CABI - Animal Science Database

Today, urban development faces complex global challenges that require new approaches to influence its practices and policies. By prioritizing sustainability, mobility, and community resilience, we are moving towards a holistic approach that protects the well-being of residents and the environment. In this dynamic urban design environment, finding ways to identify pedestrian-friendly spaces and create safe, efficient, and sustainable urban environments is a major challenge, and it requires research that seeks to optimize this choice, especially in terms of integrating numerical modeling methods and a wide range of measurement tasks. This research is concerned with optimizing pedestrian accessibility, which directly contributes to reducing environmental impact, improving non-motorized transport, and reducing traffic congestion. It integrates a novel, mixed multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model that benefits from the use of Grey’s theory. This research’s purpose goes beyond addressing cities’ immediate challenges; it seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of sustainable urban planning. This study represents a pioneering effort to identify the challenges of optimal site selection for pedestrian walkways. By using a multi-criteria decision-making approach based on mathematical modelling and facility engineering, this effort addresses gaps in the current understanding of site selection criteria and aims to lead a paradigm shift toward a sustainable, efficient, and inclusive urban environment. The results show that the updated RANCOM-PIV greyscale is quite robust and reliable, when comparing the final results of the PIV greyscale and the MARCOS greyscale.

This qualitative inquiry explores how, during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lithuania (European Union), the stakeholders in the education system – university teachers, general education teachers, students, and children’s parents – coped with the encountered challenge and what was important under changed conditions. This paper uses a communication management objective to describe how participants in the education system respond to the emerging distance learning situation and its challenges. The phenomenographic research approach was chosen to carry out the qualitative study. The 37 interviews from higher education teachers, university students, school teachers, and parents of minor school-aged children were conducted during the early stage of COVID-19 quarantine. The research allows concluding that after a successful transition to distance learning, the dimensions of communion and supportive collaboration acquired importance among stakeholders in education. Starting new activities, a need for communion and mobilization for joint activities under the crisis emerged. The research showed that the adaptation period was necessary at the beginning of the new activity. Competent leadership was expected from the teacher. Also, the preparation of all the actors in the education process was needed. The data offer a window into the dynamics of online teaching in crisis and experiences in a new activity that is key to success. Although research on technology-mediated learning has increased in recent years, it still lags behind developments in practice.

In this work, we have investigated the feasibility of sub-microsecond range irreversible electroporation (IRE) with and without calcium electroporation in vivo. As a model, BALB/C mice were used and bioluminescent SP2/0 myeloma tumor models were developed. Tumors were treated with two separate pulsed electric field (PEF) pulsing protocols PEF1: 12 kV/cm × 200 ns × 500 (0.006 J/pulse) and PEF2: 12 kV/cm × 500 ns × 500 (0.015 J/pulse), which were delivered with and without Ca2+ (168 mM) using parallel plate electrodes at a repetition frequency of 100 Hz. Both PEF1 and PEF2 treatments reduced tumor growth and prolonged the life span of the mice, however, the PEF2 protocol was more efficient. The delay in tumor renewal was the biggest when a combination of IRE with calcium electroporation was used, however, we did not obtain significant differences in the final mouse survival compared to PEF2 alone. Anti-tumor immune responses were also investigated after treatment with PEF2 and PEF2+Ca. In both cases the treated mice had enlarged spleens and increased spleen T cell numbers, lower percentages of suppressor cell subsets (conventional CD4+CD25+ Treg, CD4+CD25−DX5+ Tr1, CD8+DX5+, CD4+CD28−, CD8+CD28−), changed proportions of Tcm and Tef/Tem T cells in the spleen and increased amount of tumor cell specific antibodies in the sera. The treatment based on IRE was effective against primary tumors, destroyed the tumor microenvironment and induced an anti-tumor immune response, however, it was not sufficient for complete control of tumor metastasis.