PROSPECTS OF APPLICATION OF ASSEMBLY ASPHALT CONCRETE PLATE REINFORCED BY POLYMER LAYERS IN THE DESIGN OF TRANSPORTATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF FOREST HANDLING

Low bearing capacity of soils, thin easily vulnerable soil cover determine the need to take into account soil and soil conditions, damage to the fertile layer from the impact of technology in the process of planning the spatial and temporal placement of logging and designing transport and technological processes in order to preserve conditions for reforestation and preserve biodiversity. Taking the stability of forest soils and soils, when exposed to logging and forestry equipment, the ability to regenerate the soil and restore conditions for natural reforestation, the forests of the European-Ural region are divided into five classes. The main indicators of the classification of the resistance of forest soils and soils to the technological process of logging are deformability, compaction, fertility and reforestation capacity of soils. The low quality of logging highways with a high axle load and an increase in logging volumes requires a more accelerated development of the industry of road-building materials and products, designed for maximum mechanization and industrialization of their production. A prefabricated pavement slab (PSP) made of asphalt concrete, reinforced with at least two layers of polymer reinforcement, can be manufactured in an industrial environment subject to all the required technological standards and conditions, which will allow setting the required strength characteristics.

Thermal burns in electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective for mood disorders and schizophrenia. Thermal burns, while rare, are potentially sight and life threatening. The three elements necessary for a fire are often in close proximity during a session: an oxidiser (oxygen), an ignition source (faulty electrodes, poor contact with skin producing a spark) and fuel (hair, residual alcohol cleanser). This case report describes one such incident when a patient sustained a burn during ECT, with poor contact of electrode pad with skin, high impedance and an oxygen-rich environment possibly contributing. Given that ECT is conducted relatively frequently (once every 2–3 days) in a usual regimen, we make recommendations for safe application of electrode pads for temporal placement ECT.

283 Timely Euthanasia on Farm; Dairy Cattle and Swine

Euthanasia of mature swine and cattle can be challenging. On-farm euthanasia should be used as a tool to eliminate pain and suffering. However, clear guidelines regarding making euthanasia decisions and alternative euthanasia techniques available for use is limited in the United States (US). In order to prevent prolonged suffering and pain in compromised animals, science-based recommendations are needed to ensure timely and humane euthanasia can be performed when needed on-farm. This presentation will focus on two euthanasia challenges currently faced in swine and dairy cattle systems in the US today: 1) Swine: Validating alternative euthanasia techniques for use in mature breeding stock and 2) Dairy Cattle: Identifying producer barriers preventing timely euthanasia decision-making using surveys and focus groups. The swine study evaluated the effectiveness of two penetrating captive bolt gun styles (cylinder or pistol) using a frontal, temporal and behind-the-ear placement. Four treatments were 100% effective in achieving cardiac arrest and death. The cylinder style captive bolt gun resulted in greater brain trauma and death compared to a pistol style gun and behind-the-ear and temporal placement showed promise as an alternative placement site for euthanizing mature pigs. In the dairy cattle study, dairy producers were recruited to participate in a survey and focus group. Survey results indicated that farm owners were most commonly responsible for on-farm euthanasia and most respondents would treat and monitor compromised cattle for a majority of health conditions, regardless of condition severity. Participants in focus groups focused primarily on animal welfare as the most important factor influencing the decision to euthanize and the desire to eliminate animal suffering by using euthanasia as a tool. This work highlights the complicated challenges that arise when euthanizing livestock and the importance of not only identifying appropriate techniques to humanely euthanize livestock but address the emotional and animal welfare factors that influence these decisions.

ECG-Based Indices to Characterize Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Before and During Stepwise Catheter Ablation

