Dynamics of Information Flow and Task Allocation of Social Insect Colonies: Impacts of Spatial Interactions and Task Switching

Models of social interaction dynamics have been powerful tools for understanding the efficiency of information spread and the robustness of task allocation in social insect colonies. How workers spatially distribute within the colony, or spatial heterogeneity degree (SHD), plays a vital role in contact dynamics, influencing information spread and task allocation. We used agent-based models to explore factors affecting spatial heterogeneity and information flow, including the number of task groups, variation in spatial arrangements, and levels of task switching, to study: (1) the impact of multiple task groups on SHD, contact dynamics, and information spread, and (2) the impact of task switching on SHD and contact dynamics. Both models show a strong linear relationship between the dynamics of SHD and contact dynamics, which exists for different initial conditions. The multiple-task-group model without task switching reveals the impacts of the number and spatial arrangements of task locations on information transmission. The task-switching model allows task-switching with a probability through contact between individuals. The model indicates that the task-switching mechanism enables a dynamical state of task-related spatial fidelity at the individual level. This spatial fidelity can assist the colony in redistributing their workforce, with consequent effects on the dynamics of spatial heterogeneity degree. The spatial fidelity of a task group is the proportion of workers who perform that task and have preferential walking styles toward their task location. Our analysis shows that the task switching rate between two tasks is an exponentially decreasing function of the spatial fidelity and contact rate. Higher spatial fidelity leads to more agents aggregating to task location, reducing contact between groups, thus making task switching more difficult. Our results provide important insights into the mechanisms that generate spatial heterogeneity and deepen our understanding of how spatial heterogeneity impacts task allocation, social interaction, and information spread.

Investigation of Job Fatigue, Quality of Life and Sleep of shift staff working in the electric distribution company of Ilam Province

Introduction: Shift work is one of the social phenomena that has its roots in the history of human origin and still exists today for economic and technological reasons. Due to the complications of shift work, the present study was conducted to investigate job fatigue, quality of life, and sleep of shift staff working in Ilam Electric Distribution Company. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, all shift workers of Ilam Electric Distribution Company were selected. Data collection tools included the Swedish Job Exhaustion Questionnaire, Quality of Life (SF-36), the Insomnia Assessment Questionnaire, and the Survey of shift workers (SOS). SPSS software version 26 was used to analyze data using independent sample T-Test, One-way ANOVA, and Chi-square tests.  Results: Pearson correlation test showed that there was a direct and positive correlation between age and physical function (r = 0.439; p = 0.022), smoking and sleep problems (r = 0.528; p = 0.006), and education and limitation of the role of emotional problems (r = 0.382; p = 0.049). Also, the was a significant indirect correlation was found between age and physical role limitation (r = - 0.501; p = 0.008), shift work with satisfaction with individual life (p <0.045), social life (p <0.038), family life (p <0.023) and family dissatisfaction. Conclusion: shift working has adverse effects on family satisfaction, circadian rhythms, digestive performance, and mental health. It is suggested that managers be more careful about working hours, work shifts, and rest times

Effect of Human Behavior on the Evolution of Viral Strains During an Epidemic

It is well known in the literature that human behavior can change as a reaction to disease observed in others, and that such behavioral changes can be an important factor in the spread of an epidemic. It has been noted that human behavioral traits in disease avoidance are under selection in the presence of infectious diseases. Here, we explore a complementary trend: the pathogen itself might experience a force of selection to become less “visible,” or less “symptomatic,” in the presence of such human behavioral trends. Using a stochastic SIR agent-based model, we investigated the co-evolution of two viral strains with cross-immunity, where the resident strain is symptomatic while the mutant strain is asymptomatic. We assumed that individuals exercised self-regulated social distancing (SD) behavior if one of their neighbors was infected with a symptomatic strain. We observed that the proportion of asymptomatic carriers increased over time with a stronger effect corresponding to higher levels of self-regulated SD. Adding mandated SD made the effect more significant, while the existence of a time-delay between the onset of infection and the change of behavior reduced the advantage of the asymptomatic strain. These results were consistent under random geometric networks, scale-free networks, and a synthetic network that represented the social behavior of the residents of New Orleans.

