Search Results (168)

As a key tropospheric photochemical pollutant, ground-level ozone (O₃) poses significant threats to ecosystems through its strong oxidative capacity. With China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, worsening O₃ pollution has emerged as a critical environmental concern. This study examines O₃’s impacts on forest ecosystems in Southwestern China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing), which harbors crucial forest resources. We analyzed high-resolution monitoring data from over 200 stations (2019–2023), employing spatial interpolation to derive the regional maximum daily 8 h average O₃ (MDA8-O₃, ppb) and accumulated O₃ exposure over 40 ppb (AOT40) metrics. Through AOT40-based exposure–response modeling, we quantified the forest relative yield losses (RYL), economic losses (ECL) and ECL/GDP (GDP: gross domestic product) ratios in this region. Our findings reveal alarming O₃ increases across the region, with a mean annual MDA8-O₃ anomaly trend of 2.4% year⁻¹ (p < 0.05). Provincial MDA8-O₃ anomaly trends varied from 1.4% year⁻¹ (Yunnan, p = 0.059) to 4.3% year⁻¹ (Guizhou, p < 0.001). Strong correlations (r > 0.85) between annual RYL and annual MDA8-O₃ anomalies demonstrate the detrimental effects of O₃ on forest biomass. The RYL trajectory showed an initial decline during 2019–2020 and accelerated losses during 2020–2023, peaking at 13.8 ± 6.4% in 2023. Provincial variations showed a 5-year averaged RYL ranging from 7.10% (Chongqing) to 15.85% (Yunnan). O₃ exposure caused annual ECL/GDP averaging 4.44% for Southwestern China, with Yunnan suffering the most severe consequences (ECL/GDP averaging 8.20%, ECL averaging CNY 29.8 billion). These results suggest that O₃-driven forest degradation may intensify, potentially undermining the regional carbon sequestration capacity, highlighting the urgent need for policy interventions. We recommend enhanced monitoring networks and stricter control methods to address these challenges. Full article

Relaxation behavior of water confined in reverse micelles under temperature-induced micelle clustering is undertaken using broadband dielectric spectroscopy in frequency range 1 Hz–20 GHz. All microemulsion systems with sufficiently noticeable micelle water pool (water/surfactant molar ratio W > 10) depict three relaxation processes, in low, high and microwave frequencies, anchoring with relaxation of shell (bound) water, orientation of surfactant anions at water-surfactant interface and relaxation of bulk water confined in reverse micelles. The analysis of dielectric relaxation processes in AOT-based w/o microemulsions under temperature induced clustering of reverse micelles were made according to structural information obtained in NMR and conductometry experiments. The “wait and switch” relaxation mechanism was applied for the explanation of results for water in the bound and bulk states under spatial limitation in reverse micelles. It was shown that surfactant layer predominantly influences the bound water. The properties of water close to AOT interface are determined by strong interactions between water and ionic AOT molecules, which perturb water H-bonding network. The decrease in micelle size causes a weakening of hydrogen bonds, deformation of its steric network and reduction in co-operative relaxation effects. Full article

Regional increases in atmospheric O₃ are phytotoxic not only to major crops but also to root vegetables such as radish, and their effects can be further modulated by nitrogen (N) addition. To assess how cherry radish responds to elevated O₃ (eO₃) under N addition and to compare the dose–response relationships, we established six open-top chambers with two O₃ levels and two N treatments in Beijing, China, to examine gas exchange, growth, and biomass throughout the growing period. The results showed that: 1. eO₃ had a “priming effect” on photosynthesis rates (Pn) at the beginning of the experiment. N addition alleviated the O₃-induced Pn reduction at the end of the experiment by 6.76% but did not significantly influence the O₃-dose response to Pn; 2. stomatal conductance (gs) did not have a dose response to all treatments while evaporation rates (E) showed strong negative regression with AOT40; 3. N addition reduced the hypocotyl biomass (−47.70%), leaf biomass (−32.22%), and the whole plant biomass reduction caused by O₃ (−38.47%) at the end of the experiment, but N addition did not significantly influence O₃-dose response to biomass. In conclusion, N addition can alleviate O₃-induced reductions in Pn and biomass via non-stomatal mechanisms, but it is ineffective in altering long-term O₃ dose–response relationships. Soil N addition offers a short-term strategy to mitigate O₃ impacts on short-lived root vegetables such as cherry radish but does not influence key functional traits over the long term. This study highlights the potential of N addition to alleviate acute oxidative stress, while underscoring its limitations in mitigating the effects of prolonged O₃ exposure in root vegetables. Full article

