Search Results (716)

The yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor, Linnaeus) is a cosmopolitan pest of stored grains, causing losses up to 15%. Due to the environmental and health risks of synthetic fumigants, botanical alternatives are needed, but their ecotoxicological assessment is also required. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the insecticidal, insectistatic, and ecotoxicological effects of Salvia connivens (Epling) dichloromethane extract and to identify its compounds. Insecticidal and insectistatic activities were assessed through the consumption of an artificial diet containing the extract over 30 days. Ecotoxicological activity was evaluated through acute toxicity assays on Danio rerio (Hamilton) adults and embryos. The extract showed insecticidal activity against T. molitor achieving 50% mortality at 10,000 ppm (LC₅₀ = 9367.19 ppm). Additionally, at 10,000 ppm larval weight gain was reduced by 53.37% at 30 days compared to the control. Ecotoxicological assays revealed slight toxicity toward D. rerio adults (LC₅₀ = 84.27 ppm) and embryos (LC₅₀ = 32.60 ppm). GC-MS analysis identified hexadecanoic acid (7.08%), 1-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (6.30%), cis-9-octadecenoic acid (3.91%), β-sitosterol (3.05%), and eicosane (3.00%) as the major constituents according to the chromatographic method used. These findings suggest that S. connivens dichloromethane extract is a potential botanical product for T. molitor management. Full article

Street food is a fundamental part of the diet for millions of people, especially in Mexico, standing out for its accessibility, cost, and connection to culinary culture. Street food represents a practical alternative for the population and economic benefits for those who sell it. However, its preparation and sale can involve microbiological health hazards if proper hygiene conditions and practices are not applied during the handling, storage, and sale of products. Studies in Mexico have shown the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in street food, including coliform bacteria, Salmonella sp., Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes, among others, capable of causing foodborne illnesses. Therefore, this narrative review provides information available in various databases on street food, foodborne illnesses, causative agents, contaminants, and prevention measures. This study focuses on the Mexican context, including the socioeconomic relevance of these foods, microbiological contaminant hazards, prevention, and the regulatory framework. Although regulations and actions are in place for these foods, challenges remain related to food hygiene education for food handlers, microbiological surveillance of food, and the wide variety of products and sales outlets. Strengthening collaboration among authorities, academia, vendors, and consumers is essential to promote the availability of safe food and protect public health. Full article

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes a growing global threat, facilitated by the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) through wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This systematic review, conducted following the PRISMA guidelines, compiles the risks associated with ARGs, as well as the factors that promote horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and the technologies applied for their removal. The literature shows that WWTPs act as reservoirs, where biological treatment conditions and the presence of sub-inhibitory contaminants (antibiotics, metals, and pharmaceuticals) accelerate HGT. Although conventional methods (chlorination, ozonation, UV) are effective at eliminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), their ability to degrade persistent genetic material is insufficient. Therefore, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) emerge as a key solution, with the photo-Fenton process standing out due to efficiently generating hydroxyl radicals, achieving the degradation of ARGs, an essential step to mitigate the spread of AMR into the environment. Full article

The rapid evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) has exposed limitations of static, accuracy-oriented benchmarks and increased the need for evaluation frameworks that distinguish among capabilities and benchmark quality. This survey analyzes 63 LLM benchmarks spanning 2012–2026 and organizes them into a taxonomy of six capability dimensions and 20 operational subcategories. We also propose the Benchmark Quality Assurance Index (BQAI), an AHP-weighted composite framework for assessing the scientific quality of benchmarks across seven dimensions related to annotation, clarity, standardization, reproducibility, robustness, coverage, and fairness. The BQAI is applied to 30 representative benchmarks, corresponding to 48% of the 63-benchmark corpus, with three-evaluator blinded scoring, formal inter-rater reliability validation $\left(\mathrm{ICC}(2,k)\right.$ and quadratic-weighted Cohen’s $\left.\kappa \right)$, and Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis $\left(n=1000\mathrm{trials},\pm 10\%\mathrm{to}\pm 50\%\mathrm{weight}\mathrm{perturbation}\right)$. In addition, we synthesize public performance results for 16 models across 10 benchmarks to examine saturation trends and reporting gaps. The analysis indicates that benchmark usefulness varies substantially across evaluation settings, that several established benchmarks are becoming less discriminative for frontier models, and that important gaps remain in safety, agentic, and cross-cultural assessment. Together, the taxonomy, BQAI, and saturation analysis provide a structured perspective on the current LLM benchmark landscape and on priorities for more rigorous evaluation. Full article

