Imaging and tracing the pattern of adult ovarian angiogenesis implies a strategy against female reproductive aging

Unique model of adult ovarian angiogenesis implies a strategy to extend female reproductive life span.

Open-Circuit Fault-Tolerant Strategy for Interleaved Boost Converters via Filippov Method

Interleaved converters use an increased number of power electronics switches; this may subsequently affect their reliability. However, this is an opportunity to develop fault-tolerant strategies to improve their reliability and to ensure continuity of service. This is why we herein propose, for the first time, a mathematical function to simultaneously model the healthy and faulty conditions of each switch, thus enabling a unique model of the system. This model is then used in an original fault-tolerant strategy based upon the peak current control with slope compensation. This method not only extends the stable range of the load variation but also ensures the stability in faulty conditions. Finally, the simulation results validate its effectiveness and confirm the theoretical analysis.

Citation needed? Wikipedia bibliometrics during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background With the COVID-19 pandemic’s outbreak, millions flocked to Wikipedia for updated information. Amid growing concerns regarding an “infodemic,” ensuring the quality of information is a crucial vector of public health. Investigating whether and how Wikipedia remained up to date and in line with science is key to formulating strategies to counter misinformation. Using citation analyses, we asked which sources informed Wikipedia’s COVID-19–related articles before and during the pandemic’s first wave (January–May 2020). Results We found that coronavirus-related articles referenced trusted media outlets and high-quality academic sources. Regarding academic sources, Wikipedia was found to be highly selective in terms of what science was cited. Moreover, despite a surge in COVID-19 preprints, Wikipedia had a clear preference for open-access studies published in respected journals and made little use of preprints. Building a timeline of English-language COVID-19 articles from 2001–2020 revealed a nuanced trade-off between quality and timeliness. It further showed how pre-existing articles on key topics related to the virus created a framework for integrating new knowledge. Supported by a rigid sourcing policy, this “scientific infrastructure” facilitated contextualization and regulated the influx of new information. Last, we constructed a network of DOI-Wikipedia articles, which showed the landscape of pandemic-related knowledge on Wikipedia and how academic citations create a web of shared knowledge supporting topics like COVID-19 drug development. Conclusions Understanding how scientific research interacts with the digital knowledge-sphere during the pandemic provides insight into how Wikipedia can facilitate access to science. It also reveals how, aided by what we term its “citizen encyclopedists,” it successfully fended off COVID-19 disinformation and how this unique model may be deployed in other contexts.

Reducing Settlement and Collapse of Gypseous Soil Using Geotextile Reinforcement

Collapsible soils are problematic soils that have substantial strength while dry but lose strength when wet, resulting in excessive settlements. Soil collapse occurs when increasing moisture weakens chemical or physical connections between soil particles, allowing the soil structure to collapse. The existence of these soils, often with significant gypsum concentration, created serious challenges for structures and major projects. The primary goal of this study is to conduct a series of model tests subjected to static vertical stress to assess the ability of soil stabilization using geosynthetics material by employing single, double, and triple geotextile layers put at various places. A unique model test configuration was employed for this testing. The gypseous soil used was brought from near Sawa Lake by coordinates (31◦18′42.83″N, 45◦00′49.36″E) in Al-Muthanna Governorate. The gypsum content was more than (37%). It was found that, the ultimate bearing capacity of dry and wet gypseous soil models had been determined by using Two Tangent Intersection technique. The results show the Settlement Reduction Factor (SRF) % and the ratio of decreasing the collapse magnitude (Δed )

Plants: a unique model for research on high diluted substances

Introduction: High efficiency and low cost of homeopathic drugs, lack of side effects and accumulation of toxins in animal farming products made homeopathy one of the priority developments in veterinary medicine. However, opponents of homeopathy have intensified their activity in the recent years. The attacks of the opponents of homeopathy, with their unfounded claims that it is totally explained by the placebo effect, can largely be explained by complexity of understanding the mechanism of action of these remedies which does not fit into the established concepts the effect of drugs on the body. That is why further study of homeopathic phenomenon is especially important in these days. In order to disproof the opinion that homeopathic phenomenon is explained by placebo effect, we have been studying the effect homeopathic remedies on vegetable growth and ripening. This choice was based on the hope that the opponents of homeopathy would not be able to accuse plants of self-suggestion under the effect of potentiated remedies. There are many publications about application of homeopathic remedies on plants. For example, in this direction such researchers as Stephan Baumgartner, Carneiro SMTPG, Rossi F, Carvalho LM, Bonato CM, Betti L, Lazzarato L V. Majewsky, and other researchers worked. Methods: Our first experiments that we performed during two years demonstrated a significant improvement of growth and ripening variables when homeopathic remedies were added to fertilizing mixtures, as compared with conventional plant care. Tomatoes of Typhoon F1 and Titan breeds were sued to study the effect of homeopathic remedies on plant growth and ripening. The studies were performed in greenhouse conditions in summer 2009 and 2010, on fertile soils of an experimental farm in the Krasnoselskiy district of the Leningrad region. Every study group of a certain tomato breed contained 20 plants. When the young plants were planted in the soil they were watered with adding Coca 1000 СН remedy, and then in one month the upper part of the plant was sprayed with Echinacea 30 СН. The same amounts of similar plants of the same breeds treated according to conventional agricultural technology were used as a control group. Results: As a result earlier ripening was found in the Typhoon F1 tomato breed: it occurred by 19 days earlier: that is by 18.3% than in the control group. The Titan tomatoes group ripened by 14.3% faster than in the control one. Every plant of the Typhoon breed produced an average of 45 tomato fruits, while in the control group the average number amounted to 14 (i.e. there was an increase of 221.4% in the test group). An average of 78 tomato fruits were produced by the Titan breed plants, while in the control group this number was only 20 (increase by 290%). Mean weight of the Typhoon tomato fruit increased by 59.5 g from the control values, i.e. by 180.8%. Mean weight of the Titan tomato fruit increased by 128.5 i.e. by 208.9%. A notable difference was found by all observers in the taste of experimental and control vegetables. The experimental plants had significantly better taste characteristics and they were also more resistant to buck eye rot. Conclusion: In such a way, the studies performed confirm the existence of homeopathic phenomenon in live organisms in the absence of the placebo effect. It has been demonstrated that the use of homeopathic remedies is effective in improvement of agricultural productivity. Plants are unique model for research of ultrahigh dilutions of substances.

