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Bovine tuberculosis in cattle slaughtered at Addis Ababa abattoir in Ethiopia and workforce awareness of zoonotic risk

Background Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is endemic and of zoonotic importance in Ethiopia. Despite this, there is limited recent information on the prevalence of bTB in cattle slaughtered at abattoirs. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of bTB in cattle slaughtered at Addis Ababa municipality abattoir based on tuberculous lesions and region of difference (RD4) deletion typing and to assess the current practice and the awareness of occupational workers to zoonoses. Methods A total of 502 cattle slaughtered at the municipality abattoir (260 in the day shift and 242 in the night shift) were included in this cross-sectional study. Data collection and laboratory investigations included postmortem examination, culture and bacteriological examination, molecular characterization of positive isolates using region of difference (RD4) deletion typing and spoligotyping. Knowledge of zoonotic infection risk and practices was investigated through a questionnaire administered to 58 abattoir workers and 58 butchers. Results Based on postmortem examination, bTB suspected lesion was identified in 4.58% of cattle and it was significantly associated with, the age, breed and body condition of the animals. The detection of tuberculosis lesions during the night shift of the slaughter program was 1.54 times that of the day shift which is not statistically significant but warrants future study with a larger sample size. The gross lesions were predominately found in the lung and associated lymph nodes (65.5%). Of the 23 bTB suspected tuberculous lesions cultured, 11 (47.83%) tissue samples were culture-positive, and four isolates were RD4-positive, identifying M. bovis. Spoligotyping patterns were also effectively detected in four isolates. The observed spoligotype patterns were two SB1477 strains, and SB1176 and SB0133 strains. In the questionnaire survey, 79.31% of abattoir workers were aware of bTB, however, 93.10% of butchers did not know of bTB and understood less about preventing cross-infection. Conclusion Bovine tuberculosis is evident in cattle reaching the abattoir in Addis Ababa with nearly similar gross lesion pathology-based prevalence of bTB to prior findings reported from the same abattoir a decade ago. This suggests that despite efforts to control the disease in cattle, the prevalence remains largely unchanged. Although statistically non-significant, the trend showing higher odds of detecting tuberculous lesions during the night suggests a need for improved meat inspections during the night shift and the need for larger future studies.

Research on Brazilian splitting mechanics and acoustic emission characteristics of various types of sandstones in Shendong mining area

First Chinese mission to sample an asteroid starts its journey

Role of quantum corrections to the kinetic energy and three-body interactions on the thermodynamic properties of neon

Molecular simulations are reported for the thermodynamic properties of Ne at temperatures between 30 and 300 K and pressures up to 100 MPa using an intermolecular potential that combines ab initio two-body, three-body, and quantum terms. Quantum corrections to the kinetic energy (QCKE) are also applied to the simulation data. Three-body interactions make important contributions to the pressure–volume–temperature behavior, enthalpy, heat capacity, isothermal compressibility, isochoric pressure coefficient, and isobaric thermal expansion coefficient of Ne. In particular, three-body interactions are required to correctly determine the volume and greatly improve the accuracy of enthalpy, isochoric pressure coefficient, and isobaric thermal expansion coefficient. QCKE also make an important contribution to the properties of Ne that has not been previously recognized. The addition of QCKE means that the caloric thermodynamic properties of Ne can often be determined a priori to an accuracy comparable to that of the reference data.

Blockchain assisted signature and certificate based protocol for efficient data protection and transaction management in smart grids

Smart grids collect real-time power consumption reports that are then forwarded to the utility service providers over the public communication channels. Compared with the traditional power grids, smart grids integrate information and communication technologies, cyber physical systems, power generation and distribution domains to enhance flexibility, efficiency, transparency and reliability of the electric power systems. However, this integration of numerous heterogeneous technologies and devices increases the attack surface. Therefore, a myriad of security techniques have been introduced based on technologies such as public key cryptosystems, blockchain, bilinear pairing and elliptic curve cryptography. However, majority of these protocols have security challenges while the others incur high complexities. Therefore, they are not ideal for some of the smart grid components such as smart meters which are resource-constrained. In this paper, a protocol that leverages on digital certificates, signatures, elliptic curve cryptography and blockchain is developed. The formal verification using Real-Or-Random (ROR) model shows that the derived session keys are secure. In addition, semantic security analysis shows that it is robust against typical smart grid attacks such as replays, forgery, privileged insider, side-channeling and impersonations. Moreover, the performance evaluation shows that our protocol achieves a 17.19% reduction in the computation complexity and a 46.15% improvement in the supported security and privacy features.

