Search Results (786)

The unimodular version of the Kaluza–Klein theory is briefly discussed, and its projection onto four-dimensional spacetime is constructed. Imposing the unimodularity condition on the five-dimensional Kaluza–Klein metric, det$g_{AB}=1$ is equivalent to introducing a cosmological term in Einstein’s equations in four dimensions with a scalar field of the Brans–Dicke type. Singularity-free cosmological solutions with scalar field and matter sources are constructed, and their basic properties are analyzed In the present paper, attention is focused on the perturbative analysis of cosmological solutions, providing insights into their stability against small fluctuations. Full article

The shift toward sustainable cosmetic systems has become a strategic priority in response to rising environmental pressures, biodiversity loss, and regulatory demands for traceability and responsible sourcing. This review critically examines the Brazilian sustainability model in the cosmetics industry, focusing on three key pillars: (i) traceability and certification of origin aligned with international standards; (ii) community partnerships and equitable value sharing; and (iii) technological innovation tailored to local biodiversity contexts. It synthesizes scientific articles, regulatory documents, and industry reports published mainly between 2005 and 2025, including international certification schemes (COSMOS, ECOCERT, NATRUE, IBD) and Brazilian biodiversity laws. Quantitative export data show that Brazil’s cosmetic industry surpassed US$ 300 million in exports to major markets, emphasizing the global importance of sustainability-driven competitiveness. This study presents a conceptual framework combining biodiversity-based innovation, socio-environmental governance, and certification systems as a unique sustainability pathway distinct from traditional green cosmetic strategies. The review highlights technical challenges such as supply chain traceability, harmonization of international standards, regulatory asymmetries, and the scalability of community-based value chains. The findings indicate that Brazil’s model offers a hybrid sustainability architecture that combines biotechnological innovation, fair-benefit sharing mechanisms, and compliance with international standards. Future research should focus on quantitative impact assessment metrics, life-cycle evaluations of biodiversity-derived ingredients, and mechanisms for regulatory convergence to improve industrial scalability and global market integration. Full article

In this paper, we discuss the atomic models developed for the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) analysis of the spectra of two odd-Z chemical elements, the little-studied potassium and copper, whose nuclei are often thought to form in Cosmos through different astrophysical processes. The K I and Cu I atomic models have been developed and updated over the past decade and applied to determine non-LTE abundances of these elements in the hot and cool dwarfs, giants, and supergiants of different metallicities, from solar to extremely low metallicity. The abundances of potassium and copper in old metal-poor halo stars are of considerable interest because these objects bear the imprints of nucleosynthesis in Type II supernovae and hypernovae in the early Galaxy. The vast majority of the studies of the spectra of these atoms have been based on the assumption of LTE. In some cases, this approach has led to incorrect results, which have sometimes affected our understanding of evolutionary processes in stars and stellar systems. The main objective of this article is to highlight the importance of using the non-LTE stellar abundance data to improve or modify existing theoretical models of cosmic chemical evolution. In particular, significantly different results for the copper abundance in old Galactic stars were obtained compared to LTE data. This finding could inspire specialists working in the field of chemodynamic models to search for realistic pathways for the formation of this element in massive stars. Despite this, since the first non-LTE results on the copper abundance in the oldest Galactic stars, LTE data remained in use for several years. This situation seriously hinders progress in research into some certain aspects of cosmic nucleosynthesis. Full article

Numerical galaxy formation simulations are sensitive to numerical methods and sub-grid physics models, making code comparison projects essential for quantifying uncertainties. Here, we evaluate gadget4-osaka within the AGORA project framework by conducting a systematic comparison with its predecessor. We perform an isolated disk galaxy and a cosmological zoom-in run of a Milky Way-mass halo, following the multi-step AGORA calibration procedure. By systematically deconstructing the updated stellar feedback model, we demonstrate that mechanical momentum injection is necessary to suppress unphysical gas fragmentation and regulate star formation, yielding agreement with the Kennicutt–Schmidt relation. Meanwhile, stochastic thermal heating is essential for driving a hot metal-enriched gaseous halo, thereby creating a multiphase circumgalactic medium that is absent in the predecessor code. In the cosmological context, we calibrate the simulation to match the stellar mass growth history targeted by the AGORA collaboration. The validated gadget4-osaka simulation has been contributed to the AGORA CosmoRun suite, providing a new data point for understanding the impact of numerical and physical modeling choices on galaxy evolution. Full article