EPIC: an evaluation of the psychological impact of early-phase clinical trials in cancer patients

Background

Anxiety and depression in patients with cancer is associated with decreased quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. However, these are often overlooked and untreated. Early-phase clinical trials (EPCTs) recruit patients with advanced cancers who frequently lack future treatment options, which may lead to increased anxiety and depression. Despite this, EPCTs do not routinely consider psychological screening for patients.

Patients and methods

This prospective observational study explored levels of anxiety and depression alongside impact of trial participation in the context of EPCTs. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Brief Illness Perceptions Questionnaire were completed at the point of EPCT consent, the end of screening and at pre-specified time points thereafter.

Results

Sixty-four patients (median age 56 years; median Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 1) were recruited. At consent, 57 patients returned questionnaires; 39% reported clinically relevant levels of anxiety whilst 18% reported clinically relevant levels of depression. Sixty-three percent of patients experiencing psychological distress had never previously reported this. Males were more likely to be depressed (P = 0.037) and females were more likely to be anxious (P = 0.011). Changes in anxiety or depression were observed after trial enrolment on an individual level, but not significant on a population level.

Conclusions

Patients on EPCTs are at an increased risk of anxiety and depression but may not seek relevant support. Sites offering EPCTs should consider including psychological screening to encourage a more holistic approach to cancer care and consider the sex of individuals when tailoring psychological support to meet specific needs.

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Early-phase cancer trial patients have an increased risk of anxiety and depression.

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Patients at risk were not seeking support for anxiety and depression.

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Male patients were more likely to be depressed; female patients were more likely to be anxious.

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This work highlights the need to screen for psychological symptoms in patients entering early-phase trials.

Integrated two-phase acidogenic-methanogenic treatment of municipal sludge with thermal hydrolysis

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of two process configurations integrating two-phase anaerobic digestion (AD) of municipal sludge with thermal hydrolysis (TH). The TH was positioned either before or after the acidogenic fermentation phase. The fermentation process was carried out under the semi-continuous flow regime with a retention time of three days. The TH was done at a temperature of 170 °C and for 30 min. Among all the tested scenarios, the TH of sludge followed by the acidogenic fermentation resulted in the highest COD solubilization ratio (39.5%) and volatile fatty acids production (6,420 ± 400 mg/L), which was 630% and 500% more than that of the raw sludge, respectively. The sequential TH/fermentation process achieved 40% higher ultimate methane yield (240 mL/g COD) than the non-pretreated (raw) sludge. Positioning TH after the fermentation process reduced the ultimate methane yield to 231 240 mL/g COD, although it was still 32% higher than that of the raw sludge. The analysis of methane production rate and biodegradation kinetics data suggested the formation of refractory intermediates during the thermal process of sludge, which reduced the overall performance rate during the first week of the AD process. It was also revealed that acidogenic fermentation of thermally-processed sludge could diminish the adverse effect of the recalcitrant compounds formed during the thermal hydrolysis on the subsequent AD process.

Decoding alarm signal propagation of seed-harvester ants using automated movement tracking and supervised machine learning

Alarm signal propagation through ant colonies provides an empirically tractable context for analysing information flow through a natural system, with useful insights for network dynamics in other social animals. Here, we develop a methodological approach to track alarm spread within a group of harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex californicus. We initially alarmed three ants and tracked subsequent signal transmission through the colony. Because there was no actual standing threat, the false alarm allowed us to assess amplification and adaptive damping of the collective alarm response. We trained a random forest regression model to quantify alarm behaviour of individual workers from multiple movement features. Our approach translates subjective categorical alarm scores into a reliable, continuous variable. We combined these assessments with automatically tracked proximity data to construct an alarm propagation network. This method enables analyses of spatio-temporal patterns in alarm signal propagation in a group of ants and provides an opportunity to integrate individual and collective alarm response. Using this system, alarm propagation can be manipulated and assessed to ask and answer a wide range of questions related to information and misinformation flow in social networks.