Association of the dietary inflammation index with the prevalence of stroke in patients with diabetes

On-the-fly simulations of transient absorption pump–probe spectra: Combining mapping dynamics with doorway-window protocol

We have constructed an ab initio protocol for the simulation of transient-absorption (TA) pump–probe (PP) signals of realistic polyatomic systems. The protocol is based on interfacing the doorway-window representation of spectroscopic signals with the on-the-fly mapping Hamiltonian dynamics approach at the symmetrical quasi-classical/Meyer–Miller level. The methodology is applied to the simulation of TA PP signals of two molecular systems, azobenzene and cis-hepta-3,5,7-trieniminium cation. For both molecules, the TA PP spectra were demonstrated to give a direct fingerprint of the excited state wavepacket dynamics and internal conversion, which permits the monitoring of the isomerization pathways en route to the final photoproducts.

Long-term glycemic variability and the risk of cardiovascular diseases in type 2 diabetic patients: Effect of hypothetical interventions using parametric g-formula in a population-based historical cohort study

Background Harmful effects of long-term HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) variability on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have not been causally examined. We employed a parametric g-formula to estimate the causal effect of HbA1C and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) variability on CVD. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted on 2078 patients with type 2 diabetes who were free of CVD and aged >18 years at the entrance to the clinic (2017–2022), with at least three HbA1c and FPG measurements. Variability was calculated using standard deviation (SD), and coefficient of variation (CV). We used the parametric g-formula to estimate the 5-year risk, risk ratio, and risk difference of CVD under different deciles of HbA1c-SD/CV, FPG-SD/CV, HbA1C levels (≤5%, 5 to ≤7%, and >7), and joint exposure to different deciles of HbA1c-SD and HbA1c values, adjusted for time-varying confounders that are affected by prior exposure. Results The observed and simulated 5-year risk of CVD under no intervention were 11.6% (95% CI: 10.3, 13.1) and 11.03% (95% CI: 10.2, 12.6) for HbA1C-SD model. The estimated 5-year risk of CVD was increased from the 8.01% (95% CI: 7.5, 10.1%) in the first decile to 15.2% (95% CI: 14.1, 17.7%) in the tenth decile of HbA1c-SD. The results for FPG-SD were similar. Within the stable level of HbA1c (5 to ≤7%) the risk ratio increased from 1.37 (95% CI: 1.19, 1.48) in the first decile to 2.76 (95% CI: 2.06, 3.09) in the tenth decile of HbA1c-SD. Under a joint intervention of HbA1c <5% and the first decile of HbA1c-SD, CVD risk decreased by 6.4% (95%CI: 4.9, 7.3%) compared to the natural course. Conclusions Even within a stable HbA1c level, long-term glycemic variability may be a strong predictor of CVD.

Conditional survival analysis and real-time prognosis prediction for prostate cancer patients

Abstract To assess shifts in long-term survival outcomes for prostate cancer patients, the present study conducted conditional survival (CS) analysis and developed a personalized CS-nomogram to provide dynamic prognostic predictions. Data from 301,441 prostate cancer patients in the Surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database were analyzed, with cancer-specific survival (CSS) estimated using the Aalen Johansen estimator. Key predictive factors, including tumor size, lymph node involvement, distant metastasis, and histological grade, were identified via LASSO and multivariable Cox regression analyses to construct the nomogram. Results showed an increase in 12-year CSS from 94.3% at diagnosis to 99.4% for those surviving more than 5 years, with prostate cancer-specific mortality falling below 5% after 5–6 years of survival. The CS-nomogram demonstrated high predictive accuracy, achieving a concordance index (C-index) of 0.869 and area under the curve (AUC) values between 0.847 and 0.904 over a 12-year follow-up period, which provides dynamic, individualized prognostic estimates, supporting the long-term management of prostate cancer patients.