This article examines the ontological and ethical foundations of ecosufism through the views articulated by Muḥyiddīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638 AH/1240 CE) and Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672 AH/1273 CE) in their major works. Its central argument is that these two foundational figures of Sufi metaphysics offer a coherent, theocentric account of the human–nature relationship grounded in the principles of waḥdat (unity) and tajallī (self-disclosure). Conceiving the cosmos as a living and conscious reality, Ibn ʿArabī and Rūmī further deepen this ontological vision through the Qurʾānic notions of khilāfah (vicegerency) and amānah (trust). These concepts are explained in Ibn ʿArabī’s teaching of al-insān al-kāmil (the Perfect Man) and in Rūmī’s teachings on humility and mercy, as both an ontological and ethical responsibility. This responsibility is expressed through the practical and ethical virtue of iʿtidāl (moderation), which limits the use of natural resources by humans. In this sense, ecosufism stands in clear opposition to anthropocentric approaches, rejecting the reduction of nature to a mere means to human ends. The study also shows that, without claiming any historical origin or conceptual identity, there are notable parallels between the foundations of ecosufism and modern ecological approaches. In this respect, meaningful points of convergence can be identified between ecosufism’s ontological and ethical framework and contemporary perspectives such as deep ecology, the intrinsic value of nature, the idea of a living cosmos, panpsychism, environmental stewardship, and environmental virtue ethics. The article argues that ecosufism, as an understanding that explains human–nature relationships both in a metaphysical sense and how this relationship should be reflected in concrete practices, has the potential to contribute to today’s ecological problems at both the theoretical and practical levels. Full article

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry provides long-term displacement measurements, but the quality of Persistent Scatterer (PS) time series depends critically on temporal coherence. Low-coherence points often exhibit auto-uncorrelated behaviours, which may be relevant to discriminate fast phenomena. This work introduces a coherence-based framework that identifies the coherence threshold beyond which PS displacement series retain sufficient reliability to support modelling. The threshold is estimated by analysing how data uncertainty, inferred through Sparse Bayesian Learning (SBL) techniques, varies with coherence and by detecting abrupt changes in this relationship. Once the optimal threshold is established, only the most reliable PS are used to train an SBL regression model linking satellite line-of-sight displacement to soil temperature and surface humidity measured by a low-cost ground sensor. PS-Interferometric SAR (PS-InSAR) time series are derived from COSMO-SkyMed raw images. The SBL model employs compressive-sensing principles and latent-parameter dictionaries of basis functions, whose latent parameters are calibrated through a constrained multi-start optimisation of a normalised residual-based objective function, regularised by a sub-validation dataset. In this work, it is shown that the trained model enables temporally denser reconstruction of displacement histories than the satellite revisit cycle allows and enables continuous soil monitoring by comparing model predictions with newly acquired PS-InSAR data. Full article

Background: The management of large (≥10 mm) and giant (≥25 mm) intracranial aneurysms remains clinically challenging due to their elevated rupture risk, morbidity, and procedural complications, which pose a dilemma for both intervention and conservative management. Flow diversion (FD) has emerged as a promising endovascular approach, although its comparative safety and efficacy versus Coiling remain unclear. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, studies published between January 2000 and March 2025 were identified across PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Outcomes assessed included aneurysm recurrence, complete occlusion, favorable clinical outcomes, procedure-related complications and mortality. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated, and heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. Results: A total of 1893 patients (1256 FD, 637 Coiling) and 1915 aneurysms across 33 studies were included. FD significantly reduced recurrence compared to Coiling (8% vs. 27%; p = 0.0001) and showed a trend toward a higher rate of complete occlusion (p = 0.0571). However, FD had a modestly increased rate of hemorrhagic complications (p = 0.0495). No other significant differences were found in clinical outcomes, major complications, ischemic events, delayed rupture, or mortality. Conclusions: Both FD and Coiling are effective and generally safe for large and giant intracranial aneurysms. FD is associated with lower recurrence and a trend toward a higher rate of complete occlusion, with similar overall safety but slightly higher hemorrhagic risk. FD is emerging as a preferred first-line option for large and giant unruptured aneurysms, while coiling remains important for ruptured aneurysms or when anatomical constraints limit the use of FD. Full article