Network models and the interpretation of prolonged infection plateaus in the COVID19 pandemic

Non-pharmaceutical intervention measures, such as social distancing, have so far been the only means to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2. In the United States, strict social distancing during the first wave of virus spread has resulted in different types of infection dynamics. In some states, such as New York, extensive infection spread was followed by a pronounced decline of infection levels. In other states, such as California, less infection spread occurred before strict social distancing, and a different pattern was observed. Instead of a pronounced infection decline, a long-lasting plateau is evident, characterized by similar daily new infection levels. Here we show that network models, in which individuals and their social contacts are explicitly tracked, can reproduce the plateau if network connections are cut due to social distancing measures. The reason is that in networks characterized by a 2D spatial structure, infection tends to spread quadratically with time, but as edges are randomly removed, the infection spreads along nearly one-dimensional infection “corridors”, resulting in plateau dynamics. Further, we show that plateau dynamics are observed only if interventions start sufficiently early; late intervention leads to a “peak and decay” pattern. Interestingly, the plateau dynamics are predicted to eventually transition into an infection decline phase without any further increase in social distancing measures. Additionally, the models suggest that a second wave becomes significantly less pronounced if social distancing is only relaxed once the dynamics have transitioned to the decline phase. The network models analyzed here allow us to interpret and reconcile different infection dynamics during social distancing observed in various US states.

Generating a heterosexual bipartite network embedded in social network

We describe an approach to generate a heterosexual network with a prescribed joint-degree distribution embedded in a prescribed large-scale social contact network. The structure of a sexual network plays an important role in how all sexually transmitted infections (STIs) spread. Generating an ensemble of networks that mimics the real-world is crucial to evaluating robust mitigation strategies for controlling STIs. Most of the current algorithms to generate sexual networks only use sexual activity data, such as the number of partners per month, to generate the sexual network. Real-world sexual networks also depend on biased mixing based on age, location, and social and work activities. We describe an approach to use a broad range of social activity data to generate possible heterosexual networks. We start with a large-scale simulation of thousands of people in a city as they go through their daily activities, including work, school, shopping, and activities at home. We extract a social network from these activities where the nodes are the people, and the edges indicate a social interaction, such as working in the same location. This social network captures the correlations between people of different ages, living in different locations, their economic status, and other demographic factors. We use the social contact network to define a bipartite heterosexual network that is embedded within an extended social network. The resulting sexual network captures the biased mixing inherent in the social network, and models based on this pairing of networks can be used to investigate novel intervention strategies based on the social contacts among infected people. We illustrate the approach in a model for the spread of chlamydia in the heterosexual network representing the young sexually active community in New Orleans.

Using an agent-based sexual-network model to analyze the impact of mitigation efforts for controlling chlamydia

Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the most reported sexually transmitted infection in the United States, with a major cause of infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, and ectopic pregnancy among women. Despite decades of screening women for Ct, rates increase among young African Americans (AA). We create and analyze a heterosexual agent-based network model to help understand the spread of Ct. We calibrate the model parameters to agree with survey data showing Ct prevalence of 12% of the women and 10% of the men in the 15-25 year-old AA in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our model accounts for both long-term and casual partnerships. The network captures the assortative mixing of individuals by preserving the joint-degree distributions observed in the data. We compare the effectiveness of intervention strategies based on randomly screening men, notifying partners of infected people, which includes partner treatment, partner screening, and rescreening for infection. We compare the difference between treating partners of an infected person both with and without testing them. We observe that although increased Ct screening, rescreening, and treating most of the partners of infected people will reduce the prevalence, these mitigations alone are not sufficient to control the epidemic. The current practice is to treat the partners of an infected individual without first testing them for infection. The model predicts that if a sufficient number of the partners of all infected people are tested and treated, then there is a threshold condition where the epidemic can be mitigated. This threshold results from the expanded treatment network created by treating an individual's infected partners' partners. Although these conclusions can help design future Ct mitigation studies, we caution the reader that these conclusions are for the mathematical model, not the real world, and are contingent on the validity of the model assumptions.

Effect of screening young men for Chlamydia trachomatis on the rates among women: a network modelling study for high-prevalence communities

OBJECTIVE

Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection in the USA and causes important reproductive morbidity in women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend routine screening of sexually active women under age 25 but not among men. Despite three decades of screening women, chlamydia prevalence in women remains high. Untested and untreated men can serve as a reservoir of infection in women, and male-screening based intervention can be an effective strategy to reduce infection in women. We assessed the impact of screening men on the Ct prevalence in women.