‘A funeral for our careers’: Trump’s science cuts spill onto Canadian turf

Ratchet effect of self-propelled colloids in an asymmetric periodic potential

We report a systematic study of barrier-crossing dynamics of self-propelled particles (SPPs) across a periodic ratchet potential U0(x), which is fabricated on a ratchet-microgroove-patterned polydimethylsiloxane substrate. From the measured steady-state probability density function P(x; F0) of the SPPs with different self-propulsion forces F0, we find that the escape dynamics of slow-rotating SPPs over the asymmetric ratchet potential can be well described by an activity-dependent potential, U±(x; F0) ≃ U0(x) ∓ aF0x, for the forward (+) and backward (−) moving particles with aF0 being the amplitude of their self-propulsion force projected along the x axis. By a thorough analysis of a large volume of the SPP trajectories obtained from both the spatially symmetric and asymmetric potentials, we delineate two experimental conditions under which the ratchet effect of SPPs is realized without involving a time-dependent rectification, and directed particle transport with a steady flux is observed. This work thus provides an effective statistical approach to describe the non-equilibrium transport of SPPs across ratchet potentials.

Perceptions of the impact of military life on relationships and Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse among UK military personnel

Research suggests that the prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse (IPVA) use (i.e., perpetration) and experience (i.e., victimisation) is higher among military compared to civilian populations and that military-related factors, such as deployment and deployment-related trauma, are associated with IPVA. However, the mechanisms underlying the associations between military factors and IPVA use and experience are not well understood. This study explores narratives of how military personnel perceive military life to influence IPVA within relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 UK military serving and ex-serving personnel (29 male, 11 female) and analysed using Framework analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived describing how elements of military life were perceived by personnel and veterans to impact on relationships and contribute to IPVA: Demands of military work; Military cultural spill-over; and Deployment-related difficulties with psychosocial functioning and mental health. The findings highlight risky periods for relationship conflict and IPVA, especially during reintegrations following deployments, but also show the impact of other military factors which provide significant context for IPVA. Our findings emphasise how difficulties with psychosocial functioning and communication, as well as deployment-related traumas and reintegration challenges, can influence relationships and IPVA behaviours among military personnel and veterans. Such experiences are aggravated or perpetuated by occupational demands, military socialization or institutionalisation, and the hypermasculine military environment. Targeted interventions to improve emotion regulation, conflict resolution and mentalizing skills may be especially useful for minimising harm resulting from relationship conflict and preventing IPVA.

Elevational microhabitats influence some endolichenic traits of Umbilicaria aprina, an alpine lichen species

Phase diagrams for organic/metal interfaces: Significance of configurational and vibrational energies

Numerous properties of organic/metal interfaces strongly depend on their polymorphism. To computationally predict the thermodynamically most stable polymorph at finite temperature and pressure, the state-of-the-art method is ab initio thermodynamics. However, several approximations made within ab initio thermodynamics have been developed with small adsorbates in mind, which are comparable in size to a substrate unit cell and have no or only few internal degrees of freedom, and it is unclear how well these approximations translate to larger, more complex organic adsorbates. In this work, we study this question exemplarily for the model system of tetracyanoethylene on Cu(111), which shows a Blyholder-like charge transfer that in amount and shape depends sensitively on the structure of the organic adsorbate. In particular, we investigate how the phase boundaries between different stable polymorphs are affected by the (temperature-dependent) vibrational and entropy terms. Based on these investigations, we find that, while the configurational entropy is de facto negligible for organics, the vibrational free energy can shift phase boundaries by several tens of kelvins. Moreover, we discuss how the vibrational free energy can be approximated and why said approximations work well for organic/metal interfaces.

