General Electric (Canada)

Experimental evolution has been a useful tool for investigating long-term temporal evolutionary dynamics and molecular mechanisms underlying adaptation. However, extracting fundamental principles and predictive features of evolutionary outcomes from these datasets remains challenging. Here we sought to circumvent these challenges by comparing distant yeast species that share several evolutionary features but differ in evolutionary history and genome architecture, that is Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We evolved ten populations of the fission yeast for 10,000 generations in the same conditions as a pre-existing budding yeast dataset, allowing us to observe repeatable evolutionary outcomes within species but diverse molecular targets of adaptation across species. The most frequent route of adaptation was through changes in carbon flux metabolism, which was previously unseen in S. cerevisiae evolved populations, but similar evolutionary paths have been observed in wild populations. This suggests that parallelism is pervasive and that mechanisms of adaptation can be shared among closely related or distant species. Despite similar gene content and identical environments, recurrent adaptation across S. pombe populations involved different genes than in S. cerevisiae and was detectable mostly at the transcriptomic level. This indicates that trans-regulatory effects and contingency may contribute to differences in evolutionary outcomes between these species.

Building on prior psychophysiological stress regulation and adaptation literature (e.g., Allostatic load (AL) and Neurovisceral Integration (NVI) models), the current study explores the emerging nonlinear heart rate variability (HRV) metric-heart rate fragmentation (HRF)-and it's efficacy as a potential AL biomarker to distinguish psychosocial stress reactivity conditions and predicting subclinical mental health symptomology in healthy adults. One hundred and fifty-six (n = 156) undergraduate student participants were fitted with a chest band to monitor cardiovascular activity and completed online demographic and psychosocial surveys. Participants were grouped as healthy or displaying probable mental health symptoms (pMH; n = 94, 60.25% of sample) based on scoring above associated inventory thresholds for depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Subsequently, cardiovascular activity was measured to capture HRF under the established "RRR" experimental stress paradigm: a resting baseline, reactivity to an acute stressor task, and a paced breathing recovery. Results support the global study aim in which HRF significantly differentiated between each RRR condition (p < 0.001). While healthy and pMH individuals did not significantly differ within individual conditions, exploratory analyses revealed that healthy individuals displayed significantly greater HRF reactivity between conditions (p's < 0.001) in comparison to the pMH sample, which displayed a more blunted pattern. Overall, this study establishes associations between HRF and mental health, serving as a promising biomarker that contributes towards the AL and NVI models of stress regulation and adaptation. HRF may also identify early signs of adverse dysregulation in samples otherwise considered "healthy", while addressing the limitations of frequently used HRV biomarkers in non-clinical studies.

Abstract Background To better understand the impacts of storms on urban forests and to develop effective management strategies, it is essential to collect accurate and consistent data on urban forests before and after a storm. However, there is often limited time for researchers to establish sampling protocols and gather data before cleanup efforts erase key visual information, such as failure modes and damage severity. Moreover, storms differ in how frequently and predictably they impact regions, potentially limiting some researchers’ opportunities to gain experience with storm assessment methods. Methods This paper presents a standardized protocol for collecting pre- and post-storm data on urban forests based on previous studies and the authors’ experiences collecting urban tree data following severe storms. Results The protocol covers a wide range of data, including tree species, size, and condition; risk factors; and damage type. The protocol also includes instructions for post-storm data collection using a variety of methods, including field surveys, remote sensing, and citizen science efforts. Conclusions A standardized protocol will help researchers collect consistent data on urban forests before and after storms, while also making the findings more relevant to urban forest managers, as the data will align with what they already collect.