DESIGN

We created an individual-based network model to simulate a realistic chlamydia epidemic on sexual contact networks for a synthetic population (n=5000). The model is calibrated to the ongoing routine screening among African American (AA) women in the USA and detailed a male-screening programme, Check It, that bundles best practices for Ct control. We used sensitivity analysis to quantify the relative importance of each intervention component.

SETTING

Community-based venues in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

PARTICIPANTS

Heterosexual AA men, aged 15 to 24, who had sex with women in the past 2 months.

INTERVENTION

Venue-based screening, expedited index treatment, expedited partner treatment and rescreening.

RESULTS

We estimate that by annually screening 7.5% of the AA male population in the age-range, the chlamydia prevalence would be reduced relatively by 8.1% (95% CI 5.9% to 10.4%) in AA women and 8.8% (95% CI 6.9% to 10.8%) in AA men. Each man screened could prevent 0.062 (95% CI 0.030 to 0.094) cases in men and 0.204 (95% CI 0.143 to 0.267) cases in women. The model suggested the importance of intervention components ranked from high to low as venue-based screening, expedited index treatment, expedited partner treatment and rescreening.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicated that male-screening has the potential to substantially reduce the prevalence among women in high-prevalence communities.

Dynamics of an SIS network model with a periodic infection rate

Seasonal forcing and contact patterns are two key features of many disease dynamics that generate periodic patterns. Both features have not been ascertained deeply in the previous works. In this work, we develop and analyze a non-autonomous degree-based mean field network model within a Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) framework. We assume that the disease transmission rate being periodic to study synergistic impacts of the periodic transmission and the heterogeneity of the contact network on the infection threshold and dynamics for seasonal diseases. We demonstrate both analytically and numerically that (1) the disease free equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number is less than one; and (2) there exists a unique global periodic solution that both susceptible and infected individuals coexist if the basic reproduction number is larger than one. We apply our framework to Scale-free contact networks for the simulation. Our results show that heterogeneity in the contact networks plays an important role in accelerating disease spreading and increasing the amplitude of the periodic steady state solution. These results confirm the need to address factors that create periodic patterns and contact patterns in seasonal disease when making policies to control an outbreak.

Synthesis and characterization of Mg-doped ZnO thin-films electrochemically grown on FTO substrates for optoelectronic applications

Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) thin films were successfully fabricated on fluorine-doped tin-oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates by an electrochemical deposition method using aqueous electrolytes of 80 mM Zn(NO₃)₂ with different concentrations of Mg(NO₃)₂. The effects of Mg doping concentration on the electronic, microstructural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of the prepared films were investigated. The results of the Mott–Schottky (M–S) analysis revealed that the charge carrier density of n-type MZO films increases considerably when increasing the amount of Mg. As Mg concentration increased the Fermi level energy was also found to be increased by inclusion of Mg doping, which was confirmed by negative shifting of the flat band potential. XRD analysis showed that both undoped and Mg-doped ZnO thin films have a polycrystalline nature and hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferential orientation along the (002) axis. It is evident that the intensity of the (002) peak decreased with increasing Mg concentration. From scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, it was found that when the amount of Mg concentration was increased in the solution, a decrease in the size of the grains was observed. The optical transmittance was found to be very high (∼85%) in the visible region of the solar spectrum. When the Mg content in the ZnO system was increased, a blue shifting of the absorption edge of the films was observed. The result of I–V measurements showed that the Mg doping was found to lead to an enhancement of the electrical properties of MZO thin films and the design of high-performance transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material.

Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) thin films were successfully fabricated on fluorine-doped tin-oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates by an electrochemical deposition method using aqueous electrolytes of 80 mM Zn(NO₃)₂ with different concentrations of Mg(NO₃)₂.

Perioperative intravenous contrast administration and the incidence of acute kidney injury after major gastrointestinal surgery: prospective, multicentre cohort study

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to determine the impact of preoperative exposure to intravenous contrast for CT and the risk of developing postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery.

