Vaccination is the most important method to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and vaccination is key to this goal. This paper highlights considerations for policy development around vaccination attestation and proof requirements, specifically in rural Appalachia. Migrant and immigrant farmworkers are integral to the food and goods supply chain globally; they have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, therefore these policies need to take extensive precautions for farmworkers to systematically and easily comply with vaccination status submission procedures. In this paper, we present steps to equitably manage and implement vaccine mandates: (1) Develop and establish policies to support safe workplace standards for everyone, including vaccination policies; (2) Utilize equitable methods to collect vaccine verification; (3) Use effective and inclusive methods to implement the policies by using these techniques; (4) Integrate key populations to develop and strengthen policies to improve health equity.

Efficient chemical weed management considers precise application of herbicides, maximizing herbicide retention and absorption, reducing the impact of abiotic factors, and mitigating off-target movement in order to optimize herbicide efficacy. Hence, this study assessed the employability and cost-efficiency of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for preplanting application and postemergence selective weed control of grasses infesting legume cover crops (LCCs) in an immature oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) plantation. Field experiments were conducted in 2020 and 2021 at a research center and an oil palm replanting area in Jerantut, Pahang, Malaysia. Droplet deposition and distribution analyses revealed that the pressure at 0.25 MPa yielded better spray coverage and increased droplet counts compared with 0.15 MPa. For preplanting application, both the UAV and mist blower resulted in total weed control. Meanwhile for selective grass control in the LCCs, conventional knapsack sprayer (CKS) application provided slightly better weed control than the UAV over the 12-wk observation. However, a cost-efficiency analysis revealed that UAV spraying yielded economically favorable results for areas greater than 3,000 ha, with potential savings ranging from 4% to 28%. Furthermore, UAV spraying demonstrated superior operational efficiency and reduced working hours by 37%, water consumption by 91%, and human labor expenses by 81% compared with both conventional methods. These findings underscore the potential of UAV-based spraying for large-scale weed control in oil palm plantations and highlight its efficiency, comparable effectiveness, and cost-saving benefits.

Surgical advancements in paediatric cardiovascular surgery have led to improved survival rates for those patients with the most complex CHDs leading to greater numbers of patients who are living well into adulthood. Despite this new era of long-term survival, our current reporting systems continue to focus largely on using short-term postoperative outcomes as the criteria to both rate and rank hospitals. Using such limited criteria to rate and rank hospitals may mislead the intended audiences: patients and families. The goal of this article is to describe the creation of a local benchmarking report which aims to retrospectively review long-term outcomes from our single centre. This report is updated annually and published on our cardiac surgery webpage in an effort to be as transparent as possible for our patient and family communities.

This paper reports results from the eighth of a series of road transect surveys of Gyps vultures conducted across northern, central, western, and north-eastern India since the early 1990s. Populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus, and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris declined rapidly, beginning in the mid-1990s. The principal cause of the declines was poisoning due to widespread veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac on cattle. The results of the current survey suggest that, while populations of all three species of vulture remain at a low level with no signs of recovery, they appear to have been approximately stable since veterinary use of diclofenac was banned in the mid-2000s. Population trends in India, where the illegal use of diclofenac and legal use of other toxic NSAIDs continues, are compared with more positive trends in Nepal, where the veterinary use of toxic NSAIDs appears to have been reduced to a low level.

The present study aimed to investigate an interaction between energy intake, physical activity and UCP2 gene variation on weight gain and adiposity changes in Indonesian adults. This is a prospective cohort study conducted in 323 healthy adults living in the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Energy intake, physical activity, body weight, BMI, percentage body fat and waist:hip ratio (WHR) were measured at baseline and after 2 years while UCP2 -866G/A gene variation was determined at baseline. We reported that after 2 years subjects had a significant increment in body weight, BMI, body fat and reduction in WHR (all P < 0·05). In all subjects, total energy intake was significantly correlated with changes in body weight (β = 0·128, P = 0·023) and body fat (β = 0·123, P = 0·030). Among subjects with the GG genotype, changes in energy intake were positively correlated with changes in body weight (β = 0·232, P = 0·016) and body fat (β = 0·201, P = 0·034). These correlations were insignificant among those with AA + GA genotypes (all P > 0·05). In summary, we show that UCP2 gene variation might influence the adiposity response towards changes in energy intake. Subjects with the GG genotype of UCP2 -866G/A gene were more responsive to energy intake, thus more prone to weight gain due to overeating.

Cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley is an important polyphagous insect pest and causes severe losses to different crops worldwide. In the current study, we investigated the effect of different host plants, such as Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Plumeria rubra, Anthurium andraeanum, Jasminum sambac, and Hibiscus rosasinensis, on the biological parameters of P. solenopsis. The survival rate from crawler to adult, female nymphal duration, development time from crawler to female adult, and female adult weight were significantly different on the different hosts. Male nymphal duration, development time from crawler to male adult, pupal weight, emergence rate of male adults, and mean relative growth rate for male were similar on all the tested host plants. Pupal duration and generation time of male and female on H. rosasinensis were significantly shorter than on the other hosts. Adult male and female P. solenopsis longevity was significantly shorter on H. rosasinensis compared to other hosts. The fecundity was lower on C. pulcherrima and A. andraeanum and hatchability was lower on C. pulcherrima than on the other hosts. The net reproductive rate, the intrinsic rate of natural increase, and biotic potential and mean relative growth rate for female of P. solenopsis were significantly different on the tested hosts. Our results point to the role of host plants in increasing the populations of P. solenopsis and could help to design cultural management strategies.

