Advancing Open Science

Background/Objectives: Most research linking diet and mental health outcomes is from high-income countries, limiting insight into how these relationships manifest in culturally diverse, vulnerable contexts, such as the Caribbean. This scoping review aims to map existing research on the relationship between aspects of diet and mental health within Caribbean populations, to identify evidence gaps and guide future research. Methods: Eleven databases were searched for studies published between 2000 and 2024 in 33 Caribbean countries which assessed the relationship between diet and mental health outcomes. Duplicate screening and extraction were conducted using Redcap software, and a narrative synthesis and evidence gap map were created. The original protocol was registered with Open Science Framework. Results: Forty-four records were included, nine of which focused on eating disorders (examined separately). Most were cross-sectional studies of the general population, with few experimental and qualitative studies. Surveys were the most frequently applied data collection tool, often without mention of local adaptation or validation. Most records examined food security and depression as their ‘diet’ and ‘mental health’ variables, respectively. Frequently explored relationships included autism and seafood intake and fruit and vegetable intake, while depression and food security was the most widely examined relationship across studies. Conclusions: Caribbean research on diet–mental health relationships is growing though it is limited in scope, design, and cultural validity. Strengthening this evidence base requires studies whose primary aim is in nutritional psychiatry, using culturally relevant tools, and an expansion of study designs that incorporate Caribbean food systems and sociocultural contexts surrounding diet and mental health.

Communication and writing skills are critical for employability and leadership in sustainability and STEM fields, but few studies examine how interdisciplinary, problem-based learning (PBL) environments foster these competencies amongst undergraduates. This three-year study examined how human resource management (HRM) and Chemistry students collaborated on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-themed projects within a Global Classroom model. We used LIWC-22, a validated text analysis tool to assess students’ written reflections about their discipline-specific PBL exercises (e.g., debates about UBI) and their SDG-focused inter-disciplinary group projects (e.g., vaccine access). We found that the HRM students (n = 84) demonstrated increased use of curiosity and cognition language during in-person and synchronous collaboration contexts. Chemistry students collaborating synchronously with their HRM teammates exhibited enhanced curiosity in their writing, though findings for this group are tentative due to the small sample size. Our findings suggest that both discipline-specific and SDG-focused interdisciplinary PBL activities can improve undergraduates’ metacognitive skills and their curiosity, which are critical for addressing sustainability challenges. Our Global Classroom offers a scalable model of how SDG-focused PBL activities can be used to create collaborations between STEM and management undergraduates and enable them to develop context-specific solutions for global sustainability challenges while improving their communication and writing.

Spatiotemporal traffic flow prediction is a fundamental task in intelligent transportation systems and is crucial for promoting efficient and sustainable urban mobility, especially under increasingly complex and rapidly evolving traffic conditions. To overcome the challenges of modeling high-order spatial dependencies and heterogeneous temporal patterns, this study develops a novel Hierarchical Spatiotemporal Graph–Hypergraph Network (HSTGHN). For spatial representation learning, a hypergraph neural module is employed to capture high-order interactions across the road network, while a hypernode mechanism is designed to characterize complex correlations among multiple road segments. Furthermore, an adaptive adjacency matrix is constructed in a data-driven manner and enriched with prior knowledge of bidirectional traffic flows, thereby enhancing the robustness and accuracy of graph structural representations. For temporal modeling, HSTGHN integrates the complementary strengths of Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) and Transformers: GRUs effectively capture local sequential dependencies, whereas Transformers excel at modeling global dynamic patterns. This joint mechanism enables comprehensive learning of both short-term and long-term temporal dependencies. Extensive experiments on multiple benchmark datasets demonstrate that HSTGHN consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in terms of prediction accuracy and stability, with particularly significant improvements in long-term forecasting and highly dynamic traffic scenarios. These improvements provide more reliable decision support for intelligent transportation systems, contributing to enhanced traffic efficiency, reduced congestion, and ultimately more sustainable urban mobility.

The environmental and human health impacts of mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si) module assembly in Mexico were estimated using a regionalized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A detailed inventory was completed through fieldwork consisting of arranged visits to four manufacturers to collect on-site data. The main findings demonstrate that, on average, between 10% and 35% of the photovoltaic cells imported from China for module assembly in Mexico are discarded during the manufacturing process. Furthermore, experimental studies conducted in our laboratories with samples collected from the manufacturing plants showed that the busbars and finger contacts on the cells and strings indicate the presence of lead and a lack of silver in the aluminum-based alloys used for soldering and coating the strings. The LCA study includes end-of-life scenarios, with particular attention to open-dump waste disposal, the most common option in Mexico, which generates three-times-greater environmental impacts than waste incineration. The impact of different transport options for importing cells from China yielded Global Warming Potential (GWP) values of 157.52 kg CO₂ eq and a Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) of 2204.9 MJ eq, compared to 8.9 kg CO₂ eq and 123.3 MJ eq, respectively, obtained for sea transport. These results highlight the importance of including transport and end-of-life scenarios to obtain realistic environmental and human health impacts from photovoltaic module manufacturing.