METHODS

This prospective, multicentre cohort study included adults undergoing gastrointestinal resection, stoma reversal or liver resection. Both elective and emergency procedures were included. Preoperative exposure to intravenous contrast was defined as exposure to contrast administered for the purposes of CT up to 7 days before surgery. The primary endpoint was the rate of AKI within 7 days. Propensity score-matched models were adjusted for patient, disease and operative variables. In a sensitivity analysis, a propensity score-matched model explored the association between preoperative exposure to contrast and AKI in the first 48 h after surgery.

RESULTS

A total of 5378 patients were included across 173 centres. Overall, 1249 patients (23·2 per cent) received intravenous contrast. The overall rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery was 13·4 per cent (718 of 5378). In the propensity score-matched model, preoperative exposure to contrast was not associated with AKI within 7 days (odds ratio (OR) 0·95, 95 per cent c.i. 0·73 to 1·21; P = 0·669). The sensitivity analysis showed no association between preoperative contrast administration and AKI within 48 h after operation (OR 1·09, 0·84 to 1·41; P = 0·498).

CONCLUSION

There was no association between preoperative intravenous contrast administered for CT up to 7 days before surgery and postoperative AKI. Risk of contrast-induced nephropathy should not be used as a reason to avoid contrast-enhanced CT.

Epidemics on networks: Reducing disease transmission using health emergency declarations and peer communication

Understanding individual decisions in a world where communications and information move instantly via cell phones and the internet, contributes to the development and implementation of policies aimed at stopping or ameliorating the spread of diseases. In this manuscript, the role of official social network perturbations generated by public health officials to slow down or stop a disease outbreak are studied over distinct classes of static social networks. The dynamics are stochastic in nature with individuals (nodes) being assigned fixed levels of education or wealth. Nodes may change their epidemiological status from susceptible, to infected and to recovered. Most importantly, it is assumed that when the prevalence reaches a pre-determined threshold level,P * , information, called awareness in our framework, starts to spread, a process triggered by public health authorities. Information is assumed to spread over the same static network and whether or not one becomes a temporary informer, is a function of his/her level of education or wealth and epidemiological status. Stochastic simulations show that threshold selectionP * and the value of the average basic reproduction number impact the final epidemic size differentially. For the Erdős-Rényi and Small-world networks, an optimal choice forP * that minimize the final epidemic size can be identified under some conditions while for Scale-free networks this is not case.

Nutritive value of treated Quercus infectoria and Quercus libani leaves with the tannin-degrading bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae for ruminant feeding in vitro

AIMS

This study was conducted to evaluate the chemical composition and in vitro gas production (GP) and fermentation parameters of Quercus infectoria and Quercus libani leaves following treatment with the Klebsiella pneumoniae, a tannin-degrading bacterium.

METHODS AND RESULTS

This isolate was isolated on medium containing tannic acid as the sole source of carbon and energy, and identified based on 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. In both oak leaf species (i.e. Q. infectoria and Q. libani), inoculation with Klebsiella pneumoniae significantly increased (P < 0·05) dry matter (DM) loss. For Q. libani, crude protein content was increased (P = 0·02) by bacterial treatment vs. control. In both oak leaves, total phenolic content and total tannins were decreased (P < 0·05) as a consequence of bacterial treatment. However, bacterial processing didn't changed (P > 0·05) organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre or acid detergent lignin content of treated leaves. In both oak leaves the measuring parameters including GP volume, in vitro digestibility of DM and OM, estimated metabolizable energy, total volatile fatty acids, acetate, ammonia nitrogen concentration, total protozoal population and the subfamily Isotricha in treatments were higher (P < 0·05) than control.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that biological treatment of Q. infectoria and Q. libani leaves with K. pneumoniae represents a useful approach to decrease their phenolic compound content and improve their nutritive value as ruminant feed.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

This study demonstrated that biologically processing of tannin-containing by-products with K. pneumoniae could increase their nutritive value as ruminant feeds and increase animal productivity.