Cerebral palsy generates an elevated burden on both patients and health-care systems. Cost-effective therapies such as action observation therapy (AOT), have been proposed to enhance motor performance in these patients. Objective: This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of AOT in children and adolescents with CP and describe its prescription parameters. Results: Fourteen studies involving a total of 393 patients with CP were included. Most studies presented some concerns on risk of bias. Meta-analyses compared AOT to placebo (no motor content) observation and found inconclusive results for the following: unilateral upper limb function (g = 0.565; 95% CI −0.174, 1.305), assisting hand function during bimanual activities (g = 0.200; 95% CI −0.742, 1.143), manual function daily activities (g = −0.022; 95% CI −3.134, 3.090), and hand grip strength (MD (kg) = 1.175; 95% CI −0.280, 2.630). Meta-analysis comparing AOT and physical therapy also yielded inconclusive findings for standing (g = 0.363; 95% CI −5.172, 5.898), as well as the combined dimension of walking, standing, and jumping (g = 0.798; 95% CI −8.821, 10.417) within gross motor function. Conclusions: Current evidence is imprecise and does not support definitive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of AOT over placebo observation, or over physical therapy, on functional outcomes including upper limb, hand, and lower limb functioning parameters. Current findings prevent recommending AOT for its employment in clinical practice. Further evidence is required to draw precise conclusions. Full article

This paper introduces a high-efficiency buck converter designed for a wide load range, targeting low-power applications in medical devices, smart homes, wearables, IoT, and technology utilizing WiFi and Bluetooth. To achieve high efficiency across varying loads, the proposed converter employs a low-power adaptive on-time (AOT) controller that ensures output voltage stability and seamless mode transitions. An adaptive comparator (ACP) with variable output impedance is introduced, offering a variable DC gain and bandwidth to be suitable for different load conditions. A negative-level shifter (NLS) circuit, with its swing ranging from −0.5 V to the battery voltage (V_BAT), is proposed to control the smaller power p-MOS transistors. By using an NLS, the chip area, which is mostly occupied by power CMOS transistors, is reduced while the power efficiency is improved, particularly under a heavy load. A status time detector (STD) block which provides control signals to the ACP and NLS for optimized power consumption is added to identify load conditions (heavy, light, ultra-light). By employing a 180 nm CMOS technology, the active chip area occupies about 0.31 mm². With an input voltage range of 2.8–3.3 V, the controller’s current consumption ranges from 1.2 μA to 16 μA, corresponding to the output load current varying from 12 μA to 120 mA. Although the output load can vary, the output voltage is regulated at 1.2 V with a ripple between 3 and 12 mV. The proposed design achieves a peak efficiency of 96.2% under a heavy load with a switching frequency of 1.3 MHz. Full article

Accurate segmentation of the ventricular region in embryonic heart videos of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) holds significant scientific value for research on heart development mechanisms. However, existing medaka ventricular datasets are overly simplistic and fail to meet practical application requirements. And the video frames contain multiple complex interfering factors, including optical interference from the filming environment, dynamic color changes caused by blood flow, significant diversity in ventricular scales, image blurring in certain video frames, high similarity in organ structures, and indistinct boundaries between the ventricles and atria. These challenges mean existing methods still face notable technical difficulties in medaka embryonic ventricular segmentation tasks. To address these challenges, this study first constructs a medaka embryonic ventricular video dataset containing 4200 frames with pixel-level annotations. Building upon this, we propose a semi-supervised video segmentation model based on the hierarchical propagation feature decoupling framework (DeAOT) and innovatively design an architecture that combines the LA-ResNet encoder with the AFPViS decoder, significantly improving the accuracy of medaka ventricular segmentation. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to the traditional U-Net model, our method achieves a 13.48% improvement in the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) metric. Additionally, compared to the state-of-the-art DeAOT method, it achieves a notable 4.83% enhancement in the comprehensive evaluation metric Jaccard and F-measure (J&F), providing reliable technical support for research on embryonic heart development. Full article