Land cover mapping is a crucial component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, but existing products underestimate urbanized areas and small-scale man-made objects, limiting their ability to capture the complexity of built environments. Long-baseline monostatic–bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, such as the ones that will be made available by the upcoming PLATiNO-1 mission, have the potential to contribute to the detection of the mentioned targets, e.g., by traditional supervised classification approaches. Since bistatic measurements from the PLATiNO-1 mission are not yet available, repeat-pass COSMO-SkyMed second generation (CSG) images collected with different incidence angles are employed to emulate the expected diversity of future monostatic–bistatic products. A complete classification pipeline is developed, and a structured dataset of 48 features is built, combining intensity, polarimetric, spatial, and textural descriptors to train an XGBoost model to identify urban targets within a representative area in Italy. The results demonstrate stable performance, with F1 scores around 0.73 and true positive rates close to 80%, showing good agreement with reference data and confirming the feasibility of the proposed methodology. Although conceived as a proof of concept, the study shows that integrating multi-angle information into classification tasks can improve the detection of man-made structures and provide an additional information layer to be integrated with Copernicus services. Full article

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is a globally significant crop increasingly affected by a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. Plant biostimulants offer a promising approach to enhance plant resilience by modulating key physiological and metabolic processes. This study aimed to demonstrate that the preventive application of a Fabaceae-based biostimulant can prime grapevine defense pathways, thereby improving plants’ ability to endure potential stress conditions. Indeed, resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses in plants involves common pathways, including Ca²⁺ and ROS signaling, MAPK cascades, hormone cross-talk, transcription factor activation, and induction of defense genes. Grapevine leaves were subjected to high-throughput transcriptomic analysis coupled with qPCR validation 6 and 24 h following treatment application. Differentially expressed genes were visualized using MapMan to identify the major metabolic and signaling pathways responsive to the treatment. This integrative analysis revealed several defense-related pathways triggered by the biostimulant, with representative protein families showing both up- and downregulation across key functional categories. Overall, the results indicate that a wider array of pathways associated with stress tolerance and growth regulation were stimulated in treated plants compared to untreated controls. These findings support the conclusion that a preventive biostimulant application can effectively prime grapevine metabolism, enhancing its preparation to cope with forthcoming environmental challenges. Full article

In his innovative and creative attempt to reconcile empiricism and religion, William James made the case for finite theism and a pluralistic conception of the cosmos involving overlapping minds of several scales. In doing so, James also cautioned against abandoning functional psychology in favor of what he called entitative points of view. In his work, Ralph Barton Perry critiqued James for understating the role of embodiment in cognition. In Perry’s view, the central role the body plays in cognition suggests that so-called social or composite minds lack integration and are thus cognitively inferior to embodied minds. However, Perry also believed that the emergent character of embodied cognition provides grounds for an alternative, humanistic spirituality. In this article, I compare James and Perry on theology, and I argue that Perry’s concerns about the importance of embodiment in cognitive integration help illuminate a tripartite distinction between what I call impersonal, subpersonal, and personal theologies that scholars looking for more embodied approaches to theology would do well to consider. Full article

The study presents a stability analysis of an axially compressed column resting on a Winkler foundation with a stepwise variation in stiffness. The solution is based on an energy approach using the Rayleigh quotient, and the original buckling mode function is proposed to capture the localization of deformations in the region of foundation discontinuity. The theoretical model was verified numerically for rectangular-section columns by comparing the results with simulations performed in COSMOS/M and ABAQUS systems. The differences in critical load values did not exceed 1.7%. The investigation showed that increasing the stiffness contrast leads to stronger buckling localization within the weaker foundation segment. The developed model can be used for preliminary assessment of the load-carrying capacity of structural elements interacting with a non-homogeneous distributed foundation. Full article

Objectives: Myopia of prematurity (MOP) is a refractive error occurring in individuals born prematurely and is considered a distinct entity from pathologic and school-age myopia. Children affected by MOP are at risk of developing high myopia, with an increased lifelong cumulative risk of related complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the progression of MOP in children previously affected by retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) who wore spectacles with Highly Aspherical Lenslet Target (HALT) technology compared to conventional single-vision lenses during childhood. Methods: Enrolled subjects were divided into two groups: subjects who used HALT lenses for at least 12 months and children who used standard single-vision lenses for the same period. The temporal evolution of spherical equivalent (SE) and axial length (AL) was evaluated in both groups. Results: Of the 252 preterm children screened, 58 were included in the study: 38 subjects (66%) in the standard lenses group and 20 subjects (34%) in the HALT lenses group. At 12 months SE progression and AL elongation in the HALT group (−0.32 ± 0.20 D and 0.12 ± 0.05 mm) were lower compared to the standard group (−0.93 ± 0.34 D and 0.46 ± 0.09 mm, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The progression of MOP appears to be reduced in subjects corrected with HALT lenses compared to those wearing conventional lenses. These results suggest further investigation of HALT technology in selected subgroups of patients at high-risk of severe myopia to reduce its progression and the related lifelong cumulative risk of visual impairment. Full article