Spastic paraplegia protein ortholog, reticulon-like 1, governs presynaptic ER organization and Ca2+ dynamics

Neuronal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) appears continuous throughout the cell. Its shape and continuity are influenced by ER- shaping proteins, mutations in which can cause axon degeneration in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP). While HSP is thought of as an axon degeneration disease, the susceptibility of distal axons suggests a ″dying back″ pathology, in which presynaptic terminals could also be affected. We therefore asked how loss of Rtnl1, a Drosophila ortholog of the human HSP gene RTN2 (SPG12), which encodes an ER-shaping protein, affected ER organization and the function of presynaptic terminals. Loss of Rtnl1 depleted ER membrane markers at larval presynaptic motor terminals, and appeared to deplete mainly narrow tubular ER while leaving cisternae largely unaffected, thus suggesting little change in Ca2+ storage capacity at rest. Nevertheless, these changes in presynaptic ER architecture were accompanied by major reductions in activity-evoked Ca2+ fluxes in the cytosol, ER lumen, and mitochondria, as well as by reduced evoked and spontaneous neurotransmission. Our results provide a unique model to explore the roles of presynaptic tubular ER, and show the importance of ER architecture in regulating presynaptic physiology and synaptic function. Altered presynaptic Ca2+ physiology is therefore a potential factor in the pathological changes found in HSP.

Mammalian hibernation: a unique model for medical research

Hibernation is an adaptive behavior for some small animals to survive cold winter. Hibernating mammals usually down-regulate their body temperature from ~37°C to only a few degrees. During the evolution, mammalian hibernators have inherited unique strategies to survive extreme conditions that may lead to disease or death in humans and other non-hibernators. Hibernating mammals can not only tolerant deep hypothermia, hypoxia and anoxia, but also protect them against osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, heart arrhythmia and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Finding the molecular and regulatory mechanisms underlying these adaptations will provide novel ideas for treating related human diseases.

Brief Postnatal Visual Deprivation Triggers Long-Lasting Interactive Structural and Functional Reorganization of the Human Cortex

Patients treated for bilateral congenital cataracts provide a unique model to test the role of early visual input in shaping the development of the human cortex. Previous studies showed that brief early visual deprivation triggers long-lasting changes in the human visual cortex. However, it remains unknown if such changes interact with the development of other parts of the cortex. With high-resolution structural and resting-state fMRI images, we found changes in cortical thickness within, but not limited to, the visual cortex in adult patients, who experienced transient visual deprivation early in life as a result of congenital cataracts. Importantly, the covariation of cortical thickness across regions was also altered in the patients. The areas with altered cortical thickness in patients also showed differences in functional connectivity between patients and normally sighted controls. Together, the current findings suggest an impact of early visual deprivation on the interactive development of the human cortex.

Grounds and methods of systematization of legislation of Ukraine in the field of intellectual property

Keywords: intellectual property law; systematization of legislation, codification,copyright, industrial property law The article is sanctified to researchof the modern state of the legislative regulation of intellectual property relations inUkraine and the ways of its improvement in the direction of systematizing the relevantlegislation. Scientific approaches to determining the place of intellectual propertylaw in the legal system of Ukraine are considered. It is shown that now in Ukrainethere is a unique model of legislative regulation of these relations, which includes 3levels: the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Economic Code of Ukraine, special laws regulatingthe protection of rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks,and other objects. Such division of legislative acts is based on different volumeand subject of regulation of legislative acts. As a result of undertaken a study andtaking into account foreign experience two alternative ways of codification of legislationare certain in the field of intellectual property: within the limits of operating theCivil code of Ukraine and Economic code of Ukraine taking into account the differentiationof the subjects of its regulation, or in the direction of individual codifications ofcopyright and industrial property law as institutions intellectual property law. It issubstantiated that the second way has significant advantages over the unified (general)settlement of relations in the field of spiritual and scientific and technical creativitysince it takes into account the essential specifics of these two components of intellectualproperty law, which is due to the difference in the subjects of their regulation.Guidelines for choosing the appropriate direction of codification are proposed.