Advancing Open Science

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox cognition battery and Trail Making Tests (TMT) are widely used to quantify cognitive aging and to detect early cognitive vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. However, these tests are often treated as interchangeable markers of global cognition, despite likely differences in their dependence on specific brain systems, limiting interpretability across studies and clinical contexts. To address this gap, we examined associations between four commonly used cognitive measures—fluid cognition, crystallized cognition, TMT-A, and TMT-B—and multimodal MRI metrics in 725 healthy volunteers aged 36 to 100 years from the Human Connectome Project–Aging. Voxel-wise diffusion MRI and vertex-wise cortical thickness and volume analyses were adjusted for age, sex, and years of education. Higher crystallized and fluid cognition scores and faster TMT-A/B completion times were generally associated with greater white matter integrity. TMT-B showed the most extensive diffusion and cortical associations, involving major projection, commissural, and association pathways and frontoparietal and temporo-occipital cortices. TMT-A and crystallized cognition demonstrated intermediate, overlapping patterns, whereas fluid cognition showed only focal brainstem and limited cortical correlates. These findings demonstrate systematic differences in the neuroanatomical substrates underlying commonly used cognitive tests and provide normative structure–cognition reference maps that can improve test selection, mechanistic interpretation, and sensitivity to brain health in studies of aging, vascular risk, and preclinical neurodegenerative disease.

Exoscopic systems are increasingly used as an alternative to the operating microscope in microsurgical reconstruction, offering high-definition visualisation, shared operative viewing, and greater flexibility in surgeon positioning. This retrospective case series describes the use of exoscopic visualisation during microsurgical reconstruction in five illustrative head and neck and reconstructive cases. Different commercially available exoscopic platforms were utilised, and feasibility, workflow integration, and surgeon-perceived ergonomic aspects were assessed descriptively. Exoscopic visualisation was feasible for completion of microvascular anastomoses across a range of complex reconstructions. From the surgeons’ perspective, exoscopy allowed a more flexible working posture during prolonged microsurgical tasks and may offer advantages in training environments, particularly for junior surgeons. Further studies incorporating objective outcome measures are required to better define the role of exoscopy in microsurgical practice.

This study proposes Enhanced Beaver Behavior Optimizer (EBBO) to overcome the original BBO algorithm’s limitations in handling complex optimization problems. EBBO integrates a three-phase cooperative framework, incorporating adaptive mutation, dynamic opposition-based learning, and an risk-aware decision strategy inspired by simulated annealing. Comprehensive evaluations on the CEC 2017 and CEC 2020 benchmark suites demonstrate that EBBO significantly outperforms nine widely used algorithms (e.g., BBO, FATA, DE) in convergence accuracy, stability, and robustness, especially for high-dimensional and multimodal functions. EBBO achieves average objective value reductions of 15–50% and standard deviation reductions of 30–70% compared to the original BBO, with Wilcoxon rank-sum tests confirming statistical significance across most functions. When applied to three classical engineering design problems—step-cone pulley, pressure vessel, three-bar truss optimization, and 3D UAV path planning—EBBO consistently achieved the best or near-optimal solutions while satisfying all nonlinear constraints. The results confirm that EBBO effectively balances exploration and exploitation, offering a reliable and efficient approach for solving complex constrained optimization challenges in both benchmark and real-world engineering contexts.

This study presents an integrated, open-source process simulation for converting agricultural biogas into high-purity liquid hydrogen using DWSIM (Distillation, Water, Separation and Inorganic Modules), an open-source sequential-modular simulator. The model simulates a farm-scale biogas feed and is optimised to enhance liquid hydrogen yield while reducing specific energy consumption under set operating conditions. The proposed model links biogas upgrading via dual pressure swing adsorption, steam–methane reforming, two-stage water–gas shift, hydrogen purification, and cryogenic liquefaction within a single optimisation framework. Using a representative farm-scale feed (103.7 kg h⁻¹ biogas containing 60 mol% CH₄), the optimised process produces 16.5 kg h⁻¹ of liquid hydrogen with 99.2% para-hydrogen purity while simultaneously capturing 104 kg h⁻¹ of CO₂ at 98% purity and 16 bar. Optimal operating conditions include SMR at 909 °C and 16 bar with a steam-to-carbon ratio of 3.0, followed by high- and low-temperature water–gas shifts at 413 °C and 210 °C, respectively. The overall cold-gas efficiency (LHV basis, excluding liquefaction electricity) reaches 78%, and the specific electricity demand for liquefaction is 32.4 kWh per kg of liquid hydrogen, which is consistent with reported values for small-scale hydrogen liquefiers. Sensitivity analysis over a methane content range of 40–75% confirms near-linear scalability of hydrogen output (R² = 0.998), demonstrating feedstock flexibility without re-parameterisation. The developed process in this work provides a transparent and extensible digital twin for early-stage design and optimisation of decentralised biogas-to-hydrogen systems. Using the open-source DWSIM platform ensures full transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility compared with proprietary simulators.

