Although the media can have both negative and positive effects on children’s cognitive and motor functions, its influence on their perceptual bias and manual dexterity is unclear. Thus, we investigated the association between media viewing time, media preference level, perceptual bias, and manual dexterity in 100 school-aged children. Questionnaires completed by children and their parents were used to ascertain media viewing time and preference levels. Perceptual bias and manual dexterity were measured using the visual-tactile temporal order judgment task and Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd edition, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between age and media viewing time and between media viewing time and media preference level. There was also a significant negative correlation between visual bias and manual dexterity. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that increasing visual bias was a significant predictor of decreasing manual dexterity. Further, children with low manual dexterity showed significant visual bias compared to those with high manual dexterity, when matched for age and gender. The present results demonstrated that, in school-aged children, although viewing media was not associated with perceptual bias and manual dexterity, there was a significant association between perceptual bias and manual dexterity.BACKGROUND Most available large animal extracranial aneurysm models feature healthy non-degenerated aneurysm pouches with stable long-term follow-ups and extensive healing reactions after endovascular treatment. This review focuses on a small subgroup of extracranial aneurysm models that demonstrated growth and potential rupture during follow-up. METHODS The literature was searched in Medline/Pubmed to identify extracranial in vivo saccular aneurysm models featuring growth and rupture, using a predefined search strategy in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. From eligible studies we extracted the following details technique and location of aneurysm creation, aneurysm pouch characteristics, time for model creation, growth and rupture rate, time course, patency rate, histological findings, and associated morbidity and mortality. RESULTS A total of 20 articles were found to describe growth and/or rupture of an experimentally created extracranial saccular aneurysm during follow-up. Most frequent growth was reported in rats (n = 6), followed by rabbits (n = 4), dogs (n = 4), swine (n = 5), and sheep (n = 1). Except for two studies reporting growth and rupture within the abdominal cavity (abdominal aortic artery; n = 2) all other aneurysms were located at the neck of the animal. The largest growth rate, with an up to 10-fold size increase, was found in a rat abdominal aortic sidewall aneurysm model. CONCLUSIONS Extracranial saccular aneurysm models with growth and rupture are rare. Degradation of the created aneurysmal outpouch seems to be a prerequisite to allow growth, which may ultimately lead to rupture. Since it has been shown that the aneurysm wall is important for healing after endovascular therapy, it is likely that models featuring growth and rupture will gain in interest for preclinical testing of novel endovascular therapies.An understanding of the interaction of calcareous deposits and biofoulants on the corrosion performance of steel during the fouling stage is both interesting and necessary. So, the effects of these factors on Q235 carbon steel were investigated and discussed for 20 weeks under real ocean conditions. The results indicate that calcareous deposits are favorable for the attachment of marine microorganisms. However, macroorganisms prefer adhering directly to the substrate. The generations of calcareous deposits have priority over the biofilm attachment under the condition of cathodic protection. Calcareous deposits can prevent steel against corrosion for four weeks without cathodic protection.Background and objectives High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is important for improving risk estimates of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We investigated the effect of omnivore and diverse vegetarian diets in connection with exercise on HDL-C. Materials and Methods Historical data of 9588 biobank participants (4025 exercisers and 5563 non-exercisers) aged 30-70 years were categorized as omnivores (n = 8589), former vegetarians (n = 544), lacto-ovo vegetarians (n = 417), and strict vegetarians (n = 38). We used multiple linear regression for analyses. Results HDL-C levels were higher in exercisers compared to non-exercisers. Compared with omnivores, strict vegetarians had decreased levels of HDL-C (β = -5.705; p = 0.001) followed by lacto-ovo vegetarians (β = -3.900; p less then 0.001) and former vegetarians (β = -0.329; p = 0.475). The test for trend was significant (p less then 0.001). After categorization by exercise modalities, the β-value was -13.984 for strict vegetarians, -4.419 for lacto-ovo vegetarians, and -1.864 for former vegetarians, respectively (p less then 0.05). There was an interaction between diet and exercise (p = 0.009). Omnivores who exercised regularly had significantly higher HDL-C, whereas strict vegetarians who exercised regularly had significantly lower HDL-C. Conclusions In summary, strict vegetarian diets in conjunction with regular exercise might not serve as healthful behaviors to be implemented in everyday life considering the negative impact on HDL-C.A simple approach to enhance the refractive index sensitivity of gold nanodisks immobilized on electrically conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates has been demonstrated. A two-fold increase in sensitivity to bulk refractive index change was achieved by substrate