Background: Consistently successful patient outcomes following catheter ablation (CA) for treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation (pers-AF) remain elusive. We propose an electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis designed to (1) refine selection of patients most likely to benefit from ablation, and (2) examine the temporal evolution of AF organization indices that could act as clinical indicators of ongoing ablation effectiveness and completeness.Method: Twelve-lead ECG was continuously recorded in 40 patients (61 ± 8 years) during stepwise CA (step-CA) procedures for treatment of pers-AF (sustained duration 19 ± 11 months). Following standard pre-processing, ECG signals were divided into 10-s epochs and labeled according to their temporal placement: pre-PVI (baseline), dur-PVI (during pulmonary vein isolation), and post-PVI (during complex-fractionated atrial electrograms and linear ablation). Instantaneous frequency (IF), adaptive organization index (AOI), sample entropy (SampEn) and f-wave amplitude (FWA) measures were calculated and analyzed during each of the three temporal steps. Temporal evolution of these measures was assessed using a statistical test for mean value transitions, as an indicator of changes in AF organization. Results were then compared between: (i) patients grouped according to step-CA outcome; (ii) patients grouped according to type of arrhythmia recurrence following the procedure, if applicable; (iii) within the same patient group during the three different temporal steps.Results: Stepwise CA patient outcomes were as follows: (1) left-atrium (LA) terminated, not recurring (LTN, n = 8), (2) LA terminated, recurring (LTR, n = 20), and (3) not LA terminated, all recurring at follow-up (NLT, n = 12). Among the LTR and NLT patients, recurrence occurred as AF in seven patients and atrial tachycardia or atrial flutter (AT/AFL) in the remaining 25 patients. The ECG measures indicated the lowest level of organization in the NLT group for all ablation steps. The highest organization was observed in the LTN group, while the LTR group displayed an intermediate level of organization. Regarding time evolution of ECG measures in dur-PVI and post-PVI recordings, stepwise ablation led to increases in AF organization in most patients, with no significant differences between the LTN, LTR, and NLT groups. The median decrease in IF and increase in AOI were significantly greater in AT/AFL recurring patients than in AF recurring patients; however, changes in the SampEn and FWA parameters were not significantly different between types of recurrence.Conclusion: Noninvasive ECG measures, though unable to predict arrhythmia recurrence following ablation, show the lowest levels of AF organization in patients that do not respond well to step-CA. Increasing AF organization in post-PVI may be associated with organized arrhythmia recurrence after a single ablation procedure.

New Record of Terminal Pleistocene Elk/Wapiti (Cervus canadensis) from Ohio, USA

The earliest appearance of elk/wapiti (Cervus canadensis) in eastern North America is not thoroughly documented due to the small number of directly dated remains. Until recently, no absolute dates on elk bone older than 10,000 14C yr BP (11,621 to 11,306 calibrated years (cal yr) BP) were known from this region. The partial skeleton of the Tope Elk was discovered in 2017 during commercial excavation of peat deposits from a small bog in southeastern Medina County, Ohio, United States. Subsequent examination of the remains revealed the individual to be a robust male approximately 8.5 years old at death. The large size of this individual is compared with late Holocene specimens and suggests diminution of elk since the late Pleistocene. Two accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon assays on bone collagen samples taken from the scapula and metacarpal of this individual returned ages of 10,270 ± 30 14C yr BP (Beta-477478) (12,154 to 11,835 cal yr BP) and 10,260 ± 30 14C yr BP (Beta-521748) (12,144 to 11,830 cal yr BP), respectively. These results place Cervus canadensis in the terminal Pleistocene of the eastern woodlands and near the establishment of the mixed deciduous forest biome over much of the region. This early temporal placement also situates this early elk as closely following the last representatives of now-extinct megafauna such as the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) and contemporary with the Late Paleoindian inhabitants of the region.

Validating the effectiveness of alternative euthanasia techniques using penetrating captive bolt guns in mature swine (Sus scrofa domesticus)

ABSTRACT: Euthanasia of mature swine is challenging. Temporal and behind-the-ear locations are two sites that have been identified as alternatives to the more commonly used frontal placement. In stage-one, the effectiveness of two penetrating captive bolt gun styles (cylinder or pistol) was evaluated using frontal, temporal and behind-the-ear placement in anesthetized mature swine (n=36; weight: 267 ± 41 kg). For stage-one, when evaluating treatment efficacy by sex, the cylinder style equipment was 100% effective in achieving death when applied to all cranial locations (frontal, temporal, behind-the-ear) for sows; however, the pistol style equipment was only 100% effective when applied at the behind-the-ear location for sows. For boars, the cylinder style equipment was 100% effective when applied to the frontal and behind-the-ear location, but the pistol style equipment was not effective for any cranial location in boars. Therefore, the pistol-frontal, pistol-temporal, pistol- behind-the-ear and cylinder-temporal were not included for boars, and pistol-frontal and pistol-temporal were not included for sows in stage-two. In stage-two, commercial, mixed breed, mature swine (n=42; weight: 292 +/- 56 kg) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments based on inclusion criteria described in stage-one. A 3-point traumatic brain injury (TBI) score (0=normal; 1=some abnormalities; 3=grossly abnormal, unrecognizable) was used to evaluate six neuroanatomical structures (cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, thalamus, pons and brain stem) and the presence of hemorrhage was also noted. All treatments were 100% effective in stage-two. A significant interaction between gun style and placement was determined on predicting total TBI as the cylinder style produced a higher total TBI score compared to the pistol type, of magnitude of +2.8 (P < 0.01). The cylinder style tended to produce a greater TBI score than the pistol in the temporal location (+1.2; P=0.08). No difference was noted for TBI score behind-the-ear between the cylinder and pistol style gun (P>0.05). TBI tended to be less in boars compared to sows (-0.6; P=0.08). Hemorrhage was observed in frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. This study demonstrated that the cylinder style captive bolt gun more effectively resulted in brain trauma and death compared to a pistol style gun and the behind-the-ear and temporal placement showed promise as an alternative placement site for euthanizing mature pigs on-farm.

