery plan, efforts to remove protections for grizzly bears, and challenges to logging, mining and other projects with impacts to grizzly bears. A legal challenge to the grizzly bear’s 1993 recovery plan forced the Service to develop habitat-based recovery criteria for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Legal efforts to reopen the recovery plan and expand recovery into additional areas of historic range, however, were unsuccessful, leaving the scope of recovery largely at the discretion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lawsuits brought by multiple conservation groups, tribes and individuals have constrained this discretion, twice stopping the agency from stripping Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears of federal protections. This has allowed the population to grow and forced consideration of the impact of removing protections for Greater Yellowstone bears on overall recovery as a requirement of any future effort to remove protections. Court decisions were issued on 65 challenges to projects impacting grizzly bear habitat, including 44 involving logging and related road construction, seven mining, four livestock grazing, two recreation, five oil and gas leasing and three road projects, leading to 11 of these projects being stopped and nine modified. Lawsuits were also filed to stop hunting in four instances, trapping in one, predator control in one and railroad mortality in two, as well as activities that disturb bears, including helicopters in two instances and snow mobile use in another, resulting in four being stopped and another 3 modified. Protection of the grizzly bear under the Endangered Species Act, along with subsequent litigation, has led to substantial changes in management of public lands in the four recovery zones with grizzly bear populations, but not elsewhere in the species’ range. Overall, the legal system is an important, but often overlooked, part of recovery of endangered species.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to address the challenges of Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network (SRGAN) in face image super-resolution reconstruction. We introduce a new improved SRGAN algorithm, named Wasserstein SRGAN (W-SRGAN), which addresses the limitations of the original model by enhancing the loss function, generator, and discriminator. Our approach utilizes the embedded residual structure combined with feature fusion as the new generator, while removing the Sigmoid of the last layer of the discriminator of SRGAN by borrowing the idea of Wasserstein GAN (W-GAN). Additionally, we replace the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence of SRGAN with Wasserstein distance. The contributions of our research are twofold. Firstly, we propose a new face super-resolution reconstruction algorithm that outperforms existing methods in terms of visual quality. Secondly, we introduce a new loss function and generator–discriminator architecture that can be applied to other image super-resolution tasks, extending the applicability of GANs in this domain. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed W-SRGAN outperforms Bicubic, Super-Resolution Convolutional Neural Network (SRCNN), and SRGAN in terms of visual quality on all Celeb A datasets. These results confirm the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm and provide a new solution for face super-resolution reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Nuestra América is the property of Edicoes Universidade Fernando Pessoa 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.)

Background and Objectives: Iron deficiency and anemia characterize patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD). Available intravenous iron agents, such as ferric gluconate (FG) and ferric carboxymaltose (FCM), vary in dosing regimens and safety profiles. The aim of the present study was to analyze the modification of the iron status, the correction of anemia, and the economic implications after the shift from FG to FCM therapy in chronic HD patients. We evaluated, during the study, the variations in iron metabolism, assessing ferritin and transferrin saturation, erythropoietin-stimulating agent (ESA) doses and the number of administrations, the effects on anemic status, and consequent costs. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was performed with a follow-up period of 24 months, enrolling forty-two HD patients. The enrolment phase started in January 2015, when patients were treated with iv FG, and continued until December 2015, when FG was discontinued, and, after a wash-out period, the same patients were treated with FCM. Results: The iron switch reduced the administered dose of ESA by 1610.500 UI (31% of reduction; p < 0.001) during the entire study period and reduced the erythropoietin resistance index (ERI) (10.1 ± 0.4 vs. 14.8 ± 0.5; p < 0.0001). The FCM group had the highest percentage of patients who did not require ESA treatment during the study period. The FCM patients were characterized by higher levels of iron (p = 0.04), ferritin (p < 0.001), and TSAT levels (p < 0.001) compared to the FG patients. The annual cost during FG infusion was estimated at EUR 105,390.2, while one year of treatment with FCM had a total cost of EUR 84,180.7 (a difference of EUR 21,209.51 (20%), saving EUR 42.1 per patient/month (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: FCM was a more effective treatment option than FG, reducing ESA dose requirements, increasing Hb levels, and improving iron status. The reduced ESA doses and the decreased number of patients needing ESA were the main factors for reducing overall costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paracetamol is one of the most widely consumed analgesic and antipyretic medications worldwide. It is frequently analyzed in many quality control (QC) laboratories in pharmaceutical companies, either in raw materials or drug products. It was reported that paracetamol self-toxicity often occurs, leading to the frequent analysis of paracetamol in toxicological centers in biological fluids. Green analytical chemistry (GAC) is growing to be a global philosophy; therefore, the high frequency of paracetamol analysis poses potential concerns. Chromatographic analytical methods used for the daily analysis of paracetamol could be a