under-etching of gold nanodisks on ITO in 50 mM sulfuric acid. The influence of an intermediate titanium adhesion layer was investigated and was found to markedly influence the etching pattern and time. Etching with an adhesion layer resulted in enhanced refractive index sensitivity on disk-on-pin like structures after long etching times, whereas etching of disks deposited directly on ITO resulted in a disk-on-pincushion like configuration and similarly enhanced sensitivity already at shorter times. The gold disks remained electrically connected to the ITO substrate throughout etching and allowed site-specific electrodeposition of poly(3-aminophenol) at the nanodisks, showing enhanced thin-film refractive index sensitivity. This work demonstrates a simple method for enhancing refractive index sensitivity of nanostructures on ITO substrates for combined electrochemical and optical platforms, and subsequently a method to modify the surface of the electrically connected nanostructures, which has potential application in biosensing.This paper deals with the mechanical behaviour, especially the permanent deformation and resilient deformation of an unbound granular material (UGM) from Bréfauchet quarry which is used as base layer material in low traffic pavements for full-scale tests at IFSTTAR in France. Medium-scale repeated load triaxial tests (RLTT) are carried out at different water contents and the results show that both permanent and resilient deformations increase with water content. Besides, two techniques of fixing the sensors in materials with large particles for RLTTs are proposed and compared with each other. The results suggest that the tube method is more suitable for the UGM for an accurate measurement and a good adaptability is obtained during the RLTT. Based on the test results of UGM Bréfauchet, the modelling work is performed with improved models used previously for a sandy material. It appears that both the permanent and resilient behaviours of different unbound granular materials can be well captured by the proposed equations considering the effects of water content and anisotropy. This study is helpful to understand the evolution of permanent and resilient deformation in different granular layers, especially for the base layer, in low traffic pavements. The verified models can be used for other similar granular materials and this will lead to reducing the number of tests required to predict the deformation behaviour of granular materials.Tribological properties of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites used in reciprocating contact should be improved to secure the efficiency and safety because of risks of abrasion, adhesion, and fatigue deficiency amidst fiber, matrix, or interphase. This paper investigates the influence of graphene reinforcement on the wear resistance of a GFRP composite. Graphene was integrated into a typical GFRP composite as the surface coating using a modified resin film infusion method with the percolating paper assisted. Dry reciprocating sliding tests were performed against a stainless steel ball moving in a direction 45 degrees to the fiber orientation. The morphology of the worn surface was observed, and the corresponding wear mechanisms are discussed. Results suggest that the prepared graphene coating improves the wear resistance of the GFRP composite. The protected GFRP laminates remained intact during the first 20 min of the wear test and only a small fraction of fibers were broken after 60 min test. Furthermore, abrasive debris and fiber breaks originating from composite were markedly reduced, likely owing to the formation of a protective transfer film between the surface of the modified composite and the rubbing counterpart.Food security is currently a global socio-political pressure point that is exacerbated by the everincreasing world population[…].Here, we present first draft genome sequence of the trypanosomatid Herpetomonas muscarum ingenoplastis. This parasite was isolated repeatedly in the black blowfly, Phormia regina, and it forms a phylogenetically distinct clade in the Trypanosomatidae family.A well-known challenge in vision-based driver assistance systems is cast shadows on the road, which makes fundamental tasks such as road and lane detections difficult. In as much as shadow detection relies on shadow features, in this paper, we propose a set of new chrominance properties of shadows based on the skylight and sunlight contributions to the road surface chromaticity. Six constraints on shadow and non-shadowed regions are derived from these properties. The chrominance properties and the associated constraints are used as shadow features in an effective shadow detection method intended to be integrated on an onboard road detection system where the identification of cast shadows on the road is a determinant stage. Onboard systems deal with still outdoor images; thus, the approach focuses on distinguishing shadow boundaries from material changes by considering two illumination sources sky and sun. A non-shadowed road region is illuminated by both skylight and sunlight, whereas a shadowed one is illuminated by skylight only; thus, their chromaticity varies. The shadow edge detection strategy consists of the identification of image edges separating shadowed and non-shadowed road regions. The classification is achieved by verifying whether the pixel chrominance values of regions on both sides of the image edges satisfy the six constraints. Experiments on real traffic scenes demonstrated the effectiveness of our shadow detection system in detecting shadow edges on the road and material-change edges, outperforming previous shadow detection methods based on physical features, and showing the high potential of the new chrominance properties.