Attention dynamics on the Chinese social media Sina Weibo during the COVID-19 pandemic

Understanding attention dynamics on social media during pandemics could help governments minimize the effects. We focus on how COVID-19 has influenced the attention dynamics on the biggest Chinese microblogging website Sina Weibo during the first four months of the pandemic. We study the real-time Hot Search List (HSL), which provides the ranking of the most popular 50 hashtags based on the amount of Sina Weibo searches. We show how the specific events, measures and developments during the epidemic affected the emergence of different kinds of hashtags and the ranking on the HSL. A significant increase of COVID-19 related hashtags started to occur on HSL around January 20, 2020, when the transmission of the disease between humans was announced. Then very rapidly a situation was reached where COVID-related hashtags occupied 30–70% of the HSL, however, with changing content. We give an analysis of how the hashtag topics changed during the investigated time span and conclude that there are three periods separated by February 12 and March 12. In period 1, we see strong topical correlations and clustering of hashtags; in period 2, the correlations are weakened, without clustering pattern; in period 3, we see a potential of clustering while not as strong as in period 1. We further explore the dynamics of HSL by measuring the ranking dynamics and the lifetimes of hashtags on the list. This way we can obtain information about the decay of attention, which is important for decisions about the temporal placement of governmental measures to achieve permanent awareness. Furthermore, our observations indicate abnormally higher rank diversity in the top 15 ranks on HSL due to the COVID-19 related hashtags, revealing the possibility of algorithmic intervention from the platform provider.

Cell culture NAIL-MS allows insight into human tRNA and rRNA modification dynamics in vivo

Recently, studies about RNA modification dynamics in human RNAs are among the most controversially discussed. As a main reason, we identified the unavailability of a technique which allows the investigation of the temporal processing of RNA transcripts. Here, we present nucleic acid isotope labeling coupled mass spectrometry (NAIL-MS) for efficient, monoisotopic stable isotope labeling in both RNA and DNA in standard cell culture. We design pulse chase experiments and study the temporal placement of modified nucleosides in tRNAPhe and 18S rRNA. In existing RNAs, we observe a time-dependent constant loss of modified nucleosides which is masked by post-transcriptional methylation mechanisms and thus undetectable without NAIL-MS. During alkylation stress, NAIL-MS reveals an adaptation of tRNA modifications in new transcripts but not existing ones. Overall, we present a fast and reliable stable isotope labeling strategy which allows in-depth study of RNA modification dynamics in human cell culture.

Dynamic Range Processing and Its Influence on Perceived Timing in Electronic Dance Music

In this article, we explore the extent to which dynamic range processing (such as compression and sidechain compression) influences our perception of a sound signal’s temporal placement in music. Because compression reshapes the sound signal’s envelope, scholars have previously noted that certain uses of sidechain compression can produce peculiar rhythmic effects. In this article, we have tried to interrogate and complicate this notion by linking a description of the workings and effects of dynamic range processing to empirical findings on the interaction between sound and perceived timing, and by analyzing multitracks and DAW project files, as well as released audio files, of selected EDM tracks. The analyses of the different EDM tracks demonstrated that sidechain compression affects the music in many possible ways, depending on the settings of the compressors’ parameters, as well as the rhythmic pattern and the sonic complexity of both the trigger signal and the sidechained signal. Dynamic range processing’s impact on groove and perceived timing indicates, in line with previous findings, that sound and timing interact in fundamental ways. Because of this interaction, then, we cannot limit ourselves to technical terms that describe how particular effects are achieved if we want to fully understand the grooves that are characteristic of EDM or other music. We must also consider how listeners experience these effects.