The balance between gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) defines an ecosystem’s carbon sink-source status. Under global warming, hydrothermal conditions critically shape carbon fluxes, yet their differential impacts on GPP and ER remain insufficiently understood, especially across biomes. Elucidating these differences is essential for reducing uncertainties in terrestrial carbon cycle projections under ongoing climate change. Here, based on flux observations from global terrestrial sites with a focus on forest ecosystems, we selected mean annual temperature (MAT), latent heat flux (LH), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil water content (SWC), and annual precipitation as representative indicators of hydrothermal conditions, and employed mixed-effects models to examine how these key environmental drivers influence GPP and ER. After analyzing the fixed effects, LH and MAT promoted GPP more strongly than ER (slope = 0.5 > 0.253, slope = 0.595 > 0.392, respectively), whereas VPD suppressed GPP more than ER (slope = −0.658 < −0.499), yet accounted for a greater proportion of variance in ER than in GPP (R² = 0.14 > 0.07). Although SWC had a significant (p < 0.001) positive effect on GPP, the effect size was minimal, and its impact on ER was insignificant. R² decomposition showed that marginal R² values were similar for the GPP and ER models (0.43 and 0.44), whereas the GPP model exhibited a substantially higher conditional R² (0.82 vs. 0.63), indicating that MAT exerted a stronger influence on GPP than on ER across ecosystem types. The combined analysis of fixed and random effects indicated that MAT affected GPP more variably than ER across ecosystem types, with the strongest responses in mixed forests and savannas, intermediate responses in evergreen needleleaf forests, and the weakest responses in evergreen broadleaf forests. Overall, this study advances our understanding of how environmental factors differently influence GPP and ER, and incorporating these differences can improve predictions of forest carbon fluxes and climate-carbon feedbacks.

High-bypass ratio engines are currently among the most investigated solutions to achieve efficiency benefits and noise reduction in gas turbine engines. When equipped with a gearbox, these engines enable an optimized operation of the fan and of the low-pressure core, resulting in reduced weight and fuel consumption. The higher spool speed allows higher pressure ratios per stage, and consequently a reduced stage count. However, all this contributes to an enhanced sensitivity of the engine components to the development of secondary flow structures and separations, with a consequent impact on the aerodynamic performance and stability. In this context, an experimental campaign was conducted at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics on a highly loaded axial compressor representative of the first stage of a modern booster. The aim was to identify the flow features responsible of the performance loss at the operating points and speeds considered more critical in terms of rotor inlet incidence. To this end, time-averaged instrumentation was employed to characterize the performance and to retrieve the distribution of flow quantities at different axial positions within the stage, while fast-response probes allowed for the detailed characterization of the rotor outlet flow field. Unsteady 3D simulations complemented the experimental results and supported this interpretation, especially in regions with limited instrumentation access. The experimental and numerical results emphasized the role of the secondary flow structures developing near the hub wall as the main drivers for aerodynamic stall, due to the enhanced loading in this blade region.

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, is associated with congenital malformations and neuroinflammatory disorders, highlighting the need to identify host factors that shape infection outcomes. Macrophages, key targets and reservoirs of ZIKV, orchestrate both antiviral and inflammatory responses. Methods: Vitamin D (VitD) has emerged as a potent immunomodulator that enhances macrophage antimicrobial activity and regulates inflammation. To investigate how VitD shapes macrophage responses to ZIKV, we reanalyzed publicly available RNA-seq and miRNA-seq datasets from monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) of four donors, differentiated with or without VitD and subsequently infected with ZIKV. Results: Differential expression analysis identified long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNAs integrated into competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks. In VitD-conditioned and ZIKV-infected MDMs, 65 lncRNAs and 23 miRNAs were significantly modulated. Notably, lncRNAs such as HSD11B1-AS1, Lnc-FOSL2, SPIRE-AS1, and PCAT7 were predicted to regulate immune and metabolic genes, including G0S2, FOSL2, PRELID3A, and FBP1. Among the miRNAs, let-7a and miR-494 were downregulated, while miR-146a, miR-708, and miR-378 were upregulated, all of which have been previously implicated in antiviral immunity. Functional enrichment analysis revealed pathways linked to metabolism, stress responses, and cell migration. ceRNA network analysis suggested that SOX2-OT and SLC9A3-AS1 may act as molecular sponges, modulating regulatory axes relevant to immune control and viral response. Conclusions: Despite limitations in sample size and experimental validation, this study provides an exploratory map of ncRNA–mRNA networks shaped by VitD during ZIKV infection, highlighting candidate molecules and pathways for further studies on host–virus interactions and VitD-mediated immune regulation.

Religious festivals are increasingly recognized as significant cultural and tourism phenomena, yet their study from a tourism perspective remains underexplored. This systematic literature review examines the thematic focus, stakeholder involvement, research methods, and theoretical frameworks employed in the study of religious festivals. Using the PRISMA framework and the Covidence data management tool, 24 studies were selected from an initial pool of 493. The findings reveal that research on religious festivals has primarily focused on visitor experiences, motivations, perceptions, and impacts, with limited attention to stakeholder integration and theoretical diversity. Notably, religious leaders and ministers, key actors in festival organization, are underrepresented in the literature. This review identifies critical gaps, including the need for sustainability-focused research, broader stakeholder engagement, and the application of diverse theoretical frameworks. By synthesizing existing knowledge, this study provides a roadmap for advancing research on religious festivals and their intersections with tourism.