This article examines how justice institutions produce and reproduce gender-based violence against women through the invisibilization of moral violence, with particular attention to their spatial dimensions. Drawing on the concept of juridical–patriarchal habitus, the study conceptualizes justice institutions not only as sites of legal action but as spatial formations that shape the visibility, recognition, and adjudication of harm. Using a feminist ethnographic approach, the article analyzes two cases of gender-based violence documented in 2020 in the municipality of Querétaro, Mexico. The findings demonstrate how movement into legal and institutional spaces transforms lived experiences of violence, as procedural requirements, evidentiary expectations, and institutional interactions operate as spatial filters that render certain forms of harm visible while obscuring others. In this process, justice actors construct and reproduce gendered stereotypes about what counts as violence, simultaneously positioning women as victims and subjecting them to processes of revictimization. By conceptualizing the invisibility of moral violence as a spatially mediated process, the article contributes to debates in legal and feminist geography, highlighting how institutional spaces not only respond to gender-based violence but actively participate in its production and concealment. Full article

Urban stormwater is often viewed as a drainage problem rather than a local water resource, even in areas where runoff capture could simultaneously reduce flooding and promote the reuse of non-potable water. This study develops, installs, and field-tests a decentralized, school-scale stormwater harvesting system that relocates permeable concrete, transforming it from a passive infiltration surface into a purpose-built capture and pretreatment interface. The system integrates a 3 m × 3 m permeable concrete slab with load-bearing sections, an impermeable underlayer to ensure controlled flow, a double-compartment sump for staged sedimentation and hydraulic damping, sequential filtration with sand/gravel and activated carbon, and a 5000 L storage tank. The prototype was implemented at CETis 105 in Querétaro, Mexico, and evaluated during its commissioning and operation in the 2023 rainy season. Field operations demonstrated reduced ponding in the catchment area and a reliable flow of runoff to the pretreatment units. In the sump compartments, apparent color decreased from 221 to 59 Pt-Co, turbidity from 46.8 to 12.9 NTU, and COD from approximately 30–35 to 15–18 mg·L⁻¹, corresponding to approximate pretreatment reductions of 73.3%, 72.4%, and 40–57%, respectively, before post-filtration. Conversely, the elevated pH, electrical conductivity, and total dissolved solids indicated interaction with fresh cementitious materials and dissolved ionic residues during initial operation, highlighting the need for curing, initial washing, and post-filtration verification before declaring compliance with reuse requirements. Therefore, the results support the feasibility of the proposed configuration as a decentralized, low-infrastructure architecture for localized runoff control and pretreatment, while confirming that full reuse validation still requires microbiological and post-filtration evaluation. The study provides a field-proven system design adaptable to school campuses and similar institutional environments for distributed stormwater management and non-potable water storage. Full article