A comprehensive dataset on anaerobic digestion of cattle manure, source separated organics, and municipal sludge using different inoculum sources

The dataset reported in this article provides quantitative data on anaerobic digestion of cattle manure, source separated organics (SSO), primary sludge (PS), and thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) using different inoculum sources. The discussion and interpretation of the data are provided in another publication entitled “Comparison of liquid and dewatered digestate as inoculum for anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes” [1]. The data presented in this article include 1) the gas chromatography (GC) procedure of determining the biogas composition, 2) the procedure of converting the daily biogas/methane production data from the experimental condition (mesophilic temperature of 38 °C and room pressure) to the standard temperature (0 °C) and pressure (1 atm) condition, 3) the specific methanogenic activity data, and 4) the methane daily production rate data, and 5) the organics biodegradation kinetic rates.

Comparison of liquid and dewatered digestate as inoculum for anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes

In this study, the application of liquid and dewatered digestate was compared for the inoculation of the anaerobic digestion (AD) process. In addition to the specific methanogenic activity and biohydrogen potential tests, biochemical methane potential assay was also conducted using four different types of municipal and industrial waste streams (primary sludge, thickened waste activated sludge, source separated organics, and cattle manure). The specific methanogenic activity of the digestate cake (5.0 ± 0.5 mL-CH₄/g-VSS.d) was higher than that of the liquid digestate (3.4 ± 0.2 mL-CH₄/g-VSS.d) for the food to microorganism ratio of 0.5. The BMP results also revealed that regardless of the type of the substrate used, the application of the digestate cake as inoculum achieved statistically significantly higher methane production rate compared to the utilization of liquid digestate, most likely due to the lower concentration of dissolved contents (i.e., ammonia, soluble organic matter, heavy metals, etc.) in the diluted digestate cake. Despite the increased process rate, no statistically significant effect of the type of the inoculum was observed on the ultimate methane yield. The biohydrogen potential test revealed the similar performance of the digestate- and digestate cake-inoculated digesters in terms of biohydrogen and volatile fatty acids production. The findings of this study suggest that the digestate cake can be used as an effective alternative to the liquid digestate for the inoculation of full-scale anaerobic digesters, reducing the transportation volume by up to 90%.

Enzymatic pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for enhanced biomethane production-A review

The rapid depletion of natural resources and the environmental concerns associated with the use of fossil fuels as the main source of global energy is leading to an increased interest in alternative and renewable energy sources. Particular interest has been given to the lignocellulosic biomass as the most abundant source of organic matter with a potential of being utilized for energy recovery. Different approaches have been applied to convert the lignocellulosic biomass to energy products including anaerobic digestion (AD), fermentation, combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification. The AD process has been proven as an effective technology for converting organic material into energy in the form of methane-rich biogas. However, the complex structure of the lignocellulosic biomass comprised of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin hinders the ability of microorganisms in an AD process to degrade and convert these compounds to biogas. Therefore, a pretreatment step is essential to improve the degradability of the lignocellulosic biomass to achieve higher biogas rate and yield. A system that uses pretreatment and AD is known as advanced AD. Several pretreatment methods have been studied over the past few years including physical, thermal, chemical and biological pretreatment. This paper reviews the enzymatic pretreatment as one of the biological pretreatment methods which has received less attention in the literature than the other pretreatment methods. This paper includes a review of lignocellulosic biomass composition, AD process, challenges in degrading lignocellulosic materials, the current status of research to improve the biogas rate and yield from the AD of lignocellulosic biomass via enzymatic pretreatment, and the future trend in research for the reduction of enzymatic pretreatment cost.

Comparative efficacy of two-dimensional mode and color Doppler sonography in predicting gender of the equine fetus

Background and Aim:

Ultrasonographic fetal sexing is of utmost economic importance for horse breeders. Relatively, a few studies have been conducted to determine fetal sex in mare using transrectal Doppler ultrasound. This study aimed to compare two sexing techniques, two-dimensional (2D) mode and color Doppler ultrasonography.

Materials and Methods:

The study was conducted on 39 mares under field conditions. Examinations were performed using the ultrasonic model device (Medison SonoAce Pico, South Korea), equipped with real-time 3-7 MHz convex multifrequency transducer. Fetal sex diagnosis was carried out in two periods of pregnancy, early period (57-80 days of gestation) and late period (80-150 days of gestation).