BackgroundType 2 diabetes is a growing public health concern, and it continues to disproportionately impact priority populations. Although earlier and more frequent screening of diabetes promotes early detection to prevent adverse outcomes, this is a significant barrier for priority populations due to inequities that hinder access to critical preventive screening in primary care settings. The purpose of this scoping review is to better understand the design and implementation of screening and early detection of type 2 diabetes in community settings for priority populations to reduce missed or delayed diagnoses and future potential adverse outcomes.MethodsThis scoping review will adopt the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley and be enhanced using Levac et al recommendations. A search strategy was designed using insights from experienced librarians through the Peer Review for Electronic Search Strategies to conduct a comprehensive search using the following databases: Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL and Google. The search will capture studies focused on community-based diabetes screening using point-of-care testing and deployed in community settings serving priority populations with undiagnosed diabetes. Studies will be excluded if priority populations were not a focus, individuals living with diabetes, the intervention is not implemented in a community setting and did not use point-of-care screening. Two authors will independently review and screen the articles (title, abstract and full-text), while a team-based approach will be applied to chart the data. A thematic analysis will be used to identify emerging themes and subthemes according to barriers and enablers of implementing an equitable community-based diabetes screening intervention.Ethics and disseminationThe findings from this review will inform future diabetes screening interventions in community settings to enable an equity-informed approach in the design, planning and implementation of such strategies. Equally important, it will inform a larger project, in which the team plans to implement a community-based diabetes screening programme in Ontario, Canada.

Urban forest governance comprises the formal and informal rules, institutions, and processes that influence collective decision-making in urban forest management. As such, it shapes key processes and outcomes that are implicated in urban environmental justice, including whose priorities and values are reflected in urban forest management and how and where urban trees are distributed. However, despite its central role in determining urban forest processes and outcomes, equity within urban forest governance remains obscure. To address this, we conducted a literature review to identify how equitable urban forest governance is conceptualized and evaluated in the literature, and what gaps in knowledge remain. Our review found that while distributional justice was the prevalent framing in the literature, recommendations for collaborative governance approaches reflect a shift towards procedural and recognitional justice. Most studies, however, used a top-down approach to evaluate policy outcomes and few incorporated community experiences or involvement within governance processes, leaving the roles and experiences of community actors underexplored. Our findings suggest that the existing literature has thus far failed to explicitly interrogate procedural and recognitional justice within urban forest governance. This highlights a critical need to more clearly incorporate procedural and recognitional justice themes and approaches into future urban forest governance theory, research, and practice. Based on our review, we offer a guiding analytical framework that identifies key considerations for equitable urban forest governance.

Settlement control is pivotal in the construction of large span tunnels, particularly when situated under shallow overburden. The importance of settlement control in the context of the Arash-Esfandiar-Niayesh tunnel project, a multi section tunnel designed to facilitate two-way traffic in Municipality of Tehran District 3, is studied. The tunnel, which possesses an overburden of 4–15 m, faces unique challenges such as low overburden, urban location, and proximity to tall structures. By integrating the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), this paper examines the effects of various support systems on construction of the tunnel project. Two critical sections are analyzed, and the settlement control strategies are examined according to a combination of various support elements. Analysis and numerical modeling based on PLAXIS 2D finite element code revealed the impact of these support systems on ground settlements on the structural and geotechnical stability. They had a substantial impact of tunnel geometric shape on sustainability and stress distribution. The inadequacy of common support systems, especially in tunnels with a horseshoe section, is highlighted. The impact of removing temporary lattice girderson surface settlements emphasizes the importance of settlement monitoring. Field data, including a maximum vertical displacement of 2.6 cm on the ground and in the tunnel, validate the numerical analysis results. Despite the challenges, the consistency between numerical and instrument data underscores the effectiveness of settlement control strategies.

Converter-dominated networks (CDN) not only limits the fault current, but also results in different fault current signatures with respect to what is typically observed during a fault with conventional generation. Major research activities across the globe (SANDIA and MIGRATE projects) have raised concerns that the commercially available distance relays are not reliable and could misoperate in the presence of inverter based resource(IBR).

Current VPI and resin rich stator winding insulation systems are widely classified for thermal Class F. To achieve a successful service life, it is expected that a machine should last reliably when operating within specified temperature limits. To achieve a reliable life, it is assumed that maintenance protocols are followed, as per the OEMs instruction manual. The recommended standards to qualify or evaluate insulation systems for a thermal class are IEEE Std. 1776 or IEC Std. 60034-18-31. Typically insulating materials operating at their thermal class limit or temperature will degrade faster. To achieve a significantly longer operational insulation life it is common to maintain margin between the winding temperature rise above ambient and the winding insulation thermal class as specified by NEMA MG-1. In this paper, a comparative study of different industry standards is presented, explaining their differences for establishing a thermal class. In addition, experimental work is presented to show, how thermal classification for a 13.8 kV system is established along with the use of statistical tools.