The purpose of this paper was to prepare purified Na- bentonite with improved properties for use in the pharmaceutical industry. Calcium bentonite from the Shagia region of Karak district, Pakistan, was activated with various proportions of sodium carbonate (2, 3, 5 and 8 wt.%) and purified by sedimentation to remove impurities, especially quartz. X-ray diffraction (XRD), and swelling volume confirmed the conversion of raw bentonite to sodium bentonite by using 5% Na2CO3. The sodium bentonite (K5) obtained by activation met the chemical and microbiological requirements set by the pharmacopeias regarding the toxic trace elemental content (Pb and As), absence of E. coli, total aerobic microbial contents and physicochemical properties such as swelling volume, pH and sedimentation volume. Therefore K5 bentonite could be designated as potentially suitable for pharmaceutical applications. The CEC, surface area, porosity, pH, gel formation and swelling volume indicated that K5 bentonite could be used in the formulation of oral suspension and in topical application.

This study constitutes a first attempt to investigate sex differences in osmoregulatory capacity and metabolic responses in relation to hyper- and hypo-osmoregulation in the intertidal euryhaline crab Uca tangeri. Adult male and female specimens from Cadiz Bay, Spain (36°23′–37′N 6°8′–15′W), were acclimated to three different environmental salinities (12, 33 and 55 psu) during 7 days, and several parameters were assessed in haemolymph (osmolality, glucose, amino acids, triglycerides and lactate) as well as in metabolic key organs (hepatopancreas, anterior and posterior gills: glycogen, free glucose, amino acids and triglycerides). Specimens from both sex exhibited high and similar hyper- and hypo-osmoregulatory capacities. However, metabolite levels were differentially affected upon acclimation to low and high salinity in several metabolic organs and haemolymph of male and females: (i) glycogen in gills, (ii) free glucose in gills and hepatopancreas, (iii) amino acids in hepatopancreas, (iv) triglycerides in haemolymph, hepatopancreas and posterior gills, and (v) lactate in haemolymph. The results suggest the occurrence of differential metabolic adjustments upon hyper- and hypo-osmoregulation related to sex in the intertidal euryhaline crab U. tangeri.

We studied biochemical characteristics and the response to low salinity at short and long-term after feeding of alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity in hepatopancreas of the osmoregulator crab Neohelice granulata from Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) (37°32′–37°45′S 57°19′–57°26′W). The hepatopancreas exhibited a levamisole-insensitive and a levamisole-sensitive AP activity with distinct characteristics. Levamisole-insensitive activity was similar within the range of pH 7.4–9.0 and exhibited a Michaelis–Menten kinetics. Levamisole-sensitive AP activity appeared to be maximal at pH 8.5 and appeared to exhibit an allosteric kinetics. In crabs acclimated to 10 psu (hyper-regulation conditions) levamisole-insensitive and levamisole-sensitive AP activity increased (about 16-fold) over time from short term (2–4 h) to long term (120 h) after feeding while no changes occurred in crabs acclimated to 35 psu (osmoconforming conditions). The changes of AP activity along with the higher values at 120 h after feeding in 10 psu compared with those in 35 psu, and the concomitant changes in proteolytic activity, suggest a role of AP in digestive and metabolic adjustments at the biochemical level upon hyper-regulatory conditions.

This book review discusses a book written by Professor Jimly Asshiddiqie entitled The Constitutional Law of Indonesia: A Comprehensive Overview, published in 2009.

Post-infective pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle in children is very rare, with only five cases reported in English medical literature so far. Patients usually have a short history of infection by Staphylococcus aureus. Timely surgical intervention has generally a good outcome. We present a case of post-infectious pseudoaneurysm in a 2-year-old girl with a review of literature.

My left eyebrow has a scar. It is jagged, and usually the droop of the eyebrow hides it from view. I see it sometimes when I look in the mirror. When I see it, I am reminded instantly of my father. He was sitting, reading a newspaper, on the lawn of our Lahore house. It was near to 6:00 p.m.—late evening to dusk. I had recently conquered the art of biking and I was eager to show him how well I rode. I kept going past him on the bike, but he was engrossed in the paper. Finally I decided that to really get his attention, I would need to go really, really fast. I went a ways, and began to pedal furiously. Right as I gathered full speed and came up to him, I looked at him to see if he was watching me. He wasn't. That split second, however, was enough for me to lose control of the bike, which swerved radically to the left, and I went face-first into a column of bricks. He looked up as I stumbled up, my eye covered in blood. I have no memory of this, except for when I “see” my scar.

The template growth technique was applied to the growth of CrSi2 thin films on Si(111) by UHV E-gun evaporation. A 4He+ channeling yield of -50% was obtained for an epitaxial -2100 Å-thick film of continuous morphology grown at 450° C The heteroepitaxial relationship is CrSi2 (001) / Si (lll) with CrSi2[210] ∥ Si<110>.

In the case of film formation simply via reactive deposition epitaxy (RDE, chromium evaporation onto hot substrates) a severe crystallinity-Morphology tradeoff is always observed. Continuous films are formed at low temperature but no long-range epitaxy is found. On the other hand, high temperature annealing of these films induces the formation of islands that show good epitaxial alignment with the substrate. This tradeoff was addressed with the template growth technique.