Electrical imaging logging technology precisely characterizes the features of the formation on the borehole wall through high-resolution resistivity images. However, the problem of blank strips caused by the mismatch between the instrument pads and the borehole diameter seriously affects the accuracy of fracture identification and formation continuity interpretation in marine oil and gas reservoirs. Existing inpainting methods struggle to reconstruct complex geological textures while maintaining structural continuity, particularly in balancing low-frequency formation morphology with high-frequency fracture details. To address this issue, this paper proposes an inpainting method using a dual-stream network based on the collaborative optimization of wavelet and spatial-channel convolution. By designing a texture-aware data prior algorithm, a high-quality training dataset with geological rationality is generated. A dual-stream encoder–decoder network architecture is adopted, and the wavelet transform convolution (WTConv) module is utilized to enhance the multi-scale perception ability of the generator, achieving a collaborative analysis of the low-frequency formation structure and high-frequency fracture details. Combined with the spatial channel convolution (SCConv) to enhance the feature fusion module, the cross-modal interaction between texture and structural features is optimized through a dynamic gating mechanism. Furthermore, a multi-objective loss function is introduced to constrain the semantic coherence and visual authenticity of image reconstruction. Experiments show that, in the inpainting indexes for Block X in the South China Sea, the mean absolute error (MAE), structural similarity index (SSIM), and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of this method are 6.893, 0.779, and 19.087, respectively, which are significantly better than the improved filtersim, U-Net, and AOT-GAN methods. The correlation degree of the pixel distribution between the inpainted area and the original image reaches 0.921~0.997, verifying the precise matching of the low-frequency morphology and high-frequency details. In the inpainting of electrical imaging logging images across blocks, the applicability of the method is confirmed, effectively solving the interference of blank strips on the interpretation accuracy of marine oil and gas reservoirs. It provides an intelligent inpainting tool with geological interpretability for the electrical imaging logging interpretation of complex reservoirs, and has important engineering value for improving the efficiency of oil and gas exploration and development. Full article

Background/Objectives: Action observation therapy (AOT) has gained attention as a rehabilitation method for motor function recovery following nerve injury. Although the total observation time and daily session duration have been studied, the effective observation duration per trial remains unclear. This study examined the effect of different observation durations on manual dexterity, mirror neuron system activity, and subjective psychomotor effort in healthy adults. Methods: Twenty-four healthy right-handed adults participated in this crossover study under four conditions: observing ball rotations with the dominant hand for one, two, or three minutes, or geometric patterns (control) for two minutes. The outcomes included maximum rotations and errors by both hands during a ball rotation task and interpersonal motor resonance (IMR), indicating mirror neuron system activity. These measures were compared before and after intervention. Subjective ratings of concentration, physical fatigue, and mental fatigue were assessed post-intervention. Results: Rotation performance significantly increased for the intervention hand after a 2 min observation and showed a notable effect (p = 0.113, r = 0.48) for the non-intervention hand after a 3 min observation compared to the control. The IMR was significantly greater during the 2 min observation than in the control. Compared to the 1 min observation, the 2 min and 3 min observations resulted in higher mental fatigue, and the 3 min observation showed lower concentration levels. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the observation duration has varying effects on manual dexterity and mirror neuron system activity, with optimal effects observed at specific time intervals while also highlighting the relationship between observational learning and psychomotor effort. Full article

Beryllium (Be) is one of the most toxic non-radioactive elements on the periodic table, and its presence or intake can negatively impact both the environment and human health. Classified as a carcinogen, Be is dangerous even at trace concentrations, stressing the necessity of developing reliable methods for quantifying it at very low levels. Spectrometric techniques for quantifying Be vary in sensitivity and applicability, with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) being the most sensitive for ultra-trace analysis. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) is suitable for higher Be concentrations, but preconcentration techniques can significantly lower detection limits. Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) provides enhanced sensitivity for low-level Be quantification, further optimized using pyrolytically coated graphite tubes and chemical modifiers such as Mg(NO₃)₂ or Pd(NO₃)₂. Effective separation and preconcentration techniques are essential for reliable Be quantification in complex matrices. Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), including single-drop microextraction (SDME) and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), have evolved to reduce the use of hazardous solvents. When combined with ETAAS, surfactant-assisted DLLME using agents like cetylpyridinium ammonium bromide (CPAB) and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (AOT) achieves preconcentration factors of approximately 25, reducing LOD to 1 ng/L. Vesicle-mediated DLLME coupled with ETAAS further enhances sensitivity, allowing detection limits as low as 0.01 ng/L in seawater. Cloud-point extraction (CPE), often employing Triton X-114, facilitates Be extraction using complexing agents or nanomaterials like graphene oxide. These advancements are critical for accurately quantifying Be at ultra-trace levels in diverse environmental and biological samples, overcoming challenges posed by low analyte concentrations and matrix interferences. Full article