Results:

No difference (p=0.4) was observed between the efficiency of the 2D mode and Doppler ultrasound in sex determination with the respective frequency of 74% and 85%. The best time to sex the early fetus was between 57 and 70 days of gestation and between 90 and 120 days for the older fetus.

Conclusion:

The accuracy of sex determination can be increased using Doppler mode compared to 2D mode, especially in the early period between 57 and 70 days, in male more than female sex.

Bioenergy production data from anaerobic digestion of thermally hydrolyzed organic fraction of municipal solid waste

The presented dataset in this data article provides quantitative data on the production of bioenergy (biogas and biomethane) from mesophilic batch anaerobic digestion (AD) of thermally hydrolyzed organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). The discussion and interpretation of the data are provided in another publication entitled “Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Source Separated Organics for Enhanced Solubilization and Biomethane Recovery” (Razavi et al., 2019). The data and information presented in the current data article include (1) the ratio of soluble to particulate chemical oxygen demand (COD) under different thermal hydrolysis condition, (2) the daily measured biogas and biomethane data, (3) the cumulative methane yield data in terms of mL CH₄ produced per gram of volatile suspended solids (VSS) as well as feedstock added, (4) the ultimate methane yield data as well as the relative improvement in methane recovery compared to the control (non-hydrolyzed) digester, (5) the data of first-order organics biodegradation rate constants, (6) the procedure of measuring biogas composition via gas chromatography, (7) the procedure of converting the biogas/methane volume data acquired under the actual experimental condition (mesophilic temperature of 38 °C and atmospheric pressure) to the standard temperature (0 °C) and pressure (1 atm) condition, and (8) the procedure of determining the first-order kinetic rate constants.

Hydrothermal pretreatment of source separated organics for enhanced solubilization and biomethane recovery

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of the hydrothermal pretreatment on the solubilization of source separated organics (SSO) as well as the biomethane recovery through the mesophilic batch anaerobic digestion process. For this purpose, the SSO was subjected to fifteen different pretreatment conditions within five different severity index (SI) values (3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5). The pretreatment temperature, holding time, and pressure ranged from 150 to 240 °C, 5 to 30 min, and 476 to 3367 kPa, respectively. The highest solubilization improvement of ∼50% was achieved under the pretreatment condition of "220 °C-10 min-2323 kPa" corresponding to the SI value of 4.5. However, the maximum biomethane production yield of 280 mL/g TCOD_added and biomethane production rate of 30 mL/g TCOD_added were obtained under the less intense pretreatment conditions of "190 °C-20 min-1247 kPa" and "170 °C-30 min-786 kPa", respectively.

Interaction between the sequence of feeding of hay and concentrate, and boiling of barley on feed intake, the activity of hydrolytic enzymes and fermentation in the hindgut of Arabian mares

The interaction between the sequence of feeding of hay and concentrate and the hydrothermal processing of barley in alleviating concentrate effects on intake, and hindgut fermentation in horses was tested. Six Arabian mares (4-10 years of age, 410 ± 35 kg body weight) were used to evaluate the effects of feeding sequence (FS) and type of barley (TB) on intake, and faecal volatile fatty acids (VFA), activities of α-amylase (AA: EC 3.2.1.1), carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase: EC 3.2.1.4), microcrystalline cellulase (MCCase: EC 3.2.1.91) and general filter paper degrading activity (FPD). Mares were offered a ration of air-dried alfalfa and concentrate (70:30 as-fed) in four subsequent periods of 14 days including 8 days of adaptation and 6 days of sampling. In each period and each meal, mares received concentrate either 30 min after (HC) or 30 min before (CH) alfalfa hay. Barley was either milled or boiled in water. Rectal samples were grabbed directly from rectum once per period. Mares subjected to CH had higher dry matter intakes than mares under HC regime. The acetate:propionate ratio (A:P ratio) in rectal content was higher with CH than HC. The AA activity was higher under CH than under HC. Mares fed boiled barley had lower rectal concentrations of VFA and propionate and a higher A:P ratio than mares fed milled barley. Furthermore, the rectal content showed a higher MCCase activity but a lower AA activity when mares were fed boiled compared with milled barley. Interactions between FS and TB were observed with respect to CMCase activity, and concentrations of propionate and valerate. In conclusion, the present results suggest that both, feeding concentrate before hay and boiling the barley, might improve the hindgut environment in Arabian mares, and that the two measures were mostly additive and sometimes even synergistic.

