With an exclusive diet of hard-shelled mollusks, the black drum fish (Pogonias Cromis) exhibits one of the highest bite forces among extant animals. Here we present a systematic microstructural, chemical, crystallographic, and mechanical analysis of the black drum teeth to understand the structural basis for achieving the molluscivorous requirements. At the material level, the outermost enameloid shows higher modulus (Er = 126.9 ± 16.3 GPa, H = 5.0 ± 1.4 GPa) than other reported fish teeth, which is attributed to the stiffening effect of Zn and F doping in apatite crystals and the preferential co-alignment of crystallographic c-axes and enameloid rods along the biting direction. The high fracture toughness (Kc = 1.12 MPa•m1/2) near outer enameloid also promotes local yielding instead of fracture during crushing contact with mollusk shells. At the individual-tooth scale, the molar-like teeth, high density of dentin tubules, enlarged pulp chamber, and specialized dentin-bone connection, all contribute to the functional requirements, including confinement of contact compressive stress in the stiff enameloid, enhanced energy absorption in the compliant dentin, and controlled failure of tooth-bone composite under excessive loads. These results show that the multi-scale structures of black drum teeth are adapted to feed on mollusks. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: : The black drum fish feeds on hard-shelled mollusks, which requires strong, tough, and wear-resistant teeth. This study presents a comprehensive multiscale material and mechanical analysis of the black drum teeth in achieving such remarkable biological function. At microscale, the fluoride- and zinc-doped apatite crystallites in the outer enameloid region are aligned perpendicular to the occlusal surface, representing as one of the stiffest biomineralized materials found in nature, while these apatite crystals are arranged into intertwisted rods with crystallographic misorientation in the inner enameloid region for increased crack resistance and toughness. At macroscale, the molariform geometry, the two-layer design based on the outer enameloid and inner dentin, enlarged pulp chamber and the underlying strong bony toothplate work synergistically to contribute to the teeth's crushing resistance.

The rise of nationalism that deepens hatred of the ‘other’, long-standing divisions and legacies of oppression threaten democracy around the globe. Despite the urgency of advancing transformative democratic education in the face of these daunting challenges, in real classrooms, most teachers do not take up this endeavour. Teacher education has a vital role to play in preparing teachers to educate democratic civic agents in contentious political contexts. This article presents teaching practices from two teacher educators from very different locations, Sarajevo and San Francisco, who equip pre-service teachers with pedagogical experiences and curricular tools that prepare them for five distinctive roles. These roles empower novices to bring transformative democratic education into their future classrooms.

Abstract To model fiber failures in random fiber networks, we have developed an elastoplastic Timoshenko beam finite element with embedded discontinuities. The method is based on the theory of strong discontinuities where the generalized displacement field is enhanced by a jump. The continuum mechanics formulation accounts for a fracture process zone and a bulk material while retaining traction continuity across the discontinuity. The additional degrees of freedom that are associated with the discontinuity are represented by a midpoint node, which is statically condensed to enable the implementation in commercial software through the user element interface . We propose a quasi-brittle fracture model, where the failure-related deformation is uncoupled from the plastic deformation in the bulk material. To retain the positive definite finite element stiffness matrix of the bulk material, we neglect the fracture-related softening of the discontinuity and employ a modified Newton iteration in the strain softening domain. Our implementation facilitates the integration into commercial finite element software and examples illustrate the robustness of the method. The FORTRAN source code is freely available to benchmark our model. We show that fiber failures contribute to the nonlinear stress–strain response of paper. Together with fiber–fiber bond failures, they can potentially explain the nonlinear stress–strain response of paper and nanopaper.

Gold nanorods have been implicated in several biomedical applications. Herein, the effect of two surface-modified gold nanorods on the early stages of embryogenesis and angiogenesis was investigated using avian embryos at three days and their chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) at five days of incubation. We found that gold nanorods (GNR) modified with PEGylated phospholipid moiety show a high mortality rate in embryos after four days of exposure compared to GNR modified with PEGylated cholesterol moiety. Meanwhile, our data revealed that surface modified-GNR significantly inhibit the formation of new blood vessels in the treated CAM model after 48 h of exposure. Moreover, we report that surface-modified GNR significantly deregulate the expression of several genes implicated in cell proliferation, invasion, apoptosis, cellular energy metabolism, and angiogenesis. On the other hand, our data point out that GNR treatments can modulate the expression patterns of JNK1/2/3, NF-KB/p38, and MAPK, which could be the main molecular pathways of the nanorods in our experimental models.

