Hybrid e-learning offered flexibility for students who could not attend in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its effectiveness in teaching chest physiotherapy remains to be determined. This retrospective case-control study assessed physiotherapy students’ academic performance and satisfaction with a hybrid classroom approach adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic for teaching airway c

The field of oncobiology is witnessing rapid progress, with numerous ongoing studies dedicated to comprehending the intricate mechanisms underlying cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic interventions. Despite significant strides, there remains a substantial gap in fully understanding the multifaceted factors driving cancer development and trajectory. This chapter delves into the imperati

The need to develop new and computationally efficient artificial intelligence models that accurately simulate river flows in data-scarce regions, considering not only current but also projected future climate change conditions is vital. In this study, a hybrid artificial neural network (ANN) model that combines HEC-HMS and the feed-forward neural network (FFNN) was developed in the Python programm

Seaweeds (macroalgae) are an attractive resource for diverse microbial- and enzymatic production processes. They are abundant, underutilized, cheap, and rich in carbohydrates, and therefore have the potential to be used as a source of mono- or oligosaccharides, and as substrates for industrial fermentation processes. Many seaweed polysaccharides, including the sulfated polysaccharides ulvan and fu

To design an artificial protein-based molecular motor that can autonomously step along a track is a key challenge of protein design and synthetic biology. We lay out a roadmap for how to achieve this aim, based on a modular approach that combines the use of natural, non-motor proteins with de novo design. We define what can be considered to constitute a successful artificial protein motor, identif

On May 26, 2021, the European Medical Device Regulation (EU-MDR) entered into effect resulting in a major shift in the requirements for assessment of medical devices in Europe. The EU-MDR Cardiovascular Collaboratory (EU-MCVC) was founded to contribute to the development of faster, more efficient, and more effective pathways for innovation of cardiac medical devices. A registry is an organized sys

To address environmental and climate issues, alternative technologies to fossil resources are sought after, both for the production of fuels and of chemicals. Algae appear as an attractive solution and have applications in the food, feed, energy or chemistry at large. A study funded by ADEME and conducted by ENEA, a consulting firm for energy and sustainable development for the industrial sector,

Characterization of grain boundaries (GBs) typically focuses exclusively on ideal minimum-energy structures,thus offering a limited perspective on the potential structural diversity and related property variations of GBs.In this study, phase field crystal (PFC) simulations are employed to systematically explore alternative GBstates through γ -surface sampling. A large number of tilt and twist GBs

Stomatopods are ferocious hunters that use weaponized appendages to strike down their pray. The clubs of species such as Odontodactylus scyllarus undergo tremendous forces, and in consequence they have intricate structures, consisting of hydroxyapatite, chitin, amorphous calcium phosphate and carbonate, and occasionally calcite. These materials are distributed differently across the four major zon

A 1D imaging soft X-ray spectrometer installed on the small quantum systems (SQS) scientific instrument of the European XFEL is described. It uses movable cylindrical constant-line-spacing gratings in the Rowland configuration for energy dispersion in the vertical plane, and Wolter optics for simultaneous 1D imaging of the source in the horizontal plane. The soft X-ray fluorescence spectro-imaging

Superconductivity and cryogenics were recognized as necessary to the European Spallation Source (ESS) project from its earliest days. This chapter provides a highlevel overview of the ESS cryogenics system and describes the reasoning behind early conceptual design choices. Some requirements for the cryogenic system did change over time and that evolution is discussed. In addition, the recruitment

This article summarizes the state of the science on the role of the gut microbiota (GM) in diabetes from a recent international expert forum organized by Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia, which was held at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2023 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Forum participants included clinicians and basic scientists who are leading investigators in

This thesis explores the persistence of embedded eigenvalues of asymptotically periodic Schrödinger-type operators under perturbations on domains with only one unbounded direction. Embedded eigenvalues present unique challenges, as they lie within the continuous spectrum, making their stability under perturbations a nontrivial problem.The aim of the first part of the thesis is to provide a general

This study analyses seven sufficiency-oriented SMEs in the French fashion sector, categorizing their strategies into efficiency, shift and sufficiency. It reveals the tension in balancing sustainability with financial viability, highlighting the systemic challenges posed by consumer preference for fast fashion.

Background Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare but severe infectious disease. Patients with IE are treated for weeks in the hospital and have profound impairments to their health. New treatment modalities increase options for outpatient care. Little is known about how patients perceive their disease and hospitalisation. We aimed to explore the needs of patients with IE during hospitalisation and

Quality control of stabilized dredged sediment (DS) presents significant challenges due to its high-water content. Nowadays, many in-situ and laboratory tests have been used to evaluate the quality of treated DS, and the dominant method is 28-day unconfined compressive strength that can be done on undisturbed samples from the field and the laboratory. Due to the waiting period to get results from

Increasing the share of travelers using public transport is one way to address environmental problems such as carbon dioxide emissions. Senior citizens represent an increasingly important group in this transition, as they are increasingly mobile and make up a large share of the population. In this paper, we investigate senior citizen's mobility decision-making, focusing on public transport. Throug

Manual segmentations are considered the gold standard for ground truth in machine learning applications. Such tasks are tedious and time-consuming, albeit necessary to train reliable models. In this work, we present a dataset with expert segmentations of the prostatic zones and urethra for 200 randomly selected patients from the PROSTATEx dataset. Notably, independent duplicate segmentations were