Sodium Binding Stabilizes the Outward-Open State of SERT by Limiting Bundle Domain Motions

The human serotonin transporter (hSERT) removes the neurotransmitter serotonin from the synaptic cleft by reuptake into the presynaptic nerve terminal. A number of neurologic diseases are associated with dysfunction of the hSERT, and several medications for their treatment are hSERT blockers, including citalopram, fluoxetine, and paroxetine. The substrate transport is energized by the high concentration of external NaCl. We showed through molecular dynamics simulations that the binding of NaCl stabilized the hSERT in the substrate-binding competent conformation, which was characterized by an open access path to the substrate-binding site through the outer vestibule. Importantly, the binding of NaCl reduced the dynamics of the hSERT by decreasing the internal fluctuations of the bundle domain as well as the movement of the bundle domain relative to the scaffold domain. In contrast, the presence of only the bound chloride ion did not reduce the high domain mobility of the apo state.

Does renewable energy policy increase energy intensity? Evidence from the ECOWAS region

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess how the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) renewable energy policy (EREP) affects energy intensity using the difference-in-difference (DID) and the propensity score matching methods (PSM). Based on the current debates on renewable energy policies (REP) and due to the fact that energy efficiency has been a challenge for ECOWAS member states. The authors set up a framework to assess the EREP effect on energy intensity. Design/methodology/approach Using the DID and PSM approaches the paper assesses the effect of EREP on energy intensity. The following three different paths are considered: Path 1 tests the EREP effect on electricity access. Path 2 tests the use of renewable energy sources as a factor to enhance the energy intensity. Path 3 tests whether or not use of renewable energy deployment has the potential to raise the total percentage of primary energy supply. The principle is to investigate if and to what extend the EREP increases the energy intensity. Findings The results indicate that EREP has a significantly positive effect on increasing the percentage of energy intensity in ECOWAS member states that has implemented the policy, resulting for a large percentage of the population to electricity access in treated groups. Empirical estimation results largely corroborate the three paths’ hypotheses. The result indicated that the EREP has increased the percentage of electricity access throughout the region. Originality/value The paper explores a more appropriate framework to examine the effect of EREP and enriches the literature on the impact of REP by combining a policy evaluation approach (PSM-DID) method. This paper is the first to the knowledge to estimate the EREP effect by using a non-parametric approach. The majority of previous studies have focused on using case studies, exploratory analysis approaches and econometric methods.

AR visualization of automated access path planning for percutaneous interventions

Minimally invasive interventions, e.g., percutaneous needle interventions, have many advantages compared to traditional surgery. However, they may require complex and time-consuming planning with experience-dependent success. Automated access path planning is faster and more consistent but individual preferences and situational circumstances are not considered. To this end, displaying the path planning results directly on the patient’s skin, using projector-based augmented reality (AR), was investigated. A constraint-based path planning was implemented to evaluate the quality of every path, taking into account risk structures and path length. A visualization was developed to display the results on the skin and to allow for path selection. The choice of the path followed by a navigated insertion was evaluated in a pilot study (n=5), considering four levels of the visualization with different amounts of displayed insertion points. Participants stated that they preferred to have multiple potential puncture points displayed. However, the results for the considered variables show only small differences. Overall, it has been shown that projectorbased AR visualization of automated access path planning is possible and enables individual, situation-adapted insertion point selection. More research is required to further explore optimal display of paths.

Dual mode Bluetooth Controller via PCM-CODEC Interface for Audio Application

Bluetooth may be an inaccessible development standard utilized for exchanging data between settled and flexible contraptions over brief divisions utilizing UHF radio waves within the mechanical, coherent, and restorative radio bunches, from 2.402GHz to 2.480 GHz. PCM codec is an A/D interface for speech signals. The Bluetooth center framework underpins co-ordinate transport of application information that’s isochronous and of a consistent rate (either bit-rate or frame-rate for pre-framed information) employing an SCO or ESCO consistent joins. These coherent joins save physical channel transfer speed and give a consistent rate of transport bolted to the piconet clock. The codec interface block is used to interface an external PCM (8KHz voice data) or a stereo codec with the baseband controller for the direct transfer of voice data on isochronous links to external CODEC. Bluetooth baseband supports two CODEC interface protocols 1) for audio links it is the PCM interface and 2) for mono/stereo music data from audio codec it uses the IIS interface. This enables the source of isochronous data to be directly interfaced to the baseband controller if it is not required to be processed by firmware. It also provides the host access path where the source of isochronous data will be any application running on the host and data is written and read directly into baseband SCO/ESCO FIFOs from firmware. In this paper, PCM is verified in the Cadence tool and simulated images are shown.

Urban Growth and urban need to fair distribution of healthcare service: a case study on Shiraz Metropolitan area

Objective (1) To analyze urbanization development pattern in Shiraz after the year 1977; (2) To analyze hospital development model in Shiraz after the year 1977; (3) To review and prioritize location-allocation criteria for hospitals; and (4) To specify appropriate locations for the establishment of potential future general hospitals in Shiraz based on selected criteria. Results Although a significant expansion is seen from different geographical directions (particularly northwest and southeast of the city) in the urbanization model after the year 1977, the construction of hospitals has been limited to the central parts of the city and the areas around the city lack any hospitals. The “open access path to the hospital during incidents and disasters and a light traffic” criterion has enjoyed the highest priority amongst the 24 selected hospital location-allocation criteria. Appropriate locations for establishment of new hospitals in the future have been marked as colored maps. The present study has been able to determine and prioritize a comprehensive list of hospital location-allocation criteria. Moreover, the achieved maps from this study can be used by policy makers to develop new hospitals.