BACKGROUND In this cross-sectional, international study, we aimed to analyze vector-borne and zoonotic infections (VBZI), which are significant global threats. METHOD VBZIs' data between May 20-28, 2018 was collected. The 24 Participatingcountries were classified as lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income. RESULTS 382 patients were included. 175(45.8%) were hospitalized, most commonly in Croatia, Egypt, and Romania(P = 0.001). There was a significant difference between distributions of VBZIs according to geographical regions(P < 0.001). Amebiasis, Ancylostomiasis, Blastocystosis, Cryptosporidiosis, Giardiasis, Toxoplasmosis were significantly more common in the Middle-East while Bartonellosis, Borreliosis, Cat Scratch Disease, Hantavirus syndrome, Rickettsiosis, Campylobacteriosis, Salmonellosis in Central/East/South-East Europe; Brucellosis and Echinococcosis in Central/West Asia; Campylobacteriosis, Chikungunya, Tick-borne encephalitis, Visceral Leishmaniasis, Salmonellosis, Toxoplasmosis in the North-Mediterranean; CCHF, Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Dengue, Malaria, Taeniasis, Salmonellosis in Indian Subcontinent; Lassa Fever in West Africa. There were significant regional differences for viral hemorrhagic fevers(P < 0.001) and tick-borne infections(P < 0.001), and according to economic status for VBZIs(P < 0.001). The prevalences of VBZIs were significantly higher in lower-middle income countries(P = 0.001). The most similar regions were the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle-East, the Indian Subcontinent and the North-Mediterranean, and the Middle-East and North-Mediterranean regions. CONCLUSIONS Regional and socioeconomic heterogeneity still exists for VBZIs. Control and eradication of VBZIs require evidence-based surveillance data, and multidisciplinary efforts.

Scholastic factors (academic achievement) are hypothesized to be important determinants of health-related behaviors in adolescents, but there is a lack of knowledge on their influence on physical activity levels (PAL), especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposed lockdown. This study aimed to investigate the associations between scholastic factors and PAL before and during the pandemic lockdown. The participants were adolescents form Bosnia and Herzegovina (n = 525, 46% females), who were observed prospectively at the baseline (before the pandemic lockdown) and during the lockdown in 2020 (follow-up). The scholastic factors (grade point average, behavioral grade, school absences, unexcused absences) were evidenced at the baseline (predictors). The outcome (PAL) was evaluated using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents at the baseline and the follow-up. Gender, age, parental/familial conflict, and sport participation were observed as confounders. No significant influence of the predictors on PAL were evidenced at the baseline or at the follow-up. The scholastic variables were significantly associated with the changes of PAL which occurred due to pandemic lockdown, with a lower risk for negative changes in PAL among adolescents who were better in school (OR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.34–0.81, and OR = 0.66, 95%CI: 0.34–0.97, for the grade point average and behavioral grade, respectively). Students who do well in school are probably more aware of the health benefits of proper PAL, and therefore are devoted to the maintenance of their PAL even during the home-confinement of lockdown. Public health authorities should focus more on helping adolescents to understand the importance and benefits of proper PAL throughout the school system.

Background: The peculiar reigning and private life of Maria Theresa in the tumultuous time of continuous wars in the then Europe was interwoven with her predominant maternal/obstetric history, as presented below. Objective: All the sixteen pregnancies of Empress Maria Theresa ended in spontaneous vaginal deliveries at term, with no information on pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion or preterm delivery. Methods: Medicohystorical review of the obstetrical anamnesis of Empress Maria Theresia. Results: There were fifteen live births, whereas one female baby was born without signs of life. Cephalic presentation was recorded in fourteen and breech presentation in two deliveries, one of the latter with lethal fetal outcome. Thirteen deliveries were free from complications, whereas three deliveries, i.e. second, tenth and sixteenth, were very difficult, associated with obstetric complications including one manual lysis of the placenta with postpartum bleeding and two difficult deliveries with breech presentation. Maria Theresa had all her deliveries accomplished with assistance of the Court midwife (Hofhebamme), whereas the Court physician performed manual lysis of the placenta. Following delivery, the Habsburg-Lorraine archduke or archduchess was baptized by papal nuncio, but two children were baptized by the midwife in life-threatening conditions Conclusion: Considering her policy of renewing her multiethnic empire and its population that suffered great losses at various battlefields, Maria Theresa was a true representative and record-holder in perinatal contribution among the then courts worldwide.