The growing energy demand in rural areas such as the ejido Boca del Cerro, located in Tenosique, Tabasco (Mexico), near the Usumacinta River, calls for sustainable energy solutions such as microgrids. This study proposes an energy management system combining renewable energy forecasting and fuzzy control for a simulated small autonomous rural microgrid scenario designed to supply a fixed priority load of 5 kW and a variable flexible load ranging from 1 to 10 kW. Three LSTM architectures (vanilla, stacked, and bidirectional) are compared for predicting solar irradiance, wind speed, and river flow. The vanilla model is optimized using Hyperband to improve prediction accuracy, particularly for flow rate, which is rarely addressed in similar studies. Forecasts feed into models of photovoltaic, wind, and hydro systems within the microgrid. Energy dispatch is managed through fuzzy logic control. The fuzzy controller supports load prioritization, battery charge/discharge management, and surplus energy redirection to an absorbing load. The final vanilla LSTM achieved RMSE values of 25.741, 0.302, and 12.644 for solar irradiance, wind speed, and river flow, respectively, with NSE values above 0.949 in all cases. These results indicate high forecasting accuracy for solar irradiance and river flow, with limited improvement for wind speed. Overall, the proposed EMS enables effective energy flow management, while the integration of hydrokinetic turbines with AI-based forecasting represents a novel contribution. Full article

Rainfall erosivity is a key driver of soil erosion and a fundamental input to the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). Its direct estimation, however, requires high-temporal-resolution rainfall records to compute the storm erosivity index, EI₃₀, which are available at relatively few locations. This limitation constrains erosion assessment and conservation planning in many regions of Mexico. This study develops and evaluates an empirical methodology to estimate the annual rainfall erosivity factor, R, from more widely available daily rainfall totals. A total of 170,796 storm events recorded at 432 automatic weather stations were analyzed to derive four-parameter nonlinear relationships between daily rainfall depth and storm erosivity. The resulting equations provide site-specific transfer functions that were subsequently applied to 2124 climatological stations for the common period 1965–2006. In addition, a station-based quantitative comparison was conducted at the Cerro Catedral Automatic Weather Station, where a reference annual erosivity series was derived directly from 10 min rainfall records. For this case study, the proposed methodology reproduced the reference annual erosivity series more closely than the regional equations of Cortes, yielding a substantially lower standard error of fit (SEF = 347 MJ·mm·ha⁻¹·h⁻¹·yr⁻¹ versus 1455.77 MJ·mm·ha⁻¹·h⁻¹·yr⁻¹). At the national scale, the resulting erosivity patterns were spatially coherent with the major rainfall gradients of Mexico and supported by a substantially larger observational dataset than previous national formulations. By enabling national-scale erosivity estimation from standard daily rainfall data, the methodology expands the spatial applicability of RUSLE and provides a practical basis for soil erosion assessment, sediment-yield studies, and land and water conservation planning under current and future hydroclimatic pressures. Full article

Developing eco-friendly metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) with plant-based reducing and stabilizing agents offers a sustainable alternative to traditional chemical methods. Nonetheless, the detailed mechanisms by which phytochemicals influence NPs formation, antimicrobial properties, and cytocompatibility remain poorly understood, especially in systems mediated by Vaccinium. This study aimed to synthesize TiO₂ NPs and ZnO NPs using Vaccinium corymbosum (blueberry) extract, analyze their structural and surface characteristics, assess their antimicrobial effectiveness and cytotoxicity, and explore potential molecular mechanisms through computational docking. ZnO NPs were produced via alkaline precipitation (pH 12) from ZnCl₂, while food-grade TiO₂ was mixed with blueberry extract. A comprehensive characterization was carried out using techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM/SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for polyphenol profiling. The antimicrobial activity was tested against Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were determined. Cytotoxicity was assessed using Gallus gallus domesticus leukocytes and Artemia salina bioassays, and molecular docking simulations were performed to examine polyphenol interactions with the bacterial DNA gyrase subunit B (GyrB). XRD analysis confirmed the presence of wurtzite ZnO (with a crystallite size of 18.2 nm) and anatase TiO₂ (12.8 nm after functionalization). HPLC identified key polyphenols, including quercetin, cyanidin, malvidin, and cyanidin-3-glucoside, with patterns indicating stronger adsorption onto TiO₂ NPs surfaces. ZnO NPs showed higher antimicrobial effectiveness (>90% inhibition at 2 mg/mL; MIC 0.5–1 mg/mL) compared to TiO₂ (72% inhibition at 16 mg/mL; MIC 8–16 mg/mL). Cytotoxicity results indicated concentration-dependent effects. Molecular docking simulations revealed favorable binding energies (−6.2 to −8.4 kcal/mol) for blueberry polyphenols with GyrB, suggesting potential synergistic antimicrobial effects and ROS production. The study highlights a successful green synthesis of bioactive TiO₂ NPs and ZnO NPs using Vaccinium corymbosum extract, where polyphenol surface functionalization enhances both colloidal stability and biological activity. This comparative research offers mechanistic insights into how polyphenol-coated NPs work and supports the development of eco-friendly antimicrobial oxide nanomaterials. Full article