Accurate animal face recognition is essential for effective health monitoring, behavior analysis, and productivity management in smart farming. However, environmental obstructions and animal behaviors complicate identification tasks. In pig farming, fences and frequent movements often occlude essential facial features, while high inter-class similarity makes distinguishing individuals even more challenging. To address these issues, we introduce the Pig Face Recognition and Inpainting System (PigFRIS). This integrated framework enhances recognition accuracy by removing occlusions and restoring missing facial features. PigFRIS employs state-of-the-art occlusion detection with the YOLOv11 segmentation model, a GAN-based inpainting reconstruction module using AOT-GAN, and a lightweight recognition module tailored for pig face classification. In doing so, our system detects occlusions, reconstructs obscured regions, and emphasizes key facial features, thereby improving overall performance. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of PigFRIS. For instance, YOLO11l achieves a recall of 94.92% and a ${\mathrm{AP}}_{50}$ of 96.28% for occlusion detection, AOTGAN records a FID of 51.48 and an SSIM of 91.50% for image restoration, and EfficientNet-B2 attains an accuracy of 91.62% with an F1 Score of 91.44% in classification. Additionally, heatmap analysis reveals that the system successfully focuses on relevant facial features rather than irrelevant occlusions, enhancing classification reliability. This work offers a novel and practical solution for animal face recognition in smart farming. It overcomes the limitations of existing methods and contributes to more effective livestock management and advancements in agricultural technology. Full article

Background: People with cerebral palsy (CP) present with limitations in gait and functionality, with a great impact on participation. Physiotherapy interventions based on goal-directed training (GDT), treadmill gait training (TGT), and action observation treatment (AOT) showed to be effective for improving functionality, gait and balance in children and adolescents with CP. On the other hand, since COVID-19 lockdown, telecare has an increased role in physiotherapy interventions. The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RTC) is to analyze the effectiveness of a multimodal intervention that combines face-to-face PT sessions of GDT and TGT and online PT sessions of a family-centered education program, which includes AOT activities and is effective to improve participation, gross motor function, gait and balance in children and adolescents with CP. Methods: A single-blinded RCT is proposed for 48 children and adolescents with CP (6–17 years old) who will be randomly allocated into two groups: the experimental group will receive six weeks of a multimodal PT intervention with 12 face-to-face sessions (GDT and TGT) and 6 online sessions of a family-centered telecare EP, which includes AOT activities. Participants in the control group will carry on with their regular PT treatment plus the EP as the experimental group. The outcome variables of participation (CAPE); gait speed and endurance (10 mm/6 mm); gross motor function (GMFM-88-SP); and dynamic and static balance (PBS) will be collected at baseline, after group interventions and 12 weeks from baseline and will be compared following standard principles for RCTs. Conclusions: The implementation of a multimodal PT intervention that combines face-to-face sessions of GDT and TGT and online sessions of a family-centered EP, which includes AOT activities, may be effective to improve participation, gross motor function, gait and balance in children and adolescents with CP. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov with ID: NCT04778930. Full article

In recent years, surface ozone (O₃) pollution has emerged as a significant barrier to the continued improvement of air quality in China, making O₃ risk assessment a critical research priority. Using nationwide O₃ monitoring data, this research investigated the spatial characteristics of O₃ pollution and assessed its potential impacts on human health and crop yields. The results showed that the maximum daily 8 h average O₃ (MDA8 O₃) exhibited higher concentrations in eastern and northern regions, and lower concentrations in the western and southern regions of China. Long-term O₃ exposure was associated with an estimated 175,154 all-cause deaths nationwide, with the highest health risks observed in Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu provinces. The AOT40 values for the winter wheat and single-rice growing seasons in China were 9.30 × 10³ ppb·h and 1.29 × 10⁴ ppb·h, respectively. Moreover, O₃ exposure led to relative yield losses of 22.1% for winter wheat and 9.3% for single rice, corresponding to crop yield losses (CPLs) of 63 million metric tons and 14 million metric tons, respectively. Higher winter wheat CPL values were primarily concentrated in Henan, Shandong, and Hebei, while higher single rice CPL values were observed in Jiangsu, Hubei, and Anhui. This study presents a novel coupling of O₃ pollution exposure with human health and agricultural risk assessments across China, emphasizing the need for region-specific O₃ management strategies to protect public health and ensure agricultural sustainability. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of targeted O₃ control in densely populated and major crop-producing areas to mitigate health risks and yield losses, thus safeguarding ecosystem health and food security. Full article