A few days ago authors of the papers deposited on the ResearchGate platform informed us by a letter from the ResearchGate team titled: "A note on recent content takedowns" where has been noticed that ResearchGate recently received demands from two publishers: Elsevier and the American Chemical Society (ACS) "to remove certain content that they alleged infringed their copyrights" (1). The main statement of the ResearchGate (RG) is: "These types of requests are not new: we have received many similar requests from them in the past, and, in accordance with applicable law, have complied with them. But these most recent requests were notable because of the number of articles involved. Although privately stored files were not affected, the demands by Elsevier and ACS resulted in the removal of around 200,000 public files. In the context of a community of over 20 million researchers, this is unfortunate, rather than existential, but it has sparked an acute reaction from many of our members who believe in the importance of open science" (1). Further RG explains: "Some of you have commented on the serious nature of our communications with you regarding the removal of content. We appreciate that the tone of our messaging was rather direct. International laws require that we implement a policy regarding repeat takedown requests from publishers, and we felt duty-bound to communicate these policies to you in no uncertain terms. This is done for the protection of users and the benefit of the ResearchGate community" (1). Concerning the future work (perspectives) RG stated: "Finally, we are mindful of recent changes in European copyright law in some countries, particularly relating to Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (2). While we believe we are not subject to such laws due to the nature of our business, we decided to nonetheless take advantage of advancements in technology which we believe will be beneficial for researchers. In particular, we have started implementing a new system called "Jarvis" which matches publisher rights information with user content at the time of upload. Where a publisher has provided the required information, Jarvis can prevent a researcher from unintentionally uploading content that is not allowed to be public. As always, it remains the responsibility of researchers to know and confirm their rights before uploading any content" (1). The final message of the RG team sent to its users’ is: "The future of academic publishing is open. Let’s work together to unlock its true potential" (1). According to this letter and content of the message from the RG team, as an experienced former and current Editor of a few indexed journals and prolific contributor and author of a lot of papers, especially in the Science Editing field and Scientometrics (3-9), let me expressed some views and comments regarding important facts and problems within Science Editing area and concerns of the scientific and academic community. Two extremely important problems in scientific publishing represent plagiarism and predation. More and more authors of articles in this scientific field, in the absence of other opportunities to engage in science, in this period of the Corona pandemic crisis imposed as a devastating consequence, began to deal with these topics, write about plagiarism and predation, conduct meta-analyze, and recommend what and how authors, especially who are not EDITORIAL

ntroduction: Sleep is one of the most important components of overall health. Children with developmental disabilities are at a higher risk of having sleep problems. Purpose: The goal of the present study is to compare sleep patterns of children with developmental disabilities with those of typically developing children. In particular, we examined whether children with an intellectual disability (ID), children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children differ in sleep duration, number of night’s waking, screen time (time spent on smartphones, tablets, TV), and outdoor activities. Methods: The sample for this study consisted of 114 children (34 children with ASD, 40 children with ID and 40 typically developing children) aged 2 to 14 years (mean age= 6.4 years, SD = 3.0). Information on children’s sleep patterns was obtained through an online survey completed by the parents of the children. We also collected information regarding the strategies parents use to settle their children for sleep, as well as information regarding screen time and outdoor activities. Results: The results of this study indicate that sleep duration was shortest for children with ID and longest for children without developmental disabilities. Another finding in this study is that screen time and not the outdoor activities was associated with sleep duration. Children with ASD were more likely to use melatonin to fall asleep, while the children with ID were more likely to use medications. Conclusion: Children with ID have shorter sleep duration than children with ASD and typically developing children. Parents have several cognitive and behavioural strategies at their disposal to improve their children’s sleep.

Abstract This paper presents the study of deformations and Von-Misses stresses of the main shaft system during opening and closing operations of a rotary SF6 load break switch (LBS). The shaft consists of three axially connected parts made of steel where components are on ground potential and of plastic material, which is on high potential. The insulating shaft carries three rotating knife-blade contacts for the three phases. Static deformation of the insulating shaft is calculated by applying a defined torque between the two ends of the shaft. The results allow deducing the dynamic deformation. Maximum values of Von-Misses stresses are located at the geared connection between the plastic and the steel shaft. The rotation of the shaft system is measured synchronously by two optical rotary encoders in the front and rear sides of the LBS. The results confirm the twisting of the shaft system and provide its elastic deformation values. Travel curves obtained on both side of the LBS show different courses with respect to overtravel and rebound. Discrepancies can be explained by the deformation of the main shaft due to the acting forces, whereas manufacturing tolerances resulting in loose have a certain contribution.