Azaspiracids (AZAs) are marine polyether biotoxins produced by dinoflagellates that accumulate in filter-feeding organisms and pose a threat to human health and seafood safety. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of azaspiracid analogs in shellfish from the Adriatic Sea with the use of high-resolution mass spectrometry. AZA-2 was quantified in samples collected from Šibenik Bay between January and May 2024, with the highest concentrations observed in early January. In addition to AZA-2, several known analogs (AZA-6, AZA-9, AZA-10, AZA-19, AZA-41, and AZA-43) and a potentially new analog (m/z 884.4928) were also detected. The fragmentation patterns of this new analog indicate a structural similarity to AZA-19 with a possible double bond modification. Potential pitfalls regarding the misinterpretation of spectra derived from molecules containing ¹³C atoms were recognized and addressed. The presence of multiple analogs, some of which have high toxic potential, suggests that regulatory practice should consider including more than three analogs in the monitoring program.

The performance of true random number generators (TRNGs) fundamentally depends on the quality of their entropy sources (ESs). However, many FPGA-friendly designs still rely on a single mechanism and struggle to achieve both high throughput and low resource cost. To address this challenge, we propose the exclusive OR (XOR) Self-Feedback Ring Oscillator (XORSFRO), an XORNOT-style TRNG that integrates two cross-connected XOR gates with a short inverter delay chain and clocked sampling. A unified timing model is developed to describe how arrival-time skew and gate inertial delay lead to cancellation, narrow-pulse generation, and inversion events, thereby enabling effective entropy extraction. Experimental results on Xilinx Spartan-6 and Artix-7 FPGAs demonstrate that XORSFRO maintains stable operation across standard process–voltage–temperature (PVT) variations, while achieving higher throughput and lower hardware overhead compared with recent FPGA-based TRNGs. The generated bitstreams pass both the NIST SP 800-22 and NIST SP 800-90B test suites without post-processing.

Grapevines face the dual challenge of sustaining yield and fruit quality under arid and increasingly variable environmental conditions. This study characterized the phenotypic variability and multi-year stability of 49 grapevine (Vitis spp.) accessions conserved in the Chincha germplasm bank over three consecutive growing seasons, with the aim of identifying promising material for table grape, pisco (a traditional grape-based distilled spirit from Peru), and wine production. Morphological traits (cluster weight, berry weight and dimensions), colorimetric parameters (CIELAB), and physicochemical attributes (moisture, dry matter, soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, maturity index, and reducing sugars) were evaluated. Multivariate analyses (PCA, hierarchical clustering), genotype × environment interaction models (AMMI and GGE), stability indices (ASV and WAASBY), and assessments of interannual stability were applied, together with a multi-criteria selection index tailored to the intended end use. The results revealed two contrasting phenotypic profiles: one characterized by high berry volume/weight and elevated water content and another with smaller berries but higher dry matter, sugars, balanced acidity, and superior maturity indices. Genotypic effects were predominant for size-related traits such as berry weight, whereas titratable acidity and reducing sugars exhibited a more pronounced genotype × year interaction, supporting the use of AMMI models and the WAASBY index to select genotypes that are both productive and stable. The ranking identified accessions PER1002061, PER1002062, and PER1002168 as outstanding candidates for table grape production; PER1002076, PER1002097, and PER1002156 for pisco; and PER1002122, PER1002131, PER1002135, and PER1002098 as accessions with high oenological potential. Overall, these findings highlight the value and diversity of Peruvian grapevine germplasm and provide a foundation for breeding programs targeting varieties adapted to specific market niches, including table grape, wine, and pisco.

The oxidation behavior and microstructures of the GTD-111 Ni-based superalloy were investigated following heat treatment at 850 °C and 1000 °C for up to 5000 h, using Optical Microscopy (OM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). SEM/EDS analysis showed that the microstructure of the samples mainly consisted of γ’ precipitates in the matrix, eutectic phases, and several types of carbides. Cross-sectional analysis revealed that the oxidation region was composed of three layers: a top layer (NiO, TiO₂, Cr₂O₃), a sublayer (Ta₂O₅, TiO₂), and an inner layer (Al₂O₃), followed by a needle-like Ti-containing phase. The oxidation kinetics followed the parabolic law as a function of time at each temperature. After the heat treatments, the dendritic regions of all specimens consisted of cuboidal primary γ’ precipitates and spherical secondary γ’ precipitates. Chinese-script-like and blocky-shaped MC carbides, as well as three types of M₂₃C₆ carbides, were found in the interdendritic region. The fracture mode of the tensile specimens transformed from cleavage (brittle) fracture to ductile fracture as the temperature increased. Cracks were observed inside the MC carbides on the fracture surface, which may serve as significant crack initiation sites.