So far, most of the about 5700 exoplanets have been discovered mainly with radial velocity and transit methods. These techniques are sensitive to planets in close orbits, not being able to probearge star–planet separations. μ-lensing is the indirect method that allows us to probe the planetary systems at the snow-line and beyond, but it is not a repeatable observation. On the contrary, direct imaging (DI) allows for the detection and characterization ofow mass companions at wide separation (≤5–6 au). The main challenge of DI is that a typical planet–star contrast ranges from 10⁻⁶, for a young Jupiter in emittedight, to 10⁻⁹ for Earth in reflectedight. In theast two decades, aot of efforts have been dedicated to combiningarge (D ≥ 5 m) telescopes (to reduce the impact of diffraction) with coronagraphs and high-order adaptive optics (to correct phase errors induced by atmospheric turbulence), with sophisticated image post-processing, to reach such a contrast between the star and the planet in order to detect and characterize cooler and closer companions to nearby stars. Building on the first pioneering instrumentation, the second generation of high-contrast imagers, SPHERE, GPI, and SCExAO, allowed us to probe hundreds of stars (e.g., 500–600 stars using SHINE and GPIES), contributing to a better understanding of the demography and the occurrence of planetary systems. The DI offers a possible clear vision for studying the formation and physical properties of gas giant planets and brown dwarfs, and the future DI (space and ground-based) instruments with deeper detectionimits will enhance this vision. In this paper, we briefly review the methods, the instruments, the main sample of targeted stars, the remarkable results, and the perspective of this rising technique. Full article

Black carbon (BC) aerosols have attracted wide attention over the world due to their significant climate effects on local and global scales. BC extinction aerosol optical thickness (AOT), scattering AOT, and single scattering albedo (SSA) over China are systematically studied based on the MERRA-2 satellite reanalysis data from 1983 to 2022 in terms of the spatial, yearly, seasonal, and monthly variations. The extinction and scattering AOTs of BC show similar spatial distribution, with high values in eastern and southern China, generally as opposed to BC SSA. A decrease in BC extinction and scattering AOTs has been documented over the last decade. The mean BC extinction AOT, scattering AOT, and SSA over China are 0.0054, 0.0014, and 0.26, respectively. The BC SSA showed small variations during 1983–2022, although a high BC extinction AOT and scattering AOT have been seen in the last two decades. During different decades, the seasonal patterns of BC extinction and scattering AOTs may differ, whereas the BC SSA shows seasonal consistency. Significant monthly variations in the BC SSA are seen over four decades, which are in agreement with their seasonal patterns. The mean BC extinction AOTs are 0.037, 0.033, 0.023, and 0.0054, whereas the average BC scattering AOTs are 0.0088, 0.0082, 0.0060, and 0.0014 in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, and Tarim Basin (TB), respectively. It is interesting to see that BC SSA values in the TB region are generally higher than those over the PRD, YRD and BTH areas, whereas the reverse is true for BC extinction and scattering AOTs. This study provides references for further research on black carbon aerosols and air pollution in China. Full article

Surface ozone (O₃) pollution has adverse impacts on the yield of winter wheat. The North China Plain (NCP), one of the globally significant primary regions for winter wheat production, has been frequently plagued by severe O₃ pollution in recent years. In this study, the effects of O₃ pollution on winter wheat yield and economic impact were evaluated in the NCP during the 2015–2018 seasons using the regional atmospheric chemical transport model (WRF-Chem), O₃ metrics including the phytotoxic surface O₃ dose above 12 nmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (POD₁₂), and the accumulated daytime O₃ above 40 ppb (AOT40). Results showed that the modeled O₃, exposure-based AOT40, and flux-based POD₁₂ increased during the winter wheat growing season from 2015 to 2018. The annual average daytime O₃, exposure-based AOT40, and flux-based POD₁₂ were 44 ppb, 5.32 ppm h, and 1.78 mmol m⁻², respectively. During 2015–2018, winter wheat relative production loss averaged 10.9% with AOT40 and 14.6% with POD₁₂. This resulted in an average annual production loss of 12.4 million metric tons, valued at approximately USD 4.5 billion. This study enhances our understanding of the spatial sensitivity of winter wheat to O₃ impacts, and suggests that controlling O₃ pollution during the key growth stages of winter wheat or improving its O₃ tolerance will enhance food security. Full article