A simple and efficient attack on the Merkle-Hellman knapsack cryptosystem

The Merkle-Hellman knapsack cryptosystem was one of the two earliest public key cryptosystems, which was invented by Merkle and Hellman in 1978. One can recover the equivalent keys by using Shamir’s method. The most time-consuming part of Shamir’s attack is to recover the critical intermediate parameters by solving an integer programming problem with a fixed number of variables, whose worst-case complexity is exponential of the number of variables. In this paper, we present an improved algorithm to analyze the basic Merkle-Hellman public key cryptosystem. The main idea is to recover a partial super-increasing sequence as equivalent private key, which is the main difference from Shamir’s. More precisely, we first obtain a super-increasing sequence by invoking the LLL algorithm on a special lattice with a small dimension. We can recover most part of the plaintext from the tail by solving the super-increasing knapsack problem. Finally, we get the first part of plaintext by solving a size-reduced knapsack problem. Experimental data shows that one can recover the whole plaintext in less than 1 second on a laptop for the typical parameters of the Merkle-Hellman cryptosystem, whose time complexity is reduced by a polynomial level compared with Shamir’s algorithm.

Drug-drug interaction prediction of traditional Chinese medicine based on graph attention networks

Origins of NpO22+ XAS features: Hydrated compared to isolated NpO22+

The principal concern of this paper is to compare theoretical predictions for M5 → 5f x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) obtained between an isolated linear NpO22+ model and an embedded NpO22+ model that takes into account the environment of the solution where XAS measurements are actually conducted. The embedded model is an NpO2[H2O]52+ cluster. Novel methods are used to quantify the role of the hydration both for the molecular orbitals and for the many-body wavefunctions that account for the interaction of the hole in the M5 shell with the two electrons in the open 5f shell of the excited states. It is found that the hydration has only a very minor effect on the XAS excitation energies and intensities, thus validating the previous work based on the properties of an isolated neptunyl cation.

Analysis measurements of millet collision coefficient of restitution for mechanized seeding

The millet collision coefficient of restitution (COR) is one of the important elementary physical parameters for researching the precision hole seeding system. In this study, to explore the factors affecting the bounce issue observed when seeds exit the seed-metering and seed-guiding devices, the dynamic equations for the millet collision process were derived employing Newtonian kinematics, and a COR measurement test bench was built. The effects of collision material type, speed and variety respectively on the COR were investigated by single-factor experiments and orthogonal experiments. Single-factor tests revealed that COR values decreased in the sequence of Acrylic plate, ABS, Rubber, Black soil,Meadow soil, and Sandy loam soil, with Tuogu exhibiting higher COR than Zhang Zagu 13 and Shuangyu, the latter having the lowest value. During two collision phases, the COR progressively decreased as seeding speed increased. Orthogonal tests identified the significant influences of each factor. A combination of bench and simulation tests validated the test results, showing no significant differences and confirming the method’s viability for determining COR. These findings offer a reference for optimizing the design of relevant components within the millet metering system.

Understanding the phase changes and optical properties in the solvothermal synthesis of iron pyrite

HB-CUFIX: Force field for accurate RNA simulations

Accurate modeling of the dynamic structures of ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules is essential for understanding their biological roles. However, such modeling remains challenging due to limitations in current force fields. This study critically evaluates three RNA force fields, HB-CUFIX, AMBER-χOL3, and AMBER-ROC, comparing their performance against experimental nuclear magnetic resonance and small-angle x-ray scattering data for single-stranded oligonucleotides. Using enhanced sampling techniques, specifically Unified Free Energy Dynamics, we exhaustively sampled the conformational space of tetramer and hexamer RNA sequences, achieving a detailed and thermodynamically converged view of their structural dynamics. Our findings reveal that HB-CUFIX outperforms AMBER-χOL3 and AMBER-ROC, providing near-experimental accuracy in capturing sequence-dependent structural preferences. In particular, HB-CUFIX accurately predicts low energy states for the AAAA and CCCC sequences, favoring A-form helical conformations, while the UUUU sequence adopts an extended, heterogeneous structure. The mixed GACC sequence displays a predominantly A-form helix with flexible terminal residues. These results highlight the significant role of sequence in dictating RNA conformational spaces, which are driven by base stacking interactions and covalent geometry. We also emphasize the importance of enhanced sampling, particularly methods that can handle large numbers of collective variables, in evaluating RNA force fields, as traditional brute-force Molecular dynamics fails to capture the conformational diversity of flexible RNAs. Our study provides a reliable tool for RNA structure prediction and dynamic analysis, supporting future advancements in RNA-targeted research and therapeutic design.