Climate change is altering the marine environment in many ways, including increasing sea surface temperatures and decreasing sea ice. Species distributions are changing and ‘out of habitat’ marine mammals are being recorded. ‘Out of habitat’ (OOH) refers to individuals recorded outside of their natural range or within environments unsuitable for their survival. This phenomenon is currently understudied. This study aimed to identify the scale of the issue, identify consensus opinions on trends and possible causes of these OOH events, as well as assessing the preparedness of local authorities and rescue networks in responding to OOH marine mammals. This study is the first to assess and quantify this issue through a formal consultation process, conducted through an online questionnaire and a detailed examination of two case studies, from the UK and Peru. Sixty-three questionnaire responses were received from six different continents and the majority (60%) reported OOH events in their region. Through the questionnaire and case studies, 42 different marine mammal species were reported to be affected. This clearly indicates this is a global phenomenon, affecting at least 32% of all known pinniped and cetacean species. Most participants (77%) also believed these OOH events are increasing, and 55% believe these events are forerunners to distribution changes. Data from Peru showed an endangered species, the Galápagos fur seal (Arctocephalus galapagoensis), had made a range shift. Of the reported OOH species, four are classified as either endangered or critically endangered. The consensus opinion was that climate change is the leading driver of these OOH events, with sea surface temperatures and changes in prey distribution reported as the most important factors. The success of OOH responses was reported as highly inconsistent and, in many cases, requires specialist training, e.g., in human–wildlife conflict. The information derived from this study can be used to advise conservation plans, as well as provide a foundational step for future research into the possible trends in these OOH movements. Full article

Traditional edible plants such as quelites are an important component of the Mexican diet due to their nutritional and functional value; however, the effects of postharvest and culinary processing on their phytochemical composition remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the impact of oven-drying and freeze-drying, as well as thermal preparation (raw vs. boiled), on the proximal chemical composition, phenolic profile, and antioxidant capacity of leaves and inflorescences of Chenopodium berlandieri subsp. nuttalliae (huauzontle), using an integrated metabolomic approach. Proximal analysis showed that major macronutrients (protein, dietary fiber, lipids, and carbohydrates) were largely preserved across drying methods, whereas moisture and ash contents differed significantly among tissues and treatments (p < 0.05). Raw freeze-dried inflorescences exhibited the highest total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity. UPLC-DAD-ESI-QToF/MS enabled the identification and quantification of 26 phenolic compounds, predominantly glycosylated flavonols derived from quercetin, kaempferol, and isorhamnetin, while naringin was identified as the main flavanone glycoside present. Quercetin glucuronide was the most abundant compound, particularly in inflorescences. Multivariate analyses (principal component analysis [PCA], permutational multivariate analysis of variance [PERMANOVA], and partial least squares discriminant analysis [PLS-DA]) suggested that the drying method was a major source of variability, followed by thermal treatment and tissue type, although these patterns should be interpreted as indicative rather than conclusive. Overall, freeze-drying appeared to be the most effective method for preserving the phytochemical quality of huauzontle under the conditions evaluated, highlighting its potential as a valuable source of bioactive compounds within the genus Chenopodium. Full article