potential risk to the environment or the health of the analysts if not thoroughly considered. The presented study aims to establish greenness assessments of nine HPLC methods used to assay paracetamol in raw materials and drug products and twenty-one HPLC methods. The reason for selecting HPLC methods of analysis to be the core of the study is the known reproducibility, reliability and availability in most QC laboratories. The most commonly used metric systems for greenness evaluation are the Analytical GREEnness (AGREE), the eco-scale assessment (ESA) and the national environmental methods index (NEMI) which have been used in this comparative study. The greenest chromatographic method for the analysis of paracetamol in raw materials and drug products was introduced by Rao et al. (the obtained scores were ESA = 76 and AGREE = 0.62, while the greenest chromatographic method for the analysis of paracetamol in biological fluids was proposed by Modick et al.). The obtained scores were ESA = 85 and AGREE = 0.7. The NEMI tool proved to have limited performance compared to other metric systems, hence it could not be used alone. Accordingly, the collaboration of NEMI results with ESA and AGREE for greenness assessment is highly recommended to reach appropriate conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of hypoxia inducible factor–prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors (HIF-PHIs) came the hope that using these oral drugs could improve the treatment of the anemia of kidney disease. In this editorial we discuss the accumulated knowledge on these agents and the clinical context for use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many salmonids are listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), with habitat loss and alteration likely responsible for their declines. As a result, salmonid hatcheries have proliferated to help mitigate the loss of wild populations. Research aimed at understanding factors contributing to population declines, including studies designed to improve juvenile downstream passage, has often relied on hatchery-origin fish because of restricted access to wild fish. However, differences between hatchery-origin and wild fish could confound results. This led to the development of the Wild Fish Surrogate Program, where we use alternative rearing tactics to produce juvenile fish more like wild Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, for research by varying growth, diet, feeding, density, cover, and tank complexity. Here, we describe methods that have been successful in producing target wild fish phenotypes, in particular related to smoltification and movement, and provide information on the quality and phenotypic accuracy of wild fish surrogates through four case studies (morphology, fin condition, body composition, and behavior). We show that wild fish surrogates had more similar body shape to wild fish compared to hatchery fish and had intermediate body lipid levels. Compared to hatchery fish, we also show that wild fish surrogates had larger and more symmetrical fins and were less likely to cross an aversive zone to be near conspecifics. Although wild fish surrogates were not always intermediate in their phenotypes or behavior, they did not significantly differ in their caudal fin length asymmetry or behavior compared to wild fish. We outline how such a program can be expanded beyond the program objectives and beyond salmonids. This generalization is important, as it can be implemented in other systems with ESA-listed populations where research using wild fish could inform and improve mitigation efforts or for hatchery programs to produce more wild-like phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the potential role of agri-business SMEs in scaling climate resilient seed systems through inclusive business models in Eastern and Southern Africa. Over the last decade, donors and policymakers have coalesced behind a private-sector scaling agenda for Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in which small-and-medium enterprises, multinational corporations and financial institutions are recognized for their potential to contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of aid. This agenda has progressively adopted notions of inclusiveness entailing wider socio-economic empowerment for smallholder farmers and sustainability. Whereas proponents of private sector-scaling of CSA seed systems through inclusive business models make linear assumptions surrounding shared value outcomes and impact at scale for farmers and companies alike, we argue that these dynamics are not always straightforward in practice. For instance, the current focus of CSA seed-related investments towards the formalization and commercialization of seed sectors, does not correspond well to the contextual reality of where ESA farmers source the bulk of their seeds-from diverse channels operating under Farmer-Managed Seed Systems. More careful consideration is needed into the conditions under which inclusive business models could be more compatible with local farming contexts in ways that can support equitable and sustainable transitions at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Limited real-world data are available in Europe, especially France, regarding the therapeutic management of anaemia in patients with dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (DD CKD). Methods This retrospective, longitudinal, observational study was based on medical records from the MEDIAL database of not-for-profit dialysis units in France. From January to December 2016, we included eligible patients (≥18 years), with a diagnosis of CKD and receiving maintenance dialysis. Patients with anaemia were followed up for 2 years after inclusion. Patient demographic data, anaemia status, CKD-related anaemia treatments, and treatment outcomes including laboratory test results were evaluated. Results Of 1632 DD CKD patients identified from the MEDIAL database, 1286 had anaemia; 98.2% of patients with anaemia were receiving haemodialysis at index date (ID). Of patients with anaemia, 29.9% had haemoglobin (Hb) levels of 10–11 g/dL and 36.2% had levels of 11–12 g/dL at ID. Furthermore, 21.3% had functional iron deficiency and 11.7% had absolute iron deficiency. The most commonly prescribed treatments at ID for patients with DD CKD–related