Kreon

Persistent key-value stores have emerged as a main component in the data access path of modern data processing systems. However, they exhibit high CPU and I/O overhead. Nowadays, due to power limitations, it is important to reduce CPU overheads for data processing. In this article, we propose Kreon , a key-value store that targets servers with flash-based storage, where CPU overhead and I/O amplification are more significant bottlenecks compared to I/O randomness. We first observe that two significant sources of overhead in key-value stores are: (a) The use of compaction in Log-Structured Merge-Trees (LSM-Tree) that constantly perform merging and sorting of large data segments and (b) the use of an I/O cache to access devices, which incurs overhead even for data that reside in memory. To avoid these, Kreon performs data movement from level to level by using partial reorganization instead of full data reorganization via the use of a full index per-level. Kreon uses memory-mapped I/O via a custom kernel path to avoid a user-space cache. For a large dataset, Kreon reduces CPU cycles/op by up to 5.8×, reduces I/O amplification for inserts by up to 4.61×, and increases insert ops/s by up to 5.3×, compared to RocksDB.

Geomechanical Characterization of a Rock Cliff Hosting a Cultural Heritage through Ground and UAV Rock Mass Surveys for Its Sustainable Fruition

In mountainous areas around the world, dealing with rockfalls means facing some technical survey difficulties due to the low accessibility of areas and the height of slopes. If a cultural heritage is also threatened by such mass movement, the need of specific survey solutions, even in a combined asset, is required. This paper deals with the integration of ground and UAV rock mass surveys aimed at defining the rockfall attitude of an unstable rock cliff sector hosting an example of cultural heritage in tourist area of southern Italy, whose fruition has already been threatened by the occurrence of rockfalls. As an example of the defensive architecture of XII and XIII centuries, the Saracen Castle in Taormina is reached by hundreds of visitors each year, but its access path and the surrounding area are threatened by the unstable condition of the cliff, hosting unstable rock volumes on kinematically critical planes. In order to achieve a reliable geostructural setting of the cliff, aiming at its possible securing through proper mitigation works, ground rock mass surveys could not provide enough information due to the bad accessibility of the rock faces. Therefore, a survey by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, with a reliable verified accuracy, was carried out to map the discontinuity planes especially occurring at the highest portions of the cliff, achieving geostructural data of different fronts of the cliff. Ground and aerial data were combined and statistically analyzed to define the main kinematic failure patterns. In this perspective, a critical comparison between the two employed surveying methodologies is proposed herein, highlighting that both approaches are affected by potential and limitations and that the integration of the mutual dataset represents a suitable solution for a complete rock mass characterization in this type of areas. Furthermore, rockfall simulations allowed ascertaining that potential falling blocks would cross the access path to the castle, thus representing a natural threat to the fruition of cultural heritage, thus proving the need of mitigation measures to ensure the safe fruition of the cultural heritage.

Aspects regarding numerical models for safe evacuation of people, in the current pandemic context

In everyday life, several situations can be mentioned in which a building or a complex of buildings may require emergency evacuation: fires, chemical leaks, release of toxic or explosive gases, explosions, violent behavior, or threats with weapons/bombs. To calculate the time needed for building evacuation, numerical models are used to simulate this process of movement of groups of people, in a closed physical space. Algorithms for access path and exit selection use both properties of the crowds model and the individual interaction between event and people. The pandemic context has raised several questions about the safe use of buildings, given the presence of the risk of disease transmission. The policies adopted in the last year regarding the use of buildings, establishing access flows, and social distance, vary within great limits, being specific to each state and based on the analysis of the virus transmission rate rather than on risk assessments at the building level. The paper aims to present the main challenges to which the models of emergency evacuation, must respond, especially those considering social distancing and interaction between individuals, within a given distance, all to minimize the risk of disease transmission during the evacuation process of the building.

Urban Growth and Urban Need to Fair Distribution of Healthcare Service, Case Study: Shiraz Metropolitan

Objective: 1) To analyze urbanization development pattern in Shiraz after the year 1977; 2) To analyze hospital development model in Shiraz after the year 1977; 3) To review and prioritize location allocation criteria for hospitals; and 4) To specify appropriate locations for the establishment of potential future hospitals in Shiraz based on selected criteria.Results: Although a significant expansion is seen from different geographical directions (particularly northwest and southeast of the city) in the urbanization model after the year 1977, the construction of hospitals has been limited to the central parts of the city and the areas around the city lack any hospitals. The “open access path to the hospital during incidents and disasters and a light traffic” criterion has enjoyed the highest priority amongst the 24 selected hospital location allocation criteria. Appropriate locations for establishment of new hospitals in the future have been marked as colored maps. The present study has been able to determine and prioritize a comprehensive list of hospital location allocation criteria. Moreover, the achieved maps from this study can be used by policy makers to develop new hospitals.

Both aggressive and affiliative behaviour facilitate resource access in high-ranking female long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Access to limited resources may be achieved by dominance as well as by high rates of aggressive and affiliative behaviour. We investigated the relative effectiveness of dominance rank and aggressive and affiliative behaviour in accessing three material and three social resources. Aggressive and affiliative behaviour of 24 female long-tailed macaques was scored along with their success in resource access. Path models revealed that high-ranking individuals have more access to resources than low-ranking ones through their employment of both aggressive and affiliative behaviour. Physical aggression was effective in accessing two material resources (food and enrichment). Affiliative behaviour was effective in accessing one material (co-drinking) and one social (tolerance) resource. In conclusion, since aggressive behaviour was effective in accessing two material resources, while affiliative behaviour increased access to both a material and a social resource, affiliative behaviour is at least as important as aggressive behaviour for high-ranking individuals to access resources.