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the diagnosis and prognosis of heart diseases is transforming cardiovascular and cardiac healthcare, improving predictive accuracy, and personalizing treatment plans. This review presents a novel contribution by providing a comprehensive overview of both diagnosis and prognosis in heart diseases through AI, covering ML and DL models. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a total of 84 recent research articles sourced from significant journals are reported. A bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer tool was performed to map the impact of AI, enabling a detailed examination of academic connections and contributions. The findings reveal that DL models were employed 63% for diagnosis tasks, while ML models were utilized in 37% of the studies. Key recommendations include the incorporation of essential model evaluation metrics, as clinical validation indicators, integrating explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to improve the transparency and interpretability of models, and adopting standardized frameworks to enable smooth clinical integration. This review highlights the potential of AI to improve cardiac and cardiovascular diagnosis and prognosis, providing an overview of its strengths, limitations, challenges and the possible application as AI-driven tools in patient monitoring and to support specialists in the decision-making process. Full article

We explore a phenomenological extension of the Polyakov–Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model by introducing a curvature-sensitive effective contribution to the Polyakov-loop potential, motivated by the hypothesis that the non-perturbative QCD vacuum in the confined phase may retain a residual sensitivity to cosmic expansion. In a spatially flat FLRW background, this modification reduces to a term proportional to $\alpha {(H/H_0)}^{d}f(\Phi ,{\Phi }^{*})$, which naturally vanishes in the deconfined regime and behaves as an effective dynamical vacuum component at late times, without invoking a fundamental cosmological constant. The construction provides an effective thermodynamic description of the QCD sector within an adiabatic framework and introduces a minimal phenomenological extension characterized by the exponent d and the amplitude parameter $\alpha$. We analyze the cosmological implications at the background level and compare the model with low-redshift observations, including cosmic chronometers, Type Ia supernovae, HII galaxies, and quasars. Using Bayesian Monte Carlo techniques, we constrain the model parameters and compare its performance with the ΛCDM. Our results indicate that the modified PNJL cosmology provides a statistically competitive fit to current data while allowing small departures from the ΛCDM within observational uncertainties. We also investigate the impact of the coupling on the QCD phase diagram and the critical end point. The framework offers a tractable effective approach to connect confinement physics with late-time cosmology and suggests directions for further theoretical development in QCD under curved backgrounds. Full article

Tailings are unconventional geomaterials that require dynamic characterisation due to seismic hazards at several storage facilities. Due to the anthropic origin of these materials, their dynamic properties differ from those reported for natural soils. In particular, the damping ratio is a relevant parameter that controls the dynamic response of tailings storage facilities. It can be estimated using different experimental methods. The objective of this research is to disclose the results obtained through laboratory tests in which the damping ratio was evaluated independently by Half-Power Bandwidth or the free-vibration decay methods. A comprehensive testing plan comprising resonant column tests and free-vibration decay tests was carried out on three types of tailings from the Riotinto mines (Huelva, Spain): Cerro Salomón Sand (CSS), High-Density Sludge (HDS), and Copper Lamas (CL). These tests were carried out under different effective consolidation pressures and torsional excitations. The results allowed the establishment of a series of relationships between the testing conditions and the identification of differences between the methods for tailings. Full article

Pulque is a traditional Mexican beverage produced through the fermentation of agave sap (aguamiel). Its primary sensory properties are attributed to the fermentative activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, and Zymomonas mobilis. However, the overproliferation of these microorganisms results in an extremely short shelf life, which hinders its commercialization. Tomatillo accrescent calyx extract (TACE) shows potential as a food preservative due to its high physalin content. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of adding microencapsulated TACE on the shelf life and organoleptic properties of pulque. The extract demonstrated effective antimicrobial activity against L. mesenteroides, Z. mobilis, and S. cerevisiae, successfully delaying further fermentation. Additionally, the addition of TACE prevented an excessive increase in acidity, maintaining values suitable for consumption for up to 15 days, in accordance with regulatory standards, while the viscosity and alcohol content were not negatively affected. These findings suggest that TACE has significant potential for preserving both the microbiological and sensory quality of pulque. Full article