anaemia were intravenous (IV) iron with erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) (65.1%). Among patients initiating ESA treatment at ID or during follow-up, 347 (95.3%) reached the Hb target of 10–13 g/dL and maintained response within the target Hb range for a median duration of 113 days. Conclusions Despite combined use of ESAs and IV iron, duration within the Hb target range was short, suggesting that anaemia management can be further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern bridge seismic design follows a performance-based seismic design (PBSD) philosophy where the structure is designed to achieve a prescribed limit state under a defined hazard. Nevertheless, the demands may substantially diverge depending on the PBSD method applied in the assessment. This article presents a demand sensitivity analysis using the elastic (ESA) and dynamic (EDA) procedures of the AASHTO Seismic Guide Specifications and direct displacement-based assessment (DDBA). The investigation was conducted using 81 reinforced concrete (RC) bridges and ten multi-period spectra from a shallow tectonic regime. Moreover, these demands were compared with nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) using five viscous damping models. Seven compatible records were employed to calculate the envelopes of transverse displaced shapes and cumulative distribution functions of the column with the highest displacement ductility. These average inelastic responses were contrasted with the predictions from the ESA, EDA, and DDBA. For regular bridges, this study found that the elastic procedures considerably underestimate the deformations, while DDBA compares well with NLTHA, especially for high ductility levels. Also, a discussion about the impact of the viscous damping models is included. We expect these findings may encourage practitioners to use DDBA as a reliable alternative to evaluate the seismic performance of RC bridges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excellent Service Agency (ESA) is an educational institution for the service and service industry in the city of Malang, which is engaged in training in the hospitality industry, especially in the fields of tourism, hospitality, and selfdevelopment. ESA has difficulties in providing professional HR education in the bakery industry due to a lack of equipment, besides that ESA also lacks insight into food safety to support the quality of bakery products that will be produced, even though safety assurance is one of the determinants of competitiveness in both the domestic and international markets. ESA is also less able to expand its market share because it has not implemented digital marketing. The methods that have been carried out include: 1)Assisting ESA with 5 types of bakery processing equipment for ESA to train more professional human resources in the F&B field; 2). Training on Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Food Sanitation; 3) Training and practice of diversifying bakery and cake processing from wheat flour and composite flour; The results of this activity include increasing understanding and insight for ESA employees and students as well as UPN Veterans East Java students about 1. The Role of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Food Safety for the Bakery Industry; and 2. Basic Theory and Diversification of Bakery Product from Wheat Flour and Composite Flour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective spatial planning plays a pivotal role in defining the progress and growth of a certain region. One aspect of spatial planning by PLANMalaysia involves the incorporation of environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), which comprises eleven different landscape management. Integrating biological features is crucial when defining ESA Permanent Forest Reserve, as relying solely on physical attributes may not accurately reflect the true sensitivity of the environment. Therefore, there is a need to gather biological information to strengthen existing ESA. A study was conducted in Gunung Tebu Forest Reserve (GTFR) from April to July 2023. Multiple trapping approaches were deployed to assess volant and non-volant small mammal assemblage. In total, 155 individuals comprised of 31 species of small mammals were documented with the highest species abundant recorded by Maxomys rajah (n = 29) and Leopoldamys sabanus (n = 27). The diversity indices were varied throughout five sampling sessions, (Shannon = 1.841 to 2.543), (Simpson = 0.7951 to 0.9056). Comparison on species assemblage between GTFR and forest reserves in Hulu Terengganu showed a moderate similarity level. This finding offers the most recent insight of the small mammals in GTFR and highlights the significance of conserving and preserving (ESA) in permanent forest reserves.

This study presents a global, hourly surface soil moisture estimation procedure based on precipitation and temperature data. Information on soil composition further helps to define the local characteristics of soil moisture development. An advanced antecedent precipitation index (API) is utilized to generate a global soil moisture product of high temporal resolution with the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Missions Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) as main driver. The resulting global GPM API data set is compared against in situ measurements from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) and is also evaluated against the soil moisture data set from the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI SM). The study shows that with empirically derived dampening factors the GPM API achieves a mean ubRMSD across the utilized in situ stations in different climates and vegetation zones of 4.68 V o l % and a bias of 0.88 V o l %. The data set clearly represents the local soil moisture schemes with seasonal variations. When comparing with ESA CCI SM, the GPM API does perform better at the measurement sites concerning bias, correlation and error values. The data set is in most parts negatively biased compared to the ESA CCI SM, however better matches the mean soil moisture at ISMN stations. Overall, the GPM API delivers a very promising global, hourly surface soil moisture product at 0.1 ∘ × 0.1 ∘ spatial resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]