Generating Bipartite Networks with a Prescribed Joint Degree Distribution

We describe a class of new algorithms to construct bipartite networks that preserves a prescribed degree and joint-degree (degree-degree) distribution of the nodes. Bipartite networks are graphs that can represent real-world interactions between two disjoint sets, such as actor-movie networks, author-article networks, co-occurrence networks, and heterosexual partnership networks. Often there is a strong correlation between the degree of a node and the degrees of the neighbors of that node that must be preserved when generating a network that reflects the structure of the underling system. Our bipartite 2K (B2K) algorithms generate an ensemble of networks that preserve prescribed degree sequences for the two disjoint set of nodes in the bipartite network, and the joint-degree distribution that is the distribution of the degrees of all neighbors of nodes with the same degree. We illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithms on a romance network using the NetworkX software environment to compare other properties of a target network that are not directly enforced by the B2K algorithms. We observe that when average degree of nodes is low, as is the case for romance and heterosexual partnership networks, then the B2K networks tend to preserve additional properties, such as the cluster coefficients, than algorithms that do not preserve the joint-degree distribution of the original network.

Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Metabolic Syndrome among Malaysian Hypertensive Subjects using the International Diabetes Federation Definition

Individuals with metabolic syndrome are at increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and clinical characteristics in hypertensive patients according to the criteria of the new International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition. Hypertensive patients were recruited from the Medical Out-Patient Department, Kuantan Hospital. The five components of metabolic syndrome were examined which included blood pressure (≥130/85 mmHg), fasting glucose (≥5.6mmol/L), fasting triglycerides (≥1.7 mmol/L), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level (<1.03mmol/L in males and ><1.29mmol/L in females), and abdominal obesity (waist circumference: men>90cm; women>80cm). Out of 139 hypertensive patients, there were 113 met all the selection criteria consisted of 61 male and 52 female subjects. The participants’ age ranged from 21 to 91 years (51.9±16.8 years; mean±SD), and body mass index 13.5-42.3 kg/m2 (27.5±4.9 kg/m2 ). According to the IDF criteria, the prevalence of central obesity was 67.2% in men and 84.6% in women. Among the 113 hypertensive subjects over 21 years of age, 51 subjects or 45.1% had metabolic syndrome. The present data revealed that there was high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Malaysian hypertensive subjects. This finding was supported by the fact of high prevalence of central obesity among the study subjects.

A Risk-based Model for Predicting the Impact of using Condoms on the Spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections

We create and analyze a mathematical model to understand the impact of condom-use and sexual behavior on the prevalence and spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). STIs remain significant public health challenges globally with a high burden of some Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in both developed and undeveloped countries. Although condom-use is known to reduce the transmission of STIs, there are a few quantitative population-based studies on the protective role of condom-use in reducing the incidence of STIs. The number of concurrent partners is correlated with their risk of being infectious by an STI such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis. We develop a Susceptible-Infectious-Susceptible (SIS) model that stratifies the population based on the number of concurrent partners. The model captures the multi-level heterogeneous mixing through a combination of biased (preferential) and random (proportional) mixing processes between individuals with distinct risk levels, and accounts for differences in condom-use in the low- and high-risk populations. We use sensitivity analysis to assess the relative impact of high-risk people using condom as a prophylactic intervention to reduce their chance of being infectious, or infecting others. The model predicts the STI prevalence as a function of the number of partners of an individual, and quantifies how this distribution of effective partners changes as a function of condom-use. Our results show that when the mixing is random, then increasing the condom-use in the high-risk population is more effective in reducing the prevalence than when many of the partners of high-risk people have high risk. The model quantifies how the risk of being infected increases for people who have more partners, and the need for high-risk people to consistently use condoms to reduce their risk of infection.