Bayesian Optimization has emerged as a crucial technique for optimizing costly, black-box functions where each evaluation comes at a high cost, such as in scientific experiments, and machine learning hyperparameter optimization. By combining probabilistic modeling with sequential decision-making, Bayesian Optimization achieves efficient exploration, guiding the search toward optimal parameters wit

The effects of substrate misorientation angle direction and degree on the structural properties of N-polar GaN grown by a novel multi-step temperature epitaxial approach using hot-wall metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on 4H-SiC (0001̄) substrates is investigated. The surface morphology and X-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curves (RCs) for both symmetric and asymmetric Bragg peaks of

Water is most important to sustain all lives on this planet. For thousands of years, human activities have been interacting with Earth’s hydrologic cycle without concept that every water drop counts for societal sustainability. With the rapid increase of population and the challenges of climate change, the humankind must pay more attention to efficient water storage in interaction with the hydrolo

Hypothesis: The formation of a biomolecular corona on nanoparticle surfaces significantly influences their biological behaviour, particularly in drug delivery applications. Despite the prevalence of ingestion of particles (e.g, during oral drug delivery), our understanding of corona formation within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract remains limited, especially for non-protein components. The hypothe

This paper presents a way of creating and working with lo-fi materials for a tactile refreshable pin display. The materials were seen to work well, and supported co-design discussions around the future design of, and interaction with, the – as yet, non-existing – tactile device.

Creep deformation of WC-Co composites at high temperature and stress is accommodated by either bulk WC creep or by Co-infiltrated grain boundary sliding. It has been proposed that certain grain boundaries are more susceptible than others to such sliding, and depending on the applied stress, the overall deformation rate can be limited by either mechanism. Here, we have used Electron Back-Scatter Di

When someone violates a social norm, others may think that some sanction would be appropriate. We examine how the experience of emotions like anger and disgust relate to the judged appropriateness of sanctions, in a pre-registered analysis of data from a large-scale study in 56 societies. Across the world, we find that individuals who experience anger and disgust over a norm violation are more lik

The integration of rare disease medical databases belonging to different countries is an important problem, as a large number of observations are required for reliable statistical inference of patient data in order to facilitate clinical research. Such integration of national registry data, which requires harmonization of the heterogeneous data sets into a unified view, is facilitated in the Europ

Echoes of Empire: Nationalism and Identity in the Late Ottoman Era (1898-1918) delves into the complex and transformative period of the late Ottoman Empire, exploring the rise of nationalistic movements that reshaped its multi-ethnic landscape. This book provides a detailed examination of the various national identities that emerged - with a special focus on Kurdish nationalism - their struggles f

Human biomonitoring (HBM) frameworks assess human exposure to hazardous chemicals. In this review, we discuss and summarize sample preparation procedures and analytical methodology for six groups of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs), namely diisocyanates, benzotriazoles, benzothiazoles, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, isothiazolinones, fragrances, and non-phthalate plasticizers, which are increasi

Lead (Pb) is a global contaminant associated with multiple adverse health effects. Humans are especially vulnerable during critical developmental stages. During pregnancy, exposure to Pb can occur through diet and release from maternal bones. Apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) variants (ɛ2, ɛ3, ɛ4 alleles) may influence sex steroid hormones, bone metabolism, and Pb kinetics. We examined the interplay am

The genetic susceptibility to low-level lead (Pb) exposure in general populations has been poorly investigated and is limited to the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1800435 in the delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase gene (ALAD). This study explored associations between ten selected ALAD SNPs with Pb concentrations in blood (BPb) and urine (UPb) among 281 men aged 18-49 years from Slovenia

Within the European Human Biomonitoring (HBM) Initiative HBM4EU we derived HBM indicators that were designed to help answering key policy questions and support chemical policies. The result indicators convey information on chemicals exposure of different age groups, sexes, geographical regions and time points by comparing median exposure values. If differences are observed for one group or the oth

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of cytochrome P450 (CYPs) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGTs) genes have been proposed to influence phthalates and 1,2-cyclo-hexanedicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester (DINCH) biotransformation but have not been investigated on a populational level. We investigated the role of SNPs in CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, UGT2B15, and UGT1A7 genes in the biotransformatio

Chemicals such as bisphenols, parabens and triclosan are endocrine disrupting chemicals. They are used in a wide variety of consumer products, making human exposure to those chemicals widespread. In the present study, levels of three bisphenols (bisphenol A, F and S), 7 parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, isopropyl-, propyl-, isobutyl-, butyl-, benzyl paraben) and triclosan were measured in first morning v

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of high concern for the environment, wildlife, and human health due to their persistence and potential to cause adverse health effects. Despite political measures to restrict the production and distribution of PFAS and to limit the exposure of populations, PFAS can be measured at commonly high detection frequencies in human samples. Thus, this pilot s

The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) assessed human biomonitoring data on phthalates in children and adolescents, that were sampled between 2014 and 2021, in a harmonised way. These so-called “HBM4EU Aligned Studies” revealed that almost all children and adolescents were exposed to multiple phthalates concurrently. Some phthalates have been shown to act in a dose-additive manner, t

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a rapidly developing field that is emphasized as an important approach for the assessment of health risks. However, its value for health risk assessment (HRA) remains to be clarified. We performed a review of publications concerned with applications of HBM in the assessment of health risks. The selection of publications for this review was limited by the search engines