Within the field of the structural monitoring of bridges, numerous technologies and methodologies have been developed. Among these, methods based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) which utilise satellite data from missions such as Sentinel-1 (European Space Agency-ESA) and COSMO-SkyMed (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana—ASI) to capture displacements, temperature-related changes, and other geophysical measurements have gained increasing attention. However, SAR has yet to establish its value and potential fully; its broader adoption hinges on consistently demonstrating its robustness through recurrent applications, well-defined use cases, and effective strategies to address its inherent limitations. This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) conducted in accordance with key stages of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 framework. An initial corpus of 1218 peer-reviewed articles was screened, and a final set of 25 studies was selected for in-depth analysis based on citation impact, keyword recurrence, and thematic relevance from the last five years. The review critically examines SAR-based techniques—including Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR), multi-temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR), and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI), as well as approaches to integrating SAR data with ground-based measurements and complementary digital models. Emphasis is placed on real-world case studies and persistent technical challenges, such as atmospheric artefacts, Line-of-Sight (LOS) geometry constraints, phase noise, ambiguities in displacement interpretation, and the translation of radar-derived deformations into actionable structural insights. The findings underscore SAR’s significant contribution to the structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges, consistently delivering millimetre-level displacement accuracy and enabling engineering-relevant interpretations. While standalone SAR-based techniques offer wide-area monitoring capabilities, their full potential is realised only when integrated with complementary procedures such as thermal modelling, multi-sensor validation, and structural knowledge. Finally, this document highlights the persistent technical constraints of InSAR in bridge monitoring—including measurement ambiguities, SAR image acquisition limitations, and a lack of standardised, automated workflows—that continue to impede operational adoption but also point toward opportunities for methodological improvement. Full article

Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, and their importance in supporting human well-being is widely recognized. As goods and benefits from forests are exhaustible, it is therefore essential to gather sound data for their monitoring and management. Remote sensing has gained increasing importance in collecting data on forests, driven by the growing demand for regularly updated environmental data. However, remote sensing modeling of vegetation requires reference data to be collected in the field. This article presents a dataset on tree crown cover—both total and by species—of 528 georeferenced forest plots located in the Eastern Alps, Italy, an area affected by extensive wind and snow damage and subsequent widespread damage caused by bark beetles. The characteristic species of the forest types in the dataset are widely distributed over the Eurasian continent, making the dataset potentially useful to many users and researchers studying forest biodiversity or remote sensing applications to monitor forest cover changes. Data were collected within a still ongoing project aimed at detecting crown cover changes in small forest patches. Full article

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have attracted significant attention as eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives to conventional, often toxic, organic solvents. They are easy to synthesize, and their tunable physicochemical properties enable their application in microextraction techniques for a wide range of analytes. However, some DESs may exhibit thermal instability, and their high viscosity or solubility can influence the extraction efficiency. Despite these limitations, in recent years, DESs have been successfully used in multiple roles in solid-phase microextraction (SPME). They may be used to functionalize or modify sorbent materials, thereby forming composite sorbents with enhanced performance. Moreover, DESs can be combined with polymers to produce hybrid materials with improved extraction capabilities. Additionally, DESs can act as porogens within SPME sorbents, increasing sorption capacity and, consequently, extraction efficiency. They can also serve as green desorption solvents, replacing traditional volatile organic solvents during the recovery of analytes from sorbent materials. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the implementation of DESs in SPME techniques, critically evaluating their primary advantages and inherent limitations. The novelty of this review lies in the assessment of DES-based SPME through the metrics of greenness and sustainable chemistry. Furthermore, the review identifies research perspectives and priorities to advance DES-based SPME, including: the integration of predictive modeling (COSMO-RS, machine learning) to elucidate DES-analytes interactions; the adoption of 3D printing for the precision fabrication of DES-based sorbents; the standardization of DES-based SPME performance; and the exploration of natural DESs for in vivo SPME in biomedical applications. Full article